The Great Geek Manual

It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.

- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling, 2005.

Resources

10 Things Your iPod Won’t Tell You: Revealed – A word of warning for those who may be considering buying an iPod in the future.

10 Quick Ways to Print Calendars Online – Why are you still paying for desktop calenders? Customize and print off your own design.

18 Essential Skills for a Maker – AntonOlsen recently posted an article on GeekDad enumerating 100 Essential Skills for Geeks. As he was inspired to do so by a list of “Essential Skills for Men”, so I am inspired to make this list of essential skills for Makers.

Computer Hardware Chart – Here’s a rather thorough chart of computer ports and plugs, both old and new.

Game Crafter – This site is the Cafe Press of board games. Design and market your own card game or board game at no cost to yourself. Then, sit back and wait for the royalties to roll in.

Goofram – Goofram is a search engine that combines the results of Google and Wolfram Alpha on the same screen. Read the rest of this entry » » »

Seniors take note!

1850
The Harvard Observatory photographs a star for the first time in history. The star is Vega in the constellation Lyra. Visit the official Harvard Observatory website.

1899
The NEC Corporation (the Nippon Electric Company, Limited) is reorganized as a joint-stock company, becoming the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital, which was provided by Western Electric. Visit the official NEC website.

1955
Arco, Idaho becomes the first town in the world to be run entirely on nuclear power during a one hour test performed by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

1970
Ralph Baer demonstrates the television-based video game system he invented to electronics manufacturer Magnavox. Magnavox’s Bill Enders negotiates an exclusive license to manufacture the system and sub-license Sanders Associates’ related patents.
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The Society for Geek Advancement (SGA) was founded upon the principles that we should all embrace our inner and outer geek and have fun while doing it. As individuals who love learning, innovating and believe in possibility as well as change, the second step of responsibility is to be the geek that keeps on giving. Member of the SGA work together as a global community to help others realize their true potential.

The video features: Alex Albrecht, Julia Allison, Veronica Belmont, LeVar Burton, Jason Calacanis, Pete Cashmore, Jonathan Coulton, Felicia Day, IJustine, David Karpe, Sarah Lacy, Leo Laporte, Samm Levine, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Pereira, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Rose, Julia Roy, Brian Solis, Wil Wheaton, Steve Wozniak, Tay Zonday, Randi Zuckerberg,

Check out the Society’s Twitter Feed.

Platform21 is fantastic site devoted to conservation through home repair. It’s one of the best sites I’ve discovered in months. It hits all of the hot trends in tech: conservation, diy projects, hacking, saving money, and technology. It’s especially worth a stop if you’ve found yourself trying to stretch a buck lately.

Over at the What to Fix blog, Daniel compares the increasingly-pervasive technology of today to the use of Heroin in early North America in this thought-provoking essay.

In 1850 people didn’t know how their favorite symphony sounded. Back then, it was common for musicians to work hectic schedules and perform multiple shows in a row. Instruments were frequently out of tune and good, consistent timing was fairly new. In addition, going to the symphony was a big deal: you dressed up, you hitched up the horses, you went into town.

You might only hear your favorite symphony 5 or 6 times in your life. Each time it was probably slightly in a different key, with a slightly different tempo, played with slightly different instruments, and each time you actively strained to hear and remember how it all sounded.

You would sit very attentively, absorbing each and every note and drumbeat of the symphony. It was a play, a painting, an imaginary world come to life, and you were living in it. It was magic.

Source: What to Fix

1847
In Maryland, the first telegraph company is established.

1890
Thomas Alva Edison is issued a patent for the Quadruplex Telegraph. (US No. 420,594) This new telegraph is designed to transmit and receive four independent signals over a single wire, two in one direction and two in the opposite direction. The separate transmitting keys transmit a signal with either a high or low current strength which is then received with sounders that respond only the high or the low strength signal. Read more about the Quadruplex Telegraph at the Edison Papers website.

1902
Thomas Alva Edison is issued a patent for a Reversible Galvanic Battery, a battery with a revolutionarily large capacity for its weight. (US No. 692,507) It makes use of Cadmium as the oxidizable element, an oxide of Cobalt or Nickel as its depolarizer, and flakes of a conducting substance, such as Graphite.

1936
Radium E, the first synthetic radioactive substance, is first produced in the US by Dr. John Jacob Livingood at the University of California at Berkeley by bombarding the element Bismuth with neutrons.
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