urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:jpinegar Life as a Migrant IT worker jpinegar 2007-08-24T20:08:36Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:jpinegar:1109 2007-08-24T20:08:36Z 2007-08-24T20:08:36Z I got together tonight with a couple of current and former coworkers to work on projects for the Nokia N800 internet tablet. If you've never seen one, here's a <a href="http://www.nokiausa.com/link?cid=EDITORIAL_217334">link</a> to the Nokia website. <br /><br />The device is remarkable for a few reasons. It has built-in 802.11 wireless, it runs on flash memory with full size SD cards (two slots, one internal and one external). It has good battery life, a crisp display, and a built-in video camera that lets you do video chat to another user. Most importantly, it has an open development community, and runs a custom OS based on linux.<br /><br />Anyway, when we scheduled our get-together, it was with the intention of doing it monthly. I suggested the name Geekfest and got no dissent. This started me thinking about the usage of the term Geek and how it's evolved in the internet age. Why is it that Geek is immediately understood whether as a noun, adjective, or verb? Does it speak to some inner recognition of obsession in all of us, whether or not the individual is a technophile? <br /><br />I'm not sure what to make of this. I think it goes beoynd the modern penchant for hanging labels on everything to pretend that description equals understanding. Cf. Web 2.0 for example. :)