Manda QoP

The new PC has arrived - so shiny, so pretty, and such a HUGE processor fan. I've been sitting with it on my knee for 5 minutes, should probably put it back in its box. Wonder if anyone would notice if I snuck off home now to start setting it up. Am currently very impressed with Spannerbox as all the spare parts have also been sent with the PC. Another motherboard box full of bits to add to my collection at home. And as if that wasn't enough great news for one day, I've also received approval to go on the SQL BI course being run by www.wardyit.com . Things come in threes apparently, so with any luck there's a cheque for a squillion dollars sitting in the letter box when I get home. A girl can dream. :)

Someone raised an interesting point on Monday night at a GGD dinner and I feel they have missed the entire point of Girl Geek Dinners and have also, with their comments, seriously undermined other women who are looking to come out of their shell and interact with other 'geeks'. If you don't agree with what we're doing then don't come to a Girl GEEK dinner, and certainly don't turn up and throw cold water on people, make belittling comments and then moan that it was too technical and you didn't enjoy it. So what is a geek? There seemed to be some confusion. These women throwing around the derogatory comments seem especially confused. So let's refresh everyones' minds. You don't need to be in IT to be a geek folks! It's not an exclusive club limited to women who don't baulk at the thought of writing code. We're a diverse crowd and we celebrate each others geekiness, even if it isn't something we're into. We certainly ...

This is now the fastest graphics card around - drooool. I need a new graphics card, no, honest, I do! Half life will be even more awesome. :-) http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20080812/amd-brings-the-game-to-nvidias-doorstep/#more-16090 . Mind you, if I'm going to change the graphics card then I should probably upgrade the motherboard and a few other bits as well. Just for the hell of it of course.

After pulling an all nighter at the weekend my TechEd talk has been submitted to TechEd for peer review - WOO HOO! All I need now is a fantastic SaaS or S+S case study and feedback from the peer reviews to get it closed off. It feels so great to finally get that completed and means that I can spend the weekend concentrating on making sure the next Girl Geek Dinner is a fantastic success, preparing the GGD slides for TechEd and maybe fit in some shoe shopping as well. :-) PS: http://www.girlgeekdinners.co.nz/ if you want to buy tickets to the GGD event on the 28th. ;-)

And no, I don't mean the one at the back of that book you're reading. I'm talking about that pesky little flap that hangs out with the intestines, acting all cool and detached for 30 years, doing absolutely bugger all and then one day for no apparent reason it pops its top! I was finally looking forward to a weekend of being able to work on my TechEd talk and whammo, 6.30pm on a Friday night (excellent timing there by my internal appendages don't you think?) we have a little trippette to A&E. I've now been let out of the gynaecology ward (don't ask - I have no idea why). Sitting at my computer for more than half an hour without the support of copious amounts of drugs is not possible, however, my TechEd talk must be written. If there is a surreal section in the middle of my presentation it's the drugs talking and I apologise in advance. Thank goodness for peer reviews. LOL! I am now off to hold a wake for my appendix having spent the last minute wri...

HARDWARE GEEKERY When: Wednesday 28th May 2008 @ 6pm Where: Microsoft House, Level 5, 22 Viaduct Harbour Ave, Auckland Central Cost: $30 from www.girlgeekdinners.co.nz The theme for this event will be hardware development, including designing modern home entertainment systems (codecs/coding/firmware) and building homemade game console interfaces. These speakers know which end of a soldering iron to hold. J We have Cherie Carbines and Steven Ellis from OpenMedia who will be demonstrating MediaCentres and explaining the technical nitty gritty that goes into building them, plus we have a young lady called Tamara Olliver as a speaker. When Tamara was 15 she rebuilt the playstation dance mat to make it more robust then open sourced the code and hardware designs. There will be a quiz and maybe some other fun things to get everyone talking and mingling. Tickets are available from the website: http://girlgeekdinners.co.nz/ and I will need to limit them to 50 because of the venue size, so firs...

The NZ Branch of Girl Geek Dinners have their first dinner arranged. When: 22nd November 2007 Where: The Komodo Rooms, Parnell, Auckland Speaker: No-one yet but I'm hoping to get something good for the first dinner. Cost: $30 per head - this goes towards covering the cost of food and venue hire. Drinks: You will be able to purchase drinks from a bar all night. For more information about NZ Girl Geek Dinners go to: www.girlgeekdinners.co.nz