kdmurray.blog

The crossroads of life and tech

Tag Archives: web-based

Nerd Dinners — Geekery and Good Eats

NerdDinner.comLeave it to the big brains of Scott Guthrie and Scott Hanselman to come up with this simple yet super cool concept. Nerd Dinners — a way (by use of web technology) for a bunch of introverts to meet up with each other and enjoy a meal, and the kind of conversation that drives our non-geek spouses crazy.

Anything that helps to foster conversation between people who are passionate about a topic is a good thing in my book.  If it involves code and geekery, so much the better.

It’s a great idea, and I hope to see one (or a few) organized in and around Vancouver before too long… otherwise I’ll have to set one up.  The closest one as of this posting is in Redmond. Cool, but I don’t think I can justify a two hour drive down for dinner. Not yet, anyway.

Check out NerdDinner.com and meet up with some nerds in your community!

Get more written: Write or Die

I came across this web application a few weeks back while listening to AmberMac‘s dulcet tones on CommandN #156.  The application is called Write or Die written by Dr. Wicked, and its aim is to make you a more productive writer.

Write or Die provides you motivation to write not based on the positive reinforcement of a job well done but on the fear of a web-based application inflicting consequences upon you.  Write or Die offers varying levels of “difficulty” from forgiving through to evil, and three types of consequences.

  • Gentle mode provides a polite pop-up reminder to keep writing
  • Normal mode plays REALLY awful music/sounds in the background
  • Kamikaze mode will begin deleting one word per second while you’re delinquent

The fear of having one’s work deleted is a serious motivator to keep writing.

If you’ve got a writing project to do whether it’s a paper for school like me, or you’re participating in a novel-writing event (WoD was originally built for authors participating in NanNoWriMo) give Write or Die a try.