Shuttleworth's a cool geek..

Ok… I know I have been scarce on the blogging front!!! Sorry.. had a really busy 2 weeks…..
I was fortunate enough to meet Mark Shuttleworth recently. I have to say I was impressed. Not sure what I expected [from a famous oke], but in reality he seems to be a friendly normal dude who is more interested in you than talking about himself! He was keen to share what he had learnt in life and I thought I would share some of what he chatted about. He recons that curiosity and perseverance are 2 traits he has seen in successful people he has met worldwide. He mentioned that from space the earth looks very populated and the atmosphere very fragile. [SO BLOODY LOOK AFTER IT..!] He still professes to be a ‘geek’… lets be honest geeks are cool nowdays! His favourite magazines are The Economist and some other science mag I have never heard of…….
He wants to make heros out of talented SA kids by inspiring them and showing them the importance of maths, sciences and technology using his brand HIP2B2 …..

So in a nutshell this is one cool ‘geek’ and the best thing is he is South African!!!

A modern day Da Vinci?

There is an architect/sculptor/designer [not sure what to classify him as] in the UK called Thomas Heatherwick. It is not often that I am blown away by talent but I cannot believe that this guy has such a diverse range of talents in the design fields. I would go so far as to say he reminds me a little of a modern day Leonardo! [OK…OK he is very talented across multi-disciplines similar to Mr Da Vinci]. Icon wrote a great article about him and I have a feeling that he will end up being a legend in the design arena. There is simply something about him, he just seems so normal. For all those interested in design… watch this space this guy is making waves.

Second Life anyone?

For the real ‘geeks’ (whoever those are these days – I think the geeks of today are now the jocks) the concept of Second Life is old news. I have to say though, that I have been fascinated since I heard about it a few months ago. What a clever concept, might not be your thing but you cannot deny its clever! To quote the site Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 6,193,781 people from around the globe.”

It’s an online game where you can be who you want to be and unlike normal games you don’t interact with ‘false/manufactured’ characters or figments of a programmers imagination BUT rather with other people who are also into ‘escapism’ and have redesigned themselves. DON’T LAUGH! It is no laughing matter, visit the site and look on the right hand side and how much revenue it has clocked up… AND big brands are clamoring to advertise in this new space, it already boasts over 25 big names like Virgin (of course!), IBM, BMW to name a few. These sites are also creating cross over platforms back into the 'real world'. Example: You walk into Pizza Hut in the ‘game’ and you order a pizza, 35 minutes later your real life doorbell rings whilst you are building you house in Second Life and WOLA! the pizza is delivered – already paid for through your credit card [as you use that to play the game]! HOW COOL! Can you believe it!!! To illustrate this a little more, I found this clip on YOUTUBE that shows this guys entrance into Second Life and how he has rejected his real life…Shame is it loneliness or boredom [I hear you say]….. Check it out!