Sometimes it takes a while for me to learn something, but when I do … whamo, I am all over it! That is the case with Angry Nerds. This past April 1st, Atlassian created the perfect April Fools joke, Angry Nerds. However, the response was so great, you can actually "play" the iPad / Android game (no fooling). When you link to Angry Nerds, make certain you click upon the nerds in the game viewer!

Finally, I had to create my own Angry Nerds … circa the Northstar Nerd (see below)!

Oh yes, Atlassian makes a good wiki, Confluence, and this was extremely smart marketing!

The Northstar Nerd is two months shy of his 56th birthday. How neat would it be in 40 years to be as cool as Uber Geek, Bill Sleeper? This guy is amazing! Here are a few excerpts from an interview conducted by Geek Wire:

“Can I give you a demo?” (asks Bill Sleeper)

It’s not unusual to hear those words inside the offices of a technology company, but this is the Merrill Gardens retirement community in Mill Creek, north of Seattle. The man with the cool gizmo is Bill Sleeper, 96, the resident technology guru. And the subject of his demo is a Laser Stage Lighting device on his kitchen counter. Sleeper hits the switch and soon the ceiling of apartment is filled with a sea of colorful dancing dots.

“At night, this blows you away!” he says.

Thus, the next times technology befuddles or confuses you, remember uber Geek. If you stop learning in your 20's, 30's … 50's, etc, life will charge you by.

Google / YouTube announced last week that schools may now configure their firewalls to only allow access to YouTube.Edu (engineering courses). This is a HUGE move on Google's part, as they had never allowed any YouTube content to be filtered. It will now be possible to view educational courses, while at the same time preventing folks on your private network from wasting bandwidth of cat herding videos (or worse from a legal vantage point).

I applaud this view, as I hope and expect in the future it will be possible for corporations to selectively enable YouTube content. While I love the service, providing access to all of YouTube can be difficult for many organizations for both legal (think schools and porn) and bandwidth reasons. 

Here are some links you may find useful to understand the change:

• Article explaining the change from Wired.Com
• YouTube for Schools Configuration Link | Architecture / Create Account
• YouTube.Edu: Business Courses
• YouTube.Edu: Engineering Courses

Hmmmm … Would you like to sit next to the Northstar Nerd during your next KLM flight from Minneapolis to London Heathrow??! The latest in social media via the USA Today which links KLM seat selection, travel planning and LinkedIn.

It's been a little over five years since I started blogging as the Northstar Nerd. During that period … you … my audience has visited me 355,000 times while reading my 1,113 posts. This blog is my personal search to expand out mutual knowledge horizon! 

Here are just a few of my favorite posts on NorthStarNerd.Org (and yours):

• Camstudio … A Screencast Tutorial
• Engineering Learning Portal
• Kindle Fire Reviews
• Memorial Day: A Freedom Tree Grows for Captain Ben Danielson
• NNTV | NorthStar Nerd TV
• SkiCam Man!

Thanks for your support, input and comments over the years. I've never asked for money for myself (never will). I've never hosted an advertisement (never will). I've never allowed guest bloggers whose only goal is to drive traffic to their commercial web sites (never will).

My one request! 

Help me spread the word about NorthstarNerd.Org: (my profile)

• Become a Facebook Fan (click "Like" in upper right)
• Share a few kind words via LinkedIn (click below)