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GNOME GUI Announcements

GnomeDex 3.0 140

Posted by michael from the come-all-ye-faithful dept.
HackerStickers writes "The Fellowship of the Geeks - Aka Gnomedex 3.0 is the geeks conference of the year. This weekend-long geek-a-thon has had upwards and over 500 attendees all having the common love of technology. Des Moines, Iowa is where the Geeks will tromp July 25th & 26th both in business and pleasure. The lockergnome crew will be there and the list of speakers keeps growing with great topics by Jim Louderback, your very own slashdot man - Rob Malda, Tim O'Reilly, and not-so-decided topics by both MS and Google."
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GnomeDex 3.0 More

GnomeDex 3.0

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  • Soooo what your saying.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by MeanE ( 469971 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:39PM (#5892901) Homepage
    is if I am looking for a place to pick up chicks this is not it?

  • I'm going to make a prediction... (Score:5, Funny)

    by confused philosopher ( 666299 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:40PM (#5892915) Homepage Journal
    "the Geeks will tromp July 25th & 26th both in business and pleasure"

    I'm going to say that the pleasure is going to be limitted to "computer related" joy, and not associated with the female gender.

  • Des Moines? (Score:5, Funny)

    by binaryDigit ( 557647 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:41PM (#5892933)
    I'm sure this will end up being the 30th post about this but, Des Moines? I guess the Des Moines tourist board lobbied hard to get GnomeDex. It probably came down to a choice between Des Moines, Bryan Texas, and "that little town outside of Salt Lake that no one can pronounce". I guess they are offering attendees all the corn they can eat and a free plastic pig snout? Is the conference being held in the back of a general store? Cheap rates at the Motel 6 Des Moines?
    • Being someone who grew up in Des Moines, I can assure everyone that it is quite boring. There are several smaller towns in Iowa that have much more things to do and more of a large-city feel.

    • Re:Des Moines? (Score:3, Informative)

      by stefanlasiewski ( 63134 ) *
      Des Moines is cheap!

      The $99 conference fee, Des Moines hotel fees and cost of meals for the whole weekend is going to cost less then on night in a hotel room in NYC or San Francisco.
    • The lockergnome himself, Chris Parillo grew up in De Moines. Then he went to SF and joined tech tv, then got let go last month. Now he's back in Iowa.

      Go hawkeyes?

  • Gnomedex is not the geek conference of the year, or even close. Saying geek 6 times in your article won't change that fact. I'm not sure I know what the geek conference of the year is, but I know this isn't it.

  • You should go! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Blaine Hilton ( 626259 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:42PM (#5892949) Homepage
    The best thing about this conference is it is run by small business "net geeks". The whole total amount of this is $99 and instead of being either on the West Coast or the east cost, they are smack dab in the middle of the country. What more can you ask for in a great conference?

    • Re:You should go! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Surak ( 18578 ) *
      The best thing about this conference is it is run by small business "net geeks". The whole total amount of this is $99 and instead of being either on the West Coast or the east cost, they are smack dab in the middle of the country. What more can you ask for in a great conference?

      Hawaii. Hot polynesian or west coast chicks wearing next to nothing. A place with a decent night life. A nice resort hotel, rather than the "Des Moines Motel 6". Other than that, not much.

      On the plus side, I've heard that Des
      • I've heard that Des Moines has casinos. :)

        It has Prairie Meadows racetrack and casino, but the casino is slot machines only--no table games. I don't know if Gnomedex falls during racing season or not. If the horses are not running you can usually bet on horse and dog races on closed circuit from other tracks.

        Table games are available in Iowa on riverboats and the Meskwaki Indians casino at Tama. Unless there is something new, I think the nearest to DSM is in Osceola.
    • Inexpensive airfare? I don't know about you, but flying to LAX/JFK is a lot cheaper than flying to DSM...

    • Naked chicks?

  • Resolved: NOTGNOME (Score:5, Informative)

    by jdub! ( 24149 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:42PM (#5892951) Homepage
    Can someone please take this out of the GNOME section? It has utterly zip all to do with the far cooler, arse-kicking, totally Free Software GNOME Project.

    Thanks. :-)

  • What do these small shows offer? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by joeflies ( 529536 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:43PM (#5892974)
    500 attendees is very small compared to the mega shows like JavaOne and RSA. What could one learn at this show that's not covered by the bigger shows or information that's above & beyond the standard press release/documentation of the products.

  • Iowa (Score:5, Funny)

    by FortKnox ( 169099 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:44PM (#5892982) Homepage Journal
    Des Moines, Iowa is where the Geeks will tromp July 25th & 26th both in business and pleasure.

    Bet you NEVER thought you'd ever read that sentence in a non-fictional sense, did ya? ;-)
  • Will Cmdr Taco be going for the title of Miss Gnomedex [missgnomedex.com]?
  • <span style="shameless-self-plug:true;">

    Even if you can't make it to the mecca of excitement that is Des Moines, you can still get your Lockergnome-approved [lockergnome.com] daily dose of gnomish fun here... [jardinains.com]

    </span>

  • I find the use of the word "Geek" derogatory. Why do such
    people find it necessary to define themselves by their group?
    Or even to bind themselves to a group or character in the
    first place. Is it not sufficient to leave yourself undefined
    and be responsive to your environment in your own right.

    Calling oneself a "geek" wreaks of embracing oppression as a
    means to feel liberated. This is insane.

    The most talented programmers and technical people I know
    don't call themselves anything at all.

  • Not GNOME-related (Score:5, Informative)

    by jejones ( 115979 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:51PM (#5893043) Journal
    It's run by a guy named Chris Pirillo (who's from Des Moines, but since moved to California), who has a web site called lockergnome.com because someone tagged him with the nickname "Locker Gnome" in high school. It's nothing to do with GNOME, and when I was at GNOMEDEX last year about all there was to do with Linux period was a good talk by Doc Searls; aside from that it was M$ all the way. I can't vouch for this year, though.
  • The third bullet point on the Gnomedex home page is Why Des Moines?.

  • John Dvorak speaking.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by greygent ( 523713 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @01:55PM (#5893093) Homepage
    Guess that means I won't have to pack any toilet paper, I can just use the Gnomedex itinerary sheet.
  • As admin of help.lockergnome.com [lockergnome.com] I know that the popularity of Gnomedex increases greatly every year. And this will only be the third year. Soon, it may be too big to be held in Iowa. I do think that this is a worthy thing to attend, as it isn't so much about the speakers and lecturers. It's about the people. The people there are some the friendliest and nicest people you'll find.
  • Isnt it about time slashdot updated the GNOME section icon to the new GNOME logo [gnome.org]?

  • Des Moines (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I drove past it once or twice, let me see what I can remember about it...
    • At night, watch out for raccoons on the road. I hit one at about 10 pm, caused about $100 worth of damage.
    • Be sure to visit the Iowa-80 Truck Stop [iowa80truckstop.com] in the Quad Cities!
    • Go Hawkeyes!!!!!!11
    • Iowa has a chain of convenience stores named "Kum and Go".
  • Sweet, finally I will be able to compile detailed information on all 151 different gnomes! Awesome! I love you guys!!
  • Is it really fair to stick all of those geeks at the end of the single 9600 baud modem feeding the 'innurnet' in Des Moins?
    • Watch it, buddy. While you're in Des Moines (pronounced Deh Moyn), check out the NetINS [netins.net] folks, who sponsored a class on the Internet back in 1995 where I first learned about SLIP, Trumpet Winsock, and Eudora, and knocked around on the "graphical Web" with NCSA Mosaic for a while, back when all we had was text-mode service. They've been at this game for a while, mmkay?
    • I'll take the bait--Every school, hospital, guard armory, etc., in the state has fiber optic connection to each other and the internet via Iowa Communications Network (ICN). Most school buildings have at least one videoconferencing classroom using the ICN. Many people are getting college credit over the ICN. It saves many thousands of miles of driving to night courses and the like.

      ICN has been more or less in complete since 1995 or so.
      • yeah, yeah, that's all I ever heard about when I live in Iowa. "We've got the ICN, we're more advanced than the other states".

        Trouble was, ONLY the government offices, schools, and a very select few large corporations had access to the ICN.

        Iowa had remote college courses over microwave links in the late 70s. The ICN just replaced a cheap microwave network with a more costly fiber network.

        Did any small businesses, start-ups, or even small private colleges get any benifit out of the ICN?
        The answer I'm af
        • Did any small businesses, start-ups, or even small private colleges get any benifit out of the ICN?

          When the ICN was being built there was a group called ICN Watch or something. They were a consortium of ISP's and other network providers such as phone companies, who made sure there was as little private use as possible of the network, because that would be competing with their business.

          So, yeah, the ICN could be a lot more useful than it is, but that would be basically illegal, as I understand it. I'm not
    • A little respect, please. In Iowa we call it "that gol'durn Interweb thingamajig". Get it right! :-)
    • Iowa is the holy grail of Internet connectivity. Most towns of over 10,000 people in Iowa have cheap broadband via DSL, cable-modem and fixed wireless. For Internet access, you won't much better.

      It's easy to bash Iowa, but not on Internet access. But nice try at being funny. (Oh yeah, it's also ranked top 10 in education for the last decade or so and one of the only places in America with pretty much no accent so you missed there too). Sorry.

  • Iowa (Score:1)

    by SQLz ( 564901 )
    I don't go any place where people still use the phrase 'them city slickers'.
  • are, to put it mildly, very distubing. I am not sure which is worse, the naked guy or the wannabe pirate...
  • Last year we went to this strip bar called the lumber yard -- "were you go to get wood" my wife commented on our way there. $15 cover, bring your own beer, pool tables and $7 large pizzas - not to mention all the naughty bits you can stand. It's one of the only places where a buck is still worth something. Oh yeah, the conference speakers were great too plus you got to TALK to anyone you wanted too. IMHO First year was 75% windows 25% linux. Second year was 50% windows, 25% linux, 25% Mac.

    • Re:Des Moines strip bars (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Also check out the Minx down the road from the Lumber Yard. Plus: Beach Girls, Big Earl's and the Outter Limits. All Strip Clubs, ranging from meth whores who should keep the clothes on to actually attractive dancers who take it all off. Something for everyone. Skip the computer crap, go to the strippers.

  • Hey hey, stop ripping on DM so badly. It's really a pretty good place to hang out...

    And a few places you may want to check out while here is Java Joe's [javajoescoffeehouse.com] on 4th street just off Court, and the Spaghetti Works ((515) 243-2195, 310 Court Ave)
    Court Ave is a great place to hang out basically.

    • Re:Des Moines (Score:2, Insightful)

      by BobTheJanitor ( 114890 )
      There's a lot of nice bars downtown, too. On one side of Java Joe's is a really comfy (but smokey) English pub called the Royal Mile, and on the other side is The Lift, a smoke-free bar with art on the walls and amazing martinis. Spaghetti Works is often really crowded, but the food is good, and there's often live bands, and Nolen Plaza is a great place to sit and chat with friends.

      Des Moines (or Iowa, for that matter) has a totally unjustified reputation as being full of nothing but hicks and uneducated

  • I for one.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SomeOtherGuy ( 179082 ) on Tuesday May 06, 2003 @03:21PM (#5893893) Journal
    I am glad that us in the midwest will actually be able to have an event that we can drive to in a couple of hours. I see all the posts blasting Des Moines, but these people don't seem to complain when the events are within shooting distance of where they live -- L.A., New York...etc..
  • Read about it on his blog here:Frankly, I'd Rather Not [steidler.net].
    I really enjoyed his newsletter, called Penguin Shell. He's a good writer and it was helpful for a newbie. Shame he's gone now, but I'll be interested to see what his new site will be.
  • Say what you want about my home state, but Iowa did have the first state-wide fiber optic network in the U.S.

  • Gnomedex is fun and all, but if any developer thinks it's the "conference of the year" they need to get out more.

    Check out MacHack [machack.com]. MacHack is the conference Gnomedex desperately wishes it could be. Just ask Eric Raymond.
  • Ummm ... this is where Slashdot should've been noted as News for Geeks, so the appropriate Nerd title can be given to Lockergnomies.

    Don't get me wrong, I rate them as geeks too, but there is a certain Nerdiness about their philosophy.

    I wonder if there will be a witty little ad for something useless between each and every seat, just like their painful to read but useful newsletters.

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