Last week I contacted @RSAWEB to find out if I could purchase a t-shirt from their geek gear ‘collection’. It was a shirt that read “I’m huge on Twitter”, which I wanted to wear to this event. I couldn’t get it in time but the person behind the Twitter account offered to send me the t-shirt, free! This is what arrived yesterday:

With the following note:

As promised, here is a pic of me in the t-shirt (excuse the badly taken pic, it was the best I could do alone):

Thanks @RSAWEB!

When I saw this OS in the flesh, I had to have it. gOS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distro that runs in a Cloud environment. The simplest way to describe a Cloud system is that it’s an operating system that runs like a web browser (Google Chrome OS will be Cloud based). This OS is perfect for netbooks because it’s lightweight and relies on an Internet connection, so if you don’t have one, installing it would be totally useless.

I’m running gOS 3.1 Gadgets – and this is what my desktop looks like:

It comes built-in with Google Gadgets, Picasa, Mail, Calendar, Documents, Open Office etc. Check it out here. Thus far, the only software I had to install was VLC.

The look & feel and Google integration was what sold me. Surfing wirelessly isn’t setup just yet so I’m relying on an Ethernet connection.

You have to admit, its pretty

Want it? Get it here.

When I found out that Dion Wired was having a special on their  Samsung 24″ HD monitor – I thought it was an excellent deal at R1699 (normal price R2999 – special ends 6/9/09). I wanted it, I had the money but I couldn’t justify buying it because I had bought another Samsung 19″ monitor in February this year.

While my colleagues and I were discussing what a cool monitor it is especially at that price, I said, “if I could sell my current monitor then I’d buy this one”. To my surprise Patricia said she’ll buy it! So after calling Dion Wired for three days, checking for stock, I managed to get it yesterday.

When I got home, I had to resist opening the box so I didn’t miss Asr – because I knew it will take a while before I tore myself away from it. But I managed to set it all up in time and prepare for iftaar because yesterday was left-overs day (loads of left over Debonairs and barbeque wings).

I watched bits of The Dark Knight in HD and it is awesome!

Last night I attended my first 27 Dinner and it rocked, literally. The Xbox Guitar Hero: World Tour tournament had a lot to do with it.

Capello’s in Sandton City was buzzing… with geeks. So naturally it was dominated by males but I think there was decent turn out of women.

The guest speaker for the evening was Katherine Roderick from Microsoft (her twitter bio location reads: In front of my Mac), who spoke about Silverlight (to rival Adobe Flash), Surface and S2B in her Q&A with Mike Stopforth. She then took questions from the audience.

I remember reading about Surface about two years ago, wondering when it’s going to hit our shores. Sadly, she confirmed that we won’t be seeing in any time soon or in the near future.

After the formalities were over we had already eaten our starters (the sushi was very good) and almost done with our mains, when everyone began mingling and networking. I went along with @SingleSyllable and got to see some friends again, @ilvapie @saaleha @zk @ismail and met some new faces @ncallegari, @melodymaker @eved (we met briefly) and some others who I’m not sure are on twitter.

Then the fun started – Guitar Hero: World Tour tournaments. Some of those guys were really good. It’s pretty obvious that’s what geeks love doing – playing GH on expert level in their free time. Our band, “hashtag” failed our song on 47% (in my defense, I play really well in my living room). Hashtag members comprised of @ncallegari, @saaleha, @SingleSyllable and @thecharmed1. All bands were given one warm up round and second time around was the real deal. Although – some bands were given a third chance. It was all good fun.

As @SingleSyllable says, “I love GH too, but enjoy my social life – what little of it there is – just a tiny bit more ”

long live hashtag...not!

I’m not sure which band won the Sandton City vouchers and Xbox games because we left at 10:30pm.

It was an evening of full of fun and I look forward to attending the next Jozi geek dinner.