Calling all teachers! Are you feeling an uncontrollable impulse to text your 13-year old student/s and let them know the ways in which you are in love with them? Stop! It will backfire, as the above video illustrates.

In other sexy-texting-related news, embattled Detroit Mayor and Sexy-Texter Kwame Kilpatrick will apparantly attempt to argue in court that no one can prove that someone didn’t hack into his phone and send multiple sexy-texts to his chief-of-staff/lover. Good luck, Kwame!

Well he’s done it again and this may be my favorite so far — check out the instructions, and that adorable LED! Cautions front man, Eric Barao, continues to raise the bar in the genre. (I wish I needed one of these… cuz I really want one. Maybe he could detail my toaster.) All the guitar pedal customizers gather at Build Your Own Clone and compare their work. There are some other submissions that are pretty damn cool, but I predict great things for Pac Boost. Look for this baby to figure prominently in the 2008 Pedal Pageant.

Wednesday, May 15, 2008, 5:30 – 9pm
AS220, 115 Empire Street, Providence, RI

FREE (buy your own food and drink – it’s cheap)

‘This week’s Geek Dinner will feature a presentation by the Founder and CTO of The Search Agency and Providence Geek regular, Carl Dunham. Carl and team are enjoying a great spring having just announced a major investment by JMI Equity (JMI knows something about picking winners in the online advertising space, having invested in a few including a little outfit called DoubleClick).

(more…)

Whoa.

Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, and plays tennis and skis when time allows. But the 5-foot-11, 180-pound software engineer is lucky if he presses 200 pounds—that is, until he steps into an “exoskeleton” of aluminum and electronics that multiplies his strength and endurance as many as 20 times.

The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that local global defense contractor Raytheon, having purchased Jameson’s company, is producing these puppies. (more…)

Jack Templin: Tapping Rhode Island’s Growing Geek Community to Win on the Internet

Tuesday, May 6th 3pm - 4pm

Show Floor Theater
RI Convention Center
1 Sabin Street, Providence

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• Obnoxious Bush re-declared May Day “Law Day USA.” Really.
• Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon wed in ceremony so secret its not even true.
• It’s snowing in hell: The man known as “Cheney’s Cheney” may submit to acongressional subpoena.
• Obama beats a 14-year old at P-I-G.
• Shady Alert! Recently convicted “DC Madam,” who pimped to Washington’s most powerful hooker-lovers, “commits suicide.”
• HP invents the memristor, offering new hope to DARPA, Warcraft fanatics, AI and futuristic-ass projects like these.
• Florida school commits travesty of the millennium, fires bio teacher for bikini boat side-gig:

If a person made a computer that could write a million books in a matter of seconds, then, still, no one would read them.

But if they sold two copies each, and owned the computers, then they’d be one rich automato-book-hustler. Enter one Dr. Parker. Explaineth the NYT:

Mr. Parker has generated more than 200,000 books, as an advanced search on Amazon.com under his publishing company shows, making him, in his own words, “the most published author in the history of the planet.” And he makes money doing it.

Among the books published under his name are “The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea” ($24.95 and 168 pages long); “Stickler Syndrome: A Bibliography and Dictionary for Physicians, Patients and Genome Researchers” ($28.95 for 126 pages); and “The 2007-2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India” ($495 for 144 pages).

The technique basically uses a computer to search, compile manipulate and format data from different places into something new. That much I think I get (check the Youtube demonstration after the jump for more). But how does the computer write even a paragraph of original content? Is this powerful new stuff, or a complicated, noun-heavy mad-lib, or both?

Apparently, at least one person called Parker out on the fact that his book was just a big, fancily formatted google search.
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In a piece about how cell phones are creating a separate, private life for kids and teens, the New York Times drops this depressing tidbit;

Marketers and cellphone makers are only too happy to fill the newest generation gap. Last fall, Firefly Mobile introduced the glowPhone for the preschool set; it has a small keypad with two speed-dial buttons depicting an image of a mother and a father.

So, when you hear the Wiggles ring tone going off… glare at the baby.

The March meet-up is tomorrow from 5:30-whenever at AS220:

See what stole the buzz at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in Feb – CNN & others rave about GyPSii.

A group of seasoned RI-based entreprenaurs get together again to grow GyPSii on a global footprint in the converging markets of mobile social networking and location based services – Mobile 3.0 – GyPSii the mobile lifestyle application. Meet Shane Lennon, SVP, Strategy & Marketing, Norm Olean, Director of Product Marketing & Vikas Singh, Director of Software Development and see a demo of GyPSii in action, share in the experience, see the latest features and network with the team.

In another age these artisans would have been illuminating manuscripts or fashioning jewel-encrusted arks for some dead saint’s finger, but how does this creative impulse express itself in modern times? For some clever types the guitar effects pedal has become the canvas of choice. Fan site Build Your Own Clone has a forum where people can share pictures of their finest work. Check out Pedal Pageant or Show Off Your Completed Build — the Frankenberry and Hellraiser pedals are pretty cool. Pictured here is a tremolo pedal customized by multi-talented area musician Eric Barao, frontman of The Cautions. He created this for his pal and frequent collaborator Bleu referencing Bleu’s (excellent) 2000 album ‘Headroom’. I wish I needed a pedal — I kinda want one.

Providence Geeks are meeting tonight at AS220. 5:30-9pm+

Andrew Schiller, founder of Woonsocket-based Location Inc./NeighborhoodScout.com, a nationwide neighborhood search engine for home buyers and movers with 1.8 million unique visitors last year, will be talking about their patented search technology that answers the first question most home buyers have: “Where should I focus my house hunt?”

The audience will try the algorithm by ‘building their ideal neighborhood’ on the site, and finding the local neighborhood that best matches the ideal imaginary one. A sneak peek at NeighborhoodScout v2 will reveal flash-based maps, data mining that has produced new levels of granularity for neighborhood crime, appreciation rate, and school ratings, and ‘smart search’ taken to a new level. Andrew will be joined by Andy Couture, VP of Business Development for the company.

According to the Associated Press, one innovative California man has installed pot vending machines in two locations for use by previously authorized and paid-up medical marijuana patients. “Convenient access, lower prices, safety and anonymity” are the advantages touted by owner/inventor Vincent Mehdizadeh. According to the article, anger management is one of the disabilities covered under California state law. Anger? Vending machines? I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

(For up-to-date info on medical marijuana in Rhode Island contact the good people at RIPAC.)

Our world’s grand experiment with the cellular phone continues:

Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study.

The research, sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and to spend less time in them, interfering with the body’s ability to repair damage suffered during the day.

The technology is now in place for me to go ahead and start a family. As reported this morning on NBC news, scientists in California have finally produced human embryo clones. All I have to do is provide the nucleus of a skin cell. But here’s where you come in! I will still be needing; an egg donor, a surrogate mom, several nannies and the name of a good boarding school. (And sperm donors are still required for my various side projects.)

Tonight at the Providence Geek Dinner AS220 was treated to an update on the progress of the mostly Rhode Island based Rentomatic (formerly iiProperty). Rentomatic.com is a website for both landlords and tenants which allows for online rent payment, maintenance requests and other landlord communication for tenants, and accounting, property and tenant tracking, etc. for landlords.

The new site rolled out just last week and they have grand plans for the future including connecting landlords with service providers and allowing tenants to communicate with each other. The company also runs rentometer.com which is a service that attempts to bring more transparency to the world of housing rentals, letting you view average rents for neighborhoods and even particular streets. Enter your address and see whether you are getting a great deal for your place or whether you should be demanding free laundry from your landlord for the dough you dole out every month.

Other news from around the webosphere:

• Google goes political: Google Checkout for Political Contributions allows candidates to easily and cheaply accept online donations. Even better it can be tied to a candidate’s YouTube page, meaning we may all get to see even more of our candidates favorite recipes!
• France says that Amazon’s free shipping is illegal, amazon says f*uck you and decides to pay a €1,000 fine per day instead.
• FDA sys cloned meat A-OK. Thank Dolly next time you next time you enjoy your lamb kabobs.
• “ Phraselator” lets cops take down perps in their own language. No, I didn’t make that name up.

What with Jack Templin’s feting in Providence Monthly and the big new hire over at RISD.  The Providence Geeks meet again this Weds, 5:30-9 at AS220. Here’s the scoop:

This coming Wednesday we’ll be kicking off the new year, by checking in with an “old” friend of Providence Geeks – Investment Instruments Corporation (IIC).