Geek in the Park 08 / journal / hicksdesign

27/06/08

Geek in the Park 08

On Saturday 9th August, I’m going home! Leamington Spa is where I was born and spent 22 (in total) years of my life, and I’m going back to talk at this years Geek in the Park organised by the Multipack. There’ll be a picnic in the picturesque Jephson Gardens, followed by an evening at KoKos.

I’ll be talking on “Pixel Pushing: An introduction to Icon Design”, which will go over the theory and practice of creating icons for desktop applications and websites.

Drew will be tapping in to the nostalgia vein again, with ‘What Brian Cant Never Taught You About Metadata’. I hereby give him the challenge of working Jamie and the Magic Torch into his next talk.

I’m praying for good weather, and looking forward to meeting other geeky picnicers!

Technorati Tags Tags: events, talks

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Stuart Maynard-Keene said 63 days ago:

Hi Jon, I’ll see you there — if only to see one of my favourite childhood programmes get a mention ;-)

Paul Lloyd said 63 days ago:

Really looking forward to this years event – both talks sound really interesting. Perhaps a good opportunity to fill some pages in my (still blank) moleskin!

Garrett Coakley said 63 days ago:

Jamie and the Magic Torch, good call! He gave his “Clangers’ Guide To Microformats” talk at the Oxford Geek Night yesterday, after which I drunkenly badgered him for something based around The Flumps.

Cole Henley said 63 days ago:

Fuck me – I’m from Leam too.
My folks used to run the Peace Festival back in the day. Hoping to make it down from Scotland.

Si Jobling said 63 days ago:

When it comes to timing, I’ve got it made! Unfortunately, I’ll be on me jollies that weekend but would have been a geek in the park like a shot otherwise.

The talk sounds interesting too – I’m sure many will flock from far and wide (and the Midlands) to learn some of the tricks of the icon trade.

Mischa Mclachlan said 63 days ago:

Awesome! I’d love to come down for this. Would be great to meet you and everyone else. :-)

Chris Hester said 63 days ago:

As far as I can recall Brian Cant never taught anything about metadata. I’m pretty sure Playschool wasn’t about the web, which hadn’t been invented back then. :-)

But if it had, it might have gone like this:

“And through the round window… it’s CSS3 this week, with a look at rounded corners – how apt!”

I do remember one show where Brian stood running over a piece of paper on the floor. When asked what he was doing he said, “I’m just running over the script!”

A pity I can’t remember anything else from the show! My childhood TV memories are mostly from great shows like Vision On and Take Hart. They had great music in them – electronic versions of classical tunes. I even heard Tony Hart using Tangerine Dream’s classic “Exit” album on one show! But I digress…

Matthew Pennell said 63 days ago:

I’m not sure whether to go or not. It’s a long way and I wouldn’t be able to stay for the evening stuff.

Chris Hester said 63 days ago:

Oops, silly me. Of course metadata existed before the web.

The Wikipedia entry for metadata is an interesting read. Though under “Criticisms” it states:

Metadata is useless. Many of today’s search engines are very efficient at finding text. Other techniques for finding pictures, videos and music (namely query-by-example) will become more and more powerful in the future. Thus, there is no real need for metadata.

#10

Alvaro MAM said 63 days ago:

Hi,

This is going to be a really nice talk, hope the weather is great, planning to release some notes, video or something?

#11

Darren Beale said 63 days ago:

I’ll be dragging family Beale along, have secured a camp site just out of town so I won’t have to head off early. Looking forward to it.

#12

Anthony Hicks said 62 days ago:

The crown fountains arent in a crown shape any more though :o(

#13

Mike Robinson said 62 days ago:

This looks like fun, I wonder if I can convince the girlfriend to come along…

#14

Dean Clatworthy said 62 days ago:

Sounds like a nice event Jon. You are taking a gamble with the british weather having an outdoor event though ;) It’s a shame I’m in Spain, as Leamington is not far from my home.