nerdnite – Austin

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Last week’s Nerd Nite was one for the books.

In spite of some technical hitches with the projector, we had an audio visual extravaganza with sounds from Dr. Bleep and glorious Tintype photogrpaphy from Heather Curiel.

Thanks also to Nichole Bennett for coming to present; in the absence of a projector, we postponed her talk to next month.

This was also our final Nerd Nite at Buffalo Billiards. We want to thank them for all of their support over the past 18 months. We’ve grown from 40 people crammed in a room at Opal Divines to our record attendance of 133 last week! It’s Goodbye Buffalo Billiards, Hello US Art Authority… we hope to see you all there in October!

Make the dog days nerdy! Cool off your overheated brainpans with a chilled beverage and the cool breeze of knowledge …

This month’s presentations:

Butterflies and Climate Change
Nichole Bennett
Nichole Bennett is a PhD student at UT focusing on the impacts of climate change on a specific species of butterfly. She has a radio show on Mondays called “They Blinded Me with Science” and a free monthly biology lecture series in Austin that occurs on the Wednesday *after* Nerd Nite.

Making Beautiful Noise with Analog Electronics
Dr. Bleep
Bleep Labs is the worlds foremost producer of analog synthesizer friends. Dr. Bleep and company have been hand making Thingamagoops in Austin, TX since 2006.

Tintype Photography
Heather Curiel
Heather Curiel is a professional wedding photographer with a passion for tintypes – old-fashioned photos burnt onto iron sheets via collodion photographic emulsion. Maybe she’ll take your picture?

Once again, Nerd Nite will start at 7:30 following Nerd Speed Dating at 6:30!

Nerdy singles can STILL sign up:
http://austin.nerdnite.com/speed-dating/

FREE admission (21+)
FREE billiards and shuffleboard for all attendees

“It’s like the Discovery Channel…with Beer!”

A few weeks ago, we sent out a link to a survey so we could learn a little bit more about you. We got 92 responses which, given that we get around 100-150 people at a Nerd Nite, is pretty good going.

It seems only fair to give you an idea of what we learned. So here goes:
A third of you are 21-30… another third are 31-40… the final third are over 40. This makes us very happy. You’re never to young or old to be a Nerd… just too young to get into a bar.

47 respondents were ladies; the rest were gents… i.e. we’re perfectly balanced. Again, this makes us very happy. You only have to look at our speaker history to see that Nerdiness is not a gender issue… now we have the stats to prove it!

In terms of education, we cover the whole spectrum of education from high school graduates to PhD and professional degree holders. There’s certainly a bias towards college graduates, but I think we remain accessible to all comers.

Over 83% of respondents consider themselves nerds. We wonder if the other 20% are in supportive friends and spouses or are just in denial ). Of course, everyone is welcome, but we know, in our heart of hearts, *everyone* is a nerd about something and Nerd Nite is the place to let that nerd out… you know you want to!

Interestingly, the majority of people heard about Nerd Nite from a friend which is great. If you’ve been to a Nerd Nite and enjoyed it, bring a friend next time… the more the merrier.

In this era of social media, we were surprised to discover that 60% of respondents use the mailing list to keep track of our activities. Facebook and Twitter are used heavily too, of course, but mailing list rules supreme!

We had some other demographics that are more interesting to us than you. However, the more open questions revealed some interesting things:

• Beer is important – it should be available
• Nerd Nite being free is a big plus – we have no plans to change this
• Sound and Noise were popular topics – Sound could be improved and Noise is unwelcome. This is something we’re acutely aware of and we’re working to improve both of these
• Generally… keep it up – Not to blow our own trumpets too much, but most respondents were pretty happy with how things are going

We’re very grateful to all those who responded. Our goal is that Nerd Nite fosters a sense of community. Although the talks are curated and the venue is dictated by us, your feedback is crucial to ensure that this is an event that you want to keep coming to.

If you have any comments, please feel free to post them here, or email them to us at austin@nerdnite.com

Last week’s Nerd Nite was a big one!

We introduced Speed Dating for the first time and it was a roaring success. We already have 4 people signed up for next month’s!
We also had free Saltwater Taffy from our Mutiny presenter and free wine from our Wine presenter. All that and a super slick presentation on QR codes.

We’re working on next month’s Nerd Nite… the bar was set high this month, but we think we can top it! Hope to see you there.

Note new time! A most excellent Nerd Nite awaits you at 7:30PM, following the first ever Nerd Nite Speed Dating event!!! (see below to sign up)

This month’s irreplaceable musings:

Wondered about Wine? The Ramblings of a Master Sommelier
David Furer

Wine expert and newbie Austinite David Furer will share his well-informed and non-aligned perspective and answer questions about this oft-misunderstood inebriant. Come prepared to have your illusions challenged while enjoying FREE samples of some of Texas’s and Italy’s finest vinous treats.

David Furer’s two decades work with wine has included stints working at German wineries, promoting some of Europe’s finest (and lesser-known) wine regions, writing extensively and expositorally of adult beverages, and –though he’s a high school opt-out — lecturing at the U. of Chicago, Oxford, and Cambridge unis.

Incident on the USS Somers: The Only Mutiny in US Naval History, or Should We Not Have Hung Those Guys?
Steven Polunsky

Learn about the biggest story of 1842, a controversy-at-sea that to this day provokes the public imagination just as it did Herman Melville’s.

Steven Polunsky is the Staff Director of the Texas Senate Committee on Business & Commerce, a Subject Matter Expert in Domestic Preparedness for the US Department of Defense’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense Information Analysis Center, and a current participant in the reconstruction of Afghanistan as a Mentor with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Hiroshima Fellowship for Afghanistan.

Scanning the World: How QR Codes Put the Web Into Real Life
Rachel Youens

No, that little black and white square isn’t a tiny crossword puzzle, it’s a QR code. Find out the evolution of scannable codes and how these real-world hyperlinks are being used for business, marketing and social media.

Rachel Youens is an iPhone addict, ukulele player and web media professional from Austin currently working in the smartphone app development space.

SPEED DATING: A few tickets for nerdy dudes are still available for Nerd Nite’s first speed dating event from 6:30-7:30!
http://austin.nerdnite.com/speed-dating-registration/

Sorry ladies, you’re sold out.

FREE (21+)
FREE pool and shuffleboard for attendees

“It’s like the Discovery Channel…with Beer!”

Once again, Nerd Nite was a success!

Thanks to our speakers for making it such an entertaining evening. You guys did a stellar job!

We’re looking forward to next month. We’ll be having our first ever Nerd Nite Speed Dating event. If Nerd Nite proves nothing else, it’s that nerds are fascinating people… surely you have single friends who want to meet more.

Sign up at http://austin.nerdnite.com/speed-dating

Summertime means blockbuster movies, sweaty dancing and starry skies – aren’t you lucky Nerd Nite is here to help you figure it all out?

As ever, if you can vote us up on the following, it would be a great help:

http://www.yelp.com/events/austin-nerd-nite-16-eyeball-melting-tango-trotting-space-exploring
http://do512.com/event/2010/07/01/nerd-nite-16-eyeball-melting-tango-trotting-space-exploring
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=137264972957367

This month’s nerds:

Visual Effects from a Nerd in the Trenches
Armando Kirwin

You’ve all seen the polished “behind-the-scenes” featurettes on DVDs, but what is it really like to work full-time on a VFX movie from start to finish? What kind of hardware and software do we use? What’s the process on a daily basis? And what happens when the pixels hit the fan? Come learn all about the technologies, realities, and juicy gossip behind this very nerdy profession.

Armando Kirwin has been working in the film industry for the last seven years. For his last movie he was the VFX Producer of The Book of Eli, starring Denzel Washington. He recently relocated to Austin where it’s socially acceptable to eat tacos for two meals a day.

Why Go Into Space? 43 Reasons in 20 Minutes
Hal Fulton

Space is the future of the human species and is crucial to our long-term survival. And those are just two reasons! Are you as curious as we are about the rest?

Hal Fulton has two degrees in computer science and is the author of  “The Ruby Way”. He has been interested in space since childhood.

History and State of the Tango
Nico Williams

Learn what ganchos, sacadas, ochos, llevadas and voleos look like, and how you’re probably doing it all wrong.

Nico Williams is a local (ATX) tanguero, originally from Argentina by way of NYC.

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ALSO…look forward to a special event invitation for single nerdy lads & nerdy lasses!

As always, Nerd Nite is FREE! (21+)
Attendees also get free shuffleboard and billiards.

“It’s like the Discovery Channel…with beer!”

We had another great Nerd Nite at Buffalo Billiards last night: meatbots, soccer battles and hyberbolic crochet corals all featured.

Many thanks to Marshall, Dave and Tanya for their presentation.

Don’t forget: if you want to present at a future Nerd Nite, just contact us.

Sometimes awesome knowledge just won’t fit in a catchphrase.

Nerd Nite returns! Join us to Quaff ‘N’ Learn (TM) with three mind-blowing presentations from your secretly nerdy neighbors….

You can join us at our Facebook event, or pimp us at D0512, Yelp! or Door64
Synthetic Biology: Why Nanites Should be Made of MEAT
Marshall Vaughan

Nanites, also known as nanobots, nanoids, or nanomites, are microscopic robots! In addition to being super-scientific, they are a favorite trope of sci-fi writers and pundits speculating on functional immortality, smart matter, interstellar travel and much more. Join us for a ludicrous speed overview of this exciting realm of great big tiny possibilities.

Marshall Vaughan is a techie, sysadmin, and hardware hacker who knows how important stuff works – logic bounces off him like bullets.

The History of the World Cup, and Why You Should Watch It
Dave Wasser

The World Cup is the most popular sporting event on the planet. Dave Wasser will talk about the history of this quadrennial tournament, and how the sport of soccer has become a kind of lingua franca of the world.

Dave Wasser is a soccer journalist, archivist, consultant, and historian.

Happy Hookers: How Crochet, Hyperbolic Math and Cognitive Science All Knit Together
Tanya Tarr

While a ball of yarn and a hooked needle often conjure images of rocking chairs, tea cozies and a pile of cats, the art of crochet is a transformer in the world of hobbying as well as mathematics and cognitive science. We’ll explore a brief history of the art, how crochet disproves hundreds of years of Euclidean mathematical theory, and explore the biological and cognitive factors behind crochet’s therapeutic value.

As if her twittername (@nerdette) doesn’t tell you something, Tanya Tarr is a big ole nerd for data mining, fabric arts, food chemistry and the wildflowers of Texas. In her day job, she helps teachers and school employees across Texas, and is writing a book (in her head) called “Becoming Texan: the Memoir of an East-Coast-Carpetbagger-Union-Thug.”

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FREE (21+)
Free billiards and shuffleboard for attendees!

“It’s like the Discovery Channel with beer!”

“Blessed are the nerds, for they shall inherit the earth.”
– Jesus, totally

If you’ve ever seen a sci-fi movie, you know that nerds (or their inventions) will soon rise up and destroy us all. Ergo, you’re going to need survival skills, and plenty of beer!

As ever, it’s the first Thursday of the month: May 6th

The fun starts at 7pm at Buffalo Billiards.

You can join our Facebook event, or pimp us at Yelp! or D0512

This month’s invaluable additions to your mental toolbox:

The Psychology of Persuasion: World Domination in Four Easy Steps
John De Mott

Mind domination!

Join us as we investigate the evolutionary origins of persuasion, how anyone can be more persuasive, and the impact new communication technologies are having on the persuasive landscape.

John De Mott is a new media consultant in viral marketing and persuasive technology. His messages have reached 100,000s of people on Facebook, Myspace, and YouTube.

Trial by Fire: The DARPA Grand Challenge and the Search for Robust Autonomy
David Rosen

Ground domination!

While robotic systems have been a fixture in tightly controlled laboratory and industrial environments since the early 1960s, their difficulty in gracefully reacting to the unexpected has remained a stumbling block on the path to their widespread introduction into everyday life. This talk will examine the pursuit of robust autonomy by taking as a case study the DARPA Grand Challenge, a 132-mile off-road autonomous vehicle race through the California desert.

David Rosen is a graduate student in mathematics at UT Austin. When he’s not busy thinking about badass mathematics (go geometry!), he enjoys building robots and running long distances.

Hypotheses on the Tactics of Naval Warfare in Space
Peter Kong

Space domination!

Forget everything you’ve ever seen in Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. Here’s a more realistic vision of space warfare in a not-too-distant future!

Peter Kong is nerdier than you. He spends way more time thinking about fantastic worlds and possibilities than is healthy for a young man. Also, he is a veteran of five hojillion tours of duty in Earth’s Space Navy so he knows exactly what he’s talking about.

No cover, 21+
Free billiards and shuffleboard for attendees