Tag: Ignite Seattle

Naked Safety (or How to Secure a Parade With Simple Psychology) – Shawn Murphy

Large events like parades, conventions, and conferences often require large private security forces to maintain order and security. In a post 9/11 world, we’re told that this is required for our safety. It’s possible to control large crowds, effectively and safely, by applying modern psychology instead of barricades.

The Fremont Solstice Parade draws tens of thousands of spectators, but the parade is secured with fewer than 25, unpaid, volunteers with no security background and less than 20 minutes of training.

Security is often a boring subject, but keeping the Fremont Solstice Parade secure, safe, and (barely) a good show are the essence of hacking and good geekery — it’s also surprisingly funny.

Letterpress Revival – Glenn Fleishman

Letterpress printing was a dying art in the 1980s and nearly dead in the 1990s. Technology has revived it. You can now design on a computer, print out a plastic plate, and use 500-year-old technology that reconnects you to the mess and smell of ink, paper, binding, and industrial-age machines. Letterpress is messy, each print is unique, and it’s the antidote and complement to the perfection-with-abstraction of the Web, ebooks, and the rest. People crave real connection that the screen doesn’t provide. Letterpress puts you right up to the metal and pushes.

About Glenn

Glenn Fleishman is a technology journalist that writes about where technology crosses with people’s lives, as well as exhaustive technology explanations. You can find him every week under the initials G.F. at the Economist’s Babbage blog; at TidBITS, a Mac publication for which he’s an editor and programs the backend; and at Macworld, where he’s a senior contributor. He’s also a freelance columnist for The Seattle Times, and contributes regularly to Ars Technica.

Hacking Parents and other Authority Figures – Gwen Rowe

At the age of 9, Gwen is ready to share her favorite ways to beguile parents and others in charge. It is much easier to convince grand parents to do what you want. A simple please with a cute look goes a long ways But the real big challenge comes in when you need to convince parents or other adults not already enamored with you to do what you want. This talk is full of techniques explained by a kid that can be used to charm and convince nearly anyone.

Ignite Archives: Vj Vijai: Hacking the Technical Interview

Vj Vijai spoke in February 2008 about “Hacking the Technical Interview” using a mix of NLP, hypnosis, and jedi mind tricks – along with a good mix of humor and wise one-liners like “You don’t have to be the best, you just have to be better than the rest of the candidates.”

3 Days to Ignite Seattle 12!

Ignite Archives: Dave McClure: Startup Metrics for Pirates

Dave “Don’t Call Him Davey Jones” McClure was a speaker in August of 2007. He came to Ignite Seattle to talk about an his unusual collection of metrics for startups in a pirate-themed system he calls “ARRRR!”

4 Days to Ignite 12!

Ignite Archives: Rob Gruhl: How to Buy a New Car

Rob Gruhl is one of the few people on the planet who actually enjoys the process of buying a new car. He was invited to speak to Ignite Seattle in August 2007 to share his secrets on how to buy a new car without getting screwed in the process!

5 Days until Ignite 12!

Ignite Archives: Elan Lee: How to Not Be Bored

During this week leading up to Ignite Seattle: 12, we’re going to be posting some of the best videos from previous events!

The first one is from Elan Lee. He is one of the founders of 42 Entertainment, and he when he spoke he told the audience what his thought on people’s lives: “If you’re bored – you’re doing it wrong!”

Changes to Ignite Seattle

For the first time ever, Ignite Seattle will be charging at the door. We hope that you find the $5 a reasonable amount to part with for attending the event.

We are choosing to do this due to an increase in venue fees, to make Ignite Seattle sustainable (and not just coming out of volunteers pockets), and to contribute money to local education projects via Donor’s Choose.

Sponsors

In a similar vein, we are looking for 2-3 companies to sponsor this year’s events. Please contact josh /at/ kolaborationstudio.com if you are interested.

An Astronomical Viewing Shelter on the Cheap – Jeremy Bingham

Using your telescope in the city can be frustrating with all the stray light all over the place. You can’t do much about the skyglow, but you can shield yourself from stray light sources nearby.

Rather than buying a pre-made shelter for hundreds of dollars, you can build one for about a hundred dollars. Jeremy Bingham will demonstrate in his talk how he did just that with a lot of PVC, some found wood, and a bunch of felt.

About Jeremy Bingham

Jeremy Bingham - Ignite Seattle 8When he’s not hanging out in his astro-shelter, you can Jeremy Bingham at his day job as the CTO for DailyKos.com, on his blog or on Twitter, @captain_tenille.