i went out for dinner with p. after his soccer practice. we sat on the deck of a restaurant and watched the sens lose (if that last phrase doesn't mean anything to you, then you're probably not canadian or in one of the states in the usa that cares about hockey =). an unfortunate game. but we had a good time eating and drinking and visiting with people around us.
in the course of conversation, someone asked what i did for a living and i pointed to the shirt i was wearing. it has a kde logo on it. he said, "oh, you work on kde?" a few of them have used it, either currently or in the past.
most importantly, without a word from me they knew what it was.
we are building a brand with recognition. why? because it rocks. because the people behind it rock. because people are looking for the sort of thing we're doing.
i do notice, however, that i'm one of the few people on any of the free software desktop planets to be sharing stories like these. either i'm stupidly lucky and keep meeting people all over the world who know what we're doing .... or the rest of us either aren't getting out enough or aren't sharing.
when i was in brazil last every time someone asked what i did, the people i was with would immediately warn me not to say what i did. i asked why and they said that being a computer geek wasn't sexy and i'd not hook up with anyone that way (ask the people who ate breakfast in the hotel about that). i say: there's nothing to be ashamed of. in fact, it's amazing that we create things and share it with the world.
we are the artists of this modern renaissance. leonardo would be proud. so share it with confidence, because i want to read your stories about people you meet randomly who use and love the stuff we make.
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My dad tests people for HIV, if they're computer-oriented type of people he asks them if they've heard of Amarok. On many occasions they heard of it and and several they use it, allowing my dad to follow it up with some paternal boasting. :)
Our users are real people!
Ahh, that is garbage. I wanted Ottawa to take out the mighty clucks. So that puts the ducks up 2 now I believe. All I can do is watch, as my team may never make it again, poor blackhawks :(
Being sexy has nothing to do with being a computer geek. It's just that the latter often coincides with not-quite-perfect social and rhetoric skills, which creates the general impression that geeks define themselves through being disconnected from people and the real world.
You're the living proof that this is not the case. Either that, or you're not a real geek ;)
Hehe... lucky Aaron. My only contribution to KDE in the last 12 (notebook-less) months was: wearing, on occasions, that black t-shirt with the big blue KDE logo on the front.
The best reaction I got was of the type "Where do they sell these cool Calvin Klein t-shirts?"
Oh, well...
I work on blender and I find a surprising amount of people who have heard of it when I wear the shirt or mention my involvement. You're not the only one.
But you're right in that not many projects have that kind of recognition.
Maybe it's only projects perpetuated by quiet European foundations. (I'm American, but most of blender activity is in the EU.)
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