Chocolate chip ice cream is a nice enough, but it’s no RFID chip – that delectable morsel that tells fans of Izzy’s Ice Cream that their favorite flavor is in.
Izzy’s hired us to build a site that updates every three minutes based on interchangeable buckets of ice cream so flavor watchers can see exactly which 32 varieties are available, right then and there. RFID chips attached to nameplates of each bucket of each flavor (Izzy’s has more than 200 and counting) direct site content as flavors rotate in and out, and customers know what’s what (and when) via Facebook and Twitter.
How do we know Izzy’s admires our work as much as we admire theirs? Because the ice cream man was generous to Nerdery staff when we debuted this project at last Friday’s BottleCap Talk.
As you know the Bottle Cap is an integral part of Nerdery Culture. So you can understand why the People of class drink alcohol post over on Discovery’s blog caught our attention. If you take a look at this chart that shows that the smarter the you are the more likely you are to consume alcohol, you’ll see why were posting this here.
Go read the entire post for more graphs that control for other variables including education, gender, religion, and geography. Then, make sure to jump to the comments to read all kinds of crackpot theories and accusations.
The Bottle Cap is an integral part of The Nerdery’s culture. Think pep fest + show & tell + beer. It’s a chance for the nerds to pass out props, share the coolest project that just launched, and to tip back a few beers in honor of our own badassery (if you’ve ever had the honor of attending the Bottle Cap you’ll know that the word [or is it a phrase?] ‘badass’ is bandied about quite often).
As The Nerdery has grown so has the mountain of bottles and caps. And even though nerds are often mistakenly stereotyped as pasty-faced gremlins who shun the outdoors, that’s just not true. We love the Earth. We dig it so much that we even have a Green Team that sends us all kinds of tips on how we can save energy and be a little nicer to the planet we call home.
To support that green effort, we switched to kegs of beer rather than our traditional bottles. It was tough taking the bottles and caps out of Bottle Cap, but with the kegs we’re no longer filling the recycle bin or wasting beer. And, as you’ll see from the video, we even use glass pint glasses instead of plastic cups. It’s more efficient all around.
So in the interest of educating you all on the proper way to pour beer, we offer you this short instructional video.
The video features Joshua Beardsley, Nerdery Brewmaster, reporting by Andrew Watson, and the intro musical stylings are courtesy of our own Kai Esbensen.
To the 60-some people who came to Friday’s open house aimed at recruiting, thanks for coming and thanks for your interest in joining our staff of 87 (and counting).
As for you bakers’ dozen or so registered no-shows, please do still send us your resume – but know that you’re too late to enter the drawing for the iPod Touch (Woodrow Keifenheim, come on down!).
Mid-mingle last Friday, we had our traditional Bottle Cap Talk – but this time, a bigger-than-usual audience saw the demo of a just-launched Facebook app we built in partnership with Best Buy.
Plenty of good seats remain for our Facebook Connect agency primer webinars Tuesday and Thursday – they’re free, but please RSVP.
The winner will be announced at 4:30 at our Friday Bottle Cap Talk. There are two ways to vote: be here at The Nerdery to stuff the ballot box, or, leave a comment below.
Today we kick it old school at BottleCap talk. We’ll hear from John Krenz – one of the Oregon Trail’s pioneer (pun well-intended) programmers – and these days one of our software development managers.
Education remains fun at Nerdery BottleCap talks – a time (4:30 every Friday) dedicated to peer-to-peer learning (w/beer). Our typical BottleCap is a show-and-tell of a notable Nerdery project launched during the week, and while we unleashed numerous eventual interactive classics this week, John will demo the proud product of his formative years using a classic/relic Apple lle (the way the game was meant to be played, some purists say).
The Trail may be old but the beer is cold. Visitors are welcome – leave us a comment if you’re coming. Ample parking for oxen, bring your own hay.
As this edition of Inside The Nerdery went to press there was no official winner of the Boggle competition. Luke Bucklin, representing the Elder Statesman team and looking presidential, is at this moment the unofficial Boggle Gold medalist – but judges are still sifting through long lists of words and – what’s the word for it – nonwords?
Another word you may not have heard of: Bogglegate. Oh yeah.
Boggle results could be headed for a recount and a long legal battle. Some of today’s video was confiscated (I posted what I could salvage below). Many of us have retained our own legal counsel (and private security – a member of the Perfectonist team had kind of a menacing look when they asked me how my family was doing).
But back to Boggle – and at last, a Pentathanerd event competition that doesn’t require standing. (Pentathanerd favors an on-your-toes brand of chess; most Rubix spinners stood upright; and foosball is simply exhausting)
Watch the video as Pentathanerd officials scurry to figure out what it all means. Note the creepy silence as Boggle is played at The Nerdery; it was an unusually polite and reserved crowd until scandal struck again. “Keep the muttering down,” said Kai when he could take the muttering no mas.
Usually on Friday’s at 4:30, we all gather for BottleCap Talk (there’s beer) at the ridiculously big screen and we watch one of our web developers show-and-tell about a recent website we’ve launched. It’s equal parts social hour, peer-to-peer education, and Mystery Science Theater.
Instead, today it’s final Pentathanerd event Mario Cart and Pentathanerd Closing Ceremonies. Good seats are still available. I’m told it will be quite moving – not a dry eye in the house. See it here on Monday, and if it leaks out on ESPN over the weekend, just remember that you should have seen it here first.
Keep watching Inside The Nerdery for continuing Pentathanerd/recount coverage.
Silver lining for the Pefectonists: Bogglegate has bumped Rubixgate below the fold in today’s post. Keep those cards and letters coming…
As nerds we, of course, live on the cutting edge of not just technology, but also fashion. Friday some of our more fashion forward residents held an impromptu fashion show here at the office. Fresh off the runways of Paris and Milan, I give you Wolf Shirt Friday.
The discerning eye will spot some kittens, a dragon covered with a Post-it, a bear driving a pickup, but you should know, those guys are wearing a wolf shirt on the inside.
In honor of the auspicious event, our traditional Friday bottlecap talk was enhanced with Wolf vodka and Blue Moon ale.
Act now and with expedited shipping you can join us this Friday…
