Journal: News & Comment

Go watch NerdTV

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Bob Cringely (known for his regular online column and the 1990s documentary Triumph of the Nerds) now has a weekly online video TV show called NerdTV, where he interviews, well, big-time nerds. Famous ones.

This week it's Andy Hertzfeld, the first Macintosh programmer. Even if you don't have time to watch the whole thing, there are two excerpts ("the juicy bit," about Steve Jobs telling Bill Gates he has no taste, and "the nerdy bit," about being asked for 20-year-old source code by Don Knuth) which are worth it on their own. Or you can download just the audio and play it on your iPod or other player. Video is MPEG4, so it should work in anything, and audio is your choice of MP3, Ogg Vorbis, or AAC (Apple's MP4, but without DRM). The whole show is under a Creative Commons license too.

If you've got some geek in you, you'll probably enjoy it. Incidentally, Cringely's real name is Mark Stephens. Future interviewees include PayPal founder Max Levchin, Bill Joy, Steve Wozniak, Tim O'Reilly, Doug Engelbart (who invented the mouse), and Linus Torvalds. See? Nerds! (But no women so far, alas.)

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