First, a public service announcement. The SCMS Pub Crawl will be happening on the 17th of October. A splendid time is guaranteed for all, as has been the case year after year. Free/cheap drinks and lots of free food, and of course the always popular pub crawl t-shirt (which will NOT feature Comic Sans MS this year, graphic designer types can wear it without shame). Being part of the SCMS is not a requirement, we always welcome our Science / Engineering counterparts, or anyone else who has a geeky tendency. We need to know numbers by the 13th. $18 with t-shirt or $3 without, collect your tickets from Bronwyn Poki in R.G.22.

The year is quickly pulling to a close, like it does year after year, and so begins my plans to move between lovely air-conditioned rooms, ensuring that I'm not at all exposed to the harmful UV rays of summer. It always surprises me that it happens, in the same way most nerds were surprised when 01/01/2000 happened. It's not as if it's something you can count down to or anything. And so if I've done my math correctly, this is the last ever time you'll be able to read The Nerdery this year. I should end with a reflection into all that's happened this year, unfortunately I still haven't learned how to program reflections correctly (The Earth language is worse than Java), and I can just barely do them with Algebra. So instead, here's a short list of what I'm looking forward to in revision 2009;

I'm looking forward to getting rid of the horrible Windows thing in my pocket and getting a Google Android-based thingy. No, not iPhone. The iPhone, although pretty, sucks when compared to what the Android is going to be able to do. I'm looking forward to Internet Explorer 8, how much better the web will be (standards-wise), but not how slowly it will be adoped by users. I'm looking forward to the end of people's hatred for Vista as Windows Mojave hits the shelves. And finally, I'm greatly anticipating playing Duke Nukem Forever.

I look forward to spending another year hunched over the keyboard with your, dear reader. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

First and foremost, the people at WAND are gauging interest for running a JNCIA course over a week of the summer holidays. For those who don't know what JNCIA is, it's an entry level networking qualification from Juniper Networks (comparable to the CCNA from Cisco). This is a great way to get hands-on networking experience from people who really know their stuff, and if you have any aspirations of getting a technical job with Telecom, Alcatel-Lucent, Kordia, or some other telco/service provider, I strongly recommend you take this course. Email ben@staz.net.nz if you're interested.

Now, onto the ASPAs. It rocked. Except for me the next morning, when I realised oh too late that me + Chardonnay == bad. Hangovers aside, I really enjoyed it, and I hope that it'll be equally awesome next year. Being the photography geek I am, I had my camera. And despite being incredibly intoxicated, I managed to take some decent photos with it, which you can find on this week's classy busted page, or at http://www.jlaundry.com/photos/aspa08, which will not work properly in IE 6.

And so here is where I venture to nerdiness. I'm one of those people who won't release something until it's exactly how I envisioned, or at least decent to the point where I like it. Which is exactly why it's now months since I started writing code for my photo gallery. In designing my website, I've always upheld the concept that it should be easy enough for my mother to use. Design-wise this isn't hard, just use decent (bigger than small) sizes and everything else somehow falls into place. But technically, making something consistent under all circumstances is incredibly difficult.

I write in valid XHTML. I use compliant CSS. I use the most rudimentary of JavaScript, and use libraries (which are designed to be cross-compatible) wherever possible. So why is it that even the "better" browsers aren't compatible with each other? I'm puzzled why Safari, Firefox and Opera all render things differently, when all three (3) are supposed to be a better, more standards-based web experience compared to Internet Explorer.

The only explanation I have for it is the fact that users of said alternative browsers are more likely to run a newer, less bug-ridden version, and hence the kinks will be worked out in time. Firefox almost forces updates upon users, Apple tricks them into downloading it, and users of Opera are mostly developers, who love new software. And yet here's big Microsoft, who won't even put IE 7 into the last XP service pack, despite IE 6 being more than 7 years old. People like to drive new cars, they're safer and have more features. So why is it 40% of the world is still driving a shitty old commodore?

It's time I sat down and explained to the general public why, despite the contradictory evidence, they shouldn't take anything on the internet seriously. "Zealots". Zealots are everywhere, and they propagate their thoughts throughout the internet like a sex joke propagates though a middle school. Slow at first, but by the end of the week everyone knows the tale of the 3 (three) sticks that get shoved into a dark hole and made to puke.

While the more commonly found zealots should be obvious to those who've been to more than one (1) forum, such as the gaming console zealots (nerds who still think their god-given console is better than a computer) or the Mac/PC/Linux zealots (nerds who still haven't heard of interoperability), I figured I'd better start informing everyone about the lesser-known types...

The fads-never-die zealots. As much as it pains me to lump them all into this category, I really can't be bothered explaining how forums about every single frame of Tool Time is analyzed and personalized, or those still stuck arguing wether or not the earth is flat. These are the more specialized type of zealots, and are either very hard or not hard enough to find with a few keywords typed into a search engine.

The 'simple concept' zealots. "Imagine a 747 is sitting on a conveyor belt, as wide and long as a runway. The conveyor belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction. Can the plane take off?" Simple eh? It's too bad that, provided you have a group of 3 people, everyone will come up with a different answer. Thankfully, these arguments are mostly confined to 4chan boards, and the occasional Bongo sushi session.

The n00bs. Not so much zealots as-per-se, but still as annoying as, or even more so in some cases. These are the people who refuse to learn before diving head in, and once their in, still refuse to learn. It's like someone who refuses to learn how to tell time using an analog clock, so instead of learning just complains whenever a digital one isn't avaiable.

And finally, there's the mindless attention-seeking zealots. The worst kind, they'll infect the "off-topic" boards of any forum with crap, and will advocate for whatever dumb-fuck idea pops into their head. These people will fight on the internet for the sake of boredom [1], and seek out new places to drain the life of.

_{[1] And I don't mean that in the good, Uncyclopedia Flame Warriors way.}

I hate getting my calendar mixed up. I sat down this weekend to realize that next Saturday is software freedom day, and so this column misses out being read before then by a mere two (2) days. Oh well, better luck next year.

Let me begin by declaring my stance on the FOSS (Free, open source software) issue. I'm the uni's Microsoft student partner. My personal servers run Windows Server 2003 and FreeBSD (using VMware). At work, I manage software projects that utilise php, Perl, MySQL and Oracle, and servers that run Linux (with Xen). I have a Mac laptop, and being the photography nut I am, I use Adobe software. Who says you can't mix milk with orange juice?

Most people don't care what tool they're using, so long as the tool best suits their needs. This is where a lot of conflicting ideas between free software advocates and the non-free-software types occur. If someone were to say "you can have as many spoons as you like, so long as you give up your knives", most people would laugh it off and walk away. But, in my opinion, It really comes down to that.

There are many types of zealots in the computer 'verse, as i'll get to in my next article, but the hardcore FOSS advocates seem to be the most aggressive of them all. These are the type that take the "all-or-nothing" approach, which by today's standards just isn't feasible. Imagine if Adobe adopted the FOSS business model; gave away their software but charged for support. Raise your hands if you regularly use Photoshop and have ever contacted Adobe for support. How about if they gave away a feature limited version, but allowed you to pay for advanced features. Well, isn't that what we're currently doing?

I know quite a few people here at waiKato who would like to think the world can and should adopt to certain ways of thinking. But one solution will never be able to gracefully meet all needs, a solution that tries to is obviously not a good solution.

On a more upbeat note, I'll leave you with a quote to mull on, by one of my former lectures.

I've been insulted by Richard Stallman three times and I've only just met him.

As many nerds may know, waiKato has had more than a fair share of it's nerdiness. There's something about the fine farmland air that produces the best nerds in the country [1], and probably the best in the world. From the warm routers [2] of WAND, to the students SSHed into the labs, to the first-years mocking the management students who are trying to learn how to code, to the end of year pub-crawl, we're a proud bunch.

Nexus has been here for us nerds. Back in 1996 was the first glimpse into mainstream nerdery, with an article about the internet written by my cousin Malcolm (hmmm... I wonder if you still read Nexus/my blog...). Thats right, a 7 page long feature on the internet. Let's see a modern contrubutor rant and rave on that long! Then a few months later started a column called "Computers", which was renamed to The Nerdery a few issues later. Each column started with 42.

I had the intention of analysing the columns, how things have changed between then and now, but got distracted by how the first Nerdery column talked about online dating, and just how little had really changed. There was even a mention for those who couldn't get an online date to revert to a site with free pr0n passwords. Unfortunately, I don't know of such a site to give you, but I'm sure if you google hard enough you could find it before the ITS people find you.

And there's been the advertising revenue to go with our long-running nerdy column as well. If you ever get a chance (hopefully you'll be able to just look to your left), have a look for the raunchy Microsoft ads in Nexus issues that were. They launched a campain back in '2k (and then again 2k3) promoting their student-friendly priced Office editions. I gotta say, not only do they really get the message across, but it's amazing they were published in the first place.

_{[1] I'm not just talking about our PBRF ranking
[2] if you're a kiwi bloke out for giggles, get Donald Neal or someone with an equivlently awesome accent to pronounce routers
[3] http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/department/history.html}

Time flies when you're having fun. That's why I've spent most of the holidays either being unproductive or working, both of which are very fun for me. And yet, it's now one (1) week out from uni, and I've once again completely forgotten that I have a Nerdery to write. Fortunately, at the last Nexii contributor meeting, I was smart enough after getting smashed to try looking though archives so I could come back with a wizz-bang story on the history of waiKato nerds. Unfortunately, this isn't that article. That article is next week's article. Instead, this article is a witty collection of random ideas in the hopes that people out there (that's YOU) can help me resolve them.

Why is it that the big recycling bins on campus take glass and aluminum cans, BUT NOT PLASTIC?!?!? I dare say that drinking fizzy, sugary, oh-so-caffeinated beverages is more popular on campus than beer (I could be wrong). The lack of plastic recycling is especially upsetting for us in the Interaction Design Lab (the dungeon-esque one), who combined consume a few bottles of black liquid per week. Anyone on the environment council thingy know why this is the case? Also, why are there no recycling facilities in Bongo? The garbage bins overflow with sushi containers and plastic bottles, why is this all going to the tip?

Why is it that the Clarence st Pak n Save doesn't stock Cadbury Three Wishes chocolate and Bluebird Sweet Thai Chili chips anymore? While I highly doubt Pak n Save management types read Nerdery, if anyone out there knows how to complain and get these in stock it would be much appreciated. I'm tired of going out of my way to seek these items out elsewhere. Oh, and stop making the Croissants randomly disappear!

And before I forget; waiKato needs another Imagine Cup team for next year to carry the torch of excellence we seem to always wave here in the computer science department. In 2007 the waiKato team came 1st in NZ and won a trip to Seoul, Korea to compete in the world finals, and this year we came 3rd (although it's fine to say fuck in Nexus, I don't think my thoughts on the winners of this year's competition would be suitable for this column). Ryan Tarak from Microsoft and I are to give an information session to anyone who wants to be involved, at the time of writing this is to be Tuesday September 13th @ 14:00, but this may change. For updated information, visit my site; (you're here) or look out for the posters that I'm supposed to be putting up.

I just realised that it's now Tuesday 17:31 and I've still got to write another 200 words, arranged in a fashion that makes clear and concise logical sense and has something tech-related. So, this weeks article is about problems. When faced with a problem you usually have two options; ignore the problem and use enough resources to live around it, or face the problem and use enough resources to solve it. I realise my insight is a tad generalised (and the phrasing probably has something to do with the fact that I've been playing a lot of Age of Empires lately), but has held true for just about every case I've thrown at it. ^[1]

Unsurprisingly, you've probably come to the same conclusion at some point in your life as well (although you probably didn't word it as eloquently as I did). And yet, many people don't accept it, not foreseeing the cost of resources to live around an issue. I could list examples such as doing homework before the due date as opposed to right before the due date, but instead I'm going to dive right for the more technological issue; data backups. Drives are cheap and getting cheaper. And yet I look at how many people take regular backups and am still amazed at how few take regular backups. Remember people; data is cheap, time is expensive.

Now, in life (of Comp. Sci.) we also have the problems of the more interesting kind. The Programming Competition kind. Congratulations are in order for the solo guy who just wanted a T-shirt (which he received), the DARTH VADER team (esp. Daniel for the pelvic thrust after solving a hard question), and to everyone else who competed and managed to beat agp (Almost Grey Power), who despite being senior programmers, were only able to solve the 3 easiest questions.

Finally, I've been alerted by my girlfriend that blue LEDs are pretty. Indeed they are. But that's still no excuse for them glaring in my eyes when I'm trying to listen to music. I've also been told by randoms that I use a lot of brackets in my articles (mostly to extend a point while keeping within an acceptable sentence length). To this, I can say "kiss my ass", as I like to use excessive punctuation where appropriate. It makes the English programming language a lot more fun, like php.

[1] Of course, some of the more insightful philosophers reading my column would be quick to point out "Hah! You forgot, you can throw resources at the problem before the problem occurs, adding a third option!" and would be right, except that you'd be ignoring that you've faced the problem, it's just you faced it before the problem became a problem.

Let's start this week off with a little quiz. When buying an expensive piece of electronics with your freshly borrowed "course related costs", do you expect to find;

1. An Apple-inspired design
2. Blatant branding to remind you it's not made by Apple
3. Blue LEDs, which indicate that it's obviously high-tech

If you answered C, you deserve a slap, as you're the reason why myself and many others like me (i'll explain) are either;

1. Voiding warranties by opening up things and replacing the LEDs with a more sensible colour
2. Putting electrical tape over all the blue LEDs

So, for those who don't quite get my rampage, let me explain something. Blue light has a short wavelength, which makes it really hard for your eye to focus on. So, for an ambient light, like the type which alerts me to know my speakers are on, blue light is really bad in terms of overall interface design. It's irritating to the eye. There's a reason why you don't normally see blue lights in car dashboards; it's dangerous, especially for night driving. And yet, over the last few years, consumers have come to expect lots of blue LEDs in their products, because it looks cool.

If done correctly, there's nothing wrong with using colour lights. But please, why do you think it's necessary to shine blue light in my eyes when I'm just trying to listen to music? Not to mention, not only does it look "high-tech" to consumers, but marketers have also decided that it sounds high-tech as well. BlueTooth headset anyone? Maybe a Blu-Ray player? When will the madness end!

But, then again, most of the tech world is crap, and if it wasn't for the sea of crap we wouldn't have the shining stars. So really, what can one really expect from our generation?

As those who know me know, I work for a large international communications company. Not only do I get to have a part-time job doing something that I enjoy, but I also love the side benefits; being able to roll into work whenever I want, or just working from home and proving the myth that pants are optional. But this week, I'm not just sitting at my desk, trying to draw inspiration while hard at work. This week it's all around me. This week I'm in a communications room, in Tonga.

To cut a long story very short, a server that helps run one of the Tongan mobile networks died. It was supposed to be a simple job; fly in Wednesday, change the CPU, relax and fly out Saturday. In my urge to screw my carbon footprint this year and get another stamp for my passport, I didn't stop to think I'd be pulling my hair out trying to fix hidden problems, but like all things, nothing is simple. My colleague and I are now waiting for assistance from our advanced technical support centre. As usual, Murphy's law prevails.

(picture me with greasy hair putting my head in hands and rubbing eyes)

Since my first dial-up account for my 12th birthday, a decent internet connection has never been more than a short maneuver away. And suddenly I find myself in a place where, according to statistics, most people don't use the internet regularly and many have only heard of it. I knew this was the case, but it's a major shock to realise how lucky we are to have this resource, but how quickly we are to complain about it.

I'm also amazed with how loyal customers can be. Despite fierce advertising from the competition, the incumbent telco is keeping a strong hold on their market out of pure choice by the customers. According to locals, everyone knows the competition is cheaper and provides better mobile signal coverage, but the audio quality is poorer and it's not Tongan owned, and so few people permanently switch.

It's amazing what a short airplane ride can do to one's perspective. So next time you're ready to complain about how your is, or how it costs "too much", just spare a moment to think about how lucky you are that you've come to expect the world. Read that last sentence a couple times.

Eleven (11) days ago (relative to publishing), while scoffing down the excess amount of pizza available at the Nexus contributor meeting, I found a copy of Nexus, issue five (5) from 2005 (two thousand, five). For those not 4th year or older, it was an issue dedicated to nerds and nerdihood. Josh then proceeded to point out the nerd figurine atop the arcade machine, and at that point I nearly cried when I saw it had been disfigured.

One of the articles was what it is like to be a nerd. As I sit in one of my COMP papers, looking around for my girlfriend's sister's boyfriend who is supposedly also doing this paper (that said I've never seen him in here...), it gives me pause to think of how far we've come over the last few decades. Nerding has really become an accepted part of society, or at the very least we're no longer at the bottom (to which we owe the emo and emo-esque crowd for displacing us up the chain). But, before I get all boring and philosophical, I call to enlighten all Level one (1) and higher nerds;

For those not in the know, the new library that the uni is building actually has less space for books than the current library (read: Wintec Student Hub). As such, books that are "of no value" to the uni library are going to be stored by Crown Relocations while the new building is built, and afterwards will be destroyed. Most of the books on this list haven't been checked out in a a few years, and are deemed to have no or little significance. That said, at the SCMS BoS meeting, a few interesting titles were brought up which have geek cultural significance.

These titles include books written in the 1980s (nineteen eighties) about AI and one that was written by two NZ computer science professors. For nostalgic types these are the goldmine collection, and it's a shame we don't have storage capacity. The most interesting fact about this disposals process however is that departments will not be able to take these to-be-destroyed books and put in their offices, tearooms, private libraries etc. If you're interested you'd better get in contact with someone from the library (sorry, didn't catch any names. To quote former editor Roz; "This is professional journalism").

If you're coming here to watch me dance... Sorry, but you're about to be disappointed. I'll upload it to YouTube hopefully tonight.

My room is an absolute mess. Normally I have crap piled on my desk, but today the crap has found it's way to the floor. Unlike some days though, today is a particularly good day, as it just concluded a weekend that I look forward to: the World Cyber Games NZ Qualifier (aka xLAN).

For those not in the know, it's an annual event held in Auckland. The winners of some selected tournaments go on to compete in the APAC finals, and then the world finals (this year held in Germany). It's held on the weekend before the second semester starts back, people come on Friday and leave Sunday afternoon. Sleeping is optional, and very few people get over 12 hours of it. Many cans and cans of energy drinks are consumed. This year we had 760 people, so after crew, tournament computers and expo people, about 850 computers. About 900 amps of power was being constantly used, and you thought your last power bill was bad!

It's not all tournaments though, as many people come to just have a few fun games with their friends. And not to mention, there are quite a few of us from waiKato who are crazy enough to volunteer, but we all love it. Especially when Zapman (aka Daniel (congrats, 4th ever plug!)) starts to be... himself. I'm the network administrator, and It's no small job running an enterprise grade network comprising of computers you've never seen or configured before.

I strongly suggest anyone with an interest in computer gaming to come along next year, although you have to get in quick as seats sell out quite quickly. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Ok, I'm going to end it here before my brain really goes to mush from tiredness (according to Google Docs this is 7th grade level writing... I'm very disappointed). And, finally, yes I did dance again. 4 times. Only one of them was any good IMO, I was very disappointed in myself, but if you wanna come back to my site in a few days, and I'll of hopefully uploaded it by then.

We fellow geeks generally tend to stick to the internets, after all, happiness is a warm mouse. But every now and then, we take a venture outside with a little help from our friends. Ventures like the SCMS pub crawl for example, is generally accepted as an enjoyable outing, and a splendid time is guaranteed for all.

But recently, there has been another reason for us to emerge from our darkened rooms; Geohashing. Simple description; people go to random locations around your local area every Saturday. Long, nerdy description (for geeks who don't follow XKCD); First you find your graticule (the 1°x1° geographical co-ordinate, i.e. waiKato is -38,175) then you take the opening value of the Dow Jones, MD5 it, split into two 16-bit values, convert to binary and append it as the decimal point to your graticule and voila, you have a location. All you need is to find your coat and grab your hat, and hopefully a crowd of people turn up (for the benefit of the environment, you should catch the bus).

To give you an idea just how vast an area is covered, the area around waiKato extends from Te Uku (2/3 way to Raglan) to just beyond Waihi, and then from Papakura down to Te Awamutu. A lot of this area is private property and some of it ocean, and so it's not always feasible to make it to a point. And of course, being a fairly recent concept, it's not incredibly popular with those of waiKato yet. So far there have only been 3 known geohashes here; twice by a guy who likes to wear pirate gear (InvaluableKiwi; congrats on my 3rd ever plug!), and once by myself and my girlfriend.

So, would you like a bit of adventure on any given Saturday at 4pm? We've got a Facebook group going (search for NZ Geohashers), or read the wiki at http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/. Who knows, if the Nexus ed and the rest of the club band is as keen as they claims they are, you might even score a t-shirt or something. Hell, I might even score a t-shirt or something... Final note; Across the Universe, like most things with Evan Rachel Wood, is a movie that you should watch at least once. Now. But before this Saturday.

So sorry for the delay, completely forgot I was supposed to post these here and NOT just on my local development site x.x

I'm sure this rant has been done 100 times before 100 times better than I'm about to do it, but I don't care. I hate the uni's parking. Which is why I take the bus, unless;

1. I'm coming to uni after 1800
2. I've decided I can't sleep and come to uni at 0430 (true story)
3. I've got to go get a parcel from CourierPost's HQ in middle-of-nowhere-land before trudging to a lab.

And unfortunately, its the latter option that had lead to this rant.

While most people should be able to take the bus, or bike, or walk, it seems that the ever increasing costs will never meet the threshold at which uni students won't drive to uni. I say 'most' as I do know of exceptions to the rule; those with disabilities, families of uni-goers, etc. And of course there are the few who occasionally need to use that curbside paperweight. But there's the undeniable fact that a lot of the cars that frequent the uni aren't really needed. But, unlike most rants, I have a plan of action for this problem.

It's called a barrier arm and card reader. Just like the ones that Wintec currently uses. Before being granted entry into the student parking lots, you have to swipe your student ID card. If this is after a certain time of the night, or if this is the first time you've 'swiped in' this week, no problem, free entry. If this is the second visit this week, a small, but reasonable fee of $0.75 or so is deducted from your unicash account.

It's enough of a deterrent for uni students to seriously consider leaving their cars at home, after all, look at the small amount of student parking Wintec students have. Not to mention it's a much more appropriate way of paying for the parking security, then just charging all students. And, as entry (and obviously exit) is controlled by barriers, we know how many cars are in a given lot, so imagine being able to find out where a park is available by sending a text message. Or, better yet, reserving a park for another small fee. Wouldn't it be worth 40 cents to know you're going to get a park once you show up, without circling around?

So, what are your thoughts? Would you support such an idea? Post me a comment before I go crazy and bring this before some of the committees I sit on.

Pop! Now, there's only one person (actually maybe a few.... Hi!) who actually understands why I started this week's column with a Pop instead of a Bang, but for those not gifted with fine mouth control, lets say this article spawns from the event that recently occurred in my flat's kitchen. A light bulb blew. Now instead of simply marching down to the local light bulb dispenser, I used this as an excuse to purchase some 12 compact fluorescent bulbs and proceeded to refit my flat.

I can't help it; everyone eventually becomes all environmentally-conscious these days for one reason or another. Its a great time to be a greenie too, what with electricity prices rising, and a prediction that there's a 5% chance we'll have blackouts. I'm currently pricing up new servers at work, and their electricity usage is a major factor of my decision. Unfortunately, it seems the most-efficient (not to mention the one that gets my inner geek's freak on) solution, a blade server system, adds $15k to that of the exact same setup with rack-mount servers. Not at surprising, the same went for those bulbs; an initially higher cost that will repay itself several times over in the course of its life.

The same goes for modern laptops as well; they're made with less material, use much less power, still provide enough grunt for most users, not to mention are much more convenient, but as they are so much more expensive most people opt for either cheaper, older laptops or big power-sucking desktops, which can use 30w while completely off. Seriously, you're paying ~$30/year just to have your desktop plugged in while you're not using it. Would somebody please think of the environment!

On closing comments, for those of you who prefer your web-based word processor of choice to have a Adobe Lightroom-esque interface, as well as niceties such as proper fonts and a flash-animated pulsating cursor, instead of actual functionality like copy+paste (I'm just sour it doesn't work with my mac), should check out Adobe Labs' buzzword. Before you get your hopes up though, you can't save directly to PDF. Yes, I was also very disappointed and Adobe should be ashamed with themselves. Also, I've decided as I can't come up with actual content for it, I'll be carbon-copy posting these articles on my blog, (hmmm, I think you're here now...) for you to enjoy a day early. Maybe I'll throw in a couple extra words for you die-hards, like Good Night San Diego, and thanks for stopping by.

As will be revealed in the near future (next week's Nexus), I'm going to start posting my column here as well to try and attract feedback. For those not in the know, Nexus is Waikato's student magazine, and The Nerdery is the name of a long-running column that I revived. I had previously called it static void Main(), but with new editor came the idea to rename my column to keep with Nexus' tradition.

Don't you just hate those days, just after you've had an absolutely awesome weekend, when something just starts to go wrong and creates a problem that you're up till 1am trying to solve? I had one of those last night. I'll give you a hint; it had something to do with Vista and how uncivilised and unprepared we really are for the 64-bit era. And thats my excuse to the editor as to why this week's entry is late, and so if you're reading this in Issue 9 its because Josh feels really sorry for me, in which case you should pat him on the back next time you see him. Anyway, on with the article.

My friend Daniel (congrats, you get the second-ever Nerdery plug!) recently spammed Facebook asking for ideas on how a particular website that we've all come to love or hate needs refinement. In true human style, instead of sending directly to him, everyone decided to reply to the entire group (strong deja-vu, after a certain incident with the student e-news mailing list), and so I also got a little inspiration and insight into what web designers love to neglect; consistency.

Now, consistency is one of these things that is often talked about but never really put into practice in the software world, and really has two parts, the first being the most but least important, design consistency. Despite all the common templates and HCI research, it seems people love to set their own standards in the hopes that others will follow it, which often leads to disastrous results. A good example of this is the 'Brushed metal' theme of pre-Leopard Mac OS X. Although Apple had set strict guidelines of how it was to be used, mostly for hardware-interacting parts of applications, Apple often broke these guidelines themselves because they thought applications with this theme looked better.

But there is an issue that can be solved today; identity consistency. Open ID and Live ID are two great ways to ensure a common and consistent profile on the interwebs, but they still are yet to really be used properly. Live ID is probably the better example; everyone has MSN Live Messenger, so why can't we use that profile for Facebook and Bebo? Not only would it be convienent, but it would actually encourage users to change passwords more often, as they'd only have one password to remember. Not to mention, all that contact list harvesting would be much smoother. Maybe I'm just dreaming though...