Insert Coin(s) Retro Gaming night!

Like games? Like Music? Course you do! Oxford Art Factory is putting on another round of Insert Coin(s) an event for the adult gamer.

Attendees pay just $10 for a night of retro gaming (tabletop, pinball and standing arcade units) and the latest gaming titles). DJs will spin a blend of 80s, 90s and modern rock and upcoming Aussie band Glass Towers will take to the main stage.

The series will also showcase modern gaming favourites and upcoming games from leading publishers, giving gamers and casual fans a chance to sample the latest titles ahead of release.

Co-founder Patrick Kolan adds, "We were overwhelmed by the success and sheer fun of the first Insert Coin(s). It was an insanely fun night, pure and simple. Old school and casual gamers, music and art fans mingled with the retro and new games and there were a lot of red eyes the next day in Sydney."

A custom 80s-style milk bar, built into the venue, will serve alcoholic milkshakes and there will be free candy and surprises all night! Doors open at 6pm.

As arcades become a rarity, nights like Insert Coin(s) give a new generation a taste of yesteryear - but with the edge of 'cool' that patrons have come to expect from the team at Oxford Art Factory.

Pinball machines including - Addams Family, Fish Tales, Back to the Future, World Cup Soccer, Terminator 2 + Getaway, classic arcade games Pacman, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Frogger, Space Invaders + more, Tekken 5, Marvel Vs Capcom, Raiden Fighters Jet, Street Fighter 2, Metal Slug X, Simpsons, King of Fighters, Wonderboy, Shinobi, Double Dragon and more!

Oxford Art Factory, NSW

Buy Tickets on Moshtix
Thu 10 Nov, 2011
06:00 PM


View Larger Map

University of NSW CS Revue: Hack to the Future!

The University of NSW Computer Science students put on an annual "revue" which is an annual sketch comedy show incorporating dancing, singing, sketches videos and all things funny! With our roots in Computer Science and Engineering, the show delivers a fresh, innovative take on comedy.

This year it's Hack to the Future!

Since 2002, CSE Revue has proven to be a hit with a wide range of audiences, leaving everyone awed by the special effects, slick videos, exciting set design and our commitment to make them laugh.

Great scott! This year, CSE Revue is hacking to the future! So relax, grab a bunch of friends and come for an all round good night! Get your tickets fast, or you'll be outta time!

Details

Week 9 - Tuesday 20th to Friday 23rd September
Please be there by 7:20pm (Doors open at 7.30pm)
UNSW Science Theatre, 400 metres along the Main Walkway from the Anzac Pde Gates.
Adults $15, Students/Staff $12 and Arc Members $10.

Book tickets online.


View CSE Revue 2010 - Pacman: The Dark Byte in a larger map

HTTPS and SSL Explained in Plain English

Ever had to explain secure web browsing to a less computer literate friend or relative? This video tutorial is one of a number of great items from the Google Privacy team perfect to send to the security paranoid aunt in your life.


6

Love your Sysadmin like they love your systems on SysAdmin Appreciation Day!

Sometimes their jokes can be a little left of field, and sometimes you roll the dice and hope you haven't hired a Bastard Operator From Hell, but SysAdmins do a lot of hardwork in the hours that you and I don't want to be working.

This Friday is SysAdmin Appreciation day, so why not take some time out to appreciate your under appreciated, late night keyboard jockeys and 24/7 on call saviours?

Buy them a slab of caffeinated drinks, an unusual Rubik's cube, a bottle of good Scotch whiskey, even that weird old computer you've had at the back of your cupboard for 10 years will probably make their eyes light up. Later remember safe and warm in your bed at 3am that it's not you on call that night out in the cold with blinking terminals peering out at you.

http://www.sysadminday.com/

Missed Girl Geek Dinners at Google Sydney? Watch the speeches on YouTube

Recently I was involved in helping run a Girl Geek Dinner event at the Google Sydney office and we had an overwhelming response and a great night. It even made the official Google Australia blog!

If you weren't able to attend or watch the Livestream you might be interested to know that both the key note speech from Mary Gardiner from the Ada Initiative and lightning talks from some of our female Google software engineers and the organiser of Girl Geek Dinners are available on YouTube. Apparently I'm in them, complete with bad jokes.

Keynote:



Lightning Talks:



Love this? Live in Sydney? Come to our next event! You can read all about Girl Geek Dinners on the official blog.

AlgoRythmic: Computer science through dance

Ever have trouble remembering Big O notation and sorting algorithms for those CS classes? AlgoRythmic have a great YouTube channel of algorithms illustrated through Central and Eastern European folk dance.

4:17

Merge-sort with Transylvanian-saxon (German) folk dance

4:31

Shell-sort with Hungarian (Székely) folk dance

7:07

Select-sort with Gypsy folk dance

69,419 views - 3 months ago

5:16

Bubble-sort with Hungarian ("Csángó") folk dance

4:04

Insert-sort with Romanian folk dance

More reasons to love Nathan Fillion

I've been travelling a lot the last few weeks so apologies for the radio silence. To put you back in a Nerd Girl mood here's Nathan Fillion earning more geek love through his PSA to help end "swamp ass" a terrible affliction that haunts many a hardcore gamer.

True Blood

I won't spoil the season premiere for True Blood if you haven't seen it yet.

But I have to say this.

Thank the entertainment gods for whoever decided to cast that actor for Eric Northman and that wonderful actress for Pam.

NOM.

That is all.

P.S. I'm new to posting here at the Nerd Girl Army. Thanks for having me, Rachel. I'm thrilled to be here.

It's like Christmas for geeks: Free Comic Book day

This Saturday the 7th of May is Free Comic Book Day!

It's the best day to be a geek, local comic book stores hold events and attract custom supporting your local small business. It's a great day to dress up, hang out around other geeks, visit your comic book shop and catch u p on your favourite graphic novels.

There'll be free promotional items to be given out, sometimes you get special editions and one of a kind items on the day, or if you're lucky there might be an artist or writer at your local store.

To top things off in Sydney there's the added bonus of all paid comics being an additional 20% off at Kinokuniya including manga and special editions and Kings Comics will be having its annual sale to coincide.

Why not make it a day out and meet up with some of your nerdier mates after you've shopped your heart out for a drink and to compare purchases and freebies, it's one of my favourite days of the year!

Girls Read Comics?! Help a fellow Nerd Girl

Fellow Nerd Girl Macabri, Owner, Writer & Head Executioner of
www.StrangeLikeThat.com, needs your help with feedback for an article.

4 Quick questions, leave your answers in the comments!

• Why do you like comics?
• What are you reading?
• What is your fav. character?
• How did you first get into comics?

If you wanna bake a pretty cake...

You should put something inside it.

I recently discovered the screen-lickingly good blog Bake It In A Cake and since there's barely a nerd girl who doesn't love cake I had to share it here.

The idea behind the site is astoundingly simple: Cupcakes are great but they're better with a surprise inside.

finally, on theme of sweet with a surprise, one of my favourite mashups "Cooking by the Book" A Lil' Bigger Mix by Mastgrr

8 bit pantyhose for the Gamer Chick who wants to feel sexy

This image has hit the web via So Geek Chic and is driving gamers crazy as gamer girls clamber to find a store that sells them and gamer boys clamber to find girls that will wear them!

If you find a store online that sells them or news that they're a custom job with a "how to" guide please let us know, here at Nerd Girl Army we want a piece of 8 bit sexiness ourselves!

Portal 2 Aperture Investment Opportunities

Portal was the perfect game; short, engaging, challenging and funny. It left us all wanting more and more we collected from the Companion Cube plushy, to the deliciously moist Jonathan Coulton song. But wait! There's more!

Portal 2 comes out this month and the Investment Opportunities are growing by the week!

Game Of Thrones coming to HBO this April

If you're a fantasy fan like me you'll be happy to know that the TV series based on the George R.R. Martin high fantasy fiction series A Song of Fire and Ice is starting soon on HBO in the US.

The series will debut on April 17, 2011 in the US and in the UK, the series will debut on Sky Atlantic on April 18, 2011.


Check out the drama and quality in the extended trailer



Great news is that the ruggedly handsome Sean Bean best known for his role as Boromir in Lord of the Rings is returning to the stable of sword and sorcery amongst other British character actors taking a turn for epic television.

The author himself has also stated that the script is very faithful to the novels which is great endorsement for any reader.

Makeover for Wonder Woman

Who doesn't like Wonder Woman...but when you think of Wonder Woman, what image does you mind conjure?

Yup I bet it's the good old classic star spangled pants with the red corset...and those iconic red boots...just do a google image search and that is what you will get.

Who could forget Lynda Carter making nerd girls around the world beg their parents for gold cardboard to make some bullet-reflecting gauntlets? Or blue undies to stitch felt stars on? Practising boomarang throws with that Princess tiara? Or twirl around in the yard to the point of falling over or being sick?

Besides all the awesome stuff such as a role-model teaching young girls to stick up for themselves and not needing a guy to save them, or that a strong, powerful woman could be good, (as compared with other super hero television - women were either villains or oooh I sprained my ankle)...intelligent and good looking at the same time.

Wonder Woman has had many outfit updates...the pants went from shorts to grannie pants to high cut bikini. The iconic red corset with the golden eagle has had many modifications.
Even Wonder Woman, or Diana Prince has had her hair keep you with the trends...from her original tight curls to the bullet-reflecting-hair-spray-helmet to that 80's perm to 90's layers...if there was ever great documentation for hair style fashion through the decades it is Wonder Woman comics.

But DC decided for Wonder Woman's 69th birthday she needed a make over....and a tv series...

Oh yessssss....yes they did....

Manga & Anime 101

We all know manga and anime as those "Japanese comics and cartoons".
Some of us are avid fans and try to consume as much as we can...sometimes with horrific results.

Like most Westerners my first real introduction was Astro Boy...I thought Astro was cute and blowing rockets from his butt was the apex of toilet humour. Please remember I was seven at time.
Then came G-Force or Battle of the Planets which I later discovered was a butchered American adaptation of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. I say butchered because to edit out most of the violence from the original, the Americans created 7-Zark-7. This little robot who loved oil showers was basically was a C-3PO in a shape of the love child of R2-D2 and a football. He would explain what was going in the guise of worrying.

My family could not understand me and my obsession. My school mates just thought I was werid. I could not articulate how I was waiting for the show's only female character Princess to die...horriblely. In a vain hope that 7-Zark-7 would call me and ask me to take Princess' position as kick-arse-ninja-girl. But I was going to insist on an outfit similar to the show's villian Zoltar.

Things change and so did public programming so I got into ponies instead. My family relieved that I was becoming a normal girl and a result of lots of school friends due to my uncanny ability to draw horses for them.

Then Jap-animation came to town.

As someone who was blown away by Akira when it first hit our shores, I went anime and manga crazy...and I sat through some dreay flicks and read some crappy things but when I found a gem I feverently grabbed it. Anime movie festivals were rare and usually only featured three movies at a time. Most of the time new things were seen via video tape swaping...or going to Chinatown and grabbing the chinese translation and try to figure out what was going on by looking at the pictures...these were the days before DVDs and Madman Entertainment. And they were not that long ago.

So I'm just going to give you a basic low down on the types and genres of manga and anime, for those of you who already know this I apoligise for the re-hash. For those who don't, well this is for you if you are trying to find direction in locating something you like.