Eccentric geek and managing director of Internode, Simon Hackett, is vying for the honour of “top geek” in a competition run by rival service provider, iiNet.
Hackett entered the competition this week after a challenge from Whirlpool users, which iiNet managing director, Michael Malone, subsequently endorsed.
“If Simon wants to enter, excellent,” Malone wrote on Whirlpool. “He's the kind of person we want entering: smart, capable, passionate, but a fantastic person.”
In his entry to the competition, Hackett describes himself as an experienced techie and creator of the “world’s first SNMP Internet Toaster”. His entry also states this his day job is to “help connect a lot of other fine geeks to the Internet in Australia” but makes no mention of Internode.
Read Computerworld Australia’s Q&A with Simon Hackett
The Internode manager is also known for owning one of Australia’s only Tesla Roadster electric cars, which he used earlier in the year to drive the 501 kilometres between Darwin and Adelaide.
Hackett’s entry was followed by a "geek challenge" from iiNet representative Matthew Jones to “announce to Internode staff that iiNet has purchased Internode.
“Record reactions and post to youtube.”
iiNet’s competition runs into January next year and offers entrants the chance to win a paid trip to attend either Comic Con, Consumer Electronic Show, South by Southwest or Penny Arcade Expo in the US as a reward for flaring their “geek chic”.
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