My Name is Steve, and I'm a Geek

Today marked my first steps toward understanding XML. Whether you know what XML is or not, this basically solidifies my membership in the geek kingdom. Of course, my computer networking knowledge has probably secured a spot for me already.

I was able to add a feature to this website that I ripped off borrowed from Dan's site. You can now see an excerpt from my entries in the Recent Entries section on the right. I think its cool, and even cooler that I pretty much figured it out for myself (with some encouragement from Dan)

Ad-aware 6 Now Available

For those of you that don't want websites tracking information about you or using your computer's resources to do their bidding like a zombie slave, you might be interested in Ad-aware. When you are browsing the Internet, some sneaky web sites like to track you by placing software, called Spyware, on your computer. While this does not damage your computer or prevent it from working, it is quite an annoyance that you have unwittingly volunteered your computer for their use or to provide other information they might want. Another method to propagate Spyware is within a user license agreement when installing other software. For example, you must install Cydoor (Spyware) if you expect to use the peer-to-peer media-sharing program, KaZaa. By using Ad-aware, you can scan your computer for Spyware, much like popular AntiVirus programs do for computer viruses. The best part is that its FREE! If you have a computer running Windows 98/Me/NT/2000 or XP, you might want to get Ad-aware so you can be Spyware free.

***Editor's Note***
I am in no way associated with Lavasoft, or Ad-aware. I just think they are providing a very cool service.

Internet Odds and Ends

With the extra time on my hands, I'm able to devote entire days to browsing the Internet. In that time, I've been able to find some true gems that I want to share with you, instead of hoarding them for myself.

1. Tactics Core. This is a cool strategy role-playing game, which is like chess on steroids. It’s written in Flash, which means its small, fast, and fluid. I'm already addicted.

***Update - If the above link doesn't work, try here

2. NES Emulator. I know what you are thinking: "I've seen emulators before, and yes, they are cool." BUT, have you seen one from within a web page? (For you geeks: It’s a Java applet!)

3. X-Entertainment. This site has reviews of items from 80's popular culture. Its written by a guy who grew up in that decade, and is an adult now. Like me. Most reviews are on toys, commercials, candy, and TV shows.

4. Acronym Finder. Use this site to find out that acronym everyone knows but you. I was able to find out that STAT in medical terms is short of Statim, a Latin term meaning Immediately. You can find this and several other TLA's, (Three Letter Acronyms)

Dictionary Lookup from a Browser

I've had an idea for an Internet browser feature for quite some time now. I wanted to highlight a word on a web page, then look up it’s meaning. Sometimes I don't know the meaning of some of the words I read. For example, several comedic writers prefer the use of opulent verbiage instead of the rudimentary or mundane vernacular for aggrandized denouement. To remedy this, I used to copy and paste the word into dictionary.com. However, this seemed to be one step too many for me. I'm lazy, what can I tell ya?

After some research, and some helpful tweaking from resident Internet geek, Dan, I was able to add the feature I've been wanting. With just a local html file and a registry change, I'm now able to look up text on a page by merely highlighting it and right-clicking my new menu option that sends the word to dictionary.com, and gives me the definition. Let me know if this is of interest to you and I can show you how to do the same on your computer.

***Editor's note- I'll be out of town for a few days, so this site might get neglected until Feb 27***

Serial Numbers

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the world of computers, some software requires entering serial numbers during installation to validate your purchase. This prevents pirating software and also registers the software for updates and support. All well and good, and I'm not disputing that need. Today I had to install a simple piece of software, but was required to punch in a 34 digit alphanumeric code to get it going! I can understand a large complex serial number if installing Windows or Accounting software, but this was a picture editor. Not exactly responsible for sensitive information. If any of you happen to be software engineers, I implore you never to use a registration code that large. My complaints are to help make the world a simpler place.

Scripting Yourself Out of Existence

A while back, I played a baseball game called SmallBall , where you manage a baseball team. You could train your players on certain aspects of the game to improve your team. So everyday I would sit down at my computer and train my players. It got tedious after a while, so I wrote a script with AutoIt to train my players. Worked great.

Later, I had to individually select games every day for my team to play. Basically I would challenge other teams to games. That got tedious as well, so I wrote another script to schedule games. Scripting triumphs again.

Finally, I noticed that I had taken the human element completely out of this game. I was training my players and scheduling my games entirely through scripts. My computer was actually playing the game, while I got updates.

I learned that although scripting is cool and can save you a lot of time, sometimes you have to look at the big picture.

Over-Ambitious Spam Blocker

Most people that send and receive e-mails get bombarded with unsolicited e-mails (known as spam). I stand firm on my stance against spam and everything spam stands for, but I think the folks at Trend Micro have gone a step too far. According to this story, their spam blocker stops any e-mail containing the letter "P".

The only thing that I can think of is that "P" might be misinterpreted for a slang word for urine, thus getting flagged as vulgar. Or maybe the letter "P" assaulted the programmers family when he was a child. Better yet, the programmer might have had a bad experience with a Sesame Street episode that was brought to by the letter "P". In any event, that is a huge mistake in their software.

Viruses Suck

Anyone else getting flooded with emails? Thanks to a little worm/virus called W32.Sobig.F@mm, also known as So Big, my day has been filled with complaints from my users. They are complaining that their inboxes are filling up with unwanted emails. Which looks like this.

This little bugger is a nasty one. It has its own email server (SMTP engine), which sends itself as much as possible to addresses found in any address book it can get its grubby little hands on. So even if your virus definitions are up to date and you have applied all the latest patches (which I have done), you can still get a barrage of emails from your infected friends. All the while, the infected system remains unaware of the damage that they are unleashing. Even worse, you cannot locate the origin of the email since the message hides this information.

Although there is no damage related with this virus, SoBig has proved to be the nastiest ever. It propagates itself quickly and hides itself better than any virus I have ever seen. You basically have to filter out these messages or contact anyone you have ever emailed and ask them to clean up their viruses. Otherwise you have a truckload of emails to sort through.

Restart, Please

As a network administrator I help the users on my network with whatever computer problems that they encounter throughout their day. I have them restart their computer first, which resolves 75% of all problems. What becomes aggravating is that the same people call with the same problems, and I respond with the same answer: RESTART YOUR COMPUTER!

You would think that if restarting your computer fixes a majority of your computer problems, you would use this tactic as your first line of defense, especially since its something that anyone can accomplish. Instead, their initial action is to pick up the phone and have me tell them to restart their computers. I realize that they have a Pavlovian response that their problems get resolved by calling me, but is it too much to ask that people use common sense?

Welcome to the 21st Century

Last night, I finally started embracing technology and utilizing it to enhance my life. Of course, I have used technology in a myriad of ways, but this time it seemed so gosh-darn simple that I was angry at myself for not doing it sooner. What is this technological advancement that has me so excited? I ordered a pizza. By going to Papa John's website, I was able to not only order my pizza easily, but was able to customize my order without the usual inevitable confusion that accompanies a phone order. In under the allocated 45 minutes they advertised (34 to be exact) I had my pizza. It's amazing what technology can do for me. I know what you are thinking, is calling in for a pizza really that difficult? You would be surprised. Between the complexities of some orders, figuring out which location delivered to our house and the decision on who will be the phone representative, the old way of doing things was an unpleasant experience. Now a pizza is just a few clicks away. Why didn't I use this sooner?

Busted

Feeling a little rambunctious and geeky, I tested out my scripting prowess with AutoIt again. AutoIt allows you to automate simple tasks on your computer. You may remember me from such AutoIt scripting projects as SmallBall and automatic email retrieval from my Eudora email client, but I digress.

What I decided to do was to vote on the best players in a professional sports league where they skate and use sticks, specifically in their mid-season exhibition game in February. You will understand my use of vague references in a minute. The automation that I create would select the players that I wanted, then submit my choices on the ballot, then repeat the process over again. The main reason I did this was just to see if I could do it or not. Just plain ol' curiosity.

I was able to get a completed ballot submitted in less than a minute. Then I decided to put this automated script on an extra computer that I had lying around at work. Then I just let that script run all the time. It went 24 hours a day for 10 days at a rate of one vote per minute (~14,400 votes)....until I got this message. This could be the most serious message that I have received from an organization, especially one that involves a professional sport. Do not worry about me getting sued though. The only rule that I broke was the "one vote per person per day" rule. Not exactly a major liability on my part. They were more concerned with entering the corresponding sweepstakes that accompanied the voting process. Since I have not entered the sweepstakes, they do not have much on me. I did stop the script, and I did piss off someone calculating the online voting, but no real harm was done. Unless of course some lawyer from that organization tracks me down, which I am not expecting to happen.

Low Tech Method to Free Music

For you Pepsi drinkers and digital music lovers out there, I have some news for you. In a post Super Bowl marketing effort, the good folks at Pepsi and Apple Computers have teamed up to give away free music downloads. According to the campaign, 1 out of every 3 bottles of Pepsi products is guaranteed to win a free song from Apple's iTunes music service. Pretty cool deal if you ask me. Instead of just getting flavored water in a plastic bottle, you get a free song valued at $0.99. It is almost like getting a free dollar. Of course this only holds value to iTunes users. (Highly recommended if you haven't already used iTunes)

If this giveaway appeals to you, then the next bit of information is even more valuable. As seen on this website, there is a low tech way to insure free music downloading goodness. By tilting a Pepsi bottle at the proper angle, you can see whether you have won, even before you open the bottle. I do not consider this stealing, since most of the winners get thrown away by non-iTunes users. The non-iTuners can take the "Please Play Again" caps, while I horde the winning caps. No harm done.

Armed with my insider knowledge and perfected technique, I went to the local convenience store to test out this method. Unlucky for me, I go to the only store in a 50 mile radius that has only 2 bottles available that were included in the giveaway. I tilt bottle #1, and I actually see the "Again" part of the "Please Play Again" losing cap. A Ha! I put that loser back in the cooler unseen by the sleeping perceptively cunning clerk. Bottle #2 provided an obstacle that I was not prepared to encounter. A foggy bottle that impaired my line of sight to the cap's underlying verbiage. Since I ran out of bottles, I purchased the Pepsi product with reckless abandon. Alas, to my dismay I did not get the free music download I desired. I was left empty handed in my quest for free music bliss. Perhaps I will be more successful next time.

Battle with an Email Server

If technology terminology bores you, I suggest skipping this post. For the past few weeks, I have been fighting with an email server (Groupwise) at work. It would not allow me to create a new email user. I could create a "network" user so that they could access our files, but as soon as the new user attempted to use their newly created email account, the server would claim that the user did not exist. An act of disrespect as far as I was concerned. Since I was the network administrator that created the account, I knew that the user existed. In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, "of course you know, this means war." Little did I know that we would have 3 epic battles that would leave one of us as the champion.

Eman/Groupwise I, March 2nd 2004
I took this bout in a whirlwind victory. Since I had not seen my foe bring out this tactic before, I was honestly not prepared. So I hit it with everything but the kitchen sink. I did database rebuilds, restores, scans, and whatever else I could think of. Groupwise did not know what hit him. I was able to accomplish what I wanted, but it was a short lived victory. Winner: Me by TKO

Eman/Groupwise II, March 8th 2004
The problem that I thought I had fixed came back in a stronger, mutated fury. Due to time constraints, I had to knock my opponent out by a certain time. I came at him with the same strategy, but my wily adversary knew how to defend against me this time around. I had to throw in the towel sooner than I expected. Winner: Groupwise by forfeit

Eman/Groupwise III, March 15th 2004
With the series tied at 1-1, this was for all the marbles. Although I had seen these techniques from Groupwise before, they were still as potent as ever. This time, I used a manager instead of going in by myself. The engineer from Novell knew the secret to defeat Groupwise. Very similar to the secret method to beating King Hippo in Mike Tyson's Punch Out, I was able to outwit the server with some file deletion and post office rebuilds. Groupwise did not stand a chance. I am now the victor and the reigning champ. Winner: Me by KO (Punch him in the mouth when its open, then punch him in the belly)

iTunes Favortism

Over the past couple of months, I have become an iTunes whore. I have even written about iTunes here on my weblog. If you haven't used it by now I highly recommend using iTunes as your default music player on your computer.

I have most of my music imported into the iTunes library. While at work, I have iTunes running in the background. However, I prefer to have my music played for me in a distributed manner. Instead of hearing all of the artists A through Z, I like to mix it up with the random play feature. I have quickly learned that iTunes has some favorite songs in my music library since it likes to play the same songs over and over while other songs get no play at all. Luckily, you can create Smart Playlists that assemble a group of songs based on every conceivable characteristic. I chose to only listen to songs that have a zero play count. I know this is simple, but it gives me the results that have been sorely missed in any other music player that I have used in the past. Yet another reason to use iTunes. C'mon.....join me on the dark side.

I'm Such A Geek

On my way to becoming a network administrator I learned some TLA's (three letter acronyms) along the way. Network protocols, file extensions, programming lingo, among others all warranted their own acronym. Most of these have been retained in the recesses of my mind, never to be forgotten. At work, this helps me in some of my activities. However, while I am alone in my car, it makes me pathetic. I noticed on my way to work this morning that I am mired in my own geekdom when I started translating the first three letters on license plates into technology based acronyms.

Examples:
LSL - Link Support Layer
NLM - Netware Loadable Module
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
HTM - HyperText Markup

For those of you that have never had to learn these kinds of acronyms, you will never understand. But for those of you that have had to learn this crap, you know that its etched into your brain forever. For better or worse.

Linux On The Desktop

As a network administrator, I have needed to keep somewhat up to date with technology. I do not have to be on the bleeding edge of technology, but I at least need to keep up with some trends. I have not needed to embrace Linux, although I have come rather close on several occasions. Usually, my Windows knowledge will get me where I need to go. However, I now have an uncommon thirst for a new technology that only Linux will be able to quench.

Today I embarked on my long journey to Linux bliss. I came to an astonishing conclusion: Linux is hard. Tasks that I could accomplish in Windows which used the equivalent brain processing power of scratching an itch now seem like quantum physics in comparison. If any of you Linux geeks want the world to move from its Microsoft-centric society to your Linux utopia, you best get your operating system into the user friendly realm sometime soon. I consider myself technically savvy, and I seem to be stumbling out of the gates so far.

I know its early in my Linux quest, so things will get better the more I familiarize myself with it. Stay tuned, and I will let you know about my progress.

Alternatives to Micro$oft

Slowly, alternatives to Microsoft (MS) products are proving more useful than anything that Microsoft has to offer. I already knew this to a degree, but continued to use the MS cartel driven products for my own simplicity. At one time, I assumed that using all MS products across the board would make my computer run better if all of the applications being used were native. What I am learning now is that although Microsoft is the most popular, they most definitely are not the best.

When I began on this mystical network computing journey, I learned on Microsoft. However, most of the networks that I would see in the educational market were either Novell or Apple networks. It took MS a while to catch up, although I still think they are an inferior network operating system.

On the application side, I currently use several non-Microsoft products. I have recently been introduced to Mozilla's Firefox, which has almost completely sold me on abandoning Internet Explorer. IE has always been a bully in the browser world, ignoring standards and making up their own. Web designers constantly have to cater to this "popular" browser, which actually cripples the creative process. Throw in a fast loading, streamlined browser that cuts back on the spyware, adware, and malware, and you got yourself a winner.

You already know my take on iTunes instead of Windows Media Player.

On the email front, using Exchange as an email server is a first class ticket to insanity. With all of the updates and patches that Exchange requires, a network administrator, like myself, would get nothing else accomplished except maintaining Exchange. On the client side, using Outlook to retrieve your emails opens your computer up to all the security flaws that Microsoft has in the first place.

Sorry for the specific rant, but there are so many better alternatives than Microsoft out there. And I haven't even mentioned Linux yet....

Dump Internet Explorer....NOW

I really hope you are not still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) to do your web browsing. Thanks to our good friends (sarcasm) at Microsoft, IE is completely integrated into Windows and is rooted into everything that you do. You probably noticed that you can get to a web site with almost any application. You access the Internet from any Microsoft Office application and you can even get there while browsing your drives. (type a web site address where you would see your hard drive, C:\ , and away you go) Integration like this causes countless security flaws. Most of us are oblivious about these flaws, mainly because we have better things to do than to patch our browser every time we access the Internet. Microsoft continues to attempt to plug IE's security holes, but they are usually several steps behind. Throw into the mix that IE has a notorious history with getting hijacked by our arch-nemesis, Spyware. Yeah, we should all know about Spyware by now. Its the junk that accumulates after leisurely browsing the Internet with IE. Advertisements and such clutter up your computing environment ultimately to the point where it is unusable, where the only recourse is to wipe it out completely and start over with a new Windows installation.

Alas, there are alternatives to this maddening stranglehold that Microsoft has on us. I have alluded to them before. One would be Linux, but until it becomes more user friendly, most people will keep on using Windows. Since this is usually the case, please do yourself the favor of not using Internet Explorer. Download Mozilla's Firefox as soon as you get a chance. Your Internet browsing will become more private and secure, not to mention ridding yourself of intrusive pop up advertisements and spyware.

Liberate yourself, Windows users! Install Firefox. You and your network administrator will be much happier.

Bigoted AirPort

Thanks to iTunes, I have been able to accrue quite an extensive musical library. Although I have had to manually synchronize the music between work and home, I have enjoyed my full immersion into the iTunes world. This weekend I did my Alice in Wonderland (or Steve in iTunesland) and traveled even further down the rabbit hole by purchasing an AirPort Express. This wondrous device has extended my musical experience from my computer to my living room stereo without any cumbersome wires. Now, I am able to fire off my verbose music library without having to anchor myself to my computer desk.

This magical journey to wireless audio bliss was not without its obstacles. According to the AirPort Express (APE) documentation, this was going to be a snap. Just plug in the APE into the wall outlet and hook it up to your stereo. Au contraire. The APE is a bit of an Apple snob, meaning it only wants to talk to other Apple equipment. To talk to my lowly Linksys Wireless Router, I had to convince the APE to ditch its stereotypical preconceptions about non-Apple equipment. In other words, I had to trick it into being multicultural. Instead of being able to "just plug it in and it works" method, I used the slightly less accepted "force it to take the settings I want, remove its ability to look for other devices, tear down its defenses, and it will work" method. This entire ordeal took about 4 hours to complete, but it was worth it. I can now fill the house with my music without the limitations of CDs or wires.

AOL: You've Got Misleading Information!

I usually try not to post entries here by simply making references to Associated Press releases, but I think I have found something worth mentioning.  According to America Online and every known media outlet in the known free world, AOL has dramatically reduced the amount of spam thanks to their new spam filters.  Their press releases usually have spiffy titles like "AOL Keeps Spam At Bay" or "AOL Spammers Scram".  Wow.  AOL must really be taking a stand against those evil spammers, huh?  Press releases would never mislead us, the American public, would it? 

After further review of any of these articles you will notice that AOL is not reporting that they have stopped spam from getting to their customers' inboxes.  What they are reporting is this: 

The total number of spam complaints from AOL members fell more than 75% last month.

That could not possibly be the result of apathetic AOL customers, could it?   Instead of some magic bullet that AOL has discovered to ward off the spamming minions from hell, their customers could more likely have given up on complaining to AOL about their avalanche of daily spam.  I do not think that AOL should break their own arms patting themselves on the back until we get some evidence that this "filter" is doing something other than giving a false sense of security from spammers.

iTunes/Pepsi Promotion Returns

Last year around this time, the good folks at Pepsi-Cola and Apple teamed up to give you a 1-in-3 chance to get free music.  A third of the Pepsi bottle caps had a code that could be entered into iTunes for a free download.  (I realize that you paid for the soft drink, so the song is not entirely free, but its better than  buying a Coke that does NOT offer a free song).  Some of us weighted the scales in our favor with questionable techniques to insure a high number of free downloads.  Once again, this groovy promotion returns to us all for a limited time (5/23/05 is the last day to redeem your caps).  I highly recommend obtaining as many Pepsi bottle caps as you can, because it instantly equals a downloadable song.  If any of you Pepsi drinkers have no interest in iTunes, please send me your caps with the iTunes code.  I have no use for your "Sorry, Try Again" caps.

** Found a comic that completely captures this practice
http://www.reallifecomics.com/index.php?strip_id=1414

Firefox Extensions

A long time ago, I mentioned how I added a cool feature to my Internet Explorer which allowed me to highlight a word in a web page, right click it and have the aforementioned word defined for me via dictionary.com.  Once I had this set up, it was an integral part of my daily Internet browsing experience.  I used it as much as Copy and/or Paste.  Fast forward two years (holy crap, have I been writing COALM that long?!?) when I have completely abandoned Internet Explorer in favor of the sleeker and more secure Firefox.  My prized dictionary look-up function was no where to be found: until now.  Thanks to Firefox's extensions, which allow you to quickly add cool features to the browser, my dictionary look-up has returned by way of DictionarySearch 0.7 Firefox Extension.  Now you can simply install the DS extension without having to do complicated registry hacks, like I had to do for Internet Explorer.

If you are in the process of adding Firefox Extensions, might I highly recommend Adblock, which allows you to block unwanted advertisements with a simple right click.  An invaluable service for those of us that read through web sites or web logs that contain questionable advertisements while at work.  Now I can read through my favorite sites without seeing scantly clad Goth women (Not Safe For Work) in the margins.

Is Nothing Sacred?

You would think that the Catholic church would be immune from the typical scams for nothing more than ethical reasons.  Obviously, this world is full of shameful scammers who have little to no ethics whatsoever.  Most marketing initiatives require solid name recognition.  You name, logo and/or slogan means everything when you are spreading the word about your product.  In the case of the Catholic church, telling everyone about your new pope is quite monumental.  An event that only occurs on average of every 30 years.  One modern way to broadcast Papal information is to use a web site.  However, Rogers Cadenhead has taken BenedictXVI.com.  Now, I doubt that Pope Bendict XVI (nee' Joseph Ratzinger) will require this exact domain name, much less any domain name, but to cybersquat on the new pope seems unethical to me.  Mr. Cadenhead has not requested any compensation for this newly acquired domain name, but to snatch it away from the pope seems shady to me.

Keep In Touch

Technology has enhanced our communication channels over the last few years.  Everyone has an email account, most people have cell phones, and several people have some sort of instant messaging program.  Nowadays,  you have to put forth MORE effort to avoid communication than to accept it in all forms.  I have come to terms with this fact.  The chances of not getting a hold of me are slim, and at the very least you can leave me a message in some capacity.  I do not consider myself the most dependent on communications either.  There are some people in this world that cannot sit at a traffic light in the car without calling someone.  Others need to subscribe to countless listservs, mailing lists and newsletters to maintain a waterfall-like stream of e-mail to their inboxes.  I call these people teenagers.

Teenagers are so indoctrinated with technology that the thought of not having e-mail seems like a foreign concept.  I see this all the time with the local youths.  I would not be surprised if high school kids text message each other at different lunch tables in the same school cafeteria.  I have spoken to several parents whose children always use the computer to do homework (what?), and always have their instant message program running.  The kids type a sentence of homework, then ask a friend "Did you see what [name of fellow student] was wearing today?" on AIM.  This completely escapes me.  Didn't you talk to your friend all day, or at least before school, at lunch, between classes, during the classes you have together, and after school?  And will you not talk to the same friend at any, if not all, of these opportunities.  I guess I'm not a social butterfly.

Think about what happens to these technology infested teenagers when they graduate.  They won't have to write "Keep in Touch" as a signature when they sign yearbooks.  All they have to do is keep their friends in their buddy list or keep them in their address book.  Even if text cannot adequately provide the personal connection needed, these kids have access to any number of "minutes out your ears" cell phone plans.  If one of your friends from high school "loses touch" with you now, it was due to a specific, personal decision to do so, not a result of growing apart or some other lame excuse. 

Missing iPod Mini

Every so often Steve Jobs and the folks at Apple like to present a new line of Apple products to share with the public to make the world a better place.  Typically, I can subscribe to whatever innovations that ol' Steve-o has to offer.  I have even pontificated on the virtues of iTunes and iPods before. With my iPod mini firmly in my grasp, I will follow Mr. Jobs to his next destination.  However, the latest releases from Cuppertino have left me realing.  My beloved iPod mini is no more!  There is nary a trace on the Apple web site.  It has been replaced by the sleaker, shinier, color-displayed iPod Nano.  I will admire the Nano from afar.  I would hate to hurt my Mini's feelings. 

In other news, iTunes 5 has been released.  I was looking forward to their new "Smart Shuffle" option since I have questioned how truly random their shuffle is in the past.  However, it looks like this is only available in the Mac version.  I have looked high and low, and cannot find this feature in the Windows version. 

Mammoth Server

I have seen some impressive technology in my day.  It goes with the territory of being immersed in the computer "biz".  Since manufacturers make smaller and faster components everyday, one can see a piece of technology that outshines the last one almost daily.  So if you see the biggest, fastest, most robust computer, chances are that within a small increment of time a better computer will come along.  That time frame might have to be extended for me because this past weekend I saw the granddaddy of all servers.   Sun's Sunfire 12k.  Yeah, some of you geeks might have seen bigger, but I haven't.  Go write about it on your own blog, nerd.

Thanks to my wife, Abby, I was privy to an open house tour of the Duke Center for Human Genetics.  I was able to see a majority of the facility, which included their "larger than life" server room.  Other notable features of the tour included precision robotics for controlling DNA samples, DNA storage facilities that keep the samples at a chilly -80 degrees Celsius, and samples of the human brain.  Since I cannot relate the biological research to the written word, I will go back to the behemoth of a server that I saw.  This beast was over 6 feet tall and 5 feet deep of computing muscle.  I know its not fair to compare the pedestrian servers I usually see to a supercomputer, but it sure is fun.  I have a feeling that they feed the servers I work on to the Sunfire 12k for breakfast.

Typical high end "Steve server" stats:
4 processors
2 GB of memory

This monster:
52 processors (each one probably faster than the cumulative power of the 4 I typically see)
288 GB of memory  (2 versus 288!  Even the non-techies out there can see that difference)
I did not get the hard drive space specifications, but I have a feeling this bad boy would have no problem with storing the Library of Congress several times over. 

Interested in purchasing a Sunfire 12k for yourself?  Bidding starts at $3 million.

Music Infusion

The music lovers in all of us have eventually run into the same problem: We get tired of the same old music.  Whether its the from the radio or our own music library, eventually all the music we play begins to morphs into a homogeneous glob.  Nothing sounds as crisp.  There are not distinguishing characteristics from song to song. 

Radio stations are notorious for pandering to the lowest common denominator.  Thanks to the conglomeration of radio stations (i.e. Clear Channel, Curtis Media Group) the customize touch of a disk jockey has been replaced by marketing strategies and spreadsheets.  Their attempts to catch lighting in a bottle muck up the freshness of music. Once a song become popular, a flock of bands/artists of similar qualities spring up attempting to get a share of that popularity (read: money).  Copies are never as clear as the originals, whether its a Xerox copy or a musician copycat.  Therefore, the radio is wrought with Britney Spears and Nickelback copies.  One could even argue that the originals were never worth copying in the first place.

Your music library also loses some of its identity, but at a different level.  After listening to your favorite music over and over again, it loses the intangible quality that attracted you to the song in the first place.  We all have certain songs that we gravitate towards.  The first time you heard one of your favorite songs, you probably had positive thoughts and feelings coupled with the irresistible tune stuck in your head.  Listening to that song repeatedly causes your songs to lose some of their original luster, leaving you feel somewhat unfulfilled, specifically in comparison to the first time you heard those songs.

Enter Pandora.com.*  This web application takes input from you, be it a favorite song or favorite artist, and gives you a streaming radio station based on your selection.  Pandora gives you access to music that may be shunned by the radio conglomerates, but have characteristics that you enjoy in your own music library.  You are able to flag each song with a thumbs up or down, which leads the streaming station towards your goal of new music with characteristics you like and may not have heard thanks to radio oppression.  Personally, I found out about Shurman, which I don't think I would have found any other way.  I have since purchased their CD, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you can find some new music, like I did.

*I have no connection to Pandora.  I have not been compensated by them in any way.

It Pays To Advertise

Is it so hard to understand that the information that you place on the Internet is available to millions of people around the world?  Seems like every other week I read about some kid that gets in trouble with the law because he posts his plans on MySpace.com (like this).  Worse yet are the teenaged boys and girls that unitentionally provide every possible nugget of information about themselves to sexual predators via email or a web page.  The Internet can be a very bad place, especially for naive kids. 

I try to keep information about myself relatively ambiguous when I post to this blog.  Any of my personal information that can might get read has to be inferred.  Posting my telephone number, address or SS# would be crazy. 

The increasing popularity of MySpace has provided a breeding ground for unintelligent activity, both for those who post and for those that read.  On the bright side, this latest MySpace news item resulted in an arrest.  However, this should call more attention to responsible Internet usage.

iTunes 7

Yeah, I know.  Enough with the iTunes stuff, right?  Tough. 

iTunes 7 came out a couple of months ago, with what I thought were few, if any, interesting features.  My personal approach towards new software of any kind is to not be on the "bleeding edge", which means I don't use "dot 0" versions.  I wait until there's a number higher than zero after the "dot".  Today I upgraded my iTunes to iTunes 7 (7.02.16), and I am quite pleased.

Two of the biggest differences for me is related to the album art.  I used to think that adding album art was a waste of time, but I found that really enjoy seeing the artwork when listening to my music.  With the latest iTunes, you can simply click on a song and select "Get Album Art".  A couple of seconds later your song has the cheesy artwork that goes with the song.  This will certainly become helpful if/when I upgrade to an iPod with video display.  (I currently feel like I live in the stone ages with my outdated, no longer available, iPond Mini)

The second feature is merely an added viewing option called Cover Flow.  With Cover Flow you are able to flip through your music like you would flip through your CDs.  Although this may not add functionality, but it adds a certain coolness factor, which I'm all about.

So I recommend upgrading your iTunes to 7, and get some artwork associated with all songs in your music library.

This Seems Familiar

The Vote for Rory campaign was not successful this season.  For those of you out of the loop, VFR was an Internet phenomenon that tried to exploit the poor decisions of the NHL's online voting system for this season's All-Star game by voting in a non-deserving player.  Rory Fitzpatrick is a journeyman grinder that has only one assist this season and 9 total goals over his 10 year career.  Not exactly All-Star quality.

Why such a fuss over an undeserving player?  It has little to do with Rory and a LOT to do with the NHL.com website and it policies.  According to the rules, anyone can vote as much as they want.  A horrible rule that just begs to be exploited in my opinion.  I already hate the idea of fans voting for any All Star game, mainly because fans have their judgment clouded by their home team.  They tend to flood ballot boxes with their home teams' players or only familiar players, not always the best players.  This system turns a vote for best players in the game into a popularity contest.  That being said this years system had another glaring fault:  poor security.  The web site's system to thwart automatic entries was laughable and easily bypassed.  (How do I know?  I have done something like this before, and even played with it this season before I realized that it was not worth the risk.)

If Rory did not make it to the All Star game, why am I writing such a lengthy post?  Shananigans!  That's why!  With the Vote For Rory campaign gaining some serious momentum and threatening to make a mockery of their online voting system, the NHL apparently "misplaced" 100,000 of Rory's votes, pushing him just out of contention for a starting spot on the All Star roster.  While I do not think that Rory deserved to be an All-Star, a poor system was already in place so shouldn't poor results be expected?  Yeah, two wrongs don't make a right, but this seemed fun to me.

Network Nazis

Recently, my work network has been going through some changes.  In efforts to free up some much needed bandwidth, they have blocked popular video sharing web sites such as YouTube and Google Video.  I absolutely agree with blocking these sites, since you would have a tough time rationalizing using those sites at work.  However, in their efforts to free up bandwidth, the network folks have seemingly locked down every other site known to man.  Or maybe its just the web sites I like.  Actually, its a bit hit and miss on what sites are blocked.  They rarely provide an explanation for the block, just a blank white screen.  While there are sites that are blocked for obvious reasons, there are even more questionable sites that are not blocked.  I think its the inconsistency that troubles me most.  Just today I attempted to create an RSS feed on a web site that does not have an RSS feed.  They referenced two web sites that provide such a service.  One was blocked while the other was not.  Go figure. 

I am all for blocking web sites in an effort to free up bandwidth, but gratuitous, arbitrary blocking seems wrong.  I believe that one should be judged by their work output, not what they do during their downtime.  If an employee meets their deadlines and gets positive reviews from management, then what does it matter if said employee reads a humor web site during down time.  If they want to prevent non-work related Internet activity, then why not take the next step?  Why not prevent conversations around the water cooler?  Why not block phone calls? 

I expect some backlash from this oppression.

Gmail Eclipses Yahoo Mail

I have been using Yahoo Mail for my personal email for quite a while.  But now, I am transitioning to Gmail and I am not looking back. 

My decision to switch email systems stems from Yahoo making several small mistakes in comparison to Gmail.  It was not any one thing, more of an accumulative effect.  Yahoo's advertising was seeping into everything I did, most importantly the signature of every email I sent.  Yahoo was being blocked in strange ways at work due to some network vulnerabilities, so my access was limited.  I had to come up with some inventive ways to gain access.  Even when I did connect to Yahoo, I would run into loading problems which caused it to error out  (Again, thanks to my work network)  And finally, when I would get through, the address book would rarely function properly.  I would run into one of these issues about every third time I tried to check my email, so it was not the worst thing ever.  I dealt with it. 

But now, after seeing the light that is Gmail, I'm switching and never looking back.  Its the wave of the future, if for no other reason that Gmail's reliability.  (Their spam blocking is WAY better too)

So, goodbye Yahoo Mail.  I think we need to see other people.  Its not you, its me.  We are just in different places in our lives right now.  This is for the best.

Game Hacking Sucks Out The Fun

Ever play a computer game, then use a hack, cheat or a code (or even THE code) to further your progress?  As children of the computer gaming generation, I bet you all have in some way, shape or form.  Get additional or unlimited lives, beat that boss that has been kicking your tail for weeks or obtaining that magic sword that has eluded you.  Innocent fun, right?  Wrong. 
I have subscribed to Robbie's philosophy that as soon as your cheat, you have taken the fun out of the game.  Let me illustrate this point with some examples:

Super Mario Brothers:  I worked hard at this game on my NES.  SMB was the de facto standard at the time, mostly due to the fact that it came with the NES.  I had learned how to beat the game, but I always ran the risk of losing lives to get there.  Then, a friend told me how to obtain extra lives by bouncing on a Koopa Troopa a couple hundred times on the last set of steps in World 3.  A tough feat in of itself, but once accomplished, completing the game became much easier.  Stopped playing the game shortly thereafter. 

WarCraft II:  First networked game I ever played.  Had some epic games with Patrick and his band of merry men.  Finances were always an issue in this game.  Your lemmings would have to mine gold for you to enable worthy upgrades.  Typing "Glittering Prizes" would cause your coffers to expand dramatically.  Once I did this a couple of times, WarCraft II became ignored.  Banished to dust collecting duties on my bookshelf.

Diablo II:  I played this game online with several friends.  Unfortunately, I started my character later than those friends.  I was restricted from some areas due to my lower level.  Someone then offered to 'hack' my character, which would elevate my character to match my friends.  Within a week or two, I lost interest in the game completely.

So I tell you people that if you want to continue to love the game you play, do NOT cheat.  Otherwise, the fun levels will diminish and your interest in the game will disappear.

Thanks for Clearing Things Up for Me, Target

On a recent trip to Target, I was looking around in the electronics area.  I happened to notice a seemingly helpful graphical sign for defining the different types of video cabling.

Exhibit A

I'm no wiring expert, but did Target confuse the Coaxial and Composite examples?

Caved In

I use Facebook.

Feels good to be able to admit that.  For a long time I had a circle of friends that were into Facebook.  They would keep asking me to join up so that I could do all the cool stuff that they were doing.  Eventually I signed up to see what the big deal was.  It was exactly what I thought it was: a glorified message board.  I lost interest in it quickly.  Those same friends kept using it though, and kept asking me to come back.  What I then learned is that your Facebook experience is what you make of it.  You get out of it what you put into it. 

I then started to take it bit more seriously.  I installed all the silly applications, which in hindsight were...well...silly.  I got rid of those quickly.  I kept finding people to become my Facebook friends.  High school classmates, college drinking buddies, former co-workers.  Many of which I would never have connected with any other way.  My list of friends quickly grew.  But the real clincher was keeping track of their day to day activities.  Yeah, I know that this is following the mundane, but I could not discount its value to me.  I caught myself going back, over and over again.  Now I consider it a worthy networking medium for me.  I think I have figured out how to use it in moderation and now I can recommend it to others.