You would think from the image I chose for the header that I was doing something cool with the Nintendo Entertainment System.   This unfortunately is not the case.  Where the Nintendo came into play was that it was the object of my desire.   I desperately wanted an NES.  This was sometime around seventh or eighth grade so the years would have 1988 -1989 and the Nintendo was in full swing, you can see one of the commercials below.

Now my father didn’t believe in video games.   About five years earlier he got us a Commodore Vic-20, this is all fine and dandy – my parents fell for the whole “give you kid a computer and he’ll be computer literate for life” crap that they were handing out in the eighties.  A computer was meant for learning and yes there were a few games we had for it, but it was meant to learn something on.   I learned I never wanted to be a programmer, that’s what I learned.  I could go to my neighbors and play the Atari 2600 or play Ultima on his Mac Classic – but me – I was going to have the Vic-20 and like it because I wasn’t getting anything else.

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We moved to Vermilion the summer before my seventh grade year.   I’m sure I started begging for a NES around that time if not earlier.   I’m sure the logic explained to me was that if I wanted a Nintendo I was going to have to earn it.    This meant getting a job.   I don’t know about your area but for Vermilion, OH there wasn’t much call in the work force for 12-13 year old kids.   The one thing that did open up was the ability to get a paper route.  The area where we lived in Elyria was a bit too rough for a 11-12 year old to deliver papers, but Vermilion was a quiet small town where such things almost seem nostalgic.

Picture from here (not me)

Another boy was giving up his paper route that was a year younger then me (should have been a sign) and did a week long transition with me so that I could learn the route.   By the end of the week I learned the route, I had my little punch card slip ring for billing, I had a carrier bag, and I also had baskets on the back of my bicycle to carry newspapers in.   I would try to say it was pimp, but I can’t even type that with a straight face.   I rode my bike to school and I got mocked by how stupid it looked.  Of course being a geek on the nth degree anyways there is always other things to get picked on then a bike, so I struggled through it.  I was a newspaper boy for the Lorain Morning Journal.

You may say that I learned character and fiscal responsibility because of that job.   You would also be wrong.  I hated that job with a passion.   I struggled for the first couple months to get through it.  The NES was the apple of my eye and I was going to save the 99.99 (plus tax) for the Action System which included Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt (and the pimp NES Zapper).   I was impatient to get it, so impatient that I gave my mother the money to get it while I was at school.   You would think this being the first large purchase of my life I would have wanted to go and hand over the money and buy the system myself, nope I just wanted the damn thing home.

I get home, my mother isn’t there.   I go do my paper route and get back home, my mother isn’t there.   I sit in the grass on the front yard and wait.   Eventually my mother pulls up in that blue dodge caravan (minivan) we had.  She had done other shopping and had a ton of bags.  Which one was my Nintendo?????

My mother stopped me and said she talked to the sales person who told her the Sega Master System was the better system to buy since it was faster and supported more colors.  WTF?  I had worked my butt off in a job hated to have my mother go out and buy me a Sega Master Sytem.  No one owned a Sega Master System, only people with no friends owned a Sega Master System.   I was not going to own a Sega Master System.    I told her with certainty that she had no right to spend the money I earned to buy a Sega Master System.  We were going to get back in the car right then, go to the store and exchange it for a Nintendo Entertainment System.

My mother then started laughing.  Out of the back of the van she pulled out a Nintendo Action Set.   You do not mess with a pre-teen in that way – ever.   She said she was going to go upstairs and use the restroom, after which she would come down and help me hook it up to the TV.  I think by the time she flushed the toilet I was already on World 1-2 of Super Mario Bros.  I had hooked up the Vic-20 so many times that I knew how to do it in my sleep.   The NES was more of the same.

At this point I did not want to do the paper route any more, but my grandfather thought it was good for me so I kept plodding along.    I delivered papers a 3 AM Christmas morning wasn’t that quite the thrill, not.   I would definitely preferred to have been sleeping.    More and more of my customers were moving to prepaid accounts, which cut into my money.   You would think it wouldn’t have effected  my bottom line, but I lost out on tip money from these customers – and to this day I believe the Journal used some creative account billing to the paper boys.    My grandfather thought I was just doing it wrong, but I was let off the hook after about a year.

Me and my grandparents a year or so after the paper route.

My brother took over the paper route with the help of my grandfather and my mother in delivering the newspapers.   Now I don’t know about you but if someone would have driven me on the route every day, I may have been more likely to actually like the job.   He is five and half years younger then me, so they were not going to let him go off alone to do it.  The funniest thing was after about a year they started loosing money also and it became not financially viable for them either.    I guess it wasn’t just me.

You would think that this would end my families relationship with the Journal after so many bad experiences, it didn’t.  For the last few years my sister (now 22) has a motor route in Vermilion delivering papers.   I guess she makes really good money at it.   It would seem the third time is a charm.   I don’t think my brother or my sister ever hated it as much as I did.   I did get my NES though.

Below is a link to Google Maps that shows the actual route location of my paper route.

I think I knew from our first date that my wife was going to be the one I was going to marry.   Granted I literally broke up with my ex the day before I asked her out, but it all worked out.   Though I was twenty -one and she was eighteen it was the first real date either of us had been on.   We had started “going out” with people before, but it was always meeting and doing things in social situations then you labeled as a couple and doing things was just being together and not really a date.  I did ask one girl out on a date previously, but it turned into a double date, so this was my first real date.

It was in September of 1997 and I managed to get off work early and get a hair cut, then I went out to one of our customers and bought her a bouquet of roses.   We went to Chi-Chi’s in Lorain, Ohio driving there in my 1986 Ford Escort.  I ordered a mexican pizza which they burned and she had me send back, and I believe she ordered the chimichanga’s .   We talked about going to the movies afterward and decided on Conspiracy Theory.   Walking to the car I asked her if I was the type of guy she could fall in love with (me=geek, not the best social skills).  She said maybe.   I asked her if I was the type of guy she could see herself marrying, she said she didn’t know.   We then drove over to the movie and had a wonderful time.

A few days later she was having problems with her parents, she was at a cross roads and all upset.  She was sitting on the front stoop of her friends house and that was the first time I ever told her I loved her.  She cried in my arms (not from me saying that, but because of the other stress) and said it back to me.   Three months later we were engaged. Thirteen months later on Jan 2, 1999 we got married.  From that first date until about 2004 when she went back to Ohio to visit family while I was stuck working in Oregon, we never spent more then 24 hours away from one another, over 2600 days of seeing each other at least once every day.

I’m not going to saying everything has always been fantastic, we’ve had our ups and downs.  We have managed to stay together and stay in love.   I love her more each day, and now she is going to be the mother of my child (last year we did say we would do something special for our 10th).  We are opposites, but we are also twins, we are stronger together then we are apart.  We are both critical thinkers, yet I’m the only one that thinks she is the better of the two of us – so sometimes she is wrong.

She is the core of my being and the center of my universe, even though I don’t always show it.   Her thoughts and dreams revolve around mine, like mine do around her.   She is my wife, and I love her.

Maximum PC recently ran an article titled 50 Skills Every Real Geek Should Have, I wanted to go through and see how I ranked in their skill list.   Let’s find out.

1. Name the Connectors – yes I was able to :)

2. Run your essential apps on a USB stick – no I don’t do this, I could – I just prefer to run everything in the cloud or on my N810 – which is with me most of the time.

3. Straighten Pins on a CPU – I have done this too many times

4. Know the 13 basic HTML Tags – well I kinda know most of them – I use freaking wordpress I hardly need to use HTML and when I do I look it up and hav ethe answer in seconds.   Though I do know quite a few by heart that aren’t listed in the basic 13.

5.  Get through to executive customer service – hey I read the consumerist.

6.  Beat quake in 60 minutes – maybe at one point in time, but I’m not big on FPS games.

7.  Build a Hackintosh – I know how, I just don’t the components that seem to work, and I’m a cheap bastard that won’t buy parts just to run OSX - I’ll stick with ubuntu as my alternative OS.

8.  Watch TV Online legally – um that’s how I watch 100% of my TV these days.

9.  Get around a content filter from a public computer – yes I know how, I’ve helped friends at other companies, it’s not worth it to do it at my own job though.

10. Recite Pi to 23 decimal places – nope – I have no inclination to ever learn either.

11. Replace the controller board on a hard drive – hey I did that once, it’s not a skill that comes up at parties though.

12.  Benchmark your computer – really?  Is this even on this list? Yes, I was doing this before I fully understood what the benchmarks meant on my 386 DX40.

13. Decorate your room with only printer paper – am I physically in the skill set to be able to do this?  Yes I am – would I?  No.  I’m more likely to decorate with NES cartridges.

14. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered – yes I am capable – it would be easier if you encrypted it first though.

15.  Get into a windows computer if you don’t have a password – yes I’ve done this quite a few times.

16.  Hide data from anyone – yes encryption, hidden volumes, stegnography (which I got bored with in 2001) – I am capable of doing all that – I’m more likely ot share my data then hide it though.

17. Explain what e=mc2 means – yes I would like the e=MC2 with a side of fries please – yes I am capable, but refuse to put in the details here since I want to make it through this list.

18.  Abstain from buying extended warranties – I may have bought one, once – it was on something i thoguht it fall apart though – so it’s all good.

19.  Use photoshop or gimp – yes I am capable.

20. Use a DSLR in full manual mode – I can – I’m just lazy and prefer it to do the work.

21. Mooch your neighbors wi-fi – my neighbor doesn’t have wi-fi but I’m ready to mooch when they do.

22. Protext your wi-fi – Wep2 currently – For a while I had mac filtering, I hated to keep getting mac addresses from visitors though.

23. Create an animated spray in Valve games – um – I don’t think I’ve played a single one for more then 5 minutes….so this one is a no.

24.  Setup RAID – yes I’ve done this a few times over the years for my home network.  Now implement Iscsi raid across multiple computers – that’s a challenge.

25. Calculate a Pitchers ERA – no I don’t know how – but I know google will give me the answer quicker then I can calculate it.

26. Run two Operating Systems – um I dual boot currently……

27. Install a hard drive in laptop – done before and some day I’ll do it again.

28. Pull off an elaborate prank – I think have the skill set and knowledge – I just never have – unless stealing street signs as a teenager counts.

29.  Rocket jump with a macro – um – I said I don’t really do FPS games – so no I can’t do this.

30.  Wire your home with ethernet – um every place I’ve lived with my wife we have had wired ethernet – we even used RG58 at one point.

31.  Know the 6 most important linux commands – yes I get command not found when I’m not thinking and run them in windows.

31. Rip your CDs to Flac – we did this for awhile then went back to MP3

32.  Stream Music, Movies, Pictures to any TV in the house – I’ve done this before – now we just carry our laptops around – shrug.

33.  Install and configure a VM – yes I’ve done this for literally years (maybe even a decade by now)

34.  Run multiple monitors – yes I use to dual monitor and run SWG on two different ones at the same time – I’m sad I know.

35. Run hacked firmware on a router – yes liek the rest of hte world I have a hacked linksys router /yawn.

36.  Pick a lock – I’m not good at it, but I’ve done it a couple times.

37.  Tell the difference between Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb – it’s been awhile but I think I could.

38.  Avoid DRM on everything – well streaming video legally that they talked about above seems to contradict this one doesn’t it.   However all my local video, music, picutres, and ebooks are DRM free.

39. Download a flash video and reformat it – yes I’ve done this – youtube videos locally stored on the N810 ftw.

40.  Get around in DOS – I grew up and DOS and resisted windows for a long time – so let’s just say yes.

41. Rip a DVD to h.264 – yes been there done that.

42.  Overclock your PC – yes I’ve done this my pride and joy was overclocking my AMD 133 mhz 486 to 160 MHZ – and it benchmarked and ran like a pentium 133 for half the cost.

43.  Use remote desktop – it’s part of my job – so yes.

44. Debate the merits of a star destroyer vs. the enterprise – yes, and the star destroyer would win.

45. Buld your own computer – built too many to actually count – I’m serious to – I worked at a small PC store and we sold hundreds – thousands of machines – so I cna build my own.

In irony they don’t seem to actually have 50 things on their list – so I think most geeks should know how to count also.

I saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno Friday night, it wasn’t that good.  I won’t say that it’s bad, it’s just wasn’t what I was expecting.  I expect a normal Kevin Smith movie to have heart and an echo of reality through out it.  I liked Jersey Girl, and my favorite is Chasing Amy – both of these showed me a glimpse of who Kevin Smith is. Zack and Miri didn’t show me that.

Let’s look at the opposite side, I also love Seth Rogen movies for the same reason.  But the glimpse of truth that is shown his movies is different then the one that Smith provides.  I can identify with Freaks and Geeks as much as I can with Clerks.   Just it’s a different way that binds them both to me.

So what’s the problem?

This is one of those times that two worlds shouldn’t collide.  I think Smith haves actors he normally works with that follow a certain speech cadence and dialogue flow, Rogen can’t perform that.   I’m sorry Seth, it just isn’t your style.   Though in the final product it felt more like a Seth Rogen movie then a Kevin Smith movie.   The only thing that felt remotely Smithesque was the fight between Zack and Miri in the back right before Zack disappears.   This was the only time it felt like a Smith film.

He seemed to be chasing the dream of Chasing Amy in the film, but for that goal it fell flat on it’s face.  Part of my problem maybe  was looking forwrad to this movie too much and my personal didn’t live up to expectations.   Either way I’ll look eagerly towards his next movie.

I would have gotten this write up done sooner since I saw the movie on Friday night (premiere night), expect Saturday my writing wsa wrapped up in NANOWRIMO.

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I was reading a story on slashdot about how Skyhook Wireless has been wardriving the United States mapping MAC addresses from the wireless routers it detects to your geographic location.   Now first for those paranoid, they probably are not going to get your exact physical address but it will be “close” – close is defined as within 500 feet.

Following the discussions on the slashdot posting, you can see that some geeks are freaked out.  They are worried about getting spam to their physical location (my email address has nothing to do with my physical location).  They are stating to change your mac address so it obsoletes the database.   While this is doable, there is another better scenario for this. If you should find your MAC address on this database or you wish to preemptively strike against this mapping when it comes to your MAC address, you are going to have to change your mac address.

Most wireless routers allow you to change the MAC Address on your wifi segment.   If your router does not allow you to do this please purchase a new router if you wish to proceed.  While a MAC address needs to be unique on a network segment (so the computers can talk to each other) they do not have to be unique in the universe, in the world, in the country, in the state, or even in the same town.  If the signals are weak and shielded enough to prevent interference you could have duplicate MAC addresses in the same apartment building, though I wouldn’t recommend that and it would negate this exercise anyways.

Now you are all ready to change your MAC address, what do you change it to?  How about  the same as the McDonald’s in times square?  Your friend can snag you one the from the Panera Bread in Anchorage, Alaska.   Maybe you want your house to have the same MAC address as the wifi routers in Disney World.  If you want to be boring go up to your local Best Buy look at what their MAC address is set to, though it would still be local to you somewhat then.  I’m not going to go through and state how to get these MAC addresses, but most people that would actually bother to do this already know how.   If you need further instruction drop me a comment and I may go into it.

By changing the MAC address you have now poisoned the Geo-Location database that Skyhook Wireless has saved about you.   Even if they grab your MAC address after you have changed it, which MAC Geo location is going to take precedence – Times Square or Podunk, Iowa?  There is a chance if Skyhook doesn’t have it’s weighting algorithms correct and all those people at McDonalds in Times Square would have their location showing as Podunk Iowa – though it would be amusing to use the API and have it say that there are 300 people currently in your house.

You can get more documentation on the API from here and here.

Sometimes people over think the problem when a simpler and more elegant solution can be utilized.   If in the end Skyhook data can’t be trusted, it will not be used.

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Here is what has been published this week.

Articles:

Blogging For Hire

Movies I Own – Mallrats

Geek Gang Signs

Movies I Own – Clerks

I’ve Read Alot of The Books Palin Wanted to Ban

Website Review Twiggit.org

Can Anyone Name This Movie For Me?

Movies I Own – The Toy

More Web Statistics – Why Are They Going There?

An RFID Enabled Loyalty Card – Big Brother

Movies I Own – American Psycho 2

Movies I Own – Soul Plane

Have You Replied To Your Commenters Today?

I’m Now On The VCMA Board of Directors.

Picture Taken From Here

]]> http://creeva.com/2008/09/09/geek-gang-signs/feed/ 0 http://creeva.com/2008/08/15/week-one-of-my-new-gtd-strategy-is-over/ http://creeva.com/2008/08/15/week-one-of-my-new-gtd-strategy-is-over/#comments Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:31:42 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=3080

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Last week I wrote about my new GTD strategy that dealt with annoying myself.  I received one comment from someone who thought it was a great idea.  So far it’s working pretty well, I have a minimum number of e-mails in my inbox and they are mostly for larger more time consuming tasks.    Just thought everyone would like an update.

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I get distracted when I get home from work.  I’m easily amused and have the “Ooooooooooooooooooooohhh Shiny” mentality type of distraction.  I don’t deny it.   I don’t exactly revel in it either.   By the time I actually get around to doing some of the things I need to get done, it’s late, I’m tired and cranky.   If I put things off until the weekend we end up doing stuff and getting involved (“Is that a shiny over there?”) and so things once again get overlooked.   I’m not sure I would actually sleep if I didn’t know for certainty that it helps save my job and my marriage.   So what can I do about it?

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Things I have tried with little or no success:

• Wall Calenders
• Sticky Notes
• Todo Tasks in Outlook
• Todo Tasks on Google
• GTD sites
• Web Calenders

Nothing so far seems to work for me – I’m mundane blind.  When there is a shiny I don’t even notice the mundane.

Like many geeks, corporate types, etc.   I live and die by e-mail.   This is something I greatly increased in focus when I was a consultant.   Now I can handle literally hundreds of e-mails a day, and I can’t stand a cluttered mail box.  I normally use Gmail‘s interface just through a browser, but I’ve been known to dabble in POP3 and IMAP access (the insanity!!).  Mostly though I just use the web browser.  It’s the same at work, home, and on the go.   The one thing I hate most about my mail box, is when it get’s full.   I hate a cluttered inbox, I hate coming back and seeing more then one page of e-mail waiting for me (which does happen if there is some strange reason I don’t check my email for two days).

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So I stumble on the idea of combining these two things, hatred of e-mail clutter and a need to get motivated and GTD, so now I’m email my tasks to myself (and now Xie has joined into the game).  The first thing when I went down this road is to send myself a daily list of tasks to do, well I tried that once in the past and that doesn’t seem to help.  Neither do reminder services, since I easily dismiss them.

The format I use when I mail myself is TODO (task) – this forces me to stare at it every time I look at my e-mail.   I’m hoping it will succesfully burn the task into my brain.   When I actually complete the task it get’s archived, thereby saving me space in my inbox.   Too many tasks and it will roll over to a second page, I would be highly annoyed if that happened.   So essentially I’m going to be GTD by annoying myself.

Meh.

But it may work.

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I randomly go through my commentors and visit their sites and profiles.   This is more out of curiousity then anything else.  I’m curious who they are what they are interested and what they write about.   In most case they are not much different then myself.   They are geeks, or lovers of crossposting, the occasion security geek.

While for this post I don’t really have a point, just an observation.  “They” say to make your blog sticky and interesting you build up a community.  You interact with your commentators and make sure you comment on their posts.   I’m just curious how many of the bloggers actually read what their commentators have written that fall outside the realm of their own door step.

I was reading my Digg RSS feed and this strange story popped up, Best Buy Sells Ubuntu for Only $19.99USD.  Now normally getting on retail shelves would bea good thing.   This however is a disservice to most users since Ubuntu can be freely downloaded from their web site.  Now you would think this is where it ends, but not quite.

For an extra 16.99 I can get next day shipping, I didn’t find out how much an extended warranty was though (I had friends that purchased extended warranties on every CD they bought).  The kicker is you can get someone form the Best Buy geek squad to install it for you for 129.99.   Now I’m offereing to do it for 99.99 – a savings of 30.00.   It will be even greater savings since I won’t charge you for the software (don’t tell anyone).

Heck I’ll even install Open Office for an extra 5.00.

Yes I’m joking – but if you really want me to I will happily take the cash and do the work for you.

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Sunday night I was bored, so like all bored geeks I updated my device to the bleeding edge.   The N810 feels peppier, but then again that could be my imagination or just the fact of cleaning out all the programs.   Either way it feels faster.

My biggest heartbreak is Canola2 is not fully updated and I can use the old installtion but it only half works.   I’ve read the most common reason for applications has to do with the supported version of python has changed, but who knows.   Until I can use Canola2 as a podcatcher and video player again, it’s dead to me.

I also lost alot of my network security tools, my solitaire game, and the program that synced my Google calendar with my local GPE calender.   Writing this all out I’m not sure what exactly works.  The new built in mail client works better (yet still crashes), Pidgin seems to work, and browsing is fine.

The applications will get ported, I’m just on the bleeding edge and now need to wait.   That doesn’t mean I can’t throw a hissy fit.

creeva’s Recently Played Tracks

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Introduction

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E-mail in the clouds.   Essentially back in 1996 when Hotmail was first released (in the pre-purchased by Microsoft era) the dawn of popular cloud computing for e-mail began.   The main issue was storage space.  I believe that Hotmail launched with 5 megs of storage space for all of your e-mail.   It is frustrating to know all the e-mail that’s been lost over the years due to inadequate storage space.   I now have single pictures in my email archive that are larger then 5 megs.   Times change and space get’s cheap.

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When Google released Gmail into the wild it was a game changer.  By offering 1GB of storage space it made it seem that you literally could keep your e-mail forever.   Other providers such as Hotmail and Yahoo were maxing out at 25 MB at the time, this seemed ridiculous in comparison.

Currently Gmail supports almost 7 GB of storage space and Hotmail and Yahoo went to “unlimited”.  I consolidate almost all of my e-mail to Gmail.

Data Types

To utilize e-mail storage you can attach any (supported) file and keep it in your mailbox.

Data Security

While you have to rely on a username and password to access your e-mail as the security barrier entry, if you want true protection from snooping it is suggested that you either get a web plugin that allows you to do encryption with Gmail, or keep your private messages encrypted and use them with an offline client.

Data Redundancy

Since you can forward e-mail from Gmail, I have it configured to forward all incoming mail to both my Yahoo Mail account and my Hotmail account.  If for some reason GMail loses my data or in the unlikely event Google goes out of business I’ll still be able to access my e-mail messages.

It is recommended that you keep an offline backup of your mail messages so they can be accessible while being off the grid.

Data Accessibility

With Gmail offering accessing via a rich web interface, a basic web interface, a mobile web interface, POP3, SMTP, and IMAP; it seems unlikely that you are going to find an Internet device that can not access it in some way or fashion.

Conclusion

This is the e-mail scenario that works for me.  Since encryption really isn’t ubiquitous across the board I don’t use it like I should.   Beyond that this scenario is highly redundant and should allow you operate from anywhere with a network connection without worrying about losing your data.

Previous entries in the Living in the Clouds Series:

Living In The Clouds Part 1 – Introduction To Cloud Computing

]]> http://creeva.com/2008/06/11/living-in-the-clouds-part-2-e-mail/feed/ 0 http://creeva.com/2008/06/08/twitter-is-brave-bets-on-a-twitter-outage-at-wwdc/ http://creeva.com/2008/06/08/twitter-is-brave-bets-on-a-twitter-outage-at-wwdc/#comments Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:52:28 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=2860

Image from Techcrunch in this article

It seems that Twitter is a being a little excited about the next big tech event, WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference – it’s an Apple thing).   I first got the news from the Techcrunch article linked above, but it seems that Twitter made an announcement that there will be no down time tomorrow – I call shenanigans.   They outlined the precautions in this article, among them are the following:

We’ve moved much of the load off our database by utilizing more memcache, employing more read-slave servers, and by fixing some bugs for improved efficiency. This work is in intended to help handle the load and keep Twitter up and running while Steve Jobs talks about all the new products and services Apple has planned. Of course these improvements will continue to serve Twitter beyond the WWDC as well.

Now it may just be me, but I’ve seen Twitter fail on slow days.  I know they have had experience with similar traffic load form other major teh events, but they crashed then.   While they may have some idea of the data they will need to handle, I’m not sure if they can truly appreciate the amount of data they need to handle when the tech world needs it’s geek porn instant updates.

Ironically there is no news if they are going to be taking updates via IM or SMS tomorrow, I’m betting not.   This way they get to handle a “larger load” – i.e. people that won’t be going to the site itself won’t be updating.  So it’s a win by not generating as much traffic.  Cheaters!!

For those that want to use twitter via IM to post updates (but you can’t receive them this way) I recommend trying Imified, it allows you to post to Twitter via IM even when Twitter doesn’t take IM updates through it’s standard channels.

Tweet, tweet.

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Today I read a comment on slashdot that inspired me to write on this subject.  The comment was written on the Secret History of Star Wars article and was given by Omestes and was as follows:

Oh god, the Nerd/Dork/Geek argument. We always went with nerds being unwashed, antisocial geniuses who small vaguely like cheese, and somehow manage to reference Yoda, and differential equations in every utterance. Dorks are just like nerds, but dumber. And geeks are the swashbuckling generalists who get all the chicks (er…) because they have some modicum of social skills, while still knowing their swallows apart.

By your jargon though, there still is a deep relation between nerds and dorks, since both of them are “systems” people. D&D is just another complex system to play with, just like math, code, and circuits. As is, oddly, the various nerd friendly mythologies. Both groups, by your classification, are equally likely to get the chicks… Not very. Neither math nor D&D impress many of the chicks I know.

So where does arguing over the semantics of nerdery put one?

Now this has been written about hundreds of times (if you don’t believe check google), but wanted to stick my two cents into this discussion.   Let’s go over my own defintions:

Picture from here

Dork: A dork is an invidual that has an interest in something in so far that they are singled out and people believe because of some title given to them they are thought to be an expert.  In all actuality they are no better then a lay person and has the largest social anxieties and problems dealing with others.   They normally think they are smarter then they are, but yet normally lack in depth knowledge to move them up the dork/nerd/geek ladder.

However there is a missing factor to this definition, that is the fact that a dork is more likely to be the one that non dorks/nerds/geeks are most comfortable around.   They are the ones that come off lovable – like when your friends or significant other says “You big dork”.   While in some terms dork is an insult, when you properly it is definitely the least offensive to the general population at large.

Picture from here

Nerd: Nerds are the individuals that have an interest in things the goes so far that not only do they have to prove tehy are better then everyone on the subject of interest, they also are so intensely interested in there area of focus that social situations really don’t bother them.   It’s a waste of time for them.  They don’t know why you don’t want to dig into replicating a hologram in your microwave with tin foil and baking soda, which they do daily for amusement.

Picture from here

Geek: Geeks usually can deal with society the best, but completely zone out similar to nerds to nerds, but are normally capable of human relationships, though they took the hologram in the microwave and made a short film out of it to upload to youtube.   They are interested in the obscure and bringing it into fruition.   Normally geeks wear the term geek on themselves with a badge of honor.

Me and my grandparents – Years Ago (Years and Years)

I can say in certain areas I’m all three, but I’m mostly a geek.   I’m normally quite knowledgable in the things I have extreme interest in, and i’m capable of zoning out.  Most of my family considers me a nerd when it comes to social networks (and I really am when it comes to crossposting).  When it comes to certain items and gadgets I’m definetly a dork trying to be a geek.

Wait what am I saying I was a pimp, I don’t know why I’m sticking myself into any of these groups.  You don’t believe me?  Behold Creeva with a mullet (once again many years ago):

So which do you identify with and what is your definitions?

For those curious which wordpress plugin’s I use on creeva.com, I thought I would post my plugin page for you to check out.

Enjoy:

Add Meta Tags	1.6	Adds the Description and Keywords XHTML META tags to your blog’s front page and to each one of the posts, static pages and category archives. This operation is automatic, but the generated META tags can be fully customized. Also, the inclusion of other META tags, which do not need any computation, is possible. Please read the tips and all other info provided at the configuration panel. By George Notaras.
Add to Any: Share/Save/Bookmark Button	.9.1	Lets readers share, save, and bookmark your posts using any service and browser. [Settings] By MicroPat.
Admin Big Width	1.0	enlarge your wordpress administration. By XoraX.
Admin Management Xtended	1.0.1	Adds AJAX-driven options to some admin management pages with CMS-known functions like toggling post/page visibility without having to open the edit screens, plus changing page order with drag’n’drop. By Oliver Schlöbe.
AJAXed WordPress	1.19.2	A plugin that incorporates the best AJAX WordPress features and wrap them in a single framework–including such features as inline posts and comments, the ability to paginate posts, submit comments, thread comments, edit comments and posts inline. The Admin panel is under presentation tab. Need Help? Visit the Official AWP support thread or try reading the full documentation. By Aaron Harun.
Akismet	2.1.5	Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put <?php akismet_counter(); ?> in your template. See also: WP Stats plugin. By Matt Mullenweg.
All in One Adsense and YPN	1.62	Inserts Adsense or YPN code in to your blog posts. Ad position can be random or pre-defined. By linewbie.
All in One SEO Pack	1.4.6.8	Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog. By uberdose.
Berri Technorati Reactions on Dashboard	2.0	Shows on the Dashboard the Technorati Reactions of your blog. Widget for the main admin page. By Alberto Varela.
Blog Metrics	1.0	Provides blog metrics based on the blog metrics Avinash Kaushik proposed in this post, now with a widget! By Joost de Valk.
Brian’s Threaded Comments	1.5.18	This gives you threaded comments and a “wandering” comment form. By Brian Meidell.
Chunk Urls for WordPress	2.0	This plugin shorten urls in comments so that they won’t break your site. By whoo.
Clean Options	Beta 0.9.6	finds orphaned options and allows for their removal from the wp_options table By Mittineague.
Comments number Restore	1.0	Hyper Cache is an extremely aggressive cache for WordPress. By Satollo.
Dashboard: Draft Posts	1.0.2	Displays draft posts on your WordPress 2.5+ dashboard. By Viper007Bond.
Dashboard Editor	1.1	Allows you to customise the dashboard. By Aaron Harun.
Dashboard Widget Manager	1.3.0	Greatly enhances your WordPress 2.5+ dashboard by allowing widget re-ordering and storage of preferences on a per-user basis. By Viper007Bond.
Different Posts Per Page	1.7.1	Show different number of posts in home, category, search or archive page. By MaxBlogPress.
DJ EmailPublish	1.5	Publish your article to other blog by email. Visit Options/Email Publish after activation of the plugin. By Der-Johng Sun.
Enforce www. Preference	1.3	Provides 301 redirects to queries with /index.php and enforces your use or non-use of www. By Mark Jaquith.
Facebook Comments	0.25	Copies comments from your imported Facebook Notes back into your blog entries. Took Thomas Albright’s version (http://thomasalbright.info/index.php/2007/05/27/thomasalbrightinfo-facebook) and then edited by James Low (http://jameslow.com). Made to work with Feedburner feeds by Aaron Harp (http://www.aaronharp.com) By Adam Hill.
Facebook Dashboard Widget	0.9	Display your friends latest status updates, posted items and/or notifications on your WordPress dashboard. Make sure you enter your feed details on the options page. By Chris Chrisostomou.
FeedBurner FeedSmith	2.3.1	Originally authored by Steve Smith, this plugin detects all ways to access your original WordPress feeds and redirects them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. By FeedBurner.
Flickr comment Importer	0.1	Add Flickr comments to your blog posts. Configuration Page By Donncha O Caoimh.
Flickr Manager	2.0.2	Handles uploading, modifying images on Flickr, and insertion into posts. By Trent Gardner.
Flickr Photo Gallery	0.93.2	This plugin will retrieve your Flickr photos and allow you to easily add your photos to your posts. Configure… By Silas Partners (Joe Tan).
Fluency Admin	1.1	WordPress 2.5+ only. A rethink of the WordPress admin interface giving it a slightly more modern application-esque feel, inspired by Steve Smith’s Tiger Admin. Firefox, Safari and IE8 only. IE7 soon. By Dean Robinson.
Forgot the Category	0.2.1	Hate forgetting to select a category when you write a new post? I know I do. This plugin won’t let you. By Dan Coulter.
Front Page Excluded Categories	1.1.1	This version uses a comma separated list of *excluded* category ids. By Sean O’Steen.
Genki Youtube Comments	1.2	Insert YouTube comments into your post’s comment By Genkisan.
Google XML Sitemaps	3.0.3.3	This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO. Configuration Page By Arne Brachhold.
Instant Upgrade	0.2	Upgrade your WordPress-Installation with one simple click (Go to Manage » Instant Upgrade) By Alex Günsche.
LiveJournal Comments	1.0.3	This plugin displayes a number of comments in posts crossposted to LiveJournal. You can see how if works here. By Alexander Bishop.
LiveJournal Crossposter	2.0.5	Automatically copies all posts to a LiveJournal or other LiveJournal-based blog. Editing or deleting a post will be replicated as well. Original plugin by Evan Broder. By Arseniy Ivanov.
Live Space Sync	1.01	A Live Spaces rpc plug-in By William, priv.
Maintenance Mode	3.2	Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end. Navigate to Options ? Maintenance Mode to get started. By Michael Woehrer.
Meet your commenters	0.9	When someone comments on your blog and writes a comment with his/her URL, is leaving more information than you think. This plugin displays web pages and profiles of those users in the dashboard, so you can add them as friends if you are in the same social network. By Alberto Varela.
MySpace Crossposter	2.0a	A plugin that enables automatic crossposting from WordPress to MySpace. By Roderick Russell.
No Flash Uploader	1.0	Disables the Flash Uploader of 2.5 By Dion Hulse.
NoFollow Free	1.5.5	Remove the nofollow tag from your blog’s comments with a lot of options customizable, per user type removal, per comments count removal etc… Supports multilingual and a Top Commenters sidebar Widget. By Michele Marcucci.
Official StatCounter Plugin	1.0	Adds the StatCounter tracking code to your blog. After uploading this plugin click ‘Activate’ (to the right) and then afterwards you must visit the options page and enter your StatCounter Project Info to enable logging. By Aodhan Cullen.
Ping.fm Notifier	1.0	A plugin that send a notification to your Ping.fm space after you publish your post. By Creeva.
Plugin Central	1.11	WordPress 2.5+ only. Automatically installs and updates WordPress plugins. By Vladimir Prelovac.
Postie	1.1.1	Signifigantly upgrades the posting by mail features of Word Press (See Quick Readme) By Dirk Elmendorf.
Post Template	2.1.3	A plugin that allows you to create post templates in order to save time writing posts having the same structure. When activated, you can check your new template management page and the option page. This plugin makes use of the excellent other plugin “Manage Pages Custom Columns” by Edward Dale. By Vincent Prat.
Reveal IDs for WP Admin 2.5	0.7.5	Reveals hidden IDs in Admin interface that have been removed with WordPress 2.5 (formerly known as Entry IDs in Manage Posts/Pages View for WP 2.5). See Options Page for options and information. By Oliver Schlöbe.
Routes	2.1.6	Adds route-based geographical information to your blog. By Jennifer Hodgdon, Poplar ProductivityWare.
Script Compressor	1.3.1	This plugin compresses javascript files and css files. By Regen.
SEO Friendly Images	1.11	Automatically adds alt and title attributes to all your images. Improves traffic from search results and makes them W3C/xHTML valid as well. By Vladimir Prelovac.
SezWho	WP2.1	A plugin that improves community engagement by showing universal web-wide profiles for participants and by empowering the community to rate comments and post. You need a key to use this service. Get your key at SezWho. By SezWho.
SimpleLife	1.2	SimpleLife is a fully configurable simplepie based plugin to produce a lifestream on your wordpress powered blog. Makes use of the excellent SimplePie. Either use the widget or place <?php simplelife(); ?> in a page template. By Kieran Delaney.
Simple Tags	1.5.7	Simple Tags : Extended Tagging for WordPress 2.3 and 2.5 ! Autocompletion, Suggested Tags, Tag Cloud Widgets, Related Posts, Mass edit tags ! By Amaury BALMER.
Social Homes widget	2.2	Adds a sidebar widget containing a subtle list of all your social homes as linked favicons. Current services include del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo, Twitter, Last.fm, LinkedIn, Zooomr, Utterz, StumbleUpon, Digg, LiveJournal, MySpace, Jaiku, Pownce, VIRB°, and FriendFeed. By Elie Zananiri.
Twitter Tools	1.2b1	A complete integration between your WordPress blog and Twitter. Bring your tweets into your blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter. Configure your settings here. By Alex King.
Twitter Widget Pro	1.1.4	A widget that properly handles twitter feeds, including @username and link parsing, feeds that include friends or just one user, and can even display profile images for the users. Requires PHP5. By Aaron D. Campbell.
VideoWarrior	1.0.3	Yet another plugin to include Videos from Youtube and Google Video By Sixtus.
WordPress.com Stats	1.2.1	Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key. By Andy Skelton.
WordPress Database Backup	2.1.5	On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Navigate to Manage ? Backup to get started. By Austin Matzko.
WordPress PDA & iPhone	1.2.1	This plugin helps the users to view your blog in a pda and iPhone browser. By Imthiaz Rafiq.
WordPress Reports	0.87	Generates reports from Google Analytics and Feedburner data By Joe Tan.
WP-PageNavi	2.30	Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog. By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan.
WP-Print	2.30	Displays a printable version of your WordPress blog’s post/page. By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan.
WP-ServerInfo	1.30	Display your host’s server PHP and MYSQL information (integrated into WordPress Admin Style) on your WordPress dashboard. By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan.
WP-SnapAvatar	1.1	This plugin puts the commentor’s website screenshot where there is no gravatar. By Neacsu Alexandru.
WP-SpamFree	1.8.3	An extremely powerful anti-spam plugin that virtually eliminates comment spam. Finally, you can enjoy a spam-free WordPress blog! Includes spam-free contact form feature as well. By Scott Allen, aka WebGeek.
WP Contact Form III	1.4.1	WP Contact Form III is a simple drop in form for users to contact you. It can be implemented on a page or a post. Go to Options -> ContactForm III to configure. Challenge (antispam) mod by Doug Karr. Original script by Ryan Duff By Kristin K. Wangen.
WP Limit Posts Automatically	0.7	Limit your posts automatically. This way you don’t need the use of the more tag. You can limit posts by letter, word or paragraph and apply it to home, categories, archive and search. By Jens Törnell.
WP Security Scan	2.2.64	Perform security scan of WordPress installation. By Michael Torbert.
WP Super Cache	0.6.4	Very fast caching module for WordPress. Once enabled, you must enable the cache. Based on WP-Cache by Ricardo Galli Granada. By Donncha O Caoimh.
Xanga Cross Post	0.6	Cross post your blog entries to a Xanga account By Joe Tan.

]]> http://creeva.com/2008/05/20/what-wordpress-plugins-do-i-use/feed/ 3 http://creeva.com/2008/05/12/i-hate-coming-up-with-ideas-that-i-cant-google-how-to-do/ http://creeva.com/2008/05/12/i-hate-coming-up-with-ideas-that-i-cant-google-how-to-do/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 17:37:42 +0000 Creeva http://creeva.com/?p=2797

I’m a geek.   There is no doubt or question about that.   We’ve established this now, let’s move forward.   I had a great idea today.  I was going to hook up a bluetooth adapter to my windows file server at home and make a blue tooth file server at home.   I also wanted to be uber geeky and send a welcome message via blue tooth to any new blue tooth devices that came within range.

However.

It seems that no one has really made a bluetooth file server.   If I had access to such a server I could browse it from my Nokia N810 (yes I know I can already browse via TCP/IP – go back to where I said I’m geek), I could also pull pictures automatically off my cell phone when it was in range, and then have those pictures automatically upload to Flickr.   I could sync new ring tones on my cell.   But it seems that no one has really built a blue tooth file server, at least not on windows.

I know this idea may seem farfetched, but I can find out how to tether a cell phone to my dog that will send me me GPS updates via twitter and google maps data in a ton of different places (all for 30.00 a month).  I can have my plants send me an SMS message when they need watering.   I can build my own electric induction field to charge my cell phone battery.   To install a bluetooth file server on windows – I must be insane, or so the google return stats tell me.

I know the full geek out there would drop down and write a new bluetooth stack via assembler and crosscompile it via a web interface so it was cross platform, I however am not that geek.

I think I may have to go crawl under a rock now until I can figure out how to get my cupboard to twitter it’s down to it’s last pop tart.

The Social Crosspost

by

Creeva

I’m am a social creature
Or that is how I seem
I’m active on all the networks
all in an elaborate scheme

You see my updates on myspace
Flickr photos and my tweets
I just updated my blog
It’s a tech article, not so sweet

I talk about my family
I blog about my dog
My cats eat cigarettes
Out back I chopped a log

It seems that I spend all my time
Posting everywhere
Really it’s all automated
RSS taking thing here and there

E-Mail sends to blogger
Twitter get’s a feed
Flickr is imported
Regurgitated as I need

Tumblr is updated
Pulls in it’s own stuff
Ping.fm sends my status
All filler and no fluff

I’m not really all that social
I just type all day
I’m really anti-social
That’s my path, my way

I have all these friends on my list
Most I’ve never met
IRL they wouldn’t give me the time of day
Though they’ll comment on my pet

My wife is driven bonkers
About my tweets everywhere
Pownce updates her constantly
That I just brushed my hair

Dandelife categorizes me
Timelines my blog posts
It doesn’t know
Where I post the most

Livejournal, Xanga, Mutiply
They all get my writings
But when people visit my home blog
Then my stats are exciting

Why do I still do this
Is it attention that I crave
I crosspost and refeed my life
So the data I can save

Geekery and life
Don’t always co-exist
Hang I’ll finish in a minute
Right after I tweet about this piss.