As the title says...

I AM the worst kind of geek. I play with my geek toys, buy new notebook computers and other neat and fun gadgets, and then I don't write about them.

The reasons for my lack of posting are many, and include things like new job/promotion, buying a new house, selling old house, kids getting cars (and requiring me to service said cars), and holidays. Are these excuses? Yes, but they are also the reasons for my lack of posting (which is okay, since I have at the time of this writing ONE follower, and she lives with me, so she pretty much knows what's going on anyway).

So, back to Geekdom.

I am the worst kind of geek. Reason #34: I only recently (well, in November) discovered the joy and beauty that is Firefly. Yes, dear reader (hi Sherry!), as a true geek, I was not whole until I embraced the Whedonverse and plunged hook, line, and sinker into the abyss that is Firefly. To make matters worse, I didn't plunge alone; I took my son and later my wife with me (both of whom both love and hate me for getting them hooked on the doomed show). With each passing episode, my son and I would look at each other and exclaim, "That was AWESOME! I can't believe they canceled this!" and then we would count down how many more were left for us to watch.

Interestingly, I saw Serenity (the movie) first. I thought it was a good movie, but not a great movie. I had no context, and to me, the characters were just characters I didn't care too much about. The story was pretty decent, but again, nothing to write home about. BUT... oh my good Lord... then it happened. I watched all 14 episodes of Firefly and then re-watched Serenity. Now I understand COMPLETELY what the reviewers and critics all said; it's an okay movie if you haven't seen Firefly, but a GREAT movie if you've seen the TV series. Sure, it's no Dostoevsky, but it is most definitely entertaining and a fitting albeit somewhat premature finale to the series (or is it?)

I've now seen every episode twice, and I'm working on my third viewing, having started last night with the Pilot and The Train Job. Of course, if you watched these episodes with the DVD commentary, you'd know that the Pilot aired last, and that The Train Job had to act as a sort of impromptu pilot, so there's a lot of exposition in The Train Job that seems redundant in a second episode, but given that Firefly was never really given a fighting chance to begin with, in postscript, it only makes sense in a sick way.

I could go on and on about the characters, the acting, the writing, the sets, the costumes, the universe, etc, but it's all been said before. As a matter of fact, I'm reading a book where people write about Firefly and Serenity and how important, ground-breaking, earth-shattering, genre-bending, etc Firefly was.

I know from reading around the Interwebs that everyone on the cast is up for more Firefly when and if it ever happens. I know that there's a campaign afoot to send blue gloves to (Fox, Paramount, or Universal; I forget which) in an effort to show that there are loyal Browncoats out there who would watch more episodes. Personally, I'd LOVE to see more, and I'd watch them like a kid watches Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at Christmas, but I'd like to see it on Syfy (the network formerly known a SciFi Channel). I think that Syfy would allow more creative license and would allow for Nathan Fillion to continue his full-time gig as Richard Castle on ABC's new hit dramedy "Castle" while allowing him to then do the off-season revival of Firefly. Of course, this assumes that Nathan (and other members of the cast already gainfully employed) have nothing better to do in their off-season time than make Firefly for my viewing pleasure, but hey, can't a geek dream here? This also assumes that there are enough Browncoats out there who will actually send in the gloves (as if that could work... who knows?). I think DVD sales of Firefly and Serenity have a better chance of convincing anyone with money to invest in putting it back on the air, but that's just the wannabe business-minor in me talking (or writing... you know).

Which brings me to a few final points.

First, watch Firefly if you haven't done so already. Download it and after you've watched it (and fell in love with it), go and buy it. Nothing speaks louder to Hollywood than dollars.

Second, if you become a Browncoat (fan of Firefly), send the gloves. It's fun. It's activism. It's being a part of something bigger than yourself. And it just might help tip the scales.

Third, and this is a big one for me, evangelize Firefly. It's too good of a series to let die. The actors and writers are still young enough to pick it up and carry it onward. The more people who get into the show creates a bigger audience, and then, well, refer to my first final point. Then, I think, you'll get the picture.

Postscript. What tipped me over the edge from liking Firefly to loving Firefly? The fact that it made me want to be a Browncoat. Not in the literal sense, but in the sense that I wanted to be someone who would be like Mal. As a kid, when I watched Star Wars, I thought that he was a troublemaker and a terrorist. He and his band of misfits took down the government for some utopian love-fest (okay, I didn't really get to thinking that way until I was well into my 30's, but let a geek ramble here). When I played Star Wars Galaxies (an immensely entertaining and fulfilling MMO that was also changed and in my opinion, killed off for the mindless gameplay style of WoW), I played as an Imperial, a member of the Empire. I could empathize more with the Empire than I could with the Rebels. In Firefly, there's no way you can empathize with the Alliance. They are everything that's wrong and bad. The Empire in Star Wars? They were "evil" according to Luke and Leia, but it turns out that it wasn't the government that was evil so much as it was just Darth Vader and the Emperor. And even then, they were just frustrated and disfigured old men who couldn't get laid. I could be a member of the Empire; I could never be a member of the Alliance.

Browncoats unite!

Browncoats forever!

Disclaimer: this post in no way implies that I've lost my mind, became obsessed with Firefly, or have a man-crush on Nathan Fillion. I think Nathan does a fine job as an actor, but that's as far as I like him. Yes, only as an actor. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Tonido Plug

The wait is over; I finally got my Tonido Plug yesterday, courtesy of the UPS.

I plugged it in and was impressed by how easy it was to get running. I didn't have to hunt around my network (which consists of over 16 devices already) for the Plug; I just went to the url contained in the documentation and was able to get it up on my network and all preliminary setup info set in just a few short minutes.

The biggest surprise for me was the fact that I was able to move a USB drive from my PC to the Plug by just plugging it in. It recognized the NTFS file system and all the folders/files, and served it up in no time. I have a 1TB drive on its way (due to arrive on Thursday) but I wanted to start "playing" with the Plug today. I backed up the data from the USB drive expecting the Plug to format/delete it when I connected it. Imagine my surprise when not only did it not ask to format the new drive, but it found everything on the USB drive and served it right up! I was able to set up a share from my PC to the USB drive in a few short moments, and now it's as if the USB drive is still attached to my system.

Speed is impressive. The Plug and all of the apps on it are very responsive and fast. I am most impressed with the torrent app. It is very fast, very easy to use, and very efficient. I tested it today with a few torrents, and the results have been stellar.

I have Tonido App installed onto two PC's in the house and have yet to attach them to the Plug via a group. I don't know what the benefit of that would be, yet, but I am learning.

I highly recommend getting a Plug. It's incredibly fast, easy to configure and use, and will use a lot less power than my PC did staying on 24/7 (serving up shares for the family). I connected a spare powered USB hub to it and connected two external USB HD's to it. Once I get a 1TB drive, that will give me nearly 1.5TB of storage capability. That's enough to make a geekboy hum with glee!

Check out Tonido Plug at www.tonidoplug.com.

Worst Kind of Laziness

I always thought I was lazy an had a hard time getting things done. I talked to my grandmother about this, and she had some wise things to say to me (aka Wisdom) on the subject of laziness.

She said she enjoys sitting on the couch and doing crossword puzzles, but there are things that always need to be done around the house. So, she wakes up early, gets all those things done as quickly as possible, and then she can kick back and enjoy her days doing nothing.

I argued with her at first saying that she isn't doing nothing "all day" if she worked hard in the morning, but she said that she would gladly work hard in the morning for a day of lazing on the couch.

I always knew she was smart, but this was brilliant.

I thought about it for a long time and I came to the conclusion that I was practicing a certain level of laziness in how I do things. I always try to get projects done quickly to allow me time to kick back and relax.

Bringing my geekiness into play allows me to be especially lazy. Because geeks understand levels of efficiency that sometimes escapes mere mortals (aka Sheeple), we work harder and faster to allow us to waste loads of time doing things others would consider boring or useless: building robots, soldering circuit boards, modding netbooks, playing MMO's, or otherwise finding other "experiments" or "projects" to do.

Some would argue that working hard and fast is not the trait of the lazy person, but I disagree. There are those who are ultimately lazy and don't do anything and rely on others. I call those people bums. I could never be a bum.

However, I hate to do work.

In fact, I hate work so much that I get tasks done as quickly as possible. The way I look at it, I need money to pay for things like cars, mortgages, food, gadgets, Internet access, etc. I would much rather be playing with my gadgets, my car, or doing other things rather than work. I'd rather browse the Internet than work (like most people), but I understand that in order for me to do these things, I have to work. I also understand that if I get my job done quickly, that leaves me more time to do the things that I want to do. I want to be lazy. I want to be able to put things off if I have to.

Ultimately, I want to play all day.

Being a lazy person at the core, it does prove to be difficult to work hard sometimes. Many days, the last thing I want to do is work. However, the first thing I want to do is kick back and be lazy. Knowing I have to pay the bills for the things that make me happy while being lazy, I am motivated to do my work and to do it right the first time and in the least amount of time possible.

Some people call this motivation or drive. I call it being ultimately lazy.

I try not to put off anything at all if possible; I prefer to get things done ASAP. There are lots of experiments and projects out there waiting for me to do.

There are many tools out there to assist us geeks in keeping ourselves organized to allow us to be ultimately lazy. Google Calendar comes to mind (I use it myself) as a good one. Many geekfriends of mine also use Outlook or other software packages. Either way, there are many things we can do to help us be lazy.

An afternoon on the couch with the Kindle is better than any amount of working, and this worst kind of geek would have it no other way.

Empirical Evidence, Gaming, and Random Bits

There you have it; more evidence to support the statement that I am the worst kind of geek. I haven't posted in two weeks. I would say that I've been really busy, and I would be telling the truth, but that's a cop out. I could have posted on the weekends, and in the evenings. The truth of the matter is that I've been reading (like a good geek) some bad sci-fi (also like a good geek) and have shunned things like posting online (bad geek) and my online gaming time (worst kind of geek).

I used to play about 4-8 hours a day. It really didn't matter what it was: an MMO, flight sim, first-person shooter, The Sims 2, etc. I loved it all. I'm fairly certain that I still love it all. I just don't want to take time out of what little spare time I have to play games right now. It's all about time management and choices.

I used to be home all day, working from home. I would be there, working at my desk in my home office at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon when the girls got home from school. I would de-brief them on their day. Then, an hour later, my son would get home from school, and the process would repeat with him. Another hour and a half later, my wife would get home from work, and the process would again repeat. Then, we'd eat dinner, spend some time together, and everyone would go to sleep at around 10:00 p.m. or so. Then it would be MY time to play.

And play I did.

I could easily stay up until 1 or 2:00 a.m. and still get up by 8:30 a.m. for work. Since I didn't have to shave, shower, dress, or drive to work, I could literally get up at 8:29 a.m. and get to work by 8:30 a.m. Since I worked through lunch (eating at home at my desk took away my need to eat elsewhere), I could be done with work by 4:30 p.m. and start on dinner.

Do I miss gaming? Absolutely. But I am not going to sacrifice the time I have each night with my family now for it. I get home at around 6:15 p.m. and I'm in bed by 9:00 p.m. That's less than three hours a night I have to spend with my family. They are more important to me than any game.

As for reading, I won't get into what I'm reading (because I called it bad sci-fi), but I will say that it's enjoyable and that it's pleasant. I look forward to it every day, and I am glad to be reading sci-fi again. I didn't realize how much I've missed it.

Finally, a random bit. If you have a Kindle (1 or 2), you should take a look at kindlefeeder.com. It allows you to specify RSS feeds, and it will automatically grab the RSS content, turn it into a nice document, and send it to your Kindle via whispernet. It's pretty sweet and works really well. I am using it, and I enjoy it. It's nice to get content from the websites I like to visit in digest form versus having to use the browser on the Kindle.

Automatic windshield wiper sensors

Image via Wikipedia

When I was a kid of about 9 or 10 years old, my family was on one of it's bi-annual trips through Europe. Being a first-generation American with lots of family (and family friends) throughout Europe, we would go back every two years, flying into Luxembourg and driving through France, Germany, and Austria before making our way into Hungary. On this particular trip, we had a rental car called a Simca. It was a French car, if I remember well, and it had a feature I had never seen before on any of my family's American-made cars at the time: automatic windshield wipers.

As we were driving through France, there was a steady misty-rain (much like today's weather in Houston, TX), and my father was driving. I noticed him turn a lever on stalk extending from the steering column, and the windshield wipers turned on for a moment and then sat silently. I watched as rain accumulated on the windshield to a point where it was almost difficult to see, and then without any intervention on my father's part, the wipers came to life and wiped the water off. This process repeated itself for most of the day, and I put my mind to work trying to figure out what technology was in place to make it work.

Image via Wikipedia

I thought about it and came to the conclusion that it had to be a water sensor that knew when enough water had accumulated on the windshield, and that's when it would wipe the water off. I told my father about how I thought it worked, and he smiled at me and said, "Yep, you figured it out all right." I was proud of myself, since it was quite a complex system. I marveled at the Simca and how space-age it was compared to our American Oldsmobile and Ford Pinto wagon. I couldn't wait to tell my friends about this amazing piece of French technology when I got back to the US.

When we got to Austria, we visited with my father's surrogate parents; a kindly couple who sort of adopted my dad and his friends when they were refugees living in Vienna in the mid-50's. We would visit them every time we went to Europe, and they were like another set of grandparents to me. Azsi Bacsi, as he was known to me, was a former ship captain on the Danube before he defected with his family (who were in a cargo crate on his ship) in Austria after the Soviet invasion of Hungary. He spoke beautiful English aside from his native Hungarian and German. He would always take great interest in conversations with me, and I began to explain to him about the technological marvel I had only recently been made aware of: the automatic windshield wiper that used sensor technology to measure the amount of water on the windshield. He seemed quite impressed and amazed as well until my father started laughing and explained that there was no sensor; it was a delay timer.

I was crushed. I was angry. I was hurt.

Not only did he make me look silly in front of Azsi Bacsi, but I over-thought the problem, coming up with far too complex a solution. I forgot to consider the simplest implementation of a windshield wiper that didn't wipe steadily: a timer. I was also mad at my dad for letting me believe that the car had sensors as part of its windshield wiper system. That put my belief in the whole concept of "cruise control" into a tailspin of doubt. If there were no windshield wiper sensors, how could I believe there was a "cruise control?"

Fast-forward to 2008. I am reading the manual for my 2008 VW Passat when I come across the section for the windshield wipers. I read it, since I have always had an interest in windshield wiper technology ever since that fateful trip to Europe when I read to my amazement that my car's windshield wiper system had a rain sensor! I thought to myself, "Self, we are now driving the car of the future. It's finally here."

I did some searching to find out about the technology behind the sensors, and found this bit on Wikipedia:

Image via Wikipedia

Total internal reflection is an optical phenomenon that occurs when a ray of light strikes a medium boundary at an angle larger than the critical angle with respect to the normal to the surface. If the refractive index is lower on the other side of the boundary no light can pass through, so effectively all of the light is reflected. The critical angle is the angle of incidence above which the total internal reflection occurs.

When light crosses a boundary between materials with different refractive indices, the light beam will be partially refracted at the boundary surface, and partially reflected. However, if the angle of incidence is greater (i.e. the ray is closer to being parallel to the boundary) than the critical angle — the angle of incidence at which light is refracted such that it travels along the boundary — then the light will stop crossing the boundary altogether and instead be totally reflected back internally. This can only occur where light travels from a medium with a higher refractive index to one with a lower refractive index. For example, it will occur when passing from glass to air, but not when passing from air to glass.

So, someone finally did it; they figured out how to make the windshield wiper sensor work! This was something I wanted to invent myself, and I would often think about how such a system would work. Of course, the solution now used is far more elegant than those I came up with, so kudos to the engineer(s) who came up with total internal reflection.

Now, I enjoy driving in the rain. Knowing that there's all this cool technology going on to make the windshield wipers wipe only when they need to makes me smile.

Really. Ask GeekWife.

Technology legislation

Image via Wikipedia

One of the most important issues to me in the last presidential election (aside from 2nd amendment rights; that's right, geeks with guns!) was net neutrality. Fortunately, it seems that President Obama's FCC chief believes in net neutrality, and believes that the federal government should stay out of the Internet.

This is a good thing, methinks.

It's already a pain to pay taxes on purchases online, but I guess that's what feeds our government so that it can do things like provide us with protection in the form of a military and provide us with overlords to make decisions in our best interest. I don't so much have a problem with paying taxes on products purchased online; I have a problem with censorship.

I don't condone stealing, child pornography, or anything that takes advantage of those who are incapable of making their own decisions (animals, kids, and some really old people). I do believe, however, that the government has no business telling me or someone else what we can post or view online. Sure, there will be things that we collectively or individually find offensive, but it's not the government's job to decide that for me. It's not the government's job to tell me what I think is appropriate. Get rid of the child porn? I'm cool with that. Otherwise, stay the heck out of our Interwebs.

The Internet is like cable TV. There are lots more "channels" than on cable TV, but to me, the premise is similar. If I find a site or article I don't like, I leave or shut the browser down. Conversely, if I am watching TV and I find a program to be offensive or not to my liking, I have the power within Excalbur (the TiVo remote) and my finger to change the channel or to shut the TV off. I don't need anyone to do it for me, and quite honestly, I find it offensive for anyone to think that they have the right to do so.

Image via Wikipedia

We all have our own flavors of morality. What I believe may or may not be what you believe. Within beliefs, there are degrees that people within the same faiths don't agree on. How then can the government tell me what sites are offensive? To them? To whom within the government?

Illegal activities online should be dealt with. Terrorists using the Interwebs should be shut down. Chid porn should be shut down. Criminals using the Internet to perpetrate crimes, whether in the realworld or online should be shut down. However, just because someone doesn't like to look at nekkid girlies or guys, or because they don't agree with an opinion on an otherwise harmless website... well, too bad.

To those who think that the Internet should be censored should get themselves NetNanny and have a nice day. The rest of us will take our Internet straight-up on the rocks without any government intervention.

Amazing technology

Image via Wikipedia

For my kids, electronic high technology is something that just *is*. It's been around their entire lives, so it's nothing really amazing to them. Amazing would be levitation, or perhaps invisibility, but things like smart phones, X-Box, netbooks, iPods, and even satellite or cable TV are about as commonplace to them as a toilet and air conditioning are to me. My, how the times have changed.

I feel fortunate to be alive right now. Aside from the obvious reasons (being addicted to breathing being foremost on that list), it's because in my lifetime, I have seen truly amazing things and have watched mankind transition from terrestrial technology to true space-age tech. Heck, we went to the moon in 1969 when I was two years old!

I am always amazed by technology. Even stuff I use every day like cell phones or the Internet; it still makes me smile like a loon. Why? Aside from the aforementioned, it's because I remember what it was like to imagine a lot of this stuff before it was available. To be able to realize and experience the technology I used to read about in sci-fi books is like finally getting to open presents on Christmas morning. Yeah, it's that flippin' awesome!

Let's take the Kindle as an example. This item is something that, to me, is most similar to what Douglas Adams wrote about as The Hitchhiker's Guide. The similarity was not lost on the writer of XKCD.

Click on the comic for a larger view

I love reading, and now that I have a Kindle 2, I read all the time. Every day. For the past few years, most of my reading has been limited to Foreign Affairs magazine, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, or the odd newspaper that would somehow cross my path as well as a bunch of Internet browsing. Now, I'm reading sci-fi again, reading newspapers every morning, and I've got a bunch of books on it waiting for me to read. All that in a device that's about 1/3" thick and the size of a large paperback.

GeekWife said it reminded her a bit of the PADD's in Star Trek, but ended up naming her's Hitchhiker's Guide while mine is named Trillian.

As I read the Kindle, I marvel at the technology within the device: 3G wireless network, epaper, 2GB storage, and decent speed in a form factor that would be laughably impossible only 5 years ago. Heck, I remember when epaper was first being discussed as anew technology over 10 years ago when I worked at Egghead Software in Irvine, CA (part-time while I was stationed at MCAS Tustin in Orange County). It was future-talk; stuff that sounded cool and had great promise, but that we wouldn't see for a long time.

Well, here it is.

I could list for days the number of technologies that make me smile, but the list would get boring after the first few pages. Suffice it to say that when it comes to tech, I'm still like a kid at heart, and I bask in all it's wondrous glory.

I wouldn't have it any other way.