Archive for October, 2006

IEEE OUI search for Firefox 2

About a week ago I posted two search plugins, one of IEEE OUI and one for RCC. Now that I’ve taken the time to get Firefox 2, I noticed that there was a different way do search plugins. So, without further ado, you can download the IEEE OUI or RCC Search files.

However, you cna just go up to the search bar, and install it that way without having to download the files, browse to c:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins and drag and drop, as I made sure to include the HTML code to allow autodiscovery. Mind you that if you have both of them installed already, they won’t appear in the search drop down menu.

Humans vs. Zombies game leads to arrests

Kelly Kaczmarek was sitting in her ethics class yesterday afternoon, when a campus police officer came to question her about having what appeared to be a weapon. Kaczmarek was one of several students carrying toy Nerf guns on campus as part of a week-long role-playing game called Humans vs. Zombies.

Brought to you by the same city which arrested those who had airsoft guns.

If you want to read more about Humans vs. Zombies, go here.

read more | digg story

Some comments about Facebook

I have a moment or two this morning, so I just wanted to get some comments down on screen about Facebook, namely the profile for “Sidney Ribeau” and the “RCC sucks” group.

First, there’s the profile for Sidney Ribeau on the BGSU portion of Facebook. The biggest issue I see with this is that the contact info includes an e-mail that is not Dr. Ribeau’s at all, but instead belongs to one Aaron O’Neill. How odd… I didn’t know that was Dr. Ribeau’s secret identity. One might be willing to say I’ve uncovered the crime of the century, but as this has nothing to do with the theft of peoples’ garbage, I highly doubt it. I did the only thing I could really think of: sent an e-mail to the Office of the President. While the profile wasn’t defamatory to Dr. Ribeau, I thought they should be aware of it. After all, I doubt there are many people in the upper echelons of the any university who use Facebook (or MySpace, orkut, etc) with any regularity, and only know what they have heard from others or seen over the shoulders of students and young professionals that may work for them. And who am I to say that Mr. O’Neill isn’t making the profile for Dr. Ribeau, and would cause more problems by reporting the profile as fake? I doubt this is the case, but the Office of the President can look into it and do what they will.

My other comment on Facebook is a group near and dear to my heart: RCC Sucks-their taking all of the bandwith away from students. It’s not that I have a problem with a Facebook group that is opposed to networking policies of the university, it’s just more that I don’t expect much to come from this group. We’ve been telling students a phrase constantly over the last couple years about what they can do to work on getting the policies changed.

We would encourage you to take any concerns or suggested changes in policies to student government organizations such as the Undergraduate Student Government, or Resident Student Association.

Has anything happened as a result of this? The answer is a simple no, and I think that is the part that is frustrating. I’d like to think that the Facebook group will change this, but at the moment, I truly doubt it, despite the description that they have.

all students need to complain so we can get bandwidth back.

lets make this a group effort

us gamers need our internet to be fast

lol i spelled bandwidth wrong in the group name. o well

Yep, they did misspell bandwidth, used the wrong spelling of “they’re”, and haven’t heard of capitalization or punctuation. That, as a member of University, makes me feel that the institution has failed. Can you expect anything from a group that the creator fails to communicate in the mutually agreed upon language, that is, English?

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Three of our staff joined the group and posted unofficial messages on the group’s wall, as well as did one of our alumni. What happened to their comments, which offered helpful information about RCC, the network, and what they can do, or the post someone (not an employee) made commenting on their spelling? Dust in the wind. But do not worry, the comments about the sexual orientation of RCC are still there, in case you were wondering.

I’m not saying I’m not sympathetic to their issue. How does one protect a network that is for a business (BGSU) but still have it usable as a network in a home (the residence halls)? That is one hell of a gray area, and difficult to manage. Then again, from a professional standpoint, that is what makes universities an interesting place to work.

How to get a geek guy

I found this via Digg and had to post it myself.


Yes, it’s not a common question, but I see this question pop up often enough that it warrants a HOWTO for those who want to know. So, how to get a geek guy - and keep him.#1: Be a straight female. Now, before you gay and lesbian geeks rush me, calm down. Yes, I know same-sex-oriented geeks exist. They’re scarce. No, don’t write to yell that you’re a gay geek and so are four of your friends and that proves me wrong. You’re rare. Anyway, this post is how to land a straight male geek.

#2: Be direct. Geek guys tend to be in a shell. They are generally defensive and aloof. They aren’t cold in the least; they’re just extremely polite. Geeks tend to live by “do unto others”. A geek guy who doesn’t kiss you is worried about forcing himself. Grab him and plant one. Let him stagger and shake it off, but if he shows signs of recovering too quickly, grab him and plant one again. Subtlety and coyness completely fails with geeks; they’ll be confused and expect that you’re not on Pon Farr or are a nun or something. Where other guys need no provocation, a geek guy has to be brained on the noggin a couple of times, then he’ll get the idea.

#3: Be smart and/or funny. At least don’t hide your smarts. Unlike some other breeds of men, geek guys have no insecurities about their masculinity and so do not feel threatened by a smart, capable female. Show him that you can be a good “teammate” in life - yes, geek guys think that logically and practically. As for funny, consider that geeks are cerebral and introverted - they rarely laugh out loud. Make a geek guy laugh, and you’ll be on his mind for the rest of the day.

#4: Don’t cling. That is to say, geek guys are amazingly low maintenance. You need what attention you need, and of course should make it known. When you’re thinking of doing something just for him, surprising him with small, thoughtful gestures and little favors go a lot farther than constant adoration.

#5: Humor his “shop talk”. If he works as a freelance coder or consultant or has a small start-up, he might not have a lot of people to talk about work with. If so, expect that he’ll dump about ten minutes per day of incomprehensible babble at you. Put on your “I’m listening” face and wait til the stream of talk about his latest programming language pet peeve or hardware frustration or anti-DRM rant passes, then relax. You’re done with it for another day, and geek guys need to share this kind of stuff as a way to explain it to themselves. Keep him in mind that you’re not his debugger, however.

#6: While respecting his work, do try to pry him off his computer or his Star Trek DVDs or his Dungeon-Mastering and get him outside in the fresh air every now and then. If his protests aren’t in the shrieking range, it wasn’t that important; he’ll perk up as soon as you have him off the machine. Bonus points if you prowl town for interesting fun places to drag him to. That’s all I can think of. I’m married 12 years, now, and this is how she’s bagged and kept me.


This was taken from http://penguinpetes.com/b2evo/index.php?title=one_for_the_ladies_how_to_date_a_geek_gu&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1. I couldn’t help but copy and paste it onto my site. It was a moment of weakness. Sure, I’ve only been married for one-tenth of the time of the original poster, but it still holds true.

How to deal with the soul-crushing futility of a job

I do not really read Dilbert, but someone I work with sent me this comic via e-mail because

I think it was the giant tub of coffee that made me think of you.

I of course sent it on to a friend of mine before posting it here.

Dilbert cartoon




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