Archive for March, 2007

toothpaste for dinner Videos

Published by Sean Et Cetera on March 21, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

For the last week or so, Drew from toothpaste for dinner has been putting up videos of he, his wife, and his dogs on YouTube. Once you watch some of them, it’s plain to see why his comics are so random and hilarious. I particularly like his interview with his dog. His wife also has her own videos, which have their own style of humor, but are still great to watch.

These two might actually cause me to watch YouTube on a regular basis. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing.

UWM, RIAA, and Digg

Published by Sean Et Cetera on March 20, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

First, I’d like to say that I reached a first sometime around 1:40 EST this morning; a story I submitted to digg was made popular. To quote Matt at work:

Wow Sean, now you’re going to have all this clout. You can just start submitting any story you want now.

The article in question is titled University of Wisconsin-Madison Will Not Forward RIAA Letters To Students, which I found on The Consumerist, and you can digg the story here.

The article itself, which is mainly an article about an e-mail sent to The Consumerist by a student at University of Wisconsin-Madison, simply comes down to this: the universities are going to protect the students as well they can, but are going to make sure the students know that continuing to download music that they do not legally have the license to may face trouble down the line. Personally, I am not made aware of how many letters and what not we (the university) get about students using p2p in the residence halls, so I do not know where Bowling Green State University stands in relation to all this, but I’m sure we get some, based solely on the fact that I know my staff encounter p2p on student computers and that they all cannot be using the program for legal means. Really, not that many people need the latest linux distro.

While I don’t think that people have a right to take music just because it is so easy to get in mp3 format, I do not agree with the manner in which the RIAA is going about trying to catch people. While I am not as learned in the subject as I ought to be, I personally believe that aspects of the RIAA’s stances and arguments about the recent crackdown on student downloading are flawed. One article of counter arguments can be found on Techdirt, but overall, plenty of other players are getting involved, like NPR, but that’s more about radio play than downloading music. Overall, there’s just enough information available regarding the RIAA to see that why care more about the companies they represent than the artists, though that’s probably because many of the companies, and not the artists, are the holders of many of the copyrights to the songs.

As I said yesterday, the post I created was based upon a site I found via digg. The amusing thing was that for a couple hours afterwards, I was getting hits from Google searches regarding the string 584e4d59c580ca10f301d53814b700da, which the original poster included in his post. For those who care, it’s likely (99.99%) a hash that you can’t do a reverse look-up on. That’s why he had said “cryptically speaking”.

About Tech Speak

Published by Sean Et Cetera on March 19, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Courtesy of digg, I came across a post by Andrew Gonsalves “Halx” on www.tfproject.org that was titled
10 Reasons Why “Tech Speak” Is The Best Language To Learn, in which he mentions the benefits of tech speak. By that, it is not meant that you know coding per se, or that you walk around referencing buzzwords, but as he says, “Tech Speak is simply the language of technology; the understanding of where the world is going and the tidbits of knowledge needed to stay adrift.”

The benefits he listed are:
10. Confidence
9. Technology = Future
8. General Exposure to Knowledge
7. A Worldly Perspective
6. Problem Solving Made Tech-y
5. Knowledge Portability
4. Articulation & Specification
3. Troubleshooting
2. Code is Organized. Thoughts are Not.
1. It’s cool.

Below are the benefits he gave with some explanations, as well as any comments I may have on them, if any, as the author did a decent job of thinking these through before posting them. In his posting, he mentions he’d rather know Tech Speak than a foreign language, as it makes you “10 times more versatile than all those other bilingual show-offs”, which is a point I’d have to disagree on, as that all depends on what you plan on doing, or have to do later in life.

10. Confidence:

Today, I fielded a call from a young lady who was having trouble figuring out a website she had been tasked with managing. After taking a brief look at the site, I was halfway embarrassed to guide her through the steps to updating her site. She was scared of the site. She didn’t want to touch anything, even if it was labeled with exactly what it would do if she touched it. A tech-savvy individual is not intimidated. Even after encouraging this woman to fiddle around and find out through trial and error, she could not bring herself to click anything without direct instruction. 10 out of 10 geeks reading this article are probably saying to themselves, “Give me a crack at that site and I’ll know how it works in 5 minutes.” With that, I rest my first case.

We’ve all been there, and I’m sure the students at work deal with this daily, as there are some students we help who do not want to even attempt to repair their own computer and would rather have us do it. After all, that’s why we’re here, but sometimes it’s like going to get your oil changed just to have a windshield wiper replaced; it solves the problem, but it’s a bit of overkill.

9. Technology = Future

Don’t hit the “Back” button yet! I know it’s obvious, but it has to be said; those who embrace technology will inherit the future. I’m sure Barnes and Noble feels a bit cheated when a company half as old posts twice as much revenue. That company would be Amazon.com, a company born and raised on technology. Questionable business practices aside, Amazon is a great example of old business done new.

The number of computers-per-household is not regressing any time soon. The Internet is getting more interactive, connections are getting faster and computers are getting more accessible. The world is moving away from brick & mortar and into bits & bytes. To put it cryptically: 584e4d59c580ca10f301d53814b700da. I bet you wish you knew what I just said.

That is a relatively short and simple way of saying technology is the future. On a related note, I had once come across a quote about the changing face of campuses that hits on the same theme, and it went something like “in less than a generation, college campuses have changed from ‘bricks and ivy’ to ‘clicks and ivy’.”

And no, I have no idea what 584e4d59c580ca10f301d53814b700da means, aside from being random gibberish that could be a hash or something. Doing a reverse MD5 hash lookup does not give you anything. Sorry Diggers.

8. General Exposure to Knowledge

When I’m asked a question I don’t know the answer to, I look it up. I get the answer quickly and I look clever to the person who asked me. Everyone uses the Internet, but they don’t always know how to use it to get what they want. Tech Speak includes the utilization of your best resources for know-how. I need a T-shirt that says, “Just Google It.” Can someone sell one to me? I want it in black.

We have search engines. We have wikis. We have forums. We have social networking. We have open source. Even if we don’t actively search for knowledge on the Internet, we are presented with it whether we like it or not. We’ve all heard that knowledge is power, but I have a different view on it. Knowledge is peace. Not to turn this into an overture for my life’s philosophy, but on average, the more you know about something, the less you reject it.

I recently had this happen at my New Employee Orientation at work. Ignore the fact that I’ve been here since 2004. During the diversity portion of the program, we were all given bingo-esque sheets with a variety of “multicultural” terms and references, and had to find someone who represented or knew the term for a box. I noticed a term on there that I didn’t know, and I (rightly) assumed no one else would. The word was nisei, and it is defined as “a term used in countries in North and South America to specify the son or daughter (born outside Japan) of an Issei couple”. I had simply pulled out my LG VX9800, accessed the web, and looked the answer up on Wikipedia. The leader of the presentation admitted that I was one of the first persons he had seen to know the answer, which did make me proud, but I felt obligated to mention that I had looked it up on the Internet.

7. A Worldly Perspective

In the same groove of having access to knowledge, technology gives you access to news. If you know where to get your news, you discover that there is a lot more to the world than what CNN and FOX tell you. Sure, the media giants are good for letting you know about major events in the world, but if you care about the validity of information that you digest, you can find enlightenment on the Internet. Independent news publishers, blogs, discussion forums, and open source portals give you a wide range of takes on important issues that maybe, just maybe, the media giants reported from a slightly biased viewpoint. Get the whole story and form your own opinions. Get feedback on your opinions. Grow and form new opinions. All with the help of technology.

6. Problem Solving Made Tech-y

The goal of programming is to efficiently solve a problem. The lessons of programming can be easily ported over into real life. Rather, the concept of problem solving in programming mimics the best way to handle problems in your daily flow. It’s all one big analogy, actually. With experience you begin to realize the worth of identifying problems accurately and honestly, or else your code (the fix) is dirty, nobody else can read (understand) it but you, and nobody can learn from it because it only works for the situation you used it for. Ahh, proprietary software. Inadvertently, I’ve just advocated for open source.

Forgive me; that last paragraph made no sense. Don’t bother reading it again for hidden messages you might have missed the first go-around. I’ll explain it here. I’m using programming as a metaphor for problem solving and life in general. An ideal program is written with as little code as possible, while fulfilling all of its functional requirements and taking up only as much resources as is necessary. Likewise, a few lessons we learn in life are to be brief, be effective and do not impose. The problem-solving portion of those lessons lies in how we accomplish that.

5. Knowledge Portability

I first picked up a computer in 1991. From that point, I taught myself all about the world of computers. I dove into networking as soon as I had the problem of connecting two computers together. My knowledge of the IT world grew and grew. Little did I realize that this was preparing me to understand the world of telecommunications. In 2001, when my lazy network operations department suddenly transformed into a telecom center, I had to adjust quickly. To my surprise, the world of servers, routers and T3 lines is not too far removed from the world of telco switches, CO’s and land lines. I adjusted. As a result, I can now put expertise in two “completely different” industries on my resume.

Telecommunications isn’t the only area where computer knowledge is relative. If you know how to wire your network, you know how to wire your home entertainment system. If you know how to produce W3C standard HTML, you know how to look up and adhere to general writing standards. If you know how to hide porn on your hard drive, you know how to hide your report card from your mother. It’s all related.

4. Articulation & Specification

If you’ve ever been in tech support, there’s a chance that you’re like me in the way you prefer people to address their problem to you. “Get to the point.” In turn, you know how to communicate your own issues to your counterparts in other areas. You have a clue about what information is relevant and what information really doesn’t matter. You know the worth of context and you know that the only way you’re going to get your question answered is if you’re honest. Likewise, you also know how to twist someone’s arm, however that’s covered in another article I plan to write.

“Real world” issues work no different than technical issues, however those issues don’t always have the streamlined troubleshooting processes that technical issues have, so people usually feel they need to wind up before a pitch. Experience in technology teaches you not only about structure of information, but also about formatting, which is exactly what allows you to let others know exactly what you want. It also helps you be funny, but you have to pay me for that lesson.

3. Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting is a specific form of problem solving that is highly emphasized in the world of technology. The process of stripping an issue down to its bones and methodically reproducing it is worth more than an A+ certification, though. The management of your company uses this process (if they’re smart) to find out why profits are low. Your mechanic uses this process (if he’s tone deaf) to diagnose your car. Your plumber, doctor, and psychiatrist use troubleshooting, too. What’s so special if everyone already does it? What do you think I’m going to say? Techies do it better.

Most of the world revolves around theory. Doctors have to spend the better part of a decade in school, yet second opinions are par for the course. The Tech Speak road through the troubleshooting process leaves nobody satisfied until the problem is isolated. Of course, you’re always more comfortable dissecting a computer than your own body, but you can recognize a thorough checkup when you experience one.

2. Code is Organized. Thoughts are Not.

My new job often catches me wide-eyed and frozen in the face of insurmountable queues of workload. I have to organize my tasks, assign priorities, and then process them according to changing variables in my environment. Does that sound a little mechanical to you? I’m an “artist” of sorts and that statement screams, “soulless and empty.” Never the less, I wasn’t hired for my creative ability. My bedroom may be organized with literally everything in it within arm’s reach (visualize that for a minute), however my office and my work performance needs to be structured and respectable.

Work is just another program I’ve written in my head. This program has more nested conditionals than rand()’s and it’s getting me a lot farther than my previous unemployed-QBASIC-go-with-the-flow style. When I originally thought of the concept for this article, my new job was what inspired me. The ways I am applying what technology has taught me to my work habit have been surprising me. I’m 24 years old with ADD and a really weird sense of humor, but I am doing a great job at work (my opinion) in a position that seems better fit for someone with visual battle scars (read: older and wiser) than a baby-faced toothpick.

1. It’s cool.

This article has been about how technology fits into our world and how proliferated it has become. I don’t REALLY need to explain all of the detailed ins and outs about why it’s worth it to be a geek. The simple truth is that the world has changed, making it possible to be into computers while still being cool. Companies like Apple and Sony give consumers a way to get involved without sacrificing their sense of style. Concepts like open source, social networking and peer-to-peer give users a way to get involved without the intimidation of background checks and credit card numbers. Being involved in all this introduces you to more people than hanging out at bars ever will. Tech Speak is the way.

Mimzy and Mimsy

Published by Sean Et Cetera on March 16, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I caught a commercial on television for a movie last night that made me pause and think. It was titled The Last Mimzy, and something about the word “mimzy” stuck in my mind.

Where had I heard that term before? Such an odd word, one that I had read somewhere in reference to something else.

Then I had it. Before I even looked the movie up on Wikipedia, I knew where I knew that word from. I recalled typing that word out when I did a book review on my site over a year ago; it was referenced in a story. Mimsy were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett (the joint pen name for Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore) was the name of a short story that appear in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One which a friend had lent to me. That book, which I have back posted with the same post id and timestamp, was full of great science fiction stories. One of these days I will purchase it, but I digress.

When I reviewed that story, I wrote the following:

Mimsy Were the Borogoves - 10/10
Salmon are born, and they swim to the sea, only returning to their birthplace to give birth to another generation. Why is it, then, that man does not go downstream? Be careful of what you send back in time. To understand it all, you’d have to look through the looking glass.

The story was interesting, and I’m sure has been modified for the screen to the point where they are not quite the same thing, much like the movie A.I., which was based on Super-Toys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss. Anyway, the synopsis is that in the far future, some scientist is attempting to get a machine of some nature (possibly a time machine) to work, but with limited success. He uses things he has about as test materials for the machine, such as his children’s old toys. The machine ends up sending these items into the past, and at two particular points in time.

Some of the toys are first, temporally speaking, found by Alice Liddell, who was the inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll (which was the pen name for Charles Dodgson). No one knows that Alice has these toys, but Charles does ask her about some of the things she says. That’s why some of the passages in Charles’ books can sometimes seem non-nonsensical.

Next, the toys are found by a boy in 1945, who then also allows his baby sister to play with them. Both kids start acting different than the other kids, and the parents get concerned. At times, the brother appears to sit and listen to what his sister is saying, as if he is being taught something, but it sounds like babel to the adults. At the end of the book, the father is outside while the children are upstairs. He thinks he hears something or sees something coming from the room they are in, but when he gets there, he finds odd item around the floor and strange writing, but his children are no where to be seen. His mind catches on some of the writing, but he fails to understand it, and it slips away.

One of the reasons I mention salmon swimming upstream and then leaving again is because it is something the boy asks his father at some point; why don’t people swim out to sea after they grow up? One of the reasons he asks this is because it is what the toys are teaching him and his sister; they are both being educated about concepts in methods that are beyond are grasp today. The reason he listens to his sister is because his mind has already become use to the real way he is supposed to think according to our standards, but his younger sister, who is only a couple years old, hasn’t had her mind shaped to our world. She is actually the one who is educating him, and he goes to get things for her that she asks for so that they can, at the end of the book, swim out to sea.

The story was great, and I hope the movie does it justice, but it was only a short story, which is why the movie has plot details about the future being in trouble because of pollutants, and that they (the children) need to send the toys back to the future because they now “contain DNA of a pure world”. Or something like that. I’ll probably see the movie, I just hope I’m not too disappointed by it.

Automatic Updates can sometimes be an issue

Published by Sean Et Cetera on March 15, 2007 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

So, all day long I kept noticing the Automatic Updates shield down in my systray on my work laptop. I knew eventually I was going to have to take care of it, but I figured I was going to wait until later this evening. When work was over, I shut down my laptop. Frak, I already had the updates downloaded and ready to install. So I let the machine start updating as I get ready to go.

svchost.exe — application error the instruction at “0x########” reference memory at “0×00000000″. the memory could not be ‘read’

Frak again. Immediately I knew nothing good was going to come of this, so I closed the lid and took it home. I figured the following were going to be in my list of problems:

  1. My computer was, for all intents, dead. It had locked up during an installation of an update while Windows XP was shutting down. Reinstall is my only way out.
  2. Some portion of Windows XP was now corrupt, and I was going to waste some time figuring out what by going through Safe Mode and fixing it before I could get into Windows.
  3. Windows was going to be fine, except for one thing, and I would at least be able to get into Windows normally.

Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, as my computer did start up with no problems. Well, it did seem to take a bit longer to load the user profile, but then again, that could have been normal and I just didn’t notice. When I got into Windows, I was given an error message about a generic service being shut down. A quick Google of “svchost dies during windows update” led me to a list of feeds about windows updates, from which then led me to an article called “Windows Update Broke My Machine” which lists what they did to solve the problem, which worked for me as well, as the files that were already downloaded to my machine didn’t appear to want to install.

  1. Boot the PC, right click “My Computer” and hit properties.
  2. Click the Automatic Updates tab.
  3. Turn off Automatic Updates.
  4. Reboot the computer.
  5. When the machine is booted, manually go to Windows Updates.
  6. Do a complete Windows Update.
  7. Reboot if the Updates don’t already insist that you do.

Fortunately, that worked. After all, I don’t work tomorrow, so I didn’t want to spend my day off trying to get my laptop working so I could use it over the weekend.

Bad Behavior has blocked 137 access attempts in the last 7 days.