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Posts tagged Geek
iAmunderwhelmed
Jan 27th
Basically.
I’m more loyal to individual pieces of gear/gadgetry that do what I need them to do and meet my needs as a geek and consumer. Over the past year, I went from loving my Windows Mobile smartphone to swearing I’d never go back after I had my first taste of Android heaven. If a device solves a problem of mine or makes my life easier, I’m all about it. If it’s less expensive than its competitors or alternatives, I’m about it even more.
With that said, I don’t “get” the iPad hype. To clarify – I can see how *some people* might find it interesting and/or useful, but I’m not one of those people, and especially not for over $400.
Someone said today that the iPad is a middle ground between the iPhone and a netbook. If that’s true, that explains why I have absolutely no desire to have one. I am currently using an Android smartphone. There is not a single core smartphone feature an iPhone has that my Android does not. In fact, there are several features mine *does* have that an iPhone doesn’t. I also pay a lot less money per month than iPhone users do. As far as a netbook is concerned, I have never once had an occasion where I said, “Wow, I sure wish I had a much smaller, less powerful laptop on which to surf the web and type uncomfortably.” I also don’t use a Kindle or similar device, so the “it’s the Kindle-killer” draw doesn’t get me either.
To Apple fanboys, this is blasphemy. I must not have ever used an Apple product, otherwise I’d be hooked and putting in my iPad pre-order right now. They retort that I’m just an “Apple hater.” False. Let me say that I really like my husband’s Macbook, and I wouldn’t mind having one of my own. I think they have the best all-around notebooks on the market. I don’t hate Apple.
It’s just that I would rather use more affordable technology that works better (for me) than jump on their bandwagon “just because.” For example, Rhapsody is far superior to iTunes for many reasons, not the least of which is unlimited music for $14 a month. I cannot use Rhapsody with an iPod or iPhone in the way that I can with my Sansa player. I don’t want an iPod Touch or any other product that’s dependent on iTunes for music.
I mean yeah, I like to go into the Apple store and tinker around sometimes, and I’m sure I’ll try out the iPad for giggles… but to pay for it? Not for me. I guess I just haven’t found the Apple device that will make me spend more money to get what I already have.
Never underestimate a geek.
Jul 22nd
This is funny. DMX ain’t got nothin’ on this dude. THIS right here is GANGSTA. LOL
(07-15) 19:12 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco computer engineer charged with masterminding a cyber-coup of the city’s network is being paid as he sits in jail, refusing to allow other administrators to get into the system that controls e-mails, law enforcement records and payroll documents, authorities said Tuesday.
Terry Childs, 43, of Pittsburg, who earns a six-figure salary with the city Technology Department, appeared in court Tuesday on four felony counts of computer tampering before being returned to his jail cell. He is being held in lieu of $5 million bail, an amount his lawyer called “crazy.”
Hrmph.
Aug 14th
So it wasn’t *just* the hard drive. The motherboard is toast. Thankfully, my sweet and generous husband is letting me use his second laptop temporarily.
I cannibalized the machine last night, taking out the hard drives, optical drives and RAM… the rest is being chunked in the garbage. So long, old friend.
Backtracking
Aug 13th
Turns out the hard drive was bad. It died last night, despite a valliant week-long effort to survive. I’m picking up a new one after work, so hopefully tonight, I can be installed, restored, updated and ready to go. I have a ton of literally mission-critical work to get done ASAP, so I might not do the Linux thing for now. I just have too much to learn to get going efficiently and quickly. Enough nerd talk.
So the John Mayer show was a blast! It was at the Ford Amphitheater in Tampa, and we had lawn seats. We got there pretty early and staked out an outstanding little piece of grass right up against the front fence, so we had nothing obstructing our view. The sound was great. The only drawback was the weather. It was blazing hot and humid until the sun started to set, and then the skies opened up in a huge thunderstorm. We really had nowhere to go, so Lauren and I tucked our blanket under us and huddled under a rain poncho. The storm lasted through the last half of Ben Folds’ set and through the intermission, and cleared up just before John’s show.
The show itself was great. I was disappointed that he didn’t do a couple of my favorite songs, but the ones he did choose were wonderful. He played a 3-song encore, which is rare. All in all a wonderful show. I hope to see JM many more times in his career. Maybe he’ll be to me like my mom is with Dan Fogelberg. 
Anyway, we got to Keith’s house at about 1 AM, stayed up talking for a bit, and got a little bit of sleep. We left Tampa the next morning at 7:10 and headed back to Gainesville.
Gotta get to work… more later.
Duh
Aug 30th
Finally figured out why this blog theme wasn’t working in IE. The YouTube video I had embedded was too wide for it and threw it off. Fixed now.
The Great Internet Outage of 2006
Aug 14th
We finally got the internet working at our new place. It was quite an ordeal. At our complex, you can’t just go with the local cable company. They’re in an exclusive contract with this other company for DirecTV, cable, and optional cable internet. Well, we signed up for the internet and thought it would be fine. We hooked up the modem, got sync, but no IP/DNS. This was three weeks ago. We kept calling tech support and none of them knew anything. I mean… total morons. Didn’t know what sync was. Couldn’t tell us when it was going to be fixed. We finally decided to just go with Bellsouth DSL.
Well even that was an ordeal. I bought a DSL bridge on Ebay and when the guy shipped it, he didn’t include our apartment number. So the package wasn’t delivered when it was supposed to be. I called UPS the next day and told them our apartment number, and asked them to hold it at the service center so I could pick it up. I went over there on my lunch hour and the girl couldn’t find it. Said it probably went back out on the truck and it should be delivered that night. It wasn’t. Mike called the next day and “spoke” to them. heh. Long story short, it came this past Friday evening.
Couldn’t get the thing working. Sync, but no throughput. Called tech support twice (on hold for a total of two hours) and they couldn’t fix it. The technician from India decided to order us a new modem. In the meantime, I decided to go to work and download the manual to try to fix it myself. Burned the manual to a CD, got the CD home and it was corrupt. GRRRRR!
The next day (Saturday), we went to Mike’s job and downloaded/burned it again. We got home, logged into the modem, changed a setting and VOILA! Connected! I called Bellsouth back to cancel the new modem order, and I find out that they can’t stop the shipment. Not only that, but for some reason the technician shipped TWO modems. ?!?! So now I’ve gotta wait on the shipments, then call back AGAIN to tech support to get an RMA so I can mail them back.
Such an ordeal. But the bottom line is we have internet now. Three weeks later.
Where I’ve been.
Aug 1st
Ok the last three weeks or so have been nuts. NVTS. (I’ll give you a dollar if you can tell me what movie that came from.)
When my office building collapsed (half of it, anyway), they moved me to a branch a half hour north. I worked there for a couple of weeks, training new hires. Last Thursday, I moved back to my branch, but to a temporary desk. A few minutes ago, I moved to my “semi-permanent” deskspace. It’s a weirdly shaped (kind of a triangle) room with a bunch of random junk in it. I’m sort of stuck in a corner. I don’t yet have a phone. 
At any rate, the rest of my life has been going well. I bought a new computer and PDA the other nite… Check out these specs (nerds):
- P4 2.6 GHz Dell
- 60 GB HDD
- DVD-ROM
- CD-RW/DVD-RW
- Nice video card
- Some decent speakers
- XP Pro and Office XP included
- PLUS a hardly used Dell Axim X5 PDA with a 128 MB CF expansion card. (I bought a Wi-Fi card for it on Ebay.)
All for the incredible price of $350! I got it on Friday and I was going to spend my weekend getting it ready to use and configuring my current computer to give away to my good friend. However, those plans were thwarted by the jerks at Cox Communications.
So, I get home late last week and see a notice on the door that our television service would cease effective 3 PM on Friday because a different company had taken control of the TV service for the complex. So um, I had less than 24 hours notice that my cable and internet were going to be cut off and had no choice about providers! (I found out later we were supposed to have had 30 days notice. Oops!) To add insult to injury, my internet didn’t work all weekend. It just got fixed today.
The cool thing is, for pretty much the same money we were paying, we’re getting like 50 more channels. So all you people who talk about such strangeness as “HBO” and “The Discovery Channel,” I will now be able to join you. I spent much of my weekend watching the NASA channel. 24 hour coverage of the shuttle. Wow. Can’t beat that.
I also did TWELVE… TWELVE… loads of laundry this weekend. TWELVE.
TMI? Maybe.
Feb 14th
You know you’re married to a geek when he works the phrase “content filtering” into sexy talk. LOL
My first Linux entry!
Jul 12th
Ok so this is my first LJ entry from Linux. I’ve got my system dual booting, and I’m using a package called LogJam. Seems pretty simple so far. I also installed GAIM so I can chat with y’all. It’s sort of a Trillian-type thing for Linux. Works great.
I need to make a Walmart/grocery store run today. Mike wants to have dinner in Ocala. Anything to get out of G’ville.
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