Technically it was yesterday System Administrator Day but meh. A salute to all my fellow geeks out there.
Category Archives: Geek Speak - Page 2
SWTOR
Posted by Josh
on July 31, 2009
1 comment
Blogging from my iPhone
Posted by Josh
on July 31, 2009
No comments
Ode To The Laptop
Posted by Josh
on May 22, 2007
4 comments
Today Stephanie and I booted up our Dell 5150 for the last time. The screen flashed white while booting up and then blacked out completely. I’m honestly surprised it’s lasted this long with its heating problems and the all the “abuse” I’ve done to it. So to honor the life of Dell 5150 I’ve written a eulogy.
Dell 5150, better known to his loved ones as Lappy, was brought into the world in December of 2003. Lappy was always full of life and always ready for his next challenge. Despite his rather large size and over-heating issues, Lappy found his way into the hearts of the Kerr family. Running not only Windows but Gentoo Linux and Ubuntu Linux, Lappy truly had a diverse life.
In the spring of 2006, Lappy was sent to the emergency room due to a bad hard drive. Though the times were tough, Lappy managed to pull through with flying colors. Regrettably though, Lappy’s heating problem worsen. He lived a fruitful life for another year until the Good Lord called him home. Lappy was not just ‘some laptop’ he was a ‘big-lug’ that you grew to love. Lappy, you will be missed *though probably replaced by a Macbook Pro*.
Love
Josh and Steph
Dell + Ubuntu = ?
Posted by Josh
on May 18, 2007
No comments
The Dell and Ubuntu deal was announced a while back and to be honest I’m pumped about it yet a little scared at the same time. I’ve been using Ubuntu for some time now and I’ve said many in the past it’s the most user-friendly Linux distribution out there. My sentiment is shared by a lot of other people too so that it’s a comforting to know that an easy to use Linux distribution will be the guinea pig.
To better understand my fear we have to break down users into categories. While there is no official break down, these are mine:
- Grandma
- Teenager
- Adult
- Geek
The Grandma knows what a computer is but if she has to spend more than 5 minutes doing something she’s going to get flustered and give up. Grandmas check their email, write a document, and like to see photos of their kids via the “interweb”. Grandmas will go to the “not so” Best Buy or Dell and get the biggest piece of crap that is way too much computer for them. Ask them how big their hard drive is and they’ll give you a blank stare and eventually make a shape of an ‘L’ with both hands and hold them up to make a rectangle.
Coming Back to the Penguin
Posted by Josh
on May 18, 2007
1 comment
Yeah… so after I stopped playing World Of Warcraft I decided to redo my setup at home. The long and the short of it, I backed up all my files and installed Ubuntu Linux. I’ve used Ubuntu in the past and loved it so much more than most other Linux distros and it’s nice to see that it has only gotten better with time. The LiveCD installer works so much better than others that I’ve used and it’s just so easy to use. If you ever wanted to try Linux, go with Ubuntu.
I also installed Gentoo Linux on a second computer. I’ve run Gentoo in the past, much like Ubuntu, however Gentoo has always been more of an in depth distro. Even now as I write this I cry as I get yet “library cannot be linked” error when I know that the library is in fact there. Thankfully, Gentoo’s forums and wiki are the best I’ve seen with their in depth and up-to-date information which makes just about any problem easy enough to fix. Now if Ubuntu’s wiki and forums were this good they would rule the world but it’s not. So while it doesn’t rule the world, its still the most user-friendly distro out there.
Drug Dealers vs. Geeks
Posted by Josh
on March 5, 2007
No comments
http://www.silliness.org/drugsvsgeeks.html
| Drug Dealers | Software Developers |
| Refer to their clients as “users” | Refer to their clients as “users” |
| “The first one’s free!” | “Download a free trial version…” |
| Have important Asian connections. | Have important Asian connections. |
| Strange jargon:”Stick”"Rock”
“Wrap” “E” “Stash” “Drive-by” “Hit (LSD)” “Source” “The Pigs” |
Strange jargon:”SCSI”"RTFM”
“Packet” “C” “Cache” “CTRL ALT DEL” “Hit (WWW)” “Source-code” “Microsoft” |
| Realize that there’s tons of cashin the 14- to 25-year-old market | Realize that there’s tons of cashin the 14- to 25-year-old market |
| Clients really like your stuff when it works.When it doesn’t work they want to kill you. | Clients really like your stuff when it works.When it doesn’t work they want to kill you. |
| Job is assisted by the industry’sproducing newer, more potent product. | Job is assisted by the industry’sproducing newer, more potent products. |
| Often seen in the company of pimps,hustlers and low-lifes. | Often seen in the company of marketingpeople, venture capitalists and fund managers. |
| When things go wrong, a “fix” is justa phone call away, but may be expensive. | When things go wrong, a “fix” is justa phone call away, but may be expensive. |
| A lot of people are getting richwhile still teenagers. | A lot of people are getting richwhile still teenagers. |
| Product causes unhealthy addictions | DOOM, Quake, SimCity, Duke Nukem 3D… |
| Do your job well and you can sleep withsexy movie stars who depend on you. | Damn! DAMN!!! |
Choices
Posted by Josh
on January 29, 2007
No comments
Joel Spolsky had an interesting article about choices and I couldn’t help but think of it when I saw this. Seriously, what were they thinking?
Interweb Blues II
Posted by Josh
on September 15, 2006
1 comment
When I last spoke about my internet speed and the wonderful customer service I said,
Mark my words though, if I have to put up with another incompetent tech there will be hell to pay.
Well guess what? There’s hell to pay. The Time Warner tech came out, asked me the usual questions and didn’t do squat. In fact he was more interested in my rig than my problem?! Here are some of his best comments and questions that he asked me.
What seems to be the problem?
First off, don’t you people read your case notes? You’re the second tech to come out, don’t you think it would be in your best interest to know why you came out?
I see you play Warcraft. Do you know where I can get a cracked copy of Frozen Throne?
Focus on the problem, not on my wallpaper and games. Also, why would you ask a client for something illegal when your in uniform?
Yes sir I did bring a new modem. But I’m not going to waist the time to install it. You’re getting 800KB/s which is below our minimum server but I’m not going to do it?
So why did you come out? What am I paying you people for? Replace the modem. Try it out. Make me, the customer, happy. All residential lines are setup on 7Megs down and 1 Meg up. I’m not even getting a Meg down! What do you have to loose?
There are a lot of houses in the neighborhood and with that many people, you’re going to have slow service.
It’s 2:00 in the afternoon on a weekday?! I seriously doubt that my service is getting bottlenecked by all the stay at home moms! Yes I know that when a lot of people in the neighborhood are on my speed will drop some but think before you try to pass this one by.
You know, a slow computer can be the cause of your connection speed.
Excuse me?
What do you have in your computer?
OK, I’ll bite. AMD 2600+ on an Asus NForce2 mobo, 1GB PC3200, Nvidia 660GT Zalman cooled, and a 74GB Raptor. It’s not bleeding edge but it can more than handle the games that I play. Next question?
Wow, nice rig. Can you help me build one? Where do you get your hardware?
Newegg, it’s your friend. And no, we’re focusing on the client’s horrible service, not your future machine. Focus man, focus!
Well sir, you’re getting bad packet loss and there is nothing I can do.
This is why I begged the “almighty” level III tech support not to send out another tech. Needless to say, I called the billing department and had a nice long talk with them. Now my case has been “elevated” to a supervisor whom I’m still waiting for his/her call. Thanks Time Warner. Thanks for sending out two techs to do nothing but tell me that I having problems with your service. Thanks for the long holds and even longer transfer times. Thanks.