Diary of a Network Geek

Cool!
While looking for the context of a particular quote, I found Summer's Realm, which had lots of other quotes. I like funny and inspirational quotes, so I took some of the ones I liked best and added them into the "Advice from your Uncle Jim" data pile for the sheer joy of it. But, I would have felt bad if I didn't give the nice girl who collected them all together credit for doing so.
Now, I have and feel better.

Here's some food for thought.
I have an artist friend who looks at the world in very interesting ways. He had some advice for dealing with someone who is saying something that gets on your nerves that was actually passed on to me by a mutual friend.
He said, since people are always telling him that their dog seems to know that they're thinking
and understand what they're saying, that it's almost as if it can talk. And, he wondered; what if their dog really could talk? It wouldn't matter what it said, or how dumb it was, it would be so amazing that your dog was speaking that you'd listen in rapt fascination. So he takes that approach when he's talking to people that are trying his nerves. He just says to himself, "Look, that animal can talk, that's AMAZING!!!!" Try it sometime. It really does work amazingly well. If nothing else, it makes me smile enough to distract me from how annoying the speaker is to me.

Incidentally, that was the front man for Culturcide, who now does very unusual, process-oriented art with paint and lace that is very popular with a certain culture-obsessed set in Houston. He's an interesting guy with an obviously interesting way of seeing the world.

Oh, Mr. Cruise, what were you thinking?
It must have been those pesky Thetans, eh? Did you see this crazy interview with Tom Cruise and Mat Lauer? Basically, Mr. Cruise says that psychiatry doesn't work because, empirical evidence aside, biochemical imbalances in the brain don't exist. Instead, Mr. Cruise asserted that we should somehow get to the "root of the problem" and use vitamins instead of anti-depressants. Hmm, interesting. So, we're not supposed to believe in a scientific method of behavior modification, but we are supposed to believe in posession.
After all, isn't that what you call it when disembodied spirits inhabit a physical lifeform? And, what are those nasty Thetans, Tommy? Yeah, disembodied spirits that we're supposed to exorcise, or "clear", so that we can get on with our life unimpeded. In a nutshell, then, we're supposed to ignore hundreds of years of empirical, scientific progress and return to the Middle Ages. Well, lawyers do say that posession is 9/10ths of the law, but I don't think this is what they had in mind.

Now, I believe in "things unseen" and a spiritual world, but I don't think that these things directly interact with my life. Certainly, not in the sense that I'd be posessed by Thetans that make me miserable. People make themselves plenty miserable without any help from invisible beasties! Honestly, much of my personal philosophy about how God works in the world comes from Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People, which was written by a Rabbi. It may not be the hardline Christian point of view, but then, I've never been a very good hardline Christian, either. I think it was growing up in a Jewish neighborhood. Anyway, my point is that I'd rather rely on REAL science for help than some wacky pseudoreligion, invented by a science-fiction writer, that happens to have "science" in the name.

And, think about this, L. Ron Hubbard has been quoted in Science Fictionisms as saying:

"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man wanted to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion." --L. Ron Hubbard, Founder of Scientology

Now, do what few Scientologists would ask you to do, make up your own mind.

Oh, this is a little sick.
Okay, so you've heard people talk about those little USB memory sticks, right? Well, when they first came out, we called them thumb drives, because they... Er, well, just because. Yeah, I can't remember why, exactly, right now, but that doesn't matter. Why? Because someone has created an actual thumb drive. Yeah, a USB drive that looks like a thumb. An actual, realistic thumb. It's down-right creepy!

Aw, c'mon, you know you want to click on the link! Go ahead, it's Friday, no one's looking!

Wow, my traffic sure hit a spike in March!
And, it's been dropping off ever since. Hmm, I wonder who's not obsessively stalking my website these days? Or is it that I don't talk enough about popular subjects, like Strom Thurman. Yeah, can you believe that's still my number one search term? You'd think that "lucy liu porn" or "mariska hargitay porn" would do it more often, like over at Fantasist.net. Go figure! Well, I'm sure when the divorce is over and I'm feeling a little more talky about strange and personal things, traffic will pick up. Not to mention when I finally start dating again! Hmm, I could test future date's "geek cred" by seeing how impressed they are with my Googlerank. (I'm still the number one hit for "CNE resume" on Google.) What's a guy got to do to get webstalkers? Never mind, don't answer that!

Well, time enough for all that. And, of course, I am more than my traffic stats.

Address unknown!
Not only is that a great Elvis tune, but also the new plan that Microsoft is trying to force down our throats. At least, according to this article on CNet News.com. And, when I say "force", I do mean force. According to the article, not only is Microsoft's Sender ID a not fully adopted "standard", but it's also not quite ready for prime time. Seems that there are some issues with it and that's one of the reason it hasn't been adopted as readily as Redmond would like. Also, according to the article "Sometime around November, Hotmail and MSN will flag as potential spam those messages that do not have the tag to verify the sender". So, it's not catastrophic, but it has the potential for trouble. I mean, do we really need Microsoft, the company most notoriously bad at security in the entire computer software industry, setting an e-mail security standard? I don't think so.
Well, let's hope this one withers on the vine. But, if it doesn't, be sure to check those "spam" e-mails before deleting them. Some may be ones you want to keep!

I had to do a hard thing yesterday.
I had to tell someone that I'd grown very close to that I needed space. Someone on whom I had come to depend for emotional support. Someone who got deeper into my heart than I realized until right when I was telling them I needed to talk to them less. It was terrible for me because this person gave me things I'd never gotten in other relationships. In spite of being told horrible lies and half-truths about me and having no way to verify the veracity of these claims other than my word, this person believed me and took my side. The openness and caring and straight-up validation I got from this relationship is more than I ever hoped to get from anyone.
All of which, of course, is why it was hard to create the distance I needed to be sane again. I wanted to take care of this friend. I wanted to keep them safe and protect them from what I percieved as bad decisions. I wanted to live their life for them. So, I had to detach and put a little healthy space there so I could let them be who they are and not get caught up in wanting them to be how I thought they needed to be. Frankly, when I broke that news, it felt like kicking puppies or drowning kittens, which is about the worst thing I can think of doing or feeling.
I cried a lot afterward. And, then I started calling friends. I made lots of calls, even though I had to leave messages everywhere. People eventually started calling me back. But, they'd already learned what I was just figuring out.
They couldn't help me. I just had to feel the feelings I wanted to avoid.
Man, that sucks.

I find the strangest things on the internet.
Don't ask me how I got to this person's blog, because I have no idea anymore. But, in any case, I found a blog called "Forever Confused" with a post called "Desperation". I'm not completely sure why, but that post really got to me. Not only did I find it sad and somewhat tragic, but, in a strange way, a relief, too.
I've been accused of a lot of crazy stuff in the past year or so and it's been hard, at times, for me to sort out the real from the unreal. I start to question my own motives. I start to see things through other people's eyes and wonder if I'm not more like the way they seem to see me than the way I see myself. Of course, my friends tell me that I'm closer to my own image of who I am, but they've never lived with me. Then, I see a post like this... I look at that continum of behavior within what is broadly described as "domestic violence" and compare it to how I acted in my past relationships. And, I breathed a sigh of relief. Oh, I'm far from perfect and I could be more of a "partner" or "helpmate" than I have been, but I'm not as bad as all that. I'm not the craven, depraved, head-case that I'd almost started to believe I could be. Though, I do still look forward to being able to see a therapist again. The simple fact that I can let others influence me and my opinion of myself to the degree that I do is evidence that I could "benefit" from therapy. Boy, howdy!
Still, I felt my heart go out to this person. She's in a bad place. She's hurting because of who she's with and what's going on. I'm sure there's more to the story than she shows in her blog, but, isn't that always the case? And, what's worse, sight unseen, only from the pain I read in a fairly anonymous blog, I still found myself wanting to rescue her. It must be something hard-wired into a man's brain. "Must be white knight! Must rescue Princess!" Like some kind of chivalric zombie. ("Brains! Brains!") Ah, more evidence that I need my head examined. ("Brains! Brains!" ;)) But, of course, I'm not alone there. The other day I was talking to a friend and he saw that pattern right away, because he'd done the same thing! So, I guess it's common. Ah, well, average once again. I wonder how many women use that as a way to get guys? "Oh, poor me! Help me!" And suddenly, the poor, penile pigeon is saddling up his testosterone horse to ride off and rescue some self-styled princess.
You know, maybe next time around I'll look for someone who's not quite so in need of being saved. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I have complained about off-shoring recently.
So, I guess it's about time to start that again. There are three articles about an identiy theft originating at a call center in India this week; one at the BBC, one at the Register, and one at AustralianIT. It's all the same story though. Allegedly, an employee of a call center in India was selling credit card information. Now, that's bad. But, what's worse is the lack of accountability to the victims. How many of these were non-Indian credit card numbers? Most, I'd imagine. But, where is the alleged crook going to be tried and, if found guilty, punished? India. What recourse do the companies and victims have? Little.
Now, is it still worth it to let American workers go without jobs because it's "cheaper" to farm this out to call centers overseas? Look closely at all the costs involved here, folks. Frankly, I'd rther take a chance with the rural poor here in the States somewhere, anywhere, rather than risk my credit card information with ANY foreginer. I'm not biased in this. I don't care if it's France, India, Russia, or where ever. If my financial data is being sent overseas without my consent, there's a problem. I know what the laws are that govern that here in the USA and I trust those laws. More or less. I don't even understand the legal system in India, much less the actual laws.

It's time to think about bringing business back to the hungry workers here in the USA, Corporate America. Sure, we have our problems, but we still take better care of our own people than we can trust anyone else to do.
Thank you. I feel better now.

Not a laptop, or a desktop, but...
A computer for your wall, ergo a "walltop". An interesting conversion or update of the simple digital picture frame, this do-it-yourself project is the first of its kind that I've seen. The article literally takes you through cannibalizing a laptop for insertion into a regular picture frame which can then be hung on the wall. Of course, it's displayed without a charger cord dangling from it, but I'd imagine you'd end up with it plugged in most of the time. Still, the possibilities for digital and interactive art are impressive. Also, this particular DIY article keeps the touch-pad mouse as part of the installation, so there could potentially be some actual interactivity.
Hmm, I think I have an old laptop around that I might be willing to sacrifice for this....

Yikes! I guess I'm getting to be even more of a hardcore geek as I get older! Still, a walltop computer could be fun. Aw, why not click the link and check it out? It's Friday and you know you're looking for a good, indoor, project this weekend!