Diary of a Network Geek

Yes, today is Friday the Thirteenth.

My day started with a phone call from someone at the office who told me that the power was out.  It was out because a transformer literally exploded.  Then, when the fine folks from the power company came out to fix it, they managed to blow at least one more transformer.  When we left the office this morning, we were told it might be back up sometime after 2:00pm, but, no one really knows for sure.  So, instead of a stressful day at work, I'm home hours early.  Who says that Friday the Thirteenth is an unlucky day?

Most people in the Western World think of this day as unlucky, actually, but I never really have. For years I wondered why people were so funny and superstitious about Friday the Thirteenth. I always thought it was because Judas was the Thirteenth Apostle or something like that. No, according to this article on GlobalPsychics.com, it has to do with the plot to suppress the Knights Templar. Hey, stop laughing! That's what it says!! And, I quote:

The modern basis for the Friday the 13th superstition stems from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome in Conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant against "the Knights Templar". The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long. There Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested and before he was killed, was tortured and crucified. A Black Friday indeed!

So, there you have it, Friday the Thirteenth is a global conspiracy, though, for a nice twist, it's not the Knights Templar or Freemasons who are behind it! Though, I do suppose they are indirectly involved. Personally, I usually have better luck on Friday the Thirteenth, but, then, I always have been a little out of step with the world. Oh, and here's a link to some alternate ideas why everyone else is afraid of Friday the Thirteenth.

Enjoy it.

It's no secret that I'm a contrarian in many ways.

I'm an amateur photographer.  And, I'm good at it.  Not great, but good.  I know a lot of photographers who are at all levels of skill and accomplishment.  Many of them are in a totally different place with their photography than me.  I do it because I love it and I find it relaxing.  It's totally different from what I do to make money, even though skills from my professional life compliment my hobby.  But, I have met a lot of amateur photographers who would really like to be professionals.
Personally, I think it's better to stay amateur.  People don't think that shift from hobby to profession through very well most of the time.  There are all kinds of things that change when you start doing things professionally.  For one thing, you have to collect money.  It sounds fun until you have to actually do it, especially when someone doesn't, or suddenly can't, pay.  Trust me.  And, when it's something like photography, well, sometimes, you just have got to get the shot, no matter how dangerous it is!
Think I'm kidding?  Then just feast your eyes on this little "Reality Check" from The Photo Society.  Click that link and see actual dangers, faced and mostly survived, by National Geographic Photographers!  Burns and acid-dripping caves?  Broken bones and tear gas?  No, thanks!  And, those aren't even the worst!  Flesh eating parasites?!?  And, worst of all, I think, is the dreaded "penis fish"!  Yikes!  I think I'll keep my amateur status, thanks!

Also, on the same site, for those of you who are good enough, or already semi-professional, they offer some advice about how to respond to requests for free photography work you might get.  In fact, they suggest that you just go ahead and link right to that article.  So do I.  It's not quite as good as what Harlan Ellison had to say about people asking for free work from him, but, it's pretty close.  (Note that he does get a little loud and may use some slightly colorful language, so watch your volume at work.)

So, there you are, dear readers.  Some fun things to think about over the weekend while, hopefully, you pursue your hobby and not your profession!

I love me some infographics!

No, seriously, infographics are fun.
Now, I'm not a guy who has to track and record and quantify every aspect of his life.  I know people like that, but I'm not really one of them.  On the other hand, I am one of those guys who likes to look at log files and statistics and trends.  It's kind of a contradiction, I'll admit, but, well, there it is.    And, I'll tell you what else, I'm very aware of all the information, all the data points, that I leave behind as a consequence of being on the internet, especially on social media sites, like Facebook.  So, have you ever wondered, like I have, what that data, that information, looks like?
Well, wonder no more!  Now, you, too, can get your very own Facebook Monster infographic!
All you have to do is go to the site, sign into Facebook via their application, and let the app go to work.  The result will be a personalized, fun, funny, monster-based, Facebook-driven infographic of your very own.  I'd share mine, but, well, I'll be honest, my social media data-footprint kind of sucks for this particular application.  I'm just too low-profile, frankly, to generate a good example data set.

But, hey, this is about you and your data, not me and mine.  So, it's Friday and you're slacking anyway, you might as well hit the link and see how your social data looks.  And, y'all have a great weekend!

I love design from the 60's.

I'm also, oddly enough, a fan of architectural models, too.
There's something weirdly science-fictional about the conjunction of those two things, too, that I really enjoy.  The kind of retro-future that they were trying to manufacture in the 60's is just so, well, so quaint.  It's not that they're actually what I think the future would look like, but there's something appealing about them in any case.  Something about clean lines and the long, smooth, "swoopy" feel to so much of the design just makes me long for that future that never was and never can be.  It's a shame, really, that most of that world never actually existed.
Well, the best of those designs, combined with the possibility of an actual future that, well, actually did happen can be found at this site; NASA's Most Adorable Model Spaceships.
They really are adorable, and, yes, the very finest that conceptual artists could put together at the height of our national pride and the space race.  They're fantastic examples of the actual design that, as it turns out, very well may have created our future.

Besides, it's Friday and if you had something better to do, you wouldn't be reading my post about twee models of actual spacecraft, so you might as well click that link and look at them!

Time to get out into the server room with the big, blue ceiling!

Spring is springing in my part of the world.  Flowers are in bloom and the weather is quite mellow and pleasant.  And, of course, I spend most of my week trapped in a server room. But, I don't want to take a lot of time off to go do things, so that means I'm stuck doing things on the weekend.  That doesn't give me a ton of options, but there are always day trips.  I live in Houston, so there are all kinds of things to do, but, frankly, I'm not all that into most mainstream venues.  I mean, sports bars are okay, but I'm not really into sports.  And, well, once you've seen most regular museums, you've pretty much seen them all.  So, what's a professional geek to do on his time off?

That's where I'm hoping Nerdy Day Trips will help.
So far, there aren't a lot of trips described for the Houston area yet, but there are more and more getting added all the time.  Oh, they hit the biggies, like NASA and the Battleship Texas, but they also have the National Museum of Funeral History and the Alkek Velodrome, among others.  And, yes, I'll admit, since most of my "extra" income goes to camera gear these days, I'm mostly thinking of photo opportunities, so the stranger the better, as far as I'm concerned.
So, while the weather is nice, go and take advantage of these strange opportunities.  And, if there are any that you know of which aren't on the map, especially in the Houston area, please, add them in!

And,hey, try to get out into the world this weekend and away from the computer for a bit, okay?
You'll thank me later!

Soon, you'll need a passport to enter Facebook.

No, not really.  Well, probably not, but I'm sure Zuckerberg wouldn't mind issuing passports and currency!
Regardless, in this case, I'm talking about an art project with a social consciousness that I read about on Gizmodo; Facebook ID Cards.
Those of you who know me, know how obsessed I can become over realistic, but fake, marginalia, like stamps, currency, government documents, and, of course, identification cards just like these.  Things like passports and driver's licenses are the ephemera of our lives that we often use to define who we are and identify us to strangers, especially those in authority.  We tend to take them for granted, but someone designed them and they serve some purpose, whether it's to tell a police officer that we are certified to drive or Facebook's security goons that we're allowed to access our friendlist.
So, no, it hasn't happened, yet, but I suspect it will one day.

And, did you notice that they astutely included a QR Code in their design?  Remember that article I linked to earlier in the week?  Might want to read that again...

Do you trust everything you see?

We've all seen QR codes, even if we may not have all recognized what they are.  These little, square dot patterns are everywhere these days, especially in advertising.  In fact, some people have gotten so used to scanning them with their smart phones to get more information about products and services that hackers are now exploiting them.  I recently read a very interesting article on TechRepublic by Michael Kassner titled Beware of QR Codes about an exploit found in the wild, and QR code exploits in general.  The problem is, we tend to trust them, mainly, I think, because they're too new for us to have been burned bad by them yet, and they are popping up everywhere!  Pay attention as you go through your day and see how many of these little deals you bump into.  They're in everything from magazine ads to product labels to posters to coupons!  Even Doonesbury has run a strip with a QR code in it!

So, as you swim out there, awash in the ocean of marketing and sales that we live in, pay attention to those who might subvert your complacency.  If it's easy for you to use, it's probably easy for someone to abuse, just like the QR code seems to be!

No, I'm not talking about me.

I'm talking about pop culture.  Or, at least, Hollywood.  I go on, sometimes at length, about how the geek never seems to get the girl.  Mostly, because I happen to be that geek who never seems to get the girl!  But, more and more, the geeks are getting the girl, at least in the movies, if not in life.  So, my personal dating woes aside, I have hope that, someday, I might get the girl, too!

Okay, not really, but, still, if you're a lonely, single geek, check out the movies in that linked list.  They may give you hope!
And, if nothing else, they may inspire you to write a script where the geek gets the girl, too!

I'm pretty sure I was propositioned by a prostitute on Match.com this morning.

I could be wrong, of course, but when a 27-year-old woman who's profile says she's "almost divorced" and looking for people in the age range between 35 and 37 sends an email to a 43-year-old man (ie. me) asking if he's interested in a "one-nighter", it seems suspicious to me.  Maybe I'm just cynical.
She started off sending me a short note that was a little vague, but at least sounded like she might have possibly read my profile.  Well, except for the part where I was 43.  But, most people I bump into out in the world aren't very detail oriented, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and  suggested that I might be a little old for her.  I went on to explain that I wasn't comfortable dating someone who hadn't started school yet when I would have graduated from college.  What I didn't say was that it would make me feel like a pervert to dating someone potentially young enough to be my daughter, but, that's what I was trying to get at, in a polite way.  Then I wished her good luck in her search and went on my merry way.
This morning, I got a note back asking if I was interested in a "one-nighter".  And, then she gave me an e-mail address at Hotmail.com.  That raised two, giant red flags for me.  First of all, while I am a wizard in the sack, there's nothing about my Match.com profile that would indicate that to the casual observer.  And, frankly, while many women find me absolutely adorable, I think that's more based on my personality and sense of humor than my rugged good looks.  It's been years since I was pretty.
So, sure, maybe she's just a messed up kid trying to work out her "daddy issues" and not a hooker, but I suspect that she's looking for an entirely different kind of "daddy".  Either way, I don't need that particular flavor of drama at this point in my life.  Seriously.

But, oddly enough, earlier in the week, I was reading a security blog at TechRepublic by Michael Kassner.  The entry was titled "Online Dating Services Risking More Than a Broken Heart" and was all about the potential security issues related to on-line dating.  Now, I work in the industry and I maintain pretty decent security, even at home, but I know not everyone is quite as paranoid as I am.  And, that's just within the IT industry!  I cannot imagine the wild and wooly dangers faced by people foolish enough, or desperate enough, to contact someone who seems to good to be true through their own, personal e-mail address!  Not to mention how much data you put up on a profile that may be active indefinitely on a dating site.
So, go read his article and think about what you put out there, where you put it and who might be reading it.

Oh, and one last bit of dating advice from your Uncle Jim, if she seems too good to be true, she probably is!

Well, maybe a little more difficult than that...

My "day job" is being the IT department for a specialized engineering, design and manufacturing business.  In a very simplified nutshell, we design and build huge cranes, primarily for off-shore work in the petroleum industry, but not limited to that.  As such, we are heavily invested in AutoCAD.  And, by that I mean, we couldn't really function without Autodesk products any more.  So, I try to stay in touch with what's going on in their world.  That personal imperative led me to contact with Autodesk 123D.

This is actually free software, reviewed at the link above, that will let you design and prototype relatively simple 3d objects.  It can import things from AutoCAD, though, if you've got a lot of AutoCAD files, like we do.  What's more interesting, however, is that this software has links to Autodesk's 3D printing services.  So, if you don't have a 3D "printer" of your own, you can get an estimate from Autodesk on producing a 3D prototype right from their software!  How cool is that?!  You can essentially do a 3D "print preview" and they'll give you a quote on actually producing whatever 3D object you just created on their free software.  And, it seems to be relatively reasonable, too!
What's even more interesting, I think, is that there's an add-on which allegedly takes a series of high-resolution photographs you provide it of an object and then creates the 3D model for you!  Now, I haven't tried this out yet, but I can think of a number of small statues around my house that I would love to have recreated in ABS plastic.  Oh, right, that's pretty much the only material available through their service; various forms of ABS plastic.  Essentially, the only options are color; white, ivory or black.  Or, if you want to use their more expensive "high-resolution" service, a single color option; a kind of funny greenish color.  Still these can all be painted like any other plastic model, so there is that.

In any case, I can think of any number of uses for a service like this.  Low-end architecture models, for one.  Game pieces.  Custom replacement parts for various bits and pieces of electronic equipment.  Really, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination, budget and the strength of the ABS plastic!
But, the software itself is free, so why not go download it and try it out?  If you do, please, leave your experiences with how well it works in the comments.