Diary of a Network Geek

I dream of running away from home in a custom recreational vehicle.

No, seriously, I actually day dream about having a life so simple that I can hook up a trailer, load the dog in a car or truck next to me and just take off.  Forever.
There are people who say that the "geographic cure" just won't do, that your troubles will catch up to you where ever you go.  I think those people just get tired and stop, eventually.  I think that if I were to just keep moving I could stay ahead of all my problems, writing from the road and selling photographs via a satellite Internet connection when I needed some money.  I think it could work.

And, surely, one of these fine, custom campers or RVs from the slideshow at MSN would make a fine home.  Anyone want to run away with me?  We could join the circus!

No, I'm not talking about leveling up in some game.

I found out last night that my blog has reached a new level.  It's self-supporting.
Do you see the ads over to the side there, on the right?  The rows of words and phrases that are linked?  Those are ads.  Last night I was checking something at the site where those are bought and sold and where I get the code to allow them to be sold on my website.  When I signed in, I saw that this month, I had finally, after nine years having a blog and four or five of having advertising, finally, I had made more in a month than my hosting fees.  Not much more, but enough that this little hobby, this obsession of words and pictures, this dance of code and graphics, pays for itself, and a little extra.  Enough to buy a latte and a piece of pastry.  Enough.

That may not seem like much for the people who are trying to make a living at this, but I'm not.  In fact, I've been hoping to find just what's happened; that magic balance between effort and reward.  I've hit that perfect equilibrium where I post enough, rank enough, and pull enough traffic to pay for myself.
It's not a big goal, perhaps, but it makes me happy.

Hangover

Originally uploaded by Network Geek
I saw The Hangover Friday night.

I don't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a movie. Seriously.
l mean, yeah, on the surface, it seems like it's going to be another dumb, "drunk-bachelor-party-in-Vegas" movie, and, well, it is, but it's also hilarious.
So, as you should have guessed, the premise is simple, a guy who's about to get married goes for one last, wild night in Las Vegas with two of his good friends and his future brother-in-law. The movie opens with the groom and his future brother-in-law getting fitted for tuxedos and it quickly becomes evident that either Alan, the brother-in-law, is developmentally challenged or has dropped one too many hits of acid. Now, mix these two with a married, but frustrated teacher who steals a bunch of money for a "field trip" from his private school kids to finance his end of the trip to Vegas and a mildly castrated dentist who's in a loveless relationship with a real bitch. Can you see all the ways this can go wrong? No, trust me, no, you cannot.

Things go quickly from bad to worse when the guys wake up in the morning with no recollection of what happened the night before and short one groom. Oh, and mix in an abandoned baby, a tiger in the bathroom, a chicken and a stolen police car and you have a good idea of what this movie is all about.
It's a whirlwind tour of what four drunks, accidentally drugged out of their minds, might get up to in Sin City. And, I don't think it's revealing too much to say that some of those things include a stripper/escort, a wedding, a naked Chinese gambler, a kidnapping, some amazing blackjack, and Mike Tyson. And, yes, Wayne Newton, Mr. Las Vegas himself, does make a cameo. How could he not?

Seriously, there's a bit of sex, a tiny bit of violence, and more great lines than you can shake a stick at in this movie. It was so popular, that the show we actually bought tickets for was full and we had to sneak into the next show, which was also over full. And, I'm planning on roping some more people into going to see this again Friday night. It was hilarious!
Obviously, quite adult, but, still, one of the funniest movies ever. I was laughing so hard I almost choked on my own tongue!
Truly, a "must see" comedy this season.

You all know I love me some photography, but I love me some creative Photoshopping even more!

So, now, for the few of you who haven't seen this, there's a website, Worth1000.com, that has regular contests, some of which are pretty cool.  I particularly like the Celebrity Vampires contest and the Final Photo contest series.  But, there are plenty of others to fill your Friday afternoon.

Oh, and if that's not enough?  Take a look at the brilliant work of Ian Pool on IO9.com.  He's done a whole series of super-heroes in their non-hero lives.  But, what's cool about that is that he's used a lot of action figures in super creative ways and, of course, Photoshopped them.

In any case, these are two sites that should dull the pain of having to work a full week at your boring jobs where no one appreciates you.
Happy Friday!

Sorry there wasn't a post yesterday, but I was pretty beat from a tough week at work. Also, I upgraded to WordPress version 2.8 on most of my sites last night.
Hopefully, you'll be enjoying the extra speed it's supposed to give me.

Okay, it's not quite Apple's Time Machine, but close.

Mac users know all about Time Machine. It's a really great feature of OS X that makes small, incremental backups of your system. It lets you roll back changes to both system and data files to a particular time and day. The backups work pretty quietly and seamlessly, too. I have to admit, it's one of the coolest features of OS X.

Well, if you're a Linux user, now, you can get the same thing, more or less. It's called Back In Time, and it requires a little more knowledge and setup, but the idea is basically the same. Oh, and it's free, but if you all use it, and like it, they do as for donations to support their efforts.

If you use Linux, it's worth checking out.

(And, yes, I know I'm late and this is not the post I talked about at the Geek Gathering Friday night.  I also overslept by an hour this morning.  I think it's going to be a long week.)

My regular readers all know how much I love Linux.

Okay, I'll admit that I don't run it as my main OS, but I love it for servers. Truly, truly, I do. I use it for all kinds of things, including my own, home-grown imaging system. Sure, it's not Novell's ZENWorks, but it does work pretty well. Back in the days when everyone seemed to be coming out with their own specialized distribution, I always thought it would be fun to roll one of my own. Yeah, I know, I am such a geek!

Anyway, thanks to PC Plus, you can roll your own Linux distro. Hit the link to see their super-excellent tutorial.

I'm going to say this even though someone will no doubt call me a racist in the comments.

Oh, don't think it won't happen, because it did once already the last time the job market got tough. Here's the thing, at times like this, when the entire world's economy is bad, I think American companies should put American citizens, and legal residents, first, and in that order. Let's not send jobs overseas just now. And, let's not import any more foreign guest workers. Look, I know plenty of people who came over on H1B visas and that's all well and good, but everyone in IT knows that this system gets abused regularly as a way to undercut the local IT people and keep them from earning a living wage. We all know that it happens and I'm sure any tech out there can site multiple sources for it. So, when I see articles about how Indian IT groups are worried about the H1B reforms currently being debated, I can't help but wonder why they think U.S companies should put their workers' needs above U.S. workers' needs. Shouldn't we take care of our own? I sure remember growing up being taught that we take care of our own neighbors before we worry about people some where far, far away. We make sure that no one we can reach is going hungry before we start looking in other cities, states and countries for people who need our help, too. Things are tough all over, but they're tough right here. So, let's take care of that first, then worry about our distant neighbors on the other side of the world.

Does that make sense to anyone else? Or am I wrong here? Should India and China give us work for their countries? Should we do tech support for Mumbai?

And, I'm not just saying this out of some jingoistic, hyper-conservative, knee-jerk reaction to globalism, either.  I promise you.  There are a lot of reasons I'm against this, not just the high level of unemployment.  There are also a lot of abuses of this system.  In fact, there have been so many abuses of the H1B1 system in the high-tech industry that the Federal Government is investigating and prosecuting the case.  So, this whole trend of either importing foreign workers or sending work overseas just doesn't cut it for me.  First, we need to take care of our own, then reach out to the tired, hungry and poor of other countries.

So, what do you all think?

UpMovie

Originally uploaded by Network Geek
I got back from vacation Friday and, after returning my rental car, went and saw Up.

Now, I'm not normally the kind of person who goes to see kid's movies, but either I'd seen everything else worth seeing, or my friend had, so we ended up at Up.
The premise is simple, in a way. We start with a young boy who's caught up with a 1940's adventurer who travels the world in a zeppelin with his faithful dogs. That adventurer claims to have found a rare creature on a lost world plateau in South America, but he can't provide enough proof of his discovery, so he ends up drummed out of the explorer's society and disgraced.
On the way home from watching his favorite adventurer on the news reel, he finds an old house that's been sort of taken over by a young girl, who's far more bold and, well, adventurous than he is. They fall in love, get married, make plans to go to South America where their mutual hero has gone, never to return, only to have those plans thwarted by life, and her eventual death. As one might imagine, this makes the old man a little less than fun, friendly and happy. Now, add in the developers who are trying to get him out of his house which he shared with his deceased wife and a chubby, little Asian "Adventure Scout" who just wants to help the old man to get his last badge to make Senior Scout and you've got a pretty unhappy guy.

Without revealing too much, circumstances turn even worse for the old man and he inflates hundreds of helium balloons to lift his house, like his hero's zeppelin, and "sail" South to find the plateau where his dead wife wanted to move their house as a child. In his own way, he's trying to fulfill his wife's last wish.
They get there, to South America, and animated hi-jinks ensue. And, I'm sure how much I'd be "spoiling" anything by telling you all more of the plot, but I won't tell you much more. Suffice it to say that the young man and the old man have adventures on the plateau while trying to get the house where it has the view the old man's wife wanted it to have. They meet strange creatures and, yes, a dog that talks through a collar made by his master. And, along the way to the happy ending you know this feel-good movie has to have, the boy and the man both learn something about happiness and adventure and how our friends can provide the love and support that our family can't always manage.

If you have kids, I'm sure you'll see this movie, but it's cute enough, and filled with enough subtle adult jokes, that you won't mind taking the kids. Certainly, I was entertained enough by the whole thing that I didn't mind going at all. It was, after all, a fun movie with a cute message and a happy ending. If you're an adult, without kids, you may not be quite as excited by this movie, but, trust me, it's worth seeing. Though, not worth seeing twice.

Oh, and in case you were interested, here are pictures of my 2009 vacation. Enjoy!

Ever wanted to carry your whole desktop in your pocket?

Now you can with PortableApps.
Also?  PC Magazine has some ideas about carrying your PC in your pocket.

I'm not entirely sure I'd rely on a flash drive to carry my life on it, though.  I've had too many flaky problems with flash drives and no warning when they fail, either.  Still, as a backup or a temporary, traveling desktop, it might not be such a bad thing to have.  In any case, it's something to think about.

Oh, and these particular articles focus on Windows, just so you know.