Mad Props
I saw a post on my favorite gadget blog, Gizmodo, about this cool looking “poolside” radio at some UK website. Then I just happen to be crusing the mall on my day off and see the very same thing, but in a Brookstone store, sporting the house label. The price was decent too, so I let the dudes at Gizmodo know about it and they published a new post giving me credit for the find. KOOL! I feel like such the uber-nerd.
George is Korrekt. You are not.
I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, but I do enjoy a good sci-fi flick. However, I have buddies that are real Star Wars freaks. We’re talking boxes and boxes of hermetically sealed original “Mint-In-Box” Star Wars DOLLS. I am happy for them and their little doll collection. Whatever makes them happy, and gives me something to rile them up about.
I do love to hear my buddies, among other nerds, go into vast technical details as to why the original three Star Wars movies were better in their original form. I love to say them, “But there are bigger explosions and stuff in the new ones”, which is almost immediately followed by a taught index finger pointed towards the heavens and a loud “ACTUALLY…”, followed with a short dissertation on the merits of filmmaking and the Star Wars trilogy. Always good for a chuckle.
Well, Here is what THE MAN himself has to say to those freaks:
AP: Do you pay much attention to fan reactions to your choices?
Lucas: Not really. The movies are what the movies are. … The thing about science-fiction fans and “Star Wars” fans is they’re very independent-thinking people. They all think outside the box, but they all have very strong ideas about what should happen, and they think it should be their way. Which is fine, except I’m making the movies, so I should have it my way.
“Not really”……Bah ha ha ha ha….I love it!!!
See the whole nerd-enraging article at Yahoo! Movies Interview With George Lucas…
Small Datacenter Relocation
I was sorting thru all of my digital photos this past weekend and I came across some pictures from last year when we relocated our data center as part of a “streamlining” effort. Basically, we got crammed into a smaller office with a smaller server room.
Although it was a lot of work, it was a good experience…good for me, and good for the network. We got fresh cabling, and I had the joy of moving a bunch of network gear and servers. We were able to clean up a lot of nasty cable mess, and the new Panduit cable system makes for a much cleaner look than before.
Check it out: Medium Sized Business Datacenter Relocation
Local Nerd Hangout Featured on Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters”
I was being lazy this weekend when I flipped the tv to Discovery Channel and started watching MythBusters, a pretty new show where these two crazy guys try to prove or disprove common myths. This particular show caught my attention, because they were trying to blow stuff up with gasoline vapor and static electricity. A bit further into the show, they tested the myth of whether high speed cdrom drives go fast enough to actually shatter the disks. The best part was when they plugged in a 110VAC router with a cd attached to it into 220VAC, they shattered the CD and blew the router motor! Most excellent.
But the part that really grabbed my attention was when they went to Silicon Valley to a “large computer surplus store”, which turned out to be…..Surplus Computers in Santa Clara. I knew where they were as soon as they walked up to that single door entry. In true form, the store was full of mega-nerds as it always is. They ended up buying some cheap CDR’s and computers for testing. I think I might have even seen myself trolling around in the backround with a SoundBug in one hand and an IDE cable in the other…
Here is the show info from Discovery’s website:
Season 2 / Episode 2: Cell Phone Destruction, Silicone Breasts, CD-ROM Shattering
In this episode, Jamie and Adam test several explosive theories. Can chatting on a cell phone while pumping gas cause the pump to blow up? Our mythbusters put themselves at risk so you don’t have to. They also put silicone breast implants to the test at high altitude. Will they burst under pressure? Finally, we’ll learn once and for all if high-speed CD-ROM players can really shatter a compact disc.
Is The Valley Back?
With the smashing success of the Google.com IPO, many folks think that Silicon Valley has returned. Venture Capital is up, supposedly hitting 20 Billion in investment for 2004, according to The New York Times. Every finance news portal seems to have some sort of take on why the return of the tech IPO is upon us.
Here’s my reasoning for why I believe that Silicon Valley is back: Traffic sucks.
As I regular commuter, I hit a 20 mile stretch of HWY 101 that lies smack in the middle of Silicon Valley. For the last few years, I have been enjoying a rather leisurely commute to work. Recently though, traffic has been reminiscent of the heyday of 1999. Multiple accidents, vehicle fires, coupled with everyone gawking at such events makes for the 101 that I remember when I first came to The Valley in 1999 as a tech nerd fresh out of college. I even made sure I got an apartment close to work so I didn’t have to get on 101. How I hated visiting my college buddies in Mountain View. How dare they live 15 miles south of me! But as the bubble burst and people began to abandon Silicon Valley, traffic lightened, then lightened some more, until it became quite pleasant to get around. Those days of a leisurely commute appear to be over.
If The Valley and tech really is back, it is a bittersweet homecoming, as I delight in technology and Silicon Valley, but I despise the traffic.