creeva

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Between posting my mother’s email to me, or some random notice I get from a website.  It would seem that sometimes I either do not value privacy or exploit others.   This isn’t the case.    I post things I think are interesting - sometimes it’s the personal moments in my life.    If you send me an email in confidence and ask me not mention it to anyone, or post it online - you don’t have to worry about it making it out for public consumption.

Yes this post is short - kind of a blah type of thing post - kind of how I feel right now anyways

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Picture from here

I could pick on a few things actually, once again I didn’t vote for the guy, but I don’t absolutely detest him.   I’m in wait and see mode.  Ars Technica is reporting about Obama’s plead to push back the transition to digital TV.   If we look at the digital TV migration timeline, we can see the originally scheduled date was Dec. 31 2006.   Because of multiple issues it was pushed back and brings us to this upcoming Feb. 17th as the transition time.

We can argue that the government hasn’t done enough to inform the public or make it easy for the public, but I would argue otherwise.   I was well aware of this migration when it was first discussed over 10 years ago.   All in all the government has pushed out this transition longer then necessary.   You can say that’s it’s a good cautious thing they are doing by waiting and delaying, but every delay costs the tax payers more money.

If we truly want to get through this we need to pull the bandage off as quickly as possible.

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Every once in awhile you hear about the things you say are down right crazy.   Other times you hear about things that you say are down right crazy and you so would done them when you were younger.  I think the closest I ever came to death was riding on the hood of a car at about 30-40 MPH and the driver slammed on the breaks.   I didn’t break anything but when I looked up off the street the bumper of the car was literally a few inches from my face.  The whole thing is a story for another time - that brief excerpt is to show how far and stupid we’ll go when we were teenagers.

I ran across an article posted at Gizmodo about a water powered jetpack.  I grew up on Lake Erie - I can tell you if I was 16-17 years old again and knew about this - my friends and I so would have done.    Take a look at the video below and tell me if you would have done this when you were younger (heck I still may do it now).

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Picture from here

A couple news sources are reporting today (here, here, and here) that the LA Times is suspending their program of using a wiki for editorials.   Now in a controlled environment like Wikipedia where they have the volunteers to handle un-authorized edits, wiki’s can be a great thing.   In the hands of exposing your edits to the audience of a major newspaper - I wouldn’t have gone that route.

What they were finding is that people would make their own slant on the editorials - such as changing the word abortion ot the word murder.  They also were inundated with spam and porn ads.   Sounds like they didn’t have the best idea on the onset of setting up a wiki or properly staffing what would be a high profile use of the technology.   This is technology that is meant to be changed and updated.   That ability alone has made some people suspect of Wikipedia.   Newspapers are dying out in America - but this example shows why such high profile companies can not hand the keys to the car to just everyone asking.   Citizen media has it’s place, but old media shouldn’t be attempting to tag it on without understanding hte consequences or the work involved in maintaining it.

I wonder if anyone got fired?

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

I found the following video on Youtube.

It’s been a long belief that yelling, screaming, and sometimes hitting actually do something to make a computer work better. I’m in the belief that the more you know about computers the more true you find the previous sentence. Most people just think that you are nuts or crazy, however watching the video you can now see there is an effect. For those wondering though, if you didn’t save your document and your whole computer crashes, no amount of screaming or brutal violence against the computer is going to bring the information back.

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Maximum PC recently ran an article titled 50 Skills Every Real Geek Should Have, I wanted to go through and see how I ranked in their skill list.   Let’s find out.

1. Name the Connectors - yes I was able to

2. Run your essential apps on a USB stick - no I don’t do this, I could - I just prefer to run everything in the cloud or on my N810 - which is with me most of the time.

3. Straighten Pins on a CPU - I have done this too many times

4. Know the 13 basic HTML Tags - well I kinda know most of them - I use freaking wordpress I hardly need to use HTML and when I do I look it up and hav ethe answer in seconds.   Though I do know quite a few by heart that aren’t listed in the basic 13.

5.  Get through to executive customer service - hey I read the consumerist.

6.  Beat quake in 60 minutes - maybe at one point in time, but I’m not big on FPS games.

7.  Build a Hackintosh - I know how, I just don’t the components that seem to work, and I’m a cheap bastard that won’t buy parts just to run OSX - I’ll stick with ubuntu as my alternative OS.

8.  Watch TV Online legally - um that’s how I watch 100% of my TV these days.

9.  Get around a content filter from a public computer - yes I know how, I’ve helped friends at other companies, it’s not worth it to do it at my own job though.

10. Recite Pi to 23 decimal places - nope - I have no inclination to ever learn either.

11. Replace the controller board on a hard drive - hey I did that once, it’s not a skill that comes up at parties though.

12.  Benchmark your computer - really?  Is this even on this list? Yes, I was doing this before I fully understood what the benchmarks meant on my 386 DX40.

13. Decorate your room with only printer paper - am I physically in the skill set to be able to do this?  Yes I am - would I?  No.  I’m more likely to decorate with NES cartridges.

14. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered - yes I am capable - it would be easier if you encrypted it first though.

15.  Get into a windows computer if you don’t have a password - yes I’ve done this quite a few times.

16.  Hide data from anyone - yes encryption, hidden volumes, stegnography (which I got bored with in 2001) - I am capable of doing all that - I’m more likely ot share my data then hide it though.

17. Explain what e=mc2 means - yes I would like the e=MC2 with a side of fries please - yes I am capable, but refuse to put in the details here since I want to make it through this list.

18.  Abstain from buying extended warranties - I may have bought one, once - it was on something i thoguht it fall apart though - so it’s all good.

19.  Use photoshop or gimp - yes I am capable.

20. Use a DSLR in full manual mode - I can - I’m just lazy and prefer it to do the work.

21. Mooch your neighbors wi-fi - my neighbor doesn’t have wi-fi but I’m ready to mooch when they do.

22. Protext your wi-fi - Wep2 currently - For a while I had mac filtering, I hated to keep getting mac addresses from visitors though.

23. Create an animated spray in Valve games - um - I don’t think I’ve played a single one for more then 5 minutes….so this one is a no.

24.  Setup RAID - yes I’ve done this a few times over the years for my home network.  Now implement Iscsi raid across multiple computers - that’s a challenge.

25. Calculate a Pitchers ERA - no I don’t know how - but I know google will give me the answer quicker then I can calculate it.

26. Run two Operating Systems - um I dual boot currently……

27. Install a hard drive in laptop - done before and some day I’ll do it again.

28. Pull off an elaborate prank - I think have the skill set and knowledge - I just never have - unless stealing street signs as a teenager counts.

29.  Rocket jump with a macro - um - I said I don’t really do FPS games - so no I can’t do this.

30.  Wire your home with ethernet - um every place I’ve lived with my wife we have had wired ethernet - we even used RG58 at one point.

31.  Know the 6 most important linux commands - yes I get command not found when I’m not thinking and run them in windows.

31. Rip your CDs to Flac - we did this for awhile then went back to MP3

32.  Stream Music, Movies, Pictures to any TV in the house - I’ve done this before - now we just carry our laptops around - shrug.

33.  Install and configure a VM - yes I’ve done this for literally years (maybe even a decade by now)

34.  Run multiple monitors - yes I use to dual monitor and run SWG on two different ones at the same time - I’m sad I know.

35. Run hacked firmware on a router - yes liek the rest of hte world I have a hacked linksys router /yawn.

36.  Pick a lock - I’m not good at it, but I’ve done it a couple times.

37.  Tell the difference between Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb - it’s been awhile but I think I could.

38.  Avoid DRM on everything - well streaming video legally that they talked about above seems to contradict this one doesn’t it.   However all my local video, music, picutres, and ebooks are DRM free.

39. Download a flash video and reformat it - yes I’ve done this - youtube videos locally stored on the N810 ftw.

40.  Get around in DOS - I grew up and DOS and resisted windows for a long time - so let’s just say yes.

41. Rip a DVD to h.264 - yes been there done that.

42.  Overclock your PC - yes I’ve done this my pride and joy was overclocking my AMD 133 mhz 486 to 160 MHZ - and it benchmarked and ran like a pentium 133 for half the cost.

43.  Use remote desktop - it’s part of my job - so yes.

44. Debate the merits of a star destroyer vs. the enterprise - yes, and the star destroyer would win.

45. Buld your own computer - built too many to actually count - I’m serious to - I worked at a small PC store and we sold hundreds - thousands of machines - so I cna build my own.

In irony they don’t seem to actually have 50 things on their list - so I think most geeks should know how to count also.

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Robert Heinlen:

If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.

If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires.

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Peter Block - As long as we wish for safety, we will have difficulty pursuing what matters.

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Voltaire - A witty saying proves nothing.

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Aesop - We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

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Benjamin Franklin - They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security

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John F. Kennedy - Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

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Blaise Pascal - We are all something, but none of us are everything.

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Albert Einstein - Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.

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Confucius - Silence is the true friend that never betrays.

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Charles Dubois - The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.

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Albert Einstein - Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.

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Betrand Russell - Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.

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Edwin Land - Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.

Originally published at Creeva's World 2.0. You can comment here or there.

Sam Levenson - It’s so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.