geek – Page 9 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

One joke to bind them all

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I can’t claim the idea as my own, but the original graphic I’ve seen was using a Windows command prompt.

BLEH!

Not nearly nerdy enough so I created this using my favorite SSH client.

Apple iRack

Geek humor meets political commentary

Good Morning Houston

So the interview on ABC 13 went well, I think. 2 minutes and 27 seconds was the total time. You can view it on Jeff Ehling’s blog by clicking here.

I enjoyed the experience. The staff that makes up the Sunday morning crew made me feel welcome and at ease. Elissa Rivas conducted the actual interview and she made it very pleasant.

When the interview was over Mark Garay (who, by the way, was wearing tennis shoes behind the anchor desk) asked me to stop by and speak with Carmin the producer on my way out. I figured they must want me to sign something or I don’t know what, but I stopped by. No paperwork, oh no. Carmin was having a computer problem and they wanted my assistance.

Turns out that Carmin’s workstation was having a problem with the time change. This was the computer she was using to manage the current on air program with all the various time blocks, story segments, commercial breaks and so forth and every couple of minutes it was reverting back to pre-DST time after she would manually set it to the correct time.

My ~~guess~~ expert opionon was that it must be synching to an NTP server and also not have the current software update to allow it to sort out the time change.

How ironic. Here we are making light of the Y2K7 problem and how it’s no big deal and the very show hosting the interview is in danger of collapsing in a Microsoft-induced DST wormhole.

There’s no way to patch the machine what with it being used to mange a live program. It would have to wait till after the show and wait for one of the ABC IT staff as I was on my way out the door.

It was a great fun and I hope to do more work with ABC in the future.

Y2K7 (The sky is falling)*

What with the upcoming time change for those of us who server under the yoke of Daylight Savings Time, this weekend is going to be interesting. As you are probably aware, we are getting to celebrate early this year thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

We’re having bit of a mini Y2K event. This time it’s called Y2K7. Much like Y2K I expect it to be a big hullabaloo about a whole lot of nuthin’, at least for most of us. I know plenty of system administrators and application developers who have been burning the midnight oil making sure all systems are fully patched and prepared for the early time change.

There are some things you might want to look at technology-wise to be prepared as a computer/technology user.

I wrote a primer for my show web site. It’s called Daylight Savings Time (DST) – Preparing for Y2K7.

I’ve included some useful links for upgrading anything from XP to Apple OS X as well as Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile devices. Pass the link along to anyone you think might need it.

——-

*again

Reminded once again that I have a face for radio

I got an e-mail from my friend over at ABC13.COM. He wanted to know if I was available to be interviewed by Jeff Ehling who’s the consumer reporter for the local ABC affiliate here in Houston. They were doing a piece on the proper way to delete data and dispose of old computers.

Unlike certain “experts”, I don’t make a lot of television appearances. I love doing radio, but when it comes to putting my face in the spotlight I get a very nervous. Still, I am always looking to promote what I do in my capacity as producer and host of Technology Bytes so I agreed.

Jeff did a great job of putting me at ease and asked some very good questions which I was able to answer without much hesitation.

Judging by the smiles I must have been cracking some jokes to ease my tension. I’m like a deer in the headlights when there’s a video camera aimed at me.

Watching a TV reporter has always been fascinating to me. Live interactive radio is what I am good at. Producing canned pieces for later airplay is not one of my strengths. Here you see Jeff doing a teaser piece to promote the story. It’s that thing they play before the commercial break to keep you from changing the channel.

Jay Lee in HD. Looks like I made a good choice wearing the blue shirt and my new glasses look great.

The beard could sure use a trim, though.

The Slanket

I was browsing Jeff Balke’s blog and caught his post about a thing called a “Slanket”

From the Slanket web site:

The Slanket is a Gigantic fleece blanket with loose, oversized sleeves so you never feel constricted and you have total control of how to use them, while staying toasty. The Slanket is made of a thick and warm 310 gsm fleece that feels very soft on the skin. The slanket is great on a couch, a chair, in a hammock, on your bed or anywhere else you care to take it.

What a revolutionary idea!

This has to be the most exciting development in blanket technology since the invention of the electric blanket.

I contacted the folks who make The Slanket about getting my hands on one to review for Technology Bytes and they quickly and kindly obliged me with a forest green Slanket.

There’s nothing Cynthia likes more than being warm and comfortable. She gets a modest amount of use out of her electric blanket which I got her for Christmas in 2001 and I figured she would be the best arbitor of the pros and cons of this new technology.

Here you can see Cynthia with The Slanket browsing her favorite web site, Amazon.com.

As you can see, The Slanket allows her to spend our life savings on more books while she remains toasty warm and snug as a bug in a rug.

Cynthia is a Slanket convert and, as of this writing, refuses to return The Slanket to me.

Ah well, we’ll just consider it an early anniversary present.

Cruising with Vista

So I fielded my first Windows Vista Q&A for my Helpline Blog over at the Houston Chronicle.

It’s pretty lightweight but still, it marks a new era in my computer support time-line. I’m sure it’s the first of many, many more to come.

You can read it here if you’re so inclined.

Those who enjoy vintage American automobiles or know about my Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme should be sure to click the link at the very end of the article.

The geeks, they gathered

Laurence (isfullofcrap.com) Simon, Kojo (the architect) Idrissa, Dwight Silverman and KD5 enjoy some technology, bubble tea, food and conversation at the February Geek Gathering

The first Friday of the month is always reserved for “The Geek Gathering.” It’s an informal gathering of the participants and listeners of my show, Technology Bytes.

Basically I just invite anyone who is listening to the show to meet up at Tropioca for a few hours of general hanging out.

Over the years it been a real neat experience. Some Fridays there’s not very many people, other Fridays we get a huge crowd.

This past Friday we had a great turn out which included Kojo back from China and an old friend I haven’t seen in 20 years who is now working for Russell Holliman and Podcast Ready. Small world.

One very cool aspect of doing radio for over 20 years is that I tend to run into old friends and acquaintances I’ve lost touch with over my lifetime. It’s like having a permanent P.O. box (that happens to be broadcasting at thousands of watts). There may be a ton of Jay Lees in the world, but only one at KPFT so it’s a good bet it’s me if you happen to be looking.

More pictures of this geek gathering (as well as past gatherings) can be found in the gallery over at geekradio.com if your interested.