May 26th, 2006 neteng
I apologize for my absence lately. My manager unexpectedly quit and I’ve had to take up a lot slack at work. Needless to say, blog entries have been pretty low on the priority list as I work in a highly-critical 24×7 environment, which can create all sorts of crazy working hours. I will not abandon all hope for this blog though, so be on the lookout for future posts.
Thanks all,
neteng
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May 17th, 2006 neteng
Check this out! IM;a;aw oj9j2gf … sorry, had to wipe the drool off of my keyboard. I attempted to build my own MAME arcade cabinet once, but it was just too much work for me to do from nearly scratch. Oh well. It would have just been another distraction that I really don’t need!
neteng
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May 15th, 2006 neteng
Sean at CCNP Recertification has put up the first of a series of posts that pulls stories from a variety of network-related blogs. Great information all around, so check it out!
neteng
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May 9th, 2006 neteng
It’s that time of year again when gaming junkies rejoice, tongues hit the floor and eyelids are glued wide open while viewing screenshots and video clips of the latest gaming software and hardware. For those of us not blessed enough to walk around the actual convention floor, here are some good links that I’ve rounded up to follow the excitement from home:
Engadget - The look to have a good bit of information on Nintendo’s Wii system. I’m personally pretty excited about this one because of the new style of gameplay it looks to offer through it’s unique control system and it’s possible low price-point.
IGN - Any list of gaming news sites is incomplete without this mothership and they’ve got some great coverage of the event as well.
Shacknews - A personal favorite of mine, they have very interesting opinion pieces and seems to be one of the better resources for up-to-the-minute gaming news.
I’m sure I’ve left some off of this list, so feel free to make a note in the comments about a favorite that you might have.
neteng
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May 5th, 2006 neteng
I picked up on podcasts about a month ago and found them to be a great alternative to radio (internet and analog) while toiling away the hours at work. They can get away with things you can’t on American airwaves and have a lot less (if any) commercial advertisements. There is also a lot more variety and niche broadcasts to choose from. Here are some of my favorites:
Nobody Likes Onions - Hands down, my favorite show. It’s performed by a painfully politically incorrect duo who speak on a range of topics and current events. Have a listen and if you’re not easily offended, I’m sure you’ll also find yourself disturbing your cubicle-mates with unintentional laughter. Let’s hear it for ‘R2D2′ and the Cowbell of Shame.
History According to Bob - Bob Packett is a professor of history at a Kansas City community college and he has sometimes obscure but always interesting pieces on different people, places and events in history. He’s spoken about topics ranging from Incan crime and punishment to a comparison of Fascism and Communism. Check it out if you have a hankering for history.
Rocketboom - Not sure this counts so much as a podcast, as it’s more of a vlog (video-blog). But, it’s quite enjoyable nonetheless and always has cool links.
These three links help make my day complete. Does anyone else have any recommendations? I’m still looking for decent podcasts dealing with tech talk and music.
neteng
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May 4th, 2006 neteng
Thomas states:
I define a time waster as any activity that has a low ratio of benefit to time spent.
If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly finding yourself entrenched in time wasters and it takes an interruption of some sort to break you out of the trance and realize you’ve just been playing Minesweeper for the past 45 minutes. The funny thing is, a lot of time wasters aren’t as obvious and I can recall company meeting after company meeting that ended with no real progress or resolution.
Thomas has come up with the idea to set rules for himself that he must follow. I can even envision some sort of reward and punishment system, but this takes a lot of self-discipline. I really like his suggestion of using a mechanical timer that requires exceptional physical action (as opposed to simply clicking Dismiss on that Outlook reminder) to turn off. It often takes something unique like that to help free you from the tunnel-vision induced by whatever you’re focused on.
Some of the things Thomas recommends keeping an eye on are office socializing, wasteful meetings and housecleaning (my own personal bane). I also am a current events/news junkie and often spend my time inefficiently surfing the web for the latest news. I even discovered RSS about a year-and-a-half ago and this has made things even worse.
Once again, self-discipline is key and there is no way around this unless you want someone lording over you and doing the job for you. You have to make a genuine effort to become more efficient, and in order to make that effort, you have to want it. It’s never easy to break a habit, but you’ll find that as with most things, you just need to stick out the rough parts. It always gets worse before it gets better, but it does indeed get better and you’ll be a happier person for it.
neteng
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May 1st, 2006 neteng
Wired has a neat little article about brain signatures being the next big thing in user authentication. While interesting in a theoretical way, I have a hard time seeing this ever being feasible. Thoughts might create a unique fingerprint, but I fear they are too unique to create repeatable results even within the same brain. Granted, I’m no neurologist, but it just seems like there is way too much room for deviation.
Besides, imagining any sort of interface that could be built for this gives me nightmarish visions of The Matrix.
neteng
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