9 out of 10 monkeys believe they are not behind glass

I finally figured it out. I understand why so many people rather be technology agnostic and just ignore the amazing things around them.

Now you are probably expecting me to say something like, it is the complexity, or it is the rapidity of change, or it is the myriad of different options and features that are available, or (the most common) it is already obsolete when you buy it.

And while many of those are true, the real answer lies in the fact that we (as geeks and technophiles) make it scary. It is a trillion dollar industry, and guess what, we all want a piece of it. So the best way to do it is to make you all feel like crying whenever you ponder a significant technology purchase.

Think about this. If technology wasn’t scary, would you spend 6 months shopping for your next TV? Researching, going to stores, reading online, talking to your cousin Larry about what the differences are in HDTV? Hell, no. You would go to the store, look at the pictures, buy your TV and walk out. Heck you wouldn’t even have to talk to the salesperson (who is a non-trained, low intelligence high school student). You could try to do that today… but think of the consequences.

You would get home and wonder if you made the right decision. And you would start suffering from buyer’s remorse. Immediately you would be plagued with guilt… and in that moment, when you are about to slam your head against the wall (right next to the previous head hole from your recent PC purchase), if you listen carefully, you will hear a million geeks laughing at you merrily.

Cause technology is not scary. The underlying physics and nature of most technologies have grown slowly over the last 100 years. Look at the latest hard drives sitting on the shelf at Best Buy. The actual theory is no different than a CD, which is no different than a LP, which is no different than a wax tube from the civil war period. All it is a track with a respective pickup reading the changes in the surface. A CD uses a laser, a LP uses a crystal needle, a hard drive uses a magnetic head. And read the box of that hard drive. You read nothing but what seems to be a foriegn language of specifications and standards and compatibility.

And your logical mind breaks down. You can’t handle it. So you call your cousin Larry again and ask him to take care of for you. “I will pay you!” you shout into your phone. And deep down your cousin Larry laughs in congregation with the rest of the earth’s geeks.

Attention world: we got you by the balls.

Message ends.

… are neck and neck for deaths over the last ten years.

From Here:

Sept. 11, 2001 was undoubtedly one of the darkest and deadliest days in United States history. Al-Qaida’s attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center killed 2,976 people, and the country recoiled in horror as we witnessed the death of thousands of Americans when the towers fell.

In the five years since that shattering day, the government has spent billions on anti-terrorism projects, instituted a color-coded alert system that has never been green, banned fingernail clippers and water bottles from airplanes, launched a pre-emptive war on false pretenses, and advised citizens to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting.

But despite the never-ending litany of warnings and endless stories of half-baked plots foiled, how likely are you, statistically speaking, to die from a terrorist attack?

Comparing official mortality data with the number of Americans who have been killed inside the United States by terrorism since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma reveals that scores of threats are far more likely to kill an American than any terrorist — at least, statistically speaking.

In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida is.

They even have a nice little handy color coded chart to lay it all out for you.

I would like to see the actual numbers of spent dollars on so-called “anti-terrorism” measures versus domestic spending for health care, education and the like. I bet there was a huge gap after 9/11 that still has not been filled. Because, after all, those billions had to come out of somewhere, right?

As a Geek (note the capital G), I have to maintain a fundamental duty to the following:

• To be rational and logical in an irrational, illogical world. (WWSD? What would Spock do?)
• To be a respectable general conversationalist in any scifi videogame, movie, book or general technology discussion. One must negotiate the information overload of today’s modern world.
• To hack. Hacking is not a crime.
• To fight against those that think usage rights are negotiable. DRM is fundamentally wrong, and will always be wrong. Fair use is not a crime.
• To support the creative works of others with Dollars, and support those that work hard to make content.
• To fight against those that would make videogames, or any creative content, a crime. Personal responsiblity is a for the parents to impart unto their children, and not the government’s duty.
• To watch and adore every Star Wars film, even though the three recent ones kinda suck balls. The same applies to Star Trek (even though some of those suck balls too).
• To sprinkle scifi references in my cursing. Like smeghead, nerfherder, shazbot, frak me, p’tahk, gorramit.
• To have more CPUs in my house than heartbeats.
• To have a computer integrated into my home theater system.
• To always play the latest video games and keep my “skillz” in check, regardless of how tired I am, how outside of my schedule it is, or how much grief my wife gives me.
• To provide Legos to all future generations.
• To respect that Geekdom is a pop culture subgroup. As such, it will be often misunderstood.
• Even though geekhood has many levels of dorkism, I must respect all fellow geeks no matter how far down on the dork scale they are. They may live in their parents’ basement collecting action figures, but they too love what I love, and that deserves some modicum of respect. Unless they think the breadth and width of their knowledge is infinitely greater and act holier than thou, and in that case, frak the smegheads.
• To realize that not all self proclaimed geeks are actually geeks. Like orgasms, some people fake it. And others are just plain dorks.

To these things I hold, and to these things, I protect.

So say we all.

Man. I finished this book today and I feel like shit.

No seriously. Talk about a book that lays out hopelessness and hopefulness of humanity at the same time. It’s a book that documents a world that has fallen prey to the greatest of catastrophes, a human plaugue. Much like many of the more popular doom and gloom books of recent years, Earth Abides does a better job of connecting the events, the aftermath, and the continuation of life better than any book I have ever read.

Oh, did I mention Earth Abides was one of the first great novel to explore these themes of destruction, life and what mankind is in the face of such a total annilihation? George Stewart pretty much wrote the book (pun intended) on the disaster novel in 1957 and many authors have tried to reach a similar level ever since. Stephen King’s The Stand (written in 1978) comes close, but the plague is setting the stage for a good vs. evil battle. This plague is just about nature running its course.

The main character, Isherwood Williams, a reluctant hero, leader, lover and father, starts the narrative as a college student sick from a rattlesnake bite and weathering the poison during one of his lonesome academic retreats in the California mountains. He is a quiet, reserved, introspective thinker that has to adapt to a world that seemingly disappears overnight. He gets through his illness, comes back to society, only to find society (and people) are no longer around.

The writing (and setting) is a bit antiquated, but nonetheless, it is a very powerful read covering the life of a single man who outlived us all and struggled to keep a light growing in an ever darkening world. The death of civilization is not an easy topic, and this book is definitely not a happy pick-me-up read. So if you are a depressive type, I would steer clear. But if you want a book that gives a great measure for hope for the great sadness the characters recieve, then this is a great choice. It is a tragedy worth experiencing.

Definitely recommended!

I don’t know how to react to the pros in this vid. 1) I have played a lot of Q3. 2) I am not, nor will ever be, this amazingly good at rocket jumping. I can do some mean acrobatics in UT2k4 (as my lan buddies can attest), but this just blows me (and my skillz) away.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, don’t bother watching this. This is for gamers, and gamers only.