Archive for the ‘A Little Bit Geeky’ Category
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24
May
2009
Where No Man has Gone Before
Sci-Fi movies are always better the second time for me. The first time, I’m wrapped in the special effects and cimematography. The second time, I get to appreciate the story and the actor’s depiction of the characters. There are also the subtleties.
Today, Chris and I went to see Star Trek – for me, it was the second time. I noticed several interesting things, perhaps not intentional in the writing, but our generational character attributes to much of our being.
Out with the old, and in with the new
Once on the Enterprise, the young cadets took over for the older officers one by one. Each letting their talents and knowledge manifest in front of the elders. This to me spoke clearly as I see this struggle of young professionals, who are well trained in their career, to gain respect of the elders, who possess seniority. There is typically a power struggle involved; however, in this instance, there was not – not with Uhura. Not with Chekov. Not with Scottie. Not with Kirk, except a power struggle with those of his own age group/experience level.
Intergalactic Relations
The depiction of interracial relationships is much more prevalent and accepted in this Star Trek film. First Spock’s parents, then the sexual interaction with Kirk and Uhura’s roommate, and then Spock and Uhura. The only relationships we see in this film that are not of mixed origins are Kirk’s parents and the relationship with Nero and his Romulan wife. Both of these “traditional” relationships were in the past (25 years before present time) and Spock’s parents’ relationship was the only non-traditional relationship set in the past.
On Thursday evening, in a very empty theater, I heard one woman say to her husband, “He just kissed a black girl!”, in response to Spock and Uhura kissing in the elevator. (fyi, not all people with “tinted” skin are ‘black’, as in the actress who plays Uhura is not African American) Today, in a much denser theater, I didn’t hear a whisper – mind you, I live in a former “southern state”. Caring about color should be much behind us. It is amazing that the Civil War occurred nearly 150 years ago and we, united as a nation, cannot seem to accept African Americans as part of our community.
Besides looking at the film as a social commentary, I did thoroughly enjoy the film both times and would recommend to anyone to see it a second time to appreciate the cinematography and character development.
5
Dec
2008
Just Sleep Already!
Is my Macbook asleep yet?
One fateful day in September 2006, after tracking it all over the world with the UPS widget, my Macbook arrived. I was so excited, I promptly switched everything from my Powerbook to my Macbook. Life was good. I sold my Powerbook to an old high school friend (he loves it, by the way). One week later, I had my first thermal event. At some point during the day, my Macbook woke up from its slumber in its cozy Booq bag. Off to the Genius Bar Chris and I go, of course. He couldn’t possibly miss a visit to the store of all good and fun. We explain what is going on. Off to California my new hotness went.
Today, after two trips to the Apple Store, my computer still has issues of waking and sleeping. Going to sleep it takes about 30 seconds, but the light never comes on. Sometimes waking it up starts a whole run around starting with entering my password and ending with ‘killing it’.
I cannot take my Blackbook in for repair until after my final final – and even then, I need my computer. Considering Chris’ job is so cool and they purchased a new MBP for him, his personal MBP isn’t in use much. I could use his for a loner, but I need my Blackbook. To practically resolve the issue for now, I will simply listen to my Macbook to ensure it goes to sleep before putting it into my bag. Or, I could use the suggestion Tech Support just gave me: Shutdown your computer until you can send your computer in. My up time record is 28 days. I’m sleep’s biggest fan.
So, how do we resolve this, my fellow sleepless Mac-geeks? You might try the following, and see if they work for you:
Turn off bluetooth
Whenever your computer senses an active, paired bluetooth device near, it wants to communicate. Thus, waking up from a slumber to do so. Turn off bluetooth when you’re not using it. You’ll save battery. If you use your bluetooth often, follow these steps to enjoy your devices and keep your computer asleep:
System Preferences->Bluetooth->Advanced and uncheck the “Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer” checkbox.
Change your sleep setting
My Powerbook rarely had a sleep issue. Going through the versions of OS X, Apple has changed things a bit. To switch back to the old, reliable sleep, great directions can be found here.
See what Apple says about sleep in OS X.
Change how it wakes up
Instead of having it wake up when you open the lid, have it wake up when you tell it to do so. Try this fix here.
7
Aug
2008
myPhone
Tuesday night was a pretty good night. I picked up my iPhone. So far it is okay. Sure it is a cool little gadget, but mine has frozen several times in the past 48 hours. I know this ratio of freezes to hours is skewed considering I am doing some pretty heavy setup, but it is nonetheless frustrating. Also, the wordpress app does not swivel, so I can’t type with both hands.
23
Jul
2008
The Apple of my Phone
Image from axb500 - please click to visit his Flickr page
Today was a great day. I was feeling under the weather for the past week, and increasingly so today, so I stayed home and caught some sleep. I also have a huge cold sore on my upper lip, which now looks like I just got a horrible collagen treatment. But today was a great day. Why? I just received some wonderful customer service from a worldwide company when I thought, and always exclaim, customer service is dead.
I usually would omit the company’s name; however, it’s a bit obvious where I went once you know which phone I got…so, I called the AT&T store in my town on Tuesday regarding the iPhone and how to buy one. The gent on the phone said I could pay with either cash, credit card, or gift card. I told him I would probably be in the next day. I sold my iPod Touch last night for $200. The person purchasing it gave me cash. Instead of driving across town (10 miles) to the credit union to deposit the cash, I just figured I could take the cash to the store and get my phone. Since the store always closes before I get home from work, and Kari was begging to go to the library, I figured we could run out for 30 minutes. Today, I waited in line behind the customers already there. Both of the people had escalated situations, so Kari and I waited patiently for about 20 minutes. I get up to the counter and the gent starts to put in my order for my 8 gig iPhone. Cash not an option. So, he sells me two $100 gift cards. Enters the order again. Swipes the first gift card. The software program will not let him change the card amount to $100. It keeps populating the $212.08. He closes the software and restarts it. Tries it again. Nada. Same thing. The salesman calls the manager over and several other salesmen. The salesman explains to me that the gift cards will work in the store to buy an iPhone, but not on a presale. It only allows for one method of payment. They then see if they have any in stock. They went back and found one, a 16 gig. It was an order that had been there for 5 days and their policy is after 7 days, they can be sold. They were going to give me the 16 gig for all of my trouble, but they called the guy and he said he’d be up later in the evening to pick it up. They then checked other stores. Nada. Then they suggest to void the gift card transaction, I get my cash back and go to the credit union to deposit it, then come back. I said that was fine. They then pull out manuals and consult the help desk. The gift card transaction cannot be voided. Kari’s getting antsy as it is going on an hour of being in the store. The manager gives her a display Blackberry to play with. She’s delighted and begins “calling” Papa and Grandma on her new red hotness. The saleman and the manager go in the back and call the Regional Sales Manager (big boss man over the region, I’m told). He told them to see if it would be alright to apply the gift cards to my account (we’re current cellular customers), for me to pay for the iPhone on my credit card, give me the next 8 gig iPhone that comes in the store, any headset, car charger and case I wanted in the store. I was surprised by this and said that would be fine. I told the salesman that I had no idea which case, headset or charger to get as I hadn’t really researched it. The salesman in training said he’d hook me up. The salesman said, “He did say any headset, charger and case.” So, once the saleman in training came back to the counter, he had a three pack of iPhone skins, a namebrand car charger, and a Jawbone headset. He told me these things were top of the line, especially the headset. Sure enough. I looked at the headset online when I got home, after an hour and a half in the store. Not bad, salesman in training. Not bad at all AT&T for taking care of business – thank you.
1
Jul
2008
Brrrrrring. Phone.
It’s time to start shopping for a new phone. My phone isn’t so terribly old, but it shuts off whenever something happens (i.e. a phone call or text comes in) regardless of the battery level. The iPhone 3G comes out in 10 days; however, I’m cheap when it comes to initial purchase price. I’m even cheaper about usage fees. Sure, it would be fun to have, but I’m not quite sure how I can justify $30 per month on top of the initial purchase price. Besides, I’d have to sell my iPod Touch.
Out of sheer curiosity, I called the AT&T store by my house. Many people in our neighborhood are conservative about money for the most part, so I thought, no problem getting one. First, the stores are opening at 8 a.m. on the day of the launch and second, the sales rep told me they sold out of the iPhones within 45 minutes last year. Yep. The iPhone is out.
My husband is going to stand in line with one of his friends for an iPhone. They were thinking about arriving around midnight. I advised him that he might consider going right after dinner on the 10th, if not earlier. I’m an experienced line person (Nintendo Wii, Black Friday, after Christmas sales), so I know the ropes.
So, what on Earth should I get in this world of expensive phones or cheap ones that break within days? Perhaps I’ll just go back to the old tin can standby or simply go phone-less.
19
Jun
2008
If you Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Back in the Kitchen.
This is funny. Truman said this in reference to women in male dominated careers. This is interesting, as his atomic bomb project employed many women due to their attention to detail in handling experiments. Other female physicists worked on the projects developing the theories behind ‘fat man’ and ‘little boy’. (Read: The Making of the Atomic Bomb)
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education prompted this post. “Reasons Why Women Leave Science and Technology Careers” from the Chronicle‘s June 18, 2008 edition has sparked quite the debate. The article communicates that the reasons are similar to ‘the women can’t stand the heat’. With quotes like, “women leave science and technology careers in droves because of “hostile macho cultures” and risk-taking incentives, among other reasons”, how can we expect to evolve as a society with such stereo-types?!
I have a degree in astrophysics. I can code. I do all things ‘anti-female’ and female. I lost my research position that worked with NASA and several colleagues in Chile in 2002 because an incoming student (male) expressed interest in working with the project. I then was given another assistantship – polishing telescope mirrors. Out of anger, and assisted by the fact that one of my majors was being dropped, I left and finished my degree at another university. Needless to say, my name is nowhere to be found on the paper published in 2005.
I cannot believe that the stereo-types women faced in the early 1940s while working on the atomic bomb project are still prevalent today. Sure, not all women are golden, but not all of us are weak, lazy or incompetent. We’re never going to get anywhere with society and education if this stereo-type remains.
17
May
2008
The Most Awesome Internship EVER!
I love my internship!!! I get to do all sorts of awesome things and it’s everything I love to do! I am so excited about everything I get to do and I am sure at this point my family is tired of hearing about my awesome internship.
15
May
2008
Apple Media Seminar for Education
Currently, I am attending the Apple Media Seminar for Education. The content is good. I’m ready for the budget to be created at my campus to do some cool things – basically, I would like a Macbook, a Snowflake and endless space on the server for some amazing content. It currently isn’t in my job description, but I think I’m ready to make the move back into nerdery. I love financial aid, but I feel I am gravitating toward technology. I left technology when I started school and took a financial aid position in 2004, then just never looked back. I wonder if I am just going through the motions and resisting what I really want to do. Maybe I’m not resisting. Maybe I haven’t found a job description to fit me just yet.
9
Apr
2008
Google Analytics – My site’s GPS
I’ve been running Google Analytics on my site for about 2 months now. Not sure who considers themselves in my readership, but I’m not doing half bad for not being ‘searchable’. As mentioned before, I have scrapped my blog before, so I want to make sure this one is doing okay for me, and my small group of readers, before I open my blog up completely.
Seeing that most of my readers are unique and I only have about 4 repeat visitors on a regular basis, this isn’t giving me a good feeling. It is cool though that tools, like Google Analytics, exist to help guide site development. So, I’m listening – the reports are the only ones speaking.
9
Apr
2008
All the Cool Chicks are Doing It.
I’m incubating my first set of chicks in my incubator. This is a pretty cool device as everything is preset. It even came with an automatic egg turner. All I have to do is monitor the humidity, which is very easy with the digital gauge – just add water.
In thinking about incubators, I thought about the incubator I saw on Thinkgeek about a year ago, pictured above. It was pretty awesome – again, just add water. I also found a helmet incubator, which just looked cool, much cooler than my ‘styrofoam box’. What interesting technology – farming may just be crossing into something a little bit geeky.
