The Nerd Handbook

Rands in Repose has one of the most insightful and entertaining blog posts that I have read in some time. It basically is a "instruction manual" on the increasingly popular archetype known as the "Nerd" directed towards those who love and admire them. I'll call it "Nerds for Dummies". The author's insight can come only from being a lifelong nerd himself (although I prefer the term "geek") and if you ever were perplexed by the actions or motivations of your nerd, this is the one document you need to get inside his/her head.

World Wide Words is Damn Interesting

One of the most interesting sites that I have stumbled upon in the last couple of weeks has been World Wide Words, a blog behind the meaning and origins of commonly used words and phrases. I could spend hours going from word to word. This site is planted firmly under my "Interesting" bookmarks category along with Damn Interesting, a blog with regular posts about some of the most strange and bizarre stories and occurrences which have ever been documented. Both are sites which warrant a long look.

Zero punctuation!

No, I'm not referring to my skill as a writer - Zero Punctuation is a weekly video game review column over at the Escapist. It uses simple animation in order to heap praise on or totally eviscerate the latest and greatest games. The catch? The creator uses no punctuation (hence the name) in his reviews, and plows through each one with reckless abandon.

Not only are the reviews devilishly funny, but he is actually pretty spot on in his opinions. It is definitely something you should check out.

Post - Super Tuesday musings

I had MSNBC on all day yesterday, from the time that I woke up until - well, I'll get to that in a second. I got a call from a friend around 7 wanting to go out to a bar, so I had quite the quandary on my hands. I could go out and have fun with other humans or I could stay home and watch the Super Tuesday coverage that I had been waiting for since early January.

I decided to indeed go out around 10, an hour before the California polls closed. While out, I tried to keep up with the news through my iPhone, but it was just too loud and crowded at the bar to really concentrate on what I was doing and also be sociable.

On my first trip to heed the call of nature, I heard the fleeting end of a conversation as I walked by: "......... California...... delegates...... Clinton, too close to call." I turned around and there was a small group of people huddled around the one TV at the bar that was tuned to something other than ESPN. They had it on MSNBC! I could have my cake and eat it too!

So, for the rest of the night I occasionally checked in with my new news-hungry friends for updates and was generally pleased with the outcome.

My experiences with Windows Home Server

Several weeks ago, I took advantage of a free software program through Microsoft which allowed for users to install and use Windows Home Server for a 120 day trial period. I had been contemplating trying out Windows Home Server, and planned on pirating it in order to see what it was like, but much to my surprise Microsoft offered a legal way to do it.

For the past year, I have had a media server with about 1.5 Tb of capacity on which I keep all of my music, photos, documents, and music. Up until now, it was just a XP Pro box, using simple shared folders for general access and VNC for headless control. Sure this was crude as servers go, but it got the job done.

Compared to this previous setup, Windows Home Server is a major upgrade. The main draw to WHS is in its utter simplicity to set up and use. The package comes with three disks, an OS installation disk to put WHS on the server itself, a disc containing WHS connector software for all the other computers on the network, and a recovery disc to use when one wants to revert a computer to a previously backed-up image.

Within 15 minutes of installing the software, the server is up and running, sharing media, and backing up all the computers on the network.

Several key features set WHS apart from a run of the mill XP based box.

First, all hard disks which are flagged to be part of WHS storage, despite being physically separate, are viewed by the server as one large drive. For example, I have 3x300 GB hard drives and two 250 GB hard drives, all which show up as one large 1.27 TB drive. Within this volume are pre-made shares (music, photos, software, videos, etc.) which are accessible to anyone with the permission to do so. A check box allows for certain folders to be duplicated across several drives in order to provide further backup and data security.

Whenever one wishes to add more storage space, all they have to do is install the hardware (internal or external drives) and click the add button, WHS will perform the necessary steps to incorporate it seamlessly into the current storage system.

Each computer that is to be connected to the WHS must have the connector software installed on it. This allows the server access to the machine in order to perform remote backups of any files one wishes to add to the list. It also allows for remote monitoring of the firewall, virus, spyware, and Windows update status of each computer on the network, a handy tool for families with multiple computers. WHS is designed to be used on a headless machine, and built into the WHS connector software is a fairly robust WHS console which allows the user to control all aspects of the OS.

WHS also allows for access to its files remotely over the internet. As long as the user knows the IP address of the server and a has a valid username and password, they can access all the files and perform all the tasks one could if physically attached to the machine through a network.

The only negative aspect that I can find about WHS is that if you do not have a speedy network at home, backups (especially the initial one) can be very, very slow. This can be worked around by setting backups to occur during the night, when both network and processing activity will be at a minimum.

At the end of my 120 day trial, I do intend to purchase the full version - it does everything I expected and more and is the perfect tool for those with large media collections or large home networks to service.

Obama sets online donation record

The Obama campaign has raised $32 million, a single month record for a candidate still in the primaries. The most exciting aspect of this number is that 88% came from online donations! The internet is changing everything...

Macbook Air... Apple's best ipod ever?

"One way to look at the MacBook Air is as the largest and most capable iPod in Apple's line - think of it as an iPod touch Extreme with a built in keyboard."

Ars Technica's recent review of the MacBook Air brings up some interesting points that I have not considered regarding Cupertino's latest drool-inducer.

To look at the device as a fully fleshed out iPod is indeed intriguing, for a iPod is only as useful as the information that it has access to. The iPod can be seen as an extension of one's media library when away from home, and without a way to load it with said media, it is indeed useless (except for the touch's wi-fi capabilities).

Although the Air lacks a DVD drive and only has a total of three ports (audio, USB, mini-DVI) when away from home, these items are non essential when trying to do such things as accessing the internet, working on a quick document or email, and/or listening to some music while doing those previously mentioned tasks.

As a portable productivity device, it can hold its own with the Thinkpads of the world - packing a relatively speedy dual core processor, 2 gigs of ram, a large and bright (thanks to the led backlight) 13.3 inch screen, decent battery life, and a form factor that is a joy to regularly carry from destination to destination.

So, for a person on the go, who also has a desktop at home, the Air seems like the perfect addition to one's tech arsenal.