Diary of a Network Geek

So, here it is, almost time for Halloween Party weekend and you don’t have a costume?

What to do, what to do, eh?  Well, if  you have a t-shirt that you’re willing to sacrifice and a modicum of creative ability, and an iPhone or iPad or Android device, then you may be in luck.  Gizmodo covered a buy last year who used a pair of iPads to make a costume which seemed like he had a hole in his chest.  That was pretty awesome.  Well, after spending some time working on some Mars Rover project you may have heard about, that guy, Mark Rober, is back with a slightly less expensive alternative.  Rober and his team at DigitalDudz have come up with a pretty amazing app that lets you make a creative costume pretty cheap.  In fact, the app itself is free and, basically, consists of some pretty cool and creepy animations that you can combine with an old t-shirt, or one of the custom ones that they sell relatively cheap, to make a pretty cool costume.
The basic app is pretty amazing, but it does have “upgrades” which will cost a couple bucks more and, I have to admit, the t-shirts that they sell at DigitalDudz are better than anything I can whip up, even if I wasn’t in a hurry, but, hey, beggars can’t be choosers at this late date.

Anyway, it is a cool app and a cool idea.  Maybe for next year for me, though.
But, hey, it’s Friday, so why not check it out!  (And, no, I don’t get any money for those links.  I just liked it, so I linked it.)

What do  you wear under your Halloween costumes?

So, yeah, Halloween is just around the corner and that has me thinking about costumes.  Well, to be honest, costumes for adults, because, let’s face it, in all our repressed, Puritanical, American, adult bodies, live crazy hedonists that just want to dress up in silly, or sexy, costumes and parade around like the goofballs we all pretend we are NOT.  And, maybe because I have a girlfriend for the first time in ages, I’ve been thinking about what one wears underneath that superhero costume.

As it turns out, DC Comics has just the thing for that; sexy, adult superhero underwear and swimwear.  (And, if the number of times “adult” has appeared so far in this post isn’t a clue, some links here may not be completely safe for work, if you work in a repressive enough environment.)  And, yes, there are options for the guys as well as the ladies there.
For you Marvel fans, they have something more along the lines of sleepwear.  (And, apparently, only for the ladies to wear.  Sorry!)

So, now you have something to think about this weekend.  And, hopefully share with your significant other without getting into trouble!

Do you hear music when you read?

No, I don’t mean, “Do play music while you read?”, but, rather, do you hear music, like a movie soundtrack while you read a book?  I know for awhile, I was so immersed in movies and the movie experience that I couldn’t help hearing certain kinds of background noise and sound effects when I read certain kinds of books.  But, what if that happened on purpose?  What if you had a way to synchronize an actual soundtrack, complete with mood music and sound effects, with the book you were reading?

Well, if you read books on your Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone or Android-based e-reader, you actually can, thanks to Booktrack.  They’ve developed an app that will run on all those platforms which will adapt a soundtrack for your book, complete with sound effects, to how fast you read.  The download is free and I’m not sure if there’s a “training period” where the app learns your regular reading speed, but I sure do like the idea!  I’m sure the selection of books is a little limited right now, but, with any luck, more people will show interest and more books will get added to their list.

So, what the heck, it’s Friday!  Turn your volume down and go check it out!

Have you ever wanted a “do over”?

Remember when we were kids and we’d be out playing and something crazy would happen that totally messed up someone’s game?  We’d more often than not give them a “do over”.  We’d let them reset and try again.  Wouldn’t that be nice to have in every aspect of life?
Well, speaking as a professional network geek, sometimes there is, at least on some network equipment.  We call it a “factory refresh” or, as the title of this post implies, a “factory reset”.  Basically, for  you non-techs, the idea is that sometimes a configuration gets so wrong, so borked, so bad that it’s easier to just reset a device back to how it shipped from the factory and start the configuration process over again from scratch.  I cannot tell you how often I’ve been happy to have this feature and be able to use it.

Of course, sometimes, we inherit these borked devices.  Or we foolishly throw out the two-page manual that tells us how to reset the thing.  Then, we have to go searching for the information on how to reset whatever it is we’re trying desperately to get configured before the weekend, so we don’t have to stay late, again, on a Friday.
Well, wouldn’t it be nice if that was all in one place?  Well, now it is, mostly.  There’s a handy site/wiki called Factory Reset that has most, if not all, of the reset instructions for the most popular and common computer appliances out there.  They’ve got everything from routers to switches to network-attached storage.

So, if you’re wrestling with some device that has gotten out of control, again, why not pop over there and find out how to reset it so you can get out of the office and enjoy your weekend?