Diary of a Network Geek

I seem to be fixated on New York this month!

There are a lot of geeky landmarks in New York City.  From movies like Ghostbusters to comic books like the Fantastic Four to movies about comic books, there are a lot of references made to the Big Apple.  If you’re a geek and plan on being a tourist in New York, wouldn’t you like to hit these hot spots and revisit your favorite geek moments?  Or just take a photo of yourself where your favorite geek event, movie, etc. actually happened or was filmed?
Now, with the aid of the Ultimate Nerd Guide to New York City, you can.  (Though, personally, I prefer the term “geek” to “nerd” for a number of reasons, at least one of which should be obvious!)  Brought to you via Slashfilm, the Ultimate Nerd Guide to New York City has a map, showing you just where all those cool or famous or geeky things are to be found, including, yes, the building used for the Ghostbuster’s HQ as well as the building used for the Fantastic Four’s HQ, and many others.

I’ve never really done any “geek tourism”, but, after seeing this, I may start!
Anyway, it’s Friday and you’re not doing any work anyway, so you might as well check it out and plan your next vacation!
Have a great weekend!

Well, Halloween is just around the corner, if you aren’t celebrating already.

I could go on at length about the historical and cultural phenomena that is Halloween, but, really, if you cared about that, you’d just go to Wikipedia.
So, no, instead, I’ll just share a quick fun link to some Halloween LEGO creations over at Blastr.com If you remember playing with LEGOs as a kid, you need to go check that link out, because I can pretty much promise you that you weren’t creating things like they’ve got over there.

And, remember, when you’re out trick-or-treating, or drinking yourself blind, this weekend, please, be safe.  Not just for you, but for the people around you, too.

Could you rebuild civilization?

No, seriously, could you?
Maybe I spend too much time on the fringes of political and economic thought and news, but I hear stories about how experts think we may be heading for disaster on a very large scale.  Food riots and oil shortages and barbarism just around the corner to listen to some of these more extreme pundits.  The collapse of civilization itself!
Well, what if that happened?  What would you do?  Could you organize people enough to rebuild civilization?  What would you need to make a small village prosperous enough to become the kernel that would grow into something we would recognize as civilization again?

Well, thankfully, I’m not the only one obsessed with answers to questions like this.  There are a bunch of engineers and other like-minded, clever folks who are putting together a DIY Civilization “Kit”, with open source plans for all the basic technologies that one might need to get a self-sufficient town working again.  It’s quite an ambitious project, but, I think one that is worthwhile.   Even if we never need it to rebuild society, it may prove a useful thought-experiment to help make independent towns in developing countries.
In any case, it’s an interesting project, I think, and worth a look.