Diary of a Network Geek

I like choices.

Also?  I’m cheap.

How do these things go together?  Simple, I am forever searching for cheaper, or, cheapest of all, free, alternatives to expensive commercial software packages.  Like alternatives to Microsoft products, so I don’t have to pirate them.  Or, free software that can replace Photoshop or something similar.  But, I don’t spend hours Googling for answers like that.  Instead, I go to a site called Alternative To and search there.  (And, yes, if you look for those two…
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Okay, it’s been awhile since I’ve shared something that’s just fun to look at. Time to fix that.

So, I titled this “Modern Art”, but I really mean “Art made with contemporary tools and media”.  Not necessarily what people typically think of as “modern art”.  Not, as I recently heard someone describe it “Murals made by nailing up trash out of someone’s dumpster”.  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that at all, even though I probably wouldn’t hang something like that…
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It’s been a while since I shared any photography resources here, so I’m going to do that now.

So, in just a couple of weeks a good friend of mine is headed out to a Pacific island for an expedition for work.  Yes, I do have cool friends who do cool things.  In any case, he’s going to be taking a lot of photos, mainly of birds and other local flora and fauna, for blogs and reports he has to do…
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Yes, resources to actually layout and publish your own magazine, mostly for free.

My blushing bride pointed out recently that I mostly haven’t posted anything original in years.  Just links to other resources and some brief copy around it to explain what I’m posting and why.
This week isn’t going to be any different.

I love magazines.
They are, perhaps, my most annoying secret vice.  They’re hard to store and, since I have so little time to really read these days, I tend to…
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I love starting things! Beginning something new is such an adventure!

Seriously!  Of course, sometimes, I have a bit of a hard time actually launching some of these ideas I have, even when I’ve mostly built the website.  That’s why, for instance, I’ve given myself a deadline of the end of this month to actually launch FindMyPhotographer.com  If I don’t launch it soon, I may never!

That doesn’t mean I can’t have a sense of humor about start-ups, though.  Especially internet startups. …
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I’m a little suspicious of lists put out by booksellers of books I ought to read.

I’m especially suspicious when it’s a list of 100 “books to read in a lifetime” being suggested by Amazon.  But, when Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and one of two founding developers of WordPress, I have to admit, I pay a little closer attention.  For one thing, I’ve heard spectacular things about him from at least one of his old high school buddies and for…
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Don’t we all dream of being wealthy and independent?

By the end of the week, haven’t we all gotten a little fed up with our jobs?  Don’t we dream of being our own boss, an independent contractor or consultant who charges big money for sounding off with our opinion about how things are done?  No?  Just me?
Well, if you’ve ever contemplated it and have thought about how much you need to charge an hour to make your same salary, or more,…
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No, seriously, modern science has given us a workout that can be done in 7 minutes.

Loyal readers will know that my weight has gone up and down several times over the years.  The heaviest I ever remember being is 238, which was just before I lost my job in 2001 and ended up being out of work for a year.  I took the weight off pretty quickly then, which was made easier by stress and fear and the occasional lack…
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Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."
   --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

No, I’m not talking about ordering take-out.

Have you ever wanted to get to the hidden parts of your phone?  You know, those secret commands that technicians use to get your phone to give up its deepest, darkest secrets?  Well, if you’re an iPhone user, you’re in luck!  Yahoo recently shared all those with the world, and, now, I’m sharing that same information with you, dear readers:  How to Access the Hidden Menus on your iPhone, at Yahoo Tech.

If you’re an…
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I have two for you this week.

Yes, that’s right, two independent sci-fi movies. One is a short that you can watch in it’s entirety on your coffee break. The other is really just a trailer for the longer movie. Both come to us via IO9.com

First, I’ll give you the shorter of the two, but with the greater potential.  The movie is called “Dust” and it’s about a very unpleasant evolutionary explosion and the ramifications of that in a science-fictional future. …
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