A Holodeck for Your Computer

Here's another tech blog for you coming in a bit late (supposed to be on the weekend) but here none-the-less.

Today we're going to go deep into geekdom and talk about a really old technology that's enjoying a revival of late. It's called 'virtualization.' Here's what it is.

Most of the time (like this time I'm using to type up this post) your computer is running along not really being used to it's fullest potential. Similar to the previous post's brain analogy. So, to use that time would make your computer more efficient and you'd get a bunch more done right (just nod your head)?

Virtualization takes advantage of this fact by running more than one computer on your computer.

Here's a brief summary of how it works. If you've seen Star Trek you'll get the following references if not, sorry. In Star Trek the holodeck is a place you can go that will create a world for you to interact with as if you were interacting for real. It is 'virtual' in that sense. They make software that can do the same thing. This software creates another computer, a 'world' if you will, inside your computer that's all virtual. So you can load a lame operating system like Windows XP or a more venerable one like Linux or Mac OS X and then load all of your programs as if you were loading them on the real computer. But then you can create another one and load Windows XP again (for your wife/child/other) and let them use that one. So, just like all the coppertops in the Matrix your operating system is none the wiser that it's really running in a fake world with fake memory and a fake processing unit.

So why oh why would you ever want to do that? There are many scenarios but consider the following. How many computers do you have in your house? The average family has at least one computer per member and some (like me) have more. So with virtualization you could buy one physical computer and monitors and turn that one computer into 4. Wierd. But imagine the electric bill!

Now imagine that you are a big fan of the Macintosh operating system but you really need to use Quicken but all you have is the Windows version of quicken. No sweat. You can fire up your 'virtual' copy of Windows XP with Quicken loaded on it and go to town bouncing those checks.

Well, that's probably not quite what your looking for when visiting the cultural tap, ah well. Feel free to comment where it falls for you on the geek-o-meter.

I'm Still Counting This As Friday

I'm working on a new theory.

Scientifically, it would be a really bad theory because I don't have the correct format for a hypothesis. But maybe my 8th grade science teacher was just too picky. Let's see if I can make this work.

Basically, the gist is: "If it is incorrect to disdain God for certain characteristics we have projected onto Him or misunderstood, is it then also incorrect to worship God under those same misguided pretenses?"

I've heard it said that we despise most in other people what we see in ourselves. So whenever I find myself despising certain things about people I often wonder if I'm doing the same thing or something close to it.

So in college when I saw people who seemed to be worshiping for the express purpose of getting their warm fuzzies, I wondered if it was possible my worship were also not up to par. I decided that I see one extreme from the "warm fuzzy" populace, but I often see another extreme in my own. Sometimes I worship quite literally. Worship is to bring before God an act that implies his worthiness. Sometimes I'm all about the act. I am so focused on giving God a song or a prayer because He is worthy that I simply leave out the heart and soul of it. I set my feelings completely aside.

To a point, it works, I'm focused. I'm not so caught up in a melody that I don't even know what I'm saying. I used to refuse to sing "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" because I can't stand the song, and high school youth group made up hand motions for EVERY SONG and I just couldn't take it anymore. However, at some point I decided that I was going to sing every song in worship because it's not about what I like and dislike. And it is silly to think that we can only reflect on Gods worthiness by doing something we like and that makes us feel good.

But I think it is detrimental to keep your heart and soul from getting involved. I'm not allowing the full experience, one can never give to God without receiving back in return. So I can understand when people get emotionally involved in the song they feel like they are worshiping "more" and going away blessed because of it.

This leads me to wonder, what about God are people worshiping exactly? What characteristic of God makes people want to stand up and sing? I have to think each person, through experiences and learning, chose those characteristics that appeal to them, that they feel God is worthy of praise for. I feel like each persons experience with God which leads them to worship can be so completely different from the next persons that it must be near impossible for our vision of God to be anything alike.

And more so, how are we all worshiping in unity if we are all worshiping a separate characteristic of God? Can we really be unified if someone is worshiping God's mercy while another is worshiping Gods wrath and justice, even while singing the same song?

Is it really fair to God that we pick and choose what about Him we want to worship? I know how futile it is to even mention "fairness" in God's relationship with humankind. Up until this point, nothing has been fair. We pick only our favorite characteristics to worship Him for but He told Job that He is worthy no matter what happens or what He does or does not do. My brain is about to have a seizure trying to comprehend that, I can't imagine trying to embrace it with my heart!

I have trouble giving God any decent worship when I feel my prayers are going unanswered, that's all, just a little unanswered (as of yet) prayer and I can't hardly focus on God's worthiness. Can I imagine trying to do the same after losing my family, my wealth, my friends, all of my belongings, and my health? My brain is too small to even begin to understand the depth of Gods worth even when He has gone against us.

We want God to play by our rules, we want our Jesus in a little white box so we can take him out and (kiss kiss kiss) and share him with a friend. When, in reality, God's worthiness is so far beyond our understanding that there are times I sing and say in my mind, "God, You are so worthy that I have no idea why or how much or what for" and I can't imagine that my act of response to that worthiness is even a drop in the bucket.

Again, I've heard it said that people only use 10% of their brains power. I often wonder if God is saving the rest for Christs return, because it will take the whole of our mental capacities to comprehend the worthiness of God.

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

Short and Sweet

I've had a couple of busy days and was not able to post on my "assigned" day of Wednesday. I've often wondered, and may have even posted this on a former blog I kept, but have you ever wondered why insane people only do bad things? I can recall hundreds of reports on TV about people who do horrendous acts claiming insanity, and sometimes found not guilty.

Why don’t we see a headline that reads, "Man goes insane and in a fit of calmness bakes thirteen dozen cookies for the local food bank." Or, "Woman insane, just snaps, and puts all clothes away instead of leaving them on the bed!"

It is only the bad that ignites the insanity defense.

music, SEC football and the Matrix

Thanks to Pandora, my two new favorite groups are Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Doves.

BMRC is raw garage rock that kicks some serious ass. I have even considered buying their new album, an errand I haven’t done since I can’t remember. As for the Doves, they have more of a pop sound, but that’s ok. I checked out one of their albums at the library and I’ve since found more songs through Pandora. Good stuff.

Last week there was a cover of Nirvana’s Lithium on Sit or Spin. Absolutely horrible, and thankfully the panel all agreed with that assessment. Essentially it was the song interrupted by really old techno. You have to hear it to believe it.

Moving on . . .

I’m just going to say that the SEC football season of 2007 has been one of the greatest sporting events in my life. Maybe second only to Man U’s treble in ‘99. Almost every week, there was dramatic game with huge plays and high stakes on the line. LSU beat Florida by going for it on fourth down 5 times and making it every time. UK beat then #1 LSU in overtime. Georgia scores their first touchdown against Florida and the entire team celebrates in the end zone. How great is that? Then Thanksgiving week, Arkansas beat LSU in triple overtime to ruin LSU’s season and that was followed by UK coming back against Tennessee from 31-14 in the fourth quarter to force overtime, of which there were FOUR. UK had a chance to win the game in one of the overtime periods with a field goal, which was blocked and almost returned by UT to win the game. Amazing. So if there’s a bowl game with a SEC team in it, watch. Based on this season you won’t be disappointed.

Went back in my video collection and watched the Matrix again. What a great movie. There is no such thing as perfection so the flaw in this jewel has to be Keanu Reeves. The rest of the cast is so good and it is such an interesting, mind blowing story that his poor performance is made that much worse. Even watching time after time, you can't get away from his deer in thead light surfer dude projection. Anyway, I still don’t get everything, and that’s fine, but after watching it again, it really made me wonder why they had to make the second and third ones. Sure the Merovingian is interesting and the conversation with the Maker leads to all kinds of existential discussions, but why couldn’t have the story just ended with Neo flying up into the sky and that be that? The answer is money of course and that sucks.

Mr. Harris' Wild Ride -- Part THREE

In which The Harris Family arrives in DC, Dan skips any reference to the events of his vacation in Olney, Maryland, and the story picks up on the return trip to Toledo as if no time had passed whatsoever:

If you recall from the previous entry of this story, Jeff, Nazy, and Katie all deboarded in Pennsylvania, never to be seen again, and the train continued on towards our final destination in Washington, DC. Specifically the Baltimore Train Station (more on this later).

All my new friends were gone, and a tired aching settled in, so I headed back to find my parents sleeping. I stretched out on the two seats available to me and tried to get some sleep. This went OK, but in my sleep my feet kept poking out into the aisle, and my mother, who was across the aisle, seemed to wake up every time this happened and woke me up to get me to move my legs in so that people could pass more easily (they weren't really out very far, as I was curled into a fetal position (this being the only way to even partially fit across the seats in a semi-horizontal position)). Surprisingly, these interruptions occurred frequently enough that I was not really getting a whole lot of sleep. I wondered why she felt this responsibility to keep me out of the aisle, but didn't feel the need to get the other 30% of the passengers to move any part of themselves out of the aisle (obviously I knew the answer to this question, but you who know me know how irritable I can be when my sleep gets interrupted constantly (I was, for a change, controlled enough not to blurt something angry in an attempt to be left alone, and I assume this could only be because I didn't want to spoil any one's enjoyment of the trip)).


Whatever.....


Anyway, we finally made it to the Baltimore Train Station which was, to say the least, gorgeous. Neo-Classic Roman architecture that was breathtaking, with a ceiling almost too high to seem realistic, and along the top of all the walls, gigantic statues of ancient figures loomed, looking down on us weary travellers, that we may arrive and depart safely under their protection. That's the most poetic way I could think of to say, "Hmmm... Nice statues."


My Uncle Jimmy picked us up and we headed to Olney, MD.


A week later, Uncle Jimmy dropped us off at the Rockville Train Station. We had discovered that there was this much closer train station located a mere 20 minutes from my Aunt & Uncle's house. Way more convenient than the hour and half + trip to/from Baltimore. This was a much more understated crossroads, with nothing special to report about it whatsoever. Train Station. Neato.


We hopped on and headed back towards Toledo. I slept (or tried to sleep) through a great deal of this part of the trip. A few beers from the club car (observation room in upper level) helped to add to my drowsiness, but I still found it nearly impossible to get comfortable.


Tired from my Maryland exploits, I felt less adventurous when it came to locating fellow passengers to kill time with, so settled in to some MP3's and hoped for a speedy arrival in OH.

About a quarter of the way through the trip, after the conductor (a female this time, and no less dick-y than her male counterpart) informed us there would be no stops long enough to catch a smoke for 2-3 hours, I started to consider breaking Amtrak rules again and locating an unobserved bathroom. However, about 10 minutes later, an announcement came over the PA. This was perhaps the most unusual public announcement I've ever heard in my life. The guy giving it sounded like Bill Lumbergh and seemed to have no idea what he was about to tell us. Several umm's and uhh's later, he actually started to get to some kind of point.


"Uhhh... Just so you all know... ummm... There is no, uh, smoking allowed on any Amtrak railways.... so... if you could just.... you know.... not do that.... uh, on the train.... that'd be great.... uh... yeah, so we caught someone... ummm, smoking in the bathroom.... and, yeah... that's actually, um, against the, uh, Amtrak regulations.... If, ehhh.. If, if we were to catch anyone doing this, you can, uh... you can expect to be banned from riding with us in the, uh, in the future.... "


The above was not exaggerated. In fact, it went on quite a bit longer than that. Of course, my mom is looking at me the whole time, mouthing the words, "Was that YOU!!!" Naturally, I informed her that, of course, it was not me... I'd been sitting in my seat for quite some time anyway. (Of course, I was in no mood to suggest that it might have been me. (Although, later at a smoke stop, I met the guy who I'm pretty confident was the loser that got busted, and he was pretty stupid. I'm confident I wouldn't have been caught anyway))


This was possibly the most exciting action on this part of the trip.... sooooo... moving on.....

I slept off and on as people boarded and deboarded. As the trip went on, there were fewer passengers deboarding than those boarding, so eventually I actually had to share my seat. This really sucked, because it was already uncomfortable enough without having to sleep upright. And as it turned out, the nearly impossible time I was having getting some sleep became almost completely nearly impossible. I must have slept some, because songs I was listening to kept turning into different ones mid-beat, but it was all exactly that kind of sleep where you blink and it's later.... so... crappy sleep.


We arrived in Toledo, and as we were getting off the train, who did we see but none other than ANDY the DRUNK! Turns out he and Marge, his mother, had not left us forever after all. We discussed our respective trips while waiting to get on the bus from Toledo to East Lansing. I was way too bored with travelling to get very excited about this, though. I was tired and didn't feel like getting too close to Andy, who was sick the entire time he was gone (apparently, he caught some bug after my fated drinking of some of his beer, because I still had had no ill effects). It was nice to see them again, as it felt like some kind of neat bookend to this whole train experience that I was at first enjoying immensely, but had since discovered that I was merely enduring.


While sitting in the lobby (this went on longer than planned because the other train that was carrying passengers who were supposed to take the same bus as us, was running REALLY late), Pop had found another friend to talk to. He was a Larry, a large black salesman of some kind. He had apparently been put upon in some way due to his being black, and they were discussing this. What had happened was, he was chatting with a passenger seated next to him on the train and the man in front of him got pissed off and basically yelled at him, telling him keep it down! Larry the Salesmen felt that this was racially motivated because the white man who told him to shut up seemed to have no problem with the white women in a nearby seat who were also having a discussion. This seemed plausible in light of a dialogue I had been subjected to during a smoke break on the train somewhere along our path. Two unseemly individuals were talking about the "dark" area that we were in and, basically, how they felt about that. My reply was a drawn out "Okaaaaay....." and a furrowed brow followed by finishing my smoke alone.


Anyway, skipping ahead a tad, we finally got on the bus, and Larry sat in front of me papa, constantly turned around a bit in order to discuss further topics with him. I fell asleep to the sounds of Larry discussing vitamins, exercise, products, etc. with my father. I slept through the whole bus trip and next thing I knew we were back in good ol' East Lansing. Pop later informed me that Larry the Salesmen did not shut his mouth the entire trip. Even when Pop would pretend to go to sleep so that he may actually get some sleep, Larry would tap him on the shoulder to open up a new topic. Turns out, Larry is pretty much just really annoying, and we questioned whether or not his claims of being racially abused were actually in any way related to the color of his skin. Perhaps Whitey on the train just wanted to get some sleep (as it was like 3-4 in the morning when the incident took place). Alas, we will never know for sure.... The Shut Up guy was at least rude to not ask nicely first. Ah, race relations. I could go on all day....

So.... that's it... we got off the train, and my brother Ash drove us to my parents house. I grabbed my car and headed back to Okemos.


Anti-climactic, ain't it?


Sorry about that... couldn't be helped. The trip back was just kind of boring. And since you all got to enjoy the more interesting parts, I don't feel too bad about you having to put up with this section, admittedly not well written, due largely to the fact that it was almost as boring reliving it as it was living it.


The good news is, I will not be writing anymore too-long stories for a while. Ah, who am I kidding, I don't know any other way to write.... but I'll probably keep em all in one part from now on.... you lucky devils....


Love,
Dan

Technology on Tap - TV Shows On Demand

Alright, so 'streaming' has been around for a long time. Internet radio has been the bane of businesses for 10 years. 100 people listening to 100 different radio stations tends to saturate the very expensive Internet connection that said business is ponying up for.

Since I work in technology, it's my job to make sure that you (the rogue Internet radio listener) are blocked at every twist and turn in the dark back alleys of the Internet where you find unsanctioned radio streams that do everything in their power to get around guys like me.

Thus I was reluctant to try out 'TV on demand' as it is a similar technology. That and I'm generally slow on the uptake for new tech because, even though I'm a tech guy, it is not something that I breathe in and out. It's a job and like anything else that you do for 8 hours a day for 5 days a week, it gets old. Don't worry I still like to talk about it so don't think that you can't ask me to fix your scrap heap of a computer (Tom) when it decides that it's had enough and finally chokes on the dust you've been feeding it for 5 years under the desk.

With that rambling tangent out of the way (you do ramble on Blogs right? I'm new at this). I've been watching the show 'Chuck' on NBC's website. It's nice. Full screen doesn't work so hot, neither does 'large' so I leave it alone as is. They have four episodes back which is a bit annoying since their is no way in Sheol that I'm buying a box set. I like that you can watch anytime, don't like that you have to watch THE SAME commercial about 6 times throughout the show. It's 30 seconds but come on. How many times can I watch some guy (who by the looks of things does not need the product their hocking) run UNDER water through a pond bursting fourth on the opposite side because, since he took Excedrin, 'nothing can stop him?' Does Excedrin have both lead (to weight you down) and oxygen (to keep you breathing) so you can run with fish? Perhaps swimming is not tough enough looking.

Now that I've successfully completed my second tangent, I'll comment on the show 'Chuck.' It's supposed to be a geek show that geeks can identify with. Being a geek myself I'll give it a C+ to B- for geek accuracy. For the record the vast majority of geeks do not know Klingon or speak regularly about the work of J.R.R Tolkien. Perhaps I am not as hard-core geek as I ought to be -- I'll work on that. After all art imitates life, right?

The show's plot is catchy, and the 'Buy More' is great. Overall the show doesn't try to take itself too seriously and pulls the geekiness off pretty well. I laugh multiple times during the show which is usually a good sign. It helps having the guy who played Jane on Firefly along for the ride.

So despite my reservations I've really enjoyed the on-demand internet TV shows and might even try some other ones. Suggestions?

People I Can Look Up To...

According to this article on Themorningcall.com. "Travel company operator Hal Taussig buys his clothes from thrift shops, resoles his shoes and reads magazines for free at the public library.The 83-year-old founder of Untours also gives away all of his company's profits to help the poor -- more than $5 million since 1999. He is content to live on Social Security."

Apparently, he only takes a $6,000 salary from the company he founded. If he has any money left at the end of the month it goes to charity. He only takes a salary in the first place because the government thought he was trying to get out of paying taxes (ironic huh?). Most of his money goes to helping people with very low interest loans.

"While big corporations give away more money than Taussig, Cohen said, the donation could be ''one-half of 1 percent of profits while Hal gave away $5 million and that's 100 percent of his profits.''

In his own words he tries to make capitolists. ''They should be self-sustaining. You give them money and they run out and you have to give more. But if you give them a way to make a living, it's like teaching them how to fish rather than giving them fish.''

This is a guy I can get behind, this is the kind of giving I would like to see more of. But it's hard. I certainly wouldn't do it. At least not at my age. I don't have my house paid off, so there's that I have to consider. And I don't get Social Security (and personally if I had enough money at that age I wouldn't take it) so it looks like for the time being I have to consider saving money and paying for big expesive things like housing and retirement and all that fun stuff.

Although I'm sure at times Ben can see the relief in getting rid of money. While Ben is so busy with his final week of school, paying bills and balancing the check book are always hanging over his head. Sometimes, especially when things are busy, it would be nice to not have to worry about money.