Friday, December 26, 2014
2014, the year of the Cyberbreach
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| This interactive chart from www.informationisbeautiful.net/ shows some of this year's biggest hacks. |
And I’m not talking about North Korea’s much ballyhooed hacking of Sony Studios to prevent the release of its film, “The Interview,” which features the assassination of dictator Kim Jong-un by two bumbling journalists, played by James Franco and Seth Rogen.
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The Lizard Squad:
Cyber Grinches
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No, what I’m talking about is a group of Grinches calling themselves the “Lizard Squad” who tried to steal Christmas from thousands of kids this year by launching a distributed denial of service attack on new Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox game consoles.
The attack, which succeeded in overwhelming Sony and Microsoft’s servers with so much fake internet traffic that they crashed, prevented owners of these new gaming systems from connecting to the Internet. The attack, however, did not affect games that did not require an Internet connection to play.
While the motives behind North Korea’s alleged hack seems akin to an unruly child throwing a temper-tantrum because someone was planning to make fun of it, the aims behind the Lizard Squad’s latest action are somewhat unclear.
In an article on the Winbeta blog, the group claims its motives were more pure. They claim they did it to show consumers just how bad Microsoft and Sony were at protecting their data and to force both companies to upgrade their security. Doing it on Christmas day, they said, would “would anger and reach the largest amount of people – more people [more] angry calls for a greater response from the companies.”
Whether or not you believe their goals were as altruistic as they claim – and it’s hard to, when in that same article, the group also claims to have launched the attack “for laughs” – they are correct. This past year seems to have been the year where Cybersecurity has failed the consumer in some very big ways.
It all started in November of 2013 with the hacking of Target, where 40 million credit cards numbers were stolen. Then in January came news that millions of SnapChat accounts were hacked and info on users, including their phone numbers had been posted online for anyone to download. Then in the Spring, Home Depot fell victim of a cyberattack where approximately 53 million email addresses and 56 million credit card accounts were compromised.
In the summer, while most of us were relaxing at the beach, beside the pool, or with friends and family at barbecues, hackers were hard at work. In May came word that the world’s largest online auction site, E-Bay, had its user database breached, which gave cybercriminals access its customers’ names, account passwords, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and birth dates. Then in June the U.S. Secret Service tipped off the popular Asian-themed restaurant chain, P.F. Chang’s, that 33 of its locations had their credit-card-processing terminals compromised and that the hack had been going on for eight months.
planet, were immune from this summertime hack-attack. In late August the Wall Street Journal reported that
Attacks continued into the Fall with breaches at Google, where in September almost 5 million Gmail usernames and passwords were hacked and posted to a Russian web site, and most infamously at Apple, where hackers broke into the company’s iCloud storage site and stole nude photos of celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton and released them on the Internet. That was followed by an attack in October, targeting software giant Adobe, in which 38 million of its users had their account and credit card information exposed.
I could go on and list more – and if you are really interested there is a pretty cool graphic showing the relative size of all the major databreaches in the past few years here – but I think we all get the point. Cybersecurity is nowhere near as “secure” as it needs to be in a world where we conduct and store much of our lives online.
Being in the IT industry myself, I’m not going to point any fingers here, because I know how hard it is keeping computer networks safe with the crop of tools currently at our disposal. That said, I think it’s well past time that the IT industry came up with better methods of keeping our data safe. Chief among these new strategies should be the ditching of any method based on password authentication.
Let’s face it, typing in a password to a computer was OK back in the ’90s when dialup was still the norm and e-commerce was just a dream. But in today’s world, we need a more sophisticated method of identification. Next year I might take a stab at suggesting a few alternatives, but in the meantime, I think the IT industry needs to concentrate on making 2015 the year of REAL cybersecurity.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Gift guide for the truly deserving geek....me!
It’s a sound idea and for the past 20 years, I can honestly say that I’ve never received one of those ugly sweater-type of gifts from any of her relatives that made me want to ask myself, “What the hell were they thinking?” when thanking them.
However, I’ve always felt a bit uneasy about making a list for them. You see I’m a tech geek with an addiction to making sawdust, two hobbies which ain’t exactly cheap, and the stuff I truly want is always expensive. So when I take a look at my finished list each year, I can’t help think what a greedy, self-centered bastard it makes me look like.
So in an effort to appear less of a jerk – and because I’ve also got kind of a twisted sense of humor – I’ve always tried to make my lists humorous by adding things even Bill Gates and Donald Trump would be embarrassed to ask for. Then just to push the whole thing over the top, I add a paragraph or three about why I totally deserve these luxuries.
I’m told my wife's family gets a good laugh from my lists and looks forward to reading them each year. So this year, I figured I’d share mine with you and hope you get a good laugh from it as you prepare to engage in the annual madness that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Jeff's Geeky-Gift Guide for 2014
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Hey, if Norm's not using it, why should it go to waste? I'd promise to take good care of it! |
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| Huston, we have liftoff! |
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| This is not as cool as the Emperor 200, but it looks perfect for a Sith Lord. |
OTHER DESK CHAIRS. So, it looks like I’m not worth a measly six grand to you people? Fine. Then how bout these other desk chairs: Either the DXRacer Office Chair MX0/NC at $430 or the DXRacer Office Chair FE08NB at $350. Both look comfortable. I particularly like the adjustable lumbar pillow and the fact that they recline. Still to rich for you? Then how ’bout the VIVA Office 08501. This totally reclinable chair with foot rest and the world longest name is on Amazon right now for a special Black Friday price of $320
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| Admit it, you want one of these too! |
SAMSUNG UN55H7150 55-INCH 1080P 240HZ 3D SMART LED TV: Still no? You people are tough. Okay I’d settle for this very modest 55” flat screen. At just under a grand, it even features voice command so I don’t have to bother getting my fat butt off the couch to find the remote! (Bonus points: It would also make me feel like I’m on the bridge of the Enterprise! “Computer, please eject Wesley Crusher out the nearest airlock immediately!”)  |
| Sure it's expensive, but I could have asked for a Festool Dust Extratractor! |
FEIN TURBO II DUST EXTRACTOR: Yup, this year I want a gift that really sucks. And nothing sucks better and QUIETER than one of these orange and black babies. They produce only 67 dB (A) of noise as opposed to the 80-120 dB other shop vacs make. It also has a tool actuated switch that will start and stop the vac at the same time as the tool that is plugged into it for maximum dust extraction. Yes this unit is three-times more expensive than the ones you can get at big-box stores, but isn’t my hearing worth the $400 price tag! Fein Turbo II Dust Extractor, model 92028236090 is only $400. But if you really care about me and more importantly, my lungs, you'll splurge and for the extra $100 get me the HEPA filter equipped unit, Fein Turbo II HEPA Dust Extractor, model 92028236990, $500
SSD HARD DRIVE: I’m looking to upgrade a Dell XPS system I was given, and in order to make it a worthy successor to my trusty old Windows XP workstation -- and to make the Windows 7 really fly on it -- I need an solid state hard drive and bracket for it. Luckily you can get both the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7TE250BW) and the Silverstone Tek 3.5-Inch to 2 X 2.5-Inch Hard Drive HDD SSD Bay Converter, Silver (SDP08) on Amazon for a total of $130. And since the price is so cheap, you could even get me a two of those Samsung 840 EVO drives, as the bracket can hold two!
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You'll have nailed it if you get me
one of these. In fact you could say it'll become a workshop staple! |
PORTER-CABLE NS150C NARROW CROWN STAPLER: Okay, it’s no ray gun, but for attacking…er.. attaching backs to the cabinets and furniture I build, something like this is even better! The 18 gage staples hold better than the brads I currently use. It’s not like I can’t live without this, but hey, if your too cheap to get me my damned workshop, then the least you could do would be to cough up the $75 to get me this!
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| Who said everything Steampunk had to have gears on it? |
GERMAN SAFETY GOGGLES: Speaking of health and safety, my eyes could use some extra protection and my current crop of safety glasses are all scratched up. There is really nothing you can do to fix those cheap plastic lenses, (believe me, I’ve looked!), so I’ve decided it’s time you treat me to a new pair of safety glasses. And not some cheap junk from the big-box store. No. I want something stylish and practical! Something that says I’m more than just your average woodworker! Something that says, I’m a MAKER! Dammit! Nothing screams "I'm a Maker" more than these Steampunk-inspired safety glasses from Lee Valley/Veritas, $16. Plus, for an extra $3 you can get me the swappable tinted lenses that I can put in when doing yard work. Just imaging the suave, geeky figure I’d cut pushing the lawn mower through our weeds wearing these and my pith-helmet! (and yes, I DO have a pith-helmet)
BIONIC FACE SHIELD: Just the name alone should tell you why they’re perfect for someone like me. I mean how much more geeky can you get, than naming your product Bionic? And while they won’t give me Steve Austin-like vision nor even make that cool do-do-do-do sound they will protect my face better than the German Safety Glasses I mentioned when I’m at the lathe. $21
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Yup, that's me in my jacket
30 years ago! |
BUTTON CLOSING FENCING JACKET: Out of all the gifts on this list, this one will be the most challenging for you to get. So if you really want to prove you love me, you’ll find me one of these to replace my vintage Santelli fencing jacket I’ve worn for more than 25 years! Alias my current jacket is beginning to fray and is a bit worn and may no longer be competition legal. It’s made of heavy duck canvas, closes on the left (I’m right handed after all) and is a size 40. Don’t know if any of these fencing equipment makers can do custom jobs but you can start your search by contacting these fencing equipment manufacturers: Blade Fencing Equipment, Triplette Competition Arms, Absolute Fencing Gear and Leon Paul
PADDED PRACTICE SLEEVE: Okay, I know what you’re thinking. “Why should I get him a padded sleeve, when he really needs to be fitted for an entire padded jacket?” Well, if you can’t find me the button closing fencing jacket I want, what makes you think you’re going to be able to find me one of those, smarty-pants? Luckily for you, a padded practice sleeve is readily available and will protect me from all those arm touches during epee practice. $28 WOOD MAGAZINE RENEWAL: Look if you got me my heated 20' x 20' shop, I wouldn’t have to while away the long, cold months here in the great Northeast reading about all the cool things I could be making if I just had a nice warm shop to be in. But sadly you keep refusing me, so now I must resort to bugging you to renew a magazine subscription for me. Some people….
A three year subscription for the price of one is now just $28.
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Don't let Moose and Squirrel
'foil' Boris' plans again! |
TITAN ELECTRIC EPEE GUARD: It’s a well-known fact that epee guards take quite the beating (and are sometimes even used to beat another blade out of the way) and the one on my Russian gripped epee (I call him Boris) has literally had the rivets beaten off it. So it needs to be replaced so I can again have two functioning weapons. After all, you don’t want my Zikov-gripped epee, Natasha, to be lonely do you? So don’t just get this for me. Get me it for Natasha’s sake, dollink. $25
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| Every woodworker needs his vises... |
CLAMPS: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Woodworkers can never have too many vises, so clamps will always be on my list. Anything from the two-foot Irwin Quick Grips you can get at the Home Depot or Lowes to this Jet 70411 Parallel Clamp Cabinet Door Set, ($270) will do.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
The future’s going to sound a lot like the past
We live in an age of wonders.
It seems like almost every few months, some amazing new electronic gadget gets invented and before we know it, it totally changes the way we live.
Sometimes this new technology comes with a hidden dark side, as I discussed in my article, “Privacy in the modern world is really an illusion.” And sometimes it comes with amusing unforeseen consequences.
A few weeks ago I heard a report on NPR’s business program, Marketplace, that squarely falls into this latter category.
It seems car manufacturers such as BMW and Ford have gotten so good at making their engines so efficient and quiet through the use of modern technology, that people are complaining that the engines are too quiet. Buyers of Ford’s signature muscle car, the Mustang, and BMW’s equipped with the company’s inline six-cylinder engines miss the distinctive growls the cars used to make.
“The enthusiast driver wants to hear that sound,” Dave Buchko, a BMW spokesman said in the
aforementioned Marketplace interview. “They want to hear the engine as it's revving up.”
So, what have these companies done to address this complaint?
Turned to technology, naturally.
Taking a cue from Apple, which revolutionized the way we now listen to and purchase our music, these automakers have recorded the sounds their older engines used to make and play it back inside the car’s cabin through the sound system.
“What you're getting,” Buchko explained during the interview, “is pre-recorded engine sound that is matched exactly to a car's RPMs.”
When I heard him say that, I burst out laughing. Not because I thought it was cheating, but because I immediately though what a great marketing ploy this could be.
Can’t afford BMW or V-8 Mustang?
Afraid you (or your kid) won’t be able to handle a car with all those horses under the hood?
No problem.
For a few extra bucks you can make that three-cylinder Ford Fiesta sound like it’s packing a V-8, with the special V-RUM (Virtual Rumble Upgraded Motor) package! See your dealer for details!
Of course the absence of the noises we’ve become accustom to isn’t always just an aesthetic problem. Sometimes it can be a safety issue. Today’s electric cars and plug-in hybrids are so quiet when they are running on only their electric motors, that people often step out into the street in front of them because they can’t hear them coming. To combat this, manufacturers had to make these vehicles make noises.
But unlike BMW and Ford, I wouldn’t make them sound like traditional cars.
I’d give them a unique sound all their own.
A sound that would be instantly recognizable.
A sound that generations of us have already heard.
That sound?
This one of course.
Yup, that’s right. The bop-bop-bop-bop sound the Jetson’s car used to make. (Hey, this IS the future! Why should our cars still sound like they did at the start of the last century?) And at least one company seems to agree with me. Nissan gave its new electric car, the Leaf, a Jetson-like sound.
Yet people still seem to prefer the sound of our old technology. I can’t begin to count how many people have their cell phone ring tones set to mimic the sound of the old Ma-Bell mechanical ringers. Digital camera’s still make a “clicking” sound despite not having any mechanical shutters, and while I understand the need to have these devices make sounds so you can’t surreptitiously take someone’s picture, why not have the camera say “Cheese!” or “Got ya!”
All this leads me to believe that for the foreseeable future our cars will still sound like they always have even though it’s becoming less and less necessary for them to do so.
It seems there is something about human nature that compels us keep around familiar aspects of old technology in our new inventions, even when those new products don’t functionally need them. So as anachronistic as it may be, I expect that the sounds we hear in our future will mimic what we hear today.
Monday, September 29, 2014
A Priestly Blessing from the planet Vulcan
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Not many people realize that Mr. Spock was really a space-going Kohanim, or Jewish priest. As proof, I offer you this picture of him administering Birkat Kohanim or Priestly Blessing to TV audiences in September of 1967.
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It’s often said that religion and science don’t mix, nor should they.
And to a certain extent, I agree with that philosophy.
We should never let our religious beliefs stop us from exploring how and why things work in our universe nor should we ever alter the results of those scientific explorations just because they don’t happen to fit in with the precepts of our religion. Conversely, we should never let what we learn from science influence our belief in G-d.
Yet the same cannot be said when it comes to science fiction stories.
Some of the best Sci-Fi out there deals with the inherent conflict between these opposing points of view: faith and science. It has also, at least in my mind, given us one of the most iconic symbols in all of science fiction; the Vulcan hand salute and its salutation, “Live long and prosper.”
As some may or may not know, the now famous gesture was created by “Star Trek” actor Leonard Nimoy, during the filming of the episode “Amok Time.”
“I peeked. And I saw them with theirs hands stuck out beneath their Tallit like this toward the congregation and I went: Wow! Something really got hold of me. I had no idea of what was going on, but the sound of it and the look of it was magical.”
Who knew that only 20 or so years later, Nimoy would turn that “secret” Jewish ritual into a cultural phenomena?
I’ve known about the origins of the Vulcan salute for sometime now, but what got me thinking about it again was trying to come up with an idea for this month’s blog entry, which would fall right between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, our Day of Repentance.
I can still remember the day I first saw my rabbi perform this ritual. I was in seventh grade and in our synagogue’s junior choir. We were singing as part of the big family service on Yom Kippur and we were standing off to the side and a bit behind the bema, or stage from where the Torah is read. Since we were on risers and already facing away from him, it was a bit hard for us to turn around when the rabbi asked, but like the young Leonard Nimoy, I just couldn’t resist peeking as our rabbi intoned the blessing that asks G-d to inscribe us for yet another in year in the book of life and grant us peace and prosperity.
My mind was blown as I saw him reaching out toward the crowd with his hands held in the to-me familiar “vee” fingered formation.
“My G-d,” I thought. “He’s essentially wishing us all ‘Peace and long life’ and asking G-d to ensure that the Jewish people, ‘live long and prosper.’ ”
“My G-d,” I thought again. “Vulcans are space Jews!”
If Mr. Spock hadn’t been my favorite “Star Trek” character before then (and he was), he became it right then and there. Over the years I came to realize that the Vulcan philosophy as depicted on the show isn’t all that different from what we Jews ask G-d’s help in becoming every year during these holiest of days. We seek to become a better people. A people who embrace cultural and racial diversity. A people devoted to learning. A people yearning for peace. And a people who act on the belief that ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or one’ by going out and doing “mitvahs” or good deeds to leave the world a better place than the way in which we found it.
So in the spirit of both the Vulcan and Jewish people, I’d like to wish all of you out there in cyberspace, a slightly modified version of the Birkat Kohanim:
May G-d bless you and guard you.
May G-d shine His countenance upon you and be gracious to you.
May G-d turn His countenance toward you and grant you peace.
And may you all Live, Long and Prosper.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Proof I can create more than just a virtual desktop
I liked that slogan so much, I made it the motto for my company, Price Consulting Services, LLC and even put it on my business cards.
Well four years on, I’ve finally gotten a chance to prove I could actually do just that.
In fact, I’ve spent just about the entire month of August building a mammoth, 9½-foot-wide news anchor desk for a local online sports show called Game On.
While you can check out the fruits of my labors at the link above, I’d thought I’d share with you a series of pictures documenting its construction, from picking up the wood at my local big-box hardware store to its final delivery on set.
STEP 1: Designing the desk in SketchUp
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STEP 2: Buying the lumber
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| It's truly amazing how much lumber you can actually fit into a Honda Civic! Everything you see on the cart at left, actually made it into my truck and stayed their for the 20 minute drive home! | |
STEP 3: Cutting the parts down to size:
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| Using my compound miter saw, I cut out all the various parts for the desk base and then used my table saw to square up all those parts. It took me an entire day to do this. | |
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The top and bottom sub-assemblies had to be glued up in a few stages because the weird angles made clamping it all at one nearly impossible.
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After the top and bottom sub-assemblies dried, I attached them to the legs to form a right and left base. At 9.5 feet wide, I had to make the desk in two parts, so the finished product would be easier to move.
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STEP 7: Fitting the base to the top
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STEP 8: Covering the base
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STEP 9: Assembly complete!
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| From the front, (left) the desk has a nice rail and panel look to it. But since the rear (right) will never appear on camera (at least not on purpose anyway!) I didn’t make any attempt to hide the 2x4s that give the desk its strength. The circular knobs on the center legs and top center support are actually window latches that are used to lock both sides of the desk together. | |
STEP 10: Painting
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| The desk got two coats of gray primer (left) and after that dried, I began to apply its final topcoat (right): a glossy black paint.
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The "Game On" program is shot on a green-screen stage so a CGI background can be added later. The producer has since told me that now that they have such a nice desk, they are thinking of building a real set around my desk! | |
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Take two tablets and call me in the morning….
It happens every year as July dwindles its way into August and is as inevitable as the swallows returning to Capistrano or salmon’s need to swim back up stream to its spawning grounds.
“So,” my wife will ask me. “What do you want for your birthday?”
After assuring her that her continued presence in my life is present enough, and watching her roll her eyes, she’ll repeat the question.
“No seriously. What do want?”
As a tech guy and self-proclaimed gadget geek and woodworker, you think that I could give her a list a mile long. Yet lately, I’ve been hard pressed to even come up with two or three things that: A) we can afford, B) won’t land me in divorce court or on the couch for a week or two and C) that I really, really want.
At this point in my life I seem to have all basic hand and power tools that a semi-serious woodworker/DIYer needs (or at least all the tools that will comfortably fit in our garage and still allow us to park our cars in there), and while my tech gear is kind of on the old side, it is still more than sufficient for what at I use it for.
“What about a Kindle Fire?” she suggests. “Or maybe one of those Surface things. I’ve seen you looking at them…”
Every time she suggests this, I think about it for a long time. After all, not many wives would volunteer to buy their husbands an expensive toy. (And yes, I do have a great wife! That’s why I stay married to her!) But in the end, I wind up turning her down, because to me, that’s what these tablets are – expensive toys.
Now I’m not saying tablet computers like the iPad, Surface, or any one of the various Android-powered devices out there aren’t useful or convenient. The 195,435,004 people who went out and bought one of them in 2013 would seem to prove that. I’m just saying that at the moment, I don’t see them being very useful for me.
I don’t travel a lot and do most of my reading (and a good bit of my writing too) floating in my inflatable pool chair in the summer. So having my entire library of books and magazines at my fingertips isn’t as big a deal for me as it is for my wife, who does travel a lot. So if I finish a book or magazine I’m reading, it’s only a few steps to the house to grab another, while for my wife, who might be on a plane somewhere, grabbing another book from our bookshelves is a bit more problematic.
Also until they make those tablets completely water proof, I would not dream of taking one near the pool. If the book I’m reading gets splashed or I accidentally drop it in the water, I can fish it out, place it on the side of the pool to dry, and aside from some wrinkly pages go back to reading it within 20 minutest. Drop a Kindle, Nook, or worse yet an iPad or Surface in the water, and you’ve got yourself one very expensive paperweight.
I know you can do more with these devices than just read e-books. You can watch movies or stream videos from the Internet on them, e-mail, browse the web and even open and work on office documents. But I can do all that stuff on any one of my old laptops.
Even my oldest unit, an eight-year old Dell laptop with only 2gb of RAM can handle these tasks with aplomb and I find having a built-in keyboard much more useful than having to hunt and peck on an on-screen keyboard that offers no tactile feedback.
So for now, I can’t see spending money (or my wife’s money) on something that’ll I’ll only use until the novelty wears off then revert back to one of my old laptops because, to me, they are more convenient.
What would make me change my mind about getting one?
Well price would be always be a factor, so it would have to be cheaper than buying full-fledged, laptop. Right now, for the price of an iPad or Surface, I can buy a mid-range laptop that has lots more processor power and memory than any tablet on the market and wouldn’t limit me to just their simple apps. On a laptop I can run any software I already have or need.
It would also have to be rugged. As a tech, I’ve seen way too many of these devices get broken, and since they are not easy to fix and I’m a bit of a klutz myself, I’d want them to be able to withstand multiple drops from about table-top height without screens cracking or the electronics fritzzing out. Plus, they’d have to be water-proof, not just water resistant. I want to be able to drop one of these things in my pool and be able to fish it off the bottom five minutes later and have it still working.
Thirdly, I’d want it to have two screen modes: a high-definition color display for when I’m inside and an e-ink display so I can actually use it outside in direct sunlight. Kindle’s Paperwhite displays are great for reading books outdoors, and I’ve even seen some e-readers that can convert pictures into black and white so you can read a magazine page even with the sun shining over your shoulder.
But wouldn’t it be cool if a tablet could sense it was outdoors and switch to an e-ink display mode for your apps, so you can do more than just read outside? Yes, I realize this probably would not work for everything, but for writing and editing office documents, e-mails and even some basic web browsing, it should be just fine. And since that’s what I’d mostly be doing with mine…..
Finally, I’d want it to come with a stylus and an app which would recognize my handwriting and convert my scribbling into an editable text and save it to a .txt, .rtf or even .doc or .docx file. That way I could replace the clipboard and pencil I use when writing in the pool and get back the few hours it takes me to type all those pages into Microsoft Word on my computer.
Of all my requirements, I think this last one is most obtainable. There are a few apps out there that are close to doing this already. But until they prefect them and the other things I mentioned, I think I’ll keep passing on a tablet computer, and stick with my fallback gift: clamps.
Why do I want clamps, you ask?
Because a woodworker can never have too many vises.
Monday, June 30, 2014
The Geeks have inherited the Earth
(and it’s about damn time too!)
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| This comic, courtesy of JoyOfTech.com, proves our point. |
Anyone who was interested in science – and by extension, science fiction; was fascinated by personal computers which were just beginning to make their ways into people’s homes; and who’d spent his or her free time playing games where imagination was more important than physical prowess, were looked upon as being weird, and worthy of ridicule and scorn.
But sometime during the last the 30 years we geeks went form being Urkel to Adam Savage.
And it’s about damn time too!
Without us, there’d be no smartphones; social networks, e-mail, or even Google. Hell there wouldn’t even be an Internet – which I guess, depending on your point of view, may or may not be such a bad thing.
But all the modern conveniences you now take for granted were invented by us geeks, who the mass media used to portray as bespectacled, pocket-protector and flood-pants wearing wimps, with high-pitched, nasally voices.
Well who’s laughing now?
We are.
And it’s not that stereotypical honking laugh that you all think we have.
It sounds more like this.
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Today's geeks look and sound more like Adam Savage than the
Nerds from "The Revenge of the Nerds" movies or Steve Urkel from the "Family Matters" TV show. |
That’s right, it’s the sound of us laughing all the way to the bank as you scramble to buy the latest tech gadgets we’ve created and then again when you have to pay us to fix them or teach you how to use them.
And, no, all those tablets/smartphone/computers/Apps you can’t live without don’t really need to be so hard to use. We could have made them simpler, and would have, if you guys had been nicer to us in high school.
Karama baby, it’s a bitch….
Now I guess you could argue that it was Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc. and the brains behind some of its most iconic devices, who first began to bring some chic to us geeks in the late ’90s. But while there is little doubt that his creations earned him the public’s adoration, the man himself was no Mr. Congeniality. By all accounts, he was a difficult man and had a reputation as kind of jerk.
Other contenders for the title of “First Cool Geek” might be Bill Nye, “The Science Guy” whose television show aired on PBS and a few other stations from 1993-1998; or to a lesser degree, writer, producer and director Joss Whedon whose genre TVs shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel,” and “Firefly”; films: “Toy Story,” “Alien: Resurrection,” and “The Avengers”; and web series: “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” have helped bring mass appeal to stories once thought the domain of only geeks.
Regardless of who was first, right now I think the poster boy for the modern “hip” geek belongs to “Mythbusters” co-host Adam Savage.
For a while now, I’ve been watching him on YouTube and based on what I’ve seen, I can’t think of any better role model for today’s geeks. He’s crazy smart and every bit the creative genius Steve Jobs was, but unlike the former Apple CEO, he is personable. He’s the type of guy you’d want sitting in on your Dungeons & Dragons game and could even imagine discussing who was the best captain in “Star Trek” or whether the Enterprise could beat the Battlestar Galactica or an Imperial Star Destroyer in a space battle.
But his affable personality and fame aren’t the only reason why I’d crown him “King of the Geeks.” He’s become the face of the Maker Movement and actively campaigns and encourages people to get out and make stuff they want instead of wishing it existed.
The enthusiasm which he speaks on this subject is infectious and after watching videos of him speaking at Maker’s Faires, graduation ceremonies and fan conventions, he inspired me to turn my DIY and woodworking skills to a slightly less practical pursuit: building my own lightsaber.
I’ve always wanted one ever since I saw “Star Wars” when I was 13, but the cost of buying a film-accurate replica seemed way too exorbitant.
The one I built doesn’t do half the things those replicas I could have purchased can, but I think it’s way cooler, because I was able to built it myself to my own specifications. In addition to the bragging rights and pride of having made it myself, I also learned a new skill doing it – electronics.
Learning to wire together a few LEDs, and a switch and battery into a simple circuit may not seem like much, but from that experience I learned enough to fix a flatbed scanner of mine that had suddenly stopped working and am now planning on integrating some electronics into the woodworking projects I build during my summer vacations.
This is Adam’s point.
Get out there, find what inspires you and learn how to build it.
It doesn’t matter “if the project kicks you’re ass,” he preaches. Stay with it and persevere. What you learn from that experience will be even more invaluable than your sense of accomplishment and lead you on to bigger and better things.
I think that’s an important message, given the current age of increasingly shrinking school budgets where art and shop programs are getting axed. Children should be encouraged to indulge their imaginations and build things.
Who knows, that geeky kid in your school who’s trying to build his own Iron Man armor out of cardboard and a handful of electronics parts he picked up at Radio Shack might just grow up to be the next Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates or Eric Schmidt.
So don’t make fun if him. Encourage him instead. Hell, even volunteer to help. You never know what you might learn.
And if you are very, very lucky, that kid might remember it and make the next generation of high-tech gadgets simple enough for even non-geeks to use!
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