March 3, 2006; a date that has been carefully expunged from many memories was the night of our first recording. Back then, it only took a few days to perform post-production and have a published episode online. I’m sure we can attribute this to my work ethic in school.

Episode 6 was roughly 4 months in the incubator. You’ll notice the audio quality has been stepped up from “abysmal” to “tolerable” with our move to Skype as a recording medium rather than a solitary desktop microphone that I discovered in a disused computer box from 1995. The podcast was a lot of fun to be a part of and to edit. It was nice to get back together with the gang and geek out for a few hours.

Redesign

RCG also got a much needed redesign with the anniversary. It no longer takes the page 5 minutes to load while some convoluted scripts parse RSS feeds for content. It also works properly on a mobile device too (as long as it is using the latest webkit engine such as an iOS device).

Future Shows?

If you asked me 5 years ago where I thought RCG would be today, I probably would have thought about how popular and well-produced the podcast was going to become with a thriving community of tech enthusiasts posting on our forums and such. Fame and fortune still alludes us, but if I think about RCG now, I realize that it’s more about getting together and doing things that we all like.

My main goal now is to capture the group experiences we have such as the podcast. However, my focus lately has shifted to our LAN parties and attempting to capture how much fun it is to get together and play our favourite games. To me, the future of RCG is publishing those experiences in a way that outsiders can stumble across them and enjoy them as well.

There have been brief discussions about how cool it would be to get together to do a regular show again, but it’s just not practical. If a show exists at all, it might be a special annual show where we find time to just hang out and catch up. Although I think the vast majority of us are far more comfortable playing video games to produce a show.

LAN Party

If you haven’t seen last years LAN party video yet and enjoy TF2, I urge you to take a look before the upcoming LAN party at the end of July. These are the kind of things that I want RCG to become.

Cheers everyone! Happy anniversary.

History

Over a year ago I remember hearing all of these fantastic things about Android being the rising star in the mobile space. I got so curious that I even splurged on a G1. It was being backed by Google and had a considerable amount of praise from Android users. I soon realized that this praise was something more akin to parents looking on in adoration as their baby took it’s first shaky steps. It wasn’t that Android was miraculous or special. It was just beginning to grow up and the Android community had misrepresented this sense of pride for a serious threat against iOS.

Realizing my mistake, I quickly retreated to my iPhone 3GS and continued reading news stories about the improvements that Google was making on Android. Finally, I heard of the Nexus One. Wow, a phone that Google was backing very heavily and did fantastic things as demonstrated at Google IO. Wireless tethering, music streaming (still not here!), the Android Intent API… This was going to be a huge leap forward for Android.

I bought into Android a second time. I was so excited about the N1, that I actually purchased it knowing there was an iPhone announcement coming days later. That is how insane I was. Fortunately, the N1 wasn’t all that bad. The UI was much snappier, the OLED screen was gorgeous and I was really enjoying the 3G tethering to my iPad. But now that I’ve had almost a full year with the N1 as my only phone I’ve started to notice the cracks in the OS and bugs are starting to make themselves known.

Android

The Bad

• Firmware upgrades are slow to arrive after announcement (if ever depending on your phone model) as a result of the update being staged for delivery over the cell networks.
• No strict UI guidelines means some apps are insane to navigate and can’t decide whether to poorly mimic iOS counterparts or not.
• The official Nexus One docks all suck and never align properly to charge.
• Google Listen has started to pause tracks at random intervals when in the car dock.
• Littered Google Marketplace with rip-off apps and malware.
• There are times that my Google Account access is suspended until I type in a CAPTCHA on the phone. This happens almost twice a month without explanation.

Of course, there are a lot of fantastic things to love about Android as well…

The Good

• Speech-to-text is incredible and extremely useful. (Unfortunately, this is almost required because the soft keyboard is awful)
• I love an environment that aims for no syncing. All my podcasts download on-demand.
• Android is hackable/customizable in a legitimate sense. Google doesn’t care if you’re “jailbreaking” or not.
• Google Navigate is a great free app despite the unintelligible computer voice.
• Lock screen pattern. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this feature. Drawing a pattern on screen is so simple and much more secure than 4 digits or a password.

Unfortunately, as fun as the goods are in Android, the bugs really outweigh the benefits for me. So I’m confident that I want to move back to an iPhone. I often wonder how much more frustrated I’d be with Android if I didn’t have my iPad with me as a back-up.

iOS

Naturally, there are problems with iOS too. And I’ll list the ones that stand out for me for posterity as I’m sure we can all see the positives for ourselves.

The Bad

• It is dependent on syncing to computers for most data transfers (Podcast syncing is a hassle for me)
• iOS is a closed ecosystem and jailbreaking is not condoned and is even dangerous given previous exploits that have spread through jailbroken iPhones.
• Carriers are much more limiting with iOS (tethering plans and 3G downloads are limited on iOS, but ignored on Android)

None of these are deal-breakers for me, but they are annoyances that I’m aware of. Some people might wonder why I didn’t include store approval processes and all the other major qualms that Apple is in the news for so frequently. I for one, welcome the tightly controlled iTunes App Store policies. Sometimes that means that developers have to struggle if they have some radical, cool ideas, but on the whole it helps maintain a relatively consistent experience on iOS and encourages a very high standard of quality apps. (This opinion does not apply to the Mac App Store which I will not discuss here.)

Bottom Line

In the end, if you were to ask me what differentiated the two platforms from a consumer perspective it would be this:

Android is for power users with very specific needs and whom are willing to hack away to get them. It likely won’t be pretty or even stable, but if you want to build something insane free of any restrictions, welcome to Android.

iOS, on the other hand, is for consumers that have varying interests and really enjoy having fun, playing games, video calling and so many more things.

Are there exceptions to the rule? Sure. But generally speaking, this is what the platforms are known for among consumers. As much as I often consider myself of the geek variety that enjoys to tinker and tweak bits of their electronics, I’ve realized that I’m more comfortable with electronics that don’t require the constant reboots or experience the frequent lock-ups that I have with Android. iOS is a place away from my normal experience with computers; things just work and I don’t have to think about them. I don’t have to remind myself that cancelling a speech-to-text process in an area with limited connectivity is going to cause my phone to lock-up for a few minutes. (Seriously, this is a reproducible bug that happens all the time when I’m at home on WiFi and downloading something at the same time.)

I’ll miss some things a great deal on Android, but I’m sure that once I have my hands on a retina display and I’m in a FaceTime call or reading my news feeds in Reeder, I’ll forget all about it. Maybe in time I’ll feel comfortable enough not to carry my iPad everywhere too.

So that’s where I stand after a year of sincerely trying to make Android work for me. Hopefully that helps some people.

Basement

Not much to show down there, but I do have Rorschach greet you on the way down.

Kitchen

The kitchen has a few of my artworks on display. Some of them that I don’t really care for at all…

…And one that I’m very happy has found a place on a wall finally.

The antique 1930′s telephone is something I had in mind for a long time. The phone is in working order, though I don’t think I’ll ever attempt to make it work on a land-line. Perhaps some hacking in the future to get it to serve some purpose.

Office

I hate calling this an office because it implies work is being done. In actuality, this room is here to isolate all of the computers and electronics from the rest of the house so I don’t have to sleep with noisy fans anymore.

The cabinets serve as the display area for the room. All of my collectibles fit on this wall with plenty of room for more Comics, Blu-Rays and box sets in the future.

The desk is nothing new as I’ve had it for over 3 years now. A couple Drobos and Macs along with a TIX clock makes this a pretty high-functioning nerdvana area.

The Half-Life posters were a must as I have finally made my way through HL2 and the first two episodes. It has become one of my favourite stories ever told once I powered through the fear of all the headcrabs.

Living Room

What home is complete without a nice home theatre? Equipped with bias lighting and my beloved Boxee Box, I still love sitting down to watch something in this room.

There is also a neat wall shelf that has some very cool LED blow-on/off candles which I have some interesting plans for in a future project.

Things I Learned

I discovered a couple things about myself I wasn’t previously aware of through all of this. Firstly, I really like the colours brown and black. Somehow, after all these years of art classes and digital media studies, I never clued into this before, but I really couldn’t imagine any other colours throughout the house.

I also discovered that it’s hard to shop for things I like as my tastes seem to be fairly expensive and away from the norm. It took me weeks to find the rug that I currently have in my living room because no one appreciates solid colours apparently. They all want traditional patterns.

Projects

I have a couple cool projects I’m working on and will post here in the coming weeks. I think you’re going to like what I have in store.

The following is an email conversation that was initiated by Steve Howe (my boss) after he stumbled upon a conversation between myself and @JThrust on Twitter. Not being a follower of either myself or JThrust, his upcoming reaction to this brief conversation is noticeably uneasy and understandably so given the character that I am on Twitter and the way I actually behave in meatspace. He has no contextual relevance for the conversation other than this brief exchange coupled with his interactions with me in the workplace.

What I say on Twitter isn’t necessarily harmful to anyone or directed as an attack to anyone specifically. Even so, I am not the most politically correct person when I conduct myself there. I don’t plan to change that as a result of this incident either. I share this with all of you so that perhaps you can take away what I failed to concerning workplace expectations and the dangers of a passer-by in a Twitter feed.

We all know that I share a great deal of contention towards people who may not be as well versed in technology as I am. And that statement is not meant to put myself on a pedestal above all others as I recognize that I am quite a ways from the top of the geek food chain. Perhaps this contention has been brewed while offering free tech support to anyone who asks all these years. Or maybe it’s just way too much time spent living vicariously the lives of people in Silicon Valley. Whatever the reason, I want to fully acknowledge that I often come off as heavy-handed and probably did here too. I sincerely do wish to apologize for the pompous behaviours of mine as they happen.

But I would also like to plead for some sympathy. We’ve all been the tech support person. It’s not fun regardless of how much money may or may not be involved. I’d like to graciously ask you keep this in mind while reading my response in particular.

Finally, I’d just like to point out that certain aspects of both emails have been altered or omitted to protect the innocent.

Steve Howe (The Boss)

    Niamu writes:
    @JThrust Tell me about it. I don't know what the all buzz is about in this board for Twitter, because they don't know how to use it.

So does that mean we should stay away from it, never venture forward, not try new ways or learn new things? When you began to venture into the world of computers, did you avoid programs that you new little about, or did you move forward eager to learn about all what they could do and how to use them effectively? Maybe we don’t know how to use it, but if we don’t try then we will never learn. You get frustrated by folks who aren’t well versed in technology, so would your solution be to ban them from using it, or to help them gain the knowledge to become proficient?

My Reply

Well, where do I begin…

I can understand that you may perceive this incredibly brief exchange of thoughts between myself and JThrust as an attack on efforts everywhere by educational institutions and the indeed the world over. And sure, I’ve openly admitted frustrations that I have with users who do not understand technology the way myself and friends seem to grok it. However, there is a greater subtext here that you will have undoubtedly missed I’d like to share with you to help you understand the greater conversation that JThrust and I have had over the years about Twitter specifically and other technologies.

JThrust is a good friend of mine. We’ve known each other for years, hang out on occasion and have even ventured into shared blogging communities and briefly, podcasting in the past. Suffice to say that we have had many conversations concerning the effectiveness and pervasiveness of technology. You may find it even more interesting that while we seem to be in agreement in this brief discourse, we almost never share the same opinion. In fact, JThrust has perhaps the most compelling Twitter origins of anyone.

Initially, he proclaimed Twitter as this minimalist Facebook status update that was publicly available for anyone to be informed of what you had for dinner that night, or what your dog just threw up all over the living room rug. For him, as for many people initially, Twitter served no purpose. After months of many of us harping at him to try it out and experience what Twitter had to offer, he finally began to use the service on February 23, 2009. About two years after myself and other friends.

Like all things, it took time for Twitter to make sense to him. But the greatest of kudos go out to him for not only sticking with it, but experimenting on a level that we were not even made aware of until weeks later when the internet started to buzz about a sensational viral marketing campaign that many believed to be perpetrated by Nintendo to generate interest in a new video game property…

@TopHatProfessor Layton and the Curious Twitter Accounts

The above article captures most of the event in question and JThrust’s involvement. What JThrust had done was truly inspiring. He had taken the plunge into not only one account, but a second one as well. He had spent the time to get to know the medium and had trusted in many of us who said, and still assert today that 100 tweets is what it takes to fully understand Twitter.

A compelling story to say the least. And we’re not done yet. JThrust, as you may have gathered from the originating tweet for this conversation, works within the education system as well. So I believe he can speak with some authority on the subject. Arguably, his comments hold far more weight than my own now that you have glimpsed his history.

Coming to the heart of the matter though; Were we both a bit crass in our expressions of the way Twitter is being handled in schools? Probably. Of course, Twitter is all about subtext. It has to be when you only have 140 characters. And given the new backstory that you are now aware of, I think you can understand my greater meaning.

Naturally, I’m pleased that my suggestion to use Twitter has grown into something that is being pushed so heavily right now. Where my concerns lie are not with people using it. My concerns are with people not knowing enough about the medium to make effective use of it. That may come with time. But time is not the only factor here. You will agree that attention is also necessary for success. Time and attention are something that Merlin Mann talks a lot about and something that I’ve come to accept as fundamentals to doing great work. My wish is that the rest of the educational community will see that as well. But my fears and observations often get the better of me. Accounts like this one often seduce me into thinking this won’t take off so well within our board. Link removed to protect the innocent

In closing – and I apologize that it’s taken so long to get here – I’d like to just re-affirm that I obviously don’t want to “ban” schools or educators from using new tools because they don’t understand them. But I would like to see a conscious effort of both time and attention on these new tools so they can use them effectively because in all honesty and frankness, there are many of them who really don’t know how to use it because they haven’t breached that magic 100 tweet barrier where things become clear.

Just one more thing; I don’t often like to spend so much time on emails (especially those that concern work), outside of office hours. However, I felt that this was an important matter to address.

Moral of the story

I hesitate to make this one of those cautionary tales about being careful what you post online. Obviously, my tone will change if I happen to be unemployed come next week. But that’s really not what I think is the core issue here. The core issue here for me is being conscious of the fact that anyone can stumble into a fragmented conversation and extrapolate something that isn’t there in a tone that you did not intend. This incident probably won’t change much of the way I behave on Twitter or elsewhere. But it was a nice reminder that words do have meaning. Even if that meaning is interpreted differently by the audience that stumbles across it.

I wish I had written down my thoughts of the first film when I originally saw it, because I think after seeing Let Me In last week, my memory has been a bit tainted. Regardless, I tried to reclaim my first impressions by revisiting Let The Right One in last night. This is my amateur review.

Let The Right One In

The original story and this remake vary slightly, but the differences are key and completely reshape my perception of the story. The young boy, Oskar, in the Swedish film has a much more tangible relationship with his father who seems to be in the process of divorcing his mother. He visits him every other weekend whereas, Owen, in the American remake is living exclusively with his mother and only has the occasional hidden phone call to contact his father with.

These differences seem relatively insignificant, but they have an impact on the way the boy perceives his world and interacts with the vampire.

Another notable difference for me is the use of special effects. The vampire, Eli, in the Swedish film does not have the face of a vampire that we ever see. Meaning no fangs or horrifyingly disfigured face when she kicks into vampire mode. However, Abby, in the remake does have some CG scenes and we do see facial work done in some of the scarier scenes. This does make things a bit more disturbing and visceral at times, but the tradeoff is the character becomes less human and relatable and untethered from our reality. This was probably done intentionally by the director, Matt Reeves, to emphasize the inhuman, vampire nature, but I saw it as largely unnecessary.

The most frightening aspect of the original film was how human the vampire seemed. And while Chloë Moretz is undeniably sweet in her portrayal, her vampiric scenes seem so distant from her character because it isn’t really her. I found this just a little distracting and feel it robbed Chloë of some of her potential to really sell the character.

There are a few more differences in the film that may matter more to certain fans, but in the interest of a spoiler-free review I’ll leave the rest unsaid.

The Characters

I have to say, that overall I really loved the characters and the actor’s portrayal of those characters that much more this time around in the remake as opposed to the original. And I think it’s much less an issue of language, and probably more an issue of cultural differences. How the Swedish actors relate to bullying as opposed to the American actors makes subtle, but important changes to the way I perceived the film and ultimately made the character more believable to me.

Another thing that I adored about the remake is the casting of Chloë Moretz. Did I mention she’s awesome? Yeah, she really can’t do a bad film. Chloë makes the vampire adorable and sweet and kind of sympathetic which makes Owen’s attraction to Abby much simpler to understand. Lina Leandersson, playing the vampire in the original always seemed just a little creepy to me and I never fully bought into the attraction between Oskar and Eli.

The American remake makes more sense to me because the characters make the story more believable. There is an interesting video online that shows the casting process for Let Me In and you can see why they chose Chloë Moretz over the other auditions. It’s an interesting watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9ySNRxG4SE

I’m Not a Girl

Ok, sorry. I can’t get into this review without mentioning this one major plot detail that both films play on very differently. So skip this section if you intend to see these films and don’t know what I’m about to reveal.

In both films the vampire tells us that she is not really a girl. Initially this can be interpreted as “no. You’re a freaking vampire!” But the book is a lot more clear including details of a castration where the vampire appears feminine. The original film includes a particularly disturbing image hinting at this history of the character and embraces that aspect of the story. Conversely, the remake glosses over this and leaves the audience to draw the conclusion that she is merely a vampire girl and just not a normal girl.

Perhaps the book has some greater reason to have this particular aspect of the story, but personally I always felt that tidbit was more disturbing than scary or creepy and had no place in the film where there isn’t time enough to explain why/how that happened. I far prefer the American film for their exclusion of this fact that completely alters the vampire character.

Conclusion

Both films are worth a watch. The book may be worth a read, but I’m not up for that yet. I think there is something of interest in both, but ultimately, I’m going to go against the fan base and say that I far prefer the American remake to the Swedish original. If you’re going to see just one, see Let Me In.

Well, surprise! I’m still not done yet. I actually haven’t even begun editing. It has taken this long just to scrape all of the raw data together from the TF2 demo files.

Excuses

Initially I planned on exporting the data frame by frame and muxing it all together at the end because it seemed like a leet thing to do. Then I realized that the audio wasn’t always in sync and there are still some issues with that console command on a Mac. Instead, I opted for a direct screen recording using ScreenFlow which was much simpler in hindsight, but does require me to babysit the computer a bit so I don’t record useless data when the match is over.

Anyways, all that being said, it has been a long process getting to this point. And now that I only have 200GB of raw 2560×1440 video to edit, I’ve set an arbitrary deadline which I’ll likely miss completely.

Procrastination

Oh yeah, and there is really cool website for the video to eventually posted on as well. Complete with stats that update every day and everyone’s badges as well as most played class and current Steam status.

I even have a cliché javascript countdown for when the video will automatically launch and begin to play. People expecting to hack the javascript and speed the clock are out of luck as the server won’t dish the video until the appropriate time either. (Also, did I mention it’s not done yet?)

So forget about setting the date on your computer ahead a year, and mark your calendars for 8:00pm on October 1st, 2010.

That’s right. In 12 days, prepare to be disappointed by a broken javascript timer and an empty HTML5 video element. I suppose Valve time applies to this project as well. At the very least, I hope to have it done by New Years Eve where I plan to have another LAN party and record another match. Hopefully using SourceTV this time to make editing a lot easier.

Devices like the Teensy and Arduino absolutely fascinate me. They are incredibly small packages that wouldn’t wow anyone on a spec sheet. But in the hands of some motivated and highly creative hackers you get stuff like this.

As geeks, we often forget that it’s almost never the most powerful machine that gets us excited about possibilities. Take a look at the Nintendo Wii. There is nothing particularly special about any of the hardware components. Basic sensors and processors. But, with the right combination of software, it becomes one of the most successful gaming platforms in history.

It’s even more clear when looking at SixthSense. This is really mind-blowing technology. But again, the hardware is comprised of cheap scraps from the last several years. The software is what really makes things tick.

Software Owns This World

Bill Gates knew this decades ago when he started Microsoft, and the idea is still true today. Software is what is really important. What can you make that piece of silicon actually do? Because without the right software, I don’t care how fast your computer is or how many RAM slots you have. Technology is only impressive in the creative and innovative sense.

Sure, there are exceptions. You may actually need some new hardware for that new video game. Or you really do need the fastest processors to edit some HD video footage. But don’t forget that it’s the software that runs on the hardware that’s really what you need. Encoders and Decoders are under constant improvement. Performance for H.264 video is not what it once was. VLC handles AVCHD much better now and transcoding software are always making speed improvements as well.

As geeks, sometimes we get lost in how many cores a new system has and forget that we probably don’t even have software to take advantage of the hardware yet. I still remember the early days of dual core systems and how everyone was excited to get a new system. We all forgot that the majority of our software wasn’t even going to make use of that architecture. Even now, there are still major software distributions that do not take proper advantage of multi-core systems. Adobe Premiere is what comes to mind as I struggle to render HDV footage on a daily basis at work.

To best summarize my ideas, there’s a quote from Pirates of Silicon Valley as Bill Gates negotiates terms of licensing BASIC to Ed Roberts fro the Altair.

Your machine is brilliant, but it needs our language. Without it, it’s just a tin box that lights up.

And just for kicks, here’s a toaster that actually runs Linux.

I’ve come up with some solutions to help people that have the most trouble trying to maintain order over their digital libraries.

Desktop Archiving

You may be aware of these people. They archive everything they are working on under the desktop. Anything that is ever saved, copied, or downloaded ends up amid the incomprehensibly large pile of 32bit icons arrayed over that stock wallpaper image. A dozen icons have to be pushed aside just to reach the one that is immediately important. This is a nightmare that allows markets for software such as Fences to exist.

It is a slippery slope to save things on the desktop. It starts with just a couple shortcuts, then the project file that needs that program ends up alongside it and before you know it you’ve got 20GB of animated GIFs and Windows Media files for your PowerPoint sitting there as well. True story.

The solution for this is pretty simple, albeit crude. Stop putting things on your desktop. If you need an extra push – and I know you do – change the permissions of your desktop to read-only and get used to archiving documents in the Documents folder.

Now that you’ve got all this free real-estate, I recommend decorating the space with a nice wallpaper.

Know When to Delete

I’ve found that one of the largest components of disorganization is the issue that people simply don’t delete files. Seriously. Check your downloads folder. Chances are you’ve probably got a few installation files lurking in there along with a variety of other miscellaneous, unused data no longer required. If you’re like most people, downloads finish from your browser and are launched from there immediately afterwards. So naturally, this folder goes neglected most of the time.

Cron to the rescue! You can create a cron job to delete all old files in the Downloads folder after a set amount of time. I’d advise setting it to delete anything older than 7 days. I typically deal with any files within a week, so this works well for me.

This is the script that I am executing in cron.

for file in "$( find ~/Downloads -type f -mtime +7 )"
do
    rm -f $file
done

Naming Conventions

This is the last important part to staying organized and it is by far the easiest. Name things properly. I know it seems like such a mundane thing to have to think up a unique filename, but it is something that so many people overlook.

Picture yourself one year from today looking through your files. Do you still know what UntitledV2-final-FINAL2.ppt is? Also true story.

Take the time to spell out exactly what you’re working on when you save a document. And while you’re at it, why not delete the 20 previous “final” versions of said document.

Think about how nice it would be to be able to search through your computer for “Vacation in Florida” and actually get results.

Simple Rules

Organization is a simple problem with simple solutions. These are a few tactics that I’ve become accustomed to over the years. You may have your own little tricks and methodologies. Please share them in the comments.

Rather than my customary essay blog posts, I decided to post a simple message as Futurama is back one week from now. First person to post the decoded message in the comments will get a round of applause.

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                                                 +

Recently though, I decided that living in a tech bubble is something that does need to be talked about and discussed because one of the main reasons it upsets me is everyone’s inability to comprehend the lifestyle.

Where it all began

Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton were co-hosts on The ScreenSavers back in the old days of TechTV when my family was still stealing US satellite programming. This program was a huge revelation for me. I had been interested in technology before, but never before on the scale that was being presented on this show. There were mod segments and security news and even LAN parties on set.

And so this show became apart of my daily routine. I learned a lot and began to hunger for the latest gadgets and software as these people on screen did.

A couple years later the Canadian network G4 bought the TechTV network and fired most of my beloved hosts and cancelled their shows. They would go on to create the major podcast networks that we know of today as TWiT and Revision3 where content is even more granular and covering many more topics that mainstream TV networks would never have allowed. A show like Hak5 for example.

And so it went. I fell further down the rabbit whole for many years. All the while, attending high school, and then college with some very special, like-minded friends. It was not until recently when I emerged into the working world that I realized how small my bubble was and how rare my friends were to come by.

The Workplace

Currently, I work for a K-12 school board in Southwestern Ontario. I guess I should have known better what was in store after so many of my escapades with school computers before.

The place is built on ancient technology. Files are moved around through email attachments. Web browsers are forced to be on IE6 for “security purposes.” Comically, they even tried to enforce IE5.5 on the Mac that I work on. Everything is done in Powerpoint. No really. I’ve had people send me simple pictures wrapped in Powerpoint. It’s that ridiculous.

Worst of all, there is a major push from within to make moves to Web 2.0 and such. So I am called on to build complicated directories of online information where PDFs will be stored (yeah, I know) and these people don’t even understand how to use a computer offline.

Kids These Days

The above stuff doesn’t bother me as much as how people react when I actually fix things for them and get work done. I must have missed the meeting where we decided to replace “thank you” with a sigh and utterance of the phrase “…kids these days”.

This bothers me on a number of levels. First, it means that you really don’t appreciate what I’ve just done for you. A little disrespectful, but I can live with that given even I find it hard to explain what I’ve just done in layman’s terms. The part that bothers me more is the “kid” aspect.

I am not a kid. Nor am I a teenager. I’m nearly 22 years old. All of that crap about how kids know to make computers work and know so much more just because they are young is nonsense. I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The worst example of this was when a co-worker told me that one day I’d be in his shoes. Old and no longer up-to-date with the latest technology while kids pass me by with their fancy new iPods or whatever. That really got to me. Getting older does not mean you get dumber. My proof – as if you needed any on such a ridiculous falsehood – is Leo Laporte. He’s aged all this time through an ever-changing tech industry at an exponentially faster rate of change all the time and he is keeping up as well as anyone could expect. Getting old does not mean that you don’t know what’s going on and being young does not mean that you’re an expert.

Family Perception

I can’t be the only one who’s experienced this. My parents have mentioned from time to time that I ought to pick up a sport of spend more time outside. Of course, on some health level they’re probably right. But I don’t think that’s really what bothers them. If you met me for the first time out on a street, you probably wouldn’t question my level of fitness at all as long as we aren’t about to have some kind of track and field match. (Even then, I’m fairly confident I wouldn’t be last in an average group.)

No, for my family and friends I think it’s more about some level of insecurity about not knowing what goes on in my tech world. They don’t really want to know, but it does make them feel a little uneasy. Especially when money starts to get tossed around. Surely, there can’t be any reason to have so many cell phones and computers and gadgets they’d say. And I am left trying to explain the need for some obscure feature that they couldn’t possibly ever hope to understand.

I had this experience very recently when my parents wondered why I needed to get a Nexus One when I already had two iPhones and a G1 Android phone. I foolishly tried to list all of the new features like Android Intent. This never works out well, but I still try every time.

What it really comes down to is everyone else trying to recruit me to their athletic bubble, or drinking bubble, or whatever bubble. Just because their bubble is bigger and more accepted, they feel it’s their right to take me from mine.

I’ll leave you with this very apt quote from Steve Gibson as I am writing this.

There. I made it all the way through without a single reference to bursting bubbles.