Do computers have souls?

June 21, 2007 By - 2 Comments

A computer that I have used for a long time died, deceased, pushing up the daisies, kicked its case, gone to the other side (no its not a mac now!!) — it now is in a scrap pile outside waiting for a dumpster. What a terrible way to go. We had our time together, the past year and a half. Like dog years, computer years are calculate by nine years but that is nine years for every month it’s first post passes boot inspection. So, I shed a tear for my P4 friend who for prosperity I will name P4.

As his mother board fried due to an accidental close encounter with Mr. Starbucks I lay back in my swirly chair and wonder if computers have souls. I mean we have souls. I believe we have a spirit inside us, a unique and powerful energy that if you put your two pointer fingers slightly together but not touching and focus on the empty part you will see your own unique energy. Whatever you call it, a spirit, soul, aura it is there and its still somewhat of a mystery. Animals have souls, you can sense there energy when they are near you.

Death in all cultures is the time when that spirit leaves its vestal and journeys to some far away world. Will we see our electronic devices in heaven in some big shopping mall? Do they meet there maker? And who would that be the guy who made the designs or the union worker who screwed the motherboard to the casing. It won’t be Bill Gates since he most likely won’t be joining P4 in heaven. I believe P4 has a soul and is in computer heaven soaking up a futuristic virus free OS, and has a full upgrade with 24TB of ram and Petabyte hard drive. I can dream that he is having a good life making someone happy as they fight a battles in WOW with Einstein, Edison and Tesla.

With the passing of P4 I have learned that true lessons of technology; Moore’s law. A dual-core processor blows the slow poke out of the water! I salute P4 and all the processing he has done for me, I raise Mr. Starbucks, lay back in my swirly chair and listen to Pandora.com. Rest in peace my old friend, thanks for the memories, you won’t be missed since Dual-Core got a sister I’ve been eying and she’s called Quad-Core.

Filed Under: gadgets, humor, Rant, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Google as a curse word?

May 16, 2007 By - 5 Comments

Their are many stories about the origination of the word F U C K. Well, the old 100 year war store (yes i know it lasted 116 years) where the British were being killed off by those bloody French and when they were captured the nice gentle French army cut off the middle finger so they couldn’t use the Long Bow which was made from the Yew Tree. When the English kicked some French ass, they put up the middle finger and stated “I can still pluck my yew.” Which was shortened to Pluck Yew. However my favorite origins of the word is from the band Van Hallen according to the rockers the word comes from an old English law term “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”. But most people will believe that it was the German word Fokken which meant to Thrust.

Now what does this have to do with google? Well today the word google can be used as diverse as the F word. It took hundreds of years for this simple and yet fun word to become a medifore for almost anything. Let’s face it the F word can be used in almost any conversation. Today I have heard googling, googled, googlish, googler with many different meanings. A googler isn’t only someone who uses google but rather someone who just knows a F’n lot. Googling isn’t just that term for searching on google but the process of finding things quickly. Plus everyone is googling each other that it is also the term of background checking dates, employees, employers, friends and everyone in between. I’ve been googled is the term meaning that someone has found me. The word is a very common term today.

The complication of this meaning is that google is not a term, a verb but it is a company. The overall ease of use and culture that the company created shows us that maybe this fun word (say it ten time really fast with out laughing) on the tips of our tongue is the real reason why the search engine is popular. Just like the F word google has that vibe even though the meanings are completely different.

In two hundred or three hundred years from know maybe the word will be a illegal, a slang of sorts. Something that isn’t appropriate to say at the dinner table or to the elders. By then we might not even be communicating by our mouths anyway. However for now we can all keep F’n googling.

Filed Under: Google Tagged With: , , ,

How many bottles of Sake does it take to fuel your car?

May 15, 2007 By - Leave a Comment

With bio-fuel becoming more popular every country is looking into how they can produce their own fuel. While Brazil is the biggest export of ethanol due to their large crop of Sugar Cane other countries may be able to produce bio-fuel crops to help with the current direction of green based energy. Every country produces their own alcohol and with that it seems the trend is starting. Sake is a rice based alcohol that is Japan’s home brewed moonshine. Brazil has its Mojito a sugar cane alcoholic drink. Does this mean that in the future, Poland will run cars off of Vodka and Ireland off of whiskey and one day down the road will my fellow Americans pack an extra six pack of Budweiser to feed the car on the way back from the Football game? This could mean the car getting the DWI instead of the driver.

Whatever the future has in store for us, I’m glad that bio-fuel has started to take off but I wonder what this may have in store for my alcoholic preference in the future. Will the switch over to bio-fuel sky rocket the price of my Irish Whiskey or Japanese Sake? Or do I choose to have another shot instead of filling her up!

Sites: Cnet News – Sake May Power Japan Cars

Filed Under: Bio-Fuel, News, Technically Foreign, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

A Clock that Writes? Verbarius clock!

March 12, 2007 By - Leave a Comment

We will have to wait till November to put the writing on the wall. The clock defines Technically Foreign. This clock spells the time out for you….

“Verbarius answers the question “What time is it?” writing a different reply every time it’s asked: it’s either forty-five minutes past four, or fifteen minutes to five, or four forty-five, or a quarter to five.” -Verbarius Website

Verbarius Clock

Visit: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/verbarius/ for more info…

Filed Under: gadgets, Technically Foreign, Technology Tagged With: , ,

The Bad words of Computer Security Part 3 – Software Updates

March 8, 2007 By - Leave a Comment
There is a lot of words for Software updates including, Vulnerabilities, patches, versions and bugs. Software and your Operating system need to have the latest version, otherwise you risk your computer to cyber attacks. For example if your using an outdated version of Firefox (a web browser) and enter a site that attacks a certain bug which has been known and fixed in newer versions then even if you have an Anti-virus program you can get attacked. The simple rules:
  • Make sure your Operating system is always up to date. Schedule your machine to automatically update your software. Next make sure that all your applications are up to date. This use to be a very hard one but has gotten much easier. Before you would have to compare each verison of your software or goto each software and see if they have an upgrade button and click it once in a while. Today a lot of software like Firefox and Thunderbird will automatically install new updates and inform you when these have been done. Also There is a software inspector that inspects your computer for all out dated (vulnerable) software. This is the secunia inspector. Click the button below to inspect your computer and make sure all your software is up to date. This should be run every month.
  • Run the Secunia Software inspector to make sure your computer is safe.
If you follow the first part of the serious about passwords, the second part about Viruses and this part about updating your software there will be a 99% chance of your computer getting taken over, infected and your identity stolen over the Internet. These are simple rules and are equivalent to changing the oil in your car.
Filed Under: Advice, Internet Tools, Security, Technically Foreign Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Bad words of Computer Security Part 2 – Viruses

March 6, 2007 By - Leave a Comment

In the first Part of the “Bad” words of Computer Security I talked about Passwords. Now that you have a safe and secure password what about Viruses??? Since a computer was built by a human you will notice we take a lot of the same words when we talk about ourselves. If you get a virus, that’s not a good thing. The same goes for your computer. Now we protect ourselves from viruses, we don’t eat from the garbage, wear the right clothing when its cold and in general stay away from the things that will harm us. That is the same with computer viruses, be careful what you feed your computer. In the good old days that meant putting a disk in a drive, today that means going to a website, downloading a program or opening an email. Security experts use to say don’t open anything from strangers, but even that has changed.

Rules for protecting your computer from getting a virus:

  • Install an anti-virus program. Then make sure you have the up to date virus definitions each month. PLEASE READ, yes that four letter word, READ, the information on the anti-virus companies website. Most anti-virus software comes with a subscription, when that subscription runs out then you are no longer protected from the latest viruses since you will not be able to install the latest definitions. I list Anti-virus programs at the end of the article.
  • UPDATE, I know i mentioned it above but make sure that you are getting the updated definitions each day or at least each week. (Companies don’t always reales them each day.)
  • Make sure you have a firewall on. Most Operating Systems (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) have built-in firewalls.
  • Run an anti-virus scan at-least monthly with of course the newest definitions. You can schedule the scan. I run mine weekly.
  • That Is it…. now for those resources

Resources:

Filed Under: Advice, Internet Tools, Security, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
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