A little bit late but here’s a nerdy music video that sorta commemorates Obama’s inauguration. It’s pretty amazing to hear all the technology terms rolled into a hip hop video.. surprisingly it works.

Yes, “IT Worker” IS ACTUALLY on the list. These are dirty jobs and somebody has to do them. At least they get paid for it.  Also includes: crab fisherman, roughneck, gastroenterologist, security in Iraq, trucker, crop duster pilot, toll collector, embalmer, and many more high paying jobs you probably don’t want.

IT Worker

Average pay: $103,400 (Salary.com)

Information technology is a high-demand field—and a demanding one. One survey this year rated IT as the most stressful profession. Four out of five IT workers said they feel stressed before they even get to the office, just thinking about spending another day on the phone with laymen, explaining where to find their computers’ off buttons.

Their description isn’t exactly accurate though, IT Worker is awfully vague and their description sounds like a helpdesk position, which shouldn’t make anywhere close to 100k.  It is interesting that my profession is grouped together with Sewer Inspectors and Crime-Scene Cleaners.

via businessweek

I Just got a robocall that said “Betty is sending you a hey cosmo blast, press 1 to hear the message”. Who the hell is Betty?  I don’t know any Betty.

For obvious reasons, I didn’t push 1.

Google searches suggest that the company responsible is http://www.heycosmo.com/ (not going to give them a link back)

On the off chance someone I know tried to use that site to send me a message: it failed.

My money’s on someone trying to use it to spam, though.

Between this and “my car’s warranty being expired”, I almost get more spam calls than legitimate ones.  -_-;;

Man, I need an iPhone now, but I still won’t join AT&T so I guess I won’t be getting one.  (Someone really needs to make this App for the T-Mobile G1!)  If I had this I wouldn’t have to text you guys for “exits”.  Not that I’ve done that in a long time…  (^_-);;

Another interesting application has popped up on the Apple App Store that allows you to send fake phone calls to yourself, presumably to get you out of a spot of bother.

Called aptly Fake Call, the call won’t cost you anything as it doesn’t actually pick up on the other end, but who’s to know you are not speaking to yourself when you answer the phone?

1. When you’ve just realised that the girl you’ve taken out on a date has a five o’clock shadow.

2. When you’re at a funeral wake and while talking to an elderly person you realise that you don’t actually know the deceased.

3. When your girlfriend comes back from meeting her friend who just had a baby with a wistful look in her eyes and says : “You know what would make this relationship even better…?”

via techradar

I’m perhaps a little bit *too* amused by this.

Two of the 21st century’s most powerful social forces; Hip-Hop and Geek Culture, collide head-on in the feature length documentary, Nerdcore For Life.  Born on the Internet, Nerdcore is rap music made by geeks, for geeks and covers such traditionally nerdy topics as comic books, video games, anime, sci-fi, astrophysics and technology.  Filmed over the course of two years, Nerdcore For Life follows the top names in this new genre as they celebrate ‘geek life’ and their love of Hip-Hop to the fullest, fight anti-nerd stereotypes and struggle to overcome the common obstacles that prevent musicians of all genres from fulfilling their dreams.

Every so often someone asks me if they should be worried if their internet access is being monitored at work; my answer is always maybe.  It’s definitely possible to figure out what sites are being visited, entire IM conversations can be logged (so use encryption), who and what your emailing (so don’t use your corporate account for personal use) (and don’t assume that just because it’s deleted it’s gone forever).

My intention is not to make you paranoid.  It’s very unlikely that you’re being watched, unless you’re constantly hitting “questionable”  sites or the higher ups want to monitor you — but I suspect you’d know if that were the case. (reprimands, complaints)

Please note that the above is not the official policy of my workplace. I’m only informing you of what is possible.

The link below provides screenshots, video, and background on one such incident. I LOL’d. ^^ I don’t care what you do at home, but please don’t do this at work.

So we started monitoring him on the camera and using DameWare so we can view his desktop and see just what the hell he does all day since he has no actual work to do at the moment. Aside from the grunts and noises which came as expected, we noticed some interesting sites/chats going on. I will let the screenshots speak for themselves–

Click here to read more

I just need to vent. Lets say you’re chatting, and you send someone a link. Especially when it’s in the middle of a conversation and on topic — why can’t people just click the link and not expect me to explain what they’re about to see? Just click the damn link. It’ll take longer for me to type than for you to load up a picture of a lolcat. Or to watch one of my youtube videos. Jeez.

From now on, I’m just going to ignore requests of this nature. Click the freaking link. You’re not going to get a virus or malware from a link sent by me. Who do you think I am? A n00b?

If it’s an unsolicited message that says something like “hot babes click here” or “oh my god you have to click this” then you should be weary, but otherwise, why make someone waste their time?

I’ve got a week off from work — the first time I’ve taken so many consecutive days off. I almost don’t know what to do with my time, but since I recently picked up a fancy new Canon Powershot G9 camera I figured I’d pretend to be a tourist in San Francisco and take some random photos. Below is a small selection of choice photos. I really don’t know what I’m doing so feel free to criticize and offer advice!

[View with PicLens]

A few months ago I had a client come crying to me about her failed laptop. She was a visiting researcher from Ecuador, and had three months of work on there that was saved no where else. The laptop would boot, but would lockup — and you can hear the click of death.  Though usually a sign that the drive is completely gone, I managed to recover all of her documents.  She learned a valuable lesson that day.  I still remember her sobbing,  and that vision ensures that I backup my files regularly.

I recently had three hard drives die. Luckily none of them had any critical information on them, but they serve as a warning. No matter how careful you are, you must always have a backup. There is no excuse.