scary times

what's scary for a geek?  well, layoffs is one but i believe that is true for most everybody.   however, layoffs and bankruptcies of the big boys in the industry is a very frightful thing.  i had to message my hubby last week that our daddy, nortel, looks to be out of the game.   :/   this is not as pervasive as the bad practices which caused the dot.com bubble to pop back in 2000. this is a bit of bad management, bad choices, and an even nastier economy.

this morning when i pulled up the news i got to see this, "Microsoft slashes up to 5,000 jobs."  yes, it's normal to be afraid but don't be afraid and helpless.  be prepared and if you are laid-off, work with what ya got.  try not to get mad, the anger will just block your vision and way to achieving your goal; anger is generally a waste of time... try to take care of it through a nice, non-addictive video game.

you can definitely stay geek and be unemployed; however, how is one supposed to afford tools to tinker in the trade without monetary backing?  you can't really,  without the help from corporate or fellow geeks who don't mind sharing or offloading their gear to you.

here are some ideas for the unemployed tech on keeping geek:

1. if you're like me... you may be living off of some of your the gear that your old company "retired" and although retired, you can still play with the interfaces.  get creative and don't let those skills disappear on you.
   
2. this may sound a bit wacky to the average tech geek but get together with fellow geeks or if you don't have many of those who you can peaceably hang around with, head off to a cool tech conference in your industry and start making friends.   =D
   
3. social networking!  some of y'all might not have liked parts of #2 above but it shouldn't be painful to join linkedin, facebook, plaxo, myspace, or friendster.
4. don't disappear - keep friends updated with the use of tweets on twitter.  this is cool because it's possible for you to update your twitter profile and have that status go out to plaxo and facebook.  
5. k.i.t. - keeping in touch --  there are so many ways to get a hold of and catch up with others.   i prefer to use digsby, a multi protocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. on top of that, you can take a look at and update your twitter, linkedin, and facebook status'.  digsby is the client to go with for e-mail notifications, social network updates, and instant messaging all in one free client.

kinoma, a handy mobile media product [freeware]

kinoma freeplay is a freeware program that i've been using on my smartphone (blackjack 2 w/ windows mobile 6.1).

i love the media management and online searches. it is soooo nifty to have youtube in the palm of my hands. notice how i said nifty? it is not a requirement of mine to have youtube at the drop of a hat. besides, all that will kill my device's battery.

almost all the things i'm about to list about kinoma are battery killers; however, if you are like me and have your smartphone at the side of your hip 24/7, then you probably also carry a usb connector to keep your phone charged every chance you get.

either way, this multimedia organizer is a must have for me, especially with the history function that allows the user to go back to a youtube stream they watched earlier in the day.

one common complaint i heard from customers was that their battery life is short. well, that'll happen when you are sitting around playing with all the new nifty features of your device. no sarcasm there, i wooork my smartphone too.

leave it to "the servers that be"

yep, i'm going back to geek.  i just had a nice explanatory conversation with a customer and it resulted in me stating that we have to leave certain things up to "the servers that be."  i like that variation over "the powers that be."  i thought it was kinda cute and in the above instance, it was true.  ^_^

i've always been a geek, i just didn't have a role model to reinforce the fact that geek is chic.   it's a bit tough especially since Revenge of the Nerds  was out and popular when and where i grew up.

again, this post is to announce my geek intentions for this blog.   i'm going geek, again!

i will be touching on things such as games, news, hacks, announcements, and personal tweaks.  you will notice my inclination to favor news on smartphones.  the motorola good technology experience hasn't found its way out of me, yet.  

important note:  i am not the geek that is being addressed in this -> post.

**oh yeah, there will be a mention of my sj sharks every now and again.**

my tinkeRy

don't be jealous.  ^_^

yes, this is my ryan who i adore.  he loves tinkering with anything and everything.  it's no surprise that he became an engineer.
i like the above animation 'cause it looks like he's trying to figure out how to get behind the door.  in actuality, he was inspecting it to undergo some fixin'.

NYE in SF 2008 -> 2009

we had a good time for new year's eve. ry surprised me when i got home asking me to prep up to head out to the city and to keep warm.

this was my first time taking the BART train since the wheelchair bit. it's an amazingly convenient option for those of us who can't drive. heck, even if i could drive, i wouldn't take BART to the area we're going to. parking is scarce and pricey.

it looks like we weren't the only ones who were feelin' like cheering on the professional pyros.  thankfully, all those people were behind us and there and nobody blocked our view.  well, all that is true but i have to say that the fog and building did get in our way of seeing a spectacular show.

it's all about the experience with the scenery, friends, family, police, and strangers packing the streets.  =)