Chris Moody’s Blog

Not that many of you care, but I’ve moved my web hosting to http://1and1.com/ .  I’ll be saving money by hosting all my domains on a single account, instead of separately.  Plus they offer a bit more stuff.

Wil Wheaton (yes Wesley Crusher from Star Trek) has a new article posted about the rise in geek culture in the past few years and it has me wanting to add my two cents. I think there are several specific things that have led to our new status.

1. Windows 95 – Let’s face it. This is when the general public started buying more computers. It made it easier by getting rid of the DOS prompt, and it made getting on the Internet a snap. But it was still hard enough to make the newbies depend on us geeks a little more.

2. The Internet – In the early days, dominated by geeks. A 99% demographic in a single medium. Bulletin boards, e-mail, and IM brought us together and gave a voice… and it was louder than we expected.

3. Napster & the iPod – Music is “cool”. Free music is even cooler. Napster and other file-sharing services have to be responsible for quite a few “cool” kids suddenly wanting a a geeky computer. And when Apple introduced style and flash to the MP3 player, that certainly helped.

4. TechTV – A whole network devoted to geeks of all kinds. We were shown in a positive light… that you could do things that other people might find weird, but that it was still okay. For god’s sake, Patrick Norton would wear a kilt on live TV!! Kevin Rose could destroy a hard drive with thermite and still get a girl like Sarah Lane. Morgan Webb could have breasts and still like to play video games. Okay, so maybe the mainstream public didn’t watch them, but by their example we started to take pride in being a geek.

5. Digital Photography – The transition from film to digital feels like it happened overnight. EVERYONE has a digital camera now. And while it’s debatable as to whether taking pictures is geeky, digital photography brings the general public that much closer to the computer. And with that many people sitting there, a few new geeks are going to be born.

6. PlayStation / X-Box – EA Sports did a lot to sell games to the jocks. And I bet a few of them geeked out with Halo too.

I could go on but it comes down to this. Technology is geeky. And there’s more tech out there then ever before. We have a place that we feel comfortable, and the world needs us a bit more than they used to. And we are assimilating the normal people while we’re at it.

Well I’m going to be singing the praises of Craigslist for a while now. I just put my older car up for sale, and in less than an hour, it sold. You gotta love the internet!

Of course maybe I should have waited til tomorrow before actually selling. At last check there were emails from 5 more people wanting it. Oh well. At least I have a little more money for moving expenses.

Discover Magazine has written an amazing article on the folks working in the Digital Evolution Lab at Michigan State University. Scientists have created virus-like* computer programs that replicate, mutate, and compete with one another. In other words, they evolve. Early generation organisms pretty much can do nothing except replicate. Each time they do, there is a small chance of mutation in it’s computer code (or DNA, if you will).

In one experiment, the scientists presented these digital life forms with sets of numbers at regular intervals. Any organism that could read a number, was rewarded by being allowed to reproduce faster. Organisms that could read two numbers were allowed to reproduce faster still. And organisms that could add were given the greatest reward. In no time at all, all of the digital life forms were addition whizzes!

But when the folks at MSU stopped to look at exactly how the organisms were adding numbers, they were surprised. Some of the ways were obvious, but with others they’d say, “What the hell is happening?” It seemed completely insane, but it worked.

In another experiment, the scientists decided to tamper with the evolution. They denied food (numbers) to any organism that had a beneficial mutation. But they were shocked when they discovered that their tests weren’t working. The digital life forms had evolved a way to see through the test and play dead!

Learn more at the following webistes:

HTML/TXT version of article

PDF version of article

Devolab at MSU

The Digital Life Lab at Caltech

* Don’t worry, there’s no virus threat. The programs are restricted to running only inside another program, that acts as their “universe”.

I bought myself a Motorola v551 wireless phone as a Christmas gift to myself this past Christmas. I love having a camera phone as well as the color display and the bluetooth ability. The text messaging works, but leaves a bit to be desired (the predictive text is nowhere near as intuitive as Nokia’s). I have one huge complaint about this phone, though. Why did Motorola have to design the power input using pins, instead of a simple plug! I don’t know they were thinking. I have to spend 10 minutes fiddling with the charger trying to get to connection just right before it will charge! Not to mention when it finally recognizes that it’s plugged in, it says “Unable to Charge”. Either that, or it decides to change my ring style from Loud to Soft or something similar. In short, it refuses to charge without me wasting another 10 minutes of my life!

Has anyone else had this problem with the Motorola v551? Has anyone found a solution? Or even the cause? Is it the charger (if so, then my car charger is bad too)? Is it the phone? Is it the battery? Other than switching back to Nokia (only my investment is preventing that now), how did you fix it?

You can reply in my comments section, or trackback to a page with a solution.

Congrats to Kevin, Dan, and the gang for resolving this year to bring back The Broken. Kevin also mentions here that they will be working on a new show based loosely on the old format of The Screen Savers. You can help fund the new episodes by purchasing a ‘thebroken’ t-shirt, or donating via PayPal on Kevin’s site.

Update: Listen to the old TechTV crew talk about their plans in this podcast.

Okay, I think I’m done with this site for a while.  I’ve got a photo gallery up.  I’ve got pages for work, play, poetry, etc.  I need a break!  I also need a shower… And maybe a meal.  Time for me to go do those chores I’ve been avoiding too.  Hope everyone (all 2 of you) enjoy the new look.

All of the blog entries have been ported into the new site now.  I’ve got a lot of the layout finshed too, although I’m sure I’ll be tweaking things for the next few years.  I still need to add all of the other pages however… the pictures, the contact info, etc.  I’m sure I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow!!

I’m in the process of overhauling TheMoodys.org with new software.  Please bare with me (all 2 of you).  I hope to have all of the old blog entries, features, and pictures integrated into the new site sooner or later.

I just bought a new camera phone as my Christmas gift to myself (Motorola v551 for those who are interested). You can now see the pictures I take with it at http://chrismoody.textamerica.com/. Today, I took some of the trucks, and a funny doormat at saw.