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“Ensign Crusher, Report to My Ready Room. Oh Yes, and Wear the Sweater.”

For no other reason than the geeky amusement it will provide, here’s Wil Wheaton in a clown sweater:

ensign_crusher_report_to_my_ready_room

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“Pocket-Sized”

It’s a bit of a stretch to think of the Vaio netbook as pocket-sized, but you can fit more of it in your pocket than most other computers…

Photo of various people putting computers of various sizes (from tiny netbooks to full-sized desktops) in the pockets.Click the photo to see it at full size.

By the bye, a little fashion tip: pleated pants (like those in the topmost photo) make you look fat.

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Always Keep Salt in the Server Room

I don’t know why; it must be some kind of sysadmin thing. Maybe the salt is for keeping slugs away.

Server room, with a large tangle of wires. In the centre of the room is a table covered with folders, papers, and a large container fo salt.Click the photo to see it at full size.

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Vault Boy Goes to D.C., and It Doesn’t Look So Bad

The Lincoln Memorial, with the "Vault Boy" bobblehead in the foreground

“Katharsyss” took a “Vault Boy” bobblehead (Vault Boy is the graphic mascot of the Fallout series of games) on a trip to Washington, D.C., and took photos of the city’s well-known sights with it in the foreground. It’s amusing because Fallout 3 is set in a future postapocalyptic version of D.C., which is a radioactive wasteland crawling with crazed super mutants, feral ghouls, radscorpions and raiders.

In case you’re not familiar with Fallout 3, here’s the teaser trailer for the game:

And here’s the Zero Punctuation review:

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Health (and Sex!) Tips for Programmers

comic_book_guy_with_laptop

My friend Andrew Burke has written a blog post on staying healthy as a programmer. It’s not easy given the sedentary nature of the job. Check out his advice, which is pretty sound – but make sure you actually do something about it!

The title of Andrew’s post, Health Tips for Programmers, is somewhat reminiscent of this gem that’s been floating about “The Internets” for years: Sex Tips for Geeks, written by none other than Eric S. Raymond. See if you can read the chapter titled On Being Good in Bed without having this internal monologue:

Must…fight…mental image…of ESR…doing it…”

AIEEEEEE! Mental image winning! Mental image winning!”

I can’t.

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Tuesday’s “Ignite Your Career”: Industry Insights and Trends

ignition_switch As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ignite Your Career is Microsoft’s webcast series on career, skills and personal development. Having a plan and “sharpening your saw” are two of your three best hedges in these uncertain economic times, and they’re what Ignite Your Career is all about.

(In case you were wondering, the third hedge is to have a solid network of friends, colleagues and acquaintances in your areas of interest. That’s what gatherings like EnergizeIT, DemoCamp and Coffee and Code are for.)

Ignite Your Career is about your career and “skills portfolio”, so the topics covered in our webcasts aren’t Microsoft-specific. No matter what platform(s) you work on, no matter if you’re a developer, sysadmin, administrator or manager, if you work in technology, you’ll find value in Ignite Your Career. As for Microsoft, we’re part of the tech ecosystem, and an ecosystem with vibrant, thriving techies is a healthy one, regardless of the tech they choose.

The first Ignite Your Career webcast takes place this Tuesday, March 3rd, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. Eastern and the topic will be Industry Insights and Trends. Here’s the abstract:

The nature of technology is one of continual change; a fact of life for professionals in the ICT industry. As a result, you need to be on top of what is happening in the industry in order to position yourself and your organization to benefit from these trends. This panel discussion will arm you with the information you need from experts in the ICT industry in order to stay on top of your game.

Here are the speakers:

joel_semeniuk Joel Semeniuk
Joel Semeniuk is a founder of Imaginet, a Canada-based Microsoft Gold Partner. He is also a Microsoft Regional Director and MVP in Team System, and INETA speaker, and has a degree in Computer Science.
 
 
jeff_kempiners Jeff Kempiners
Jeff Kempiners is Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Avanade Canada. As CTO, Jeff is responsible for the strategic direction and adoption of the Avanade Solutions Portfolio within Avanade Canada. A seasoned leader, Jeff has more than 12 years of experience in IT management and consulting.
 
jay_payette

Jay Payette
Jay Payette has been consulting public and private organizations in the field of technology for over 5 years. He currently works for the Ottawa office of Accenture in the Systems Integration and Technology practice.

 

All Ignite Your Career webcasts are absolutely free of charge. You’ll need a Windows Live ID (also free; if you have MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger or Passport, you already have a Windows Live ID) to sign up to see the webcast.

Some links you might find useful:

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“Everything is Amazing Right Now, and Nobody’s Happy”

Over at Kevin Kelly’s blog, The Technium, there’s a video of an amusing interview on Conan O’Brien where comedian Louis CK talks about how we take today’s technology and the way it improves our lives for granted. Kelly describes it as "a cartoon version of a more serious argument that we become blind to progress".