Best of Tech Talk Edition Email and Forum Questions Profiles in IT: Linus Torvalds Nerd – History and Other Thoughts Geek or Nerd? Password Management Beach Gear for the Geek Pleo --Latest Smart Robotic Pet The Grilling Calculator – For Nerds Who Barbecue
Email from Dave: What is your advice when looking a new career or job? Thanks Dave
Tech Talk Responds: Use the method decribed by Dick Bolles and developed by John Crystal
Recommended reading: What Color is Your Parachute by Dick Bolles
Based on a method developed by John Crystal who mentored Dick Bolles
John lived in McLean and I attended his workshop nearly 30 years ago.
My class with John Crystal
Identify you natural tendencies (tropisms)
Decide what you want to do.
Survey the industry to gather information.
My IT projects at home are a reflection of this approach.
Linux for OS experience
Apache Web Server, PHP, MySQL for web design
Backtrack2 for security
Profiles in IT: Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds, Developer of Linux
Linus Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland.
Named after Linus Pauling (winner of Noble Prize in Chemistry). Torvalds later claimed to have been named after the blanket carrying, Linus, in Peanuts.
His parents were communist radicals and other children used to tease Linus about it.
His grandfather bought him a Commodore VIC 20, one of the first personal computers, and Linus learned to write computer games for it when he was twelve.
In 1988, Linus began studying computer science at the University of Helsinki. He invested in a better computer with a 386 processor and began learning the assembly language for the processor. He coded a number of advanced software projects, including a floppy disk driver and software assembler.
In 1990, he began learning Unix when the university purchased a MicroVAX system.
UNIX was common on huge computers with many users, but it was bulky, expensive, and impractical for personal computers.
Torvalds had a PC that came MS-DOS. He installed Minix, a PC-compatible mini-mimic of UNIX, but he wanted something more flexible and user-friendly.
In 1991 Torvalds spent several months writing a compact operating system for his PC.
He almost called it Freax, but later decided on Linux.
He posted an announcement to the Minix group on USENET, and made the Linux source code available to other nerds free of charge.
Programmers everywhere started adding their own improvements
Eventually companies like Red Hat, Corel, Caldera, and TurboLinux began selling their own versions of Linux.
Linux quickly became a symbol of the open source movement, with a tuxedo penguin as its mascot.
Torvalds earned his masters degree in computer science at the University of Helsinki.
From 1997 to 2003, Linux worked for Transmeta Corporation.
To handle Linux matters, Linus created the Linux Foundation, a non-profit corporation that holds the trademark name Linux.
In 2004 he was named one of the world’s most influential people by Time Magazine.
At this point, he has actually written about 2% of the kernel.
Nerd – History and Other Thoughts
Linus Torvalds is quoted as follows: I was a nerd. Geek. From fairly early on. I didn’t duct-tape my glasses together, but I might as well have, because I had all the other traits. Good at math, good at physics, and with no social graces whatsoever. And this was before being a nerd was considered to be a good thing.
Bill Gates the richest nerd. The New Yorker wrote: To many people, the rise of Bill Gates marks the revenge of the nerd. Actually, Gates probably represents the end of the word nerd as we know it.
Charles J. Sykes is quoted as saying: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you will end up working for one.
Nerd is used a derogatory designation to refer to somebody who passionately pursues intellectual knowledge rather than engaging in social activities.
Variations of the name include Nurd. Derived by spelling drunk backwards, since nerds party backwards by only studying.
The word "nerd" first appeared in Dr. Seuss’s book, If I Ran the Zoo (1950).
Nerd was one of Seuss’s imaginary animals.
The narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo.
Nerd Pride Day is May 25. Started in Spain in 2006. We overlooked it last month.
Slashdot (www.slashdot.org) motto: News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.
Being a nerd is now hip. Made popular by the world’s wealthiest nerd, Bill Gates.
Nerds are now even datable. Check the Internet for all the reasons that nerds are worth dating.
Geek or Nerd?
Are you a geek, or are you a nerd? Here’s your chance to find out.
There are many confused lay people out there in today’s modern world who are unhappily unaware of the difference between geeks and nerds.
Even more sadly, there are also many geeks and nerds who do not know of the true nature of their own stereotype.
Wikiepedia Definitions
Geek: A person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media. Comparable with the classic definition of hacker. Formerly referred to a wild circus performer who bit off the heads of live chickens, snakes, or bats.
Nerd: Nerd is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities or esoteric knowledge rather than engaging in more social activities, such as organized sports.
Geek is a subset of nerd.
All geeks are nerds
All nerds are not geeks
Password Management
A password manager is software that helps a user organize passwords and PIN codes.
The software typically has a local database or files that holds the encrypted password data.
Many password managers also work as a form filler, thus they fill the user and password data automatically into forms. Some have password generator capabilities.
Disadvantage is that a compromised master password would render all stored passwords unusable.
Advantage is that only one password needs to be remembered.