that geeky dude

So I was pondering last night, when I was setting up my new gaming machine (more on that later), about what people name their computers, and how they come up with the themes.

When I worked at Mindspring, way back in the day, the web hosting servers were named after Roman emperors. My website was hosted on nero, though I wanted them to move me to caligula just for the “geek cred” factor.

Some people I know name their systems after Star Trek/Navy ships (enterprise, arizona, etc), others use cartoon characters (notably using Simpsons or Futurama references), while others name theirs after planets, Greek gods and goddesses, or other things like flowers, animals and what have you.

I personally have taken a different tactic. I name mine after more…ephemeral…subject matter. My workstation at the office is named serenity, while my laptop is named virtue, and the server this site is hosted on is named epiphany. The new box is named inspiration and the Mac Mini I previously mentioned is named creativity. The “workgroup” all of my machines are attached to is named “ephemera”, though I’m trying to think of something better.

My question is… what do YOU name your machines, and how did you come up with your schema, if any?

It’s been a while since my last post. I realize that some time ago I promised to blog more often, but really, my life isn’t interesting enough to blog about. I could talk about the girl I went on a date with who turned out to be an (ex?)meth-head, or I could blather on and on about my World of Warcraft exploits, or about how this season of Hell’s Kitchen kicks copious amounts of ass, but I’m not sure any of that stuff is interesting enough to blog about. The last thing I want to do is bore you folks.

I did, however, purchase a new Mac Mini last week, and I’m having a lot of fun with it. The next project is to find my WoW cds and install the game on it, so I can see how well it plays (if at all) — I realize that with the Intel GMA950 graphics it probably won’t play well at 1920×1200 full screen, but maybe 1440×768 windowed will be okay, allowing me to keep various browser/chat clients open and actually pay attention.

Using both it and my desktop nearly simultaneously has proved…amusing. Since the mini lacks legacy keyboard/mouse support (no ps2 ports to be found), I had to find a new KVM, and MicroCenter only had VGA/USB KVMs, and I’ve found that the signal degradation of the VGA system is too much to bear. I’ve ordered a new DVI/USB KVM, that has the added bonus of supporting both speakers and a microphone, so I can happily jam to my music or chat on TS/Ventrilo on either machine.

So, having gotten annoyed at Apple because of the iPod encryption schema locking out alternate operating systems without a hack, I did the next worst thing.

I got a Zune. What’s that I hear? Clamoring of “oh my god, you bought a Microsoft product? Are you crazy?” — Well… yes. However, hear me out…

I played around with one of the first generation Zunes when they came out in a store, and immediately dismissed the user interface. However, after buying an iPod and only having the scroll wheel and one button for an interface, I came to rethink that decision. It’s not an easy interface to navigate in the car (my car has an aux-input jack for media players), nor is it forgiving of “fat finger syndrome”, which affects me because I have “huge monkey hands” according to my friends.

So, at Circuit City this week, I played around with a second generation Zune, and was impressed by the UI changes, and the button sensitivity. Also, it has two dedicated buttons, one for “Play/Pause” and the other for “Back” — the four direction rocker button is also touch sensitive and is a “click ok”, but it’s more forgiving of fat fingers. Not to mention that the Song/Artist/Album/Genre browser is… well, not so much better, as it is more intuitive than the iPod. There’s no need to keep hitting “Menu” to go back, since it’s all part of the main “Music” menu.

My current gripes about the Zune are that there’s no equalizer, and that it’s not viewable or usable on anything other than Windows. Other than that, it’s a much better player than the iPod.

I found a link to mypersonality.info on mingaling’s blog and I got curious, so I took the test. According to my results…

INFPs are introspective, private, creative and highly idealistic individuals that have a constant desire to be on a meaningful path. They are driven by their values and seek peace. Empathetic and compassionate, they want to help others and humanity as a whole. INFPs are imaginitive, artistic and often have a talent for language and writing. They can also be described as easygoing, selfless, guarded, adaptable, patient and loyal.

I’m also in such esteemed company as A. A. Milne (author of Winnie the Pooh), Dick Clark, Mister Rogers and Scott freaking Bacula.

I don’t think anyone who actually knows me can say that many of these things are true. Especially not the “talent for language” part, or the “selfless” part for that matter.