"Greetings Programs." – Kevin Flynn

It’s not very often you get a chance to be a geek at work–when it happens you have to take it.

In the office, we had to relocate a few of our HD screens to another floor; which left huge un-sightly holes in the wall. After a few weeks of the staff saying “those holes are ugly”, I pitched an idea and was told to run with it…particularly since it was free.

With a department full of geeks, I decided to make a wall mural using tech from The Sect of Homokaasu. After a brief pseudo committee meeting it was agreed: The Mark VI and War Machine were our only options. Thankfully the color cartridge needed to be placed and what better way to empty it.

Sometimes a little creativity, and thinking outside the box can mean a good solution for everyone.

Maintaining a good relationship with your Cisco rep can be a good thing

Keeping the lines of communication open with everyone in your local or extended team is important to me. As much as I love technology, I love to talk, collaborate, and share ideas. I was having a conversation with our company’s Cisco rep about VMware, and the subject of the next-gen line of  the Cisco Integrated Services Router Generation 2 came up. After telling him how interesting I thought they were, he agreed to send me a 2911 for testing — provided I be ready to ship it back at a moment’s notice.

In a word, the ISR G2 is cool. Cisco has –which is quite a departure from their current product line — given a lot of thought to design aspects. Clean lines, a black and green color a palette along with status lights strategically placed up front show just how different the device is design wise.

Of all the things I liked — 3G module support for Survivable Remote Site Telephony , EHWIC and 3 onboard gigabit ports –  was the type B mini USB port console port access. Having just received a laptop without a serial port, this feature was so convenient and easy to set up.

Cisco tech is really cool…but now it’s becoming aesthetically pleasing as well.

Sometimes life is about finding what works best for you, and for me it’s a good routine. But with that routine, not being so rigid, you can’t deviate and try something new.

I have a set routine I try to stick to. I get up in the morning, stretch, do some exercises, and then either get some AM studying in or hope on the web and catch myself up on the tech news of the day. During this morning period, once I am sitting I always make sure I have breakfast.

Breakfast get’s me going, keeps me alert, and by having it at home, I can spend my drive in preparing for how I am going to lay out my day and what tasks are most important. Sine I am always early to work, and typically get the “don’t you ever leave” speech (hey, I like to account for traffic), on occasion I wake up way too early, and have more than enough time after the morning routine is done. So I decided to deviate, and go out for breakfast.

I was told about some of the best french toast in the Pinellas County area by a friend of mine Coby at a place called Yanny’s. So the right morning happened, and the wife and I gave it a try.

After driving up to a hole in the wall type of place (good sign for me), I walked in ordered the best and most unique french toast I have ever had. Covered with egg, powered sugar and cinnamon. The wait staff was equally as pleasant, and it made a great start to the day.

So while my routine was thrown off a bit by getting up to early, a little deviation did me good. So when the unexpected happens, turn it in to a positive and experience something new

The iPad wasn’t on my radar before–it certainly is now. While I can’t predict the future, I think it,  along with Android and Windows 7 based devices, will usher in a new era of digital media.

One of the things I like about my job is from time to time I get to play with cool tech. Since the iPad is going to play a role in the future for some our clinical applications, I was asked to certify the device on the network and test it out.

Network setup was a snap, throughput was on par with other devices in our 802.11g range, and I didn’t experience any of the known wi-fi issues Apple is working to resolve.  I could really see the snappiness of the A4 processor in menu transitions and launching apps.

After setup was complete I was planning to return it since I was heading to lunch. I was then told by the requesting department: “We’re going to lunch too…take it for a spin and have fun.” It was now officially playtime

Of everything I tested out (Netflix, H.264/AAC versions of Batman Begins and Star Trek) the most impressive for me was the Marvel Comics app. Being a geek, I know my way around the comic world, but when I downloaded and launched Thor #1 (which I had read previously) I was amazed.

The screen is made for digital media. Cover flow style navigation, panel by panel movement, innovative control and a gorgeous screen had me immersed. I was just about to read the Invincible Iron Man when my lunch break was over.

The iPad is a very nice piece of technology with a bright future. The only question is where does it fit into your digital lifestyle. Personally, that’s a tough one to answer.

Well after a lot of thought, it’s time to get back in to the personal blogosphere. I had a few sites previously on different networks, but never had my own, custom digital place. I wanted a place to chronicle events, thoughts, ideas, tech finds, and the random need to express what’s going on at any given time.

The first thing was to find the right theme, and for me that took some time. I have always thought of a theme as the digital home that you live in, if you don’t like the layout, you won’t  blog. And just like a house, you want it presentable for when guests arrive. To that end I wanted something nice, easy on the eyes, customizable, with a clean look. I had a previous custom CSS theme I used in the past, but to modify it for what I wanted to do, wouldn’t quite work. Besides that the more I looked at it, the more I really wanted to move forward with something different.

After looking for quite a while, I finally found something I liked Not to say that it won’t change, but for now I like it…