2 posts tagged “hak.5”

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An Update and then Some

Well, then.   It would seem as though my time out here in Denver has finally been given a finite ending date.

Well.....sorta.....

I was told this morning by my team lead that she plans on rolling me off in 2 weeks.  It is a mix of emotion.  I work with some really cool people and have gained some awesome experience.  For that reason, I'm not too happy about leaving.  The flip side to that coin is the fact that this project really sucks.  It is destined to be a complete abortion of an SAP implementation.  It will be, by far, one of, if not the, ugliest SAP baby ever delivered.  

A big part of this business is networking.  Making good with the right people for future reference.  I think that I've done a pretty good job with that.

I'm really happy about being back home for a while.  I miss sleeping in my own bed every night.  I miss sitting at my own desk with my nice aeron chair, 24" Dell LCD monitor, and my Altec-Lansing 2.1 PC speakers that can rattle the walls if I wanted.  I'll enjoy being able to see my friends regularly, and spending time with my girlfriend.

update:  not so much with the roll off now....w/e

Sub Post - Trials of being a Video Podcaster / IPTV Producer and Life Lessons

Amidst my boredom here in Denver, I've found myself starting to read my friends' blogs and twitters.  Since I've hardly been around, it is the easiest way to get caught back up.

Darren made a really interesting post here talking about all the times we boarded the 'failbus' during our adventures making Hak.5.  Reading it made me think about how our direct lessons are applicable to many facets of geek life.

Specifically, I would like to highlight the first paragraph of his conclusion:

Experimenting, failing, learning, and re-engineering the production of Hak5 has been a fun and challenging process. We’ve come a long way from shooting multiple cameras to their individual tapes and cutting in post, a process that took nearly a week of editing per episode, to shooting segments live-to-tape. Each new process presents its own unique challenges and as a producer I’ve been more than happy to approach them head on, even if it takes falling on my face a few times.


Now, in the typical geek ways, lets remove the specifics and replace them with variables.  I'm too lazy to do that editing, so just do it in your head.  Now roll it around for a minute....


Done?  Good.

Is that not the way of the geek in general?  To me, at least, the statement goes a lot further.  We as geeks try things, it is our nature.  "My crime is that of curiosity."  We like to learn.  Sometimes that learning involves a really long ride on the failbus.  

It sometimes involves spending extra money because we brick a device because we did something dumb like accidentally unplug the thing while flashing the firmware.  Sometimes we literally get our wires crossed and see the magic smoke.  Hard drives tick, and power supplies surge.  It happens, and we know it happens.  However, when we get to the finish line and find that end product, it means the world to us.  

It can be something as simple as being able to write 'Hello World!' in some programming language, cracking that test WEP AP you set up to understand wireless security, popping that sand box using the exploit published a month ago so you can understand how it works, or finishing that last solder point and running the first test cycles of your automatic under-water basket weaver that you can control from your cell phone using PHP, Apache and X10.  They all have the exact same feeling of satisfaction.  

I think Darren inadvertently defined the essence of Technolust.  Thats what its really all about.  One must ride the failbus for an undetermined amount of time until you get off on the stop of sweet success.  

My final word to the wise is to not let failures deter you from achieving your goal.  Something is only a complete failure when you give up.  Anything else is just an obstacle that needs to be over come.

I apologize for yet another long-winded post.

Trust your Technolust

--Wess




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OMFG! A year and a half between posts!

HAI2U!

So its been a really freaking long time since the last time I posted!  My bad.

Never really been much of a blogger.  So here is the update in a nutshell:

Been working in Denver, CO for the last 2 months.  Fly out on Monday morning and fly back on Thursday afternoon.  Its a tough schedule, but you get used to it.  At least I get to be home on the weekends and get stuff done there.

Alanna (Ali) and I have out own apartment.  We got it in October.  Its our little crappy apartment, but its ours, and we've made it feel like home.  Me being me, and the handy man that I am, I've mounted my LCD to the wall, made some floating DVD shelves, ran my own cable line to the bedroom so we could watch TV in there, and just generally have modded the place to suite my needs.  Go figure, I can't have anything with out modifying it in some way!

Life has been pretty good, overall.  Staying busy for the most part.  The only thing that sucks is that with my schedule, I haven't been able to be as much of a part of the show as I'd like to.  It's really frustrating not being nearly as hands on as I used to.  I've been told that my contract is being extended, but I see no paper work supporting that, nor, at the very least, a scope of work to be done under said contract.  That'll be interesting to see how that unfolds.

Anyway, don't forget to check out the ShmooCon special edition of Hak.5 this week, complete with sound! w00t!

Later

2 comments Tags: hak5, hak.5, wess, tobler
Wess Tobler

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