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Working tech support for an ISP I often have opportunity to switch people over to Firefox. Even if I wasn't a Firefox fan it is often the best/only option. Some people call in w/ IE installs that are so hosed they won't load web pages or crash frequently, so short of an OS reinstall Firefox is their best solution. It would be awesome if the ISP I work for officially endorsed Firefox like Speakeasy has but I don't foresee that, it would likely cause more confusion than management wants to deal with. As I have mentioned a good number of people don't even know what a 'web browser' is. Telling them to install Firefox would blow their minds.

There have been Powerbooks that were stepped on and run over, as well.

ex: http://blogs.iloha.net/ryochiji/entries/491.shtml

Maybe not waterproof, but this guy ran over one with an SUV (with pictures).

Powerbooks may not be as tough as ToughBooks, but you might be really surprised by how durable they are. Read the story of this poor powerbook ... it survived getting run over by a truck. Hehe =D

Here is another way. My friend ran over his new Powerbook with his SUV. Amazingly it still runs!

The most random web page on the internet!

For anyone who cares, I wrote a paper titled Reputation Economy and the Internet. It talks about how reputation acts as a substitute for monetary worth, and also how the system compares to market economies.

I think there's a lot of truth in this. For example, how many programmers think about writing software from the standpoint of a support technician? In fact, how many programmers even have experience as a support technician? I've never even heard anyone even talk about writing supportable software, yet, when considering the overall costs or quality of a system, I think it's important to consider how heavily the introduction of that system will tax the support department. Whether you're shipping or deploying the system, lower support needs will lower over all costs and vastly improve the reputation of the system.

The same applies for security and usability. It's really not a question of programming/technical ability, but a question of mentality. I think programmers need to have a specific (or perhaps not-so-specific) mindset to get a bigger picture, and not very many programmers are willing to do that. Part of it may be inherent to programmer-types, but it also might be cultural (the whole "us vs. them" elitist attitude).

Now this is a room that needs cleaning (that was in my dorm room when I went to cram school in Japan).

Speaking of rooms, this wasn't a very good idea. I went on a coding spree during which I spent around 30 continuous hours coding for about 10 days straight (came out to about 5 30-hour blocks). The problem is, I was sitting on the floor cross legged the whole time, only getting up to get coffee or go to the bathroom. Needless to say, it killed my knees, forcing me to invest in a desk and chair. Often times you can get away with being cheap, but sometimes, well, sometimes it kills your knees.

Now this is a room that needs cleaning (that was in my dorm room when I went to cram school in Japan).

Speaking of rooms, this wasn't a very good idea. I went on a coding spree during which I spent around 30 continuous hours coding for about 10 days straight (came out to about 5 30-hour blocks). The problem is, I was sitting on the floor cross legged the whole time, only getting up to get coffee or go to the bathroom. Needless to say, it killed my knees, forcing me to invest in a desk and chair. Often times you can get away with being cheap, but sometimes, well, sometimes it kills your knees.

I think it's more that politics today is more likely to engage in (or encroach upon) science and technology, and what geeks stand for.

Also, I think geeks tend to be more interested in a wide range of topics, and also tend to be opinionated about issues regardless of their level of understanding.

Anyway, for anyone who's interested, I wrote a paper about geeks for a composition course in college. It can be found here.