# Geek Thread



## Greg (Sep 22, 2005)

Let's use this thread to share all those little geeky programs, utilities, Web sites, Firefox extensions, system add-ons, etc. that you find useful. One neat little utility I use is ePrompter:

http://www.eprompter.com/

I've got a number of Email addresses and this nifty little tool checks them all for me automatically in the background. If any account has new mail, a little color coded icon with the number of new Emails is displayed in the system tray. I don't use it to send mail, but it's a nice little tool for monitoring Email.


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## Marc (Sep 22, 2005)

gaim.sourceforge.net


Not as obscure as it once was, but still a fine program.


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## bvibert (Sep 22, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> http://www.eprompter.com/
> 
> I've got a number of Email addresses and this nifty little tool checks them all for me automatically in the background. If any account has new mail, a little color coded icon with the number of new Emails is displayed in the system tray. I don't use it to send mail, but it's a nice little tool for monitoring Email.



Nifty, I'll have to remember to try it out later.. 

I use *Rainlendar* to keep track of events here at work.  The thing I like about is that it automagically reads events in the Outlook calendar (which our company uses to schedule meetings).

As I mentioned in another thread I use the *Forcastfox* extension for *Firefox* to keep track of the weather.


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## Brettski (Sep 22, 2005)

A thread of non sequituers from a bunch of cool geeks from arounf the world

http://www.dbforums.com/showthread.php?p=4458533#post4458533

SQL Team A SQL Server site

http://www.sqlteam.com/default.asp

dbforums

http://www.dbforums.com/index.php?

My Blog

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/brettk/


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## ctenidae (Sep 22, 2005)

Just to get it out of the way:

NEEEEEEEERRRRRRRDDSSSS!!!!

:beer:


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## kickstand (Sep 22, 2005)

Brettski said:
			
		

> A thread of non sequituers from a bunch of cool geeks from arounf the world
> 
> http://www.dbforums.com/showthread.php?p=4458533#post4458533
> 
> ...



geez, and I thought I was a db geek.....  :wink:


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## Brettski (Sep 22, 2005)

I prefer db god

Or scrub

Which ever you prefer


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## Brettski (Sep 22, 2005)

ctenidae said:
			
		

> Just to get it out of the way:
> 
> NEEEEEEEERRRRRRRDDSSSS!!!!
> 
> :beer:



This is one "nerd" that carries around a hockey stick

someone gotta pay the bills


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## riverc0il (Sep 22, 2005)

most posters in this thread seem to have their own web page.  sure sign of geekdom there.

speaking of firefox and web pages, i really dig FireFTP.  utilizing a browser for FTP kicks butt and interfaces better than WS_FTP.  nothing wrong with WS, but it's dated (i have the free academic version from years ago).


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## Brettski (Sep 22, 2005)

What's the difference between a geek and a nerd?


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## riverc0il (Sep 22, 2005)

geeks are into the techno and pull it off looking cool (at least to other geeks).  nerds are generally really book smart and were always studying in school.  geeks don't have to study cause it's all hands on  now dorks on the other hand, we are just the best four letter word in town cuz we take nothing seriously! :beer:


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## awf170 (Sep 22, 2005)

riverc0il said:
			
		

> geeks are into the techno and pull it off looking cool (at least to other geeks).  nerds are generally really book smart and were always studying in school.  geeks don't have to study cause it's all hands on



Oh i get it now, thats why when i called my friend a nerd today, he said he preferred the word geek.  And he defiantly meets that description perfectly.  People like him are helpful though, he gave me this thing that gets around the firewall in school so i can go to all the game websites now, I knew those geeks were good for something :wink: 

I also think using firefox is kinda uncool, when my teacher asked in my Comp class who used it the only ones that raised there hands was me and a bunch of dorky(or is geeky the right term :wink: )  asian kids :roll:


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## Jaytrek57 (Sep 22, 2005)

> What's the difference between a geek and a nerd?



If you have to ask...your either or both. :wink: 

PS. I'll be smoking cigarettes with the other "cool" kids behind the High School. :wink:  :wink: 

Peace


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## riverc0il (Sep 22, 2005)

what web broser would you define as cool?  lol.  perhaps you would prefer "cutting edge" instead, heh.


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## Stephen (Sep 22, 2005)

Here goes.

I use Trillian to put all my messengers into one neat package. Link

Firefox, with ADblock, Bugmenot, ForecastFox, and this neat little extension that I can right-click on an URL or a webpage and choose "Open in IE".

Wildpackets IP Subnet Calculator

Putty, for all my telnet and SSH with logging needs

Crosstalk for all those serial sessions

Foundstone Superscan, which allows me to scan a IP range for either active clients or open ports. www.foundstone.com

Net Stumbler (stumbler.net) allows me to scan for any APs in an area and look at the SNR to determine signal strength.

THat's most of the really cool ones.

-Stephen


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## Marc (Sep 23, 2005)

Brettski said:
			
		

> What's the difference between a geek and a nerd?



A pocket protector... duh.



PutTy is also a good program, I'll concur there.


I only use Adaware for spyware/adware removal programs...  I usually don't frequent websites that require them, but if for some reason my computer starts attracting them... I have all my files on one partition and windows and programs on another.

If I get too much ore something Adaware can't handle I reformat the windows partition and start clean.

And on my other HD, well, Linux is good with that kind of stuff.  Sooner or later I'll get off my ass and finally setup RAID 1 or RAID 5.  And then switch to using Linux full time.  As soon as I get around to it... going to be awfully challenging to do that once ski season starts up though (with any luck).


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## ctenidae (Sep 23, 2005)

Not really a geek thing, but a funny customer complaint to a telecomm provider, nonetheless:

http://www.pureesoiree.be/forum/topic.do?id=70605


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## dmc (Sep 23, 2005)

Brettski said:
			
		

> What's the difference between a geek and a nerd?



Geeks get chicks...  :lol:


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## kickstand (Sep 23, 2005)

Brettski said:
			
		

> I prefer db god



well, let's not go overboard here... 

I used to work with some insanely bright database people, the kind of people who do things Microsoft no longer allows customers to do (as far as I know).  I love reading new procs to see the creative ways people come up with to do things, but I am amazed when I see people correctly manipulate page pointers within the page structures to fix corruption issues.

does MS SQL have *dbcc corrupt()* ?


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## dmc (Sep 23, 2005)

Brettski said:
			
		

> I prefer db god



Q-Whats the difference between a DBA and God?
A-God doesn't think he's a DBA....

Fellow DBA(Teradata) here...  Well more application DBA/SQL developer lately


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## kickstand (Sep 23, 2005)

dmc said:
			
		

> Brettski said:
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> ...



same here.  I used to do some really fun stuff, especially when I was doing support, but now that we're using mostly out-of-the-box apps, there is almost no creativity in the job.  We barely even keep up with upgrades and maintenance releases for our databases.  Pretty pathetic.


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## skijay (Sep 23, 2005)

A geek thing:

If you have an XM radio (I think it works on Delphi SkyFi & Roady 1 only), you can see the source of your signal.  You can see if it comes from the satellite "Rock" or "Roll" or if you get the signal from a repeater.

If you have a SkyFi, power it up by pressing the numbers 2,0,7 and hit the little XM button inside the dial and it will turn on.  Press "Display" 3 times.  You will get the first menu that shows SAT1 (Rock) , SAT2 (Roll) or TERR.  Look what is checked off and the BER% rate.  This is the error rate.  You need to have 5% or below to receive a signal.  To get out of this screen, keep hitting display until you get back to the song / author display. 

At work I am on the TERR (repeater) and I get no satellite signal.  

I use this trick to tweak the antenna when inside.


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## catskills (Sep 23, 2005)

I use BBCode 03.7 extension for FireFox.  I makes it real easy to do stuff like *Colors*
and imbeded links and lists and a lot more features that are not easy to do on other forums.


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## Vortex (Sep 23, 2005)

How did I end up this this thread?


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## Stephen (Sep 23, 2005)

In light of this thread, I felt it necessary to alter my sig.

Another one that I like to use: There's no place like 127.0.0.1

-Stephen


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## kickstand (Sep 23, 2005)

Stephen said:
			
		

> In light of this thread, I felt it necessary to alter my sig.
> 
> Another one that I like to use: There's no place like 127.0.0.1
> 
> -Stephen



was that the cheat code to get unlimited lifes in Super Mario Brothers, or something like that?


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## Stephen (Sep 23, 2005)

kickstand said:
			
		

> was that the cheat code to get unlimited lifes in Super Mario Brothers, or something like that?



Close. Cheat code, yes. SMB, no.


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## ctenidae (Sep 23, 2005)

Contra, baby.

Does that qualify me for Honorary Geek status, even though I wouldn't know a DBA if it bit me in the LAN?


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## Greg (Sep 23, 2005)

Stephen said:
			
		

> Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Select-Start
> 
> Close. Cheat code, yes. SMB, no.


Oh man. I can't think of it...

Zelda?


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## Greg (Sep 23, 2005)

ctenidae said:
			
		

> Contra, baby.


That's right! Good old classic Nintendo! I forgot how cheezy that was:


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## Greg (Sep 23, 2005)

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/contra.html

 :lol:


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## ctenidae (Sep 23, 2005)

Nice one. I can't believe I just read through level 6 of that. It was funny, but I want that 5 minutes of my life back.


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## kickstand (Sep 23, 2005)

Stephen said:
			
		

> kickstand said:
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> ...


that's right!  I knew I had punched in that code somewhere before....


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## bvibert (Sep 23, 2005)

Greg said:
			
		

> ctenidae said:
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That game was pretty cool.  That was the first cheat code I ever heard about!   I remembered it as soon as I saw it...


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## riverc0il (Sep 23, 2005)

geeks understand songs like these:
http://www.euronet.nl/~rja/Kraftwerk/computerworld.html


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## awf170 (Sep 23, 2005)

geeks use language like this MMORPG, i think just knowing what that means makes you a loser, and if you participate in it then ur an off the charts geek, or nerd, or dork, and whatever they wanna be called


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## BeanoNYC (Sep 24, 2005)

I'm guessing that no one is interested in any referrals to all things geekie macintisosh style.


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## bvibert (Sep 24, 2005)

BeanoNYC said:
			
		

> I'm guessing that no one is interested in any referrals to all things geekie macintisosh style.



Why not, go for it...


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## Stephen (Sep 24, 2005)

Mac user- n. Someone even geeks can look down on. :lol:

-Stephen


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## BeanoNYC (Sep 25, 2005)

bvibert said:
			
		

> BeanoNYC said:
> 
> 
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One of my favorite widgets for OSX:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/travel/powderfonesnowreportwidget.html


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## Brettski (Sep 30, 2005)

For any of you database guru's out there...this is gonna get interesting

http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/brettk/archive/2005/08/11/7516.aspx


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## bvibert (Jun 6, 2007)

I'm bumping this thread because I've been spending way too much time screwing around with FF extensions lately.  I spent a while this morning playing with one called Stylish, it allows you to over-write a site's styles with your own.  I don't see what practical purpose this has, but it was fun screwing around with it for a bit. 

An AZ twist...


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## Paul (Jun 7, 2007)

bvibert said:


> I'm bumping this thread because I've been spending way too much time screwing around with FF extensions lately.  I spent a while this morning playing with one called Stylish, it allows you to over-write a site's styles with your own.  I don't see what practical purpose this has, but it was fun screwing around with it for a bit.
> 
> An AZ twist...



Actually, that is really cool. I use the Redshift theme in FF, and it would be nifty to make the whole window match. It appeals to my OCD.


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## bvibert (Jun 7, 2007)

Paul said:


> Actually, that is really cool. I use the Redshift theme in FF, and it would be nifty to make the whole window match. It appeals to my OCD.



I tried Redshift V2, but it was a little too dark and cluttered looking for me.  I settled on Blue Ice because it was clean and simple.  Redshift is what got me going on the darker colors right now though, including switching to a modified Zune theme for Windows XP after using the classic Windows theme forever.  I can't stand the default XP theme. uke:

It was a bit of work getting AZ to look like it does in the picture, and there's still a bit more to do to satisfy my OCD.  I found using the Web Developer extension helped because it allowed me to easily see the IDs and classes of the divisions and whatnot.  The two problems that I ran into that kinda dissuaded from going further was that the blue icons don't really go with the dark theme and they have a white halo around them.  The other thing that irritated me was that I couldn't seem to change the text ads in the posts to match the new colors.


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## BeanoNYC (Jun 7, 2007)

Decent proxy for those of you who are firewalled.  Caught one of my students on facebook using this one today.


http://www.teheyes.com/proxy/


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## dmc (Jun 10, 2007)

i just installed our product onto a Teradata database for a customer...
We we're getting well over a million encryptions a second on a 850,000,000 row table...

So cool...


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## BeanoNYC (Jun 11, 2007)

Safari just came out for windows.  If someone  gives it a try please let me know how it runs.

...on another note, I just partitioned my Playstation 3's  hard-drive (60 gig) and will be installing a linux distribution in a few days.  I'll post as soon as I can with the results.


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## andyzee (Jun 11, 2007)

dmc said:


> i just installed our product onto a Teradata database for a customer...
> We we're getting well over a million encryptions a second on a 850,000,000 row table...
> 
> So cool...


 
We've had Teradata installed for the last 2 years, maybe I'll see you at my place one day. :lol:


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## bvibert (Jun 11, 2007)

BeanoNYC said:


> Safari just came out for windows.  If someone  gives it a try please let me know how it runs.



My initial reaction is that it is faster than FF to load pages, I only played with it for a few minutes on a few different sites though.  It doesn't seem to be nearly as customizable as FF though, which is why I use FF over Safari on my Wife's Mac as well.


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## dmc (Jun 12, 2007)

andyzee said:


> We've had Teradata installed for the last 2 years, maybe I'll see you at my place one day. :lol:



When your ready... We're ready.. 

Headed down to Arkanasas next week to work with a rather larger company...


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## andyzee (Jun 12, 2007)

dmc said:


> When your ready... We're ready..
> 
> Headed down to Arkanasas next week to work with a rather larger company...


 

Oh, that lil ole store?


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## ctenidae (Jun 12, 2007)

dmc said:


> When your ready... We're ready..
> 
> Headed down to Arkanasas next week to work with a rather larger company...



I'm going to guess you'll be in lovely Bentonville. Being from Arkansas and all, I have a sense for these things...


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## dmc (Jun 12, 2007)

andyzee said:


> Oh, that lil ole store?



A little retailer... Nothing big... 

Psyched!!!


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## JimG. (Jun 12, 2007)

dmc said:


> A little retailer... Nothing big...
> 
> Psyched!!!



Wear your Kevlar vest and a helmet...the Walton gang likes to beat the hell out of vendors.

I know, we sell to them and they are very high maintenance.


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## dmc (Jun 12, 2007)

JimG. said:


> Wear your Kevlar vest and a helmet...the Walton gang likes to beat the hell out of vendors.
> 
> I know, we sell to them and they are very high maintenance.



We're actually going through another vendor.  if it is indeed the company your talking about.. which i can neither confrirm or deny.


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## JimG. (Jun 12, 2007)

dmc said:


> We're actually going through another vendor.  if it is indeed the company your talking about.. which i can neither confrirm or deny.



Very good...but remember that sh*t always rolls downhill.


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## dmc (Jun 12, 2007)

JimG. said:


> Very good...but remember that sh*t always rolls downhill.



I'm covered with it right now... 

this will be HUGE for my company...  Psyched...


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## JimG. (Jun 12, 2007)

dmc said:


> I'm covered with it right now...
> 
> this will be HUGE for my company...  Psyched...



That's a good sales attitude...revel in the dirt!


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## dmc (Jun 12, 2007)

JimG. said:


> That's a good sales attitude...revel in the dirt!



i get a chunk of each deal...


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## MRGisevil (Jun 24, 2007)

Greg said:


> Let's use this thread to share all those little geeky programs, utilities, Web sites, Firefox extensions, system add-ons, etc. that you find useful. One neat little utility I use is ePrompter:
> 
> http://www.eprompter.com/
> 
> I've got a number of Email addresses and this nifty little tool checks them all for me automatically in the background. If any account has new mail, a little color coded icon with the number of new Emails is displayed in the system tray. I don't use it to send mail, but it's a nice little tool for monitoring Email.



Greg- You rock, man. For whatever reason, I have 8 email address. This thing makes it so much freeking easier to monitor them all!


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