My Favorite Charity

Hackers for Charity is an organization created and led by Johnny Long with two main goals:

• Assist charities with technical issues
• Spread computers to African schools to help education and self-sufficiency

Before I go too far, let me share their definition of the word Hacker.

Someone who enjoys delving into the guts of a process or technology, usually able to find ways to use that process in ways other than the originally intended purpose.

The definition says nothing about a person's morality or motives.  In fact, within the "hacker community" there are a wide range of moral stances, including justice-seeking vigilantes, people hired by law enforcement agencies, and even a few rare, but somewhat dangerous, "bad guys."  Hackers are found in all walks of life, from grocery store clerks living in their parents' house, to billionaires like Bill Gates, to the quiet happily married couple next door.  (It's far more likely that a hacker is a well-adjusted member of society, than to be living in a basement or controlling a personal economy.)

Hackers aren't always male, either...  even though the most common trait among hackers is a goatee and an allergy to ties.  Even my father, a well respected member in the professional network security world, pastor, and all-around goody-two-shoes, grows light hair on his chin and he is quite happy that his ties are covered in dust.

So, don't flinch at the word "Hacker."  A hacker is someone who just keeps hacking away at a problem until they fully understand it.

Now, on with talking about Hackers for Charities again...

So far the work on the first goal, to assist other charities, has gone in fits and spurts.  One month, there will be dozens of requests for help, usually asking for help on their web site.  The next three months will be silence.  Obviously being a good publicist isn't a requirement to be a hacker.  There are dozens of volunteers chomping at the bit for some work to do, and hundreds waiting in the wings to help in little ways.  The work is free, the experience is enlightening, and the quality is excellent.

If you know of any charities that could use a bit of help on the technology side, send them on over to HFC.

Johnny does take donations...  he can't do everything on the backs of highly skilled, willing volunteers, working through the public Internet...  HFC's second goal, to help African communities with education and self-reliance requires things that can't be (honestly and legally) hacked for free...  like trips to Africa, shipping of computer parts, including wrestling with customs, and having enough food and shelter to survive the trip.  You can't exactly send a person through email to a different room, much less a different continent...  Sending a couple dozen computers to Africa isn't as easy as stowing them as carry-on luggage on your plane.  There is man power in Africa, both from people who grew up there, and from volunteers making trips, and there are logistics chains in the US from trusted volunteers, but it wouldn't be feasible to ship the equipment in ourselves, especially since we don't have planes or boats capable of making the trip (which, we'd have to pay for fuel and maintenance anyways), so HFC needs money for shipping.  The money that isn't used for shipping is used for more computer parts.  The money that isn't used for more computer parts is used for food and shelter for the volunteers in Africa (the volunteers pay for their own plane ticket, and must also have enough money to buy enough food to keep themselves alive...  but there is a distinct value in having enough food to thrive versus just survive.)

Best of all...  Johnny is transparent in all of his work.  If he needs a vehicle, he lets people know before hand. If he lost his multi-tool, he complains about it, and admits his mistake.  He takes pictures of the bad cables he crimps, a real badge of shame among network professionals, but proof that he's human, he's trying, and most of all (though he hadn't thought of this) that he's honest.

Bottom line:  If you know of a charity that could use some technical help, send them on over to Hackers for Charity.  If you want to help one of the poorest regions in the world to become more self-sufficient and prosperous (and end those "send 45 cents a day to keep this kid alive, but never really improve his quality of life" commercials), then consider donation used equipment or cash.  (I have a box in my garage full of used computer parts...  after I upgrade my computer, I'll go through, test those parts, and send the working pieces out to help repair a computer in Africa.  (Heck, after I get enough disposable income, I'm planning on buying enough parts for a dozen high-end systems to send on over...  but that will be a few years still.)

Second impression of Wave

Alright, I've had Google Wave for over 24 hours, and it's time to post what I've learned.

First, Wave is NOT for the casual user...  yet.


However, it will be.

There are currently 2 versions of Wave running.  There is the Developer Preview version, also called the sandbox, and there is an invitation-only Beta version.

That causes a problem with extending the functionality.

You see, if you get an invitation, you'll get to join the Beta.  From what I understand, it's more stable and more user-friendly than the sandbox, but the sandbox has been around longer, and all of the third party developers have been playing with it, building their robots and gadgets there.

Therefor, it is very difficult to add a gadget, and all of the robots you can add aren't guaranteed to work.

Plus, the good guys at Google are still working on stability and speed.  Admittedly, stability and speed are far more important than extra functionality...  wiz-bang extensions are useless if the service is down, or it takes too long to access it.

So, the robots and gadgets are hard to find, and need to be improved on.

The core of Wave itself, however, is excellent.  Adding conversations is easy, replying is simple, and once you realize that you can double-click, editing is a snap.  Communicating with other Wave users is as fast as advertised, and if you can make something in a normal web page, you can make it in a wave too.

These two capabilities combined make it perfect for working with other people on any sort creative project.  The benefits for any company, especially small companies with employees in different countries, are immediately apparent.  Even independent workers can greatly benefit, such as bloggers keeping in touch with contributors.  The possibilities are endless.

Bottom Line

So, Google Wave is great, as it is today, especially for businesses and independent creative types, but if the basics aren't deal-makers, you're probably better off waiting until Wave is out of beta.

New Google Wave User

Great news.  A round of invites to Google Wave was sent out today, and I was among the lucky few to get one.

I have two contacts, and I plan to send out invites as soon as I'm able to...  I'll keep people posted through here, Twitter, and Facebook when I have some invites available to send.

Right now, my priorities are to send invites to family and my boss first, then co-workers, then friends, then acquaintances.  I will not send invites to people who randomly ask, so please at least introduce yourself first if you don't want to be completely ignored.

First Impressions

It's spartan.  It's empty.  Sudoku is hard to find.

Of course, my impressions were colored by watching Google's 1h20m long video on the presentation they gave at the first unveiling at Google IO...  I already knew what I wanted to do, but I had no idea how to do it.

Fortunately, you have a message waiting for you in your inbox that helps ease you in to Wave.  It's welcoming title is "Welcome to Google Wave."

Please resist the urge to click on the New Wave link in the middle of the big, blank, uncomfortably attractive area to the right.  Click on the message from Dr. Wave, and read through.  Click on the messages that they recommend.  Watch the videos.  Take some time to see what is possible, and most importantly, how to do what you want.

If you're like me, and just start clicking around, making your own wave, then don't worry, you'll eventually make your way back to the tutorials.  They're not only useful, but they're the fasted way to find a game.

What Wave Is

Right now, I can't even begin to explain Wave, in any way that can be really understood.  Head over to Google Wave's front page and watch the video.

The short answer is...  It is email and instant messages on speed...  Google Docs on steroids...  a psychic version of Blogger...  Wikipedia without the Colbert Nation...*  and once the games get made, it will be Facebook on a permanent adrenalin high.

You can send a message to a group of friends to plan a weekend trip...  add in a map...  add in the weather forecast, which updates auto-magically as the predicted weather changes...  add in a Yes/No/Maybe list to see who can make it...  Send messages to a small set of your friends without fear of the rest of the group knowing (i.e., "Man, I'm glad Bob clicked no.")...  and anyone can edit any part of the conversation, such as to update times or locations, AND everybody can see those edits and who made them, which prevents Bob playing one of his "practical jokes" that the rest of the group is tired of.

Then, when the whole thing is done, post your pictures into a wave, invite the group, and they can post their pictures in as well.  A couple of clicks later and it can become a blog post as well.

In fact, I think that will be my next project.  I'll try to write my next blog post using only Wave.

*Note: Yes, I consider myself part of the Colbert Nation...  but you have to admit that claiming elephant populations have doubled over a 6 month time period?  Yeah, Gullible.info wasn't too happy with it either, when they got duped.

Hello, World

This is the obligatory first post on this blog.

I am a computer nerd, focusing on both software development and networking.

I love movies, and I'll talk about them quite frequently.

I also enjoy social engineering... figuring out how the brain works, crowd mentality, and brain hacks.

This is my site. Enjoy!