Deep Thought

Today I turn 42. That particular number is well-known in the geek community, being given as the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything in Douglas Adams' Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Of course, the two pan-dimensional hyper-intelligent individuals who were present to receive Deep Thought's end result were none too pleased. Loonquawl's response after a moment of stunned silence sums it up nicely: "We're going to get lynched, aren't we?"

Another bit of geek humour that I can no longer use today is this bit of dialogue:
Q. "So, how old are you?"
A. "Twenty-nine." (short pause) "In hexadecimal."

Obviously, if you don't understand hexadecimal notation, you don't get the joke. But alas, the joke is no longer as funny, since an age of "2A" is pretty lame. I wouldn't even know how to pronounce it. Two-Aay? Twenty-Aay??

To embrace the geekness of my new age, I decided to use a parental present of a Best Buy gift card to purchase a somewhat geeky piece of hardware -- a web camera. The Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX, to be specific. Now, when I chat with my friend in Louisiana (who also has a webcam), we can see and talk to each other just like in The Jetsons. Three cheers for technology. Seems like just yesterday, I was typing FORTRAN programs onto punched cards and thinking the 8-color Apple II computer was pretty keen :)

In closing, I can't resist another bit of geek humour. Enjoy.

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary notation, and those who don't."

May you all embrace your inner geekness.