The Information Surge

I've hit something I haven't felt since I first started working with computers at a young age. I've reacquired a hunger, a thirst for knowledge. In the words of Einstein, my history professor, Imam Shafi`e (a writer of the Qur’an), and most specifically Plato, "The more I study, the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know." The knowledge disease. Or, more aptly, a lust for more of it.

I've probably learned more things about my computers in the past few weeks than I have in the last several years combined. I've been poking, prodding, searching, seeking, adjusting, and tweaking areas of my computer that most people don't even know exist. I've developed a new understandings on how things work. I've even gotten my old computer up and running again in a single day from some problems that had been vexing me for the past two years. It's not uncommon for me now to have more than a dozen browser tabs up all on various topics, with several maintenance processes of some sort running in the background.

My source of inspiration came from a friend Travis, and his friends also. They were the ones who got me started, encouraged me when I couldn't figure out a frustrating problem, and equipped me with useful tools. I've also learned a lot from them about things you just don't learn any other way, like defensive hacking. Threats like packet sniffing? I never would have guessed! Now the importance of things like encryption in information transfer seem more sensible to me (instead of just protecting point A and B).

I've gained a significantly greater understanding of how things work, and each new thing I learn sends me on to five or six new topics! I've found going to sleep a rather painful thing, and I've even begun to work while we watch our nighttime tv.

Now if only someone would pay me to do stuff like this...

Today's song (actually edited in on the 26th...):
"Nerd Alert" by The Aquabats.
A former ska band, they never really lost the sense of goofiness.