What Geeks Do On Holiday

I'm currently on holidays up in the Kooteneys of beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Specifically, I'm hanging out at the in-laws place in a small town called Kaslo. However, I wanted to share with the world how us geeks do things differently. Most people when visiting a summer town in the month of July enjoy the sunshine, go swimming, hiking, enjoy the beautiful outdoors (and believe me, the scenery here is truly breathtaking).

Geeks, like myself, however instead spend their time writing documents on lambda calculus to appear in their master thesis'. Or even more so, when they get tired of actual work, they decide they want to play some Xbox.

However, the router that my father-in-law uses to connect to the Internet is in a different room than the TV I get to use for my Xbox. But wait, I want my E3 downloads, how can I possibly download them if I cannot connect my 360 to the Internet?

If you're a non-geek you go out and fork over the $100+ for the Xbox 360 wireless adaptor. If you're a geek, and you have a laptop with an Ethernet jack and a wireless network adaptor, an old 10BaseT hub, and a few network cables, you jerry-rig your 360 to connect through your laptop. :)

I'm writing this while sitting in a small bedroom with my 360 hooked up to an old VCR which is hooked up to an old 22" or so TV. The 360 is also plugged into an old 10BaseT network hub, a hub which my laptop is also plugged into. I'm using all 4 sets of power outlets in the room (because there's A) so many devices I have floating around in here, and B) because most of them have big power plugs/adaptors which limits the ability to have more than one device in a wall outlet). There's wires all over the floor.

BUT, I'm also writing this blog entry, while downloading the Halo 3 E3 2007 trailer on Xbox Live. In short -- this is paradise!

When the holiday ends is in a half hour or so when my wife comes downstairs to watch her show (Men In Trees) on the laptop. "Sorry hon, but you can't take the laptop upstairs -- I'm downloading on the 360!"