Re: Waste of time_was_ Here I sit in total mysery being blown off by every s

["Christopher Boden" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

>
>Original poster: "Steve Rosenthal" <sdrosen-at-cwia-dot-com>
>
>Chris,
>I have followed your posts, and I want to make a few comments.
>First, a very large part of what goes on today, as far as what you are
>discussing and for that matter what it appears you are contemplating is 
>pure
>ego.
>Playing the "mine is bigger than yours" game.
>

There is noone who will argure that I have a healthy ego. I can live with 
that;) But it's a lot more than my ego I'm feeding. I am well aware that 
without the incredible group of people who work with me I couldn't begin to 
accomplish anywhere near what we're doing.

Avalon, and The Geek Group are my dream, yeah, but I'm just a conductor of a 
big symphony, and can't play half the instruments. Tesla did a large amount 
of his work alone, though he had "Toadies" (today we call them interns), but 
the genious was his. That isn't true with the Group.

I'm not some esoteric science God who knows and and can teach everything. I 
am a facilitator who makes possible the combined works of the Staff, 
Members, City, Contractors, Accountants, and the Lawyers.

My goal with Avalon is to eventually have things operating so that I don't 
have to he sitting here in my orifice all day and can actually TAKE half the 
classes we'll be offering :)

When things go well, like when we do the demonstrations or finish a project, 
I'm quick to say that all this is done by such and such with the Group. But 
when there's a screw-up, like when Walker broke the windshield on Geek-3, 
guess who takes the blame?

Yeah, I'm got a big ego, I also shoulder a heavy responsibility. I work 110+ 
hours a week on average, for a total pay of about $250 a month. I've 
accomplished quite a bit for a 25 year old "Punk college Kid", and believe I 
have the right to a bit of an Ego ;)



> > Computers:
> >   Do you have any concept how many hours I piddle away in front of this
> > thing? For what? The simple computer in your car is more powerfull than
>what
> > NASA had in 69 and that got us to the moon! What more could we need? Do 
>we
> > really need to be able to know the millionth digit of Pi in 5 seconds?
>(It's
> > 9 by the way)
> > "640k of RAM aught to be enough for anybody." Bill Gates, 1981
> > I have 1048MB currently...WHY? What possible need do I have for dual
> > PIII-500 processors, a Gig of RAM, a dual processor video card (Oxygen
> > GVX-210), and enough hard drive to hold the library of congress? What
>could
> > I possibly need to store in that that I cannot find in seconds on the 
>net?
> > Or God forbid use my BRAIN and read a book!
>
>I believe the answer to that question is for your ego, to feel "superior".
>(Oh, By the way, I am running a cluster of 10 1000mhz Sun RISC boxes 4gig
>RAM per box, running Linux and Beowolf, 20 terabytes of storage on a fiber
>channel rack, and I don't need one of those "gamers" video cards because I
>only do scientific work) not ;>

Just when you were starting to make me drool :)
And I DO have a Gamers card in Ptolemy, a nice ViperII, the Oxygen sucks for 
Quake-III. (read the review on the site)

Copernicus was my baby. One of the few Group projects that I actually built 
mainly by myself. And yeah, I'm terribly proud of it. It's a beautiful 
machine. The Coil (Project SAM) was designed and created by Sam Barros 
(Member#7) and took us 2 years to finish!
There were over 20 sponsors on that project, plus the combined work of all 
the members at the time (back then we only had 17). My work on SAM was 
mainly scrounging the right parts and sponsors. BTW, SAM cost less than $100 
to build, you just have to know where to look and be willing to beg and get 
dirty in a dumpster.


>
> >
> > People lived for thousands of years without ANY electricity, steam 
>power,
> > cars, internet, or even electric toasters and martinni glasses. They did
> > just fine. Even in the middle ages women gave birth without neonatel 
>care
> > and raised perfectly fine kids without formula or disposable diapers. 
>You
> > think Tesla had Simulac? Or Ritalin, special-Ed, MTV, or the demonic
> > PokeMon? THE MAN PLAYED WITH JUNEBUGS FOR FUN!
> >
> > However.........
> >
> > The mortality rate in the middle ages wasn't so hot either. Our friend
> > Rattus Rattus helped spread Plague (both bubonic and pneumonic forms) 
>over
> > enough of europe to kill off half of them.
> >
> > The automobile has changed us from a world where people usually lived
>their
> > entire lives never travelling more than 5 miles in radius from birth.
>
>All these things are still true for the vast majority of the earths
>population
>

Unfortunatly, that is all too true.

> >
> > Supersonic transportation has opened us to a cost of spices, 
>commodities,
> > and technology that we can actually afford.
>
>True only for a small percentage of the world population, the "fortunate
>ones" (all who read this are included in this group).

With an installed base of over 54% of the worlds populus (for internet 
access) I would have to say that's a large number.

>
> >
> > The Space program has given Jim a job ;)
>
>I think we are too successfull as a species, and now we are understanding 
>we
>must find a new planet for "resources".
>

How long have we been thinking of Mars? Decades? We're raping the planet, 
and we know it. Perhaps further research into Tesla's technology and other 
areas of Energy research will keep us from killing ourselves.



> >
> > And our weirdo friend Tesla gave us Usable power from Franklin's 
>suicidal
> > Cumulonimus Marx bank. Along with Radio (Marconi was a thief), SAFE and
> > distributal energy (Edison was a theif, killer, and generally icky-poo
>kinda
> > bum), and a few other wonderful toys.
> >
> > In his lifetime of research he stumbled upon the electrical swingset 
>that
> > bears his name. It has taken us a hundred years and half of us still 
>can't
> > get it right. Dreams is the stuff Physics is made of and Tesla dreamed 
>big
> > (even bigger than me :) ). Most of the people on this list have I.Q.s 
>that
> > make me look like a typing chimp and THEY bicker and moan about the
>tinyest
> > little bits of this INCREDIBLY SIMPLE ELECTRONIC TOY.
> >
> > Look at the schematic for a tesla coil.....How easier can it get? Even I
>can
> > draw one from memory in 30 seconds.
>
>I wonder how impressed Mr. Tesla would have been with you?

Not to terribly, if he saw our coil he'd probably smack me. However, given 
the difference in size and efficiancy to what he made. And the massive 
strides in technology in the past hundred years, I'm willing to bet I could 
teach him as much as he could teach me. Tesla never saw an MMC, PVC 
coilforms, or most of the toys in any of our labs.

Can you imagine what he'd think of Radar on a helicopter? Modern CB's, a 
microwave? The only thing I would regret to show him is buildings like 
ConEd, or the fact that with the exception of a small band of zealots the 
world has forgotten him.


>
>Mr. Tesla was not driven by ego, he was compelled by something far greater.
>I do not perceive Tesla as a proud or vain man, He associated with proud 
>and
>vain men, and I think he found them repulsive.

Actually I heard somewhere that he was rather egocentric. That even when he 
was poor he resused to walk or take a cab but would hire a limousine on a 
regular basis. And he DID live in the Astoria for many years. I'd say he had 
a healthy ego too, he darn well earned it.


For me, building Tesla coils
>is just a way of identifying with the great man Tesla, that's all, and the
>most noble thing I could hope for would be to inspire one of the children,
>who see my Tesla coils, to be all they can be. And possibly one of them 
>will
>not be driven by ego, but rather find that higher force which compells one
>to true greatness. I hope you can do the same thing in your endeavers.
>

I hope I can create an orginisation that can teach thousands of kids to 
realise the true magic of science. That they may come and tinker, learn and 
create new toys, and technologies. I hope I can help nurture the desire to 
simply explore and learn so that they may go on to achieve great things and 
better mankind. AS for myself, if I can spend the rest of my life tinkering 
away and building hundreds of useless toys and have fun doing it, I'm set. I 
don't care about getting rich or famous, I just wanna play with really cool 
toys and make a living at teaching people how they work.



>Steve R.

Thank's Steve. I need my ego stepped on now and then :)



Only slighly humbled...but still a pain.

Chris B.

Christopher A. Boden Geek#1
President / C.E.O. / Alpha Geek
The Geek Group
www.thegeekgroup-dot-org
Because the Geek shall inherit the Earth!



<<In retrospect...  I should have not allowed the original post here...
I'll let Chris have his say in response here but this is obviously not a
pertinent thread...  - Terry>>