Tech Chords

I scribble on technology. Apparently.

If you freelance for a few years, juggle between mediums, and countries, it's very easy to lose track of the people you've met, or interacted with. Attend a few international conferences and the count quickly jumps to unmanageable levels. Throw in a neurological disturbance and you're good to go. For a toss.

I'm recovering from meningitis which went undetected until it caused the cerebrospinal fluid to accumulate in the cavities of my brain. To put it in simpler terms, I'm not sure what happened. Something that was supposed to circulate decided to accumulate and made me forget.

Losing memory isn't a nice feeling. Even more so if you are busy.

After losing almost a year to the illness and several to its after-effects, I'm now up and running. Just as I was getting used to being looked after, my brain decided to engage into gear. I wouldn't go into a long discussion on self-awareness, but it's pretty unglamorous and over-rated. Basically, one moment you're in bliss and the next you hear a voice in your head that goes, "Hello. You're the person in the mirror. What is it that you do?"

And that's how it starts.

What is it that I do? Science and spirituality helped me answer the question "Who am I?". But if only they could help me with this other question.

A host of computers, from sleek multicores to antique bulky pentiums, suggested I had something to do with computers. A kid brother who runs a couple of virtual machines and a different Linux distro in each, has written a book on a popular Linux distro, and writes for a popular Linux magazine, hinted that I too am probably into this whole Linux, Open Source universe myself. Pick a couple of Linux magazines, see your mugshot looking back at you, and you know you are on the write track.

So on to your computer then. The thing with being so much involved with technology is that you have an account in every computer you own. To cut a long story short, you talk to people around you, and try to find a computer that you spent most of your time on, eventually ending up on the one with the most comfortable keyboard.

You boot into a distro (a Debian running kernel 2.6.26-1-686 in my case) and stare a moment at the login screen. Then bless technology as you are automatically logged in.

A shortcut to a web browser on the desktop (a launcher on the panel to be technologically correct), is technology's answer to Sigmund Freud. I'll also give some credit to my old self for choosing and sticking to a unique username (geekybodhi) on the Internet. Between the two, I found myself. In GMail, Flickr, LinkedIN, Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook. If you've ever written online, more so for publications of some repute, you shouldn't have trouble finding your words, but web logs (if you learn how to read them) help you find your most popular ones.

Call them what you want, but if it wasn't for them I'd be finding my way to a psychologist. Instead I'm reconnecting with old friends, sorting through the memory card from the Canon DSLR, and getting the touchscreen to work under Linux on the Acer laptop. Compiling a kernel is way more fun than lying on the bed and wondering "how old am I". Trust me I don't know!