Snapple Fact #447

Bears were once the size of bears.

Google Trends

It's always a good idea to keep an eye on Google Labs, and all the cool new stuff they put out, but this is a particularly interesting tidbit you should take a look at:

http://www.google.com/trends

I have Mario Kart DS

In several Mario games, there are references to Luigi's Mansion. Can someone tell me why Luigi has a mansion? Like, where did that come into the story line? Did he inherit it, or in the mushroom kingdom does he just have oodles of money and he decided to buy a haunted-style mansion? Or what. What's the deal?

Spring Semester

Spring semester isn't really appropriately named. I mean, when I think of spring, I think of flowers blooming, and little bunnies, and that kind of stuff. But spring semester takes place significantly in January and February, which have a tendency to be snowy, and freakin-cold. No bunnies. Anyway...

I think I've got my classes all set. I'm taking a medium load this semester. I don't want to overdo it, but I can't take only 12 hours and graduate. So here's the lineup:

• Stochastic Modeling - Sheena took this class a couple semesters ago, and I think it's just about creating models for various situations. Doesn't sound particularly fun to me, but we'll see. Open mind.


• Advanced Database Systems - This is an interesting one, just because of the professor, who is quite a character. I enjoy databases, so this is a good one.


• Intro To "C" Programming - This one I'm really taking for a number of reasons. First off, I tend to be an object-oriented person, which is fine, but you can't always do things that way. Hopefully this class gets into things enough to give me a little insight into non-oo ways. It never hurts to have C experience, regardless, so this is a good one to take. It's a low-level class, so hopefully it will help my GPA, and lastly, I already know someone in it, so I won't be sitting there alone if it turns out to be boring.


• Software Systems Project - This is my 'senior capstone', which is supposed to make everything come together or be wonderful or something. I think we have a lot of freedom in this class, so hopefully it will be fun. This is also taught by a professor I kind-of know, and he's cool, so it should be good.


• Algorithms - I've heard nightmare stories about this class. I think it really depends on the professor as to whether this is a cool class, or just a bunch of memorizing. As I don't know the professor...we'll have to see...

And that's it! 15 credit hours. After this, all I have left is chemistry, stats, and 2 electives, and I'll be ready to graduate! And then more school!!!

Weekend Update

Ok, so I've been gone a bit. Here's what I've been up to:

On Wednesday, Amber, Sheena, and myself, all left for Pittsburgh, the Iron City. Sheena invited us up to meet more of her family, and have good times and whatnot. The drive to her mom's house was about 5 hours, which is like, nothing, and with good company, it was almost as if we didn't even drive, we just got in the car for a while to hang out and party, and then we got out of the car, and we were in another place. That reminds me of another story.

Ok, so anyway, some highlights of the trip:

• The driving, 5 hours up, 2 more hours up, and then 6 hours back, which I always enjoy.


• Meeting more of Sheena's family, who are all awesome (some kind of genetic predisposition, or they have potions or something to that effect)


• Tons of good food, from cheese and wine appetizers to pasta and club sandwiches


• Getting to stay in a house that was actually built by Sheena's dad, which is crazy sweet


• Yuengling

Seti@Home

So, I've heard criticism on more than one occasion, that while Seti@Home is a fun, and interesting project, there are much more useful things to do with our collective computing power. However...I have yet to see one. And don't talk to me about that protein folding bullshit. Here's the payoffs:

Seti@Home discovers ANYTHING: They tell people, people find out, and either we get another star, or a black hole, or a stellar anomaly, or aliens.

Protien Folding discovers cure for AIDS: Nobody ever finds out, because it's CHEAPER TO SELL MEDICINE THAN CURE PEOPLE.

At least that's my bet. I'll put a nickel on it. But not for you.

So, to the point, I've started using Seti@Home again. And...since no man is an island, cept for the real fatties, I have joined a team: Miami University! I don't have particularly great 'school pride', but I figure if I'm going to be part of a team, I should pick a relevant one.

As of today, we are 914th in terms of University and department teams. Which is absolutely pitiful considering the number of computers we have. Somebody use those labs!

Verizon...Dumber Than All Hell

Update: I found a blog addressing this issue. The entire situation is just absolutely astounding.

Java: For The Record

I'm not a pro at Java, but I do know a thing or two. This semester, I've been told two things by professors that are not true, but I can see how they could be misunderstood or just unknown. So here they are, as of Java 1.5:

Java does not initialize integers to 0 automatically.

Consider the following:

int foo;
System.out.println(foo);

Not only does this not print 0, it doesn't run. Variable foo needs to be initialized by the programmer.

Java has a goto keyword, it is reserved, but it can not be used!

Java does not let you use goto, although if you're using eclipse or netBeans, it will be highlighted as a keyword.

Cell Phones: For the record

I've had a lot of phones. I also sold phones for Nextel, Sprint, Cricket, and TrackFone. The following is for the record:

Despite how much I make fun of Nokia phones, they've always been real average. Which isn't bad. It's average.

The best phone I've ever had was the LG5250, hands down. Now, it doesn't compare to modern phones with their fancy features, but the phone was solid, reliable, held a signal, had good features for it's day, was awesome-stylish, and...and great.

Despite motorola supposedly making really high quality stuff, I've never owned a motorola whose antenna didn't break off, and I've never had the antenna break off any phone except a motorola.

The Sanyo 8100 I have will not die. It's missing covers for all it's little protective areas, and half the paint is gone, but it won't die. I've dropped it so many times. So many.

Oh, and also. People always bitch about getting screwed by their wireless provider, and how bad the service is. Shut the hell up. They all suck, and they all screw you. Just deal with it, or don't use a cell phone.

Chacha.com

Chacha.com basically blows. But I mention it here, because it's also neat.

At chacha.com, you can search, or you can search with a guide. The guide attempts to help you find what you're looking for, and gives you results. The guides are people who are actually paid to do this.

It seems like the quality of people they use for this is sub-par. Like, it would be neat if a service offered help for me to find stuff, because I generally can find what I want, and it's a special case that requires special knowledge. But this is for the average idiot, who doesn't know if you can do coke while you're pregnant, or what the answer to their homework is. So, it seems the people they hired are more attuned to that type of work, no offense. If it's beyond a quick google search and wikipedia, they're gonna come up empty.

I tried it twice, trying to get a picture of an amish person's face, something which google doesn't readily bring up, but I'm sure I could find if I dug a little deeper. The first person who tried to help me apparently thought I was some kind of prankster (which I am, although I was not doing so at the time) because after searching for a few minutes, they came back and said 'funny, very funny' and dropped my request.

The second person apparently found something, but it seems the results were supposed to show up, and because I'm using firefox (guessing?) they didn't. If it's not compatible with firefox, I'm just flat out not interested, because I am NOT using Internet Explorer.

Anyway, a cool premise, and worth a look, but I think this is generally a flunker.

Peanits

Ever have a really great idea, and it's so freakin' wonderful, and then you write it down, and you realize you're a complete ass?

Stupid Bumper Sticker

I don't seem them as much anymore, but I still see them. Those bumper stickers from September 11th that say 'We will never forget!' and have an eagle or some shit on them. Now, not to say that it's a good thing to forget the lives lost on that day, or the heroes who gave their lives, or just made the effort to do something great, and we shouldn't forget the mistakes made by the Bush administration, both in terms of causing the disaster, and failing to prevent it, but come on. We will never forget? Doesn't that kinda mean the terrorist people get what they wanted? That they would have a permanent and memorable impact on us? So driving around with a bumper sticker that says 'we will never forget' is kinda like having one that says 'the terrorists succeeded'.

Anyway, it's just a minor thing. Like I said there are valid arguments behind the statement, but I think they are outweighed by the blatantly obvious interpretation of the sentence. Just something I thought up.

You know what really grinds my gears?

Ok, so you're overweight and ugly. You walk down the hall to the classroom where your next class is. There are 15 people sitting in the room, and the lights are off. What do you do?

A. Sit your ass down
B. Turn the lights on, then sit down

You see, if there are 15 people in the room, and all 15 of those people chose not to turn the lights on, it's because they don't want the damn things on. It's not because you're the only one with fingers chubby enough to flip the switch. It's because it's early, and we don't want the damn florescent lights blinding us.

So stop it.

Ku Klux Klan, Buy it on Ebay

I stole this from WTF, but they just had the link anyway. I present it here:

http://www.wiinis.com/kk.jpg

George Washington Movie

If you're a fan of George Washington and crack cocaine, here's a little clip you might enjoy:

George Washington

Short on cash...

It's been two whole weeks since I killed me a man, and already I'm starting to get the itch. Problem is, I ain't got nothing to scratch. God I'm hungry. Hungry for action. Hungry for blood! Hell...I'm just plain old hungry.

Feel I'm getting weaker, while charlie's growing stronger in the jungle. I can't lose my edge. I've gotta keep my strength up. I've gotta maintain discipline! Because the hard reality is...I've gotta get a job.

No Child Left Behind

Last week, Friday, I think it is, I'm sitting out on a bench in the middle of campus, and I see a bunch of bastards standing around in the middle of the greens, all wearing the same color shirt, balloons tied to shit, handing out flyers. Now, right off the bat I'm calling these people bastards, without knowing their cause. There's a reason for this. Standing around in matching shirts in the middle of a bunch of balloons handing out flyers is not a good way to support a good cause. Example:

I want to save the manatees. How best to do this? Maybe I could collect money for a manatee-related charity, or get a group of people to do this, or possibly just donate some time or work to save the manatees. Maybe I want to raise awareness of saving the manatees. I could tell my friends and family about it, and since they know me, I might have an impact on them. OOooo No! Wait! I've got it! I'll tie balloons to every god damn thing I can, get matching shirts with the money that I could have used to save the fucking manatees, print out a billion flyers that say "SAVE THE MANATEES" in some kind of fucked up handwriting font, and hand those out, and use more money on that, and litter the fucking campus with god damn little blue flyers, and maybe as complete strangers walk by, they will be hit by a fucking bolt of lightning from above, and realize that my cause is just, and I obviously am the man to take advice and life goals from, and they'll go seek out similar shirts to wear as the ones that I fucking have. Yes, and I'll put a Jesus fish on my car as well, and people will see that and suddenly become christian.

No. Bastards who stand around handing out flyers in tacky shirts with their flair littered around the damn quad have a motive, and generally it's 'Being Stupid'. These bastards were no different. I'll finally get to my title, they were promoting the No Child Left Behind act.

Now, there are a lot of things I don't agree with: Eating people, outlawing all sports except polo, even some less-outlandish things like 'Bothering Me', or 'Acting Like Paper Science Is A Real Major', but you have to be so god damned stupid to support the No Child Left Behind act, that it boggles my mind. I seriously can't imagine a group of students dumb enough to think this thing is a good idea.

If you don't know what this is, go to Wikipedia and read the article on it. I was going to sum-up what a fuck-up the whole thing is here, but they've already got it nailed pretty much. One thing they don't point out is how much extra work it puts on the teachers. Good teachers are already overworked. I'm not talking about your art teacher from junior high who spent class passed out behind his desk, I'm talking about teachers who actually care. This act just gives them a ton more work to do, not only stressing them out (my mother was a teacher...), but also detracting from the amount of useful work they can do.

Anyway, if you're part of this new student group and you happen to read this, please just go walk in front of traffic. Try to time it right so you get hit by an suv or something, I don't want you damaging someone's car.

Fun Shirts

Fun Shirts available here. Buy em up! Get one for me! But not the duck.

Air Bags (with cursing)

There's an AllState commercial out right now where a guy notices that he has to stop quickly, drops his coffee in his car, grabs the wheel with both hands, slams on the break, and still ends up hitting the car in front of him. The airbag deploys, and the guy looks like he's still ready for work, and he's glad he's safe.

I have been in car crashes, and this is some bo-shit.

First off, when your air bag goes off, you are not looking good. You are looking fucked up. The air bag is supposed to inflate really fast, and then deflate so that you get a cushion instead of just slamming your head into the wheel. This does not mean that there is no big impact. Your head hits the bag like a the big juicy melon that it is, and you get fucked up, all melon-style.

Secondly, after you go face to face with this exploding sack, you're not glad that it happened. Don't get me wrong, air bags save a ton of lives, and a lot of people are glad later, but when you get your brain smashed around during your accident, you don't know what the shit is going on. Hell, you probably don't realize you're human, or in a car. The last fucking thing you are is glad that anything happened.

Just made me think. Very untrue portrayal of the air bag. I just don't want you to be disappointed if you're ever in a crash. It's not as cool as they make it seem.

Priority Scheduling for Cheerleaders

The issue of priority scheduling for cheerleaders is being discussed in Miami Administration, apparently. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. Currently, all the sports people get priority registration so that they can get the classes they need, and not have them interfere with their sports. Cheerleaders, however, have to register with all the non-sports people. I guess I look at it this way:

To me, my studies are the most important aspect of my college type stuff. That means classes. To football, soccer, baseball, cheer leading, whatever, they have either a mixed priority between scholarly and athletic pursuits, or their atheletic stuff is their priority. So, according to that, here's how it should go:

If you're just focused on academics, you should get first choice on classes
If you're doing other stuff along with classes, guess what? You've chosen to split your priorities, and thus you have to deal with it, something that schools generally don't make athletes do.

Fortunately or unfortunately, however, since athletes do bring a lot of attention to a school, they get priority treatment, and I guess honestly I can't argue with that. It's advertising. But if every sports person gets priority, so should cheerleaders, I guess.

Give The People What They Want

Pappy always said: Give the people what they want

In that spirit, here you go:

Live Webcam Action

As near as I can figure, that's a Japanese laundromat. As of posting, somebody's got laundry in the third dryer from the right, but nobody is sitting and waiting. I'm going to watch until they come back.

Presentation Day

Today I had a big presentation to give in Software Engineering class. While only technically presenting to 6 people, this was by far the biggest presentation I've ever had to give, because the people weren't just noob students; they were important technology people from JPMorgan Chase, and some consulting firm. I know we did ok, and I feel like we did well, but I can't tell if we were great. Also, I don't know if I used the ';' mark correctly up there.

Anyway, presentations make me really nervous, so I was nervous for this presentation (that's an inference you should have been able to derive if you've made it through 8 weeks of Artificial Intelligence Class, but not all of us have). Got through it ok, and now I feel a lot better. Unfortunately, I have three tests this Thursday, and two of them promise to be quite difficult.

Jon and Sheena are back into World of Warcraft.

So there's an update on my life. Hope you're doing well too.

Tall Stacks

Today I went down to Cincy and had dinner on a river boat and rode up and down the river for the Tall Stacks festival. I didn't bring a camera, so I do not have any pictures, but I will tell you that there were a lot of river boats. Dinner was wonderful, and we spent a while just lounging on the deck watching all the other boats as we went by.

The entire thing was courtesy of Amber's mother, and we went with her and Amber's brother who was down from college. That's all I've got for you! Sorry there are no pictures, there were certainly some cool boats.

And Some Niceness

A tidbit I found on DeviantArt that brightened up my day:

When I See You Smile

U.S. Driving Statistic:

There is an accident in this country every 5 seconds.

STOP FUCKING DRIVING SO MUCH

You can walk there, seriously. And you need to. Freakin' fat-ass.

You Are My Buddy, Buddy

There has been a lot of activity in my blog lately, and I for sure do not want to disappoint, so here's some more for you:

I am on myspace now. My myspace page thingy is:

http://www.myspace.com/bigdave_smith/

MySpace is a piss-poor attempt at a social networking site, but it caught on, and people use it, for good and for evil, and since I do both those things, I joined. I am also on Facebook, however I am there for educational networking purposes, and evil purposes, and not good purposes. This brings me to my topic of the hour:

Friend is defined by some dictionary as: a person whom one knows and whom one has a bond of mutual affection.

That's what a friend is. So if you met me once, or someone you know talked about me once, I am not your friend. Now, words are just words, and if social networking sites used the term 'friend' or 'buddy' or 'amigo' or 'acquaintance' it wouldn't matter, but the point is that if I don't know you, I don't want you on my friend list, because I don't give three flying poops what you're doing. If you really think I should know what you are up to, talk to me, and inform me, and we will develop a bond of mutual affection, and then I will care. That is the nature of things.

That is all for now. I have class. Databases.

A Tidbit

I love this guy's photography:

Way Beyond The Outhouse

I'm a Bad Person

Okay, so today I was walking around campus early in the morning, and the people were few in number. So I'm passing this girl/woman, and she's Muslim or something, because she's all hidden in clothes and whatnot. So it occurs to me to wonder whether or not she has long hair, or short hair. Now, me being prejudice, I assume she has long hair, because in a culture where you're not allowed to show your body like, at all, I doubt they would tolerate short and sassy hair. But so I'm wondering what her hair is like, and if I can tell anything through the like...whatever she's wearing, and it's hard to imagine hair just on a head, because you need to know more, like the person's style, body type, how they walk, etc. There's a lot of stuff that goes into this. So then I start trying to picture what she'd look like without her Muslim robe type thing, and so of course I have to imagine if she's fat or skinny, or athletic, or whatever, and so one thing leads to another, and basically I'm just trying to imagine this Muslim woman totally naked so that I know what she looks like.

Now...isn't that the opposite of the purpose of their hidden-women idea thing? Anyway, it wasn't my fault, because if she just wore some normal damn clothes I probably wouldn't have looked twice at her. And don't call me a pervert, you would have wondered too. And it's not like I was doing it with bad intention, I just wondered if she had short hair or long hair. So anyway. If Allah is out there, chalk up one more reason for me to go to hell, or whatever Muslim hell is. Probably has lots of Americans in it, that's for sure. Don't think I'll mind.

Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes is probably my favorite comic strip of all time. The reasons are too many to list, but I don't need to anyway, because you agree with me, don't you? What's that? You don't? You probably like Kathy, or that stupid Marmaduke, you oaf. Oh look, it's a huge dog, it's doing something, Oh Marmaduke! You bastard. Here, go educate yourself. And go read some Calvin and Hobbes. It will make you feel young again:

Official Calvin and Hobbes Website
Wikipedia: Calvin and Hobbes
Some Calvin and Hobbes Quotes

Musings on average people

Half of the people in the world are above average intelligence, and half are below. That's just the way it is, because half and average, that's what they mean.

Now, you might think right away, or maybe not, that because of that, half the people in the world are smart, and half are dumb. Or maybe that's not 'correct' enough. Maybe half are intelligent, and half are unintelligent. At least, that's what I'd think if I didn't really think about it, but that's not true. That's an abstraction of sorts.

See, if you have like a billion rocks, randomly chosen, half of them are above average quality, and half are below average quality, but until those rocks start turning into gems, they're not really worth shit. So even though half of them are above average, only a small percentage are good.

I'm not saying that only a small percentage of people are intelligent, although that's my suspicion. I'm just wondering where the breaking point is. Not just for intelligence, but for anything. You take 10 people, half of them are below average blank, and half of them are above, but how many are actually blank?

Google Maps

Here are a few tidbits of interest from Google Maps. I did not find any of them myself, and the first one was a slashdot article:

50 meter bug attacking German countryside

Escher in Boston

Escher in Dallas

iPod in Australia

If you have any more, please comment!

Overseas, ya dumb broad

I just heard a girl here say that she was abroad last semester. It struck me funny that she would call herself a broad.

A Man Who Saved The World

Actually, a tidbit for you today, I came across this article as I was procrastinating just now. What luck for you!

This is a story about a man who saved the world. It probably happens fairly often, but that's beside the point. Read it, think about it, and feel free to join the author and myself(separately) in raising a glass to this Russian dude.

Apple Tech Support Update

Okay, an update on my Apple tech support issues, and a brief review, because I don't actually remember if I talked about this here before:

I had an issue with my battery not wanting to charge on my MacBook, and I had an issue with the plastic becoming discolored, so I called Apple Tech Support. I was pretty pleased, the guy walked me through some things to try, and said if I brought my mac into an Apple Store, they'd replace the plastic. Sweet.

Present day:

The battery problem has gotten worse. I can't actually get it to charge at all, or at least register a charge. So...

I call tech support again, and tell the guy. He gives me ok news...says to bring it to a service center and they'll check it out. If it's a battery, they might be able to trade it out, maybe not. If it's the laptop, they'll have to ship it out, probably.

At first I was kinda upset. I can not work without my lappy. I bought a freakin Apple, and now my stuff has to be shipped out, and I miss it for a week. Crap. But then I realized that even if I bought a HP or a Sony, I'd still have to shit it out for service. So anyway. I'm a bit miffed, but what can I do? Overall, I'm very pleased with apple's tech support people. They don't treat you like a moron, and they seem to know what they're talking about. Life goes on.

Lots more to talk about, it's a hectic week, but I'll leave it at this.

Hoh hoh hoh! Le boh, Le boh!

Wirelessly-enabled Wine Glasses. These make me think of a few situations...

First off, you're spending a quiet night at home, and you've got one of the wine glasses, and your lover has the other in like...I don't know, some shit hole...France...and suddenly, your wine glass starts lighting up, and for like, you know, an hour or something, your wine glass is like a light show. So you get curious, and call your lover overseas, after dealing with some French operator, and she's totally out of breath, and drunk, and after talking to her for like, a minute, you hear Jacques in the background asking where his pantaloons are. Heh...ok.

Story of My Life

Story of My Life

Two Revelations

I realized something today as I was walking to class:

This campus (Miami Oxford) is covered in benches. Like, good, 5 foot concrete benches. And the place is chock full of ledges too. Like, 6", 2', 3', 4', whatever. Lots of em. All over. And not a single one is waxed up for skating. Now, I was never good enough to really use a ledge higher than 6 inches, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the talents skills of those who can. And the culture that comes with skating, where is that?

A second realization, which occurred yesterday:

I used to have a class with a blond girl named Becky. She was blond. I was walking to class and I pass this girl in a pink top, blond, huge-ass tacky sunglasses on, and I'm like, Woah, that was Becky! I should have said something! Okay, so I keep walking to class, and I pass another girl with a pink top, blond, huge-ass sunglasses. Looks just like Becky. Leaving class with Jon driving, another Becky. And another Becky.

Now, blonds basically look the same, but the way everyone dresses exactly the same, with the same style, same brands, same crap...it's not cool, but to the point where I can't tell if two people are the same or not...not cool double-style. Not that I'm the most observant dude in the world. Maybe it's just me.

The Departure of Summer

To me, today is the first day of fall. Now, the official first day of fall might be any day, who knows, but I use the scientific method to determine it properly:

• This morning was chilly


• All the girlies are dressed in tacky winter clothing


• A squirrel with some kind of neurotic condition was yelling at me this morning

With all these facts, who can deny that summer is over, and fall has begun? In some ways, I am sad to see summer go. For one, it will be winter soon, and it will snow, and Oxford probably takes care of their snow and parking situation like royal morons, which means I'll have to park in somebody's lawn and get towed. Also, all the light and fun summer clothes go away in place of stupid boots and bubbly jackets and whatever other retarded shit comes into style this season.

Despite that, fall is my favorite season! It's chilly, but not cold enough to where you don't want to go for a walk or something. All the leaves turn pretty colors, and although the leaves get skimpy, the animals are still out, which makes them easier to see, which is cool. Also, fall only contains one holiday that I mildly don't like: Halloween. Things are good.

Arch Nemesis

I just realized that if I had a really good arch-enemy, I would never have to admit responsibility for failure. Just, whenever something went wrong, I'd raise up my fist to the sky, shake it, and yell "Mendoza!!!" or whatever my nemesis' name was. It would also be sweet. Hell, failing with an arch-enemy would be cooler than succeeding without one.

Good Day / Bad Day

How I Feel Some Mondays

But not today!!! Today I recieved two separate compliments! One on my shirt, and one on my ears. Okay, the ear one was probably just me being made fun of, but sometimes a little compliment can turn your whole day around!

The day that was turned around started out shitty when I arrived at campus. They've had this big sign up for a month now that says that 'blah blah' street will be closed and there will be no parking. Fine. I don't care. So I get there today, and MY street is closed. MY street. The sign didn't say MY street. It said another street. So why is my street closed?

Now, I'm not a picky bastard. I'll park where I can. But this was a problem, because MY street is the only street that I can park on without a campus pass, which I do not have. So I park at Shriver, and get a warning for parking there. That means next time I park there it's a ticket for me. How long will MY street be closed? I don't know, but it better be ok tomorrow, because I need to get my park on again.

A Baggie Full Of Massage Oil

I'm making my way through Futurama, and so far, the best episode I've seen is Parasites Lost. I'm going to wager a nickle that they don't beat it in the next 2 seasons, and it goes down as the best episode ever. Go ahead, call me a hopeless romantic. I'll wait until you're asleap and key the shit out of your car.

Monday Monkey Lives For The Weekends

I'm procrastinating tonight, so I figured a good way to be efficient would be to write in my blog here. I'm not sure if anyone actually reads this anymore, but if you don't, I hate you! Haha! Lousy bastard.

Just an update on the semester. Things are going well. I only have one class where the homework is really bad (the class is kinda bad too). I've been hanging out in Oxford a lot more thanks to Jon and Sheena. We went out a little bit this weekend and did a small amount of partying, which was cool. They have a lot of Oxford friends, being real Oxford students, so it's neat to meet all the people and buildings they know.

Other than that, everything is mellow, which isn't bad for the start of a semester.

I'm not rude, I'm just not from the 1400s

People sneeze. It's because they get little pollen bits in their noses, so far as I know. So you get pollen in your nose, sneeze, and the pollen goes out. Problem solved.

A lot of people hear someone sneeze, and they say 'Bless You'. This made sense back when people thought that sneezing was because the person had demons in their head. Since, oh, you know, the end of the dark ages, however, we know that's not quite true (or at least it's not related to sneezing). So why do people still say it? Hell if I know. When people cough, you don't say something, like, 'Sorry you're coughing, mate'. You just shut up and let them cough, and if they do it a long time you ask them if they're dying, or tell them to leave, or something like that.

So, point of this rant: when you sneeze, and I don't give you a blessing, it's not because I'm rude. Shit...I don't even have authority to bestow blessings, generally speaking. It's because how, when, where, and why you choose to clean dirt and pollen from your nose is not really my concern.

Take it easy.

Theorem 1.0 Revisited

Okay, I've been getting some flak about Theorem 1.0, so I'm here to clarify a few things that I guess I thought were just 'given'.

If a bug does not eat a smaller bug, it doesn't count as a bug. It's just an insect. 'Bug' is a subset of insects. Well, maybe it wasn't before, but it is now. They were just redundant words before today. So another example:

You have 5 ants and 1 large bug in a jar. If the large bug doesn't have a jones for eating smaller bugs, it's just an insect, and you're doing it wrong. Otherwise, the sum of the bugs is 1.

You see, you can't just take someone's carefully calculated theorems and just insert whatever crap you have lying around into it. Like, I wouldn't take the second law of thermodynamics and just replace the word 'heat' with 'barnacles'. It doesn't work if you just crap it up like that. This is why I can't have nice scientific awards.

Also, while it might work if you have small bugs in a jar and then put in a lizard, that is a gross extrapolation of the theorem. You can't just make things up. These theorems undergo rigorous scientific testing, and the scientific method. That might make a good Theorem 1.1, but I'm not just going to jump out there and claim things that haven't been proven.

Theorem 1.0

My work is generally overlooked by the scientific community, but I think I've hit paydirt this time. I present to you, Theorem 1.0, The Sum Of Bugs:

Theorem 1.0, The Sum Of Bugs:
The sum of a set of n bugs is equal to the number of the largest bugs.

Example 1:
There are 10 ants in a jar. All the ants are of equal size. The sum of those bugs is 10.

Example 2:
There are 9 ants and one spider in a jar. The spider is larger than the ants, so the sum of the bugs is 1. This is because the larger bug, the spider, will consolidate the smaller bugs into its own bug body.

Example 3:
There are 3 ants, 2 spiders, and one big ugly bug with 2 sets of wings and big jointed legs in a jar. Since the largest bug is the big ugly one, and there is only one of them, the sum of those bugs is 1. This is because the spiders will consolidate the ants into their bodies, and the big ugly bug will consolidate the spiders into its body.

The implications of this theorem are far reaching, from space exploration, to medicine, and bug-studies, but mainly bug-studies. If anyone runs a reputable scientific publication and needs some filler, let me know.

Fall 2006

I'm on a roll. Two posts in one night. That's because I'm putting off some homework. I work better under pressure anyways. So this is the start of my 6th year in college. Here's what I've got on my plate so far:

Computer Architecture - This is taught by Dr. Rao, who I've had before. Dr. Rao cracks me the hell up. This is a particularly good thing, because I already took the second part of the class, and I think I already know most of what we're going to cover, so he will keep me entertained and things will still be interesting. Rao is a good prof. Anyone who says different, I cut their face. Also good, I have that class with Sheena.

Software Engineering - I guess this is like CSA470j on steroids, and with team work. The professor, Dr. Kiper, seems pretty cool so far, and the work seems interesting. I guess since this is the senior capstone, they expect you to kill yourself working on the projects and whatnot. We'll see. I think the prof will make things fun enough that I don't have to kill anyone, since I sure as hell am not going after myself. Also good, I have that class with Sheena.

Compiler Design - I dreaded this class. Compiler Design is like...I don't know. Something I don't want to do. Like, if I could have any tech job, I think compiler design would be my last freakin pick. Writing in assembly is cool. Writing in higher level languages is cool. If I want to translate between the two, I'll do it in my mind, or just use the right language to begin with. Anyway. It looks like it is actually going to be pretty interesting. Also good, I have that class with Sheena.

Database Systems - To be totally honest, the first day of class, when the professor walked into the room, I was very concerned. The professor was an old dude with a name I couldn't pronounce, and he sat there and just looked over us all while we waited. Turns out, he's pretty cool, and he cracks a funny every now and then that busts everyone up. This is an interesting class because there is a group of business students in the back. Business students = hot chicks. Since I've been working with databases since...well crap...since I was like...12? I'm not too worried about the class, and maybe I'll pick up a tutoring opportunity along the way ;) Probably not though. This class I have with Jon, who is Sheena's ex. He's a smart dude, and he's got a good sense of humor, so I like him. It'll make things fun. Additionally, I sit next to a girl who helps out at an animal shelter down in Cincy, so she's good people. And there's a guy in the front row I say hi to also, his name is either Jim or Tom. I'm going to go with Tom.

Intro to Artificial Intelligence - This class is too god damned big. In a class where you deal with abstract issues like computers thinking, you need small classes for discussion. Whoever put 33 people in this class needs a punch to the head. Also, the professor hands out everything on paper. I do not want to carry around a bunch of paper. I'm a computer science major, not some kind of crap major where you collect shit in folders and lug it around in a backpack and file it in folders and staple things together. The content is interesting though, and the professor seems like a nice guy, so I'm dealing. Also good, I have that class with Sheena.

Probability - Probability is math. What can I say? I like math, but don't exactly like doing homework and taking tests, so it's neutral. The class it a little dry, but like I said, it's math, so I don't know what I expect. Tom is in this class.

So all in all, a good semester ahead, I think! No real complaints. We'll see though. It's still early.

Stop Bashing Wiki

Okay, out of my 6 classes this semester, I think 3 of my professors mentioned something to the effect of how Wikipedia is not a reliable source for research. I've got a beef.

Granted there's a lot of crap in Wikipedia, between political and business people pushing sides of an issue, 9-year-olds with AOL accounts who just like to mess things up, and people who just don't know what they're talking about, but the Wikipedia community as a whole is fairly on-top of their shit, particularly when it comes to technology-related issues, which happens to be my field. I think the key to using Wikipedia as a resource is knowing how to look at and understand the history of an article, as well as being able to reason and understand what you read.

I'm not working on any papers, and I'd never use Wikipedia as my only resource. I'm just saying. Don't trash it.

Fun Bits

I really have enough going on I should give a nice update and tell some tales, but I'm a bit busy, so enjoy these bits:

Magic Smoke
Hopkin Green Frog

Save me...

Armor Of God PJ's

Should have partied like 2000

When I was a wee-lad, I always liked the Prince song '1999', and thought it was cool to party like it was 1999. Unfortunately, when 1999 rolled around, not only did I forget to party like it was 1999, but 1999 was a really lame year for partying, particularly in comparison to 2000, which was totally off the chain, and 1998, which was a major year for partying in High School.

Anyway. Every time I hear the song now, I think of how 1999 was kind of a downer year. I'm actually partying like it's 1999 right now, as I sit here in front of my computer. Woo woo...

Tiny Nibbles!!!

Okay, so recently, in an attempt to be more interesting (a difficult task) I've changed my Chat message to be the iTunes track I am listening to. This popped up an interesting issue. My favorite album right now is 10,000 Days, by Tool. After Tool plays, U2 plays, of which I have only one song. After U comes V, which is Violet Blue. If you're not familiar with Violet Blue, I'm not surprised. She's a sex writer/educator, and she has a podcast which I listen to. So if I don't catch myself, and leave my music on and go off to watch something on TV or something to that effect, my iTunes message is going to say 'Open Source Sex' for about 2 hours, and my average buddy will think I'm a perv.

So in an effort to deal with this issue, I've resolved to educate. If you don't know who Violet Blue is, go check out her website, Tiny Nibbles. It's not a porn site, but it does deal with peoples naughty bits. If you don't think you can handle that, skip it.

Also, here is her podcast, Open Source Sex. It's always entertaining. Sometimes she reads excerpts from her books, other times she has guests on the show. You might even learn something that makes you less boring in bed! You don't have to use iTunes to listen to podcasts, there are many free, open source applications you can use to listen to them also.

The Progression of Relational Experience

That's just some BS I came up with on the fly. Somebody should write a book and use that title, and give me 4 cents for each copy sold.

So recently one of my friends got dumped by one of my acquaintances.

One of the hardest relationships to maintain, IMHO, is when you are friends with two people, and they're dating. Because inevitably, one of them has a problem with the other, and they want to confide in you, and you're like...either keeping secrets from your other friend, or triangulating for their problems. Either way, not good. It's different if they're married, because you can just laugh at them because of the predicament they are in, but not with dating. Not that that is related to the dumping mentioned above...That's just a thought of mine.

Anyway, you know, what can you say to someone when they get dumped? Anyone who has been there knows that nothing really makes it better. Maybe temporarily, but if you had a good relationship, it's generally a fairly long period of grief, unless you've been cheating and you're over things right away because you're dicking with some schmuck with eyes that are too close together.

At least the reason for that grief is from a loss, and to have a loss, you have to have had something in the first place, and the reason you're hurting is because you had so many good times, and you've gotta let that balance, you know? Like, the good with the bad. Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I really believe that.

And when you've broken off a relationship, some people go for a rebound, and go with someone crappy just to get by, but I've never experienced that. When you loose somebody, you go for somebody better, and step it up. Not to say that the person is of higher quality, but someone better for you. That's the important thing. So each progressive relationship has the potential to be a richer experience than the last, because you're more experienced, and you know what you're going for, and what you want.

I guess my final thought for now on this topic is that these two people who have broken up are both in college with me right now, and really, what better time to be single, you know? And have a chance to meet new people, and experience new things, and live different aspects of life with different people. What an opportunity that is. That's worth something.

That's all I've got for now. Do with it what you will. Actually, if you read through all that, I'm surprised. I've neglected to proof read or anything, and it's mainly a big unorganized rant. You're a special kind of person. Go get a cookie. You deserve it.

Vacation - Day 4 - Part Deux

Today we hung out and enjoyed the good life. In the afternoon there was a cookout at the resort, and we got burgers, and hotdogs, and coleslaw, and beans, and potato salad. They gave away two cruises, and a dinner certificate, but we did not win, unfortunately.

Later in the day we headed down to the beach, and played in high tide, with many massive waves. We sat down on the beach where the waves were washing in, and Amber said something about coral, and she reached for a shell, and a crab just popped out of the sand behind us! We reacted quickly and used a boogie board to block him from just running into the beach. He was well over a decimeter long. He stopped and looked at us, and then a wave came and rescued him, and he scurried back into the ocean, snapping as he went. It was a most excellent experience. Amber does a good impression of the crab. Apparently he was French.

Edit: The crab was a Ghost Crab.

Vacation - Day 4

Yesterday we went to the Kennedy Space Center. We were there for like...a long time, and we experienced lots of space stuff. We'll upload the whole spatter of pictures somewhere late, but for now, here's a taste:

Here is me, over on the left, under a Saturn-V rocket. It is large.


This is me, as an astronaut on Mars. In my hands, I have a space-accordian, which will be used to entertain the citizens of the future. My eyes are glowing because (see the movie 'Doom' for more info).


This is the rocket garden at the Kennedy Space Center. This is where they keep rockets that were not actually used to send things into space. We took a tour and learned all kinds of stuff about them.


Today I have kind of convinced Amber to take it easy, so I can heal and relax, and then tomorrow, we head out to see manitees and other wildlife early in the morning! It will be sweet.

Vacation - Day 3

Yesterday we went out and played in the ocean and got burned all to hell. I blame...The sea.

A few shots from yesterday:

Amber pointed out to me that from our balcony, we could see water in either direction, the ocean, or, pictured here, the Banana River (I think it is)


Here's a shot of the pool area in the day time. We actually have yet to visit it, we've been in the ocean so much. We need a day to heal our skin, and we'll be out there tomorrow for a cookout!


Here we found a huge rock with some holes in it, and Amber stuck her head through one of the little holes. It's like those wood cutouts where you put your head in, and you're a cowboy or an astronaut, except you're just a rock, in this case:


This is Amber enjoying a margarita in the Aztec restaurant downstairs in the hotel. They had fajitas that were totally good, but I don't think Amber liked them. Luckily, she got alcohol, which calmed her raging temper, if only for a single meal:


Today, we're about to leave to go to the Kennedy Space Center, and see all the wonders of astronauting.

Vacation - Day 2

We have arrived in Florida! The weather is good, and we went right down to the beach and jumped in the warm water. It was most excellent.

Our hotel...suite...is huge. We have 3 beds, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen, 2 balconies, and a living room. If I'd known it was this big, I would have insisted on family coming. I thought we'd be in a little place!

Anyway, we went to the store, and here we are eating our late supper of good sandwiches, potato salad, watermelon, and brews:



And here is the pool at night:

Vacation - Day 1 - Part Deux

Okay, here's the hotel we're staying at:

The Resort At Cocoa Beach

So supposedly it's 'off the chain'. This is all thanks to Amber's Uncle Randy. He had a timeshare that saved us on this vacation when the place we were planning on staying at screwed us by not following through and messing up our reservation. That place was Compass Cove at Myrtle Beach. I won't link, they're bastards.

Anyway, I hope we get some good sleep tonight, because we've got about 8 hours of driving before we hit the beach tomorrow!

Vacation - Day 1

I'm on vacation, so I'm not planning on keeping up with this, but behold: I am on vacation!!!

Amber and I left this morning, and now we are in Georgia, spending the night in Cartersville before moving on to Cocoa Beach tomorrow!

We're off to eat dinner now!

Firefox 1.5.0.6

A new FireFox patch came out today, 1.5.0.6.

If you already use FireFox, you probably know this, or will know as soon as it finishes downloading behind the scenes. But if you don't use Firefox, I can not tell you enough how badly you need to try it. Hit up http://www.getfirefox.com and download it. Take a little time setting it up, getting it all comfy, download a theme or two and an extension or two, and if you don't like it, just uninstall it, and you can call me and tell me how much you hate me (I will curse at you in return).

If you're not into Firefox, there are other browsers out there you can use that actually know how to properly display a page and aren't security nightmares. My favorite alternative is Opera, which is a great browser, I just prefer my browsers to be open-source. Give it a shot.

I have a GameBoy Advance

Well, not really. I have an emulator. For mac. I'm continuously being impressed by the amount of software available for mac.

Here's a link to it: Boycott Advance

By the name, you'd think it was created by someone who hated Nintendo, but I can't find much back story on it. Or much documentation...

So far I've got about 30 games, and it looks like about half of them are going to work properly/be in english.

The gameboy games seem to fit into three categories:

• Pokemon


• Exploring with a sword


• Soccer

Some might argue there is a strategy genre too, but those people are the crap.

That's all I've got for you tonight. I'm all studied out. I have one final, it is tomorrow. I think I'm actually fairly prepared, but we'll see.

Bush Impersonator

Fan or not, this is worth a look:

Two Bushes

Action Report: Clearasil Oil Control Face Wash

I'm bringing you this special report on Clearasil Oil Control Face Wash because I care about you, the reader.

I went to Kroger with Amber this weekend, and she had coupons for Clearasil products. We purchased two at the discounted price, because the little pieces of paper told us to. It has been 2 days since this purchase, and I have carefully evaluated the Oil Control Face Wash: It is soap.

I do not recommend this product unless you have too much money, and need to spend extra money on soap. If this is the case, please mail your extra money to me, and I will see that it is spent accordingly. That is all.

Education For You!

Wow. What a large, white, SUV. That's a nice healthy spattering of bumper stickers you have there. You're proud to be an American? Good for you! And you voted for Bush in '04? There's something to be proud of. Oh, and I see one that says you like rodeos too! Hmm...Let me see if I can explain this in imbecile's terms:

I'm not sure how people drive in Texas, other than 'like morons', but we have a few guidelines here in Ohio that make driving a little easier.

I don't expect you to be observant when you drive, lord no, but while you're piloting that giant white death-machine around, you might take a moment to glance at the road, and notice that when you are pulling up to a stop light, there's a white stripe that goes across the street. You're supposed to stop at that line. At. Fucking...at. Not 6 feet back, although I can't complain about that. Not 6 feet in front of it so that nobody can see around your god damned bronco so they know if it's safe to turn. At. Fucking...at. Now I know it's easy to hear the word 'at' and think I mean 'pull up until your tires are on the line, and you're blocking the cross walk'. Those two things sound very much alike. And it makes sense too, right? What is the cross walk for anyway? Crossing the street? Walking? Nonsense! But there are subtle differences. And 'at' is such a small word with so many meanings, who knows what it could really indicate? Well, it means 'Stop blocking the intersection so I can't turn, you dough faced banshee.'

Once you're 'at' that line, and stopped, do this for me: Fuck with the radio, and keep edging forward. Do it. Bend down, mess with the dials, don't look at the road, and edge forward. I'm not trying to look around you. I just want to see if you have more stickers on your front bumper. Do you? Do you? I can't see. Pull up a little more and fuck with the radio. Do it. That's good. Don't look up. Just edge forward. If you can get an extra 3 feet into the intersection, you'll get home sooner, oh I promise you will. I promise. Edge forward 3 feet. Thank you. Thank you, yes, that was what I wanted. My day is complete, I can do my finger exercises now. Here, look over here. Look over here while I do my finger exercises. I hope you look, because I'm doing them as hard as I can. In some countries, the fingers I am extending are a sign of greeting...yes...yes that's what I'm doing. But don't let me bother you. Edge forward more, and fuck with the radio. I don't need to see around you so I can turn safely, I'll just do my finger exercises more.

I'm actually fairly happy today :)

Wonka: Service Announcement

I can't figure out how to use the Global Broadcast feature on the phones at work or I'd announce it there, but this is the next best place:

I believe Gobstoppers have gotten smaller. Their diameter appears to be reduced. This probably happened some time in the last 3 to 5 years. If you have more information, please contact me. That is all.

I would link you to the Wonka candy website, but it's a piece of crap.

It's http://www.wonka.com

Go there if you hate life.

Bush Singing "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"

I was going to save this for later, but go ahead and double up on video clips today:

This is a clip of our wonderful president singing U2's 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday'. It's good to finally see him speaking out against the war. Seriously, check it out:

http://video.google.com/...

Google Video can be a little tempermental. If you're on a slow connection, when the video starts, pause it, and wait for it to load completely.

Hummer H2 Sucks

This video made my day. Check it out:

http://video.google.com/...

And if you're dumb enough to own a H2, take a hint from these guys. Don't try driving it over a bunch of rocks. Just drive it strait into the ocean.

I Quit

At work today, I told one person that I am not going to be working there next semester. By telling one person, I have effectively told everyone.

It's a good move. I'll have less spending cash, but I can concentrate on school, and take more classes, and graduate sooner, which is what I want. I don't need all kinds of crazy cash right now. I just need to get through being an undergrad.

Recipe: Peanut Butter

You will need:
Some peanuts
1 Mouth

Preparation:
1. Put peanuts in mouth
2. Chew

Serve by swallowing.

Hats of Authority

Some of the dumbest hats I have ever seen were hats of authority. Those english bobbies? Tell me those hats aren't totally rediculous. And what's the function?

German army hats, or maybe they're from Argentina or something, you know, the ones with the spear tip on top. What's the point of that? Is it like a little trophy? Or is it like incase somebody falls from the sky, like a Death From Above type move, and you're underneath?

How about the hats the state troopers wear? Are those hats specifically designed to make you look like a dick? Yes. The answer to that question is 'yes'.

Very few people can pull off a hat, in general, if you ask me. Samuel L. Jackson...now there's a guy who can wear a hat. Baseball players, they're probably asses, but they too can pull off the hat. Me, eh. Not so much.

Anyway. That's just what was on my mind. Why do people wear hats? I guess wearing some hats make people easier to recognize. In general, I think all that had money should go to the Small Childrens Fund.

Tuesday Updates

Okay, so an update on the bird: It's dead. My guess is that it was just in the fireplace too long before we got to it, and it was too far gone. Also, my brother had the brilliant idea to put it back in the fireplace for some reason. So it's dead. Sorry chimney bird. I tried.

Today on the way to class, I went to Wendy's. The burger joint. So I'm trying to pull into the entrance, and some bastard in a big white pickup (one of those double wide back tire models for people who need more attention because they're otherwise lame) is blocking the entire entrance. Now, idiots will be idiots, and this is nothing new. If I had a dollar for every time some moron in a huge vehicle blocked an entrance, I'd have...like...literally, thousands of dollars per day, for just the U.S. But this moron acts all fed up, and throws his head around, and motions for me to keep going.

Fuck you buddy.

I waited. He acted more fed up, and pulled out. I hope he dies in the street under his own truck.

That's all the hate I have in my heart for today. Not really, but that's all I care to share with the likes of you.

A Bad Day For Animals

Last night, my dog Jake found two baby bunnies in the yard, and killed them.

This morning, I was sitting next to the fireplace working on some homework, and I heard a fluttering from the fireplace. We have chimney birds (birds that build a nest in our chimney every year), and one of the birds had gotten down into the fireplace. I left for class, hoping that it was one of the adult birds, and that it would find its way back up, but when I got home, it was still there. It was a baby bird.

So Rob took it out into the yard, and tried to make it fly...but it wouldn't fly... so we brought it in, gave it some water, and put it in a box. Now it's in the box.

I hope my brother gets home soon, because I have NO idea what to do with tiny animals, other than look at them.

Student Offices

I was the school vice president in the 8th grade, but I never ran for any kind of office in Highschool, nor do I have any interest in college.

In gradeschool, I was too young for my mind to work, but it was cool because we were the first class-anythings ever. We created the system. Built it from the ground up. Laid the pipes and boundaries, and set the roads and the path into the future and all that crap.

In highschool...eh...I don't see the appeal. Unless you're a prick with aspirations to be a political something or other, or you want to get into harvard and they think that you being the class president actually means something (other than that you are a prick...which might be a prerequisite for harvard...I don't know), what's the point? You don't really get any power, and so you don't really get any opportunity to make a difference...it's just a popularity contest. And that's what it was. At least at my highschool.

In college, things are too big to generally know the people you're voting for (at least from my experience), so it's just like real life, you vote for some person who doesn't care about you and is going to screw you over if they get any gain from it. I'm not voting for an asshole of the future.

Anyway, the point of this post...were you ever in student council, or whatever they called it at your school? Were you the treasurer? Because seriously, what the hell does the treasurer do? Keep track of bake sale funds? Seriously? Somebody else keeps track of that stuff. What's the deal?

Going Mobile

For the past month or so, I've been looking at notebook computers, because I need one for school. My requirements were 2.0Ghz Dual Core or faster, upgradeable to atleast 2GB of RAM, DVD burner, and small. In the end, I found three makers who had anything for me:

Gateway had a nice laptop that met my criteria for $1500
Sony had a nice laptop that met my criteria for just over $2000
Apple has the MacBook which met my criteria at $1250

Now, if we were back in the days when Apple was still using the Power PC architecture, they would not have been in the running at all. I don't buy crap. But...OSX beats the living hell out of Windows Vista or whatever they're calling it now. That, coupled with built-in bluetooth, a built-in webcam...well...they sold me. I'm getting a Mac.

I've been called a traitor a lot for it, but I don't see it. If gateway offered the same thing for the same price, would I have gone with apple? Probably not. I hate their following of trendy pricks, and anyone who walks to class listening to an iPod should have the earbuds beaten out of their damn skull. Just for that, they don't deserve my money, but I'm not spending an extra $250 to get a PC with less features just to stick it to Apple. I'll go to one of their apple stores and steal something to even things out.

So my new notebook should arrive, hopefully, by the end of the week, which is good, because I have to start programming, and I don't want to lug the 17" laptop around that I've been using.

Additionally, being a student, and getting a MacBook, there is a deal where you get $30 off the iPod, and an additional $179 rebate, so Rob is getting an iPod. Once again...if the price wasn't right, would we have gone with iPod? Probably not. I actually like the offerings of Samsung and Creative a bit more than apple, but at $89 for a 30GB iPod? Gotta do it. Hell, if we could get two, I would have gotten one for myself.

Trip to Philly

This 4th of July weekend, Amber and I took a trip to Pittsburg to see our friends Sheena and Jon. They are the couple who got us started with warcraft. Other than seeing Sheena and Jon, I will highlight the major points of the trip:

• Getting a tour of Sheena's parents new super-massive house... with stables, tennis court, barns, 10 acres...
• Napping and watching TV
  
• Going downtown to try fancy Belgian Ale at a couple of bars
• Napping
• Setting off fireworks
• Eating Boxtys for breakfast

We also got to meet one of her sisters and her boyfriend, and they were both very cool. It helps, because now when she talks about the girl who broke her arm, I can picture her properly.

We took a few pictures, but I realized just now we didn't actually take pictures of people, so they're kinda dull. There are two pictures with Amber on a tree, but that's about the extent of things. Anyway, if I find a place to post pictures, I'll link.

Magnetic Implants

If you watch slashdot, you may have noticed this article. Incase you didn't, or passed it by, check this out:

Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71087-0.html
Slashdot: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/09/2035206&from=rss

The Intel Mac

Pretend you go to a car dealership. You tell them you're looking for a car, the salesman is like (in a voice like Cheech Marin), "Yeah man, we've got the best cars. These cars are the fastest and most reliable anywhere. Our engines and transmissions and valves and stuff, they go so fast, and we have like, 7 star crash test ratings, and everything, and it's so hot and the ladies will love it!"

So you buy the car. A couple years go by, and you go to the same dealership looking to upgrade. The dealer approaches you: "Hey man! We've got the best cars! They have these new engines made by [the competition] and they go so fast! They're up to 4x faster than our old engines! And we've got a blah blah blah"

What this says to me, in short is "Yeah, we used to sell with these parts, but now we use the competitions parts, and they're so much better. All those years we were using the other parts? Yeah, we were fucking you." That's what I see every time I see a Mac ad now.

Now, don't get me wrong. Mac OSX: So much better than windows. I even like it better than Vista, which hasn't even been released yet. I'm not totally against Mac. But their hardware before was crap, even they admit it now. And their hardware now, is the same shit you can buy off the shelf for a third the price. What don't you get? A plastic case that looks like something out of Logan's Run.

So their OS is good, and their hardware is over priced. Why am I still typing? What I just hate, is people who are still buying from this company that rapes its customers. Don't tell me you buy it because you can't get it anywhere else. That's not true. The OS is the only thing you can't get anywhere else (legally), and you can even download it off the net if you really want it. The look? The style? If that's what you want, hey man, if you've got the money, go for it, but don't forget to send some my way too. A guy's gotta pay for college. And don't get all defensive on me and bring up Microsoft. Microsoft and Apple both have the same amount of money from me. I'll let you guess what that figure is. Heck, with KDE 3.5, there's no point in even using Windows anymore, other than games.

My point? If I've informed you of nothing in this entry, If I've not given you any new insights into my personality, If I've not made you question your hardware or software choices, or your brand associations, At the very least, I hope you clicked on the link to Cheech Marin, and got to see that great picture. Doesn't it look like he's trying to look around you? He's all like: Hey man, who's that behind you there? They got any weed?

Getting Spammed

On my old, self-hosted blog, about a month ago, a spammer found me. I'd been using the tools built into Serendipity to attempt to manage the spam, but it takes quite a bit of time to get things configured properly, something I'm still working on, for experience's sake.

Since they started attacking me, I've recieved over 400 spam comments, mainly for online drugs, and gambling. Some of them seem to be specifically targeted towards my area of Ohio, mentioning casinos that are nearby. It's actually quite interesting.

Anyway, this is nothing new, but what kills me is that in order for it to be worth while for these spammers to clutter up my little no-name, backwater blog, somebody has to be clicking on these links. I don't mean on my blog, specifically, but on small blogs like mine. Somewhere, Aunt Fanny is going to Little Jimmy's blog, seeing an ad for casino discounts, clicking on it, and buying something, or giving her info, or something like that. If nobody did that, it wouldn't be worth spamming, and I wouldn't have to clean up my damn blog.

There's something to be said for non-user-friendly systems. They'd sure help to root out the trouble makers.

Big Explosion

This is footage from a test I recently conducted. I just thought some of you might find it interesting:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7568822525362405530

Also, I find it interesting that our president pronounces nuclear as 'nuke-u-lar'. What an ass.

Your world. Delivered. To the NSA.

F.E.A.R.

Every day I venture deep into untold chasms of technology and innovation just for you, special reader, however, most days you're not important enough to me to take time out of my day to tell you about them.

Monday night I finally beat the game 'F.E.A.R.' I started it shortly after it came out, but only recently had the time to finish it. I'm not going to do a review, and I don't have fancy things like 'scoring systems' and 'awards' and 'numbers'. Anyway, most places beat the game in a day, and had a review out before the game was ever released. You don't need me to tell you what they already have.

I will say that even though I was playing it on an older generation video card (GeForce 6600GT), the game still looked beautiful. If you're having any trouble with frame rates, make sure you've got the latest nVidia drivers, and the .4 patch for F.E.A.R. Those two things helped me a great deal.

Anyway, if you haven't played (and finished) F.E.A.R. yet, and you have a computer that can support it (I wouldn't recommend running it with less than a 6600GT/6800), do it. While it didn't get the press of Doom3 or HalfLife2, it's certainly up there.

Initial Impressions of SuSE 10.1

At work, I use a computer with OpenSuSE as an HTTP and MySQL server for various web applications I develop. I also use this same computer to develop those applications. While we are almost completely a Microsoft house, using SuSE provides me with a much more stable server environment, faster response, and of course, we don't have to buy another Windows Server license.

With the release of OpenSuSE 10.1, I figured now would be a good time to update. 10.1 promised FireFox 1.5, MySQL 5.0, and KDE 3.5. Now I know you can download these packages and install them, or use blah-blah installation source, but I'm not a linux-power-user, and I didn't feel like taking the time for these updates.

I downloaded the first 3 CDs for OpenSuSE 10.1, and installed. The installation went very smoothly, and I was happy to see my SATA drives work without having to use compatibility mode, as I did in 10.0. I was also happy to see my graphic card be properly detected and have hardware acceleration work. I set the proxy settings, update settings, and was done. Smooth little 10.1 installation moving right along.

First off, I was very happy with KDE 3.5. I know the average linux user is more interested in console commands than a streamlined GUI, but I sit infront of a computer 12 hours a day, and damn it, I want to enjoy what I'm looking at.

FireFox 1.5 is a very welcome upgrade, and I noticed it comes with a Beagle extension already installed. While my first instinct was to uninstall it, I'm going to leave it and see how it works. I code for Opera 8.5+ and FireFox 1.5, so having my target browser on my development box and server is going to be a big help.

I was treated to one big upfront disappointment, however. Using OpenSuSE 10.0, I was familiar with YaST Online Update, which was a wonderful feature. In OpenSuSE 10.1, I'm having all sorts of problems with it. It is telling me I need updates for things I don't have installed, doesn't find dependencies for things I do have installed, and simply closes itself if I try to just proceed and update my system.

I got a lot of help from the people at alt.os.linux.suse related to this issue, and apparently 10.1 has quite a different package system from 10.0. While there is a lot of potential to this new system, apparently, it isn't helping me. At least not yet. I like my programs up to date with the latest versions, and security fixes. A couple resources I was pointed to:

• This SuSE Diary on blogspot has a pretty detailed guide to setting up the automatic update feature. While I still couldn't get things to work after following this guide, I learned a lot from it, and I think my issue may be the exception, not the norm.
• The SuSE Linux Wiki has a guide on using Smart as a package manager. I'm reluctant to install a different package manager when it seems like 10.1 already has two, but it looks promising, and may be worth trying if anyone else is having this difficulty.
• The Weekly Rant has an article about using y2pmsh, the old SuSE package manger, with SuSE 10.1.
  

I wish we could standardize on a package management system. Some day...

I'll Be Here For A Month

If you've made any attempt to keep up with my blogging, you'll know I've gone through a wide number of options in a short amount of time. This is my style. Stick with one thing too long, you get lazy. So here, in my latest move, you find me at blogger.com. blogger.com has long been a home to a lot of respectable blogs which I have used in the past for news, reviews, and technical advice. My personal reasons for adopting them are as follows, in no particular order:

1. blogger.com is a google project. Google projects energize me. Open source, cutting edge...that's where I want to be. I've been using Google as my primary search engine for years now, and enjoy its reliability. I have also been using Gmail as my primary email for years, and like the direction that it continues to move in. Recently I've been using Google Groups to simplify how I work with newsgroups, and keep more up to date on the latest issues in the forums, and just today I began experimenting with Google Web Toolkit to solve some issues that have come up at work. I have yet to be let down by a Google project.
2. Although I'm not under the illusion that my writings and ramblings are of major global significance, I spend time writing, and I want my words to be safe. Up until now, I have been hosting my blog on my own OpenSuSE computer using Serendipity. I love using OpenSuSE as a web server, as it is very stable, easy to setup and use, and cool to play with, but I admit that I need to keep learning and experimenting, and I don't want to be experimenting on a computer that contains important information. The in-house host moves to the out-house.
3. My personally hosted blog receives about 60 hits a day right now, on average. 40 of those are from countries I have never heard of. While I'm glad that people from Chik'Chan'Baujewhe enjoy my blog, sometimes I do write things which could be useful to people, and the greater exposure offered by blogger will make those rare helpful things I write more available, and that just warms the cockles of my heart.
   

So as I move my blogging over here, my Linux computer will once again become a playground for me, where I will be trying out all kinds of crazy stuff, which I will be posting on here.