|
|
Happy New Years!!!
New years is traditionally the day of the TV marathon, and Sci-Fi
doesn't disappoint with an entire day of Twilight Zone goodness. "It's
not a manual for how to serve people, it's a cookbook!"
And what's the turn of a new year without a ton of lists? So for your browsing
pleasure, here's Stupidest and best moments
of the web for 2002. I especially like the one where a cracker posts pirated
mp3's on RIAA's website. There is also the
top science stories of the
year and review of various technology
introduced during 2002.
And looking
toward
2003,
here's the
top space mysteries that are as of yet unsolved. Dark energy, the black hole at the
center of our galaxy, and even our own sun still have mysteries to unlock. Cool
stuff.
And don't want to forget that it was 20 years
today that the internet switched to it's current protocal scheme, TCP/IP.
The "internet" is over 30 years old, but it was 20 years ago that it switched
over to Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Yay for the
internet!
And why hot pink? Cause hot pink rocks da house yo!
Today is 01-02-03.
I'm also back up in Gainesville ready to go for my 4th semester at college. I
had a lot of stuff that I didn't get around to doing during the break, so I came
back up extra early to have time to do it all without distractions, since NO ONE
is up here yet. Just me and my very cool RA. I think I've already listed what
I'm taking, but here's it again: Digital Design, Circuits 1, Intro to Computer
Organization, and finally Data Structures. 15 hours, including 2 labs.
Unfortunatly I've heard horror stories from two people about the insane amount
of time digital design labs take up, so it looks like I'll be even busier than
last semester. At least it's interesting material, as I get to make all kinds of
cool stuff. I love my major! (Note that that last statment is void the
night before I have any major projects due that refuse to work right)
Salon has an excellent article (as usual) about North Korea and foreign policy. Bush is so concerned about Iraq (and where
are all these terrible weapons that he was so sure about at anyways...) and yet
North Korea has a nice little nuclear arsenal ready to get up and running. I was
never for the war in Iraq, and while yeah Hussian is one messed up fellow, he's
really not worth starting a war over. Secondly, why is it ok for the US to do
everything (chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, biological weapons) and not for
any other country? I mean granted we're pretty sane and won't just let them
loose on a whim like some crazy dictator might, but can you really blame North
Korea for wanting a nuclear program? Can you really blame a country for feeling
resentful that the US essentially "owns" them by requiring these inspections? Do
you think American's would feel happy if China decided to require full access to
all of America's weapon stores? Anyways, good article.
And now a bunch of Google news courtesy of the Google Weblog:
First a good piece on the morals of
Google, which is summed up as "Don't be evil". Good idea.
Then two new types of Google searches, one for products so you can find where they
sell what you want to buy, a search with quotes that
shows you what other sites thought about the site you're looking at, and finally
Google slideshow to view
webpages like a powerpoint presentation.
And last but not least the Google Zeitgeist for 2002.
All the hot topics and trends of 2002, as determined by what people searched
for.
I have a slight cold today. It would be a good time to buy stock in Kleenex if
you're smart.
While messing around with Windows after reinstalling it, I remembered that the
Gaim peoples made a Windows port of
Gaim from Linux. So I downloaded and installed, and it's now my default AIM
client for windows. It has all the features I love from the Linux client, except
now it's in Windows. So if you want a great AOL instant messanger client with
aliases, logging, talking while on away, plugins, and lots of other features,
instead of that crap AOL puts out, then give it a shot. It's well worth the
download.
Went to the mall yesterday, an hour of which was spent waiting for the bus.
I needed another long sleeved shirt though, and while I was there I got in a
game of Pump It Up (DDR except different arrow positions) and bought Aqua Aqua, which is
exactly like Wetrix for the N64. Now if only they made an updated version of
Tetrisphere. Great music in that one.
I am... Lord
of the Root!
For all the non-geeks of my readership, root is the superuser on a computer
system that can do anything he/she wants and controls what the regular users
can do. Muhahahahaha!
And while I'm linking to webcomics, Beware the Nougat
Mafia!. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it.
My first day of classes for Spring 2003 is now over. It was typical first day
stuff, where they just go over the syllabus and tell us how much wer'e going to
suffer during the semester. Actually most of my classes wont' be too awfully
bad. Comp Org looks to be pretty easy, Circuits won't be that bad, and while
Digital Design will still be a lot of work, the teacher this semester is making
the lab reports easier and shorter. As for the bad news, I have to buy a $150
development board for digital design, and everyone says not to take my data
structures teacher as he's the hardest one you could possibly have. Instead of
one assignment every two weeks, it's one every week. And his tests are
supposedly a lot harder too. But I can't put it off for another semester since
it's a prerequisite for so many other courses, so I"m just going to have grin
and bear it. Fun fun fun.
It's finally legal for me to watch DVD's in Linux! Or well at least in
Norway. Norweigen courts ruled that
Jon Johansen didn't break any laws when he created DeCSS, which broke the
encryption scheme on DVD's so a person can view them however they please. The
Motion Picture Association of America was suing Johansen because they felt it
contributed to piracy, even though the encryption does absolutly nothing to
prevent copying. It only restricts playback, meaning I can't view my legally
bought DVD on a non-MPAA approved player. But the judge in Norway reliezed that
source code is free speech and that consumers should have the right to view the
things they bought, and ruled in favor of Johansen. Unfortunatly thanks to the
DMCA, it's still quite illegal in America to have intellectual freedom when it
comes to computer code. But at least Norway is a start.
The speed of gravity has finally been confirmed.
Gravity isn't instantanous like most people think, but it actually propgates at
the speed of light. So as the article points out, if the sun disappeared, the
Earth would still revolve for another 8 minutes before going off in a straight
line. It's sorta cool to know such neat discoveries are still taking
place today.
A new Gameboy Advanced is coming out in March, with backlit screen and
flip-up LCD. I may pick this up, as I just have a Gameboy Color and there's
a bunch of cool Advanced games.
Yep, back in college.
Can't say I have much to write about, at least at the moment. But people want an
update so I shall deliver! I went swing dancing Friday night, went to an awesome
basketball game Saturday (after waiting in line almost 5 hours, but it was worth
it!), and saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding Sunday night. So all in all a very good
weekend.
I'm hungry.
Girls are cool.
And finally some random Calvin and Hobbes quotes
One thing I forgot to mention was that I got in two new games from Ebay the
other day: Rez
and Dance
Dance Revolution: Disney Mix. These were my first ever purchases from Ebay,
maily because since they're discontinued and never sold well, it's the only
place to find them. Anyways, Rez is incredibly awesome, and definitly a very
unique gameplay experiance. And Disney Mix is really cool too, as it not only
remixes old Disney songs, but has some Para Para Paradise and regular DDR songs
thrown in there too. Plus has an original versus mode that isnt' on any other
version of DDR out there.
What else would you expect to find at Purple.com?
As usual, The Onion is not only hillarious, but also has a great way of making a
point. While North Korea is publicly developing weapons and blatently
ignoring US mandates, Bush just wants to blow up Iraq cause he knows he can win.
Gotta love The Onion.
I completely forgot to mention that my own personal hero, the girl who said she
would eat pizza every day for a year did in fact eat pizza every day for a year. And now she's going for
year two! Now how hardcore is that? I just tend to eat pizza in spurts, like
having it for 6 meals in a row. That's always fun. Anyways she's keeping the log
of year two on livejournal's thingy so
you can keep up with her on that now. So a huge congrats to a pizza loving
girl!
I suppose it's a good sign that you picked the right major when you actually
have fun doing your homework. Designing a 4 bit ripple-carry adder in VHDL?
Bring it on!
I am such a nerd.
And I am off to Jacksonville this the weekend, to participate in the Orange Park
DDR tournament. Should hopefully have a pretty big turn-out from around the
state, and there are a bunch of UF players going. And while I'm not near good
enough to have a chance of winning, there are several on our team who could
definitly place. And with first place getting about $100, that isn't bad at all
:) And if I'm lucky, I'll also get to play the newest mix, DDR Extreme while I'm
in the area. Good times, good times.
Well the tournament was a blast! About 12 of us went, and one of our guys placed
3rd in both tech and in freestyle. Friday night I got to play DDR Extreme, which
is really really awesome. Unfortunatly it was also incredibly crowded around the
machine, so in the 3 and a half hours we were there, I only got to play it
twice. It was fun none-the-less though, and there was a 5th mix right next to it
that was a lot less crowded. We stayed in the apartment of the guy who ran it (7
people on tile flooring in a small apartment living room, fun stuff), got 3
hours of sleep thanks to playing Beatmania late into the night, and then got up
the next day for the tournament. That then took 11 hours to run both the tech
and freestyle, so it was a long long day at the mall. I think around 40
people enterd the tech, and about 16 or so entered the freestyle, so it was a
pretty good turn-out. Got large crowds too, especially for the start of
the freestyle. Having 80+ people looking at you play is an interesting
experiance. They were climbing on arcade machines and standing on the skeeball
ramp trying to get a glimpse, looked like a madhouse.
As for how I did in the tournament, I qualified for tech which was
all I was aiming for. As good as my friends think I am, I'm really not good at
all compared to the kind of people competeting in tournaments. I just barely
pass 9-foot songs, these guys can full combo them. And as for freestyle, I don't
know how I did, but it was fun none-the-less. I did Tribal Dance on Basic
Shuffle, and hopefully the video will be online at some point.
Oh, and middle-school aged kids are the most annoying things on the
planet. There were several watching the tournament, and of course the
mall is just a haven for teenyboppers (which is why I hate going to malls), so I
was reminded constantly of why I hate middle school with a passion. If
only they could see how stupid they act.... if only....
And finally an article on why FM
radio stinks. XM radio sounds really cool, but having to spend $150 on a
reciever is a bit pricy. Next time I need a stereo though I'd definitly get one
with it in there, as most commercial radio is awful. Morning shows are the
worst. I don't want to hear a DJ blather on about crap, I want to hear
music!
For some really werid reason I've not been procrastinating stuff off. I've been
doing my projects and labs when they're assigned, and getting them done like a
week a head of time. I don't know what's come over me, I just hope it'll last.
But of course it won't. I'll just enjoy my stress free living while I can
:)
It's also REALLY cold outside. We had a big mass of artic air move through, and
so right now is the coldest it's ever been while I've been in Florida. Walking a
mile and a half to class in 9 degree windchill weather is not fun. Now if only
it would snow.....
Extreme Ironing! Now how cool is
this? I'm almost tempted to try it. I wonder if anyone's ever ironed while
playing DDR.
This weekend should be busy, with not only homework, but the first home
gymnastics meet tonight, the SHO Swing dance Saturday night, and then of course
the Super Bowl on Sunday. And being from Tampa, I've gotta go for the Bucs of
course! Which speaking of them, here's some interesting
history that isn't well known.
I hath returned!
Bucs
Win! As a Tampa resident (technically) it's pretty cool that they won.
Apparently Tampa's going crazy, as they well should be, and I almost wish I was
there to take part in it. I still wish the Cowboys had gotten to the Super Bowl
of course, but I'm happy the Bucs won too.
Gymnastics last Friday night was really cool, they have some really good
routines this year on floor. And apparently we're ranked #1 in the nation on
bars, which is really cool. And while I'm talking about UF sports, our men's
basketball team is awesome this year! #4 in the nation and still climbing!
Hopefully it'll be an exciting post-season in the March, which reminds me that I
need to start making my bracket.
Swing dancing on Saturday night was great, and it was probably the most fun I
had ever had swinging (that sounds so bad doesn't it?). Can't really say why,
but I just had a blast. It might have been that it was exactly one year ago that
I first started, so it was like an anniversary of sorts :) And it's so much more
fun that that bump'n'grind crap that people do now in clubs. I'm seriously
thinking about starting to swing to rap next time I go to a club with someone
that knows how to swing. I think that'd be pretty cool, as they did play Pink's
"Let's Get This Party Started", and needless to say that was an
interesting song to swing to.
The MPAA is at it again, once more infringing on fair use rights by b
locking the sale of filtering DVD players. How dare the consumer view the
DVD they bought the way that they want to! The idea of a player that
automagically filters out excessive sex/violence/language is a great one, as too
many times otherwise great movies have mature content that doesn't really add to
the plot at all, and could have easily been filtered out with no loss to the
story or characters. But of course the movie corporations don't like anything
that takes control away from them (ie the whole DeCSS fiasco and why I can't
view DVD's on Linux legally) and are suing to have this player blocked. Will
they ever learn?
And finally some words of wisdom:
There are few things better in this life than dancing
closely with a beautiful woman.
|
