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SOUND IN LINUX WORKS!!!!!!! This made my entire year!!!!! Ever since Mandrake
8.0 came out in late May, it refused to accept my sound card. So I've been
pretty much forced to use Windows most of the time since I like to listen to
mp3's while I mess around on the comptuer. But late Halloween night I
finally figured out how to get sound to work, and so now I'm muy happy! I
can finally start using Linux regulary once more, and stop using Windows so
much. Oh happy day!
And since I missed Halloween's update, here is a Linux computer built into a jack-o-lantren. Interesting what you can do if you're bored enough.
The great Tunguska mystery may now be solved. The gigantic explosion that occured in 1908
is said to have been caused by a low density asteroid that exploded in the
atmostphere over the region. Had that explosion taken place over a populated
area, hundreds of thousands might have been killed. So one more of history's
mysteries has now been solved thanks to science.
What is this? The mp3 page is updated? What? Yes,
I actually did something useful today and updated that page. Check it
out.
Salon has a great article on the Internet
Wayback Machine which archives old websites to preserve a record of the web.
It points out the possible copyright violations, as well as how important of a
function it serves, as historians will find the early days of the web culture
very interesting. Check out the 1996 versions of some of the most popular websites
today. Notice the lack of graphics....as in 1996 56K was just barely out, if
was even out by then. Amazon.com just looks plain wierd too, who would have
guessed it would become so popular.
This is the
stuff of nightmares.
Oh, and I think I erased my C: drive :( Never try to move the folder that you
have mounted a Windows partition in, bad things happen. Luckily all my important
stuff is on the D: drive, so I'll just have to reinstall windows but I didn't
really lose any data. Just goes to show how important it is to backup your
data.
Yep, what is this? 3 udpates in a row? Well now that I got Linux in working
order, it's a lot easier and more convient to update the site. Now if only
school work didn't get in the way....
Looks like Microsoft's Passport service isn't as secure as
you'd hope it would be. The service which MS wants you to trust enough to put
all your credit card and other personal info into, can be cracked by simply
opening an email in Hotmail. This is why you don't put all your eggs in one
basket, because someday, someone will crack it, and that will open up millions
of people's data for the crackers to see. But you have to hand it to Microsoft
for trying to control all our data. I wouldn't trust MS, would you?
And with some more MS bashing (hey, it just worked out this way today) Infoworld
reports that XP is
slower than Win2K. And it's not just slighly slower, it's significantly
slower. So much for each version of an OS being faster and more efficient than
the last one.
There is good news on the DeCSS front, a court in California has reversed its
decision about the DMCA violations by distrubuting DeCSS. Looks like free
speech might win out after all.
The Electronic Fronteir Foundation has a good article about the USA PATRIOT Act. It discuesses
many of the civil liberty concerns that are in it, as well as the possible
abuses that could happen.
The linux journal is updated for the first
time in 10 months.
Chess is fun! Now if only more girls would play it....
The new Starwars teaser trailer was released
online today. I unfortuntly can not view it at the moment because I no
longer have Windows on my system (the movies are in quicktime format, and Apple
is dumb and doesn't release a player for Linux). However this article in cnn.com has a nice overview, which includes fan reactions to the trailer
that they saw when watching Monsters, Inc. The article even includes such
classic quotes like "-- Natalie Portman, who stars as Queen Amidala, looked
'hot.'" How a quote like that gets into a major news publication I don't know,
but it scares me.
The Gamecube is being released in
only 13 more days, but already people are taking apart their
Japanese Gamecubes. So now you know what the inside of a console looks like,
without voiding your warrenty.
Scientists now think that 4,000 years ago, a meteorite caused the extinction of several promising new cultures
in the Middle East. They had wondered for a long time why there was such a sharp
decline in the advancement of civilizations during the time around 2,300 BC, and
they believe that faint craters found in the region might mean a meteor had
exploded in the area. And of course the same exact thing could happen again even
today.
The Register has an indepth article about
the problems
with the proposed MS-DOJ settlement. Thank goodness a
few states have refused to settle, so this proposed settlement may still be
changed.
Remember the stick figure death flash movie?
Well now you can play it interactively. The
internet is a great and wonderful thing isn't it?
The Linux 2.4.14
kernel is out. Download and compile as willing.
If you take a quiz on Microsoft
propoganda, you get to download a Halo theme. So test out your Microsoft worshiping skills, and see how
successfuly you have been brainwashed by Big Bill.
For those of yall with large files, you can
breathe a sigh of relief, as Linux (and as of Oct 6, FreeBSD) now supports files
up to 128
Pentabytes. That comes to 144,115,188,075,855,872 bytes. A Petabyte is about
a thousand Terabytes, and a Terabyte is about a thousand Gigabytes. That's a lot
of bytes. The real question though is kind of file could ever be that large. But
I'm sure at somepoint down the road there will something that will have to be
that big. Perhaps holographic movies, or digitalized representations of
ourselves stored on computers. Now wouldn't that be interesting....
MathWorld is back up after some
downtime due to legal strugles.
It's like an online mathmatical encyclopedia, otherwise known as a geek's best
friend. All kinds of math topics are included in the website, and if you ever
wanted to know what Fermat's Last
Theorem is, well now you can know.
Well I'm off to COMDEX
this week, so no updates. For those not in the know, COMDEX is the United
State's largest technology trade show,
and it showcases the latest and greatest in computer technology. It's held in
Las Vegas, so this will be the first time I get to visit that city. I'll be back
Thursday, so until then I guess just check out the pages on the links page, and hold on tight.
And because
I'll be in Vegas, they've got some Para Para Paradise machines and DDR 5th
Mixes, so if I'm lucky I'll get to play those. Not to mention the world's highest
rollercoaster. Awww yea!
Viva Las Vegas!
Well I got back safe and sound. I'll post further details about my trip to Vegas
once I get caught up all on my school work. It's hard to keep up after missing
days in college, but I'll get through it.
Update July 2002: Here's that promised Comdex trip report. A
little late I know :)
And in other news, the huge University of Florida
and Florida State football game rivarly is tonight, and I have tickets. Awww
yea! GO GATORS!
I cut my middle finger on my razor today while reaching for my comb. Don't try
to do that yourself, it hurts and bleeds a lot. It also makes typing hard, but
I'm hardcore geek so I'll make the sacrifice :)
Here's some more stuff on terrorism, this time on what exactly, if anything the US has
accomplished by defeating the Taliban. Lots of good points. And remember that
fuss about the Tailiban looking up how to build nuclear bombs? Turns out they
may just have been reading a hoax that has
been around on the Internet for decades. So yes, you too can Learn How-To Build an Atomic
Bomb
There is now a website to display the uptimes of your computer. Notice the strong
concentration of Unix machines in the lead, and notice that yes, it is possible
for your computer not to crash for months at a time. But you don't get that with
Windows.... It's too bad most people don't know what they're missing.
Nintendo's Gamecube was
launched yesterday. I however did not get one because I dont' have the
time to really play it. College just keeps me way too busy. However my brother
is getting one for Christmas, so I'll have plenty of playing time then. But
there still may be some out there, so waht are you waiting for, GO BUY
IT!
One more day till Turkey Day! I get to cook Mr. Gobble Gobble again this year,
so I'm looking forward to it.
It seems as though even NBA players have to be fashion wary, as the NBA has
fined several
players for their shorts being too long. Apparently they have to be at least 1
inch above the knee. And to think that all across the nation, schools are trying
to keep shorts from inching up students legs. What a wacky world.
Time has a list of the best
inventions of 2001. Included are such gems as a mashed potato maker
and the infamous "Ginger"
that if you recall caused a huge media frenzy in early 2001. And still no one
knows what it is exactly.
Mr. Gobble Gobble Day was fun!
Mozilla .96 was released the
other day. It now has nav icons and other various improvements. It's getting
better and better with every release.
What's better than a CD player? What's better than a mp3 player? How about a mp3-cd player with
FM radio?!?! Yep, that's on my hit list for Christmas, and boy is it spiffy. It
plays cd's with mp3's on it, so taht you cna have several hours worth of music
on one cd. Isn't technology grand?
All of you Excite@Home cable modem subscribers might find your service
gone by Friday. Excite@Home went bankrupt, and if they can't renegotiate
it's deals with the cable companies that it uses, then it shuts off. So off to
the Napster clones you go, before it's too late!
And speaking of music... DDR Max mp3's.
Download. Now! (I suggest Fantasy and Bye Bye Baby Balloon as a
starters)
Does it get any better? Does it?
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