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Today is the last day of my second year of college. And it's gone by so
incredibly fast.
It's been a really fun year though, the guys on my floor have been awesome and
they're some of the craziest, wildest, weirdest people I've ever had the
pleasure of meeting. Classes finally got interesting, and I got to do a lot of
the things I wanted to do last year but never did, such as going to concerts,
plays, opera's, and lots and lots of UF basketball games :) I'm not really sure
what I'll be doing over the summer, but I'm sure it'll be a fast 4 months until
I'm back up in Gainesville again. It'll be fun seeing all my Tampa friends
though, and some of the guys on my floor are from there, so I'll get to hang out
with them some as well. I'm gonna miss UF though... college is just too
fun.
Last night I hung out with a close friend of mine who is going to spend 2 months
in the middle of the South Pacific in a tiny country called Vanuatu.
Her brother is in the Peace Corps there, so her and her family are off to visit
him. I want to visit some remote island sometime, or heck just buy one. When I
took my cruise there was a For Sale sign on a small island, which could be yours
for a few millions bucks. Nothing like having your very own country
though.
The story of the guy who amputated
his arm with a pocket knife after it became trapped under a boulder is going
all across the Internet today. It's a really amazing story though, and also
makes my arm hurt just thinking about doing that.
Well home has certaintly been nice. I had some of the best Bar B Q I've had in a long long time on
Saturday, saw X-Men 2 on Sunday, and then upgraded to Mandrake 9.2 on Sunday
night.
Which that has been an ordeal in itself. After every upgrade I
always have tospend a few days getting everything back to the way I like it, and
this one was no exception. As I type this, I have my desktop set up sorta the way
I like it, but there are some things that are no longer available that I used to
use quite a bit. And some things dont' work the way they used to, and so I've
been messing around with it forever now. It'll get there eventually, and some of
the new stuff is very very cool.
I also picked up Linkin Park's new CD finally, which is muy good. I loved their
first one, and Meteora
a is a nice follow-up (not counting that remix album). "Breaking The Habit" and
"Somewhere I Belong" are probably my favorite songs from it.
I went back
to my old high school today for the first time since I graduated. My brother had
an award ceremony, so I went to that. None of my old teachers were there though,
but it was just weird walking through those halls again. I really don't miss
high school at all though.
Speaking of going back to high school, in a
very "Never Been Kissed" moment, a reporter went back to
prom
10 years after her own senior prom, and then compared the differences.
Interesting piece, and it simutanously makes me wish I would have gone to my
prom (I LOVE dancing), and glad I didn't (so much money and
overhypeness).
I'm also planning/hoping to get a digital camera and new
laptop over the summer. Currently waiting for some new videocards to come out
for laptops before I start seriously looking, but there's some nice stuff out
there. As far as camera's go, once I get it (probably in a month or so) except
to see A LOT more picture updates. Which I have 2 rolls of film I need to finish
up and get developed, so there might be one in the (semi)near future. Oh, and if
you own a digital camera you like/hate or know of a really good one decently
priced (looking at about 3 Megapixel) send an email
my way.
Parallel universes are fun! Scientific America wrote a very interesting piece on
the various theories out there for the number and nature of universes out there,
including the ever popular quantum model. To think, in some parallel universe
out there, the "me" of that universe is not going to type the word "banana" but
will instead type the word "copious" in that first quotation mark. Blows your
mind doens't it?
It's springtime, and that means it's tornado season. It has certaintly lived up
to it's reputation in the last few days, with even more tornado's
reported in Missouri. As a former resident of Tornado Alley, I know what it's
like to know that any day could bring complete and utter destruction of your
home and city, though thankfully I've never had a close encounter with a
tornado. They're beautiful to look at, but at the same time one of the most
descructive forces on Earth.
Indiana Jones trilogy on DVD. Awwwwwww
yeah
Matrix Reloaded "midnight" tickets are now mine! Muhahahaha. For some reason though they don't
have a midnight showing, it's at 10 pm instead. So I guess I get to see it a whopping 2 hours early,
which is just fine by me. And since I was picking up the tickets anyway, I saw Holes tonight as well,
which was pretty good. Digging 5 foot deep holes can't be easy.
I also started my summer by updating/fixing/adding two Gaim perl scripts. I finally got
Gaim .62 to work on Linux, so I had to update my
Music Profile Update script to work with the new one. And
while I was doing that, I figured I should upload my Gaim Countdown
script as well, which is currently being used to countdown to the Matrix opening.
Expect to see quite a few more programs uploaded this summer, as I intend on learning several new languages and get
into graphical programming some more. My goal is to have a very simple version of Tetris by the end of the summer,
though it's to be seen if I'll be able to accomplish it. Plus there are several other things I want to check out some
more, and at least now I don't have the constant pressure of homework and tests on me. This should be an interesting
summer...
Man, since I've been updating everyday the dates are all off now. It's May 8th as I type/upload this, but as long as
no one finds out about it.... er um, just forget that previous sentence.
I came across one of the funniest internet video's I've seen in a LONG time.
The Light saber Kid. And because the
internet is full of nerds with too much time on their hands, they created a remix version with added sound and musical
effects. I haven't laughed this hard in a while :) Not that I've EVER done anything like that... Nope. Not ever. Never ever.
Especially not while alone with a broomstick or other wooden stick. Nope.
Here's an interesting article on Hackers and Painters and how
we're related. I have to admit I write code very similiarly to how he does it, where you just sorta jumble it all together
and then the real programming is in debugging. Of course debugging is my least favorite part of programming, so I really
ought to just get it right the first time. It saves time in the long run anyways. But it's an insightful piece, and
points out that hacking
is a type of art, not just a pure engineering task.
Yet another Microsoft security hole
was found today, this one extremelly trival to exploit until they finally fixed it. And this is the same Passport
infrastructure that MS wants you to trust all your private personal and financial data to. Yeah......
It's that time of year again.... E3 2003 is just around the corner.
Big price drops (pay $150 XBox/PS2, $100 GC), online Mario Kart, and lots and lots of new gaming info are but 3 days away. It's going
to be a busy week on the gaming internet.
I went to go see the Lizzie McGuire movie last night, which was suprisingly good. I watch the TV show every once in a
while, and while the movie was full of plot holes, medicore acting, and bland film making, it was really really
funny and fun. Plus I'm a sucker for cheesy romantic subplots :) The song that she sings is incredibly catchy as well
in that catchy-bubble-gum-pop kinda way. I give it another 12 hours on continous repeat on my mp3 player
before I become legally insane.
Last night I also bought The Age of
Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil which is the same author that I've talked about before
on here, with that radio interview of him
discussing the book. I've gotten through about a 100 pages so far, and it's been really really facinating. The book deals
with how computers will become our next stage of evolution, and the possiblities that will occur in the next few decades.
Some truly amazing, though to many people scary, ideas in here, as humans and machines begin to converge into one single entity.
It also brings up the question of how do we determine when a machine is
"intelligent", what is conciousness, and once we download someone into a computer, are they still the same person?
I think his timetable for this stuff happening is very optimistic, but I think that one day it will
happen.
Just FYI: Lots and lots of measurement conversions. Courtesy
of the US government.
Happy Mother's Day!
I finally saw Spirited Away yesterday, which is a
great movie. It's also got one of the highest tomato ratings I've ever seen, which well personally I didn't think it was
THAT good. It's definitely worth watching, and a very beautiful movie. And speaking of movies, I went and saw the Lizzie
Mcguire Movie again tonight. I know I know, I swear I'll stop. I don't even find her that attractive, she's just not nerdy
enough. But it's a funny movie, so ha.
The world's largest scavenger hunt has begun at the University
of Chicago. In the past
2 students built a nuclear reactor from scratch as one of the things on the list. The people
who do this are quite amazing, it would be very cool to be part of it.
E3 2003 is here! Today was the first conference day, which each of the big 3 console makers showed off and announced
the latest and greatest hardware and software. No big console hardware changes, except for an announcement that
Sony is going to try and break into the handheld market. DDR Max 2 and a karaoke game were announced for the PS2, as well
as Gran Turismo 4 (which looks absolutly AMAZING). Here's overview of Nintendo's press conference
the next Mario Kart game due in Q4 2003 looks pretty interesting. Gaming Age
is a good free general site for E3 news, and of course any videogame message board you come across is chock full of "borrowed" movies
from IGN and others. The next 3 days are going to be very fun indeed. And at some point I plan to go to E3 at least once,
preferably a year that the new major consoles are announced so I can play them before anyone in the general public can :)
The Duct Tape Wallet. Oh yes.
The 20 dollar bill's new redesign was unveiled
today. It's colorized! (sorta)
Microsoft seems to be really confused about it's latest "crappy" product (It's a pun! Funny! Hey, it wasn't THAT bad.... ok
it was, but I need more sleep) Anyways, their infamous iLoo, the public portable toliet with a built in computer to use while doing
the #2 was announced last week by MS, then called a hoax by MS on Monday (it takes a whole week for MS to figure this out?),
and then today said to be a
real but dead.
Regardless, while having a computer in the bathroom is pretty cool in a geeky kind of way, it's also really disguisting. Just
imagine that keyboard.
One more day... just one more day
Matrix Reloaded: Awwwwww yeah!
I saw the 10 pm showing tonight of Reloaded, and it's an incredible movie. There are a few scenes that could have probably
been cut out or shortened, but it was REALLY good. I will definitly be seeing it again, and it was well worth the wait.
And now I'm looking even more forward to Revolutions in November. Oh, and be sure to stay after the credits roll for
a Revolutions trailer. Plus Trinity uses ssh, I mean how cool is that? :)
And in case you haven't seen the first one in a while, here's some online
versions to help you out. Good stuff
More hoax stuff, this time about the infamous Klingon hiring in Oregon. Kuroshin has the story
on how exactly an urban legend gets created. It turns out that it was meant only as a joke, but the Associated Press just didn't
convey that very well when it wrote up a story that was then copied by all the other major news sources. Gotta love the media.
The coolest thing EVER
And there are still no WMD's in
Iraq. And no one seems to care ::sigh::
Update: There's going to be a lunar eclipse
tomorrow (the 15th) at 11:13 PM lasting for almost an hour. Very cool stuff, and I will be out there looking at it. It also
proves the world is round since the shadow projected on the moon is round, just in case you were still confused.
I almost got struck by lightning yesterday, which is sorta neat in hindsight I suppose. I was working at my dad's office
in the warehouse stacking boxes, and it was pouring outside due to our infamous late afternoon thunderstorms. Anyways,
I happen to be looking outside through the open warehouse doors, and a bolt of lighting comes and strikes a pole about 15 yards
away, scaring the crap out of me and my brother and causing a VERY loud crashing sound. Lightning is pretty pretty (yeah, gotta
love double words) from far away, but that's a wee bit too close for my tastes.
That SSH exploit used in the Matrix is proving very popular to all the people who caught it.
Security focus is running a story on it, and how sshnuke is actually
real exploit. Here's a screenshot for those
interested. A girl with l33t h4X0r skillz, no wonder this film is so popular :)
And now random typing!
ckjcvxdlsdieum890
I hate it when you download a song that's mislabeled, and you end up liking it. I downloaded Somewhere I Belong by
Linkin Park before the album was released (and yes, I did buy the album) and it's nothing like the actual song, but
is really quite good. But I havne't the slightest idea who really did it. Even lyrical searches on Google don't
come up with anything. /rant
For those of you new to this whole "Internet" thing, here's a brief
"history" of the net. It includes such historic moments like
the Mosaic web browser being released... "Users complain that it should support animated gifs, or at least a <BLINK>
tag. Yeah, that would look AWESOME!"
And the very latest web fad, look for it to become major news in about a week or so, but here's
The Pizza Matrix. Muy funny and
courtesy of the infamous SomethingAwful forums
The rainy season has definitly come to Florida. For those of you not from Florida or who have never been here during
the summer, it rains every single day during the late afternoon and into the night thanks to our high humidity. It usually
doesn't last too long though, but there's a lot of lightning and rain while it does. Rain on the road at night though
has it's own mystic quality to it, I'll have to try to take some wet night shots once I get my camera.
The star wars kid is now $4,000
richer thanks to his now infamous video. How lucky
can you get? Once again, only on the internet....
In some good news for me at least, computer science
isn't so popular anymore. Good because with the abysmal job market right now, having less competition can only help. But the
main thing is that people are no longer just going with CompE because of the money, but because they actually like it. One of
the first things most people say to me when I said I was CompE (or well used to before the dotcom crash) was "Lots of money
in that field". Which there can be, though not near as much anymore. But it lead to a lot of people just majoring in CS and
the related fields for money instead of passion. Now that I'm getting into higher classes, it has definitly weeded out a lot of
people who can't hack it (literally :))
I'm going to making a few slight changes, mostly updates, to the site over the next few days. Or at least that's the plan,
if nothing happens I'll blame global warming. I did fix one thing already though, the site search works once again.
And since writing that above line, I have made some changes. The Bio page is slightly updated,
as is the links page. The mp3 page has a huge update, and I've
finally broken the 10 GB barrier on my mp3 list, with 2,441 songs. And the final new page for this update is the
Song of the Moment, Beauty and the Beast's Belle, which has been stuck in my head since I rewatched
the movie a few days ago.
The kilogram is slowly getting lighter, almost 50 micrograms
worth. So scientists are trying to create more stable alternatives, since at the moment the SI unit is determined by a cylinder
made in 1889. The other SI units are able to be replicated anywhere you want, since a meter is how far light travels in a set amount
of time, and a second is the time it takes a cesium atom to vibrate 9,192,631,770 times, which can both be calculated to very
good precision. It'll be interesting to see what they finally come up with.
Contact
is a very good book.
So I was checking my webstats the other night, and noticed that I got 50 hits one day, which is about 2 and a half times my
normal number. Checking the referal logs then, I noticed that pretty much everyone who types in sshnuke gets this site, thanks
to my mention a few days ago about the Matrix movie using it. Sorry people, no real information on it here. Overall however,
people searching for stuff about Dance Dance Revolution continues to be the biggest search term.
I really don't like rush hour traffic. And I would also like to remind everyone who drives that you have a blinker
for a REASON!
Broadband in the air. Cool
Some archives updates, after a long long break in doing them. Once again I'm suprised at how many sites no longer work,
and at some of the sites that don't, like Bill McBride's old website (who ran for governor of Florida last year). And
Yahoo news articles are never up anymore. Of course it is nice remembering old sites that I've linked to but long
forgotten about, such as the guy who cashed a junk mail check for $95,000.
But anyways, February 2002,
March 2002, and April 2002 have been
Reloaded.
If you wanted your daily dose of BinaryFusion (and everyone needs a daily dose of medicore writing and nerdy links right?), you
were probably disappointed to find the site down for almost 12 hours today. But for good reason, as the server farm this
site is hosted on caught fire this morning. So after putting out the fire, it took a while to restore elecricity and all the
routers to get everything back to normal. Can't say I've ever had an outage of service due to fire, this is definitly a
first. At least my data wasn't burned to a crisp, otherwise it would be a long night of re-uploading.
Why I still want to work at Google, even though I have no interest at
all in living in Silicon Valley. Luckly they've expanded to a New York
branch, so maybe there is hope yet.
Well 2 years ago (abouts) was my graduation from high school. I only mention this because it seems like a bunch of my friends
went tonight, while I was off becoming a girl (not literally of course, just watching a bunch chick flicks with some female
friends of mine. I haven't felt such a need to watch things blow up since the time I dinner with
14 girls and me being the only guy.) And as I've said before, I don't miss high school that much at all. Better than middle
school at least though (not that THAT was hard).
May 2002: An improved one year ago
The other day my best friend decided to donate her hair to Locks of Love, so
14 inches of her hair is now cutted. I must say it looks pretty good short, even though in general I'm a fan of long
hair (I mean you need something to make a ponytail out of :)). Anyways, she's now the second friend I've had do it, and
if I had the long hair needed (10 inches at least) then I would be doing it too.
All you ever wanted to know about baseball hats
and the people who wear them. I personally hate wearing hats, I never had a problem with the sun, and they always made me feel
hotter and sweat more than without one. Plus it always messes up your hair (with the infamous "hat head"). Those Cat in the
Hat hats are pretty cool however.
My 20th birthday is a scant 4 days away (June 3rd) so if you're feeling particulary generous, feel free to get me anything from
ThinkGeek. If you order it now you can maybe get it to me by then! </shameless plug>
Today marked the very last Concorde flight,
after 34 years of flying. Unfortunatly the supersonic jet didn't have enough demand to offset the high cost of flying twice
the speed of sound. It's too bad too, I would have liked to try it out (after winning the lottery of course, those
tickets aren't cheap).
I'm still working on some of those changes I talked about a few days back. Unfortunatly between Gimp
versions, some of the special effects have changed, and so I'm having trouble creating new images that match the one's I already have
on here. I'll figure something out though, somehow.
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