ambiguous puzzle pieces

Canada sucks

2011-11-21T18:53:00.002-05:00

The only real advantages Canadians have over Americans is publicly funded health care, and a physically larger country. We don't even use like 75% of the land we have, so the latter advantage doesn't really matter. One of the major disadvantages we have is almost anything to do with media. First of all, we do not have access to things like Hulu, a good version of Netflix, and any other legitimate streaming service. This goes for movies, TV shows, music (such as Pandora radio), and whatnot.

We get Netflix here, but it is something I only use if I feel the need to watch something crappy. The good stuff that gets put on Netflix doesn't stay up. If there's a TV show on there you like, you better watch it fast. Some might argue that you can download this stuff, which I do of course, but sometimes it's nice not to have to scour over the internet to find something, especially when there's the constant looming threat that something you download might not be quite what you were looking for. As well, it's nice to sometimes have some external inspiration. Sometimes you don't know what to watch, and browsing a selection of stuff can help you choose. Basically, our version of Netflix is the retarded younger brother of American Netflix.

One of the things that really bugs me is the denial of access to stuff like Hulu and Pandora radio. I believe that if I had access to both of those services, I could entertain myself for decades. I would even be willing to pay for a subscription. But of course, Canadians are shafted. It's the same as the story with Netflix, except Pandora and Hulu don't even have little retarded brothers.

Another theme as of late is the fact that Canadians are denied access to most of the cool promotions I have seen. For example, Doritos and Mt. Dew have a promotion on for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (which is my new addiction of course). You can collect codes from these products and use them towards double XP time in the game. You can also win prizes and are entered into draws with each code you enter. In Canada, we have Doritos and Mt. Dew, and we certainly have Call of Duty. Why the fuck can't they just slightly expand the shipping radius of these specially marked packages of snacks? There is no bullshit excuses that have to do with media rights (as there are with music, movie and TV streaming), so what the fuck? Sometimes I wonder if they do this shit on purpose just to Candians off. I can't even begin to count the times where I have gone to sign up for some cool website or contest, only to find that they need your address (for whatever reason), but the form only takes American info. Isn't the point of contests and whatnot to promote something? Would it then not make sense to expose a wider variety of people to your product, therefore increasing your potential market? It's not like these are things that Canada doesn't have, they just choose to ignore the fact that Canadians buy things, or we just get a half assed, watered down version of something (e.g. Netflix, the Wal Mart website, Amazon.ca, etc.)

Don't even get me started on telecommunications or media access. During my ranting against the media situation in Canada, I am relatively aware of the source of these problems. All the crap stems from the fact that pieces of shit greedy cocksuckers like Rogers and Bell want to keep their gigantic (almost complete) hold on the Canadian media market. They want to be the ones responsible for telecommunications in Canada because if they do, they have more freedom to continually gouge their customers, and compromise any chance that Canada might catch up to the rest of the world in standards of communication. Basically, we pay out our asses for shitty and minimal services. I briefly looked at the AT&T site (which is sort of the American version of Rogers), and their minimum package (3 Mbps) is around USD $20 (so about $20.75 CAD). Rogers in Canada, on the other hand, charges $38 for the same thing. I know this is far from a scientific evaluation, but the difference is almost double. They don't have to charge this much, since the costs of creating bandwidth are extremely low compared to the mark up. But since it's Rogers, they need to squeeze every penny they can from you. Bell is no better. These are the companies that are holding us back from media liberation. The fight over UBB (Usage Based Billing) was, of course, because companies like Rogers and Bell wanted to implement it so that their competitors couldn't offer unlimited plans. If they did, they might get the leg up since no one wants to pay more just because they use it more. Personally, I am a heavy internet user. If there was UBB in effect, I would likely max out the counter every month. That is unless I pay like $100 a month for a large amount of bandwidth. It's fucking ridiculous the lengths large corporations will go to make sure their CEOs can live cushy lifestyles and wipe their asses with hundred dollar bills.

I could go on about how Canada also sucks in terms of fast food, products like Cherry Coke, and the fact that everything is American centric in general (shit, they even have better weather than we do). But I will not since that would take a while. But on the upside, at least Canada doesn't have as many religious, hypocritical nutjobs. But the health care and and the generally more polite people will keep me from bolting to California for now. I just wish the country had the balls to stand up to the Rogers and Bell cocksuckers.

Whoa...

2011-11-18T17:41:00.002-05:00

My poor blog, how I have been neglecting you so. So much has been going on, I can't even decide where to start. So I won't bother, and will stick with what is current.

Oh the technological front, I do believe I will be getting new internet. I am currently with Yak, on DSL, which is supposed to give me 10 mb/s download. When I first got it, I was getting around 13 mb/s, which was exciting and awesome. Nowadays, I only get 8 at the most. I have nothing against Yak or anything, but if I see a better deal I am stupid not to take it. I found a company called Acanac, which offers cable at 24 mb/s around here. I was surprised since I thought I had the only internet that is faster than Rogers or Bell. They must be new, and I was excited that they offered it here. It's around the same price a month as what I am paying now. There are two catches, one really big. I have to pay for the entire year up front. That works out to be over $500 at once. I can do it, it's just a matter of the interest I might accrue over the time before the term ends. The other catch is that I have to buy a modem. The modem, at minimum, by finding one on eBay or Kijiji, will cost around $100. I do think I will do it, since it's better in the long run, but it's a painful decision since I've already spent far too much money lately. Stupid food and toiletries... But it's all better than having my bank account and patience raped by Rogers or Bell. I am hoping that my sacrifices will contribute to the downfall of these two tyrants.

I am currently bidding on a new modem on eBay. I am looking to get a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, since that works best with higher speed connections. I can get a DOCSIS 2.0 for around $40, and my max bid on the 3.0 is $80US, plus $9US for S&H, which is around $92CAN total. Assuming I get it, this is a better price than the $125 that Acanac is selling it for. It's the same model too, I believe. Let's just hope that no one else bids on it.

Spoke too soon....

2011-02-25T13:52:00.002-05:00

So that CPU problem I mentioned....it's not gone. I was watching something on my laptop lastnight and it did it right in the middle of it. I was also burning a DVD which I had to abort so I could restart my computer. It's so great to have to interrupt something you're watching to fix something that shouldn't be happening in the first place. I am so fucking sick of this. I really hope it fucking goes away and/or I can figure out what is causing it. Or else I might not have a laptop for long since I will smash it out of anger.

Haven't posted in a while...

2011-02-25T01:44:00.003-05:00

I haven't updated for a while. I'm not sure why, I've just been very scattered I guess.

I just installed Google Chrome. I'm very happy with it, and plan to use it as my default browser. It's fast and has basically the same addons as Firefox, plus a few more I've found. The main reason for the switch, though, is because something about Firefox was overusing my CPU and making my laptop over heat. As a result, the CPU load would be almost 100%, and the computer shut down due to over heating a few times. I looked around, and found a post somewhere about how someone had the same problem, and traced it back to Firefox. So I decided to try it, and haven't had the problem in two days. I'm even burning a DVD while posting this, and the CPU load isn't even over 50%.

I'm not sure what else to write. I had an idea of what I wanted to say when I started this post, but then I lost it. I'm awesome like that. I will get back to you when I remember what it is.

Live Messenger; what the fuck is this?

2010-10-10T19:34:00.004-04:00

http://imgur.com/AujLl.jpg

Okay, I think Microshaft has gone too far. I always knew I never will like them (unless they hand over their money to me). But this just reaffirms my belief. As this image shows, Microshaft has officially fucked the one thing that they might have had going for them. MSN has always been my preferred chat client, and not only because all the people I know use it (although that was a significant factor). But now they've gone and fucked it up.

I do not know a single person who uses any of the Live Messenger web crap. So in their genius they decided to make this an integral part of using the new MSN. What the fuck? If I want to know what my friends are doing I will check Facebook. Microshaft will never make anything that replaces, or even rivals Facebook, so they might as well give up now. I have never, nor will I ever, look at anyone's MSN profile. No one updates them and no one cares what they say. I did use my real name for my Hotmail address display name, but I can't any more since it will also be my MSN nickname. I guess no one will be using their Hotmail address for business purposes anymore.

Well, since I basically summed it up, I think you can tell I am quite pissed off about this. Here I was thinking that one of the most stable parts of my computing experience was safe...I am now off to find an MSN client that can actually be used.

June update (finally)

2010-06-29T03:26:00.002-04:00

Please note my Lockerz link is still down. Please email me directly at stay.in.shadow AT gmail DOT com and I will get the email right away and will send you an invite. I am not sure if/when my Lockerz link will be up again since it is hosted elsewhere and I have no control over the hosting. I apologize for any inconvenience.

So quite a bit has happened since my last update. I recently got a job (at least I assume I still have it). It's through a temp agency, and I was told that, after working for a month, things are slowing down at the factory I work at, but they will call me in a couple weeks when they need me again. I hope it's true, because I have recently come to enjoy having money for a change. To celebrate, I bought a $900 laptop from Dell (although this was before I knew about the "slow down" at work). I have only had problems with the wireless card in this laptop. The battery also sucks, and doesn't hold more than a 30 minute charge at a time. I went all out on this laptop. It's got a 9 cell battery and a 500 GB hard drive. I figure I might as well since if I don't, it will be obsolete in a couple months anyway. I figured I'd get a new laptop now, while I have money, instead of waiting for this one to break when I don't have money. The thing that pisses me off is that Dell is super slow building their laptops, and they have the least detailed progress notes on their website. I can log into the Dell site only to be told every day that it's "In Production". I certainly hope it's in production, but I would also appreciate knowing what's being done and what stages of production have left to go. As one might recall from last Christmas, I had a problem with Dell. I ordered a laptop with Ubuntu on it, and they magically cancelled my order. I got pissed off, and just went out and got this one. I've decided to give them one more try, since they were really good to my girlfriend when her laptop started smoking (yes, literally smoking). They upgraded her laptop to a newer, more expensive model. I will update more as I can, but my laptop is expected to be delivered on July 9th as of now. I say as of now because it could change.

Another good thing coming from having money is the updates to my game collection. I got Singstar, Buzz Quiz World, Left 4 Dead 2, LittleBigPlanet, a Playstation Eye, and a controller/game combo package for the PS3 (came with a red controller and Resistance 2). All games I wanted, except for Resistance 2, which was a bonus. I am also going to acquire Mod Nation Racers tomorrow from someone on Kijiji. The guy is a douche who forgot to bring the game today to his work when I was picking it up, but I will go back again tomorrow only because he's selling it for $40 which is $10-$20 lower than the prices I've seen it at.

My Xbox 360 recently red-ringed. Yes, everyone who knows about the Xbox is saying "I told you so". But the fact still remains that it lasted for almost four years, and was one of the original "crappy" Xboxes, the ones notorious for red-ringing. So, I am still pleased with it's lifespan. I got a new console (just an Arcade, took the hard drive off the broken one). I do believe they have updated the components on Xboxes over the years, so this console should have better parts in it. I recently gave my broken Xbox to a friend to see if he could fix it, and he did. Apparently there was some soldering or glue that unstuck the processor from the component it was required to be in contact with. A very simple fix, but something someone would have charged $50 for, unless I ventured to do it myself. I don't think I could have since it took my friend and his friend all day to do it (one of them being very experienced with tools and machinery). I figured why should I let the console go to waste.

Well, it's late, I should go sleeping. Hopefully I will update more frequently in the future. I am pleased with the new layout editor that Google has added to Blogger.

not sure

2010-05-08T19:24:00.003-04:00

Lockerz invite link down

2010-04-13T17:09:00.003-04:00

If you are here for a Lockerz invite, or wish for one, my link is down for some reason. It is being fixed, but there is no way of knowing how long this will take. So, if you want a Lockerz invite, please email me at stay.in.shadow AT gmail DOT com. Please email me from the email address you wish for your invite to be sent to. I receive email on my cell phone so it will get to you within a few minutes. If it doesn't, please be patient because it is likely Lockerz having the issue (it happens relatively often). I am sorry about this, there's a whole bunch of server bureaucracy bullshit behind it.

New PS3!

2010-04-12T03:25:00.002-04:00

I had another one of my spontaneous urges to acquire something technological in nature, and this time it was a Playstation 3. I bought it off a guy for $200 (they're $300-350 new). The awesome part is that it is one of the original PS3s which include backward compatibility with PS2 games. This feature was removed in the newer consoles much to everyone's dismay. The old consoles also come with a smaller hard drive, only 40GB. But the guy who I bought mine off of upgraded his hard drive to 120GB! So I believe I have one of the ultimate machines available. The only downside is that it has been repaired before. Hopefully that means it's less likely to need it again, but we'll see. The guy said the problem was something common; some of the soldering or something in the machine melts and stuff comes loose. All it needs to be fixed is someone to open it and stick everything back together.

If anyone is interested, my Playstation Network name thing can be found to the right of this post in the sidebar. I don't currently have any games but plan on borrowing some from a friend this week. Hopefully I can get some trophies and make my trophy card look a bit better.

The only thing I am really not liking is the fact I cannot add my credit card to my PSN account. I think it might be the card or something since it hasn't been working with my cell phone bill either. Lets hope some stupid piece of shit technicality won't prevent me from paying my phone bill on time.

I am also trying to sell my Blackberry on Kijiji but no one is biting so far. I think my price is worth it, because I am including some accessories with it. But people are cheap and annoying. I might lower it like $20 or something. We'll see.

iPhone again, iPad wtf?

2010-03-31T14:25:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned last entry a while ago, I got an iPhone. I was really sick of my Blackberry not being able to play music, which I was under the impression that it could. Everytime I'd go to change a song it would freeze or skip, or just crash in general. I got fed up and just went and got an iPhone on Telus. I was with Virgin before and decided that I would cancel my plan (I was paying too much anyway) and switch to Telus. So now I am paying $15 less a month for basically the same thing. I've got the favourite five plan. I had ten contacts before, so I have less free contacts, but it's made up for by included picture and video messaging. I didn't even use all ten contacts anyway, not enough people call me. I have unlimited texting anyways.

But I have to say the phone is wonderful. It can do everything and has become a super awesome entertainment device for me. It's great because it's an iPod and a cell phone in one, plus other things. The idea of getting the iPhone was because using a phone for voice calls for me is basically a secondary function. The primary functions are texting and data, so it works out great.

The only thing I wish I knew before I activated my iPhone and set it up was that installing the firmware upgrade was going to prevent me from jailbreaking it. I would have kept the old firmware that came on the phone so I could have jailbroken it. I now have 1.1.3, and only firmwares up to 1.1.2 can be jailbroken; as in they haven't figured out how to jailbreak this OS yet. I've read in places that people are saying it's "impossible", but nothing is impossible. I want to jailbreak it to be able to customize the icons on the home screen (which Apple doesn't let you do, you have to keep their apps on there even if you don't use them). I personally will never use the Stocks app, so I would like it gone to give me more space. Also, I use a different weather app than what comes with the phone. It's also taking up space. Not to mention the fact that jailbreaking allows you to install free apps that perform many of the same functions of the ones you have to pay for on iTunes. Obviously Apple doesn't want this because they think they will lose money from people who are installing these free versions of apps (I say "think" because likely these people won't pay for them anyway, whether or not they get free ones or not).

Despite all that, I am loving my iPhone. Although I really hate the hold Apple has on their market, I am still willing to use my iPhone proudly since they haven't done anything too atrocious yet. Hopefully Apple doesn't go that route, and if they do, I hope something as widespread and comparable to the iPhone comes out.

On that note, here is an article: the new version of iTunes what isn't mentioned in this article is that every update of iTunes does something to block jailbreaking further. Needless to say I will NOT be updating iTunes.

That brings me to my next point of wonder: what the fuck is the point of the iPad? Basically to me it's a giant iPod touch. Won't people look a little retarded walking around using that as their music player? It's not like it can be used as a phone or anything useful other than playing music and maybe some apps you can use over wifi. Not to mention that it's huge, but that goes without saying. Basically you have to lug around a laptop sized device without laptop capability.

There are other issues with the iPad, such as the actual software components themselves. Even though I would never buy one of these anyway, and hopefully no intelligent person would (they cost around $500 for something you could buy for $300 that does the same thing, which is an iPod touch), people have issue over what kind of hold Apple is seizing over the usage of their products. See this petition for an example. I really hope despite all of this digital restriction that the hackers figure out how to do what they want soon. Oh well, I know I won't ever be buying an iPad.

I've always been a fan of Apple's products, both genuinely and because they are the main opposition to Microshaft. I really hope they don't do anything to change that really soon. As easy as it is to hate money grabbing corporate pigs, I don't like doing it (although some might beg to differ) because it severely limits my options. But at the same time I am not going to knowingly give my money to companies that fuck their customers over and use any means to get people's money. I have a huge problem with companies who do that. As soon as the customer becomes less than first place in the hierarchy of priorities, that's when companies need to either change or quit.

iPhone

2010-02-27T15:48:00.001-05:00

I broke down and got an iPhone. I am such a nerd. I have had the itch to get one for a while now and got pissed off that my Blackberry was fucking up when listening to music. I am now a Telus customer. More later.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

my non-digital hobby

2010-02-10T20:01:00.002-05:00

Everyone in this world likely has more than one hobby. Some are related to each other, some are not. Along with computers, the internet, and technology in general, I have a more "classic" type of collection, a collection of something that is, in contrast to technology, very old. I like to collect playing cards. I have no idea why or how this hobby got started, but I have liked playing cards for a long time. Something about the fact that they have so much history behind them and have persevered through centuries, and still can be customized to modern times while maintaining their integrity. That's really the only analysis I can give. I also noticed that there were many varieties of playing cards, and I wished to own as many of them as possible. I found a local magic shop not too long ago, and in the magic world it seems this hobby is really quite common (the shop owner showed me some parts of his personal collection, including a deck that goes for around $300). So, to many people's surprise, I am not a magician. Nor am I excessively enthusiastic about card games, although I do enjoy them but don't play very often (mostly because of a lack of people who wish to play with me). My next step, other than spending money on more cards, is to find something nice and presentable to store my playing card collection in. Right now they're just sitting on the dresser which is rather unsightly and impractical. And it will be especially important now since I have more cards on the way. Much to my delight I found a magic website with an excellent selection. I also found out that I had some extra PayPal money sitting in my account... it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the inevitable result :)

random update while procrastinating

2010-01-28T18:49:00.002-05:00

As the title says, I should be doing other things. I should have been doing other things for the past four hours, but my brain is set on playing computers. I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix on my netbook (the netbook which I wrote about in a past entry). Ubuntu Netbook Remix is a version of Ubuntu that is optimized for netbooks, and has the priority of battery life and low CPU usage (since netbooks are typically not as powerful as regular computers). If you have a lovely netbook, you can go here and download UNR if you're curious. The best part is that it auto partitions. I wrote about my struggles with partitioning a while back when I first installed Ubuntu on a machine, so this is a nice breath of fresh air. There is also a Windows installer, but I tried it and it gave me some error that it couldn't obtain the ISO file. If you do decide to try Ubuntu, it's really easy to install, but despite that, if there are any problems (and this goes for anything post-installation as well) go to the Ubuntu Forums and make a post with your question. They are very good at answering questions, and can dumb it down if you're like me and are not a turbo computer user.

I am pleased with the progress of Ubuntu. I used it before, but stopped using it due to hardware problems (as in it wouldn't recognize my wireless device). This problem has been fixed, and the only problem I have is that the sound doesn't work on my desktop, but it sounds to be an easy fix. I am too lazy to do it now, but we will see in the future.

I really hope that someday Ubuntu, or Linux in general, kicks some Microshaft ass. The monopoly and money grabbing has to stop. Microshaft likes to rip people off every chance they get. Having to pay hundreds of dollars for an operating system that is inferior is retarded. Also for an office suite...although I use OpenOffice anyway, which can be downloaded for free here. OpenOffice is made by the people who made Java, and it's a totally free version of Microcrap Office. It is compatible with Office files, although there are occasional instances where things display strange, and it's more like pre-Office 2007 (which is better, in my opinion, since Office 2007 is something people should be wiping their asses with). The only reason I do/would willingly use a Microshit product is that there is no other acceptable alternative, I get it for free/can steal it, or other products are not compatible with Microshaft's products. The reason my stuff needs to be compatible is because I am in university and need to hand in digital documents. If they don't open on the teacher's computer, I am basically fucked. Most software is really good at compatibility (open source programmers are awesome for making things that are free and useful), but occasionally something doesn't work.

The main thing that is keeping Linux based operating systems from taking off is the fact that they take a lot to configure. I am not a power user and I still needed to take about two hours to configure my netbook to be usable to me. That is also a generous amount of time since I know what I am doing. Most average computer users don't know anything about the concept of a package manager, and the average computer user makes up the majority of the computer market (hence the term average). Ubuntu is slowly getting close enough to becoming an OS that is usable for the average person, but it still has a long way to go. I am in no way saying we should take away the customizability of Ubuntu, since that is part of what makes Linux great, but it should have more things that work out of the box (like hardware, basic plugins, etc.). That also doesn't mean that power users have to use Ubuntu, since other Linux distros might be more suited for heavy computer users who know a great deal about Linux and computers in general. Another reason why Linux isn't taking off, which I don't know about for sure but I am guessing, is that Microshaft doesn't want people knowing about it and what it can do, so they do things to prevent competition (why else would Microshaft have a near monopoly on the operating system market?). Some might think I am paranoid for thinking that, but I've been quite surprised by some of the things I've heard of large corporations doing.

Anyway, the world of Ubuntu will unfold before me (as I am typing this on my old desktop with Ubuntu on it), and I am enjoying almost every minute of it. If you have some kind of interest in computers, and computational diversity, try it, it's ridiculously easy to install. You don't even have to install over Windoze if you don't want to (I have a partition on my HDD just in case I absolutely need something from Microshaft). It is very rewarding for me so far :)

Live Messenger scam, beware!

2010-01-26T14:06:00.002-05:00

Please pay attention to the people who might be adding you to MSN Messenger. I recently got two friend invites, one from the email address ZulaMatise7427@hotmail.com, and the other FredricBringhamxr6588@hotmail.com (please feel free to spam those email addresses as much as you like). I opened up a window to ask who the hell they were, at the same time, and got the same responses from them in the exact same order, all of them trying to hint for me to click a link to "watch them on cam". If you get this, please do not click on the link!! I haven't done it but I can almost guarantee it will lead to spyware, viruses, adware, malware, or all of the above. What's better is that the "girl" says that they need your credit card information for "age verification". The reason why I am posting this is, unfortunately, some people are probably stupid enough to click the link and do what the "girl" tells them. It will likely be some disgusting perverted guy who thinks he is finally getting lucky...but anyway, the other reason why I posted it is because it is extremely likely these are not the only email addresses used by the piece of shit who's idea it was to spam people on MSN. Even more likely since I just blocked and reported the above email addresses, so likely the thieving piece of shit will make other accounts. I just find it quite sad that it will likely work with some retarded, horny victim....

This is all just evidence of what this world is coming to. People are getting more and more creative with ways to scam other people. The more outlets for communication and monetary transaction there are, the more ways people can get fucked by other people. What's even worse is that in a lot of cases the law can't protect you, either because the scam activities cannot be traced back to anyone, or the simple fact that the offenses took place on a website hosted in another country. The law does not transcend international boundaries, and unfortunately the citizens of some countries think it is acceptable to scam people outside their legal jurisdiction, therefore proving just how slimy they are. But no one is off the hook, I very much think people who fall for things like the bot thing truly deserve it. Really, how stupid do you have to be? One of the biggest reasons people keep scamming, I imagine, is because it works! Especially when it comes to people being led by their genitalia and not their brains, or people who are retarded enough to actually believe they are personally being contacted by a Nigerian prince to store his billions of dollars of savings in exchange for a hefty sum of his cash. Does Nigeria even have princes? I will have to look that one up.... (EDIT: I believe I am right in saying they don't, although other African countries might)

My point in this is that I think people should be given IQ tests in order to be able to use the internet. Knowing all of the damage that things like computer viruses, and the cost of the consequences of online scams, I think it would do a great service to the world if people using the internet were more focused on integrity, rather than just crackz and cumshots. I personally enjoy a nice, clean internet that I can travel around without needing to hold a hunting knife in my pocket while doing so. People need to be smarter when using the internet, and not fall for all of these scams, pyramid schemes, chain letters (it's basically the same principle as scams), and the spreading of false information (which is dangerous). If it looks, feels, or seems too good to be true it is! If it is from a "legitimate" company (companies can be just as big of scammers as anyone), you are likely not reading things in their entirety, and the company will find a loophole with which to rip you off. I could definitely go on about this topic for pages and pages, but I will keep a lid on it.

it's been a long time; my virus

2010-01-21T17:03:00.003-05:00

So it's been a while since I've updated this thing. I guess I just haven't been very talkative lately. I have been quite busy with school since September, so that might account for some of the lack of posting. I have also moved since then, and that made things a bit chaotic.

I have been having some problems with this laptop lately. I tried installing Windows 7 a few months ago, and I noticed that it slowed the internet on my laptop down to a crawl (I was getting maybe 1.5mb/s download). It definitely had something to do with my laptop in particular, and I am sure it was the wireless (since it was saying something about not having a correct driver). I said 'fuck that shit' and uninstalled Windows 7 and reinstalled Vista (which was a severely annoying process, of course). The problem went away for a bit, and then I installed some updates for Vista, and it happened again. Most of the updates were insignificant (like Windows Defender updates), but there was one that was a Platform Update (the KB number ended in 44) that was the likely cause since it was the only thing that had more than just minor updates (and I believe I read something in the description about it having to do with the wireless). At this point I had Vista Home Basic back on my computer, and I had access to a free copy of Vista Business through the university (which is how I got Windows 7), so I decided I would install that. I installed it and everything was okay for a while. After a bit, the internet slowness started again. I have been looking into it ever since. Lately, according to other customers, my ISP has been experiencing some problems with lag and stuff, but that doesn't completely account for it (other computers in the household are not experiencing the same problems this computer is). Combining whatever the problem is with the problems the ISP are having leads to me being very, very pissed off. I have been told everything from "optimize your internet" to "powercycle your modem and router", but neither has worked.

Now I will bring up the virus/malware my computer seems to be infected with, which may or may not be connected to the internet problems (I would like it if it was since that would mean I know the cause of the problems). I noticed that recently, whenever I do a Google search and click on a link in the results, it will redirect me to some advertising page. It is really annoying because it happens 2 out of 3 times I search. I have done virus scans, spyware scans, a rootkit scan, etc. but nothing has come up so far. I've also cleared my Windows and browser cache, my cookies, my recycle, etc. I currently have a thread going on in the Tech Support Forums here, in case someone who is reading this is having the same problem. I really hope it does something to improve the problem with my internet. But it seems to me like my investment in Norton has been pretty useless, since it hasn't even picked up on whatever is wrong with my computer. I keep reading that one of the main culprits for viruses is uTorrent and BitTorrent. I would really, really hate to have to give up downloading torrents. But I doubt I would give it up. I just need to stop downloading pirated software.

On a pretty random note, I have decided to install Ubuntu on my desktop again. I installed Win XP Professional on my desktop (I had dual boot Ubuntu and Win XP Home) because it was also free from the university, and I had to reformat really badly, and it installed over Ubuntu for some reason. It's going to suck having to configure it all again, but hopefully they have improved it since I used it last. I am most worried about the wireless support, since I could not get it to work last time, and I don't have the option of using a wired connection with where the computer is located. So, hopefully that goes okay.

Well, I am bored. Slightly hungry as well. I also must check on my Ubuntu download. I have been hanging around on the DSL Reports forum lately for some reason. It is a good place for DSL broadband internet questions, concerns, reviews and other stuff. It is the unofficial support forum for my ISP and they're really quite helpful. It's Canadian and American, so I highly recommend it if you're having problems with your internet. They do non-ISP caused problems as well.

Lockerz.com invites

2009-10-09T22:28:00.005-04:00

I just found this site, Lockerz.com and when I first saw it, I thought it was too good to be true. But it's not, even if only for the fact that in order to get points, you only have to invest time, not money. I have heard of sites that give you points for signing up for "offers" that you have to pay for. This is similar with the whole points thing, except you don't have to pay for anything, and you get points for logging in, referring people, answering the daily question, and from the looks of it, more features are coming soon.
My goal is to save up for a big screen Samsung TV. It's 3000 points, and I have 64 already, which is why I am so eager to get points. It's not one of those sites where you can spend a fucking century trying to earn enough points for anything good. The numbers are actually obtainable! I know the prices are going to go up, which is why I am trying to blitz people into being referred by me. So, here is where readers come in. Please sign up for me! It doesn't matter if you even ever go back to the site ever again, I still get points from the referral. So please, visit HERE and gimme your email address so I can send you an invite! :)

my notemachine

2009-09-17T00:28:00.002-04:00

So, I bought myself a netbook. I have been watching other people in class, and I was thinking about how much my hand hurt, and how much faster I am at typing than I am at writing. I want to bring my big laptop to class, but there's the fact that the desks are the size of a piece of paper, and can never fit a binder. This netbook is almost exactly the same size as the desks. Not to mention that the lecture halls are generally super crowded, so this will take significantly less space. Not to mention the fact that my other laptop has other unnecessary programs it loads up at startup, which I don't need if I am just taking notes. I am amazed at how quickly and comfortably I can type on this thing. It's great.

The netbook is an Acer Aspire One. It's got a 160GB hard drive (which is very impressive for such a little thing), but only has 1GB of RAM. It's got a 1.2GHz Intel Atom processor. It's a 10 inch screen, and the keyboard isn't full sized, but I have no problem using it. It's running Windows XP, because Vista is such a behemoth that you need minimum 3GB of RAM to run it. So, XP it is. It also comes with 3 USB ports, a VGA port, an SD card reader, a webcam and built in mic. The battery, when I unplugged it from the power, the timer said it was going to last for 3.5 hours, which is perfect, since next semester I might end up having 3 hour classes. I can charge it on lunch break. It's super duper convenient, and it will be a new friend for me. Along with my Blackberry, it can come with me to school and keep me company.

Hrmm...

2009-08-23T00:50:00.002-04:00

I haven't updated for a while. I have been busy with life. Plus, not very much advancement in computer software and such. I've basically been sticking to the same old. I have enjoyed downloading and burning movies lately, although it can be difficult considering I don't have unlimited bandwidth (fuck Rogers). I will be starting school soon, so I will likely have even less time unfortunately. Plus apartment hunting.

I bought a cooling dock for my laptop today. It's a Belkin, and it does a pretty good job. It lowered the internal temperature by 10 degrees (Celcius). I really have to find the right spot to place my laptop on it because it doesn't have any way of affixing to the laptop, it just has rubber pads where you're expected to place it. It works better when the laptop is sitting on a desk, though, which is annoying since I am fond of sitting on a couch with my laptop. Oh well, it does the job. It lowered the temperature from 70C to 60C, according to my sensors. It felt freakishly hot to the touch, which is what inspired the purchase in the first place.

Roxio piece of shit

2009-06-15T16:22:00.002-04:00

The software that comes with Blackberries to add media to the device is a piece of shit! It freezes everytime I try and add songs. I also tried adding songs through Windows Explorer to bypass having to use this shitty software, and I went to use the songs, and they aren't appearing right in FlipSide on my device. This is bullshit. I erased everything in hopes of refreshing everything on there, but it erased. I am fucking baffled and pissed, especially since it erased all of my ringtones! Fucking garbage!

Test post

2009-05-26T14:34:00.001-04:00

This is a test entry for my blog thingers. I am posting from my new Blackberry which is very fun.

Blackberry!!

2009-05-25T13:32:00.003-04:00

Here is copy pasta from my other blog regarding this matter:

"I have also gotten a Blackberry! You have no idea how long I have wanted one of these things, as much as I tried to squash the urge, it's always been there. I decided I was going to do it in August, which is the year after starting my contract. To wait until then, and get the two year price on the phone itself, I would have to extend my contract. Upon thinking about it, I could also buy the phone outright, and not extend my contract, and in the long run pay less. So, I decided to do that since I had just received a hefty tax return, and I did it, and love the damn thing. I know, most people think I am lame for liking it so much, and some even are ballsy enough to say I should have gotten an iPhone (HAHA!), but I don't care. :-P"

It is super fun, and a lot cooler than I even imagined, considering there's tons of free apps I can download, most of them free :) Some of them are kind of poorly written and don't work really well, but some of them are amazing, including one called Poynt, which is a search tool for local movie listings, theatres, and other entertainment shit. It also has a business 411 thing in it, and the most wonderful thing about it is that it uses the phones GPS to automatically detect stuff within locality of your phone. It is sweet. There are also things like multiplayer games (I downloaded multiplayer Blackjack) which is really damn cool considering it's on a phone. There are Google applications, like maps, news etc. and I downloaded a pretty accurate 411 application. It's really damn cool!

My current objective for the day is to find a conversion tool for my Blackberry that converts between common (and maybe some not-so-common) units, such as weight, speed, distance, volume etc... the one's I found on the Blackberry App World all cost money, and that's not acceptable :-P

My two major complaints about the Blackberry Curve 8330 are battery life and the GPS, both individually, and hand in hand. The battery life really sucks. The past couple days I have had a fully charged phone in the afternoon, around 11-noon, and by 7 or 8pm, it's giving me a low battery indication. This is terrible in comparison to my old phone, which would last me a weekend, even with moderate use. I looked online, and my only guess is that I have some apps going in the background that are draining the battery somehow. I know using the GPS drains the battery very quickly, but yesterday I didn't use the GPS, and it drained basically just as quick. Something is fucked up. There is also the fact that the GPS doesn't always work, and if there's a tiny little thing layer of cloud it won't get a signal. And forget getting anything indoors...that's not possible at all. But I have a suspicion that it is just this particular app I am using, InstaMapper, which plots my location. It seems Poynt and Google Maps work just fine with the GPS. I wish I could find another app for GPS that works.

Anyway, I will keep things updated about my sexy new gadget. It's name is Galileo the Brain, because it's my brain, and I have a tradition of naming my handheld devices after astronomers.

Mmmm, software...

2009-05-04T16:04:00.002-04:00

I am on a downloading spree. Usually it's movies and/or music, but this time it's software. So far I have gotten Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Auto Collage, and I am currently working on Vista Ultimate (which is harder than it sounds). It is amazing how retarded Microsoft is, and even if my software was genuine, I would be running into the same problems. It won't allow me to upgrade over Service Pack 1, which is absolutely ridiculous. So, I removed SP1 and it still won't work. If I were to install Vista Ultimate the way that is available, it would wipe my drive/partition/whatever and I would lose my data. Which is bullshit. All it has to do is update, and it can't do that without going through a complex procedure that is so far unknown to me, and that is not as simple as removing SP1. No wonder retarded people can't upgrade their operating system without requiring technical support...but my solution is to find a version of the Vista upgrade that is newer than the one I tried. The one I tried was from 2005 I believe, which is really old in computer years. The one I am downloading now is from 2008 I think, and assuming it's an upgrade version and not a full version, it should work a lot better.

My new shop!

2009-04-21T18:38:00.002-04:00

I got bored today and decided to create a Cafe Press shop. It will have a geeky theme, and feature clothing that has designs of internet memes and online piracy. It's crap I want to buy, and I just might too. I have no idea if other people are interested in this stuff, but since it's free and has absolutely no obligation or risk for me, it's definitely worth it. They basically print things on demand, so they don't have to produce anything until it gets paid for. Apparently you can also make CDs and books on Cafe Press too, so maybe I will somehow do that. The only problem is with a free account, you can only do one of every type of product once. So I can only do one design on a plain tshirt, and one design on a plain hoodie. People don't really buy much else, so we will see. If no one will buy anything, it's not worth it to buy a premium account anyway. It's fun though, if anything. Besides, my idea isn't original or anything, I am pretty sure I saw lots of stores featuring memes and geekery.

Anyway, the moment you've been waiting for, here it is; MY SHOP

Blackberry....?

2009-04-21T00:32:00.002-04:00

I keep having these recurring dreams where I have a Blackberry, and it's really annoying because I wish to have one. I am a technophile, so I cannot help it. Of course there's the fact that I keep seeing people with them, and I get jealous. I would have gotten one when I got my current cell phone if Virgin offered Blackberry plans when I signed up. But it was literally a week after I got my phone that they started offering Blackberries, I was so pissed. My phone is okay, but it doesn't have email, a browser, instant messaging, or any other fun crap. Not to mention Blackberries are good for organization, which would be an asset for school. Yes, I am trying to justify getting one, but I do believe it's a genuine reason. I called Virgin to see if I could add a Blackberry on to my plan, and they said in August maybe, which is the anniversary of my plan. They said I might be able to renew my plan and add a Blackberry, plus a data plan, on to my existing plan, so I can keep my current number and everything. We will see what develops before then though. Hopefully this terribly wanting a Blackberry thing passes.

DVD burning and wave to MP3

2009-04-15T12:39:00.004-04:00

I have a new hobby. My new hobby is downloading and burning movies. Up until I got my new computer, I wasn't able to do this. Now that I can do it, I am super happy and have burnt like 50 movies so far, and it is growing. It took me a while to figure out how to do this because I hadn't done it before. I was quickly overwhelmed by all the crap online about it. But a program called DVD Flick came to my rescue. DVD Flick is so easy to use that even my kittens could use it. Despite being easy, it still does everything that needs to be done, like automatically converting the AVI files I download to a file format suited for burning directly onto a DVD. I even figured out to add basic menus to the DVD so I can put multiple movies on one disc (roughly 2 movies per disc, depending on their size). It works wonderfully, and the only problems I have ever had with any of my burnt movies are extremely minor glitching, and a little loss of quality (but who knows if that's just the original video file, I didn't look before burning). The loss of quality is extremely minor and doesn't prevent recognition of what's on the screen.

Randomly today I decided to listen to some 3 Inches of Blood, which are super fucking awesome by the way. I noticed that the copy of the album I had was in wave format. I couldn't edit the tags and make it say the song information properly in the meta tags. This is a severe annoyance for me, and I hate improper tagging, mainly because I use Last.fm, but I like neatness on my computer anyway. I decided that using online conversion tools was taking too fucking long. So I looked around and found a wonderful thing called ABC Amber Audio (can be found here). So, if anyone is looking to convert wave to MP3, or MP3 to wave, use this tool. It's really fast too. Now, to go tag my album properly.

Scrobbling iPod touch way more complicated than it needs to be

2009-03-27T16:00:00.000-04:00

So, ever since I learned about the possibility of scrobbling my iPod, I have wanted to do it. Even when I had a nano. And ever since then there have been obstacles in the way of me scrobbling my iPod. Most of the ones I've come across in the past have been overcome, but it's taken a lot more effort than it should have. How hard is it to write a program that sends two lines of text to Last.fm from the iPod (the song name and title)? Apparently it's very difficult, if my past experience is any judge. I won't get into all of the problems I've had because that would take far too long.

For the iPod touch, when I first got it, it had firmware version 1.1.1 on it, which allowed me to jailbreak it and install MobileScrobbler which is a wonderful application that allowed me to scrobble my iPod with out any problem whatsoever. In fact, it even submitted tracks through wifi, so I didn't have to do anything! But somewhere between now and then, someone, either Last.fm or Apple, decided that allowing this to happen was unacceptable (for some fucking stupid reason) and decided to remove support for this. It was probably Apple since they're the ones who have pissed me off since the iPod was brought out, and they're the ones who keep updating the firmware (and trying to charge $10 for it). Instead of purchasing this firmware upgrade (to 2.1.1 or whatever it is now) I got a free version online (more proof those at Apple are a bunch of tards). I was under the impression that when I "purchased" this firmware upgrade that the world of simplicity would open up for me. I was certainly wrong. I was aware that there was a Last.fm app and I was under the impression, logically, that this application would scrobble the tracks you listen to on your iPod, just like MobileScrobbler, maybe even better. Once again, I was wrong. Apparently it only scrobbles internet radio. Why?? Why the hell can't it scrobble the songs I listen to on my iPod? What the fuck is the point in that?

So basically, my only option was to use the Last.fm plugin on my computer to scrobble the tracks on my iPod. Even that is harder than it should be. I would have thought that the plugin could simply parse the iTunesDB file on the iPod (or whatever the iPod touch equivalent is). That is what it does, but not without it's own difficulties. First of all, I absolutely HAVE to open iTunes first, and then the Last.fm plugin. Secondly, the library HAS to be available on the hard drive in order for the songs to scrobble (which is a fucking bitch since my music collection is on an external hard drive which isn't always on). Third of all, when I add new songs to the iPod, I have do disconnect it and then reconnect it for the songs I added to scrobble the next time I listen to them. And even then that method doesn't work. I added a couple songs last time I connected my iPod to the computer, disconnected, and reconnected, and this time the songs still didn't scrobble. It wasn't a huge deal since it was only two songs I added, but if I add a few albums worth of music, that can be a huge problem.

I guess my main point of contention would be with the iPod. The fact that the iPod is tethered to the shitty piece of software called iTunes. I fucking hate iTunes with a passion. The only use I have for it is internet radio and it organizing my music collection. And there are other pieces of software for that. Why does the fucking iPod have to be connected to iTunes? Why can't it just allow for drag and drop compatibility? It would make my life a whole lot simpler. I lost a lot of respect for Apple when they designed this piece of shit iTunes. Not to mention the difficulty I had making an iTunes Store account without a credit card. That pissed me off to no end. Fucking money whores. All they need is a little fucking application that scrobbles my iPod tracks like MobileScrobbler... is it so much to ask?

Deliberate difficulty?

2009-03-02T18:18:00.002-05:00

I am trying to uninstall this Microsoft Office shit from my computer (which isn't even the full version, it's only a 60 day trial). I downloaded OpenOffice instead for obvious reasons (one of them being it's like $300 cheaper). Apparently uninstalling Office is going to take an hour, plus it's going to freeze my computer every once in a while and make it stutter. Microsoft products are the only ones that do that (since I am cleaning some crap off the computer). My CPU load isn't even, on average, past 75% on either core. Is this a deliberate ploy to magnify the frustration and irritation that Microsoft products cause users? Is it a lame attempt at preventing people from uninstalling their cheap, rip off of a program? Some might call me paranoid, but I don't think it's that entirely outlandish.

New laptop!

2009-02-22T20:33:00.002-05:00

So I finally got a new laptop. It is not the one I was originally supposed to get though. I finally gave up on Dell's stupidity and decided I would just buy one here. And yes it has Windows. Although I discovered, while looking around, that getting hardware with Ubuntu on it does not guarantee I will not have the same hardware problems I have with my desktop. So, I opted for Windows. It is also due to the fact that it will be a lot easier collaborating next year with people in school if we're all on the same system. Plus now I can watch Flash videos and such without worrying about which programs I have open. Hopefully someday the Ubuntu developers will fix that fucking Flash problem. Not to mention Bluetooth and of course the wireless problems I had.

The laptop I got is a 16" HP. It's got a 250GB hard drive, Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, 3GB of RAM, plus Bluetooth and I believe wireless N. It comes with Windows Vista Basic. So far it has been completely smooth, and I took a couple hours in the past few days and downloaded/installed most of what I need (such as a Torrent downloader, mIRC, BOINC, etc). I shall keep updating.

Dell...

2009-02-08T16:50:00.002-05:00

It's been almost two months now, and the laptop my dad ordered for me for Christmas is still not here. I am quite livid towards Dell now, considering I know a couple of people who have ordered laptops about two weeks ago, and one has gotten theirs, and the other will be getting theirs tomorrow or Tuesday. Since the order is in my dad's name, he told me he will handle it, although I wish I could be the one to bitch them out. My dad will probably be a little more diplomatic than I will though. It is at the point where I would expect some form of compensation because of their slacking off. The worst part is that they don't even update the order tracking site, which makes it even more fucking annoying. It would also be nice if the website had a little more detail, instead of just "in production". Maybe they could give me an idea of what is taking them so goddamn long. But even after my dad emailed them the first time, they still didn't update the order tracking site with the date they said in the email (which was a complete lie anyway, but still). The only thing different between my laptop and the laptops that other people I know is the operating system. I got mine loaded with Ubuntu, and they got Windows Vista. You would think, if anything, mine would take less time since the operating system is free and doesn't require any form of licensing and whatnot. The paranoid side of me wants to say that it's a ploy from Microsoft, and that they pay Dell to get their products out before anything else. But that's craziness, right?

Sound in Flash fix!

2009-01-27T15:45:00.004-05:00

I am extremely happy. I finally figured out how to get my sound for Flash in Firefox! I have been having this problem since I started using Ubuntu, and it's pissed me off severely not being able to watch YouTube videos people link me to. But I fixed it! The simple fix? Downgrade my Flash plugin to version 7 (as opposed to the newer version 10). I can now watch YouTube! The only problem is, I've noticed, is that some sites prompt me to update my Flash before I can view certain content. I am not at the point of caring yet though. I would rather be able to watch YouTube videos (as well as other videos). I will update my Flash plugin the day there is an update that fixes the initial problem. Until then, I am not touching it. Although this causes me to wonder what the fuck they did to it to screw it up in the first place. Shouldn't updates fix problems and not cause them? It doesn't seem right that an older version of something works better than the newer version.

Post-Christmas and end of year

2009-01-07T19:28:00.003-05:00

So, since I last posted, I have managed to acquire a little bit of technology as a result of Christmas. First of all, I got a new digital camera that actually works! It's a Canon Powershot, and it's 10 megapixels. It's nice and compact, and has a nice three inch LCD on the back. It's lovely. Especially since it runs on battery pack, which means no more fucking around with batteries! One of the reasons why my old camera was virtually unusable is because it would drain a set of batteries in a matter of (literally) five minutes of taking pictures. I have no idea why, but it was ridiculous. I have also posted several hundred pictures to Facebook (okay I am exaggerating a little bit) and they're lovely. I took a picture of the piece of bread stuck in the front grill of my car (don't ask, I have no idea) and I could make out the little flecks of missing paint on the grill that I didn't even really notice were there.

Another piece of technology I got was a Wii! The lovely, wonderful coveted Wii, heh. Also with the Wii I got Wii Fit, which also is a very coveted thing. I've had lots of fun with the Wii so far. I definitely need more games to go with it, since sports and exercise can only be so fun, but I downloaded some games from the Wii shop. I got Super Mario 3, Bomberman Blast, and Earthworm Jim. I was so excited to play Earthworm Jim again, I loved that game as a kid. It was awkward though, I need to get the classic controller. It will make old school games so much easier. I haven't tried Bomberman Blast yet, but I've always wanted to own a Bomberman game. I played one once and it was really fun. By the way my console's Wii number is: 0922 9397 6441 6181

The biggest piece of technology I got for Christmas, however, was a new laptop. Oh yea, it's going to be awesome. It comes loaded with Ubuntu, which I always told myself was absolutely mandatory for my next computer. I wish I had it already. It's a Dell Inspiron, and Dell is taking their sweet ass time manufacturing my laptop. The website says "In Production" but the ship date was supposed to be Christmas... it's been in production since then. I don't get why they would say Christmas if it was going to be like a month late. I would have rather had them give me a date much later than the actual ship date. At least I won't get pissed off that way. And if you're going to have a shipping tracking website, why not update it? The shipping page for my laptop has been the same since a week before Christmas. I've never been impressed with Dell's shipping. My family has ordered many things from Dell, and it's always the same shit over and over. You can never rely on any dates they give you. No matter when we order stuff, it never comes on time for the occasion in which it is being gifted for. It's actually really goddamn annoying.

Anyway, there is my brief update on my Christmas acquisitions. Let's hope my laptop arrives soon! Oh did I mention that it is going to my dad's house? So even when it is shipped, I still won't yet have it.

Fixed Java problem? crosses fingers

2008-12-05T16:25:00.002-05:00

I believe I might have solved the problem I was having with Java on my computer. I seemed to have had two versions of Java fighting to work, and the one that was working while I was having problems was icedtea; I had typed "java -version" in the terminal and got told it was using icedtea even though I had uninstalled icedtea a while ago. Turns out, when I went to the package manager, I had missed a couple packages which weren't actually called icedtea, but were the complete environment for it. The main package was openjdk-6-re, as well as another one called openjdk-6-re-headless. There was another one too but I cannot remember the name, but it was directly below the first two in the package manager. I tested this by opening Pogo and loading Casino Island Blackjack (a game I was previously having trouble with) and it worked! Yay!

Pidgin is a bitch

2008-12-03T14:38:00.002-05:00

I have no idea why, but Pidgin is being a stupid cunt and won't keep me logged into MSN. It will log in, and within a minute will say it has disconnected. It won't do it on a constant basis either, it only does it on certain occasions. Maybe I will change instant message clients tonight or something. But first, food.

Ubuntu update

2008-11-23T22:20:00.005-05:00

As I have said before, I am happily using Ubuntu as my primary operating system on my desktop computer. It took me a while to get here, but I did after several difficult issues getting it installed on my other crappy computer. There were the issues of use as well, considering I was installing it not knowing the least bit how to use it. So, I guess you could say I taught myself the basics of Ubuntu. Aren't I awesome?
Either way, as most experiments encounter, I have had my share of problems. A lot of them had to do with sound. For a while I could only get temporary sound, and each time I had to reinstall the ALSA sound base. Fortunately, the update to 8.10 (from 8.04) fixed that, and allowed me to use OSS, which completely solved the problem. The only other problem is that I cannot get sound in flash videos. It's really annoying, I can't use YouTube.

Another problem I had was with my monitor. I got a 22 inch Samsung monitor for my birthday and for the life of me could not get it to recognize the fact that it was a 22 inch and not a 21 inch. Also the fact I had to adjust the resolution every time I turned on the computer, which got really old really fast. Fortunately, it was another problem solved by updating to 8.10. Let's just say I was very glad for 8.10.

Something I am noticing, and I am pretty sure it's the websites and not my computer, but any website I go to where I need to do some kind of online transaction (eg. banking, paying bills etc.) the page will not load. It's really fucking annoying because I can only pay my cell phone bill online, and I can only do certain bank transactions online. I went on my laptop earlier (it's a shitty old Mac) and I could get on my cell phone company website on there, which is balls. But I am pretty sure it's something to do with the website being a piece of shit, because my bank site has been intermittently working (generally it doesn't work when I need it most), so I know it is possible for it to work.

The Bluetooth not working has been an ongoing problem to the point where I have given up caring. It's not even that significant, but the annoying thing is that I can't use my wireless keyboard and mouse. It's a bitch because the mouse I use sucks. But it's one of the minor problems.

Overall, though, I am extremely satisfied with Ubuntu. I will never willingly return to Windows. You can do so much more with Ubuntu, and people make the software for it because they care about the software (since it's all open source). Proprietary stuff is complete bullshit if you ask me, since this is a much more effective way to do things. It also leaves people more satisfied.

Canada's Sex Offender Registry a National Embarassment

2008-11-09T19:04:00.003-05:00

[link]

I was doing some research for an essay I have to write for class (yes another essay...) and came across the above article. I am shocked and appalled at this, for many reasons. One of the main reasons is that it's so, so simple to implement! It's a database! We're living in the information age, and even when we weren't, there were still tools available to create a database like this, even a secure one! Fucking political red tape is the worst kind. For something that's supposed to make things happen, it's pretty good and preventing things that should happen. I'm sure if I took a course or two I could make up a fucking database like that. And every police officer in Canada would have access to it (with discretion of course; no editing allowed except by certain individuals, considering the stories in the above article about cops being offenders themselves).

Why can't we have something like the US has? If the US has anything right, it's their justice system. If you're going to commit a crime of such an abhorrent sexual nature, you deserve to be strung out to dry, and have people vandalizing your house and sending you death threats every day. You deserve to live with the consequences of your actions, just like everybody else in the world. It's your problem that you decided to do what people consider depraved. I think every sex offender in the world should have their personal details published on the internet for everyone to see. But that's just me.

ugh responsibility

2008-11-04T17:36:00.002-05:00

How annoying is it when I have to do studying but all I really want to do is play my Xbox? I bought two games a couple weeks ago, Lego Batman and Civilization Revolution. Right now, I am currently fixed on Lego Batman, and have a friend who is officially addicted as well, and now loves playing co-op mode. I haven't dedicated enough time to Civ Rev (one thing at a time), but from what I've played it definitely seems damn cool. I have started an Aztec civilization and am trying to conquer by having the best technology.

If anyone has played Lego Indiana Jones, (I have 1000/1000 gamerpoints from it), Lego Batman is quite similar in some ways. You collect studs to buy things, which are characters, special extras, and in the case of Batman, vehicles. You also go through levels collecting certain items that add up to make a bigger item, and that's part of the objective of the game. The point is, there are several objectives, which I love. My favourite thing is Free Play mode. You use the characters you purchased to go through the levels and access things you couldn't access with the normal characters (each character has special abilities). I think the Lego games are super fabulous. Next, I will be getting Lego Star Wars!

MobileScrobbler and Apple's stupidity

2008-10-17T15:42:00.002-04:00

This is copy pasted from a journal entry I posted on Last.fm :

I use an iPod touch, and I am currently still using firmware 1.1.1 which is just fine with me; I don't need Apple's craptacular innovations on my hardware. I also use MobileScrobbler to scrobble my iPod tracks, which is something everyone should be able to do. As of a couple days ago, my iPod randomly stopped scrobbling. It's not a problem with MobileScrobbler, since it's doing everything it's supposed to do, but a problem with Last.fm, as it is not accepting the tracks from MobileScrobbler. I have been looking around online, and apparently I am not nearly the only one having this problem. Apparently everyone with firmware 1.1.1 had this problem. It has been concluded that Last.fm is in cahoots with Apple, and are collectively trying to force people to use that bull shit "App Store" thing that Apple is pushing. This is one very small and annoying step in that attempt. Why should we be forced to update our firmware? I was perfectly happy with 1.1.1... but I should be able to answer my own question: it's because Apple wants us to spend money in the fucking "App Store". Fuck Apple. I'm not giving them one cent to scrobble my iPod, which better be free.

So, I figure I will try and update to 2.0.2 or whatever the most recent version is, and see how that goes. I'll then try and download this "official Last.fm app" shit, and see where that takes me. It looks like I'm going to have to go into Windows to do it too... If everything was open source and accessible, I would not have half the computer related problems that I do.

All moved in

2008-09-21T01:01:00.002-04:00

As of last Sunday, I am all moved in to my new place. I ended up rooming with a friend of my girlfriend's. It has proven to be rewarding. I am closer to everyone and everything that is important to me (not including family though unfortunately). One of the major advantages is now I have a permanent wired connection and can therefore use Ubuntu almost exclusively. I had to go get a new wired keyboard, and still can't use my Bluetooth mouse, but I'm thinking of selling them anyway. They've been nothing but trouble, and I can always invest in wireless that is not Bluetooth. I find Bluetooth, for something simple like peripherals, is quite pointless. No data is exchanged and therefore, Bluetooth is overkill. The only problem is that I want to keep the dongle for my computer (to keep it's Bluetooth compatibility) but might have a hard time selling the keyboard and mouse without it. But we'll see. I will check eBay next.

Another problem is that the internet connection is kind of shaky for the Xbox. I got dropped from a Halo 3 game lastnight. I have never dropped before. I've also been having some major connectivity problems with Lost Planet Colonies. I go to search for games, and most of the time it has told me "no matches found". This has happened to me once at home. That was a result of server problems on the end of the game server. I seriously hope my NAT is closed or something so I can fix it and be on my merry way again. I am going to be severely depressed if I can't play Lost Planet.

Another thing that's odd for me is that I have to turn off my technology when I go to bed. I am used to just leaving it on all the time. But since I will actually be paying for power, I have to be conscious of this. But I can still leave it on the majority of the days on the weekends. Just when I know I won't be using it.

I've also been stressed more. Since everything around me has changed, and I have been presented with a whole new set of expectations, I have kind of been slow on the upkeep. I will continue to be stressed until I can really establish a regular and beneficial routine. But even then it might be a long, long time before I am comfortable, due to some interpersonal problems. I've even been stressed since before school even started. Getting in wasn't a pretty picture, and neither was the whole last minute change. I thought I was going to one school up until a week before classes start. The place I wanted to go (where I am now) accepted me extremely last minute, and my stress level increased exponentially. I had to do in a week what most people had months to do, in order to prepare for classes and such. After that, of course, was trying to find a place to live. Most of the places I saw were complete shitholes. The one place I wanted got snatched out from under me a couple hours before I was going to potentially take the place. It was kind of chaotic. And now school begins, as does a whole new set of problems. Yippe skippie.

The craptacular new Facebook layout

2008-09-16T16:38:00.004-04:00

I'm going to cut straight to the chase: who the fuck designed the new Facebook layout? It clearly has to be someone with the design skills and intelligence of a chimpanzee with a lobotomy. It's the most counterintuitive piece of shit I have used in a long time, and I hated Last.fm's recent redesign.
The wall is now all clustered together. Kind of like what would happen if you took your shoes, cutlery, pencils, pens, markers, dishes, bathroom items, other assorted household items, and threw them all into one big huge pile with all of your neighbourhood's items as well. Now find one of your spoons, and you have the annoyance I experience when using the new Facebook.
I can't look at all of my information on one page, no no, that would be too simple. I have to have minimum three fucking pages on my profile. None of the apps are on the main pages either; those are completely separate. So if, for example, you wished for someone to see one of your apps (which is generally why people install apps in the first place), they will not see it unless they make a point of visiting your "Boxes" page. What a fucking stupid name...it took me like ten minutes to figure out where the fuck all of my apps went because this title is completely irrelevant to the actual purpose of the page. How about calling it something like, oh, "Apps"?
The wall comments (even though this fits in with the first point of contention, it still deserves it's own mention) are lumped in with all other events. I don't know when the fuck people have commented on my page, because it's squished right in there between the other crap. The only way I really know is if the comment is at the top, or I happen to check my email. How is that a fucking Wall? The Wall is a place for comments only goddammit.

I could go on and on about how I fucking hate new Facebook (e.g. why does the status have to be so big in "The Wall", why does it show all comments for posted items in the news feed, why the hell did they change the right hand navigation, etc.) But I think I've made my point. I am far from the only one. I've looked around and seen that at least 75% of people whose comments I've seen have said they hate the new layout as well. How hard is it to give us a fucking option to pick which layout we want to use? Why is that such a huge deal? But apparently Mark Zuckerberg has his head so far up his ass that he doesn't realize that what he did to Facebook is absolutely retarded. The best part is, they ask for feedback on the new layout, but completely ignore when people say they don't like it. Everything short of saying "too fucking bad".

So, someone please tell me, why the fuck are they forcing this change when there's no reason to do so? Does it not matter anymore what users think? What was wrong with the original Facebook layout? I found it to be perfectly usable and pleasant.

My browser speed

2008-09-05T14:04:00.002-04:00

That is how fast my browser is. Note the right hand column, and how the different browsers compare to each other. Not surprisingly, Internet Exploder is like a special Olympics athlete running against non-special Olympians (oh, I'm horrible, I know). It looks like I'll be downloading Google Chrome soon, well, when I feel like going back to Windows.

Want to know what your browser speed is? Click here and it will tell you (you have to take a screen shot if you want to record it).

Ubuntu after a long time

2008-08-30T19:14:00.002-04:00

My brother has gone back to school for the fall, and that means I get my wire back. Since I cannot get Ubuntu to work on wireless, I can only use it when I have the wire. I decided five months was too long and that I had to use Ubuntu again. But with that comes having to update everything, and possibly taking another crack at the wireless and Bluetooth problems. It took about 45 minutes to install all of the updates available. It's been almost an hour and my music collection still isn't updated. I'm pretty sure more problems will come. Considering I still cannot print. Unfortunately getting rid of Windows is not an option yet. But we knew that five months ago.

So, as I said in my previous post, kick back, relax and wait for the stress to set in. If my cortisol levels aren't through the roof, I don't want to know how it feels when they are.

Moving sometime soon, Win XP SP 3

2008-08-29T17:08:00.003-04:00

I have concluded as to where I am going for school this year, and therefore am moving sometime in the near future (hopefully next week, when I decide on a place). So, if I seem more frustrated, jaded and pessimistic than usual, you know why it probably is. And with the beginning of school goes my free time, and therefore less updates. Not that I update very often as it is; most people update every day. But the less I update, the longer my entries tend to be. So, it's up to you whether that is a good thing.
Anyway, I am looking at a couple places, one of them I saw yesterday. It was a basement room with nice new hardwood floors and new walls. It's a townhouse I would be sharing with another girl, and it's definitely reasonably sized, although my room wouldn't be huge. I could fit a TV and a bed in there, and I'm almost sure my gargantuous desk would fit in there as well. The only problem would be fitting a couch. I am not playing videogames on my bed. The place is definitely a possibilty. I would be paying like $400.
Another place I am looking at is the basement of a bungalow made into a separate unit. It definitely sounds nice, and the guy who owns the place sounds nice too. I would also absolutely love to not have to share a space, considering how much of a picky person I am. But I also wish for my significant other to move in sometime at a later date.
I got an email from someone today about a 1 bedroom and a 2 bedroom he/she has available, and the possibility of subletting the 2 bedroom, possibly to my significant other. I emailed them back pressing for some details, but haven't received a reply quite yet. I hope whoever it is didn't go away for holidays or anything. That would be annoying, since I want to get this crap done.
There were one or two other places I emailed people about, but I haven't received a response yet, which kind of indicates to me that these people don't really want to sell it. Besides, they aren't the most appealing sounding anyway. One of them, I'm not even sure why I considered it, it's like 5 people in one little house. Fuck that shit.

On another note, why the fuck did Microshaft design the update system the way they did? You cannot dismiss the restart notification if you are opting not to restart, which absolutely infuriates me. I can't type a fucking blog post without getting interrupted by this fucking notification that I need to restart. I am fucking aware that I have to restart! I do not want to restart since I just restarted ten minutes before this update was installed because of another fucking update! Seriously, get your shit together and co-ordinate this crap! I don't want to have to restart every goddamn half hour because Microshaft is too goddamn stupid to do something sensible like maybe sending all the updates at once, or just plain forgoing the useless crap they send.

Service Pack 3 was the second update involved in the above rant. I look online for details of this thing, and cannot find a detailed breakdown of what I am inflicting on my computer by installing this Microshaft update. That seriously pisses me off, why can't I have a changelog? Am I not allowed to know what new bullshit Microshaft is raping my computer with? It's a very common problem with everything but the most l33t software, that I can't find out what's being changed. How am I supposed to enjoy (or possibly hate) the new features if I don't know what they are? Unless it's a security update.

Anyway, I have been interrupted twice in about ten minutes from the window that tells me to restart my computer. I am getting quite sick of it so I am going to stop before I kill something.

Zoo photo inclusion

2008-08-25T07:29:00.002-04:00

So, two summers ago, I went to the Toronto Zoo with a couple friends, and took some pictures. I submitted them to my Flickr, and they were just sitting there. I randomly get an email from someone involved in the production of Schmap Guides saying they want to use one of my pictures in one of their guides. So, I let them and now it's been published. This is the picture:

80s and 90s music

2008-08-20T17:38:00.011-04:00

Lately I have been on an extreme "retro" music kick (retro for me at least, in my miniscule twenty something years on this earth). Instead of going through headache and irritation trying to download this stuff (some of it is extremely hard to find because the artists have fallen off the planet), I've just been simply looking up these songs on YouTube. In doing so, I have made two playlists, one for the 80s and one for the 90s. Some of the quality of the sound on these songs is pretty shitty, but some of it is really good.

If you would like to visit my YouTube channel (I specialize in ripped biology videos), click here
I always have active sharing on, I always am open to receiving messages and crap, it's fun.
Anyway, here are my playlists so far (I will update slowly). Some of the songs are from the late 70s, but it's close enough:

80s Music

1. Snow - Informer
2. Genesis - That's All
3. Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again
4. Madonna - Material Girl
5. Madonna - Papa Don't Preach
6. Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
7. Bananarama - Cruel Summer
8. Fleetwood Mac - Big Love
9. Duran Duran - The Chauffeur
10. Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen
11. Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
12. Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
13. Madonna - Into The Groove
14. Police - Message In a Bottle
15. Police - Roxanne
16. Queen - Another One Bites The Dust
17. Sade - Smooth Operator
18. Soft Cell - Tainted Love
19. Donna Summer - Hot Stuff
20. Tears For Fears - Shout
21. Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
22. Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth
23. Michael Jackson - Beat It
24. Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal
25. Michael Jackson - Dirty Diana

90s Music

1. Ace of Base - All That She Wants
2. Ce Ce Peniston - Finally
3. Savage Garden - Break Me Shake Me
4. Savage Garden - To The Moon And Back
5. La Bouche - Be My Lover
6. Mr. President - Coco Jambo
7. Livin' Joy - Dreamer
8. Gloria Estefan - Turn The Beat Around
9. Madonna - Secret
10. Reel 2 Real - I Like To Move It
11. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
12. Green Day - Longview
13. Smashing Pumpkins - Bullet With Butterfly Wings
14. Sublime - Date Rape
15. Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence
16. Jennifer Lopez - Let's Get Loud
17. Le Click - Tonight Is The Night
18. Fugees - Killing Me Softly
19. Lauren Hill - Doo Wop (That Thing)
20. Ace of Base - Young and Proud (demo version)
21. Ace of Base - Young and Proud (live) - I cannot seem to find the regular album version
22. Savage Garden - Carry On Dancing
23. Rockell - I Fell In Love - the video is kind of crap, but it's one of those rare ones
24. First Base - Can You Keep A Secret - okay, about this one, I couldn't find it on YouTube, so it's not technically in the playlist. But it's definitely an important song in my past, so it belongs here, no matter what form it's in

As you can probably tell, Ace of Base was a fundamental staple in my growing-up diet of pop music. I will freely admit that I still like them a lot. I don't care what anyone thinks. If you agree, all the power to you.

I will not be noting editions when I update this list because that would take way too much space. It would also be extremely annoying for me considering compiling the list after the fact was enough work.

EDIT: Go me. Soon after composing this list, I discovered that you can embed playlists in HTML. Why the hell do I figure these things out after I compose this shit? Well, I'm not erasing my lists. I worked hard on them so enjoy, godammit.
EDIT of an EDIT: Okay well the writing out of the songs is good because they are in order, allowing anyone to know what order the songs are in. Kind of like the track listing on a CD insert, heh

Updates; good or bad?

2008-08-13T02:41:00.003-04:00

Here is a list of some programs I use regularly and my opinion of their update frequency. This post was inspired by the incessant and severely annoying updates I receive from Apple about the piece of shit iTunes. I swear to god if they updated anymore it would be a fucking code blog.

- Winamp - updated too often... not much is done each time either. I haven't noticed a difference between the last three or four updates.

- Firefox - not updated enough. You don't need to revamp the entire thing each time.

- iTunes - fuck off Apple! (In other words, updated waaay too often... it almost feels like it's updated every day)

- Soulseek - not often enough! When it is updated, it's way too big of an update and leads to having to completely migrate accounts to new servers

- Windows Live Mail - not enough, and it's a Microshaft product so it inevitably needs improvement

- mIRC - not nearly enough... but considering the guy who makes it expects payment for this thing, the common sense just isn't there

- Adobe Creative Suite - never updated... this is an absolutely terrible example of post-purchase support. Even Microshaft is better...they at least allow you some post-purchase updates. I have not received a single update from Adobe for any of their paid products, and I've had this version of the creative suite for a couple years now.

- BOINC Manager - not nearly enough. I realize there is not much here to have to improve, but still, can we at least have some cosmetic improvements? Or perhaps less jargony menus?

- Miranda IM - JUST RIGHT... although that might be partly because this is a fully customizable application and updating mainly has to do with plugins.

My final phone decision

2008-08-11T22:50:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I got a new cell phone today. About time right? Well, it pretty much came down to completely ignoring everything I have posted so far about phone companies and shit, because I didn't go with any of the aforementioned companies. I went with Virgin Mobile. Believe it or not, there is a cell phone company not out there to fill their greedy pockets! I got all of the features I want and don't have to pay any stupid system access crap or anything! Either way, look at the website if you want to know more. I got the myCrew dealy (you get unlimited talk and text with your favourite 5 contacts). $25 is the cheapest, but if you go $35 they make it so you can talk and text nationwide with your contacts. The part that sold me (because other companies offer this) is that if you present a student card, you get 10 contacts. So, $35 a month, plus $10 for voicemail and call display (which are essentials to me) and I get $45 a month. That is $5 less than what Telus was offering. Although Telus offered web browsing, they also still have the $6.95 and 75 cent fees every month. Which means $56.95 a month, plus any running over I might do. And if you do run over with Telus, it's 35 cents a minute (double that for long distance), and only 30 cents for Virgin. Plus, I also really wanted the LG Rumour. Telus offered the LG Keybo, which also cost $50 even with the 3 year plan. I got the Rumour for nothing. So, overall, I'd pay more at Telus. But it was a close second. Rogers, Fido, Bell, and Solo didn't even place within my ranks.

Well, enough rambling about my new cell phone stuff. Let's just say I will continue to be pessimistic about large companies and their motives for doing things. I will never understand though. Why are the largest companies the most money hungry? Don't they have enough goddamn money, or do they have to take more from people who may not have as much? Why do companies like Microshaft who, all over the world, process billions of dollars in primary sales have to go on and rip off their customers? I mean in some cases (eg. video game consoles) they truly are the superior one, but in other cases (eg. operating systems and software) they suck hairy balls. So, why keep trying with the crappy software? Why don't they listen to their customers? You cannot expect me to believe that their (trillions of) loyal Office users asked for the atrocious monstrosity that is Office 2007. It is an absolute piece of garbage. The beginning product was by no means a masterpiece either, but Office 2007 takes the shit cake.

Anyway, maybe some day I will find something besides companies to blog about. But they do really irritate me. Maybe someday I should make my own money whore company and take over the internet or something. Then the fuckers who own and operate Rogers, Microshaft, iTunes, etc. can drain their bank accounts into my pockets.

Bureaucratic phone services

2008-08-07T12:43:00.003-04:00

In the age of technology, innovation and progression, how can our governing body continue to be so retarded?

"All our analysts are still unavailable, your call is important to us, someone will be with you as soon as possible."

...that is what is being drilled into my head every 30 seconds or so. I bet you anything they have only one or two operators working the phones. Just like they had a huge ass line at the Ministry of Transportation, yet only two service desks were open. Not only does "instantaneous" services take forever, heaven forbid you should need something sent away. That will take a minimum six weeks. Or at least they say it will. Realistically, it will take about two months. Have they not learned to employ technology to their advantage? Do they send anything digitally?

The conclusion of the above story is that I was told to fax the form in (because someone couldn't have told me that in the first place) and they will review it. Unfortunately for me, I need this issue concluded by September 2nd, and it slowly looks like that will not happen. This is what I get for being honest on this form. Now I am thinking that I should have just lied and made things simple for myself.

The good thing about this is that faxes are almost instantaneous like email. The bad part is that fax machines are so archaic that I don't even know how to use one. I'm sure it's easy to figure out, but the last thing I need is to accidentally send this (sensitive) form to somewhere Joe's Auto Shop, which has one digit different in their fax number than the Ministry of Transportation. But I've never actually had occasion to use a fax machine. Which is fucking weird.

So, off to try and fax this shit. Wish me luck and hope that I don't fail.

My future phone?

2008-08-03T16:46:00.004-04:00

Come September, I will be moving for school. And with moving comes a new area code. Which means the possibility of a new phone (I am hoping since I am sick of Rogers' systematic ripping off). I have done some research, and have discovered that owning a smartphone is premature. Prices for data are still astoundingly retarded, and there's no way I can get anything approaching reasonable. So, I have opted for the text message heavy option, which includes a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard (essential). The only cell phone company in this area that has a QWERTY phone that can be obtained without subscribing to a data plan, or selling your children is Bell (which includes Solo Mobile as well). The phone is the LG Rumour (see it here, except obviously remove the Sprint slant to this page). The plan I am looking at is $20 a month, which gives me 50 minutes plus 1000 evenings and weekends, which is more than enough for me. I am also including the "Smartphone" feature pack thing, which is another $15 a month. But you get 2500 text messages, call display, and voicemail, which are all the features that are essential to me. So, all 911 and system access fees plus my charges, I would be paying $44.70. Although it might be better to go with the whole smartphone idea with Fido, because I calculated that I could be paying only $40 a month for all of those things Bell provides, plus unlimited email, browser and 1000 picture/video messages. But that is assuming that that price will be the same when I am ready to get a new phone.

I just wish prices and availability did not change all the fucking time. I could actually be capable of making a decision if everything would stop changing under my nose. Some things change too fast, and some things don't change fast enough. The deals and cheap prices are the things that change way too fast, and you can't decide on it until it is too late. On the other hand, data plan prices, and the prices for the iPhone cannot change fast enough.

iPhone excitement turned annoyance

2008-07-17T14:17:00.004-04:00

Upon further research into the iPhone, I am dismayed to learn that Canadians are getting seriously ripped off by the plans offered for the iPhone. The cheapest plan is $60 a month, which is a complete gip in itself, not to mention the fact that you only get 150 minutes, only 75 text messages (which is appalling) and no unlimited data. Fuck you very much Rogers. In the US, they pay around the same prices for their different packages. But they get more for their money. They get unlimited data, and at a certain level of plan, get unlimited calling. The most minutes you can get in Canada are 800. I know people who would blow through that in a week. So, I take fact my favourable comments in my last post and strongly warn everyone to stay away from the iPhone until Rogers stops being a bunch of cocksuckers and actually understands the concept of customer appreciation.

In the meantime, I think the most plausable option is a PDA made by someone other than Apple. Even Blackberries are kind of expensive still (fucking brand costs). I've been looking at the Samsung Jack or Samsung Ace (although the Ace is kind of tacky looking) or the Motorola Q. They are on various carriers, and go for various prices, but they change so often there's no point in quoting prices and stuff. But Fido had the best data prices last time I checked. I also noticed the more you pay for the handset up front, the less you pay a month, and therefore the less you pay period.

Anyway, I'm not going to rush into anything or sign my life away to some money hungry corporation like Rogers. This is just a simple run down.

iPhone excitement

2008-06-28T02:46:00.007-04:00

I have decided that when the iPhone comes to Canada, I absolutely must have it. It appears that Apple has gotten the message and realized no one will buy their product if it costs upwards of $700. So, according to the website, the iPhone will go for $200. I am not sure whether or not that is with a data/phone plan or not.

When the iPhone comes to Canada, it will be carried by Rogers and Fido, considering Rogers is the Canadian equivalent of AT&T. Unfortunately this means exponential rates for both voice and data plans; Rogers has a huge case of money lusting syndrome and do not give their customers any breaks (I am a Rogers customer for the record). Fido seems to have the right idea with, first of all, showing anything about the iPhone on their website (I had to dig for like five minutes before I found anything mentioning the iPhone on the Rogers website). Second of all, having information on voice and data plans combined, considering only an idiot would purchase an iPhone for either voice or data, but not both. Plans start at $60 a month, which is a moderate price for any plan, and would also be the most likely plan for me (considering I don't talk very much and would be using it mostly for data and text messages). It's weird that this information is on the Fido website but not the Rogers website, considering they're the same company. The fact that Fido's rates are actually reasonable is odd as well. They also seem to have a wider variety of phones available. I am not sure why this could be, or if I could possibly be imagining things.

Either way, it seems like people are learning and that the price of owning an iPhone is finally coming down. It's unlikely I will be able to afford one anytime soon, considering I'm still on shitty contract with Rogers with my Motorola RAZR. The RAZR sucks and is flimsy...but that's another argument for another day. Maybe by the time I am able to get an iPhone the price will be half of what it is...that would make it super affordable, considering I'm a pennypinching student.

Facebook Applications

2008-06-10T10:46:00.006-04:00

Since we're all social network whores these days (there is absolutely no escaping it, no matter how l33t/cool/independant/original you think you are) I decided to fully come out of the closet with my annoying Facebook habit by describing some popular(?) apps people use on their Facebook profiles (because no one uses MySpace anymore...right?)

I just went on my Facebook profile today and realized how many useless applications I have on my profile. I removed at least six apps, and I still have approximately 18 more that I deem "neccessary" even though none of them are neccessary. I removed some of the game apps that just keep spamming my email and that are getting on my fucking nerves. Like the Triumph application. It seemed pretty cool at first, and you got a lot of money and supplies to start. But after a while, it would email me every time I got attacked. Sure you get an additional $100,000 when you get attacked, but sometimes the link in the email would not work, or if you clicked them out of sequence, they wouldn't work at all. And the sheer volume of times I got attacked was ridiculous. I could run out of soliders after three days because some fucking moron would attack me five times in a row and there's absolutely nothing stopping them from doing so if they happen to be stronger than I am. So, if you cannot afford to be attacking people on a constant basis, every single day on Triumph, it gets really annoying really fast.

Another application I never liked right from the beginning was "Attack!". No matter what I fucking do, I never win any goddamn battles unless the odds are stacked very heavily in my favour (eg. the ratio of my armies to theirs is something like 3:1). Needless to say losing everything got really old realy fast. I do not think I, at any point, owned a single card within the six or seven games I played while I had the app.

Now that I have shit on a couple apps, there are a few that I do enjoy quite a bit that deserve mention. One of them is the My Heros Ability application. I don't know if I'm a rare breed, being a nerdy kid who had daydreams about having a superpower, but this app, on a small scale, makes me affectionately remember positive aspects of childhood. Don't tell anyone, but I still wish I had superpowers. This application is fun and requires little maintenance, but there is enough to do if you wish to play with it more than a little. MHA is pretty much set up in the RPG style (you can even customize your name) where you have stats and levels. At the beginning you are randomly assigned a power from several available (they're adding more too). If you are not satisfied with your power (if for some reason you have a real problem with psionics) you can reroll your power. But it resets your stats. So no cheating. You can have multiple powers which you "learn" with ability points (acquired upon levelling up), including Advanced abilites and upcoming Demi-God abilities). For example, I got the ability of Flight upon adding the application. I saved up enough ability points to learn the Spontaneous Regeneration ability (which kind of sucks unless you're going into battle with one or more other people... it's a healing power). You can join a group, which allows you to share XP in battle, and you can fight NPCs and you can also enter PvP areas. Just check it out; I can spend an entire blog post on this app. The best part is it's regularily updated. It's not one of those shit apps that gets made and then the creator doesn't pay any attention to it.

Something I would be looking for in terms of Facebook applications is something for Neopets. I think it would be cool to show my information on my Facebook page. It's like what happened with Xbox Live, I might find people who use it too on Facebook. I found three of my friends on Xbox Live through Facebook.

Alright it is time to conclude this post, considering it has taken me about an hour to compose it (due to getting distracted by things such as Facebook and MySpace). It is time to go play on Neopets.

Nerd Test

2008-05-31T17:48:00.002-04:00

If I ever think I am nerdy, I can come online and get proven wrong. The internet is full of nerds and geeks, and how wonderful it is. Finally, a place where the nerd/geek can dominate.

my Google group!!

2008-05-27T03:01:00.003-04:00

I have been browsing the Usenet boards as of recent. You can kind of tell that the old timers are the ones who post there. There's almost no l33t speak, and the English language is remarkably intact. It's quite refreshing, actually.

My Google Group is a group for people who like funny pictures. For those of us who appreciate graphical humour. If you like graphical humour, I wish for you to join.

Maybe my next goal will be to go spam Facebook. I hate Facebook, I have to use my real name on it, so spamming isn't quite as much fun.

(social) network updates

2008-05-23T20:53:00.008-04:00

Well, since there's so much stuff on this internet of ours, I have a zillion accounts of various types throughout the web. Most of them I probably have forgotten about. The company Red Hat Inc. has definitely got the right idea with their "social networking" site called Mugshot. It pretty much combines a bunch of popular websites into one. Some of the websites include Digg, del.icio.us, Facebook and many more. The only problem I have with Mugshot is that it is not very inclusive. There is only an extremely limited amount of websites which are included. They have the idea right, though. Another contention I have is the erratic updating of the "Stacker" (the Mugshot equivalent of a feed). Also, the kinds of updates. I don't know if anyone really cares that I have a new message on Facebook. I think they would more care about my status changes and other such things. Also, with Last.fm, it tries to update every song. This is in absolutely no way practical with the extreme slowness of the updates, considering most people listen to a huge amount of songs at a time. It should just mass update every hour, saying " listened to <#> songs" or something like that.

Sorry, I am going off on a tangent. Anyway, here is a list of several sites I am a member of. For the most part, these are sites I participate in quite regularly. Except for Amazon, that was one of those random things that Mugshot asked for for some reason. Anyway, here you go:

My Mugshot Profile

My Digg Profile

My del.icio.us Profile

My YouTube Videos

My Last.fm Profile

My Flickr Photos

My Amazon Profile

My PMOG Profile

My Twine Profile

EDIT: 26/05/2008 Addition of My Wikipedia User Page
EDIT: 31/05/2008 Addition of My Neopets Page
EDIT: 07/06/08 Addition of GameSurge Profile
EDIT: 28/06/08 Addition of GameStrata Profile
EDIT: 26/09/08 Addition of StumbleUpon Profile

The thing I use the most is my Xbox Live gamertag. I play games much more than I use these other sites. Except Facebook, which isn't up there, because I can't link directly to it. Not that I would link strangers to my Facebook profile. I like my internet anonymity, thank you very much.

Axe marketing campaign stupidity

2008-05-16T19:41:00.003-04:00

Someone seriously needs to shoot/kick/throat punch/lynch the Axe marketing team. I just saw the newest "cottage" ad for Axe and they're getting stupider and stupider. I think they're paying monkeys to come up with and design marketing campaigns. What makes it worse is that Axe is an absolutely vile, overpriced product. You can buy five of the competitor's product for the price of one bottle of Axe, and the competitor's product actually works. It should be marketed as an emetic medication. More evidence this world is going to hell in a handbasket. Fuck capitalism.

iCoke; what the fuck?

2008-05-08T11:35:00.003-04:00

What the fuck is our world coming to? Apparently the existing words in the English language are changing. I always thought the word "free" meant that you could receive something without paying for it. Below is an excerpt from the iCoke website:

"FREE Coke with every 10th PIN!

Starting May 1st, every 10th PIN you enter gets you an offer for a FREE Coke. However, if you choose not to accept the offer when prompted, the opportunity won't come again until you've entered another 10 more PINs."

The gist of iCoke is that you can collect PIN numbers under caps of Coke. Each PIN gives you like 500 points (no matter what the size of the bottle, which is another point of contention for me, but that's another argument). You can collect points and redeem them for things. Most of the prizes is shit I will never want or need, but the only reason I collect is because one of the prizes is movie tickets (although they pretty much never have them in stock, which is yet another annoyance from Coke).

Coke, in one of their streaks of wisdom, decided to implement the above promotion. When I saw it I thought "hey, something else I might find useful for once". So, I entered my PIN numbers (I generally get quite a few at a time because my significant other and me both collect and share PINS, because we use the movie tickets together) and got up to 10 PIN numbers pretty quickly. I then got the following message:

"You have received this exclusive offer because you've entered 10 iCoke PINS*. All you have to do is redeem 5,000 iCoke Coins and you'll receive a coupon† for a FREE Coke. Be careful, if you close this page the offer will be gone for good!"

What the fuck? So, if I take the offer, the points I just entered were pretty much a waste of time and effort? (10 x 500 = 5000, nullifying the addition to my points balance) I got lied to once again? I thought that when I entered 10 PINS Coke would grace me with a small blessing of their thanks by giving me a free Coke (after consuming 10 of them to get the fucking points). But no, that's far too much to ask for. "Here is a free Coke... that will be 5000 points please". Does anyone else see this as being as stupid as I do?

stupid wireless in Ubuntu, plus Hardy Heron

2008-05-04T18:12:00.003-04:00

As I have said before, I have been having problems with wireless in Ubuntu. I gave up with my old crappy SMC thing, and went on eBay and bought a D-Link DWL-G122 wireless adapter ($30, you can't go wrong). It's pretty much just a USB dongle, so it's about one quarter the size of my old one. It also doesn't have the connectivity problems (in Windows) that the old one had. With the SMC, every couple hours or so it would randomly disconnect for no apparent reason. It would just lose sight of our wireless network, even though the wireless network is always on. The only time it's ever gone off is during a power outage, or if I reset the router. Anyway, I've been suggested a few links to instructions on how to install this thing. I know it's compatible because it says so on the official Ubuntu site. But I got stuck at one part because the computer needed an internet connection (which I do not have without either wireless or a huge ass ethernet cable, and obviously wireless is not an option). I plugged the computer in to the ethernet cable, and a few updates pop up, including the distribution update (new version, Hardy Heron). So I am installing that, and it says now it's going to take like an hour or so. So, we're on a break from the wireless installation. The funny thing about this is that my brother has been using the ethernet cable for his internet, and right now I am borrowing it. When I borrowed it, I told him I would be about 10 minutes.

I have not used Hardy yet, obviously, but I am definitely looking forward to doing so. There are many new features it seems. Some of the changes listed include Firefox 3 Beta 4, which could be interesting. I've noticed that Firefox doesn't seem to get updated very often, but Mozilla favours Linux users... which is good. There is also things like a new BitTorrent client, and a CD burning program that looks pretty good. I'm also quite intrigued by the new feature that allows the display of different times for different time zones. I can easily keep track of what time it is where gaming opponents might be (eg. Japan, England). Please note that the link above is to the Hardy Heron Beta page. I am sure there have been more things added even since then. Since the point of beta is to test and change things. See this link for information on the alpha release.

There is also an important sound driver update that's coming out. Maybe it will fix my sound problems! Maybe it will fix the sound in Pidgin. I won't know until I get Hardy Heron (8.04) installed.

I know I am kind of rambling, but I am waiting for Hardy to install, which is another 1 hour and 8 minutes apparently. I guess I can leave and play Xbox or something...

Ubuntu wireless problem

2008-04-21T18:08:00.003-04:00

After all kinds of messing around with my wireless adapter in Ubuntu, I have given up. It seems, the right answer being the most simple, that my wireless adapter simply is not compatible with Ubuntu. I should have known, I have a hard enough time finding drivers for the thing for Windows, nevermind Linux. It's also a very old piece of hardware (well, in computer years it is). It also wasn't very popular. So, here is what I did (taken from a post I made on The Linux Forums):

"I decided to go on eBay and buy a wireless adapter I know is compatible with Ubuntu (I checked on the Ubuntu site). I got a D-Link DWL-G122 wireless adapter. It has not come in the mail yet, but I am hoping it will be here this week. I paid only $21.14 CAD for it, which includes shipping and handling and all that."

This will hopefully work, and hopefully I can install the new adapter properly. Another bonus is that this adapter is also compatible with my router (it's the same series of products, as well as same company obviously).

The next problem for me to tackle after this will be the Bluetooth. This crappy cordless mouse I am using now isn't going to cut it permanently, and I like my keyboard. No one seems to know how to solve my Bluetooth problem though. We'll see...

slashdot.org = breeding ground for trolls, idiots, etc.

2008-04-20T01:40:00.005-04:00

There was an article on Slashdot called "Internet Sites Biased Towards Supporting Suicide". Someone decided the following comment would be funny and informative to fellow readers (taken verbatim from the site):

"KILL YOURSELF FAGGOT!!! (Score:5, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 12, @05:22PM (#23049194)

KILL YOURSELF FAGGOT!!!"

Note the score of 5 for how hilariously funny this comment is. Scores assigned to comments are ranged from -5 to +5. Apparently this comment is so perfect in it's composition that every other comment made on the internet in the future should contain the soulful intellect and literary prowess of this comment. The main kicker about this comment is that these "ratings" are given by people who have had moderating power bestowed upon them by the people who run this site. Therefore, this comment is a direct reflection of the site itself. That one comment, quite frankly, makes me never want to comment or read anything on that site ever again. Another chunk of stupidity courtesy of Slashdot is the fact that I make comments in reply to articles, and they were more sensible comments than "kill yourself faggot" (keeping in mind that pretty much anyone who passed kindergarten can make a more sensible comment than that). What ratings did my comments get? My comments got 1's. All of them. More proof that people are fucking idiots.

holy crap.. my bigger Ubuntu plunge

2008-04-07T18:36:00.003-04:00

So, I randomly decided on Friday that I would install Ubuntu on here (my main computer). Installing it went without a hitch (unlike when I tried to install it on my other computer). Now that I have it running, I simply love it. But, on the other hand, I am having some major problems:

- I seem to be completely incompetent when it comes to the terminal
- it will not recognize my Bluetooth mouse (it knows its there, it just won't connect)
- my wireless card is not recognized at all
- my printer is absolutely fucked (although that was going on pre-Ubuntu I think)
- Ubuntu will only output sound sporadically... even though this seems common, I cannot find a solution
- Pidgin will not play sounds, even though I have configured it to
- I haven't figured out how to get XChat to recognize my mIRC commands yet
- BOINC will not load on startup

A couple of those are very minor problems. The major problems are the wireless and the Bluetooth (in that order). The sound thing is severely annoying (both output and Pidgin), and the printer thing will become more significant as time goes on. Especially when I'm asked what happened to my barely-a-year-old PostScript printer.

It's going to take me a long, long time to get completely used to this. Especially considering you have to configure everything (and yes, I mean everything). That's one of the downsides. The upside, though, is that there is much more you can do... there are pretty much no limits as to how you customize Linux! But, just in case, this is still a dual-boot system, with a fully serviceable install of Microshaft Windows on it, you know, just in case I fuck something up....which I tend to do sometimes.

My Superhero Lover

2008-03-30T11:55:00.002-04:00

Mugshot, PMOG bitching, and Linux

2008-03-14T14:59:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I signed up for a Mugshot account. I had one before, but for whatever reason stopped using it. Unfortunately, I don't think they've added any sites to the list of accounts you can add. For those who don't know, the jist of Mugshot is that it is supposed to be a central feed for your various accounts throughout the internet. You can add your Digg, Last.fm, Facebook, del.icio.us accounts, and others. I can think of many other accounts that you should be able to add:

- Xbox Live
- Pogo
- BookMooch
- Flixster
- Wikipedia (although I don't have a Wiki account)
- BOINC ()
- Joost
- PMOG (when the alpha comes out)
- anything else

But oh well, it's an interesting service. It's maintained by the Red Hat Team so there should be very few glitches and bugs.

I've been playing PMOG. I don't know if I mentioned the fact that I finally found an invite, but I did, and have been playing for about a week now. They weren't kidding when they said it was a beta. Lack of features, super bugginess and other things plague it. My association has been greatly inconsistent. Like in an RPG game, you have a "class", or in this case, "association". This association is chosen for you based on your behaviour, for example, what kind of objects you use, or what missions you take. If you take a mission by, for example, a Seer, that will slightly skew your association towards being a Seer. The problem is I've used all of my mines (a Destroyer trait), and taken 7 or 8 Destroyer missions. Why the hell am I a Pathmaker? I should even maybe be a Seer. Definitely not a Pathmaker. It makes no sense.
Another thing that is buggy about PMOG are the missions. I have like 10 missions I couldn't finish because the mission instruction box would not show up on pages. I have no idea why, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. So, as it stands, I can expect to not complete 2 out of 3 missions. It's also been mentioned in the forums many times.

Yesterday, I decided to remedy the connection problems on my "toy" computer. My toy computer is an old computer that is not good for anything else except to test things on and play with. I guess you could call it a software Frankenstein. So, one day, I decided to install Linux because I have been told that Linux is better than Windows (which is no surprise). It is, in fact, better than Windows. After much trouble, I finally got Xubuntu 7.10 on there. After a while, it stopped recognizing the internet connection. Since there was nothing on that computer except the OS, I decided to reinstall. But this time I installed Ubuntu. I got that one and decided I wanted Fedora instead. So, I prepared the Live CD and it gets about halfway through the booting process and doesn't work. I can't recall what exactly the numbers were, but when the computer admits to you it's frozen, then it must be frozen. Ubuntu is okay for now. My overall goal someday is to completely switch over to Linux and get Microshaft out of my life for good. But that might not happen for a while considering I unfortunately need Microshaft programs (for compatibility reasons) for the time being.

killwithme.com - Untraceable Web Game

2008-03-07T23:18:00.004-05:00

I recently saw the movie Untraceable in theatres, and I quite enjoyed it. It was a really good thriller, especially considering that horror/thriller movies these days tend to be completely horrible.

Anyway, out of pure curiosity, I went to see if the website killwithme.com actually existed. Apparently it does. Not surprisingly, it belongs to the maker of the movie. When you enter, it asks you for your name and such, and it enters you into a game. The object of the game is to solve puzzles so you can get clues to the login and password for the killer's server. It also times you while you're doing this. These puzzles are not hard at all, I am generally terrible at puzzles, especially while being timed, and I managed to solve these. But I won't ruin it for you. After it's all done, it takes you to a very interesting screen. Below, I will include a picture of the screen. I would love to know what it's supposed to mean.

Edit: I Googled the phrase "BHO the Illuminati" and got this YouTube video.

I also looked up "Illuminati" and found the following definition on Wikipedia:

"Illuminati is a name that refers to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, it refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment era secret society founded in the late eighteenth century. However, in modern times it refers to a purported conspiratorial organization which acts as a shadowy power behind the throne, allegedly controlling world affairs through present day governments and corporations, usually as a modern incarnation or continuation of the Bavarian Illuminati. In this context, Illuminati is often used in reference to a New World Order (NWO). Many conspiracy theorists believe the Illuminati, or the "Illuminated ones", are the masterminds behind events that will lead to the establishment of such a New World Order. Confusing the issue further is the fact that there are also several modern fraternal groups which include the word "Illuminati" in their names.

In rarer cases, the Illuminati refers to an elite set of enlightened individuals who may not cooperate but are uniquely empowered by their enlightenment, much like the intelligentsia classes of today are empowered by their education and intelligence. These are people who have become illuminated and have achieved a higher mystical understanding of the universe. Many secret societies and mystical traditions are concerned with this kind of illumination or enlightenment, such as the Rosicrucian Societies, the Martinists and the original Bavarian Illuminati."

It makes sense if you think about it. But I still don't know who or what BHO is. That could be anyone/anything, considering acronyms are not particularly specific. But judging from that YouTube video (too specific to be a coincidence, I think), BHO = Barack Hussein Obama, aka one of the democratic party candidates for the upcoming US election. Apparently the creators of the Untraceable site have a political agenda? But it was suggested on one site I looked at that the leaderboards were possibly hacked.

PMOG has been entered

2008-03-06T20:44:00.002-05:00

I managed to find myself an invite code. PMOG is a very fun game. My only complaint is the fact that it takes a long ass time to level up. I'm still a level 1, and I've visited about 200 (unique) pages (unique meaning any parent directory counts as one hit). The help section is also painfully sparse. I wanted to know what gives me datapoints, and I can't seem to find that information. Do people taking my mission give me datapoints? Does someone tripping my mine give me datapoints? I'm not sure, but it's highly addictive. I like the fact that it's passive. No 30 hours a week on some game like World of Warcraft or something. But, unfortunately, I only have 3 mines left....

PMOG

2008-03-02T22:43:00.004-05:00

You are on PMOG PMOG is the Passively Multiplayer Online Game. To play, you’ll need to Get Firefox and Add Our Extension. This unconventional massively multiplayer online game merges your web life with an alternate, hidden reality. The mundane takes on a layer of fantastic achievement. Player behavior generates characters and alliances, triggers interactions in the environment and earns the player points to spend online beefing up their inventory. Suddenly the Internet is not a series of untouchable exhibits, but rather a hackable, rewarding environment!

How severely annoying. I am on this site, and it sounds absolutely awesome. I found out about this type of game through Wired magazine. It sounds absolutely super awesome, an internet and game whore's dream. The problem? You can only sign up if you have a fucking beta key. Why is the site live if people can't even sign up for it? Sure you can enter your email address for a beta key. But the problem with that is the fact that the beta key never comes. I had the same problem with Gmail when it was first brought out. I had to plead with someone to give me an invite. It makes me seethe when people try and gain publicity by denying people. Isn't the object of beta testing to get as many people as possible to test? That way you can find the maximum amount of problems. Beta testers are warned and aware of the potential problems them and their computers may endure while testing, and they are aware that they are risking this.

PersonalDNA

2008-02-21T18:38:00.004-05:00

I love personality analysis. Here is a really good one that touches on many different aspects of the personality. I think it was quite accurate indeed. It uses sliders and such to present answers to the questions of the test, as opposed to those stupid radio button things, which are way too vague for me. I think it hit me really hard on the openness and trust. My one complaint about this test is that it uses the word "people" a lot. This makes me refer to the general population, and I only trust people who are close to me. It also presents me as of "Average Femininity" and I tend to think of myself as more masculine. How can I be of "Average Femininity" as well as "Average Masculinity"? Aren't they opposites, and you cannot be both at the same time? Anydangway, here are my graphical results:

Another presentation of my results:

Free Stuff for Canadians

2008-02-21T17:07:00.002-05:00

I have found a new addiction. It's a form for sharing links to free stuff throughout the internet, such as free samples and promotions. I've sent away for so much stuff already. I have no idea why it's so addicting, considering I haven't even gotten anything from it yet. The only severely irritating thing is for some of the offers you have to enter your phone number. I personally don't want some random company knowing my phone number. But I found this offer to be a part of a nicotine replacement study. Basically, they give you free nicotine replacement therapy (eg. patches, gum, whatever is right for you). It's all verified by a pharmacist, so it's legit. They won't give you the stuff unless you consult with a pharmacist first. I will pick mine up maybe next week when I get time off.

I know it's silly, but I love free stuff. I am also a packrat, which can be a severely irritating combination for those around me. But some of it will actually be useful, for example, the t shirts. I always need new clothing because I hate buying clothes. Now, if only I could find one that gives out free pants.

Click Here!

crash.. Navizon, MobileScrobbler, #G7 again, and Second Life

2008-02-13T21:32:00.004-05:00

Today, #G7 is being a cockface. It's not letting me log in. I was testing out a new server connection to the EFnet network, and connected and reconnected. Obviously, it logged me out. Now the fucking message bot won't accept my login info. It's not doing anything.

On another depressing note, I updated some of the software on my iPod touch. Two programs that were updated were Navizon GPS and MobileScrobbler. Navizon has decided to be a bunch of fucking tools and has decided to charge from now on for use of this program ($29.99 or something stupid). Which is bullshit. I fucking hate when companies revert to charging for previously free software. It's so fucking lame. Oh well, I guess I will just have to figure out how to downgrade.

The other program, MobileScrobbler, is very important to me. It is the whole reason I jailbroke my iPod. Last I tried, it was not working. It was not loading my information. But, I tried it just now and it's working. I really hate the changes they've made though. I was miffed at the last version that I couldn't see what songs are in the queue. Now I can't even see how many songs are in the queue! Hell, I can't even edit my information! Edit: Apparently I wasn't looking hard enough. The settings for MobileScrobbler are in the iPod's general settings

I also found something called Second Life today, courtesy of Wired Magazine. As far as I can tell, its an avatar chat thing. It takes place in a virtual world which is seemingly complex and strange. I haven't even skimmed the surface yet. But, I have changed my character's appearence (he's a male furry with bright magenta hot pants, a tight black shirt, and garter style fishnet stockings). I can't for the life of me figure out how to get back to Orientation Island and get the fucking guide window back up. It's extremely annoying. I will figure it out when I have spare time. I've already spent way too much time dicking around here on the computer.

By the way, here is the link to the story which enlightened me about Second Life: LINK

#G7 Idle RPG

2008-02-11T23:21:00.000-05:00

So I found this thing on IRC called an idle RPG. It's based on the structure of a normal RPG (eg. levelling, items, quests etc.) except the main difference is the way you gain levels. The way to gain levels is to idle in the room as long as possible. You get penalized for logging out, quitting, getting kicked, sending messages in the room, or otherwise being active. It's a really silly concept, but so awesome at the same time. I figured since I idle enough anyway, what a great way to make it semi-productive. Finally, something where it pays off to do nothing.

Apps for the Touch update

2008-01-26T20:21:00.001-05:00

As I was saying in my last post, I believed the applications Apple was "providing" to touch users (aka charging way too much for) were something I wished to have. I was also not prepared to pay $20 for them. But, through wondrous searching, I have found these applications through AppSnapp. All I had to do was add an additional source to the Installer.app source list. Voila, they were there. So, I now have Google Maps and Weather on my iPod touch. I didn't feel I needed Stocks or Mail, considering I only use web based mail, and don't really keep up with the stock market. I have also turned my touch into a GPS node via a service called <a href=http://www.navizon.com>Navizon</a>. My iPod touch has officially been turned into my PDA, bwahaha.

iPod touch 1.1.3 jailbroken

2008-01-24T16:01:00.001-05:00

Free iPod Touch - Your FREE iTouch resource for tutorials, t... The iPod Touch 1.1.3 firmware has been jailbreaked or jailbroken or hacked, whichever term you prefer! Unfortunately the jailbreak will NOT come out until February, when the official SDK comes out. Here are details on the jailbreak: - It does require opening up your iPod Touch and playing with the hardware - The hacking teams claim that they discovered the code "LittleBear" when they decrypted the firmware - An Official SDK will be released sometime in February - A lot of applications still won't be able to work in the jailbreak - Springboard.app may not work, and Customize.app may not work either Unfortunately this Jailbreak does have a lot of downsides. Fortunately the SDK for the iPod Touch or iPhone is coming out next month, so we can look forward to that. With the new SDK, the hacking community will be able to solve a lot of problems like adding flash to the iPod Touch, adding line rider to iPod Touch, and more.

I think that's ridiculous. This is becoming a really stupid battle between Apple and the hackers. Now, Apple has the nerve to charge $20 fucking dollars for five applications that should be included for free in the new update anyway (applications being Mail, Google Maps, Weather, Notes and Stocks). Or, preferably without the update, considering updating makes the jailbreak useless, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not about to open up my iPod and start fucking around with the innards. Apple needs to get a fucking life and come to terms with the fact that no amount of updating is going to stop hackers from getting what they want from their technology (yes, the technology that they dished out the money for). At this time, I am currently looking for a weather and notes application for my jailbroken (1.1.1) iPod touch. The huge downside to the Installer.app is the fact that you cannot search for applications. It would be so unbelievably easy if I could just enter "weather" into a search box, and have all relevant applications come up. I would then be able to choose which one suits my needs best. The moral of the story: I wish Apple would just give up trying (and failing) to stop the installation of 3rd party applications. If they did, everyone's life would be easier.

D&D Character Test

2008-01-17T17:12:00.001-05:00

I think this is too cool. I love long, detailed quizes like this. I especially like personality analysis. I also enjoy D&D. So it's a very nice quiz in my books. The detailed results are most excellent. This was based on 156 questions, I believe.

I Am A: True Neutral Human Druid/Wizard (2nd/2nd Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-11

Constitution-13

Intelligence-12

Wisdom-11

Charisma-10

Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Primary Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.

Secondary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXX (8)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXX (9)
Chaos --- XXXXXXXXX (9)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXX (6)
Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8)
Evil ---- XXXXXXX (7)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXX (8)
Gnome ---- XXXX (4)
Halfling - XXXXXX (6)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Half-Orc - XXXXXXXX (8)

Class:
Barbarian - (-4)
Bard ------ XXXX (4)
Cleric ---- (-4)
Druid ----- XXXXXX (6)
Fighter --- XX (2)
Monk ------ (-23)
Paladin --- (-23)
Ranger ---- (-2)
Rogue ----- (-8)
Sorcerer -- XXXX (4)
Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6)

Logitech Setpoint is a really bad piece of software

2008-01-11T15:26:00.000-05:00

I use the Logitech MX5000 mouse and keyboard set. This includes connection using Bluetooth. I've been having a really annoying problem with the crappy software that comes with it. Even though this software has been updated about three times since I got this thing, the problem still remains. Here is a post I submitted to the Logitech support forums:

"I can't exactly recall when this started happening. I know it's caused by Setpoint because it stops when I exit Setpoint. I would simply not use Setpoint, but I lose functionality of my keyboard when Setpoint isn't open. The problem is: when I have Setpoint running, the top window I am using switches from active to inactive at approximately one second intervals, and keeps repeating that cycle. So, if I try and type something, I can't type it properly because the window will go inactive while I'm typing. I exited Setpoint just now, or else this post would take about five hours to write. I updated to the new version of Setpoint, including the firmware upgrade. I thought it might fix it, but it didn't. I'm using the MX 5000 Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I hope someone can help, because this is getting severely annoying. Thanks."

It's really dumb and really annoying. So, unless I have Setpoint open (which I do not because of this problem), I can't use the media keys on my keyboard. I think that's completely shitty, and wish this shit would get fixed. I wish I could figure out how to use the Microsoft Bluetooth stack (yes, I know, ironic that in this case I would prefer a Microshaft product).

Logitech is seemingly infamous for crappy software. It makes it worse that it's them, because they're a peripheral company, and peripherals rely heavily on software to function with the rest of the computer. Not to mention the fact that you need peripherals to use a damn computer...

iPod touch + Last.fm = success!

2008-01-09T00:33:00.000-05:00

I figured out how to jailbreak my iPod touch! I was right, version 1.1.2 has patched the TIFF exploit, and therefore caused AppSnapp not to work. So, I downgraded. Since there's not such a large difference between 1.1.1 and 1.1.2, it's not a big deal. After that, it was smooth sailing. I have successfully gotten MobileScrobbler on my iPod touch, yay!

iPod touch + Last.fm = hate

2008-01-07T23:35:00.001-05:00

As I have said, I got an iPod touch for Christmas. I figured since past iPods were so successful, they would keep the same basic configuration for everything. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I was happily scrobbling my tracks (see definition of "scrobbling" below, taken from www.UrbanDictionary.com ) on my old iPod nano with a simple parsing of the iTunesDB. Since said file is such an integral part of the whole iTunes dealy, I thought they would never get rid of it. I was very wrong. So, now I am scrambling to look for something that can scrobble my music. But not before the whole album art fiasco. Why the hell can't there be a centralized album art server, kind of like www.musicbrainz.org is for song tags? People can just query the database whenever they need album art. But I digress. I found a program called MobileScrobbler that is an application that is directly on the iPod touch (it also works for iPhone). Unfortunately, you need to install an application that will allow you to put applications on your iPod touch/iPhone. Silly, eh? So, I tried this. The program that allows for applications, called AppSnapp, would not install on my iPod. The FAQ of the program site says that it's because I have run the AppSnapp installer too many times, and I need to restore. A little drastic, but I oblige and do so. I try again and get the same thing. Now I'm fucking annoyed. I tried posting on the Last.fm group for the program, but that was only a couple minutes ago. I'm afraid of what it might be though. This program supposedly exploits a TIFF glitch in the iPod/iPhone. The sites for AppSnapp and MobileScrobbler both make reference to firmware version 1.1.1, although the most recent version is 1.1.2. This might mean that Apple has since updated the software to fix this glitch, and therefore rendered both programs unusable. That would be really fucking lame, especially for such a benevolent program like this. Almost as lame as the fact that they changed the entire system around, so the iTunesDB is no more. I hate large companies.

1. Scrobble

260 up, 19 down

When Last.fm automatically sends the name of each song played by audio player, they call this "scrobbling."

The application will scrobble your playlist.

Xbox LIVE

2007-12-29T18:57:00.001-05:00

Xbox.com | Support

Xbox LIVE Service Status

Status:

Up and running

Users may experience issues performing transactions dependent on Windows Live ID availability including but not limited to Xbox 360 and Zune account creation, renewal, recovery, all DMP transactions, and logging into or creating Windows Live ID accounts. Users will experience intermittent issues including but not limited to: Tournaments, Storage Downloads, Gamer Tile, Statistics through Arbitration, Match Making, and Messaging. Additionally, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 users may experience issues joining matches or posting statistics. Customer Support may also experience issues referencing customer data. We are aware of the issue and are currently working to resolve it. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The above is taken from the Xbox support site which is reporting on the status of Xbox Live. The above is complete bullshit, considering I can't even log in to my fucking account on my Xbox. But for some reason the website works fine (except for obvious Microshaft related issues). Why would they say the system is up and running if all that shit is happening? Plus of course what's happening to me. They should be saying that service is extremely patchy. And most importantly, they should hurry the hell up and fix it. You'd think they would have prepared for the post-Christmas rush. But no, that would make waaay too much sense for something Microshaft would do.

i absolutely hate iTunes

2007-12-27T01:37:00.001-05:00

So, it's taken me like two hours to get songs on my iPod, not including transferring from my old iPod. Most of the problem has to do with the lack of ability to select a large amount of songs to click and drag to the iPod and transfer. It would be very simple if it just used the Shift+click command that most computers use, but they decided to make it really stupid. It took me 1.5 hours to get the songs to start synching to my iPod (the first half hour trying to get the fucking songs in the library).

Another really annoying thing is the fact that you "register" your iPod through iTunes. As usual, it's proven to be a completely unreliable vehicle for such a transfer of information. I have been getting the ridiculously vague message "We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later". As a result of not being able to "register" my iPod, it will not allow me to view the music on the iPod, and therefore, I cannot verify that it's all there.

I have also been experiencing very sporatic messages on the actual iPod as to what it is doing. Right now, it is syncing, according to iTunes, but according to the iPod, it's not doing anything. Do I sense a bug? Or is it just the fact that my iPod isn't "registered"? I'm not sure exactly how many resources sending information to the Apple server would use. The only thing iTunes asks for is my Apple ID and password, which would give them all the other information.

I have a lot of respect for Apple. The iPod touch is absolutely brillant. But someone in the iTunes department needs to be fired. Possibly multiple people. Especially the people who decided the iPod needs to be synced with iTunes, or else your life will be made a living hell. Or they at least need to make it so that you can sync the iPod in a Windows based program.

Christmas

2007-12-26T17:45:00.000-05:00

I am posting from my new iPod touch. it is sexy but not as easy to type on as a hard keyboard. I also got other fun stuff. But more later.

They're watching me

2007-12-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

So, I got a message on Youtube regarding the videos I took off the biology textbook site. It was a warning saying that posting these videos violates copyright laws. I don't understand why. Am I profiting at all? Am I degrading the profit of the textbook company? I don't believe so. Isn't the point of the videos to help people learn? I've gotten SO many comments on these videos telling me how helpful they are, and how they saved someone's biology project. Which obviously leads me to believe that there are no good biology videos out there. Unless, of course, you pay money for a certain textbook. But some classes don't use said textbook, and are not exposed to the wonderful enlightenment of a textbook with excellent supplemental material. I'm not posting the other supplemental material from the website either, so I'm not giving away their 'secrets'. There's a lot of other stuff on that website, such as flash cards, quizzes, outside links, virtual labs, and more.

I seriously hope that the textbook companies will leave me alone. Call me ridiculously altruistic, but I am helping people learn. It's a small sample of what the textbook can give someone. It will also help people in my class, because some of them have been having trouble logging into the Mader website and can't view the videos, even though they paid good money for the textbook. Isn't the point of such videos for learning? Isn't having them accessible helping more people learn?

Internet Trolls

2007-12-15T22:39:00.001-05:00

Troll (Internet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who intentionally posts controversial or contrary messages in an on-line community such as an on-line discussion forum or group with the singular intention of baiting users into an argumentative response.^[1] It often has a broader meaning referring to any superfluous troublemaking Internet activity.

I truly hate internet trolls. Stupid teenage boys who sit behind their computers and say things they would never say to someone's face. Yes, they're pretty much always teenage boys. They lack the maturity, and more often than not, the brains of a mature adult. It's strange though, a teenager would have more neurons than I do, except I seem to have more common sense than them. The less brain cells, the smarter you are? I guess it has to do with the efficiency of the neural connections. In that case, we need to start killing brain cells in our children, because kids and teenagers are getting stupider by the year. I completely understand bringing up a controversial topic for purpose of a mature discussion. But posting something, having people object to what you posted, and then swearing at them and calling names for disagreeing with you; that's bullshit. I enjoy a good arguement as much as the next person, but I do it in a civilized manner. I most certainly do NOT make generalizations or racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise stupid comments. And yes, being racist, sexist, homophobic etc. is stupid. Because how closed someone's mind is is directly proportional to their intelligence. I especially hate when people rally their friends against me. Great, not only am I dealing with one idiot, I'm dealing with multiple idiots. How weak are you to not be able to stand up for yourself? I'm sure there are thousands of people on the internet who identify with my plight. Especially if they're like me, and hurt at the sight of stupidity. Here's to keeping this world as diverse as it should be, and accepting the differences around us.

The 13 main problems with Vista

2007-11-29T15:40:00.001-05:00

MediaVidea: The 13 main problems with Vista

In this age of mobile handsets, burgeoning online content, gaming consoles, iPods, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft will spend $ 500 million to market Vista.

It is currently running ads for Hotmail in India promising 1 Gb of space! Very much in the tradition of England on the eve of 19th Century and U.S. around 2000, an entity about to begin a painful and slow fall from the top, Microsoft can do as it pleases with its hoard of cash. You didn’t see Google doing that when it launched Gmail.

In words of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft will spend all money telling people that ‘buying Vista is a potentially life-changing event’.

Buying Vista is indeed life changing.
When you buy Vista, you are giving up your power over the software and hardware, you paid big bucks.

The problems with Vista will come out to the fore when it gets in hands of large number of buyers. The mainstream media has so far focused on the Bill gates personality cult rather than the negative things with Vista, other than Walter Mossberg’s ‘I am not impressed’ review.

The difference between Online and mainstream media is an old one: MSM often writes puff pieces around technology issues while there is a wealth of information online which needs to be read by actual users and the general populace.

The main problems with Vista so far:

Problems Part 1

1. Costlier than the $100 Laptop and Gaming consoles: Vista Home Premium is $239, $159 upgrade; Vista Ultimate costs $399, $259 upgrade.

2. No instant plug and play: upgrading and setting up Vista will take much of your time.

3. Expensive for normal use: Vista is probably not for you if you use the PC for normal jobs like surfing and typing. Use Mozillla Firefox for same and better functionalities than Explorer 7. Microsoft may however try to convince you otherwise showing how cool Vista looks. If you are into looks, get a skin for your desktop.

4. Too expensive for Gaming: If you are into Gaming, for the price of a Vista, get a Gaming Console.

5. No big Vista application announcements: IBM, Intuit, large software vendors and even Microsoft’s own Dynamics ERP division have so far been quiet about their software for Vista.

6. Online software providers such as Salesforce.com do not plan to modify their offerings to suit the new Explorer

Now, we come to the actual problem with Vista.
After the lukewarm response to DRM initiatives by big companies, I am positive users will not like Vista’s draconian features that threaten to take the power away from them. Vista is actually worse than DRM.

To users, Microsoft says that it wants to protect them from computer viruses. To content owners (especially big media corporations), Microsoft says it will protect copyright. Actually, Microsoft ends up on the Big Media’s side, virtually controlling how users use and control their machines.

Problems Part 2

Highlights from the Vista user agreement, which comes into force once you choose accept and install the software.

7. This agreement only gives users only a few rights to use the software. All other rights belong to Microsoft.

8. If you do not like Vista's limitations, Microsoft says in the agreement that "you may not work around any technical limitations in the software."

9. Microsoft has the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software (which you paid for) and CAN DELETE certain programs without your knowledge.

10. Microsoft can revalidate the software anytime or it may require you to reactivate it if you make changes to ‘your’ computer components.

11. Microsoft has set significant limits on users’ ability to copy or transfer the software. It prohibits anything more than a single backup copy and has set strict limits on transferring the software to different devices or users.

12. Only Windows Defender, the much-hyped anti-virus program –will determine what constitutes unwanted software. That means Microsoft can install Spyware and Adware with impunity.

13. Vista Content protection only helps Big Media: A computer scientist in New Zealand found that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors. Microsoft wants you to see that content on TV or bigger, pricier displays.

Options for existing PC (not using MAC OS, Linux) users

- Continue using Win XP
- For gaming, you are better off with the consoles
- Use online office application from Google which are getting better by the day, including better integration with other online apps, in a seamless experience.
- OpenOffice is getting better by the day.
- Home Entertainment: Steve Ballmer says Vista as the center and the launching point for the next generation of connected entertainment in the home. Translation: Expensive Home Servers, premium content, all controlled by Vista’s draconian features.

The world’s needs an open source home entertainment server along the lines of Openoffice, if that is our entertainment future.

End notes
Despite having come up with a Big Brother type of software, Microsoft is sitting pretty. Microsoft knows that for Vista, it at least has the lucrative (&captive) OEM and Corporate market (which still has to show faith in online office applications).

Apple users may take heart with this article that extrapolates Apple’s current growth rate and finds that Apple may overtake Microsoft in the year 2011.

I took this from another blog (link found above). I think this stuff is almost scary. Especially the part in the Terms of Use where it says "Microsoft has the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software (which you paid for) and CAN DELETE certain programs without your knowledge." That makes me seethe. This entire software copyright deal makes me so mad. They waste so much money trying to prevent copying (which happens anyway; if there is a way to crack it, someone will find it, and there's always a way) that that ends up being all the software is; just a chunk of $300 code that enhances nothing. What does the consumer get out of it? Distrust, privacy invasion, and endless frustration. Why can't they all just go the open source route? As anyone whose read this blog knows, I've switched one of my computers over to Linux (Xubuntu to be more specific). I think it's wonderful. It will take me a while to get used to, but the array of completely free software available won me over completely. But, to answer my own question, I know exactly why Microshaft and other such companies won't go open source. They need money. Silly me for asking such a silly question.

YouTube

2007-11-27T01:01:00.000-05:00

Find me on Youtube at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=xxxViiKatexxx

I just might get nabbed for copyright infringement on those biology videos. But come on, if they help even one person learn, they're worth it. If someone tries to take them down, that would be just plain dumb, considering they supplement the textbook, but don't make up the textbook. So, no one is really losing money. So leave me alone, stupid money hungry textbook companies.

Menstrual blood yields stem cells

2007-11-19T22:11:00.001-05:00

Health & Medical News - Menstrual blood yields stem cells - ...

Martha Kerr

Reuters

Tuesday, 14 March 2006

Stem cells harvested from young women's menstrual blood have a longer lifespan than those from older women (Image: iStockphoto)

Japanese researchers have harvested stem cells from human menstrual blood, a medical conference has heard.

The researchers say these stem cells could be coaxed into forming specialised heart cells, which might one-day be used to treat failing or damaged hearts.

At the meeting of the American College of Cardiology, Dr Shunichiro Miyoshi reported that he and his colleagues at Keio University in Tokyo collected menstrual blood from six women and harvested stem cells that originated in the lining of the uterus.

They were able to obtain about 30 times more stem cells from menstrual blood than from bone marrow, Miyoshi says.

The stem cells were then cultured in a way to induce them to become heart cells.

After five days about half of the cells contracted "spontaneously, rhythmical and synchronously, suggesting the presence of electrical communication" between the cells, Miyoshi says.

That is to say, they behaved like heart cells.

The researcher explains that already stem cells derived from bone marrow have improved heart function, mainly by producing new blood vessels rather than new heart-muscle tissue.

He emphasises that it is important that these cells be obtained from younger patients, because they would have a longer lifespan than cells harvested from older donors.

Hahaha for some reason I find that truly awesome. I think it has something to do with the fact that they've finally come up with some use for menstrual blood.
I also love the random stock photo of some random girl. She looks like someone I know.

The new “Google operating system”

2007-11-13T20:49:00.001-05:00

The new “Google operating system”

As most of you know, the Windows operating system is the most popular and the most utilized personal computer operating platform in use today, and has been for many years. Windows has made Microsoft the powerhouse it is today, thanks to its user-friendly interface and a number of other features that greatly simplify your daily life.

However, there is now a new computer operating system that is taking over, and it’s not coming from inside your personal computer, and it’s not from your company’s LAN (Local Area Network) or intranet network either. What I’m referring to here is the “G” operating system, better known as the Google operating platform.

If you feel that for the past couple of years Google has managed to transform many people’s lives, you are not alone. We are witnessing a trend that will probably increase and will become even more widespread in the coming months and years. Thanks to many of its PHD’s and engineers, and using its vast research labs in Mountain View California, Google is building a gigantic information system, complete with its own computer operating system that anybody can use, 24 hours a day.

How it all began Almost without warning, engineers at the Googleplex have designed and built an extremely sophisticated computer network. What really boggles your mind is that this whole project originally took place as a simple idea, just a research initiative at Stanford University in the late 1990’s. Google’s original founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page came up in 1998 with an experimental search engine they had developed.

Please click here to read the whole article.

Article written by Serge Thibodeau of Rank for $ales.

This kind of goes along with my Microshaft rant below. I think Google should make an operating system. Windoze (hehe) just completely sucks, and Linux might be too hard for the layperson to use (it's challenging for me sometimes). I'm a fan of Google's projects thus far; why not make it more widescale?

The new look of Windows products

2007-11-13T20:41:00.001-05:00

So, I honestly have no idea what the hell they're smoking over there at Microsoft. But I think the new layout they're pressing is absolutely horrible. It's ridiculously glossy, and they've hidden all of the menus. Especially in Office, where now I can't seem to find any of the features I am looking for. Typing up an essay or some form of document takes on whole new realms of challenging, even though such a task should be simple and as quick as possible. I wonder how Vista works out. I've seen it, and it didn't look too bad, but using it is a whole different story. Judging by the horror stories I've heard about it, though, I'm not upgrading until I absolutely have to.

One thing I credit Microshaft for is the cosmetic upgrade of MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger as they like to call it). I'm not sure what else they've upgraded on it, but I like how it looks. The only problem is my version of StuffPlug doesn't work yet. But MSN Plus works just fine. Of course without StuffPlug, I have to deal with my habit of pressing the email link in MSN and this time having Internet Exploder pop up, much to my annoyance. One of the main reasons I have StuffPlug is so that I can click on email links and the poor excuse for a browser won't come up, and Firefox will. I just know it's going to infuriate me to no end by the end of the night...

Windoze XP
Frequent Crashes Edition

The Frequent Crashes Edition of Windoze XP is for power users who want an operating system that quits when they need it the most. Each user can access his or her files anywhere on your Windoze XP network with a username and password, and any 13 year old with any hacking knowledge whatsoever can access your Quicken files without a password. Since privacy is a word we are somewhat familiar with, this edition of Windoze features file encryption. For added security, no file decryption is included.

Another thing I noticed with the installation of the new version of MSN Messsenger (which is considered Windows Live Messenger 8.5.1302.1018 Beta) is the new installation program. I hate it. I liked the old click-and-it's-done method, and not this method which asks me to download a bunch of other crap as well. I installed the Mail application and the Writer application (I'm using the Writer app to write this...we'll see how that goes). The Mail application is horrendous. It's pretty much a glossified (yes, glossified) version of Outlook, minus the useful features. I guess it's more like a dumbed down version of non-web based Hotmail (which is called Windows Live Mail now). I absolutely do not like the idea of something that can't make up it's mind if it's web based or POP3/STMP based. Especially when I was looking at the interface. It hurt my head. This writer thing is okay, though, although all I'm doing is typing, really. But it's nice that it let me connect to my Google-based blog.

Aside from this Writer program thing (is it considered a program?) and MSN Messenger (I will call it that until the day I die), I think the route Microshaft is taking with the appearence of their products kind of resembles something a brain damaged ape would cough up if it was choking on a piece of hard candy. Not to mention the simple fact that I cannot find what I am looking for in these programs! I don't know for sure, but I'm going to continue thinking that might be counterproductive.

A major cosmetic change within the new Microshaft products, that I actually do enjoy, is the fact that they've added some new fonts. I don't know about anyone else, but I was kind of getting sick of seeing MS Sans Serif everywhere. Although it is throwing me off a little bit to not see it. So, a small bravo to whoever thought of that part. I'm just wondering what will happen with compatibility with people who don't have these new fonts? Maybe Microshaft should do something smart and provide a font update for those of us fortunate enough not to have Vista yet.

Oh, one more thing about Office, more specifically Word, as well as this Writer program... what the fuck is this hard return/soft return crap? If I hit enter I want the cursor to go down ONE line! If I want two lines, I'll hit the goddamn enter button twice! Even though Bill Gates owns half the world, he does not own Apple...yet!

The Quest for Ubuntu Continues (part 5: success)

2007-11-11T02:01:00.001-05:00

I have finally succeeded in my mission! I now have Xubuntu completely installed on my old Presario. It turns out it was because my hard drive was attached to the wrong jumper; it was attached to 1 when it should have been attached to 0. I also created only two partitions, a ext3 and a swap. It's working awesome!

The Quest for Ubuntu Continues (part 4)

2007-11-10T22:37:00.000-05:00

After talking to various people on forums, etc., I was alerted to the fact that my hard drive appeared to be on a secondary mounting section. At first I wasn't sure what this meant, and I resumed my natural course of things (eg. getting more and more confused as people kept trying to explain things). That is until I noticed something. The computer I am trying to install Xubuntu on doesn't have the cover on the tower (I was too lazy to put it back on), and the hard drive was disconnected before I started this whole charade. I looked closer, and noticed that the hard drive was not plugged into position 0, but was plugged into position 1. I quickly fixed this, and the problem I was having (at the time) went away. I am currently in the process of reinstalling for the last time (last as in either it will work, or I will give up), and I finally got a clear answer on what I should be doing with the partitioning. So, when this is finished, we will see...

The Quest for Ubuntu Continues (part 3)

2007-11-10T01:10:00.000-05:00

No progress has been made on this front. I have tried many things, all of them failing. I have even tried Fedora, Kubuntu, and others, and now I am trying Xubuntu. I tried downloading the disk image on the computer in question, but it kept giving me errors about not having enough space. I must have seriously fucked up the partitioning for that to happen. I still haven't gotten a clear answer from anyone about what exactly I should be doing with the partitioning (on IRC, forums, etc.). So, if Xubuntu fails again, I will give up. Unless I can somehow find someone who will install it for me. Which is unlikely.

The Quest For Ubuntu Continues (part 1)

2007-11-07T20:21:00.001-05:00

Compaq Presario 5000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5000Z-5UVME2 (Internet PC)

- 700-1200MHz AMD Duron/Athlon Processor
- 20-60GB Seagate IDE Hard Disk Drive
- 63-384MB PC133 SDRAM
- 8-64MB S3 or nVidia Graphics Controller
- 4 x USB 1.1 Ports (2 Front, 2 Rear)
- 15-17" Compaq CV Series CRT Monitor
- 56K Dial-Up Modem
- JBL Platinum Series, Monsoon MH-500 or Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Speaker System
- Compaq USB Internet Keyboard/Mouse or Smart Credit Card Keyboard/Mouse
- CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and/or CD-RW

I assume that since my computer is a plain 5000 Presario, and the processors match, that this is the correct computer. Except the hard drive doesn't match. I also don't have the said speaker system, and I most certainly do not have a dial up modem.

All of this will become relevant in the next post, as well as the knowledge in previous entries (that I am struggling to get Ubuntu on my old computer, and it's taking a lot of fucking effort).

The Quest For Ubuntu Continues (part 2)

2007-11-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

700-1200MHz AMD Duron/Athlon Processor
63-384MB PC133 SDRAM
8-64MB S3 or nVidia Graphics Controller

Before I installed Ubuntu, I decided it would be a good idea to write down my specs, just in case I needed to reinstall drivers (which surprisingly I didn't). But I am unsmart and decided not to write down the graphics card and the memory. The above is what I pulled off Wikipedia. This information is important because, in light of the GRUB errors I keep receiving, I decided to post on the Ubuntu forum. One of the first things I was asked was the stats of my computer. Unfortunately, I could not provide the above information, well, except for the processor. *pets Dell computer lovingly* By the way, I am procrastinating....I should be studying math....

Chemistry

2007-11-04T21:49:00.000-05:00

I have concluded that my brain is not atrophying, as I thought it was, because I can still figure things out! As a result of certain circumstances, this week I was not able to obtain the desired amount of sleep, and therefore, after all was said and done, missed part of chemistry class. This is not good, as I am not a strong chemist. So, sitting down to do my assignment tonite, I was a tad worried. It took me a while, but I managed to teach myself the basics of what I missed. I balanced an equation which stumped me for a while. I had one of those moments where something in your brain just pops into place. It's a very satisfying feeling.

Na + H₂O ---> NaOH + H₂

becomes:

6Na + 6H₂O ---> 6NaOH + 3H₂O

That is the equation I had problems with. I doubt I'd be able to do it again. Hopefully that won't come back to bite me in the ass on the test.

GRUB Error Messages

2007-11-01T21:24:00.001-04:00

GRUB Error Messages

17 : "Invalid device requested"

This error is returned if a device string is recognizable but does not fall under the other device errors.

18 : "Invalid or unsupported executable format"

This error is returned if the kernel image boing loaded is not recognized as Multiboot or one of the supported native formats (Linux zImage or bzImage, FreeBSD, or NetBSD).

21 : "Unknown boot failure"

This error is returned if the boot attempt did not succeed for reasons which are unknown.

I have been dicking around with Linux lately, and I cannot seem to get it installed without requiring the boot disc to load it. I got it in my old computer and got it running off the boot disc, ran the installer, thought everything was okay, so then I got some packages, set some prefs, restarted after a package, and got Error 18 first. I went in, jostled with the partitioning a little bit, and got Error 17 after that. I went in and tried:

sudo apt-get remove --purge grub

sudo apt-get install grub

sudo grub

grub > root (hdx,y)

grub >setup (hd0)

grub > quit

But that proved completely fruitless. That's when I ended up with Error 21. So, now, I am in the process of doing a complete reinstall (which isn't bad considering what stage I'm at), and completely repartitioning (which is taking way too fucking long). I really hope it works, or else I will be severely annoyed.

ridiculousness and Trillian

2007-10-29T22:48:00.000-04:00

It is taking way too long to load pages. My internet has been crappy since Thursday, and it's not getting any better. I even tried my dad's computer, and it's doing the same thing, so it's not my computer. It's the internet connection. Gah!!

I also cannot figure out how to use IRC with Trillian. There is supposed to be a built in feature, but I am not seeing it. I'm usually extremely good at finding things, assuming they are in fact there. My guess thus far is that it's a feature only available in Trillian Pro, which you have to pay for. I'm sorry, but I'm not paying for an IM program no matter how good it is. The only exception would be if it could teleport me.

BOINC

2007-10-26T23:06:00.001-04:00

BOINC: compute for science

BOINC is a program that lets you donate your idle computer time to science projects like SETI@home, Climateprediction.net, Rosetta@home, World Community Grid, and many others.

After installing BOINC on your computer, you can connect it to as many of these projects as you like.

Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC) is a non-commercial middleware system for volunteer computing, originally developed to support the SETI@home project, but intended to be useful for other applications in areas as diverse as mathematics, medicine, molecular biology, climatology, and astrophysics. The intent of BOINC is to make it possible for researchers to tap into the enormous processing power of personal computers around the world.

BOINC has been developed by a team based at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley led by David Anderson, who also leads SETI@home. As a "quasi-supercomputing" platform, BOINC has over 430,000 active computers (hosts) worldwide processing on average 663 TFLOPS as of September 8, 2007.^[1] BOINC is funded by the National Science Foundation through awards SCI/0221529, SCI/0438443, and SCI/0506411.

The software is free/open source software, released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. It is also used for commercial usages, as there are some private companies that are beginning to use the platform to assist in their own research.The framework is supported by various operating systems: Windows (XP/2K/2003/NT/98/ME), Unix (Linux, FreeBSD) and Mac OS X.

I have downloaded this, and it seems very cool so far. I haven't quite figured the entire thing out yet, but I am working on it. One of the projects I added was the SETI@Home project. I am pretty sure there is a way to see a star map, including your progress.

Either way, anyone who likes science and owns a computer should download this. What have you got to lose? It's a good way to give back to the world of science.

Microshaft

2007-10-25T15:06:00.000-04:00

Why is it that a find Microsoft products to be increasingly unreliable? It just took me like half an hour to load Hotmail. Or am I biased because Microshaft products simply infuriate me, and I cannot find anyone to teach me Linux? Or is it because I can't even use my Mac because the incompatibility is just that bad?

My internet is being a piece of shit too. I'll be surprised if I can save this post without incident. I have had to hit refresh hundreds of times to actually get my school website to load properly.

The weather blows too. Literally. It's ridiculously windy out. It's also cold. I do not like the cold; I believe I am wrongly coloured, and should be black, and come from somewhere that is hot but not extremely sunny. I think I should be an albino west Indian. But, I am northern European, and appear so.

Are we not the only Earth out there?

2007-10-23T23:32:00.001-04:00

Howstuffworks "The Goldilocks Zone"

Other Possible Earths

One of the main goals of planet hunting is to find exoplanets that have the characteristics of Earth and may consequently contain life. One of the keys to this search is the Goldilocks Zone. Also called the habitable zone or life zone, the Goldilocks Zone is an area of space in which a planet is just the right distance from its home star so that its surface is neither too hot nor too cold. That means that the planet could possibly host liquid water.

Image courtesy NASA
In surveying potential candidates for "new Earths," astronomers look for traces of biological activity, such as the presence of oxygen.

Few planets have been found in the Goldilocks Zone, but in April 2007, European astronomers announced the discovery of one. It was also, at that point, the most Earth-like planet ever found. The planet, called Gilese 581c, is 12,000 miles in diameter, or not much larger than Earth (8,000-mile diameter). It orbits a massive red star called Gilese 581, located in the Libra constellation, 20.5 light years from Earth. Gilese 581c orbits its star very closely, completing an orbit in just 13 Earth-days. This short orbit would make a planet too hot for life, except that Gilese 581's surface temperature is 1/50th that of our sun.

Because it lies in the Goldilocks Zone, Gilese 581c's surface temperature ranges from an estimated 32 degrees Fahrenheit to 102 degrees Fahrenheit. The research team that discovered it believes it has a developed atmosphere. The planet might not only have water -- it might be entirely covered by oceans.

Gilese 581c does have some things working against it. Its gravity is about twice as strong as Earth's, and it receives significant doses of radiation from its star. Both could inhibit life from developing. Even so, Gilese 581c is exciting not only for its Earth-like conditions, but also because of its relative proximity to Earth and its location in the elusive Goldilocks Zone.

As more powerful and precise telescopes go into space, future efforts will involve examining exoplanets' atmospheres for traces of oxygen and methane and looking for rocky planets that lie in the Goldilocks Zone. Scientists are also increasing their use of automated telescopes that are programmed to look for minuscule variations in a star's brightness caused by an orbiting planet passing in front of it. With a rapidly increasing pace of discovery of exoplanets and a practically infinite number of stars in the universe, many other exciting discoveries are ahead of us.

The ideal discovery would be a planet similar in composition to Earth that lies within the Goldilocks Zone and orbits a stable star. But it's important to keep in mind that popular depictions of extraterrestrial life are likely wrong. Some life forms may be no more advanced than bacteria. Others may be highly advanced but unrecognizable, a thought that has caused some scientists to advocate the search for so-called weird life.

For more information about Earth-like planets, planet hunting and related topics, please check out the links on the next page.

One of my friends happened to find this on howstuffworks.com and I thought it was pretty cool. I knew there was some range of distance in which planets would be habitable, I just didn't know it had a name.

science store

2007-10-23T21:28:00.001-04:00

Well, I found my science store. This is pretty much going to be the closest one to me, and it seems pretty good. Again, I apologize for the crappy reproduction.

EfstonScience - The Science & Astronomy SuperStore

Flourescence

2007-10-22T22:16:00.003-04:00

Fluorescence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fluorescence

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fluorescent minerals

Fluorescence is a luminescence that is mostly found as an optical phenomenon in cold bodies, in which the molecular absorption of a photon triggers the emission of another photon with a longer wavelength. The energy difference between the absorbed and emitted photons ends up as molecular vibrations or heat. Usually the absorbed photon is in the ultraviolet range, and the emitted light is in the visible range, but this depends on the absorbance curve and Stokes shift of the particular fluorophore. Fluorescence is named after the mineral fluorite, composed of calcium fluoride, which often exhibits this phenomenon.

I'm not going to lie, the rest of this article is definitely to technically involved for my comprehension. Unfortunately I am not a physicist. But holy shit, those minerals look amazing! Like I said, I'm a sucker for bright colours.

Continuing on....

Blacklight paint

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Have questions? Find out how to ask questions and get answers. •

Blacklight Ink or blacklight-reactive Ink is ink that glows under a blacklight (a source of light whose wavelengths are primarily in the ultraviolet range). The paint may or may not be colorful under ordinary light. It is also known as Fluorescent.

Such paints and inks are commonly used in the production of blacklight posters. Under daylight, the ultraviolet light ordinarily present makes the colors especially vivid. Under blacklight (with little or no visible light present), the effect produced can be psychedelic. The inks are normally highly sensitive to direct sunlight and other powerful light sources. The fluorescent dyes cause a chemical reaction when exposed to high intensity light sources (HILS) and the visual result is a fading in the colors of the inks. On paper, you would most likely observe a significant visible change in the color saturation within 45 minutes to one hour of exposure to the HILS. To date, there is no absolute method to prevent this phenomena. Certain laminations, lacquer coatings, and glass or plastic protective sheets can effectively slow the fading characteristics of the dyes.

Other common usage of the blacklight inks is in security features of money notes, various certificates printed on paper, meal coupons, tickets and similar things that represent a value (monetary or otherwise). The blacklight printed figures used for this purpose are usually invisible under normal lighting, even when they are exposed to direct sunlight (which contains ultraviolet light) but they show up glowing when exposed to blacklight source. This defeats simple and inexpensive attempts to counterfeit them by scanning the original using a high resolution scanner and printing them using an inexpensive high resolution printer (most if not all inexpensive printers don't allow using blacklight inks for printing^{[citation needed]}) and no special equipment is needed to verify the presence and correctness of this feature (an inexpensive blacklight source being handy is all that is needed). Some coupons and tickets use colorful blacklight inks.

Blacklight paints are sometimes used in the scenery of amusement park dark rides. A blacklight illuminates the vivid colors of the scenery, while the vehicle and other passengers remain dimly lit or barely visible. This can enhance the effect of being in a fantasy world.

Blacklight paints may be fluorescent or, more rarely, phosphorescent, containing a phosphor that continues to glow for a time after the blacklight has been removed.

Glowy, fun psychedelic stuff... I definitely need to get myself some blacklights for my room, but sometimes they're hard to find. I bought a couple once, and unbeknownst to me, they were just purple lights. I had no way of knowing they were fake at the time.

Black light

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Find out more about navigating Wikipedia and finding information •

Black light (also Wood's light) is the common name for a lamp emitting electromagnetic radiation that is almost exclusively in the soft near ultraviolet range, and very little visible light. In many areas this type of lighting is more commonly referred to as simply "UV light".

Description

Fluorescent black lights are typically made in the same fashion as normal fluorescent lights except that only one phosphor is used and the normally clear glass envelope of the bulb may be replaced by a deep-bluish-purple glass called Wood's glass, a nickel-oxide–doped glass, which blocks almost all visible light above 400 nanometers. The color of such lamps is often referred to in the trade as blacklite blue.

The phosphor typically used for a near 368 to 371 nanometer emission peak is either europium-doped strontium fluoroborate (SrB₄O₇F:Eu²⁺) or europium-doped strontium borate (SrB₄O₇:Eu²⁺) while the phosphor used to produce a peak around 350 to 353 nanometers is lead-doped barium silicate (BaSi₂O₅:Pb⁺). "Blacklite blue" lamps peak at 365 nm.

A black light may also be formed by simply using Wood's glass instead of clear glass as the envelope for a common incandescent bulb. This was the method used to create the very first black light sources. Though it remains a cheaper alternative to the fluorescent method, it is exceptionally inefficient at producing UV light (a mere few lumens per watt) owing to the black body nature of the incandescent light source. Incandescent UV bulbs, due to their inefficiency, may also become dangerously hot during use. More rarely still, high power (hundreds of watts) mercury vapor black lights can be found which use a UV emitting phosphor and an envelope of Wood's glass. These lamps are used mainly for theatrical and concert displays and also become very hot during normal use.

Some UV fluorescent bulbs specifically designed to attract insects for use in bug zappers use the same near-UV emitting phosphor as normal blacklights, but use plain glass instead of the more expensive Wood's glass. Plain glass blocks less of the visible mercury emission spectrum, making them appear light blue to the naked eye. These bulbs are sometimes referred to as "blacklite" or "blacklight blue".

Ultraviolet light can be also generated by some light-emitting diodes.

So the fake black light I got was just an incandescent light with a purple tinge to it. I need to find a science store around here, and ask for a Wood's Light.

Uranyl

2007-10-22T22:16:00.001-04:00

Uranyl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uranyl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Ten things you may not know about images on Wikipedia •

Ball-and-stick model of [UO₂]²⁺

The uranyl ion, showing the U-O bond order of 3

Diagram of a uranyl ion. The formation of two short U-O bonds in the uranyl ion prevents the closer approach of a third oxygen atom.^[1]

The uranyl ion is the dipositive cation [UO₂]²⁺, which forms salts with acids. In this ion, uranium is in its +6 oxidation state. The other common oxidation state of uranium is uranium(IV), called uranous. The uranyl ion is the most common species encountered in the aqueous chemistry of uranium. Solid uranyl compounds are often colored red, yellow, orange or green. Like all uranium compounds, uranyl compounds are toxic. The toxicity of soluble uranyl salts is higher due to their faster incorporation into tissues.

Examples

Examples of uranyl compounds include:

Uranium trioxide, UO₃
Uranyl acetate, UO₂(C₂H₃O₂)₂
Uranyl ammonium carbonate, UO₂CO₃·2(NH₄)₂CO₃
Uranyl carbonate, UO₂CO₃
Uranyl chloride, UO₂Cl₂
Uranyl hydroxide, UO₂(OH)₂ or (UO₂)₂(OH)₂ also in aqueous
Uranyl nitrate, UO₂(NO₃)₂
Uranyl sulfate, UO₂SO₄
Uranyl zinc acetate, ZnUO₂(CH₃COO)₄

Minerals

Such minerals occur in oxidised portions of uranium ore deposits. Common uranyl minerals include tyuyamunite (Ca(UO₂)₂V₂O₈·8H₂O), autunite (Ca(UO₂)₂(PO₄)₂·8-12H₂O), torbernite (Cu(UO₂)₂ (PO₄)·8-12H₂O) and uranophane (H₃O)₂Ca (UO₂)₂(SiO₄)·3H₂O) (Hutchinson and Blackwell, 1984). Uranyl minerals, which contain uranium(VI) can help show the genesis of uranium deposits and the water-rock interactions that occur in uranium-rich mineral seams.

Chemistry

Uranium chemistry has traditionally revolved around the aqueous chemistry of the uranyl ion, and related molecular species. One important use of this chemistry is for preparation of uranium dioxide ceramic pellets that are used as the fuel in light water nuclear reactors. Often the fuel materials start to break down chemically before the uranium is completely spent, and this too is an active area of investigation, as many of the corrosion products are of the uranyl group.

Structure

The geometry of the uranyl ion has been the subject of much debate. The close approach of two oxygen atoms to uranium, with each linear O-U-O bond from 1.7 to 1.9 Å, prevents the close approach of a third or more. d-p and f-p bonding have been suggested to explain the short U-O bonds.^[1]

Health and environmental issues

Uranyl nitrate is an oxidizing and highly toxic compound and should not be ingested; it causes severe renal insufficiency and acute tubular necrosis and is a lymphocyte mitogen.

Target organs include the kidneys, liver, lungs and brain. Uranyl ion accumulation in tissues including gonocytes^[2] produces congenital disorders, and in white blood cells causes immune system damage.^[3] Uranyl compounds are also neurotoxins.

Combustion of uranium

Aerial oxidation of any uranium compound eventually results in the formation of a uranyl compound.^[1] Uranyl ion contamination has been found on and around depleted uranium targets.^[4]

For some reason, radioactivity fascinates me. I have no idea why. I think it's strange that something so invisible can be so harmful. So, for obvious reasons, uranium is on my list of interesting things. From a medical perspective, it's also fascinating how wide of a variety of problems radiation can cause. I was looking at stuff about Chernobyl yesterday.

Epstein-Barr virus/Alice in Wonderland syndrome

2007-10-22T22:15:00.001-04:00

Epstein-Barr virus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Epstein-Barr virus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Learn more about using Wikipedia for research •

Epstein-Barr virus

Leukemia cells containing Epstein Barr virus (in green) by Fluorescent antibody staining technique.

Virus classification

Group:	Group I (dsDNA)
Family:	Herpesviridae
Genus:	Lymphocryptovirus
Species:	Human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4)

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), also called Human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), is a virus of the herpes family (which includes Herpes simplex virus and Cytomegalovirus), and is one of the most common viruses in humans. Most people become infected with EBV, which is often asymptomatic but commonly causes infectious mononucleosis.

EBV is named after Michael Epstein and Yvonne Barr, who together with Bert Achong, discovered the virus in 1964.^[1]

Pathology

Infectious mononucleosis

Epstein-Barr can cause infectious mononucleosis, also known as 'glandular fever', 'Mono' and 'Pfeiffer's disease'. Infectious mononucleosis is caused when a person is first exposed to the virus during or after adolescence. Though once deemed "The Kissing Disease," recent research has shown that transmission of Mono not only occurs from exchanging saliva, but also from contact with the airborne virus. It is predominantly found in the developed world, and most children in the developing world are found to have already been infected by around 18 months of age. EBV antibody tests turn up almost universally positive. In the United States up to 95% of adults between 35 and 40 years of age have been infected.^[9]

EBV-associated malignancies

The strongest evidence linking EBV and cancer formation is found in Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. It has been postulated to be a trigger for a subset of chronic fatigue syndrome patients^[10] as well as multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.^[11]

Burkitt's lymphoma is a type of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [2] and is most common in equatorial Africa and is co-existent with the presence of malaria. Malaria infection causes reduced immune surveillance of EBV immortalised B cells, so allowing their proliferation. This proliferation increases the chance of a mutation to occur. Repeated mutations can lead to the B cells escaping the body's cell-cycle control, so allowing the cells to proliferate unchecked, resulting in the formation of Burkitt's lymphoma. Burkitt's lymphoma commonly affects the jaw bone, forming a huge tumour mass. It responds quickly to chemotherapy treatment, namely cyclophosphamide, but recurrence is common.

Other B cell lymphomas arise in immunocompromised patients such as those with AIDS or who have undergone organ transplantation with associated immunosuppression (Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder (PTLPD)). Smooth muscle tumors are also associated with the virus in malignant patients.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a cancer found in the upper respiratory tract, most commonly in the nasopharynx, and is linked to the EBV virus. It is found predominantly in Southern China and Africa, due to both genetic and environmental factors. It is much more common in people of Chinese ancestry (genetic), but is also linked to the Chinese diet of a high amount of smoked fish, which contain nitrosamines, well known carcinogens (environmental).^[12]

Chronic fatigue syndrome

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, EBV became the favored explanation for chronic fatigue syndrome. It was noted that people with chronic exhaustion had EBV, although it was also noted EBV was present in almost everyone. In a four year study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no definitive association between CFS and EBV but it is still being studied by researchers.

Other diseases associated with EBV

Stevens-Johnson syndrome
Hepatitis
Herpes
Alice in Wonderland syndrome
Several Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, including primary cerebral lymphoma
Hodgkin's disease
Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder
Herpangina
Multiple Sclerosis
Hairy leukoplakia
Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID)
Kikuchi's disease
Alice in Wonderland syndrome? I have to check that one out...

Alice in Wonderland syndrome

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Learn more about citing Wikipedia •

Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS), or micropsia, is a disorienting neurological condition which affects human visual perception.

An illustration by John Tenniel of Alice rapidly growing.

Subjects perceive humans, parts of humans, animals, and inanimate objects as substantially smaller than in reality. Generally, the object perceived appears far away or extremely close at the same time. For example, a family pet, such as a dog, may appear the size of a mouse, or a normal car may look shrunk to scale. This leads to another name for the condition, Lilliput sight or Lilliputian hallucinations, named after the small people in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The condition is in terms of perception only; the mechanics of the eye are not affected, only the brain's interpretation of information passed from the eyes.

The syndrome is associated with, and perhaps in part caused by, the classical migraine headache. Occasionally, Alice in Wonderland syndrome is named as one of the first symptoms of mononucleosis. Micropsia can also be caused by complex partial epilepsy, and the actions of various psychoactive drugs (notably dextromethorphan).

ambiguous puzzle pieces

Canada sucks

Whoa...

Spoke too soon....

Haven't posted in a while...

Live Messenger; what the fuck is this?

June update (finally)

not sure

Lockerz invite link down

New PS3!

iPhone again, iPad wtf?

iPhone

my non-digital hobby

random update while procrastinating

Live Messenger scam, beware!

it's been a long time; my virus

Lockerz.com invites

my notemachine

Hrmm...

Roxio piece of shit

Test post

Blackberry!!

Mmmm, software...

My new shop!

Blackberry....?

DVD burning and wave to MP3

Scrobbling iPod touch way more complicated than it needs to be

Deliberate difficulty?

New laptop!

Dell...

Sound in Flash fix!

Post-Christmas and end of year

Fixed Java problem? *crosses fingers*

Pidgin is a bitch

Ubuntu update

Canada's Sex Offender Registry a National Embarassment

ugh responsibility

MobileScrobbler and Apple's stupidity

All moved in

The craptacular new Facebook layout

My browser speed

Ubuntu after a long time

Moving sometime soon, Win XP SP 3

Zoo photo inclusion

80s and 90s music

Updates; good or bad?

My final phone decision

Bureaucratic phone services

My future phone?

iPhone excitement turned annoyance

iPhone excitement

Facebook Applications

Nerd Test

my Google group!!

(social) network updates

Axe marketing campaign stupidity

iCoke; what the fuck?

stupid wireless in Ubuntu, plus Hardy Heron

Ubuntu wireless problem

slashdot.org = breeding ground for trolls, idiots, etc.

holy crap.. my bigger Ubuntu plunge

My Superhero Lover

Mugshot, PMOG bitching, and Linux

killwithme.com - Untraceable Web Game

PMOG has been entered

PMOG

PersonalDNA

Free Stuff for Canadians

*crash*.. Navizon, MobileScrobbler, #G7 again, and Second Life

#G7 Idle RPG

Apps for the Touch update

iPod touch 1.1.3 jailbroken

D&D Character Test

Logitech Setpoint is a really bad piece of software

iPod touch + Last.fm = success!

iPod touch + Last.fm = hate

Xbox LIVE

Xbox LIVE Service Status

Status:

i absolutely hate iTunes

Fixed Java problem? crosses fingers

crash.. Navizon, MobileScrobbler, #G7 again, and Second Life