Fifty/Fifty

2003-05-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

What would convince you that Disney owns your government? What if I told you that Disney convinced Congress to make their theme parks no-fly zones, wholly outside any boundaries set by the FAA, the military, or Congress themselves? This is utter horseshit. It's unbelievably offensive, considering that Disney's arguments were "security concerns", which is a total lie -- they've been trying to

2003-05-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

A tear fell from my eye as I listened, and things flooded back. It wasn't a Marcel Proust moment, but reminiscent of such. The listening material was A Kiss To Build A Dream On, and most people wouldn't recognize it right away, I guess. I did -- it was the title song from Fallout 2, and instantly memories of that game, and how awfully humanity had gotten on in it, came back. Nuclear

2002-07-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

"People can edit pictures in Photoshop, neat," the Guardian article seems to say. "But, but, they can edit video now too! Horror! Horror!" Enh. As I've said before, the true paranoid believes that the government had the technology to do this years ago, some going as far as to say at the beginning of motion pictures; at the very least, you could assume that talented and creative government

2002-07-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

If you've heard of a wireless network, you may have also heard of warchalking. A throwback to the hobo code, warchalking will no doubt be the next thing that some idiot legislator gets his tiny brain cells in a furor over. "Graffiti isn't legal to begin with, and this is subversive graffiti to boot," some cluster of senators will say in unison, reading carefully in case technical words show up

2002-07-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

I've been gone, but the world has gone on. Observe as an urban legend comes true, a drug cartel learns just how valuable data mining can be, and, for the (as the French say) "piece of resistor"... Millions of Chinese television viewers got a shock this week when Falun Gong propaganda was beamed into their living rooms as members of the banned sect hijacked one of China's main television

2002-06-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

Did I mention there's great medical possibilities inherent in nanotech and genetech? The gene is delivered by an injected "nanoparticle" that targets only the new blood vessels that tumors sprout in order to thrive and spread. Cancer researchers have long sought effective ways to stop this new blood vessel formation, also known as angiogenesis. The hope is to essentially starve tumors to death.

2002-06-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

But how will this stop the "I just e-mailed you a virus" problem? How does this stop my personal information being sucked out of my PC using cookies? It won't. Solving those particular problems is not Palladium's real purpose, which is to increase Microsoft's market share. It is a marketing concept that will be sold as the solution to a problem. It won't really work. Palladium assures that

2002-06-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

"Texas state law now requires a link on our homepage to an informative page on blocking and filtering software for web browsers. Please follow this link for further information." -- from the IOCOM home page I was curious about this, so I did a little Googling around the problem, and found said Texas law. Sigh. More stupidity to clutter the net up. "Make it more legal! MORE! MORE LEGAL!"

2002-06-24T23:58:00.000-07:00

What, you may ask, bothers me about this? I can't find it, but John C. Dvorak wrote some time ago about a radio network set up in...shit, I want to say Taiwan...that essentially was giving the phone companies some real headaches. (Shame on him for having a link marked "online print articles" that actually is just a list of the places you can go to read his articles...if Randal Schwartz can

2002-06-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

Just occurred to me that blue and gray might produce truly bitchin' CSS results. Blue + Gray + Black might even do better. I'm not here to muse upon CSS, though...I'm here to drop a somewhat provocative IRC log in the reader's lap and run away. :) ***hipnotoad*** You know who i really really hate? ***tate*** panda doesn't seem to be in a talkative mood ***hipnotoad*** The boyscouts and the

2002-06-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

I happened by Phrack today. Gorgeous. I know I'm obsessed with the colors blue and red and black, but it's still fucking gorgeous.

2002-06-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

It's nice to get things to jell in your mind. It's a pleasant little sensation. :) The HTML::Template stuff is starting to make sense now... It's not fun to come to the conclusion that one isn't really ready for a job in the field one wants to work in, but that is the unpleasant conclusion I have come to, with the following caveats: 1. It's possible that there's a job I'm perfectly

2002-06-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

They're just prototypes, but they are indeed atom-sized transistors. You might ask what worth they have, to which I would say, "Wait and see." (Or, in the words of Michael Farraday, "What good is a baby?")

2002-06-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

Run! The robots are loose! Run from your metal captors! Um, wait. Just a drone escaping; no big deal. (Unless it was a "mobile weapon platform equipped with firing mechanisms and anti-personnel ammunition", in which case RUN! RUN FROM YOUR METAL CAPTORS!) Anyway, proving once again that those in law enforcement with no sense of humor are in the wrong place, some police officers took a

2002-06-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

I can no longer put off what I need to be doing (in order: jobhunt, final project at school, comparison). I need to provide some sort of indicator on each thing. Jobwise, I can honestly say that I think MD's gonna take me. I'm not ecstatic about it, sure, but it'll be nice to have a job that doesn't involve lots of back-breaking physical labor, pays decently, and isn't millions of miles away.

2002-06-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

Bad day. Don't know what to do. Gonna try to sleep a little bit.

2002-06-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

This is a great, great quote. i'm dyslexic. (i hate whoever made up that word, it's impossible to spell.) Note to self: Figure out how to stick a little QOTD somewheres on this hyah blog.

2002-06-19T07:41:00.000-07:00

I didn't mention it, but Slashdot ran stories about prototype replacement lungs and a successful attempt to grow a thymus inside a mouse's kidney cavity. (Two years, btw, is how long they think it'll be before they're doing human work in the same vein. So to speak.) New houseguest for a while, but we don't know if that can be a permanent situation or not. On the up side, he seems relatively

2002-06-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

Prototype vision replacement. If that isn't absolutely bitchin', I don't know what is. As much as I love dogs, I will be happy to see a day when they don't have to walk the sightless among us around -- because there aren't any sightless people left.

2002-06-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

Oh, what now about the recording industry, you ask? I sometimes find it amusing when people attempt to do something beyond the point that it's useful. The RIAA and MPAA's attempts to strong-arm a consumer base that's well beyond strong-arming and was only supporting them because they felt an outmoded obligation to purchase their music, well, that's pretty funny. RIAA: Buy this from us!

2002-06-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

Sheeez. One little compliment goes straight to my head. "Good commenting. I like your comments." Mike went on to clarify that they're sufficiently descriptive and they stand out well. Okay, yeah, it's not a huge deal. To you, anyway. It's a huge deal to me because I spend a lot of time coding in a vacuum, out of some mild, quiet-in-the-shadows fear that My Code Looks Dumb. So it's good to

2002-06-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Massive headache, coupled with uncomfortable email, uncomfortable job-hunting, and uncomfortable class situation. Crappledapple. I miss writing. Sometimes I miss it so much I swear that I'd stalk it if it were a person. (I guess it's a good thing for writing that it isn't a person, because I think I'd be an unfortunately ultra-effective stalker.) Heh, dumb idea. "Buffy The Vampire Stalker".

2002-06-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Perhaps near-poverty has the effect of making one look for cheaper things and enjoy those things more. Then again... Well, let's start from the beginning. First, there's Galatea. As you can well imagine, it's a cast-iron bitch to create a deeply possible conversation, one where you have branch after branch of possible discussion. It's a hard thing in real life, much less to create a

2002-06-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

If I didn't know better, I'd be all pleased with how smart I am. I do know better, though, and the fact that the DBI, DBD::CSV, and HTML::Template modules installed smoothly wasn't the result of some finesse I've gained in the OS arena. Nor is it the result of some mystic synergy I have with the machine (the mystic synergy is why my computer automatically filters out content I don't want to see

2002-06-14T02:31:00.000-07:00

New philo blog post. Sometimes they're fairly tiring. Oh, and should you want to see the funniest thing I have seen in...well, shit, at least a few weeks now -- here it is, 9:05 by Adam Cadre. Adam Cadre -- for those in the know -- is a writer of some of the finest Interactive Fiction there is, by gum.

2002-06-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Late night. I'm trying to learn about HTML::Mason, and HTML::Template and whatnot, in order to get crackin' on my final project. The world had damn well better look out if I can get a job that involves code in some capacity. I might well be able to execute my Secret Takeover Plan, which has been in the works for about five years now. (Well, the research parts of it, anyway.) Tired. Not

2002-06-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I seem to be slacking off. That's part research, part job hunt, part...well, suffice to say there's going to be a philo blog post soon enough about it. Anyway. Good signs: Rudimentary haptic-interface games are in existence. Next up: Quake 3 with a rudimentary interface that kills you! I'm kidding, duh. But there are possible abuses inherent in such a device, and

2002-06-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well. First off, let me just say that there's a hugish list of text games to root through should you have spare time and excess nostalgia to burn off. Some even provide a link to a web-playable version, hosted at (I think) ifiction. I'm very tired and I'm going to sleep soon. Got a lot to do tomorrow...several chore-y items like laundry and whatnot, and a few less concrete ones,

2002-06-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

This is South Park me.

2002-06-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

Turns out science is hard. I don't feel as bad about my grades, I tell you that...

2002-06-07T21:23:00.000-07:00

The thing that kicks me most about an idiotic school principal handing out detentions for helium abuse isn't the sheer stupidity of Mary "Dumb As A Stump" Pittinger's decision. It's that the oppressed seventh-grader is making better rules concerning reality than she is. "Just watch what you're doing," he said. "There (are) some crazy rules out there." ... Pittinger doesn't think it's a "

2002-06-07T21:11:00.000-07:00

News has always relied on communication. Now that communication has become easily accessible to the average person, some weird things are shaking out of the equations -- like with the theory of relativity. Okay. Trust me, I'm going somewhere with this. Relativity was fine and dandy, but it implied some disturbing things. Schwarzchild's paper described a situation where gravitation prevented

2002-06-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Hey, guess what? The FCC is trying to screw consumers for its own benefit. Show of hands: Who's surprised? That's what I thought.

2002-06-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

Old friend not posting; worried. Recent attempt to do something failed; dejected. Helped someone move all day; tired. Sitting in a room by myself; lonely. Logical thought has gone south; drinking.

2002-06-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I'm Dagon. Find out what Elder God you are!

2002-06-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

If you need to know about neuroprostheses, then you need to go... Oh. There ya go, then.

2002-06-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

Plagiarism.org bothers me. It bothers me because the educational system has produced a bizarre, pointless mindset. "It's not yours! GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM THE THINGS THAT YOU DIDN'T CREATE!" Not to be cynical or anything, but it's stupid in the acute case and it's stupid in the extreme case, such as with Georgia Tech's insanely stupid policy. It's stupid for a myriad of reasons, not the

2002-06-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

HUDSON, Wisconsin -- Shawn Wooley's recent death has a second go at the news, however, this correspondent's most recent communication with her indicates that she is lodging charges against the State Of Wisconsin, Nintendo Of America, Sony, Sega, the Bicycle playing card company, Infocom, and Atari as well, citing that they "are game companies inexorably involved in Shawn's death." "Everyone is

2002-06-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

Bl-oggin' from class. All done with homework. All done with next week's homework. On the 5th, my secretive responsibility will be over, and my crappy job will probably be a reality, so in my spare time I'll probably go back to hacking around on the Tk interface for use.perl;.

2002-06-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

Hey, if you're like me then you have science fiction daydreams: You imagine a hair rinse of grabber-nanites that will change your hair color on a remote signal, or an immune system supplement injection that would provide protection for a range of new infectious diseases. Check out a summary of the Foresight proceedings. He gave the illustration of something he called a respirocyte -- a

2002-06-02T11:13:00.000-07:00

What Type of Villain are You? mutedfaith.com / <º> Like anyone reading this thing didn't know this. I know where all of you live.

2002-06-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

Long story short, I'm off to rebuild Perl on my partitionless Red Hat installation, due to problems with GD. If I'm very persistent and very thoughtful, I will do fine in the Land of Linux.

2002-05-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

I haven't discussed it at all, but should you find yourself on a Discordian bent, you might enjoy Strange Daze, which is sort of like... Well, I have an anecdote that will explain my comparison, and then I'll compare it. Once, while heading into my Local Game Shop (the Wizard's Den, a great place to get game stuff should you be a pen-and-paper or board or figure gamer), I asked the proprietor (

2002-05-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I'm referring to Frasier, of course. No, I'm referring to the poor schmoes who set out to make a great TV series or movie or whatever and end up having to pandor to advertisers. Someone else should pander to the advertisers for them, someone who can't necessarily write a screenplay. Regardless, this is an overdue change. Much like the media is learning that

2002-05-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Oh, sure, you read Penny Arcade. Maybe even stuff like V.G. Cats and 3 Finger Salute, they've all got a liquid gaming core. What do you know about the real old school? So old they didn't replace their 'ch' with 'k'? So old that the word 'Infocom' means something to them? Perhaps I sound codgerly. Perhaps. Perhaps my l33t twitch was bested one too many times by a newfangled videogame lately

2002-05-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

A meeting with the FBI in Washington revealed that American citizens are unwilling to participate in similar police DNA intelligence screens, seeing them as an invasion of privacy. British public opinion could be similarly eroded if there are insufficient safeguards maintaining the security of the information.Broad anti-discrimination measures are needed to outlaw genetic discrimination in

2002-05-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Truthfully, I question the motives of anyone who claims pure selflessness. Altruism arouses my suspicion. Me, personally, I have both selfish and selfless motives, and I try not to kid myself about that. They mesh. On the best of days, they positively intertwine. But the motives that push me are the selfish ones; the way I resolve them has to do with my selfless ones. I want this, this

2002-05-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

The joys of the job hunt. Well, I'm being unnecessarily (or at least pointlessly) bitter. Sure, I could be somewhere more remote (more remote than Maine? Yes, it's possible), and sure, things are a lot better now (in terms of remote work possibilities) than they used to be. Based on that, I'm making applications at a few local places (such as Microdyne and Best Buy), as

2002-05-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

It may not excite some people, but then, I've never been known for normalcy. Slashdot ran a story on the stable release of FreeCraft, which is an isometric RTS engine being hawked on Sourceforge right now. "It successfully runs under Linux, BSD, BeOS, MacOS/X, MacOS/Darwin and MS Windows." Now, I probably don't have to explain why this is a good thing, but I'll do it anyway. The possibility

2002-05-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

Time for a few tests, in honor of Memento's deranged menu system. (Memento is a painfully beautiful movie in places. I've heard it said before that "gimmicks don't work", and perhaps that's true, but before a gimmick is a gimmick it's a trick, and tricks are entertaining. Memento is a trick, a hard one to pull off: Not only is it a movie in reverse, but you watch something happen in the very

2002-05-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Sure, this article says it's about neuroscience, but how much of it is just outright fear? "Yet when it comes to neuroscience, no government or treaty stops anything." "A public debate over the ethical limits to such neuroscience is long overdue. It may be hard to shift public attention away from genetics, which has so clearly shown its sinister side in the past." Uh, what? Sinister side

2002-05-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

A few notes, sort of to myself, sort of intelligible, so I'll post them here. The first mosquito bite of the season! Time to apply my time-honored "ignore the fucking things" mental mechanism, because otherwise I will have raw red welts the size of my forearm all over my body. There's a certain mental schisming that seems to accompany multiblogging. I've noted it for a while now, what with

2002-05-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

I just can't seem to keep my lust for weird science down; case in point, the Indiana Hum. Assuming this is a mad scientist and not a natural phenomenon, there are a couple; the article details similar hums (and similar health problems) in Scotland and Taos, New Mexico.

2002-05-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

What wonders has technology wrought for us? First, markers are circumvention devices; also, it's not okay to threaten to kill people and (to the great chagrin of high schools everywhere, I'm sure) censorship doesn't work any more. And, finally, a tragic article, its only bright spot being the donation of the phrase 'artificial anus' to the English language. I wish I was making that up. Oh,

2002-05-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

The Race Is On I have a LOT of things to do over the next three weeks. First, there is a the Enormous Secret Project (which I can't tell you about yet, it's a secret). Second, there is my CGI In Perl class (which has been going very well, but I'd like to ensure I score an A in the class). Third, I must have a job within two weeks. Fourth, I have to finish writing a comparison of logic

2002-05-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

Been riding the car easy. Friday I'll be able to talk to someone who might be able to take the car in Monday. I may be able to get my car fixed within budget. My father was supposed to call this morning; he didn't, and when I called him noonish he said that Sue had taken ill again and he didn't want to leave her alone. We rescheduled for tomorrow. One of the things I love about _Halo_ was

2002-05-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

My mother, in her...maternal wisdom has decided I don't look proper. Despite my extreme insistence that I did not need clothes, but needed a brake job, she made me get some. I'm not good at shopping for clothes, so Laura and my mother essentially fight over what I'm going to wear for the next couple years. Regardless, I have clothes that at least look like they were purchased recently to go

2002-05-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Sipping on Bacardi Limon and lemon juice. My father's moved back up with his new wife; they're looking for a house, and I have no doubt that I'll be invited over sometimes and expected to show up on occasion. I wouldn't mind so much if I were better at social occasions; I have a habit of watching them happen, instead of participating. That's not why I sip Limon. I sip Limon because I have a

2002-05-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

Sure, I don't have time to expound (and pound) upon the public school system again -- but I sure have enough time to serve up a better version of my rants, by someone who knows better -- one of the insiders.

2002-05-18T01:42:00.000-07:00

I still can't quite shake this gnawing feeling whenever I visit Leonard's place, much like the sensation that you need bologna or are about to die. Note to self: Bring bologna on next death mission, see if that helps. Regardless, said Leonard is working in Inform, a language I heartily recommend should you be needing something to create a text-based game in. Text-based games, for those of you

2002-05-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, look. I've been awake for a different reason than my standard insomnia. The people downstairs may have had someone try to get in their house. This would be non-noteworthy except that means they were, technically, in my house as well. Tomorrow a new set of locks goes on their door, preferably one with a deadbolt. Tonight, I just stay up until I can't keep my eyes open, just in case this

2002-05-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

I was setting up the new template for writer's blog and asked for opinions in IRC -- and I quote: ::chaoticset:: I almost have the new template all ironed out...any opinions? ::amanda-:: it's sexalicious The people have spoken.

2002-05-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

It's easy to get disgusted at the world sometimes. The World Health Organisation estimates that depression is soon to become the second leading cause of disability - behind ischaemic heart disease and ahead of road traffic accidents. I don't know who to be more angry at; the medical side of humanity for doing what we always do and over-applying a solution (drugs), those treated for blindly

2002-05-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

Okay. This is a really simple lesson, and one people should get the hang of. I debated for a long time before I decided exactly what was happening, but I think I've got it nailed down. See this story about a guy who was essentially really unattractive? See this placeholder, where Dooce used to be? Once upon a time, there really was a divide. Most people didn't own computers. ("Most" still

2002-05-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling guilty. No, not guilty because I haven't been blogging; guilty because I've been playing _Halo_. How, you might ask, does one play _Halo_ if they don't have an Xbox? They buy one. Laura's state tax return came back, and with it we purchased an Xbox, an s-controller, a copy of _Obi-Wan_, and a copy of _Halo_. (This was the result of fate delivering Laura's check the same day the

2002-05-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, sure, it's sort of cool that a combination of ultrasound and haptic devices can let you touch a baby inside the mother, mostly because this is a way to touch things you can't touch. That's not the coolest thing. This was the coolest thing, but it was in March. I only wish I could have been there; if it happens next year, maybe I will manage to get there somehow.

2002-05-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

Revelation The First: There's a Seven Degrees machine, one that scans who was in a movie with who. Revelation The Second: Most of those links are Mickey Rooney, though.

2002-05-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

I don't want to sound obnoxious, but I had this idea two weeks ago. A core set of components that can be plugged into accessory bases, so you don't have to sync stuff or worry about people stealing the copy you have on your desktop -- the core moves with you. Combining this with the cybernetic experiments that Kevin Warwick's doing and 802.11, and you can have a fairly massive storage unit

2002-05-14T16:13:00.000-07:00

Note some spiffy new links to the left that I finally got around to adding to the template. Didn't add a webcomics section (yet?), mostly because my perlmonk presence covers that. I need to update it or else trash it and do a webcomics section here, though, because it's about fifteen comics out of date. (I don't follow most webcomics daily any more. I graze and chomp, picking some webcomic I

2002-05-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

Testament to the selling power, it would seem -- the domination by Pro blogs of the recently updated list wasn't permanent. I'm toying with the idea of going Pro on Fifty/Fifty, but I haven't decided one way or the other yet. Some of the features look nice, don't get me wrong...but some seem unnecessary, and I'd be paying for the extra space anyway (I'm apparently long-winded! Whodathunkit?)

2002-05-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but the Blogger front page has nothing but Pro blogs on its "who recently updated their blog" block. Maybe that's a testament to the selling power -- that so many have bought Pro subscriptions that Pro blogs occasionally blanket the recent updates. Maybe not. Time will tell.

2002-05-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

Leonard Richardson is apparently being funded by wealthy investors looking to promote sheer insanity. Issues doesn't cover it with this one.

2002-05-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Boy, going to Penny Arcade sure does have nice side effects sometimes. :) Tycho gave a link to Strange Horizons, and I think I'm going to make some submissions. Most notably the Russell and Mouse stories, assuming I can even find the fucking things again. One of these days I'm following through on my promise of building a personal data repository somewheres. One of these days...

2002-05-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

I'm moving the Linux Deadline up to December 2003: By then, I expect to run some form of Linux as an OS. Why, you might ask? Especially if you're Laura, my fiancee. She seems to think that it's normal -- nay, healthy to reboot constantly, to have to wipe the whole system and reinstall from scratch every half-year or so. She thinks it's normal for the OS of a computer to play nice with her,

2002-05-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

New philo blog post, and hopefully new perspective from same.

2002-05-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged most of the day, but I have a really good reason. For most of the day my machine's been unbootable. Those of you who have read this thing often enough recently will recall Laura's dabbling with viral risks; there may be a virus working this machine over, yes, but I don't have strong enough mojo to deflect it. If there is one, it's doing a damn fine job of hiding. The hard

2002-05-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm just a sucker for damage control or something, because I know that had the morning gone normally, I probably wouldn't have done anything more industrious than work on Tk today. But no. The words that drag me from slumber this morning are: "Wake up. I think I got a virus on the computer." Now, look. Laura has her faults. Laura is pigheaded occasionally. Laura refuses to listen to

2002-05-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

After a suit due to the lack of water stations to facilitate illegal border crossings, a flurry of similar litigation has followed, including a suit filed by mafia heads to have ammo dumps placed at convenient locations in the inner city. Lawyers for each of the plaintiffs of each of the suits said, in unison, "Well, hey, you never know. We might win. What the hell." in response to the

2002-05-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

I've been fiddling with the notion of trying to build a rudimentary RPG codebase in Perl/Tk (mostly because it would be ultra-portable shit, maybe even robust enough to build real-time netcode underneath and make it something you can play with a bunch of other people...) Oh, and there were several leather briefcase-y things on sale at Laura's work for small small amounts of money. My current

2002-05-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

Oh, yeah. Yesterday skwerrel in #3fs asked me if I wanted a link and a slot on his banner exchange. Now, I'm both insane and shameless, so I made a banner for Fifty/Fifty. I have issues.

2002-05-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

I should go check my grades today, but I don't want to. I've been working on a picture of myself as a zombie. Good feedback so far ("is that makeup or photoshop?") but there's still a lot to do. I'll post a small version here when I'm done.

2002-05-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

What 8-Bit Theatre character are you? at LeetAssQuotes. NecroVMX Well of course.

2002-05-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

The sad bit is just how obligated I feel to comment on things. Like, say John Scalzi mentions he has a birthday in May? I'll comment on it. "My birthday is in May too," I'll say. Hell, it's even true. I dread my birthday. Not because I'm getting older, not because 23 is the year of your life when the Illuminati reveal all the secrets of reality to you...just because it's around my birthday

2002-05-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

See, going through referrers isn't totally useless. Sometimes you find out that you're the top of a Google search, like a search for the phrase 'i always do this. i always fuck up some mundane thing.'. Look, Ma! I'm Number One!

2002-05-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Man, there's just good news all over the place. An offshoot of the study of games, Ludology is apparently the study of video games. Good deal, but that word needs work. Maybe Lud0x0r0l0gy? Abiword 1.0.1 has been released. I firmly agree with John C. Dvorak about one thing: Business software is what Linux needs. Besides, it's got export to Word and WordPerfect formats, and can read them as

2002-05-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

Oh, and I hadn't mentioned it, no, but I made a Freaktech account. The much-feared "continuity" monster struck at Penny Arcade; note hilarity one and hilarity two. I don't know about other people, but I like continuity. Got Moby's _Early Underground_ CD on heavy rotation in my Winamp and my head. (Did I mention that I recently found the coolest Winamp skin ever?) I recently purchased this

2002-05-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

That's it. Two take-home finals and a take-home quiz -- plus a medium-sized dental filling -- all done in the space of... *tries to count from when he started, counts seven fingers on one hand, gives up* ...less than 24 hours, let's just say. I'm feeling quite "Dave Attell" right now, let me tell you. References to goat sex are bounding through my mind like you can't even believe. My

2002-05-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

You know, I actually like the effort made by Acutecut to make sure the reader is appropriate for the blog.

2002-05-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

I still feel pretty damn awful. I may try to put a little something together in Photoshop for an art show at my school, but probably not.

2002-05-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

I feel ill. Most likely, this is the result of chugging nothing but Dew, coffee, and a bare minimum of food for four straight days; less likely, it's a psychosomatic response to my school situation. Maybe a combination. Who knows. Antiirregardlessly, I provide you with MANY LINK! First, a disturbing occurrence: Apparently Daily Rotten linked this as a story about dying bioweapons

2002-05-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Okay -- now Kris Straub has gone to a new, safe format in protest of Judge Ronald Klein's stupid ruling concerning webcomics and free speech. What I'd really like to see is a webcomic titled "Judge Ronald Klein's Wacky Adventures". It could be -- pardon my Monty Python -- "the madcap adventures of a zany judge". Get some photos, do the art, etc., make it about this schmuck. I wish Kris had a

2002-05-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

Oh, and I took this. Which Royalty Are You? Find out! By Nishi. Found it at another blog, one with a fair chunk of haiku splattered across the front when I read it.

2002-05-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

It's easy to just claim that I'm obsessed, that blogs and quizzes and such are the shiny things of life to me. That would be an easy thing to say. It's not entirely true, though. I think something is changing. I think blogs are the beginning of something important, because they're a way to write that's made easy and popular. And yes, when things get popular they have a tendency to suck; but,

2002-05-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Furg. Fruitless time spent; I'm going to lay down, skim through _Learning XML_ a little, try to relax, finish my coffee. Maybe in a few hours I'll be useful again. never going to cut the mustard as a web designer if you can't marathon once in a while, get the lead out Which reminds me -- that episode of The Twilight Zone was on Sci-Fi again recently, the one with Jonathan Winters as the dead

2002-05-06T17:39:00.000-07:00

CIS 131 final project in, got a 100 -- now, I just have to get 1/3rd of the homework that I didn't do done and get an A or B in the course. Problem is, I can't seem to do it. I'll try for another hour, and if it hasn't fired the engine, I'll get to bed early, get up around 6, and try again in the morning. I have a little wiggle room here; very little, though. I haven't looked at slashdot for

2002-05-06T06:31:00.000-07:00

What, you ask, am I doing here? Even you, faithful reader, know that I have to get my 131 project finished. Considering that I've got to add CSS and imagemaps and whatnot to the current work, it's no small task. Why am I here? Because -- if you're like me, paranoid -- then you'll love the idea of the Dead Man's Switch. It's Win32, so please keep that in mind. The program will notify forums/

2002-05-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

Final project for my webapps class, need to do a whole website. Looks like I'll try to do a rough draft of what my business site will look like; hopefully it won't suck too badly.

2002-05-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

All right. Here. I understood Mulholland Drive. I don't mean I knew how to feel. I mean I know what it was about. It was about a young wannabe actress (Diane) who fell in love with another actress (Camilla). When Camilla left her and was going to marry a director (Kescher), Diane had Camilla killed. You might ask why such a straightforward movie was presented with an enormous dream

2002-05-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

Short version: I saw _Mulholland Drive_ tonight. David Lynch, I know you're out there, you son of a bitch. I saw _Blue Velvet_. I just saw _Mulholland Drive_. I'm on to your games. I understand your work now. Not just in the way that Brad Pitt in _12 Monkeys_ understood what Bruce Willis meant, oh no. No, I understand them like I live them. You think you've made such a puzzle of a movie.

2002-05-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sigh. It's frustrating to read about some new geeky thing (say, an instant messaging protocol) and have a whiny little voice in the back of your head going, "Is there a GUI for it? Text is difficult to mentally process!" It's not something I'm proud of, the GUI Whiner. Trust that I'm not asking people to make more GUIs for their various things. This is a cry for help. Would any enterprising