A little too late Bush
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
I don't know about you, but whenever I make a mess of things in my life I don't tend to find a lot of people willing to help me pick it up. After all, I made the mess. By an extension of entity from person to country, it's no surprise that no one wants to help Bush clean up Iraq. I can't imagine why no one wants to go in and clean up after a war they didn't want and get shot at. hmm....

Now a comic that expresses these sentiments.

@#($&@#$ Printer!
Mood:  loud
Topic: Summer General
I'm trying to print out some specs from a vendor and I keept getting a page coming out of the printer that says:

offending error
stack

I'll show that printer an offending error! What's most unnerving about it is that no one here knows how to fix it. They say it comes and goes. Sometimes technology can be such a pain - this coming from an EE major.

How do you read a blog?
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
I was wondering, yesterday, how people read blogs. I usually find one with an interesting title or stated purpose. Then I read the first entry, if that one pulls me in, I usually go all the way to the beginning and start reading from there. I go through a marathon reading session as I try to get back to the most recent post. Usually in 1-3 days (depending on how many posts there are and how much free time I have) I make it back to the beginning. If I didn't lose interest somewhere in the middle of it all, then I try to note approximately how often the author updates and I check back often to read the next tidbit.

I do have to admit a bit of dissapointment when I show up and there isn't a post. Conversely I tend to perk up when I see that there's a new post. With some authors each post leaves me wanting more.

I also do the same with online comics. I only read a few, but those that I do read, I love to read as often as possible. I reccommend: Megatokyo and RPG World.

How do you read a blog? Do you start from the beginning? Read them in reverse chronological order? Only read from the point at which you started reading it? Feel free to leave your response in the comments.

To Jeff from H2G2
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: response to comments
Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad to see that people are making it here from H2G2. For those who are new to the blog and haven't read my previous posts yet, H2G2 is like the Wikipedia - it's an encyclopedia written by normal people like you and me - not necessarily academics in stuffy sweaters. It's free to join and contribute, so check it out. I've got a couple of articles on there and as soon as I get internet access at home (hopefully friday) I'll be updating current artciles and working on new ones.

Help me Help You
Mood:  happy
Topic: Site Info
I may have posted about this in the past, but it about time for a reminder. If you like my blog - link to me in your website or blog. If you want me to link to you, just email or IM me the link to your site and we can trade links. This has a few good effects. First of all, we'll increase each other's readership. Second, some webcrawlers (such as Google's) rank pages on in and out links so the more links you have, the better your rank. Additionally, if the links are real (not made up for your to inflate your numbers) then your page goes higher up. I'd love for as many people as possible to read my blog, so feel free to trade links with me.

Reagan, Reagan, and more Reagan
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
Actually, it wasn't all the Reagan coverage that disturbed my fiancee and I, it was his apparent santification. In my life I'd never heard anything good said about Reagan. Every time I heard his name in pop culture it was a reference to Reaganomics. In fact, everyone that I knew pretty much hated him. He was THE Republican and only cared about big businesses. The money never did "trickle down" like it was supposed to.

Yet, at his death all people could do was talk about how awesome he was. He supposedly ended the cold war. Not so fast - it takes two to tango. What about Gorbachev? What about the fact that the Soviets were on their way down the toilet anyway? He supposedly made America proud of the military again. Stuff like that. I don't know, but all I'd previously heard was that he was just a face while people in the background ran things. But NOW we discover that it wasn't true. Odd coincidence?

Additionally, it was under his watch that we supported and grew Osama Bin Laden simply because they were on the side against the Soviets. Aparently communism was so bad that terrorism was the better choice. Additionally, it was under his watch that we supported Saddam simply because his rule wasn't by clerics. Again - not a smart move. These may not be his fault, but if the good things are his fault, then so are the bad. Because it wasn't his idea to do all the things he did with regards to the good.

This is not meant to shadow the amazing fact that he went from a midwestern boy to a movie star to governer of cali to president. But it just seemed quite one-sided. That's why I really liked the comic I'm reproducing below; It inspired me to write this.

Swing your arms from side to side....(Mario live Tv show theme)
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
I wonder why we swing our arms when we walk where the arm swinging is the opposite of the leg that is moving. Is this necessary for bipedal movement because it provides balance? I wonder where I could find out. I tried to do my own experiment and move the same arm as the leg. It required quite a bit of mental activity to do this because my arms kept wanting to go back to the normal pattern. I finally got it working for a few steps but it felt extremely weird. I don't know if it felt weird because I was trying so hard to make it work and it's an ingrained pattern or if it truly threw off my balance. If anyone knows somewhere on the net to find the info...drop me a line.

Linux vs SCO (David and Goliath)
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: News
Although you'd have to be living under a rock if you're a Linux user and haven't heard about the battle with SCO, here's a link to MSNBC's coverage.

whowhatwhenwherewhy?!?
Mood:  chatty
Now Playing: "Hittin' Curves" - GRITS
Topic: Site Info
I don't have any idea why or how, but someone from Taiwan visited my server the day before yesterday. Very strange - I mean, it's a good thing because the more people that visit, the more coverage for my items such as my videos and the other sites hosted there. But it's just so random...Taiwan?

I told you so (x3)
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
The first "I told you so" I'm not proud of or happy to report, but I did predict it and wanted to document that. I've written once or twice that I found it strange that the Palistinian terrorists attacked all sorts of every-day venues (ie busses, universities, restaurants) while al-Qaeda only targeted larger-than-life targets. They only tried to attack WTC, bridges, nuclear plants. Why weren't they going after the easy targets? There are so many parts of our infrastructure that are unprotected. Again, it's not that I want life to be disrupted, I was just curious from an academic point of view.

Well, it turns out that, perhaps, it was only a matter of time. As they learned that all the big targets were too well protected, they began to go after smaller targets. The "proof" is a somalian recently arrested for plotting to blow up an Ohio mall. Of course, the facts are still a bit shady. Some of those on Tv said he was attacking the mall and others said that it wasn't certain he was targetting the mall. Additionally, these are just charges - they may find him innocent. Still, it validates my belief that if a terrorist truly wants to disturb life as Bush says, they can't be so picky.

The second item on my "told ya so" list has to do with work. I really wanted to get a demo of a product and those around me told me that I'd never be able to get a demo. I called up the company and they're coming to make a presentation next week and will provide a demo once they asess our needs.

Finally, the issue with the cable company. They kept saying that I had been hooked up for cable and implying that I didn't know how to program the Tv for it. Since I've been doing that since I was a kid and since I'm an electrical engineer, I was certain that the problem was not on my end. I was telling people that they had probably connected the wrong house despite the fact that I kept telling the address. I turned out to be right. They kept going to the wrong house and trying to connect that one to cable. How have they survived since the 60s?