Category: Miscellaneous

My computer is broken – seriously. I spent all afternoon working on it. I’m now giving it a rest and working on homework that is due tomorrow. I’m working on homework at the University that I could be working on at home except that my computer is so messed up right now! I’m going to back up My Documents and install Windows 2000 over itself. If that doesn’t work I’ll convert it into a boat anchor. That better work, it just better.

Mom and Dad came to visit because their computer wouldn’t boot and they just wanted to visit I guess. But when I went to make a boot disk on my windows 95 machine it wouldn’t boot either. Then my Win 2000 machine started acting up and I lost my internet connection and it won’t let me open any programs. I can’t even login to my Linksys router. I don’t know what’s wrong with my computer but its really ticking me off. I now have 3 broken computers at my house to fix. Mom and Dad left theirs so they probably won’t be reading or commenting on the blog for the next week or so.

The motion capture workshop was this afternoon. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as I had hoped but it was very interesting all the same. Will (aka Anonymous) dressed up in black tights and then attached little balls with reflective tape on them all over the suit. There were about 8 or 9 cameras all around the room and sure enough the computer was able to track his motion. The data was then cleaned up and exported to 3D Studio Max where a bi-ped that someone else created was attached to the data and recreated the motions on the 3D plane.

If you ever get a 17-year-old roommate, who has never lived away from home before, please remember to tell him not to eat your food otherwise, if you are like me, you may wake up in the morning without any milk for breakfast.

Ok, this link is what I like to call a “must read“. I expect to hear some feedback on this one as well.

“Federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges — and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256!” He started out with only $800, and in two weeks he had created a portfolio worth more than $350 million.

I kind of wish that this guy was for real, even though it’s obvious that he’s a lunatic or a really incredible liar. What I find the most interesting part of this article is that, “the Security and Exchange Commision source admits, “No one can find any record of any Andrew Carlssin existing anywhere before December 2002.”

Has anybody noticed that Fox’s new show, Oliver Beene, seems to be a rip-off of the Wonder Years? Everything about the show screams, “I wish I was Kevin Arnold!” The TV show not only copies The Wonder Years premise by following Oliver growing through his adolescent years in the 60’s but it also copies every other character in the show. You may think this comparison is pretty weak, but consider the following. The teacher drones on like Ben Stein, Oliver has friends that seem just like Winnie and Paul. Not even the trademark Wonder Year scenes of showing black & white newscasts in the background are cut from this cheap copy. Even the narrator’s voice sounds like it came straight out of The Wonder Years. They could have at least based the show in the early 80’s giving us Gen-X’s something to relate to. Who do they think their target audience is anyway?

Continuing with my rant about lame new TV shows, comes my take on The Pitts — it’s Fox’s other new show. I guess I never gave it much of a chance, but from what I did see (about the first 15 minutes) the show gets two enthusiastic thumbs down. The premise of this show is that a supposedly normal girl (who can’t act) lives with a family of psychotics that have very bad luck ? think Malcolm in the Middle but less funny. I didn’t watch the ending, so I don’t know if they are keeping all of the characters but in this particular episode they hired a nanny who has been obsessed with the Father ever since he stood her up on prom night 25 years ago. Why couldn’t he remember her when he hired her? Lame, lame, lame!

Where did all the good shows go? I’ll take the Internet over TV any day. Although, I must admit, I do like the occasional cartoon.

I just want to say how angry I am at one2host.com. My site is down AGAIN! What a waste of money – I wish I could get my money back! The site is down, the email server is down, even when I try to contact them via their website I can’t get through. If I had the site running on an old computer with just a linux server and my DSL connection it would be better than the crappy service that One2host has given me. Take my advice and avoid this provider. It’s terrible.

In my mortgage agreement with the bank I pay back my property taxes with each payment I make. I, therefore, will not have to pay a huge $1600.00 tax once a year. But thanks for looking out for me.

I know this isn’t really newsworthy, but I am so pleased with myself that I want to post that I finally fixed the leaky faucet that has been driving me nuts for months! It only cost me like $5.00 at Canadian tire to get the part I needed. I also bought a handsaw for installing a new outlet for the dryer and some needle nose pliers (it was an impulse buy but at $2.99 how could I resist?)

Wired Magazine is covering an interesting story about company that is refusing to sell it’s products to anyone living in Canada, France, Germany, or any other country opposed to the war in Iraq. Apparently the company had a laser printer on sale on EBay and when they found out that the highest bidder was from Vancouver, BC they changed their mind about the sale.

Here’s some more food for thought about dumbness. Bill Clinton, just as all Presidents do, made his share of mistakes. Most notably the affair with office intern Monica Lewinsky. The media had a feeding frenzy. Clinton was dragged through the mud, and yet when it was all over everyone still seemed to love Clinton. Bush on the other hand has also made his mistakes in office. Even though he cheated the election and started a war with Iraq in which hundreds of people will die, you don’t hear any mainstream media criticising his actions. According to the media Bush’s ratings are high, but frankly I don’t think that will be the case come election time. Now I dare to ask the question, who made the bigger mistake, Bush or Clinton? Whose mistakes cost more lives?