Computer Shopping and Comment Spam

I get to start doing one of my favorite things here in a little while. I get to start pricing and shopping for computer parts.

You see, I've got this new job, and very few bills now that I've moved back home. Katie's still in Ruston too, which means that I'll have to find other ways to feed my Katie addiction. The best (reasonable) option I could come up with would be to set Katie up with a nice computer, a cable modem and a web cam.

I know I won't be able to fight the urge to upgrade my computer for very long, and I will be in withdrawal from not seeing Katie at least 5 hours a day. So, I figure it's the natural solution. Set her up with a computer with the left-overs from my upgrade and give her a webcam so we can actually see each other a little more often. She's also a third of the way through her Master's program, and she still has an old cruddy little 600 Mhz laptop. It runs on a mixture of half gas and half oil, and coughs loudly any time you try to work with a file over the size of 300 bytes. She deserves a better computer to write her papers and work on her powerpoint presentations (or play mahjongg).

I'm gonna start pricing the Athlon 64's and new motherboards (possibly a shuttle barebones pc with mobo) and look at what's new in the PC world. Let's have a look at what I need.

1) Processor
2) Motherboard
3) Case w/ PSU
4) Memory
5) Hard drive (already have 4, but may need another)
6) Fan
7) Video Card
8) Keyboard & Mouse

On a different note, I'm gonna have to look into a method of keeping more comment spam out. I don't really wanna get the MT-blacklist plugin, or any other method that blocks a good deal of normal comments, but I may have to soon. I seem to be getting about 75 spam messages a day now... after they finally learned to parse my HTML for the form name. They're getting smarter.

Mardi Paws parade - Shreveport

This weekend was the first of a few weeks of Mardi Gras celebrations here in Shreveport. I'm not really sure which Krewe had their parade last night since I didn't go, but I did manage to make it to the Mardi Paws parade this afternoon.

Mardi Paws is a dog and cat show. Basically, pet owners can bring their pets to the AC Steere park and show off their pets in a parade like event. They had all kinds of dogs there, with very few cats around.

The people were friendly, and talkative, and would always allow strangers like us to come up and pet their pups and talk about the other dogs. It's nice to see people get together like that and be social.

Anywho, I went with Katie's family, and managed to take a few pictures. You can find them in the gallery. I'll post a few of the better pics here though.

Moving day... again.

Well, I got most of my stuff moved yesterday, but I managed to forget a few of the integral parts in my shelf system, like the little cross brace and the desk. I don't know how I managed to forget those. I just chalk it up to Murphy's Law taking effect.

So, I need to go back to Ruston today to get the few pieces I forgot and pay the electric bill. Taylor wouldn't be happy if they cut off the electricity.

The big move

Over the next two days I'll be moving all my earthly possessions back to Shreveport, so I won't have access to the computer to do much posting at all. I'm on the brother's computer now, because I had to feed my blogging addiction before I started convulsing from withdrawals.

I'm taking a trip back tonight with the Katie, then coming right back to make another final trip tomorrow. I'll be keeping a bed in Ruston so I can come stay in town and hang out with the Katie, but all of the other stuff is getting packed up and shipped off.

Surprisingly, I'm not nervous about the move, or the new job, though I am excited. People keep asking me if I'm excited, or if I'm nervous, but none of that is really on my mind. The only thing I keep feeling regularly is sadnes because I'll be moving away from Katie. We'll only be an hour apart, but she's become such a big part of my life that it's hard to imagine the coming weekdays when I'll only be able to talk to her on the phone. It's just another step in life that I've gotta take, though, and we'll be back together in a short while somewhere... whether it be Shreveport or Denton. That thought provides a lot of comfort.

I gotta get a move on now... I feel better having posted, but I have stuff all over the house and I gotta load up the car for a trip.

The need/desire for a good collaborative writing script

I've looked around at a few of the collaborative fiction writing scripts, which will allow multiple authors to collaborate on a single story. The first of which was a piece of Mac software that was linked to from waxy.org or del.icio.us or some such site. The others were just through a few quick google sites matching "collaborative fiction". They all have some pretty nice features, matching what I think a good system should have at the very least. They're not really what I'd like to see though.

I think it would be interesting to have a sort of chain mail like approach to the collaborative writing idea, and most of the software that's out there wouldn't be ideal for this sort of environment. First, there's a limited number of users, and secondly there's no approval system to ensure that a collaborative user doesn't make drastic changes to the plotline without the approval of the other users. Those are the two biggest problems with what I've seen so far, though there may be solutions like the ones I'm proposing already.

Here's my idear. An online collaborative fiction script should be built that has a system that allows for a set number of users to be able to register for the creation of a new story.

If a group of users wanted to be able to create a new story, but didn't already know other possible users, they could join a public story creation group. If users already have a group of people in mind that they'd like to create a piece of fiction with, they can all get into a private fiction group.

A random user from the group would be selected as the original author... or alternatively selected from a list of story beginnings submitted by each user, then chosen by a vote. After the story is started, either by vote, or random choice of a first author, a queue would be set up for the remaining users' turns to write.

Each user would have a predetermined (by the group) amount of time to complete their turn. After they've finished the post, there should be a review period (again, predetermined) during which other group members will be able to vote on whether their post is appropriate or not. The voting feature would be more useful in situations where you're part of a public group... where people tend to go in and kill off all the characters in the story, or implement radical changes to the plot, not so much to impose your will on other peoples' additions to the story.

The only thing I haven't been able to work out yet is a method for deciding when the story is completed, or who is allowed to end it. However, I do know that it would be a great feature if the software was able to publish the whole story as one full piece without breaking it up by author for display on another part of the site... such as "finished works". You would, of course, give credit to those who wrote it, but you wouldn't break up each piece by author.

Maybe I'll get some time and an inclination to write some php code that implements these ideas somewhere down the line. If someone else came along and implemented the idea, I'd have no problem with that either... though I'd like to be able to host the code and be a part of the project. Who knows whether that'll happen though. It's just an idea bouncing around in the ol' noggin for now.

My new camera... a Canon Powershot A95

I had to get on Dell's case about this camera in order to get their originally advertised deal, but finally the package came today. I managed to get a Canon Powershot A95, surprisingly nice little camera bag, and a 256MB CF card for a great price.

For the record, Dell and Bensbargains.net both advertised a good deal on this camera. Shortly after visiting the Dell website I was able to place the items in my cart and use the coupons, but before checking out I wanted to make sure this was the camera for me. So, I read a few reviews online and went back about 15 minutes later. Dell had pulled the deal that included the 256MB CF card, and replaced it the camera alone for the same price that was originally listed for the camera AND a 256MB CF card. I checked BensBargains.net and Ben had done the same. Apparently, people were actually using the coupons *gasp*, so Dell made the dell better for themselves, and instructed Ben to update the deal to reflect the new offer.

Needless to say, I was fuming, so I called up Dell and ended up talking to Diego, my personal Sales Rep. He wasn't the best sales rep I could've asked for, but after a little bit of an ordeal I convinced him to credit me with a free 256MB CF card. To make sure he could do this, he transferred me into a three way call with someone named Kathy from Online Sales or some such department.

Kathy and Deigo chatted it up a little bit, getting snippier with each other as the conversation drew on. As amused as I was with the fact that I was listening to two Dell service reps argue, I was becoming less patient with the two of them. Somewhere in the conversation, Kathy denied that she was part of online sales, or at least the part we needed to be talking to and said that "If the customer can't place an order online, then we can't either". You read that right. They use the same site we do.

So, I asked them both "Well, why are you there if you just use the same site, and do the same exact thing we do? What happens if the site goes down?". Diego jumped in to try to explain this conundrum, "We usually just tell the customer to try again in 30 minutes." He had just failed miserably in explaining the majority of the reasoning for having a phone sales dept. Oh well.

Anywho, I got the camera today. Everything was as promised, and I'm loving the features. Check out the review from Steve, the hallowed camera reviewer.

"The Broken" and other tech goodies will be back soon

According to Kevin Rose's blog, he's raised enough money to buy a spiffy new camera needed to produce their homegrown tech/hacking information show, The Broken.

He and Dan, another former Screen Saver's TV personality, made the video series when they lived in San Fran, working for Tech TV. They covered war driving, social engineering skills, and various other hacking related topics. If you haven't seen the videos, check them out online at thebroken.org. They're worth a download.

CPU Magazine review

It's been too long since I've been able to break out the happy monkey rating scale. So, I figured what better way to get back in the swing of things than to review my favorite magazine, CPU magazine.

Let me start by saying that I used to read Maximum PC and PC World and a pile of other PC magazines. Most of the mainstream magazines I used to read turned into business related PC Software review mags and geared their content towards business issues. This didn't please me... at all. The most recent exception to that rule was Maximum PC.

It seemed that as I went through college, getting a little older, wiser, and chubbier, I got a little tired of reading Maximum PC. It was still edgy, and still geared for a much younger audience than most of the other PC magazines at the time, but it was mostly about expensive hardware, overclocking and gaming. As I've been doing less and less gaming, and never really took much of an interest in overclocking my systems. I guess I've moved on past the demographic that can appreciate and snicker consistently at the Maximum PC Kick ASS product rating.

The best magazine I've found to meet my needs is CPU Magazine, CPU being an acronym for Computer Power User. They have a better mix of hardware reviews, coding information, hardware hacking, and interesting articles on where the industry is headed.

They have a great cast of writers that submit articles for each issue about different aspects of computing. These writers include Chris Pirillo, and Anand something or other (the guy who created the huge site, anandtech.com), and other various, relatively unknown to most, computer industry figures.

The major selling point for me on the magazine was that the information in the magazine was high tech enough to keep me interested. It's really a magazine for people who are already tech savvy, but want to keep up on the latest in the computer world. It covers material like Tivo and ReplayTV hacking, developing XML schemas, in-depth descriptions of hardware standards that are under development, and of course the must-have hardware reviews.

I've yet to find another magazine that I can read from cover to cover and feel like I've made a good purchase. I give CPU Magazine a rating of 5 Happy Monkeys out of 5!

For more info on the happy monkey rating scale, see the explanation.

My intellectual equal.

I could've sworn that I'd posted this previously, but after looking back at the January posts, I realized I hadn't.

Over the Christmas break, I finally met my intellectual equal, strangely enough, at my parents house. It was quite the experience. To remember the event, I asked a member of the family to take a picture.

You can see us below arguing over the versatility of Peptide-amphiphile nanofibers. It was quite the interesting conversation.

I'm sure you can think of a better explanation for what's going on in the photo. Leave one in the comments if ya want.

I broke the news to my professor yesterday

I dreaded telling my professor that I was going to be taking a position in Shreveport, effective in a week and a day. I pictured him leaping across the table, foaming at the mouth, all the while screaming obscenities. I also imagined him breaking down into a full blown sob because we'd just lost two other experienced members in August and then November due to their graduations.

So, I planned it out. I would write him a letter, placing it on his car on the Monday before I started work. That plan didn't have enough umph to it, so I decided to just tell him face to face. Here's the play-by-play:

"Dr. X, (X because I don't want this coming up if he googles himself) I've decided that I'm not going to pursue a Master's Degree."

He looked a little shocked and only mustered an "uh oh".

"I also put out a resume to two companies, one in Shreveport and one in Dallas (pause to let that soak in)." He didn't say a word. "Friday, I accepted an offer from a company to be a full time Java programmer."

"When does the job start?", he asked.

"Next Tuesday."

"Wow, that's a tough one. (Repeated at least 6 times without saying anything else)." I've noticed that this has become his catch phrase recently.

"Well, congratulations. I'm always happy to see a student succeed. I know it will be hard on us to lose you, but I'm always looking out for the students and making sure that they're doing what they need to do."

I told him a few of the reasons I wouldn't be able to stick around for a master's program, or for an extension of my term as a research associate, and I think he understood. I've got a large amount of college debt, and the college can't pay me enough to live and pay that down at the same time unless I'm in school. If I were to enroll in school, I could defer the loan payment process, but to do that I'd have to incur more college debt.

I explained that I was sorry that it had to happen at a time when we were short handed, but I was financially between a rock and a hard place.

That's it. No violence, no tears, and very little cursing. I was actually surprised by the positive reaction he had to the whole situation. Regardless of how well it went, I'm glad it's over. I've just got a few more things to do with my professor to tie up loose ends at work and I'll be able to get out of here with most of my stuff this Friday.

Google Video has launched

After a great deal of speculation from people on the net, Google has finally launched their video search page. It's in beta of course, and it has no videos listed as far as I can tell, but I'll keep an eye out and see what this Google Video thing can really do.

http://video.google.com/

Update: I'm able to search through a few of the shows that I've tried. First I tried the crapulous new show numb3rs. Surprisingly, a thumbnail popped up for the pilot which you can click on to see a few frames of the show.

It's got transcripts beside the thumbnails of a few of the frames after you click on a show's thumbnail. For instance, I searched for Numb3rs, and a group of thumbnails showed up that referenced Numb3rs, but they were from different shows. The first thumb was of the actual show and the rest seemed to be talk show appearances by the cast of Numb3rs. The cool thing is that you can click on the show's thumbnail and see a series of screen captures of that show with a transcript snippet beside it. Neat stuff.

I'm not really sure what google video will be used for, or whether it will be useful at all, but it sure is cool at the moment. I just have to find some way to MAKE it useful.

Ruston, Louisiana... a great city, getting even better

I recently got a job in Shreveport that I'll be starting in a week or so. This means I'll have to relocate there, and will be moving away from Ruston where I've lived for the past 5 years as a student and a university employee.

In the past few days the reality of my new job and impending move have begun to set in and I'm actually regretting the fact that I'll have to move away from Ruston. The city has a small town atmosphere to it that I'll miss when I'm gone, and I guess I just never realized it until I thought about what my routine will be in Shreveport... 20 minutes to work, 20 minutes to the mall, 20 minutes to Cinemark. You see, here I can get anywhere, and I mean anywhere, in 10 minutes or less. When I go to blockbuster or movie gallery, it seems like there's always a few copies of even the most popular movies left. I've become accustomed the benefits of living in a small town such as these.

Of course there will be things that will be better about living in a bigger city like Shreveport that will be more convenient, but it seems like I'm leaving Ruston just as it's about to boom. The Cinemark movie theater is less than a year from being built. Chili's has already opened, Pieworks opened their Ruston franchise location, Wal-Mart is remodeling and putting in a Subway. The list goes on and on.

I'll be back visiting for a while since Katie is gonna be living in Ruston until she gets her Master's Degree, but it won't be the same. I know it sounds really cheesy, but I'm gonna miss living in Ruston. I definitely won't miss the house I'm in, but I will miss the city itself... as strange as it sounds.

Maybe I'll be able to find another city like Ruston later in life, close enough to two big(ish) cities, but still small enough to have a small town feel. That's the way I want things.

Portable Rotary Cellular Phone

Someone over at Spark Fun Electronics decided to hack an old rotary telephone in order to incorporate cell phone technology into it and make it portable. Insane. They say that it actually works, but they don't get good reception and the quality of the sound is really scratchy. Who cares though? That thing is awesome.

Exposed, almost complete Portable Rotary Cell Phone

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas Woods

I heard an interview on 106.1 out of Monroe on the way back from my job interview Friday. They had Thomas E Woods Jr. as their guest, who graduated with a Bachelors from Harvard, and a Masters and PhD from Columbia University. He's written a book called the Politically Incorrect Guide to American History that attempts to refute most of the politically correct versions of historical events that we've learned.

After listening to a good bit of the interview I was really intrigued by the kinds of things that he was saying. He tries to make a case for the founding fathers intentions for the 1st amendment, saying that they didn't intend to keep local officials and governments from having any association with religion, but just to keep the federal government as a whole from instituting a national religion. Another argument is that the Indians weren't robbed of all their land... that surely they were mistreated, but that a good deal of the land was purchased because they traded with the settlers for metal goods.

I'm gonna have to pick up the book because the interview was really interesting. He didn't really sound like a conspiracy theorist, or a right wing yelling nut, and he also likes to quote officials and documents in support of his ideas. Anywho, it's on the NYT best seller's list and is doing very well at Amazon.com also, so I guess I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon and give it a read.

Are you Tall or Not?

Check out this site that tells you how your height stacks up against celebrities and other historical figures. For some reason, I could play around with this flash page all night.

Type your height in, and select a famous person and it will show a little stick figure of you next to that person stick figure for a better comparison of height. It's good stuff.

Cheap Ipod Shuffle: $90 at Target.com

Head on over to target.com to get a really cheap 512MB Ipod Shuffle. If you've not heard of the Ipod Shuffle, it's basically an mp3 player, just like the hard drive based Ipods, but it uses flash memory and has no LCD display. Every song that you transfer to your Ipod shuffle will play in a random order (shuffled).

Anyways, the deal is that you get 10% off of a pre-ordered Ipod shuffle at Target.com when you use the coupon TCTENJANUARY (Coupon Expires 1/31). So, you'll get the Ipod for $90. The 512MB version can be found on the target site , or by clicking the following link: Cheap 512MB Ipod Shuffle at Target.com

From what I've read, the Ipod Shuffle sounds just as good as the normal Ipods, and even reproduces bass more effectively than the hard drive based Ipods. That just sweetens the deal.

Another funny picture... Karate Kitty

Kung Fu Meowster Fluffy:

This poor SOB...

This poor SOB... on the internet looking like a scared out of his wits homosexual. Mr. T and I both pity this fool.

Bill Simmons' ESPN article about the upcoming NFL weekend

Give Bill Simmons' new article on ESPN.com a read, it's good stuff, covering the upcoming NFL playoff weekend. My favorite line:

Bill Belichick dresses like the lead singer of an '80s cover band; and Bill Cowher looks so much like Sergeant Slaughter, you keep waiting for the Iron Sheik to attack him.

Bill's got a point. I never noticed the resemblence between the two, and I had completely forgotten about the Iron Sheik. Wrestling when I was young was such a great time for creative characters and kids television. Look at the resemblence between the two... it's uncanny.

Anyways, I'm sure you'll enjoy the rest of the article, but I couldn't help but post pictures of the two of them together.

I got a job today.

I'm gainfully employed. I've had a job for the last few years at Louisiana Tech, most of the time while I was a student. However, after graduating in November, the school offered to keep me on as a research associate. I thought, at the time, that I might return to school for a Master's degree of some sort, which would make working for the school a good decision. I could work part time (for part time pay) and get some more education and stay on the project I've been working with.

Well, I decided I didn't really wanna get back into more debt with classes, and the university couldn't offer me enough money to keep me from going into a large amount of debt with college expenses. So, I applied for two jobs, one in Dallas as a VB.net programmer, and another as a Java programmer in Shreveport, the second of which I received.

So, I'll be moving back to Shreveport within the week, and will be starting the new job on the 1st of the month. I'll be working with XML, java, and JSP as far as I know, so I'll have to learn about XML and get a refresher on JSP and all that. I'm excited to get back into something new.

Hopefully, I'll still be able to keep the site updated frequently when I get off work, or on lunch breaks. I've already paid the hosting bill for another 6 months, so it'll be here at least that long because I don't plan to waste the money.

Anywho, I'm anxious to get things started there, but not anxious to tell the people here that I'm leaving.

Say it ain't so! Leo and Call For Help & G4TechTV?

I was perusing the Leo Laporte blog earlier and I saw that he has a link to the G4TechTV site where users can request that G4TechTV pick up Call For Help for distribution.

I ask "Why Leo?... Why?". They've done nothing but ruin all the shows that came from TechTV and they're looking for a different demographic for the rest of their shows.

I realize that G4TechTV probably won't have any control over the actual show, but will just distribute it. However, if they're asking people to support them in their endeavor to acquire distribution rights to Call For Help, they have to have some interest in the situation. In my opinion, anything that benefits G4TechTV after what they did to all the programming I loved, is a bad option... even if that means Leo and Friends will have to wait for another distributor for their program.

If there's something I'm missing about the situation, I'd be glad to hear about it. I'm always open to the rest of the story. So, let me know if you've heard anything about it.

Condoleezza Rice admits she liked Catwoman

Condoleezza Rice, under heated questioning from congress, breaks down and reveals that she liked Catwoman, a little. A strategic move that baffled Democrats and Republicans alike.

When asked whether she had, in fact, seen the Catwoman movie. Condoleezza Replied, "Was that the one where she was all...[motions with both hands]?".

Congress unanimously agreed that it was. Condi was further questioned, "Did you like it?", to which she replied "A little".

Condi further volunteered that she "swears to God that she must've had a mound of jujy fruits this big [motions with hand] during the movie. I'm still thirsty because of them."

Add & Remove programs

After installing the new Picasa, I decided to finally get around to taking some old programs off my computer. So, I headed over to the control panel for a fun round of Add & Remove Programs.

The first program to get the axe was Picasa 1, followed by Need for Speed Underground 2... the game was better in concept, but the music sucked and I couldn't figure out how to change the color of my car.

The Sims 2 met it's end right after NFSU2, and I have to say that seeing my system uninstalling two EA products was quite satisfying. After the whole NFL licensing deal with EA, I've decided EA won't be getting any more of my money.

Those were the bulkiest of the remaining programs I axed, but it was interesting to see that I had 40,000 MB's tied up in BT++ (Bittorrent client). Shame on me.

Picasa 2 is out

Google's picasa 2 is out now. For those of you who haven't heard of Picasa before, it's a digital photo management software package. It's not really an editor, but more of an organizer, though it does have a few small editing features such as red eye reduction. It's a great little program, and best of all... it's absolutely free.

Here's a list of the features from their site:

Find the pictures you forgot you had.

Like always, Picasa organizes your entire collection while you watch, scanning the images on your computer and automatically sorting them by date.

Move and re-name pictures from inside Picasa.

Want to clean up messy folders and move pictures around on your computer’s hard drive? Simply drag and drop pictures from one folder in Picasa to another – Picasa will make the change permanent after double-checking with you. Want to change a picture’s filename from 671056398a.jpg to Lisa.jpg? In Picasa, it only takes seconds to re-name one picture or a group of pictures.

Make a label.

Use labels to tag your photos into quick groupings inside Picasa. Viewing and sharing the pictures you grouped under a label is easy – they make great slide shows and movies or you can email them to friends.

Add a star rating.

Give a gold star to any photo you love: it turns your favorites into visual standouts at a glance. Picasa even has a star search that reduces your entire photo collection to the best of the best in less than a second.

Keep one picture in multiple albums.

Picasa creates a new “instance” of each photo you label without taking up more space on your computer, so you can put the same picture into multiple albums.

Password-protect collections.

Got photos you want to keep to yourself? You can add passwords to any of your Picasa collections (this does not affect which pictures you and others can see on your computer’s hard drive).

How to get a transcript from Louisiana Tech - written by Johnny Burris

How to get a transcript

When you apply for graduate school or transfer to another university,
you are asked for an official transcript from Louisiana Tech. It may
explain this, but the only way to get this transcript is to go through
the Registrar's Office. They can either (a) mail it to the
institution directly or (b) give you a sealed envelope with the
official transcript inside.

There are three ways to get a transcript mailed:

1) THE EASIEST WAY.
Go by and get it. This can be really hard. All you need to know
is when you last attended Tech and the address you are sending it to.
They do not know the addresses of other institutions.
It's in Keeny Hall (the big administration building by Lady of the
Mist), as you go in the front doors, it's up the middle stairs, on the left.

Once you go into the office, the counter on the left has a tray with
request forms. Fill it out and have your Photo ID ready to show.
That's it.

2) By fax.
Print out this: http://www.latech.edu/documents/transdl.pdf
Fax to:
Registrar's Office
Louisiana Tech University
ATTN: Transcripts
(318) 257-4041

3) By Mail.
Print out this: http://www.latech.edu/documents/transdl.pdf
Mail to:
Registrar's Office
P.O. Box 3155
Ruston, LA 71272

Family Guy return date announced

Johnny pointed me toward an article that has revealed that the family guy will premier on Sunday, May 1st.

I need to buy a shirt I've been secretly fawning over at the Hot Topic. I can wear it during the premier of the new season.

Cheap external hard drive enclosure

Search for item USEUXP325U2B at xpcGear to find this Black 5.25"/3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive and Optical Drive Enclosure with Cooling Fan and Anti-Shock Design for $25 - coupon code xpcgearu3k3 = $18 + shipping. Supports drives up to 300GB. (via Ben's Bargains)

It will be around $25 shipped.

Louisiana Tech parking decal process

If you're looking for info on how you'll get a parking decal at Louisiana Tech, look no further.

You'll need to fill out a Vehicle Registration Form (pdf) that is made available in the tech police station across from the IFM. The following information will be needed to fill out that form: Social Security number, phone number, name, address, driver’s license number and state, plate type and number, VIN, make, model, year and color, and name to which the vehicle is registered. Don't worry about tracking all that info down though, you'll find most of it on your vehicle's registration (Pink Slip).

You can pay with just about everything except American Express in person, and the cost will be $24. If you wanna get one before the start of the year, without having to make a trip here, mail the form in with payment. Here's the info from tech's site:

Applicants can also mail requests for decals by sending in their form and payment to: Louisiana Tech Traffic Office, P.O. Box 3003, Ruston LA 71272. Only personal checks, cashier’s checks or money orders will be accepted by mail. The Traffic Office encourages mailing requests by Aug. 30.

If you're a student, you'll get a red parking sticker with a zone number printed on it. The zone will be assigned according to whether you commute, or if you live in a dorm... and if you do live on campus, what dorm you live in. You'll only be able to park in that zone until 3 PM, after which you'll be able to park anywhere, including the reserved blue spot (teacher & staff spots). Refer to the little rule book they give you when you pay for the sticker for a complete list of rules, or call the traffic office at 318-257-2921.

The problem with Tivo and ReplayTV

"You know how people have been telling TiVo how the only way they’re going to survive would be to convince some a cable company to license their digital video recorder software for use on set-top boxes? Yeah, well according to the New York Times last summer they were about to score a big deal with Comcast to do precisely this, that is until Ramsay pulled the plug at the last moment because he was convinced TiVo wasn’t getting paid enough money or given enough control over the service." (via Engadget)

This article goes on to say that Tivo still hasn't turned a profit and that they're in deep trouble.

I own a ReplayTV... an older model that allows automatic commercial skipping. I love it, and it has changed the way I watch TV. I watch shows on my schedule, and I don't waste time with commercials anymore. I can't really speak on Tivo's individually since I've never owned one, but I can speak about DVR/PVR's as a whole.

Their makers have made a technology that relies on users having access to other people's content. So, they're basically at the mercy of the companies who own that content. If cable and satellite companies are able to secure deals with competitors (Microsoft, ReplayTV) for the rights to their hardware, the company without a major deal will be screwed no matter how good the software/interface is.

The best thing that Tivo could do (in theory only, of course) would be to acquire a delivery system to get content to the home quickly. Streaming movies, or some other method. This way, they could change their business model and take customers away from the cable and satellite companies. Maybe a joint effort with Tivo and MovieLink or CinemaNow...?

If they had this delivery mechanism in place, they could broker a deal with content providers to license their IP (i.e. programming) for a fee. Ideally, users would be able to stream their favorite programs and pay on a per show basis. This could possibly eliminate the need for a subscription, and would allow people like me to finally dump cable companies where I pay $30+ a month for a bunch of channels I will never watch. Of course, cable companies have an interest in self preservation which may keep them from allowing other people access to their programming, but the almighty dollar speaks loudly.

The worst case would be a content provider like Comcast, etc. acquiring Tivo. Then we'd be bent over, taking the cable bills all over again with no interest in consumer rights... just IP protection.

The new car... naked

I'd only known my car for a day, and I was taking part of the dash of to get at some of the goods. There it was, in my parent's driveway in broad daylight, exposed to the world. The car was naked.

You see, I bought a new mp3/cd player yesterday and had to take apart part of the dash and console to take out the old radio and put in a new one, and also to have access to the candy that's hidden behind the dash. It's a little known fact that car makers hide candy in the dashes of their cars. Have you ever wondered why the majority of car installation professionals at Best Buy and Circuit City are overweight 20 year old males? Because of the candy. There's no other logical explanation.

Anyway, I took a few pictures of the car and another couple of the installation process of the mp3/cd player. My Dad helped me with the installation process, even though he'd never done anything like that before. So, kudos to my Dad for gettin out there and helping me take apart the car he and my Mom had just bought for me.

Look, but don't touch.

Cox Cable of Ruston... are you paying attention!?

It's been three years! Yes, three years since you first brought cable internet into my life here in Ruston, and I thank you for it. However, isn't it about time you gave us a little speed increase?

I'm not asking for much just another megabit. Bump me up a notch to 2 megabits down and 256Kb/sec upstream and I'd be a happy customer. This $40 a month for 1 Megabit download and 128 Kilobit upload is getting old pretty quick.

Just look at what Comcast is doing. Get on the bandwagon, however late you might be.

I'm writing Cinemark a letter

I know it may not do a bit of good, but by God someone's gonna read this letter. Tonight, a group of kids ruined my movie and just about everyone else's and I have to say something to someone from the theater apart from the manager there.

For the second time in no less than two months I've gone to see a late show with Katie at the local Cinemark here in Shreveport. The first time a group of young kids came in there and were making a lot of noise down front, then yelled something and ran out. Tonight, we went to see In Good Company at 10:10 and a group of 6 young kids came in stomping and talking loudly, and then left within a minute of entering. In 5 minutes they were back again, this time to stay apparently, and a few people confronted them and told them to get out and a few people got the manager to come back in and check ticket stubs.

It's ridiculous to have to pay $15.00 for an hour and a half of entertainment and not be able to enjoy it because of kids stomping through the theater. So, like I said, I'm writing a letter to Cinemark. It may not do any good, but I hope someone reads it. If anyone else comes across this site in a frustrated state, I hope they write a letter too.

Cinemark's corporate address is:

Cinemark USA, Inc.
3900 Dallas Parkway, Suite 500
Plano, TX 75093-7865

Enjoy.

How to fold a shirt

I am absolutely, positively awe stricken... struck, striked... who cares... I'm impressed. This video teaches shows you how to fold a shirt properly.

The best part of the video lies in the Samurai music being played while the japanese or chinese lady is explaining how to fold the shirt (or talking about how stupid americans are, for all I know). It adds a sense of mystique to the fold when she snatches the shirt up and folds it over, resulting in a perfectly folded shirt. It wouldn't be the same without the sound effects.

I think I could actually learn to do this. Now, instead of either having shoulder nipples from hanging my shirts up, or having extreme wrinklage from leaving shirts in a pile near the dryer, I can fold my stuff. Ok, I doubt I'll start folding like that, but it's inspirational to watch. Who knows, I might do it... maybe.

More public domain images

"Any work that is not copyright protected is considered to be in the 'public domain', and includes materials created prior to 1922, works created for public use, government documents unless otherwise specified, and works whose copyright has expired." (via usouthal.edu)

After my last post about the USGS and their image set, I decided to look for more images that may be a part of the public domain. Maybe I'd find some interesting pictures I could use as part of a site design, or just use as a wallpaper.

I came across an excellent page that lists a few other sites online that have images without copyright restrictions. Take some time to look through some of the images that are available. I particularly liked looking at the photos of pioneers in the late 1800's from the Bureau of Land Management Historical Photo Series and the pictures on the US Air Force's servers (Correct link).

US Air Force pic

FAQ about the Tsunami @ USGS

I was able to get all the news and images I could stand from other news sources about the recent tsunami. Today, I just happened upon the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) website after downloading a few of their public domain pictures (downloaded using bittorrent, here).

One of the pics from the USGS package

They also made a Frequently Asked Questions page available to those people who were curious about the Tsunami and the 9.0 magnitude Earthquake that triggered it. Here are a few of the items I found interesting:

Question: How much energy was released by this earthquake?

Answer: Es 20X10^17 Joules, or 475,000 kilotons (475 megatons) of TNT, or the equivalent of 23,000 Hiroshima bombs.

475 megatons of TNT...!? I think I just wet myself.

Question: What other great (M > 8) earthquakes have occurred in the region?

Answer: Since 1900 and prior to the December 26 earthquake, the largest earthquake along the subduction zone from southern Sumatra to the Andaman Islands occurred in 2000 and had a magnitude of 7.9. A magnitude 8.4 earthquake occurred in 1797, a magnitude 8.5 in 1861 and a magnitude 8.7 in 1833 . All three ruptured sections of the subduction zone to the south of the recent earthquake. Interestingly, the 1797 and 1833 quakes are believed to have ruptured roughly the same area with only 36 years separating the events. Paleoseismic evidence shows that great earthquakes or earthquake couplets occur about every 230 years (http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~sieh/publications/a10.html).

Question: What was the background seismicity in the region before the M9.0 earthquake? new 01/04/05

Answer: This table represents the number of earthquakes in the aftershock zone of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on 12/26/04 for the ten previous years.

The numbers of earthquakes located in 2004 does NOT reflect the main shock or aftershocks from the 9.0. The region encompasses a rectangular box which extends from 2N to 14N and from 92E to 98E. These statistics were obtained from the USGS PDE earthquake catalog search page.

YEAR	Magnitude 5.5 & larger events.	Magnitude 5.0 & larger events.	Magnitude 4.5 & larger events.
1995	2	7	35
1996	2	9	36
1997	2	11	37
1998	1	8	38
1999	3	11	34
2000	5	12	44
2001	4	9	36
2002	11	25	91
2003	6	20	64
2004	4	14	67

The rest of the FAQ is located online at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/neic_slav_faq.html. While you're there you might be interested in their section entitled "Can It Happen Here?".

Louisiana Tech University guide to moving off-campus

Introduction - Before you pack your stuff
If you're thinking about how great it would be to move off-campus and live on your own, you should consider all the facts before you make that jump to an apartment, duplex or house.

Before you even start considering whether you should move off-campus, find out if you can. If the dorms are stuffed to their musty gills, then you'll likely be approved. If most of the Seniors and Juniors at Tech are off campus, and you're an underclassmen, you'll likely be denied. The only way to find out is to fill out an off-campus housing application, which you can find at www.latech.edu/tech/students/. They'll either grant you off-campus housing status, or deny you. It's pretty simple, view the guidelines here (pdf document) and see if you have priority.

It all depends on how many vacancies there are in the dorms. Of course, if you live within an hour of Tech, you can just get your parents to sign a paper saying you'll be commuting from home... then you can get a place in Ruston somewhere... I won't tell anyone.

Tips before you make the move
I'm not gonna bore you with the basics of how to prepare for living off-campus. You can find that in plenty of places online from authors who can write much more eloquently than I'm able to. What I'm gonna try to do is give you some insight to living in Ruston.

1) Try to stay away from high traffic residences. If you're scoping out a place to live, notice whether random people are walking around. Unless they're old ladies walking their dogs, or exhibitionist female neighbors, take that place down a notch on your list. For instance, cars on Arizona behind the plasma center have been keyed frequently by passers by. Locations like that are between the ghetto and County Market and Dollar General... so you'll be getting foot traffic at all hours... just tellin' it like it is, people.
2) Get landlord recommendations from friends if at all possible. The best places will always have people with friends moving in right after their lease is up.
3) Electricity seems to be high in Ruston, so plan for big electric bills. We're in a 2 bedroom duplex here, though it's not the most well made apartment (see my previous rant), the electricity frolics in the $150 range in the summers. So, if you like things cool, prepare to pay. By comparison, it's about $80/mo. in Shreveport for a 4br 2bath.
4) The Arkla gas location in town is closed. Last I heard, the only place to take your gas bill was the Discount Tobacco place on Trenton St. by Bank One... but I think they might not do that anymore. Mail it. This means you should do it a few days before the due date.
5) Don't get a meal plan. The commuter plan is decent, but learn to cook for God's sake. You're an adult.
6) Don't shop at Ivan Smith (see previous post) or any other over-priced furniture stores in town. Wal-mart is your only acceptable choice for new furniture, but you already knew that because you live in Ruston, where Wal-mart is the center of your life. Whatever you do, don't buy new, quality furniture. You will get beer, jelly, coke (carbonated type, hopefully), and unidentified cheese like substances on your stuff. If you don't, your friends will. So, go with the used furniture stores like The Hutch at the California and Tech Dr. intersection. "Hand me downs" work too.
7) It's a college town, so expect to pay a deposit equal to the first month's rent. Some areas require first and last month's rent, but I've not found that to be the case here. Just have the first month and a deposit equal to that amount ready to be ponied up.
8) If you're gonna get a cable modem from Cox, buy it. It's $10/mo. to rent it, and $100 up front to buy it. So, after 10 months, you'll be paying more than it would've cost you originally to buy it.

I think that just about covers the list of things I'd like to have known about off-campus life here in Ruston. Like I said above, if you're looking for housing tips and other more general guides to live off campus, give google a try. This guide was just meant to help those of you in Ruston get a head start before moving out of the dorms or out of your parents' house.

A brand new car...to me

After two years of sharing a truck with my brother, I've finally got my own car. Actually, I don't have it yet since it's in Shreveport. It's been purchased though, and that's all that matters to me.

No more calling Taylor to be picked up. No more borrowing Katie's car. No more having to go pick Taylor up from the IFM. My day has finally come. I'm out of shawshank, and both Taylor and I are relieved.

The car is a 97 Honda Accord (greyish silver) with low mileage. I haven't seen it yet, but it's waiting for me to pick it up and give it some man on car lovin'. I'll probably slap an mp3 cd player in it within the first few days I have it, as some elderly lady drove it and never saw fit to install a cd player.

Anyways, it was a great deal, and the payments are/will be well within my price range once I'm gainfully employed somewheres (that is if I don't decide to go back for some kind of Master's degree).

It's not exactly what I was driving on my 23rd birthday, but what could match that? The idea of the accord is growing on me, and I'm anxious to test it out.

Randy Moss shows his immaturity again

Don't get me wrong, the man has talent. I admire that. However, how can someone so talented think that he's setting a good example by leaving games early, and by pretending to moon the packers fans during the win this past Sunday?

Always the one to set a great example for the kids, Moss had this to say after the game.

"I don't give a damn what they talk about. They better talk about the 'W' we put on Lambeau Field today."

and of course he was...

"just having a little fun with the boys a bit. Hope I don't get in trouble by it, but if I do, I'll take the heat."

It's always nice to see players show maturity and responsibility in their actions. He says he's willing to face the fine (because he's paid millions of dollars to play a game). Is he willing to admit that he's setting a bad example for kids, and take any responsibility for a lack of sportsmanship present in youth today? Or is he not a contributor...? I'm sure if you were to ask him he would say that of course he's not to blame. But that's not the truth.

I don't think Moss thinks he's a bad example, and secondly I don't think he honestly cares. That's the problem with the current crop of professional players. Everything is always about them, and about how much they can make, and how much attention they can get.

Where's Deion Sanders on this issue?

~$15 back on Linksys Voice Over IP adapter (After Rebate)

CompUSA.com is offering the Linksys Phone Adapter for $50. You'll have to pay shipping, tax and the $50 up front, but with activation of new Vonage service, you'll get a $50 Mail-in rebate. You'll also get a $25 gift card with your purchase. This means after tax and shipping you'll get around $15 back for your purchase.

The Vonage service rebate offer will end 1/31/2005, the $25 gift card offer will end 1/15/2005.

Kevin Rose's CES picks

Kevin Rose, of the screen savers on the station formerly known as TechTV, has posted a little info about the products that he liked the most from CES.

Visit his link for the round-up of the goodies.

Go, read his post. Before you head over there though, check out this little gadget. It's called the Kodak EasyShare One.

The two features that set this camera apart from current models is the touch screen ability (just look at the size of that LCD), and the built in Wi-Fi support. So, now you can sit at home on your wi-fi network and email pictures to your family without doing the transfer by USB to computer, resize, email client, then send routine. It also has 256MB of internal memory, and supports SD cards for expansion (I wish it were CompactFlash). The only possible downside is that it's a relatively low 4-megapixel... but I'm not one to complain about resolution that much. For my uses, a 4 MP is just fine.

Other noteworthy CES coverage:

CNET's CES coverage blog
IGN's CES coverage (Gadgetry and Video Game Coverage)

Matt Haughey comments on Bill Gates

Matt Haughey has an interesting point of view on Bill Gates comments last week about people who support the Creative Commons license being "communists". As someone who has been working with Creative Commons for the last few years, he decided to stop defending MS and talk a little bit more of what's been going on with MS. It's an interesting read.

The article is located on Matt's Blog. Enjoy.

Movable Type mt.cgi repetitive / multiple logins

I thought I'd taken care of changing all the settings for this movable type blog so it would work on the new server. However, when I logged in to the admin page to create new posts, or manage the other settings, I was asked to log in at every single page. This became old very quickly.

After fiddling with a few settings, I realized that it was just the lack of a / (front slash) at the end of the CGIPath in the mt.cfg file. It's strange, I know. When I would click on the remember me button, or login, the cookie for the blog would be set to www.jojometal.com only I guess, instead of all pages in that domain.

If you're having similar problems, but you already have a slash there, try consulting this page. It may be one of the problems listed there.