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.

Credit repair... a big scam?

After neglecting a credit card account while I was extremely short on cash earlier in college, I started looking into credit report repair and credit repair services. After all, I'd have a need for good credit after I graduated and I wouldn't have it because of a small mistake with one credit card agency. Here's a few of the helpful things I've found in my search.

Pay the bills on time - I know this seems simple, and it is. The reason behind it is where the good info lies though. If you miss a single payment on a credit card the credit card company can increase your interest rate dramatically.

Work with the credit card companies - If you're having trouble paying, call the credit card companies. Don't wait for them to call you. They'd rather get their money slowly than risk not getting anything for some period while you're unable to pay. They'll most likely work with you.

There's no easy fix for bad credit - This article says just about everything you need to know about credit repair services. It's from the Federal Trade Commission, so it's reliable, unlike the top 20 or so hits on google you'll find.

Ivan Smith of Ruston

Yesterday from 5 to 9PM Ivan Smith Furniture in Ruston (and maybe all Ivan Smith locations) were having their half off cash sale. That means, according to the commercial, that if you pay in full at the time of sale that the furniture you purchase will be half off. What it really means is that they almost double the price, and then take half off of that price. In most of the furniture pieces there, this means a savings of $50-100. What a scam.

Katie heard from people at work that today was the sale, so when she came over last night she was intent on going. We got there shortly after 6, and the parking lot was almost completely full. People were milling about, and sales people were everywhere.

When we first got in the door, there was a big sign explaining how things were actually gonna work. Bad sign #1... 50% off of everything is a pretty simple concept, and doesn't need a sign to explain it. The sign read that you could take 50% off of the blue and white tags on the furniture.

Katie and I made our way over to the coffee table Katie's been pining about for the last 6 months. "Oh, Wow" we thought. It says $229, so it'll be about $115. "Well, how much was it before", I asked. Neither of us could remember, so we flipped the tag over, where the original tag was. The original price was $150... wait, $150!!!??? They almost doubled the price before putting it on sale at 50% off. What a scam.

We made our way around to some of the other items in the store, checking the blue and white tags against the old prices. Almost everyone piece we looked at had a maximum discount of $100. You may think this would still be a good sale. However, they advertised the sale as half off, and raised the prices solely for that sale. Also, remember that their sale requires an up front payment, so there is a no financing option.

The sale amounts to you paying everything up front to get a small discount, probably equal to the tax you would pay on the item. I'm confident that if you went there on any other day of the week and told them that you were willing to pay the full price in cash, up front, that they would give you a similar discount.

The whole ordeal was a waste of time, and I hope no one else falls for Ivan Smith's crap. I won't be shopping there again, because they wasted my time, and showed unethical sales practices.

Powweb.com hosting review

Overview of Powweb:

Pros:

• Low Price
• Fairly Easy to Set Up

Cons:

• Slow response times
• Forums just serve to let people blow off steam
• Mods in forums sometimes delete complaint threads
• Outages (when there is a Zero Downtime advertisement)
• Pages are extremely slow when a small group simultaneously accesses them
• Poorly designed control panel interface

Basically, it was a steal of a deal, but as with most things in life. You get what you pay for. It seems that they pack so many different users on a small group of servers that the servers are overloaded (just my guess at the cause of some of the problems).

If your site is for family and friends to have access to photos, or for a group/organization that won't get much constant traffic, it'd be a good choice. If it's constantly updated, like a blog, or a forum that might have about 50 regular users, I'd suggest going elsewhere. Your luck may be better with them, but I decided to take this blog elsewhere.

The best advice I can give is to look at a prospective host's forum before purchasing a plan and see what the complaints are, and what actual customers are saying. If a host doesn't have a forum, then be slightly suspicious, but don't automatically discount them because of it.

Having a forum can show an open, honest view of what the customers actually think, and most companies aren't in favor of that. Some just don't have them because of a lack of resources to manage it, or a liability factor.

Why I switched:

This morning, I woke up to try to make a post about bittorrent. I checked a few other sites, and checked my mail, and tried to get to my site. I kept getting timed out though when I tried to connect.

This wasn't the first time I'd experienced a short outage of a few minutes (a few hours apiece probably), so I decided to just wait it out for a few minutes and then try again later. I got something to eat from Sonic, and watched a little TV. I came back, and the site was still timing out. It turns out the outage wasn't just a short one. First it was a load balanced server problem, and then a "massive" dos attack.

I figured I may as well visit the powweb site and see if there's anything going on that other users are talking about on the user forums. Well, the first thing I see when I go there is their Zero Downtime popup. Irony. I clicked on the forums link and got to the right section and saw that many other users were experiencing the same thing.

The moderators of the forums were saying that the actual admins were trying to identify the problem and fix it (Note the unecessary level of communication... there's no needs for mods to tell us they don't know anything, but someone is probably looking into it). Other customers were saying that their sites experienced the same problems yesterday, but were beginning to work again. There were others who could access their site, but certain parts of their site had stopped working (which is very strange... probably user error).

This was probably only the third time I'd been unable to get to my site in the last 6 months, but the site was generally slow to respond. Also, when I ran a forum on my site (with max 12 members), simultaneous use by a small group of people would bring my whole site to a crawl.

So, after thinking it over, I decided it was time to upgrade to a better host. I've only been with powweb for about 9 months, but all the slow response times and outages have been a little much to bear. If the site had gone down just a few times for a short amount of time, I could handle that. However, when the site goes down it's down for an hour at least. Granted, I was only paying ~$8/month, I knew I had to be able to find a better host for a little more money.

Change of hosting companies

Well, for the next 48 hours some people who see this site will be viewing it on Powweb's servers, some of you will be viewing on LiquidWeb's servers. If you're seeing this message though, you're looking at the updated site. Pat yourself on the back for all the hard work you did to get here.

The reason for the two different sites at the moment is that I've switched webhosts (the people who store my web pages on their computers). It takes about 48 hours for all the computers that make up the internet to recognize that I've changed hosts. Anywho, I've notified them, and they are in the process of switching.

As I write this, no one can read it. That's because I'm at a temporary location until the switch is complete (the blogger protection program). Any posts I make will be made permanent, but you might not see them until later. Once the site goes live again, I'll talk about my old host a little so you can steer clear. I'll also try to post a guide for switching serveres with a movable type installation without losing any data.

Bittorrent site closures and New Bittorrent Sites

As a former bittorrent junkie in my earlier college days, I can honestly say that I know how much it must be troubling software, music, and movie downloaders. In the interest of helping them through a tough spot, after Suprnova's closing, and the closing of several other US sites due to lawsuits, I've decided to post a helpful link.

Orbdesign has posted a site dedicated to keeping readers informed of the status of the major torrent sites. So, if you're looking for a new source for your digital addictions, check that site. It tells you whether each site is up, gives a link, and shows whether that site requires registration.

Keep in mind that since Suprnova was so large, that the users from that site are having to go to other places. Wherever they settle, they will cause major issues for smaller servers. That many people accessing an unsuspecting site at once can really put a strain on their servers, so be patient.

I'm past the stage of using bittorrent, except for downloading tv shows. I think it's an acceptable use, since I pay an ungodly amount of money for cable, and sometimes can't make it to watch my favorite shows. I think it's reasonable to download those episodes I missed. Fair use...? I think so. I use Tvtorrents. Enjoy the sites.

Delta Airlines ticket price reduction - Simplifares they call it

For the past few days, everyone's been talking about these new pricing schemes that Delta Airlines will introduce soon, and how it'll be better for everyone. Well, here's the scoop.

According to the summary, there will be up to 50% reduction in fares to the 48 contiguous states (or as I call them, the real states). There will also be an elimination of Saturday night stays where you're forced to stay overnight on saturdays for certain flights. Lastly, there will be lower change fees, to make upgrading or changing flights less of a hassle (the fee used to be $100, now it's $50).

In perusing the rest of their site, I found some Q&A information that I thought may be valuable.

What makes SimpliFares™ simpler and more affordable?

• No Saturday night minimum stay. Nonrefundable round-trip fares require only a one-night minimum stay-any night of the week.


• No one-way Coach Class fare higher than $499* and no one-way First Class fare higher than $599*. Additional taxes, fees, and restrictions apply, and fares are available only for purchase on delta.com or from a travel agent (see below for details).

How can I purchase SimpliFares?

You can get SimpliFares the same way you currently book travel between the 48 contiguous states: delta.com, Delta Reservation Sales, and both online and traditional travel agencies. There is no direct ticketing charge at delta.com. Travel agents may impose an additional service charge for ticketing.

Why book on delta.com as opposed to any other venue?

When you purchase your ticket on delta.com, you will avoid direct ticketing charges and online booking fees, plus earn up to 1,000 bonus miles. It's our way of saying how much we appreciate your business.
(All via Delta.com)

Maybe even poor folks like me will be able to buy cheap tickets now. According to most industry folks, other airlines are going to have to enact the same kinds of price cuts. That's good news for consumers, bad news for airlines. I'm looking to take some kind of vacation some time this year, so I hope I can take advantage of the new rates.

Reaching a new stage in life.

After graduation, I've come to realize a few things. First, that I'm old. My back hurts, I've got grey hair, I'm tired at 10:00, I sometimes have discussion about bowel movements in public, and I think the way kids dress today is retarded. I have become my Grandpa.

Taylor, Katie and I all had the same thought within the same period of the last few weeks. All of the clothing stores we used to love have fewer and fewer clothes we'd buy. This would include American Eagle, Hollisters, and some other franchise clothing stores. Taylor even went so far as to say that he likes clothes from JCPenney and Dillard's more than AE these days. This would've been crazy talk for any of us even 2 years ago. However, with the nasty retro and other crazy styles that are in stores now, we can't help but shop elsewhere and feel sorry for those younger people who do shop at these stores.

The style of clothing kids wear today makes them look retarded, and I plan to give you a few examples. Well, maybe retarded is an offensive word to some, so I guess they really just look like idiots... though there may be idiots who are offended to be in the same category as kids that look like these... but I digress...

Exhibit A: Track Jackets

In the early 80's when people wore these things, cocaine was big. That provides some explanation behind the fashion trend. Now, when people look back at them, they can at least think "Wow, I did a lot of cocaine in the 80's". Kids today don't have the luxury of blaming this fashion trend on cocaine... and ecstasy probably isn't strong enough to make these look cool. They must all be on the smack.

Not only do you not look cool when you wear one of these, you have to pay $48 for a jacket that you could have bought at goodwill 5 years ago for under a dollar. This makes my hand start flailing about, looking for children to slap when I think about it.


Exhibit B: Abercrombie Jeans

I don't have a problem with jeans that have a stone wash, or a worn look to them. I like that, I always hated wearing new jeans myself, but this has gotten ridiculous. It looks like abercrombie has hired a team of coal miners to wear these jeans for a month before they sell them.

All the jeans pictured here have holes in them. Maybe the low lighting conditions and the half naked models on the walls of the stores distract the hormonally imbalanced, keeping them from noticing. Most likely though, kids today are just plain dumb. They have to be, because they pay $79.50 for these beat up, crusty old jeans.

This trend is almost as annoying as the time about 4 years ago when frat guys and high school kids everywhere thought that only tucking in the front of a shirt was fashionable. Thank god that passed.

Final Exhibit, C: The Popped Collar

I admit, I have done this before. By accident. Unfortunately, kids are doing this on purpose. Leading me to believe that most of them were brain damaged in some type of accident (most likely related to huffing paint).

I don't see much of this anymore, and haven't for a few months, but I couldn't resist mentioning it.

Well, that's the end of my rant. My hope is that some poor misguided child will come across the site and see the error of his/her ways. These young whippersnappers today need some guidance, and this may be just the place to give it to them.

Deion Sanders being rational? Dost mine eyes deceive me?

I actually agree with Deion Sanders' point of view.

The Randy Moss comments:

First on Sanders' list was Minnesota WR Randy Moss, who left a 21-18 loss to Washington on Sunday while the Vikings attempted an onside kick with 2 seconds remaining.

"You want to be compensated as a leader and a winner, and he is a winner, but the leader part, you really don't understand. No matter if it's good or it's bad, you must have consistency in your character. And (leaving the game early) is not the sign of a leader. You just can't do that."

The Shaun Alexander comments:

The other target of Sanders' criticism was Seattle RB Shaun Alexander, who missed the rushing title by a single yard Sunday and strongly criticized coach Mike Holmgren's play calling after the game, going so far as to say that Holmgren betrayed him.

"To sit up there and take a shot at Mike Holmgren when you fumbled the ball two weeks ago on the 1-yard line to cost your team the game. He's called your number I don't know how many times this season."

Our judicial system in action.

A man serving a life sentence for murder was sentenced to three additional years in prison for passing out cheese sandwiches while in jail. The whole story (via fark).

I see that the inmate was accused of charging an officer, and I can see the extra disciplinary action needed for something like that (though I'd like to see that carried out inside the prison walls). They shocked him with a stun gun for passing out a sandwich though... I'd charge them too.

My super secret web sites... Ranked by group

I figured I'd try to provide a list of sites that I frequent to share the good stuff with the peoples who read this (and make use of my happy monkey rating scale that I have come to love). Most of the sites will recieve high marks... that would be why I visit them often... but they are all of varying quality, so I'll group them by quality.

Sites of 5 Monkey Stature

http://www.fark.com - A community fueled blog that features interesting user-submitted articles and photoshop contests (and the occasional, and coveted boobies link)

http://del.icio.us - This site is a collection of bookmarks. When someone creates an account at del.icio.us, they can create bookmarks along with their profile. Delicious keeps track of these, and posts them for others to see. You can also see what pages are being bookmarked most frequently.

http://www.slashdot.org - News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters. That's their motto, and it says enough.

http://www.plasticbugs.com - The writer of the blog, Scott, works (worked?) for the Screen Savers on G4TechTV, and often the sites and information you find on his blog will appear later on the show. More geekery here.

http://www.bensbargains.net - The best bargain shopping site I've found to date. Well designed, and organized. Most of the best deals from other sites will be here.

http://waxy.org/links/ - A nice little assortment of interesting links from waxy.org.

http://www.easynews.com - A site dedicated to hosting binaries from usenet. $10/month for 10 gigs of downloads. All kinds of goodies are on usenet. Mp3's, Movies, Books, etc. I'd give it 6 Happy Monkeys if I could.

Sites of 4 Monkey Stature

http://www.sxc.hu - If you're looking for free stock photographs, this is your site. It's really slow sometimes though, which can get really annoying when trying to browse their selection.

http://www.fatwallet.com - Another bargain site. Due to it's lack of organization, I had to give it 4 monkeys. The good stuff will end up on Ben's Bargains anyway.

http://www.leoville.com/blog/ - Leo Laporte's blog. He was the host of The Screen Savers on Tech TV, and is still doing a radio show and TV show elsewhere. It gets 4 monkeys because the site is updated infrequently.

That's it. I hope you can find a site in there that really suits your interests.

New season of Family Guy

It's been a while since I've thought about the new season of Family Guy. After a quick search though, I realized that it will soon be upon us. Supposedly, the new episodes will air in the Spring, but that's coming from Fox... who aired, moved, rescheduled, then cancelled, then uncancelled The Family guy in the first place.

Anyways, I found comfort in looking around on the fox website and seeing some behind the scenes videos. It's not much, but it dulls the pain.

Stewie Revealed
Back in Production!

Fox also released a new DVD set, Family Guy: The Freakin Sweet Collection. It doesn't feature any new episodes, but does feature an uncensored version of Road to Rhode Island, and all kinds of extra features.

Thus quoth the Fox:

"While these episodes have been on DVD before, the extras on this disc are well worth the price tag. In addition to an uncensored version of Road to Rhode Island, we’ll get to hear commentaries from Brian and Stewie themselves, as well as new commentaries by Seth MacFarlane and various show producers and writers. You’ll also get an inside look at the new animated comedy, American Dad and hear Seth talk about the new season of Family Guy." (Original Site)

Lastly, check out Planet Family Guy. It's a great site for info on the series.

Strange search terms

I check my site's stats every once in a while to see what people are looking at, and what sites referred them. Well, today I was looking through the google search terms that have led people here, and I saw the phrase "bitty schram booty pics". It left me speechless.

I shall attempt to rate some of my things!

In a daring attempt justify the creation of the Happy Monkey Scale, I will now attempt to rate a few things.

First, the newbies.

My new Dr. Martens: Style 2B06. They slightly resemble bowling shoes, but they're the most comfortable casual/semi-fancy pants shoes I've ever had. They were kind of expensive, but will probably last forever, like my 9 year old boots. I give you... 4 Monkeys!

Motorola V551 w/ Cingular Nation 450 GSM: The phone is a great little gadget. It's got mp3 ring tone capability, sharp LCD display, great speakerphone feature, Video Capture, Still Capture, Bluetooth, and best of all, it's shiny. Cingular, you've also been good to me so far, but two days after I got the phone my voice mail was unavailable most of the day. Too bad. I give you both... 4 Monkeys!

Subway Turkey, Ham, and Bacon Melt: The newest addition to the crew. I ingested you about 2 hours ago. You've made me quite gassy, and that's unattractive. However, you were quite tasty on the way down. So, you... you tasty morsel of a sandwich... you get 3 Monkeys!

Canon Powershot A85: This little camera is quite the nice package. It's a great point and shoot camera. I was able to take it right out of the box (when teaching my grandparents how to use it... it's theirs) and start snapping great pictures. It has enough manual settings to enable those who know a little about photography to create some nice shots. Size is not an issue, and image quality is very good. The only down-side is that it takes AA batteries. Some people think this is a plus, but I prefer higher capacity Lithium Ion cameras in most cases. Maybe I'll change my mind if I spend more time with a AA camera. However, for now, Canon A85, you get 4 Monkeys!

My Pinky: You worthless, dainty little thing. I see you down there plotting to overthrow the thumb and forefinger. I've had my eye on you since the day you refused to extend while drinking a cup of tea. You get 1 Monkey... purely for old times' sake!

The Happy Monkey Rating Scale Explained

It's pretty simple folks. I needed a simple rating scale for anything on the site that I need to rate. So, I figured what better way is there to quickly convey a rating than to graphically indicate the happiness of five little monkeys.

If something is utter poo, it will receive no happy monkeys. If it is the grandest of the grand, it will receive 5 monkeys. All other measures will fall in between in whole monkey measurements. After all, you can't make half a monkey happy.

The breakdown:

	=	Utter Poo. Steer clear.
	=	Has been known to wallow in poo. Handle with gloves and lysol.
	=	Hangs out with poo every once in a while. Use lysol.
	=	Associated with poo in college. You might get some on your shoe, but should risk it.
	=	Saw poo from a distance once. Worth a look.
	=	Has never even heard of poo. Embrace.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Review

Screenshot of actual Gameplay

So, here's a primer for those of you who haven't heard of paper mario. Paper Mario is a Role-Playing Game (RPG) set in a 2-dimensional world made of paper. This means the buildings, the scenery, and the characters are all made to act and look like they're made of paper (thus the paper mario). The special abilities that mario possesses when he's not in battle revolve around this theme of a paper world. For instance, mario can fold himself into a paper airplane and float long distances when necessary. He can roll himself into a tube and roll under obstacles. This paper theme seems limited to the world when mario is not in battle though.

In typical RPG fashion, the game revolves around completing different tasks by travelling to different locations beating bosses and collecting items. There are many different, unique locations in Paper Mario that keep the game interesting. Mario and his party of allies will travel around trying to collect Crystal Stars to unlock the Thousand Year Door. When travelling around in the 2d paper world, there will often be enemies lurking about. Running into these enemies will begin a battle with them.

When mario enters a battle with an enemy, the gameplay reverts to normal role-playing style. Mario and his team will attack, using special attacks and items to hurt their enemies. After Mario's team has attacked, the enemies will each attack. Each character on your team, and each enemy, has a maximum number of health points (I think mario starts out with 10). So, if an attack does 3 points of damage, and a character (of yours or an enemy) has 9HP, it will take 3 of those attacks to kill that enemy. This is because an enemy dies when his health points reach Zero.

With that primer, I think you should be up to speed on the general idea behind Paper Mario and how the gameplay will work. So, now I'll talk about the features of Paper Mario that really set it apart from most other RPG's and other Gamecube Games.

First, let me say that I really enjoyed the looks of the game. The graphics were crisp, and very cartoonish in their smooth animation. The worlds were immersive and beautifully created. Spooky locations were created with drab colors and great scenery. Towns and forests were created with bright, contrasting colors that made everything look great. This smooth animation and great scenery led to an immersive gameplay experience.

I have to say that the other main feature that made the gameplay enjoyable was the group of abilities that mario learns throughout the game. The ability to turn into a paper airplane, or turn sideways to fit in cracks, or roll into a tube, etc. were all great ideas and enable the creators of the game to make the tasks lack a repetitive feel that some other RPG's have. Although, I do have to say that some parts of the game you just know that soon you'll be back there using a different ability. In that aspect it is kinda repetitive in parts, but I thought the different abilities and storylines were creative enough to minimize that repetition.

I do have to say that I would have liked to see a mix-up in the order of the characters you play with during the game. Certain parts of the game are played by Mario, others by the Princess and others as Bowser. This is a great idea, as it provides a little variety in the game. However, after each level you come to expect that you're gonna be playing as Mario for that level, then Princess, then Bowser. It was still fun, but I'd have liked to see some variety in the mix there. That's one of the very few complaints I had about the game.

One of the other things I really enjoy about paper mario is the way they make the battle sequences interesting. You fight all your battles in front of audiences. As you move further in the game, you'll become a bigger star, drawing bigger audiences. These audiences are an important part of the battle system in the game. If you put on a good show, with lots of spectacular attacks, they will give you feedback. This feedback is gauged in a meter at the top of the screen and can be used to perform special attacks. The bigger the audience, the more feedback you'll get when you do something good.

Additionally, audience members can throw harmful objects at Mario and his party members. They can also throw helpful objects such as Mushrooms and Jellies. You're able to press the X button before you attack if you see someone with a harmful audience. Mario, or your other character, will jump into the crowd Ron Artest style and hit that audience member, making them emit a girly little scream.

I know I didn't really get into the details of the game, or reveal attacks, or talk about the story line all that much. I don't enjoy reviews that give the game away, or all the features away. That's part of the fun of playing the game. Discovering some of the abilities and the storyline.

I will just say that this game is great. It's probably the best game I've played for the Gamecube. Actually, it's second only to the Zelda windwaker game.



So, I'm gonna have to give it a rating of 5 out of 5 happy monkeys (New to the happy monkey scale?).

Songs currently in my winamp playlists

1. Fiddler on the Roof - If I Were a Rich Man
2. Soundgarden - Fell on Black Days
3. Rick James - Ghetto Life
4. Joe Cocker - Cry Me A River
5. Team America: World Police Sndtrk. - I'm So Ronery
6. Andrea Bocelli - Nessun Dorma
7. Tennessee Ernie Ford - 16 tons
8. Phantom of the Opera - Think Of Me
9. Radiohead - Subterranean Homesick Alien
10. Pantera - I'm broken

Chances are that if you end up trying to track down a few of these songs that you'll only like a few. My taste in music is pretty broad, so this list covers a lot of different genres. This doesn't make my taste in music better than anyone else's, just a warning for those who generally stick to a few genres.

Jeopardy's Ultimate Tournament Of Champions

In a move sure to boost their ratings, Jeopardy has announced that they'll be hosting a 15 week ultimate tournament of champions to crown an ultimate jeopardy champ. The winner will receive $2 million dollars, a pair of golden suspenders and matching pocket protector.

I'm actually glad they're doing this. After watching Ken Jennings spank everyone for a few months, it'd be interesting to see all the other champs go toe to toe with him.

According to Sony's press release, Ken will automatically be placed in the finals. Everyone else will have to fight it out for the opportunity to play against him.

This is the only part that I think is crap. If it's really gonna be an ultimate, monumental, gargantuan tournament of ultimateness, Ken should have to fight it out at every turn just like the other former champs. I know he's the top dog in recent years, but let him prove it against more than just two of the elite.

Anywho, they only say that it'll be in early 2005, so I guess I'll keep my ear to the floor concerning the date.

NES belt buckle... great idea

I like the idea, but the belt buckle looks pretty big.

You can buy this buckle for $5 here at Gamestop.com. Use the coupon code FREESHIPALL for free shipping.

Interesting quote

It is probably true that business corrupts everything it touches. It corrupts politics, sports, literature, art, labor unions and so on. But business also corrupts and undermines monolithic totalitarianism. Capitalism is at its liberating best in a noncapitalist environment.
-Eric Hoffer (via Bartleby)

I've been thinking the same thing lately about business, especially with regards to politics and sports.

Amateur Eye of the Tiger

http://nimportequi.com/v_d_o/lecteur.swf?vid=126

Cucumbers cause indigestion?

I've found recently that whenever you learn a new bit of information, you will most likely hear someone make reference to it in the near future. Sometimes this happens to me when I hear someone use a strange phrase I've never heard anyone use. I will hear someone else use that phrase on TV or in passing soon after.

That happened to me again today. The weekend before last I went into town to visit my parents and had lunch from outback with them. The salad I ate had sliced cucumbers in it, which they warned would give me indigestion. They said that cucumbers give most people indigestion for some reason. I'd never heard of this before, but they were right. I walked around burping for an hour or so later that day.

I heard the notion that cucumbers cause indigestion again in a book of Taylor's, Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. In the later part of the book he made reference to Cucumbers causing indigestion, which I found strange, but before hearing that fact from my parents, I probably would've paid no attention to that.

It's a strange occurrence when you have something like this happen. I always thought that it was just a big coincidence when I would hear something new, and then someone on TV would repeat it, or another friend would repeat it. But, it's more likely that I'm just more aware of it after someone says it. If I hadn't heard that info from my parents, I wouldn't have paid any attention to the fact that it was in the book I was reading 2 weeks later.

My New Motorola V551 from Cingular

The brother and I have been looking to get new cell phones since about October when our joint contract expired. We did some research on phones and looked at different sites to see who offered the best prices on Cingular phones & plans, and here's what we found.

Buying directly from Cingular at their advertised prices is a big mistake. They're overpriced, as most retail stores will be (Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.). You'll find better deals on cell phones online, as with most other electronic gadgets.

Amazon.com usually has competitive prices on phones because of the Amazon rebates they offer if you sign up for a brand new contract ( i.e. no contract extensions, no number portability... basically has to be a new contract on a new number for 2 years). You can get most phones for free, or with money back, after their amazon mail in rebates.

The problem with Amazon and all other online cell phones retailers is that you pay, and then you have to wait a few days for the phone to arrive, then activate the phone yourself. We didn't know whether this meant that we'd have to call a number to activate our phones, or whether we'd still have to take the phone to a Cingular store and have them activate it for us. Lastly, Amazon wouldn't accept our zip code as a valid area. Taylor tried to purchase one at first, and they wouldn't process our area code, so that was a no go all together. Chances are if you're in a semi-rural area, that you'll encounter the same problems.

Earlier this week, Taylor went to a different Cingular store to find out if they price matched internet deals. They said that they would. So, with that knowledge, we went and found the best deal we could get for the phone we'd chosen (Motorola V551), and we took a printout to the Cingular store. By doing this we ended up getting a much better deal (about $150 off the Cingular price) and we got the phones immediately.

On a side note, if you're gonna do the same thing and take a printout to a Cingular or other retail phone service location, look for the person that looks like they're having the most trouble answering all the questions customers have. Deal with this person. Today, Taylor got a new girl at the Cingular store and she price matched the deal for a 1-year contract, gave him an instant rebate instead of the mail in kind and gave him an ear bud and a car charger for free. I went back later this afternoon after Taylor, and had the manager wait on me. I told him what Taylor had gotten and asked for the same and he said that they weren't supposed to do that, then chided the girl for giving such a good deal. I left with a 2 year contract, no accessories, and an extreme dislike for the manager there. However, since we chose to do the retail price match, we both walked out of there with a new phone without having to pay a cent up front. The only thing we'll be paying is our cell phone bill each month and a $36.00 activation fee.