Friday, October 6
So does that mean that hawt female night elf really IS a chick?
According to this article, 64% of online gamers are women. Hmmm...NE1 WAN7 2 CYB3R?
Thursday, October 5
Google Searches Code
This seems like a great idea. Every so often (especially when changing from Java to C++ and vice versa), I'll forget some simple thing or two. Here's hoping this makes my "I can't BELIEVE I forgot that" moments pass much quicker.
Macworld: News: Google helps programmers find code online
Macworld: News: Google helps programmers find code online
Thursday, September 28
Sunday, September 24
Woes of the iGeneration
The Tech Zone Computer Hardware Reviews
Ok, the story itself isn't particularly interesting, it's the spelling and grammar of the article that bugs me. I could understand if the website it appears on was a non-English site, or if the author (Stephane Dion [sic] ) had an obviously non English name, but neither are so. I suppose my only consolation is that it's not coming from a reputable news source such as the New York Times, but it does make me despair of the quality of the "iGeneration".
Ok, the story itself isn't particularly interesting, it's the spelling and grammar of the article that bugs me. I could understand if the website it appears on was a non-English site, or if the author (Stephane Dion [sic] ) had an obviously non English name, but neither are so. I suppose my only consolation is that it's not coming from a reputable news source such as the New York Times, but it does make me despair of the quality of the "iGeneration".
Thursday, August 31
Monday, August 14
Sunday, July 23
Possible Facebook Scam?
I just recieved an e-mail today asking me to confirm my e-mail for Facebook.com, but on further inspection I realized that the address for the email and the link were NOT from facebook.com but apparantly bbqflavor.com. (full e-mail address : register+5wm (at) login.facebook.com-fe424-ccod8t.php-om-ccode-43.bbqflavor.com) I'm planning to forward I have forwarded this to the facebook staff to confirm its validity, but you'd be well advised to avoid clicking any confirmation links.
Monday, July 17
The Good, The Bad...
Good news: I got a job for the rest of the summer.
Bad news: 10 hour workdays, plus an hour of commuting = no free time.
And the ugly: Me after 10 hours of dirt and grime in 90 degree heat.
Bad news: 10 hour workdays, plus an hour of commuting = no free time.
And the ugly: Me after 10 hours of dirt and grime in 90 degree heat.
Monday, July 10
The Big M Challenges the Big Apple...Of Music, That Is
iTWire - Will Apple stand still in face of Microsoft iPod killer?
OK, we all knew it was coming, but this is the part that caught my eye:
OK, we all knew it was coming, but this is the part that caught my eye:
"There is talk that Microsoft is prepared to pay record companies to allow iTunes users to transfer their tracks to Windows Player 11 for free. Given that iTunes users had already downloaded well over 1 billion tracks near the beginning of this year, that's a hell of an investment for Microsoft to make to enter the market."Big talk indeed.
Sunday, July 9
Bill Gates
OR:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Microsoft
People seem to love to hate anything that has more success than them. They also seem to forget that everyone legacy starts out small. Microsoft didn't just shit out Windows, contrary to some Internet postings I've seen: "OMG micro$oft is teh suxxorz and tehy are mony grubbing cockbites they got so mcuh mony why does evrything they make suck @$$ OMG etc. etc."* Ugh that gets annoying fast. Not so much the attack on the English language, but the ignorance of it all. Microsoft is a corperation, and like any corperation their goal is to profit. And they certainly earned the profits they enjoy. They worked for their success, not working so much for a superior operating system, but to sell that operating system. But I'm not going to defend Microsoft or Windows. Rather, I'm going to explain just why everyone should be glad they are around.
As a quick aside, if it wasn't Microsoft, it would have been Apple (or perhaps some other company; My money is on Apple though). If Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed to get off the ground in the 70's and 80's then Steve Jobs and Apple would have taken their place, and everyone would complain how Apple is dominating the market and flooding it with inferior software, and we'd have an Apple X-Mac instead of an X-Box. It's simply the way industry works. On any corporate food chain there's a top dog, in this case Microsoft clawed, bit, and scratched their way up.
But why should we like them? For one, Microsoft helped realize the idea of a home PC. Back in the 70's such an idea as an affordable home PC was quite laughable. Besides the cost, they weren't exactly user-friendly, something both Apple and Microsoft realized. The difference between them, is Apple concentrated on the latter and Microsoft the former. It turns out people are, as a whole, more inclined to deal with a little, well OK, a LOT of bullshit to have a cheaper PC. Hey, the world is run by money, and people like to keep as much as possible.
OK, fine, you might say. Microsoft won. Apple lost. But PC's have become so affordable now, why should we put up with Microsoft anymore? And you know what? You would be absolutely correct. In fact, I'd strongly encourage you to try out many of the different options you have these days. If you've got a PC with Windows, but don't want to buy new hardware to try another operating system, then try Linux. Most distributions are completely free, and the few that cost money, cost very little. It has come a long way from it's former stance of being very user-UNfriendly, and In fact, there are several distributions that cater especially to those new to Linux and focus on usability. Ubuntu is one such distribution. Knoppix, a distribution that runs completely from a CD or DVD, is another. And of course you can invest in a Mac.
Wait a minute, you say. You spent half your entry saying that we should love Windows, and now you want us to abandon it? I doubt very much that everyone who reads this will switch to linux or a Mac, or some other OS. We need Microsoft to compete with. Corporations by default hate competition because it takes away their profits. Consumers should love it, because it encourages those corporations to pump out better products. And so far, it seems to be working. Not so much on the OS front, but in other areas such as web browsers, e-mail clients, document applications and the like.
There are free alternatives or cheaper alternatives to pretty much every proprietary software Microsoft puts out. Don't like Internet Explorer? Get Mozilla's Firefox. It has more features and is far more secure. Sick of Outlook? Mozilla also has an e-mail client called Thunderbird. You can even get a free replacement for Office. OpenOffice is a free replacement from Sun Microsystems. They must be doing something right, because Microsoft's market share is taking a hit, particularly from Firefox. If you do nothing else, you should at least look into these alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary software. It's nowhere near as complex as trying a new Operating System, and you just might like the alternatives better.
You don't have to like Microsoft, but there's no use complaining. They aren't going anywhere soon.
*It's interesting that most of the people who make those comments run some form of windows and post in Internet Explorer, despite insisting the inferiority of it all. Dumbasses, why they don't just switch operating systems and shut up already is beyond me...
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Microsoft
People seem to love to hate anything that has more success than them. They also seem to forget that everyone legacy starts out small. Microsoft didn't just shit out Windows, contrary to some Internet postings I've seen: "OMG micro$oft is teh suxxorz and tehy are mony grubbing cockbites they got so mcuh mony why does evrything they make suck @$$ OMG etc. etc."* Ugh that gets annoying fast. Not so much the attack on the English language, but the ignorance of it all. Microsoft is a corperation, and like any corperation their goal is to profit. And they certainly earned the profits they enjoy. They worked for their success, not working so much for a superior operating system, but to sell that operating system. But I'm not going to defend Microsoft or Windows. Rather, I'm going to explain just why everyone should be glad they are around.
As a quick aside, if it wasn't Microsoft, it would have been Apple (or perhaps some other company; My money is on Apple though). If Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed to get off the ground in the 70's and 80's then Steve Jobs and Apple would have taken their place, and everyone would complain how Apple is dominating the market and flooding it with inferior software, and we'd have an Apple X-Mac instead of an X-Box. It's simply the way industry works. On any corporate food chain there's a top dog, in this case Microsoft clawed, bit, and scratched their way up.
But why should we like them? For one, Microsoft helped realize the idea of a home PC. Back in the 70's such an idea as an affordable home PC was quite laughable. Besides the cost, they weren't exactly user-friendly, something both Apple and Microsoft realized. The difference between them, is Apple concentrated on the latter and Microsoft the former. It turns out people are, as a whole, more inclined to deal with a little, well OK, a LOT of bullshit to have a cheaper PC. Hey, the world is run by money, and people like to keep as much as possible.
OK, fine, you might say. Microsoft won. Apple lost. But PC's have become so affordable now, why should we put up with Microsoft anymore? And you know what? You would be absolutely correct. In fact, I'd strongly encourage you to try out many of the different options you have these days. If you've got a PC with Windows, but don't want to buy new hardware to try another operating system, then try Linux. Most distributions are completely free, and the few that cost money, cost very little. It has come a long way from it's former stance of being very user-UNfriendly, and In fact, there are several distributions that cater especially to those new to Linux and focus on usability. Ubuntu is one such distribution. Knoppix, a distribution that runs completely from a CD or DVD, is another. And of course you can invest in a Mac.
Wait a minute, you say. You spent half your entry saying that we should love Windows, and now you want us to abandon it? I doubt very much that everyone who reads this will switch to linux or a Mac, or some other OS. We need Microsoft to compete with. Corporations by default hate competition because it takes away their profits. Consumers should love it, because it encourages those corporations to pump out better products. And so far, it seems to be working. Not so much on the OS front, but in other areas such as web browsers, e-mail clients, document applications and the like.
There are free alternatives or cheaper alternatives to pretty much every proprietary software Microsoft puts out. Don't like Internet Explorer? Get Mozilla's Firefox. It has more features and is far more secure. Sick of Outlook? Mozilla also has an e-mail client called Thunderbird. You can even get a free replacement for Office. OpenOffice is a free replacement from Sun Microsystems. They must be doing something right, because Microsoft's market share is taking a hit, particularly from Firefox. If you do nothing else, you should at least look into these alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary software. It's nowhere near as complex as trying a new Operating System, and you just might like the alternatives better.
You don't have to like Microsoft, but there's no use complaining. They aren't going anywhere soon.
*It's interesting that most of the people who make those comments run some form of windows and post in Internet Explorer, despite insisting the inferiority of it all. Dumbasses, why they don't just switch operating systems and shut up already is beyond me...
Saturday, July 8
Introductions? Nah...Well fine...
I live in a small town about 15 and 30 miles from much bigger towns, where sane people often go to find something to do that doesn't involve cows or tipping them. Or perhaps they leave just to find cows to tip, since the cows seem to have gone off to find more interesting things to do other than being tipped. In any event it's very boring here over the summer, so I while away the hours playing games, watching movies and looking for work. I also like to program, which is good cause if I didn't that'd mean I've wasted two years of college learning how. It's a hell of a lot more fun than tipping poor cows at any rate. Maybe I'll write up a program that simulates tipping cows to satisfy all the people who can't find any to tip.
(I think I've killed that joke by now....Like a dead cow--Shut up you!!)
I've a strong tendency to be punny. It's like funny, except you get moans and groans that aren't caused by laughing so hard that all you can is moan or groan. I suppose you could say it gets you the end result of a good joke without all that fussing about with your mouth open and clutching your sides. Kinda like Stuntmutt's One One Se7en, only he's got a whole comic, and all I got is this shirt (It's a good shirt though).
I bring him up, and specifically his comic, because I'm using his master chief to test out my program I'm working on. It's a build upon some earlier work I've down to make line designs, also known as curve stitching, with a computer. I learned how to do these about 5 years ago, and I've made tons of them by hand, usually doing various classes in high school that failed to keep my attention. These aren't anything like those designs you can make with the gears and pens and such. I can't remember what they're called. Anyhow you can make these with nothing but a ruler, paper, and a pen. Go here to see a guide on how to make them. It's really very simple, anyone can do it.
Right now it can take a text file of line coordinates, look for any points that meet, then draw a line design for it. There is a ton of work to do, without even adding more features. I've still got to find out how to get Java to stop at the last valid entry in the array. I could do that easily in C++, but I can't do graphics so easily in C++, so I'm stuck with Java. Then I need to add in a whole host of error checking, cause even a well written program can be run down by, as a good friend of mine would say, "User Error!". (He likes to shout it out ). I've a few ideas for more things to add in. But one step at a time of course :)
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