Quadraphonic Slinky

Blog Death and Move

2007-12-02T20:36:00.001-05:00

Hey Everybody,

If you still subscribe to or read this page, just know that this blog is pretty much dead...feel free to unsubscribe. That being said, please DO read my new blog at Mason Tech Beat. I cover all the tech stuff I think is interesting and it's in affiliation with Broadside Online.

See ya there!

Goodbye first real blog! :'(

Blogged with Flock

Shameless Plug

2007-08-27T20:49:00.001-04:00

Hey All Readers!

I just wanted to make a plug for MasonWiki. I, along with many other hardworking Broadside Onliners, have been working to create a nifty wiki for the school and fill it with as much content as we can stand. Well, now the wiki is "launching" and our small band needs to expand to pretty much the whole student population. If we can get enough people to join up with this thing, we'll have a great resource for freshmen, students, parents, and the rest of the interested world. Plus, we will effectively replace the Mason site and it's crazy web structure.

The wiki format is a cool AJAX format that helps reduce pageloads and increase awesomeness. Please jump on the wagon with this one! All you need to do is go to the wiki, look around some of the site (via the column on the right), and then register and make a new page about whatever it is that you think needs to be added. Also, check out the wiki frequently, as others will be adding newer, cool stuff all the time.

Any questions?...Drop me a line via email or comment. Also, I'm "loyaleagle" on the MasonWiki. See you there!

Awesome commentary on the intarweb

2007-08-19T14:09:00.001-04:00

While this is pretty true, if this is how your forum is....leave, there are definitely better ones out there.

Found at College Humor.

Reuters seems to have copied Wikipedia

2007-08-18T00:31:00.001-04:00

Long has Wikipedia battled people just copying and pasting content from other sources into its pages. Also, may academic groups have tried to stop students from copying from Wikipedia into their assignments. Well now a NEW interaction has occured. I was reading this Reuters (via Daily Telegraph) article about difficulties with Chinese characters in the digital age (pretty funny story actually), when I noted the last two paragraphs of the article.

"The at sign (@, read aloud in English as "at") is a typographic symbol used as an abbreviation for "at" in accounting and commercial invoices, in statements such as "7 widgets @ $2 ea. = $14". More recently, the at symbol has become ubiquitous due to its use in email addresses.

It is often referred to informally as the at symbol, the at sign, or just at. In other languages, the symbol may have a different name (see below). It has the official name commercial at in the ANSI/CCITT/Unicode character encoding standards. However, no formal English term has been officially assigned to this character."

I wanted to learn more, so I dutifully went to Wikipedia to find out what kind of naming the "at" sign DOES have. I didn't expect that I would find the "at" sign article to begin with the exact same text that the other article ended with:

"The at sign (@, read aloud in English as "at") is a typographic symbol used as an abbreviation for "at" in accounting and commercial invoices, in statements such as "7 widgets @ $2 ea. = $14". More recently, the at symbol has become ubiquitous due to its use in email addresses.

It is often referred to informally as the at symbol, the at sign, or just at. In other languages, the symbol may have a different name (see below). It has the official name commercial at in the ANSI/CCITT/Unicode character encoding standards. However, no formal English term has been officially assigned to this character."

What a crazy coincidence. Assuming Reuters is the copier (as it would be a weird place for Wikipedia to get its information from), this is a pretty gross citation error on their part. For clarity, I didn't create either of the indented passages...they are simply being cited for their relevance to this article.

References:
Reuters Article (via Daily Telegraph)
Wikipedia At Sign Article

Wiki Time (now twice as much like Hammertime)!

2007-08-12T01:57:00.001-04:00

Just a quick blurb. First of all I'm now an admin at the wiki that Broadside will be releasing fairly soon. It's gonna be a cool project to get into on the "ground floor" and I'll post more on it as I go on.

For the most part my life is kind of boring right now so I haven't been posting very much on this blog. Keep abrest of my tech blog, Mason Tech Beat, as I'm putting more energy into that at the moment (though not too much more).

Enjoy the humidity (if you're in VA)!

Blogged with Flock

Special Note: my 30 seconds of fame!

2007-07-15T02:23:00.001-04:00

If forgot to say...I got on episode 514 of Buzz Out Loud, Cnet.com's Podcast of Indeterminant Length! I have been listening to this tech podcast for years and I got on for what I believe is the second time the other day. They read my email about Flock. They also mentioned my voicemail two episodes previous as a side note, but it wasn't until my correction that I got true identifiable fame. I go by "Jimmy from VA" to be consistent. Here's what they read:

Flock follow-up
Oh, just to follow up on the Flock stuff, Flock 0.9 just went gold the
other day, and anybody can get it, not just a closed group. Just go to
Flock.com and check it out for yourself (I wish us Flockstars got us much
face time as those fancy Opera people).

Keep on keepin' on,
Jimmy from VA

Maybe it's silly to you, but these guys get like 40 emails a day from fans wanting to get on the show, so it's kind of an honor if you get on the show (unless you're one of the awesome regular caller/writers who have developed a kind of time-shifted dialogue with the hosts).

Also on a sad note, this was also the episode where Veronica announced her official departure from Cnet and Buzz Out Loud....we'll all miss her...:(

Back to your regularly scheduled internet.

Blog Friction

2007-07-15T02:13:00.001-04:00

It looks like I've been neglecting the Slinky for a while. That's mainly because I've been working on Mason Tech Beat more than this one. After I write one of those posts I get kind of blogged out. It's fun having a blog that actually gets traffic from somewhere, but the multiple formatting steps make it long sometimes. The new Flock makes it easier though...their blogging component is much better that it used to be. Less buggy if anything.

Kate is, of course, still in China, and right now she's visiting a different region where they don't have intarweb tubes :(
This means I don't get any Kate-via-Skype for another day or so. I really don't see people up here very often, because most of my friends are away and those that are here are generally wrapped up in their own affairs. It is good that the guys in my dorm started a weekly poker meet-up to pass an evening here and there. I won the first one and got 10 bucks, but I've lost the last two, bringing my winnings down to a mere 2 dollars. I'm still having fun with it though...now we just need to get some new people in here. 3 guys is not really enough to play regular poker games with.

I finally set up my room and it actually looks kinda nice. I'd post pictures, but my camera is broken and I have to call SONY to get it fixed (Sony is in CAPS to stress aggravation at having to talk to them). Hopefully they won't install a root-kit on my camera....it's not even a Sony camera, it's Konica Minolta, but they stopped making cameras and ported their repairs to Sony! Gah!

I went bike riding today at Burke Lake Park...that was pretty fun. They have a 5 mile trail that is in condition for cyclists and walkers alike. It's a huge lake so their is room around it for a campground, a marina, an ice cream parlor, a tiny railroad for kids, mini golf, and it's even connected to an executive Par-3 golf course and driving range. It was good to get back on my bike again after about 2 years of dust collecting. It's a fun way for me to get exercise....going to the gym feels so masturbatory for me. And yes you can quote me on that. :P

Tomorrow, I'm doing...nothing....blah....

Monday, it's work again, hopefully getting my new desktop fan, then helping out at an APO kiosk.

Finally...I cancelled my WoW subscription...
I'm just not playing enough to justify it and my computer just can't handle the graphics. It crashes every 30 minutes and I have to quit, sleep, wake up, and restart the client. Not fun, not worth the money and guilt for not playing.

See ya round!

iPhone aftermath and other stuff

2007-07-04T15:47:00.001-04:00

The iPhone is very impressive. I won't be getting one anytime soon though. There's a few reasons for this....headphone jack issues, syncing issues, instability issues. I went to a store a few days after launch and tried one out and even took a class about it. I got all my questions answered and that has helped me decide not to get one quite yet. I still want one and I really liked playing with it, but, for me, it's not quite there yet. *sad*

In other news (now there is actually other news again), I'm glad to see Kate's blog is finally taking off from its humble page to the feature spot on Broadside Online. She publishes really neat articles about her trip to China and stuff. I think is kind of funny that she and I are the only two bloggers for Broadside....(we are dating, for those new to the Four Toned Slinky).

I've been watching the office and it's really awesome. It's this cool show about what goes on in an office, and if you can stand Steve Carell for the first few episodes (i think he starts out ruining the show), he and the rest of the show get a lot funnier. And I too hope Pam and Jim do eventually get together. I'm just about to start watching the 3rd season as soon as it um....comes off of the internet. Actually I've been watching the 1st and 2nd seasons from Netflix because my parents have an account that lets you watch a number of hours of free, high quality shows on their player. I know, a plug, but the player is so nice that it makes it enjoyable to use. Also, it is IE only, so suck it up non-IE users, get the IE Tab extension and chrome it!

Lastly, happy Independence Day to all my US readers (sorry Kate, expatriots get no love....jk). I really have nothing to do today and I'm hoping something will come up other than me just going to the fireworks alone :( .

I'll blog more often now, as my schedule seems to have less in it.

iPhone stuff

2007-06-30T01:56:00.001-04:00

Hey....been busy lately. Just posted my first post that I hope will get onto Broadside Online. It's here on my other blog. Also, yes, I do plan on getting an iPhone.

Testing Out Flock Alpha/Beta 0.9

2007-06-09T00:25:00.001-04:00

Good news! Today I got my link to download the latest (and unreleased for the general public) version of Flock. It's the alpha/beta before v. 0.9. It's got lots of cool features and a really nice GUI. If you have specific questions feel free to post comments. If you're not familiar with it, Flock is a browser specifically designed for social networking. It is based on Firefox and the new version closely resembles FF 2.0.

That is all, more on the cool specifics later if I get a chance. Now I'm off to the beach!

Fun Stuff

2007-06-05T22:29:00.001-04:00

First of all this is just funny...it's a traffic crossing box, fyi....

After that sillyness....I just cooked! I made fried pork chops and canned peas. Now that's a pretty crappy dinner to most but to a college dorm student it's heaven. I should have added a starch but I believe us potato chip munchers tend to get enough of that in our diets. Oh it was tasty....cooking is fun too!

I got some good results today...unfortunately they indicate that the thing I'm trying to inhibit with either isn't inhibiting or isn't being applied correctly. I think I counted well over 1000 colonies on petri dishes today...

I'm close to getting my tech blog linked to Broadside's website. Feel free to view it....found in the links.

Lastly....oops, no clip....ok I guess that's it!

This Weekend and This Week

2007-06-04T16:53:00.001-04:00

This weekend I went out to Ordeal. It was fun to see all of my old OA friends and also good to see that someone will soon be taking over my job in the lodge (I've been chairmain of a particular committee for almost 4 years). The weather was humid as always in Richmond, but it's good to get outside from time to time.

This week I hope to do some more blogging on my other blog (though pretty much the only big news coming out right now is the Apple/MS stuff and that gets dry to most people pretty quickly). I might get a partner to help with cell phone related stuff though and Broadside should be attaching me to itself pretty soon (though they seem to change at a glacial rate...).

Also I will find out tomorrow what my new results are for my Histatin experiment. Hopefully they will be both predicted and clear!

I should be starting to cook a little now since I have a real appartment. I plan to make some flour fried pork chops this week. It is kind of exciting.

The iPhone will now officially be available on June 29th. They even have a real TV commercial running!

Finally, here's an awesome video, from me to you!

Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Up and Down

2007-06-01T00:47:00.001-04:00

Well the last few days have been kinda weird.

I had a kind of rough day in the lab on Tuesday as I stayed an extra 2 hours (for a total of 5.5) to finish off some Chocolate Agar plates (the chocolate is horse blood, YUM!). Then as I was about to drive my tired self home, about a third of the plates "fell" in the cold room. By fall, I mean that the medium, which dries on the upper side of the plate, fell to the bottom. Makes them nice and useless. The next day I discovered that I had accidentally thrown out an important component of that day's proposed experiment. Granted I didn't know I wasn't supposed to throw it out, but I still felt pretty bad....it costs a buck per MICROLITER....smaller than a raindrop.....

On top of that, when I returned to my apartment, it turns out that the person who I thought was going to buy my fridge reconsidered and I will now have to find another buy or just keep it....or something. It probably won't be hard to sell given my asking price, but still, it kind of topped off a rather rotten day.

Today was much better though. There were tons of people in the lab (which can be sticky when there are only two seats at the biosafety cabinet) but it was fun and my friend Joe and I went to Caltort for lunch. It was quite tasty and now I know where it is for future burritoing....

All of my procedures went well today and I hope I will have good results come tomorrow. All in all my day ended rather nicely and I will be going out on Ordeal this weekend...my second to last time running Brotherhood as the chairman....

Have a good weekend!

Busy Month

2007-05-25T00:56:00.001-04:00

Hey, this month has gone by slowly but it seems like its almost gone now.

I've started my reasearch at the MVH lab and am beginning to learn some other cool skills that will later be assets for any lab I work in. Also, I am really starting to learn all the ropes at Patriot Computers and I am beginning to see why it really is an important resource for students. The store offers great discounts on software and really competative deals on hardware and other random stuff. I like it anyway.

I wrote up a new blog...hopefully I'll stay on top of this one...it's a blog for the Broadside...check it out here: I call it Mason Tech Beat.

Otherwise, I'm picking up my WOW playing, going to a Barbershop (singing) convention/competition this weekend, and then going home for a few days. It's gonna be nice, especially going home for the first time in several months (I think...).

Lots of interesting stuff.....

2007-05-07T13:27:00.001-04:00

Well, I've gotten myself a set Summer. I'm gonna be working at Patriot Computers some of the time and working in MVH lab at Prince William the other times. It's gonna be lots of fun and I think that I will enjoy being on campus, despite its somewhat desolate state at this time of year. I can't wait to move out.

Exams are comming up this week and next. I'm aprehensive about the chem and bio exams, but I'm pretty certain I'll be ok in Cybernetics class, as I feel a real connection to a lot of the matierial.

I just got back from the Scholar retreat and boy was it awesome. It rained and was so windy you could barely go outside. Before all that happened it was awesome though....oh and our bus was late taking us down, our meeting got cut short because of schedule problems, our original hotel was shut down for problems with the water and we got moved to a place that had terrible housekeeping, and then the trip back took 2 more hours than it should have because of traffic. So yeah lots of stuff went wrong. At least it was somehow still fun....;-)

I can't wait till the semester is over, it's been a long and hard period for me these last few weeks.

DRM: A Thing of the Past

2007-04-18T23:54:00.001-04:00

Here is an article I wrote about DRM for the school paper (The Broadside). This is the version I sent them so there may be a few editorial changes from the print version. Also, the paper came up with the title...and randomly left off the word "Past," leaving "DRM: A Thing of the." Enjoy:

"Something that almost any Mason student is already aware of is music piracy. Once the domain of slick eggheads and Napster fans, now anyone can easily obtain and distribute music for free on the internet. This kind of activity has prompted major music labels under the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to place restrictive coding on all digital music tracks in order to safeguard against illegal file sharing. Such coding is known as Digital Rights Management (DRM) and typically restricts the ability of users to copy, move, or play music on any computer but the original computer to which it was downloaded. These restrictions hamper usability and interoperability in a way that has kept many potential customers away from legal downloads, choosing to download illegally or buy CDs and rip them.

All of this may change in the near future. Music labels are realizing that no matter what DRM they apply to music files, those files are invariably cracked and distributed illegally. Instead the DRM serves only to prevent ordinary, legal users of digital music from using their music in the ways that they want to. The most common example is the Apple iTunes Store's "FairPlay" DRM. Aside from restricting the number of times iTunes songs may be copied, FairPlay prohibits their use on any music player other than the iPod. While the iPod is popular and iTunes makes up a large percentage of all online music sales, many users do not wish to feel locked into one player for as long as they own their tracks. It is possible to burn these tracks onto a CD and then rip them back onto iTunes, thus stripping away the DRM, but this process is time-consuming and slightly degrades the files.

Recently Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, posted an open letter on the Apple homepage, asking music companies to provide consumers with a DRM-free product instead of punishing them for the misdeeds of pirates. Only a few weeks later, Apple announced that it would be holding a press conference with major music label EMI. EMI holds the rights to many artists such Queen, Elvis, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Many rumors cropped up as a result of the announcement, suggesting Jobs had finally convinced EMI to relinquish DRM encryption.

On April 2^nd, the joint press conference revealed EMI's first momentous step toward DRM-free music. All tracks controlled by EMI on the iTunes Store would soon be available for thirty cents more ($1.29 from $0.99) in an un-DRMed format. As an added bonus, these tracks would be available in a higher bit-rate (read: higher quality) and in the AAC format that many portable players now read. Users who had previously purchased EMI tracks would also have the ability to upgrade to the premium format for thirty cents.

This simple price and feature reconfiguration paves the way for other RIAA members to follow in EMI's footsteps. What does this mean in a larger sense? Music downloading, long plagued by restrictive software and licensing agreements, may yet save the music industry's crisis. Falling CD sales have prompted the RIAA to attack file sharers with laws suits and other legal actions. If the industry learns to embrace the digital age instead of putting up wall, more users may stay on the straight and narrow, choosing to download music legally instead of pirating."

Why not blog...

2007-04-18T23:47:00.001-04:00

I was thinking...hmmm, what to do late at night...that's it....BLOG!

Today was rather interesting. I mostly went to classes, learned lots about the future via DARPA's projects and exponential stuff. After that we got Kate's phone looked at (no luck), I got told by Microcenter that they weren't really interested in temporary (read: summer) help. On top of that I went to the Steps to Darfur thing that Kate and Anna hosted and it was very interesting. We didn't have any experts there so I'm not sure everything is absolutely correct, but it was a very good perspective.

Tomorrow is much the same classwise plus maybe Game Night with APO.

The next post up will be the article that was published in the school newspaper. If you're not interested in DRM, it may still be interesting in the sense that iTunes and online music may be changing for the better.

Longer than I thought

2007-04-15T16:31:00.001-04:00

As my schedule goes crazy I tend to forget that I even have a blog.

Here are the highlights:

Today is final dues day for the pledges (hurray little!)
I'm wondering if I should run for a position in either of my organizations.
I'm slowly working in my lab job and will eventually be working on bioflims in F. tularensis. Also the effects of antimicrobial peptides on said organism. It causes "Rabbit fever."
iTunes released that they will soon be distributing some of their tracks in an un-DRMed format. It will cost more, but it will be better quality and no DRM! Further I might get an article for the school paper published about this topic.
Kate works at Noodles! Yay Noodles!
I switched to Thunderbird from Outlook and I'm very happy with it. This is my 5th try at using it and finally I am able to really enjoy the program. It runs lighter and I've fixed it up to sync with Google Calendar periodically (bidirectionally).

I think that's all I got for right now....I'm crazy busy as always...I'll blog more in the summer.

Yo, I'm still alive!

2007-03-26T14:18:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody, sorry for the long delay.

Pretty inseresting stuff going on. I just finished all my choral stuff for this part of the semester so everything is so much more simple. First of all, the concert went well even though I am a little disgruntled with the choir program so far. It just seems like we weren't ready for the concert when we needed to be.

My lab job is coming together. I'll be working in Dr. van Hoek's Biodefense lab this summer and all I have to do is go in probably next friday and get some forms and stuff finished up. (I might even get paid if she randomly gets more funding) At the moment I'll just be getting credit (but it counts in my major so it's cool)!

Kate is fun! :P

My classes are finally all working smoothly together so I have a pretty good hold on my stuff. Hopefully I can finish the semester with a pretty nice patch of grades.

On friday I'll be leading a tour of the NIH (National Institutes of Health), one of the largest and most important research fascilities in the world. This is pretty awesome for a bunch of science majors (I guess there are perks to Mason's location, as we'll be using the metro the whole way).

I got housing for the summer; I was pulled into a room with 2 APO brothers and one other guy for a 12 month lease on a Liberty 2nd appartment. It'll be nice to have my own room for the first time in 2 years (not counting trips home).

Hmmm, that's a pretty good summary of my life as of now. I hope to blog more in the future as I like the feeling that people I don't see every day can know what's going on with me. (Hopefully they'll blog too so I can know the same stuff about them!)

My bracket...

2007-03-15T16:44:00.001-04:00

Here's my (probably going to not do too well) bracket for the NCAA tournament. Post your comments if you like.

Facebook | My Bracket

Way outdated!

2007-03-15T11:53:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody, sorry WoW and having a good time with gf has taken over my life. Just a little blurb...I'm in Richmond with Kate and my folks right now. It's fun, we've been to Maymont (a park), the church that Patrick Henry spoke in, and a number of other cool places (like Carytown). Anyway it's winding down today as we are just chilling at home. Today I get a haircut and we're also going to go to an irish pub (maybe).

"Midterms," though I actually don't have real midterm tests, have been crazy and that why this blog has kind of suffered.

That's all I got!

Crazyness

2007-02-18T14:19:00.001-05:00

I've been doing lots and lots of stuff recently. From bball games to planning for ASM to learning to play WoW, to doing homecoming stuff, to valentines day crazyness, to more and more and.....ahhhhhh! Overall I need some chill time. I have a whole bunch of work for this week so I'm kind of stressing over that too. Chemistry labs really haven't improved since last semester. One thing that may be better is that they can be typed instead of hand-written. I have my first Bio exam and hopefully it will be as easy as it looks (generally I don't get many easy exams in bio). I've also yet to eat today and it's already 2pm. Later I will be in a bylaws meeting for APO and then the APO meeting proper. Busy night for me!

And yes, Mason lost again....they just can't seem to get it together this year!

That's all I got for now!

Worst Bulletin Board Ever!

2007-02-07T01:00:00.001-05:00

This is amazing. This is the bulletin board in my dorm. They have these boards changed with current stuff every month. As it is Black History Month, the RAs put info about it. Unfortunately, the stuff they have on this one is pretty ridiculous. Notice Steve Erkel and Mr. "Professor" T. as the speakers of some very scholarly facts about the month. Weirdest of all the word "black" has a brown "K." Anyway, it's really weird...feel free to post replies to this one....here are the pics:

From Worst Bulleti...

Here are a few of the various parts of the board:

From Worst Bulleti...

Kate Approves!

From Worst Bulleti...

Hah, time to blog...

2007-01-31T13:28:00.001-05:00

Yeah it's been a while because I'm busy....so it's time for bullet points!

First off, I broke my brand new glasses....got to go see if i can get them fixed locally.
Next, I've gotten into WoW and it's pretty crazy. Level 17 Tauren Shaman right now! Woot.
Speaking of Woot, we're in the midst of another Woot-off!
I'm also getting into the series Rome, though it's only so-so.
My classes are great, especially my chem lecture, my cybernetics class, and even animal bio isn't too bad. Also the China/Nigeria class looks to be very eye-opening.
My computer has been giving me crap about running WoW for some reason...I think it's the anti-virus software trying to look at WoW while it's running...not a good idea.
Everyone should RUSH APO!
The ASM event was great success and I might even have an internship for credit lined up for the summer. Pretty exciting step for me.
Kate is a pretty nice girl :P

That is all, goodbye!

Upsetting day

2007-01-24T14:27:00.001-05:00

Man, everything just seemed to go wrong today. It really was like that....one catastrophy after another, or at least things that seemed as such because of everything else happening. I'd have something go wrong and as I picked up a pen to do something else, the pen would die. In general I'm just very angry and tired. Too much bio too. Also, The Good Shepard was a torturously bad movie. On top of that I think I just killed my new glasses.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!