October 2002

October 01, 2002

Double Delight

Mmm... I just picked up the new Double Delight Oreos... Mint 'n Creme. Very tasty.

Posted by Phil at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

Roommate Humor

Check out 15 Ways to Freak Out Your Roommate. (via Josh, my roommate)

Posted by Phil at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2002

Taos Window

I needed to scan photos in for my Imaging Technology class and I picked this one, probably my second favorite 35 mm photo I've taken. I figured I would post it here since I went through the work of scanning it. It's a shot of a backyard window in Taos, New Mexico that I took while vacationing there last summer. I also happened to take my favorite photo, the one on the home page of this site, during that same vacation, but in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

Posted by Phil at 12:29 AM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2002

My Very Own Server

If you can see this post, you're being served this site from my very own web server running on RedHat Linux 7.3. Thanks to Brett for the use of his server for the past few months.

Posted by Phil at 01:51 AM | Comments (0)

October 08, 2002

Mid-terms

They all come at once. Four tests in three days. No other tests throughout the quarter but a mid-term and final exam. I remember the days back in elementary school when teachers would consult eachother as to when they were scheduling tests as to not overwhelm us students. No more of that; we're grownups now. But still, it stinks that they're all at once. I suppose the only positive aspect is that there are only two tests per quarter to study for each class. One mid-term down, three to go. The first day.

Posted by Phil at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)

October 09, 2002

Mid-term Update

I'm halfway through this mid-term week. My second one wasn't so bad; it'll all depend on how picky the professor is in grading it. I just thought I would add something to my mid-term rant -- another positive aspect of the whole idea is that, since I have all two hour classes that meet twice a week and the mid-terms so far have taken me not much more than an hour to complete, I've had about an hour and a half extra free time this week. And this week I need it.

One more rant. I'm not mentioning any names, but yesterday one of my professors who I thought was pretty decent disappointed me. He came into class and asked us if we did our reading. He then proceeded to teach directly from the book, going section by section, not missing much. It seemed as if he didn't do the reading himself and had done no preparation at all for the lecture. I really hate when professors just read the book to you. I am capable of doing that myself, thank you very much. And he dragged out one relatively short chapter for an hour and a half. And then he had the nerve to simply ask questions that were at the end of the chapter in the book; couldn't he come up with his own? I had a sense throughout the class tat he felt guilty and kept looking at us sheepishly, wondering if we noticed. We had. Now he's a pretty funny guy and did pull off a few good jokes/stories, but I was not laughing after an hour of this nonsense. Waste of my time.

Posted by Phil at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2002

Mildly Amusing RIT Spam

This is not the first time a faculty or staff member at RIT has sent an email to an obscene number of students, disclosing all of the recipients. Here we go again, and one student, Matt, has turned this into a little game, while others, like Chris here, are backlashing. Just a sampling of the crap that's flooding my inbox and providing some amusement amidst studying for mid-terms.

From: Chris <Last Name Removed> [cXX####@ritvax.isc.rit.edu]
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 1:42 AM
To: Matthew <Last Name Removed>
Cc: <About Half of the RIT Community>
Subject: Re: Curious about Imaging Science?

Well, imaging science may be the most lacking in intelligence, but CS sure has its gems. I suppose I could excuse this as mere stupidity on your part, coming from someone who likes to meet people through email. Of course, it is always more entertaining to watch someone die in their own vomit than it is to simply hold their mouth closed and watch them slowly slip away. On to happier subjects, I recall a tale of you and a mallard with a cold. One's a sick duck...I can't remember how it ends but your mother's a whore. You are not simply begging for spam, you are calling for it, asking, deserving, the reciprocal of repellant, your mom with a paper bag on her head. Of course, you're just a 3rd Year CS major, you didn't know any better. I can see how you thought it was such a bright idea to ask people to spam you. "1 2 3! Send email to me! 1 2 4! Send me more! " And do you know how many Internet laws you are breaking by using all caps for emphasis? Well...at least one. It's like demonstrating your intelligence by ending an email with " I am a vampire and ". And? And what!? Oh, oh no....I see, they got you, they put a steak through your wittle heart. I'd like to take this time to remember Matthew <Last Name Removed> as I remember him best. Like this time: "You may think that by talking to all of you I'm just BEGGING for spam". Or this time: "The way I see it, everyone gets our SSNs, isn't that enough power?". And, of course, my favorite: " I am a vampire and ".

Isn't that enough power? What are you, socialist? The last time I recall, SSNs had 9 digits. Damn, still too complicated....Well, let me put this in laymen 3rd Year CS terms:

if ( 4 < 9 )

    cout << " I don't have your SSN, my bad.";

}

And there is this little thing called LDAP, that like, has all our email
addresses any way. You just had to....you know...look. If you're too
technically challenged or so horizontally challenged that you can't reach
the keyboard to go look for email look up, I can understand. Duplicator,
more donuts! Yes, this is my first encounter with "shear stupidity"
versus... "non shear not so stupid like....stupidity" at RIT. God damn,
you're like one of those people that wipes their ass and it smells like
Tabasco. Well, of course, you are just 3rd Year CS. I can't expect much
else from someone who proclaims that he is 3rd Year CS in his signature. I
can't believe I'm talking to someone who is 3rd Year CS, such an honor.

What are you again?

3rd Year CS!!!! Woohoo!! Tacos!!!!

If I remember right, the first rule of being apart of 3rd Year CS club is
that you do not talk about 3rd Year CS club! The second rule of being apart
of 3rd Year CS club is....you do not talk about 3rd Year CS club!!

Why our emails? Because.

Chris
(Take this as an indication to put me on your do not call list).

Oh, and your mom says hi. ;)

At 07:37 PM 10/9/02 -0400, Matthew <Last Name Removed> wrote:
> Hey everybody! Remember me from the last time RIT was retarded? Well, it's
> clear that the college of imaging science is the most lacking in
> intelligence.
> Anyway, suffice to say, this would be a good place to get to know people, it
> was last year anyway. You may think that by talking to all of you I'm just
> BEGGING for spam, well, I get plenty already, getting more isn't much of an
> option. Anyway, if you're new here, this might be your first encounter with
> shear stupidity at RIT. If it is, brace yourself for more. If it's not, well,
> you know what to expect. The way I see it, everyone gets our SSNs, isn't that
> enough power? Why our emails, please, someone, reply and explain it to me.
> I'll be watching. Have a good one everybody.
>
> Matt <Last Name Removed>
> 3rd Year CS

There have been six such emails in the past three hours. I can't wait to check my mail tomorrow.

Posted by Phil at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

RIT Naked Run

Do you have what it takes?

Can you tell I keep finding distractions from studying?

Posted by Phil at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2002

Frosty the Windshield

I woke up this morning to a brisk room as I had left my window open a crack. Oops, it was stuffy in here last night and I forgot to close it. When I made it out to my car bright and early at 7:35, I was greeted by frost on my car windows. I had to break out the scraper from the trunk.

Now I need to get up a minute or two earlier to account for this. I was finally getting to class on time (which, for me, is between 1 and 5 minutes after it is scheduled to start) and now this throws me off again. Wow, winter's really fast approaching. It's hard to believe.

Posted by Phil at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

On Software Development

Here's a snippet of an article I had to read for my Software Requirements and Specification class. It does a good job at summing up a big part of what we do as software engineers, for those of you who are curious.

People imagine that it's easy to ask someone to build a computer system. You find a programmer, tell them what you want, and they go away, get some pizzas, and build it. Yet as we all know, it is devilishly difficult to actually do this for anything but the smallest system. For a start, there is a lot to tell. Just writing it all down is a lengthy exercise in itself-hence the term Victorian Novel Specification. The other awkward problem is that people will tell you what they want, but you actually have to build them what they need-not necessarily the same thing.

Hehe. Pizza... good. And I like the Victorian Novel Specification reference. My team's working on one of them for our project. The quote was taken from "Is there such a thing as Object Oriented Analysis?" by Martin Fowler, Distributed Computing (October 1999).

Posted by Phil at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2002

Rebooting

Rebooting after eight days of uptime. Not bad. I'm only rebooting because I've uninstalled and installed some things that need a reboot. My body needs a reboot, too, I think -- eleven hours of sleep on Saturday night; five hours of sleep on Sunday night. My body is punching me from the inside. Start > Shut Down > Restart. Bye.

Posted by Phil at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2002

No Worries

From The Lion King:

Hakuna Matata!
What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata!
Ain't no passing craze
It means no worries
For the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!

(Music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice)

Posted by Phil at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2002

Monica Compliment

On Friends this week:

That woman has the nose of a bloodhound... and the breasts of a Greek goddess.
--Phoebe, about Monica on Friends after seeing Monica in her bathrobe and noticing that Chandler had been smoking

Posted by Phil at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)