MAIN

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12/12/2005 about 10:30pm

Done

Well, the paper's done. I haven't been working non stop or anything since I put up my last entry, but when I wasn't studying for my chem final I had this morning I was working on it. I made a cool flash animation to go along with my paper, which is what I spent most of today on. I haven't worked with flash in a few years and Macromedia Flash 8 is considerably differnet from the versions I'm used to working with, so it isn't the greatest animation ever made, but I still found it refreshing to get away from your typical double spaced grind out paragraphs paper.

Here's the animation if you wanna check it out without having to look at my paper.

 

Later all, and have a happy break

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12/10/2005 about 3:30pm

Marathon

Ok, it's time to finish up this paper.... lets see how long it takes...

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12/6/2005 about 7:30pm

Conclusion

how does this sound for a conclusion? short.. sweet.. and to the point..

 

In this essay, I have argued that software manufacturers need to provide more and better support for advanced computer hardware. I have listed and explained in detail the pros of why it should be done, as well as the cons. Weigh the pros and cons yourself. It can be seen that there are several benefits to having better software support for hardware, for all parties involved. It would be good to try implementing this tactic and see what happens.

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11/29/2005 about 9:45pm

Final Project

Here's the answers to the questions on the syllabus for tomorrows class for my paper...

 

What's your thesis?

What are the most important and most controversial claims?

How will you defend those?

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11/28/2005 about 11:59pm

MY WIKI

I thought I posted this last night but it appears it never got through. My building has been having problems with it's internet connection ever sice we've come back from vacation, hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

 

anyway.. here was the post...

 

Just in case you guys wanted to know, I have created my own wiki site. It's Here

 

I started up a website awhile ago for my Guild in Guild Wars, and I just got around to making the forum section over vacation. Feel free to post and make your own pages or whatever. You can make your own account or just edit anonymously. The only thing I ask is please, do not abuse this. It's a fun thing I decided to setup instead of the typical phpBB style forum that just about every other site in the world uses. I don't want to have to close it down to administrator approved accounts only, cause that'll just be another pain in my ass...

 

Anyway.. ENJOY :)

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11/14/2005 about 10:45am

MOTHERBOARD

After a very long, unpleasant time of waiting for the parts to my new computer to come in, they are finally almost all here. I've had all the parts EXCEPT the motherboard for almost a week now, and the motherboard is finally going to ship today. Once that gets here and it's all put together... things might actually get back to normal.. after 56 days without a computer to call my own... that's 56 out of the 77 days i've been here this semester... that's 72.72727272727272727272727% of my college life to date as a computer engineer without a comuter... rediculous.... that's all i can say about that

 

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11/6/05 about 10:00pm

Counter Arguments

I added counter arguments to TheFishBowl and PrimeTime proposals.

This article would be good to read in class: What is 64 bit Computing?

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11/4/05 about 8:30pm

Proposal

Ok, here's my proposal. I hope it doesn't just seem like some boring computer stuff...

 

Computers as we know them now have not been around for all that long of a time. The technology is growing so fast that it is becoming difficult for both creators and consumers to keep up with everything. Now, there are many great individual things, but the overall support for these things is often unsupported by other aspects, limiting their functionality. From fairly new technologies like SLI video support and dual core processors, to fairly old technologies such as 64 bit processors, all need to be better supported by both hardware and software to get full effect. On the leading edge of making use of the advantages of these new technologies is the open source community. Commercial software makers, who can devote all of their time to software development, should take the hint from the often part-time coders of the open source community and offer better support for new technologies. Their input would greatly speed the process of fully using current technology. Also, the backing of these big name software companies, such as Microsoft, is needed in order to help promote the making of further advancements in hardware. The hardware manufactures who designed these new, often not fully supported technologies are not likely to do as well with further advances. If the limits of current technology cannot be found, it will be difficult to better that technology. Anyone who wishes to see further advancement in computer technology should push for better support of current technology.

 

 

Preliminary Bibliography

 

Columbus, Frank H. Progress in Computer Research. Nova Science Publishers

 

Eurographics Workshop on Graphics Hardware, Advances in Computer Graphics Hardware Springer-Verlag Publishers

 

What is 64 bit Computing?

 

History of Computing Hardware

 

 

 

 

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11/4/05 about 7:30pm

Good Mood

Finally, things are starting to go my way. Since I bought the computer with a credit card company, I started talking to them about it and they got on a conference call with Alienware and we all discussed it. Eventually, the credit card rep got as frustrated as I have been and agreed to fight it for me. All I have to do is ship the computer and everythign that came with it back to Alienware, and give them a tracking number for the package. They will give me my money back and then turn their attention to Alienware and fight to get their money back, at no cost or concern to me. Definitley a good day. Now just have to finish up (or more like start) the proposal that's due tonight.

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11/3/05 about 2:30pm

WHAT THE ****!!!!!!

(edited after head cooled)

 

sorry for the explicit title... but i'm at my wit's end

this one phone call has made me decide to completely drop what i was planning on doing for a final project and go with something relating to this...

 

It's August, summer's coming to a close, and I need to start getting ready for school. One of the biggest things that I still need is a computer. I've been helping people work on computers and make decisions about what kind of stuff to get for their computers for a long time, but it is finally my turn to take the hit to the wallet and get my own. I know that I want to get something powerful. I like media editing, (imaging, audio, and video), as well as gaming. I was also informed, however, that I would definitely want something portable, to bring to and from home or to get out of the room to work on stuff still computer related. After doing some research, which didn't take long, I have come to the conclusion that Alienware is the way to go. They can be a little expensive, but their quality is unmatched in power, and mobility. They have online custom configuration, and I have designed the best system to meet my needs. Now I just have to wait for it to be built and shipped to me.

 

I just moved into my dorm a few days ago and now my computer is finally here. It took a little longer than I to get it, but it was well worth the wait. Everything about it is amazing, from the looks to the speed. It even has a cool blue LCD panel on the front that I can make display the time!! Though I haven't found good video editing software yet, I am having a ball with Photoshop, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver. Also, playing games at the highest graphics quality with no lag at all is awesome.

 

Things were going great.. but a few weeks later...

 

Great, just got done posting my English paper to the wiki at 11:59, now it's time to chill for a bit.....

O_O (i jump up and rip the power plug out of the back of the computer and rip out the battery)

did this just happen???

yes, smoke definitely just started rolling out of my keyboard and luckily i was there to pull the plug before it caugt on fire... good thing Alienware has 24 hour tech support... ok, just as i thought, i'm going to have to send it back to be repaired. At least it'll only take 18 business days...

 

So.. i get to thinking... and i realize that if this happens after much less than a month of use, what will happen in the next few years? I decide that since i'm still under my 30-day moneyback guarantee, i'll just pull out while i can and get a more reliable, less mobile system.

I called customer support, and they told me that I would have to wait for it to get back from being repaired before i could return it, which made no sense to me. I realized that this would put me past my 30-day limit, but they assured me that I would have at least 3 days after I received the system back for the guarantee to still be valid...

 

Now, 45 days after the incident and with my computer in hand, they refuse my return request for the exact reason i wanted to return it earlier. They say they "have no record of the call" in which i was given the promise of 3 more days. I was able to hold my composure long enough to get an email address to file a complaint til i finally hung up before i started screaming at the guy. This is after nothing but problems with customer support, all along, getting no answers as to why my system was taking so long to be repaired. They have ignored 3 of the 4 emails i have sent them. If they ignore this one, or do not comply, then i will definitely be contacting the better business bureau. Where has the hospitality of merchants and the phrase "the customer is always right" gone??

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11/1/05 about 10:30am

Belated Halloween!!!

It seems that Halloween has come and gone and I didn't even realize it.... Damn engineering... making me forget about everything but work... Well, I guess it's more like damn the engineering CLASSES, cause engineering in any form itelf is awesome.

AAAAAAAAAAAAA/\

AAAAAAAAAAAA/a/

AAAAAAAAAAA__(a(__

AAAAAAA.-'(aaaa`'a)`-.

AAAAA./aaaa`"""""'aaaa\.

AAAA/aaaaaa___aaa___aaaaa\

AAA/aaaaaaaa\\a//aaaaaaa\

AA;aaaaaaa/\aaaaaa/\aaaaa;

A;aaaaaaa/O_\aaaa/O_\aaaa;

A;aaaaaaaaaaaa/\aaaaaaaaa;

A;aaaaaaaaaaaa~~aaaaaaaa;

AA;aaaaaa/\.aaaaaaa./\aaaa;

AAA\aaaaaa/`\\/\/\/\//`\aaa/

AAAA\aaaaaaa\/\/\/\/aaaaa/

AAAAA`\aaaaaaaaaaaaaa/'

AAAAAAA`aaaaaaaaaaaa'

 

The above is supposed to be an ascii jackolantern... though the wiki messes it up terribly and i have spent the last fifteen minutes trying to fix it to no avail... so if you want to see it go to the edit thing

if anyone knows how to get it to ignore the wiki formatting, i'd greatly appreciate the info, thx

 

UPDATE - since i'm continuing to procrastinate on my homework, i developed a method to get the ascii pumpkin to work on the wiki... it's to perfect.. but it still looks pretty cool

 

here's the original ascii pumpkin.. just in case you wanna do something with it outside of wiki... just go to edit to copy it so it looks right

 

; /O_\ /O_\ ;

/\

; ~~ ;

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10/31/05 about 11:00pm

Losing Time

Wow, I've really gotta start blogging more. I do have a computer in my room now, though it isn't good for much other than surfing the web, but I guess that's enough for now. Today is day 42 since my computer blew up on that dark and stormy night back in September. It has been nothing but headaches ever since. So much for the 18 business day guarantee. I called and got nasty with them again today, and they magically have it ready to ship so I should have it by the end of the week. Ofcourse, that is what they have been saying for about the past 3 or 4 weeks. I'm not risking the headache and fire hazarad again, so I'm just gonna make them take it back. They continually insist on me having to pay a 15% restocking fee, in spite of the fact of how horrible their service has been. Perhaps a report to the Better Business Bureau is in order...

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10/23/05 about 9:00pm

Another Evaluation Argument

 

This argument comes from here

 

Basically, the claim of this article is that antibacterial soap isn't any better than regular soap. It's just more expensive and has more pollutants. The FDA has found to evidence that killing the germs is any better than just washing them away. It is also stated that bacteria will never be destroyed, so it's a pointless thing to try. A possible counter argument to this would be that even if bacteria cannot be destroyed, it can at least be lessened in a specific area.

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10/23/05 about 5:30pm

Plagiarism

 

Plagiarism is the act of taking the work of another person and saying that it is your own. Some people have a very lose idea of what taking is though. Some people think it is perfectly fine to take another persons work, particularly written works, and switch a few things around and call it their own. Now, look at the definition of plagiarism and look at what some people think it is ok to do. They are still TAKING, even if they switch things up a bit after they take it. If you didn't come up with it on your own, someone else has done it before you and should be credited for their work.

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10/18/05 about 8:30pm

Evaluative Argument 1

 

This article was on CNN's main page with a link to the main article

 

In this article, wireless technology is being named a bad thing. Aparently in the past it used to be that when going on a business trip or to an academic conference was almost like a vacation. People were able to leave their typical work behind and concentrate on learning something new or the tasks at hand. Now with cell phones and laptops with wireless internet hotspots all over, there is no excuse to forget what you had been working on. One counter argument addressed in the article is about how much more productive things have become in the business world. I agree with this counter argument and also would like to say how much simpler it has made things outside of business. If you're expecting a call, you don't have to wait around for it, you can just go whereever with your cell phone. Waiting around for an important email? Just take your laptop along with you and find a hotspot or even check it from your cell phone. Wireless technology has definitely been more good than bad.

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10/18/05 about 7:30pm

Stigmergy

 

In 1959, Pierre-Paul Grasse thought of the concept of stigmergy. The term stigmergy is typically used in reference with social insects. It is the idea as to how all those insects know exaclty what to do all the time. There is no one insect issuing commands as to what has to be done. They all just know what to do depending on their current situation.

 

Information taken from here

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10/12/05 about 3:30pm

Peer Causal Argument 1

 

I found this causal argument on the RedLionBlog

 

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10/11/05 about 8:00pm

Causal Argument 2

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/10/10/katrina.levees.ap/index.html

 

Claim: the levees broke because they were weak The argument in this article is about how the levees in New Orleans were breached be huricane Katrina. This article actually argues two positions. One position is that the massive ammount of water actually reached over the flood walls and began pouring down the other side, eroding away the ground which eventually led to the breach. The other is that the levee itself was too weak to hold back the flood waters even before they reached the top of the walls. Both arguments are supported by physical evidence, depending on where the levee is examined. This article is aimed at the public, to help them decide if someone is at fault for the tragedy or if it was a previously unforseen problem that could not have been prevented.

 

Reasons: The levees had been known to be weak for years.

 

Counter-argument: No levee in the world could have stopped Hurricane Katrina.

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10/10/05 about 8:30pm

Causal Argument 1

This causal arguement comes from a fox news article found at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,171811,00.html

 

This causal arguement is stating why there have been an increasing number of Guard and Reserve deaths in the Iraq conflict. There are several reasons for this according to the article, which include an increased number of Guard and Reserve units in Iraq, the Guard and Reserve being attacked doing their jobs in the back of running supplies, or even Guard and Reserve units being attached to active duty units for the specific job of front line fighting. I agree with all these reasons, but the deeper causal argument in this article is why there are so many Reserve and Guard units in Iraq. It states how lack of recruitment and little support for the draft makes it hard to keep a good troop rotation. It gives the excuse that the 3rd Infantry Division and 101st Airborne Division needed to be pulled out to reorganize. As for the audience this article is aimed at, I cannot see a definite answer. It could be just the American people in general, advising them about what is happening in Iraq, or it could be people our age, warning of how even Guard and Reserve units get sent to the front, sometimes in even greater numbers than the active duty.

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10/2/05 about 1pm

EXAMS

First off, I'd just like to say that I definitel picked an awesome first game of the year to make it to yesterday. My favorite highlight would have to be one of the many times that Robinson ran the ball... in particular when two defenders tried to tackle him out of bounds and they both ended up on the ground instead Robinson. If only I could get my hands on some tickets for next week... which I know will be next to impossible.

 

Anyway, the title of this blog is EXAMS so I should probably mention something about them. Does anyone else seem to have an exam just about every week from now til the end of the semester. I had chem this past week, calc tomorrow, physics next monday, will it ever end? I should really start working a little harder in chem, since I got a 64 on my first exam. I know I have always been below average in chem, but 11% below average is a little rough. Well, I should probably spend a good part of the rest of the day studying for calc, later.

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9/29/05 about 8pm

Enthymeme

This latest enthymeme, just said by my one friend a few seconds ago.

He was showing off his awesome new computer and saying how he can uber overclock it...

I asked why he can overclock it so much without frying it and he says

"because I have a big ass fan to keep it cool"

The hidden assumption in this enthymeme is that all big ass fans keep things cool. This is not necessarily true. A fan just circulates air, and if hot air is being circulated, it will just keep things hot.

End of Enthymeme

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9/27/05 about 8:30pm

How To

I just got done reading over the syllabus and stuff from monday and for tomorrow and I saw the assignment for a how to, so here it is.

 

How NOT to get scammed on eBay

A lot of people fear being scammed when buying items off of eBay, and rightly so, but not many people consider the samming possibilities when selling on eBay. The first step to selling safely on ebay is to assume every bid or question is coming from a scammer. Secondly, NEVER, except under extreme circumstances, accept under the table offers, i.e. people asking you to cancel your auction and saying they'll send you money in some way like a wire transfer or money order. I am not saying that money orders or wire transfers or not a suitable form of payment, if the proper procedures are followed, I'm just saying that these are what most scammers say they are going to use for payment. Beware of offers that seem too good to be true. If somone offers you $3000 for a piece of pocket lint, you should at least be a little skeptical. Watch for people offering to pay through money order or wire transfer, especially in an under the table offer. These are the most used methods that a scammer will propose to use. Beware of faulty e-mails. The way most people get scammed is by believing anything that they receive in email. There are several ways to identify false emails. First and foremost, check where the email is coming from. For example, one person who tried to scam me said they were going to send me a Bidpay money order and they informed me that for mutual safety, Bidpay would send me an email stating that they are holding the funds and are awaiting the receipt of a shipping tracking number that would confirm the item had been sent before the funds were released to me. This sounds reasonable, if real. The first thing that set me off in the "Confirmation of Payment" email that I later received was the address which it came from. "shippingconfirmation@accountant.com". It just so happens that I have a Bidpay account and any email I had ever received from Bidpay was always from an @bidpay.com address. The first place I always check for where the true source of this email was is www.mail.com. They offer several domains from which you can send your email, and it just happend to be that @accountant.com was one of them. At that moment I realized the scam, but there were also several other clues. At the bottom of the email was a picture of a signature, which still contained a like so when clicked on it took you to famoussignatures.com or something like that. Something that was also given to me at that time was the address to ship it to. It just happened to be some remote P.O. Box somewhere in Africa. If all of these signs combined aren't enough to shout scam in your face, there are still other resources, though they may take longer. Most webistes, like Bidpay, offer a free false email identification service. For Bidpay, it is spoofemail@bidpay.com. All you have to do is forward the suspicious email to them and they will get back to on on weather or not they indeed were the ones who sent the email. Never ship an item before you receive payment, even if they say they need to see the item first because they are afriad of a scam. A safe way to handle an uneasy buyer is through Escrow. You can visit their site at [https://www.escrow.com/index.asp] to read all of their policies and such and see for yourself why they are safe. Beware of buyers with 0 feedback who bid outrageous prices or use buy it now within the first three seconds of the auction. Some might even say they intend to use Paypal to pay, and then send you a spoof email saying that you received the money through Paypal. Use some common sense. Always check your accuont for recieved payment, never just go by email.

 

The moral of the how to is, don't believe everything you hear or take obvious bate.

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9/27/05 about 6:00pm

Week One

Week one of living without a computer is complete. It will be at most 1.5 weeks longer, I hope I can survive. This running over to the library just to check my email gets very annoying after awhile. I suppose it's not so bad as it seems. I actually spend quality time doing homework now rather than doing a part or two between aim messages. I like to read in my spare time and the amout of spare time I have has seemed to increase. I finished the last 1/3 of a 500 page book I was reading and read a complete 300 pager already. I need to take a trip to the book store to find something new to read. I realize I haven't posted in awhile so I'll make this one a little lengthier if I can. Now for something to argue about.

 

The purpose of a laptop computer was originally just to have something to get by with when away from a desktop computer. They would be taken on business trips to keep organized and have a central place to store information, or even on vacations to possibly get a little work done amongst the fun. Now, however, more and more people are moving away from desktops and using a laptop as their primary computer. Because of this, computer manufacturers are finding ways to fit more and more power into smaller and smaller containers. This new breed of "laptop" computers are no longer truely laptops. They are more correctly labled as mobile desktops. They are not something that you can just pull out of a bag anywhere and start up to do some quick computing on the fly. Mobile desktops are just what they sound like; a computer designed to sit on a desktop, but small enough to be easily moved from desk to desk. These mobile desktops, however convienient, pose a few problems. One problem is the heat. For those of you know do not know, heat is the nemesis of all computers. All of that power creats a lot of heat and contained in such a small area, that heat is difficult to dissipate. A second problem is the ability to upgrade. Most laptop or mobile desktop computers come with almost fully integrated components, and the parts that are not fully integrated are often difficult to get to and are very expensive to upgrade. These two problems set the foundation for the overall problem with mobile desktop computers, which is the life span. If the heat does not kill the computer, the components inside will soon be so out of date that they will be almost unbearable to use.

 

So, the moral of the story is, if you want power, get a desktop, if you want mobility, get a cheap laptop. Don't go for the inbetween stuff that is outrageously expensive and probably will not last you more than two, three years tops.

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9/21/05 about 3:00pm

DAMN ALIENWARE

Just got off the phone with Alienware customer service. It took so much will power not to tell the guy to fuck off when he asked me at the end of the conversation how I liked the service. Basically, there is no kind of compensation at all for them giving me basically a time bomb of a computer. They won't even accept a return without a 15% restocking fee, which is outrageous considering that basically, there will be nothing that they could restock out of this mess. So, I'm gonna be without a computer for 2.5 weeks... I'm thinking of moving in here... the Pollock computer lab... it's nice and roomy.. comfortable chairs... it has some ventilation problems, but all in all it's a good place.

The moral of the story is... When buying a computer, even the best of the best can fuck you over at times, so NEVER put full faith into a computer unless you have built it yourself... from scratch... which most likely will never occur... get the picture???

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9/20/05 about 7:30pm

OMFG

Ok.. my nerves are starting to calm down now that it's about 18 hours since the infamous event...

I was sitting at my computer, doing the usual, which includes playing games, listening to music, talking on aim, and whatever else I feel like doing. Then, suddenly, POOF!!!, the keyboard on my laptop starts billowing out smoke and the screen starts flickering. In less than a second, all was dark, just a faint fog of noxious fumes floating in the room. In the midst of shouting several curses that I was unaware were even in my vocabulary, I managed to unplug everything and remove the battery. I tried plugging it back in, but no power light came on like it was supposed to. I tried pushing the power button anyway, and just as I thought, nothing happend. By this time it's about 2:00am, but Alienware has a 24 hour tech support line, so I called. I waited on hold for about half an hour, and when someone finally picked up and I explained the situation, there was silence, and then a statement of "that doesn't sound good." So I'm thinking "no shit Sherlock," but before any words could get out of my mouth he starts telling me to do things that I had already tried. Remove the battery, remove the AC adapter, discharge any power left in the computer by holding the power button, and then he got to some random things that really were pointless. Reseat the RAM, unplug the hard drive, reseat the video card, none of which worked. Nothing happened to the computer that would have even made any of those things twitch an inch. It was just sitting there and it blew up in my face. They might have melted I suppose, or been fried on the inside, but they wouldn't have needed reseating. It turns out that I am going to have to mail the thing back to Florida for a "specialist" to look at. "It will only be about 3 days each way shipping and 12 days being worked on." So, I'm without a computer for about the next 2.5 weeks or so. Luckily there is this computer lab right next door to my dorm here in Pollock so I'll be able to keep up with this blog stuff as best as I can, and I can check my email and do other random things that I used to do without thinking. Unfortunatley, playing Guild Wars is completely out of the question, as well as working on my website, which I was finally making progress with. Well, now on to editing someone's definitional argument before I head back to the dorm.

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9/18/05 about 11:59pm

The Website

After much delay, I finally got my hands on a copy of Dreamweaver so I can finnally work on my website more avidly. It's actually starting to look like a website now. Amazing, I know. As of right now I'm still not really sure what i'm going to be writing that definitional argument paper on that is due about this time tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll pull something together. Can't really think of anything to argue over at the moment, so I'll just revert back to my typical Guild Wars vs. World of Warcraft argument.

One of the features of World of Warcraft that makes people scorn Guild Wars for not having it is the whole jumping thing. In Guild Wars, there is no jumping, but I don't see how that takes away from the experience at all, but if you're willing to pay $20 a month just to be able to jump, that's fine by me. All it does is add things like being able to commit suicide by jumping off cliffs and helps you cheat by impossibly jumping over your enemies.

Ok, enough Guild Wars rambling for today, see you in class tomorrow.

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9/15/05 about 10:00pm

What to do...

After talking with a few classmates through IM, I still have no idea as to where I'm going with a final project. I must continue the search for people with similar interests. The reading about comics was rather interesting in my opinion. I never was much of a comic reader and never realy thought that much into it. I do read some manga, and I guess that is a comic going by the definition that was given in the reading. And is it just me, or would college be so much better without the classes? Or at least the mandatory freshmen classes. I've used most of my young life getting a mandatory well rounded education, only to pay for one here. I know there are people who agree with me on this, as well as people who disagree. If I get any kind of response from this, I'll be sure to post on it more in the future. Oh yeah, and if you're wondering, or if you even noticed, I removed individual article list page. It was fun at first, just to play around with the wiki stuff, but now that classes have all settled in and I have more hours of homework in a day than I typically had in a month in high school, I have decided that it's a useless waste of my time that can easily be gotten back. Every moment counts. If there are any of you out there who avidly read my stuff and want an individual article list back, just let me know and I'll do my best to keep it updated.

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9/12/05 about 11:45pm

Debate vs. Dialogue

Debate and dialogue can be both similar and different, but to get a full understanding, a definition is needed. For my purposes, a debate is an organized verbal confrontation between two individuals or groups in which the participants of try to convince an outside, uninvovled group, to come to accept their opinion as their own. A dialogue is more of a conversation than a confrontation and the point is typically to convince the person who is being spoken to accept your opinion. Simply by the definition, it can be seen that there are differences and similarities. One difference is the audience. The audience in the debate is a third, typically undecided party who listens to both sides of the debate and ultimately will decide which side they agree with. In a dialogue, the audience is the individual who already has a conflicting view to your own and is trying to convince you as much as you are him. Also, the idea of a converstaion instead of a confrontation comes into play. In dialogue, people try to get someone with a different opinion from themselves to come to their side so they converse with the oposition. Debates are almost a competitive sport to try to see who can win the most support for their position. The key similarity between them though is the fact that both invovle making a claim and supporting it against an oposing viewpoint in order to convince an audience that you indeed are right. That similarity is basically the definition of an argument, therefore both a debate and a dialogue can be considered a form of argument.

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9/11/05 about 11:59pm

CLEMS!!!

 

Today was most definitely an awesome day here in Pennsylvania as the Steelers slaughtered the Titans 34-7. It was an early morning this morning, including a run out to Clems with some friends for some awesome ribs and wings to bring back to eat while watching the game. Nothing can beat Clem's ribs, or wings, or any food they offer for that matter. I've known vegetarians to convert after a mere wif of the deluctable dishes they offer. Maybe that's a bit of an exageration, but a very small bit. Everyone in the car was ready to get out and dig in by the time we got back on campus. Perhaps one of the most trying challeges known to man is resiting barbeque from Clems. Anway, I didn't end up watching much of the game. I realized I had a bunch of homework to do and decided to go work on that so that I could go out to the movies later instead.

 

In response to the prompt in the syllabus, it may seem odd for a document to be literally true AND subject to contradicting interpretations, but it happens fairly easily. All it takes is a different viewpoint, or a different audience to make a contradicting interpretation. The example of the Bible is a very good example of this. The Book has been rewritten so many times in history that there are now several widely accepted versions and people make new revisions or interpretations every day, even if they are only mental changes. The Bible could be literally translated and still get the point accross, but there is also a lot to read into. Jesus's use of the parable, for example, can be taken as literal truth, but to get the full meaning, an interpretation is needed. Even the Constitution of the United States is considered to be literally true by some and subject to sometimes contradicting interpretations. In fact, the Governement even has an entire branch dedicated to interpreting the Constitiution. Sometimes parts are taken word for word and othertimes it seems like a fairly far stretch to being connected at all.

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9/8/05 about 11:59pm

Readers as Writers

 

Having the audience become writers would be of great benefit to the people by making news content more accurate. Every form of news media is in someway biased. Except Fox News of course, they are the most unbiased souce of media ever... (cough.. cough..). Anyway, if ANYONE is allowed to post their view on a story, people will be able to see all the angles, and not just be stuck agreeing with whatever news company happens to be dominating their geographical area. There could be drawbacks such as people who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about, or people who are simply completely out of their minds, being allowed to write, since they are a part of the all inclusive group of everyone as well, but even seeing the ideas of the insane can be a refreshing break to read after a long time looking at articles on weighty and serious topics.

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9/8/05 about 3:00pm

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

Today is my little brother's 7th birthday. He's the coolest little kid I know. If any of you want to argue that point, I can argue you into the ground, so go ahead and leave a comment in my comments area if you're up for the challege.

Other than that, I'm running a little dry on arguments right now and I had better get to class.

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9/5/05 about 5:45pm

GO STATE

After putting up my post for today, I realized that my post from Satuday seems not to have been saved on the server for some reason. Oh well, I guess it's a good thing that I keep these things saved on my computer. Here's what it was -

 

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9/5/05 about 5:30pm

GUILD WARS

Back in my one post on the 31st, I had stated that Guild Wars is so much more awesome than World of Warcraft. I have decided that I will begin defending in this post. First and foremost, and what every college student can appreciate, is the money factor. Though both have the same base price of about $55, Guild Wars is absolutely free other than that, not including cost of the internet or computer. World of Warcraft requires a monthly fee to keep your account. I will now quote Bilzzard's excuse for having this fee.

 

 

This "small montly fee" really is not that small at all. The cheapest possible price per month is $12.99 from Blizzard, and you can only get that price if pay for a 6 month subscription. You can do the math I am sure, that adds up to to about $78. That's almost 150% of the cost to buy the game initially. Also, all of the reasons for the fee above are somehow managed to be done for free by the Guild Wars team. On Wednesday, Guild Wars is even adding an entirely new section of map to explore, FOR FREE.

 

I will continue this argument further in future posts, which I will try to limit to one per week so as not to bore those of you out there who truely don't care about why Guild Wars is so much more awesome than World of Warcraft.

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9/1/05 about 9:00PM

BANDWIDTH

Yesterday being Wednesday, I had to go through my weekly routine of a midnight download of the latest episode of Naruto. For those of you into anime, I would highly recommend it, and for those of you not into anime, I would highly recomend getting into anime. Anyway, I downloaded it off of bittorrent, and yes, it is legal since it is not yet licenced. After downloading it, I watched it, then went to bed. I woke up this morning and looked at my computer and realized something. I NEVER SHUT OFF BITTORRENT LAST NIGHT!! For those of you who don't know what that means, that means that anyone in the would could take advantage of our very nice high speed connection here at PSU and have me upload the file to them. As you all should know, there is a weekly bandwidth limit here at PSU of 1.5gb upload and 1.5gb download. Bittorent measures sharing in percentages and I had a share percentage of 2084% for a 170mb file. To do the math for you, that means I basically doubled the amount of upload bandwidth that is alloted per student here for a week. So, I already have my first bandwidth violation of the year and am reduced to 56k speeds for the rest of the week. It's been so long since I've been on 56k, I forgot how long it takes to load pages. Pages that I am used to loading instantly take so long to load now that I can click the link, then go get a shower and come back and it will just be getting finished loading. VERY annoying. Oh well, that will most definitely teach me not to be forgetfull in the future.

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8/31/05 about 9:00PM

HTML TEST!!!!

Once I inserted the suggested code for the Creative Commons License, I thought, "hey, html must work in here," so I began playing with my very slim html skills and this was the result.

RED

ORANGE

YELLOW

GREEN

BLUE

INDIGO

VIOLET

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8/31/05 about 2:00PM

UPDATE

Now that I have had class and understand that this blog will be graded, I will make sure to make this blog a priority.

I'm liking this Wiki system so far. I can make as many pages as I want just by making words with two capital letters,

like this RanDom page.

 

As far as my handle, my one friend started writing a book back in high school and the antagonist was named Valdius Laniset. I liked the name so started using it and forms of it for most of my internet and game handles. For those of you who like internet games, particularly MMORPG's like Guild Wars, let me know your handle and I'll look you up. If you don't want to tell me who you are, you can look me up. I'm sure you can guess my handle if you've read anything I've said. For those of you crappy WoW people, you know who you are, I DO NOT PLAY and don't ever intend to. I tried it once with a friends pass and found that it was definitley not worth the monthly fee when Guild Wars has no monthly fee AND, in my opinion, is better. My reasons for this opinion will be explained in future posts.

 

If anyone happens to notice a way to put a time or date stamp on the blog (other than just typing it in like I have) please let me know

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8/31/05 about 9:00AM

YAY!!

Another blog that I will probably not keep up with....

 

• but playing with Wiki Editing Tips is fun

 

 

 

I get it now...

 

you can go visit my friends and my website if you would like

there isn't much there now because it was just started recently and the penn state store seems to be out of dreamweaver

so right now it's just a random template from an old site

MY WEB SITE

admire the awesome snowflake favicon... at least it's supposed to look like a snowflake..

I'm no artist so that took me about two hours just to draw so it looked right

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.