ShinyPlasticBag

ChicagoFan, you're my god. Behold the funniest thing ever.

(Context: Someone made a cool computer case with a spider motif, it got slashdotted, and the server went down.)

Oh, my sides hurt.

• Written on 30 September 2003 & posted at 10:53 PM.
• There are 1 comments.
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Trust us to get hit by the girliest sounding hurricane ever. Hurricane Juan rolled into Nova Scotia late Sunday night, and ripped the bejesus out of just about everything. Although our house is unscathed, other people were less fortunate — two people were killed when trees fell on their vehicles, including an ambulance driver. Mary Ann's car was hit by a tree, although it lived, and quite a few houses and cars near me got smacked with trees. Lawrencetown beach is also a mess, since most of the sand is gone and the sanddunes have been cropped. And 80,000 people are still without electricity.

You can see a photo gallery that I have put together, or one that the CBC has provided.

• Written on 30 September 2003 & posted at 12:29 PM.
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First of all, let me apologize to the outside world for the Linkpool outtage. However, we were hit by a hurricane, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do to stop that (although I tried).

Secondly, there appears to be a spam company harvesting email addresses from Linkpool posters. So, if you don't have a web address, you can just leave the email field blank. However, I have modified the feed so that email addresses are shown in the form “bob at bob dot com” — that should screw up the harvesters a bit. It's your call.

Incoming hurricane entry.

• Written on 30 September 2003 & posted at 12:19 PM.
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The trailer for this looks pretty cool, and I thought I would share. It's a real bitch to download Quicktime movies when they don't want you to.

• Written on 26 September 2003 & posted at 09:29 PM.
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• Written on 26 September 2003 & posted at 06:19 PM.
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Nobody likes Apple. It's a fact. You either despise them for forcing watered-down, aesthetics-come-first systems on their users, or you applaud them for making digital life so easy and beautiful. There is not a single person on the face of the planet that just likes them.

Continue reading “Nobody Likes Apple.”...

• Written on 24 September 2003 & posted at 10:55 AM.
• There are 21 comments.
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Not much to report, because I've been living-breathing-sleeping-eating code for the last few days — a trend that will continue through the week. I saw Underworld last night, though, and it was cool. Worth a see, although maybe in rental form only. Very cool concept, not-quite-perfect execution.

It's fall! It's fall! It's fall! It's fall! It's fall!

• Written on 22 September 2003 & posted at 02:35 PM.
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First of all, l-values can eat my ass, and second of all, where were you, little * unary operator, when I needed you?

(Stressed)

• Written on 20 September 2003 & posted at 09:20 PM.
• There are 3 comments.
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Did you know that Wesley Willis, the strange, schizophrenic signer that ranted about Alanis Morisette once upon a time, died on August 21st? Why didn't I hear about this?

• Written on 20 September 2003 & posted at 03:07 PM.
• There are 6 comments.
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Here's an interesting email I just received.

From: Barrister Al Mohammed El Said
Subject: Private

Continue reading “Private”...

• Written on 18 September 2003 & posted at 10:21 PM.
• There are 11 comments.
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Happy birthday, Mary Ann. Just thought I'd humilitate you with a blast from the past. This photo was taken on January 15th, 2001. Booya.

• Written on 18 September 2003 & posted at 02:48 PM.
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There's a new CD. It's so retro.

Continue reading “So Four Years Ago”...

• Written on 18 September 2003 & posted at 02:46 PM.
• There are 2 comments.
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For some reason, the makers of the projectors in the CS auditorium decided that, when there was no input, it would display the image shown above. I find it ironic that, due to the text, it is no longer a truly black screen.

• Written on 17 September 2003 & posted at 03:54 PM.
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Hooray for everything, because my wireless network card finally works! I'm currently connected wirelessly in the CS building. Sure, I could plug in and have a 100 MBit connection, but it's so much more fun to be wireless at 5.5. It's actually surprisingly fast. Anyway, at least I don't have to carry around my excessively long network cable anymore. The only one that has survived life in my bookbag is 25 feet long — a little excessive when you're right next to the plug in a classroom.

In other news, check out Skype, download it, and look me up (shinyplasticbag is my username). It's a voice over IP client by the creators of KaZaa, and the quality is wicked. As you might expect, it's totally peer-to-peer based, so every extra user actually increases the performance of the network. I had phone sex with — I mean, I talked — Taylor last night over it. Better than a telephone, and infinitely cheaper, too. By the way, does anyone else think Taylor's last name sounds made-up?

• Written on 16 September 2003 & posted at 01:28 PM.
• There are 8 comments.
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I really love my ISP. No, seriously. Look at this helpful message I got from them. Context and message history clipped for breviety:

“Unfortunately if this is the case then we will continue to be a problem ... Sorry for the inconvenience.”
- Charlie, Eastlink Technical Support

• Written on 15 September 2003 & posted at 12:35 PM.
• There are 3 comments.
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Arg. Today was unceremoniously shitty. Work usually sucks, for starters — I've been doing data entry for so long that it's starting to melt my brain. Seriously. It's starting to seep out of my ears while I work.

Plus, I'm sick. Not death-bed sick or anything, or perverse sick — although I am, indeed, that. Just sort of a bug of some sort. It's mainly temperature based — I'm really, really hot, but shivering at the same time. It sucks.

The bus ride home was especially crap. I had to leave work early because the bus came 15 minutes before I was off, and I couldn't stand to wait around for the better part of an hour to catch the next bus. The MacDonald bridge was closed, so it took an uber circuitous route to get to the bridge terminal. From there, I had to get the 58 to Penhorn Mall. The 59 didn't come for half an hour, so I started to walk, and I caught the 59 at the bottom of the hill on Portland Street. The bus driver lady bitched me out for not waiting at the mall to catch the bus — what does it matter? Anyway, after two hours of transport, I finally arrived home and collapsed. I've done my night's quota of work on my CS assignment, and I'm ready for sleep.

Anyway, does anyone else find it ironic that by the time you're a sexagenarian, you're usually too old to be having sex?

• Written on 14 September 2003 & posted at 07:43 PM.
• There are 10 comments.
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Two problems with Linkpool became apparent tonight:
1) Some people think you're supposed to enter your email address AND your web address in the add form.
2) There's nothing stopping people from posting as Mark, when they are not me.

Solution 1) Change the / to “or” so people don't get confused.
Solution 2) Make it impossible to post with the name Mark. I'll have to find a way to authenticate myself easily.

I realize the second one is a bit selfish. However, I like to be distinct. This is what you get from such an informal form, I guess. :) I'm still loving having all them links pour in.

• Written on 12 September 2003 & posted at 09:24 PM.
• There are 6 comments.
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• Written on 12 September 2003 & posted at 03:52 PM.
• There are 6 comments.
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It's really hard to take down notes on algorithms using a keyboard. So many wonky symbols. Word should come with some AutoCorrect things in there by default — you type something easy to remember (for example, omega()) and get the actual symbols.

• Written on 12 September 2003 & posted at 02:48 PM.
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Ye gods, Johnny Cash is dead. I can't believe it — I wasn't a fan of his music, but he's still a legend. The double-whammy factor comes into play with the news that John Ritter is dead too. I can't really think of anything he did that I liked, but still, it's a bit surprising. I guess this is the week for people named John to die — look out, Goldsworthy.

Moving into more inconsequential news, Tony has fixed my server problems once and for all. My network was a clumsy setup before — a dedicated gateway did the Internet connection sharing, and another machine did the web serving. Howver, it led to lots of problems, such as me be unable to FTP from outside the local network, and not being able to get the IP addresses of visitors. An earlier attempt to fix things made it worse, because I couldn't hit ShinyPlasticBag.com from inside the network.

Anyway...Murray is gone. Goodbye, old friend. You were a faithful gateway for two years. Have fun living at John's house.

• Written on 12 September 2003 & posted at 12:33 PM.
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I have finally made a web site that validates with the W3C XHTML Validator. I used XHTML Strict for the doctype, so, of course, most of the error were utterly inane. However, it works. Wee!

What do you think?

• Written on 10 September 2003 & posted at 04:22 PM.
• There are 9 comments.
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Nothing much to say today. Life is pretty uneventful, barring a few other people adding Linkpool to their sites. I got the hoopla with my Dalhousie login all sorted out, and I am now (technically) on the wireless network. However, I haven't successfully connected yet, because I haven't been in a place with reception today. I am currently wired. But it's cool to know I can sit outside and browse the Internet when I want to.

I'm working on a new site layout. Two, in fact — I think I might include a layout switcher. One of them looks exactly like this layout, the other one is totally different. However, both are written in uber-picky strict XHTML, as opposed to the rather lenient transitional HTML 4.01 this layout is in. All of the styling is done through CSS, so both layouts work with one HTML file. This'll make it really easy for me to update my site layout in the future. Nucleus doesn't make anything easy, so circumventing it will help.

It's 11:25 am. I have to go over to the hospital soon to pick up Mom's papers. So, I'm out.

By the way, does anyone think NFSW (Not Safe For Work) links in the Linkpool should be flagged in red? I realize some people's layouts would conflict with this...red would be the default, and it could be changeable. What do you think?

• Written on 10 September 2003 & posted at 11:27 AM.
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ARG. I really, really hate Dalhousie sometimes. For two reasons.

First of all, the email address I have for my communications TA is wrong, and I can't find the correct one. All of the hand-outs and online resources list an address that is getting rejected by the mail server. I have an assignment due tomorrow morning that has to be sent to him.

Secondly, I want to get on the new wireless network. To do this, you have download software...from a secure area. Alright, a bit anal, but not too bad. However, you have to log in using your university email account. Any CS user worth their weight in bits doesn't touch that crap, and we're actually the only faculty allowed to use our own email addresses for official communication. Why they don't work there is beyond me. However, I managed to remember my username and password for it successfully. The catch? The username and password let me into the mail server through telnet. They don't, however, let me in through a normal email client, or web mail, or the secure download area. I even changed the password in the interest of it working — no luck.

This is so stupid.

• Written on 08 September 2003 & posted at 10:04 PM.
• There are 22 comments.
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“The mind is fully capable of holding two contradictory ideas at once. Religious fundamentalists do it all the time.”

KFG via Slashdot.

• Written on 08 September 2003 & posted at 02:25 PM.
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Ugh. Working. Almost done, though.

My first two days of school were largely uneventful. I have Communications with Tony on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it's going to be kinda...not interesting. However, my class on operating systems will be very cool in an uber-geeky way. We learn about processes and threading, multitasking and virtual memory...all that fun stuff.

Anyway, Simon moves out tonight. It's gonna be weird to not have him in the house, but at least he's got a roommate that he likes. Soopah cool. And now I will have a place to crash in Halifax if I ever get mugged downtown. :)

Johnny English was great. And Treasure Planet looks great too.

• Written on 06 September 2003 & posted at 03:13 PM.
• There are 17 comments.
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Must forward all Dalhousie mail to an appropriate account.

• Written on 05 September 2003 & posted at 03:59 PM.
• There are 6 comments.
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Linkpool might be available, but development continues. Here's what's been added since launch, with the newest things first:

• [html-rss] Added option to put the items in an XHTML-compliant unordered list. Customizable through CSS via the linkpool_items class. Off by default.
• [html-rss] Rewrote showSidebar function for those including the sidebar via PHP. It's more reliable, ie, it actually works for everyone now.
• [html-rss] Added options to show or hide the header, footer, and name of poster. The header and footer could be hidden through CSS, but this saves wasted code. Please make sure you have a link back to Linkpool no matter what, though.

Also, I thought I'd point out that it's expected you include a link to the add form or Linkpool bookmarklet. I mean, you don't have to, but it sure makes adding links easier for everyone.

• Written on 04 September 2003 & posted at 04:05 PM.
• There are 7 comments.
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Tonight was simply unbelievable for the sheer absurdity of it — definitely a night to remember, and one hell of a bang with which to end my summer.

Mike lost his cell phone at Burger King this evening. I met up with him and few others in the interest of going out for coffee, and around then he realized he had lost the cell. So we called it and were pleased to find that someone had found it, in the Burger King washroom.

All was well up to this point — I know people who have lost cell phones before, and people are usually quite good about it. However, when Mike asked if he would be able to meet her to pick it up, she started asking weird questions: how old is it? How much did it cost? What's it worth to you to get it back?

She told him that she would only give it back if he gave her $50. Mike is poor, and besides, this is insane. She held firm, so he said he would try to find the money and call her back. At this point, we all decided that it was valid extortion and called the police officer.

I, like most people, am not a fan of cops. However, I was pleasantly surprised tonight, because an undercover officer showed up and talked to Mike. And set up a sting. Mike arranged for the woman to meet him at a grocery store, and the hijinx started. As soon as Mike handed her over the money (which actually belonged to Ashley), officer Don came over and told her she was committing extortion — and the games began. She refused the give Mike the cell phone or the money, and wouldn't give her name to the officer. When he asked for id, she refused, all the while causing quite a scene. So, the cop called for backup.

Enter police car #2 (really, police car #1, since the first one was unmarked). This guy did some background checks, since they apparently recognized her.

Soon, some of her friends showed up and started making things more rowdy. Enter police car #3 (really, police vehicle #3, since it was a paddy wagon). Fortunately, things never picked up and they disappeared. About an hour later, Mike finally had his cell phone and Ashley's money, and unfortunately, the cops all disappeared during a bathroom break. We don't know if she got arrested or not. Officer Don pointed out that he could arrest her for a) extortion b) possession of stolen goods c) witholding information and d) obstruction of justice. I wonder what happened.

The most hilarious part? She maintained that she was being a good samaritan by giving him back his phone. She could have just smashed it.

• Written on 04 September 2003 & posted at 12:40 AM.
• There are 24 comments.
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I'm at work. Working. I thought I'd take a break, though, to relate a few things that are on my mind.

If you recall the drama that was the Elizabeth Smart incident (as if you could forget), you know that much of the story played out in Utah, a land of dry, barren plains. It should come as no surprise to you, then, that the made-for-TV movie about it is being filmed here in Halifax, best known for it's wet, snowy hills. I can't imagine a more appropriate location. My god, it must be really cheap to make movies here.

Second, there are way too many people raising money with Shinerama this year. It's just extreme — they're supposed to stick to Halifax. Dartmouth is a Shinerama-free zone. I noticed them all over the place on the bus ride to work this afternoon, most of which was spent next to a greasy old man. He didn't follow bus etiquette and move, even after the packed bus had practically emptied out. I would have moved, but he was blocking me in, and I didn't really want to interact with him.

Finally, somebody should find a copy of “Son of Sam” by Elliot Smith, because I want it and I can't pirate music at work. It's from Antitrust, and it's pretty good.

• Written on 02 September 2003 & posted at 07:06 PM.
• There are 12 comments.
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I am uber-happy to announce that the global Linkpool has been launched. Taylor and I worked our asses off on this one, so you better like it. :) Go to the site to get information about it and all the code you need to put it into your site with a minimum of muss and/or fuss.

The bad news is that Tony can't get the authentication setup for the administration area, so that's offline for the time being. Nothing is perfect.

Anyway, check out Linkpool and let me know what you think. Especially the bookmarklet — very cool. My sidebar is pretty barren, so start adding links!

• Written on 02 September 2003 & posted at 01:41 AM.
• There are 14 comments.
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