After searching far and wide, I finally found ringtones for my phone. I can't download with my phone, and I don't want to pay for the tones, so this site, which has "sheet music" fit the bill. Then I used this converter to convert the notes into the format for my phone. Now whenever I receive a call, it will be obvious that I'm a total geek, because the Imperial March from Star Wars will eminate from my pocket. I can tone down the geekiness, though, with The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army."
After watching some really crappy TV, I decided there were better ways to spend a Friday night. So I cleaned the kitchen and bathroom. It was everything I thought it would be. Saturday night -- well, technically Sunday morning, but the sun hadn't set -- I went with some friends to a local golf course and we whacked a few balls down the driving range. Most of mine didn't make it very far, but they did go quite a distance to the right or left. I have quite a bit more respect for professional golfers now. Although I really wasn't very good, it was fun nonetheless, except for the mosquitoes. I think I may have lost a pint or two of blood.
Just downloaded iChat AV. I was going to check out the audio portion because I don't have an iSight. Then I realized that the MiniDV camera sitting on my desk has a Firewire output, so I hooked it up and tested it out. There were a couple of quirks -- for instance, I had to use the microphone on the video camera, not my computer's internal mic -- but it was pretty neat, nonetheless. I wonder, if I use the firewire out on the camera, and then use it to play a pre-recorded tape... The porn industry is going to have a field day with this.
The New York Times is running an article (free reg. required) about metrosexuals: "straight urban men willing, even eager, to embrace their feminine sides." The story mentions the marketing aspect of this emerging group of consumers.
A friend left town for a couple weeks, and is lending me his vehicle. I didn't think having a vehicle would change things much, but I was wrong. I've been driving to school and work instead of biking, like normal. The distance is the same, it's not the weather has been bad, but having access to a vehicle makes me want to use it. Maybe it's a short-term effect: The novelty of driving will wear off eventually, right? I don't have an inherent problem with driving, per se, but cycling was perfectly acceptable last week but my bike hasn't been unlocked in a few days.
I'm glad I didn't choose computer science as a major, but I'm also glad I took the first few courses. I needed to write some javascript this week, but had never used it. Fortunately, I have a basic understanding of loops and functions and all that jazz, so learning the new syntax wasn't too bad and my script works great, although there might be more efficient ways to do it.
I'm working on a new web site for KSUA, which you'll notice needs some work. The javascript I wrote figures out what time it is and displays what show is currently on air. What stumped me for a while, is that the javascript Date() function is based on the user's local time, but I needed it to be based on Alaska time so the correct show would be displayed. Feel free to check out the script. If you have any suggestions let me know.
According to this Rolling Stone article Apple is courting independent labels to add material to the iTunes Music Store. It sounds like the labels, at least Sub-Pop anyway, are in.
Here in Fairbanks, we have two seasons: Winter and Summer. Winter is cold and dark, summer is warm and bright. In the winter, everyone feels tired all the time because not enough sunlight gets into their eyes so our bodies have an excess of melatonin, making us sleepy. In the Summer, we get plenty of sunlight, so we stay up for more hours of the day, which means we don't get enough sleep, which makes us sleepy. Isn't Fairbanks great?
After work yesterday I went to the rack where my bike was locked. I unlocked my U-Lock and put it away like I always do. When I tried to pull my bike from the rack, though, there was another lock attaching my frame to the bike rack. I went to the campus police department and they brought a pair of bolt cutters to get the other lock off, and I was able to pedal down the street for some homemade ice cream.
The officer who helped me out mentioned somepeople will attach a lock to a bike that isn't theirs and then ask the police to cut the owner's lock, only to pedal away on a free bike. Now that I'm aware of this kind of thing, I'm going to have my bike entered in the police registry so that if it does get stolen, I'll have a better chance of getting it back. The officer also said that they have a bunch of bikes just sitting around because they can't track down the owners.
Well, my touchpad is working again. I guess it just needed some time to cool off. I'm also shutting down my computer while in transit, just to be safe. It's not too much of a pain, but I'd prefer to be able to put it to sleep and not worry about it. So much for that.
I updated the running total (at right). I missed (skipped) a week but now I'm back on track. I think I'm getting a bit faster. The 3.5-mile route that used to take me about 36 minutes is now taking about 33. Not a huge improvement, but it's still nice to see some progress.
So that heat problem I mentioned a couple posts ago may be a little less benign than I thought. After coming home today, my computer was on and the fan was running full throttle. I opened the screen and instead of being dark, as usual, it was on, and showed the kernel panic screen. I shut down and restarted expecting to be able to work as normal, which is how it has happened in the past.
Today, however, was different (as you probably guessed, or why would I be writing about it). The machine started up as usual, but the cursor wouldn't respond to any input from the touchpad. Fortunately, I've got an external mouse so I'm not completely SOL, but it means I've got to carry around a mouse with me when I take my computer. I think this is the last time I'll buy anything refurbished.
I got iSync to recognize my Palm. I reinstalled iSync and the Palm Conduit. That's it. I don't know why it didn't work the first time, but it works this time. Whatever.
Sometimes my Powerbook wakes up from sleep while It's in my messenger bag. My guess is that it gets jostled and one of the keys gets pressed so it wakes up. The problem with this is that I don't know about it until I finally take it out of the bag. Sometimes it's an hour or more before I get to it. When I finally do, the titanium case is really hot, and it basically dies. It's not asleep (the sleep indicator is off and the fan is running), but it's not running either. The screen is dark and hitting keys has no effect. I use a pen to press the restart button and then boot it up again so the fan will run and cool it off. This isn't really much of a big deal, but the other night I had a dream that it got so hot while in my bag, it caught all of my homework on fire. It was pretty wierd.
When I don't know how to do something, I follow the directions. When I follow the directions, I expect the result to be what I'm trying to accomplish. However, getting iSync to synchronize with my Palm III just isn't working. I've followed the directions, I've got all the right versions of software, but the Palm option just doesn't show up in iSync. I don't know why.
Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a story about Bush's big tax break. Actually, it was about state governments raising taxes, effectively negating Bush's big tax break. Here in Alaska, we have no state income tax, but we do have "sin" taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. The state is in the same situation as many others, our expenditures are exceeding our incomes. Some of the proposed solutions include a statewide sales tax, but some cities already have one; developing a lottery, but that's gambling and it's wrong; cutting back on our permanent fund dividends, but that'll never happen, because it would require a vote of the people, and most people are in favor of receiving a $1,000+ check every year just for living here.
Frankly, the lottery seems like a good idea. There was a big outcry about how gambling is so bad and will ruin lives, but Alaska has the highest level of alcoholism per capita, but they're not taking away our forties. It would generate millions of dollars for the state and ticket sales would also benefit non-profit organizations (a portion of sales from pull-tabs, Alaska's only current form of legalized gambling, go to non-profit organizations and the proposed lottery legislation would have continued this practice).
Watched Sneakers last night for the first time in a while. Most computer movies are boring, because people sitting at a keyboard isn't very exciting, but Sneakers has a great balance of geekiness and action, as well as solid characters and actors to portray them.
My roommate and I finally beat the main story in GTA: Vice City. The last mansion mission took us a while, but we finally overcame. We checked our completion rate, which is only at 50%, so we have a ways to go.
Here it is.
The CSS validates with no errors. XHTML Validation is hung up because of a link to an Amazon.com page. Since the offending piece is inside the href= attribute, and there's no other way to link to an Amazon product page, I've claimed XHTML validation anyway (is that wrong?). The archive pages don't validate because of the format of the posts. I wasn't using proper XHTML tags back then, but I am now. Unfortunately, Blogger templates apply to the index page and all of the archive pages, so I can't really remove the badge from those pages.
Went to the Optometrist today. Ordered a new pair of glasses. They should be here in 5-7 days. I also dropped off some film for processing. The pictures were taken in January. It's going to be a surprise to see what's on the roll of film. I'm looking forward to picking up my slides in a day or two.
