At UM
Friday, August 29, 2003
I'm at the University in my brother's room. My parents are shopping and my brother is out and about.
100 Greatest Guitarist – Not Necessarily in Order
Thursday, August 28, 2003
RollingStone's list of the 100 greastest guitarists is way off. Jack White (White Stripes) was ranked higher than John Frusciante and Frank Zappa. Maybe it's just my opinion, but more likely it was some stupid rating system that failed. At least they got first place right.
Brother Off to College
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Tomorrow I am leaving to drop my brother off at the University of Maryland. He is checking in Friday. Packing was postponed until today, so it's quite hectic here.
Mandrake
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Today I installed Mandrake.
10:00
Friday, August 22, 2003
Holy crap: it's 10:00! Current song: The Beatles – I'm Only Sleeping.
School Schedule
Thursday, August 21, 2003
| Period | Day 1 | Day 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pre-Calculus Honors Spector, Laurie N137 |
Pre-Calculus Honors Spector, Laurie N137 |
| 2 | AP English Language Skinner, James N200A |
AP English Language Skinner, James N200A |
| 3 | American Literature Honors O'Connell, Aileen S115 |
American Literature Honors O'Connell, Aileen S115 |
| 4 | Lunch | Lunch |
| 5 | AP US History Kalner, Gavin N127 |
AP US History Kalner, Gavin N127 |
| 6 | Spanish 4 Honors Grossman, Shelly S207 |
Spanish 4 Honors Grossman, Shelly S207 |
| 7 | AP Computer Science Kelly, Eileen N209 |
AP Computer Science Kelly, Eileen N209 |
| 8 | AP Physics B Lab Wolfson, Daniel N230 |
Gym |
| 9 | AP Physics B Wolfson, Daniel N230 |
AP Physics B Wolfson, Daniel N230 |
| Period | Day 1 | Day 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pre-Calculus Honors Spector, Laurie N137 |
Pre-Calculus Honors Spector, Laurie N137 |
| 2 | Photography 3 Nigro, Nanci S126 |
Photography 3 Nigro, Nanci S126 |
| 3 | American Literature Honors O'Connell, Aileen S115 |
American Literature Honors O'Connell, Aileen S115 |
| 4 | Lunch | Lunch |
| 5 | AP US History Kalner, Gavin N127 |
AP US History Kalner, Gavin N127 |
| 6 | Spanish 4 Honors Grossman, Shelly S207 |
Spanish 4 Honors Grossman, Shelly S207 |
| 7 | AP Computer Science Kelly, Eileen N209 |
AP Computer Science Kelly, Eileen N209 |
| 8 | AP Physics B Lab Wolfson, Daniel N230 |
Gym |
| 9 | AP Physics B Wolfson, Daniel N230 |
AP Physics B Wolfson, Daniel N230 |
The Red Badge of Courage
Monday, August 18, 2003
I finished The Red Badge of Courage last night. It was a good book, but unfortunately I had the version that was “targeted toward a high school curriculum.” In other words, it was targeted towards retards. Words that are not meant to be emphasized were outline-highlighted as vocabulary words, so one couldn't help but stress the word. Also, there were summaries at the bottom of every page and Fast-Forward/Rewind features. Why couldn't they make such editions for crappy books, when you would want to skip the writing and just absorb plot?
Block Windows NT/2000/XP Spam
Monday, August 18, 2003
There's a new and annoying form of spam that relies on Windows NT's built-in direct IP messenger service. These messages, which appear as regular Windows message-and-OK-button dialogs, are not a security threat, although their root cause—open ports—can be. This solution only prevents the messages from reaching you— it does not actually stop the problem at its source.
To prevent this, first of all you should install a firewall such as ZoneAlarm, but since this will not completely fix the problem, just follow these simple directions. Before you continue, make sure you have administrative access.
- Control Panel
- Administrative Tools
- Services
- Messenger
- Stop Service
- Properties
- Startup type: Manual
These instructions were written based on Windows 2000, but other operating systems should be similar.
By turning of the messenger, you are stopping a program that has ligitimate purposes, but since most people do not use it, it is probably best to turn it off.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Saturday, August 16, 2003
After reading up on The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything I have decided to read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. This book has been recommended to me before, but I never actually bothered or remembered to read it. After playing around with Google calculator I was reminded of the book.
Google Calculator
Saturday, August 16, 2003
Google now acts as a calculator. Aside from actually calculating math problems, it includes some bizarre constants.
- pi * the speed of light / c + the answer to life, the universe, and everything
- teaspoon in cubic light years
- milliliter in cc
- four hundred times eighty-two
Power Outage
Friday, August 15, 2003
Well, most people know by now that the northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada have experienced a major blackout. Approximately fifty million people lost electricity yesterday afternoon and many still do not have it. This has become a major world news story, so you can read about it elsewhere (such as Wikipedia.) I will instead give you a personal account.
Yesterday around 4:15 I was at work typing up a document when the power went out. Somebody immediately called the NYCTA on a cellphone to notify them of the problem, when they stated thaty they too had no power. At this point a battery-operated radio was turned on and the story was heard. People began speculating all sorts of things ranging from “those Arabs are behind this” to a two-and-a-half-year-delayed Y2K bug.
I got to my mother's workplace around five o'clock by the ever-so-dangerous method of transportation of the automobile without traffic direction. I learned a traffic law that to me appeared to be common sense, but many drivers do not realize: in the event of a traffic light not functioning it should be treated as an all-way stop sign.
My mother and I left at around 5:15 after contacting my father, however my brother was unreachable. He had spent the previous day and the night at a friend's house in New Jersey and was en route home by train. I would have gone with him since he was visiting a mutual friend who we haven't seen since May, but I had work.
On the road home there were many abnormalities.
- First, the traffic lights were out and major intersections relied on police officers or volunteers to direct traffic (by this point people were on-site and working as opposed to my first road-trip since the power went out.)
- Second, there were much fewer people driving like the morons they are, but the few that continued to drive unsafely were amplified to create a very dangerous situation.
- Third, since most gas stations were not operable, a lane of the road was blocked off by the pack of cars trying to pull into the one working station.
- Fourth, I saw what was left of rather nasty accident with a car that was plowed into from the side when crossing an intersection crushing it and spraying glass across the road.
When I got home there was no power, but the one analog phone that recieved power from the phone line was some help. At ten to nine I stepped outside and saw that my neighbor's lights were on. My community was very lucky to have been one of the first to have power restored.
As the night progressed there was little communication from my brother and father, but the final arrangements were that
- my father spent the night in his office building...without sleep.
- my brother took a bus from Trenton to New York City. He then had some sort of combination of automotive and pedestrian transportation coming to a destination of my mom's co-worker place.
- Both were picked up this morning by my mother.
Today was supposed to be my last day of work, but this morning my mother woke me up to tell me to go to sleep—there was still no electricity at work. Yesterday surely was one strange last day of work.
In conclusion, my family is home, electricity is slowly returning throughout the area, and Cablevision is back up giving me the oppurtunity to post this. For anybody who does live around here and has gotten power back, I urge you to not use your air conditioner and turn off unneccessary lights.
Arnold 2003
Monday, August 11, 2003
Introducing: Arnold 2003! My latest creation is done excluding the site search. Hey, I should add a search to this site.
Last Week of Work
Monday, August 11, 2003
This is my last week of work. Then I will finally be free to enjoy myself for entire days (that is, sleep) in the few weeks before school commences.
My Three-Day Weekend
Monday, August 11, 2003
I went away Friday through Sunday to the Berkshires for my mother's birthday.
- Day 1: Friday, August 8
- I took a day off from work.
- I ordered tickets for the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert on September 13 at Jones Beach. I saw them in May, when they were incredible, so I decided to put my hard-earned money to good use. I took advantage of the K-Rock presale and got floor tickets, so it should kick major ass.
- ...on the road...
- We visited the Norman Rockwell museum, which was pretty cool and included an exhibition on Stan and Jan Berenstein.
- Day 2: Saturday, August 9
- We hiked Mount Greylock, although we were caught a downpour.
- We saw Travesties at the Williamstown Theater Festival.
- Day 3: Sunday, August 10
- We went to Mass Moca, which had an exhibition of prisoners' inventions such as improvised electric cigarette lighters or plastic buttocks.
- We went home, with a few short stops on the way.
Homestar Runner
Monday, August 04, 2003
Homestar Runner had a lot of updates today, but this computer I'm using at work doesn't have speakers! I'll have to wait until I get home to watch listen to the new stuff. So...close...to...5...
Ingenious Marketing
Sunday, August 03, 2003
In these tough economic times, how does a company sell its product? Bundle it with a freebie! The latest of these new ploys is mouthwash bundled with photographic film. Listerine is now sold with a 12-exposure roll of Fujifilm attached to it.