Monthly Archive for October, 2003

Got stabbed

Published
by
Mark
on Friday 31st October 2003
in General
. Closed
Well, I got stabbed today. Actually, it was just a few minutes ago. I should not be safe from influenza for a while. That’s why I got stabbed: the school gives free flu vaccines to employees. Sadly, the only reason I signed up for one this year was because Chris told me to. I still claim I did not get hit with the flu last year, contradictory to what Chris claims. She thinks that when I was sick around my birthday, that it was the flu, and that’s why she wanted me to get the shot this year. She, of course, is passing on the shot this year because she claims that last year’s shot made her sick for three days. I think it’s all ridiculous. Anyways, I have to keep moving my arm, probably for circulation of the vaccine. So, I’m going to go now.

Fisheye menu

Published
by
Mark
on Wednesday 29th October 2003
in Software
. Closed
I was pointed to the Fisheye Menu Demo by Jon Udell’s column on October 17, 2003. It’s an interesting way of presenting select lists on the web, which could be easily translated to similar controls in any user interface. On first inspection, Mac users might even say that this is exactly how the docking bar operates in OS X. Just thought I’d share this with the few nerds who read my blog.

Bloomington trip

Published
by
Mark
on Sunday 26th October 2003
in General
. Closed
So, yesterday, Chris and I drove down to Bloomington to visit Tim and Erin, and to see a Yesmen show. The show was pretty good. Unfortunately, I’m tired as hell right now, so I’m going to sleep. We’ll see if I post more later.

USB2.0 kicks the crap out of USB1.1

Published
by
Mark
on Friday 24th October 2003
in Hardware
. Closed
So, I finally laid down the $9 to buy this VIA USB2.0 controller from DVCentury for my computer. I may have actually received this NEC controller, which looks like it’s the exact same thing as the VIA controller. It doesn’t really matter to me which chipset is controlling things, cause both companies are pretty respectable. Anyways, I just wanted to say that synchronizing my iPod with USB2.0 kicks the crap out of using USB1.1. I could essentially wipe out my iPod and restore my music to it in a matter of minutes with USB2.0. I love it. I just wish I had it Saturday when I first tried to synchronize my libraries. I guess having it now will make it easier for me to experiment with things, knowing I can be back up and running rather quickly if I screw something up.

The iPod is coming…

Published
by
Mark
on Friday 17th October 2003
in General
. Closed
Yipee! After a long phone call to MicroCenter Chicago, I found out that there were no 40GB iPods shipped to them this week, as was previously expected. I decided to call the Westmont store to find out if they had any in stock. A couple of people told me they had one showing up in their computers, but needed to check with the floor to make sure it was still there. Once I finally got a hold of someone on the floor, he confirmed that there was in fact a sole 40GB iPod in stock. Continue reading ‘The iPod is coming…’

Just as expected

Published
by
Mark
on Wednesday 15th October 2003
in General
. Closed
So, it came of no surprise to me at the anti-climactic end to game 7 of the NCLS. The Cubs lose 9-6 to Florida. Florida is going to the World Series for the second time in its short ten years of existence as a MLB franchise. Cubs fans must once again tout the motto, “Wait ’til next year.” And finally, the hype is over. If anyone actually read this blog, I’d be opening myself up to a huge flaming from the bazillions of Cubs fans (many of them fair weather fans) that surround me. Fortunately, I guess, nobody really reads my blog, so I’m safe.

Just a bit smaller than the research I did

Published
by
Mark
on Wednesday 15th October 2003
in Uncategorized
. Closed
From a link I found on /., is a link to Molecular Expressions: The Silicon Zoo:
Ever wonder what’s lurking within the dark corners, nooks and crannies of your computer? Is some gremlin responsible for all those crashes—you know, the ones that happen when you are trying to save that critical document you’ve been working on so diligently for the past three hours? We wondered too, so we took a look to see what we could find. And guess what? When we put the computer chips under the microscope we found some very interesting creatures hiding there.
I did some scanning electron microscopy research during my undergrad years at IWU. The tiny things I studied were quite a bit larger than the Silicon Zoo creatures, but they were small nonetheless. Check out the gallery of cool things. I especially like some of the Java applets that demonstrate how they found some of the creatures.