DreamNid's Hangout

Happy New Years!

2001 = 9/11
2003 = Operation Iraqi Freedom & Saddamm Hussein captured
2004 = ?

2003 Memorable Events
-----------------------------------
Space Shuttle Columbia Accident
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Saddamm Hussein Captured
SARs
Mad Cow Epidemic
Michael Jackson
Koby Byrant

Personal
---------------
Party 2003
Graduation
Moving away to RIT
Experience snow combined with 60 MPH winds

Summer Vacation 2003 : Las Vegas. Stayed in Paris Hotel and Circus Circus. First visit to the Hover Dam and Ethrel Chocolate Factory.

Number of friends/families who went to Florida this year : 3
Number of times I went to Florida this year : 0

Sites administrating: www.dreamnid.com, www.callofcombat.com, www.bootleggers.us

Computers Status
-----------------

House
---------
Gateway PII-400 MHz computer running Windows 98 (Geoff)
Home-built AMD K6-3 400 MHz computer running Windows XP Pro (Greg)
Home-build Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz with 2 x 512 of Mushkin Level 1 3200 DDR running Windows XP Pro (Greg)
Dell GX-1 533 MHz running Windows 2003 Server (Dad)
Dell GX-1 400 MHz currently under development stage: installing Gentoo 1.4
Dell GX-1 - currently unused: going to install FreeBSD 4.9

RIT
------
Home-built Intel Pentium 4 2.4A GHz with 2 x 512 of Samsung 800MHz RDRAM

Number of Lan Parties attended
----------------------------------------
(1) Dylan
(1) Fasel
(1) Mine
------------
3 LPs -- I seriously can't remember this information. Somebody help! :-)

Quiz time

What is this a picture of?

Copyright © 2003 liksang.com

Yes, Tristan decided to take apart his laptop and you're seeing the mess.

...
Ok, it really is a picture of the PSX innards. The PSX is basically a PlayStation 2 with a tv tuner attached. It is Sony's idea of a home theatre media center. Oh, just come out with PS3 already! Check out the rest of the pictures and thoughts from liksang.com .

If you're seeing this

welcome to dreamnid.com's new home.

Here is a short story explaining the move.
I started out with Communitech around June 2000. At the time, they offered a lot of features at a lot price. Even though they don't add new features very frequenty, the server has been pretty fast and there were few downtimes. Fast foward to 2002. Communitech sold out to Interland. I'm sure most of you noticed how slow the site is and at times, the connection will time out. Interland wants people to join on an official Interland account. I don't know what they did, but they sure mucked up the servers a lot and won't acknowledge it is their fault.

The move was a bit last minute decision as my billing plan is almost up and my dad wanted to cancel our AT&T WorldNet account which is what the e-mail on the domain was pointing. Yes, I moved the domain over to 000domains.com for better management. It will take people 24-72 hours to see this new site as the dns switches nameservers to SRLHosting.com's

I switched to SRLhosting.com mainly because the support seems to be fantastic there. Because of Tristan, I got a reseller account which means I can sell my web space to other people. If you're interested in low cost web site hosting, feel free to contact me :-).

Enjoy the return of accessing the site at a quick pace! I can't get used to how little time it takes to publish my blogs now :-P

EDIT - I noticed that this morning, Interland has deactivated my account, even though I said to close it at the end of my billing period which ends around January 8. So much for service :-P I apologize for those who are having a hard time reaching this site or trying to contact me via e-mail.

Recording Industry admits bad music not Kazaa to blame for sales slump

If you find that headline a bit hard to shallow, you are correct.

Silicon.com has 10 headlines that you will probably not see in 2004.

Happy Holidays

I like to wish all of you guys Happy Holidays!

Unfortunately for me, I got sick yesturday and not feeling so well at the moment. I'm lucky that I got sick at home rather than school so I don't have to deal with getting the right meds and schoolwork.

The MSI trip went pretty well. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems to be losing its touch. Perhaps it is due to the lack of maintainance or they need to change their exhibits faster. The highlight of the trip was ToyMaker 3000 exhibit. They actually have a toy manufacturing line making gyroscope tops that you can buy. Of course, all of us were more impressed with a showcase featuring three lcd panels hooked up to robotic arms. It sure does look cool, but I wonder how much it cost? I highly recommend you guys to check the exhibit out when the next time you go.

@home

Wow, that certainly went by quick.

Carl and I left our dorms at around 8:30 and waited outside Gleason's Bus stop. I was annoyed that the schedule said the stop was at Grace Watson so we decided to take a quick look if anybody was there. We turned the cornver to find a bus waiting in front of the doors. Thank god for intiution.

It shows that nobody lives in Rochester as there were no lines. While checking in, the AA agent had trouble finding my flight number. When I gave her the Expedia receipt, she was surprised I had the 2:30 flight. She asked if I wanted to take the 11:15 plane. I had to quickly call my parents to make sure that they can pick me up. Apparently, she expected that I would accept it as she gave me the ticket right away. We promptly went to get my luggage checked for biological agents. A couple after me commented that there was no lines. I responded that they were in the wrong city - they should be in Chicago. I think everybody got a laugh from that.

I tried doing my calc homework and thought I would have some breakfast from McDonalds before I went through security. Carl and I tried to past the time by trying to decide whether the building we saw outside the windo are the RIT dorms. Conclusion: No.

I was surprised to see the sign on the gate said "Fantasy Flight" departing at 9:45. At around 11 when we were supposed to board at 10:45, the plane arrived with all these children, clowns, and Santa Claus. I would find out later that the group was taken around Niagra Fall and they were trying to chase Santa. They were going to spend the rest of the day with him.

Plane: Embraier 145? This has to be the first plane where I had trouble getting in. They were asking everyone who was carrying large carry-ons to leave it by the gate because the cabin was so small. Well, at least all the seat were leather and were pretty comfortable. It was weird sitting at the same level as people standing up on the ground. This fact came to play when we were landing. The plane didn't use any spoilers at all. The pilot simply used the wheel brakes the moment we touched down.

Funniest Line of the day : Stewardess, please prepare the cabin for landing... I mean take-off!

It is nice to be home, although I have to deal with my brothers again. Today, Dylan, Geoff, and I are going to watch ROTK. I hope it will take some of the edge off :-).

Today is the Day

I'm going to repeat some stuff here. I'm leaving RIT via bus at 8:45 and arrive there around 9:20 AM. My flight leaves at 2:20 PM and arrives at 3:38 PM @ O'Hare. My dad is going to pick me up and we'll goto Northbrook to buy some Korean Pears.

I did not manage to finish my DC Circuit homework, mainly because I'm really do not know how to solve the problems. That means I have to bring the textbook home :-(. Oh well, hopefully, the break should help.

I sure hope I packed everything :-) Adeiu!

6 hours and a half to go

I'm ... I'm ...

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye

But the dawn is breakin', it's early morn
The taxi's waitin', he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go

'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go

Chantal Chreviazuk. "I'm Leaving on the Jet Plane."

Yes, I am alone here

Pretty much everybody @ RIT left already. My room mate had me set my alarm at 5:20 AM to make sure he did not sleep through. Why does his flight have to be at 7 AM? :-(

I went to do my laundry this morning. People littered the room with lint and socks all over the floor. Even more suprisingly, few people were washing their clothes. I suppose most of them will do the laundry at home. I did run into a funny situation; I ran out of quarters. I had to scour the entire tunnels looking for a change machine. Failing at that, I tried making change with the vending machines, but they had to be programmed not to give change and accept only one dollar bills. They do try to make it hard for people staying in RIT an extra night... I eventually went to my room and managed to find enough quarters in my room.

I am planning to spend the rest of the day doing DC Circuits homework and Tech Programming Lab. Hopefully, I will managed to do the rest of the work load over break.

Since RIT is kicking everybody out at 10 AM tomorrow morning, I will be at the airport around 9:45 AM. Once there, I will spend 4 hours to reading or maybe doing Calc homework until 2 PM. My parents want to go to Northbrook after they pick me up for some Korean pears. I'd imagine that I will not be going home until 5-6 PM. I was thinking of stopping by Fasel's church and maybe screw around with him :-). I want to watch ROTK either Sunday or Monday because I have heard nothing but fabulous reviews about the movie. That should be a great way to start off the break.

Unfortunately for me, I will be missing Tristan's lan party. I wish I could attend as they usually play games all night long. Oh well, it was my mistake for picking the wrong date so it is my fault. Have fun guys :-)

Last Wednesday in my Writing and Lit class, my professor showed us a multimedia presentation of one of Croatia's fable tale. I suppose the tale was okay, but the translation and animation were pretty amusing. Well, I wonder how I sound like when I try speaking Spanish to native Spanish speakers :-P.
The program seems to have a massive memory leak as the computer will start freezing up during scene changes. Since the program is based on Macromedia Flash, I would not be surprised if the problem will go away if she tried Flash MX 2004. Good thing she is using Windows XP otherwise we'll have to wait for her laptop to finish booting :-).

Dissecting the Prescott

VR Zone takes apart an Intel Prescott. Interesting notes

• 120 million transistors compared to 55 million with the P4
• The die is 11 cm squared
• 700 pins compared to 468

The number of transistors surprised me. No wonder they can increase the cache, add more SSE extentions, and possibly 64-bit extentions.

A word of warning - do not remove the IHS as it is soldered right on the die.

Comic

Old Foxtrot comic from 10/3/2003. I'm just posting it here for reference.

Copyright © ucomics.com

Cool, eh?

AOL art

I am sure many of you saw the AOL 9 commercial where a couple displayed their collection of AOL disc as a picture of a fish.

Copyright © lanaddict.com

Somebody decided to follow suit and make a computer case out of various AOL discs. Tristan, I really think you have competition now!

Finals

I forgot that my other friends in semester-based colleges are taking their finals either this week or have already completed them. In any case, I wish of you the best of luck!

This Week
---------------
Number of classes attended : 11
Number of classes today : 1
Number of classes tomorrow : 2
Number of days till I fly home (including today): 3

MSI Iterinary

Since most of you guys read my blog, I figured I'd post the tentative plan here.

People Going On the Trip: Matt Walsh, Michelle something (Matt's gf), Ryan Heaney, Dylan Roeh, Jason Reberski, Zach Fasel, and, of course, me.

We are planning to bring two cars - Matt and I will probably be the ones driving.

Time: Jason needs to drop his car off after his final so we'll be leaving his house around 11 AM. We'll leave when we see everything we wanted or 5:30 PM comes around, whatever comes first. Matt may leave early to beat the traffic, so if you find yourself bored there, Matt might drive you home if you ask him nicely with a "please." Jason and I decided that I'll be driving home at 5:30 PM unless we are bored beforehand (screw the traffic :-)).

Camcorders: I know I'll bring mine... Fasel possibly if he gets that huge loan again.

Possible things we should do:

• The U-Boat exhibit because they are going to shut it down at the end of the year for renovations and relocation.
• Toy Factory 3000 (ok, I don't remember the name) - Something new that I don't think any of us saw before.
• Since Ryan is joining us once again (ahem) - some Bill Nye spoof at our disclosure (with Professor Fasel as his assistant).

Things I will not be doing: Coal Mine (Due to my fear of explosions) [j/k]

I do not know if we want to do something afterwards...... Can anybody think of something? Anything else I am missing?

Countdown: T - 4 days 23 hours, 24 minutes and counting

Those pesky corners

I am sure that building corners present a huge risk to many soldiers. How do you know somebody is at the other side, just waiting for you to show your face? One Isereal company developed an elegant solution.

Copyright © 2003 Discovery Channel.com

They developed a gun that can bend near the muzzle to efffectively shoot around the corners. A camera is mounted at the bottom of the muzzle to allowe the shooter to see.

The only downside to this elegent solution is the cost. Each device (I'm not sure if they are talking about the gun or the mechanism) costs several thousands. Still, a price worth paying for saving lives.

Countdown

6 more days till MSI!

BTW, I thought my flight home was Saturday when it was really Sunday. Yes, it sucks staying in the dorm by yourself. But I'm looking at it to get rid of my DC Circuits homework. I just need to remember to leave before 10 AM Sunday before I get yelled at :-)

Good laugh

Type in "french military victories" in Google and click on the "I am feeling lucky!" button. Be sure to click on the following link :-)

Thanks to Dylan Roeh for sending that one in.

The Electric Chair

I know I have already posted about the PopSCI Best of 2003 list, but I have to say that I actualy saw this neat contraption myself

Copyright © 2003 Popular Science

Call it what you will, a wheelchair on steroids. What is soo cool about this wheel chair? Thanks to gyros, the Independence iBot 3000 has the ability to stand on the back two wheel, essentially making the user taller. The gyro will tell the computer how fast to move the wheels to keep the balance. Even if you push the chair very hard, it still manages to keep itself upright. If it detects that it cannot keep up, the wheelchair will automatically lower itself. I'm sure you know that wheelchair users always had trouble going up the stairs. No more. Yes, this chair can climb stairs. This invention comes from the same person who invented the Segway (aka Dean Kamen).

The prototype I saw at Disney had three wheels. They would not let anyone try it because the FDA didn't approve it at the time. But I suppose they will let the daring since the FDA did approve it last August. For a measely 29 grand, anybody could own this chair of marvel.

PowerPoints == Evil

According to NYTimes, the reason why Columnia Orbiter was lost was because of Microsoft Power Point. Why? Because computer slide shows tend to have less information compared to hand written slides. Therefore, the audience may have made inferrence from a lack of data.

I am siding with the critics on this one. Perhaps the presenter does not know how to do PowerPoints? The idea behind PowerPoint is to provide an outline for your speech. It was not meant to present a lot of data. To me, this is a perk since you are more inclined to take in data presented in an orderly matter.

If the NASA presenter just reads off the PowerPoint, I would fire the person and hire someone with better presenting skills.

'Prescott' keeping the Pentium IV Name

This tells us that Prescott will not offer radical structual changes. It will be Northwoods did to the Canterwoods: raise the therotical maximum speed limit for the Pentium 4 family.

Link for above story

Prescott will be Intel's first 90mm CPUs. As a result, they are having great difficulties with power consumption because transistors and wires that small tends to 'leak.' Even though making CPUs smaller usually made the power consumption lower, the new multimedia extentions will offset any savings. It would be interesting to see the heatsinks for the Prescotts :-)

One the 10th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

10.) Toyota Priuses, 9.) JVC HD-1 Camcorders, 8.) Tier Ones, 7.) Stihl 4-Mix Engines, 6.) Specialized Epics, FIVE Mitsubishi MegaView Walls...., 4.) Archos AV300 Series & RCA RD2780, 3.) Shanghai Transrapid 2.) Ford S2RV and a partridge in a pear tree.

The above were a few of Popular Science Magazine's Best of What's New 2003. Go check it out :-)

MSI Countdown

I could not of anything important to post... but I'll just throw this out.

From Echternach's Explore History project, we've been going to MSI (Museum of Science and Industry) on December 23 for the past two years. Continuing the tradition, we are going to MSI on the 23rd; the big difference is the amount of people going. The last MSI trips involved 3 people. This trip will expand to about 7 people. I hope it will be more fun for all of us, but I do worry we will lose "that special something" because we have to worry about 7 people's needs and wants compared to three people.

Of course, District 230 had to ruin our schedule. Traditionally, the hours that have finals in the last day of the semester are 0 and 4. That worked out perfectly because nobody had finals on either of those hours. This year, D230 had to change it to 0 and 3 which means we have to wait for our three fellow friends to finish their finals by 10:29 AM. Because of the "mad rush to get out of school," we'll probably have to wait by 10:40 to expedite the process. The museum closes at 5:30 PM, but I know Matt will want to leave earlier to beat out the traffic. So we will not be able to spend a lot of time there this year. Oh well..

So it begins: The official countdown to MSI : T - 7 days 22 hours and something minutes and counting.

The Horniest Guy Award goes to...

Check this video out. And no, there is no sex involved. Sorry guys.

Yes, I stole this from Heaney's profile :-)

Holiday Music

Does Holiday music starting to sound monotonous? Check out this Live365.com stream. It is called the "All Contemporary A Cappella Holiday Music." The term "A Cappella" means that the only instruments used in the music are the human voices.

You can also check out Walsh's suggestion: "A Trans-Siberian Orchestra." The band has a "New Age" feel - they play rock instruments in a classical style. I guess the band is similar to "Bond" and "Vannessa Mae." You should preview their tunes before buying it since it is pretty experimental.

Hellooooo Worrrllddd...

Last night, somebody messed up BOTH elevators by, ah, doing a dump. Fortunately, I never saw it. My room-mate said it looked throw-up, but it smells like sh*t. He hypothesized that somebody came back from a drinking party and had diarrihea. I'm not sure how it got on both elevators, but with the people in our dorm, I should not be too surprised. Thankfully, the elevators don't smell too bad today.

Almost time for Alias :-)

Whoa ver. 2...

I wake up to find my window all white - err... ok that isn't really important. If you are interested to see the snow in Rochester, click on the "Rochester Skyline" link on the bottom right corner.

Copyright © 2003 CNN.com

That is Saddam Hussein in captivity. For all this time, the U.S. government claimed that they finally captured the #1 terriorist in the Iraqi Most Wanted list. I am not sure if they confirmed his identity yet, but if this is indeed him, he sure sounds tired. I wonder if he willingly gave himself up by leaking intelligence to the soldiers.

Now, what are we going to do in Iraq? It would be detrimental to help give the Iraqis a kick-start similar to what we did with Japan. Once the resistance dies down, I am sure this will be another story in the textbooks.

If you haven't figured it out

My "I'm screwed!" post was a hoax. I feel sorry for people sending me "what is going on, Gio?" and I hope I did not make them mad.

Long story short, the post was meant for my RIT friends. I am perfectly fine here :-)

The last sentence of the post is true though - RIT is kicking everybody out the 21st which is the day I'm coming back. Yes, I screwed up and told everybody the 20th when I saw my ticket was for the 20th. It was my mistake :-(.

Well, I hope I will not be coming home to a world of hate :-S

Air and Space Museum v.2

The Smithsonian Institute recently opened a brand new museum dedicated to aviation. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, located about 30 miles from Dulles Airport in Washington D.C., features various airplanes, esp. those that change the aviation history.

Copyright © 2003 CNN.com

Once inside, visitors can see The Enterprise, the only space shuttle that never flew, the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first Atomic Bomb, and a SR-71, one of the most fastest planes in the world. The Air and Space Museum will still be open to the public. The Wright Brothers' plane and the Spirit of Saint Louis will remain in the museum while many of the Smithsonian aviation collection will be moved to the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Looks like it is time to visit D.C. again :-)

Another round of bad news.

OSLO, Norway - Keiko, the world famous whale that starred in Free Willy, died yesturday due to pneumonia (according to the AOL source). I'm sure most of you knew about the amount of support that went into making Keiko free from captivity. Caretakers noticed that his vitals dropped significantly Thursday and never managed to recover. The good news? Keiko is pretty old for a whale in captivity so I am sure the efforts of millions of people were not wasted.

Vocabulary time

I saw this word defined on the whiteboard.

Assmosis - The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.

aww crap!

I went to my mail folder surprised to find my report card and a letter. Because the report card is sealed, I decided to read the letter first.

Basically, it said "due to the awefully low grades that you received, I'm sorry to tell you should leave RIT bla bla bla." What?! I couldn't have screwed up that badly, right? I ripped open the report card. omg..... Mostly F's and a couple D's. !@#$%@#

Sigh... I suppose I should not have been on the computer for soooo late at night, sleeping through ever so important exams. Homework? Scripting is soo much more important! Those other night hanging around with "friends," drinking booze, and sex. I thought that is what college life is about?

Well, time to face the music. I'll be leaving RIT Dec 20th. I wish I could stay, but they are kicking us out.

::taken from jacen's blog::
*sigh, i'm doomed*

It is raining Cats and Dogs

Click here if you want to see what happens to a laptop dropped from 1,000 feet in the air.

Tristan, I think you have some competition here.

Watercooling gone wrong.

It is common sense that spilling water on your computer will cause unrecoverable damage. What if you spill Diet Coke in an open case? Yes, somebody poured Diet Coke in his computer until the power went out in his entire home. Yes, please do not try this yourself!

Poor Guy...

A man was flying in the South Pole with his home built airplane when he was forced to land in a U.S. Research base because of unexpected fuel loss from battling strong headwinds. Neither the U.S. or New Zealand is willing to give him fuel for the trip back home because they feel that the action will promote tourism as if people are interested in visiting Antartica in the first place. The U.S. did offer food and shelter while New Zealand is offering him a flight on the next trip home while he has to pay for shipping his plane back.

I could see it both ways, but I think I would support the man side. I can understnad that it is a research base and gas is probably hard to come by. In that case, follow somebody's suggestion in ./ to charge him higher-than-normal rates to cover the expenses. That way, it will be "discouraging tourism" and he will get to fly back in his own plane. Make sense :-)

First Day of School All Over Again

Yesturday, I went through my new classes. I think it will be a cool quarter because I am taking a lot more technical courses vs. Liberal Arts courses.

Click here to view my schedule.

I suppose my schedule is okay, although I have to keep going back and forth from my dorm room to the academic side. Hopefully, there is something to eat and do on the academic side so I do not have to do this for the entire quarter.

Technical Programming II - Nothing really much to talk about. Professor Trippe did focus on the new students (two in my section, including me) to make sure we knew what was going on. I think the only major thing I have to worry about is coping with Visual Studios .NET and the standard way of declaring variables (no thanks to AP).

DC Circuits - The class where everybody fails. Ok, so Professor Ciccerilli did not fail us the first day. With some luck, the course will not be as hard as everybody is making it out to be.

Observations: All the good classes, aka techinical courses, are 1 hour long while the boring classes, aka Liberal Arts and Calc courses, are two hours long. I suppose the Lab, which is 3 hours, makes it up, but still.....

Calculus 3 - I was pretty surprised that Calc 3 here is basically a continuation of Calc 2 @ Sandburg. In reality, I should have known that they wouldn't simply not teach Series. I now wonder why RIT wants you to take Calc I first even if you have taken it in high school (or in my case, MVCC). Well, I suppose it will be a nice refresher and it would not hurt. My professor does not seem to be bad, but I think he may over explaining things that I had a hard time following the major points.

Writing and Lit II - surprise - is another experimental class. Why am I stuck with all the experimental classes? Jeezzzz. Anyways, this class is focusing on Croatia. Yes, it is one of those countries that you hear about but you do not really know much. My professor spent the day showing slideshow of pictures she took during her tenure there while teaching at the RIT's subsidary college there. Cultural Anthropology is hunting me once again when she introduced some neat cultural differences. For example, Croatian students always work together in tests, while American students are expected to work by themselves. Surprisingly, Croatia is such a beautiful place. If I ever travel, I really need to put that on the "places-to-visit" checklist.

While I checked my e-mail today, I was surprised to find DC Circuits and Simulation was cancelled for tomorrow. That is pretty interesting considering there are only 10 sessions and it is the very first one. On the other hand, I only have one class today which is Calc 3.

RIT ITS finally let us try out Exchange. Unfortunately, I do not know if it is my computer or ITS' fault, but I am unable to reach the server through Outlook 2003. I guess I have to stick with OWA (which was recently highlighted due to a 'serious' flaw) in the meantime.

And Heaney, it is sure nice to be talking with you again! Welcome back home :-D