My Thoughts

April Fools Webcomic Switcharoo - but wait there's more

2008-04-01T11:50:00.005-04:00

Shenanigans, I say!

As an april fools day joke, xkcd.com shows the Questionable Content homepage, questionablecontent.net shows the dinosaur comics home page, and qwantz.com shows the xkcd home page. Well done, I thought - a very clever collaboration.

I checked to see if other webcomics might be doing this too, and among other comics, checked vgcats.com, and saw that nothing was different. Later, a few minutes ago, I checked vgcats, and saw that it resembled CAD. Sure, it's a very funny comic that makes fun of CAD, which I personally am not a fan of, but that's not the point, is it. (No, it's not)

I tried to ignore Scott Ramsoomair's blatant imitation of Scott Johnson's 56 Geeks Poster, because I really like vgcats, and check it often. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy both imitations, I'm just saying that this reeks.

Personality

2008-03-28T17:11:00.000-04:00

There are four main personalities that a person has:
-Who others think they are (Perceived External)
-Who they act like they are (Actual External)
-Who they think they are (Perceived Internal)
-Who they really are (Actual Internal)

For the sake of easy communication about these four main personalities that names have been assigned to them.

A main difference between any of these can cause problems.
Consider the following examples:

A difference between Perceived External and Actual External personalities means that the person is misunderstood.

A difference between the External personalities and the Internal personalities means that the person is acting differently than how they normally would act of their own accord; an example of this would be teens acting differently around their peers.

A difference between Perceived Internal and Actual Internal personalities means that the person is out of touch with themselves, and possibly in denial.

Respect

2008-03-17T01:29:00.002-04:00

Some days ago an incident occurred between a student and a teacher that I witnessed. The teacher was putting words into the student's mouth, and the student was becoming understandably upset by this. When the student tried to interrupt to defend himself, the teacher cut him off, saying "excuse me, I'm speaking". The student tried again to interrupt, saying that what the teacher was saying wasn't true, and the teacher cut him off again, saying "excuse me, be respectful" to which the student replied that she (the teacher) was being disrespectful by putting words in his mouth. She continued to speak, and he interrupted her again. Even though she had followed him to the room that he was supposed to be in (which was already was occupied by a teacher) from a study that she was supposed to be watching, at this point she told him to go to the office. He complied, but on his way out said what all of us watching were thinking, if not in so many words; (the following is paraphrased, but is probably very close to what he actually said) "this is why I never liked you".

I also have a deep dislike for this teacher, and teachers like her, because they treat students like children. Yes, it is true that I have left the details out regarding why the student was followed back to his room by the teacher in question, and yes, it is probably true that while the teacher was exaggerating the student's offense by putting words in his mouth, the student did break a rule, or perhaps more than one. It is for this reason that adults would tell teens that if they wish to be treated like adults, they should act like adults. This point of view, however, is intrinsically flawed. If you wish us to treat you as adults, you too must act like adults. You were so busy teaching us to look before we leap that you forgot that with this knowledge we had gained the ability to see that like us, you are imperfect.

Do not misunderstand me. Well, you can if you like, but do not mistake my intention. I am not saying that the student was not wrong. What I am saying is that the teacher was also wrong. A small person behind a big desk is still just a small person, and nothing more. I care not about the potential punishment, unlikely though it might be, that might ensue from writing this, because I think that it's important that adults understand that while you were telling us to grow up, you made the mistake of showing us that you are not as perfect as you would have us believe. Not all teachers and authority figures are like this. In fact, there are those which easly spring to mind that are the direct polar opposite.

What I have a problem with is that while you would expect us to accept being treated in a manner suiting our actions while simultaneously expecting us to treat you with respect, regardless of your actions. If you truly wish for us to become independent and functional members of society, I submit to you that you should set better examples than this. Many of us are below many of you only because of the limitations placed upon us by the rules in the student handbook, a document that I do not recall ever agreeing to. There was no contract that I signed or deal that I agreed to that ever in any way let you take away my rights, and as a legal adult I resent that you would believe as such. The circumstances themselves are, while inconvenient, not unbearable, but it is the principle of the matter that irritates me. If we are (and we are) forced to stand for the pledge of allegiance each morning and face the flag, should we not be entitled to the freedom which that flag represents?

I'm not saying that I necessarily want anything to fundamentally change about the student-teacher relationship and the rules and regulations surrounding the school experience, but what I am saying that what you are doing is taking our submission for granted. The moment that you assume that we're going to let it slide is the moment that I become okay with letting your rules slide...and I'm one of the nice ones.

Stale

2008-02-17T13:25:00.003-05:00

I'm sick of this place. I've lived here for far too long. Nothing against it, really, other than the fact that it's stale (hence this post's title). It's just gotten old; there's nothing here that I haven't seen a thousand times before. I could draw a detailed sketch of pretty much every road in this town - that's what being in a place your entire life does to you.

Every day, it's the same trees, the same streets, the same people. I'm not saying that there is anything intrensically wrong with anything that I've listed, I'm just saying that I'm sick and tired of it, and want to get out of here as soon as I can. It's like a meal that you can't finish because you've gotten sick of the flavor - even if it was once delicious, there's a million other things that you would rather taste.

I'm sick of this place. I've lived here for far too long.

The United States of America

2008-02-09T20:12:00.000-05:00

The only thing that makes the United States anything close to united is the fact that it's all on the same landmass*. We Americans live in a country so divided that we periodically measure, chart, and map our division every four years. Some states are blue, and some are red. Society is governed by what people see on television, and that is controlled by how many people are watching what. The blue states have the same kinds of televisions that the red states have, and they all tune to the same things, but still this should not be considered a uniting factor.

*yes, I get that Hawaii and Alaska don't really count, but I meant mostly as a whole
The people in America have stopped reading newspapers. Most haven't read a newspaper in a long time. Today most of us get our news from word of mouth, or television. Relatively, very few people get their news from the Internet. Any news we get is a production created by a relatively small amount of people. If, at any point, all of these people are wrong all at once, the entire country is uninformed. Still, this should not be considered a uniting factor.

Society is what we make it, not what those who would call us our leaders tell us how it has been made. Celebrities in the business, media, and political industries of the United States should not have the power to dictate the opinions of those that they would consider to be their lowers. Those of us beneath should not allow ourselves to see through the eyes of those above.

Why do people care about what celebrities think? Why would people believe someone who they see on television if they've never met them face-to-face? Why would people let themselves be manipulated to serve the needs of the capitalistic society that we have built? I use the word "we" because it was all of us that built, and are building the United States of America. We make America what it is.

What a lot of people don't realize is that there are people living in the blue and red states. This nation is neither red nor blue, and its states should have no color but that of the entire United States, if we are so truly united, as we claim. If we were truly united, we would not fear each other. If we were truly united, we would be in harmony. Unison has deserted us for a very long time. We live not only in fear of our neighbors, but of our government. No one wants to believe that this is true, but what of torture, lies, and deception? What of wiretaps and secret prisons?

A war is going on in our name against a people that most of the people living in the United States know nothing about. A fight is being waged to protect us against an enemy that we have never heard of, except from those who have lied to us so many times, and whom we still continue to want to trust, despite all evidence of the smart decision being taking action of the contrary.

Those in power claim to represent the people of the United States, but the random chosen citizen of the country can name more characters in their favorite television show, movie, or band than Supreme Court Justices.

The public school system of the United States is no longer based around learning; it is based around the number that corresponds with a student's name - their GPA. If a student's GPA is high enough, they will be able to attend college, if they are accepted, if they find a way to pay the college, if they get the chance at all. High school drop-out rates are higher than any which have ever been recorded, and nothing has changed, except the barring of soft drinks from lunchrooms, which, shockingly, has not caused rapid correction of obesity in children, which is astounding, since how students could attain soft drinks from anywhere but their local public schools remains a mystery.

In a culture that promotes going along to get along, we are giving up our liberties to those that we have been told to trust, but who are apparently undeserving of such esteem. We are at a war against a people that most of us know little to nothing about, for reasons twice as mysterious. We are uneducated sheep who know only of money, or the lack thereof. We are the people of the United States: We are unhappy, but we are too divided to do anything about it, with liberty, and justice for all.

ad infinitum

2008-02-08T00:09:00.000-05:00

(EDIT - this picture goes well with this, I think...original link to news story here)

Let the generations that follow know that we gazed into the night sky with wonder. Let it be known to them that we recognized our inadequacies and flaws, and beseech our children to forgive us our mistakes that they may avoid making such themselves.

Let all know of our desire for knowledge and our wish for a greater understanding in ways that we could not hope to achieve. Let them know of our perseverance, dedication, and unbreakable force of will to have that which we cannot possess, know that which we cannot comprehend, and do what we cannot achieve.

Let those that succeed us know that we were the climbers of mountains and the scalers of walls. We were not perfect, and could never hope to be, but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

"Happy" New Year

2007-12-31T23:34:00.000-05:00

2007 was hell. I defecate on 2007. Bring on 2008, with all of its perils.

I got my 360 back

2007-12-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

...but my parents turned on the Family Timer. Also, they're telling me that they're going to take it back away after Christmas break is over. Is there anyone anywhere that might know about a way around the Family Timer? I'm 18 years old, people - I don't deserve this. As it is now, the Family Timer is set for only 1 hour per day! That is ridiculous!

Photo links!

2007-12-10T09:24:00.001-05:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/1701168472/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/1700310413/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/1700307603/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/361000959/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/98808964/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/98313292/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/98273433/

http://flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/135489465/

...in spades

2007-12-06T10:56:00.000-05:00

I'm writing this because if I don't I'll probably die or something.

A really really long time ago:

My parents took away (physically removed) my Xbox360, computer, and (slightly crappy) laptop, leaving me a note about how I would get my things back when my grades got better. The only pieces of technology that I was allowed to hold on to were my DS Lite (which they didn't know the nature of on the day of reckoning) and my iPod video.

A few days ago:

My iPod got stolen by a carpet cleaner while I was at school. Tough luck for me.

Two days ago:

I used a DSLinux boot CD on a computer in Sculpture class in order to make the computer not run like a sloth on a cold day covered in tar with weights attached to its legs (sans windows, in other words). The substitute apparently, like 98% of the faculty of the school district of the zip code 03052, had no clue what I was doing. (more on that later)

Yesterday:

A teacher who supervises a study hall that I used to be in asked me where I had been for so long, and I had to explain to her that I was transferred long ago away from that study hall and into a different study hall
My parents basically told me that there's nothing that I can do to get my Xbox360, computer, and laptop back, regardless of my ever-increasing grades, and the fact that I've been working my ass off on my schoolwork since they took away my stuff September 27, two days after I got my hands on Halo 3.

Any mention to my parents of how my grades have greatly improved lead to them saying that the satisfaction of securing a successful future should be enough of a reward (so why would I want my 360?)
Any mention to my parents of the fact that nothing bad would come of me having my 360 lead to them saying that my desire to have my 360 back proved beyond doubt that I'm "addicted" to it, and as such, if I was to get my 360 back, I would be consumed in "addiction" again. (this is complete bunk...the end. There's nothing to it. Like religion, this theory requires no actual proof to be deemed factual)
Any mention of the original note that they wrote me back in September about how, with good grades, I would get my stuff back, lead to blank (possibly senile) stares. They don't remember anything of the kind.

Today:

I was read the riot act by the Sculpture teacher about how I shouldn't be "downloading stuff on the computer" and how I had "crossed the line". (see Two Days Ago) He said he wouldn't talk to me about it because he wasn't going to "take attitude from a seventeen-year-old kid". The fun never stops.

Cat Food

2007-10-21T22:51:00.000-04:00

Kitchen

2007-10-21T20:33:00.001-04:00

Startup [updated]

2007-10-20T16:57:00.000-04:00

Flocks

2007-09-21T08:02:00.000-04:00

My screen saver in Ubuntu (7.04) !

Halo 3 Countdown

2007-09-17T07:47:00.000-04:00

Halo3Countdown.com

Halo 3: 9 Days Remain

2007-09-16T10:46:00.000-04:00

ARRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Official Spore Release Date!

2007-09-13T11:31:00.000-04:00

Spore will be released on March 3, 2008! Awesome, now I have something else to look forward to! I'm not sure if I'll have gotten even minutely tired of Halo 3 by a fraction by then, but I can't wait to play it! I'm planning on getting the DS version so I can be obsessed with virtual life at as many locations as possible! :D

You can click the image above to read the full story, or you can click this link!

Halo 3: 12 Days Remain

2007-09-12T23:09:00.000-04:00

I...can't...wait!!!
Arrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

Halo 3: 15 Days Remain

2007-09-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

Here are the custom game options that were available in the Halo 3 Beta! Enjoy!

slayer settings >
___score to win [#]
___team slayer [boolean]
___scoring >
______team scoring [&]
______kill points [#]
______assist points [#]
______death points [#]
______suicide points [#]
______betrayals points [#]
______leader kills bonus [#]
______headshot bonus [#]
______beatdown bonus [#]
______assassination bonus [#]
______splatter bonus [#]
______sticky bonus [#]
______spree bonus [#]
______elimination bonus [#]
___leader traits >
______shields and health >
_________damage resistance [&]
_________shield multiplier [&]
_________shield recharge rate [&]
_________shield vampirism [&]
_________immune to headshots [&]
______weapons and damage >
_________damage modifier [&]
_________primary weapon [&]
_________secondary weapon [&]
_________grenade count [&]
_________grenade regeneration [&]
_________infinite ammo [&]
_________weapon pickup [&]
______movement >
_________player speed [&]
_________player gravity [&]
_________vehicle use [&]
______sensors >
_________motion tracker mode [&]
_________motion tracker range [&]
______appearance >
_________visual effect [&]
_________active camo [&]
_________waypoint [&]
___leading team traits >
______shields and health >
_________damage resistance [&]
_________shield multiplier [&]
_________shield recharge rate [&]
_________shield vampirism [&]
_________immune to headshots [&]
______weapons and damage >
_________damage modifier [&]
_________primary weapon [&]
_________secondary weapon [&]
_________grenade count [&]
_________grenade regeneration [&]
_________infinite ammo [&]
_________weapon pickup [&]
______movement >
_________player speed [&]
_________player gravity [&]
_________vehicle use [&]
______sensors >
_________motion tracker mode [&]
_________motion tracker range [&]
______appearance >
_________visual effect [&]
_________active camo [&]
_________waypoint [&]
round settings >
___number of rounds [#]
___time limit [#]
___rounds reset [&]
map overrides >
___base player traits >
______shields and health >
_________damage resistance [&]
_________shield multiplier [&]
_________shield recharge rate [&]
_________shield vampirism [&]
_________immune to headshots [&]
______weapons and damage >
_________damage modifier [&]
_________primary weapon [&]
_________secondary weapon [&]
_________grenade count [&]
_________grenade regeneration [&]
_________infinite ammo [&]
_________weapon pickup [&]
______movement >
_________player speed [&]
_________player gravity [&]
_________vehicle use [&]
______sensors >
_________motion tracker mode [&]
_________motion tracker range [&]
______appearance >
_________visual effect [&]
_________active camo [&]
_________waypoint [&]
___weapons on map [&]
___grenades on map [&]
___vehicle set [&]
___indestructible vehicles [&]
___powerup overrides >
______red powerup traits >
______blue powerup traits >
______yellow powerup traits >
respawn settings >
___respawn time [#]
___suicide penalty [#]
___betrayal penalty [#]
___lives per round [#]
___advanced respawn settings >
______respawn modifiers >
_________duration [#]
_________shields and health >
____________damage resistance [&]
____________shield multiplier [&]
____________shield recharge rate [&]
____________shield vampirism [&]
____________immune to headshots [&]
_________weapons and damage >
____________damage modifier [&]
____________primary weapon [&]
____________secondary weapon [&]
____________grenade count [&]
____________grenade regeneration [&]
____________infinite ammo [&]
____________weapon pickup [&]
_________movement >
____________player speed [&]
____________player gravity [&]
____________vehicle use [&]
_________sensors >
____________motion tracker mode [&]
____________motion tracker range [&]
_________appearance >
____________visual effect [&]
____________active camo [&]
____________waypoint [&]
______respawn traits >
_________synchronize with team [boolean]
_________respawn time growth [boolean]
_________respawn on kills [boolean]
social settings >
___team changing [boolean]
___friendly fire [boolean]
___betrayal booting [boolean]
___observers [boolean]

Halo 3: 16 Days Remain

2007-09-09T14:11:00.000-04:00

Everything is reminding me of Halo 3 to the point that even when I'm playing other games, I want to be playing Halo 3 more than anything. It's all I can think about, and I can't wait until I get to play it.

sudo fdisk -l

2007-09-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

shaymus22@shaymus22-topdesk:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 4997 40138371 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 10194 81883273+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb2 12525 14340 14587020 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 14341 14946 4867695 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb4 * 10195 12524 18715725 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 520 MB, 520093696 bytes
16 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1024 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 992 * 512 = 507904 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 1024 507873 6 FAT16

Disk /dev/sda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3648 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 10 80293+ 0 Empty
/dev/sda2 11 3648 29222235 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 25538 205133953+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdc2 25539 29185 29294527+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc3 29186 30401 9767520 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Cool Movie Quiz

2007-09-07T14:53:00.000-04:00

71%

Click the badge to take the quiz yourself!

School

2007-09-07T06:29:00.000-04:00

Alas, the accursed thing has started! I am le busy! Ahauhauhauhauh (That was my version of a text-based French laugh. No complaining: It's the best thing I could come up with at 6:30am)

I am soooo busy and here's why:
School is 7:35am-2:23pm
it takes until about 2:30pm until I'm home
Work is 4:00pm-7:00pm

Here's the deal though - it takes 20 minutes to and from my work without any traffic, and 30 minutes if there is traffic. I also have to get ready about 40 minutes before I get to work, and the same thing is true with school in that I give myself about 40 minutes to get ready, so here's the real schedule:

[6:20am-7:00am] Get ready for school
[7:00am-7:10am] Drive to school
[7:10am-7:35am] Downtime
[7:35am-2:23pm] School
[2:23pm-2:30pm] Drive home
[2:30pm-3:00pm] Downtime
[3:00pm-3:40pm] Get ready for work
[3:40pm-4:00pm] Drive to work
[4:00pm-7:00pm] Work
[7:00pm-7:20pm] Drive home
[7:20pm-7:50pm] Dinner
[7:50pm-8:00pm] Chores
[8:00pm-10:30pm] Downtime / Homework

So there you have it! The only real amount of time I have on days that I work and have school to do things like blog is right now (before school) or at 8pm, and that's assuming that I don't have any homework! Holy sheet!

Now, fortunately, I am investigating other employment options. It may come to pass that I'll be working something like 5pm-10pm, which would mean that I would have time to get things done in between work and school, which would be nice. Nothing is even close to being final though, so if you're my current employer and you're reading this (highly unlikely though it is) don't fret.

Yeah, the chances of that are somewhere between 0 and 1 in a million. :D

Stargate SG-1

2007-09-02T01:07:00.000-04:00

It is with a heavy heart that I bid a belated bitersweet farewell to one of the finest science fiction television series to ever grace my eye holes. I just finished watching the series finale Unending, and for those of you who are wondering (no spoilers, I promise), the episode, at least in my opinion, does the series justice. Goodbye SG-1. I'll miss you.

Downtown Litchfield

2007-08-31T01:56:00.000-04:00

Check out this video montage of Downtown Litchfield!

I'm the man (or "How I proved that syntax is everything")

2007-08-29T06:37:00.000-04:00

This is actually going to be a very very fun story to tell, because it's a success story! If you're finding this blog post from a search of the web and are looking for help, this might actually also be what you're looking for! :)

Okay, here's the story. As most of you who are reading this know, last week I was in California. I was visiting my uncle there. Well, while I was there, I fixed up his computers. I cleaned up his newish shiny Sony Vaio (uninstalled crapware and adware, installed and used a free spyware scanner, defragmented the hard drive, ran a virus scan, etc) and cleaned (literally took apart and cleaned with a vacuum, it was so freaking dirty) an older computer, almost breaking it when I had plugged in a RAM chip 99% of the way. I actually have to give my uncle "mad props" on the RAM chip thing, as he's the one who persuaded me to check and see if I had left anything undone inside the computer when it failed to start. I pushed the RAM chip in as hard as I could, it slid in about a millimeter, and much to my embarrassment, I heard a small click.

Well so he's all happy with the fact that his laptop is no longer running as though through syrup, and that the old computer that had been so dirty had now been promoted to running as though through syrup (as opposed to taking 10 minutes to boot windows 98, it now only took about 5-8). He brings me a laptop that no one has apparently been able to get to even turn on, let alone work properly. This is the beginning of a long story that, at many many times, came close to robbing me of my patience, and causing me to give up entirely.

My uncle said that, especially since the laptop was at the current time completely worthless to him without me fixing it for free, that I could have it. The coolness of this is that if I fixed it, I would have earned myself a free laptop! This is awesome no matter which way you slice it if you consider this: I had no laptop to speak of at all. A broken laptop, even one with only 128MB of ram and a 300MHz processor, was still better than an imaginary one that I would only dream of being able to use.

This is where this story gets ridiculous to the point of hilarity. So the first step was getting it to turn on. Originally, my uncle couldn't find the cord going to the Vaio, so I used the power cable for the newer, shiny Vaio in its place. I started up the laptop, it went into Windows 98, and about a minute after booting, it crashed.

Now, I've had things crash before. I've had things hang, I've had things freeze, and I've had things simply just stop working and just beep at me until I do a hard shut down. Of all of those, this has to be the most startling kind of crash - the thing just shuts down. Let me show you what I mean...this is jumping ahead a little bit in time, but I think you can connect the dots until I explain it a little later.

The first time it happened, I thought that maybe I had stepped on the powerstrip and turned it off, or had unplugged it or something (at this point I had the battery removed from the laptop, after my uncle told me that it was dead). Everything was plugged in.

(Sidenote for fun - the only time that I have ever seen something shut down in a stranger way was this: I was installing some drivers on this current machine that I'm using now, in Windows XP Home Edition. I was also listening to the Bungie Podcast on my iPod in a similar fashion as seen in my 360 tutorial, except the input source was a male-male 1/8" cable from my iPod to my computer. Suddenly, the computer shut down, but for some reason the sound card was still receiving a little power, or still had power, or something, because while everything was off, I could still hear the podcast, except softer. It kept getting softer and softer until eventually becoming inaudible. Freaky!)

Okay so to make the video I just showed you make a little more sense, basically the laptop continues to shut down. Time passes, and for some reason (I believe that this may be a seperate problem, known colloquially known as "hard drive failure", a.k.a. "SNAFU" or "FUBAR" :) ) the laptop stops booting Windows 98, and instead is now displaying the friendly error message "Operating System not found". This is about the point where I turn to your friendly neighborhood linux distribution Ubuntu. I don't need to look at the minimum system requirements to realize that 7.04 Feisty Fawn isn't going to work on such an old machine, so I use 6.06 Dapper Drake instead. Like you saw in the video above, it crashes, in the same way that Windows 98 did (way back when the hard drive still worked...man those were some good times ;) ).

Time passes...I discover that my problem is that of the apparently common Vaio Shutdown design flaw. Now, I'm normally more of a software person than a hardware person, so please excuse me if I say something inaccurate, but from what I understand, due in some way to the processor or just the laptop in general receiving inconsistent power from the AC-cord, as well as the degradation of the parts inside of the laptop over time (this laptop is extremely old, if you haven't already guessed) the CPU inaccurately reads that it is overheating, and shuts itself down to avoid bad things happening (example).

I looked far and wide, before eventually discovering something about turning off ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) and APM (Advanced Power Management). This seemed to be the right way to go, but it didn't work with Ubuntu. I decided that maybe it wasn't working because the OS was too heavy for the laptop, and so I searched for something smaller. What I found was DSL; Damn Small Linux.

Damn Small Linux can be found here, for those who are curious about it. It's an extremely small distribution of linux that takes up the smallest amount of resources imaginable. I tried a live CD of DSL on the laptop, and it looked like it was working for a bit, but then it suddenly stopped. There was much sorrow throughout the land.

I'll save you, dear reader, from taking you through the endless searching, failed attempts, and dead ends that I had to deal with while trying to fix this problem. Eventually it was time for me to return home, and I took the laptop with me. One of my (slightly funny, yet actually probable) fears was that I was going to be stopped by airport security and asked to turn the machine on to prove it was a laptop and not some kind of dust-covered laptop-shaped bomb with stickers from Hong Kong on it.

I tried more things. I tried booting DSL from a floppy disk, thinking that perhaps the slow throughput of the floppy drive would prevent the machine from running very fast, thus preventing it from "overheating". I was wrong. I had forgotten, perhaps, that this machine has managed to "overheat" in the BIOS. Phht. Yeah, right. I mean you know how it is...changing the system date and time is such a resource hog. Whatever.

More time passed. I eventually came accross something involving the "no-hlt" command. This apparently stops the laptop from being able to shut itself down, regardless of how hot it thought it was. I was excited, and tried this with DSL. No such luck. I was thinking that maybe the command wasn't supported by DSL or something, so I tried it with Ubuntu 6.06. Yeah, it hung in the middle of booting, but it sure didn't shut itself down!

I tried using the command with DSL again, but it didn't work. At this point I was trying this command line: "boot: dsl noacpi apm=off acpi=off no-hlt" with no success. This was where I became very frustrated. I tried other things, other operating systems, without success.

Yes, even more time passes, and last night I tried this command line, after seeing some of the options shown for DSL in the boot menu, and the way they were written. I decided to try every iteration of the boot options that I could think of in the command line, and tried booting with this: "boot: dsl noacpi noapm nohlt no-acpi no-apm no-hlt acpi=off apm=off hlt=off"

It worked!

The only thing that I had to get past is that the hard drive is still not recognized by the laptop. My current theory to explain this is that it's dead, or is in Spain for some reason. No matter, as this is solved by a USB thumb drive! Woot!

The lesson learned from all of this is simple: Syntax matters. There may not be a directory at /home/shaymus22/desktop, but there sure as hell is one at /home/shaymus22/Desktop

So, now I have a laptop! Woot! :)

Click the thumbnails to view them large!

Back from California!

2007-08-26T14:51:00.000-04:00

And I have photos! Check out the flickr photoset by either clicking the image above or by clicking this link: http://flickr.com/photos/shaymus22/sets/72157601635022402/

Gone to California for a week!

2007-08-19T02:41:00.000-04:00

I'll be back Sunday the 25th!

Webcomic #2: "Drought"

2007-08-14T13:49:00.000-04:00

This webcomic was BSG themed. I was thinking about it mainly because of one of my most favorite podcasts, Galactica Watercooler. They've kept me from going insane in this aforementioned "Drought" of the one reason I haven't completely given up on television. If you have no idea what BSG (Battlestar Galactica) is, it's a science fiction TV show unlike any that I've ever seen. SciFi's page for it can be found here.

You can view a larger version of the comic here!

BioShock Demo Review

2007-08-13T12:37:00.000-04:00

I downloaded the BioShock demo last night. It took forever, and from what I understand, there were three servers allocated for the download. Each could handle 1 million people at once, and all three melted. Like, into liquid. I heard this from a friend of Horatio; I forget his title, but he works in the Xbox division at Microsoft.

Anyway, I set the demo to download, enabled background downloads, and shut off my 360. This way, my console shut down everything but the hard drive and the network connection downloading the demo, and when it was done, it shut itself completely off.

The demo itself isn't very long. It took me somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes to finish. You get to use the shock and fire powers, as well as a wrench and a revolver. I wasn't expecting much - it is a demo, after all.

The graphics are incredible. The water effects in this game are insane. I've never seen anything as amazing as them. This game looks better than Gears of War. The lighting is superb, and the level design is different than what I've seen in games that I've played before.

The story is immersive, even in this short demo. You start out as the victim of a plane crash, where you are the only apparent survivor. You're in the ocean, and swim to a lighthouse-like building, where you enter some kind of pod and are plunged into what could be considered the second Atlantis. I won't give too much of what little there is away, but this game has a very interesting plot.

Overall, I give the BioShock demo 4.5 brains out of 5 brains.

Gamefly: Day 12

2007-08-11T18:57:00.000-04:00

Battlestations: Midway arrived! I played the demo and liked this game a lot. I think I'm going to hold on to this one for a while, because unlike F.E.A.R., the achievements actually seem (at first glance, anyway) to be realistically attainable. Either way, the multiplayer over XboxLive is a lot of fun. Woot!

Webcomic! [updated]

2007-08-10T15:18:00.000-04:00

You've probably noticed the comic at the top of this page! It's the proof-of-concept of something that I hope to do regularly! I haven't decided on a schedule yet, but I'm thinking of doing a new comic at least once per week! You can see a larger version of the comic here!

More info later explaining the comic to those who might not get it, but for now, I have to go to work! Woot!

EDIT: The story that I'm having fun with in this comic is this one about the stupid NBC Dateline reporter who I would kick in the nuts if she had any.

Gamefly: Day 9

2007-08-08T15:41:00.000-04:00

I got an email today saying that Gamefly has shipped Battlestations: Midway. Technically, it should get here somewhere between Saturday and Tuesday, but if it follows the trend of other games, it could arrive as late as Wednesday or even next Thursday. I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, they'll surprise me and the game will be here on Saturday, but I doubt it.

Gamefly: Day 7

2007-08-06T21:09:00.001-04:00

F.E.A.R. came today, and it's scary as anything I've played! I'm going to play it now! :D

Growing up and the death of innocence

2007-08-06T20:09:00.000-04:00

When I was young, the world was a different place, at least for me. Maybe it was the same for others, but I can't speak to that. When I was a kid, before I went to school for the first time, the world was a wonderful place. I was going to be friends with everyone. It never entered my mind that anyone I knew would ever break the law. America was the best country in the world, with the most freedoms, and the most money. When I turned 16, I would get a car because when you're 16, you can drive. I would get an electric car, because the environment is important. I would help out my parents by taking cans and bottles to the dump to be recycled.
When I got older, I would go to the best college in the world because I would get straight A's. After I graduated from college #1 in my class, I would marry the girl of my dreams and we would buy a house and have kids. I would invent something amazing and we would become rich. Then, I would become president, and give food to poor people. I would explain to all of the other leaders in the world how silly killing people is, and they would understand and everyone would be friends.

That is literally how my mind worked when I was a kid. One by one, throughout the years, every single one of my beliefs has been proven wrong. Every concept has turned out to be a misconception.

Most of the people that I'm friends with do at least one of the following things: steal, drink (underage), smoke cigarettes (underage), drugs, etc. In fact, most of the kids in the school that I go to do all of those things. Logically, one would think that the teachers would be some kind of a guiding influence, but this is not the case. Incompetence in teachers at my school is so prevalent that even the hungover half-baked students that they're teaching notice it. Teachers are lazy. A lot of the time, some teachers don't have a clue what they're talking about. Some teachers grade homework assignments as 100% if they get it passed in. A lot of the students at my school don't bother to pass in their homework.

America is at war with an idea. It sent in troops and invaded a country who's people didn't want them to be there. The national debt is skyrocketing by the day. Politicians lie, and cheat. People manipulate the voting system so that they can vote more than once. The government is spying on its citizens. Suspicious people are sent to Cuba. People in prisons are tortured. Soldiers aren't receiving proper medical care. People hate the president, and people are saying that the president should be impeached. There was a hurricane, and people were left homeless, and it took days until help arrived.

Gas is expensive. Cars are too, but are more expensive if you don't want to use gas, and want to try to stop the environment from heating even more, melting the polar ice caps, and causing more islands to disappear beneath the ocean. Since gas is so expensive, we stopped going to the dump as often as we did, and a lot of people have done the same.

School turned out to be harder than it seemed at first. We are all products of our environment, and to fit in I became like my friends. The only thing that distinguished me last year from a stoner was that I've never used illegal drugs. Also, it turns out that girls are a lot more complicated. On closer inspection, it's a lot harder to do what you want to do and say what you want to say to someone that you care about. Fear of failure can be more repelling than the worst phobias a person can have.

Everything is not the candy-covered sugar-coated fantasy that it once seemed to be. The people you once thought you could trust can't be trusted. The things you thought you could rely on are lies. I guess this is part of growing up, but no one ever told me that my innocence would die.

Netflix: Day 5

2007-08-04T14:36:00.000-04:00

One of my Gamefly games arrived: Rayman Raving Rabbids. Unfortunately (even though the email I received from Gamefly telling me that F.E.A.R. shipped arrived only 14 minutes after I had received the email informing me that Raving Rabbids had shipped) it seems that I will have to wait until at least Monday to get F.E.A.R.

So far, I'm not particularly impressed. The games, which originally were estimated to take somewhere between 2 and 4 days to be delivered, arrived 5 days after I was told that they had been shipped. Now normally, I would attribute this to the US postal service, except that I was told within a 15 minute span of time that both games were shipping; they have not arrived at the same time, meaning, undeniably, that they were not shipped at the same time.

I'm hoping that this is not the normal way things go at Gamefly, but even if they are, it's not as if they make the games. Regardless of how long something may take to be shipped to me, it's still the same game. The experience of the actual game itself of playing it will not be affected (unless I get a scratched disk, shudder) by Gamefly in any way.

On the subject of game experiences, Raving Rabbids is fun...ish; it's a little childish. I have the distinct feeling that I'm not the target audience. Now, it's not as if I didn't know this: I originally planned to have F.E.A.R. along with Raving Rabbids, so if I got tired of F.E.A.R. I could play something more relaxed and still earn delicious Gamerscore. Either way, like I said - I'm eventually going to get F.E.A.R. and I'm looking forward to it very much.

Now I'm going to soak in as much entertainment and relaxation as I can in the next 12 minutes before I have to get ready to go to work, gakk!

HD DVD Player!

2007-08-03T20:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I purchased the HD DVD Player for the Xbox 360! It recently had a $20 price drop, so I only paid $180 for it!

As an added bonus, if you buy it now, you also get 5 free HD DVD movies! (Wow, does that sound like a line from an advertisement, or what?) Unfortunately, you have to mail in the form, and it also says to wait 8-10 weeks for processing. I'm also kind of worried that it said to include the original UPC code, except that I wrote it down because it would have ripped off. The only reason I give a flying crap is that I don't want to wait 4 months to be disappointed because I didn't file my form correctly.

Anyway, I got 300 on an HD DVD! It's beautiful!

What's also very cool is that the HD DVD Player comes with this sweet remote

that glows when you press buttons on it

I'm definitely having fun with the HD DVD Player even within such a short amount of time. The HD DVD Player also came with an HD DVD of Peter Jackson's KING KONG, but I prefer 300. :)

Gamefly: Day 4

2007-08-03T14:23:00.000-04:00

Well, my Gamefly games still haven't arrived. I'm hoping that they get here by tomorrow (Saturday), since otherwise I'll have to wait until Monday. This would mean that I should (according to the Gamefly site) report a shipping problem since it would be 7 days since they were shipped. I really hope that it just comes tomorrow and that it doesn't get complicated.

Marathon: Durandal

2007-08-02T15:17:00.000-04:00

Well, no Gamefly today, but I do still have Marathon: Durandal on the 360 to play. There is also this gem that makes me laugh just about every time I hear it. That is the direct link to the mp3, but the page can also be found here.

30GB iPod Video + 1-2 inches of water

2007-08-02T11:08:00.000-04:00

Something amazing just happened. So I go to check the mail to see if my Gamefly games have come in. The mail hasn't come in, but I went to check without shoes or socks on, so now my feet are dirty. I decided to wash my feet in the tub in my bathroom. I originally wanted to use my iTrip to listen to my iPod while washing my feet, but instead decided that the water was too loud, so I listened instead to my iPod with my headphones.

My iTrip
At this point, the iTrip is still in my iPod, and I am listening to BuzzOutLoud, a podcast by CNET. Suddenly, my iPod falls out of my pocket and into the water. It was locked (meaning that the buttons didn't do anything) since it was in my pocket, so it didn't even stop playing. It hit the water face down. When I snatched it up, it was displaying this error message:

FireWire connections are not supported. To transfer songs, connect the USB cable provided.

Press Center to dismiss
I'm naturally freaking out, pressing center and whatnot, completely forgetting that the iPod is locked. Meanwhile, the podcast continues to play, although strangely, it is cutting off a couple times per second. I managed to unlock the iPod, press pause, and get the headphones off of my head. I had to press Center a bunch of times before unplugging the headphones and the iTrip and putting the iPod on the floor.

My iPod Video
I think that the iPod would have been a goner had it not been for the smaller miniUSB port in the iTrip to block out the water from getting into the huge port at the bottom of the iPod. I'm just glad that I got a FireWire error message instead of a "I'm scared Dave, will I dream?" message.

Gamefly

2007-08-02T10:43:00.000-04:00

I finally got Gamefly, and have ordered F.E.A.R. and Raving Rabbids for the Xbox360. They say that it takes about 2-4 days for games to arrive after they delivered. I'm pretty excited, because today is the third day...I'm going to really be disappointed if the games don't arrive today. I'm also worried about the shortcomings (see #2) of the mail service (especially around where I live). The mail comes usually in about an hour, and I'm very excited.

Back!

2007-07-30T17:39:00.000-04:00

Photos coming soon! Bleh!

EDIT: check out the photoset by clicking the thumbnail below!

Going to West Virginia!

2007-07-26T01:29:00.000-04:00

I'll be leaving Thursday morning, and coming back Monday afternoon.
kthxbye!!1

New New Blog!

2007-07-24T15:45:00.000-04:00

You can view my old blog (with imported posts from my original blog) here or by clicking this link: http://www.shaymus22.wordpress.com

WOOT!