Month: May 2004

Last Monday, I finished my semester, and the last classes needed for my degree. I have to complete my internship before I graduate, but that is all that is standing between me and the “real world.” That is unexpected, because I will be able to finish my MIS degree much earlier than I expected. I have not blogged very much this week because I have been thinking about my past and future plans. Here is what I want to accomplish between now and August:

• Finish Master’s degree.
• Finish the project for my university job.
• Buy a car.
• Learn to drive (again)
• Find a new place to live.
• Move to San Antonio.
• Learn Java.
• Code Java like a pro at my internship.
• Find a sweet job.

I have updated the Movable Type install for this blog to 3.0. Let me know if everything is working ok. I’ll set it up to require TypeKey registration once the final version is released and I have the kinks in the templates worked out. I am still offering free blogging from my domain, but I may have to switch to another blog because of the licensing changes for Movable Type.

I also signed up for an account with Gmail, Google’s new email service that offers 1GB of storage space. The storage space is certainly handy, though I miss some of the features Hotmail’s advanced features. My new email address is heroic at gmail.com

Check out the Showtime show “Bullshit!” Now in its second season, this show by ?confirmed skeptics and pro-science atheists? Penn and Teller makes beefsteak out of sacred cows. Be sure to check out the list of topics they debunk the hell out of.

Check out the interview with Drs. Brook and Ghate on IRC. Any ideas for the next chat? I’m all ears.

After attempting to shut down or censor most of its cyber cafe’s, China has launched another effort to shut down cybercafes “because of fears that the Net could corrupt the minds of youngsters….”

“We must take utmost resolutions and make utmost efforts in the clean-up campaign to achieve our anticipated goal, for Internet cafe management has an important bearing on the healthy growing of juveniles.” … As if to prove a point, Xinhuanet cites the tragic case of two youths who were crushed to death by a train when they fell asleep on a railway track after spending 48 hours in a cybercafe. … He cites the case of a 19-year old who, after surfing the next for five to six hours everyday for five years who had come to believe that “invisible pairs of eyes in cyber-space were peeping at
him and examining him all the time”

Of course the real reason China bans uncensored internet access is obvious:

“They have brought great harm to the mental health of teenagers and interfered with the school teaching, which has aroused strong reactions from the public.”

Translated from newspeak, that means “interfered with the indoctrination of communist propaganda, which arouses strong fear within the Communist Party.”

“National Prayer Day?” What the hell? Since when is faith and humbleness the mark of a proud nation based on reason and individual rights? This sounds like something they do in Iran or Saudi Arabia. For a truly American holiday, how about a National Day of Reason instead?

As you may have noticed, I have added Google Ads to my blog. I earn a few cents for each click, so please consider sponsoring my site 🙂 (Note: the ads seem to be showing only intermittently due to low click-through rates. Feel free to remedy this!)

Austin is one of the very few places in Texas where this kind of thing could happen:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Partygoers apparently hoping to catch a glimpse of nude sunbathers crowded on one side of a floating barge, prompting the ship to capsize and dump all 60 people into Lake Travis.

The NYT has a scare-piece that claims that the United States has started to lose its dominance in critical areas of science and innovation. I think the reality is that the spread of capitalism has spread and accelerated scientific and technological achievement to nations that formerly had neither the freedom nor the money to afford it. Advancements in science and technology are a benefit to everyone, regardless of which country they happen in.

Conservatives say some stupid things every now and then, but it’s leftists who really make me sick.

Regarding the “torture” of Iraqi prisoners: admittedly, it’s unprofessional behavior for a soldier, but where is the media outrage over the bastards who brutally tortured, dismembered, and burned U.S. soldiers and civillians? Whatever happened to photos like this?