Silly Altoids

Posted by Eric on February 24, 2003 No comments

I’ve always been big into mint. I still remember the day I first discovered Altoids. They felt so unprocessed and raw. And yes, they also tasted pretty good. One of the other good aspects of Altoids was the rectangular tin container. It’s perfect for tossing into your backpack and forgetting about it until you need or want a mint. Never had one Altoids tin open and spill it’s contents about.

So why is it that the new Altoids Sours come in this strange round tin that you are unable to close properly. How am I supposed to carelessly toss a container of these into my backpack without them ending up everywhere?

What were they thinking?

I survived!

Posted by Eric on January 21, 2003 No comments

The experiment was a complete success.

The experiment begins.

Posted by Eric on January 21, 2003 No comments

Addiction is a terrible thing.

I have to regain control.

At the lab.

Posted by Eric on November 5, 2002 2 comments

Today I found myself needing to waste time at a computer lab at school for the first time in a few years. Strangely, the one place where the hours used to pass by without notice no longer has the same effect.

I feel useless in here without my browser, my contacts, and my news reader. First off, the only browser choices are IE6 and Netscape 4. Talk about choosing between the lesser of two evils… I’m at least connected to AIM through the java version, but most of my daytime contacts use ICQ. And I’m not even gonna attempt to get on Usenet.

Blah, I’m bored. Someone get online!

No IE for me.

Posted by Eric on October 20, 2002 No comments

Today while playing around with the latest nightly release of the Phoenix browser, I suddenly realized just how long it had been since I’d used Internet Explorer with any regularity. It felt surprisingly good.

That is all.

My secret affair with Insomnia.

Posted by Eric on October 9, 2002 No comments

It is 4:41 AM and I am not asleep.

That fact, by itself, would normally not be very surprising. I often find myself awake at this hour, if not later. Of course, it’s a little different today because I’ll be taking my final midterm this morning. Even that, though, is not so out of the ordinary. Last week I stayed up all night before another midterm and did quite well on it. What is really bothering me is that over the last 3 days or so, I have had a total of only 4 hours of sleep and still I am awake and looking about for something to occupy my time.

In recent years I’ve had many epic battles with insomnia. I was very pleased when my sleeping schedule settled down during the start of this semester, so I hope that I can get back to that after all these evil exams and papers are past.

It isn’t really all bad, though. I currently feel so at peace with the world. I have clambered shakily over the “sleeper’s wall” and have entered into the sphere of tranquility one finds beyond. Nothing worries me here. My mind is free to wander aimlessly. Maybe I’ll listen to the rain tap random patterns against my window.

Oh look, the Yoda figurine from my shelf is awake too. And it appears he’s using his mysterious Force powers to levitate me about the room. I’d forgotten how much I liked to levitate.

Question: What’s the best time to start a new blog?

Posted by Eric on October 6, 2002 No comments

Answer: Probably not the day before school starts.

It’s amazing how tired you can get when actually trying to do well in your classes. Sure, it felt good to not freak out during midterms this past week, but then I look back at how little extra-curricular stuff I’ve done and it amazes me.

I haven’t written a single line of code in months now and I can feel the urge starting to gnaw at me. Of course, if I were to get into some project I would probably get a little too distracted and neglect my studies. Maybe I’ll just stick to the endless Photoshop projects I’ve been working on for friends and family. *cringe*

Regardless, I need some sort of creative outlet or I’m going to burst!

Space Cowboys and Annoying Amnesiacs

Posted by Eric on September 20, 2002 2 comments

Oh well, I guess I can stay in this Friday night. Two new shows that may possibly force themselves into my weekly TV routine. Well, that and I haven’t got a single other thing to do.

Firefly was cool; definitely something I’ll watch again. The ending especially had me laughing. You gotta love Joss Whedon. Apart from those times you’re hating his guts, of course.

I am in the middle of watching John Doe right now, and if the fact that I am multi-tasking here with my blog is any indication, I’m not entirely pleased with the show.

It seems like an interesting enough premise. Shows and movies about amnesiacs have always appealed to me, but annoying actors can ruin anything. What’s with these people. Does everything feel so rushed because it’s the pilot and they are trying to throw in something for everyone? They have got to slow things down just a tad.

Would someone please smack the lead character across the head when he goes into another one of those fact fits?

Instant Messaging Bliss

Posted by Eric on September 11, 2002 No comments

Without shame, I will reveal to you something about myself.

I am a hopeless software addict.

Yes, I realize that most frequent web users do at times indulge in this same vice, but few do it with as much gusto as I. The first thing I do when I sit down at a computer, be it my own or a public terminal, is check out the new releases at File Flash and at BetaNews. If I see nothing of interest there, I might swing over by VersionTracker or Source Forge.

Just yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting File Flash and seeing a new release of Trillian listed. It seemed at first to be just a minor point release, which I assumed was just meant to patch some security exploit that had been found a week or two ago. When I visited the Trillian site, though, I learned that along with the update to the free version of the chat program, Trillian Pro 1.0 had also been released.

I’ve been using Trillian for quite a while now and find it to be vastly superior to the native chat clients offered by AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! Aside from the obvious benefit of needing only 1 client to simultaneously connect to AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo! (it also has IRC support, but it pales in comparison to a dedicated client like mIRC), there is also the wealth of options, preferences and settings strewn throughout the program. I realize that some people are annoyed when faced with too many options, but I prefer having total control over every aspect of my software. Also, there are no evil advertisements to soil every square inch of the program.

Trillian wasn’t perfect, though. There were a few annoyances, some bugs and the default skin/interface was really not very good. But Trillian Pro solves most of these problems. The default skin/interface looks very nice and is a lot more efficient than the previous one. And most importantly, it now has a plugin system! So far Cerulean Studios has released some plugins which seem to serve as examples of what can be done. I especially like the RSS plugin, despite it being somewhat simple. Maybe with this plugin system Trillian will finally gain Jabber support.

Before I finish, I should mention that Trillian Pro is not freeware. It sells for $25. I think I would have paid for it, but luckily I didn’t need to. The developers are offering it for free to people who donated a few bucks to them in the past.

And no, I am not in any way affiliated with Cerulean Studios. I’m just an enthusiastic user that likes to point out good software to anyone who will listen. d:

Noisy Screens

Posted by Eric on September 2, 2002 No comments

I am currently in the middle of watching a few episodes of the TV series 24 on FX. They’re having a 24 hour marathon to mirror the 24 hour episodes in the series.

Something puzzles me about the computer monitors that everyone uses on the show. They all seem to make a buzzing sound as they load pictures and data. This got me thinking and I realized that this is a very common effect in many shows and movies that I can remember.

The sound itself changes depending on the show or the type of computer. Often, it sounds very much like a flatbed scanner, although maybe a bit more shrill.

What is the purpose of this sound? Do computers not seem high tech enough on screen if they aren’t making all sorts of noise? Most people watching tv or movies nowadays are likely to know that computers don’t make all these sounds when loading images on screen.

I know I’d be pretty upset if my monitor made that much noise.