by   •   General
 

This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Yes, I realize that I published an update to an older article with the update dated December 1, 2010 (which is in the future, if you haven’t noticed). I released it early because I had time to write the article and released it right after I finished writing it, and I don’t feel like unreleasing it. If it makes you feel any better, you can pretend that it’s a special exclusive preview. Even though the final version will be exactly the same.

 

In other news, I talked with a Dell customer service representative earlier today about a problem I’ve been having with the connectivity between my motherboard and my laptop’s screen. I ended up getting a resolution to my problem, but the chat process was an interesting experience.

At first, I thought that she was the slowest typer I’ve ever seen – it took about half a minute for her to type “Alright.” Then, a few minutes later, she started sending me massive paragraphs of text within a few seconds of typing. I realized that she was probably using canned responses, but that didn’t explain why it took her so long to type “Alright,” because you would assume that they would add a common response like “Alright” to the list of canned responses.

Then I realized that she probably was using canned responses for “Alright,” but couldn’t find it in the list quickly enough and ended up spending more time looking for it than it would have taken her to just type it.

Sometimes I wonder how they even got their job as a support staff representative.

 

Picture of the Day

Keep Pizza Flat

Keep Pizza Flat

Because we all know how frequent it is for people to transport their pizzas while holding them sideways.

(via Flickr @ http://flic.kr/p/8XDq3B)

 

—§—

 

by   •   General
 

This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Interesting story of the day: the web director of the Badger Herald got stranded in Milwaukee today and couldn’t get back to Madison until about 11 PM. I’m sure he appreciates me telling all my readers about this.

 

Quote of the Day

This conversation took place via IRC with a friend who goes by the name “Twinkie” who was watching some of my videos on YouTube.

After linking to an uninteresting video, he says, “This video is boring.”

I reply, “That video wasn’t supposed to be interesting.”

A few minutes later, he links to another one of my uninteresting videos and says, “This one’s boring too.”

I reply, “That video wasn’t supposed to be interesting either.”

After a few more minutes, he links to yet again another one of my uninteresting videos and says, “Boring.”

I reply, “Why are you so good at picking out my uninteresting videos? Watch some of my sit-down vlogs where I tell stories.”

Once again, he links to another one of my videos, and says, “Still boring.”

I reply, “That one wasn’t supposed to be interesting either.”

He replies, “OMG then just label your videos ‘worth watching’ or ‘not worth watching’!”

 

—§—

 

MySQL Table vs. Dinner Table

by   •   General
 

This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

 

Quote of the Day

I came across this quote while I was working on some MySQL stuff for the Badger Herald:

“A MySQL table is completely different than the normal table that you eat dinner on.”

Thanks for clarifying that, like it wasn’t obvious.

http://www.tizag.com/mysqlTutorial/mysqltables.php

 

—§—

 

Window Reflection

by   •   Daily Shoot
 

This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

 

Picture of the Day

(+49) 694-0059

I just got a phone call from a number with an area code that started with a plus sign.

I did not know that was possible.

(via Flickr @ http://flic.kr/p/8VbtUg)

 

The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day

#DS371: Find or make a reflection in a window today and shoot through it to create a layered compo­sition.

 

—§—

 

Buzzing Refrigerator

by   •   Daily Shoot, What I'm Watching
 

This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

I’m writing this blog post from the Computer Sciences & Statistics building at my university because THERE’S THIS ANNOYING BUZZING SOUND COMING FROM BEHIND MY REFRIGERATOR AND I CAN’T FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS.

Hey, at least it’s peaceful and quiet in this building during the weekends.

I have no idea how I’m going to fall asleep tonight, though.

 

The Daily Shoot Assignment of the Day

#DS370: Tungsten light can often create a warming effect, depending on your white balance. Use tung­sten light in a photo today.

I’ve never used the tungsten light setting on my camera before, but apparently it’s there to turn black keyboards into blue keyboards.

 

What I’m Watching

It’s been a while since this section has made its last appearance, primarily because I haven’t really had the time to watch that many movies. When I do get the chance to watch a movie, I end up not having time to add this section into my blog post for that day. I decided to catch up today and write about a movie I watched closer to the beginning of November, The Social Network.

The Social Network, a movie sometimes known as the “Facebook movie,” is a movie about how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg came up with the idea of Facebook and how he carried it out for it to become a revolutionary website like it is today. There was a lot of talk about how good the movie was, and I had intended to watch it ever since it came out. The tipping point, however odd, was that I watched it for a Spanish project – we had to write a book or movie review on a work related to our major. My major being computer science, The Social Network fulfilled that requirement nicely.

Many of us know that Facebook started out as a social networking site for Harvard students, and ended up spreading throughout colleges before hitting high school students and adults all over the world. What many of us don’t know is that Facebook has a complicated history behind it involving conflicts, lawsuits, and greed. The Social Network follows Mark Zuckerburg as he struggles through all these problems, some with his close friends, in order to come out on top.

Seeing as a majority of us (not including myself) love to use Facebook for hours upon hours every day, I think it’s well worth the time to watch this movie to find out how exactly this apparently addictive website came to be. The storyline appears to be mostly factual, (I’m saying mostly instead of entirely because there were probably some comedic segments included that are irrelevant to the plot,) as for every fact that I checked against online sources (like Wikipedia), all the information matched up.

 

—§—

 

by   •   General
 

This post is over 15 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

That calculus exam was tragic.

We got a sheet with the solutions to all the problems immediately after we submitted the exam, and I don’t think I got a single final answer correct…

 

Quote of the Day

This came from a Jackie Chan Adventures episode that I watched on YouTube. The cartoon is hilarious, and I’m glad they uploaded the episodes to YouTube so I could relive my childhood.

At the end of the episode, they always read a question to Jackie Chan that was originally asked by a child viewer, and he answers the question. One of the questions was, “have you ever turned down doing a stunt?” Jackie’s response was along the lines of:

“Oh, if they tell me do crazy thing like jump to building top, jump off building, slide down pole, jump in car, then yes, I do it, absolutely. But if they tell me jump over Grand Canyon, no way! I can’t do.”

 

Picture of the Day

Gnone is the New Gnome

Gnone is the New Gnome

I actually have no idea what a gnone is, but I was bored while waiting for the bus at the bus stop, saw this sticker on a One Way sign, and took a picture of it.

(via Flickr @ http://flic.kr/p/8UhwkH)

 

—§—