EnglishMajoryness

I know my declared major is computer science and engineering, but I occasionally ponder whether or not I’m really pursuing the right degree. Am I actually an English major in some parallel universe? Sometimes I wonder. I’ll make a list to double check.

• I write stuff down. An immense amount. Scarcely a day goes by when yours truly hasn’t jotted something simply “because.” Over spring break, I wrote an essay at least one page in length every day. Partially for personal entertainment and enjoyment, and partially because it helps me keep a perspective on things and observe my thought process. Also, partially because “they just happened.” In addition, regular scrawling help me observe the lurking horror of my truly awful syntax, grammar, and editing errors.
• I tend to think of life in terms of what a great story it would make. Waking in a panic at 7 A.M. because of roommate’s fire-alarm clock, running to class an hour before it starts due to early morning disorientation, and holding the door for a random female becomes a decidedly epic tale of betrayal (how could you do this to me, clock?!), plot-twists (where is everyone?), and chivalry (the handicap button totally counts). I would continue with more examples, but The World At Large is probably better off not knowing exactly how I perceive things.
• On the flipside of simply enjoying life as it comes, I frequently attempt to direct and control it by composing sentences, paragraphs, and occasionally entire conversations in my head before initiating a join to normal socialness. These snippets of text frequently undergo revision a few times until I see it fit to release them into the wild. It is a jungle out there, though. There are nasty tribal people with spears who like to kill my fragile text and ideas, usually requiring me to reply shortly afterward. It’s tough to speak while mourning the loss of loved precomposed dialog.
• Perspective has a habit of killing the excitement brought on by the previous two bullet points.
• Technology interests me. Strongly. It’s the ideas of many people come together to better the world through communication, reason, and learning. Most of it is text-based. Think about it. It’s all currently about doing fantastic stuff with words. Connecting people, linking ideas, and creating new ways of thinking about information.
• That reminds me, the ultimate killer app has not yet been achieved.

Basic word processing functions

Basic spreadsheet functions

No need to save

Simple file format, pretty much just a zip file with XML and whatever inside. Images, video, MP3s, etc.

Ability to export PDFs.

LaTex support! Teh maths, they need notes about them. Kformula has a wonderful system. Embed or fork that off, maybe?

Allows text windows. Position text anywhere, take notes on images, write notes in the virtual margins etc.

Dump any file into a note in-line. Drag n’ drop from a browser, file manager window, etc.

Completely brainless outlining

WikiLike CamelCase linking

Very small and fast. Instant, if possible. If the user is coming up with new stuff faster then the program can process it, it’s too slow. Load time must be minimal, regardless of notebook size.

Open source! Cross platform! USB key compatible! Anyone should be able to use something like this. Palm, Generic Windows boxen, Macs, Ubuntu, TabletPC, etc.

Get a peer-to-peer note server going, while we’re at it. (low dev priority. SAMBA shares will hold users over in the meantime).

OneNote does some of it. Tomboy does some of it. Basket is a nice example of the whole “dumping” concept. None of them are perfect.

I shall call it “MetaApp”, and development of a prototype will commence eventually using Python and wxWidgets.

Copyright JamesGecko, 2007.

Oh, right. Enthusiasm displayed over a detailed spec list for an obscure software product targeted at a decidedly niche market. I guess I am an engineer after all.

Tree Robs Bank

For several undisclosed reasons (which those who know me can probably guess at), I find this news story hilarious.

Safari on Windows?

I’d just like to say, Windows Safari is pretty much the most bizarre thing I’ve seen all month. I feel so confused.

Pirates III is Out

There are some people who would say to me, “James, being an extreme Pirates of the Caribbean fanboy, having eagerly awaited the conclusion of the trilogy for months, and having been one of the first to see the third movie (having gone at 12:01 AM on May 25th), do you feel that it has been worthy of the anticipation, lack of sleep, ten bucks, and “Pirates” name?

The people who ask these things don’t exist, but I’ll flatter myself and pretend that they do.

To these sorts of people, I shall reply:

(Spoiler. Mom, don’t cheat.)

XFCE Usability

Just a quick shoutout for people using Xubuntu and having trouble consolidating everything onto one taskbar/panel…

Xubuntu has an invisible spacer on the top panel to keep the system tray and clock plugins all the way on the right. If you want to have the tasklist take up all avalible space on the panel, you will need to locate and kill this spacer, otherwise it pushes everything on the right side of the panel off-screen.

The great thing about this spacer is that you have no idea that it’s there, you only find it by observing the wacky behavior of the panel when you re-arrange plugins. I would suggest that the XFCE developers mimic Firefox, and show a white box or the text “spacer” or something in edit mode to let the user know that there is, in fact, something on the taskbar that they can’t see. I only found the spacer by moving everything on the panel to the extreme left and right clicking on a whim.

Huzzah for usability! Tune in next week, when uncle Frem shows you how to make a complete desktop environment using only forty-eight thousand dollars and your teeth.

iGoogle

No, seriously. iGoogle.

Lawsuit in 3… 2… 1…

Another Elaborate Prank Call

I now know that my anonymous prank caller has been reading my blog! Taking my advice, they have improved upon the previous call immensely.

Here is a quick, probably rather inaccurate recap of the conversation.

Her: Hey, this is [name I didn't catch], and this might seem kinda strange, but I saw your hootenanny skit, and I thought it was really clever, and you seem to know a lot about debate, so I was wondering if you wanted to meet up? I have some questions I wanted to ask you about it.
Me: Um, Ok. Yeah. This is totally not a prank call.
(I should have asked her for her full name so I could mock it like Strong Bad)
Her: No, it’s not. Really.
Me: You’re calling at 1 am.
Her: Am I? Oh, yeah, I guess it is. Sorry, I didn’t notice. Also, I’m kinda attracted to you.
Me: You’re attracted to me.
Her: Yes, I am!
Me: This is a prank call. Besides, check Facebook, I’m taken.
(I should have yelled “Denied” in my moderator voice and hung up.)
Her: Oh. But I still want to meet you! Can we talk?
Me: I guess. You can email me.
Her: Want to meet at MSC? There are people there, that wouldn’t be weird.
(At this point, I’m giving her the extremely tiny, minuscule benefit of a doubt against my better judgment. Perhaps she is simply insane, or really, really tactless. In any case, meeting a random stalker in broad daylight tomorrow can’t hurt. She does mean tomorrow, right?)
Me: Sure.
Her: Ok! I just got out of the shower, give me time to get dressed and I’ll be down there in 15 minutes.
(Riiiiiiiight.)
Me: Can’t you just ask me the questions now?
Her: But I like to see facial expressions. The phone is so cold and impersonal, don’t you think?
(I am holding the volume-cranked headset away from my face. My roommate and I are laughing quite hardily.)
Me: Dot Dot Dot. No. This is a prank call. I’ve gotten like five within the past month. They all tell me to go down to MSC at either one or three AM.
Her: Really? That’s horrible! But I’m serious. Besides, this is at one fifteen, not one.
Me: (muffled laughter)
Her: Well, I’ll be down there anyway. I guess I’ll just wait for you for a while. You can come, I’ll wait anyway…
Me: I’ve enjoyed talking with you. Nice prank call, by the way.

Yes. This was totally not a ploy to make me walk to MSC in the freezing cold in the dead of night. At the end of this trek, I would find either (a) nothing. Or (b) a bunch of guys who would likely abduct me. Either way, it’s better to stay in the dorm. The calls are getting a lot more elaborate. This ranks high above the “This is maintenance, does your sink work?” call I got a few months ago.
So, if it’s the same person (or persons) pranking me, I now know they have a girl friend. During Hootenanny, there was a group of guys yelling “Turn the stage!” during several skits. I’m told that they yelled it during The Tree Skit, though I was too absorbed in the performance to hear it. This call might come from one of them. I do hope that they left the poor Cookie Skit girls alone. The cookie skitters suffered enough.

In any case, I give this call a four out of five stars. In addition to being rather humorous, my stalker paranoia level has been raised to “amber.” Well done!

Rehearsal #2 Thoughts

Taking a skit from a rag-tag band of Monty Python fans practicing original material at the campus duck pond to the same group of people performing the same skit on a rotating stage in an empty gym with bright lights shining in everyone’s eyes and the echo of the cast’s voices rolling across the vast expanse of mostly-empty chairs is a fairly substantial shift. I mean, I knew it wouldn’t be the same, but I didn’t expect to have this much trouble making the jump. Fortunately, after three or four run-thrus, things are smoothing out.

I am no longer developing stage fright and forgetting my monologs as soon as the stage spins round and the bright lights shine in my eyes.

This is partially because the bright lights are shining in my eyes and I can’t see anything.

This is also partially because we’ve been having a blast putting this little skit together the past few weeks (or has it been months?), and even if the audience doesn’t get a few of the jokes or enjoy it, we will. Immensely.

Finally, I believe our drastic improvement is due in part, if not mostly, to a little prayer session the cast had up in the commuter lounge shortly before the second rehearsal. Caleb had been Calebing his tales of failure, woe, and chaos, and the mood was generally what some might describe as “glum”. The glass is nearly always full for me, but I must admit that even I was starting to get a bit down. So we gathered around a chair and just started praying. I don’t know. I have difficulty praying out loud (what comes out sounds suspiciously like an un-translated version of my internal thought process), but when we prayed together, the Holy Spirit showed up. I just find that fantastic. God cares enough about our silly little play that he is actively empowering us to see it through. Then, we started improving. I mean, we’ve been incrementally improving for a while, but this was a noticeable difference.

So I’m pretty psyched about this. We’re following some great acts, and with God’s grace, we’ll rank among them. I am slightly disappointed that we, The Tree Skit cast, won’t have a good, reasonable reason to randomly get together and skit after this is over. But finals approach, and all good things must end, I suppose. Besides, I hear Brian has plans for a documentary about another relevant, age-old issue which will be filmed and submitted to a future film-fest. Perhaps we can collaborate on that, or something similar.

So, to Brian, Caleb, JB, and Micah; I have enjoyed working with you guys immensely. The show will start in less then twenty-four hours. Two things:

• Let’s do this.
• God-bless.

I, For One, Welcome Our New Pidgin Overlords

Gaim development is really taking off. It’s flying these days. Seriously, what is up with AOL?

The Joys of Dorm Life

Where else but a dorm would someone call at 2am, do a very bad impersonation of a floor mate (Jordan L; aka, “English Major”) who left after last semester, and ask for CS homework help to round it off?

The great thing about it was, I was awake and coding at the time, and I enjoy a good prank, so I grabbed the bait. Sadly, it was nothing more then an ordinary prank call. No notes left down at MSC, and no spotlights or water balloons rained down upon me as I left the dorm. Seriously folks, if you’re going to prank, make it good. At least make the call come right before the sprinkler system actives.

Ok, I’m done now.

Note: On the off-chance anyone does actually want to get ahold of me at 2AM for HW help, try my AIM listed on Facebook. If I’m awake and/or feeling like free tech support, I’ll probably be on there.