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I’m Rich I Tell Ya! Rich!

I

A couple of months ago, I filled out one of those stupid "Win a Free Xbox" things. I just had to sign up for a bunch of services and then cancel them. 6-8 weeks later I was supposed to get an Xbox. As it turned out, they had run out of Xbox’s, so they sent me a check for $200 instead. Fortunatly for me, the Nation of Costco sells the Xbox for a mere $189.99. I also get an extra controler, DVD playback kit, two games, and two free months of Xbox Live! I think that means I win. Granted, I had to spent about $2 total for some of the services, but with a return of 10000%, I think it was worth it.

ICES Pigeonholed

I’m going to pigeonhole the ICES for this year. As much as I want to go, I really rather just have the extra week in Seattle. Besides, there is always next year with bigger and better gadgets. Anyways, this means that I will now be in Seattle from December 15th (one week from today!!!) to January 11th or so.

EPICS Competition

Jennifer and I wanted to write you guys and tell you that unfortunatley you guys came in a VERY close third. We thougtht you guys did such a good job it deserved honorable memntion recognition. Dr. Knecht had to make a decision and he chose two others. We saw how hard you guys worked and how professional your projection, model, and boards were. B&B members should be proud! And seriously, you guys did get third place. -Mike

22 Hours Later

22 Hours Later

I’m finally going to bed after working this EPICS project for about 22 straight hours. The final outcome was actually pretty good, especially considering all the work Josh and I put into it. Goodnight.

EPICS: 11 hours and counting

I’ve been working on my EPICS project all day long, well since 12 when I woke up. The good news is that it’s almost done. The bad news is that we still have at least two hours or so.

‘Master/slave’ Most Politically Incorrect Phrase

…and this is what our world is coming to? Ehghad!

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The computer term "master/slave," which was banned as racially offensive by a Los Angeles County purchasing department, was named the most politically incorrect term of the year on Thursday.

Among other terms on the top 10 list of politically charged words and phrases, issued by the word usage group Global Language Monitor, were "non-same sex marriage" to describe heterosexual unions, "waitron" for waiter or waitress and "higher being" for God, a term some people found too religious.

"We found ‘master/slave’ to be the most egregious example of political correctness in 2004," said Paul JJ Payack, president of The Global Language Monitor.

"This is but one more example of the insertion of politics into every facet of modern life, down to the level of the control processes of computer technology."

In computer terminology, "master/slave" refers to primary and secondary hard disk drives. But a Los Angeles county purchasing department told vendors in late 2003 that the term was offensive and violated the region’s cultural diversity. The county’s department of affirmative action undertook a hunt to replace it on packages.

After a public uproar, the county backed down. Payack said that while the incident took place in late 2003, debate about it grew enormously in 2004.

The phrase "non-same sex marriage," was used by a former congressman who did not want to offend gay people by using the term traditional marriage, Payack said.

Also on the list this year were "Red Sox lover," to use in place of "Yankee hater," "progressive" for classical liberal, "incurious" rather than more impolite invectives for President Bush, "insurgents" instead of terrorists in Iraq, "baristas" for waiters, and "first year student" rather than freshman.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Ferguson’s Law of Information Succession

For the past few weeks, I’ve been watching the TV show 24 on DVD with Eric and Dan. In watching it, people react very differently to a specific situation because of the information that they have. To the viewer, it appears as if they are acting irrationally because we have all, or almost all of the information. I’ve also noticed this phenomenon in real life. Yes, I know it’s astonishing, but I do actually get out of the house. Anyways, this led me to thinking about how this could be made in to a law. Sort of like Newton’s laws. So, here is:

Ferguson’s Law of Information Succession

The order in which information is received by a person will dictate the action a particular person will take. Information that is received by two or more parties in different orders, or with different amounts of detail (including not receiving any information at all), can be acted upon in more than one way. Each action can be completely logical, even if the actions taken by each party vary radically.

Possibly the Worlds Most Connected Man

send_a_message.jpg

So my cool new toy is the Abacus by Fossil. It’s a Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) enabled watch, which means that it uses Microsoft’s MSN Direct service. SPOT works by using an FM subcarrier frequency (SCA – Subsidiary Communications Authorization) in major cities. If you are old enough to remember the change from mono to stero FM stations, the stero component ( a Left minus Right signlal) was broadcast on a SCA channel. This allowed users of mono FM recieves to still receive that signal, but users of stereo FM receivers to recieve both signals. In short, anywhere I can hear an FM radio, I can get data for my watch.

So that’s how it works, but what does it do for me? Well, to start out, the watch receives daily corrections to the time based on the atomic clock. Also, because the data signal is sent regionally, the time automatically changes based on what time zone I’m in. I also receive local, national, and international news, plus breaking news on my watch, sort of like one of those fancy pagers. Even better is the fact I get current forecast, both locally in Golden and in my Frequent Destinations (i.e. Seattle), plus international weather information. I also get wind direction and windchill information plus a three day forcast for my location. I get daily diversions which include things like quote of the day, word of the day, and this day in history. And now the really cool parts: If you use MSN Messenger and I’m on your buddy list, you can now send messages directly to my watch…as well as my cellphone. AND…and this is part I like the best and half the reason I got this watch…my Outlook Calendar syncronizes with the watch to AUTOMATICALLY alert me of appointments I have scheduled. Now how cool is that? Really! How cool is that? That is awesome, that’s how cool that is. Check out the online demo.

…And So It Was

My calculus drop is all but taken care of. I was a successfully able to extend the deadline until tomorrow with the help of my wonderful Mines Mentor, Louisa Duley. So. That means that I get to take calc again next semester and I can’t take physics. I have no idea how this will affect my schedule yet. I also got a new toy, more about that tomorrow though!

“W” is for Withdraw

Well, you can say I didn’t try. Calculus is just not clicking as well as I need it to this semester so I’m going to take a “W” instead of trying for a “PRG” (grade in progress) which I wouldn’t make anyways because I practically failed my first two tests. Although it wasn’t for lack of trying…or studing, because I did both.

So anyways, today’s test pretty much did it for me. I spent like 3 hours studying and was definatly confused on major portions of the test. I think a lot of it has to do with the actual practical applications of calculus becuase I understand the lesson just fine and I understand most of the problems in the book just fine. So next semester I plan on doing more of the homework problems on a regular basis. Assuming I can find both my teacher and my advisor tomorrow so I can get them to sign the form.