Random Stuff

I just found Lang Whitaker's picture from SLAM ONLINE on the internet. He's a white guy. And all this time I thought he was a black guy. Not sure what the means if it means anything at all...

Farenheit 9/11 is out in theatres and I haven't seen it yet. I'm sure it's going to be entertaining, funny and totally one-sided, and I want to see it. I don't think it'll sway the opinions of people very much. People against Bush will love it and agree with it, and people against will think it's unfair. Bush was nicknamed the great divider by Time once, meaning you either hated him or loved him. The upcoming election will be very interesting (unlike Canada's, which in my opinion is a little boring).

Actually, I think there's going to be another Canadian election relatively soon (soon as in 3-4 years). From the little about Canadian politics I know, it will be difficult to get a lot done with a minority government. I just hope that the NDP won't be able to wield too much power.

Summer terms are good for sports and bad for grades. In addition to the basketball team, I'm also on the softball team. Unfortunately they always seem to conflict. I'm also working out, but very inconsistently. I've lost 5-10 pounds over the last few months (of muscle) because I was sick so often last term. But the lucky thing so far is that it hasn't been too hot. We live in a house without air conditioning. :(

Just bought Warcraft III/Frozen Throne last week and have been playing that alot. It's tough to work when your roomates are always playing. I very rarely buy games, but I'm happy with my purchase. Blizzard makes good games. Plus, the only way I can play on Battle.net is by buying the game.

Just reformatted my computer as well. WARNING: the following paragraph is computer related - you may want to skip it, unless you'll like to learn something about spy/adware. I have had quite an interesting experience. I was getting a benign error on boot up that really didn't appear to do very much. But I figured I should reinstall windows anyways. So I did. Unfortunately, I had previously put my computer on DMZ mode (and unfortunately forgot that I did that). BTW, DMZ stands for demilitarized zone. That means I'm not protected by the hardware firewall. If you don't understand what that means, it means that my computer is extra vulnerable. When I had finished repairing/reinstalling, there were no window updates, which makes even more vulnerable. Pretty much right on bootup, spyware, adware etc was getting installed on my computer. I remember surfing to the macafee site, so that may have been what triggered it, but I'm not sure. It's frustrating that my computer was found and exploited so quicklky. So I just reformatted instead. On the second time around I made sure I was behind the firewall and just to be extra safe, disconnected myself from the internet. I reformatted my system partition, installed windows and installed service pack 1 (I have a real version of windows through the microsoft deal with UofWaterloo) before getting on the internet and proceeding to download the rest of the (security) updates. I was safe then. But it's just amazing how quickly my vulnerable computer was found and how quickly they were able to install unwanted software (approx 5 different programs) on it. So keep that in mind if you're doing any reinstalls.

I've been using a lot of Mozilla Firefox lately. It's a quality piece of (open source) software. The only advantage IE has going for it right now is that Google only makes the Google toolbar for IE. It's ironic that the only reason I'm using Microsoft's IE is because of Google's IE plugin.

For father's day/bday, we went for a lobster dinner at Lobster Royale Seafood Restaurant. Eating fresh lobster is very good, but a little tiring because of my lack of practice. :)

Done midterms, yay.

Had a fun weeekend after finishing up my midterms. Our family just got my dad a new home theatre system for his birthday, and I helped him set it up over the weekend. It's pretty decent; it's not top of the line or anything. It's a Bose system - which audiophiles, seem to look down upon. But it's nice and compact with a very large subwoofer. I just hope our neighbours don't mind.

I also checked out the Toronto Dragon Boat festival with Kitty and some of her friends on saturday. It's just as I remembered it...long lineups for ferries and free stuff and watching dragonboating is pretty boring if you don't know anyone participating in it. The lineup for the free cleaning supplies was horrendously long, so we didn't even bother. We did rent a two person bicycle, which was a lot of fun. I've never ridden one before, but I like it. Apparantly, it's a pretty scary experience for the person in the back, because they have no control over the steering, they are not involved in balancing and they can't see what's in front. But I wouldn't know what that's like, b/c Kitty was too short for the front seat... :) I also bumped into Kevin and Pauline. We were both in line to shoot some basketballs for prizes. The ironic thing is that both our girlfriends got one in and neither Kevin or I were able to. um, yeah...

So anyway, I'm playing on our class team's intramural basketball team this semester. It's a lot of fun, but I'm just not used to playing full court basketball. I'm also in the 2nd tier league, where the competition is tough for someone of my (lack of) size and slowness. We have a player on our team that can dunk, so that helps.

Anyway, here are some links:

A 25 year old reporter experiences the Prom again...by taking out a 17 year old girl! Check out his Prom Story.

Here's an article in Wired about geek dating. A choice quote, "Now that so many women are online, it's our chance as geeks to start getting more dates."

Seinfeld & Superman: just hilarious, especially if you enjoyed Seinfeld's TV show. This was from a while back, but now they have a second episode out.

And last, but not least. There might be a new dynasty: Yao & Tmac. We'll have to wait to see if that goes through.

2 Reasons Why It's not Worth Getting Too Worked Up Over Politics:

I haven't blogged in a while, but I just wanted to poke my head out of my hole in the ground and give a brief editorial. Before I begin, I recognize the grave importance of elections and in choosing a government. It is the duty of every citizen to make a responsible choice to the best of their rational ability. That's why I do follow politics quite closely. However, I just wish to address the negative passions that seem to fly at this time -- heated exchanges, emotional arguments and, in less developed democracies, outright violence. I can't help but feel that all this negative energy is wasted on a fruitless cause, and can better be put elsewhere.



1) Politics is a Means to an End, not an End in Itself.

The reason we refer to those in public office as civil SERVANTS is because such people serve the public good. A lot has been said about political apathy. Yet it's not political apathy to say that your day-to-day concerns about your family and friends take precedence over the political situation. It's not political apathy to say that you're more interested in religion or literature than politics. Imagine how busy our lives would be if each of us had to worry about creating a national tax plan, healthcare reform and balancing the budget. While some people are turned on by that sort of thing (ewww), not all of us are. If politics is your passion then be a politician and serve the public! Although I'm thankful that such people exist, in the end, good government is supposed to relieve us of these lowly, superficial concerns so that we can pursue loftier goals -- whether they be in the form of religion, art, literature, music or yahoo fantasy sports.

It IS political apathy to NOT vote, to totally ignore national issues and to say they don't matter. But let's keep things in perspective -- there's a lot more to life than politics. In fact, the cynical but not too far-fetched argument can be made that the ideal government breeds a certain degree of apathy. It means that things on the national stage are going so smoothly that people start to lose interest and pay more attention to their own lives. We see this in periods of great stability and prosperity such as the pre-cold war Eisenhower 50's, or the Chretien era in the 90's. Only in periods of turmoil and unrest do the charismatic leaders such as JFK, Reagan or Trudeau emerge. While political apathy is not defensible, can anyone say society is worse off if voters are less passionate but they become better husbands, fathers, teachers, doctors and lawyers? In my opinion, these duties should be one's first priority.

2) I have faith in my fellow Canadians

This point is meant to stress the following:

You are responsible for one vote -- your's

I can't seem to stress this point enough, because it is so often is lost in all the heated political rhetoric that flies around today. While I may feel a certain way about the future of my country and am entitled to those views -- Who am I to speak for the views of others? Who am I to say that my ideal Canada is really THE ideal Canada?

To truly believe in democracy, one has to accept the viewpoints of others as the product of fellow rational beings. While my views may make perfect sense to myself, I have to accept the views of other Canadians -- whether they are from a Quebec separatist, an Alberta oilman, a Toronto homosexual, or a small-town Christian conservative. Whether we think the same or differently, their votes and their opinions have as much merit as my own. If a government gets elected that I don't agree with, I have to accept the outcome as one chosen by my fellow citizens -- competent and rational people with reasons for acting as they do.

In a world of division what we need to work towards is unity. This does not mean attacking conservative views if we are liberal-minded, or attacking today's liberalism if we hold to conservative views. That's why I have little respect for filmmakers such as Michael Moore because intellectually, he is no better than his most strident Conservative counterpart. While I have generally liberal views, I see no value in making the liberal argument in the form of disparaging ad-hominem (against the man) attacks that merely alienate the other side. It does the world no good to paint right-wing American neoconservatives as a bunch of crazy, irrational lunatics running around with guns. Rather than reaching out to the other side, accepting their existence as fellow, rational creatures and making an attempt at consensus and reconciliation, such diatribes merely strengthen the divisions in our world and serve to further alienate the opponent. This is the last thing we need in the world today. We need to listen to each other, not scream at the top of our lungs.

It is for this reason that I am sometimes hesitant to give my opinion on certain matters. It is a belief that I trace back to the Taoist belief of wu-wei or non-action -- probably the first thing one learns in a Chinese philosophy class. True wisdom in the form of the Tao is found by separating oneself from one's wants, desires and opinions; it is found by taking the divisive elements that seem to exist in the world -- the Yin with the Yang, and unifying them in one seemless whole.

I'm proud of a Canada that's yielded both the Martin's and the Harpers, the neoconservatives and the separatists. I may not agree with all they have to say, but I recognize that their story has the right to be told and that their interests have a right to be defended. My Canada includes all these elements, but we'll never get anywhere if we don't start listening to each other and working together.

Email Wars

Yahoo just upgraded their service last night. As they promised a while back, they are giving users 100MB of storage space. Google's response? Well I got three one more invite(s) :).

I have nothing else to write about at this moment...except to say that I'm so screwed for my ece471 (EM waves) midterm. I've been so unmotivated to study this course. All my other courses are more interesting.

For the bored out there, here are some links:

A true Donald Duck Hater.

The top 100 economic entities. And half of them are corporations. Isn't that alarming?

It's summer! So to help you pick your vegetables, here's a (sort of) helpful guide for picking fruit

Ciao.

Corn-Dunks

Earlier in the term, I was at the supermarket buying cereal. I like Corn Pops, so as I was walking down the cereal aisle, the No Name brand of corn pops caught my eye (since they were cheaper, of course). Because I was undecided as to which cereal to buy, I picked up the box to read it. They named it "Corn Dunks", with the 'o' in Corn replaced by a basketball. On the side of the box it read:

Alley-oop! When you play the game,
you play to win and when you want
to win, you should always start
your day with a slam dunk bowl of
cereal! Enriched with 7 vitamins
and minerals and low in fat, this
tasty cereal can be an important
part of your nutritious MVP
breakfast. Don't get caught snoozing
at the free-throw line; get "nothing
but net" with Corn Dunks
Cereal and nothing but milk!

Who writes these things? Do kids get to write these things? Is it someone's job to explicitly write stuff like that? Did it come across some editor's desk and the editor thought that the writing was so good, that it needed to go on the box? And who is it targeted towards? When kids read this stuff, does that make them want it? Or is it for parents? When a parent reads this, does it make them want to buy this product for their kids? I'm perplexed. Maybe I'm too used to seeing writing on my cereal box aimed at adults.

In the end, I guess it was successful. It made me want to buy it. Hmmm....What does that say about me?

PS They're pretty tasty

Orkut

It's the new Friendster...but affiliated with Google!

Here's their description:

orkut.com is an online community website designed for friends. The main goal of our service is to make your social life, and that of your friends, more active and stimulating. orkut's social network can help you both maintain existing relationships as well as establish new ones by reaching out to people you've never met before. Who you interact with is entirely up to you. Before getting to know an orkut member, you can even see how they're connecting to you through the friends network.

orkut makes it easy to find people who share your hobbies and interests, look for romantic connections or establish new business contacts. You can also create and join a wide variety of online communities to discuss current events, reconnect with old college buddies or even exchange cookie recipes.

Actually it seems to be much better than friendster. The best part about it is that it's faster. I got so frustrated when I first signed up to friendster that I just gave up.

Orkut has a few new/different features. It has communities, which works a lot better than how people tried to make it work on Friendster. There's information that you only keep to yourself. For example, you can put someone on your "add to crush-list", which you'll only be able to see. Then if that other person clicks on you as well as a crush, a message will be sent.

I found it really funny that they called it Orkut, because that's the guy's name at Google that started it.

Yeah, I'm bored...that's why I'm wasting time on Orkut. I really should be studying.

(BTW, to join you have to get an invite from a current user...if you want to check it out, msg me)

Gmail

I've got what appears to be two three ZERO extra gmail accounts...what shall I do with them? Give them away to you? Or hoard them? Or find some desperate soul on GmailSwap?

Let me know if you want one...

Also, if any of you have watched Spellbound, one the contestants started a blog, which appears to be for real.

Also check out this contestant fainting and then getting back up to spell the word alopecoid correctly. (btw, thanks kevin for the links, yo).

Hey man, I didn't mean to say it looked gay, just surprising. Pink doesn't have to be gay!

Any Mechies Out There?

In ECE, we all have to do a big fourth year project that actually counts as a course. My group is doing a videoconferencing project where we point a camera to the location of a sound source. In terms of engineering, it reduces to locating the source of sound in three dimensions and pointing something at it. We're using a DSP board to do that, but our group is having the most trouble with the physical construction of the camera and motor assembly.

So basically I just wanted suggestions on how to build the damn thing. It needs to be a tilt and pan camera mount. We're using servo motors to perform the actual movement. We've come up with a basic design and was wondering if anyone out there can give suggestions to improve it. Even suggestions on what materials to use are welcome.

Scroll down on the following link (it's actually our design document that we had to submit to our prof. A basic drawing of our design can be found near the bottom. Critique it....NOW!

BTW, you can send email to me through my gmail account (my username: nelsonhu)

Thanks.


PS quite a few people have taken the time to tell me my new template design is pretty gay (not that there's anything wrong with it...). But i'm going to keep it for now. Maybe i'll try to get rid of the purples and pinks it likes to go to so often....

nice colours man... But the first couple of times I loaded it up, it came up a really bright pink. Needless to say, I was a little surprised.

Template Changes

Finally got around to changing the colour scheme and layout. I hope you like the new colour scheme, it's a little schizophrenic. Make use of the buttons on the right. I tried to get some cookie action going so you can stop it permanently on a colour you like, but for now it's not working.

Well, I just hope that it won't become too annoying once the novelty has worn off.

Psych 101

Before I finish university I wanted to take a bunch of 100 level art courses. Well so far, I have succeeded in taking philosophy 101 and sociology 101. Next was Psych 101. I had taken those other courses without knowing anyone in my class, but this time, Edmond and Cary also took it at the same time. It was by far the largest class I've ever taken....there were about 700 students in that one class, which I know doesn't compare to UofT class sizes, but for Waterloo, that's as large as it gets. It was also weird to be in a first year course, because it was so obvious that these were mostly first year students. Just the way they talked and acted. And plus after class there would be this huge column of students walking back to the dorms. Also, there were a lot of females, which was very abnormal, since all my engineering classes are dominated by males.

Anyway, previously, my lab partner, Scott (who's wife is due for twins next term!!!), had taken the course (but with another teacher) and he got %100 (there were several opportunities for bonus marks, like participating in psych studies). He's a really smart guy, but I thought I could do just as well since I would have a chance at bonus marks as well.

I did quite well on the midterm and after writing the final, I was pretty confident I had also done well. But when I got my mark a month later, it was 77%. I thought that was strange. I wanted to go see the prof about it and check it out, but he was only in every monday during the summer term. So when I finally got a chance to see him and after some investigation, it turns out they had made a clerical error. My real mark was 93% (which is good for a 4th place tie out of 669 students)! They had made a mistake that was worth 16%! Wow. It's a good thing I checked it out.

So let that be a warning to everyone...the university can make big mistakes and it might be worth your while to make sure everything was done properly. I'm sure glad I did.

Free Prizes

Keith and Huy just won an Xbox. I'm jealous....even though I would turn around and sell the Xbox for a Gamecube.

I won something too...and Ice cream cake! Actually I won it several weeks ago. Richard and I were at Baskin Robbins on the free ice cream day. We actually went around to three different stores, for 3 free cones. Yes, I know what you're thinking: i'm cheap. Anyway, it gets better. I entered in a free draw and I was picked! So i had to to choose a flavour for my ice cream cake (chocolate peanut butter) and picked it up the following week.

It was good day, total (free) haul: 3 ice cream cones + 1 ice cream cake.