So, I didn't fail CS240, wee.

So far the holidays have consisted of some good times with friends and family, like they should. There was some fun times last night at the Albion and then pool (I played soo horrible). Oh, and Stephie has some pictures from when she was with us in the 'bin. Good that we got to see so many people that stopped by that night.

My links today will be sparse. Just this one, because it's so nifty, for those of you who remember the old NES game Maniac Mansion. Maniac Mansion Deluxe, a Maniac Mansion remake updated in a retro sort of way, for the PC.

But anyway, I hope everyone has good New Year festivities.

And an update, too. Settling into the term for the year, in the basement in 534 Teakwood. Which worked out well, I'm taking Mathematics of Finance, Theory of Computing, Algorithms, Coding Theory, and (dun dun duuun) Operating Systems! I wonder if they can suck all the fun out of my favourite topic. We'll see. And now, linked list...

• starting with recent news HardOCP wins in their case against Infinium. Does this denote the start of the unravelling of the Phantom?
• from Anime News Network, Will Eisner died.
• linux.ars has a Year in Review. Time to try out Ubuntu?
• An Introduction to MSH, Microsoft's next shell. Pipes relaying .NET objects instead of stdout's plain text? Interesting concept, I'd like to see how it works.
• GLAT the Google Labs Aptitude test. the questions are kinda fun, like #12 "In your opinion, what is the most beautiful math equation ever derived?" [Euler's Identity, of course]
• Joel On Software's Joel on College
• the ever amusing Random LiveJournal
• and for lexx, OtakuBooty, yes, exactly what it says, hooking up gaming and anime otaku

Random Wikipedia Link:

• vim, the ever useful text editor for UNIX-types

Whuile this is old news, it's new to me, and possibly to my readership.

Richard D James definitely has the market cornered on creepy. Everybody knows that. But...

Have you heard the Windowlicker EP? Not only are Windowlicker and Nannou great tracks to listen to but [Forumla] is rather, interesting. It has a bunch of different sounds in it, a very cut up feel, and right at the end, Richard D James himself. Apparently the software MetaSynth, which can convert images into audio, based on how they are as frequency vs time graphs. Thus, the image appears in the music, when viewed by a spectrograph.

I also ran into the funniest cd review, of the same CD, from none other than Pitchfork.

Last night I went out to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with Sarah. Definately a good night. The movie goes highly reccommended. It has a quirky sense of humour, that will leave you chuckling, almost throughout the entire movie. Starting off with one of the documentaries that the crew create, it also retains the feel of a dockumentary throughout the movie.
I was going to write more of a review, but really, it doesn't matter, if a review is nessecary, then I'm sure you can find a more professional one somewhere else on the web.
I'm getting into classes now, they seem to be fun. I like Operating Systems so far. Hell, I even got to talk about my favourite system call (fork()) in class already. Heh. *snort* sorry.

Ahem.

Coding Theory looks like it could be fun. The jury is still out on that one, I just want to see how we apply it. If we apply it. Theory of Computing, definitely a yawner. Algorithms I feel like I've taken before (240, 134). We'll see how the term ends up.

Seems that's all for now.
(my apologies to Dan for ragging on his bit there)

Since it has been a couple weeks since the last one, there are a few links I've got stored up...

• the GTK+ Drawing Model a good little intro on how GTK does its windowing
• why would you want to run gentoo? Gentoo for all the Unusual Reasons
• for the CLI junkies that play too many first person shooters, wait, how many people read this use a linux cli frequently? Well, for me, tilda a terminal in the style of the ~ in FPS'es
• it's been out there a while, but I always link it because it's always funny - Wired's 2004 Vapourware Awards
• Wired also has a story on the Perimeter Institute
• Cyberpunk 203X, the next version in the Cyberpunk series.
• Gabe has a good rant against Non Sequitur
• there's a CC Mixter has a contest going on...a few names have tracks up uner a Creative Commons license, so that you can do some remixes. Kinda nifty.
• Open Source Software == Communism
• CBC's story on a bulgarian with a blood alcohol level of 0.914? Man.
• random images from livejournals, sometimes some pretty funny images

Random Wikipedia Article:

• Operating System, it's that bit of software between the hardware and the applications you're using now.

lesse...a few links here.

• because "most people" won't care about this much detail in their window manager
• who needs offices? Delicious Monster doesn't. A coffee shop works for them.
• why a boingboing rss feed is fun : Bill Gates centerfolds (for a teen magazine as a 28 y.o.). I can just wish I'm cool enough to be throwing around 5.25" floppys in sexy (note: this is still up for debate) poses.
• Ars Techinca on the rel="nofollow" attribute for search engines. Google fixes the internet? Google destroys the internet? Which do you think, guys?

Random Wikipedia Link:

• Finite Field, a mathematical construct for use in number theory and combinatorics. It is a field (an area that works as typically expected under the standard operations of addition and multiplication ) with a finite number of elements.

As a bit of an aside here, how many people reading this actually use RSS feeds? I only mention this because I'd assume that it would be worth it. Maybe I'll make a post about it for non-techies....but not now, at least.

And to finish off, I'm dead. I'm having a memorial this saturday.

From the wake on Saturday, as written by Alex Angel. Whom I thank for this. I thought I'd put it up for those that might want to see it, for posterity's sake.

Ladies, gentlemen, linux geeks:

We are here tonight to commemorate the passing of Ryan Bianchi, linux programmer and true Waterloo Compsci student. His days as a pure geek are over, and has entered the next world, one where he's attractive to women.
Ryan Bianchi was born a hopeless nerd on April 5, 1983. Throughout his geeky life, he carried on the tradition of computer nerds faithfully, never straying to the deadly temptation of women, until now. He was a proud linux geek, and is continued by his Widow and fellow [note: honourary] Mathie, Sarah-Beth Doner.
Ryan's friends knew him as a strong, silent, and often sleep-deprived man. A man of few words and little social sophistication under normal circumstances. Only those who knew him best were aware of the dangerous behaviour he exhibited under the influence of alcohol. The man would forget his proud amateur programmer heritage when drunk and actively court women with a easy-going,
engaging charm that would unfortunately turn out to be his downfall.
You might all be wondering how Mr. Bianchi met his tragic end as a linux geek. As I myself am responsible, in part, for his death, I will break my silence and admit my guilt in this sordid affair. One day, last semester, I invited him to join me at a company co-op party at the Brick Brewery. During this party, with malicious intent to end his existence as a true geek, I introduced Ryan to Sarah-Beth. They quickly hit it off and after that, it was only a matter of time before their association would result in the end of Ryan's true linux programmer days.
I'm certain that Mr. Bianchi's remaining true linux geek friends will have their own revelations and memories about the man who was. They miss their fellow pure mathie, but we mustn't be too upset about his passing. We must all remember, no matter how painfully we mourn who he was, that Ryan's in a better place now. He's entered Nirvana, a place where boobies are real and firm and inviting, and
not just used as method and variable names or ascii art.
I had originally intended to bring out Ryan's most closely held secret and have him buried with it. A few years ago, I had discovered an unmarked hard drive in his stash of old technology, a most interesting hard drive indeed, for on it was an 8GB collection of ascii porn, japanese dating sim games, and a good deal of furry and anime porn. These items, while shocking, were simply an indicator of the strength of Ryan's dedication to the computer geek life. However, the deepest, darkest secret of his life was buried in this drive...for not only did it contain no open source software or linux installations, but it booted by
default to a Windows Millenium Edition installation. Now, this was a secret that I'm sure Ryan wished to have buried with him, but to my amazementk, when Ryan left this world, his hard drive winked out of existence in a burst of flame and light. Maybe some secrets, some porn, and some Operating System
habits really aren't meant to survive their owner.
Ryan: here's to you. You're in a much better place now. You were one awesome sonofabitch. To quoth an old favorite anime of mine: "It is unfortunate to have entered Nirvana without having enjoyed the taste of good sake". Since I know you never had this opportunity in your true linux geek days, here's my
tribute to you:

• uw news: exams are now maximum of 2.5 hours, have more restrictions on contiguous exams and they've fit four per day, read more on the uw bulletin
• wired on the enigmatic cryptographic structure, kryptos in Langley, Virgina
• the BBC and Fred Hasson on video games... "There are still some developers who were involved in games from the bedroom coding days. Some of them are still making games for peer group approval - that has to stop."
  yeah, I don't like new concepts for games anyway.
• real snow sculpture, modelled after [Bill Watterson's] Calvin's crazy ideas.
• HUB with a photoblog primer. Maybe i'll write about why I like photoblogs sometime, maybe not.
• and though it's well known, I just happened upon it recently -- it's a good way to try and decide what movie you want to watch with your SO tonight - IMDb Power Search

Random Wikipedia Link

• Timmins, the northern Ontario hometown of the infamous Bill Barilko, and other important people.

Mainly for my man Klev, as these are pretty similar to projects he works on for school [anyone want to buy a snowball packing machine?], we make money not art is talking about an exhibit, called Strangely Familiar, Unusual Objects for Everyday Life. It's from a Interaction Design Institute in Torino, Italy.

• interesting interfaces for radios, though these lack practicality
• pillow communication for long-distance relationships
• a different take on something me and Klev have talked about implementing, an open-channel, ambient soundscape, such that you have a constant link between rooms, such that it'll always feel kinda like your friend is there
• and the most practical, an alarm clock that physically gets you out of bed

• recently read through TrueNuff, a decent, Canadian [on haitus] webcomic
• also read the comic butternutsquash. It's decent, also Canadian, a little sicker, and also on haitus
• Ontarians can now bring their own wine to [licenced] resturants
• Molson / Coors merger agreed on
• Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are now able to squander all of their money, they took over their company
• practical GPS usage, GPS::Tron, thats right, with a GPS and a cell for each player, you can play Tron in real life
• monkeys will pay for monkey pr0n (crap, that's not going to look good in Google)
• there's an article on DevonThink, talking about how computers can actually help you write things
• also, CBC RSS feeds have recently been set up

Random Wikipedia Link

• Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The only known moon with an atmosphere.