Issues I am perplexed with
Monday, January 24, 2005

Free VoIP in the UK: Google gears up for a free-phone challenge to BT
Wireless Power: MobileRead - Wireless power recharging by Slashpower
I predicted it, I didn't think it was possible but it seems they have figured a way of doing it. I mentioned it to some friends a few weeks back and here it is, ready for commercial use by the end of the year.

Other things I have noticed in technological news have been the addition of rat muscles to silicon chips and hopefully developed into generators and the really exciting new division at MIT that is investigation biosynthetics and making electronic circuits using dna and bacteria.

Quote: Silicon Valley: "In total, the core of our team has invested something like 80 man years on this experiment, 18 of which are mine. I think right now the key lesson is this -- if you're looking for a job with instant and guaranteed success, this isn't it."

-- University of Idaho professor David Atkinson, whose years of work on an experiment to measure the winds on Saturn's moon Titan came to naught because someone forgot to turn it on

Labels: Life

Journal Entry for January
Monday, January 24, 2005

If you want nothing, don't ask for something. Today is a day for a written journal. The gaps between journal entries seem to be increasing exponentially, it would seem I have less time to write about my life on the interweb, or in hindsight I have nothing to write about. Well, at least I'm not like that loser from links.net, did you all see that? Some guy, let's call him David for namesake; David made a video of himself having a breakdown. David filmed himself going crazy and posted it on his journal. His craziness was induced by 11 years of internet blogging and no one to listen to "his shit" in real life. The bawling video was quite pathetic, his speeches and crying were contradicted by the whole filming process. However, look at me now.

My interaction and mingling with words is not of the highest caliber today, so I apologise now for any grammatical errors. It's probably because I had a 9 o'clock this morning followed by three more lectures - four hours of lectures in a row from 9:00-13:00. I have another lecture this afternoon at 5 but I can skip that one as it has printed notes and there is no exam on it, as such.

Let's start with the immediate issues in my mind; then I can be calm after I have sufficiently ranted. I'm currently anxious about a certain laboratory assignment concerning my "Analogue Design" module. It concerns the software program, "Orcad PSpice" which is a steaming pile of bug ridden crash worthy shit. My lack of experience using the program, the program's lack of built in help features and the steep learning curve all contributed to my first 3rd for an assignment in my degree - apparently I plotted the wrong things against each other in my analysis which rendered ALL subsequent work incorrect (who cares for methods, we want results!). The ins and outs of this program are so complex and non-user friendly that there is a whole module telling people how to use it. This module was taught last year, I missed out as I was on a different engineering string at that point. It took me half an hour to actually design the circuit I wanted let alone analyse it. Now I am faced with another PSpice project, worth 20% of the module. I can't do it and anything I have done is most likely wrong because that's how things are going for me. My inability, ineptitude and ignorance concerning PSpice will set me back considerably. It doesn't help that the program crashes every five minutes. I like to envisage the scene from Office Space, the one in the field; it calms me somewhat before I log out and go home.

Work loads this term are getting a little ridiculous. I have three lab reports to start so that they can be handed in next week. I also have some upcoming labs to report on, lectures to write up and questions to finish or at least attempt. I need to write an email about summer internships and blabber for help to my orca dolphin lecturer. Ha!

As you probably do not know, one of my current housemates is moving out next year and we have had to frantically try and find a new student to fill her gap. Our first eager participant was a Miss Di who very kindly backed out at the last moment (opting rather for an illegal sub-letting option with her friends) when we wanted to sign contracts. Thus we were given a week to find a new housemate before the estate agents started getting ratty. Luckily a friend of a friend knew someone and we met him on Saturday, he liked the house and is coming over to sign the contracts tonight. This has been a major headache for all involved, specifically my girlfriend who had taken it upon herself to single handedly sort and organise everything, bless her. So, not counting my chickens, we SHOULD have this lovely (cold) house I am sitting in now as accommodation next year albeit at an extra £10 a month.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is now blaring from my speakers down the aural canals and rattling my ear drums.

Last Wednesday was my birthday. Hoorah! I am 20 and am no longer affiliated with all that is binge drinking smoking whining teenagers. Hoorah! My girlfriend pulled out all the stops for me this year; a fine candlelit three course meal (A crab and salad starter, salmon steak and exotic vegetable main course and toffee cheesecake for desert), an array of wonderful gifts such as a framed 40inch Godfather poster, a replacement for a broken Kit Kat mug that previously adorned my existence and a ‘puzzling' IQ card game that I completed much faster than I should have. The celebrations ended on Saturday when I was treated to a party at the local bowling alleys with ten of my friends; a package that gave us a free drink and a bottle of champs for the winner. I bowled spectacularly well and achieved a score of 131 in my second game (I won). Our procession of student prowess moved onto Frankie and Benny's pizzeria/italiana restaurant for pizza, steak, lasagne and helium filled balloons. Thank you Samantha for organising everything.

Samantha is ill at the moment with a very nasty and painful stomach problem which isn't just indigestion as she had thought. I have an inkling she is in so I am going to wrap up now and go see her. CIAO.

Labels: Life

A quote by David Moore.
Friday, January 14, 2005

David Moore: "Ours is a generation overwhelmed by frustration, unrest, dread, and tragedy. Fear is wholly pervasive in American society, but we manage nonetheless to build our defenses in subtle ways-- we scoff at arbitrary, color-coded 'threat' levels; we receive our information from comedians and laugh at politicians. Upon the turn of the 21st century, we have come to know our isolation well. Our self-imposed solitude renders us politically and spiritually inert, but rather than take steps to heal our emotional and existential wounds, we have chosen to revel in them. We consume the affected martyrdom of our purported idols and spit it back in mocking defiance. We forget that 'emo' was once derived from emotion, and that in our buying and selling of personal pain, or the cynical approximation of it, we feel nothing."

Labels: External

Record US box office high in 2004 (article)
Tuesday, January 04, 2005

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Record US box office high in 2004: "Record US box office high in 2004

Ticket sales at the US box office reached a record high in 2004, although the actual number of moviegoers fell for a second year in a row.
Movies took $9.4bn (£4.9bn) at the domestic box office last year, compared to $9.2bn (£4.8bn) in 2003. The record high was attributed to increased ticket price, with attendance falling 1.7% to 1.51 billion. Shrek 2 was 2004's highest grossing film in the US, taking $436m (£229m), tracker Exhibitor Relations reported. Late boost

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ and the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 were unexpected box office successes in 2004, taking $370m (£194m) and $119m (£62.5m) respectively in the US.
Revenue for the year was falling behind 2003 in the final weeks of 2004, but comedy sequel Meet the Fockers boosted takings with total ticket sales of $162.5m (£85.3m) in the last fortnight of the year.
The average US ticket price was $6.22 (£3.26) last year, compared to $6.03 (£3.16) in 2003. Analysts said the two-year decline was no cause for alarm because 2002 was an anomaly with hit films such as the first Spider-Man movie and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. That year also included the latest instalments in the Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series.
'This is a great year,' said Exhibitor Relations president Paul Dergarabedian.
'We saw such massive increases in revenue and attendance in 2001 and 2002, there is just no way we're going to see increases sustained at that rate.'
Among films expected to perform well in US cinemas this year are Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Batman Begins starring Christian Bale.
King Kong, directed by Lord of the Rings film-maker Peter Jackson, and and Steven Spielberg's version of The War of the Worlds are also expected to prove popular."

Labels: External, Movie