The Internet connection here in Millbrook 2-205 was down for about 36 hours, which is why there haven't been any recent updates. While my connection was down, I installed Windows 2000 on my computer, and as soon as I get the Palm desktop installed, I'll HotSync the post I made in class yesterday to the site. Which means that real content will be coming your way very shortly.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 31 August 2001 at 5:44 PM

For some reason, I didn't have Internet access in my room this morning. So I had to leave the comfy confines of my room and trudge over to the grader's office to do my morning email check and web browsing. I've been having a lot of trouble with my Internet access this semester, and I'm almost to the point where I want to call up the Millbrook RCC (Residential Computer Consultant) and complain. But I probably won't.

Because I couldn't browse the 'net this morning, I spent some time cleaning up my hard drive and backing up important files on the C: drive to the D: drive. Tonight or tomorrow, I am probably going to upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000. I've heard good things about it, and I'm hoping it will be a bit less flakey than 98 has been as of late. I just hope this doesn't turn into a big ordeal.

In -273 news, I've found a little program that will automatically post the MP3s that michael and I listen to in winamp to the site. Once I get a few bugs worked out, you'll be able to to see what songs we're listening to.

Time for class. Later.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 30 August 2001 at 9:45 AM

Hmm. It seems that not only do Aaron and michael have the same personality type, but they both seem to have adopted the same infrequent weblog-posting schedule. Odd, isn't it?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 August 2001 at 9:40 PM

If you're curious about where I spend a great deal of my time when on campus, today is your lucky day. That's right, the CS grader's office, where a huge number of Computer Science TAs spend a great deal of time, now has a webcam. It's a very cool webcam. It's plugged directly into the Internet, and serves these pages itself. It doesn't have to be connected to a computer. I want one of these cameras. Badly. But not as badly as I want a laptop.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 August 2001 at 9:31 PM

I've been thinking about ebooks lately. And their complete and total failure to find any readers. I suspect this is because the geniuses who marketed them decided that their prices should roughly equivalent to the hardback version of the physical book. What were those guys thinking? WHen you buy a book, there is at least the presumption that part of the price goes for the physical manufacture of the book. Obviously, this isn't the case with ebooks, where you had to pay (in some cases) around $300 for the ebook reader, and now they want you to pay full price for the electronic version of the book. One wonders why they didn't initially offer them for less, build a market base, and then raise prices.

And of course, this ignores the whole aspect of the stringent copyright protection built into ebooks that prevented them from being read on any MS-based PDA. Do people not share real books? Has this sharing caused your book industry to fail?

I like reading real books more than electronic ones anyway. I suspect most people do.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 29 August 2001 at 9:30 AM

I am not a fan of transcendental movement. If Henry David Thoreau had never written that huge pile of crap I had to read in high school (known to scholars as Walden), I would be a much happier person today. I used to think I liked Emerson more than Thoreau, but having been forced to read "The Poet" recently has caused me to realize that he is just as unreadable as his younger friend.

That is all.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 28 August 2001 at 9:38 AM

After feeling very much under the weather earlier today, I'm feeling a bit better now. Still not 100%, but better than I was.

Today was a rather frustrating day. I spent three hours holding CS101 consulting hours when I would have been happier in bed, fighting my cold. I struggled to get through the introductory graphics lab, mainly because of multiple typos in the assignment sheet. By multiple I mean in excess of ten. Then I went to my robotics lab. Sadly the TA never showed up, so the four of us who showed up spent a lot of time standing around while the professor tried to find someone to cover for him (why the professor didn't spend the five minutes it would have taken to go over the legos they were giving us to build our robot from I don't know). So what should have taken 15-20 minutes took 90 minutes. Then I came back here, watched some TV, had a big dinner, and did some statistics homework. Now, as you can no doubt tell by my poorly formed sentences, I am tired, so I'm going to bed.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 27 August 2001 at 10:40 PM

I have a cold. I didn't sleep well last night, and now I have to spend three hours holding 101 consulting hours when I am very certain that no one will show up. At least I'll have the chance to get the homework that I didn't do last night (when I went to bed at 9:30) done.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 27 August 2001 at 11:22 AM

Well. I don't know what to say...

Did you know that Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation) has a weblog? He even has a webcam. And he uses greymatter.

The similarities are too striking. I may have to give up blogging.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 August 2001 at 10:15 PM

Scott spends an hour every day watching "Por un Beso." It's a very strange Spanaish-language soap opera. I have no idea why he watches it, but he's gotten me hooked on it. I should mention that I don't know any Spanish. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can get some English subtitles for it.

Speaking of Scott, he, michael, and I are planning on going to Six Flags over Labor Day weekend. It should kick ass.

I had four of my five classes today. My English Lit. and Personal Finance classes should be easy, Computer Graphics will be tough, and I don't really know how the Mobile Robotics class will be yet -- I just don't have a feel for it right now. As a result of the five classes I've had in the past two days, I now have four homework assignments to complete. I think I'll be able to get them all done tomorrow, leaving my entire weekend free.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 August 2001 at 9:46 PM

I too had my first class of the semester today. it was introduction to political economy: microeconomics (micro), and it was pretty boring. first classes are, as a general rule, boring. this one was made even worse by the lack of a syllabus. the only good thing about a first lecture, as I see it, is learning the structure of the class: how the material is presented, how many tests there will be, how many homework assignments there are and what days they will be due, and so on. unfortunately, I will need to wait until monday to get my hands on that information since the professor didnt finish making the syllabus yet. to his credit, however, he is swiss, which was the only interesting aspect of class today. for instance, he frequently used the word "introducery" in place of "introductory." and while writing his notes onto the board he listed "spezichzation" as a benefit of exchange. as far as I know, there is no language in which that is an actual word. very amusing.

on an unrelated note, now that the school year has started back up, Ive decided that its time to bring the webcam back online. so for those of you out there who like webcams but just got tired of looking at daves armadillo and the palm of my hand, go ahead and check it out.

okay, tomorrow I have a very busy day, and I am sleepy, so I am off to bed now.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 23 August 2001 at 1:58 AM

I had my first class of the semester today. It was Probability and Statistics (ProbStats), and it was rather boring. I also could not hear a word spoken by Dr. Wheeler. Next time I'll have to sit a bit closer if I want to hear what he is talking about.

I had promised myself that I would work on the CS101 spreadsheet today, but I never got around to it. It's not that important to get done, but I wanted to get it out of the way. I think I would have worked on it if I hadn't been feeling so tired today. I slept for about nine hours last night, but I was very tired after my 11:30 meting with Dr. Goldman and the other 101 head TAs. My room still needs to be cleaned up, too. Oh well, just more stuff to do this weekend.

Does anyone know why michael stopped posting?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 22 August 2001 at 10:04 PM

Sean and I were supposed to meet in the ACM Lounge at 5:30 today to do some cleaning. It's 5 'til 6 now, and there is no sign of him. This is rather odd, as he sent me an email around 4 saying he'd be here. I wonder how long I should wait before I leave.

This afternoon I bought some groceries at Schnucks. They had some marinated chicken breasts at the meat counter, and I bought one and had it for lunch. It was excellent. I'm going to go back tomorrow and get some more. It only takes about five minutes to cook on my George Forman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, so that's cool too.

I'm almost done setting up my room, I just have to hang up my posters and go through a couple of piles of random stuff that I put on my desk. Hopefully I'll get all of that done after the mandatory building meeting at 9 tonight.

Well, it's approaching five after six now, and Sean still isn't here. I think 35 minutes is long enough to wait, don't you?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 21 August 2001 at 6:33 PM

Sorry about not posting yesterday. I had a CS101 meeting in the evening and then I came back and watched the end of the very weird Cardinals game. After the game I just didn't feel like posting.

On a different subject entirely, I'd like to mention that I am writing this post on my Visor using the Targus Stowawy keyboard that I bought yesterday. If I set everything up correctly, this post will be added to -273 when I next hotsync. (I added the post page to avantgo, so I just fill it out, press the submit button, and it takes care of the rest.)

If I get my act together, I may go grocery shopping this afternoon. I've been here since Sunday afternoon, but haven't spent any money on food yet, which is pretty good I guess. I also need to get my fridge from my granmother's house, and fix my bed so that I don't need to climb on my other furniture in order to get into it.

WashU people: stop by if you get a chance. I'm in Millbrook 2, 205, and my number is 5-1134.

Well, let's see if this avantgo thing works...

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 21 August 2001 at 11:00 AM

Hi.

I'm 90% moved in to my housing for the year. I still need to take another trip to my grandmother's house to get things like my fridge and some school supply type things, but other than that I've completed my move-in.

I got here around noon today and was finished unpacking the car by three. I spent a few hours unpacking my boxes, and then I went over to the engineering school for an ACM officers meeting. That took about three hours, and now I'm back here in my room. Tomorrow I have a bit of shopping to do, as well as am orthodontist appointment and a TA meeting.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 19 August 2001 at 9:19 PM

Hello -273 readers. I know it's been awhile since my last guest post, but I hope you didn't miss me too much. School starts in just 5 short days, and since many of you attend Washington University in St. Louis along with me I just thought I'd give you an update on the state of our fine campus after all the construction that has taken place this summer.

Dorms on the South 40

If you're fortunate enough to live in Lee or Ruby, you will be the lucky resident of a dorm that has clean rocks on the roof. One bright sunny day a few weeks ago, a truck with a large device on the back that looked like a funnel with a long hose stuck to it drove up Shepley Drive to change our lives. That's right, after using the funnel hose to (loudly) remove the rocks from the respective roofs of these buildings at 8:00 in the morning, new and better rocks were imported and stationed high atop the dorms. While the rest of us won't be able to fall asleep at night worrying about the many dangers of having old rocks over our heads, the denizens of Lee and Ruby can sleep soundly. And knowing WashU their rent will increase by 50%.

Olin Library

Not to be confused with the Olin School of Business with its futuristic classrooms that need no improvements (except maybe in the caliber of student that sits in said classrooms), the Olin Library was and continues to be the busiest construction site on campus. The first order of business was for elite civil engineering crews to close down the basement and proceed to set fire to it. Ha ha, I am kidding of course, the fire was purely unintentional and required a complete evacuation and the presence of 2 fire trucks and 2 emergency medical vehicles. With this debacle out of the way, the crack team of construction workers took on the task of removing the outside stairways with some sort of drilling tool that can only be described as the loudest thing I have ever heard in my life. Then, as if this weren't enough, they dug holes. Many holes. Random holes. Some of the holes were covered with cheap sod, since students (and their rich parents) moved in this weekend. Others still remain uncovered and unprotected, to be discovered by drunken students in their nightly stumbles. Why the school didn't think of this years ago as a way to trap drunks is a mystery to me.

Cupples Stairwell

Everyone in the Engineering School knows about it. It has become a regular fixture of our campus. Is it gone for good? Of course I am talking about the dent at the base of the stairwell in Cupples Hall where the tile is cracked and indented and it feels like you're going to step through the floor. All of the tiling was relaid this summer so the burning question on everyone's mind is of course whether this e-school landmark is gone. The answer of course is no, for while the construction crew replaced the cracked tiling, they did not remedy the root of the problem. Beneath the tiling, the wood floor is warped and indented. All they did was lay tile over the same problem, so in another few weeks after heavy traffic of Engineers carrying their laptops back from ee280, the ditch will reappear. Another great misappropriation of our tuition funds.

Hilltop Bakery

At the end of last semester we were treated to a new eating option on campus. Krispy Kreme donut cases were added to Bear's Den and the Bakery in an effort to provide us with enough sugar to bounce off the walls, thereby allowing students to easily stay up all night studying without having to resort to NoDoz or Red Bull. Apparently these efforts were unsuccessful, as the bakery has been closed all week for remodeling. The sign on the door says that they are putting in a whole Krispy Kreme counter, and that it will be reopening on Friday the 17th. I'm sure at this point you already see the obvious problem. Friday has come and gone, and the bakery is still closed. This sign has been replaced with a new sign, "Closed until further notice", and the floor is littered with brick dust and metal rods. Apparently the school used its infinite wisdom to come to the conclusion that the best time to completely remodel an eatery is when the campus is about to be swarmed with thousands of people rather than during the summer when it is emptier than a ghost town. Using the standard WashU metric for delays (Taco Bell was supposed to open in October, actual date January. Ursa's was supposed to open sophomore year, actual date junior year), I have come up with the following date for the Bakery reopening: mid-October. This, of course, coincides nicely with parent's weekend, thereby allowing WashU to show off its new Krispy Kreme while it begs for donations. Meanwhile the Long Island Girl contingent will have to look for a new source of Evian and bagels. Perhaps a black market for Evian will develop, in which case I should probably snap up a few cases right now so I can corner the market, which consists of the demographic "girls wearing black capri pants that are much too tight along with those same sandals that everyone else wears and carrying those same black bags that everyone else carries".

I'm sure I've missed some sites, but these are the main differences that you'll notice from last year. Hope all of you have a great semester, just watch out for those construction holes.

Comments: 0 Posted by chris on 18 August 2001 at 5:11 PM

I finished up all of my work here at Whirlpool around 10:30 this morning. Today at 4pm, I'll be leaving for the last time. I can't admit to being sad about leaving, but I don't regret working here this summer. The pay was good, the work wasn't too hard (except for a few minutes this morning, when I had serious doubts as to whether I was going to finish the model shop website), and the work environment was very laid back. All things considered, my best summer since I started college.

I've got a few -273 things to mention now. 1) I'm still working on getting consolation prizes to everyone who entered our contest and didn't win. I've been pretty busy this week, but I hope to get those to you sometime next week. 2) I attempted to install a spellchecking program here on -273 last night, but I didn't meet with any success. If anyone out there in cyberspace has any experience with installing a spellchecker form spellchecker.net onto greymatter, send me an email ASAP please.

I've been hearing some -273 rumors recently. Rumors involving about pages and guest posts. We'll see what happens in the next few days though.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 August 2001 at 1:02 PM

Okay boys and girls, I have a little task for you. It wil only take you 20 seconds or so.

1. Call Deutsche Bank / National Discount Brokers at 1-800-888-3999.
2. Listen to ALL of the options (it only takes a moment).
3. After hearing the 7th option, press 7 and listen.

I must admit, I was a bit incredulous when I got this in my inbox today, but it's mildly funny, so give it a go.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 16 August 2001 at 8:59 AM

There is a big meeting for the entire technology department in the auditorium right now. I'm skipping it. I went to one of these on my first day here at Whirlpool and was bored out of my mind. So this time I'm up here all by myself, browsing the Internet (things load much faster when you don't have to share your connection with 150 other people). Since I've been browsing the web for the past hour, I think I'll share a few links with you. If you haven't been over to Blogdex, you should check it out. I go by once a day or so. Okay, so I only have one link to share. Not the end of the world.

In reply to michael's post, I'm not really bothered by the name "Attack of the Clones" for the new Star Wars movie. It's no worse than "The Phantom Menace" or "The Empire Strikes Back." And I'm not sure how much inpact the name will have on the movie itself. I do find it interesting that this name was released just when we're hearing all this stuff about stem cells and cloning on the news.

This afternoon, assuming Jon calls me sometime soon, I will be going out to Ellis Park to watch (and bet on) a few races. The last time I bet on hosre races, I did rather poorly. Hopefully my luck has changed a bit since then.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 15 August 2001 at 10:37 AM

I learned today that the next star wars movie is apparently to be titled: "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones." Im serious. "attack of the clones."

when the trailers start playing for this one, its going to be hard not to laugh.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 14 August 2001 at 5:43 PM

I have nothing of great importance to pass on to all of you at this time, but I've had this window open for about an hour now, so I feel like I should make some kind of post. So if this post proves to be more boring than most, at least you've been warned.

WashU still hasn't mailed me my housing information yet. I move in in five days, so this is making me a bit nervous. I went to the Reslife website to get contact information for them, and I couldn't find an email address for them. So I'm going to have to call them to find out what's going on. But why would they put up a website with no email address? I blame their webmaster, Mr. ASCII-ART, for this omission.

My friend Jon got back into town last week, when I was in Boston, from the summer camp he'd been working at all summer. Assuming the plans we made yesterday are executed, I will be out most of this evening. Should my plans fall through, I will be adding a spellchecker to greymatter so that I no longer have to visit Merriam-Webster about three times for each post. You will benefit by not seeing the numerous misspellings that always crop up in my posts, no matter how many times I proof-read (usually zero times -- almost everything I write here is extemporaneous). Anyway, if I don't get to the spellchecker tonight, I'll work on it tomorrow. I would do it from work, but I need telnet access to the site in order to add it, and that service is unavailable to me while at work.

I really wish I could take the afternoon off.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 August 2001 at 1:13 PM

The contest is over, but not without some controversy. When I drew the winning slip of paper out of the hat, I discovered that I had actually drawn two pieces of paper, one inside the other. After consulting with the judges, it was decided to award both of them with amazon.com gift certificates. So congratulations go out to Rachel Otto and Jon Polk, the two contest winners.

In happy news for all the other people who entered the contest, I found some money in the parking lot at work today, so there will be small consolation prizes for everyone else. Details about this will be announced shortly.

Frankly, I'm just glad that michael, who entered himself in this contest, didn't win. Imagine the scandal if his name had been drawn. Everyone would have assumed there was some kind of fix in place. Anyway, congrats again to the two winners. I'll be sending you your prizes from work tomorrow, so if you'd like them to go to a different email address than the one you used to enter the contest with, send me an email tonight.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 August 2001 at 9:44 PM

I discovered a new weblog today, and through it I found this article about the Web Standards Project (WaSP). The article reflects my opinion on web standards pretty well, and I'd urge you to read it if you're interested in this type of thing. I also found a very interesting article about search engine placement on this site, so I'm pretty happy with the newest addition to the list I use for daily weblog visiting.

For all of you who entered the contest, the drawing will be held tonight. My schedule is in flux, so I can't give you an exact time, but keep your eye on the webcam tonight, because the big drawing will be live via webcam.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 August 2001 at 2:43 PM

You know the part of The Accidental Tourist (by Anne Tyler) where Macon explains his theory on books and airplanes? The part where he advocates bringing a large book with you so that your fellow passengers will not attempt to converse with you? Macon's book was called Mrs. MacIntosh and it was over 1000 pages and devoid of any plot, yet engaging no matter where you started reading. Well I have my own Mrs. MacIntosh. I've recently taken to carrying around my copy (Barnes & Noble 1997 edition, first published in 1978) of The Tower of London. It's an anecdotal history, so you can plunge in just about anywhere and have a pleasant half-hour's read. Mrs. MacIntosh was substantial in order to dissuade fellow passengers from conversing with Macon, and this is where The Tower of London fails. It is only around 300 pages. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 12 August 2001 at 8:16 PM

Let's just say that I can do about it is because of the car with the Kim-Wipes everyone has on their desks here, and that I said I needed to do what I wanted to know, mainly the number one video, beating *Nsync and the Backstreet Boys, and Eve 6 had the number 5 video. Is this the beginning of the evening, and it rained for about 40% of the page.

I've finished almost all the things I've done that in the next few weeks. I'm not going to be all by myself at home. I'm thinking about getting some gear for my Handspring Visor so I may even get it out of the new car lot next door. It was one of those times when you wish you had a combined 15 hours of sleep last night. I am more likely to give up any browser compatability. But with no adverse effects in the past two days, so I'm just going to try to go to Boston in a few technical things about this Winamp plugin called DoSomething I think, I don't have Internet access in NC. After I mowed the lawn. In the rain. It doesn't look so great, but it will be sent an arbitrarily selected prize I'm thinking of having a barbeque. Anyone reading this is invited. I got back, my dad told me that he has linked to us. First, let me say that when you have any questions, send me an email. The guy who sits behind me here at -273, so what else can you ask for? Back to hornygoat's design for a minute. I also need to work out before this goes up though. I need to fix the archives link and create a page for the next few weeks we're going to be crashed this morning, so I'm going to run cgi scripts on your site, you should ever want to go to the trouble of formatting my hard drive. I could give you my opinions on this page to your weblog.

I should clarify my position on the redesign? The only reason I got sand stuck all over the weather alert sirens that were going to get useful advice. At least that was quickly corrected. I've been thinking about an amazon.com gift certificate, but the lovely corporate firewall won't let me. Anyway, if you use Netscape v4.7 or lower, please send us an email at zero@negative273.com with any comments you might have. Or, if you don't want to read a bit, then I went home and mowed the lawn, Jared came over because we don't yet have a large following, I will be upset if -273 stops rendering nicely in Netscape 4. So if you will, me pressing the POP Mail link in hotmail once on average, I was fiddling around with NS earlier this month, but it doesn't compare with good writing. And he has linked to us.

Comments: 0 Posted by automaton on 11 August 2001 at 2:23 PM

its raining. I have to go to bed. I will try to post after I get some work done tomorrow.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 10 August 2001 at 12:08 AM

In technical news, -273 will be coming up to me that my questions aren't rhetorical, and I'm hoping for a response. If I weren't embarassed by the door monitoring people as they leave and only one person running a cash register? Especially when the line for that one cash register goes all the entries, and I still need to clean some of it in so that we can go to the current version of -273 as well. Instead of selecting which flight to watch, you can look at it, but I'm not super-enthusiastic about this constantly. He got out as quickly as I liked the previous version of hornygoat. I also think a tweaking of some of the post boxes the boxes our individual posts are in would make implementing greymatter much easier, and, in my head, but I've grown tired of this begs the question, why were there no messages on the list didn't coincide so well. As a general rule, I think this general theory applies to the layout of the week seems to me and I'll share it with you, should you really, really care. Staying at home without the parents around is very, very nice.

Well, time to get the main pages up before I start adding other things. Welcome to the page layout. I also have this odd craving for chips and salsa, so I'm going to report this to my day. Let me elaborate. After arriving at work today, I attempted to do what I do have a few things I need/want to buy some to bring to work. I'm serious. Every day I come in to work out before this goes up though. I need to add the counter to the redesign looks, but not as much as I liked the previous version of Macromedia Fireworks which I would be tempted to start a discussion board. But because we were in, and eventually caused the car wash were staring at us from the hornygoat redesign, let's discuss answering machines. Or, more specifically, why my friends won't ever use them. Yesterday night I found a list of results when searching for Recreational Mathematics. Apparently, Google has a category devoted to writing a list of things they had to wait in line for that one cash register goes all the things on the list is the perfect cap to my day. But, for the stupid thing. Why would Best Buy I didn't submit a 34.org logo yesterday. I worked from 10am to 11am and from 12:45pm to 2:00pm.

Oh and I have no idea what a prime-poor equation is, but things are coming along nicely.

Comments: 0 Posted by automaton on 9 August 2001 at 4:22 PM

hi. I bet you (and by "you" I am refering to "dave" reading this upon his return) are wondering why I didnt post yesterday. well, the thing is, I didnt have ethernet until this afternoon, and also, rachel is finally back from texas, so she was visiting, and also, I have tons of work to do by friday in order to get the program Im working on ready for the test run. so basically what Im saying is "never leave me in charge of a weblog when youre going out of town." at least not when youre going out of town during my busiest week of the year.

also, I had quite a scare tonight, because sports night was not on, and I was afraid that they were going to stop showing it every day. but as it turns out, it was just for tonight, so there was no need to worry. calm down everyone. oh, yeah but for those of you wanting to get into the series, they are starting again with the pilot episode on friday the 17th at 12:30 ayem central standard time. also, I plan on taping it this time. and Im going to be making a conscious effort to finally see those two episodes I missed.

oh, and Im sorry for the incredibly poor quality of this post, but its just that my bed is a much more appealing place to be than my desk is right now, and I think that it shows.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 9 August 2001 at 1:02 AM

Well, the minor redesign may accompany the switch, but it isn't a high priority. HOWEVER, I do every morning, namely read the twenty-six blogs I have done, that they don't have Internet access in NC. After I mowed the lawn, Jared came over because we don't yet have a cash register? Especially when the line for 17 minutes before I could probably upgrade without formating, but when I've done that in the afternoon. Specifically, I worked from 10am to 11am and from 12:45pm to 2:00pm. Oh and I have been using as tissues. I spent part of the page had been in jail the night before the accident, but why don't you just go ahead and get it out of my Visor next year, but I'm intrigued by Prime-Poor Equations of the design as a whole, I just looked at Google's first list of things they had to say the least, but I want to read a paper in front of the changes I made to my Dial-Up Networking settings last week. I don't dislike the blinking cursor graphic. I haven't found it yet.

Speaking of nickd, I got back, my dad told me that there will be functional. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Also, by the end of the way the redesign looks, but not as much as I get back to work. I was certain that today was Friday. When I realized that this was slashdot, so there was no way he was in charge of starting a computer book section at his local library and asking what books he should get. Of course, the guy should have realized that it gives me an email posthaste. This whole issue requires some thought, because I am going to start on that as soon as possible. If you have experience with Win2k, I'd love to hear what you think about installing greymatter.

One final thing. We would appreciate getting some feedback on our new design. So please send us an email to zero@negative273.com declaring their intention to take a shower when I get distracted by?

Comments: 0 Posted by automaton on 9 August 2001 at 12:42 AM

today has been a busy day. I have spent way too long, however, trying to get my ethernet set up. I talked to restech today, and supposedly I should have been able to be up and running by the end of the day. they switched to a dynamic ip assignment, so all I should need to do is change a few setting and plug into the wall. only that doesnt work. I went back over there and talked to them, and they informed me that millbrook 2 hadnt been turned on yet but that they would turn it on right then. so I went back to my room and tried again, and I got nothing. Im going to be busy tomorrow, so I was hoping I could get it taken care of today, but it doesnt look like it. besides, Ive still got to do some laundry, finish unpacking, and work on revising the face finder. it needs to be ready to go within the next 3 days, so I dont really have time for running errands and trouble shooting my network connection. Ill try again one more time tonight, but I have a feeling Im out of luck. sigh...

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 6 August 2001 at 6:55 PM

today I slept the sleep of the ages. I have been so tired the last two or three days that I thought I was going to die. but finally rest came to me, when I spent nearly the entire day in bed. unfortunately, I woke up with the back ache of the ages, but I guess thats to be expected.

also, I dont want to bore anybody, but I thought Id tell you about my new place. I am living in the millbrook apartments now, and Im quite pleased with them. for those of you who dont go to my school, they are something like a cross between dorms and apartments. essentially, they are suites with kitchens. but I think thats a very nice setup. I also think that having an entire one to myself is a very nice setup.

oh yeah, and when I got to the room I found that it had the campus cable service afterall, and it in fact had the kind of jack that they used in koenig and in eliot. which meant that five minutes with a paper clip just bought me a years worth of cable. which is very good for my sanity. sadly, I still dont have ethernet, and I probably wont have it until the end of next week. but Ill try to make it over to main campus to post. the millbrook apartments are much closer to the engineering school than koenig was, so its not a big deal.

of course, computer labs just arent as cozy, and Im still incredibly sleepy, even after the day of sleep I just had, so Im going to head back to my room now. I will talk to you all later.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 5 August 2001 at 9:23 PM

The hard drive on the list didn't coincide so well. As a general rule, I think it safe to assume that they came from her earlier impact with the broken radiator. My car was wearing a seat belt, or the fact that the things only had three colors available to me: red, green, and grey or whatever it is that keeps a lot happier if everyone got over their fear of answering machines or whatever the color of pencil lead is, but it should grow out a bit handicapped in my efforts, because my only graphics programs here at work will be upset if -273 stops rendering nicely in Netscape v4.x browsers. But only a tiny font. That was about a year ago, and part of the dust out of the page. Have a good night.

Comments: 0 Posted by automaton on 5 August 2001 at 9:05 PM

I am more tired now than I remember being in a very long time.  I must sleep now.  I meant to tell you about how Ive been packing up to move into millbrook, and how I wont have ethernet or cable, and how I will probably go insane as a result, but I think instead Im just going to go to bed.

I know Ive let you down, but please try to understand.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 4 August 2001 at 3:21 AM

One final post, and then you won't hear from me for more than a week. No, no, save your tears. I'll be back, I promise.

I did most of my packing last night by throwing all the clothes I hadn't bother to hang up in the past two weeks into a suitcase. It was a very efficient way to pack, but it leaves me feeling like I may have forgotten something. Oh well, it's not like I'm actually going to go through the suitcase and see what I'm missing.

Now a few links for you. This made me very sad, but I'm probably just over-reacting. I liked this column a lot (link courtesy of MediaNews). I'm upset with this guy. I post a link to his site, and he stops posting. What's up with that?

Don't forget about the giveaway. Just send an email to zero@negative273.com to sign up. The deadline is 12 August.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 3 August 2001 at 9:57 PM

You may be slightly confused by the entry below this one. It's the output of a little program that I adapted to keep you (our readers) happy when I am unable to post next week. I fed the program a good number of my recent entries, at it came up with that post, which approximates what I would have written. The program could use a bit of refining, but I find its posts to be rather humorous. So you should look forward to seeing one of those every day that I am in Boston (August 4 through August 11).

I'm hungry because I skipped lunch to go to the library and get some books to read on the fligh tomorrow. So now I am going to see if I can locate some free food. I'll try to post one final time before I leave tomorrow morning.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 3 August 2001 at 12:41 PM

The hard drive on the server where the website I've been listening to the newly redesigned negative273.com! This is the first summer in quite awhile, I am going to be confused with hits -- see sitemeter.com for more information. By the end of August. For the first summer in quite awhile, I am more awake now than I have no idea what a prime-poor equation is, but things are coming along nicely. I expect to finish it today. Should I become motivated, I may have some work to do a bit handicapped in my opinion, make the site a little abstract art thing here at -273, so what else can you ask for? Back to the layout of the people who work here stayed after lunch. Of course, for weblogs not much is lost in a bit. The one new thing that I would really like to be able to view the site a little bit nicer to look at. But, for the features section. But these are all minor things, and they should be able to copy the link from there. Also, please report any broken links to the fair. But they were easily drowned out by the door monitoring people as they leave and only one person running a cash drawer and I have been at any point this week. Last night I went downstairs and had lunch. Then I watched some TV. I was older than everyone except the parents chaperoning their kids by about 5 years. The New Found Glory set was cool as well, but I would like to take a shower when I got bored, and tried to do when people just burst into tears, so it's always very awkward, or just feel upset or miffed. Turning our attention away hopefully for the last two letters in the afternoon. Specifically, I worked about halfway through a corporate firewall? I would like to be interested in hearing your opinion, so please drop me a line or two. I have trouble reading the MS Trebuchet on their computer deleted that font, the world with MS Trebuchet font when it is possible to get much done. I did buy myself a 12-pack of root beer for work though. I'm sure drinking some of the lane we were playing, but I suspect I'm in the machine, and had Luke spray him off with the broken radiator. My car skidded in the past, bad things have happened. On the other hand, I've only heard good things about the 12th of August, I will announce the time we were going off all over Evansville will be able to copy the link from there. Also, please report any broken links to the current versio of -273 as well. We need to clean up the html a bit. I'll be happy to provide them to you. For example, I could load was hotmail. I normally spend about an hour catching up on my favorite websites, and I figure I may see how greymatter works anyway. I may as well take advantage of it. I'm still looking for my Sum 41 had the number one video, beating *Nsync.

Comments: 0 Posted by automaton on 3 August 2001 at 12:35 PM

The hard drive on the server where the website I've been working on this summer was going to be crashed this morning, preventing me from putting it up. Consequently, today has been a very leisurely day. Reading the newspaper, browsing the web, drinking three root beers. That's the extent of my work day, I'm afraid.

Why has no one (well, almost no one) signed up for the contest? It's not like we're asking you to jump through hoops of fire in order to participate; all you need to do is send an email to zero@negative273.com. And I chose a prize (an amazon.com gift certificate) that doesn't require me to mail anything, which ,means the winner will probably get their prize in a timely manner. I know I gave you until 12 August to send in your name, but why don't you just go ahead and get it out of the way now.

On an entirely different topic, did any of you know that that Dragonball Z was being shown on the WB network?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 2 August 2001 at 3:11 PM

intrigued by the concept of a one handed keyboard, one that would allow me to type while never needing to remove my hand from the mouse, I downloaded the demo application from halfkeyboard.com.  however, I cannot say that I was particularly pleased with it, nor has it yet lived up to the testimonials on the website.  actually, if I were to write a testimonial of my own it would go something like "one of the most frustrating experiences ever, requiring intense concentration and perserverence.  getting the letter I intended often took three or four tries, even when it was a letter on the left half of the keyboard, as I would often find myself holding the spacebar down at inappropriate times.  learning this method of typing would require far longer than the fifteen frustrating minutes I gave it, and becoming truely accustommed to this method would likely result in slower conventional typing."

to give you a more concrete example of what Im talking about, after 15 or 20 minutes of practice, this is as much as I was able to type in one minute using the one-handed method:

"intrigued by the concept of a one han..."

which I think comes to 6 words a minute, if I remember how wpm is supposed to be calculated from my 7th grade typing class.  (characters-per-minute / 5, right? only I dont remember if spaces count as characters.  oh well..)

now, I will grant that I am not the most kinesthetically oriented person.  but still, I expected it to be easier after what I read on the website.  I mean, I dont think my hand-eye coordination is all that bad, since Im capable of drawing fairly well, and Im not altogether terrible at video games.  and I also dont think its my typing skills that need improvement, since I measured my typing speed at roughly 55 words per minute.  so Id like to think that Im not the problem.

actually, I think a lot of the problem is with the design.  I dont want to get into it, because you dont really care, and it would be very hard to explain, but to summarize my point, the finger motions are not symetrical.  to produce a character from the missing half of the keyboard, the left hand does not simply do the reverse of what the right hand would have done.  and thus you have to relearn where all the buttons are.  you find yourself having to concentrate on something that you usually do without thinking at all.  and that is not fun.

basically, Id rather use one of those foldable keyboards.  even if the small keys do slow me down, at least typing on one of those doesnt make me feel like Im in seventh grade all over again.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 1 August 2001 at 6:16 PM

I've been thinking about getting some gear for my Handspring Visor so I went over to visorcentral.com to see what they had to say about the SpringPort Wireless Ethernet card from Xircom. But I got distracted and never found an article about it. What did I get distracted by? The Half Keyboard. I had planned on getting one of those stowaway keyboards and the wirless ethernet card in order to get full-use out of my Visor next year, but I'm intrigued by the Half Keyboard. I wonder how easy it is to use? The review I read at visorcentral said people had reported typing at 88% of their regular typing speed, although the reviewer said that she was only able to type at 50% of her regular speed. Anyway, if you know anything about the Half Keyboard, send me an email.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 1 August 2001 at 10:07 AM

..and so it came to pass that michael received..

the worst hair cut ever.

Im not even kidding.  not only did the woman cut it incredibly short, but she forgot to cut the front at all.  of course, I didnt realize this until I got back home.  I looked in the mirror and saw that my hair was still all the way down my forehead.. except on the left side where it was short.  so basically, it looked terrible.  I had to get out my scissors and try to fix it.  which I really dont think I should ever have to do.  I mean, theres a reason why I pay someone else to do it for me.  but I guess I will have to pay more attention next time.  perhaps requesting that she let me actually face the mirror while she cuts.  or maybe just never let that woman cut my hair again.

live and learn, I guess.  but of course none of that gets me out of the mess Im currently in.  at the moment it looks like theres very little that I can do about the situation.  Ive got a bad hair cut, and Im just going to have to live with that.  but if I can maybe ask a favor: if any of our readers happen to pass me on the sidewalk or notice me at a store or restaurant, please just look at the ground or in some other direction until Im out of view.  just for the next week or two.  thank you.  your support is very appreciated.

Im doing my best to get through this, but at this point, its just going to take time.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 1 August 2001 at 1:40 AM

praise be to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on toast.

Comments: 0 Posted by michael on 1 August 2001 at 12:00 AM