I finally have a computer at my desk at work. For the three weeks I've been there I've been using "motel station" computers, borrowing the computers of those on vacation, and using a borrowed laptop. But now my computer, complete with 2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor and a GB of RAM has arrived. The installer told me it was the fastest PC he'd put together, and that there were only about two others as fast on the E-- corporate campus (about 4,000 people). Now I just have to hope that I'll get a decent project soon. I'm growing tired of Outlook and PowerPoint.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 26 June 2003 at 6:41 PM

much like a six-year-old might, when watching "jeopardy!" I often emulate the sound of the "daily double." you know, the synthy "dee doo dee doo dee doo dee doo" noise. last night while watching "jeopardy!" on the tivo-like-device, my attempts sounded more like "scrrii---ooo--rrr--oohhh."

over the course of a few hours, between getting off of work and going to bed, I managed to almost completely lose my voice. the high-frequency component was the first to go. at this point, the only way I can make sound come out of my vocal cords is if that sound is very deep. which means all who have the pleasure of my company today will be treated to my new, deeper, raspier voice. that is until I lose the low frequencies, too, at which point they will be treated to my unintelligible whisper. of course if things get that bad, I suppose I can always resort to other modes of communication. perhaps the infinitely expressive language of dance.

Comments: 3 Posted by michael on 21 June 2003 at 8:40 AM

Okay, I'm still upset by this Martha Stewart trial. To quote from today's New York Times, "Ms. Stewart is also accused of... asserting that she was innocent of any wrongdoing and was cooperating with investigators. The government contends that these assertions were false." The prosecutors are, in essence, trying her for claiming to be innocent. They are bundling it in a charge of propping up her stock value with this statements, but the fact remains that the crime she is being charged with is the crime of claiming to be innocent. (She wasn't actually charged on any of the insider trading counts, only lying about her innocence after the fact.) I wonder if "innocent until proven guilty" has any meaning to the US Attorney?

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 19 June 2003 at 3:39 PM

at first I was going to post this as a comment on jim's site, but it started getting pretty long, and I figured it was rantish enough to warrant a post of its own. besides, people chastised me at lunch today for giving up on blogging, so here I am, caving to peer pressure.

to catch you up to date on the acm drama (for those just joining us), the acm lounge will be moving, likely by the end of the summer, from lopata 404 to a yet undecided location. at first we were told it would be moved to the first floor of urbauer where it would share space with the grader's lounge. at the spring fireside chat, a cs department question-answer-gripe session sponsered by acm, a substantial fuss was made about this arrangement, since it seemed likely that rather than peacefully coexisting, the grader's lounge would more or less swallow up acm. dr. roman acknowledged the students' concerns and seemed willing to repartition the space in urbauer to meet acm's needs. I have to admit, I left the forum feeling much better about the situation. although a new development, first broken by rubidium, has raised some new concerns.

instead of the urbauer lab, roman would now like to move acm to lopata 509, a floor up and just outside of the new media and machines lab. I suppose if you look at it from a location standpoint, people would probably prefer lopata to urbauer, especially if proximity to the CEC is important to the students. but I think the space issue is the more important one here. and Im not talking about the 30% reduction in lounge space. Im talking about the 100% reduction in office and storage space. the storage and office space in 404 is vital to acm's operation. given the amount of fundraising it does, it needs a safe place to keep its inventory (and cash). any plan that doesnt ensure acm both a lounge and a lockable office is pretty much the end of the cheap soda, which is to say the end of acm as we know it. in my opinion, storage is a much bigger issue than location, and any space that meets acm's lounge and storage needs, be it in urbauer or the seventh circle of hell, is going to be better than 509.

maybe Im wrong, but if other people agree with me, then I think the current officers need to do something (as soon as possible) to make dr. roman finally see our side of this.

Comments: 2 Posted by michael on 19 June 2003 at 1:35 AM

If you're interested in watching the Cardinals and the Royals from some primo seats (click here, then click on section 142 - we'll be in row 13) this Saturday at 7:10 pm, this is your big opportunity. You can join me and a special guest this Saturday at historic Busch Stadium in St. Louis for a classic Cardinals - Royals matchup. You can't get tickets this good unless you're a season ticket holder. These are just to the right of home plate on ground level in the field boxes.

The first one to contact me to request the ticket gets it, provided they are willing to pay face value ($40) for the ticket. I'm available by phone, email, and IM.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 18 June 2003 at 7:42 PM

I'm really confused. Some of the movie critics sampled on yahoo gave Hollywood Homicide very low marks, and one went so far as to call it one of the worst movies of the year. But michael, Jim, and I just finished watching it, and I would call it one of the best movies I've seen this year. I'd certainly rate it higher than The Italian Job, the last movie I saw. And I think Jim and michael would agree. So if you're thinking about seeing a movie this weekend, I'd recommend that you see Hollywood Homicide. Josh Hartnett played his role perfectly, and Harrison Ford was better than I've seen him in at least ten years.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 14 June 2003 at 12:27 AM

I'm not really a Martha Stewart apologist, but I agree with William Safire's assessment of the case against her whole-heartedly. Prosecutions that hinge on a crime that you aren't being indicted for and instead try to get you for lying about the crime that you allegedly committed should be thrown out of the court. Although, lest you are confused, I should point out that they aren't charging Ms. Stewart with perjury either. You see, she never actually gave any testimony under oath, so perjury doesn't apply. Instead, the prosecutors are relying on "Section 1001 of the criminal code, which makes it a crime to knowingly and materially mislead federal investigators." I have every expectation that this charge, and most likely all the other charges on the 41-page indictment, will be dismissed. But I think there should be some penalties for prosecutors who twist the law to get convictions.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 13 June 2003 at 7:11 AM

E-- seems like a very staid place. This is a business professional campus, for example, and everyone is expected to wear a suit to work. However, my image of E-- as a professional organization was shattered yesterday. While eating lunch in the first floor cafeteria I noticed some guys playing cards a few tables over from me. At first I didn't pay much attention to them, but then I noticed that their cards were black. This was fairly unusual, so I discreetly took a closer look. If only I hadn't. These guys, all of them in their late 30s at best and more likely their 40s, were playing Magic: The Gathering. Now it's not like these guys are old enough to have played Magic when they were kids, so what would cause them to take up a fantasy card game at a time in their lives when they are supposed to have outgrown things like that? More importantly, why would they choose to then play the game where other people can see them and laugh at them?

(Just to confirm that yesterday wasn't an isolated incident, the guys were in the MPR playing Magic again today, apparently oblivious to the fact that it is even less cool to play Magic when you're 43 than it is to play Magic when you're 15.)

As if that weren't strange enough, when I was driving home through Clayton, I saw a grey-haired lady, probably in here early 60s waiting to cross Central. She was conservatively dressed and was carrying a clipboard. She stood out because she was wearing a gas mask.

Comments: 3 Posted by david on 10 June 2003 at 3:48 PM

Gosh, what a tiring, tiring night. Charlie, michael, Chris, Joe and I spent about four hour at Spring Swing Fun Time Town (or something like that) where we raced go-carts (twice), played 18 holes of mini golf, played a trampoline-based basketball game, played some air hockey, and played a number of other arcade games. The thing about these new-fangled arcade games is that they are all aerobic exercises. I played a boxing game where you held some heavy plastic boxing gloves and swung at a virtual opponent on the screen and ducked out of the way of his punches, and in addition to tracking my movements, it calculated the number of calories that I burned with each punch. And the jumpshot basketball, where you and an opponent bounce on a trampoline and try to score baskets over each others' heads takes a lot more energy than you'd think it would take. So my legs and my arms feel very weak right now.

But the best part of this is that we spent about four hours there and I only ended up spending about $15. Of course, I used three entertainment book coupons, but it was still a very cheap and fun way to spend the evening.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 8 June 2003 at 1:07 AM