As a complete and uttery Mac fanboy, I was excited to see the new G5 iMac. But yeah, I have to say I have reservations about the new design. Unlike others, I liked the previous G4 design, and of course the original G3 design was brilliant. The G5, though... I'm just not digging it.
For one, I really think the white-plastic look has to go. I love my iBook, but it's too kiddy. Apple doesn't need brushed metal to distinguish their pro-user systems from their home-user systems. Performance (and price) are already distinguishing enough.
Further, the stand just looks flimsy. Look at it from the profile view. I get a sense of dischord looking at that: I want my $1300 computer to be well supported so that it won't tip over in a light breeze.
Otherwise, I do rathr like the extremely nice all-in-one design. That's impressive from both an engineering and aesthetic viewpoint. I also like the slot-loading disk drive on the side. A nice touch.
Not that it matters. I'm poor. :)
What with the Republican National Convention getting underway, the election season is coming to a key point. And highly disturbing, Electoral-vote.com's estimation via an aggregate of various polls indicates that Bush is ahead now, by almost 40 votes. Not long ago, Kerry had something like a 60 vote lead by their estimate. One has to wonder if the entirely questionable Swift Boat shenanigans had something to do with this. Anyway, just thought I'd point that out.
I had a most bizarre dream last night. I was sitting around on some park bench. It was dark, and a little chilly. A man comes over to me, and sits down. It's none other than VP Dick Cheney. Weird. We go on to talk about his frustrations with George W.'s complete ineptness, and I reassure him that he really is the man in charge over in Washington. That's all I remember, but damn. That's a weird dream.
Asian Mustache Olympics, courtesy Metafilter. Heh.
Fell asleep this afternoon and didn't feel like getting out to go see Strangelove etc. I sort of wanted to go, but just didn't feel like it. Tim and I grilled out on the porch. It was good. And PHI 320 went pretty well. As I expected, it looks to be a fairly straightforward, if slightly boring, class. Nothing to worry about. Stay tuned for reviews of tomorrow's classes, CS 463 and PHI 260!
They're also playing Garden State at 9:40, so I'll have time to get some dinner after Strangelove and then go see that one too, which looks pretty interesting. So, I'm going to have to call some people up and make a night of quality Kentucky Theater cinema. Mmm.
CS 655 was my first class today. I'm still a bit intimidated, but it went pretty well. I'm still not sure if I'm going to stick with it. But I need to stop taking 12 hour semesters... it's just not very cost effective. :)
GER 102 also went well. I was nervous that, having not had a formal German class that I would be lost, but I got the sense that I was at least as well prepared as a lot of the rest of the class. Even better, the instructor is a pretty hilarious guy, so the class should be a lot of fun.
Expect a subsequent post regarding my experience in PHI 320 once I get back to the house after about 3 p.m.!
Classes start tomorrow! It's weird to say, but I suppose I'm officially a senior in college. How strange. I really don't yet feel prepared to be ejected out of the semi-protective cocoon of "college life" into the real world. Apparently neither is my mom! Heh heh. After discussing it with her, I've decide to seek out a second Bachelor's degree, this one in Philosophy, thus extending my college experience by (at least!) another year.
So I'm taking two Philosophy classes this semester. Whether I continue with Philosophy will depend almost entirely on how well these two classes go. With that in mind, let's take a look at my schedule for this semester!
I'll probably go to hell for posting this, but I think it's time we all got a good solid introduction to the sport of Wheelchair Rugby.
So, having purchased a blender/food-processor for the apartment, I decided to try to make salsa. I do love fresh salsa. So, I chopped up some tomato, onions, peppers, and cilantro and laid the blade to it. Heh. I'm so witty. Anyway, I must not have had the proportions right, because it turned out absolutely terrible. I'm not sure what was wrong. Perhaps too much cilantro. Also, the peppers I bought were far too mild. I definitely need something hotter to make an acceptable salsa. Expect further updates pending future excursions into salsa production.
Really cool multi-part article on Slate about one writer's experience with competitive Scrabble. I've always enjoyed Scrabble, so I found it a very cool read. Makes me want to play a good game of Scrabble... :)
Well, I bit the bullet and upgraded my iBook's OS to OS X 10.3, aka Panther. I'm generally happy with it so far. Right now, I'm "settling in", getting preferences in order and copying files over from my FireWire disk. Anyway, just wanted to see if NetNewsWire was working. It appears to.
We've been decorating the living room with flags, so I've been looking at flags.net to find some cool flags.
Interesting article at Wired News about the Bush administration's science policies and a (large) group of scientists who have come out against the administration's use of scientific advice in policy decisions. If the scientists really have a case, and I think they probably do, these actions (particularly those based on reproductive health issues and stem-cell research) are just more examples of the Bush administration putting ideology before sound policy.
It's been a busy time here at the Sector. Tim, Ben, and I moved in a few days ago to our apartment. We're in the first floor (including the vast front porch, complete with nigh-unobstructed view of the sorority house across the street) of this big, old house right next to campus. It has its quirks (I have no built-in lights in my room, for example) but it's really cool. Plus, there's the Bonus Room, an add-on/covered back-porch thing. Right now we have a table back there, and not much else. But it's all cool, because it's a bonus room!!
Also exciting is our current internet situation: while waiting the two weeks for the cable company to come and hook up our broadband, we still have wireless access to UK's network. It's pretty cool, and the bandwidth I use to upload this very post is courtesy the university. Heh heh. :)
Many apologies to my loyal readers for the utter negligence I've displayed towards your internet experience the past week+. Look forward to at least one more blog delivered on the university's dollar today, and continued regular posts as we approach the start of the new semester.
I promised links, but didn't deliver. I'm going to post one at the time of this writing, and post more after I finish my two summer session finals today. Woo.
Update: 12:47 pm; One test down, one to go. Matrix Algebra went surprisingly well. Posting few more links, then going to cram a bit for Astronomy.
Update: 2:45 pm; Both tests finished. The difficulty of the Astronomy final was, as Dr. Bhavsar noted prior, incongruent to the difficulty of the rest of the exams. I did well on it, though. I think. Shouldn't need to good a grade to pull the requisite A in the course though. I recommend any AST class taught by Dr. Bhavsar. He's cool.
- The Story of IMDB: Who was in that one movie? IMDB knows all. :D
- Connect The Dots?: Blogger analyzes patterns in Homeland Defense terror threat announcements. Are they being abused as a political tactic? You decide.
- VillainSupply.com: THE Online Source for Everything Evil. Bwah hah hah. Funny stuff.
- The Future of Copyright: What will copyright be like in 8 years? Lessig et al. discuss.
- The New Batmobile: MPEG of the new Batmobile in action. It looks retarded.
- MC Hawking: The Venerable Idaho just IMed me with this, his latest discovery. Although I've been a fan of Hawking's rhymez for some time, I see no reason not to post this. Enjoy.
I just watched the 5 am replay of Your World with Neil Cavuto. Ben Stein was on to talk about his new book. Now, Stein's Comedy Central game show was hilarious. He's a classic cult figure with the spot in Ferris Beuller's Day Off and those eye drop commercials. He's also an unabashed Republican.
In his book, he decries so-called "liberal negativism" in America, and talks about how he considers it a threat to the United States. The Cavuto interview was absurd and I do believe I've lost any respect for Stein. And it wasn't even the moronic Neil Cavuto doing the interview!
An apology to my dear readers. I haven't posted in days. School's been rather busy (Summer Session is almost over!!), but I assure you, at some point today I'll post a cadre of neat-o links for your web perusal. Also, here in a few seconds, I'm going to post about something I just watched on Fox News.