Postage is going up-again

I saw on the news yesterday that the price of stamps is going up to 42 cents in May. I thought it was safe to buy pretty stamps instead of those ugly "forever stamps" because postage just went up recently, but apparently this was a false sense of security. Now I need to hurry and use all my 41 cent stamps, so if you get any mail from me, you can be pleasantly surprised to see Christmas stamps.

FHSU Bloggination: Nerd Edition

So Paul and I were thinking that perhaps the FHSU Bloggination isn't the best place to talk about our little hobby of programming. Now, I love a good programming joke just as much as the next person (Why do programmers always get Christmas and Halloween mixed up? Because DEC 25 = OCT 31), but it seems to be just outside the scope of the blog, so we've created a new blog over at http://pezad.blogspot.com. But no worries though! You'll still get the same hard-hitting journalistic standards at FHSU Bloggination that you've come to expect from yours truly. For example, here's today's tip: Although widely regarded as better for the environment because compact florescent bulbs consume less electricity than standard incandescent blubs, they do contain mercury and therefore you should avoid eating too many of them if possible.

People use what I post on my webpage?

So I have a googlepages webpage. I put a couple of the papers I wrote for my physics classes on it and figured that was that. I figured I would be the only one who ever looked at my webpage, and perhaps some people I told about it. Well, I was wrong. Today I get an email from some teacher at Sapientia University in Tg-Mures, Romania. He is like I am using your paper on the heat equation and wanted to know about something that was not clear. So I am like hmmmm. People do use the my webpage after. I thought it was cool to get and email from a random guy from Romania anyway.

Morbidly funny typo

Ok, so it's probably wildly insensitive and inappropriate to point this out, but today I noticed a typo that is quite common--and quite funny to me.

I was reading a beautifully written note on facebook about the tragic loss of a someone's dear friend. Unfortunately, the typo made me titter. Yes, I am a terrible person. Anyways, this was it:

"...he was creamated..."

It kind of reminds me of Soilent Green. People are now turned into cream...

So, my anal-retentive inner copyeditor forces me to point this out: the official spelling is "cremated." And just as a side note, Wikipedia mentions that "Contrary to popular belief, the remains are not ashes, but rather bone fragments which are then crushed in a device called a cremulator."

I am sorry if I offended anyone. I mean no disrespect to the dead or grieving. Really. But...people should try to spell it the right way.

some time ago, in a galaxy far far away....

Since last year i havn't done much except:

Beacame a registered geologist in training.
A certified concrete inspector.
Learned how to blast ducks out of the sky.
Learned how to knock down pheasants.
Watched a deer take down a guy at work, (it was hillarious as it sounds).
Got engaged.
Ran a race.
Went to some concert with Shayne.
Broke my elbow.
Drank my raise away yesterday at the Terracon holiday party that was way after the holidays and had an open tab paid by my boss.
Lost an incredibly embarassing bet (it was as hillarious as it sounded).


Oh and I didn't blog that whole time.

Ten Free Windows Tools I Use

There are good freeware tools out there for Windows, but there is a bunch of junk freeware too. Some are buggy, others are loaded with malware, and many are straight up not useful. This list includes nothing that will ask you to pay for the full version, nothing that will spy on you, and nothing that I haven't found useful. Now, on to the list!

1. Ccleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com) - Just before you defrag your Windows machine (yeah, I know, you can stop right there, Mr. Linux-doesn't-need-defragging. And who would change their last name to that anyway?), you should clean out your recycle bin and delete your temporary files. Although Windows includes its own disk cleaning utility, it isn't as thorough as this app. It even includes a registry cleaner as well! The only thing I wish it did was remove all but the last System Restore point (I have to use the Windows cleaner for that after I use Ccleaner). Other than that, it works quicker and better.
2. Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx?wt.svl=related) - Are you using the standard Windows Task Manager right now when you hit ctrl+alt+del? This one is better, especially if you do a little programming on Windows. Why is this?
   • Processes are shown in tree form so you can see which process owns other processes
   • CPU usage graphs for every running process, not just overall CPU consumption.
     
   • Shows which processes contain handles on various files and resources
   • Tons of other things I'm still figuring out.
   
   It even allows you to replace the standard task manager so that the next time your give Windows the three fingered salute, it pops this baby up instead. Because it doesn't come as an installer, consider making a C:\Utilities folder to put it in. My only gripe with Process Explorer is it doesn't have a networking meter. Rats...
3. NetMeter (http://www.metal-machine.de/readerror/) - Don't you wish that the networking meter that comes with the Windows Task Manager had a few more options? Does WireShark give you too many details when all you needed was a graph? Give this majigger a chance to fulfill your network speed curiosities. It gives you second-by-second stats on how much you downloaded, and it will even give total download numbers. It can even run as slightly transparent, and fades to fully opaque when you mouse over it if you so choose. Why care, you ask? Because this thing gives you solid KB/s numbers, to help you figure out if you are really using all of that highspeed broadband that your ISP supposedly gave you.
4. 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) - Why are people still using shareware for their archiving needs like WinZip? or WinRar even? Because they don't know of the many free (and open source, Boo-yah! [boo-yah? really? What is this, the 90's? -Ed.]) alternatives, I think. Sure, this may not look as pretty as WinZip or WinRar, but it has the stuff that counts:
   • Extracts from many different formats, including zip, rar, 7z, bz, tar, iso, cab, blah blah blah
   • Multi-processor archiving support for the 7z format. Two core CPU? Use this. Or maybe you have four cores, and only want to use two or one? Blam, it's done.
   So there.
5. CrossLoop (https://www.crossloop.com/landing.htm) - So my Grandma calls me. Her computer had been BSODing on her a couple of times a day, and it was getting annoying (Interesting fact: Microsoft chose blue for their screen of death because it was a calming color. 23 years later, maybe not so much.). I had talked her through a few things, but nothing worked. I needed to control her machine. The problem, however, was that she was three hours away. Sure, windows has a remote controlling feature by default, but it is also lame. I installed CrossLoop on my Grandma's machine and my own. CrossLoop transcends firewalls and routers, so all I had to do was type in the connection code that she gave me over the phone, have her accept my connection, and I was in! I was able to clean the computer, perform some maintenance, and install some much needed software (including two spyware cleaners and AVG anti-virus). The result? A smooth running machine. Thank you, CrossLoop!
6. Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) - The standard notepad that comes with Windows is decent. I like it alright. But it doesn't do tabs or session saving. It also doesn't highlight code. Notepad++ does. 'Nuff said.
7. CDBurnerXP (http://cdburnerxp.se/) - Remember back in the day when Nero used to be a great tool to burn CDs? Now it is so bloated you practically need to start one Nero program before you can start another. I just want to put data on a disc, not navigate a labyrinth of options. If you are like me, and you don't need all that extra fluff of transcoding video and making DVD menus, then this is for you. Does data and audio discs for CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD.
   
8. Foxit Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php) - Adobe Reader is bloated. It takes forever to start up. And once it starts up, it has to do a massive update or something dumb. All I wanted to do was look at a PDF document, man! Get it before it gets too bloated itself.
9. VLC Media Player (http://www.videolan.org/) - It isn't the prettiest player when it comes to playing music or movies. But it makes up for that fact by playing nearly anything, even MP4s or FLVs. You can download your favorite YouTube, Google Video, or other videos using http://keepvid.com/, and then play it with VLC Media Player, no extra hassle.
10. The GIMP (http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html) - The new 2.4.x series is finally out, man! Yeah! Slightly easier to use than the older 2.3 series. Although commonly billed as a replacement to Adobe Photoshop, it isn't quite as powerful, but then again it isn't as complicated either. Having said that, it isn't as easy as Microsoft Paint either. Take some time to play around with it, because the benefits won't be immediately realized. Many good sites provide some good tutorials on GIMP. It beats paying hundreds of dollars on Photoshop. (Yeah, yeah I know. But it beats pirating Photoshop too.)

Blatantly obvious: Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/) - I know: you already know about this. It is so recommended by everybody that I didn't put it in the official list. But then again, my list didn't quite feel complete either. Besides, 90% of Web surfers out there are still using some form of IE, so obviously a few more people still need convincing. IE probably is good enough. But I bet you didn't know about that index.dat file (Shout out to Lester for letting me know about that one), a hidden file which I have no idea what it does but probably isn't any good for your Internet surfing security (Ccleaner can remove that file, by-the-way). IE7 does extensions now, but I'm assuming it will never be as popular as the Firefox extensions.

So, do you have any good free or open source Windows apps? Maybe some alternatives to the ones I've listed? I'd love to hear about it.

Name Change

As some of you might of hear FHSU thought about changing there name this year and it got a lot of attention. In the end it was decided not a smart thing to do. This makes me think we should think about a name change of the blog. Perhaps we could have a two facebook groups for and against. Or perhaps make the news. I mean this is a very important blog and all. I bet a lot of people will have an opinion. I don't have a idea of a new name but if I think it needs to be a funny word that has no meaning because that seem to be the way of doing it. Like Google, ubuntu, gentoo, and all the other names you can think of of new tech. products. So bloggers start blogging about a name change.

return paul;

A New Way to Waste Time!

So here I am sitting in class, learning how to open an Access database. I'm really glad I was invited to join this blog, because now instead of aimlessly staring at facebook, I can feel that I'm accomplishing something useful, even if it is just typing meaningless sentences. Plus the people sitting around me think I'm actually working hard and aren't talking to me. This is really cutting down on the amount of awkward conversation I feel compelled to make, so thanks!

Nerd News

So I have been telling Shayne that Cmake is best build tool ever. Today as I was using it some more it just made me more sure of how right I am. So if you want to compile some C or C++ or any task like building you such check out Cmake. If you need some proof cmake it good you should know it is used in KDE4 whch I am sure you are all using. If not you should try. Now that it will work on linux, windows, and Mac you have no reason not to. So download that thing and "be free." So until next time this is nerd talk.

Eating makes me hungrier

It's true; I decided to eat instant oatmeal with fake strawberries in it because I wasn't hungry--and now I am hungry. Anyways, I haven't done much today except go to class and work at the Writing Center. Oh, and homework. I read some of The Red Badge of Courage, and that made me fall asleep, so now I'm reading Stephen King's On Writing, which is a way cool book. You'd probably enjoy reading it even if you weren't that keen on writing. So, nothing as interesting as dropping eggs, sadly.

Speaking of eggs, I found an awesome french toast recipe. If you don't like french toast, stop reading. Take two slices of lightly toasted bread and spread strawberry (or kiwiberry, or bananaberry, or Barneyberry, whatever) between them. Then dip both sides in some beaten egg, milk, and cinnamon sugar (strangely enough, the stuff I use is the same cinnamon sugar, I believe, that Lester gave me when he moved out of Agnew--so thanks, Lester, it's great!). Then just fry it in a skillet and eat with lots of syrup and butter or lots more cinnamon sugar or more strawberry jam. Oh, and it's good to eat with eggs. The toasting is key here since it helps keep the sogginess of the bread to a reasonable level and keeps the bread from falling apart on you as you try to flip it and stuff. The jam is a delightful surprise for people who are expecting regular french toast.

So, sorry for the boring blog that's mostly about food. Blame my instant oatmeal for making me hungrier, I guess.

My Truck

I'm finally getting my truck repaired for damages that occurred a year ago. For some odd reason, I thought it'd be a good idea to drive into the side of a mountain. A whole year later, I finally decided it was time I'd get my truck repaired. Sure, the truck was drivable, but now I can drive it without it shaking out of control if I go over 30 (I hope).
So there's my uninteresting news on my truck.
Oh, also, it has eggs on it.
My roommates and I thought it would be a good idea to throw away the old eggs we found in our fridge by throwing it off our balcony into the dumpster. Unfortunately we couldn't throw that far. And oddly enough, all three of us had coincidentally parked right next to the dumpster. Since we didn't learn our lesson, all three of us continued to throw those eggs until there were none left. They all landed on our cars. That was fun.

Feel the Love

We just witnessed a 243 day lull in our blogging duties. (Thank you, timeanddate.com.) That's a brand new record!

So what's happened on my end in the 7+ months since then?

• I got older
• ...

Yeah, it's starting to come back to me as to why I stopped blogging.

Seriously though, there have been a few cool things. I got to see Weird Al in concert with Jon, Sam, and some family, which was really neat. He even sang a few songs not on any of his albums, such as We All Have Cell Phones, So C'Mon Let's Get Real and I'm in Love with the Skipper.

....Okay, so that was only one cool thing, but still it was quite a ride. Oh, I guess I did also go to a Dave and Busters, a sort of Chuck E. Cheese for grown-ups, where I finally got to play an arcade machine I've been waiting many years of my life to play, called The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Apparently it is based off of some movie. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I wanted to play it so badly. Wait, now I remember: because shooting dinosaurs is awesome.

In conclusion, the secret to happiness is that you will never find it. You have to make it yourself. At least that is what I was able to gleam from Dan Gilbert from one of those TED talks.

FCC started it the wireless auction

After all the talk the the FCC wireless auction started. I checked the news and there was nothing much going on. The sad news it could take months until we know who got what and what it might mean. I guess these people don't know how to auction.

Perhaps next time I will have something cool to say.

Bring the Blog Back!

I agree with Paul, let's bring the blog back to life! I can post about my life in Virginia, and hopefully my life in California when I move there in about a year. And then my life on Mars. Wish me luck guys!

Back in black

So I don't know. I was talking to Lester and we (Or I) decided we should bring the blog back or give it a try. Who knowns what will happen. I don't know how the title apples to this post but it is a notice we should blog. I guess.

iGoogle and Google Reader

FHSU.blogspot.com is no longer my homepage. Nope! Now, I can have one place to check everything I want, including any updates to our blogger page. If you have a Google account, go to iGoogle.com and add the Google Reader. When you adjust your settings for the first time, just type in "fhsu" as the blogspot user you want to keep track of. Easy!

Forsyth Library

Forsyth Library is getting compact shelves in the basement, just like the K-State's library, pictured left. This is really exciting for me, probably because I like to push buttons. Soon, all of the periodicals will be housed IN ONE PLACE. English majors, rejoice.

Lester is alive!

I know, because I facebook stalk. Lester, you just keep breathing, man! And other stuff you like to do, too. :)

Remember this?

http://www.geocities.com/shayne_co/

I sure do. Don't forget to drive slowly and enjoy the scenery when going down memory lane.


And let some people merge every once and awhile. I hate it when I miss my exit.

It's that time of year again...

IIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS BASEBALL SEASON FINALLY. (My tv beware)