Shouzer

New Shouzer Labs product rolling out today. I built the whole thing in about an hour, as it wasn’t very big. A long time ago, I made a crossword helper that used flat files to store the words. While it was useful, the words lists were admittledly subpar.

So I decided to update it. This new Crossword Helper actually uses a database as a backend, so it should be much faster. Not only that, but I used “Merriam-Webster’s 9th Collegiate” dictionary, which means it’s not only a good list of words, but it also includes phrases. That is, ‘byandlarge’ is in the list. That’s handy for a crossword thingie, since phrases like that are oftentimes used in crosswords. So have at it. There’s instructions on the page.

I found this thing pretty funny; it was sent to me by my RA.

Here’s a link to a pdf file explaining the whole thing.

It would be way cooler if he did it by the day instead of by the hour though.

I had a math exam this morning at 9am which, as far as I’m concerned, is too early in the morning for any living creature to be awake. If you happen to wake up or something, that’s fine. But if you have to be up for an exam, that’s just not right. It’s not civilized.. Not in the least.

So anyway, I had this exam this morning. Right now, I’m floating around the 90% range in all my classes. That means any mistake and my grade will drop from an A to a B. Now while it really doesn’t bother me to get B’s, this would bother me. The difference, I suppose, is that I would miss the A by like a point. That would be upsetting.

So yeah, I had this exam this morning. Unless I made some stupid mistakes which, mind you, is entirely possible, I think I aced that exam. It wasn’t very tough at all. Hopefully I’m judging it right.

I’ve been working on a few new things over the last couple weeks. Mainly, I wanted an easy way to do development work on the web, with global settings that would suit my personal needs. So I came up with Shouzer Labs, a direct ripoff of Google Labs.

The first product was rolled out yesterday. It’s an RSS Feed generator, dubbed the ‘Shouzer Labs RSSizer’. This really won’t matter much to anybody. I happen to roll with RSS feeds like nobody’s business recently, and it seemed like the right thing to do. Anyhow, if you’re interested, Shouzer’s RSS feed is now located here. It carries complete posts right in it, so that’s handy.

The second thing I just finished today. I called it myPAD, and it’s really nothing more than an online notepad. Go there, signup (from now all, all Shouzer Labs things will have a global login), and you can start leaving quick notes for yourself online. I’ve found that a few times I’m somewhere where I don’t have paper handy, and I just want to write myself a quick note. Now it’s possible with myPAD. Let me know what you think.

So there is a huge hatred for the new president of our college. It has actually come to a boiling point as seen in this article.

I knew that some of the students and faculty disliked this guy, but I had no idea it was so bad. The students are staging a protest this Friday, and the faculty is holding a meeting on Tuesday to give a vote of no confidence.

There’s a website up called www.aboutmidgley.com for voicing complaints about the guy, and even a former board of trustees member has posted there. Tonight at work there was a copy of that news article I linked to above posted in every cubicle with an encouragement to show up at the protest. Our boss, not a student, posted these. Apparently, Midgley stopped her from applying for more funding or something, there’s a thread about it on that site above if you actually care.

As I said, I had no idea it was so bad. I’ve never met or seen the president, so I do not have much of an opinion on the guy. I am not sure how much I can trust a bunch of anonymous people on a website, but more recently, faculty and trustees have been announcing themselves. That gives a lot more credibility to the arguments and stories, but I would still like some sort of personal experience before I get involved.

i don’t want to sound like a babysitter or substitute teacher here, but i’d rather stop a problem before it starts. i think i still hold some stake in this site, and i’d rather it not be a place for rumors, factual or not, to originate or channel from. i think we, as posters, readers, and passers-by have more respect for people than that.

I think I’m going to get a bunch of older bands’ greatest hits from allofmp3. I want some stuff like Journey, Kansas, Foreigner, CCR, etc. I could probably use some Tom Petty, too.

A lot of times when group of us is going somewhere, we play this game we call ‘Name That Tune’, though that’s not really what it is. Basically, we scan the radio and as soon as somebody knows a song that’s playing on a station, they have to say the artist. If they’re the first to say it, they get a point. The only rule, of course, is that country doesn’t count. That should be obvious.

Now, the thing for me is that I recognize a lot of older songs, but I never know who they’re by. My parents have a lot of the cds/albums by these bands, so that’s where I’ve heard a lot of it. That doesn’t mean I know it near as well as I know my music, though, and that’s the problem. I need to beef up on my classic rock knowledge.

Read This. And I mean seriously, read it. Read it before reading any farther in this post.

Now if any of you who read that don’t honestly question our current government and its leaders, I’d honestly like you to explain why.

Here’s The 14 Characteristics of Fascism. I implore you to read it. It’s not a long article by any means. Think of how many of those things can be applied to our country.

Powerful and Continuing Nationalism.
How about the “Support Our Troops” stickers you see everywhere.

Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights.
Patriot Act.

Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause.
Something along the lines of capturing Hussein..

Supremacy of the Military.
I don’t really think anything needs to be said.

Rampant Sexism.
Granted, this is one that I don’t see. Yes, there’s sexism, but it’s not rampant. However, the article also mentions homophobia and anti-gay legislation as national policy. Whoops. Guess this one does exist.

Controlled Mass Media.
Fox News.

Obsession with National Security.
Homeland Security, Patriot Act, Patriot Act II.

Religion and Government are Intertwined.
Um, how many times has Bush mentioned God in his speeches?

Corporate Power is Protected.
Hahahaha, too easy. RIAA. MPAA.

Labor Power is Suppressed.
I honestly don’t have any knowledge on this one in the US.

Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts.
Nothing here, either.

Obsession with Crime and Punishment.
Again, Patriot Act. Also, did anybody see the new penalty for have a copyrighted work or software in a shared folder? 3 years in prison, regardless of whether or not anybody downloaded it. Uh-hu. For anybody with network experience, try typing \\127.0.0.1\C$ into explorer. Shared.

Rampant Cronyism and Corruption.
Bush made his money in oil. Where did Cheney? Rice? She even has an oil tanker named after her. Corruption = Enron.

Fraudulent Elections.
Florida.

Now I’m not trying to start a big me vs you argument here. I’m trying to get a little honest discussion going on. Don’t these things seem worrying to anybody else, regardless of party lines? I read that a Kerry aide told a Bush-supporting radio station that if Kerry won the election, they station better watch out. Seriously, now.. That’s just wrong. Yes, I used a lot of a Bush examples in here. I’ve spent a large portion of my political life under his administration, so it’s what I have to go off of. The shared works law I was talking about was co-signed by democrats. Yes, I do believe republicans are more to blame, but that’s not really my point here..

School is finally beginning to wind down. We’ve got a week and a half (this week and three days next week) of regular classes left. Then all we have is a week and half of finals. I say “all we have”, but finals will be tough. I’m just saying, there’s not that many days left before I get to go home.

I haven’t looked up my whole finals schedule yet, but I think it’s reasonably spread out. That’s nice. I’ve been relatively lucky when it comes to finals so far. It would suck to have 3 on the same day. Two is bad enough, and I’ve only had that happen a couple times, I believe. Anyhow, I’m looking forward to it being over.

So I managed to not do any reading in my Asian religions ans philosophies class for about 3 weeks. It was great while it lasted, but I have a reaction journal over the readings due tomorrow. The good news is I finished the readings and journal, and it’s only 9:00. The bad news is my brain is mush, and I hate this feeling. I shouldn’t complain though b/c this could have turned out a whole lot worse.

So I thought this fight between Tycho and Gabe was a joke. I take it from today’s post that they are seriously in a fight. That’s a little funny actually, but I wouldn’t like to see the comic break up. It would be just one more weekly pick-me-up that is no longer there. Kind of like 24, because it sucks now. That’s just because they only have one story line going, but I’m starting to sound like Jason. Since I don’t want that, I’m going to stop.

If you don’t know what penny arcade is, you probably aren’t nerd enough to handle it, but here’s the link anyway.

Here’s my question: Why isn’t ‘chicken strips and fries’ just the default lunch in every cafeteria, every day? If you want to make something else, throw it on the side, most of us want the strips, damn it. Egg salad? Baked goulash? Smoked sausage? No. No. No. Strips and fries, thank you.

Sure, maybe a few variations could be thrown in there. Grilled cheese? Cheeseburger? Sure. Sure. I can’t really complain. But once you start throwin’ out Spinach Souffle.. “Strips and fri… Huh? What’s that you just said to me? Did you just say spinach something?” “Spinach Souffle.” “No. Strips and fries, please.” “Spinach Souffle it is.” ::mumble::..fuckin’ spinach..::mumble::..i want some strips..::mumble:: “What’s that?” “Nothing, thank you for the spinach. Spinach is my favorite food of all. I don’t even like chicken.”

See what I’m saying? This just isn’t a happy situation. When I’m elected president, I’ll make all your wildest dreams come true. And there will be chicken strips and fries at every meal.

Ok, so life kinda sucks right now. Next week is the last week of classes here at SLU. That’s awesome and I’m really excited about it–don’t know why, as I’m going to be taking summer classes, but hey–but I’m not looking forward to next week at all.

Most of my profs have decided to squeeze in one more exam before finals week. What the hell is the point of that?

I mean, geez, come on. We’re already stressing over finals, why would you throw in another test right before…it’s just stupid.

Last weekend was “Mom’s Weekend” here at U of I. Basically what that means is that it’s a weekend when students’ moms are supposed to come visit them. Dad’s weekend was last semester during a home football game, which is understandable. I don’t particularly know why last weekend was mom’s weekend, as there was nothing going on, but that’s beside the point.

I found it rather humorous to find out that a common thing to do with your mom, as a girl, was to take her out to the bars. Now while I’m not entirely sure what that entails, I’m sure it involves a lot of drinking and, well, getting drunk.

The thing about it that caught my attention was the simple fact that, I assume, part of the point of going out to bars on a college campus is to meet people, hook up, and.. you know–other stuff. That’s where the whole ‘moms going to the bars’ thing gets funny to me. Haha, mofo anyone?

You always hear people talking about how, when they were younger, they were told there’d by flying cars by the year 2000. Well, it looks like that was about 5 years late. Not too bad, actually.

I found this CBS News article over at /. while skimming over the headlines. It looks like some guy actually invented a flying car. Granted, it’s still not really what you envisioned, I’m sure. I imagine that most of the type the typical picture was more of a “hovercar” than anything else, but beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose. He figures cars like that will be common in 10 to 15 years. That wouldn’t be too bad.