I hope this will distract you.

A scientific test conducted by National Enquirer

has proven that consumers of all media are hopeless idiots. I hope they’re right,

cause this is all I have:

Yours,

Sam

Sorry

Hey readers,

Sorry I haven’t posted. It’s been hectic. I had to register for school, then had to do some reading.

Working on an article, got school next week.

Since I don’t monetize this, I’ll say: don’t expect any posts next week. But don’t unsubscribe!

I’ll be back soon enough!

*Yawn*

Sam

Optimus awesome-us

It’s Latin for optimal awesomeness, and it

describes what I’d like to do in college and beyond.

As mentioned on my “About” page, I want to go to MIT. Not mentioned in my about page (until now, just updated) is that I also want to work at Google.

Why Google?

Location

For one, their offices in Cambridge are less than a mile-and-a-half from MIT, and considering I lived either in MIT dorms or in a nearby apartment/rental house, That would be a microscopic school and work commute. I could realistically ride a bike to both every day.

Environment

Secondly, it’s a very fun environment. I’ve read many articles by current and former employees and they all seem to love it. Full of diversity and intelligence.

Perks

Find me another company with good pay that offers free lunch, playing games on break, casual everyday, and other things. I couldn’t imagine a better job than a code monkey for Google, not only because I love coding, the location, and the environment at Google, but also because…

Google is the Future

Ah-ha! I said it! It is the future. The gPhone will come, they seem to want to broadcast the country some free wi-fi. That’s awesome. I want Google to overtake Microsuck and *gasp* even Apple (sorry Steve 1 and Steve 2, the iPhone was a deal-breaker). In fact if I had enough money, I’d buy a buttload of GOOG stock.

Yes, I love MIT and Google. And I can’t wait to go.

And yes, this is a filler on a slow day.

Yours in latin meaning technology somehow,

Sam

The end of commercials, a proposition.

My dad is one of those people. You probably know

a couple. They never watch commercials. Never. They switch between channels, often missing a lot of the show (unless they have PiP).

It annoys me. I miss so much of the show when I watch television with him. I also hate commercials. I’ll watch ‘em, but I won’t like ‘em. They wont influence me.  But they will annoy me. So, I thought of something…

News channels have the tickers across the bottom of the screen. Usefully, it pipes you information that you care about when you don’t give “an airborne rodent’s posterior” about the current story being talked about (i.e., Nicole Richie is drunk, skeletal, and high again…I thought this was a news channel. Why don’t we apply this concept to commercials, or the lack thereof.

Enter…The Commerce Ticker! Instead of commercials, this little bugger goes across your screen whenever you’re watching T.V. It’s cheaper for advertisers, but since it’s running 24/7, more ad space is bought (the lower prices, increased volume, maximum profits formula at work). This leads to shows actually being 30 minutes or whatever time they’re supposed to be (D’oh, more work for Homer). Ads are also contextual based on the show.

This same concept is applied in tradition web adverts.  Instead of interrupting your experience (except a few sites whose owners deserve a nice whack across the face), it sits quietly wanting you to click it, but not taking up your whole screen. (RANT: I hate Flash ads with sound and ads that look interactive but are still images, made to trick you.)

It would lead to higher ratings, more income for stations, and happier viewers. Unless they’re watching Don’t Forget the Lyrics. Could they have been any more blatantly copying The Singing Bee, which couldn’t be more blatantly copying America’s Got Talent,  which couldn’t more blatantly copy American Id–oh, you get the picture! I hate and don’t watch reality shows and some game shows (Go Jeopardy!) but I notice the Xeroxes when I see them. They’re too cheap for color ink, too. That’s how much rip-off-y they are.

Oh yeah, on topic, I wouldn’t have to miss any more show.

Yours in wanting a commercial-free, international, Open TV standard, but willing to compromise *breath*,

Sam

P.S. – I’m working on the Open TV thing. ;D

How WordPress’ Timestamp feature saves you a ton of headache.

I wrote this post three days before it was published.

Yesterday’s post? Also written on the 2nd.

Gone are the days when I posted more than twice a day. I now like a queue of posts. This helps when you have writer’s block. If you have a backlog of posts, the content keeps coming and you’ll eventually get over your writer’s block.

It’s also going to be helpful for me. My tyrants parents are restricting time on “school days” as though it makes a difference what freaking day it is. I can make a whole week of posts over the weekend so you, my little hamsters, aren’t bored.

Even John Chow says he uses it frequently. What else do you need?

Yours in timecapsuliness,

Sam

Cleaned up my blog and The Simpsons.

The Simpsons Movie is really great. I would

suggest seeing it even if you don’t like the show. It’s really not for younger kids though (animated “bountiful penis” all censored till one ironic part).

It touches on many family themes, but never ever stops the humor. “Alaska, where you can never be too fat or too drunk!”

I really can’t say much without giving everything away. But, just go see it.

Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere,

clean up, clean up, get the posts out of your hair.

You may notice (–> over there) I now have tags/categorie. I mentioned earlier I didn’t have any, so now I do. Enjoy my organization.

D’oh!

Sam

Why Java is seeing its final days.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it

again: I hate Java! It’s clunky and (like Flash, another thing I’m not a huge fan of) takes special add-on software to use (JRE and Java Applet Plugins and Flash Player, respectively).

But thankfully, it’s [in my prediction] not here to stay much longer for most things. It will be replaced by AJAX and server-side scripting. We already can use Ruby (usually with Rails), we’ve been able to use Perl, and of course Python. More and more desktop programming languages are moving to the Web. AJAX makes these respond just like normal desktop apps…stealing Java’s job like an illegal alien stealing a mechanic’s.

As I walked through Barnes & Noble (at a Harry Potter release party), I noticed many Ruby books and then I was amazed: Ajax on Rails (O’reilly). It got me thinking: by using Ruby on Rails, PHP, or any number of server-side languages, and AJAX, you can replace Java.

No, really, think about it! Google Apps are made with AJAX. A full word processor and spreadsheet program in a browser? Before AJAX and Web 2.0, it could only be done in Java. What about Flickr? And even WordPress? As I type this, it’s saving it for me. Dynamically, with AJAX.

All thse previously would have been done with Java, wouldn’t they?

It’s food for thought. Unless Sun redoes Java making it less, well, overcomplicated, then they’re going to lose the market.

Admittedly, many things simply cannot be done with AJAX and SS languages. One such example is Runescape (by JaGeX “Java Game eXperts). But, for the majority of web apps from word processors to drawing programs (case study: favicon.cc) are AJAX-based.

And it’s only going to grow.

Yours in predictions,

Sam

My thoughts on the OLPC project.

Yes, I’m late, but I really do think sometimes (the

horror!) and I couldn’t find a better topic for my post today.

There’s a project called One Laptop Per Child. It aims to bring 3rd world countries laptops for their kids. One per kid. Absolutely free. It’s nice but a bit…well, just read on.

Sometimes called the $100 laptop, the name of OLPC’s unit is “XO.” (Apparently, we’re hugging and kissing the children of the third world.) It has a stripped-down version of Fedora Core as it OS, carrying the moniker “Sugar,” taking less than 150MB of space. It has a modest processor (less than 500MHZ clock speed) and only 1GB memory (including the OS). It has 256MB RAM. It has several USB ports and antennas which have 3x the range of normal Wi-Fi receptors.

It’s a very durable machine. With no spinning hard drive and only 2 internal cables, there’s little chance of failure for anything. It has a remarkable 12-hr battery and two display modes: full color and B&W (which is easier to read in bright sun). Because it consumes so little electricity, human power is enough to charge it. It’s likely to come with two of the following: a pull-cable, a pedal, and a hand crank.

Software includes a web browser (Firefox), chat client, word processor, and an e-book reader, among other things.

Seems great, huh? Now I’ll tell you the bad stuff.

1. Find me a Wi-Fi connection in the middle of the Sahara..or rural India. Deep Mexico? No? Oh…that sucks.
   - OLPC attempts to solve this through the “Mesh Network” which networks all XOs within range of each other. They in turn network a connection to others, and so on and so forth. They’re all wireless routers and WiFi receptors with 3x the normal range. Cool, but what happens when the original laptop, connected to the hotspot (the root if you will) is turned off? What then?
2. Not to be racist, but we’ve seen what happens when *some* third world people have access to the internet. (Mr. Nabantuu, I’m still waiting for my wire transfer from the accounts of the late Sir Michael “Forthwort”!)
3. One gig of memory, 256 MB of RAM, and they expect this to be a general use computer? Just gut a $50 five gigabyte flash key. Yeah, they’re that cheap at the Walgreens down the street. (That’s a drugstore, so probably even cheaper at a computer store and definitely in bulk.)
4. This is a big one: the web browser (as I said, a stripped-down Firefox, stripped-down being key) doesn’t have a URL bar. The home page is Google and you are apparently expected to search for websites. (Does it have bookmarks?) The only way this makes any sense is if (like Mozilla) they have a partnership with Google wherein they make money from searches done with there product. This could fund the project. Do they have such a partnership?
5. They expect it to sell retail in countries like the U.S.A., the U.K., Canada, and the more profitable European and Asian countries. At about $150 ($100 means the production cost)…riiiiiiiiight. There’s, for the same price, the obviously superior Medison Celebrity (also Linux-based). It’s a nice dream, but just fund the project with an aforementioned Google partner; smart parents will buy their kids a Celebrity or a Macbook.

So, the project, which is a great idea, has it ups and downs. But it’s the Yin and the Yang which make life balance itself out. I sincerely hope that they overcome the stated problems and turn this into a breakthrough in communication from the rice paddies of China to the cities of Chile. (Julio and Yong-Ping are friends, you know.)

Yours in loving Linux,

Sam

Firefox is screwed up…

It seems a lot of people have had this problem.

Firefox, the worlds best browser has been screwed up. Mozilla released 2.0.0.6. My add-ons are screwed up.

For you Opera, Safari, and Flock users (and the IE suckers), what is happening is that Fox is saying that the add-on will be installed (I already installed it!) and some say “restarted” “when Firefox is restarted.”

After countless FF open/closes, and a Winblows reboot, it still isn’t working (Yes, I admit it, I am [currently] stuck with Windows XP).

Alas, this is sadly a problem that Microsuck can not be blamed for. It wrenches my heart to say that, but there’s a thread in the Ubuntu forums about that, which means it’s a cross platform glitch.

2.0.0.6 was, however, released only today. So we’ll cut Mozilla some slack and hope they patch it A.S.A.P.

I want my Adblock!

Yours in oh so rare open-source glitches,

Sam

What is Hollywood Flow?

Hollywood flow is a future section of

my site. It’s more a Wiki than anything else, as anyone can edit it.

It’s an enormous flowchart (in a different style, though…) which contains community-edited reviews of shows (not info, just reviews and a Wikipedia link), and The Flow.

The Flow is my [revolutionary? I think, hehe.] idea. It represents the relation between previews and viewing. Example (I just watched No Reservations today, good by the way)

Hollywood Flow -> Movies -> No Reservations (2007) -> Flow

This movie made me want to see

The Simpsons Movie

This movie made me want to avoid

Daddy Day Camp

It’s a simple version of the Flow for No Reservations (my version). It would also be on NR’s page. That would have reviews, a Wikipedia link, and the flow, plus maybe some comments.

So there’s my idea. If you feel up to it, comment and say what you think.

Yours in ingenuity,

Sam