October, 2003

Exam marking is one of the most mundane jobs ever. The money is ok though but thats about the only advantage.
One thing that makes it somewhat enjoyable is reading some of the weird answers people write. Following are a few examples.

Q. Approximately how many tasks can a pentium 2 266 cpu do at once?

Correct Answer: One – a single cpu can only do one task at any one time. It just does a lot of switching tasks on and off the cpu to make it seem like its doing more.

Some answers so far:
A Pentium 2 266 can do many tasks at once (approx 4096)
A pentium 2 266 cpu can do approximately 9 tasks at once.
266 000 000

Q. What does the kernal of the operating system contain? Give examples of two components.

Correct Answer: An operating systems kernel contains those software components that perform the very basic functions required by the computer installation. Examples include File Manager, memoery manager, Schedular etc.

Some answers so far:
The kernal contains program instructions. Two examples are CISC and RISC

Q. Expand and define the acronym DMA.

Correct Answer: DMA – Direct Memory Access is the ability of a controller to access main memory when the CPU is not using the bus, and without CPU intervention.

Some answers so far:
DMA is dynamic memory access and is used to keep the database structure and records safe.

Stay tuned for more

Panther runs alright on a toilet seat iBook ?!

Wow, ill have to try it on my special edition one, 800×600 resolution would be a nighmare though *sigh*

Heard a funny thing the other day. Back in first year of uni i had to do a computer hardware fundamentals type course to lern how basic computer componenets work. Anyway.. the lecturer of this subject was a pretty knowledgable fella from the engineering faculty but for some reason he used to bag macs like nothing. He made numerous ‘typical PC user’ comments about the mac and how ‘useless’ it was etc etc but like all other times i hear that sort of thing i jsut let it go.. bah.. who cares..

So i find out yesterday that my old computer fundamentals lecturer has just bought a brand new 17inch powerbook! I almost keeled over when i heard that. Went and had a look at it while Panther was being installed on it. Also found out that he has an iPod on order and should be here soon. ha!

I find things that that kinda funny… another one for Apple.

Why cant we sync folders using iSync? huh?

I have an iPod, i have a powerbook and a G4 and a common folder between then two that i want the same… so why dont apple let me select a folder in isync to sync with my ipod and allow me to sync it with another machine?

I dont want to have to use some third party software when isync is sitting in my apps folder doing nothing.. sheesh…

So far – sweet. It runs extremely well. I havnt noticed any apps not working since upgrading. I did a complete erase and install on my powerbook and an archive and install on the Dual G4 here at uni. The archive and install worked really well. My current user account was kept the same and all my app settings where saved as well. No need to reinstall or configure any of the apps i use.

Im loving expose (how do you put the little divit thingy in that), as i knew everyone would when Steve did it during his keynote at wwdc this year. Was funny, silence in the hall – steve is talking, he opens a few windows and then hits a button. Expose kicks in and there is a concurrent ‘oooo wow! ooooo’ form the crowd followed by clapping.

Im curious to see how it goes on the old skool toilet seat ibooks. I think ill install it on my old one early next year when i go back home jsut to see, unless i find somthing on the web saying its dodgy.. *shrugs*

righto, thats all for the moment. Ill psot more when i notice cool stuff.

Got a copy of panther today and installed it. Dang its nice and fast. Expose is the shit!

Marked exams on the weekend, and played a bit of HALO. HALO isnt a bad game, is gettin kind of tough and it seems to be a long game.

Havnt touched simcity 4 in a while.

Just had a meeting again regarding exam stuff, gotta go through the whole exam moderation dramas again. Exam marking bites but the money is good. I think this will be my last marking lot though, ive jsut had enough of it.

Righto, only a quick post today, im still fiddling with panther and seeing what new stuffs it can do

Damn its been hot the last few days. Ive been hoping it would rain to cool things down. Rained a bit but it has just stopped and didnt last long, will probably just make it muggy

Took some piccies out my window at uni of the rain…

Two minutes later:

*sigh* Damn its hot….

Just done with marking 31 exams, once again id forgotten how crappy it really is. *sigh* the things we do for cash. I dont think ill do many more of this lot, ive got to mark the software fundamentals ones next week and i dont want to be flat out.
Got a meeting with my supervisor this friday, gotta show him what ive done on my thesis :S

Also gotta setup the access grid here at uni on friday, should be cool. Its jsut a matter of connecting the session up and letting it go then going back afterwards and switching it off.

righto, ive had enough of this… ive gotta go read up on the news and then its home time.

Got my WWWDC dvd set today, its in a neato tin box and the dvds fold out… very applie
Seems the sessions are jsut quickttime movies, but that should be cool, they are nice and clear so good to watch. Ill have to find some time to sit and go through them again.

Panther is out this saturday!, dammit i know my copy wont be here by then. Im betting it wont even be here by the time i go overseas. *sigh* Ill have to try to find a copy to ‘borrow’ until mine comes i think.
Thats all…. been busy

So i downlaoded a copy of iTunes for windows yesterday and took it home on my trusty iPod. Installed it on my XP box and im impressed. Like Steve says on the presentation movie when he annouced iTunes for windows – its one of the most polised apps ive seen on windows. Simple and very nice on the eye.

Functionally it is exactly the same as iTunes on the mac – same setup, importing / burning / playlists etc etc exactly the same. Im still a bit partial to winamps small size and compactness but ill give iTunes a chance to change my mind.

I got to thinking last night about how they wrote it. You can download an iTunes SDK that shows you how to create visual plugins for it under windows, but im not 100% sure if the actual iTunes app would be written in visual studio 6. Im guessing apple still has its yellow box technology up its sleeve – yellow box was the name of the apple libraries that allowed for cross platform developemnt i.e. mac . windows. I think it would be awesome if later on they enabled developers to ‘hit a checkbox’ and compile their mac app for windows with minal effort. But then again – why would they want to create their app for windows when they know they are already using the best OS avaiable – *shrugs* Time will tell i guess.

On a side note, im still hunting around for a copy of panther. I really want to get it before i head overseas. I should also get my damn wwdc dvds in the next day or so, other people that went from OZ have already got theirs.

My goddamn rock solid ghetto shiznit name is Rectal Lobos.
What’s yours?
Powered by Rum and Monkey.

Back at uni again, my teeth are sore still. Ive got a feeling that the doctor had to dig a bit to get the back left hand side one out, cuase its still really sore and has stiches right down the outside of the gum.
The right hand side feels good and better.
Hurts when i smil, so ive gotta look grumpy and sad for a while

Got some great painkilelrs and antibiotics, hopefully it will clear up soon. Im hungry for meat. All i can get down is liquid type stuff and icecream. I never thought the day would come when im sick of icecream – but i am….

I could really go a bacon deluxe burger right about now *sigh*

Not long now till Panther comes out!! woohoo!!!

My supervisor filled out my ‘academic referees’ report today for my scholorship application. Should be good. Ill hand my part in tomorrow now that i know who the referees will be. Should be peachy.

Been thesising again today… slow and steady wins the race apparently…

Got connections to a good movies site… Managed to grab around 15gig today. I burnt off 2 data DVD of movies so i thought id fill the space up again. I need to get more blank dvds. I went through a stage of converting each one to actual DVD movie format, but its not worth the effort now. Im jsut going to burn them as is – divx, xvid, vcd, svcd, avis, mpegs, whatever. Burn then to a 4.7gig DVD and just use a computer to watch them. My computer monitor is bigger then my tv screen anyway

Also found Halo, heard some rave reviews about it so ill try it out. Doubt it will grab my attention like simcity 4 is at the moment. Spent some time yesterday rezoning and generally reorganising my existing city. I got rid of the conference centre, it was having major garbage and bad effects on desirability. At the moment its running at a loss of about $200 per month, which is ok for the moment. I should be able to get it making a profit soon. I need to cut back on spending, i use up about $800 per month on city beautification and i dont need it. gotta chase done the parks and stuff and get rid of them then just place a few in key places.

Almost exam time again, im only marking one lot this time, which is good. Im sick of marking and stuff, its annoying.

Thats about it. Mum comes up tomorrow – get my teeth pulled out on friday… and probably out of action for the weekend… joy…

Nothing happened today, not motivated to do anything. bleh.

Good Rob Zombie mood

Made a few chages to this thing, added a few of those cool things on the right. They dont really serve any useful purpose but who cares

Job hunting is going ok, finding a few jobs to apply for.

Home time…

Found this at NSLOG.COM which he seems to have got from somewhere else, but who cares right?

A man from Charlotte, North Carolina, having purchased a case of very expensive cigars, insured them against, among other things, fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile, the man filed a claim against the insurance company, stating that the cigars were lost “in a series of small fires.”

The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The man sued – and won.

In delivering the ruling the judge, agreeing that the claim was frivolous, stated nevertheless that the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure against fire, without defining what it considered to be an “unacceptable fire,” and was obliged to pay the claim. Rather than endure a costly appeal process the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he lost in “the fires.”

After he cashed the cheque, however, the company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson. With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the man was convicted of
intentionally burning his insured property and sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

I find that damn funny… *shrugs*

So here we go, i finally have a good reason for burping…

Went to drop my xrays off to the dentist to get a referral, anyway, he was there and he had a look and told me i drink coke/soft drinks cause the acids in it have started eating away the enamel on my teeth. Bad you might say.. but wait.. theres more…
He went on to say that theres a few things you can do to stop it eating away the enamel:

1) Stop drinking coke *yeah right.. next option*
2) Chew sugar free chewing gum afterwards and it will neutrilise the acids. *cool, easy*
3) Drink it through a straw *again.. yeah right, im a man not a girl *
4) Drink it fast so that it doesnt have time to sit on your teeth eating them away

The one to note is option 4, drink it fast and it doesnt stay on your teeth long. Now… anyone who is a seasonsed coke drinker knows that drinking it fast makes you burp, and not the little ‘burp’ type ones but the big ‘BURRRRRRPPPPPPPPP’ ones that vibrate anything in a 2 metre distance.

Thus… in conclusion.. if i am to stop the enamel from being eaten away by coke acids i have to drink it fast which may cause burping BUT thats ok cause my teeth will be nice and healty.

There Melanie! its good that i burp!

Spent the afternoon at uni, did some research on tex/latex, the typesetting ‘system’. I guess ill use it to do my thesis with. Found a really sweet template, just gotta work out how the syntax for it works.
Found a pretty good ‘front-end’ for it as well, so thats pretty cool. Got a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow and i think it should be good.

Im in a weird mood again, bored – with lots to do… dunno why, jsut dont feel like doing anything. Anyone wanna hire me to play simcity all day?

bleh… ok i think ill go cook some nuggets!

*sigh* I wanna write really thought provoking blogs, not this ‘day by day’ dribble…. bleh

Soooooo… been reading about thesis writing… looks ok, im jsut having trouble figuring out where to start. I guess i just write the title and then make some headings where i think stuff should go, then give it to my supervisor and see what he says.

Played a bit of simcity 4, im a little confused.. im in a bit of a slump at the moment, i cant seem to get my population or commercial buildings ro get higher. Dunno what it is. I had a lot of stuff in the bank so i set my taxes really low, but that didnt help. I think it comes down to attractions and so forth, however the desirability level is high on everything so its kinda weird. hrmmm

Went to the markets today for a looky, the dude was there again selling cool daggers and swords. I like the look of some of them, im half tempted to buy some but i hold back and resist. He was selling slingshots today with metal ball bearing bullets, weird cause i thought they where illegal. Im pretty sure they are illegal in NSW but i dont know about QLD. $45 and you can have yourself a ball bearking/marble launching sling shot…. the word OUCH comes to mind…

Went and had a look perv at the mazda RX8 this morning. *sigh* Dang it looks nice.
The inside has everything. Melanie says she doesnt like leather seats, but dang i do! and i dont mind the red/black color either. This picture is of the US model (notice the steering wheel on the ‘wrong’ side).

I like the cool back seat and door dealio too:

I never noticed before but the middle compartment where the gear stick and handbrake is actually goes right through, so the people in the back have a neato ‘bench’ type thing. The one at the mazda dealer here has compartments and drink holders in the back section, which i think is a good idea.

I guess i keep dreaming till i win lotto or somthing

Played a bit of SimCity 4 : Rush Hour, the new expansion adds a lot of playablility to the game. Its weird but i think its one of the best expansions ive seen for a game. Liek other expansions usual jsut add more ‘quests’ and units. but this has actually changed the game play a lot with the added ‘u-drive-it’ missions. I reloaded “melanieVille” and “stinkyPlace” so i could play them, spent time his morning with stinkyplace and managed to get it looking good. God a neato casino thats bringing in $300 each month and so far my income is more then my expenses so im still making a profit.

Ill have to post some pictures of my cities at some stage…

Augustina got a new kitty cat! Its sounds cool!, id much prefer a dog myself. One day ill get a little puppy again. Dunno which sort though…. *thinks*

righto im sick of typing, off to listen and watch some cool bootleg videos/mp3s i downloaded. Ill post the link to the bootleg site if anyone wants it….

comment away!

Just sent off an application for a job. Takes a while to get those things together and it feels good to finally get it sent.
Got a lot of stuff to do today…
Gotta go get a referral for the wisdom teeth thing…
Gotta get measured up for a suit…
Gotta go to the bank…
blah blah blah.

I think ill go see a movie tongiht, havnt been in ages… LXG is on, it looks kind cool.. dunno yet though.

Ive also gotta write up some PHD stuff… *sigh* it seems to be at the bottom of the ‘to do’ list lately… *bad brett*