Good Grief, Why Do We Bother?

This has been the most boring Academy Awards show I can remember. Lord of the Rings took everything it could, everyone who was expected to win in the major categories won (even the supposed tension over who would win best actor turned out to be hype) and all in all, it was a celebration of predictability. I'm sorry, but I want to see an upset, some creative voting.

Sure, I was glad to see Sofia Coppola win the best original screenplay award. But wouldn't it have been better if she's taken best director, too (or even instead)? She's the first American woman to be nominated, and female directors don't get nearly enough opportunities or respect in Hollywood.

I didn't see Sean Penn's performance, but I can't believe it was enormously better than the hundreds of other dramatic performances nominated over the years. This year, comedic actors snagged two of the nominations, making them seem to be much more than token nods. Having attempted to play a Shakespearean drunk on stage in high school, I can tell you, comedy is freaking hard to pull off. It's another area that gets no respect from the Academy come voting time. Wouldn't it have been nice to see the voters loosen up a little and treat their awards like awards rather than a solemn duty? I'm sure Bill Murray or Johnny Depp would have given an excellent acceptance speech.

And yes, the Academy has waited until the last LOTR film to give the trilogy serious praise, but did we really need to hand them the whole show? I'm sure it makes them feel good to send off the films with a record-setting awards tally, but come on, were its technical achievements truly superior to other nominated films, such as Seabiscuit (which got squat)?

But let's cut to the quick here -- I saw the first LOTR movie. I had no desire then to see the next two. Why? Because hour after hour of fighting in the forest is boring. Note that these films weren't exactly racking up the acting nods, too. It's a epic? Titanic was an epic, but how many people cry while watching that one now? So was Pearl Harbor, but how many people actually liked it in the first place? And you know, the Star Wars movies are epics, too, but who's clamoring to get The Phantom Menace the artistic recognition it "deserves"? Blah. Boring.

Return of the Yawn

How many Oscars can "Return of the King" win tonight? (Eleven, you say. Details, I say.) It'd be nice if there was a bit more tension tonight.

And all these tributes . . . they keep colliding with the book I'm reading for class now, and I keep thinking of worms. It's a much more unpleasant equalizer than the thought of everyone in their underwear.

My stomach is upset.

Virus Alert

I don't want to increase the e-mail glut by transmitting this info that way, so here you go: A new virus is making the NU rounds. I'm pretty sure it's the latest Mydoom iteration, so I've included some links on it below. At any rate, don't open random attachments, especially ones like this that have random letters for names. It will appear that it comes from someone you know, but as you probably know by now, viruses fake return addresses. Run your anti-virus software to make sure you haven't been infected.

Info on Mydoom.F:
McAfee
Symantec

Windows and the Borg

Journal of CleverNickName (129189): "Picard: 'Mr. LaForge, have you had any success with your attempts at finding a weakness in the Borg? And Mr. Data, have you been able to access their command pathways?'

Geordi: 'Yes, Captain. In fact, we found the answer by searching through our archives on late Twentieth-century computing technology.'

Geordi presses a key, and a logo appears on the computer screen.

Riker looks puzzled. 'What the hell is 'Microsoft'?'"

Funny if you've ever used Windows but especially funny if you've ever seen the first season of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," with its future dwellers' peculiar obsession with the 20th century.

The Radetzky Snooze

I'm attempting to plow my way through yet another novel on Eastern Europe, this one focused on the Austro-Hungarian Empire as opposed to Bosnia. The writing style is not all that thrilling, plus it's a discouragingly long book. My prospects for finishing it before I have to start studying for my econ final on Tuesday appear dim.

I'm attempting also to read some of the Orange County Register, since I'll be going there this spring as an intern. Unfortunately this requires getting over my intense dislike of learning something big and new, a distaste that has grown the more big and new things I must master. It's the "big" part that's especially tough. I feel that there's an immense body of knowlegde I'm going to need to absorb quickly and either I'm lazy or afraid of failure and thus don't want to do it. It's what makes the "new" so hard to achieve.

I had a dream the other night about RCB Quiz Bowl. No kidding. It also included ice cream, debates on economics, my Aunt Patti and a song and dance number. "It's about increasing utility."

State of Camino

I just opened up yesterday's nightly build of Camino, and to my surprise, someone has redone the interface. Gone are the ugly blue buttons of 0.7. Blue is gone altogether, actually, as they appear to have moved on to lime green. The new buttons (and colors) appear to be inspired by Safari by way of Firefox, as the nav buttons are tiny, white rounded squares with small, dark-gray icons.

While this is an attractive look and fits into the Panther interface well (that goes for all three browsers), it's getting a little overused, I think. Safari has to use these icons to fit with the whole brushed-metal them, and Firefox is the Aqua alternative for this interface -- so where does that leave Camino?

I understand Camino wants to look as elegant as the other browsers, but I don't think that should mean creativity should get left out in the cold. I wish I had the skills to design a new set of buttons myself, but I have no idea how they implement these things or how to make them, plus my graphic design skills in general aren't that strong. I might create uglier buttons with the best of intentions.

But I won't complain too loudly if the buttons remain. Like I said, they do look nice, even if they're nothing to get excited about. However, I will be upset if they keep the current "tabs." When Apple decided to switch from tabs to elongated buttons in Panther, every program using Jaguar's tab widget got dragged along for the ride. The problem with that is that these programs weren't designed with Apple's button interface in mind. While Mac OS X's system preference panes look lovely, with a good margin around the rounded gray rectangle that encompasses everything that changes when you click a new button-tab, everything else looks crappy with just a dark gray arch above the content that goes nowhere.

Camino does have close widgets on the button-tabs now, a la Safari, which is a welcome change, but the buttons look out of place. Unless Camino widens its margins or ditches the widget, I will not be happy (if my opinion matters).

Proof That the Majority of Internet Users Are Stupid (If Viruses Weren't Enough)

Internet Explorer to stomp pop-ups | CNET News.com: "The moves were the result of deep consumer loathing of pop-ups. About 88 percent of broadband users and 87 percent of dial-up users in North America find that pop-ups interfere with their Web surfing experience, according to Forrester Research. But only 15 percent of consumers have downloaded ad-blocking software. Having a tool in IE could make avoiding the ads simpler."

Shafted

The Daily Northwestern - Leaders urge expansion of Asian studies: "More than 30 leaders of cultural groups sent a letter to Weinberg Dean Daniel Linzer on Thursday that demanded immediate changes in Northwestern"s Asian-American studies program because they are disgruntled with the progress of the department."

As an Asian Studies major, I would like to point out to the Daily that we are not the same as Asian American Studies, and that it is insulting to Asian Americans to chop the "American" out of the name of the program. It contributes to the sense among Americans of Asian descent that they are perpetually foreigners in this country, despite having seen the country their ancestors came from about as often as most non-Native Americans do (i.e., rarely if ever).

Not to mention it kind of irks me to read a headline about possible expansion in my major (which includes the also oft-overlooked Middle Eastern Studies major) only to find out that it's just some copy editor's error. Assuming the Daily has copy editors, which I doubt at this point. If they do have them, they seem to introduce more errors than they fix, a cardinal sin of copy editing.

People Are Very Rich

Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People 2004: "If Sam [Walton] were alive today, he would be worth twice as much as Bill Gates."

One of the interesting tidbits from this year's list. The five Walton children (now doesn't that make you think of "The Waltons"?) each have $20 billion to their names, which is more than Bill Gates (still first at $46.6 billion) had before he started giving all kinds of money to his foundation (with inflation, I don't know if it would still be less, but you'd also have to take into account changes in Microsoft's stock price, so it's complicated). The Waltons are all tied for sixth place.

A pro-American Saudi prince who supports elections and women's rights is number four with $21.5 billion. Eight of the 10 richest people live in the United States. Warren Buffett is nipping at Bill Gates' heels at only a mere $3.7 billion behind, but surely just a couple of percentage points rise in his stock could change that (if you've never heard of Berkshire Hathaway, you must see that page -- take note of the 52-week range and keep in mind that owning a share of this company is my father's dream).

J.K. Rowling has conjured up $1 billion for herself, earning her a 552 ranking (tied with everyone else at the bottom of the list). She's the only Scottish person on the list. Europe in general has a lot of billionaires, more than the United States appears to. But that's probably because the Waltons and Bill Gates have all our money. America has 275 billionaires, worth a total of $908.9 billion.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the boys who brought us Google (each only 31), also share the 552 spot. Other notables at the bottom are Roy Disney (nephew of Walt) and William Ford Sr. (grandson of Henry).

Other notables not on the list include me, myself and I, and our potential to make the list appears to be nil.

What's Next - "Windows Revolutions"?

Microsoft considering update dubbed 'XP Reloaded' | CNET News.com: "Microsoft is considering updating Windows XP before it releases Longhorn, the code name for a major overhaul of the industry's dominant operating system that is not expected for about two years.

Issuing an update to XP would represent a significant shift for the software maker, which for months has insisted that it had no plans to create a separate version of Windows before Longhorn. A company executive confirmed to CNET News.com on Thursday that Microsoft is now discussing a product internally referred to as 'Windows XP Reloaded.'"

Coming to a theater near you in summer 2004 . . .

Trust No One in Politics

Democrats Debate in California: "Democratic presidential rivals John Kerry and John Edwards voiced opposition to gay marriage on Thursday, but said the issue should be left to the states rather than banned by a constitutional amendment as recommended by President Bush.

On the day that celebrity Rosie O'Donnell was married to her longtime girlfriend, Kerry and Edwards both sharply criticized Bush for his request to Congress to amend the Constitution."

Actually, I link to this mostly so you can all go check out the picture and see how John Kerry and John Edwards so clearly love each other. Must be a John thing.

Perhaps they should get married. Oh wait -- they oppose gay marriage. But they also oppose Bush's no-gay-marriage amendment, so maybe it's not a problem. But they think it should be "left to the states," so maybe it is. But then, John Kerry is from Massachusetts, where gay marriage will be legal in May, so maybe wedding bells should ring after all.

Why can't we get some Democrats running for president who have some backbone? What kind of race is this, with the two major candidates left running not on issues or character but on which one can beat Bush? Let me tell you, if "ability to beat Bush" is the only thing one of these guys is chosen on, neither is going to be able to beat Bush. Saying "I can beat you!" in a debate with Bush isn't going to be all that impressive.

And it'd be nice, too, if there was some candidate out there who could end the factionalism among the Democrats so that a liberal president could actually win. Personally, I thought that candidate was Bush 2004, but I'm beginning to think that fervor has died, much to my disappointment, as I consider Bush a threat to the world (and that includes America) safety.

And by the way, congratulations to Rosie and her girlfriend on tying the knot in San Francisco. To those who oppose gay marriage but not civil unions, it's not just a matter of semantics. It's linguistic discrimination and it's much like "separate but equal" -- separate is inherently unequal. Plus this country is messed up in thinking of marriage only in Christian terms. And actually, oddly enough, they seem to think of it more specifically in Catholic terms, since marriage isn't a sacrament in Protestant denominations.

Imagine how scandalized Americans would be if they knew more about Muslim marriage, which is by contract and so essentially marries people via what Americans call a pre-nuptial agreement.

Deadlines, Perhaps?

To Jerome C. Pandell, author of the Daily Northwestern's review of "The Passion of the Christ":

The Shroud of Turin is a shroud, i.e., a cloth one wraps a body in, not a veil one uses to wipe a face. It also clearly shows a full body, not simply a face. Veronica's veil is a different (but probably similarly questionable) relic. Tsk, tsk.

Also, the devil isn't just a Christian idea. In the Book of Job, Satan tests Job's ability to continue to honor God in the face of enormous adversity. It's true that in Christian tradition the devil has come to take on more attributes than his role as temptor in the Bible, but it's not like the idea didn't exist for thousands of years.

I'm coming to the conclusion that when it comes to religion -- even your own religion -- no one really knows what they're talking about.

Check, Please

From the Sphinx to King Tut, a Feast for Budding Egyptologists: "Seven millenniums of Egyptian culture and history are now available in a most modern way: through a new Web site called Eternal Egypt."

Got past the double-N trap but then fell victim to Latin plurals . . . while the dictionary, unsurprisingly, says this colloquialism is accepatable, it seems to me poor style. Of course, it's only really fun to point these things out when the paper is the New York Times.

What's Up, Comcast?

I have a Comcast e-mail account (colleenfischer at comcast dot net, if you're curious). I got it when I configured the Comcast broadband service on my computer. As far as I can remember, I haven't used it at all, save maybe e-mailing people I know a message or two when I first got it. Yet somehow I've managed to make it onto spammers' lists. I get spam on the account more frequently than I get Comcast service notices. Now how can this be?

The Errors

ABCNEWS.com : Jesus Scholars Find Fault in Gibson's 'Passion': "Mel Gibson's portrayal of the final 12 hours of Jesus in his film 'The Passion of the Christ' has been hailed as the gospel truth by some believers, but many scholars complain that it is riddled with historical errors.

Their complaints range from inaccuracies about hairstyles and clothes to a lack of gospel context in the film which has raised a furor among Jewish groups who fear its graphic depiction of the crucifixion will fan anti-Jewish violence."

Here's a good review of some of what I was talking about earlier. Near the end of the article, it reports Gibson said "the experts canceled each other out" and so he made many decisions himself. I don't know what experts he talked to. Must be those experts in literal interpretations and, most especially, church tradition.

Many times I've been told Jesus probably didn't carry a whole cross but just a crossbeam. Also, I've heard many times that Pontius Pilate was brutal, not introspective. This isn't the first time I've heard that Greek was the lingua franca of the region (it's what the Gospels were written in, you know), not Latin. These and other theories/facts are pretty well agreed upon.

It's easy to see where some of the mistakes come from. Jesus has long hair? What pictures of "Jesus" have you ever seen in which he has short hair? It was a popular way for early Hellenistic Christians to depict him, but in the last, oh, several hundred years it's been hard to imagine Jesus visiting the barber. It's a tradition that Gibson couldn't break away from, even in his quest for "realism."

Same goes for Jesus' loincloth. I wonder if a lack of loincloth would have tipped the MPAA over the NC-17 edge.

And of course, from other reviews I've read, it seems at least some of it isn't based necessarily on the Gospels but on the traditional Stations of the Cross. The Catholic Church actually revised these several years ago to be more in line with what happens in the Gospels, but the traditional 14 still persist. I don't believe, for example, that Veronica (from vera icon, or true icon, referring to the famed veil relic) makes an appearance in any of the Passion stories.

Stuff like that irks me because Mel Gibson is promoting this as the most realistic as possible depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus' life. Telling people that, combined with the impact of the visuals, is bound to perpetuate myths for many years to come. And I agree with the scholar in the article that the story lacks context. Fine job, trying to be so faithful to the Gospels but cutting most of them out.

Of course, the Gospels themselves don't really answer all the questions people have about Jesus. What happened between when he was 12 and when he was 30? Did he have siblings? Why in the world did he go to Jerusalem that fateful week? I'm sorry, but I can't think Jesus was quite so deterministic as to believe he had no choice, nor do I think it's likely he was so fatalistic as to be sure he would die there. Those statements he makes predicting his own death seem like the sort of thing written into the Gospels that fit a little too perfectly.
Who knows what really happened? The most we can do is know what didn't happen, and Gibson's version of events seems to fall into that category.

But of course, maybe illuminating theology is a bit too much to ask of a movie. Unfortunately, people may not view it with that in mind.

How To Make More Secure Software

ZDNet UK - News - Patching 'still too difficult'

I don't know why patching is a viable system at all. If any other product hits the market with serious defects, it gets recalled. But software, no matter how full of defects, gets only a Band-Aid and a "Sorry." No refunds, no replacements -- the process isn't even convenient.

I realize the software market is competitive (wherever Microsoft isn't involved, that is), but do release cycles really need to be so quick? How many people actually upgrade their software beyond when they upgrade their computer?

Microsoft actually provides an example. So many people (especially corporate people) still use Windows 98 that Microsoft couldn't go through with discontinuing support for the OS. True, they charge for its support now, but they couldn't force people to upgrade. At Scott's old office, the computers had a mix of Windows versions, with the vintage depending on the computer's purchase date.

Microsoft did, I think, get a lot of upgrade purchases when it released Windows 95. But Windows 95 was something of a revolutionary operating system on the PC platform -- it copied the Mac. The previous version of Windows, 3.11, was the first usable version, but it was nothing compared to Windows 95. Windows 98 and all subsequent versions were just refinements of the basic user-interface system. And there were plenty of people who didn't like those refinements since they increasingly tied Internet Explorer into the interface. However, once Microsoft releases a new system, all new PCs get it, and who still uses a pre-1998 computer?

I think if companies were to stop the horrendously fast upgrade cycle and make sure their software was bulletproof before releasing it, we'd have a much safer Internet. It's not like Dell will stop buying Windows if Windows doesn't get released every two years.

Of course, that's not to say I believe Microsoft's delays in releasing Longhorn (the next version of Windows) are due to them beefing up security. I just get the impression that they're having problems something like Apple did when it had it's next-generation OS, Copland, in development. After so many delays, the system ended up never seeing the light of day (except for a few features that got incorporated into Classic OS releases). Thus Apple ended up purchasing NeXT and its OS to create OS X.

Who knows, maybe Microsoft will give up on Longhorn like Apple gave up on Copland and turn to building a system on top of Linux like Apple built one on top of BSD. And then Unix will have taken over the world.

Yuck

Movie Review | 'The Passion of the Christ': Good and Evil Locked in Violent Showdown: "'The Passion of the Christ' is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus' final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it."

I won't repost such a picture here, but one of the stills posted with this review is just disgusting. I can't believe this movie has an "R" rating, what with all the talk about its extreme, graphic violence.

I haven't seen it (obviously -- it's not out until later), and I don't intend to, what with the controversy about anti-Semitism and, perhaps more so, because I think it would make me vomit. I nearly got sick the first time I saw the spinal tap scene in "The Exorcist," so I couldn't subject myself to this.

Plus it would likely be a frustrating experience for me. The elements of anti-Semitism that may or may not be in the movie (according to the review, the most egregious part was cut) probably arise from long-standing misunderstandings of the Gospels.

I may get myself into trouble here, but I don't believe in taking the Bible literally. In fact, I learned in Catholic school (that is, post-Vatican II Catholic school, the kind Mel Gibson probably shuns) that the Bible should be read in the context of the time it was written. How else is it possible to explain all the contradictions between the accounts and with the historical record? And saying that the influence of human writers played no part in composing these books makes it difficult to square the Gospel of Matthew, which focuses on showing Jesus as the fulfillment of Israelite prophecies and in line with tradition, with the Gospel of Luke, which portrays Jesus essentially as a socialist.

Odds are, the Pharisees were not Jesus' enemies. My high school theology textbook said that the real Pharisees had many of the same ideas as Jesus. And lest we forget, Jesus was not a Christian. Neither were his followers until St. Paul convinced the council to let Gentiles join the movement, well after Jesus' death. Even then, I doubt they considered themselves no longer Jewish.

According to history, Pilate was a ruthless governor who probably had no moral qualms about executing a rabble-rouser. There were many militaristic messianic movements around the time Jesus lived that sought to overthrow Roman rule, and to the Romans, participants were surely seen as rebels and the leaders as dangerous. In their defense, it's unlikely the Romans treated Jesus much worse than the hundreds of other people they executed, especially for a supposed crime that might be called traitorous. Just today I read that there are people out there who would pay to see Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein executed on television, so don't think retribution has died out.

The Gospels were written to curry favor with certain audiences. They weren't written until long after the events described happened, so they're hardly a primary source for history. They have value as sources for religious truth, but not facts - not any more than the many movie star Jesuses resemble the real deal.

The Results Are In

And I will be headed for the Orange County Register this spring for Teaching Media. It's an enormous relief, as it was the only place where I had housing and a car available for me of all the TM sites. Considering the daunting task of having to find a subletter, finding an apartment in San Diego simultaneously did not sound appealing at all.

Silence

When the fan stops cooling my iBook, a curious tension hangs in the air, when I can most certainly still feel it vibrating around me. My ears ring and the room spins, and for a few seconds the laws of physics seem not to apply to me.

Goodness

Have you ever noticed how much "Serb" looks like "herb"? I can't help but think of oregano as I read every page of this book.

Stupid Blogger

I had a nice, long entry here about RCB nominations night, and Blogger ate it. I hate it when that happens! Here's the short version: Run for RCB Vice President for Public Relations if you have res college government experience; it's a lot of fun; I can't do it because I'll be on Teaching Media; I'll miss this past year; I hope to keep in touch with everyone on the board after it's over, despite being gone.

It loses some of its heartstring-tugging in the condensed version, mais c'est la vie.

Nothing Is Impossible

New York Times: Four Nations Where Forks Do Knives' Work: "Old-fashioned it may be, but boiling is creeping back into fashion. The überchef Daniel Boulud recently rhapsodized about pot-au-feu in a column in Elle Decor, although naturally he throws in a couple of filets mignons for greater luxe.

Upmarket restaurants across the country are finding places on their menus for boiled meat (a listing appears on Page 4). In food-frenzied London, where boiled silverside (corned beef) was a standby at the Savoy and Connaught hotels before the dubious updating of their dining rooms, boiled beef and carrots is a big draw at Wolseley, the hot new brasserie."

Has everyone suddenly forgotten that boiled meat doesn't taste good? This has to be at least the third article I've read rhapsodizing about the reason British cuisine has been so widely ridiculed in the past. Boiling meat draws out its flavors into the liquid, giving you a delicious broth, for sure, but leaving you with a tasteless main dish. Not to mention how easy it is to dry out meat cooked with such a method.

I'm sure that in a few weeks boiled meat will go back to its position of shame as other columns write it off with nothing more than a line while describing better fare. But I have to wonder what has prompted this sudden cavalcade of sources praising it. It's as if there's a conspiracy within the culinary-critic world to turn readers on to bad food. Perhaps they've decided they want to keep all the good stuff to themselves.

Bugzilla

Fixed some display bugs in Safari on this page. Now everyone should be able to see the webcam photo. Note that it's not remotely live, but simply a photo I take with my webcam.

First! But It Doesn't Matter!

I have the FIRST registration appointment for juniors this quarter, AND ALL I CAN SIGN UP FOR IS TEACHING NEWSPAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!

The injustice of it all! The irony is killing me! I can't believe it!

I've been stuck in the middle or near the end for every other quarter's registration! I don't have standing above my year (again, except during the spring itself, when it doesn't matter), so being first is the best appointment I could possibly hope for! AND IT'S POINTLESS!!!

If my number isn't first sometime during my senior year now, I will be seriously angry. As is my apparent Palestinian nature (see below).

Of course, it'll probably end up being first my senior year during spring quarter's fall classes registration period.

Palestine Personified

I don't usually post this sort of thing, but I thought it was funny . . .



You're Palestine!

There's a lot of debate among those who know you about whether you deserve anything at all ... a place to live, rights, shelter, a job, or anything. That fact has really made you upset over the years, and this has led you to resort to just about any means you can to get the word out that you exist. Hard to say whether all that anger is going to work out, but in the meantime, you've gotten peoples' attention. The cycle of abuse in your life looks ugly and doesn't show much signs of stopping ... many people now even more firmly believe that you don't deserve anything because of what you've done.

Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

Salvation!

My replacement power adapter is here!

Seventy-five dollars has bought me a 65-watt adapter (the old one was 45) with a grounded plug (no more sparks!) and a one-year warranty. Hopefully this means it'll be more than a year before I have to plunk down another $75.

In Need of a Tenant

If any of you lovely people are in need of a place to live in the Evanston area for spring quarter (i.e., sometime around March 19-29 to the end of June), please e-mail me. I will be going on my Teaching Media internship in the spring and need to find someone to sublet my room.

It's a nice room, painted a cheerful shade of yellow and warmer than any other room in the apartment when it's cold outside. It's right next to the front door, convenient for when you want to fall right into bed after class. Also, use of a bed is included in the $400 a month rent, in addition to a dresser, a work table with desk chair and a set of Yaffa drawers.

We have both cable Internet (with wireless access!) and cable TV (it's cheaper that way, apparently), and the only utility not included in the rent is electricity. Phone service is flexible; my roommates and I currently go our own ways, but if you don't have a cell phone, I'm sure my roommate with the landline would be willing to split the service with you, which would make it pretty cheap. Electricity usually runs us each about $10 a month, as does cable at the moment.

The apartment itself has a total of seven rooms, including the bathroom. There's a roomy kitchen with plenty of storage space and multiple appliances, including a large microwave, a toaster oven, rice cookers, a smoothie maker, mixers and more. There's also a living room with a sofa and loveseat, a large coffee table and a TV/VCR. The third common room we haven't been able to come up with much use for beyond a place to sit and read, so we're open to suggestions. At one time I kept my computer table in there.

Moving beyond the apartment to the building as a whole, a back staircase takes you down to the basement, where there are laundry facilities. The washer is free, and the dryer costs only $1 per use. However, there's a drying rack available for use in the apartment if you want altogether free laundry. The basement is also available for storage of boxes and other items you want to have out of the way. If you like reading outside, there are chairs available on the front porch.

As for location, the building is located on Maple Avenue, between Simpson and Foster. Campus, especially the Kellogg area, is 10 minutes due east on Foster, and it's only a couple of minutes more to head north to Noyes or south to Emerson. All of the shopping and restaurants on Maple are minutes away, and White Hen, Osco and Whole Foods are pretty convenient. And Hanan's Finer Foods, just on the other side of Foster, sells the cheapest milk in Evanston (about $1.59 for a half gallon, and I believe less than $2 for a whole). Not to mention that in March a café is set to open right by Hanan's, mere footsteps from us.

"Us" being, besides me, my two female roommates, friendly but busy folks who often are out of the apartment or sleeping deeply.

If you're tired of living on campus, ready to leave your roommate or are returning from Teaching Media or study-abroad, drop me a line. The rent is really a steal, and the location is quite convenient to campus as apartments go.

Gurgling

I totally should not have eaten so much food at FlatTop. My stomach is going to be paying for this the rest of the day. It keeps making these funky "blurb-blurb-blurp" sounds and if I was on a boat in there, I'd definitely be seasick.

But it was pretty good. I started with a soup, with tofu, egg and hot and sour broth. That wasn't really so good. I added way too much garlic and too many sauces. Such is the way with me when faced with 20 difference sauce choices (not including the dry spices and the bottled sauces). I thought out my next two dishes a bit more carefully and ended up with some yummy, spicy moo-shoo wraps (I was seriously wishing for milk) and a peanutty noodle stir-fry. That came with some sort of Indian bread on top that was buttery and delicious. Unfortunately, by that point I felt close to exploding and thus had to leave a lot on my plate.

But I swear, I finished not a one of these dishes. It's hard to judge how much food you're putting on your plate until you get back four moo-shoo wraps for what you thought had been a modest portion.

Well, at least all that food was cheap. Since we arrived in time for lunch, it was only about $8 a person (and $2 for a soda). Even adding on tax and tip, it was a fabulous deal.

But watch out for that black bean garlic sauce.

We Love The Subs!!!

Honestly, it must be the most awful and the most impossible-to-ignore (or to expunge from the mind) advertising campaign ever. My first reaction to seeing the crazy vermin in the Quiznos commercials was that surely this must be offensive to someone. My second was to wonder what the heck they were thinking.

Every subsequent reaction has been something along the lines of "Coz they are good to us!!!"

Because I can't make it go away!

Those hamsters are starting to control my thoughts.

I'm sure this commercial fits into several of the creativity archetypes I learned about in my advertising class, but I wonder if it also belongs on the next "Worst Ads of the Decade" list.

In Case You're Wondering

Slashdot | Buddylinks Stinks: "Omie TheNull writes 'After recieving several messages over AIM with the content: 'check this out... http://www.wgutv.com/osama_capture.php?HlvU', I went to the page and discovered that it is sponsored by a site called 'BuddyLinks.' Their website is at http://www.buddylinks.net and they claim that they are NOT a virus. However, when you visit their links and install their 'player' it seems that you are also installing software that takes control of your AIM buddy list and sends advertisments to those on your buddy list. The advertisements are obviously designed to look like innocent messages from your buddies asking you to check out certain links. Very scummy, indeed.'"

I got one myself and couldn't figure out what it was for the life of me at first. Naturally, IM worm software like that doesn't work on Macs. However, if you use Windows and get this IM from someone, don't install the player. Just close the window.

Reasons to Switch

Flexbeta - 13 Reasons To Use Firefox Over IE - Page 1

This site gives a pretty good overview of Firefox's advantages. I'd add that Firefox, like regular Mozilla, allows you to skin the interface (change its appearance - here are some examples) without installing spyware (never install HotBar) or editing the registry. Maybe that's not a particularly useful feature, but it's one of those nifty bells and whistles.
The ability to block ad server images is probably one of my favorite features. If you install the Adblock extension, you can even block Flash ads, too, ads I find almost as annoying as popups.

And tabbed browsing is great, too, because having a whole bunch of IE windows open either crowds your taskbar so that you can't tell the windows apart or, in XP, causes the taskbar to condense all the windows into a popup menu that adds yet another step to getting to your window. Plus it's nice just to be able to control/command-click a link and have it load in a background tab while you finish reading the page you're on, rather than having to right/control-click, choose "Open in new window" and then click back to your original page when the new window blocks the page you were reading.

And maybe my favorite feature is the ability to make bookmark menus on the Favorites/Bookmark Bar. I don't know if IE can do this -- it's something I never knew about until I got my iBook, and I used Mozilla on Windows anyway. It works in IE for Mac, but not as well since the menus aren't sticky (i.e., you have to keep the mouse button down until you reach your selection). But since I have too many bookmarks to fit individually on the Bookmark Bar, I put folders of bookmarks onto the bar, and when I click on them they reveal a bookmark menu. It's like having a second menu bar just for bookmarks. I realize you could always just use the bookmarks menu, but that's not nearly as visible and takes more mousing. It has less room, too.

Justice

The Daily Northwestern - Organ program debate draws national concern

I'll say here and now, if I'm ever rich and Northwestern comes after me for money, I'm donating exclusively to the School of Music. Take that, Medill.

New Firebird -- I Mean . . .

Firefox. Apparently Mozilla finally had to cave and rename the browser in order to not get sued by some open-source database project that uses the name Firebird. So that's two names down now (the first was Phoenix). Hopefully this one will stick. The new icon is cute. I guess a "firefox" is a red panda.

It's a bit anticlimactic for me since I downloaded a nightly build a week or so before they announced the imminent release of version 0.8 in order to get the latest version of the pinstripe theme for OS X (which is very nice, by the way -- sort of like Safari but not in that stupid brushed metal so there can be more colorful icons). But happily the advanced Blogger interface appears to be working in Firefox (again? can I say again after a name change?), so I can turn off the lo-fi version.

"I'll Think About It Tomorrow"

"This assignment is very straightforward. Do a photo essay/profile on an individual or an institution of interest in the community that would be worthy as a story of publication in a local newspaper, magazine, or aired on local television or radio. “Community” can be defined rather broadly, though I’m sure with your schedules, Evanston is big enough. It can be a light feature."

I have two midterms before this is due Tuesday. Any ideas for a topic?

Life is Full of "Curses!"

The power adapter on my iBook is flaking out again. The rubbery plastic casing on this one has worn away since I got it in October to the point where I can see the wire underneath, and now it will only function when propped a certain way. It's intensely annoying because this is my third power adapter since I got my computer in December 2002. What makes it all the worse is that my computer is out of warranty now, so if this adapter dies completely, I'll have to pony up $79 for a new one. Less than buying a new computer, but if these adapters keep dying every four and a half months it's going to start adding up.

And it's always the same part that dies -- the connection between the wire and the bit that plugs into the computer. At least that's what it appears to be, as it's usually sensitive to how it's positioned before it dies. Once it may have been the AC/DC converter, but I can't be sure. But it's clear that the wire casing is not nearly strong enough at the point where it bends the most. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

The adapter extension cord that came with my iBook is still original, so at least that was well-designed.

Tsk, Tsk, New York Times

Judge Strikes Down N.F.L. Eligibility Rule: "Mr. Renfrow said the decision would open the door for more college players to make an early jump into the N.F.L., though he did not know how many would try to do so.

'It's probably too early to know how that will effect college football in terms of numbers, but a door is open that wasn't open before,' he said." (emphasis added)

A grammar mistake that turns this statement into a misquote. It's a double-whammy.

Two Peas?

Yahoo! News - CIA Boss: Iraq Not Called Imminent Threat: "He [George Tenet, the CIA director] said that 'in the intelligence business, you are never completely wrong or completely right ... When the facts of Iraq are all in, we will neither be completely right nor completely wrong.'"

You know what that sounds an awful lot like? Astrology.

No Disguises

Gays Have Full Marriage Rights, Massachusetts Court Says: "'The dissimilitude between the terms `civil marriage' and `civil union' is not innocuous; it is a considered choice of language that reflects a demonstrable assigning of same-sex, largely homosexual, couples to second-class status.'

The opinion added: 'For no rational reason the marriage laws of the Commonwealth discriminate against a defined class; no amount of tinkering with language will eradicate that stain.'

It also said: 'Barred access to the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage, a person who enters into an intimate, exclusive union with another of the same sex is arbitrarily deprived of membership in one of our community's most rewarding and cherished institutions.'"

Wow, I am impressed. I never expected to hear a court say that these days. It's about time someone finally pegged Americans as hypocritical and discriminatory on this issue as they are.

"'That there may remain personal residual prejudice against same-sex couples is a proposition all too familiar to other disadvantaged groups,' the ruling said. 'That such prejudice exists in not a reason to insist on less than the constitution requires.'"

Tweaks

I'm sure the 38 percent of you who view this site in some form of IE (who are you people and haven't I ranted against this enough?) will be happy to know that I have updated this site's design so that it purportedly renders correctly in Windows IE. I can't fix the fact that Windows doesn't come with Optima pre-installed, but at least the layout should look right now.

Of course, all you Mac IE users out there have always seen the site as it should be, so don't be concerned that it doesn't look different now.

The Wrong Quarter

Again I start to wish I could be going on TM in the fall instead of the spring . . . Not only would it make life generally easier, but looking at the list of courses for next quarter, I could almost finish my Middle East Studies major just through what's offered in poli sci. I only need three more courses, which must all be in the social sciences (not including history). The department's offering both Chinese Politics and Middle Eastern Politics (as a special topic) next quarter, so I could knock two of them off in one fell swoop. Wouldn't be enjoyable, but it would be done.

On another note, why doesn't the Registrar's Office link directly to the new course descriptions from their site instead of making us "hack" into them via changing the quarter name in the URL manually? It's not like we don't know they're there.

Primaries

It's worrisome that Kerry has had such strong showings in so many states. Kerry's arrogance comes across pretty clearly in his brushing-off of his opponents. It'd be nice if the Democratic nominee was a bit less cocky than Bush. A bit more of a pleasure to vote for than a grim, anyone-but-Bush duty.

Let's face it -- on the scale of Massachusetts Democrats' likablilty, Kerry seems a lot more Michael Dukakis than JFK. Yuck. Let's not forget to whom Dukakis lost.

But two states voted for other candidates, so I guess there's hope yet. The Times seems to give Dean more of a chance in the long run than I would considering his campaign is essentially bankrupt, but who knows. I guess that makes three more-or-less viable opponents as the slate continues to get smaller. I doubt it will get any smaller now until one of the top four drops.

About Time

Microsoft Issues Browser Security Fix

Messed-Up Again

Stayed up until about 3 a.m. Got up around 7 a.m. Got home around 3 p.m. Slept from about 4 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Want more sleep.

Bill Gates (and Others) Must Burn in Hell For This

Gates Backs E-Mail Stamp in War on Spam

That's not some technological "stamp" that proves the identity of the owner, but an honest-to-goodness STAMP that people would be charged for in order to send e-mail.

I don't care if I have to put up with spam filters in order to keep my e-mail free. For pity's sake, I'm already paying a monthly fee to my ISP for the privilege of using an e-mail account. To my mind, that's more than enough to cover the small volume of e-mail that I send each day without me getting charged a penny or more for each message, especially when cable Internet service can cost as much as $50 a month.

I don't believe for a second that stamps would remain limited to bulk mailers. Once ISPs start receiving this nice new revenue stream (because you aren't getting paid with stamps for allowing messages into your own inbox), they'll extend it to everyone else, maybe on a sliding scale at first, but eventually we'll all be paying something equivalent to what we pay at the post office.

A penny won't be enough for long, either. Sure, a penny might discourage those random spammers who expect a 10 in a million response rate, but how many spammers out there are making enough profit from 10 people to justify the time invested? Stamps will just encourage more aggressive marketing and higher prices as e-mail marketers become more like other direct marketers. Doesn't anyone notice that the cost of sending snail mail and making phone calls hasn't stopped junk mailers and telemarketers?

E-mail stamps are just a way for people (like Gates -- Microsoft is an ISP, remember?) to profit off of the existing free communication network. Spam won't stop, but ISPs and tech companies will no longer care about trying to find a more secure standard for e-mail because the dough will be rolling in. The drive for profits is why we have so few standards on the Internet to begin with (see: instant messaging, Web sites that only work in Internet Explorer 6 for Windows).

By the way, IE fans, did you know that there will be no new version of IE for Windows (forget IE for Mac; Microsoft killed it a few months ago so it'll never see an update) until Microsoft releases Longhorn, its mythical update to Windows? We've been hearing about Longhorn basically since XP came out, and it's release date has been pushed back again and again, until now it's vaguely expected sometime between 2005 and 2007. Long time, no?

Heads Up

I finally made the plunge. From now on, you can access this site using the address http://www.alzubra.com. It still works at the old address, too, obviously, but in case the site ends up moving somewhere else in the future, you'll always be able to find it at this new address.

Of course, this new name means there must be another tweak to the design in the future. But that may well not come until I have the cash to buy the new Dreamweaver, as designing anything but basic sites in GoLive makes me feel like tearing my hair out.

Bill Gates as Rebellious Teen

The Observer | Business | The 'teenage' hard nut at the centre of Microsoft

A nice, thorough drubbing of Bill Gates and Microsoft. Enjoy.

Well, What Do You Know

It's a scorching 26 degrees Fahrenheit right now, with a predicted high of 32. Get your beach clothes ready, it's time to party!

Weirdness

I downloaded a new build of Mozilla Firebird that isn't rendering the Blogger entry page right. It's disappointing because in every other way this build is much superior to the current stable version. The interface is more Mac-like and pretty, and it seems to be handling AutoFill better. It also didn't break the new extension I added earlier today that enhances Firebird's ad-blocking capabilities (out of the box, Firebird can block images you tell it to, meaning you can right/control-click an ad and tell Firebird to block it; however, it wasn't able to do this with Flash ads until I installed the extension). I guess a funky bug like this is to be expected, though, when the version you're using isn't a point release.

What bugs me is I can't seem to find the option that once was in Blogger to use the simple interface instead of the advanced one designed for IE and Mozilla browsers. They're always changing this site up without telling us. For example, in looking for this option I discovered that you can finally change the format for archive links (see my sidebar for an example). I always hated having them read "01-01-2004 - 01-31-2004" in the Monthly view. It's under Settings: Formatting, I believe.

Other nifty new Blogger tricks: There's a page in the Knowledge Base that has the JavaScript code for making a Title Index of your front page a la Movable Type in your sidebar (see mine to the right).

And Blogger supports RSS syndication now, too. This means that if you enable the "Site Feed" option under Settings, it'll give you a link to a page generated in XML with your blog content. These pages can then be read in a newsreader like the free NetNewsWire Lite for Mac. Newsreaders gather blog XML pages into one e-mail-like program so you can easily check which ones have been updated recently. I'm sure there's free Windows newsreaders, too, but I don't know what they are offhand. You have to add the link to your blog's home page in order for people to find out that you have Site Feed enabled. For more information on it, see the Knowledge Base page on Atom.

And I don't think I mentioned it in my last entry, but all of those Mac games I posted links to are completely free, no strings attached. There's other shareware games out there, but I can't afford shareware fees right now, and I feel guilty using shareware for free.