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2-23-2006: SGA Showdown 2006
For three days every February at WVU, there are the debacle of Student Governent Association elections.
Neither Jacob Brezinski nor anyone else I personally know is running for election this year, and there is no one I am particularly enthusiastic about supporting. It's bad enough that all but two candidates (specifically George Minwer and Melanie Davis, both of whom I am voting for) are running on a single platform, named "Gross/Belch" of all things. I believe Jason Gross is a pretty decent fellow, although I'm not fond at all of Beth Belch's politics. But they're the only presidential and vice presidential candidates on the ballot this year, so there isn't much of a forseeable alternative. I hope for the best.
The current (and without doubt future) WVU SGA seems to be most notable for not being particularly notable for anything. If "eviction of Mean Gene's [Burgers], which will soon be replaced by Burger King in the Mountainlair food court" is the first thing Jason Gross and Beth Belch can come up with on a list of past accomplishments--few of which have any bearing on the quality of my campus life--you know something is amiss.
The elections are conducted by computer through the eBallot service, and accessible only through a link on the stupid, stupid, stupid "MIX system" with its stupid, stupid, stupid browser-exclusion checks that can easily be bypassed by enterprising students, much to the administrators' chagrin.
So there. Here's my toast to the SGA, and the next 12 months of underwhelming leadership!
[Add a comment (if you dare) . . .]
2-20-2006: Laundry
I hate doing laundry on weekdays. I really do.
You'd surely expect that more students would do their laundry on weekends as I usually do, since there's more time available then. But no, the laundry room is invariably busier from Sunday night through Friday afternoon than it is at other times.
The biggest part of the problem is thus: Clothes dryers are timed on cycles twice as long as those for washers, yet the same number of dryers as washers are provided. As a result, I sometimes find myself waiting longer than necessary for a dryer to become available (Today, I waited for close to 40 minutes). Part of the time is usually spent watching the timers count down, and then I must wait longer (sometimes, a lot longer) for the person having used the dryer to come back and take his or her stuff out. This is further complicated by:
- People who fold their laundry as they take it out of the dryer, taking up five of my minutes for what they surely could do in their room.
- People who fold their laundry as they take it out of the dryer on top of the washer in which my clothes are waiting, taking up even more of my time.
- People who take their clothes out of the dryer before the timer has counted all the way down, forcing me to have to wait for the remaining time to run out even though the dryer is unused.
- People who run their clothes through for another cycle after the first is through instead of taking them out.
- People who procrastinate and launder three or four weeks' worth of clothes at once, hogging three or four dryers at once.
As a further item of complaint, why is it that both washer and dryer cycles at Boreman South cost $1.25, regardless of whether you pay by coin or by card? Last year at Towers they cost "only" $1.00 if you paid by card! Grrr.
[Add a comment (Don't be scared!) . . .]
2-19-2006: Netscape Time
Today I finished reading the book Netscape Time by Jim Clark, who cofounded the company. It is essentially a biographically-themed account of the factors and experiences surrounding the founding and early years of Netscape Communications Corp., and I found it to be an interesting read.
While a couple chapters were a bit dull, Mr. Clark's writing was witty enough, and I enjoyed finding out more about things I hadn't known much about previously such as problems experienced with Spyglass and the NCSA in late 1994, the circumstances of the company's going public under a year later, and the early seeds of the macabre browser wars with Microsoft. Ordinarily I'd be less interested in reading about the facets of a business, but without exaggeration the Netscape Navigator web-browsing software is something that changed my life.
Most of the focus is on the time throughout 1994 and 1995, although an epilogue touches on subsequent issues such as the acquisition of Netscape by AOL around the time the book was published. The tone regarding that "merger" is optimistic, although in retrospect I think the acquisition was notable more for what it didn't produce than for what it did.
2-19-2006: Weird Weather
One interesting thing about living in Morgantown is that the weather is never predictable, especially in winter. About three or four days ago, the temperature temporarily increased to an unseasonably and uncomfortably warm temperature in the 60s. Things cooled off just as quickly as they warmed up, and now the temperature outside is probably closer to a more suitable 20-or-so degrees Fahrenheit. Yet in spite of it being well below freezing, there is absolutely no snow (except for a little unmelted from yesterday), almost as if the meteorological powers that be are teasing us.
2-15-2006: The Trouble with Netscape 8
(Previously posted under "Technology Talk:")
![[Netscape 8.0.1 screenshot]](new/netscape801.jpg)
Netscape 8.0 was released in May 2005, and was followed by Netscape 8.1 eight months later. And even though I was a loyal user of Netscape from 1.0 through 7.0 and still use Firefox today, I could care less about it. In fact, I wish it didn't exist.
Why? First of all, let's take a closer look at the circumstances under which this software was made.
Netscape (or Netscape Navigator, or Netscape Communicator) was a viable web browser from the beginning up through the 7.x versions several years ago. But in mid-2003, then-owners AOL pulled the plug on Netscape, disbanding the browser development team and prying the logos off the building. End of story. An incremental Netscape 7.2 update was cobbled together by ex-Netscape developers and released several months after the fact as a last hurrah, but otherwise for all purposes worth caring about Netscape ceased to exist then.
But no. AOL still owns the Netscape name and reserves the right to slap it on anything it sees fit, whether it be the Netscape Network, Netscape Radio, Netscape Instant Messenger, Netscape Internet Access, or Netscape This That and the Other Thing, all of which have virtually nothing to do with the company founded in 1994 by Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark.
Meanwhile, Mozilla--an offshoot of Netscape originally concerned with developing later Netscape browser releases as open-source software--comes out with Firefox, a stable and easy-to-use web browser developed from the same code (more or less) as Netscape 7 and marketed towards end users just like Netscape used to be. Mozilla Firefox catches on, and finally solidifies an increase in Netscape/Mozilla browser use for the first time in years.
Then, out of the blue, AOL announces that they're going to make a new Netscape browser. That browser is Netscape 8, based loosely upon Mozilla Firefox and developed by outside firms under contract. Ta-daa!
As might be expected from a software product designed under these dubious and convoluted circumstances, Netscape 8's user interface is nothing to write home about. The stop and reload buttons are combined for no obvious reason. The tabbed-browsing feature of Netscape 7 and Mozilla Firefox was torn out and replaced with a thoroughly more complicated version of the same thing, with literally enough options to fill a whole dialogue panel. There are links to proprietary and profitable AOL/Netscape products and services everywhere, making the toolbars billboards in miniature. Newly-created "blank" tabs will even automatically load Netscape.com by default. A redundant and thankfully optional "skin" introduces a hard-coded blue and orange look to all elements and manages to violate virtually every user interface convention in existance, with such off-putting features like a "throbber" graphic at upper left and a title bar and menu bar combined into one. The overall effect, no matter what, is very cluttered and confusing.
The problems with Netscape 8 are more than skin deep. Individual websites are assigned or given classifications on a seemingly unnecessary triple-increment scale of "trust." This ties in with one of the more infamous features of Netscape 8, "View in IE." Rather than being rendered natively, "trusted" sites instead call upon whatever version of Microsoft Internet Explorer is installed on a system to load a page within the Netscape window, unless of course the default settings are changed. If you use Netscape 8, chances are that more often than not you are using Internet Explorer; shoddy rendering, security holes, and all. Regardless of this, the software is quite sluggish as well; moreso than Mozilla Firefox or Netscape 7.
Like Mozilla Firefox and Netscape Navigator 4.x and 1.x but unlike most other versions, Netscape 8 is a web browser and a browser only, containing no built-in e-mail client. It doesn't need to, but I have seen dozens of inquiries and complaints in technical-support forums from people who had used the e-mail client of Netscape 7, switch to Netscape 8 under the assumption that it's the logical thing to do, and being surprised that their e-mail is gone. I can also envision a conceivable situation where a clueless IE-using system administrator who hasn't paid attention to any other browser in years "upgrades" a computer lab or library configuration from Netscape 7 to Netscape 8 instead of Firefox, simply because the Netscape name is the only other one he's familiar with. Netscape 8 is not a direct upgrade or replacement for Netscape 7.
Unlike Netscape 7 and earlier or Mozilla Firefox, Netscape 8 is available for only one platform, Windows, and that version will refuse to install on Windows 95 or NT 4.0. This is somewhat ironic, as cross-platform compatibility was one of Netscape's most distinguishing factors (along with ease of use) in its pre-AOL heyday, and again I've seen a number of messages by longtime Netscape users in support forums wondering why a Linux or (usually) Mac version isn't available.
Netscape per se died after version 7.1, with 7.2 serving as a brief encore. In my opinion, Netscape 8 amounts to America Online exhuming and performing unspeakable acts upon the corpse. As far as I'm concerned, it was conceived by a committee only as a way for AOL to capitalize on the popularity of Firefox without directly endorsing or (gasp) bundling Firefox itself...no prize given to anyone who counts the number of times AOL sprinkles the word "Firefox" around its Netscape 8 documentation. Given its many technology, usability, and performance-related flaws, Netscape 8 certainly doesn't have much going for it. Furthermore, since Mozilla Firefox has directly taken over Netscape's role as an intuitive Gecko-based browser marketed to end users and the Netscape company hasn't really existed in over two years, this software has seemingly no reason to exist either. If there is a "Canon of Mozilla," I certainly don't believe Netscape 8 is part of it.
If you have somehow been duped into downloading and installing Netscape 8, I would suggest that you remove it immediately. Instead skip the repackaging and use Mozilla Firefox itself (and its companion e-mail client Thunderbird if you're interested), or perhaps choose SeaMonkey (a direct continuation of the Netscape 6/7 and Mozilla application suite line) if you were indebted to the built-in e-mail client of Netscape 7.
2-8-2006: HEY YOU GUYS!!!
On a more positive note for once, take a look at what I got today:
![[The Best of the Electric Company]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/andrewt3660/tv/electriccompany-a.jpg)
![[DVD set open]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/andrewt3660/tv/electriccompany-b.jpg)
An obligatory introduction: The Electric Company was an educational television show produced for PBS from 1971 to 1977, and which continued to air as reruns until 1985. It went off the air just barely before my time, but I always was curious about it. The Best of the Electric Company is a four-DVD set compiling 20 episodes, and marks the first time this material has ever been commercially available.
Before you dismiss it as a kiddie show, The Electric Company was a very entertaining program...there's something for someone of any age to like. With a cast of fine names like Bill Cosby, Mel Brooks, Irene Cara, and others, how can you go wrong? The reinforcement of spelling and vocabulary concepts is merely the icing on the cake. I'm also impressed by the quality of the visual effects, which must have been quite advanced for the analog CGI technology of the early '70s. The show could have been made five or even ten years later and no one would have flinched.
Furthermore, the episodes are absolutely uncut: As far as I can tell all original content and presentation elements (such as on-screen episode numbers and original backers' credits) are present and accounted for. Surprisingly, they even left the old PBS ident in at the end!
I hope I don't sound like a commercial, but if you're interested in quality television, get this! You won't regret it.
2-2-2006: Things I Regret Doing
- Initially majoring in engineering.
This is what I did at the outset when coming to WVU. Sorry, indirectly related concepts I have zero interest in, projects I don't enjoy doing, ludicrous "study labs," overly pushy advisors, a lack of subject variety, and money as the only career incentive are not my idea of the way to go in college. About the only thing that carried me through was group work. I washed my hands of Engineering two years ago in favor of art and haven't looked back.
- Buying a Mac.
Both the first and last time I made a major electronics purchase partially on impulse. A month of frustrating incompatibilities, decreased productivity, and a computer that prematurely broke without explanation only had the effect of making me appreciate Windows 95/NT4 and Linux more and making myself a nice closet squatter I've been trying a year to sell. (If you're interested in a lightly used iBook G4 and have $650, let me know.) Sorry Mac fans! I'm not one of you.
- Not getting a single dorm room sooner.
For seven months spread over two years, I was continually harassed, annoyed, disturbed, and/or driven out by John, Sean, Adam, and their parasitic/suicidal friends, all people the University housing system computer decided would be good for me to live with. Is it too much to ask for someone who doesn't play video games at 2:30 in the morning, pumps loud rap "music" when I'm studying, refuses to lock the room door, has a criminal record with the state of Maryland, and/or is best friends with a vulgar-tongued person who damages my possessions? Apparently so, which is why I refuse to live with a random roommate ever again.
- Not seeing Third Eye Blind live in 2000.
Third Eye Blind are my favorite recently-active band of all time, and back on August 9, 2000 they performed at the Civic Center in Salem, Virginia in support of the album Blue and opened for by Nine Days and Vertical Horizon. From what I've read (link may be dead), that particular show was nothing short of spectacular, and they've never come as close to me as that since then. Unfortunately, at the time I was only 15 years old, I kept my musical preferences rather secretive, and would have felt unprepared for a concert even if I had the opportunity.
1-26-2006: A Day in Pittsburgh
Today, as a year ago, I participated in a university art department field trip to visit the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History up in Pittsburgh.
The group was a bit smaller than that which participated in last year's field trip (I feel the new standardized permission form with six pages of legalese and fill-in-the-blanks is partially to blame) and there was no special event or performance scheduled, but that alone was no detriment to the day's activities. Since I had extensively toured the art museum the year before, I instead dedicated most of my time to the exhibits in the natural history museum including an extensive Native American art and memorabilia exhibit relevant to one of my classes. There was also large mineral and fossil exhibits I enjoyed browsing.
For my last hour there, I and several others in a university curatorial class got to be taken behind the scenes by the art museum's chief conservator to learn about the techniques required for analyzing, preserving, cleaning, and/or mending works of art.
When browsing the Museum of Natural History, I noticed an orange Carnegie museum "member" tag just lying on the floor. I did of course resist the temptation to take it and see if I could use it to my advantage. ;-)
Unfortunately, in my visit I was pressed for time and did not get to see as much of the museums (including almost any of the art portion) as I would have liked. Nevertheless, this event was certainly the highlight of my week (or indeed semester so far), and I look forward to any opportunities to visit this or other museums in the future.
1-15-2006: My Day (Yes, I'm having a hard time coming up with good titles)
It took 20 years, but I finally joined the video game revolution. Yesterday, in a shopping spree that also involved me doing my biannual stock-up of soap and shampoo at K Mart and taking an prolonged stroll around the mall, I went out and bought myself a new Sony PlayStation 2 console.
The trip home was hardly enjoyable, thanks in part to my experience with the municipal bus service. The Green Line either came early (although I was out waiting five minutes in advance) or didn't come to the mall at all, so I had to wait half an hour until the Orange Line was due instead. Problem was, the Orange Line didn't come at all either. So I had to wait another half an hour more until the Green Line came again (this time late instead of early). The driver had the bus radio on and tuned to some CRAP "Focus on the Family" talk show I had to patiently endure. Damn you Mountain Line! On days like this, it makes me seriously wish I had a car...until the thought shifts to the issue of where at WVU I would park it, which always causes the original wish to disappear.
Fortunately I got to relax the rest of the day, taking advantage of the time to set up the PlayStation (with no comment on the TV used) and, since I hadn't started buying games yet, use it to watch the two DVDs I own. Since I'm much more interested in audio than video, the only DVDs I have are bonus items included with U2 and Third Eye Blind CDs, although now that I have a means of playing them that will change in the future.
Last night, some idiots in the second story of a nearby Prospect Street house had an electronic bullhorn (!) and were using it to sporadically shout out innane and stupid things (usually along the lines of "Ali, come up here!") after midnight. I wonder if the siren I heard when I was falling asleep was the sound of the police coming to repremand them for being a nuisance.
1-10-2006: New Year, New Semester
It's now 2006, and yet another semester of classes have begun. 2005 was a better year than 2004 (which in turn was better than 2003, which was the worst year of my life), and I can only wait and see how this year will turn out as well.
Things started off on a somewhat weird note. I came back to WVU on the 7th, and the following night at 2:00 a.m. the fire alarm went off. No telling whether or not the alarm was legit or a hoax, but the fire department did arrive on the scene.
Classes finally started yesterday. Thanks in part to my specialized major (which I will let you know if you really want to), three of my classes are located in the exact same classroom...which also happens to be the exact same classroom at least two and sometimes as many as three of last semester's classes were held in as well.
12-29-2005: Latest News
I've been in a pretty good mood lately. I received a mix of clothes, entertainment, and additional spending money for Christmas. Also, I found out my grades for last semester, and I got As in three out of five classes. My lowest grade was a B- in German 203, which even then was a bit better than I expected.
I'm adding more diversified content to the website as well. Now, it's time for something entirely different:
The Andrew Turnbull License Plate Gallery.
12-24-2005: Rethinking the Site
During the last five days when my site was down, I found myself to be in a contemplative mood.
I've been interested in computers since I first used an IBM PCjr at the age of five, and tend to write a lot about computer-related topics and incorporate this content as the primary focus of my site. However, I don't always like writing about computer-related topics, since they inevitably turn into "I vs. the world" rants about things I don't like (which, fair to say, includes the vast majority of recent PC and Mac hardware and software out there). Needless to say, it puts me in a bad mood.
I'd like to diversify the site to more extensively cover other hobbies and interests I enjoy, common or obscure.
![[West Virginia license plate]](new/west_virginia_license_plate_200.jpg)
That's pretty much all I have to say now, but here's some trivia I wanted to stick in on the side: My hometown is located exactly where the lower left bolthole on this license plate is. :-)
One final message for tonight: Merry Christmas!
12-15-2005: Funky Finals, Part 2: That's All, Folks
I had only one final today, in Nineteenth-Century Art; it was all essays. Like yesterday's History of Christianity final, it was at 8:00 in the morning.
Aside from that, nothing too unusual happened today (and I'm glad of that). The day started out pretty icy, although most everything had melted by mid-afternoon. I'm done with finals now for the year...the calendar year, that is.
12-14-2005: Funky Finals, Part 1: Brush With Death, and Room Identity Crisis
Today I took two final exams for my fall-semester classes.
My History of Christianity exam was at 8:00 a.m., but otherwise went by much as I expected it to. The unusualities for the day didn't start until after it was over.
First of all, some JERK in a white Toyota 4Runner nearly ran me over this morning. It was stopped at an intersection unloading a passenger, and as I started crossing the street while it was stopped it suddenly accelerated, turned and barrelled directly towards me, forcing me to run out of the way. Unfortunately I didn't get the license plate number...
My other exam today was in German 203. As with my finals in earlier German classes, this exam was held not in the usual classroom but rather in a different room in Hodges Hall. The room number that we had been given to go to was 334, on the third floor. However, Room 334 did not appear to exist: There was only a newly-installed, blank, locked door corresponding to an office where Room 334 should have been located. As if that wasn't strange enough, the door to Room 334 did exist...on the second floor, closing the entrance of a completely different room. So, everyone, confused, congregated in the hallway for about twenty minutes before a professor led us into yet another room (with a completely different number) to take the test. The exam itself was your typical college German test, and was pretty much what I had expected, although I did get stumped on one "culture"-related question, asking for an English definition of a really long German word I am one hundred percent sure had never been mentioned in class. Judging from the conversation in the hallway, no one taking the test knew what the answer was.
12-9-2005: End-of-Semester Notes
Today concluded my final week of classes this semester before final exams. In "History of Christianity," we simply reviewed the subject material; meanwhile, in German 203 we conducted the listening-exercise portion of the exam (which was somewhat difficult, as always), before spending the last twenty minutes of the period celebrating and socializing. I brought my Laurie Anderson Big Science CD to class (a really old copy made in West Germany, appropriately enough), so everyone could listen to "Example #22," which had German lyrics in it. I wouldn't be surprised if the song was strange enough to drive people nuts, but on the final day of class, anything goes.
Another thing I've noticed: This semester, I did not get sick once while classes were in session: No colds, no flus, and no perpetually sore throats. I attribute this directly to 1) not living with a roommate and 2) not living in Towers, where rumor has it that the ventilation system spreads communicable diseases between rooms.
12-2-2005: What's New
What's new on my website, in case you're wondering?
To begin with, for the first time since August 2004, my site has a new look. Each department (except for the forum and Lost A Whole Year) carries its own new header graphic with a standard font and border for the logo. The color scheme and fonts haven't changed.
Not coincidentally, the day I unveiled the new look was also the same day Mozilla Firefox 1.5 was released. This new web browser release contains a multitude of new features and changes, including privacy tools, an easier-to-use options dialog, and the ability to reorganize tabs. And it's free. Unless you're using an older (slower) system, there's no excuse for using Internet Explorer (or Netscape 4 for that matter) anymore.
I'm thinking of creating a new section for the site, compiling the sometimes-esoteric computer-related writings I've made past and present. The section will carry an alliterative title.
Finally, come another day it will be exactly one year since I started the Web Journal up. I wasn't sure how much this online journal would come to in terms of content or how long it would last, but I am sure of one thing: It has been a lot of fun doing it.
