#computers Trekkies should be placed on an island. 11 December 1998

Christians in India protest religious persecution. Hindus blame bad Christian karma.

The people who created Unix and C were awarded by the White House. I think that's neat. People should do things that result in their recieving of a reward. Unix and C are integral operating system and programing language respectively. Most of the Internet relies on Unix servers and everybody uses C to write programs. I can't wait till all the letters become as important as the letter C. Let us all give praise to the letter C.

Apparantly theatres in New Dehli and Mumbai (Bombay) were sacked by the ultra-nationalist Shiv Sena for showing a movie, Fire, about lesbians. India is a Hindu state. No matter how much religion is seperate from Government, it's very plagued with religion. For this reason what some people view as not expressing Hindu ideals will be supressed. So any of you who thought that Hinduism was this all accepting religion and that anybody can be a Hindu, I suggest you reevaluate your assumptions. There are many Hindus that hold onto very prudent ideals. They may be few, but they are willing to ruin

... the lesbian population of India can come out of the closet.

Hinduism for everyone else by making it appear to be this very strict religion. They are also appealing to many people in power. The movie is being reviewed by a censorship board. One day India, one day you will rise out of your depravity. You'll no longer be the backwards country with nuclear weapons and a strong religious right that thrusts its wills over the nation. On that day, the five or six lesbians that make up the lesbian population of India can come out of the closet. Maybe I can have a crack team of lesbian soldiers (Fish Speakers) militarize India.

I'd like to say that I do not approve of most of the things that go on in my country of ancestral origin. Many Hindus have been celebrating the sixth anniversary of the razing of a historic mosque. This razing has led to heated religious strife among Muslims and Hindus. I find this religious intolerance extremely backward and digsusting.

My speech went horribly. I am done with classes. Finals are next week. You can look at the Calendar. I have two papers I need getting done by this weekend.

I saw Star Trek: Insurrection and got just what I expected. A movie that had neat looking ships and fights. It was campy too. I think I enjoyed it because I made so much fun of Star Trek and the trekkies. I really hate Star Trekkies. I mean they think all these things in Star Trek are so cool, like Data and his neat little misunderstanding of being human. There were points where people laughed at the dumbest things, I mean come on. Riker was really trying to get it on with Troi. It is a good laugh though, and a lot of stuff blows up.

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#web development The messages must flow... 11 December 1998

The journal database was not allowing me to add new entries. I have fixed this. I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I just though a small entry would be nice.

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#food Damn Asian Bastards 9 December 1998

"So the guy gave me a piece of paper and he said that you drop it. Then the walls started to melt. Then I started to melt."

Hey, I found out a new trick you can do on this website... well if you have IE 5 it works, it may work with IE 4 too. Okay, in this journal page, I have not yet removed the large moon logo. What you can do is go to the favorites menu (works if you have a lot of favorites in a lot of subdirectories) and just scroll down. Everytime a menu opens the browser re-renders everything starting with the lowest layer. In other words the moon will appear.

Once I dreamt of a city of gold (earlier today), and then I realized why it could not exist. If portions of the city were gilded, people would start mining the city. So the gold would have a negative effect, because people will be hasty when they mine the gold. The gold will be a catalyst in ruining the city. Similarly copper is quite valuable. In China copper telephone lines were dug up and sold on the black market. To rememdy this, China just advanced it's technology and started using fiber optics (Negroponte). Technology makes things cheap. So, I'm sure I could come up with something better than a city made of gold. I could probably figure out some aesthetically pleasant design that doesn't have this yellowy sparkle that people all love to steal. It will also be cheaper. This will be the city of cheap technology. It will be guarded by the Technobots. With their gestalt technology they can merge and form the mighty Computron. Computron will be the most powerful thinking machine in the world, and the mayor.

My roommate was a sexfiend.

Yesterday I ate at Subway. I tried the Parmesan Chicken Wrap. It's not that great. Here's why. Subway makes good sandwhiches. Their employees aren't trained well to make wraps, since mine had a tear in it. They make very good sandwhiches and they taste better than their wraps. It was better than school food though. School food today wasn't bad. It was edible.

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#food I am a threat to my own security. 8 December 1998

Fort Max - poking into God's territory for over 100 years.

I want to see Patch Adams this weekend. I just might do that. I also want to see Star Trek: Insurrection. I think I want a gun. A ray gun...

Cool Info is moving to pair networks. I will be working on a news article entry system that mimics what I use right now. I'll work on it over break.

I use my workstation as a development machine for my web pages via Front Page and the Personal Web Server. The root page used to be an old web site that I had for Fort Max that I only developed on my computer and uploaded to the Internet. It was very corporate sounding, back when I cared about that stuff for ftmax.com. It never occuured to me that if CCSO did a scan of my computer, they would notice that my workstation is the host of a corporate web site. Here is some mail:

Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 08:48:01 -0600 (CST)
From: CCSO Security 
Reply-To: security@uiuc.edu
To: davedash@uiuc.edu
Subject: dorm room connection


I have noticed that the machine 130.126.72.54 has a web page for a commercial
entity. This is strictly in violation of university policy and state law.

If this page is not removed immediately, your network connection will be 
disabled and student discipline charges filed.

-- 

 [      Security Officer                |       CCSO/University of Illinois   ]
 [      security@uiuc.edu               |       1304 West Springfield         ]
 [      (217) 265-0000                  |       Urbana, Illinois   61801      ]

Don't bother entering that address, there's nothing there, since I deleted the site (it was a dated one that I never used) and locked it. It's so strange some of the things that I take for granted can be stripped away so fast.

I finished reading Xenocide. Very Deux Ex Machina, I've heard bad things about Children of the Mind as well. I can imagine why. I will, however, finish reading the series as I am curious as to what Mr. Card is trying to achieve. I did like the book. I read at least over 100 pages on one day.

The Onion will have an MTV Christmas Special supposedly. This should be interesting, hopefully someone will record this for me. It's funny, Onion is one of the better sources of humour, we need more things like that on TV. Canadian TV has funny stuff that crosses the line, as does British TV. It's in our best interest to mimic these, instead of remaining prudish about our humour. Damn you America for spawning crap like SNL and MAD TV.

Since I have no original ideas, here's my Christ Day wish list:

1. Sony Netman or Diamond Rio PMP300
2. PCS Cellular phone with cellular service for one year (so next year someone else can get me a year of service)
3. IBM Laptop SCSI whatever you can or a DELL Inspirion must have DVD support
4. SGI 1600SW with Number Nine card
5. SONY DCR-PC10
6. Soundblaster Live
7. UMAX PowerLook 3000
8. Lego Mindworks
9. Something with a pretty LCD screen that goes on my computer.
10. A ray gun.

That's my Christmas want list. It's unlikely that I'd ever get any of these (for Christmas this year) since most things are in the $1000+ range. I will however go for the laptop this summer (with DVD support) if you people fail to appease me. If you do get me an LCD toy, it better be pretty. None of that stupid LCD stuff.

I ate at Burger King yesterday. It was very good after a disconcerting school dinner. I shall eat out more often. I will try to avoid Burger King for a while. Their sandwhiches are good, but they are the kind that make you not want to eat their for a few months.

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#food InSoc - we make life easier 5 December 1998

"They're after me!"

I read more of Insoc.org. The guy is really really cool. His music is awesome. He's good at the computer stuff he does. His propaganda is hillarious. I also agree with his opinions on drugs. I wish more musicians were this cool.

So I was reading this astrological reading...

VIRGO (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): If you want something enough you will eventually get it. Your heart tells you that is true even if your head says it is illogical. Of course, if the something you want is something you were destined to have, it could arrive any time - like today, for instance.

This tells me nothing new. The first sentence is something that a lot of people believe, but their is no real way to prove. The second sentence probably applies to everybody. There are some things that just aren't feasable that we may want. If I'm destined to have something, yes of course I could have it at any time.

I really love this journal thing. It's an excuse to not talk to people individually. Why bother? Most people are bound to not give a care about one or two (at least) of the things I talk about. Why risk having one of your ideas ignored? So I have this journal system. I can post any damn idea I have that I feel needs to be shared. If someone's interested and they read it, they can talk to me about it more. If they aren't interested they just skip over it and I don't feel like an idea of mine has been ignored or not understood.

I think I know why I dislike my roommate. He's inconsiderate. I'm currently working on my final paper for speech and he's currently watching Street Fighter videos with a friend. He could have asked. It's blatantly obvious that I'm working on a paper. I'm not going to make a situation awkward and ask him to not watch this. It is his room too, I just wish he's be a bit considerate.

Ugh, I was a bit foolish to eat a Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner. Not only do I remove the ham inside it, but the cheese that's in it doesn't agree with me. It's a pity that the insides of me are so much like my brother (lactose intollerant). One day they'll synthetically make food that tastes good.

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#friends Patch Adams 2 December 1998

"White tornado my foot. That's a real tornado!"

I saw the trailer for Patch Adams today. I think I will see Patch Adams (that's right, without italics) and his movie. He'll be coming to live at Allen Hall in February. I'm uncertain whether the movie has been released or not. They said it premiered in October, but the release is in December.

Xenocide... I read the back of the book and it sounds silly. 592 pages... a normal sized book, after reading Dune books. I'll order Children of the Mind sometime this week. Maybe tonight.

This link's for Yishan and others with laser pointers.

Little to say these days. I have a lot of tests this week and next week and then finals the week after that. Then I go home... I'll update the Calendar.

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#friends The stuff that goes inbetween... 30 November 1998

These are chronologically out of whack, due to ... I don't know... space aliens. Space aliens said, Travel Logs and then the vacation...

Tuesday:
I had dinner with my family at some restaurant. We got to ride in Raj (my brother) and Kelly's (sister-in-law) new Saab. I like it.

Wednesday:
I had an eye appointment and a dental appointment. I like my hygenists, because they aren't ugly. The only reason this matters to me is because I'd rather have a pretty hygenist sticking her fingers in my mouth than an ugly one. That night I went with Raj and Kelly to see Enemy of the State also present were Katie and Daniel and later I guess Marc, Jesse and Tanya arrived. I liked the movie a lot. It's great if you like spy stuff and technology. I started getting this headache that bothered me into Thanksgiving. I also had a cold the entire time I was there (I'm still fighting it).

Thursday:
Something was wierd with this year's Thanksgiving. I think that the normal excitement of Thanksgiving was dulled with me just being back... and the party on Friday. Our Thanksgiving movie was Bug's Life. Another excellent Pixar doing.

Friday:

Jew flees hands at Dave's.

I lost my black knife. Marc found it and is now keeping it until I come back. The party, however, was great. It was nice to see all my friends. People seem to be the same. Well some people look different. I'll post some of the pictures that Mike Jorgenson took. We watched Better off Dead since a lot of people had not seen it yet. Jason brought his N64 and Zelda (gold cartridge) it looked pretty. Katie managed to find my old red knife, for which I thank her. Freakazoid was enjoyed by Marc, Katie, myself and maybe others. I was very unsocial, usually confining myself to conversations with Katie or Marc. I think I would have enjoyed the party if I didn't feel so blah.

Saturday:
I tried to finish my math assignment on Saturday.

All and all, I think it was a good thing to have the break. I would have enjoyed it a bit more if I weren't sick, if Molly were there, if I did more stuff with my friends, or if it were longer. Saturday was somewhat distressing. I tried to cope with getting over constantly working all the time during school.

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#uiuc The other travel log? 30 November 1998

This is from yesterday while I was at DTW:

My flight landed ~5:26 in DTW. I decided to walk to gate G10 from C12. Its a long haul. I'd do it again though if I have no carry on suitcase. My flight for CMI leaves at 6:50. I dislike waiting this long. I ate at a bagel shop. It was okay. Hopefully I'll get to CMI and have a ride to my residence hall. [Note: Thanks to Eric and Karl for rescuing me.]

The flight to DTW wasn't that great. I did some math. I had an irritating person sitting next to me (actually she took my seat, but I didn't care enough to demand my window seat). [Note: My ride to CMI, I didn't get the window seat that was assigned to me either.]

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#computers Travel Log 25 November 1998

The following was composed throughout yesterday.

The Willard Airport (part of the U of I Institute of Aviation) is beautiful. It's also the size of a car-dealership (they have Saab's:)), but what do you expect froma tiny town like Champaign. In front of the airport terminal is a nice pond. The airport makes me proud of UI.

I learned my driver's permit expired last December. For some reason I don't care. I should probably get a new one and then eventually get my driver's license. If oudn this out at the ticket counter.

I expected trouble at the security checkpoint. I carry a large multi-tool thing which I assumed to be the cause of my being beeped. The swiss-army knife that I also carry is quite loaded with metal as well. The wand found nothing. The bag I carried also had miscellaneous things like a modem, a caller ID box and various cables, etc. Showing them the modem made them feel better. I'm glad I don't have to go through security at DTW where they have it very beefed up.

I sepnt $20 on this legal pad and legal pad holder. I should have just purhcased this device from Cross that is an electronic legal pad that allows you to transfer stuff from your pad to your computer. I bet the OCR would not be able to read my writing, though.:)

I often wonder about the future, this would make me a futurist.:) I wonder what technology we use today will exist 50 to 100 years from now.

• Groundcars - we may be able to create hover cars, but nobody is trying to mass produce these things. Currently we are concentrating on low to zero emissions. Even if we do see a hover car, it won't be common place. Not until we can reduce the hell out of hover car emissions, which I would imagine to be harder. Much more, I doubt we will see hover cars that suspend themselves several stories of the ground for quite a while either.
• Telephones - even if we do have videophones, not everybody is going to want to use them. I mean, do you want to see everybody you talk to? Probably not. Do you want everyone to see you while they talk to you? Probably not. Not everybody at least. What about telemarketers? Nazi's? Robots? Video also takes a high ammount of bandwidth, but that can be solved in the future. What'll end up happening is we'll disable video on videophones as often as possible.

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Daniel will be happy to know that I'm riding a SAAB-340 aeroplane. It's not that comfortable, but it will do. I've never been in a tiny plane, and have never had to climb into a plane except in India where planes are tragged by high-speed elephants until they reach a fast enough speed to fly into the air. I feel like killing air-hostess, Krystal. She has a voice that sounds really irritating. Traces of Southern, black and that annoying Mexican-gangsta-woman accent that purposely sounds annoying.

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People complain about the take off on small planes. It's not that bad. I kinda like it. Wow, IL is all corn fields, and stuff. I forgot to bring batteries with me. I'm so used to using other power sources for my cd player. I should have taken Stinky's batteries. I may have to buy some at DTW if there is time.

Sitting next to someone with a PalmPilot has made me realize how untechno-savvy I am. Well I'm making a list of things I want.

• A thinner CD player w/ better skip protection.
• A portable MP3 player.
• CrossPad XL even though it's a bit smaller than a legal pad.
• PalmPilot III or the Razor
• Gatway's Fireant because it has a cool name, and then I'd have a DVD player.

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The flight from CMI to DTW went well. It seemed very short. 10:25 to 12:55 minus one hour for Time Zone ... half an hour? WTF? Neat! This flight is about 1:52, a lot longer, oh well. I quickly went from sector G to sector C14 of DTW and I had a few minutes to call my mom, buy some batteries and board the plane in which I am sitting. Despite what the person sitting next to me thinks, this DC-9 is roomy compared to the tiny aeroplane I was in 45 minutes ago. Now I can finally listen to the songs in my head.

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Okay one more technology thing:

• Email - this or some variation will last forever. I mean, we've had letters, and telegrams and fax machines and now email, this is just such an easy to use quick form of communication that it will perhaps never end.

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  If I were at UI, I'd be doing laundry and hanging out waiting for my CS lecture... or I'd be researching my draft for Speech Com which is due Monday. I'm hungry. I'm always in the wrong Time Zone when it's lunchtime. It's lunch in the Time Zone in which I was just in and where I am going... but not here. Crap.

  I'm sorry, what I purchased yesterday at IUB and on which I am writing is a bifold writing pad according to NWA's gift catalogue.

  We are flying over Minneapolis. I saw a Jesus fish (anybody know where this is?), the three towers of Minneapolis which look very small from up here. I see a Yellow building which is on the road that goes along side Lake Calhoun when coming from Excelsior avenue! That's really cool. I'm looking for... and I just saw the Lake Harriet Bandshell. Reminds me of all the fun we had this summer:)

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