So after months of berated anger at Google and their libjingle code, it was time to move on. So move on I did. I've found a beautiful library called Telepathy, that allows you to write modules for any messenger network, and the interface communicates with it via DBus. Excellent. And then I received new students to help me work on the project. Nothing wrong with more students, except two of them run Windows. Dbus. Windows. For those not from a linux perspective, dbus is an important cross-program library in Linux, but not written explicitly for Windows.
Anyhow, a few awkward pauses later, I'm now working on finding a port to Windows that doesn't break. Still, I'm now in the awkward status of, yay, new manpower, but 2 months of framework research that might have to be chucked out because of it. Now, while the real solution is to man up, and simply figure out a way to run dbus and telepathy on windows, the two students just want to get their research credits and get out of here, which is completely understandable given the requirements of the MENG program. They would rather create a non-functional mockup. Unfortunately, they have no interest in user interface design, which is the fundamental research being done here. It would fulfill the requirements, but we wouldn't be able to have a paper out of this.
So now I'm faced with the question of, do I want to actually want to keep pushing forward with this, or settle for a half solution. Do I really want to push them into awkward? My gut feeling says to give them a subtle suggestion that this isn't going to work.Current Mood:  anxious |
What do you hate the most about current user interfaces? What annoys you, what seems illogical? Please post back anything that's annoyed you about computer and program user interfaces. Reason? I'm working on a new user interface project, and I'm currently stuck in the paradigm of standard user interfaces. I'm trying to figure out what needs to be changed to make a better one. Stumped by my lack of conclusions, I've decided to ask my friends. Thanks in advance!
To start: I hate laggy interfaces. Things that think far too much in between steps, to the point of irrationality.
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Friend sent me a link to the Colbert Report, focusing on a report he did on 'Fake Meat', or as he called it 'Shmeat'. The idea is simple in concept, to grow the cells that become meat in a petri dish, instead of harvesting it from an animal. PETA is behind this concept, arguing that it spares animals suffering. However, I can't help but ask, aren't those cells also a living organism? I guess then it seems that PETA is only opposed to the killing of organisms with a higher sense of organization, or there is a part of this 'shmeat' I am not understanding. But maybe as the Doctor says, this is the future?Current Mood: awake Current Music: "HEART BEAT" - KELUN |
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Dude man, who's going to chase me down the hallways now? You were one of the few people that even when I disagreed with you, which was fairly often as we both know, I still took extremely seriously on all matters. I never really figured out if we were good friends or acquaintances, but talking to you in the halls during Senior Year was part of my daily routine by the end of the year. I personally thought of you as a good friend, a guy who seemed to live for what he believed in. I had thought you were happier in California, but I guess I should have checked before guessing. It still strikes me as surreal when I look at your comment on my LJ last week, correcting what you thought was wrong. I sincerely hope you find a better place where you go. Thanks man. |
Posting blitz today!
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/17/battlestar-galactica-at-the-un/
Because it was awesome.Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Background music |
| » AIG |
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Agreed, the AIG Executive Bonus issue is revolting. The fact that they would be willing to spend a taxpayer's money to a group of executives that ran a company into the ground is hard to believe, or stomach. However, as CNN and several other sources have pointed out, the problem is that these bonuses were legally set up in contracts for hiring the executives, and if the executives choose to sue, they can claim twice as much as the amount promised in damages, potentially increasing the burden on the taxpayer. So roasting AIG now, after the fact, in my opinion, has simply become an outlet for the mass media. Campbell Brown had some commentary on the same issue, claiming that the senators and representatives should stop calling for AIG's downfall, and focus on rebuilding the company. Increasingly, I feel like the dialog about AIG has become nothing but a roast fest of emotion, and less on facts. Specifically, the hearings today in the House were completely unrelated to specific AIG executives, and focused on overall behavior. And the part that people seem to forget is that other companies, financial and non-financial, collapsed and non-collapsed, have been doing the same practice. Executive compensation in the United States has been spiraling out of control for the last few years, as Warran Buffett has famously criticized. The fact that these executives had been entailed to these bonuses, were then legally bound to receive them even without regard to performance, or even still being with the company, even in a good economic time seems slightly strange. While making sure the taxpayer's money is not wasted in this bailout make sense, maybe it's time that we looked more at this fundamental part of how companies are running, and question whether this is what people want.
Mar. 18th, 2009 @ 04:01 pm
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| » Dulles Airport |
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...Has a Five Guys!
Mar. 18th, 2009 @ 09:00 am
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| » Airport Rankings |
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A decent amount of time ago a friend of mine asked me to rank airports by my personal order of preference. So here it goes.
1. Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Nothing beats the sheer amount of connections, plus the new facilities, plus the safety of Dulles Airport in my opinion. While this is probably biased due to the fact that a lot of excellent trips started from here for me, and the thing is I live near the airport. Maybe being closer to the city it serves would have made sense? See the 70s, when there was next to no traffic here. Wi-fi and mall.
2. Newark Liberty Airport (NWK)
Yes, I know this is not a typical choice. But Newark has really cleaned up its act in the last few years, and at least for Continental, has proved to be a good hub with a sturdy network. American and US Airways, I'm not that sure on given the yelling I overheard the other day. Beautiful new terminal interior in Terminal A.
3. Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
First with Wi-fi airport wide. Yes, I know every whitehat, blackhat and security expert under the sun has tried to hack or crack the network. Large spacious air mall. Unfortunately, due to the fight between airport management and USAirways, the network out of it is nowhere near as amazing as it used to be. slightly isolated from town its supposed to serve.
4. John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
The gateway of the world to America, one would think they would have tried to make this airport more convenient. AirTrain is great, but one must make a connection with LIRR or the A Line at Jamaica station. This connection system is not very well made, nor optimized for air travelers with suitcases. The architecture of the terminals is amazing, and Boingo provides fairly good wireless throughout.
6. New Chitose Airport (CTS)
Great clean new airport interior. Two runways, little traffic. 2 hours away from the city it was supposed to serve.
7. San Diego Airport (SAN)
Great clean new airport terminal interior. One runway. One. No room for expansion.
8. Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
Bad interterminal connections. Little to do in USAirways terminal. Haven't experienced the rest.
9. Atlanta Jackson-Hartfield Airport (ATL)
How many different ways can one say delay? Horrible source of delays, which probably are a result of the flag carrier here, Delta. Dirty, old terminal. Needs work.
10. Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA)
How many more security problems can you cram in one airport? A northern approach that requires the river approach to avoid high sensitive areas, bridges next to the takeoff and approach paths. Horrible source of delays. Intercrossed runways.
11. Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
Who vomited up this airport? Intercrossed runways in plenty of space, with a transit system that require connecting passengers to unload carts before transferring terminals. More delays than you can shake a stick at. Bad location. Expensive. I feel bad for Butch O'Hare, who was the man they named the airport after.
12. Narita International Airport (NRT)
Politically a bad decision. Only one long runway. Small mall. Prohibitively expensive landing fees. Far from the city is supposed to serve, with fundamentally broken system of transit. Only two desks for all domestic travelers for the flagship carrier, Japan Airlines. What happened?
Somewhere in there should be Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport (ITH), Portland International Airport, and Salt Lake City Airport. Ithaca is hard to compare to the others as a regional airport. Portland and Salt Lake City I haven't been to since I was in third grade.
Mar. 18th, 2009 @ 07:45 am
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| » Northwest... No, Delta |
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Just on my way to the airport today, I noticed at the gate that the signpost for Northwest Airlines had been replaced by one for Delta. I guess it really is the end of an era. Not too excited. That leaves only United, US and Delta as the remaining legacy carriers that started off big before deregulation. Thirty years after the fact, it makes one question whether deregulation was a good idea, or whether it was implemented properly. Yet to meet Alfred Kahn, one of the architects of deregulation, and an Ithaca native.
Mar. 16th, 2009 @ 09:38 am
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| » ASP.NET, Microsoft SQL Server, GRUB |
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The last few days have begun to blur together. Not physically healthy, but my coding speed is increasing.
The job in ASP.NET continues. Still not particularly a fan, especially when their own IDE can't handle it's own database structure without corrupting it. Microsoft moving on to better standards is a good thing, but sometimes one would hope that they would be able to keep their own backwards compatibility in check.
Saw off a friend this morning. Beforehand we upgraded his machine to Intrepid Ibex. Then we ran into the issue in that his operating systems were located on multiple hard drives, and therefore GRUB did not natively pick up both operating systems. Needless to say, I'm going to need more training before I get back up to the speed I used to be at.
Dec. 17th, 2008 @ 11:44 pm
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| » Living in An Apartment And Such |
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Been doing a lot of cooking today. The appetites of those around me have scared me once in a while. Today between my roommate and I, finished off an entire pork tenderloin. Not quite sure how that worked. Went all on out today as well, was hoping for leftovers so I wouldn't have to cook tomorrow. Meh. So yes, one pot of roast parsnip and potato miso soup, soy sauce stewed tenderloin, curry marinated onions. Gone. In one night. Wow.
I've recently discovered the Beatles. Yes, I know I'm about 40 years behind the curve. But its been a pleasant discovery. I'd only really looked into the history of the Beatles in the past, had never bothered to listen to their music. Any suggestions? Currently liking Hey Jude, Strawberry Fields Forever.
Jul. 23rd, 2008 @ 11:52 pm
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| » Vacation in Japan 2008 |
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Well, back from Japan. Spent two weeks over there this year, visiting relatives and taking small trips on my own. I went alone this time, without my family, (I actually passed them over the Pacific Ocean as they went to Japan and I left) due to scheduling restrictions imposed by my research. I managed to visit Tokyo, Hokkaido, Ehime, Kouchi, Kagawa, Fukuoka, Hakata, Kagoshima and Yamaguchi this time. Having a rail pass came in handy, every morning I woke up at 6, left with my pass and camera, and came back by dinner.
Traditional Garden in Yamaguchi | 
Traditional Shrine in Yamaguchi |
The Tsubame (Kyushu) Shinkansen | 
The Hokutosei Express |
The best of some other photos I took
Took a lot of video this time around, will probably post that and the additional photographs some other time.
Two highlights from the trip were riding the Tsubame Shinkansen in Kyushu which just opened a few years back, and riding the Hokutosei Sleeper train, which is one of the few remaining sleeper trains in Japan. It runs from Sapporo to Tokyo, taking 16 hours. These trains are increasingly being replaced by airplanes and bullet trains, so I wanted to ride one before they were phased out.
Jul. 4th, 2008 @ 09:53 am
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| » 2 Things |
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2 Things politically important enough to me, that I think important enough for everyone else to know. If you have a moment, please read this, even if you're not into politics. These issues will probably weight upon our nation without the spread of information.
Burma. What a waste. In the last months, theSaffron Revolution was led by Buddhist monks throughout the nation against a regime led a man by who Amnesty International calls the 3rd most oppressive leader in the world. They were very close to obtaining a victory, after 45 years of oppressive military rule, until they were brutally oppressed by secret police and the military. Activists in England and overall Europe have vocally called for regime change for years, to allow the democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi to the presidency. European governments and media have devoted attention to their plight. The United States has done an amazing job in completely ignoring the plight of this nation. The commercial media juggernaut has completely ignored this situation to focus on Britney and OJ. What the Burmese government fears the most is for people in the world to know the plight of their nation, and by ignoring them, we play into the hands of a regime considered by many leading experts to be a leading human rights violator in the world. President Bush has been relatively active about the situation, but the American public has not pushed for more action.
The number one thing you can do for the freedom of Burma is to learn.
Ann Coulter has spoke again. For those of you who did not listen to her interview, she called for Jews to "perfect" themselves, among other anti-Semitic comments. Let me simply ask one question. What sort of message are we sending out to the world by buying the books of a blatantly anti-semitic, religous elitist, in the country of the free? If we truly want to be a bastion of democracy and freedom, should this sort of comment be accepted by the public, and even ignored? That an educated woman of her stature would make these comments in this day and age amaze me. I ask you not to suppress Ms. Coulter's ability to speak, but the next time she speaks with her supposed morality, please consider her previous comments as well.
Oct. 21st, 2007 @ 09:46 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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あなたはどこに消えたんだ？自分に問わずにはいられない自分がいた。
Nov. 25th, 2006 @ 01:10 am
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| » World Trade Center. The Movie. |
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World Trade Center.
They're making a movie out of it. Already. Maybe I'm hard headed, but I still feel like it's too early to make a movie out of an event like that without turning it into some form of blatant propaganda, finger pointing or just plain exploitation. I worry what has become of our society if we cannot even piece together the facts of that date, yet instead we can make movies for money and profit about the tragedy of others. Maybe this movie will be good. It may even do justice to those vicitims. In that case, I'll be happy to be wrong. Yet call me a skeptic, but I worry.
Aug. 1st, 2006 @ 11:58 pm
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| » Virgina Democratic Primary for the Senate |
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hm... been a while since I've been a blogging. Hm, so before personal stuff (am I putting this off?) politics!
Democratic primary tuesday! Looks like it'll be interesting. James Webb, one of the candidates for the democratic nomination for the Senate, apparently was on the Colbert Report, he seems to have not made an idiot out of himself. This seat is a big one for Democrats, Allen is considered a potential candidate for President in 2008, and he's a powerful guy in the Senate, so taking his seat will be a major victory for the sourthern branch of the Democratic party. Both Miller and Webb are relatively inexperienced in actually having a political office, with Miller being mainly known as a businessman and Webb as an author. Both have been in appointed positions. Both are socially rather liberal.
So whats my point?
The big thing used against Webb is his former support for Allen in 2000 and his position as Secretary of Navy under Reagan. That being said, he is not the one who proposed the 600 ship navy, that would be John Lehman. However, here's something that doesn't seem to be reported as much, Miller's PAC has donated large sums of money to the GOP as well. So yeah. Apparently, things not as simple as they seem.
( A Breakdown of the Issues )
So to put all of that simply, while the idealist in me prefers Miller, I think that with the current state of politics in Virginia, Webb may be the more likely candidate to win. Even though the Democratic Party of VA has made great strides in the last few years, it still needs to face reality, that it is a party in a solidly, proudly conservative state, and that change will not happen overnight. To be honest, I don't hate Miller or anything, if he's nominated, I will back him, I like many of his positions. But I have strong doubts whether he will be able to be the man to lead the Democratic party to victory in November.
Jun. 11th, 2006 @ 11:23 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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So I realized that I never did one of these Nohari windows. So, feel free to fill out anonymously or not, whatever.
So I'm back in the Northern Virginia area as you might have guessed. Going back to Cornell in a few weeks for Summer Session again. Spent time back working on websites and stuff again for once, hadn't done it in a while. Trying to learn ruby on rails, just getting really confused instead.
I'll try to post a more substantive post later on.
Jun. 10th, 2006 @ 12:25 am
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| » Evening News, Alleged Media Bias and/or Manipulation, and $70 Million Dollars |
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So back in VA for spring break, and given how I'd fallen behind on the news, I figured I'd try to watch the nightly news again, at least during break. So, tuned into CBS and NBC, to find an interesting little story yesterday.
Debate rages over media's role in Iraq war
So basically, a number of conservative pundits and the President are accusing the media of just showing the bad part of the war.
Um. Ahem. Ok, so you are right about one thing. The media does have an agenda. As part of a corporate conglomerate, as rules from basic microeconomics tell us, businesses exist to make a profit. To make a profit, the media has to report on things that people actually care about. Be honest now, what are you more likely to watch, "People killed in a dramatic day of uprisings" or "People went to work today"? The second wouldn't even make local news. Its not about the media being "liberal" or "conservative", its the media showing people what they want to see on a news program. And the media is an equal opportunity deal, before the war, we did not see that many images of happy Iraqis going to college in Baghdad? Instead, viewers got scenes of the victims of Saddam's systematic gassing execution policies in the north and southeast of Iraq. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Saddam's policies were not true, it's turned out to be more true than we first estimated. The media is simply doing the same thing today, showing the things that will make people you know, actually care about whats going on Iraq and in the world. Furthermore, what really constitutes more "news", people dying or people living as usual? Sure, you could say that the same thing just happens day after day, but tell that to the families of those killed. Could you really go up to the families of soldiers killed in Iraq today, and tell them, sorry, your child isn't good enough for the evening news? So its not as though there is a massive liberal conspiracy out to derail policies in Iraq or anything, its just the news being, well, the news. The high occurence rate of news stories related to death in Iraq is just an indicator of the sad reality that people are dying out there.
I will agree with one point though, that the insurgents are rather media savvy this time, utilizing natural tendencies of the media to amplify their cause. But is that the media's fault? Should the media simply ignore hostage situations in Iraq?
So, that was Tuesday. Then came Wednesday. CBS Evening News ran a section on Al-Hurra, the US government financed, Springfield run, Arab language satellite television station that I admit I had forgotten about for quite a while. Um... we were talking about media manipulation I believe? Oh yeah, it costs the government $70 million a year. I have to admit, I'm a little more conflicted over this one as an independent issue, it is true that programs such as Radio Free Europe played important roles during the Cold War. However... given the rhetoric that was used to attack the American media, that certain groups would manipulate the news, there seems to be a bit of cognitive dissonance here. Hm... well, I guess yeah... "If it bleeds it leads" applies again?
Mar. 22nd, 2006 @ 11:21 pm
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| » JUSA Culture Show, Rice Balls, Chinese Pop Music |
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Hm... so the JUSA (Japan-United States Association) Culture Show went rather nicely yesterday, though there were a lot of short-shorts (the radio exercise part) and rice ball crazinesses involved. And I don't know if I want to start getting in the habit of doing bon-odori (folk dance) around my friends. I can now make rice balls rather quickly, but with the provision that I'll get rice all over my shirt. But nonetheless, a fun day.
Other than that... hm... just general craziness I guess. Still need to watch the second part of My Sassy Girl, the second half of Infernal Affairs III and several other movies. Well, several of my friends have stated they will convert me into a FOB by the end of the year... given the rate that they've put Chinese pop music on my computer, things could get rather scary very soon. Also the fact I didn't even know what the term "FOB" meant until I came to Cornell is rather... strange? Meh, freakish. I dunno.
And now its really warm again. But I need Coffee! YAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH...! Spring Break in a week! Anyone around then?
Mar. 12th, 2006 @ 11:40 pm
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| » Broken Weather and Strange Holidays |
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Wow. Like absolutely wow. The weather is... obscenely good. As in, I'm posting from the fields near Appel, sitting on a rock, in sandals. On a February day in ITHACA. ????????? Up til a few days ago, the weather was absolutely frigid, but right after that winter storm passed right by us and hit the east coast, its sudden became crazily warm. Meh, I barely need the over-shirt I'm wearing, I could practically be in a t-shirt. Where is our frigid, windy blast of Ithaca-ting weather? yeah, more or less.
Also, coffee is great for controlling coughing, but not as good for controlling laughing.
So yeah, let's see. Hm.. so yesterday, I got with a group of friends, dressed all in black and went to the dining hall to un-celebrate Valentine's Day. The problem was, the weather was too nice and we were all in a good mood, so we ended up having a lot of fun instead. Meh, it's probably for the better anyway. :p There was an interesting article in the JUSA Gekkan newsletter written by one of the male officers on how Valentine's Day is a great investment opportunity for females. To elaborate, in Japan, only the girls give chocolate on Valentine's Day, and then a month later, on White Day, the guy gives chocolate back. So he was talking about creating an investment strategy of buying really cheap chocolate, disguising it as something relatively expensive, and a month later, you can count on getting chocolate back.
Love and emotion, now reduced to an profit maximization Lagrange multiplier problem. time to cue the crying for humanity? And stuff.
Feb. 15th, 2006 @ 03:04 pm
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