Last Thursday oil prices increased $5.50 per barrel in one day. Last Friday marked the biggest single-day surge in oil price history, rocketing $11 more to $138 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In just two days, oil costs increased 13 percent.

Average Americans are literally driving to the poor house on financial fumes. With gas at more than $4 per gallon, roughly two cars in every household, and the average annual gas usage at 700 gallons, you do the math. Americans are being forced to use their hard-earned money that once put food in their stomachs to now put petroleum into their tanks, but to drive the exact same distances they drove a decade ago for four-to-five times the price.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=66557&6=7

If there is anything that I’ve been thinking about these past few months (and especially this past week as I clean my room [and let me tell you, it needed a good cleaning]), it has been about me: what I’ve done in the past and what I want to do in the future; my strengths and weaknesses; the good and the bad; who I am as a whole.

The hardest thing to reflect about has been the negative stuff. As much as we all think we are perfect, I think at the same time we realize that we are not perfect. And while we know we are not perfect, it is still hard to find the faults we have as individuals. Just as an English professor of mine said that constructive criticism was important to make a person a better writer, it is also important to make a person a better… person.

And so I need your help. While this is mostly for the people that I know offline (that I know and have talked to in person, since I think they’d be the ones able to provide the best responses), if you’ve dealt with me online to the extent that you feel comfortable answering, feel free to answer. Basically, what I’m asking is…

What are my faults? What are some things that I could improve on to make me better as a person? Let me know using the comment form, or if you think it would be better sent in private, use the contact form.

Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote something last. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that nothing in my life has been worth writing about. Just like on the side of a shampoo bottle, the last month was the same way: school, homework, paid work, repeat. With the exception of going shopping for food on Sundays, I hadn’t been off campus since Easter, which seems like it was three months ago, not just last month. It was nice to take this weekend off and go home and do whatever I wanted… even though I didn’t really do anything.

So what did I do this weekend? Friday I got picked up by a friend, and we grabbed food at Panera Bread. He dropped me off at my house after we were done, at which point I proceded to be a lazy bum, and just watch TV and relax. As it got later in the night, I went out and got myself some dinner, and went back to doing nothing. At some point, I went to bed, and because it was nice and quiet (i.e. no annoying suitemates, no people playing music in rooms above/below), I fell right asleep; I don’t remember the last time that happened.

Saturday I slept until my usual time, then did my normal morning things - shower, check email, make sure nothing was happening online that needed my attention, etc. I then continued to lounge around until 1300 or so, and went off to get a birthday gift for my sister. Ended up getting her a Pandora charm for the bracelet my parents got her. Later that night, I went to Hooters with some friends to watch the UFC payperview. Good food and good times were had by all.

Sunday was my sister’s birthday. We had some family from NY come down, it was nice to see them.

But now I’m back at school, and the countdown to the end of the school year has begun. In about 17 days, I’ll have finished my finals, and my junior year will be over. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for three years - it feels like I graduated yesterday. And I think that scares me.

I’ve been using it for the past month or so, seems to improve performance on my computer. Your mileage may vary though.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en

It has been a while, but WordPress 2.5 is almost here. It’s been a while since a major update has been released (2.3 was released in September 2007; there was supposed to be a 2.4 released in January 2008, but everyone was busy with the holidays, and it was delayed, then decided to skip it).

I’ve been paying attention to the development of 2.5, and even submitted a patch for one of the smaller bugs. My patch wasn’t used (other didn’t like the way I worded something), but the issue was still fixed. I still paid attention though, and left feedback on other issues (and still plan on doing so, plus eventually learning PHP so I can potentially help with some actually bugs that aren’t just wording issues).

A lot of work has been put into 2.5, but in my opinion, the biggest change won’t be seen in the frontend by visitors. Those that write on WordPress systems will notice a big change as soon as they log in, because the backend has been completely redesigned. Everything is still there, but in a different place. The lmain links have been reorganized based on how often they are used, with the main links on the left, and the less used links over to the right. However, I won’t see those menus because I use ozh’s Admin Menu Drop Down plugin since I can get to anywhere in the backend when using it.

One small change that went in was how the post slug is edited. This is the part of the URL that specifies the post. For instance, this post’s slug is wordpress-25-almost here. In prior versions of WordPress, this was edited in a box labelled slug, but if you didn’t know what the slug was, you had to go look up what is was, or just try it out and see what happened. In 2.5’s Write page, under the Title section it shows you what the Permalink will be, and gives you a link to edit. Clicking on that link will allow you to change the slug, and since it doesn’t use any fancy terminology, the first time user will be able to edit the slug without confusion.

Another feature that I like, since it means I don’t have to install a different program and another plugin, is the gallery feature. Now it doesn’t have some features I’d like, such as displaying the description as a caption, but having a gallery function at all is a good first step; I hope that it is built on a little more and improved. The pictures below of the admin section have been inserted using the built-in gallery. Read the rest of this entry »

… and thank god for that. This semester seems to be bugging me for some reason, and I don’t konw why… but I should probably figure that out soon. So what do I plan to do for my time off? Most of it will be spent sleeping and being a bum, but I do have a few things planned. One of the things that I’m doing is going to the NAGA New England tournement to watch a friend or two or three compete. This was supposed to take place the weekend that I was home for my birthday, but it got postponed when a pipe burst at the venue (or something like that).

Other things I want to get done over the break include:

• Get a job for over the summer
• Build something. I used to love building models and (especially) Lego sets when I was younger. As time went on, the sets I wanted got more expensive, so I kind of gave it up. Since I’m getting a little extra money from working tonight, I figure I might as well spend it on either a Lego set or a model (if there are any that I want when I go to Wal-Mart next).
• Figure out where I’m putting stuff when I move out of the dorm. It’s either figure it out now, or wait until school’s over and figure it out then, since I’m living at home next year (school only provides 3 years of on campus housing). There actually isn’t all that much to figure out, but it’s more of doing the next item…
• Clean my room and the area where the downstairs computer is. Both are a bit of a mess as they’ve just been places to throw stuff and worry about it later. My computer is going in one of those two areas, its just a matter of where I’d rather have it.

And I’m sure I’m going to have to do some other things around the house… but hopefully not much.

Late last year, I first used Subversion (SVN) to download the developmental version of WordPress (the software this site runs off of). I wanted to help in some way, even if that way was small due to my lack of knowing PHP.

As the semester went on, I realized that DreamHost, my webhost, offered SVN. I used the control panel to install it on a subdomain, and then waited until I got the email that said it was finished installing. It took me a few tries to figure out how to import files into the repository, but I finally figured it out. After that, it was easy to add new files as I needed to; I was using it to store programs I was writing for my Java class.

But just as I was getting comfortable, the semester ended. With the exception of updating my local installation of WordPress (the run running on my computer), I did not have a need to subversion. But I did not forget about it. As December came to a close, and the new year began, I was trying to think of how I could incorporate SVN into my “academic toolbox”, the programs I use to get stuff done. As I was packing my things up to move back into the dorm, I finally realized how using SVN would make my life easier.

See, I use two computers while I’m at school, or at least I do now, with the addition of my desktop. In fact, if the computer science server is counted, I use three computers. I would need some easy way to move the notes that I take on my laptop to the desktop, and whatever work I started on the desktop I would be able to work on while “on the move”. Subversion would accomplish this. In addition being able to commit changes on one machine and updating the other, it also provides me with an offsite backup in case something were to happen with my local copies. And I’m not limited to just doing this to programs; almost any file can be commited to the repository. Although I only have one SVN repository set up right now (for my Java 2 class), I will eventually create one for each class that I need/want one for.

Do I think that Subversion could be able to be used as an actual classroom tool (i.e by the professor as well as the students)? Yes, but it would take some getting used to, and some extra care would have to be taken with permissions. This is the way I picture it:

• There would be a folder that only the professor or whoever is teaching the class has permission to commit (upload) stuff to. This could be used for class notes, handouts, etc.
• Each student would have a folder that they could commit stuff to; this would be how they would hand things in to be graded/checked. The professor would also be able to commit to this folder (comments to assignments, etc.).
• A folder for each group (if groups are used for something): used for group assignments and projects. I’m not entirely sure how Subversion would handle certain formats though, such as PowerPoint presentations.

Do I think that some professors here at Quinnipiac could incorporate SVN into their classes? Yes, I really do. I could see some of the programming classes using this (of course, Subversion was intended for programmers, so this is a no brainer), but I could also see research based classes (such as the criminal justice major thesis that is a required course for all seniors). In the case of that class, it would also be useful when you wanted to see previous versions of the document, as you could revert to earlier revisions. This would also save paper since the professor would also be able to revert to previous versions, and you wouldn’t need to hand in paper copies of them.

The past year or so, there has been a lot of talk about why mac is better than windows and vice-versa. In Chris Pirillo’s IRC channel for his live video feed, this debate seems to be a daily occurrence, and it seems to be mostly fanboy-ism (people saying X is better, or Y is the best, and not being able to offer an proof as to why). And you know what? I’m getting pretty sick of the whole debate.

Chris Pirillo recently posted 50 Reasons to Switch from Microsoft Windows to Mac OS X. Jeff from BestTechie.net countered Chris’ post with 50 Reasons to Switch From Mac to PC. When Chris first posted his list, I was going to create my own list of 50 reasons why you would want to switch from a Mac to Windows, but as I was thinking about it, I was only able to come up with one solid reason.

I may not have as many reasons as they do, but I think mine is stronger than their 50. My reason to switch from a Mac to Windows (and to switch from Windows to a Mac, oddly enough) is that it works better for you. The only reason to switch operating systems is if you’re current one cannot do something that you need to do. If there was something that I could do on Windows, then I wouldn’t be typing this on Windows Vista; I’d be typing it on a Mac

The only other thing that I will say is that I don’t buy the argument that Mac’s are safer because there aren’t any viruses for them. Sorry, but that’s just not true (1, 2, 3), and as the user base of Mac systems increases, more viruses will be created (or existing ones modified) to wreck havoc on Macs.

Oddly, I haven’t seen a T-Shirt stand though…

Source: http://xkcd.com/281/

The WordPress lead developers released WordPress 2.3.3 the other day. This update fixes a security flaw that allowed people to edit others’ posts using the XML-RPC implementation in WordPress. There were also three other bugfixes that fixed minor issues that were discovered. Read more about WordPress 2.3.3 at the Development Blog

And at the same time, WordPressMU 1.3.3 has also been released. WordPressMU is the WordPress based software designed to serve multiple blogs from one installation of WordPress. This is also a security update, and syncs with WordPress 2.3.3. More can be found at the forum annoucment about WordPressMU 1.3.3