... was had by all at the Annual Computer Science Halloween Party. This year's event took place this past Friday (on Halloween itself). By far we had more people attend then ever before - with the atrium being completely packed at one point. There were a huge number of great costumes and many people were up and dancing as well. It was truly well run and well planned. My hat goes off to everyone on society who made this work out so well. This is definitely my best halloween since I have been in Halifax and although I didn't really get much candy, probably my favorite one ever. For those unfortunate souls who were not there, I have pictures up at halifacts.com - and before anyone complains, I will be rotating those photos that need it. Also I must say that the army camo-net that was used over the atrium was a great idea and definitely added to the mood.

Some of you that I talk to in person might have heard (or witnessed) me talking to my laptop. This is because I discovered the Mac's speech commands functionality. I personally think that it is quite useful and I found that I actually do use it, despite what I might have initially thought. However, I have been informed that this feature is not unique to Panther, nor is it a product of Jaguar. In fact it predates OSX entirely according to Jesse - one of my programming competition teammates. I was also told that it used to be quite unrealiable, which made it annoying to use. Now it would seem, Apple is doing a much better job. Maybe it is just that my voice is clearer or that voice recognition technology has improved, but what ever the reason, I find it quite realiable.

On another laptop related note, I signed up for my 'free trial' of .Mac today. This is so I could use the iChat AV program that came with Panther in order to trial it's voice chat features (I don't have a camera for it). The amusing thing is, the trial is only 60 days, but if I don't end up paying for it, I can still use my account for iChat, just not my email and iDisk. So if you are on iChat or AIM, my ID is rhuvok@mac.com.

Well the day has finally arrived, the third and final movie in the epic Matrix trilogy has finally hit theatres. Matrix Revolutions is actually being released into IMAX theatres in addition to regular theatres because of the incredible success that Matrix Reloaded had with the larger screen format. And well... I don't blame them, because five of us are going to see it this evening at the IMAX. In fact, there will likely be a line so we should go early - like now. It is also mike's birthday today so we are using this as an ad hoc birthday celebration. What a great birthday gift to have this movie released. On that note Matrix Reloaded was released on the birthday of another friend back on May 15th. I will be sure to let you all know what I think about the movie afterwards and I promise not to spoil it. But obviously you are all going to see this really soon right? That's what I thought.

At least it could be. Hey everyone I am here in Rochester, NY and this is the morning of the Northeast Regional ACM Programming Competition 2003. Today Jesse, Chris and I pit our hardcore programming skills against not only SMU and UNB, but such pretigious schools as MIT and Harvard. Despite that competition, I have total faith in the fact that we can take this if we simply give it our all - and trust me... we are going to be.

On the other side of the coin, it has been a great trip so far and I even have high speed Internet in the hotel room. Unfortunately, because I snore... it was all Marc could do to keep from killing me last night, however I got a fine sleep and that was the main goal last night according to him. Tonight it would seem is a different scenario, because for better or worse... it is all going to be over. Also cool was the prop plane that we took from Toronto to Rochester - it had a total of 18 seats! By far it was the smallest aircraft that I have been on. It was a short 25 minute flight though which was nice, because at that point (5:30pm) we had been travelling since shortly after 9am.

I will obviously be able to fill you in as to how we do today if I know. If we don't have official results, I'm pretty sure I'll know if we are contenders to go on to the next level - World Finals in Prague. Really - that's why we are all here. I have photos that I will be putting up at my Contest Exposé. Cheers.

A lot of fun. We didn't win - ie. no Prague, but we made a good showing. In the end we couldn't keep up with MIT and Harvard (with 6 and 5 questions respectively). We tied for third (sort of) with SUNY Bingham and the University of Rochester. However despite being in the technical third place for a while the other two teams had a lower time than us and we were bumped to 5th. :/

The good part is that Marc isn't going to kill me in my sleep tonight and we placed the top among the 6 Canadian Teams - read we beat SMU. In fact we placed higher than any other Dal team in remembered history.

Anyway... I'll get more pictures up when I have more time. :)

Can be and often are a lot of fun. It means that you are on a trip somewhere, or that you picked up downtown and don't want to bring the action back to your parent's/spouse's house. Either way, good for you. This being all well and good, there are two issues that I have with hotel rooms - a least the one I am in currently.

The bed - yes it was comfortable and warm and the pillows were nice and soft. Actually before I continue further, let me say that these issues can be found anywhere, it just so happens that I experienced them at the hotel. The issue I have with the beds are the blankets. First of all... they are tucked down onto the bed with the hold of a starfish. I find that pretty annoying despite the fact that I don't usually flail about in my sleep. The other issue is multiple blankets. My bed had three layers of blanket. I really have no clue how to operate such a beast. Maybe my single comforter style is uncouth, but I like it. I woke up at one point last night and I am pretty sure that I was missing my middle blanket - where the hell could it go?! So that's my beef. Part of it.

The other thing that bugs me - and this happens a fair bit more - are showers that are designed such a way such that they are physically incapable of containing all of the water that is 'showering' down. The one in our room here is such that the shower curtain rod is arched outward away from the shower. I'll bet it looks nice when the curtain is closed on the inside and I will admit that there is a bit more room on the inside of the shower, but there is a sizable gap between the edge of the tub and the shower curtain. And despite pointing the shower head at the inside wall... water still sprays against the shower curtain and falls - into a huge puddle that is collecting beside the toilet. Awesome. Because chances are I'm going to step in it - likely not until I have already put my socks on - because that is what makes sense I guess.

I guess that is about it and I will end my rant with ERGO! VIS A VIS! CONCORDANTLY! Thank you and good night.

I just remembered that I said I'd give a review of Matrix Revolutions, and I might... but not yet... I'm too lazy.

It is back to the grind after a weekend whirlwind excursion into Rochester to compete in the programming competition. I first of all want to thank our coaches again - Vlado Keselj, Tony Cox, and Marc Comeau. These three have put a lot of time and energy into making sure that everything ran smoothly this weekend for us and to speak nothing of the incredible training that they gave us to allow us to perform as well as we did this weekend. My guess is that most people don't realize the type of training that needs to go into putting together a quality programming team. There are strategies that should be followed to ensure the best possible results. However, we don't really do any of that - and we still have much to learn.

With that I would also like to extend absolute gratefulness to my teammates - Jesse Rusak and Chris Bebbington. Without them, I would not have found my way into this position - this is truly a team effort in every respect. I only hope that we can work together for next year and hopefully take this all the way to the Worlds. It would be a lot of work, but I for one am willing to put the effort into it. Thanks guys. I had a great time.

My iPod is home! Rather, a new iPod that replaces my old dead one is here. Apparently they couldn't fix my old one and just sent me a new one. I am hoping that they didn't find that there was an issue and repair it out of warranty. That would cost me $300 USD :/ And even if it was OK, I have a sneaking suspicion that I might be charged duties. I will fight that though if it happens. Either way, I now have my portable music again - but not until I was missing it for about a month. Crazy.

It is that time of year again - that's right, time for the Computer Science Annual Snowball. This year, the event takes place on November 21 and as usual is located in the Westin Hotel. This is always a great event, with a great buffet dinner, live music and lots of dancing - so you have no excuse for not coming out this year. If you want to see the fun that we had last year, then you can check out my Snowball 2002 Photo Gallery. If you are interested in going and you don't yet have your tickets, let me know - I am selling them and have a few left. The price is $18 a piece or $35 for two. Come out and enjoy.

I have found myself in a position where I am once again taking on too much. But this time I don't feel overwhelmed, I just know from experience that I have too much on my plate. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a fairly large plate because I am a hungry guy, but even still I need my periods of fasting. But all whining aside, the power is out and that kind of pisses me off. I have something that I need to do with a deadline and quite frankly I like it. There is nothing that motivates me more than a seriously real deadline. I am working on a system that needs to go live tomorrow morning and it has to work and it has to be secure. The first one is easy, but implementing security is a time consuming process, once that has to be carefully considered. All told, I enjoy the pressure of it all and find that I preform better when it is hitting the fan and I have plenty to complain about. I guess that is how I work. I guess I best be getting back at it.

It has served as my source of music for many years. It is responsible for turning me onto electronic music in a big way. It had been a fun ride since high school, but now we will have to wait and see what happens. I'm talking about mp3.com. I received notice yesterday in lieu of my usual mp3.com news letter that C|Net has purchased the large music site and is not going to continue it's current service. MP3.com has provided a springboard for many fledgling artists to get into the music scene. Music was freely provided by the artists who were compensated based on plays and downloads. This system worked and for a time it was good. Then a couple years back Universal Music aquired mp3.com and then I was afraid that things would be different. They were, but not in a bad way - a new look and more commerciallize pages didn't get in the way of the hoards of quality music waiting to be garnered. Apparently music will be available until December 2, 2003 but I imagine that speed will be slower than usual as everyone tries to get one last song or two.

I have signed up for the exclusive peek at what C|Net plans to do once it is available. I hope that it will continue to provide the web community with as much value as it formally did. Thank you mp3.com, RIP.

Until the finest moment in film history occurs - the Return of the King. I know that there was some disappointment with the ending of the Matrix Series, and while I disagree for the most part, I also don't really care relative to the absolute awesomeness of the Lord of the Ring series. Say what you will, maybe I am biased to the genre or something - but you can't deny that LotR is a much finer piece of work. The fact that it is one long movie that is based off of one of the most amazing and detailed series of books I have ever read is only part of it.

In any case, you know where I will be on the 17th of December. :) And on a very much related note, the extended edition of Two Towers is released tomorrow. This 4 disc set is supposed to mirror the Fellowship in its grandeur. Forty three minutes of extra footage in the extended version, plus 4 audio commentaries. In addition, there are two other DVDs filled with making-of featurettes. The first one was absolutely amazing, and I know that this one won't let me down. So if you are wondering where I am for the next couple of days, I have some serious watching to do.

As you all know, I bought the Extended Edition of the Two Towers movie yesterday. I also watched it. I can tell you without any hesitation that this version is noticably better than the theatrical version. I really enjoyed this one. It had much better continuity and the story just seemed more complete. Obviously with 43 extra minutes of footage you can really do justice to a lot more of the material. If you haven't seen the theatrical release or if you haven't read the books before then I definitely recommend you try to watch this Platnium Edition.

In addition it is awesome to learn about the processes that go into making an epic film of this magnitude. Sexy. The special features on the extra DVDs are perfect for gaining this insight into Peter Jackson's world as he was creating movie magic. This edition only costs $38 (at Walmart anyway) and is well worth it if you are a fan of the movie. There is a gift set version that is available for $81 that includes a statue of Gollum and an extra DVD (for 5 in total) that discusses in greater depth Gollum's character and how they created him. I'm not sure if that is reason enough to double the price, but when I got to Walmart yesterday at noon there were three missing from the display, so I guess some people thought that a Gollum statue would be a good thing.

I finally got a new monitor here at work to replace the last one which I dubbed the Big Yellow. This one is the same size, but it doesn't have the same annoying affliction that my last monitor had. It would randomly turn yellow - which wasn't as bad as when it would flick back and forth from normal to yellow - occasionally staying with one or the other. The reason that I had this monitor so long is because I couldn't be bothered to get a hand to get another one. Whee!

I managed to wrangle second place in the contest to see which society member could see the most Snowball tickets. This means that I get the $50 gift certificate at Futureshop because the first place winner opted for the free night at the Westin. However, I can certainly use this prize as well... so I'm not disappointed. Had I actually thought that I might be able to win this thing I might have solicited after every class in the auditorium. But as it was, I just happened to have a lot of friends that are going. Everyone that I signed up are people that I know well personally. All that means is that there will a good time tomorrow night.

I have delayed long enough with my review of the Snowball this year, which is ironic because I was really quick to get my pictures up this year and I even went to great lengths to create a couple of useful scripts that will assist me in future photo galleries. If you haven't seen them, there are definitely some good ones in there.

As for the event itself, it was without a doubt the best one I have been to - and I have been to them all. This year is doing pretty well for great events, which is definitely a testimony to the great job our current society is doing (despite that being somewhat painful to say). The evening started off with me getting into a new suit. This was one reason that I liked this event, having a proper suit that fits makes a difference. Mike was kind enough to drive a bunch of us down to the Westin. Once there I did a bit of roaming - talking to people and taking pictures. Not too much later, Sarah showed up with her crew of friends and it was about then that we settled down for dinner.

The buffet was excellent, as it always has been. The food is similar to all the other years, but you can't really mess with what works. My brother and I endulged ourselves in seconds and I was even able to slip in a slice of the delicious egg nog cheesecake. After all - dancing fuel was going to be necessary. During the meal, they played the slideshow which showcased many of the events from the past year and more. Many of the photos were taken with my camera, either by myself or by Chris. It was good to finally feel that I had contributed to the social tapestry of the faculty.

After dinner, the award portion of the evening started. The Srini Award this year went to a deserving Dr. Norm Scrimger. The Staff Appreciation Award went to Margie Publicover and the Student Appreciation Award was given to society's VP External, Geoff Johnston. There were three Citizenship Awards this year and they went to Melanie Kellar, Richard Carpenter, and Steven Thong. After the usual awards went out, there was a special presentation made for the Dean, Dr. Nick Cercone, who was recently married. Society had prepared a video about Nick and his new wife and that was followed up by Jacob Slonim (our former Dean) presenting Nick with a wedding gift from the students - a dish set. All told it was a great portion of the evening.

It was around this point, when Whitney (the MC) got everyone to get up in front of the stage and have their photo taken. Since we didn't have a photographer there, I was one of the people who was snapping photos of this large group. There is a great composite shot that mike stitched together from my originals - please check out the photo website. This was all a clever trick to get people on the dance floor when the music started. And it might have worked, if the music was right.

I'm not going to complain about the music itself. It was a great Jazz Fusion that I would love to listen to while laying in bed resting or chilling out reading a book - even programming possibly. It wasn't however the best suited for getting your groove on out on the dance floor. There were a few brave souls who ventured out and gave it their best pop dance effort, but it didn't seem to last very long. I was impressed though, considering that there were more people on the dance floor at this initial part of the music than ever get up on the dance floor period during years past. That being said, the style of music didn't seem appropriate. And I don't think that was anyone's fault. When I was told the type of music that would be at the Snowball, I was looking forward to it. A departure from the usual gruel. However I don't think that it dawned on anyone that the music might not be best for getting people on the dance floor.

After a short while, the DJ came on - the same DJ as last year, DJ Bruce Johnson I believe. Despite my initial skepticism about the sugary sweet canned pop that might have flowed, it actually offered up a refreshing taste of change. I made note that he started with the exact same song that he opened with last year: I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. (It might be worth it to note that I gave credit to Cake for the song last year, and while they do perform a version of the aforementioned classic, it wasn't the version played at either Snowball - my bad). The DJ wasn't on for the rest of the night however, and at one point the band, The Metric System, retook the stage to while away some more of the evening.

Obviously by this point there were fewer and fewer people about, as people filtered out for various reasons ranging from genuine illness to the fact that they couldn't recognize fun if it came up and mounted them from behind. By 1am, when the DJ played his last tune - Good Riddance by Green Day - there were about 20+ people still there. This actually impressive given that many of the professors and their families left much earlier on. It was at this point that Sarah and I, along with my brother and his date Claire left in a ride generously donated by mike once again.

I hope that gives all that weren't present for this excellent event a taste of what it might have been like and I hope those people in attendance mirror my positive review of the evening. I am glad that so many of my friends (and family) made it to the Snowball this year and I hope that tradition continues. I would especially like to thank Sarah for making my evening so much more wonderful - you are amazing. Cheers.

I was listening to my Vocal Trance station while I was typing up my last post and I got the idea for an interesting product. There may be a product like this already, I haven't done any legwork on it (nor do I plan to). Basically it is a set of Wi-Fi headphones. I realize that there are wireless headphones that would serve in a similar role, but it would be cool to have a pair of head phones that could stream Internet radio wirelessly. Good for people with wireless home networks, or for myself in the CS building. They could be docked to get the station presets loaded/changed and then they would have some simple controls for volume and station. I was thinking about the larger headphones like the Koss ones that I have (for those few of you who know what the hell I'm talking about). Wireless earbuds would also be useful for the business traveller who would be able to use them at airports possibly. I realize that conventional radio and existing wireless headphones are solutions to some of the issues that I might have, but when has that stopped anyone before. I would just like to have more products that are Internet Radio aware.

As we are all fully aware at this point, there is only one month until Christmas. For any of my readers who do not celebrate Christmas, please bear with me... I do celebrate it and I love it. However, with Christmas comes the interesting challenge of figuring out what to buy for people. When I was younger, it was much easier, my brothers and I would collaborate with my Dad to get my Mom's presents and vice versa. Now I have more of an individual resposibility. And it's not that I don't want to get presents for people, I just don't want to get something that won't be used, or something like that. It's a procedure... not a difficult one, but something to be done. :P

I hate it when people get in the elevator at floor one only to get off again at floor two. I'm not condemning elevator use, as I am clearly in the elevator at this point as well - but one floor? Where it is likely more convenient to take the stairs. Grrr.

On December 17 at 8:30pm? Will you be watching the epic conclusion to the Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King? I know I will be - I even have my ticket. Yes that's right. Tickets are on sale now at Park Lane Cinemas and I imagine other venues as well. For those interested in joining the Chris and Colin party should get their tickets soon. We will likely be leaving for downtown around 4:30 - grab a quick bite to eat and then settle in for a stakeout in line. Oh I can hardly wait.

I would imagine that most people who just read the title to this article would assume that I was talking about hard drive designations and those people would be right. And I'm going to also say that likely there was no problem with me mentioning that. However, it would seem that some people don't agree. This article talks about Los Angeles county where a suggestion was made to manufacturers that they remove or change the labels on technical equipment which identify 'master' and 'slave'.

The first part of the article makes you believe that this memo was actually a new policy, but goes on to explain that it was merely a recommendation. As you can imagine there is a lot of controversy that has arisen from this matter. Personally, I wouldn't really care one way or another as long as it wasn't going to cost me a lot of money. That being said, I don't actually know what I would replace those terms with in a lot of cases. However, not only do I not live in that part of California, I also don't manufacture — anything. So I'm going to get back to work.