I just discovered something that I know will be useful on my laptop. If you have multiple windows open in Safari - which can happen if you click on links from emails and so forth - you can cycle through them with Cmd-` (backtick). This might be something that works on other applications too, but I don't need it that much for other programs. Maybe this is an old Mac trick that no one told me about, but I thought I'd share it because I haven't heard about it anywhere else.

Oh and I hope that everyone has a great February.

Shubenacadie Sam did not see his shadow this morning which means that we will be having an early spring. I haven't heard about Punxsutawney Phil and Wiarton Willie - they won't be giving predictions until 9am our time.

Well... I have finally sorted everything out with my power supply for my laptop. Apparently I had the 65W power supply and I was supposed to have the 45W power supply. Quite frankly the 'bigger' one worked, but who knows what havok it was causing my machine - or more likely my battery. I went down to Terra Consultants today and had a very smooth time exchanging the power supplies. I was in and out of there in less than two minutes. It was great. Hopefully I won't have any more power related issues, because this computer is physically amazing... even though it took a drop a few months back it is still just as sexy and functional as ever before.

Finally! My one problem with the Safari browser has now been answered. I can now tab through all of the controls in a form, not just the text fields. Previously one couldn't tab onto buttons, drop down lists, checkboxes and other controls... making things a bit frustrating. But no longer with the latest point release of Safari. Also included in this update - the ability to resume interrupted downloads and improved compatibility with Java and Javascript (LiveConnect). And for those people who knew of my frustrations before, I can now access the Famous Players website without any real problems.

Last night we had a heavy snowfall warning and a rain warning and today I got to witness what that meant. And as someone who tries to avoid the out of doors as a general rule, I was out sloshing around a fair bit today.

To be quite honest, I haven't seen as much water in the streets of Halifax since the hurricane. Not only did it rain a lot last night and today, but it did so after snowing and remaining just around the zero degree mark. So we had a melt and rain and a mess and oh my. Part of me was "I'm glad I don't have to drive in this." and the rest of me was "I wish I didn't have to walk in this." And of course... all the while in the back of my mind was "I wish I was asleep in bed."

In any case, it made for a messy day and I look forward to the insanity when it all freezes and no one can remain standing. Until then - stay dry.

Last night was the 14th annual DSU Charity Ball. This year they were raising money for the Atlantic Canada division of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. I'm not sure what the grand total was, but the auctions raised around $3000 for this worthwhile cause. Like last year where one of the "Dates with a DSU executive" was auctioned off for around $500, there was another high bidding round this year - Jenny Cooper, the first year member-at-large went for $700. Props also go out to the lighting crew who did an excellent job making the McInnes room look like a nice place.

As usual there was free wine and large amounts of time where people were just sitting around trying to figure out what was going on. The buffet dinner was good - chicken Kiev, but the blue lighting did kind of make certain food look a bit unusual. There was a sad representation of computer science students there - me. Later on Geoff Johnston showed up, but that was about it. However, that might not be a total bad thing, and everyone there looked very dapper in their formal attire. Personally I had a wonderful time, and there is nothing like an excuse to pull out the suit and dress shoes. The canned music that played throughout dinner was great - acid jazz and the live entertainment was provided by the Mellotones. Sarah was beautiful as always and we managed to get a photo taken as the night progressed - unfortunately I had already started dancing at that point so I was a bit sweaty, but Photoshop took care of the worst of it. :) If you have never been, you should definitely consider it for next year. Of course, they don't advertise it very well at all... so watch for a few posters in the SUB or on www.dsu.com in early February.

I apologize for some weird things happening with my site. Any page that requires variables to be passed either with the URL or from a form does not work as it is not getting those variables. This is due to the register_globals directive for php being turned off on torch. However, one can fix this with an .htaccess file if I am allowed to override the correct settings. They actually did this in response to my suggestions regarding a little attack that we had on the weekend. I didn't expect them to do it so soon and without warning. They also needed to make sure that people could re-enable it on a per directory basis - and they didn't and people can't so I might have to wait until morning until things get settled - bear with me.

LaCie is releasing a 1 TB External hard disk that will interface via firewire or USB. Apparently that would be like 2 years of continuous music. Mmmm.

I think there is something somewhat creepy and unholy about a school bus that is painted completely in black.

As some of you might know... my forum (and everything else) is working again. Sorry about the downtime, but... you know... it wasn't my fault so meh.

For those people interested, and I imagine that there aren't many, there is a programming competition going down this weekend. I would love to see a good turn out, but given that it is a seriously busy time in a lot of my courses and it is the day after Valentine's Day I can't think of a lot of people who would come out for the fun of it. I have a sneaking suspicion it might be the same people as last time, but that would be a lot of fun. I haven't seen my teammates from last year since before Christmas - we were quite close obviously. The competition is on the 15th and runs from 1pm to 4pm with an hour afterward to discuss solutions. So if you like problem solving and know a bit of C, C++ or Java, come on out!

And on the topic of programming - I got my enviroment for my 4135 assignment to compile and run... now I have to code up my part. :P

So why did I just order a graphics tablet? You can order the Wacom Graphire2 from Futureshop.ca on sale for $99. There are only 5 left, so if you want one you best move fast. My guess the reason they are on sale is that the Graphire3 is out now. You can head over to Wacom to find out more about their pen based input devices.

Wednesdays kind of suck. Not all of them, but this term I have two classes then I go to work for 5 hours doing something that I more or less hate. Fair enough it puts a bit of spending money in my pocket, it's on campus and I do enjoy the people I work with. It could be worse, but oh yea, I hate it. But the crap day that is Wednesday is made a lot better when I get home and read some thing like this from Penny Arcade:

One of the other two sexual configurations is dreadfully mundane, I'm afraid - asexual reproduction. Nothing to write home about here. It's just like masturbating, except that when you get done there's somebody else in the room. The whole thing is pretty crazy. What would you talk about? It's not like you can deny what you do in your spare time.

- taken from Penny Arcade

In fact you should read the whole thing it is quite humourous. Unless you don't like to laugh, which is possible. Sick. But possible. In any case I'm just glad that I don't have anything due tomorrow.

I'm sure that by now everyone has heard something about Janet Jackson's nipple. I didn't watch the Superbowl, and to be honest I didn't really know it was on until after the fact, but I do listen to the radio and I have been reading online about the "wardrobe snafu" that occurred during the half time show.

At first I thought... it was unlikely that it was an accident, but who knows... I haven't seen it. I've also heard rumours that a CBS official OK'd it, but then denied it. That seems likely to me. But what it seems to have boiled down to is that there are some pissed off senators who think that TV is getting too vulgar and the FCC needs to crack down on it. I think that it a load of crap. I think it is good that we are slowly un-demonizing the human body - especially the female body which has traditionally been hidden in mystery. Other cultures still don't allow women to show their ankles and whatnot, but I'm not going into that discussiong because it is steeped in religon and gender confusion.

Men can go topless no problem. Women can't. If it had been Janet who disrobed Justin, nobody would have really cared. I mean, I'm sure that Justin has nice nipples and all, but I really don't think that anyone would really make a scene about it - even though he is a popular recording artist as well. But as soon as those nipples belong to a woman - bam! that's a problem. I realize that they are often covered as a comfort - but what makes them any different? I really think that society as a whole would benefit from a more sexually liberated attitude. I realize that there are more and less appropriate ways of doing this, but a healthy knowledge as a child in my experience only makes you more respectful and accepting. It is usually those who are shielded from it that start to develop problems.

My two cents for what that's worth in todays economy. Not that it has much sway from a workoholic computer scientist.

Liberally yours, rhuvok.

I have survived yet another Friday the 13th. Not that anything has ever happened to me on Friday the 13th or ever will, but that is the way it goes. My dad has always considered Friday the 13th to be a lucky day for him - but I never really asked him why - I just took it at face value for what it was. I guess he could have said that because he didn't want to instill a superstituous fear in us, or more likely, something positive happened to him at one point on it. In any case, my day was fine. I didn't get a lot of work done, but I did have a fun evening.

And now it is Valentine's Day. But since I am going to bed now... I will save you from my lecture for now. Good night.

Three 'assignments' due tomorrow. Kind of like Hell week, but all at once. Luckily I have root beer.

Got an extension on the nasty code optimization assignment. It's not that it is too hard, but it is a lot of work - more than most of us expected. It would be great if it was the only class I was taking, or if I was taking only a couple of courses. But I'm a busy man with a real penchant for procrastination.

Apparently we are in for some weather tonight/tomorrow. I heard this on the radio - something about a blizzard warning. I thought that was interesting and then they were talking about how the snow would be substantial. But then I read my email from the Coop office and they say:

"Due to the impending snow storm tomorrow I strongly suggest that you drop by the CO-op Office TODAY if you have any questions ..."

Well... maybe this will be an interesting couple of days. Enjoy.

Well... what can I say. We got a lot of snow. Record breaking snow. I have heard of some area that received over 100cm - which is one meter - of snow in 24 hours. It is crazy, the province declared a state of emergency - which I believe we are still in. Dalhousie was closed on Thursday and Friday and I now see that it will be closed tomorrow (Monday). This isn't as big of a deal because this is our spring break, but it does mean that I don't have to work tomorrow. *insert goofy dance here*.

When I ventured up to Shirreff Hall this morning for brunch I noticed that maybe 35% of the sidewalks between here and there were cleared. Which gives you a rough idea of the number of people who have snow blowers around here. However, I took the campus back and it was much better. Dal's team of Bobcats and front-end loaders have been busy moving the snow around clearing paths and creating gigantic snow mounds.

And today it is snowing again. 20+ cm is what I have heard we are getting, but one never knows for sure until it's over. On Thursday when it was actually snowing at its worst, I was skeptical about whether things would be normal enough next week. I had people tell me that it would be cleaned up by the weekend. Now, I do realize that the city and province are working very hard to get things cleaned up, but it is a huge task. It's not a matter of running some plows around. People are walking in the streets because the sidewalks are up to their waist. Cars are crawling around on barely single lane roads. There was a curfew for cars to be off the road on Friday night at 11pm and last night there was a total curfew at 10pm. They are saying that there likely won't be a curfew tonight, but as it is the downtown area is shut down until midnight or so tonight. That doesn't sound like cleaned up to me. Yes they are doing it, but it takes time. And the snow we are getting now doesn't help anyone. I was supposed to go home for some of this week, but as it is, I don't know whether that will be possible. OK -yes it is possible. But I don't know whether I want to risk it. All told it is some kind of crazy. I took some photos the morning after the storm and there are a couple up on Urban PHP.

I am in Durham this week. Today I had the opportunity to go into town (New Glasgow) with Sarah. I was thinking about buying another monitor to use with my laptop, but I am not sure about how I feel spending $350 plus tax on that.

I did however lapse into a "previously enjoyed" movie buying craze. I bought 9 movies, but I think that I might have only spent $65 on them. I bought the following:

• Pirates of the Caribbean
• The Hunted
• Plunkett & Mclean
• Sum of All Fears
• Stealing Harvard
• *Airplane
• *Eye of the Beholder
• *The Thomas Crowne Affair
• Evolution

The movies with stars (*) were DVDs, the rest were VHS. I also bought a couple shirts and 6 litres of rootbeer. Oh and a mini USB hub. And a platnium flylight. But no monitor. Yet. :)

I was going to write a little something about it being February 29 - a leap day. But as it is, I'm sure that you all know that. However, it is also Oscar Night. And as usual I feel that I should post my hopefuls. In the past I made predictions - which really only mean anything if I had seen half of the movies being considered. Instead this year I will post who I would like to see win. As it turns out - I would like to see Return of the King win 11 awards. :) I will bold any results that I "got right" and insert the winner otherwise.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Johnny Depp - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL Sean Penn - MYSTIC RIVER (Had Johnny Depp actually won this, I would have shyte myself. Although PotC is an amazing movie.)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Charlize Theron - MONSTER

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
FINDING NEMO

ART DIRECTION
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

CINEMATOGRAPHY
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

COSTUME DESIGN
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

DIRECTING
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

FILM EDITING
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

MAKEUP
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

MUSIC (SCORE)
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

MUSIC (SONG)
"Into the West" - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

BEST PICTURE
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

SOUND EDITING
FINDING NEMO Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

SOUND MIXING
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

VISUAL EFFECTS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
FINDING NEMO Lost In Translation

Before Christmas, I ordered a scarf. It was free actually, I just had to pay for shipping which was $5. So I was OK with that. This scarf was from Zend. Essentially this company provides the engine behind PHP. So obviously I was kind of excited about the scarf which was in celebration of their 4th year. But it never showed up. I was scared that maybe it arrived during Christmas and went back because I wasn't around. They did charge my credit card for the shipping, but like I said, it wasn't a lot and I was going to chalk it up to an unfortunate non-scarf event.

That was until today. When I got home from seeing Club Dread (a really good, funny, gory movie) and I saw a package jammed into my mailbox. It had arrived - it only took two and half months. I thought I'd throw up a photo so you can all bask in just how cool this thing really is - I mean look at it - Zend.