Cool thing:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/email-to-sms/
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Taking a break again from this paper
So I am pretty much halfway through this paper. Which I guess is a lie. It took me over a month to get here, so I really only have a fraction of that time left. So I'm almost done. But really, I'm so out of touch with writing papers that it was the getting started that was the hardest for me. I went through about 5 topics before settling one one/a blend of them. But it's going alright I guess. I am quite literally 3 pages into it and it's supposed to be 6 pages, I think.
Anyways, I figured I'd take a break and do something. I guess I don't really know what I want to write about so I'll write about....cameras! I've been browsing cameras and I got to thinking that I want a camera that will not only last a few years physically, but one that will be on the leading curve that is the technology industry. The main thing I was thinking about was the tech that I don't actually know the name of. I want to say geotagging, but I dunno. Basically it's where the camera, in addition to the image data it already has, date/time stuff, it records the location of the picture. this would be sweet on road trips or just cool mapping ideas for later. In looking at cameras I didn't see this feature, so I'm pretty sure it's only high end stuff for now. But something to look into.
Another thing is the wireless SD cards that you can use in place of a memory card. I think the idea is that it can connect to a wireless network and upload the pictures somewhere. Again, I should have looked into this all before blogging about it. But that's what happens this early in the morning. I haven't written a paper in college without staying up all night, just to let you know. That's how I did it last year and here I am again.
Also, I set up a tracking thing for the blog, it's the thing at the bottom of the pages, and it was cool to see macalester and italy show up as locations for connections. So, I guess I've gone global. Sweetballs.
Anyways, I figured I'd take a break and do something. I guess I don't really know what I want to write about so I'll write about....cameras! I've been browsing cameras and I got to thinking that I want a camera that will not only last a few years physically, but one that will be on the leading curve that is the technology industry. The main thing I was thinking about was the tech that I don't actually know the name of. I want to say geotagging, but I dunno. Basically it's where the camera, in addition to the image data it already has, date/time stuff, it records the location of the picture. this would be sweet on road trips or just cool mapping ideas for later. In looking at cameras I didn't see this feature, so I'm pretty sure it's only high end stuff for now. But something to look into.
Another thing is the wireless SD cards that you can use in place of a memory card. I think the idea is that it can connect to a wireless network and upload the pictures somewhere. Again, I should have looked into this all before blogging about it. But that's what happens this early in the morning. I haven't written a paper in college without staying up all night, just to let you know. That's how I did it last year and here I am again.
Also, I set up a tracking thing for the blog, it's the thing at the bottom of the pages, and it was cool to see macalester and italy show up as locations for connections. So, I guess I've gone global. Sweetballs.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I'm hungry, sick, and tired of writing this paper.
So here's a post I wanted to get into a bit.
Twitter vs. Facebook statuses.
So, Twitter had this idea to have a social network that shares short updates on what your doing. These are supposed to be between blog posts so people can see more of your day to day interests. This is a great idea and something I would love to start doing more with my friends. Except that the concept sounds awfully familiar. Facebook did the same thing. Not aimed at bloggers and more at people who want to find the best way to get attention but not be too direct. Admit it, you knew what you were doing when you set your status to "shouldn't have done that", "thinks you don't understand", or even "needs attention NOW!". Just waiting for someone to go, hey whats up so you can turn them down with the overly done, "no it's okay/not about you/leave me alone!". Sound familiar? Cause it happens every day on facebook. We check the status feed and kinda feel sad or pitiful. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it is just kinda silly. I've done it before. And in the moment you just want someone to care.
But! Do you ever just want to facts? I don't care if they are angry at someone, I just want to know what they are doing right now or tonight. That way I can get a feel if I could ask to hang out or not. For an example, some of my friends work during the week and I always forget their schedule, if there is even one. So I hate calling to see if their at work because if they are, they don't answer their phone. So it seems pointless. But if I could check their status and it was "working till 10" or "work", I would easily know.
Also, the status feed is for all your friends, your "friends", and that guy you had in one class in junior high that your pretty sure moved away and have no real social connection. So, although there are times I'd like to know what he's doing, because why not. I also would like a way to remove him from the possible feed updates.
Does it feel like I'm going somewhere with this yet? Good. Because I guess you could consider this a call to my friends, or the ones who read this, to sign up for a free twitter account and add each other. With at least a small amount of us using twitter it would be so much more effective than the, say 3 people I know that use it currently. So, do it. Everyone else will be doing it soon, so don't you want to be one of those people who did it first and do something that gives you leverage over your friends later on in life. I know that's why I did it, and it's not too late.
1. goto Twitter
2. follow me, mpow or go here to follow me.
3. tell a friend.
Twitter vs. Facebook statuses.
So, Twitter had this idea to have a social network that shares short updates on what your doing. These are supposed to be between blog posts so people can see more of your day to day interests. This is a great idea and something I would love to start doing more with my friends. Except that the concept sounds awfully familiar. Facebook did the same thing. Not aimed at bloggers and more at people who want to find the best way to get attention but not be too direct. Admit it, you knew what you were doing when you set your status to "shouldn't have done that", "thinks you don't understand", or even "needs attention NOW!". Just waiting for someone to go, hey whats up so you can turn them down with the overly done, "no it's okay/not about you/leave me alone!". Sound familiar? Cause it happens every day on facebook. We check the status feed and kinda feel sad or pitiful. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it is just kinda silly. I've done it before. And in the moment you just want someone to care.
But! Do you ever just want to facts? I don't care if they are angry at someone, I just want to know what they are doing right now or tonight. That way I can get a feel if I could ask to hang out or not. For an example, some of my friends work during the week and I always forget their schedule, if there is even one. So I hate calling to see if their at work because if they are, they don't answer their phone. So it seems pointless. But if I could check their status and it was "working till 10" or "work", I would easily know.
Also, the status feed is for all your friends, your "friends", and that guy you had in one class in junior high that your pretty sure moved away and have no real social connection. So, although there are times I'd like to know what he's doing, because why not. I also would like a way to remove him from the possible feed updates.
Does it feel like I'm going somewhere with this yet? Good. Because I guess you could consider this a call to my friends, or the ones who read this, to sign up for a free twitter account and add each other. With at least a small amount of us using twitter it would be so much more effective than the, say 3 people I know that use it currently. So, do it. Everyone else will be doing it soon, so don't you want to be one of those people who did it first and do something that gives you leverage over your friends later on in life. I know that's why I did it, and it's not too late.
1. goto Twitter
2. follow me, mpow or go here to follow me.
3. tell a friend.
mARTin unupdate
Sorry if the title got your hopes up and made you think you missed thanksgiving. But it isn't friday and this isn't a true mARTin update. I realize that I need a better way of getting the things I draw or do into digital format and my phone's camera is pretty low quality. Since I also would be using the images in illustrator or photoshop, I like them in high quality. Anyways, I've asked for a camera for christmas and so we'll see what happens. I might just buy one. But this will also give me a week or two of time consuming consumerism.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Here's a little story
So, I was making some tang in my kitchen this afternoon and I see a paper on the kitchen table. I kinda figured it was a piece of mail or some homework from my house mates. But on closer examination, it was a search warrant for our house. Awesome. So I figured that Ryan did something and they were trying to bust him. But no, it turns out that there is a house health and safety inspection every 4 years. And because my landlord, the legendary and mysterious Vance G, is almost always unreachable, even to the authorities, they had to get a judge to approve a warrant for the search of our house.
So, I don't know how this will turn out, but hopefully our house is still livable and safe. Because if it isn't...then shit.
So, I don't know how this will turn out, but hopefully our house is still livable and safe. Because if it isn't...then shit.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Update to customizing things
So Colin and Jake asked me what I was using to update twitter from the terminal and I've changed my conky setup so I thought I'd post this.
The command to update twitter is using curl. Jake, I don't know the mac equivilant to this is. But this is the guide for it:
http://blogs.tech-recipes.com/shamanstears/2008/03/04/ubuntu-posting-to-twitter-from-the-terminal-window/
And here's my new desktop:
The command to update twitter is using curl. Jake, I don't know the mac equivilant to this is. But this is the guide for it:
http://blogs.tech-recipes.com/shamanstears/2008/03/04/ubuntu-posting-to-twitter-from-the-terminal-window/
And here's my new desktop:
Monday, November 17, 2008
Stories from a coffee house
I kinda want to make this a reoccurring post idea, but I also don't want to spend a bazillion dollars, $3 at a time for unlimited coffee here at the common cup. But we'll see, cause I really like coming here.
Anyways, I'm sitting and I take my earbuds out for a bit and start to overhear these two people's conversation. The first thing I hear is this guy say: "I haven't had much luck with girls lately." So I look over and it's a guy sitting with girl. The girl looks pretty bored with him talking about his bad luck with girls. She's playing with a napkin and giving the occasional agreement. I started thinking about why they are here and who they are to each other. I came up with the idea that the reason he doesn't do too well with girls is that he takes them to coffee houses and tells them that he isn't good with girls. They didn't come to hear him whine, because he obviously got them to the coffee house in the first place. They get bored and nothing ever comes from the date. He continues the cycle and it might never end.
So watch out at coffee houses, I might be blogging about your strange conversations. Just look for the guy going to the bathroom every 20 minute. Goddamn my bladder's response to 3+ cups of coffee.
Anyways, I'm sitting and I take my earbuds out for a bit and start to overhear these two people's conversation. The first thing I hear is this guy say: "I haven't had much luck with girls lately." So I look over and it's a guy sitting with girl. The girl looks pretty bored with him talking about his bad luck with girls. She's playing with a napkin and giving the occasional agreement. I started thinking about why they are here and who they are to each other. I came up with the idea that the reason he doesn't do too well with girls is that he takes them to coffee houses and tells them that he isn't good with girls. They didn't come to hear him whine, because he obviously got them to the coffee house in the first place. They get bored and nothing ever comes from the date. He continues the cycle and it might never end.
So watch out at coffee houses, I might be blogging about your strange conversations. Just look for the guy going to the bathroom every 20 minute. Goddamn my bladder's response to 3+ cups of coffee.
Comments
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Customizing ubuntu is soo much fun!
So, I should be doing homework, but I'm not. I am instead going to show you how I have customized my computer to be awesome, if you don't care then pass this post by.
Fresh install
So Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" came out at the end of October and so instead of just upgrading, I decided to do a completely fresh install. That means backing up any important documents and formatting the Ubuntu partition. This is so easy to do in Ubuntu, it's awesome. Instead of having to reinstall windows and ubuntu studio, I just clear the one part ion that ubuntu lives on. So I started out clean with a blank slate to go from. It was such a great feeling, I recommend it to everyone (I also recommend trying ubuntu).
Starting out, the basics:
So for a new install to be fully functional, there are some basic things that you need to do which are not that hard to do. It basically involves installing all the things Ubuntu can't guarantee, like flash, java, and MP3 codecs. All stuff I like to have. So you just follow this guide. It's not that hard to do if you haven't worked with the terminal and it is probably a good starting tool for that. Then I did have to wait a few days before the latest nVidia drivers were released, but after that I got to start with the compiz settings, yummy.
Compiz:
So I figure that most people reading this don't use Ubuntu (save for Colin, Vinny, and Jake before he went back to Mac), so I'll be giving brief explanations for things that aren't common talk. Compiz is a background program that handles how you view your desktop. It is the eye candy of Ubuntu. If you've seen me turn my desktop into a 3-D cube, that's compiz. It lets you choose what animation plays when you close a window or if your windows are stiff or wobbly when you shake them. For a video of what compiz is capable of look here. I used to use it to make things look really cool, but now with my new Ubuntu, I'm all about functionality and being productive in a creative way. This started with getting rid of the cube and using 4 desktops in a line. To explain, each desktop can hold it's own windows and so instead of alt-tabbing through a bunch of programs to find my e-mail, I switch to the first desktop. Internet is on the second and music is on the third and the fourth is usually for the terminal. This saves me a load of time in finding what I'm looking for and it still looks pretty cool, in my opinion.
Compiz also runs the window manager, or the program that makes your windows have title bars and determines their color. I am still using the default theme for this because I haven't found what I'm looking for yet.
Conky:
Conky is an awesome program that will display basically anything you want. If there is a command for it or a way to use python to get information, conly can output it in anyway you want. I only got this running last week, so it isn't finished, but I still love it. Right now I have weather and system information to show up. In the future I will have it show what music I'm playing and other things that I want to be able to check whenever and feel too lazy to type a command.
Devilspie:
This is something I just found two days ago and am starting to use more. It's a program that recognizes applications that are running and can change their appearance when they are loaded. So right now I have my e-mail move to the first desktop when it is started and the same for firefox and my music player, rhythmbox. I can start them all from buttons on my keyboard and the go where I want without moving them.
My desktop terminal:
So I use the terminal a lot. I like it a lot more than running graphical things like update manager and finding files through the file browser. So I have it hot keyed to Alt+F1. But I found I was always opening terminals, which got annoying. So I followed this guide. And now I have a terminal window embedded into my background. It is so great. I have also been finding more and more uses for the terminal and the easiest way to learn new things is to use it a lot. Like updating twitter through the terminal. It isn't necessary, but it is a lot of fun and why not? I'll probably write a blog about twitter and try and get people to use it more. Jake couldn't completely explain why I should use it, but I figure if enough of my friends use it, it would turn worthwhile.
Future projects:
Get a better dock than the default one. I like the way macs have docks and not a large task bar like windows, but it has disadvantages and with ubuntu I can get my own dock and make it what I want. Also, I am planning on making a sweet wallpaper that uses the multiple desktops to make things pretty, it's hard to explain.
Back to "doing" homework.
Fresh install
So Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" came out at the end of October and so instead of just upgrading, I decided to do a completely fresh install. That means backing up any important documents and formatting the Ubuntu partition. This is so easy to do in Ubuntu, it's awesome. Instead of having to reinstall windows and ubuntu studio, I just clear the one part ion that ubuntu lives on. So I started out clean with a blank slate to go from. It was such a great feeling, I recommend it to everyone (I also recommend trying ubuntu).
Starting out, the basics:
So for a new install to be fully functional, there are some basic things that you need to do which are not that hard to do. It basically involves installing all the things Ubuntu can't guarantee, like flash, java, and MP3 codecs. All stuff I like to have. So you just follow this guide. It's not that hard to do if you haven't worked with the terminal and it is probably a good starting tool for that. Then I did have to wait a few days before the latest nVidia drivers were released, but after that I got to start with the compiz settings, yummy.
Compiz:
So I figure that most people reading this don't use Ubuntu (save for Colin, Vinny, and Jake before he went back to Mac), so I'll be giving brief explanations for things that aren't common talk. Compiz is a background program that handles how you view your desktop. It is the eye candy of Ubuntu. If you've seen me turn my desktop into a 3-D cube, that's compiz. It lets you choose what animation plays when you close a window or if your windows are stiff or wobbly when you shake them. For a video of what compiz is capable of look here. I used to use it to make things look really cool, but now with my new Ubuntu, I'm all about functionality and being productive in a creative way. This started with getting rid of the cube and using 4 desktops in a line. To explain, each desktop can hold it's own windows and so instead of alt-tabbing through a bunch of programs to find my e-mail, I switch to the first desktop. Internet is on the second and music is on the third and the fourth is usually for the terminal. This saves me a load of time in finding what I'm looking for and it still looks pretty cool, in my opinion.
Compiz also runs the window manager, or the program that makes your windows have title bars and determines their color. I am still using the default theme for this because I haven't found what I'm looking for yet.
Conky:
Conky is an awesome program that will display basically anything you want. If there is a command for it or a way to use python to get information, conly can output it in anyway you want. I only got this running last week, so it isn't finished, but I still love it. Right now I have weather and system information to show up. In the future I will have it show what music I'm playing and other things that I want to be able to check whenever and feel too lazy to type a command.
Devilspie:
This is something I just found two days ago and am starting to use more. It's a program that recognizes applications that are running and can change their appearance when they are loaded. So right now I have my e-mail move to the first desktop when it is started and the same for firefox and my music player, rhythmbox. I can start them all from buttons on my keyboard and the go where I want without moving them.
My desktop terminal:
So I use the terminal a lot. I like it a lot more than running graphical things like update manager and finding files through the file browser. So I have it hot keyed to Alt+F1. But I found I was always opening terminals, which got annoying. So I followed this guide. And now I have a terminal window embedded into my background. It is so great. I have also been finding more and more uses for the terminal and the easiest way to learn new things is to use it a lot. Like updating twitter through the terminal. It isn't necessary, but it is a lot of fun and why not? I'll probably write a blog about twitter and try and get people to use it more. Jake couldn't completely explain why I should use it, but I figure if enough of my friends use it, it would turn worthwhile.
Future projects:
Get a better dock than the default one. I like the way macs have docks and not a large task bar like windows, but it has disadvantages and with ubuntu I can get my own dock and make it what I want. Also, I am planning on making a sweet wallpaper that uses the multiple desktops to make things pretty, it's hard to explain.
Back to "doing" homework.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
PBR: Pretty Blog Rhetoric
Who even knows what rhetoric means? Cause I sure don't. Anyways, It's late and I don't know why I'm posting (I shouldn't be), but I am. Wow, it sounds bad, but some kinks can't be worked out through a backrub.
Anyways, this blog will be about something, I just haven't decided yet, so hang on. It will be about something that makes me happy: aha! I listened to the belles of skin city today. Both albums. It was great. Their drummer is probbably the reason I drum for hello blacksmith. He's amazing. Give them a listen to if you have them, and if you don't, let me know and I'll hook you up. but yeah, I also decided that I won't be a drummer for another band outside hbs. Because I just really don't fit there. I love guitar too much and miss playing guitar. Over last summer I jammed with Dylan and Jacob and it was great. We just went thorugh chord progressions and improvised what we wanted. It was probbably the best learning tool I've had for guitar. Having other instruments going off of each other was amazing and even though it was simple and repetitive, it was soo much fun. Which is why, although I would if I had to, I will not drum again (again, outside of hbs.). I just love playing guitar too damn much. And if I want to get better at it, I need to play it, expessially in a band setting. I dunno how it will work out, but CDubs and I have a plan for me on guitar, him on bass banjo(thats right a banjo through a lower octave pedal) and Jamies friend as a possible drummer, and someone else on vocals. It would be my dream come true. Well, actually it's not my wildest dream, but it is up there with...well, I won't say. Anyways, this has been a productive blog post. So, again, thanks for listening. Sorry for the typos, I'm not in the mood to fix them yet.
Anyways, this blog will be about something, I just haven't decided yet, so hang on. It will be about something that makes me happy: aha! I listened to the belles of skin city today. Both albums. It was great. Their drummer is probbably the reason I drum for hello blacksmith. He's amazing. Give them a listen to if you have them, and if you don't, let me know and I'll hook you up. but yeah, I also decided that I won't be a drummer for another band outside hbs. Because I just really don't fit there. I love guitar too much and miss playing guitar. Over last summer I jammed with Dylan and Jacob and it was great. We just went thorugh chord progressions and improvised what we wanted. It was probbably the best learning tool I've had for guitar. Having other instruments going off of each other was amazing and even though it was simple and repetitive, it was soo much fun. Which is why, although I would if I had to, I will not drum again (again, outside of hbs.). I just love playing guitar too damn much. And if I want to get better at it, I need to play it, expessially in a band setting. I dunno how it will work out, but CDubs and I have a plan for me on guitar, him on bass banjo(thats right a banjo through a lower octave pedal) and Jamies friend as a possible drummer, and someone else on vocals. It would be my dream come true. Well, actually it's not my wildest dream, but it is up there with...well, I won't say. Anyways, this has been a productive blog post. So, again, thanks for listening. Sorry for the typos, I'm not in the mood to fix them yet.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Some kind of....
i don't know why, but this is one of my favorite phrases of all time. "Some kind of" something. It's something I hear a lot and am always happy when it happens. I think I heard it from one of strong bad's emails a while ago. He was explaining something and said it was some kind of robot. Then I heard it more and more and I dunno why but I like it.
just to let you know.
just to let you know.
It's been a while
But I've been stressed out and writing blogs has been put off. I dunno why, well I do, but I wish I didn't. Things right now are not things I always want to blog about. How could I put into text what I can barely get through my head. It's hard. But some things that are making me this way: I am doing very poorly in my english class. I need to write an overdue paper, read books, and have an topic for my next paper. I should review music on a more regular basis, and not so sporadically as I do, it would ease the load. I should sleep, eat, and relax more. The actual thing is, I relax all the time. I sit around and do nothing most all day, it's sad. It's like summer reincarnate. I play guitar hero and mario cart, I watch TV and movies, I don't even play guitar which is supposed to be my fun relaxing hobby. My room is on average 50 degrees, which is horrible. I spend a lot of time at the on campus apartments at my freinds mary, meghan, and nicole's place. It's warm there.
I have a lot of goals. Too many you could say. And I can't find the motivation to do them. I hate it, because I make more goals to complete my other goals and it gets pretty ridiculous. Life is almost too simple. I thought about taking 20 credits next semester and volunteering at the co-op for a few hours a week to actually feel what it's like to be busy and make the most of my time. I wish I could say I knew what that felt like. I've been there, but I don't know if I'm headed in that direction.
I have a lot of goals. Too many you could say. And I can't find the motivation to do them. I hate it, because I make more goals to complete my other goals and it gets pretty ridiculous. Life is almost too simple. I thought about taking 20 credits next semester and volunteering at the co-op for a few hours a week to actually feel what it's like to be busy and make the most of my time. I wish I could say I knew what that felt like. I've been there, but I don't know if I'm headed in that direction.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Vincent the cat
So my roommate Ryan got a cat, we'll our house got a cat, but anyways, it has just been deemed responsible enough to roam the whole house and so it came into my room and was walking on my computer when it found my laptop's heat sink fan vent. So, in all it's cuteness it sat down and curled up to my computer and took a nap. It was awesome except for it kept typing ` or 1 repeatedly.
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