Happy Halloween!

Whew, what a long weekend. Friday night, I went to a Halloween party. The highlight of that one was watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show- "Only once you have watched the horrific absurdity of such an act can you truly be sure of your masculinity." Went to another 'party' Saturday night, but it was neither a party nor was it for Halloween- it was a weekly gathering of a small group of people to play Halo over a bunch of XBOXes. Needless to say, I got pwned, considering that I don't even own the game. Finally, tonight, I ended up greeting trick-or-treaters in a less-than-terrifying jester costume- it was fun regardless.

I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween/Samhain.

Gmail Accounts

Now that I've given them out to personal friends that actually want them, here's the place for me to advertise them- does anybody want a gmail invite? As long as you don't already have one, and promise to actually use one, I'll be glad to send some out. I have three as of the writing of this message. Post comments on this blog to request invites.

Yes, regionals!

So, the word is in- we're going to Dallas, to participate in the regionals. Although we got second place, we're planning on defeating the New Mexico first place team, Mesilla Valley Christian, in this 'rematch'- if nothing else. November 12th and 13th.

Nigerian Email Anti-Scams

We've all heard the stories- innocent computer newbie receives an email from a "Nigerian Prince", and unwittingly gets pulled into a scam that often spirals into chaotic loss of money, pride, and possibly sanity. As much as I'd like to laugh at the people that actually fall for those scams, there's a much better thing to laugh at.

Now, these scammers are, more often than not, not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed. If they had a brain, they'd be doing much more productive things with their time. Thus, a passtime of a group of folks on this forum is to 'bait' the nigerian scammers. Once the scammer thinks they've hooked a gullible customer, the baiter proceeds to waste the scammer's time, money, patience, and sanity- you'll have to see it for yourself.

Recently featured in a slashdot article, check out 419eater.com. It's pretty awesome.

BEST Regionals. Or not.

So, here's the facts:
My robotics team can go to the BEST regionals in Dallas, Texas, which will be on November 12-13. But here's the problem- travel will cost us a massive amount of money. It's looking like several thousand dollars, and that's just for a few team members. Also, the best of the best are going to be there- not just us measly public schools, but private schools, and dreaded home-school robots. Some of our teammates argue that we might just be in for a dissapointment, and the money can definitely be put to better use- after all, we accomplished our goal of doing exceedingly well in state.

Besides that, there's a few choices for what we'll do later this year. Any of these choices cost obscene amounts of money that we just barely have:

FIRST National robotics competition- The national competition that inspired BEST, with a lot less limits (make our robot basically however we want). But it costs over $10,000 to enter, and materials for building the robot aren't exactly cheap either.

Personal Robot- One of our mentors suggested that instead of competing, we set our own goal to create a robot to autonomously, for example, drive around a residential block. Sounds like lots of fun, and doesn't cost much money- we have lots of parts from previous FIRST competitions, I've been told. That's hopefully what we'll end up doing.

Any thoughts on that, folks?

Ralph Nader - BE PREPARED.

Be Prepared! -Albino Black Sheep
Heh, a friend showed this to me- pretty funny. You'd be surprised at how little known Ralph Nader is - My mom, who watches the presidential race like a hawk, sees this animation, and proceeds to say to me: "Well, I've heard of Ralph Nader".

"The Wired CD"

So, the November issue of Wired Magazine came into my snail-mailbox yesterday. As usual, I got right to reading it- and much to my delight, it contained a CD titled "The Wired CD". Totally free- why? Because the musicians that contributed to it use an excellent license; the same one that I use for my software. The creative commons license allows for you to share, burn, copy, and even incorporate the music into your own work- pretty sweet.

So, now for the CD itself. It's got sixteen tracks, and beleive it or not, some of them are pretty good. I particularly like the one by David Byrne. Unfortunately, it also has the scourge of music as we know it- that's right. Rap. That's alright, though- I recommend you check out the CD, considering that it's totally free. Nothing to lose!

The Wired CD
:01 Beastie Boys/ Now Get Busy
:02 David Byrne/ My Fair Lady
:03 Zap Mama/ Wadidyusay?
:04 My Morning Jacket/ One Big Holiday
:05 Spoon/ Revenge!
:06 Gilberto Gil/ Oslodum
:07 Dan the Automator/ Relaxation Spa Treatment
:08 Thievery Corporation/ DC 3000
:09 Le Tigre/ Fake French
:10 Paul Westerberg/ Looking Up in Heaven
:11 Chuck D with Fine Arts Militia/ No Meaning No
:12 The Rapture/ Sister Saviour (Blackstrobe Remix)
:13 Cornelius/ Wataridori 2
:14 Danger Mouse & Jemini/ What U Sittin' On? (starring Cee Lo and Tha Alkaholiks)
:15 DJ Dolores/ Oslodum 2004
:16 Matmos/ Action at a Distance


Note: This is my first CD review- I'll likely be using this blog to review CDs, movies, books, games, or whatever the hell I want. Please, comment, tell me what you think of my style, eh?

101 Apocalypses

Not actually that many, but this spectacular webpage, Exit Mundi, details various ways the world could end. What's more, nearly all of them are scientifically feasible, and some of them are hypothesized to come so soon, it's outright scary. Abandon all hope!

BEST 2004 - We rock.

Now that I've got this blog going, I suppose I should detail the most significant thing that's happened to me recently: Yesterday, the 23rd, was the New Mexico BEST Robotics competition. We won 2nd place overall, 2nd place gameplay, Most Elegant, Most Photogenic, Most Robust Bot, Founder's Award (for clever use of engineering), Best Notebook (For organized and well written journals), and the consolation prize that all the LOSERS got as well. As much as I'd like to claim to be the Most Valuable Pilot, we could not have won without the help of the entire team. W00t!

Grow a Brain!

This is just righteous... You'll have to read it yourself. "Is that a pilot in your pocket?"

New Blog(?)

Well, here it is. I've created a blog... though, it's debatable as to whether or not I'll ever end up using it. Ah, well, I'll see how things go. For now, I may as well plug my website: www.dolphinsafe.tk