Clete’s Blog

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Courtesy of XKCD.

Sometimes, I just feel like this.

Engadget, one of my favorite websites, has the entire scoop on the recently announced 3G iPhone. This snazzy new phone will be available on July 11th for the low prices of $199 and $299 for the 8GB and 16GB models, respectively. Sadly, the only way that anyone is going to get their hands on them is by being sucked into a 2-year contract.

The 3G iPhone will include GPS support that is aided by cell phone towers for faster tracking of your location. It also includes support for third-party applications. I would absolutely love to get my hands on one of these. Get the entire scoop on the 3G iPhone here.

Donations are accepted.

As you can see, I have finally upgraded to the latest version of WordPress. I am still using the default style that came with it, as I haven’t yet had the time to mess with it. I like it better so far, since it automatically saves drafts for me while I’m typing. It also has a ‘tag’ system, which I will try to utilize (try being the key word here; I don’t even remember to use categories most of the time!).

I’m still investigating the hack. Here is a picture of what the website looked like, if you were completely confused:

As always, help with the situation is appreciated.

I apologize for the downtime. It appears that someone has somehow hacked into one of the various interfaces and has messed up my website. I have temporarily restored it and I will be looking into finding out what the vulnerability was/is. If anyone has any information or tips, please e-mail me.

If anyone has any clue what “ab0 haj4r ta3m” means, please let me know. This is the message that clete2.com had on it. The rest seemed to be arabic.

Firefox 3.0 RC1 has now been released, with some fixes and changes from Beta 5. I have not looked at the changelog yet, so I do not know what has changed. I notice a few (minor) graphical differences.

I also want to report that the Acid 3 test still ends on 71/100, as it did in Beta 5. (See my previous review of Beta 4 and Beta 5) Since the trees are locked down, we can expect that Firefox 3 RTM will not correctly display the Acid 3 test.

A few days ago, I spoke with John Phillips (he is a computer science professor and adviser here at Mansfield) and I found out that I had made three class-selection errors in my Fall 2008 schedule. Luckily, he was able to set me on the right track. My new schedule is linked below. Instead of Accounting II (sorry to Dave and Vinnie), Data Structures (sorry to Dan McKee), and Honors Research (sorry Sara, Andrew, and others), I will be taking Computer Organization, Finite Math, and Principles of Microeconomics.

Revised Fall 2008 Schedule (PDF).

Google’s SketchUp is an incredibly easy-to-use architectural and 3D-modeling tool. The Computer Science Club here at Mansfield has been talking about modeling the university for a 3D perspective in Google Earth, similar to what Google Earth provides for New York City and other metropolitan areas. Recently, I have been experimenting with SketchUp. A free version is available from the website and a professional version can be purchased for about $500. People enrolled in Universities can obtain the professional licenses for $50 a year. The $50 counts towards purchasing a full license, so after 10 years, it’s yours forever. Or, you can pay for the educational license for 3 years and pay the rest of the money up front.

At a first glance, SketchUp seems to be too simple to be worth anything. Upon further investigation, the simplicity seems to come from Google’s innovational perspective. Google has outdone themselves with SketchUp. It is amazingly easy to pick up and create simple objects. More complicated objects can be created with some practice. I have spent about an hour and a half working with the program. First, I watched the beginning tutorials. Then, I went straight into making objects and refining them. It’s amazingly simple. Just make a shape, pull it up to give it depth, draw other objects on it, and manipulate them. It’s amazingly simple.

In about twenty minutes, I was able to make the desk that I use here at school. Keep in mind that it isn’t 100% perfect, nor is it 100% to scale. I have never seen a program this simple. With an hour and a half of experience, I was easily able to make this (click to enlarge):

Here is the front of it:

From an angle:

From the side (notice the arches in the drawers):

And here it is next to a person:

The USA’s 2008 election is the first governmental election of any kind that I will have an opportunity to vote in. This is a very important election for everyone. We face major decisions about the war in Iraq and on many major issues. A lot is at stake in this year’s general election. I have followed this election more than any other. I have been involved in a lot of conversations with people who come from very different cultures and backgrounds. Many of these people support my viewpoints, many of them disagree, and many of them could not care less about politics.

I have been appalled at how little it takes for a certain candidate to obtain an undecided and unopinionated person’s vote. Those of us who are strong conservatives or liberals will not be swayed to vote the opposite way for anything in the world (although this is debatable). However, undecided people are swayed way too easily. I have heard at least ten people tell me that they will vote for Obama because he is “young” and relates to “the younger generation” more than any of the “old” people such as Clinton and McCain. I have had one person tell me that, although they are a liberal, they would not vote for McCain if they were conservative because he is “old” and that he will probably “die in office.”

People disregard the candidate’s actual views and opinions and focus in on the unimportant things. They decide to vote for candidates because they “seem like nice people.” I am not sure if it is the college students’ way or if the entire population is this way, but it’s atrocious. If I wanted to, I could run for President, take all of the “correct” views on all of the issues; that is, the ones that would get me elected. I could completely disagree with all of these views, but I could stand up there, smile, act friendly, cry when I hear a sad story, etc. I could be a complete phony and get some of these idiots to follow me just because I am a down-to-earth and likable character.

What has our country come to? Elect someone because they are honest and they agree with your issues. Elect them because they will lead our country in the right (or should I say correct?) direction. But do NOT elect them because they are nice people and they seem friendly. This is ridiculous. Does anyone want someone in office who is nice but leads our country to demise? I don’t think so.

Amendment: It seems that my post has sparked a large debate over at the Gentoo Forums. Check it out here. It looks like most people agree with my basic argument that people are ignorant. However, many people seem to have some insane (read: extreme socialistic / communistic) ideas on the Gentoo Forums.

Trevor Immelman is the 2008 Masters Champion! He shot 8 under par. Trevor is 3 shots away from Tiger Woods, who placed second. Congratulations to Trevor!

Next year, I will be at the Masters. I really missed it this year. This year was the first year of my life that I was unable to be at the tournament.

The Masters

I just got back from New York City Saturday night. We had a good time and we saw a lot of buildings. We saw Times Square, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center sites, Central Park, and a lot of other places. I was even able to see the Hilton that I stayed in the first time I went to New York City and the concrete park that a bunch of us, who were on the trip, hung out at!

I have uploaded a bunch of pictures to my photography website. Check them out here (New York City April 2008)!

Here is my favorite picture from the set: