Clete’s Blog

Ten minutes ago, I received a broadcast email relating to the newly-inacted Pennsylvania state indoor smoking ban. Here is the e-mail:

PASSHE stands for “Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education” and it is the government institution for 14 universities in Pennsylvania. Let me start out by explaining the situation.

The law that Governor Ed Rendell (D) signed into place bans smoking in many public places and all private indoor commercial/industrial places (with exceptions such as bars that sell under a certain amount of food).

Although I will never be a smoker, I believe that this law impeeds on our rights. Why should the government tell a business owner that he cannot allow smoking inside of his building? What right does the government have to control his business? People can look out for themselves; they don’t need the government holding their hands. People, like me, will avoid places that have excessive smoking indoors. I watch out for my health and so do others. I eat my meals in the non-smoking section; I bowl on the days when the owner has prohibited smoking. I hold my breath when I walk by smokers outdoors. People watch out for their health. We don’t need more government and we certainly don’t need the government telling businesses how to run.

However, I do believe that cities (like New York City and Philadelphia) should be able to decide on outdoor bans, since there is such a dense population in a small area. Nobody should be allowed to intrude on our rights when we are indoors on non-government property.

As for outdoor smoking on campuses, I believe that the campus should be allowed to choose. PASSHE should not mandate smoke-free campuses. Campuses should decide on their own (Should we have designated areas? Should we ban it? Should we allow it everywhere?). Government always messes things up and we certainly don’t need Edward Rendell (D) or anyone else intruding on our rights.

Two weeks ago, my wireless mouse (a Targus with a USB dongle, which was a wonderful mouse) began to go awry. I suppose that I accidentally stepped on the dongle, because there seemed to be a short in it. Whenever the dongle would move, it would disconnect and then reconnect. I then decided to shop around for a bluetooth mouse (read: no cords — at all).

The best one on the market appeared to be the Logitech V470 (product page). It was small-looking, lightweight, and it had good reviews by around 95% of the people who reviewed it. I saw a lot of complaints about it shutting off after being inactive for a few seconds, but I wasn’t concerned about it. I decided to buy it and I found it on eBay for $33 or so. It generally costs $49 in retail stores.

Specifications:

This mouse is a laser mouse that has two buttons (that are integrated with only a central seam) and a scroll wheel with side-scrolling capabilities. The V470 takes two AA batteries, but it is still lighter than most battery-powered mice that are on the market. It also includes a small LED light that glows red when the AA batteries need to be replaced.

Performance:

The V470 glides smoothly over almost any surface, due to the fact that it is a laser mouse. The laser is invisible to the human eye, so there is no annoying red light shining all of the time. The mouse does have a slightly noticible lag when it is being used over a counter-top surface. Even when it is on a mousepad, there is still a very slight lag that is enough to render the mouse useless for first person shooter games. Other than these limitations, it is an exceptional mouse when it comes to portability and ease-of-use.

Other Notes:

The Logitech V470 is incredibly easy to install. All I had to do was set my computer to search for a bluetooth device and press the “connect” button on the bottom of the mouse. Once I paired the devices, the mouse was picked up perfectly and was fully functional. After the device is paired with the PC for the first time, it will automatically connect to the PC every time it is turned on.

Summary:

The Logitech V470 is a great buy for the money. It is ultra-portable, light-weight, and it works on almost any surface. If you are looking for an affordable bluetooth mouse, I would highly recommend the Logitech V470.

For those of you who have not heard from me much (or at all) in the past few weeks, I apologize. I have been fairly busy, with days packed from 8AM to 9PM or so. I have, for the most part, enjoyed RA training (or at least camp), but I am really looking forward to getting move-in day behind me. I am very much looking forward to starting classes. My floor curently has five or six people living on it and I have met three of them so far. My roster indicates that I should have thirty-eight people on my floor by the time this coming weekend is over.

I found out last week that my floor (5A in Laurel) is the international floor, so I have been trying to theme my floor towards that. The hall-wide theme is a beach theme and I will try to fit that theme some, but I wanted to predominately theme my floor as a sort of “world travel” floor. For my first bulliten board, I have printed out a world map, a Pennsylvania map, and a New York map. I will be making slips of paper with the residents’ names on them for the residents to tack onto their hometown or country. It should be pretty interesting to see where people come from. I have already met a resident from Ireland.

I have been out of touch with the world recently; I have no clue what is happening in the world at the moment. I haven’t watched any news and I haven’t been reading up on my favorite geek blogs. Hopefully, once the semester starts, I will have time to relax, play some games, and catch up on the events in the world.

Until next time,

Clete R. Blackwell II

It was brought to my attention earlier today that American Airlines, NorthWest Airlines, United, and US Airways have all begun charging for any and all checked luggage. This means that, the next time that I fly, if I want to take anything more than a change of clothes or two, I will have to pay a $10-$15 fee just to have my luggage shipped. I knew this day would come, but it’s still disheartening. Prices for tickets are already rising sharply and all of the airlines are still losing billions of dollars a year. It won’t take long until every airline begins to charge $10, $15, or $30 per checked bag.

More details about the changes can be found at this page on Expedia’s website.

Courtesy of XKCD.

Sometimes, I just feel like this.

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