So I've started studying for GRE's, and the GRE's have an essay portion of the test. I'll write my practice essays on this blog, away from my regular blog so people aren't bothered by them, but here anyway for people to read them if they want.

Directions: In 45 minutes, choose one of hte two following topics and compose an essay on the topic. You may not write on any other topic. Write your essay on separate sheets of paper.

Each topic is presented in a one-to two-sentence quotation commenting on an issue of general concern. Your essay may support, refute, or qualify the views expressed in the quotation. Whatever you write, however, must be relevant to the issue under discussion, and you must support your viewpoint with reasons and examples derived from your studies and/or experience.

Faculty members from various institutions will evaluate your essay, juding it on hte basis of your skill in the following areas.
Analysis of the quotation's implications
Organization and articulation of your ideas.
Use of relevant examples and arguments to support your case.
Handling of the mechanics of stard written English.

Topic 1:
"We venerate loyalty--to our schools, employers, institutions, friends--as a virtue. Loyalty, however can be at least as detrimental an influence as it can be a beneficial one."

Outline:
Intro:

I don't want this blog to be deleted, so I'm making a post just to keep it active.

Well... it's time to move on. Blogspot has been great, but I'm still looking for something to replace The Lyceum, my dearly departed BBS. Thus, I've moved to www.livejournal.com/~sahn in hopes to develop a more interactive relationship with my (few) readers. As future updates will be placed on that site, please update your bookmarks accordingly.

Yep, I went to the LA Auto Show on Saturday. I sat in the Z4. It was nice. I sat in the 350Z. It was nice. I sat in the WRX. It was nice. I sat in the RX-8. It fit like a glove. It was absolutely friggin gorgeous from the driver's seat, as if some Mazda engineer dove into my deepest, darkest automotive fantasy and created the car I've always dreamed about. Granted, that says nothing about what it feels like to drive the car, but standing still, the car just felt right.

Definition:
Jukebox (JUK*boks) noun - A box that spins, dives, jumps, and runs in attempt to avoid capture when a person tries to grab it. A box that cannot be grabbed.

It looks like my DirecTV, my DSL ISP is going to stop providing DSL. So what do I do? Do I look into getting cable internet (I still don't know if it's available in my area), or do I go with Verizon DSL? It also looks like the DirecTV DSL Gateway is mine to keep. I wonder if it's good for anything more than a paperweight after DirecTV stops providing DSL. I don't suppose it's configurable to be used with any other ISP. But I guess it doesn't really matter because most broadband providers provide the necessary hardware anyway.

The Bar-Monkey

(stolen from slashdot) "The Bar-Monkey is a bar built around a 486 running linux that can dispense an 8 ounce mixed drink in under 10 seconds. It uses a Matrix Orbital Serial LCD panel with a keypad built into the bar surface for user input. Three Harvey Mudd College students built the bar in their spare time last semester. The bar holds 16 ingredients with which it can currently mix 188 drinks stored in its drink database. Total project cost: $235."

Oh those crazy Mudders. If only I were an engineering student, then maybe I could be cool, too.

Speaking of building funky stuff... anyone want to work on that Live Journal clone with me?

Well... it's been almost three weeks since I ordered that MP3 player I mentioned and it's still out of stock. So I cancelled that order and ordered a nice one from a different online store that's in stock. I got the Archos Jukebox FM Recorder 20 from www.shopharmony.com for $239 with no tax and free ground shipping. Why did I get this particular mp3 player? 20 GB. USB 2.0. Works as an external hard drive. Record MP3s in real time from any audio source. And here's the kicker, an FM tuner. Yup, I can store more music on this thing than I can listen to in a lifetime, AND listen to the radio. (You can also record MP3s directly from the radio 30 seconds after the song starts!) The USB 2.0 and FM tuner make this thing unique compared to other hard drive based MP3 players on the market. And it's comparatively cheap. I changed my mind on the MP3 player because the one I previously ordered (Rio S50) had 128 MB of memory which would hold about 2 hours or so of music. That wouldn't even get me through half a day of work. The ground shipping should take 7-10 days, so I should be rocking in about a week or so.

Now all I need is a USB 2.0 PCI card and cable.

This year will be better than the last. I declare it!

CYear ThisYear(++LastYear);

I bet you can't believe I just wrote that. I bet you have no clue what I just wrote.

Anyhow, I plan on going to the LA Auto Show this Saturday morning. Anyone want to come with me? Just let me know.

If Bruce Lee were a computer programmer, he'd probably say something like, "To be a good programmer, you must be the program."

Speaking of scary dreams ....

About a month or two ago, I had the same dream like 2 or 3 times. You'd never guess what it was. I dreamt that I was a computer program. Now I know what you're thinking. "How the heck do you dream that you're a computer program?" Trust me, it's not easy. My body didn't exist in my dream. All that was there were lines of code. Lots and lots of lines of code. But being the computer program, I only saw the few lines that were right in front of me, the lines that I was currently executing. I'd see the code. Grab some value from some memory location, dereference some pointers, do some operations, allocate and deallocate memory, store values in variables, throw exceptions, and move on to the next line of code. And then I'd wake up still seeing the code in front of me, but I'd be entirely confused by the fact that I had a physical body instead of registers and memory. I'd look at my arm and wonder why it wasn't numbers in hexidecimal. Yes, it was very freakish indeed. It was the worst nightmare I've had in a long while. At least I don't have dreams about bashing the heads of people I knew in college.

Yes, it was VERY freakish indeed.

Today's a very gorgeous day for the middle of winter. It just seems wrong to have this kind of weather in January, but it's one of the reasons I love Southern California.