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I am such a Nerd!

Today at work, I made a bar code that when scanned, logs me into my computer.

Also, after work, we bade farewell to Mark “The Prophet” Holton. Microvision will miss you.

My Schedule, So Far

   Monday       Tuesday    Wednesday   Thursday       Friday    
 8:30    CSE 143 AA
EE1 031
  CSE 143 AA
EE1 031
 
 9:00       
 9:30           
 10:00           
 10:30           
 11:00           
 11:30  MATH 324 C
CHL 015
  MATH 324 C
CHL 015
  MATH 324 C
CHL 015
 12:00     
 12:30           
 1:00           
 1:30  CHEM E 260 A
MEB 235
CHEM E 260 A
BNS 115
CHEM E 260 A
MEB 235
  CHEM E 260 A
MEB 235
 2:00   
 2:30  CSE 143 A
KNE 120
CSE 143 A
KNE 120
  CSE 143 A
KNE 120
 3:00   
 3:30           
 4:00           

If all goes well, this will change to include Biology 200…
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In The Wake of Katrina, Part IV

I’ve talked about Factcheck.org before, and thanks to the new “Blasts from the past” section on the left, I went and checked it out again today. There I found this detailed event-by-event log of the unfolding of the disaster in New Orleans.

What I get from reading it is the gross incompetence of government in general: State Officials blocking Red Cross, Federal Officials “just finding out” about the 40,000 people in the convention center, Local Officials ordering the evacuation well after it would have been effective and the failure to follow disaster plans at all levels – if that would have even helped.

Take from it what you will, but here is what I take from it: Government generally does not work very well. I an no anarchist, but I believe as Thomas Paine said, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” In the Wake of Katrina, we see again and again government at its intolerable best, wallowing gloriously in its own incompetence.

Those that rely on government to protect them will never be safe.
Those that trust government to save them will be left alone in their time of need.
Those that believe that government is the answer will only end up with more questions.

Gallery2: Great Featureset, Poor Execution

This weekend, I took a real stab at Gallery2. It has an immense yet well-managed feature set, it is spectacularly modular, and it is highly configurable. Unfortunately, underneath its glossy exterior, it is depressingly slow, and, if I dare demean a feat that I in no way consider myself capable of accomplishing, the software is very poorly done under the hood.
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Not All Cops Are Jerks

Glorious News From the Front: Not All Cops Are Jerks!

While driving to Portland in a rented vehicle that I wasn’t even supposed to be driving, I got pulled over for doing 80 in a 70 that had moments ago been a 75. Amazingly, the cop who pulled me over checked my records quickly, told me he wasn’t giving me a ticket, advised me to use cruise control, and sent me on my way. He never once threatened to arrest me, he didn’t call me names, and he never went into psycho-cop-power-trip mode. It was actually a pleasant experience, except for the initial realization that he was coming after me.

The corallary to all of this is I am now in Portland, on my second ever business trip.

A New IE Bug?

While overhauling a one-page-wonder website for my mom’s business tonight, I came across what may be a new IE bug. At least cursory glances at Position is Everything‘s list of IE bugs, and a couple of Google searches didn’t turn up anything descriptions of what I saw.

If you happen to have IE6 installed, start it up (I assume my readership is smart enough to not be running IE normally) and head on over to the page in question. The problem is disappearing borders. To replicate it, simply scroll to the bottom of the page, then back up. At the place where the top of the browser pane was, down for maybe a hundred pixels (the size of one scroll increment?), the border on the left and right side of the content pane are missing. This seems to result from the fact that the bulleted lists there are floated divs, as the problem doesn’t appear around any of the other parts of the page.

Firefox, of course, works marvelously.

Can anyone else confirm the bug? How about in different versions of IE? Has anyone seen this before? Is this reported somewhere on the web that I didn’t find? Or did I truly find something new? After all, with the amount of scrutiny the #1 browser is under, I would be mightily surprised if this hasn’t been seen before.

Finally Signed Up Part I

This morning, I was able to sign up for the first class that I actually intend to take at the University of Washington. The magic was made possible first by the wonderful Mary of the UW Chemistry Department, who cut gloriously through red tape to quickly get my Chem 111H and 112 at BYU transfered to the UW’s 142-152-162 series. The next piece of the puzzle clicked into place at 9:15am today, when the Math department officially gave me credit for UW’s Math 126, based on my experiences in BYU’s 112H and 113H along with BCC’s Math 227. Between Chem 152 and Math 126, and with a previous fix on Physics 121 (which really should’ve been right in the first place), I was finally able to enroll in Chemical Engineering – Thermodynamics (CHEM E 260). I updated my facebook entry accordingly and took a gander at a few others that are taking the course. It looks to be about evenly balanced between BioE and ChemE with a few oddball CSE and others thrown in the mix.