So I called Amber yesterday after not talking for a week. I felt really bad. She had really missed me. I realized what it is: I really appreciate our friendship, much more than anything else. I mean, I can't tell her about Kali, about how I enjoy her so much. So, I don't know how to break it to her, or even if I should. I mean, how about just let it all slide until she gets back to see where Kali and I are? I'm really not sure where Kali and I are going, and everytime I ask "where are we going?" she says "back to your bed" and I'm suppresed for a while :) It's probalby just a summer fling, and one of those "don't screw up the rest of your life for it" kind of deals. Which I can't decide if I'm willing to do that or what. I talked to Kali tonight -- her boyfriend had just left so she was just getting into the shower. I wonder how he feels only getting seconds from his own girlfriend...

Ok. So I got 802.1x to work on my Toshiba. And because I figured it out, I went home early, cooked up a great dinner and had Kali over. *sigh* Becuase I'm 2 months shy of being 21, I had to get a friend go get some wine for me...absolutely ridiculous if you ask me, but that's a different topic. I got a nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, quite a good pairing with rosemary chicken on a bed of risotto I might add. I was surprised that it held up so well to the rosemary -- which usually likes to steal the show. So, here's the details for what had to happen for the Toshiba in case anyone is waiting in anticipation:

Basically you have 2 parts of a wireless client: the driver for the card and then the authentication client. Toshiba, since it has the card built-in, thought it'd be nice to put those together in an easy to set up format. They were so close... When I tried to authenticate and all, it failed consistently, and after checking the server logs, I found it was saying that it didn't recognize my EAP type. The system uses PEAP with MSCHAP V2 and unfortunately, Toshiba didn't think of the tunnelling protocol and just left it out. So MSCHAP wasn't occuring. I ended up having to install the Pocket PC 2002 client from Meetinghouse for the authentication side, unchecked 802.1x support in the Toshiba client, kept the WEP on, and then set it all up. It works beautifully. However, that means I have to purchase the client (students must pay out of pocket) for 40 bucks. Not what I was wanting to do -- but wifi is important to me.

So now the only thing left for me to do next week is write the documentation for Pocket PCs and Linux -- as I'm the only one who knows anything about the two. Mandrake 9.1 was surprisingly easy, but I'm sure I'll get some guy running RedHat 7 wanting to connect with AirBear or something stupid. *sigh* sometimes Linux people can get annoying.

But I had a great evening with Kali. I was exhausted from work, but it was nice. Yesterday afternoon we went to the Pontiac dealership becuase someone smashed in her window and stole her radio. So while we were there I test drove the new Grand Prix. It's a pretty good car. I liked the handling, however the cabin was a little noisy. I said that to the guy, but he said "but isn't it a beautiful sound?" I suppose he's right, but it's nothing like a BMW. I'd hit it though. Speaking of hitting...

I haven't talked to Amber since last saturday. It's been exactly one week. I can't say that I've really missed her -- Kali has been wonderful. It makes me wonder if that's the way it is: You keep trading up until you find the one who you want to spend the rest of your life with. I mean, I've been satisfied in the moment with several people, but I've never felt like "I've finally found the one." Or maybe I"m just at that stage in my life where it's too exciting to settle down. We'll see.

Ok. I work at Baylor University, in the Resnet department, and I'm an Advanced Tech. So, this week we're rolling out 802.1x authentication along with WEP -- a most exciting proposition. Well, we got it to work fine with an XP box, a Win2k box, a linux box, a MacOS 10.2 box, and an iPaq. However, I have a Toshiba e740. It's beautiful, I love the built-in wifi, but, for the love of Bob I can't get it to authenticate. It has a built-in client that almost works, and then I tried a third-party client -- but it has to get the WEP encryption off of the Toshiba client, so it doesn't work. So, I went between the server and my handheld, trying to find out what the crap is going on, and I still can't figure it out. I fear I'll be working on this all day tomorrow. It just won't recognize me as a valid user, and when I chnage the user name, it sticks with the old username, so it still doesn't work. *sigh* I've tried a soft reset, that doesnt' help, and tomorrow I'll be doing some hard resets to try and get it to go.

It's like a slow child, with a little prodding you're convinced that they'll be able to interact just fine, but you keep trying and it keeps not catching up. But I won't give up, my wifi is too important to me :) The worst part is: I'm the handheld guru, so this should all make sense and I should be able to figure it out, but only time will tell...Hopefully tomorrow there will be a nice journal entry that says "I did it!" Actually, I hope there isn't a journal entry tomorrow, as I should be spending it with Kali in the evening. And well into the morning...*sigh*

Ok. This is something that bugs me, and I hope someone explains this to me. Why oh why do people blab on their cellphone when they're with someone else? Take, for instance, this evening. I was with Kali, we went to grab some ice cream, rent a video, snuggle, all the good things in life, and on the way to the ice cream shoppe and most of the time there (I'm talking about 30 minutes) she was on the cellphone with a friend (a girl). Ok, so after she gets off her phone, I tell her that that kind of bothered me that she would disregard me and instead focus on someone else, even though she was hanging out with me. She was actually confused as to what I meant, she couldn't see anything wrong with what she had done. Now, this is not the first time, nor I'm sure it's not the last, but it irks me nonetheless.

It seems to me, and this is how I was raised in terms of cellphone etiquette, that one should regard a cellphone conversation as a full conversation. If someone calls while you're in the middle of another conversation and it's not important, a simple,"I'm in the middle of something, can I call you back?" will suffice. That's how I was raised. I mean, it makes sense, doesnt it?

For those of you who are diabetic, I'm 504 right now, somewhere between "way too fuckin high" and "start pumping the insulin." I'll stop blabbing now then...

Well, it's officially summer. How do we know? I'm working on my first fling. My girlfriend is at home (about 1000 miles away) and I just met this incredible girl named Kali.

We met through a mutual friend, well, I guess I could call her a friend -- she's more of the neighborhood gossip, handy sometimes but destructive others. Which scares me about this whole thing, but screw it, it's the summer. We went to a new Bar/Grill called Slo Pokes. The service is just that -- slow, but the food's pretty good and in good company, so is the atmosphere. We had a great evening, finished it off watching "Finding Nemo" I dunno, I was enjoying cuddling with her.

Well, nevermind the play-by-play, but nevertheless, we had a good night. And this brings me to my predicament. Should I tell Amber? She doesn't really need to know, and it could only hurt. However, we've prided our relationship in brutal honesty. And here's the other thing that get's to me, how come I always get the almost-gorgeous-but-cute-enough-you-feel-bad-dumping-for-looks kind of girl? And then a truly gorgeous girl like Kali steps in my life...

Yet I'm convinced that this fling with Kali will be only that. She has her boyfriend, however she's starting to hate him (no future in a mechanic) and she started to think about the future. And then I fscked her. And she commented several times yesterday that her boyfriend isn't as generous and respectful as I, which is something I learned a long time ago: girls love to be respected and treated like a princess. Once you've gained hold of that premise, a whole new world opens up.

Well, I'm off to bed, I didn't get much sleep last night. And thank God Amber isn't a nerdette, much less heard of slashdot.

I think I know why the OSS community hates Microsoft. It's because of this: Microsoft treats software as a product, while the OSS community treats it as a service. Let me explain...

In economics, you can sell one of two things: a product or a service. Or, if you're being really terminalogically correct, goods or services. Now, a good is defined as something concrete that you own -- such as your shoes. A service is defined as a job or task done for you. Usually, in modern times, we reward these goods or services with money. Or sometimes we return the favour with our own good/service.

Of course, we've seen some mutations of the two -- when you lease your car, it's a service of sorts, but it provides you a good for defined period of time -- perhaps long enough to be considered a good. Or when you buy a cellphone, you don't need just that good, but also the service that goes along with it.

Now that we've defined a good and service, let me explain where Microsoft comes in. Microsoft sells it's programs to companies. That's it. They're now starting to move into the consulting business, but historically they have dealt with selling software, and once the company has that software -- good luck. Even worse in regards to individuals who don't even get the sales pitch -- just a big sign in a CompUSA.

Now, contrast that with the Open Source community. They see software as tools to complete a task -- easily built to tailor fit a company's wants and needs. Therefore, there must be workers to work with those tools.

So, it's inevitable to see why the OSS community hates Microsoft -- MS relies on their products (which at this point may be somewhat comparable) which infringe on the OSS's livliehood as programmers. Do you follow? Basically Microsoft is saying that it's products are just as good as you, the programmer. So understandably you're pissed.

Well, now that everyone thinks I put down 1400 dollars to go to TechEd2003, I have you fooled. I went to their academic only session on Sunday. And all I have to say is wow.

Let's get into some theory here. We all know that historically Microsoft has not dealt with security in the OSes, nor with stability, etc. However, I would contend that they were off doing better things for their customers knowing that if you keep customers satisfied and excited about your products, they will stick with you. Especially for non-mission critical situations. Let me explain:

Microsoft is first and foremost a company and so what are their goals? To satisfy shareholders, employees, and customers. These are the only thing Microsoft needs to do -- once they have done this, they have succeeded. Now, lets focus on the customer for a while, since by satisfying the customer that will mean increased revenue, which will in turn mean satisfied shareholders and employees (however happy employees do much more to make customers happy, but I digress...). Back when Microsoft started they saw the potential for computers in the home. So, the goal was to make the user experience the most comfortable so that they would adopt Microsoft products. So we come down to what people want: they want features. That's all it is. Now, when I say people, I don't mean your standard slashdotter who goes anal because some linux kernel runs a certain process wierdly or whatever, I'm talking about people who buy computers and don't know too much about it all -- probably how the typical slashdotter is in regards to buying a car. You don't know much, but you know a Ford Mustang is faster than a Toyota Echo, so you want that to compensate for your feelings of male inadequacy, or whatever. Again, I digress...

When we buy anything, what is the first question we ask? "What are the specs?" As if we understand any of it really... "Ah yes, this Mustang has a 3.1 litre V6 engine producing over 210 horsepower with a new Anti-Lock Braking system that will really tear up the road with power that will scream, 'I am American.'" When in fact it will scream something more like, "This car sucks, but I feel cool driving it because I can rattle off stuff about it." The undeniable fact is that even though you have no idea what a real car is about (Austin Healey, Aston Martin...mmmmm, I'm a sucker for a good British car) nor what good specs are like (A nice McLaren anyone? V12 6.0L 627 hp...0-60 in 3.4 secs) yet you are comforted that you will "tear up the road" in your mustang. This is similar to computer hardware, we see it all the time -- and of course you see the modding as in cars to give your car "the edge" or more often than not, to compensate that your base car is a piece of crap.

Now, this is also taken further to software. Not just the operating system, but Office suites, browsers, etc. By packing in more features and giving people what they think they need, Microsoft was able to get customers excited about their products. Very good strategy. Microsoft has focused on the human interaction side of the OS, to make it more pretty, more intuitive, and people continue to enjoy it. We all think Win98 is a joke now, but do you remember when it came out? Wow, with USB support out of box, a great, simple browser integrated into the system -- and above all, it looked good. You ask a typical person what they liked about Win98 the most: the shading on the top bar -- you could make it fade from one colour to another. Wow. However, now, I am on my dualboot system, Windows XP/Mandrake 9.1. I love Mandrake, however, I have a USB wifi device, and under Windows I simply plugged it in, it detected it, installed the driver and then found a wireless network for me to connect to. Hmm. Under Mandrake I had to get on the internet and...oh wait -- this is the whole point, I couldn't get on the internet! I had to boot in XP, get on the internet, download some driver, reboot in Mandrake, go to the console, run a bunch of code to install the driver, screwed up soem typing, tried it again, it failed, uninstalled what I tried, did it again, realized that there was a difference because my wifi device was rev 1.1 instead of 1.0, had to reboot in XP, get a different driver, reboot back in Mandrake, go back to the console and type all the gibberish in, and it worked. Then I had fun trying to get it all set up. And now, our wifi network is moving to 802.1x for security, and XP has it all built in but I have to get a $25 client if I hope to get it for linux. Do you see what I'm saying? I would never allow my own mother to go through this process.

Now, contrast Microsoft's roots with the roots of Linux: Linux was designed from the ground up to be very secure and stable. Now, at what cost? User's ability to change things, to be able to make things pretty. Or even that prettiness out of the box. Also, ease of use. I mean, what does it take to unzip a file in windows xp? Double-click it, and it opens a window that is now in a temp location. Or, right-click it, select unzip here, and you're done. Now, what does it take in Linux? Open the console, type in some gibberish, and try to find where it was all untarred to. Very unintuitive -- but I'm sure more secure somehow. Do you get what I'm saying? Microsoft focused on what people want, of course they're number one! The same could be said for AOL. Or any other number one.

I'm already waiting for the: but lpret, Microsoft does all these evil things -- manipulating their competitors, stealing things from other people, etc.. You know what I have to say? Welcome to the business world. I know you're nerds, you don't understand it all, but it happens everywhere in business. OK? Any company will do what it has to do to meet their goals. And being number one (eg, taking in a ton of money) means shareholders are happy.

So of course you hate Microsoft -- their goal is not to produce the best software, as the OSS community's is, but instead to make money. This means sacrificing certain things to make sure that your goals are met.

Well, I moved up in the cellphone world! I had this gay 3360 which was cool like 4 years ago. But I only got it 6 months ago. Anyways, it was fine, but I convinced my parents that AT&T would give me a better deal if I got a new phone. They did give me a better deal, but it wasn't because it's a new phone, it's simply because I've been their customer for so long. Anyways, so I got the Nokia 3595. It's a pretty bitchin little phone, I'm a little worried because it looks like while I'm in Waco I won't be able to do some of the cool shit it does. Like mMode, or whatever Nokia calls it. That's all I got it for, and then I can't do it? That's bullshit if you ask me. Anyways, I'm calling AT&T tomorrow to see about this all... I want a better background, and they better let me use my own, because that's gay if it won't. I tell you what, these American companies just want you to do everythign of theirs, no customization. It pisses me off. Anyways, I need to go to bed, I'm tired.

EDIT
Well, I was completely wrong. AT&T are awesome. They let you do whatever you jolly well want to do, as long as you pay by the megabyte. And the mMode stuff? That's all usable in Waco. So needless to say, all my fears are met with sighs of relief.

So, last night I had some good sex. First time in a while. It was actually pretty funny, because I was at her place earlier and I had forgotten to grab a condom (can you believe that sex wasn't on my mind?). I did manage to get some mints -- I just wasn't planning far enough. Well that's what I tell myself. So, I had a while to think about positions and all while I was going to the store to grab some condoms (they're like flavours, some girls like different kinds -- at least the ones who care).

To me, positions can make or break sex. I mean, you don't want to go doggie-style on a girl who is mild, you know? So, you have to really know a girl before you have good sex. Usually it takes knowing them a while and trying it all out a couple of times. But not Natalie (name changed for those who actually know me, but you can probably guess who). Well screw it, yall will know soon enough. So, Amber and I have just been good friends and hanging out. And then 2 nights ago, we were talkign about being tickleish, and then I started doing the whole exploring thing. Damn, I'm good. I'm not normally one to brag, but I had her moaning quite quickly. Anyways, so things got heated, but I'd promised some mates that I'd go out with them because it's their last night. This adheres to the oft-quoted, yet much needed saying: Bros before Hos. I think people really need to take this seriously.

Anyways, so, yesterday after lunch, we went to her place and took a nap when she was supposed to be studying. Just some good cuddling, some spooning for good measure. Then she went and took her final, called me and told me to come over. And like I said I forgot them. *Sigh*. So, last night I went over. And we had a good time. The last time I had good sex was over a year ago. Yeah, there've been some sex, but not good stuff. So Amber, you nerd you (yeah right), let it be said here, you're the best sex I've had in a while. I'll tell her that, she'll like that. Well, that's about all I have to say. Not quite sure why I put it on my slashdot journal, but oh well, this is supposed to be completely random. We went from my musings on ethics to "I had good sex." Oh well, it shows I'm not just a nerd. I'm a college kid :)

But for fuck's sake, she went back to Iowa for the summer. The day after we did any more than look at each other. Damn I hope she doesn't forget me. But I talked to her tonight. She called me, that's always a good feeling. Anyways, I'm off to go figure out my phone.

I'm a white boy -- a cracker, whitie, whatever the term is for me, I don't really care. I go to a predominantly white school. So that's the scene, here's what went down:

I was walking to my apartment from my Political Science final (the infamous PSC 2302 for those who know) and there were these three african-american kids who were about 10. So, one of them asked me: "is this your bike?" He was on a bike that was clearly too big for him. I said no and he resonded: "Cuz we found them just sitting here and were just wondering." Wondering what? I thought... "Well, the DPS (Dept. of Public Safety -- cops) is right here (10 feet from where they were) so you could ask them." "Naw, it's alright, we'll just take 'em!" This was one of his accomplices. "Why?" I asked. "Because we want them." was the confident answer from the first boy. I thought about this and then said to them, "This is my mp3 player (Rio800 for those who care), do you want it?" "Yes" was the answer :) I love how honest that reply was. "Would you take it from me?" "No." "So, if someone's there, you won't take stuff, but, for instance, if you saw this mp3 player just sitting here on the sidewalk, you'd take it?" "Yeah, I guess." This was the third boy who hadn't spoken yet. I think he was starting to see the issue here. "But how did you know that whoever's bike this is wasn't here? I mean, couldn't they have just run in to get a book, or some coffee?" "I guess, but they're not here now!" This was the first kid. I wanted to sum this up for them, and I hoped that this would show my point.

"Ok, so you see something you like, you don't think anyone is around, so you take it, and you don't feel bad about." "Yeah." This was the trio of them. The third boy hesitated though. I thought I'd try a different approach. "So have you ever had someone steal your bike from you?" This was the first time I'd used the s word, I was interested to see how it changed the scene. They looked at each other nervously, and then the third boy said, "my cousin did." "What if this was your cousin's bike, would you steal it from him?" "No." They were looking at the ground now. "Well, what if it's mycousin's bike -- would you steal it?" "Is it?" was the reply I got. No direct answer, I love it. "Well," I shrugged my shoulders, "my cousin does go here, and he does ride a red bike." A little lie, but I thought it'd be good for drama. "Well, it's not." I'm glad the first boy decided that. It's like it didn't matter whose it really was, he decided who it belonged, or didn't belong, to. "What if everyone was your cousin, or someone you knew's cousin? Wouldn't that stop you from stealing?" "Not really, because everyone isn't my cousin." I love this logic this first boy has. I said, "You're right. They're your brother, your sister, your mom, your dad, or even your grandma." I paused, "Try thinking about that." The third boy mumbled, "Yes sir." and I kept walking home. They can figure out where to go from there, but I hoped I planted a little seed.

So, I'm feeling good about myself, that I'd help rid the world of a couple of future criminals, and played ethics hardball with some kids. And then I sit down at my computer and see Kazaa open. Hmm...a lightbulb hit me. Isn't this the same thing? I dismiss what I'm doing as testing the music, or trying to piss off Britney Spears, but in the end, isn't it just plain old stealing? Perhaps the boys were only going to ride the bikes around for a couple of hours, but it would have still been stealing. So this is where I'm at right now. Please, questions/comments.

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times (no registration required) about the death of 3 journalists in Baghdad. The article was written by a NYT staffer in the building, so it was interesting how different everything was when it was personal. There were some interesting comments in regards to a service they held for those who died:

The journalists at the Palestine organized a 20-minute candlelit vigil at the hotel after dark, and debated among themselves whether there was justification in grieving for three dead journalists in a city where dozens of Iraqi civilians -- people who mostly had no choice about being in Baghdad, unlike the journalists, all of whom are volunteers for the wartime assignment -- had been killed on the same day.

Clearly some of those thoughts were of the reporter but were recorded as thoughts of the group as a whole. And this got me thinking...

It turns out that one of the journalists that was killed was from Al-jazeera. My question is, was this a coincidence? However much you want to believe that your country is always acting in the best manner, I wonder if this was an attempt to squelch an opposing viewpoint. Similar to the attack on the Al-jazeera website -- I wonder if it wasn't a government attack. Something else I'm noting, but perhaps this can just be chalked up to the fog of war, but NYT says the attack was clearly from a tank while aljazeera says it was from 2 missles.

With such difference, couldn't it be argued that it could have been an Iraqi attack? How has this clearly fell on the shoulders of the US? Nonetheless, Aljazeera offices have all been "accidently" hit by US forces. It just all sounds a little to staged to be coincidence. Hmm, or maybe I'm just a little too consipiratory...hold on, there's someone at the door

I wanted to sit down and think about some OS theory, since the discussion keeps coming up here and in meatspace. Here's my definition of an OS: An OS facilitates and supports interaction between the user, hardware, and software.

I really want to emphasize that nowhere in that definition there is no discussion of interacting with the OS. It's role is not to get in the way, but to free you. Also, this requires the OS to be intuitive and transparent. I guess an ideal operating system would be one that you don't notice. You only notice the applications you can use, the responses from the hardware, and the results that come from those interactions.

A sci-fi approach would be one in which the computer is an extension of your self. In which you think about reminding yourself to do your homework, but that thought was generated by the computer. In such a way that it is seamlessly interacting with you on every level. Thoughts that run through your head would be recorded. If you needed to retrieve that thought, you simply thought about a phrase you had thought and then it all came back to you. That is the most natural way, as that is how our body works.

For now, we can simply work on the interaction with the OS. First off, every OS starts off with a big splash screen of what OS it is. Do your friends do that? Do you walk up to them and they say "I'm Bob Sanders, I was born on September 3rd, and who are you?" No, they say "Hey Luke, what's going on?" This is a pretty simple and almost trivial example, but it shows how unnatural interaction with current OSes is.

Well, I have a Japanese class to go to. Hmmmm, shouldn't OSes be able to allow us to communicate with others of any language, or is that an applications job? Hmm... Thoughts for next time.

I just finished reading the two reviews on OSNews.com of Mandrake 9.1 and Red Hat 9.0. It is actually quite amazing how different the two are.

When reading the Mandrake review, the biggest issues that came up were sound card drivers and a little latency issues. The sound card detected was the new generation instead of the old one.

Now compare this to Red Hat: 3 extra CDs to download, no mp3 or DVD support, manually configuring X to tell it that it was a laptop display panel, only openoffice.org packaged, networking isn't completely GUI yet.

Now, I'll give you that they are different reviewers so perhaps there are different things looked at, but seriously, in terms of use right out of the box, is there any way to choose Red Hat? I think not. Mandrake is better moving towards the idea that people want a well-functioning, full-featured PS right out of the box. Perhaps I'm not a Linux purist enough, but I see Mandrake 9.1 as being a heavy-hitter compared to Windows XP.

In a previous journal entry I had discussed why I was M$'s bitch. Well, how things have changed...First off, let me tell you that I am all about having things be easy and preconfigured or at least easily configured. I want to do my work, or watch my pr0n, not tweak some ridiculous configuration.

A friend of mine downloaded Mandrake 9.1 overnight and burned me a copy. Well, I figured I'd put it on for a while, find out that it's not enough of what I need, and then go back to XP. However, during the install, which was by far the easiest linux install, and on par if not a little better than XP, it found my USB Wifi device. Needless to say, I was jumping up and down and singing praises of Mandrake.

I had found a driver for it on the internet, but it required a lot of terminal stuff -- and I just don't have time for it. I want the OS to be transparent, let me do my work, not spend that time on tweaking the OS.

Anyways, I got it all up and running, and it looks great. I have to say it has the cleanest and best look of any Operating System I have used ever without having to tweak it. With a few tweaks it would make me cry. At any rate, the bundled software is incredible, OoO is incredible and GAIM is your new best friend. It says something when GAIM has been ported to Windows to take on Trillian.

So, give Mandrake 9.1 a try -- even if you are not a computer nerd. You will be surprised how easy it is, how powerful it is, and how happy you will be :)

Well, I have added a bunch of new friends and a bunch of new foes. Why? Because of the war. I've written down a list of temporary friends and foes based on their feelings for the war. I personally feel that the war is a necessary evil. I don't like war, but I feel that we need to protect ourselves, but also the Iraqi people. I think most civilized countries can agree that a dictator who tests biological weapons on a whole town (in which over 5,000 people died in 2 hours) is evil. I don't even want to think about what he would do to some other country.

So, I have some new friends/foes, and I chose them because I felt that they fully and intelligently explained why they thought what they did. Several of my new friends are anti-war, and I respect them for that, and some of my new foes are pro-war, but I felt that they weren't even trying to hear anyone else. So, I look forward to hearing from yall, and hope it all goes well.

Last but not least, I will be praying for our troops, as I am an American and a Christian, yet furthermore, I will be praying for the Iraqi people, that they would be safe and that our troops would be prudent and wise in their attacks.