kampers.net

I always try to come up with a title for these things before I write them, which doesn’t work too well. Maybe the box for title should be placed after this box.

Much has happened since my last post. On Monday, I saw physicist Ed Witten give a colloquium on superstring theory. He is touted by quite a few as the leading theoretical physicist alive today. Nice. The talk, which was aimed at grad students, was quite above my level. I didn’t understand too much. It was still interesting to see him though… Star power, I guess.

My computer has had four stop errors (read: blue screens) today. This is bad. These are my first stop errors with Windows XP. I think the problem is corruption of my hard drive… The errors happened randomly, and were usually associated with XP telling me that I should run CHKDSK because some files were corrupt.

After the first stop error and subsequent running of CHKDSK, XP was nice enough to tell me that my user profile was corrupt. I managed to recover most of it (like Outlook 2002 data), but it’s still annoying that I had to create a new account to use. Since the account I was using before was the built-in Administrator account, it can’t be deleted by any means I can figure out. So the corrupt files stay for now. I think a format is in my future. Which brings me to my next topic of discussion…

I just paid $132 for an IBM Deskstar 60GXP 60GB hard drive. The 60GXP’s have their detractors on Ars Technica, but oh well. Besides these recent corruptions, I’ve had no problems with my 60GXP 40GB. My original intention in buying another drive was so that I’d have more storage (see why below), but the stop errors made me realize how convenient it would be to have one drive for data, and one for system files. That way, I can just reformat whenever my system acts up, with no need for the backup of critical files under the duress of a malfunctioning computer. Sounds good.

So, why do I need more storage space? Isn’t 40GB enough? No, not really. I’ve decided (you can credit the folks over at the Ars OpenForum Audio/Visual Club for this one) that I’m going to re-rip all my CD’s, and thus reorganize my ever-growing digital audio collection. Here’s what I’m doing: first, rip to WAV with Exact Audio Copy, a program recommended on Ars because it does what it says — it makes an exact copy, re-reading several times if it thinks there’s a read error. This can take a long time, but that’s OK. Then, I’m encoding with Monkey’s Audio, a lossless codec. What’s that mean? That means that the compression doesn’t lose any sound data, unlike MP3. The result is perfect CD-quality audio. It sounds the same as listening to the uncompressed WAV files, but takes up less space. Most files end up about 75% of their original size.

Then, I’m encoding with LAME. It’s an open-source implementation of the popular MP3 format. Unlike Monkey’s Audio, MP3 is a lossy codec. I’m encoding at 128KB/s, which is pretty standard on the Internet. Why would I encode twice, with two different codecs? Simple. My Sony Cli? N710C, a Palm OS handheld with MP3 playing capability, only supports MP3 - and, with that, only low bitrates. So I have Monkey’s Audio to listen to on my computer (hooked up to my nice stereo system, or nice headphones), and MP3’s to take on the road with me. The handheld takes a 128MB memory stick, so I’m good to go.

All of this requires lots of space. So far, I’ve ripped 26 albums, and that’s taking up 9GB. There’s more to come, but I only have so much love to give. Thus, the second drive.

Done with this long post, and I have a title in my head. Figures. I hope you enjoyed the travels of Chris through geekland. There’s more things to write about, but I’ll save them for the next post. #

…is my hero.

Check out this article he posted on his website recently, on the topic of intelligent machines. #

I feel a little better today. I just came back from Leavey (the big, undergraduate, 24/7 library for you non-Trojans) where I was doing calculus homework for about three hours. It wasn’t all that fun at the time, but it feels so good to be done with something that’s not due until later. I did have good music on tap; namely, The Ataris, DMB, and the recently-rediscovered-by-me Jimmie’s Chicken Shack. Music makes the homework a little more tolerable, if anything. Procrastination is my nature, unfortunately. I should try to do this more often. Maybe… try to go to the library a few times a week? Hmm. I need a more concrete goal.

I turned in an essay on Friday about Robinson Crusoe and Utopia. It was horrible, mostly because it was around 5am when I finally went to sleep after writing it. Ouch. That’s the kind of stuff that I need to stop doing.

Bored? Go to the website of artist Oli Goldsmith. Take a look around. I love that stuff. His work is featured on Our Lady Peace’s latest record, as well as some of their recent music videos. Good stuff.

Time to write a short essay explaining why I should get special-interest (read: good) housing next year, like I have this year. I live in Parkside International Residential College, which is special-interest housing because it’s international. In theory, there should be more foreigners here than anywhere else. In truth, I’m surrounded by suites full of 100% Californians. Not my suite, but you get the idea. Anyway, next semester, I’d like to move over to the Parkside Apartments, which are also a part of PIRC. The benefit of this is that I’m more likely to get the good housing, because it’s special-interest, and therefore precedes all other housing — just as if I were applying to the quiet floor, or the honors floor, or the purple salamanders floor.

That was a joke.

Regardless. I’m going to go make myself some Easy Mac in my new big yellow mug, and get some more work done. #

It’s been one of the worst weeks on record. dLife/dt < 0.

The relationship with Colleen is ending. Although I was the one to try to lessen our involvement with each other (in pursuit of new things), our friendship is terminating against my will. I still want to be friends, no matter what happens. I do still love her.

I didn’t go to any classes today. I went to two yesterday, one the day before that. This is bad. I’ve skipped every class I have at least once this week. I missed a physics lab, and I can only miss one per semester.

I still have no instructor for music. I’m sick of being a productive member of society. I’m sick of doing homework, listening to The Man, and being responsible. I want to sleep.

I’ve been crying a lot, and sleeping more.

I’d like to stop complaining.

A very close friend of mine brought it to my attention that I only seem to write here when I’m having problems, and that I could stand to come here when I’m feeling good. That’s true. There might have been a few more posts before this one, in that case, because the week hasn’t been all bad. I can’t really explain here, though.

I talked to my parents about everything. They were very supportive and helpful, as usual. Thanks, Mom and Dad. I owe just about everything to you.

Now, it’s 1:48a, and I have a five-page essay due tomorrow (today). I’ve written two sentences. I need to get working. #

Look at my little pink sticker! I’m cool now! #

Leader of Free World Chokes on Pretzel #

OK, enough of that.

Today I registered for MPWP 401, individual instruction percussion style. ‘Bout time. I don’t know who I’m working with yet, because the music department, although supreme overlord of all others, is slow and delinquent like the scuttling Red October.

I got a lot of stuff done today, but it wasn’t enough. I still haven’t called the old orthodontist, without whom my face will continue to hurt. I did call the physical therapist, though… I have to skip Calculus to get there. Grrrrr. Oh well. It’s just a stupid discussion with somebody who doesn’t speak english. And we all know how well those kind of verbal discussions go, when there’s no common language. Yeah. Real well.

I’m pretty pissed off right now, and it has to do with being lonely, and anything else that you might infer by the abbreviation etc. Oy. I should go sleep it off. Damnit.

Hmm. Just posted the LBDL MP3’s, at the site. Yay. It only took me 14 months…

Between Dave Matthews Band’s Live in Chicago and Jets to Brazil’s Four Cornered Night, I’m pretty set for music at the moment. Good good. DMB’s cover of “All Along the Watchtower” pretty much does it for me. #

So, today was the first day of classes. There was calculus III (hardcore), Utopia and Anti-Utopia (read on), and electrical engineering 101 (boring).

My professor for the Utopia class is an old man, probably somewhere is his sixties or early seventies. He reminds me of my maternal grandfather: sort of tall, clean shaven yesterday but not today, and thinning half-white hair. He has that glaze in his eyes that comes with old age. Very nice guy, and very well spoken. However, the reason that he is notable is not because of his age, his appearance, or his temperament. His …companion… was the more interesting thing. He brought a dog to class with him! So, all thirty of us have our desks arranged in a circle… I’m only one desk away from sitting next to the professor. The dog — Thompson, named for the bodyguard of Winston Churchill — is licking my feet and dragging papers out of the backpacks of some students near by. What’s even funnier is that the dog wasn’t present for any obvious reason. The professor wears glasses sometimes, but only for distance. Not a Seeing Eye dog; just a companion. The professor wore a wedding band. Interesting. I hope Professor Alkon isn’t too lonely at home.

While he was talking about Thomas More’s Utopia, I had a thought about the world being different. What if, instead of infinitely expanding space out there, our world was backwards? I’m talking literally here. The earth is still spherical, but the outside of the ball yields to rock, magma, and whatever else we think of as being below us. It expands out to infinity, just like the emptiness of space does now. The inside of the sphere is hollow, and contains our atmosphere. Instead of gravity keeping everything tied down, it’s centrifugal motion keeping everything on the ground. The sphere, a.k.a. the solid universe with the atmospheric core is rotating at just the right speed to give its occupants that perfect downwards force. Light is provided by a gaseous ball at the center of the sphere, which is a mystery to most occupants.

OK, I’ll lay off the crack. Hope you enjoyed that. #

Back in LA, that is. My new dorm is very nice… I’m almost done unpacking. No ethernet yet! Grrrrrrrrrrr. So I’m in a library right now writing this. Oh well. I’m pretty tired… I’ll provide a more complete update soon. #