out of the blue

I decided I wanted to understand exactly how RSS 2.0 feeds are written. So, I wrote one for my site. Yes, that's right, folks! My site now has Really Simple Syndication! So, if you're at all interested, you can use your favorite aggregator and subscribe to my feed, and see whenever I add anything new (and I remember to update the feed, of course). I'll try my best to keep them synched.

Oh, what is that you say? You don't know what RSS is? Well, have no fear, because Mr. Super Wikipedia Man is here to explain everything!

What's that you say? You don't want to click on a link to get the information? But he's a superhero! He'll feel so neglected… Okay, well, let's make a compromise. I'll do a really quick explaination about what it is, and you have to use WikiMan to find out more.

RSS is XML, which is used to store pure information (with organization), used for the task of providing news. It might be a summary of headline articles for a newspaper. It might be entire entries for a blogger (Blogger and LiveJournal both have newsfeeds). RSS essentially makes available information to anyone who can access it, and gives them the means to reformat it however they choose (if they know some crazy programming stuff) or to use a program to view it.

I've been using RSS feeds for a few weeks in order to check all of my friends' blogs who don't have LiveJournal, to check Slashdot, and to check all the other blogs that I read (the people I don't actually know). Instead of going through a list of bookmarks, I just have to click one button, and then I can open all of the new feeds at will.

The program I have been using is RSSOwl, but only because I don't know of any better ones. If someone more experienced in the arts of RSS eating could point me to a better one, I'd love to try it out.

Anyway, the point is that I am now syndicated. You can check the feed for new updates. Go be happy!

My beverage told me to shut up today.

I'm sometimes impressed with the audacity of telemarketers. I can't imagine that they are able to sell anything to a large percentage of people who they call, but they still are very persistent and they often don't give up. Even when you tell them that you're not interested.

Them: Blah blabhla thja dleg Direct TV blaehhh….

Me: I don't think I'm interested.

Them: Believe me, if you just listen to the promotion and then decide, I believe you would be interested.

Me: No, I really don't think I'm interested. *click*

Apaprently I'm not the best person to decide what I am interested in. Perhaps they should assume that if someone declines their offer, that the person has a good idea what they're selling, and really isn't interested. Maybe it's just me, but it's just absurd when people keep talking long after you tell them "No thanks."

At least they make for funny joke material every once in a while. If you haven't heard Kendall tell you about HIS fascinating encounters with their ilk, then you should ask him to relate the experience.

I just tried to use Thunderbird to log into my hotmail account. The response?

"Sending of password did not succeed. Mail server localhost responded: negative vibes."

Okay, I saw Ewan McGregor in Star Wars today. I was very impressed with his acting in Moulin Rouge, so I looked him up on IMDB. What I found was this, an animated film scheduled for release in 2006:

Plot summary: "Romance blooms between indoor and outdoor garden gnomes."
Title: "Gnomeo and Juliet"

This is too odd to pass up. (A note: Kate Winslet stars as Juliet.)

I'm always impressed by the artists on DeviantArt who do crazy things with just Paint and similar programs. No spiffy Photoshop for them! Anyway, if you're interested in such things, you might want to take a look at "Traveling the lands of Sillis".

Just when you thought cockroaches couldn't get any harder to kill….

"The latest issue of Make Magazine volume 2 from O'Reilly publishing has an article on a cockroach controlled robot. Roboticist Garnet Hertz has mounted a Giant Madagascan Hissing Cockroach that drives a small mobile robot around by walking on top of a Kensington trackball. There is a row of proximity sensor triggered LED's that shine light in the roach's eyes, making him steer the robot since roaches instinctively avoid light. Garnet's web page 'Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine' details the project with several images of the roach in action. Debugging the project is inherently impossible."

What's next? Bumblebees with laser guns instead of stingers? Rats armed with high-grade explosives?

Oh, and 10 points for really bad puns.

I love the rain! We didn't get nearly enough of it in Spokane. I swear, in the last couple days, we've had more rain here in Portland than Spokane got ALL YEAR!

Today (yesterday), I went to get job applications, and it began to pour on the way to the second set of stores. By the time I got to Bi-mart, the rain was bucketing. I walked over to Albertsons, and it was still going on. But when I came BACK out of Albertsons is when the fun really began. Sun was streaming in from low in the sky, cutting across the buildings and lighting the trees beautifully. With the rain coming down in sheets, swirling and eddying through the air and across the parking lot, it looked very surreal. I ran through it to the car, and leapt in with my precious papers clutch in my hand, and as soon as I was in, it began to hail. This hail was bigger than I've seen in a long time. We waited for the hail to stop, at least, before I drove away. Behind the car in front of me, there was a maelstrom of spray from the tires action against the ground, and it looked really cool because it was lit by the sun, which brought it into greater relief than usual. It hit thr ground, and made wonderful little bright splashes (again, because of the sun being out) all across the black roadway. The rain kept going on and off, with the sun still shooting in from the side. Soon, it was behind us, and I could see a really bright rainbow in front. The rain kept coming down, and the mist from the rain hitting the street rose really high, and the rainbow in the sky connected with the car. I could see it stretch all the way across the sky, and arc beautifully down across the road until it hit the car, where it stopped. I was literally the end of the rainbow!

I was very happy after that.

Now, I'm tired. Goodnight.

Hey, SST and NRST alumni. Some people seem to be putting up a site with Alumni contact information, and what people are doing, and stuff like that. So, drop them an e-mail (you can easily find their mail on the site), and tell them what you're doing, your web site, and your e-mail address, if you want to. Apparently, they're planning on putting up a message board eventually. So, frolic on over there and drop them a line.

NRST.org

Well, it looks the the United States is grabbing ahold of its destiny yet again. Bush already backed out of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (in 2002), which forbid space weapons, and now he's looking to spend billions for defenseive, not to mention offensive measures. "Published studies by leading weapons scientists, physicists and engineers say the cost of a space-based system that could defend the nation against an attack by a handful of missiles could be anywhere from $220 billion to $1 trillion."

The cost is only one factor. The long-term detriment would surely be more expensive to the united States, and also to mankind as a whole. By opening up space to our own military programs (in spite of the policy made specifically to define space as a pacific zone), we open it up to everyone. How long will it be before other countries, threatened by the United States' arms program, start trying to find ways to counter us? Won't it simply become another arms race? The results of every country in the world looking for better ways to destroy each other would be catastrophic to the development of the world. But the US has never cared much for that, have they?

"Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny. Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future," says General Lord, leader of the Air Force Space Command. He also states that "establishing and maintaining superiority" is, simply put, the "American way of fighting."

I'm afraid.