Origin XT Blog

The old cow-obsessed Joey was a lot more personable, as you can see here: http://originxt.com/node/11629

Old posts are fun to review.

Maybe reconciliation and peace is possible, if the historical meetings between the top academics of China and Japan are successful.

Except I have great doubts.

So in place of skiing this Christmas break, I went ice skating instead at SJSU’s Logitech ice-hockey field. I’m surprised–I skated pretty well considering this was my first time.

My feet hurt.

Is that me? According to this place (thanks Kat), I am, or so I appear outwardly. Full text:

You are a four-sided die, a d4. Otherwise known as a tetrahedron, a “Caltrop”, or (to a lesser degree) “Ol’ Pointy”. This crap bores you, so I’ll get to the point. Others tend to see you as petty, conniving, manipulative, argumentative, defensive, greedy, and needlessly antagonistic. You see yourself as focused, effective, efficient, influencing, shrewd, tactical, and direct. Both points of view are in fact correct. You always know the best way to get things done, a fact that never wins sympathy with others. Whenever you manage to gain control of a situation, your solutions are swift and brutal. Unfortunately everyone else is convinced that granting you such power is, “a bad thing” and often conspire to keep it out of your hands. Such short-sighted fools!

I usually stop trusting trusted sources (for news, for example) when I see a gross grammatical mistake or a typographical blunder. I don’t know whether to trust the Common App and Caltech anymore:

Limiting yourself to the space provided, please answer the following questions. Don’t overanalyze. These aren’t trick questions and there are no wrong answers. We are interested in learning more about your personality, values, and interests. We really are looking for short answers, not essays. Somtimes a few words will do, other times you may need as much as a paragraph.

I suppose I have to.

I’ve been searching for a good but inexpensive one for weeks. I drove to Target and Toys R Us but both of them admitted they don’t have them (or the high-schoolers who ditch school to work there don’t know what the hell I’m asking). I’m probably going to look for it at the Dollar Tree tomorrow if I’m that desperate.

http://www.epinions.com/Gifts_Collectibles_Gadgets_Novelties-Longest_Spinning_Top_-_Tungsten/display_~full_specs looks very cool though. The description says: “As Item 66112, except made out of tungsten, a rare metal denser than brass, that helps the top achieve longer spins (as much as 22 minutes under optimal conditions). Top is 1 3⁄4″ Diam.”

DID YOU SEE THAT? 22 MINUTES??? That’s greater than 1/3rd of an hour!!!

I think it’s way beyond my single-digit budget though.

After examining the Linux Distro made for the PS3 (yes, you can load Linux on the PS3, making it a power-packed mini-supercomputer with awesome graphics), I realized how legally fragile “Yellow Dog Linux’s” (http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/tss_home.shtml) basis for existence really is. That distribution of Linux actually charges for its software — Linux, which was released under the GNU’s GPL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html).

If you take a look at the legal document that delineates the freedom of use of the software it accompanies, you will clearly see that because Linux was released under it, the distributor cannot charge for the Linux (only for packaging and distribution, not for production and development) or prohibit its redistribution. A GPL-backed piece of software is free to be copied and recopied, but this distribution is not. It actually charges prices higher than Microsoft charges Windows.

Honestly, this is absurd. This is a despicable abuse of free and open-source software policies. This is disgusting.