Misery Star Engine

Europe's Infectious Diseases

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 02:45:24 GMT

On Trend Micro's website I found the following statistics for infected files found by them in the past 30 days:

NA 103007
SA 204112
EU 521261
AF 70425
AU 65889
AS 162029

So, does this mean that Europe is the hub of malware in the world, or just that most Trend Micro users live there? Trend Micro is based in Tokyo...

[LITERATURE] Poetics

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 03:32:48 GMT

I've been reading Aristotle's Poetics before bed recently. Here's a quote:

"One should also remember what has been said more than once, and not write a tragedy on an epic body of incident, by attempting to dramatize, for instance, the entire story of the Iliad. In the epic owing to its scale every part is treated at proper length; with a drama, however, on the same story the result is very disappointing."

Over 2000 years ago Aristotle thought Troy was a bad movie.

[DRAMA] Movinin

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 22:39:18 GMT

Internet works NOW ^_^

[INTERNET] It works now

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 20:26:14 GMT

Verizon figured out how to provide this house with DSL download speeds faster than 32 KBits/Sec. It took them since Tuesday.

[DRAMA] Drupal

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 07:06:01 GMT

あ！クソ！　CODING FRENZYあるんだ！

[LITERATURE] Mangaka: Yamamoto Naoki

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 22:30:25 GMT

I read Dance Till Tomarrow last week. I'm starting Believers now. Well written with a strong point of view.

http://www.yamamotonaoki.com/
http://www.manganews.net/creatorinfo.php?id=363
http://users.skynet.be/mangaguide/au2087.html

]INTERNET[ Big Words Seal The Deal

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:11:45 GMT

You scored as Indie.

</td>

reggae

75%

Indie

75%

classic rock

60%

industrial

55%

ska

45%

grunge

45%

Punk

45%

Emo

30%

country

30%

rap

25%

mainstream rock

25%

metal

20%

Pop

15%

Pop Punk

15%

what breed of music are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

[DRAMA] Stage 2: Organizing

Sat, 13 Aug 2005 18:43:25 GMT

I've divided the stuff on my desk into table things and non table things and put all the nontable things on the open floor away from the desk and bed side of the room, by the boxes. All the non bed or desk things have been expelled from the desk and bed side of the room. Individual pieces might be returned later, but only as specific places are found for them. ... This is a lot better.

[DRAMA] Campus Housing

Sun, 07 Aug 2005 03:11:02 GMT

Stony Brook sent me my housing information finally. I'll be living on the first floor of James in Mendelsohn Quad. I'll have roommates: Great! I'm looking forward to it. What is surprising is I've been assigned Temporary Housing. Temporary Housing is defined as "Double rooms assigned as tripled accomodations or lounges utilized as bedrooms". I'm thrilled! Average stay: 8 weeks they say. I hope I'll have a lounge. It'll be much more fun that way. The room is C115. The C makes me think it's special somehow, but the 115 suggests it's just a room. I really want to read Stephenson's "The Big U" now :)

[DRAMA] Dreaming

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 20:53:53 GMT

I walked into Chemistry Lab today, late, after not attending for three weeks. The teacher was explaining some arcane section from the textbook as I sat down at a bench. The class was being held outside, and the laboratory tables had been moved outside under a pavilion on the lawn in front of my old house on Lafayette Avenue. The teacher looked at me funny and the entire class was shocked I was there: "So, look who's finally showed up." and asked me why I even bothered; We were already at the end of the lesson. I told her it didn't matter, I knew all this stuff anyway, and so she tested me by asking the meaning of the line she had been explaining when I walked in. "When the sun rises overhead, and the cars pull up alongside the leaves, deer fly through the forest and mountains fall." I replied I did not know the meaning of it, because it was a stupid riddle. The class laughed at me, and moved on with their project.
I went up to the front counter, a perfect replica of one inside a deli with a register on the far left, and asked the teacher what I had missed. The assignment was almost finished. I would have to turn in 3 weeks of work tomorrow. I pulled out a wad of paper and started taking notes:

Pick a process
Make a list of 15 objects associated with this process
Make a list of 20 ways in which these objects can be used in the process.
Make a list of 20 results that may be obtained by such use.
Write an essay describing the properties of this process and detailing my conclusions.
Write an essay disclaiming that this process will not work as described unless my instructions are followed exactly as they have been described.

I wrote those down, but I repeated them to the teacher another two times just to make sure I had heard correctly. It was about this time that I began to wonder if I could order food from the teacher, or if I had to find the clerk running the cash register. I woke up shortly thereafter. Do you know how aggravating it is to realize something like that was a dream, that you're not even taking classes? This is the second time it's happened in a month.

WTF!

Sun, 31 Jul 2005 21:59:24 GMT

For those not familiar with my living situation, I have a room in my parent's house in the forest. My door is always closed and usually locked, but my window is usually open and has no screen in it. I've just discovered a rather large section of my carpet has been covered in cat urine. We have no cats, but there are wild cats around here. The only way into my room is through the window. The lower edge of my window is 8 feet above the ground outside. The first foot and a half of the outside wall is concrete, but the rest is wood siding. Does this mean a cat jumped onto the siding and climbed up the wall, over the ledge, through my window, onto my computer chair, pissed on the far side of the room, then escaped?

[DRAMA] Lucid Dreaming

Sat, 25 Jun 2005 16:55:54 GMT

Had a lucid dream just now. It took place alternatively at my grandparents' house (a common setting for my dreams) translocated to a new york forest, and in a bustling city built in the architectural style of egyptian UT. Special thanks go Jon and Justin for bringing the pizza, and for the invincible mud monsters that provided a good testing ground for omnipotence. While flying around the UT city, I noticed that it was probably the most wakingrealistic visual experiance I have had in a dream. Usually my visual experiance in dreams appears blurred around the edges, or omits elements not interesting to the action of the dream. Perhaps it was so realistic exactly because I took the time to observe my environment. Moreover, I now have an answer to the ancient riddle: I know I am the man dreaming of being the fly, and not reverse; for as the fly, I saw not as a fly does but as a man.

Next time this happens I'll play Halflife 2.

<<ssa.gov>> Passworded Social Security Information Access Registration

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 17:38:02 GMT

Acknowledgement for PASSWORD Services

Any person who knowingly and willingly makes any representation

that is fase to obtain information from Social Security records, and/or
that is intended to deceive the Social Security Administration as to the true identity of an individual,

could be punished by a fine or imprisonment, or both.

I have read the above statement and am the individual to whom the PASSWORD information applies.

OK Cancel

]GRAMMAR[ 'They', a bigendered singular third person pronoun

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 12:27:03 GMT

It used to be that the pronoun 'he' would under duress of ambiguity refer to a member of an unspecified gender. If you didn't know if he was female or male, the proper construct was the male pronoun. With the advent of feminism, this is no longer socially acceptable, though the grammar books haven't caught up to it yet. Since no standard has been yet imposed, there are a number of solutions floating about. One might alternate the use of he and she within a passage, so that each ambiguous gender usage recieves a fair cut of stage time. Or one might use the disjunction "He or She", as in

"In order to disprove somebody, you must understand his or her position better than he or she does."

But this is clunky. Three syllables for a pronoun is unacceptable. I prefer using a single syllable, so I've appropriated 'they' to stand for the disjunction.

"In order to disprove sombody, you must understand their position better than they do."

Although there may be some cause for ambiguity in other cases, here the number is explicit due to the demonstrative, and in any actual discussion it will likewise be set by the context, just as our second person pronoun is. The use of the plural pronoun is due to the plurality implied by the disjunction 'his or her', and in any case the two may be substituted for one another.

]INTERNET[ Neal Stephenson on Star Wars

Sat, 18 Jun 2005 20:30:35 GMT

Neal Stephenson has a wonderful editorial in the New York Times yesterday: Turn On, Tun In, Veg Out. His conclusions are the same ones I've come to, and explain why Episode 3 appeared to be nothing but an extended montage of scenes that would make wonderful movies individually.

]LITERATURE[ from Sociology: A Down to Earth Aproach, by Henslin

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 06:59:44 GMT

"What are the two sides of family life? The dark side is abuse- spouse battering, child abuse, marital rape, and incest, acts that revolve around the misuse of family power. The bright side is that most people find marriage and family to be rewarding."

Well, thank goodness for that!

]Game[ Spore

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 00:47:01 GMT

I have not been as excited by a game as I am by this game. Will Wright has stepped into the next economic paradigm: User-Generated Content.

http://spore.ea.com

]Internet[ Oh, and these

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 02:53:52 GMT

"Here's Ben Hammersley's entertaining slides from his hilarious presentation at Reboot, "Etiquette, and the singularity," about the eerie similarities between micropublishing and coffeehouse culture in Enlightenment England and the current state of blogging."
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/11/parallels_between_th.html
http://www.benhammersley.com/weblog/Hammersley_Reboot_2005.pdf

"We Media: How Audiances are shaping the future of news and information"
http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/weblog.php?id=P3

]INTERNET[ Pink Floyd will reunite in concert

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 01:56:02 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4085484.stm (Via MetaFilter)

[Coinage] The Popularist Fallacy

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:27:28 GMT

The Popularist Fallacy is the assumption that because particular themes are found commonly in a particular medium, those themes are the defining characteristics of that medium. This is a fallacy because in a capitalist society, any established medium will be used most commonly to appeal to the lowest common denominator, those themes appreciated by the greatest number of people. It does not distinguish that a medium is a form distinct from the purposes to which it is applied.

Example: Anime. The defining characteristics of Anime is its form: a particular style of drawing used in animation. Defining it in terms of the themes most commonly found in it is analogous to defining the Novel in terms of the mass of romance, mystery, and thriller novels found in circulation.

The Popularist Fallacy mistakes application for an essential quality of a medium.

]INTERNET[ What Does Your Ringtone Say About You?

Wed, 08 Jun 2005 17:04:01 GMT

"If you're phone never leaves vibrate or silent mode, you may be the kind of important person who can't afford to waste time answering a phone call right now. Or maybe you just think you're that important. However, you may also be considerate and respectful, the kind of person we'd like sitting behind us in a movie theater.

"Unfortunately, we tend to get saddled with seatmates whose phones play the popular "Crazy Frog," the clucking chicken, or any number of other annoying animal noises. If you're one of these folks, you may be a sociopath." Link

[DRAMA] Morning

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 11:02:49 GMT

I fell asleep this morning sometime between 3 and 4 AM, so as of now it has been at most three and a half hours. I had one of those rare dreams that are more emotionally satisfying than reading or watching a movie could ever be, though I could not now describe it with any sort of coherence. It is of note however that once the dream had ended in its spectacular climax, in which a character jumped off a mountain taller than the sky plunging so deep into the ocean he ripped through the edge of my dream, I resolved to write down however much of it I could.
    I struggled to recount as many details in my mind so that I would not lose any as I recorded the others. I received an IM from Justin Leone, who I had been chatting with before I went to bed. I do not know what it said, because when I looked, I found my computer turned off and the message a dream figment. I continued to constitute the dream's memory until Justin sent me a second IM which read "I wish I could come to New York and write", at which point I sat straight up to throw off the dementia and listen to the birds sing.
    As I was writing, I noticed that dawn had just entered that stage where the sun's rays first break through the trees and deep golden streaks of light dither through the landscape outside my window. Perhaps 5:40AM or so, this period, which at its broadest definition spans no longer than an hour, is one I find far better than any other during the day. It is one of the greatest shames of my life that my sleep cycle is so situated that I almost never get to see the first light of dawn; when I do it is because I have not slept yet. This has truly been a marvelous way to begin a sunday :)

Otherwise; As I read Schopenhauer yesterday this passage from his essay on the Vanity of Existence caught my eye:
    "The scenes of our life resemble pictures in rough mosaic; they are ineffective from close up, and have to be viewed from a distance if they are to seem beautiful. That is why to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is; and why, though we live all our lives in expectation of better things, we often at the same time long regretfully for what is past. The present, on the other hand, is regarded as something quite temporary and serving only as the road to our goal. That is why most men discover when they look back on their life that they have the whole time been living ad interim, and are surprised to see that that which they let go by so unregarded and unenjoyed was precisely their life, was precisely that in expectation of which they lived."
    I have just recently stated at least to two people how I wish the summer would be over, so that I could move to Long Island and begin classes at Stony Brook; What a foolish sentiment that was.

[DRAMA] In the mail

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:15:47 GMT

I've been accepted to SUNY Stony Brook's Mathematics Department, so I'll be living on Long Island starting in the fall. Stony Brook is about halfway out; The LIRR has a stop there, and it takes at least 1:45 to get to Penn Station. Even though I'll be farther from Manhattan, though, I can't possibly be more isolated than in Cortlandt Manor :) I also recieved a 50$ payroll check from WCC. As far as I can tell, I haven't held any sort of employment with the college. I'm mighty confused, but I'll cash the check anyway.

[DRAMA] I rode a bus today, oh boy...

Thu, 02 Jun 2005 04:42:30 GMT

Today was the first day the busses are no longer free. The following was jotted in a notebook: "[20050601|1335-5] I just grabbed off the bus floor a chunk of metal that I deposited into my backpack to remove from sight. A moment ago, it fell from the ventilation hatch in the bus's roof and crashed at the feet of a woman holding an infant in her lap."

I've been working in the yard recently. I love gardening cause it mostly involves ruthlessly killing anything that in your way and making sure it never regrows... I've been cutting a maze of paths into the yard. I want to make it a miniature House Absolute, rooms built out of the foliage. I clear out any stemmy plants and mulch up the surrounding leaves with the ground perferator. I clean the leaves out from the area that's not intended to be path. I allow any authorized Ground Cover plants to remain on the path, as the dead leaf mache is intended to give way in time to a carpet of living leaves.
We've planted several types of groundcover at numerous parts of the yard and there's an entire "room" filled already. my favorite is this very short one. The leaves are dark green and purple, and they have deep purple flowers. The leaves grow thickly out of small nodes in the ground, and once an area becomes dense with nodes it appears covered with a tight leafy fur.
I need to start bringing rocks up from the quarry by the driveway and arranging them to bound the paths properly and create seating. I also use thick branches. I need to decide what sort of bushes I want to plant, and establish specific locations for them. There's about a foot of plantlife in these areas; Enough to have well defined paths, but I want to make walls.

[DRAMA] Commutativity

Wed, 25 May 2005 22:47:40 GMT

I'll be taking Sociology 101 through June. For this two and a half hour class, I have a total commute of 3 hours if I count the hour I wait for the return bus. This is almost convenient, I can get a good amount of work done on the bus, or sleep. Since we had mentioned Globalization in class today, and I brought up my objection to its definition, and the professor said that he liked my definition better than any of the others he's seen, and that he might use it in one of his papers, I felt it was an appropriate time to write it down. I had not quite finished when I realized there was a minute before the bus was due.

Although the buses are usually late, they can not be relied upon to be late. I saved my work and sprinted from the library and had just enough time to catch my breath before the bus arrived. But bus #420 of the 15 line had traveled no more than half a mile from the college before a fuel leak crippled it. I watched confused cars maneuver around our incontinent vehicle for twenty minutes waiting for a replacement to salvage us from an overpass above the Sprain. After our driver took charge of this new bus, we continued to Westchester Medical Center.

Around this time, I noticed that an ex grapejuice bottle had rolled forward from under a seat and lodged itself on a ledge beneath the door control mechanism. Instantly it became clear to me that if someone did not pick it up and throw it out, it would soon loose its tenuous balance, fall into the stairwell, and the next time someone boarded the bus would roll out into the street. Something had to be done, so I decided upon conducting an experiment.

Who would pick up this bottle? The closest person to it was busy driving the bus. Would it remain balanced until someone boarding saw it tottering in their path and dispose of it, or would it take conspicuous intervention? Instantly it became clear to me that this experiment was nothing but an excuse to remain comfortably inactive in my seat. My fellow riders were likely oblivious to it in any case. Yet I continued to watch it intently.

I think this likely a common pattern: notice a problem noone is fixing, rationalize why you should do nothing, expose your selfdeception as a pathetic excuse, decide that there is no reason to deceive yourself into not feeling guilty about doing nothing anyway.

(For the past 15 minutes, this new bus has smelled very strongly of leaking gasoline, and there is a woman behind me heckling the driver about it. Right before crossing the Croton Reservoir, we passed another bus broken down on the side of the road. A crew of mechanics were working on its engine.)

The bottle fell into the stairwell circa Thornwood; The driver jettisoned it as we turned a corner.