What happened to the original Britney?

I know this post is about 5 years too late but I think Britney Spears' best songs were when she was more about singing catchy tunes, and dancing in the music videos. I still like listening to these songs from time to time. Now, its mostly about how much skin she wants to show, her sexual nature (more info than most of us really care about, especially since she's married, and possibly pregnant), and the singing has just been reduced to singing/whining through her nose.

is it friday already?

its thursday, but sure feels like the friday. good thing we have a 3 day weekend. go caesar chavez!

quarter life crisis

why does a quarter life crisis happen? i think it happens when you realize that your outlook of things to come (if you just kept on doing what you're currently doing) falls far short from your expectations of how you invisioned your life was going to be. i look around and see my friends having less time to hang out, buying real estate, new cars, and getting engaged (or about to) to an all around great person who is a good match for them, and i look at myself and see how far behind i am. why am i so different than what seems to be the norm? its true that i should try to be my own person and not want things just because other people have them. i agree with that, but all the things listed is what i want. i want to move ahead in life, have some real estate investments, and at least be in the dating scene and looking for prospects. i have none of that so far. i'm still in just a state where i'm a college graduate trying to find what i want to do with my life. Its been almost 4 years since I graduated, and progress is pretty much zero. pathetic don't you think? What I'm more worried than anything else is having no close friends who i see regularly as the years go on, as they become more focused on starting their own families. that's if i keep doing the same thing i'm doing now, which has been absolutely nothing.

i always said i try to regret nothing, and that had been true. maybe because i never had too many things to regret over, but as these things (my dull outlook on life) are revealed to me, i find myself regretting things i should have done quite a bit. i was at a bbq just the other day and saw someone i was good friends with a few years back. i look at her now and can't help but think to myself, "good god. what the hell was i thinking back then. the door was wide open for me to at least make some advances on her. it was painfully clear we were both attracted to one another at least for a little while. she even slept over for godssake. why did i let this one go?" and if i just had a half a nut, maybe i would have had enough balls to do something about it back then. and i look at myself now, and if i knew what i was thinking now, would i do things differently? and the sad thing is I really don't know for sure. I would like to. and that's what really bothers me. I'm just disappointed at myself when i meet someone from my past (since they apparently have no place in the future). I'm just truly truly disappointed at myself that its just eats me up inside for days.

My photo gallery gone for a while

I had to take down my gallery because I'm getting way too much traffic than I anticipated after I posted my gallery link to Steve's Digicam's website. So the link to my photo gallery has been relased in the Internet like pee in a children's swimming pool. You can try to remove it, but there's just no way. My pics will only be on JussPress for now.

ipod's awesome but really dumb interafce

I understand why ipod designed its interface to work with very little difficulty. Its designed by apple who gives users only one mouse button to work with. Afterall, there are people out there who think one mouse button is enough. Ha, to get to the alternate select button, you need to hold down the mouse for 3 seconds. If you just had one more button, you can just click on the second button on the mouse, and do it infinite times faster. Sure, with enough time on your hands, you can design a one button interface for the whole computer that you can operate with one toe. Hold 1 second for A, hold 2 seconds for to type "b", hold 3 seconds for "c" and so on. Even apple would agree that just would be insanely stupid. But apple's thinking isn't too far off from that. One thing missing on my ipod is a shuffle on/off button. It would be great to just be listening to one of my playlists on shuffle, and I might get in the mood to listen to more of the same artist I'm currently listening to. So I should just be able to hit one button on my player, then shuffle it later when I get tired of the same artist, doing all this without having to leave the playlist, or even look at my screen. It would also be instant. Right now, you can't do this without having to click and navigate your way through 9 layers of the menu and a bunch of rotations on the wheel. Why couldn't they instead just add one more button? Aren't you guys supposed to be designing intuitive menus?

Another really dumb thing they did was not have an on and off button. It would be so nice if I could just turn off my damn ipod without having to hold down the play/pause menu for 3 seconds, then enable "Hold". You need to switch it to hold because if the ipod is in your pocket, most likely, you'll hit play on the ipod, and your full charge will be dead after only 30 minutes of enjoyment because it was playing while you weren't listening. I should have to option to turn off/on my ipod instantly.

Oh, and the battery thing. what the fuck were they thinking? If people are paying $300+ for a device, their ipods should come with a convienient way to change the battery. Right now, your options are to pay apple $99, and they'll send you a replacement/refurb ipod, which will have about 2/3 chance that it will be a faulty ipod that someone dropped and mistreated (while you sent them an ipod in perfect condition that you never once dropped or mistreated), and has weird problems like it likes to shut off after 3 minutes of play. Do you really want to pay $99 to have this shit done to you? Sure you can replace your own battery by buying a kit, but that isn't a walk in the park either. Just a simple battery flap. That's all we're asking for. Every freakin electronic device on the market has one.

CSI Season 5 Finale Cliffhanger?

From tvtome.com:

"CSI season five will end with a MASSIVE cliffhanger, be forewarned. Apparently, one of the major characters will be left in a life and death situation at the end of the season and fans will have to wait all summer to find out the character's fate."

I actually predicted something exactly like this will happen. This is all a guess on my part. The major character in question is gonna be Conrad Eckley, the guy everyone hates and wants to kill, even Grissom. The episode is gonna be likely called "Who shot Conrad Eckley"? Kinda like who shot Sherlock Holmes? Grissom always had a dark side about him, and as we approach the end, the people that already hate him now, like Grissom, are going to be brought to a boiling point, and even Grissom is going to be the likely culprit, when at the end, he obviously won't be. Whether Conrad lives or dies, it'll be up to the writers and producers to see if they want to continue havnig Conrad part of the show, or if they want to get rid of him completely..

Review of Sophos PureMessage AV Only 2.1

Sophos PureMessage AV Only 2.1

The good:
Cheap

The bad:
-Installs its own version of MSDE. Although the version of PureMessage says it is for Windows 2000 and 2003, Microsoft recommends against MSDE (Recommends MSDE 2000/2000A instead). MSDE is also no longer supported by Microsoft.
-Unstable and messy install. The first time I installed the software, it failed installing. It said something went wrong, and just quit the installation without bothering to remove any components that have been installed half way. I could not get it to install over existing failed installation without having to manually uninstall the software, then running the installation again.
-Highly ineffective in detecting the most common and threatening viruses. We tested the software by sending it 20 major and popular viruses (all over 3 months old so we knew it would sure be caught). To our surprise, it only caught 15 out of 20 while good virus software like Norton and Sybari caught these instantly. If they have this much trouble now catching common viruses over 3 months old, I can't imagine how unreliable things would be if we had new virus outbreaks. We verified that PureMessage and Sophos AV had the latest engine and virus definitions.
-Requires Domain Admin access to install. Only reason it needs this is to create and modify a group in AD users in Computers. Obviously the programmers at Sophos don't have a clue on how simple things like delegation of permissions work in AD. I would not trust these guys to write software for Microsoft products if they are this clueless and unwilling to learn. Tell me Sophos, why does every other MS Exchange anti virus solution not require Domain Admin access (only needs Exchange Administrators access), and you seem to think that you need Domain Admin access? All you are doing is manipulating one security group that can be created anywhere in any OU that has no ties to anything that an account with Domain Admin privledges would need to create. A few years ago, I called them directly and spoke with the programmer (about Sophos MailMonitor which works the same way), and when I confronted him, I couldn't convince him that Enterprise/Domain Admin access was not needed to install this software if they just changed a few lines of code. It was useless trying to convince him so I just hung up.
-The engine needs to be reinstalled every 2-3 months. You update the engine by installing the whole PureMessage software again on top of the existing install. It DOES NOT install through Sophos Auto Update (I have an official reply by them to verify this). Every time you reinstall the software, it restarts the SMTP service on MS Exchange. All other antivirus products seem to have no problem updating their engine, while Sophos requires you to do this or their software will stop working properly. This means Domain Admin privileges will be required to update the engine.

My personal recommendation:
Avoid this product at all costs. The false sense of security with its ineffective detection is not worth the trouble you have to go through to install the software with buggy installation and unnecessary engine update model. This product needs a lot of work, and should still be in beta, and absolutely does not belong in any production Active Directory environment.

Conclusion:
You get what you pay for. It is important to note that despite significant improvements over Sophos MailMonitor (mostly the stability of the program, less buggier install, easier deployment) this software is still useless. Any descent Network Admin who test the effectiveness of their software before deployment into a production environment should become aware very quickly on how truly underdeveloped Sophos PureMessage is.

American Idol castoff predictions

The guys performed last night, and to me its clear who will be leaving. What's really amazing this year is that even at the top 14, these guys are really good, and should have at least some success in the lime light being an entertainer/singer. My the standards have changed this year. I think its the end of the road for Scott Savol. He was one of my favorites at first, because he seemed like one of those people that stuck his head above the clouds even after everyone had told him that he will never make it. A very similiar reason why everyone liked Clay so much. But what makes him different is that he's not the humble, soft spoken guy who's main goal in life was to help handicapped kids. Scott isn't that. And in the image and vocal department, he doesn't outshine anyone, so I really can't see his target audience so to speak. Scott, you're fired. ;)

The one I think who should really go is Constantine Maroulis and Anthony Fedorov, because vocally, they are the weakest out of the whole 14, and I can't ever see these guys ever winning the competition. Unfortunately, I think the contestant that will probably get voted off are Anwar Robinson and Nikko Smith. Nikko is damn good, and he did go first yesterday, which should help. Anwar is a musical teacher, so he should appeal to the younger crowd. So basing it off that, I say Anwar might be the one leaving. We'll see on wednesday.

Chancellor's Inauguration, What a Joke

So today, they closed off about 80 staff (eyeballing it) spaces and 80 faculty spaces for people attending the chancellor's inauguration. creating havoc for a significant amount of people coming to work. And wouldn't you know it, the turnout was pretty much non existant while two people were assigned from whee hours in the morning to make sure no one who really needed to park there couldn't. The 2 or 3 cars in the lot probably were cars that never moved from the night before. Is this a forecast of how things will work at UCSD with the new chancellor? I just don't like the fact that the chancellor is willing to shut half the school down just incase she might get a hangnail.

RIM BlackBerry 7100g, you're my best friend

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I got a new phone to replace my Motorola v60c (arguably the best cell phone ever made because of its simplicity, design, and durability). My BlackBerry connects me to all my contacts through phone, email, instant messages AIM&MSN (3rd party software by VeriChat needed since 7100g doesn't have it built in unline 7100t) directly and efficiently. Everything with my exchange mailbox syncs wirelessly. This means, I can just update my Outlook's contacts and it will automatically sync up with my BlackBerry. And when I'm updating someone's phone number on my BlackBerry, it will update my Outlook at home, so there will never again be a confusion on which number is newer (the cell phone's or outlook's). The color screen is amazing. The small pixels remind me of the fine detail of sony PDA's, and the brightness level is a demonstration of how far we've come in handheld displays. The browser is very capable. There is a bunch of 3rd party software in the works. The included softwares and game (brickbreaker) is awesome. The UI has drawbacks but also significant improvements over the standard BlackBerry full QWERTY keypad which results in an overall a better decision than the standard BlackBerry design.

I was a little hesitant to try the new keyboard. My first encounter with a customer's 7100t was unspeakably bad. It literally took me a minute to type my email address. Later I learned that I just didn't know how to use it. I was trying to do the TAP method trying to find the (ABC for #2, DEF for #3 and so on) keys that I was familiar to on a standard cell phone. How you are supposed to use it is to use it like a qwerty keyboard but it will guess what you are trying to type (tap method is automatically switched on when typing passwords). And this isn't a standard dictionary lookup. It is smarter than I imagined it would be. It will learn words that aren't following spelling rules like UCSD. The more you use the word, the more familiar it will get in guessing it. When you are also typing a slang word for example, it will try to follow spelling rules like (i before e except after c) to guess whether you typed a E instead of an R, or an A instead of an S. Just about every time I type, I'm usually scratching my head wondering how in the world they ever guessed I was wanting to type that specific word that for sure is not in the dictionary. It really feels like it is reading your mind as you type. I don't have any Bluetooth compatible devices, but I'm sure the Bluetooth on the 7100g will come in handy some day.

Congrats to BlackBerry for making a huge step in improving on what was already a fantastic interface in the original BlackBerry devices.

Now only if it can play mp3s, videos, let you stick a memory card in there, and put in a camera sensor, that would just make this device the ultimate device.

damn, taxes again?

I need to clean up my credit...cancel about 5 credit cards that I'm not using, and get a credit check. I'm almost scared to get one since it seems like everyone is a victim of fraud these days. especially when you've attended UCSD!