The Casino Out Behind Nick's

I had the greatest dream, I was at Steve T's (formerly Nick Tahou Hots) and the fire was out on the grill, it was getting cold or hey buddy was cleaning it or something, and I had to wait for my plate so I did... then when they served me, actually I don't remember if they ever served me, but I got shown to this great casino room in the back with a bunch of absurdly huge slot machines!

Hey buddy was there, and I brought out $10 and another $10, and maybe a dollar besides... I couldn't resist the temptation to gamble in that casino, well I played the first $1 in a dollar machine and another $10 and for that $10 I was standing next to a beautiful blonde girl that was trying on a pair of thong underwear, some red gap shorts with a picture of Mao in the crotch, and she wanted to take my place at the machine so I let her... I didn't see any more of her then...

Anyway the machines were all dispensing these novelty Giant Dime Balls that were some marked as "this is not money, don't take it with you or its stolen," some not marked at all because the lettering had worn off—eventually I found the machine where you go to redeem them, and it spit out this gnarley looking quarter... then I kept looking and I found it was dumping a shitload of $20 bills and ones and fives, concert tickets and nacho cheese fries, it was like some glorious dreamland behind Nicks, and was Hey Buddy ever smiling!

I was trying to figure out how it could possibly be legal to gamble at Nick Tahou's and Mike Kush showed up, took a few dollars from my winnings, and just walked the other way while I figured out how to pick up and collect my nacho fries...

English Vocabulary Lesson #2

Lawyers make claims. Well, that's not all there is to it; they also substantiate them, and sometimes defend against them. A plaintiff and a defendant is not exactly the same as an ally and an enemy. In law (and thus in times of war) there must always be two or more parties. In business, and Microsoft will let you know if you just ask nicely, it's really much better for everyone involved if we're all allies. Still, don't let this fact stop you from making claims!

• substance - the stuff of which an object is composed: in schools of thought, the message, central meaning; in rhetorical analysis of software systems I will always insist that the kernel and process scheduler represent the substance of an operating system.
  
• substantial - having a firm basis in reality, and being therefore important, meaningful, or considerable; not imaginary.
  
• substantive - meaty, real, essential. substantive is a grammatical term whose meaning is lost on me. I would have to see some examples, duh, of what do you suppose an non-substantive looks like exactly?
  
• substitution - In theater, the method of understanding elements in the life of one's character by comparing them to elements in one's own life. In a psychologist's office or a business meeting, a defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, by which an unattainable or unacceptable goal, emotion, or object is replaced by one that is more attainable or acceptable.
  
• subsumption - A subsumption is a relation which specifies the relative generality of two concepts; incorporating something under a more general category. For instance: most graduate students are college graduates before becoming graduate students.
  

Recall from Lesson 1: Most cultures proscribe stealing. Some people equate piracy with theft. Some laws and practices place a value on things with no unique identity as an object. Calculus is required to quantify value in such a situation and logically explain this phenomenon.

The question of the day: what differentiates a graduate student from an undergraduate student? The answer, I hope, is all of these administrative theatrics and hazing rituals! I actually didn't wear the cap and gown, nor did I attend my own High School Prom.

More news tomorrow; still, for today the virtual server outage continues! Hard drives are on the way from New Egg, and I will contain my ecstasy at the latest interactions with Microsoft until I can properly explain my position. The instigation continues!

Quantum Physics Proofs

OK! We've really done it now! And with nothing more than a standard memory machine!

We've had quantum principles demonstrated, including superposition, heisenberg's uncertainty principle, at least three partial entanglements and a fully valid prediction of one other complete entanglement.

With both willing and unwilling suspensions of belief and disbelief, I wonder if it's alright I skip breakfast today? Commencement ceremonies for graduation of the Golisano College Computer Science Class of 2007 kick off at 12:00 in the RIT Field House today! And also three spots at breakfast have been reserved at The Radisson on Jefferson in my name, which I may not attend if I still have my own free will after last night.

This information should be helpful to anyone who is starving. I do have another valid ID for you if it comes down to that.

Language Learning Resources

Looks like language learners with internet connections who are nearly ready to sever ties with their universities are in luck this week! There are a plethora of language learning resources online. Here is a brief overview of the services I am currently aware of, with an emphasis on services providing syndicated, iPod formatted content.

• ChinesePod - Mandarin Chinese on Your Terms (Praxis Language)
  
• SpanishSense - Spanish Lessons also from the Praxis Team
• On Demand English - Business English updated Daily
  
• JapanesePod101 - Free Daily Podcasts
  
• ArabicPod - New Episodes about weekly
  
• LearnItalianPod
• Brazilian Portuguese Podcast
• FrenchPodClass
• MyDailyPhrase - German
  

Unfortunately I don't have the mental capacity to study all of these languages at once. If anyone has used these services, please feel free to contribute a review. In my experience I have found ChinesePod to have the most advanced framework for any language learning podcast.

I had an idea for a daily feature on my blog, where I sit down and explore the web with an emphasis on a particular language. I could fill a week worth of time easily just searching for audio and video content and content providers, and general information about podcasting and iPod-type devices, in a new language every day. It would certainly be helpful to language program coordinators to have an idea of what kind of valuable free content is available to the students of each language. To be specific, I'm trying to improve this page:

• Foreign Language Technology Center at RIT

However, that's going to be a lot of work, and I'm not sure I fit into the budget, nor do I have access to the source code. In the mean time I'll just focus on ArabicPod. So far I like the Praxis suite and ChinesePod content the best, and in lieu of building some kind of direct partnership between Praxis and ArabicPod, I think the best thing that I can do with my skills is to start using ArabicPod, try to contribute something of value on the podcast forums, and to help add new features as opportunities present themselves.

Why I Quit AIMing

Hello Grandma!

I heard you won't be up for graduation this weekend! It's just as well for me that way, I'd rather have you come visit some time this summer when everything is well. We can go to Korean House to celebrate, it's a very nice restaurant only two minutes from my home.

I've been meaning to call you but your phone is very busy. The internet really simplifies communication so much I can't imagine how anyone would maintain a business using a phone with only one line. In fact I don't think I have much need for a phone at all these days!

Only a handful of people left who are nostalgic enough to contact me in this way :) I have been speaking with a girl from Argentina and a fellow from Taiwan both using MSN Messenger. Or typing back and forth with webcams anyway... I find it's much more enriching to have a conversation with a live face, regardless of the other linguistic media that you may have in play.

Juozas is back at home in Lithuania, living with his girlfriend Akvile. I don't know to what degree they have "merged stuff," so to speak, but from the looks of things they are very happy together! He's got a nice apartment and it is clean and well-decorated. We're moving up in the world, no longer do we need newspapers to cover up our messes!

I think I will have a hard time convincing him to move back to Rochester, really I think he's served his time at Microsoft and is again back in touch by means of the web, and it might stay that way. I meant to leave a webcam with you last time we visited, but I think it has migrated back to my office at RIT. I'm afraid I might not be a very good Internet salesman, these things are really not very complicated if you don't make it so.

It's one thing to use the Internet as a tool to maintain contact, but remember that I've grown up in the brave new world where you can actually meet for the first time and initiate a relationship that way! I am a big fan of this and for anyone who hasn't had the experience I think that you are missing the boat entirely!

In case you want to try out some of these tools on your own, there are two major services that are any good for this sort of chat that you should definitely know about. One is called Skype, and the other is MSN or Windows Live Messenger. This is truly a market with lots of competition but nothing else is so outstanding that I would recommend it to a new user.

People on Skype tend to be more outgoing than MSN; I filled out a basic profile and I have had a number of "hits," meeting and speaking for the first time with people from anywhere in the world like I just bumped into them on the street. Windows Live is another service altogether; this is a more cohesive service with better software in my opinion than Skype, but in the words of Clement Chan, "White people don't use MSN." Which is great for me, the compulsive language learner!

To contrast I have not made one single new contact by directly using MSN in spite of filling out a profile. However I have met a number of people on Skype that prompted me to shift our communications to MSN, on account of it being a better service and more convenient to use. Not good news for the Skype team I'm afraid! But both services are far superior to AOL Instant Messenger. Now how will I convince my friends to switch :)

There's something to be said here about how we maintain a contact list and developing isolated bubbles of friends that effectively can't contact each other directly... to make a long story short mostly everyone in America who decided to participate in the Instant Messaging revolution joined up with AOL Instant Messenger when it first came out.

Today we've all got our accounts and our screen names, and many people use this service as a direct substitute for in-person contact with their closest friends, in spite of it's being easily the worst software on the market!

Compare to your cell phone address book, but then imagine that you wish to change providers. You can only contact these people through AIM because their screen name is a part of the AOL service. Want to get a new provider? Sorry, you'll need new friends also. Those Verizon Wireless commercials just took on a whole new dimension of weird for me and my friends!

Anywho Skype is the competitor in perfect position to repeat the same scheme on a global scale, with a team of smart developers and a great product that is constantly one step ahead of Microsoft. That would be the hot stock to watch today, if it were being publicly traded.

In the mean time, I'll have to be sure you know how to use one of these packages before I can go to Egypt! Skype is truly a much better deal for this purpose than anything the phone or cable companies are selling today.