Randox

Had a lovely chat with my ISP today. The conclusion was that the range extender itself might be screwing up. The other problem I am seeing is that the wireless strength itself is a huge factor here, and it just never mattered before because the internet was so slow anyway. What I have done for now is I found the coax running up to my room, and relocated the modem. My ultimate plan is to get a bit more cable and run it down to the second floor from my room so that I can run the ethernet cable back up like I do with the range extender. Having it in my room allows me to rule out bad reception since it's much closer, and there is a lot less interference up here. If it still drops out, then I can run it with a cable and see if the problem goes away. I should definitely be able to nail down the problem now, be it reception, wifi, or just general suckiness. Loving my computer class, aside from the tests, which are really resistant to perfect scores. or even something above 90. I have an 11/15 and 13/15 so far, and I think that puts me in the top 5 in the class (half the class failed the first one). Still, that 11 in particular is not fantastic, and I'd really like an A or A+ in this because 4.0/4.3 does wonders for the GPA. We are doing our own games in labs now though, and it's kind of hilarious. I've done almost all the coding so far, except a little bit of the graphics stuff our team artists did. We are the only 2 who really do anything, and honestly, I couldn't care less. By having one person do all the coding, that person gets really familiar with it. By being that person, I'm the one who knows how Scratch works. That we have a guy to draw stuff for us is also pretty epic, because I don't do computer art. Next time I am going to try and remember my laptop though so I can get it on the big screen and make it easier for the other two guys to look like they are being helpful (I'm nice like that).

My computer is, without tunneling through the walls, nearly 80 feet from the modem (I'm 3rd floor, it's 1st). The only way for me to solve that is to buy a coax sniffer and move the modem into my room (which is a tempting thought aside from the part where if anyone needs to reboot it and I'm not around, they would have to come into my room). What I am doing right now is repurposing the range extender as an access point, and I'm sad to say, the wireless extender is not as powerful a wi-fi device, so my speed is actually capped right now to 1-5 mbps just because the signal is weak. It should be enough for a game though, and test the theory that the modem is fine by the wifi is not, so I can ask Eastlink for a functional router, or failing that, buy one.

Really renewing my hatred of wireless technology, on the grounds that it's even less reliable than printing technology. The new internet seems to be fantastic, until you play an online game for an hour or two. My first thought was there might be an issue with the cable line itself, but it's definitely the router/modem combo. With that in mind, google tells me that this model is not known for quality wireless, and possibly in a more irritating manner than the last one. Messed around with some more settings, see if I can't get it to behave. If not, then I'm calling my new ISP to see if I can't get a standalone router out of them, or a different model of modem, because I can't have it taking a vacation sometimes several times an hour. I just want the combo modem I had a couple years ago, it was perfect (in so far as it actually worked, all day, every day, for at least a week at a time). If I have to get my own router, I'm going to find out what my parents have and see if they still exist, because their router is nearly flawless. It might need a reset once every 3 or 4 months, it's that solid (it is however only a G I think, but still, if that's the price of 99% functional technology, G it is). I'm also lamenting all the inferior tech in the house, my phone included (I think). While I have this questionable device, I'd at least like to run it on a 5GHz channel to get away from the local interference (no one around here runs a connection in that band), but I don't think most of my housemates computers could actually connect if I did.

I find lectures depend pretty heavily on the subject, and the presenter. For my classes that use slide, my english prof is really good in that the slides cover some key points, but really, you're listening to her talk (the slides are mostly to prompt her, as they should be). Someone who reads their slides, or puts enough on that you get the idea reading them is just horrible; you'll be bored to tears. My english notes are far and above my best because the lecture gets you thinking, so you're actually just writing stuff down as people are talking. My computer animation class subscribes much more to the INFORMATION! school of slide making, so you spend a lot more time copying that using your brain for anything productive, and the notes consequently don't stick in your head as well. Neither of my math classes use them, it's all how to do things, and examples. Might be more productive if we had chances to work out some stuff on our own, just because the professor can go through things so quickly that your usually copying than really thinking.

Sorry, apparently I skipped a sentence when I read your post. It would be neat to see how they do it, but it's not exactly ground breaking stuff. No matter how you move the money, the nature of the transaction makes the traders stand out, though if you use enough accounts for final sale, they might not be found for some time until after the trade. I am also guessing they go for a bit more evidence, so they would want to link the sale accounts together to show that they all come from a single entity. Still, it's the money-in-money-out accounts that are the easiest to find in the end. The farmers can hide their stockpile by keeping it extremely distributed, and ensuring that it moves faster than it can be tracked, thus keeping the money safe. The buyers would seem to be more protected by reluctance, or possibly just manpower, since the volume of accounts and trades would still take a long time to piece together. If they try to link a network together before going after the buyers, then you would also expect people to be hit in waves, since such a bust would lead to many accounts being found guilty at the same time. I would expect they are doing something like that. Laborious and time consuming, but not particularly difficult, and very accurate.

What you actually want to see is the data and methodology (how the study was conducted, internal definitions, etc.). The world of misleading people with statistics is a world of endless opportunities, particularly given that the vast majority of the population does not understand how they work. They question is less about Jagex making up numbers and more about them meaning something other than you think. Making up a number makes no sense, because form a business perspective they had to have done this study internally anyway to see if this was a viable idea. They would have had some numbers already knocking around to use, so yeah, misleading is far more likely than false.

Jury duty is something I wouldn't mind doing, but yeah, the inconvenience. I feel like it's probably a lot more boring than it sounds once you get to do it.

Ah, that's music to my ears TradeMe. Makes sense, there is an easier alternative to push people toward, less chance to lose them as players. I have been hoping to see force from Jagex become a factor in all this, though on some level it's still disappointing that they were in a position where they obviously knew who the traders were, and either couldn't or wouldn't penalize them. I get the business aspect, but it's still an icky feeling. I still wish they'd be a bit more onboard with the whole wealth nuking the traders though, seems like a more fitting punishment than a ban anyway. A 14 day ban can be waited out, much better if you just remove say, triple whatever they bought.

Wow, I would not be impressed if they handed me a router that couldn't port forward. Same with screwing around with the NAT. That's actually part of my beef with Bell right now is that, after we lost our cable and ended up with a slightly lower connection (we had some extra speed to handle the TV), we also ended up with a...very simplistic and unreliable router with an inferior broadcast strength. I am hoping that Eastlink has something a bit better. Functional would be a good start, something that doesn't make a printer look reliable. Range is a semi-moot point, we have an extender. Good day of classes. Either I got less sleep than I thought though, or I just had very poor quality sleep. Woke up nicely, and was practically a zombie by the time I was walking to class. Think I peaked again sometime between maths. Before I forget, in English Class today our professor read a bit from Beowulf to us in Old English. I've never heard it spoken before; more Scandinavian than I was expecting (as I understand it, Icelandic would probably be the most similar). Pretty much total gibberish to me, except for the odd word that has apparently not changed at all from old to modern English (in, him, and under are a few examples), but was still kind of neat.

Nice to know Bell treats everyone like dirt, whether they shell out for fibre or not. Get to say goodby to them this week, moving to Eastlink who gave us a much better deal, and aren't famous for the worst customer service in the country. To easily illustrate the difference in my expectations, when I called them to change the installation date, I was on hold for all of 15 seconds, and it was not a hassle to change anything. With Bell, I would probably be on hold for at least 15 minutes, and then put me on hold for another 15 while they made the change. I'd be interested to know how the fibreop messed up so quickly. That seems like an impressive feat.

Urgh, I remember that one. A perfect example of the misleading trailer if I ever saw one. I think I've managed to scrub all the specifics of the plot out of my brain, but I remember that after that movie was done, all I could think about was that it was just awful in a 'my soul just died a little bit' kind of way. It almost makes The Virgin Suicides look cheerful by comparison. Anyway, I think the part I miss in that kind of movie is the heartwarming. Pan's Labyrinth as well. Not as sad, or quite as misleading (or english), but still not exactly resembling the trailer, or a super cheery movie.

I'm liking the description of the feedback system, that sounds really neat, and I was wondering how that would all work out. If they can make it feel like a giant trackball, or like it's moving in increments, that's pretty neat.

Repeat: goodbye liver. And hello beer belly :P

I'm quite impressed, and curious. It's more than consoles, they are going to take on everything if I am reading this right. I'll be interested to see what the steam boxes can do on their own (sounds like there will be at least one in tablet and one in console form?), but with their SteamOS, they can back them up with a traditional tower running pretty much anything, and with the whole cross OS streaming gig, they don't need to immediately penetrate the OS market to get the ball rolling. I guess the steam box is the draw I was missing, the master plan to get people, consumers and developers alike, to adopt the SteamOS. I'm wondering if we are getting to see Gabe Newell's vision for the future now. I like the way Valve runs, it's outside the box (sort of like this). It would be nice to see the odd company de-pants the computer industry. Might convince other companies to try things their way (I'm referring to their management structure). Anywho, long term, I am definitely interested in the SteamOS. If they can get game, and general program support for it, I'd just as soon not pay for Windows, if Steam can support it as a general OS (which is a fairly tall order once your talking about the general public). I'm also interested in that controller. The haptic system sounds neat, but I'm nore interested in the ability of the trackpads to be used as absolute positioning rather than as joysticks. Nice to have both options, since for something like a shooter, you want one of each. I'm also actually impressed with their idea for the trackpad, to make it overlay on the screen (so you don't have to look at it), and then select things by clicking.

I vaguely remember Dare Devil. I'm not sure if its the passage of time, or the age at which I saw it, but I didn't think it was that bad. No real urge to see it again, but I did enjoy it. I think I've seen at least part of Elektra.

Spent my morning having a battle with my computer over formatting. Ah, the joys of essays. As a result, I missed two classes and now have open office again (because word 2010 basic doesn't do footnotes), but I got it all sorted out in time. This is why you really go through the formatting the night before, rather than looking at it the day of and realizing you were obviously not awake when you decided to put sources in a freaking footer (bad idea). On the emotional upside, I somehow got an 8.5 out of 10 on my 10 minute essay (1/5th of what would be the midterm, done every other week), which is more than I expected since to me it felt like I started grasping at straws about halfway through. Glad to get it though, they get harder the more material we have covered. Feeling pretty good about English Class right now. My only issue is that nothing is big points (highest value anything has is 30%, which is the final), which is nice, but also bad because there are lots of little things, which to me seems like more opportunities to whittle down your grade with the little stuff. I guess it all averages out to the same place though, so for now I am going to be happy before I get to the research paper, because research is really not my deal.

Because you wanted the option to have something else down the line?

Yeah, don't fly to North America then. I'm not sure about the wifi because I bring movies and books with me, but there is something about having all your customers trapped (unless they want to go through security again) that just encourages those merchants to add a little extra padding to the prices. It's like buying beer at a concert.

I'm pretty sure all airports are like that, I think it's international law. Also, I love the blame Canada song. So very good. Oh, and apparently Buffy the Vampire Slayer is very much my new TV show. I shouldn't be allowed to have a new show when there are already multiple seasons of it available on Netflix. I wasn't really expecting to find the girl from American Pie to be in it (Alyson Hannigan), or Seth Green (everything, apparently), but I like both of them so that works out quite nicely. And to think this all got started because I had to watch an episode for English class.

If I recall correctly, you are a university student now. One of the resources that is probably available to you as a student would be psychologists, who are much more available (and cheaper, if not free) than they are in the outside world. Speaking as someone who has seen a psychologist before, this is something I think would be worth your while. They can do a lot more than prescribe drugs.

Try getting through a two hour computer lab on 6 hours of sleep after having taken two tests that day. That was made just oh so much better by being the designated computer monkey for that day, which mostly consisted of me having almost no reading comprehension and needing to read instructions multiple times, unless someone read them too me. Still a pretty good day though, things went pretty well aside from the linear algebra I very nearly slept through (not fatigue, just boring). Kind of reminded me of the day I was lifeguarding, and for lack of anything interesting happening (and the layout of the beach dictating that the other lifeguard spent most of her time out of conversation range) I spent a few hours working out square roots to multiple decimal places in my head. That kind of boring. On the upside, I still have enough beef left for one more round of provolone cheese tacos. More time consuming than my normal, but fun in it's own way. Only problem is I really have to dominate the kitchen when I make them, so I've mostly been making them when no one else is around. Also, messy messy food, but so good.

Perhaps I was not entirely clear. Pro homogeneity is my gut reaction, born from an emotional feeling and backed by the most cursory passing of logical reasoning, something I hadn't really thought to question until I tried to defend it, and realized I couldn't. There is the whole social expression in, which I only briefly touched on during the bit about why my own viewpoint is quite biased, but also that the logic behind the sentiment is deeply flawed.

It sounds like you are perhaps arriving at a rather groundbreaking conclusion Prets, and it's not a happy place to be, even if it ultimately does go to nice places. So I am thinking perhaps I should remind you of something you said a little while ago: It sounds like there are people in your life who do like you for you, so don't forget that.

My point is that skin color has little to do with ethnicity, but other people don't see it that way. Well, learn something new every day. I've never bothered to look up the definition of ethnicity before, I always assumed that it was the proper term for race, which would be the slang form. I suppose that sort of speaks volumes about the way it's normally used if I could get this far in life thinking the words were synonyms, when they have nothing to do with each other. I suppose that leads into a question I have now, which is, is there another word for race (that isn't breed), or is that actually the proper term? It just seems like a concept that should have a word all of it's own, and the closest I can think of are breed (which implies a human hand in it's creation, and will also get you lynched if you use it that way), and stock, which also has multiple meanings. If not, seems like English should be getting out there and stealing someone else's word for it.

I'm leaving the page as is for now, but I want to mention that telling people what they think is not appreciated here. Conjecture is fine assuming it is otherwise within the rules, but putting words in peoples mouths, or stating opinions as facts, is terrible debate etiquette and potentially against the rules when it disrupts a thread. Moving along, I've been thinking a bit about my own stance, and I have found myself staring at a fairly large bias in my world view that I am having no small trouble working around. My general stance is pro-homogeneity, that is, the belief that clinging to differences creates unnecessary discord that need not otherwise exist. I have three problems maintaining this. My first is that, being an English only speaker, I am part of a cultural supermajority in my area of the world. If all the cultures were to totally let go and absorb each other, nothing would really change, at least not for me. The majority culture, like the english language, is already pretty loose on maintaining very specific traditions from one generation to the next, and adept at stealing bits of other cultures and adapting them (or straight up integrating them) into itself. That is, by and large, the english culture has already plundered everything of interest from say, the french community (the second largest here), and the biggest change from a cultural blending would be the near total destruction of the french language (but we will always have the word 'toque'). That is, my cultural identity is not 'threatened', and given my total lack of desire to visit places where English is not the dominant language, it's not likely to be in my foreseeable future. As a related problem, what pieces of culture I actually put importance on is kind of wishy washy with me anyway. If I knew other languages, I'm sure I would have a favourite, but I assume it would be much like switching between computer languages, or even 'changing faces', changing the way you act around other people. There are certain holidays I would like to always be celebrating, but how I celebrate is up for debate. There are a couple movies I like to watch for Christmas, but I am not particularly concerned with going to a specific church (or a church at all), or having it at my house, or even in the country. Clapping becomes a rude gesture? Fine, I won't clap anymore. My point being, what is important to me is not only something I would have some trouble itemizing, but entirely subjective. What is important to me is not going to be important to other people, and vice versa. If I can't adequately put myself in my own shoes and figure out what really is important to me, how can I expect that I could do any better for someone else. A great example is that my personality tends toward a focus on being invisible I want you to believe that I am just like you, so that I can be accepted and left alone to do my own thing. Other people loathe the idea of blending in, either they want to be noticed, or they refuse to bow to the pressure of others. My third issue is something I had not given enough thought, which is that, while a more homogeneous population might seem to have less to fight about, it's also much less equipped to deal with differences that do come up, and there will always be differences. Even if we all looked alike, there would still be political and theological differences, and I think a culture that is more varied is more likely to be the one that accepts it, rather than going all oppression on you. That is, the fights wouldn't be fewer, just different. And really thinking about it, if I were totally immersed in a totally different culture, I think that even if I had to go it alone, I would make sure that my life still had a bit of the old culture left in it. Being me, it's something I wouldn't display, but it would happen. A way to keep yourself grounded.