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-- Host: typopro.mikepurvis.com
-- Generation Time: Nov 05, 2005 at 10:24 AM
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-- Database: `uwmike_typo_pro`
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CREATE DATABASE `uwmike_typo_pro` DEFAULT CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci;
USE uwmike_typo_pro;
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-- Table structure for table `articles`
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CREATE TABLE `articles` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`title` varchar(255) default NULL,
`author` varchar(255) default NULL,
`body` text,
`body_html` text,
`extended` text,
`excerpt` text,
`keywords` varchar(255) default NULL,
`allow_comments` int(11) default NULL,
`allow_pings` int(11) default NULL,
`published` int(11) default '1',
`created_at` datetime default NULL,
`updated_at` datetime default NULL,
`extended_html` text,
`guid` varchar(255) default NULL,
`permalink` varchar(255) default NULL,
`user_id` int(11) default NULL,
`text_filter_id` int(11) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `articles_permalink_index` (`permalink`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=184 ;
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-- Dumping data for table `articles`
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INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (106, 'Internet Radio', 'mikepurvis', 'I realised a couple nights ago that I''d been pretty well listening to the same 50 songs for the two months since I arrived in Waterloo. This is a problem.\r\n\r\nI''d resisted upgrading past Winamp 2.7, since reports had been bad on Winamp3. But I sprung for it, having heard about the Winamp Radio Stations, which operate under the dubious legality of ''since it''s streaming media, it doesn''t matter that you get whole songs for free.''\r\n\r\nI _really_ like it. I''ve got an all-time hits station and an classic rock station bookmarked that have both been great. The titles are unimportant, though. What matters is that it''s really just someone''s 24 hour playlist being broadcast over the net for anyone to listen to. And as long as their taste is agreeable, the relationship is good.\r\n\r\nI''d remembered reading poor reports about internet radio some time ago, but my recollection is that the article author was checking out RealPlayer streams and was connecting via a fast modem or slow highspeed.\r\n\r\nWell, I''m connecting on quite brisk highspeed (Rogers), and I haven''t had a single Buffering Break in my 128kbps streams in the 5-6 hours that I''ve listened to them over the past few days.\r\n\r\nI realise, scrolling through the gigantic list of stations, many with less than ten listeners, that there''s probably a lot of really _lousy_ ''stations'' out there. But the Internet is ruled my mob law. Yes, anyone can publish whatever they like out here, but it''s the votes of confidence by readership that make some fail and others not.\r\n\r\nMike', 'I realised a couple nights ago that I’d been pretty well listening to the same 50 songs for the two months since I arrived in Waterloo. This is a problem.
\n\n\n I’d resisted upgrading past Winamp 2.7, since reports had been bad on Winamp3. But I sprung for it, having heard about the Winamp Radio Stations, which operate under the dubious legality of ‘since it’s streaming media, it doesn’t matter that you get whole songs for free.’
\n\n\n I really like it. I’ve got an all-time hits station and an classic rock station bookmarked that have both been great. The titles are unimportant, though. What matters is that it’s really just someone’s 24 hour playlist being broadcast over the net for anyone to listen to. And as long as their taste is agreeable, the relationship is good.
\n\n\n I’d remembered reading poor reports about internet radio some time ago, but my recollection is that the article author was checking out RealPlayer streams and was connecting via a fast modem or slow highspeed.
\n\n\n Well, I’m connecting on quite brisk highspeed (Rogers), and I haven’t had a single Buffering Break in my 128kbps streams in the 5-6 hours that I’ve listened to them over the past few days.
\n\n\n I realise, scrolling through the gigantic list of stations, many with less than ten listeners, that there’s probably a lot of really lousy ‘stations’ out there. But the Internet is ruled my mob law. Yes, anyone can publish whatever they like out here, but it’s the votes of confidence by readership that make some fail and others not.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-11-04 00:03:00', '2005-10-28 21:10:58', '', 'ef7a41c62d3279875d699dd7c9acf16a', 'internet-radio', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (105, 'Keyhole', 'mikepurvis', 'Stuff this cool should be illegal. Seriously, I thought only the military had access to satellite maps this good. If you don''t know what I''m talking about, get yourself over to [Keyhole.com](http://keyhole.com) and sign up for the 7-day trial.\r\n\r\nMy housemates and I spent at least a good hour bouncing around the globe checking out various landmarks such as the [Eiffel Tower](http://uwmike.com/photos/keyhole/keyhole_eiffel.jpg), [Statue of Liberty](http://uwmike.com/photos/keyhole/keyhole_liberty.jpg), and [Washington Monument](http://uwmike.com/photos/keyhole/keyhole_washington.jpg). It seems that some areas are censored out, such as the [US Capitol](http://uwmike.com/photos/keyhole/keyhole_capitol.jpg), however the [Pentagon](http://uwmike.com/photos/keyhole/keyhole_pentagon.jpg) is shown in stunning detail, as is my [neighbourhood back home](http://uwmike.com/photos/keyhole/keyhole_myhouse.jpg).\r\n\r\nUnfortunately the town of Waterloo is considered ''Rural Area'', so the images of campus are considerably less impressive. I was also disappointed to not see some international sights such as the Pyramids and the Palm in Dubai. In spite of these, it''s an absolutely stunning job they''ve done of compiling data from different mapping projects into a single globe like this. It''s my understanding that similar projects have been undertaken before, but never with this slick a result.\r\n\r\nIt''s hard to even describe, but it gives you such an incredible feeling of the enormity of the Earth when you''re able to zoom from street level to viewing the whole thing in just a few mouse movements.\r\n\r\nThis sort of thing has incredible potential as a teaching tool. I was embarassed with myself that I wasn''t able to locate the Eiffel Tower without cheating (looking up the co-ordinates). However, experience playing [Scotland Yard](http://www.ravensburger.com/rag/com/uk/produkte/db/spiele.html?R26117) gave me a significant advantage navigating around London and identifying a few of the buildings between Hyde Park and the Thames.\r\n\r\nI don''t know what these people would charge a school board for a site license, but it would be criminal to not at least consider it. This thing has implementations extending far beyond geography. History, Geometry, Languages, Literature, anyone?\r\n\r\nMike', 'Stuff this cool should be illegal. Seriously, I thought only the military had access to satellite maps this good. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, get yourself over to Keyhole.com and sign up for the 7-day trial.
\n\n\n My housemates and I spent at least a good hour bouncing around the globe checking out various landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, and Washington Monument. It seems that some areas are censored out, such as the US Capitol, however the Pentagon is shown in stunning detail, as is my neighbourhood back home.
\n\n\n Unfortunately the town of Waterloo is considered ‘Rural Area’, so the images of campus are considerably less impressive. I was also disappointed to not see some international sights such as the Pyramids and the Palm in Dubai. In spite of these, it’s an absolutely stunning job they’ve done of compiling data from different mapping projects into a single globe like this. It’s my understanding that similar projects have been undertaken before, but never with this slick a result.
\n\n\n It’s hard to even describe, but it gives you such an incredible feeling of the enormity of the Earth when you’re able to zoom from street level to viewing the whole thing in just a few mouse movements.
\n\n\n This sort of thing has incredible potential as a teaching tool. I was embarassed with myself that I wasn’t able to locate the Eiffel Tower without cheating (looking up the co-ordinates). However, experience playing Scotland Yard gave me a significant advantage navigating around London and identifying a few of the buildings between Hyde Park and the Thames.
\n\n\n I don’t know what these people would charge a school board for a site license, but it would be criminal to not at least consider it. This thing has implementations extending far beyond geography. History, Geometry, Languages, Literature, anyone?
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-30 06:55:00', '2005-10-28 18:05:41', '', '30b7d7913825a76c055807079f491a46', 'keyhole', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (104, 'Computer Sacrilege', 'mikepurvis', 'I want a Mac.\r\n\r\nSeriously, I thought this day would never come. [Jokes abound](http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/?t=archives&date=2002-11-26) online and elsewhere about the technical skill level required to operate a Mac, and once upon a time, I was a participant in such humour.\r\n\r\nBut several months ago I discovered a [good friend](http://elumir.com) who''d purchased a Mac for his new home computer.\r\n\r\nSince then, I''ve really re-evaluated what I even use the computer for. I realised that I _don''t play games_. I''ve never been a serious gamer. The last game I played was like grade 10, and that was Max Payne. Yes, it''s an awesome shooter with brilliant plot and gorgeous graphics. And it''s full of style. But the main thing is that it was second year of high school and I just wasn''t that busy, so there was time.\r\n\r\nI don''t have time like that now. The time I''m using to type this up could be used to catch up on sleep before I head to a Calculus Review Session at four o''clock.\r\n\r\nSo what do I use the computer for? Well, primarily for word processing, web development, instant messaging, and multimedia. What of that functionality is _not_ available for Mac? In fact, most of the software I use, like FileZilla, is open-source, and available for any platform.\r\n\r\nThe most attractive thing about the Mac, though, surpassing anything else, is [iLife](http://www.apple.com/ilife/). For like $50, you get iPhoto, which completely owns Picasa or anything else available for PC, iTunes, a similar product for organizing MP3s, iMovie2, which destroys Windows Movie Maker in every way, iDVD, which lets you author and burn movies to disc, plus GarageBand, which is basically a clone of SonicFoundry''s ACID, a loop-music program that is very dear to me.\r\n\r\nIt''s not that I can''t _handle_ a PC. I enjoy the fight. But between the iLife package, the chic appearance, the promise of no hardware trouble, you can''t really beat it. Except, of course, for the price. Like I have $2000 to throw at a PowerBook.\r\n\r\nI do enjoy being financially independant though. The other day the ink head on my printer died. This is like an $80 thing to replace, and I''ve done twice before on the $120 unit. So I surfed to my trusty forums and asked the boys what to go for in terms of entry-level laser printers. Turns out that the [Samsung ML 1740](http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=,&webid=573814&affixedcode=WW) is an excellent model, and with the right coupon codes, the price can be knocked down $90, plus a $30 rebate... and shipping is free. Well, Oreo_The_Cookie from Rage3d recommended it, corroborated by several review sites, so I''m having it delivered Tuesday. No printing until then.\r\n\r\nMike', 'I want a Mac.
\n\n\n Seriously, I thought this day would never come. Jokes abound online and elsewhere about the technical skill level required to operate a Mac, and once upon a time, I was a participant in such humour.
\n\n\n But several months ago I discovered a good friend who’d purchased a Mac for his new home computer.
\n\n\n Since then, I’ve really re-evaluated what I even use the computer for. I realised that I don’t play games. I’ve never been a serious gamer. The last game I played was like grade 10, and that was Max Payne. Yes, it’s an awesome shooter with brilliant plot and gorgeous graphics. And it’s full of style. But the main thing is that it was second year of high school and I just wasn’t that busy, so there was time.
\n\n\n I don’t have time like that now. The time I’m using to type this up could be used to catch up on sleep before I head to a Calculus Review Session at four o’clock.
\n\n\n So what do I use the computer for? Well, primarily for word processing, web development, instant messaging, and multimedia. What of that functionality is not available for Mac? In fact, most of the software I use, like FileZilla, is open-source, and available for any platform.
\n\n\n The most attractive thing about the Mac, though, surpassing anything else, is iLife. For like $50, you get iPhoto, which completely owns Picasa or anything else available for PC, iTunes, a similar product for organizing MP3s, iMovie2, which destroys Windows Movie Maker in every way, iDVD, which lets you author and burn movies to disc, plus GarageBand, which is basically a clone of SonicFoundry’s ACID, a loop-music program that is very dear to me.
\n\n\n It’s not that I can’t handle a PC. I enjoy the fight. But between the iLife package, the chic appearance, the promise of no hardware trouble, you can’t really beat it. Except, of course, for the price. Like I have $2000 to throw at a PowerBook.
\n\n\n I do enjoy being financially independant though. The other day the ink head on my printer died. This is like an $80 thing to replace, and I’ve done twice before on the $120 unit. So I surfed to my trusty forums and asked the boys what to go for in terms of entry-level laser printers. Turns out that the Samsung ML 1740 is an excellent model, and with the right coupon codes, the price can be knocked down $90, plus a $30 rebate… and shipping is free. Well, Oreo_The_Cookie from Rage3d recommended it, corroborated by several review sites, so I’m having it delivered Tuesday. No printing until then.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-24 17:59:00', '2005-10-27 08:43:33', '', 'dcb4967f81e8151cc25093bb6531d311', 'computer-sacrilege', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (103, 'Ensuing Bloodbath', 'mikepurvis', 'This past week, the message chalked on pathways around campus has been, "Do You Agree With Byron?" Byron is a senior undergrad student who''s put up a testimony both [online](http://iagreewithbyron.com/index.cgi/statement.html), and in the student newspaper. All of this is sponsored by the [Campus Crusade For Christ](http://www.crusade.org/).\r\n\r\nI guess I was a little disappointed to find out today that this wasn''t a brilliant home-grown UWaterloo idea, but that similar ''I Agree With...'' campaigns are going on at a number of North American schools, including [Mac](http://www.iagreewithdave.com) and [Queens](http://www.iagreewithjamie.com/whosjamie.html).\r\n\r\nMany of the messages surrounding popular buildings have been defaced or [supplemented](http://uwmike.com/photos/fuckbyron.jpg) in various creative ways by counter-minded individuals, and similarly, the online forum is beginning to be overrun by single-post users who drop links to Infidels and then never return.\r\n\r\nUltimately, whatever you believe, if you plan to take a stand on it in some way, make sure you''ve thought about a bit. Someone who claims his opposition to be blind followers and then cuts and pastes huge articles from other sites as ''debate'' is useless except as part of a larger screaming body of [Cyber Sisters](http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame4.html).\r\n\r\nI guess the lack of open, intellectual debate is the biggest frustration I have with this whole issue (and many others, really). Why can''t intellectual people just discuss things _without_ resorting to insults and mud-slinging?\r\n\r\nOn a lighter note, for some good, Waterloo fun and hijinx, check out our very own [PhoneBooking.com](http://phonebooking.com/main.php), now hosted separately from the school, since it was eating up too much bandwidth...\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\nPS -- And for the record, yes, I do agree with Byron.', 'This past week, the message chalked on pathways around campus has been, “Do You Agree With Byron?” Byron is a senior undergrad student who’s put up a testimony both online, and in the student newspaper. All of this is sponsored by the Campus Crusade For Christ.
\n\n\n I guess I was a little disappointed to find out today that this wasn’t a brilliant home-grown UWaterloo idea, but that similar ‘I Agree With…’ campaigns are going on at a number of North American schools, including Mac and Queens.
\n\n\n Many of the messages surrounding popular buildings have been defaced or supplemented in various creative ways by counter-minded individuals, and similarly, the online forum is beginning to be overrun by single-post users who drop links to Infidels and then never return.
\n\n\n Ultimately, whatever you believe, if you plan to take a stand on it in some way, make sure you’ve thought about a bit. Someone who claims his opposition to be blind followers and then cuts and pastes huge articles from other sites as ‘debate’ is useless except as part of a larger screaming body of Cyber Sisters.
\n\n\n I guess the lack of open, intellectual debate is the biggest frustration I have with this whole issue (and many others, really). Why can’t intellectual people just discuss things without resorting to insults and mud-slinging?
\n\n\n On a lighter note, for some good, Waterloo fun and hijinx, check out our very own PhoneBooking.com, now hosted separately from the school, since it was eating up too much bandwidth…
\n\n\n Mike
\n\n\n PS —And for the record, yes, I do agree with Byron.
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-22 19:26:00', '2005-10-28 21:10:37', '', '6588818829d62383072cb70f09d3730e', 'do-you-agree-with-byron', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (101, 'Slow Food', 'mikepurvis', 'When I was originally figuring out my living arrangements for school and decided I was cooking for myself, I budgetted a lot of money for eating out, figuring that I _could_, considering the savings on rent.\r\n\r\nBut I hate eating out. The food on campus is awful. In an emergency last night between a meeting and WCF, I had the special at a major campus eatery. Terrible. For the $8.50 that cost, I could''ve made three meals each twice as good. And I''m not a chef. Definitely not a chef.\r\n[img]http://uwmike.com/photos/yummypizzasmall.jpg[/img]\r\n\r\nBut I had a nice piece of success Thursday after the bananabread fiasco. I thought I''d make Pizza for the other Mike and I. Now, I know making pizza is supposed to be really difficult, but I also knew that my sisters and I had had a moderate amount of success with it a couple months ago at home. Well, it worked famously -- absolutely delicious. I bought a slice of Pizza Pizza today just as a control variable to make sure, and it was sort of lousy in comparison. :)\r\n\r\nI might as well take this opportunity to link for the first time to my other big project -- the [Quickcook Database](http://quickcook.net). It''s not finished, but there''s still a lot of great meals there that my family members and I have contributed.\r\n\r\nIt exists primarily to provide me with things to consume so I don''t starve, and secondarily as a playground for me to work on my PHP and MySQL skills. It''s not supposed to be a gargantuan beast the way some recipe sites are, just a small collection of honest, reliable, simple food ideas. That said, the database behind it is far more sophisticated and intricate than anything I''ve seen anywhere else to date.\r\n\r\nI''ve updated the [Pizza Recipe](http://quickcook.net/recipe.php?id=40) to reflect my observations from the other day. And I''ve got the other half of the dough in the freezer for another time.\r\n\r\nMike', 'When I was originally figuring out my living arrangements for school and decided I was cooking for myself, I budgetted a lot of money for eating out, figuring that I could, considering the savings on rent.
\n\n\n But I hate eating out. The food on campus is awful. In an emergency last night between a meeting and WCF, I had the special at a major campus eatery. Terrible. For the $8.50 that cost, I could’ve made three meals each twice as good. And I’m not a chef. Definitely not a chef.
\n\n\n But I had a nice piece of success Thursday after the bananabread fiasco. I thought I’d make Pizza for the other Mike and I. Now, I know making pizza is supposed to be really difficult, but I also knew that my sisters and I had had a moderate amount of success with it a couple months ago at home. Well, it worked famously—absolutely delicious. I bought a slice of Pizza Pizza today just as a control variable to make sure, and it was sort of lousy in comparison. :)
\n\n\n I might as well take this opportunity to link for the first time to my other big project—the Quickcook Database. It’s not finished, but there’s still a lot of great meals there that my family members and I have contributed.
\n\n\n It exists primarily to provide me with things to consume so I don’t starve, and secondarily as a playground for me to work on my PHP and MySQL skills. It’s not supposed to be a gargantuan beast the way some recipe sites are, just a small collection of honest, reliable, simple food ideas. That said, the database behind it is far more sophisticated and intricate than anything I’ve seen anywhere else to date.
\n\n\n I’ve updated the Pizza Recipe to reflect my observations from the other day. And I’ve got the other half of the dough in the freezer for another time.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-16 17:22:00', '2005-10-28 22:23:55', '', '88909d1105d179c0c25e370f0806627a', 'slow-food', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (100, 'SNZ 101', 'mikepurvis', 'After a 3 hour Autocad and sketching lecture-lab, our prof announced that in twenty years of teaching this material, he''d never seen so many people asleep by the end of it.\r\n\r\nI managed to stay alert and internalize everything, but I guess time will have the final word on that. There were several assignments due at the crack of dawn this morning, all of which were more ambitious than they appeared to be from the outset. Besides that, we had a practice-midterm last night until ten, so a lot of folks were up well into the night working... and posting occasionally on our [class forum](http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~mte09), which I set up and have been administering with moderate success.\r\n\r\nThe practice midterm was a short paper with a handful of questions from each course stapled together so that we could get an idea of the difficulty level. It was deceiving to have it as multiple-choice, though, since neither of the math exams are to be that way. As it was, I scored almost perfect, but that''s because of good educated guessing where I wasn''t positive.\r\n\r\nI''m going to try making [pizza](http://quickcook.net/recipe.php?id=40) tonight... we''ll see how that works out, but I was responsible for the crust the last time the sisters and I did it, and it was great then.\r\n\r\nIn other news, it looks like the major project for our Mechatronics course is an obstacle course in Mindstorms. The most severe limitation is that we''re only permitted to use a single kit. In terms of sensors, that limits you to two binary touch, and one photocell. Trying to reliably follow a line with a single light sensor when one of the guidelines is ''as fast as possible'' seems like a somewhat futile exercise, if my experience with campers over the summer is any indication. I was thinking more along the lines of an encoder for very precise distance reckoning. But of course, since it''s one sensor and two wheels, this requires a devious gearing arrangement whereby a single motor powers both, but a nonfixed axle allows it to steer... differential, anyone? ([Rob](http://sparky.i989.net/rstehlik/)''s influence over me is profound)\r\nShould be an interesting project...\r\nMike', 'After a 3 hour Autocad and sketching lecture-lab, our prof announced that in twenty years of teaching this material, he’d never seen so many people asleep by the end of it.
\n\n\n I managed to stay alert and internalize everything, but I guess time will have the final word on that. There were several assignments due at the crack of dawn this morning, all of which were more ambitious than they appeared to be from the outset. Besides that, we had a practice-midterm last night until ten, so a lot of folks were up well into the night working… and posting occasionally on our class forum, which I set up and have been administering with moderate success.
\n\n\n The practice midterm was a short paper with a handful of questions from each course stapled together so that we could get an idea of the difficulty level. It was deceiving to have it as multiple-choice, though, since neither of the math exams are to be that way. As it was, I scored almost perfect, but that’s because of good educated guessing where I wasn’t positive.
\n\n\n I’m going to try making pizza tonight… we’ll see how that works out, but I was responsible for the crust the last time the sisters and I did it, and it was great then.
\n\n\n In other news, it looks like the major project for our Mechatronics course is an obstacle course in Mindstorms. The most severe limitation is that we’re only permitted to use a single kit. In terms of sensors, that limits you to two binary touch, and one photocell. Trying to reliably follow a line with a single light sensor when one of the guidelines is ‘as fast as possible’ seems like a somewhat futile exercise, if my experience with campers over the summer is any indication. I was thinking more along the lines of an encoder for very precise distance reckoning. But of course, since it’s one sensor and two wheels, this requires a devious gearing arrangement whereby a single motor powers both, but a nonfixed axle allows it to steer… differential, anyone? (Rob’s influence over me is profound)
\nShould be an interesting project…\nMike', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-14 16:09:00', '2005-10-27 09:51:40', '', '5e89b3d1715147d19c8fbdeb12db8451', 'snz-101', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (102, 'Ladder 49', 'mikepurvis', 'I must have a soft spot for weepy chick-flick dramas. I mean, the [critics](http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ladder_49/) would never admit to liking something like this, but I really enjoyed it. I''d never have gone with _the boys_ to see it, but 50% of my housemates are female, and they won.\r\n\r\nThe films I like all fall somehow into one or more of the following categories: They either make me laugh, make me think, or make me feel good. I need a mix of all three types though -- if I''ve had too much of one particular one, I don''t enjoy those as much for a while.\r\n\r\nBut ''feel good'' movies are like drinking hot chocolate on a cold day. A film like _A Knight''s Tale_ has some humour, but a large part of it is the feel-good factor. _Ladder 49_ is like this.\r\n\r\nThere''s simple, honest, hard-working people living a real -- if sugar-sweet -- life. There''s no villain. I guess I enjoy a movie like this for the same reason I enjoy _Legally Blonde_ or _Ocean''s Eleven_. It''s a pure fantasy, but it''s a pleasant one. Baltimore firefighters a big happy fraternity? Probably not, but it''s nice to imagine a life where no problems lasts longer than the time it takes to put out a fire.\r\n\r\nMike', 'I must have a soft spot for weepy chick-flick dramas. I mean, the critics would never admit to liking something like this, but I really enjoyed it. I’d never have gone with the boys to see it, but 50% of my housemates are female, and they won.
\n\n\n The films I like all fall somehow into one or more of the following categories: They either make me laugh, make me think, or make me feel good. I need a mix of all three types though—if I’ve had too much of one particular one, I don’t enjoy those as much for a while.
\n\n\n But ‘feel good’ movies are like drinking hot chocolate on a cold day. A film like A Knight’s Tale has some humour, but a large part of it is the feel-good factor. Ladder 49 is like this.
\n\n\n There’s simple, honest, hard-working people living a real—if sugar-sweet—life. There’s no villain. I guess I enjoy a movie like this for the same reason I enjoy Legally Blonde or Ocean’s Eleven. It’s a pure fantasy, but it’s a pleasant one. Baltimore firefighters a big happy fraternity? Probably not, but it’s nice to imagine a life where no problems lasts longer than the time it takes to put out a fire.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-19 13:00:00', '2005-10-27 09:42:49', '', '413601b36294d07a772f059f49fc4ec6', 'ladder-49', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (98, 'Baking Misadventures', 'mikepurvis', '
EDIT: It seems that all unsatisfactory results were the product of a single miscalculation. I used a slightly smaller pan than was recommended in the recipe. This caused the loaf to be a lot thicker, and therefore not cook properly in 60 minutes, leading to the overdone crust and subsequent disintegration.', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-06 00:05:00', '2005-10-28 22:24:46', '', '28f1bac764fbf92e5f687133e18eb118', 'baking-misadventures', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (96, 'Word Games', 'mikepurvis', 'Some time ago, I remember playing an amazing game that was tons of fun, but afterwards I couldn''t for the life of me remember what it was called. Well, I met up with it again this weekend, at the WCF retreat. It''s Catch-Phrase. Now that link points to the electronic version, since it seems the classic mechanical/paper one is out of print right now. But the concept is the same: It''s like Taboo, except with elements of hot-potato and charades thrown in. The girl who brought it said she got it for her birthday and it''s become a phenomenon on her floor.\r\n\r\n\r\nI could believe it.\r\n\r\n\r\nI just love games like these, where you''re investing in it creatively a little more. Bluffing games fall under the same general blanket, too, maintaining a friendly conversation to keep calm. Liars dice -- great!\r\n\r\n\r\nIn a similar vein, I had a desire to try a really classic PC game that I remember from the BBS days -- Lexi-Cross. Hails from 1990, and is one of the earliest games (that I''m aware of) that sets itself in a fictitious game show, a tradition that You Don''t Know Jack has proudly carried forward ever since. I snagged it off The Underdogs, but it''s running rather briskly on my machine. Once I''ve got it slowed down properly, I''ll check it out some more. It''s just astounding the stuff people did graphically before the days of scanners or drawing tablets. This is one of those early gems.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'Some time ago, I remember playing an amazing game that was tons of fun, but afterwards I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was called. Well, I met up with it again this weekend, at the WCF retreat. It’s Catch-Phrase. Now that link points to the electronic version, since it seems the classic mechanical/paper one is out of print right now. But the concept is the same: It’s like Taboo, except with elements of hot-potato and charades thrown in. The girl who brought it said she got it for her birthday and it’s become a phenomenon on her floor.
\n\n\n I could believe it.
\n\n\n I just love games like these, where you’re investing in it creatively a little more. Bluffing games fall under the same general blanket, too, maintaining a friendly conversation to keep calm. Liars dice—great!
\n\n\n In a similar vein, I had a desire to try a really classic PC game that I remember from the BBS days—Lexi-Cross. Hails from 1990, and is one of the earliest games (that I’m aware of) that sets itself in a fictitious game show, a tradition that You Don’t Know Jack has proudly carried forward ever since. I snagged it off The Underdogs, but it’s running rather briskly on my machine. Once I’ve got it slowed down properly, I’ll check it out some more. It’s just astounding the stuff people did graphically before the days of scanners or drawing tablets. This is one of those early gems.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-04 01:09:00', '2005-10-27 09:51:36', '', 'd5b88ceafbea67b9680d991003cb4181', 'word-games', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (97, 'Information Flow', 'mikepurvis', 'Our modern society promotes a free flow of information. Some topics, like hate-material, of course, are excluded. Some other topics are officially permitted, but really just shouted down in any kind of debate.\r\n\r\n\r\nOut of curiousity, I checked out the Waterloo Student For Life presentation this afternoon. It seemed like lots was said both by the presenter and a very vocal heckler, but ultimately it boils down to a single issue: Whether or not a baby before birth is a human. In one case, it''s a medical procedure, in the other, it''s murder.\r\n\r\n\r\nI haven''t really had the time to research the whole matter properly and form an opinion, so I can''t and won''t say.\r\n\r\n\r\nBut I do get very frustrated by the amount of the debate that''s just plain appeals to emotion. Is it the child''s right to live or the woman''s right to choose? How come the question isn''t just ''Do you support legalized abortion?'', rather than ''Do you support the murder of unborn babies?'' or ''Do you support medieval ideas about women?''\r\n\r\n\r\nAt the moment, it''s just one more issue that I can close the book on for now. I do know, though, that I could never go to sleep at night having been a doctor involved in an abortion procedure. And it''s more than just the blood.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'Our modern society promotes a free flow of information. Some topics, like hate-material, of course, are excluded. Some other topics are officially permitted, but really just shouted down in any kind of debate.
\n\n\n Out of curiousity, I checked out the Waterloo Student For Life presentation this afternoon. It seemed like lots was said both by the presenter and a very vocal heckler, but ultimately it boils down to a single issue: Whether or not a baby before birth is a human. In one case, it’s a medical procedure, in the other, it’s murder.
\n\n\n I haven’t really had the time to research the whole matter properly and form an opinion, so I can’t and won’t say.
\n\n\n But I do get very frustrated by the amount of the debate that’s just plain appeals to emotion. Is it the child’s right to live or the woman’s right to choose? How come the question isn’t just ‘Do you support legalized abortion?’, rather than ‘Do you support the murder of unborn babies?’ or ‘Do you support medieval ideas about women?’
\n\n\n At the moment, it’s just one more issue that I can close the book on for now. I do know, though, that I could never go to sleep at night having been a doctor involved in an abortion procedure. And it’s more than just the blood.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-10-04 22:05:00', '2005-10-28 17:07:41', '', 'cb6c6bc4757cae06e9551cb37f0bb0ec', 'information-flow', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (95, 'Online Shopping. Act 2.', 'mikepurvis', 'Success: So I was out on my bike today. The excursion was disguised as exercise, but it was mostly just a waste of time because I was too hasty to check a map. Normally I''m not like this, but I was going straight from class and was in a hurry.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\nI''d just been wondering yesterday where my new Palm off eBay was, until I saw the notice that Canada Post had left for me. Seems it was a big enough parcel that I needed to go pick it up at the Albert Street Post Office. Now I''d remembered seeing one a twenty minute cycle away at the shopping mall, and I''d thought the mall was on Albert. And since the post office on the slip was listed for Albert street, yeah, you get the idea. Turned out the one they meant was just around the corner from where I''m staying. Hilarity... for everyone except me. : )\r\n\r\n\r\nThere was some poor guy at the office mailing out a parcel (lingerie, I think) almost the exact size and mass as mine. His was going to BC by groundmail and was costing over $20. Mine came from Virginia by airmal and cost US$6. Of course, there''s the possibility that I would have had to pay import duties, but I guess they didn''t check it or didn''t care.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyways, it''s all picked up and working famously, now. So that''s good. Left a positive for my seller.\r\n\r\n\r\nFailure: Well, not entirely. But definitely approaching it. So yeah, two weeks ago on Sunday I ordered Star Wars off FutureShop.ca, thinking I could get the first day special price and receive it as soon as possible without having to trek up to the mall to buy it.\r\n\r\n\r\nThursday of that week rolls around, and an email shows up in my inbox declaring that there''s a problem with my credit card. Now, don''t get me wrong here, I definitely appreciate that they take the time to validate this stuff and not bill some purchase to me that''s being shipped off to Venezuela. But the fact that I didn''t get a ''we shipped it'' notice until the following Monday was a little annoying. And now it''s the Tuesday a week after that, and it''s still not here.\r\n\r\n\r\nNot that I particularly care. I should be studying instead of watching Star Wars anyways. But the great irony of all this is that I''ve actually been at that Future Shop store not once but TWICE in the period since the movie came out. The SMC router that I purchased there at the beginning of the term was garbage -- according to online support forums, Mike and I ''overheated'' it by downloading too much too quickly. Whoops. I think he was on Kazaa and I was grabbing Service Pack 2. On the other hand, it was a $20 unit, with the rebate.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe slightly more expensive entry-level D-Link from CampusTech seems to be functioning well, though, so all is well.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n\r\n*thinking I''ll hit WCF retreat this weekend*\r\n\r\n', 'Success: So I was out on my bike today. The excursion was disguised as exercise, but it was mostly just a waste of time because I was too hasty to check a map. Normally I’m not like this, but I was going straight from class and was in a hurry.
\n\n\n \nI’d just been wondering yesterday where my new Palm off eBay was, until I saw the notice that Canada Post had left for me. Seems it was a big enough parcel that I needed to go pick it up at the Albert Street Post Office. Now I’d remembered seeing one a twenty minute cycle away at the shopping mall, and I’d thought the mall was on Albert. And since the post office on the slip was listed for Albert street, yeah, you get the idea. Turned out the one they meant was just around the corner from where I’m staying. Hilarity… for everyone except me. : )
\n\n\n There was some poor guy at the office mailing out a parcel (lingerie, I think) almost the exact size and mass as mine. His was going to BC by groundmail and was costing over $20. Mine came from Virginia by airmal and cost US$6. Of course, there’s the possibility that I would have had to pay import duties, but I guess they didn’t check it or didn’t care.
\n\n\n Anyways, it’s all picked up and working famously, now. So that’s good. Left a positive for my seller.
\n\n\n Failure: Well, not entirely. But definitely approaching it. So yeah, two weeks ago on Sunday I ordered Star Wars off FutureShop.ca, thinking I could get the first day special price and receive it as soon as possible without having to trek up to the mall to buy it.
\n\n\n Thursday of that week rolls around, and an email shows up in my inbox declaring that there’s a problem with my credit card. Now, don’t get me wrong here, I definitely appreciate that they take the time to validate this stuff and not bill some purchase to me that’s being shipped off to Venezuela. But the fact that I didn’t get a ‘we shipped it’ notice until the following Monday was a little annoying. And now it’s the Tuesday a week after that, and it’s still not here.
\n\n\n Not that I particularly care. I should be studying instead of watching Star Wars anyways. But the great irony of all this is that I’ve actually been at that Future Shop store not once but TWICE in the period since the movie came out. The SMC router that I purchased there at the beginning of the term was garbage—according to online support forums, Mike and I ‘overheated’ it by downloading too much too quickly. Whoops. I think he was on Kazaa and I was grabbing Service Pack 2. On the other hand, it was a $20 unit, with the rebate.
\n\n\n The slightly more expensive entry-level D-Link from CampusTech seems to be functioning well, though, so all is well.
\n\n\n Mike
\n\n\n thinking I’ll hit WCF retreat this weekend
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-09-29 19:12:00', '2005-10-27 09:49:06', '', 'cab7e052a86848e0f7df9b515e3fc2eb', 'online-shopping-act-', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (93, 'Online Shopping and US Shipping', 'mikepurvis', 'I''m spending pretty conservatively at school. I''m aided in this endeavour by the fact that a great deal of food on campus is either overpriced or tasteless or both. In fact, 90% of expenditures have been at Sobey''s around the corner buying more chicken and lettuce and stuff.\r\n\r\n\r\nBut I have got my Mastercard, and therefore, I''ve got Paypal. Having Paypal opens a lot of doors.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nLike when my trusty Handsprint met with the unfortunate fate depicted on the right, I dropped by eBay and nabbed another one. Conveniently, the auction ended right between two lectures last Friday morning, so I was able to slip into a lab and just outbid the other fellow in the last few moments. I may have paid more than necessary, but the Visor Deluxe is a great legacy unit -- big bright screen, nice stylus, expansion slot (thanks for the GPS, CTW!). I was a little wary of shipping charges, but I sent the guy an addition US$6 to ship from Virginia and assured him I''d cover whatever that didn''t. Turns out that for six bucks, he could have it airmailed here. That surprised me. When I was shipped a handful of Lego pieces from a suburb of Toronto, it was over $5. I guess that''s what a little healthy competition does for a system.\r\n\r\n\r\nI''ve also taken the opportunity to hit a few sites I''ve enjoyed in the past with small donations. If, for some reason, you haven''t already, do check the Flame Warrior Database for a hilarious ilustrated guide to personalities you''ll likely meet on the internet. Also ActsOfGord.com for the highly amusing antics of a game shop owner and his madcap clientele.\r\n\r\n\r\nRelated to scamming online, if you have a net connection with unlimited bandwidth, do consider parking your browser for a while at the Lad Vampire. It''s a page that leeches large image files off of servers hosting fraudulent bank sites. Many hosting services provide a way to report abuse, but for those that don''t, this is a great way to get those pages offline -- eat up all their bandwidth. You just leave it sitting there and the javascript continually reloads the same images over and over again. They so far claim to havetaken down a whopping 96 fake banks.\r\n\r\n\r\nI pay for a slice of cable TV here, but I''ve only watched about an hour of it in the last two weeks. In that time, however, I managed to catch one of the Axe ads with its incredibly catchy tune. When I looked into it, it turns out that it''s not some 80s classic like I expected, but a recent offering from a UK indie group called Reactor.\r\n\r\n\r\nThey''ve got a video of the song, ''Feeling The Love'', posted on their front page. It''s a bit PG-13, but the tune is very infectious if you have a moment and a brisk connection. If you haven''t installed RealPlayer for a while, I highly recommend the Real Alternative instead of the whole bloated package.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn spite of the warning from a trusted source, I succumbed to the Force and ordered the DVD set the other day. I couldn''t resist -- it was like an online special at FutureShop with a discount and free shipping for one day only.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn the spirit of Star Wars, be sure to check the highly entertaining Double Take scambait where Shiver poses as a representative for Dark Side Industries, pushing THE FORCE super glue.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'I’m spending pretty conservatively at school. I’m aided in this endeavour by the fact that a great deal of food on campus is either overpriced or tasteless or both. In fact, 90% of expenditures have been at Sobey’s around the corner buying more chicken and lettuce and stuff.
\n\n\n But I have got my Mastercard, and therefore, I’ve got Paypal. Having Paypal opens a lot of doors.
\n\n\n
\n\n\n Like when my trusty Handsprint met with the unfortunate fate depicted on the right, I dropped by eBay and nabbed another one. Conveniently, the auction ended right between two lectures last Friday morning, so I was able to slip into a lab and just outbid the other fellow in the last few moments. I may have paid more than necessary, but the Visor Deluxe is a great legacy unit—big bright screen, nice stylus, expansion slot (thanks for the GPS, CTW!). I was a little wary of shipping charges, but I sent the guy an addition US$6 to ship from Virginia and assured him I’d cover whatever that didn’t. Turns out that for six bucks, he could have it airmailed here. That surprised me. When I was shipped a handful of Lego pieces from a suburb of Toronto, it was over $5. I guess that’s what a little healthy competition does for a system.
\n\n\n I’ve also taken the opportunity to hit a few sites I’ve enjoyed in the past with small donations. If, for some reason, you haven’t already, do check the Flame Warrior Database for a hilarious ilustrated guide to personalities you’ll likely meet on the internet. Also ActsOfGord.com for the highly amusing antics of a game shop owner and his madcap clientele.
\n\n\n Related to scamming online, if you have a net connection with unlimited bandwidth, do consider parking your browser for a while at the Lad Vampire. It’s a page that leeches large image files off of servers hosting fraudulent bank sites. Many hosting services provide a way to report abuse, but for those that don’t, this is a great way to get those pages offline—eat up all their bandwidth. You just leave it sitting there and the javascript continually reloads the same images over and over again. They so far claim to havetaken down a whopping 96 fake banks.
\n\n\n I pay for a slice of cable TV here, but I’ve only watched about an hour of it in the last two weeks. In that time, however, I managed to catch one of the Axe ads with its incredibly catchy tune. When I looked into it, it turns out that it’s not some 80s classic like I expected, but a recent offering from a UK indie group called Reactor.
\n\n\n They’ve got a video of the song, ‘Feeling The Love’, posted on their front page. It’s a bit PG-13, but the tune is very infectious if you have a moment and a brisk connection. If you haven’t installed RealPlayer for a while, I highly recommend the Real Alternative instead of the whole bloated package.
\n\n\n In spite of the warning from a trusted source, I succumbed to the Force and ordered the DVD set the other day. I couldn’t resist—it was like an online special at FutureShop with a discount and free shipping for one day only.
\n\n\n In the spirit of Star Wars, be sure to check the highly entertaining Double Take scambait where Shiver poses as a representative for Dark Side Industries, pushing THE FORCE super glue.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-09-23 03:09:00', '2005-10-27 07:40:50', '', '696fd1fe99980452e63291498656aa70', 'online-shopping-and-shipping', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (45, 'Praise The Lord', 'mikepurvis', '> Dear Michael:\r\n> \r\n> Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that you have been admitted to\r\nMechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo...\r\n> I hope that you will choose to accept our offer of admission and join us on\r\ncampus this September!\r\n>\r\n> Wayne Loucks\r\n>\r\n> Associate Dean of Engineering\r\n> Undergraduate Studies\r\n> University of Waterloo', '\n Dear Michael:
\n\n\n Congratulations! I am pleased to inform you that you have been admitted to\n Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo…\n I hope that you will choose to accept our offer of admission and join us on\n campus this September!
\n\n\n Wayne Loucks
\n\n\n Associate Dean of Engineering\n Undergraduate Studies\n University of Waterloo
\n\n
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-05-26 02:29:00', '2005-10-27 10:05:04', '', 'edf97fb7ad239650d4e2e00c6c19c67b', 'praise-the-lord', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (50, 'WB Superstar Is My Guilty Pleasure', 'mikepurvis', 'I don''t normally watch TV early in the week, so I (perhaps thankfully) haven''t seen any of Superstar between the premiere and tonight''s show, the finale.\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat a brilliant concept, though, the same twisted mindset that brought us all My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe true brilliance of Superstar isn''t just that they''re looking for a terrible singer, it''s that they''re looking for a terrible singer who is awesome in their own mind. Perhaps that makes the whole joke all the more cruel, but it''s interesting to see how even someone with no pitch or sense of rhythm can have a truly likable flair when they''re geniunely trying and believe in themselves.\r\n\r\n\r\nI guess that''s just a great big fat cliche, but I think it''s true -- and certainly a show like this is a good study in it.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'I don’t normally watch TV early in the week, so I (perhaps thankfully) haven’t seen any of Superstar between the premiere and tonight’s show, the finale.
\n\n\n What a brilliant concept, though, the same twisted mindset that brought us all My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance.
\n\n\n The true brilliance of Superstar isn’t just that they’re looking for a terrible singer, it’s that they’re looking for a terrible singer who is awesome in their own mind. Perhaps that makes the whole joke all the more cruel, but it’s interesting to see how even someone with no pitch or sense of rhythm can have a truly likable flair when they’re geniunely trying and believe in themselves.
\n\n\n I guess that’s just a great big fat cliche, but I think it’s true—and certainly a show like this is a good study in it.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-15 01:25:00', '2005-10-27 10:05:04', '', 'f968ec6e41ccdd51e76eaa73bd6f5339', 'wb-superstar', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (51, 'Data Driven', 'mikepurvis', 'I''ve got the site pretty well completely data driven. I''ve got it parsing those ugly GMT dates into proper EST date/times that we can all appreciate... all the articles come out of the database, yup.\r\n\r\n\r\nI still need to do the comment system, but it''s coming along, and I''ve had a decent amount of time to work on it the last couple days, so that''s cool. [ed: it''s working now -- leave me a note!]\r\n\r\n\r\nThere was that awful gap that I need to get caught up on, now. I went and saw Prisoner of Azkaban and thought it was awesome, so I need to express that thought in a more complete manner at some later date. Anyhow, ciao!\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'I’ve got the site pretty well completely data driven. I’ve got it parsing those ugly GMT dates into proper EST date/times that we can all appreciate… all the articles come out of the database, yup.
\n\n\n I still need to do the comment system, but it’s coming along, and I’ve had a decent amount of time to work on it the last couple days, so that’s cool. [ed: it’s working now—leave me a note!]
\n\n\n There was that awful gap that I need to get caught up on, now. I went and saw Prisoner of Azkaban and thought it was awesome, so I need to express that thought in a more complete manner at some later date. Anyhow, ciao!
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-15 22:29:00', '2005-10-27 10:05:03', '', 'a1b6fa8bb070969fa87fe69537a813f2', 'data-driven', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (52, 'Finished. Done.', 'mikepurvis', 'It seems unbelievable, but there it is. I''m done high school. I''m just sitting in the LHS library right now waiting for a final meeting about a co-op project, and then that''s it.\r\n\r\n\r\nMaybe this is what shell-shock feels like.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyhow, I''ve got my birthday this weekend and then the next off, which is nice. The following weekend I''m in Virginia for my cousin Ev''s wedding. It''s super-exciting because she''s the first of our generation to tie the knot. (and there''s like 15 cousins... so it''s going to be a lot)\r\n\r\n\r\nI''ve got my suit from prom to wear, so that''s pretty well covered. Dad just bought a new (well, new for us) van, so we don''t have to drive the old wreck all the way down there. It''s actually funny about the old van, because it looks like a dump -- missing a rear bumper (mom''s fault), scratched to death on one side (my fault), missing a headlight cover (no idea) -- but inside the thing''s like a tank. I dunno what they build the Safari out of, but it''s one tough vehicle.\r\n\r\n\r\nSo, I guess, yeah...\r\n\r\n\r\nSCHOOL''s OUT!!11!!\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'It seems unbelievable, but there it is. I’m done high school. I’m just sitting in the LHS library right now waiting for a final meeting about a co-op project, and then that’s it.
\n\n\n Maybe this is what shell-shock feels like.
\n\n\n Anyhow, I’ve got my birthday this weekend and then the next off, which is nice. The following weekend I’m in Virginia for my cousin Ev’s wedding. It’s super-exciting because she’s the first of our generation to tie the knot. (and there’s like 15 cousins… so it’s going to be a lot)
\n\n\n I’ve got my suit from prom to wear, so that’s pretty well covered. Dad just bought a new (well, new for us) van, so we don’t have to drive the old wreck all the way down there. It’s actually funny about the old van, because it looks like a dump—missing a rear bumper (mom’s fault), scratched to death on one side (my fault), missing a headlight cover (no idea)—but inside the thing’s like a tank. I dunno what they build the Safari out of, but it’s one tough vehicle.
\n\n\n So, I guess, yeah…
\n\n\n SCHOOL’s OUT!
!
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-17 18:20:00', '2005-10-27 23:34:44', '', '577d82d8e56feb5137ddbcd48cb0ff66', 'finished-done', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (56, 'Heading South', 'mikepurvis', 'So my cousin''s getting married this weekend. We''ll be heading out on the road about 5am tomorrow morning. It feels weird to be driving for like 12 hours both ways and then only staying three nights over... oh well. I guess what''s weirder is that this time next week I''ll have been and come and be hard at work.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnd I''ll have voted, too. Fundamentally, I support Harper and the conservatives, but they''re barely even running a candidate in my riding. So it''s pretty well a stalemate between Smilin'' Jack and Dennis Mills. So I guess I''ll either vote Layton to help defeat the Liberals, or vote for the invisible conservative candidate for the popular vote.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'So my cousin’s getting married this weekend. We’ll be heading out on the road about 5am tomorrow morning. It feels weird to be driving for like 12 hours both ways and then only staying three nights over… oh well. I guess what’s weirder is that this time next week I’ll have been and come and be hard at work.
\n\n\n And I’ll have voted, too. Fundamentally, I support Harper and the conservatives, but they’re barely even running a candidate in my riding. So it’s pretty well a stalemate between Smilin’ Jack and Dennis Mills. So I guess I’ll either vote Layton to help defeat the Liberals, or vote for the invisible conservative candidate for the popular vote.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-23 13:22:00', '2005-10-27 23:34:42', '', '09d9cbbc4c53a1041161a34d8abb7d6a', 'heading-south', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (55, 'You turn your back for ONE second...', 'mikepurvis', 'It''s incredible what can happen in the world when I stop paying attention to important online news services and forums.\r\n\r\n\r\nAccording to the BBC last week, it seems some fellow is making another crack at the ''invisibility cloak'' based on a projected image approach.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nGmail, the shiny new email service that everyone thought was a great big April 1st prank has been unleashed. The people behind it have established a brilliant marketing campaign by which the most active users of the service recieve ''invites'' that they can send out to non-users. So if you want an awesome address without a pile of numbers and underscores tacked on the end of it, you may beg or pay for such an invite from one of the forward-thinking individuals listed at the above page. For me, personally, I''m sure I''ll check this thing out when it''s public, but I prefer the security of knowing that I''m at a consistent Hotmail address and can always be reached there. And if you need to send me large attachments, I''ll set you up a temporary ftp account at uwmike.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'It’s incredible what can happen in the world when I stop paying attention to important online news services and forums.
\n\n\n According to the BBC last week, it seems some fellow is making another crack at the ‘invisibility cloak’ based on a projected image approach.
\n\n\n Gmail, the shiny new email service that everyone thought was a great big April 1st prank has been unleashed. The people behind it have established a brilliant marketing campaign by which the most active users of the service recieve ‘invites’ that they can send out to non-users. So if you want an awesome address without a pile of numbers and underscores tacked on the end of it, you may beg or pay for such an invite from one of the forward-thinking individuals listed at the above page. For me, personally, I’m sure I’ll check this thing out when it’s public, but I prefer the security of knowing that I’m at a consistent Hotmail address and can always be reached there. And if you need to send me large attachments, I’ll set you up a temporary ftp account at uwmike.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-21 02:32:00', '2005-10-27 23:34:43', '', 'b120b70c8bab568de282c52f9a4c1c54', 'gmail-and-invisibility', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (57, 'The Terminal', 'mikepurvis', 'I don''t normally support attempts to ''defeat the system'', but there''s one that''s just obvious to me... if you have a tub of popcorn at Famous Players, you hand it off to someone else on the way out so they can get a refill. After all, both of you has paid $13 to see the picture, and you paid $8 for that 50 cent tub with 10 cents worth of popcorn that took someone 5 cents worth of time to make. Obviously there''s other overhead associated with running a cinema that is being covered, but contrary to my usual ethics, I feel very little guilt ripping off FP in this manner.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyhow, I was seeing The Terminal last night. It was a door-to-door marketing blitz for work, and afterwards they treated us to a film.\r\n\r\n\r\nI''d already read it in at least one review, but it surprised me how much The Terminal seems like a blending together of several other of Tom Hanks'' pictures. There''s the stupid-nice-guy from Forrest Gump, the airport from Catch Me If You Can, the pouty-faced-fish-out-of-water from Cast Away... it works of course, although some parts were just a little too pat for my liking. I try not to be cynical during the "aww it''s so sweet" bits, but there''s once near the end it was just a little extreme. If you''ve seen it you''ll know what I mean.\r\n\r\n\r\nSo yeah, it''s early-early in the morning, and we''re just about to take off... in fact, I think I need to go and eat something right now.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'I don’t normally support attempts to ‘defeat the system’, but there’s one that’s just obvious to me… if you have a tub of popcorn at Famous Players, you hand it off to someone else on the way out so they can get a refill. After all, both of you has paid $13 to see the picture, and you paid $8 for that 50 cent tub with 10 cents worth of popcorn that took someone 5 cents worth of time to make. Obviously there’s other overhead associated with running a cinema that is being covered, but contrary to my usual ethics, I feel very little guilt ripping off FP in this manner.
\n\n\n Anyhow, I was seeing The Terminal last night. It was a door-to-door marketing blitz for work, and afterwards they treated us to a film.
\n\n\n I’d already read it in at least one review, but it surprised me how much The Terminal seems like a blending together of several other of Tom Hanks’ pictures. There’s the stupid-nice-guy from Forrest Gump, the airport from Catch Me If You Can, the pouty-faced-fish-out-of-water from Cast Away... it works of course, although some parts were just a little too pat for my liking. I try not to be cynical during the “aww it’s so sweet” bits, but there’s once near the end it was just a little extreme. If you’ve seen it you’ll know what I mean.
\n\n\n So yeah, it’s early-early in the morning, and we’re just about to take off… in fact, I think I need to go and eat something right now.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-24 08:49:00', '2005-10-27 23:38:00', '', 'fe7531f75b626fd9b448d9924e8adb31', 'the-terminal', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (58, 'God Bless Ev and Luke', 'mikepurvis', 'Sorry to anyone who''s tried to contact me in the last couple days -- I''ve been pretty well incommunicado.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyhow, we drove down to Virginia starting early in the morning Thursday and hung out in the local shopping centre for most of Friday. I kind of expected a lot of deep discounts on electronics and stuff, but it seemed not. \r\n\r\n\r\nAt any rate, the ceremony on Saturday went fabulously. It was very well thought-out and very sweet. It was marvelous to see two people so very happy with each other. Expecially when you''ve known one of them for forever as a cousin. Speeches were very graceful and tasteful... it was also wonderful to meet some of the folks from my more extended family.\r\n\r\n\r\nAll in all, a very joyous time. We probably won''t be able to make it to all of the 15 cousins'' weddings, but it''s such a great time.\r\n\r\n\r\nSisters need the computer -- more to come.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'Sorry to anyone who’s tried to contact me in the last couple days—I’ve been pretty well incommunicado.
\n\n\n Anyhow, we drove down to Virginia starting early in the morning Thursday and hung out in the local shopping centre for most of Friday. I kind of expected a lot of deep discounts on electronics and stuff, but it seemed not.
\n\n\n At any rate, the ceremony on Saturday went fabulously. It was very well thought-out and very sweet. It was marvelous to see two people so very happy with each other. Expecially when you’ve known one of them for forever as a cousin. Speeches were very graceful and tasteful… it was also wonderful to meet some of the folks from my more extended family.
\n\n\n All in all, a very joyous time. We probably won’t be able to make it to all of the 15 cousins’ weddings, but it’s such a great time.
\n\n\n Sisters need the computer—more to come.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-28 00:02:00', '2005-10-27 23:37:59', '', '34449d2d56d0d6d6f1752b7397a08cfd', 'god-bless-ev-and-luke', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (59, 'I Confess I''m Disappointed', 'mikepurvis', 'Attention Canada: Coming right up is... who knows what? Paul Martin made the promises he needed to to get into office, used the scare-tactics on Harper, and now he''ll do whatever he feels like.\r\n\r\n\r\nThat''s the reality of it.\r\n\r\n\r\nPerhaps in four years, Canada will actually be ready for small government and free enterprise. Oh well, that''s my opinion, I guess.\r\n\r\n\r\nIt''s scary what propaganda can do for a leader. Or against one. Down in the US over the weekend, it was unbelievable how positive people were about Bush. I mean, it seems pretty clear that the war was a mistake, but at the same time, I think it was an honest mistake. Bush just seems like an honest guy, and that''s the biggest positive for me. Up here, all you ever hear is whatever people have picked off the media (which is a big left-wing mouthpiece, after all): ''Bush is such a dunce'', ''Can''t use a Segway'', ''Can''t eat a Pretzel''. Guh.\r\n\r\n\r\nAt any rate, a week ago, there was talk about a Conservative government... then out came the Liberal attack ads, and that was the end of ''scary'' Harper. We lose.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'Attention Canada: Coming right up is… who knows what? Paul Martin made the promises he needed to to get into office, used the scare-tactics on Harper, and now he’ll do whatever he feels like.
\n\n\n That’s the reality of it.
\n\n\n Perhaps in four years, Canada will actually be ready for small government and free enterprise. Oh well, that’s my opinion, I guess.
\n\n\n It’s scary what propaganda can do for a leader. Or against one. Down in the US over the weekend, it was unbelievable how positive people were about Bush. I mean, it seems pretty clear that the war was a mistake, but at the same time, I think it was an honest mistake. Bush just seems like an honest guy, and that’s the biggest positive for me. Up here, all you ever hear is whatever people have picked off the media (which is a big left-wing mouthpiece, after all): ‘Bush is such a dunce’, ‘Can’t use a Segway’, ‘Can’t eat a Pretzel’. Guh.
\n\n\n At any rate, a week ago, there was talk about a Conservative government… then out came the Liberal attack ads, and that was the end of ‘scary’ Harper. We lose.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-06-29 02:55:00', '2005-10-27 23:37:59', '', '6b8d2410efb38302f4c47ee9e6e1caab', 'i-confess-im-disappointed', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (60, 'Spiderman 2', 'mikepurvis', 'Well, it was definitely awesome.\r\n\r\n\r\nBut I''m not sure if it was this awesome. It''s definitely no X2, at any rate.\r\n\r\n\r\nAction was unbelievable. The subway fight is very cool, as is... well, everything involving Doc Ock.\r\n\r\n\r\nMy biggest issue was just how long it took to get off the ground. X2 starts with that crazy Nightcrawler sequence, but this one just kind of begins right after the credits (which, by the way, are beautiful). Also, because there''s so much information in the trailer (''I am Spiderman no more''), you know all the way through that that scene is coming up. In my mind, because that was so publicized, I would''ve put it in the first 20 minutes of the film...\r\n\r\n\r\nWhatever, that''s just me griping. It''s still a very intense, exciting film, and I highly recommend it for summer fun.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n\r\nPS - I had a quick look, but I can''t find that spidey opening credit artwork anywhere. It seems that it was done by Alex Ross, but is now owned by Sony Pictures. If anyone comes across it (like, before the DVD release), I''d love to see it again. Drop me a line.\r\n\r\n', 'Well, it was definitely awesome.
\n\n\n But I’m not sure if it was this awesome. It’s definitely no X2, at any rate.
\n\n\n Action was unbelievable. The subway fight is very cool, as is… well, everything involving Doc Ock.
\n\n\n My biggest issue was just how long it took to get off the ground. X2 starts with that crazy Nightcrawler sequence, but this one just kind of begins right after the credits (which, by the way, are beautiful). Also, because there’s so much information in the trailer (‘I am Spiderman no more’), you know all the way through that that scene is coming up. In my mind, because that was so publicized, I would’ve put it in the first 20 minutes of the film…
\n\n\n Whatever, that’s just me griping. It’s still a very intense, exciting film, and I highly recommend it for summer fun.
\n\n\n Mike
\n\n\n PS - I had a quick look, but I can’t find that spidey opening credit artwork anywhere. It seems that it was done by Alex Ross, but is now owned by Sony Pictures. If anyone comes across it (like, before the DVD release), I’d love to see it again. Drop me a line.
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-01 14:58:00', '2005-10-28 00:22:01', '', '8e7a9dbc31e9af06e330285e289f0fd7', 'spiderman-', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (61, 'Friday Night Funnies', 'mikepurvis', 'I don''t know what it is about me.\r\n\r\n\r\nAs a child, I was never permitted to watch TV outside of the Olympics and Grandpa''s house -- maybe that was it. Or maybe it''s that I''ve never lived in a house with cable. I don''t know. Either way, I''ve developed an odd taste in prime-time television.\r\n\r\n\r\nFor starters, I love ''Grounded For Life''. The premise of it is that it''s two parents who were married basically at seventeen and they now have a teenage daughter and two younger sons, but are still themselves in their early thirties. Maybe it''s the script, maybe it''s the actors, I''m not sure. I just find the situations and editing to be brilliant. Perhaps they''re setups that first existed on a far-superior sitcom ages and ages ago, but the recycling doesn''t bother me -- I never saw whatever the original was!\r\n\r\n\r\nThe other show that''s awesome is ''Just Shoot Me'', and I think that''s mainly because David Spade is hilarious. Now I never saw ''Joe Dirt'', and I expect it''s as bad as the reviews said it was, but the guy was great as the voice of Cuzco in ''The Emperor''s New Groove''. And he''s always funny on JSM.\r\n\r\n\r\nI guess a large part of the challenge of coming up with a good sitcom is the setting. Shows like ''Friends'' and ''Seinfeld'' set themselves in Apartmentland, USA... but now that they''ve gone and done that, it''s kind of a hard act to follow. And hence we have sitcoms like ''Just Shoot Me'', which takes place in the offices of fictitious fashion magazine ''Blush'', for which Dennis (Spade) is a photographer.\r\n\r\n\r\nOf course, at the base of any show is the writing -- and the dozens of shows out there cancelled after the first episode are testament to that. I remember seeing a lot of promotion on the WB for a new show called ''The Help''. Was that ever a train wreck. Gosh, I think they must have cancelled it during the first commercial break.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyhow, I think ''Just Shoot Me'' and ''Grounded For Life'' are both targeted more at the female teen demographic, but I feel secure enough to enjoy them nevertheless. Them and ''Legally Blonde'' and ''Emma'' and whatever other chick flicks I''ve digested over the years without putting on a great show of vomiting for the full running-time.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'I don’t know what it is about me.
\n\n\n As a child, I was never permitted to watch TV outside of the Olympics and Grandpa’s house—maybe that was it. Or maybe it’s that I’ve never lived in a house with cable. I don’t know. Either way, I’ve developed an odd taste in prime-time television.
\n\n\n For starters, I love ‘Grounded For Life’. The premise of it is that it’s two parents who were married basically at seventeen and they now have a teenage daughter and two younger sons, but are still themselves in their early thirties. Maybe it’s the script, maybe it’s the actors, I’m not sure. I just find the situations and editing to be brilliant. Perhaps they’re setups that first existed on a far-superior sitcom ages and ages ago, but the recycling doesn’t bother me—I never saw whatever the original was!
\n\n\n The other show that’s awesome is ‘Just Shoot Me’, and I think that’s mainly because David Spade is hilarious. Now I never saw ‘Joe Dirt’, and I expect it’s as bad as the reviews said it was, but the guy was great as the voice of Cuzco in ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’. And he’s always funny on JSM.
\n\n\n I guess a large part of the challenge of coming up with a good sitcom is the setting. Shows like ‘Friends’ and ‘Seinfeld’ set themselves in Apartmentland, USA… but now that they’ve gone and done that, it’s kind of a hard act to follow. And hence we have sitcoms like ‘Just Shoot Me’, which takes place in the offices of fictitious fashion magazine ‘Blush’, for which Dennis (Spade) is a photographer.
\n\n\n Of course, at the base of any show is the writing—and the dozens of shows out there cancelled after the first episode are testament to that. I remember seeing a lot of promotion on the WB for a new show called ‘The Help’. Was that ever a train wreck. Gosh, I think they must have cancelled it during the first commercial break.
\n\n\n Anyhow, I think ‘Just Shoot Me’ and ‘Grounded For Life’ are both targeted more at the female teen demographic, but I feel secure enough to enjoy them nevertheless. Them and ‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Emma’ and whatever other chick flicks I’ve digested over the years without putting on a great show of vomiting for the full running-time.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-03 01:56:00', '2005-10-28 00:22:01', '', '8b9a3250c3f528ce827bcedb74839383', 'friday-night-funnies', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (94, 'The Internet Is Not Free', 'mikepurvis', 'There have always been warez sites out there. Since the earliest days of the internet, long before I was ever on it, people traded naughty or illegal files anonymously through ftp and irc.\r\n\r\n\r\nNapster was a natural step in this progression -- a simple way for joe user to acquire material he''d rather not pay for. I was sympathetic to the ''try-before-you-buy'' perspective, but then, I was on dialup, so having liked one or two songs, I was far more likely to hit HMV than try to keep downloading. Ultimately, of, course, it was shut down, to be temporarily supplanted by Morpheus, Limewire, Bearshare... and then Kazaa. Sponsored Kazaa. Spyware Kazaa. That one.\r\n\r\n\r\nIt always struck me as amusing that a company would actually try to make money from providing a legally questionable service to its clients. Sort of like selling advertising space on a hitman''s jacket, but not really.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe thing about the internet is that there''s so many people out there who are willing to contribute their time and resources to the global community that it becomes exceedingly difficult to actually charge money for anything. Hence the donation buttons, which I''ve proudly pressed on various sites to give my $2 of support. But is that always enough? Enter: Ad- and Spyware.\r\n\r\n\r\nDivX was another great irony. The overwhelming majority of DivX movie files out there are illegally reproduced material -- dvd rips, animes, tv shows, music videos, etc... and yet they charge $30 for content-creation package. Or $0 and they install you with spyware. Why even bother, when the QuickTime and WindowsMedia ones are free?\r\n\r\n\r\nA most recent example that I encountered was the program Messenger Plus, an extremely handy add-on for Messenger. The creator, Patchou, is famously quoted as called boycotters ''idiots'', but whatever he assures us to the contrary -- it''s still definitely spyware. Yes, it''s optional, in theory, but the ''agree to install sponsor program'' page looks deceptively like a normal ''End User Agreement'' screen.\r\n\r\n\r\nOut of curiousity, I went to the official MsgPlus forums to see what the discussion was like on the topic. It was a little disappointing to see so much denial and outright mis-information from the creator and his cronies. Yes, it''s still an extremely useful tool, and for that I''m grateful, but honesty trumps anything else. And to insult and dismiss users who object to these policies is not the greatest assurance. Apparently if you uninstall the program, it uninstalls the spyware. BUT, if you''ve ever run Ad-Aware, Spy-Sweeper, or any major virus program that picked up the malware, it locks itself in and is no longer removable by the ''easy'' method.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe way I used was stumbled upon partly by mistake, but I figured out the ''creation date'' of the online casino shortcuts that it made on my desktop and favorites folders. Then I did a search for all files modified in that one-hour period. Surprise: There were subfolders all over the disk in random locations with different names containing files with more scrambled names. It was only after wiping out ALL of these at once that the unwanted IE adbar went and stayed gone.\r\n\r\n\r\nHad I not thought to use the date-search, I quite likely would never have found them all.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe irony again: A major feature of MsgPlus is to disable the Microsoft advertising box in Messenger.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'There have always been warez sites out there. Since the earliest days of the internet, long before I was ever on it, people traded naughty or illegal files anonymously through ftp and irc.
\n\n\n Napster was a natural step in this progression—a simple way for joe user to acquire material he’d rather not pay for. I was sympathetic to the ‘try-before-you-buy’ perspective, but then, I was on dialup, so having liked one or two songs, I was far more likely to hit HMV than try to keep downloading. Ultimately, of, course, it was shut down, to be temporarily supplanted by Morpheus, Limewire, Bearshare… and then Kazaa. Sponsored Kazaa. Spyware Kazaa. That one.
\n\n\n It always struck me as amusing that a company would actually try to make money from providing a legally questionable service to its clients. Sort of like selling advertising space on a hitman’s jacket, but not really.
\n\n\n The thing about the internet is that there’s so many people out there who are willing to contribute their time and resources to the global community that it becomes exceedingly difficult to actually charge money for anything. Hence the donation buttons, which I’ve proudly pressed on various sites to give my $2 of support. But is that always enough? Enter: Ad- and Spyware.
\n\n\n DivX was another great irony. The overwhelming majority of DivX movie files out there are illegally reproduced material—dvd rips, animes, tv shows, music videos, etc… and yet they charge $30 for content-creation package. Or $0 and they install you with spyware. Why even bother, when the QuickTime and WindowsMedia ones are free?
\n\n\n A most recent example that I encountered was the program Messenger Plus, an extremely handy add-on for Messenger. The creator, Patchou, is famously quoted as called boycotters ‘idiots’, but whatever he assures us to the contrary—it’s still definitely spyware. Yes, it’s optional, in theory, but the ‘agree to install sponsor program’ page looks deceptively like a normal ‘End User Agreement’ screen.
\n\n\n Out of curiousity, I went to the official MsgPlus forums to see what the discussion was like on the topic. It was a little disappointing to see so much denial and outright mis-information from the creator and his cronies. Yes, it’s still an extremely useful tool, and for that I’m grateful, but honesty trumps anything else. And to insult and dismiss users who object to these policies is not the greatest assurance. Apparently if you uninstall the program, it uninstalls the spyware. BUT, if you’ve ever run Ad-Aware, Spy-Sweeper, or any major virus program that picked up the malware, it locks itself in and is no longer removable by the ‘easy’ method.
\n\n\n The way I used was stumbled upon partly by mistake, but I figured out the ‘creation date’ of the online casino shortcuts that it made on my desktop and favorites folders. Then I did a search for all files modified in that one-hour period. Surprise: There were subfolders all over the disk in random locations with different names containing files with more scrambled names. It was only after wiping out ALL of these at once that the unwanted IE adbar went and stayed gone.
\n\n\n Had I not thought to use the date-search, I quite likely would never have found them all.
\n\n\n The irony again: A major feature of MsgPlus is to disable the Microsoft advertising box in Messenger.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-09-25 04:51:00', '2005-10-28 23:29:34', '', '9581fcf4faca4b8eada178647a02232b', 'the-internet-is-not-free', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (66, 'The Harry Potter Debate Rages On', 'mikepurvis', 'I noticed that in the most recent Christian Week there are two opposing pieces about Harry Potter in the entertainment section. I was mildly intrigued, because I''d assumed the Harry Potter debate had mostly dried up with lots of people simply agreeing to disagree.\r\n\r\n\r\nNeither piece was actually a column. One posed as a movie review for Prisoner of Azkaban, and the other as a review of a scholarly book on the topic.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe book, entitled Looking For God in Harry Potter apparently makes a case that the Potter books are so popular because they share so many themes with the story we''re all programmed to recieve -- that of Christ. Interesting premise, but on the facing page, the film commentary warns that the wild popularity might be a sign of the devil at work. Of course, the writer massages the message lots so it''s not quite so witch-burning-ish, but it''s the thought that counts.\r\n\r\n\r\nI''d be a little more concerned about Buffy than Harry Potter... but I guess the argument there would be that Buffy is very overt, while Potter poses as children''s literature.\r\n\r\n\r\nHe also pulls up the business about witchcraft being fundamentally wrong, but that''s a fine line to walk since Tolkien and Lewis used lots of magic in their stories. Of course, magic in there never had practical uses as it does in HP, only for making fireworks and cracking stone tables. But then is Star Wars out too? Maybe it''s just the name ''witchcraft'' that''s objectionable... perhaps if Hermione was a wizardess, there wouldn''t be any discussion.\r\n\r\n\r\nI dunno. It''s a prickly ground to end up on. Ultimately, people will read them no matter how many the zealots burn in churchyards. And it sends a lousy message to be so overtly xenophobic about something. I think the best policy is to simply proceed with caution... realising, if you believe it, that (a) it''s just a fantasy, (b) the supernatural does exist in our world, and (c) the only part of it you want to be talking with isn''t manipulated to do magic, and doesn''t want you trying.\r\n\r\n\r\nAll that said, it''s a good subway read.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'I noticed that in the most recent Christian Week there are two opposing pieces about Harry Potter in the entertainment section. I was mildly intrigued, because I’d assumed the Harry Potter debate had mostly dried up with lots of people simply agreeing to disagree.
\n\n\n Neither piece was actually a column. One posed as a movie review for Prisoner of Azkaban, and the other as a review of a scholarly book on the topic.
\n\n\n The book, entitled Looking For God in Harry Potter apparently makes a case that the Potter books are so popular because they share so many themes with the story we’re all programmed to recieve—that of Christ. Interesting premise, but on the facing page, the film commentary warns that the wild popularity might be a sign of the devil at work. Of course, the writer massages the message lots so it’s not quite so witch-burning-ish, but it’s the thought that counts.
\n\n\n I’d be a little more concerned about Buffy than Harry Potter… but I guess the argument there would be that Buffy is very overt, while Potter poses as children’s literature.
\n\n\n He also pulls up the business about witchcraft being fundamentally wrong, but that’s a fine line to walk since Tolkien and Lewis used lots of magic in their stories. Of course, magic in there never had practical uses as it does in HP, only for making fireworks and cracking stone tables. But then is Star Wars out too? Maybe it’s just the name ‘witchcraft’ that’s objectionable… perhaps if Hermione was a wizardess, there wouldn’t be any discussion.
\n\n\n I dunno. It’s a prickly ground to end up on. Ultimately, people will read them no matter how many the zealots burn in churchyards. And it sends a lousy message to be so overtly xenophobic about something. I think the best policy is to simply proceed with caution… realising, if you believe it, that (a) it’s just a fantasy, (b) the supernatural does exist in our world, and© the only part of it you want to be talking with isn’t manipulated to do magic, and doesn’t want you trying.
\n\n\n All that said, it’s a good subway read.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-08 02:58:00', '2005-10-28 00:29:13', '', '3a4bed681f0b0acd599bd415edbb1e86', 'harry-potter-debate', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (63, 'Cut Off From The World', 'mikepurvis', 'I haven''t been on MSN for a few days because it was inexplicably not connecting... I had assumed this was a temporary setback at Microsoft''s end, but have since decided that it was probably because they released version 6.2 and I was still on 6.1. Oh well, being on dialup as I am, it takes like an hour to download a 5 MB installation, so I''ll see you all online in an hour -- maybe.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe larger issue, I expect, is simply that Microsoft has grandfathered the old MSN Messenger program in favour of Windows Messenger. I don''t really blame them... but it''s still frustrating to lose support like that.\r\n\r\n\r\nIt seems that Greece won the Euro 2004 soccer thingy-thing, so Philip will be pleased about that. I heard the horns on Danforth earlier -- I expect they''ll be celebrating that for a couple hours.\r\n\r\n\r\nSo I was checking my web stats to see how many folks drop by here, and it''s only a handful a day, which is what I expected -- a good deal of traffic is generated by the googlespider and other robots. Anyhow, more interesting than the numbers is the referring sites. A couple hits have come in through QBasicnews, which doesn''t surprise me, although I rarely post there any more... and another bunch from the Rage3d Forums. But the surprise was to see 27 hits from the domain www.clublatte.com. If you clicked on that link, you''ll see right away that it''s an online singles site... hmm... How is it that a link to this page somehow ended up on there? Ah well, life is full of mysteries.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'I haven’t been on MSN for a few days because it was inexplicably not connecting… I had assumed this was a temporary setback at Microsoft’s end, but have since decided that it was probably because they released version 6.2 and I was still on 6.1. Oh well, being on dialup as I am, it takes like an hour to download a 5 MB installation, so I’ll see you all online in an hour—maybe.
\n\n\n The larger issue, I expect, is simply that Microsoft has grandfathered the old MSN Messenger program in favour of Windows Messenger. I don’t really blame them… but it’s still frustrating to lose support like that.
\n\n\n It seems that Greece won the Euro 2004 soccer thingy-thing, so Philip will be pleased about that. I heard the horns on Danforth earlier—I expect they’ll be celebrating that for a couple hours.
\n\n\n So I was checking my web stats to see how many folks drop by here, and it’s only a handful a day, which is what I expected—a good deal of traffic is generated by the googlespider and other robots. Anyhow, more interesting than the numbers is the referring sites. A couple hits have come in through QBasicnews, which doesn’t surprise me, although I rarely post there any more… and another bunch from the Rage3d Forums. But the surprise was to see 27 hits from the domain www.clublatte.com. If you clicked on that link, you’ll see right away that it’s an online singles site… hmm… How is it that a link to this page somehow ended up on there? Ah well, life is full of mysteries.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-04 21:55:00', '2005-10-28 00:22:00', '', '6b8771687a7d380753cb1453988118b0', 'cut-off-from-the-world', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (67, 'I love Gmail', 'mikepurvis', 'But only because Hotmail feels the need to compete.\r\n\r\n\r\nNot that I have anything against Google, but I''ve already been at Hotmail for four years, and I don''t feel any need to switch. I''m sure it''s a fabulous service, but I''m just not in the market at the moment...\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyway, if Hotmail wants to suddenly offer their customers 250 MB of storage for free, I''m all for that.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'But only because Hotmail feels the need to compete.
\n\n\n Not that I have anything against Google, but I’ve already been at Hotmail for four years, and I don’t feel any need to switch. I’m sure it’s a fabulous service, but I’m just not in the market at the moment…
\n\n\n Anyway, if Hotmail wants to suddenly offer their customers 250 MB of storage for free, I’m all for that.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-09 17:37:00', '2005-10-28 00:29:13', '', 'a7e182d30f3b67061dea9a2419971736', 'i-love-gmail', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (68, 'The Bachelor''s Kitchen', 'mikepurvis', '"Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yoghurt. Yoghurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway - if you can dig down and still find something non-green, bon appetite!" Source
\r\n\r\nThe biggest way that I''m preparing for school in the fall is by going to work every day and making money so that I won''t starve when I get there. :-)\r\n\r\n\r\nBut there''s other things too... Like today I practiced driving and drove Mom up to No Frills for a shopping expedition. It was very informative, but kind of an overload at the same time. I may do GroceryGateway and I may shop, I''m not sure, but either way, I''ll need to have some idea of what I''m doing. Anyhow, in the store, it was every twenty feet that she''d say ''Oh, this is really easy, all you do is sauté this and throw in a pinch of that and then add the rice and simmer for a bit and add something else and... and...''\r\n\r\n\r\nYeah, so I was thinking I should make a list of my top twenty or so favorite recipes and keep them in a binder. And then I was thinking it would be cool to keep them in a database so that I could add to it and sort it and whatever. I''m such a n00b with the whole database thing that it would probably be a good exercise to develop it. And then it could be hosted here and available to anyone in my position.\r\n\r\n\r\nThat being the position of someone used to excellent food with zero effort invested suddenly thrust into the scary outside world of meal preparation.\r\n\r\n\r\nI mean, I''ll probably only spend time preparing a couple meals a week and let the rest be Kraft Dinner or pizza or leftover pizza, but some is better than none.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n\r\nPS - There''s an article up on India Times claiming that a water-fuelled car is right around the corner. There isn''t much science cited in the article, so I dunno what they''re doing with it besides burning the hydrogen from water. They claim to have successful road tests... but for such an immense scientific discovery, it seems amazing that no other major news outlet has picked it up. Is India Times just some tabloid that I wasn''t aware of? If anyone has followup information on this story, I''d appreciate a mail.
\r\nPS2 - It seems there''s an official site up about this project. There''s a bunch of stuff on there about vibrating the water molecules at their resonant frequency to make them break apart... I don''t know enough chemistry to tell if that''s bull or not. But if it works, awesome!\r\n\r\n', '“Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yoghurt. Yoghurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway – if you can dig down and still find something non-green, bon appetite!” Source
\n\n The biggest way that I’m preparing for school in the fall is by going to work every day and making money so that I won’t starve when I get there. :-)
\n\n\n But there’s other things too… Like today I practiced driving and drove Mom up to No Frills for a shopping expedition. It was very informative, but kind of an overload at the same time. I may do GroceryGateway and I may shop, I’m not sure, but either way, I’ll need to have some idea of what I’m doing. Anyhow, in the store, it was every twenty feet that she’d say ‘Oh, this is really easy, all you do is sauté this and throw in a pinch of that and then add the rice and simmer for a bit and add something else and… and…’
\n\n\n Yeah, so I was thinking I should make a list of my top twenty or so favorite recipes and keep them in a binder. And then I was thinking it would be cool to keep them in a database so that I could add to it and sort it and whatever. I’m such a n00b with the whole database thing that it would probably be a good exercise to develop it. And then it could be hosted here and available to anyone in my position.
\n\n\n That being the position of someone used to excellent food with zero effort invested suddenly thrust into the scary outside world of meal preparation.
\n\n\n I mean, I’ll probably only spend time preparing a couple meals a week and let the rest be Kraft Dinner or pizza or leftover pizza, but some is better than none.
\n\n\n Mike
\n\n\nPS - There’s an article up on India Times claiming that a water-fuelled car is right around the corner. There isn’t much science cited in the article, so I dunno what they’re doing with it besides burning the hydrogen from water. They claim to have successful road tests… but for such an immense scientific discovery, it seems amazing that no other major news outlet has picked it up. Is India Times just some tabloid that I wasn’t aware of? If anyone has followup information on this story, I’d appreciate a mail.
\nPS2 - It seems there’s an official site up about this project. There’s a bunch of stuff on there about vibrating the water molecules at their resonant frequency to make them break apart… I don’t know enough chemistry to tell if that’s bull or not. But if it works, awesome!', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-13 01:26:00', '2005-10-28 00:29:12', '', '0c870dfac4f13b3bc328adb984dc724c', 'the-bachelors-kitchen', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (69, 'Passed my G1 Exit Road Test', 'mikepurvis', 'The fellow said I was a "very safe driver", so that made me feel good. Dad was a great teacher...\r\n\r\n\r\nThey make you sit around in the parking lot for like 40 minutes so you can build a good case of the jitters and then the whole test is over in five minutes. Out, turn corner, turn other corner, park on a hill, pull away, turn, turn, turn again, pull over and park, pull away, turn left, change lanes, turn, park, done.\r\n\r\n\r\nI drove back on the DVP just to celebrate -- even though straight down Vic Park would''ve been a faster route home. Heh.\r\n\r\n\r\nFor my non-Ontario readers, the license system here has three levels: G1, G2, and G. G1 is the basic license that you get from the written test. You can''t drive at night or alone or on roads faster than 80 km/h. After a year of that, you pass (yay) the G1 Exit test to get the G2 license, which is basically the full one except with stricter penalties and zero alcohol tolerance... and then another year and another test is the full G.\r\n\r\n\r\nMom said before that if I got it I could take the car to work occasionally. I''m going to hold her to that, too, because it''s a 20 minute car ride and well over an hour by public transit... good for reading, I guess.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'The fellow said I was a “very safe driver”, so that made me feel good. Dad was a great teacher…
\n\n\n They make you sit around in the parking lot for like 40 minutes so you can build a good case of the jitters and then the whole test is over in five minutes. Out, turn corner, turn other corner, park on a hill, pull away, turn, turn, turn again, pull over and park, pull away, turn left, change lanes, turn, park, done.
\n\n\n I drove back on the DVP just to celebrate—even though straight down Vic Park would’ve been a faster route home. Heh.
\n\n\n For my non-Ontario readers, the license system here has three levels: G1, G2, and G. G1 is the basic license that you get from the written test. You can’t drive at night or alone or on roads faster than 80 km/h. After a year of that, you pass (yay) the G1 Exit test to get the G2 license, which is basically the full one except with stricter penalties and zero alcohol tolerance… and then another year and another test is the full G.
\n\n\n Mom said before that if I got it I could take the car to work occasionally. I’m going to hold her to that, too, because it’s a 20 minute car ride and well over an hour by public transit… good for reading, I guess.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-13 21:02:00', '2005-10-28 00:49:25', '', 'ff477693ec65546b2fd2637de20e9ac5', 'passed-my-g-exit-road-test', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (70, 'I was at a great youth service this evening', 'mikepurvis', 'A fellow from ISCF at my high school MSNed me like last night about it. I''m normally not to thrilled about going to random people''s youth groups midweek... but Frannie and I decided to go anyways.
\r\nIt really was fantastic. It was being hosted by the youth group of a Korean church in Northern Toronto, but the event itself was run by a group from Philadelphia that does some training in New Jersey and then brings their people up to Canadian cities to run services at different churches.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe speaker and worship were very... I dunno... spirit-filled, I guess. Sometimes these sort of events can get way too tied up in how loud the amps are and how many obscure Bible connections can be made, but these guys just seemed very very honest.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe group is called SOR, but it seems their fantastic-looking website badly wants an update. Anyhow, if you hear of them doing anything at a local church, definitely give it a look.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'A fellow from ISCF at my high school MSNed me like last night about it. I’m normally not to thrilled about going to random people’s youth groups midweek… but Frannie and I decided to go anyways.
\nIt really was fantastic. It was being hosted by the youth group of a Korean church in Northern Toronto, but the event itself was run by a group from Philadelphia that does some training in New Jersey and then brings their people up to Canadian cities to run services at different churches.\n\n The speaker and worship were very… I dunno… spirit-filled, I guess. Sometimes these sort of events can get way too tied up in how loud the amps are and how many obscure Bible connections can be made, but these guys just seemed very very honest.
\n\n\n The group is called SOR, but it seems their fantastic-looking website badly wants an update. Anyhow, if you hear of them doing anything at a local church, definitely give it a look.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-14 03:07:00', '2005-10-28 00:49:24', '', '02085c22145548112c245dcdd82328b8', 'i-was-at-a-great-youth-service', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (73, 'Do you know what PEAR is?', 'mikepurvis', 'Neither did I, but apparently it''s the PHP Extension and Application Repository... Anyhow, I discovered this because I''ve been dipping into PHP and mySQL a little more this weekend trying to flesh out that idea about the Online Recipe Database. I think I''m going to do it, even if I end up being the only user of it.\r\n\r\n\r\nAfter all, there''s no better way to learn about something than to just set yourself a target and plow ahead until you reach it. All the pages on this site are records from a database, but it''s all very basic stuff... The queries are mostly just looking up a single record by ID number. The plan for Recipe site is more like six or seven tables that all link back and forth to keep track of the users and ingredients and quantities and whatever else.\r\n\r\n\r\nShould be a nifty thing, and I''ve already learned tons anyways. PEAR -- who knew?\r\n\r\n\r\nIn other news, today was the closing of the Vacation Bible School at my church, and they ended up printing my logo on every t-shirt, so it was all over the place. I was pleased to see it, although I don''t think anyone knew it was me that did it. :)\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'Neither did I, but apparently it’s the PHP Extension and Application Repository... Anyhow, I discovered this because I’ve been dipping into PHP and mySQL a little more this weekend trying to flesh out that idea about the Online Recipe Database. I think I’m going to do it, even if I end up being the only user of it.
\n\n\n After all, there’s no better way to learn about something than to just set yourself a target and plow ahead until you reach it. All the pages on this site are records from a database, but it’s all very basic stuff… The queries are mostly just looking up a single record by ID number. The plan for Recipe site is more like six or seven tables that all link back and forth to keep track of the users and ingredients and quantities and whatever else.
\n\n\n Should be a nifty thing, and I’ve already learned tons anyways. PEAR —who knew?
\n\n\n In other news, today was the closing of the Vacation Bible School at my church, and they ended up printing my logo on every t-shirt, so it was all over the place. I was pleased to see it, although I don’t think anyone knew it was me that did it. :)
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-18 22:46:00', '2005-10-28 01:02:14', '', 'f429e6f484d0348dbc51a20e3790f2e9', 'do-you-know-what-pear-is', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (72, 'Pretend To Be The Victim', 'mikepurvis', 'That''s what the ingenious folks over at 419eater do. I know someone well who works very closely in bank fraud, so he hears about the Nigerian Scam all the time.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe description on that page is very much complete. But for the lazy clickers, basically the scam involves contacting a Westerner and pursuading them to participate in the transfer of a huge amount of non-existent funds. As the ''Advance Fee Fraud'' proceeds, the victim is asked to pay transfer charges and bribes and whatever that seems to obstruct the real payment.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyhow... the guys (and gals) at 419eaters ''bait'' the scammers into believing they have a particularly juicy victim and then turn their own tactics on them -- multiple personalities, absurd turns of events, other random hilarity.\r\n\r\n\r\nMany are quite vulgar, some very blasphemous, but still deliriously funny.\r\n\r\n\r\nI''ve decided that I should have a section over there on the right for linking to past noteworthy blogs and noteworthy off-site links... but now I need to spend the time coding it... ugh.\r\n\r\n\r\nExpect that feature in september sometime. [ed: or... whenever. Michael is busy]\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'That’s what the ingenious folks over at 419eater do. I know someone well who works very closely in bank fraud, so he hears about the Nigerian Scam all the time.
\n\n\n The description on that page is very much complete. But for the lazy clickers, basically the scam involves contacting a Westerner and pursuading them to participate in the transfer of a huge amount of non-existent funds. As the ‘Advance Fee Fraud’ proceeds, the victim is asked to pay transfer charges and bribes and whatever that seems to obstruct the real payment.
\n\n\n Anyhow… the guys (and gals) at 419eaters ‘bait’ the scammers into believing they have a particularly juicy victim and then turn their own tactics on them—multiple personalities, absurd turns of events, other random hilarity.
\n\n\n Many are quite vulgar, some very blasphemous, but still deliriously funny.
\n\n\n I’ve decided that I should have a section over there on the right for linking to past noteworthy blogs and noteworthy off-site links… but now I need to spend the time coding it… ugh.
\n\n\n Expect that feature in september sometime. [ed: or… whenever. Michael is busy]
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-16 00:30:00', '2005-10-28 00:49:24', '', '6e7e044bcdcfab0e27d79995ef94e562', 'pretend-to-be-the-victim', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (74, 'Paper Folding Money', 'mikepurvis', 'It was my grandmother''s birthday party today where she turned Older.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\nAnyhow, I met a neat guy who''s my dad''s cousin. He does a lot of origami and stuff -- he was folding a bunch of bills into animals at the party. That one''s his blue-jay, although it''s made out Canadian Tire money instead of a five dollar note. He''s actually got a patent for it and is trying to do a promotion with the Jays using it.\r\n\r\n\r\nI think it''s the niftiest little thing -- even stands up all by itself.\r\n\r\n\r\nHe had a successful promotion with a paper dinosaur and the Raptors a while back, but there was sort of a legal loophole, and it didn''t work out too well.\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyhow, I''ll keep posted on this.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'It was my grandmother’s birthday party today where she turned Older.
\n\n\n \nAnyhow, I met a neat guy who’s my dad’s cousin. He does a lot of origami and stuff—he was folding a bunch of bills into animals at the party. That one’s his blue-jay, although it’s made out Canadian Tire money instead of a five dollar note. He’s actually got a patent for it and is trying to do a promotion with the Jays using it.
\n\n\n I think it’s the niftiest little thing—even stands up all by itself.
\n\n\n He had a successful promotion with a paper dinosaur and the Raptors a while back, but there was sort of a legal loophole, and it didn’t work out too well.
\n\n\n Anyhow, I’ll keep posted on this.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-07-25 00:37:00', '2005-10-28 01:02:14', '', 'bb1053101eb8251c1879bc00855493bd', 'paper-folding-money', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (75, 'A Different Sort of Challenge', 'mikepurvis', 'Feeling excited about solving an interesting programming problem sounds incredibly nerdy, but it''s kind of like how you feel the first time you ever beat a videogame boss.\r\n\r\n\r\nIt is always exciting to get something working.\r\n\r\n\r\nI knew I''d have to learn a ton about SQL queries and PHP to get this recipe thing happening, but I didn''t realise I''d have to learn some JavaScript as well. I''d always assumed that JS was pretty well only useful for rollovers (now supplanted by CSS) and archaic form submission.\r\n\r\n\r\nWell, check this out. The boxes are all populated from arrays declared at the beginning of the code... but here''s the awesome part: Those arrays are all crunched out by PHP using the results of a query on three tables. It''s like a bizarre union between a server-side language and a client-side one. [ed: this is actually a much more common tactic than I''d first realised -- but NO ONE has tutorials on it.]\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyhow, once the whole thing''s working, I''ll be conscripting some of you people to submit yummy things to it.\r\n\r\n\r\nLearning feels great -- because it''s never really lost time. You can build something that someone else will take apart, but you can''t really unlearn anything.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'Feeling excited about solving an interesting programming problem sounds incredibly nerdy, but it’s kind of like how you feel the first time you ever beat a videogame boss.
\n\n\n It is always exciting to get something working.
\n\n\n I knew I’d have to learn a ton about SQL queries and PHP to get this recipe thing happening, but I didn’t realise I’d have to learn some JavaScript as well. I’d always assumed that JS was pretty well only useful for rollovers (now supplanted by CSS) and archaic form submission.
\n\n\n Well, check this out. The boxes are all populated from arrays declared at the beginning of the code… but here’s the awesome part: Those arrays are all crunched out by PHP using the results of a query on three tables. It’s like a bizarre union between a server-side language and a client-side one. [ed: this is actually a much more common tactic than I’d first realised—but NO ONE has tutorials on it.]
\n\n\n Anyhow, once the whole thing’s working, I’ll be conscripting some of you people to submit yummy things to it.
\n\n\n Learning feels great—because it’s never really lost time. You can build something that someone else will take apart, but you can’t really unlearn anything.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-08-01 04:09:00', '2005-10-28 01:02:13', '', '46a5a278aaf54244671dfa7c7f789a70', 'a-different-sort-of-challenge', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (76, 'Comments are go', 'mikepurvis', 'So now I''ll really know how much of the traffic here actually just unregistered searchbots.\r\n\r\n\r\nThere''s some critical features missing -- like it should show on this page how many comments are recieved, but I dunno how to include that in one big query. I think it''s just so obviously easy that they forgot to include it in the mySQL manual. At any rate, the thing works... so now if you want to shout out, you can do it.\r\n\r\n\r\nToday I switched my bank account from ''child'' to ''student''... University looms closer with every day.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'So now I’ll really know how much of the traffic here actually just unregistered searchbots.
\n\n\n There’s some critical features missing—like it should show on this page how many comments are recieved, but I dunno how to include that in one big query. I think it’s just so obviously easy that they forgot to include it in the mySQL manual. At any rate, the thing works… so now if you want to shout out, you can do it.
\n\n\n Today I switched my bank account from ‘child’ to ‘student’... University looms closer with every day.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-08-05 19:29:00', '2005-10-28 17:30:50', '', 'a54a1d7eed8dcb7a1a73b9f2c2a3f843', 'comments-are-go', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (77, 'Criminals are Scary', 'mikepurvis', 'Just out of curiousity, I did a whois on 419eater.com to see if it turned up any ''real'' details about ''Shiver Metimbers''. Wouldn''t that ever be scary? You think you''re anonymous on the web baiting dangerous foreign gangs, and suddenly they show up at your suburban house with an Uzi. Brrr...\r\n\r\n\r\nNo, yeah, he''s anonymous.\r\n\r\n\r\nIt didn''t really occur to me at the time I registered this domain to do it anonymously... I guess I could have, but the option didn''t obviously present itself. Besides, whenever you see one of those articles about suspicious sites (MAVAV comes to mind), often the first thing the investigator does is run a whois and find out who owns the domain.\r\n\r\n\r\nAt any rate, it''s not something I have the time or energy to take part in at the moment... and besides, you need to be well-off enough that the scammers think you''re worth scamming. But in terms of actually shutting these guys down, making it out to be a fun-filled internet ''blood-sport'' is going to do far more than any kind of law enforcement.\r\n\r\n\r\nAfter all, they send out zillions of these emails all the time -- and if the majority are being answered by scambaiters, well that''s pretty tough for them to keep at it.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', 'Just out of curiousity, I did a whois on 419eater.com to see if it turned up any ‘real’ details about ‘Shiver Metimbers’. Wouldn’t that ever be scary? You think you’re anonymous on the web baiting dangerous foreign gangs, and suddenly they show up at your suburban house with an Uzi. Brrr…
\n\n\n No, yeah, he’s anonymous.
\n\n\n It didn’t really occur to me at the time I registered this domain to do it anonymously… I guess I could have, but the option didn’t obviously present itself. Besides, whenever you see one of those articles about suspicious sites (MAVAV comes to mind), often the first thing the investigator does is run a whois and find out who owns the domain.
\n\n\n At any rate, it’s not something I have the time or energy to take part in at the moment… and besides, you need to be well-off enough that the scammers think you’re worth scamming. But in terms of actually shutting these guys down, making it out to be a fun-filled internet ‘blood-sport’ is going to do far more than any kind of law enforcement.
\n\n\n After all, they send out zillions of these emails all the time—and if the majority are being answered by scambaiters, well that’s pretty tough for them to keep at it.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-08-08 01:12:00', '2005-10-29 10:35:47', '', '089529bf3bc3a44b07f97952097860ae', 'criminals-are-scary', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (78, 'The Great Divorce', 'mikepurvis', '"A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot ''develop'' into good. Time does not heal it. -- C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce\r\n\r\n\r\nIt''s one of those books that I''ve read before because my dad owns it, but I need to have my own copy for browsing and loaning.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe fact is that whatever''s out there in the supernatural is completely beyond our human ability to comprehend, and we''ll only truly understand it in the moment that we die.\r\n\r\n\r\nBut Lewis did some pretty careful thinking about the issues, and he''s presents a believable vision of Heaven and Hell that answers a lot of questions... How can a loving God send people to Hell?\r\n\r\n\r\nSo anyways, I saw Collateral today. By all indications, it should have been fantastic. Artistically, it was great. Cruise lays on the Fight-Club criminal cool, and guns blaze.\r\n\r\n\r\nBut maybe I missed something -- it just seemed a little unresolved. Sure, ''Vincent'' is probably a much more realistic representation of a hit-man than Martin Blank ever was, but I prefer the redemption and closure of Grosse Pointe Blanke. For all its message about the value of human life, ''Collateral'' sure leaves an awful lot of innocents dead in its course.\r\n\r\n\r\nMike\r\n\r\n', '“A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot ‘develop’ into good. Time does not heal it.—C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
\n\n\n It’s one of those books that I’ve read before because my dad owns it, but I need to have my own copy for browsing and loaning.
\n\n\n The fact is that whatever’s out there in the supernatural is completely beyond our human ability to comprehend, and we’ll only truly understand it in the moment that we die.
\n\n\n But Lewis did some pretty careful thinking about the issues, and he’s presents a believable vision of Heaven and Hell that answers a lot of questions… How can a loving God send people to Hell?
\n\n\n So anyways, I saw Collateral today. By all indications, it should have been fantastic. Artistically, it was great. Cruise lays on the Fight-Club criminal cool, and guns blaze.
\n\n\n But maybe I missed something—it just seemed a little unresolved. Sure, ‘Vincent’ is probably a much more realistic representation of a hit-man than Martin Blank ever was, but I prefer the redemption and closure of Grosse Pointe Blanke. For all its message about the value of human life, ‘Collateral’ sure leaves an awful lot of innocents dead in its course.
\n\n\n Mike
', '', '', '', 0, 0, 1, '2004-08-10 01:47:00', '2005-10-29 10:35:41', '', 'e3a9d89ececa71e8376fa3f08361c176', 'the-great-divorce', 1, 5);
INSERT INTO `articles` VALUES (79, 'In The World', 'mikepurvis', '
\r\nThere''s one for you, Trevor:\r\n\r\nA kid came up with this idea for an animation en 
