Interesting Stuff

I’ve decided that this summer, I’m going to redo most of my computer system. This evening, I took the leap and switched from KDE to Xfce. For you non-Linux types (shame on you!) KDE is one of the two most popular desktop environments (Gnome is the other big one). A desktop environment, near as I can tell, does all graphical things except the graphics themselves – start bar, drag-and-drop, dropdown menus, minimizing/maximizing windows, transparency, etc. I’ve been using KDE since its nice and friendly and a good way to start out. However, the only KDE applications I use were Konsole and 3 games, all of which are replaceable. KDE comes with all sorts of other applications and all sorts of things that I never used. On the other hand, it didn’t handle my virtual desktops the way I wanted it to. After looking around for a while, I decided to try Xfce, and I really like it. While not perfect, it has a lot of good points: it’s small, fast, doesn’t come with a bunch of crap, doesn’t use many resources, supports virtual desktops well, can almost completely be controlled from the keyboard, and is easily customized. It’s not perfect, however:

• the bar that lists my programs will only span one of my monitors (though I hear this will be fixed in an upcoming release)
• it comes with no man pages, though everything has a “–help” option
• it doesn’t display programs it’s trying to start (this was a great KDE feature, as I could find out if anything crashed before displaying anything)
• the “start bar” is about twice as big as the icons in it
• it doesn’t have a fuzzy clock.

If my 5th biggest complaint is that it doesn’t have a fuzzy clock, I think I’ve got a winner!

For those of you who can’t live without your favourite KDE/Gnome application, Xfce supports all applications from both of them, though it will start up a bit slower. This is one of the many wonderful things you can customize in it!

So here’s the plan for the rest of the summer:

• Switch the default shell from bash to zsh, and remove bash
• Switch the default editor from emacs to vim, and remove emacs
• Work up the courage to remove KDE entirely (I haven’t done this yet)
• Use more of the hotkeys on my keyboard. Ideally, I should have a graphical system that doesn’t require a mouse, though I doubt I can get away with that entirely.
• Configure my printer correctly (yes, I know it’s been a year and I still haven’t done this)

So here’s a screenshot of my current setup. It wouldn’t surprise me if that changed soon, though.

Yesterday, it was revealed that W. Mark Felt is Deep Throat!

This evening, Sheri and I went to Bridge Etc. They were having a special 2 for 1 night (play tonight, and the next time you come is free), so we had the largest game I’ve seen there since they closed the old building – a 6 table Mitchell! I went into the evening expecting to take dead last, since Sheri and I haven’t really played with each other very much. We’ve played for several hours a night for 2 nights in a row, but we didn’t really go over conventions. This is partly because Sheri seems to rely much less on conventions and more on intuition and bridge sense (consequently, she has great bridge sense). So, after a frustrating number of bottoms and a surprising number of tops, we actually took 3rd of the 6 North-South pairs (1st in our division)! This gave us 0.32 Black Master Points, putting my total up to 2.59. If I can double that over the summer, I won’t technically be a novice any more, and that’s starting to look like a feasible goal!

There weren’t many hands that stood out this evening. In one of them, we were defending against 3NT. My RHO lead a spade, and I played low, holding up my king. Dummy’s ten won the trick, and I figured that RHO had the ace, and Sheri had crap in the suit. On the next spade, I played my king before it was drawn out, and Sheri… played the ace. It turns out she had a doubleton and was holding up as well. My king was safe for one more round (I had 4 spades, and I pegged the ace to be on my right, so I could have held up one more time). We had a bottom board there. Oops!

On another hand, I lied slightly in the bidding but managed to stop at 3D (with 6 1/2 HCP in my hand and about 9 on the board, mind you). Against perfect defense, I would go down at least 2, possibly 3. However, the defense got greedy, waiting to set up their hearts, and continued to sluff spades as I ran the clubs. Because of this, I actually managed to make the contract and take top board, though this was much more from defense’s mistakes than my good play.

On the whole, I’d say that Sheri’s and my play was spectacular (except for the spades in that 3NT contract), though we need to learn to communicate more in the bidding and play. We’ve decided to try to learn a new convention each week, though I’m not sure if we’ll actually do that. Let’s hope the summer only gets better from here!

Before I go home for a week, I want to point to a story Stephen told me about: the situation in Iraq is getting worse because of our continued presence. On a related note, the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse as well.

This evening, Carl and I went to the Knights of Columbus to play with Unit 551 one last time before Carl graduated. We had a 4-table howel, which was apparently quite large for the club on a Wednesday. After our fair share of bottoms and a surprising number of tops, Carl and I actually took third place in the A division (first in B and C) out of the 8 partnerships! We each got 0.48 black Master Points for this, putting my total at 2.27. This was the first time Carl had gotten any, and I think it was a great way to end the year for him.

We had some great contracts throughout the night. With 7 diamonds and 13 HCP, I managed to walk the bidding up to 5D doubled (which I had intended as a sacrifice over 4S). We made it for a top board. On the second board of the night, my LHO opened a weak 2S. Carl overcalled 3H, and LHO bid on to 3S. Carl ruminated on this, then doubled. We set them one trick (vulnerable) to take top board. Later on, I opened 3C with 10 HCP and 6 clubs headed by the ace-king. Carl hemmed and hawed for a while, then bid 3NT. We tied for top there too.

Naturally, we had our share of poor contracts as well. I opened 1D, Carl responded 2C. I then bid 2NT (showing 12-14 HCP, balanced hand), which Carl treated as a jump to 2NT (showing 18-19 HCP). He then bid 4D (intending to invite me to game in diamonds), which I misinterpreted as a cue-bid, and replied 4S. Carl got confused, and passed, leaving us in a 6-card fit.

At another table, my RHO opened 2C (showing 11-16 HCPs, 5+ clubs and a 4-card major; they were playing the California Club system), and I overcalled 3C, intending it as a Michaels cuebid. Carl, for some reason, thought it was natural, and passed. Luckily, RHO bid on, and I didn’t have to play in a 4-card fit. After the hand, however, I discovered that even the Michaels cuebid was wrong – I was showing 5-5 in both majors, when I actually had 5-5 in spades and diamonds. Oops!

It was a surprisingly tense night. One partnership, who I believe are also married, were horribly bitter and continually insulted each other. I was half inclined to remind them about the Zero Tolerance policy concerning abuse, but I still feel like a guest at U551, so I didn’t say anything. There was also a partnership visiting from northern California, who were quite nice. However, Margaret (the director) thought that $20 was missing from the cash register (which doubles as the pencil box and is in no way secure), and both blamed and confronted this pair about it. I have no idea if the money was found, nor do I know if this couple took it, but it was a pretty awkward situation for a while. On the other hand, everyone else was their usual friendly selves.

So… yeah. A 52% game and half a Master Point is nothing to sneeze at. All in all, this has been a grand evening.

Last night I saw the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Like the other reviews of the film out there, I have mixed feelings about it. There are a bunch of parts that you can tell are definitely Adam’s work, and they are pure genious. However, there are also parts that are lacklustre at best. The opening sequence is solid gold. So is the part about having ideas on Vogsphere. Sadly, Sam Rockwell (Zaphod) was the only convincing actor. Some of the costumes were great (Zaphod, Trillian, Arthur, Ford, Slartibartfast), while others looked really stupid (Vogon warriors, Marvin). The movie seems to unfortunately centre around Arthur and Trillian falling in love, which I don’t think should have happened. In the radio series, the BBC series, the books, and the computer game, Trill isn’t interested in him at all.

Presumably to cut down on the length of the film, there are a bunch of Adams’ ideas that are mentioned but glossed over, and they would be horribly confusing if you haven’t been introduced to the Hitchhiker multiverse already. For instance, it is well established that a hitchhiker’s most indispensible tool is his towel, though there are only three times that towels are used. Of these, one is to dry off after a shower and one made no sense at all.

There were also some neat inside jokes and tributes to Adams in the film. The first time we see the guide, we hear a new and improved version of the radio show’s theme song. The Marvin from the BBC series has a quick cameo. There is a part towards the end that is a tribute to Adams’ love of animals, and the last thing we see is Adams’ face fading away into the stars.

If you go to see it, stay for the credits; there’s a quick little thing partway through them.

Clinic
Number Theory
PLs
Philosophy of Models and Simulations
Perception and Cognition
CS Colloquium
Putnam Seminar
Programming Practicum
Ultimate Frisbee

No longer can I claim that my earliest class is at noon – I have morning classes every day except Thursday. Oh, well. At least I’m excited for all of my classes.

This afternoon was the Human Symphony (the big a cappella concert of the semester), and I got to hear groups from Caltech and USC, as well as the regular 5C’s groups. I’d list the groups that were excellent, but it would be far quicker to list the groups that were not. That’s mean, though, so let’s just say that, with 2 or so exceptions, it was a wonderful afternoon.

Yesterday in robotics, I was introduced to Animusic, and today I found the whole thing on the network. I must say, if you get a chance to watch this, it’s incredible. And Animusic 2 is apparently coming out next semester, which should be pretty cool. Speaking of things on the network, I now have copys of Eddie Izzard’s “Sexie” and “Circle,” neither of which I had seen before. Kenny walked in to see me watching a Brittish transvestite, and got a little weirded out. Oh, well. He’ll figure out how hilarious he is later.

Then, this evening, Kenny got an IM from Elisa to the effect of “invite people over; Kevin and I are bringing alcohol.” So we had a very impromptu fete in the suite. Much fun was had by all. Except for Kenny, Steve, and Kevin, it was all people from next year’s Topless L, and it would be awesome if we did this on a weekly basis next year.

Let’s see… oh! Lauren called tonight! She’s doing well, working at B&N full time now, and is hopefully visiting either this week or next week. It’ll be great to see her again, since she hasn’t visited in roughly a year. I also IMed a couple people from home that I haven’t talked to in a long time, and it was good to hear from them too.

The workload tomorrow is going to suck, but this has been a great day.

The US, by 2007, will require all citizens re-entering the country to have passports, even if you’re just going to Canada, Mexico, or other nearby, friendly countries. Before then, all you needed was any kind of government-issued ID (such as a driver’s license). This is designed to combat “terrorism,” though I think it’s a horrible idea. First off, most Americans who go places like Canada (including myself), don’t go into Canada very far (maybe 10 miles over the border) or very long (the most time I’ve spent at once in Canada was an afternoon). If everyone like that is running around with their passport (which is quite valuable on the black market), people are going to get mugged. There will also be a lots of stupid people who have been taking weekend jaunts over the border for years, who suddenly get stuck in another country, and possibly detained, because of this new law. As the article mentioned when it talked about ferry operators, this will decrease tourism (though how significantly, I’m not sure).

Let’s use Bruce Schneier’s algorithm for decision making:
1) What are we trying to protect/prevent? Terrorists from entering the country. That’s fine. Stopping terrorists is a great, noble goal.
2) How will this measure help us? Presumably, terrorists don’t have passports, and this will make it harder for them to enter the country. However, the terrorists from America already have passports, and the ones from abroad (along with other foreign visitors) won’t be affected by this rule.
3) What are the costs? This will inconvenience the millions of people who don’t have passports but go to Canada/Mexico regularly. This will put a strain on passport manufacturing, and cost a fair amount of money for everyone who needs to get a passport. Some people may need to cancel their travel plans if they cannot get a passport soon enough (this is particularly true for funerals and other unplanned events).
4) Are there any side effects/downsides? A few people will probably be stranded in Canada/Mexico because they didn’t bring their passport with them. Tourism will drop. However, I expect that both of these will be minimal.
5)Is it worth it? Keeping in mind that this will have virtually no effect on terrorists but inconvenience millions of citizens, no. This is an awful idea.

The thing that gets me is that this was handed down to us by the Department of Homeland Security. It looks like this was a couple guys saying, “how can we justify this entire department? We need to do something significant that affects everyone.” This was not voted on by Congress, nor was it debated in a setting with public records. This was passed into law without going through the due process of law. Stupid, fucking government!

So, today, I’m giving a tour of Mudd with Tia. One of the prospective students mentioned he was interested in Engineering, so we go up to Engineering, and get Prof. Wang to give a little spiel about the department. Here’s roughly what happened:

Prof Wang: … at that, in a nutshell, is the Engineering department.
me: Thanks very much Prof. Wang. Tia, do you want to take over the tour for a bit?
Tia: Sure. If you’ll follow me this way, we’ll go see the Math department. The math department has-
Prof King: Is this a tour? Great! I will spend the next half hour showing you all of my different clinic projects!

On the bright side, I got to go into 4 rooms I’ve never been in before, and I got to see some really neat stuff (and so did the tour). On the other hand, we had to rush through the rest of everything (at that point, we had only seen engineering and humanities), and we still ended 20min late. About half the tour left early, but it worked out anyway. Kinda.

On an unrelated note, Deren Finks’ retirement party was today. It’s really too bad that he’s going, but his health comes before his job. He hopes to visit often, though, so that should work out.