Google Chrome
Ok, so I downloaded Google Chrome. It's nice to say in the least. It's fast, and used about 22,000 Kb of memory, compared to Mozilla firefox's 27-32,000 Kb of memory usage. It obviously can take advantage of hyper/multi threading, as it takes almost twice as many threads as Firefox does. Stability is fairly good in google chrome. It "sandboxes" each tab into a seperate process, and literally boxes in traffic, so that malicious software on sites has no access to your program files or windows folder (this is similar to Vistas UAC).
It initally had some problems downloading things, or checking some sites with complex coding. I fixed the problem after reading the FAQ for Chrome on BBS boards. You need to get Java 6, update 10. I used the RC (release cantidate), which is basically a stable version that might have very very minor bugs.
Some of the really neat features include detachable tabs. That means I can take a tab and drag it off of the main window, and have it spwan its own window with the original tab. That works very quickly, and it would help those with two screens multitask much more easily. I checked multiple sites, and the rendering engine seems fairly competent. At least, it is standards complient, and I believe that Chrome is open-source, and thus less subject to newer standards replacing older ones. (Basically IE and Opera and Safari might not work correctly with newer code, rather than Firefox or Chrome which are being constantly updated.
Almost in response to this, Microsoft has released information regarding it's IE8 browser. It seems like the minimum requirements are ridiculous! I mean, its a browser, it's not supposed to take much CPU or memory... I would rather have a browser that I need to customize rather than a browser that has EVERYTHING and taks up my computer resources. Also, with multitasking as it is, a larger program means it will eat up CPU and memory even when it is minimized. Though, on the other hand, IE8 will most likely utilize system resources that already are being used with XP and Vista. The same was true with IE7. Standalone, it was slower, but when on a windows machine that already had many of the processes and variables that IE7 needed, the memory usage was cut down and it took much less memory.
So whats the big hassle? Why look at Chrome? Well, it's going to be the new Firefox. It's also supported by a large company that has a short history of making good products that are viral. It's first release was a smash hit, and they are able to advertise it to people that use IE, Firefox and safari. The way it seems it can only go up, and not really go anywhere else. They also have a staff of professional programmers that take advantage of open source coding, as well as the advantages of a company running things. It's more secure, faster, and the UI is excellent, what's not to love about Chrome? The memory usage I noted above changes very slightly with multiple tabs, and instead eats up a little more processing power, which is realalistically going to be cheaper than RAM in the near future with the development of 8+ core processors.
Thanks for reading, Aaron M. Clay
Ralph Nader
Really, how many people know and understand who Ralph Nader is? What are his issues? What party is he for? Why isn't he on our ballet? Well, that is because corporate america has turned this country upside down.
As an individual, I don't agree with a lot of poltitics. Neither Obamna, McCain or either of their VP picks suits myself as a person, as a business owner, or as an advocate for our countries wellbeing. However, the other day, disspointed in McCain's VP pick, I figured I had better do a little more research on Nader, since he seems to be a last resort. Then I got to thinking, why is he always a "last resort?" Why do people always have to see things in black or white, in democrat or republican? Really, none of the cantidates are going to be able to do much at all as president, since congress is too lazy.
Well, normally I don't write a politcal blog, and I certaintly don't want to shove anything down your throat, however I would really encourage all of you to follow the link, and see if anything he says hits you at home. Not everything he says is feasible, but I like that he has energy, and most of all, he has the American people at heart.
The speech cuts off at the end, because there are multiple parts to it. Go to youtube and find the rest!
Is it illegal to download TV shows?
There are several factors that play into this. For sake of this blog, I will be focusing on U.S copyright law.
Here is an excerpt from US Copyright "Fair Use" law:
(§ 110. Limitations on exclusive rights: Exemption of certain performances and displays43
Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, the following are not infringements of copyright:
(1) performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction, unless, in the case of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, the performance, or the display of individual images, is given by means of a copy that was not lawfully made under this title, and that the person responsible for the performance knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made;
(2) except with respect to a work produced or marketed primarily for performance or display as part of mediated instructional activities transmitted via digital networks, or a performance or display that is given by means of a copy or phonorecord that is not lawfully made and acquired under this title, and the transmitting government body or accredited nonprofit educational institution knew or had reason to believe was not lawfully made and acquired, the performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work or reasonable and limited portions of any other work, or display of a work in an amount comparable to that which is typically displayed in the course of a live classroom session, by or in the course of a transmission, if —
(A) the performance or display is made by, at the direction of, or under the actual supervision of an instructor as an integral part of a class session offered as a regular part of the systematic mediated instructional activities of a governmental body or an accredited nonprofit educational institution;
(B) the performance or display is directly related and of material assistance to the teaching content of the transmission;
(C) the transmission is made solely for, and, to the extent technologically feasible, the reception of such transmission is limited to —
(i) students officially enrolled in the course for which the transmission is made; or
(ii) officers or employees of governmental bodies as a part of their official duties or employment; and
(D) the transmitting body or institution —
(i) institutes policies regarding copyright, provides informational materials to faculty, students, and relevant staff members that accurately describe, and promote compliance with, the laws of the United States relating to copyright, and provides notice to students that materials used in connection with the course may be subject to copyright protection; and
(ii) in the case of digital transmissions —
(I) applies technological measures that reasonably prevent —
(aa) retention of the work in accessible form by recipients of the transmission from the transmitting body or institution for longer than the class session; and
(bb) unauthorized further dissemination of the work in accessible form by such recipients to others; and
(II) does not engage in conduct that could reasonably be expected to interfere with technological measures used by copyright owners to prevent such retention or unauthorized further dissemination;
This is preceded by a large section defining what exactly a copyright holder is. If you read through this carefully (really, the whole document in it's whole, you will find that if the program was dessimated to the public in ANY WAY (airwaves, or internet), you can download for personal use. If it is a satillite show, or cable show, it is illegal to download it if you did not recieve it in some way (it is still unclear whether you are able to do so if you "could" have recieved it potentially).
So, if that helps clear it up, it's no problem. If you still don't understand, you can email me from our contact page.
Purdue Network
DC++ MIRROR here
Windows Installer
Binary
Source
Purdue Network
Speedtest.net - 94000+ kb/s
To the untechnical folks among you, thats freaking fast. Faster than any cable setup, or T1 line. We're talking, my home computers have NEVER gotten past 20,000, and usually hit about 12,000 on a pretty good day. Other testing sites can confirm the network speed here. So, downloads are fast, how about uploads? I'm hitting about 5000 kb/s upload as well, so lets see how well VPN will work from a house when I get back, shall we?
My dorm
I honestly can say I really like my dorm here at Purdue. It's spacey, we lofted our two beds so we could put in a projector & projector screen (yes, overexuberent I know). We also have a mini-fridge, two computers, a microwave, coffee machine, fishtank, a futon and 5.1 surround sound. The room is fairly well tempreatured (if that is a word), it is about 70 degrees with two box fans plugged in. If you're ever around and want to hang out, my dorm is Owen 326. Just call if you're up here to let me know.
Purdue University
Well, I'm up at Purdue now. The campus is quite nice nice, and the food is great. The food is decidedly better than any other campus at which I've eaten - we have make your own waffles, make your own pizza, as well as a hearty amount of chineese, american, greek, and other foods (all americanized of course). Free ice cream, and buffett style eating is a huge plus. The only downside is the lines. The lines are quite large at many of the purdue dining halls, though Earhart has shorter lines than most of the others (as does Windsor). That's mostly due to location I'm assuming.
C&IT is pretty interesting, I've had to take a few basic XHTML classes (oh boy, I know!), as well as C&IT 176, which seems to focus primarly on building networks (I know, it sounds super-duper-hard). I am in a UML modeling class C&IT 180) as well as Technical Calculus (MA 221). ENGL 106 ia pretty nice. My professor there is Thomas Ghering, and he teaches part time at Ivy Tech of Kokomo as well, he's a decent professor. Well, looking forward to your emails. We are still operating UC at this location now, so if you need anything done, you know who to ask! Just contact us.
Indy Game Room
Yet another site has been started (sortof) and is needing of visitors and other things to get it started. It's a site that is dedicated to helping Indiana Gamers find games to play at. It also has a computer gaming room at the Gamers store on southern 135 (about 1 mile from Marion County). This is their website, so if you're interested in playing, or would like to know what services he runs at the site or online, please give me a email, or you can go to the site yourself.
Open Source Gaming
A friend owns a site - www.OpenSourceGaming.com - and those interested in Linux or similar open source software, can let me know if they ever have issues. I game a few games on Linux, but haven't really done to much gaming with it. Who knows? Maybe in the future you won't have to pay 50.00 for a new game? That would be nice!
Origins Game Show
I will be attending the Origins game fair this weekend. I will put up pictures, as well as giving a few reviews of games I see there. It is hosted in Columbus, OH, and attracts about 20,000 people.
Undead Computing Fan Banners
With the release of our Facebook page, we've had a few fan banners sent in. A special thanks goes out to Stephen Cornelius of Center Grove, as well as Alexander Baumen of Roncalli.
Here are the three banners (first by Stephen, second two by Alexander)
Aaron's Code Corner 1
Well hello there. My name is Aaron Clay, and I'm a programmer. Today, I'm going to talk about textArea vs. TextAreas verses TextFields.
There are a few reasons I like textAreas more than textFields. For example, you can hide the scrollbars using the SCROLLBARS_NONE parameter, as well
as append text to them. So what exactly is the difference? Well, not too much. I believe that textFields are very good for short labels, as they require less
formatting when you first create them, however, in the long run it is much more versitile to use a textArea.
Example textField
textField my_text_field = new textField ("Text Here!");
my_text_field.setBounds(x,y,size1,size2);
add(my_text_field);
Example textArea
textArea my_text_area = new textArea("Text Here!");
my_text_area.setBounds(x,y,size1,size2);
add(my_text_field);
Both of these will not compile off of the start, however, they are easily modifiable to your own code base. I will be having tips per week, but feel free to submit your own to "amclay +at+purdue.edu". I enjoy your mail.
Aaron's Code Corner 2
In the world of programming, one of the questions that is often asked is "what sorting method is the most efficient?"
Well, it depends on the type of data you are sorting. Assuming we have a relatively sorted set of data. A selection sort might sort this more efficiently than other sorting methods.
---------------------------------------------
//sample selection sort code
public static void selectionSort(Comparable[] X)
{
for (int i = 0; i < V.length - 1; i++)
{
int minPos = i;
for (int j = i + 1; j < X.length; j++) if (X[minPos].compareTo(X[j]) > 0) minPos = j;
Sort.swap(X, minPos, i);
}
return;
}
---------------------------------------------
Note that this algorithm is ALWAYS O(n^2). It works by swapping the data around until it is sorted. If it is already sorted, it is decently efficient. For sorting large, unsorted amounts of data, it is much more efficient to use a "divide and conquer" approach with a merge sort or quick sort (I much prefer quicksort myself, being a C/C++ programmer.)
---------------------------------------------
public static void quickSort(Comparable[] X, int n)
{
int i = 0;
if (n <= 1)
return;
Comparable p = X[i++];
Comparable[] Q= new Comparable[n];
Comparable[] W = new Comparable[n];
Comparable[] E= new Comparable[n];
int q = 0;
int w = 0;
int e = 0;
E[e++] = p;
while (i < n)
{
if (X[i].compareTo(p) < 0) L[l++] = V[i++];
else if (X[i].compareTo(p) > 0) E[g++] = X[i++];
else W[e++] = X[i++];
}
quickSort(Q, q);
quickSort(E, e);
int cc = 0;
for (i = 0; i < l; i++) X[cc++] = Q[i];
for (i = 0; i < e; i++) X[cc++] = W[i];
for (i = 0; i < g; i++) X[cc++] = E[i];
return;
}
---------------------------------------------
Quicksort, is O(n*log(n). Note, that it may change, depending on the sortedness of set of data. You can call these functions from your main class, or make them private functions in order to call them from only this class incase you are making a modular program.
As always, we are willing to help people out. Our site is just starting, and we'd appreciate it if you let people know about us to drive up traffic! Play the zombie games on the other pages for right now!
Vioxx lawyer, asbestos lawyer, and car accident attorney rant
Some things are just silly. Other things are just stupid. When you bring them together, you get something that can tear society apart. Court settlements that are made to for the sole purpose of making money are one of the prime examples. The recent vioxx attorney ads on television show just how crazy they can get. If you live in Indianapolis, you might have seen the Keller and Keller commercials.
Car Accident lawyers get massive amounts of lawsuits, because someone can just fake a car injury, and then call a car accident attorney, and sue for damages.
If they fake the accident, they can receive amounts up to $100,000 or more, depending on the injury.
Can you imagine a society in which even the smallest of injuries results in a car accident lawsuit? Well, it somewhat follows the drug industry in terms of lawsuits. Recently, vioxx attorneys have jumped on the market. Since class-action lawsuits do not view individual claims, they lump payments into the hundreds of millions or even billions.
If I am not mistaken, Vioxx attorneys made several million, whereas Lilly or Merck had to pay approximately 1 billion in damages and litigation.
Usually they use a structured settlement to settle the claims.
With a structured settlement, lawyers can get "super priority," which means they get fast payment on their fees
rather than the clients getting the cash for the settlement. So, if you ever have a car accident, be sure to call a car accident lawyer or car accident attorney, so you can get lots of free cash using a structured settlement.
On the same note, if you have had symptoms and have taken Vioxx, be sure to get a Vioxx attorney or a Vioxx lawyer so you can settle your claim using a structured settlement.
Mesothelioma lawyers, why mesothelioma lawyers are great for easy cash
Mesothelioma is the disease and cancer caused by the misuse of asbestos. The disease is preventable, although the US government did little to prevent over 3000 americans for receiving the disease. Following up my last blog over Vioxx attorneys and lawyers, as well as car accident lawyers and attorneys, this is on the mesothelioma lawyers. Since mesothelioma is a rare disease, many mesothelioma look to get settlements out of court instead of suing the companies that employed them. I mean, seriously, did the companies know? No. Did the employees know they were inhaling possibly toxic materials when they signed onboard? Of course. Either way, settlement on mesothelioma cases is big bucks for lawyers. Much the same as car accident lawyers or vioxx attorneys, mesothelioma lawyers can use US laws to force companies and governments to pay the medical expenses as well as “emotional” claims of employees affected by mesothelioma.
By using a structured settlement, people can claim massive amounts of litigation money by using a mesothelioma attorney, car lawsuit lawyer, or a vioxx attorney. Structured settlements are financial or insurance arragements using periodic payments for claims such as car injury lawsuits, vioxx lawsuits, or mesothelioma lawsuits.
Structured settlements are utilized in Canada and the United states, and have special tax laws as well as spending requirements. However, structured settlements allow people to spend their normal money on other things, and use the structured settlement money gained from vioxx lawsuits, mesothelioma lawsuits, and car accident lawsuits in order to spend it the things they would normally spend their non-structured settlement money.
So why the big money? Well, companies that made people mine asbestos, and whose employees now have mesothelioma, it is a way to show that they really care about employees, without having to go to court. With fees up to 1 million dollars, mesothelioma lawyers can rake in the cash. If mesothelioma was not such a bad disease (or fatal in the case of vioxx lawsuits), it would not attract the attention of the media, or have to be paid out using a structured settlement.
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