A momentous occasion

This has to be the third best moment of my life, after graduation and being born. Today, I finally five-starred Panic Attack.

I'd like to take this time to thank the Academy, and everyone that made this achievement possible. So yeah, that's been my weekend.

Also, it snowed here all weekend. I hate this town.

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Free stuff!

I was browsing my Facebook the other day when I came upon a news post by the "Chuck" fan page (the TV show, for those who are confused). They said that the latest episode would be available for viewing. I took this to mean torrenting, or at the very least, watching it on nbc for a hefty fee. It happened to be neither. I was able to go to nbc.com and find full episodes of Chuck, The Office, and other shows. Now, this might be available only to you in the US, or I might not have the right player, since it didn't play for me, but the concept of it is something that should have come along a long time ago.

Another thing I found out was that two of my textbooks for next semester, for both my computing science courses, are available for free download in an online library, with a valid student code. This is another big help to me, and saves me at least $200 in theoretical textbook funds.

I decided to go on a sort of "quest" to see how much content on the Internet I can get for free (without breaking the law). Truth is, there's a lot, provided in the US. All four major broadcasters provide free full episodes of shows that they show on their channel to citizens in the US. A number of authors give permission to have their work distributed on the Internet for your enjoyment on your Kindle (I actually laughed a little typing that last word), and of course there are a large number of games on the web, if you don't mind playing flash games. Even Internet radio is catching on.

The two areas behind the line are feature films and music. I can kind of get both, but there are ways to get around those flaws. The main flaw with movies is the wide array of distributors, and their unwillingness to communicate on an open medium. The movie distributors only ever release their film on reels (never seen the screening room in a theatre, they might use different technology now) and DVD/Blu-Ray discs (does anybody distribute on VHS now?). They control the supply, until someone gets a copy on Pirate Bay. The best way for them to save their hides would be to overcome that fear, and either put flash advertising throughout an internet-distributed movie (financially viable since there is no cost going to the movie theater or theater workers) or subscriptions.

Music. Sigh. You might know how much I despise the RIAA for wanting money over distribution if you've read earlier posts. Just wow. But anyway, I think that we'll be seeing more independently distributing artists. This won't be as much of a problem as independent films, since it costs relatively little to make an album over, say, Avatar.

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I'm edumacated now!

Yeah, I haven't been posting much. For one thing, I haven't found anything that I'm particularly excited or angry about, apart from the usual RIAA stuff. Another thing is that I've had some other personal stuff to deal with. But I think I came out on top

Item number one: I am now a theoretical graduate. I haven't actually graduated yet, since I've got diploma exams next month, worth 50% of my mark. But I have a really cool hat now, and a diploma and rose.

Item number two: My residence fee, which none of you will remember is the whole reason I started this blog in the first place, is now paid, along with my tuition for next year. As of now, I have $4250 in scholarships, plus another $7000 - $8000 saved up in the bank. Since I'm able to pay my tuition and textbooks for next year, my parents have agreed to pay for my housing and food next year, a total of $6200.

Item the third: I got singled out for two out of eight awards during my graduation: The RCMP Citizenship Award and the award named after my school (gotta protect my privacy somehow, even if Facebook doesn't), which was a pretty cool thing.

So it seems I've come out on top this weekend. I've even got a day and a half left in it! Rock Band time!

Afternote: It seems that the first launch of the Falcon 9 has been delayed by another week or so. It's on your head, SpaceX.

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SpaceX, get your act together!

So, just some advice to everyone out there: drinking a 1-liter slushie in less than 5 minutes is not such a good idea.

My favorite viewing spectacle of all time would have to be rocket launches. Not just because I want to be one of the people to see a crash, I also like the technological advancement it represents. It's something when we can send people hundreds of miles up in the span of a few minutes.

So you'd imagine that I'd be excited to hear that SpaceX was planning to launch a rocket from Cape Canaveral today. Emphasis on was. Big was there.

I first heard about the Falcon 9 rocket around the middle of March. Back then, it had a set launch date for April 6. As April crept closer and closer, I got pretty excited. I only ever got the chance to watch Space Shuttle launches (the Ares rocket doesn't count, it didn't succeed and it was scrapped three months ago), and it was exciting to have a change.

Then it got delayed a month.

I thought no problem. I mean, they're doing rocket science, aren't they? They want to have it right.

So a month has passed by. Where's my rocket?

About 9 days in the future, it seems. The launch has been delayed another time to next Sunday. I'm starting to get pretty impatient now. I did some research, and SpaceX has had this coming for a while now, over six months. Sure, it's rocket science, but you're a FUCKING SIX MONTHS OFF YOUR FIRST DEADLINE. Now, if I was six months off of a deadline at school... well, the semester would be over.

So, I'm going to be watching on May 16, or whenever they decide to launch this thing. But you better hope this works, SpaceX. If not, you're gonna have a lot to answer for.

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I'm back

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Empty around here, isn't it?

I'd like to say it was school. I'd also like to say it's scholarships for next year. But really, I don't do much in school and I applied for one scholarship so far. I'm lazy. What can I say?

I hope I can get back into the thick of things. I'm not going to stick to the daily schedule, though. I'll post as much as possible, just not every day necessarily.

So, I finally got a proper look at the iPad yesterday, even though it isn't out in Canada (I think). A classmate brought it in, and I am actually pretty impressed, although it was a bit lacking. I found a big difference in using both your hands when using the iPad and using your thumbs when using the iPhone. It just gets really tiring. I took the elements app and the Marvel comics app for a spin.

The Elements app is really good, I have to say. I found it accurate and really entertaining. However, the usefulness of this app is in question. Sure, it looks cool, but so did The Force Unleashed. I don't play The Force Unleashed anymore, and it's not likely that I'll use the Elements app for anything worthwhile. Although it showcases the graphics capability of the iPad, I don't actually think I would use it for more than its $10+ worth.

The Marvel comics app is astounding. If you've ever seen how, in the movies, they run through the panels of a comic, by panning from panel to panel, it's just like that, and it looks amazing. The one thing I could say that would ruin a comic app would be the need to zoom out and in between panels. Marvel comics has none of this. I cannot tell you how exited I was when I saw the transition between panels. I'm not much of a comic reader, but that's mainly because there are no places to buy comics in my town. With the Marvel comics app, I could see myself getting very much into comic books.

Overall, the iPad does good for itself. The apps are above par, and the possibilities of using it are dizzying to think about. I can see myself buying one of these, but I think I'll wait until next generation, to see what Apple improves upon.

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