My Humble Contributions to the Blogosphere http://www.taylorlehman.com <p>My Thoughts:</p> <p><b>Does Senator Obama calling Senator McCain by his first name make him seem patronizing or friendly?</b></p> <p><b>"John's right".</b> This was a really good come-back to McCain playing the "most liberal voting record" card.</p> <p><b>Issues I've decided I care about:</b> Socialized vs. Private health care, Education</p> <p><b>Issues I've decided I'm tired of hearing about:</b> Veterans (hasn't anyone told him it reminds people how old he is every time he brings up veterans?), bailouts, Afghanistan</p> <p><b>Facts I'm interested in confirming:</b> Size of Iraqi surplus, The size of an army brigade</p> <p><b>Things I liked about the debate:</b> Senator McCain's tie-shirt-jacket combo, The way Obama says Taliban. <p><b>Things that impressed me:</b> The ability of both canidates to speak about Pakistan, the number of times Waziristan was mentioned, McCain's ability to remain on the stage after that lame "i don't even have a seal" joke</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=758 <p>For the first time in a few years, I thought that the Super Bowl was interesting enough to give the commercials competition. I give the <a href="http://www.giants.com/">Giants</a> credit; they thoroughly man-handled the <a href="http://www.patriots.com/">Patriots</a> at almost every aspect of the game. It was <a href="http://www.nfl.com/players/tombrady/profile?id=BRA371156">Tom Brady</a>, not <a href="http://www.nfl.com/players/elimanning/profile?id=MAN473170">Eli Manning</a> making wild passes and folding under pressure; it was the Giants linebackers who dominated the line of scrimmage, not the famed Patriots linebackers. Though Eli Manning was awarded the MVP, the award could have just as easily gone to <a href="http://www.giants.com/team/player59.html">Osi Umenyiora</a> or <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?statsId=2579">Michael Strahan</a>. Is this game the scar on the Patriots' perfect season, or the crowning achievement of an underdog Giants team?</p> <p>I also thought that the <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=154343766">commercials</a> were exceptional this year. The <a href="http://www.audiusa.com/audi/us/en2/new_cars/Audi_R8.html">R8</a> one was great, mostly because the R8 is a gorgeous car. It's car porn. The <a href="http://www.t-mobile.com/">T-Mobile</a> one with <a href="http://www.nba.com/history/players/barkley_summary.html">Charles Barkley</a> and <a href="http://www.dwyanewade.com/">Dewayne Wade</a> was great. The giant pigeons in the <a href="http://www.fedex.com/">FedEx</a> commercial was enjoyable, though predictable. I also enjoyed the wine and cheese party commercial and the <a href="http://www.bridgestone.com/">Bridgestone</a> commercial with <a href="http://www.richardsimmons.com/j/">Richard Simmons</a>.</p> <p>My favorite part of Super Bowl 2008 was undoubtedly the half time performance. <a href="http://tompetty.com/home/">Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers</a> was such a treat. They played well and had a good selection of songs. He slowed the pace of the songs down considerably which made for a mellow relaxing halftime show. By far the best Super Bowl halftime performance I've ever seen.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=755 <p>It has been quite some time since I last blogged. This is partially due to the fact hat I've been using the time I usually devote to blogging to redesigning the user experience for the website. It is also due to the fact that there hasn't been anything that has moved me enough to write. I've highly considered it numerous times: when <a href="http://www.mikehuckabee.com">Mike Huckabee</a> won in Iowa, when <a href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</a> offered to buy <a href="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo!</a>, when <a href="http://www.joinrudy2008.com/">Giuliani</a> endorsed <a href="http://www.johnmccain.com/">McCain</a>; but none of those events moved me like the event which drives me to write this entry.</p> <p>Today, in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com">Times</a>, the esteemed reporter Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed piece entitled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03kristof.html?em&ex=1202187600&en=2cfd097c329edbb3&ei=5087%0A">"Evangelicals a Liberal Can Love"</a>. My first thought when reading that title was that Kristof had learned a story about some watered-down Christianity which fit into the box that he wanted to place Christians in. Instead, Kristof wrote an elegant, balanced, and reasonable defense of the positive affects of the Christian right. In addition, he even threw in a rather sharp attack on those liberals who preach tolerance toward minority groups, unless, of course, that minority group is Christian evangelicals. Kristof writes, </p> <p id="quote">Liberals believe deeply in tolerance and over the last century have led the battles against prejudices of all kinds, but we have a blind spot about Christian evangelicals. They constitute one of the few minorities that, on the American coasts or university campuses, it remains fashionable to mock.</p> <p>Later, he goes on to say</p> <p id="quote">Scorning people for their faith is intrinsically repugnant, and in this case it also betrays a profound misunderstanding of how far evangelicals have moved over the last decade. Today, conservative Christian churches do superb work on poverty, AIDS, sex trafficking, climate change, prison abuses, malaria and genocide in Darfur.</p> <p>Kristof does not hesitate to also call out past leaders of the Christian right who did as much, if not more, damage to the reputation of Christianity than the cruades. He says,</p> <p id="quote">Self-righteous zealots like Pat Robertson have been a plague upon our country, and their initial smugness about AIDS (which Jerry Falwell described as &#65533;God&#65533;s judgment against promiscuity&#65533;) constituted far grosser immorality than anything that ever happened in a bathhouse. Moralizing blowhards showed more compassion for embryonic stem cells than for the poor or the sick, and as recently as the 1990s, evangelicals were mostly a constituency against foreign aid.</p> <p>But the future of the Christian right is bright. Lead by leaders like Rick Warren, and a focus on social justice, United States Christianity is better equipped to be the hands and feet of Christ than ever before.</p> <p>Kristof gained much respect from me for writing this article which surely will not be popular with the many liberal supports of the Times op-ed section.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=753 <p>Do you <a href="http://www.hulu.com">Hulu</a>? I do! Hulu is a great new web application which serves up commercial supported TV content. The quality is good, and at this point, probably since it's a closed beta, there aren't bandwidth problems (it only buffered once during the episode of <a href="http://www.fox.com/house">House</a> that I watched this morning). There is a great selection of TV shows (House, <a href="http://www.nbc.com/office">The Office</a>, <a href="http://www.nbc.com/30rock">30 Rock</a>) and a fair number of episodes and clips from each. I wonder if the major TV networks will begin offering their content through Hulu instead of through their own websites. The Hulu user interface is better than all of the TV network sites and the streaming is much more reliable at this point.</p> <p>Hulu is interesting to me for two reasons. The first reason is that they beat YouTube to the game. YouTube has not yet built relationships as deep as Hulu has with ALL of the major (and minor) TV networks. As being the first to the game, Hulu has a major advantage over anyone else who tries. Very interesting.</p> <p>The second reason that this is interesting is that the revenue stream is fairly traditional. For the last 40 years, the revenue model for television has been the same: broadcast the TV show with clips of commercials in between. The only difference now is the broadcast media. Now this is a major advance, because there are certainly numerous technical challenges which had to be overcome; however, from a business perspective there isn't a huge difference. It is interesting though that the TV networks have allowed someone to come between them and the consumers. In a way, they are just outsourcing the advertising and delivery and they are focusing on producing the content; however, I thought the power was in the advertising and delivery. Again, very interesting.</p> <p>You really should get in on Hulu. It's something special.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=751 <p>Yesterday, I made the return <a href="http://maps.live.com/#JnJ0cD1wb3MucXA1cTMwOG43ZDUwX0xhbmNhc3RlciUyYytQZW5uc3lsdmFuaWElMmMrVW5pdGVkK1N0YXRlc19fX18lN2Vwb3MucjNwNHoyOHZzY21jX1Ryb3klMmMrTmV3K1lvcmslMmMrVW5pdGVkK1N0YXRlc19fX18mcnRvcD0wJTdlMA==">trip</a> from <a href="http://www.cityoflancasterpa.com/lancastercity/site/default.asp">Lancaster</a> to <a href="http://www.troyny.gov/">Troy</a> after Turkey Day break. I left Lancaster right around noon and arrived in Troy shortly before 5PM. As always, my <a href="http://www.joinred.com/">Product Red</a> iPod <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/">Nano</a> came along for the trip and kept me entertained with <a href="http://www.mattnathanson.com/">Nathanson</a>, <a href="http://www.ericclapton.com/">Clapton</a>, and <a href="http://dmband.com/">DMB</a> for the 5 hours I was in the car.</p> <p>When I arrived in Troy I was ready to get out of the car and get some food, and in my rush I left my iPod playing in the <a href="http://www.vw.com/jetta/en/us/">car</a>. When I came back this evening at 5PM to make a <a href="http://www.pricechopper.com/">Chopper</a> trip, I found that the iPod was STILL PLAYING. Count it folks: that is 29 hours of straight playback. That is one product whose battery life far exceeds expectations. Nice job, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs">Jobs</a>.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=749 <p>I adore the music in this commercial! I think I'm going to start attending a church with Gospel music!</p> <p><object width="425" height="366"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SyebOtHQ_n8&rel=1&border=0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SyebOtHQ_n8&rel=1&border=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="366"></embed></object></p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=747 <p>Ever hear a poetry slam? The TV show Def Poetry is the most mainstream example of a poetry slam. You should definitely check out the following examples. It's wicked sweet stuff.</p> <object width="425" height="353"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RxsOVK4syxU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RxsOVK4syxU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="353"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LbtVepS53t0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LbtVepS53t0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="353"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R3bbpj2hX6w"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R3bbpj2hX6w" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="353"></embed></object> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=745 <p><b><a href="http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/011271.html">Julio, Your Mother and I Have Asked You Repeatedly to Make All Local Stops</a></b><br/> <p><!-- ID = 62850 -->Little brother, running up street: Look at me -- I'm the 4 train!<br/>Older brother, running next to him: Look at me -- I'm the 6 train!<br/>Little brother: Stop running faster than me!<br/>Older brother: Nuh-uh.<br/>Little brother: Dad! Julio didn't stop at 33rd Street!<br/><br/>--31st St, Astoria<br/><br/>Overheard by: five year old kids can figure this out -- why can't tourists?</p><br/>via <a href="http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/">Overheard in New York</a>, Aug 11, 2007</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=742 <p>Earlier this evening I was talking with my good friend Courtney and she asked if I would critique a powerpoint deck that she was building for work. Though I should have expected it, I was surprised to open up Keynote and find 64 slides of cat pictures. Looking at cat pictures has been a favorite past time of Intel interns the past few summers. In fact, they love them so much they have taken to using cat pictures as borders on their cubes. Here are a few of the best for your viewing enjoyment.</p> <img src="http://www.taylorlehman.com/photo/cat1.png" /> <img src="http://www.taylorlehman.com/photo/cat2.png" /> <img src="http://www.taylorlehman.com/photo/cat3.png" /> <img src="http://www.taylorlehman.com/photo/cat4.png" /> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=741 <p>So I've downloaded the Dispatch show from 7.15 and I just can't get over how great this band is. I love their songs. There are a few in particular that I particularly enjoy listening to over and over from that show.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Flying Horses</strong> - Take one of the best songs ever written and then add bongos. Wow. Amazing. Simply amazing.</li> <li><strong>Walk With You</strong> - I look forward to the day I can listen to this song and understand the sentiment.</li> <li><strong>Customs</strong> - Again, irresistible bongos. I need to learn to play the bongos.</li> <li><strong>Outloud</strong> - This song seemed especially appropriate this evening. I love the lyrics "Do you suppose, I would come running? Do you suppose I'd come at all? I suppose I would." So good. The best part about this song is that you can hear the African children's choir loud and clear. Those kids were awesome!</li> </ul> <p>Seriously folks, visit their MySpace page and download the tracks. You'll support a good cause and get some great music in the process!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=738 <p>You've asked, and here is it. Your taylorlehman.com blog update.</p> <p>This weekend I attended the <a href="http://www.hsbcgolf.com/">HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship</a> with my buddy Cody Powers. This golf tournament, held at <a href="http://www.wykagylcc.org/">Wykagyl Country Club</a> in New Rochelle, New York was a very, well, Oriental experience. Of the players that made it to the weekend, all but four were Asian. That number dropped to one by Sunday. In honor of this experience, I'd like to point out a very intriguing website: <a href="http://www.alllooksame.com">All Look Same</a>. I took the faces test and got 4 out of 17. And I call myself a technologist.</p> <p>The weekend before this one I had this distinct privilege to attend the last ever <a ref="http://www.dispatchmusic.com">Dispatch</a> show at the <a href="http://www.thegarden.com/">Garden</a>. I've never heard a plan play harder, longer, or for a better cause. All proceeds for the night went to the Dispatch Foundation which supports humanitarian efforts in Zimbabwe. If you want to experience the night, and support the work in Zimbabwe, visit their (yuck) Myspace page and download the MP3s of the show. Take some time to watch the videos about Elias and his family too - it's a window into the reality that is Zimbabwe.</p> <p>I went to my first Yankees game last week and for an evening, sold my soul. I cheered for the guys in pinstripes. I've honestly never been to a stadium full of more obnoxious fans. Even Fenway fans aren't that nuts. While I was there I started to list the MLB parks I've been to and realized that it's a pretty good list:</p> <ul> <li>Yankee Stadium in New York</li> <li>Camden Yards in Baltimore</li> <li>Veteran's Stadium in Philly</li> <li>Citizen's Bank Park in Philly</li> <li>Fenway Park in Boston</li> <li>Wrigley Field in Chicago</li> <li>Sky Dome in Toronto Canada</li> </ul> <p>I definitely have some of the coolest ones covered.</p> <p>There have been a few Broadway experiences this past week to increase my Playbill collection to three: <a href="http://www.stomponline.com/">Stomp</a>, <a href="http://www.siteforrent.com">RENT</a>, and <a href="http://disney.go.com/theatre/thelionking/">Lion King</a>. All were good in their own right. Stomp made you smile and I was definitely tapping my foot by the end. RENT is great music and has interesting characters (though I insist that the philosophy presented in that musical is the reason America is in the hole it is in). Lion King was visually impressive. The costumes and scenery made it.</p> <p>Food. I've eaten recently as well. I've been most pleased with Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian restaurant on 9th Ave. A great lunch spot is Minar on 46th (between 6th and 7th).</p> <p>That's it for now. I'll probably blog more often as the summer comes to an end.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=736 <p id="quote">Schmap: Boston Photo Shortlist <br/><br/> Hi Gregg, <br/><br/> I am writing to let you know that two of your photos have been short-listed for inclusion in the third edition of our Schmap Boston Guide, to be published early in July. <br/><br/> While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr. <br/><br/> Our submission deadline is Saturday, June 30. If you happen to be reading this message after this date, please still click on the link above (our Schmap Guides are updated frequently - photos submitted after this deadline will be considered for later releases). <br/><br/> Best regards, <br/><br/> Luke Ritchie,<br/> Managing Editor, Schmap Guides</p> <p>The two photos were:<br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95248406@N00/151648658/in/set-72057594142770242/">Picture 1</a><br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/95248406@N00/151647966/in/set-72057594142770242/">Picture 2</a></p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=734 <p>It's been just over a week now (probably about a week and 4 hours) that I've been in New York City. As I'm sure many of you who read this space know, I'm working for Morgan Stanley's as an intern in the information technology summer program. I live near the <a href="http://www.southstreetseaport.com/html/">South Seaport</a> in the financial district. This is my first time living in New York City, and it has taken significant time and effort to get adjusted to. While the adjustment process has been noticable, I am thoroughly enjoying my time here and expect to learn a lot (both in and out of work) this summer. Let me share with you some NYC beta.</p> <p>For those who enjoy running/biking/roller blading (I personally prefer the former), there is a bike path which extends from battery park up the entire West side of Manhattan. From anywhere on the West Side (or basically anywhere in the financial district), it is very accessible. It's in very good condition, and is patrolled by the NYPD in the evening. Because it is so long, it usually isn't very crowded and you can move as fast (or as slowly) as you want.</p> <p>I've been to a number of Restaurants since I've been here. <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&q=charlie's+mom&near=New+York,+NY&fb=1&cid=40735477,-73998207,16060615596679000271&li=lmd&om=0&ll=40.73612,-73.997576&spn=0.004471,0.011072&z=17&iwloc=A">Charlie's Mom</a> is a Chinese restaurant in the West Village. The portions are large, and the place is normally nice and quiet, but the food itself, while not bad, is nothing to write home about. <a href="http://www.chinagrillmgt.com/chinaNY/main.cfm">China Grill</a> is a nice asian place in midtown. This is a nice upscale place, but the atmosphere is relatively cold. The food is eclectic, and good. The Calimari salad features steamed (rather than fried) calimari, which I had never had before. The dessert sampler is delicious and includes a number of uniquely shaped and tasting deserts. The chocolate cake is particularly good. <a href="http://www.gigino-wagnerpark.com/">Gigino's at Wagner Park</a> is another nice restaurant in battery park with a phenomenal view of the harbor and statue of liberty. I went out on a limb here and ordered the Parmesan appetizer, and was surprised to be eating a semi-circular piece of Parmesan cheese. It was actually quite good with the peppers and tomatoes it was served with. <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&q=thai&near=&sll=40.760748,-73.986483&sspn=0.008939,0.022144&ie=UTF8&ll=40.764226,-73.984852&spn=0.008939,0.022144&z=16&iwloc=A&iwd=1&cid=40760528,-73985810,16800558142393350093&om=1">Pongsri</a> was one of my favorite dining experiences in the city. This was by far, the best Thai food I have ever had. The Thai iced tea was delicious, and the Panang pork was spiced perfectly. I'll definitely be doing lunch here again. <a href="http://thegreydog.com/">The Grey Dog</a> is the only place I've been that is better than Pongsri. Nate Chapin and I went here to kill some time before we saw <a href="">Oceans 13</a> last evening. The iced-tea is only so-so, but the turkey club is amazing. The sandwich is huge, and oh-so tasty. This place sells all sorts of drinks (from wine to smoothies, coffee to iced tea) and a nice selection of food to go with it. It's not too pricey, and the atmosphere is very relaxing. I'll definitely be hitting this place up on my way home from work many times this summer.</p> <p>In terms of relaxing after work, anyone in the down town area should most certainly check out the pier at the South Seaport. Most of the bars have happy hour that extends until 8PM, and you are allowed to take your drinks anywhere on the pier. It's a great place to hang out and enjoy a great view of the east river, Brooklyn, and the numerous bridges which cross the river as the evening shadows extend themselves across the pier.</p> <p>There are other things to share as well. For getting around the city via the subway, there is nothing better than <a href="http://www.hopstop.com">HopStop</a> and <a href="http://www.gypsymaps.com/">Gypsy Maps</a>. Both of these sites allow you to enter your starting and ending location and give you walking/subway directions. These have been priceless as I learn to navigate myself around the city (proud to say I haven't taken an incorrect train yet!). Subway riders should be prepared to do something during the wait/ride. Music is always good, and a book is even better. I've begun reading a book titled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Under-Overpass-Journey-Streets-America/dp/1590524020">Under the Overpass</a> while I wait, and it has really helped the time pass. Instead of willing the trains to arrive - I hate when they arrive because now I have to put my book down. It really is a distinct change in mindset.</p> <p>Ah, and one last thing before I finish. The theater that Nate and I saw Oceans 13 had a balcony. That's correct, a movie theater with a balcony. I'm sure not in Lancaster anymore!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=732 <p>Watch and see why:</p> <p style="text-align: center"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/H2UdDsgB22s"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/H2UdDsgB22s" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=730 <p>A few days ago I wrote about the next platform, and used <a href="http://www.facebook.com">FB</a> as my example. I highlighted the <a href="http://www.ilike.com">iLike</a> application as an example of a piece of software developed for the FB platform (more realistically, it was ported to the FB platform). The iLike challenge game was so popular (over 400,000 users in less than 3 days) that the iLike servers just could not take the load. The following explanation was posted today by iLike:</p> <p id="quote">Quick update: we've had such an incredible amount of game-play that our servers just couldn't take it. We thought we were prepared, but with over 400,000 Facebook users trying to play the last few days we were soooo wrong!!<br /><br /> The iLike Challenge will be back soon. And we won't forget your score.<br /><br /> Stay tuned, enjoy your holiday, and check back in a couple of days!! :-)<br /><br /> - the iLike Team</p> <p>I'm glad they are doing so well that they can't handle it. Good for them.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=727 <p>I really dread the "where do you go to school" series of questions. It's up there on the list of things I hate with roller coasters and snakes. It always starts the same way:</p> <p id="quote"><strong>Other Person:</strong> So, where do you go to school?<br /> <strong>Me:</strong> Rensselaer.</p> <p>Now this is where things get interesting. There are two possible responses to this question. The first is:</p> <p id="quote"><strong>Other Person:</strong> Oh, yeah - that is in Rochester, right?</p> <p>Nope, not so much. Here is a public service announcement that you all need to hear. <strong>RPI is not RIT. RPI is a much better school than RIT. RIT does not even have a PhD program. RPI > RIT. RPI is in ALBANY, NEW YORK. ALBANY is 2 hours north of the city. Rochester, while a phenomenal place, is not where RPI is.</strong> I usually just politely explain their mistake and smile. One of these times I'm going to snap. Just wait, you'll hear on the news "Man mistakes RPI for RIT and ends up in the ER."</p> <p>The second response to hearing that I go to RPI is as follows:</p> <p id="quote"><strong>Other Person:</strong> Oh, is that a two year program?</p> <p>This one really makes me angry. First, it implies that the other person doesn't think I am worthy of a four-year school. Second, it shows how little the other person knows about computers. I also follow this response with a polite correction and smile, but one time I'm going to lose it and go on a rant. It'll go something like this:</p> <p id="quote"><strong>Me:</strong>No, RPI is not a bloody two-year school. RPI is a four year institution that was founded in 1824 and is one of the top 50 schools in the nation. Our president was the first black woman to graduate from MIT, was head of the NRC, and sits on numerous corporate boards. RPI grads have gone on to start nVidia, build the Brooklyn bridge, become astronauts, and even invent the Ferris Wheel. At RPI we are required to take differential equations, models of computation, and other complex math, science and engineering courses. RPI is NOT a two year school.</p> <p>So, if you ever ask me the question "where do you go to school?", select your response wisely!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=723 <p>A more fulfilling end to a non-adapted trilogy their hasn't been since Star Wars. "Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End", was funny, interesting, complete, and thoroughly enjoyable. Though the movie seemed long, it didn't feel drawn out. It definitely took time to tell the story it needed to tell, but didn't throw in any silly side plots which could have distracted from the movie. Everything fit together nicely, but nothing felt obviously coincidental. There was plenty of scheming and plotting and enough plot twists to keep you at the edge of your seat.</p> <p><strong>Warning: Numerous Spoilers Ahead</strong></p> <p>My absolutely favorite part of the movie was that Keith Richards was cast as the keeper of the pirate code, who also happened to be Captain Jack's father. It was hilarious, though I'm not sure most people in the audience got it.</p> <p>The only part of the movie that I did not like was the way the lovey-dovey plot line with Will and Elizabeth was played out. Though it ended well, it felt like there was a jump made in the middle which did not fit. For most of the movie they seem to be fighting, and for no apparent reason at all, he asks her to marry him, she agrees, and Barbossa marries them in the middle of huge battle in a maelstrom (certainly an enjoyable scene, though I'm not sure it follows).</p> <p>I lied, there was another scene that I did not like. The ginormous Callipso that growled was just strange. In retrospect, he plot line between her and Davey Jones was not concluded, though it did not feel this way when watching the movie.</p> <p>There are a number of twists and enjoyable parts that I have not written about, and I highly encourage all fans of the Pirates Series to watch the movie. It was much better than the second, and equally as enjoyable as the first. I give it two thumbs up!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=708 <p>There is a race going on, a very, very important race. What is this race you ask? The race to be the next computing platform. A platform is a tricky thing to define. The current platform is the operating system as we know it - Linux, Windows, OS X, etc. The next platform will most likely be very different. Most likely it will be web-based, and the medium for accessing it may be very different than our current medium (desktop and laptop PCs). There may be multiple ways of accessing it (PCs, smart phones, etc). Additionally, the pricing model may be very different than the current platform.</p> <p>This is an extremely exciting technical development because the creator of the platform is king. The platform is first and foremost a medium which allows developers to create applications. The platform creator determines how these applications interact with the platform and how they are developed. The platform creator is a key player in the creation of standards and interfaces. Truly, there is none higher on the geekdom power scale than the platform creator.</p> <p>While this may seem like a "who cares" issue that only really should interest techies, this is an extremely important social, and economic issue as well. The creator of the next platform will be responsible for determining solutions for a number of privacy issues. Additionally, as said before, they will be responsible for determining a pricing model for a new medium which may be accessed and used like no software ever before created.</p> <p>Since no one knows what the next platform will look like, it is hard to define the group of competitors. For the purposes of this discussion, anyone who is creating software which acts as a development platform and data storage tool will be considered a possible competitor. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all are creating services which act as "platforms". There are also a large number of Web 2.0 companies also creating similar tools. This is where Facebook comes in.</p> <p>Just this week, Facebook unveiled a number of third-party applications which users can add to their Facebook pages. One in particular is an iLike tool which allows users to add clips of their favorite songs to their profiles and play the music challenge game. I've played with iLike a few months ago and found the tool to be nothing more than a "fun" Web 2.0 tool which had no foreseeable business model (after doing some Googling and checking out the website again, I'm still not sure where the $$ comes from). Interestingly enough, they have a very respectable board of advisers and lots of angel funding, so I'm guessing there is something that I am missing.</p> <p>The tool is tons of fun. I especially like the music challenge game. I'm addicted, especially since there is an aspect of competition since they show you your stats and your friends stats. I purposely stopped this evening when I was one point ahead of my buddy Trent, just to spite him. An important stat for social networking sites is "time per visit", and I gaurantee you that mine will definitely go up now that this tool is available. My only complaint is that you are unable to link your account on iLike with your FB account in order to import your previous challenge score.</p> <p>The other question is, what is in it for FB? The only thing I can see is that they are getting more people to their site with the new tools which translates into greater ad revenue. Is that how the next platform will be funded? Will it be entirely with ad revenue? We can only hope not...</p> <p>So is FB the next platform? They are definitely taking a GREAT step in the correct direction, though they need to promote more interactive applications. I'm impressed with the number of application developers that they got to write FB applications. Another concern would have to be that most of the applications that you can load onto your FB page can also be loaded onto your blog or most other websites. This of course brings up another interesting question: is it possible that we already have the next platform? Is it possible that the development model is about to change. Will the user be responsible for creating the platform, and the developer will simply develop to a standard rather than to a platform. Now that, is an interesting idea I'll have to take up in a later post.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=706 <p>It happened - <a href="http://www.nbc.com/Studio_60_on_the_Sunset_Strip/">Studio 60</a> returned to television! It started brilliantly - the prop guys (including the guys who hold the cue cards), walked out because Danny insulted them. I believe the quote was "you are prop guys, you're replacable". Interestingly enough, the entire episode was shot without the characters of Danny or Matt (Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry). This leaves Cal in charge of the "Disaster Show". This was especially fun because it allowed for many opportunities for interaction between him and guest host Allison Janney. I forgot how good their chemistry is - they were great!</p> <p>While it started great, the middle and end of the show brought back the social drama which was inserted into the show when rating started to tank. Simon is having women problems, Lucy and Tom are still together, and Harriet is dealing with the fallout of having broken up with Luke. Here's to hoping that since the show is tanked already, they will go with the critically acclaimed material they had at the beginning and leave all this social drama crap behind.</p> <p>Definitely tune in next Thursday at 10PM to see what Sorkin and Schlamme have up their sleeve!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=704 <p id="quote">"It will be more fun than Vietnam"<br /><br />Frank, Everybody Loves Raymond</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=702 <p>It's been over a year now that <a href="http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/">West Wing</a> has been off the air. Since I enjoyed the show so much, I thought it would be a fitting tribute to document the professional lives of select members of the original cast and writing staff.</p> <p><strong>Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman)</strong><br />After West Wing, Bradley Whitford became a star on the show <a href="http://www.nbc.com/Studio_60_on_the_Sunset_Strip/">Studio Sixty on the Sunset Strip</a>. Even though the show didn't last a full season, I can honestly say that when it began it was one of the best shows on TV. The writing was funny and smart, the acting genuine, and the casting brilliant. Unfortunately, 90% of America did not agree, and the show didn't make it to spring sweeps (though, it is coming back 5/24 @ 10PM). In his personal life, Whitford continues to be active in social and political activism.</p> <p><strong>Timothy Busfield (Danny Concannon)</strong><br />After West Wing, Busfield also joined the cat of Studio 60 as Cal, the technical director.</p> <p><strong>Lisa Edelstein (Laurie, Sam's call-girl friend)</strong><br />Laurie was a reoccurring character on the West Wing during the first season. After West Wing, she took a lead role on the hit <a href="http://www.fox.com/home.htm">Fox</a> series <a href="http://www.fox.com/house/index.htm">House</a> as doctor Cuddy.</p> <p><strong>Emily Proctor (Ainsley Hayes)</strong><br />After West Wing, Emily Proctor took a lead role in the popular show <a href="http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi_miami/">CSI:Miami</a> as Calleigh Dusquene.</p> <p><strong>Tommy Schlamme and Aaron Sorkin</strong><br />The brains behind the brilliant script and production were also the brains behind Studio 60. When Studio 60 began, it had the same brilliance as West Wing, but deteriorated over time as more drama was inserted into the show to try to boost ratings.</p> <p>Many of the other characters from west wing have been fairly quiet after West Wing has ended. I expected Rob Lowe (Sam), Janel Maloney (Donna), and Joshua Malina (Will) to really have their careers launched (or in Lowe's case, progressed strongly) by West Wing, but they have failed to land any high-profile roles since the end of the show. Interestingly enough, both Martin Sheen and Stockard Channing have also been relatively low-key since the end of the show.</p> <p>I'm not sure we'll ever see such a talented group of people together on one show ever again.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=700 <p>Project URL: <a href="http://www.taylorlehman.com/dev/dis_alg/">http://www.taylorlehman.com/dev/dis_alg/</a></p> <p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong><br /> The bitonic counting network is an important concept in the field of distributed computing. The bitonic counting network is used to allow n agents to access shared memory for the purpose of counting. Each agent that enters the network should exit the network with a unique value, and all values should be handed out. Even more importantly, the bitonic counting network is very scalable and can count to any value and can be implemented for any number of agents. This paper describes the design and implementation of a JavaScript based simulation of such a network. Also included in this paper is a discussion of technical problems encountered and possible future extensions.</p> <p><strong>BACKGROUND</strong><br /> A bitonic counting network is made up of a series of balancers . These balancers route the agents as they pass through the network from left to right. Each agent is a node in a distributed system that wishes to access the shared memory. As an agent approaches a balancer it alters its path through the network based on the direction of the arrow. If the arrow of a balancer is pointing toward the line the agent is on, the agent remains on that line and the balancer switches directions. If the arrow of a balancer points away from the line the agent is on, the agent follows the arrow to the opposite lane and the balancer switches.</p> <p>The position of the balancers in the network is key. The positions must be set so that an agent can enter the network on any line and still receives the next available value. Additionally, it is important that every value gets handed out, and that values are handed out sequentially. For this simulation, the four input bitonic counting network was chosen. This network contains four lines, and six balancers of varying lengths. Figure 2 shows the layout of the counting network.</p> <p><strong>SIMULATION DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION</strong><br /> JavaScript was chosen as the technology to implement this simulation because of the ability to simulate distributed computing with AJAX and the integration with HTML that allows for easy GUI creation. When the final project scope was determined, AJAX was not used for the simulation for reasons discussed later in this paper.</p> <p>The simulation is designed to allow the user to input settings before the simulation begins. The user is able to input step time, counting limit, and the number of agents. The step time is used to tell the simulator how long to wait between each agent move, in seconds. The counting limit is the maximum value that the agents are able to access in the network and the number of agents is the number of agents that will access the data.</p> <p>The simulation is structured as follows. An array, called active, holds the value of the position of each agent in the network. When the simulation begins, up to four agents are marked as active and randomly select a line to begin on. The JavaScript function setTimeout is used to call the handle_iteration function after a certain number of seconds, which changes based on the step time set by the user.</p> <p>The handle_iteration function scans the list of active agents and moves each agent based on their position in the network and the configuration of the next accessible balancer. A series of arrays are used to hold the position of the agents in the network and the network configuration. The position of the agents are numerically represented by giving each place a balancer meets a line a number, starting in the top left hand corner and going down each row, from left to right. When an agent enters the network, the entry in the active array, which corresponds to that agent, is updated to store the position.</p> <p>To compute the next move, the position of the next balancer must be taken into account. This data is stored in three arrays: arrow, option1, option2. If the value in arrow, which corresponded to the current position of the agent in the network, was 1, the value at the same position in option1 was the next position. Likewise, if the value in arrow that corresponded to the current position of the agent in the network was 0, the value at the same position in option2 was the next position. After a move, the value of the balancer was reversed by altering the values in arrow, which corresponded to that balancer. For an even position, it was necessary to update the value in arrow at position and the value in arrow at position + 1. It was the opposite for an odd position. This is necessary to ensure that both sides of the balancer are updated, since they are each stored in the arrow array separately.</p> <p>The benefits of this implementation is that it is easily scalable. To simulate a larger counting network, one would simply have to increase the size of the arrays and populate them with new values. While this would be practical for 8 or 16 input bitonic counting networks, it wouldn&#65533;t work so well for larger counting networks because populating the array would become unreasonable. Additionally, the storage of this data becomes expensive too. For each place a balancer meets a line, 3 values have to be stored. This is order n3 storage, and would become highly inefficient for larger counting networks.</p> <p>When an agent reaches the end of the network, it returns the value of the shared memory to its node and increments the value of the shared memory by four. Each shared memory value is incremented by four because the 4 input bitonic counting network can only count four values at a time. When an agent enters the network, a check is done to see if the number of shared memory accesses had reached the maximum amount defined by the user settings. If there are fewer accesses than the maximum, a new agent is randomly selected. This agent randomly selects a lane, and on the next iteration this agent begins its traversal of the network.</p> <p>The ending condition for the simulation occurs when, at the end of an iteration, the active array is scanned and no active agents are found. This will only occur when the number of shared memory accesses equals the total number of accesses defined by the user because in any other case a new agent would enter the network when another agent is completed.</p> <p><strong>PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED DURING IMPLEMENTATION</strong><br /> The initial design for the simulation called for an Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) based simulation that would delay the arrival of agents to more accurately simulate a real-life distributed situation. This architecture called for a request to be sent to the server using an XMLHttpRequest object. When the server received the request, it would delay for a random number of seconds before sending a response. The client (browser) would then handle the response and register the agent as active. The problem with this situation was the need for multiple simultaneous request objects. While there is a solution that can solve this problem, the implementation of this solution was outside of the scope of this project.</p> <p><strong>FUTURE ADDITIONS TO THE PROJECT</strong><br /> For future versions of the project, the scope could be expanded to provide an implementation to the XMLHttpRequest object problem described above. This would make for a more realistic simulation environment.</p> <p>For future versions of the project, it would also be nice to add interactive mode support so that a user can walk through the simulation at their own pace. This would enhance the simulation&#65533;s usefulness as a teaching tool.</p> <p>Lastly, it would be useful to be able to simulate bitonic counting networks with more than four inputs. The next stage would be to add support for 8 and 16 input bitonic counting networks. Eventually, it would be nice to add support for n input counting networks.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=691 <p>Tonight the Rusty Pipes held their spring 2007 show, "Wall of Sound". The Pipes, as always, were great; however, they were far from the best group that performed this evening. Both of the guest groups, the <a href="http://www.pointercounts.org/">SUNY Potsdam Pointercounts</a> and Absolute A Cappella from SUNY New Paltz, blew me away. They were fresh, creative, and fun. The Rusty Pipes look so serious up there - these groups looked like they were having fun. It looked like they LIVED to be up there. The Pipes look like they do it because it's their job.</p> <p>It turns out that my two favorite songs that these groups performed this evening have made their way to You Tube. The first song is "Jump In the Line (Shake Senora)" performed by Absolute a cappella:</p> <p style="text-align: center"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D0i5L6UlFdU"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D0i5L6UlFdU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p> <p>The second song you should check out is "Home Run" performed by the Pointercounts. I'm not sure who this song is by originally, but I love how the Pointercounts performed it. They were great! This was probably my favorite song of the evening. I usually do not enjoy single-sex a cappella groups, but these guys were a lot of fun. Their performance felt fresh and original. Enjoy!</p> <p style="text-align: center"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mZXZJZoQp6M"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mZXZJZoQp6M" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p> <p>If I'm not careful, my blog is going to become nothing more than a space to share my favorite <a href="http://www.youtube.com">YouTube</a> videos. I promise that I'll have some new non-YouTube related content soon.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=681 <p>Yesterday afternoon I watched the <a href="">Virginia Tech</a> convocation ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, professor and poet Nikki Giovanni gave one of the best speeches I have EVER heard. Ever. It is a beautiful response to the tragedy which happened earlier this week.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0cSuidxE8os"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0cSuidxE8os" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p> <p>"We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think, and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility; we will continue to invent the future. Through our blood and tears, through all this sadness - we are the Hokies. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are... Virginia Tech."</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=679 <p><a href="http://westwing.bewarne.com/fourth/408process.html">"It was an Aristolean confluence of events"</a> that led Shane, Joel, Andrew and I to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=ottawa&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1&iwloc=addr">Ottawa</a> this weekend. First, the <a href="http://www.pittsburghpenguins.com/">Penguins</a> secured 5th place in the <a href="http://www.nhl.com/">NHL</a> Eastern Conference. Second, the <a href="http://www2.ottawasenators.com/eng/index.cfm">Ottawa Senators</a> secured 4th place. Third, the first two games of the series were scheduled for Ottawa. Fourth, the second game was scheduled for 3PM on a Saturday afternoon when no one had homework. When an opportunity like this presents itself, it is hard to turn down. With the stars aligned in our favor, the four of us set out for Ottawa</p> <p>Google Maps said that it would take about 5.5 hours, and with gas/food stops, they were just about right. The <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=Troy,+NY&daddr=Ottawa,+ON&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.891082,81.738281&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=8&om=1">drive</a> from Troy, NY to Ottawa, ON is pretty painless. 90W to 81N to a bunch of Candian roads (401E/416N/417). Right before you pass into Canada you travel through the <a href="http://www.visit1000islands.com/">Thousand Islands</a> region which may be some of the most beautiful territory I've ever seen in New York. There are a number of rivers and tons of small Islands with houses on them. It would be a gerat place to own a summer cabin. The most painful part of the drive to Ottawa was the anal Canadian border gaurd. Someone must have gotten out of bed on the wrong side because he was not pleasant. He gave us an incredibly hard time because Andrew only had a drivers license (he wanted to see a birth certificate), but eventually let us go through anyway. Either a) he broke the rules by letting us go through, or b) he just wanted to give us a hard time. Either way, it wasn't a pleasant start to our Canadian visit.</p> <p>We got to <a href="http://www2.scotiabankplace.com/eng/index.cfm">Scotiabank Place</a> in time for the warm-ups and quickly took our seats. We watched the teams warm up and spent some time exploring the arena (read: bathrooms). I have never seen more ubiquitous advertising than I did at the Scotiabank Place. There were ads on the boards, behind the bench, on the scoreboard, built into the animations on the scoreboard, on the outside of the arena, on the hill BESIDE the arena. Everywhere you looked there were ads. They even changed the ads on the boards between periods with giant stickers. Another advertising method that stood out was the animations on the scoreboard. Whenever they would changed images on the screen, they would run an animation which looked like a wide, thin box was being turned over. On the edge of the box were advertisements. I'm not sure who thought of that idea, but it was pretty brilliant. They must be raking in killer ad revenue from that place.</p> <p>It is key to point out that the four of us made up about 4% of the Pittsburgh fans in the building. There were about twenty thousand people in attendance, and about 100 of them were Pittsburgh fans. It turned out that one of the two women sitting next two us was a Penguins fan, and she was bloody nuts. I've never heard someone scream so much. It was pretty funny, especially as the game went on and she had more to drink. There was a group of guys across the aisle from us who we were joking around with. They'd let us hear it when the Senators scored and we dished out our own crap when the Penguins put the puck in the net.</p> <p>The game itself couldn't have been better. The Penguins scored first in the first on a <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/players/3072/">Ryan Whitney</a> slapper from the top of the key. Going into the second period, the teams seemed evenly matched and the game was physical, and a lot of fun to watch. The second period was all Senators. They out-checked, out-skated, and out-scored the Penguins. At the end of the second, the Senators had a 2-1 lead. Things did not look good for the Penguins. The third period was the exact opposite. The Penguins evened it up with a <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/players/9/">Gary Roberts</a> goal early into the third. When the Senators scored again to take the lead, the Penguin's star forwards turned it on. <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/players/3980/">Jordan Staal</a> scored 3 minutes later, and 2 minutes after that <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/players/3737/">Sidney Crosby</a> put them ahead for good. Go Penguins!</p> <p>After the game we hopped in the car for what should have been a short drive to Ottawa; however, since there is only one major road running between the arena and Ottawa, we got to spend 45minutes sitting in the parking lot and on the highway with 20,000 of our closest Canadian friends. It was funny to see people's reactions when the saw the Pennsylvania license plate. Lots of people laughed and waved, and one guy even stuck his head in the sunroof while we were in the parking lot and said he was from Pittsburgh but had moved to Ottawa. Canadian people (minus the boarder gaurds) are really nice! In Ottawa we stayed at the <a href=""http://www.radisson.com/webExtra.do?hotelCode=ONOTTAWA&hotelBrandCode=RAD&key=hoteldirectory.info.&backUri=&forecast=&print=&numberOfAdults=&numberOfChildren=&checkinDayMonthYear=&checkoutDayMonthYear=>Radisson Parliament Hill</a>. What a great hotel. The location is ideal, right in the heart of the business district of Ottawa. It's a ten minute walk from the Hotel to the Rideau Centre area, and also a ten minute walk to <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=gatineau,+quebec&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=13&ll=45.427853,-75.711937&spn=0.088066,0.181274&om=1">Gatineau</a>, the Quebec side of the city. The rooms are comfortable, clean, and spacious and the staff is very accommodating. The best part about the hotel though, is the price. We were able to get a room with two double beds for $139 USD.</p> <p>Ottawa itself is a nice city. It is located on a river and is a very history city. Lining the river are walking paths and parks sandwiched between the river and the centuries old government buildings. The city has a very European feel to it. Most of the nightlife and restaurants are in the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&q=rideau+centre&near=ottawa,+ca&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=16&ll=45.427898,-75.688848&spn=0.011008,0.022659&om=1">Rideau Centre</a> area. There are lots of little cafes and pubs with outdoor seating. We also found a number of small courtyards with lots of little coffee shops in them. In this summer, it would be a really good time to sit at the cafes in these courtyards and share a drink with friends. We ended up eating at <a href="http://www.elephantcastle.com/main.html">Elephant & Castle</a>, a pub recommended to us by some locals. We watched the Devils lose and enjoyed some <a href="http://www.steamwhistle.ca/">pub fare</a>. After dinner, we went over to Gatineau to enjoy a at 4 Jeudi (4 Thursdays), one of the Cafes there. There isn't much to do in Gatineau, except for on Laval street. There is a number of pubs and bistros and clubs along there that cater to college age students. Definitely check that out, but don't waste time looking elsewhere for entertainment.</p> <p>My overall rating of Ottawa is that it's a great place to go. It's a fun place to watch hockey and hang out. And, if you don't believe what you read, check out the <a href="http://www.taylorlehman.com/photo_set.php?setid=72157600080652364&setTitle=Penguins%20vs.%20Senators%20Playoff%20Game">pictures</a>! http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=677 <p>Hello from the HOTTEST spot in Troy, the <a href="http://www.troyhotspot.com">Hot Spot</a>! I'm currently drinking a Mango Smoothie made for me by the great Darrell and blogging from Kristen Clark's wicked cool laptop! I'm here because RPI is in a bit of a funk this afternoon. At 10:00AM this morning, there was a fatality in a stairwell in the CII. The typical <strong>stories</strong> passed around campus, "There was a murder", "There was a suicide", "There was a dragon", "There was a unicorn with a nuclear warhead for a horn", etc. Eric, Britney, and I had an impromptu prayer meeting in the Quad quad. Campus shut down at noon and we were told to leave the academic side of campus. Lisa Trahan, the acting dean of residence life, made an announcement in the dining hall and we now have offset dining hall hours since the dining hall on the academic side of campus is closed. So much for improving the safety image of campus.</p> <p>In place of PEA and being a S1 TA, we played hockey this afternoon. I finally got to try out my brand new bright orange HYPER wheels and ABEC 9 BSB bearings in a game setting. It was totally worth the 100 dollars I paid for them. Not only do they looked wicked cool, but they ride nicely too!</p> <p>This was a lame blog post, but I thought I should write about the happenings on campus.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=672 <p id="quote">I've been on TV before. I was on the... listen, I'll be honest with ya - I love Jesus, but I drink a little.<br /><br/>-Gladys Hardy from Austin Texas</p> <p>Thanks Carolyn!</p> <p style="text-align: center"><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K1lDBx1gBww"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K1lDBx1gBww" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=670 <p>Quote of the week:</p> <p id="quote">(22:46:12) Courtney Schmitt: Marlborough is SMOKIN!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=668 <p><a href="http://www.duke.edu">Duke</a> lost, tear. The only thing that could make up for such a great loss: watching a <a href="http://www.byu.edu">BYU</a> kid airball a free-throw. He must have left his horns in the locker room...</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=666 <p>The current assignment in the operating systems course I am enrolled in is to build a shell. One of the commands I need to implement is the <em>where</em> command. The where command takes one argument, a program name, and looks through the PATH environment variable to find the directory in which the program resides.</p> <p>The PATH environment variable is a colon deliminated string of paths. To break apart PATH, I used the c function <a href="http://www.hmug.org/man/3/strtok.php"><em>strtok</em></a>. Strtok takes two arguments, the string and the deliminater, both pointers. This returns the first substring. Subsequent substrings are found by calling strtok with NULL and the deliminater. Here is an example:</p> <p id="quote"> char *string;<br /> char *deliminater = ":";<br /> char *substring;<br /> char *substring2;<br /><br /> substring = strtok(string,deliminater);<br /> substring2 = strtok(NULL,deliminater); </p> <p>The problem is that strtok destroys the original string by replacing it with the first substring. This was particularly a problem in my case because strtok was destroying the path environment variable. The solution is to make a deep copy of the string before calling strtok. Luckily, there is a c function to do this which saves the programmer from having to allocate the necessary memory with <a href="http://www.hmug.org/man/3/malloc.php"><em>malloc</em></a> and use <a href="http://www.hmug.org/man/3/strcpy.php"><em>strcpy</em></a> to make a copy of the string.</p> <p>The function is <a href="http://www.hmug.org/man/3/strdup.php"><em>strdup</em></a>. Strdup takes one argument, the string to copy, and returns the new string. Here is how it was used in my case:</p> <p id="quote"> // Note, this is a simplified version w/o error checking<br /> char* mystring = strdup(getenv("PATH")); </p> <p>Now, the environment variable no longer gets overwritten, since a deep copy is made.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=664 <p><strong>Warning:</strong> What follows is <em><strong>EXTREMELY</strong></em> profane. If offended by such material, please do not follow the link.</p> <p>Dane Cook is an extremely funny comedian. My favorite skit of his is the "Heist Monkey" skit. Please, take time to listen to this clip (especially if you are a guy).</p> <p style="text-align: center"> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d0K-UvAF0po"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d0K-UvAF0po" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=662 <p>If you were a character in Quentin Tarantino's new movie, <a href="http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/grindhouse/">Grindhouse</a>, the answer would be a gun. A very large and powerful gun which includes a rocket launcher. Here are some other useful suggestions:</p> <ul> <li>A Machete</li> <li>A large propulsion device for flight</li> <li>A gumball machine</li> <li>The world's largest piece of licorice</li> <li>A hollow tube covered in advertisements (might as well make some $$)</li> </ul> <p>What would you attach?</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=660 <p>Tonight at <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/">Bible</a> study we discussed praise and worship. We started generally. What is praise? What is worship? We then progressed to more specific topics. What does praise and worship look like in the context of Christianity? We decided that praise was the act of praising something. This could be manifested as a response to an action or the response to a characteristic. Worship was honoring something as better than one's self. Additionally, worship includes the humbling of one's self as less than the object of worship. As the discussion progressed, I found myself most intrigued by the following question: what are reasons that cause someone not to worship God?</p> <p>It's important to note that the definition of worship in Christian context is much broader than the connotation given it by modern protestant "churchology". Worship is much more than singing and waving one's arms around. As it says in Romans 12:1, "Therefore, in response to God's mercy, offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship". Anything done by offering one's self to God is worship.</p> <p>The origin of my question was not in the definition of praise, or the definition of worship, but rather in the characteristics of God. If God is omnipresent, omnipotent, merciful, gracious, and the creator of the universe, what reason would one have for not worshiping and praising such a being? I often find that when I have a hard time worshiping God it's because I lose sight of his greatness. I take things for granted too often - when something good occurs, I rarely stop and ask "why" because I am too caught up in the good thing. I do not spend enough time reflecting - I spend too much time doing, and spend too much time looking forward at what is to come. By reflecting on the events of a day, both as they are occurring and after-the-fact, I think I'll notice God's greatness more often and will have a more constant reason to praise Him.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=657 <p id="quote"><!-- ID = 47494 -->Female coworker hearing drilling from another part of the building: What is that noise?<br/>Male coworker: A brontosaurus.<br/>Female coworker: What?!<br/><br/>Ann Arbor, Michigan<br/><br/>Overheard by: She's... ah... tenacious<br/>via <a href="http://www.overheardintheoffice.com/">Overheard in the Office</a>, Feb 28, 2007</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=655 <p>My good buddy Greg Lucas (use those mad CSS skills to make yourself something I can link to, cowboy) sent me a link to an article titled <a href="http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78210">"How to Look Strong While Climbing"</a>. If you've spent any time at all at a rock gym, you will certainly appreciate the humor in this post. Enjoy!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=653 <p>Can a single term Mormon <a href="http://www.rnc.org/">Republican</a> governor from a blue state compete in the 2008 presidential election? <a href="http://www.mittromney.com/">Mitt Romney</a> thinks so. Earlier this morning Governor Romney officially launched his presidential campaign from his home state of <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Michigan&ie=UTF8&z=8&ll=42.714732,-84.550781&spn=2.958279,7.602539&om=1&iwloc=addr">Michigan</a>. In his speech, governor Romney said,</p> <p id="quote">This Christmas, Ann and I gathered my five sons and five daughters-in-law to ask them whether I should run for President.<br /><br /> We talked about the special time this is in the history of America - the challenges and the opportunities. We talked about the qualities that are needed in our leaders. They were unanimous. They know our hearts. They know our values. They know my experience innovating and transforming, in business, in the Olympics, and in Massachusetts. And they know we love this country.<br /><br /> And so, with them behind us, with the fine people of Michigan before us, and with my sweetheart beside me, I declare my intention to run for President of the United States.</p> <p>Romney's experience as a Republican government in Massachusetts, a traditionally Democratic state, will be invaluable as he tries to reach out to liberal and moderate voters to convince them to vote another Republican into office. This country is in need of a President who fosters a spirit of bipartisanship. The polarization of the country which has slowly developed over the past four years is not effective. Mitt's strength as a bipartisan leader is offset by his lack of national and international political experience.</p> <p>Like <a href="http://www.barackobama.com/">Barack</a> (who, if elected, will be the first President in my lifetime who most people refer to by his first name), Romney is a bit of an unknown. He does not have any international political experience, and is a relative unknown outside of the northeast. He is green, but gifted, bright and intelligent. It seems like this election may not be focused on track records, but rather on a display of the skills necessary to run for President.</p> <p>I took some time to look through the "<a href=""http://www.mittromney.com/Issue-Watch/index>Issues Watch</a>" section of his website and found him to be a typical Republican candidate on most issues. The order in which he lists the issues displays his focus:</p> <p><ul> <li>Defeating the Jihadists</li> <li>Competing with Asia</li> <li>Taxes</li> <li>Spending</li> <li>Immigration</li> <li>Energy</li> <li>America's Culture and Values</li> <li>Technology</li> <li>Health Care</li> <li>Education</li> </ul></p> <p>It frightens me that health care and education are listed last. I think improving education is the key to solving a number of the problems associated with issues listed above it on the list: Competing with Asia, Culture and Values, Energy, and Technology. I'm not sure how I feel about his immigration policy. On the website it states:</p> <p id="quote">The current system, however, puts up a concrete wall to the best and brightest, yet those without skill or education are able to walk across the border.</p> <p>I agree that illegal immigrants are an issue which must be addressed; however, I also recognize that they play a crucial part in our economy, especially in the south and the west, and a policy must be created that does not ignore this fact. At the same time, I'm not sure if I want the best and brightest from other nations coming to the US and competing with me for jobs. This is not an opinion based on logic and reason, but rather on fear that these individuals may be taking jobs that I will be competing for (the same may be said for the illegal immigrants who work on farms, etc). The truth of the matter is that American companies should seek the best and brightest from across the globe because as American companies grow, so does the amount of jobs available.</p> <p>Even though I see Mitt Romney as a leader with a bipartisan track record, I'm not sure he has the international experience necessary to be President of the United States. Additionally, his approach to many major issues does not reflect my views. At this point, I will not be voting for Mitt Romney for President.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=651 <p>From our good friends over at <a href="http://xkcd.com/">xkcd</a>:</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/search_history.png"/><br /><br /> <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/dating_service.png" style="width: 95%; height: 95%;"/><br /><br /> <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/myspace.png" /><br /><br /> <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sandwich.png"/><br /><br /> <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/nintendo_surgeon.png"/><br /><br /> <img src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/the_problem_with_wikipedia.png"/></p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=646 <p id="quote">29% of callers swear at their customer service representative...</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=644 <p>If you live on New Hampshire <a href="http://www.nh.gov/dot/traveler/planning/maps/sc.jpg">sea coast</a> (in the white) than you certainly are aware of <a href="http://www.shark1053.com/">The Shark</a>. The Shark is the best classic rock station you will ever listen to. Ever. It's that good.</p> <p>The reason I write is to let you all know that That Shark is now available on the web. On the <a href="http://www.shark1053.com/">homepage</a> there is a link that says "Listen Live". Click on that link and you will be sent to a live stream of The Shark. Enjoy folks!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=642 <p><a href="http://www.nba.com/playerfile/dikembe_mutombo/">Dikembe Mutumbo</a>. Sucking Up. Iraq. What do these three things have in common? Why President Bush's <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/01/20070123-2.html">State of the Union</a> address of course. For those of you who are ignorant to the world around you, earlier this evening President Bush gave his annual address to <a href="http://www.senate.gov/">Congress</a>. Here are some of my thoughts.</p> <p>The start could not have been any more brilliant. President Bush basically spent the first three sentences sucking up to <a href="http://www.house.gov/pelosi/">Nancy Pelosi</a>. His "Madam Speaker" quote will be studied in political science classes for many years to come. By starting out the speech by reaching across the partisan isle, President Bush disarmed the Democrats and set the stage for a discussion of his social agenda.</p> <p>Mr. Bush began by citing the recent strength of the economy (true) and stated that we should continue to grow the economy "not with more government, but with more enterprise". There was nothing particularly new in this section. Some talk on balancing the budget and the typical Republican rhetoric on tax cuts. Mr. Bush did spend considerable time chiding Congress for the practice of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earmark#Earmarks_in_US_spending_legislation">earmarks</a>. During this section the camera switch to McCain for a second and caught him winking at someone. Not sure what that means but it was interesting.</p> <p>After starting with a strong point, the economy, came education and health care, topics which no one can appear to be against for PR reasons. This showed that the speech was structured well. First pat yourself on the back and put everyone in a good mood (everyone wants more money), and then talk about things that everyone agrees on. He must have been building to something. Education was much of the same from the past two years (charter schools and <a href="http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">No Child</a>), but the health care section included an interesting section:</p> <p id="quote">First, I propose a standard tax deduction for health insurance that will be like the standard tax deduction for dependents. Families with health insurance will pay no income on payroll tax -- or payroll taxes on $15,000 of their income. Single Americans with health insurance will pay no income or payroll taxes on $7,500 of their income. With this reform, more than 100 million men, women, and children who are now covered by employer-provided insurance will benefit from lower tax bills. At the same time, this reform will level the playing field for those who do not get health insurance through their job. For Americans who now purchase health insurance on their own, this proposal would mean a substantial tax savings -- $4,500 for a family of four making $60,000 a year. And for the millions of other Americans who have no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within their reach. Changing the tax code is a vital and necessary step to making health care affordable for more Americans.</p> <p>After health care and education came energy, as expected. President Bush called for the development of technology which reduces our dependence on foreign oil. He didn't leave out any technology, they all made it: nucular (yes, it was intentional), wind, solar, biodiesel, and ethanol. He even went as far as to claim that "these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change."</p> <p>The last policy section was national security. This section was a repetition of his prime time address on the 26th. He did a good job of arguing his point succinctly and logically. I continue to stand behind him in his "new" plan for Iraq</p> <p>Lastly was the call-out section. The best call out was Dikembe Mutumbo. Dikembe was cited for his work creating a hospital in Africa, in the country in which he was born. All was fine and dandy until Dikembe stood up. I don't know who it was, but someone mischievously placed a very short Asian woman in the seat next to Dikembe. He was literally double her size. It was VERY funny. Dicky C. must have agreed because there was a HUGE smile on his face after it happened.</p> <p>Here are some additional notes. <a href="">Henry Paulson</a> must have a <a href="http://www.ksta.de/ks/images/mdsBild/1152178137978l.jpg">TV tie</a> because it seems he wears the same tie and blue shirt every time he is on TV (we saw it at the confirmation hearings and in China). Condi was there wearing her typical death stare . <a href="http://www.savedarfur.org/content?splash=yes">Darfur</a> and <a href="http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/">AIDS</a> made the speech. Too bad solving the worst of the world's problems doesn't win votes.</p> <p>Overall, I think it was a good speech (have you ever heard a bad State of the Union?). I really enjoy his domestic policy (except maybe for education) and think that he realizes that he needs to reach across the isle in order to find unity on international issues. He is surely a lame duck already, but hopefully he can cross partisan boundaries to solve some domestic policy issues.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=640 <p>This semester I'm studying <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism">Existentialism</a> with professor <a href="http://kryten.mm.rpi.edu/RRG/zenzen.html">Michael Zenzen</a>. I thought that it would be useful to post some of my responses to the reading here in order to share my thoughts on the topic. Here is the first:</p> <p id="quote">Throughout Camus' discussion of the questions surrounding absurd freedom, it is not the questions that Camus examines as much as the evidence he uses that intrigued me as I read. One particular statement was intriguing to me, "You know the alternative: either we are free and God the all-powerful is responsible for evil. Or we are free and responsible but God is not all-powerful." This statement is used to support his claim that the problem of "freedom as such" is an example of the absurdity which Camus proposes as an explanation for the cause of suicide. In his writing, Camus assumes that this is a paradoxical statement. I do not believe that assumption is necessary; however, when attempting to clarify this belief, I found myself having a hard time overcoming certain statements which could be made in support of Camus assertion. I believe that God has created the world and has granted humans free-will which makes them responsible for evil. I also believe that god is all-powerful and has chosen not to intervene in humanity in a way which restricts the free will of man. This is where my problem lies. It could be argued that since God has the ability to be all powerful, humans do not have absolute freedom because there is no assurance that God will not decide at any moment to choose to intervene.<br /><br /> At this moment I am unable to reconcile my belief with the reasoning that Camus challenges me to consider except through the following. What if the problem is not with the paradoxical statement presented by Camus, but rather with the definition of freedom? By allowing freedom to be defined in relation to all-powerful God, so that man can live in absolute freedom even with the existence of God, the statement can be reconciled; however, by doing this, I am seeking unity between my beliefs and my logic and am demonstrating the absurdity which Camus explores in this passage. Even though I realize I engage in this mental exercise which exposes absurdity, I engage in it to seek further unity, and thus, further exposing the absurdity which Camus claims. If absolute freedom, defined as freedom of thought and action, can be reconciled with the concept of an all-powerful God, it would follow, though through considerable effort, that other Christian tenants could also be proven true. One such tenant is the belief in Heaven and Hell as an eternal abode for humanity. This truth could then be used to answer a powerful question presented by Camus, "What freedom can exist in the fullest sense without assurance of eternity?" By assuming that the choices made by a human effect his fate after he dies, death no longer has power over the freedom of man.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=638 <p>Can anyone say scripted? In what is by far the worst <a href="http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/video/">presidential campaign video announcement</a> ever, <a href="http://www.hillaryclinton.com/">Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton</a> has announced that she is running for President of the United States. Whoever produced this video obviously isn't catching on to the the recent trend. John Edwards and Barack Obama made great videos that were personal, engaging, and didn't feel edited (if they were edited, the producers did a great job making it feel like they weren't). In my opinion, Senator Clinton's PR biggest weakness is that she has a cold aura to her. She doesn't feel approachable or in touch with the issues most Americans are facing. This video didn't help soften her image at all. This video made her feel like a handled celebrity who couldn't manage to string together 5 minutes of talking without screwing up. In my opinion, this was a major blunder by the campaign staff. What is even more frustrating, is that they did not provide a link to easily embed the video into a blog. So unfortunately, you will have to settle for the link provided above. Enjoy watching the beginning of the end for Senator Clinton</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=635 <p>My luck with tickets just keeps increasing. Last night it was Freakout tickets, this morning, <a href="http://dispatchmusic.chime.com/zimbabwe/">Dispatch:Zimbabwe</a>. <a href="http://www.dispatchmusic.com/dispatch.html">Dispatch</a> has been one of my favorite bands for many years. They are genuine, tons of fun, and possess an incredible ability to make great music. For logistical reasons I was unable to go to the <a href="http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2004/8/19/dispatchDisbands110000FansSayByeAtGroupsFinalShow">free concert</a> a few years ago, so when I heard Dispatch was playing at <a href="http://www.thegarden.com/index.jsp">Madison Square Garden</a> for three days this summer as a benefit concert, I knew I had to go. I hopped on Ticketmaster this morning and grabbed 4 tickets in the <a href="http://www.ticketvision.com/seatingcharts/ny-msg-CONCERT.gif">200 level</a> (section 204 to be exact). While they aren't floor seats, they are still really awesome seats (<a href="http://dag.informatik.uni-kl.de/people/fischer/newyork/newyork-100017.jpg">first level of blue seats, right near the exit closest to the left of the picture</a>).</p> <p>Is anyone else going to this show?</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=633 <p>Tomorrow night at 7PM is my last <a href="http://www.augenblick.org/rpi/h_brf.html">Freakout</a> ever as an RPI student. The significance of this didn't really hit me until earlier this week and when I realized that I wasn't going to be going to my last Freakout ever (at least as a student), I made it my goal to find tickets. I quickly learned that none of my friends had tickets, and since the game was sold out long ago, the prospect of finding tickets was looking pretty grim. Then, I saw it - I saw the solution to all of my problems - the Clothe a Child Date Auction.</p> <p>Each year, some campus organization holds a date auction to raise money for <a href="http://www.clothe-a-child.org/">Clothe a Child</a>. I know it seems like I digress, but there is a catch - each date is awarded 4 tickets to the Freakout. Nothing like a romantic date to a hockey game with two of your closests buddies tagging along. Since there were 4 tickets, I found myself two other folks who didn't have tickets and set out to on a ticket quest.</p> <p>Plan A was as follows: Have someone raffle themselves off in the Date Auction, than bid as much as it takes to win the date and the hockey tickets. Unfortunately, this fell through because it was too late to enter. Plan B: go to the Date Auction, bid on someone, and take person X along with us to the hockey game. We had all but written this plan off as being sketchy, when a last minute decision to attend set in motion Plan B.</p> <p>We really had no honest intention on bidding, until a guy was at 10 dollars and we realized we could actually get the tickets at a discount. Since it would be major awkward for a guy to be bidding for a guy, a female friend of mine generously offered to bid. We bid, and we won! When the guy learned about our scheme, he graciously gave us his ticket as well! I'm going to the Freakout. I'm going to the Freakout. I'm going to the Freakout. Wahoo!</p> <p>It was one of those funny, funny moments which will certainly be brought up at senior meeting next fall. There are definitely some thank-yous that need to go out here. To the woman who bid for us (name hidden to protect the innocent), thanks! You totally rock! To the guy who gave up his ticket - thanks for being willing to put yourself out there for a good cause.</p> <p>Go Go Go You Red Red Red!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=631 <p id="quote"><!-- ID = 44927 -->Little girl exiting restroom: Mommy! I'm not afraid to have a baby anymore!<br/>Mother: Huh?<br/>Little girl: I just had the biggest poop ever!<br/><br/>--McDonald's<br/>via <a href="http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/">Overheard in New York</a>, Jan 18, 2007</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=629 <p>I love the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com">Times</a> because it's more than news. News is what they have on the front page of <a href="">USA Today</a>. The Times has that, as should all good newspapers, but the Times also has articles which would feel more at home in a magazine, than on the black and white pages of a newspaper. Those are the articles that keep me coming back to the Times recently. That and the photographs. The photographs are amazing. I love the photographs on the NYTimes website. Crisp, well framed, and very interesting. But that is all a side trip, because the reason I'm writing is to point out the absurdity of the topic of a recent article that I read titled "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/garden/18roomies.html?_r=1&8dpc&oref=slogin">Taking Power, and Sharing Cereal</a>".</p> <p>Apparently, congressmen (and possibly some congresswomen), share homes in DC with each other. It's basically like a Fraternity House, but for graying sexagenarians rather than partying frat boys. The same problems even exist (slobs, rodents, neglected chores, etc). This really opened my eyes to how our congressmen and congresswomen really live during their time in DC. I'm not so sure I still think it's such a waste that most of them travel home every weekend! I'd be very interested to know what percentage of Senators and Representatives live this way.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=627 <p id="quote">"For the kind of victory Americans are used to -- for the kind of victory Americans demand from a war -- you need a ten-to-one ratio."</p> <p>For those of you who watched the <a href="http://www.nbc.com">NBC</a> show <a href="http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/">West Wing</a>, you will remember this quote from an episode in the second season titled <a href=""http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/content/a2159/index-9.html>The War at Home</a>. The president is considering his options to deal with a Colombian hostage crisis, and he asks what it would take to wipe out the drug cartel holding the hostages. The response, while unique to the situation illustrates an important concept in politics: Americans have unrealistic expectations of war.</p> <p>I can remember my AP European History teacher explaining to the class that she believed the war would last longer than expected. American's don't like long, messy, wars. Americans want wars, like everything else, to be fast, neat, and "Disneyified". In order to achieve this result, military commanders for the past 10+ years have adopted a policy of overwhelming force. Referred to by some as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Doctrine">Powell Doctrine</a> or the Weinberger Doctrine, this doctrine is designed to all but gaurantee a short war with a high chance of success. The top officials of the Bush administration believed that the era of overwhelming force was over - that it was time for a new military strategy, one which included fewer ground troops and more air support and strategic bombing.</p> <p>This new military strategy was opposed by many of the top generals, including <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Anthony_Zinni">General Anthony Zinni</a> who <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/21/60minutes/main618896.shtml">told</a> 60 Minutes in 2004 that he had advised the Bush Administration decision makers that twice as many ground troops were needed to properly handle the invasion and reconstrution of Iraq. Unfortunately, this advice was not followed. What resulted was a prolonged fight against an unrelenting insurgency and an increase in sectarian violence.</p> <p>Faced with a situation that is clearly getting worse, President Bush did what he should have done long ago and pledged over twenty thousand additional troops to help secure Baghdad. While this is certainly "too little too late" situation, I applaud President Bush for listening closely to the advice of the military leaders and responding. I agree with his analysis that we cannot simply exit the country and allow a full-blown civil war to erupt. Additionally, our presence will continue to do more harm than good if we do not build up the overwhelming force prescribed by the Powell Doctrine. As a country, we must not waiver in our resolve to support the Iraqis in their efforts to create a democratic, peaceful Iraq.</p> <p>Unfortuantely, many of the democratic presidential nominees do not share this view. Earlier today, I read an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/washington/17cnd-hillary.html?hp&ex=1169096400&en=915037d66a9da265&ei=5094&partner=homepage">article</a> in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com">Times</a> described Hilary's opposition to the troop increase. Additionally, Barack's website <a href="http://www.obama2010.us/action/escalation_is_not_the_answer/">displays</a> his negative response to the President's announcement. While I agree with them that the solution to this problem will require non-military components, I can not see myself voting for either of these candidates while they continue to hold this opinion. </p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=625 <p><a href="http://www.obama2010.us/main.php">Barack Obama</a> is a great speaker. He's phenomenal. His cadence and energy give the impression that he is truly genuine, something which is rare from any public figure. Right now, he is kind of like the college junior whose team just won the national championship because he carried them on his back: his stock couldn't be any higher. If he waits until the next Presidential election in 2012 or 2016, he will have to account for his actions over the past 8 years, instead of only having to account for the 18 months that he has been in the public eye. <strong>Now</strong> is his time to run for President, and he has decided to create an exploratory committee to do so.</p> <p>In his announcement, Barack made one statement which struck particularly close to what I want to hear from a President:</p> <p id="quote">Engaged citizens working together can do amazing things.</p> <p>This statement made me smile because I believe that most Americans are so horribly disengaged from the world we live in. Democracies only work when the public is engaged in the issues. Too many people create their world views based on the latest <a href="http://www.cnn.com">CNN</a> on <a href="http://www.foxnews.com">FoxNews</a> headline.</p> <embed src="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/353515028" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=422873237&playerId=353515028&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://services.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="486" height="412" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed> <p>Unfortunately, Barack shares some negative qualities with the college athlete as well. His main flaw is his inexperience, which is most evident in his foreign policy. Barack's views on foreign policy are selfish, short-sighted, and dangerous. Even though I don't plan to vote for him, I wrote about Barack because all of this exploratory committee business is fascinating so I thought I'd write about it in the hope that you all take time to engage yourself in this presidential election.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=622 <p>My love affair with <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a> varies. Sometimes, it plays nicely, and I'm a huge fan. Download this, install that, play this format, etc. There are other times when I simply can't stand Ubuntu, for example, when I tried to attach my wireless adapter. That was so frustrating that I gave up and left my computer sit on the shelf over break. As I write this evening, I'm again in love with Ubuntu, and I have my good buddy <a href="http://www.abarbaccia.com/">Andrew Barbaccia</a> to thank.</p> <p>First, before I go any further, I want to plug Andrew's business as a small token of my appreciation. Andrew assembles and configures <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/">MythTV</a> boxes. The end product is a ready <a href="https://monolithmc.com/index.php">out-of-the-box media center solution</a> in an elegant case. Buy one, it's a great product!</p> <p>For Christmas, I got a new toy. After lugging around "Bertha", my 400lb, 21" CRT for the past 6 years, I finally gave in and asked for a flatscreen for Christmas. The reviews for the Samsung SyncMaster 941BW were pretty good, and were right in my parent's price range, so I added it to my list. Unfortunately, when I received it on Christmas morning, I was less than pleased with the quality of the screen.</p> <p>While the picture didn't look too bad, most of the text was blurry. I later learned that this was because Ubuntu refused to accept the correct screen resolution. I kept changing my xorg.conf and restarting gdm, but it never accepted my changes. After fighting with it for a few weeks over break, I gave up and asked my buddy Andrew for some help.</p> <p>While reviewing my xorg.conf file, Andrew noticed that I was using open-source drivers instead of the ones provided by Nvidia. "This is probably the source of the problem", he said. Andrew first instructed me to download <a href="http://www.getautomatix.com/">Automatix</a>, a tool for installing common debian applications (Ubuntu is Debian based). After installing Automatix (the installion process includes downloading the application and double clicking on the package to install), I opened it (it is located in Applications->System Tools) and navigated to the "Miscellaneous" tab. I checked the box beside "Nvidia Drivers" and hit start. Automatix did the rest!</p> <p>After the mandatory restart, I returned to the xorg.conf file to ensure that my resolution was included the file. It was, so i restarted X (clt-alt-backspace) and unfortunately, the problem still remained. It was not recognizing the screen resolution I desired. At Andrew's instruction, I commented out all screen resolutions that I did not want and saved the xorg file and did a restart of gdm. This was the solution! The problem was fixed! My monitor displayed crisp, clean text, and looked great! I am once again an Ubuntu fan. Thanks again Andrew!</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=620 <p>No matter what you think of the war in Iraq, you have to support our troops. Our troops who put their lives on the line daily, so that you and I do not have to. Our troops who travel far from their homes and go for months without seeing their families. God bless our troops.</p> <p>XEROX, my employer of two summesr ago, has set up a <a href="http://www.letssaythanks.com/">website</a> that allows you to send a message of support to our troops. Try it out. It's simple, takes 5 minutes at the most, and could brighten someone's day.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=617 <p>I'm not going to lie, I think Boise State is a second rate team. They have some really fun plays that you don't see too often from the big schools, and they should be congratulated for winning all their games this season, but they still had a very weak schedule and got an easy bowl opponent. But let me tell you - they showed some serious poise in their game against Oklahoma last evening. Not only did they not give up, they also executed some really tough plays. I tip my hat to them.</p> <p>Someone put in some serious time to cut the commercials and time outs out of the last 2 minutes of the game and the overtimes. Enjoy.</p> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E99pob9v1r0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E99pob9v1r0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=615 <p>I've been working on a new project, soon to be revealed, and since there is a lot of <a href="http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/AJAX">AJAX</a>, <a href="http://www.xml.com/">XML</a> plays a major part. Now I'm not a seasoned expert in XML, so there is a bit of a learning curve here. One problem was particularly troublesome. I was creating XML with <a href="http://www.php.net">PHP</a>, and continuously got this error:</p> <p id="quote">XML Parsing Error: junk after document element</p> <p>There was junk in the trunk of my XML. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. First, I checked the document to make sure that there was no extra spaces or blank lines sitting around. There wasn't. Next, I changed the type of quoations from " to ' incase there was a problem with the type of PHP string. No real change. Finally, I stopped by <a href="www.w3schools.com/">W3 Schools</a> and checked the <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp">XML Tutorial</a>. On the <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_dtd.asp">XML Validation</a> page, there is a list of five characteristics of a valid XML document. I had missed one:</p> <p id="quote">XML documents must have a root element</p> <p>I had not included a root element. I get an F on my first XML test.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=612 <p>Today, <a href="http://johnedwards.com/">Senator John Edwards</a> launched his 2008 presidential campaign. Here is a message from John posted on <a href="http://www.youtube.com">YouTube</a>:</p> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1etlZaf6zUw"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1etlZaf6zUw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> <p>Even though I'm frustrated with the fact that he exploited the devastation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_Ward_of_New_Orleans">9th Ward</a> for his own personal gain, I can't help but think that he may be a decent canidate for President of the United States. I believe that the next President needs to be a democrat or a moderate Republican. The people in this country need a change. The world needs a change. Is John Edwards the man to make that change? He'll have quite a few very capable opponents including <a href="http://www.barackobama.com/main.php">Barack</a> and <a href="http://www.hillaryclinton.com/">Hillary</a> on the Democratic side and <a href="http://www.exploremccain.com/">McCain</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani">Guilliani</a> on the Republican side. Who do you think will be the next President?</p> <p>Also, I found this old <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON0Rq_dCm9U&mode=related&search=">video</a> of <a href="http://www.amandacongdon.com/blog/">Amanda Congdon</a> interviewing John that you may find interesting:</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=608 <p>It's not often that you can describe a movie as "important". <a href="http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/blooddiamond/large.html">Blood Diamond</a> is a movie that can be described with that adjective. Blood Diamond is a movie which tells the story of a diamond smuggler (<a href="http://www.leonardodicaprio.com/">Leonardo DiCaprio</a>), Danny Archer, and his experiences tracking the diamond which will solve all of his problems. This diamond was found and buried by a worker at a mine run by rebels in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone">Sierra Leone</a>. Archer agrees to help this worker get back to his diamond if he can split the proceeds from the sale. Along the way, the pair is joined by Maddy Bowen, a journalist played by the beautiful <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000124/">Jennifer Connelly</a>. The African landscape is a gorgeous backdrop for this well-cast, well-acted (even our good buddy Leo) story of <a href="http://www.un.org/peace/africa/Diamond.html">conflict diamonds</a> in Africa. It's a great movie, I highly recommend it and you should all go see it, but as I said before, it's more than a great movie - it's an important movie, and not just for it's theatrical merits.</p> <p>There is more to this flick than good acting and beautiful scenery. This movie is important because it does not water down the issue. This movie shows hands and feet being cut off. This movie shows children being given guns and booze and killing innocent women and children. This movie is intense. But at the same time, I feel like this movie is very real. I've never been to an active conflict zone, so I don't know first hand, but I suppose that this movie is a good dipiction of what it is like. Because I do not watch many movies, I have not yet seen <a href="http://www.hotelrwanda.com/intro.html">Hotel Rwanda</a>, <a href="http://www.schindlerslist.com/">Schindler's List</a>, or any other movies depicting genocide, and I feel like this is the first time I've been brought face-to-face with the reality of the global south on the silver screen. You can read about it in in a text book, or in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com">Times</a> or in a magazine, but there is something about the medium of film which creates a closer connection between the audience and the story. When reading, the reader has the luxury of controlling the pace with which the information is consumed. Film forces the reader to experience situations in the same way the individuals in the story are experiencing.</p> <p>While this film focuses specifically on conflict diamonds, there is a larger message in this film: the citizens of the global north rarely consider the effects their consumption patterns have on the global south. Diamonds, coffee, running shoes, t-shirts - all made in the global south. Now I'll be the first person I know to support business rights, but at the same time, I feel it's incredible important to support human rights as well. I believe that the solution is two-fold. Responsibility must be demanded from business leaders and global north consumers as well as the leaders and citizens of global south countries. Global north consumers must demand that the companies they buy from support human rights across the globe. Business leaders must install safegaurds in their companies which ensure that their companies support human rights including fair wages and safe working conditions. Additionally, citizens of global south countries must be asked to lay aside their prejudices, their greed, and their anger and work together to solve the problem. The problem of poverty can be solved, but it's going to take us all.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=606 <p>I think Luke said it best:</p> <p id="quote"> <strong>Luke 2</strong><br /> 1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register. 4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. The Shepherds and the Angels 8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." 16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.</p> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=604 <p>This one's for Brandon:</p> <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M3a3_nFRTfE"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M3a3_nFRTfE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=601 <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-mfrML3yAyo"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-mfrML3yAyo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> http://www.taylorlehman.com/archive/displayPost.php?articleID=598 <p>I love people who are passionate about what they do. Jim Kramer is passionate about investing. Every night at 6PM, 9PM, and midnight Kramer spends 60 minutes dispelling his investing wisdom. He is honest, critical, and most importantly - interesting! This man is to investing what the 101st airborne division was to Hilter - a good kick in the pants. If you are a student, and want to hear more of Kramer's analysis and ramblings, you can get a free subscription to <a href="http://www.thestreet.com">thestreet.com</a>'s Real Money Site. To get the free subscription, just send an e-mail to <a href="mailto:collegetour@thestreet.com">'collegetour@thestreet.com'</a> from a .edu e-mail address and you will be given an username and password and get flooded with e-mails with lots of investing advice. Because of Kramer, I am now a <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/">CNBC</a> addict. I can't get enoug