Pitas.com!

Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric by Ezra

Pitas.com | Fountain of Knowledge | Valdosta State University
About Me | Contact Me | Sign myGuestbook | View myGuestbook

People To See: Laceydotpitas
Frequently Visited List: C|NET: Tech News First | Internet Movie Database | NetCraft | SlashDot
Drool Sites: O'Reilly

My Archive
Mood: The current mood of esfreelo@valdosta.edu at www.imood.com

For Michelle: A list of bots on the internet that talk back to you. Note that there is not one on here for me!

Posted by Ezra
[Monday, April 23, 2001] [11:47 a.m.]


Still hashing out the computer plan. Here is what I have so far... The end result is 3 computers (win 2000 x2, linux).
  1. The All-Around: This computer is a basic, normal computer that one could play games on (or with). It would not be the highest power gaming machine, but it would be just above normal. At present I am thinking that it should have at least 1GHz, 256 MB DDR RAM, 40 GB hard drive, great sound system (card and speakers), CD-RW, great video. Will spec this, but expect it to cost less than $2000 bought.
  2. The Graphics Machine: This toy is for doing web design and graphics design. This is the problem... I don't know if I would want to get into video stuff, so I don't know about the multimedia aspect to it. Here is what I have so far... best processor, 512 MB DDR RAM (2 256 cards), 80 GB of hard drive, CD-RW, great graphics card. I've heard that few high powered cards are both great at video and graphics. Think I'd want to stick with graphic design and just take my chances with the video.
  3. The Linux Box: Since I really ought to be learning Linux, I could take my old 166 MHz and drop some cheap RAM and a bigger hard drive into it. This would give me a box to play around with Linux.
For all intents and purposes the All-Around box and the Linux boxes would be for playing (I like to install free & shareware programs). The Graphics box would be my stable box.

Posted by Ezra
[Saturday, April 21, 2001] [10:09 a.m.]


Suffice it to say I've been busy... making plans to draw everyone to using a standard design at VSU. Add to that building & maintaining servers, maintaining client sites, etc. Blogging was the last thing on my mind. Have some neat stuff done... just that it is top secret at the moment. My boss has not even seen it.

Posted by Ezra
[Friday, April 20, 2001] [01:28 p.m.]


Along Came A Spider was pretty good. However, I have been a pretty big fan of mystery movies lately. Think that I caught that the scenes of foreshadowing were pretty significant, but I didn't really put together why until too late in the movie. Any movie that keeps me in the dark like that really impresses me.

Posted by Ezra
[Sunday, April 8, 2001] [05:11 p.m.]


Summer is something I loathe. Love winter... the cold air opens up my lungs, the air feels clean... Hate summer... the allergens constrict my lungs, the air just feels dirtier...

Posted by Ezra
[Saturday, April 7, 2001] [10:37 a.m.]


Netiquette or really any form of etiquette is not common sense. People in general do not know how to behave themselves in foreign cultures. As much as we might hate to admit it, cybercultures do abound and each have rules of behavior. They may not be posted, but members of the society know them. Many will be offended when these newbies, errm, newcomers enter the society and make blunder adter blunder.

So codify your rules (yeah, kinda like laws) so that newcomers will know what to expect. Also enforce them so that they retain meaning.

Posted by Ezra
[Tuesday, April 3, 2001] [01:53 p.m.]



This is for all of you who have need multiple IMs because you have friends on ICQ, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! Trillian will allow you to have open multiple sessions on ALL of these (and mIRC). It is a little frustrating at first (I was connecting and closing the window which closed the connection), but I think this product is a must have!

Posted by Ezra
[Monday, April 2, 2001] [05:50 p.m.]


Dunno why, but I like Pitas' simple interface. Probably b/c it leaves so much to me to control. It takes longer to get started, but once you are rockin' and rollin' you can do so much to the interface.

Other sites like Blogger, Live Journal, and Xanga have these great things like IDing friends. Yet the lack of control I have over my site there annoys me. Apparently at Live Journal I can pay to get more control over the apperance.

Maybe the functionality in simplicity is what I like? Much rather work hard with something simple that allows me to do more than struggle push an application beyond it's original scope that is complex and restrictive.

Posted by Ezra
[Monday, April 2, 2001] [05:09 p.m.]



Huh... Is the RIAA run by idiots or the sly pretending to only be slow? More on the RIAA vs. Napster.

It seems that the RIAA feels that all content owned by them must be blocked. Under any circumstances. Such as users acting to bypass whatever system Napster puts in place. Name filtering is easy to bypass... mispell the name. Napster has worked double-time to make that work and still unsuccessfully.

The RIAA suggests that "audio fingerprinting" be used. Well, these are MP3s which have numerous imperfects as hard drives, slow processors, and virtual memory create their own impressions during a rip. Add to that all of the live versions that are available which in no way conform to the CD version of a song.

The system that is left is that only pre-approved content be placed on the system? Huh? The ONLY way for that one to work is for the peer-to-peer network to be removed and a server-to-client network replace Napster. That is a total overhaul that the RIAA had better fund in my opinion. I can see them paying Napster $100 million for Napster to build it, can't you?

Do find it funny that the RIAA can insist, but they cannot assist (like the court order they wave like holy writ says they must do).

Posted by Ezra
[Wednesday, March 28, 2001] [05:34 p.m.]



For those of you that do not have it... I recommend getting some anti-virus software and a firewall for you home computer. Here are some free ones

Posted by Ezra
[Wednesday, March 28, 2001] [10:42 a.m.]


It is unfortunate that the Taliban decided that they had to destroy any non-Muslim artifacts in Afghanistan. Some fairly recent photos at Yahoo show that they did destroy 2 giant Buddhas thought to be over 1500 years old.

I don't quite understand the need to attack others that are different.

Posted by Ezra
[Wednesday, March 28, 2001] [09:09 a.m.]