System Messages

+ Thursday - February 13, 2003

The End. Yup, it's time to retire this version of vitaflo. The "blog" thing was fun for a while but I think it's overstayed its welcome. So in a few days, I'm taking this down, and putting the site on hold for a while. Some parts of the site will find a new home elsewhere, most won't. But I'm sure someday I'll reinvent this site like I have been for the past 6 years. It just wouldn't be vitaflo if I didn't. ;)

Later kids.

+ Saturday - February 1, 2003

I don't even know what to say. This is horrible.

+ Wednesday - January 29, 2003

Looks like Skies of Arcadia Legends comes out today, which is basically the same game that was on the Dreamcast, but w/ updated graphics, and a lot of new stuff thrown in. If you own a Gamecube and have the faintest amount of interest in RPG's, I'd highly reccomend picking this one up. It's one of the best RPG's ever made.

+ Sunday - January 26, 2003

Looks like I picked the Super Bowl loser yet again. In fact, I always do. There have only been 2 times I've picked the winner, one when the Packers won (obviously), and the other the last time the Raiders won (yeah, that long ago, it was the first Super Bowl I'd ever watched). Next year I'll be sure to announce my SB pick before the game, so you all can place your money at Vegas on the other team for an easy pay day.

+ Saturday - January 25, 2003

Just simmed the Super Bowl in NFL2k3 for Gamecube. The Raiders won in overtime 30 to 27. Somehow I don't think the actual Super Bowl will be quite as exciting.

+ Thursday - January 23, 2003

Temp -7, windchill -26. Gotta love winter! Actually, I think for most people in MN when it gets to be this cold, it almost becomes a game. Everyone trying to get the best parking spot, doing weird things to stay warm, or just getting used to it and not even caring anymore.

That's pretty much how it's been for me. After a few days of this weather I'm pretty used to it, and it doesn't bother me. Sure, technically my skin will physically freeze after 5 minutes outside, but that's neither here nor there at this point. It's rather amazing how fast people can get used to the elements.

What I find funny is people on the east coast bitching about how damn cold it is. I saw some reports on MSNBC last night about it. They made it sound like it was the worst thing ever to hit the east coast in ages. Then I checked the temps. It was 22 in NYC. 22!?! On my god, call the National Guard, it's an epidemic!

I wasn't sure whether to laugh at the idiots in NY bitching about this or MSNBC for even reporting it. Either way, it's pretty humorous.

+ Wednesday - January 22, 2003

Yeah it's pretty cold today. Temp is 0, windchill -15. I've definitely felt colder however. But the thing that's bugging me is that it's warmer in Fairbanks Alaska! Something just ain't right about that.

+ Wednesday - January 15, 2003

Looks like MAME 0.63 is out. The biggest new game in this release is probably Killer Instinct (both 1 and 2). After downloading the roms, I'm starting to get a crunch on disk space. Looks like I'm going to have to reshuffle a few things on my HD.

+ Tuesday - January 14, 2003

I love getting mail from someone who spelt the email address wrong and just happened to write mine instead. They're usually quite humorous because they uterly make no real sense, especially when you're not expecting them. Here's a good one I got today:

"Good afternoon-

I received my order today for Creamy Peanut Butter Low Carb Myoplex Bars and Fruit Punch BetaGen, but Grape BetaGen was sent instead. Please advise on how to get my order corrected so that I receive Fruit Punch. Thanks"

Creamy Peanut Butter Low Carb Myoplex Bars eh? Looks like you got the wrong address there lady. And she did. She mistyped her "G" and replaced it with an "F", thus sent it to vitaflo.com instead of vitaglo.com. After correcting her on her error, I got this rather funny reply:

"Damn, I was born with freakishly fat finfers. Kidding, sorry about that and thanks for lettinf me know!! :)"

No wonder she spelt the address wrong (check the spelling). Here's hoping all those Fruit Punch bars will inprove her typing skills.

+ Friday - January 10, 2003

There seems to be some debate on whether certain CSS "bugs" should be left in Safari. Of course this would be so that there are certain ways to hide CSS from Safari if someone wanted to. There are various methods that happen to work right now, and the thought is that leaving these bugs in the browser will help web developers.

I'd like to say that it won't. A lot of the current CSS "hacks" are used for specific things. The Simplified Box Model Hack for example is great for, fixing the flawed box model of IE5/PC, since it's one of the few browsers out there that is tripped up by this hack. Since Safari is also tripped up by it, it makes the entire hack useless.

In fact after a few back and forth emails with Safari developer Dave Hyatt, he agrees with me, and would like to fix the bug before the final version comes out. I hope this does indeed happen, as it would sure save me a lot of time (as well as others) in re-coding sites to work in Safari (and make Safari actually work the way it's supposed to).

IMHO, all the CSS parsing bugs should be fixed. I understand wanting to hide certain things from Safari (or to only show certain things in Safari) but I think if you want this you should add some Safari-only codes into the browser. Some may cringe at that notion and think of all the proprietary stuff in IE, but remember that Mozilla also has a few proprietary tags as well.

It could be something as simple as "safari-hide" and "safari-show" somewhere in the CSS (as comments, or tags, whatever). To me this is a much better solution because you're not introducing actual bugs into the browser, but instead are writing your own additions to the browser to make it easier for developers. You're also not then tied to a specific "hack" that could totally backfire on you when a new browser comes out and screws up the hack model (see above).

In the end however, the most important part is fixing ALL the bugs, rendering and otherwise, so that we never have to rely on "hacks" or proprietary code in the first place!

+ Tuesday - January 7, 2003

Few things today:

Looks like I have another game system to get. I must say, this thing looks sweet. Like the old GB Color only folded in half. Which is good, it was much easier for me to play the old Gameboy's than the GBA for some reason. Though with the Gameboy Player coming out shortly afterward, maybe I'll wait a bit.

Apple released a beta version of their Safari browser, based on KHTML (the same engine Konqueror uses). If you have a chance, download it and beta test the thing. It has some serious issues that need work before it goes to 1.0 (you can send bug reports back to Apple right from the browser). Since this is something us web developers will have to end up supporting eventually (it'll be the Mac's default browser once it ships), it'd be nice if it actually worked like everything else. I know *I* certainly don't like making my job any harder than it already is.

I had a bit of enlightenment last night. I was finally able to wrap my head around the age and cycles of the universe, how 4-D space works, how space can be finite yet have no boundaries, and the true concept of infinity and its paradoxes. It's funny how when you start to "get" one or two things, how a lot of other pieces just fall into place, like a leaky dam that suddenly burst open.

+ Monday - January 6, 2003

After getting Super Monkey Ball 2 for Xmas, and sucking on a lot of the levels, I find these nice movies from the first edition. That's gotta be an android playing this game. Un-fucking-believable.

+ Friday - January 3, 2003

Well I tried hacking the Atari I got from Scotty just for shits and giggles, but no go. Screen just went green when I shorted the controller port. But hey, at least I found out the thing still works.

+ Thursday - January 2, 2003

I just read the funniest response ever to my post about uninstalling Flash. Too bad I can't link to it. Lets just put it this way, I wish everyone could hear what people say behind their backs, cuz it's just fuckin hilarious when you actually hear it.

+ Monday - December 30, 2002

For Christmas, much to my surprise and delight, I recieved the Cosmos Box Set. I've been slowly watching the 13 episodes (now about a 1/3 of the way through, yesterday's quote was from Ep 3) and am amazed at how well they've held up over the last 20 years. I remember watching them when I was younger, and immediately decided I wanted to become an astronomer.

Alas, that did not happen, as I ended up choosing to persue computer science instead, however part of me is still mesmerized by space. And I guess part of the reason is because it is so...big. Just trying to imagine the enormity of space can give one headaches, but it can also be therapeutic as well. It is very easy to get wrapped up in one's own small microcosm, and forget their place in the world. When you travel outside of this small blue planet and look at it from the outside, you begin to realize how insignificant some things really are, and how much more is really out there than just the daily grind. In Cosmos, Carl Sagan wraps these types of thoughts up beautifully, in ways I don't think anyone else ever has, or really ever could. His subject isn't just about space, it's about being human.