If you get “This file is in use by another application or user. … Normal.dot” when closing your word application while developing it, make sure you don’t have it open in Visual Studio. Double clicking ThisDocument.cs in Visual Studio launches an internal MS word editor, which locks normal.dot. When you run your test program, there’s a locking conflict. You then get a series of dialog boxes, one that includes “Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dot.” You can either not modify normal.dot, or, make sure it’s not open in VS.

Worst ever.

Today is national “sanctity of life” day. This is a day to reflect on and discuss issues related to human life, and modern practices that raise ethical considerations about the sanctity of life, particularly abortion.

If you’ve never thought about this issue or don’t know where you stand, there are a few important questions to consider before delving into technical arguments like exactly when “life” starts and complicated “extenuating” circumstances like whether you have to trade one life for another.

Is life something special or unique to be preserved?

Are we any different from any other species in the animal kingdom? Should we feel the same way about humans ending each other’s lives as we do about bears killing each other in the woods? If not, why?

Even if we are somehow unique, does that obligate anyone to treat human life as precious?

If we are somehow obligated to treat life as precious, is it the state’s job to enforce this obligation? If not, who’s job is it?

Who’s perogative is it to decide matters like these? Who’s prerogative is it to declare what life is?

How do you know the answers to any of these questions? Are your answers infallible, or up for debate, or relative to you alone?

What authority are you appealing to? Can you identify what ultimate authority all of your claims be verified by, if challenged?

I think answering any of these questions would be helpful and illuminative for discovering the foundations of your worldview, if you’ve never articulated it.

Also, here is a decent overview of why Christians care about this issue and where we get our beliefs from.

Youth untempered, with no purpose or aim
Except that of daring exploration.
Marked by a burning inconstance of flame,
Flickering thoughts turn to fresh sensations.

The lines of a life's path crawl and spread out
On her map, branching along without rest.
Adventure everywhere -- her life a route
through a new land with people strange possessed.

She's in nothing prepared, lovely fragile
In her expectations; ready to chance
Being grievously snatched by wicked guile,
For a vision unseen to prize a glance.

Effervescent promise defeating strife,
Troubling cares swallowed by riches of life.

Permanent version.

Words for a birthday gift!

My friend Phil
One day he'll marry a French girl
One day he'll rule the free world
A seminary by the sea,
All nations in comity,
Because of my friend Phil

Happy birthday little guy...

Davo

Pressured into trading productive time for time of play?

You must engage with us in play;
There is no place for dull invention here.
Toss your poems and books away,
You must engage with us in play.
Our plans for mirth please don't betray,
Lively comments make to impress our cheer.
You must engage with us in play;
There is no place for dull invention here.

Permanent version.

A great article summarizing some of the annoyances that surface when using OS X. Nothing spectacular, every OS has its annoyances. However, what’s strange is that these annoyances are still there and have been there since version 1 of OS X. What’s the deal? With fixes and new features arriving because of the frequent release cycles, why isn’t some of this stuff addressed already? Some of this crap is just terribly poor design, but what’s worse, it’s all terribly easy to fix. These usability problems are not obscure and rare scenarios, they’re very common stuff; dock icons bouncing indefinitely? You mean to tell me that a UI engineer didn’t see that one coming, didn’t get annoyed with it during the beta of the OS, didn’t suggest a way to turn it off or have it bounce only once every minute or so? For a company that values simplicity and pleasure from their OS, it’s a bit strange that issues like these have gone ignored for so long (with the exception of the dashboard modality design issue, which is new).

What’s even more sad are the comments following the article. While perhaps not representative of the larger Mac population, these guys sure are the most vocal. Their response to the listed annoyances? “This list of ten negligible and/or non-existant issues reveals that you are not as savvy a computer user as you claim to be,” “Owen Linzmayer, you seem to be a Mac novice,” “More than half of you gripes can easily be fixed if you had any savvy whatsoever. Open your System Preferences! You do know where that is right?” and dubious arguments along the lines of “windows does it too” or “it’s not as bad as windows.” I’m not an apologist of either Windows or OSX, but I can’t help but notice the fanaticism and zealotry behind the defense of OSX… I guess it’s evidence that Apple is doing its job convincing its users that its products are the best, perhaps even flawless, and everything else is junk.

I think the author responds gracefully to the inaccurate and ignorant criticisms, like “you need to learn how to use the OS,” which are made despite the fact that he wrote the only Apple certified book on learning and supporting OS X.

I’ve finally completely the arduous grad application process! It was a harrowing experience full of difficult requirements, unexpected essays and lots of application fees, but alas, I have survived.

Here are the list of schools I ended up applying to. Some schools got dropped due to various reasons, usually because their application process wasn’t online, which is especially disappointing for computer science departments.

Carnegie Mellon University
Cornell University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, San Diego
University of Maryland, College Park
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Washington

I also applied for the NSF graduate research fellowship. Thanks goes to this fine lady for helping me with the essays for the NSF fellowship, which served as the foundations for all of my essays during the grad application process.

*Drool* I want it! This notebook sports a trim weight of just over 3 pounds, fanless cooling (meaning completely silent), a removable cdrom drive (thank you, I hate these things!) in which you can stick an extra battery, one button to turn on loads of power saving features, crucial battery life (6.5-7.5 hours) and an LED backlit screen! The price isn’t too bad either at ~$1700. I’d really love to see a 12″ version that has similar specs, just a larger screen.

Some early reviews.

I created this wallpaper from an assortment of da Vinci drawings, most of which can be found at the web gallery of art. Available in 1024×768 and 1600×1200.

Leave a comment if you like it.

I’ve always been a fan of the popular hack and slash RPG Diablo 2, and have unfortunately spent a good portion of my waking life playing it. I’m now finished with it, as it’s gotten pretty old and I’ve accomplished I think all that you can accomplish with this game. However, there are new mods that are still actively developed like Median2, which usually manage to present new challenges and gameplay elements. This is a testament to the popularity and quality of the game.

Here is the chronicle of a character I’ve made through a lot of hard work; I made her playing the Eastern Sun mod. She’s the result of hundreds of hours of gaming and equipment collection across 20 different characters. She’s a hardcore sorceress.

Here are her stats, which are unprecedented. Not shown is her physical damage reduction (~80%), insane mana regeneration (~20,000%) and life replenish (+1,000).

She gets her defense from a level 100 frozen armor.

I’ve managed to get each of her skills to the max (100) due to items, but could go much higher if not for the cap. Most of my real skill points are pumped into immolation’s synergies (because synergies don’t go up with +skills from items).

Here’s an overview of her equipment. All of this equipment was obtained with legitimate crafts and sockets. For a sorceress, the uniques give her particular things she needs like fast cast, %mana increases, and elemental absorbs, things that are hard or impossible to get on rare items. You can craft these items to include sockets if they don’t have them, but some uniques come with sockets in them already (like Runefusion). Most of the uniques in here are skill crafted to yield and extra +1 to sorceress skill levels.

Standard issue unique; fast cast rate, lots of energy. It’s skill crafted once to get +3.

The gloves come +2 to sorceress skill levels and a socket. The +4 comes from a skill craft and a jewel.

Arguably the best helmet and maybe the best unique in the game. The unique tiara has life leech and so might be better for physical characters. This however has awesome +skills, magic find, experience gained, vendor price reduction and +attributes.

An excellent belt; the damage reduction is unmatched. You could also get the unique light belt (glow something) which has fast cast. This sorc doesn’t need the fast cast because of her armor and some charms.

This shield is amazing because of its max mana increase (+50%!) and its elemental absorbs. Most of the other stats come from the jewel.

I think the sockets on this weapon came from a crafting recipe. There is a unique dimensional shard that is very useful (fast cast, +skills), and an even better exceptional dimensional shard, that I could never obtain, because you can only find or gamble for it (not craft the unique, like you can with armors). The two sockets in this weapon allow for the jewels to go in it, giving it insane +skills and mana regen.

These rings are good because of their +skills, but great because of the %damage taken which goes to mana, their magic find, and their magic resist. This has +1 from a skill craft.

This amulet is great because of its fast cast and increase in %max mana. The magic find and life are also rare (and good) mods.

Surprisingly, there are recipes to do two things: socket charms, and craft unique jewels. Thus, you can get a 3-socketed charm and fill it with unique jewels, yielding some “uber”-charms.

This is how my sorceress has so much energy and decent life; she doesn’t need any stat points to wear her armor because strength and vitality are covered by this thing. This is also great for physical characters.

A really easy one to make is this; it gives the sorceress a copious amount of mana and an unreal amount of fast cast. Charms like these allow the sorceress to worry less about maximizing her mana and fast cast, and more about not dying by using items like the constriction belt.

Here’s an overview of one of my hardcore barbs. His equipment isn’t terribly creative, but he does have a formidable amount of damage. Even with his high damage, he’s not as fast a killer as the sorceress or the druid because of the many physical immunes and lack of ability to kill screens of enemies at once.