Dan Mayer's Blog

What am i most excited about with computers? I think it would be portable devices with voice to text capabilities. Typing works fine when at home or work. But the tiny handwritting recognition or thumb keyboards suck for portable input. When you can just talk to your PDA and it will take notes for you will be amazing. Better yet, "What is your number?" I press a button and as the respond my pda stores their number. I am betting it will be 3 years or so before we have capabilities like that but who knows maybe sooner. They are soon going to have full XP machines with 20 GB harddrives almost as small as pocket pcs. Perhaps i will just grab one of those and write a nice plug in for outlook. hehe

What rituals does everyone develop. I mean they are useless and dumb, but they are fun and form some sort of wierd bond. My friends and I back home have a ritual of making new years eve the biggest party night where we all go out of our way to see each other. Here after the last of our group is done with finals we all order pizza and start taking shots. Should we really celebrate the end of a section of education by trying to do the dumbest things we possibly can. I think so i mean life can't all be learning and self improvement. Why are we improving ourselves anyways. It is so we can enjoy life and eventually work in a job we will enjoy. So if we aren't enjoying any of the days working towards that goal is there really a point? So yeah i am not alays going to work my hardest. I am not going to try in all the classes that i see no reason to take in the first place. I am not going to work for straight A's. I need a life. I need to have fun shit i will work hard when i have a job I care about. Projects that i care about i will put all the time and effort into. Sometimes we still need to get out and socialize. We are social animals. I see so many of the geeks that forget how to socialize. I am a big geek but i am not going to forget how to talk to my fellow non geek friends. I mean they are still a big part of my life. One day i will meet someone and get married and I hope she isn't a computer geek. I hope we have something much more interesting to talk about and share our opinions on. Computers are wonderfull but in the scheme of the world they aren't that important. So get out there and talk, dance, drink, smoke, and whatever just to get away from your day to day routine for awhile.

Yes the web does change fast. So fast now that it is hard to get your voice heard. Every day there are millions of postings, comments, and such. If you make something that you think is worth getting out into the community it is likely that it just dissappears without ever being heard or found. So where today do you go to publish little articles? How to you write something about your opinion no one will hear it. Does this mean you have to get a following first and a opinion later? No i am not talking about my little blog here. I am talking about real articles and essays. I wrote a piece on the changing technology of mobile devices. I then posted it to a few communities and had a very small percentage of the communities take notice. Even smaller percent would even post the article. I remember years ago if you built a good site with actual content and sent out the link to a bunch of people you would end up getting links from some pretty big sites. Now all the sites want the content to be part of thier site. They have e-mail at ever site. You can have a journal at a bunch of sites. It is impossible to have any large site link to you. I mean corporate and gigantic database driven sites have consumed the personality of the web. There is no little mom and pop sites that are linked from anywhere. The only way you are ever found is if google ranks you high. Which is mostly based on large sites linking to you. So i fyou create something new, your nothing. The big sites keep getting bigger and small sites or people are overlooked. Even technically non corporate sites need teams of people to maintain them and the message boards and to moderate and add links and content. It might start as one person but soon as some people start visiting they need help keeping it in control. So what has really changed? Is it what surfers expect when they find sites online? Or is it the method of advertising a site that has changed ever since google dominated the world? Does a single sole still have to power to publish their own thoughts to the masses or do they have to do so through some corporate site midly related to the persons opinion.

Well finals done and school is out. Although i return back to school tomorrow. Stupid summer school. Either way i can say i am done with everything for now and i should have time to start updating everything frequently again. Sorry that for awhile school owned me.

Well i am already back in classes. I am learning about the American political system for 3 hours a day. Wonderful go summer school. Anyways it should be interesting, since i bitch about the government all the time i figured learning more about it might make some of my arguments more creditable. We will hope at least. So what does a tech worker do when they don't really have anything to work on. Well after they browse all over the web they write e-mail and write in their blog. So i guess that is what i am doing right now. That and reading about lisp. Go lisp. hehe If i really did know a bunch of Artificial intelligence i would be so happy. Anyways i am going to read more about lisp.

I am amazed now at what makes someone a geek or nerd. I mean the definition used to be the AV guy... Now i have a friend that claims playing Halo makes you a nerd. Or playing any computer game makes you a nerd. Still others your not a geek or a nerd unless you can install, run, and maintain a linux computer. Then their are those so insane that your not a "Real Geek" unless you use VI because e-macs and anything not command line is for the week. Well I don't think i try to draw such a huge line as some do. I am a geek because i think i am a geek. I love computers and i would rather talk about technology any day over sports. Hell at least a geek can do something with their overly wasted knowledge of technology. What does a sports freak do with it, impress their friends with statistics of running yards. Anyways i think everyone spends so much time trying to label everyone something for no reason. Oh no i am a geek because i call it a blog not a journal. So be what you want and say what you will, but the only thing that matters is how you feel about yourself at the end of the day and what you accomplish in your life. My goal is to really touch and effect those around me and hopefully do something to help improve the world. If i do that through technology so be it. If i do that through music, great. Just as long as you have a passion for something, and put that passion to use. You will always be a great geek, nerd, hero, leader, amazing, or whatever kind of person you want to think of yourself as.

I don't understand what is wrong with the digital video world. I mean i had a 700mhz 512 mb machine that would never ever drop a frame on my older JVC camcorder. That camcorder broke and after months of sending it off for repairs i finally got the company to replace it with a new camera since it was still under warranty. So now i have a brand new sony miniDV camera. I figured my problems would be over. It had both firewire and usb 2.0. So what could possibly go wrong. Well My version of Adobe Premiere doesn't synch using the USB 2 so i used good old firewire. Now while my camera was broken and being repaired and broke i finally bought a new pc. It is a 2.2 ghz machine. This should scream on digital video compared to my old machine right? Well wrong... maybe when i get to the point of editing. I can't seem to record more than 30 or forty seconds of video now without dropping frames. I am loosing them all over. Now this makes no sense everything i have is now faster and better. What is going wrong. Who knows... I can record in another program with usb 2 without dropping frames but it only records at 640 by 480 while my other programs recorded at 720 by 480... So i am trying to figure out how to finish a video i started editing over a year ago when all the video stuff and formats are changing. This is just unexceptable. I have all new equiptment but i am getting worse results than i was a year ago. So come on companies... Show me some progress... Show me how much easier it is to record and capture video. Show me how much simpler it has gotten.... Grrr should i just start all over editing it on the new recording format and with a new editor. I swear every time i start a movie project i need a new editor because the one i had used a few months ago is out of date and doesn't support the features i want. Screw digita video i am going to go play on a skateboard... Something that hasn't change much for like 10 years.

I am seeing the new matrix tonight at 10... Be warned i will come home extremely pumped and probably try to hack into something... hehe I loved the first lets hope this does it some justice.

So what is an accomplishment in life? Does making alot of money mean you accomplished anything. Does creating a business accomplish anything? Is it how you effect other peoples livs that give you a sense of accomplishment. I really don't know... I mean my whole life i have always felt the need to have some big accomplishment in life. It was only recently that i noticed that i don't even know what to call a accomplishment. I guess i think a big accomplishment would be seen as somehow making the world a better place. Does this mean something has to be improved. Or could i just make alot of people happy while I am here and consider that making the world a better place? I dont know the answer, but i know that i would like to either change something to make the world a better place, or more. By more i mean I wouldn't just be satisfied knowing i made people around me happier. I would have to have a deep impact on many of the people around me before i would feel that i had really accomplished something big. Not just close friends and families but people i don't even know... Like writing a book that affects peoples lives. Writing music that many hold dear. Creating a movie that changes people opinions in life. I would actually love to accomplish all these goals but who knows if i ever will. Until then i guess i will just keep working hard and going to school and writing down all the ideas in my head that sound good and may be worth pursuing at some point or another.

Slashdot is really starting to outlive its use as a forum or link to new. It still is good at sending me news that i find interesting, but i can't ever see it for the next couple days. Anything that slashdot links to goes down in a few hours. It becomes unusably slow almost instantaneously. The forums are full of hundreds of comments so you can't have a discussion with anyone. No back and forth discussion. Just comment after comment. I have almost thought about just making a site called backdot. That would have all the old slash dot stories posted as soon as the server was done being bashed and back to a decent and tolerable speed. Who knows if anyone would care or use it... It would be worth doing just so i had a script that would find the new stories and archive them and then check on them once in awhile and finally posted them in a few days when they were live so i could look at them. This is why i think smaller more niche sites are better if your actually interested in something. There can still be discussion. There can still have the power to share your opinion in the community. So slashdot here is my opinion outside of your community because my voice can't be heard within.

Well everyone knows how google loves to find other links to a site. Now i am supposed to start getting people to go to a site that i developed. Anyways i created a group of links that all have something to do with special education and disabilities. So here is a link to that take a look and then look at web2gether a site that i built for work.


http://www.bandddesigns.com/support.htm

So how often should a blog update. I mean if it changes to often you can't even catch all the information. Sites like slashdot you have to visit multiple times a day or you miss some of the things on the site. This can be a good thing though because it is always fresh. It is frequently updated and it is always interesting. In something like this is a daily post even usefull. I guess i don't always have something to say. Then again i can type a funny away message on AIM multiple times a day sometimes i think they are so good i keep them up for a long time to make sure people will see them. So perhaps i should just write funny tidbits now and then here and make it nothing. Anyways that is just a little bit of whatever blah blah... I am now going to hit white balls into the woods and call it a sport... Go Golf...

so i was trolling around the web dropping in to random and odd sites. I am now wondering how many personal sites are dead. I have also noticed a big collection on bloggers that love to comment in and link to each others blogs. This seems like it would get kinda old unless you really know the person well and that is how you kind of keep up with that group of friends it seems that most wouldnt just go find others blogs and share their opinions and develop relationships but there is definately a higher number of blog readers that they themselfs have their own blog.

Well it is the weekend. I am tired after having a pretty much non stop schedule this week. I was basically gone all day every day only return late at night to get some sleep. It is nice to return to a more relaxed schedule. Then again alot of friends have left town and I have a feeling that this relaxed schedule means i will be bored in about 2 days and wish on the return of the super busy lifestyle.
You ever notice that when youre really busy you have all these things you want to work on and spend more time doing website, painting, reading. but when you have a bunch of free time you don't work on any of those things much and you get bored and want to just hang out and party with friends. Maybe it is just me but i bet this is alot more common than that.

Also i was just wondering what are everyone's daily sites. I read:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com

www.slashdot.org

google news

news.com

I read these every day. I read most of these multiple times a day. I also have some other sites i visit fairly frequently... So are then any other sites worth adding to my daily rotation?

I added some more videos to wastedbrains Some of them are definately worth checking out. So take a look at the new funny videos that i have stumble onto...
http://videos.wastedbrains.com

Recently i saw a statistic that about 90% of websites are unread or unknown. That is kind of saddening to me. When i first started building websites when i was about 15 or so the amazment to me was the ability to reach the entire world with thoughts and ideas. I had the ultimate power to place my views out where anyone and everyone could find them. As I have grown up i have made many sites and promoted many thoughts and ideas and useless babble and fun on the interenet. I have become parts of online communities where i participate in discussions and more. I have been able to maintain a voice through joining communities and focusing on those websites. My own personal sites and attempts at being vocal on the web have become more and more silenced. My first site as a child was far more popular than the site i have today. Although i would argue that the site i have now has far mroe to offer. The sites in the past were dominated by personal sites with a loose inner connection to one another. Now with the community dynamics on any one site people have moved away from the slow difficulties of maintaining a personal site, to working within a community site. This could be a good thing. I guess it allows people ith a specific intrest to get feedback and have more discussion than before. It does kill off many of the sites that were static and un maintained from being viewed. I think the problem with this is that smaller opinions now are falling more into community and corporate goals. Many larger sites are corporate sites. This can skew the views. There isn't so much of a cult following between little sites that shared an obsession of some topic. It is now just find the one community on that topic and discuss there. The competition of having the newest and best information about something has moved from a dedicated fan to a news posting site. The recognition only going to a nickname with perhaps an e-mail link. I don't know if this is considered good or bad, but i still will have to say it is sad to see everything moving in a direction that self publication is a unheard medium. I still want to have the feeling i did when younger that i can scream to the world and someone will hear. Maybe I am just not screaming loud enough anymore. hehe

it is really scary to me to realize that we still had segregation in the 1970's. I mean really how long did it take to see blacks were equal? It should really only take about a 5 minute conversation.

A project that i started forever ago i final have gotten online i have lost alot of my old review but i am hoping that i find them all soon... Until then i still have quite a few reviews and will keep adding new ones... Anyways you better check out my new energy drink reviews.

http://www.bandddesigns.com/energy

Getting back to coding... Ah after doing all sorts of paper work and advertising and such I am about to really get back to coding at my job. I found a wonderfull package that should do about everything i need. Now all i need to do is learn how to use the package and to add in all the features i want. Open source is truely amazing i mean the code i found is just perfect for what i wanted to do. So thanks to the open source community and thanks to everyone out there that puts their source code out on the web after they have finished so the next person that comes along can learn or stand on the shoulders of giants and find the next thing for themselves.

I added a nice little voting php to the energy reviews site... I also added Ben's road trip blog and my own to the active projects section of wastedbrains. Check out the new voting and vote for your favorite energy drink.

Energy Drink Reviews

Today one of my best friends turns 21. That is right the year you can drink legally... After so many years of drinking in the shawdows, behind buildings, under cars, and in caves deep within afganistan. So finally we are going to the bars and i shall buy him a drink. Then another one and so on and so forth until said friend can't stand anymore. It is a fun coming of age for everyone. I didn't actually do that much on my birthday i only had a few drinks and went to a couple bars with my parents... None of my friends were old enough and i was home visiting for xmas break so that really limits where to go to bars.. Oh well Tonight we shall party once again like it is 1994. hehe
I am deathly afraid of the virgin spider. The spiders that haven't gotten any are by far the most likely to bite you and try to suck out your blood. I am sure that most of the common world knows that spiders are not born they are just humans that had all their blood sucked out by spiders. This turns them into a spider themselves. This is why i cant sleep at night because the spiders are out to get me.
What the hell am i talking about who knows and who cares. I had my final today for my summer school class so i am allowed some freedom. I also get to celebrate the fact that i think i got an A after staying up till 3:30 in the morning drinking. I also asked out a girl yesterday so that is something to celebrated... She had a boyfriend. So girls suck they all of them have boyfriends that is ok I will kill every boy and then rule the world.

My good friend and president of CSU turned 21 yesterday and we did the bars up good... I have no money left but it was worth it. So the pictures are up under the projects section of wasted brains. Take a look at them and love them for all they are... hehe

http://projects.wastedbrains.com

We rode around in a really tight limo at the end of the night... It was good fun.