Kit's Blog

Half-Assed

     Getting my retainer back, a two-hour delay, tech from four to seven, and a continuous stream of programming today has made bloggage kinda hard. I'm drained. The good news about today is that if I can get Mr. Roger's signature I'm pretty much guaranteed a parking space due to the technology department involvement. Mr. Roger's signature and being part of the tech department are in no way related so don't go pestering him for a signature, but he helps cement my case for space.
     Besides that I've almost finished development of a really awesome calc app, and I've really buckled down on the PHP forum thing. I finally have some web design for the forum as well, but it's not using css to the extent that I'd really like it to. I think tommorow once I get my AIM-like application done in java I'll work more on felipe's wiki. Though I think at this point I'll probably be the only one who works on maintaining it and look silly when I advocate for it. Oh well, I guess we'll find out weather or not to trust felipe to carry through with his projects, won't we? And for the rest of you out there, send me some links to games! I need to add more games to scuzzstuff, but no one has sent me any new crap so I've been rather hard pressed to find new crap to add. Come On! And Comments! Please Comment!
     And if anyone knows how to fix the code for embedding mp3's into pages so that it's cross-platform/cross-browser compatable and still only plays the music when you hit play that'd be a giant help. As far as I know, Quicktime force plays any embedded mp3's and it seems to be driving my firefox users nuts. And if you haven't already heard a million shameless plugs for firefox, go get it. It is better then any other browser on the market today. Go get it today... go get it NOW. And then apply a few of the tips from: This article.

To make me feel better about my shameless plug here's a shameless plug from Alex for soymilk:

Snow stuff I made at 1am

     Here's some random crap I drew in the snow at 1am Enjoy!
Next!

Don't worry, there's a better picture of this right under here...

It's an anime-esk person! Saying "woo!"! (I couldn't fit woot due to a car)

This looked way cooler when it wasn't all fogged lens...

Attempt 2!

     Yup!

I will entry tommorow make... today... shut up!

In The Aeroplane Over the Sea --Neutral Milk Hotel
I did some work then played in the icy-wet snow. Stuff will be posted tommorow... today... whatever.

Working to a better, wealthier you.

     Recently in NSL, we've been working with the economy. Now as many of you know, Mr. Elstein isn't all that knowledgeable in the field of economics outside of one thing apparently: advising you on what you should do to ensure that when you retire, your life is as awesome as can be. Unfortunately, I already know most of what he's talking about just from being forced to read "The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens." Don't knock it though. Actually a very practical guide to investing in the stock market and keeping track of credit and stuff of that nature. Point being that Ithink that Mr. Elstein read the same book because he's pretty similar in his speeches. Here's the way it works:
     1) Don't get credit. And if you have to, then make sure that you get one with very low interest rates and that you pay it off QUICKLY. Interest rates add up fast so don't just pay the interest off each month, pay as much as you can as fast as you can and save yourself a lot of money. In a nutshell? Only use credit as an advance paycheck, never use it as extra money.
     2) Buy a house. There's two big benefits and it also gets rid of one huge problem with renting. Benefit 1: The value of property and housing will always be on the rise, what's the risk? Just make sure you pay your morgage bills on time every month. Benefit 2: There's actually a tax break for people who are paying off a morgage! That's money in your pocket! Problem with renting: You are THROWING AWAY MONEY when you rent. Money that you lose to rent could just as easily be spent on a morgage, and it has none of the benefits that owning a house has.
     3) Put a few thousand $ away every year of your wage-earning life for your retirement. The idea being that not only will that money add up, but the compound interest you earn on it towards your retirement will be enormous. The other thing about this is that if you were to ever to becomeincredibly ill, you wouldn't have to depend on a tiny retirement fund to help you get better, and then be broke. Get my drift?
     But this has made me wonder. Why do we always seem to work towards making the end of our life the best part? It seems like the part of our life where our bodies are at their worst why would we want THAT to be the best part of our lives? Right now, we are in school, working towards making sure we have a great job so that we can make a lot of money to put into our retirement funds. I guess in a lot of ways it's alogical way of living: Once you've "pair you debt" to society you get to live any way you please with the money you've saved. And yet I still feel like we should at least have a little bit of "live for the moment" lifestyle in there. Though we all know what the effect of too much "live for the moment" lifestyle leads to. Yes, that's right, assholes. Which is why we need to strike a balance, but that's something you have to find for yourself.

Getting better?

     Hullo everyone. I know, it's crazy! A POST AT A NON-CRAZY HOUR?! WHAT MADNESS IS THIS?! So anyway, I think I'm getting better at my doodling ability, but I also think I'm losing some readership due to recent crappy entries. Hoping to regain some people by posting something that's at least a tad witty and non-update related. Maybe I can even get some non-techie readers this way? Who knows! I do! And it won't! Woo! So now that I've gotten that out of the way, here's what's happening:
     So as you can guess from the previous paragraph and the title I've been doodling. I think I've improved considerably from this. So here's the doodle, please feel free to criticize in the comments as always (a quick sidenote being that all the blue ink are what Jack thought):

     Besides that? Not a whole lot. But in interest of interesting you, here's a song:

Falling off the horse

     Okay,I know my entries haven't really been up to snuff and whatnot recently, and there's really not a whole lot I can say in defense of myself. The only exciting things that have happened in the past couple days (as far as the world of Kit goes anyway) is that I purchased this and I finally got all my shit together and sent off my PS2. You may want to check out Felipe's new wiki site. Especially those of you in C++ and java, considering the fact that the wiki is devoted to you guys! Felipe actually managed to convince me to help moderate the site, so I'll be here to help anybody in java 2, but my C++ help (though one of my fields of expertise) may not be very helpful to those in Ms. Song's class because I learned a whole different way and my code tends to be quite different. Anyway, I have to hit the sack. G'night.

What?! So late?! Already?!

     Wow, I did absolutely nothing today, and it took me forever to do it!

Mega Ultra Super Duper update

     Just basically revamped the homestar mirror. Good god he made a lot of updates...

--Update!--
     I made it so that of any of the main pages when you hit quotes, you'll be served a random one. Un fortunately I haven't been able to get his properly working in IE (as far as I know it either: a> doesn't work at all in IE or b> serves the same quote everytime), but it works fantastically in firefox (I don't know about Opera or Netscape). Outside of that, I think I may make a "tips" subdomain for kitkorp. tips.kitkorp.com (which doesn't exist yet) would just have a bunch of random things you can do to improve performance on your computer. Also may have some "common debugging issues" section where I would post about problems I had recently found on other machines and how I solved the issue. A quick exampleof something that would go on tips.kitkorp.com would be something like this:


Secrets of Firefox 1.0

By Brian Livingston

     It's not so long ago that we learned to master the Windows Registry, a buzzing hive of little-known configuration settings. Now we find that Firefox 1.0, the hot new browser released on Nov. 9 by the Mozilla Foundation, has its own hidden playground for us to tweak.

     In case you haven't heard, Firefox is rapidly gaining steam as a free replacement for Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser. OneStat.com, which measures Web behavior in 100 countries around the world, reported on Nov. 22 that IE had lost 5 percentage points of market share in the past six months, dropping to 89% of browser users. Firefox and its predecessor, Mozilla, are up to 7.35% of users. The foundation says 7.5 million people downloaded Firefox 1.0 in the month of November.

     That doesn't tell the whole story, though. Experienced Windows admins, who often set the tone for other users, seem to be adopting Firefox at a much higher rate. More than 25% of the visitors to my specialized Web sites — WindowsSecrets.com, BriansBuzz.com, BrianLivingston.com, and the like — are now using some version of Firefox or Mozilla, according to my server logs. That's up from only 10.9% as recently as January 2004.

     With all this momentum, it's fascinating to find that many powerful capabilities of Firefox 1.0 are still difficult to find and little known. For example, typing the following strings into Firefox's Address Bar (which the new browser calls the Location Bar) and pressing Enter brings up a wide variety of novel applets:

• about: shows info on Firefox's version number, copyright, etc.;
  

• about:config reveals the Configuration Console, a repository brimming over with scores of customizable settings;
  

• about:cache displays a summary of both your memory and file cache, with a link to full file listings;
  

• about:buildconfig lists the compiler options that were used to create your version of Firefox (and, since it's open source, anyone can compile a customized version);
  

• about:plugins enumerates your installed add-ons, which can be quite numerous since Firefox is designed to be modular and extensible; and
  

• about:credits is an "Easter egg" that includes the names of hundreds of developers and testers who worked on the product.
  

     Today's article focuses on about:config, the beating heart of Firefox, which controls almost every aspect of tuning and tweaking the browser. 

What about:config is and isn't good for

     Typing about:config into the Address Bar reveals an enormous list of settings and options (see image, below). This includes everything from the "browser" section, which controls user-interface preferences, to the "network" section, which establishes parameters for connecting to the Internet and other resources.



     The organization of about:config — let's face it — is a mess. There are settings in here that are left over from the old Mozilla browser suite, which do nothing in Firefox but haven't been removed. Other settings are easily changed through Firefox's visible menus, so there's no good reason to tweak them in the unforgiving about:config environment.

     That leaves a number of settings that can really make a big difference in your enjoyment of Firefox as a browser. With a few simple precautions, explained below, you can try different configurations with little risk. 

The care and feeding of about:config

     There are three ways to edit the settings in Firefox's Configuration Console:

     1. Direct editing. In the Firefox window, you simply right-click any row, which brings up a context menu. On that menu, you click Modify to change a value, New to create a new value, or Reset to restore a value to its default. A setting looks like this:

browser.history_expire_days   user set   integer   99

     2. Editing User.js. You can also insert lines into a file named User.js. Firefox reads this file and adopts any settings it finds there. The file does not exist by default and must be created, if desired.

     The file uses a different format to specify preferences. The "history expire days" setting shown above would look as follows in User.js:

user_pref("browser.history_expire_days", 99);

     Because direct editing in the Configuration Console is so easy, it usually isn't necessary to write lines of code into User.js. Creating such a file, however, can be useful if you wish to override Firefox's defaults on several PCs. (In that case, simply copy the file to the correct location on those machines.)

     3. Editing Prefs.js. This file is automatically generated by Firefox when you make changes thorugh its menus or the Configuration Console. It's unwise to edit this file directly, and Prefs.js is mentioned here only for completeness and to advise you against editing it manually.

     The files mentioned above — as well as two other customization files, userChrome.css and userContent.css — are located in different folders under Windows 2000/XP and Windows 95/98/Me. This is explained in articles at Mozilla.org, the site of the Mozilla Foundation, and The Edmeister, a private Firefox info site.

     You can edit these files without having to find their specific location by using a free, third-party utility called ChromEdit.xpi. After you install this extension and restart Firefox, a new Edit User Files item shows up on the Tools menu.

     An excellent tutorial on editing within the Configuration Console is provided by Mozillazine.org, a tips site. 

How to backup and restore these crucial files

     You can make mistakes when editing configuration files that would prevent Firefox from working properly or even starting at all. For this reason, you should always back up these files before making changes. Everyone will tell you that, but I'm also going to show you how to do it and, more importantly, how to recover in case you make a serious error.

     1. Backup your config files. Your customization files are stored in a folder named Profiles on your hard drive underneath username \ Application Data \ Mozilla \ Firefox. To find the different locations for this folder on Windows NT, 2000, XP, 9x, and Me, check the convenient chart at Mozilla.org. Before making edits, copy the Profiles folder to a backup disk or another safe location.

     2. How to recover from errors. If your changes make Firefox unstable, close all instances of Firefox and then copy your preferences files from your backup location to the default location and restart Firefox. In extreme cases, when Firefox won't even start, you can rename the User.js file and/or the Prefs.js file to a temporary name and then start Firefox. The browser will revert to a default configuration, allowing you to transfer your "safe" preferences into a new file. 

The tweaks you'll want to make right now

     Now that you have the basics, we get to the good part: making changes to improve Firefox's performance and capabilities.

Fix a memory leak in Firefox 1.0
     Firefox is supposed to dynamically release memory from its RAM cache to other Windows applications as needed. Unfortunately, Firefox 1.0 seems to consume more memory than it should, which hurts performance, when set to the default of 51200 KB (51 MB).

     To solve this, Firefox power users recommend limiting the memory cache using the Configuration Console. This frees up memory for other apps, speeding up everything to a greater or a lesser extent, depending on your machine and the applications you run. Here's how the trick works:

     Step 1. Type about:config into Firefox's Address Bar and press Enter.

     Step 2. Right-click any row, then click New, Integer. Type or paste the following preference name into the dialog box that appears (this is a hidden preference that doesn't exist in the Configuration Console until you create it):

browser.cache.memory.capacity

     Step 3. Click OK, then enter the following integer number into the next dialog box, representing 16 MB of RAM for the cache:

16000

     Step 4. Click OK to close the dialog box, then close all instances of Firefox and restart it.

     For a lengthy discussion of this option, see Mozillazine's forum topic 172041.

     Move the disk cache to a faster or larger location
Many Windows users like to locate their disk cache files on a separate hard drive from Windows. This can improve the performance of Windows or whatever program is using the cache, or it can free up space on a primary partition. (The disk cache should not be confused with the RAM cache described above.)

     To move Firefox's disk cache, use about:config to create a new preference. (This is another hidden preference that doesn't appear until you create it.)

     Type browser.cache.disk.parent_directory into the dialog box that appears, then click OK. In the Value dialog box, enter c:\folder, providing the foldername in which you wish the file to be located.

     This and other networking and cache settings are sparely documented by a Firefox developer called Ben C. on his NetPrefs page.

Force frames to be resizable on Web pages
     If you visit Web sites that divide their pages into rectangular frames, but some of the frames aren't wide enough for you to see all of the words, you can tell Firefox to put borders around all frames so they're resizable.

     To do this, use about:config to change layout.frames.force_resizability from "false" to "true."

Other preference settings
     There are literally hundreds of possible preference settings that are accessible via about:config. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the help text that comes with Firefox 1.0 on these settings. A variety of user sites have sprung up to expound on these preferences, but their coverage is spotty and not completely trustworthy.

     The best all-around explanation of most Firefox settings has been posted by a developer called GuruJ on his Documented Preferences page. This page also links to a Firefox extension named Preferential, currently in version 0.6.1a. This utility adds an Advanced Preferences item to Firefox's Edit menu, giving you a user interface to a vast array of settings that otherwise would require hand-editing.

     Even the "Documented Preferences" page has many holes, which I hope the Mozilla Foundation will quickly and publicly fill in. For example, GuruJ's page describes many settings with a question mark, indicating that the true meaning of an item is unclear. This includes the "frames force resizability" setting I described above. (I had to determine the official stand on this option by contacting Ben Goodger, the foundation's lead Firefox engineer.) 

Tweaks for the ultimate in performance      

There are several settings and options that can make Firefox run as a much faster browser. You should test these techniques before you roll them out to, say, a thousand workstations in your company.

Speeding up the maximizing of Firefox
     By default, when you minimize Firefox, it gives back to Windows most of the RAM the browser was using. It sometimes can take several seconds for the browser window to become fully loaded when you restore the window to its original size. This is one of those "version 1.0" things, in my opinion, that will become more streamlined in future bump revs of the program.

     Fortunately, there's a hidden setting that can accomplish the restoration of Firefox windows much more quickly:

     Step 1. Use about:config to create a new, Boolean value. Type or paste the following string into the dialog box that appears:

config.trim_on_minimize

     Step 2. Click OK to close the dialog box. Change the value from "true" to "false" and restart Firefox.

     This doesn't piggishly retain all of the RAM that Firefox has claimed. If Windows needs more RAM to devote to another application, Windows can take it. What the setting does is prevent Firefox from giving up most of its RAM until the memory is actually required elsewhere.

     Setting this item to "false" may noticeably slow down other applications while Firefox is minimized, if your PC has less than 256 MB of RAM. If so, change the setting back to "true."

     There's an extremely long discussion about the development of this trick, going back to March 2004 (and continuing up through today), in Bugzilla bug report #76831. If you're determined to delve into this, I'd recommend starting with comment 329.

Speeding up Firefox on Windows XP
     You can speed up the loading of Firefox on Windows XP by adding it to the programs that XP "prefetches."

     To do this, right-click the Start Menu item for Firefox, or any icon you use to start Firefox, and open the Properties dialog box. Add a space plus /Prefetch:1 to the command line and click OK. The resulting line might look as follows:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /Prefetch:1

A detailed explanation of XP's prefetch feature is provided by TechRepublic.

Use a "Moox" build that's customized for your CPU
     A developer who goes by the name of Moox has compiled the Firefox code into separate executables, optimized for the instruction sets of different CPUs. This provides the biggest performance boost that I've seen (and also consider to be reliable). The developer's PDF white paper on the topic shows reductions of as much as 30% in the time required for Firefox to perform various tasks.

     At this writing, there are three separate builds: one for Pentium 4 and AMD Opteron (and other CPUs), one for Pentium 3 and AMD Athlon MP, and one for Pentium 2 and AMD Athlon. The builds are free, of course.

To download the builds, see Moox's Mozilla page. 

The big kahuna: fast rendering of Web pages      

The most sought-after performance improvements in any browser will always involve how quickly it downloads and renders Web pages. The good news is that Firefox (which is already pretty fast in its default configuration) includes numerous about:config settings that can improve the downloading and display of content. The bad news is that the optimum settings will differ from machine to machine, and there's no consensus on what they should be.

     After extensive research, I haven't found a utility or even a well-tested explanation that can guarantee the optimum settings for any particular Windows scenario (Windows 2000 vs. XP, DSL vs. T1, etc.).

     There are scores of Web sites that speculate on configuration settings that are said to speed up the browsing experience in Firefox. But these sites largely don't show that they've done adequate testing of the alternatives, much less explain how such tests might have been conducted.

     One long discussion post, by a German power user who goes by the name of Laszlo, lists in Mozillazine numerous settings in the content, network, and nglayout sections of the Configuration Console. His post is followed by literally hundreds of comments on various tweaks. I don't feel there's a solid answer here yet.

     Another stab at this issue has been undertaken by a poster who goes by the name of Achilles. He proposes four different configuration suites in his Firefox Tweak Guide, depending upon whether you have a slower or faster PC and a slower or faster Internet connection. Again, no testing details or benchmark figures are provided.

     At this point, the optimum settings for Web browsing under various configurations must be considered a subject for further study. Firefox is plenty speedy as it is. My recommendation? Download Firefox and enjoy it with the improvements I've described above. I'll give you an update when something truly definitive comes out about this. 

Other resources      

I haven't even touched in this article on several free, third-party extensions to Firefox that I believe are great enhancements. For a description, see my Nov. 23 Datamation column on Getting the Most Out of Firefox.

     Finally, an excellent resource on Firefox annoyances and fixes is Michael Horowitz's always-entertaining Web site, ComputerGripes.com. His site features several pages on Firefox behaviors, good and bad, many of which have been fixed with the release of version 1.0 gold. He also criticizes several other Web sites that need programming improvements to work well with Firefox.

     That's it for now. To send us more information about Firefox configuration settings, or to send us a tip on any other subject, visit WindowsSecrets.com/contact. You'll receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of your choice if you send us a comment that we print.

Making lots of little updates

     Well sorry kiddos, I'm making lots of little updates in preparation of being scanned by more search engines as well as things that just needed updating. For example:
     1) Updated my experience page to more accurately represent what I know
     2) Added meta tags to the index pages of my blog and kitkorp
     3) Edited the info on the misc. items page so that people know what's here as well as corrected some mistakes about the homestar mirror
     4) Made an edit to the main index of kitkorp so that people who came from search engines would be able to find the subdomains of kitkorp
     5) I'm actively working on updating the homestar mirror so that it has ALL the crap I've collected from homestar
     6) Fixed a small error in the 404 page so now even if you're in a non-existant directory it will still properly send you to the 404 error page
     Anyway, that's about it for now, I'll see you guys tommorow when hopefully I'll have some more exciting news than just: More updates!

I have failed...

to have something ready for today's post.

Weird ass updates and a temporary sign

     Well, I'm making some weird updates which you can see around the website. The first one is that to deal with the fact that yahoo's search engine links to all my entries as .html (which, if you haven't already noticed, are now all .php) which don't exist anymore. So to deal with that problem I've made it so that if you try to visit an old entry with a .html it will auto re-direct you to the .php. Don't believe me?
The hundredth entry try refreshing a few times and watch the quote change. See? Nifty eh? Anyway, the main point of this entry is that I may update morelater tonight, in which case this entry could also be considered a temporary sign until I get my stuff together. In the mean time here's some weird statistics about my site:
     Only myself and two other people have come tomy site via search engine, but look at the weird ass searches they were doing:
Top 3 of 3 Total Search Strings
# Hits Search String
1 2 50.00% site:kitkorp.com
2 1 25.00% religous drawings
3 1 25.00% rich scum of america

They came here from http://search.yahoo.com/search because yahoo.com already scanned my page. And apparently web.archive.org scanned my site again, which is good. Anyway, I'll be back.

ACK!

     Rest assured, I'm working on the php min-forum, but I've run into some troubles with powweb about adding another user. I want to make sure that if someone gets the MySQL account password they'd only get it for an account that could add things, not delete. I may even want to make it so it can't modify... I'm not sure. The point being that I don't have much of a post for today. The only thing you may want to go and check out is my on going argument with Eric on his blog. The back story: Basically he made a rant which made me grumpy. He said something along the lines of "public school teachers are lazy and aren't doing enough for me." In a nutshell I said "get over it, like you could do a better job." I'll post the whole thing here, but when eric gets a chance to respond to my latest back point you can check it out here.

Hooray for crappy movies!

     I watched Starship troopers. Crappiest B-Movie ever... but if you ever have friends who make obnoxiously loud yet funny comments about movies, this is the movie for you. With lines like:
"She's still alive, I can feel it..." and
"I said abandoned ship! That's an order Sargent!" and
"They sucked his brains out!"
Oh god.. I think my brain is melting...

Okay... I'm working on japanese

     I have to study! No, I'm not watching the Blues Brothers! I'm studying! STUDYING! Oh.. and I really want to learn how do draw well in photoshop. Cause that way my forum mini-app won't look like crap. It would also help make stuff like:
The Cheese Doodle of Happiness!

     Not look like it was made in paint, and it was a scanned in image. I guess what I should technically do if I want it to look scanned in is to ink it in blue pen, and then eliminate all but the blue lines and fill it in. But that'd take a lot more pre-scanning work then I think something like the chesse doodle deserves. But if I ever needed to make something like a webcomic, then it'd be right up my alley. If there weren't so many webcomics out there already then I'd be one to chuck some half-assed comic up there, but at this point I think I should practice a lot more doodling, and work out a good few months of script ahead of time. So inother words: I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon, but it may happen. Anyway, I have to go study and go to bed cause there's exams tommorow.

Grumple

     I'm tired and haven't done stuff. So there.

Mario isn't Ghetto

     Case and point: http://kit.kitkorp.com/archives/marioisntghetto.mov
I hate the fact the our once loveable little Italian plumber who saved a princess whose father was a mushroom, is now "street." He's gone to the dark side. End of story. Sigh, this is too depressing for me.

Php sucks ass and is amazing, all at the same time

The above image was produced by a block of php code! Nifty, ain't it?

     So, as you can probably guess from the image and title, I'm working knee-deep in php. What I hope to have by the end of all this, is a working mini-forum thing. Right now, I have a script that allows you to register as a new user. It doesn't actually register you right now... all it does is tell you weatheror not you submitted valid data, and if you did, then it sends you an email containing that data. Check it out:
http://kit.kitkorp.com/newuser.php
Anyway, I have to have a better working script up in a bit, check back like... tommorow.

Exams start tommorow

     Bloggage will resume when my brain is less volatile...

Anti-boredom Campaign!

Capitalizing on being a bitch

     If you didn't already know (and I'm quite sure that most of you do), I really hate reality TV (all of it), and though this is true, a good portion of the pop-culture that springs from this shit trickles down to me (well... technically up to me...). The point being that I've heard of one Amarosa (not sure if I've spelled her name right, but I don't give a shit), and recently I've noticed her in several Burger King commercials. Now, normally it doesn't bother me when someone has sold out, but it depends on what they sold out on. For example, it doesn't bother me when...
     Lance Armstong sells out. Why? Two reasons: 1) The guy has to make money some way (you can't exactly live off of winning sporting events), and when you win a lot of championships the way you make your money is by getting sponsors and being in advertisments. 2) The second time he sold out was for a good cause, and so it's not nessecarily a "bad" thing. Now here's when it does bother me that someone sells out...
     From what I understand, Amarosa is a bitch. Not only is she a bitch, she's such a bitch that basically everyone thinks she's a bitch. But the fact that she was able to capatalize on the fact that she's one of the most recognized bitches on the planet bothers me. Hell, it pisses me off! WHY ARE WE SAYING THAT BEING RECOGNIZABLE BY ANY MEANS IS A GOOD THING?! By allowing Amarosa to get an advertising deal with Burger King seems to project the image: "If you can be recognized by a good hunk of America, regardless of how much you degrade yourself to do so, you can be rich and famous!" It's almost as bad as the image projected by shows like "The Swan" where they seem to say: "Beautiful is happy!" My sister commented on it recently saying that they had gone back to one of the older contestants and done an interview and she said something along the lines of: "I'm happier than I've ever been in my life!" Which seems to project this image onto... well all of America that beauty is happiness. But truth be told that means that she was sad for superficial reasons before and she's happy for superficial reasons now.
     I guess that truth be told we've always been a shallow people, but it just seems that recently we've been getting even more shallow. We seem to scream out: "Being beautiful is all that's important! Keep working at it!" And all that does is make America mad at ourselves and depressed about the few of us who are considered "beautiful." Why should we care weather or not we have the perfect hair, the giant boobs, the tiny waist?! Sure, it's important to stay in shape (we're the most overweight nation on the planet! And that's NOT something to be proud of.), but to say that you should be starving yourself and getting tons of plastic surgery is a different matter. So goddamnit America! Shape up! But do it with EXCERCISE not DIET.
     In other news I've added a few more quotes to the random description at the top of my blog, if you care, and I'm learning some more PHP to help bring around those changes I was talking about in kitkorp. Anyway, that's about all the news for today...

The internet: One big place where absolutely nothing happens

     So I've got nothing today, oh well. I could bitch and moan about my English project, but I'mmore respectable than that. So instead here's a funny comic from counter-culture. Their site recently began updating again and has a whole new layout as well as a whole new refined feel to their comics, so check it out!

Indeed it was Mike... indeed it was...

Not a whole lot

     As the title suggests, not a lot is happening, so I don't have a whole lot to post about today. The only mildly exciting thing that happened today was that I added a new subdomain to kitkorp. Check out hiragana.kitkorp.com. This is designed to translate romanized japanese into good 'ol hiragana. It's useful if you're searching for a japanese-only anime or something of the sort, or if you don't want to look like a poser while posting on japanese bbs's or anything of the sort. Yup...

Oh my dear lord

     If you're anything like me, you more than likely heard all about the Tsunami all over the radio, news, school, conversations, etc. but still had a rather hard time comprehending how bad it really was. For me it's just that I couldn't visualize a wave that size... well, what I should really say is that I thought about a wave that size, saw it hitting the shore and then just going away, I didn't "see" the wave rushing through the city, dragging people through ripping up everything. I just saw the hit. Now... *shudder* see for yourself:
Two British guys watch as the wave crashes into their hotel, bringing all the hotel workers in it. Note the horrible screaming when the windows on the resturant crack and the vacuum that sucks in the water.
Someone very high up watching as the wave goes through the city. Note all the bodies in the water when he looks back (I was still uploading this file when I posted this entry, so if it doesn't work try again in a while).

Backing up website

I'm backing up kitkorp...

Not sure why but I've got a funny feeling...

     You may have noticed that Ben has started posting on my blog, but I've noticed a rather odd pattern.

The first comment that fits the pattern: Kit, while you may be basically right about that, I have no desire to play the xbox or to have an xbox for the online component. I got an xbox, (which you are well aware of) for the purpose of having fun with people who are sitting in the same room as me. While this may be true for PS2, not many of the PS2 games are known of, and, quite frankly, there are many good xbox multiplayer games that i will get, but NOT for the online play. I get iot to play with my friends, whenever i feel like it.
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Posted by Ben at November 24, 2004 09:24 AM

Two: I ROBOT DID NOT SUCK! Granted, it had basically nothing to do with Isaac Asimov's series, other than the basic concept, but it still was an interesting concept(sort of) combined with good action, moderate to good character development, and some really funny scenes (Such as the one where will smith is running through the old robot storage facility being chased by a bunch of new robots, as the old robots jump on the new ones yelling "You are in danger! You are in danger!" Now come on, you have to admit that was funny. And there was a kind of a twist at the end, so overall i'd give it a B, B+ So basically, in short, you're wrong kit... WRONG WRONG WRONG!
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Posted by Benjamin at December 23, 2004 08:58 AM

Three: Question? Why are you talking about buffy the vampire slayer? u do realize that the show is easily one of the worst shows on television, right? because it really is
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Posted by Ben at January 5, 2005 05:18 PM

I responded to the Buffy one with this: Ben, have you ever actually watched Buffy? Let alone in any order or at any point where you could follow what is one of the most important elements of any show known as "plot?" No? I thought not. Buffy is a great show, and I thouroughly enjoyed all seven seasons of it.
     I always laugh when people provide analysis of things they've never seen or tried to look at. It's like writing a review for something on Amamzon.com for a product you never purchased. No one cares, and it's annoying to know that you're just spiteful and dickish writing reviews for things that you arbitrarily don't like.
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Posted by kit at January 6, 2005 04:44 PM

Four: actually, i have seen buffy, on numerous occassions. it reminded me of a soap opera, and i dont particularly like soap opera's. perhaps i havent seen enough of it to make the statement that i did earlier, and i apologize, but from what i saw, it was bad, and i also apologize because i shouldn't tell u guys what is "good" or "bad", im sorry. in my OPINION buffy is one of the worst shows on television, because i have seen a few episodes (theres just nothing to do on some nights), but if you like it, then im sorry and whatever.
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Posted by Ben at January 6, 2005 05:40 PM

And then soon after making that comment, Ben Im'd me with: hey kit, you know what? ur right, i havent seen enough shows of buffy to know the plot, or in the right order. but most good TV shows will be able to flow on their own even if you dont know the plot, and it will explain the plot enough for you to get it within 20 minutes of beginning watching the show. as far as i can tell from the shows that ive seen, this person goes around and kills stuff, and some other people are there, making comments and being annoying

     Anyone else notice the pattern? I have to say that it seems like Ben has a personal goal to publically prove me wrong. Not really sure why, but the point is, is that it is happening and I'm just kinda curious why. There was a follow up conversation to the whole I, Robot thing in a later IM, but I don't have a logof that one cause my logging app has been buggin' out as of late. Anyway, that's pretty much all I had for today.

     But as a quick side-note as to not accept defeat from Ben's IM about Buffy: Certainly some shows provide plot re-caps within each episode, but many others also expect you to try and keep up with the plot as it develops. All I'm trying to say is that just because you didn't get into it and you couldn't follow the plot doesn't make it a "bad" show. The fact is that before I started watching Buffy, all I had seen was a few disjointed episodes, and that's what got me interested in the series. I got into it because the plot was engaging, the characters were funny, and there was a lot of good ass-kicking in tight clothes. There's also a big difference between most of the seasons. Earlier on, there was a lot less overall plot and it was a lot more "one big fight per episode" style. As the plotprogressed and the characters picked up lasting enemies and relationships it became harder to cover "all" the plot for each episode and so I'm assuming you watched episodes which were all very mushy because they were episodes that were the "tie-ups" for the relationships. While Iwon't deny that this was more than likely not your "kind" of show I also think that your harsh criticisms are kind of unfounded. If you had watched say... three episodes in a row and you didn't like it then you were completely justified. But to say: "I watched a few random episodes and I didn't like it" doesn't merit being able to call it a soap opera or make any valid conclusions outside of: "I didn't like it."

RIP Big Blue Chair: January 5th, 2004

     So today something rather odd happened. I leaned back in my big blue comfy chair that I often sit in while working on the computer. When I leaned back though, I heard a sudden little crack, and my cair flew back and was at a 90 degree angle. I called for help and my sister and I managed to get the chair back to an upright position. Another crack. Suddenly, the chair leaned to the right (something which I'm quite sure it's not meant to do) and then I was quite suddenly launched down about two feet.

Yes, something was wrong, and I investigated.

It appears that somehow, the support for the wheel mount snapped off...

It also appears that the original order tags were still in tact...

But as sad as I am to say it...

I think it may just be time to... get rid of my big blue chair. We shared good times, bad times, and it endured having my ass on it almost six hours a day for several years, but now, it's time to go. *sniff* Goodbye big blue chair!! I'll miss your awesomeness!

I've always wondered: There's sporks, but why not knorks?

     I have to give a speech tommorow. Wish me luck.

Buffy

     Well, I just finished watching the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was sad. It was also very odd how it seemed like they killed some of the characters just to make it less of an sappy ending episode. I liked and disliked some aspects of it, and I definitely felt like it was by far the most... overly-inspirational enemy fight. It seems like throughout the entire season they were all giving inspirational speeches left and right, and they all hired the same scriptwriter. Certainly some of them (like Xander's speech on Buffy (before he lost his eye)) were moving, but most of them seemed like Buffy being dark and trying to make sure that everyone knew what dark was. They also had a surprising new girlfriend for Willow who I, personally, didn't like. There were a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that she was annoyingly pushy and the other being that it just seemed like they needed a new love interest for Willow to take up her free time (*ahem!* *cough* *cough* *aherm* *snort* *ahoooooouuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack* *cough*). I thought that there were an inordinately large number of gay jokes in this season and by the end it was kinda bothering me, but I dealt with it anyway. All in all it definitely wasn't my favorite season, but it was one hell of a way to wrap it up!

Colorblindness!

     Hey everybody, I have to write a speech for NSL so I can't post a whole lot, but in the mean time:
I found an odd little (well, at this point I imagine it's enormous, but anyway) site called vischeck which is designed to educate people about colorblindness. But it has one very interesting and very odd feature which is the ability to automatically show you what a webpage would look like if you were one of three kinds of colorblind. The only good example I could find was my christmas page (what a difference though isn't it?):
The original page
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Weird huh?

You know what I'm going to say

Yup