return void;

So I found the cause of my mysterious email problem. I promptly filed a bug report (usability suggestion), which can be seen here.

The weird thing is, this went on for something like 2 months before I started to notice. I got most of my mail but noticed that some started slipping through. Having cut it off at the source, I found that Evolution was the source of my misery. Hopefully this will improve the quality of the Gentoo desktop.

By the way, I’m using the 2.1 upgrade to my WordPress install, and I have to admit that it is rather nice. They FINALLY after many complaints from literally everyone, drafts are automatically saved similar to how GMail and Outlook save email drafts. If you haven’t upgraded yet, I recommend you do so. Also, go vote for the Automatic Plugin Install suggestion.

I’ve been using some of the personalized homepage widgets on Google’s website lately, most specifically the GMail widget. It was working for a while, but I suspect there is something wrong with it as of late. I started noticing that I wasn’t getting any email.

What actually happened, and I was able to verify without certainty, was the GMail widget must have been moving my email directly to the All Mail category, out of the inbox. It started about a week ago. I checked the all mail and there were about 7 days worth of mail I had missed.

Anyone else experience this? If not, I’d recommend keeping an eye on the All Mail category just in case it is moving your mail over.

Last week, I spoke to the professor who sits on the PhD committee (if that’s the appropriate term) concerning my less than stellar performance on the QE I took last December. Basically, we chit-chatted about my goals, my test score, and various aspects of being a graduate student. Come to find out, a very slim percentage of students that took the test actually received a “Pass.”

After talking with this professor for a while, we established that I can basically be declared an unofficial PhD student. I am following all of the rules of PhD students, I have the credentials to be a PhD student, I don’t have to ask for permission to take the remaining 4 QEs, I am even taking the same coursework as a PhD student. The difference is I am technically declared a masters student but I am acting as a PhD student.

So now that I’m taking Artificial Intelligence, I’m learning a boat-load about how this is a very difficult subject. I’ll post later about one thing that I think is the most interesting aspect to computers: The Turing Test.

  Yesterday, I competed in the Too Cold Too Hold race held down on the White Rock Lake course. It was supposed to be a miserable rainy and cold morning according to the weather reports. As it turns out, the meteorologists were wrong yet again. It stopped raining just before the event and continued to be dry until lunch.

  The other big deal was that there were only 3 people running in my age group: 20-24. Since this group is usually very competitive due to its youth, just as much as the experienced 30-34, I was surprised to find out that I finished 1st in my bracket! I also finished 67 out of 144, which isn’t all that bad considering how fast I’d have to be running to finish near the top.

  I never heard my name called before we left, but I apparently have a small award coming my way (tiny snowflake trophy). I called RunOn and they said that they’d track it down for me. When I get it, I’ll be sure to post a picture of it.

  I spent an hour the night before building a playlist for the event so that I would push myself harder the further I went. It worked alright, but I think I over exerted myself turn one of the songs that I don’t think will be making another appearence. Here’s the playlist:

1. Black Label Society – Life, Birth, Blood, Doom
2. Rage Against The Machine – Killin’ In The Name Of (Live)
3. Black Label Society – Battering Ram
4. Pantera – Cowboys From Hell
5. Probot – Centuries Of Sin
6. Hatebreed – Facing What Consumes You
7. Battered – Derelict
8. Pantera – New Level (Live)

  I think I will put some more spacing between the faster songs and the tempo songs. The Hatebreed song was too fast, so I’ll replace it with one from their new CD. Maybe I’ll start with some Sabbath so I don’t over pace, but this playlist was a hell of a start to kickin’ ass and taking names at 5K races.

I started downloading the results from my races so that I can archive them. I’ll be placing them on my website as I doubt they’ll remain available by Racing Systems forever.

Too Cold Too Hold 5K (01/20/2007) – Age Groups
Too Cold Too Hold 5K (01/20/2007) – Overall

I even downloaded the stuff from the last race I did:

Too Hot Too Handle 5K (07/22/2006) – Age Groups
Too Hot Too Handle 5K (07/22/2006) – Overall

The next race I have my eyes set on is the St. Paddys Day Dash down Greenville.

So news has it that NetFlix is distributing movies via their new Watch It Now service. In light of this, I think I should go ahead and air my predictions.

It’s been rumored that NetFlix will eventually launch their own set-top box. This would be rather clunky as the last thing I need is a TiVO, a content-provider (Comcast or AT&T) set-top DVR, as well as a NetFlix box (assuming I don’t also want an AppleTV). It would also be extremely expensive for NetFlix to invest in their own hardware development that would most likely lag behind the competition. It would make much more sense to NetFlix if they banded with an already prominent STB provider and offered their service through it.

Content-providers would be in direct competition with their In-Demand services and are not likely to ditch them in favor of NetFlix. The only way the content-providers would be willing to co-operate is if they were desperate to cut corners. Apple is not likely to partner unless they control the environment to the fullest extent as Apple believes in this dogma that all electronics should be treated as appliances. That leaves TiVO. What a combination. TiVO lacks on-demand content and would probably be elated to off-load the content distribution to another provider. This is something that could be added relatively easy to their series 3 boxes.

So Scobble, I am afraid you are wrong, NetFlix is only beginning to fight. Only time will tell if this prediction comes true.

I logged into WebCT today to check out my Artificial Intelligence materials during lunch. I decided to switch to the v4 to see if they posted my score on the Advanced Operating Systems QE. Sure enough, they had, and there it sat mocking me, taunting me, and making my self-worth and confidence plummet:

6378 06F Marg

A marginal. 6 straight days of cramming for this exam and all I mustered was a marginal. Technically a marginal is not a pass nor a fail but is a mark to be graded after the rest of the parts have been graded. You cannot pass with more than one marginal and retaking an exam overwrites any previous score.

I emailed the professor who agreed to let me take the exam as a masters student and the only assurance he could offer was to ask me to speak with him in his office early next week. So until then, I feel like my confidence has been replaced with much self-doubt and despair. Sunshine advised that I not let it bother me too much, but I can’t help it.

Basically, I NEED a PhD. I need to be a PhD graduate so that I can work on the things I want to work on and not be stuck in a single job with no advancement like some people. My attention span can only be captured by the seemingly unsolvable problems. I am happiest when I am solving a problem no one else has and I know that I will rarely get that opportunity with only a masters.

So until next week when I speak with this professor, I want to be a grown man-child and cry about it.

It really grinds my gears every time Mr. Bush opens his ignorant mouth.

I had the unpleasant experience of listening to Mr. Bush’s rhetoric about the war in Iraq and his new plan to fix things. He has landed this country in one giant pile of a putrid mess that is the Middle East. The title of this post basically describes is half-assed approach to the problem.

He still refuses to call it what it is by using the term “sectarian violence.” Say it with me Bush: civil war. That region is about 3 seconds from sliding into an extremely bloody civil war and our presence there is not making matters any better. Let’s face it, it’s fairly clear they will be unable to sustain democracy now and in the distant future as well. The reason behind the violence is far more motivated than land or greed; they kill one another because of religion. Last I checked, it was called a Crusade in my history book, which is a much grander and nobler term than what we have been deeming their war. No matter how you look at it, their war is a war that can only end like a Highlander of religions: there can be only one!

I can’t stand to hear this political leper talk about protecting freedom in a foreign land that obviously doesn’t care. I am sick and tired of Bush using the tried-and-true terrorist scare tactic to make me think I can sleep safe at night. We are not more safe now than before; if anything, we have stirred the hornet’s nest and should expect brutal retaliation.

It’s as if he has a million voices saying the same thing in one ear, and the only thing coming out of his mouth is “stay the course + 21,500.” Wake up Bush, America no longer wants to sacrifice its brave men and women to wage a personal war, that you seem determined to win no matter the cost. If you are going to call this a “war,” fight it with every available man and woman willing to serve. Stop half-assing a solution to a military problem and do something that will actually win the war (note: I feel that increasing the CIA’s eyes and ears in the area with people capable of infiltrating the loosely knit civilian opposition.