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March, 2009

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March 30, 2009 7:45 AM

This I Believe

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by    in This I Believe

I recently picked up a book called ‘This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Woman’ which is a collection of essays. It started out as being a radio broadcast back in 1951 hosted by Edward R. Murrow and now it has continued and turned into a book. It started with an “invitation to politicians, nurses, artist athletes, construction works, parents, student, the famous and the unknown, everyone.”

Everyone has something that they believe in. It’s like an opinion but I think it’s more on a deeper level. It could be something that divides us and makes us individuals. It’s sometimes hard to share your belief with others because there’s room for interjection by the other party. What’s nice about this book is that you are able to read about the beliefs of others without stopping. This gives you a chance to hear them out entirely and if you disagree with them, you can’t really argue back. The essays includes topic such as “conflict over moral standards, patriotism, family and issues of race and faith.” It is collection of over 80 essays and I look forward to read them all including the second book.

The purpose of the ‘This I Believe’ series is to write about what you believe in without saying something negative. If you want to say something negative, you have to try and word it so it doesn’t sound negative. Instead of say, “I don’t believe in god,” you’d put it like Penn Jillette and say, “I believe there is no god.”

After reading the book, I have decided that I’m going to start my own series of ‘This I Believe’ and I hope that it will compile a list of beliefs that I live by.

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March 29, 2009 7:13 PM

Zend Framework

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by    in Internet,Technology

I’ve finally got started on my project for the Internet Applications class. It’s good that I didn’t start earlier because if I did, I would have had to start over because the teacher wanted us to select a framework. I am used to creating things from scratch and if I made a mistake, I could always recreate everything again. But the idea of using a framework to write your code is so that you don’t reinvent the wheel. Every function that I create has already been created so there’s no need to write it again. This will save time, a lot of it.

It would save time if I knew what I was doing. I assumed that getting started with the framework would be easy but as it turns out, I didn’t quite grasp the concept fully yet. I thought I could download the library, add it to my existing code and be finished with the project. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. I had into a few road blocks along the way but I think I’ve gotten around most of it.

To keep things simple, I download a trial version of the Zend Server. I could have easily downloaded the library and wrote the code to include the library but I didn’t have a full understanding of the framework yet so I wasn’t sure how to do that. I wanted to keep things simple while I’m reading up on the framework so I downloaded the Zend Framework, Studio and Server to keep things consistent. So far, all I’ve managed to use it for was to restart PHP.

Zend: Controller

Installing the server was pretty straight forward and configuring it wasn’t that hard either. I have experience with installing a web server and this was no different. The nice thing about the Zend Server is that it gives you a little controller that allows you to change the settings of the web server.

Zend: Server

I tried to follow a simple tutorial to get things started but for some reason I ran into some problems. With the controller, it provides details on the error that was detected. Click on the events will display more details about the error. On that page, you can click on a link that will display the line where the error is caused.

Zend: Studio

From there, launches the Studio and highlights the line that is giving you a problem. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to understand exactly why that specific line was causing an error. I don’t have an understanding of the framework yet so I couldn’t solve it. With this problem in the way, I couldn’t get started on my project and I don’t have much time left to complete it.

I went out and bough ‘Zend Framework in Action’ by Rob Allen, Nick Lo and Steven Brown. I am currently into the third chapter and I understand more of how the framework functions. I’m going to try to read all 400 or so pages in hopes that it’ll help me. I’m about a tenth of the way through and it’s helping so far. This project is due in about a week so I better start coding.

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March 17, 2009 11:02 PM

Full of happiness

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by    in General
Full of happiness

1 sec | f6.3 | 38mm

Jenn found some ice trays that forms the world “Happiness” in Chinese. They’re kind of cool, no pun intended.

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March 15, 2009 8:08 AM

Homeless guy

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by    in General

Not too many people pay attention to the homeless people. Usually they try not to make eye contact as if they’re Medusa and they’ll turn you to stone if you look. Some people look at them in disgust and think that they’re faking the homeless status. And then there are people who avoid them by walking across the street or something.

I’d have to say that I’m one of the people who avoid homeless people. I don’t avoid them because they smell or anything. I just avoid them because I don’t like to tell them “No.” I wish I could help some of them out by buying them food but I barely have enough for myself.

I used to be one of those people who give to homeless people when I can but unfortunately, things happen and I stopped. I don’t know what they’re going to use the money for and I don’t trust them enough to know that they’ll put it to good use.

When I worked at the library, a lot of the homeless people were using the library as a hotel. They would come there to sleep and it was security’s job to wake them up. From what I was told, we had to wake them up to make sure they were still alive. Apparently, an old homeless guy passed away while he was sleeping in the library so they’re using that excuse to make sure no one is allowed to sleep in the library anymore.

I saw a lot of things when I worked at the library and it unfortunate for the homeless people to be in the situation that they are in. And it’s really unfortunate that I’ve seen too many of them drunk out of their minds. Some of them aren’t even drinking alcohol. They’re drinking Scope. They’d be piss drink but their breath is minty fresh.

Because of what I’ve seen at the library, I don’t help out the homeless people as much as I used to. I assume that some of them were down on their luck and had to resort to living on the streets. And I wished that the city would do something to help them but unfortunately, they can’t do much to help because the funding isn’t there.

Often times, I feel sympathetic towards the homeless people because it gets pretty damn cold in the winter. Sometimes I see a homeless in the summer and then see him the following summer and wondered how he made it through the winter. They’re pretty resourceful if they can make it through Canadian winters.

Down the street from my house is a black homeless guy that likes to hang out in front of the Shoppers Drugmart and RoyalBank. He’s clothes are all dirty, he’s missing a few teeth and I think something’s wrong with his eye. When he’s outside of the store, he looks at you and asks for change. I could be an ass and tell him, “If you want change, go to America” but I be nice about it and tell him “No.” And I’m not lying when I tell him I don’t have change because I don’t. I use the Interac machine everywhere I go so I don’t have to carry change.

There was one time when he caught me when I was coming out of the bank. I went in to withdraw money from the machine. Usually I avoid going to the machine if I see him around because I don’t like to tell him “No.” And because he has a way of phrasing a question that makes you feel a little guilty. So when he saw me coming out, he asked, “Could you break a $20 and spare me some change for food?”

I’d have to admit, that was a pretty clever way of phrasing the question. Because on one hand, you probably did have a $20 on you since the machine only dispense $20 bills. And on the other hand, you do feel a little guilty telling him no when you probably could spare a bit of change. And because of that question, I avoid him completely.

There were times when he did catch me going into the bank and I guess he’d run across the street in time to catch me coming out. But during those times, I honestly couldn’t help him. I needed the money for rent. I still feel bad for not helping him out but I just couldn’t afford it. So maybe in a way, I’m a bad person for not lending a hand. But I can’t help someone else when I can’t even help myself. I know it might sound a little greedy in a way but during these hard economical times, everyone’s trying to save a penny.

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March 14, 2009 4:35 PM

Waste of time

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by    in Rants

I don’t quite understand the purpose of making an appointment and not keeping it. I’d assume that anyone who is professional enough to make an appointment would be professional enough to follow through. If they are not able to keep that appointment, I’d assume that they would call and give a reason why they can’t keep the appointment. I guess my expectation for some people are too high.

My mom asked me yesterday if I could take her to get her hair done at a friend’s house. I was in the middle of homework and I was trying to get an assignment completed before having to submit it but I thought that maybe I can take a little break and help out my mom. My dad and my brothers are busy working and I’m the only one who is free on a Saturday so I did what my mom asked.

When it came time to leave the house, I told my brother that I’d be over in a few minutes and ask him to tell my mom to get ready. This way, I could get to their house, pick up my mom and take her to my friend’s. In a perfect world, everything would work out smoothly. But since I’ve come to the realization that this world isn’t perfect, I knew that something was going to go wrong.

I arrived at my parent’s house promptly at 3:00 PM and walked into the house. My mom’s first words were, “How come you’re here so quickly?” I’m not one that likes to make people wait so when I say that I’ll be there at 3:00 PM, I’ll be there at 3:00 PM.

I mom reached for the phone and made a phone call. She told me that she has to give my friend a call first to see if she’s home. At this point, I’m a little annoyed because my friend should have been there if she had already made this appointment. The phone rings and rings, nobody answers and it goes to voicemail. My mom had to let my friend know that the appointment was for 3:00 PM and that she’ll be on her way there soon. Before hanging up, my mom asked that she be called back.

I waited there for a bit to see if there’s any call back but sadly, there wasn’t. So my time is wasted, my mom’s time is wasted and nobody’s happy about this. I was a little pissed off at the fact that m friend couldn’t do a little thing such keep an appointment. This is the not level of professionalism that you show your customers or even a friend. I understand that it’s my friend’s time that we’re booking but that’s the whole point of getting paid.

There are certain things that people do that makes me lose faith in them. Not being able to keep an appointment is one of them. If two parties agree to do something on a certain time and one of them bails out on the other, that just sucks. I don’t like to waste time and if it’s anyone’s time that they’re wasting, it should be their own.

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March 12, 2009 10:12 PM

The great debate

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by    in Life,Religion

The debate between science and religion has always been something that had me somewhat fascinated. I like to hear both side of the argument but I am easily swayed towards science. I am not a man of faith nor do I have anything against it but I have to say that I cannot accept what faith has told me. I find myself coming back to this topic every now and then but I always reach the same conclusion. There isn’t anything convincing enough out there to change my mind. Must like most people, one you have an opinion on something, it can’t be changed.

Personally, I find it very hard to believe in something that no one has ever seen before. But then again, I’ve never seen the nucleus of an atom but I’ll accept the fact that it exist. I’m not sure why I don’t believe in a creator but the idea of a creator just seems very far etched to me. I can probably see the nucleus of an atom if I look through an electron microscope or even if I googled it but how do you see a supreme being? It’s not something that can be easily visible by looking under a microscope. Apparently, it’s something that you have to believe in without any actual proof. Ay, there’s the rub.

Faith is a pretty sensitive topic for some people and sometimes I prefer not to touch on it in fear of offending someone. I’ve noticed that some people, who believe in a divine being, can easily be offended. I don’t quite believe in a god so if someone was to tell me that there was a god and I disagreed, it wouldn’t offend me in any way. But if I was to tell a believer that there is no god, I would probably hear about it.

The main reason why I don’t believe in a god is because there isn’t enough there to make me a believer. I need some sort of proof that a divine being exists somewhere. It is not something that I can take on faith. I am somewhat a materialistic person so the only way to prove that anything exists is to make it materialize so that I can touch it. That’s the starting point in proving an existence of something. Mind you, I have never seen or touched the dust of a nearby galaxy but I choose to believe that it exists. But when someone tries to do the same thing and attempt to convince me that god is out there, I can’t seem to bring myself to believe.

I don’t have any reason to believe in god because it just doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t think it’ll make me a better person in any way. I’m generally a good person. I treat people with respect. I think I do the things that are stated in the Bible but I never needed the Bible to tell me that. I’ve learned to be the person that I am from experience. My parents are the ones that raised me and it was their upbringing that shaped me the way I am today. I don’t believe that religion, the Bible or even god had any input in shaping me.

George Carlin probably put it best when he said:

Religion easily has the best bullshit story of all time. Think about it. Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money.

In the book, “The Human Side” Albert Einstein replied to a letter by saying the following:

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

Einstein did believe in a god but it’s Baruch Spinoza’s God which is “a God that does not rule over the universe by providence, but a God which itself is the deterministic system of which everything in nature is a part. Thus, God is the natural world and has no personality.”

No one knows for sure how the universe came into existent but to say that God created it and not have proof that he created it, is unacceptable. Science is looking to find that answer and they have not found it yet but at least they’re trying to arrive at a conclusion rather than just believe what is written in a book, a book that was written by man. Just because God supposedly spoke through him doesn’t mean anything. If God wanted to pass on a message to his people, I don’t think he’d rely on some guy to pass on that message. Would it not make more sense to pass on that message personally? If some guy who fits the description of Jesus started walking around and claiming to be Jesus, how many people would believe him? Would he be praises as the son of God or would people just label him as being crazy?

And on the subject of Jesus, I cannot accept the idea that someone died on the cross a couple of millennium ago, for me. He died on the cross for my sins but he had no idea about what sins I’m going to commit. People aren’t born into this world with sin because Adam and Eve sinned. I don’t think it’s right that sin is passed on from generation to generation. That’s almost like say, because your parents were bank robbers, you’re a bank robber and will have to spend the rest of your life in jail. It just doesn’t make sense.

Science has yet to arrive at the answer of how we came into existence but it’s not saying that the Big Bang was accidental. We didn’t come into existent accidentally either. It took billions of years for us to evolve to what we are today. And how those billions of years got started, we don’t know. Although there is a missing link that leaves a gap in that evolution, it just means that the transitional fossil evidence has yet to be discovered.

Unless there actual proof that God exist, I cannot just believe in him. I cannot see God nor can I feel his presence so he’s basically imaginary to me. I’m not a child anymore so I don’t have a need for an imaginary friend. I am not going to follow a book that tells me to be good now so I can be rewarded later. I can’t speak for everyone but I don’t think I’d work hard now so that I can be rewarded 30 years down the road. Who is willing to take that gamble?

In the past, I’ve had friends try to get me to go to church but I always decline. It might sound bad but I just can’t seem to keep myself awake at church. The last time I was there, I dozed off and couldn’t remember what was being preached. I don’t think that the church is a place for me.

An old friend of mine tried to tell me a story of how god helped out another guy who now believes in god. He said that they were leaving a gas station when they accidentally backed up into a pole and dented the car. The driver was really scared because it was his parent’s car. So they pray and ask for forgiveness and ask that they not get in trouble. When they got home, the drive told his parent about the little accident but they weren’t mad. They accepted the fact that the parent weren’t mad as proof that their prayers were answered.

I understand that some parents would be furious about the accident but there are parents who care more about the safety and well being of their children than a piece of metal. Couldn’t they accept the fact that the driver’s parent was one of those caring parents? No, they jumped to conclusion and decided that it was the lord’s doing. I like to think otherwise.

When it comes to religion, I have nothing but questions. All I’m looking for is an answer. Without an answer, I cannot accept anything. You can’t just assume something is there. Religion in this day and age is going downhill. There are probably a lot of people who will say that they have no religious affiliations and they don’t need any. I believe that people can get along just fine without it. The debate can go on for years to come but when it’s a matter of faith, you’re going to have even odds on both sides. So if you’re like me and you’re looking for an answer, all you have to do is look around you.

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March 10, 2009 11:04 PM

Photoshop disaster

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by    in General

There’s a website that I like to visit every now and then called “Photoshop Disasters” which has a collection of photoshopped pictures that don’t look quite right. It’s entertaining to see some of the things that you’ve probably seen before but never quite noticed. But ever since I started visiting that page, I take a closer look at online images to see if I can track anything.

I think visiting this site seem to have paid off because I think I might have found something that could be considered a Photoshop disaster. It’s by no other than Tiger Direct. Take a look at this picture and see if you can spot something wrong.

Whoops

From what I can tell, there are two mistakes. The first one I noticed when I was getting up from my seat and the second one I noticed when I was cropping the image before uploading it for this post.

The first mistake is that the LCDs on the laptops appear to be translucent to the point where you can see the laptop behind it. I know that transparent OLEDs are around somewhere but I don’t know if Lenovo has that feature available in their S10 line of laptops. If they did, I’m not sure how safe the screens would be. And I’m sure that the laptop is probably expensive.

The second mistake are the reflections. I’m pretty sure that the laws of physics prevent reflections like that from occurring but who am I to make that statement. I’m sure that it looks cool and all but maybe Tiger Direct was low on budget and didn’t quite care too much about the reflections.

Anyway, Photoshop disaster or not, they’re giving away a free laptop every day until March 29. You can go here to sign up and enter. I think the contest is only opened to Canadian residences so if you’re one of us, you can enter once a day. Good luck!

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