Friday, December 16, 2005
Mario Unleashed - Google Video
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
New Blog Entry
Hey Everyone,
I've started my homepage again at www.ryancross.com let see if some of my
new found space actually gets used.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Phew!
Well, I know I haven't been keeping up with this the way I intended but
screw you I'm busy. Today I gave my presentation for my PhD annual review,
and I'm glad that its off my back. The biggest comment/complaint I got was
that my topic was too broad and that I was trying to do too much. Basically
tackling too big of a problem. After some other comments today, I had a bit
of revelation. On a side note, I wonder if a relevation is really a leap
forward in understanding as is implied or if it isn't more of a realization
of an inconsistancy and an attempt to explain the now visible
simplistically. Anyways, my relevation or realization if you may is
disconcerting. Basically what I have learned and fully realized is that to
get a PhD you must highly specialize in a topic and generally deal with a
very narrow issue. The alarming inconsistency is the idea that there are
large problems with our world today however, this idea of research basically
advocates our potentially smartest population to stick their heads in the
sand and to focus so deeply on a topic that an result that has sweeping
ramifications is a miracle - not merely because of its impact on multiple
fields but because the process is not suited to producing results with large
impacts. My thought is that an educated man is one that is well rounded and
experienced in the world but an academic man or researching man is one that
is highly specialized in a field no one else knew about. While I understand
that large problems are difficult for one person to tackle alone, I think
this mentality is detrimental. Cross-discipline research is only a small
part of the solution; I think we need to see large problems tackled by teams
and to try breaking down some of these areas of IP. Many people are worried
about not getting credit or for someone else getting acclaim based on their
work on potentially someone else's idea. What ever happened to working for
the common good? Self-sacrifing? Taking one for the team? I find the world a
very scary place lately when I see people electing a US president who by
several accounts is a grossly incompetent leader and by contrast, a small
few accounts questionably making showing minimal gains. I find it funny to
realize that in the dark ages people were lead like sheep by their religious
leaders because of their ignorance and illiteracy, yet now amonst what many
call the age of information religion is again leading people around because
of blind faith. While I enthusiastially support your beliefs, I am appalled
that you feel the need to impose your ill-educated and antiquated beliefs on
me. Perceptions rule, which is unfortunate but the tragic part is that false
or uneducated perceptions are the ones critical decisions are based.
Sorry for the slip off topic, but it will sting directly for the next for
years and its effects will ripple through out time.
Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.
screw you I'm busy. Today I gave my presentation for my PhD annual review,
and I'm glad that its off my back. The biggest comment/complaint I got was
that my topic was too broad and that I was trying to do too much. Basically
tackling too big of a problem. After some other comments today, I had a bit
of revelation. On a side note, I wonder if a relevation is really a leap
forward in understanding as is implied or if it isn't more of a realization
of an inconsistancy and an attempt to explain the now visible
simplistically. Anyways, my relevation or realization if you may is
disconcerting. Basically what I have learned and fully realized is that to
get a PhD you must highly specialize in a topic and generally deal with a
very narrow issue. The alarming inconsistency is the idea that there are
large problems with our world today however, this idea of research basically
advocates our potentially smartest population to stick their heads in the
sand and to focus so deeply on a topic that an result that has sweeping
ramifications is a miracle - not merely because of its impact on multiple
fields but because the process is not suited to producing results with large
impacts. My thought is that an educated man is one that is well rounded and
experienced in the world but an academic man or researching man is one that
is highly specialized in a field no one else knew about. While I understand
that large problems are difficult for one person to tackle alone, I think
this mentality is detrimental. Cross-discipline research is only a small
part of the solution; I think we need to see large problems tackled by teams
and to try breaking down some of these areas of IP. Many people are worried
about not getting credit or for someone else getting acclaim based on their
work on potentially someone else's idea. What ever happened to working for
the common good? Self-sacrifing? Taking one for the team? I find the world a
very scary place lately when I see people electing a US president who by
several accounts is a grossly incompetent leader and by contrast, a small
few accounts questionably making showing minimal gains. I find it funny to
realize that in the dark ages people were lead like sheep by their religious
leaders because of their ignorance and illiteracy, yet now amonst what many
call the age of information religion is again leading people around because
of blind faith. While I enthusiastially support your beliefs, I am appalled
that you feel the need to impose your ill-educated and antiquated beliefs on
me. Perceptions rule, which is unfortunate but the tragic part is that false
or uneducated perceptions are the ones critical decisions are based.
Sorry for the slip off topic, but it will sting directly for the next for
years and its effects will ripple through out time.
Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.
Friday, October 22, 2004
Yay!
My hotmail is now a bazillion times bigger.. Woo hoo!
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
7 deadly.... Keys to life
Hey,
Just a thought while I was walking into work today. While unchecked, the 7
deadly sins can ruin a man. I think they may also form a guidline for
important things in our lives. Greed being the force driving your economic
and career success. Lust being the key to your sexual life and things like
your wife. Gluttony is simply the drive to enjoy your dinner, drink and
life. Vainity is, well it is also ego, but it is also an important part of
self-preservation and health. It is also critical to have some vanity in
terms of having others like you and your hygiene. Well, I had to look it up
because I couldn't remember them all. The list from deadlysins.com is Pride
Envy Gluttony Lust Anger Greed & Sloth. So, let me rephrase. Pride is like
some key things such as self-confidence, "vanity" - i.e. health, hygiene &
putting your best foot forward (both your face and with other character
traits), and taking a sense of self-worth in your work. Envy - which is
similar to lust - is also important as a competitive nature and knowing what
you want. Gluttony and lust is still the same. Anger and aggression is
suprisingly important for things such as defending yourself and actively
pursueing something. Greed is also the same. Sloth is similar to gluttony,
in that it is important to enjoy relaxing but also, in that rest and
relaxation is important to rejuvenate your body and starting fresh. This
might be a very odd thought some might say and others might say I'm off my
rocker. But hey, think about this. Why are they sins? There are only two
reasons they are sins. The first is because you have to keep these things in
check, over abundence will destroy a man. And secondly, they are sins
because the definition of a sin is something that detracts, dissuades, or
otherwise impinges a person's spiritual growth. And I think that leads to
the other key of life, you must also temper these "7 deadly keys" with the
8th key - which is moral direction and spritaul enlightenment. If nothing
else, the same passionate pursuit of ultimate truth - whether that is god,
nature, or some other religious belief. - Cheers!
Just a thought while I was walking into work today. While unchecked, the 7
deadly sins can ruin a man. I think they may also form a guidline for
important things in our lives. Greed being the force driving your economic
and career success. Lust being the key to your sexual life and things like
your wife. Gluttony is simply the drive to enjoy your dinner, drink and
life. Vainity is, well it is also ego, but it is also an important part of
self-preservation and health. It is also critical to have some vanity in
terms of having others like you and your hygiene. Well, I had to look it up
because I couldn't remember them all. The list from deadlysins.com is Pride
Envy Gluttony Lust Anger Greed & Sloth. So, let me rephrase. Pride is like
some key things such as self-confidence, "vanity" - i.e. health, hygiene &
putting your best foot forward (both your face and with other character
traits), and taking a sense of self-worth in your work. Envy - which is
similar to lust - is also important as a competitive nature and knowing what
you want. Gluttony and lust is still the same. Anger and aggression is
suprisingly important for things such as defending yourself and actively
pursueing something. Greed is also the same. Sloth is similar to gluttony,
in that it is important to enjoy relaxing but also, in that rest and
relaxation is important to rejuvenate your body and starting fresh. This
might be a very odd thought some might say and others might say I'm off my
rocker. But hey, think about this. Why are they sins? There are only two
reasons they are sins. The first is because you have to keep these things in
check, over abundence will destroy a man. And secondly, they are sins
because the definition of a sin is something that detracts, dissuades, or
otherwise impinges a person's spiritual growth. And I think that leads to
the other key of life, you must also temper these "7 deadly keys" with the
8th key - which is moral direction and spritaul enlightenment. If nothing
else, the same passionate pursuit of ultimate truth - whether that is god,
nature, or some other religious belief. - Cheers!
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Firefox Update
I recently found a feature in firefox that might take care of one of my
issues. It's called "bookmark all tabs". What it does is creat a folder and
then create a bookmark for every tab inside your session. While this doesn't
quite seem useful, when you couple it with another feature - "open all
tabs". This feature allows you to open all the bookmarks in a particular
folder, each to a new tab. This effectively allows you to "save workspace"
and then "restore workspace". While I have in the past avoided using
bookmarks in this manner (mainly because I don't want to have a lot of
useless bookmarks) - this particular combination seems to make sense. Due to
the fact that they are all saved in one folder, you can effectively keep
track of a particular session and you can delete the entire folder at some
later date if needed. Plus, if you do decide to keep one or two of the
links, its easy to properly classify them before removing the entire folder.
Anyways, I will continue to play with firefox every so often, but I still
find it difficult to use a browser that doesn't always properly display a
web page. Correction - because I don't want to be all negative and shit -
Firefox does display web pages "correctly"; however I simply prefer a
browser that is more robust and has much greater compatibility.
Simple thought - if firefox is simply an interface laid on top of the
mozilla browser engine. Why not simply create a better interface for IE?
Granted, IE maynot be open source but its definitely got the greater
compatibility.
issues. It's called "bookmark all tabs". What it does is creat a folder and
then create a bookmark for every tab inside your session. While this doesn't
quite seem useful, when you couple it with another feature - "open all
tabs". This feature allows you to open all the bookmarks in a particular
folder, each to a new tab. This effectively allows you to "save workspace"
and then "restore workspace". While I have in the past avoided using
bookmarks in this manner (mainly because I don't want to have a lot of
useless bookmarks) - this particular combination seems to make sense. Due to
the fact that they are all saved in one folder, you can effectively keep
track of a particular session and you can delete the entire folder at some
later date if needed. Plus, if you do decide to keep one or two of the
links, its easy to properly classify them before removing the entire folder.
Anyways, I will continue to play with firefox every so often, but I still
find it difficult to use a browser that doesn't always properly display a
web page. Correction - because I don't want to be all negative and shit -
Firefox does display web pages "correctly"; however I simply prefer a
browser that is more robust and has much greater compatibility.
Simple thought - if firefox is simply an interface laid on top of the
mozilla browser engine. Why not simply create a better interface for IE?
Granted, IE maynot be open source but its definitely got the greater
compatibility.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Firefox vs Internet Explorer (IE)
Well, I have tested it out for a couple days and I must admit 2 things. 1) I like the firefox interface and 2) I hate the mozilla browser. At this point you might say, wait aren't they the same thing? Well, simply put the answer is no. Firefox is an extention of the mozilla browser and is mainly a reworked interface. The engine behind it all is still mozilla. I quite like many of the things that firefox attempts to do and I admire what it wants to be. However, I must say it kind of falls short on some of the basics. The main selling points to firefox are 1) Tabbed browsing - a quite nice feature that mainly allows for multiple windows inside one main browser. However, I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but firefox's implementation of tabbed browsing gets significantly slow if used with a large number of tags. 2) Security - mainly this is achieved by higher default settings and by eliminating support for things such as activex 3) A built in pop-up blocker along with some other nice features such as google.com search integration 4) probably some other stuff like open source, smaller, quicker, etc.
However, let me say this much. Internet Explorer works. Plain and simple, if I want to see a web page and I want to ensure that it will behave the best as programmed, IE is what to use. As a web developer myself, I understand the need to write pages that are cross-browser compatible. However, it is also quite a pain and thus you make compromises usually by making things IE4+ and Netscape 6+, and we aim in many cases to be netscape 4+ and/or mozilla 1+. First off, a quick plug, if you don't have a current browser - fuck you for making my life difficult and go fucking download something decent, there is no earthly reason not to.
As a user, I must say that after a few days with firefox I am not completely sold.
1) Tabbed browsing - yes, this is nice. However its implementation is slow with lots of tabs. Also, with windows XP this "tabbing" is kind of built into the task bar for all applications. Plus, I can actually pop-up and read the titles of my "tabs" instead of guessing which one I want.
2) Security - yes, it is nice to have default settings that are more secure. However, as an intermediate/advanced user (someone who will actually appreciate things such as tabbed browsing and other productivity enhancements) - I am keen to keep track of security issues and just make it a point to make the correct adjustments to my security settings. Something that might be usefull would be a little script or something that will do a better job configuring the security setting for newbie IE users. As for holes, mozilla has just as many and while you can argue that less people will be attempting to exploit them - proper attention to security issues usually makes them neglible. You're probably more likely to unwarily screwed with some adware than you are to be infected by a virus. There are programs for this to help the unfortunate
3)I can achieve both of these functionalities by using the freely distributed google toolbar for IE. The toolbar also allows for more options and configurations to allow me to determine how I want to use it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that bottom line, I can get the same functionality from IE with a few tweaks as I can from Firefox. The big difference for me is the ability to view webpages without errors, mis-interpretted layouts, scripts that don’t work correctly and other pitfalls. I often have to open a page in IE to see if the problem is with the page's code or with the mozilla browser's lack of correct implementation. And why should I have to use two browser's? Even the firefox website suggests that you will still have to open IE to use sites such as windows upate. Bah! I say, why change browswers when I will just have to change back.
Two other words. Microsoft - get your act together, lets see some browswer improvements. Warning, don't limit it with things such as an integrated MSN toolbar, open it up.
Also, will someone please implement a "save workspace" feature. There are many times when I am in the middle of researching something on the net and will have 10-15 windows open (same with firefox) and I will have to install a shareware to view a file or something silly like that and it requires a restart - then I am forced to go bookmark/save all the open windows when I am not even done with them. Saving the workspace so that I can open it back up and pick-up where I left off would be very helpful.
Also, a better bookmark manger for both browswers. I like the ability of firefox to export to an HTML file, but you can't import very easily. IE, I like being able to save a shortcut to my desktop and then being able to move it into my favorites later if I deem it to be tagged for more frequent/future use, however lack of any advanced tools built into the bookmark manager make it a little clumsy.
I think if microsoft picks up its head and tidies some things up, the browser wars will continue to be over and done with - and maybe then I can stop all this silly extraneous programming for out-dated shitty browswers.
-Cheers
P.S. A tool for testing websites' appearance/function on Safari while in a windows environment would be useful. I wonder if one is available - I will look later (with more open windows)
However, let me say this much. Internet Explorer works. Plain and simple, if I want to see a web page and I want to ensure that it will behave the best as programmed, IE is what to use. As a web developer myself, I understand the need to write pages that are cross-browser compatible. However, it is also quite a pain and thus you make compromises usually by making things IE4+ and Netscape 6+, and we aim in many cases to be netscape 4+ and/or mozilla 1+. First off, a quick plug, if you don't have a current browser - fuck you for making my life difficult and go fucking download something decent, there is no earthly reason not to.
As a user, I must say that after a few days with firefox I am not completely sold.
1) Tabbed browsing - yes, this is nice. However its implementation is slow with lots of tabs. Also, with windows XP this "tabbing" is kind of built into the task bar for all applications. Plus, I can actually pop-up and read the titles of my "tabs" instead of guessing which one I want.
2) Security - yes, it is nice to have default settings that are more secure. However, as an intermediate/advanced user (someone who will actually appreciate things such as tabbed browsing and other productivity enhancements) - I am keen to keep track of security issues and just make it a point to make the correct adjustments to my security settings. Something that might be usefull would be a little script or something that will do a better job configuring the security setting for newbie IE users. As for holes, mozilla has just as many and while you can argue that less people will be attempting to exploit them - proper attention to security issues usually makes them neglible. You're probably more likely to unwarily screwed with some adware than you are to be infected by a virus. There are programs for this to help the unfortunate
3)I can achieve both of these functionalities by using the freely distributed google toolbar for IE. The toolbar also allows for more options and configurations to allow me to determine how I want to use it.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that bottom line, I can get the same functionality from IE with a few tweaks as I can from Firefox. The big difference for me is the ability to view webpages without errors, mis-interpretted layouts, scripts that don’t work correctly and other pitfalls. I often have to open a page in IE to see if the problem is with the page's code or with the mozilla browser's lack of correct implementation. And why should I have to use two browser's? Even the firefox website suggests that you will still have to open IE to use sites such as windows upate. Bah! I say, why change browswers when I will just have to change back.
Two other words. Microsoft - get your act together, lets see some browswer improvements. Warning, don't limit it with things such as an integrated MSN toolbar, open it up.
Also, will someone please implement a "save workspace" feature. There are many times when I am in the middle of researching something on the net and will have 10-15 windows open (same with firefox) and I will have to install a shareware to view a file or something silly like that and it requires a restart - then I am forced to go bookmark/save all the open windows when I am not even done with them. Saving the workspace so that I can open it back up and pick-up where I left off would be very helpful.
Also, a better bookmark manger for both browswers. I like the ability of firefox to export to an HTML file, but you can't import very easily. IE, I like being able to save a shortcut to my desktop and then being able to move it into my favorites later if I deem it to be tagged for more frequent/future use, however lack of any advanced tools built into the bookmark manager make it a little clumsy.
I think if microsoft picks up its head and tidies some things up, the browser wars will continue to be over and done with - and maybe then I can stop all this silly extraneous programming for out-dated shitty browswers.
-Cheers
P.S. A tool for testing websites' appearance/function on Safari while in a windows environment would be useful. I wonder if one is available - I will look later (with more open windows)
