SemiAntics

Here is my latest endeavor. Yes, I should have been studying instead.

All wallpaper images posted on this site are subject to the Creative Commons Attribution – ShareAlike license.

Note: I created this with the Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program). The Gimp is a full featured photo and image editor with similar plugins and features to what you may find in Adobe Photoshop (R). There is a nice tutorial on how to create these nice fractals provided by the Gentoo GNU/Linux community.

Five years ago I pooh-poohed college sports. I considered it a waste of resources, and I bought into that whole story about how the majority of athletics programs don’t even break even (most even lose money, at least that’s what I was told). Well, there is another side of it.

I’ve never been much of a football fan. I didn’t understand the sport (and still don’t really), and it seemed kind of stupid to me since I had never played it. Stand in a line and run into each other, at the risk of your limbs and neck. Brilliant!

No, I didn’t like football, but I used to love playing baseball, soccer, basketball, croquet, racquetball and probably other team sports. Now, I was home schooled, so I didn’t exactly get a chance to play real team sports – my idea of team sports was me brothers against brothers. But I enjoyed it very much, even though I thought it was a waste of money for high schools and colleges to have sports teams.

Piedmont Virginia Community College didn’t exactly have any sports programs. They had intramural sports, but that’s about it. So, I didn’t get a chance to really play team sports there (besides, I was too busy studying and working to play sports). Now that I’m at VCU, sports is a whole different thing. First, we really only have one dominant program, and that’s basketball. Richmond, the crime capitol of the east, has a lot of problems, but it also has a huge enthusiasm for basketball. There are even some really good players here, some of them went to VCU.

The first time I started enjoying the basketball program here was when I realized that VCU was better than UVa and Virginia Tech at basketball (and still undefeated in football)! Well, they were pretty good last year at least. I thought it was great that, even though our academic program isn’t as highly rated, at least we could whip up on them in basketball (and probably tennis and some other sports also).

Once I started to go to some games, I realized how much I had missed by being home schooled. I really wish that I had gone to public school, because I think the sports would have been something I would really have enjoyed. I probably would have been a decent basketball player for the Highland Rams (funny that they’re both the Rams). We only had about so many people that could even play basketball because the county is so small; the graduating class is about 12 each year.

After last year, when VCU beat Duke and went into overtime against Pittsburgh in the NCAA tournament, it really was kind of exciting. Finally, after 28 years of not being involved in sports at all, I could at least say I went to a school that had a decent basketball team. By transitive properties of sports, that makes me a star!

Right. Don’t let it get to your head Max; it’s still a lot better to play sports than it is to watch sports. And anyway, what are those third and fourth year basketball players going to do with a major in “undecided”? I guess they can cross their fingers that they will get into the NBA, but that’s only for a select few.

In the meantime, sports at a division I school seems to be good for school spirit (whatever that’s worth), advertising, fans, students, and so forth, but I really doubt that it adds much to the academics. But you have to have a rounded education, and that may include going to a few games each semester to see what 7500 gold t-shirts looks like. Does VCU lose money in the sports program? I doubt it, but I’m sure a lot of schools do.

First we tried Flickr, then we tried Picasa. Actually, Grace did. We decided that, much like the way they created Google Mail, Google Maps, and Google Calendar, Google actually did a much nicer job with their photo site than Flickr did. It is a lot easier to use, to upload photos, and you get more space than Flickr offers.

We didn’t try any others, so please tell us if there is an even better place. (We’ll probably keep them at Google for a while though).

Here is a link to our photo gallery.

I am often asked why I am a vegetarian. In fact, I am interrogated on this subject so often that I am getting very tired of answering. So, today I was happy to see an article in the New York Times outlining the main reasons I have for being a vegetarian.

I confess that I have not done mountains of research to validate my lifestyle choice. So, I cannot vouch for all the claims put forth in the article, and I do not intend to defend them. All I can say is that I have read a bit about the environmental impact of a meat based diet, and what I read was enough to persuade me to change my diet. I also think a vegetarian diet is healthier than a meat-based diet and am somewhat sympathetic to the animal rights arguments given in defence of vegetarianism.

I’m a bit dogmatic about my vegetarianism. My diet is my business, and your diet is your business. I don’t want to hear about the virtues of eating meat, so please don’t try to convert me. I promise I won’t try to convert you. I’m not the militant type.

New York Times-”Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler”

I deleted my account. I didn’t do it to hide from you. I did it for a couple of reasons:

1. Facebook isn’t exactly great when it comes to respecting your privacy. Suppose you want to delete your account; you can’t delete your account, you can only deactivate it.
2. Facebook used to be simple; it was a nice way to stay connected with your friends. Now it’s bloated bigtime.
3. If you keep up with facebook it can take up a lot of time.
4. Linkedin is better for my needs now; granted, it’s still pretentious as heck, but it’s useful and more mature

So, go join LinkedIn to catch up with me again!

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 17 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.

When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you.

Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of qualified professionals.

Through your network you can:

• Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
• Be found for business opportunities
• Search for great jobs
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings
• Find high-quality passive candidates
• Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know

LinkedIn is free to join. They also offer paid accounts that give you more tools for finding and reaching the right people, whether or not they are in your network.

Richard Stallman, (founder of the GNU project, the Free Software Foundation) will be speaking at VCU on March 27th of this year.

Mr. Stallman will speak on the topic of “Free Software in Ethics and in Practice”, and about the goals and philosophy of the Free Software Movement, and the status and history of the GNU operating system, which in combination with the kernel Linux is now used by tens of millions of users world-wide.

This seminar will is the result of many hours of work on my part, and the donations and help of the VCU community, faculty, students and staff. It is primarily sponsored by the VCU School of Engineering’s Computer Science Department, the VCU Honors College, the Student Advisory Board to the Computer Science Department, as well as the ACM chapter at VCU. Additionally there is a private company who has offered a significant donation, but I am not sure if I should post their name here.

Event Details

When: March 27th, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Room 1164, Temple Building, VCU Monroe Park Campus
Directions: Please follow the VCU directions to the Main Street Parking Deck.