EndNote and Other Antiquated, Specialized Software

For my workstudy at George Mason I am using a piece of software called EndNote which I found to be emblematic of antiquated, specialized software.  While not always true it tends to have the following traits:

1. Expensive
2. Deal-breaker because it has some feature(s) that some niche needs.
3. Poorly laid out GUI.
4. Feature bloat with functions laid out all over the place.  Give you the feeling that functionality was shoehorned into the program with each upgrade.
5. Seems as if it is the standard in its niche; see "Deal-breaker" above.

The funny thing is I just saw a listing on Slashdot that the Center for History and New Media School in George Mason is being sued for reverse engineering EndNote and introducing it as an open source, free, and much easier to use plugin for Firefox entitled Zotero .

You Know You've Been in Virginia for Too Long When:

• You consider bringing a sweatshirt when it is 72 deg outside.
  
• You begin to even contemplate English as a mandatory language laws.
• You wonder if widening that 8 lane highway might just reduce congestion.
•  Please add your thoughts....

Why I Really, Really Hate Math

1. It makes me feel stupid bordering on incompetent.  I excelled in math in high school, was in honors, until I hit calculus.  Most of college math is just like calculus.  
2. I have to take it as a pre-requisite for computer science.  
1. The problem expressed mathematically is:
1. A= {Computer Science}
2. B = {Computer Science Math Pre-Requisites}
3. Relevance = A ⋂ B ≤ 0.0000000000001

Math = (Memory Recall of lots of arcane tricks and shortcuts) * (abstract concepts).  It is the random memory recall that kills me because these tests are all closed book, no notes.

Saying all of this after I just at best got a 50% on a test worth 15% of my grade in Math105 - Pre Calc.  I really studied and thought I had at least an 80% mastery of the content.  The time pressure and test pressure makes a lot of that go out the window.

Nigerian Scammer tries to scam my apartment rental

Unbelievable.  I had gone back and forth with this guy for a few emails since he said his niece who currently lives in England was interested in my room for rent.  OK.  Did the questions, etc.  Then today I get the hook to scam me.  Here is the email.  See the scam is that I cash his check and the bank gives me the money and I think everything is good.  I send over $2000 out of the country to his "niece"  Thing is the originating bank is either phony or will say the check was phony and I have to pay my bank back.  BAD, BAD CON MAN.  How did I know?   The request sounded a bit on the fishy side so I looked at the IP Address of where this came from at DNS Stuff http://private.dnsstuff.com/tools/ipall.ch?ip=41.219.229.227
You will see that the message is not coming from England but from a certain African nation by the name of Nigeria.

erric henry  to me

show details 2:37 PM (2 hours ago)

Reply

Warning: This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information.  Learn more

Hello, Thanks for your response.She will arrive by Octomber 1st and leave by March 30th neice's name is Beckins Henry and she is 24 years old Medical student of Universty of East London.She is responsile,neat,non-smoker and easy going.I want to pay for the first month rent payment and security deposit upfront before her arrival.I will send you one of my US cashier check of $3650 which i bought the last time i came to the US.I will write it payable to your name which is cashabe in your bank.I am sending you that much money because my dad is very sick at the moment and i need to go out of town to take care of him and i need to go with all the money i have with me because i dont know how much money am going to spend for his hospital bill and take care of neccessary things.The cashier check is for US which is cashable at your bank and its not cashable here in UK.I made promise to my niece early this year that if she performs very well in her Final year exams in the University that am going to send her to the US for her vacation.She has performed very well and i dont want to dissapoint her.So as soon as you receive the casheir check,take it to the bank and cash it,remove $1480 and send the balance down here to my niece through western union money transfer so she can buy her ticket and buy necessary things she will need because i will be away from town to take care of my dad because he is very sick at the moment.She will pay for utilitites when she arrive there.My niece has no problem sharing apartment with either a male, female or pets around.Send me your name,address and phone number so i can write the check payable to your name. Hope to hear from you as soon as possible to i can send the check to you before i leave town to my dad's place Regards

The actual text of the email is here.

Delivered-To: kevin@kevindiffily.comReceived: by 10.101.66.19 with SMTP id t19cs445259ank;        Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:38:01 -0700 (PDT)Received: by 10.114.144.1 with SMTP id r1mr6546349wad.97.1221503880806;        Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:38:00 -0700 (PDT)Return-Path: Received: from web63601.mail.re1.yahoo.com (web63601.mail.re1.yahoo.com [69.147.97.71])        by mx.google.com with SMTP id 9si18419423ywf.2.2008.09.15.11.37.59;        Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:38:00 -0700 (PDT)Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of e_henry209@yahoo.com designates 69.147.97.71 as permitted sender) client-ip=69.147.97.71;DomainKey-Status: good (test mode)Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of e_henry209@yahoo.com designates 69.147.97.71 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=e_henry209@yahoo.com; domainkeys=pass (test mode) header.From=e_henry209@yahoo.comReceived: (qmail 22041 invoked by uid 60001); 15 Sep 2008 18:37:59 -0000DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws;  s=s1024; d=yahoo.com;  h=X-YMail-OSG:Received:X-Mailer:Date:From:Reply-To:Subject:To:In-Reply-To:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-ID;  b=Kk72JKmChR5/H88MhXDDoyySFsYcAUFbFuRThLVVQ/eJkVxrH+nnDZ0uMLSaDcDn6HivVzEYMTNLMBQCgaOyBpmkNY8WeFD9pGdv9tp5Jr+Zg534U4VdqNEBqetEKsxKMxk+KeI3Lpwi44ObIZGFDOFpY5PkAtN1UeWPFZoAo6c=;X-YMail-OSG: z4NgQmoVM1l5a_MI_VpOhT5MYBfx6_dh9OUZNyy2rzz8a4p0XSlM8WR2sFq9AlrrrpKV0OJFCwDxzOMe_WTtaUPEEvhjVvlO3R7JAcsgEGSgDXV2Xv08e1yWbRtpcsA-Received: from [41.219.229.227] by web63601.mail.re1.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:37:59 PDTX-Mailer: YahooMailWebService/0.7.218.2Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:37:59 -0700 (PDT)From: erric henry Reply-To: e_henry209@yahoo.comSubject: Re: roomTo: Kevin Diffily In-Reply-To: <30a04a620809141859u2992bc5fkc2ead994d3cd3759@mail.gmail.com>MIME-Version: 1.0Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="0-1597228046-1221503879=:21865"Message-ID: <187778.21865.qm@web63601.mail.re1.yahoo.com>--0-1597228046-1221503879=:21865Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printableHello,Thanks for your response.She will arrive by Octomber 1st and leave by March= 30th neice's name is Beckins Henry and she is 24 years old Medical student= of Universty of East London.She is responsile,neat,non-smoker and easy goi=ng.I want to pay for the first month rent payment and security deposit upfr=ont before her arrival.I will send you one of my US cashier check of $3650 =which i bought the last time i came to the US.I will write it payable to yo=ur name which is cashabe in your bank.I am sending you that much money beca=use my dad is very sick at the moment and i need to go out of town to take =care of him and i need to go with all the money i have with me because i do=nt know how much money am going to spend for his hospital bill and take car=e of neccessary things.The cashier check is for US which is cashable at you=r bank and its not cashable here in UK.I made promise to my niece early thi=s year that if she performs very well in her Final year exams in the University that am going to send her to the US for her vacation.She has pe=rformed very well and i dont want to dissapoint her.So as soon as you recei=ve the casheir check,take it to the bank and cash it,remove $1480 and send =the balance down here to my niece through western union money transfer so s=he can buy her ticket and buy necessary things she will need because i will= be away from town to take care of my dad because he is very sick at the mo=ment.She will pay for utilitites when she arrive there.My niece has no prob=lem sharing apartment with either a male, female or pets around.Send me you=r name,address and phone number so i can write the check payable to your na=me.=A0Hope to hear from you as soon as possible to i can send the check to you be=fore i leave town to my dad's place=A0=A0RegardsHenry

Java Lab Thoughts - Writing GUIs in Java is so much more cumbersome than xhtml/CSS.

I am 90% complete with Java Lab #1 due on Thursday.  It is an applet laying out a graph.  While it is fairly easy I forgot just how infuriatingly time consuming it is to layout GUIs in Java.  I wish they would realize that GUIs are so much easier, and in this century, common to be coded in XHTML and CSS with Java as the Model and Control code.  Sigh!!

Thoughts on realistic expectations, school, and relationships

Yea, yea I know everyone is getting sick of hearing about my emotional and relationship status on a recurring basis.  I had a bit of an epiphany yesterday regarding my limitations and what I should and should not commit too.  I had to bow out of the ACLU training yesterday because I was simply exhausted and overwhelmed.  Initially I viewed this as a failure.  What I learned is that I need to be more realistic about my commitment level, especially when I am going through a difficult emotional time.  It is essential that I become more engaged yet it is also essential that I don't over extend.  During times such as this I need to commit to smaller, shorter things that have the option to not show up.  The coffee klatch meetup is a perfect example meeting every Saturday morning for a couple of hours just to chat.

At present school is completely overwhelming and I am not really meeting my goals (time wise) for studying and work study.  Somehow I need to get on a more even keel so I am not in either crash mode or work frenetically mode which has been the norm as of late.  When I figure it out I will let you know.  Right now I consistently stay up too late, sleep too many hours (10+) and wake up too late.

Elise and I have opened communication to some degree after I helped with the email.  She said she was touched by the paper letter that I sent to her.  I need to be careful about inflated expectations but it would be really nice to have her in my life to some degree at least.

I have also put an add out for a roommate last night.  Got two flaky responses and one from what seemed to be a normal person.  Keep my fingers crossed.

I am Such a Chump Part 1

Such a champ. I get an e-mail from Elise's mother, Phillis who hung up on me when I last called. Elise cant remember her password and is having problems. listen

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Rant against Jott. 30...

Rant against Jott. 30 seconds of talk time is not enough to post to a blog. listen

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I am Such a Chump Part 2

Part 2. I spend over an hour of time, I shouldn't, hoping my ex-girlfriend who hasn't done anything for me over the past 3 months. listen

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Sue K invited us up for Thanksgiving

Sue K invited us up for thanksgiving in Toronto. Hopefully Miss H and I can make it across the boarder. Awesome, it will be fun. listen

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Anger, Moving On, and My Own Demons

I would love to have a drink right now, probably a few, but I choose not too.  I took an entire day off from school today because of my demons.  And I am getting tired of them.  I want to exorcise Elise from my heart, thoughts, and home.  I have asked her to deal with the physical objects that she has left here.  I simply want to put them in the dumpster but will give her the chance to have them picked up or pay me the postage to get them out.  I am in the "angry" stage right now.  Elise you dumped me with no warning and no notice and you did it via email.  Shame on you.  You then led me to believe that there was hope for 2 months but kept all of the control.  Communication was severely restricted by your choosing and all of the choices and decisions about us were made by you.  You should be ashamed.  I would never have done that to you.  No human being shuts out their significant other so abruptly and harshly if they have a shred of decency.  And what about your step-daughter Helen?  Yes it is painful for you to deal with but she has not heard your voice in close to four months and all she received was a pathetic letter from you a week ago.   I am so angry at myself for not seeing that you weren't capable of being a parent when it gets hard.  You have hurt that child and you need to do everything in your power to talk, and fix things with her.  She doesn't have the vocabulary to tell me what she is thinking but your actions have profoundly hurt her.  I hope you grow up and stop hiding behind your disability and take some adult responsibilities upon yourself.  Your needs do not trump those around you.  I could go on but I have to be up in 5 hours and as usual cannot sleep.  I doubt you will read this anyway.

A wordle of this site taken today

Wow wordle is really neat. As they say "Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

Poor Helen has strep and her dog just died

No that is not the title to a terrible country music song.  Helen has strep and had to go to the urgent care clinic.  Her mom told me that their old dog Jerry got sick at around 2am and died this morning.  Helen, the eternal optimist, chats to me not about that but that she thought the photos of her niece Nora were so so cute.  I called her later and she sounded tired.  She said she didn't have much energy and was sad about her dog but was so excited about her niece.  She especially liked the photo that showed her holding Nora.  Go Helen!!

Trying to get used these weekends on my own.

I haven't been on my own in a number of years. My daughter is back in school for the year and as you know my love Elise has left me for a new life in California. Someone at the D.C. Divorce Support Meetup group asked me what I do for fun and what came to mind was spending time with my family. Hmm, leaves me kinda stuck. Of course there are a lot of diverse and esoteric interests that I have but the foundation of most of it was the Kevin, Elise, & Helen power treo. To be honest it is intimidating to go out on my own in this still new and strange city and get involved. I am going meetup.com crazy and volunteered for an ACLU training next weekend. The reality is that my time is limited after studies, work, and oh yea that mental health thing. I don't know what to say except this is not what I expected. I expected to be married to Elise Burrows, buying a house, starting a career, a couple of pugs Pretty boring. It makes me sad, it makes me lonely. So I try to remain positive, focused and involved. To rememeber the important things I have like friends and family (wish they were closer), reasonable financial security and comfort, and making positive changes in my life.

Any comments, thoughts, and especially hugs sent my symbolically or in person would make a world of difference.

Take a DEEP, DEEP Breath

Holy crap the secondary student loan came through. I want to do pirouettes in my ballet slippers across the floor!! Screeeecccccchhhhhh, holy crap I look at the fine print and realize this is like a small freaking mortgage. Now this is just one of three and they are talking about 20 year repayments and by the time I pay it off I will have almost paid back twice the original loan amount. Breath Kevin breath at least you will be able to buy groceries and rent for the next year. Repeat after me, debt is good, debt drives the economy, debt is good.....

My Garden as a metaphor for myself

I finally went out to tend to my garden today.  Man it is looking raggedy.  Not a chance that you will see photos of its current state.  I sat in that garden and realized that we were soul brothers; raggedy yet insanely strong, holding on after weeks, no months of barely any care and water.  I loved those plants today trimming them, watering them and just communing with them.  We will rise from the ashes and become reborn.

Today I felt like shit, hence the foray into the garden.  Nothing better to get out of your own head than to focus on the care and feeding of something else.  That was the most productive thing I could do today.

Where was Elise in all of this, you know she still haunts the place.  Anyway we had a weird email conversation starting with her sending me the letter that she is gong to send to Helen and Sarah.  She was receptive to my request that she also take the initiative to contact Helen.  We discussed our mutual pain when we communicate right now.  God breakups suck.  Still wish you would pick up the phone and just talk to me for 30 minutes my dear Elise.  I wish I could giggle at you under your 500 blankets and silly hats.  Thats what I loved.  Not the incredible body, the kind soul, the twisted humor, no it was those damn hats.  Still wishing you the best my love.