conquering the world one oxymoron at a time
Archive for the internet
December 18, 2005 at 2:47 pm · Filed under the internet
… with CSS, otherwise known as Cascading Style Sheets. I’ve used these off and on in web development for the past few years, but almost always only to define how I want links to appear on a page (underline/no underline, hover color, etc.), nothing more. Not until recently did I discover the true beauty and power of CSS.
This can only mean one thing. I have to overhaul my site and replace it using CSS. Here’s why:
<dorky rant>
Software engineers are perpetually obsessed with the soft concept of the “software development cycle.” There are always new theories coming out, the most recent one being the “agile cycle”, which emphasizes feedback instead of planning. There are plenty of others, and those truly interested can read the Wikipedia entry to find out more. When it comes down to it, a website is just another piece of software, and the process of designing and implementing a webpage is very much a “software development” exercise.
My approach to websites thus far have almost always been the Waterfall, with a bit of Spiral, but not much. The reasons for this are two-fold: 1) I am lazy, and Waterfall allows for the least amount of thought paid to future maintainability, which takes a heck of a lot of front-end planning, and 2) I’ve been focusing (perhaps too much) on artistic design rather than practicality. But as the good Ruth Anderson and John Knight once told us, the majority of time spent on software development is actually spent on maintaining the software, so the easier the maintainability a piece of work has, the better it is. My websites may look pretty, but with zero maintainability, they are terrible pieces of work from a software engineer’s perspective, which is really a shame. It also makes it so that I get stuck with the same look/site/layout/style/links for years after making it, because it takes so much effort to update even the tiniest bit of it.
CSS changes all of this!! Check out this example: CSS Zen Garden, and select each of the designs on the navigation bar to the right. The HTML code for all of the example designs NEVER changes, yet the pages have drastically different looks! How? The genius of CSS. A software developer’s dream for maintainability. This freedom is the reason I feel compelled, almost obligated, to overhaul my site. A project for winter break/IAP perhaps.
</dorky rant>
December 17, 2005 at 6:30 pm · Filed under the internet
My love-hate relationship with gmail didn’t end with my deleting my gmail account. I thought that would be the end of the relationship, that gmail would never be a part of my life again. Well, I’m happy/sad to say that gmail and I recently got back together. I am giving our relationship another chance.
What prompted this? Mainly gmail’s cousin: Google Book search. In order to view any results from Google Book search, I have to to have a google account. It then seemed silly to start a google account without getting the gmail with it too. Sure, things didn’t work out so well the first time around, but it wasn’t so, so bad. And if I’m associating with the Google family, I may as well associate with gmail again and reap the benefits.
Somewhere in this gmail debacle, I’m sure there is a “moral of the story” about real-life relationships. I don’t really care to think about it right now.
December 1, 2005 at 3:05 pm · Filed under the internet
Online dating. What comes to mind? I used to be completely against it. Why would you ever want to meet someone online when you meet plenty in person? Besides, the whole online dating thing just has this creepy feeling surrounding it. Then I thought, what’s wrong with meeting people online? It’s just another venue for people to meet.
Okay, so far so good. I don’t think I would personally ever enjoy a date with someone I’ve never met … it’s like knowingly sending myself on a blind date, and why would I ever want to do that? But that’s my decision, and that’s why I don’t seek out sites like Match.com and eHarmony, not that I have anything against those services nor the people who use them. It’s just personal preference. What I do have problems with, however; is when online dating starts to infringe on my otherwise platonic web presence.
Many of you know about my fascination with online networks such as friendster and facebook. I guess I always saw these as nothing more than cyberspace popularity contests. Well, so and so has 200 friends, but I only have 180. What I didn’t realize, until I recently changed my relationship status on frienster to “single”, was that people also use these networks to meet people to date
At first, I got a few “smiles” sent to me by strangers hoping to “brighten my day”. They all happened to be male. Cute. Then, in the past week or so, I’ve started to receive actual messages from male strangers introducing themselves and asking me questions in a tone as if we’ve actually met. And today, I got a message from this guy who goes on and on about how he wants to meet people, and he wants to be friends with me, and it’s okay if I don’t respond, because it really would only be his loss. Okay, for a split second, there’s potential for nice guy material … until I checked out his profile. He has some 20 friends, and ALL of them are Asian women in their 20s and 30s. I am now sufficiently creeped out. Oh yeah, he’s also 34. Or so he says.
November 23, 2005 at 12:48 am · Filed under the internet, life thoughts
Specifically on this blog:
1) My posts in here have gotten significantly more frequent.
2) Topics of posts have gotten increasingly more personal.
3) Readership has grown.
I have always said that what I post in here is for the amusement of anyone and everyone who happens to come across this piece of the web. For this reason, I never want people to feel guilty for reading this, regardless of whether or not I explicity know of your readership, or even whether or not I know you at all.
The readership having grown means that I am indeed amusing people, be it that they are laughing with me, or at me. I am glad about this. At the same time, however, I am a bit alarmed by the increasingly personal nature of this blog. I feel like it is an indication that I need an outlet of some kind for my thoughts, ideas, and laments; and I’m not confident that this is the right medium for it.
I do know that one of the best things about this blog is how it has come to influence my decision-making process. When something happens, or when thoughts start running through my head, I almost always consider the blog-worthiness of the event or of the thoughts. I don’t think about them in the sense that I actually expect to write or post about them. In fact, most of these things, I would never post, so perhaps more accurately, I think about HOW I would write about them if I were to blog them.
This process of pretend-writing an entry really helps me to think through things, in ways that I would have never been able to without this blog. It is amazing the conclusions and decisions I have been able to come to just by composing fake entries in my mind. It is almost as though the process of writing (or thinking of the rights words to write) helps me to put things around me in the perspective I need to understand not only the situations and thoughts themselves, but most importantly, to understand myself.
Thank you blog, and most of all, thank you everyone out there who care to entertain my thoughts.
November 1, 2005 at 12:32 am · Filed under the internet
I can’t help but go through thefacebook every once in a while and just look through people to see who all have profiles. Sometimes I muster up the courage to invite an acquaintance to be my friend; other times I’m content just looking at their profiles. I also have two accounts: one UVA, one MIT. I am my own friend, and I have friends who are friends with both accounts. On average, I think I invite others to be my friends more often than others invite me. Sometimes, I think I may be slightly obsessed with it, but only sometimes.
The new photo albums feature seems cool enough, except it doesn’t work and is buggy. I just tried to upload some pictures into my first album ever on the site. It continually only uploads 1 or 2 pictures before completely freaking out and stalling. *sigh* so much for having an album attached to my profile.
September 19, 2005 at 10:20 pm · Filed under the internet, friends
I would like to introduce everyone to the birth of two specific new blogs this past week: Not Genetically Viable and Team Uno.
Not Genetically Viable comes from a guy named Phil. Part of the blog’s first monster of a post just about sums up my triathlon summer. The post also includes some tidbits of phil’s eventful run-ins this summer (no pun intended). Phil is the runner, ie anchor, of the super triathlon team called Team Uno … which leads me to …
Team Uno is a triumvirate of friends who found a passion in triathlon training the summer that they got bored of grad school, ie the summer of 2005. The team members are not quite sure why they have a blog just yet, but primarily as the first post mentions, the blog may serve as a documentation device of sorts … for the future accomplishments of this team destined for gold.
Keep yourselves posted :)
September 14, 2005 at 12:40 pm · Filed under the internet, fitness
Yesterday, someone googled “triathlon boston 2005 results shan wu.” They live in Ashdown, on-campus grad housing at MIT. Specific identity? Unknown. I’m flattered; I really am.
If any of you ARE interested in the triathlon results, see Boston Triathlon 2005 results. Do Ctrl-F “Wu” to find me. We technically got disqualified, but it was only because our runner was so fast, that the race officials didn’t believe our times.
July 20, 2005 at 11:22 pm · Filed under the internet
I wondered why Google had a special logo today. Turns out, it’s the anniversary of the first manned moon landing! To commemorate, Google Maps now features Google Moon for us to explore. Be sure to zoom in all the way; you’ll get a real surprise :)
I should note that this link was shamelessly stolen from my friend Vince’s AIM profile, and without permission. Vince also seems to have kept his UVA account, as evidenced by the still existence of his webspace on the Virginia server, despite having graduated 1+ years ago. I wonder what Vince and I have in common that has kept UVA from deleting us from their system? Vince’s page makes me almost wish that I had also kept the site I made for that ENGR141 assignment back in Fall 2000 …
July 13, 2005 at 4:39 pm · Filed under the internet
Check it out - I’m the coach of the Carolina Panthers.
July 5, 2005 at 10:02 am · Filed under the internet
I actually really enjoy doing surveys. Here’s one from MIT’s media lab: surveys on blogs. The more diverse their sampling pool, the better. It will take less than 10 minutes to fill it out:
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