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2011-03-01

Gah, algorithms problem sets SUCK. On the upside, I'm getting lots of good practice writing things in LaTeX - real LaTeX for my homework solutions, and mostly real LaTeX for equations in Google Docs, where I take my notes (gotta put that CR-48 to good use!).

Reza brought his Vizsla (named Keplar!) into lab today. He loved playing fetch. I could probably get along well with a Vizsla, or at least this one - he was very quiet and unimposing, yet friendly and energetic. Usually I find dogs either too loud and whiny or too slobbery, but Keplar was pretty chill.

Reza and Kenghao and I went through a bunch of piles of old electronics from research projects past. Among various other things, we found several USB soundcards with 5.1 out, optical out, and optical in, and they work out-of-the(-carboard-storage)-box under Linux. I couldn't help but think of Gabe and his awesome mixing with his falling-apart Mac and that unusually-nice external sound card. Maybe if I have free time again, I'll play with mixxx some more - the ability to DJ properly wouldn't be a bad skill to have.

I am not needed for jury duty at 8am after all. I will check back between 11 and 12 to see if I am required for roll call at 1pm.

UPDATE: wasn't needed at 1pm either, which is an excellent thing, since I needed the sleep. Still super tired.

TODO: write letter of recommendation for A&M prof, reformat lecture notes for security class (before lecture), reimplement my Newton's method algorithm with additional intermediate steps to make it work more of the time, and spend some quality time looking at qemu's internals for my security class.

Politics linkdump time:

Supreme Court says (pdf) AT&T and other corporations don't have "personal privacy" rights the way individual citizens do. I agree - without complete knowledge, the free market will not avoid immoral behavior, even if that be the desire of the citizens. I could take that and turn it into a full-blown discussion, but I don't think I have the time nor the coherence to write that up right now.

Republicans still don't get net neutrality. The point is to prevent discrimination based on content - preserving that freedom of speech that you keep hammering on and on about. Adjust prices based on the quantity of bandwidth used, if you like - that's perfectly reasonable usage-based billing - just make sure you market it like that. I could do a proper rant for this too, but again: sleepy, and too much TODO.