Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

Got no plans today, just going to hand out candy. I have updated my website a little. I got rid of history and replaced it with resume representing my life since highschool. Click Here to visit the updated page.

I updated the links on: links.html, aboutme.html, and howto.html

I have put in applications at best buy, albertsons, hollywood video, etc... I just need a job so I can at least pay off my credit card and other materialistic things. I'll probably feel alot richer compared to being an Resident Advisor. Since we didn't get paid anything at all. But with my luck I'll probably won't even get a job at these locations. I have never had luck at getting an interview or even a reply my phone from these types of places. I'll wait one more week before I look for manuel labor from places like Manpower.

Tech job graduates on decline because of Dilbert?

"Tech Major Loses Its Luster"News Observer (NC)
(10/28/04); Cox, Jonathan B.

Experts warn that U.S. companies may have
little choice but to offshore technology jobs as the number of domestic
university computer science graduates continues to decline. The Computing
Research Association estimates that the number of new U.S. undergraduate
computer science majors has dropped 28 percent over the last four years, and
those in the field attribute this trend to waning enthusiasm for the subject in
the wake of the dot-com bust, which dashed many students' hopes of pursuing a
tech career as a path to quick riches. Kevin Jeffay of the University of North
Carolina's computer science department says a computer science major entails a
lot of hard work and dedication that students may wish to avoid, especially if
they perceive the end result of their labors to be a less-than-stellar career:
"If you're going to work your butt off and have this Dilbert-like life, you
don't want it," he explains. Jeffay also notes that reports of offshore
outsourcing's growth are causing concerned parents to discourage their children
from taking up computer science. Some experts believe undergraduate computer
science students who pursue degrees despite the industry recession will have
better chances of employment, since companies will be drawn to the higher level
of quality such dedication signifies. Colleges have also started to supplement
business and other majors with computer instruction, which may make a computer
science degree redundant. Furthermore, the ranks of qualified workers are
swelling by experienced employees' decisions to further their education and
acquire graduate degrees following the layoffs of the last several years.

Click Here for full article.

Poltics: Daily Outrage and Versus

"Well, the reason they keep mentioning Halliburton is because they're trying to throw up a smokescreen... It's an effort that they've made repeatedly to try to confuse the voters and to raise questions, but there's no substance to the charges."
-- Vice President Cheney, 10/5/04 (http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004b.html)

VERSUS

"The FBI is investigating whether U.S. officials improperly awarded Vice President Dick Cheney's former company [Halliburton] a lucrative contract work without competition, a probe that was confirmed only days after a top Army contract officer raised the issue of favoritism."
-- AP, 10/29/04 (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Halliburton-Contracts.html?oref=login)


DAILY OUTRAGE
The IRS is threatening to revoke the NAACP's tax-exempt status (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7433-2004Oct28.html) because the civil rights group's chairman, Julian Bond, "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush" during a speech this summer.

Get Mono!! Not the disease, stupid.

Mono is a comprehensive open source development platform based on the .NET framework that allows developers to build Linux and cross-platform applications with unprecedented productivity. Mono's .NET implementation is based on the ECMA standards for C# and the Common Language Infrastructure.

Mono includes a compiler for the C# language, an ECMA-compatible runtime engine (the Common Language Runtime, or CLR),and class libraries. The libraries include Microsoft .NET compatibility libraries (including ADO.NET and ASP.NET), Mono's own and third party class libraries.Gtk#, a set of .NET bindings for the gtk+ toolkit and assorted GNOME libraries can be found in the later. This library allows you to build fully native Gnome application using Mono and includes support for user interfaces built with the Glade interface builder. Furthermore, Mono's runtime can be embedded into applications for simplified packaging and shipping. In addition, the Mono project offers an IDE, debugger, and documentation browser.

Click Here for the Website.

Delegates in C#, weird.

Here is a link to the article I'm reading about delegates in C#, click here.

Ok so you can make any delegate you want like:
public delegate Boolean DelegateName (parm1, parm2)

The point of the delegate is to make a representive middle man, why? I don't know. So I have a function instead of being called directly, I have it go through a delegate.

As an example given:

public delegate Boolean MyDelegate(Object sendingobj, Int32 x);

public class TestDelegateClass
{
   Boolean MyFunction(Object sendingobj, Int32 x)
   {
      //Perform some processing
      return (true);
   }

   public static void main(String [] args)
   {
      //Instantiate the delegate passing the method to invoke in its constructor
      MyDelegate mdg = new MyDelegate(MyFunction);

      // Construct an instance of this class
      TestDelegateClass tdc = new TestDelegateClass();

      // The following line will call MyFunction
      Boolean f = mdg(this, 1);

   }
}


The tdc is the object and 1 is the int32 value being sent to the delegate function in this case is the myfunction.

That was a single cast delegate, how about a multi-cast delegate?

Multi-cast delegate is basically a linklist of functions to be called instead of one.

The nameing is similar but now instead of boolean it is void, as seen below:
public delegate void DelegateName (parm1, parm2)

so to form two delegates two together a function is called, conviently like this:
public static Delegate Combine(Delegate a, Delegate b);

and to remove a delegate from the linklist, viola:
public static Delegate Remove(Delegate source, Delegate value);

here is the example given:

using System;

class MCD1
{
 public void dispMCD1(string s)
 {
  Console.WriteLine("MCD1");
 }
}

class MCD2
{
 public void dispMCD2(string s)
 {
  Console.WriteLine("MCD2");
 }
}

public delegate void OnMsgArrived(string s);

class TestMultiCastUsingDelegates
{
 public static void Main(string [] args)
 {
  MCD1 mcd1=new MCD1();
  MCD2 mcd2=new MCD2();
  // Create a delegate to point to dispMCD1 of mcd1 object
  OnMsgArrived oma=new OnMsgArrived(mcd1.dispMCD1);

  // Create a delegate to point to dispMCD2 of mcd2 object
  OnMsgArrived omb=new OnMsgArrived(mcd2.dispMCD2);

  OnMsgArrived omc;
  // Combine the two created delegates. Now omc would point to the head of a linked list
  // of delegates
  omc=(OnMsgArrived)Delegate.Combine(oma,omb);

  Delegate [] omd;
  // Obtain the array of delegate references by invoking GetInvocationList()
  omd=omc.GetInvocationList();

  OnMsgArrived ome;
  // Now navigate through the array and call each delegate which in turn would call each of the
  // methods
  for(int i=0;i<omd.Length;i++)
  {
   // Now call each of the delegates
   ome=(OnMsgArrived)omd[i];
   ome("string");
  }
 }
}

Just fixing the house up a little.

This whole weekend Me and My dad have been fixing the porch up by adding new sidings and screens. It will make the poarch alot darker since light will not get in as much. Thats all folks....

Interesting: "For Missing Web Pages, a Department of Lost and Found"

New York Times (10/21/04) P. E5; Eisenberg, Anne
Under the direction of IBM lab researcher Andrew Flegg, a team of four student interns has developed a working prototype for software that can check links between Web pages and search for the correct pages if the connections are broken or incorrect. The Peridot program uses a page's source code, context, and other data to build "fingerprints" that encapsulate the page's links and unique features, which are stored for later comparison; the software regularly checks the fingerprints to see if there are any discrepancies in a Web site's links, and then ascertains how important such discrepancies are. Flegg says he conceived of the software as a tool to not only address broken links, but also links whose content had become inaccurate or inapplicable. Oxford University student and IBM intern Ben Delo notes that Peridot required algorithms that could measure the degree of change in a link, determine how significant such a change was, and find the optimum techniques for retrieving the missing links to address the challenge of sifting through a huge number of pages in search of replacement connections. Another challenge cited by Delo is dealing with links that have the right URL but the wrong content. "You need a system to help manage this risk" so that a company's reputation will not be tarnished when visitors at its Web site are misdirected, he says. The software is designed so that users can select the pages to be updated automatically as well as the substitutions that require their notification. Although Peridot is not commercially available, it may eventually be employed to monitor the accuracy of internal corporate Web sites, easing the burden of Web administrators; the software could also be offered as a service to clients by ISPs, and could benefit Web site users as well.
Click Here to View Full Article
(Articles published within 7 days can be accessed free of charge on this site. After 7 days, a pay-per-article option is available. First-time visitors will need to register.)

"India Noses Ahead as R&D Hot Spot"

"India Noses Ahead as R&D Hot Spot"
United Press International (10/19/04); Basu, Indrajit
Multinational companies are building research and development laboratories in India at a frenetic pace, with the current count heading toward 150 research centers. Companies such as IBM, Texas Instruments, DaimlerChrysler, and Hyundai have spent millions of dollars to take advantage of India's vast talent pool. This investment puts India ahead of other international research hot-spots, such as Japan, Israel, Western Europe, or China. Japan's National Science Foundation conducted a survey that found 33 companies out of the BusinessWeek 1,000 had R&D operations in China. Many of the laboratories in India are focused on developmental work, not fundamental research of the type that leads to Nobel Prizes; but that does not mean Indian research is insignificant. Intel, for instance, filed 63 patents from its Bangalore facilities last year--outstripping its other labs in Israel and Malaysia. The international focus on India-based research has also spurred research investment from domestic companies as well, such as Tata Motors, which currently has a groundbreaking $2,400 car on the drawing board. Before economic liberalization in 1992, Indian firms had little incentive to innovate because markets were closed, but now the competition has awakened a need to compete and even develop new products. Geography also plays a role in India's popularity. Oracle's Murali Subramanian says the 12-hour time difference between the U.S. and India enables around-the-clock software development when synchronized with the company's developers in California. Although analysts say India's advantages may be temporary, move companies continue to open R&D offices there; Google is latest company to say it will establish an R&D base in India.
Click Here to View Full Article

"Study Finds Dramatic Loss of Tech Jobs"

"Study Finds Dramatic Loss of Tech Jobs"
CNet (10/18/04); Frauenheim, Ed

Announced technology job cuts have increased significantly in the last three months, rising 60 percent from the second quarter to hit 54,701, a 14 percent increase from the third quarter of 2003, according to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Approximately 56 percent of the cuts--a total of 30,624 jobs--stemmed from computer companies. Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger attributes the cuts to a lack of pricing power among tech companies. "Even as demand increases, most manufacturers and service providers are getting less money for each unit sold," he points out, leaving them with little choice but to trim costs to uphold robust profit margins. High-tech firms have thus far announced 118,427 job cuts this year, which represents 16 percent of the 724,320 job cuts across all sectors through Sept. 30, a 2.5 percent increase over second quarter figures. There have been a lot of conflicting reports concerning the IT job market: Meta Group expects as much as a 15 percent boost in IT personnel salaries over the next three years, while the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that payroll employment in computer systems design and related services increased 32,700 between September 2003 and September 2004 to total 1.14 million; on the other hand, IT professionals' confidence in the job market declined in September, and a recent ITAA report found that hiring managers have scaled back their ambitions for filling IT posts this year compared to last year. Challenger notes that demand is healthy for network and IT security specialists and tech support staff, but he expects a considerable amount of time to pass before the creation of tech jobs returns to late 1990s rates.

Click Here to View Full Article

"Global Talent. Local Markets. India Calls. Are You Ready?"

"Global Talent. Local Markets. India Calls. Are You Ready?"
Siliconindia (09/04) P. 28; Shankar, Pradeep; Revanna, Harish
A recent SiliconIndia poll of Indian American executives in U.S. corporations found that 60 percent are actively seeking opportunities to emigrate back to their native country, an attitude becoming more prevalent as India's economy and outsourcing market expands and U.S. businesses become more willing to offshore jobs. Also fueling this reverse brain drain are the lack of a global outlook in the United States and an excessively management-centric U.S. market. Most returning Indians are higher management workers with at least 15 to 20 years of professional experience under their belt. They are not returning because they are homesick, but because they wish to take advantage of improvements in the quality of life, better job perks and challenges, greater foreign investment, and the growing presence of cutting edge technology development projects in India. Another plus cited by interviewed returnees is the separation of technology and management in Indian companies, through which they have secured higher positions than they had in American companies. BEA Systems' Bhavin Sheth notes that "The opening up of Indian markets has resulted in availability of the same goods and services one is used to in the U.S. at an affordable price," and adds that these goods and services cost more as a percentage of one's salary in India than in the United States. Most of the interviewed returnees admit to pining for the citizenship-acquired countries they left, but their homesickness is assuaged somewhat by modern communications such as the Internet and IP phones. Returnees are also appreciative of Indian culture for offering their relocated families a more social, less materialistic environment in which to grow up.

Interesting: How to get out of a speeding ticket.

Cop: "Drivers License and Registration please"
Ernie: --Hands drivers license, registration...and...dum dee dum... military ID card.--
Cop: "Where ya heading tonight in such a hurry?"
Ernie: "Home, Sir."
Cop: "Where's home?"
Ernie: "Rochester NY."
Officer: "Where you coming from?"
Ernie: "Hanscom Air Force base in Massachusetts."
Officer: "Are you in the military?"
Ernie: "Yes Sir."
Officer: "Drive carefully"

Click Here for the website.

Funny: John Stewert Vs. Crossfire

Click Here for video from Ifilms

Funny: How to pick your college major

Here are some of the majors I picked (either I, or my friends are these majors):
Mathematics majors find employment as teachers, statisticians, actuaries, and stadium gatekeepers.
Sociology majors study complicated problems without any feasible solutions. It’s a great major if you one day expect to be named head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Social work is the major to pick if college football is more your speed.
Computer science used to be a great way to get on board the gravy train. Now it’s a great way to wind up eating Gravy Train.
Business administration would seem to be a good major for those who want high-paying jobs after graduation. After all, the want ads are full of jobs for which a degree in business is required. So remember, if you long for the sort of job that’s so mind-shatteringly boring employers are forced to advertise its availability, major in business.
Engineering students spend four years in agony, taking brutal math and science classes. Many would-be engineers wash out and wind up in easier fields, like Middle East peace negotiations. But the dirty little secret is that engineering students smile so much at graduation because they know they’ve solved their last differential equations and can spend the rest of their careers just looking things up in handbooks.




For the other majors check out the website by clicking here.

New propulsion concept could make 90-day Mars round trip possible

Mag-beam is one of 12 proposals that this month began receiving support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Institute for Advanced Concepts. Each gets $75,000 for a six-month study to validate the concept and identify challenges in developing it. Projects that make it through that phase are eligible for as much as $400,000 more over two years. Under the mag-beam concept, a space-based station would generate a stream of magnetized ions that would interact with a magnetic sail on a spacecraft and propel it through the solar system at high speeds that increase with the size of the plasma beam. Winglee estimates that a control nozzle 32 meters wide would generate a plasma beam capable of propelling a spacecraft at 11.7 kilometers per second. That translates to more than 26,000 miles an hour or more than 625,000 miles a day.

Click here for full article

"Endangered Species: US Programmers"

Christian Science Monitor (10/14/04) P. 17; Francis, David R.

Some experts are convinced that U.S. software programmers will die out in the next few years as more American companies offshore programming to low-wage countries and give domestic programming positions to foreign immigrants. The computer-related U.S. job market grew by 27,000 new positions between 2001 and 2003, but Programmers Guild expert John Miano reckons that nearly 180,000 new foreign H-1B workers entered the United States in that period. "This suggests any gain of jobs have been taken by H-1B workers," he remarks. The H-1B visa cap, which currently stands at 65,000, was already reached by Oct. 1 of last year, and U.S. businesses are now lobbying Capitol Hill for additional visas. But the Programmers Guild and similar organizations argue that the existing H-1B quota is already unfairly excessive, given that over 100,000 U.S. programmers are unemployed and an even greater number are underemployed. Criticism has also been leveled at loopholes in the H-1B program that allow employers to hire H-1Bs without first hiring domestic workers, as well as pay H-1B holders less than the prevailing wage, even though it is required. American programmers are mobilizing to fight H-1B and L-1 visas in Congress, but Miano warns that business groups have the advantage in terms of organization, funding, and political clout. The Sphere Institute estimates that almost 25 percent of California's technology workforce has moved to non-tech careers since the dotcom bubble burst three years ago, while another 28 percent have become unemployed, opted for self-employment, or left the state.

Click Here to View Full Article

Poltical Stuff...

DAILY GRILL
"Claims like the one that Bush will be the first president to end a term with fewer jobs than when he started are nothing more than 'myths,' [Treasury Secretary John] Snow claimed." - Ohio Courier, 10/4/04 (http://www.thecourier.com/issues/2004/Oct/101204.htm)

VERSUS

The economy has shed 1.6 million private sector jobs and 821,000 jobs overall since the president took office in 2000.- Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/)



DAILY OUTRAGE

Pollution in the Potomac River is creating a genetically mutated strain of bass (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33850-2004Oct14.html) in which the males are producing eggs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has refused to set standards for hormones and drugs dumped in the water, saying "more research is needed to determine which contaminants are harmful and what levels are unsafe." In the past, the EPA has found "hormone disruption... cannot be considered a 'legitimate regulatory endpoint at this time' (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3733-2004Aug15.html) ."

Not much news today..

so here are some programs I wrote yesterday on reading and writing xml files through C#. Click Here

DAILY GRILL

"We do not believe such political statements should be disguised as news content."
- Sinclair Broadcast Group, 4/30/04 (http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1083316712185160.xml)

VERSUS

Sinclair "plans to air an anti-John F. Kerry film, 'Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,' across a large swath of the country right before the election... Sinclair plans to run 'Stolen Honor' as news programming"
- LA Times, 10/12/04 (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/whitehouse/la-na-sinclair12oct12,1,3816316.story?coll=la-news-politics-white_house)

Bush Tax relief from the poor to the rich?

"Tax relief left more money in the hands of American workers so they could save, spend, invest, and help drive this economy forward."



- President Bush, 10/2/04 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041002-7.html)



VERSUS



"The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year."



- Detroit News, 9/26/04 (http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0409/26/a01-284666.htm)

The history of Mario....

Click Here

Scientific News

Carbon Nanotubes Harder Than Diamond - CDAC has announced the formation of a new form of hexagonal packed carbon similiar to diamond. Carbon nanotubes are compressed at 75 GPa and quenched. Click here for PDF paper.

Atomic register offers route to quantum computing - The fundamental memory component of a quantum computer has been built for the first time using a string of atoms. This could offer a more reliable way to build a working quantum computer than other techniques, suggest researchers. Quantum computers exploit the quantum properties of matter to perform calculations. While conventional computers use binary digits - or bits of information - in the form of electrical charge, quantum computers use quantum bits, called qubits. Click Here for article.

Cool, I can go to Japan sometime in the future.

I always wanted to visit Tokyo, Japan. The technology capital of the world, hot looking japanese girls, anime, food, etc... Whats not to love. I was afraid I would either have to get a translator or learn japanese, but now there is hope for us who suck at learning new languages totally different from the latin base language.
A new technology that translates Japanese -> English and English -> Japanese
Click here for article link.

Heres the daily outrage...

Lynne Cheney has pressured the Education Department to destroy more than 300,000 copies of booklets (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-history8oct08,1,993774.story?coll=la-home-headlines) designed for parents to help their children learn history because they refer to a voluntary history curriculum Ms. Cheney thinks is "not positive enough about American achievements" and pays too little attention to such national heroes as...Robert E. Lee.

More Google hacks thanks to kevin

Appz
DVD Rips
Xvid
Gamez

and of course:

MP3

Some of my programs:

So in one month I basically wrote these programs, they are very simple -- but I'm learning. (Right-Click to download them and run .exe)

A Tune (Jingle Bells) in written C#
A WAV Player writen in C#
A Clock written in C#
A program that gives the computer name, ip address written in .NET C++ and MFC
A very simple 4 function calculator written in .Net C++ and MFC

Hello my name is William and...

I'm a Game Addict?

Addicted Gamers, Losing Their Way

"McDaniel, a licensed mental health counselor, treats Jaysen along with about eight others each week for problems related to gaming addiction at her private practice in Kirkland, Wash."

Dick and Comedy

Ok this just proves my own personal theory about Dick Cheney: Dick Cheney is an senile old man on the verge of a mental break down.

Vice President Cheney claimed yesterday he had not met Sen. Edwards until he "walked on the stage," but there is photo (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/6/21911/3618) and documentary (http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:S4X7WDzDUcoJ:static.highbeam.com/w/washingtontranscriptservice/february012001/vicepresidentdickcheneyvicepresidentdickcheneydeli/+%22+friends+from+across+America,+and+distinguished+visitors+to+our+country+from+all+over+) evidence proving the two have met on at least two occasions.

Some new comedy pics add to my website:

New Direction & Talked to DonDon

So I talked to Don Gittens today. We talked about the huricanes, our thesis, jobs (or my lack of one), and visiting barbados during July - August, and how I look funny in a suit. He says he has a job but will end on November, and will have to start looking for a new one soon. I'm probably going to visit barbados during July,August for the Carnival that they have there. Lots of fun.

I updated my resume and will post the updated versions on my website very soon, so check out the new version.

In lew of having no job yet I have applied to work at a temp agency. I figure I can do data entry and other stuff for about $8-$11 an hour. The agency is solely for southern california. I'm applying to a division of Abbottstaffing called Abigail Abbott.

I always wonder...hmmmm

Aged ol' Question:
Will you get wetter walking or running in the rain from location A to B?
Run or Walk?

Some political cartoons

Got nothing, here are soom boondock comics instead

Some Online learning places

Theses are some of the places I go to -- to learn computer science programming stuff:


FREE:
http://www.w3schools.com/
MIT Open CourseWare
Code Project - .Net programing tutorials


Not Free
SUN Learning Center As mention earlier in my blog, sign up with ACM and get all of SUN's courses free. If you're a student it will cost only $45 and it is worth every cent. ACM gives access to tons of thesis, sources, documents, etc...

Top Secret

Ok, I got no news to share today, so I share how to find mp3s on the internet via google. This of course was shown on g4techtv a few weeks ago, but for you loyal readers (probably only venk) heres is how. Copy and paste this into the search:

"parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

and then if you are looking for a specific type of band or song like hoobastank try:

hoobastank "parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

Now keep this a secret, or I will have to hunt you down and kill you. :)