Another Tom Delay stupid quote.

"It is more than just Terri Schiavo. This is a critical issue for people in this position, and it is also a critical issue to fight that fight for life."
-- Tom DeLay, 3/28/05 (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1040968,00.html)

VERSUS

"When his father's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. 'Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated,' said his medical report, citing 'agreement with the family's wishes.'"
-- LA Times, 3/27/05 (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-delay27mar27,1,1747897.story)

What's your Google Page Rank?

http://www.googlecommunity.com/scripts/google-pagerank.php

Check out your site page rank, according to google.

http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/home.html = 2
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/pic/comedy/ = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/pictures.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/private/blog.html = 2
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/projects.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/links.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/netcam.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/music.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/games.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/howto.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/guestbook.html = 1
http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/aboutme.html = 2

10 Hottest Certifications for 2005

CertCities.com, December 8

Ten certifications that are growing rapidly in popularity and prestige are named as the Hottest Certifications of 2005. Of 70 possible certifications analyzed, these ten certifications showed the strongest response in the CertCities.com annual reader survey and generated the most amount of buzz by the site's editors and columnists. Based on these two criteria, the top three certifications of 2005 are: Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security (MCSE: Security) and Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE). Also making the Top 10 were the following certifications: Project Management Professional, Security +, MySQL Core Certification, Novell Certified Linux Professional, Linux Professional Institute Certification Level 2, Cisco Certified Network Professional and Cisco Certified Security Professional.

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer: Security came in at #2, thanks to a buzz score of 7/10 and a reader interest score of 17/20. CertCities.com describes why this certification is in such strong demand: "Not only does it bring the top OS together with security, but it also allows you to earn it without going through the entire process of obtaining a separate certification -- simply choose your exams correctly and you can earn it by passing almost the same number of tests as it would take to earn the MCSE alone."

The Hottest Certification for 2005, though, is Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE). This certification earned a buzz score of 8/10 and a reader interest score of 18/20. While the credential is a repeated Hot Cert winner each year, it's not easy to obtain: "There's simply no IT exam more feared than the hands-on CCIE lab, which is rumored to have a pass rate as low as 15%."

http://certcities.com/editorial/features/story.asp?EditorialsID=86


I'm always looking to increase my resume's importance, and adding certificates would be nice. Out of the top 10 here are some of my choices that I wouldn't mind trying to get, to help improve myself.

• Project Management Professional (PMP) http://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_CertificationsOverview.asp?nav=0401
• MySQL Core Certification
  http://www.mysql.com/training/certification/

The only programming cert was the MySQL one. The PMP is only interesting to me for the long future ahead, if I end up being a CIO or running my own business. :)

By reading the message board, some other things came up like:

C# is hot,
Oracle9i Assoc. DBA

Something my friend who is in to web developement might want to look into:
Zend's PHP Cert Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash, Cold Fusion Certs CIW Web Developer, Website Manager Certs

Things You Wish You Could Say at Work...

• I can see your point, but I still think you're full of shit.


• I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't give a fuck.


• How about "never"? Is "never" good for you?


• It sounds like English, but I can't understand a word you're saying.


• I see you've set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.


• Ahhh, I see the fuck-up fairy has visited us again.


• You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.


• I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.


• The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.


• Someday, we'll look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject.


• I will always cherish the initial misconceptions I had about you.


• I don't know what your problem is, but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.


• Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.


• I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid.


• What am I? Flypaper for freaks!?


• I'm not being rude. You're just insignificant.


• Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view.


• It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.


• Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.


• No, my powers can only be used for good.


• I'm really easy to get along with once people learn to worship me.


• You sound reasonable.......time to up my medication.


• I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.


• I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.


• I don't work here. I'm a consultant.


• Who me! I just wander from room to room.


• My toys! My toys! I can't do this job without my toys!

Taken from: http://www.moox.ws/humor/workspeak.htm

"Computing the Right Pitch"

Computerworld (03/14/05) P. 36; Monash, Curt A.

Analyst Curt Monash describes predictive analytics as "a replacement phrase for 'data mining' [that] roughly equates to 'applications of machine learning and/or statistical analysis to business decisions.'" Business decisions, as defined in most current and short-term applications, are forms of small group marketing, and Monash lists questions that business analytics attempts to address, such as which customers are likely to churn; what types of offers will attract new customers or retain old customers; which prospective customers are most probabilistically profitable, nonprofitable, and churn-threatening; and what content should be shown to particular Web surfers when the next page is served. Monash says the information used to answer such questions can be culled from a diverse array of sources, including transactional data, customer contacts, and third-party data. The difficulty resides in the mathematical methods employed to address predictive questions: The process involves formalizing the problem as one of clustering or classification, and the answer as an algorithm that places each customer or prospect into one of the limited number of buckets. Data on previous prospects and customers serves as evidence used to build the algorithm. Producing such algorithms is beyond the capabilities of conventional statistical techniques, and calls for methods that include neural networks, support-vector machines, and linear algebra. Monash says the best algorithm for any given problem usually consists of a "complex hierarchy of 'elementary' algorithms."

Full Article: http://www.computerworld.com/databasetopics/businessintelligence/
story/0,10801,100322,00.html

"Artificial Intelligence Marches Forward"

Scientist (03/14/05) Vol. 19, No. 5, P. 18; Spinney, Laura

Robot technology development is being increasingly influenced by physiology and neuroscience, and the time may come when robots will complement research in those disciplines. Current artificial intelligence efforts focus on imbuing robots with anthropomorphism, which is more likely to make machines capable of learning in a human-like manner and acquiring intelligence that can be applied practically. Giulio Sandini of the University of Genoa's Laboratory for Integrated Advanced Robotics will supervise a sweeping international project to develop RobotCub, an anthropomorphic learning machine designed to shed more light on human cognition and human-machine interaction. MIT, Delft University of Technology, and Cornell University made headlines last month with the debut of bipedal robots that walk using passive dynamics, but Rolf Pfeifer of the University of Zurich's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory says more effective walking robots can be realized by powering and directing motion in a more human-like way: He notes that "The brain doesn't control the trajectory of the joints; rather, it initiates that trajectory and controls the material properties of the muscles." Luciano Fadiga of the University of Ferrara believes equipping RobotCub with a system modeled after the "mirror neurons" that allegedly enable people to understand and attribute meaning to the actions of others will give it a mechanism for learning. Meanwhile, the University of Osaka's Minoru Asada is applying developmental psychology to robots by designing self-developing structures linked to or within artificial neural networks. This allows the robot to adapt to increasingly complicated tasks within its environment. Such breakthroughs are yielding new insights into human development and neurological disorders such as autism and hereditary cerebellar ataxia.

Click Here to View Full Article
(Access to this article is available to paid subscribers only.)

Binary XML to come soon to a computer near you, this summer

"Faster XML Ahead?"
CNet (03/23/05); LaMonica, Martin

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Advisory Committee and director are set to decide on a committee recommendation for a binary XML standard, and if the proposal is approved, a vote on a binary XML standard could occur this summer; if formed soon after, a working group could take up to three years to complete the specification. Binary XML would bolster XML adoption in mobile communications and embedded computing, where the bulky text format eats up battery power in cell phones and slows critical embedded applications in Air Force jets, for example. In February, W3C meeting attendees argued against the creation of a new standard, saying existing binary XML implementations were sufficient or that other measures could solve the problem without introducing a questionable specification. Current XML performance is not so bad and complaints about XML processing speed are similar to early complaints about the World Wide Web being too slow, says Iona Technologies CTO Eric Newcomer. Among the options for making text-based XML faster is completely rewriting the parser programs used to process XML data, and Sun Microsystems is working on a Fast InfoSet project that would reportedly accelerate XML anywhere between two and 10 times. There are more than a dozen industry-specific binary XML efforts already in use or in development, and a W3C standard might not sufficiently meet the needs of those applications, says Microsoft SQL Server database program manager Michael Rys. Another concern is that a binary XML standard would not be widely adopted; Rys notes that XML 1.1 has not met expectations and that Microsoft has not yet supported the specification because of backwards-compatibility fears.

Full Article: http://news.com.com/Faster+XML+ahead/2100-1007_3-5630957.html

Poltics: Tom Delay going for the Asshole of the Year award.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is manipulating the tragic case of Terri Schiavo to justify his own ethical lapses. He told a conference organized by the Family Research Council, "[o]ne thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America.... This is exactly the issue that is going on in America, of attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/22/politics/22cong.html) .

A comic of the FUTURE...Future...future...uture....

Hack: Make a infrared web cam.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.johnson2/IR/

Right Brain Vs. Left Brain

Lets make it a clean fight, and may the best side win. Start fighting at the bell..
Ding Ding Ding

http://www.tetris1d.org/zigah/twinoo/twinoo.php

I suck at the color thing

Classic maths puzzle dealing with partitions cracked at last.

Curious patterns
Ramanujan noticed that whole numbers can be broken into sums of smaller numbers, called partitions. The number 4, for example, contains five partitions: 4, 3+1, 2+2, 1+1+2, and 1+1+1+1.

He further realised that curious patterns - called congruences - occurred for some numbers in that the number of partitions was divisible by 5, 7, and 11. For example, the number of partitions for any number ending in 4 or 9 is divisible by 5.

"But in some sense, no one understood why you could divide the partitions of 4 or 9 into five equal groups," says George Andrews, a mathematician at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, US. That changed in the 1940s, when physicist Freeman Dyson discovered a rule, called a "rank", explaining the congruences for 5 and 7. That set off a concerted search for a rule that covered 11 as well - a solution called the "crank" that Andrews helped deduce in the 1980s.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7180

Personal Stuff

Ok, so I went to get a better car last weekend. Ended up with a Isuzu Rodeo 1995, looks very nice, and runs good. I got a cell phone, T-mobile Pay as you go, because I don't really call people. Even though my dad has been calling me to much and wasting my minutes. I bought a shelf and bed stuff to make my room look nicer.

So I got a car, to be able to hang out with my friend, Venk, and then the next day he tells me that he is leaving to Dallas, Texas to go work for Verizon. I'm a little up set by that, since now I definitely have no life now. Ha :( I'm pathetic. It is interesting that my friends are all over the place. Once I get some more money, I might be able to go visit some of them. Places like Barbados, Texas, Australia, and New York. I also want to go to Tokyo some day also, love anime and japanesse girls are very hot. Well actually every type of girl is hot, so that doesn't really matter to me. :)

I need to slow down on the spending of the money, but all is still good.

I still need to get a TV and computers, yes more then one. I plan to get one for programming, one for recording TV -since I got to go to bed so early and miss the Daily Show, anime, etc... and one gaming computer, duh.

Venk gave me a partial computer, which I will probably be using as a programming computer. He also gave me other stuff that he couldn't take with him at the last minute.

Haven't heard much from SUNYIT and Keith lately,
Don Gittens got a job and is asking me questions on SQL, which gives me a little skill in solving his not so common problems.

The job is going well, I'm basically all caught up and been given more stuff to do. I'm basically what they call a Document Maker. I make the placements and setup the insurance papers so that it is automated. In that when the server looks up your information it will place it on the form in the correct areas, etc... I work with software from Docucorp. I'm hoping to move on up within Mercury Insurance, within an actual programming environment. I'm happy for now, this position should be able to get me a leg up on my finacial needs, especially living here with my dad. Sounds even more pathetic, but I save a lot. Its not like I'm actually going to get a girl friend someday. :)

That's it, I know nobody actually reads this.

Hack: Break into Masterlock Combination locks.

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~hillson/master_lock.html



Interesting to see how all that cryptographic knowledge I had still stored in my head is useful in the physical world. You of course don't need to know much, just the modular of numbers. Very simple, I just wish I had a lock to practice on. :(

This task of breaking into a combination lock of course takes a little while. It reminds me when I was little and would break video game's passwords with brute force to find a better save point or more weapons. It would only take a day, and I was huge into games then. Heck, if a game was new and very good, I would skip school just to play the game -- And my mom would let me. Hey school was boring then, nothing ever new was taught anyway.

When job searching do more then just post and email resumes!!!!

"Avoiding Common Tech Blunders in Your Job Search"
Computerworld, February 22

Katherine Spencer Lee of Robert Half Technology advises IT job seekers on how to avoid classic job search mistakes while using Internet resources like online job boards and e-mail. The biggest mistake that applicants make, says Lee, is submitting a resume that is not e-mail friendly. That's not all, though -- applicants often decrease their chances of success by e-mailing their resumes to too many companies, putting too much emphasis on job boards as a source of employment opportunities and forgetting to remain professional at all times when following up with employers via the Internet. IT job seekers are already using the latest gadgets and technologies to make their job searches easier. The only problem, says Katherine Spencer Lee, is that many individuals fail to use many basic technologies properly. In a worst case scenario, candidates could miss out on job opportunities by failing to adhere to cyberspace etiquette. The classic mistake is submitting a resume that is not e-mail friendly. With 56% of resumes now submitted via e-mail, it is important to make sure that these resumes make it to their intended targets. With this in mind, IT job seekers should keep in mind issues such as viruses and spam, as well as compatibility issues between different computer systems.There are a handful of other classic mistakes that IT job seekers make, such as sending out e-mails en masse to every company that's hiring or forgetting about the importance of face-to-face contact with IT hiring managers. While access to a computer makes the job search easier, too many candidates forget to touch base with recruiters and hiring managers via the telephone. Also, candidates often place too much faith in online job boards and not enough faith in employee referrals. The net result is that if a job search only focuses on those positions advertised via the Web, it could overlook other opportunities that are not readily available online.

http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/
recruiting/story/0,10801,99887,00.html?source=NLT_CAR&nid=99887

The Robert Half Technology is one of the places that I actually went to for job searching. They make you take the stupid IT tests, which always gives me a little trouble. Thats probably the reason they never bother to contact me again. hmmmm.

Hack: Make your own laser tag gun. For you wimps who hate paint balling.

http://www.lasertagparts.com/mtdesign.htm

Politics: Tom Delay

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) "has told friends that he had no involvement in the day-to-day fund-raising operations of Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC)," the political group accused of accepting $600,000 in illegal corporate campaign contributions. -- New York Times, 3/9/05 (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/politics/09delay.html?ei=5065&en=b46ad3eb8412ce7c&ex=1111035600&partner=MYWAY
&pagewanted=print&position=)

VERSUS

"I would then decide from response who Tom DeLay" and others should call to help the committee in seeking a "large contribution." -- Warren RoBold, indicted TRMPAC fundraiser, describing DeLay's role in a private document dated August 2002 (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/politics/09delay.html?ei=5065&en=b46ad3eb8412ce7c&ex=1111035600&partner=MYWAY
&pagewanted=print&position=)

Machine Learning: Automating Software Development

"Software Synthesis for Embedded Systems"
Embedded Systems Programming (02/05) Vol. 18, No. 2, P. 36; Zeidman, Bob

Zeidman Technologies founder Bob Zeidman suggests that now is the time to take an evolutionary step in embedded systems software design by automatically generating or synthesizing software. He recommends that software engineers take a cue from hardware engineers, who expedited chip design by developing hardware-description languages in which high-level description that conceals much of the hardware's complexity from the designer is written, after which low-level description that can be directly mapped to the hardware is synthesized. To make a similar breakthrough in software design, Zeidman calls for the creation of primitives, which are higher-level constructs that describe what kind of code an automatic code generation tool must produce. Applications of software synthesis include the creation of complex functions in which the programmer does not need to understand the underlying code; the construction of portable programs that can be tuned for different processors, hardware platforms, and operating systems; and the automation of operating system creation. This last application supports the synthesis of operating systems free of superfluous functions and thus able to run on smaller, cheaper, and more power-efficient processors. However, Zeidman notes that this application depends on the compiler optimizing the low-level machine code. Field-programmable gate arrays could also benefit from software synthesis, which can support the creation of small, reliable, and relatively simple operating systems for every processor on the chip. Zeidman concludes that analysis and optimization of embedded systems, as well as experimentation with such systems, could be dramatically expanded via software synthesis.

http://www.embedded.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=57702593


Ok, I wrote a paper about this for my Formal Anaylsis class. The only change here is that instead of writing the program with a specific language like C, C++, etc.. It stays in the machine level programming environment, which makes more sense. One of the problems was the developement of the code could be either too complicated or too simplisitc. This I believe could liminate this problem, but as I also noted there were other problems at the time I wrote my paper. The storage of information that is needed is huge. Not a huge problem, as long as you use a super computer with super storage, I guess. I'm glad this concept isn't dead yet, I think the concept of writing down your post requirements and having a program write a perfect code with no bugs is reachable and computatable today. My paper: http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/Project/progsynth.doc

Machine Learning: Microsoft' Virus-Blocker

"Microsoft Researchers Use Machine Learning Techniques to Help Advance HIV Vaccine Research"

Microsoft PressPass (02/23/05)
Microsoft Research is applying computer science algorithms to HIV vaccine development at the University of Perth in Australia and the University of Washington. The two universities are pursuing related approaches to developing an HIV vaccine based on specific identifying proteins called epitopes; the method addresses two of the most vexing problems about HIV vaccination--the tremendous diversity of the virus and the variation of immune system components in human populations. Scientists at the University of Perth have collected the largest set of HIV samples matched with different immune types and are using Microsoft spam-fighting algorithms to help find patterns correlating HIV epitope evolution and people's specific immune types. Eventually, the research is expected to yield vaccines that are tailored to specific populations based on circulating HIV strains and immune types. University of Perth professor Simon Mallal says the research could apply to other types of mutating viruses, such as hepatitis C. The University of Washington research is searching for ancestral HIV epitopes that will allow immune systems to identify and kill infected cells. Microsoft software that is used to condense digital video and audio files is being applied to libraries of supplemental epitopes included in the University of Washington vaccine, reducing the size of the vaccine models by half. Shortened models mean easier administration of treatment and lower manufacturing costs for the vaccine, says University of Washington microbiology professor James Mullins. Microsoft researcher David Heckerman says the computer science algorithms have surprisingly proven more accurate when dealing with biological systems than with the computer science problems they were originally created for.

Full Article: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/feb05/02-23HIVResearch.asp

So basically, Microsoft is using their anti-spam techniques with Machine Learning and applying it to HIV fighting. It would be interesting, that some day we would be sending in microbots into people and it would be acting as a viral blocker. Interesting........ I just wonder how we would update our software. :)

Machine Learning: Speaking and Translations

"Software Learns to Translate by Reading Up"
New Scientist (02/22/05); Knight, Will

Kevin Knight of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute said his new translation software is in line with the new direction of machine learning. Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington, D.C., Knight said the translation parameters that his statistical machine translation software develops allow computers to generate ideas about the structure of different languages. "Before long a machine will discover something about linguistics that only a machine could, by crunching through billions of words," Knight said. Knight and Daniel Marcu, also with the institute, developed the automated translation tool and formed Language Weaver in Los Angeles to sell the software. The new software is designed to translate dictionaries, patterns, and rules, and build probability rules for words, phrases, and syntactic structures. Current translation software tends to use hand-coded rules when transposing words and phrases. The software is said to be faster, and able to handle less familiar vocabulary and languages better.

Full Article: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7054

This is similar to a paper that I researched for a class, but instead of learning words -- it was for web searching. By looking at a specific website that has one topic, it would search for words and store the word's probability compared to that site. The words were then separated into a priority, based on how often the word is used throughout the site. So at a computer science site, the words: artificial intelligence might come up several times, and would be given a higher score. If you look at the scores of the key words, after limiting the common words like "The", "A", etc.. You would have a good idea what were the common words and lingo for that type of subject.

My paper and power point presentation: http://www.cs.sunyit.edu/~andrusw/Project/Search_Engines/

The types of skills necessary for a successful IT career

"For Networking Pros, Career Success Lies Beyond Skills"
SearchNetworking.com, February 14

Matthew Moran, the author of the new book The IT Career Builder's Toolkit, discusses the types of skills necessary for a successful IT career. Young professionals should be on the lookout for "career-building obstacles" and understand how opportunities for mentoring and different learning environments can impact future professional growth. In particular, networking professionals need to be able to adapt more to their ever-changing environments and understand how underlying business principles impact technology implementations.

According to Moran, it is becoming harder for networking professionals to develop their careers -- but only because people have unrealistic expectations about what it means to build an IT career. As Moran explains, "It is not, and never has been, about your pure technical talent." Instead, networking professionals should attempt to learn new skills that can then be integrated with existing technical skills, especially since companies are now viewing technology as a tool to help achieve strategically defined business objectives. In addition, Moran suggests that IT professionals make better use of networking opportunities with peers and management outside their direct departments.

Moran also discusses the impact that network management automation is having on careers, comments on the diminishing importance of the network administrator position, and shares his thoughts on the "vital IT skills" that should be part of any IT professional's skill set. Reminding job seekers to maintain realistic expectations about future IT careers, Moran notes that "it's always been a good time to get into IT."

Full Article: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/qna/0,289202,sid7_gci1057331,00.html

He mentions that XML and Web services are some key vitial skills with of course "The ability to see the similarities between Linux, Windows and mainframes". I should be trying to implement XML and Web servicing programs to build up my skills.

Hack: Cellphones

http://www.i-hacked.com/content/view/124/47

This article talks about hacking into Cingular, Sprint PCS, or T-Mobile Voicemail systems and listening to other people's messages.

So, let this be a lesson and delete messages.

Free World of Warcraft server.

This means, if you pay that $15/mo. to play WOW you can try this free server and stop paying. http://rv2.org/blog/2005/03/03/world-of-warcraft-online-play