Back to the Grind...

The days of simply going to work, and coming home, with the occasional day off, are officially over now as I go back to the daily grind of life as a college student. I am keeping my job at about 28 hours per week, while still attending full time (12 credits) at UW. This will continue for approximately the next two years until I graduate and get a real job.

I mean, fixing broken Macs is fun and all, but for me it doesn't seem like a viable long-term career if I want to afford a mortgage, and start a family.

I'm applying for the Informatics department at the University of Washington this year, with possible alternate majors of Applied Computing or Computing and Software Systems at UW Bothell if somehow things don't work out.

I'm a little annoyed at the fact that UW doesn't supply individualized class schedules compatible with iCal, Google, Calendars, or even Outlook. I had to enter everything manually. Lame.

Furthermore, why would anyone want to subscribe to the calendars I just posted?

The Problem with Microblogging...

The problem with microblogging is that it is entirely unnatural to refer to yourself in the third person. Twitter, Facebook, etc basically ask the same question (What are you doing right now? What's on your mind? etc.)

The problem arises from the fact that the microblogging services jam your username at the front of the post with no punctuation, leading users to use their username as the first word of the sentence. Myspace used to automatically enter "is" right after the username, but has stopped doing that recently. Facebook used to lead with your first name, while Twitter never even presumed to remind you that the username prefaces all tweets.

I've noticed lots of Twitter users just typing regular sentences or even (*gasp*) starting their sentences with subjective first-person singular pronouns. Mechnoch I do not think that this looks right, personally.

And it wreaks havoc if you tie Twitter and Facebook together. Subjective first-person singular pronouns are far less common on Facebook, and unheard of on Myspace due to the fact that these services (used to) remind the user during posting that their username will lead the post. So what is someone to do if they want their Facebook status to be updated with every tweet? Spend minutes of my valuable time to re-arrange my thoughts into the third person? Tweet in regular sentences, ignoring the fact that my friends on Facebook and Myspace are going to think I'm retarded for not speaking in the third person?

Mechnoch hereby resolves to tweet and update status exclusively in the third-person. In fact, Mechnoch may just start referring to himself in the third person all the time, even if people start saying that Mechnoch is starting to sound like Elmo.

Vincezilla vs Warner Music Group

Remember that cute little video of my iguana attacking a town full of vegetables? Well the folks over at Warner Music Group decided that since my video used less than a minute of Blue Öyster Cult's track "Godzilla", they had to force YouTube to take it down by crying copyright infringement.

Now, when you try to view http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=224Zcn1fiXA all you get is: This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by WMG. Update: The video now plays, but the audio track has been replaced with horrifically lame music, and the video is spammed with ads.

The folks over at MIT have logged this event at: http://youtomb.mit.edu/youtube/224Zcn1fiXA

Now, I'm all-for musician's rights, but taking down a silly video of someone's iguana because it used a snippet of copyrighted music just seems absurd to me. What do they honestly think they're accomplishing here? Is taking down my iguana video going to suddenly get someone to purchase a Blue Öyster Cult album from their local record store? Was I somehow degrading the value of their copyrighted work in some other way? I thought the video was funny and cute. Honestly, I had never even heard of Blue Öyster Cult's song "Godzilla" before we made that video project.

I completely understand prohibiting the reproduction of someone else's copyrighted work for commercial purposes. I didn't make any money off that video. No one paid me to make that video. I did not reproduce the entire song, and silly sound effects often drowned out the portion that I did use. What's the big freaking deal?

I think that next, Vincezilla is going to have to wreak havoc upon Warner Music Group's headquarters. Be afraid WMG. Be very afraid.

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“The failure to perform a public duty...Misprision is a versatile word that can denote a number of offenses. It can refer to the improper performance of an official duty...The most familiar and popular use of the term misprision describes the failure to report a crime....The first Congress passed a misprision of felony statute in 1789. The statute holds, "Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony … conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States" is guilty of misprision of felony and can be punished with up to three years in prison.

Under the federal statute, the prosecution must prove the following elements to obtain a misprision of felony conviction:

(1)another person actually committed a felony;
(2)the defendant knew that the felony was committed;
(3)the defendant did not notify any law enforcement or judicial officer; and
(4)the defendant took affirmative steps to conceal the felony.”

McCain Privately Met With Dictator Pinochet

Veteran reporter John Dinges reports on HuffPost's OffThe Bus that U.S. embassy cables confirm that in '85 McCain had warm and friendly private meet with Chilean dictator Pinochet. No preconditions. No speaking up for democracy. Instead, they agreed that communism was bad.As an American with Chilean heritage, I must say that I am highly offended by this. My grandfather spent years in a concentration camp because of Augusto Pinochet. Thank God he made it out alive.Fuck you, John McCain.

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