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Very Effective Advertising, no? February 11, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Website , add a comment

Buy More ServersHere’s the CEO (aka “Headsurfer”) of my main ISP. The cows are of the “Eat Mor Chickin” ad fame. Personally, I don’t think too many people watching a football game at the EV1.Net Houston (Football) Bowl are interested in buying expensive dedicated servers, but then what do I know?

On an unrelated note, the company used to be called Rackshack. They had ads with busty women and the line “Nobody beats our racks.”

Time-Lapse Videos of UCI February 10, 2004

Posted by Owen in : School , add a comment

Check out the videos I made for the UCI Anthology Yearbook CD
1. UCI Walkthrough - a trip around UCI’s ring road. NOTE: The file is 9 megs. Be sure you have the entire thing–the server often times out before you finish downloading it. It should end where it starts.
2. 7 Seconds at UCI - 10 minutes in front of the student center compressed into 7 seconds.

I made these videos by taking my digital camera and taking photos periodically and then stitching the frames together in Windows Movie Maker. I think the UCI Walkthrough came out quite well. My original plan was to take a sample and see how they looked when I stitched together to get the exposure, height, etc right. Once I started taking the photos I realized how painful it really was and decided just to go out and do the whole thing. It took about 30 minutes to walk and take the photos. But I think it came out OK. I took 143 photos as I walked around UCI. Every 15 steps I stopped and took a photo. I didn’t get the aim quite right, but it has a nice “rough” look to it.

The 7 Seconds at UCI I shot during the break between classes so the idea was to see the ebb and flow of the crowd. I don’t think it quite worked, but it is fun to watch and count all the people I know.

LA Bike Ride February 10, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Fun , 2comments

Ok, I signed up for the bike ride. But look at what I had to agree to:

I don’t know why, I just found the scope of this agreement funny. Reminds me of when I wrote my own TOS for B4u and Iconator. It’s hard to do–I just through in everything I could find on the Internet. I don’t know if mine is legally secure, but it was fun to write.

And to be complete, read on to see the whole terms.
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Should I bike the LA Marathon? February 9, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Fun , add a comment

As you may or may not know, one of my roommates and a good friend are running the LA Marathon in March. Well it turns out they also have a bike race Mountain Bike at the Accura LA Bike Tourthe same day on the same course. One of my other roommates wants to give it a ride and he asked if I wanted to go. It doesn’t sound too hard–9 MPH is a reasonable rate, but I’m not sure if I’m up for it. I’d need to tune up my bike and practice a lot–just what I need: more work!

To help convince me, he sent me the above picture of people on a mountain bike from the official website. Anyway, I think it sounds like fun, so I’m leaning toward yes. Now I can say I’ve done the LA Marathon, even if I have to do it at 6 am to get out of the way of the real runners. :)

ACM Career Expo February 5, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Job Hunt , 1 comment so far

Well another event down. I think this one went better than the one yesterday. A lot of high tech companies were there–Unisys, Conexent (soon to be merged with another company), Raytheon Interns, HP. Most weren’t accepting resumes, but I think I did OK with the ones that were.

I met a employee at one company that had worked under the same person I did my 125 project under. This is a nice connection–hopefully something will come of it. :) I also did some mock-interviews and got some good tips on how to improve my interview style and resume. Did you know that one shouldn’t put an objective on a resume? It belonds in the cover letter.

There was this one guy working for Raytheon (an Intern, since that’s all they sent) who completely remembered me very well. When I walked up he said, “hey Owen, I like the beard!” Embarassingly enough, I don’t remember who he is–I recognize his face but can’t remember anything else. But he sure remembers me. I later found out he was Paul’s old roommate, but I can’t remember the connection between us. I think maybe we took ICS22/3 together. Man, my memory sucks.

Anyway, I looked good in my new suit, so that’s something positive. And I added four new pens to my collection.

Google February 4, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Website , 2comments

Google giveth
and Google taketh away
Blessed is Google?
[Roger Bagula]

If you use Google AdSense, you know what this is all about. :) (Poem from this page.)

Panda Express anyone? February 4, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Job Hunt , 1 comment so far

Alternate title: “You know it’s going to be a good job fair when the best company there is Panda Express.”

Today I went to the UCI Career Fair 2004. After deciding not to talk to Mervyns or the Navy, I went to talk to the two technical companies there (excepting Boeing, but last time they told me they don’t want CS majors). I first talked to Linksys (now part of Cisco). They told me they were looking for someone to work in their networking support department (do they even have any other departments?). They wanted extensive networking knowledge and will test it if you get an interview. Sort-of a problem since I’m taking the class now, so I won’t have a complete knowledge of networking. But we’ll see… I don’t think they’ll call me since my resume doesn’t mention that I’ve taken a networking class or that I have any experience. I’ll remedy the situation for the next interview. I wouldn’t particularly mind a job with them–it’s in Irvine, I can get some experience working with customers, and learn about networking. It would be an interesting job, though I don’t know if I could stand it for too long.

Next, I waited in line to talk to Western Digital, but they told the person in front of me that they aren’t interested in CS majors so I gave up.

So all I got out of this job fair was a ruler, pen, and a “maybe, but probably not” offer from Linksys. Come back tomorrow for the ACM Career Expo. A inside source told me “It’s the smallest it’s ever been.” Yay!

Fonts February 3, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Internet , add a comment

The fonts used in this blog (and on OP-Design.com) are CODON for the large header, Epilog for the subheads, and Tombats Smiles for the dingbats in the top-left corner. You can get them, and many other great fonts, from the very creative Tom at Divide By Zero. (My original revision of OP-Design had a note at the bottom thanking him, but it was lost in the redesign. I’ll have to find a way to re-add it.)

Nice Dorms! February 3, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Life , add a comment

Check out MIT’s new Dorm. Now that is what I call funky architecture! I wonder if life would be more exciting if I lived in a dorm like that? In CV, where I lived last year, was butt-ugly, so anything would be an improvement, but …… yes, I love it! It’s awesome. We need more exciting projects like that around here.

Owen

*Hugs* February 3, 2004

Posted by Owen in : Life , add a comment

My Social Analysis of Computing professor (the same one that’s making us interview anthropologists in an ICS class) says that 9% of all communication on the Internet involves some sort of physical contact. (Such as *hug* or *I pat you on the shoulder*.) This is to simulate interpersonal bonding that can only be done face-to-face.

I tried it out today…
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