Want to get from Brantford to Cambridge?

Then you'd better either find a buddy with a car, endure a long train ride, or try your hand at biking/walking.

But maybe that will change.

Click here to get to a survey proposing a regular shuttle bus between the two cities.

The more people fill it out, the more likely such a route will come into fruition.

--Ryan

Microsoft does something good!

I know. I'm every bit as shocked as you are.

Backstory: a few months ago, I found a bunch of old PC games from when I was a kid. Being the nostalgiac sort, I wanted to give them a try - see if they were as much fun as I remembered.

There was one twist I hadn't counted on, although I should have seen it coming. Every single one of these games was meant to be run through MS-DOS (accessible through Windows, but DOS had to be there in the background). Windows XP, which is what my computer has, was one of the first - if not the first (not sure on 2000 or ME) - versions of Windows to not be coded on top of DOS. Sure, there's the 'Command Prompt', which looks a lot like DOS, but it's no help here.

I'd run into this problem before, with games that were never meant to be run through Windows in the first place (Shadow President, for example - and no, I won't field queries as to why I still play a 16-year-old game in which you're the President of the United States). With that sort of thing, I'd always been able to get around the problem by using DOSbox, a freeware DOS emulator.

That didn't work here. My guess would be that there were two factors at play here: trying to run the games from a CD rather than a hard drive, and the fact that DOSbox isn't a real operating system.

Giving up for the time being, I packed the games away and forgot about them for a while.

A few months later, I somehow stumbled across the perfect solution - Microsoft Virtual PC. It is perhaps the only thing Microsoft has ever done that I've truly been glad for (as I discovered going through these old games, the Microsoft-produced Monster Truck Madness didn't age well). Virtual PC lets you take part of your computer's resources, and essentially sets up a partition - with which you're free to do anything you want.

For example, one of the main features Microsoft touts for this program is the ability to use it to run multiple operating systems - and since I found a never-used copy of Windows 98 sitting around here not too long ago, it was just what I needed! I can now turn on my computer, surf the Internet or listen to music for a bit, think "I want to play some NHL 97 (the only game I still use this for)", boot up the Virtual PC, and suddenly have what is essentially two computers running at once - with the ability to switch back and forth with just a couple keystrokes!

The only downside I can see to Virtual PC is its limited scope - how many people will want to play old PC games? And if you have another use for it, coding for example, wouldn't you likely not be the type to use Windows in the first place? Nonetheless, Microsoft has (for once) saved the day. I am able to play a twelve-year-old computer game on a ten-year-old operating system, and be only a split-second away from going back to doing more typical stuff on XP. Go Microsoft.

--Ryan

Ryan gives his opinions on current news events

(When it comes to post titles, I try to strike a delicate balance between "relevant to topic" and "clever". I think the pendulum may have swung a little too far in one direction this time.)

(Also, two posts in one day?!? Ah, that time of year between 'school' and 'summer job'. Of course, I have no idea how long it'll last this year.)

For whatever reason, I've found a lot of recent news items to be fairly interesting. Rather than my normal pattern of "space my thoughts out over the course of a week", I'm just going to do it all at once. And a couple not-so-important things at the end - just like a real newscast! Aren't I clever?

First up, the riots in Montreal. I'm not going to take the "they only advanced to the next round, there shouldn't be riots" route here - while that is true, consensus seems to be that the rioters were not hockey fans (well, not rioting because they were hockey fans), just hooligans thinking it was a good time to stir up some trouble.

To be honest, I'm still kind of shocked at the whole thing. Mostly at where this all went down - I was right there just a month ago! It's still fresh enough in my mind that I can see any footage of the rioting on the news, and know exactly where it was! I wrote here about the atmosphere after the Habs game I went to - unlike anything I'd ever seen, but in a good way. Huge crowds, but all celebrating, even with complete strangers - like a Kitchener Rangers game (during a good year) only about a thousand times more jubilant. It is nearly impossible for me to fathom that the stuff I've seen on television really happened in the exact same place.

Moving on to the next story, Brenda Martin. She's the Canadian who has been imprisoned in a Mexican jail for the past two years, and her case has sparked national outrage. Yesterday, she was found guilty of Internet fraud, and sentenced to five years in jail. With the near certainty of her being transferred to Canada, and our parole system, she will be free to go...very soon.

My question: why is this such big news? And, more importantly, how do we know she's not guilty? Okay, so her parents and friends don't think she's guilty. I realize this is a little extreme of an example, but do you think Paul Bernardo told his parents what he was up to? Or his friends (aside from Karla)? Is it really that hard to imagine that Martin knew she was taking illicit funds, and figured she'd be okay as long as she didn't tell anybody? For all the media coverage this has gotten, I've yet to see anything saying "she didn't do it" - and watching her interviews, I can't say I instinctively trust her.

Speaking of people I distrust, Hillary Clinton is still holding out hope that Barack Obama will say Hitler had some good ideas, or something equally unpopular and unlikely. Her latest attack plan seems to be, and I am not making this up, "he should have won by now". Honestly, I find it hard to believe that she truly believes she can come back to win the race - in which case, the only reason she's staying in it is to divide the party enough that the Republicans win the election, meaning Hillary can run again in 2012. Also, apparently all three candidates (including McCain) were on a WWE show this week. Um...I guess it could be worse? At least they're not all competing on a special episode of "Don't Forget The Lyrics"?

Wikipedia has quietly added a new feature - their search bar now has what I'm going to call a "dynamic dropdown" - as you type, it brings up a box listing all the articles starting with what you've typed. I could see this being a handy invention, except for one glaring problem - it doesn't really help much if your term is of a certain length. When I was working on another post earlier this week, I tried it out - "All Summer Long" gave me about ten results - nine of which read simply "All Summer Long (", as the items in the parentheses weren't visible. Not that helpful.

And finally, a completely unscientific study - conceived, funded, orchestrated, and analyzed by me - has concluded that teal is the funniest colour. Want proof? Try saying these two sentences out loud. "Everybody else was wearing red." "Everybody else was wearing teal." You laughed at the second one, right?

Lots of spare time this week. Look for more to come.

--Ryan

So much for that

Hyland Cinemas has closed their Brantford location (Market Square) after five months.

Why can't a theatre work in this space? To me, it seems kind of obvious. Most students don't want to see second-run movies - if they wanted to see them, they'd take the bus trip out to the Cineplex to see them as soon as possible. And the downtown still isn't anywhere near the stage where it can attract a significant non-student crowd.

I said it when Hyland moved in, I'll say it again now. The only way that mall will ever be close to what it once was is if there's a concerted effort to get several new tenants - including some recognizable names - in there at once. Williams worked, and I think it's at least to some degree because of their brand - an independent coffee shop wouldn't be doing this well.

Find a new cinematic company, another restaurant (preferably fast food), and a couple other decent stores, get them all in the mall at the same time, and you might have a resurgence on your hands. Of course, it would help if the south side of Colborne St. wasn't still all boarded up aside from the library/school area.

--Ryan

The question is, do they sing it in Alabama?

Last year, it was "Umbrella". Before that, "Hips Don't Lie". In 2005, "Hollaback Girl". Every year, there is one song that hits just before the beginning of summer, and despite the pleas of the Internet crowd, becomes a massive, summer-defining hit.

This year, Kid Rock is trying to get into the act - and while I'm not a huge fan of his, I guess I have to admit that it's a step up. Of course, that might just be because most of the song wasn't written by him.

Kid Rock (what's an acceptable way to shorten his name? Kid? K-Rock?) took the piano part from "Werewolves of London", just about everything but the lyrics from "Sweet Home Alabama", added his own lyrics, and came up with "All Summer Long". It's really not that bad, although I'm not really afraid that I'll be listening to "Werewolves Of Alabama" and have somebody overhear it, mistaking it for "All Summer Long" ("Sweet Home Alabama" was already ruined for me by its appearance in the movie of the same name - fun fact, before looking it up, I thought the movie I was thinking of was Legally Blonde.)

The lyrics, while not horrible, aren't going to be what makes the song a hit. Sweet Home Alabama is one of the ultimate "sitting on a deck, sipping a beer, singing along" songs, and that's the same thing K-Rock is going for here. Still a step up from the "loved by people too young to know any better and people trying to look cool to those too young to know any better" songs of the last few years.

Will "All Summer Long" be this summer's big hit? I doubt it. There will likely be, maybe already is, a hip-hop song that will outpace it. But I can hope. Well, I can hope for something even better to come along, but I grimly realize the odds of that happening are slim.

--Ryan

Well it was named after one of the Allied D-Day attack points...

...yeah, so my quest for a clever title is very much stretching the definition of the word 'clever'.

Two things I should point out before I send you off to another site:

1) When I saw Juno, it was better than I expected. Not great, but decent.

2) Internet satire generally is not good.

So I was kind of surprised when I found this cynical synopsis of Juno, but actually found myself agreeing with it (for the most part).

Anyhow, that's all I've got for today.

--Ryan

Sorry, Ryan!

Whoops! I was playing around with blogger settings, and I seem to have replaced our templates. I expect Ryan will be fixing up any of my wrongdoings to his desired effects within the next little while... all I can remember is that the background was bluish (maybe).

--
D. Phillips

Random Thursday night musings...

I've spent most of the evening studying for a history final tomorrow, and I've come to a conclusion: Canadian history is the most awesome history in the world.

Why? All because of one event. In 1926, then-Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (who liked to channel the spirit of his dead dog Max for political advice) asked then-Governor General Lord Byng to dissolve Parliament and call an election - normal procedure if a sitting PM wants to call an election. Byng refused, on the grounds that he didn't see any reason an election needed to be held. This is not what makes Canadian history so awesome. What makes Canadian history so awesome is the name we have given this incident - the King-Byng Wingding.

The weather's been great this week, and apparently tomorrow's supposed to be slightly better. I actually had a fan going today for a few minutes, until I realized I had to choose between comfortable temperatures and not having to do anything about all the loose paper lying around my room. However, if this year is any indication, reason #48914 to hate global warming - spring and fall no longer exist!

Earlier in the exam period, I was playing a lot of Guitar Hero III. Now I've cut back (somewhat), but if anyone cares about my progress...I'm constantly setting high scores on Medium, but barely able to finish songs on Hard. When they inevitably make Guitar Hero IV, they should include more difficulty levels.

One last comment - there are going to be a lot of people (mostly my age or younger) who know Neil MacDonald only as "that guy who does the voice for one of the Bell beavers". And that is too bad.

--Ryan

(P.S. I don't like to make promises I can't keep, so I'm giving myself a lot of leeway here...but sometime in the next few months, I'll finally get around to making a post that I've literally had in mind since before I decide to start a blog.)

It's really not a waste of time

I'll get back to the subject line in a minute.

Sunday night, I was procrastinating, putting off studying for an exam. When I find myself doing that sort of thing, I often end up on Youtube, searching random things.

Somehow, I came across this - The New Pornographers' "Mutiny, I Promise You", as composed in Mario Paint.

This led me to another discovery - for some reason, taking popular music and putting it into Mario Paint has become somewhat of a cottage industry among Youtubers in the last few weeks. I don't know why Mario Paint is the program of choice - in the early 90s, composing programs were everywhere, I remember there being one in The Treehouse, a PC game I had as a kid. But for some reason, it's Mario Paint that's taken off.

A lot of the videos aren't that good. But there are three that deserve special mention - the one I linked to above, as well as Bohemian Rhapsody and I Get Around (in my opinion the best one currently on Youtube, even if the last part does sound a little out of tune).

I spent over an hour watching this sort of thing. Then I started wondering if it was fair to say I 'wasted' over an hour on it - I decided that it was. Then I started wondering "well, if I wasted an hour watching them, imagine how much time the people who made them wasted!" After all, I like to think I'd be able to do a slightly better job at creating one of these than the average person, and even if I were to completely put my mind to it and have no distractions, it'd probably take me most of a day to shoot one off.

I'm going to guess that these people are really good at it, but even then - transcribing the music, finding the right sounds in Mario Paint, and then putting all the notes in would probably take them a few hours.

I can't call it a waste of their time, though. Not when what they're doing is that awesome.

--Ryan

the structures that define us

Despite sticking out like a sore thumb, we in Waterloo seem to have stopped complaining over what an ugly building the Perimeter Institute is. Now that it's there, we're kind of proud of it; without it, we probably wouldn't have been considered smartest city of the year last year. (Though that kind of went to our heads.)

Consider other great structures! The Eiffel Tower is just an assortment of bars... If it didn't have so much culture and history associated with it, we'd probably think it was ugly too. And did you get a load out of that one in Pisa? It's not even standing up straight!



I guess if you make anything stand out enough, people will become strangely fond of it. Especially if the intentions for having such a thing are good. The Perimeter doesn't have to be housed in an ugly building to do what they do, but that structure makes people ask "what's going on in there?" Although theoretical physics might not actually help humanity, it does promote education, science, knowledge... All those good things that are highly revered in our society.

What's going on in that ugly building? Good things.

And so it would come to pass that we like our ugly structure. Buy why stop here? If we want to house something that does something good, we should always use this tactic to gain recognition! If this means funding, we'd be fools not to!

Which brings me to what I've been building up to:

(If you're wondering, yes that flowery design is on the outside of the building. And yes, there is a good chance you've seen it in your grandmother's washroom's wallpaper.)




There are few things capable of ruining the city park's landscape like a big black building with abstract windows... and yet, I present to you the University of Waterloo's School of Pharmacy. Yep, the PI's challenge of has been accepted. Not only has an even uglier building been built in the community, but the function of this building is even more admired than the last! Anyone would be thankful to have a school of pharmacy in their neighborhood, I'm sure - even at the expense of tasteful architecture.

And yes, I think we are thankful for the opportunity to have such an establishment in our town.

--
D. Phillips

Blogs the blogger reads

So it should come as no surprise that I, being a naturally curious person with a lot of free time, like to read other blogs. I may have linked a few of these before, but here is a list of every blog I read on even a semi-regular basis. Hopefully you'll find one or two worth the time it took you to read this.

(I should also point out that these links are in no particular order. Or more specifically, they're in the same order as they are in my Favourites list, which is pseudo-chronological, although I often shuffle things around in there just to keep it from getting boring and repetitve. I'm weird like that.)

Our first entry is in fact the only one I'm positive I've linked here before - Batter's Box Baseball Blog. It is the main place for me to look for baseball-related news and analysis, and its primary focus is the Blue Jays, which is great. Obviously if you're not a hardcore baseball fan, there's no reason to even click the link.

Paul Romanuk is a former sportscaster for TSN, who has been living in England for the past few years, doing I'm not exactly sure what. However, he has a blog of his own, which focuses on sports decidedly less than I originally expected. While sports are clearly still a passion of his, his blogging relates more to current news (of course, if there's any way that news and sports combine, such as the Olympic torch fiasco, he'll find a way to talk about it). Some of his views are a little extreme for my tastes, but I still enjoy reading them. You probably wouldn't unless you were already familiar with him, though. Or happened to share his views, I guess.

The Legends of Classic Rock Blog is exactly what you'd expect from the name. Jeff Woods is the host of 'The Legends of Classic Rock', a radio show about (you guessed it) classic rock which is syndicated throughout Canada. Here, he blogs. Mostly about classic rock. He's good at telling old stories that a lot of people wouldn't know, but for the most part I'm not that interested in them. Still read it, though, although more often than not I don't find it worth the time I've spent. He does have a decent-sized audience, though, so his stories resonate with some people more than me.

Not sure if I've mentioned this one before or not, but The Comics Curmudgeon is, in my opinion, hilarious. It's written by a guy named Josh, who goes through a few comic strips every day, looking for things he can make witty comments about. I have to admit, I think I read it more for the trainwreck-level awfulness of some of the comics than for his comments on them.

I never let an opportunity to mention the webcomic xkcd go to waste, but the comic's creator, Randall Munroe, also keeps a blog of his own. It's not updated all that often, and the content is rather hit-and-miss with me (I have zero interest in science-y stuff, near zero in tech-y stuff)...but when it hits, it really hits.

A friend of mine is a hippie. She has a blog dedicated to her hippie pursuits. I get namedropped in it once in a while. She hasn't updated it that much lately, but I'm guessing that's either a lack of time or a lack of things to write about - she certainly hasn't given up on hippiedom.

A relative of mine coaches a minor league hockey team in the southernmost point of Texas. Brian Sandalow covers said team for a newspaper, and also has a blog on the paper's website. There's absolutely no reason for you to read this, I only listed it here because I said I'd mention *all* blogs I read, and by gum I'm sticking to it!

As I clearly haven't had enough sports-related blogs yet, Jeff Blair writes about the Blue Jays for the Globe & Mail, and is generally regarded (at least by the Batters' Box guys) as the best of the handful of newspaper writers who cover the Jays 24/7. Again, nothing to see here unless you're a baseball fan.

I honestly have no idea when I became a fan of Dave Till. I also wouldn't be surprised to learn that I'm the first person to ever describe himself as a fan of Dave Till. He lives in Toronto, works as a web designer, and (this is the important parts) writes really, really well, often about things which I'm at least a little bit interested in. He has two blogs - a professional one which is mostly political and a little dry, and a personal one which is basically what I aspire for this to be.

Finally, last but not least, remember a few months ago, when this blog was getting overrun with comics created by Dan? Well, at the time, he set up another blog to contain all his comics, and despite the fact that new comics flow much slower than before, he still only posts them there. I'm not quite sure why.

--Ryan

(P.S.: See? Told you I'd have some relatively interesting stuff now that classes were over with! Take that, cynics!)

Biased media? Maybe not...

I try not to identify myself with any one political party. Overall, my political ideology is a little left of centre, but that's not to say I wouldn't support a further-right (or further-left) party in any given situation - I try to take each case as it comes.

But things like this make it hard to do that. A Youtube video allegedly (according to the description and the comments) shows a CTV reporter showing 'the blatant left-wing bias of the Canadian media in general and CTV in particular - which is fair enough, I have no problem believing that there is bias in most of the media I consume.

However, if one actually watches the video, they learn that the 'biased' claim is that the Conservative Party contains a few extremely conservative individuals (which they would admit), that said individuals, if given free rein to say whatever they wish, could make some controversial statements (which history has shown to be true), and that if said individuals made said statements, some Canadians could be worried about a Conservative 'hidden agenda' (which, considering mainstream perception of the old Canadian Alliance party, is not the least bit farfetched).

Replace any reference to the Conservatives in the previous paragraph with 'NDP', and the paragraph still doesn't look out of place - although the NDP are more overt about their policies which alienate a substantial proportion of Canadians. Not so much with Liberals, but that's because they are, by nature, not extremists.

I'd be willing to believe that there is a left-wing bias in Canadian news media, but if this is the best example proponents of that theory can come up with, they're not going to be convincing me anytime soon.

Also, given the comments I've made before about Youtube comments, let me explain myself - there's a difference between people who are likely 13-year-olds trying to get under the skin of whoever reads their comments, and people who honestly believe what they are saying. This group appears, at least to me, to be the latter.

--Ryan

RoadTripAmerica's Funny Signs Gallery

I first found this site several years ago, and still check it out once every few months to see what's been added in the interim.

Basically, people from all over North America (mostly the US) take pictures of road signs that they, for one reason or another, deem humourous. Then the RTA guys add in a comment so dry one would assume I'd come up with it, and post it on their site.

Unfortunately, they have an extremely potent anti-hotlinking stance - if I were to try posting any of their pictures here, they wouldn't show up. So you'll have to click the link to see for yourself, but here's just a small sample of what you're missing...

*The Dave Vail Memorial Toilet!
*Boring Oregon City!
*A store that almost never closes!
*"No smoking on campus prohibited"!
*Ronald McDonald Funeral Home!
*"Road unsafe when underwater"!
*"Speed limit 11.5"!
*Brown Material Rd.!
*A Pizza Hut that, gasp, has pizza!
*An allegedly undiscovered silver vein!
*Free pork and beans with purchase of new home!
*"This sign is in Spanish when you're not looking!"
*A hotel highly recommended by its owner!

And literally hundreds more! Next time you have an hour or more to kill, give this a try!

--Ryan

On Seals and Clubs

Every time I write a post this controversial, I feel like I come out a bad guy. This time, I want to clearly state that I have given this topic little moral thought.


First, let's begin with a photograph found from somewhere on the internet. (If that's not acceptable sourcing according to Creative Commons, I don't know what is.)




Pardon the stream-of-consciousness as I point out each though that came to mind when I saw this:

• Huh... Baby seals have more firm skin. They're probably slower than older ones. If your going to hunt a seal, might as well make it a good one.
• Is that club specially designed for clubbing seals?
• Why do they club seals anyway? Is it to protect the pelt?
• Is that seal just sitting there? The clubber seems to be walking. Maybe he's sneaking up on it... Or maybe he's chasing it.
• He's wearing a life-jacket. Did he not take it off after the trip? Or perhaps this is extreme dangerous work.
  

I don't actually care enough to look up the answers of these questions. Perhaps you do. If so, feel free to post a comment!


The next picture I came across (source: The Intercloud) is this one here:




Let's comment, shall we?

• That guy seems to be really running. Maybe these seals are moving quickly! Or maybe it's an activist group that posed for the picture. (It's like a drive-by clubbing?)
• Again with the same type of club! I found these pictures on different sites, so I guess my assumption on special seal-clubs was correct.
• No life jacket... This guy must be living on the edge!

Final comments:
I've been told of certain areas where seals are overpopulated, and I've been told that seal hunting is extremely dangerous. To quote she who told me this, "You're more likely to die than the seal is!" She was very pro-clubbing, which I believe is a rarity. I know few people educated on the topic, so most opinions seem to be about one-on-one with the seals. (They compare it to animals we keep as pets. I don't kill my cat, though there is a feline problem in the city; why should I put a stray seal to sleep?) Other comparisons were drawn to human-overpopulated areas... but if I shared those analogies, racist comments would be left.

--
D. Phillips

Please, spade and neuter your pets!

Jim Davis has lost his mind

Just try to make sense of today's Garfield. Go on. I dare you.



--Ryan

The old college try

When Max Blouw took over as Laurier's Big Cheese a few months back, he solicited input from everybody he could think of - faculty, students, alumni, etc. He wanted to know their vision for the future of Laurier - what do they want the school to look like in five, ten, twenty years? In short, where do they want the school to go?

Their answer, apparently, was 'Milton'. The City of Milton is offering Laurier a lot of free land, and it looks like the school is taking them up on it. The rumour mill tells me that it's going to be a law school - at the very least, Laurier is looking to get a law school and the various campuses are lobbying for it. I have no real opinion on this; it's not like Milton can be in worse shape than Brantford.

Also, my gut tells me the strike will be over by the end of the week. This is good - the problem of "how can we get every class completed on time?" is a lot easier for the administration to answer than "what should we do about all these classes that stopped early?" would have been.

On another note, the new McDonald's has opened on Stanley St. between Darling and Dalhousie. Driving by it on a Sunday at 4:00 (not exactly prime eating hour), the parking lot was perhaps the most full I've ever seen at any fast food restaurant, anytime. Certainly the most full I've ever seen one in this area ever. While I've never really been bothered by the eating habits of other people before, the idea that a large number of people thought "hey, mcdonald's is open again, let's go check it out!" is really, really scary.

Annnnnnnnd......I guess that's it. For now. I'm done all major school assignments, so I'll probably be posting a lot more than I have been, at least for the next week or so. Don't hold me to that, though.

--Ryan