Geeking

About 20 minutes ago, I logged in so I can update my WordPress install by Subversion. I see this:

[dollar@cake ~/pxnet_html]$ svn up
U wp-includes/version.php
Fetching external item into ‘wp-content/plugins/akismet’
Updated external to revision 19778.
Updated to revision 6166.


Checking WordPress after that, I see that it is indeed WordPress 2.3, and just in time. I finished ironing out a few kinks here (UPDATE YOUR PLUGINS NOW) and there (Look at the new Plugins interface, now with “Update your plugins now” deliciousity) before I took the leap, and now, it’s official, with a nice green sticker on the WordPress.org homepage, 2.3 is here.

I had my first day of Dell training today. I found out that this contract will be on the rather interesting side, too, since we’ll be dealing with small to medium businesses, generally.

I just hate getting up at such an awful hour of the morning (read: 5 AM!), but if it puts the meat in the basket, I really ought not to complain.

Keeping it short and sweet tonight; take care.

How’s this for kicks?

It looks like the iPhone just went through a price drop (ALREADY), and Jobs is being kind in reimbursing HALF of the overpay price (The old price was $200 higher, remember) in the form of a gift certificate.

I’m still in the “WHY would I buy a six hundred dollar phone?” camp here, even though the phone is now only four hundred dollars, but I’m finding this whole thing to be truly funny.

I’m just waiting for the free suppository add-on to come with the iPhone (as well as the phone being usable on a carrier that isn’t AT&T) before I consider buying it, but I’d still be leery of buying it. It’d provide me with no features worth my time.

I finally caved in.

Since I wanted something else to play on my DS, and I came to the realization that we only live once, I decided to buy the R4 card for the Nintendo DS.

I simply wanted a card that had better compatibility than this Datel Games ‘n Music card I got at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. Some of the homebrew stuff just does not run on the GnM all that well (DSLinux, for example), and I think it’s because of an artificially imposed bottleneck on the card itself.

So hopefully, I’ll be having some kind of fun with this thing next week.

I’ve noticed lately that whenever I attempt to blog a photo by phone, the post to this blog here fails. It’s getting annoying, despite everything I’ve tried to make it work.

I’ve tried release versions of WordPress. I’ve tried CVS versions. I am trying SVN versions. None of them get the blog posting on the first try, and that’s just totally annoying!
I’m just not sure who to point the blame at, though, because it might be my fault for mostly using CVS and SVN for WordPress, however, I haven’t tried on a non-SVN blog hosted on this domain.

I just wish I had a better way to make sure I could send an image from my Sprint phone and make sure it posts over to this weblog.

I’m also open for suggestions on how to fix my image blogging issue.

As a kid, I’ve had this fascination with languages of the world around me.

I once tried to take basic Spanish and French classes in the same year — I was in third grade. That act alone showed me an appreciation for people who have command of more than one language, because that year showed me how hard it is to learn a language solely by hearing it OR seeing it.

While checking my email accounts (goodness, I have many of them), I stumbled across a link where one can, for Free: Learn English with audio.
Given that English is my native language, I was inclined to toy around with the site, to see just how well it was done.

The home page is essentially bare, save for one Google AdWords box, and the flash object containing the flash cards (no pun intended), which I find to be a very good idea. Nothing says “Learn English” better than a gigantic flash ad for Verizon High Speed FiOS, right?

The Flash box on the page has five labels. Four languages are supported on a path to learn English: Spanish, French, Russian, and Hebrew. There is a standalone label that gives only the English, with no transliterations or translations of words to English, as well as the aforementioned language labels, whose contents come complete with a transliteration of the way the word sounds, as well as the audible enunciation of the words.

For example, I chose French.
For appliances, I see what we call a Stereo in English:
Stereo, sti’(r)io, chaîne stéréo
The first is the English spelling. The second is a transliteration of how we say it in English, and the last is the (familiar) French way of saying the same object. If I clicked on it, I’d hear the “sti’(r)io” as the enunciation.

It’s a pretty healthy way to teach the basics of words, though I admit, I don’t miss conjugating verbs with these cards (simply because I hated conjugating être in my French classes).

I can see how having a free resource to begin learning English as a Second Language from would be so useful.

[tags]ESL, English as a Second Language, Polyglot, Linguistics, Learn English, Contributors[/tags]

This is more of a joke, an aside, than anything else, but chew on this:

We seem to make an artificial flavor for nearly anything. Even artificial meat flavoring for people who are transitioning over to a vegetarian / vegan lifestyle from actually eating meat. Artificial flavors compose our lives in their own special way, if you look at it like that.

How do you think people would react if they were offered an antifreeze flavored soda?

It has to be done. After all, we have Brussels Sprouts flavored soda, as well as Turkey and Gravy flavored soda, soooo…

[tags]soda, humor, weird, antifreeze, artificially flavored[/tags]