Software Activation: It Stinks I decided to purchase (a license for) Maple; partly because I'd like to have it, partly because I need it for an assignment I'm working on. I purchased it directly from Maplesoft. They offer downloadable purchases, which are cheaper, so I decided to go with that. Maple requires activation to be able to use it, but Maple kept giving me an error, until this evening, every time I tried to activate it. It is aggravating to purchase a license to use some software, and then you're not allowed to use it for about a day because of some activation glitch. If companies keep doing things like this to fight "piracy," it will make free (as in free speech) software look more promising despite the fact that free software (in the case of computer algebra systems at least) tend to be less featured.

Software activation doesn't work. More than likely, if I wanted to, I can find a cracked version of Maple on the Internet. Heck, while telling another math student at school about this problem, she offered me a "pirated" Windows copy of Maple (I own a Mac, so it wasn't much help). What does software activation prevent? It prevents honest users like me who, instead of downloading it off some peer-to-peer network, actually purchased a license for using the software. Sometimes honesty is the hard road.  ¶ 9:06 PM 0 comments

  I Have Something in Common with the President A current subject in my algebra class is something called a Sylow p-subgroup. Today I found myself calling them "pylow subgroups" around one of my classmates. I really should stop making fun of George W. Bush's speech problems.  ¶ 9:43 PM 0 comments

  Top 5 Cat Photos on Flickr While browsing through people's photos on Flickr, I came to this realization: People like taking pictures of cats. So I thought I'd make an official list of the five best cat photos that I've seen on Flickr. Enjoy.

• Coming in at number 5 is Maddie. Just look at that lovable furball.
• At number 4 is Herc in a sink. Looks like a comfortable place to sleep
• Number 3 is The Bravest Cat in the World. Man. That's one man of a cat.
• Number 2 is Nermal. Who can resist that beautiful cat face?
• And finally at number 1 is Killer Kitty. Killer Kitty hunts down pirates.

  ¶ 9:41 PM 0 comments

  A List of Likes and Dislikes I'm nearing the end of my first semester of graduate school at Texas A&M, so I thought that I'd make a list of things I like and dislike. First the things I like.

• The quality of students is higher than at UTSA (where I graduated from).
• They actually have school pride here.
• A&M is oriented towards scientific research.

Now for some things I dislike.

• There's too much school pride.
• They have so many "traditions" that you'd think they were living in Fiddler on the Roof Land.
• Football. Everyone must worship the football gods on Saturday. Nobody can do anything else on Saturdays. There's also tons of traffic before and after the games.
• The phrase "Woop" is annoying.
• It's so scientifically oriented that the arts and humanities suffer.

  ¶ 4:51 PM 0 comments

  Textbook Review The textbook for my algebra class has on the back a couple of quotes from some reviews. I find this quote from American Mathematical Monthly enlightening (emphasis is mine) : ...Hungerford's exposition is clear enough that an average graduate student can read the text on his own and understand most of it.  ¶ 11:02 PM 0 comments

  Under The Refrigerator I got a new refrigerator at my apartment due to the freezer going out. When the old refrigerator was moved, there were some toy mice and a few small foam balls underneath. Weird.

  ¶ 6:18 PM 0 comments

  Repo Joe I got a credit card offer in the mail the other day (like that happens a lot). In it is a postage paid, business reply mail envelope. So I sent them a picture of Repo Joe:

  ¶ 9:50 PM 0 comments

  My Simple Thought on the Election I've got to admit, although I would've never voted for Kerry, I was hoping Bush would lose so I wouldn't have to hear half the Internet, from blogs to Slashdot, gripe about Bush. You can't ask for a more petty reason than that.  ¶ 8:28 PM 0 comments