Snively

Urbanized!

2011-12-06T20:21:00.001-05:00

From the folks that brought you "Helvetica" and "Objectified," I present to you, Urbanized.

Unfortunately, the people who need to see this won't

2010-08-19T15:13:00.003-04:00

The controversy over the mosque in NYC is driving me insane. The fact that "Americans" are suppressing another religion's right to practice is mind boggling. America was founded to escape religious persecution and to set up a new nation where people could be free to worship how they chose.

That's why the country was founded, the only reason. We are here because we wanted to worship how we chose. Does anybody else see an issue with anti-islamic sentiments and trying to prevent churches for other religions being constructed?

Keith Olbermann is a man to be listened to.

My new shirt!

2010-07-24T20:11:00.001-04:00

The mustache is fuzzy!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.8

It lights!

2010-07-21T15:17:00.001-04:00

It took a while, but check it out! One step closer to having a finished product!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.8

Learning how to present at work

2010-07-19T12:09:00.002-04:00

Lunch time haas now been taken over by work. Wonderful.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

Polaroid and Lady Gaga

2010-06-30T20:37:00.005-04:00

Well, Wednesday was a day to remember. By that I mean it's not every day you're invited to chat with the marketing director Polaroid about new cameras, see Lady Gaga, and listen to a press conference held by the CEO of Polaroid. Yep, that's what I did Wednesday, and here's how it happened.

It hit the news Tuesday morning that Lady Gaga would be appearing at MIT (specifically, the MIT Museum) with Polaroid to do a photo shoot and unveil a new line of cameras. I've done work with the MIT Museum before and know a bunch of the people who work there, so I e-mailed and asked what the scoop was. I was told that there would be a private exhibit viewing at 3PM and a press conference beforehand.

"Cool! Do you need anybody to serve food/hold doors/be a token MIT student?"
"Sorry, I just got word that it'll be invited press only."
"Shucks, well, thanks for trying."

Of course, 10 minutes later, it hits the MIT Bloggers list and there is plenty of excited chatter about whether we'll be able to get press passes. I told them what I heard from the museum and then felt obligated to e-mail the museum again and ask about the definition of "invited." That's when I was told that there had been a change, that I could get in and that I was invited to a design brainstorming session. EXCELLENT! Then, after a phone call with the museum, I was given passes to invite 12 students (myself included) to the event. DOUBLE EXCELLENT!

Bloggers, friends, and strangers were all added to the list. The twelve of us showed up at the museum Wednesday morning at 11:30 for the design brainstorming and free lunch(!). The gist of the brainstorming session was, well, the head marketer said "I have concept drawings and renders of two potential new cameras for Polaroid and I'd like your input on them."

We were shown the two cameras (which I'm probably not allowed to share a lot about, but I will use their code names), "The Tank" and "Bellows." Both were definitely influenced by Gaga, and we weighed in on the pros and cons of each. The con was pretty heavy, that there simply isn't a need for physical pictures anymore. Polaroid kept talking about how pictures are "stuck in the computer," and while that may have been true several years ago, pictures have found a very happy home in computers, especially on the Internet. We asked him "What can I do with a physical picture that I can't do with a digital picture? Why should I buy this camera?" His answer? "An instant picture makes the experience more emotional and instant." Eh, good luck with that approach. There were some good ideas, specifically the idea of sticky backed instant pictures ("Look at that silly thing, I will take a picture of it, scribble something witty on my instant photo, and stick it to that silly thing") and potentially pictures with geotagged barcodes on them, but other than that, why do physical pictures exist?

After the meeting we were given WAY too much pizza and then were told to get out of the museum for 2 hours. Apparently the entire place got locked down for the arrival of Lady Gaga and nobody was allowed to be inside. Where the actual photo shoot was going to take place was a secret, but we found a bunch of people who had heard little bits of info from different sources and pieced together that Lady Gaga would be doing her photo shoot on the third floor of the building we were currently in. A few of our number knew their way around the building so we started our way towards an elevator to get up to where the shoot was going to be (a plan doomed to failure). We made sure to bring pizza and salad as an excuse for a visit (Gaga needs to eat, right?)

We made it to the elevator and were promptly stopped by a police officer and a museum employee. Ooooh boy, that was quick. "Where are you guys headed?"

"Oh, you know, just, wandering."
"Ok, well you can't be here, you need to leave."
"Ok, not so much wandering, as looking. You know, just wandering, looking, stuff like that."
"I'm sorry, you can't be here, you really need to leave."

*ok, how long can we stall until Gaga needs to use this elevator?*

"Well, um, we can't leave, because all the doors are locked and we can't get out."
"Really? Hm, well, hold on." The lady scampers off and finds somebody else.
"Alright, you can leave by going out this way."
"No, we tried that."
"It works now."
"But we can't, you know, wander and look for people if we leave."
"You need to leave."
"BUT WE HAVE SALAD AND PIZZA!"
"Come on."
*grumble*

And, before you know it, we were on the street with the commoners. A small crowd had gathered to wait for Lady Gaga to appear. The waiting wasn't too bad, we chatted with Dave Barber (you either know who he is or you don't), some other Gaga fans, and then eventually, two black SUVs rolled up and, wouldn't you know it, Lady Gaga was looking out the window of one of them. Just checking things out, looking around. People freaked. Then, 3 seconds later, cars were parked, Gaga was in the building, and that was that. 3 seconds. Unbelievable.

What were we going to do for 2 hours? We weren't allowed back in until the press conference and none of us had anywhere else to go, so we just stood there, walked around a bit, and stood there. Seriously. For 2 hours.

At 2:30 things started to get crazy again. Press had showed up for the press conference and were lined up by the front door. Fans, without press badges, were lined up where Lady Gaga's cars were parked. Where would she show? It was a decision that, unfortunately, I didn't make well. I chose to go inside with the press in hopes of seeing her, but that was right as Lady Gaga left out the back, completely ignoring the press, left out the back, stopping and signing autographs and shaking hands with all of the fans.

Oops! Oh well, life is full of choices, sometimes you get lucky and other times you don't.

The press conference was meh. The CEO of Polaroid was there, that was neat, and so was another head honcho, and they did reveal the photo of Gaga they took during the photo shoot, but most of the reporters were miffed that Gaga never showed up for the press conference. I was a bit miffed as well.

The impression I was left with is that Polaroid appears to be using Lady Gaga to bring in the cameras, then hiding her and announcing new and exciting products that, in the long run, will probably not save the twice-bankrupt company.

Harsh, I know, but we'll let Polaroid try to prove me wrong.

Thieves!

2010-06-27T14:44:00.000-04:00

Today is "fix my bike so I can get to work day." More about biking to work later, but for now, listen to this. I started my day off by heading to Economy Hardware and the bike shop to get some metal epoxy and a screw for my rack on my bike. The weight of my bag is taking its toll and I have to use my 3 years of mechanical engineering education at MIT to duct tape, epoxy, and bolt it back together to reinforce it.

On the way to the hardware store I stopped by my bike (which I keep locked up outside) and, lo and behold, the back bag was open, my track jacket was on the ground, and everything looked rather rummaged through. Wonderful. Damage done? Extra tire tube was stolen, along with my bike pump and patch kit. I was not thrilled. But, I can't really get too angry because I don't lock my bag up, mostly out of convenience. I can see now that that habit has to change. But, even with a locked bag, the bag is still only velcroed to the rack, how do I prevent them from stealing the whole bag? Affix it to the bike rack? Cable lock?

Anyway, both Economy Hardware and the bike store were closed until noonish. Now my trip to Economy will include the purchase of a new tube and new bike pump, a nice little $40 expenditure I didn't expect, perfect way to start my week. The trip to Economy will now include the purchase of a small lock for the bag.

But, like I said, it was my fault, and to give whoever stole them some credit, they did leave my track jacket, chain oil, and tire inflation can in the bag. They just went after the emergency flat materials, meaning they probably needed them. I'm making enough money this summer that I can afford to replace what was lost, but still, it's not fun.

Also, the bike gets parked inside from now on. Maybe. It'll be a bit of a hassle, not sure it'll be worth it if I'm locking everything, but it may.

Back to the personal blog!

2010-06-27T01:01:00.000-04:00

Hey, it's only been what, a million years since I've done any real writing for this blog, right? Well, that's about to change (yay!) and I'm about to start updating again regularly (or as regularly as I can). What I discovered is, while writing for my MIT Blog, it became very very difficult to update this one. I don't know if you've tried to maintain two blogs but, well, I have now, and it wasn't exactly successful. So we're back to this one again after a few years of hiatus, and I'm glad.

I don't have a whole lot now, this is mostly an "I'm back," but look for stuff coming in the future. A lot has changed with me since I last wrote in this blog, I'm a different person. I've experienced three years of college (hard college), Web 2.0 has blossomed into a tweet-erific, reddit-tastic, farmville nightmare. So much of what I could write in here is probably already posted elsewhere on the internet, everything travels so quickly, so I'm left with a question:

Do I repost cool stuff that I find?
Do I write original content?

My time at MIT, if it's done anything at all, has certainly hurt my creative writing ability. Everything is so technical that, even with classes designed to prod the creative part of my brain, my ability to "write entertaining things for fun" has vastly diminished. This makes me sad. Maybe starting to write for fun again will help nurture my dying creativity. In order for this to happen, I'm leaning towards "write original content." This could be hard, because I've already filled this blog with so much original content that, with any more, well, you may know more about me than I do. Maybe not. Like I said, a lot has happened in three years, and this could be a good chance for you to get to know me again.

One thing vastly different between this blog and my MIT blog is the readership and what each was trying to accomplish. Everything I wrote at MIT was looked at with a critical eye, picked apart, and many times flung right back at me (maliciously at times). Here, there are no rules, no stigmas, and the people reading will probably not consist of nearly as many current students. I'd like to get back to my previous reader base, the wild wild users of the internet that DON'T live on the same campus as I do. I like anonymous strangers reading my stuff, it's pleasant.

So there, a quick welcome back and some thoughts. Are you ready? I am.

Live feed . . . of us!

2010-02-12T15:02:00.001-05:00

Song Safari

2009-08-01T19:46:00.001-04:00

I have discovered a new use for my smartpen!

Stuck in the car with nothing but the pen and a notebook, I turned on the radio and was struck with inspiration. When the next song started I hit record on the pen and drew a little triangle, a circle around it, and then wrote the title of the song. When the song was done recording I stopped recording.

Now, if I ever want to listen to that song on my pen, I just have touch that little "Play" symbol I drew when the song began. One can develop quite the song collection!

LEGO Minifig Dimensions

2009-04-14T11:59:00.004-04:00

After an infuriating search online for the dimensions of the LEGO minifig (LEGO man), I finally caved and just modeled it myself and decided to put the dimensions online.

This is not completely comprehensive, specifically (and most noticeably) it is missing arms and hands. Also, there's no top/bottom view so you can't see the shell/wall thickness. BUT, this should be sufficient for any type of profile/modeling job right up until the arms. The issue with the arms is that there are all sorts of lofts and things that I haven't had the time to mess with yet. I will though, no worries, the dwgs will just be much uglier.

Enjoy! Share with your friends, I'm pretty sure these are the only LEGO minifigs on the entire Internet. Woo-hoo for monopolizing!

DIMENSIONS ARE IN mm

AUCTION!

2009-03-26T17:00:00.001-04:00

Psssst, Roflcon Lunch Box For Sale!

Click

Toy Design thusfar

2009-03-02T17:40:00.002-05:00

I'm the official videographer for Toy Design this year and I thought it'd be nice to show you what's been going on so far. Enjoy!

Shading with Barry! from Michael Snively on Vimeo.

Play-Testing the Rubik's Cube Touch

2009-02-14T12:35:00.002-05:00

So, here's the deal. Remember that new fancy Rubik's cube I just blogged about the other day? Well, it's being premiered at Toy Fair 2009 in New York this next week and, like last year, I've pulled some strings, begged the right people, and will be attending.

I'll make sure to hunt this thing down, play with it, take some pictures, and let you all know what I think.

I have been waiting for this toy forever

2009-02-12T12:54:00.000-05:00

Seriously, I've wanted this thing for years, and now it finally exists! Rumor has it that it may be out for Christmas!

2011 Brass Rat Premiere

2009-02-10T13:40:00.026-05:00

When I got into MIT it was a moment of instant prestige. I started wearing MIT t-shirts, hoodies, using MIT folders, yadda yadda yadda. Once I got to MIT it lost a certain amount of the prestige, not because it was any less amazing, but because I wasn't one of 12 people in the whole state that attended, I was one of 12,000. Everybody had the shirts, the hoodies, the folders, and the yadda yadda yadda. In fact, they had something more, they had Brass Rats. The "Brass Rat" is the nickname given to MIT's class ring, one of the most famous, iconic, and heavy finger decorations you can get. There are really only three rings that matter out there, the Super Bowl ring, the West Point ring, and the Brass Rat.

The Brass Rat gets its name from the large beaver on the bezel (bezel = top of ring) and the "brass" color of the gold ring. The Brass Rat is the "I go/went to MIT" sign that is a must have for almost all students. Job interviews, presentations, and wine&dines are all wonderful Brass Rat flashing moments. Just ask Tony Stark, he made sure to wear his to his charity benefit in the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

MIT students receive their rings during their sophomore year at MIT. The whole "Brass Rat Process" is deep rooted in tradition, highly involved, very procedural, and not something to be taken lightly.

Each year the Brass Rat has the same fundamental design. On the bezel is a beaver, on the shanks are the class year and "MIT," usually accompanied by a picture of the great dome and the MIT seal. In addition to all of the traditional aspects, each year's Brass Rat has a degree of customization that is specific to that graduating class. Iconic symbols, class years, and hidden messages are all common. The different symbols are what make each class's rings unique and special.

The whole process begins when the student council of the then freshman class announces the opportunity to apply to be a member of the "Ring Committee." The Brass Rat Ring Committee is solely responsible for all things Brass Rat. They decide the symbols that go on the ring, they draft the artwork, they work with the ring manufacturers (Balfour), they plan the delivery and premiere, and basically control what sits on our right ring finger for the rest of our lives. It's a big job, not one to be taken lightly, and this year there was all sorts of controversy surrounding the committee chosen to do the job.

The class of 2011 class council picks the Ring Committee and used a blind application process. They picked our committee based solely on merit and not on name or reputation. This sounds like a pretty good system, right? Turns out, if you want a Ring Committee that represents all the aspects of campus and represents a diverse spread of interests that includes an entire class, you can't do a blind application process. You end up with a very West-Campus-dominant Ring Committee, as I so tactfully pointed out in this entry (which, incidentally, was one of the only admissions blog entries removed from the admissions website). In addition to this entry, there was so much controversy surrounding our Ring Committee that they ended up adding a 13th member to the Ring Committee, one from East Campus.

After selecting a Ring Committee, there are only two really big moments that the rest of the class experiences, Ring Premiere and Ring Delivery. Ring Premiere is in February and is a chance for the Ring Committee to share the final design of the ring with the rest of the class. Ring Delivery is later, late April or early May, and is a formal event in some grandiose location in or around Boston. In past years delivery has been held at concert halls, beautiful libraries, and yacht clubs.

We haven't had delivery yet, but on Friday we had the 2011 Brass Rat Premiere. I'll say it right now, my friends and I were excited to get there early, get awesome seats, and were primed to sling insults, shouts of displeasure, and general discontentment at the Ring Committee. We decided that, at best, the Brass Rat would be "passable."

The doors opened at 7 PM, we were there at 6 in order to get our seats. We showed up just in time to see the Ring Committee all get their Brass Rats 3 months before us (one of the perks). We stared through the window into the building as they all put their rings on, posed for photo opps, and walked around kissing their rings. We watched, from outside in the cold, running over the insults in our heads, ready for the big moment.

Fast forward 50 minutes and there was suddenly a massive line stretching all the way from Kresge Auditorium past the Student Center, and there we were, still at the front of the line, waiting in the cold to be let in. 7:02 PM. 30 degrees outside. Four class of 2012 ushers standing inside, not letting us in. We waited. Finally, Mitch (a member of the Ring Committee) told them to let us in. Woo-hoo! All praises be to Mitch, our now favorite Ring Committee member.

The doors opened, we flooded in, and our group of 10 snagged seats near the back of the auditorium. Very strategic, actually, since all sorts of free swag was going to be given out at the end of the presentation and would be available in the lobby. Last row = fastest access to the lobby, a chance to beat the throngs of "angry about their rings" 2011's trying to get their shirts and shot glasses.

We sat and chatted excitedly for a half an hour, listening to the DJ Girltalk playing in the auditorium and trying to figure out where that really strong waffle and syrup smell was coming from (turns out there was a guy standing behind us eating Waffle Crisp cereal).

And then it began as the 13 members of the Ring Committee walked out onto the stage to applause from the audience. We sat, eager, waiting to see what Brass Rat scariness awaited. Would there be another lightning bolt like on the '10 ring? A galaxy representing the boundlessness of our character? First up, the hackers map.

The hackers map is an engraving that can be found on the underside of the bezel. It maps the extensive MIT tunnel system that students frequent if they're trying to get from building to building either secretly or to avoid the harsh weather. With a hackers map on our rings, we're sure never to get lost when we come back as alumni and need to use the tunnel system. There was a new addition to the map this year, the Koch Cancer Research building, situated to the right of the Stata Center. Here's what our hackers map looks like.

The audience clapped appreciably. There was nothing particularly special about the hackers map, but there rarely is. There isn't a lot of liberty to take, but at least there wasn't a huge nightmare on it. Actually, I have to give credit to our Ring Committee, several hours after premiere I started getting comments from people back home that our hackers map looked like an elephant. I took another look, and sure enough, it looks exactly like an elephant. See?

Next were the skylines. On either side of the bezel is a skyline, one of Cambridge and one of Boston. This is when things started getting interesting. Let's take a look at the Cambridge side first.

Each of the buildings was picked specifically to represent an important aspect of MIT. From left to right, the first is Kresge Auditorium, where Ring Premiere was currently being held. Next is the Student Center. Third is Ashdown, a dorm that represents the new living community MIT is introducing. Centered is the main group of buildings on campus, including the great dome. Next in line is the Stata Center. When we saw the Stata Center we started laughing out loud. I still don't know if it was intentional or just turned out that way, but I can't think of any better way to represent the Stata Center in profile than as a pile of bumpy crap. I was starting to regain some faith in our Ring Committee. After the Stata center is the Green Building followed by Walker Memorial, where we take most of our Final Exams.

I said things got interesting, remember? Let's take a look at the Green Building for a second.

The legend goes that the world will end if ever all of the lights in the Green Building are turned off at the same time. The Ring Committee recognized this by lighting some of the windows in the building . . . BUT . . . not just any windows. They lit very specific windows. Almost like . . . some kind of code. Like, like they could possibly mean something. Maybe it would make more sense if I added some labels to their design of the Green Building, and maybe change the windows a bit.

Yes, that's right, the windows are binary for 2011. The auditorium erupted into applause! My heart flickered with hope. Binary on the Green Building was really creative! It was actually, dare I say it, good! We all looked at each other while we applauded, a cautiously optimistic cloud hovered around us. The presentation continued by showing off the 1's on the sail boats and talking about the night sky. Cambridge is shown with an evening sky, representing all the late nights we spend doing homework and working hard. The other skyline, the Boston skyline, is shown in the day time, representing our many excursions into the city on weekends.

On the left are the Hancock building and the Hanckock tower, centered is the Prudential Center, and on the right you can see the Citgo Sign and Fenway Park.

The next unveiling was that of the Seal Shank. The side of the ring with the MIT seal is known as the "Seal Shank." In past years there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Seal on the Brass Rat, Ring Committees past have made some modifications that anger a lot of people. Changing around the flame on the lamp, adding laptops to the seal, and even changing one of the men to a woman.

Now, I'm not opposed to having a woman on our ring at all, BUT, I am opposed to changing the MIT seal. If it's modified it is no longer the MIT seal and it probably doesn't belong on the ring as the seal. Our Ring Committee apparently agrees, because when they unveiled the Seal Shank it featured a classic and unchanged seal.

Underneath the seal is the "MIT Nuts and Bolts" emblem that, although most people have never seen or heard of it, has been featured on Brass Rats of old.

Take a look at the screws holding it together. . . "X + I" or, for those of us who aren't Roman, 10+1, which as we all know, equals 11. Hey! 11! That's us! More applause from the audience. It was becoming pretty obvious that any symbolism on this ring was going to be smoothly incorporated and not merely tacked on. My friends and I started to get excited. This was no longer an occasion for jeers, it was an opportunity to sit eagerly and await the next special symbol on our ring.

Hiding behind the "Nuts and Bolts" was a loop of track with some offshoots.

I instantly recognized it as the Large Hadron Collider, which finished its construction this year. More awesomely subtle symbolism for our Brass Rat and more applause from the audience. The Ring Committee next unveiled the Class Shank, which usually features our class year and the Great Dome.

At first I was confused by the woman sitting in the chair, that took some explanation. Apparently it was Athena, which all of a sudden made a whole lot more sense. MIT's Linux-based, homemade operating system is called "Athena" and it's impossible to spend more than a day on campus without hearing about her. She's surrounded by laurel and oak leaves that represent strength and wisdom (some hokey symbolism, but ok), and hidden in the leaves are the letters IHTFP, MIT's infamous, double-meaning motto. But. . . but what is that on Athena's right hand? What is she doing?

She's flashing the right-hand rule! You go Athena! More than ever the audience was getting pumped. If the shanks were this cool, what would the bezel be like!? Underneath Athena is an owl, the symbol of our operating system.

Hey, wait, why does our owl have crack-cocaine eyes? Did somebody hit him with a baseball bat? No? Wait, are those . . . letters? Yeah, that left eye looks like a "U" and that right eye looks like an "n". On the left, there, the side of the owl's face, that looks like a "P" and on the far right I can make out a "T." OMG, that owl says Punt! And, then, as if by magic, a simple flip of the wrist and BOOM!

Punt now reads Tool, encompassing two of the main ideals of MIT, work and play. Finally, the last feature on this shank, are some mysterious silhouettes on the roof. Upon closer examination you can see three hackers, getting ready to create some engineering hijinks under the cover of darkness.

Even more applause (can you tell that the audience likes the ring yet?) One of the concerns with an all-west-campus Ring Committee was a potential lack of hacking culture. Concerns quelled, props earned by Ring Committee.

And finally, the bezel. This is what we'd all been waiting for. And finally, there it was, our Bezel!

Two beavers, one with a Guy Fawkes mask, the other with Aviators, a physics clicker, and a super burrito from Anna's. Next to the beavers is a crane, representing the construction at MIT, driven by the infamous Charlie the Unicorn. Some of MIT's famous architecture is featured on the left, Kresge Auditorium and the Z Center, complete with students spelling "PUNT."

We laughed. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Surely this must be a joke, and it was. A good joke, but still a joke. At last the real bezel was to be revealed.

Cue the most applause of the evening. It was beautiful! The beaver was classy, the skyline was clean, and there was something different about it. The beaver, instead of sitting on some non-descript shore on the Cambridge side of the Charles River was sitting on the Harvard Bridge, the link that connects MIT to Boston and an oft-travelled route of many an MIT student. In the background are two bridges, the Longfellow and the Zakim (otherwise known as the awesome looking one). On the Longfellow bridge is a red line train, another primary mode of transportation for MIT students. Another difference between this bezel and bezels past is the placement of Cambridge and Boston. Normally Cambridge is on the right and Boston on the left, but due to the beaver's new position on the bridge, the shorelines were flipped. On the Cambridge side you can see the Great Dome, the Stata Center, the Green Building (sans binary) and again, Walker Memorial. On the Boston side is the Hancock Building, next to the Hancock Tower (designed with a vertical divider that makes it resemble an 11), and then on the far right is the Prudential Center. At the base of the Prudential Center is a building that looks like a blocky "w." It's not a "w" though, it's the circuit diagram for the newly discovered circuit element the "memristor," discovered our freshman year.

On the bridge the number "150" can be seen on the ground. The 150, actually a Smoot(!) is there to commemorate both the 50th anniversary of the Smoot, but also to recognize the sesquicentennial birthday of MIT that will fall on our graduation year. But, we're not the 150th graduating class, we're the 144th, and so that this doesn't get forgotten the beaver has twelve by twelve hatches on his tail. Also present is the MIT logo spelled out in the railing of the bridge.

Underneath the beaver are 8 ivy leaves (to represent the 8 ivy league schools) that are being crushed under the weight of MIT's accomplishments. One of the leaves is different though, it resembles a spade. This is a nod to both MIT's blackjack team (and the movie "21") and to our orientation theme (casino). This was one of the only parts of the ring that may have gotten a groan or two. A lot of people at MIT aren't thrilled about the movie "21" (inaccurate, not filmed at MIT, etc) and are getting tired of casinos (remember, we were the class of 007 in high school, there's a lot James Bond in our lives).

Finally, for the beaver's possessions. He holds a globe to represent the global initiatives going on at MIT, a diploma to represent our graduation, and a scale to symbolize the balance between work and play. Growing from the scale is a sapling, a sign that MIT is "going green" and enacting new energy initiatives.

And that's it, that's the ring as revealed at our Ring Premiere. We were stoked! I have to say, I came to Ring Premiere highly skeptical and had every preconception flipped on its head. I truly believe that this is one of the best Brass Rats ever designed. Now, to finish of the Premiere, the Ring Committee announced when and where Ring Delivery would be. The location, the Citi Performing Arts Center.

What made the evening more outstanding was the pulling of raffle tickets between unveilings. The prizes started as cherry ring boxes and iTunes gift cards, evolved into $100 Brass Rat gift cards, and by the end of it they were giving out three free Brass Rats.

Of the ~10 raffle tickets drawn, I won a ring box and gift card, Sam and Pegler won $100 gift cards, and Maddie won a free ring! We were the winningest section of the night!

We left the auditorium and grabbed our shirts and shot glasses before the mob hit the lobby. We streamed back to the dorm and started blabbing and bragging about our ring to everybody who wasn't there, and the excitement is still going on. I was fit for and ordered my Brass Rat yesterday and am eagerly waiting for May 8th so I can get my very own Brass Rat!

I hope you enjoyed the long read, I tried to be as thorough as possible. I'll make sure to blog about delivery as well.

Oh, one more thing, all of these images (other than the theater picture and Tony Stark) are super high resolution if you click on them. I'd recommend it! Thanks for reading.

How I spent my last weekend

2009-01-23T20:28:00.001-05:00

Funny!

2009-01-20T18:43:00.003-05:00

Hey, I've blogged about Truman before and now I'm doing it again! OMG! WOW!

Ok, so Truman and his friends have created a pilot of sorts and are trying to get it out there. It's funny, actually, much better than I expected it to be (sorry Truman, but independently produced movies/shows generally bore me. This didn't.)

Ok, so, here you go, give it a view and then give it a funny. FUNNY!

Writers - Episode 1 - watch more funny videos

This is why I'm having a hard time getting home

2008-12-20T16:54:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to get from Boston, MA to Portland, OR. I've been in airplanes and airports for well over a day and a half. Why so long? Check out what weather.com has on its main page:

Wonderful, the two biggest snowstorms in the country happen to be hovering directly over where I was leaving from and where I am trying to go.

I'm currently in Seattle WA and am one 40 minute flight away from Portland, OR. The next issue is that the snow storm is going to make it almost impossible for my parents to come get me from Portland. STUPID SNOW!

Lyrics Updated

2008-12-08T16:47:00.002-05:00

Ok, my Dragonforce Lyric Generator is in a stage of completion. That's right, it's spitting out entire songs worth of lyrics. To celebrate this, I will be posting random lines generated at the top of my blog for a while, as well as changing my Facebook status to reflect how awesome these lyrics are. Just check out the top of the page to see new and exciting lyrics a la the Dragonforce Lyric Generator.

Dragonforce Lyric Generator

2008-12-06T15:27:00.002-05:00

Earlier this year my roommate and I realized that the lyrics for Dragonforce songs are absolutely ridiculous.

We often joke about them, stringing together random "epic" words and pretending that they're Dragonforce lyrics.

One day we decided that instead of just stringing these words together ourselves, we should write a program to do it. A Dragonforce Lyric Generator, if you will. A couple of important steps had to be taken to ensure accurate Dragonforce replication, which include:

1) Make a list of every word used in every Dragonforce song
2) Calculate the frequency of each word
3) Sort all of the words by word type (noun, verb, adverb, pronoun, adjective, article, etc)
4) Write the code

I've been working on this on and off for a while and it's due for a class on Wednesday evening so it will definitely be in a state of completion by then (there will always be tweaking and refining to do). BUT. . . here's the reason for the entry. My code just generated its first couple of sentences! The words "on" "in" and "before" are hard-coded in but everything else is generated based on the frequency of usage in other Dragonforce songs. I present to you, the first ten lines generated using my Dragonforce Lyric Generator!

On a first searching body, in the song before the pain.
On the high unknown moonlight, in the fire before the rain.
On the good endless winter, in a time before the sun.
On a first endless silence, in the sky before a ride.
On the north master tower, in the hell before the fight.
On a lost falling lifetime, in the rage before the time.
On the long burning evil, in the break before the face.
On the lost falling lifetime, in a side before a cry.
On the cold searching tonight, in the dream before the night.
On the lost searching laughter, in the sword before a door.

Clever. Mean, but clever.

2008-12-03T20:38:00.000-05:00

Mean Nutshot Prank - Watch more free videos

A Timeline

2008-11-30T15:29:00.002-05:00

Sorry, it's been a while, MIT has been kicking me in the face and I just haven't had time to post anything here. But, to my loyal readers, I present you with a tidbit that ordinarily I would put on the MIT blogs, but instead I think I'll put it here for you.

I started up a Facebook account at the beginning of this school year. I'd had Facebook before but I deleted it after they rolled out apps and top friends. At the beginning of the year Facebook cleaned up all the crap and hid it behind tabs, which made it bearable enough to warrant opening up a new account. I've gone through and grabbed all of my status updates since the semester started and compiled them. It's a relatively entertaining look into how a semester progresses here at MIT, enjoy!

Michael is cautiously testing the Facebook waters. 11:55am

Michael just caught a cokroach beetle thing in his room that would make grown women scream. Pics to come. 1:18pm

Michael is looking for the giant cockroach beetle thing that he tried to capture. He's also not going to be sleeping here tonight. . . 1:32pm

Michael is beginning a full frontal assault on the giant bug hiding in his room. 4:14pm

Michael VICTORY OVER THE BUG!

Michael is looking forward to seeing his parents tomorrow. 8:48pm

Michael is duck boating today. 9:34am

Michael shouldn't be allowed into urban outfitters. 10:00pm

Michael is buying paint for his new room. 6:59pm

Michael is ready for the weekend. Already? Yes. 10:00pm

Michael is painting his room. 11:21pm

Michael and Sauza just realized that our room is now painted in Native American style. Oops. 2:41am

Michael is moving to his new room! 1:43pm

Michael is watching "Flash Gordon". 10:19pm

Michael is in bed. 11:14pm

Michael is at work. 6:25am

Michael is blogging. Duh. 7:37pm

Michael is cleaning the floor for Orientation and REX. 8:57pm

Michael is going to kill the Torries today! 10:15am

Michael killed all the torries. The world is now a better place. 3:42pm

Michael is almost ready for orientation to start. 11:42pm

Michael is discovering that DragonForce lyrics are ridiculous. 6:38am

Michael is glad he went to work today. 9:08pm

Michael needs to do laundry. 4:25pm

Michael had a busy evening. 4:03am

Michael is watching a room get painted in some of the scariest colors ever. 12:05am

Michael is going to clean now. 10:01pm

Michael is really upset that Don LaFontaine died. 1:09pm

Michael is classes! 9:05am

Michael is probably getting cancer from the construction that's going on in the hallway. 2:47pm

Michael is cancer free and ran today. 3:33pm

Michael is enjoying spore. 9:41pm

Michael already knows Matlab! Give me my Friday back! 4:56pm

Michael can solve the first 2.003 PSET question and also almost failed 8.01L last year. What's everybody else's problem? 3:41pm

Michael is getting sick. Nooooo!!! Need. . . airborn . . . 12:56pm

Michael is painting a mural while Vista SP1 installs. 3:37pm

Michael is in 2.005. 1:19pm

Michael is white water rafting. 1:13pm

Michael survived rafting. Oh, and Sara owes me 8. 9:11pm

Michael is 2.005 rape!!! 1:49pm

Michael is 20! 10:30am

Michael is stuck on 2.003 PSET problem 2. HELP! 12:59am

Michael is doing 2.005. 8:46pm

Michael is really tired of 2.003. 10:30am

Michael is drowning in Digital Poetry. Suuuuuuuck. 7:09pm

Michael is 2.003. 10:59am

Michael is playing with his brand new macbook. 1:30am

Michael needs help on 2.003 problem 2! HELP! 10:51pm

Michael is going to sleep. 12:21am

Michael is freaking out about mitadmissions. 9:44pm

Michael is one test down, one to go. 7:36pm

Michael is going to have to retake 2.005 :(. 12:18pm

Michael is going to have a toy on shelves! 8:58pm

Michael is grinding through life at the 'tute. 12:53pm

Michael is watching CNN! 7:15pm

Michael is election-ing. 8:47pm

Michael is going to have to figure out 2.005 at some point. 9:04pm

Michael is angry both at the letter "S" and the word "Instantaneous". 12:14pm

Michael is on the same couch he was on 5 hours ago. 10:14pm

Michael is vote for me, blogging scholarship! http://www.collegescholarships.org/blog/2008/ 11/06/vote-for-the-winner-of-the-2008-bloggin g-scholarship/. 6:27pm

Michael is http://tinyurl.com/voteforsnively. 9:00pm

Michael is http://tinyurl.com/voteforsnively and SHARE IT WITH EVERYBODY! 4:35pm

Michael is slipping in the polls! http://tinyurl.com/voteforsnively share the link with everybody you know! 3:13pm

Michael wants you to join his facebook group and invite all of your friends. http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?membe rs&gid=34109629331#/group.php?gid=34109629331. 4:36pm

Michael is the uncleanliest manifestation on campus? http://tinyurl.com/voteforsnively. 2:05pm

Michael is you should vote for me, I'm in 4th place now! http://tinyurl.com/voteforsnively. 5:10pm

Michael is studying for 2.005 and wouldn't mind if people came and distracted me. Just follow the sound of the christmas music. 1:56pm

Michael needs help setting up 2.005 Problem 3. help! 8:32pm

Michael is just about done with 2.005. 10:14pm

Michael is done with 2.005. 11:28pm

Michael 2.003 tonight is going to be a nightmare. 5:44pm

Michael needs to know the kinetic energy of problem 2 on the 2.003 pset. I'll help you with problem 1! 8:13pm

Michael is about to take a 2.005 test. Wish me luck! 6:39pm

Michael is fail. 12:57am

Michael slept in today. 12:06pm

Michael gets to study really hard for finals. To everybody I know, don't expect to see me around a lot during dead week. 3:07pm

Michael is explaining twitter. 6:11pm

Michael is studying for his 2.003 test tomorrow. 10:40am

Michael is ready for 2.003. 10:00pm

Michael has a FREAKING AWESOME PEN! 7:39pm

Michael is in New Hampshie. 12:10am

Michael happy thanksgiving. 12:33pm

Michael is ready for Black Friday. 10:21pm

Michael is exhausted after Black Friday and plans to sleep until the sun goes down. 8:53am

Michael is done reading and attempting to write now. 1:26am

Michael is hopefully recovered from his brief period of being nocturnal. 9:26am

Michael is Navier-Stokes-ing. 12:45pm

Michael is actually working . . .go figure (well, you know, after I finish updating my status). 1:50pm

Getting the Word Out

2008-11-13T14:26:00.005-05:00

Step 1) Vote for me in the blogging scholarship (Michael Snively)

Step 2) Forward the URL http://tinyurl.com/voteforsnively to everybody you know.

Step 3) Read this really nice article about me in my hometown newspaper!

Click to read the article!

MIT

2008-11-12T20:32:00.000-05:00

Join my Facebook group!

2008-11-09T16:33:00.000-05:00

Ok all, I've created a Facebook group to try to help bring in votes for my blogging scholarship.

Click here to go and join it

Invite all of your friends and tell them to do the same. We have until November 20th and we're tied for 3rd. Let's do it!

Vote for Me!

2008-11-07T18:27:00.000-05:00

Last year Jess wrote about a blogging scholarship that she had entered and became a finalist in.

"Gee," I thought, "A blogging scholarship. Well, I'm not a woman, a minority, I don't have a parent in a particular industry, I'm not the smartest in my class or major, and I haven't done anything Nobel Prize worthy, so I don't really qualify for other scholarships, but I could definitely go for a blogging scholarship."

Unfortunately, I heard about it just a bit late last year and couldn't apply, which is probably for the better because Jess won $1,000 and probably would have bumped me out of the running. This year, however, I applied and after about a week of waiting the finalists were announced. With five times as many applicants as last year, I'm extremely excited to announce that I am one of the top twenty finalists!

Before I make my pitch I'd like to share my short essay that I submitted to apply.

My blogging began during my junior year of high school. Like the majority of angsty high schoolers, I started a blog because I was angry at life and felt like spilling my deepest, darkest secrets onto the Internet for everybody to read. Unlike the majority of angsty high schoolers, after I signed up for my blog I decided *not* to be angsty. Instead, I wanted to compile all of my most awesome stories, the coolest stuff I found on the Internet, and other random Internet fodder that I find entertaining. No drama, no gossip, no deep emotional musings. Entertainment, funny pictures, and stories. That's it.

My personal blog was around for about two years before I started writing my blog for the MIT Admissions website. A lot of the blogs for MIT were very informative and very factual but not very fun to read. My goal? Write entries for MIT that not only were informative and factual, but also toed that line between appropriate and ridiculously off topic and random. I wanted people to *want* to read my blogs, to start and not be able to stop, to be entertained, but at the end feel like they know a little more about MIT. Maybe not directly, but sometimes the best information is absorbed indirectly and unknowingly.

My blog entries tell stories about eating contests, danger signs, snowball fights, LEGOs, toys, and all sorts of MIT's lesser known tidbits. Sometimes I get yelled at for being off topic. I don't care. I still strive to fill the Internet with awesome and will continue to do so on into the future.

So, that being said, if you can find it within you to do so, please vote for me. A $10,000 scholarship would be huge (MIT is kind of expensive). Here's a link to the site where you can vote:

If you'd like to post the link yourself on your blog, or just spread it around to help me out, it's http://www.collegescholarships.org/blog/2008/11/06/vote-for-the-winner-of-the-2008-blogging-scholarship/.

I don't know exactly when voting is closed, it's probably around November 17th so go out and vote! Thanks a ton you guys, I don't mean to essentially blog a commercial but, well, I kind of am. I'll make up for it, I promise : )

Scavenger Hunt

2008-11-06T21:46:00.001-05:00

Ok, I have looked EVERYWHERE for this shirt and simply can not find it online. I need your help, can anybody help me find it?

600th Entry

2008-11-04T13:04:00.001-05:00

Wow! So much writing!

I voted, did you? Now all we do is sit back and wait. News watching tonight, riots in Boston after that, and then a trip to DC in January to watch the inauguration. Yay for politics!

Onward

2008-10-27T23:05:00.002-04:00

ElectroPlushies take one more step towards production!

We spoke with a venture capitalist, producer, and marketer and are continuing forward with ElectroPlushies. God willing and the rivers don't rise, within a year or two you should be seeing them on shelves.

Check out our temporary website here:

http://www.electroplushies.com

Just Too Good

2008-10-22T16:21:00.003-04:00

Sometimes we're just too good at what we do.

If you go here:

http://www.vspink.com/nominate_your_school.jsp

you'll see that MIT is in the race to be the next brand of Victoria Secret PinkWear. Seeing this, MIT decided last night that it wanted to win. One quick script and a campus-wide e-mail later and we were raking in 20,000+ votes per minute. Well, until we overwhelmed the Victoria Secret server and crashed their website.

They proceeded to freeze any votes for the top three schools (Drexel obviously ran a script as well, look at those numbers!)

Now, unable to vote for our own school, MIT students have taken to voting all of the other schools up to ridiculously high numbers as well. My favorite is John Public who is averaging about 2,000 votes a minute right now. Also note Wellesley and Michigan, both our fault.

Keep checking in throughout the day to see what we manage to accomplish!

Passing

2008-10-21T11:07:00.002-04:00

My newest Digital Poetry poem, a video poem called "Passing."

It features some nice shots of the inside of Burton-Conner, specifically Conner 2. Hopefully you catch the two connections between the title and the video.

For Sale

2008-10-14T11:42:00.004-04:00

Alright, cool news. The other day some of us came upon a huge box full of new 2008-2009 copies of How To GAMIT (or, How to Get Around MIT). They're only sold at MIT in the Coop so they're relatively hard to get, but basically here's the deal. There is more information in this book about MIT than you will find anywhere else. Anywhere. I promise. And it's written completely by MIT students without help from MIT so everything written is uncensored and untouched by MIT.

They retail for $12.00, I'm selling them for $5.00 with $4.00 shipping. I've put one on ebay here:

http://tinyurl.com/59gdhh

And will keep adding them as I sell them. IF you want one, e-mail me at snively [at] MIT [dot] edu and then use the Paypal button on the right to donate $9.00. I'll go ahead and ship the book to you either next day or the day after.

Seriously, this is the best source of MIT information out there and the fact that we stumbled upon so many is pretty awesome. I'm keeping two for myself but I want to share with you guys too. Here's the ebay description I used.

The 2008-2009 edition of "How To Get Around MIT," otherwise known as How To GAMIT.

XXXVII

Written by MIT students for MIT students, this 383 page book is the most concise, useful, and affordable wealth of MIT information in existence. Updated every year, nothing is out of date. If you're even considering MIT as a college choice or if you have a son or daughter attending, this is probably the best source of legitimate information in existence.

I write for the MIT Admissions website, http://mitatmissions.org/Snively/shtml, and frequently use this book to help answer questions people ask me about MIT. A lot of people try to figure out what MIT is like by reading Newsweek or buying books "written with help from real students" by outside publishers, but this book is so much more than that. Honestly, don't buy anything more expensive than this, you're ripping yourself off. This book retails for $12.00.

The chapters it lists are as follows:

1) Useful Telephone Numbers
2) Emergency Information
3) Help
4) Academics
5) Medical
6) Housing
7) Law
8) Finances
9) Athletics
10) MIT Geography
11) MIT Facilities
12) Athena
13) Hacking
14) MIT Publications
15) Transportation
16) Sightseeing
17) Shopping
18) Entertainment
19) Restaurants
20) Media
21) Miscellaneous
22) Student Activities
23) Colleges Around Boston
24) Moah about Boston
25) MIT History
26) MIT Songs
27) Glossary
28) Index
29) Advertising and Photo Index
30) Staff

I'll leave you with the introduction to the book:

Welcome to MIT

You hold in your hands the very newest revision of How to Get Around MIT. I certainly hope you're happy you've got it -- I know I am. If you are reading this, chances are your life at MIT is just beginning. No matter what happens in your next n-many years here always remember Rule 0. Everything is gonna be OK.

When I was but a starry eyed frosh, I was handed my very own version of How To Get Around MIT. The cover had a very inelegant black on white title which proudly proclaimed that the book was thirty percent thinner than the previous version. I didn't really know how fewer pages was relevant to my ability to get around MIT and I was just annoyed to receive another bloody thing meant to indoctrinate me into the Institute. I dismissed the book as propaganda meant to be half useful and half a 300 page sycophant that in its indecision became entirely useless. Fortunately for all of us working on it and you kind folk, I was wrong.

How to GAMIT (as those in the know like to call it) is entirely student produced as well as financially independent. Because How To GAMIT does not take any handouts from the institute, these students are free to tell you the truth as they see it. Its staff has long since been embittered by countless caffeine fueled all-nighters, brutal exams, and hung over mornings, much like you will soon endure. Facts are a dime a dozen in this modern internet age, so we are offering you something better -- real advice, service with a laugh, a smirk, and a story. How to GAMIT is a snapshot of MIT life and culture taken by all of us who are trapped on the inside.

If you find the book to be a great resource and would like to help out next year, we'd love your assistance. If you find errors in this book send me an e-mail at _______@mit.edu. They will get fixed for the next version.

Good Luck.

Microwaves [Update]

2008-10-12T12:21:00.003-04:00

Just sittin' here, doin' my 2.003, when two guys walk into the room with a microwave, a multi-meter, a breadboard, and a bunch of metal. Now I smell something electronic cooking and they keep running the microwave.

Am I going to die?

[Update]
Ok, yeah, something is definitely sparking, cracking, and glowing blue in the microwave. They're holding the breadboard up to the front of the microwave and are trying to take some kind of reading from the cracking and the . . . OMG! There's fire in the microwave!

Webcomics. . . Alive!

2008-10-12T11:13:00.004-04:00

Alright, assuming most of my readers are prospective MIT students or current MIT students, you've probably heard of XKCD.

If not, XKCD is a webcomic with themes geared towards "geeks" including mathematicians, physicists, and people who just enjoy technology. It's written by a guy named Randall Monroe and has a relatively large cult following. I've written about various XKCD encounters I've had, here and here.

Several weeks ago Randall published this comic:

Last week, lo and behold, a new button appeared near the comment box on YouTube:

That's right, a joke in a comic was implemented a week later on YouTube, making Randall Monroe inadvertently semi-more famous than he already is. I guess you can take two things away from this.

1) If you write a really funny comic about something you may incite change on one of the internet's most famous and popular websites.
2) Always audio preview your comments so you don't sound stupid.

Doo-dee-doo

2008-10-12T10:56:00.001-04:00

Doo-dee-doo

Just doin' my 2.003

Doo-dee-doo

Rollin' a spool

Doo-dee-doo

Slidin' a bar

Doo-dee-doo

Watching a motor compress some weird arrangement of two-force members, pushing a piston-type thing against a spring

Doo-dee-*gagh!*

Portal Cake Wrapped in Meta-Irony

2008-10-08T19:11:00.003-04:00

Check out my awesome birthday cake!

Thanks guys!

A hack and a message

2008-10-04T14:49:00.005-04:00

Hacking at MIT is one of MIT's strongest selling points. MIT proudly talks about all the creative hacks and pranks that students pull off, but what a lot of people don't realize is that MIT, while loving hacks, hates hackers. It doesn't quite seem fair that MIT is willing to hand hackers that its caught over to the Cambridge Police and file charges against them, especially when they love the hacks so much.

Chancellor Clay sent out an e-mail the other day to the entire student body, discussing hacking and proclaiming that the current state of hacking doesn't conform to current societal standards.

Several days later was a response. The first half was an opinion article in The Tech (MIT's newspaper) written by one of MIT's dorms' presidents, Vinayak Ranade.

With President Hockfield’s ‘State of the Institute’ just passed, I felt that it would be appropriate to address the state of the Institute hacker, who is after all, a member of MIT belonging to myriad macro and micro communities.

As the president of East Campus, I often have to deal with the popular misconception at MIT equating hacking with the dorm. While hackers are not exclusive to EC, some hackers do reside within the dorm, and it is my duty to represent them as best I can.

The Institute hacker, like you and me, is just another hosed MIT student. He wants to graduate on time, needs to pull an all-nighter for that extra-long p-set, and is worried that airfares are going up and that he might not be able to make it home for Christmas. Sometimes he thinks about just partying the entire weekend. Tonight, however, he wants to do something more exciting, something that makes him feel alive — something he can only do at a place like MIT.

He starts off his night by grabbing a couple of like-minded people; he knows that one should never hack alone. The group sets off for a grand night, thrilled with the prospect of being the next generation of “those brilliant MIT hackers” that mystify everyone.

Soon enough, the Institute hacker finds himself at a door which he is not supposed to get through. He’s really curious to know what’s on the other side. For the Institute hacker this is not something new, and a few minutes later he is on the other side of the door.

It turns out to be just a janitor’s closet, and the Institute hacker knocks over a pail of dirty water walking in. Remembering the code of ethics he was taught his freshman year, he quickly cleans up the mess, and leaves the place just as he found it, perhaps even better.

He takes extra care to make sure that the door is locked on his way out, because he doesn’t want some bum who’s wandering MIT’s open campus to come and spend the night in or steal anything from the unlocked janitor’s closet that he found. The last thing he wants is for hackers to be blamed for someone else’s mistakes.

The night eventually leads the Institute hacker to a roof. He really enjoys the cool breeze and the Boston skyline as it stares back at him. He feels fortunate and proud to be one of the few people who can get to this particular roof. Suddenly, he hears the roof door click.

His first instinct is to remain as calm as possible. Safety safety safety, he remembers an upperclassman drilling into him during his freshman year. Within moments, there is a gruff looking Campus Police officer shining his light on the Institute hacker, rumbling “Hey you. Come over here.”

The Institute hacker knows that he’s been caught. Not so long ago, he would have immediately obeyed and walked over to the officer on duty, and cooperated fully. But tonight, he isn’t so sure. He’s read the letter from the Chancellor earlier in the night. He’s heard of his friends being treated like common criminals.

He’s read about the police brutality accusations in The Tech. He doesn’t trust the officer to know what the hacking code of ethics is, and he is terrified at the prospect of being thrown to the Cambridge Police by some MIT authority who doesn’t really understand hacking. He remembers hearing about a friend’s belongings getting confiscated for weeks by the Campus Police. He remembers a friend who had to face lengthy criminal court proceedings and defaming articles in newspapers.

The Institute hacker’s mind is filled with doubts. Maybe he should have just agreed to go and get drunk with his other buddies instead of trying to carry on some MIT “tradition.” Was it even a tradition anymore, or just a game of cat and mouse? He wonders.

There is a lack of appreciation for the amount of effort that hackers put into pulling off ridiculous feats. Tours led by hackers convince many prefrosh to choose MIT, because they know that this experience wouldn’t be possible at Harvard or Yale. I didn’t hear a single administrator complain when hackers committed grand theft for the Caltech cannon hack, but they all changed their tune the moment students got caught on MIT’s own campus.

I walk into the Stata Center for classes and see the exhibits commemorating old hacks, but the hackers that I know don’t feel commemorated. They feel like MIT is on track to becoming like any other university. They are tired of the administrators changing their stance on hacking all the time, depending on external pressures and internal politics.

They never know what to expect if a Campus Police officer stops them, even if they’re just walking down the Infinite. They don’t feel like staying calm and stepping up to the officer on duty. They want to deal with neither the policies nor the changing whims of police officers and administrators. They just want to explore interesting places, understand exactly how that machine room works, and pull off some spectacular engineering.

If they want to make a statement, they usually do it in style. But these days, the state of the Institute hacker is such that he is afraid of making a statement; he doesn’t know whether getting caught means community service, going to the Committee on Discipline, going to trial in a Cambridge court, or having to explain his actions to prospective grad schools.

Every student has a message in their inbox today telling them that, “Those who violate the tradition, by endangering themselves or others, by breaking the law, or departing from the ‘hacking code of conduct’ cannot seek protection from responsibility.” This sounds like the administration wants hackers to keep doing all the things which help MIT’s image, but if hackers get caught doing these things, they’ll be mercilessly prosecuted.

Why does MIT put on display all the hacking memorabilia when they would prosecute anyone in the act of putting together those very hacks? Since when do administrators know more about the hacking code of ethics than the hackers who wrote it? Since when does hacking get thrown into the same category as academic integrity and hazing? How can a hacker follow the hacking code of conduct without hacking?

The Institute hacker on the roof is still debating whether to step up to the officer on duty. The state of the Institute hacker is confused, nervous, and insulted.

That same day a hack was pulled, paralleling the sentiment expressed in the article. The Hack Gallery in Stata was altered to reflect what MIT hackers thought about Chancellor Clay's e-mail and the Institute's current stance on hacking.

Hacks on display were covered in black cloth, caution taped, and had violation notices posted on them.

How will the Institute respond? Chancellor Clay, after having the Tech article to him, replied by saying that he was "open to suggestions." Maybe things will get better again.

Photographs used with permission, courtesy of Eric Schmiedl since my camera was in my dorm

Success

2008-09-29T01:46:00.001-04:00

Solved the dumbbell problem! And the last problem. Only three more!

My New T-Shirts

2008-09-27T15:26:00.002-04:00

I bought three awesome new t-shirts today, thought I'd share:

Who knows what each one means?

Current Music

2008-09-27T09:52:00.001-04:00

A glimpse

2008-09-27T09:38:00.003-04:00

Just a glimpse at why MIT is hard. The first problem on my 2.003 PSET. If you have any idea how to or have calculated omega, let me know how please. I know the velocity of the center of mass and the moment of inertia but can't figure out how much of the impulse is transfered into rotational energy. Actually, if you know the rotational energy that's just as useful, so let me know about that as well. Click the image to make it bigger.

Yay MIT!

E-mail MESS!

2008-09-22T12:56:00.002-04:00

Don't you hate it when you send an e-mail and the intended recipient doesn't get it?

Don't you hate getting Spam?

Don't you hate it when people steal from you?

Don't you hate it when all of these things happen at the same time?

About two weeks ago I began to realize that people weren't getting my e-mails. After some work I realized that my e-mails were getting spam filtered by other peoples' mail accounts. Then I started getting mysterious returned-mail e-mails for e-mails that I didn't send, all with spam-related subject matter.

Uh-oh.

Nearest I can tell, a spam bot is using my gmail address to send spam to a bunch of contacts on my gmail contacts list, causing MIT's spam filters to think I'm a spam bot. My MIT e-mail and gmail e-mail are linked such that whenever I use my MIT address it sends the e-mail via gmail, so even though the spambot couldn't get a hold of my MIT address, the fact that it's using my gmail one is hurting the credibility of my MIT address. The only solution I could come up with for this is to host my MIT e-mail on a new and different gmail account.

I set up my new gmail account, imported all my old contacts, and set it up to work with my MIT address. Then I began POPing all of my e-mail from my old gmail account into my new gmail account. This brings me to the point of this entry:

1) The transfer has been going for almost a week now and is just about to finish up.
2) All of my filters are totally screwed up.
3) I'm trying to figure out what e-mail is being forwarded to my new account from my old one.
4) I can't tell what's being sent to my gmail address and what's being sent to my MIT address.
5) I've been receiving about 10 e-mails every minute for the last week during the transfer.

In essence, my e-mail status is totally hosed. If you e-mail me and I don't respond it's because I probably lost your e-mail in the deluge of e-mails I've been getting and I didn't flag it or group it or filter it. I'm doing my best and hopefully I'll be able to get all this sorted out within the next week.

Also, it sucks that I have to use a separate Google account for e-mail since my YouTube and blogger account are both the same as my gmail. I have to sign in and out of Google each time I want to switch between gmail and YouTube or Blogger. I'll probably get this all worked out, but the Internet is being mean to be right now so I apologize for any confusion for a little while.

GAudi

2008-09-19T16:51:00.003-04:00

For those of you who, like me, don't own a phonebook, you may have heard of GOOG411. Simply dial 1800-GOOG-411, speak the name of the city, state, and business, and all of a sudden you have a phone number and address. An awesome system, right?

What if I told you that it's actually just a front? Sure, it works, but what is it actually for? It's actually just a way for Google to train a speech recognition engine that it HAS FINALLY IMPLEMENTED (in beta form of course) that allows users to search the speech in YouTube videos. Right now it can only be used in political videos but it's still REALLY impressive. Yay for Google!

Click

So Many New Bloggers!

2008-09-10T12:06:00.004-04:00

All the new MIT bloggers went semi-live today! I've never seen so many bloggers on one page before!

[Read]

My Weekend

2008-09-08T09:11:00.001-04:00

Several weeks ago, Lauren '10 sent an e-mail to the floor inviting us all to Race for the Cure. She created a team for our floor and a bunch of us decided to join and do the race. I used to be a really avid runner but stopped when I got to college. This was a great chance for me to get out and go for a nice 5k with some friends and support breast cancer research so I went for it.

We ordered our shirts and I signed on as a runner. There were several option other than running, a couple of which I found rather amusing. My favorite was "Sleep in for the cure." For $25.00 you don't have to run and you could just stay in bed. As tempting as that sounded, I think I'd have felt a bit guilty not running.

Saturday I spent all day working on painting an 8-bit Mario mural in the hallway and towards the end of the day I was exhausted. Why? Here's a glimpse into Boston weather. . . yesterday was 85 degrees with 100% humidity. Basically, it was so hot that I was peeling white wall paint off when I tried to remove blue tape. I figured, after a while, that if it was hot enough to melt the paint on walls, it was probably too hot to be painting said walls. I stopped and cleaned up a bit, then I hung out with some people and showed them awesome YouTube videos. I had one of my first realizations of the evening during this moment. Spore, the game that's been in development FOREVER and I'd been waiting for FOREVER was going to be coming out in a few short hours! This caused an outburst and turned some heads.

It was actually quite funny, I'd forget for an hour and then randomly remember again, burst out, startle, and then return to YouTube. Midnight came, I checked, and was devastated to see that instead of releasing at midnight, Spore would be coming out at 2 PM! NOOOO! There was general mourning by the part of the present parties and we proceeded to watch more YouTube videos. I looked to my right and saw Dan '11's giant inflatable penguin who had been outfitted with my Race for the Cure shirt (which, presently, is so stretched from being worn by a massive penguin that it no longer fits). This reminded me of a shirt that I had seen somebody wearing around campus last year that he had purchased to support breast cancer research. It, in a nutshell, said "I *pink ribbon* Boobs." A slightly tacky but well-meaning mix of NYC and Web2.0-esque humor. I realized, after the race today, that I would have fit in PERFECTLY wearing it because I was surrounded by breast cancer survivors sporting shirts saying "I'm in it for the ta-tas" and "Boobs, who needs them?" Anywho, back from my tangent, everybody in the room was hot, sweaty, sticky, tired, and knew that they were going to have to wake up at 7:15AM to go running so we decided to go to bed.

Dan and I hopped into bed, laid there, and then started complaining.

"I hate this weather."
"This is terrible! There's not even a breeze!"
"You know, the conference room has an air conditioner."
"We should just sleep there."
"We should."
"I'm not kidding."
"Neither am I."

Boom, out of bed, grabbing pillows and cushions, we started towards the conference room when we were intercepted by Dorothy '12 and Sara '12.

"Where are you guys going?"
"Conference room."
"Why?"
"To sleep. It's air conditioned."
"Oh my gosh, wait for me."

Soon there was a party of four with sleeping bags, pillows, cushions, and exhaustion, all settled into the conference room with the AC set for 60 degrees. It was beautiful.

At 4:30AM I heard something.

"Hey, you guys can't be here, leave."

Huh, what, what's going on? Somehow, and for some reason, the dorm security guard opened the door to the conference room and found the four of us asleep, not hurting anybody, and made us move back to our rooms. By now, Tropical Storm Hannah was in full force and rain was coming down in sheets outside, with gusts upwards of a bazillion miles an hour, so our room had cooled a bit, but it wasn't nearly as nice as air-conditioning.

3 hours later we were up, dressed, and ready for a race. We hopped the Red Line and rode it to JFK/UMass, caught a shuttle, and arrived at the race. There were about 5,000 runners and a lot of pink. We joined the mob and began our race for the cure. After some running, walking, exciting talk about the GIRs and Sophomore Exploratory, Sara and I finished, grabbed some yogurt (not whipped) and met Adalaide, Rick, and Sauza. We headed back to campus and I turned right back around to help deliver ElectroPlushies to a museum exhibit in Lowell Mass. At 3 o'clock I got back and headed into the dorm.

SPORE! OMG, it's out!

A decryption (legal decryption, I bought this game) and installation later I was sporing! A crowd of 6 or 7 people quickly realized that the microbe/water stage of Spore is the Most Entertaining Game Ever. It can be pretty well summed up with "Om Nom Nom Nom Om Nom Nom OMGOMGOMG!!! WE'RE GOING TO DIE! SWIM SWIM SWIM! SWIM FASTER! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Om."

Now we've taken a break from Spore, I'm blogging, and then I'm going to get back to Spore. All in all, I'd say it was a good weekend. I started a mural, fought breast cancer, and got Spore. What else could I want? How about no 2.005 PSET? Yeah, that'd be nice . . .

Sick of it

2008-09-02T15:46:00.007-04:00

My plan today was to really enjoy my last day before classes started. Unfortunately, something happened that pretty much ruined any chance of that happening. As many of you may know or remember, back during my senior year of high school I contacted the movie voice over god, Don LaFontaine ("In a world. . . "). I asked if he would do some voice over work for a slideshow I was making and he graciously did, free of charge. Everybody I ever spoke with agreed that he was really just a nice man. Since then I've subscribed to his e-mail blog where he sends updates about what he's been up to. I've read about new trips, movies, gone behind the scenes at the Oscars, and have enjoyed chatting about these adventures with others. Everything he writes is positive, everything is genuine, and I've really enjoyed the fact that he cares enough to write directly to people instead of just keeping a website.

He's been having lung complications lately and has been writing about them in his e-mails. His last e-mail was on August 11th and was as follows:

********************************

I thought it was about time that I brought everybody up to speed with what's been happening in my world.

You haven't been hearing a lot from me lately, and that's because I have been fairly seriously ill for the last several months.

In order to give you the complete picture, I need to go back over some material of which many of you are already aware, but this thing needs to be seen in its full context.

Last fall, I began to notice that I was having trouble catching my breath during exercise. Subsequent tests revealed a suspicious growth on my lymph nodes and left lung. This required an exploratory surgery called a Media Stenoscopy, which was performed At Cedars Sinai Hospital in late November of '07. The biopsy ultimately proved negative for any tumor, but there was a spot on the lung that still needed to be checked. Unfortunately, sometime during the operation, one of my lungs was nicked, and I developed Pneumothorax, which basically means that the lung collapsed, releasing all the air into my upper body, causing a condition called Subcutaneous Emphysema - Which blew me up like a balloon from the ribs up to my eyebrows. This happened three times over the next six days. The "cure" for this condition is to place chest tubes and small catheters under the skin to drain off the excess air.

Unfortunately, all that air also accumulated around my vocal cords, causing me to sound like an ambassador from Munchkinland. This condition, I was told, could last for a number of weeks.

We decided to put off a Bronchoscopy to determine the status of the spot on my lung until after the new year, by which time, my breathing had become even more labored.

Again, the test failed to reveal anything more than a few "suspicious" cells - but no cancer. I had also scheduled, months before, a standard Colonoscopy, which I had in January. This revealed a growth on my colon.

Are we having fun, yet?

So - I go back to Cedars to discuss laparoscopic surgery to get rid of that growth, after first undergoing CAT and PET scans. During my consultation with the surgeon, my Oncologist came in with another doctor to tell me that I had a tumor growing under my lung and threatening to encircle my Aortic Valve to my heart.

Suddenly, the surgery was put on hold, and I was scheduled for thirty-seven sessions of intense radiation and four sessions of Chemotherapy, which stretched over the next seven weeks. This included four blood transfusions.

During this time, the effects of the Subcutaneous Emphysema had worn off, and I was able to work again.

After treatment, I was told that it was completely successful, and the growth had been completely eradicated! I was also told that the radiation therapy would continue to work in my system for a number of weeks.

Well, it did.

In rare cases - like mine - it spreads into the lungs and causes a very persistent condition called radiation pnuemonitis. This reduces the lungs capacity to about a quarter, making it almost impossible to walk ten paces without having to stop for air.

The treatment for this condition is massive doses of steroids, which balloons the face and body, and it also settles on the vocal cords in a major way, creating a good deal of gravel and hoarseness. In short - it has brought my career to a near stand-still.

Steroids can also have a major effect on one's heart rate, and blood sugar count - each of which sent me back to Cedars on two separate occasions for four and three day stays within a week of each other. Because of the blood sugar influence, I now have a temporary form of diabetes, and need to take insulin.

This condition will pass as soon as I get the pnuemonitis under control, but it's a balancing act between doses of steroids and insulin.

As I mentioned earlier, this lung thing is incredibly resistant, and to this date, I am still looking for some improvement.

I do work from time to time, but my voice is nowhere close to where I need it to be. Fortunately, I have incredibly faithful friends and clients who have shown me what loyalty really means by working with me, even in my diminished capacity.

I am now recovering from the recovery. When this is cleared up, I still am facing the laparoscopic stomach surgery, but that will be a cakewalk.

But the real point of all this is the Genisis of the condition. I was a smoker, on and off, for thirty years. I quit nearly twenty years ago, but that crap has a tendency to lie doggo in your system. It finally caught up with me, and as you've just read - it ain't pretty. For those of you who are in the Voice Over business, and you think that smoking is adding some wonderful quality to your instrument - WAKE UP! Quit! Today! Whoever you are - if you smoke - Stop! All you are adding is garbage to your vocal cords, and a nice deep layer of tar and poison on the linings of your lungs.

I tell you all this, because I need to clear the air, because there has been a lot of speculation out there, and because it should serve as a cautionary tale. Even though the growth on my lungs has been erased, there are still a few miles to go before I'm back to 100%.

But that, I can assure you - is going to happen!

-Don

********************************

Yesterday, Don passed away in the hospital, out of the blue, from complications due to a collapsed lung. I'm sick of it guys. Bernie Mac and now Don LaFontaine, both genuinely good people who are now just gone. Don dying is actually really messing with me. This is somebody that I've communicated with and been following and have always held in the highest regards.

I really want to finish by repeating his last point. Don't start smoking. Ever. You don't look cool, you're poisoning yourselves, you will die, and you will only hurt the people you care about and know.

RIP

Impressed

2008-08-28T23:07:00.001-04:00

This is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

That's what you get

2008-08-23T22:01:00.001-04:00

Thare is a time and a place to show-off.

Barack Roll

2008-08-23T16:42:00.001-04:00

THIS IS WAR!!!

2008-08-15T21:04:00.001-04:00

The e-mails went out and tomorrow is D-Day. Here are the details:

Greetings fellow Americans,

The king has refused our demands and thus, you have been drafted along with 450 other soldiers into the Boston Minutemen, fighting alongside your countrymen! We shall put those Tories in their place.

Specific Army Meetup:
http://tiny.cc/colonials

Time:
1:30PM Sharp

Uniform Color:
Blue shirt of any sort

Necessary Supplies:
Water Gun (empty upon arrival)
Backpack
At least 2 two-liter water bottles full of water
One bottle of bubbles

Weather Intelligence:
War is hell! There might be a bit of rain tomorrow, but this battle is taking place regardless! You can bet our countrymen never gave up due to a little bit of precipitation. All our past events have had record number of participants, and two of them happened during blizzards. We are Bostonians, we never negotiate with bad weather.

Expect an all-out battle, we shall see you on the field. If this be treason, make the most of it!

With sincerest regards,
General Washington
Company Officer Commander
Boston Minutemen
http://misteriosos.org

News

2008-08-10T18:46:00.002-04:00

On Saturday Bernie Mac, the hilarious comedian and actor, died of pneumonia. He was 50 years old.

Today Isaac Hayes, musician and voice of "Chef" on South Park, died of natural causes. He was 65.

Why do things like this all happen at once?

Domo goes to work!

2008-08-07T23:59:00.004-04:00

Prediction

2008-08-04T22:27:00.003-04:00

We all know how I like to make predictions. I have another one for you. Please, don't feel slighted if you aren't one of the predicted ones, I'm going purely on what I think will happen. This in no way will effect the outcome or have any bearing on the official decision, this is just what I think will happen. Ready?

MIT '12 Admissions Bloggers:

Kelsey Kennedy
Chris Mills
Shannon Moran

Disagree? Prove me wrong.

Muse -- "Knights of Cydonia"

2008-08-02T22:06:00.001-04:00

Because y'all need to experience one of the best live performances ever.

Knights of Cydonia, by Muse

Two More Pwnd Birds

2008-08-01T22:15:00.004-04:00

6) Om Nom Nom Nom Cow

5) Om Nom Nom Nom Pelican

Mojave

2008-07-29T21:50:00.002-04:00

Good for you Microsoft, good for you.

Realizing that people are sheep and that they hated Vista just because other people hated Vista, Microsoft did something about it. Check out the beginnings of their new advertising campaign.

(This entry typed on a computer running Windows Vista)

Nerf Vulcan Thoughts

2008-07-27T21:56:00.004-04:00

Today I officially tested my brand new toy that was just released: The Nerf Vulcan!

I first experienced the Vulcan at Toy Fair 2008 and was amazed. Seriously, it was one of the coolest Nerf guns I'd ever seen and it shot incredibly far. When I started my job at Hasbro I kept seeing it, EVERYWHERE! There were Vulcans in the model shop, Vulcans in design land, Vulcans in the Toy Preview hallway. It's almost like the kid on the Vulcan box was just laughing at me. But, finally, after months of waiting, the day came. The Vulcan was set loose on the world and I bought it the day it came out. One online order and employee discount later I was ready for a big box to arrive at my door.

It arrived yesterday. I ripped it open and assembled it. I tried to fire it. No batteries. Curses! I checked what kind of batteries it needed. D cell. Crap. Six of them. CRAP! Rapid fire would have to wait until the next day (aka today). Today I went and burned up some Stop & Shop gift cards I had and bought 12 D cell batteries. Into the Vulcan they went! I loaded up the 25 round ammo belt, loaded it into the ammo box, and let loose. Here are the results:

Apart from the one random dud round, the rest of the shots went off flawlessly and when the belt was empty it fell to the ground. A couple of observations:

> The gun will EASILY jam if the Nerf darts are protruding at all from inside the belt. Make sure they are shoved in all the way.
> It's also fairly important to lay the belt in the ammo box correctly, otherwise you have this weird folding pattern that can cause jamming.
> This thing has three rails for sites, lights, and scopes. Mine currently has two sites and one sniper scope.
> The streamline darts work just as well (those are the ones in the video, in fact), as do normal suction cup darts. Basically, if it's a Nerf dart, the Vulcan will fire it. Here's my video of the suction cup rounds being shot:

> This gun is freaking sweet, especially with two ammo belts since I don't have to reload as often. It makes a great addition to the collection.

Maybe if Hasbro decides to be awesome and start selling them in the boutique at work I can get one for $20.00! Come on Hasbro, you know you want to!

So that's it, new toy, Nerf Vulcan, sheer awesome. I'd buy one if you're into Nerf, it's a blast.

Birds go Boom

2008-07-27T11:45:00.002-04:00

Dan brought up a good point the other day. I seem to have an affinity for birds exploding. First I published the "Be a Man" entry, then the magician one. I then realized that I could name two other exploding bird videos right off the top of my head, so I think I'll post a little exploding bird medley here. Ready?

4) Randy Johnson's 95 mph Fastball

3) FordSportka: The Ka's Evil Twin

2) The Amazing Jonathan
Amazing Jonathan - Bird Trick

1) Be a Man!
How to Deal with an Annoying Baby Chick

Second Chance

2008-07-27T11:30:00.003-04:00

Alright Facebook, let's try this again.

You were perfect when you first came out. You were text only, you were clean, and you were full of legitimate people. Then, for some reason that god only knows, you decided to mySpace-ify yourself into a load of crap. That was just over a year ago. I dropped you like a bag of rotten meat, and I'm glad I did. Here's the explanation I gave last year:

First off, I'd like to explain why I deleted my Facebook account. With the creation of the "Top Friends" list, fortune cookies, and embedding videos, I've decided that Facebook has become too much like MySpace. I joined Facebook with reservation and only to talk to future classmates. Now that Facebook has grown out of control, I dumped it, I don't want to have to deal with a site that's going to slip into the land of emo sophomores. I'll continue to blog regularly and you can always get to me through this blog. I read every single comment, they are all automatically e-mailed to me. I hope deleting my account doesn't bug anybody, because I just had to do it.

Facebook came out with a new format this last Friday that everybody keeps complaining about. "It takes all of my applications off the main page!" "I hate the new tabs!" "My bumper stickers aren't displaying correctly!" "I whine a lot!"

Ok, you know what they did ladies and gentlemen? For those of you who just jumped onto the Facebook bandwagon, lemme fill you in: THEY MADE IT BETTER!

All your apps are smashed to the left and out of the way, where they belong. All that other annoying crap has been put into tabs along the top. That means, when I look at your Facebook page I'm not inundated with 30 Mb of flashy crap. Instead, I get to actually see the things I want to see.

As such, since Facebook has agreed to make amends, I am recreating my Facebook page. Just until they decide to screw it up again, and then bye bye Facebook round 2.

iPod Update

2008-07-24T19:49:00.003-04:00

As you may have noticed (or maybe not), there has been a bit of a change to the fundraising thermometer in the sidebar. Instead of a goal of $300.00 it now reads $150.00. Why? Here's what happened.

My iPod didn't fall out of my pocket at Blue Man Group. As everybody left the theater we were crowded together and I was pick pocketed. That's right, somebody reached into my pocket and took the iPod out.

Today I got an e-mail with the subject "I HAVE YOUR LOST IPHONE."

E-mails with subjects like this pique my interest. I read it. The person who sent the e-mail to me purchased my iPod from somebody for $150.00, not knowing that it was stolen. When he looked at the iPod he noticed an engraving on the back that said "Michael Snively MIT 2011." (This, folks, is the reason you should always have your Apple products laser engraved). He realized, at this point, that the iPod was probably lost or stolen, so he googled the laser engraving and found my e-mail address (you try googling Michael Snively MIT 2011 and see what you find). He wants to give the iPod back in hopes that some day, when he loses something, it will be returned to him.

With your help I've saved up almost $83.00 for a replacement iPod, but that money is going somewhere else now. I'm not spending it on myself, I'm using it to help offset the $150 that this gentleman lost when he purchased my iPod. Please continue to help, it's selfless acts like eating $150.00 just to do the right thing that restore my faith in the world.

Bird!

2008-07-23T20:45:00.001-04:00

Amazing Jonathan - Bird Trick

Donations? What?

2008-07-22T06:25:00.003-04:00

As you may have noticed, there is a new button on my sidebar. It's big, yellow, says "Donate" on it, and has a bunch of little credit cards underneath it. This magical button gives you the opportunity to transfer funds directly from your bank account to mine. No, this is not just a random attempt to become filthy rich, there's actually a reason behind this.

I went to blue man group on Saturday and was listening to my iPod on the way there. I met a friend there, we went in, and I put my headphones away (therefore, the iPod was still in my pocket). After the show I stuffed my crepe paper headband (free headbands for everybody in the audience, woo hoo!) into my pocket and left the theater. About 30 minutes later I dug into my pocket to get my iPod and check my e-mail. . . it wasn't there. I checked all of my pockets and my backpack, no iPod. I backtracked in my mind and knew that I had it when I went into blue man. I thought back to putting my headband into my pocket and realized that I didn't feel my iPod when I did that. It must have fallen out of my pocket during the show.

I called the theater twice asking if they'd found it and telling them where I was sitting and they never found it. Bye bye iPod, gone forever. It was an 8 gigabyte iPod touch and I just can't bring myself to spend paycheck money on something I lost, so I'm doing two things:

1) Donation button on blog
2) Sell random crap on ebay

I don't have any of my auctions up yet, but I'll post them if I do. Is there anything in particular that you guys would like me to sell? Keep in mind, I can nab random MIT souvenirs for you (little baggies with grass from Killian Court, a copy of the Tech, Chapel moat water, etc). I'll have a thermometer on the sidebar keeping track of how much I've raised.

We can do it guys! I just need your help, donate today!

WATCH!

2008-07-11T20:47:00.001-04:00

Watch this video as many times as possible. It needs another 300 hits by July 16th in order to win a contest that it's entered in.

WATCH WATCH WATCH SHARE WATCH SHARE SHARE WATCH!

True Story

2008-07-11T18:37:00.001-04:00

So you know why the marching band clips in this video are funny (except for the first one)? Because they're totally legitimate things that could happen! In fact, I've seen all of them (or at least variations of all of them) happen at one time or another. Actually, the cheerleader running into the pole after one of the marching band clips, I've done that. Well, sort of, I was marching and actually knocked the pole over, but same type of thing.

Half Time Show

Sunday

2008-07-10T05:34:00.000-04:00

w00t! Sox game on Sunday vs the Orioles, gonna be a good time!

Ingenious

2008-07-05T09:17:00.011-04:00

Yesterday was the fourth of July, a holiday that is welcomed with open arms in Boston MA. A couple of things come with the the fourth of July around here. The first are airplane advertisements and helicopters. Seriously, the airspace is so busy I'm surprised there wasn't an accident.

Next come emergency service personnel . . .

Boats . . .

500,000 people . . .

And just as many cops (why does everything I do involve cops!?)

Night fell on Boston but before the festivities and the music began I'd like to note two more things. Number one, the sunset was AMAZING!

My camera simply can't do it justice, but I tried my hardest!

And, there was obviously an issue in the brain and cog building because they accidentally let some zombies out.

Then it was time for the music. The Boston Pops performed the National Anthem and then at the very end, synchronized perfectly (which is no small feat, I appreciate the work you do, whoever was in charge of getting that set up), was a flyover.

While the music played, little kids played with glowsticks and families chatted happily. Dan Sauza and I decided to walk the length of the river and check things out. This is when we saw the sign that said "Fried Dough!"

I'm not sure there's anything more American than finding a perfectly good, wholesome food substance and soaking it in boiling fat. The proud Americans we are, Dan and I got in line for our fried dough.

While in line we glanced over and saw the hot dog booth. The only thing more American than fried dough is a hot dog. I saw no reason why the two of us couldn't be the uber-Americans of the evening, so after another quick wait in another line, Dan and I were in possession of the most American, most awesome, most delectably wholesome food known to man: The fried dough-dog. Just use your fried dough as a hot dog bun, poof, magically delicious!

Next were the fireworks, something I didn't record but thoroughly enjoyed. I'd say the two best things about these fireworks were

a) the fact that you could actually feel the sound waves hit you
b) they had fireworks that exploded in the shapes of cubes! How!?

4th of July is something else, you should try to make it out here for it sometime, you won't regret it!

Bwahahaha!

2008-07-03T16:24:00.001-04:00

How to Deal with an Annoying Baby Chick

MITA Curiosity

2008-06-29T20:22:00.002-04:00

Oh, and if you want to add a whole new level to the entertainment that is MITA then you should check the wikipedia article for MITA (it has to do with the Incas)

"Mita (Quechua: mit'a) was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca Empire."

MITA Success

2008-06-29T18:23:00.001-04:00

MITA did it, wow.

On Blogging

2008-06-28T22:55:00.003-04:00

I've been blogging since October of 2005 (almost three years) which isn't as old as some blogs but is long enough to establish it as more than one of those "on a whim, I'll create a blog that will last for about three posts and then turn into internet waste" blogs. I've learned a lot about the internet since starting blogging, things I don't think other people have noticed. I'd like to share some things with everybody, advice that's not necessarily meant to criticize but to inform and educate. You may realize you do some of these things, either believe my words or not, but know that I spend enough time on the internet to know what generally accepted practice is.

1) People will read what you write on the internet. If you want to hide it from specific people, DON'T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET!

Example: Look what I found: Click

I don't know who these people are, what this website is for, or why there is AN ENTIRE THREAD DEVOTED TO ME! People out there read things you write, never assume otherwise.

2) It's annoying as hell if you switch your blog every 2 weeks. Pick a host, pick a name, and write a blog! Don't rename, move, and "start all over again" every two weeks, it defeats the entire purpose.

3) Simplicity is elegant. Loading the sidebar with 8 million things that you know nobody is ever going to see all of is just a waste of space. Put a couple of things on the sidebar and then leave it.

4) Scheduled posts rarely work out. That's not to say that they're bad, I love knowing when I can expect new blog entries, but it's just very hard to keep to a rigid schedule.

5) If you upload videos to YouTube, don't be surprised if nobody likes the videos you think they will but instead the lamest videos you upload become wildly popular. It doesn't matter how much you promote certain ones on your blog. The internet is weird that way.

Example: Here's a video I made on my camera during a fire alarm at my school. It shows a kid getting led off by a cop in the distance for pulling the fire alarm. All in all, a relatively dumb video. 9,000 hits, 40 comments, and a five star rating. What!?

Here's another, a video of a video encoding issue my iPod touch had when I first got it. Almost 20,000 views, 127 comments, and a 3.5 star rating. WHAT!?

6) You will lose every ounce of internet credibility conceivable if you ever post a link to any kind of "Which ____________ are you? Take this quiz to find out!" Don't do it. Ever.

7) You cannot force your blog to be popular, nor will it immediately be popular. I went MONTHS without a single comment and very few readers. Over time you work your way up in Google's index, people find it more while searching, they'll show friends, and eventually readers just happen. Write because you enjoy writing, not because you expect readers.

8) Commenting on your own blog entries is REALLY REALLY ANNOYING! Seriously, this bugs me almost more than anything else. The only reason I write in the comments of my MIT blog at all is because I have to. If I had it my way I'd answer all questions in entries or via e-mail if people left their e-mail address for me. Those comments are for readers, not for writers.

9) Long gaps in blog entries (weeks or months) are the best way in the world to lose readers. Seriously, nobody will read your blog if you don't update frequently, it just isn't worth their time. Every 2 or 3 days is optimal.

10) Don't let people tell you what to blog. Ever. It's your blog, blog what you want, that's why the internet exists. If they want something out for people to read, let them post it. Your blog got the way it is because you made it, not because you let other people run it.

Sorry

2008-06-28T22:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, sorry, late response. Here's what's up with the "Rizzuto" entry:

Go watch Billy Madison.

Puzzle Solver

2008-06-28T08:38:00.003-04:00

Hey all, so I just found this INCREDIBLE puzzle solver online. It's called MITA and it's actually smart. A lot of puzzle solving programs brute force things and can only solve particular varieties of puzzles, but MITA actually takes the rules into consideration, examines the puzzle, and logically thinks through it until arriving at an answer.

MITA can solve any type of puzzle, sometimes as fast as a couple of minutes, sometimes in a few days, but it always gets it. I'm going to try feeding it a puzzle and seeing what happens! Wish it luck.

Be afraid

2008-06-27T22:18:00.002-04:00

Be afraid, be very afraid. If you're a resident of either Conner 3, Conner 4, Conner 5, or a prefrosh participating in REX this fall, you should be prepared for what Conner 2 wields. You see, you may think you're safe, but we are prepared. We have armed ourselves. What you see here is just a taste of what we have to offer. There is more, and we will use it.

Another LOL

2008-06-24T21:05:00.000-04:00

Saw this at work today, LOL!

Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Is 'Totally Badass'

OMG A TIGER

2008-06-24T20:36:00.002-04:00

There was some serious LOLing after I watched this video. The people running from the store is priceless!

Shirt

2008-06-22T17:28:00.000-04:00

I want this t-shirt but I'm afraid that nobody would understand it.

Kudos to those who know where this is from!

New Shades

2008-06-22T12:02:00.003-04:00

Back in 7th grade my family and I discovered a wonderful exploit of eye insurance: Free Sunglasses. I wear contacts and have a prescription, but it's a fairly weak prescription, weak enough that I can be wearing contacts, put on prescription glasses, and it won't bug me a ton. My parents also got eye insurance through their jobs. Turns out there was an eye doctor relatively near my house that sold Oakley Sunglasses . . . prescription Oakley Sunglasses . . . for a ridiculous amount of money.

Luckily, money was no object, because as long as those glasses were prescription, I could use eye insurance on them. That meant free Oakley sunglasses for Michael!

I loved those sunglasses! I took them everywhere and wore them all the time. I had them from 7th grade all the way up through the summer before college. Then, something terrible happened. I was cleaning the road in front of my house and picking litter out from the brush. My mom was with me, and she picked up a piece of plastic.

"Michael, isn't this a piece of your sunglasses?"
I went over and looked at it. It was indeed half of the sunglasses frame, silver with a little green "O" looking at me sadly.

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

As we continued picking up litter we continued to find pieces of my sunglasses. Nearest we can tell, they somehow ended up on the side of the road and were then mowed over by a brush mower that was cleaning the sides of the street. To this day we still don't know how they got to the side of the road, but they did, and they were crushed beyond all repair.

I made it all the way through freshman year in college without sunglasses but it wasn't a good time. Sure, the winter was fine because it was dark and gloomy, but those periods of time wrapped around the winter were miserable. That is why yesterday I decided it was time to bite the bullet and invest in a new pair of sunglasses.

I have an affinity for Oakley sunglasses so I knew that I wouldn't be happy with any other kind. Unfortunately, Oakley doesn't sell the kind I used to have, so I was forced to improvise. Half-jackets were the closest thing but they didn't have the right color. Oakley, the company that they are, thinks of everything and actually lets you design your own sunglasses, so that's what I did. I spent some time messing with color combinations before finally settling on my brand new sunglasses. Here they are, in all of their glory!

They should be here in 10-15 days (they have to build them and ship them) and I'll make sure to blog their arrival!

Conservation of frosh?

2008-06-14T18:44:00.001-04:00

Psh, I'm not a freshman anymore. How can I prove it? Go to http://www.mit.edu

Go to the search box and make sure "people" is selected. Search for "Snively" and hit enter. What do you get?

That's right, I'm year two and a Mechanical Engineer! What now!?

Funny-ness

2008-06-12T19:20:00.002-04:00

EPIC FAIL!

2008-06-05T21:31:00.001-04:00

Go ahead and just skip to the last 30 seconds or so of this video. The guy is about to 5-star Through the Fire and the Flames on GH3. Watch what happens on the last note!

Hole

2008-06-01T13:26:00.002-04:00

I've decided to skate around Boston a bit today so I took a shower and threw on some clothes. That's when I realized that I had a huge hole in my jeans and probably couldn't wear them in public. I also realized that I didn't have any other jeans in my closet so I was kind of stuck. Then I remembered that I'd spent the last semester of my life sewing ElectroPlushies and that there was a needle and thread sitting on my desk. 10 minutes later . . .

Time to go into Boston!

Scottish Golfers

2008-06-01T10:25:00.001-04:00

A healthy dose of YouTube to start your day off right!

A Friend's Song

2008-05-31T11:33:00.006-04:00

Here's a pretty awesome song a friend of mine wrote. We sight read it in band last year and truth be told, it's a fun read.

Hasbro Discount

2008-05-29T22:24:00.001-04:00

I have a feeling that my discount at Hasbro could be a dangerous thing.

I get 20% off anything online and I get 50% off anything in the store at work. You know what that means? $5.00 potato heads.

This could be a very toy-filled summer.

Wheels

2008-05-26T17:21:00.003-04:00

I discovered something very important just now.

It's impossible to scoot along in a rolley chair while wearing roller blades, you end up just looking really weird.

Weezer -- "Pork and Beans"

2008-05-24T10:10:00.001-04:00

If you like YouTube or the internet then you'll LOVE Weezer's new music video! The sad part? I recognize every single meme on there (except for the crying emo/goth/blond girl one). Amazing. . .

Studying For Finals Redux

2008-05-19T23:10:00.002-04:00

It's 11 PM and I'm settling down for another several hours of studying for 2.001.

I just finished a 2 hour nap, took a shower, and am almost done with a "No Fear" energy drink (Verdes got rid of the Sobe energy drinks! Grrrrrrr!). Here we go ladies and gents, this is what MIT is all about, this is the studying and the hard work you hear all about, and you know what? I don't mind doing it because this is what I signed up for and so with that, back to 2.001.

It's the Final Countdown

2008-05-19T16:36:00.001-04:00

One down, two to go.

Ring Committee

2008-05-18T16:51:00.000-04:00

I'm still allowed to post whatever I want on my personal blog so I think this would be a great place to display what's been causing so much controversy over at the MIT blogs. Wank away dear readers.

Floating all around MIT are petitions saying something along the lines of "Do you care about ________ ? Are you unhappy about _________ ? Sign this petition!" I normally read these but don't have a vested interest and more than likely pass it up. Now a huge issue just ran smack into the face of the freshman class and I don't see any petitions so I'm doing the only other thing I'm able: putting it on the internet.

Ring Committee is a group of 12 students, chosen at the end of freshman year, who are tasked with designing the brass rat for their class. The brass rat is MIT's class ring, one of the most recognized rings in the world and a huge incentive to make it through sophomore year before dropping out (that was a joke). These 12 students are tasked with taking everything that's happened during our time here, summarize it symbolically, and display it on a ring that everybody in the class will have for the rest of their lives. It's kind of a big deal.

As you may or may not know, MIT has a lot of diversity, not just racially but also socially. The dormitories at MIT are very distinct in their reputations and personalities. The main, stereotypical (but not altogether incorrect) division made in categorizing dorms is the West Campus and East Campus split. I AM NOT trying to start a debate about West Campus and East Campus here, so if you're looking for a fight then leave it at the door, nobody cares. Here's how I describe the difference between east and west campus. West campus is where you live if you want to continue with the rules, order, and cleanliness of when you lived at home. East campus is where you live if you say "screw it, I'm doing what I want" and don't care about all of that stuff you learned at home. Both are nice, both have their upsides and downsides, and again, we're not going to argue about the differences between the two. The point is, both are very different.

50 people applied for Ring Committee and 12 were chosen. The e-mail announcing the decisions was sent out last night. Here's a pie chart that shows you who all was selected:

Immediately following that e-mail a wave of outrage swept east campus and a large portion of the freshman class. Take note, not only is almost half of the ring committee from ONE dorm, but none of the dorms from east campus are represented. At all.

Four hours after that e-mail we all received an e-mail from the class president that started with:

"Since announcing the roster of the class Ring Committee, I have been literally inundated by emails inquiring about the highly visible and unfortunate absence of "eastern campus" (East Campus, Senior Haus, Bexley, and Random) residents. "

First off, Mr. President, you don't live in Senior House, so lay off the "Haus."

He continued, throughout his incredibly long and verbose e-mail, to explain that hardly anybody from east campus had applied and that statistically it was improbable, even with a random sampling, to select anybody from east campus to Ring Committee. He argues that everything was done anonymously and this just kind of happened. He also said, in response to requests to add a 13 member to Ring Committee to represent east campus:

"To those who are fervently calling for the installment of a 13th member of the Ring Committee, I would ask that you reconsider what you are asking. Would you really be comfortable with the idea of petitioning Council to disregard the MIT culture of respecting meritocracy to use "affirmative action" on living groups?"

Now you know all of the details, let me tell you what matters.

Obviously having a completely anonymous process failed miserably. Yes, congratulations class council, you voted using a meritocracy and have selected a committee that has the skills necessary to design and create a ring. You know what you didn't select? A group of people who understand MIT. You selected Baker and some other people. There's no doubt in my mind that your selected Committee has ventured to east campus or has friends in east campus, but THEY DON'T LIVE THERE! They don't understand what day to day life is, they don't understand the traditions, they (more than likely) wouldn't even understand a conversation held between ec residents due to the difference in vocabulary.

Right off, I'm not sugar coating anything. I'm not a people-pleasing council-person with a political agenda. I'm angry and don't care about being PC.

In order for our class ring to have content that represents our class AS A WHOLE then our class AS A WHOLE needs to be represented on the Ring Committee. "Affirmative action on dorms"? Absolutely! Anything that will diversify that committee needs to happen, otherwise I'm afraid that when I get my brass rat I'm going to look on it and see a bunch of SaveTFP, GoCrossCampus, and other MIT sponsored "we need to give our students something structured and exciting to do to make them feel like they belong here!" crap. What I'm afraid I won't see are hacks, spontaneous student construction projects, and other non-MIT sponsored activities.

Congratulations again, class council, you picked a council using a completely anonymous method. You also picked the least diverse Ring Committee conceivable. Fix it.

Never thought I'd say this

2008-05-17T14:36:00.003-04:00

I miss writing papers. I keep hearing people complain about papers they have to finish and I think to myself "Writing papers is so nice! You can just sit wherever with your laptop and type. You don't need to spread out paper, notes, books, use a pencil, or mess with anything else. It's just you, Microsoft Word, some music, and a couple of nice solitary hours typing. I haven't had to type a single paper all semester and I kind of miss it.

Luckily, due to my lack of taking a real HASS class this semester I get to take two next semester so that'll be a good time.

2.003
2.005
Digital Poetry
Intro to Western Narrative

I haven't completely abandoned you writing, I promise!

The Gamer Ballad

2008-05-11T03:26:00.000-04:00

Make it viral! Post it everywhere! 5-Star it on YouTube!

Stupidity

2008-05-08T13:34:00.001-04:00

Chalk one up for tech support stupidity.

Instead of sending me a new hard drive they sent me a DVD with an operating system on it.

Useful.

Computer Problems

2008-05-06T08:04:00.002-04:00

I'm experiencing problems with my laptop right now. It got really laggy last night and stuff started to freeze and lockup. Thinking that the resources were running low I tried to restart but the start button had frozen. I did a manual shutdown and then turned the computer back on.

It made it halfway through the restart before restarting again, this time displaying a screen telling me to do an Operating System Repair Sequence. I ran it and it doesn't appear to have helped because now when I try to boot my computer it just sits there on the Windows is Loading screen. I'm running diagnostics and tests on it now.

I'm thinking a couple of things could be wrong:
1) Hard Drive just died :(
2) Overheated, killing hard drive :(
3) Virus that appeared very suddenly (like, while I was working on my computer) :(
4) Bad voodoo

I figure the worst that happens is that either Dell fixes it or replaces it because it's on warranty. Just more stuff for me to deal with as finals approaches I guess. Luckily (amazingly luckily) we were given Macbooks for Toy Design (to create presentations on) so I actually do have a laptop right now (it just happens to be a laptop with a crappy OS, but I'll cope). If you see a decrease in blog frequency it's because I'm between computers and it's inconvenient. Sorry about that!

GWAAAAAHHHH!

2008-04-29T21:36:00.001-04:00

Internet Historian

2008-04-29T10:30:00.003-04:00

I've been giving my future some serious though lately. People have suggested that I be an internet historian. Record trends, growth, user demographics, essentially catalogue the internet. I think I would like this very much, can you imagine just learning about the internet for a living?

Is there a market for this? Do people research the internet? Are there internet historians?

Signatures

2008-04-26T15:49:00.006-04:00

ROFLCON Signatures collected thusfar:

Jib Jab guys
The Brothers Chaps
Brad Neely
Dinosaur Comics guy
Leeroy Jenkins
Cyanide and Happiness writers
Tron Guy
LOLTrek creator
Red vs. Blue Creator
Guy who made the Chuck Norris joke famous
Randall Monroe (XKCD author)
Jason Scott
Drew Curtis

Dramatic Lemur

2008-04-26T10:26:00.001-04:00

Doing Something Right

2008-04-23T18:27:00.003-04:00

I check the homepage from my high school every so often so I can find out about exciting things (like winning a Grammy!??!). Today I saw this:

"New Diploma requirements"

Ooh, interesting. I followed the link, read the new requirements, and realized that the state of Oregon was finally doing something right in regards to education. Check out the changes:

# Number of credits: The minimum number of credits needed to graduate was raised from 22 credits to 24 credits.
# English: The number of English credits was raised from 3 credits to 4.
# Math: The number of math credits required was raised from 2 credits to 3 and these 3 credits must be at the algebra I content level or above.
# Science: The number of science credits was raised from 2 credits to 3.
# Second Language / Art / Career & Technical Education: The number of credits required in this area (any combination of the subjects) was raised from 1 credit to 3.
# Electives: The number of required electives was reduced from 9 credits to 6.

More English (all four years), more Math (3 years, all at or above Algebra I (meaning Geometry and Algebra II at my school)), more Science (this means Bio, Chem, Physics at my school), and more awesome (includes CAD, shop, art, etc). As a result, elective requirements have dropped, diminishing the amount of schedule fillers that people normally take.

All in all, a recipe for smarter high schoolers and a good choice by the Oregon education system.

When is this going on sale?

2008-04-21T22:24:00.000-04:00

High class!