[Last Update 2002.02.23] Matt Wronka <matt.wronka@altavista.net>

2002.02.23

Last night I did two things which are of worthy of mention. First, I went to see a series of short plays here at RPI, and secondly [well, actually before that] I finally sacrificed my uptime on Locke in order to switch to a new kernel; and while I was at it decided to finally install 3D acceleration for the NVIDIA card I had in there [GeForce2 MX200 ... it was less than $30].

The performance I saw were a series of short plays which--while enjoyable--did not themselves have anything to really merit notes of distinction. The first play just did not really make sense. The second one I enjoyed the most, as it seemd apropos of the medium--though it seemed to drag on at times. The third seemd promising as well, as there were attempts at high level humor at the beginning--and nothing (and nowhere) else. The story was contrived and everything in it predictable--except the ending which was nonexistant. Sheer Idiocy was mildy entertaining at times, highly humorous at others, and at certain times just a little to long to be a little to long on stage. The final play I assume was just trying to be an attempt at a "cute" ending to the evening, which I suppose it was. If was trying for anything else, I must say it failed miserably--it wasn't very funny, nor was it extremely entertaining in my opinion. All in all it was better than music I've heard R.P.I. performers comission.

My ordeal with the NVIDIA drivers, on the other hand, was horrible. They installed fine, and I had fun playing TuxKart until I left for the performance. My only issue was that X for some reason forgot where the display was...I'd never seen this happen, but I did not have time to deal with it, so I left. After the performance, I tried to configure the key mappings to BZFlag -- this resulted in my box locking up. I have NEVER in over half a decade of using Linux had a system lock up such as that. This happened this morning as well, when I tried to open a user's away message in GAIM...this should not happen. And once more, no program could find where the X display was even when I would just start X (sometimes). I had had enough, and went on to wipe out NVIDIA form my system.... to have SAX2 [SuSE's X configurator which .... runs inside of X ...] lock up on me, so I just went on to do what you used to do in days of yore ... whip out vim and hack XF86Config. At least I got rid of that ugly hardware cursor X was trying to show (I didn't see how to set that option in SAX2 but I haven't really looked or used it so...).

2001.06.16

In the past little while, I have reread about 95% of my website (I'll get to the rest of it later i suppose) . . . it's amazing the spelling errors that are here :-\

I have a news section, in case you haven't noticed. I don't update it much. I may do so more often once school starts, but i'm not sure ... this has always been my main page for what's happening in my life--or at least what's on my mind--and that probably won't change.

I have a new piece on comparisons of various operating systems from an end user perspective in the works. And to follow up a previous post, I would like to add that RPI -- in fact, all schools in NY state -- no longer use SSNs as IDs due to recent state legislation. And finally--the comments on the new design of the site have been almost all positive. I'm mostly complete moving everything over. If you have any more comments, please let me know!

Tell her -- I feel fine. - Spok, STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME

2000.08.07

I shall be leaving for college shortly (just over two weeks), so I have decided to finally post my closing comments/ramblings on high school and once more offer a link to Upon our Graduation.

2000.07.12

This will be brief, I promise. I returned from SO today at Rensselaer, and there is something I noticed. This is something I, and probably you, have seen before, but it was very prevalent today. The use of the Social Security Number as a general ID, something that it was never really intended to be (and legally the IRS is the only government agency allowed to even ask for it). Every thing in college especially uses your SSN as an ID, fortunately with a password, but they use your SSN as an ID. With many schools turning to the web for services, it is nice to see that they shadow the User ID when typing it in. However, this same UID which they so prominently say "Do not give to anyone" they put in clear text all over the place, including printouts and any random papers they give you! Amazing.

Oh, and for those who read my AP® rant below. For the record, I got a five. Thanks for asking.

2000.06.14

Greetings, and welcome to June. For those in the class of 2000 at MHS, you will be graduating in just over a week. Congratulations.

What was I going to talk about today? For starters, I'll talk about the status of our school's computer setup. Next, I'll move onto Monty Exposed and some observations made by others (but remember, this is my soapbox :). Next, I might reminisce a little, and then talk about something else.

Our school has a very poor network setup. I won't even get to the technical (hardware) problems here, I'll concentrate on security issues. I guess this is as good as any since they have just found their scape goat for their mass printing incidenct. Hope you guys had fun, feel like you accomplished something. I guess you could say that that is targeted at two groups of people.

Let me set something straight here. Everything I will now say about the school network has been mentioned to the administration. This includes the webmaster, who insists that Solaris runs in Windows (Solaris x86), and that he need not concern himself with any technical stuff. This also includes the Director of Technology, and at least one other supervisor. The three of them received an email from me outlining complaints and suggestions. I was told by the webmaster that my observations and suggestions were met with a series of laughs before they were discarded (except for one, which I will get back to).

One minor gripe I had was that throughout the site there were very few, if any, alt tags for users of text-only browsers (I know it's hard to believe, but I do use Lynx quite often). Another minor annoyance was the hypocrisy of their usage policies and the insecurity of their setup in general (msie on top of windows--the two of them open a multitude of security holes that are nigh impossible--impossible?--to close).

On a more serious issue, the schools router was completely without password (on their class C subnet, the router is located at 10.10.1.1). Upon receiving my letter, they did create a password for the administrator account, but left both read and write access available. My email included an excerpt from this file. If students and teachers thought it a bother to be without Internet access throughout the school for a day because the Tech department spent the entire day rebooting the router, imagine what happens when someone(s) turn from printing out lots of paper to rebooting the router at odd times in the day. Heck, with the security in place on the network (passwords left on boards, free reign of the network, no accounting systems set up--come one, the invasive "big brother" program that we bought ended up watching the teacher!) someone with enough time (couple days, tops, if they were dedicated) could be rebooting the machine from home--without the use of Trojans or a backdoor. You left the front door not only unlocked, but wide open.

Our school finally released an "Underground" "Newspaper," despite the fact that no less thanthree different factions were attempting to do so. I give its "Anonymous" author credit where it is due. He actually got it to press and it was met with a decent reaction from the students, some liked it, some were utterly confused. Personally, I thought that the brief news bites weren't that bad. The stories however, left many bewildered as they (you could count them on one hand after having a serious accident with a carving knife) delivered opposite messages. The author, shortly before revealing the identity of the "anonymous contributing writer" mentioned that they were merely editorial pieces (this probably should have been made clear: that this was intended as an editorial/debate? paper). Observation made by someone else: it is sad when the band's newsletter is both longer and more professional looking.

Don't forget to check out my open email for more nostalgia. The past four years (and more, of course) have certainly been memorable; some of them good, others one wishes to have forgotten until he (or she) remembers the former. Who still remembers back in fourth grade, when we had four Matts in the same class? When a certain group of students organized a simultaneous book dropping? When we performed James and the Giant Peach? What about third grade, where Mts. Davidson's class refused to stop singing Deep in the Heart of Texas, and we had "Dictionary Races" ( I know Katy must remember). Moving ahead, in fifth grade, Sara and I lost points on our math homework because "we hadn't learned it yet," I showed up the same teacher on a different occasion only to get the remark "I know your father and I don't think he'd be happy with that." My father laughed when he heard what had warranted that remark. Billy was in our class, "read" a myth about ponies while gasping for air. The next year, I would sit next to him as he discussed the qualifications necessary to work for the government to build nukes. I also answered his riddle in a fraction of the time it took him (it was from a computer game). A team of teachers combined rooms, teaching two at once. Unfortunately, one was so quite that many people fell asleep while she was trying to teach. That helped.

It's been interesting, and we're leaving in just a few short months for all over the place. I wish everyone the best of luck and hope that you all have a good time in the process. May your next few years be educational, whether you are spending them at a university, in the work force, or where ever else you might be. High school is over at long last. We've had fun at times, at it has been a pain at others. College, and everything else, will indubitably be the same. However cynical I've been in the past, I do realize that their are pleasent times (despite what Bibbo thinks of my apathy), and I hope to see most of you in the future. I will hope to keep my most popular email address, matt.wronka@altavista.net, available so you can keep in contact with me. Likewise, http://wronka.n3.net/ should always forward you to my site when it is up (you can check the state of my email address, and other methods of communication, from here). The Wronk will remain my public (G)AIM name for as long as I can see. If you know my others (especially my main private one), you might as well keep those on your buddy list, though I intend to spend most of my time on (G)AIM as The Wronk. I don't know how often I'll have ICQ running--if anyone wants me to use it more, email me--but I'm #20283529. I also have a lower number (no clue off the top of my head) that I don't use any more.

Best Wishes,

Sinceirest Apologies,

and the Customary Cheers!

Matthew Wronka

The Wronk

matt.wronka@altavista.net

2000.05.02

It is the mission of the pedagogue, not to make his pupils think, but to make them think right, and the more nearly his own mind pulsates with the great ebbs and flows of popular delusion and emotion, the more admirably he performs his function. He may be an ass, but that is surely no demerit in a man paid to make asses of his customers. - H. L. Menken: in the Baltimore Evening Sun, March 12, 1923

Back to one a month, and, while we are returning to things, I shall revisit a couple of old subjects. Well, actually, they all revolve around "school" and the Advanced Placement® tests.

Is it not amazing how much of your life actually depends on other people? Depending on your theological background (since I'm writing this, you have all become Christians), God (or Fate for you hethens, or some unexplainable aetheistic force) places you into the social/economic class in which you will probably stay for the rest of your life (though, of course, there are always exceptions). Your parents, and to a lesser extent other family members, control your upbringing and instill your moral and ethical codes, start you on your education, introduce you to learning or the TV. They control whether you'll be affectionate or if you'll be cruel and heartless by their own actions.

They send you to school, trusting that the teachers and administrators have the futures of the students as their principle focus (I'll let you decide this for yourself). These impressionable youths continue through this system through highschool, at what time they must apply to colleges (or go directly into the work force, or become a drunk on the street etc.). Assuming they don't drop out and become vagrants, at which point their livelihood depends soley on the kindness of strangers, they must ask for recomendations from other people and submit a transcript of grades which other people have said they earned, to a board of people they have never met--all of this determines the rest of their life. And it continues . . .

"Earned" of course being a subjective measure of your ability to complete various assignments and meet the presuposed conjectures. Nowhere in the core curriculum required by most highschools is this more apparent than in English. This is not meant as an attack on any teacher, assignment, or class, but as an inescapable impression created by twelve years of formal education. Too much of the time (granted, this is now from middle school memories) English seemed more like gym . . . a lot of people, no order, and a "just read and we'll stand over here" mentality amongst the "teachers." Of four years of highschool English, perhaps part of one year was spent actually working on grammar . . . and this was the only time that most of the students can ever recall such a radical subject being taught. In total, the amount of time spent on mechanics was no more than that spent on certain books, such as Walden and Great Expectations.

It may be because of this that English seems to be the least adaptable to a standardized testing format. As much as anybody wants to make it completely objective, everything either right or 1/4 point off, this can not be done fairly with a subject that is inherently subjective. English, aside from mechanics and grammar, is completely subjective. Poems, stories, everything save the basest works can be, and should be, interpreted without being confined to one of five possible suggested answers, especially when the reader can recognize an even better, more pertinent interpretation of the work. Such a test as the AP, in its current format, is not an indicator of intelligence or aptitude, especially when it assumes certain backgrounds such as extensive knowledge of history, theology, mythology, and even some sciences.

Disclaimer: I have written this prior to the AP as to be unswayed by any potential grade. In fact, regardless of the grade which I receive on the test, it will in no way help nor hinder my college plans as a) I have already been accepted to college and b) I have no use for the credit offered as I have already completed the writing requirement (670+ SAT Verbal) and will complete all humanity/social science classes as a philosophy major. Hey, I succeeded in my goal of never having to take another English class again!

On another note: What am I going to do with a major in philosophy?!?

"I'm sending you to college for four years, and you better come back with a Masters!" - My loving mother

2000.04.27

I guess I wrecked the streak ;) First post of the new millenium! er century! um, year.

I needed to put something in, so here's a little rant about AOL/Netscape's web browser/suite. Now, I've never cared for Composer, but it comes with the rest of the package so I've reluctantly installed it with Communicator since 4.0 rolled out. I have, I don't know how many times, mistakenly scrolled one item too far when trying to open a link in a new window and had to wait for composer to load before closing it (ok, so it got better with 4.72, and this has almost as much to do with the . . . mouse that I have). Moreover, you'd think that companies would begin to be a little nicer and not rewrite all of your settings . . .oh, right, this is from the same company that released AOL 5.0 and was slapped with a law suit for it.

Well, I decided to download Navigator 4.72 because I needed PNG support (since I'm replacing all my GIFs with them) and Mozilla wasn't out yet. I thought that 4.72 would have support for them, and was surprised to discover that none of the earlier 4.x versions had support built in -- after all, MSIE has support built in and PNG is an accepted standard (just look at a Red Hat install). Anyway, upon realizing that I still had no suppport for PNGs, I tried in vain to find a plugin. I eventually came upon an article touting the benifits of PNGs and how everyone should use them on a Netscape developer's site! They had a link to a plug-in alright (which was nowhere else on their site), which worked with "Preview release candidate" whatever. I clicked the link and . . . nothing. Couldn't reach the server. So here I sit, weak and weary, without support for Portable Network Graphics.

Happy New Year!

Cheers, The Wronk

1999.10.5

Wow, back-to-back entries. I think today deserves it.

This has been something that has been troubling since day two(?). At first, I thought she might be conveying a message, but now it just scares me. Case in point: today's definition of diction. The obvious example of the root is obvious (i.e. dictionary, so this is not too startling). However, following Julie's definition, "The way that one uses words" I immediately replied to those within earshot that it diction is, in fact, "The words that one uses." Not bad, eh? Well, Benson later repeats Julies statement almost exactly and . . . well, the teacher uses my verbatim definition! Moreover, she throws in my example of dictionary for good measure. ESP, says Charles? Well, this wasn't the first time that something like this occurred, though the first time I honestly thought that she was trying to make a point as she repeated very near verbatim what I had once said to a person who had kindly given me a ride home during the last school year. Said person had a habit of quitely, yet audibly, singing to said persons' self (usually a few bars and then fading out). When I mentioned this habit to said person, I satated that said person had a euphonic voice. Having no knowledge of the word euphonic, I attempted to prod the person to try and derive the definition from known words. Starting with the back half of the word, I chose symphonic as a commonly known word -- so did said English teacher. Moving on to the prefix eu-, I started with euphemism, eulogy and eutrophic. Minus eutrophic, these were the same words that our English teacher used. When she started to give repeat, with striking similarity, the words that I said to said person, I was shocked, almost apoplectic (I do recall pausing a moment before speaking as I tried to comprehend what was going on at this moment).

Anagram of the day: Desperation == A Rope Ends It

1999.10.4

It looks as if I am getting one of these entries in a month. At least it is regular.

Calc was fun on Friday, wasn't it? We spent all day looking at [the old version of] my site [because Kherry didn't set up the virtual domains]. Today was just as great. We might have actually finished the classwork if some insane sadist had not told the class to use tabular integration! What were you thinking! A simple u=e^-x2 results in a du=-2xudx which cancels not only the x on top, but the 2 out front (equation was area of revoltuion using cylanders where f(x) equale the above u). PRESTO! What do you have left? pi Integral u^-2! This, of course, is so simple that even a begining calc student could solve it! I guess he was just upset that he wrote five pages in his essay when someone else just plagiarized whole passages and got a 99 on it.

"CORNELL: Hey kids! Do you hate intimacy? Are you interested in jumping off high places? Have you ever wanted to converse with future hotel managers? COME TO CORNELL!!!"

It is amazing, isn't it? Some of us have been in this . . . town . .. for just short of two decades, having known each other for this amount of time. In less than a year, we will all be going our own ways, each to his or her own new place of residence - college. One of the most important decisions that a person will ever make in his or her life, certainly one which will decide what opportunities are available later in life, thrust upon you. Not only do you have to deal with the burden of school work and extra-curricular activities (May God have mercy on you if you play a sport!), you must decide where to apply, write essays that delve deep into your inner self, and then worry about how to pay for this! You might think that a "non-profit" entity that charges outrageous fees for mandatory tests might, just might, give some healthy scholarships out? I don't know, maybe for their AP Scholar awards (oh wow, a sheet of paper)? I mean, a National AP Scholar must pay a minimum of $600, you might think that they could give some of this money out to the State AP Scholars or whatever the title is. Not that I'd win this, but I think it would be a good to improve their image, and probably good publicity as well.

"What's this life for?" asks the song by the band Creed. Honestly, I don't know anymore. It seems like one useless rat race after another. First, we work to get the best grades in school so we can get into a good college. Next, we work harder so that we can get into a graduate school. Then what? We spend about twice our existence thus far working. We have a job. Then what? If we managed to survive this long, we get to retire and enjoy life at a point in our lives where, honestly, we feel that we are least able to! What's the point? You start life cold, wet, and blind; and then it gets worse. Have a nice day.

While on the topic of songs, I will bring up a discussion from lunch last year which included no less than two (three, if you count me?) of the nominees for Most Likely to Take Over the World - Milner and Wong himself. Alanis Morissette's Ironic is, in actuallity, not very ironic. All the events are merely bad luck. Webster's defines irony as "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result or an event or result marked by such incongruity." So there is a no smoking sign on your cigarette break? I don't see any irony in that. You want an example of irony? Look towards Siam. Do you know the reason why the King would give a white elephant to one of his courtiers (hint: remember what Stampee did to the Simpsons family)? This is, in itself, is not ironic. Recent actions in the U.S. (mostly N.J.) are ironic becuase of this.

"If only M$ would take a hint from Prodigy Classic and call it quits before Y2K arrives, the next century will be much more prosperous for everyone. " - Posted on /.

1999.9.8

Ok, its September, school has started. Let's talk.

First off, I renew my objections. Wong's schedule is nothing short of amazing with only two actual classes. Charles taking CompSci 101 at Princeton? I really don't see much sense in this, or a reason for this. Finally, Chris, I thank you for bringing this situation up again. Why can I not go through a lunch period without someone bringing this up? Usually one of two asians who have recenly talked to the aforementioned. No further comments on the issue. On a positive note, it sure is nice to have less homework now.

I have recieved objections about my posting a password encrypted RUDY distribution to my website (for the password, not for actually posting it). Let me explain my reasons here. First, for posting it to begin with. Conversations with certain people, I shall only say that they are currently goint to colleges north of me, as well as some locally, have been very firm in demanding that RUDY be accessible over the web; to this end I have placed RUDY on the web. However, I am quite worried that people who I do not want to obtain RUDY may download it. To this end, the package is encrypted and covered by the latest version of the WEVLA. If one wishes to obtain the password so that they may install RUDY they should contact me, and I may release the password. One final comment, as not everybody seems to understand: RUDY IS DEAD. That does not mean the person who appears on the card -- it means I HAVE STOPPED ALL WORK ON THE RUDY PROGRAM AND DIRECTLY RELATED CODE. I currently do not wish to release the source or the project to other developers due to semi-recent developements as well as the ressurection of those semi-recent developements as mentioned above. Therefore, I instruct those who are still badgering me: Silence. You will not get the code as it is not in my, nor others, best interest. I believe that the following list of initials have at least once requested the source: CC, BW, ML, BD. Encryption may change from PGP to GPG depending on the outcome of the program, though probably not in the immediate future. While we are talking about security, I do not believe that it is in the best interest of the school to keep our current webmaster, especially after conversing with him this morning. I do not believe that the schools website is safe -- from either internal or external forces -- while we entrust our servers to the current staff in charge.

Oh, and Mike? Don't touch my CD player/radio or anything else of mine again, ok? I think that you have caused enough devestation within the last year.

"Got mail? Everyone else on the Internet has yours."

"I herby disclaim all liability for "Service Issues" or "Features" that may be undesirable. You agree that these are designed for ease and that this _____ (any and everything) is provided with no warranty or guarantees, expressed or implied, including not even a guarantee or waranty that the program will work as intended or even work at all. You except all liability for everything that occurst in the world, an that you will do as I say for the rest of eternity, for you acknoledge me as the one, true God." - from Draft of next WEVLA

1999.8.25

Wow. It's amazing how slow a P120 with 48MB EDO RAM (with an install of Win98 that's about a year old . . . corrupt registry and all) is after using my nice AMD K-6/2+3D-Now! for so long! But that's what I used today for the first time in memory. As I opened Netscape, which was still set to my geocities email account of yore, it began downloading my mail . . . all 80 messages since the month of July (amazing since I haven't given this address out, and everybody should have known more recent addresses). Apart from messages from Inprise, Macromedia, Geocities and Tripod -- and the ever prevalent Netcenter Update -- I came across messages from such renowned members of our community as Ryan Bong and Billy Knights and an AOL style flame war. Note to Wong: I have all my mail clients set to leave messages on the server, so it doesn't matter if I check mail or not -- it still collects on the server. I can only assume that geocities does not have a limit on mail since I have mail dating back to who knows when, including AVI files that I have refused to downloads due to their size. I guess that's kind of nice in a way. Note to Charles, Wong, and Pung: Get a life. Stop tormenting poor defenseless Soutos. I refer you to AST vs. LBT, probably the most famous of flame wars in recent times, so that you may see how a flame war is run outside of the AOL mindset. (AST vs. LBT is reprinted in part in O'Reilly's OPEN SOURCES [Appendix B?]). Get a newsgroup. Note to Benson: you are beyond hope. Enjoy AOL/MSN or whatever you're using now. Now, I don't have any papers with the history assignment on them.

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