Reply-To: david@weekly.org From: update@david.weekly.org Subject: Merry Christmas! To: update@david.weekly.org d e c e m b e r 2 5 / 9 9 ----------------------------- Update #12 ----------------------------- Merry Christmas, everyone! This is just to tell you that I'm alive. ;) I haven't been updating my webpage or sending out emails for a bit, but I have been thinking about things. I'm in the middle of reading Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" as well as Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon." My brother (and soon- to-be sister-in-law) gave me some great reading as well; more on it when I get to it! =) Dad gave me a Win98 programming book: good stuff! All I need now is a little bit of time... I'm putting together an interesting little realtime news system, but more on that when it's in a more useable form. The first version worked, but was so horribly inefficient that by the time it finished scooping out new news articles (once every 10 minutes!) the next scoop had begun, creating a pileup of programs on my system that brought the server to a sreetching halt. Ack. So I'm working on a new, more efficient version... I tried for my license shortly before break, but unfortunately, it seems that California has some rather nasty laws regarding bike lanes...hrmph. Better luck this next time, I hope. Too bad for me I can't practice at home in Massachusetts -- state law requires a *Massachussetts* priving permit. =p Had fun playing various video games with friends on my brother's Playstation; FIFA 99 is an *incredible* soccer game. Very realistic, very fun to play -- hurrah! My thumbs are sore. As mentioned earlier, I reserved the domain CodecReview.com and I don't plan to just sit on it -- if you've done some work comparing and/or contrasting any of the audio, video, or speech compression algorithms out there, please contact me right away: I'd like to start putting up your content. The site will be 100% banner-free and will not be run for profit. (nothing's there now; just a redirect to my somewhat dated comparisons between WMA, MP3, and RealAudio) Tomorrow I leave for California to go skiing with my girlfriend's family -- what fun that will be! =) Have a merry Christmas, you all, and have a wonderful New Year's!