(e:ajay,339) Senator Sanatorum wants the government will stop offering the weather in XML format?!? For those of you that don't understand this, XML is some crazy superhightech this it is basically a standard way of documenting information.

The NSA currenly offers weather data in a format like this.

<weather>
<temp>59</temp>
<wind>5mph</wind>
</weather>

The little stamps (tags) before and after each section of data just make it easy for us to know when the data starts and begins and what it means.

The reason Senator Sanatorum wants to stop this is because other companies sell the exact same information and they have clearly paid him off. We already paid for the government to produce the information, it is avaiable to us in so many other public formats, why should we not be able to use it for without having to pay again.

Senator Sanatorum is clearly working on behalf of the copmpaies that want to resell us out information. It makes me sick that he is trying to hide behind the context that we re modernizing by removing this service. It is also so carefully constructed so that the average non-tech person would think that the current services were outdated, which theya re not. They are the forefront of modern information technology.

I seriously cannot belive Senator Sanatorum is so evil. He keeps topping himself, no pun intended. I knew about Senator Sanatorum's repressive social policies but somehow that is expectable to me. But this is insane. I can't believe that any American citizen, even (e:jasonsback) , would agree to this accept the people that re-sell the weather we paid for in the first place.

The most outrageous part is that if Senator Sanatorum is sucessful in removing the weather information that we paid for from the public sphere, it is not going to stop most web designers and information scientists. The people that understand the web and make the web don't need the freakin' XML tags to get the data, it just makes everything nice and easy. Not to mention that if Senator Sanatorum si sucessful in stealing our weather feeds from us, every hacker will be even more interested in scraping the data.



I am so sick of services like that being privatized. We pay for them!! If it Senator Sanatorum sucessfully steals our the weather feeds that we paid for from us, I am going to make a free buffalo weather feed in protest. It would be so easy. Maybe we can start a movement of web programmers that do that in lots of cities. Maybe I will do it anyways, seeing as it sounds fun.

Here is part of the press release from Senator Sanatorum's ssite.

Santorum Proposes to Modernize National Weather Service to Better Serve Public

April 14, 2005 -
For Immediate Release Contact: Christine Shott (202) 224-0610

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, today introduced the National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005 to clarify the duties and responsibilities of the National Weather Service (NWS) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"With the support of my colleagues, we can pass this legislation to modernize the description of the National Weather Service's roles within the national weather enterprise, so that it reflects today's reality in which the National Weather Service and the commercial weather industry both play important parts in providing weather products and services to the nation," said Senator Santorum.

Quoted from: United States Senator Rick Santorum :: Press Office

I am hanging out in the media studies nerd dungeon. Its more fun than the art side electronic studio.

I went to the store to get a nice outfit for my job interview. They measured me and laughed. The worker said, " we only have one suit in your (implied freakish) size" I decided that the store simply wasn't good enough and switched my target toshirt and tie. I was willing to spend $500 for an answer, an immediate answer - so I headed over to banana republic. They have nice clothes that fit me. At least the pants do. I where 30/32 or 30/34. Is that really so freakish.

I ended up buying two pairs of pants. The interview pants are brown stripped. I love them. Unfortunately they didn't have any shirts or jackets that went. Kaufmans did but I bought the wrong size, argh.

I ended up getting a Banana Republic card to get 15% off. It was probably a bad idea, but it sounded fun to have and the girl asking was so cute. They gave me a $1200 limit. Not buying all 12 things you could get for $1200. It was hard to resist. I haven't bought any new clothes in two years The mall absolutely freaks me out.

Afterwards, I decided to stop at Amvets on George Urban to see if they had a tie. The 60s 70s ties are back at the mall. But amvets is gone. How bad is it when Amvets has to close down!

[17:43] paulSideKick: I just got a banana republic card [17:43] paulSideKick: Something is seriously wrong with me [17:43] paulSideKick: I feel so capitalist [17:43] gametheory2k1: haha [17:47] paulSideKick: So $200 [17:47] paulSideKick: Two pairs of pants [17:47] paulSideKick: That seems outrageous [17:47] paulSideKick: Considering [17:47] paulSideKick: All of my other clothes cost $200 togther [17:47] paulSideKick: Maybe [17:48] paulSideKick: I hate how they use hot woman to sell things [17:48] paulSideKick: I wiould be way easier [17:48] paulSideKick: If they were ugly [17:48] gametheory2k1: haha [17:49] gametheory2k1: no, that's the easiest way to keep me out of a store [17:49] paulSideKick: The sales girl was hottastic [17:49] paulSideKick: I haven't been shoppoing years [17:49] paulSideKick: It is insane paulsidekick: I am so scared of stores paulsidekick: I want everything now paulsidekick: Thank god nothing is my size

If you haven't eaten at this place on Niagara, check it out. Soyeon is here, you can see her laptop in the pic.

(e:terry) and I headed down to the factory where saucy seven was to stake out our spot for the show. The radio works great by altering the frequency.

Flyer

VIRTUAL / MIXED / ARTIFICIAL REALITIES

What: Computer based works by UB students in Media Study and Architecture

Where: 3rd floor Crosby Hall, 3435 Main Street, UB South Campus, Wednesday, May 4, 4:00 - 8:00 pm.

Artistis Involved: Mike Bean, Ming-Li Chiang, Michael Collis, Paul Costa, Steffan Delpiano, Jesse Fabian, Scott Freeman, Anton Hand, Christine Ikeda, Keith Kamholz, Mayu Kono, Norman Lam, Natasha Lustra, Bogdan Marian, Andrew Potozniak, Rich Truban, Chris Van Pelt

(e:matthew) is such a great photographer. I wish he would realize it and become famous. Look how cool this banner is with the liberty building liberties and Buffalo in the background. He took it from the top of the city hall.



When I redeign the site homepage next month I am going to make a section featuring local artwork. He can be in charge of that.

Mozilla announced that Firefox will natively support SVG in firefox 1.1! SVG stands for scalable vector graphics and is an open standard created by adobe to allow for use of vector graphics on a standard web page that can be controlled via javascript. It is like flash notepad style. You can already get an SVG enable version of firefox here

You have to remember to actually enable it by going to about:config in the browser and then change scg enable from false to true. So far it works great.

I also ordered a pen tablet PC off ebay. I wanted to try one out and it was really cheap. Maybe I shouldn't stay up so late anymore. I think I can sell it for more after checking it out. It is only 500mhz but comes with a color screen and a serial port. Maybe now if jesse would just pay me for the powerbook parts!!

My last poetry class was finished with a dinner at Biblios, a lebanese restaurant somewhere off of campbell road near millersport. The food was tasty and not too expensive. I met people from Squeaky Wheel and got to have a conversation with Steffan. He said to (e:shawnr) and I - You know the feeling when you workout and then you go shower but your heart is still racing and you are all sweaty afterwards. I have no idea how that feels. I doubt shawn does either. I seriously don't ever excerise, maybe I should try it sometime. I guess it is supposed to be healthy but somehow, everytime I try and excercise, I end up hurting myself and deciding it is an unnecessary danger.

I love how (e:shawnr) is always trying to promote the site. It is so nice to hear someone else promote it. I should start some awards program for bringing in new writers! I hate promoting it myself because it is my project and then I feel like I am bragging about it but when someone else promotes it, it is just nice. By the way, there is plenty of room for lots of new people now, and if I get the job I will buy a T1 in celebration and have even more space.

After dinner I droped people off and ended up at (e:robin) 's . She is sick, just like liz. I hope I don't catch it. They were all going to the pink but I decided against hanging out with sick people. It just sounded too dangerous and I had to pick up (e:terry) at 1:20am anyways.

Tomorrow is a busy day. Install Linux on the new server, plan my interview lesson, visit the gallery space, teach a class, meet with jesse and finish the radio thing. One week left of grad school. It seems totally unreal.

He is so much like (e:terry) . He even looks and acts more like him than terry's brother. He is part of a band than performs live using instruments all made out of vegtables.