Rant:

I think I'm going to boycott the bus for distances less than 15km for awhile. Today I spent nearly an hour and a half getting from Bathurst and Steeles to Dufferin and Lawrence. According to Google Maps, that's 11.2km and takes 14min (by car, obviously).

Here's what I went through:
* 10 minute walk to the bus stop (that's normal)
* Caught the #7 Bathurst bus
* The #7 stopped for about 5min before turning south on Bathurst
* Took the #7 down to Lawrence, this took about 30min.
* Waited for the #34 Lawrence bus.
* I first saw the #34 after 10 minutes of waiting
* After three green lights it finally made it across the intersection
* Two stops up we waited a few minutes before moving because people weren't behind the white line
* Arrived at Lawrence West station, waited 5min there.
* 5min later we got to Dufferin.

I came up with a list of frustrations while during my trip:
1) Why is there bus stops on both sides of an intersection? All this does is cause the bus to be stuck at extra red lights. In most cases the bus stop should be after the lights, to help avoid getting stuck at them.
2) The bus is a lot slower than I remembered. It really sucks when it takes half an hour to go from Steeles to Lawrence.
3) It's difficult to estimate how long it will take to get somewhere unless you do it on a daily basis. To arrive on time you usually need to give yourself a lot of extra time, which often ends up making you really early!
4) Buses get really crowded.
4) The things mentioned above cause a huge amount of frustration for me.

I think one of the reasons the bus is more frustrating now is because I'm in the far north of the city. When I was living closer to Bloor I don't remember it being this bad.

For now, I'm going to use my bike whenever I can. I'd forgotten how nice it is to have control over your mode of transportation.

Canadian Bakin'

I thought some people might be interested in my new blog. I've started doing a lot of baking lately, mostly breads and bagels to start with. You can read about it on Canadian Bakin'.

Im in yur box, steelin yur fork

I couldn't resist posting some cute pictures of my cats.

I'm not voting

This is what I've been treated to all week at school:


The York University building I travel through every day is completely plastered with these election posters. Now I'm all for voting and making your voice heard but the absurdity of these campaigns is getting to me. The walls are plastered as high up as one can reach with posters that look nearly identical. Not just one wall, half of the walls in the damn building. Not only is it a waste of paper and ink the homogeneous nature of the designs prevent any one candidate from standing out.

I hope this election is over soon.

No one more deserving

Apparently I'm the recipient of the Maurice Joseph Weisfeld Memorial Award this year for being a "deserving student in the school of computer studies". I'm not sure what that _really_ means, but I'm not complaining.

CSS Notebook Layout

Ever wanted a notebook style layout on a web page?



Well, I sure did. And I spent the better portion of the day fighting with it making it work right. You can find a small example page here.

Here are the important parts of the CSS and Javascript:

For the 'tabs':

.tab {
  border-top: 1px solid black;
  border-left: 1px solid black;
  border-bottom: 1px solid black;
  padding-top: 5px;
  padding-bottom: 5px;
  padding-left: 15px;
  padding-right: 15px;
  vertical-align: middle;
  text-align: left;
  color: blue;
  cursor: pointer;
}

Each tab also has it's initial 'background-color' set.

Here is the corresponding HTML:

<div>
  <span id="page1Tab" class="tab" onclick="showPage('page1');">
    Page 1
  </span>
  <span id="page2Tab" class="tab" onclick="showPage('page2');">
    Page 2
  </span>
  <span id="page3Tab" class="tab" onclick="showPage('page3');" style="border-right: 1px solid black">
    Page 3
  </span>
</div>

It's important to note that for the frame to properly line up with the bottom of the buttons that it needs to have it's 'margin-top' identical to the tabs 'padding-bottom'. This is what my "content" frame looks like:

div#content {
  width: 95%;
  border: 1px solid black;
  margin-top: 5px;
  background-color: #B5BBD5;
}

I'm using <fieldset> tags with <legend> tags in my example to get the neat looking frame.

Finally, here are links to the HTML, CSS, and Javascript files:

• HTML
  
• CSS
  
• Javascript
  

Not so Rational Rose

Apparently Rational Rose changes their file formats between minor versions. Because of this I just had to re-do a large amount of work.

This whole program is a piece of crap. Their UI is terrible, inconsistent, and feels like it was built for Windows 3.1. For example, how do you delete something from a model? The 'delete' key you say? Of course not! You use ^D! Did you make a change you didn't like? Would you like to undo it? Sorry! You can't! Delete the object and then add it again.

Yargh!

Edgy Eft

Today I set out to install the latest version of Ubuntu, Edgy Eft (6.10). I've been an Ubuntu user since Warty Warthog (4.10) and a long time Debian user before that. I'm continually impressed with how they take the Debian base and polish it so well. I've always told people that Ubuntu "is like Debian with a better package set".

Since Dapper Drake (6.04) Ubuntu has had a new installer. It is more or less just an application that runs inside of a Live CD. The organization and feel of it is very similar to it's text based counterpart. I'm all in favor of a GUI installer but very disappointed with Ubuntu's. This post will detail the downfalls of it.

For the record, here is a summary of the hardware I was installing on:

• IBM Thinkpad R51


• 512MB PC2700 RAM


• Intel Pentium M 1.5GHz CPU


• Intel Pro Wireless 2200 a/b/g


• CD-RW/DVD-ROM


• 40GB Hard Drive

Thanksgiving

I've found out from a few people that Thanksgiving in the US is apparently a week long event. An online radio show I listen to is cancelled this week because of it and many others I know are not working this week.

When did Thanksgiving become a week long event?

Edumacation

Off and on for the past year I've been thinking off and on about getting a degree. Dave tells me that I should be in the BSD program and I know a few other people that think I should be at a University working towards a Masters. These thoughts cross my mind almost daily. I flip-flop on the issue for a couple reasons.

Money is the big one. Obvious, I know, but important. I am already indebted to OSAP -- and not a small amount. Every time I think about going another 30 or 40 thousand into debt I cringe. I have some money in an RESP but that is not going to last much longer. OSAP has recently told me that I'm in overpayment, too. I have a feeling I will be getting less and from them as time goes on, I will likely make more in 2007 than in 2006. So far I've avoided becoming the poor student who lives on ramen noodles and mustard sandwiches and I do _not_ want to become one. I also do not want to be paying of student loans until I'm 40.

Time is another big concern for me. By the time I've got my Diploma I will have been in school for 24 months straight. I will need at minimum an additional 4 semesters to get a Degree. This would probably be over the course of 2 full years. To get a Masters there would likely be 2 *more* years. I'm not sure I want to be in school until I'm 25.

I thought there was more reasons than just those two but it looks like that's it. I know I am academically capable of acheiving whatever I set forth to do...but in my head time and money are both really big barriers. I'm trying to gain a more balanced perspective on the situation by talking to people who *have* spent considerable time and money on school. People tell me that graduates with Degrees have a much higher starting salary. Would it be enough to get my loans paid off in a reasonable amount of time? Another advantage of a Degree is that I would probably be able to teach later on in my career if I wanted. Teaching is something I've been thinking about for nearly a year now. I don't think I'd want to do it right away, if at all, but I don't want to block myself from having the opportunity though.

Input, anyone?