CAUTION: This will remove all settings, extensions, and bookmarks in firefox.

First of all, I’ve had my wisdom stolen… Ok, not really, but I did have my Wisdom Teeth removed. It was a most interesting experience. I went to an oral surgeon and was put under. I didn’t even really I was falling a sleep. They had me on an IV to knock me out, and that’s exactly what it did, instantly. The next thing I knew, I was being woken up and moved to a different room. I had several odd reactions to the anesthesia. Every couple of hours, I would get really nauseated, hot, and start shaking. I was kind of scared. I was in pain for two weeks, and it was an awful pain. It surged up to my ears and they felt like they were on fire. But eventually I got over it, and now I just dealing with the two holes in the back of my mouth.

I have setup a programming forum on my website. It’s main goal is to help students and programmers a like. The only problem is, I can’t seem to get enough publicity to get it rolling. The forums can currently be accessed at http://www.rychannel.com/forums/programming . If you have any suggestions, I welcome them.

The last part of this post is Data Structures. It is my favorite class this semester and I am really learning a lot. What is a data structure you ask? According to Encyclopedia Britannica, In computer science, a data structure is a particular way of storing and organizing data in a computer so that it can be used efficiently. So far we’ve talked about lists, queues, and stacks. I find them extremely interesting, but currently we are working on tree’s and due to its need for recursion I find that I can not wrap my head around how they work. I get the theory, I just don’t understand the programming behind it.

For the past week, I’ve been attempting to improve the conditions and figure out exactly what is going on when their computer systems. So far I’ve been finding ways to save money on equipment and improve even the health of their system. I know that I will finally be able to make a difference there and that will make me feel almost complete.

For the purpose of this blog, IPTV stands for Internet Protocol Television.

For the past couple of years Internet media has been getting increasingly popular.  More and more people are watching television shows and movie via the Internet (both legally and illegally).  Some examples are Apple iTunes, Netflix, and xbox marketplace.

There are so many ways for companies to broadcast their media.  Netflix uses the xbox 360 and its own set-top box.  Apple has iTunes and Apple TV makes it extremely easy to access iTunes via the TV. Most television stations, like ABC, NBC, and Fox, allow you to watch episodes of shows that you may have missed.  There is one company that gets how popular Internet broadcasting has gotten and has invested a lot of money in distributing and creating programming just for Internet viewing. Revision3 uses several different mediums of distributing its content.  Not only do they distribute through their website, but they also use iTunes, Tivo, PyroTV, Bittorrent, and even more. Revision3 (aka rev3) has produced several IPTV shows including but not limited to:

• Tekzilla
• Systm
• Diggnation
• The Digg Reel

They have also signed a contract to distribute another popular IPTV show Hak.5.

I would highly reccomend checking out Revision3 at their website, revision3.com.

Could internet broadcasting be bad news for Satellite and cable companies? Tell me what you think.

Last summer, I was doing Weight Watchers but stopped for some reason. I’m still not quite sure why. Perhaps lack of support, I don’t know. I would go back to Weight Watchers, but I remember that their site was always buggy and it costs about 17 bucks a month and since I’m a college student, I really don’t need another monthly bill. Am I right?

So I heard of a website called SparkPeople.com. It is a free service to help manage the food that you eat but giving you a total amount of calories, fat, and carbs, that you can eat in one day. It seems a little bit more complicated than WW but its free. So what do I have to lose? My current weight goal is 177 but next March. I think that means I have to lose about a pound per week. I’m hoping that I can double that and reach my goal in half of the time.

So all of the links in the side bar are there because I go to those sites a lot, need them for work, or need them for class.

Other than the weather, I really don’t have any great or important news for today, except I think I have finally finished my page on the installation of Cacti. Alright, most of you are probably going, “What the hell is Cacti?” You normal non-tech people may just want to ignore this.

Cacti is an RRD based monitoring solution. It uses SNMP to collect data from network devices such as computers, switches, routers, etc. and creates graphs based on the data it collects.
So some of you may have already noticed the “Cacti wiki” page and have been wondering, how am I suppose to add info to the wiki about Cacti if I don’t have editing access. Well, if you feel you need to add or change something on the wiki, register with the site and send me an email with what you want to add or change. Then I will make you a Wiki contributor, or if you just want to send me the additions I can add them my self. Registering with RyChannel.com will not mean you will get spammed all the time. I will probably never email you unless you email me first or I have a legit question to ask you about something you have contributed.

Next week is also a very important holiday for my family, St. Patricks Day. We will be spending a couple days next week in Des Moines, preparing for the annual St Patricks Day parade.  I will most like spend most of that morning on my dads bus (yes my dad owns a bus) in the parade.  The weather doesn’t sound like it is going to be very good, from what I hear there is supposed to be snow.  For some reason my late grandfather would have wanted it that way.  He has been a big part of the St Patricks Day parade for many years.

For more information about the Des Moines St Patricks Day Parade, please visit http://www.geocities.com/stpatricksdayparade2000