Logical Eccentricity

During my week off vacation, I had Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), a form of LASIK done. So, once my eyes fully heal, I will be able to see 20/20 without glasses or contact lenses!

Right now, my eyes are at about 20/30, but they are healing well and I should be fine in another couple of weeks. I’ll post some entries on the first few days and how the ordeal went.

Xanga is a popular blogging platform that allows users to subscribe to another user’s blog. You then receive email updates, either daily or instantly, and you can view it on the Xanga website. But, if you are like me, you want everything in one place. This script enables you to do that.

In a nutshell this script will connect to the Xanga website, pull your subscription’s page and convert it into an RSS feed for you. You can then use this RSS feed in any feed reader program, such as Outlook 2007, or Thunderbird.

The details: you provide your login information, it is encrypted on your computer, and sent to the script encrypted. The script decrypts its, and logs into the Xanga. This login process is identical to how you would log into to Xanga from anywhere else. The script pulls the subscriptions page, parses it, and displays it as an RSS file. The script logs out of Xanga as well, and deletes any cookies. The script does not, in any way, shape or form, store your login credentials on the server. I’ve made the source code available online so you can see it yourself.

Disclaimer: This software is still in the early beta stages, there will be problems and issues. Please let me know if you encounter any of them.

Links: Xanga Subscriptions RSS Feed Generator: http://beta.anksconsulting.com/Xanga/. Source code, privacy policy and license information are all available from that link.

Enjoy, and please leave some feedback.

Finally, the prayers of millions of Playstation 3 owners around the world have been answered; the PS3 will support the DivX codec soon. According to the press release from DivX, they are currently working on certifying the PS3 as a DivX player, and an update will be released soon to provide support. Now, people can watch movies downloaded off the internet on their big screen TVs without needing to convert it to the PlayStation format.

I’ve only been working for a few months now, started in July, but I feel like I need a break, a vacation of sorts. So, starting on 1pm on this Friday, I’m going on vacation. No internet, no phone, no tv, nothing until 8am Monday the 26th. So, during that time if you want, give me a call, otherwise you’ll have to wait for me to get back to reply to any email you might send me.

But before I start, I’m planning on releasing s piece of software later this week. It should help people that use Xanga a lot. Keep tunned for more information…

I went into watching this movie expecting an action movie, something along the lines of a “Behind Enemy Lines,” on that count it disappointed me. Lions for Lambs is not an action movie, rather it attempts to stimulate discussion around the war in the Middle East. At the very basic level, it has three continuous story lines; Tom Cruise is a Senator being interviewed by Meryl Streep trying to sell a new initiative in the war to the public. This new initiative is being played out in Afghanistan concurrently, with two Army Rangers. Robert Redford is a college professor attempting to re-engage one of his students, and connecting the story lines together.

All of the actors are wonderful, the script is well written and put together. The ideas are there, but I don’t feel it conveys them to the audience. The audience is left with the feeling of having participated in
something important, but not knowing what it was. It left me with the same feeling as after watching Syriana.

Overall, Lions for Lambs is a good movie; I don’t think it is worth watching on the big screen, but definitely when it is released on dvd.