tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62719162024-03-07T00:27:06.865-06:00Andrew Fister's LogAndrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.comBlogger156125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-64167822236630421372010-03-05T13:34:00.000-06:002010-03-05T13:34:51.698-06:00Why most illegal drugs should be legalizedThe following is based on a comment I wrote on Facebook. I'm placing it here so it is more visible and more publicly archived for the benefit of society.
I disagree that legalizing illegal drugs condones an activity. Something being legal is the default state with regard to a any given activity. It is more or less a neutral state. When a new activity comes along, the default assumption is that Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-78322936980753299532009-11-20T01:58:00.001-06:002009-11-20T02:03:03.349-06:00Podcasts I'm following currentlyI thought I'd list the audio podcasts I'm following currently, in case anyone is interested to have some good audio to listen to. My selections are basically comprised of Linux-related shows and Public Radio shows.
FLOSS Weekly
I only recently started listening to this podcast. One of the hosts is Randal Schwartz, who is a legendary writer of Perl programming books. Each episode of this show isAndrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-9648651250509560062009-04-21T14:37:00.003-05:002009-04-21T14:48:47.818-05:00Promoting Free ContentNearing the end of the OpenCamp event, we discussed the future of OpenEverything and related events. I suggest(ed) that we must first appeal to the most common attitude of most people in order to bring awareness of the benefits of openness in our society. For example, most people are oriented toward consuming media and acquiring 'things'. If one would like to promote openness in media, create anAndrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-23115524735464326132009-04-21T13:43:00.010-05:002009-04-21T14:42:35.054-05:00OpenCampLast weekend Rachel and I went up to Madison, WI to attend the OpenCamp, which was on the 18th of April. It was quite an enjoyable weekend. You can take a look at our pics if you'd like.Our travel experience itself was rather interesting, in mode if not saliency. We first took a train from Champaign up to Chicago. There is no train from Chicago to Madison, so we rented a Zipcar(a blue Nissan Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-45827253063472476802008-11-07T15:46:00.004-06:002008-11-07T15:51:55.549-06:00The Significance to Racial Equality of the Election of Barack ObamaThis post is in response to a Slashdot post on the election of Barack Obama.The fact is that there is still a very real discriminatory element in our society toward under-priveleged races. There are certainly many cases in which black people are demonstrably on equal footing with the more priveleged social groups, but it is also demonstrable that blacks continue to be underserved because of theirAndrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-65409650481589571352008-08-12T17:29:00.006-05:002008-08-12T17:44:21.887-05:00Doctor HorribleIf you're a fan of Joss Whedon, you'll love Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Video Blog.It's a story about a dorky evil mad scientist(Neil Patrick Harris, of Doogie Houser fame) who publishes a public video blog. The story spends little time with that, however. It mostly centers around his crush on a girl he sees at the laundromat that he's too shy to talk to. It's also about his neverending battle Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-21429073755351094462008-02-28T01:20:00.005-06:002008-02-28T01:38:36.430-06:00HP tx2000zSo, do you see the computer that is being used in the video below? It's this one:This is one of the best tablet pc's in production at the moment: the HP tx2000z. I want to be able to take notes with this machine. And play Crayon Physics Deluxe.Why do I want a tablet pc? I believe that interface is where the real benefit of computers comes from, and it's the future of the best innovation. tabletAndrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-62300754301929424512008-02-28T01:16:00.001-06:002008-02-28T01:16:53.784-06:00Crayon Physics DeluxeThis is such an inspiring game. Pure intuition.Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-73592475371179148972008-02-28T00:30:00.004-06:002008-02-28T01:32:16.655-06:00What's in a note?I don't write down notes too often, really. I do it when I feel it's expected of me, and sometimes not even then. There are some things that need to be noted, though. My thoughts about my research, for instance. It's really really hard to hold all the good ideas you have in your head indefinitely. Since I really really want to graduate with a PhD, I need to hold those good ideas in a more Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-17702890018896292422007-10-27T17:01:00.000-05:002008-02-28T00:52:20.962-06:00Remember, Remember, The Fifth of NovemberI've noticed a clever fund-raising campaign by the republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul. Referencing the movie V for Vendetta, the Ron Paul campaign has fairly explicitly compared their candidate to the character "V" from the movie, who compares himself to a historical British revolutionary named Guy Fawkes, about whom the following rhyme is Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-83186774548108381702007-10-23T01:55:00.000-05:002008-02-28T00:52:20.974-06:00Gutsy GibbonI recently installed Ubuntu 7.10, which just came out on the 18th of October. I'm quite impressed with it. I'm writing from a blog posting applet integrated into Ubuntu. :-)Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-59408206420825860942007-07-09T23:56:00.000-05:002007-07-10T00:11:34.727-05:00ConfrontationI have found that I lack the will/courage/nerve to confront practically anything in my life. It's very interesting. This trend goes to the extent that I have trouble even forming opinions about things. Or rather, I find most anything for which one could have an opinion to be agreeable to my liking and generally have to be shown otherwise.Most of my opinions that I do form seem to center on the Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-43800632305096979652007-05-24T18:57:00.000-05:002007-05-24T19:45:17.066-05:00Dell And Ubuntu, Sitting In A TreeToday, Dell released their first line of computers preloaded with the Ubuntu operating system. This most promising alternative to Windows is used by Michael Dell himself on his primary computer. The importance of the release goes beyond the benefit of having a choice of operating system when you shop at Dell. The importance lies in the fact that Dell has a mighty influence over hardware Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-86777239634431388692007-05-03T01:50:00.001-05:002007-05-03T01:54:56.856-05:0009 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0Just doing my part to stick it to "the man".Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-8574008964611392162007-04-15T16:22:00.000-05:002007-04-15T16:57:07.746-05:00Farewell to a Hard DriveA week ago, my computer's hard drive stopped booting. I ran out to Best Buy immediately and bought a new Western Digital Scorpio Hard Drive with 120 GB capacity(double the capacity of my ailing 60GB Hitachi Travelstar) and I loaded a fresh install of Ubuntu Edgy Eft on it. I happened to have backed up my data about 6 months ago, so I got my old stuff back immediately. But, as I have some missionAndrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-17155948970780811622007-04-12T11:16:00.000-05:002007-04-12T11:18:05.839-05:00Kurt Vonnegut Dies At Age 84So it goes.Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-83429277163563904042007-04-11T21:23:00.000-05:002007-04-11T21:31:18.679-05:00We Won SemEval!Actually, I'm not sure how we won, but we did...we've been getting a lot of congratulations from professors in our department and such, but I still don't know how we had the best system. It seemed so last minute and ad hoc. We had 1 1/2 months to code our system, and there were 13 other teams from around the country(and in the UK).Also, I am excited about Feisty Fawn, the next version of Ubuntu, Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-1625056596054583582007-03-30T21:27:00.000-05:002007-03-30T23:24:39.833-05:00SemEval 2007Picture: Christmas 2005, Rachel's Aunt Amy's house in northwestern Ohio.From left: Erin Drum(Rachel's sister), me, Rachel Drum(my fiance), Kevin Drum(Rachel's brother), Pam Drum(Rachel's Mom), Bruce Drum(Rachel's Dad)I thought you might be interested to hear about a project I've been working on :-)This semester I'm taking a seminar in which we are competing in a sort of academic task called Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-21856229820132521862007-03-17T22:41:00.000-05:002007-03-17T23:36:35.360-05:00Why Is The Study of Art Important?My love Rachel is an artist of a particular sort where she is encouraged to pursue her art explicitly and even formally. She works to make her art a truer expression of herself, ever expanding her modes of expression in order to come to a closer understanding of herself and her world around her.But what is the importance of this pursuit? Why would someone choose art as an intellectual life Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-82625615916476312052007-03-08T21:11:00.000-06:002007-03-08T21:51:30.019-06:00Jorge Cham Visits UIUCThis evening I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by the creator of the web comic known as Piled Higher and Deeper. This comic, if you haven't read it, is a very inspiring/depressing/comedic take on the life of a graduate student(that is, my life). What I enjoy about these comics is that I can relate precisely to many of them. Jorge Cham has indeed been through grad school at Stanford, Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-18467804713486393232007-02-24T09:42:00.000-06:002007-03-09T03:56:23.294-06:00Drew's WeddingA week ago I served as my friend Drew Foerster's best man at his wedding in DC. Drew is the friend I've known the longest, since about 3rd grade. Our birthdays are 4 days apart.We never went to the same school, though we both participated in day camps during the summer through the rec & parks system in Howard County, MD. In high school, Drew got me interested in Linguistics, in which I'm Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-49164431294793425072007-02-23T14:47:00.001-06:002007-03-09T03:55:55.847-06:00Wedding Plans!Rachel and I have put together a wiki page for our wedding plans. What this means is, if you're involved in the planning of our wedding, or otherwise have something constructive to add, then you can freely edit our site :-)We'll be working on it continuously until the wedding day, and probably afterwards, sobookmark the page and make sure to check back regularly :-)Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-63158424238426631612007-01-24T22:17:00.000-06:002007-03-09T03:55:36.411-06:00GilgameshI've been watching a nice Japanese cartoon series called Gilgamesh. It's about some kids who were born with a paranormal power(highly flexible telekinesis, telepathy) and a catastrophe that happened in which the whole lower atmosphere was covered with a mirror-like magnetic field, so no one could see the blue sky. The magnetic field also has the effect of disrupting all electronics equipment, so Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-32623257791056593202007-01-17T20:49:00.000-06:002007-03-09T03:54:02.676-06:00Rachel's ArtRachel sent me some way cool pics of her latest art project!Let me show you guys: So this piece is a pair of shows into which Rachel etched the words "I can't even look at that!", echoing the words of her least-favorite teacher in her art department during her most recent review. She then stamped the shoes with black paint all over her studio and a little bit outside her studio. Supposedly it Andrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6271916.post-79793574820732579582007-01-11T02:29:00.000-06:002007-03-09T03:53:36.420-06:00Portabella Cheese SteakIngredients:6-inch sourdough roll1 yellow onion1/2 portabella mushroom3 slices muenster cheese4 tbsp butter1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil2 tbsp olive oilDice an onion. Heat the butter and vegetable oil in a skillet. Put the onion into the skillet and sautee until brown. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Cook the portabella mushroom in the skillet until cooked on all sides. Put mushroom and cheese intoAndrew Fister 3rdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00277160935137119835noreply@blogger.com0