steve kwan user experience designer

Snow Patrol

(September 30th, 2004)

Have you heard Run, by Snow Patrol? Awesome song. The CD's not that great, but this single is awesome.

This $150 textbook was a waste of money.

(September 29th, 2004)

For $150, I'm expecting a good textbook. Instead, I got a piece of crap for my research course. "CD included," it proudly proclaims on its cover. So what? I've had cereal that had a CD included, and it didn't cost me $150.

Online Ed

(September 27th, 2004)

I'm taking research course online through BCIT. Something about learning how to find answers to problems or whatnot. Anyway, part of my marks come from my participation in this online forum. You're supposed to post to the threads, and if you don't you won't get marks.

I find it highly ironic that, after years of being told by teachers that chatting online is an unproductive waste of time, I am now being told that if I don't chat online I won't get marks.

Portfolio updated

(September 25th, 2004)

I updated my portfolio to reflect the fact that I am no longer actively developing for MINISIS Inc. I have also returned control of the Nahoa website to its owner. I added links to the Eloquent website and software which I'm now developing.

Pictures of my place

(September 22nd, 2004)

Although they've been on my server for a while, I just linked the pictures of my house in Burnaby to my gallery. Check them out here.

Whatever

(September 19th, 2004)

I'm not writing this update because I have anything important to say, but rather, because people have come to expect me to update regularly. :)

Tomorrow, Wesley (a friend from my graduating class at BCIT) is starting at Eloquent Systems. This is definitely a good thing, as it'll fill some programmer vacancies and provide me with some company. His site, linked above, seems to be down at the moment. This might be because he built his server with duct tape and Tupperware (no joke).

I've slowly but surely been getting back into my exercise routine, which includes crunches and a few trips to the gym.

I just finished Thief: Deadly Shadows, which is definitely a game I'd recommend. I gotta admit that I was surprised. When I found out the game was developed by Ion Storm, the makers of the "stellar" game Daikatana, I figured this one would be a stinker. It's amazing what you can recover from. I guess the next game I'll get into is Call of Duty: United Offensive. However, my research course just started, and I should be devoted some time to that.

The feedback for the Eloquent website so far has been pretty good (even though you haven't posted any comments on my board).

Overall, things are good and I can't complain.

ESI Website

(September 16th, 2004)

The new Eloquent Systems Inc. website is up!

Access Logs

(September 15th, 2004)

So I finally got around to dealing with my usage monitor. My log files were too big for Webalizer to read. Ryan suggested I use a program called logrotate to break the log files down. Instead, log rotate chose to delete a year worth of access files.

Oh well, at least they're cleaned up now. The usage meter should be back on track.

Enter Bosley

(September 11th, 2004)

This may not be news to many of you, but we've got a new puppy!

My family picked up Bosley, a Wheaten Terrier, on the 6th. I could've written about this sooner, but I didn't want to mention him on here until the pictures were uploaded.

Check out some pictures of Bosley in my gallery.

Eloquent Website

(September 10th, 2004)

Guys, do you have any feedback on the new Eloquent website? Please let me know by posting your comments in the posting board. Thanks.

Blackspot Sneakers

(September 7th, 2004)

Adbusters, a well-known Vancouver left-wing magazine, is taking shot at Nike with a new line of shoes called Blackspot Sneakers.

Just a warning: this is going to degenerate into a rant. Feel free to go browse somewhere else if you don't want to hear it. It's not like I'm holding a gun to your head. Unless I am. In which case, you'd better keep reading, chocko.

A bit of background for the newbies: Adbusters is a Vancouver magazine that (obviously) "busts ads" through satire. I really don't know how wide-spread Adbusters has become, but they are well known here. They've just released a new line of sneakers which are intended to be "ethical" alternatives to Nike. From what I gather, they intend to pay decent wages to their workers and donate profits to charities.

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo (which is really just a hippie's equivalent of the Anarchist's Cookbook), is opposed to the idea. She argues that this is just countering a form of commercialism with another form of commercialism. And this might be a valid idea, if not for the fact that it's coming from someone as long-winded and headstrong as Naomi Klein.

What has Naomi Klein ever accomplished? A major impression I got from No Logo and her Fences & Windows essay is that Naomi Klein really wants to convince people that she's making a difference. She constantly drops her own name by reminiscing about the protests she's attended. That's great, Naomi...but what have you really accomplished? You wrote a book telling other people why they should be enraged and how they should protest. And now, Adbusters is actually doing something - they are actively promoting a product intended to hurt with Nike - and you are opposed to it because it doesn't fit the protest methodologies you outlined in your book.

Well, everybody should go out and buy a pair of Blackspots. It looks like they might actually get some distribution from retailers in Vancouver. At least they'd make a good conversation piece.

Fixed my problem

(September 2nd, 2004)

So I finally fixed my video card problem. I fixed it by installing NVIDIA beta drivers. I don't want to get into too much detail about it, for fear of this site winding up like Divyesh's.

I'm in a much better mood now. Enjoying work, enjoying pretty much everything. Sarah is in a bad mood, as she just had a bit of a mishap, but she's on her way over and I'm looking forward to seeing her.

Video Cards

(September 1st, 2004)

I am not in a good mood.

I've just gone through two really expensive video cards, neither of which worked. I was really looking forward to owning a great video card for once in my life, but I'm having so many problems. I just have no clue what is preventing them from working properly. I keep getting software crashes. Sure, it's possible that you might buy one dud video card, but two? More likely than not, it's a problem elsewhere in my computer. Grr.

I might have to take the computer in to a shop, which I don't look forward to doing.