Archive for September, 2006
Vanilla House Designs
Posted in Generalon Sep 11, 2006
Perhaps this is just a shameless plug, but I recently set up Wordpress to be used for my mom’s business website. She really likes it, especially how she can edit and post content herself instead of having to go through a webmaster. I really hacked the template to get it to look like a regular website instead of a blog, like Wordpress sites normally do. The url is: http://www.vanillahousedesigns.com . Maybe one of these days I’ll tell her that she actually has a blog.
- Comments Off
- Tags: web sites
psu football
Posted in Sportson Sep 9, 2006
of course i shouldn’t be surprised that things are not quite like provo, but this is hardly bigger than high school ball. tonight is portland state vs north colorado-and the 1st 2 noCol possessions ended in intercepted passes. more info after the game. Update:Portland State won, something like 45 to 3. I was mostly disappointed in the lack of energy from the student sections (only two sections). The game really wasn’t that interesting, but it was almost amusing during the first quarter or two how many Northern Colorado turnovers there were.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: football, Portland State
Welcoming students back to campus
Posted in Educationon Sep 9, 2006
I was looking over BYU Newsnet campus headlines today when I saw this one. The headline was: Opening Socials Welcome Students Back to Campus while the tag line was: To begin the year with a grand entrance, the four on-campus housing areas are holding their opening socials for residents.
The words that seemed a little odd to me are welcome back, and on-campus housing. This just seems a little odd to me because typically a large majority of those who live in on-campus housing are freshman, which means we wouldn’t be welcoming them back. Now granted, there are some students who are returning to campus who live in on-campus housing (many of whom live in Wyview which I argue isn’t really on-campus), but I’m just saying that the headline of the article could have been written to better fit the demographics.
- (1) Comment
- Tags: BYU, daily universe, freshmen
Blue baja starbursts
Posted in Reviewson Sep 8, 2006
I got a package of baja california starbursts, and the blue ones definately aren’t my favorites.
- Comments Off
- Tags: food
Wyview is not on-campus housing
Posted in Educationon Sep 8, 2006
I’m tired of BYU advertising Wyview Park as on-campus housing. Just because it is owned and operated by BYU doesn’t mean that it is on-campus. I used Google Earth to find some distances from Wyview and a few off-campus housing complexes to various campus locations. All distances are linear, and not the actual distance a student may travel while walking to the location.
To the library entrance:
- Wyview: 0.88 miles
- Glenwood: 0.62 miles
- University Villa: 0.67 miles
- Centennial: 0.89 miles
To the Marriott Center:
- Wyview: 0.65 miles
- Glenwood: 0.52 miles
- University Villa: 0.87 miles
- Centennial: 1.19 miles
To the Joseph Smith Building:
- Wyview: 1.02 miles
- Glenwood: 0.69 miles
- University Villa: 0.49 miles
- Centennial: 0.78 miles
When looking at these number, it is hard to imagine that Wyview is considered “on-campus” while the other complexes are considered “off-campus.”
These numbers were easy to find with Google Earth’s distance measuring tool. Google Earth is part of Google Pack, a free collection of essential software. You can download Google Pack by clicking here.
Update March 1, 2008: For those who are not familiar with BYU campus, you can take a look at the campus map to see where some of the buildings are. Wyview is northwest of campus, on the far side of the stadium. Glenwood is west of the northern part campus, about 3/10th of a mile northwest of Heleman halls, a housing complex that more properly can call itself, “On-campus.” University Villa just a few blocks west from the tennis courts on the southwest side of campus. Centennial is located near a few other large complexes southeast of campus.
Update January 23, 2009: I’ve also added this map to help show where a few major on-campus and off-campus complexes are located with respect to the main part of campus where students take classes (the blue shaded region). Wyview is the brown shaded region along the top of the map.
- (11) Comments
- Tags: BYU, freshmen, Google, housing
Broadband usage grows
Posted in Technicalon Sep 8, 2006
ldsWebguy recently blogged about the growth of broadband usage. He was very wise, I think, in not overreacting to the unprecedented rates of the growth. We need to continue to remember all the dial-up modem users out there and that they aren’t able to access Internet content at premium speeds.
I think websites sometimes neglect out dial-up friends for at least these two reasons:
- Those in the web design industry are very likely to be accessing the Internet over broadband connections. Because the creators and authors of Internet websites have such a fast connection to the Internet, they tend to forget how slow downloads take for dial-up users. The content and websites they create are then larger and take longer for dial-up users to download.
- An increasing number of trend-setting websites sell products, and their customers who can afford their products are the same people who are more likely to afford broadband Internet connections. In free-market enterprise, consumer-producer communication happens monetarily. Thus, those who can afford high-speed Internet also have a louder market voice to commercial Internet content providers.
Only conscious efforts on the part of web designers to keep sites slim and fast will keep the web accessible for everyone.
- No Comments
- Tags: broadband, Internet, Web Development
What is homelessness?
Posted in Insightson Sep 8, 2006
Someone recently arrived at my website by typing “what makes me homeless?” into a search engine. I have no idea who this person is, but I thought I would share some thoughts about what makes a person homeless.
Having a home is different than having a shelter. A shelter simply a place that protects from the elements and provides a place to rest. A home is much more: it is more than a place to exist, it is a place to live. Let me suggest that at the minimum, a home should provide the following:
- Allow for the consumption of food and water
- Allow for the storage of personal belongings
- Allow for the expression of love
- Provide an environment suitable for healthy sleep
- Allow personal prayer or worship
- Be free of fear of physical or emotional abuse
- Be more permanent than temporary
The only other requirement is that a home is what you make of it. If you are denied a home, please consider seeking help.
- No Comments
- Tags: homeless
Recent Comments