This page will house older news from the website.
Sometimes it is fun to go back and see where things started and how they
got so messed up :).
11/15/01
 -
The big story for the past couple of months has been my
arrival at WPI. What is
WPI and why should you be jealous? It would be nice for
it to be at an elitist technical university. In reality
WPI is a mix of new and old. The school does not float in
wealth, the campus is not newly renovated, and Worcester
is not exactly the garden of Eden. But at its core it is
the human environment that matters. Students are hard working
and interesting people. I think I'll fit in just fine. :)
Check out some pics of my
beautiful single in the stoddard
complex.
First off some things I'm impressed with:
Netops;
we have an extremely fast internal multi-gigabit network,
45mbit to the rest of the world, an OC3 155mbit internet
2 hookup, and expanding wireless lan. The bandwidth transfer
policies are extremely liberal (basically no policies minus
the blocked services). All this translates to an excellent
network experience... but its still not a good idea to run
IRC dump sites.
DAKA;
the food is quite good no matter what you might here from
certain peoples. DAKA tends to have good food days here
and there, and at other times there is plenty of variety
to be creative with. One of these days I'll try the make
your own waffle thing and the omelets.
Soccomm;
there is no great shortage of things to do thanks to Soccomm.
I try to make the coffee houses on Tuesday nights, which
have proved exceptional. I will explore more of the fun
stuff this bunch organizes. Keep kicking ass guys.
And now some of the things I'd like to see disappear...
TatnuckBookseller; can burn in fiery hell. They
charge above suggested retail value, hide ISBN numbers,
sell a minimum amount of used books, have no return policy
to speak of, and generally display a "we'll screw you
at every possible instance" kind of attitude. Don't
buy from them!
Teachers who can't speak English; I have nothing
against foreigners, I'm a foreigner, but if you're in a
position of passing your knowledge to students, you had
better know the language. I think this is one of the self-evident
truths. I recommend you transfer out of any classes where
the teacher is hard to understand. There is no reason to
put up with it.
- In light of the September 11th tragedy I made a model
of the ill-fated World Trade Center buildings. I took some
pictures of my creation.
Visit Stoddard 105 to spot them.
8/14/01
- The
website for the movie which Mike and I have been working
on for quite some time is on the web. The website features
the whole movie (35 mins) in high quality streaming video
as well as behind scenes information on the film and cast
and crew. While you're there make sure to sign the guestbook,
and let us know what you think. This has been my largest
movie project to date, taking over 5 months to complete.
Much more is found on "The
Most Dangerous Game" website.
- I'm counting the days to my arrival at
WPI. At
the final stretch it came down to WPI and Brandeis,
and Brandeis simply doesn't do what I'm interested in. On
the other hand I loved my visit to WPI, the kids were great,
and I got the sense that it was my kind of place. Plus there
is a much faster internet connection and 100mb of space
on the web server which is now conveniently being used by
"The Most Dangerous
Game" :) I move in on the 25th. Below is me holding
up the acceptance letter, which I have since lost (whoops)
- The Killer Apps
section has been updated. It has become slightly more selective.
PowerArchiver and StartPro have been removed due to their
similarity to many other applications. The Google toolbar
has also been replaced by the more flexible Web
Accessories for IE. Other new additions include Total
Recorder, an excellent sound recording
app, as well as two mp3 name management
tools. Lastly the free and powerful CDex
cd ripper/encoder is a great new addition.
- The summer kicked off with a trip to visit
my
sister in Montréal, CA. The
pictures from that trip are online. I think I need to
get myself a digital camera sometime 'cause I'm too lazy to
take real pictures, develop and scan them. I'm wishing I had
one for our Pennsylvania trip, which had its moments.
- This page has moved to new servers hosted
by WPI. The
space allocated at MediaOne has run out. I've setup round-robin
DNS between three WPI servers, so hopefully there will not
be any downtime problems. Everyone should update their bookmarks;
home.borism.net has changed to www2.borism.net. In general,
manually bookmark www.borism.net
to be a step ahead of any future moves. If you notice any
page problems, let
me know
 -
Pictures from the 1st
annual Oyster River High School laptop day have been uploaded.
As the school year came to a close a bunch of us guys decided
to bring our laptops to school and chill together during free
period. As always the good quality pics were taken with with
Jason's camera.
2/10/01
- Recently I met up with someone who went
to RSM math camp with me a couple of summers ago, the nostalgia
overflowed yet again. Man.. I had such a good time, check
out my memoirs.
- Mike and I got approved for our video production
independent study, looks like we'll be working some robotics
over at the town hall real soon. Watch out channel 22.
 -
Jason has posted the hell
pictures he recently took. These are going to be great
too look back at. I would like to thank Oyster River for ruining
my work ethic and introducing me to the wonderful world of
procrastination.
- My dad
got us a karaoke system recently, complete with two microphones
and rowdy Russian music :). We've been getting all our favorites
complete with lyrics over @ karaoke.ru
the .kar files offered at the site are actually .mid files
with text incorporated in. Thus any standard midi player
will be able to handle them. I've been using wingroove
to output wav's and burn them to cd. Sure beats buying $50
midi cartridges.
2/5/01
- Its snowing frozen cats and dogs outside..
hmmm I'm thinking no school tomorrow. If my theory of "it
doest matter what actually happens but rather what the
forecast says" stands, then we'll be all set. Hello
winter storm warning.
- I switched around the monitors for my
dual
monitor setup. Now I have the voodoo3 running my compaq
19" and the ati all in wonder working on the viewsonic
17". This way I can have better 2d acceleration on the
19". Also it has become really easy to switch the voodoo3
to the primary graphics card enabling 3d acceleration. The
voodoo3 can also push more resolutions and refresh rates.
The 19" is now running at 1152x864. Anyone ever hear
of that res? I win! On a related note, I switched to a new
dual monitor wallpaper.
I was impressed.
 -
I figured I'd try something new, here is the
video clip of the moment, I will update these so often. They
are captured with my Intel webcam using AmCap
and encoded WM7 Mpeg4, background music for this one is Chayf
- Argentina Yamaika.mp3 Let me know if you find it intriguing
and I might keep it.
- Its very nice to be done with college apps, albeit except for
UConn.. baah have to write another essay there, something about my
contribution to the sense of community at the school, c'mon now,
community?
 -
I posted the
pictures taken with Jason's kick ass digital camera. These
were taken at Jason's house after we saw Crouching Tiger Hidden
Dragon. Staring roles go to Mike, Matt, Jason, and his laptop.
In the near future look for more pics of what we lovingly call
Hell. They should be posted over @Jason's
supa short domain.
- This update is coming in live from the ORHS
library.. hopefully the nice librarian won't ban
me for using
Remote
Administrator. Things at school are pretty boring, pretty usual.
The report card was a nice surprise actually, and I'm glad that I have
write access to the temp user directory in documents and settings.
- I got a nice new poster in the mail recently..
Apparently its an advertisement for a Linux company, but created in a
very "communistic" fashion. It reads "Freedom from
Chaos" in bright red letters. I put it up on the door to my room.
Seeing as how I hardly spend any time in there and keep it nice and
neat it is kind of freedom.. just need audio out on the
IOpener.
1/17/01
- Lots of new content has been added all over the place! The
video
production section now has all five of my video production
projects online. A brand new section has been launched.
killer
apps lists the best unknown and useful applications for the
windows pc. This is a must read for any power users.
- The friends section has been redesigned
with a new page dedicated to
rsm camp.
(currently working on Microsoft TeenTech Fest 2000 page) Lots of new
content has also been added to
the about page
including new specifications and pictures of
my
computer setup.
- The newest version of the
MacOS8 Winamp
skin has been uploaded. The skin now features implementation for all
current winamp features.
- A new project has been added to the projects section at left. orstudies.com
is a website I developed for a student health study at my high school.
The website currently features information on the study. Full results
will be posted within three weeks.
- For the future I'm planning on setting up a web cam, creating a
new video introduction to the webpage and posting information the new
video production projects I will be working on as part of an
independent study at school. I might also add a new section to the
my
work department to cover some of my other recent work in art and
graphic design.
1/5/01
- To celebrate the grand opening of borism.net
(pronounced bor-ism, as in capitalism :) a new design has been
created. The base layout is now designed for resolutions of 800x600
and above. I am pleased with the overall look of the pages, I think that
they have become easier to read and more pleasing to the eye. Let me
know what you think.
- Coming off Winter Vacation makes school days seem very very long.
The good news is that I will have more open minded classes next
semester. In particular I look forward to working with Mike
on independent video production and continuing
webdesign at bluehue.
- I had a very nice time skiing in Canada over break. Its great to get
together with friends and be lazy... I mean ski. Shouts go out to Lena, Leo and Simon. I'll have to find "Tis" as
well as a nice quiet corner in a bookstore sometime. I'll also have
some photos of our trip on the page if I ever get around to finishing
and developing the film. It will happen... baah need a digital camera,
anyone listening? :)
- I finished most of my college applications recently. Its interesting
that the #1 rated wired school, Carnegie Mellon, had its web server
overloaded and I was forced to submit a paper application. But they
were pretty casual about the whole process and claimed they would be
accepting applications all through January. We'll see.. I still have
to take the Physics SAT IIs. Now if my
school did not have the worst possible grading system and GPA scale I
might actually get in to some of the below colleges.
but seriously, wish
me luck. - A lot of things have happened in
my life since the last update, but since there are too many to list I
will only mention them when appropriate. Now doesn't seem like a good time.
 -
Lots of things to talk about. First and foremost my video
production page is a new addition to this website. Video Tape
Production is a new class that I have started taking this semester.
I've taken quite a liking to video shooting and editing. My first two
projects are available online in high quality mpeg 4 asf format.
- Last wednesday the 19th of April I lead a workshop
on web page design. At my school we periodically have "arts
fair" days where artists come in to show students their craft. I
was asked by the school to lead a workshop on webdesign. As a result
last wednesday I lead two 1 hour sessions, both full with 18 students
per class.
Those who attended learned started from
the ground up
on the basics of HTML and then worked in Homesite to edit a personal
page of their own. There is a high interest in technology these days,
and most everyone seemed to have enjoyed the workshop. Thanks fly out
to the Cooperative School District Technology Integrator, Danielle
Bolduc, who worked along side me to organize and present the workshop.
You can take a look at some of the content of the workshop at http://designworkshop.cjb.net
I will update this page soon to include some on the excellent template
sites that I recomend beginners use.
- Lots more to come later, including
updates regarding my computer system (weee) my suit-wearing
experiences and hot girls in Florida. I have to run, I'm leaving in an
hour to go to Eiffman's Ballet in Boston, on Saturday morning after
SAT classes I take off for Florida :). Wish I had my I-Opener
right about now. They're still on back order at Circuit City, for now
I guess I'll have to sharpen up on my soldering skills. Wish me luck
 -
Happy holidays to all. Where applicable have a great Christmas and New
Year. Too bad nothing will happen in terms of the Y2k bug. It would
kinda be exciting if my school burned down (again.) I wonder how much of
the world still runs MS DOS... Speaking of which I guess I haven't
mentioned that we had a fire and a bomb threat recently. You can imagine
the student body feels great. Personally I'm impressed with our schools
act in collecting $250,000 in insurance for a burnt shed.
- I went to visit my sister in Montreal over
thanksgiving "vacation." She is doing quite well (right
sis?;) Now that we have another holiday break she should be making it
over here. I wrote a paper on Montreal for my expository writing class
when I got back, if you're planning on visiting the city its worth a
read. The paper as well as a bunch of my other random school work can
be accessed at ftp://school:school@boris.gt1.net
use an ftp client
 I
finally got a cd-rw drive! The valueamerica cow needed to be milked
once more. It is an iomega zipCD 4x write, 4x rewrite, 24x read drive.
I haven't yet burned too much, need to acquire some more blank disks,
my luck with burning quake 3 has been rather poor. It is great to see
computer potential at work. My dad and I scanned the cover album of
his Moldavian folk music cd, burned an exact copy of the disk and
printed out a second cover. The entire process took about a half hour
and the burned version looks nearly identical. Next I'll backup all
sorts of install files and clean out my hard drive.
- My UNH visual basic class ended. It was a
worthwhile experience over all and I got to skip out of school an hour
early ;) I will probably be taking the advanced class next semester, I
miss all my unh privileges ;P All the projects from the class can be
found on my ftp If you
take issue with some of the code be sure to drop
me a line.
- My celeron 400 doesn't seem to want to go to 500
mhz, I've even tried cooling with a large room fan but no cigar. We'll
see what happens when I add a bit of thermal grease, for now 450 is
quite fast. Also I added a banshee card to my dads 200 cyrix. That is
really some cyrix, it plays quake 3 at ~ 20 fps. Pretty impressive for
a machine with 32mb edo and its a cyrix! wow. Go id software.
- I've switched over to using AIM from ICQ. The
later was getting very annoying, I will wait to update all my pages
with the new info down bottom until there is one client that supports
both AIM and ICQ now that AOL owns both. If you do want to add me to
your list, my screen name is "tomcatru". Good luck catching
me use the client. I have a selfish way of being on only when I need
something. Your best bet is still to mail
me.
 about.htm
has been updated, new pics of my system have been posted, also some new
commentary and an essay. If you're curious about me and my system setup check
it out.
- My parents are back from Spain and France, they
brought me back a Patricia Kaas cd and a book about the louvre. Many
thanks, look for the Patricia Kaas mp3s on my ftp soon, 70s French
music is great.
 -
Mike, the hero of quake 3 on the 300 has miraculously kept the lyrics
to the song that we wrote in 8th grade for music class. I think the
picture to the left was the exact one that I had when I passed in my
paper. And now for your listening pleasure:
5/18/97
"The Quickie Mart"
Chorus:
Going to the Quickie Mart down the street
gotta get some stuff for me to eat
I'm gonna get me food, munchies to bite
and a little some thing for Saturday night
I love to shop at the Quickie Mart
the joy of pushing around a grocery cart
filln' my list, don't I wish
I knew the meaning of this gibberish
(Chorus)
Checking off the items on my shopping list
can't find the spaghetti Oh I'm really miffed
I'm in the mood for Italian food
so tell me where's the spaghetti dude?
(Chorus)
I put the items on the counter and I turn about
the amount on the bill nearly knocked me out
Leaving the Quickie Mart down the street
Finally got the food that I'm gonna eat
I hope to enjoy this little snack
sooner or later I'll be back
(Chorus)
- Got myself a new wheel mouse by Dexxa (Logitech,
see the about page)
Its really nice, just have to get my quake game back. Been picking up
on some great deals lately, another case fan should come in shortly as
well, then I'll have enough cooling to o/c my 400 to 500mhz.
Also bought myself the "writers inc" book, mainly for my US
History Class, can't believe I spent any money on behalf of Mrs.
Perry.
-
My DVD drive has finally been officially tested as working. Just got the
Summer Issue of Inside DVD, no its not a typo, perhaps they put this
thing out in Australia, right... It includes among other things the
movie "Infinity." My all in wonder video card does a great job
of decoding with the help of the excellent Cinemaster 99 dvd player, now
available on my ftp.
- I think I'm giving up with OfficeMax, but I've
learned my lesson, next time the FIRST person I call will be the
president of the company ;)
10/18/99
- This is really cool, you can get
a digital picture of yourself without a camera. Did you ever notice that
your monitor looks brighter in a dark room, and hard to read in direct
sunlight? This is because the photons hitting the screen from the room
"repel" the photons illuminating the pixels on the screen.
This has a cascading effect on the electron guns in the monitor, which,
in turn, can apparently actually be detected by the video driver.
Some clever engineer has exploited this technology by creating an
embedded object on his/her web page to take advantage of this phenomenon
which acts as a camera, translating this feedback into an image of
what's facing the monitor. It is currently in beta test, so you can
check it out.
You will need IE4 or Navigator 4 and java enabled,
follow the directions on the page:
- Guess who got an e-mail from the creator of Napster?
That's right guys the all mighty creator of the best mp3 resource
proggie ever wrote this:
"Hey,
I was browsing the internet (did a search for my software on a random
search engine) and saw your page. I'm very glad you like it.
As far as the bugs, they are all being worked out quickly (a new release
is coming very soon).
Thanks,
napster"
He he, I wonder if his name is actually Napster. In any
case here are some other "famous" people I've corresponded
with
-
Jane Yolen (famous author, I wrote several e-mails to
her when I was doing a book review in 8th grade)
-
Walker Johnson, that guy from shop at home who is always
pushing those northgate computers, we had a chat regarding the
differences between "max" and "sustained" cd-rom
transfer rate.
-
Also the dialog box which comes up after a file is
download in IE5 and asks if you want to "open the file/open
folder/cancel" is due from my input to microsoft techies.
In case any of you know any visual basic (nina, tanya ;)
check out an example of the easy stuff we
do in vb class. If the link produces a 404 then I am crazy and my
professor knows what he is doing.
10/10/99
- Its a rather large update, read below as well as
check out the updated about section (featuring
an essay from expo writing), the work section
(new vb programs) and the links section (new
friends ;)
- Mike, one of my good friends from school just created
a site dedicated to movie reviews. I can sense many good things to come,
the design and content are great. The first review is of "The
Matrix" which Mike, Josh and I saw at the Mub. Hopefully we'll
venture out there more often, I get to buy $2 tickets with my UNH id ;)
check out his page http://elmatrix.virtualave.net/
 -
So I've started school and all that. Its not all that bad this year. I
have two free periods and get out at 1:30. While everyone is making
their way to class I head across the field. Thats a feeling to
experience. Definitely the way to go. Ben (above) and myself are having
quite a good time being late to our UNH class each time, its great. At
this rate we'll finish watching American Pie by summer ;) (inside joke)
On the way to UNH we pick up free surges, slushies, almost got T shirts
(Ben you owe me ;) and of course chicks ;
I have added my vb folder to my ftp it is accessible
to everyone. Please use and ftp client ftp://school:school@boris.gt1.net
folder is "unh vb"
- Way back over Labor Day break (the last great
holiday) I was at Cape Cod having a good time with friends. It was
lots of fun guys, Dave, where are the damn pictures? (...status level
decreasing...) Tanya
has a very cool page up. She's doing programming at UMASS, major kudos
points, love ya mum ;)
- My parents are currently hanging out in France and
Spain, a vacation well deserved. Hmm I'll be in class and they'll be
on the Eiffel Tower, very fair. Have fun you guys, dad remember how to
check your mail, http://mail.yahoo.com
options ---> external mail --> get new messages.
 If
there's one thing every techie kid on the internet has heard off that's
the Value America deal. In case you missed it, va.com
was offering $120 value dollars (basically real dollars) for
signing up as a new member. Wow did they make a huge mistake ;) The
deals I got were:
- a 3dfx voodoo 2 12mb 3d graphics accelerator
(bundled with 56k modem which I sold for $20)
- a diamond rio pmp300 portable mp3 player (32mb
flash standard)
- 2 ibm worldbook 2000 millenium editions (at $-15
dollars each ;)
After the rebates and value dollars my cost is a
grand total of $0. This is definitely the way to buy. The rio is my
favorite toy. What a great invention. So small so light, doesn't skip.
Everything a music lover could want. The voodoo 2 also does killer
quake 3 frame rates. Just try and beat me. I am "Tomcat"
color blue, usually play on Yoda's, Cozmo's and Boston's Wicked
Awesome servers. You'll see me at the top of the list ;)
 Fueled
by my thirst for more good deals I became interested in an OfficeMax USB
Zip Drive. It turns out Office Max has a policy which states that if you
see an item for a lower price in another store they will match that
price, and credit you with 155% of the difference between the two. Sears
was selling the drive for $55, OfficeMax for $130. Sounds good to me ;)
So incase you're interested with my fight with the bureaucratic
system here's what happened:
I called the local Sears to make sure the price was
correct and the item was in stock. Check. I called the local OfficeMax
to make sure the price was correct and the item was in stock. Also I
checked that they could do price match by calling Sears. They said they
can do this if I came down to the store.
I went down to OfficeMax and said that I wanted to do a price match for
the USB Zip Drive. The clerk said that she would not price match Sears,
so I asked to talk to her manager.
The manager had no paper documentation on what he could and could not price match.
All he had to reefer to was the ad which hung on their wall and in the
front window. It read that they will do the price match for "any
competing office products superstore"
What is a competing office product superstore? I told him that I knew
that friends had gotten the deal at Sears stores that carried computer
equipment. He told me that officially he can only match staples, best
buy, circuit city and I think office depot. However he had no written
proof. So I asked to talk to his manager.
The second manager, after a lot of hesitation said that if I got written
proof from Sears that they did have the item in stock at the specified
price and I could show him this then I would get the price match. I told
him that I had been told by an employee (whom I named) that they could
do price match over the phone. He said no. I told him I'd be back in 15
minutes.
At Sears in the computer department I asked the guy to print me out a
copy of their price for the usb zip drive item. He asked me which store
I was doing a price match for. They know what's going on. I said Office
Max, and he said he can't do it. Alright I said, I'll write down the
item number and the price and you'll sign it. He said no. Right before I
was going to call his manager I got an idea to ask him to show me the
copiers. Lets test it on say... this price sticker. He caught on and
would not show me how the copiers work. However he realized that I was
serious and did in fact write down the price and the item and signed his
name on his business card.
Satisfied I left the store and headed back to OfficeMax. The manager now
told me that this wasn't good enough. He needed printed advertising.
Obviously he was trying to back out of what he said previously. So I
told him that he could give the salesperson at Sears a call and the man
would verify that what he had written was in deed correct. The manager
said no. So I asked to speak to his manager.
Unfortunately the store owner is only in on Friday. Well I had to wait 2
days to call him but what can I do. To my luck by Friday they price on
the drives at Sears had changed to $130. Well, no biggie, they'll be
able to tell me what the price was 2 days ago. So I give Jim Rogers a
buzz and ask him about the situation. He says that they do in fact price
match Sears, but he'll need to call and find out if Sears had that
price. He'll get back to me in a couple hours he said. right...
 No
phone call came (of course) and on Saturday I called him two more times,
each time he said that he was busy, and no one was picking up at Sears.
right.. Finally on Sunday (today) he calls me and says that the Sears
manager told him that they never had that price. Perhaps the manager
does not know, speaking to a guy from the computer department would have
made things easier.
Either way he says "can I ask you, why didn't you
just buy it at Sears?" and I say "because I would get a better
deal with your price match policy" he replies "oh no, we don't
beat the prices at Sears, only Staples, Office Depot, and Circuit
City." This was starting to get funny. Like I said, they don't have
that in writing anywhere. I asked to talk to his district manager.
Apparently the district just split, and the manager has
not moved into his office yet. right... Jim Rogers said he'd talk to the
manager for me and call me back Monday. Thats tomorrow. I'll keep you
updated. OfficeMax is messing with the wrong guy ;)
8/31/99
RSM Camp pictures have been updated! Check em all out
 -
The
Camp Location
- The People
- Neptune
Holiday (I was not there for it)
- Balloon
Shaving
- Night
Performance
- At
The Lake
- Last
Day
- Random
Pictures
- I'm back again, this time from Boston.
"Bolshoye Spasibo" to Valick and his family for entertaining
me for a week of my life. Again however my false perceptions didn't
realize that Lexington is not Boston, and neither is Swampscott, nor
Lynn nor Newton. Valick and myself had quite a good time trying to get
around. (he he how about that 5 hour metro ride to nowhere? ;)
 But
really I had a good time, got exposed to a lot of things, which is good.
I am now more aware to many things. I enjoyed seeing all you guys, Sasha
we'll meet up some time, trust me. Lev, please don't kill me, it really
wasn't my fault. Max, the metro served as a worthy replacement for the
canoe, Ruth, thanks for the Chinese food, iou. And Valick, its all
clear, I know what you're thinking... all the time (thanks for your
company and taking in russian ;)
While we were hanging out in Harvard Square one day
Valick and I got interviewed by National Public Radio. Of course we
forgot to listen to ourselves speak on the air waves, but yes, that
Boris you heard talking about how "I am worried about how school
is not providing life needed skills" was me. The show should have
aired on NPR 90.9 FM 12-1pm last Thursday.
We did some other nifty things, Harvard enjoyed
seeing this front page with a big pic of me on their 21" monitor
in the information hall. He he Valick saw how I did it ;) What I had
to work with was the Harvard website front page and a mouse.
I spent my first day at The University of New
Hampshire yesterday, taking "Applications in Visual Basic 6
programming" I can tell this is going to be a funny class. There
are no computers in the room. I think we write code on our little
yellow notepads and the professor compiles and checks for errors in
his head ;) I hope I end up learning something. For the fist day
we went over the highly exciting world of windows buttons. I'll keep
you updated. He he, as it turns I went to University earlier than my
sister.
Speaking of who, my sister is now hanging out in a
really cool apartment in Montreal, going to McGill College. I am
really looking forward to visiting her sometime soon, no
"hotel" room needed ;) Julie I wish you all the best of
luck.
My friend Paul from camp has a new personal page
up, you should definitely check it out, http://www.gis.net/~pakman/
Paul has the ability to be funny at times ( I think on purpose ;) from
his page I also found http://spacemunkee.penguinpowered.com/
which you should also look at, I recommend the photos. How about that
hydrant?
8/18/99
 I'm
back from camp and Canada. The Russian School of Math Camp was a blast.
To my understanding the camp is called a "math camp" mainly so
that parents send their kids there ;) Really guys, I had an
awesome time, Russian kids rule. I sincerely regret only coming for 2
weeks, now I can't wait till the reunion, but until then keep in touch.
I have found yet another reason to regret that I live in New Hampshire,
perhaps one of these days before school starts up I'll get a lift down
to Boston and we'll hang out.
Shouts and thanks go out to
All the guys from my bunk - for Pink Floyd The Wall
Part 2 performance, for the trip to the other beach, and for skinny
dipping (you know who you are)
Lev - for your deodorant, your songs and aura, and for only shooting
me once ;)
Alex Kitrik - for your easy going ability and napster
Sasha Letovsky - for keeping us healthy
Mar - for your cute dog (and its head)
Max - for our conversations in the canoe
Nina - for giving me massage practice
Mike - for your magazines, your ultra comfy bed and for giving Lev the
gun with which he shot us all
Ilya (Sergei's bunk) - for our beautiful power functions presentation
Alexey - for zaryadka and the private concert in our bunk (mango mango
- aqualangisty.mp3 is now available on the ftp)
Valick - for our dare (a big thanks there) and your support
Tanya - for being able to dance and not blink ;)
Eugene - for your maturity
Polina - still more massage practice (I'm getting good)
Bruce - for cynical commentary
Ilya - for not teaching us math
Rita - for supporting Ilya in the love shack
Paul - for sharing my views
Olga, Sveta, Paul, Mike, Alina, Maria - for the best orgies ever at
the dances
Leo - and his (now cleared up) you know what
Marina - for not having enough English classes to turn us all into
feminists.
Mrs. Rifkin - for not going crazy (too much)
Pasha and Sergei - for smoking, drinking and teaching us to swear in
Russian. Thanks a lot guys ;)
 Also
many thanks to the people who brought the "Ruki Vverh" tape to
camp. They are an excellent Russian pop group and now thoroughly stuck
in my head. For more info on Ruki Vverh see www.handsup.ru
I have found 2 CD's of Ruki Vverh and they are now available to listen
to from my ftp server in cd-quality mp3 music format.
If you're new to listening to mp3s you have to do the
following:
- make sure your computer has sound (does sound play
when you load windows, does AOL make sounds?)
- grab an mp3 player from www.winamp.com
- click on the songs you want to hear from the links below
- each song will take about 20 minutes to download with a standard
connection. Double click on the files to listen.
Ruki
Vverh - Ya Tebya Ukradu
Ruki
Vverh - Kroshka Moya
Pesni
Nashevo Veka - Vesenia Tango
Pesni
Nashevo Veka - Milaya Moya
Mango
Mango - Aqulangisty (This one was sung to the oldest boys cabin in
the private concert by Alexey. It goes "menia ukusila
akula...aqualangisti eto horosho")
Note: If you get all
sort of funny characters when you click on a link, hold shift, and
then click. These files are located directly on my computer, I try to
keep the server running for most of the day, if you have problems
please mail me at borisma@mediaone.net
 We
sang the last 2 songs around the campfire, Vesenia Tango is the one with
"vremya nazivaetsa vesna" and Milaya Moya is the one with
"milaya moya solnishko lisnoye, gde v krokih krayah vstretitsa s
toboyu"
I have many more songs, ftp://rsm:camp@boris.gt1.net
has my Russian and Jewish music collection. I highly recommend the
entire "Pesni Nashevo Veka" cd, it is excellent music from my
childhood. Also Ruki
Vverh - Intro, Ruki
Vverh - Budte Zdorovi and Ruki
Vverh - Nu Gde Je Vi Devchonki.Mp3 is great. Fell free to grab
anything else you like. Visotsky for example.
At camp I kept a notepad with a lot of
song names written down (among other things as the guys know ;) This is
what was playing in the boys bunks. To download these songs you will
have to request a full account on my ftp.
To request an account on my ftp all you have to do is
go to http://privacy.net/anonymizer/
and copy exactly the line that says "Your computer name (if it has
one): " e-mail me this
information and I will get back to you with full details. On the ftp you
will find a folder called /rsm camp 99/
RSM Pictures:
These are from the Russian school
website
-
The
Camp Location
- The People
- Neptune
Holiday (I was not there for it)
- At
The Lake
- Random
Pictures
There
I am in the back row of the picture, looking stoned as usual. This is
the pic on the front of my award from camp. I am highly proud ;) Next I
think I'll order the mp3.com t-shirt ;)
Click on the award for the full page scan.
Below is the back of the award. I wonder how long I
have to wait.
If anybody has any more pictures please scan them in
and e-mail them to me. Or if
you want you can send them to me through snail mail (post office) and I
will scan them in. I can tell you my address. Damn I really regret not
brining a camera, what I have is a lot of really great memories. I'll
see you all at the reunion.
- Boris
 Right
after camp I went off to Canada for a week. My family is fond of
French Canada. We go there on a fairly regular basis. This trip
however I went with family friends and ended up staying a hotel by
myself. It was quite an interesting experience. Originally we reserved
a room for me at a hostel-like hotel called "hotel de
Paris." The hotel is situated in downtown Montreal at 901
Sherbrooke Street East, the same street where our friends were
staying. As it turned out the hostel had a resemblance to something of
a large jail cell (you don't get all that much for $15 a night -
Canadian). I decided to get a separate room instead - with a lock. If
you're not familiar with the city, Montreal is an island, the second
largest city in Canada. Rue de Sherbrooke just happens to be one of
the longest streets in Montreal, it is separated into the East and
West ends which link from one end of the island to the other. At night
I had a good 20 minute walk to get to my hotel. I have gotten so used
to New Hampshire that this was altogether something new. Either way it
was good exercise. Except for this minor inconvenience the trip was
excellent. I highly recommend the visitor to take a guided tour of the
city in one of those English style 2 story busses. The feelings are
radically different from the top. Also I highly recommend the
"Cosmos" exhibit at the "muse des beaux arts"
(fine arts museum). It is an excellent piece about man and space, with
some very original art.
While I was walking around I got to check out my
sisters apartment where she will be living and attending McGill
college. It is right in down town, she should have a good time.
Montreal is somewhat of a cross between Europe and the States, I
enjoyed the city a lot. The picture above is from a post card I sent
home of Montreal's Latin district, famous for its staircases and
restaurants.
For the last several days of the week I stayed with
more friends at Le Chanteclair resort outside of Montreal. Our time
was hindered by bad weather and lack of personality. I did get to
practice my French with the local tennis players. I believe I managed
"bonjour, merci, and tres bon."
- At camp I got a letter from my parents (the
entire camp collectively attempted to read my moms handwriting.) While
the focus of the letter geared towards random things (such as my
friend Dave's
adventures) There was a little side note about how I got into my UNH
Visual Basic 6 class. Apparently I fit the description of the program;
it is for gifted students (man did I fool them ;) UNH actually has a
fairly strong computer science department. Now all I have to do is
schedule an appointment with my guidance counselor and throw all my
other classes around to make room. I am afraid Visual Basic will come
at the expense of French (which was going so well too ;). UNH starts
August 30th and school (trying not to think about it) is September
2nd.
- Many thanks to Alex Kitrik from camp
who introduced me to the world of Napster. I will not go into detail
about it because the program is very easy to use and everyone should
check it out for themselves at www.napster.com
Basically Napster provides a very easy and fast way to get mp3 files.
The napster program is a cross between ftp/irc and is most closely
related to hotline. Everyone who uses the service becomes both a
client and a server. Every person who signs on to the network has
their mp3 files indexed on the main server and can then download the
files of any one else who is connected. For example in this screenshot
there were 416gb of mp3s available for download. Also just as
important the transfer speed are usually very good. Many servers (like
mine) are cable/dsl/T1/T3 Ping times are always below 100.
A word of caution: The program is in early beta
stage therefore there are noticeable bugs and the server is overloaded
often. Napster provides such an excellent concept, simple yet
effective. It is hard to believe it took this long until somebody
(notably a North Eastern student) to think of it.
- It was my moms birthday 2 days ago. Lots of
people came (even on a Tuesday.) Mom I love you and wish you all the
best. Perhaps I'll be good ;)
7/23/99
- My dads homepage has moved to a new address due
to our switch to MediaOne. The new URL, and new updates can be found
at http://people.ne.mediaone.net/alex-m/
or alternatively http://alexma.cjb.net
- In the lazy days of summer progress is slow. I'm
leaving for camp very shortly and would like to finish up a few things
first. Those interested can check out "a
day in the life"
7/22/99
- This update is coming in live from the UNH
Diamond library workstation 19. It is a lot of fun to do it from here,
I figured I'd put their burst ATM connection to use (its almost as
fast as my cable modem ;) . Many various pages have been updated, so
check them out. Also the video
introduction has been uploaded. It is encoded in mpeg video and
requires a 40/k per second connection for streaming. For those curious on how the update from UNH happened it went like
this. UNH computers have restrictions for hard drive and internet use.
The computer I'm working from does not allow me to browse the hard
drive, install new programs, or use FTP to upload my page. Using some
old netscape 1.0 tricks I got a directory listing of the hard-drive by
typing c:\ in the address bar (I later found out there were also d:\
and e:\ drives) This allowed me to open wordpad from the hard disk.
Next I needed to get the updated index.htm I had been working on at
home from my hard drive. In order to this I logged on as root to my
ftp server (ftp://boris.gt1.net)
which is running 24 hours. This allowed me to transfer files from my
home pc to the UNH pc. I used wordpad to edit the raw HTML file and
add these comments. Finally I used the built-in netscape FTP client (I
would have used MSDOS but this is NT has no command.com ) to access my
FTP server at virtualave.net and upload these pages.
- I'm heading off to camp this Sunday for 2 weeks.
Yep it's the Russian math camp and I'm not sure I wanna be there. We
will see. Page updates will occur once I come back, however I may end
up going to my cousins in New York or maybe to Le Chanteclair Hotel in
Montreal with some friends. I'm hoping for both. Before I leave I will
update my winamp skin to match with the
latest winamp and organize my FTP server with the latest music and
downloads.
- Amazing what a little photoshop editing will do.
For previous visitors of my page you will notice that the
"picture" of me has changed. It took a relative amount of
work to get the image to be that way. I started out with a photo of
myself at a 45 degree angle and there were no curtains or ceiling
visible in the picture. Boris loves photoshop 5.
- I was on my usual prowl for information yesterday
when I stumbled upon an article reviewing ICQ99b at www.desktopwatch.com
This version was only for beta testers so naturally Jason
and I messaged the guy who's ICQ number was visible in the screenshots
from the review. He turned out to be the editor-in-chief at
desktopwatch and an official ICQ beta tester. We talked a little bit,
but said he could not send me the ICQ99b.exe install file. I later
found the thing in a newsgroup, however as it turns out ICQ is getting
smart (apparently they've learned from the ICQ99a beta leak). The new
beta version checks your ip to make sure that you are an official ICQ
beta tester and refuses to work if the ip's don't match. So the
version will not work even if you do get your hands on it. (err.. at
least it won't work at first ;) Btw, the guy offered me a position as
an official reviewer at dw, however I will not be taking the position.
I'm currently occupied by an exciting project with Steve.
7/14/99
- The Quake 3 pics are up. These were grabbed with
Josh's Polaroid.
 Here
is the pre-haircut Boris relaxing cause he knows he will whip everyone's
butt. err
alias: Tomcat
 Josh
is pretending that he has a chance *ha ha ha* lol. No really Josh has
been doing quite well recently with his new found strafing ability.
(not pictured here is Josh's new found mouse)
Alias: Decoolest
As usual Mike is playing with his eyes closed ....
and on the slower computer ... and only using the double barrel shotgun
.... and its 20 to 5 .... damn you Mike!
Alias: Bubba Fett
The computer setup at Josh's house consists of 2
networked 10baseT computers. On the right a 400mhz celeron with an 8mb
Intel 740 graphics chipset. On the left a 300mhz Cyrix mII with a 16 mb
vodoo banshee chipset. With a few tweaks both play quite well. Mostly we
play quake3map2, its a very original level with many non traditional
launch pads.
*Not pictured are the quake 3 bots which vary in
name originality and performance. The bots are fun to yell at cause
they can't yell back. ;)
7/14/99
- Ha ha average load time 0.00 seconds! MediaOne kick
major whoop-ass. Someone up there has been listening to my prayers. Now
I am starting to notice bottlenecks at the *servers* end. The
architecture supports 1.5mbit downstream and 300kbit upstream. I
regularly get the maximum supported speed (180k a second down and 40k
up) because 8 bits is 1 byte (like a 28.8 kbits modem transfers at a
maximum 3.6k a second)
- With my new found MediaOne freedom I've taken the
opportunity to go crazy ;) Many thanks to Victor for allowing me access
to his ftp and the 70 beatles mp3s I downloaded. Also I have installed
windows 98 service release 1 and am using the built in internet
connection sharing which is excellent. No clients or servers to run.
- My FTP server is up! Friends
can browse through my collection of mp3s, applications and games. The
addresses
ftp://boris.gt1.net
or alternatively
ftp://borism.ne.mediaone.net
login and password are anonymous (I recommend the use
of LeapFTP client ) Access is
regulated by an IP basis. If you want access e-mail me your static IP or
dynamic string on IP address (i.e. *.myprovider.com) at my new address borisma@mediaone.net
Speaking of which I will need to update all my pages with the new
address ;(
- Yesterday my dad and I conducted the first
successful video conference with our cable modem. We were talking to my
cousin in Boston, who also has MediaOne and a digital camera. Quality
was fair. The motion was fluid around 20 frames per second the picture
somewhat pixilated. With a quality headset the audio is near flawless.
This is all free of course all across the world (with the use of
Microsoft NetMeeting which turned out to be a very quality free product)
Now that I think about it I should have grabbed some pics.
- Steve recommended an
excellent site for nature
wallpapers, this is by far one of the best I have seen. Many are
true quality shots. If you haven't been inspired in a while take a look.
7/8/99
- So I've been released from jail... err school. My
grades weren't that bad I guess, still got that stupid C in A2/Trig
other than my career average is an A-. I applied to take a class in
Visual Basic 6 programming next year and The University of New
Hampshire. I haven't heard back from them yet, but lets hope. Usually
they don't accept juniors but we'll see.
- Apparently I learned something useful in Debate
class because I managed to convince my parents into getting a cable
modem. That's right MediaOne finally decided to service NH, soon you can
expect to see some kind of fun thing I'll do with the connection. For my
close friends with cable connections (Dave,
Jason, Revsins,
Steve, Victor)
you can expect an ftp with all my mp3s, applications, games etc. Also
I'm thinking to set up a live webcam and to see what is going on at my
house from school. That will be sorta fun (I could focus it on the UNH
dorms ;) My school will have an ATM internet connection next year, which
will make it the fastest connection of any school in New England. Ha ha.
Durham.
- Got to party with my cousins (aunts actually as we
figured out) in Nova Scotia. It was a blast, I stayed with them for a
while last summer. You girls are the best, even though all those Nova
Scotian chicks were hitting on me ;) I'll post some pics once I get my
hands on some. Nova Scotia is a nice place to go, a little too far
though. It was just fun hanging out (and acting stupid)
- My sis is going to McGill next year (Quebec) and so
she is starting her independence right now. She's making lots 'o money
living and working in Boston. I'll go visit some time it should be fun.
Fixed up a computer for her for next year too. Maybe I should consider a
job of some sort... - nah
- I have camp for 2 weeks starting with the last week
of July. Its a Russian math camp. Yes I know, its my parents idea. It
might be alright I know some people going there, anyway its gonna be
like basically a normal camp. Only everyone will be Russian and speaking
English. Time to make my impression.
- I've been spending way too much time playing quake 3
with my friends over at Josh's house. I'm getting good, but Mike still
whips the lama's ass (get winamp if
that made no sense) Josh and I rotate one computer and Mike dominates on
the other. Thank god for ID Software.
6/16/99
 School
has been cutting me into little pieces and then grinding them into a
fine pulp. I really only have 5 days of school left, look for a re-hall
of the page after that. I'll include pics of my new computer, new links,
my updated winamp skin and other good stuff. I will also have a cable
modem soon, assuming I manage to get a good grade in A2/Trig (which
isn't happening)
4/10/99
- My first legacy homepage
has been uploaded. Well its really my 2nd or 3rd but, its the one that
lasted the most. Hmm I must have been 11 or 12 I think when I made the
original page... those were the days. 2mb on geocities was a lot of
space ;) .
- My new computer should arrive any day now, will give
the full specs and pictures when it does. In particular I'm looking
forward to the .26dpi 17 inch view sonic G773 monitor.
- I think I'm going to update the picture up top,
people tell me I look to young.. that's true I think, I'm far better
looking now ;) (the pic is about 6 months old)
4/4/99
- I'm 16 for 3 days now, it feels good. I'm getting a
new computer as a present from my parents ;)
- I made the school tennis team, its fun but also
takes up a lot of time. We practice every day, actually I think its been
helping me a lot.
3/27/99
- The macOS8 skin page has
been updated, I have completed version 2.0 all of you who use winamp
should take a look at my skin ;)
- Got first place in the school ping pong tournament..
he he no problem. Also trying out for the tennis team this week, I think
I'm going to make it, my game has improved quite a lot.
- Going to be singing "Yesterday" for my
drama and acting class tomorrow. I guess that because singing is out of
my comfort zone, its supposed to increase my confidence (and decrease my
self esteem? )
 The
video clips from the new year '99 party have been uploaded and can be
found on my dad's page,
however the actual files are on xoom.com's servers, which recently
started giving out unlimited free space. Well of course the natural
reaction everyone (including me) had was to upload video, audio and
other very large files to their servers. Since then xoom.com has been a
little slow, if you have any problems downloading the video, contact me.
3/19/99
- my sister's
birthday today, we got her a computer for collage. Its a nice system
k6-2 350, very fast actually.
- for myself we got a new scanner! Its a very cute
Umax Astra 1220p, 600x1200 dpi, 36bit. Its very nice, I'll post some
scanned stuff here soon. All the current pics were done with my digital
camera.
3/15/99
- this website was officially opened for business on
the 14th of March, 99. Look for lots of good stuff to come soon, send
suggestions.
- I've recently switched over to netzero,
a free internet service provider (yes free). The catch is that they
stick banners on your screen, but that wasn't too hard to get rid of.
Netzero supports full 56k connections and even mulitlink ppp, which my
pay provider did not. This means I can link two phonelines and two
modems together for my current connection of 80k. Way to go guys.
- my good friend Jason has just updated his
webpage to use a new layout, you should check out his page for the
coin hockey website, the official pastime of chemistry class.
- I just recently helped my friend to upgrade his
system, and can now conclude that most everyone I know has a faster
system then myself, so I've set my eye on celeron 400 based system,
we'll see how my latest project with Dave turns
out.
- sharkyextreme.com
is an excellent site for computer and gaming hardware reviews, they are
part of a circle of computer hardware sites that I have recently been
loitering about. For a starting point see www.betanews.com
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