I constantly get spam on my blog from bots that use “Cheap Viagra Online” as their username. I guess it’s a valid strategy. Because sooner or later guys will be old enough to have to use it right? Maybe I’ll keep one of the spam comments for future reference.

I read an article the other day about some researchers developing an algorithm of detecting spam before it even reaches your inbox. That would be useful if it has an 100% accuracy rating. Which I doubt it does. I’m still pretty happy about my current gmail inbox which doesn’t receive any spam. Even my hotmail inbox which I’ve had for like 8 years now averages 10 spam emails a week. I guess the spammers must be making some sort of money otherwise they simply wouldn’t waste time doing it.

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During the HCI lecture, Ronnie Taib suggested that we can come up with our own HCI projects. I’ve actually had one in mind, but have little idea on the actual design. It’s a relatively simple problem that doesn’t really require a solution. I was thinking about designing an iphone app that helps you navigate through the Uni on the iphone. It seems rather simple but there’s a couple of problems:

  • I believe that the iphone SDK does not give you direct access to the maps api, the best you can do is launch Google Maps with trip information and building location
  • Cross campus support will be tricky
  • Buildings would need to be regularly updated (Some locations aren’t even at USYD)
  • I DON’T HAVE A MAC

I guess I’ll see what happens then.

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I’ve also caught a cold. I still have no idea what the differences are between a cold/flu. People “think” they know and they “try” explaining but it makes no sense. I’ve even heard people say that “flu is a virus, a cold isn’t”. I just googled it and ninemsn gives a pretty good explanation. It even suggests drinking Honey water which is what I usually do anyway. I probably caught it from the daily interaction with students over the past week or so. At least I can rest over the weekend and hopefully be well enough to attend uni and also work (if that’s even going ahead) on Wednesday. What was ironic was that yesterday one of the people from Timetabling said “I can’t believe nobody has caught swine flu yet!”. I’m getting sick and tired of hearing these swine-flu remarks. Lucky we live in the modern era where pandemics can be controlled, certainly wouldn’t be laughing about it 50 years ago.

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I also just paid for my Uni fees for this semester. It gives the message:

Important: Please print and retain a copy of this page for your records.
You must close this web page and exit the browser application after printing your receipt

Fail system is fail.