tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78028582009-03-26T14:21:28.815-07:00Alexander K. GunkelAKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.comBlogger266125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-21832871246043867792008-12-02T08:58:00.001-08:002008-12-02T10:14:15.714-08:00

Sometime next year, akgunkel.com is going to undergo some major changes. Nearly all of the content (hahaha) will be removed and something else will be put in its place. In the meantime, don't expect any updates to the front page. The only part of this site that ever gets updated lately is the Upgrade blog.

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-87208415947556081192008-06-25T09:30:00.001-07:002008-06-25T09:55:25.557-07:00

Look at this email Bill Gates sent in January 2003. More than 5 years later, I still have these kinds of problems nearly daily at work. If the richest man in the world (who also runs the company that makes all of this garbage) can't get it to work right, what chance do normal people have? Switch to Linux. Switch to Mac. Switch to Haiku or ReactOS (in a couple of years.) Just don't use Windows.

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-26847405779943441442007-10-18T10:22:00.000-07:002007-10-18T10:40:16.538-07:00

Greta Christina has written a great post on her blog entitled "Atheists and Anger" with a good survey of the reasons why she (and many other atheists) are "so angry" and why that anger is justified. I'm not going to add anything, other than: ditto.

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-45090889772363654322007-10-11T14:18:00.000-07:002007-10-11T15:58:30.836-07:00

Don't know who Ron Paul is? Check out this video: Ron Paul: A New Hope. Then take the time to look at his campaign site. Quite simply, you need to vote for Ron Paul because he's a man of principle. He not only believes in our constitution and the ideals and principles which made America great but has spent a lifetime defending that constitution and living up to those ideals. For that reason, I

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-79136644755115185302007-09-10T07:54:00.000-07:002007-09-10T07:58:44.541-07:00

It's been a while, so here's another one of my results on another stupid internet quiz. This nerd test tells you what kind of nerd you are. I'm a "cool nerd king," which actually sounds really bad...

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-84320303893192854862007-06-13T09:38:00.000-07:002007-06-13T16:15:32.888-07:00

So, Apple announced on Monday that their Safari web browser is now available on Windows. Of the many articles I've read about this so far, most of their authors assume that this is a move to get some kind of Safari-halo-effect where people love Safari so much that they buy macs. Those authors are smoking crack. As many are finding out, Safari isn't the world's greatest browser. It's not the

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-74038885326690129182007-03-07T12:43:00.000-08:002007-03-07T13:20:25.140-08:00

For the record: See? I really am smarter than all of you. Also, if you think this test actually means anything then you are definitely dumber than I am.

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-10610686873505987562007-02-04T14:41:00.000-08:002007-02-04T20:01:27.217-08:00

Back when I was a kid, I built one model rocket one time at summer camp. I think I was nine or ten at the time. This weekend, I built three more and launched them with my son. We both had a blast. If you haven't tried model rocketry before, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. There are other kinds of models you can build but it's really exciting to push that launch button and watch the

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1157954803779447602006-10-22T23:00:00.000-07:002006-10-22T22:58:48.513-07:00

Several months ago I read this CareerJournal.com article about Dr. James Levine's obesity work at the Mayo Clinic and I found myself inspired. Dr. Levine's work is based on the fact that there are three primary ways the human body uses the calories you eat: basal metabolic rate (how much energy you need just to keep your body alive, even when you aren't doing anything), thermic effect of food

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1152113838176783032006-07-05T07:59:00.000-07:002006-07-05T08:37:18.283-07:00

I hate the global warming issue and this article in the WSJ pretty well covers the reason why. In short, what should be a scientific problem has become so politicized that the science has been perverted to the point where the real questions have political answers instead of factual ones. How much have average temperatures increased over the last century? What can be considered to be normal

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1147757411030002392006-05-16T01:07:00.000-07:002006-10-22T22:55:05.296-07:00

Late on Saturday morning I got a call from one of the fourteen WAN sites I am responsible for supporting and the caller tells me that he hasn't had access to the WAN since sometime on Friday. (Needless to say, WAN accessibility isn't mission critical for this site.) Because it was nearly Noon (closing time on Saturdays) and the site was far away, I told him I would have to look into it first

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1147733859626063702006-05-15T09:27:00.000-07:002006-05-15T15:57:39.700-07:00

Last night the family and I were at Best Buy trying to pick out a DVD when my wife pulled Primer off of a shelf and said "Oh, what's this?" I turned my head to see and as soon as I saw the title, the relevant Slashdot post (from 8/1/2004, no less) was instantly recalled and I knew I had to have this movie. I knew it so fast that I snatched the case from my wife's hands before she could even

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1141270266297828552006-03-01T18:46:00.000-08:002006-03-17T16:29:27.376-08:00

Self-driving cars and trucks are coming. The success of the DARPA Grand Challenge demonstrates that this is inevitable. Indeed, GM is planning to release its 2008 Opel Vectra with a self-driving "Traffic Assist" feature for the European market. With the pace of technological progress it can be expected that most, if not all, cars will be auto-drive equipped by 2020. I proprose that shortly

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1140221125697059692006-02-17T15:20:00.000-08:002006-02-17T16:05:47.860-08:00

Well, it finally happened. MacOSX has it's very first virus/worm which is named "OSX/Leap-A" by the security experts. Here's a CBS News article and a TG Daily article which go into a little more detail. Hype aside, this worm is pretty weak. It masquerades as an image file and spreads through iChat (Apple's AIM/Jabber Client) and requires the user to enter an administrator's user name and

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1139783982129989442006-02-12T12:55:00.000-08:002006-02-13T15:17:49.413-08:00

One of my most-hated films is Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence: AI. The short story which inspired this disaster, "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" by Brian Aldiss, is actually pretty cool and is available to read online from Wired.com. Unlike the movie, which devolves from the awesome premise to a lame sci-fi version of Pinocchio, Brian Aldiss's story is about loneliness in an

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1138678695128074412006-01-30T18:57:00.000-08:002006-01-30T19:38:15.190-08:00

Confucius said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." The same goes for my android project. Today, that first step has been taken. Back on the 16th, I ordered the half-height model skeleton for Prototype A, also known as Arthur, and it arrived today. I have no plans to turn this first skeleton into anything resembling a completed android, it's only purpose is to test a

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1137560591607362972006-01-17T20:52:00.000-08:002006-01-18T18:48:44.606-08:00

I got bored the other day and decided to google a few variations of my name. A search for "Alexander K. Gunkel" predictably yielded great results: the top three were about me. "Alexander Gunkel" also performed well. The problems started when I got to "Alex Gunkel", which returned my retarded doppelganger as the top hit. Check out this dipshit's profile! This shit is simply unbelievable:

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1137306955421228532006-01-14T21:54:00.000-08:002006-01-14T22:35:55.433-08:00

I've added a link to my Amazon.com wish list over on the right. This is mostly because my relatives often tell me how difficult I am to choose gifts for on those various gift giving holidays. So, if you're one of my relatives, you no longer need to suffer on those occasions. If you're not one of my relatives but you enjoy reading my little website, you may enjoy perusing my wish list. You just

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1136267794411017012006-01-02T21:08:00.000-08:002006-01-02T22:51:15.343-08:00

Most people make resolutions for the new year and I even made a few for myself this year. I almost never do this and haven't done it for many years, but considering how crappy 2005 was, I figured what the hell... Anyway, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to make my website "not suck". This, admittedly, is a rather high goal but I'll do the best I can. One of the first steps is to integrate

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1130870263539760932005-11-01T07:48:00.000-08:002005-11-01T10:37:43.596-08:00

I've discussed some of the practical realities of NASA's new plan for the Moon before. However, as this is a government program, more aspects of the project need to be considered than just technical feasibility. The biggest is public support, as without it there will be no political support and a lack of political support gets us the pointless space program we've had for the last thirty years.

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1129847469551943302005-10-20T13:22:00.000-07:002005-10-21T14:51:55.343-07:00

Well, it's official. I'm a soulless villain. I took this test and it determined that I am Agent Smith. I'm slightly disturbed by this. When I was a teenager, I used to worship Captain Picard. That character was my hero. Now that I'm grown up, who am I most like? Agent Smith. Where did I go wrong? It's not like the test is flawed. The more I think about it, the more I agree with the result.

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1129525514886569612005-10-19T21:08:00.000-07:002005-10-21T12:59:49.010-07:00

I made my third trip to Bob-O's Laser Odyssey on Sunday. This time, I took two of my friends from Juarez along for the fun and I was able to test some more of my tactical theories, mostly those regarding team play. Without the aid of radios, team play is unquestionably quite difficult in indoor laser tag. It is dark and noisy in there, making communication, either vocal or gesture, difficult.

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1128979847066558022005-10-10T14:02:00.000-07:002005-10-10T14:30:47.110-07:00

This past weekend, DARPA held its second grand challenge: A 132-mile race through the Mojave desert where the drivers are not humans, but computers. Last year, the best robotic vehicle only traveled 7 miles. It was hoped that one of the teams would finish this year, but instead, four teams completed the entire course. This is amazing. The US Army wants to have 1/3 of its vehicles driver-less by

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1128036555306495032005-09-30T15:31:00.000-07:002005-09-29T22:36:54.166-07:00

Have you been wondering what the hell this crazy post meant? I've been slowly working towards cyborg technology which will enhance my memory, knowledge, and intelligence. I call this project "Upgrade." One of the longer-term goals of that project has been to achieve multi-presence, the quality of being in multiple places at once. This is different from tele-presence, which is using technology

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7802858.post-1128019488375909752005-09-29T11:30:00.000-07:002005-09-29T11:44:48.426-07:00

"What's the meaning of life?" I hate this question, mostly because it's so damned vague. First of all, the word "meaning" has several different definitions, each of which would significantly change the intended question. Basically, "What's the meaning of life" could mean: 1) What information or lesson is life meant to convey? 2) What's the purpose of life? Is that purpose intended/

AKGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01163889325733826496noreply@blogger.com2