Well I was reading A Look at PHP 5 at developer.com and I am now convinced that PHP 5 will be awesome programming tool. Being able to throw (and catch) exceptions so that errors are more meaningful and are easier to debug is something that I think the PHP community has been waiting a long time for.

Also, the SQLite feature seems pretty cool. Not having to use MySQL or another database will be a big plus for those who just want something simple to hold their data.

In other news, CNN Money has a good article on the current gas prices and the expected pricing for the future. It also has a little insight into why the prices are rising (OPEC is expected to slow its production and there are worries about the inventory of crude oil). Anyway, for anyone wondering, that is a good read.

Well I bought a Pepsi today and won a free iTunes song. I don’t have iTunes so I gave it to my boss (it’s only worth $.99) and let him download something since he uses iTunes. This whole song idea by Apple and Pepsi is probably one of the smartest marketing choices for either company. It isn’t about illegal music, it’s about money, pure and simple. They could honestly care less about who’s downloading what, they just use that as marketing to get the kids who are using KaZaA and iMesh to use iTunes.

Ha, my boss just downloaded ‘This Love’ by Maroon 5.

Well I wasn’t able to go to the Interactive part of the SXSW festival in Austin (although I had the time) but a few people snapped some really good shots. PhotoMatt has some as well as Dan Cederholm. Maybe next year I’ll get a shot at going.

Vinnie has a new look for his blog and I really like it. The color scheme is awesome (though some people have complained about the light text on the white background) and the logo and catch phrase are great as well. Job well done Vinnie!

Now, if I could only do something half as good, I would be ecstatic. Maybe this weekend, maybe not. Who knows…

Well I was reading the Google articles in this month’s Wired and I found some pretty interesting things. As I read here, Google has a lot of things up their sleeves, one of the most interesting is Banana Slug. Basically, Banana Slug is Google with a twist; It adds an extra word onto your search to give you some very odd results. Go ahead, try it out.

Wired also has a very good article on content spammers and what measures are being taken to keep them from gaining PageRank. You can read it here.

Well, I had no idea how many stories there are about PayPal and how many people have lost money through them. I took a look at PayPalSucks.com and read a lot of horror stories. Most of these stories had to do with extremely large amounts of money being lost. I have now decided to not keep a lot of money in my account, just enough to pay for the hosting of this site.

If you use PayPal, be very careful who buy from and send money to. Since PayPal basically hinders people from doing chargebacks you could basically be crap outta luck if you get scammed by someone. I have been looking for alternatives to PayPal but have not found anything that looks very good and since PayPal has been good to me so far I am not too worried.

I really can’t figure why I suck at designing… I keep trying to redesign this site but I cannot sit down and get a good design out. Everytime I try, it turns out looking horrible and I have to start all over. So I support the fact that programmers don’t make the best designers. I seriously wish I could figure out a new look for Badice.com… Any ideas?

Well, I have been seriously researching job options and things that I would like to do. I am tempted to just drop school completely and do intelligence for the FBI, NSA, or CIA. I have a friend who just got a job with the Department of Defense. Basically he travels with fighting units and does interrogations, wire tapping, etc, the kind of stuff that would be right up my alley. I just don’t know what I want. There are a lot of options, one of them being to finish school and just start my own business, which is very enticing. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

So I’ve decided that I really want a Mac laptop. Specifically, one of these or one of these. Why you ask? Well considering Bill Gates proposed charging people to send e-mail a few days ago, I am trying to get as far away from Microsoft as possible before they take over the world. Plus, those two computers are good looking, fast for their processers, and Apple has a student discount program. So, if you are in the mood to buy me something, make it a computer or an iPod.

I have to endure 3 hrs. of class today and then I am off for Spring Break. I have a lot of things that I want to get done and hopefully will get done, as long as time permits.

Since Courtney will be in town I think that she and I will be hanging out, because we’ll both be bored without some company. School of Rock is out on DVD so I may pick that up and see if it’s any good.