Registration Pains

I keep being told that I have greater than 50 credit hours towards my registration date at Gaston College, but every time I try to enter the system, I am always given a different date than quoted for registration. Its a weird little bug in the way that Gaston counts their hours. What I keep getting told each semester when the system makes me wait an extra day (or a year ago, 2 days), is that it is based on the number of hours completed at Gaston. No where is this mentioned, not in the catalog, register, or in the table below captured from the registration system itself. I have > 50 credit hours, but I have <50 and >25 completed at Gaston. This sucks.

Registration access is based on the number of hours completed toward a degree, diploma, or certificate.  Access dates are assigned as follows:

  • If you have completed more than 50 hours, you may access registration on November 12
  • If you have completed more than 25 hours, you may access registration on November 13
  • If you have completed more than 9 hours, you may access registration on November 17
  • If you have completed 9 or fewer hours, you may access registration on November 18
  • Special credit students may access registration on November 19

Lifetime of an AeroGarden

I have had my AeroGarden tomatoes going for several months now. Over a month ago I ran out of nutrient tablets, but a strange thing has happened. Since running out of nutrient tablets the tomatoes are growing better and producing more than they did when the plants were being actively fed. This is making me curious as to how exactly the nutrients work, and if the “refill” nutrients are ever really required.

Possibilities for Portals

In an email this evening my literature instructor asked me what my plans were for my portal… at first I had to remind myself which site I had identified as potentially becoming a portal, and then I remembered, the curtis.kularski.net project. I honestly do not know what I plan to do with it completely. There are so many aspects of me, and I would like to incorporate them all, but I am a very complex person. It is programmatically difficult for me to implement Site Engine in the way I want at this point. Another problem I am facing is the concept of the “groups” of people. Those groups are becoming less diverse as I become more comfortable with myself in general. I no longer fear people knowing a lot about me, so really my world gets broken up into: public, friends, family (biological), and academic. In some ways my academic life could safely cross into the same category as “friends” for access level, but that might present too much of a “too much information moment”.

The portal idea is becoming more feasible however, as my art prepares to enter its own special virtual gallery. The portal, the gallery, and the blogs… that is my world, and its a small world after all.

Toilet Art

Bare walls above toilets bother me. Why must taking a piss be such a boring experience? It would be nice if there were no bare walls above toilets, but what would you place above a toilet? What type of art suits such a space? It is such an intimate space, a space of privacy. I believe it should be something thought provoking, but with incredible simplicity. The bland walls bother me, I am going to seek out something appropriate to place in that barren space.

Academia by Prompt

I am starting to slowly figure out how things work at Fayetteville State University…nothing happens automatically… it must be prompted. Need to declare a major? Send your form (guaranteed 3-5 days processing), then nag the department chair to respond to the declaration form, wait a few days, then email the registrar and remind them to process it. Need to get email? Register for classes (establishes student status), wait 24 hours (for the automatic process), wait 24 hours (for good measure), send nag mail to ITTS, get access to all authenticated services EXCEPT email, then wait 24 hours (to let everything refresh), finally, in frustration, log into FootPrints and file a problem report stating the discrepancies in the state of things, wait some more.

Picking a Science

I find myself very conflicted with my Spring 2009 academic schedule. I want to take a science, but I can’t decide if I want to take Nutrition (BIO 155), Anatomy and Physiology (BIO 168), or Intro to Chemistry (CHM 131).  Nutrition and A&P are both offered as online courses, and the chemistry course is in-person during the evenings (TR 5:30-8PM). I have been afraid of Chemistry since having a bad experience in high school. I have always been interested in chemistry, but the same could be said for Anatomy and Physiology as well (not to mention advanced Physics stuff like optics). There are so many courses I could take, but I am having difficulty finding courses I feel really strongly about, except for the two psychology courses I am planning to take.

Maximum Password Hack Times

Passwords Time to Hack
4 character lower or upper case letters a few seconds
4 character lower and upper case letters a few seconds
4 character lower and upper case and number a few seconds
5 character lower or upper case letters (e.g passb) under 60 seconds
5 character lower & upper case letters (e.g passB) approx 6 minutes
5 character lower & upper case and number (e.g Pasb1) approx 15 minutes
8 character lower or upper case approx 58 hours
8 character lower & upper case approx 21 months
8 character lower & upper case and number approx 7 years
10 character lower or upper case approx 5 years
10 character lower & upper case approx 4648 years
10 character lower & upper case and number approx 26984 years

Borrowed from: http://www.uncfsu.edu/itts/networking/passwords.htm#6

How long does my 14 character password with uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols take?