An overall sketch of Drupal 7

-get drupal root
-drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL)
 define constants
 define('REQUEST_TIME', $_SERVER['REQUEST_TIME']);
 _drupal_bootstrap_configuration()
  error reporting set
  drupal_environment_initialize()
   server vars read
   ini settings set
   error reporting set
  timer_start('page')
   start timers
  drupal_settings_initialize()
   load settings
   set up path
   session cookies
 _drupal_bootstrap_page_cache();
  init user
  load cache
  check if no-db opt else - get db and variables
  block_denied
  cookie init
  _drupal_bootstrap_page_header()
   bootstrap_invoke_all
   drupal_page_get_cache
   check cachable - get cache
    -maybe still run boot hooks
    serve page from cache
    -maybe still run exit hooks
    _drupal_bootstrap_database();
  -set up db
  -register autoload
    _drupal_bootstrap_variables();
  -init variables (either via cache or db)
  -load modules
    require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/' . variable_get('session_inc', 'includes/session.inc');
    drupal_session_initialize();
  -conditionally start session
    _drupal_bootstrap_page_header();
  -boot all
  check cache
  get lock and init
  if !cli - ob start and page_header
   -init static + send headers   
    drupal_language_initialize();
  -get languages
  -invoke modules
    require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/common.inc';
  define more constants
    _drupal_bootstrap_full();
  -load files
  -set up settings
  -varify
  -init path
  -init custom theme
  -run init hooks
-menu_execute_active_handler()

Robo Bobo and the Complaint

Well, people, such as myself and Mathimoto, have been insanely busy of late. Yet, occasionally time and space conspire that posting might be made.

So let me share with you one of the reasons I've been with the busy-ness, the web and its various technologies. Now while this sounds like a simple matter, it's actually insanely complicated. But I can give you a preview:

Now the essence of the web is run on servers, most notably Apache. There are other servers with various specialties, like Jaxer's Javascript-specialized server, and Microsoft, in its fierce insistence not to be compatible with anything else has its own server, Microsoft Server. However, all of these servers in the end run on your standard compiled languages, such as Java, C++, C, or Microsoft's C# (I mean there are other possibilities like Delphi (a variant of Object-Oriented Pascal) or something along those lines, but why would you do such a thing?)).

However, not everyone actually has a server, due to expense, complexity of set-up (the #1 limiting factor on web serving in my mind), and so there are alternatives, such as serving by the domain name company that gave you the domain name, or using a web app service such as Google App Engine. The upside is usually this is less money (usually), the downside is usually this is more complex (usually), and your choice of technologies is often limited, for example Google App Engine relies on Python.

Taking a step up from the server, you got the pages. This is what comes back after a request by a user. There's a variety of technologies out there, which fall into a couple categories. Mainly, the big two are CGI, where a http request (ie, a page URL) runs a script, in theory written in anything, but usually written in a scripting language, like Javascript, VBScript, Actionscript, Perl, or Python, XML/HTML pages, with possibly embedded scripts (like the first three of the CGI languages, PHP (although that can also be run for CGI)) (in a variety of forms like ASP (Active Server Pages), ASP.Net (a variant with more Microsoft-specialty tech), JSP (Java Server Pages), or JSF (Java Server Faces)). There's also a variety of media that could come back with the page, but that's a bit more than I care to get into, although I should note that Media and such is often best caught up with Actionscript in a whole Adobe Flash mesh-up, but that tech is proprietary and may cost the money.

And once you get the pages, sometimes there's more stuff going on, like client-side scripting languages, such as Javascript and Actionscript, sometimes there's Flash Players and stuff playing the media or something, and more there's also Java applet tech, Java web start up, and the like.

I'm sure there's more and more with more combinations. I mean some people like throwing in Groovy and Common Lisp into there, because they're insane. But the web's a complicated place, with complicated people and no one understands him but his woman...

A summary of a brief overview of web tech:

Sever-program: Apache, Jaxer, Microsoft Server, etc.
Written-in: C, C++, Java, C#, etc.

Returned Page: HTML, XML, media, image, PDF, txt, etc.
Produced-by: Javascript, Actionscript, VBScript, PHP, Python, etc.

Client-side: Browser-processing, Client-side script, Media
Produced-by:
Browsers written in C, C++, Java, C#, etc., primarily with the Geko (Mozilla) engine, Internet Explorer engine, or Opera engine
Client-side scripts in Javascript, Actionscript, etc. (based on DOM events, DOM model, SAX events, ah, my mind hurts too many techs!)

And the web keeps on trucking.

Mathimoto's Revamp

As things have suggested Mathimoto is still doing changes of many types. First I have added good old Robo-Bobo as my partner, and now I'm doing some redesign of the layout and such. So prepare yourself, for awesomeness, brought forth through the power of MATH!!!

Check it out now: The History's Your Brother

I've been adding some more features and a new layout. I added some links for my history professors and some history resources, as well as some random stuff and such. Hopefully it's all pumped up in coolness, but there's still extra coolness it can get, because History's just soooo awesome.

Welcome now to the Robo-Bobo report

As said before, due to Mathimoto's insane busy-ness. I'm adding my two cents to things around here.

And as a robotic-kola bear, it's about time for me to get some talking time. Of course I'll make sure not to overstep on Mathimoto's property, but Robo-Bobo's in the house now and he's about to add a little razz-ma-tazz.

But first of all, as things go, since this is Mathimoto's Complaint, I'd like to add my own complaint.

How come we're using XML for everything nowadays. Now I'm not saying XML isn't great, I actually like it a lot. I'm not so crazy about XSL, but I think ideally you could use XSLT to turn XML to HTML and then pop in some CSS to cap things off (now XSL and XSLT might do things alone, but for real formatting you'd have to throw in XFO or whatever and that's just annoying and Robo-Bobo don't do annoying).

XML's a beautiful concept for data-display and manipulation, basically you mark-up everything with the category or purpose it has, and then you use different transformation and formatting technologies to set things up into a full display, but since the transformation and formatting are separate from the data you can write data down and then decide all that, or you can take data and use several different ways to display things.

However, at the core of it all, XML's a data mark-up language and all the technologies associated with it are data display tech.s. Even if you throw in scripting languages like PHP or Javascript you still have essentially a matter of data display, and currently that's all the web is set up for.

The data display could be dynamic or static, but data display is what the internet was designed for.

And that's not enough.

Because already we have word-processors, games, and all sorts of applications that are used on the web. However, since things are used to data-displays, all the applications must be bastardized into dynamic data collection and display sets. Now overall, GUI's can be pigeon-holed into data-displays (in fact, GUI's are essentially data-collection and displays, and especially if you added a few more features, basically all GUI's come easily be easily created through a XML/XSL/XSLT/HTML/CSS-like technology), but applications? Applications in the most abstract sense can be said to be data collection and display, but to really do things like that is really, really, really asinine.

It's time to say no more! I will not make applications in XML!

But of course I will, because honestly, I'm a bit of a moderate with internet-tech (despite my robotic kola-ness), and I have not the yet the skill or prestige to revolutionize the internet world by myself.

But I shouldn't have to!

Applications should be written in an application-manner, and they should exchange data in an application way. Java Server Pages and such are a little better since there we're actually using application tech, and XUL is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough!

There must be a revolution!

We must!

We must!

We must revolutionize the internet by making it application-friendly!

To me, nerds of Silicon-valley!

To me, Indian sweat-shop engineers!

To me, other people who do other stuff!

Come, let's change the internet, under the grand banner of...

ROBO-BOBO!!!

And so on...

History = Awesome

The most perfect equation in history, History = Awesome.



To cite proof:



A History of the Spanish Inquisition



A History of the French Revolution



A History of Alexander Hamilton



A History of Dance



And for you real history buffs, a piece of history that's mostly accurate:



A History of Macross



I realize I have been lax in my posting duties, and I don't see that changing, but the web is wide, and history is out there. Go Forth I Command Thee!

Poetry, oh sweet poetry

So for some time now I have been pretty shy about using my poems for posts. There are a couple reasons for this.

• Firstly, I haven't been spending too much effort on perfecting my poems lately and I like to only put out finish products of my writings outside of blog posts (which I feel to some degree are finished in the posting).



• Secondly, I've been worried that if I put my stuff out there people might steal bits, ie. copyright issues and such.



• Thirdly, I've been concerned that magazines and such might frown on me putting my stuff online.



• Fourthly, I've been trying to keep this essentially a blog (although for a long time I tried to argue the term webpost was better) and so I didn't want it to just become a poetry collection or for me to use poetry posting as a crutch.

Well all of those concerns now seem like unfounded and relatively silly fears, so I've decided to start putting some poetry online again and if it comes to be a problem, I can always take it off.

So it has been said, so let it be done!

Shoutout to the other Rand Show

For some time I've been a little worried about legal action from a festival that's actually called the Rand Show. I only found out about it after I started the Rand Show and it doesn't seem to be that famous in the US. I emphasize that I'm only a little worried, and mostly due to my freakish paranoia about legal threats. But since I've come to accept my low view count and low notability I think chances of me being sued are very, very low. But I decided to actually check out the Rand Show and it seems like a pretty cool festival. I'd love to go there sometime but it is in South Africa and I am not, nor do I have enough disposable income to travel to South Africa.

But basically it is a festival of all things Africa + some things international. Basically, pretty damn cool.

I really don't think me getting sued will ever come, especially since I'm the Rand Show in the US and they're the Rand Show in South Africa, but I suppose some friction could come if I ever buy therandshow.com.

Meh.

Anyways, here's a shoutout to you Rand Show. I hope to attend you someday.

Anywho, take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

And God Bless!

We need a long-er burn

Yeah, fire is cool.

I'm still in (got to get on track with all my school stuff and I'm on and off side-tracked by personal stuff can't post as much) mode and so I'm not promising lots of posting soon, but here's something I've been playing around with.

Disk space and bandwidth seem to be the big obstacles to a lot of my cooler internet plans (also I don't have a satellite but I think I can make do without it, for now...), I think the former isn't as big of a problem as it might be if I can solve the latter, so...

all you out there in internet land, Deliver Your Bandwidth unto ME!!!

Or something like that.

So take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks!

Goodnight Folks!

God Bless!

When history's being abused, who you going to call?

I have a low tolerance for history abuse. That is when people misquote or misinterpret history especially when they think they know a lot. Yet I try to restrain myself from being too self-righteous because self-righteousness is usually the first step towards history abuse, and my love of history is pure and unblemished.

Still there are times when I can clearly and without reservation identify an act as history abuse, and one act I can identify as thus is the casual throwing around of Hitler references. There is nothing casual about Hitler. Depending on how you view him, he might be a man of an extraordinarily monstrously twisted mind, a man of exceptional evil, a force of horrible tragedy, or perhaps just a product of the absolute worst mankind has to offer.

BUT HE IS NOT CASUAL! And he cannot be causally referenced. And yet Hitler references are just always, always thrown around. It used to be only liberals would throw around Hitler references but now conservatives, centrists and the apolitical do as well. A casualization of the horror of Hitler is coming over the world, and that fact holds the potential to begin a forgetting of the greatest of evils mankind has been capable of, the Holocaust. But if I sound too serious, and I might, let me punch it up a little by saying that I usually just find people who throw around Hitler references more silly than anything else, and a good reply to that is one that has a bit of that silliness.

So thus, with no further ado, I present Mr. Jon Stewart's utterly perfect reply to the explosion of Hitler references in the world today:

A Relatively Closer Look at Hitler - The Daily Show

So remember kids, whenever you're thinking about saying someone's like Hitler, remember who's really like Hitler... Hitler.

Cause Math don't stop

Now I will admit I have been somewhat negligent about posting. But let that not deter you from seeking the great works of Math yourself. Because even when I slow or stutter, the Math don't stop:



And here's some places to get more math between my most informative posts:



Here's a nice source of Math Quotes with some cool comic excerpts to boot!



Here's a nice little blog from a Math undergrad (although not as nice as this blog):) called Me Or My Maths.



Beautiful thing about math is it transcends languages, so while there's a lot on this site (let's call it Germanio-Math) which I don't understand (including its title), there's still a lot an English-speaking pursuer of math can take from it.



Here's a quite useful site especially reference-wise: Math.com



And if you want to get even more official-ianated with your math, here's the homepage for the American Mathematical Society



They also have a nice run down of Math in the News in their Math Digest



And there's so much more. For math is limitless in its potentials, and while this blog is limitless in its own ways, I hope for the true seeker of math this blog and all these sites are only the beginning.

Mathimoto Speaks!!!

I, Rand McRanderson, on behalf of Mathimoto, man of math, air his complaint: People do not know enough about math!!!

And thus, I have been commanded to share with the people the world of math!!!

So stay tuned for:

Math History
Mini-math Lessons
Cool Math Facts
Math News

And MATH ULTRA-AWESOMENESS!!!

Math rules!!!

That which we wait for

My last session seemed kind of light on substance, it's probably because I did it in only an hour and usually when I'm having trouble writing a session it takes me an obscenely long amount of time and I had only an hour. Also, I was excited at the prospect of posting up a new Comikier comic but that will have to be delayed now since I left a bunch of my crap at home (stuff that really had no reason being at home at this point in the year). But unlike most other times I find I'm not overwhelmed by an emotion, right now I'm feeling somewhat depressed but blandly so, it's annoying.

In fact a lot of things are annoying me right now. First of all the delays with the Comikier comic among a lot of other things. Second of all, I don't feel like listing all this crap. But overall life is treating me nicely which is perhaps making it a little bit harder to say interesting things about my life. Sure I still have my problems, I've been avoiding social contact, I feel like crap right now, I've got a final right ahead of me and I might lose 1,000 dollars in scholarship money. But hey I've got my health (relatively speaking I'm healthy), I've got family, I've got friends, I've got a good brain (an intelligent and decently creative one), and a lot of future prospects. Overall, life isn't too bad even if my current mood isn't terrific.

Now I thought hey, I didn't do a great session before but I'll do a great session now, but with me feeling like I do, I don't think that's going to come about. So instead let me do what I assumed I'd do a lot later and which I probably will do a lot later which is to share some of my interests (I assumed I'd wait until I've gained a decent amount of daily views before doing this but what the hey you only live once or at least once upon this Earth). And by this I mean let me share with you some websites:
First of all

World of Rand

Webcomics:
I like webcomics, they usually have a freer form than I can see in the newspaper and some of them are pretty good, some of them are crap, but some of them are good.

Least I Could Do
Ctrl-Alt-Del
Megatokyo
Applegeeks
Penny Arcade
Angry Little Girls
Sabrina Online
etc.
I think that's enough sharing for now, so toon in next time for stuff and things that do stuff. Or not.

Anyhow, take it to your head, take it to your heart and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

I feel so good I feel so numb yeah, or the work which becomes a new genre itself: The Rand Show

There's a shoutout to Rob Zombie and to Cowboy Bebop in the title. It is forgivable if you don't get the first reference (Rob Zombie isn't for everyone, I'm not sure if it's really for me generally, but then again maybe if I listened to it more I'd have more of a feel for it, perhaps, perhaps, PERHAPS!), but it's unforgivable if you miss a Cowboy Bebop reference (actually it is forgivable since the reference is to an Eyecatch (that's the little stills before and after the commercial breaks), the full quote is "the work which becomes a new genre itself will be called Cowboy Bebop"). In the vein of that quote I will unveil my new name for this medium to replace the much-decried (largely by me) word blog. It is webpost. It's not perfect, it does not carry perhaps enough seriousness and sounds a little technical, and it might have another current meaning, but with a little work and usage it can be a fine term, and it is at least far better than blog.

So it has been some time since I last posted a session, and I could explain why, but I don't feel like doing that. Besides, the point is that I want this to be daily and so it must be daily, so sayth Rand, so must it be.

My mind isn't in a very constructive or cooperative mood right now, so I can't really think of a good transition to another topic. Well, there's one more thing I can say about the title, the first part, I feel so good I feel so numb yeah is a reference to the fact that while I'm in a generally good mood I still find myself unable to concentrate, unable to think deeply, unable to deal with certain issues I find myself encountering, well, it's not that bad. It's sort of like my moods, my desires, even my actions move without my mind prompting it, and so when my mood moves good, it's great, when my mood moves bad, well that's not so good. This is perhaps an exception, I don't really feel like doing this, but I mentally want to do it so I am doing it, but this is the exception that proves the rule, since I'm having trouble writing this session and actually starting to write a session usually requires the least amount of effort of most of my writing options (sometimes poetry can be easier, but that's only when the mood strikes me).

It's not like thoughts aren't in my head, but despite my desire to write them down, I'm having some trouble accessing them in a writable form (note that writable is a relative term and with a webpost (or as you might say, if you're less cool than me (which honestly means what anyone other than me might say), blog) the necessary quality of a thought to be writable is pretty darn low.

Still, if I can force some discipline into myself I have some plans going on. I'm planning to improve my webpage for one (a constant thing really) http://www.angelfire.com/freak2/rand , I'm working on a Rand comic (I did a couple pages of one for high school, and it came out pretty good, and I've got a couple good ideas (although I'm not sure I have enough good ideas with Rand to do it daily), but you need a good deal of discipline to draw a comic, since it requires a good deal of effort (at least the way I do it), although I might actually get my cousin to help me out with the drawing part (shout out to Shilpa, and maybe Sneha if she ever shows me her drawing skills)), I also need to start exercising more, need to do more work on getting internships, etc.,etc. I need to pull my mind together, but minds aren't always cooperative, of course, that doesn't mean I can't try.

Perhaps because of my trouble writing this, but also because of my problems doing sessions on time, etc. I'm planning to add a little more organization to my posting. One day perhaps for TV reviews, one or two days perhaps for my epic poem, and maybe I'll do something like that for more stuff, I dunno. But that's the plans and such. My mind really is starting to get blurred, so I'm going to have to wrap this up, I think I've got enough rambling to put this up.

Anywho, take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks (he really does). Goodnight Folks!

You're all bums you know

I like calling people bums. It's a nice way to pretend that I'm a bad ass, because honestly I'm not. I also like to call people bastards in certain circles, but you can't say that to everyone. I'd like to clarify, I'm not really serious with these names, but throwing them around even in a joking manner allows me to pretend I have a little edge. Of course, if the numbers on my views counter are correct, which I'm somewhat doubtful on, my readers are bums, they really are. After all, according to the view counter I have about 10 views today so far, but no comments (I'd settle for a kudos, but honestly, that seems kind of lame). Here's an issue that could provoke some contraversy, I'm thinking of plugging my actual website more. (it's www.angerlfire.com/freak2/rand/home.html , but I don't know how to do the fancy html stuff so it's not, well, fancy and I can't really make a link here) I doubt that will really provoke much response, but I'd like a little more traffic on my website. So far I think all the views have been mine over the years. I actually haven't been putting much effort into updating my website, but maybe if I got some more views... Eh, that's enough about that.

I'd rather not talk about my life as much as I have been, but that's been on my mind a lot lately. At least the future has been, for reasons I'm tired of explaining. My teaching school application has been progressing, but it's getting time to start begging for recommendation letters and honestly I hate that. I'm supposed to start today, but I've been procrastinating, which perhaps explains why I'm doing two sessions today instead of one. The rest of my time I've been watching Suzuka, a nice little anime that more people should check out. It's available on www.peekvid.com. It's premise is similiar to a harem anime, but it's plays out more like a high school romance. I like it perhaps because it's got a lovable loser character (a type I can always relate to) and it's got sweet romantic themes (I know this makes me sound like a girl, but I love romance and such, at least in moderation), and honestly, perhaps it's because I still feel a little bit like I'm in high school. I mean I know I'm in college now and everything, but nothing has really changed. Well, of course I have more freedom with my courses and all, and I'm living in a dorm (well not now because it's break), but in some ways I feel less advanced in my life than I did in high school. I mean then I at least had my own room and I was relatively popular in school. Back in high school I was actually more focused on writing, at least poetry that is. And I was published regularly in a literary magazine which I have to say was pretty damn nice. But now... But now is break, and soon the next semester will come and new chances will arise and it being college, those chances can lead me further in the direction I want to go than my high school opportunities. So that's college for you. All you in high school don't expect your world to completely change, you're still you after all and you're still in school. But again, such is the way of the world. (I don't like sounding so fatalistic, but I can't deny my current reality, though I can still hope for the future.)

(By the way, if anyone is enough of a non-bum to post, is the size of the text too small, I like my text small, but changing it is a concession I'm willing to make for my audience.)