blog
Finals week
4/30/2007
This week is finals week at school so I'll probably be pretty busy studying and working. I'm probably going to head home Thursday of this week to get a few things done at home and then my dad and I will be headed back to school to move everything to Rochester next week.
The Firefox problem with the website that I mentioned in the previous post has now been fixed. It took forever to fix it though, it was very frustrating. As a break from studying, I put up a new theme as well. I'll probably be messing around with the colors for both themes from time to time. Remember, you need cookies enabled to view something besides the default theme (which is black).
The Firefox problem with the website that I mentioned in the previous post has now been fixed. It took forever to fix it though, it was very frustrating. As a break from studying, I put up a new theme as well. I'll probably be messing around with the colors for both themes from time to time. Remember, you need cookies enabled to view something besides the default theme (which is black).
The end is near...
4/24/2007
The end of my junior year, that is. This is the last week of classes for this semester so I'll be free next week Thursday, after my last final. This semester really wasn't bad at all. It might be because I was only at school half of the year, but it really flew by. I think the work experience I had greatly helped me in school work. I seemed to plan out my assignments a lot better which resulted in better code.
I start work again in Rochester on May 14th. I'll move there the week before that to get settled in though. Todd, my parents, and I are also going to see former Cub and hall-of-famer Ryne Sandberg coach the Cubs minor league team, the Peoria Chiefs, play the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Obviously, we will be cheering for the Chiefs and I will be sporting Cubs apparel.
Speaking of the Cubs, they have been absolutely terrible in close games this year. They are last in the division right now at 7-12. The pitching has been pretty good, at least from Lilly, Hill, and Marquis. Wade Miller has been terrible and Zambrano hasn't been himself though. Hopefully that gets sorted out. Hill has been amazing though. He's 3-0 in 3 starts and has an ERA of .41, which is ridiculous. He's pitching tonight so you can bet I'll be watching.
I read a Cubs blog called The View From the Bleachers and they mentioned something I found very interesting the other day. Someone said that he's encouraged by the fact that Derrek Lee has not hit a homerun yet. I'll admit I've been kind of nervous that he hasn't, but he has been red hot in batting average. The point that the poster made was that this means that Derrek Lee is likely to get even hotter than he is now. Imagine a lineup with Derrek Lee hitting BETTER than he is now along with a also very good Ramirez and a Soriano who has to be getting hot soon as well. The Cubs will be able to score a TON of runs.
Anyway, back to Rochester. I'm excited to move back and start biking again. It's been really nice out and I've really wanted to get out on some trails. I'm planning on going at least 3 times a week for long rides. I also just purchased a bike rack for my car so I'll be able to drive to some trails I've never been to around the area.
I start work again in Rochester on May 14th. I'll move there the week before that to get settled in though. Todd, my parents, and I are also going to see former Cub and hall-of-famer Ryne Sandberg coach the Cubs minor league team, the Peoria Chiefs, play the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Obviously, we will be cheering for the Chiefs and I will be sporting Cubs apparel.
Speaking of the Cubs, they have been absolutely terrible in close games this year. They are last in the division right now at 7-12. The pitching has been pretty good, at least from Lilly, Hill, and Marquis. Wade Miller has been terrible and Zambrano hasn't been himself though. Hopefully that gets sorted out. Hill has been amazing though. He's 3-0 in 3 starts and has an ERA of .41, which is ridiculous. He's pitching tonight so you can bet I'll be watching.
I read a Cubs blog called The View From the Bleachers and they mentioned something I found very interesting the other day. Someone said that he's encouraged by the fact that Derrek Lee has not hit a homerun yet. I'll admit I've been kind of nervous that he hasn't, but he has been red hot in batting average. The point that the poster made was that this means that Derrek Lee is likely to get even hotter than he is now. Imagine a lineup with Derrek Lee hitting BETTER than he is now along with a also very good Ramirez and a Soriano who has to be getting hot soon as well. The Cubs will be able to score a TON of runs.
Anyway, back to Rochester. I'm excited to move back and start biking again. It's been really nice out and I've really wanted to get out on some trails. I'm planning on going at least 3 times a week for long rides. I also just purchased a bike rack for my car so I'll be able to drive to some trails I've never been to around the area.
NMU
4/01/2007
Saturday was Nothern Michigan University's Annual Invitational Programming Contest. I went for the first time and I have to say it was a lot of fun. A member of my team got sick and couldn't come so I ended up joining two of my friends who also were down a member. I think we did pretty well for it being the first time any of us had done something like this.
There were six problems to solve in five hours using one laptop and three group members. Basically, the group just makes a solution on the computer and then calls for a 'runner' in the hallway and gives them the files for the judge to test. Eventually, someone returns and gives you a piece of paper telling you if you got it right, if there were presentation errors, or if it was just incorrect all together. Each wrong submission added 20 minutes on to your final total time.
The teams at the end are ranked by how many problems they solved and then by how long it took them to solve each problem (in minutes) added together. No one solved two of the six problems which were very difficult to do in a short period of time. We ended up solving four and coming in 7th place / 24 overall because our time was longer than the six in front of us.
Check out the results here. I'm on the 7th place team, "Word Up". Michigan Tech won the overall school competition though.
I'll definitely do it again next year if I have the opportunity. It's a lot of fun.
The Cubs first game is tomorrow. I'm planning on bringing my laptop to school so I can watch part of the game between my classes. This season looks like it will be pretty good for the Cubs. I hope Prior figures out what's wrong with his pitching and is able to take the place of one of the starters that they are currently using. I'm not sure the two free agent pitchers they signed are as good as they are being paid.
There were six problems to solve in five hours using one laptop and three group members. Basically, the group just makes a solution on the computer and then calls for a 'runner' in the hallway and gives them the files for the judge to test. Eventually, someone returns and gives you a piece of paper telling you if you got it right, if there were presentation errors, or if it was just incorrect all together. Each wrong submission added 20 minutes on to your final total time.
The teams at the end are ranked by how many problems they solved and then by how long it took them to solve each problem (in minutes) added together. No one solved two of the six problems which were very difficult to do in a short period of time. We ended up solving four and coming in 7th place / 24 overall because our time was longer than the six in front of us.
Check out the results here. I'm on the 7th place team, "Word Up". Michigan Tech won the overall school competition though.
I'll definitely do it again next year if I have the opportunity. It's a lot of fun.
The Cubs first game is tomorrow. I'm planning on bringing my laptop to school so I can watch part of the game between my classes. This season looks like it will be pretty good for the Cubs. I hope Prior figures out what's wrong with his pitching and is able to take the place of one of the starters that they are currently using. I'm not sure the two free agent pitchers they signed are as good as they are being paid.
Labels: cubs, mtu, nmu, programming
Updates
3/29/2007
I put some more pictures up on pictures page. Some pictures from Winter Carnival 2007 and then some pictures of my first computer build.
I've been pretty busy with classes lately, but I'm sure I'll post more after things settle down a little.
I've been pretty busy with classes lately, but I'm sure I'll post more after things settle down a little.
Labels: htpc, mtu, winter carnival
MySpace, the demise of the Internet
3/08/2007
I joined MySpace sometime last summer and I still don't understand how this website can be the 5th most popular website in the world. The site is full of irritating ads, some which aren't even appropriate for a lot of MySpace users, and really doesn't have anything useful for keeping in touch with people. Yeah, you can customize your page to look however you want it to but the way you do it isn't even obviously, it's almost like a hack. You have to put the HTML and CSS in your "about me" section. Not very obvious.
The reason I'm finally posting about how horrible the site is, is because I got about 10 spam friend requests today and about 6 or 7 spam messages on the site. Random bands I've never heard of sending friend requests and attractive looking females adding me as "friends" when they really are just advertising for some website. The news used to talk a lot about how dangerous this website is to children and I now agree 100%. The site is out of control. There is little to no control over spam messages and within 24 hours I bet you would have at least one spam message and somehow be exposed to a pornographic link.
Today Peter Molyneux, a game developer for Fable 2, announced a "revolutionary" new feature of the game. The feature? You will have a dog following you around. Is he serious? Apparently also you can now get people pregnant. In the first Fable you could have sex, but was really pointless (although the game kept track of how many times you did it... why?). Apparently they want the player to feel a sense of accomplishment if they go and slay some kind of creature and come home to their kids congratulating them. I'm starting to think that Microsoft should tell them to let Sony take Fable 2 instead. I don't know about these developers...
Spring break starts tomorrow and I'll probably be heading home after lunch sometime since I have one class in the middle of the day. We might not go skiing like I said we were going to since it's going to be fairly warm on Saturday. Oh well, I've got a lot of homework to do unfortunately, so I guess I could work on that if I wanted to.
The reason I'm finally posting about how horrible the site is, is because I got about 10 spam friend requests today and about 6 or 7 spam messages on the site. Random bands I've never heard of sending friend requests and attractive looking females adding me as "friends" when they really are just advertising for some website. The news used to talk a lot about how dangerous this website is to children and I now agree 100%. The site is out of control. There is little to no control over spam messages and within 24 hours I bet you would have at least one spam message and somehow be exposed to a pornographic link.
Today Peter Molyneux, a game developer for Fable 2, announced a "revolutionary" new feature of the game. The feature? You will have a dog following you around. Is he serious? Apparently also you can now get people pregnant. In the first Fable you could have sex, but was really pointless (although the game kept track of how many times you did it... why?). Apparently they want the player to feel a sense of accomplishment if they go and slay some kind of creature and come home to their kids congratulating them. I'm starting to think that Microsoft should tell them to let Sony take Fable 2 instead. I don't know about these developers...
Spring break starts tomorrow and I'll probably be heading home after lunch sometime since I have one class in the middle of the day. We might not go skiing like I said we were going to since it's going to be fairly warm on Saturday. Oh well, I've got a lot of homework to do unfortunately, so I guess I could work on that if I wanted to.
Hardee's is good
3/04/2007
I always forget how good Hardee's is now until I go there and get a Thickburger. I love that place.
This week has been really busy and this next week will be even more busy. I have a computer networks project due tomorrow which I struggled through for 4 or 5 days. I need to re-educated myself on how to program in C++ before I try and use it again. There is also another programming assignment in another class due at the end of this upcoming week and some other assignments for my remaining classes.
Michigan Tech had a snow day last Friday! Apparently it's the first snow day in a long time. I don't know how long, but I've heard numbers from 8-20 years since the last one. I think they closed school because of the huge snow drifts. We had a ton of snow that day and then Saturday too. We're running out of places to put the snow when we shovel. We have this cool trench going to our cars from our door though. It's getting pretty tall.
I'm excited for Spring Break, which starts next Friday. We're going Skiing on the weekend, which should be fun. Then I'll also be working my normal hours and going to Rochester to find an apartment for the summer. It will be nice to have a break.
Baseball's Spring games have started and the Cubs haven't won a game yet, but they don't really play their starters the whole time anyway. The starting pitchers have done a pretty decent job thus far. I need to figure out how to get the right codecs on the computer at school so I can watch games when I'm sitting in the labs. Otherwise, I'll have to bring my laptop.
Anyway, back to work.
This week has been really busy and this next week will be even more busy. I have a computer networks project due tomorrow which I struggled through for 4 or 5 days. I need to re-educated myself on how to program in C++ before I try and use it again. There is also another programming assignment in another class due at the end of this upcoming week and some other assignments for my remaining classes.
Michigan Tech had a snow day last Friday! Apparently it's the first snow day in a long time. I don't know how long, but I've heard numbers from 8-20 years since the last one. I think they closed school because of the huge snow drifts. We had a ton of snow that day and then Saturday too. We're running out of places to put the snow when we shovel. We have this cool trench going to our cars from our door though. It's getting pretty tall.
I'm excited for Spring Break, which starts next Friday. We're going Skiing on the weekend, which should be fun. Then I'll also be working my normal hours and going to Rochester to find an apartment for the summer. It will be nice to have a break.
Baseball's Spring games have started and the Cubs haven't won a game yet, but they don't really play their starters the whole time anyway. The starting pitchers have done a pretty decent job thus far. I need to figure out how to get the right codecs on the computer at school so I can watch games when I'm sitting in the labs. Otherwise, I'll have to bring my laptop.
Anyway, back to work.
An update!!
2/23/2007
A lot has stuff has happened since my last update. I'll do my best to tell you the interesting stuff...
Probably the weirdest thing that happened recently involves my car. On the way home from school one day it stalled once. No big deal, right? I just started back up and went on my way. I figured maybe the really cold temperatures got to it. So a few days later I'm on my way home from school and it stalls 4 times in the 3 miles on the way back to my house. I make an appointment with the dealer and he finds something very unusual. Nothing mechanical was the problem, but the problem was most likely SOFTWARE. Yes, SOFTWARE. Unbelievable. He showed me the description of the update for my car. It fixed some stalling problems and fixed the instantaneous gas mileage reading to be more accurate. Since then, haven't had any problem with it. Crazy stuff.
I'm really excited for baseball to start. I've already purchased my subscription to MLB.TV so I can watch and listen to all the spring training and regular season games. I think this could be their year, as long as the offense stays productive and the pitching stays healthy. Prior is actually participating in spring training this year which he hasn't done the past few years because of injuries and Kerry Wood is throwing in preparation for his new role as a relief pitcher. It's starting to sound good.
I tried out Windows Vista a few times this past month. The CS department at school gives us a free copy of business, which I installed on my laptop but it was too slow for my tastes. My laptop just doesn't have enough memory for it. I then installed Vista Home Premium on my desktop and it runs great. I'm really impressed by it. Some say that the prompts for allowing or canceling something are irritating, but they rarely come up so I don't find it annoying.
Winter carnival was kind of a let down this year. The lack of snow and dangerously cold temperatures in the final statue nights made the statues a lot less detailed than they normally are. It was still fun though. My parents came up as well as Ashley and some of her friends. I took pictures and I'll get them up eventually.
I've become obsessed with skiing lately. I'm taking intermediate and advanced skiing classes this semester and this year they try and get you to take the lessons instead of just showing up and getting your name checked off. I'm really glad they are doing this, I've learned a TON. This past week I think I finally realized how to do the technique for short turns and I'm really happy about it. I'm probably going to take the ski racing class next year since I need more P.E. credits. In the advanced class he had us go down the race course just so we knew what it was like, and it's really fun.
That's all for now.
Probably the weirdest thing that happened recently involves my car. On the way home from school one day it stalled once. No big deal, right? I just started back up and went on my way. I figured maybe the really cold temperatures got to it. So a few days later I'm on my way home from school and it stalls 4 times in the 3 miles on the way back to my house. I make an appointment with the dealer and he finds something very unusual. Nothing mechanical was the problem, but the problem was most likely SOFTWARE. Yes, SOFTWARE. Unbelievable. He showed me the description of the update for my car. It fixed some stalling problems and fixed the instantaneous gas mileage reading to be more accurate. Since then, haven't had any problem with it. Crazy stuff.
I'm really excited for baseball to start. I've already purchased my subscription to MLB.TV so I can watch and listen to all the spring training and regular season games. I think this could be their year, as long as the offense stays productive and the pitching stays healthy. Prior is actually participating in spring training this year which he hasn't done the past few years because of injuries and Kerry Wood is throwing in preparation for his new role as a relief pitcher. It's starting to sound good.
I tried out Windows Vista a few times this past month. The CS department at school gives us a free copy of business, which I installed on my laptop but it was too slow for my tastes. My laptop just doesn't have enough memory for it. I then installed Vista Home Premium on my desktop and it runs great. I'm really impressed by it. Some say that the prompts for allowing or canceling something are irritating, but they rarely come up so I don't find it annoying.
Winter carnival was kind of a let down this year. The lack of snow and dangerously cold temperatures in the final statue nights made the statues a lot less detailed than they normally are. It was still fun though. My parents came up as well as Ashley and some of her friends. I took pictures and I'll get them up eventually.
I've become obsessed with skiing lately. I'm taking intermediate and advanced skiing classes this semester and this year they try and get you to take the lessons instead of just showing up and getting your name checked off. I'm really glad they are doing this, I've learned a TON. This past week I think I finally realized how to do the technique for short turns and I'm really happy about it. I'm probably going to take the ski racing class next year since I need more P.E. credits. In the advanced class he had us go down the race course just so we knew what it was like, and it's really fun.
That's all for now.
Creepy
1/17/2007
So a lot of things have happened since the last time I posted. I finished my co-op in Rochester, moved everything from Rochester to Green Bay to Hancock, and started school again after a semester off. It's weird being back, I think I'm happy about it although nothing has really changed except that I have homework now.
It's too early to tell if I'll like any of my classes, but some of them seem interesting at least. I have huge gaps in time between classes every day though, so I guess I'll be hanging out in the labs a lot since it's not really worth it to go home for an hour. I'll probably just use that time to do homework.
The house Justin and I rented in Hancock is a mixture between creepy old house and a nice cozy place. I have no idea when it was built but it was obviously a long time ago. The light switches stick out of the wall and some of them are even turn switches. You might think that they are dimmers for the lights, but they aren't. You turn the dial and it eventually clicks and turns the light on/off. Here's a picture of a "modern" switch (on the left) and one of the old dial kind.
Unfortunately, the switch stopped working a few days ago and it's in the worst place possible... the stairway. We're having it looked at soon I think. Hopefully it gets fixed.
The basement is also creepy. To get into it you must go into the pantry and then open a trap door which reveals some very steep steps down to a spooky, dark basement.
There is also a large oil tank and an ancient furnace which sports a paint job which hints that it is from the 50s.
The most spooky thing about the whole place is the old cane that my dad found behind a door. We like to joke that the place is haunted, probably from some dead miner. I think he may have been warning us when he broke the light switch earlier this week.
It's too early to tell if I'll like any of my classes, but some of them seem interesting at least. I have huge gaps in time between classes every day though, so I guess I'll be hanging out in the labs a lot since it's not really worth it to go home for an hour. I'll probably just use that time to do homework.
The house Justin and I rented in Hancock is a mixture between creepy old house and a nice cozy place. I have no idea when it was built but it was obviously a long time ago. The light switches stick out of the wall and some of them are even turn switches. You might think that they are dimmers for the lights, but they aren't. You turn the dial and it eventually clicks and turns the light on/off. Here's a picture of a "modern" switch (on the left) and one of the old dial kind.
Unfortunately, the switch stopped working a few days ago and it's in the worst place possible... the stairway. We're having it looked at soon I think. Hopefully it gets fixed.
The basement is also creepy. To get into it you must go into the pantry and then open a trap door which reveals some very steep steps down to a spooky, dark basement.
There is also a large oil tank and an ancient furnace which sports a paint job which hints that it is from the 50s.
The most spooky thing about the whole place is the old cane that my dad found behind a door. We like to joke that the place is haunted, probably from some dead miner. I think he may have been warning us when he broke the light switch earlier this week.
Spring schedule
10/30/2006
Today I registered for the spring semester at MTU. I decided I should finish up the general education credits so I'm taking a few of those and then some computer science classes. I also still need four PE classes so I'm going to do two more of those this semester. Both of them are skiing of course.
Monday
CS4121: Programming Languages
CS4711: Intro to Software Engineering
Tuesday
HU3701: Philosophy of Technology
HU3120: Technical and Scientific Communication
CS4461: Computer Networks
Wednesday
CS4121: Programming Languages
CS4711: Intro to Software Engineering
PE0320: Advanced Downhill Skiing
Thursday
HU3701: Philosophy of Technology
HU3120: Technical and Scientific Communication
CS4461: Computer Networks
PE0220: Intermediate Downhill Skiing
Friday
CS4121: Programming Languages
Fridays will be nice with only one class. We'll see how it goes.
Monday
CS4121: Programming Languages
CS4711: Intro to Software Engineering
Tuesday
HU3701: Philosophy of Technology
HU3120: Technical and Scientific Communication
CS4461: Computer Networks
Wednesday
CS4121: Programming Languages
CS4711: Intro to Software Engineering
PE0320: Advanced Downhill Skiing
Thursday
HU3701: Philosophy of Technology
HU3120: Technical and Scientific Communication
CS4461: Computer Networks
PE0220: Intermediate Downhill Skiing
Friday
CS4121: Programming Languages
Fridays will be nice with only one class. We'll see how it goes.