Piar Square

Piar Square continued....

2008-11-12T22:39:00.001-08:00

Piar Square continuing at haz.mat.ucsb.edu/~thekuo/blog/.

Science at its best

2007-02-15T10:56:00.001-08:00

“I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died,” Schaefer said.

A colleague overheard her complaining. “The co-author on my paper said,’ Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?’ I said ‘Oh’, and took a closer look.”

Nerd Stereotypes

2007-02-04T00:06:00.000-08:00

Comedy Central showed recently The Breakfast Club, and the movie is fine. But the one problem I have with the movie is the treatment of Brian, the "brain," at the end of the movie. Specifically, he's told and agrees to finish the essay, while everyone else makes out.

7.1 megapixels for the New Year

2006-12-21T20:04:00.000-08:00

It's the time of year for happy voices: Christmas carols, bratty kids, "ho ho ho," the Dreidel song. There is one voice though which loudly protests, "Nah! Nah! Oh, dear God, Allah, Buddha, Thor, and Zeus! Stop!" But it is never heard. It is never heard because it's usually drowned out by a voice that says, "I'm going to get more exercise this year." or "I'm going to silence those creditors." or "I'm going to find aliens in the 4th dimension." It is never heard because passion and eggnog rule over reason and logic any day of the week. It is never heard because the hope of New Year's Resolutions is greater than the horror of reality.

To that voice, I say, "NOTE: THIS TEXT HAS BEEN CENSORED".

Projects for 2007

Research

Tracking across Multiple Non-overlapping camera views: my current overarching project.
Face Detection: finishing project.
Tracking within camera: useful for face detection and my overarching project.
Classification (The Toyon Project): I think I've been recruited.
Maybe some stuff with blimps: some my adviser mentioned that sounds like fun, but there's other stuff to work on.

Audio/Visual

Shoot a different person a day: so maybe it should be more of an average. This should help my portrait taking skills.
Shoot a self portrait a day: for practice.
Shoot a scene a day: more practice of techniques.
A movie a month: take photos and movies and edit them into something, hopefully interesting.
Weekly news podcast: This would be the ultimate A/V project and least attainable as it would require other equipment and other people. And the first part would be to drum up interest for it to happen. Why news? Because nothing else has so many story ideas so easily. If presented a la SNL's Weekend Update or The Daily Show "monologue," it could actually interest drunk college kids.

If you'd like to be my subjects for experimentation for any of these, please come and see me. I can shoot you on the spot. Just warn me long enough to load my deagles.

j/k I suck at Counter Strike.

Robotica's Funniest Home Videos

2006-12-11T12:39:00.000-08:00

Robots have come a long way since Ibn Ismail Ibn al-Razzaz Al-Jazari made his drinking boat. Their moving close and closer towards perfection, but perhaps in that way farther from humans.

Enter "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility," better known as ASIMO. Honda's famous robot that has been touring the world and greets dignitaries with a certain grace rarely seen in a robot, until one faithful day that was captured on video and put on the Internet (Google Video), as everything is nowadays.

I'm sure we should thank the crew at Honda,who quickly hid ASIMO and shut down the event to the laughter of the crowd.

I first caught this on Engadget.

People Against People Against Facebook

2006-09-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyone on Facebook is up in arms about the new Newsfeed and mini-feed features. I don't get why. My typical Facebook session before the update was:
(1) I log into Facebook
(2) make sure there aren't messages or invites
(3) click on "My Friends"
(4) look at who has made updates
(5) click on a few of the friends to try and find out what they changed.
(6) Logout

Half the time, I have no idea what the person changed in step 5. I would have loved a feature that would tell me what was changed. Now what does Facebook offer? A way to know what people changed, and even on the home page. Is there some reason people don't want to know this information?

People complain that Facebook has become too "stalkerish" or they deserve the privacy of not having everyone know that they changed something. How you can't complain about privacy to people you agreed to look at your profile, and whom you control what they see. You can even delete the entries.

Maybe these people want to be seen more than they want to see. These are often the type of people who collect "friends" without regard if they really are friends.

I think Facebook can do a little to assuage concerns by setting options on either who gets your feeds or what categories you send out; however, I think when you click on a person it should still show what was changed.

So there's my opinion. I, for one, like the features and hope Facebook keeps it.

Plastique

2006-08-24T21:19:00.001-07:00

So Apple have now extended their recall of Sony-made batteries before August 2006. That means I get a new battery!! :) However, I am confident my battery will surive the 4-6 weeks it's suppose to take. Now that I've said it, just watch it blow up in my face.

In other cool news, Pluto is no longer a planet. That'll be a fun thing for the kids to learn, and lucrative for the textbook companies.

Who is Harold Frank?

2006-06-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

So a straight title for once. The building that my lab is in, Engineering I, underwent a name change early last week. The new name is Harold Frank Hall. This leads us back to the title, who is Harold Frank? My Google searches have found that he lives in Santa Barbara and he has a lot of money. The money conclusion comes from several scholarships in his name.

So the Daily Nexus article is the best information I've found.

Snow White's Sleeping Pill

2006-05-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

So I stopped by the local student computer store to check out the new MacBook, and with the 5 minutes I played with it, it seemed like good computer. For reference, it happened to be a black Macbook.

I compiled the following comments:
1. The LED did move next to the IR sensor.
2. The keys felt fine, except for the up/down arrow keys didn't have a gap and felt too close together.
3. The trackpad had two-finger right click, which is awesome. I wish they would do a firmware update, so that I can do that with my Powerbook.
4. The trackpad's button depressed a little with light pressure, so that a few times I felt like I pressed it, eventhough I didn't.
5. It was still really hot on the bottom.
6. The glossy screen wasn't as glossy as some laptops I've seen, which is good.

RIP Powerbook

2006-05-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

So Apple Computer has finally replaced the 12" Powerbook with..... the MacBook. Sadness. It's not a MacBook Pro. On the one hand, the available options for the MacBook cover the space the 12" Powerbook use to cover. However, it has lost the moniker of a "professional" laptop.

Actually, I can live with that. The differences between the high end MacBook and the 15" MacBook Pro are comparable to those between the 12" and 15" Powerbooks: video card, miniDVI, etc. The differences now are purely asthetic: the white or black case, instead of metallic; the differently shaped keyboard (that I'm interested to see in person). And it certainly is nice that have no moving latches, just the magnetic latch. There is only one thing that I really have to complain about the MacBook replacing the 12" Powerbook. Just one thing.

The weight! The specs say it is 5.2 lbs. I think the 15" Powerbook was 5.4 lbs. My 12" Powerbook is 4.6 lbs. Though 0.6 lbs is not a lot, it does feel like a lot you carry it for a while. As a matter of fact, one of the selling points for me of the 12" Powerbook was that it was under 5 lbs. Even then, it's deceiving heavy.

Otherwise, I'll have to wait to see it when it arrives at my local apple retailer (i.e. the student store).

P.S. Did it lose the breathing light, or is it now next to the IR reader?

In the Air, on Land, and Sea

2006-04-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

So I've got about a week between the end of the school year and before I have to start my internship. I'm feeling the urge to go somewhere? Any ideas? Anyone wanna go with? Not necessarily the entire week, but could also be possible.

Happy Pi Day

2006-03-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

Long time no see. Haven't spent any time blogging, since I've been busy concentrating on other stuff like The Ur-Quan Masters. But there's also TAing and researching and classing and other stuff.

I invite you now to evaluation my personality. Karenhehehehe started me off with this site, and I figured why not. I can hunt down all the people who say bad things about me. Enjoy. Or not.

On a semi-related subject. I need to talk to more people online, and I don't mean random people. Just haven't been talking to the people I usually talk to. Well the same is probably try in reality as well.

Also, how does one determine how many words a picture is worth. Theoretically or scientifically.

Free as in "Free Beer"

2006-01-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

So it's been a long long time since I've posted anything here, so it's time for an update.

I'm one TA (out of 2) of 60 students for the undergraduate image processing class. I need to remember to borrow a camera to document the students I have. So I have my records... to blackmail them with, or something.

I watched the Wallace and Gromit movie at Campbell Hall last night for free. It was a great movie. However, I feel like UCSB students don't appreciate free as much as Berkeley students. Like half of the 860 people capacity Campbell Hall had yet to be filled. I would imagine only 500-600 people were finally there, and that included non-UCSB students. This opposed a consistently filled Wheeler Hall Auditorium for $3 movies, with many people turned away. And free screenings were almost impossible to get into.

Evanesco Incatatem

2005-11-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I would like to point out some of the omissions I thought missed.

They did not explain "Priori Incantatem." They were leading up to it; Harry told Dumbledore about it, and Dumbledore gave it a name, then told him nothing can bring his parents back. Would it have been so hard to tell him it was because the wands were from the same phoenix.

I felt like Harry was an incompetent wizard. Even in the book he needed help to get the solutions, but he also does a lot of work practicing spells. He may not be Dumbledore or Voldemort in terms of power and ability, but he is competent.

The Quidditch scene was cut a lot. Winky is gone, for better or worse. Actually, so is Dobby and S.P.E.W. But they also took out the scene with the levitated Muggles, which was shown in the trailer.

Moody doesn't say "Constant Vigilance!" once.

They used like 1 or 2 spells in the maze, and otherwised displayed their awesome magical power of running around.

Despite this, it was a pretty good movie overall.

Imperfect Match

2005-10-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

My handle is one I've used for many years. Part of the reason I chose it was its relative obscurity. Years later, it is still fairly unique. I was able to sign into Blogger.com and Xanga with it. A Google ~~stalk~~ search of "QwertyPi" returns 15 returns; all but two of them refer to me.

One of these results is a match.com profile of a 28-year old from Portsmouth, NH with a picture of a girl next to it. This might explain why a little while ago I got a increase of random IMs. One of them even said they saw my profile from match.com. I chose then not to talk to any of them. But it's nice to know the origin of those messages.

Diving Exercise

2005-10-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

Who knew that ants could fall with style.

What does the grad student who has to "surgically remove body parts and observe how flight is affected" say his job is? One the one hand, it sounds like those bullies you hear about in elementary school; the ones that pull wings off insects. On the other, a grad students gotta be paid.

Flying Power

2005-09-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, was recently quoted as saying, "The problem with Bluetooth headphones is that it's not just recharging your iPod, you have to recharge your headphones too. People hate it. There are quality issues - the bandwidth isn't high enough, and even if it does get there some day, people don't want to recharge their headphones."

I wonder if that means their gonna look into wireless power i.e. the experiments of Tesla. I wonder how sending power a few feet in all directions would go over with the general public.

Pick Up

2005-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

I picked up this site from Userfriendly. It has a science fiction story for each element of the periodic table. I haven't gotten through much of it, but of the few that I've read (Californium, Berkelium, Lawrencium, and Seaborgium), Berkelium is the best. If only I could memorize it, maybe I could get me some "philosopher chicks."

Shady View

2005-09-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

To notify you all of the results of the last post.

I got one response from the last post. And after getting my Pi/2% discount back, I looked today.

It came down to UrbanSpecs Wave and UrbanSpecs Seagull.

My polling was inconclusive, but for me, the Wave won out, as it looks, as one person put it, more stylish.

As for whether it was worth waiting for the Amazon's Pi/2% discount; it saved me $.44. And now I still have $2.50 at Amazon.com.

Online Shopping Challenge

2005-09-01T01:28:00.000-07:00

I have come into possession of $30 good at Amazon.com, and would like to buy a pair of grey sunglasses (i.e. no yellow or blue, etc.). However, I do not want to shop for them. Thus the challenge I pose to anyone willing to accept.

Criteria:
1. UVA and UVB protection! i.e. 99%-100% UVA and UVB, also known as UV400 (or 400 nm).
2. Comfortable. This is as determined by comments or educated supposition.
3. Durability. Hard to determine also, but don't for something obviously easy to break.
4. Broad fashion appeal. i.e. not glasses that will go out of fashion in a month or a year.
5. Polarized would be nice. This is not a requirement, and I'm not sure how beneficial is reduced glare, but it seems nice.

The glasses can be slightly above $30, but not by much, i.e. maximum $35 not including shipping and tax. Preferrable Free Shipping, but we'll see.

IM suggestions to me or post them as a comment.

Like Sleep

2005-08-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like I've seen more dead animals this summer than I have the rest of my life. That's not exactly true, I've noticed many road kills while driving, but rarely have I seen complete animals up close.

Today would be the third of the summer (the first two were a dead baby bird and a skunk), and it is certainly the largest animal I've seen. In this case a dead sea lion or sea otter. It seemed to have suffered some trauma, since each passing tide took with it some blood from near its head.

Some people might interpret this as a sign of evil forboding. Like what I will look like in the future. But then again, won't we all.

UPDATE (7/28/2005, 1:02 AM): Went to see the sea lion again. Going towards her, I could smell, what I only assume to be rotting flesh. She was covered in many white insects that come out from the sand. It definitely seemed like it got hit in the head, as there was blood coming from what I can only guess is her left eye, and her left fin may have been ripped a little. Certainly it seemed as if the some layers of skin were torn from her bottom side. I noticed that it was tagged (its number was 040041), though that means little to me.

UPDATE (7/30/2005, 9:44 PM): Someone mentioned to me that it could be the result of eating a pollution-ladden shells, though I have been unable to corroborate this.

What to buy?

2005-08-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Whoa... two posts in one day. Must be a record. Probably just to make up for a lack of posting. And technicially, the last post was suppose to go out yesterday.

Today I got an idea for what to do with this $100 gift card to Best Buy. I will weigh the options of buying an external hard-drive against buying an internal hard-drive and a kit that puts a case around it (essentially making it external). I could you some space to put various multimedia on and for backup. My other idea was to buy a MobiBLU DAH-1500i Cube MP3 player (completely for the cool factor), but those are only sold at Wal-mart, which probably doesn't honor cards with Best Buy on them.

I guess I just need to do some research on what's less costly and gets me more space. Unless someone else has a great idea that I can get from Best Buy for about $100. Then I'd actually need to get to a Best Buy. This will be one step in my ultimate multimedia server goal.

Now I just have to figure out what to buy with my other gift cards.

Unspeakable Obscenity

2005-08-15T19:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, a friend and I went to watch The Aristocrats. It's a documentary by comedian Paul Provenza, who I had never heard of, and Penn Jillette, of Penn and Teller fame. In this documentary, they record many famous comedians analyzing and performing variations on The Aristocrats, an in-joke among comedians.

The joke is as follows:
The Setup: A family walks into a talent agent and says they've got a great act. The talent agent asks what's the act.
The Middle: This largely open, except the comedian tries to be as vulgar and obscene as possible. Drawing on anything and everything from incest, beastiality, scatology, etc.
The Punchline: The talent agent asks what's the name of such an act. And the family responds, "The Aristocrats."
To illustrate this, here is a NSFW clip of a South Park version.

The punchline is suppose to be something about the contrast between something so non-aristocratic and the aura of aristocrats, but is largely besides the point. It's the middle that's really the key. Some good performances was a comedian/magic card trick version, and Bob Saget cracks himself up with his endeavor to out do everyone else (he makes a pun on "cockeyed" at one point). Sarah Silverman's tone was such that without listening to what she was saying, you might not think she was joking. And Gilbert Gottfried just sounds funny no matter what he's saying.

In conclusion, an interesting movie watched with good company. Though maybe I shouldn't have shown clips of Battle Royale after that. Hmmmm....

Flirtations

2005-07-22T20:28:00.000-07:00

There are some chicks outside my room; as in baby birds. They're in a nest built behind something that looks like an alarm. And earlier, I noticed the parents flying in an out, and the chicks being very noisy. It was quieter today. In part this may be because of the death of one them. It fell out of the nest, and is now lying prone and covered in ants. Kudos to the circle of life.

Sticking with this nature theme, the other day, I watched a spider, that lives under a hummingbird feeder outside the window of the trailer that I work, eat a insect that was buzzing about. It grabbed for it several times before the two of them finally met. Then it quickly wrapped the bug in its web and proceeded to feast.

Penguin Toss

2005-07-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

Linux rant follows. coherence... level unknown. proofreading... none.

I've been spending most of the past week trying to get Fedora Core 4 then 3 to install on two hard drives with a few software packages. Most of it is pretty straightforward, and works without difficulty. But when Linux decides not to work, it really doesn't want to work. Some examples of the difficulties I've had.

Sound:
I installed FC4 on a computer without problem. I installed FC4 on the other computer... no sound. They have different sound cards. The former an SB Live! and the latter and SB Audigy.
I installed FC3 on the the latter computer, and sound works! I installed FC3 on the former computer. No sound. The audio device seems to be constantly under someone's use.

Software Packaging:
Fedora Core comes pre-installed with GStreamer, which I'm trying to use to create a really simple MPEG-4 Player. Fedora Core 4 does not come with the C libraries pre-installed, and after trying yum several times, I finally figure they didn't have it either. The sample code in the documentation did no work, and it took an additional download in order to get a sample code in download to work. I just installed FC3, and similarly, the documentation's sample code didn't work, which maybe be a version difference, until the sample code in the documentation on the computer also didn't work.

These problems don't really occur in Windows or Macintosh. Windows is the dominant powerhouse, and most of the time, people have built binaries for it already or easy setup files not revolving around dependency hell, and the same with the hardware. No consumer PC hardware would survive without being able to work on Windows fairly easily. Maybe a new driver install. Mac, of course, controls most of it's own hardware, so drivers are less of an issue. And the software mostly comes prepackaged and ready to install with a simple drag.

This concludes this Linux rant. If you read any of the content since the first sentence, I pity you and would give you a cookie, but I suggest you not as for one, as I might lace it with something (maybe accidentally).

The Waiting Game

2005-07-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well, the Powerbook deal I was waiting for finally came in. They're now offering a qualifying Mac with a $179 rebate if you also buy at least an iPod mini. This saddens me, even in light of the fact that I don't really need an iPod of any size; I don't listen to that much music. However, I do need a good pair of headphones: good, inexpensive, and portable. I don't know if that means I should get earbuds or the slightly larger ones. Any thoughts?

Tricks are for kids

2005-07-06T03:10:00.000-07:00

A while ago I was talking to someone about the future. This lead to the following quote, which I find hilarious.

> i'm going to try so hard to turn my kid(s) into nerd(s)!
> that way, they'll repel the bad kids away from them

I'd like to experiment on children. It would make life interesting for them.

Triton the Sun God

2005-07-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

This post is coming straight to the internet from San Diego, CA, well, La Jolla, actually. It would be the first time I've been here in about 10 years. It's been a nice opportunity to see some sites and catch up with some college friends.

The sites were kicked off with the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood. It may be the first time I sat through a conversion attempt. It certainly was the first one that was so long. It was highlighted by an informational video to Scientology. Much of this video contained funny moments, but one quote stands out. "If you wish to leave the room after seeing this film, walk out and never mention Scientology again, you are free to do so. It would be stupid, but you are free to do it. You can also dive off a bridge, or blow your brains out; that is your choice." They are right, though. With a quotel like this, it would be stupid never to mention Scientology again. But they never said I had to say good things about it.

Otherwise, we saw Point Loma, UCSD, and La Jolla Shores, including at UCSD a tour of the new CSE building. UCSD has some nice modern looking buildings. At some point we'll hit the roads again, and I'll hopefully catch the SPARKLE show on Santa Barbara's West Beach.

Not Disillusioned but Different

2005-06-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

Lots of things happened last week. It culminated in the graduation celebration of a longtime friend, and congratulations to her. There will be many lasting memories. One of them being the purchase of my new laptop, a 12" Powerbook. And I will now try to narrate my own "Switch Ad."

I needed a laptop, and when I looked around. The Apple is just so much prettier and it has Tiger, which is such a better operating system. Still it could do everything I want: program, give presentations, etc.

Okay, that was a pretty week ad. I don't have any good stories, so I'll have to wait until I get some Windows computer burning up while my Mac computer does not (cause fire is good... my pyro side likes it).

The laptop has been named "yukidama," which if I read everything correctly is "snowball" in Japanese, which fits very elegantly into my computer naming theme, that I mentioned when I got my PDA. But to review. My desktop is dasGehirn, or "the Brain" in German. My PDA is named Bluey, as a reference to Pinky and its blue (not pink) color. The theme is Pinky and the Brain. The Brain's archnemesis is Snowball the hamster. This scheme, of course, makes sense. My desktop is a large computing power and my laptop is a large computing power. They will now vie for the ability to conquer the world as defined to them. Bluey, not being a full computer, is kinda the retard cousin, so to speak.

Colors of the Wind

2005-06-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

Just after Microsoft releases a new Xbox based on IBM's PowerPC, that has powered Apple for a decade, Apple is reported to going to transition to Intel, that has been half of Wintel for the past 2 decades. Color me amused.

I swear it's yesterday

2005-06-02T12:13:00.000-07:00

So I had my first all-nighter in a long, long time. Not even a nap, all thanks to the power of caffine. Procrastination is not laziness. You lazy if you don't want to do it, procrastinate stuff you don't want to do now.

It's been noted that I IM people just as they're about to leave. What if they're about to leave cause I IMed them. hmmm... More likely, I have a sixth sense about when they're going to leave, and try to time it to delay them as much as possible. Mwuhahahaha! I feel evil, or under-slept. Decisions, decisions... Well, one lecture to give, one presentation to create.

missile defense system 3

2005-05-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

Since I spent the $8.50 to watch Star Wars III (the matinee was sold out when I got there, and I figured I might as well just watch the next one), I'll give some impressions. I should probably give a spoiler warning, for those of you who care. But if you're really that concerned about spoilers, you would have watched it already.

In summary, I didn't really buy Anakin's turn to the dark side, but after he turns it's good sequence of action, emotion, and nostalgia. The opening space battle was visually amazing, but the banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin seemed excessive; I think it detracted from seriousness of the situation. Being seduced by the chancellor seemed too sudden. One second he seemed like a good man, realizing he'd done a wrong thing, and the next, he swearing allegiance to Palpatine. Maybe that's to develop the notion that there's still good in him. Maybe he just needed to express more disgusted by Windu's un-Jedi-like behavior and his fear of Padme's death. All the elements of his demise are there, his dreams of Padme, the mistrust of the Jedi Council, the suggestions of Palpatine, but it doesn't feel like Anakin has fully comprehended all these aspects when he turns. Having said that, what Lucas does well is great, i.e. the scenery and the action, and the tie back to the original series provided a predictable but nostalgic and emotional ending.

This blog will self-destruct in 30 seconds.

2005-05-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today is the only Friday the 13th of the year. I don't know that that is particularly newsworthy, though an interesting fact. And I have ~~2.17 days~~ 18.7* left to do 9 things I've never done before. It's a personal challenge to mark the only bad date of the year. Don't ask about the logic it just is.

I should devise a punishment for myself if I don't make my goal. Any ideas for either tasks or punishments? Quickly, time is running out. Details will come later.

*edited 5/16/2005 @ 8:34 PM

Returning ears shortly

2005-05-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Seemingly good advice: Always go after what you want regardless of what you think the outcome will be. Remember that, and life will be good. You'll die with less regrets, which I think is the goal of life.

Now that you know, I don't have to. Hypocrisy is great.

Bouncy ball with cloud

2005-03-16T20:49:00.000-08:00

Overall the past two weeks have not been good. Projects and finals have taken up a lot of time, sanity, and years away from my life. Then, I got sick and threw up in the bathroom, the day before my final. Now I'm sweating in my room wondering why my room is so warm in the first place but at least it's good to sweat it out a little. The only good part of the last two weeks have been a couple expensive nights in downtown Santa Barbara (expensive by my standards, at least).

One night was a farewell party for a labmate who's going back home to Turkey for a month. It made me feel like I was 21. Not so I could drink, but so that I wouldn't have to be the guy who altered the celebratory plans. We took a quick detour to Java Jones and then turned right back around to the bar the rest of the group was going to. Some valuable socializing missed.

The other night was with a guy I knew and a girl from a class I took last quarter and her dormmate. The events leading up to this night were classic. While talking to the girl online, she says something about the dormmate finding the guy in my facebook hot and that we all should do something together. This topic went on for a little while, with ideas of what do to, etc. I wasn't really planning on saying anything to the guy, until they nudged me. Well, I probably wanted to a little, since it was so funny in it's high school-ish manner. So I bring the guy into the loop. It gets to the point that I give the dormmate the guy's screenname and tell them to talk it out themselves. The next day, I hear something the dormmates ranting about me and how it was all a joke blown out of proportion. Of course, now that makes it all the more hilarious. But they've met, at least online, and can do whatever they want to do.

I'm talking to the girl later. She and her dormmate want to do something and wondered if I want to go, which was fine with me, and they've invited the guy too. And that was "the other night," as referenced above. End of story.

The night itself was fun: we ate dinner at the SB Brewery Co. and ice cream at Coldstone; I saw a volume of Bleach manga in Borders; and we watched Hitch. But nothing quite as funny as the backstory.

However, that was two nights out of like the last ten. So I hope your past few weeks have been better.

Happy SAD

2005-02-15T01:47:00.000-08:00

What a blatant title!? No leaps of thought whatsoever.

For the uniformed, SAD stands for Singles Awareness Day, and is so named as, this being Valentine's Day, societies is glorifying the people in relationships, leaving the single people out to dry. It's like going to dinner with a bunch of couples.

In some ways it was a SAD for me; however, I've felt more single than I do now. It's probably cause I didn't get hit by the day's commercialisms, and I'm not surrounded by various couples.

The outlook is that nothing will change. Things only change if you want them to, but my desire to stay the course is stronger than my desire not to, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Tome of Power

2005-01-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

Yay! Apple has released their updated Powerbooks.

They've added:
- trackpad scrolling, which has been on many PC laptops for years.
- Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor, which I figure is just IBM's "airbag" technology
- Bluetooth 2.0, which I don't know how long it's been it's around
- an 8x Superdrive, which they seemed to have dropped $100 off the price of
- upped several models to 80GB HDs
- increased the base model to 1.5 GHz

These are all very incremental improvements, available in other laptops months ago, no doubt. But now they're available for the Apple.

Now I'm eyeing the 12" Powerbook with Superdrive and 758 MB of RAM for $1567.

Stones

2005-01-30T13:20:00.000-08:00

I seems as if the quantity of posts is decreasing. I estimate that by the end of this year, I'll be down to a post a year.

I'd tell you about what I'm up to an stuff, but who wants to know about stuff you don't already know. Instead I will philosophize, since everyone knows philosophy.

If two people have a disagreement, and one of them comes to you afterwards for support. Who was more right?

As postulated, you don't really know who was right. But they came to you and told you their story. So you feel more inclined to side with them, since you feel closer to them and they've warped the story for their benefit. However, it can't be the objective truth. For example, recently a man placed a full page ad in a newspaper asking for his wife to come back. People responded with well wishes and so on. Problem is, we don't know what he did. He may be repentent, but is that enough. Some people would say not, some would say it is. In this example, it's not hard to criticize the guy. I don't know him. But the closer you are with a person the less you're able to be objective about the situation.

Anyway, there are people I want to talk to. If only they were online. Get online peoples!

Long and Winding Road

2005-01-12T01:32:00.000-08:00

Well, the rain finally stopped. And just when I was thinking how nice it would be if it got cold enough to snow... on the coast. Right. It's more likely that the fires of hell are melting the snowballs long before they get even close. Those are the chances of it snowing here. Regardless, the sun is taking the opportunity to warm everything while it can. In particular, wooden railings seem to be smoking as they dry out. Hopefully the wind that is pushing the clouds away will be sufficient to push around a sailboat on the weekend. Otherwise, I don't know what else to do with the extra day off. I suppose I could always drop in on a party. Someone is always throwing a party somewhere around here. It is Santa Barbara, after all. The upstanding school of Nobel-prize-winning professors and similarly bright students - just kidding.

Western Front

2004-12-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

This place has been pretty quiet, on both sides. I did get one astute question from my last post, which I will get to at some later date. Today I'll just give some quick updates. I'm on break for the winter. Don't know what's gonna happen, except a trip to Vegas for a weekend. In "recent" events, I had a doctor's appointment for a checkup, and it went well, except I'm suppose to exercise more (HA!), and I passed out as they were taking my blood, and I have to return later for glaucoma tests.

I've never passed out like that before. One moment I was tensing up at having a needle stuck in me. The next, everything was darkness about it and a nurse was telling me to open my eyes while slapping my face. Half of me didn't want to listen to her, considering how much more comfortable it would have been to just close my eyes. The other half was instinctually deciding there was something wrong with that conclusion. Apparently I had totally broken out in a cold sweat and my face was entirely white. But some cold towels, juice, crackers, and lying down restored the circulation.

As for the glaucoma test, that's really just a precautionary measure. The hole for my optic nerve of my is indented a little more than usually. I've always thought that eye a little different. In order to look at my eye, the nurse gave me a dialating solution, so for the rest of the day, I looked like an anime character.

That's about it. And I will take my leave with the cryptic phrase: "Millions of peaches, peaches for me."

Open Mic

2004-12-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

In the interests of engaging my readers, I'm now opening the floor to questions. This will also, hopefully, simplify topics of discussion for a little while. Any questions will be accepted, not all will be answered.

A Qpi-centric World

2004-12-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

Christmas is coming up, so if you wanna buy me something, and I don't actually recommend it. I want:

1) Powerbook 12" or 15": the battle between the two have revived cause the 15" looks too cool.
2) iPod: actually if you'll do my freeipds thing, it won't even cost that much. Leave a comment, and I'll get back to ya if you're interested in helping.
3) Digital camera: complete with manual controls and good picture quality and a good number of megapixels.
4) Comfortable, cool sunglasses: UVA-UVB protection required, otherwise it'll do more damage than good.
5) Video card: well I've kinda accepted I can't play new games, so this is not important.

However, I will still accept non-physical gifts. Specifically,

1) Flying lessons: cause flying is good.
2) Driving a stick lessons: stick cars are more fuel efficient.
3) Miscellaneous: other things I can't think of now.

With any luck, no one actually have the resources to pull any of this off, and then I won't feel bad when I don't get them anything.

Two horned shocker

2004-11-20T01:48:00.000-08:00

Another plug for my Xanga, now morphed into a questions site, cause there's more that I don't know than I do. Click the title for the link, as usual.

Nobody knows, and yet he does

2004-11-15T02:40:00.000-08:00

I was pretty sure it happened to everyone eventually, just not positive. I'm talking of that feeling of loneliness, that feeling that you want someone close, something beyong friendship. I don't really know what it is. Though I've seen it expressed as wanting someone to hold you, or someone to cuddle with, or by more explicit people, a cry for a boyfriend or girlfriend (pick as appropriate).

With my vast empirical evidence, I believe I have a solution. With so many people on both sides of the gender line having this feeling, they should get together. I'm kidding. It takes some amounts of guts to actually go through with it (more for some than others). I kid again. It doesn't actually work that way, in that there's nothing logical about it. Well, I've fooled you again (or maybe you've got on by now). You should replace "empricial evidence" with "imagination". There, that looks better.

They should have sent a poet...

2004-11-05T01:39:00.000-08:00

The first article (click title, as always) out of the Nov. 4 Daily Nexus PoliceBlotter is just too good to pass up. In part because I live at the place where this happened. In part, cause it's so outrageous and funny. In part, cause it's written so humourously. I give the Daily Nexus a lot of credit for maintaining a newspaper largely based on people getting drunk and acting stupid.

Halloween Pita

2004-11-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

I think it's fair to give my good (almost non-existent) readers a summary of my Halloween 2004. I dressed up as... something. I can't really say what, but it was a combination vampire (black cape with red inside), Jedi (lightsaber), and executioner (black hood). So whatever that is in your imagination. I had a friend over from afar, and went to a pre-party by a person I hadn't seen in a long time. (I love how descriptive this is.) There were drinks and whipping, and then we headed down to DP, and lost half our group at the first intersection. They probably turned right, we turned left. We went half a block one way, and a block the other, before we headed back to someone's place since some were too drunk and some where not drunk enough (I was neither). There wasn't much to drink, but we lounged around, and listened to people throw up. Then, we went to our sleeping places. So, not really much to it. Hard to see out of that black hood, can't really comment on the few costumes I saw.

A Mass of Probability

2004-10-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

First midterm has a graduate student has come and gone. I think it went well. But if I didn't well, probably so did many other people. I'd say the probability mass function for the scores would fit a Rayleigh distribution.

The relationship between graduate students and undergraduate students is something people should explore more. Well, it's more what preconceptions do undergrads have about graduate students. For example, a common question I've gotten after I tell someone I am a graduate student is, "How old are you?" I have no figures on the average age of 1st year graduate students, but I've gotta imagine it's about 23. Of course this puts me on the spot a little.

Abbreviation Fun

2004-10-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

There's an article on CNN (click the title) about how UCSB and UCI are garnering academic acclaim, especially with the recent Nobel Prizes this year (congrats to David Gross and new hire Finn Kydland). In it they note that UCSB has been known as "University of Casual Sex and Beer" and "U Can Stay Buzzed."

Previous to SB, a friend coined the phrase "University of Crazy Students at Beaches." Combining these phrases, we have:

University of Casual Sex at Beaches
University of Crazy Students at Beaches
University of Crazy Sex at Beaches
University of Crazy Sons of Bitches
U Crazy Sons of Bitches

Well, the last two aren't really combinations, more like inspirations. Thanks to those who came up with them. Go Gaucho's football. (You know I'm talking about soccer, right).

All you need is; All you want is

2004-10-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

Well problem sets to do and life to ignore. But there are things to learn even as it passes you by, and a lesson I learn (or re-learn, or pretend to learn) will be posted at my Xanga site, that I put up, originally with the purpose of writing a column. But I'm too lazy for that.

In other news, I finally took the time to make a geekcode, so that other geeks can know me:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GE/M d s: a-->? C++ ULS>++++ P+(-) L+ E W++ N++ o? K-> w+@ O--@ M@>+ V- PS(+) PE(-) Y+ PGP@ t+(++) 5 X+ R-() tv@ b+>++ DI+(++++) D+ G e++>++++(*) h-- !r !z+@
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Odd that "Geek of Engineering" isn't broken up into subcategories (e.g. GEE, GME, GCE, GNE, etc. or GEE, GEM, GEC, GEN, etc.)

Highway 1: PCH

2004-10-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

(As they say, my way or the highway!)

All blogs should have RSS or Atom feeds. I don't want to open 20 different websites when I can scroll through my bookmarks in search of new posts. Thankfully the new Blogger skins have RSS built in, and you can get set up Atom. Get them! Write to your congressman if you must, or you blog provider. Make you blog more accessible.

Sirloin or Fore Shank?

2004-10-04T03:04:00.000-07:00

In Surely Your Joking, Mr. Feynman, Feynman describes how he learned to pick up girls from an master of ceremonies and his wife. But first the master of ceremonies proves his knowledge by having his wife get a guy to buy Feynman a champagne cocktail. The thought came to me after a grad student happy hour, which a friend described as a "meat market" (i.e. a place where people go strictly to hook up). Despite the similarities, the meat market doesn't warrant reference to Feynman's adventures.

Upon my arrival, I thought I saw a girl I had not seen in many years. I didn't believe it could be her, and I was more willing to trust probability than my memory. Eventually, I did go up to ask if she was who I thought she was, and it, amainginly was. Still, I could have told you all this without mentioning an ancedote from Dick Feynman.

So here's the connection. When I arrived, she was surrounded by people in her department, and, especially, in her emphasis of her department (mostly girls). There were a lot of them, apparently. When I went up to talk to her, she was surrounded by guys, but hadn't really moved. One of the guys she was talking to acted very much like the guy in Feynman's story, at the very least in my imagination. I noticed some surprise, and then he "very graciously" found a napkin and pen so she and I could exchange information. It's funny to think that he was really trying to get me away as fast as possible and to curry favor with her.

Now this has been a longwinded explanation and probably obscure reference to an observation. So the rest will be quick, and to the point.

The frat that use to occupy the space I live had a rush party this past weekend. I mostly avoided it on account of homework. But I did notice that it started out with a lot more girls than it ended. Perhaps pairing off, or they left cause there wasn't enough guys.

Anyway... enough about the interactions between men and women.

This week has been perhaps the most academically productive I've had in a long time. But still should find a faculty to do research with. Technically, that's what I'm being paid for.

Disorientation

2004-09-26T02:26:00.000-07:00

In the past week, I've been oriented twice and gone to three classes. However, I still feel somewhat out of place. I don't know enough people yet. I don't know my way around yet. This time around feels different than last time (i.e. starting as a freshmen). Maybe it was I had a week before classes then. Maybe the rec room provided a better location for meeting lots of people. Maybe I met mostly freshmen in that first week.

Here, Discovery Days took all of three days, and I was only really here for one and a half of them. There isn't much of a location to meet people, and the neighbors seem pretty big on partying. And I don't even know what school a person I meet is attending, let alone, their grade.

Oh well, I'll find my niche somehow. Just gotta be more active in meeting people, I guess.

Poll Time

2004-09-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

What sounds better: isignum or jsignum?

First and Ten

2004-09-14T01:54:00.000-07:00

It feels a bit late to make thought-provoking comments, so I'll just talk about football. Cal football to be exact. And for those who don't understand what that means: the currently 10th ranked Division I-A football team of the University of California, Berkeley. Also, if you admit to me to needed that line, you're dead to me, and I don't want to speak to you again.

I admit it's early in the season, but the team has a phenomenal job against it's opponents. The way they are playing, only USC seems to be standing in the way of a perfect season, though Arizona State may pose a challenge. Fortunately that is a home game. And you can never count out Stanford... wait, yes you can. HAHAHA!

Alright, less talking, more sleeping. Dang! No battle of golden mascots on Thursday (click the title link).

Polish the trumpets

2004-09-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

I may have killed my computer. I had two Linux installations that I never used, so I wrote over them to the dismay of LILO boot (Linux's boot table). Thus I tried all repairs, and boot sector repair, and finally the MBR repair. That replaced LILO with MBR, but the other stuff might have broken things. But one last repair effort, before I'll be forced to raise it from it's ashes (i.e. backup, format, reinstall).

UCSB ECE is not as generous as UCB EECS... i.e. there are no loaner laptops. Guess I'll need to look into getting my own: the sturdy IBM T42, or the elegant 12" Powerbook. Hmmm.... On the other hand, bussing is free with the UCSB ID.

Lemmings

2004-09-01T01:05:00.000-07:00

I've realized that I'm slowly moving closer and closer to the ocean. From desert to a few miles from the bay to right on the ocean. Logically, the next step is to live on a boat. Who wants to live on a boat with me?

I've been spending the last few days look for housing, and the housing market is very much like Berkeley in price, and to some extent in character. There's a noisy college oriented locality. There's a quiet neighborhood farther away. A difference is that the the quiet neighborhood is not right next to campus, as the Santa Barbara Airport blocks lots of development possibilities. Also, everything is stretched-out further because bicycling is so prevelant. Many listings say 2 or 3 or even 4 miles are "withing biking distance." Well, I haven't ridden a bike in a long time, I'm sure I'd wreck one if I had to bike 3 miles. I think I'll have to get a bike anyway, regardless of where I live; how else will I get around!? The bus perhaps.... (I hate waiting for busses.)

Super Ninja

2004-08-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

The past weekend has been seriously action packed. A friend came up to visit, and I got many of my other friends around Berkeley to join us. The entire weekend, I wasn't alone for more than two or three hours. However, those hours came after my friend left, and those hours were some of the saddest I've felt in a while (which doesn't say much as I've been pretty happy all summer, i.e. it's not as if I was crying or bawling). It was sad to see my friend leave, but even sadder to recognize that I would be leaving soon, and that I would probably not see these Berkeley friends for months if not years if not ever. Another one of my friends is leaving today, and it has invoked a similar, though more subdued, reaction (probably cause I've had it once before).

Most of the people I'm leaving are on IM, and I will talk to them there, but it's different. You act differently on AIM than in person. To some extent you're more open (I certainly am). However, you don't hear people online. You don't see people online. And, you can't hit people online (which is important). Occassionally, I can't imagine them saying some stuff in person that they're saying online.

In preparation for SB, I'm considering starting a new SN, cause my current list has overflowed. I could delete people, but probably not enough to accommodate as many new people, as I predict myself acquainting (perhaps I'm being overly optimistic). "Quazgar" is currently the leading candidate, as it's my "gamer name," though I have no idea if it's taken or not. But I should think of some other candidates.

Planning Behind

2004-08-20T04:55:00.000-07:00

I have a week left as a Berkeley resident and will for at least the next two years become a resident of Santa Barbara. I can't say I miss Berkeley or the people I've met here yet. Perhaps it's the thought of the Internet. Perhaps I just need to actually leave, and feel the resulting isolation of not knowing anyone (as opposed to the isolation of not having anyone around).

Until then, I'm looking into what classes to take. A very preliminary schedule has me doing 2 ECE classes, a P.E. class, audit/sit in on a few undergrad ECE classes, a club or two (dance and grad student society?), and, of course, research. After I talk to a few professors, and especially after I find an advisor, I'll have a better idea of my academic schedule (ECE classes and reseach).

But I still want to take that P.E. class... errr... Physical Activity class... errr... Exercise and Sport Studies class. The leading candidates are Boating & Sailing and Fencing. Boating & Sailing stand out for it's technology, transportation, and the ocean, beaches, and babes (the last according to Shong2). Fencing stands out for it's stabbing. (If only they taught Archery...) I'm more impressed with Boating & Sailing; however, I won't know until I evaluate the class fee and how reasonable it is for me to get to SB Harbor.

If I get cheap, I have Ballroom dancing (which would mean no club for now) and Basketball as non-fee options. Interestingly, UCSB has no martial arts classes, as compared to the strong martial arts program at Berkeley.

And while I'm thinking of the future... a potential plan: MS in ECE, technical consultant (e.g. Accenture), JD, patent lawyer, retirement, death. Somewhere in there, probably girl(s), marriage, children. Or another plan: MS in ECE, PhD, job, retirement, death. Again, probably with girl(s), marriage, children somewhere in there. A third plan: death. That doesn't sound promising though. :)

Finally, a friendly grammatical reminder: "Plan Ahead" is verbose.

2004-08-15T04:56:00.000-07:00

My legs ache. My hands smell of garlic. I want a mop. I have more snacks than real food. And I'm too tired to continue.

People will most definitely come

2004-08-12T01:45:00.000-07:00

Well, my first foray into watching professional sports live is fittingly the first professional sport I remember watching on TV: baseball. Last Wednesday I watched the SF Giants host the Cincinnati Reds, and on Tuesday, I watched the Oakland A's host the Detroit Tigers. In the former game, Reds won 8-7, and in the latter, A's won 5-4. SBC Park (or Candlestick for you old fogees) is a more impressive stadium than the Coliseum: better view, bigger field, larger screen. However, the A's have more giveaways than the Giants. Section 315 received free Round Table Pizza for Eric Chavez's 3-run homer. And I cheered for 8 strike-outs, so that I could get a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi. Too bad their relief pitchers sucked and couldn't throw strikeouts.

But back to reminiscing about baseball. Of course, if you ask me now, my favorite sport to watch is basketball, with Lakers being the team to watch (perhaps less so now that Shaq is gone, but I hold out hope). And my favorite sport to play: quit asking questions, and let me get on with the story. I picked up a little of baseball as fan of the Atlanta Braves. At that time, they dominated the NL: going to World Series after World Series, to lose to teams like the Blue Jays and the Twins. I cheered for Otis Nixon, base stealer extrordinaire, Deion Sanders, two sports man, and John Smoltz, well, actually, I thought he was a horrible pitcher. Now, baseball is too slow, a game for those who play baseball, without the excitement of basketball. Regardless, the Braves still have a special place in my heart. Go Braves!

And now for something completely different.

A reason to hate Berkeley: lack of astronomical phenomenon. Perhaps the urbanites don't see this as much of a problem. But then again, NYC and LA kids would probably die of shock if they looked at the sky in my hometown. The number of stars would so overwhelm their senses that they would collapse while convulsing and foaming at the mouth. In Berkeley, clouds covered the Mars opposition (about when Mars is closest to Earth) a year ago, buildings and hills blocked a total lunar eclipse, and clouds covered today's peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Damn you, Berkeley. I shake my fist at you. Though I suspect Santa Barbara won't be any better in this respect.

It Don't Mean a Thing

2004-08-10T16:39:00.000-07:00

I have just completed the summer of swing -- actually, swing has take less than a third of this summer. And what has this dancing newbie learned from the past few weeks? "A weak first step transmits nothing." Wait, that's just a line from Shall We Dansu? In fact, it's been a lesson in taking more initiative. As guys, we must ask the girl to dance and lead the moves, often with force. One of my dance partners, who seemed more experienced, insisted I direct her more strongly and speak clearer body language.

The learning environment mitigates this issue slightly; everyone wants a partner and knows what move is next. However, this premonition doesn't help the guy learn to lead, because the girl will often react before they've been told to do so.

Whether I will continue with dancing of any form, I don't know. UCSB, expectedly, has the resources in place (i.e. the SBDC). And dancing could be an important skill in the future, if only for wedding occassions. I believe it'll ultimately be a matter of finding someone there to push me into it.

The Sins (like The Sims)

2004-08-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

A week ago now, I was on the road to Las Vegas, and this seems like a good opportunity to analyze what should be left alone and in the past.

The facts:
Four of us left Richmond around 4pm in a rented Chevy Impala for Sunnyvale to meet the fifth on the "road trip" to Las Vegas; following the route emblazoned by Rand McNally's online directions finder. Under the light of a blue moon, we made it through the desert to the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino where we met up with the other eight people, eventually.
While in Vegas, I returned the car, went to the Star Trek Convention, asked and received 24 decks of cards, overate at buffet in the Aladdin, saw a dance show, played Truth or Dare poker, slept, ate a champagne buffet at the Monte Carlo, wandered the Coca-cola and M&M's store, walked back to the hotel, went to MGM Grand and New York, New York, walked back to the hotel, played card games and watched TV and other people sleeping, napped, ate $5 steak and eggs, conversed and watched TV, slept.

Aside from the chatting and general interaction, events to be noted are the Star Trek Convention and the buffets.

With years as a fan of Star Trek and the culture of Trekkies, I expected a Star Trek Convention to be a grand event; however, it seemed pretty small. Perhaps it was that not that many people were in costumes. Perhaps the subject is just too narrow. Perhaps I was just there at the wrong time.

The event was divided into three sections. One was the convention room floor, and it was all about selling stuff. Majel Barret, Wil Wheaton, Chase Masterson, Tony Amendola, and Jaws of 007 were selling autographs. Another was a secondary auditorium, where I only know about because it was in the program. Most of the action was in the main auditorium, where I watched a Star Trek Trivia section which were mostly well-known facts, that is, I knew most of them. Alice Krige, the Borg Queen, and Ethan Phillips, Neelix, spoke and answered questions there. Alice Krige has a very slow and deliberate demeanor. It was very patient and inviting, but to some extent a little creepy. Maybe it just because I know she played the Borg Queen. Ethan Phillips tried to be comedic, but relied heavily on say the things that would kill an old grandma if she heard him speak. Some of it worked for me, but some of it didn't. I wasn't really expecting comedy and some of the jokes required you to be in that mindset, like why people laugh at things at stand-up comics' jokes that aren't that funny.

There's not actually that much to say about the buffets except that I probably ate way too much, and even then I don't know if I got my money's worth. Oooh, also, a little pineapple juice and champagne don't mix that well. The best mixtures are when the strengths of the taste come at different times. The taste pineapple and champagne are both strongest towards the middle and end, with champagne having more of an aftertaste. Not to mention I've not really acquired the taste of alcohol. I should have tried putting in more pineapple juice.

As the last of us left of the BART station, a person commented to me that I answer all of my questions essentially non-commitally with reponses like "okay," "interesting," etc. Dang. It's something I've realized about myself for a little while now, but no one has really pointed it out (or if they didn't, I wasn't said explicitly). I certainly need to work on being more decisive, and forming more solid opinions. But a good question is why I'm so non-commital. Part of it is probably that I don't want to be disagreeable. When it comes to quality, I don't want someone to say they like it when I don't. My opinion will often shift one way in response to hearing other people's opinions. Why can't I just make up my own mind, stick to it, and screw all the other people who don't agree with me? Maybe I'm too nice.

Die Walküre and flaming vulpes

2004-07-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

Well, roughly a week later, it's time to decide whether Opera or Mozilla Firefox will be my next gateway to the Information Superhighway.

Opera has the advantage of having more features and some of the being very innovative, e.g. Multiple Document Interface, Mouse Gestures, keyboard shortcuts galore, etc., though some are unnecessary, e.g. Mail, Chat. With respect to the MDI, Opera is much more committed to tabbed browsing than Firefox opening windows by default in a new tab. It's also the faster browser and offers more options and customizability.

Firefox has the advantage of using less HD space and most importantly rendering websites better. Firefox will display Gmail and Yahoo! Mail correctly, while Opera is not even supported by Gmail and has some issues with Yahoo! Mail's pulldown menus area.

Conclusion: Opera is in most respects the superior browser and it's default appearance looks better. However, the website rendering is an issue. Thus, Firefox should win out. Opera has one chance to redeem itself. I may have set Opera to spoof as IE (though Gmail doesn't seem fooled by that, so I'm not sure). If changing that setting to Opera does not make Yahoo! Mail display correctly, Firefox wins, at least until Opera 8 comes out.

Coons!

2004-07-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

The title links to a story about Dr. Stephen Hawkings conceding defeat in a 30-year old theory. (NY Times, so free registration required.) I can't believe I first read this news from the Major League Baseball website. Google News somehow chose that as the headlining article for this news.

Finally, the "shiny object" that is blogging dimmed in comparison to something else, as evidenced by the almost 2 week hiatus in blogging. I didn't even read other people's blogs in the past week. I've been drawn to newer things for most of my life. In the absence of newer things, I've reverted to older things I haven't touched in a while. This is not true for everything, of course. Objects with sentimental value can't be replaced, but among things that can be, the newer object has a distinct advantage.

In this case, the new "shiny objects" have been Shaolin Soccer, subtitles, and gaming. Each of these have consumed evenings that might have led to web surfing and blogging. Amazing that I've only watched Shaolin Soccer now. A passable plot, but mostly it's about special effects or martial arts, and those are done fairly well. But, I still have several other more critically acclaimed Asian movies that I want to see, notably Infernal Affairs, Hero, and the second half of My Sassy Girl.

Not watching these movies, not listening to any Chinese songs, I far away from my cultural heritage that places me. This query is probably from hanging around too many FOBs in the past 4 years, compared to no FOBs before. But, I do question how much cultural awareness I've gained. In an undergraduate survey I took recently, the questions stressed cultural awareness as a major goal of college. I have to say it hasn't done much in that respect. Probably cause I'm an engineer, which as a major shies away from those humanity questions for quantitative results and is dominated by Chinese. That is to say there is little cultural diversity among my immediate peers.

And now for something completely different...
Today, I've opened my home computer as a battleground in the Browser Wars, and the sides that were allowed to make formal declarations of battle on this computer were Opera 7.53 and Mozilla Firefox 0.9.2. Internet Explorer has been deemed insufficient to participate, but like a good third party, it gets to hang around and do the things that the others don't want to do. The previous winner was Opera, being the fastest of browsers, though I didn't yet see Firefox, or Phoenix then, as an option yet, being so immature. The battle should end in a week, and we'll see who rises from the ashes (and that does not suggest Firefox has been predisposed to win).

I see pizza and pasta

2004-07-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had lunch at the newly open U.C. Pizza & Pasta on Shattuck. And I will probably not go there again, certainly not for a long time. They have many kinks to work out like making sure they're computer systems have the current prices. (I got charged $5.79 for a special that should have been $4.99; but when I pointed it out, the guy gave me a dollar back.) Also, the servers are slow, perhaps due to inexperience: a friend of mine went there during the peak of lunch and waited an hour and a half for his order. They have a nice idea as far as splitting up take-out and dine-in orders, but it's unclear that there is a difference unless your particularly pay attention the signs. I feel these confusions will be smoothed out over time. However, this does repress the sogginess of the bottom bun of my cheeseburger and the greasiness of my fries. Nor does it compensate for the pasta being a dollar or two more expensive than LaVal's. Thus, I wouldn't recommend the place, definitely not until they figure out what they're doing, and even then, I would approach with caution.

In other news, went to game night last night at James' apartment and had a blast playing games and watching Operation Condor and an episode of The Simpsons. Decided my next computer will be an Apple Powerbook, probably the 12 inch. Essentially, as far as design it came down to Apple, IBM, and Panasonic. IBM's design comes at a premium and Panasonic, though perhaps worth it, at a greater premium. Essentially, for a similarly configured Apple, IBM, and Panasonic (specifically 512MB RAM, at least 40GB HD, and wireless card), the Apple is the cheapest, at least with Apple's education discount. Still waiting for the bank account to top a very secure amount (i.e. enough for a day of tornadoes and hurricane, well maybe a severe thunderstorm).

Decided to go to Las Vegas with some of my Berkeley friends on the July 30th weekend. It's unfortunate we don't have any more long weekends before school starts again. But it'll probably be the last time I see all these people together as a group, but the interaction will hopefully be fun.

Playing through

2004-07-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

I've not been to PGA. No, not a golf tournament. Paramount's Great America. We started in the afternoon, so we only got to four rides. In part because there seemed to be an exorbitant amount of cutting in the line at Invertigo (or maybe it was just the VIP people, who got to line up at the front), which caused us to miss some popular rides like Top Gun.

But the main reason we were there was to catch the 3rd of July fireworks. My guess is that Great America didn't want to try to compete with SF's fireworks tomorrow. Overall the fireworks were okay; they can't really compare to Disneyland's. Initially, they were horrible since they stopped after 10 minutes. They must have encountered technical problems, since it started up 5 minutes later. The entire show wasn't that bad, though the music could have been louder (perhaps we were just at the wrong place, and listening to sound directly from the amphitheater and not from in-park speakers, if they used those.)

The current plans for my video project call for 4 people stuck in an elevator that has lost power (project is now renamed to Elevator Project). The number may vary depending upon script writing issues. But the first step has been trying to create characters. Temporary names have been chosen for these people. But the more important process of characterizing these people has begun. And thanks to a tip, I've been looking at the Myers-Briggs personality topology (i.e. the Introvert/Extrovert, Sensing/iNtuitive, Feeling/Thinking, and Judging/Perceiving).

I've seen these traits before but never measured what I am myself, and the result is a clear "Don't Know." Two tests produced two slightly different results. I am clearly introverted and clearly perceiving, very likely thinking, but sensing and intuitive seems to be a gray area. Perhaps, I would like to be more of an intuitive but am actually more of a sensor, so the difference comes down to what I would like to do, and thus sometimes do, and what I do if I don't think about it.

Using this personality topology, I will formulate my characters and some ideas on their relationship. Anyway, click the title if you haven't taken the test yourself. Otherwise, it's late. Errrr, early and I need some semblence of sleep.

Subsize Me

2004-07-03T01:13:00.000-07:00

In effort to conserve money, I started going to McDonald's last week for their $1 burgers. During one visit, I found the deliciousness of the McDonald's Double Cheeseburger. By this past Wednesday, I've sworn off the double cheeseburger for a while, and perhaps McDonald's, but we'll see how I feel next week. From last week to this Wednesday, I converted from 3 McChickens to 3 Double Cheeseburgers, and the result was Wednesday's lunch was the greasiest I've had in a very long time.

The next step in cost cutting measures is homemade sandwiches. There is, of course, the standard fair of putting eggs/tuna/turkey/ham, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes with mayonnaise or mustard on them. But I feel like something more outlandish, and something warm. I suppose I could just nuke the sandwich just before I eat it. Any suggestions? Then all I'd have to do is get to Safeway. Curses to not having a car!

A plot idea I came up with today is trapping people in an elevator after a power outage. I could trap one person in there as a frame story for the music sequences I've talked about previously. Or I could trap a few people, and either use that as a frame story for the music sequences or record their interaction. Maybe I'll cut one of the pieces, and have someone tell a story, and spend the rest of the time with the interaction.

Finished Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman. There's no real plot to it, just meditations on time. A few were interesting, like "Time is local", but largely they were forgetable, such as "There is no time; there are only images." A very odd passage in 10 June 1905 ("Time cannot be measured; it is a quality.") has people who try to measure time turned to stone. Most people would probably find this book pretty pointless.

Next on the reading list is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Though I have to wait til Tuesday before I can pick it up from the library.

Strike

2004-06-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

For UMP 2004, I've reduced the music selections to Eiffel 65's Blue and Grappelli and Menuhin's Tea for Two. I may even use both of them in an overarching storyline. But with these two, I will try to come up with a plot line for each, and maybe a plot line if I used both. Since each piece is about three and a half minutes long, I can combine them and some filler material to get something about 10 minutes long.

On Monday, I resurrected the SSP '99 mailing list, which was being hosted at Caltech until almost an year ago, when half the transfer of power took place. I'm hoping that people are still checking the emails that they are listed under on the website, and if so, hopefully they'll create a small frenzy of discussion, that will expectedly die down in a few weeks. There's been some light response to me directly, already which is pretty neat.

With July here, it's time to think about plans for UCSB. This means emailing potential research advisors, finding housing, selecting courses, talking to other grad students, among several other things. Feels odd moving to someplace almost blindly. Coming to Berkeley was easier as housing was established and courses were set over summer orientation. But I don't remember feeling any of the anxiety of moving until shortly before moving. I'm feeling it now. And since this is a master's program, I'll have to go through more decisions in probably a year.

Hooloovoo

2004-06-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

It was all planned out. I would camp the night on the streets of Berkeley, and be in line in the morning to get a ticket in order to see the former President of the United States and get him to sign my copy of his memoirs. No more. Cody's Books is not giving out any tickets except for those to the people who pre-ordered. How evil!

For now, I'm designating the project for my Intro to Digital Video Class at Untitled Music Project 2004, or UMP 2004. Hopefully, by Wednesday I will have the music I'm going to use and a rough idea of what I'm going to do. By the end of the week, I'll more or less have storyboards and by next Wednesday, principle photography will be completed.

The music selection process has been a major barrier in the project's advancement. However, from my MP3 collection and one suggestion, I have a list of 7 songs:
1. Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da ba dee) (3:29)
2. Eiffel 65 - Move your body (3:32)
3. Melanie C - I turn to you (5:51)
4. Boston Symphony Orchestra - Humoresque in G-flat Major, Op. 101, #7 (3:32)
5. Grappelli/Stephan/Yehudi Menuhin - Tea for Two (3:38)
6. Theme - Mr. Holland's Opus - An American Symphony (3:14)
7. Tan Dun, Yo Yo Ma - Night Fight (3:10)

The only certain thing about UMP is that it will include a stop motion sequence.

ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha

2004-06-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Expectedly, the second coming of comments was small (perhaps a little too small... sneaky bastards.) Though the second time is never as good as the first. But I guess it doesn't really matter. I've made most efforts not to publicize this blog, except for a slip up on orkut. But that does bring up the question, whether I should publicize this blog more, like actually posting it in places people will see (profile, orkut, whatever).

On the one hand, this entire blog is public, as it's on the Internet. I've made no effort to create hidden posts or to even to pursue that feature. And I do not intend on deleting previous posts as I've seen other people do. I will consider it. Any comments? (and remember, you don't have to be a troll to post anonymously).

I've bought the Clinton memoirs at Cody's Books with full intention of lining up Monday night to get tickets for the former President to sign my copy. If other people are going, we can go together. Though I'm afraid that it may require getting there Monday night. I'll scope the place out immediately after work on Monday. Then gather equipment and camp out. We'll see how popular Clinton is in the East Bay. I doubt I'll get to reading it by Tuesday, if at all. I've got Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams and Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman to finish.

I'll be using a passage from Einstein's Dreams over the weekend for my Intro to Digital Video Production assignment. With any luck, I'll get some comments on framing the shot from our instructor on Saturday when I pick up the equipment. I'm subjecting multiple people to this, since ideally I could edit the shots together to flow seemlessly. Though I doubt that will happen. But it'll still be a good exercise to think about it.

I do need to figure out what I'm going to do for my final project in the course. The current idea is a music video, but not one where anyone in the video sings or plays an instrument. Essentially, it's a short with one prevalent song, by the sounds of it. Perhaps, if it's appropriate, I can intercut signing into the transitions. In order to do this, I need a song. It needs to be upbeat. It needs not be purely instrumental. Any ideas?

The Second Coming of Comments

2004-06-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Time to give a shout out to all the readers of this blog, in the hopes that they will shout back. So be nice and leave me a comment, before foodhoser takes the cake... err.... yeah. And you don't have to be a member to comment (please leave a name or handle that I can try to guess who it is, and not a false handle that would make me believe is someone else... foodhoser)

I should start something with the name piarsq or piaresquare. (I do see it in some reference to a Metal band.) Why didn't I think of this 4 months ago. Would have made me harder to track down, for better or worse.

And feeling particular disregard for the temporal universe, the First Coming of Comments is anticipated for the past of a 4th dimensional being moving backwards in time.

These Are the Days

2004-06-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I was going to go to the City of Angels today and tomorrow, but no longer. The trip has been stymied in order to work and cause my options for getting back didn't finalize.

One Victory Point

2004-06-14T00:59:00.001-07:00

As Dave Barry would say, sounds like a good name for a rock band, or maybe a Fox primetime soap (a la The O.C.).

What is it about games that is so fun? I spent over 12 hours out today, some of that was travel, a hour or so of that was dinner. The rest of it was listening to Diplomacy rules, Lunch Money, Guillotine, Settlers of Cataan, Magic: The Gathering, a round of Poy Poy, and Apples to Apples.

The main part of it is the inherent social interaction. While it's "just a game," it also brings out each player's character. Their style of play greatly mirrors their train of thought, especially in a situation with a fairly even playing ground as far as simple rules. Anyway, the rest of this entry recounts the details of the more intense games mentioned above. It's probably not all that interesting, especially if you don't know how to play either of these games.

Settlers played with James, Bill, Drew, and Thomas:
As a note, we did not follow the standard rule of alphabetical placement of the numbers. Instead they were placed randomly. Consequently, rolls of 4 and 8 were turns of drought, and adjacent 3s and 6s were randomly changed, but adjacent 10s lay on the board.

Initial settlements largely favored one half of the board, with Thomas being the main settler on the other half. These initial positions gave Thomas sole control of adjacent brick mines, and James control of the adjacent 10s on forests. Drew controlled wheat and sheep, and Bill had large control of wheat, sheep, and ore. Thomas jumped out to an early lead on a near monopoly of brick production; as evidenced by his longest road and first to new settlement. In the process of this, along with a direct race to settlement between James and Drew, James' middle settlement was cutoff from further expansion, and James put at a severe disadvantage. Bill took especial exception to Thomas' early lead and refused to trade with him and used his soldier development cards shut down Thomas' brick production and steal his resources. With brick production slowed dramatically, and wool production at last increasing, they built a lead: Bill on the strength of his development cards, and Drew on the strength of his trade agreement with James, which allowed tariff-free use of James' wool port and Drew' wheat port. Sensing that Drew was becoming a bigger threat, Thomas was eventually able to buy Bill's soldiers to move the thief. With brick back in production, and a more easy trading relationship with James and Drew and Bill's concentration on Development Cards and Cities, Thomas was able to amass the necessary resources to upgrade a settlement to a city, and finish the game with one a final settlement, and using the only development card he bought along the way, a Market card.
Winner: Thomas with two cities, three settlements, a Market development card, and the longest road (9).

Magic played with Alissa, Amber, Thomas, Matthew, and Amy:
Amber jumped out to an early lead using her life giving creatures and spells to get to 32 health, while attacking Matthew down to 8 heath and Thomas down to 13. After the rise of Thomas' Shivan Dragon, Thomas took a nasty hit to save his dragon knocking him down to 7. But allowing him to soon gain a second Shivan Dragon. With an additional Barbarian Horde and land clearing sorcery from Matthew turned the tide wass in Thomas' favor. At this point, Thomas eliminated Amber and Amy, and set about attacking Alissa with some good help from Matthew's attack nullifying land. Crucially, Alissa decreased Thomas' health to 4, and killed one of Thomas' Dragons with a spell, and on her last turned enchanted the other Dragon with a -3 to player if the Dragon attacks or blocks. However, Thomas summoned a 5/2, immediately playable creature in to kill Alissa. But this left the door open for Matthew's two 1/1 creatures and a 2/3 creature to end Thomas' reign of terror and take the game.
Winner: Matthew

Capitalistic Pig

2004-06-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

Okay... time to be a greedy person for a moment, and go through some of the things I want and want to learn.

Want:
Video card:
Digital camera: At least 4 megapixels, that provides quality images.
Laptop: The current candidate is a T41, though that 32mb ATI looks a bit puny.
Car: A less than $20,000 car with a PZEV rating. Rally abilities a big plus, and 4 to 5 star crash ratings.

To Learn:
Drive a stick shift: Got to get that old racing feel.
General driving techniques: from parallel parking to 180 turns.
Fly a plane: I could fly, I could fly, I could fly.

I'm sure there are more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

So long and thanks for all the fish... gotta do laundry.

Karen is a dodo

2004-06-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

I can now imagine what it's like to be a travelling businessman, going places without knowing any of the people there. But for those extroverted people (unlike me), good way to make acquaintances.

I am currently in search of someone willing to make a trip from Berkeley to the City of Angels (specifically, UCLA) on the night of the 17th, or the morning of the 18th. This is so that I can attend my high school friend's graduation. Any takers?

And now, back to work... must parse file using C.

Before I forget, Karen is not a dodo. She told me I could type it if that's what I was thinking. So I fooled myself just long enough to make it the title. :)

Beaver Dams

2004-05-31T23:19:00.000-07:00

I learned today that Oregon is the only state with different designs on the two sides of its flag. On one side is a heart-shaped emblem and "State of Oregon" and "1859".

It seems as if this blog is gaining a little attention, picking this site from Orkut before I decided to switch that to my other site. So I have an announcement: I have two invitation to join GMail. I will give them to the two highest bidders, though the bid doesn't have to be money. Though there is a reserve, so bid wisely carefully. And a guarantee winning bid goes to the person who wants to drive to LA on the night of the 17th and back over the weekend. (UCLA graduation to go to).

In other news, yesterday, I saw Kill Bill (both volumes) with Jenn, Karen, and Linda. Vol. 1 I saw on Jenn's Powerbook and Vol. 2 in Emeryville. Not a bad movie. People said the first one was bloody, but it was treated so lightly that the blood had no gravity (unlike Saving Private Ryan). Also, The Bride got lucky killing Gogo (she was cool). I also saw the memorial to the ancient Ohlone shellmound in Emeryville (ditching the trio I was with in the process). Though seeing it, something didn't impress me. That was probably because it was only a memorial (didn't realize that at the time, only after reading the link you can see by clicking on the title). It's not good to see a sacred burial site now be the site of an Old Navy. Imagine putting one over a cemetary.

I hail now from Oregon because of an interview with Xerox tomorrow. I came to the realization today that this is my first time out of California in four years (unless you include Reno or Vegas, which seem like extensions of California). I'm saddened that as much as I would like to see the world, in recent years I have not been farther north the North Bay, farther south than Los Angeles, and farther east than Vegas. Who wants to go travelling in early September? (like hitchhiking :-D, maybe not)

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

2004-05-20T02:25:00.000-07:00

Yay! Last final completed! Now marks the end of all academic life at the University of California, Berkeley. What lies ahead, I have a few ideas, but nothing is set. I know I said I would get to a reflection on my time at Berkeley, but don't feel like it now. But I leave you with "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss (you have the click on the title). It's pertinent to my life now, and the lives of many of my friends.

Didecade

2004-05-19T03:45:00.000-07:00

Though age is continuous, age is often treated dicretely. I make this point because I'm nerdy enough to do so, and because there recently was a discontinuity in my perceived age vs. actual age graph.

In recognition of this discontinuity, my friends surprised me with dinner at Chinese place on Solano. I followed my friends into the place, and was interested to see another friend at a table there, and shortly I realized I knew everyone at that table, and was wondering what they were doing there. About the time I noticed a second table with people I knew was when it occurred to me what was going on.

Of note at the dinner: I jumped between the two tables of my friends (there was a third table for another friend who's discontinuity occurs a few days previous to mine), one table was full, so I sat between two of my friends. There was a lot of food.

The celebration was concluded with a traditional cake and presents. The cakes were chocolate with mint ice cream (not particular my favorite flavor) and tiramisu. The presents consisted of two cards (one Charlie Brown, one pickle) signed by many of my friends, a certificate for a pound of See's chocolate, a gift card of unknown value to Barnes and Noble, and a $100 gift card to Best Buy.

Apparently I have been successful in not letting anyone know what material things I want (except for the stuff I don't expect anyone to get me, i.e. laptop and car). [Before I comment more on this, I want to make it clear, that I appreciate all the effort my friends went to for me.] Despite this, and I feel bad saying it, I'm a little disappointed by the final gift, especially after the ideas the people in charge of the gift buying had. This is for three reasons: most importantly, (1) I guess my friends really don't know that much about me, (2) many of the things they mentioned are worth more (20" flat-screen TV, Gamecube+games, makeover, etc.), which makes me feel like I've been shortchanged, (3) as I understand it, I'm fully expected to add more money in order to buy something I want, which just seems like wrong in principle. The first point seems to characterize my friendships better than I'm willing to admit. The second point just makes me feel shortchanged; it would have been better if they hadn't mentioned those alternatives (though a count of the people at the dinner does averages to something lower what I might expected from the organizer; however, I don't know the actual average and contributors so it wouldn't really have bothered me that much). The third point is dumbfounding, especially as it relates to the second point. Essentially, as punishment for not knowing what to get me, I get to pay up to what they were thinking of getting me.

The ideal gift seems to me to be a physical object that is either something the person desires (or desires but doesn't know it) or something that defines the relationship between the giver(s) and receiver. A physical object that doesn't fit into these criterion would be rejected (though not openly). A gift card is an indication that the givers don't really know what the receiver wants, though this may work if the person is really into some particular store or the gift card is worth a reasonable present for that store. Pure money doesn't work at all unless it's in a large quantity.

A few notes before I publish, graduation is nigh, and I intend on posting some reflections of my time in college. Also, Blogger now allows comments. So people, person, or null set, comment away!

Of moths and vaccuum tubes

2004-05-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

Ha ha! A bug in Calmail, identified by me!

Thomas,

There was a bug in the filtering code if you both defined rules
and used our predefined spam filtering rule. I have fixed
your account and we will be fixing all other accounts with
this problem over the weekend.

Sorry it took so long.

- Jerry

Party my life away!

2004-05-07T00:49:00.000-07:00

Score! Two posts in two days... hasn't happened since like this the speck of memory was first allocated to me.

I wonder why people make dying sound like such a bad thing. It happens to everyone. It's inescapable. Tell the people who are organizing my funeral (unless it's the county, in which case it wouldn't really matter), to throw a big party, as in Playboy Manor party. No crying, no black. Get sunflowers.

Over the past few weeks, I've probably meandered the maze that is my brain a little more than usual, and there have been some highs and lows. Right now definitely a low, and to a large extent I have no idea why. A possible explanation is stress, but, unfortunately, it's a positive feedback (i.e. the lower I feel, the more evidence I bring to pull myself down more).

Well, here's to something to cheer me up!

Addendum (May 08, 2004 @ 10:37): The death stuff was the result of a friend's friend dying recently, and the resultant query about appropriate flowers for that person's funeral.

Nameless....

2004-05-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

So I suppose I'm suppose to update the oblivion that is my Blog to my activities since the 26th. With little else to post, and hw to do, let us proceed.

Thursday was the horrible, horribly comm midterm, and boat dance and, subsequently, the Student Action party. It was nice to take a ride in the Bay, but the "dance" part was pretty bad... bad speakers, bad DJ, small space. The Student Action party was so much better; it even got broken up by the cops, though apparently that was largely because a bunch of campaign signs fell off one of their trucks. The music was better, the dance floor was still kinda small, but it was more square, and the selection of drinks was limited (to kegs).

Friday was spent, watching the Men's Octet's "Unbuttoned" show. I hadn't see the Octet all year, and I recognized two people, one just around Cory (apparently he's an EECS major) and the other from Hankido.

The weekend was largely spent on the 192 cars and helping others with 129 (dang dyslexia-esque, confusing me for the last week). Missed like two parties/get-togethers because of it. While we had a 35 second car for a short time, the speed on it was turned too high and it crashed bad, destroying our temporary servo mount (that I put together with tape, wood, and styrofoam) and some plexiglass. We replaced the sensor mount and the servo mount, and nothing was the same afterwards, maybe because the outside sensors were mounted 12 inches away, as opposed to 10 inches. The other car was running at between 45 and 50 seconds at one point, but lost like 5 seconds between the time I went home to take a shower and my return. Ultimately, our cars ran 2nd and 3rd last, and that was only because the opamp on their sensor board failed. Afterwards, we had dinner with Prof. Fearing at La Val's and played Petals Around a Rose. Great fun.

During this time, I set up the degree petition at www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~devang/degree.php to try to get the College of Engineering to give print diplomas with our major on it. There was some hassle with not asking PTS before using a t-shirt design. Though not the initial culprit, I didn't think to stress the point that we need to ask them first (something to keep in mind for the future). It was replaced with a bear that Grace described as "sad," which reflects the emotions of engineers without their major on their diplomas. :) Though the "sad bear" is starting to grow on me. It may have to replace the PTS transformer bear, as my buddy icon at school or in the future.

Hmmm... oddly enough, it feels as if I've met an unusual number of people with the same name (specifically Grace) in a short time. There's Grace of APPLE-Engineering, Grace, who's Valerie's roomate and apparently was in my Econ 101a class, and another Grace, that I don't remember where I met her.

Since then, it's been laziness (must get other this laziness), and new IEEE officers (congrats to Ankit, Belinda, Shawn, and Jason for their elections to pres, vp, treas, and sec).

And I'm arranging an interview with Xerox in Wilsonville, OR. Yay! Though I kinda hope I will be going to UCSB. Easier.

Fun not under the fluorescent lights

2004-04-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

After colleges deliberating on my future, I'm going to UC Santa Barbara, or as I like to call it the University of Crazy Students at Beaches. Okay, I just made that up. But it'll be a pretty sight compared to the urban atmosphere of Berkeley. And if I can get a car, I will be set.

Specificially, I want a manual car. Considering my recent infatuation with Rally cars, and that I live in the desert, I would really like a car with a little off-road prowess, perhaps some AWD. Though that will mess with the mileage, which is bad.

In other news, the EJC/SWE Dance was lots of fun. Granted that my date was drunk and tipsy for most of the dance from the pre-party we had, but it was still great fun.

JIT, I said JIT!

2004-04-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

I saw freedom in the distance, and then it came crashing down. Though I still should be able to do laundry, which is a good thing. Sunday was supposed to be a day of ferverent cramming and washing, but half of it has been relegated to the EECS faculty.

In other news this week, ASUC elections are over, and I hope that the APPLE-Engineering candidates get in. Will they really, I don't know. At least they have a better chance than when I ran last year, with their improved organization. On the other hand, I don't know if all of them are ready for the vigor of ASUC politics. Misha is a seasoned veteran, of course, and Peter seemed impassioned. But the other three seem almost too nice to be able to stand the ASUC. I'm sure they'll prove me wrong when they are elected.

On the one hand, E-Week was less successful than in past years, with less participation across the board, which resulted in the cancelling of a few events (e.g. Nerd Contest and CTF). On the other, the activities are the type of activities we should be doing on E-Week; relays and scavenger hunts and date auction, etc. Big props to Brian "Old Angry Man" Love for his efforts (with Peter Chung being now dubbed "Angry Man"). Hopefully future years will build upon these developments, maybe considering moving the Bechtel Terrace to next to McLaughlin or in front of Evans or something.

In the next week I plan to cram for my final midterm as an undergraduate, finish coding a usable Viterbi decoder, and then enjoy it all with a dinner at Rainforest Cafe with Stanford IEEE and EJC/SWE style clubbing at the Mirage, EJC/SWE dance.

April Fools!

2004-04-07T00:19:00.000-07:00

It's almost been a week since the first of April, and it's a chance to recount the happenings of that day.

Segue: ASUC Elections are next week (not that anyone is reading this). I think you should vote Misha Leybovich for President and APPLE Engineering for Senate, Chris Abad, Peter Chung, Grace Hsu, and Igor Tregub.

Prank 1: Early Daylight Savings
Being in Cory on such a nice morning, I took it upon myself to cause a little bit of mischief. deQue decided to take a nap on the bean bag, and JRed IMed me with the idea of changing the clocks on her. I replied that it was a good idea. Nothing happened of it, and he too went to nap.
With both of them asleep, I jumped at the opportunity, and moved the clock ahead an hour, and changed JRed's laptop time ahead an hour (Unfortunately, I could not change the time on the department computers.) So I continued my homework and my ponderings for prank 2, until deQue awoke.
She was convinced that it was 5 a.m., and asked why I had waken her at 3 (as she had wanted), but I said that Aaron had gone to sleep at 2:45. So with that, she walked over to her computer to continue her work, and then noticed the time difference. She looked back and forth between the computer clock and the real clock, and it dawned on her what had happened.
Aaron, having had some part in this idea's inception, was not as surprised by it, though a little.

Prank 2: Free beer
The prank I concluded with after some thinking was to prank the well placed HKN display case (the IEEE display case is in the least travelled main corridor of 2nd floor Cory). They had a sign in their case advertising "FREE TUTORING/EXAMS." I would have liked to jumble around the words or make similarly spaced words, but I did not have the time for that. Instead I took some similarly colored construction paper, and taped "BEER" in the open space on the top right of the paper (right after "FREE"). It may have worked better if the colors were more similar, but no matter. Additionally, I wrote at the top of the whiteboard in their office, "Where is the ??"
The "BEER" sign was taken down by 10:45 a.m. I saw it sitting in the HKN Cory office, but a check later in the day turned up nothing. I've decided that certain HKN officers (osh) have no humor.

Prank 3: Mosquito Attack?
Okay, so this wasn't a prank, and even if it were, I didn't pull it off. I went with got and solo to the Durant Food Court so that solo could get some food. Along the way, we ran into ipixi leaving a store, and she joined us. At the Food Court, we were talking, and having a good time. Ipixi started talking about how she was screaming while she was SMing, for someone to kill one of those big mosquito-like bugs. We had just exited that topic for a few minutes, when she lets out a really loud scream and ducks to her left. I thought some mosquito had attacked her, but I didn't see anything moving laterally. She said she felt something hit her head, and not seeing anything, I glanced up to see one of the many pigeons that roam that area. The pigeon had dropped one right on top of her head. It was fairly disgusting. But after wiping it off with some tissues, she went to get her eyebrows plucked and the rest of us meandered back to Cory.

and I christened thee

2004-03-14T04:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I ordered and have now received my Zire 71. So far so good, but it's only been a few days. Admittedly, it was a pain to input all the contact info since they were spread around.

I've decided to call my PDA "Bluey." Since my main computer is called dasGehirn (or "the brain" in German), I went with the previously non-existent Pinky and the Brain thing and wanted to call it Pinky. It fit somewhat the personality of the Zire. The retarded relative a real computer; yet still useful. However, the front cover is destinctly blue. Therefore, "Pinky" just didn't fit. I went with Bluey. Additionally, when I get my laptop (which will be a while), I've decided to name it the same as Brain's arch-nemesis, Snowball.

SWEat U.C. Berkeley

2004-02-27T23:11:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, I will be attending the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Region A Conference. I scored a free registration since EJC was so generous to SWE. It'll be 10 hours out of my life; but it seems interesting and food should time well spent.

Still haven't gotten a PDA yet. Didn't pull off the Microsoft raffle, and the sale on Amazon ended before I could get to it. The SWE Conference may offer some chance, but I'm not betting on it. In related news, I'm satisfied that the next computer I get is going to be a Powerbook. Question now is whether it will be a 12" or a 15".

Eventually, I'm going to have to put something more interesting than the broad generalizations of everyday life. Ideas abound, such as opinions/editorials, a story, etc. We'll see, or maybe I could mix it up.

Deer Cat,

2004-02-20T13:12:00.000-08:00

Ever so rarely do I see a Kodak moment, but I saw one this morning. While walking, I initally saw two deer, one was eating the small plantlife there, the other was watching me. To the right a little more were two more deer, also looking at me, and several feet behind the deer, on a fence was a sleeping cat. We started at each other for half a minute before I continued on my way.

The Flippin' God of War

2004-02-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

I knew before my taking a course on Digitial Communications that it would be difficult. Today, I learned it's so difficult, even the professor is against us... he flipped us off during lecture. Okay, okay, it wasn't intentionally, but, still, I strained for a minute to not laugh and not think about it (neither of which helped).

In other news, I listened to a presentation by a friend and NASA engineer about NASA activities regarding Mars. It was very informative and entertaining. Though it makes me think. I really need to work on my presentations, and communication skills in general. I deduced that at the heart of good communication skills is confidence, and I haven't been feeling a lot of that in a while. What a quagmire.

If I Had a Million Dollars...

2004-02-18T02:02:00.000-08:00

I'd buy me a green jet. But not a real green jet, that cruel.

Well, it's not that cruel. And it seems as if I couldn't get a green jet with a million dollars. According to eBay, I need 2 million just to get the parts and 9 million to have assembly. eBay listing CNN article

I'm still waiting to get a PDA, finally have sufficient funds to make my purchase. Now I just have to wait for the right moment. What I'm looking for:

less than $300
less than 0.5 in thick
good screen quality
some multimedia capailities (esp. MP3s)

Some considerations: PalmOne Tungsten E; Sony PEG-TJ27 or PEG-TJ37; HP iPaq 1935 or 1945. And then there's also the Microsoft Tech Talk.

'til the time the PDA comes my way... though probably much sooner.

So True

2004-02-16T03:17:00.000-08:00

Oh the number of days in which this happens. It's astounding.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=415