A Invertiable Tablet, plz.

I'm really wanted a tablet for school next semester.  I have taken notes via typing and, of course, via writing, but I really would like a tablet.  My sister has one, though we got it about 4, 5 years ago; it weighs a ton, and the battery life has gone down the hole.  With new touch screen technologies and such, as well as just new technology in general, there have been a couple of tablets showing up that my Google Reader feed has decided to show to me, via Gizmodo or Engadget.

So far, only there are only two that I would even want:

HP TouchSmart Notebook PC

OR

Acer Aspire Timeline 1825PT netvertible

I'm leaning on the HP computer because I've used a lot... My first laptop of my own was an HP-Pavillion, and it held up pretty well for 4, 5 years.  The battery even now still lasts a good hour or two.  I have given it to my brother to use since I got laptop from Stevens, HP-Compaq 8510w.  It's alright, not as stylish as the Pavillion, but it was made to work well with the programs that came on the image.  Of course, I didn't use much of it, and have installed Windows 7 64-bit on it.  

I also want the HP because it doesn't say "netvertible."  Netbooks are mainly just for web browsing and word processing (for the most part, anyway).  HP labels this TouchSmart as a Notebook PC.  I want to be able to do other things on it as well, though anything heavy I would probably use this laptop for (the Stevens HP-Compaq).  Also, it's stylish.  I'm one for aesthetics.

The Acer seems nice and small, though.  Looks nice, and it is a Netbook.  I haven't read as much on it yet, I will when I actually get enough money to buy either.  Speaking of which, the HP, with the specs I wanted (from building it on their website) is about $1200.  The Acer is around $900.

I want a tablet to take notes on because I like writing notes rather than typing them.  It helps me remember things better.  As of lately paper has been cumbersome to manage... Well, not cumbersome; more of annoying.  Of course, I will have those classes that require I hand notes or homework in on paper, but I carrying around one binder with enough looseleaf for those classes that require it, instead of a notebook or two different binders because of the massive amounts of notes I take, would be a lot easier to carry around.

I'm going to do s'more looking around, but I don't have money yet.  I'll get some when I start working this summer.  Yeay!

...I wonder if either of these are pressure sensitive... I could also use it as a sort of sketchbook, too.

Coding Frustrations

I hate not being able to know where to begin with a coding project, especially one where the requirements are made for me, such as in a homework assignment. Especially coming out of Boken week, I still have no will to work, even after 12 hours of sleep.

The start of the day was spent doing class things, but even then I was barely in academic mode. I then ran some post-Boken errands, and then finished other Boken house-keeping things and goofed around for most of the afternoon until dinner with DJ, which ended up in a bit more Boken things and procrastination.

For the past hour I've been looking at the assignment, and the work I did for the assignment before it (since the one continues from the other/we could use stuff from the last assignment), and I have no idea where to begin. It also doesn't help that I have some Maya renderings to complete as well as a final for the class this assignment is for on the same day... With a presentation. Whoop-de-do.

I feel like the assignment will require me to redo a lot of things I did, which will make me very angry. I'm very big on code reuse, and I really don't want to have to rebuild something. It's hard to find a way to use certain things if your past homework was about a month ago with other things distracting you. Buh.

I wanted to make a short post, sharing my coding frustrations. Nothing too specific, and I'm also using this as a procrastination outlet. I already blogged on my tumblr today; crazy, I'm blogging more than once a day! AHH!

A Major Change?

Sorry Rob! Haven't had any good topics to switch to as of late.

But, now I have one.

I've been thinking about it since I realized I'm not very good at or really enjoy computer science theory and such. After reading some things and looking at the Study Plans at Stevens, I am slowly getting convinced that Information Systems might have been a better choice for me.

Yes, I know it's probably not too late - they share a lot of the same courses, and anything I have extra can count as electives. The switch is easy. I'm just somewhat unsure. I enjoy programming and such, but I enjoy web design and web programming a lot more. I was reading what the IS majors at Stevens do, and I've been considering it.

Before I continue, I must apologize in advance for just using Stevens as my reference point as to what these majors do; it's where I'm attending now, and I do not plan on switching schools; just maybe majors. (Well, I'd be keeping the Art & Technology part and math minor, but anyway!)

Computer Science:

Our Computer Science degree is the degree path followed by most of our undergraduate students. The degree emphasizes the principles of Computer Science, and prepares students for careers in industry and/or graduate school. Course materials focus on how to design, implement, deploy, and manage sophisticated software systems.

-- Stevens CS Dept. Undergraduate Website

Information Systems:

Our Information Systems program is for students interested in the areas of system development and design and user interaction and interface. Starting in the second year, the students begin to interleave with the core computer science courses other courses geared toward managing computerized systems in a business setting including attention to customer-client interaction.

-- Stevens CS Dept. Undergraduate Website

I plan on sending an e-mail to my advisor soon, but I'm not sure if I were to switch if it would put me back a year. That can't happen ('cause my parents want me out in 4 years). It might only because of Art&Tech, but I'm almost done with that, to be honest.

I can always go back to school and get a masters in IS. That might be a good route to take as well. I don't have anything profound to say about what's going on in my mind about this right now, only because Boken is attached to my hip right now. I just wanted to put that out there; vent, somewhat.

Signing off for now,

Caroline

Bow down to me!

Two in a row! I'm on a role. I wonder where my fellow bloggers are.

Anyway, to get on with my topic. Ever wonder what it would be like to be unable to make your own choices? I have. Sometimes I think people don't make their own choices and only make them based on what others say. Sure, I can't say that I haven't made a decision based on what someone else said. Certainly you've been to a restaurant and made a choice on what you would have based on the review your friend just gave you. I know I have. But what if you had no choice at all? You couldn't even make a choice based on another's opinion or review. Well, apparently this can happen.

In Columbia, there is a drug known to the locals as Devil's Breath. Its a drug that essentially robs the taker of free will. There are many horror stories related to this drug as bad as someone killing another under its influence. It's a little terrifying to think about.

Just thought I'd share this with you. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/04/06/vbs.colombian.devils.breath/index.html

If you want to do more research on it than I have (which would be doing more than just reading the article), the article has the actual drug name. I'm pretty sure it's on Wiki.

Update on Website: I've learned the basics of Javascript, so I should be able to put it to practice once I read up on some techniques and look at source for other sites. I'm working on the design of the site too. Nothing amazing, just something simple for now. Just enough so I have something to work with. Anyway, I hope to have the design and most of the coding knowledge down by the end of the month, depending on work, and I can start shortly after finals (Early May).

~Rob

(KeyboardDucks.lastPostDate().getSecondsSince() > secondsInMonth) ? post() : chillax;

So this is just something random because I noticed no one has posted anything here for quite some time. Since I haven't posted anything blog like since my intro post, I'll ramble in your general direction for a little while.

So I've recently compiled a list of computer languages that I want to learn (no pun intended). When I went about this, the first thing I did was list the languages I know and feel comfortable with. Here is that list:

Java

C#

shell/bash scripting

eggplant scripting (aka SenseTalk)

I use three of these four languages everyday, so I get a fair amount of practice in them. I'm the most comfortable using Java and can program something quickly, such as a catch rate calculator for Pokemon, with ease. C# I don't use often enough, but because of the similarities to Java and the syntax I know, I can still easily make a program in it. Shell scripting I'm learning now for work, and eggplant scripting I've also learned for work and have made a bunch of tests with it (which is what it's used for).

Now, after looking at this I noticed I'm missing something: A web-based language. Although I'm not too fond of web-based programming, I find it shows up a lot and could potentially be really useful, especially since I'd like to make myself a website at some point to house and display all of my programming projects (there is a lot of them). So I looked at some languages and picked a few that were either recommended to me or that I've seen others use:

Javascript - Good start, in my opinion. Easy entrance into other web languages.

Actionscript - Flash's language, so it can be used to make regular executable video games or some fancy animation for a web site or just because, I think this will be a good one to learn especially since my friends and I have worked on a video game that was programmed in this, and we only had two coders (a bit of an overload for them). Learning this will let me give them a helping hand.

PHP - Of course. I don't know a lot about this one, but I plan to.

MySQL/SQLite - Not just for web stuff, but for my own projects that require some form of database.

Python - This really has nothing to do with web programming, but I want to learn this so I have an alternative to shell/bash scripting.

I think this is a pretty good list. Once I've learned these languages, I'll have a pretty rounded knowledge in programming. Now all I need to do is find the free time to learn all of this and I'll be good to go.

Something completely off topic: I've decided to start up my LiveJournal again. Why, you ask? Well, I used to have one. Three, actually, from when I was in high school. There was only one that I updated somewhat regular and I just finished reading through all of it the other day. I definitely enjoyed reading the journal entries from my younger teen years. Very nostalgic. It got me thinking that maybe I should do this again, so that in another 5-6 years I have another LiveJournal to look at, have a nostalgic moment, and laugh at myself (which I did, a lot). I'll post the link to it eventually.

Just as a note, this is going to be a journal, not a blog. Anything that seems close to blog related, such as a random rant or some rambling like this post will be copied from the journal and put on here as well, so I'm still going to keep this up. At least with the journal I'll have more posts for this blog also since a lot of my rants and rambles come from everyday life.

Anyway, back to the programming.

So those are the languages I will be learning. To learn some of the web-based stuff, I'll be making a site. Its going to be pretty basic, nothing fancy like Caroline's or WillyWorld (when its finally up). Just something to house programs. Also when I get my desktop computer completely set up and permanently operational, I'll create a subversion repository for those of you who would like to download my projects. All of my stuff will be open source, so its yours to take and edit at your pleasure, it would be polite of you to give me credit for the original code though (if any of you do actually take it). Not necessary, but it would be nice.

So thats it for this. I'll post some updates about the upcoming site and code repository when I get stuff set up. Also I may change from Subversion to GIT, since I here only good things about GIT and Subversion can be stupid. We'll see.

Have a good April Fool's Day!

(Edit) I fix'd the title.

~Rob, ramblin' man (pun intended)

Apologies and Frustrations

I apologize for the lack of blogging that has been going on. A few of us have been leading somewhat busy lives, or have been outright lazy, or have just forgotten. I, personally, feel I fall in the first category; that, and I have nothing particularly interesting to write about.

Until now, of course.

It's 1 AM, and I should be heading to bed. Midterm in the morning. Sorry if this starts to sound like a worldly rant about my life. Don't worry - it will get to a point.

I have been very busy, juggling planning events for Boken, schoolwork, internship searching, and personal advancement in graphic design, etc. The last has been somewhat lacking, but Spring Break is coming up, so I hope to be productive on my personal side of life.

Now, I just took a midterm. It was for Algorithms II.

Please, I just want to learn to code with minimal algorithm analysis.

To be honest, I do not see the point in the thorough mathematical analysis of algorithms. Yes, of course, to decide the efficiency and some other things, but I feel that no one truly does it as in-depth as we have done in this class. We also have barely been learning C, which is what I WANT to do. It's quite unfortunate, and although I should have studied more, the topic is dry as well as the lecture itself. I can barely pay attention, and when I do, stuff gets over my head. I'll have to look into studying this analysis part more over the break as well, but I have barely learned any coding in C - anything that I know right now - which is very basic, putting aside the basic syntax one can easily adapt to - I taught myself attempting to do homework for the class.

And then Scheme is deciding to be silly with SLLGEN, a scanner/parser system made with the Essentials of Programming Languages 3rd Edition of Scheme that goes with the book. I've been trying to make sense of it in the book, but nothing is actually explaining it clear enough that I can understand what exactly is wrong with my syntax in order to use it correctly. I have the class tomorrow, so I can perhaps ask the professor. It's been so frustrating, and sometimes Dr. Scheme doesn't want to return error messages that are actually useful to me so I can fix the damn program.

Now, to my somewhat-point. I hate not having specific instructions, vagueness, and lack of precision. It's a very big wish, but if professors could teach what exactly is needed instead of explaining things of the wayside, learning might be more enjoyable. Alas, I have to do a lot of self-teaching, even if I do pay attention in some of the classes.

Sorry for the rant. I would have posted on Tumblr, but I want to bring this nonsense back to life. Maybe when I get SLLGEN working I'll post a short thing about that. Until then, I'm off to bed.

~ Caroline

Coding

When I first started exploring the wonders of the Internet back in the fourth grade, I was simply amazed and curious. As such, I got into HTML and CSS, and a little bit of PHP. I continued doing these things, perhaps mimicing some Javascript things, but I never really knew what I was doing.

In high school, we had no special "computer science" courses. There was essentially one class - one semester was some C++, the other semester was HTML. I didn't bother taking the course, because: 1) I knew most of the stuff that was going to be taught, 2) I had other courses that took priority, and 3) the teacher was perhaps not the best one to be teaching the course. Either way, I was never really exposed to much else, aside from be curious with Flash, but I didn't have the resources I have today to acquire Flash and learn that ActionScript exists.

Coming to Stevens and being accepted into the Computer Science program, however, threw me in for a loop. MATLAB - while not legitimately used for programming, but a glorified calculator - was easy enough to pick up since (for some odd reason), it was very similar to some PHP (which was all I knew at the time, really). And then I learned Java. While I hear it get a lot of crap, it is an easy language, and it works.

Back then I knew of a few languages, such as Javascript (though really that's script), C/C++, mySQL/SQL/SQLite, SSI... but there are some that I have never heard of until my academic career here at Stevens. Call me a "newb," but it fascinates me as to how many different languages there are. For example, Scheme - one of the few banes of my existence, but I have a pretty intermediate grasp on it. Not that it's hard, but the idea of all the parenthesis and JUST parenthesis is somewhat daunting in the beginning.

I am now looking into learning Ruby, Python, ActionScript, and a few other languages. One of the languages I have to learn in class at Stevens is C, too. I learned a bit of basic Assembly last semester as well. Those were interesting.

I also find it interesting of a sort of "programmer instinct," I guess I could call it. If one knows a language, it's not too difficult to pick up the syntax and some basic principles/tricks of a language. For example, pointers in C.

You must be wondering where I'm going with this; to be honest, I don't quite know myself. I am just intrigued by the fact of numerous languages. I would write about something else, but I haven't had much time to do anything else of more interest lately. I'm also attempting to use this as some sort of vent for inspiration in order to think of some little projects I can do with some of these languages, because sometimes learning with just tutorials and the given exercises is not enough.

I will, however, make some sort of silly app for myself for Android, though, once I bother to download the SDK. I'll have to finish learning Flash and ActionScript, first, though, since that will be the most useful to me right now.

Signing off. Sorry for the useless rant. :D

~ Caroline

The Best Damn Tea I Ever Had

OK. Let's call this post a restaurant review:

So, for my birthday today my mother took me out to this awesome place in the city called the Russian Tea Room. Awesome place. I mean I would go there all the time if it wasn't so damn expensive. It was crazy expensive, however, my mom took me because it's restaurant week in the city making this place not crazy expensive. We got a three course meal for $25 each, awesome deal!!! The atmosphere was fantastic, very Eastern European, the food was top notch, and the tea. OK, well I'm not a tea enthusiast, but I got this peppermint tea affair and it was crazy. It came with biscuits and these honey infused cherries, it was sick. I guess all I'm gonna say is 5/5, there really wasn't anything wrong. I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant this good.

So look, if you are reading this get to the Russian Tea Room (7th Ave & 57th Street) before February 28th, and get yourself some damn good, some damn good food, and great time.

-DJ

Nerd-dom

First of all, excuse part of this post. I literally copy-pasta'd it from my Tumblr, only because I want to share it here as well. I made some minor edits to the beginning. I also want to say, I'm not waiting for Willy or Arty to make an introduction, because I have this to post for the evening, and I thought I'd share it with you all. Too bad I didn't take the time to read the entire essay; perhaps I would have had a long critique to the essay. Doesn't matter - I really don't have that kind of time. Anyway:

I am a nerd and proud, and I found it both appropriate and inappropriate to find in my Facebook Notifications that I was tagged in a note "Why Nerds Are Unpopular." My friend posted on Facebook this copy of an essay about why nerds end up not being popular. I’m not going to copy the entire thing, but you can read it here. I didn’t even read all of it. After the first few paragraph I just started to briefly skim.

There was something about it though that somewhat summed up my philosophy on popularity and nerdiness: “So if intelligence in itself is not a factor in popularity, why are smart kids so consistently unpopular? The answer, I think, is that they don’t really want to be popular.”

I think this is very true. It says somewhere later in the part that I did read that one can only really be good at something if one works at it. Kids who want to be popular work on being popular; kids who wants to do well academically, study. However, you never have to be on one side of the spectrum - jack of all trades, master of none, as the saying goes. I, personally, feel I am one of those kids.

My school never really fostered very exclusive cliques because of the size and the setting. I went to a private Catholic school, and we were only about 500 in the entire school. Yes, there were cliques, but it was never so exclusive or extreme. I was not UNpopular in any sense; I got along well with most people, and I didn’t have any real enemies. I studied and did my extra-curriculars and clubs, so I was social enough with upstanding academia. My group of friends was a good blend of the same people.

There was also another point somewhere in the section I did read of the article that sometimes the nerds choose not to be popular because they don’t want to be part of what “popularity” stands for. I do not want to sound elitist, but my friends and I knew some of the things that the “popular” kids were doing, and those things never interested us. Of course, we didn’t look down on the popular kids; actually, I was friends with a lot of them. It was the stupid actions and things that some people did that I tend to frown upon. Now, this is my opinion, and you can think otherwise.

I commented the above on the note my friend wrote, and he can see where I come from, coming from a very small school. He also did note, however, wondering about the community at Stevens. There are various demographics (I’m trying to avoid “cliques” because I believe as college students we should be past that stage, but it is still that in a base essence) apparent at Stevens, but many are those nerds. He was intrigued that many of us get along so well, if we were to base our backgrounds on a lose skin around that “unpopular” nerd skeleton. It is probably because of our sense of priority being learning and friends instead of what the trends were that we get along so well.

It is an interesting topic. I’ll have to read the entire essay sometime. I most likely won’t, however, so I’ll just sign off with this: I enjoy my nerd-dom and my current level of socialness. Although popularity contests exist, one’s competence and character become the deciding factor on whether or not people take pleasure in your company.

Signing off!

~ Caroline

Witty Post Title

Blogging? Interesting. I honestly thought for awhile that I would never get into something like this. Guess I was wrong.

Lets start with a little bio about myself. First, my name is Rob. We started this blog (as DJ said in his post) from an idea that came up when reading one of our friend's blog. I'm a computer science major (and mathematics minor) and my interests include programming, science in general, video games, acting (to an extent) and improv. I have a ton more, but little time to post this, since I'm at work right now, but don't tell anyone.

Most likely my posts will be pretty random, but I will try to stick to a few key topics. As far as they go, expect all things technology, this includes reviews on new/old software/hardware that I either find useful or repelling, video game reviews and expectations of upcoming games. Also expect random posts about current science, such as discovering a new planet, element, etc., music, forms of comedy, such as funny comics, shows, acts, etc., and everyone's favorite, philosophy. You may also see a rant or two, how fun! I'll probably only be on topic a little more than half the time. If a thought comes up during the day or if something interesting happens, I'll share it with you.

A bit bland for an intro, I know, but like I said, I don't have too much time to make it pretty right now. As a note I will probably not overlap with my fellow bloggers so that there aren't two posts on the same topic in the same week.

Thats all for now. Hopefully I'll find something of interesting in my life to talk about soon.

~Rob

A New Challenger Approaches!

So enters Arty Erb to join us.

Just a small note.

Carry on.


~ Caroline

And Now for Something Completely Different

No Caroline, you're wrong, we will post in that order, so Rob go before Willy, and Willy you're last, cuz you're awesome. Yea I just did cuz, we're gonna change some things on this mutha fucking blog...YEA!!! OK just kidding, Caroline is getting so mad right now, what with all the "cuz's" and improperness, but I'll TRY to do my best. (CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL).

Now, this is my first blog and obviously first group blog. So, where did this come from, who am I, and what is my role? All very boring questions which I will now answer. So in short this idea came up when we were commenting on a friend of ours blog. We found it interesting and said to ourselves, "Why don't we try a blog in group format, about topics in each of our fields of interest." and that's how it started. Who am I? Not exactly that important. I'm a sophomore Mechanical Engineer here at Stevens, besides that nothing worth blogging about. What is my role? Not sure, of my four colleagues I'm probably like the second funniest, but definitely not the smartest...okay, so I am the best looking, but that's besides the point. I've decided to focus my portion on the blog on the three things where I am probably better apt to comment on: politics, sports, and movie reviews. Don't worry I don't have a political affiliation. Mind you, I don't have to stick to these topics, but I probably won't rant on this blog. However, if I do find an awesome daily observations, I may comment on it.

So that's it. I don't have much else, but I will give a SHORT comment on something that happened today that I would be remiss if I did not touch on it. I'm sure anyone who is reading this blog heard of the events in Austin, Texas today. I saw on CNN that a Facebook group was created basically calling Mr. Stacks a hero for his actions. I think this is a ludicrous thing to say, there are other ways to speak out besides crashing planes into buildings. Destroying your life and possibly the lives of others is horribly dangerous and irresponsible. I would urge anyone who thinks that what this man did was heroic to reconsider what "heroic" means and that it should never involve endangering the lives of others. I'm not saying I'm right, this is just my opinion.

Anyway, so now that's it. That was just my little rant, and I wanted to express my feelings on it. I hope there are more happy things to comment on in the future. Good night!

-DJ

FIRST POOOOSSST!

First!

Nah, it's okay. Not going to pull that on you all. [/internet joke]

Anyway, for all of you who don't know - which is probably most of you - there are four of us on this blog, all of us pretty good friends. We all go to Stevens, and we're all pretty much nerds/dorks/geeks, whichever you will, but we are all quite proud of it. We're pretty much going to be posting about our various interests or relevant rants to life in an intelligible manner.

I am Caroline, the only female of the four of us. I'm a graphic designer, videogamer, programmer, and generally an atypical girl. After all, I am attending the tech school. One of a few female Computer Science majors as well. I have my own website, CarolineAmaba.com, showing off my portfolio and resume. I am somewhat of a freelance graphic designer for hire, and I just enjoy learning more about design aspects.

As such, you could probably guess that the main focus of my posts will have to do with design. You could also probably count on me for some videogame chat and other things with a hint of double X chromosomes.

You can find me on other sites like Tumblr and Twitter and Facebook, though for the last one I only add friends that I have met and had a conversation with at least once or twice.

Anyway, only a short introduction post from me. My fellows, DJ, Rob, and Willy will be posting their introductions as well, although not necessarily in that order.

Good evening for now!

Caroline :D