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