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11-02-2006:
Big News!T35, my web host, had some catastrophic hardware failures yesterday morning. My website has been down for the last two days, and all my files on the server were lost. Thankfully, I create back-ups of my website regularly. But 'regularly' is only once a month, so i lost any changes made to the website recently. I recovered some more recent things that were stored in my browser's cache.I still haven't gotten everything back up and running yet. I have most of it though. And i'm still working on it. The Java section will be down for a little bit. I think i'll re-do a lot of that. If anyone should need anything from there right away, leave a comment or something, and i'll get it up ASAP. And all my updates from Sept '05 to March '06 will be down for a while. I have those organized in a different way than all the other updates, so i want to convert them so everything be organized inthe same way. Also, the most recent version of the default skin style that i have was still in development, so things may look a little different until i get that fixed. Sorry for any inconvience. If you see/have any problems, leave a comment or something. |
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11-03-2006:
The other night I was watching TV, and I saw a commercial for a baby's toy. It was a toy that supposedly helps them learn. If they press the blue button that has a "1" on it, it'll say "one". If they press "2", it says "two", and so on. Which made me wonder -- will that toy really help the child? The kid they had shown was definately younger than one year old. Well, maybe not -- i'm not exactly a baby expert or anything -- but the concept of the toy still seemed too advanced for such a young kid. I'm not exactly sure when toddlers learn to speak, but don't you think that you should establish the concept of words (sounds with meanings) before they learn counting? They may be able to associate the sound "one" (when spoken) to the number 1, but do they understand what 1 (the number) is? To them, it's probably just an image that has no meaning. To everyone that knows how to count, the image of the number one is a symbolic representation of a quantity of things. Either way, I think it's amazing how such young children can learn such complex symbols (spoken words and images) with such a limited knowledge and only instinctive methods of communication. |
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11-06-2006:
There is much school work to be done, yet little motivation. :-/ |
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11-07-2006:
I've often wanted to create a soft copy of hard data. ie: converting some text on a piece of paper to some editable text on-screen. So I plan to create some computer program that can take a scanned image, and create a text or HTML document from it. I know software like this already exists, but I can't seem to find any for free, so why not create it myself? If I ever do successfully create such a program, i'll make sure to share it with the world. I know basically how I'd go about parsing the image, but i'm not very sure how I would implement that in programming language. I'm not very experience with handling images. The most i've ever done with images in Java is to resize and draw them in my program. But to do this, I'd have to actually analyze each pixel and it's relative color and look for patterns of pixels that represent letters and characters. That'd be the tricky part. On a totally separate note, I have an idea for an invention to make reading less of a task. Basically it's a mechanical device that you would put on a table/desk, and put your book on the contraption. The device will move the book left and right, and up and down. This way, you can read each page with out ever having to move your eyes. And maybe at the end of each line it could make a comical typewriter "ding." Great invention, eh? I'd make millions [of dollars]. B-) In response to a request for financial support for mass production, a friend of mine said "someone would have to be a looney to buy that." And i'd have to totally agree. I don't know how I ever thought of such a silly idea. But there are a bunch of looney people out there, and i'm sure a few of them would buy my invention. And just for the record, this invention is not to be taken seriously. :-P |
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11-12-2006:
AJ's two favorite fruits are apples and oranges. But if I had to pick just one favorite fruit, it'd be a tough decision. Each fruit has its strengths and weaknesses. Despite the popular idiom, I will attempt to compare apples and oranges, and ultimately choose a favorite fruit. The greatest thing about oranges is their great taste. Each section of the orange has little "juice packets" filled with orange juice. This makes for a fruit that is rich in flavor. Another plus for the orange is its vibrant color, if that counts. Undoubtedly, the greatest weakness of the orange is its inconvience. First off, it takes like 20 minutes just to peel the orange. And all that white stuff is a bugger to get off. Secondly, the orange is often messy. Inevitably, you end up with orange juice and peelings all over your fingers. The best thing about apples is their convenience, while still packing a great taste. Although it may not be as tasty an the orange, it is much more user friendly. It only requires one hand to eat. You can eat it on the go, whereas oranges need a place to rest it while splitting it up and you need a place for its peelings. The apple doesn't need to be peeled. The apple, I think, has a better texture than oranges. Apples are crisp and crunchy, while oranges are soft and soggy in your mouth. Apples also have a pretty good taste too. Although the orange may take the cake in that category. It's tough, completely unnecessary decision, but I'm goint to declare the apple as my favorite fruit. apples > oranges |
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11-15-2006:
Alright, here's another invention idea that i'm just gonna throw out there. Well, here in college, the TV channels are way different that at home. For example, back at home, the Discovery Channel was 35, but here in college, it's channel 38, which would be food network channel at home. Back home the TV Guide channel was channel 99, and here, it's 50. So this forces me to learn which channel is which for my new location. So then i thought, why shouldn't i be able to choose which channel is which TV station. So then i came up with the idea for some sort of program that would be embedded in televisions (maybe even in the remote). It would allow the user to set their channels. Like when they first buy their TV, they could go through all the channels manually, and set it to whatever channel they would like it to be. For example, they'd start going through the channels and channel 2 may be CBS, and they'll think "I want CBS to be on channel 4", so they'll go to some menu, and set the TV so that whatever is shown on channel 4 is actually what would be shown on channel 2. And maybe channel 3 would be ABC, and they want ABC to be on channel 2, so they set channel 2 to display would would really be on channel 3. And maybe NBC is on channel 4, and they want it to be on channel 3, so they set that up. Here's a little chart if that doesn't make sense. originally | after they've set it up
channel station | channel station channel it's actually showing
2 CBS | 2 ABC 3
3 ABC | 3 NBC 4
4 NBC | 4 CBS 2
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11-16-2006:
The showers in my dorm are very interesting. My dormitory has two main wings, north and south, and is 5 stories high. Each wing has five shower stalls. Well, mine does anyway. And these five showers have to be shared between about forty guys. Although I'm pretty sure that some people don't use the shower, which is gross. Anyways, there's plenty of people who use them, though it's hardly ever crowded. The most people that i can recall is four, though i don't really make it my business to count. Each of the five showers on my floor/wing has its own special attributes. One shower stall has really high water pressure that leaves my back/chest all red. Others' water pressure hardly anything more than a trickle. Though all the showers have the same type of shower head, and the water pressure isn't adjustable via the shower head, i don't really know why such a difference. One shower stall always seems to have slightly colder water, but that may just be all in my head. And the one shower curtain, which travels from stall to stall as they get washed, is about 4 inches short, so while your in there washing up, water is splashing out of the stall and onto the floor. But there's a drain so i guess it's all good. I've also noticed that the drain covers have 'FIAT' printed on them. FIAT, to the best of my knowledge, is an Italian automobile manufacturer, but i would imagine it's a different company here. The people in my wing don't seem to have any manners. They leave the little bench thing all wet, so if i wanted to put my clothes on there, i'd have to wipe it off first. And they leave a bunch of trash (soap boxes, random food bits, etc) on the floor for the custodian to clean up. And sometimes, i wonder what the girls on the floor above us are doing, when i see water dripping from the ceiling. The best time to take a shower is when other people don't take showers, because there'll be more hot water. The hours from about 10PM-1AM are probably the worst. But on the weekends, when everybody goes home or is out partying there's plenty of hot water to go around and is quite nice. But normally, on the weekdays, i get my showers between 11pm and 12, so I imagine those are peak hours, and the water isn't very warm, and the occasional flush of a toilet is a pleasant suprise. Anyways, i like showers. |
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11-18-2006:
I woke up later than i had hoped to today. I originally planned to have woken up around 12PM. I went to bed around 3, so that would've given me nine hours of rest. But aparently i don't get nearly enough sleep on the weekdays, and my body wanted to make up for lost time. So my alarm went off at 12:09, i get up, shut it off, and reset it for just 10 more minutes. 10 minutes later, it goes off, and again, i reset it for 5 minutes this time. Five minutes later, it goes off (or would it be on?) for the third time. So, i turn it off again. Now i'm ready to get up. But then i decide to lay down for just a minute or so. The next thing i know, it's three o'clock. I'm a little dissappointed that i missed three hours of the day. I planned to use those three hours to get a head start on some paper i have to this week. but nope. Anyway, that's probably the most exciting thing that'll happen to me today, so i thought i'd share it with everyone before my fingers fall off from all the typing i'll be doing. |
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11-19-2006:
i wonder, how common is choking? For the past 12+ years, I've eaten in a cafeteria almost everyday. Not once, have i seen some one choke on their food in any dramatic way. So i decided to google info about choking, and the American Red Cross says more than 3,000 people die from choking each year. I also looked up other common causes of death. Diseases of the heart top the list with 700,000+. I also noticed some other interesting figures. The eleventh most common cause of death is suicide, and homicide is 14th. I've always though that homocide would be more common that suicide. In ages 18-24, homocide is #2 with suicide #3. For accidental deaths, the car crashes top the list, with 43,000. Accidental falls are #2, with 14,000. Death by machinery is number 10 on the list of accidental deaths with just 350. disclaimer: AJ cannot guarentee the statistical accuracy of the given figures. and the numbers given are for the U.S. |
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11-24-2006:
Some people's stupidity blows me away. I remember last year, in my Basic Weather class, we were taking a test. The teacher put what he thought would be a 'gimmie' question on the test, as it was so easy. And some, well, most of the people in that class weren't exactly geniuses. As he was looking at the tests after students handed them in, he was astounded to find that they got the question wrong. The question was 'draw Oregon on the map of the U.S.' He wasn't looking for a detailed sketch of Oregon, just an basic outline, a rectangle, at its approximate location in the US. Most of the people in the class were high school juniors, and a few seniors (including me). I, of course, knew exactly where Oregon is located. But i found it amazing how many didn't. I don't know if they changed the system or what, but I remember learning states in (and probably before) fifth grade. Now, I'm not claiming to be a genius or anything, but the states, that's like child's play. |
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11-27-2006:
Thanksgiving break went pretty well. Wednesday, i killed myself playing football, and my whole body ached for the next three days. On thursday, Thanksgiving day, I went to my aunt's house and ate some turkey with the family. On Friday, black friday that is, I did a little shopping with my mom and grandmother. The malls were quite crowded, yet grocery stores didn't seem to be especially busy. After that, and on Saturday and Sunday, I pretty much just relaxed / wasted time. Pretty good break overall. On a scale from 1 to 10, with 5 being my average day, I'd say the break overall would be a 7.34. I feel kind of bad about wasting the entire weekend though. :-/ |
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11-28-2006:
Why does it seem that scoring a 7 out of 10 on a quiz is better than getting a 70 out of 100. They're basically the same. Ten 7/10's is just as bad as one 70/100. Or a 3 out of a possible 5 sounds like a much better score than a 60%. I'd be much more content to get a 3/5 on some assignment rather than a 60%. I guess it's just because there is only a small amount possible points, so any score would seem insignificant to a final grade. What if teachers suddenly decided to give out all scores in reduced fraction form rather than percentages or letters? we'd all be doomed. |
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