| Songs |
[Jun. 17th, 2008|11:59 pm] |
There have been a bunch of new songs recently that I have really gotten into. Yeah, it almost makes up for previous two year drought of suckage. So much that I've been thinking about getting an iClod. But before I do, I think there needs to be a threshold of songs for me to get with it. So I'm starting a list that I'll add to whenever I find a new song that I like enough to overcome the steep 89 cent price. I figure the treshold will be about an hours worth of playtime.
Current songs that I prefer:
- * Viva La Vida, 4:01
- All Around Me, 3:18
- When I grow up, 4:05
- Pocketful of Sunshine, 3:22
- See You Again (...Or really any other HM song without the number 7 in it), 3:10
- Shake It, 3:10
As compared to the songs I really liked from the previous year:
- Keep Your Mind Wide Open, 3:36
- Rule The World, 4:03
And room for more:
- Your Woman, 4:16
- Wonderwall, 4:46
- Vertigo, 3:11
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| Trees |
[Mar. 5th, 2008|04:55 pm] |
Me: See you tomorrow.
Dan: Going home?
Me: Yeah, allergies are acting up.
Dan: Hmmm, this time of year its probably trees. Elm, Ash, ... uh...
Me: ...Binary.
Dan: Yep, red-black, AVL... |
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| Quote |
[Feb. 21st, 2007|04:45 pm] |
"Whenever you can avoid friend functions, you should, because much as in real life, friends are often more trouble than they're worth. Sometimes friendship is warranted, of course, but the fact remains that just because a function shouldn't be a member doesn't automatically mean it should be a friend."
-Effective C++ |
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| New Computer |
[Dec. 26th, 2006|09:14 pm] |
My current computer is about to have it's 7th birthday. I think this is a sign that I should step into the present millenium and get a new one. I assume most of you guys keep up with the current trends, so I'm asking for your advice on what bells & whistles to get and what things to avoid.
Constraints:- My budget is around $1000, though if it's a few hundred above or below I won't mind.
- I'm going to get a laptop with wireless, namely so I can get some work done no matter where I am.
- I'm pretty sure I'll get a PC, but not sure if I should get Vista, XP. From my understanding Macs offers no real benefit, but they cost more money and time (since I'll have to learn a new interface). Also Macs don't want a C++ GUI Programming guide, which obviously means they can't be that cool. I'll probably turn my old computer into a Linux box, since Linux doesn't demand as much out of the hardware as Windows.
Uses:- My main use will be for software development: which is CPU intensive so I'll want a pretty good processor, RAM etc.
- Daily activities: surfing the web, checking email, etc. I don't think this will affect much though.
- Games: I don't really play many games, especially not the latest ones. My current computer gets really sluggish if I try to play any game made after 2003, but there are a few I wouldn't mind playing so I will want some sort of graphics card.
- Multimedia: I might want to play DVDs on it. Are the batteries these days able to handle this?
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| Problem Setting and Entertainment Value |
[Aug. 28th, 2006|04:16 pm] |
Ok, so you've finally done it. You have a great idea for a problem; the hard part is over. Now comes the hard part; you have to set it. Setting a problem is telling everyone all about your problem in a way that a) conveys accurately the technical aspects of the problem and what properties a solution must have, b) doesn't hint at what the solution(s) actually are, and c) provides entertainment to those who read it. (And yes, sometimes (c) is a decoy to help out with (b)).
So the problem you've thought of is the cell tower problem: Given the location of N different cell phone towers where each have the same range, what is the minimum range they must have so that no matter where you go you get reception?
Boring. There's nothing interesting about cell phones. Most of the contestants who read this problem will probably go straight into a coma. Of course abstract version of the problem (which anyone who solves it will eventually have to recast it into) is this:
Given N points on a sphere, what is the angle, A, such that each point on the sphere is less than or equal to A from the nearest input point? (Here angles are measured as the minor arc along the great circle containing both points.)
If you gave this to the contestants, they might just die (or form a rebellion). Thus you have to spice it up and make the problem sound interesting, even though it's quite boring.
You and N of your friends are planning on destroying all life on Earth. So you each constructed bombs from the same blueprints that you found lying around on the internet. Namely they all have the same size, shape, blast radius, and decals of Spiderman on them. Seeing as how all of your friends are geeks which don't have the physical strength to carry the bombs outside of your houses, you'll have to just set them off where they are. So given the location of you and your N friends, what is the minimum strength that the bombs have to be to accomplish your goal?
Now that's how a problem should be set. Entertainment for the whole family!
Oh yeah, how do you solve it? |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 17th, 2006|02:20 am] |
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I have solved all the problems in UVA volume 1. It's only taken me three years. That is all. |
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| I heard it on the radio |
[Apr. 2nd, 2005|10:21 pm] |
Ok, so I haven't had anything blogworthy to say in about a year, just haven't found that delecate (aparently delecant is a word and spell check missed it) balance of trite and innane. But today you're in for a special surprise.
Ok, so I have six buttons on my car's radio with which to preset radio stations (I don't have a CD player in my car, and cassettes just aren't around as much as before, so I typically only listen to the radio and further only listen to one of the preset stations). So the way I go about selecting which station to put next to each button is, I would say, out of the ordinary. I don't put them in order of 1 being the "best" radio station up to 6 being the "worst" (mostly because I can only put a partial ordering on the radio stations at best and partly because the 1 button doesn't quite work right so I don't want to put the best station there).
Anyways, I typically associate particular genres of music to each button. This way it doesn't matter if I'm in College Station, Austin, or Midland, I can still press the same button to get the same kind of music. Of course it doesn't always work out to be a perfect match, so there are sometimes one or two miscellaneous buttons. For example, when I'm in Austin here are the stations I listen to:
1 - 94.7 (Half new pop, half pop from the 80's and 90's)
2 - 96.7 (Half new pop, half hip-hop)
3 - 95.5 (Lite rock)
4 - 101.5 (Alternative)
5 - ***
6 - 103.5 ("The Bob", it's a new station that plays random songs, although they are typically closely related and should probably fall under a genre which might even have a name)
The 5th station is the interesting one. Over the past two years, I've alternated which station has been there. At first it was College Station's alternative station, but the signal is pretty weak so I got annoyed at it being static half the time. Then I put it on the country station, but country music in Austin isn't half as good as it is in College Station, so I didn't like that. So for the first half of this semester, it wasn't even set to a station and I pretty much ignored that button. But this is a massive misallocation of resources (especially since there are plenty of times where I can't find a good radio station to listen to) so I wanted to at least set it to some station. Sometime last week I was rotating through the stations and came upon a classical one, and thought to myself: why not try this one out.
For the first whole week, I pretty much ignored the button same as always. But this week things changed. I've still found it difficult to find a song I like on the radio, but now I've been using the classical station as a default. On the down side, I haven't heard most of the songs, so I couldn't recognize or name them (I've found that familiarity is one of the big reasons I find songs to be good) and sometimes I get mad at the song for not being predictable (a lot of classical songs have points where it sounds like they should end, but they just get quiet for a second and start up again... very irritating). But there is a pretty strong up side. Most of the songs are mellow, and this is a very good thing when you're driving, it puts you more at ease. Also they must be mostly taken from symphonies or something because the average song length is quite long... usually I won't even get to hear an entire song on my trips, whereas I could hear 3 or 4 pop songs. So all in all, I think I'll keep this station. |
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| Yesterday was like a left sock... just didn't have a match |
[Jul. 16th, 2004|08:18 am] |
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So I thought the SRM was at 8:00... and to be fair, it was... it was just in the AM... so at 7:00 PM I got an unexpected surprise. Totally pants. Oh well, at least I get to go see that Lizzie movie today. |
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| Random stuff... because I needed to post once in a while |
[Jun. 12th, 2004|06:56 pm] |
Here are a few ideas I've been having on exceptional names:
class WTF;
struct { int tantrum,party,grenade; } a;
class your{ enum X{back} };
class out{
out(your::X);
};
class mama_from_the_train;
class direction{} up,down;
and how to use them:
throw WTF;
throw a.tantrum; //or any of a's fields
throw out(your::back);
if(you.are(brave))
throw down;
else
throw up;
P.S. If you haven't notice, I stopped writing about each match. Don't really think people cared much. But if I get a response then I'll keep it up(hint hint). |
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| Noless, but Gilmore |
[May. 9th, 2004|01:28 am] |
Well, this weekend had promise to be fun, and indeed parts of it were. But some of that fun was mitigated by the fact that it didn't turn out as great as I had hoped. Expectations of enjoyment of an event can greatly affect actual enjoyment of the event.
On Friday I had two major events. I got to help judge the state UIL Computer Science contest. It's kinda like ACM but for high-schoolers. When I competed long ago I made it to state as an individual, but my team didn't, so I didn't get to be in the actual programming part.
The judges who wrote the problems were the same as those who wrote the problems for our Region's ACM, so I sort of knew them already. I got to help grade with the lead judge. He's a pretty funny guy and this was great.
Secondly, my friends Stef and Luis were coming into town. Stef arrived at around 9ish and Luis at 11, so Stef and I went ahead and got a pizza and ate it while we waiting on Luis. As soon as he got here we trekked out to the store so I could buy the first season of Gilmore Girls. We watched the first three episodes. It was great.
Saturday, however, was a different story. I had originally made some plans, but they were canceled. This made me sad for the rest of the day, probably far more than I'd like to admit.
However we moved on and went to see Michelle's concert (she's Stef's sister). It was decent; plus she had a solo, which is quite impressive. But I'm not really a music buff and so I couldn't truly appreciate it.
Later in the evening we went to dinner, which was good, but I kept on being annoyed. And it wouldn't stop bugging me. Eventually when we came back and watched a movie I went to my room to be alone. Which didn't really help things at all.
If you're looking for a moral or ending really... this is a blog, so you won't get one. |
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