Posts Tagged ‘school’
The last two months in a picture (and also words)
So it’s been approximately ages since I’ve done anything in this space, so I figured I’d quickly summarize my last two months with a picture.
(Numbers are roughly clockwise)
1) My torn-apart Eee PC 901. A while back, I broke the LCD by using it as a carrying handle, a use it neither was designed for nor deserved. So I ordered a replacement and assumed I’d be able to install it myself. This was a good assumption; expecting the shipper to send precisely the right model was not. All-in-all, the pins didn’t match up and the backlight didn’t work. Ordering the right part soon.
2) Machine of Death. A great book that I’ve been reading. I think it might be the first actual hold-it-in-your-hands paper book I’ve bought for my own personal reading enjoyment in years.
3) 3D glasses. I was on an Amazon shopping spree and figured why not.
4) My newly repaired Macbook Pro. The turdbiscuits at the Apple Store finally believed me that the issue was the same one I told them it was all along, namely that the Wi-Fi card was Wi-Fried, and repaired the slut of a laptop. So far, so good, but I’ve renamed it “Morgan”.
5) Playstation 2 and Persona 4. I picked up a used PS2 and a bunch of games for dirt cheap over the holidays and have really been enjoying it. Persona 4 is the one game I’ve spent the most time on, over 20 hours according to my save file but many more hours were played but lost to death. It’s really quite fun and I’m looking forward to playing more of it.
6) Magic: The Gathering deck. Yes, I’ve gotten into Magic. I have a few friends with whom I play a couple times a week and currently have 3 decks. Hopefully, I will be able to refrain from converting my entire life savings into trading card form.
7) My DVD copy of The Social Network. The local Blockbuster is shutting down and are in the process of liquidating their DVD inventory, so everything is on sale for, again, dirt cheap. I picked up the special edition of what I consider to be 2010′s best film for a delicious $8.
Otherwise, most of my time has been spent on game development and school. I made another Oceanspirit Dennis game and am currently working on two other unrelated, non-OSD game projects. I also might be working with a certain someone on a certain something that may or may not certainly be a book.
Everything You Need To Know About Economics
If I want to graduate on time and receive both my Electrical Engineering and Computer Science degrees, which I do, my school forces me to pay up and take a summer course completely unrelated to my major, which I am. Thus, I’m stuck in the night-class purgatory that is microeconomics. I’ve had three classes so far and am fairly sure that I have learned everything there is to know about economics. If you, for some demented reason, want to enter this strange field, here is all you need to know:
- A fourth grade level understanding of mathematics. Seems those three semesters of Calculus were all for naught, at least in economics. Here is a comprehensive list of all the mathematical concepts I have used in this course: averaging two numbers, the point-slope formula, solving a simple single variable algebraic equation, and percent difference.
- Supply and demand. High supply and low demand mean low prices; low supply and high demand mean high prices. Or something like that. There’s other factors, but we’re not supposed to consider them because we’d have to solve equations with more than one variable. Gasp!
- Profit is total revenue minus total cost. If reading this made you feel enlightened, then you have a promising career projecting the future of the national economy on MSNBC.
- Those cheeseburger-flavored Doritos are kinda neat the first time, but get really gross really fast. High-level stuff, I know.
- Please let me integrate something before I lose my mind. My brain is melting.
So, in short, if you are not at all mathematically inclined and want a big fancy piece of paper saying how special you are, economics is for you. Hopefully, I’ll survive until the fall semester, when Physics 3 and Probability will have a chance to revive my dead brain cells.
Also, totally unrelated, but you should keep your eyes peeled for this sweet game that’s emerging very soon from the creative womb of my good friend and coworker, Igor Hardy.
Grab Bag
Let’s have some structure:
- Video games: I recently beat Mass Effect, and let me say that it is definitely one of the best games I’ve ever played. It gives COD4 a run for its money as my favorite Xbox game. Sure, it has a lot of flaws (annoying inventory system, the MAKO vehicle, Unreal engine 3), but it more than makes up for them with an incredible story, truly lovable characters, the best dialog system I’ve ever encountered, and more than tolerable combat. Go buy it now. Other games I’ve been playing recently: Left 4 Dead 2, Saints Row 2, Spider-Man 2, and Modern Warfare 2 (see a pattern?). All of them are really good, but none of them are quite as epic as Mass Effect. I’m planning on getting the collector’s edition (EDIT: For the sequel in January, that is), which is something I’ve never done.
- Computer problems: If you’ve read my twitter in the past two weeks or heard my screams of anguish (audible radius: 2000 km), you’ll no doubt know that my computer is friggin’ screwed up. I have nearly exhausted my options for fixing it, but I don’t think it’s too late yet. After some preparation, I plan to back up all my essential stuff twice, including app licenses, and do a complete format and reinstall. I’m probably going to end up doing this for both my Mac and Windows partition, so I’m going to use this opportunity to upgrade to Windows 7 and increase the size of my Boot Camp partition. I honestly don’t know why I’m upgrading, since the last 3 times I’ve upgraded my computers I’ve wrought nothing but sorrows.
- Christmas: I hate Christmas music. I like Christmas, but I hate the music more than anything. Other things I hate more than anything include the cold, rain, final exams, and media whores. Why I’m in Memphis during the winter and why I still have yahoo.com bookmarked is beyond me. But once again breaking my own rule of never announcing anything until it’s done, I have plans for literally 9 different thing for my holiday break. Instead of breaking my rule outright, I’ll just bend it a little by giving the first letter of each: M, C, A, K, F, T, P, S, and B. Guess away.
Window 7 Student Pricing
So I was frolicking through the interwebs when I found this story on Microsoft’s deep discounts on Windows 7 upgrades for students. People with an .edu email address, like myself, are able to buy Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for $30 US, a suspiciously close price point to Snow Leopard’s.
And while it is only available for students, the actual OS does not appear to be any different than the full version, and can be used to upgrade either Vista or XP. While the article speculates that the intent of this discount is either to net Mac/Linux users or, more likely, to get current PC users to upgrade, I think that it is actually a move to combat piracy. I haven’t done extensive research, but of the students at my school, the ones who have torrented Windows is roughly “a buttload.” When Microsoft gives these piracy-prone students the option to upgrade legitimately for a price that, in the long run, might as well be free, they might entice a good percent to avoid either the risks involved in illicit file-shareing or the ethical dilemma of stealing.
My personal dilemma is actually whether I want to bother with upgrading at all. I have XP installed on a relatively small Boot Camp partition (46 GB) and use it mainly for gaming and engineering programs. I would like to know if 7 did a similar thing to OS X 10.6 in saving disk usage. Also, to upgrade from XP to 7, I’d have to do a full backup, wipe, install, restore. Do I really want to trade the hassle of installing and the disk space for a small performance boost and interface changes that I probably won’t like anyway? I’ll have to think on this one, but I might still end up buying 7 while this offer still lasts and maybe installing it down the line.
How to Succeed in College
What’s 2520 pixels tall (give or take), covered in arrows, and contains the phrase “experimental ass surgery”? Why this flowchart, of course!
40 Things
40 Things that are harder to do while receiving a blow-job:
- Land a helicopter
- A job interview
- Advanced handwriting analysis
- Taxes
- Beat Ocarina of Time
- Sell fresh fruit
- Prove Fermat’s Last Theorem
- Rescue a child from the bottom of a well
- Install Linux
- Give a cost-benefit presentation for your company’s upcoming retreat
- Steal a car
- Portray Macbeth onstage
- Win a spelling bee
- Pass a physics exam
- Resolve a copyright dispute on YouTube
- Lecture your children on the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
- Preform triple bypass surgery
- Narrate a wildlife documentary
- Run a marathon
- Return a defective DVD Player
- Watch 12 Angry Men
- Put out a blazing fire
- Construct a ship in a bottle
- Write the next great American novel
- Annihilate a horde of zombies
- Stand on the street corner advertising for Little Caesar’s
- Engage in a Mac vs. PC debate
- Prepare blowfish sushi without leaving any poison
- Achieve Nirvana
- Protest against PETA (not with)
- Grill Burgers
- Get away from the cops
- Talk to Verizon customer service
- Conduct an orchestra
- Win a game of poker
- Repair the International Space Station
- Film a wedding
- Stop, collaborate, and listen
- Interrogate someone
- Make a list
Gordon Freeman Is My Physics Idol
If I can be like him, my physics final will feel the crowbar-like wrath of my scientific skill.
Runner Up
I just got back from school, where I got second place in our engineering department’s Easter Egg Hunt. The prize was a box of “toasted marshmallow eggs,” you know, the kind with annoyingly cute pictures of bunnies with captions on them like “I can’t stop the adorable” and “I’m not spoiled. I deserve all my stuff.” The first prize that I didn’t win was a $25 Visa gift card. Crap. Either way, it was a lot of fun, and I even found a stray cat in the bushes during my search. No, I did not keep or eat it.
MacHeist
The big bundle reveal show is tomorrow and I am pretty stoked. Lots of great apps for darn near dirt cheap is always a boon. So that’s nice . . .
Also, I’m gonna be filming a good friend’s wedding in 40 days, which is right around finals. I’m seriously considering volunteering for experimental brain steroids. Fun.
Getting Up
I <3 the weekends, but they make me hate Mondays all the more.
I mean, I haven’t even gone to bed yet and I don’t want to get up.
Back Problems
- My back hurts a lot. It’s been really sore for a while and it’s starting to tick me off. I’m seriously considering visiting a chiropractor or a a masseuse.
- I’m back at school from spring break and it is so so, so far. Nothing spectacular.
- I saw Taken with Liam Neeson yesterday. It was pretty good despite me having to buy Liam’s popcorn.
