1.31.2006
1:19am

Finishing up my four homework assignments for Software Engineering. Fun times.

I realized it would take almost 25,000 half-density 5.25" floppies to fill one dual-layer DVD. Yikes!

1.28.2006
1:18pm

Chris is moving back to Texas on Monday so we had a get-together last night for dinner at Outback and a movie here at our house. All told it was me, Chris, Cory, Buff, Drew, Tim, and Ryan. Rolando had to work until 10:30 and Ron unfortunately headed home for the weekend right after work. We ended up watching The Fifth Element--entertaining as always. Some day I'll have to visit Ryan's place and check out his high-def projector :)

This weekend sucks due to the amount of work I have to do. For some reason about 7 assignments had a due date that falls on next Tuesday. I've been putting off the essays for Software Engineering but I need to get those done today and tomorrow. Our CS professor told us to keep our assignments in electronic form rather than printing them out, so I got a cheap 5.25" floppy drive and disks from the surplus store as a gag joke. Good thing I still have my Pentium 233 desktop sitting around. Of course I'm going to put the essays on a USB flash drive as well just in case he doesn't have a 5.25" drive at home (who does nowadays anyway).

My Soundblaster drivers decided to be a pain in the ass today so I had to reinstall the software for my PCMCIA card. Kinda weird that they would work fine for 5 months and then stop working out of the blue... Creative isn't known for having the best drivers though.

1.21.2006
12:38pm

I had my first UPS die yesterday during a momentary power loss. It was my old Energizer 400wh unit that was handling the wireless router and cable modem in the living room. You know you've reached the end-of-life when you unplug the UPS while it's running and it just cuts off... no beeping, no flashing lights, just blank. Of course replacement batteries cost almost as much as a new unit, so no thank you.

So yeah that was the excitement of my week. Oh and I also moved the new Student Ambassadors betta fish into his permanent home in the on-campus office.

1.18.2006
5:25pm

Just posting an update before I forget. Things have been going smoothly so far, except for my lab class that got moved from Tuesday 6:30-9:20pm to Wednesday at the same time. I can still work my 6 hours at Harris on Wednesday thankfully, it just means that I have to kill some time from 5-6pm. Tonight I don't have lab because of the schedule change, but I do have an e-board meeting for Student Ambassadors which is why I'm at school right now. I ordered my text books online but haven't received any of them yet; a couple were coming from India so that's not a big surprise.

My first official homework assignment of the semester is due tomorrow: a problem sheet for Materials Science & Engineering. I haven't started yet on Dr. Whittaker's assignment, but this weekend I will be focusing on that. I stopped by Best Buy yesterday during my lunch break and talked with a couple friends from home theater. They seem to be doing fine there, except they don't have any audio experts working anymore.

I saw a movie this past weekend with Dan, Jason, and some other people that were invited by Jason's girlfriend. Tristan and Isolde. I actually liked it quite a bit; produced by Ridley Scott. I got the special edition of Lord of War on DVD so we are planning to watch that Friday night.

1.12.2006
4:00pm

The first week of classes is over. The first is always a breeze, because there is no homework due, no labs to attend, and *most* of the teachers don't cover much material until the second week starts. This semester I've got Dr. Brenner, Dr. Deshmukh, James Whittaker, Tamas Kasza, and Dr. Kozaitis. The coolest professor by far will be James (Intro to Software Engineering), because he's very laid back, likes to insult his students, and is probably the best CS professor at Florida Tech. Today he showed us some reproducible bugs in Microsoft Office 2002 as a sort of introduction to software mistakes and the proper way to think about engineering applications. He will be gone for the next two weeks so we have a take-home assignment to complete. Dr. Brenner (Materials Science) seems to be the most approachable and student-friendly professor of the bunch, but there will be a lot of material to cover in the class (no pun intended). Dr. Deshmukh is the same as always, maybe in a little better mood than usual since this will be his last semester before retirement. We unfortunately don't get to learn about the new Blackfin processor in Microcomputer Systems 2, so we are stuck with the Motorola 68000 that he has been teaching for years and years. The other course with him is Digital Electronics, which mainly focuses on VLSI design. Tamas is teaching Computer Communications which appears to focus on networking. Fine by me, since I enjoy that subject, plus I've had him before as a GSA. Lastly, Dr. Kozaitis is teaching Junior Design to us bunch of ECE students. We don't really know what to expect from that class yet.

Aside from classes, I've also been getting my fish tank ready. I got it decorated and filled with water a couple days ago so now I'm waiting for the proper bacteria to grow before adding any live fish. Ron has added an anemone, clown fish, and horseshoe crab to his marine tank.

1.8.2006
5:58pm

The Legend of 1900 - one of my favorite movies, even after seeing it more than a couple times. It's one of those where I can't quite place what makes it so intriguing... maybe the music, maybe the actors, maybe the story. Plus it has a song by Roger Waters and Eddie Van Halen in the credits.

1.6.2006
7:35pm

Well my fun is almost over. On Monday I head back to school for the spring semester. Today I found out that Harris will let me work 18 hours instead of 16, so I'm planning to do 4 hours on Monday, 6 hours on Wednesday, and 8 hours on Friday. I've been working the past couple days on a new ghost image for a Windows Server 2003 platform computer from Dell. I had to learn a couple new tricks about Windows system preparation and factory preinstallation.

I'm putting together a freshwater fish tank after getting all psyched up about it over the holiday break. I got the tank and decorations so far and am waiting for delivery of the filter and heater and such. Once that arrives I'll be able to get some bacteria growing and eventually add fish. Ron says his saltwater tank is still doing well, but he's searching around for more live rock to add to the tank. Maybe some day I'll tackle saltwater but for now freshwater is a good way to start.

The plan for this weekend is to finish reading the book I'm working on, get things together for school, and watch a few movies. Ron and Jason are having a pre-semester party tomorrow at their apartment so I'll be hanging out with them.

1.2.2006
2:24pm

"Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out." - The Last Battle

I seem to like quoting that book more than any others in the series. Today I started reading The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy - The Lion, The Witch, and the Worldview. So far I have enjoyed the philosophical discussion of elements used in Lewis's stories.