11.29.2005
5:35pm
I'm going to squeeze in another post before the end of this month. I had a relaxing Thanksgiving break, but now it's back to the grind until December 16th. I have four final exams two weeks from now, plus two projects that I am working on. Today we had our second midterm in Electronics covering diodes, op-amps, MOSFETs, BJTs, and amplifiers. Tonight I have a lab practial in Microcomputer Systems. We will be given a programming assignment to complete in assembly for the Motorola processors.
Firefox 1.5 was officially released today, after three release candidates. The new version offers mostly convenience improvements like re-arrangeable tabs, private data removal, and a better options dialog box. Also included is support for the new CANVAS tag in XML which allows you to create 3D navigable environments.
11.22.2005
6:04am
Don't you just love those nights when you don't have enough time to sleep? This is the first official all-nighter I've pulled this year and it's all because of a deadline that got changed last-minute. Our big electronics project was supposedly not due until after the Thanksgiving break, then we get an email from Jean-Michel yesterday saying that the project were due today. So Ron and I worked on the project until about 5am. I just finished checking everything over and printing it out. 47 pages in total of graphs and tables and explanations and introductions and conclusions. I guess the one positive thing out of the whole ordeal is that I will no longer have to worry about completing the project during the break. I've heard that several of the other students were going to try to boycott the assignment due to the unfair last-minute notification, but we'll have to see what happenes to them tomorrow. I have a feeling they won't get the mercy they are expecting.
Since I'm up so early, I might as well make a comment about the Xbox 360 that was released today at midnight. My friends Matt and Chris were going to try to get one at midnight at Wal-Mart but they only planned on arriving 2:30 hours early. Hopefully they did score one so that I can check it out over the holiday.
11.20.2005
4:54pm
I like weekends. This one was pretty good, starting off early yesterdy at 8:45am for Florida Tech's Open House. They had a total of 850 people including the prospective students and parents. I had to give a tour to Computer Scienece / Software Engineering people which was still very close to my usual Open House tour. I just had to talk less about the hardware stuff and more about the software stuff. We did the usual student panel which had low attendance this year and the questions were rather bland.
Today I've watched some TV, rewired some components, and vacuumed the house. My original plan for mid-day was to see Harry Potter with Dan and Cory but Dan got stuck working at Best Buy today so we're going to have to delay the outing for a short while. Tonight I'm meeting up with Ron to get some information for the project we are working on for Electronics. Hopefully we will be wrapped up tomorrow night so that we can turn it in on Tuesday before Thanksgiving break. Then my focus gets drawn away to the other two projects with upcoming due dates.
11.17.2005
2:17pm
Procedure for completing Signals & Systems homework:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opens in theaters tomorrow morning at 12:01am. I won't be going to the midnight showing but probably some time this weekend. The reviews have been great so far so hopefully it will be even more entertaining than the first three.
11.10.2005
11:48am
End of a long week with one test (in multifarious systems) and no less than four homework assignments. But guess what's on the plate for next week: one test, one big project, and one big homework assignment. Junior year really does suck because the intense pace never lets up. I'm definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving break, even though I'm not planning to do anything special. Having Wednesday and Thursday off will be enough reward in of itself.
Coming up we've also got a MATLAB project for Signals & Systems, a web application project for Multifarious Systems, and more tests. Maybe that break won't be a vacation after all.
ANWR bill officially dropped thanks to some moderate Republicans. Great news.
11.4.2005
11:43pm
I went outside for a few minutes to look at the stars since there is no moon tonight. After strategically placing myself so that the neighbor's porch light was blocked from eyesight, I got a nice view of the clear sky and even caught glimpse of a shooting star. It's utterly astonishing how small you feel gazing up into the sky and thinking about how distanct those other stars are. And not in a "wow I wonder when we'll have a spaceship fast enough to take us there some day" way, but in a "my God the scale of the universe is incomprehensible" way. As much credit as we give to science and physics, there is still so much we don't know and likely will never know about the far reaches of space. I think a little mystery and bewilderment is good to have; the day the truth of all is explained would be a very sorrowful day indeed.
On that note, I think I'm going to read some more of "The Fabric of the Cosmos" which I have still managed not to finish. Good thing it's not a library copy.
11.2.2005
4:15pm