Sunday, August 30, 2009
at
3:27 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
First day after the submissions of all my assignments and it is off to a good start for the mid-semester break. Although it is only a week with a short assignment due at the end of this week, it is at least a good time for me to take a breather. But not without it's drama. My last assignment is due on Friday 9:30 pm and I have already uploaded my code to my Unix account in uni and went there for my lab session as well as to have another quick run of my code to check if I have ironed out everything before submission. Running the program, all worked well...except again the stupid matching brackets. After inputting another random line of brackets, it still gave me the wrong answer. Was about to pull my hair out for that one. Good thing I manage to spot the mistake and thankfully that was a small one. Am quite happy that now that assignment is now out of my hands.
To kick start the wonderful mid-semester break, we have our group social in College Square and for the second time we played Mafia. This time however will eventually build up to the climax of the last game where, in one word, was EPIC. There is no way I can describe everything in words, you just have to be there to witness the "awesomeness" of true Mafia gameplay. We wished that someone was there recording the whole game but even then I think it wasn't enough to give the full picture and consequence of the gameplay. That was a Mafia-gasm moment.
Took some pictures and I've decided to give Aperture a go with the 30-day trial thing before deciding on which program I am going to use for my photos. At first glance, I don't like how things are laid out and there is an awful lot of mouse clicks for you to apply presets to your pictures as compared to Lightroom. Presets in Lightroom seems easier to apply and view without having the need to actually apply them to see the results. With Aperture, the apply button is going to be your best friend. But, having said that, there are some usefulness to it. The presets are at the level of the categories that are available for you to tweak, so for example, there is one category for the contrast, definition, saturation and vibrancy. So if you have a particular preset (eg. High Contrast), you can apply that and say that you have a particular preset you use for black and white that normally be used for a not-so-high-contrast photo. You can click that preset for black and white and you have the best of both worlds.
So with Aperture, as far as I know, has the ability to have lots of small building blocks at your creation and disposal at the expense of loads of mouse clicks just to see how it all works out. Lightroom, on the other hand, has much bigger building blocks and so you might have lots of presets because you may one some characteristics from one preset but another characteristic from another at the benefit of speedy previews of the presets. Now I don't know which to use...crap.
Here are some of the Mafia who have been shot by a K20...post-processed with Aperture
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
at
4:52 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
Waaaay overdue backlog of the trip to Bairnsdale with some other friends to visit Ming in Bairnsdale. Took me ages to finish this roll of film but I think it was worth it and I didn't waste any shots this time which is always a big plus.
I've decided to go against what I've always done to my scanned film shots this time by actually trying a hand on post-processing on iPhoto. Normally I would leave it as it is with a tad bit of straightening and cropping but this time I'm playing with contrasts, saturation etc. It's not Photoshop or even Lightroom but it does do some things. And after my very feeble attempt at doing PP, I think I need lessons because I don't really know what to do. Criticisms and all are welcomed here or on Facebook. So here they are. Oh, and not all the pictures are from Bairnsdale but fillers for the film. They should be quite obvious.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
at
9:51 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
It's been a week already since the last time I've blogged and there is good reason. I've had 5 assignments due this week with one on Monday, one on Thursday and, by inference, 3 on Friday. That was a crazy week. But now that is over and the coast is clear for now. Happy that all of it is out of the way. Now I hope the marks reflect how much I have put into the assignments. Seriously...
Been sleeping something like 3-4 hours over those days because of programming and stuff. The second last assignment I finished on Friday 4:30pm with about one hour to go. The last one was already done but it is only done when I go to my C lab and demonstrate my code, that it actually works. So, transferred my code to the uni servers and tested to make sure that everything works, and it did. Then I started checking the individual programs. The one that will suddenly give me a heart attack was a program that was supposed to check whether the brackets in a user input matches. For example, "f^34f(fdsd{fdsf}ex)" has the brackets matched. I've tested so many cases and my program has given me the right answers. So I just simply typed in something and then...IT GAVE ME THE WRONG ANSWER!! AND MY LAB IS IN ONE HOUR!! *pressed panic button* Quickly tried to figure out what was wrong until suddenly the debugging program I used decided to go funny on me. And I still haven't figured out what was wrong with the program. There was only one thing left to do and that is to leave the house without showering since I got up and went straight to the computer lab and checked the code there. Lab started already and I am still haven't got my code ready for demonstration.
So the way the demonstration works is that when the lab starts, you go and write your name on the whiteboard and the lab demonstrator will come to you according to the list of names that you have written down. You can choose to write your name later but eventually you still have to. At this moment, I obviously didn't go up and write my name because I was too busy having a heart attack. By God's grace, about half an hour into the lab I got it working. Ran to the board and write my name down and was immediately tested. The funny thing is that when the lab demonstrator tested the matching brackets program, she selected the input and it avoided the pathological case that I was sooo stressed out about. Was relieved but at the same time judging by the people around me who are struggling to even get their code running let alone dealing with pathological cases, I was like "I went through that for nothing??!!" But I guess I have to be thankful about it. Now there is just one program left to complete before the final code submission on Friday and at least I don't have a throng of assignments due on the same day.
I was thinking about going to crash after OCF because of the lack of sleep I have been having. Then I had to jam in church until 5 in the morning. Not smart but was worth it I guess. We've been working on a series of medleys that go into the general keys of C and G with roughly the same chord progression. Either a 1-6-5-4 or 1-5-6-4 or a 1-4-6-5. Nothing terribly fancy but at least it gives me the chance to try filling in more so that I won't get bored. Managed to sleep until about 3 in the afternoon. Need to reset the bio clock man. Tried going to shoot but there was so little time to shoot because of the insufficient light. Meh.
You have got to see this...awesome mob prank. Watch till the very end. 0:41 is funny and 1:35
Anyway, like always, the news of the week: Facebook the start of growing that little green monster? Interesting
Now where can I find telescope mirrors? I want to try and do this...
Felicia Day is super hot here while the vid is funny yet terribly disturbing. Funny stuff for anyone who knows anything about MMOs.
Revenge of the Nerds man...This only serves to fuel my interest in computer security.
Seriously? Can people learn to ask correct questions...
Oooo...now I'm tempted to make my own tilt-shift lens...and cheaper too
For those who have grown up reading Archie comics, this recently news has caused outrage from quite a lot of people, myself including. Archie proposed to Veronica. I was like "WHATT??!! NO WAY!!". First of all, I much prefer Archie to go for Betty. She is waaay better than the spoilt Veronica. Second, this means that it might signal the end of the Archie comic series after the comics have been fueling people's lives for the past 70 years. That means America loses another iconic comic series of American lifestyle. And that is bad. But after the news has settled a down a bit, I have a feeling that there is something more to this than it seems. The news where Archie proposed to Veronica is in a special comic release and it is said to be Part 1 of 6. Something else has got to happen. It. Has. To. Be.
Friday, August 14, 2009
at
12:49 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Sleep deprived nights and all has taken a toll on me but the good news is that the difficult Java assignment is now done!! There is one more part for the rest of the assignment to be done before handing it in but this is the far more difficult one of the two. I don't think I should have any problems completing the second one. All in all, I thank God for sustaining me through and also gracious to allow for an extension in the assignment so that I don't die tomorrow.
Anyway, it's kinda apt that the title is the same as what I'm going through. There is actually a lot of things I need to juggle to keep me alive like Bible study leading, assignments and other sociable stuff. The great joy is having to be able to accomplish all of these and still have time for things. I hope I'm nearing that point but there is still a lot to be done.
Also, the reason for the strange way I'm spelling that was regarding my Java assignment. My assignment (or at least one part of it) was to created a very small scale and highly inefficient search engine that looks through text files and searches for words that are in the text files. The output should give the files that those words appear in. Sounds easy but there is a lot of pre-processing to be done before actually searching and for full marks, the program should be able to handle multiple word searches as well (as in a few words in one search). Apparently it is driving everyone nuts about it, though I find it strange that there are actually more people complaining about the C assignment than the Java one. Anyway, after telling some of my friends about my assignment, they said that I should name the search engine Ju-ggle. Lol.
Went to play pool with a few friends tonight and it's a good session. We played for 2+ hours and when we got around to paying, the girl behind the counter charged us less than what we were supposed to pay. That scratched my head for awhile and I just went ahead and pay that amount. After departing and grabbing dinner from McDonalds, it suddenly hit me that she really did under-charge us for the pool. This is where the typical angel and devil scene comes in. Angel said go back, devil said she's never going to know the mistake. I went with angel this time. Going back to the pool place and explained myself to the person-in-charge who was also at the counter with the girl who handled our payment and pointed out the mistake. When they realize that the mistake was made, both of them blurted "Thank you"s like I just saved their lives. The person-in-charge, who was this elderly man, left the counter and came back with a drink from the fridge and gave it to me along with more "Thank you"s. The girl took my money to pay the rest of the amount due accompanied with more "Thank you"s. You should see their faces when I came back to pay the rest of the money man. They were in utter shock that I did this especially the girl behind the counter. She was practically stuttering "You so honest" followed by 50,000 thank yous. I don't know why but that made my day. It is interesting note that honesty is something that is not prevalent in our interactions anymore to the extent that when there is one single act of honesty just blows people away. I hope that this would be a lesson to myself as I sometimes don't do what the angel says and follow the devil. In this case, I got off on good ground but next time I might not do what is right because I think that I may not get off on good ground after being honest and that you'd rather lie. May I do what is right no matter the circumstances or outcome.
News of the week: I didn't know that eggplant was a colour scheme. More surprisingly, it's supposed to be one of the most universal colour to complement skin colour.
It turns out that Jungle Book got the right idea. If only they have a similiar piece of research for cats...
Yay! Apple store might be in the city but boo that they are tearing down an old iconic building for it...
Sometimes identity theft can be used for good...note to self, never mess with someone's laptop. You may never who that guy works for or what he is capable of...
On a scientific level, this is very good news. But why, oh why is the government doing some stupid like this?
Fatty foods may make you stupid and lazy...that might explain some Americans behaviour
Sunday, August 9, 2009
at
12:08 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Life's been good lately, with the new addition of new hardware to my room =D
Started our first Bible study on Genesis and while the group hasn't changed at all in terms of regulars, there is something missing about the atmosphere of the group. Last time we had about 17 people coming to our studies and pretty much most of them actually come to our studies regularly, which is actually a huge rarity. Now there are like 10 people in our group, which makes getting people to participate in the studies a bit better compared to last time. On the other hand, a lot of the more noisy people have been "stolen" from us because they decided to add another Bible study group. Well apparently, the rest of the other groups were huge making us look small. Weird.
Upon going to the leaders' meeting before the study itself, it suddenly dawned upon me that I had less than 10 days to complete two programming assignments. Worse still is that I haven't started on both. Suddenly, I went into panic mode and started trying to do one of them. I think I chose unwisely on which to start on because I started on the Java assignment. What a waste of time because nothing was done despite spending several hours trying to figure out how to do my assignment. I got scared man. But now, it's not so bad as I have finished the other assignment in about 3+ hours. So I'm unwinding before I start tackling Java again. God help me.
The plus side of all of this is a good kick start for me to continue doing more work on my own. Now that there is always something moving or going on as compared to my PhD stuff, it makes me want to work. I always wondered why some people absolutely hate it when there is nothing to do at work or that nothing is moving. But now after going through that cycle and now back on the fast track, I can fully identify that feeling. Because there is so much going on in my course with assignments and all, I need to absorb things faster. So while refreshing my memory of C, I'm learning Java and more commands on the Unix environment and I have grown to like the Terminal on the Mac. On top of that, I'm learning to use various other programming packages to make my life a lot easier, at least in theory. Xcode helps a lot but still have a few things to iron out and I would love to try and do stuff on Java but I think I will stick to Eclipse for awhile since that is the program that I have been using in classes. But yes, things are moving fast but that is a good thing.
I sound like a Mac noob but that's fine...
Moving on to something less geeky, my companion for doing my assignment is chill out music on some of the iTunes radio channels. It's so relaxing even when you are trying to look for a bug in your program and certainly keeps the heart rate down. I really wish I had more CDs for chill out music but not many people give recommendations because either they don't listen to it or they are like me, loving chill out music but have no idea where to get a good collection.
Also, after having a post on Facebook highly viewed and quite a number of people have been very concerned about what I said there. I thank you all for you concerns but I assure you that nothing is the matter and purely something that I have to deal with myself. I'm actually quite puzzled about things like this. Only when posts like these come out in the open that people suddenly ask or talk to me but other times, nothing. So suppose that there is something that bothers me and I don't say anything about it, will people still ask? Who's to blame here when something goes wrong as a result? Interesting that these sorts of things happen to me on a fairly regular basis although more often now than ever...
Remember the Advanced Bass-ics post? I just found out that the third song that was on the post "Dear" by Hatsune Miku was actually done by computer software. As in the singer in that song was actually computer generated. Cool. All you need for input are lyrics and a melody and then you can tweak things from there. The bridge between human singing and computer generated singing is closing in. Which gives many more cannot-sing-to-save-their-lives people more room to explore. Whether or not they will be judged more harshly because they rely on computers to do something that the human vocal chords are supposed to do is another separate thing altogether.
Seriously, this is like the adult's version of the ageless "My dog ate my homework" excuse...I iz not havinz pwn. Iz nayture dockcuementariz. Kthxbai.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
at
1:54 PM
| Posted by
Juwen
No, I am not referring to the hit song from the Goo Goo Dolls, but
This is my new toy. Even just the first 10 minutes after booting up and a brief use of iPhoto and other short demos of some of the things are bundled with this machine, I. am. loving. it. I was about to regret getting this machine because of what I might be lacking in playing games in the future or sometimes even now (no Crysis on high quality...) Even with all the mess that is in my room, with the addition of the iMac, everything seems to be in place. It's so pretty. And iPhoto beats Picasa hands down (to those owners of Macs, yes I'm slow to realise this). It's sort of like halfway between Picasa and some of the more professional software like Lightroom (which by the way, I am going to get as well). The picture was also about toying around using my external flash that I bought from Khai last time and I am fairly pleased with the result. Need to read and learn how to use the flash more.
I am so surprised about how the Mac can do everything. And I mean quite damn close to everything. I mentioned to someone saying that the only thing the Mac doesn't do is to brush your teeth, cook and do your homework. Already I can use the iChat to use GTalk, something that I wasn't sure that it could be done easily. Well, apparently the stuff I've read are like a year ago and now, everything is integrated into iChat. So I can literally do everything with it. Once I get a copy of windows, I would have the power of 3 OS at my finger tips. The Mac OS X, Windows and Unix.
For those curious about the specs, this beauty has this under the hood: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz 4GB DDR3 RAM 640GB Hard drive Nvidia GT 130 with 512 MB dedicated memory 24" screen And all the goodness of the Mac software...
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
at
12:42 AM
| Posted by
Juwen
Went on a short road trip to Bairnsdale, Paynesville and Lakes Entrance over the weekend and it was a nice little trip that we went on. Again there were 5 people on the trip but at least this one wasn't awkward. As far as I know. If something happened on that trip, I am soooo put off going on road trips with odd numbers. Anyway, the little towns that we visited were, in my opinion, different compared to other towns. Since the Tasmanian trip, I had the impression that food in general is going to be so-so at best. I was wrong on this occasion. Had a nice chicken and coriander pesto wrap for lunch at Bairnsdale and it was delicious. So were the other food items we ordered. On top of that, it was at a reasonable price. Coffee there was also not bad. Guess you just need to know where to find places like these when in small towns.
Visited Raymond Island and it was a very nice sunny day and while driving along the coast of the island, someone manage to spot dolphins in the river. Brakes were slammed and raced to the nearest jetty (there are a lot around here) and lo and behold we did spot the dolphins. By that time they were already far away for any pictures to be taken but it was an awesome sight. There were a few more escapades but I might leave that for another time.
We cooked dinner at our accommodation and spent most of the night watching Finding Nemo and Take Two.
Cave visiting the next day before heading back to Melbourne. Very short but we were all happy about it.
Now with this huge backlog of (digital) pictures, I am even more anxious about when my new machine will be coming. I even went to the extent of software window shopping in advance so that when my machine comes, I can quickly get all the stuff I need. Which brings me to a very unpleasant impression of Microsoft's marketing and technical strategies. I was looking around for a copy of Windows to install in my machine but I needed a full install version and none of those upgrades that you see plenty around. I went into the Melbourne Uni bookshop and asked if they have a full version of Windows. They said no and I was fine with it. Then the person serving me asked why don't you have Windows installed on my computer? I told her I'm getting a Mac which obviously doesn't have Windows on it. Before she gave me her answer, she gave me this weird look on her face like the kind that says "Have you been living in a hole? Every computer has Windows and yours doesn't? You weird". So I started looking online and even on the main Windows website, there are only two options listed explicitly on how you can obtain Windows. One is to buy a PC and you'll get Windows pre-installed and the other is to upgrade your current Windows. That's it. No mention of buying a full copy of Windows anywhere except in some other page with in the website. After a good half an hour of searching, turns out that there are only a few places where you can get a full copy. Why does Windows have to use this marketing strategy? Makes it even more frustrating. And why can't the full copy be the same CD or DVD as the upgrade? Doesn't it strike them that there might be people who still need a full copy of Windows that is not existent in their current computer like Mac users and not just assume everyone has some previous version of Windows? So annoying...
Anyway, ranting aside, hopefully my new Mac will arrive soon. I need to do assignments already.
Oh, and errr, I might be helping out photographing another friends' wedding soon. This time armed with film and a longer range lens. Might be interesting...
Links: Who would have thought that more movement actually saves energy... MSG a link to weight gain? We Chinese are screwed...
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