December 23, 2008

Courses Spring 2009

Sooo it's that time again! Here's my course listing for spring 2009
  • Introduction To Statistics
    • I dropped it last semester due to a scheduling conflict
  • Computer Security
  • Global Economics
  • Systems Software
  • Object Oriented Design
  • Database Systems

December 21, 2008

Winter Break Goals

Okay real quick run down of what I'm looking to do this winter break

  1. Read & complete most of dive into python
  2. Finish ANSI Common LISP
  3. Move blog to prxi.net (via wordpress or some such)
  4. Finish The Cathedral & The Bazaar
  5. Finish Hackers & Painters
    • Good read. A lot of really great information and some new concepts I hadn't thought of before. There are some things which I may not agree on, but I need to think over them a bit more before I can decide
  6. Finish organizing my documents
  7. Order books for next term
  8. Finish write up of G1 review
  9. Learn more about VIM
  10. Watch at least 8 more lectures from Stanford on data structures
Shouldn't be tough :D

October 22, 2008

Debian web servers

So at the college's web group swidi (student web innovation and design initiative) we tore down our old ubuntu server and reinstalled with straight up debian. (We wanted to go a bit lighter than what ubuntu had to offer for the moment. Plus the set up of the original server had some issues that needed to be fixed)

That said, what amazed me is that we had a working server with apache2, php, ssh, sftp, and X/gnome in under 3 hours with little to no configuring. (secuirty measures nonwithstanding)

Linux has really come a long way from only 5-6 years ago.

Tomorrow sees mysql and subversion!

September 26, 2008

A great post on IE specific CSS hacks.

http://www.webdevout.net/css-hacks

September 16, 2008

Things are going great. I've began taking some great strides towards accomplishing my goals, and I think in a little while, I'll be more of a nerd than I ever was, but with a built body to boot.

Bess and I are doing quite well. She surprised me with a really nice shaving set, that promises to improve my shaving experience exponentially. I'm pretty excited, but I'm waiting to use it until I've finished reading the book she gave me to go with it. I'll have pictures of it later.

Theoretical foundations is proving to be more interesting than I originally thought. Our teacher's methods of presenting the course information threw me off for a little while, however with a little work and some reading of my course book, I've really began to understand the concepts concerning basic language construction and organization. It will be interesting to write my first language & interpreter by the end of this course.

Despite beginning quite slow, Logic circuits is beginning to pick up with more interesting material on how some of the more basic operations work. Though if I complete another truth table I am going to shoot myself.

Data structures too is going well, however we've become seriously bogged down on some of the concepts of creating a linked list. It would be nice to move on or at least move faster.

Georgia Southern classes aren't bad, however my biggest criticism is that my classes aren't very hard. They all present good information and the teachers aren't bad, but I feel like they are teaching these 3000 level courses at a level more like intro/sophomore levels.

September 1, 2008

I've learned a lot this past year of school. And yet it wasn't so much from the institution itself, but rather a direct result of simply being here.

When I graduated from high school I had these dreams of becoming great like some of my idols in the computer and scientific world. I dreamed of living up to their standards and accomplishing the types of things they had.

I wanted to discover something new and wonderful. My relativity, my calculus so to speak. Yet what I've come to realize this past year, is that I was not just looking up to some of these greats of math and science, but I was trying to be them. And in doing so, I haven't been living as I would choose to. The story goes like this.

Often, in a half serious/joking manner, I would muse "Where would we be if Newton or Hawking had grown up with World of Warcraft?" My thinking was that they would be so consumed with these games that they wouldn't have gone on to make the great discoveries of their day.

Yet I've realized that I've been trying to rationalize why I haven't made a great discovery or formed a great new way to accomplish a task. That I had been attempting to equivocate my my less than accomplished life, to theirs. Trying to write these distractions off as my undoing and the reason behind their great success.

This was incredibly arrogant of me.

Yet, knowing this, it begs the question, where does this leave me?
I'm not sure yet. I know a few areas I would like to address first, and I think I will play it by ear.


  1. Weight. I have to face the fact that I'm overweight. I've began going to the gym, and I've started to cut back on eating habits.
  2. Finances. I have issues with spending money that I shouldn't. Plan - create a real budget and stick to it
  3. Knowledge. I have an understanding of many concepts, yet I always feel as if I just have either surface knowledge of subjects, or just below. This is going to require the most time. I want to begin relearning most of my math and English. While I can do both well, at times I don't understand certain concepts that others learned in ages past.
  4. brush up on basic mental arithmetic. Simple to understand
And that's my current ideas and plans. Now to get to work on them... tomorrow, it's late now.

August 30, 2008

Andoriod handset

Wow.
HTC's - Dream. Running Android

Can't wait to get my hands on one or another similar device! :)