Aperium

On break

2009-11-28T11:04:00.003-05:00

So it's Thanksgiving and Christmas break from Ohio University. Six week straight of not worrying about anything academically related... or maybe not. Regardless, it is a break and an opportunity to spend time with friends from a former chapter of your life.

As relaxing as it should be, there are still stressor to be dealt with. I'm headed back to Athens today to resolve one. Getting my hair cut in Cleveland mid next week if plans hold, and I'll be back in sweet Bellbrook by this time a week from now. Such is the life of the college student, or at least a case example of one that may or may not be indicative of the population.

Statistics will do that to you: get you talking about how samples reflect populations from whence they're drawn. Larger sample sizes are more accurate, of course. I find myself thinking about things in terms of chemistry and physics too. I'll look at to objects in motion and ponder the passing of kinetic energy between them.

Maybe six weeks will give time for that to leak out of my head, but no doubt other things will have taken their spot. I'll be working on a website, something I've not done the old-fashioned way in almost 2 years. Can't wait to see html code and photoshop toolboxes as I close my eyes to sleep at night.

Enough musing for now I suppose. I have a suite case to empty out, a pile of cloths to put in it, and more in the washer and dryer to deal with. Have just over two hours before estimated departure. Lets see if I can't pull off leaving on-time for once.

Splat Z Productions

2009-08-12T20:16:00.002-05:00

I need to go soon, but I wanted to tell you about Splat Z Productions. The website is up and mostly working. Check it out.

Ok, So maybe I'm in a posting mood.

2009-07-30T22:10:00.008-05:00

This is going to ramble a bit. Consider yourself warned.

Sam Patt and I are working on starting a small video production company. I set up a website for it. It was just sort of generic, waiting for real content to be added. After I put the real content up there I was going to worry about getting an appropriate URL. That was about a month, or more, ago. Now I'm stuck trying to remember the url of the hosting company i used. Yay me. I'll update you when I have more to say about that.

Some of you may know that my right knee has a problem that prevents me from running without extreme pain. I have located an office to look at it, but have been hesitant to make an appointment until I could isolate the dates of two other appointments my dad already made for me. (He doesn't always keep track of information like that very well.) I finally called and got the dates, so I'll be making an appointment to get my knee checked out soon. I also need to start my allergy shots again. I should call them soon too.

My academic situation is interesting. I've been a botany major in a special program called HTC (at Ohio University). In the program each student must have a "tutorial" every quarter. Tutorials are essentially guided independent studies where you'll meet with the professor one-on-one at least once a week to discuss progress. I get to choose the topics of the tutorials, and choose which faculty I want to have them with. My problem is simply that my tutorials haven't been going very well. I can't even find a topic that is interesting enough for tutorial in the fall. This leads my down three trains of though: A) I'm just getting bored or something and i'll get though it if i keep with it and keep pushing it. B) HTC might not be the best place for me. If I'm not motivated enough for the tutorial program, it would be better to just be a normal botany student. C) Botany really isn't the place for me.

This last option needs more explaining. If you know me, you know i like science. I knew that. So my question was, what branch do i like best? Physics is boring. Chemistry is too confusing. Geology, is mostly devoid of anything close to excitement, beyond boring. Biology is nice... but what type. Zoology, Microbiology, or Botany? Animals are kinda messy and gross. I couldn't imagine dissecting them all the time, or trying to feed or clean up after them.. But i really like the idea of genetic engineering. So, onto Micro or plants. Micro deals with small stuff only, but i love plants. So, Botany it was. The problem come not from the fact that i love botany more than the other branches, but from how i like interacting with science.

The thing is, I apply science. for biology that would be developing better planting techniques, or but genetically engineering organisms to better serve people. But in order to genetically engineer in the way my mind works we need to know a whole lot more how plants work as a system from dna to organism and every process in between. Now, we don't have that kind of working knowledge yet, so my options are reduced. I could do primary research to advance science to the point where people can just make the things they want, OR I could genetically engineer things the traditional way, and use a lot of trial and error to achieve results. The downside here is that it takes years to make good products, which is way to slow for me.

What got me thinking about this agian was some photoshoped pictures of cars. People were claiming they were full-body kits for smart cars, which of-course was not the case. (link if you'd like to see. I'd highly recommend) I figrued, you know what? I see what they did, they just halved the legth of the car, and then corrected the proportions of some things, like the tires, that needed to be normal-size. So I made one of my own. (link It's based off of a Saab 9-3) The problem the came when i started thinking about the mechanical features of the car. For example, the window on my version was too large to actually go down all the way because of the cut-out I made for the door. The engine and other "under the hood" things would be very cramped, not-to-mention the poor handling the vehicle was likely to have because of the high center of gravity relative to the stance.

I looked up the Mini to see how it was designed. I looked closer at the real Smart Car for two. And i thought about how i'd solve the small car problem, as I saw it. People want to have a car large enough to cary everything they need and their family or friends; however, they usually drive alone with very little luggage. The problem here is to make a car that is more appropriately sized for one person, but will accommodate more in times of need. For one person, you need very small car with a centrally placed seat, with room for luggage behind, probably in a hatch-back for easier access. To cary one passenger, add a fold-up seat in the back luggage area. For two, maybe you could widen the back bench a little to squeeze in two back there. What if you have to cary 3 passengers? Well, i don't know what to do but push the driver and all of his control back to the left, and put the extra seat to the driver's right. But now it looks like a normal sedan, albeit cramped because it's only just large enough to hold everyone.

No, this is a really cramped 4-seater, it's not even comfortable for the driver. so, the driver would really like to be back in the center, as long as he has fewer than 3 passengers. Solution: slide the driver back to center when you don't absolutely need the extra front seat. WHAT?!?! That's crazy! I know... I know. but listen. The petals are all hydraulic, so they can slide on rails from center to left and back, with hydraulic hoses to keep everything connected. The Seat slides on rails too, nothing too unusual here. The steering wheel and Dashboard are tricky, because they can't move... oh wait, the steering could be hydraulic too, couldn't it? So... you could put it on rails too, with the dash.. and just slide it back and fourth... But rails aren't pretty. Oh! but you could mount the wheel and dash panel on some kind of one-spoked wheel, so you could swing it into place, then lock it in positions. but then it wouldn't look balanced, and wouldn't the wheel be heavy? So off set it with a second spoke that acts as a counter balance, and add a GPS/back=up camera/whatever LCD display panel that moves opposite the wheel. Of course you'd need to put in mechanical things to keep the panels, wheel, and display the right orientation, but that wouldn't be hard.

Then I took a second to look at what i was doing. I was designing a car. Designing a car? That doesn't sound like a botanist.. more like an engineer.. oh, my dad was an engineer... and i used to like seeing how mechanical things worked and designing mechanical things.. But engineering is the application of Physics and Physics is boring... but I did really well in physics because it came so naturally to me...

So now I'm stuck. I was thinking that perhaps i should take some Comp Sci classes and head more towards bioinformatics, because i liked computer programing. This realization that I might like being an engineer caught me off-guard. That; however, does not help resolve my current dilemma. I'm loth to transfer colleges, but i don't want to be stuck in botany if i'd really be better off in engineering. I'm thinking about how I could give engineering a try so i have a better idea if i want to do it or not, before i make a mess of things but trying to change majors.

More updates to come, i hope. May your future be more clear than mine.

αν έκανα Update

2009-07-30T21:51:00.004-05:00

You all might know of my second blog, αν έκανα (an ekana). If you do, you also know that I have not been very good about keeping it updated. Familiar story, right? Anyway, I added a second author. Meet Sam Patt. She is my closest friend and i think will have some interesting stuff to contribute.

Starting, Again

2009-07-29T03:48:00.003-05:00

I'm sure this is a good time to say this, being almost 5:00 am, so here it goes. I might want to try writing blog entries again.

Does that make this the third or fourth time I've said that? I don't know, and it doesn't matter much. If I do something, you'll know. If I don't, it won't matter if you know or not. haha. Tare care!

Where in the World

2009-03-17T00:23:00.001-05:00

Trying to find one's place in the world is one of the hardest things some of us ever do. It's more than just trying to find the right major in college, and then changing it a year later. It has to do with what each of feels we need to be happy, or at least content. What we're passionate about, what makes us feel desire, what nightmares play through our head after we shut our eyes just before we drift off to dreamland, and what lessens those nightmares. Friends may come and go along the way, feeding different desires and fear as they do, and will ultimately impact where we finally fall among they great many possible routs our lives could have taken. Some forget, you always have more power than anyone else at controlling how happy you are with where you are, and if you are not happy with where you are, you can always move.

I'll invent something to help discuss and measure how well people feel with what is happening in their lives; I'll call it the contentness factor (referred to as CF). This value is controlled my many variables, but in essence it represents how close people are to where they want to be.

Example: For someone who is whole-heartedly bend on becoming a veterinarian, getting accepted into a good vet school would probably increase the CF, while failing to be accepted would decrease the CF. The same person might have a higher CF in vet school than in pre-med because they are close to the final goal; however, if the person was very content just to be doing everything he could to be a vet, then his CF in pre-med may have been just as high.

Certainly one's career is one of the many variables the affect the CF. Personal image may be another. Social life, popularity, fitness, financial strength, sex life, companionship, education... the list goes on as long as there topics that influence people feelings.

Now we can make a cute little equation. We'll say each of these variables is actually a sub-factor of the CF. So, we can say that the variable that represents one's career is CF_career. Each of the variables can be assigned a sub-CF in the same manner. So, in abstract we have variables CF_a, CF_b, CF_c, CF_d, CF_e, etc. The sum or these we'll say equals the infamous CF. Just for you people who like symbols:

CF_SUM = CF_a + CF_b + CF_c + CF_d + CF_e + ...

or maybe the average would be more accurate so that additional factors would not greatly affect the CF. After all it's the average of all of the things in your life that make you're overall feelings, not the number of things in your life.

CF_AVG = (CF_a + CF_b + CF_c + CF_d + CF_e + ...) / n

but what if popularity and fitness aren't as important to you as your education, but you'd still rather be fit than popular. If you think education is twice as important as popularity, we could give it a coefficient of 2. Fitness might then get a coefficient of 1.2. So, we'll ad coefficients to the equation, making sure that it won't artificially inflate the CF.

CF_AVG = (aCF_a + bCF_b + cCF_c + dCF_d + eCF_e + ...) / (a + b + c + d + e + ...)

Just to review incase you didn't follow, the variable a, b, c, d, and e represent the relative imortance an individual feels toward each sub-CF, denoted CF_a, CF_b, CF_c, CF_d, and CF_e. Each sub-CF is just how satisfied (or content) a person is with some aspect of their life. We can express it as a fraction, between 0 and 1. If my formula is right, the CF (or CF_AVG in the equation) would be a value between 0 and 1 that rated how contend people were with where they were in their life, 1 being perfectly content, and 0 being completely unsatisfied.

Passion

2009-02-12T08:59:00.002-05:00

Through middle school and high school, every time any talk of planning for the future, of choosing the right classes, came up, it always seemed that the topic of jobs versus careers did too. Jobs, of course, are things people do for money, where as careers are field that people get jobs in.

The analysis can be deeper than that though. Jobs can be in any field, doing any kind of work that one is qualified or able to do. Careers are usually fields people put effort into studying so that they may better get jobs that they want. The whole point in having a career is being able to focus ones interests so that the person may better qualify for jobs.

But where to focus? Somewhere you're interested? possibly. Somewhere that's fun? maybe. Somewhere that's easy? could work. Some combination of these? more likely. It is foolish to suspect the everyone need the same thing from their career path. While it may be unlikely for people to need only something that fulfills any of those categories, I would suggest that most people need some combination.

I can't assume to be ably to apply this to everyone, but the combination I need is something I'm going to call passion. For me to be passionate about something, I have to have and interest in it, but interest alone is not enough. It needs to be fun in it's own way, and it must not be too difficult, because I'll get bored and frustrated otherwise. If I get bored or frustrated I know I'll not be able to follow through, at lest not without an amount of conviction that I find difficult to muster.

So, if passion is a must, then I must choose a field that I am passionate about. I've told some people that I'd have majored in several things at the same time, if I could. Botany would certainly have been one, but so too would have been computer science. I think psychology, Spanish, and something creative like film or photography would have made the cut too. Really, if I could I'd take Chinese, French, and Arabic in addition to my Spanish, just so I could talk to nearly anyone. Of course, that is highly unreasonable for me at the present.

There was a time last year I was torn between a career in Botany/microbiology and computer science. I suppose that the living side of that choice won out just in time to make it on my application. I know I had a passion for science all my life, and plants were a large part of that especially up into high school. My involvement with the American Chestnut Foundation is small evidence of that. I was passionate about chestnuts. I was passionate about helping fix Earth's problems, especially correcting human blunders. I think I am still passionate about helping people, fixing their mistakes, and paving the way for a better future, but the work along the way is tripping me up.

I'm currently taking some of the advanced plant biology courses that will help me "save the world" some day, and all of the material (at least the majority) is very interesting. The problem I suppose comes in part with the tediousnesses of the work. Memorizing the life cycles of a dozen different organism seems pointless giving the millions that exist. The electron transport chain I've seen before, but never in the depth we've now discussed, but why didn't I feel like learning it to that depth? Where is the passion to find out as much as I possibly could about every process; how and why it works?

Maybe it's just lost in the flood of new information. Maybe it's lost in the confusion surrounding my relationship turmoil. It is true that academics didn't seem as important when it looked like one of my friends was having a breakdown, and our close mutual friend turned on me when I tried helping her. I'm still getting back on my feel from that one.

In Young Life we had a discussion about how many of the leaders loose the passion to lead for periods... but that the important thing is to remember why you are doing it, and to keep pushing yourself to do what you need to. Eventually the passion will come back. I'm taking things out of context again, but I'm hoping that this will apply to my Career. I want to see that passion in biology again. The passion to learn. For now I'm trying to stick it out, because the threat of failing out of school is too great.

I think I'll survive this battle. It's a hard one, but I'm not so weak as to fail. And when I do get the upper hand, I'll be that much better for having done it. Prayers are always appreciated along the way; however.

When I Grow Up

2009-02-09T16:36:00.001-05:00

It's a phrase often repeated and rarely given much thought. In my younger years I always viewed the phrase as an introduction to telling one's hypothetical preferred future occupation/career.

I was always a science kind of guy. Doing experiments with and on random things around my house. The weren't all controlled and documented as we learn in Science fair, or college for you science majors, but they did give me insight into the workings of the physical world. In fact, I can probably blame my curiosity for the natural world for difficulty believing in the existence of anything non-physical. In my mind everything happens for a reason, and that reason is physics. Every action has a reaction. It's not a difficult concept, until you apply it to human life, or dare I say: human mental processes.

But that's not were I'm going with this. I do have problems with faith, and I don't know how, or if I will ever sort them out. I love Christ and his message, and I love god, if only I could believe he were real.

But that's not what I want to talk about today either, though it complicates the matter. Today I'm talking about who, not what I want to be when I grow up. It's a fundamental change in perspective, far too abstract for the children who ponder the phrase, unfortunately. Being the person you want you be is far more important than any job, occupation, or career.

SO, moving along... I've seen guys playing sports, leading in church, teaching, playing with kids, or just hanging out, and thoughts like " wow, i wish i was the comfortable/natural/good doing that." Kind of shaped a super human idea of what I'd be if I could be anyone I wanted, with any combination of qualities. You don't need me to tell you how unrealistic something like that is, but it didn't stop me from wanting to be that person, or trying to be that person.

It wasn't entirely unproductive either. I can thank that drive for helping me open up, and loosen up. At first is was just forcing myself to act like I knew I should act if I felt comfortable in the social situation. Yes it was awkward at first, but with time i actually did feel like I could fit in more naturally. All that faking helped get me to the point where I am today, socially. don't know if that made sense, but I'm moving on.

The real point here is that I'm tired of living by a standard that others set. I have always felt, at least for all of high school and beyond, that I'm trying to conform to what ever social group I'm around, like I have to fit in. Reality is that I don't. I don't have to fit in. I don't have to do what people expect, or what people want.

Now doing what people don't want you to, for no other reason than to do it, is a little absurd and in my opinion entirely wrong. Every action a person makes should be a moral one. if an action does not support their morals, than they need not do it, in fact, they should not.

Why do I keep getting side-tracked? ok. When I grow up, I want to live my life according to my plan, how I want to live it. I don't want it to be dictated by the actions, or influence of others. i don't want it to bend under peer pressure or social phobias.

When i grow up I want to be dedicated to doing what I'm passionate about, and I want to be passionate about something. I want to be able to support myself, and not depend on others. I'd have myself be the rock/wall/shoulder that people lean on when they're down, but I don't want that wall ever to crumble or fall under the weight, and I especially don't want it to run. I want to be able to manage my affairs without disorder or distress. I want my life to be meaningful to someone, even if they never realize it. I want to be an example of how one can live a good life, of how one can battle the worst of inner conflicts and thrive. I want to be productive.

I want to be productive.

It would also be nice if i wasn't so confused all the time, and didn't struggle with balancing opposing viewpoints in my own mind all the time. but I could settle with being productive for now.

Life

2009-02-08T17:06:00.001-05:00

I'm going to a Young Life even in about an hour, and have lots of homework to do. Logically, I should be doing the homework to relieve all the stress it's giving me, but no, I'm writing a post to my blog.

I could have done my homework yesterday too. In fact, I had almost a whole day to myself. What a wonderful opportunity to get caught up, or, dare I say, ahead. In my defense, I did need to catch up on sleep from last week. All this quarter I've been staying up past 2 and 3 AM every night (...or morning). Why? I'm not sure. Stupid stuff. Me procrastinating, having fun doing nothing much.

If I'd just sit down and do my homework I would be so stressed all the time, rushing to get essays and lab reports done the night before they're due. I never wanted to live this way, and I certainly don't want to any more. I've had enough of just getting my, of pretending to be doing my work, of pretending to study. I can't afford to not be the best I can be anymore.

I've tried blaming things for distracting me, most recently my friends, but really the might have been enablers, but I get no more done when I'm away from them. So, now, I'm finally coming around to the idea that what must change is entirely me, or in my head... My priorities, my work ethic, my motivation.

I know that my schooling is something I cannot afford to give up, so I think I must make it a priority above almost everything else, but as long as I keep it up to a certain (high) level, how much and when I work on it is flexible. Young Life is important to me. I enjoy working with younger people, and I very much want to give back and help bring people up in a more caring way. So, Young Life is high on my priorities list too. As with school, I don't have to give it 100%, but the more I give it the better, and if i give it too little, it just won't do.

Friends are harder to sort out. They are not as scheduled. In fact, the are flat out unpredictable, and they usually can't wait, so if one is to serve his friends, everything else my bend for them. But how to find the balance? Serve friends too much and everything else suffers, yet not serving friends lets them fall or drift away.

Life was so much simpler back in high school when I practically never saw friends away from school. I had hours of time all my myself, to do what ever I wanted. Yes, I still procrastinated, and stayed up to horrible hours doing my homework, But I got it done, and I didn't have friend to run around making sure the didn't fall, or picking up the pieces if the situation demanded. That's not to say I didn't do a little of that, I did. A held a few couple-hour phone calls that were very important to the well being of the person I was talking to, but those were few.

And yet, all that time I wanted to be friends with more people, I dreamed about being friends with the popular kids, about being in the "AP kids click", about being on sports teams. I think that's a post for another time; however. I have to get ready for my Young Life thing now, and figure out if I can actually get this to post, since I haven't in so long.

Sorry to leave you with such uncompleted thoughts, but life demands that we do things on it's schedule, not the artificial ones in our heads or on paper.

Seen a VAWT before?

2008-08-13T22:25:00.005-05:00

It's likely you've seen a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine before. Looks something like the propellers on some aircraft. If you've seen any of the wind farms in the Midwest or West, then you know what I'm talking about. That three blade style of wind generator is the most commonly used style in commercial wind generation in the states. One reason for it's popularity is simply that it's well tested and works. However, it is not the only practical design. Take a look at this clip.

That's a VAWT, a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. I haven't done any number crunching to see if the numbers really support that these are more efficient than the HAWT designs, but they certainly look neat. I should add that there are two primary styles of VAWTs, ones based on air resistance, and ones based on lift. The lift types (as shown in the top of the last picture) are made of much smaller fins and operate most efficiently at higher wind speeds. The lower VAWT shown in the picture is based on air resistance. Air resistance models operate at both low wind speeds and high wind speeds, but the lift models out preform them in high wind speeds.

This topic only came up because my family and neighbors are discussing putting up a joint wind turbine. A couple models from different companies have been discussed, but no final decisions have been made. What we do agree on is that we want to tie the turbine into the grid to reduce the about of non-renewable energy we use. My neighbor has a propane powered generator that is powerful enough to power both houses in times that that the grid is down. At any rate, the cost and labor for the turbine and generator will be shared, as appropriate.

Back on subject, I've found a couple companies that produce aesthetically pleasing models that would suite our needs. We had been discussing HAWTs in the range of 800 to 1000 watts. It's nice that the VAWTs I found can greatly exceed that without being significantly larger. Ok, here's the link: PacWind. The other one I like appears to be very similar in design and output to some of PacWind's models, though I haven't studied it thoroughly. Take a look for yourself: Windspire.

Lot more research to do, but my goal at the moment is to bring some alternatives to the traditional to the table. I honestly think that some of these would greatly out-preform the HAWTs we've discussed. Cost is one thing I've not seen, partly because they haven't been listed. We've got a long way to go before anything tangible comes out of this, but any way it happens it will be better than nothing.

That's enough for now I think. Next update coming sometime, I think. Haha, have a great time 'till then!

New Mac on the Way

2008-08-11T22:41:00.006-05:00

I've been looking at Macs for a couple weeks, in the last couple days I finally settled on the configuration, and today I got around to buying it. It's one of the 13 inch MacBooks, Black in color. In the MacBook line of apple laptops color is significant: Blacks have higher specs than the cheaper white ones. My dad went ahead an ordered a MacBook Pro tonight for himself, for reasons that aren't worth spending that amount of money on, but he's allowed to spend his money how he want's, and since he's paying helping pay for my college, I'm not going to argue too much. Tim, my brother, looked at the Macs but decided that he'd rather stick with Windows, though he'll have to take Vista instead of the XP service pack zero that he's used to. He's Sony Vaio sure is nice. It's smaller and has higher specs than mine, but the only thing that makes my really envious is the screen resolution. I can't recall what it is at the moment, but he can put two full web pages side-by-side on his 13 inch screen. The price tag is what makes mine more reasonable, in my opinion; his only cost around 50% more than mine.

Enough with that. I've never used a Mac for any length of time, and I'd never feel comfortable relying on an unfamiliar operating system for 4 years. Why then did I decide to get a Mac? Because I can install both Windows and my favorite: Ubuntu. Mac comes with a feature called Boot Camp, which partitions the hard drive and facilitates the install of Windows. It also sets up the option to choose your operating system at boot up. As I said before, just Windows and OS X isn't good enough. Unfortunately Boot Camp doesn't support a third boot partition, so at that point I'll need to replace Boot Camp with an Open Source package called rEFIt. To my knowledge it doesn't have a limit to the number of bootable partitions, and would certainly support Mac, Windows, and Ubuntu. I found some demonstrations on how on how to preform the install, and the results, on YouTube, and I'll try to follow them as best I can. We'll see how well it works. My hard drive is 250GB, large enough to give each OS a reasonably sized partition. I'm thinking around 20GB for each of the three OS partitions(and another small partition, 5MB I think, that Ubuntu needs for something). I'll make the 190 gigabytes or so that are left over into a partition for data and files that I can share between all three OS's. There's always the potential that I'll not do everything perfectly on the first try, but In the case that I screw up the Mac install, I'll always have the disk to reinstall.

Just to make everything that much nicer, I'm going to set up a a/b/g/n NetGear Rangemax wireless router in my dorm room so my brother and I have the fastest possible connection to our network storage device and to our all-in-one printer. The printer and router are as-of-yet unpurchased, but we'll have them in time.

Here's an uplifting video to leave you with: :-)

Kinda looks weird with a line through it... oh well.

I'm Out.

Another Day of Fun

2008-08-09T20:30:00.003-05:00

Well, The Youth Sunday video I've been trying to produce has been delayed somewhat by an unfortunate error. Seem that the program believes that one of the scenes is under half a second in duration, which is simply not the case. I don't know what to do now except restart the computer and hope it doesn't continue to give me errors.

On the blog front, I added some adsense links in the footer of an ekana. Positioning them was substantially more difficult than doing the same for this blog, but all was well in the end. Also interesting today, I was trying to figure out some stuff on adsense that I didn't remember, when I noticed all of the image used in my template were not loading. Abandoning adsense for the time being, I proceeded to upload all of the images to picasa, so that I could ensure their accessibility. Picasa did refuse to accept one of the images, it was the widest, so maybe picasa has a size limit. I didn't want to wast time to determine why it wasn't working. I hosted that image on Imageshack, and I'm glad to announce that the template is back to looking like itself. I need to get around to writing stuff for it now... But alas I have videos to burn.

If you're looking for something new on the web, and have windows, check of Google's Lively. It's some kind of interactive chat room thing. Not really sure. My brother is playing around on it, and it does look interesting. I'm on Ubuntu though, so I don't get that privilege.

until whenever,
Dan

New Blog!

2008-08-08T21:29:00.002-05:00

I created a new blog today. It's called αν έκανα. Took me a couple days to pick out the name/url, and then a few hours to get the template set up. I still have some minor tweaks to do, but it looks good enough to proceed for the moment.

You might wonder why I made a new blog when I can't write enough to keep this one full. The answer is simply that I had an idea, and I'm going to see how far I can go through with it. I'll let you try to guess what that idea is though. Haha, you probably don't care because you aren't even reading this, but I'll give you bragging rights if you guess correctly! Not enough incentive to try? I'll give you a hint: It involves the creation of yet another blog! Get your head around that one. Two new blogs by an author how hardly updates his 3 year old one.

I suppose only time will tell if this is all worth it, but I'm excited. Hopefully I'll have enough spare time and motivation to do this. It could be so cool!

... Ok that's all for now. I'll let you know when I have more to say.

oh, and if you're bored, you could always try to figure out what αν έκανα means.

"I don't need you!"

2008-04-28T12:39:00.006-05:00

This is a speech I made at my church recently. Enjoy.

What would Jesus think if he saw a church where some people were not content with what the church offered? Would he tell those people to get in line and live with it? Would he have the church change its practices to meet the needs of those people to the extent that the others felt abandoned? Would he have those who were discontent find a different church community that they felt better fulfilled their needs, though it would mean abandoning the church they called home?

Now, I'm not Jesus, so I don't innately know the answer to any of those questions. I don't suppose that that Jesus is hiding in the pews waiting to shout the answers either. We all know that though we each may ask Jesus for guidance in choosing the correct action to take, we don't and won't always agree on any one course of action. With that in mind, let's turn to one of the most influential leaders of the early church. Here are the words of Paul the Apostle:

1 Corinthians 12:12-13
[12]The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. [13]For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

One Body. The body is contains many parts, but it is still One body. "...And we were all given the one Spirit to drink." OK, so all of the diverse groups of the church are necessary to make it function properly, and each part is equal, having been baptized into Christ the same as any other. Let's continue.

1 Corinthians 12:15-17
[12]If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. [16]And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. [17]If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

None of the parts can say that they are not part of the church body. That seems clear. The last two sentences there seem very significant. "If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?" Without any single part of the body, the body cannot be complete; it cannot do what the whole body could have been able to. If part of the body is absent, the body as a whole is disabled.

1 Corinthians 12:21-26
[21]The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" [22]On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable ... [25]so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. [26]If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

It seems like Paul it trying to beat it into our heads. Each part is necessary and indispensable. Furthermore, each "should have equal concern for" the others. We all need to look out for the many diverse parts that make up our church, and ensure that all parts are equally served so that no part suffers.

If I may revisit those questions I started with, I think we can see answers to some of them more clearly. The church should serve the each portion of the body equally. Does that include equal service to the young and the old? I think so. That said it seems that this church is disabled. Those young adults you see before you today feel neglected by the church. We feel that the worship services are out of touch with our needs. We feel disconnected with the majority of the church body. In 1 Corinthians Paul clearly states that the youth should not abandon their church. Also, because each part is equal, the worship service should not leave any group feeling neglected. Neither should the service remain the same (because that neglects the youth), nor should it be changed in a way that neglects any other group.

By no means is the rift between parts of the church body the only problem our church faces, Neither is the youth the only group that feels neglected, but we felt it was time to draw attention to the problem. Looking at what Paul has to say, it should be a pressing concern; after all, "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it." The church is disabled, or at least injured. Paul makes that clear too. The fact is that probably no single church community is free from problems. The church in Corinth that Paul wrote this letter to was considerably worse off than ours, but that in no way means that the scripture is any less relevant.

In chapter 13 we see Paul's solution. It is, purely and simply, Love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3
[1]If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [2]If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3]If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Everything we do on Earth is amounts to nothing without love. As such it should be our guide is our search for solutions.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
[4]Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [5]It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. [6]Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. [7]It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
[8]Love never fails...

Many Concerns were raised when I first presented a draft of this speech. Many feared that it would inspire anger in the congregation. If you look at verse 5, it says that love is not easily angered, and we must remember that if love is to be our solution. We should not tally out complaints of others, nor try to mislead them. Love rejoices with the truth, and the truth is that there is a problem.

The solution is out there. With love, Paul tells us, we must always preserver in search of it. Most importantly, if our search embodies the love Paul tells us about, then we will not fail.

The youth recognize that there are problems in our church. We want to help solve them. Is it too much to ask that the church try to become more like Paul described, more like a single and whole body, rather than toss parts to the side for whatever reason? Who knows, maybe with a healthy body, the other illness our church faces will be able to heal. If that is the case, only by working together will the problems be mended.

Ephesians 4:16
[16]From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Another Start

2007-12-25T23:49:00.000-05:00

Ever since I created this blog, I've never consistantly updated it for any substantial length of time, though I've often wanted to. I'm not prommising that that is going to change, only that I'm going to give it another try. I'll admit that I will not post every day, and mabey not every week, but I'll try to get a new post up every now and then. Hopefully the posts will contain usefull or meaning full content, but I'm not prommising that either. By not promissing you anything, hopefully you wont be disappointed.

Here's to hope for a better future!

Looping Instantiation of Objects in Java

2007-03-04T17:26:00.000-05:00

/*Class: TestClass1
*Programer: Daniel Williams
*Date: March 4, 2007
*
*Inspired by:
* Recurse.java found at http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4905527
*
*Purpose: To simplify Recuse.java to a program I could understand and to test
* what was happening to the objects being instanciated inside of the loop
*
*
*/

class TestClass1 {

static double total = 0.0;
double idNum = 0.0;

public TestClass1() {
total++;
idNum = total;
System.out.print(TestClass1.total + "\t");
System.out.println(this.toString());
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

/*Only one of the following loop beginings may be enables at any given
* time. It is not nessicary for either to be enabled.
*/

for (int index = 0; index < 100; index++) {
//while (true) {

TestClass1 testObject = new TestClass1();

/*If neither of the above loop beginings are enabled, the following
* close bracket must be disabled to avoid a syntax error
*/

}

/*When either of the loops are enabled the testObject can not be
* refereced from outside of the loop and the following print statment
* must be disabled for the program to compile without errors.
*/

//System.out.println("Id# = " + testObject.idNum);
}
}

/*In the case that the for loop is enabled and the print statement is disabled
* the program compiles and runs.
*
*Example output:
*
* 1.0 TestClass1@f72617
* 2.0 TestClass1@1e5e2c3
* 3.0 TestClass1@18a992f
* 4.0 TestClass1@4f1d0d
* 5.0 TestClass1@1fc4bec
* 6.0 TestClass1@8dc569
* ...
* 100.0 TestClass1@19616c7
*/

/*In the case that all of the loops are disabled and the print statement is
* enabled the program compiles and runs.
*
*Example output:
*
* 1.0 TestClass1@f72617
* Id# = 1.0
*/

/*In the case that the for loop is enabled and the print statement is enabled
* the program throws an error durning compilation.
*
*Example error:
*
* TestClass1.java:50: cannot find symbol
* symbol : variable testObject
* location: class TestClass1
* System.out.println("Id# = " + testObject.idNum);
* ^
* 1 error
*/

/*The only conclusion I can draw from this is that during the course of each
* loop, the testObject is instatiated, and then trash collected. This means
* that only only one instance of TestClass1 would exist at a time, and that
* the testObject instance would not exist after the completion of the loop.
*/

Tropisms

2007-02-28T20:58:00.000-05:00

In plants, a tropism is a reaction any directional stimulus such as gravity or light.

Gravitropism or geotropism is the plant's response to gravity. The roots show a positve reaction to the stimulus, growing toward it, while the stems show a negative reaction because they grow away from the stimulus.

Phototropism is the plants' reaction to light and is gennerally positive. This tropism works through the hormone axim. Axim is produced in the stems and leaves, but is always transfered to the side of the plant that is in shade. There, it loosens the cell wall and induces growth of the cell. This uneven growth causes the curvature plants have when getting light from only a single side.

When the plant is put in full shade, it tends to grow tall and narrow, because all parts of the stem act as if they were shaded, and grow. In bright areas, plants tend to be shorter and thicker, for the same reason, the axim doesn't affect the plant much because it gets a lot of light all around.

Thigmotropism, the movement or growth in response to touch or contact, also has a major effect on plant growth form. Just as trees exposed to a lot of wind and harsh conditions, such as krumholtz, are shot and stubby, all plants with respond to stimuli such as rain, wind, being touched or bumped, or any other vibrational force by having a shorter form and reinforcing their cell wall, to resist bending.

Thigmotropism, like phototropism, is caused by the hormone axim moving to the side of the plant that is not receiving the stimulus. As such, plants will try to bend into the wind, and tendrils of vines will curl around the bars of a trellis.

My brother and I have been attempting to grow basic garden plants, like beans and tomatoes, inside over the winter months. We have been using artificial lighting to help meet lighting requirements, but they still don't compare with the Sun. All of the plants have had issues with stems that are too thin to support their own weight, causing them to fall over in a tangled mess.

I now see that this is caused by phototropism, and that the use of thigmotropism might be able to counteract it. I'm going to work on designing it into a good project, and perhaps I will get a good science fair project before I'm out of high school.

Here's a good page if you want to continue reading: http://www.gardenguides.com/how-to/tipstechniques/seedsbulbs/hardening.asp

Course Selections

2007-02-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

This coming Thursday I have to place my course selections for my senior year. I'm toning down the level of difficulty a little for this year, just so I can better focus on what I'm doing and don't constantly feel like I have a huge cloud of homework hanging over my head.

AP Computer Science
It's a continuation of the Into. to Computer Science that I'm taking this year, and the class I'm most looking forward to.

Spanish 4
Another level up from my current Spanish 3 class. I was torn between this and Genetics for a while, but after talking to the Genetics teacher, who said it dealt with mostly human genetics and was more hands-on, but not more difficult than AP Biology (which I'm currently taking), I decided that that wouldn't be interesting enough to displace my beloved espanol.

Web Design 2 and Macromedia MX
More exciting classes just to further what I can do with the Internet. Both list my previous Internet class as a prerequisite.

Composition 4 and World Literature
Mandatory (if not taking AP Brit. lit. which is really hard if you don't like writing). I did have the choice to take Brit. Lit. 2 instead of World Lit., but World Lit. sounds more interesting.

US Government
Again, this is mandatory, unless you take the AP version. I'm still not entirely sure which I want to take, but currently I'm planning on the lower one to avoid the flood of work associated with AP level classes.

Calculus
Between this and the AP form, which is supposed to be driven forcefully toward the AP test, I'd rather take the one that allowed the students to breathe. Students in the classes have recommended that if you want to continue math in college, you should take the regular form, just to get a better foundation.

Physics 1
In hindsight, I should have taken this class this year, and taken AP Chemistry next, but when I picked this year's classes, I was planning on taking many AP classes as a Senior. Oh, how our thoughts do change. Theretically, I could take AP Physics B, but I think I would have too much diffuculty following the strict format to solve problems, and remembering all of the formulas.

That covers the seven periods in a day, so I'm set. I marked down Genetics as an alternate and I'll probably put down some art stuff as alternates too. In reality, I'll probably get all of the classes I asked for, as they assign Seniors their classed first.

Hopefully next year is easier than this one, and keeps challenged without drowning me. We still have to get through a few more months of this first.

Format Incompatability

2007-02-26T22:26:00.000-05:00

At around midnight I transfered the tape of the scripts listed in the previous post, to a DVD. The DVD unit asked if I wanted to format the disk in Video mode or some other mode I didn't recognize, so I chose Video, and preceded to copy the recording. The test of the disk showed that it did work, so I took it to school without worry.
Of course it couldn't have been that easy. Upon pressing play on the DVD player, it displayed an incompatible mode error. The disk was a DVD-RW, so I don't believe it was a plus verse minus problem.
I now of the belief that either the player didn't like the fact that the disk was re-writable, or I should have chosen the non-video option to format the DVD.

Now I'm physically bringing the camera into class and am going to attach it to the TV with cables, to avoid further problem. Thankfully, the teacher said that she wasn't worried about taking another day to bring in the video form, perhaps because we left her with a copy of the script with all of the grammatical corrections to the one in my last post.

This is off subject, but I thought that the addition of a search bar to the left column was important enough to announce. Just so you know, that bar is also part of AdSense, so I get revenue when you click on the sponsored links.
I should advocate AdSense with how much I've been talking about it. You can look forward to that in the future.

Your criticisms of my extremely poorly writen posts are always appreciated!

Spanish Project

2007-02-25T23:33:00.000-05:00

I was planning on making a post every single day, since I started posting for real. That, quite obviously didn't last long. Anyway, I do have a good excuse: my brother and I were working (for 15 over the last two days) on a video for our Spanish class. I don't have the video itself online, but are the English and then Spanish versions of the script:

Act 1: Pre-Blight
A man is walking through a forest in winter observing the trees. He turns to look at the camera.
Man: Have you ever really looked at the forest, with all of the intricate relationships of animals and plants, all living together? Trees lofting their branches 18 meters above the ground, casting shade on all the wildlife blow and providing habitat to birds and beetles alike. Undergrowth here on the ground, supplying food for those creatures who dwell here below.
Man: Indeed the forest is magnificent, but do you remember the forest before the fall of the chestnut, when trees stretched their limbs 40 meters toward the sky? How about blossoms filling the canopy so full that they appeared to be covered with snow and the following nut fall as thick as rain pummeling the ground? Did you see the so-called the redwoods of the East that numbered one out of every four trees?
Man: These were the American chestnuts, which only the elderly remember. Their physical appearance was spectacular, and their economic importance certainly wasn't any less. With wood of such astonishing quality that it was both easy to work and rot resistant enough to withstand many decades of outdoor exposure, the wood was most desirable. Tannins too came from these trees, alone supplying the industry more fully than any other contributor. Despite these wonders, the trait many found most valuable was its regular and enormous nut crops that many Appellation families that live in poverty would use to get through the winter.
Man: There is no doubt that the American chestnut, know to the scientific community as Castanea dentata, had enormous economic value, but if these animals here knew about it, they'd tell you that its environmental value was far greater. The nut crop it produced filled the bellies of animals both large and small: bear, dear, squirrels, and wild turkeys from Georgia through Maine fed from the bounty.

Act 2: Blight
The man continues to wander through the forest as he talks.
Man: Unfortunately people are strange creatures and were not content with what this tree could give them. City dwellers wanted something smaller and more decorative. To meet their demand, nurseries began shipping in other chestnut varieties from all over Asia. No one perceived a problem until a worker at the Bronx Zoo spotted a strange blemish on the bark. It was soon realized that this blemish was nothing other than a fungus, common to Asia, which attacks the bark, but is rarely deadly.
Man: This pathogen did not treat Castanea dentata the same as its Asian cousin. With a virulence rarely seen, it quickly spread across the whole of the natural range of the American chestnut on a deadly campaign, infecting and girdling the trees as soon as they reached reproductive maturity. The wind-bore spores of the chestnut blight would get into any wound, and bring down the tree only a few years thereafter.
Man: This onslaught left all areas that once had chestnuts devastated. The trees, unable to produce nuts were reduced to root sprouts. The root systems, that remained intact underground, repeatedly sent these up, only to be taken back down by the blight a few years later.

Act 3: Revival Methods
The man, still walking, approaches the edge of a forest and precedes out of it.
Man: Now, here we are in the twenty-first centaury thinking, “It’s been a hundred years, what’s being done to help?” Many people have wondered the same thing and several methods have been proposed.

Man walks to tree with holes in lower trunk (the one out by the trailer)
Man: The blight had invaded Europe, but the trees there were able to survive because of a virus that hampers the blight and causing hypo-virulence. This virus was transportable and widely used to save chestnut forests throughout Europe. Breeders brought the virus to the United States of America, but for multiple reasons it did not have a substantial benefit in North America.

Man walks to orchard.
Man: People began to seek out the resistance to the blight found in Asian chestnuts. Asian Chestnut trees are far shorter than American Chestnuts so they were unsuitable as a replacement species. As an alternative, scientists turned to ways to transfer the Asian resistance to the American trees without greatly altering any other characteristics.

Man Walks toward Chestnut planting.
Man: Genetic Engineering seemed to be the quickest and best solution but after further research it was deemed to be a nearly impossible idea. As the only practical option left, volunteers began to establish a breeding program crossing the American chestnut with Asian trees and making back-crosses to American trees transfer resistance. This breeding program continues to this day.

Act 4: Ways to Help
Man, standing in field, speaks to camera.
Man:

And the Spanish version:

Acto Uno: Antes del Añublo

Un hombre está caminando a través del bosque en invierno observando los árboles. Él da vuelta a la mirada en la cámara fotográfica.

Hombre: ¿Has mirado el bosque, con todas las relaciones intrincadas de animales y de plantas, todo conviviendo? Árboles levantando sus ramas dieciocho metros arriba la tierra, poniendo la cortina en todo de la fauna y suministrando el hábitat a los pájaros y a los escarabajos igualmente. Las plantas aquí en la tierra, suministrando alimento para estas criaturas que moran aquí abajo.

Hombre: ¿El bosque es de hecho magnífico, pero recuerdas el bosque antes de la caída del castaño, cuando los árboles estiraron sus miembros cuarenta metros hacia el cielo? ¿Cómo sobre las flores que llenan el dosel tan lleno que aparecían estar cubierto con nieve y entonces la caída de las castaña tan densa como la lluvia que cae en la tierra? ¿Viste el supuesto secoyas del este que numeró uno de cuatro árboles?

Hombre: Éstas eran los castaños americanos, solamente los ancianos recuerdan. Su aspecto físico era espectacular, y su importancia económica ciertamente no era menos. Con madera de calidad asombrosa, era fácil manipular y putrefacción bastante resistente soportar muchas décadas de la exposición al aire libre, la madera era la más deseable. Los taninos vinieron también de estos árboles, proveyendo la industria más completamente que cualquier otro ayudante. Pasar estas maravillas, el rasgo muchos más valoraron era sus cosechas regulares y enormes que muchas familias apelación que vive en pobreza sobrevivir el invierno.

Hombre: No hay duda que la castaña americana, sabido a la comunidad científica como Castanea dentata, tenía valor económico enorme, pero si estos animales aquí sabían sobre él, te dirían que su valor ambiental fuera mucho mayor. La cosecha de las castañas él producía llenaba los vientres de los animales grandes y pequeños: los osos, los ciervos, las ardillas, y los pavos salvajes de Georgia a través de Maine comían del exceso.

Acto Dos: El Añublo

El hombre continúa vagando a través del bosque mientras que él habla.

Hombre: Desafortunadamente los seres humanos son criaturas extrañas y no era contenta con qué árbol podería darles. Los habitantes de la ciudad desearon algo más pequeño y más decorativo. Para resolver su demanda, las huertas comenzaron enviar otras variedades de la castaña de todas partes de Asia a ellos. Nadie percibió un problema hasta que un trabajador en el parque zoológico de Bronx vio un defecto extraño en la corteza. Pronto fue observado que este defecto no era nada con excepción de un hongo, común a Asia, que ataca la corteza, pero es raramente mortal.

Hombre: Este patógeno no trataba el castaño americano iguales que su primo asiático. Con una virulencia visto raramente, él extendió rápidamente a través de la gama natural entera de el castaño americano en una campaña muy mortal, infectando y estrangulando los árboles cuando alcanzaran madurez reproductiva. Esporas llevado por viento del añublo de castaño entraría cualquier herida, y traen abajo a árbol solamente algunos años después de eso.

Hombre: Este asalto dejaba todas los lugares que una vez tenía castaños devastados. Los árboles, incapaces producir tuercas fueron reducidos a los brotes de la raíz. Los sistemas de la raíz, no estuvieron lastimados subterráneamente, enviaba hacia el cielo en varias ocasiones, sólo ser traído abajo por el añublo algunos años tarde.

Acto Tres: Métodos del Renacimiento

El hombre camina hacia el borde del bosque.

Hombre: Ahora, aquí estamos en el veinte primero centauro pensando, «Ciento años he pasada. ¿Qué está haciendo para ayudar?» Mucha gente ha preguntado la misma cosa y habían propuesto métodos varios.

El hombre camina al árbol con los agujeros en su tronco más bajo (esta cerca del acoplado)

Hombre: El añublo había invadido Europa, pero los árboles podían sobrevivir porque de un virus que obstaculiza el añublo y causa menos virulencia. El virus era transportable y usó ahorrar bosques del castaño a través de Europa. Los criadores trajeron el virus a los Estados Unidos de América, pero no tenía una ventaja substancial en Norteamérica por razones varias.

El hombre camina a la huerta.

Hombre: La gente hice un esfuerzo buscar la resistencia al añublo que estaba en castaños asiáticos. Los castaños asiáticos son más cortos de los Castaños Americanos así que no eran un bien especie sembrar para reemplazo. Como una alternativa, los científicos buscan por las maneras transferir la resistencia asiática a los árboles americanos y preservar las otras características.

El hombre camina hacia una huerta del castaño.

Hombre: La ingeniería genética pareció ser la solución más rápida y mejor pero después más investigación adicional él fue juzgado ser una idea casi imposible. Como la única opción práctica restante, los voluntarios comenzaron crear un programa de crianza atravesar el Castaño Americano con los árboles asiáticos y haciendo cruces a los árboles americanos transferir la resistencia. Esta campaña continúa a este día.

I wrote, then translated Acts one and two, while my brother wrote and translated Act three. You'll notice that Act four was never completed. That was merely from a lack of time and need. I had hoped we'd include it, but alas, it got cut.

I wasn't planning on making that stuff black, but there was some sort of problem with the text and some of if was black, and some of it wasn't, so I just made it all balack.

Stupid Proofing

2007-02-23T19:44:00.000-05:00

Last Monday my Intro. to Computer Science teacher assigned a program for us to write, in Java. The program was supposed to ask the user for a positive integer. If the entered integer was even, the program was to count from the given number down to one. If it was odd, the program would count from one up to the number. Overall it was a pretty basic project, except for the additional requirement that he tacked on to the end. We were to "stupid proof" the program to the full extent of our ability.

Stupid proofing, he said, making sure the program still worked, even if the wrong type of data is given. For example, if the user entered o.25, for example, into the program described above, the program would yield unexpected results, or might throw a runtime error.

The basic program looks like this:

Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in); //initialize the keyboard

System.out.print("Please enter a positive integer. ");//request input data
int number = keyboard.nextInt();

if (number % 2 == 0) { //if number is even...
int counter1 = number;
while (counter1 > 1) {
System.out.println(counter1);
counter1--;
}
} else { //if number is not even...
int counter2 = 1;
while (counter2 <= number) {
System.out.println(counter2);
counter2++;
}
}

This program works perfectly fine, so long as the user does as the program asks, and only enters a positive integer, but what happens if the user enters 3.14 or -56? This is where stupid proofing comes in.

Entering a decimal number, such as 3.14, would produce a run time error, and halt the program. Entering a negative number would cause the loops never to reach their termination conditions.

Fixing the run time error is pretty simple. All you have to do is change the data type of the umber variable form integer to double. This; however, causes problems with the program logic, so we can add an if statement to check to see if the entered number is an integer.

boolean isAnInt = false;
while (isAnInt == false){
if (number % 1 != 0) {
System.out.print("The number you entered is not an integer!\nPlease enter a positive integer. ");
number = keyboard.nextDouble();
} else {
isAnInt = true;
}
}

This segment of code just checks to see if the given number is divisible by 1 with no remainder. If it is, the number is an integer and the rest of the code is bypassed, if it's not, then the program queries the user for a new number and. The while statement merely continues querying the user for numbers until an integer is entered.

The method to check for positive numbers is much the same as in the previous example: an if statment checks to see if the number is greater than zero, if it is not, it askes for a new number; and a while loop repeates the process untill the user gets it right.

boolean isPos= false;
while (isPos == false){
if (number < number =" keyboard.nextDouble();" ispos =" true;">These two peices of code can be easily combined into a single loop and a single if statment, as follows:
boolean isGood = false;
while (isGood == false){
if ((number % 1 != 0) || (number < number =" keyboard.nextDouble();" isgood =" true;">

With all of this in place, the user can enter any number into the program without halting it. Here's the original program, with all of the corrections inserted:

Scanner keyboard = new Scanner(System.in); //initialize the keyboard

System.out.print("Please enter a positive integer. ");//request input data
double number = keyboard.nextDouble();

boolean isGood = false;
while (isGood == false){
if ((number % 1 != 0) || (number < number =" keyboard.nextDouble();" isgood =" true;">

if (number % 2 == 0) { //if number is even...
int counter1 = number;
while (counter1 > 1) {
System.out.println(counter1);
counter1--;
}
} else { //if number is not even...
int counter2 = 1;
while (counter2 <= number) { System.out.println(counter2); counter2++; } }

I don't know a good way to protect against the user entering symbols or strings, so this is as far as I can go. If by chance you want to use this program, be forewarned: I just typed it, without debugging it, or seeing if it compiled, so it may have some small errors.

I'll end with a piece of advice from my teacher:

Don't underestimate the stupidity of the user.

Playing with AdSense

2007-02-22T19:54:00.000-05:00

A year and a half ago, when I first became comfortable with html, I created a Google AdSense account, and subsequently placed one advertisement box at the top of this page. Needless to say, that wasn't the most visually pleasant of locations, and I got to work at fixing it asap. As Soon As Possible just happened to be today; however, remembering a password is a little difficult over that length of time, and remembering how to configure AdSense is no easier.

I've been using the same password for all this time, so I was able to reset my password without difficulty and soon had access to my account. After a few failed attempts, I was able to place a new Google ad on the main page of this blog. That particular ad should be in the side bar, to the left of this post, but hasn't yet appeared. Google contests that it should start up within twenty-four hours, so I'm not too worried.

With the placement of a new ad, I felt comfortable enough to try repositioning the existing ad. First, I copied all of the ad's code, and pasted it at the bottom of the same section, with the hope it would now appear below the main post. Upon clicking the "Preview" button I realized that not everything went exactly as planned: the ad appeared not only at the top and bottom of the main post, but also underneath every other post (which, then, was only one). That was actually a preferable arrangement to me, so I preceded to remove the original ad and just leave those under each post.

With my declared goals accomplished, I investigated a feature of AdSense that I had overlooked before. The type of ad I was previously placing was classified as "AdSense for content." Just below that were listed "AdSense for search" and "Referrals." I used "AdSense for search" some about a year and a half ago, in my (first) html class. I blew the teacher away in that assignment. Can you imaging going from zero to surpassing your teacher in three weeks? That was an interesting experience, helped by the fact that the teacher wasn't very knowledgeable in the subject.

If I can navigate back to the proper subject, the third option, "Referrals," was one I hadn't remembered. Curious, I clicked the link and quickly discovered that a "Referral" was nothing other than those "Download FireFox with Google Toolbar" buttons I've seen all over the web.
One of those links now appears next to the "I Power Blogger" link in the left sidebar.

Now, to quote Google:

In order to ensure a good experience for users and advertisers, publishers may not request that users click the ads on their sites or rely on deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks.

As such, I have not encouraged you to click on any of the advertisements on this page. I have merely publicly stated their existence and placement. Also, if anyone has comment, concernes, or suggestions about anything on this blog site, please tell me. Thanks.

Second Try at a First Post

2007-02-21T21:26:00.000-05:00

For the last four years or so, people have been asking me what college I wanted to go to, what I wanted to major in, or what I want to do in life. Until this year I have constantly reported that I do not know anything specific, giving answers like "science" when asked about career fields I was interested in. My attitude began shifting with commencement of my junior year of high school.

I will not deny that I am clueless about many of the things I want, but the schools assemblies, talk among peers, and rants by concerned teachers have made me think about the future more than I had in the past.

Considering my longstanding love of both life (biology) and computers, I decide that I still don't know what I want to do. However, I know I want to have a career in one field of the other. Last Monday I decided to look at the job opportunities in computer related fields that would be of interest to me.

It didn't take long to find some seemingly good material, but none of it was as specific as I wanted. Then I ran into this page: Advice for Computer Science College Students.

Too shorten the story somewhat, I found his advice to be very helpful and have decided to continue my programing education, and to start writing.

So, after leaving this blog inactive for over fifteen months, I think it's time to give it a fresh start and give myself a much needed exercise in writing.

May this journey that I am starting be a good one.

Japanese Chestnut Tree in Flower

2005-11-05T23:29:00.000-05:00

This is a Japanese Chestnut tree. It has a much shorter stature than its American cousin. Information about why you haven't heard of the American Chestnut can be found at http://www.acf.org/