Archive for February, 2007

Hackfest 111101 Mortem

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

20 Feb 2007 – tomato basil soup and laser techno

Since Last Meeting-
Alex- released a new version of JES with fewer bugs.
Graham- gave a lecture on Computer Music Languages.
Mark- went to Atlanta Ruby Users’ Group and met Sam. They made wikis in Rails. Mark prefers Python to Ruby. (yield in the middle of a template, too much magic)
Billings- got his AB2 amp sounding good at low volumes, without frying any power tubes.
Erik- minor releases of carpal, his blogging platform.

Devin- soon ID/CM graduate. hailpixel.com surfacing letter. sunflow radiosity cooker in java. going to grad school.

Colo- Mark will call them to see if they will accept an open-top server. Alex will go to Fry’s for a top. Next week Wed 9pm we’ll go to Alex’s and try to get it to recognize the fourth hard drive.

This Week’s Plans-
Mark- python needs to be standard to use nodebox (generative art app). Heading to pycon 2007 in Dallas, where topographica is simulating mammalian brains.
Erik- writing plugin engine for carpal– plugins are called fingers.
Graham- compiling non-XPCOM chuck plugin. finish Computer Audio assignment.
Billings- ultralinear output stage on the treble boost. change reverb driver so heaters isolated to bias them.
Alex- looking at GWT to do Runner’s problem. Starting from Hello World.

Raiding the 20th Century– an exposition on tape music, collage, and mashup.

This Week’s Results-
Graham- sketched out ChuckLib class.
Mark- got python working, importing packages for OSC and nodebox
Erik- grabbing fingers from the client partially implemented. path issues from relative to absolute.
Billings- tried to look up impedence of reverb tank, but wasn’t able to find model number
Alex- made Hello World app, loading into Eclipse, figured out package structure

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Senior Seminar / Final Quarter Chapter 5

Tuesday, February 20th, 2007

Senior Seminar:
I’ve been looking at Virtanen’s PhD. thesis, and I checked out some books on machine learning.
If anyone has any recommendations for machine learning, or AI  books please send them along.

Real Analysis:
47/50 on the Midterm. I’m doing well so far. This last homework has been difficult but I am going to office hours tomorrow.

Latin:
Still ruling.

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Hackfest 111100 Postmortem

Monday, February 19th, 2007

13 February 2007 – 5 on 5

Tonight’s plans:

Tejus is making a web streaming mp3 program for Rails.
Sonali is learning Rails and updating an ecommerce site in Rails for her family, Choices Quilts.
Gregg Van Laningham will sketch a decorative stained-glass birdhouse with 4 removable sections for each of the four Seasons.
Mark is installing Django and postgres and svn. Will work on XPCOM UDP.
Alex is learning about Continuation Passing Style– a way to pass control around in functional languages. Also need to fix graphics bug on Mac version of JES, maybe in Mac Java 1.5. Graphics Context turns black when you use Graphics2D functions.
Graham is going to work on the embedded chuck, specifically calling it from a DLL.
Cali Mike is working on Real Analysis homework
– Six problems relating to the topology of the real line, open and closed sets etc.

books discussed:
Golden Notebook – five threads of dimensions of a personality – Mark mentions it.
Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer – contains three separate narratives that intertwine.

We discussed Scrum, Promises, and COMEFROM.

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Peter Norvig facts

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

Peter Norvig doesn’t sleep, he garbage collects.
Peter Norvig can compile from INTERCAL to MIPS assembly in his head.
Peter Norvig already knows whether P = NP or not.

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Hackfest 111011 Postmortem

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

6 Feb 2007 – hanging out

This week was more social.

Alex, Graham, Zach, Puyan, Mark, Martin and Lauryn and Emily Case, briefly.
Also, G had a rehearsal with L for their Javaology gig.
Special guest was KelleY BoleN, video jammer and animator from Canada!

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The Internet Is Epic

Tuesday, February 13th, 2007

I’ve been trying to figure out what this video actually says. All that I’ve come up with is that it gives me a vague sense of hope about the possibilities of the Internet, but it is not a very meaty intellectual chunk. I feel that this could have been a short film about the wonders of flint, and that as long as it is set to a techno sound track with clever editing it will give the viewer a vague impression of a message. The message being "Humans Rule."

I mean to belittle neither flint nor the Internet, but I feel that more should and could be said about the Internet. Sure the Internet is a fast communications network, and we’ve never had anything like it before. People are communicating on a mass scale never before seen. That is the "What." I don’t feel that any assertions were actually made about how the speed, and massive size of this communication is effecting culture.

Here is a different video.
I think I tend to agree with the response. On the whole I feel like not all that much has changed.
However, this is coming from someone who grew up with the Internet.

I will make an assertion of my own:
Whatever ‘sea-change’ is/was/will be upon us with regard to the Internet, it will not be extensively commented on by members of my generation. Yes the Internet is a good tool, but it is as much a matter of course as the automobile. With respect to the life of the heart we’ve been the same old humans from antiquity until now.

Posted in Brain Candy, Personal | No Comments »

Senior Seminar / Final Quarter Chapter 4

Saturday, February 10th, 2007

On Wednesday I gave my senior seminar presentation. It went well.
I am pleased with the effort I put into it, and I am relieved that that part of the class is over.
It was exciting to talk about something that I am interested in. I also feel that  my understanding of the Discrete Fourier Transform has deepened.

Senior Seminar:
Now all I have to do is write a 10 page paper. I have begun it all ready.
The next step is to finish reading Virtannen, to begin understanding polyphonic source separation algorithms.

Real Analysis:
I have a midterm on Monday. This weekend I will study.
Homework is due on Wednesday. I will do some homework.

Latin:
Homework due on Monday.

Posted in A Boring Default, Personal, Project | No Comments »

Senior Seminar / Final Quarter 3.5

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

Senior Seminar:
I’ve finished my presentation, and practiced it a few times.

Real Analysis:
I’ve finished my homework for tomorrow.

Latin:
I’ve finished my homework for tomorrow.

For the first time in a long while I feel that feeling from earlier in school when all your homework is done and you can do whatever you want for the rest of the evening. So relaxing. I’m going to go get some ice cream and then go to bed.

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Senior Seminar / Final Quarter Chapter 3

Saturday, February 3rd, 2007

Hello Everyone. My senior seminar presentation is on Wednesday of next week. Here is my current progress:

Senior Seminar:
    I have 16 slides in a power point presentation, and a written outline of what I want to talk about. This weekend I’m going to go home and put the finishing touches on the presentation by adding pictures, and maybe creating some example waveforms.
    While I still don’t feel like an expert on the Fourier Transform I feel like I have definitely learned something, and it will certainly be an informative talk to anyone who hasn’t learned anything about DSP or related topics. I am looking forward to it. I’m going to wear a tie.
    I have started writing the 10 page paper that is due at the end of the quarter. I wrote an introduction paragraph. I am excited to do my best on what is really my final project of my undergraduate career. Oh well, I shouldn’t celebrate yet. I will report on how the project went in a week.

Latin:
    I’ve been keeping up with homework pretty well. I should start reading the stories more often, but other than that this class is going fine.

Real Analysis:
    I’m doing well in this class also. I started the homework on Thursday (it is due on Wednesday). I hope to finish it soon so that I don’t have to worry while I put the finishing touches on my presentation. This class is really interesting. We learned the definition of a limes superior, limes inferior, and open sets today.

Have a good weekend.

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