Archive for the ‘Misc’ Category

Hackfest 1100000

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

Drew:
    Says: CCP Games has a new office in Atlanta
    (they make a python-based mmorpg)
    finished mural for his daughter’s room,
    switched to mercurial for source control
Mark:
    wrote a python macro!
    returns a hashtable of all variable bindings at the return point of a func
    ported accelerator to python, learned setuptools,
    wrote a wrapper to make pyglets looks like nodebox, porting sketches
    leading Martin through Appcelerator
Martin:
    working with Gil Weinburg on cellphone software,
    learning Appcelerator
    installing pylons, pydev
Lauryn:
    reading "The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy"
Alex:
    pushing after thanksgiving
    thumbing through the gang of four book
    trying out the "Miro" player (that Cory Doctrow is all excited about)
Rob:
    reading about GlovePie,
    so that he can create MIDI Mayhem at Nophest
Yuna:
    reading about professional baking,
    made doughnuts last week,
    they could be better
Stuart:
    "my hair is wet"
    is going to talk about music

Drew: I wish there was something like PyCon, but language agnostic.
Mark: ReadabilityCon08!
Drew: IndentationCon! All languages with semantic whitespace: Python, Haskell…
Mark: Makefiles!
Drew: That’d be TabsAreImportantCon

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.

Senior Seminar / Final Quarter Chapter 2

Saturday, January 27th, 2007

This week has been busy, but rewarding.

Senior Seminar:
   This week I met with my professor on Wednesday. I showed him a possible outline. He thought it was too much for a 30 minute talk, so I am pairing down the focus for the talk to just the Fourier Transform.
    I began reading a book entitled "The Discrete Fourier Transform" by D. Sundararajan. It is pretty clear so far, and seems to be a good starting point.
    I started making power point slides on the Sampling Theorem before I met with my professor, so I will have to go back and edit the presentation.
    I  took a break from reading Virtannen this week. The paper for the class will still be about polyphonic source separation, but for now I need to focus on the talk.

Latin:
    I got caught up. Practiced declensions, and read the stories from chapters 21 and 22.

Real Analysis:
    I did another homework assignment.  We had a quiz on Wednesday. I got 9/10 on the quiz and 8/10 on the first homework assignment. Hopefully this trend will continue. This class is really interesting.

Things are coming together.

Senior Seminar / Final Quarter Chapter 1

Friday, January 19th, 2007

Hello everyone. I’m Mike. I’m studying mathematics at University of California at Santa Cruz. This is my last quarter and I have a talk that I have to give, and a senior project that I have to do.  The idea of these posts will be to track my progress on this project, and my progress in my other classes. I hope that this will help motivate me to do my very best in my last year in university.

Here is the class rundown in order of difficulty:
   Senior Seminar
   Real Analysis
   Latin 2
 
Here is the broad view:
   Senior Seminar:
       Give a 35 minute talk on a mathematical topic, on February 7th
       Turn in a 10 page paper on the topic by the end of the quarter.

    Real Analysis:  
       Weekly homework. Due Wednesdays.
       Reading.
       Tests.

    Latin 2:
       Homework for class 3 times a week.
       Reading.
       Tests.

Listing these is already starting to make things feel more manageable.

Now for some more details on my Senior Seminar:
    I want to study polyphonic source separation algorithms. Through what little research I have done so far I have realized that this is too broad a topic to fit into a 35 minute talk. So, my first task is to narrow down what I will talk about. As it stands right now, maybe a short talk on the Discrete Fourier Transform would be good. Right now, the basic structure might go something like this:

1. Explain in broad terms how digital audio works.  Samples, sampling frequency, possibly the sampling theorem, Nyquist frequency, etc.
2. Explain the mathematics of the Discrete Fourier Transform. Maybe, talk about the Fourier Transforms uses in other branches of math and science.
3. Explain what polyphonic source separation is, and how the Fourier Transform is used as a tool in polyphonic source separation algorithms.

    Somewhere in there I want to talk about psycoacoustics, and cognitive science, but maybe there is not enough time to do that and I will have to save it for the paper.

In conclusion I will leave a list of things that I need to do in the following week:
    Senior Seminar:
       Continue reading Tuomas Virtanen‘s thesis on polyphonic source separation.
       Write a possible outline, and bring it to my professor on Monday.

    Real Analysis:
       Complete homework assignment. Do at least 1 problem every day.
       Finish reading chapter 1. Begin Chapter 2.

    Latin:
       Catch up on backlogged homework. (Tomorrow!)
       Stay caught up. Do a little every day.

Next time I will review my accomplishments, and I will describe a technique developed by my parents to help get ideas down on paper.

-Mike

About: Details

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

Why

Generally the order goes "who, what, where, when, why", but I think that this one is the most important, so its right up here at the top.  Why we do atlHack is a complicated topic, and it has its own page.  Here’s the short version:

Computing isn’t a nerd sport anymore.  You probably own an iPod, might check the news on your laptop at the local coffee shop, and own a car with more than twenty computer processors in it (the days of the gear-head are gone – today’s car tuner is part computer geek).  Computing is a culture: a culture of artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, industrialists, consumers, scientists, and philosophers.

… and you need to feed that culture.  If you dream of a startup, or art installations, breaking into industry, or just keeping on top of trends, you can’t do it alone.  None of us want to lay down in front of anyone to further the cause, but as a group, we’re simply more powerful than we are alone.

You’re not going to get a job looking at Monster.com.  GeorgiaTech career services can’t wait to hook you up with some mundane position that makes them look good (they love big business and name dropping).  Your only hope is to stumble onto something good, and that’s what we’re here for.  Maybe you know someone who is looking for startup-fodder, maybe I know someone who is looking for you.  The only way you’re going to find out is by hanging out with the gang.

Man, this wasn’t short either… it gets longer every time I rewrite it.

Who

If you are in the Atlanta area, atlHack is you!
Maybe you aren’t in the ATL, but your spirit is here with us.  If so, atlHack is still you!

What

We are computer people, poet hackers of the cyber frontier.
We have a weekly get-together in a local coffee shop, where we code and talk about computers.

Where

We live in Atlanta, GA (airport code ATL), but not everyone is from here – I’m from the New England area (a part of "the northeast").  Some of us have ties to GeorgiaTech, some of us don’t.

We currently meet at Octane coffee (www.octanecoffee.com), but its quickly becoming a very popular (meaning crowded) spot.  We may need a new home soon.

When

atlHack.org was started in the Summer of 2005  (registered 6-Jul-2005 02:31:49 UTC)
We have meet-ups every Thursday at 7:30 (or so) at Octane Coffee.

every Tuesday at 9pm (or so) -graham

How

Not really sure what goes in "how"…

The atlHack website is hosted on a pithy linux box on my Speakeasy DSL.  It uses Drupal for content management and Subversion for source control.

We’re all geeks with ties to GeorgiaTech.

Macs are nice computers.  At least, I think so… don’t ask the other guys.

atlHack stickers in Macon

Saturday, April 22nd, 2006

If you happen to live in Middle Georgia and want an atlHack sticker, there are a few of them on the hand-outs table at the back of the Joshua Cup near downtown.

Hackfest 10010 Mortem

Thursday, January 19th, 2006

Hackfest 10010: January 19, 2006
(no notes last week, but there was a meeting)

Since Last Time:
-Vinny:
Soldered a serial port to WRT54g.
Using PyOgre to enable texture manager commands.
Designed a game involving claiming territory in schools (w/ Graham).
-Luke
Modified Linux Kernel to support kb and mouse – media keys were unrecognized (USB human interface system). Translated them into the valid keyspace, produced unique events, then added entries to custom xmodmap.
Trying to use MAME the emulator with MythTV, modified it to work. MythTV had a bad version check of MAME that silently failed. Luke added a better check.
Worked on using Hough transform to crop family photos, in Python. Might write a script in GIMP (script-foo).
-Graham
Fixed glitches in Music Editor segmentation / rendering. Refactored, wrote processes to scramble, reverse, and speed up segmented songs.
Added SWIMM to source control on atlhack.
Finished character-granularity demo of clocks code.
Imposed temporary nethack cessation.
-Grant
Made fuzzy Spoontease.
MSN Virtual Earth API for recovering coordinates of historical photos. 4d-cities demo
Want to develop semantic descriptions of city buildings to improve search, and to create model of city from images.

This Week Plans:
-Vinny
Scheme pong, in Scheme using Sisc.
-Luke
Goal: to extend Eclipse with Sisc. Going to learn Sisc today.
-Graham
Build an extraction queue for SWIMM.
-Grant
Evolutionary War needs an binary for Intel (v1.2), and remove shareware nag.

This Week Reality:
Geeks on soapboxes. Listen to the podcast (all "podcasts").

Released in 2005:
nethack-bot-framework, gmaps schools

Atlhack Podcasts

Monday, December 12th, 2005

Links to Atlhack podcasts go under this page.

Hackfest Podcast

Friday, December 2nd, 2005

This week’s hackfest was brought to you by the letters M and P and the number 3!  Our first "podcast".

About: Why

Sunday, November 13th, 2005

This is probably the most important question in your tour…

Why Did You Start atlHack?
There are a lot of good reasons for starting atlHack, but there are two really big, glaring ones that need to be tackled here:

  1. There is no reason for computing to be a solo activity.  People are social; computing should be social.  To this end, we (make sure to shower,) meet up every week to talk to others face to face, drink coffee (Octane is now selling beer as well), and write about what we do.  These are normal, everyday things that are surprisingly uncommon at GeorgiaTech, especially in the CoC.  Come, normalize yourself – you’ll be a happier person.
  2. Computer Science, especially in the States, has an overwhelming monoculture.  What I mean is, most people could pick a "computer person" out of crowd of people.  Why is this?  Everyone uses computers!  And, why are there so few girls in computing?  I think that the strange culture of computing is holding us all back.  So, I would like to "Open Source" the computing culture of Atlanta – put it all (well, all thats appropriate) on the web, and invite everyone to join in.

Why Did I Not Start atlHack?

Ok, there’s two sides to every coin… what will make me not want to continue atlHack?

  1. Becoming a free computer repair shop.  I’m sorry if you are having computer problems.  If we’re feeling nice, we might show you the Yellow Pages.  You wouldn’t expect someone to fix your car for free, please don’t ask us to solve your problems.  There are companies like Geek Squad and Retrotechs that can help you out.  Fixing computer problems is work, and work is not exciting.  If there are people who are interested in volunteering, they will let you know.
  2. Becoming everyone’s soapbox.  Yes, we sometimes talk about religion, politics, and Mac vs Windows vs Linux.  No, I don’t want to talk about this every week – that’s boring.  You’ll notice that I often say atlHack is whatever you want it to be.  Well, its actually going to be whatever *I* want it to be, and a weekly yak fest is not high on my list.  I’m listening for other people’s ideas, but I’ll put my own goals first.  My goals are to encourage creativity, innovation, productivity, and diversity.  If you are just wasting people’s time, we’re not interested.

Why Can’t You Decide How to Capitalize ATLhack?

Well, it should probably be ATLhack, since ATL is an airport code, and airport codes are uppercase, but I think that it looks a lot nicer in camelCase, and I like things that look nice.  Sometimes I write ATLhack to emphasize where it referrs to, but most of the time I will use atlHack.  If you see atlhack, its probably a domain name or a typo.

How Do You Say "atlHack"?

Think "paddle", without the "p".  Why?  I don’t know why, it just sounds better than "A, T, L, hack".