Live at ‘Club 770’
Originally uploaded by CCmcGeek.
Not sure if you will be able to see it in this pic, but there’s definitely a tenor sax on stage with this rock band. Awesome! They’ve also got everything from a bell kit to a flugel (sp?) horn. It’s pretty sweet.
I’ve taken to working on the Daily Cardinal crossword puzzles during ECE 342 (MWF) and ECE 551 (TR) recently. Why during class? Well, believe it or not, because it actually helps me learn better! I’m somewhat interested in both classes, and for ECE 342, I actually have a really good professor, but the material for both is awfully dry. If I try to just pay attention to the lecture, especially 551 power lectures, my attention wanders, there’s nothing to do, and so I fall asleep đ
On the other hand, when I bring the crossword puzzle along, I have something intellectually stimulating to do when the lecture gets too slow, so I stay awake đ
Plus it has the added benefit of increasing my knowledge, as opposed to my other stand-by: pulling out my laptop, which tends to just waste my time đ
For instance, in the midst of discussing p-channel MOSFET differential amplifiers and improving their gain by means of a current mirror active load configuration, I learned this today:
I didn’t know any of those clues, but was able to fill in the cross words for all but Ilium. Two boxes there I had to look up, with a few more for a total of 4 today. Not bad.
And just for grins, here were this author’s “clever” clues:
The sad part is that I actually got all three of those with only about 4 letters each, but I was stuck on “Rim holder” –> Backboard for like 20 minutes, when I had _ _ C K B _ A _ _.
‘Cause man, I sure don’t.
On the other hand, I did receive some beautiful PIC16F’s today from Microchip.
Unfortunately, Travis also informed us on the bus back from Plexus that there is no C compiler for the 16F series, only for the 18F and 24F’s. Probably because the 16F series uses an accumulator architecture with a limited 8-level stack, I guess.
But seriously. Damn. Why couldn’t we have paid more attention when ordering the things? Now we’re either going to have to program in assembly or sample new parts and wait another week. Crap.
On the upshot, the PICs came in this awesome ESD bag with a ziplock-esque zipper!
More Red Hot Chili Peppers
Originally uploaded by CCmcGeek.
Oh yeah- there was a band there too, not just awesome sound and lighting equipment. Actually, the band was fricking amazing. If you’re at all a Chili Peppers fan, you should definitely see them live!
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Originally uploaded by CCmcGeek.
I just want to sit behind THAT!
Goo Goo Dolls
Originally uploaded by CCmcGeek.
Pretty sure my cellphone’s camera hates dark rooms with bright lights… Also pretty sure the average age here was like 18. But it was a great concert regardless!
I was looking through an old file of quotes on my laptop this evening. I’m not entirely sure what I was in search of, nor that I found it, but it did bring to mind some quotes I really like, and some things I need to think about again these days. Mostly so I don’t forget them, but also to set them out for you to ponder as well, here are a few:
There are many degrees of sight and many degrees of blindness. What senses do we lack that we cannot see another world all around us?
-Frank Herbert
Love does not begin and end the way
we seem to think it does.
Love is a battle, love is a war;
love is a growing up.Love takes off masks that we fear
we cannot live without and know we
cannot live within.– James Baldwin
“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and techology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”
– Carl Sagan
Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age.
– Jon Stewart
Many a man is praised for his reserve and so-called shyness when he is simply too proud to risk making a fool of himself.
-J. B. Priestley
Ow… Priestley, that was a little close to home.
Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
I don’t often go for Craigslist, but Scott sent me this link: Why Geeks and Nerds are Worth It”, and it is awesome, so I’m copying it here, with props to the original poster (note that the original poster was female).
I really like numbers 1, 3, 11, 12, and especially 15. Props to all my fellow nerds, as well!
Date: 2005-04-03, 9:30PM PDT
In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.
1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, theyâre well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are… plus, Iâve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.
2.) Theyâre useful. In this tech-savvy world, itâs great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.
3.) Theyâre more romantic than theyâre given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such… but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.
4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like âem tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like âem smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.
5.) Theyâve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?
6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birthdates and such, especially if they know itâll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, theyâre more attentive than guys who âhave more optionsâ. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, theyâll likely have mental lists of all the things theyâd love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.
7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. Iâm not really familiar with this myself, but Iâve friends whoâve been intimate with geek guys and itâs raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra… all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.
8.) Theyâre relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if youâre not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?
9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You wonât have to worry much about your geek guy getting his âgrooveâ on with club hotties because, frankly, heâll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You wonât have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, heâll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. Iâve seen this happen.
Me: âEww. Victoria Secretâs Models… Theyâre so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!â
Geek Guy: âooooooo…â
Me: âHey!â *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*
Geek Guy: âWhat?â
Me: âNever mind…â
10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, youâll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if heâll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesnât want to go someplace with you, you wonât have to worry much about what heâs up to. Youâll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. Itâs ok. Heâs used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.
11.) His friends arenât jerks. I canât stress this enough. Youâll more likely get âOmg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!â than âHey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on…â Theyâre awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code… a geek can dream).
12.) Theyâre rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He wonât care. He does too! They wonât get pissy if you donât wear make-up or donât want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they wonât try their best to make you feel like crap.
13.) Theyâre usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You wonât have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), heâll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce…
14.) Youâll almost never have to hear, âYaw dawg whazzap!!â plop out of their mouths. Unless itâs in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get âwastedâ, so you wonât have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps…
15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though thatâs a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than âDaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!â Believe me.
Update: As Craig pointed out, the original version of my page flashed blue before changing orange. That was my bad. Here’s what was wrong, as an FYI:
Original Stylesheets:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="csdeptb.css" title="Blue Layout" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="csdepta.css" title="Orange Layout" />
...
<body onload="setActiveStyleSheet('Orange Layout');">
The problem? Both stylesheets were loaded by default as preferred stylesheets, and since the blue sheet is listed first, it took precedence, rendering the page blue. Then on page load, I fired off a javascript call to set the orange sheet as active. This was to work around a weird IE glitch where it didn’t always load the second style sheet. BUT, this resulted in the page being blue until it fully loaded, and then changing orange. The solution? List orange first, and make the blue an alternate stylesheet, like so:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="csdepta.css" title="Orange Layout" />
<link rel="alternate stylesheet" type="text/css" href="csdeptb.css" title="Blue Layout" />
...
<body onload="setActiveStyleSheet('Orange Layout');">
[/Update]
So I’ve been having fun over the past couple days playing with HTML and CSS for a CS 640 (Intro to Computer Networks) assignment. The assignment is pretty trivial: basically, create the homepage for a fictitious Computer Science department. The home page should include 3 HTML documents (a home page, a faculty page, and a course listing), and two interchangible Cascading Stylesheets to play with colors. I put the shell of the page together pretty quickly, and then I’ve been spending some time playing with fancy CSS effects instead of doing my circuits homework đ
The page, for any who are interested, is located here: CCM University’s Computer Science Department
One annoying “bug” I kept running into was that my nicely-centered TABLE (yeah, I know… <TABLE>s are SO Web 1.0. Get over it.) kept shifting slightly to the right on the main page (index.html), and then back slightly to the left on the other two pages. I looked into this for probably 30 minutes, trying to find some extraneous tags or something that were screwing up the spacing.
(It’s a little hard to see on the thumbnails, but note the scrollbar appearing. The motion is easy to see in the fullsize pics.)
Main page (shifted right):
Faculty page (shifted left):
Then on one refresh, I noticed that the scrollbar appeared, and I slapped myself in the face. DUH. Longer pages (faculty.html and courses.html) –> don’t fit on one screen –> Need a vertical scrollbar –> Need to shrink the size of the content pane –> A centered element shifts to the left by half the distance of the scrollbar’s width.
My forehead hurts in shame.
To attempt to redeem myself, here’s a 30-second code snippet for centering stuff in CSS:
index.html
...
<LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="style.css" />
<BODY>
<TABLE class=framework> <!-- Desire to center this table -->
...
style.css
...
body { text-align: center; } // Center for IE
.framework {
margin: 0px auto; // Center for Mozilla
width: 800px;
text-align: left; // Prevent IE hack from inheriting
}
...
