Archive for ‘2009’

This is a letter to future students taking English 110 at OSU

Prior to taking this introductory writing course, I had a very different view to writing that I do today. I would always decide ahead of time what I would write about and how I should write it, and no matter what difficulties I had in the actual execution of the plan, I would rigidly stick to it.

This course has helped me realize the flexibility that writing should have. The reason for writing drafts is not just to weed out improper sentence structures and awkward phrases, but to allow the writer to decide the best topic to write about, the style the writer should take, etc. If you open yourself up to this possibility early in the course, you will find yourself greatly benefiting from this.

Another piece of advice that I do not offer lightly: do your work ahead of time! This is not a "concrete" course; it requires finessed thinking, and most of this thinking should be done by you. Unlike "concrete" courses, such as science-based or math-based courses, there is no one prescribed way of working through a problem; there are infinitely many and all require the finessed thinking I mentioned. What is finessed thinking? Its the type of thinking that involves dealing with unstated ideas that are implicitly present in the whatever writing, or media you are analyzing. This finessed thinking requires you to recognize the implied ideas and explicitly state them.

This "implicit-to-explicit" idea is very well explained in the course textbook, and it really opened my eyes to this new world of information that is present in a lot of written text. It is presented as one of five "analytical moves" and is detailed in the very first pages of the text. I recommend you carefully read this and let the idea sink in.

Well, good luck to you and I hope you will find this information useful!

On PCWorld.com, I came across an article talking about the new OS that Google is developing, Chrome OS. Chrome OS will be a lightweight operating system meant to be used on netbooks. Its primary application will be the web browser, Google's Chrome, that was released during the second half of 2008.

The revolutionary approach to this OS is its emphasis on cloud computing. Rather than having applications and storage on the actual device, the user will have to rely on online applications and online storage for their computing needs. Cloud computing has only recently taken off in the personal user market. People are using online photo storage and sharing services like Flickr; online video publishing like Youtube, and even online document publishing and editing like Google Docs.

Cloud computing does have its benefits. For one thing, all data is stored centrally in "the cloud", which makes retrieval of data from multiple locations very easy to do. Another benefit is that there is less dependence on the performance of the device, since most of the actual processing is being done in "the cloud".

However, the major issue with Chrome OS, and cloud computing in general is that one needs to be connected to the Internet in order to utilize the device. For me, this goes against the whole portable computer you can take anywhere idea. For example, if you're on a plane, since most flights do not offer wireless internet, a "cloud computer" would be of no use. Similarly, if you're in an area of no internet connectivity, (I am including the cell networks in this as well, so this would happen somewhat rarely, I admit), your computer is of no use.

I think a balance needs to be struck, because cloud computing definitely has its benefits. One solution would be to backup the files stored on your computer online, and have them accessible to you from any Internet-enabled device. This would be a step forward in the right direction. There are many such services already, but if Google made an OS that made this seamless, then I think they would a definite winner for an OS. They should also make offline versions of their online applications (which is mentioned in the article), so that users will not have to switch applications when going from local access to cloud access and vice versa. Most of all, Chrome OS should shy away from the regular OS norms, (like a static desktop image, static icons), and should be more dynamic in nature (weather applets on desktop, news feeds, and most visited websites, for a start).

Article Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/182152/google_chrome_os_a_nice_place_to_visit_but
.html

This morning I woke up and to my surprise, I couldn't recall my dream (see post of Call of Duty) As such, during class I was wondering what to write about when I remembered that my brother had recounted his dream this morning to me.

First, I'll give you an introduction to my brother. He is six years older than me, and loves coffee. And as every coffee connoisseur knows, the best coffee to be had in Columbus (or Cananda) can only be obtained at the magical establishment that is known as Tim Hortons.

Tim Hortons is a Canadian coffee shop known for its frugal prices, amazing coffee, delicious doughnuts, and let me not forget to mention the tempting Timbits. When my family moved to Canada in the late 90's, Tim Hortons was one of the few places we frequented, due its perfectly-brewed coffee, its inviting atmosphere and its general ambiance. It was the first time that I also heard another word: double-double. It was the Canadian way to order a coffee with two creams and two sugars. To this day, my brother tries to order his coffees by saying, "I'll have a double-double" even when we aren't at a Tim Hortons. Although I am raving about their coffee, I have a confession to make: I never order coffee at Tim Hortons. I'm just not a coffee drinker. I am more partial to the hot chocolate and my favourite baked good that I have not seen in any other coffee shop: the chocolate danish. Those two items are enough to send my into a blissful state that can only be broken by the slow ebbing of the sugar rush the danish provides.

Anyway, back to the dream. It started out in our Columbus apartment. Apparently, on a whim, we decided to visit every Tim Hortons location in North America (no easy feat, there are almost 3500 locations, mostly in Canada). The four of us (my parents, my brother and I) piled into our family minivan and started the long journey. We would pull in to the drive through of each Tim Hortons and order away. Curiously, my brother noted that I was the one ordering double-doubles and he was ordering a chicken salad sandwich instead (my current favourite at Tim Hortons). After visiting a lot of Tim Hortons, my brother got very full. Then, he proceeded to keep ordering the sandwich but would throw it out right after we left the drive through. That was when he woke up.

I recently came across an article on ZDNet.co.uk entitled Debunking Some Linux Myths. It was an article highlighting some "myths" of the Linux operating system and concluding that all were false. I agreed with most of the points outlined. For example, the first point about compiling programs is completely true; there is no need to compile program for your system as long as you have a popular distribution, like Ubuntu—and even when you do need to compile, there is a maximum of 3 commands needed for most zipped source codes.

However, Linux can be difficult and confusing to use. For instance, on almost every Ubuntu install in the past 3 years, I've run into some hardware incompatibilities. It took me quite a while to figure out that in order to get my wifi card working properly, I had to install an additional package that supported the particular card my laptop had. I had to hunt for this solution through forum post after forum post.

Don't get me wrong, I love using Linux. The way I have my Ubuntu distribution set up is perfect now, but it did take a significant amount of time to get it that way. For that reason, I am quite sure Linux is not for everyone. Linux is for people who love to make their desktop experience their own, the ones who spend time looking for ways to tweak their taskbar just so (anyone remember StyleXP?). I think most distributions of Linux have matured enough that little to no knowledge of "terminal commands"* need to be known to unlock their full potential.


*Although, they do make life easier

I have decided to re-enable the navbar shown at the top of most blogger blogs. The reason being that this navbar has helped drive traffic from various parts of the world to my blog and I want to do my part in driving traffic to as yet undiscovered blogs.

In fact, I wasn't even aware that my chosen layout would block the navbar but after looking online to see how to enable or disable it, I found out that you can either put the following lines of code in, or take them out, if you want to show the navbar in my case:

#navbar, #navbar-iframe {
height: 0px;
visibility: hidden;
display: none;
}

Also I noticed that in my blog, the name was actually .navbar not #navbar or #navbar-iframe. Your results may vary.

By the way, for the people wondering how I log my visitors, I use Statcounter.com. Its a free service and you don't actually need to show the hit counter for the page visits to count, although you can customize the appearance of that if you so desire. I highly recommend Statcounter, they allow you to track more than one project at a time and best of all, its free. They do have a paid version, but for most people without a boatload of traffic, the free version works just as well.

Today, I woke up from a very strange dream. I have been doing a lot of that lately. I think it is because I have been setting my alarm a half hour before I intend to get up. Even though my alarm rings every morning at 7, I tend to turn it off each time and I begin to have the strangest and most surreal dream for the next half hour (or in this case 2 hours).



Let me get back to the actual dream; it started out in a large mansion at night. It was one of those spooky castle-type affairs complete with large portraits on the wall and suits of armour lining each corridor. For some strange reason, I was carrying an M429 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), much like the one in the screenshot displayed above. I was having a conversation about religion with one of my classmates from grade school.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the room, and a staccato burst of gunfire burst out from below. I took a quick look out the window and imagine my surprise when I saw my 11th grade religion teacher, Mr. Juguilon leading an angry mob to the mansion, wielding pitchforks and torches. I was taken aback at this, but I held my composure. My friend did not keep her composure, and she freaked out. Luckily, the attack seemed to be concentrated on the lower floor, for not one rabble-rouse came to the upper level. A few hours passed and we heard the mob going to the backyard, so we decided to make our escape.

When we stepped into my car, police sirens rang out and a squad car pulled into the parking spot beside us, but started questioning the occupants of the car on the other side. I decided that was our lucky break and peeled off, driving as fast as could to get away from the melee.

Then, I woke up and glanced at my alarm clock; its display announced that the time was 9:10 AM. I was late for class again! I also made a mental note to avoid playing Call of Duty 4 right before I go to sleep.

I recently stumbled upon an article (not literally) on Commonplace University. It was entitled It's Our Illegal Right and it was an article arguing that music downloading should not be illegal for the reason that it is very easy to obtain music, for free, through less than legal means. The author goes on to state that recording artists should not be paid thousands to millions of dollars for their songs. The main premise of the argument is: as (broke) college students, we cannot afford the extravagance that is purchasing music, and so if we can find free sources of music, we should not be penalized for utilizing those resources.

At first, I was quite against this argument. After all, isn't illegally downloading music the same thing as swiping a cd from a store? Not quite, you might say, you're only downloading one song. Well, I can tell you that it is entirely possible to download entire albums via the BitTorrent P2P protocol. However, there is a distinction to be made. A CD is a physical object, whereas a music file is purely digital. Is it right to charge for a digital copy? I think yes; however, I think once you obtain it, the file should be yours to do with as you please. Many online music stores, (even iTunes until quite recently) place restrictive copyright measures on the music files using a technology called DRM (Digital Rights Management). Depending on the type of DRM, this can restrict you to the number of computers you can play the music on, the programs you can play the music with, even restrict you to the amount of time you can play it.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand, should illegal downloading of music be legalized? I think it should not be as big a crime as it now. I don't think it is in any way fair for the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to be suing people for enormous sums of money just for sharing a few songs. I think it would be more meaningful if the RIAA launched an ad campaign highlighting the various benefits one receives from legally purchasing music (for example, via iTunes, there is a new feature called iTunes LP which also provides cover art, interactive behind-the-scenes exclusives, a parallel to DVD extras)

I think the main reason the RIAA is cracking down so hard is because they have no idea how to update their outmoded way of marketing to match the age of the Internet. They are still thinking of each digital download as a physical entity unto itself rather than merely a medium for the music to be played through.

Article Source: http://www.mhlearningsolutions.com/commonplace/index.php?q=node/3767

By the way, I highly recommend this website: TechDirt.com, they are a champion of all rights digital

I am an avid reader. I love reading all kinds of books but I'm mostly into sci-fi, fantasy and humourous books. I especially like sci-fi books because I am a technophile and most sci-fi novels, if not all, have some cool gadget as the centerpiece to them.

My favourite author is Robert J. Sawyer, a Canadian science fiction writer and has published almost 20 books. I first met him at a book fair in Toronto (where I used to live). He was sitting at a table with a lot of his books on sale. I looked through the books he had on display and the one that intrigued me the most was Calculating God (it also cost the least and I was a little short on cash at the time). I was very excited at the time to get a signed copy of a book (it was my first and only signed novel). When I got home, I couldn't put the book down, it was that engrossing. He now has one of his novels turned into a television series, FlashForward. I highly recommend the book, and watch the TV show too, if you'd like (9PM Thu on ABC), but I'm a bit peeved they didn't give more credit to Sawyer (his name was displayed for a less than a second).



Another favourite author of mine is Gordon Korman, another Canadian novelist. However, he mostly writes humourous teen-oriented novels. The first time I read a Gordon Korman novel was in the 4th grade. The book was called The War with Mr. Wizzle. It was about the adventures of two high school boys in a Canadian boarding school as they tried to get rid of a progress-obsessed teacher. I absolutely loved the book and I read the rest of the books in the series (the series was called Bruno and Boots). There is one caveat about Gordon Korman, however. While his previous works have been extremely funny (they actually remind me of the TV show Seinfeld, the way somehow-unrelated comedic polt twists would lead to one very funy conclusion), his later novels are more serious, like the Everest series.