don't make your bed

let's say that you spend a minimum of 5 minutes making our beds each morning. in a year, you spent 30 hours making your bed. you could have spent each 5 minutes to read a page out of a book instead.

I don't structure the blankets on my bed. I don't see the point in ordering the blankets when I'm just going to disorganize them later. I wonder how much time the average person wastes in a life time structuring their blankets. If your bed is against a wall, you have to move your entire bed to 'make your bed' adding the wasted time. I don't think anyone should take pride in fixing their bed. "I'm a responsible and disciplined person because I fix my bed" says the wrong person, but the truth is that you could take pride in having read maybe more than just one entire book by the end of the year. If someone uses their bed as a work place, I can see the point in making the bed, but you could always just move the top blanket aside.

how many clicks?

blogspot:
to blog a new post on blogspot is 3 clicks (if i'm logged in)
1. clicking www.blogspot.com
2. clicking "new post"
3. clicking "publish post"

facebook:
depends on what you do there but that takes about 5 clicks as well

gmail
takes about 5 clicks to open chats with some friends and check some mails

google reader
takes about 5 clicks too... i wish google reader and google talk would come together so I didn't ahve to be on gmail for google talk and google reader at the same time. i'm not sure how much memory and bandwidth that takes up.

bottom line is that I can't wait for google wave. where else is that awesome spell checker being implemented?

Grease Monkey

I just started using Grease Monkey with Mozilla Firefox. Grease Monkey ends the debate for me. Until Google Chrome supports Grease Monkey (I don't know that Chrome does yet), I'm going to be using Firefox. Java Scripts and Grease Monkey are ultra useful. For example, I just installed a script that allows me to highlight any text, press a key for instance 'w' that automatically wikis the highlighted text or if I press 'g' the highlighted text is googled in a new tab. I had to modify the script a bit since the searches were in French. I even added my own search key to the script to translate any word I highlight in English to Spanish at wordreference.com.

Programming for Phones

I would like to learn how to program for cell phones. I was just reading John Carmack's blog where he talks about his whole journey into programming games for cell phones. I like the idea of programming for cell phones for pretty much the same reason John Carmack likes programming for cell phones: cell phone programs are easier to show off. I'd like if I could port the scrabble cheater program I'm working on to cell phones.

Scrabble Cheater is not an amazing deal of a program but fun to have around just in case anyone wants to play scrabble and you are in the mood to win unfairly.

Youtube for Learning or Brain Deterioration

I've seen so many videos on youtube but most of them were a complete waste of time. I suppose laughing and having fun is healthy but sometimes youtube videos are plain retarded(e.g. fred, blue berry pie). On the other hand, youtube can also be used for educational purposes (e.g. calculus, how to moon walk). I used antiRTFM's channel on youtube to clarify some C++ concepts. The reason I wanted to write about youtube and educational purposes is because of an article written by a specialist in the future that explains how in the future education won't be classroom-centered. Sometimes we're just bored of reading a textbook; having a voice explain difficult concepts while you lay down in bed is relaxing. Recently professors at MIT have had their lectures uploaded onto youtube. If you want an alternative to learning from the textbook, something a little more personal, youtube is a great place to go.


see response to internet education by biology professor at U of Toronto, Larry Moran
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2009/04/will-universities-survive.html

Gmail This!

I just discovered the awesome bookmark Gmail This. Just drag Gmail This into your bookmarks bar and click it whenever you want to G-mail someone the current website you're visiting. I wish the Gmail This bookmark had Google Reader's bookmark Share This feature where any text you highlight is what users you are sharing with on Google Reader see before they decide they want to view the full website or article. In the case of Gmail This, users would highlight text, click Gmail This and any text highlighted would appear in the G-mail. Another feature that would be nice for Gmail This would be automatically embedding youtube videos or pictures.

Working in Steps

I learned an important lesson about programming from a yahoo answer. If only I could find that one yahoo answer that taught me the ways of the samuri in terms of programming. Some chick posted a bunch of code and copy pasted her debugger output and said "where's the problem?" The best answer in my opinion then explained that programming doesn't work that way. You don't define and impliment 10 different functions into a program and then run it through a debugger. No, you're supposed to run each function or at least the basic idea of the function through the debugger to see if it works before you go on defining another function for the program.

Today I decided to stop procrastinating or puttning off the Scrabble Cheater project. Well, I decided to work ont he project sooner after I discovered some solutions as I meditated over the problems as a bed time story. I guess I'll talk about some of those solutions on my C++ blog. So far, my program consists of only a couple functions and I'm about to turn some code I've been testing into another function which migh turn out to be the most important function in the program - the function that compares the characters from the input to the characters of words in an array.

Another concept I had a hard time with was working with a project. I always used to work on a single source file. I knew what the include statements meant but I didn't know who to "make my own files to include". On DEV-CPP making a project is very easy. I recently downloaded Code Blocks but I'm just not used to the idea of using it as my default IDE yet. I have tried Microsoft Visiual CPP Express but I'm not used to it either. That's my update for now.

Yahoo Answers vs. Forums

I used to usually only use Yahoo Answers and the Gamedev chat whenever I had a question about C Plus Plus, and lately a debate has been floating in my mind. Is posting questions on yahoo answers better than posting questions on forums that are related to the subject of the question?
There are a lot of cons to posting a question on Yahoo Answers:

• There's the possibility that nobody will be interested in your question and in about three days Yahoo Answers shuts down your question for no further answers.
  
• You have to request an extension to the amount of time your question is up for answers.
  
• I take back the first con, what really happens is that someone answers your question extremely poorly and after a certain amount of time, since that person is the only person that answered your question, his/her answer gets chosen as best answer and then the question is shut down for no further answers.
• You can't argue about another persons' answer and why its wrong. You just answer.
  

The pros to posting a question on Yahoo Answers:

• There is a reward system. I don't know if it's true that the people that answer questions on Yahoo Answers are in it for the points, but this reward system is supposed to reward those with the best answers. Therefore, yahoo answers pressures a strive for good quality answers that forums don't necessarily.
  

What are the cons and pros of forums then?
cons

• There isn't a reward system? There is usually no pressure to make anyone give a quality response to your question. There is only pressure of being right and having a good reputation on a forum for being right. I totally disagree with this con because I've been to many forums for answers to questions and people do try to give quality answers even without the points.
  

pros

• You can edit your questions or arguments in the post. Want to bold something, add a picture, maybe an embedded youtube video? You can't do this on yahoo answers, but you can usually do it on a forum with HTML editing capabilities.
  
• There is room for discussion. If one user on the forum disagrees with another about some answer, forums make possible a debate where the questioner has a chance to see why a particular answer may not be correct and to keep the heads up for new answers that could be more accurate or correct.
  
• You're question will never expire and will always be there for more answers.

I've been thinking about forums and yahoo answers lately because I just discovered Orkut communities which are much like forums. I joined the C/C++ community they have there with already 150,000 members. I'm also a member of several other forums that have been very useful: CPP for Beginners, Game Dev, and C Plus Plus.

Going to the Movies

Some classmates invited me to go to the movies today to see some movie I could do without. I want to go but not for the movie. I just want to go to see my classmates again and socialize with them for a while. One of my classmates said we would be watching Slumdog Millionaire, and I don't care much for a movie about romance unless I'm with my girlfriend. I hope they were just joking about the movie choice in case I do change my mind about going to the movies.

The main reason I don't want to go is because of the expense. Costs 4 dollars to see a movie here, and I know if you're from the States or Canada you're probably thinking "That's so cheap! I'd go if I were you!" Sure, it's cheap but you can do many other useful things with 4 dollars than watch a movie. Just yesterday I spent 43 dollars on getting an application sent to University of Central Florida by Fed Ex. I think of the 4 dollars I would have spent going to a movie as a fraction of the 43 dollars I spent yesterday.

Wikipedia for Calculus

I've been learning some calculus using wikipedia. I wanted to know how the power rule rule was derived for example and the wikipedia entry on the power rule explains everything, but I didn't understand what the binomial theorem was. Luckily there was a link for the binomial theorem and the binomial coefficient.



One thing I love doing is using my web camera is to take pictures of specific places on the screen. I find using my web camera more efficient than using the print screen functions and doing all the editing. I took this picture with my web camera:

The triangle is created by line y = x and line y = -x + 2

I took this picture when someone was explaining how to get the area of a triangle with integration. Everyone should know that the area of a triangle is 1/2(base)(height) but how can you get the area of a triangle with integration? When you look at the graph the answer to the question becomes obvious. The sum of the definite integrations of both lines would give you the area of the triangle.

You can get the area of a circle by the integration of the formula for its circumference(2PIr) which is PIr²

Pastebin

The picture above is dedicated to www.pastebin.com. I was helping someone out with their homework and having him post his source code at pastebin was a great way to keep source code out of chats. Pastebin made the code easier to read and whenever we wanted to refer to the code or make changes to the code we could always do that within the amount of time we wanted the pasted to remain at pastebin.

Linking Google to Youtube [fail]

I was just experimenting around the internet. I remembered that Youtube is a Google product so I tried to find some way I could make my google account address and password open my already existing youtube account. I like the idea of having just one user name and password for everything: there's less addresses and passwords to memorize and change every month. I tried linking up the accounts (whatever that means) and nothing happened. I seem to have created a completely new account that has nothing to do with my original Youtube account and that's a turn off. Now I just don't want to even think about it. :(

Youtube For Calculus

I've been learning calculus on youtube. I took calculus for a whole year, but until tonight I always thought calculus was magic (and when a naturalist says something is magic...). I think one of the reasons I always thought of calculus as magic was because my professor never explained what everything was. I never once heard my professor say that the derivative of a function was the formula for the slope of the tangent line at any given point on the curve of the function. Not once do I remember him saying that! He explained the definition of the derivative without explaining how to find the definition of the derivative. Thanks to khanacademy on youtube, I finally know where the definition of the derivative is derived [ha ha ha] and what it's for. I know I can't just blame the professor. I could have done my part and read the textbook or looked up youtube videos during the year: the problem is the system. For the first quarter of the year, I was waking up at 5:00 AM for school, and according to recent research teenagers aren't meant to wake up so early. During the last three quarters I would wake up at 7:00AM, but that's still not enough.

Dr Paul Kelley, of Monkseaton High School in North Tyneside, said continuous early starts created "teenage zombies" in the classroom.

Planning Procrastination

I haven't been following the schedule. I have been following up with university applications and yesterday I studied for my driver license, but I've been putting off C++ and Calculus. I did reinforce some CPP with my new little project that calculates the fractional part of someone's age, but I'm learning new techniques at a slower pace than I should. The problem is I spend too much time on Counter Strike and TV shows.

Chrome vs. Firefox

I can't decide which browser I like more. The only reasons I liked Firefox over Chrome were for its Chatzilla, Delicious, Download Helper, and Open Book add ons. There are features I like about Chrome too: incognito window, integrated Open Book, and the ability to close down a specific tab via Task Manager (if say that specific tab is what's freezing your computer). However, sometimes I find that Chrome processes slower than Firefox. When I first got Chrome, I noticed trouble watching Youtube videos. For now, I suppose I'll be switching between browsers every now and then until I see that Chrome is faster, and I find out how to get Chatzilla and Download Helper features onto Chrome.

• I don't need Delicious add on anymore now that I have Google Reader. I find Google Reader a far superior site sharing system. Especially now that they've installed the comment feature.
  

Specifc Time URL Youtube

Get youtube video links and if you want to a url to start the youtube at a specific time just add #t=1m15s (for example). Add numbers of your choice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNlDczS4YK4#t=1m15s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le0_Pkmu5Nw&feature=related#t=2m15s

What do people believe?

more music charts

hat tip BadAstronomy

What I Like to Do: Yahoo Answers

I like to give people negative votes on yahoo answers for stupidity... even a little stupidity. *laughs wildly*

Answers I vote down:
"C++ is a programing language. You can learn it about as fast as you can learn to speak a second language."
why? this answer assumes the person doesn't know a second language. I crack myself up. Seriously, he should have said "another language" instead of "second language".

"it is .cpp i think ........any way u cant compile it without ide...opt for Borland or some ide.....google C++"
why? you don't need a IDE to compile c++ code. you need a compiler.

Finding New Blogs

I recently learned how to find new blogs that relate to my interests here on Blogger, Blogspot or whatever this place is called. I realized that interests on my profile are linked to a blog search of everyone else that is interested in the word that represents my interest. For example, one of my interests is "programming". I go to my profile, click "programming" in my interests, and wallah, every profile on blogspot, blogger, or whatever this place is called is listed. I think the list is sorted in most recently updated. I'm excited now that I can find new blogs that may teach me new things about my interests.

http://www.blogger.com/profile-find.g?t=i&q=Programming

I guess if I didn't want to have to add an interest to look for people with interests out of my interest list, I could just copy the URL above and replace "Programming" with whatever word I'm interested in. Interesting huh? I know I'm interested.

Case for Christ, the movie

http://www.veoh.com/collection/amikkwe/watch/v156245056EfmJHFX

Upon watching the movie Case For Christ by Lee Strobel, several details trouble me about the resurrection story in the Bible:

• Women discovered the empty tomb.

• According to Lee Strobel's mathematicians the probability of one person doing all the prophecies is 1 in trillion trillion trillion...

• David writes about crucifixions before crucifixions were invented by the romans.
  
  
• ...the reliability of eye witness testimony and how the gospels each tell the same story but slightly different supposedly "aiding to the credibility"

Volunteer Work in Global Hope Network

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I'm doing volunteer work at GHNI. I'm not doing much. I put some files onto a computer and worked on a brochure, but nothing fancy. Yesterday, I called a friend of my girlfriend and asked her if I could go to work with her and she said I could. Global Hope Network International helps populations affected by natural disasters. They help out poor populations in general. What I like is about GHNI is its desire to create microbusiness in these poor populations and avoid creating dependency. Right now, they are talking a lot about helping Gaza, Indonesia, and Afganistan. If you want to help them help people in need, this is a Christian organization and you donate to them at GHNI.org

Family Reunion

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Libraries Rock

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I'm at the library checking out some books. I found a book about the history of programming languages, a book about learning C Plus Plus in 21 days, and a book about robotics. I love the studious, quiet environment. I'm listening to the song "Somebody's Watching Me" I love this song after the Geico commercials about the little money you could be saving with Geico.