Silent All These Years

: yuethomas; February 20th, 13:23

Here's a list of (non-recurring) things I bought in the past month. Online shopping is my Achille's heel it seems.

Performance Bicycle
- K2 ZED 1.0 2008 bike, $250

Amazon
- Bulldog 5010STD lock, $25
- Belkin 4 port USB 2.0 hub, $10
- Koss KSC75 earphones, $15

- 4gb MicroSDHC card, $8

Lenovo
- ThinkPad Ultrabay II Battery, $80

Fry's
- Corsair Flash Voyager 8gb drive, $10 AR

American Eagle
- American Eagle fleece, $20

Woot.com
- Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick (USB HDTV tuner), $35

I am poor but happy now.

Thanksgiving shopping

: yuethomas; November 30th, 2008

The American thanksgiving is different from its Canadian counterpart in a number of aspects. The most readily apparent is probably that while Canadian Thanksgiving is held in early October, the Americans wait until late November to gorge on turkey and cranberry sauce. (Tangentially, the turkey they had at GCC was too dry, and the staff didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for dark meat...)

While Canadians stay home, drowsy from all the tryptophan they had ingested at dinner the previous night, the Americans are out in full force the next day to do Black Friday shopping. It's a day in which merchants, seeking to jump-start the Christmas shopping season, slash their prices. (This is somewhat of a strange phenomenon, since in Canada, the Christmas shopping season kind of just starts, no jumper cables required. But I shouldn't complain.)

This year the importance of Black Friday is probably more than ever, thanks to the economy which is in the dumps and digging even deeper. I decided to get in on the action, not because - as Lewis Black asserts, America is depending me buy stuff - but because I actually had stuff to buy. As it turned out, Black Friday shopping is a day full of lessons.

Lesson 1: Rich people are rich. I biked to Stanford Shopping Center Friday morning. Being more of an upscale destination, swarms of people were milling about, Nordstrom and Macy's and Bloomingdale bags in tow. Their body language said but one thing: even though everything's 40 percent off, you still can't afford it.

Lesson 2: Even rich people want cheap stuff. The McDonald's in the mall - the sole bastion of good old non-rich America - teemed with people looking expensive and carrying the aforementioned bags.

Lesson 3: There are more poor people than rich people. The next day we went to Gilroy, a town famous for its factory outlet stores... and garlic. We struck gold in a shop due to close down around Christmas time; they sold jeans for less than $10 a pair. As I held my three pairs of jeans, a pack of sock and a belt, looking yonder past the half-an-hour-long checkout line to the cashiers, I thought to myself, what a bargain.

The next thought: too bad the shop is closing, or I'd shop here every year.

The next thought: I don't think I'll manage to be very rich. For one thing, I'd never know what to do if I suddenly got a lot of money.

Bytestring manipulation in Java and Perl

: yuethomas; July 8th, 2008

So my job involves large helpings of byte hackery in both Java and Perl. It would be fine, except Java is determined to make my life miserable. Here are a list of complaints that Java is guilty of, and where Perl truly shines.

( Read more... )

The Vortex of Meme

: yuethomas; February 10th, 2008

Current Mood:: cold

Current Music:: Keane - The Frog Prince

OK, so this is how it works. If you're really, mind-numbingly bored, here are 36 questions for your consumption, in haphazardly written English with weird capitalization. I didn't write these, nor did I take the time to correct them for proper grammar and spelling; I am, after all, not that bored. You may comment to this post with your answers. If you're still bored after that (god, you must lead the worst life ever), make a post of your own with these questions.

The original instructions: (I EXPLICITLY DISCLAIM ANY ENDORSEMENT OF THE SAID INSTRUCTIONS.)

IF YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... You're on my list, so I want to know you better!
BE HONEST! COPY FROM HERE THEN SEND DIRECTLY TO ME IN A COMMENT THEN, REPOST THE EMPTY QUESTIONS.

( On with the questions... )

MIT Mystery Hunt

: yuethomas; January 24th, 2008

Current Mood:: chipper

So I haven't posted in more than a month. I apologise profusely for this; I have just come back from Boston, where for no adequate reason it's actually warmer than Toronto is, and it's made all the hotter for the reason I'm about to explain. (Or you will have already known if you read the title.)

For those of you unfamiliar with the MIT Mystery Hunt, it's a 48-(more or less)-hour continuous nerd ~~orgy~~fest, where hordes of people with bad haircuts (for some, none at all) and far too much useless knowledge come together to gorge on pretzels, grape Kool-Aid and puzzles.

We got second this year. We last obtained this rank in 2006, when The Midnight Bombers What Bomb at Midnight snatched away our coin; Codex came in third. The top three teams were identical this year, except the puzzles were much, much harder. I was afraid that we wouldn't even be able to unlock all the puzzles when the hunt ended, so it was quite the surprise when I heard that we had, in fact, got second place.

List of favourite (and not-so-favourite) puzzles, in no particular order: (I'll put the links up when the puzzles are made public.)

( Ad nauseum... )

Adventure in OSX land

: yuethomas; December 4th, 2007

... turned into an abject nightmare.

My intentions at the start were innocuous enough: I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. With the herd of OSX worshippers prancing around the EngSci computer lab, I was not going to get an objective opinion easily (no offence to you all); my only remaining option was to actually install Leopard by myself.

But of course I wasn't about to buy a Mac. Oh no of course not. So how was I going to install it?

Reddit comes to the rescue - some helpful souls have posted instructions on exactly how to get Leopard up and running on your computer. It involves a modified Leopard install image, a SSE2-capable CPU, and luck.

It seemed, at least in the beginning, that luck was on my side. I successfully got Leopard to boot up, and I'll be candid and say that it was breathtaking. At least in the eyecandy department, Apple is leaps and bounds above Microsoft. Everything's ... beautiful.

Until I realised that I was running at 1024x768 resolution on my 1280x1024 monitor and the blurriness was making my eyes water.

And that there was no sound.

So I did what any sane person would do: I haxxored the kernel extensions according to a guide.

That failed miserably. Next time I booted, there was a kernel panic and I couldn't even get the bootloader to show. Leopard, in going down, took XP with it. Great.

I had no XP install media to repair the partition with... and no easily accessible Linux LiveCD.

... I had to install Vista.

An hour and much frustration later (UAC needs to go and suck something), I finally have Vista up and running; I run the boot editor and try to load the XP partition...

No go. When I try to boot to the XP partition the computer simply restarts. No gripe about missing ntldr; nothing.

So now I'm stuck in Vista, never envisioned when I started installing OSX believing that it would work. I guess that's karma for you.

Exam after exam after exam after exam

: yuethomas; November 2nd, 2007

Literally. At least they're over now.

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Not dead, just tired

: yuethomas; October 4th, 2007

It's been almost two months since my last post. A lot of things have happened in the last little while that I won't even try to summarise it. Good things, for a change. That is all.

Something I wrote for the GRE

: yuethomas; August 16th, 2007

Current Mood:: quixotic

The topic was just asking for it. I mean, come on. "Scientific theories, which most people consider 'fact', almost invariably prove to be inaccurate. Thus, one should look upon any information described as 'factual' with skepticism since it may well be proven false in the future."

And my response is here. It has not been thoroughly checked for spelling or grammatical mistakes, but I have enough faith in myself that I decided to post it here.

( enjoy )

Resorted to posting jokes

: yuethomas; July 10th, 2007

Before Marriage:

Him: Thank god - finally! I can't wait!
Her: What if I want to leave?
Him: No, don't even think about that!
Her: Do you love me?
Him: Of course I do!
Her: Will you betray me?
Him: No! Why would you think such a thing?
Her: Will you kiss me?
Him: I will.
Her: Will you hit me?
Him: Absolutely not.
Her: Can I believe you?

After marriage: start at the bottom, work your way up.

Leave a comment

Culinary ineptitude

: yuethomas; June 25th, 2007

My salsa is always runny.

Yesterday, while shopping with my parents, seeing them buy hot peppers gave me inspiration and I picked up some nachos. When I got home I prepared the following:

2 tomatoes, peeled and quartered, not cored
3/4 green bell pepper, chopped
1 large hot green pepper, chopped
8 to 10 pieces, baby carrot
bunch, peppermint
tbspn, apple cider vinegar / salt / sugar

Once all of these were run through the food processor, the concoction was so runny (and not red) that trying to scoop it up with nachos was borderline impossible. So I threw it into a large saucepan and started heating it in low heat trying to boil away some of the water. I had to add a considerable amount of ketchup to restore the redness - and that did decrease the runniness somewhat, but when I got around to eating it, the flavour was all masked by the over-sweetness of the ketchup.

What am I doing wrong?

Anyone know of this phone number?

: yuethomas; January 30th, 2007

Current Music:: Our Lady Peace - Supersatellite

647 722 923_

He or she called me today, but I could hear nothing on the other end. After repeated "Hello?"s, I hung up.

Since I was tagged...

: yuethomas; January 28th, 2007

I might as well.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5.Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in yourcloset! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever isclosest.
~~6. Tag five people.~~

设计一个电路使得中频区有 60dB 的增益，下限 3dB 频率点在 100Hz 处，上限 3dB 频率点在 10kHz 处，输出电阻 (ω » ω₁) 为 1kΩ。
(Design a circuit such that the mid-band gain is 60dB, the lower 3dB frequency is 100Hz, the higher 3dB frequency is 10kHz, and the ouptut resistance (ω » ω₁) is 1kΩ.)

This is from the Chinese translation of Sedra/Smith's Microelectronic Circuits, Fifth Edition.

Or, if you want something English...

A simple induction argument then shows that

p_k = (α^k / k!) e^-α for k = 0, 1, 2, . . . .

This is from Alberto Leon-Garcia's Probability and Random Processes for Electrical ENgineering, Second Edition.

What can I say, I've been doing homework.

As requested: my spring timetable

: yuethomas; January 7th, 2007

Current Mood:: quixotic

Current Music:: Coldplay - Amsterdam

Monday
ECE357 L0101 09-10 BA1240
ECE354 L0101 10-11 WB219
ECE356 L0101 11-12 BA1200
ECE344 L0101 14-15 BA1210
ECE351 L0101 15-16 BA1200
ECE351 T0102 16-17 BA2159

Tuesday
MIE374 L0101 14-15 BA1190
ECE357 L0101 16-17 RS208
ECE354 T0102 17-18 BA2159 *

Wednesday
ECE354 L0101 10-12 WB219
ECE356 L0101 14-15 BA1210
MIE374 L0101 15-16 BA1180
ECE351 L0101 16-18 BA1220
MIE374 T0101 18-19 BA1180

Thursday
ECE356 T0102 10-11 BAB024
ECE356 L0101 12-13 BA1200
ECE344 L0101 14-15 GB248
ECE357 T0101 16-17 BA3004
MIE374 L0101 18-19 BA1190

Friday
ECE354 P0102 09-12 GB445 *
ECE457 P0101 09-12 GB450 *
ECE357 L0101 13-14 BA1230
ECE356 P0101 15-18 BA3114 *

*: this meeting meets on alternate weeks

My Xmas Stocking

: yuethomas; December 25th, 2006

( my xmas stocking )

Leave a comment

(no subject)

: yuethomas; November 26th, 2006

Current Mood:: indescribable

Current Music:: Cliff Richard - Ocean Deep

So my hands itch from not having played piano in such a long time. Following the realisation that I don't really like classical pieces - except a few but those are far and in-between - I think I'd be more comfortable with modern sheet music. I've got it narrowed down to a few choices, and I'm thinking I might play - and maybe sing - one (or a few) of those at the EngSci talent show:

Cliff Richard - Ocean Deep / 周华健 - 伤心的歌 (same tune, different lyrics)
Dan Fogelberg - Leader of the Band
Tori Amos - Silent All These Years

Now comes the problem: I really want to play Ocean Deep, and it sounds like it would be approachable too, except the sheet music isn't available, anywhere. I've looked in all the usual places, except physically running down to Steve's Music Store on Queen Street, but for some reason I doubt they'd have it either. As for Leader of the Band, the arrangement sounds lacking. (It was originally a piece for guitar.) So I don't know what to do.

Mathematics

: yuethomas; November 22nd, 2006

I was just informed by my father that I received a letter from Penn State University offering me a chance to spend a semester there. This marks the third occasion, following last year's Putnam exam, that an university or an institution of some sort has offered me opportunities (and the scholarships to entice me) to spend a semester elsewhere. I guess I should feel flattered - and that I must have been pretty goddamned impressive on the exam.

This year's Putnam is but two weeks away; hopefully I can pull off something equally good. (Dare I hope, something good enough to put on my CV?)

Things that irk me, updated for 2006

: yuethomas; October 19th, 2006

Current Music:: 周传雄 - 異世界

1. Routers that won't stay on and have to be rebooted every half an hour.

To solve this problem, I'm gonna go buy a $6 ethernet adapter tomorrow and do ICS through my computer. This means my computer can't be turned off (roommate's sharing), but hey, if I get interruption-free internet, it's all worth it.

2. Everybody asking me to go to Dinner Dance.

Honestly. Do you want to see me dance? Do you want to see me shake my bootay like it's nobody's business and gyrate to nauseating rhythms like Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous"? I can't even bring myself to imagine that. So no.

( Reprint of an email saying as much )

Plus I'm not going stag.

3. Exam test test exam homework lab exam homework lab exam test lab lab homework homework exam test. Enough said.

More to come later, possibly in 2008.

I pose a question.

: yuethomas; September 13th, 2006

This question was posed to me by a friend taking a course in complex analysis:

Evaluate

1 + cos x + cos 2x + ... + cos nx

Using:

1) Fourier theory,
2) Euler's formula,
3) neither of the above.

Well, I lied. His challenge to me was 3) above (on account of supposingly not having covered it in class - but shouldn't Euler's formula be goddamn obvious for this problem?) but I'm not going to solve a problem the long and arduous way.

Reading mathworld is cheating!