Autologica

My Advent calendar

2010-11-27T18:52:00.005-05:00

Advent begins this coming week. One thing I always wanted to have was an Advent Calendar. I thought I had found exactly what I wanted earlier today at Hobby Lobby: It was a painted wooden house with 24 doors, each numbered accordingly. When opened, each door reveals a little cubby in which you could hide a small gift or piece of chocolate.

As soon as I picked it up, I was immediately hit with a sense of misgiving. It was all wrong. It was so... commercial. How could I celebrate Advent in a more solemn, religious way?

As I meandered through the baking aisle, I saw a Wilton's Cupcakes 'N More Mini Dessert Stand, and was hit with a marvelous idea. What if I were to combine this with votive candles? The result is shown in the picture below.

The votive candles fit perfectly into the little mini dessert slots, and since each candle is in its own glass container, it significantly reduces the fire hazard (of course, I'll still have to watch it carefully). As each day in December passes, I will light an additional candle. Thus, on Christmas Eve, all the candles will be lit, yielding a tree bathed in light. I think it will be quite lovely -- don't you agree?

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! [HULU]

2010-10-30T00:31:00.002-04:00

How awesome is this!!!!

An cute little utility

2010-09-13T13:20:00.003-04:00

So recently I had some files that I needed to sanitize of those annoying return carriages (^M, or \r). I was originally under the impression that dos2unix would take care of this easily. For whatever reason, Ubuntu 10.04 has replaced dos2unix with fromdos, and fromdos does not do the trick. Very annoying.

So what to do? I could write my own little regular expression or Perl script to take care of this for me. I still have not mastered awk or sed (yes, go ahead and shake your heads). I did, however, find a really neat little utility that is very easy to use and does exactly what I want called tr.

Suppose I have a file dosfoo.yuck which I received from a collaborator that is full of carriage returns. To sanitize the file, I can simply run tr on the file as follows:

tr -d \r < dosfoo.yuck > foo.awesome

The -d flag stands for "delete". On the particular file I cared about when I ran this utility, the -d deleted all the the carriage returns, but now I had no more newlines in my file! Not to fear, because tr can handle this easily. Just do:

tr \r \n < dosfoo.yuck > foo.awesome

And voila! Problem solved.

Midpoint

2010-08-31T12:22:00.005-04:00

Since my schedule tends to be fairly full, I've not posted here in a while. So here's a basic update on what's been going on.

On August 12, I became a PhD Candidate. So what does that mean? It means that I am now done with courses, preliminary examinations, and any other requirements other than my dissertation. At this point, I'm ABD, which fittingly stands for All But Done, All But Dissertation and/or All But Dead.

It's been two years since I entered Texas A&M University as a graduate student. In that amount of time, I've published four papers, with an additional two in preparation/under review. I've given a lightning talk, served on a panel, and presented numerous posters. I'm the lead author for the best algorithm for compressing phylogenetic trees, and the fastest sequential and parallel algorithms for comparing large groups of trees. This past summer, I passed four preliminary exams (one given to me by each committee member), wrote up a thesis proposal and successfully defended it.

Not bad for two years of work.

So what will happen with this blog from now on? Well, I do plan (ha ha) to keep on updating it. Most likely I'll start adding things I discover here as I play with some software.

My ubuntu-fix posts will probably be few and far between from now on -- Ubuntu 10.04 is out: it's beautiful, it's fast and it basically works. There has been no need for extra configurations like I've needed to do in the past. Gosh, I love Ubuntu. However, as I discover new things, I will definitely post them here.

That's all for now. I'll try and post something later this week.

-SM

I can't stop watching this

2010-05-14T00:53:00.004-04:00

Ever since Kevin shared this with me, I've been watching it constantly.

I'll have an end-of-the-semester post some time soon, I promise :-) Followed by a new tech post.

For those who are wondering, yes, the paper that was referenced to in the last post got accepted :-) Now waiting to hear back on another one (sigh).

-SM

Rage.

2010-02-20T02:45:00.008-05:00

I has it.

Waiting for paper notifications is always a pain. I do my best not to think about it, and focus my energy instead on the current algorithm I'm working on. This semester is a special case, since I should be hearing back about two papers in the next two weeks. Both are solid pieces of research and I'm incredibly proud of having been a part of both of them. At this point though, I am all too familiar with the paper reviewing process, and the endless submissions. Half the time, it's not clear to me the reviewers are actually reading the damn things... Each reviewer has so many papers to look at, and a seemingly impossible amount of time to look at it all in. Sometimes I want to scream out the same things ResearchCat is spouting above.

The tentative caption for the above picture is currently "ResearchCat on EasyChair".

And yes, I may have more ResearchCat pictures in the future... you didn't think LOLQualCats was the end, did you?

-SM

An update of sorts

2009-08-26T10:41:00.006-04:00

What can you say about an eighteen-month old laptop that died? My attachment to my Ideapad could be crafted into a Love Story in itself, prematurely cut short when my laptop died earlier this week. I had a Lenovo Y410, bought when the Ideapads first came out. I paid close to $900 for it, getting along with it a 250GB SATA hard drive, 2 GB of RAM, and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It also had a 14.1" glossy widescreen monitor, facial recognition software, a dolby sound system and an integrated webcam. It was a good machine for the price. An the harddrive came already partitioned, allowing me to install Ubuntu with ease.

And now it was gone.

I had done several things that now looking back was very foolish of me. As a graduate student then, about to finish her M.S. and potentially move into HPC, I wanted a laptop with two cores,so I could run MPI on it. I was also hurting for money; I did not get the extended warranty. The machine came with a one year warranty, and I naivelly though that a.) if anything was defective, it would break within the first year, and b.) I would remember to buy an extended warranty anyway, before the warranty period was up.

Now, with the machine four months out of warranty, I bitterly look back and realize how wrong I was. The motherboard was shot: when I plugged in the machine the battery would no longer charge (and yes, I did confirm it had nothing to do with the AC adapter). Thinking back, I always remember that I had an issue with the way the charger plugged in on this laptop. It was a tight fit; whenever I unplugged the damn thing, the sensation was more akin of having dislocated a shoulder than having removed the plug from the machine. This sensation of the charger being ripped out of my laptop's socket should have tipped me off that something could seriously be wrong. Alas, I ignored it.

The motherboard would cost almost $200 to replace, plus I had to pay Lenovo's $50 out-of-warranty penalty. This did not include the cost of installation and taxes, which would be a lot extra. I had a choice now: I could either fork over $250+ dollars or buy a new machine. But could I afford a new machine? If I fixed my current machine, I'd have to fork over $250 plus realize that if the machine breaks again, I'd have to pay for parts and the $50.00 out-of-warranty charge. With the technology progressing the way it is, is it really worth it to pay to fix this machine?

Lucky for me, I happened to be in NYC on vacation when this occurred.Since classes start next week, I knew that if I needed to buy a new machine, there would never be a more perfect opportunity. Even luckier, I was reminded about this wonderful deal at J&R: A refurbished T42 laptop, for a measly three hundred dollars. For an additional $90.00 I'll get a 2 year warranty. Well, why not? While some may sneer that this is a serious downgrade, it may not be for me. Let's put the two machines side by side:

Lenovo Y410

Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.66Ghz 2MB L2
2 GB DDR2 RAM
250 GB SATA HD
Intel X3100 Integrated graphics card
14.1" Widescreen VibrantView screen, glossy
Full complement of ports
Sound system(?)
Integrated Webcam
5.6 lbs
Windows Vista Home Edition

ThinkPad T42

Intel Pentium M 1.7Ghz 2MB L2
1.5GB DDR RAM
40 160 GB IDE HD (thanks Kevin!)
ATI Radeon 7600 32MB graphics card
14.1" TFT Active matrix display (1024x768)
Full complement of ports
Trackpoint button
Better keyboard (and webcam -- thanks Ethan!)
4.9 lbs
Windows XP Pro

So specs are specs, but specs outside the context of usage mean nothing. If I was super-gamer, a laptop power-user, or even if I were expecting to the majority of my development on this machine, this would, in truth, be a downgrade. The truth is, my computational needs 1.5 years ago is radically different from my current needs.

My primary machine is a quad-core sitting in my office. All of my development is done on this machine, and any basic testing is done on this machine. Actual benchmarks are run on a remote cluster. In other words, anything requiring HPC performance is already taken care through my desktop or the cluster. So power is moot.

So what do I use my laptop for? These days I'm either using it to work remotely or messing around on the internet. Thus, I require only the basics for development. Will this machine suffice?

Let's do a run down on the specs. We first start with the processor. The Pentium M chip was designed for mobile computing efficiency. Reasonably fast and power efficient, it's probably the most I could ask for from a single core option. Clearly, a dual-core solution is more powerful, but do I need that power? The laptop comes with Windows XP, not Vista, and therefore should be fine if I ever decide to use Windows. Secondly, I do most of my work in Ubuntu linux anyway, so efficiency is not necessarily an issue.

Next we have a memory and hard disk. What really is the practical difference between 1.5 and 2 GB? How much usability does that extra 512MB really give you, especially in linux? I'm sure with gaming, every extra megabyte counts, but for what I'm using it for, it probably doesn't matter. While the 40GB hard drive is woefully small, I could subsist on that. The 250 GB SATA hard drive in my old laptop is now sitting comfortably in its new external enclosure, so if space really becomes an issue, I can rely on that. Lastly, as an early birthday gift, my wonderful boyfriend gave me a new 160GB IDE hard drive for this laptop. Freakin' yes.

There are a couple of things I wasn't too thrilled about. For one thing, the maximum resolution on this machine is only the same as what was there on my T30, and the video card is not that great. There was also the issue of the webcam, but my good friend Ethan was kind enough to give me his (you're amazing, Ethan!). But for under $500, I got a great machine with a 2 year warranty that interfaces great with Ubuntu.

Ask me later about my experience at J&R. It took me a few iterations to get the machine I actually wanted, and the Windows install they gave me was defective at best. Thankfully, as an ACM student member I'm entitled to free software, including Windows XP Pro. It's so good to be a student sometimes! Now I have a Windows disk that I can use if necessary. What more can I ask for?

Running Hadoop on OS X 10.5 (64-bit) single node cluster

2008-09-10T16:50:00.008-04:00

These instructions are for installing and running Hadoop on a single node cluster. This tutorial follows the same format and largely the same steps of the incredibly thorough and well-written tutorial by Michael Noll about Ubuntu cluster setup. This is pretty much his procedure with changes made for OS X users. I also added other things that I was able to piece together after looking up things from the Hadoop Quickstart and the forums/archives.

Step 1: Creating a designated hadoop user on your system

This isn't -entirely- necessary, but it's a good idea for security reasons.
To add a user, go to:
System Preferences > Accounts
Click the "+" button near the bottom of the account list. You may need to unlock this ability by hitting the lock icon at the bottom corner and entering the admin username and password.
When the New account window comes out enter a name, as short name and a password. I entered the following:
Name: hadoop
Short name: Hadoop
Password: MyPassword (well you get the idea)

Once you are done, hit "create account".
Now, log in as the hadoop user. You are ready to set up everything!

Step 2: Install/Configure Preliminary Software

Before installing Hadoop, there are several things that you need make sure you have on your system.

1. Java, and the latest version of the JDK
2. SSH

Because OS X is awesome, you actually don't have to install these things. However, you will have to enable and update what you have. Let's start with Java:

Updating Java
Open up the Terminal application. If it's not already on your dock, you can access it through
Applications > Utilities > Terminal
Next check to see the version of Java that's currently available on the system:
$:~ java -version
java version "1.5.0_13"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_13-b05-237)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_13-119, mixed mode, sharing)

You may want to update this to Java Sun 6, which is available as an update for OS X 10.5 (Update 1). It's currently only available for 64-bit machines though. You can download it here.

After you download and install the update, you are going to need to configure Java on your system so the default points to this new update.
Go to Applications > Utilities > Java > Java Preferences
Under "Java Version" hit the radio button next to "Java SE 6"
Down by "Java Application Runtime Settings" change the order so Java SE 6 (64 bit) is first, followed by Java SE 5 (64 bit) and so on.
Hit "Save" and close this window.

Now, when you go to the terminal, and type in "java -version" you should get the following:
$:~ java -version
java version "1.6.0_05"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_05-b13-120)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 1.6.0_05-b13-52, mixed mode)

and for "javac -version":
$:~ javac -version
javac 1.6.0_05

Onto ssh!

SSH: Setting up Remote Desktop and enabling self-login
SSH also comes installed on your Mac. However, you need to enable access to your own machine (so hadoop doesn't ask you for a password at inconvenient times).
To do this, go to System Preferences > Sharing (under Internet & Network)
Under the list of services, check "Remote Login". For extra security, you can hit the radio button for "Only these Users" and select hadoop

Now, we're going to configure things so we can log into localhost without being asked for a password. Type the following into the terminal:

$:~ ssh-keygen -t rsa -P ""
$:~ cat $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys

Now try:
$:~ ssh localhost

You should be able to log in without a problem.

You are now ready to install Hadoop. Let's go to step 3!

Step 3: Downloading and Installing Hadoop

So this actually involves several smaller steps:

1. Downloading and Unpacking Hadoop
2. Configuring Hadoop
3. Formatting and Testing Hadoop

After we finish these, you should be ready to go! So let's get started:

Downloading and Unpacking Hadoop

Download Hadoop. Make sure you download the latest version (as of this blogpost, 0.17.2 and 0.18.0 are the latest versions). We call our generic version of hadoop hadoop-* in this tutorial.

Unpack the hadoop-*.tar.gz in the directory of your choice. I placed mine in /Users/hadoop. You may also want to set ownership permissions for the directory:

$:~ tar -xzvf hadoop-*.tar.gz
$:~ chown -R hadoop hadoop-*

Configuring Hadoop

There are two files that we want to modify when we configure Hadoop. The first is conf/hadoop-env.sh . Open this in nano or your favorite text editor and do the following:

- uncomment the export JAVA_HOME line and set it to /Library/Java/Home

- uncomment the export HADOOP_HEAPSIZE line and keep it at 2000

You may want to change other settings as well, but I chose to leave the rest of hadoop-env.sh the same. Here is an idea of what part of mine looks like:

# Set Hadoop-specific environment variables here.

# The only required environment variable is JAVA_HOME. All others are
# optional. When running a distributed configuration it is best to
# set JAVA_HOME in this file, so that it is correctly defined on
# remote nodes.

# The java implementation to use. Required.
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/Home

# Extra Java CLASSPATH elements. Optional.
# export HADOOP_CLASSPATH=

# The maximum amount of heap to use, in MB. Default is 1000.
export HADOOP_HEAPSIZE=2000

The next part that we need to set up is hadoop-site.xml. The most important parts to set here are hadoop.tmp.dir (which should be set to the directory of your choice) and to add mapred.tasktracker.maximum property to the file. This will effectively set the maximum number of tasks that can simulataneously run by a task tracker. You should also set dfs.replication 's value to one.

Below is a sample hadoop-site.xml file:

---------------
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="configuration.xsl"?>



<configuration>

<property>
<name>hadoop.tmp.dir</name>
<value>/Users/hadoop/hadoop-0.17.2.1/hadoop-${user.name}</value>
<description>A base for other temporary directories.</description>
</property>

<property>
<name>fs.default.name</name>
<value>hdfs://localhost:9000</value>
<description>The name of the default file system. A URI whose
scheme and authority determine the FileSystem implementation. The
uri's scheme determines the config property (fs.SCHEME.impl) naming
the FileSystem implementation class. The uri's authority is used to
determine the host, port, etc. for a filesystem.</description>
</property>

<property>
<name>mapred.job.tracker</name>
<value>localhost:9001</value>
<description>The host and port that the MapReduce job tracker runs
at. If "local", then jobs are run in-process as a single map
and reduce task.
</description>
</property>

<property>
<name>mapred.tasktracker.tasks.maximum</name>
<value>8</value>
<description>The maximum number of tasks that will be run simultaneously by a
a task tracker
</description>
</property>

<property>
<name>dfs.replication</name>
<value>1</value>
<description>Default block replication.
The actual number of replications can be specified when the file is created.
The default is used if replication is not specified in create time.
</description>
</property>

</configuration>
-----------

Now to our last step!

Formatting and Testing Hadoop

Our last step involves formatting the namenode and testing our system.

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop namenode -format

This will give you output along the lines of

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop namenode -format
08/09/14 21:22:14 INFO dfs.NameNode: STARTUP_MSG:
/***********************************************************
STARTUP_MSG: Starting NameNode
STARTUP_MSG: host = loteria/127.0.0.1
STARTUP_MSG: args = [-format]
***********************************************************/
08/09/14 21:22:14 INFO dfs.Storage: Storage directory [...] has been successfully formatted.
09/09/14 21:22:14 INFO dfs.NameNode: SHUTDOWN_MSG:
/***********************************************************
SHUTDOWN_MSG: Shutting down NameNode at loteria/127.0.0.1
***********************************************************/

Once this is done, we are ready to test our program.

First, start up the DFS. This will start up a TaskTracker, JobTracker, and DataNode on the machine.

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/start-all.sh

As input for our test, we are going to copy the conf folder up to our DFS.

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop dfs -copyFromLocal hadoop-*/conf input

You can check to see if this actually worked by doing an ls on the dfs as follows:
$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop dfs -ls
Found 1 item
/user/hadoop/input %ltdir> 2008-09-11 13:33 rwxr-xr-x hadoop supergroup

Now, we need to compile the code. cd into the hadoop-*/ directory and do:
$:~ ant examples

This will compile the example programs found in hadoop-*/src/examples

Now, we will run the example distributed grep program on the conf program as input.

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop jar hadoop-*-examples.jar grep input output 'dfs[a-z.]+'

If this works, you'll see something like this pop up on your screen:
08/09/13 20:47:24 INFO mapred.FileInputFormat: Total input paths to process : 1
08/09/13 20:47:24 INFO mapred.JobClient: Running job: job_200809111608_0033
08/09/13 20:47:25 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 0% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:38 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 13% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:39 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 16% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:43 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 22% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:44 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 24% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:48 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 33% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:53 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 41% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:54 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 44% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:58 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 50% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:47:59 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 52% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:48:03 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 61% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:48:08 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 69% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:48:09 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 72% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:48:13 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 78% reduce 0%
08/09/13 20:48:14 INFO mapred.JobClient: map 80% reduce 0%

... and so on

The last step is to check if you have output!
You can do this by doing a

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop dfs -ls output
Found 2 items
/user/hadoop/output/_logs <dir> 2008-09-13 19:21 rwxr-xr-x hadoop supergroup
/user/hadoop/output/part-00000 <r 1> 2917 2008-09-13 20:10 rw-r--r-- hadoop supergroup

The most important part is that the number next to the <r 1> should not be 0.

To check the actual contents of the output do a

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop dfs -cat output/*

Alternatively, you can copy it to local disk and check/modify it:

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/hadoop dfs -copyFromLocal output myoutput
$:~ cat myoutput/*

When you're done running jobs on the dfs, run the stop-all.sh command.

$:~ hadoop-*/bin/stop-all.sh

And that concludes our tutorial! Hope someone finds the helpful!

Good times

2008-08-16T23:18:00.004-04:00

Kevin came to visit me in TX, and we've had a wonderful week together (well, aside from me being sick last wednesday and thursday, but anyway). There was much to celebrate; I had a new apartment, he just finished his M.S., and (as I just found out today), I got my first paper accepted to a conference! Hooray!

Instead of going out, we decided to make dinner. What was on the menu? Brownies, Shake n' Bake chicken pieces, and a custom recipe for garlic mashed potatoes. Kevin and I both -love- garlic, so, for all you garlic enthusiasts out there, here is our recipe!

-----------

KEVIN'S & SUZANNE'S GARLIC LOVERS MASHED POTATOES

4 large red potatoes
1 can of garlic chicken broth
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 T butter
1 - 2 T milk

1. Cut potatoes into reasonably sized chunks and toss them into a medium saucepan.

2. Pour in 1 can of garlic chicken broth. Add additional water until tops of potatoes are just covered with water. Mince 2 cloves of garlic with garlic press and add in.

3. Bring potatoes to a boil; when it boils, let simmer for an additional 6-8 minutes; Potatoes are done when you can stick a fork into the individual pieces

4. Drain away the majority of the broth, letting only a little bit remain. Mash with potato masher. Add milk, a little bit at a time, to get desired consistency. Mash with one tablespoon of butter.

5. Cut up the last one to two cloves of garlic (depending on your taste!) into coarse slices, each about 2-3 mm thick. Throw into mashed potatoes and mash till properly assimilated. Salt and pepper to taste.

Ok, back to Olympics and perhaps some more Cowboy Bebop! Nikhil, I finally understand why you wanted a Corgi :-)

EDIT
--------

Man, those potatoes are powerful. Other suggested titles:

Kevin's and Suzanne's Hit-Me-in-the-Face-with-Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Kevin's and Suzanne's Garlic-Explosion Mashed Potatoes
Kevin's and Suzanne's Pistol-Whipped-with-Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Kevin's and Suzanne's I-don't-mind-knocking-people-unconscious-for-a-week Mashed Potatoes
Kevin's and Suzanne's Vampire-Slayer Mashed Potatoes
Kevin's and Suzanne's Garlic Armageddon Mashed Potatoes
Kevin's and Suzanne's Death-By-Garlic Mashed Potatoes

More Mashed Potato title suggestions welcome

Begin.

2008-07-15T01:56:00.002-04:00

What a shame we all became
Such fragile, broken things
A memory remains just a tiny spark

I give it all my oxygen,
So let the flames begin
So let the flames begin

Oh, glory
Oh, glory

This is how we'll dance when
When they try to take us down
This is what will be, oh glory

Somewhere weakness is our strength,
And I'll die searching for it
I can't let myself regret such selfishness

My pain and all the trouble caused,
No matter how long
I believe that there's hope

Buried beneath it all and
Hiding beneath it all, and
Growing beneath it all, and...

This is how we'll dance when
When they try to take us down
This is how we'll sing out loud

This is how we'll stand when
When they burn our houses down
This is what will be, oh glory

Reaching as I sink down into light.
Reaching as I sink down into light.

This is how we dance when
When they try to take us down
This is how we'll sing out loud

This is how we'll stand when,
When they burn our houses down
This is what will be, oh glory

"Let the Flames Begin" - Paramore

Recalibrating.

40+ kids that can draw better than me

2008-07-06T13:00:00.003-04:00

Friend Nikhil linked me to Doodle 4 Google. I was absolutely stunned at the artistic ability of these kids. You can check out the 40 Regional Winners, or the US Map of Finalists. I would love to hear people's thoughts :-)

-Suzanne

Eliza

2008-07-04T03:38:00.003-04:00

"How my Program Passed the Turing Test" - Mark Humphyrs

Read and enjoy.

Somewhat drunk right now, but fairly happy and pleased.

Hope everyone has a happy 4th of July.

Sick Day

2008-07-02T20:31:00.003-04:00

My stomach is acting up again... so I'm spending my spare time learning Python and gluing captions to cats.

Summer's going slow but ok so far. Miss everyone at RPI...

Installing Sun's Java JRE and JDK on Fedora 5

2008-06-24T19:30:00.006-04:00

So for the last couple of days, I've been trying to get Hadoop working on my computer at work, which runs Fedora. Monday (yesterday), I found out that the source of my troubles had to do with the fact that Hadoop requires Sun's Java. Fedora, by default, comes with Gnu's Java.This would be, in most cases, ok, as Gnu's Java mimics Sun's Java and has most of the same functionality. However, certain projects (like Hadoop) requires Sun's Java, so it's a good idea to try and have both on the system.

Installing Java on Fedora is a pain. No one guide online helped me successfully install the damn thing onto my work machine, which led to quite a bit of frustration. However, since things seem to be working correctly (finally!), I thought I would share my procedure with all of you who may have to do this at some point. Even though the majority of my code posts concern Ubuntu, I think this is a worthwhile diversion.

To install Java properly (for the coders out there), there are two steps: i.) The Java Run Time Environment (JRE) and ii.) The Java Developer's Kit (JDK). Most of the instructions I'm putting here is an amalgamation of instructions found on two sites, both of which had some instructions that worked for me, and others that did not.

----

Before we begin, Make sure your System is Completely Up to Date This is CRUCIAL. All the following instructions probably will not work properly if your Fedora install is not properly updated. One thing that slowed me down quite a bit is that I initially did not do this step.

INSTALLING THE JAVA RUNTIME ENVIRONMENT (JRE)

1. Enter root mode by typing in
su

While I imagine it is possible to install this stuff locally, having root access is ideal.

2. Make sure that your system has rpmdevtools and jpackage-utils. You can install these by typing:

yum -y install rpmdevtools
yum -y install jpackage-utils

3. Next grab the jpackage key and set up the jpackage repositories for yum

rpm --import http://jpackage.org/jpackage.asc
cd /etc/yum.repos.d
wget http://www.jpackage.org/jpackage17.repo

If SUCCESS, go to step 4.
If FAIL, check to make sure that you have wget installed. Install it using:
yum -install wget

4. Get the latest Jpackage java-x-sun-xjpp.nosrc.rpm package from the non-free branch at jpackage. The package I used was this one.
Install this file by typing something akin to the following (yours may be different based on version numbers)
./java-1.6.0-sun-1.6.0.6-1jpp.nosrc.rpm

If this works, you will see it installed under /usr/src/redhat/

If SUCCESS: go to step 5.
If FAIL: Check permissions. You may have to change permissions as follows:

chmod 755 java-1.6.0-sun-1.6.0.6-1jpp.nosrc.rpm

If SUCCESS, go to step 5.
If FAIL, I cannot help you. Sorry!

5. Get the latest binary. I got mine from here. It should look something like jre-6u6-linux-i586.bin.
Move this file to the SOURCES directory. So something like,

mv jre-6u6-linux-i586.bin /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/.

Next, rebuild the java rpm using

rpmbuild -ba java-1.x.0-sun.spec

If SUCCESS, you should now be able to see the binary in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/ . Go to step 6.
If FAIL, make sure that you are running this command in the /usr/src/redhat/SPEC/ directory. If you do not have a spec file, you did something wrong in the previous steps, or I can't help you.

6. Install the binaries in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/ by using the following command:
yum --nogpgcheck localinstall java*.rpm

If SUCCESS, go on to part 2.
IF FAIL, the most likely reason for failure is some sort of message like --nogpgcheck not a valid command for yum. Omit it then. Alternatively, you can manually go into the /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/ folder and install all the rpms by double clicking on them.

INSTALLING JDK

1. Make sure you have the following packages: rpm-build and fedora-rpmdevetools. If not, install using
yum install fedora-rpmdevtools
yum install rpm-build

2. Grab the sun jdk rpm file. I got mine from here. The file should look something like: jdk-6u6-linux-i586-rpm.bin

Run the rpm by doing the following:
chmod 755 jdk-6u2-linux-i586-rpm.bin
./jdk-6u2-linux-i586-rpm.bin

If SUCCESS, you should be able to see a whole bunch of RPMs located in /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_02 and a new directory in /opt/sun . Move to step 3

3. Next, install the RPM. You'll also need a compat file from Jpackages. I got mine here. It should look something like java-1.6.0-sun-compat-1.6.0.06-1jpp.src.rpm.

Do the following:
yum --enablerepo=jpackage-generic-nonfree install java-1.6.0-sun-compat-1.6.0.06-1jpp.src.rpm

Say yes when prompted. This should complete installation of JDK.

4. Keep in mind that the default Java may still not be Sun Java. To fix this, we need one last step:

/usr/sbin/alternatives --config java

This should show two options: GIJ (the older java) and Sun's Java. On my machine it was option 2. Enter the number that corresponds to the Sun Java install and press enter.

Now, if you type in:

java -version

It should print out something like:

java version "1.6.0_06"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0_06, mixed mode, sharing)

You're done!

Additionally, you'll probably want to install the mozilla plugin. Do something akin to the following
ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-sun-1.6.0/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so

And that should fix everything. Hope this post will eventually be helpful to someone. Comments welcome.

Entracte - Texas

2008-06-14T00:03:00.003-04:00

"Stuck on you
I've got this feeling deep down in my soul that I just can't lose
Guess I'm on my way
Needed a friend
And the way I feel about you I guess I'll be with you 'til the end
Guess I'm on my way
Mighty glad you stayed"

"Oh, the North country winters keep a gettin' me now
Lost my money playin' poker so I had to up and leave
But I ain't a turnin' back
To livin' that old life no more..."

"Suddenly I see this is what I wanna be
Suddely I see why the hell it means so much to me
'Cause this is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see why the hell it means so much to me..."

Finally in Texas. A few more days before I officially start my position as an R.A. Also the first day of a new long distance relationship. What will the future hold? Who knows? All I know is, all I can do is look forward...and some how, it will all turn out just fine.

Change

2008-05-20T02:01:00.003-04:00

Over the sea and far away
She's waiting like an Iceberg
Waiting to change,
But she's cold inside
She wants to be like
the water,

All the muscles tighten in her face
Buries her soul in one embrace
They're one and the same
Just like water

Then the fire fades away
But most of everyday
Is full of tired excuses
But it's too hard to say
I wish it were simple
But we give up easily
You're close enough to see that
You're.... the other side of the world
to me

On comes the panic light
Holding on with fingers
and feelings alike
But the time has come
To move along

Then the fire fades away
But most of everyday
Is full of tired excuses
But it's too hard to say
I wish it were simple
But we give up easily
You're close enough to see that
You're.... the other side of the world

Can you help me?
Can you let me go
And can you still love me
When you can't see me anymore

Then the fire fades away
most of everyday
Is full of tired excuses
But it's too hard to say
I wish it were simple
But we give up easily
You're close enough to see that
You're.... the other side of the world
Ohh.... the other side of the world
You're.... the other side of the world
To me.
~KT Tunstall

Change is edging closer. I should not fear; transitions always occur. Bridges must be built and they must be burnt. That's how it always is, and was. What will happen next?

The anticipation is killing me.

Done.

2008-05-10T09:53:00.003-04:00

Now I'm just exhausted.

Got my M.S. this semester. Now to rest, celebrate, and re-organize my life. Kevin and I escaped to Rochester for this weekend, so this should be good.

Getting encrypted DVDs to work in Ubuntu - Gutsy

2008-04-06T15:05:00.003-04:00

Whoa, this took a freakin' long time to fix! Here was my problem: VLC wouldn't play encrypted DVDs, which was really aggravating. After installing a whole slew of codecs, I think it's only right to finally share what ended up working. First, I should mention it -still- doesn't work in VLC. In fact, the only way I got it to work was to use a different player altogether, gxine. So here is the work around, which I got from this link.

1.) Add the following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list
##Medibuntu-Ubuntu 7.10 gutsy gibbon
##Please report any bug on https://launchpad.net/products/medibuntu/+bugs
deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ gutsy free non-free
deb-src http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ gutsy free non-free

2.) from the command line, run: sudo apt-get upgrade

3.) sudo apt-get install libdvdread3 libdvdcss2 gstreamer xine-ui libxine1-ffmpeg gxine regionset

4.) Make sure your region is set using regionset (set region to 1) -- I suspect most people won't need to do this

5.) from the command line, run: sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh, or simply: sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

6.) Go to System --> Preferences --> Removable Drives and Media

7.) Click on the "multimedia" tab. Under "Video DVD discs" Click "play video DVD discs when inserted" and enter the following for the command:
gxine -S dvd:/

Pop in a DVD and it should work!

---------------------------------
UPDATE: ok... so it -does- also work with VLC now. Win?
UPDATE 2: It works with xine as well :-) Sick. Ok, I declare update this from "bandaid"ed, to fixed!

It's Official

2008-03-06T18:20:00.002-05:00

Friends,

I have just been notified that I've been accepted into the PhD Program in Computer Science at Texas A&M University. I will be working with one of the most stellar advisors that a girl could ever hope for in a field that is cutting edge.

So I guess this is it then... I am leaving RPI after this semester (hopefully with a Masters).

It's official.

-Suzanne

New Laptop fun

2008-03-01T22:07:00.002-05:00

Got a new laptop: a Lenovo IdeaPad Y410 from Newegg. Excellent stats:

14.1" Widescreen (1280 x 800)
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66 Ghz
250 GB HD (5400 rpm, SDA)
2 GB (DDR-2, 2 1-GB DIMMs)
2 MB L2 cache
etc..

Only problems:
1.) Preloaded with Windows Vista (I'm getting used to it)
2.) Sound in Linux (Ubuntu) doesn't work

Kevin and I spent some quality time today trying to fix 2.), and, as KT Tunstall plays successfully on my linux partition, I would say that we have success. Here are our steps:

Using instructions found here, we did the following (to summarize)

-sudo apt-get install po-debconf debhelper quilt alsa-base libc6-dev

-get latest alsa driver --> unpack this
./configure
make
sudo make install

::eat a cookie::
::look at pretty kitten pictures::

edit /etc/modprode.d/alsa-base:
-add line:
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=fujitsu

edit /etc/modules:
-add:
snd-hwdep
snd-hda-intel

Also, do the following:
rm /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/media/snd-hda-intel/snd-hda-intel.ko
ln -s /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/ubuntu/media/snd-hda-intel/snd-hda-intel.ko

Restart, and sound works! Overall, great laptop.

At least Wireless worked off the bat....

Surreal

2008-02-21T17:20:00.002-05:00

Sometimes it feels like I'm moving so fast that I'm simply standing still. The days are starting to blur; I am on a train. I am in a cocoon. If I glance outside my window, an endless stream of people rush past, the days and nights rise and fall in a ridiculous cycle. It's like watching a segment of a movie on endless repeat. It's all very dream-like... is this reality? So I stare back at my computer, trying to accomplish a fraction of what I feel like I should be accomplishing, letting my fingers curl onto my keyboard. They long to type:

When does this end?

All I ever wanted was to feel the way you'd feel
All I ever wanted was a chance to make it real

I'm in love with you
And I can pull it through

All I ever wanted is a place out by the sun
To watch the world go by and take each day as it comes
All I ever wanted was a chance to catch my breath
To see the world go by and lay my ghosts to rest

Give me a chance to catch my breath
So I can lay my ghosts to rest

So ask me tomorrow what I thought of yesterday
There's so many things that I could not explain

I'm in love with you
And I can pull it through

All I ever wanted is a place out by the sun
To watch the world go by and take each day as it comes
All I ever wanted was a chance to catch my breath
To see the world go by and lay my ghosts to rest

Give me a chance to catch my breath
So I can lay my ghosts to rest

All I ever wanted was a chance to catch my breath
All that I ever wanted was to lay my ghosts to rest

All I ever wanted was a chance to catch my breath
All I ever wanted was to lay my ghosts to rest

- Ghosts, Dirty Vegas

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T23:22:00.001-05:00

Remembered this video today... what a great song...

Why do people become computer science majors?

2008-01-27T12:58:00.001-05:00

Thought of this comic today. I miss Project Y.

Life is heading into transition again soon. Will talk about more later.

-Suzanne

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T01:46:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I'll probably have an update post today, but we just got back from midnight mass (and yes, it's almost 2 am!), and I absolutely had to post the most astounding revelation I had while I was sitting in mass tonight:

Love is Empathy.

Isn't that beautiful? Love is Empathy. It all makes sense now.

Have a wonderful night (or morning). Dad and I are waiting for Mom to go to bed so we can surprise her by setting up her gift for her so it's ready in the morning. For safety's sake, I'll tell you what it is later today ;-)

G'night!

Graph Theory + Kitties

2007-11-30T18:45:00.001-05:00

My favorite kind of combination.

Check out Chat Noir, a really game that is applicable to some problem within Graph Theory, I dare-say something associated with pursuit and evasion, though I am hesitant to use that label here.

Freakin' Hilarious

2007-11-28T13:13:00.000-05:00

9 Most Badass Bible Verses

Read now.

Wow.

2007-11-26T17:32:00.000-05:00

They say that these are not the best of times
But they're the only times I've ever known
And I believe there is a time for meditation
In cathedrals of our own

Now I have seen that sad surrender in my lover's eyes
And I can only stand apart and sympathize
For we are always what our situations hand us
It's either sadness or euphoria

And so we'll argue and we'll compromise
And realize that nothing's ever changed
For all our mutual experience
Our separate conclusions are the same

Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity
Our reason coexists with our insanity
So we choose between reality and madness
It's either sadness or euphoria

How thoughtlessly we dissipate our energies
Perhaps we don't fulfill each other's fantasies
And as we stand upon the ledges of our lives
With our respective similarities
It's either sadness or euphoria

~ Billy Joel: Summer, Highland Falls

What an amazing song. I discovered it on Pandora. If you don't know what Pandora is, explore it now.

A big thanks to Nikhil for introducing me to it!

Freaky.

2007-11-14T02:29:00.000-05:00

So I found the link to the first article below from Boing Boing, shortly before I wrote my post yesterday. As of right now, the link to the article, and any mention of the article has been erased from Boing-Boing. This is really unnerving. Forget the fact that there is no mention of it on CNN yet.

I tried doing a Google search on the defendant's name, Nada Prouty. Only the two hits, the first being the DoJ article, then second an article by Reuters, released a little over an hour ago.

If I type in her full name, I get several more. It seems the only major news outlets running the story are FOX, CBS, and Reuters. CNN isn't, and neither is the BBC. Doesn't this strike you as really, really weird?

Anyhow, I'm heading to bed for the night and giving this a rest. Sooo strange that it's gone from Boing-Boing.

Night all.

-Suzanne

Unbelievable

2007-11-13T19:06:00.001-05:00

I am continuing to lose trust in the leaders of our government.

Our first story:
"[Dept. of Justice] Former Employee of CIA and FBI Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy, Unauthorized Computer Access and Naturalization Fraud
DETROIT – Nada Nadim Prouty, a 37-year-old Lebanese national and resident of Vienna, Va., pleaded guilty today in the Eastern District of Michigan to charges of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship, which she later used to gain employment at the FBI and CIA; accessing a federal computer system to unlawfully query information about her relatives and the classified/labelled terrorist organization Hizballah(Hezbollah); and conspiracy to defraud the United States."
Link.
Pretty much, a Lebanese national, after residing in the US illegally after her visa expired, entered a sham marriage to gain citizenship and used the citizenship to eventually gain employment at the FBI and the CIA. There, she looked up her relatives names to see what ties the US knew of their relation to Hezbollah. While doing this thing on Google is natural for everyone, this is tantamount to espionage when you do it on the CIA database. A huge error on the government's part in not performing sufficient background checks on their employees. Unfreakin-believable.

But! If this wasn't enough, check out this article that has not gotten much attention on CNN's website (the above article hasn't even been mentioned yet. I bet they're trying to figure out how to downplay it... it'll probably be all over the News tomorrow).

"US Lawmakers Apologize to Canadian Torture Victim
[Reuters] WASHINGTON - U.S. lawmakers on Thursday offered apologies to a Canadian citizen who was deported by U.S. counterterrorism officials to Syria, where he says he was imprisoned and tortured. Lawmakers from both parties also called on the Bush administration to apologize to Maher Arar, a Syrian-born software engineer still barred from entering the United States even though the Canadian government has cleared him of any links to terrorist groups. "Our country made a mistake and has been unwilling to own up to it," California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said. "It reflects an arrogance I don't like to see in our government." An administration official said she was not aware of any plans for the White House to issue an apology to Arar."
Link
Video Link
To summarize, this Canadian citizen (this one, legitimately a citizen!) had a freakin' layover in the United States. He had called his wife, who also lives in Canada, to tell him that he was at his layover, an that he'd call her when he gets home. US officials come and tell him that he's on their terrorist watch list, detain him, and deport him to syria (even though he was a citizen of Canada!), despite the man's pleas that he would be tortured if he gets sent their. The officials were well aware of the matter, and current intelligence suggested that torture occurs in Syrian interrogation rooms. Nevertheless, US officials send him to Syria, where he is locked up, beaten, and electrocuted for a period of 10 months. At the end of his rope, the man signs a false confession, at which time he was allowed to return to his family back in Canada. The man had no terrorist ties. Ever. The Canadian government has official apologized to him for all wrongdoing on their part. The US still refuses to do so.

As the child of US citizens who were born and brought up in a foreign country, I find this despicable and appalling. As a young voter who was too young to vote in the 2000 elections when the Bush administration first came to power, who was still in high school when 9/11 occurred, I feel these years weight heavy and ponderous on our shoulders. The enormity of our responsibility as citizens to carefully weigh and select our choices for candidacy of the executive office in this country has increased 10 fold since when I was a child. I sincerely hope that all of us will choose really carefully this next election.

Things like this completely obliterate my optimism and faith in this country. Ugh.

Top 5 Reasons you Cat Wishes you Death

2007-11-13T00:35:00.000-05:00

This list was a lot easier to compile than the dog list... Dogs can look ridiculous in costume, but if you do it right, it could also look pretty awesome or just plain cool. Cats... there is no way a cat can look good in costume.

5. Felony - Kitty looks -real- happy.

4. Hello Kitty? New ways to torture your cat.

3. And the Cow Goes....! *hisss* Fluffy seems to be lovin' it...

2. WOW... Who -thinks- up this stuff?

1. Little Rabbit Foo-Foo Came Hopping through the Forest... The cat's expression in this one is priceless.

Top 5 Reasons Dogs Shoot Their Owners

2007-11-13T00:22:00.000-05:00

Dogs in Costume... Some are awesome, while others are just plain out there. Listed below are the top 5 costumes I'd be ashamed to be seen in if I were a dog.

5. Unhappy On Her(His?) Wedding Day - People say Pugs are the most expressive dogs. This little guy (or hopefully girl) looks clearly unhappy.

4. Better You Than Me, Puppy! - Little dogs seem to always get the worst end of the stick.

3. Pwned By Goofy! - There is a thing as too much Disney.. how does the dog even see?

2. The Paper Bag Makes it More Real For Me - No, don't take it off... you look better this way

1. The One that gets PETA's Skivvies in a Bunch - Why would ANYONE do this to a dog?

Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon (VPN running)

2007-11-10T12:32:00.001-05:00

Back in linux, I follow the link and download the file. After unzipping the tar.bz2 file, I cd in and run ./vpn_install. Magic happens. Next, to start the thing. In the future, I hopefully don't have to do this, since it should be done automatically:

sudo /etc/init.d/vpnclient_init start

Ok, next, I need profiles. Before, when love was on the side of vpnc, I would have to enter the gateway info, and two passwords. This was doable, and ok. Now I need profiles. With a touch of chagrin, I realize that this probably the program that the help desk wanted me to run all along, though the tar file I downloaded was different. Going back to the RPI helpdesk site, I download the necessary .pcf files and put them in /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient/Profiles/

The following command is then used:
sudo vpnclient connect RPI_External_VPN

Magic happens: user names and passwords are entered, information is exchanged. Sparkles and rainbows shoot out of my terminal. And suddenly..!

Negotiating security policies.
Securing communication channel.

Your VPN connection is secure.

To check, I try to connect to my server. No problems! Hooray! VPN now works!

Ugh. It's been fun, I think. I haven't checked RPI Wireless yet, but something tells me it will work (before it didn't). So overall, a productive and good use of time.

I -am- hungry. Maybe food is in order? That's a good idea. Food, and a hot shower.

Till next time...
-Suzanne

Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon (Fixing VPN)

2007-11-10T12:11:00.001-05:00

Now in Windows, I test out my Cisco external VPN connection. After successfully being able to connect to my server (which is now behind the firewall -- another rant), I knew there wasn't anything wrong with External VPN. So one of two things must have happened.

By some hidden magic, External VPN no longer supports vpnc, or by some other hidden magic, vpnc changed somehow from Ubuntu 7.04, to 7.10, in an unproductive manner for me.

I head over the help-desk site and see the package that they have for linux. I shudder I -really- don't want to deal with their shit if I can get things working on my own. Back to ubuntu forums. Sure enough, other people seemed to be having a similar problem.

I now have the following instructions:

You can find the client here:
http://linux-support.hiwi.rz.uni-kon...1.0640.tar.bz2
Extract the file. Make sure, that you have installed the kernel headers and then run
sudo ./vpn_install
Link

h'okay, then, let's see what we get. Reboot into linux.

Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon

2007-11-10T11:37:00.001-05:00

So I developed a nasty head cold last night, and as of this morning, am still feeling pretty terrible. I think among the things necessary for a cure are food and fluids, neither of which I've had since my meager bowl of oatmeal last night.

Because I wasn't feeling well, I played on my DS, but eventually got bored. So I decided to upgrade my current system, which ran Ubuntu Fiesty 7.4 to Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10. Flipped open system upgrade, and told it to upgrade to 7.10.

I immediately began having doubts. Usually, when a new OS comes out, there are bugs here and there, and I winced remembering my wireless adventure dealing with my network stuff. Things were working perfectly now, after all.. why change things?

To test how well the upgrade will actually upgrade my system, rather than downgrade it, I authorized the go ahead.

The upgrade was relatively painless; it took about an hour to download the upgrades, and another hour to install all the updates, which was pretty reasonable, especially since I don't have the best of wireless connections here at the apartment. So, I restarted the system to see what it all looked like.

Things were ... mostly the same. Gaim had disappeared, since now Pidgin is exclusively supported. I added the Pidgin Icon to the panel, rearranged it some, and my panel looked as good as normal, save for this weird purple pigeon icon being where my simple, yet elegant yellow man icon used to be. Ah well, I'll get over it. The biggest change was that wireless was no longer working. At all.

SHIT, I thought. This could be for several reasons. 1.) Something different is going on that it was in Fiesty 2.) Something different is going on and it's going on worse because I TOLD ubuntu during the upgrade process to keep the modified blacklist file. SHIT, I thought, shit, shit, shit shit.. Worst of all, at that point in time, I had forgotten that the blacklist file was called "blacklist", so I didn't know where to look.

Rebooted into windows. Came to my blog, saw the notes I made last time about blacklisting goodness. Went back into linux. Located and went into this file:
/etc/modeprob.d/blacklist

After looking at the tail of the list, sure enough, my original changes were there. shit, I thought. So it' s no longer hostap that's the problem... wait, but what if hostap has control, and orinoco is the trouble? A few quick changes to the blacklist file yielded the tail of blacklist to look like this:

#buggy network-manager causes ornico to fight with it for wireless card
#blacklist hostap
#blacklist hostap_pci
blacklist hermes
blacklist p80211
blacklist prism2_pci
blacklist orinoco
blacklist orinoco_pci

With my fingers crossed, I restarted the system. Ubuntu came back up, and lo and behold! Wireless was working! Hooray! Scanning is re-enabled, and things looked like it was full of win. I was pleased to see that vpnc was part of the default install, and that all my previous settings were saved. Let's see if I can connect to the external VPN. A button click and two passwords yielded:

VPN Connect Failure

Could not start the VPN connection 'External VPN' due to a connection error.

The VPN login failed because the VPN program could not connect to the VPN server.

Shit, I thought. Not good. I checked configuration file. No problems seem to be there, since indeed, it was my previous settings. I was able to connect via external VPN no problem since I last checked, which was two days ago. Could something actually be wrong with External VPN connection at RPI? or is it VPNc? Let's check.

System reboot into Windows.

Some fun

2007-11-08T17:24:00.001-05:00

For all of those who think that "Codex Carnivorous" may be experiencing a revival, surely you're imagining things...

Florida (Part III) - Bridge Day and Grace Hopper

2007-10-30T16:41:00.001-04:00

I was going to have a "Florida Part IV" as well, but I really want to just go back to talking about non-florida stuff

Wendnesday was the "bridge" between the two conferences, aptly called "Bridge Day". A select few of us won scholarships to have guided tours at Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and that's what we did. Three huge groups of girls piled into buses and rotated between a tech talk, epcot, and magic kingdom. We started with the tech talk.

To summarize the tech talk, someone didn't tell Disney that there were a lot of graduate students present. If you want more details, I will tell you later, but it was like pulling teeth for the next hour and half. At least I got chocolate out of it.

Epcot was amazing. We got a backstage tech tour, and learned about the technology that Disney uses. There, we all got to go on the "Mission: Space" ride. At Magic Kingdom, we got a backstage tour as well (did you know that MK is on the second floor?). We also got to go on "Haunted Mansion" at Magic Kingdom. It was fun, especially because Disney has done some really neat stuff with lighting and holograms. All in all, I was pretty impressed, especially with how well they hide their cameras.

Grace Hopper was really cool. Imagine 1400 women in one hotel for three days. Now imagine them all in computing. Ridiculous, eh? Coming from a department with like 30 girls out of 600 students, it was quite something. Grace Hopper was quite, quite classy. I would have probably had a blast, if it wasn't for the fact that I had been interacting with people non-stop over the previous three days. While I can be quite the extrovert, even with that much interaction I need get away. By friday, I had to force myself out of bed, because I just didn't want to see people anymore.

Probably one of the highlights of the week was my lunch with my mentor, Tiffani. We went to lunch, and spent four hours talking about different things, especially things about life. I am so incredibly lucky to have a mentor like her, and she's seriously one of the most dynamic people I've ever met. Biggest take away from the conferences? Finding a sense of balance. Finding a sense of self.

Randy Pausch once said, "my next piece of advice is that you just have to decide if you're a Tigger or an Eeyore". All my life, I've been an Eeyore: incredibly cynical, and somewhat defeatist. At my best, I've been content with the world, but never saw it in a favorable light. But I have a gift; I can talk to people, I can interact with people, I can make things happen. I have enormous potential as a Tigger; whenever I join any organization or club, I somehow wind up near the top. It's happened since high school. I like organizing and leading, and I can. I've always repressed that part of me, since I'm good at it, and it scares me. Also, I'm a Computer Scientist; we're not supposed to know how to interact (some case of peer pressure, huh)! That will all be in the past. Now is the time for change.

Does this mean that I think everything is right with the world? Heck no! I just don't care anymore. I can still make good things happen, regardless of the bad stuff. If I embrace the side of me that is extroverted and aware of my strengths, I can really go places. As long as I have my "bounce" and my passion, I can overcome almost anything. So I'm going to give it a shot, and see where life takes me.

Before I left Orlando, I stopped by the Disney store. I picked up an Eeyore and a Tigger stuffed animal. I keep them on my bookshelf, so whenever I walk by, I can remember the promise I made to myself:
"Never stop, never give up. Inspire and be inspired. And above all - Embrace life"

Time to shift into overdrive. Things will be okay.

Florida! (part II)

2007-10-20T09:30:00.000-04:00

I honestly thought I would have been blogging about the (two) conferences more than this, but I've honestly been too busy being exhausted and having a ton of fun. Just a quick recap of the weeks events:

The Richard Tapia conference started on Sunday. It was really good (if for no other reason) for all the people I met. Because it was a smaller crowd (about 400 people), you really got to know and sit down and talk to people. Plus, there were a lot of people from industry, quite a few who seemed to jump on the mention that I do my research in Computational Biology. This is a huge deal. Why, you ask? When I was originally going on job searches, back in Undergrad, at the big career fair, this is usually what went down: I'd find a pharmaceutical company that I thought would be a big name for what I want to do, and walk up to them. The conversation will inevitably go like this:

Me: "My name is Suzanne, I do Computational Biology!"
Rep: "Sorry, we're looking for Computer Science majors only"
Me: [face fallen] "But, I have a bachelors in Computer Science!"
Rep: [lights up] "Oh! Do you know Java? We need programmers in our IT department.."

It was so aggravating. Instead of recruiting people to do research, they all were just recruiting code monkeys, even the companies that were known for research in my field. Sure, it's really important to program, but that's not necessarily the focus of research. It was just so.... frustrating. How nice it was to finally go somewhere, not even looking for an internship, and being asked to sign up, asked for contact info, resumes, etc.

I also met a lot of people at Tapia. If for nothing else, that was so much fun. I played pool with two PhD students from Berkley and TAMU, hung out a bit with someone from Lawrence Livermore National Labs, and just had a plain good time with everyone. I also was really lucky to have one of the sweetest roomies that I could have been matched up with (Lacey, from Auburn U). Plus, there were two other students from RPI (Onur and Jiao) who came to Tapia. Together, we represented RPI CS at a booth for one day during the conference. That was also fun, because it brought back memories of my recruiting days as an Undergraduate.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention! At the conference I remet a PhD student who just graduated from RPI CS, Joel Branch. He is now working for IBM full-time as a researcher. That's just really exciting, so I talked to him about how life was for him at IBM, and some of the pitfalls and trials that a person may face as they are transitioning from PhD to the workplace. I also asked about how "kid-friendly" IBMs policies are, and was very happy to hear the answer. It was very informative, and made me seriously think about going to IBM afterwards and pursuing research. Who knows? Maybe I'll apply for an internship their soon.

Tapia concluded for me Tuesday night. There was an awards banquet that went a little too long, causing some of us to design plans to escape. I went back to downtown Disney for a little bit, before deciding I needed to go to bed. All in all a good time.

Stuff about Bridge day and Grace Hopper in the upcoming posts. I'm just too tired to blog about it now. Also, I probably should get moving, since checkout is in a little bit.
Till then!

-Suzanne

Florida! (part I)

2007-10-14T14:51:00.000-04:00

Things learned so far:

1.) The food sold in the in-hotel mini-food-store is only ~$2 more expensive than the food sold at RPI.

2.) The beds at the Hilton are super soft and comfy.

3.) Downtown Disney is fun to walk around in.

4.) I look stupid with mouse ears.

5.) 4-inch heels are not good for walking, no matter how "comfortable" you think they are; 3 hours later, your feet will be in pain.

------------

Just got back from exploring Downtown Disney... there is a whole slew of shops, many of which I took pictures of. Of note was the Lego store, which I had a lot of fun walking through and taking pictures of. I also saw a "build-your-own lightsaber" station in one of the toy stores, which I just -had- to take a picture of (all my pics will be up on Facebook sometime later... during the trip, I'm not sure, but definitely after).

Conference related stuff is going to start around 6pm tonight. Until then, I'm going to relax, mostly, me thinks; maybe tuck into another research paper (I've read at least 5 so far). Or maybe I'll take a nap.. mmmm.. nap sounds good.

Getting Ready...

2007-10-12T14:27:00.001-04:00

I'm currently in NJ, getting ready for the Richard Tapia and Grace Hopper conferences that I will be attending all of next week. I'm starting to get pretty psyched, especially about the Grace Hopper Conference, since it's largest consortium of female computer scientists in the country (~2000 last year alone). I'll probably be taking pictures and blogging about my experience while I'm there.
Who is Grace Hopper, you ask? One of the first modern computer scientists, wrote the first compiler, and developed COBOL (which, despite what current people may think about COBOL, was quite a feat). On top of all that, she was a Rear Admiral in the Navy. I found a clip on Youtube of when she appeared on the David Letterman show back in 1986, 5 years before her death:

Grace Hopper on Letterman Show, 1986.

She was also known for her visualizations of nanoseconds and picoseconds (shown in video).

Anyways, enjoy.. I'm going to get back to other stuff...

'Til then.

-Suzanne

Jakob's first Aquarium

2007-10-06T15:53:00.002-04:00

23

2007-10-05T17:27:00.000-04:00

So I'm 23 today.

I present to you Jakob's First Aquarium, in celebration:
Watch it now

I was hoping that youtube would post this to my blog, but apparently it's been several hours and it has not been posted.

New Species of (Itty Bitty!) Frog found in Kerala

2007-10-04T14:38:00.000-04:00

The University of Delhi reports that India's smallest land vertebrae, named Nyctibatrachus minimus ("Small NightFrog"), has been found in the Western Ghats in Kerala. S.D. Biju, a Systems Biologist from Delhi University has been working in the Western Ghats to discover new species of frogs. His discoveries also include the Purple frog, and the first Canopy Frog from India (Philautus nerostagona).

Picture of the cute froggy appears below:

Links to articles:
Science Daily
IndianPad
Boing Boing

Alligator Lambda Calculus

2007-10-03T18:59:00.000-04:00

Since my Turing Machine coloring book idea has not yet reached fruition, you can only imagine my pleasant surprise when one of my friends sent me this link about using Alligators to teach children about lambda calculus. It's really cute! I really like how the "eating rule" represents beta reduction.

Enjoy!

Ode to Stewie - A Final Farewell

2007-09-26T23:30:00.000-04:00

I'm crying as I write this.

My fish, Stewart Murphy Matthews (affectionately called "Stewie") is dead. He's lying at the bottom of his tank, utterly lifeless. I've had him for almost two years. He was a birthday gift to myself two years ago. And now he's dead, a week shy of my birthday, and our two year anniversary of being together.

I know this must come across as being quite sophomoric to many of you, crying over a dead fish, but Stewie was with me through -a lot-. My parents were even fond of him. I hate to admit it, but he meant a lot to me. And now he's dead.

What could I have done differently? Why did he die? I was in charge of taking care of him; why is it that whenever I touch anything, it fails, it spoils, it rots, it dies? *cries* Why can't I do anything right? Stewie, you deserved better; I'm sorry that I failed you.

Funeral services will be offered later (possibly tomorrow). You must all think I'm being fairly ridiculous, and maybe I am; but I'm just beside myself right now.

Also, opinions: what should I do now? Should I get another fish, and torture it (like I did this one) till it dies, or forget about fish altogether? Some people have suggested I get a cat. And I want a cat very badly. A few problems:

1.) My suitemate is allergic
2.) My boyfriend is allergic
3.) -I- may be allergic
4.) My lease prevents it

I just feel so utterly alone right now.

Kitten Katamari!

2007-09-25T08:54:00.002-04:00

Source
Holy Smokes, Batman! A Katamari of Kittens??

This has to be one of the best things ever.

Special thanks to my friend Bill, for sending me the link!

Sunday Nights

2007-09-24T01:13:00.000-04:00

Tonight I watched The Music Man, an old movie-adaption of the broadway musical. For reasons that I won't divulge here, I find it very significant that I finally can watch it again (and actually had a desire to), since it's been years since I've been able to. It's one of those musicals I really enjoyed when I was younger, if for nothing else, the love songs. Most notably: "Good Night my Someone", "Til There was You" and "Will I Ever Tell You". All are poignant, simple and sweet. I feel it necessary to share at least one with you... I think I will share the last one; I think the first one (with some minor changes) will be my nighttime away.

"Dream of now, dream of then.
Dream of a love song that might have been.
Do I love you?
Oh, yes, I love you.
And I'll bravely tell you
But only when we dream again.
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
How sweet that mem'ry how long ago
Forever?
Oh, yes forever.
Will I ever tell you?
Ah-- no."

Simply beautiful. I like to say that I've killed the old romantic that I used to be, but such songs still have a way of affecting me.

One thing I hope that never dies within me is my inner child. I like to think, that after all these years, I still have a childlike wonder and curiosity for everything around me; I'm also still very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when I am not cynical and brooding. Having a childlike nature as I enter adulthood I've always felt was essential (this is, I stress, much different that being immature; that's one childlike way that should be abandoned in childhood).

Sometimes I wonder if this view of things is correct; during one of my darker moments this past week, I was blessed by a link from my friend Theo. He sent me a link to a talk by Randy Pausch called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". The poignant thing about this talk, is that it's Dr. Pausch's last lecture; he is terminally ill with cancer, and doctors say that he has only a couple months left to live. I strongly encourage everyone to watch it; it's very good, and very inspirational. So good, in fact, that that I've asked the ACM chair of our chapter to allow us to show it at one of the meetings. Let's see what happens.

Computer Science: One space ahead of pornography

2007-09-21T00:34:00.000-04:00

Here's a neat trick:

Type in "hardcore model" into Google. Note results.

Now, type in "hard core model" into Google. Note the top result. Read the top result (only if it isn't porn)

Cool, huh?

K. I'm going to bed now.

... and Exhale

2007-09-08T10:21:00.002-04:00

As you can guess, I passed :-) I can't believe it; I'm actually done with my qualifiers! Of course, I still have my research qual that I need to finish before this year, and then I have my candidacy and my defense. But since that's research specific, I think while they will be stressful, I'll have an easier time.

Now to start catching up with all the research and the coursework that I've been putting off this semester. I'm lucky; the second week of classes just ended, and the first homework assignment I have for any of them is due on Friday. So, I have -plenty- of time. I think today will be mostly doing the reading necessary for them and relaxing. I think for once, I deserve all the relaxation I can get.

As a special request from my good friend Ethan, I have created another LoLQualCat. :-) Created using the CheezburgerFactory, courtesy of ICHC.

Hmm.. Maybe LOLPhDCats will be in order? ("I can has PhD?" "Mah Research, Let me Show you It!", "Research Cat is Researching".. oh, the possibilities!)

Enjoy!

-Suzanne

Waiting for results...

2007-09-07T11:04:00.002-04:00

So I took the programming languages qualifier this morning. I have no idea how I did. I woke up at 6:45am today, shaking, and then vomited. Talk about nerves! The exam went alright.. I got asked a question that I was definitely comfortable with answering, and it seems like they were satisfied with how I answered, though I stumbled on some of the followups. I don't know how I did. If they're feeling nice, I'll pass. If they're not, they can fail me; I have no idea. And I won't find out until later tonight (around 5 or 6pm). I have class at noon, and then we have a CS mixer at 4 pm.

I just need to try and relax and not think about how I did until then.

But what I -do- know is that I was incredibly nervous, and I probably was looking like this during the qual:

Introducing LoLQualCat! Or, "Suzanne During the Prog Lang qual". Enjoy!

-Suzanne

Take a Deep Breath...

2007-09-05T21:52:00.001-04:00

That's it. I'm done with work for the night. I agonize, because I stop, and it's only 9:30pm. Forget the fact that I've been working all day. Forget the fact that I know I'm dangerously close to my limit.

It's only 9:30pm. And I'm stopping?

I have to though. I'm getting tired. My programming languages qualifier is in two days. This isn't last minute crunch; I've studied around 200 hours over the last three months for the exam, and a lot of the material is finally starting to click. Things I accomplished today:
-read and take notes on compilers e-book
-read and take notes on interpreted languages
-read and take notes on different programming classes( functional,
logical, imperative, object oriented, generic programming language)
over regular functions
-read and take notes about symbol tables
-read and take notes about garbage collection
-read about parse trees
-Figure out nuances of problem 13

Things I'm (unwillingly) leaving for tomorrow:
-read and take notes about exception handling
-read and take notes on inline functions, and advantages/disadvantages
-read about attribute grammars
-go over notes on object oriented languages
-polish example for question 5
-go over questions 17-23
-final run through the questions

My exam is on Friday at 8:30am. I am going cold turkey on the studying at 10pm tomorrow. What I have left for tomorrow is very doable... I just didn't want to have to do that much on the day before. I've been fretting over the prog lang exam again lately, which took me a long time to stop doing. The exam is unfair, but I've studied hard for it anyway. Now all that's left is to pray and see what happens.

Oh. And for those who are curious and didn't hear from me about it already: I passed the C+C qual. That's four out of five passed. Now to see if I can pass the last one.

IneedtorelaxIneedtorelaxIneedtorelax mustnotpassbreakingpointmustnotpassbreakingpoint relaxrelaxrelaxplaymario?sleep...
sleepsleepsleepsleep

sleep.

Quals and Outings

2007-08-27T23:20:00.001-04:00

So my friend Chris just got back from CA (where he interned at Apple for the summer -- and now has a job offer from!) today, and he told me about this ice cream place in Troy called Moxie's. He heard about it on another blog, Dish and Dirt, and asked me if I wanted to go. Tonight was especially important, since it was the last day that it was open for the summer, and it was only going to be open till 9:30pm. It was close to 8:30 pm. He picked me up at around 8:45, and we headed over to Moxie's, which was out in the middle of nowhere a little ways from Troy. It was so far out, that our surroundings ceased to look like Troy; the roads became more twisty and turny, hillier, and ever darker. As we were nearing our destination, Chris had to use his Brights just so that we could see a little distance away (and it was a clear night). Finally, we found it, and got there at 9pm. Chris got Blue Moon and Indonesian Vanilla. I got Sweet Cream and Indonesian vanilla. Moxie's is apparently famous among Vanilla lovers, because they apparently have five kinds of vanilla ice cream: one named from each place that their vanilla beans was imported from.

Best. Ice cream. Ever.

I am feeling so lazy and full right now, and am probably going to head to bed after I post this. I shouldn't feel lazy though; over the last three days, I have gone over all 29 questions of the C+C qual, 10 questions per day. Tomorrow, I'm going to do a final run through all 29. I think I should be good to go on my qual for Wednesday.

Of course, being my usual graceful self, and considering how accident and illness prone I have been over the last few weeks, I managed to go and twist my foot on some gravel the other day. Since I'm still limping, I'm probably going to head over to the health center tomorrow morning, and get things all set up. Hopefully things should be ok.

Okies.. bed time for me! Good night everyone.

ENTJ!

2007-08-23T00:08:00.000-04:00

So I recently took the Jung Typology test, based on the Myers-Briggs personality test, and scored as an ENTJ. What type are you?

According to the description of my type:
ENTJ 1 12 12 44
- slightly expressed extravert
- slightly expressed intuitive personality
- slightly expressed thinking personality
- moderately expressed judging personality

ENTJs take charge quickly and deal directly with problems, especially in situations that involve confusion and inefficiency. They provide structure to the organizations to which they belong and design strategies to accomplish their personal and organizational goals. They are 'take charge' people who organise their own and others' external environments. They use their resources to find a way to meet the challenge. They are at their best in using their analytical and strategic thinking.

This page has more info about my personality type.

So, in summary, I am a leader! (apparently)

A leader who loves kitties. And sleep.

Speaking of sleep... bed time!

Night.

Late night misfortune

2007-08-21T04:02:00.000-04:00

Tonight Kevin came over, and we decided to watch a movie. I had fallen sick a couple days back, so the visit served as a way to check up on me, and for us to have some of the chili we made the day before but never had a chance to eat. The chili was very good; it was really thick, and we mixed it with cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese and ate it. We watched our movie, spent a little time together, and then went our separate ways (him, to home.. me, to bed). That was 12 am.

3 am I bolted upright in bed. My stomach felt like it was going to burst. I had thrown up a little in my throat, and it was really acidic. I cursed myself silently. While I'm a huge fan of chili, it's one of those things that I'm not supposed to eat, because it is tomato-based, and very acidic. Usually a few tablets of antacid and a little bit of stomach uncomfort is the worst of it. This time, however, I'd pay for my disregard for my body's dislikes.

I frantically searched for anatacid. No tums, no rolaids... nothing in sight. Among the pile of medicines, I was able to fish out a bottle of Pepto Bismol. I took a swig of it (I lost the dosage cap), and waited. In a few minutes, I began to feel a change... my stomach started to feel a lot worse. The pain was becoming unbearable. I frantically grabbed my laptop and started searching for ways I could neutralize the stomach acid. Sleep was a top priority, especially since I was trying to get better. Every time I coughed, it pushed down on my stomach, which felt like a nerve-ridden water balloon, precariously stretched.

Then I felt a difference. A rushing, boiling, churning difference. I pushed aside my laptop, and projectile vomited (I shit you not -- projectile vomited) all over my clothes, my bed, and my rug. I run to the bathroom and vomited again. I felt much better, but I returned to my room with anxiety replacing the acid that was there in my stomach.

I had paid almost $200 for my rug. It was a really nice rug. A beautiful rug -- black and creme colored, nice and thick, and felt really good when I walked on it barefoot. Miserably, I rolled my sheets into a ball and threw them into a corner of my room. The sheets were easily fixable as well as my clothes. I procured an extra set of sheets, and extra pants and an extra shirt, and threw them on the bed. Those can wait. What I needed to was get rid of that vomit on the rug.

I blotted the entire area with paper towels. This took a long time, since i didn't want to push the vomit into the rug any more than it was already. After I was satisfied, I got a wet, soapy sponge and tackled the stains on the cream part of the rug. I think I managed to get it all out; I got some more paper towels and removed all the moisture I could. There was nothing left that I could do, but consign myself to the next part... head towards bed, and wait till morning, when the rug dries. Then I can vacuum up the rest of the stain. If the instructions I found online work, it should come right out.

I remade my bed, changed my clothes (which I scrunched up and threw in the pile containing my dirty sheets) and sat there contemplating what had happened. Sometimes, I learned, it's not good to test your body's limits. My stomach still doesn't feel that great, but I'm getting tired again, so it's time for sleep. Will update after I vacuum.

Good night (or good morning), world.

UPDATE:
11:20 - Tuesday, August 21 2007
My rug is pretty much completely clean, and I am getting better... I still get exhausted very easily, but I think by tomorrow, I can fit in a full day's worth of work. Even though I was Master TAing on Monday, I couldn't bring myself to start working afterwards, and Sunday I was pretty much forced to stay in bed. Today, I worked very little on quals (it was astonishing how quickly it was exhausting me), and then concentrated on doing research. The research I'm doing right now is relatively light.. some touching up with CGI-perl on three sites that I'm transferring to a new server. It was slow, time-consuming work, but in a way somewhat relaxing. When I went home close to 8 pm, one of the sites had their transition completely finished, and the other two are partially there. A little more poking, and little more prodding here and there, should complete it.

Being sick sucks. On a positive side, this happened (and is ending) now, a full week before I have my first qual, and a good two and half to three weeks before my second (and last) qual, which is the one that I'm worried about. It's also a wake-up call from my body: I haven't been paying enough attention to it as much as I should have. Especially since I'm on RAship this coming year, I should try and work on taking more breaks, eating a bit better, and incorporating exercise into my weekly routine. I think with a little planning, this can all happen. I am starting to worry about my health somewhat, since I don't think I'm usually this sickly. Hopefully, things will get better.

Hopefully tonight will be better.

Good night.

Wireless Adventure - Part IV (Wireless in Linux)

2007-08-08T22:41:00.000-04:00

As I write this, I'm logged into my Ubuntu partition on my laptop. We have total and complete success!

This is great. Not only can I scan for wireless networks now, I can also connect! I'm so excited.

Lessons learned:
network-manager: friend
orinoco: friend
hostap: THE DEVIL

Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn: Completely f-ing awesome.

Now, to sit back and enjoy my intrawebs on my linux partition! How shall I celebrate?

I know. Watch as many Flight of the Conchords episodes as I can!

Then some Planet Earth! ^-^

I am completely pleased with myself.

Wireless Adventure: Success!

Wireless Adventure - Part III (Blacklisting hostap)

2007-08-08T22:25:00.000-04:00

So blacklisting Orinoco had some positive effects. Now, I can scan for wireless networks (whoopee!) As you can imagine, this was very exciting. I thought I had finally got it to work.

Unfortunately no.

I'm now thinking about blacklisting hostap instead of Orinoco:
my etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file should now read like this:

blacklist prism2_pci
blacklist hostap_pci
blacklist hostap

Let's see how this works!

More update goodness soon.

Wireless Adventure - Part II (Blacklisting Orinoco)

2007-08-08T16:35:00.000-04:00

More poking around the internets. Lucking I found this.

To quote:
The problem is that the hostap and orinoco kernel modules are competing for control of the card. This is mentioned as a likely problem on NetworkManager site:
(http://live.gnome.org/NetworkManagerHardware)

hostap: "Supports unencrypted, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 networks. Be aware that if you have both this driver and the 'orinoco' driver installed, they may fight for control of the wireless card and render it inoperable to NetworkManager. You should either disable one of these drivers, or ensure that only one driver is able to control the card."

Thank you, Brett!

To summarize the instructions:
1. Check to make sure I'm dealing with the right network card: I entered the following command in bash:

:~ lspci | grep Network
I got:
02:02.0 Network controller: Intersil Corporation Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset (rev 01)

HA! It matched. Yes! Next, for adding some blacklisting marks to
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist:

blacklist orinoco
blacklist orinoco_pci
blacklist hermes
blacklist p80211
blacklist prism2_pci

Last step, reboot!

Completing this process took less than two minutes (even less time than it took me to install WICD), and it was relatively straightforward.

I still don't know if it will work yet. I have to go home and see. But I have my fingers crossed! Results later. Hopefully, this should do it!

Wireless Adventure - Part I (WICD)

2007-08-08T16:21:00.000-04:00

I looked for suggestions. The first one was WICD. It looked great. A lot of people seemed to be having the same problem, and WICD seemed to just fix it very quickly. Also, the Digg reviewers were treating it like the second coming of Christ: "GREAT interface! network-manager BLOWS! ALL my wirless problems were FIXED when I started using WICD! AND it improved my sex life! FIVE+++ StArS!" Sheesh.

Installation was breeze. I was liking this already! Now came the fun part: testing it out. The interface was lot larger than network-managers. One thing I didn't like about it right away, is that it didn't automatically connect to my WIRED network, which was annoying. Furthermore it required me to create a profile for each IP (for -wired- connections). I didn't like this at all. Since I connect to the internet all over the place, the last thing I wanted was to have a bunch of "profiles" cluttering up the interface, most of which I will probably never use again. Of course, I won't delete any of them in the off-chance that I -do- use them again(and who wants to enter all that information again?). Too aggravating. The kicker was that it wasn't detecting the wireless network present.

That would have been okay. network-manager wouldn't automatically detect wireless networks. I just had to enter them in manually. But, as it would turn out, in WICD, there is no way for me to manually enter a wireless network it didn't detect (they had a "hidden network" box, which allowed you to enter a ESSID, and no encryption key, which wasn't satisfactory.) Maybe I should have given WICD more time. Maybe I should have poked around more. Maybe I was dumb and wasn't looking at the interface closely enough. Could the solution have still been there?

Whatever. I uninstalled WICD and reinstalled network-manager. Back to square one!

Wireless Adventure - Introduction

2007-08-08T15:48:00.000-04:00

So my IBM ThinkPad T30, Phoenix, got a makeover earlier this summer. Due to my general laziness and strange attachment to Ubuntu Breezy, I didn't update to Dapper. When Feisty came out, I found out that I could no longer update my system, period. Shit.

Among other things, this meant that I couldn't do an automatic update to Dapper, and then from there, into Feisty. So, I wiped my partition (after backing up my data) and did a clean install of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04. That, plus giving Phoenix a new fan and an additional 512 MB stick of RAM, she seemed ready to rock the world.

I really like Feisty Fawn. It's sleeker, cleaner, and it got rid of some minor annoyances I had with Breezy. Perfect set up, I thought.

Then it turned out that my wireless card wouldn't work.

I was mystified. In Breezy, my wireless card worked fine. There was a bug that prevented me from scanning for wireless networks, but as long as I knew the SSID and/or password of the network I was trying to connect to, things worked fine.

Did something go horribly wrong? Did I do something wrong? Why is my wireless card not being recognized? I rebooted into Windows. Maybe it's the network that's at fault?

In XP (where I can scan for wireless networks fine), I located the wireless network I wanted to connect to. I entered the WEP key. Everything worked fine. So nope, nothing wrong with the card, nothing wrong with the network.

Doing some poking around the internets revealed that this is a known bug with network-manager, which, of course, made things so much easier for me. But how to fix the bug?

This multipart (hopefully not too long) series of posts in this blog will chronicle my wireless adventures. Will end when either I give up, or my wireless works in Ubuntu. And, I don't want to "rollback" (if that's even possible for me, considering I did a clean install of Feisty) to Dapper Drake. Let's see who wins!

Flaming Hatred

2007-08-06T17:40:00.001-04:00

So fellow graduate student Nikhil drew a picture of a dragon attacking a group of hapless villagers on our whiteboard.

I had spent all day working on Programming Languages. Gazing admiringly upon his artwork, I was suddenly inspired to label it in thus manner:

You see, the allegory just popped out at me, and everything just snapped into perspective.

Clearly, I'm the unfortunate chap tripping on the log (right-most grad student).

Working hard! Now to move on to C+C. More updates later.

Enjoy!

-Suzanne

Review of Students

2007-07-26T16:15:00.000-04:00

------
June 23, 2007

Dear Suzanne,

The Computer Science faculty regularly reviews the progress of all graduate students . . . on a semiannual basis. The objects of this review process is to evaluate whether students are making progress towards their degree . . .

In the Spring 2007 review, the faculty have determined that you are making satisfactory progress toward the PhD in Computer Science. Your goals for this term were to improve your grades, pass qualifiers, and to get more involved in research projects. You have done all of these. You have contributed to two research projects. You have presented a paper at a local student conference. Congratulations on your appointment as a Master TA. Consider aiming for a career in education. Your colloquium attendance has been good. The goals for the coming term are for you to establish your thesis project, to give a poster at a national or international conference, and to pass your remaining qualifiers. Good job so far.

Sincerely,
*name ommitted here*
Department Chair
--------

I just stared at the letter. They're happy with me... I'm not a failure. "You have done all of these... Congratulations on your appointment as a Master TA... Good job so far" I just continued staring at the letter in shocked and silent gratefulness, as I absentmindedly tried to open my office door with my home key, a mistake that I tend to make most every day. In a daze, I came back and sat by my computer.

After some seriously low points this summer, including much stress associated with my summer research and studying for my last two remaining qualifiers, this letter was really heartening. I've felt like such a failure this summer; After a major error surfaced recently in my research, resulting in me having to throw away a significant portion of my results and my analysis out the window, and having some incredible difficulties with studying for one of my qualifiers, nothing I did was enough. Taking breaks have turned into mild anxiety attacks, since I rarely feel what I've accomplished is deserving of them. Also, this week has seen a huge divergence from my usual productivity, causing me to feel like I'm in the middle of a hazy sea with no rudder, oar or sail.

It's nice when people believe in you, and even nicer hearing about it. "Consider pursuing a career in education..." I've been thinking more and more about becoming a teaching professor, mainly due to the great flexibility it offers. It's nice to hear that my department doesn't think I'm a failure (and I daresay seems happy with me), even when I feel so convinced that I am.

I should be studying for my quals. I'm where I need to be with them right now. Pushing myself hard right now, however, seems very dangerous. I'm thinking about trying to relax as much as possible, and hope that this bad streak passes, and soon. But is that a good idea? Do I deserve it? I did some more review for only one of my quals today, and now I believe there is only one question left on it that remains to be answered. As far as my other qual goes, I've answered almost 60% of the questions; I still need to do some reading up on lazy evaluation and exception handling, and it may be worth it to just to read some more of the text, just so I can gain that casual confidence that is so essential to passing this qualifier.

Do I deserve a break? What have I done to deserve a break? What have I done to deserve anything good? I'm thinking about heading home. The computer is just being a drain on my productivity. But I'll take my programming languages text with me . Yes. I'll exercise, take a nice hot shower, do a little cleaning, and then curl up with my textbook.

I hate not being productive... here's hoping that this bad streak ends soon.

Revival

2007-07-14T13:19:00.000-04:00

So, one of my friends, Craig, is the web-developer for this site: Jewcy.

I read a few articles there today, and I have to say, I'm definitely impressed. Not to say a bit curious about Scott Korb.

Check it out, if you have the time.

Also, this is freakin' hilarious.

Going off to see the new Harry Potter movie.

Power Outages and such fun

2007-07-10T16:07:00.000-04:00

So Troy has been hit by a supreme power outage. I'm writing this as quickly as I can, because I have no idea how much longer I will have power, before I lose it again.

There have been some powerful storms sweeping the area as of late; people are blaming them for the massive power outage that is taking place, which is affecting areas as far as Latham. While it's only 4 in the afternoon, I'm wondering if it would be wise to prepare dinner now, since I may not be able to in a few hours.

Summer is going well. Lots of work to do! More of an update when I actually have some spare time.

Later.
-Suzanne

Summer!

2007-06-06T17:38:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates; I just got back from India about two weeks back. Since then I've been working toward a paper deadline (June 10th!), so it's been really hectic.

So let's see.. India was awesome, and pretty. How pretty you ask? See for yourself:

I got to see lots of friends and family. Oh! And the semester ended well for me:

Randomized Algorithms: A
Mathematical Statistics: B

I'll post again sometime after the 10th, when I actually have more time.

Done

2007-05-03T19:13:00.001-04:00

My semester is finally done!

I sit here, somewhat happy and disoriented, not exactly sure what to make out of this semester finally being over. (Is it really over?) I took my stat final today, and I don't think it went so bad. We'll see how it goes. This is the end of Year I of my PhD. Let's see how well I fair next year...

Also, I'm leaving for India tomorrow! I'll try and post pictures and stuff when I get back. Until then, adieu, hope everyone's semester goes well.

Plans for the summer:
-Submit paper
-Research
-Study for quals (C+C, Prog lang)
-Relax(?)

I think I'm definitely shooting for the first three on the top of that list... we'll see how well I get to do the last :-)

The parental units will be here shortly. So, I'm off!

Take care all!
-Suzanne

Too cute and too funny

2007-04-29T23:57:00.000-04:00

This is too cute. My office-mate, Akintayo, whole-heartedly agrees with Schecky's sentiments.

Then there's this story, which practically made me burst out laughing.

I need to stop slacking off.

-Suzanne

TAing is Over!

2007-04-28T01:09:00.000-04:00

W00t! No more students! Yippee! I'm free! Frrreeeeee!

Now it's just me, stat and research!

Yesss, it is now just usss, prreciouss, we have time for our preciousss now... my ressearch....

*purr*! <3

k, too much sugar.

Nearing the end....

2007-04-27T13:51:00.000-04:00

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others"

~ Marianne Williamson

Kitty!

2007-04-25T19:18:00.000-04:00

Kitty plays the piano

Watch it now.

Culture of Fear

2007-04-25T18:58:00.000-04:00

It seems to me more and more that we are living in a culture that is largely sustained and driven by fear.

I say this after reading about this particularly disgusting bit of racism, about a man who was targeted as a "terrorist" because he had dark skin. Here is his version of the events, along with the the University's. I guess it would be easy to dismiss the incident as a case of "small town, small-mindedness", but it still makes me shake my head and wonder; is this really what our country has become?

The semester is slowly but surely coming to an end. At this point in time, I have to finish up my rand-alg assignment (90% done), finish up my stat assignment (90%), and then concentrate on studying for my final (0% progress) that I have next thursday, and work on some research (some percentage of progress that is too low for my tastes). Oh, and I just found out that I am going to be a Master TA. Jubilations!

Back to work I go...

-Suzanne

Much Nothing about Significance

2007-04-18T22:36:00.000-04:00

I had already decided when the incident at V-tech occured, that I wasn't going to create some overwrought cliche'd post about how horrible this event was and how my thoughts and prayers are with the victims' families and friends. That's a given.

This is, after all, our newest Columbine. And, like Columbine, it has its very own wikipedia page.

I'm curious about this shooter. What drove him to this? These next few days will be telling, because in the way these things go, there are more than two sides to every story. No one is pure evil. Evil is, after all, a catch-all phrase that we have developed to describe that which is horrible and misguided by social norms, but ultimately not understood. To prevent future attacks, to save lives, it is necessary to look beyond the name-calling and the finger-pointing, and try and understand motives.

There are some serious questions though: for example, why wasn't he taken off campus? I've heard about campuses that are so freaked out about suicidal students that they usually take them off of campus. And this is for being a threat to themselves. Oh, I have no delusions that the universities do this in the best interest of the students, but to protect themselves from lawsuits that the parents may file. But at least they get the student off of the campus, and this is after the student tries to harm themselves. Now here's the kicker. This guy got a temporary detention order from the general district court and the department of health, clearly stating that Cho was "mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, and presents an imminent danger to [him]self or others". Wired has been doing a wonderful job of trying to trace motives, and unlike grief profiteers like CNN, NBC or the jackasses on ebay, they seem to be doing more than giving the next ten minute update on how this student cried or how that student who was-a-friend-of-this-guy-that-he-knew-who-had-a-sister-who-
had-a-cousin-that-had-a-class-with-Cho said that he thought the shooter was "wierd". And let's not forget our friend Jack Thompson and the other idiots trying to fingerpoint gaming. Ugh.

I'm curious abut what some of you, my good friends, have to say about motives. I will update this post as I get more information, but I think there was more that drove this boy than a "mean streak". I think I may create a MO profile for Mr. Seung-Hui. Just for fun.

Also smattered over the web are several of Cho's writings. After I read them, I immediately thought about this xkcd comic, which clearly shows my obsession with xkcd and my lack of respect for "alternative" artforms. Ah well.

As an update to those who are curious, I am getting better. Hopefully I will have a full recovery by tomorrow. For those of you who don't know what happened, let's say that I had a run-in with a meatball sub at the Union and started having symptoms very consistent with Food poisoning. Lessons learned: even when very hungry, RPI Union food is not worth trusting.

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T21:29:00.000-04:00

Today I did nothing.

That's right -- I did nothing. It was probably the first day in weeks, perhaps months that I did not have to do any work, and thus the little work I did, I did at my leisure. I finished the last bit of my grading today (about 10 students out of the 47 that I had to grade) and submitted them.

Besides that, I did nothing; it was absolutely wondrous. Usually, I push grading into a single day, doing it all, or the majority, in one gruelling 10 hour period. I finished the remnants of grading in roughly two hours, spending the rest of my time reading. Kevin has lent me Hyperion. So far, I am really enjoying it.

I can't remember taking a break like this. The idea of not doing work for a day seems alien and strangely out of place. Hopefully I have more days like this.

That's all for now. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter. Here is my Easter gift to you.. an Easter Bunny.

Says one customer:
"Thought it would make a cute Easter gift, no one else thought so, kids are in counselling now. Apparently I'm the only one with a sense of humor in this family"

Here's anothe Easter oddity, provided by Akintayo.

Oh, and this video has been spreading like a virus here at RPI.

More later some day. I finished the scripts necessary for the last of my phylogenetic analysis! More later when I get results. Now back to watching Planet Earth.

... Where do I get my ideas of Christianity?

2007-03-26T02:53:00.000-04:00

To the Christian brethren who view my beliefs as being "non-christian": These are the songs I remember from my childhood:

"We are the light of the world
May our light shine before all
That they may see the good that we do
And give glory to God"

"Let there be peace on earth,
And let it begin with me
Let there be peace on earth,
The peace that was meant to be

With God as our Father,
Children all are we
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow

To take each moment, and live each moment
In peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me"

"Make me a channel of Your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love,
Where there is injury, your pardon Lord,
And where there's doubt, true faith in You.

Make me a channel of Your peace,
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there's sadness, ever joy.

Oh Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of Your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying that we're born to eternal life"

"We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love"

"This is my commandment, that you love one another
As I have loved you, as I have loved you, as I have loved you
Love your enemies, do good to those who hurt you
And live in my love, live in my love, live in my love"

These are the songs of my childhood. I still sing them to this day. These are the songs that have shaped and moulded who I am today, and what constitutes my basic belief system: Love and respect others, show humility, and live by example. WHERE does it say that Christianity is about being judgemental and turning our noses up at people of other faiths? Where does it say that we convert by force, that we hold ourselves above everyone else? Where on earth did you get your ideas?

These are the songs of my childhood. Why aren't they the songs of yours?

California pictures!

2007-03-10T17:42:00.000-05:00

So I didn't really get to explore much at all, but here are a couple pictures of the area :-)

Enjoy!

Something different

2007-03-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

"If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love
I am but a resounding gong, or a clanging cymbal
If I have the gift of prophecy
And can fathom all mystery, and all knowledge
And if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love
I am nothing.

If I give away all that I have, and surrender my body to be burned
But have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind
Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogantor rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will cease;
As for tongues, they will be stilled;
As for knowledge, it will pass away.
But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears

When I was a child, I spoke like a child
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child
When I became a man, I gave up childish ways

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror
Then we shall see face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love."

~1 Corinthians 13:1-13

I used to think this was mainly about romantic love, but now I think it's more about doing one's life work with all of one's heart. Research for example; my research would not be effective if I did not love what I do. And I need to keep this in mind.

But none of this has anything to do with what I actualy decided to post on the blog today. I have a question to ask you guys. I am looking for a version of "I love you" in another languages that is more expressive than its english counterpart, but has the same level of pith. "Love" in English is a blanketing term that includes charity, platonic love, sexual(romantic) love, and true(spirtual) love.

I am looking for an expression that is more in the pure or spiritual sense; Something along the lines of "I cherish you". I tried to look up different ways of saying "I love you" in other langauges on the web, but the individual words sometimes have different connotations. Does anyone have any translations that they think would be appropriate? Could you also post a translation key?

Thanks!
-Suzanne

So I'm having a good time...

2007-03-02T21:12:00.000-05:00

s/good/absolutely wonderfully great/

This is seriously probably one of the most important weekends of my life. I came to California somewhat confused, feeling incredibly isolated, and wondering if I was in the right place. The entire 6 hour flight to San Francisco was just one continuous identity and existential crisis.

I feel kinda bad that I won't be able to stay for the entire google microsoft reception tomorrow night (on account of the fact that I have to leave for my flight) but at least I will still be able to attend for one hour.

Today has been just an eye-opener. I am surrounded by 200 other female computer science graduate students, all in their first or second year, from all over the country, some with similar interests, others with vastly different ones. Either way, we are all going through the exact same thing. The exact same thing. I've always thought that some of the misgivings I was having were nothing, just things that were wrong with me. I thought, hey, no one else feels this way, it's just me. Boy, was I ever wrong.

For example, I am considered by many (including my friend Ethan.. hi Ethan! :-) ) to be a misogynist, mainly due to my inability/unwillingness to interact with most females. Guess what? So other girls in Computer Science have the same problem. How do you talk to girls from other disciplines about a field that you're so completely passionate about when they are (at times) so repulsed by it? I've had conversations of mine become limited to hair, clothes and nails, since there isn't much else that I have in common with them. I find that there are several other girls who have had the same problem. Let me tell you: that was so refreshing to hear. That it wasn't just me, that I don't have some abnormality about me that just makes me not want to interact with girls. I just don't want to interact with girls who don't understand, who can't be passionate about computer science and/or research. Here, there are 200. This is great :-)

Anyways, I have to head over to another place for another reception. I will definitely write during my next break! I'll try and post pictures of San Francisco. Today was just a beautiful day, and I'm fighting the temptation to go shopping. More later!

Greetings from California!

2007-03-02T12:24:00.000-05:00

I arrived in CA late last night, and I really can't write for long (I will try and be back for tomorrow), but so far I have made the following conclusions:

-SFO is a very large airport
-People in San Francisco are generally rude
-The Westin St. Francis is a very upscale hotel
-The CS Women I've met so far have seemed awesome
-As a result of the previous point, I think I'm going to have fun here...

I have to pack up and get moving. A bunch of us are going to get breakfast! More later!

Need Sleep

2007-02-26T11:59:00.000-05:00

After staying up till 4:30 to do Randomized Algorithms, I think I'm in a serious need for sleep. So I'm about to go back and take a nap.

I was just perusing through my daily collection of new-sites, when I see this heading: "NYC blanketed with 2 to 4 inches of snow". I nearly burst out laughing. "Blanketed"? Oh noes! 4 INCHES of snow! Call a state emergency! Last week, Albany got hit with about 20 inches (on Valentine's day, actually), and I suspect we'll be getting more shortly. CNN sensationalizes things way too much.

If you check CNN often enough, you often see blunders, and sometimes (I suspect), information you weren't supposed to see, as later in the day, that little tidbit or "slip-up" is gone. I took a screenshot of their little "blanket" title, but since I'm not allowed to post it, I think I'll just send a link to the article instead. Keep in mind the "blanket"ing statement they made may still not be there. If you don't believe me, ask, and I'll show you the screenshot :-)

Check it out.

Ok. Getting REAL tired. Sleepy time!

Current mood...

2007-02-19T22:25:00.001-05:00

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after a wonderful weekend. Ready to get back to work!

Also, I am addicted to this site.

Holy.. What did I just do?

2007-02-08T06:42:00.000-05:00

A hearty good morning from the (~~tired~~ jubilant!) comp-sci next door! After wrestling with my randomized algorithms homework for several painstaking hours, I finally submitted the damn thing at 4:45 am. Realizing that sleep was pretty much shot to hell, I thought to myself, "hmm... why don't I work on my Statistics homework?" Best. freaking. idea. ever.

I am now a mere 10% away from completion. I need to finish a couple odd problems, and do the writeup for those. Besides that though, I am DONE! :-) I feel absolutely wonderful. But perhaps another reason is due to the fact that today was the first day since the summer that I worked for almost 17 hours straight. And, just like I did over the summer, I loved it!

I went to the bathroom a few hours ago, and casually glanced at my appearance in the mirror. While I felt wired and ready to work, I noticed my eyes were as red as my nose, which was as red as my lips, which were as red as my shirt. If I were a puppy right now, I'd look adorable, I thought. However, since I am not a puppy, but a very tired grad student, this does not bode well.

Now, as it nears 7, I look out my office window and watch the sun come up, like I had watched the sun go down several hours ago. I am probably going to head down to the Amos Eaton lounge very shortly to take a nap until 10 am. Then I'll wake up for Randomized Algorithms lecture. After which, I plan to climb in my bed and sleep until 3:30. Then I'll go to Proteomics lecture. Then I'll sleep until like 9. And then I'll finish Statistics (It's due Friday). Then I'll sleep some more. The hope is, if I sleep enough tomorrow, my sleep schedule will realign itself and all will be happy.

Let's see... a quick update. Quals went fairly well. I decided not to take the C+C qual until next semester (a good move for me, I think). So, right now, 3/5 quals passed, which is pretty decent. What else? Oh. I got new glasses, and I'm going to California for a conference and India at the beginning of the summer (yeah.. I'll be going back for the first time in 8 freakin years!). What am I forgetting...? Oh! The scarf. It morphed into a hat, and then into an unfinished hat. I still have the best of intentions for it, but I have a feeling that it won't get completed for a while.

Time for me to curl up on the couch downstairs. I will try and write again some other time! Good night (or good morning!)

At the Crest of Winter

2007-01-26T09:48:00.000-05:00

Walking into my Statitics class at 9:40, all I could think about was getting something warm, anything warm. Hastily I disposed of my belongings into a chair, and shuffled off to the cafe', where I ordered a warm croissant and medium coffee. After I paid and thanked the lady, I thought to myself, "Coffee? Why did you get coffee?" I usually get tea, and after my accidental discovery of the 25 cent coffee machine on the fourth floor of Amos Eaton, I vowed to never buy coffee anywhere else on campus again.

The thing is just cool to watch. You pick your choice of coffee, each kept in this specially shaped container, which looks like a larger version of those single serving half-and-half containers you see at the store, each with (surprise) a single serving of coffee. You put the unopened container in this compartment in the coffee maker, put a cup underneath, press a button, and tada! 15 seconds later, a freshly brewed cup of coffee. And there is no cleanup; the machine mysteriously disposes of the container. Perfect for the cheap, lazy, and the impatient. I fell in love with it as soon as I pressed the "start" button.

So why did I actually buy a cup of coffee? Then I remembered. The past two nights, I have been staying up until 2 am, 3 am, trying to study for my Computability & Complexity qualifier. I say "try", since I am not succeeding as well as I like. Part of the reason is due to internally generated pressure to work on the slowly accumulating schoolwork that I have ignored thus far. The other reason is that since winter break, I have been on a continuous sprint to study for three quals that I planned to take this semester. Well, I've passed two of the three so far, and my last one is next wednesday. But I'm stressed, I'm tired... I don't know if I will be properly prepared (though I will try). Worse comes to worse, I take it at the beginning of next semester (though I would rather that not happen). But it doesn't seem like there's an end to this sprint till wednesday, though I can feel myself slowing down internally. Which leads to some very interesting segues of thinking.

It was cold this morning. Cold. 2 degrees. And it was windy. Deciding not to risk it, I decided to opt to not wear my usually warm chocolate brown coat, and to instead wear my sturdier green one. This turned out to be an excellent move, considering how I doubt the brown coat could have resisted the wind as well as my green one. I got into Statistics, and I was cold. The wind was howling outside, and I could hear it grasping and shaking the windows of our classroom, like some frost-laden demon desperate to break in and make our lives miserable, howling at its unsuccess. I crawled inside myself a litte deeper and shivered.

I should make a scarf, I thought. A long, fuzzy warm scarf. One that I could wrap myself up in and stay warm. As the wind continued to howl, I could see in my mind's eye my fingers working the crochet needle, rapidly making a scarf that was a yard long, both beautiful and versatile. All this was going through my head as I rapidly took notes during the Statistics lecture.

Statistics is a high pace course. You need to sit down, listen intently and write rapidly in order to catch everything. Our professor uses a tablet PC. A very nifty thing for giving lecture, since you can easily project what you are writing and can even export it to pdf and post it online. Kevin had talked about getting a tablet, but I had my doubts, since it would tie me to the Windows operating system. I doubted linux had tablet pc software that was advanced enough to compete with the windows versions. But what about Apple? Oooh. There was a tempting thought. If Apple produced a tablet PC that ran OS X, I think I would have to buy that as my next computer purchase. Maybe they'd have one by Christmas? "Dear ~~Steve Jobs~~ Santa, please give me a tablet PC with 2 GB of RAM that runs OS X. And a pony. XOXO, Suzanne."

You have to believe me that I was paying attention. We went over continuous and discontinuous single and joint transformation methods, as well as order statistics, and calculating Jacobian values. But I couldn't get the scarf out of my thoughts. The more I tried to push it to a corner, the more persistent it became. My scarf would be a cream, no, beige color. It would be long. A yard is too short. What about two yards? Will it have frills on the end? How do you crochet things with frills at the end? Or is that just for knitting and weaving? I ignored the fact that I have never finished a single crochet project that I've started. Lecture continued. I started visualizing the ends of the scarf, fanning out like a fishtail. That will be cool, I thought to myself. The yearning to make a new scarf grew so persistent that I resolved to go to Wal-mart right after lecture; never mind that I was going to eat something and then work on C+C afterwards. The scarf was what needed to exist, and it had to exist now. I excused my impulsivity by reminding myself that I needed to pick up some other things anyway, so the trip was warranted.

Lecture ended, and I ran home. Grabbing my purse, I went to the bus station, and caught the first bus to Wal-mart. On the way there, the scarf continued to possess my thoughts. A beautiful, long, beige scarf, that I can wear with both my green coat and my brown coat. Two yards? No. It could be longer... And as my mind's eye turned internally again, the scarf started to grow, first to three yards, then five, till it seemed to stretch out perpetually for miles and miles. And I thought about wrapping myself up in it completely, creating a warm, beige cocoon that I could stay in until the quals were over, until the cold was gone.

I was back later than I wished, but finished everything I had to do, as far as extraneous necessary errands go, by 2. Rushing back to my office, I grabbed a pop-tart and started looking at the C+C questions. Nothing. Pushing away my frustration, I start skimming through the questions, and remembered how I wanted to finish an entry in my blog that I had started this morning in statistics. And that I want something more substantial to eat. Clacking away on the keys to finish my last sentence, I wrap up my entry and decide to grab a quick bowl of chili before resolving to get back to work.

More Reasons why Pantene Sucks

2006-12-24T14:33:00.000-05:00

Seasonal greetings from your neighborly comp sci! It's Christmas Eve 2006, and I've returned back home for a quick break before the requisite study sprint for the qualifiers that I'm taking this upcoming January. Result of this last semester? Not too hot. Averaged a 3.0 for this semester; while it's much lower than I wanted, it's still not wholly bad. What is bad is that I now have three qualifiers to write this coming january. They are: Molecular Biology, Probability and Computability & Complexity. They all should not be that bad, as long as I prepare correctly. So I get to spend a wonderful Winter Break studying and reading Godel Escher Bach (a must read).

So none of the above news relates to my current rant, which, unlike most other things in my life, has to do with shampoo. That's right... shampoo (and conditioner!). So let's take an aside from the usual religious/comp sci related topics and talk about something over the top and girly.

So for over a few months now I've been using Pantene Pro-V shampoo & conditioner. Determined to let my black locks grow to new, unchartered lengths, I've been changing up a variety of hair products to see what I can use that will work the best for me. Though I distrusted Pantene Pro-V since adolescence (I couldn't help but feel that it was doing something bad to my hair, even though everyone else was swearing by it), I decided to give it another go. So after several months of using it (and determining my hair was getting drier), I went to the stylist who affirmed that Pantene is the worst kind of stuff to use on your hair, since it (-gasp-) dries out your hair. But other things should have warned me about how the stuff they're peddling is absolutely horrible. The label is the big one:

Pantene Pro-V 2 in 1 shampoo + conditioner: NEW with AMINO PROTEINS.

...

Wait, what? What the shit is an AMINO PROTEIN? So proteins, in their simplest structure, are chains of amino acids. Is an amino protein just a protein with a higher precentage of amino acids? If so, isn't this a bit self-descriptive? A quick search on Wikipedia turns up nothing, so I'm left to utilize my madd intarnets searching skillz, the stuff that all comp scis are born with. Most of the stuff that I turn up on google are either poorly quoted reasearch papers or ads for protein supplements. What all of these "amino protein" products had in common was the fact that they were ingested. Which made me wonder; even if Pantene came up with a protein wonder-complex that does wonderful things for your hair, why would you apply it directly to the hair, and not injest it? So I did some research on the purpose of conditioners. It turns out, that conditioners like Pantene are Pack Conditioners, with high levels of something called Surfactants. The purpose of these compounds is to coat the hair surface and not fully wash out, due to the hydrophillic bonding of the compounds with the core hair protein, keratin. This makes sense. In other words, the purpose of these conditioners is to effectively "glue" hair scales down to the surface, by adding a thin to moderate film of this stuff to the surface. However, silicones also found in such products (such as dimethicones) act as a sealing agent. While this is an effective method of smoothening the hair surface, it also seals the hair from moisture, effectively robbing the hair's ability to gain moisture from the surface. Also, it also creates the need for more shampooing to prevent buildup. Since shampoo is in essence a detergent, it robs the hair further of moisture, creating the need to condition, thus causing an endless cycle of shampoo and conditioning. So this, it turns out, is the reason why my hair was so dry.

So "Amino Proteins" seem to be this made up term for something Pantene is using in their stuff, and while it's purpose is to make hair sleeker through their "Exclusive Formula" I really think it does nothing more than actually make you hair more frizzy.

So I switched shampoos again. Let's see if this makes my hair any silkier. I guess if nothing else, this was a good opportunity to explore laymen biochemistry that goes into hair care products. And of course, a lovely opportunity for me to complain.

That's all for now.

A New Religious Debate

2006-10-24T13:18:00.000-04:00

Cycling through my news articles for the morning, I came across this plum from Wired News:
http://www.wired.com/news/wiredmag/0,71985-0.html?tw=wn_index_10

It is about a group called The New Athiests, who are challenging all intelligent people to clarify their stance on the existence of God. This group is much different from previous groups of atheists, as they not only reject the belief in the existance of God (and consider it a disease), but they also reject all groups of people (agnostics, liberal believers) who may agree with some, but not all of their beliefs. They seem very binary; either you're with them, or against them: 1 or 0.

For a liberal believer of the Christian faith like myself, it is quite disturbing (and insulting). The article is a good read, and and I think it provokes some good thoughtfulness. However, I find it humorous that this Dawkins guy does not realize you cannot have prayer without religion; his belief system will just spark a new religion, thus propogating what he is intending to destroy.

It doesn't seem he looks too closely at the basic tenants of the teaching of all relgions: love, respect, humility, and being a good person. Also, I'm profoundly disturbed by the extremist stance he takes; in this manner, I daresay the New Atheists can be likened to terroristic organizations such as the Taliban and the Branch Dravidians. Please note I have nothing against atheists; I've just have never had any respect for any type of extremist, for those who cannot respect others, but demand respect for themselves.

Strangely enough, while I was reading the article, I started thinking of an old hymn we used to sing in church when I was a little girl. It goes:
"I believe in the sun
Even when it isn't shining
I believe in love
Even when there is no one there.
And I believe in God
I believe in God
Even when God is silent."

Something to chew on I suppose. That's all for now.

And yes! Suzanne has posted quite a bit in the last few days. What could it mean? Probably that she's avoiding doing work. And I would agree! So, back to work I go.

Friday nights...

2006-10-24T01:13:00.000-04:00

So two Fridays ago I decided that I would go out and have some fun. So I went and visited some of my friends and played video games :-) I played the original Zelda. This was amazing, since I never played any game in the Zelda series (yes, it's true), and I had an absolute blast. Later, when someone else wanted a turn, one of my friends let me play with the character creation screen on City of Villains. It was amazing; while I really have no interest in playing the game, the level of customization a person could put into their characters just had me in awe. So after quite a bit of fine tuning, I came up with a character, who I named Czara. Below are some screenshots of her. Pretty badass, no? :-)

Check out her boots.. aren't they cute? <3

I guess this is a geeky girl's way of playing dressup :-)

Ok, it's late.. I'm pretty much done posting for a few days. Have a good night!

The Last Weeks of October

2006-10-23T13:11:00.000-04:00

So much has happened in the last few weeks, it's hard to list all of them. All good things, so you won't hear me whining much :-)

Let's see: at the end of this semester, I will be staying permanently at Amy's apartment, and it will be my primary address of sorts from now onwards. It's really exciting, since I finally have a place I can call home. Plus, my housemates are really nice, so I really like being there.

I gave my presentation to the RPI chapter of the ACM last week as well. Believe it or not, it was a success! People genuinely seemed interested in what I had to say, and I got asked back to give future presentations (at least once a semester!). Hooray! Also, they advertised my talk all over campus, which, for me, was quite shocking/flattering, since most talks do not get advertised. About 20 people showed up, which was pretty good, and I got some really good questions. If anyone is interested, the slides for my presentation are up on the main page of my website.

Let's see... what else? Oh! My good friend Amy (who's going to graduate at the end of this semester.. *sniff*) and I decided to dress up together for Halloween this year. My sophomore year and her freshman year, we got dressed up as pirates, and it was a ton of fun :-) Since this is her last semester, I guess we're going to have a repeat just for old time's sake. But, what to be? Our first idea was going to be "Cowboys and Indian" (guess who the Indian would be?). Then we had a "Disney Princesses" idea (I would have been Jasmine), and we even had a girl-version of the "Village People" idea (again I'd be the Indian... but there weren't enough girls!). So Amy and I were talking one night, and I jokingly (emphasize, JOKINGLY) suggested that we go as characters from Sailor Moon. Horrifically enough, she ran with it, and it now seems I will be Sailor Mars and she is going to be Sailor Mercury. Amy's even dyeing her hair blue! I'll post a picture or two if my dignity allows it.

So this last weekend, we carved pumpkins and worked on our costumes. Believe it or not, we actually were able to make pleated skirts from scratch (go us!) and the costumes are probably going look surprisingly good, considering our total lack of any sewing expertise. We're almost done... though I want to save the actual pictures of us till after Halloween, I might post a quick pick of just my costume.. I'm so excited! Our pumpkins also turned out quite nice. Below are two pictures of Amy's pumpkin, my pumpkin, and our suitemate's pumpkin (coincidentally also Amy). I also have a closeup of my pumpkin, which was a black kitty against a moon. Pretty simple, but I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was like five, so it was a heck of an experience for me.

Oh! And of course, I should mention Computer Science Day, which has been the highlight of the past few weeks. Rensselaer hosted the first annual Computer Science Day last friday, in which we welcomed four world renowned researchers to come and talk about research related to a particular topic. This year's theme was Computational Geometry, and our researchers talked about geometry and topology as they applied to db search (Dr. Indyk), Computer Vision (Dr. Ponce), Bioinformatics (Dr. Edelsbrunner) and Random Sampling Methods (Dr. Kannan). It was positively amazing, and I attended all the talks. 12 am Friday, I was elated, and singing random CS carols that I made up, like "Little CS boy", which were horrific knockoffs of existing Christmas carols, such as "Litte Drummer Boy". I will spare you the lyrics. But to see how giddy I was, here is a picture of that Amy took of me and her on the morning of CS day:

Don't I look happy? :-)

Anyways, that's all for now. This post is waaay too long. I will probably post some other random junk about what I've been up to in the next few hours/days. This week is going to be busy, since aside from working on probability, I still have the halloween costumes to make. But you know what? I'm doing well, and I'm doing happy :-) So life is good.

More later!

Being a chick rocks

2006-10-11T01:44:00.000-04:00

Yeah, I whine about it every 28 days, but man, being a woman totally rocks most of the time.

I was listening to some of my music today, and one song that played was "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks. Quite a bit of the lyrics reflect on how mecurial I think every woman can be. Compare to another song that I really love, "She's Always a Woman" by Billy Joel, which I think also is very descriptive of most women (and me most of the time). I always liked Billy Joel; finally a man who realizes that all woman-kind is crazy, and always has been, and always will be, and that it's not worth trying to make us into logical creatures.

Yeah, so it's late, and I need to get up early tomorrow and do work all day. So, that's all for now! I'll give updates as they come.

Oh! I turned 22 recently! Hooray for getting old!

"And the most she can do
Is throw shadows at you
But she's always a woman to me..."

We just got served, team!

2006-09-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

Voltron, REPRESENT!

I concur!

2006-09-11T00:05:00.000-04:00

Why should you date a Gamer?

2 posts in 2 days?? Oh noes! What's the world coming too??

Here's the original reference, kindly found by Ethan.

I swear it was only apple juice!

2006-09-10T12:39:00.000-04:00

So, in addition to my usual hijinx this semester, I also decided that I wanted to try not to drink. I'm 21, so of course I've had my share of drinks, but, the allure of it is quickly wearing. I agreed to go with Amy to a series of parties last night (including one at our place). "I don't want to drink," I said, when she asked me to go and mingle. "Take something with you then!" she told me. So I picked up an Apple&Eve juice box and headed down. Some people started teasing me, but I maintained that "it's what all the cool kids drink" and how the apple juice was "200 proof" because it was 100% juice (get it)? Surprisingly enough, I convinced other people to start drinking apple juice, including Amy, who didn't want to drink that much either. Together, we started a trend of apple-juice drinking. The second party we went to was ok, but I didn't really care that much for it because neither of us knew anyone. The third party... well. That was full of math majors, so I felt right at home. I met up with two Computer Science and Math dualies, and we had a grand old time talking. We traded horrid pickup math and cs pickup lines ("nice equation, wanna fuck?" and "you should come home with me so I can show you the size of my L2 cache" were some of the winners. I also threw one in there about "normalizing vectors", so you get the drift). We eventually got onto the topic of theoretical computer science classes that we've taken, and this (inevitably) led us to discussing graph theory (Dr. Isler would be so proud). I recalled having trouble with the proof-based tests, but the two guys told me it was cake for them, since they had to go through the terror that was math analysis.

Math analysis is appropriately called "math anal" at RPI, or just "anal". So, thinking myself to be horribly clever I said:

"I don't do ANAL unless I have to.", my mind still on proofs. What a horrible thing to say, especially in front of two guys. One of the guys I know winked and elbowed me, "unless you have to, eh?" and I buried my face in my hand, laughing.

Sometimes I put my foot down my throat so far that I kick myself in the ass.

Another thing about apple juice: like beer, too much of it may cause you to say very stupid things. Also like beer, you also pee a lot. And lastly, like beer, you wake up the next morning and think, "did I actually say that??". And yes, this was after three boxes of apple juice and nothing else.

I'm the hugest dork that ever lived.

That's all for now.

Transition, part II (Chapter IV)

2006-09-03T17:19:00.000-04:00

And you would have never thought in the end
How amazing it feels just to live again
It's a feeling you cannot miss
It burns a hole through everyone that feels it...
Alive. I feel myself awakening again. I haven't written here for a few weeks now, mainly because it has been so busy. I came back to RPI. TA training ensued. My mind shut down for a few weeks, as the realization of exactly how busy and exhuausted I've been this summer just washed over me, like a tidal wave. Besides accomplishing meaningless stuff, like getting ready for my courses and buying stuff necessary for day to day living, my mind has been shut off. I didn't finish the scripts necessary to finish the project so I can publish; I've just been too exhausted. I'm sure I'll resurrect them at some point and finish what I need to do. But now I have other things to worry about. I have a masters thesis to work on this semester, on Hidden Markov Models. As an initial project, I'm going to write a simple HMM in FORTRAN. Let's see how successful I am. I'm also TAing two(!) courses this semester; Data Mining and Computer Organization. Computer Organization will be a nice review, but Data Mining is what I'm really excited about. I think TAing that course will help me quite a bit in my two courses this semester, Computability and Complexity and Applications in Probability and Statistics. I need As in both of them so I can pass my qualifiers. Hopefully, this will also be accomplished.

All in all, it's going to be a busy semester. As far as relaxing goes, I went to a LAN party last night. I got to meet some interesting people and play some awesome old retro games. I also got shanghi'ed into giving a presentation on Computational Biology for the campus ACM. I'm terribly nervous, though somewhat excited and anxious; what if I look like a complete idiot? I talked to my friend Ethan about it, and he thinks I'll be ok. I think he has more faith in me that's due though.

So that's been the last few lonely, mostly boring weeks. Though only one week of school has passed, I've been agonizing, since my mind has been mainly shut off. But I think I'm coming alive again. And this is good news... good news indeed.

I don't want to talk about the whole "being single" thing anymore. In short, the plan is that I want to be single for at least one whole semester, so I can learn to stand on my own two feet, and learn to be self-reliant. A noble goal, but one that no one thinks I'll make. My friends told me today that none of them think I'll make it through the month without finding a boyfriend. Some are even counting down the days until I'm no longer single. While it's all very funny, it's a little sad that no one thinks I'm capable of being single for any long period of time. I still plan to stick to my goal, since I think I really need a period to rediscover myself. Hopefully I'll be able to reach my personal goals at the end of this semester too.

It's Sunday, the Sunday before Labor Day, and I missed church, again. This is quite saddening, since I did want to start going to church regularly again. Maybe after I finish reading the slew of books I plan on getting through this semester, I'll start reading the Bible again. At least that way I can start forming a bond with the spiritual side of me that I've somewhat left in the dark. For the rest of today, it's going to be paper reading, and perhaps flirting a bit with my Fortran book. I need to make an early start in this thesis, because I know as the semester goes on, I'm going to be hellishly busy. So wish me luck! I honestly hope this productivity spell that I feel coming on will last for a good deal. I need all the inspiration I can get.

That's all for now.

Transition, part II (Chapter III)

2006-08-08T15:21:00.000-04:00

We just boarded the plane. It's 10:45am. I'm going ot have to cut this short very soon. You see, at the airport, I bought this Sudoku puzzle book that contains 400 puzzles. My goal for this flight? To see how many I can get through in 3 hours. I think this bit of fun is definitely worth the money I spent ^-^

So back to the topic at hand. I'm single. Out of respect for Dan's and my privacy, I leave out all the details. I ask you to not ask me about them either. The current situation is very messy. I was going to move in with Dan this year. Now I'm not. My good friend Amy has offered me a place to stay next semester, but she's graduating in December. I have to find a place to live after that.

I'm a planner; I like to plan every portion of my life. For the first time ever, I find myself unable to do that. This next semester is going to be quite an experience. I am so nervous and excited at the same time.

Heh. Amy really came through for me. This break-up would have been a lot harder if she had not been there to offer me a place to stay. Granted, I have no place to talk about how difficult the break-up was.

After all, I was the one who ended it.

The plane has started to taxi. We'll be taking off soon. My sudoku challenge awaits! I'll write more after I get into NJ, and after I have some time to settle in.

Transition, part II (Chapter II)

2006-08-07T21:55:00.000-04:00

I entered Texas fairly nervous and exited, and very anxious about entering graduate school this coming Fall, with my only strength and comfort being my boyfriend of 1.5 years, Dan. I leave Texas feeling accomplished, with a new-found confidence simmering underneath. In 10 weeks, I accomplished what I set out to do; namely, designing a new algorithm for phylogenetic construction.

Not only did I create said algorithm, I created one that is competitive with existing methods. For me, this was the first, fully independent, creative, and most-meaningful project of my life. I poured my soul, talents, skills and mind into this work. Near the end, I also was pulling 60-70 hour weeks. And the best part was? I didn't care. I was so damn driven; it was amazing to see myself so incredibly focused. Finally, I saw what I always felt was there inside of me; a woman obssesed with her work, with a problem. What a great confidence boost. The project has been a success; when I get home, I'll be finishing up the project by drawing up some more graphs. Then I'll be writing up the paper that my professor and I are going to publish. Just a success.

But that's not all I did in 10 weeks. That's not all that is changed. I leave Texas relying on my own strength, my ability to stand on my own. In 10 weeks, I managed to completely unravel Dan's and my relationship. We broke up three weeks ago. I don't know if I'd refer to this as an accomplishment though.

For this first time in almost 5 years, I'm single. I'm single, and I'm entering graduate school. It's like starting a whole new life... perhaps this is what I want to write about.

Transition, part II (Chapter I)

2006-08-07T21:40:00.000-04:00

The next set of posts, "Transition, part II" were written partly on my way home from Texas. This is going to be fairly lengthy set of posts, and, as a caveat, I may not post them contiguously.

As I write this, I'm sitting at the airport in Dallas, Ft. Worth, waiting for my connecting flight to Newark. I'm finally coming home from Texas. I got up early today. Very early. When the alarm went off at 5am, I hit the snooze button. When the larm went of at 5:10am, I jumped out of bed in a panic; the cab was scheduled to depart at 5:30. I had 20 minutes to get ready, get extraneous stuff packed, turn in my key and drag approximately 100 lbs of luggage down four floors. I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up the entire dorm with the racket I made going down the stairs. I got to the airport at College Station at 5:49, only to find that the American Airlines baggage check wasn't even open; they didn't come in until 6:30am. Well. This was definitely not an airport in the North East, where you have to be 2 hrs early or risk missing your flight. After I checked my baggage, I noticed security check was closed. This was confusing, as they were open only a little while before. Security check didn't reopen until 7:10am. My flight was scheduled to board at 7:19am. By this time, I was silently panicking again. Of course, as I went through security, I got pulled over to be screened and patted down (Oh College Station, how I'll miss you). 5 minutes later, I had all my stuff together. The best part is, we did board, on time, at 7:19am. No problems.

The laxness of the airport, the blatant lack of hurry defines this place. It is a stark contrast to the mad rush, impatience, and need to start everything early that exists in the NE. I was suprrised that I liked it. Texas is an interesting place like that. Though I've been researching all summer long, I still think of the trip as a vacation in a lot of ways. A new place, flowers, new faces, warm weather (edit: oppresively warm weather). Yeah, I never bought my cowboy hat, but I'm going to miss Texas.

So why is this entry called "Transition, part II"? Flights are rarely transitions. Vacations come and go; summers pass. So why do I think, one again, that my life is in transition?

Because once again, it is.

Of God and Computers

2006-07-11T12:07:00.000-04:00

So I recently fell upon this gem of a find, called God and Computers, a seven part series of lectures given by no other than Computer Science/Jedi Master Donald Knuth. The audio and video files can be found at the TechNetCast archives. The video files are .ram, however, and since I didn't feel like befouling my computer with Real Player, I originally downloaded just the MP3s. However, on second glance, I realized that VLC ( <3 ) plays .ram files, and so I'm planning to download those as well.

This series of lectures was given by Dr. Knuth at MIT in 1999. In it, Knuth talks about the interplay of faith (particularly that of Christianity) and Computer Science, and the relevence one has to the other. I have only so far gotten through most of the introduction, but I have a feeling I will be spending a good part of Saturday listening /watching it. It should, in short, be an awesome experience :-)

Just thought I should share...

Laters.

Waiting for the night to pass

2006-07-10T02:50:00.000-04:00

Litany Against Fear
Benne Gesserit

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

~Dune

Computer Science Rock Stars

2006-06-28T19:10:00.000-04:00

Now that I'll be going to Graduate School, I will be writing papers, attending conferences, and probably rubbing shoulders with some prominent people in the computer science and bioinformatics worlds. I'm sure that in another five to ten years, I'll be quite used to all this, and see certain people as contempories. But your first time is quite an experience, especially if the first famous computer scientist you meet is none other than C++ Godfather Bjarne Stroustrup.

About two weeks ago, we were told by the CS department at TAMU that today we'd be getting a presentation by Bjarne Stoustrup, the inventor and standardizer of C++. At first, I treated the news with much nochalance; when have I wished to walk in the world of CS gods? I pay no attention to movie stars or rock stars or any other famous persons, since I never cared to meet them (at age 12, I thought all my female classmates were prematurely lobotomized, seeing they way they went on about some actors), and I felt like I had better things to do with my time.

Meeting Stroustrup is not a big deal, I thought. That was two weeks ago. In two weeks, my attitude of general indifference transformed into one of expectant anticipation, into one of eagerness and excitement. Why would I care about Stroustrup so much? Well, it has to do with my love of C++.

I learned C++ for the first time when I was 16 years old, the summer before my Junior year of high school. I had one of those tutorial books, and I wrote little programs here and there. It was my first taste of anything resembling object oriented programming, and I was thrilled. I loved the concept of an object, the fact that I could represent the characteristics of almost anything imaginable by a set of attributes, and that all these attributes can be melted together to form one, singular and cohesive object.

I know that is an awful lot of romanticizing, but what do you expect from a sixteen year old who having her first secret love affair with programming? I knew Pascal by that point, but it didn't excite me, it didn't make me wonder what I can build, what I could create, and, most of all, didn't inspire me to pursue Computer Science as a career option. I remember thinking about all the ridiculous things I could represent with object oriented code: cups, dining sets, houses, relationships, a universe of interaction. And puppy dogs (giggle). A puppy dog is composed of a set of actions, of fur, of smell, of a set of barks, of a set of emotions, of a set of organs... and an organ is composed of set of tissues.. and these tissues are composed of a set of cells... sets within sets; objects within objects. I can only wonder now if perhaps it was then that I first thought about molecules, DNA and life as code. Was this when the passion for Bioinformatics was born inside of me?

As today drew closer, I felt like there was a lot I needed to thank this man for. Would I have started liking programming, if it weren't for C++? Would I have been interested in Computer Science? Would I have a Computer Science degree? Would I have gone into Bioinformatics? Bjarne Stroustrup... could it be? Could this be the man that had a hand in the fates that would cause me to choose Bioinformatics? Rensselaer asked me, "Why not change the world?" Bjarne Stroustrup said, "Here, use this."

I knew it would be an experience that I wouldn't want to forget. It was suggested to us by the department that we bring copies of Dr. Stroustrup's C++ Bible, The C++ Programming Language or The Design and Evolution of C++. I secretly wanted the latter, but, I feared that paying $50+ dollars for a book for Dr. Stroustrup to sign was not only very nerdy but also very very wasteful. I'm sure that's one of the reasons I thought that perhaps my boyfriend Dan would love to have an autographed copy of a book from Dr. Stroustrup (yeah right). I eventually realized that I ought to find a better option as a birthday gift, so I looked for other ways to have a memento. I eventually settled on my digital camera and resolved that I would get a picture of him and me.

12 noon today I sat eagerly in my chair in the conference room that sat about 20 people, wondering when he'd show up. Some of the other guys gently teased me about bringing a camera, and I lightheartedly replied that they were jealous that they didn't think of the idea first. Genius! I thought to myself. At this moment, Dr. Stroustrup walked into the room, and I smiled at him, embarassed. I'm sure if I was any lighter he would have seen me blush.

Dr. Stroustrup was a fairly thin man, very gentle and soft-spoken with a sharp wit and likeable sense of humor. He had a thick European accent, which only added to his Rockstar appeal. He looked at us (who brought lunches) and remarked on how great it will be to stand up in front of everyone and watch us eat while he himself had an empty stomach. I immediately offered him some food, and then clamped my mouth shut. What's wrong with you? I asked myself, furious for drawing attention to myself.

Dr. Stroustrup didn't seem to notice and started talking about C++, its applications (did you know Photoshop is written in C++?), and some of its design decisions. "I am reluctant to call [C++] an object oriented language" he said, "because the object oriented component is merely an option. I hate languages that force the concept of object oriented design on you, preventing you from deciding what should be an object and what should not." I grinned. Like Java, I thought, remembering one of the biggest reasons I hated the language. At this point, I'm staring at him with this look of utter adoration that could be best described as the female version of the last panel of this comic.

He eventually went into more complicated and advanced portions of the language's design, heavily using terms in Computer Science that I vaguely remembered hearing about in Programming Languages. I looked around me. Some students were nodding and smiling, while others had blank looks on their faces. Even the ones who are nodding have no clue what he's saying, I comforted myself. Except the guy from Purdue. He was during research in Compiler Design, and I knew out of all of us, he would be the best equipped to understand exactly what the good Professor was referring to. But, regardless, we all hung on Stroustrup's every word.

Soon the presentation was over. It was time to say goodbye, and to get autographs(!) Several people asked me if they could get a picture using my camera. I was fine with it; I didn't care, so long as I got a picture with Dr. Stroustrup. When it was my turn, I stammered something out about getting a picture with him and if it would be ok. One of the other girls took my picture with him, but I was so nervous I didn't tell her how to operate the camera. I stood there, with a terrified grin on my face, simultaneously caught up by a frenzy of excitement and agonizing on whether or not my hair looked ok. As soon as the picture was done, I looked up at him (realized that I had pressed back into him, partially out of fear), squeaked out a 'thank-you' and ran for it. I asked one of the guys who had his book signed if I could take a picture of it (I did). I had also forgotten to lend the others the camera; thankfully one of the other kids had also smartly brought one, and not being as freaked out about it, took everyone's picture with Stroustrup.

As I left, I berated myself for not saying something to him. Then again, what was I supposed to say? I learned your language when I was 16, and it eventually inspired me to pursue Computer Science, thank you for inventing it? The picture I took of myself with Stroustrup also didn't come out well; It's too blurry to make either of us out (which is saying something, considering I'm petite, brown, and female).

And so ends my encounter with a CS Rockstar. I wonder as I encounter other famous CS'ers, if I will act the same. Hopefully by then I will be able to hold myself with a dignity that is worthy of a 21 year old, rather than that of a trembling 12 year old girl laying her eyes on her first superstar.

Ugh. I'm pathetic :-) That's all for now.

Still in Texas...

2006-06-15T17:30:00.000-04:00

And still alive! Sorry I haven't posted in here much. I have to keep a journal and a website for my DMP internship, so I 'm busy maintaining those this summer. But I haven't forgotten about autologica.

This will have to be a short post, since I have to get back to installing stuff (*sigh*) on the computer I use at work. In happier news, I have something new(old) to share! So far, 5 people have linked me to this clip on YouTube (a big thank you to all of you who thought of me when they saw this ^-^). Therefore, it is my solemn duty to share it with all of you:

Kitten v. Front Row

Very cute, but I would not let my cat near my laptop. Imagine all the scratches on the screen.. *shudder* $2500 is pretty steep for a cat toy to boot. Still, very cute ^-^

Take care all. Back to the grind.

Texas, here I come!

2006-05-27T00:43:00.000-04:00

So tomorrow morning, I am leaving for Texas. Hooray! I've been looking forward to this for the last couple of weeks. I'm finally packed: I'm bringing with me two computers and then extraneous stuff, like clothes, food, etc. I'll be arriving around 9pm EST tomorrow night, and then it's check-in, crashing, sleeping, whatever.

So I had a series of goals of things that I wanted to do these last two weeks: They were:

1.) Relaxing
2.) Cover some FORTRAN
3.) Relearn C
4.) Read research papers
5.) Contact people about qualifiers

Of those objectives, the following were accomplished:

1.) Relaxing
2.) Cover Some FORTRAN - A little
3.) Relearn C - A bit more
4.) Read research papers - 30% (longest one read)
5.) Contact people about qualifiers - nada

I have a few days in Texas before "work" officially starts, so I can finish reading my research papers easily in that time frame and look over C some more. In the case I never make it to Texas or back, I have decided to assemble a series of last words:

"Planes are completely safe!"

"Hmm.. pointers in C look easier than the ones in C++."

"Genetic and Cooperative Algorithms? Psh. Piece of cake."

"I'm 95 miles from Houston! I'm safe from whatever hurricane blows through the Gulf this summer. Six major storms? What a joke!"

--alternatively --

"Global warming totally doesn't exist!"

In other news, Dan is up at our new apartment for the summer. He's taken a bunch of pictures of our place, which he will be sending over to me shortly. So, apartment pics will be posted soon! Yay!

Ok. I better stop being hyper and get some rest. I have a plane to catch tomorrow.

Have a good night.
-Suzanne

Gwigle!

2006-05-17T02:02:00.000-04:00

http://gwigle.varten.net/

Click it. You know you want to. *nudge*

Sooo cool. What level did you get to?

Need to grab a little something("is she cheating on her diet already?") before bed. Sorta kinda missed dinner ^-^

Good night everyone.

Transition

2006-05-14T20:41:00.000-04:00

... And then, with the draw of a breath, it was all over. I just sit here, blinking, at my parents' house, 200 miles away from the place I had definitively called "home" for the last four years. In a sense, it shouldn't come as such a shock; unlike the other students who are graduating, I am returning to RPI. I will still see my friends, my professors and everyone else I know. I'm not leaving. Yet, in another way, I am.

I can't even imagine what it will be like when I enter RPI again in August, this time as a first year graduate student. I can't even imagine what being in Texas this summer is going to be like. It blows my mind that, in two weeks, I'm going to 1700 miles away from where I am now doing bleeding edge research with a professor! And that in 10 weeks after that, I'm going to be done with said research, and I will be flying back for a two day break before I head over to RPI again to start TA training, and move into my new apartment with Dan. And then, just a little while after that, I will be a graduate student! It seems so surreal. My life is starting to speed up and I don't know if I'll be exhillirated or suffering from Toxic Shock at the end of the summer.

So I have two weeks to prepare. In these two weeks, I want to 1.) Refamiliarize myself with C and possibly FORTRAN, 2.)Start reading all the research papers on my summer professor's site, and get a general gist of what I'm going to do, 3.) Contact RPI about taking a qualifier or two and 4.) Get on a new diet. I have reached the unhappy weight of 133 lbs, which, at my height, is a bit too much for me to bear. I'm not "heavy" by a long shot, but I am definitely overweight, having gained approximately 15 lbs in the last year itself (partially due to illness). So tomorrow, I will start my new exercising plan ("Oh no.. call the cops. She's going to diet again?"). Seriously. This one is legit. I've been reading The Hacker's Diet by John Walker. It seems intresting, and hell, I need something to amuse myself in my spare time this summer, so what's better than trying to shed those ugly extra pounds?

That's for tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to sit back, relax and just think about how I'm actually a college graduate, with a Bachelors in Computer Science. A song Dan introduced me to, "Here's to the Night", is stuck in my head. While it's about a one night stand, I think this song accurately protrays my current feelings about finally graduating. Good night everyone. To my friends who are graduating (Ethan, Theo, and so many more), congratulations :-) And I wish you all the best in whatever you do: "Here's a toast to all those who hear me all to well..."

"Here's to the night we felt alive
Here's to the tears you knew you'd cry
Here's to goodbye tomorrow's going to come to soon"