Friday, January 29, 2010

Technorati is Slow

If Technorati has a lot of backlog then I can understand why it's taking more than three weeks to review my blog and add it to their listing. If not, then Technorati is just slow. Is there only one person there working at it? Are they lazy? Do they not care? I think it's obvious that my blog is of little consequence to the world, so just go ahead and give it the lowest rating possible and be done with it. Sheesh.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Nuclear is the Way to Go (CS 404)

I was rather surprised to hear Obama talk about building new nuclear power plants. "Green tech" is becoming increasingly popular, but wind and solar power doesn't cut it. Much like in SimCity 2000, you have to build 125 wind mills to equal the power of one nuclear power plant. While numbers might not play out exactly in real life, you get the idea. Many people keep trying to find clean energy, not realizing that nuclear power, when properly constructed and maintained, is very clean.  The number of jobs it would create would also be a plus. Yes, there are concerns that come with it, but current technology and high standards can greatly lessen those concerns. If people want to invest in "green tech," then nuclear power is the way to go.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Wanted: Women in Computer Science (CS 404)

I've taken a number of CS courses at my university now, and while I've met many other people there, I can count on one hand the number of them that were females. While I don't have an answer as to why there are so few women in computer science, I believe there is a need for women. A woman's mind works differently than a man's, and computer programming is about logic: the way your mind thinks has a large impact on the outcome of a program. Programs have been mostly influenced by men for years, so if there are more woman majoring in computer science, we could possibly see a paradigm shift. Technology is changing our lives in unprecedented ways, and there are still many problems to work out. So come on girls, come help us shape the future!

Friday, January 22, 2010

You Choose to be Happy

The first two weeks of this semester were pretty good. With two easy classes in my schedule (One so easy I don't bother going to class), I was finally finding some spare time amidst school life, something that was very rare for me. But then I started the labs in my harder classes, and now things aren't so nice.

For the two years I've been going to school, I've haven't really done anything other than schoolwork. And because it's the prominent thing in my life, my happiness is directly correlated to my success in school. If things are going well, I'm happy; if I have a bug in my program and I can't figure out how to fix it and the deadline is near, then everything in life just sucks. I've been told that happiness is a choice, but obviously I haven't learned how to do that yet.


And then you finally fix that bug, and suddenly life is good again.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

High Tensions Between China and America (CS 404)

China's heavy use of censorship on the Internet has rubbed Americans the wrong way, but the recent cyberattack against a Stanford student and Google has only made things worse. So then what will become of this mess? I highly doubt that China will take down the "Great Firewall," so if action is taken, it will likely be from America. If tensions continue to rise, perhaps other companies like Google will threaten to leave China, or more politicians will condone China's actions. Chances are that the problem will go on for quite some time, but if there is a final outcome, I can think of three possible ones: China ends its censorship, Americans give up and lets them be, or America ends its relations with China.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Technology and Its Consequences: Worth Considering? (CS 404)

Should we consider the consequences of new technology? After reading "From Movable Type to Data Deluge" and "Five things we need to Know About Technological Change," I started thinking about the hurried rate of new technologies and the changes it brings to our lives. Computers and the Internet have, without a doubt, changed the world, for both good and bad. We can see the effects in retrospect, but can we accurately foresee its outcome? When the ENIAC was built, could the inventors have known that it would lead to a world with thousands of affordable, personal, hand-held computers? When the ARPANET was created, could they have known it would lead to a massive increase in pornography? So if we can't truly know what new technology will bring, is it worth considering? Of course it is. If we don't consider the negative consequences, then how else will we have stories like The Matrix?

Thursday, January 7, 2010

GT Feature

I was pretty excited last Monday to find out that my Starfox Vs. FFXIII video was featured on GT! It's not an easy thing to get considering how many people upload videos to that site. What's even more exciting is that everyone who commented on it said they liked it. Yay!

The video