Made curry last night. It worked out.
This point of my life has been extremely intense. I've never felt so stressed out, nervous, excited, tired, awake or frightened before. There have been very few points where I have felt this taxed and rewarded. There is so much going on. It's hard to describe
Research has been good yet breakneck - though I am in a bit of a lull right now. We managed to get two papers into conferences in Hawaii! SECSE and IWMSE 2011 to be more precise . One is based on my honors project and is pretty much all me. The other is with a small team of us. Both are kind of heavy for different reasons. I think they both turned out pretty well. I'm first author on mine, so here's hoping! I had a lot of help from Andrew Brownsword who has awesome insights into performance and optimization.
Teaching is a very interesting experience and continues to be really rewarding. I'm learning a ton every day. Maybe someday I'll sort it all out and write some lessons learned, but first I have to figure out what those are. It's super fun running a CSC lab - especially in 110. You have a lesson plan, but we also get to add our own spin/creative variation. It's cool when people understand things or get legitimately excited. Computer science is often pretty boring, but it really doesn't have to be. Making it fun and bringing people over to the dark side is pretty awesome.
In terms of actually coursework, I don't do a whole lot. I'm in advanced cryptography, which appears to be working out. It's interesting, but really theoretical, which isn't really what I'm into.
I'm also doing a grad seminar with a focus on being an international researcher. Every Thursday we go in at 8:30 am and talk to folks in the UK. That's kind of cool, but I think I need to know more about being a Canadian researcher before I branch out to the rest of the world.
Anyway, that's me for now.
-Liam
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
More on Usage Based Billing
Hi Everyone
The CRTC has been asked to reconsider their billing rules. So far the CRTC is digging in its heels and reacting to public pressure with disdain.
We urgently need to send a clear message to CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein that we demand access to an unmetered internet. Enough is enough.
Seriously people, it costs Bell a penny per GB and they want to charge you 2 dollars for it.
The CRTC has been asked to reconsider their billing rules. So far the CRTC is digging in its heels and reacting to public pressure with disdain.
We urgently need to send a clear message to CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein that we demand access to an unmetered internet. Enough is enough.
Seriously people, it costs Bell a penny per GB and they want to charge you 2 dollars for it.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Usage Based Bandwidth Billing in Canada
Bell: pay more for less every day!
Seriously people, the majority of canadians are going to see their internet bills double because the CRTC approved usage based billing.
It's not over yet though and there are some great sites where you can find out what you can do to combat this.
http://www.antiubb.com/what-can-i-do/
This is big deal. You're reading this over the internet right now! Soon you might have to pay per site you visit. Youtube will cost you money per video! Playing online multiplayer will be expensive!
This is bullshit and we need to stand up against this. Let everyone know that we're not going to take it.
-Liam
http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/
Seriously people, the majority of canadians are going to see their internet bills double because the CRTC approved usage based billing.
It's not over yet though and there are some great sites where you can find out what you can do to combat this.
http://www.antiubb.com/what-can-i-do/
This is big deal. You're reading this over the internet right now! Soon you might have to pay per site you visit. Youtube will cost you money per video! Playing online multiplayer will be expensive!
This is bullshit and we need to stand up against this. Let everyone know that we're not going to take it.
-Liam
http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/
Monday, January 24, 2011
One Thing to Consider when Picking a Research Area
That you can spell the words involved in it. I'm in parallel programming, and for the longest time I'd have to stop of think for a second every time I typed parallel. 1 'r' and 2 'l's. It comes up a lot.
-Liam
-Liam
Friday, January 7, 2011
Grad School is Camping
Because it's in-tents!
No semester of undergrad can compare to how hectic its been in the last few days. There has been an absolute ton going on almost all the time. Getting into the swing of things has been tough and I'm also doing a lot of stuff I've never done before. Tons of changes. It is not like getting a bachelors degree at all.
I'm currently only in two courses - so I'm hardly ever in class while I'm on campus. One of my courses is a "how to do grad school seminar" which may be more challenging than my actual course - which is advanced cryptography.
I'm instructing two labs: Csc 110 - which should be fun - and Csc 355 - which may be tricky. I'll also be doing some other related work and perhaps helping write up with one of the 110 assigments. Still the fact that I could be teaching things to people - some of which are only 2 years behind me - is a little frightening. Still the best way to learn is to teach right.
I have an office! It pwns! If you're ever in ecs and bored you could drop by. It is theoretically a shared office, but I'm all alone in here so far. I'm actually typing this in my office right now. Having an office is awesome - mostly just as a quiet space I have control over. My office is currently sports a tribble - proving that I do belong here. I may owe some folks tribbles.
I need to get starting on doing research and defining what my research area is. Perferably by the 13th which is freakishly soon.
Anyway I now have to run to a meeting about a project with the Hertzburg Institute of Astrophysics. Life is insane.
-Liam
No semester of undergrad can compare to how hectic its been in the last few days. There has been an absolute ton going on almost all the time. Getting into the swing of things has been tough and I'm also doing a lot of stuff I've never done before. Tons of changes. It is not like getting a bachelors degree at all.
I'm currently only in two courses - so I'm hardly ever in class while I'm on campus. One of my courses is a "how to do grad school seminar" which may be more challenging than my actual course - which is advanced cryptography.
I'm instructing two labs: Csc 110 - which should be fun - and Csc 355 - which may be tricky. I'll also be doing some other related work and perhaps helping write up with one of the 110 assigments. Still the fact that I could be teaching things to people - some of which are only 2 years behind me - is a little frightening. Still the best way to learn is to teach right.
I have an office! It pwns! If you're ever in ecs and bored you could drop by. It is theoretically a shared office, but I'm all alone in here so far. I'm actually typing this in my office right now. Having an office is awesome - mostly just as a quiet space I have control over. My office is currently sports a tribble - proving that I do belong here. I may owe some folks tribbles.
I need to get starting on doing research and defining what my research area is. Perferably by the 13th which is freakishly soon.
Anyway I now have to run to a meeting about a project with the Hertzburg Institute of Astrophysics. Life is insane.
-Liam
Tron: Legacy and Why It Draws My Ire
I could talk about the new tron for awhile. It sucks. It's bad on so many levels.
The special effects are dull, boring, and feel irrelevant. Scenes involving them aren't interesting either. All they really try to do is one up tron and and make it look cooler, bigger and brighter. They somehow manage to fail.
They're also really contrived. Most of the action scenes are in there only because they were in the first movie. He gets put on the game grid, why? Because they thought they could make lightcycles look cooler. Nope.
It's impossible to care about the characters. In the first movie everyone is likeable and believable - and well rounded. You cared about them. In this one, they just feel meh. This is probably also why the action sequences suck. They're more or less the same as the first one, except instead of having 3 characters you cared about, now you have the new young star and 4 random guys - who's faces you never see. They drop like flies. woot.
The plot is ultra contrived. It feels like an afterthought. I suspect they had a checklist of action scenes and required elements: bike scene, hot female lead, young male lead, role for jeff bridges, shiny stuff. Once they had it checked off, then they decided they needed a central thread and they'd be damned if it made sense in any context or was believable in any way.
For instance there is a location that's supposed to be impossible to get to. Heavily gaurded, no direct path, etc, etc, etc. But you can take a train to it - so they can have a scene on a train.
"What on earth were they thinking?" is what I pull away from the entire plot.
They also decided to take some pages out of the matrix sequels books. Honest to god shit like, "We need to find the keymaster, he can get us into anywhere." Woot.
They also seemed to think that audiences wouldn't understand the concept of being inside a computer. They honestly sit down and eat a dinner of sausage and shit at one point. Why would programs need to eat sausage? Where did that come from?
In the first one, everyone was clearly programs. They acted like it to. One guy is a banking program - he isn't programmed to fight. Bizzarly they come off as a hundred times more human than anyone in Tron: Legacy.
Not the biggest problem, but it bothers me that Tron isn't really in the movie. He's in the title, but apparently Bruce Boxleitner isn't a big enough star to warrant more than five minutes of screentime. Sure he's old now, but seriously. It's called Tron. Tron should have been in there.
Basically, I would say that everything that made Tron great has been mercilessly gutted and replaced composite parts designed to be "better". It has none of the character, charm or wonder of the original.
In terms of terrible its probably better than the prequel trilogy and the crystal skull, but it has a lot of the same elements that made those movie spectacular.
Don't go see it. You have better things to do with your time.
-Liam
For more reviews (or actual ones) you could go here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10011582-TRON_legacy/
But seriously, your time is better spent elsewhere
The special effects are dull, boring, and feel irrelevant. Scenes involving them aren't interesting either. All they really try to do is one up tron and and make it look cooler, bigger and brighter. They somehow manage to fail.
They're also really contrived. Most of the action scenes are in there only because they were in the first movie. He gets put on the game grid, why? Because they thought they could make lightcycles look cooler. Nope.
It's impossible to care about the characters. In the first movie everyone is likeable and believable - and well rounded. You cared about them. In this one, they just feel meh. This is probably also why the action sequences suck. They're more or less the same as the first one, except instead of having 3 characters you cared about, now you have the new young star and 4 random guys - who's faces you never see. They drop like flies. woot.
The plot is ultra contrived. It feels like an afterthought. I suspect they had a checklist of action scenes and required elements: bike scene, hot female lead, young male lead, role for jeff bridges, shiny stuff. Once they had it checked off, then they decided they needed a central thread and they'd be damned if it made sense in any context or was believable in any way.
For instance there is a location that's supposed to be impossible to get to. Heavily gaurded, no direct path, etc, etc, etc. But you can take a train to it - so they can have a scene on a train.
"What on earth were they thinking?" is what I pull away from the entire plot.
They also decided to take some pages out of the matrix sequels books. Honest to god shit like, "We need to find the keymaster, he can get us into anywhere." Woot.
They also seemed to think that audiences wouldn't understand the concept of being inside a computer. They honestly sit down and eat a dinner of sausage and shit at one point. Why would programs need to eat sausage? Where did that come from?
In the first one, everyone was clearly programs. They acted like it to. One guy is a banking program - he isn't programmed to fight. Bizzarly they come off as a hundred times more human than anyone in Tron: Legacy.
Not the biggest problem, but it bothers me that Tron isn't really in the movie. He's in the title, but apparently Bruce Boxleitner isn't a big enough star to warrant more than five minutes of screentime. Sure he's old now, but seriously. It's called Tron. Tron should have been in there.
Basically, I would say that everything that made Tron great has been mercilessly gutted and replaced composite parts designed to be "better". It has none of the character, charm or wonder of the original.
In terms of terrible its probably better than the prequel trilogy and the crystal skull, but it has a lot of the same elements that made those movie spectacular.
Don't go see it. You have better things to do with your time.
-Liam
For more reviews (or actual ones) you could go here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10011582-TRON_legacy/
But seriously, your time is better spent elsewhere
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Chainmail Necklace
I'm home for the holidays and nothing says home for the holidays like cable TV and chainmailling. I've got all the tools and fair bit of wire.
I cranked out a quick necklace/chain. It's using something like a Full Persian weave, but not. I'm not entirely sure what it is. It's built by adding an extra ring to 4-1 European chain to make it more like a cylinder.
Here are some pictures:
Next project will probably also be a necklace. I really like this one,so that may be what happens. I'd need to make some really small rings.
I also really like the RSD Weave. So that might happen too.
-Liam
I cranked out a quick necklace/chain. It's using something like a Full Persian weave, but not. I'm not entirely sure what it is. It's built by adding an extra ring to 4-1 European chain to make it more like a cylinder.
Here are some pictures:
 |
| The necklace |
 |
| A good look at the weave |
 |
| I have played Duke Nukem Forever |
Next project will probably also be a necklace. I really like this one,so that may be what happens. I'd need to make some really small rings.
I also really like the RSD Weave. So that might happen too.
-Liam
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
I Want to Write a Sci-Fi Book
I want it to be about the kind of people who leave home behind to go out into the unkown. I want it to be about the crew. Everything from how they feel and what they do.
What makes them go into space? What do they do out there? What is their job aboard the ship? How do they kick back and relax? How do their ideas and concepts about going into space mesh with reality?
Anyway, I totally know what I would do and why I'd go up, but I'd really like to grab other peoples perspectives on why they'd go up, or why they think other people would. I made a super quick form using google forms, so if people want to send me their thoughts, that would be awesome:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGYxa0tMVGFSY2RWUktOSlgwdjNsWEE6MQ
It's pretty open ended, you don't have to fill in anything you don't want to. If you feel a form is too restrictive, don't be afraid to email me at 4liamk@gmail.com.
Also of note, if anyone wants to get in on this and wants to write some stuff, I'd be totally down with collaborators. I know some pretty talented people are out there.
-Liam
What makes them go into space? What do they do out there? What is their job aboard the ship? How do they kick back and relax? How do their ideas and concepts about going into space mesh with reality?
Anyway, I totally know what I would do and why I'd go up, but I'd really like to grab other peoples perspectives on why they'd go up, or why they think other people would. I made a super quick form using google forms, so if people want to send me their thoughts, that would be awesome:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGYxa0tMVGFSY2RWUktOSlgwdjNsWEE6MQ
It's pretty open ended, you don't have to fill in anything you don't want to. If you feel a form is too restrictive, don't be afraid to email me at 4liamk@gmail.com.
Also of note, if anyone wants to get in on this and wants to write some stuff, I'd be totally down with collaborators. I know some pretty talented people are out there.
-Liam
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Space Slayer: Earth's Last Hope
Made this for a class in second year! Fun times. Woot gamemaker.
Fly and Be Free
They came just as we thought they would. They began their attack from orbit, destroying our major military installations. With no ability to defend ourselves, their ground troops had no problems enslaving the human race. In days we became nothing, but they made a mistake. One of their interplanetary crafts, dubbed The Shrike, crashed near a pocket of resistance fighters. Unfortunately the controls were a mystery.
You were one of those resistance fighters lucky enough to stay alive. Your entire family, friends and acquaintances were killed by the invaders. Fueled by your thirst for revenge you managed to figure out that you moved with the arrow keys, and shot with the Z key. Your mission is to take that ship into space, and find the alien home world. There you will find the alien overlord. Rock On!
You were one of those resistance fighters lucky enough to stay alive. Your entire family, friends and acquaintances were killed by the invaders. Fueled by your thirst for revenge you managed to figure out that you moved with the arrow keys, and shot with the Z key. Your mission is to take that ship into space, and find the alien home world. There you will find the alien overlord. Rock On!
Game Executable. Click here to play!
Game Design Document
User Manual
Going to Grad School
As of a few days ago, I'm officially going to be working towards a Master Degree at the University of Victoria come January. Should be really fun.
There are a variety of plans and projects in the works with some really cool people and organizations.
The big reason for going to UVic is that the faculty is awesome. I've had the opportunity to work with some great people. Yvonne Coady for one has really helped me along.
I've joined a team of people who are going to be awesome. The only thing missing is a team name. It has to be catchy, awesome and probably have something to do with parallel programming. Woot computer science!
-Liam
There are a variety of plans and projects in the works with some really cool people and organizations.
The big reason for going to UVic is that the faculty is awesome. I've had the opportunity to work with some great people. Yvonne Coady for one has really helped me along.
I've joined a team of people who are going to be awesome. The only thing missing is a team name. It has to be catchy, awesome and probably have something to do with parallel programming. Woot computer science!
-Liam
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