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$5 Antenna+Heavy paper+Aluminum Foil+Glue Stick+Tape=Internet Friday, December 08, 2006 10:16 AM |
Since I moved into my new apartment, I have been able to pick up a really weak WiFi signal to connect to the internet. Windows has been showing "No Signal" (even though I am connected), and my link quality, according to my wireless card drivers, was around 35%. I purchased a D-Link antenna from Buy.com for $5 after rebates, and this allowed me to get the link quality up to around 60% (with windows saying the signal was between "No Signal" and 1 bar), but I was still getting dropouts. Then I found plans for a parabolic reflector at FreeAntennas.com (which seems to have server problems right now). I modified the plans for the EZ-12 reflector to fit my much larger antenna, and using aluminum foil, heavy paper, a glue stick, and some tape, I was able to build the reflector shown above. I couldn't believe it, but it actually improved my link quality to 90-100%, and my signal to 3 bars. It's ugly, but it works. |
Over-Fed Wednesday, September 06, 2006 6:28 PM |
| Yesterday, Facebook introduced a new Feeds feature that allows you to track everything your friends do. They have said on their blog that they know that new features can be unpopular but that they won't roll them back because people complain. Therefore, it would make more sense to demand a compromise, namely more privacy controls, instead of the removal of the feature. The following is a message I sent to facebook (you can use this form or email privacy@facebook.com to send your own). You can also join Students against Facebook News Feed group, which has 340,000 members and counting. To whom it may concern: |
But can you take it on an airplane? Monday, August 28, 2006 9:30 PM |
 I have just found the ultimate toy. This bad boy is 9 inches long, weighs 2.7 pounds, and contains every tool ever put in swiss army knife (85 in all). It has, among other things, 7 knives, 3 pliers, a bike chain rivet setter, a laser pointer and flashlight, a telescoping pointer, a cigar cutter, a golf club face cleaner, a tire tread gauge, two key rings, and, of course, a toothpick and tweezers. And it's a steal for just $1,200!Now I just need to find pants with large enough pockets. |
Does this chandelier taste salty to you? Sunday, August 27, 2006 11:42 PM |
| It's now official: I am a published photographer. I got an email from Random House New Zealand earlier this week, because they wanted to use a picture of a salt chandelier that I took in Poland in 2004 for a book cover. I was a little suspicious, seeing this offer come out of the blue via email, and was afraid it was an elaborate scam to get my bank account information, but it appears that it is legitimate. After working out the details and seing them a higher resolution copy of the image, it appears that my picture will be on the cover of Scented Gardens for the Blind & The Adaptable Man, a collection of two novels by late New Zealand author Janet Frame. A check is in the mail, and I will get a copy of the book when it is published next year. |
I just spent $13,000 today Saturday, August 26, 2006 12:45 PM |
 I am now the proud owner of this car. I am also now poor. That is all. |
My grilled cuban sandwich was good too Thursday, August 24, 2006 12:50 AM |
| Tonight I ran into Jason Varitek in a brew pub in Newton. He was sitting at the bar watching the Little League World Series semifinals, presumably waiting for the Sox game to come on at 10 (I know he's injured, but still, shouldn't he be with the team in Anaheim? He is the team captain after all). However, this failed to induce a Fever Pitch style epiphany -- dating Drew Barrymore is no more of a priority for me than it was yesterday. Actually, I hate to admit it, but I don't think I would've recognized him if both our waiter and my dad had pointed him out. |
I think procrastinating for three years is enough Wednesday, August 23, 2006 11:20 AM |
| I guess I will use the introduction of the new Facebook Notes feature to start updating my blog again. Hopefully this will last longer than the last time I attempted it. I have also taken the opportunity to add titles to my posts. |
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 1:12 PM |
Wow, I haven't updated my blog in a long time! |
Sunday, April 25, 2004 1:41 PM |
| I just thought I'd mention that I'm really busy, I've been really busy since the beginning of the year, and don't see my busyness subsiding in the next few weeks. In other words, don't expect to see anything new here anytime soon. |
Monday, September 22, 2003 3:19 PM |
| Earlier today, I received a call from the Career Development Center, saying that there was an urgent problem with my resume, and that I should come down as soon as possible. It turns out that I left one word, just three little letters, out, but with disastrous consequences. Under volunteer experience, I had the following line: Cooked and served over 1000 homeless people on Christmas Day. |
Thursday, September 11, 2003 12:45 PM |
| So I guess I am still getting used to this whole college thing. Tuesday, I look on my Palm and see that I have homework for Statics and Linear Algebra due the next day, so I figure no problem, I'll start it a 9pm, and finish by midnight or so. However, I had forgotten that both classes assign homework a week at a time, and at an hour a night, that meant I had 10 hours of homework to do. I did all the LinAlg homework, and finished around 2am, and then got to work on Statics, but I only managed to get an hour's work in before falling asleep. Luckily, in Statics, the professor randomly selects one homework problem to collect, and that problem was in the set that I had done. Still, I learned by lesson, and won't make the same mistake this week. Anyway, last night, my grandparents took me out to dinner at One Eleven Chop House. The food was absolutely wonderful, the same quality as Sole Proprietor, but a lot more frou frou (for example, instead of mashed potatoes, dishes would come with "smashed fennel root" or "saffron polenta"). My Black Pepper Encrusted Sirloin was wonderful. After dinner, we went up to Bancroft Tower to visit my GeoCache, and I got to try out my new green laser under darkish skies for the first time. It was absolutely amazing, it really felt like I was holding a light saber or something. The cache itself was still there, although a bit damp. I will need to put some new labels in there soon. Oh, and today is also 9-11, so here are some links to my essays on the subject. |
12:00 AM |
| Yay, it's my 19th birthday. As my grandparents pointed out, I only have one year left as a teenager. Good god, where did all the time go? |
Monday, September 08, 2003 1:04 PM |
| After losing my old green laser at USC, I ordered an OEM-1 from Z-Bolt.com, and I have been just thrilled with it. The beam itself is a lot cleaner and better focused than my old generic green laser, it's a lot more steady, and, oh yeah, it's three times as bright. I can see the beam even in a well lit room. It also came in a nice rosewood case, which seems a lot more durable than the plastic case my old one came in. I have also been thrilled with Z-Bolt's customer service. When they initially shipped the laser (which included a free red laser pen), they left out the custom on/off switch. I called them, and explained the situation, and they immediately shipped a new switch out overnight, and included another free laser/pen/stylus combo in the package. They have been a pleasure to deal with, and I would encourage anyone thinking of buying a green laser to consider buying it from them. |
Monday, September 01, 2003 5:10 PM |
| Wow, I haven't updated this in a long time. I guess all that schoolwork prevented my from doing silly things like updating a blog that no one reads (or I just forgot to do it). Nothing important is going on now, although I did just find out that while it is okay to play video games or rock music at top volume with your door open, it is against dorm policies to quietly play the bassoon with the door closed. Maybe I'll try playing bassoon music really loudly with my door open (as soon as I get my new speakers in from mwave). I still have to figure out why I am a quarter-step sharp on all my notes, but I really don't want to walk uphill with my bassoon to practice. I guess I need a silent electric bassoon (are you listening Yamaha?). |
Tuesday, November 19, 2002 7:23 PM |
Yay, I made it into the campus newspaper!7:50 PM -- Unlawful Entry: Report of large number of mailboxes open and unattended. Reported from Plant Services. Plant services noted individual [me] in area. Individual called to station for interview. |
12:27 AM |
| Tonight is the Leonids meteor shower, and since Jupiter will knock comet Tempel-Tuttle off of its nice 33 year orbit as it flies by, this is probably the last big Leonids I'll see in my lifetime. I wasn't really getting my hopes up for seeing it, since we haven't had clear skies here in Worcester in weeks. Also, the fact that the strongest peak of the storm is occurs after sun-up, and that the moon is full, didn't bode well. Oh, and did I mention that the entire campus has horrible glarey lighting covering the whole campus? However, there was a predicted weaker peak visible from the northeastern part of North America between 11:30pm and 12:30am that I could see, if all went well. At about 11:20, I happened to glance outside, an noticed that it was clear out. Could it really be? I ran downstairs, went outside, and looked up. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Just as the time when the universe scheduled a solar transit of Mercury to fit right into my free period, I felt that I was being given a signal here. I grabbed my coat, gloves, ear warmers, baseball cap (to block out the moon), and trash bag (to sit on), and headed out. My next job was to find a dark place on campus. I wandered around for a while, but couldn't find anywhere where it was even remotely dark. I did, however, remember that there was a row of decorative trees planted behind the faculty club that were planted to block the view of a neighboring empty lot. Thinking that the trees might block some of the light from campus, I walked out to the empty lot. When I got there, I found that it was actually kind of sort of maybe dark there. Well, it was at least dark enough so that the floodlights weren't brighter than the full moon anymore. I spread out my trash bag on the snow on the north side of the field (so that the trees would help block the moon), and lay down. Within a minute, I saw a large fireball arcing across the sky. Two more followed it, about a minute apart. Then, nothing. I sat out in the snow for 40 minutes, and didn't see a single meteor. I decided to call it a night, content with the three I did see. I don't at all regret going out there -- just being able to lay out under the stars in a moonlit snow-covered field was quite an experience. I'm still deciding whether or not to get up before dawn and try to see the big peak, but since Martin just started his homework, he'll have his big light on until at least 3am, so I don't think I'll be able catch enough sleep between now and then. Anyway, I was lucky to see last year's storm, so I'll have to live with that. According to NASA TV, the report from Boston is one 'earth grazer' per minute from 11:20 to 11:32, so I just caught the end of that. Oh well. |
Monday, November 18, 2002 12:52 AM |
| Wow, and I thought the sleet was bad. The past 24 hours, we've had freezing rain. Unlike sleet, freezing rain sticks to you, so you are wet. The fact that it is 27°F out and there are 10mph winds doesn't help -- the weather channel says that to wet skin, the equivalent temperature is below zero. Now, after a full day of rain, our nice three inches of snow have turned into a solid three inches of ice. But enough about the weather -- this blog is turning into a Worcester weather report. I was up late tonight working on the CAD project with my partner, and I am really starting to hate Pro/Engineer. It seems to be very good at doing precisely what you don't want to it. Or, when you finally get it to do what you want, it crashes as you are trying to save. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Sorry 'bout that, but I've just spent two hours trying to drill four holes. Oh, and when I finished, I left my keys behind in the lab, and the door locked behind me, so I was stuck outside in the freezing rain (oops, more weather) for 30 minutes before I found a campus policeman who could let me back in. I had the first meeting with my miniFIRST team, and it went pretty well, even though only 3 people showed up (or is that it went pretty well because only 3 people showed up). I'm pretty optimistic about our chances -- we have one of the two best teams, and we have some pretty good ideas. Now all we need is to motivate the remaining four people. Oh, and our new team name is the Goatfellas (our robot is the Goatfather, check out my Photoshops sections for out robot's logo). Well, I should get to sleep now. G'night! |
Sunday, November 17, 2002 12:50 AM |
| I learned something today -- sleet, uhh, inhales audibly. Our nice snow storm turned into a not so nice sleet storm. The temperature also dropped to 27°F, but there is a 14°F wind chill, so it feels like 13°F. We've had 1.5 inches of sleet so far according to the weather channel, and it is supposed to turn into freezing rain by morning (oh goody). In non-weather news, I hosted a couple of robotics demos for a bunch of girl scouts -- it wasn't terribly exciting, but I did get a chance to drive the 2K1 robot, which is much more fun to drive than 2K2 (it has an articulated arm, among other features). My miniFIRST team keeps canceling our meeting, so I am hoping to finally meet tomorrow evening. The kits are really cool, and I'm really looking forward to this. |
Saturday, November 16, 2002 3:46 PM |
| I guess one of the things I missed growing up in California was seeing snow fall up. I woke up this morning with the eerie sensation that I was falling, and soon realized it was the snow outside that was rising. Because of the way the wind is shaped by the hills and buildings around my dorm, the snow is blown vertically past the other wind of the building, and then gets caught in an updraft when it hits my wing, blowing up and over the building. I wonder if the other wing gets the Star Trek Warp Speed sensation from the sideways snow they are getting. Of course, as soon as I start writing this, the snow stops. It has been going strong all day, but I tell someone about it, and it stops. Oh well, I guess it's Murphy's Law. |
Thursday, November 14, 2002 11:19 PM |
| No, I haven't been in jail the past four days -- I've just been very busy, with a math test, a chemistry mid-term, a CAD project, and mentoring for miniFIRST. I am the sole mentor for a team of 7 high school students, and we have less than three weeks to build a robot to compete in a game that is arguably more difficult than the real FIRST. Anyway, I was sitting in my room here, and out of the corner of my eye, I see someone zoom by. I did a bit of double-take in time to see the second person go by on a Segway. I ran out into the hall, and saw that it was two of the WPI security guards. Apparently, Dean Kamen just donated 3 Segways to WPI. Two went to security to help the meter maids, and the third went to the admissions department for the tour guides to use. Unfortunately, students aren't allowed to try them out. As far as I could tell, the guards just came up here to gloat. Still, it's not something you see ever day. |
Sunday, November 10, 2002 3:27 PM |
| Well, our little cold spell is over, and temperatures are back in the mid-60s again. It's not sunny yet, and we've been getting some kind of precipitation every day for the past month. Still, at least it's weather. I started working on my term project for ES1310, which is to model a "piston ring expander" using Pro/Engineer. I spent 3 hours in the lab, and only managed to finish the simplest of the ten or so parts that make up the doodad. It's going to be a long project... |
Thursday, November 07, 2002 7:45 PM |
| Great, I've been here for only two months, and I'm already in trouble. I was hanging out in the lounge in the Campus Center watching TV, and as I walked by the banks of mailboxes, I noticed that one of them was hanging open. I looked around to see if anyone was nearby who might have purposely left their box open, and didn't see anyone, so I assumed that someone had just forgotten to close their box and left. Being helpful, I closed the door of the mailbox, but it bounced back open. I took a closer look at the mailbox, and noticed that the whole locking assembly was missing from the door. I examined the exposed mechanism that was remaining for a bit, closed the door, and walked back to the TV to watch the end of Friends. Within 5 minutes, I had a group of security guards and administrators surrounding me, accusing me of vandalism. Apparently, before I arrived, someone had broken into about 40 mailboxes in another area of the room, and left them open, and since someone had seen me "look around suspiciously and then break into a mailbox," I was their prime suspect. I showed them the mailbox I had "broken into," and how it just hung open, but they were not convinced. The took my information down, and are supposed to get back to me about the consequences of my actions. I just hope that they realize that they only have circumstantial evidence, and that the burden of proof is on them. |
Wednesday, November 06, 2002 2:34 PM |
| Your Tax Dollars at Work: I registered to vote applied for absentee voter status back in the beginning of October, but I didn't get my absentee ballot until late on November 4th (when it was too late to get it back), and I actually didn't get my official sample ballot until today -- the day after the election. I've officially been disenfranchised! Well, at least Davis won and valley and Hollywood succession lost -- too bad about congress though. |
Monday, November 04, 2002 12:02 AM |
| Well, I am finally fed up with the light pollution here at WPI. Tonight, I found one little shaded area on campus to look at the stars from, and there was an incredible view. I caught a glimpse of a shooting star, and as I followed it, it kept going, getting redder and redder. After about 3 seconds, it got very bright, and started to break up. Just as it reached the point where it started leaving a nice trail, I found myself blinded by a security light that was in the way, and missed the conclusion of the fireball. I'm not sure who to bring up my concerns with, but I think I will start with the Student Government. |
Saturday, November 02, 2002 12:43 AM |
| Okay, it stopped. |
Friday, November 01, 2002 11:55 PM |
| Yay, it's snowing! |
2:51 PM |
| So what did we learn today? That you should never put a sack of flour on top of a cast iron oven while baking at 4:30 in the morning. Someone working in the bakery on the first floor of my building did just that, and set off the fire alarm, meaning that we had to evacuate. The problem is that the fire alarm sounds exactly like my alarm clock, so when I first heard the alarm, I kept pressing the snooze button on my alarm. It wasn't until the RA came and pounded on the door that I realized what was going on. I was still a bit bleary, so I quickly grabbed my sandals and headed outside -- not realizing that is was 28 degrees out and I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and no socks. We had to wait outside for almost half and hour while the fire department cleared the building, and by the time they let us back in, I couldn't feel my toes anymore. The worst part is that I can't make up the lost sleep today, because I have a math test, and engineering assignment to do, and a late night Band concert. Oh well. Now who was it that said that it would be nice living above the dining hall? |
Thursday, October 31, 2002 8:01 PM |
| Well, the band's Pops concert is tomorrow, and I still don't feel any better about this David Amram piece yet (although I did find out that I have a two measure solo). I also found out that the final movement's theme is the sephardic melody Ayn Adir, which is why it's sounded so familiar to me. I may be joining the Orchestra after this concert, as they tend to play less of the atonal structureless stuff. Anyway, I have a math test to study for, so I better go. |
Wednesday, October 30, 2002 11:32 PM |
| I had my first chem lab today. It wasn't very exciting, we were just building atomic models with Tinker Toys. Of course, these must've been highly dangerous tinker toys, as we were required to wear goggles for the entire 3 hour lab. I even got chastised for wearing them on my forehead briefly. In addition to the tinker toys models, we had about 50 Lewis structures and stereochemical diagrams to do (including a giant amino acid formed by joining these two molecules). I never want to see a Lewis structure again! Ughhh! |
Monday, October 28, 2002 1:30 PM |
| Ever have those weird feelings of Deja Vu? Well, on Friday, I checked my mailbox, and I had two pieces of mail. One was a confirmation of my change of address for Popular Science, and the other was a letter telling me my absentee ballot application couldn't be processed because they hadn't processed my voter registration yet. Today, I went to my mailbox, and I had a confirmation of my change of address for Popular Science, and a letter telling me my absentee ballot application couldn't be processed because they hadn't processed my voter registration yet. The scary thing is that I have the old copies of both pieces of mail, and can prove that I got duplicates of both! Must be a glitch in the matrix. |
Saturday, October 26, 2002 5:38 PM |
| Sorry I haven't updated in a while -- Blogger.com, which hosts my blog, was hacked, and they were inaccessible for a few days. Anyway, that snow we had a few days back was actually the earliest it had ever snowed, by more than 2.5 weeks! Where is global warming when you need it? Since then, it has warmed up a bit to the point where we had lots of liquid rain today. Oh joy. Finally, I've been spending the past few days trying to figure out the "play at home" game for the ABC show Push, Nevada, which was canceled before it finished. They released the clues from the unaired episodes, and will release the final clue during Monday Night Football on Monday. Once that clue is released, you need to figure out how to enter using the clues, and enter. The first 25 people to do so will go into a drawing to win $1,045,000. Since I have little hope of winning, I've put up all my research from the most recent episode here. Not much else has been happening recently. I locked myself out of my room before orchestra Thursday, and now I have to vacuum the entire wing (since that is the punishment for requesting the master key). Oh well. I might as well vacuum my room while I have the vacuum, so I really should get started cleaning off the floor (my half of the room is starting to look a little like my room at home looked). And I have laundry and homework to do. I really should get started instead of writing in my blog, but procrastinating is much more fun. Maybe I'll wait to do it until after dinner... |
Wednesday, October 23, 2002 8:16 PM |
| Today, we had our first snow of the season. It wasn't much, but there was a nice snowman in the middle of the quad that I passed on the way to breakfast (on the way back, however, someone had beheaded it). Unfortunately, it all melted by mid-afternoon, and since most of the buildings here don't have gutters, anyone entering or exiting them was hit with large globs of wet slush. In other news, it appears that someone in the Cafeteria was a bit dyslexic today. They served "Mediterranean Ravioli, Beef Style" (yes, it was beef ravioli), and the chocolate soft-serve came out of the side labeled vanilla, and vice versa. On the good side, they did switch to Colombo Frozen Custard, which is much creamier and smoother than the old stuff (which was always a bit grainy). Plus, according to the press release the Colombo representatives were handing out, it is much lower in fat than the old stuff (you can read that press release here). |
Tuesday, October 22, 2002 2:18 PM |
| Okay, so I lied. I got stuck packing after dinner. Anyway, I had a nice time in LA, and got to go out to the Disneyland Resort twice. I saw this year's Haunted Mansion Holiday, but the audio was too loud this year, and it didn't have the same effect. Maybe the novelty just wore off. I stopped by the Angeles Pep Rally, and got some free ThunderStix (or as my sister calls them, BoomWhackers). It was weird being home again. It almost felt as if I had never left -- I was immediately able to fall into my old routines. It's amazing how quickly humans can adapt! I guess no matter where I go, it will always be home. Back in Worcester, it has turned nice and cold, and the trees are turning all sorts of pretty colors. It's like the hills have snagged a sunset, but can only hold on for a few weeks. California really misses out in this respect. My new classes have gone well so far -- and every day but Thursday, I don't have class until 11:00! I'll have to see what the workload is like once we really get going here. Oh, and Martin is still listening to his CantoPop (which is apparently what the genre is called by those in the biz). I found out the name of the main band he listens too -- it's OneTwoFree (no, I'm not kidding!). It sounds a bit stereotypical, doesn't it? |
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Last updated Friday December 8, 2006 at 01:42 PM Eastern Standard Time
