Author: Gary

In my previous post, I mentioned getting the latitude and longitude choordinates for my house. I tried taking my laptop out with my USB GPS, but it was snowing a little, so I scrubbed that mission. I put the laptop on my desk to let it charge up and forgot about it. I left the GPS and mapping software run figuring I’d need it later.

So just now I notice that the GPS has picked up a signal and was mapping. The GPS has never picked up a signal inside the house before, but it was near a window this time. This was the pattern it picked up:

Note how all the data points run north/south. Almost all of the data points are yellow, which means it could only latch on to the signal of 2 satellites. The line is a few hundred yards from where my house actually is. I don’t know how accurate the map is for this neighborhood.

The interesting thing about the north/south line is that its sort of visual proof of triangulation. With limited data, you can’t tell for sure where you are, only that you are on some line. You need a third source of info to get that line down to a point, and a fourth signal to get your altitude. The more sources you get, the better you can extrapolate your position. This screenshot is unique only because its hard to get data this weak on a regular basis. Usually you either get a strong signal, or none at all.

I’ve never been a big business card guy. I know the exchange of business cards is norm when meeting people in business situations, but I’ve never carried them with me. They always got bent or something, which looks worse than not having a card at all.

But last night I decided it might be a good idea to carry some around. I don’t know why, but i did. The thing is, I have no real business to hawk at the moment, so what would I put on a business card, or a non-business card as the case may be?

Well, obvisouly your name and your phone number are a good start. I have no home phone anymore, just a cell phone, so that’s all I got for that. I have no fax number, so that’s out of the question (faxes are too 1980’s). You got to have your email of course. As I have a website, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to put the URL on it. It is the 21st Century now, so you should also put all relevant IM information on it: ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo. I have an ametur radio license, so that could go on there too. You should have a physical address so people can mail you stuff (9 digit zip of course), and because we do live in the space age, why not put your latitude and longitude on there as well? (I’ll have to set up the GPS and go outside and get the exact choordinates today)

Put it all together and I think you got the geekiest business card ever made.

BTW, does anyone have Skype installed? I have it on my main machine, but have yet to use it because I don’t know anyone else with it installed. I’d like to play with it if nothing else. You can search for me via my email address in Skype.

I have a terrible cold. I very seldom get sick, so this is about as sick as I get. I’m half tempted to stay home today, but I have a math quiz, an astronomy lab, student congress districts, and a ham radio club meeting. I’ll probably wind up at Jitter’s tonight too.

I don’t usually stay at home when sick, because I’ll be just as sick at home, just not as productive.

Last night I dreamed of Newton’s Method.

I can’t explain why, or even what it means to dream of Newton’s Method, but dream of it I did.

On Tuesday in class, Newton’s Method was brought up and I just blanked. I didn’t get what purpose it served nor why we were learning it. There was no context. Jotting down what is written on the board doesn’t mean you really know something, so I left the class not really groking what Newton’s Method was. It wasn’t the fault of the TA, for whatever reason, I didn’t get it after that lecture.

Well, in college 1.0 if you didn’t know something, you could ask the prof, and if you didn’t understand it then, you were SOL. This time, I turned first to Google. It turns out if you search for Newton’s Method, you will find dozens of sites explaining what it is, java apps that crunch numbers for you, java apps of graphs to visually represent what is going on, and even a nifty little flash animation.

It took no time at all to understand it. Its not hard at all. It can in fact, be a very handy thing. The web is a wonderful thing, and that little demonstration in understanding a subject wouldn’t have been possible back in 1990. I’m a firm believer that anyone can understand anything if its presented in small enough chunks and in the right way. The trick of course it figure out that right way. With the web, the odds of finding someone who explains it in the right way goes up significantly.

So I finished my google adventure, went to bed, and dreamed of moving tangent lines.

I’m very sloppy when it comes to certain things. Not like doing laundary (which I’m also sloppy at) but taking tests.

I read very fast, but not often that percise. It really hurts me when taking tests.

I came out of my math test last week thinking I had done a good job, but when I got the test back, I didn’t do as well as I thought I had. I’m still getting an A for the course, but I’m closer to A- range than I’d like to be. Most of the mistakes were dumb errors. (I had one legitimate questions I botched, but I can deal with that)

I detest these it when I commit these type of errors.