Eagle Alerts

Quick! A Volcano just erupted outside of UNT and the lava and ash are overcoming the school campus within the hour!! Oh no! But I also have an exam in MATH in 45 minutes what do I do!??

*BZZ BZZ*

What's this?

Why, it's a message from our friends. Eagle Alert is a campus wide alert system that the school uses in order to communicate with students in the event of an emergency. As seen in the screen shot above, classes are canceled tomorrow here at UNT because of inclement weather!! Now that Volcano threatening my ability to take my exam effectively and on time is no longer an issue, since all my classes for today are canceled and I can run for my life!!

Actually for real, it's raining right now and only getting colder. Forecast for tomorrow is snow! It was just 70 degrees on Saturday, and now it's freezing. Thank you, Texas weather, for being so unpredictable.

Electrical Engineering Department

This is the Third in a 5 part blog post series about every single department we have at Discovery Park.

UNT's College of Engineering at Discovery Park has 5 departments, each significantly different from the other, but with a few similarities.

1. Materials Science and Engineering
2. Computer Science and Engineering
3. Electrical Engineering
4. Engineering Technology
5. Mechanical and Energy Engineering

As the name implies, Electrical Engineering has everything to do with electricity. Elements of Physics and Chemistry are also applied in this field, as well as computer science, digital logic, mathematics, and even Understanding the Human Community. OK so that one is just thrown in there by the University as a requirement to graduate, but it's all part of a well rounded education I guess. An EE Degree plan has you sitting at about 15 hours per semester. In case you're not familiar with semester hours, here's a brief summary - each class you take represents a certain number of hours. 12 hours of classes in one semester is considered full time. I believe 19 hours is the max any student is allowed to take. Most classes are three hours - that is - you'll be spending about 3 hours in that class every week, not including homework time. A Physics class though, for example, is 4 hours - 1 extra hour for the lab.

Look at how much fun they're having!!!

Anyway, with a degree in EE, you could find yourself working at any minor or major engineering firm, tech company, design company, the government, work in electronic systems in computers, household appliances, televisions, communications equipment, automobiles, airplanes, missiles, sub munitions, satellites and even space shuttles. Electrical Engineers are the guys who gave us calculators, wireless internet, cell phones, (HD/3D)TVs, etc. This requires understanding of electronic circuits, measurement systems, digital and analog signal processing, control systems, computer-aided design, microprocessors, video and image processing, and wireless communication (Source). Master's degrees are also highly encouraged.

So come out here and get your EE degree. The EE department is ABET accredited, by the way, so you can legally call yourself a full on Engineer. That title is reserved by law for only those who deserve it!

Also, in case you need any more encouragement, EEs make anywhere from 82-$160K a year. And your job prospects are great too! Worried about the economy? Don't be, in Electrical Engineering.

Overrides

What is an override? Up until last week I hadn't really heard of the term.

An override is the process in which upperclassmen can go through in order to be enrolled into a certain class, with said class being full. It is the process that will be going on in many departments this week as Juniors and Seniors such as myself are desperate to graduate on time, and will do anything to get enrolled in their class. So if you've read my previous post, you'll know I've been shoved out of my Physics class due to a fantastic mistake on my part. Now I'm doing anything it takes to get enrolled in the class. Otherwise I'll be faced with an 8 hour semester, which does no favors for my financial aid possibilities, and I'll be here at UNT for a whole extra semester *Queue dramatic horror music!!!!*

I mean I'll be in college a tad longer. ;)


*Update - as of 1/18, I've officially been enrolled into PHYS. Thank goodness. Needless to say, the lecture hall today was pretty packed. Glad all that's behind me now. Now I have tons of work ahead of me though. Can't say I didn't sign up for this.

And so it begins... again

Classes start Tuesday. In case you haven't already, you better sign up for those classes you need. I've signed up for almost everything I need. I can't believe this. Words of wisdom: Putting a class in your shopping cart does not reserve that spot in that class for you. You then need to continue through the rest of the process directly short of paying for the class. I made the fantastic mistake of assuming my spots in those classes were held when I added the classes to my "cart". A month later I get back on to sign up for my one last remaining class that I hadn't decided on what it should be, and low and behold my classes were filled. Wow do I feel stupid.

It's all part of the learning experience I guess

Maybe I can still wedge my way into this physics class...

In case you were wondering, my break went well, with the absence of posts here as evidence. Here's a picture of me in New York:

My brother, 25, on the left. Me on the right

Night time snowmobiling. Now there's something that will really get your heart racing, and
really get you thinking about your will and funeral arrangements. I also went snowboarding, equally as hard, equally as fun. I like my freezing cold weather in moderation, though, thank you very much. I just can't wait for 40 degree days again... that is 105 degree Fahrenheit days mind you ;)

SWF Transcoder

So as you may know, I like phones. It seems the world is migrating away from traditional desktop and laptop computers and adopting a more mobile model. Despite mobile's maaaaaaany many many many many drawbacks, there is still a place for mobile devices. So that's where I find myself interested in nowadays.

As a result I decided to enroll in CSCE 4930 under Dr. Garlick. Due tonight is my android app for the class. Rather than working on the app, I'm blogging about it right now. Great idea right?

It's called SWF Transcoder

I'm going to have to pat myself on the back for this icon. *Pat Pat.

What it does is it takes flash content, namely content from youtube, and transcodes it into a standard codec; namely any codec readable by Android phones. Right now all it can do is SWF to MP3, but I'll add OGG and MP4 later. The resulting MP3 file is saved to your SD card on the phone and is then fully available to be played to your heart's content in your media player.

A very basic UI at the moment

Anyway all you do is search for a youtube video, select it, and then in 3-4 minutes the MP3 pops up in /sdcard/SWF_Transcoder/song.mp3. It happens Like this: the mobile phone sends a search request to youtube.com and is returned an XML file containing all the search results for the given query. Then, I used the Java SAX XML Parser to parse the results into an Object list, and then when the user selects a video, the phone gets an mp3 file of the video.

Actually it would be much easier and sell much better if I just said "IT'S LIKE MAGIC!!"

The app is not in the Android market, mind you. It's far too under-developed and inefficient to release. Perhaps in the near future I could release it if I polish it up a bit and make it more efficient. As for now, hopefully it will score me an A in 4930.

Student Orgs

There's a lot of types of student organizations out there. Greek life, professional organizations, intramural sports, etc. I can assure you I'm not a part of greek life. The only Greek lettering I know come from math terms. It's actually really funny when I meet someone in a sorority or fraternity, and they tell me lambda is one of their letters.and I say "you're an empty string?"

I get blank expressions and short conversations with these folks.

These groups sort of have a negative stigma attached to them, whether it's stories of hazing or wild parties or the like. That's not to say sororities/fraternities are ALL bad. One of the engineering ambassadors is the president of an engineering fraternity. The name escapes me at the moment, but I know it has several Greek letters.. In addition there are several engineering societies like IEEE, society of black engineers, society of women engineers, etc. I joined IEEE and I've been to a couple robotics meetings at discovery park. Most of the time, these groups look great on a resume, and can even hook you up with seminars or job offers. Not to mention the meetings are interesting as well. Point is, extracurricular activities are also an important part of college life.

Alive Week

Sorry for the absence of posts recently. I've been exceptionally lazy busy. And now that good ol dead week is back, I can become busier than ever.

"So, we meet again, DEAD WEEK!"
"Yes, you look just as worried this semester as you did last, BRETT MCCORMICK."
"Hah, if by worried, you mean worried I'm going to blow these exams out of the water, you are correct"
"That's not what your Calculus exam said about you last semester"
"Hmph. I left that chump in the dust half a year ago. Bring on some new challengers"
"Let's see how you handle my new and improved Dead Week."
"I'll show you to your grave, Dead Week!!!"

...To be concluded

In all seriousness, I've got 3 exams and a final project due. Everything should work out okay, but that's not to say I don't have plenty of work in front of me. There will be plenty of coffee consumed in the next week. Also, my mobile app is almost finished. I'll reveal that little gem when it's complete. I won't be selling it on the market since it's my first app and it's not very pretty and/or efficient but it's still something I will be using personally! Perhaps I'll publish some random apps in the coming months, now that I've waded through App development 101. Actually it's CSCE 4930/CSCE 5420 to be exact, but you know.

In case you're not familiar with app development and/or could be interested in it, this class isn't necessarily required but provides a structured case study with like-minded students. There's a forum to ask questions in case you miss class, and everyone is developing either an Android or iPhone app. Curiously, only one person is developing an iPhone app. As a reference, iPhones are programmed in modular C, and android is written in Java. Consequently, since Java is an open platform, it is very easy to decompile a paid app, and piracy seems to run rampant in the android market. The question is, do you spend millions in a fight against piracy, or do you embrace hackers and simply inform them that what they do to their phone is their own business, and if they break it, they're SOL? I can personally assure you I'm more than happy to pay 99 cents for a neat app. I mean, to put it in perspective, people are willing to pay $9.00 for a drink and popcorn at a theater, but not 99 cents for a Random Ringtone app? Seriously, that random ringtone app is awesome.

Anyway, I feel fantastic and I'm still alive.