GREEN: Recently at Discovery Park

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Recently at Discovery Park

Despite how my blog is an excellent source of info about UNT's Discovery Park, there's actually a lot of things that happen here that I don't cover on my blog. Occasionally, we get newsletters through the school e-mail system. The most recent one being this one. It just so happens there are several students I know that appear in this issue. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at UNT pictured a couple kids I knew, as well as the UNT Robotics Society pictured yours truly, along with fellow blogger and ambassador Jordan Simleness! Although I don't know if we made a good enough impression on her...

The letter also gives you a nice feel of what PhD students accomplish. If you ever read my "random criticisms", one of them mentioned how our traffic system is very inefficient, and we desperately need an engineer. Well Yiwen Wan heard my call, and he is on the case:

Yiwen Wan and colleagues assembling traffic surveillance equipment on Loop 288

As pictured in the student newsletter, Wan is pictured here fiddling with traffic surveillance equipment.

"Ms. Wan submitted a video-based traffic surveillance system for which she leads the development. Specifically designed for remote locations, the system communicates via wireless to the base station. The camera autonomously calibrates and, in addition to collecting traffic statistics, watches for incidents." -Source

Also mentioned in the article is her receiving of the Wanda J. Shafer Graduate Scholarship. There are many scholarships available for those dedicated (and lucky) enough to receive one. Deadline is March 1st!! So start applying!

Random Criticism

3/24
Blackboard

If you've ever used blackboard, you'll understand why this time's random criticism is awarded to blackboard. The concept behind it is solid - it's a platform for students to access learning materials online and teachers can post grades and homework to it. But there are so many flaws to it. I've had professors up and tell me they hate it. I know I hate it, but it's pretty bad if the back end is terrible too.

Let's start with the interface. You navigate your way to https://ecampus.unt.edu/webct/entryPage.dowebct, and bam 3 pop ups in a row. It's the annoying kind where you have to click ok before you can get back to Firefox kind of pop-up. There's also a Java runtime window that pops up for some reason, who knows why you need that. None of my courses even post or use JRE plugins. Ridiculous. Even if I enable pop ups(which is what it's annoying me to do) it pops up a "test popup" every time thereafter. So sometimes I'll be logging in, and the "test pop-up" will interrupt my typing, and I'll have to go back and fix it.

The next thing is I don't get any notifications outside of blackboard. It'd be fantastic if I could get e-mail notifications of new homeworks posted, new conversations started, grades posted, etc., but no. I am forced to log into blackboard every time I want to check for any sort of change. And get this - you can only have 1 login session running at a time. If blackboard thinks you have 2 sessions running, it will block you from starting a 2nd session. No they can't just close out your first session or just FREAKIN LET YOU RUN 2 SESSIONS. So let's say I logged into blackboard right before leaving home. I leave my session up, and poof, I'm stuck. I can't get back home to end my session, and I can't login again at a school computer or on my phone. It just keeps telling me I have an active session elsewhere. Well screw you too blackboard.

The last thing is the horrible lack of mobile support. When I'm out and about on campus, I probably don't have a printer I'm close to. So if I need to view a homework assignment, I can just log in with my phone to view the homework right!?!?!? No that would be too convenient. Instead when I log in with my phone, which is even more of a pain since I'm on a phone sized screen on a normal sized web site and they're throwing pop ups at me and taking their sweet ass time to render, I'm not allowed to view HW assignments - or any attachment. Clicking an assignment opens some sort of pseudo frame or resource manager or something, which my phone doesn't like, and I don't get my hw. It's just a blank screen. Instead of directly linking to the PDF of my homework assignment or the PPT, I'm jumping through redirects or something, and I never get the assignment.

There is more to complain about, but that should suffice for this tiny Random Criticism window.

Random Criticism

3/9

Phone signatures

There is something that Apple is really good at - making something popular, even if that something has already been in existance for a long time, and Even if that something is as minute as e-mail signatures. Do I really need to know that someone sent something from their phone? What's worse is other companies have started copying Apple. In fact, when I setup the email on my phone recently, I had to delete the damn email signature that read "Sent from my HTC Hero on the Sprint Now Network!" OK seriously Sprint? Do you really think anyone cares I sent something from my phone, much less out of your stupid "Now Network"?

-Sent from my Computer.

Random Criticism

1/3/2011

Lack of cross-compatibility
A lot of people have played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Even my girlfriend owns the game. In fact, most of my friends own the game. You know how many of us play together?
Zilch
And you know why we can't play together? I'll give you one guess. And since you read the first line of my criticism, your first guess better be correct in that none of these games are cross-platform compatible. Games nowadays have no reason not to be cross compatible. I can also think of no reason that the platform community would want to be separate from a different platform community. Perhaps some players worry about some hardware being better than others or some hardware being easier to control or something, but for the most part, gameplay is the same no matter what the platform. Save for maybe PC gamers, it seems the twitchier and faster you are on the PC, the better edge you have with the good ol' mouse n' keyboard. Nonetheless, you could just make cross platforming an opt-in feature. The only other limitation I can see is with friends lists, but even then you can have a separate list in-game that details all your cross platform friends. I'm just saying maybe if I could play CoD with my girlfriend who has a PS3 and my brother who has XBOX, maybe I would actually play the game online. Maybe I would buy XBOX Live if I could play these games with my PS3 or XBOX bretherin.

And cross platform compatibility isn't limited to just gaming. I've noticed most mobile phone apps aren't compatible with eachother should they be running on separate platforms (ie. iphone v android). It would be really cool if, regardless of the platform, I could play my game with anyone.

Only place I've really noticed this different is in MMO games, where MAC players and PC players are given access to eachother with no restraints. Kudos, MMOs.

Random Criticism

11/9

Touch Screens
Touch screens are like a bag of chex mix. Despite how there are many delicious morsels to enjoy, there are also several things about it that really ruin the experience. I have a touch screen phone (and iPod for that matter), and I assure you I won't be buying any more touch screen only devices, and I'll tell you why.
Touch screens are another layer of software. It's more to add to the stack in a computing environment and there isn't any sort of buffer to store input commands in. The screen may remember where all it has been touched at, but not necessarily for how long or in what pattern or gesture it was touched. Laggy touch screens are a recipe for disaster. And don't get me started on mis-calibrated touch screens. Many traditional keyboard input systems have a buffer that stores keystrokes in until the operating system can react to the input. Generally the wait time is only nanoseconds but at times and especially on mobile platforms, CPU time is precious. Even on a solid platform where CPU cycles are plentiful, try using a touch screen blind folded, or while driving, or with gloves on. There are basic situations where touch screens are rendered useless. Any inclement weather conditions spell a death sentance sentence for a touch screen. Rain can potentially break a touch screen, freezing temperatures will kill you fingers or your touch may not be recognized at all, grease on a touch screen is just gross. Not to mention if your screen cracks, you're SOL. Oh, and they're terrible for traditional games.

Random Criticism

10/28

Traffic lights.
Did you know it's someone's job to make sure traffic flows efficiently? Did you know there are jobs titled "Traffic Engineer?" Did you know that stop lights are a huge pet peeve of mine?

What's wrong with this picture?

If you said, "You're driving a gas guzzler," you're correct. But another thing wrong with this; I'M THE ONLY ONE AT THIS LIGHT. I'd be ok with it if at least ONE other person were crossing the intersection, but no. I'm the only person stopped at this intersection.

Traffic lights are something that should have been invented in the last 5 years. At least now, we would have had checks and systems in place to make traffic light systems efficient; especially since everyone is making a push to be green. Please, we need an engineer to fix this.

Random Criticism

4/14
Claiming Inventions as your Own

It's akin to claiming someone else's writing as your own. Plagiarism is a problem that has graced humanity's presence since day one. I invented the wheel. No, I did!!
Companies around the US like to patent things that they didn't invent. Even the very idea of patenting intellectual property is flawed. Ideas are built off of ideas. No one could have come up with the idea for streaming media over the internet, had other people not invented wireless spectrum, fiber optics, computers, mobile media, cell phones, media protocols, and cameras. I'm surprised someone hasn't patented breathing. Yet this article explains how a company is suing APPL and MSFT for stealing their idea. I have an idea, I'm going to patent flying saucers, cell phone gestures, multi-touch, wireless transimission, media streaming, and my mom's recipe for chicken parmigiana so that when somebody comes close to it, I can come-a-runnin with legal papers in hand halting all progress so I can make a quick buck off my day dreaming. Even funnier, all of these things have been in use for years yet someone can decide to patent it and sue after-the-fact.

Except maybe with flying saucers. I haven't seen one of those.. yet.

Apparently, you can patent hanging up the phone and putting it in your pocket. I wish I had thought of that

I'm considering a career change to day dreamer and diagram drawer. Apparently it pays big bucks

Random Criticism

3/1

Cruzer Flash Drives

Flash drives are a gift from the great engineer in the sky.. or several engineers in secluded laboratories. They're the reason floppy drives died. They're what I carry my life on, until I can find a phone that has a retractable USB cable/connection in it. They are so simple, you plug em in, and it's a whole new source of information.

Unless you're using a Cruzer flash drive. These things royally grind my gears. When you plug them in, instead of offering you a window full of your precious files first, it displays some sort of pseudo CD/DVD ROM drive that tricks the unsuspecting user into thinking that's where his/her files are. next, it starts to run this sorcery in which some docs pop up on the right hand side of your screen and it tries offering you options as to what to do with your flash drive. After minutes of staring at the screen and awkwardly fidgiting with the computer in front of the whole class and your professor, the "external storage device" finally pops up in My Computer. Cruzer, stop doing this to me. This is why I hang out with my Kingston buddies instead of you.

Random Criticism

2/22
iPhone Ratings System

Why is it on the iPhone, you can only rate an app once you have uninstalled it? The only reason I'd uninstall something is if I didn't like it or it didn't work for some reason. Of course I'm going to give a low score to an app that I don't like/deleted. They should allow you to view a "current apps" page or the Updates page to rate apps you already have. You know, OTHER phone operating systems are a bit more intuitive and allow you to rate the apps that you already have downloaded. There's an entire page on the market dedicated to apps you already have and you can voluntarily update them. Along with that is the ability to rate and comment on apps... Why isn't the app store a bit more like this??

As it stands now, I have to search for the app I have, then select it and write a review for it/rate it. As opposed to rating it as I remove it from my phone, obviously unsatisfied with it.

Random Criticism

2/1
Mobile Advertisements

Ads in general are annoying, and ultimately the #1 reason I don't watch TV. Especially channels like TNT or any other mainstream channels that show 60% TV show, and 40% ads. At this point, people are drowned so deeply in ads, the only way your business will get recognition is if you spend hundreds of millions on an ad campaign.

That being said, I've seen a myriad of useless advertisements in mobile phone applications. Internet ads in particular have a well earned bad rep. Many of them can link to potentially offensive or dangerous sites. In addition, they are quite misleading, telling people they can win a TV by clicking a duck. I know the first step is to click the duck, but the next thousand steps involve handing over all sorts of personal information of yourself and potentially several of your friends

Besides, you only get paid to have ads on your content if the ads are clicked. How many times have I clicked an ad (on purpose)? Zero. How many times have I seen an ad for some great deal and tried to take advantage of it? Zilch. The web is so full of scams and people from Nigeria asking for your bank account information, it's not even funny. I'm not sure if I would EVER advertise on the internet, despite my religious use of it. Nor would I accept offers from companies to advertise on my site, unless I got a fat sum of money, regardless of how many people clicked the ad.

Getting back to the original point, mobile ads are the most useless. I can only do so many things on my phone, why would I want to waste time clicking an ad on my phone? Plus, it takes up precious resources and bandwidth on your phone - both fairly limited on mobile platforms.

The only plus side I can think of, is they provide the funding for developers to release free apps for mobile platforms.. But I can assure you, I would never advertise on mobile platforms. I can find no good reason to click an ad while on my phone.

GREEN

What is it and where the heck did I get it?

It's a recursive acronym commonly used in naming technology related... stuff. For example, PHP, a programming language used primarily in server side web processing, stands for Hypertext Pre-processor. It also stands for Personal Home Page. I think it has also stood for something else at one point or another but idk.

Also:
GNU - GNU's Not Unix
TIARA - TIARA Is A Recursive Acronym
LAME - LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder
BING - Bing Is Not Google

Ok ok so the last one was just a rumor... but come on, that's too much of a coincidence.

oh yea and green is also our school color x)

Random Criticism

12/17
Budget Cuts

Look, I know we're in a recession. If there's anything that's booming right now, it's enrollment in higher education. That's why the random criticism of the week is budget cuts in higher education. It's hard to criticize budget cuts on education when it competes for funds against basic education, healthcare, and law and order. Perhaps "criticize" is the wrong word to use, and a more suitable term could be "disappointment". Come on economists and business men, the engineers are waiting for you to make everything better so we can have money to make cool things again.

Random Criticism

12/4
Pop-ups

Want to know how to make a bad site? Want to know all the secrets to making your e-commerce site outrageously UNsuccessful? Do you want to irk your visitors so much that they memorize all the keyboard shortcuts to instantly send away those awful things? (Alt-F4, Ctrl-W, Alt-escape, alt-tab). Not everyone has ad-block. Heck not everyone has Firefox, but everyone does browse the web, and everyone hates the infamous "Congratulations, you have won a free bla bla bla" popup. Anytime an ad starts talking to me, it's time to close that site. Either that or get Flashblock and/or adblock. 99% the ads that talk to you are flash based. It's a shame such a powerful plug-in that powers sites such as youtube and hulu can be degrated into e-doodoo.

Random Program

3/22

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a strange new thing I've only recently discovered. It's essentially a peer to peer currency.. As in, there's no central Bank or Fed or oversight that rules the currency and manipulates it. It's an open source currency that people can use online to pay for any number of random things or services. There's an entire market around the currency and the currency has a value against several standard monetary values such as the United States Dollar, Russian, japanese, and European currency as well. The strangest thing about it though, is that you make it. Yes in order to build more currency for the world to use, instead of printing it like the Bureau of Engraving and Printing does, users like you and me generate it with CPU or GPU cycles. There's really too much for me to explain in this little text box to the right of all my blog posts, so instead I encourage you to just google it should you be interested. My bitcoin address is 18NPPQ3akGN88ouxSsoEr4xSLNoK8eqfxT

x)

Random Criticism

2/15
Locked Features

Why do companies lock down features? I'll tell you why - to appear to be Jerks. Why else would companies like Intel, Sony, AT&T, etc. intentionally change their policy or change their software against the norm to limit features? Alright so the real reason is the Bottom Line; how much money that company will have taken from you and have kept for themselves, but they appear to be jerks by the actions they take in the situation. Intel has recently been experimenting with purchasable software that unlocks features already built into your chip. Sony has successfully sued a hacker you may have heard of called "geohot" because of what he did to their platform. Despite how consumers bought and own the PS3, Sony says we're not allowed to modify what we own. Even UNT's own LARC lab uses a fleet of 25 PS3s running Linux for computing power, but if Sony had their way, those PS3s would be useless now.

AT&T's Android platform is sorely crippled by minor changes to the OS that restrict owners from installing 3rd party applications and restrict software upgrades of apps unless the updates are coming straight from the market. This effected me directly as I gave a friend of mine SWF Transcoder - my youtube MP3 app, but he couldn't install it because of his AT&T android device.

On the other side of the coin, Microsoft rewarded hacker Geohot for his interest and creativity in unlocking Windows phone 7 devices, despite warnings against it. Whereas hacking a device could potentially break it, it often ends up revealing much more functionality -- functionality that manufacturers want you to pay for, or perhaps not have at all

Random Program

4/16/10

I'll be quite honest - Firefox is the best browser ever. That being said, this next Random Program is a Firefox extension.

Tabs Open Relative. All it does is open the next tab in firefox directly next to your current tab. So now, since I've got a million tabs open, the next time I open a new tab, it will appear directly next to my current window, and all related tabs open relative and near to each other. Its elegance is in its simplicity. That is my favorite kind of tool.
To add it, go to Tools > Add-ons > Search Tabs Open Relative.
See? It's also simple to add to firefox.

Random Program

1/15/10
Tineye

OK, so this isn't a program as much as it is a web site, but it deserves recognition nonetheless. Tineye is a search engine, but not in the manner you're used to. It's a search engine for pictures. "Gee, I have google for such shinanigans" is what you are saying, yes? Well as with the rest of my posts, allow me to be slightly sarcastic as I reveal how useful this tool really is (and what it is). Basically what you do is you give it a picture, and it looks for a similar picture. IE I can give it an image of the linux penguin:

and it searches for pictures just like it, in all different shapes, sizes, and resolutions. Resolutions is the magic word. The site is fantastic for searching for high res images of something you may already have. ie the search for the linux penguin gave me this mammoth image!

I also gave it a picture of me to find:

And it found both the occurrences on the blogger site! It didn't find the occurrence on the UNT site. I can forgive them though, it's still a new project

Random Program

12-4
Hamachi

Hamachi is a free, cross-platform, "zero-configuration, Virtual Private Network" program that will essentially link you and all your friends together. You can create private encrypted networks between you and your friends, send files, and reach your computer that is locked behind a NAT router from anywhere in the world! What I love using it for is playing LAN games with friends and family even though they're not in the same room as me. It's also extremely handy for grabbing some files off your computer in case you're in San Francisco, and your computer is in Washington D.C. Heck if you combine that with Wakeup-On-LAN, you can turn on your computer, access your files, and turn it off again without being in your own house. Just make sure you don't let anyone you don't know into your private network!

ßeta:

Random Program

11/9/09
I've decided that since I have so much white space down the side of my blog, I'll just stack a bunch of random programs throughout the year instead of update a single widget!
This week:

Wallpaper Slideshow

Do you love desktop backgrounds? In all of their high resolution, thought provoking, Personality displaying glory? Without a desktop background, your monitor or laptop is just a forest of shortcut icons, unless you use next week's random program (I bet you're on the edge of your seat waiting to find out). Wallpaper slideshow allows you to specify a few backgrounds for your computer to play through, and it will automatically change your background at a specified interval. On most of the computers I work on, I slap this program along with about 2 gigs worth of backgrounds on to the hard drive and let it do it's thing. You can set it to change desktops at any interval you like - anywhere from 1 second intervals to 24 hours and beyond. Giver 'er a go!

Find an alternative for MAC and/or Linux? Let me know!

Random Criticism

Mixed Standards
11/16/09

Have you ever asked anyone for a charger for your cell phone? Unless they had your same exact phone, you didn't get your charger did you? There have been great efforts in the IT field to iron out standards for certain things, but when it comes to hardware, there are a lot more gray areas. Even USB, the Universal Serial Bus, is plagued with all sorts of compatibility issues. There are dozens of formats that USB connectors can take on the device end. The USB receptacle end us generally pretty standard, but has its fair share of variants as well. Some mixed standards are a result of "legacy" technologies, such as old telecom standards and old operating systems requirements. Whereas backwards compatibility is always a useful feature, it adds to the mix of "Wait what kind of connector do I need for this?" questions.