On the 20th, I had to send in my resume to be reconsidered for a Thomson internship again, so I did. Then I got an email a few days ago saying that they'd like to call me or something. But before I could reply to that email, I got another one that said I was accepted back for another summer if I wanted it. I have to respond by Feb 4th, next thursday. I don't think I want to go back.
I made a pros and cons list for working there and the biggest plus is the money. But the downsides are 40 hour work weeks, living at home/the cities, and uncertainty if many people will be around. Last summer I pushed the bounds of socializing by staying up to around 2 every night then working at 8:30. It turns out that having friends who aren't working so strictly makes me want to do so less. So I was painfully stressed and falling apart all of summer, I can't stand that again. The difference would be I don't know just how many people will be in the cities during the summer, and if theres not a lot, I might be bored ala summer 2008.
So, given all other options, it seems I don't want to work at Thomson, but what does that leave me? I have thought that doing research would be pretty sweet here in morris with a csci prof, but it seems they're all outta money at this point so no summer opportunities. So I could apply for an nsf grant and go somewehere else in the country for the summer, but that seems less of what I want to do then thomson. So then there's google summer of code, which jake has done and seems like a pretty decent job. Problem is that I'd have to wait to march to even see what jobs there would be through gsoc, and then be awesome enough to get one.
So yeah, if I did gsoc, I could work from most anywhere, coffee shops, roadtrips, basements, anywhere. That is appealing. But if I don't get that, then I've already turned down a good offer. I know what I want to do, I just wish I had a backup before going for it.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
In the news
So, this week has been a busy one with returning to school and getting back into the morris swing of life. There has been a few news topics that I've found interesting and figured I could blog about.
iPad:
Pure, unadulterated crap. They think that this thing will sell? Or be the new thing? I know apple has the ego of a david that beat goliath but they are starting to become the goliath and pushing people expecting to get thier way. The iPod was/is wonderful. The iPhone pushed the limits of smartphones and made everyone else a few years behind track on what consumers want and will pay for. But with the macbook air and now this, I have no faith that Apple can keep it's fanboys attention and wallets to themselves. The air was a response to smaller, lighter laptops and the netbook. If mac had released a netbook at the same time as the air, they would've _owned_ that category. But it was just a super thin laptop that was shiny but cost an arm. Apple wasn't satisfied and they want your other arm and your legs too. So they came up with the gadget between the iphone and a macbook, the ipad.
When they were releasing the iphone, EVERYONE knew that it was going to be a phone. There was very little surprise at the actual product, what made it unique was the operating system and the integration to other products and also the app store. With the ipad, everyone knew what it was going to be, they just didn't know the how/why it was going to be unique. But this is where apple dropped the buck and dissappointed me; the features aren't that impressive. The pad runs basically the iphone os which means its limited to what an iphone can do. Hackers have been putting their own apps onto jailbroken iphones for years and they can probably pull off every new feature that the pad can do, on the iphone. Sure it's faster and has a bigger screen, but so what? People have been trained to use the iphone's screen, which is large for a phone/portable device, and so who would want a bigger iphone?
Old people, that's who. But who buys most of apple's products? Young people, that's who. If you can make due with a small screen then you will. You're not going to pay again for a bigger version of what you have that can't make phone calls. The whole basis for apple's selling point is that you don't already have what they're selling. I already have a lightweight computer that I use. I don't want a tablet anyways, you know why? Because PCs tried tablets already and guess what happened: it failed. Miserably. The selling point just didn't attract enough attention for it to keep itself alive.
Things that keep on selling for years, with yearly updates, that is what apple does best. Every new version is new enough that more people will want it and go get it and if they already have one, possibly upgrade for a better one. But this technology can't be updated any more than the iphone has and the iphone at least has a camera and is as small as it can be. The iphone already has the half the storage space as the pad. Meaning that apple is in a corner and can't really upgrade itself out.
This is the corner that I see Apple in, slowly losing customers to netbooks.
Wow, that was a lot bigger of a rant than I expected. So I'm not going to go into depths of other topics as much.
Haiti:
They need money, but people rush to donate for strange reasons. Raising a lot of money is good, but I just want to make sure it goes to the right places for the right reasons. Let's not let haiti get into the same mess it was before while we have the chance. If you donate, make sure you know where your money is going.
Legalization:
Washington and California are considering legalizing marijuanna. This is awesome, not because weed is super important but because it shows how much control we have over our own government. If people weren't speaking out, we wouldn't even see it being used for medical use. Power to the people.
iPad:
Pure, unadulterated crap. They think that this thing will sell? Or be the new thing? I know apple has the ego of a david that beat goliath but they are starting to become the goliath and pushing people expecting to get thier way. The iPod was/is wonderful. The iPhone pushed the limits of smartphones and made everyone else a few years behind track on what consumers want and will pay for. But with the macbook air and now this, I have no faith that Apple can keep it's fanboys attention and wallets to themselves. The air was a response to smaller, lighter laptops and the netbook. If mac had released a netbook at the same time as the air, they would've _owned_ that category. But it was just a super thin laptop that was shiny but cost an arm. Apple wasn't satisfied and they want your other arm and your legs too. So they came up with the gadget between the iphone and a macbook, the ipad.
When they were releasing the iphone, EVERYONE knew that it was going to be a phone. There was very little surprise at the actual product, what made it unique was the operating system and the integration to other products and also the app store. With the ipad, everyone knew what it was going to be, they just didn't know the how/why it was going to be unique. But this is where apple dropped the buck and dissappointed me; the features aren't that impressive. The pad runs basically the iphone os which means its limited to what an iphone can do. Hackers have been putting their own apps onto jailbroken iphones for years and they can probably pull off every new feature that the pad can do, on the iphone. Sure it's faster and has a bigger screen, but so what? People have been trained to use the iphone's screen, which is large for a phone/portable device, and so who would want a bigger iphone?
Old people, that's who. But who buys most of apple's products? Young people, that's who. If you can make due with a small screen then you will. You're not going to pay again for a bigger version of what you have that can't make phone calls. The whole basis for apple's selling point is that you don't already have what they're selling. I already have a lightweight computer that I use. I don't want a tablet anyways, you know why? Because PCs tried tablets already and guess what happened: it failed. Miserably. The selling point just didn't attract enough attention for it to keep itself alive.
Things that keep on selling for years, with yearly updates, that is what apple does best. Every new version is new enough that more people will want it and go get it and if they already have one, possibly upgrade for a better one. But this technology can't be updated any more than the iphone has and the iphone at least has a camera and is as small as it can be. The iphone already has the half the storage space as the pad. Meaning that apple is in a corner and can't really upgrade itself out.
This is the corner that I see Apple in, slowly losing customers to netbooks.
Wow, that was a lot bigger of a rant than I expected. So I'm not going to go into depths of other topics as much.
Haiti:
They need money, but people rush to donate for strange reasons. Raising a lot of money is good, but I just want to make sure it goes to the right places for the right reasons. Let's not let haiti get into the same mess it was before while we have the chance. If you donate, make sure you know where your money is going.
Legalization:
Washington and California are considering legalizing marijuanna. This is awesome, not because weed is super important but because it shows how much control we have over our own government. If people weren't speaking out, we wouldn't even see it being used for medical use. Power to the people.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The plan
I mentioned that I'm reworking my music setup and I wanted to clarify the process a bit for myself and any readers.
Step 0: delete all music in default folder. This sets me up with only growing room, everything added is added for a reason.
Step 1: add an album to the folder. This can be something i have backed up, downloaded, or ripped myself. Only mp3 files with v0 quality. That means only "good" quality mp3 files. A lot of people don't know what bit rate their music is ripped under and that bothers me immensely. This is basically the best quality per megabyte mp3 file.
Step 2: Listen to the album and give each song a rating out of 5 stars. Star guide is roughly:
* : Never really want to hear this song ever again.
** : As an individual track, this is not worth listening to.
*** : An average song. Not a bad song or a good song, but no problems listening to it.
**** : This is a song I could listen to a lot in general, prime for mixes or stands out of an album.
***** : I could listen to it on repeat forever. Has sentimental value most likely.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until I run out of albums.
Step 0: delete all music in default folder. This sets me up with only growing room, everything added is added for a reason.
Step 1: add an album to the folder. This can be something i have backed up, downloaded, or ripped myself. Only mp3 files with v0 quality. That means only "good" quality mp3 files. A lot of people don't know what bit rate their music is ripped under and that bothers me immensely. This is basically the best quality per megabyte mp3 file.
Step 2: Listen to the album and give each song a rating out of 5 stars. Star guide is roughly:
* : Never really want to hear this song ever again.
** : As an individual track, this is not worth listening to.
*** : An average song. Not a bad song or a good song, but no problems listening to it.
**** : This is a song I could listen to a lot in general, prime for mixes or stands out of an album.
***** : I could listen to it on repeat forever. Has sentimental value most likely.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until I run out of albums.
Buying books
I just bought all my books for next semester for around 230 bucks. That's alot of $. But the UofM bookstore wanted to charge me 435 for all my books, used. I don't know what I'll do with the 200 bucks I saved but I don't want to think of that right now.
If you haven't bought books already, goto bigwords.com.
If you haven't bought books already, goto bigwords.com.
Free time leads to
I had over 120 Gigabytes of music yesterday spaced over 5 folders located on 3 different harddrives. Then I deleted a lot of it and the only things I'm putting into my main music folder are things that I hand pick and put in one album at a time. When I put an album in, I listen to every song and rate them all. I have 6 albums so far and they're all pretty good albums.
So in theory, if I chose one or two albums a day, I'll have a music collection that I know better than before. And I really want to know what I have more because I hate saying that I've heard of a band or an album and not have an opinion about it.
That's kind of what I wanted to say, but also that I'm in morris alone and have been since tuesday. Being alone in morris is pretty lame, noone to talk to, no one to watch things with, no one to eat with. I also think that if I stayed here alone it would turn into one of those movie montages where I see how bad it is and pick myself up and do something awesome. But real life isn't quite like that. The day meghan left I picked up my room and had it 90% cleaner within two hours. But now the only thing between me and going home leaving the house nice is the pile of dishes that I need to wash.
I feel the same sense of complete apathy that I did last year where it doesn't matter if I get dressed or leave the house at all. As long as I don't talk about it, no one knows that I'm not doing anything. I make myself sound busy to fit in or whatever. But this is different then that because I have something to look forward to: school starting again. It feels like it will be a good semester.
So in theory, if I chose one or two albums a day, I'll have a music collection that I know better than before. And I really want to know what I have more because I hate saying that I've heard of a band or an album and not have an opinion about it.
That's kind of what I wanted to say, but also that I'm in morris alone and have been since tuesday. Being alone in morris is pretty lame, noone to talk to, no one to watch things with, no one to eat with. I also think that if I stayed here alone it would turn into one of those movie montages where I see how bad it is and pick myself up and do something awesome. But real life isn't quite like that. The day meghan left I picked up my room and had it 90% cleaner within two hours. But now the only thing between me and going home leaving the house nice is the pile of dishes that I need to wash.
I feel the same sense of complete apathy that I did last year where it doesn't matter if I get dressed or leave the house at all. As long as I don't talk about it, no one knows that I'm not doing anything. I make myself sound busy to fit in or whatever. But this is different then that because I have something to look forward to: school starting again. It feels like it will be a good semester.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
What's up?
So I thought that I wouldn't come back here to make posts about anything, but the place that I was went under and it doesn't look like it'll be coming back ever. So I guess I'll come back here for a bit or so. I'm taking a class next semester in which I'll hopefully be learning how to make my own site design based on wordpress or something. And I'll probably get a cheap server/use my old desktop and continue from there. But for now, I'm back here.
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