Scientifically Open Source

Lecture archives

2009-01-21T16:49:00.001-08:00

So, I just found out that several of the lecture series I attend are also archived on the web. Now, I knew about the Von Karman lectures at JPL. They've recently started archiving their lectures and putting them on the web. But I just today found out that Caltech is doing it also! I've been able to spot some for their Watson series lectures, but I'm not sure about the other series. However, if you can't make some of these lectures, you can watch 'em online.

However, I don't think I'm gonna start doing that. Seeing it in person is an entirely different experience for me. Sure it might take time to get there, but I find that in front of my computer, I'll get really distracted and it generally won't be pretty. However, these are definitely good things to know, just in case I might have to miss one.

DOS Games

2009-01-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

So, before I get to talking about more social issues that might get me attention, I decided to share the joy of DOS games. After discovering the numerous uses for DOSBox, it wasn't that long until I figured it was time for DOS games!

Now, I have some CDs from WAY back in the day. Some games I would play when I was six on my Windows 95 machine. In fact, just recently I discovered them and thought, "Would I be able to play these on linux?" I recently had success with a really old SEGA Genesis emulator I had, and playing the ROMS using dgen in Ubuntu.

Since I've been sick the past couple days, I haven't really been in the mood to do winter schoolwork, so I got started on this project. For this post, we'll do a REALLY popular and addictive game, Jazz Jackrabbit. Usually, if you have, or can find, the install files for a DOS game, DOSBox'll have you set. But for Jazz Jackrabbit, it's a little bit tricky. It's most commonly distributed in its shareware form, however PCLinuxOS has a package for DOSBox which includes the full Jazz Jackrabbit game, so we'll use that. If you could find the full game online, well... now you'll know how to install it! First, we wanna make a directory for our DOS games, with Jazz being our first, so do that either graphically or with

mkdir ~/dosgames

Now, fetch the PCLinuxOS package. You can do this either with your favorite browser, or with

wget http://spout.ussg.indiana.edu/linux/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/apt/pclinuxos/2007/RPMS.extra/dosbox-jazz-0-1pclos2007.noarch.rpm

When I initially tried this, I installed it via alien (which is possible. Though, I wouldn' t recommend installing packages through alien if they're actually programs instead of DOS games). However, this created permissions problems that didn't let me save any settings, so we're gonna install it so that you, the user, has the permissions! However, if you want every account on the computer to be able to play, you can do that, but you'll have to tweak the permissions a bit. We'll skip that in this guide.

So now you'll want to extract the files, you can do that via the GUI (right-clicking and pressing "Extract Here", which I recommend) or using this command (fulfilled dependencies not guaranteed):

rpm2cpio mypackage.rpm | cpio -vid

In either case, you should have a folder named "usr" now. Go ahead and descend into the directory: usr->share->dosbox. Now you should run into a folder called "jazz". It is this folder you want to move to your ~/dosbox folder. So you can either copy/paste it there, or use

cp -r ~/usr/share/dosbox/jazz ~/dosbox

Now you've got your files all set up, all you have to do is run 'em! But don't delete the usr/ folder just yet, it still has one more trick up its sleeve. But now, all you have to do is type in

dosbox ~/dosgames/jazz/JAZZ.EXE

But let's say you don't WANNA put that in, you want a menu option. Well, that's what we saved the usr/ for! If you go to usr/share/applications/, you should see a file called pclinuxos-dosbox-jazz.desktop. As the path suggests, you'll want to eventually put this file into /usr/share/applications, but we have to make a small correction. So use

gedit ~/usr/share/applications/pclinuxos-dosgames-jazz.desktop

to open gedit (using nautilus is tricky for this). And change line 5 so that it says

Exec=/usr/bin/dosbox /home/YOURUSER/dosgames//jazz/JAZZ.EXE -exit -fullscreen

Where YOURUSER is your username. Now, if you want, you can rename the file, so that you don't have something that says PCLinuxOS in your Ubuntu system (But make sure it ends with ".desktop". And lastly, move it to where it belongs with

sudo mv ~/usr/share/applications/pclinuxos-dosbox-jazz.desktop /usr/share/applications/

Now, you should have a nice menu icon in Applications>Games>Jazz Jackrabbit. And that should... be it! I hope you enjoy your new Jazz Jackrabbit game, and if you're feeling daring enough, try it with Jazz Jackrabbit 2. This method should generally apply to all distros, including OS X and Windows. DOSBox works for all of those, the main thing you need to do is get those Jazz data files. However, the technical stuff isn't done yet, I might have another guide I'll put up for you guys. But cheers for now, and I managed to make another post, YES!

Admitted, but still the same

2009-01-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, so. I haven't blogged in the longest time. I don't know why. Once I get back into the loop, it'll probably be easier. So, we left off at me submitting my Caltech application. Though the title may be a spoiler, let me divulge the rest of the month or so to you.

So after the application was due, some fun stuff happened. There were a couple of lectures, and then an event at Caltech about the Siemen's Competition. It was the semifinals, so the top 6 individuals and the top 6 teams were there. One of my classmates were in the top 6 teams, so I was invited as a special guest since I was the one craziest about science at my school. And I have to tell you, going to Caltech for that event was possibly one of the biggest blows to my ego I could possibly ever afford. There were people like Eric Larson, who I will reference continuously and was just imaginably smarter than anyone I knew. But the thing that united all of these people was that they did good research, and contributed to scientific knowledge. My friend, Abhi, worked on studying the effects of carbon monoxide on pregnant rats. But there were many others, from studies on Alzheimers to new types of imaging, to Eric Larson's "Classification of Certain Fusion Categories". So, to move chronologically now, the first day consisted of poster presentations. Here, I got the general feel for the type of research that was being done, and got to meet some familiar Caltech faces. By familiar, I'm mainly referring to Denice Nelson Nash, the Director of Public Relations and the one responsible for putting together the public lecture series(es?). It was awesome meeting someone who I see every month introducing speakers. But more than that, I met...... Eric Larson, who ended up spending most of the session trying to explain isomorphic dual vector spaces to me. After that was a dinner which was very very good (and fancy). However, luckily I was a VIP and was included (yay!). And I met my group's Caltech guide, he was pretty cool and sat with us, while the other guides joined our table to talk with him. After that, it was over and time to drive back home.

On the second day, it was the oral presentations. This was fairly nervewracking for the contestants, and was just incomprehensible for me, as a layman. The presentations were incredibly technical and didn't have any sort of introduction, just delved into the details. Of course, except for Eric Larson, who had an introduction, but it was still incomprehensible. I still have no idea what a fusion category is. But anyways, after the presentations, I had to make myself scarce for about four hours because space was extremely limited for the tour of the new Biological Imaging Lab. I decided to spend some of that time practicing piano since I wouldn't be home, and my piano teacher lived like, 5 minutes away. However, I wouldn't be able to practice until an hour and a half later, so I just got myself a cheap hot chocolate (cheap for price, not quality) and read some of the Caltech magazines that people recycle for some reason. Once things got resumed, we had the awards ceremony. However, beforehand I got to meet the other contestants up close and personal, and turns out they're all just normal (normal according to my definition, which probably does not match the generally accepted one). We had a great time talking now that the competition was over. Eventually, they got us into the hall where the awards ceremony would be held. Of course, we had to eat first, which was an interesting experience altogether. The steak I got was so rare, I think it was still bleeding. However, I ate it anyways cause... we kinda complain about the service out loud. And speaking of saying things out loud, I noticed on the program that the president of Caltech was going to speak and I remember hearing the president give an introduction to Vicente Fox when he spoke. The one thing I remember about it was his amazingly thick French accent. Of course, when discussing it, I said out loud, "He has such a French accent, he's totally awesome!" I love it!" Only after he gave his speech and proceeded to his seat, that I realized that it was at the seat across from me at the table right behind me. So he probably overheard everything I said. While nothing I said was an insult, it definitely must have sounded weird. And I felt very awkward knowing that now. However, the results were in, and Abhi and his group didn't win, it was the group on Alzheimers, which is appropriate, their research is highly practical. And for the singles competition, well..... there was no competition. Eric Larson took the prize! He was going to New York for the finals! The nice thing about science is that everyone wins, and actually, the Caltech staff and everyone hammered that in pretty hard. Any of these guys who applied would pretty much be guaranteed admission; it was kinda depressing to see Caltech actively recruiting these guys, when I had submitted my application just the week before. Seeing this really made me cynical that I would get in.

The next few weeks were not much better. I basically collapsed to the notion that I was nothing compared to these guys, and at best I'd be deferred to regular decision. These weeks were.... interesting... I went from hating Caltech because of how they bent over backwards for these guys (even though it's not their fault. They want the best of the best; it's their job), and then to apathy. I came to a realization that I'll be happy enough not going to Caltech and to University of Arizona anyway. It went on like this until the afternoon of December 10th.

December 10th was special because it was the first day when I decided to tutor someone. Now, I know that I hate the idea of tutoring. I still think it's much preferable to do study groups or just ask help from the teacher. At my school, they'd be more than happy to provide it. However, the student was referred to me by a teacher, so I'm like.... OK. It was pretty fun; I would totally do this for free, just for the sake of reviewing trig. But, it would suck for the others in my class who need the money. Anyway, after that, I drove home, and things didn't seem out of the ordinary. My mom gave me my mail, which were just college solicitations that I'm really not that interested in and that went immediately into the recycling pile. I got into my routine until a couple minutes after, my mom said, "Oh, I forgot about this one!" It was a large orange-and-gray envelope which had the Caltech logo. Immediately I thought, "They must be crazy". And sure enough, the letter invited me to join Caltech's class of 2013. Figures, just what I was least expecting.

After that, I made the mistake of putting it as my Facebook status, and at school the next day, the news spread like a wildfire in California during the Santa Ana winds. And even worse, since Caltech is actually fast, and I live like, 45 minutes away from it, the news reached me the very next day. So, I had a decision before anyone else; therefore, ALL the attention was directed at me. I wouldn't say I hated it, but it got kinda repetitive after a while. So the point I'm trying to make is...

I get to be one of those special people who brings down the average SAT score for incoming freshmen. Since my highest scores were only 750 in math and 720 in critical reading, which is extremely low comparitively speaking. However, despite this, I still hate the College Board. They make things much more complicated and inefficient as they should be. You may have to play their game, but never ever capitulate; your college will definitely know what to REALLY look at.

Essays written

2008-10-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so. I've got my Caltech essays all sorted out. I've put a freeze on the revisions. No more dramatic ones. So, the products I've got over here, and if you could help proofread them, I'd be REALLY thankful. And I'll be sure to keep this link updated. The application is due.... Monday. So, I've gone about as far as I can with editing on my own, so I'm gonna leave off the essay editing and look over the rest of my app. But if you can read these essays and offer suggestions, that'll be extremely wonderful. And if I get into Caltech, I'll be very grateful! So, the first Common App prompt, I've got my essay here:

~~http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_30c3kqqgc9~~
~~http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_34fm7vvjcq~~
~~http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_35s5hbkphm~~
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_37g7bmt3ct
And for the supplement:
~~http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_32hmhbmjgc~~
~~http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_33hdkr99gv~~
~~http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_36ggd7zgg8~~
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfb2kwpd_38kz65rggh
Thanks a lot and, any suggestions would be appreciated. Just leave a comment, send me an IM, or send me an e-m

College

2008-10-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the HUUUUUGGGEEE amount of inactivity. In the last month, college has hit me like a ton of bricks. I (foolishly) decided to apply to Caltech Early Action, so with the deadline looming at November 3, I'm kinda busy right now. The whole beginning of the month was dedicated to writing brag sheets for teacher recommendations. I swear, the school should give out the recommendation packets earlier so we have more time to write them! After writing about myself so many times, I HATE myself!

Now, I'm working on really improving my essays. The first prompt is the personal statement prompt for the Common App which is the incredibly vague:

Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.

I just realized that I had to answer that, in addition to the question on the supplement, which is more interesting:

Interest in math, science, or engineering manifests itself in many forms. Caltech professor and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman(1918-1988) explained, ''I'd make a motor, I'd make a gadget that would go off when something passed a photocell, I'd play around with selenium''; he was exploring his interest in science, as he put it, by ''piddling around all the time.'' In a page, more or less, tell the Admissions Committee how you express your interest, curiosity, or excitement about math, science or engineering.

Of course, one reason I'm really kicking myself is that I never got myself involved in an actual lab. I never actually did science at CENS, and I got rejected from some of the science programs I applied to. So... that's a gaping hole in my application. However, I'm hoping that the recommendations will come to save me and also that I can convince them that lectures are good!

The two colleges I'm really considering are Caltech and University of Arizona; both of which have alumni teaching at my school, apparently. To me, Caltech is the ideal place to be. I love how Caltech students interact because they're all interested in the same things: science. And they're all really really smart. So, really cool stuff happens when they get together. And the living arrangements at Caltech foster that. You have the house system (which they tell me is like Harry Potter, except without a sorting hat). And in the houses, you have students of all years living together, and working together. One of the things I kinda really long for is to be able to easily work with others. In high school, this is immensely difficult since everyone lives with their parents (or legal guardians). However, with everyone else in the same dorm, or on the same campus, it'll be easy! So I REALLY REALLY hope I can be a part of that. I'm sure I can make a lot of good friends.

Of course, University of Arizona isn't that bad. It's a school that I don't think will be too difficult to get into, but I'd still like to go. While it's not as prestigious as Caltech, it has an excellent astronomy program. If you read Space.com articles for a week, you're bound to see it mentioned. They're the ones operating the Phoenix lander at the moment. And plus, since its public, it won't be as expensive as Caltech would be. And according to the teacher that graduated from there, it's a great school. So, while I still will be disappointed if I don't get into Caltech, I won't be crushed. However, two schools isn't enough for the college counselor at my school to feel good about, so I'll probably apply to about four other schools JUST to be safe, though I can't imagine what would be safer that UA, to be honest.

Anyway, this was just to give you an update on what's happening in my life right now. Right now, I don't really want to disclose the essay itself, but if you send me an e-mail, I could probably let you proofread it on Google Docs. So, keep-it-on, and I'll probably be busy at least until the 3rd.

The side of Simplicio

2008-09-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've gotten used to all of the excuses I come up with for long period of inactivity (which are becoming more common, unfortunately). But I'll just get directly to my random thought of now.

In March of this year, an article was published in Keith Devlin's column of the Mathematics Association of America by Paul Lockhart. Now, I know Lockhart is an experienced mathematician and mathematics teacher and I'm but a lowly 12th grader in high school. However, one thing he notes is that "The only people who understand what is going on are the ones most often blamed and least often heard: the students." (3). So, I use this to justify my comment on this article.

First, I totally agree with Lockhart that math education today is dismal. At least, if not moreso than science education. People generally enjoy something if it's one of two things: useful, or interesting. Learning to decorate is useful, so people will willingly learn it in order to better themselves. And black holes and the Large Hadron Collider are just so friggin' cool that people love 'em. Unfortunately, present math classes are neither. They're far too based on rote memorization and don't really present the underlying concepts at least until another grade. In this way, I agree that the curriculum is flawed.

However, I don't quite agree with Lockhart's solution to it. This may just be the anti-Twainian acadmelitist in me, but while allowing students to pursue their own questions is fun, there is only so much that can be learned. It took who knows how long for mankind to come up with the concept of 0 (even in the Mayan civilization). And it wasn't until the 17th century that people started understanding negative numbers. Now, I'm not saying that he expects kids these days to figure out 3000 years worth of mathematics in 12 years. But saying that having a lesson plan "insures that your lesson will be planned, and therefore false" does a disservice. Lesson plans are useful and SHOULD be used to keep everyone in the class on the same page (that doesn't necessarily imply that lesson plans ARE doing this now). You might have one student pondering what it means to take 6 away from 3, but most others might still not have thought of that question. Lesson plans allow all of the students to have a similar knowledge base.

Now, what do I WISH could be done? Well, I believe that learning the concepts and context behind the mathematics is the best way to teach it. I love the way Lockhart was able to not only say, but elegantly show how the area of a triangle is 1/2bh. This provides those "Aha!" moments that are fundamental to understanding a concept. Now, I entirely support setting time aside in class to show the diagram and asking students "Now, how can I definitively find the area of this triangle?" and setting up a discussion. This way, you keep a balance between rote memorization and pure, yet extremely difficult creativity. In fact, there is this mathematics teacher at my school, who really pursues the learning of concepts. I take the example of how he introduced his geometry class to the Pythagorean Theorem (I'm not a primary source by the way, I never actually had him for a class, and am going by what I've heard). He makes sure people understand the physical basis of the Pythagorean theorem, the way the Greeks originally understood it. They didn't quite have the algebraic concept of "squaring" the number, that's very abstract. But they understood that if you have a right triangle, and if you take a physical square with the length of one leg, and another square with the length of the other leg, if you cut those squares and arrange them correctly, they make a square equal in area to a square with a side length of the hypotenuse. Here's a graphical rendition of what I just said:
They were able to prove that (in this case), a^2+c^2=b^2. That teacher made sure that the students knew that basis, and then proceeded to prove the theorem five different ways (you can find some here) I only WISH my geometry teacher taught that to me. But alas, most students thought that it was way to overboard. Anyway, I believe THAT kind of teaching is what would be best for students (or for me at least).

So, what I want to leave is that while Math education is pretty flawed, going to a free-for-all lesson plan of pure imaginative creativity isn't quite the solution. In painting, there's still a standard for learning forms and perspective and all of the other terminology. Although, like painting, math is an art. It is also not an unstructured one; it follows certain rules and in most cases, those rules are best taught than derived from scratch. Though the concepts behind them should be developed rock-solid.

(By the way, although I have never had that teacher for a math class, I do independently study proofs and logic with him, something that's greatly missing in math classes today)

Merges and Communities

2008-09-01T15:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's been two weeks since the merge between the TeensOnLinux and TeenLinux communities was democratically halted. And so far, opinions have varied from tunys on the anti-merger side to bjwebb (early episodes) on the pro-merger side. Now, I'm not typically a moderate on most issues. On most things to me, there's right and there's wrong. There's no use in being half-right because you're also half-wrong. However, I found this issue to be painted too far in black and white. There was either merging, and consolidating the two communities into one totally new community. I didn't like that because it meant throwing away all existing infrastructure and work and starting from scratch. If you asked me, this would have been a HUGE waste of resources. It may be valiant, but still highly impractical. We even had TeensOnLinux PENS! It would have been a shame for those to go to waste. However, on the other side of the spectrum, two separate competing teen linux communities. To me, that's obviously unhealthy for the community as a whole because most resources will be divided between the two communities. I think this was the main point that the TeenLinux people said they were concerned about. And I, for one, agree with them on that. A community divided for no reason is definitely a waste.

However, I think a compromise between the two would be the best solution to this problem. While in ##teenlinux, I noticed that the conversations there are actually ABOUT Linux. They're nothing like the conversations in the ToL channel. Our conversations are far more diverse and... let's say wacky thanks to bobsalad helping to lead them. So that leads me to think that maybe we could work together as one community, TeenLinux being where serious conversations happen, and TeensOnLinux being where people socialize more. However, I believe that it's still not enough justification for two communities. It's sorta like #ubuntu and #ubuntu-offtopic. There's a reason they're seperate channels, but they're still under the same community. It wouldn't be right to be discussing the ext4 filesystem, then be interrupted by this person who just went to Disneyland. With two channels with different aims, that distraction will be largely mitigated. Now we also think about outreach. Now, I know that Teens On Linux has been highly popularized in media. Tunys gave a talk about it on OSCON, we were mentioned in Full Circle Magazine. There are already so many references to us that it would cause a huge confusion to new recruits if ToL were to disappear. So, I was thinking something like.... (you should have seen this coming) when Sun acquired MySQL. Although they're now really the same entity, Sun still allows MySQL a large amount of autonomy to do what it needs to do. They're together in all but name, and I think that's what the teen linux communities need to do. Cooperate instead of compete, but still maintain distinct identities. Specialization would also find a role here. TeenLinux, which is obviously capable of technical discussion, could continue doing so. We at TeensOnLinux could do what we do best and outreach to the outside world. All while sharing the goal of furthering Linux use among teens. Of course, there certainly can be an overlap of community. Those who both have the know-how and want to just hang out can be in both communities. So, this is a hand from me to the TeenLinux community of cooperation instead of competition (can't say anything about tunys yet).

Captain Planet!

2008-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was made aware of a playlist on YouTube of Captain Planet episodes. Captain Planet is one of the great old science-themed cartoon. (not the greatest, Magic School Bus holds that title, hands-down. And I am categorizing environmentalism as science). Unfortunately, the creation of Captain Planet preceeded me by a year. And since I didn't start watching TV when I was born (something this generation could probably claim), I missed it entirely. However, my interest in it came around 8, when playing a computer game which was themed on Captain Planet. I can't find that game, or remember where it was, but it was pretty good! It was one of those move-by-grid games where you control the planeteers and strategically place them to fight pollutant enemies.

Anyway, after watching a couple of episodes, I find the series AWESOME! Yet, it inspires mixed feelings. On one hand, it makes me proud of see how far back we've realized that we can make a significant impact on the environment. On the other hand, it shows that we've known about these issues for 18 years, but still haven't worked hard enough to solving them. Even though our cities are (thankfully) not like 19th century England or even present-day (well, right before the Olympics) Beijing, we still have problems with pollution. Though, these days, we have much LARGER problems to deal with, such as global warming which I don't think even Captain Planet saw coming (I haven't watched far enough into the series to tell, but I wouldn't have thought that it was that publicized back then) and the barrage of problems that come with it (like ocean acidification, glacial melting, etc.) There's also deforestation and habitat destruction, which hasn't slowed down at all in the last several years. I'm pretty sure I could start naming more as I keep watching.

Yet, things have still changed. Now, more than ever I believe, people are more aware of the environment and their impact on it. Especially with global warming and dying polar bears taking the head of the campaign. And now, with the internet, people are more able to communicate about these environmental impacts. Which brings up a point I'd like to address to Ted Turner or any of his affiliates who own the rights to this show. Keep the videos up on YouTube. While it would be good to have these episodes air on TV, TV is a very geographically limited medium. If some major network wants to air it, it might only be in a single region of the United States, and most certainly will not be broadcast outside of it. Only on Youtube could anyone from any place in the world (maybe except countries where Youtube is blocked, but that's still a significant increase) see this television series. And isn't that the point of Captain Planet? To spread the word on how to protect the environment? And additionally, saving the environment IS, in fact, a world-wide effort. The bulk of the degredation cannot be pinned to the United States as a superpower (a majority, yes. But nowhere near the entire problem) And with the spread of responsibility for harming the environment, shouldn't we also spread the information on why it occurs and how to protect it? So, there is more reason to leaving these up to be shared than me just wanting to freeload off of Youtube. Now, time to watch more episodes!

Obama reasserts Space Exploration

2008-08-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know this news is kinda old. However, I just read Wired Science reporting that Obama has retracted his statement of cutting NASA funding to fund an early education program. Previous to this, that policy played a huge part in making me hugely less enthusiastic about Obama, however, I always thought in the back of my mind that he would end up supporting science and space exploration in the end. Turns out, I had a lucky guess! However, I'm not going to go into All Hail Obama mode and lose all measure of skepticism. It's still important to question, "So who will end up paying for this?" As far as Wired Science has been able to discern, "Obama said he has told his staff to find another offset to fund his early education program". I'm still interested in from which department that will come from.

And, of course, this is an unequivocal statement to support NASA. Any backtracking on this now can be brought up against him. So, I hope this is one promise that Obama will end up keeping. And it'll be tough not to, because Congress has been absolutely crazy about NASA. Not even the Bush administration, which has been against funding increases for NASA, could stop them. So, this issue is most likely one that Obama will encounter very little resistance from Congress. But... let's hope and see of what comes in November!

Global Bug Jam

2008-08-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the when the Ubuntu California LoCo team hosted their Bug Jam at Chapman University. And I, being the new-found environmentalist decided to carpool with someone also going (thanks Dennis). And I have to say, like most Ubuntu things, it was awesome. We arrived a little late and missed some of Nathan's talk on GPG keys, but afterward, we just bugged him to repeat the information. I've already signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, so it wasn't all that critical to me, but now I know what you can do with GPG keys. And it's pretty cool.

And Joe taught us a little big about filing bugs. Apparently you can start out with low bugs that don't need too much expertise and work your way up. I, for one, started out confirming bugs in XChat. A nice little thing to do. However, I may try to deal with crashes when I feel confident enough. The thing about bugs is that when you first try to triage, you can get VERY intimidated. The experienced triagers REALLY know their stuff, and you wonder how you'll ever get to be as useful as they are. But, every long journey begins with a small step... and that step was in this Bug Jam. Hopefully, as we have more bug jams we'll get more comfortable getting to the expert point. And as more people become experts, it's easier to teach others. So... we're working on that.

But, in my opinion, the coolest part was what Dennis gave to me. He was leaving to go back to Germany, so he left Neal a bunch of electronics, but left me his 12-year-old laptop. It runs Windows 98, and is totally alien in its configuration. It has no ethernet, USB, or CD drives. It has 2 PCMCIA slots (but wireless cards don't work). It has some huge port that I have no idea what it is. A parallel port, a VGA port, and a serial port. And it also has a floppy drive. It also has 16 MB of RAM, which I find to be the most hilarious aspect of it. I recently found a good use for it. Whenever I need to do work without being distracted, I use WordPerfect to type it up, and print it out through the parallel port. It's actually pretty efficient, and I could get used to it. And plus, what's cooler than running Windows 98 on your laptop (other than running Windows 95, but that'll just be a pain). Though, I'm wondering how I can upgrade the RAM on this thing. The memory extension is a large rectangular box. I'm not even entirely sure how to remove it, and if there are any other extensions of its type beyond 8MB. Anyway, that's the cool stuff that I got out of the Bug Jam, in addition to meeting the people in IRC. Hopefully, we'll be hosting more of this kind of stuff later on.

Solving the astronomical questions from the bottom quark up

2008-08-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry again about the break but as I said, the week has been pretty busy (not busy enough to forgive not posting, but still pretty busy). However, to make up for it, every day this weekend, I'll put up a post of a recap of an event that happened in the past week. Starting today!

So, exactly one week ago, I gave my presentation on CERN. I would put up a video, but it turns out that it's a 14 GB AVI file which would take a week to upload onto Google Video. That's not exactly the best thing, I'll be trying to figure out how to compress it so that it won't be such a crazily large file.

The talk itself went pretty good. There was some technical difficulties because I... don't have a laptop, so I borrowed one and ran an Ubuntu LiveCD off of it. Only.... I made the mistake of accidentally picking up a Gutsy CD. The problem with that was that Canonical started massively improving projector support after Feisty. Oh well! I had to swallow my pride and do it in a Windows machine. I managed to get it onto the projecter, but there was some resize issue and the right side and bottom were cut off. But, at least I managed to give it.

Now when the presentation started, THAT'S when the fun began (and I'll try to get you into that fun later on). I can't exactly summarize the content of the talk, but this video actually does a good job of it, in... 5 minutes. I hope you enjoy it for now.

After the talk was really something. Not only did I get the customary gift (a box with the pleiades) but he also gave me his copy of Arthur C. Clarke's posthumous book, "The Last Theorem". And I am DEFINITELY going to read it as soon as I can. And I mean that... more than I did Harry Potter a year ago (but I DID actually read it). And apparently, from the reception, people enjoyed it, so I'm glad I did it!

Presentation coming up

2008-08-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't blogged about anything recently. But I was getting ready for a presentation I'm going to give tomorrow at the Santa Monica Amateur Astronomy Club about CERN. So, I apologize, but if you're not gonna see the Olympic opening ceremony tomorrow night, drop in!

Open source ATI drivers

2008-07-29T15:33:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago, it was revealed to me that I didn't need the proprietary ATI drivers at all. The open source ATI drivers now have AIGLX support included and you don't need the bleeding-edge of proprietary drivers. Now, the open source drivers are WAY more stable than the proprietary ones. With those bleeding-edge drivers, I found my computer randomly freezing. However, that happens no more with the open source drivers.

The open source drivers have come a long way in the last couple of months. Now they have native AIGLX support, which means you can throw off XGL totally for compiz. However, the drivers work on these cards. I have a Radeon 9550, so mine has 3D acceleration. If yours is unsupported or 2D, you might want to stay with the proprietary ones.

In that guide, the most important (and most tricky) part is getting rid of fglrx. In addition to purging it, you should also go through Synaptic and get rid of any packages with fglrx in their name. Just do that and follow the rest of the guide, and you should be set! And the best part is, you won't have to comb ATI's site for new drivers. Ubuntu will bring 'em in as they come along.

Support the Bag Tax

2008-07-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

Recently, I heard on the radio about a bill to create a "bag tax". A tax on grocery bags. When I first heard of the concept, I thought, "What a great idea!". This ought to get people more enthused about bringing their own bags and reducing waste. However, the group Stop the Bag Tax wants to oppose this idea. Their web site is rather sparse consisting of four sections: a description of the Bag Tax, "But will this save the planet", "Who will this affect", and a link to that audio clip I linked to.

The site claims that:

"As if the cost of gas and food isn’t enough... politicians now want to charge you $.25 on every grocery bag. That adds up to about $400 per family per year!"

Now they're getting mixed up here. The AB 2058 does NOT address a $.25 tax, that is AB 2829. AB 2058 sets up guidelines for the state's voluntary bag recycling program. However, if we do look at the CORRECT bill, we'd see its not as sly as they paint it at all. When you look at the bill itself, you notice that it acts "on and after July 1, 2006". Politicians are in no way trying to sneak a tax on us. A year is a fair amount of time to get accustomed to reducing or even eliminating use of plastic bags in favor of canvas bags. If by then you still refuse to reduce your use of plastic bags: then, my friend, you will be helping California out of its budget crisis.

Another claim the site makes is about whether the bag tax would be good for the environment: "NO. Plastic bags are fully recyclable. Grocery stores already make it easy to recycle with convenient recycle bins." The problem with comparing this with recycling is that things we typically recycle: bottles, cans, electronics, paper usually just take up space in a landfill, and that's just wasteful. However, plastic bags are MUCH more dangerous than that. In California, the state taxes bottles and cans, and pays that money back to consumers when the bottles and cans are recycled. This incentive so far has brought the recycling rate to 67%. However, with plastic bags, we want something MUCH higher. Plastic bags in the environment are deadly to wildlife, they kill thousands of marine creatures when they get to the ocean. A full-blown tax to keep people from using them would be the best way to do so.

Lastly, the site asks: "Who does this affect?" and gives this answer:

This will affect everyone, but it will be especially devastating to low income families, seniors and anyone living on a fixed income. Plus, it could cost thousands of California jobs.

I don't have much to say to that other then it seems like it was pulled out of someone's hindquarters. Yes the tax will affect everyone, but there does not seem to be a reason this would target low-income families and seniors. I mean... I'm sure they can find SOME bag to carry their groceries in, if they so desired. And the tax won't affect the store's prices. According to the bill, the store would be "authorized to retain 3% of the fee as reimbursement for any costs associated with the collection of the fee". As far as I can tell, the tax only affects the wasteful, which it darn-well should!

So, here's what you do!

Find your representatives using this form (from the bagtax web site)
Call them and let them know that you SUPPORT the bag tax.
Ask them to support both AB 2058 AND AB 2829.

And it goes without saying that you should try to reduce your plastics too.

Teens On Linux

2008-07-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

OSCON is starting up today in Portland, Oregon. I won't be going. But that doesn't mean it won't be awesome. I'm just going to say that Andrew Harris (better known to his friends as tunys) is going to be giving a talk about teens and Ubuntu. And I'm not just saying it because he's one of my really good friends and he founded Teens On Linux. And that I'm also a member of Teens On Linux and frequents the #teensonlinux channel on FreeNode. Unfortunately, due to parental issues, I'm not going to Portland, Oregon to hear him or help him with the talk. However, to anyone that would be going, I'd highly recommend going to his talk on Thursday July 24 at 4:30.

Yep! TeensOnLinux has already had more than a year's worth of history. It started out when Andrew (now known as Tunys; lojban for tuna) couldn't find a community of teens who were interested in Linux (TeenLUG existed at the time, but as the unofficial propogandist of TeensOnLinux, I'm glad he didn't find them), so he decided to make his own. He got together with some British dudes whose names are unimportant and created TeensOnLinux. It was an awesome success! I joined them on IRC about a month or so after they were founded, and haven't left. TeensOnLinux also has a web site with forums and the like, designed to be like a myspace for teens, but the web site is NOT the main activity hub for us. I frankly barely visit the web site (And since the host is not so great, it usually goes down for a day or so before anyone notices). The main place where the action goes on is on IRC.

I first got to know TeensOnLinux when I was browsing FreeNode channels on IRC. I was a not-so-recent convert to Linux, but still was looking for the right community, and found it on IRC. It turns out that #teensonlinux is in an ideal place. Since we're on FreeNode, we don't have to worry much about a lack of security; the staff are always prompt (in fact, a little too prompt usually). And also, since we have our own channel, we can do whatever the heck we want to in it (as long as it isn't malicious or detrimental in any way). There have been two main periods in #teensonlinux. Both named by me after the dominant bots during the time. First was the fredburger era. Fredburger was a ~~supybot~~ rBot which did all the typical IRC stuff, like larting, factoids, etc. During most of the fredburger era, the channel was mostly stable, with about the same amount of people joining and leaving. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the bot, but I think its a characteristic of it. Then, about five months later, Tunys adopted bobsalad. Bobsalad is a pyborg, meaning he's sorta a language recognition/speaking bot. The bobsalad era overlapped with the fredburger era for about two month until, as legend has it, bobsalad slayed fredburger and covertly usurped the entire channel from the humans. Now bobsalad rules as an invisible dictator, making sure nobody steps out of line but not revealing his true power. Anyways, for anyone who wants to see the craziest of bobsalad's sayings, please visit the Salad QDB. I assure you, you will spend the whole time cracking up. The characteristic of the bobsalad era is a general crazifying of the channel. Whether that may be to show newcomers that we're just a fun place, or the dark magic of bobsalad, we're not sure.

Although, a grand experiment during the bobsalad era was the massop idea. Tunys believed that security on the channel could be guaranteed by giving everyone op capability. Newcomers generally did not receive ops until they were deemed trustworthy (which took about five minutes). Of course, I was vehemently opposed to this, and abused the massop system constantly, but Tunys still believed. However, the massop experiment failed after a conspiracy to bring in an outside person who kickbanned everyone in the room. I was not a victim of this, and did not even know it happened until afterward because I was currently kickbanned for a good-natured prank/demonstration I pulled on Tunys which he didn't exactly appreciate. But we are, in fact, back to a good ol' fashioned ChanServ maintained channel. And feel free to drop in any time you want. And definitely, if you're going to OSCON, drop in to see Andrew's talk. I ASSURE you that you won't be disappointed, knowing him.

A New View of the Universe

2008-07-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

A story straight from the Onion! The newest observations from the Hubble Space Kaleidoscope have just been released, and they're fascinating!

That's right! As people saw how popular the Hubble Space Telescope was and its huge contributions to astronomy and astrophysics, members in NASA who studied the fairly nacent branch of astrokaleidoscopics. In fact, it has already begun to change our views of the universe. As astronomer Douglas Stetler states,

"With their unprecedented resolution, the latest images from the new kaleidoscope reveal that space, once thought to be isotropic, is actually continuously expanding, unfolding, and rearranging in a series of freaky patterns,"

I'm sure the theoretical astrophysicists are stunned by these discoveries. Who knows what else the Kaleidoscope will reveal about our Universe. Even in our own Solar System, its been discovering new things, for example, Dr. Mae Ling-Turlington described Jupiter through the Kaleidoscope as "a dazzling hexagonal array of variegated prismatic configurations, changing our very understanding of the atmospheric patterns there on the solar system's spikiest-looking planet." Who knows what other discoveries the Hubble Space Kaleidoscope could make in the coming weeks?

[In my own research] Many people don't know this, but Galileo was not only the first person to point a telescope into the sky and discovering the cosmos, but he also was the first to point a roll of toilet paper, a lead pipe, and he was the first to point a kaleidoscope into space. This experience changed him almost as much as when he used the telescope. With it he discovered the funky glow of Mercury, and the phases of the Sun. The Hubble Space Kaleidoscope is many steps away from this primitive viewing, but traces its roots back to him.

Phoenix Updates

2008-07-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

[Note: I wrote this a week ago, and for some reason didn't post it. Well, have fun!]

Ok, so, I left off Phoenix at landing. Since then, it's done some more pretty cool stuff, and also run into a couple of problems. But don't worry, they're nothing those guys at JPL haven't been able to handle.

So, while taking a cornucopia of photos, the Phoenix team decided to practice scooping and dumping. That way, they became familiar with the soil and figured that they wouldn't screw up when they tried to actually perform experiments on the soil. It turned out that they weren't as familiar with the soil as they thought. It turned out that they'd sorta be wrong. When they actually tried to put the soil in the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA, which basically bakes the soil and analyzes the gases that are emitted), they encountered a little problem. As you can probably see to the right, the soil seems rather clumpy. And over TEGA is a sort of sieve to keep large particles out. Well, it turned out that the clumps turned out to be larger than the holes, and none of the soil could get through.
After much shaking, enough soil finally got into the analyzer so that it could heat up the sample. The result: Not much water. But, that could be expected because the sample was sitting out in the sun for a few days while the lander was trying to shake it in. At the initial heating, no water was given off. However, when they upped the temperature, really heating the soil, they detected some water, which was probably chemically bound to the minerals in the soil itself. So that's still significant, and hints that there was most likely water in the past.

After the analysis, there was a minor glitch on the lander which caused the loss of some nonsignificant science data. That was promptly fixed by the JPL team, so I'll go on to more science.

After scooping the sample for the TEGA experiment, scientists noticed a distinctive white layer in the hole left behind. Two things immediately jumped into mind: salt or ice. There would be an easy way to distinguish between the two: to wait. If after a few days, the layer is different, that indicates that the ice sublimated (changed directly from a solid to a gas). If it doesn't change, then it's probably salt. Well, after a period of anticipation, as you can see in the animation to the left, there was definitely some change, so it's probably ice! And on Mars, there are two kinds of ice, water ice and carbon dioxide ice. However, Phoenix is currently in the middle of Martian summer, so all of the carbon dioxide ice should have sublimated already (it sublimates at a lower temperature). So that leaves: water ice! That is incredible because the ice is far higher than we thought in the Martian soil. This is incredibly encouraging for the possible habitability on Mars.

Of course, Phoenix didn't stop there. There's still another main instrument to be used: the wet chemistry lab. This lab essentially dissolves the soil in some liquid water stored on board and checks how the minerals in the soil behave when dissolved. Well, it turns out that the instruments detected several familiar compounds like potassium, magnesium, and chloride. What's so exciting about those? Those minerals are found on Earth soil! So, the Martian soil is roughly similar to terrestrial soil. This will also be an important find for potential future human habitation because a colonist "might be able to grow asparagus pretty well". Instead of worrying about the soil, we could tackle other problems such as protecting plants from radiation, adapting them to the cold temperatures, and other potential Martian crop failures.

So far, all of this has been extremely exciting. I can't wait to see what other amazing things Phoenix will discover next. You can also follow along. The Phoenix Mars team has a twitter that you can follow: @MarsPhoenix . And of course, you can be friends with the Lander on Facebook. That's a good way to catch up on updates. And I'd like to say, I've been deferring this post for a couple of days now, and every day that went by meant another topic to write about. So, we are getting a TON of info from Mars. In fact, if you want to keep afloat on all the images coming from the lander, JPL is where you can get them first! There's just so much cool stuff coming from that lander!

The danger of woo

2008-07-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

Over at Science-Based Medicine, David Gorski recalls a chilling tale of a surgeon who encountered a woman with early-detected breast cancer. Because of the early detection, her survival rate was predicted at 93%. However, the woman refused chemotherapy in favor of "alternative" treatments. She dropped off of the radar and came back three years later to that same surgeon. The result: the tumor had progressed QUICKY, and was now at a stage that was very difficult to cure. Of course, once into woo, always into woo, she refused treatment even though her condition was degrading. And right now.... Gorski predicts that she's probably dead.

This is a reminder that the world is not yet a boom de ah dah paradise. There are still problems which science hasn't been able or hasn't been allowed to solve. And this woman is a tragic case. Yet, this is a perfect rebuttal to the claim that "alternative" medicines aren't dangerous. The claim that patients will be willing to forgo medical treatment for "alternative" treatments seems speculative and unbelievable until something like this happens. A person is "successfully" conned into believing that tea is a better cure than chemotherapy.

And there's also another unfortunate thought in this situation. That most doctors can't deal with this as House, M.D. can. Which is namely to tell unwilling patients that they're being idiots and are going to die, and treat them anyway. I'm starting to wonder how many of these cases doctors have! But anyways, doctors: You have my deepest sympathies. No one should have to deal with having to see someone basically self-destruct due to ignorance and misinformation. Hopefully... and I really do hope so... science will start to be more widely accepted in this society.

Activism!

2008-07-06T10:23:00.000-07:00

Currently, the Arecibo telescope has massive budget cuts lurking in the future. Due to a four million dollar shortfall from the National Science Foundation, the Arecibo radio telescope would not longer be able to operate. This would be horrible!

Well, the folks at SETI@home thought so too. They depend on Arecibo to collect the data for analysis. So they have a stake in this cut, which is why they came up with this handy little letter to send to your representatives to support a bill to restore the funding. All you have to do is put in your address (don't worry. SETI@home is an entirely trustworthy organization. They won't steal or sell your info.) and it'll give you a .pdf of three letters that you just print out and send to your Congessmen (two to your senators and one to your representative). Of course, if you want, you can use the sample letter to write your own personalized letter (which is what I ended up doing). But even if you don't have the time to write, if you just type, print, and send; it will make a difference. So fill out that form and save Arecibo!

The ol' Mountain, Plains, and Islands

2008-07-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

For those of you who play Magic the Gathering, you'd recognize those colors as Red, White, and Blue: a little special thing for Independence Day. While perusing Google Analytics a few days ago (It was a while since I checked up on my stats), I found that there was a huge untapped audience interested in Magic Cards. To my surprise (and probably to most other readers), my Anti-Sliver screed has shot up in popularity with my most popular guides. So, I thought I'd make this my first official post about Magic, and just tell you my history with it.

I learned how to play Magic in fifth grade. I had a group of friends who were into it and I got into it. However, when I started out, I didn't have my own deck and used other people's decks. I was still learning the rules like attacking and tapping and all of that. However, it was a REALLY cool game. It was actually conducive to playing, unlike Pokemon, which was mainly about collecting (I'm not sure how much experience you all had with Pokemon cards, but the game itself was extremely horribly designed).

Once I got into middle school, then the Magic craze REALLY started. My friends were actually fairly successful in banding with older players of Magic and recruiting people into Magic cards. Of course, some of the older students made a pretty profit selling cards to us younguns, but it was a fun time nonetheless. Around 7-8th grade, a Magic the Gathering club was formed which was a place all players could officially meet twice a week to play Magic. Of course, us hardcore players played outside on days when the club didn't meet also. Magic was actually quite a successful social bonding mechanism. People got together and played, talked, and had a good time. Whenever we had any sort of free time, we'd get out our Magic cards and start playing. Oh, and by the way, it was during this period when I got my first deck and started maintaining and building it. My suppliers where I bought the cards from were the older students. My deck wasn't particularly special, but it was fun; one of my friends, on the other hand, had a particular knack for building extremely strong decks that were just about unbeatable; ranging from Elf to Goblin, to his extremely annoying deck-out deck.

Unfortunately, the period of Magic prosperity hit a wall: high school. Now, we were all too busy trying to get good grades and take as many APs as possible to play Magic. Slowly, Magic died out in our school; I'm ashamed to admit it. It wasn't until a few months ago when I wondered "What ever happened to Magic?" and attempted to reinvoke the good times that we had in middle school. However, my reception was less than appreciated. My friends were turned off to the idea of reinvigorating the card game because they realized how much time and money they invested in it when they were young (Sort of like me and Pokemon) and they didn't want to start that over again. I could understand that perspective, but what's got me worried is the younger generation. The incoming students don't have upperclassmen to learn and share Magic with, and they've started playing second-rate card games like Yu-Gi-Oh. Speaking from my opinion, Magic is much more fun than Yu-Gi-Oh, but these kids will never know that. So, I've taken to trying to introduce these younger students to Magic. So far, the results haven't been what I've expected, but I still have senior year to go. Wish me luck!

Now, about my decks. My decks tend to be obese. I can put cards into them, but it's difficult for me to take them out. In fact, I have one deck which has 200+ cards in it (though the performance is surprisingly good). I have five. My favorite one is a blue phasing deck that I sorta based off of a recipe off the Magic web site. I don't use it because it wins, I just love it because it's incredibly annoying, and that's what matters! I also have a deck I call ginormia, which is the 200+ card one. It's a red/green combo that doesn't have a particular theme. It's basically two decks I had crammed into one. Next is my "overpowered" deck, which is a green beast deck. I like to call it overpowered because the creatures are way too fricking strong. Next is my "experimental" deck, a white/blue combo. It's sort of an on-and-off deck. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't. It really depends on the wind. I use it when I'm challenging someone new to gauge their deck and see what deck would be best on them. Lastly comes the deck I hate to use: my black zombie deck. I just have a general aversion to zombies and I use this deck when I feel like I want to lose. Unfortunately, this deck is actually better than I'm willing to admit, and when played correctly it's pretty powerful. But I still hate zombies. These decks have pretty much remained in their current state for the past couple of years. My card suppliers have long since graduated, and I haven't exactly figured out how to buy Magic cards from the store effectively. The way these students used to do it was by selling grab-bags which contained 12 cards from a mixture of sets. I've never gotten used to buying by set, so one of you professionals might have to teach me someday. Maybe when I manage to buy some cards, I'll be able to make my decks smaller and more effective. Anyways, now you know my Magic background, and I hope to make this another topic I cover on this blog.

Bad Astronomy moved!

2008-07-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Apparently, there's a new player in town on the Science blogging arena. In addition to ScienceBlogs, there's also Wired blogs, Nature blogs, LiveScience blogs, Scientific American blogs, and I'm sure many more. But now, I'm surprised Discover just entered onto the scene. I'm a subscriber to Discover (they're a really great publication) and really look forward to exploring what blogs they have. But, another thing that's pretty amazing. They've gotten Phil! Though, I'm pretty amazed at the transition. I follow Bad Astronomy in my feed reader, and it was so seamless, I didn't notice the change until I saw the web site itself. Usually, when people move blogs, you have to update your subscription, but strangely, not in this case. Phil (and whoever was in charge of the transition) really deserve some congrats for that. And I have to say, the new look is really appealing; though what I like most are the placement of the ads. They're tucked away in the sidebar and aren't that intrusive. Whoever designed that layout did a great job. Now, time to see what Discover blogs has to offer!

Excellent News

2008-06-30T00:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I decided to take my SAT II Subject Tests (they're basically standardized tests in certain fields). I took them in Math level 2 and Physics (they meet Caltech's requirements). And I have to say, I was extremely surprised when I saw those scores. The SAT II scores are just like a section in the regular SAT, 800 points. And, when I saw my scores in Math, it was..... 800.

And for physics... 800 also.

At least I can say that when I send in those scores to college, I won't have to worry about them being too low, heh.

I love the whole world

2008-06-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the world gets so crazy that you start to lose hope. That is, until you see a commercial like this, to remind you about the good stuff in life. Along with war poverty and disease which seem inescapable no matter, there's also the wonder of nature and the universe; and science, pushing the boundaries of what we know.

(Heart tip to PZ)

And if you were wondering what yesterday's xkcd comic was about, this is it.

How wacky ideas gain credance

2008-06-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

Wallace Sampson over at Science-Based Medicine gives an overview of how fields once viewed as quackery have gained credibility over the last few years.

However, this process is something that's readily applied across the board in pseudoscience. From psychics to creationists, they all have managed to escape the label: "Bulls@$^" (except for those caught by Penn and Teller).

And the media, of course, isn't helping. As Sampson brings up, "objective journalism" does not mean presenting both sides. It means presenting the facts. And, of course, if both sides have a comparable number of facts (as in a genuine scientific debate: Is cancer genetic or environmental (or some combination of the two)). When one side generally has far more facts than the other (as is the case with pseudoscience), you don't give the other side equal time because they don't have equal facts. The point of "objective" journalism is to inform the reader to make his/her own opinion. You do that by presenting the facts (or the absence of them). Saying that there is no solid evidence for astrology is not biased, because it's true. Astrology is just as effective as asking your son how your day is going to go (except with more big words). To say anything else would be either straying for the facts, or downright lying. Saying "Astrology might have revealed why this person got a promotion" is a conjecture, not a fact. Likewise, saying "Astrology did reveal why this couple broke up" would be a downright lie, because Astrology has been shown to be as effective as chance through and through. But anyways, I'm not going to write too much now. Right now, I have about three posts partly-written that I probably should get working on. But, I hope you enjoyed this little rant by both Dr. Sampson and me (though his is far more persuasive).

Summer Vacation

2008-06-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I know I haven't posted anything for three weeks or so. But I've been sucked into some sort of black hole where all of my time has evaporated. But anyways, summer is here. Unfortunately, most of my summer plans have been shot down. I didn't get into the YESS program (those little punks better have a good time there without me!) But, that wasn't the only thing I had in mind. However, another blow arrived when it turned out that Dr. Guy would be too busy to have me at CENS this summer. So now, my options have really dwindled. All that I know I'll be probably be left with is volunteering at Children's Hospital, Los Angeles.

Anyways, I SHOULD have more time for blogging, but who knows what'll happen? The RSS reader on the N800 is not exactly working out. I don't like the fact that I can't only read unread feeds, and that once I look at a category, everything is marked read. I basically want something like Liferea. However, the liferea port leaves much less to be desired. It hasn't had much activity. And the libraries won't install on my N800 for some reason. And from the experience, I'm guessing that the maintainer at least temporarily ditched the project. Nibbles is more active, but it's still got a long way to go before it becomes a fully-capable feed reader. So, I'll probably stick to RSS feeds on my home computer (maybe VNC onto them), use the horrible reader on the tablet, wait for the reader to improve on the tablet, or just make my own reader. If I have more time than I need this summer, I could POSSIBLY accomplish the last one. Though, I wouldn't count on it.