The Unctuous Rants of Leif Andersen

Your Fiduciary Source for Science, Technology, Rants, and Occasional Journalism

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-14

Mar 14

Posted by Leif Andersen in This Blog | No Comments

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

Mar 7

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Sansa Fuze and Rockbox, Sandisk hurt me

Mar 3

Posted by Leif Andersen in Technology | No Comments

My Sandisk Sansa E260 recently bricked itself.  Why did this happen?  I don’t know, I didn’t do anything to it, it just wouldn’t turn on one day.  To be fair, I knew it was dying, I had several read errors, and I suspected the filesystem was becoming corrupted, and the controls were certainly dying, being touchy at best.

As such, it was time for me to buy a new player.  I looked around, wasn’t quite ready to by an android phone, but still needed a player to play ogg files.  After a quick trip to ABI, and several days of searching, I finally decided to get a new Sansa, this time the SanDisk Sansa Fuze, it had 8 GB of internal storage, not much, but 4 more than what I previously had, and best of all, it was capable of running Rockbox, the open source firmware which was the only reason I bought the e200, and then the fuze, in the first place.

I knew that there was two versions of the Sansa Fuze, a newer one, and an older one, thusfar, the people at Rockbox have only been able to port it to the older one.  The catch is that there is no way to determine which version of the hardware you got, until after you have bought the device.  I even asked a representative of Sandisk, and they were unable to give me a proper answer.  Again, to be fair, the person was still very helpful.  Here is a clip of our conversation:

*****: Let me provide you information on this.
*****: You are asking the firmware of the player currently running on the Fuze that you want to purchase.
*****: It is depending on the firmware that we released before it hit the market. Some Fuze might have the older firmware and some can have the newer firmware.
Leif Andersen: Yes
*****: Nevertheless, the firmware of the player can be updated to the latest that we have to enhance it.
Leif Andersen: Okay, is there anyway I can tell before I purchase it?
Leif Andersen: Okay, thank you.
*****: Even if you don’t have the latest firmware. There is a firmware update that we can do. You can check this link for the Fuze’s firmware update:
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/278

Without being able to get any form of conformation, I took the plunge, and bought a player from Tiger Direct.  It came in today.

I opened the box, started up the player (being very surprised to find it had a few dregs of power sitting in it’s battery), and played around with the menu.  I went into my settings menu, and to my horror, I discovered that the version of the firmware began with V02, meaning that I couldn’t put rockbox on it.  Horrible news.

Now, if I knew ahead of time that I wouldn’t be able to put Rockbox on it, that would be one thing, and I would be fine with that.  However, it drives me nuts that I have no idea of whether or not I will be able to put Rockbox on the device at all, until after I buy it.  I don’t blame the Rockbox community for this, after all, they’re just a bunch of people that develop a good software solution for audio players, but rather SanDisk.  At one point in time, they made a small gesture to Rockbox, by giving them two Sansa E200 devices, however, they have not done anything since.

On the up side of the coin, at least Sansa’s firmware is actually usable this time, unlike on the E200, and maybe in the future I will be able to put Rockbox on it.  Until then, I will contact Sansa support, and see what they have to say about the matter, and I will post it here.

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Maple: The Pain

Mar 2

Posted by Leif Andersen in Education, Technology | 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve said anything.  However, that is about to change, I hope.  In the meantime, I must complain about Maple.  For my linear algebra class, I am required to use MapleSoft’s main program, called, Maple.  It is a Computer Algebraic System, or CAS, designed for use in academia.  It is total and complete rubbish.

If you have hopes of getting a project done efficiently on it, give up, and go get a piece of software like Matlab, by MathWorks.  Although I’m not a big fan of MathWorks, and find GNU Octave (an open source/free software, program that is very similar to Matlab), at least Matlab is usable.  First off is the UI.  The graphical version of Maple prides itself in being able to print out text in a pleasing way.  This is true, however, Maple has implemented it horribly.  Typing anything into it is a pain, because Maple will make several subfields for something as simple as an exponent.  And it doesn’t even use common sense when ending those fields.  If I were to raise a number to a summation, I would use parentheses, and if I wanted a polynomial, I would just leave the exponent clear, without any parentheses.  As such, it seems logical that maple would automatically end the exponent subfield, but maple insists on continuing to type in that field until you hit the right arrow key.  Also, if you want to go back a bit in your equation, it is a pain to hit the back button, and edit what you wanted to change.  Also, if you want to remove an equation you typed, forget about hitting the delete or backspace key, you have to manually select it, and delete your selections.  There is also the matter of entering equations.  The syntax that maple uses is awkward at best, and downright painful at it’s worse.

I was amazed that such a program that could be so bad.  However, I went to open up the font color chooser, and out pops the JColorChooser, the interface was made in Java.  No wonder it was so horrid.  Now, to be fair, I don’t think the whole program was written in Java, I think the engine that powers Maple is written in C, and to be fair, it is still a very powerful engine.  But why would you get it when Matlab can do the same things?

All in all, on a scale to ten, I have to give maple a 4.  3 points for it’s engine, which, while powerful, it’s not revolutionary, and 1 point for at least having a UI, and having some documentation, rather than some other programs that have nothing whatsoever.

What do you think, am I wrong, right, neither?

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-28

Feb 28

Posted by Leif Andersen in This Blog | No Comments

  • Woot, my graph is linear, 5 weeks of labs, and it all worked. :) #
  • Watching #twit and enjoying Molly Wood's Rants, http://live.twit.tv #
  • Nice, ECE exam on Wednesday, Linear Algebra on Thursday, and Physics on friday. joy. :( #
  • I'm reading 'The Bootstrapper's Bible' by Seth Godin on DailyLit. http://rpx.me/yDb #
  • HOW TO: Block FarmVille on Facebook http://ping.fm/jnv9S #
  • A tetras love story. Awesome. http://ping.fm/7plH3 #
  • Amazing, I can whip out a 2,000 word blog post in no time flat, a 500 word personal statement, now that's hard. #
  • 1 test down, 3 to go. #
  • 8 Ours of testing later, it's done, done DONE!!! :) #
  • And, it looks like I can't spell. hours, not ours, I guess that's what testing does to you. #
  • To the slaughter house, erm, test room. #
  • Woot, just finished gauging my eyes out in linear algebra. #
  • And now…for physics. #
  • Woot, the physics exam went well. #
  • Uck, the outline of this lab writeup is a page, I can only see how long the actual one will be. Fun, fun, fun. :-/ #
  • I finally unlinked my twitter and gbuzz accounts, at least until buzz becomes more stable. #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-21

Feb 21

Posted by Leif Andersen in This Blog | No Comments

  • Tuesday is fat Tuesday, I should give up thinking for lent. #
  • Very Good, I don't see a patent for my idea…now to see if I can actually pull it off. #
  • Wow, youtube is 5 years old today: http://ping.fm/xMt3Q #
  • Wow, a quick physics problem has shown me that you don't save much by using energy efficient bulbs. #
  • I finally found the tab that has been haunting my web browser for a week or so, back to circuit theory. #
  • I need to prepare scholarship applications, to do that, I need to fill out FAFSA, to do that, I need to do taxes, I'm hating life right now. #
  • You know what bugs me, when important sites like FAFSA require a strong password, but don't accept special characters @!#$. #
  • My math book is mocking not just religion, but the whole concept of spirituality, now that is bold. #
  • @ChrisLAS Someone's a fanboy. :) in reply to ChrisLAS #
  • @Jacksonfly HELLO WORLD!!! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!?! :P in reply to Jacksonfly #
  • Three types of bathrooms, Men, Women, and Canadian, which to use…? #
  • @ubuntudesigners Suspend to sleep is okay, but please don't change shut down to turn off, that would make me cry. in reply to ubuntudesigners #
  • Good morning interwebs…another day, another chance to do someting useful, or fail trying. :) #
  • Oh no, my DAP looks bricked. Not good. #
  • Sigh, it looks like even if I can get my data back, I will loose all of my data. :;( #
  • Thanks to all of you one buzz who think I have something interesting to say, or just hope I follow you back. ;0 #
  • I meant :) not ;0 #
  • And it's official, my Audio player is dead. I need a new one now. This is tragic. #
  • Going through withdraws about his now dead audio player. cry… #
  • Sheesh, my Google Buzz follower count has gone from 80 to 20, now to 30, it just won't stay still for 10 seconds. #
  • @Sharky237 I though he left to serve an LDS mission this week. in reply to Sharky237 #
  • Linux Action Show Returns http://ping.fm/vLRcq #
  • 'Rob me' site reveals empty homes in warning to web users http://ping.fm/wFfUZ #
  • Pwn you world. I have hacked together a temporary PMP that will replace mine for about a week (before I go insane at the crappy UI). #
  • Pair says 'iDo' in Apple store wedding http://ping.fm/pNreq #
  • Circuit homework down, now all I have left is math, circuit lab work, possibly a bit of CS, and scholarship/money begging stuff, than maybe #
  • Crap, I left my linear algebra book in the lab. #
  • My families new dishwasher sounds like the star trek try-quarter. #
  • "You can watch BBC America for the absolutely low price of no money whatsoever", oh, I love Doctor who. #
  • @yodaism I will master Yoda. in reply to yodaism #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-14

Feb 14

Posted by Leif Andersen in This Blog | No Comments

  • Listening to the TWiT pilot: http://twit.tv/1 It's interesting how things (don't) change. #
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4! http://ping.fm/aYCtA #
  • I repeat, Sonic 4, Episode 1, I am excited. #
  • Oh, I forgot the link: http://ping.fm/mK4t4 #
  • Just about to take my CS2420 midterm #
  • Giant long stream of updates incoming, embrace yourself! #
  • apparently got 102% on my ECE test go figure. #
  • Next, interesting new facebook design, it will be interesting to see EVERYONE complain. #
  • I took a jont into 2-space, back to 3-space, and up into 4 and 5-space. Back in 3-space now, but everything is blurry, math, bleh. #
  • Well, on the up side of majoring in Engineering, you get really good at puzzles. On the other hand though, they're no longer fun, just anot #
  • Hell has frozen over twice in a week: http://ping.fm/AEThy #
  • I'm starting to think that the line: "We are made in God's image" is referring to Linear Algebra, warning sign number, oh, forget it, I've l #
  • Crap, I thought I had my mind wrapped around the concept of subspaces, now I need to do it all again. #
  • Speaking of which, I like subspace in Stargate much better, as it makes pseudo sense, to match the pseudo science. #
  • Google Buzz looks almost identical to gmail, still let me in @google please. #
  • Joy, so it would appear that my website is down, great. #
  • Okay, I probably won't be on facebook as much people, I'm sold, I'm moving to buzz, you can follow me there at http://ping.fm/Hzm00 #
  • Than again, I post to these social networks via Google Talk, so maybe i can link something up. However, I'm hoping Google, in the near futu #
  • my website is back up, yeah. #
  • OH cool, if I say something in twitter, it appears in buzz. The problem: I'm still limited to 140 characters. #
  • My pen died today, fair well old friend. #
  • Thanks Google, for letting me know that today was the start of the winter olimpics #
  • For those of you in shock due to the gmail black out, therapy llamas are ready to help you. http://ping.fm/rFaF3 #
  • RT: @BryanLunduke Doctor Who, series 5: http://ping.fm/B2ej4 #
  • Wow, it would appear that Gmail is down. #
  • Tune into http://live.twit.tv to see a live stream of macworld. #
  • Considering getting a netflix account just to watch doctor who…as I can't find it anywhere else. #
  • Okay, um…what is this, google buzz is now recommending myself as a person I should follow. #

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Going for Gold: Google Rolls out 1 Gb Fiber Optic Network

Feb 12

Posted by Leif Andersen in Google, Technology | No Comments

Today, Google announced that they are working to roll out a 1 Gb fiber network to select areas, with the hopes of making it a ubiquitous connection.  They claim, the idea is so that next generation apps can be made, without having to worry about bandwidth concerns.   Despite my initial misgivings about running all of our apps in an extremely fast cloud, this seems incredibly cool.

Usually, this is the point where I get up on my soapbox, and complain about how much control Google is having, even though I love it.  This time, I must state how happy I am.  Despite the fact that Google will now have complete control, and can soon be part of every aspect of the internet, this really is a benefit.  First of all, this will provide competition.  The main reason why I support the FCC’s lock down of the internet, is due to a lack of competition between ISPs.  On the other hand, if Google is able to roll out world wide fiber, despite the  brevity of that statement, all ISPs would have a large competitor, meaning that current ethical issues with ISPs would be lowered.  Not to mention the speed.  If this is a success, not only will Google have yet another market share, but they will have one of the fastest connections in the continental USA, and possible the world.

On the other hand, as mentioned earlier, Google is getting quite big.  They now have a hand in everything from your hardware, to your software, to your web searching, to even a large chunk of your content.  If Google pulls this off, they will have a hand in every single level of accessing the internet.  And because they’re currently not a telecommunications company, they could abandon the ideas of net neutrality, and speed up their websites, however, to be fair, with the current leadership of Google, I think they would rather speed up their websites by making them better, not by slowing everyone else down.  To be honest, I think that may be a little much for one company to have, even if it is a company that I love, and would like to work for in the future.

What do you think?

You can read more about this at GoogleBlog.

Google Buzz, and the Invite Craze

Feb 10

Posted by Leif Andersen in Google, Reviews, Technology | 2 Comments

Today, Google unveiled their latest product Google Buzz.  Supposedly, it will be Google’s new way of communicating, not to be confused with Google Wave, which is, well, if you know, please tell us, because the rest of the internet is trying to figure it out.  Currently, if you go to the Google Buzz webpage, you get a nice Google logo, with Google style cartoons, saying all of the great things you can do with Google Buzz, and a video talking about just how great it is.  It also contains a button that says “Try Buzz in Gmail”.  When you click on it, you get taken to your Gmail inbox.  Once their, I noticed that it looked exactly like the old Gmail inbox, that is to say, there was no Buzz.  after a little confusion, I went back to the original website, and noticed a bit of text at the top that said:

We’re still rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don’t see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon.

Meaning that Google has not decided that I’m not worthy enough to actually see Google Buzz on the day that they announced it.  That’s somewhat typical.  I’m just a standard internet user, new to blogging, programming, and engineering, as such, why should pick me, other than that the remainder of the website says that it’s out and ready to use.

Having a private beta is not just how Google works, most companies will do that.  However, Google is notoriously public who they invite, or how to get into this beta, namely, to ask for an invitation.  However, Buzz is working differently.  Google has decided to an approach similar to Twitter.  That is, role it out quietly.  Make it part of some people’s accounts, and eventually to everyone.  In some ways, this is good, it means that you don’t need to create a new account, or fill out some form asking for an invite, etc.  Also, the massive rush for Google Wave invites has been qualmed as well, as the invite isn’t even being used..

All in all, this doesn’t seem like the biggest thing Google had done.  Their video seems incredibly similar to Gmail already.  That is to say, it will likely be the best social network platform on the planet, but everyone will still continue to use Facebook.  Also, it will be somewhat difficult to tell whether I am getting an email from a mailing list, or just another buzz post, with the exception that buzz posts won’t have a little number on them that says unread.  Thus, I must say that this product doesn’t seem very useful.  Now, if they integrated Google Reader, and GMail, and Twitter, and possibly Google Voice, and every other social networking platform into one place, then we would have something.  However, there still isn’t much new going on.

With that being said, I may be grouchy because I didn’t get an invite, like Mike Arrington hates the Pre.

Update: It looks like I’ve been ‘invited’.  I must say, I like the idea much more than Facebook or twitter.  The UI is fast and sleek, I also love how it integrates into Gmail.  My current gripes are the lack of options.  Currently, you are forced to sort by posts with the latest comments, however, this simply means that the top posts in buzz are just popular ones, unless you only follow close friends.  Also, while I like seeing replies to threads I’ve commented on in Gmail by default, that should be an option that can be turned off by request.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

Feb 7

Posted by Leif Andersen in This Blog | No Comments

  • Sigh, stupid tutorial on http://ping.fm/IxVgp, you are woefully incomplete, my code won't even compile without some modification. #
  • The dead movie lives: http://ping.fm/CpCk8 #
  • This Weight Watchers Meal Includes A Free Frozen Frog http://ping.fm/goC4f #
  • A Hidden Crime: Domestic Violence Against Men Is a Growing Problem http://ping.fm/Bbr12 #
  • @Bugs5382 You know, I am thoroughly confused, as this tweet keeps appearing, and disappearing from my @reply timeline. in reply to Bugs5382 #
  • Stupid android documentation, it shouldn't be that hard to make a tabbed layout #
  • Hmm…apparently, if you search for "rants on illegal things" you find my blog…I'm not sure how to take that. #
  • Today's the day where every mailing list I've subscribed to has to tell me that I've subscribed to it, never mind that I get about 5-20 emai #
  • Darn JVM efficiency, you caused my code to fail #
  • Woot, I have installed After the Deadline for firefox, supposedly, I will now have better grammer. Doubt it though. #
  • Crap, my linear algebra book had a Sudoku puzzle in it. I guess I will never be able to think of that game properly again. #
  • For good and ill, there is now an android wordpress app http://ping.fm/iyMrD #
  • Quickly everyone, I need a new GSoC project… #
  • And here it goes, google is going to send an email to ALL of my gmail addresses, telling me it will soon not be supporting old browsers, gre #
  • Sheesh, couldn't sleep last night, kept dreaming of solving complex linear algebra physics based problems all night. #
  • One midterm down, two to go. #
  • @Sharky237 You sound like you're having a one sided conversation. Anyway, did you ever consider something like dropbox? in reply to Sharky237 #
  • Apparently Physics 1080 at the U is called "Does ET Exist" an interesting name if you ask me. #
  • "The planet needs you, and not in a sexual way" A rather odd add from @hulu. #
  • My father sent this to me, and I thought it was worth sharing: http://ping.fm/580yA #
  • @Pogue Oh no, the video cuts out at 1:30, and doesn't return until 2:00. in reply to Pogue #
  • Physics midterm here I come. #
  • There's no way to win, I just marked all of my email as read, and before i was able to leave gmail, I had another one. #
  • One Physics test down, 3 plus a final to go. #
  • Joy, it would appear that my dogs have decided to start stalking me. woof. :) #
  • Watching a lecture from @opencourseware, and I saw another thing Gauss did, joy. #
  • Wow, facebook is saying it has no posts to display…almost as if the world has gone silent. #
  • 'Don't Be Evil,' Meet 'Spy on Everyone' â?? How NSA Deal Could Kill Google http://ping.fm/7GoJl #
  • President Obama Says Stop Watching Cable News. And He's Right http://ping.fm/DSeIi #
  • Victorian Government Commits to CC as Default Licensing System http://ping.fm/BVam7 #
  • Crap, I just found out my favroite puzzle games were made in java: http://ping.fm/aQRAJ #
  • I love @jason: http://ping.fm/9txlz #
  • Hell has frozen over, I have sources telling me that Google has bought a super bowl ad. #
  • TOO MANY LAPTOPS, I'm about to expload! #

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