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I learned yesterday that I had been mis-informed as to how many courses remained before I could graduate. It turns out that I need one more project course. I was lucky, I guess I’ll use that word, enough to have a course that fit my schedule. I am now once again taking 20 units over 5 classes, two of which are project courses. My nice 16 hour work week has now gone down to a tentative 8 hours at opposite ends of the week. So much for income this last quarter. The course I added was the database projects course. I figured having worked with databases for a while I could breeze through this class for the most part. What I hadn’t counted on was the enormity of these projects. As someone who has worked with databases these things are time consuming. The first part of the 5 part project is due next week, so I have already been cut short by a week. To add to the pressure I have 2 other large projects due next week along with 2 homework assignments. It’s not going to be a very good week. On another note this database course will be using PostgreSQL which I have not worked with before. What I have gathered so far is that it is a royal pain to setup. I tried using WAPP, which is a nice all in one package with Apache+PostgreSQL+PHP5. Everything installed great and worked with my DBMS, but as soon as I tried to connect to the PostgreSQL server with PHP I was quickly shot down with no error messages and no connectivity. So I resorted to return to Linux. I had originally tried using Linux, but had experienced some trouble and hence my switch to Windows. Well after fighting with Windows for a few hours I gave up on it and decided to switch back to Linux. Luckily by piecing together a few install tutorials I have come up with a quick how to of my own for installing PostgreSQL+PHP5+Apache2+PHPPgAdmin.

1. Start with a Ubuntu Server LAMP install, I’m using Ubuntu 8.04 fully updated.
2. Install PostgreSQL package, sudo apt-get install postgresql
3. Install the PHP5-PostgreSQL connector, sudo apt-get install php5-pgsql
4. Install PHPPgAdmin, sudo apt-get install phppgadmin
5. Create a symbolic link to the phppgadmin install for Apache2, ln -s /etc/phppgadmin/apache.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/phppgadmin
6. Change your postgres user’s passwords, both PostgreSQL Role Password and Ubuntu User Password,
   

   sudo su postgres -c psql template1
   template1=# ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD ‘password’;
   template1=# \q
   exit (to drop back to your own shell prompt if necessary)
   sudo passwd -d postgres
   sudo su postgres -c passwd

7. Allow your postgres user access to login to PHPPgAdmin,
   

   sudo nano /etc/phppgadmin/config.inc.php
   Change this line from the default true to false:
   $conf['extra_login_security'] = false;

8. Finally allow your users to login to the PostgreSQL server,
   

   sudo nano /etc/postgresql/8.3/main/pg_hba.conf
   Change the fourth column which will read ident, sameuser, md5 or some combination of these to just say trust

Hopefully this will save someone out there some time. Now that I finally have everything working I can see how well PostgreSQL works. I must say MySQL is infinitely easier to setup thanks to these LAMP installs, but maybe it will payoff in the end.

I have started to use my iPhone for reading at school with the Amazon Kindle app, and I read my Kindle at home. This way I don’t have to bring another piece of electronic equipment that might get lost or stolen to school each day. I must say the page syncing and ability to read my current book on either device is amazing. I have just completed my second book and plowing right along in my third. Amazon has defintely got this e-reading thing down to perfection. Any of those out there that enjoy reading, this combo of iPhone and Kindle is the most amazing thing ever to happen to books. I think we will begin to see many more ebooks emerging far more quickly than print books in the future. This is already starting to happen with limited edition or multipart book releases where the parts are released for the Kindle every month or few weeks while the whole book might not be published for several months. So bravo to Amazon for creating something so amazing.

Having used my Core2Duo machine now for watching several films I can safely say this is a much better way to go. I haven’t gotten everything dialed in in terms of the install yet, but viewing wise it is simply amazing. No more dropped frames using only a 2.2GHz Core2Duo and integrated Intel graphics. I have the system running off of a compact flash card for heat and power reasons and that is working well also short of a small journaling issue that causes the system to keep pinging the compact flash card rather intensely. I will have to figure out what the exact problem is, probably will switch to a non-journaled filesystem with a fresh install. I also started thinking about possibly trying to get some Windows games running on that system, maybe a big race car game of some kind. I think I’d like to see that on a big TV.

School work is coming in quite quickly so far. I have several large things due in the next week. I will have to keep up on that to ensure it doesn’t get out of control. Overall I think I could learn a lot this quarter in terms of more about how things work in the computer. There are still a lot of things I want to learn that were never touched upon at school that really kinda disappoints me seeing how this is my last quarter and all. Everything that is taught relates so specifically to logic and basic algorithms. I feel like I could write you some advanced logic at a command line interface and that about sums up my college education. We never addressed GUI design or implementation, graphics using OpenGL or Direct3D, and no wireless communications. I look through for code examples on how to do these things and am dumbstruck at all these crazy objects and constants that go into setting up these lines of communications and really wish someone had a clear explanation of what is going on. We also never discussed media storage, retrieval, or usage. I don’t even know how to setup a Java app for playing an MP3. It seems quite strange that school would focus so much on the basics and leave us coming out into a media centric world with no knowledge on how those things work.

Well that’s enough ranting for one night. Still lots of things I want to do, but don’t know how. Quite the frustrating position to be in.

So today marks the first day of the last quarter at UCI, or at least what should be my last quarter :). I had two of my four classes today including Advanced Algorithms and Data Structures Project course and Advanced Algorithms. Tomorrow I will have the other two classes which are Compilers and Interpreters along with another Digital Logic class. The first two classes went well, I’ve had one of the teachers before and think that this quarter shouldn’t be too bad. The down side is I will be at school more often this quarter, but my one project course will not be meeting very often after the first two weeks because it just isn’t necessary based on the layout of the course.

This weekend I decided to tear apart some systems during my Spring cleaning run which still hasn’t been completed :), I get distracted way too easily. I have decided to use my Atom computer as a Hackintosh/Linux computer for general use whenever I need it. I have taken my extra Core2Duo machine which was an un-used Hackintosh and am going to use that as my MythFrontend. As much as I wanted the Atom processor to work for a frontend, when it came right down to it I was choosing what movies to watch based on what it would play rather than what I wanted to see, so until the Nvidia Ion platform comes out to replace that I will use the Core2Duo system which is running very nicely at 1080p with integrated graphics. I decided I’m going to re-install XP on my gaming computer, I’ve just gotten tired of Vista and its never ending, “This copy of Vista is not genuine, but it is legal” stuff. It runs alright and you can use it for a daily machine without incident, but I only use this computer for two things, gaming and surfing the web. Both of which are not benefitting from me running Vista in any way.

I also decided to drop some monies for my first 1.5TB HDD this weekend. It should arrive tomorrow. I’ve been getting worried about not having a current backup of my data and decided it was probably best to spend a little money to protect myself from spending a whole lot more to get my stuff back.

I’m hoping to get some kind of confirmation that I will have a job this week for after graduation. Hopefully that will go well so I don’t have to think about it anymore. I’m thinking I should be able to save up enough for a down payment on a place in about 6-8 months from my start date which would put me in a condo or wherever I can afford around the new year or just after it. I don’t know if my being able to do that has fully sunk in or not, because it seems kind of unreal and frightening that all these things that I had planned on doing years ago are all working out precisely as I had expected. Saddleback to UCI was a breeze. The Jetta would hit 100k miles when I graduate college and it will rollover this quarter. If I can get my guarantee of a job then there is only one step left before I could have my own place. Looks like I have some more long term planning to do. I never really thought I’d make it this far and now I’m here.

Well, I received some excellent news on Friday evening on my way to dinner with my parents and grandparents, I successfully passed all my classes this past quarter, which means I have exactly 4 classes and 1 quarter separating me from graduation and life. The classes definitely won’t be easy, but I’m so ready to be done I’m not going to let anything stop me.

I my spring break week working, which to most will sound utterly repulsive, but for me it worked ( no pun intended). I enjoy working like a normal person, I might say that now I know that will change once I’m able to do it full time, but I’m optimistic in what it will bring me. Looking back on this last quarter it really started to settle with me, that I would be done, and out in the world for real finally. It definitely frightened me a little bit, even though I’ve been out in the real world working since I was 13 I’ve never worked full time for a whole year before. Most people only get to see me in short bursts, a week full time here, or a few days scattered troughout the month. Knowing that all that I have known for the past 16 years is going to change has me on edge. I know ultimately that things will work out, but a change is still a change and people in general don’t seem to like them.

Tonight I saw “Yes Man” for the first time. I’ll admit it was corney, but I really enjoyed the message. I’m definitely guilty of being a No Man in certain cases, and it’s nice to see things turn out on the other side of the fence. It made me think about times that I had said “No” in the past when I really should have just gone for it. I have a very specific view of who I am and what I like which causes me to close down doors in a lot of cases. I don’t think this film will turn me into a Yes Man, but I think it definitely will make me think twice the next time one of those questions comes along.

So, I survived my Computer Vision presentation. As it turned out many kids had taken on larger than they expected projects and were only partially done. I ended up presenting on all that I had learned about epipolar geometry, and showing off my epipolar lines I was able to recover from the  stereo images. I still want to try and get some more of the script working before the report is due Friday night. Today I have my last final which is in Artificial Intelligence. Hopefully this will go well. I’m just happy to be done after this, I’m exhausted and quiver to think that if I don’t pass one of my classes, I will be under the same workload next quarter as I was this quarter. So far I have one passing grade out of 5 classes, just 4 more grades to wait on. Having been through a quarter with 20 units now, I can safely say that 20 units at UCI is nothing like 20 units at Saddleback. The amount of work I received in homework, projects, tests, and quizzes was immense. I just hope that this quarter works out so that I only have one more before graduation.

On a more depressing note, our timeshare is completely booked because of Spring Break, so I won’t be able to escape as I had planned. I’ll have to try and come up with something else :(. There appears to be plenty of stuff for me to work on over spring break, so I might just end up working for most of it which is good and bad, I need to get some money in to help pay for taxes as well as get my bank account replenished for after taxes. I saw one or two cool toys I might like to have, but ultimately I’m pretty content with everything I have at the moment. Shuttle is getting closer to releasing the X50 which I have been watching carefully in hopes that they might release it. I could see some very exciting uses for that machine, and with the knowledge I have gained over this past quarter in computer vision I have a renewed vigor with which I want to pursue learning OpenGL again. I really want to program some stuff in 3D. We’ll see if I can keep my focus long enough to make something of that. The shuttle machine would be a great platform for testing out some of my ideas, a 3D interface on a touch screen I think would be a very cool thing.

Well, I spent 90% of today working on my school project. The basic idea is that using 2 images of an object, such as ones you would use in a panaramic photo, you can recover the 3D coordinates of the pixels allowing you to create a 3D model of the object you photographed, solely using the images + a little info on your camera. Most of this extra info is stored in the JPG files by your camera, meaning in most cases you don’t even need extra data. My project, which I took on rather blindly was to write an algorithm that did just this. I have spent most of the last 2 days trying to recover the rotation and translation made by the photographer between taking the photos. I know in principle how I am to obtain this data, but in practice I’m having much more trouble implementing it than I expected. I keep getting near 0 values for my translations and am unable to account for this. Today I made some progress on other aspects of the program, I put in some code to calculate the epipolar lines based on a single input line in one image. This will allow me to produce a bunch of matched points between the images. The problem I will end up with is a bunch of data that will generate the 3D model but not the two tiny pieces that actually make it work. I hope to consult with my professor tomorrow before or after my networks midterm on the subject. The project itself is due tomorrow evening, and I’m scared to death of making a presentation about something I was not able to do.

I noticed today that my network file transfer speeds are way down between my desktop and my server. While moving a 4GB file to my server it took 8min rather than the usual 4 over gigabit. I’m not sure what is going on or how long this has been going on since most of my transfers I start in a VM and leave running in the background. Watching my hard drive activity during these file transfers I noticed that I’m not even touching the drives in any way. HDTach says my server should be pushing nearly 120MB/sec, and I’m getting about 8MB/sec over my gigabit connection right now. My general rule is a Gigabyte transfered per minute. I used to do that without any problem. Unfortunately I have to finish a rather large school project today so I won’t be able to delve in and see if this is a server or client problem until later in the week. I’ll keep you posted.

Well, I’ve had my Kindle for a week and can safely say it is awesome. I will admit there are a few things that I wish were different about it, but overall I’ve very pleased with the device. I finished my first book on it in about 3 days of on and off reading. It’s strange how the pages just seem to fly by. Without the physical book in your hand and the turning of the pages to tell you where you are in the book you never get tired, I think that drives people to read more on the Kindle. Two things that do bother me, the first is the price. As amazing as the Kindle is, for what it can do and what it can’t do I really see it as something worth about $200. One feature I definitely would like to see added is backlighting. Sony finally figured this out with their latest release of their ebook reader. It seems like a no brainer that a perk of an ebook should be the ability to read it in the dark. For me I can read on my iPhone, but I really do prefer the look of the Kindle pages. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to start another book because of finals week and several rather large projects for school. I hope to get some more reading time in with it over spring break.

On a high note, for the first time in a month I have suddenly been motivated to work on some of my projects. For a while I completely had lost interest. I haven’t come up with anything new, but I have a new vigor with which I want to perfect some things I have had “working” for a while. For now, this vigor will have to get me through finals.

So, yesterday I downloaded the Kindle for iPhone app. I must say I am thoroughly impressed by Amazon. For a company to go from a giant reseller to a product producer and to have so many thing thoughtout and working as well as they do is truly quite a feat. Things we have come to expect from Apple like on the iPhone having the music fade out and pause when we receive phone calls and then for it to resume afterwards. These are things that make sense, but were absent from the world of smartphones until Apple came to bat. Now Amazon has barged loudly into the ebook game ready to push the book to the front stage once again, just as they first did when they opened. After playing with the app for only 20min I knew I had to have the real device, and so this morning I cashed out some recent stocks that were only losing money and ordered myself a Kindle 2. It should arrive tomorrow.

One thing I noticed while browsing for Kindle books online only moments ago, is that even though I have not yet received my Kindle Amazon has already registered the device to me and I can start sending books to it right now. How amazing is that!!! To have things so organized as to know that this person ordered a Kindle lets add it to their account for them, no questions necessary. So as soon as I fire it up I can already have content ready for it to sync with. I will definitely write up my thoughts on the device after it arrives. I’m looking forward to reading a lot more in the near future. I can already say that I have read more in the last day with the Kindle for iPhone app than I have in months. It is so convenient to just pull out your phone at lunch while your eating and read through a few pages. Then I’ll be able to use my Kindle later that day and all my current page positions will automatically be sync’d between the devices. I’m very excited.

Well, I got a lot done today. Unfortunately it wasn’t a lot of my stuff that needed to be done. I did however assist Izzie and a friend in a domain migration that went pretty well. I must say though, I was rather appauled when I learned the company had an “IT” guy, but decided to hire out the network administration because their in house guy didn’t really know anything. It scares me to think about the number of corporations out there that are stuck with some IT person that has no idea what they’re doing. The CEO is in a position of not understanding what is being done wrong and the real problems with the method in which things are being carried out in their business. The problem here is that most CEOs are sales and marketing people, which is fine. The problem is they, by their background and ability, are rather impressed with flashy displays and large words. To get a job in such a place, one just needs to throw around a few low level tech terms and you’re in. Whereas the guy who actually understands the terms won’t throw them around in an interview because they would seem out of context and are. There is nothing worse than watching someone throw around a term that they don’t really understand and mis-use it to mean various other things. IT is an interesting field in that there is a term for everything, and there are some terms that mean nearly identical things, but the devil is in the details. Perhaps one term supports 10 users, and the other support 10k. That’s a very important distinction to make.