JDK 1.5, Math Lectures, Weird Stuff, …

I really should not be writing this at this point in time, hmm well for one it’s too close to when I am going to leave, so it is doomed to be left incomplete for a while, also there is Lin Al work I really should complete soon, and hmm well doing it now would make sense. On the other hand I have time after class for doing it, there after all is no lab today evening, and unlike most of Brown I am not going out, so ya, evening, can complete stuff, not an issue. I attended a set of math lectures on Saturday (no I am not the loser who attends math lectures during the weekend, you who don’t are definitely one), given by these really cool people (hmm the two I attended were by people from Princeton and Wellesley), and it was fun. Unusually enough (or rather I picked the lectures I wanted to attend in a way) the two lectures I attended discussed mathematical relations using games, so for instance the first one was about how the game SET has really mathematical rules (OK there’s one rule, so ya, a really mathematical rule) which connect onto geometry, and then onto fourier analysis, and it was beautiful. The second one was by someone from Wellesley on hat games, Nim and perfect codes. It was a brilliant lecture, except that I somehow messed up things once I walked out of the lecture, and had to mail the professor to send me a copy of the presentation, oh well it was really really fun.

Hmm so I am back to complaining about things… For one people don’t make any sense, and they really should categorize themselves into well defined groups which can be understood more easily. Also economics should be easier, not because I am in any economics class, but because it would help with helping people with homework, like it’s really really close to being like math, but it isn’t. They should tell me which summer programs I am accepted for, and all about the math faculty at Caltech, hmm well since I am inspired by a friends away message they should also spell out final solutions to such things as when the damn winter ends. But no that’s minor, well at least it’s a minor concern today, and today is not yesterday or day-before, but no concerns today… Hmm for one Apple should release JDK 1.5/5.0 whichever it may be, like I can see all the beta testing and everything that they need to do, but right now I am ready to settle for a buggy shitty version of Java 1.5 which lets me do Generics, because frankly the people over at the CS Department really haven’t figured out which they want to settle for, making it imperative that I use Eclipse to run 1.5 code. Now what makes it far worse is that Eclipse cannot simply open a file and run it, oh no I have to import stuff in, do fancy things, well I don’t like it, I don’t like being logged onto a CS Department machine while using X forwarding, and I really really hate using Eclipse on X, oh well I hate Eclipse with an undying vengeance, but i am forced to use it, and having JDK 1.5 would be so much simpler, and remove so many of the underlying issues. Yes I know there are people out there who’d tell me I should get Tiger from somewhere, but I honestly do not know whether I wanna have that as my main OS, seeing as I need a computer to survive, I am not sure whether I wanna install it on my iPod, seeing as warnings are out about the hard drive not being designed to take too many read/write cycles, and I am not sure about anything of that kind. This is sad, I haven’t done my CS homework, and for once I haven’t begun on my project simply because starting up means launching Eclipse (did I say I hate both Eclipse and Java 1.5 generics with an undying vengeance), and I don’t wanna do that. Hmm wait a minute I probably can do my project without using generic though I am sure one of the graders would take issue, something about past assignments gives me a feeling they would have problems. I cannot believe where we have gotten to, like last semester the same TAs had no issues with how I wrote my code stylistically, but now they have issues about whether I place my opening ’{’ on a new line or right after method/class/compound statement declaration, which in my opinion makes no sense, I have my way, they have their way. They have issues with having underscores after instance variable names, like what’s with that, for heavens sake, underscores look bad, why should anyone have to have underscores is beyond comprehension, but oh well they like their styles. I have heard a TA talk on about how there was the real world, Java world, and then Klein land, and we were in Klein land and were therefore supposed to design better implementations, and yet have him go on and on about this one implementation he had written down and brought with him. How can any okishly complex program have one single implementation, and seeing as we are allowed to implement any design we want, what’s with this entire thing about designing something as a lab group and then handing that in as a part of our documentation. I don’t know, I can see designing object oriented programs, and how the design phase is important, I can see handing in designs, I can see the entire object ownership issues we have been discussing, I can see documentation, but I honestly cannot see the point of some of the things we have been doing, and I wish it made more sense.

So yes today’s Valentines Day and I am sure there are people out there wondering if I have done anything. Well I haven’t, hmm ok except maybe put up a lil paper bag, and funny looking Shark Tales cards on the nunnery door, that’s like the extent of anything I have done anything. Hmm yup, and a few of my friends fell sick, the flu and all, and then I know of at least one plan which fell through and one which was executed in a weird manner, I guess the flu should chose a better month to strike. Hmm weird… Oh ya so I am looking for math professor’s in Caltech, and while I have never seen anyone from there visit my page, just maybe I’ll get lucky, and someone can tell me about good professors who work on geometry, linear, or abstract algebra, or in number theory, it’d be fun to find out more about people, outside of what I know from umm let’s see looking at math pages, or something, oh well I guess I could get lucky…

Also amongst other interesting things this week, I have shifted writing instruments, or so it would seem, well for the 4^th time it would seem, it’s strange, I guess in someways it’s a regression. Let’s see, I started out with pencils, went to pens, went to a computer (last semester), and am now back to pencils, well OK i went through pens in between, but then I was using pens even alongside the computer, and I am not sure I am gonna stick. Well OK in the forseeable future, it’s probably computer, pen and pencil, though I wanna shift back to computer. Math on computer however means typesetting on TeX, and I am not sure I wanna do that, hmm well I don’t know, choices, choices, choices….

Ze Panda