Categories
technology

Purchasing the Right Mouse

Low motivation to do schoolwork and being caught up in work caused me to spend an hour and a half of researching about computer mice this evening*. The result is a feeling of satisfaction, decent knowledge of mice, and 3 notifications on slickdeals for mice that I will instantly buy. Like most things I do, […]

Categories
personal

The Perfect System for Grading Problem Sets

I have been TA-ing for Computer Science theory classes for the past 3 quarters, and the work is mostly grading. The assignments are almost all problem sets where students write proofs to show that an algorithm works, how to solve a particular type of problem, or something of that sort. I have mostly avoided needing […]

Categories
personal

Supporting brick and mortar stores

I was raised on shopping malls. Living in the surburbs of sprawling metropolitan areas my entire childhood meant being brought along on various trips. My mom would often deposit me at the bookstore, or better yet, the toy store, while she went off and took care of real shopping. During that time, I became familiar […]

Categories
technology

How to Be a Secure Computer User (Within the Bounds of Convenience)

It’s an old paradox to wonder why there are any doctors that smoke. It’s somewhat hypocritical, but mostly just confusing that the people who know the most about the effects of smoking should partake in it as well. I would like to say that I know better, but until a few days ago, I didn’t. […]

Categories
blogging

How I Blog

I really enjoy blogging. I also really enjoying talking about how much I enjoy blogging. Because of the few comments I get, I’m always surprised whenever my blog comes up in conversation, and I always take the opportunity to gush about it. The amount I have to say about it has indicated to me that […]

Categories
food personal

Appreciating the Best

This past Friday, I went with the Zanbato team up to San Francisco for a sendoff dinner for Mark, who will be headed off to Africa. Partying isn’t quite my domain, much less heading up to the city to do it. The real lure for me to see Mark off instead of just being extra-nice […]

Categories
technology

If We’re Moving Classes Online, Where Are They Leaving From?

There’s been a recent trend of moving opening up coursework to the world on the internet. The first steps towards this happened a few years ago with resources such as iTunes U and OCW, where recorded lectures and notes were made available online. This trend, however, has taken the next step as university courses in […]

Categories
psychology technology

Using the Web to Make Academic Work Useful

For several stretches of several academic school years, I have allowed my class-related work to become my blog content. Sometimes it’s more natural, such as the final essay for Creative Nonfiction, and sometimes it’s less natural, such as short critiques for Moral Philosophy. Most of my motivation for posting this work is pure laziness: it’s […]

Categories
essay

Why Campaign Rules Turn Politicians and Voters into Bad People

You can find it after the jump to TUSB. I would’ve posted it here, but it’s something I genuinely want feedback on, so I figured I would try to hit a bigger audience. Let me know what you think.

Categories
New Year's Goals

New Year’s Hopes: 2012 Edition

Another year, another set of hopes. In case you’re not familiar with this series, my Hopes are like Resolutions, except without the resolve part. I’m not too committed, and therefore basically unable to fail. If that doesn’t quite make sense, you can follow the chain back from last year’s post and look at other explanations […]