As you may have noticed, I’ve been rather quiet over the past several months. That is because I’ve been spending the vast majority of my time on a somewhat unique project. I haven’t mentioned this project much on the public internet because I didn’t want to start the project with extremely high expectations and then never post about the work being done. However, after starting this project at the end of May 2010 my friends and I have come a long way. My goals are in sight and progress is being made every day.
Rest assured that there will be write-ups and many photos from throughout the process. And yes, I am being very vague.
For now I’ll leave you with the above image. My friends already know what is going on, and I will reveal details on the internet once the project is “Live.”
College, Computers, Projects
This took me a little while to figure out, so I’ve decided to post what ended up working for me in case it could save someone time. I have a server running Ubuntu 10.10 (though this should also work for 10.04) with a Highpoint Rocket Raid 2680. After getting the card working I learned that you must have a parition on the hard drives you plan to use, otherwise the raid card will not pass the drive on to the operating system. If this happens, you can go into the bios configuration for the card and initialize the hard drive that doesn’t show up in the OS.
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College, How To
I got a new tablet computer / netbook last week for taking notes in class. I really like this tablet, but it has a few quirks that really need to be ironed out. I’ll get to the complaints in a moment.
The first thing I noticed about this computer once it arrived is that it is very small and very light. It has an 8.9 inch LED backlit display and weighs around 2lbs; it is very portable. It only has 32GB of hard drive space, of which the operating system accounts for nearly half. Asus makes up for the small drive by having TWO SD card slots, which is wonderful. One of the slots is protected by a semi-permanent cover and is labelled “Expansion Slot” while the other slot is the more traditional front facing open access design. Both slots are spring loaded.
They key asset that this netbook leverages is that Read more…
College, Computers
War has changed by leaps and bounds in the past decade due to the introduction of truly inexpensive robotics technology. War no longer requires sending a human soldier into a hostile battlefield. Robots that cost only a few thousand dollars are now able to engage enemies either with assistance from a human remote operator or even completely autonomously. If a machine were to be destroyed during a mission there are few repercussions for the force that owned the machine, other than the need to order a replacement. This contrasts greatly to wartimes in the past where casualties resulted in funerals and grieving families. As the use of mechanized soldiers increases, humans will no longer be required on the front line, causing the removal of all moral judgment from military actions.
The force with the best machines has Read more…
College
essay, Robots, war
In order to use the wireless internet you have to get the settings from their website. Good job guys.
College
internet, network, WiFi
WikiCollege.info is now up and running. Wiki College is designed to act as a universal study guide for college students. While many students use wikipedia to help study for their classes I thought that it might be useful to have as much information as possible available in one location. Eventually Wiki College should be able to go through classes chapter by chapter and effectively teach the subject, much like a textbook. While content is currently in short supply, content is being added quickly. The beauty of using a wiki as a platform for this type of site is that anyone can post questions, respond to others, and add content for everyone else to view and learn from.
College
website, Wiki College
Even a hundred years after this story was written, mankind (as a whole) still does not have a healthy respect for nature. We have created immensely powerful machines that can literally change the face of the earth, but at the same time we are still dependent on the very planet we are pillaging in order to stay alive. Our polluting of the planet is comparable to the man’s disregard for the cold weather. We ignore warning signs, similar to his spit turning to ice in the air, and proceed onward in our path of self-destruction until nature forces us to stop. Jack London was attempting to warn humanity about being so secure in our knowledge that we disregard all warnings and charge forward with our god-like powers, only to destroy ourselves in the process.
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College
College, English, essay
The United States of America is more resistant to terrorist attacks than ever before because of recent policies, inducing the Bush Doctrine and The Patriot Act, but the huge economic and social consequences may negate many long term benefits. Our military has deployed troops to several different countries in order to combat terrorist groups. Without this military action, it is extremely likely that terrorism would have been a much larger threat than it is today. The troops have done an admirable job defending us from the hostile terrorist forces, and many Americans are no longer concerned with the possibility of dying in a terrorist attack. There has not been a major terrorist attack on American soil since September 11th 2001. Our government has spent vast sums of money to attempt to make sure that an event of that magnitude never happens again. In order to reduce the risk of such attacks, many ethically questionable policies have become standard practice. One such policy is the Patriot Act, which allows for warrant-less wiretapping, reading online communications, and adding citizens to do-not-fly lists, to name a few. Although the country as a whole is safer from terrorist attacks because of these measures, the cost for this added safety negatively impacts our civil liberties, domestic preparedness, and economics, which is more than citizens should be reasonably expected to bear.
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College
College, war
For an assignment in my health class I was to keep very close track of what I ate over the span of 3 days and then use the site My Pyramid Tracker to keep track of my diet. It turns out that I did better than most Americans, I just need to eat more vegetables.
I found this assignment interesting even though I did not learn much from it that I did not already know. Basically it confirms that I drink enough milk, eat an adequate amount of fruit and meat, and that I need more vegetables. My sodium intake, unlike most Americans, is, on average, within it’s limits. The average sodium intake for the 3 days is 2145mg, which is below the 2300mg limit. Basically if I were to simply add more vegetables to my diet I would be in good shape. Now if only vegetables tasted better…
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College
College, food, health
In the not-so-distant future dwindling crude oil production capability will cause economic devastation on a large scale. This is not what I personally believe will happen, but what could be considered a worse case scenario. Peak Oil is a theory that was introduced in 1956 by Marion King Hubbert that is used to accurately predict the rate of oil extraction of a single oil well, oil field, region, country, and most recently applied to the entire world. Peak Oil is defined as the idea that the rate of oil extraction from a well follows a bell curve, starting off slow when the well is first discovered, rising exponentially as more equipment is used to extract the oil, reaching a peak, and then equally as quickly declining in output due to the increased difficulties of lower pressure, lower quality of oil, and other such issues. This is a proven concept on the individual oil well, field, region, and nation oil production level.
For the purpose of this essay it is assumed that the theory of peak oil applies to global production rates as well. It is a common misconception that reaching peak oil means that the world is running out of oil. In reality, that is far from the truth. Peak oil simply means that the maximum production RATE of oil has been reached, and then irreversibly declines from that point on. This would have a disastrous effect on the world.
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College
essay, peak oil
