Two-sided hypothesis testing.
Probabilities.
Confidence intervals.
Graphs and tables.
Continuous and discrete random variables.
And, of course, tests.
You can't have a math-based course without tests.
Go figure.
In short, I'm sick of math. In short, I look forward to the end of it.
In short, I now escape into the alien-killing world that is Halo2, on Legendary difficulty.
BuhBye.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Free iPods, eh?
Alright, time to air my foolishness. I've been hankerin' for an iPod Touch lately (forget the iPhone, I only need -- er, want, the shiny touch screen). So I went about searching for ways to get one "for free". Silly, I know, but it apparently is possible. For some people anyway. I found a blog that's dedicated to getting free ipods. So, I signed up for FlashiPods4free.com, with a referral account.
Now, I've seen sites like this before, and have even signed up for some, but never got beyond that. They all require you to "complete an offer". While most of the offers are trial accounts on some site, they all, invariably, require a credit card number, and begin charging you a monthly fee when your trial is up, unless you cancel your account. And, of course, they all, invariably, require you to call them to close your account. That is how they make their money, you know: you forget to call before your trial expires, they charge you, you call to cancel, they get $xx.xx.
So anyway, I signed up for this site and started looking through the offers. All of them require you to call to cancel your account, except for the ConsumerDirect.com offer. The CD website claims that you can use a link in your member's section to close your account. Furthermore, you're not actually charged anything (your card is "authorized" for $1, but never actually charged) until the trial period is up. Well. I went back just five days after I signed up, clicked the necessary link, and what does it say? "Please call us at blah-blah-blah to close your account." Um, sorry, did you just lie to me?
Anyway, I postponed the call for a couple days (7-day trial, right?). I call on the seventh day to close my account. The CSR is nice, she says her necessary lines to try to keep me as a customer, then informs me that they did charge me the monthly fee today. While I'm thinking Oh, of course, she then informs me that I'm still within the 30-day moneyback guarantee period. Naturally, my spirits are lifted at this news. We proceed to execute the refund process.
Once you've completed the sponsor's offer, you're supposed to see that status on the iPod site. Here after seven days (it was supposed to credit instantly), I'm still showing no offer completed. However, this particular site has a method to do a "Manual Credit Request", provided you have some proof that you signed up with the sponsor. Fortunately, I kept my ConsumerDirect welcome email for this purpose, and I should be fine on that front.
So, interested in getting a free iPod (or other prize)? Or maybe just wanna help me get an iPod Touch? If so, sign up at FlashiPods4free.com, and complete an offer. That's all I need from you. If you want to go for a prize, too, you can choose a "points" or "referral" account when you sign up. If you're a referral account, you need to refer other people to the site. If you're a points account, you need to complete several offers to accrue the necessary number of points for the prize you want. Still skeptical? Check out Mark's free iPod blog. If you have a question about anything, leave a comment on his blog post, and he'll contact you personal to clear anything up (yes, I did leave a question for him, and yes, we ended up clearing my issue up through AIM).
Now, I've seen sites like this before, and have even signed up for some, but never got beyond that. They all require you to "complete an offer". While most of the offers are trial accounts on some site, they all, invariably, require a credit card number, and begin charging you a monthly fee when your trial is up, unless you cancel your account. And, of course, they all, invariably, require you to call them to close your account. That is how they make their money, you know: you forget to call before your trial expires, they charge you, you call to cancel, they get $xx.xx.
So anyway, I signed up for this site and started looking through the offers. All of them require you to call to cancel your account, except for the ConsumerDirect.com offer. The CD website claims that you can use a link in your member's section to close your account. Furthermore, you're not actually charged anything (your card is "authorized" for $1, but never actually charged) until the trial period is up. Well. I went back just five days after I signed up, clicked the necessary link, and what does it say? "Please call us at blah-blah-blah to close your account." Um, sorry, did you just lie to me?
Anyway, I postponed the call for a couple days (7-day trial, right?). I call on the seventh day to close my account. The CSR is nice, she says her necessary lines to try to keep me as a customer, then informs me that they did charge me the monthly fee today. While I'm thinking Oh, of course, she then informs me that I'm still within the 30-day moneyback guarantee period. Naturally, my spirits are lifted at this news. We proceed to execute the refund process.
Once you've completed the sponsor's offer, you're supposed to see that status on the iPod site. Here after seven days (it was supposed to credit instantly), I'm still showing no offer completed. However, this particular site has a method to do a "Manual Credit Request", provided you have some proof that you signed up with the sponsor. Fortunately, I kept my ConsumerDirect welcome email for this purpose, and I should be fine on that front.
So, interested in getting a free iPod (or other prize)? Or maybe just wanna help me get an iPod Touch? If so, sign up at FlashiPods4free.com, and complete an offer. That's all I need from you. If you want to go for a prize, too, you can choose a "points" or "referral" account when you sign up. If you're a referral account, you need to refer other people to the site. If you're a points account, you need to complete several offers to accrue the necessary number of points for the prize you want. Still skeptical? Check out Mark's free iPod blog. If you have a question about anything, leave a comment on his blog post, and he'll contact you personal to clear anything up (yes, I did leave a question for him, and yes, we ended up clearing my issue up through AIM).
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Garage Sales and eBay
Last week the family went on a foray into the local neighborhood garage sales. I accompanied them, with the hopes of bringing home some "new" computer stuff to play with. I must say I was quite successful. Total results:
I was a bit torn on whether or not to get the Compaq. I decided $25 was an acceptable price for a machine that might make a decent linux server.
The box was originally a bunch of stuff in two boxes, and the guy was asking $2 per item. As I was looking through to see what I thought would be worth $2, he came up and said, "Tell you what, guys, I'll give you both boxes for $10". SOLD! Considering I had seen at least one external hd enclosure and a few (working?) wireless mice.
The XP computer was sitting inside the owner's garage, not easily visible from the street. And the sign on it indicated that it had been marked down from $25. And, yes, when I got home, XP notified me that I had 28 days to register my copy. Oops. Oh, well, linux works just fine.
Now, back to the box. When I started actually looking through it, I found all sorts of goodies. Two working external 3.5" hd enclosure, two working 2.5" enclosures, several camera card readers, four wireless mice (two working, two non), two Geek Squad flash drives (1GB working, 2GB not), and a few other items. But the major find was an iGo Stowaway, a bluetooth fold-up keyboard for your PDA or smartphone. At time of writing, if you market it right, it can go for as much as $60, including priority mail shipping. So, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to recoup my entire costs from the garage sale with one eBay sale. Cool or what?
If you're interested, I've also put some of the other items I'm not interested in up for auction. Here's a link: eternicode's eBay auctions. Before clicking through, though, be sure to check the date on this post; the auctions have a little less than two days left. I may also put some of the card readers up there, so watch out for those, too.
- Compaq tower/monitor/peripherals, 900MHz, ~15GB hd w/ Win98, 256MB, and an extra 8GB hd - $25
- Older tower/monitor/peripherals, 866MHz, 10GB w/ unregistered copy of WinXP, 512MB, and an 80GB hd installed - $15
- Big box of electronic goodies - $10
I was a bit torn on whether or not to get the Compaq. I decided $25 was an acceptable price for a machine that might make a decent linux server.
The box was originally a bunch of stuff in two boxes, and the guy was asking $2 per item. As I was looking through to see what I thought would be worth $2, he came up and said, "Tell you what, guys, I'll give you both boxes for $10". SOLD! Considering I had seen at least one external hd enclosure and a few (working?) wireless mice.
The XP computer was sitting inside the owner's garage, not easily visible from the street. And the sign on it indicated that it had been marked down from $25. And, yes, when I got home, XP notified me that I had 28 days to register my copy. Oops. Oh, well, linux works just fine.
Now, back to the box. When I started actually looking through it, I found all sorts of goodies. Two working external 3.5" hd enclosure, two working 2.5" enclosures, several camera card readers, four wireless mice (two working, two non), two Geek Squad flash drives (1GB working, 2GB not), and a few other items. But the major find was an iGo Stowaway, a bluetooth fold-up keyboard for your PDA or smartphone. At time of writing, if you market it right, it can go for as much as $60, including priority mail shipping. So, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to recoup my entire costs from the garage sale with one eBay sale. Cool or what?
If you're interested, I've also put some of the other items I'm not interested in up for auction. Here's a link: eternicode's eBay auctions. Before clicking through, though, be sure to check the date on this post; the auctions have a little less than two days left. I may also put some of the card readers up there, so watch out for those, too.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
IRC Amusement
I normally leave an IRC chat window open all the time on FreeNode channel #web. Imagine my amusement when I find this little tidbit on my idling client:
Names blotted out to protect the guilty XD
Names blotted out to protect the guilty XD
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Stupid computer design
My sister has a Dell Latitude C600. Naturally, I'm the family tech support.
Now, the C600 has one major flaw: it comes with only one, unsecured, integrated USB port. Well, it's secured, if you call "secured" tied to the motherboard through the four pins that it sends data through. Recently, this USB port became loose. Then it stopped working. Turns out that, when it was loose, the jiggling broke one of the four pins that connected it to the computer, rendering the port itself completely useless.
The computer has two PCMCIA CardBus slots, arranged in one-on-top-of-the-other fashion. One of these (the bottom one, naturally) has been taken up by an Ethernet adapter that, in turn, blocks the top slot. Our first solution to the USB port problem was "buy a cardbus card!". It would be nice, since my sister is madly in love with her Wacom graphite tablet, but would be even better if she could do the USB and ethernet at the same time. So we bought a 4-port USB card and a strange-looking USB-to-Ethernet adapter.
It works, but the 4-port USB card requires additional power to work at all. Guess where it gets this power? From a power cord, which came with it, that plugs into an existing USB port. And, with the one USB port on the notebook gone (yeah, I snapped it out...oops), the only way this'll work is if the power cord plugs into another computer's USB port.
Fortunately, we have two other computers (a desktop at the same area she frequently works in, and my notebook which is usually with me at class, etc) which she can plug into. Unfortunately, this ties the two major things she does with her computer to an existing computer with a free USB port.
I hate old technology.
Now, the C600 has one major flaw: it comes with only one, unsecured, integrated USB port. Well, it's secured, if you call "secured" tied to the motherboard through the four pins that it sends data through. Recently, this USB port became loose. Then it stopped working. Turns out that, when it was loose, the jiggling broke one of the four pins that connected it to the computer, rendering the port itself completely useless.
The computer has two PCMCIA CardBus slots, arranged in one-on-top-of-the-other fashion. One of these (the bottom one, naturally) has been taken up by an Ethernet adapter that, in turn, blocks the top slot. Our first solution to the USB port problem was "buy a cardbus card!". It would be nice, since my sister is madly in love with her Wacom graphite tablet, but would be even better if she could do the USB and ethernet at the same time. So we bought a 4-port USB card and a strange-looking USB-to-Ethernet adapter.
It works, but the 4-port USB card requires additional power to work at all. Guess where it gets this power? From a power cord, which came with it, that plugs into an existing USB port. And, with the one USB port on the notebook gone (yeah, I snapped it out...oops), the only way this'll work is if the power cord plugs into another computer's USB port.
Fortunately, we have two other computers (a desktop at the same area she frequently works in, and my notebook which is usually with me at class, etc) which she can plug into. Unfortunately, this ties the two major things she does with her computer to an existing computer with a free USB port.
I hate old technology.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Contact your Senators, ask them to oppose ENDA
The AFA has sent out an email to their subscribers today alerting us that the ENDA has made it past the US House, and is going to be voted on soon in the Senate. This bill is a piece of homosexual activism, and essentially will result in the government reaching its hand into private businesses and mandating that employers set aside their personal religious convictions when choosing who to hire. The email:
Don't let this bill make it past the Senate. Email your senators and ask them to oppose the ENDA. AFA's even been kind enough to write a response for you, and give you the capabilities to edit it. All you need to do is sign it and click "send".
Believe it or not, one email can make a difference.
If you're interested in reading the bill yourself, it's available online. Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and do a Bill search for "HR 3685". At time of writing, the most recent version is "Placed on Calendar in Senate".
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) has passed the U.S. House and Senator Edward Kennedy is now leading the push for a vote in the U.S. Senate. ENDA is aimed at providing heightened protections for a particular sexual behavior - homosexuality. It would grant special consideration on the basis of "sexual orientation" that would not be extended to other employees in the workplace.
ENDA violates employers' and employees' Constitutional freedoms of religion, speech and association. The proposed legislation would prohibit employers from taking their deeply held beliefs into account when making personnel decisions. This would pose an unprecedented intrusion by the federal government into people's lives.
ENDA would approvingly bring private behavior considered immoral by many into the public square. By declaring that all sexual preferences are equally valid, ENDA would change national policy supporting marriage and family.
It's obvious that the real agenda behind the innocuously named Employment Non-Discrimination Act is a push to enshrine homosexuality in national policy. This dangerous legislation would dramatically expand the government's reach into your work place and create unnecessary work-place conflicts and lawsuits. ENDA is a sweeping employer mandate to create special new legal protections based on "sexual orientation" (or "perceptions").
Don't let this bill make it past the Senate. Email your senators and ask them to oppose the ENDA. AFA's even been kind enough to write a response for you, and give you the capabilities to edit it. All you need to do is sign it and click "send".
Believe it or not, one email can make a difference.
If you're interested in reading the bill yourself, it's available online. Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and do a Bill search for "HR 3685". At time of writing, the most recent version is "Placed on Calendar in Senate".
About
This will be my personal blog, spanning topics from politics, to religion, to randomness, to rants, to ... um ... well, anything I think to blurt out at a given time. I may be uninformed at times, and I welcome corrections through comments, emails, or any other means through which you care to contact me. Just keep it PG; I appreciate clean language. And, no, f*** and s*** are NOT PG.
For politics, you may disagree with me. Fine. Just keep the language PG.
I'll leave commenting on posts completely open (so people can post anonymously) with the exception of a captcha image for anti-bot verification. I do reserve the right to delete any comment I deem worthy for whatever reason I see fit. Including "cuz I felt like it".
Posting will not be regular. It may not be sparse. It'll be whenever something pops into my mind that I want to get written out. If you like technology and want regular posts, check out TechKnack.
With that, let the fun begin...
For politics, you may disagree with me. Fine. Just keep the language PG.
I'll leave commenting on posts completely open (so people can post anonymously) with the exception of a captcha image for anti-bot verification. I do reserve the right to delete any comment I deem worthy for whatever reason I see fit. Including "cuz I felt like it".
Posting will not be regular. It may not be sparse. It'll be whenever something pops into my mind that I want to get written out. If you like technology and want regular posts, check out TechKnack.
With that, let the fun begin...
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