memoirs on a rainy day

Flickr is publishing some of their API codes (including the flash uploader) on their new code.flickr blog. (via photomatt)

It’s gettting towards the end of the semester here in Quebec, and I’m getting antsy.

I’ve got an oral presentation tomorrow in one of my classes, but I’m getting nervous. I’m not that nervous, since I have taught groups of 30 4th graders, but still… I’m a bit nervous. This morning, I woke up at around 6AM, unable to sleep anymore. I think that I was tossing and turning since 5AM.

Part of the day was taken up by coding our last homework in Numerical Analysis. My partner was absent, so I coded for a few hours by myself. I’ve been told that he’s completed his part and I’m anxious to combine them. The assignment is due on Friday.

I’ve got a small test on Thursday in Analysis I. I want to take most of the evening to study. Since I only start classes at 10:30AM, I’ll have part of the morning as well. The test is on mathematical series. It’s perfect practice for the exam next

I’m still amazed at the whole CamelBak and Crystal Castles incidents on my blog. I’d like to say that the Crystal Castles isn’t really my business, though I commented on it and based my opinions from other sources. I’d just like to mention that I’ve been listening to Crystal Castles non-stop since I posted my blog, so maybe that means there is no bad promotion, right? (I really like their music too!)

Git and Ruby tutorials.

I freaking hate that the Windows shortcuts aren’t emulated in Linux. WTF. It’s like a reflex to use them in Linux. I’m always surprised when I save a file with CTRL+S it doesn’t save. CTRL+X, CTRL+V don’t work either. WTF.

I must have wasted 10 minutes on shit like that this afternoon while I was programming some numerical integrals with the Simpson 1/3 method. This method is of the 4th [O(h^4)] order. We used a Richardson Extrapolation to gain two more magnitudes of order. Time matters when you are doing a 45 minute lab and that at the end of the lab, you have to hand in your programs.

We spent another 20-25 minutes trying to figure out what the problem was with our program. We had some syntax errors. The if statement had the semi-colon at the wrong place. Otherwise, I would have finished this lab in about 20 minutes flat.

My partner was sick, so I was stuck doing most of it myself. He was in class, but his frequent trips to the bathroom weren’t helping him do any coding.

I’ve been pretty busy today writing up applications and proposals for the Google Summer of Code. I’ve got about four applications down. I’ll write a few more in the coming hours. I have until 5PM tomorrow to complete them. Most of the projects are above my coding expertise. However there are a few research projects that are very interesting.

I’ll be happy if I get selected, but I’m not getting my hopes up. There must be thousands of applicants and only 1500 bursars. I’m just a bit miffed that WordPress hasn’t got that many project ideas. I think that I’ll still propose an idea of mine to WordPress. Most of them involve a lot of coding. I don’t know how I feel about that. Still, I would like to work for WordPress through Google.

It’s really powerful that you can be anywhere in the world and code for the Summer of Code. I find that interesting. I wanted to apply last year, but missed the deadline. At least this time, I’ll have a few proposals submitted. I’ve checked and I haven’t found that many pure math projects either. It’s too bad. There must be a lot of ideas for that. I’ll try to pitch a few, but I think that those kinds of proposals need more time to polish.

I just ran out of time with the looming end of semester.

Speaking of code, I’m starting to really like the WP dashboard. It’s really faster and better than the old one. I’ve already gotten used to it enough to no longer miss the old one. There are tons of little new tweaks that I really like.

Writing these proposals is mentally exhausting.

I agree with Kottke and Adrian Lai, this flash generated girl is creepy.

I went to bed at 9PM last night and woke up at my usual 6:30AM. I was totally out of it most of the day. The previous night’s and that same day’s coding in MATLAB had taken its toll. I started to feel awake after I taught my class at 4PM. I arrived home and got a surprising call from a friend who wanted to have dinner at his house for my birthday which is coming up this weekend. I hadn’t really planned on doing anything, but I was happily surprised.

Innocean is a nicely designed corporate site from Korea. (via cpluv)

The Amazon Mechanical Turk is a crowdsourcing marketplace. (wiki)

Starling and asynchrous tasks in Ruby on Rails.