Today I worked more on my part of the UCF Robotics Team Vision System. In fact, I was up until 10:30 PM working on it. Of course, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided that the pictures comming in from the DirectX camera camera should be upside down and in the format BRG (not the standard RGB). Took me while to figure that one out! After I succeeded in hooking up the camera input to the system, I decided to turn in.
Today I was going to go to a Bible Study, but totally lost the directions. After driving around for a while trying to remember them, I finally gave up. I was not happy! On the bright side, I was able to work more on Simply KoolB. I’m getting closer to an alpha release.
I am getting over most of my cold, although I still have a nagging cough. Hopefully I’ll be 100% well by the end of the week. Anyhow, my first week at school went pretty well. I’m taking Physics, Chemistry, Calc II, and Engineering. Physics seems like it will be the hardest.
Happy New Year’s everybody! I wish everybody a much better year than last year (which for some of us in Florida wasn’t that good). Today I started school. I’m taking Intro to Computer Engineering, Semiconducting Devices, Networks and Systems, and Dynamics. Lots of fun, let me tell you. As one of my friends says: I’m ready for summer! On another note, I’m leaving Wednesday for Washington, D.C. for a conference. I actually have to present for 4 minutes – I think I’d much rather be in class!
Happy New Years everybody! A few days ago I got a bad cold, so I hope everybody is doing better than I am! I hope this new year will be productive for everybody!
Well, today I started to read my 628 page book entitled Case Based Reasoning. I have to read it by the beginning of January. Nothing quite like procrastinating, is there?
I also downloaded ObjectDock, a really cool taskbar replacement. Its just like the MacOS X dock, only cooler! You can add ‘docklets’, custom little programs that run in the dock, like weather updates and battery status. You can even download the SDK and program your own! Check it out at www.objectdock.com
It has been nice to just relax at home doing almost nothing. I’ve been playing more with KoolB & the IDE. I had to cut back on the IDE because it went over 1,000 lines, but everything is all in nice shape. Now for some documentation and an installer…
I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas and are going to have a Happy New Year!
I’m finally home from UCF. I’ve spent 8-12 hour days working on our UCF Robotics BlackKnight vision system. You can see what I’ve done at http://robotics.ucf.edu/projects.html. I wrote the app you see on the bottom, with the picture of the cone and grass. Lots of work! Anyhow, I’ll probably be wroking more on KoolB this Christmas.
Whew! Been a while since I’ve updated this site…been busy with end of the semster activities..AKA finals. I hope everybody has had a good Thanksgiving and are getting into the Christmas spirit! Just because I haven’t been doing much publicly doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. Expect some code to be released soon!
Finished my Ukraine Agriculture paper & gave the presentation. Glad to have that finished!
Whew! I got a last minute plea to give a presentation on “Exploring Your Future” to a bunch of middle schoolers. I had basically a day to write a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation describing how to prepare to be an engineering student. It went reasonably well, actually. Now I’m exahusted…bed…zzzzz.
Today I received a lovely letter from somebody who will remain anonymous that told me how great my Resources section is. Of course, at the time Resources was a blank page. However, the someobdy who will remain anonymous got his/her wish and there are some web development resources up now.
Today I completely bombed my Calc I test. I am NOT looking forward to getting the grade on that!
Arg! I dislike long, drawn out math problems. I spent 2.5 hours solving a grand total of 3 problems. I hope I can do better than that tomorrow on the test!
At the suggestion of Jared, I made the navigation menu a little shorter to accomodate visitors with small screens. Let me know if you like/dislike it.
I finally broke down and got a hair-cut. It feels much better – now I can go for another couple of months.
My family came to town and we went to see Luther in theaters. Surprisingly, it was quite good! I would recommend it to most anybody. It does an excellent job of showing how the Protestand Reformation sparked off not only religous freedom, but the beginning of modern history.
Yes! Chapter 2 is finished! Read it to get ready to start building a real compiler in the next chapter. Learn how compilers & interpreters work and set up all the tools you need (C++ compiler, assembler, etc).
Friday, Oct. 17, 2003 (Late)
Been attending the UCF Robotics team the last month or so. We are finally forming groups and I’ve decided to help with the vision system. So I’m going to be up to my ears in pixels and graphics!
Whew! I spent a solid week trying to build a pasta bridge for my engineering class competition. We used lasagna, fettuccine, and tube noodles and melted sugar to build a standard arch bridge. Although not terribly strong, it looked like a bridge…unlike most of the other contestants. We got our picture taken, actually! Anyhow, our bridge weight 371 grams and held 2,200 grams, so it held nearly 7 times its weight! Not bad…but not particularly good, either!
Today is my sister’s birthday…sweet sixteen! So I sent her an online card and a knitted penguin. That’s why there hasn’t been much activity…I’ve been up at 2 AM knitting like old grandma used to do. Anyhow, the Compiler Tutorial is comming along. Chapter 1 is in final form, just need to convert it to a couple more formats. Expect it soon!
Well, it took almost an entire day, but I managed to add a print link to the pages. This way you can swap between a page optimized for navigation and one optimized for printing. The only difference is the left navigation bar goes away on the print version.
Well, my parents and grandparents came for a visit and we had a lot of fun. On a more serious note, I started to work on the Compiler Tutorial section. Still have a lot of work to do, but you can see most of the first chapter.
Whew! I survived the first round of mid-mid term exams & quizes. Now for a relaxing weekend with my family (its family weekend at UCF). Oh, yeah, updates for the website. Right, Brian…
Official unveiling of the site. Nothing works except some of my Academic pages. Specifically, most of my Resource Geography notes are online for the test tomorrow.
Yes, I love it! They gave my group the wrong co-ordinate in my Intro to Engineering class, so we wandered around in the woods with a GPS for hours! Ahh, the joys of being an engineer!