Speckled Green

Well, it’s the holidays again, the Australian English dictionary for Firefox hasn’t been updated yet, and most of you are still stuck in school =P

Regardless of that, I think now is the time to catch up on article reading, the pursuit of trivial knowledge and checking out and editing a heap of articles for the Baulko Bulletin. Oh, and going through the forums to read up on everything I may have missed, and making sure there’s nothing offensive on there that we have to deal with. Read more »

Well, I’m gonna try and post more often, even if it’s about little things or just small posts, but I really lack the heart to talk about much. I like to keep to myself, or more accurately, I’m an introvert and I like listening to people rather than speaking out.

Don’t worry, I do speak out sometimes, just not a lot.

But right now, I’m impatiently waiting for Firefox 4 to come finishing testing and finally release. It’s going to be wonderfully better than Firefox 3.6, which was amazingly better than Firefox 2… But before that, there’s school work to get done, so now I shall return to revising a year’s worth of Maths which I barely remember and relearning the entire Yr 11 HSC Chemistry course (because I didn’t pay attention in class). Speaking of school subjects, I feel like dropping Music 2 because of a combination of reasons (advice from piano teacher based on experience from AMEB exams and his other students, my own experience and my mum’s advice from her quite recent days of studying at Uni and getting in the top 10 in her MRT course at USyd), however I also feel like dropping Chem (because I didn’t pay attention last year!! STUPID!!) and SDD (because the syllabus and the teacher annoys me greatly). But if I drop something, I’d only have 11 units, and I have to get signed consent from all the heads of departments regarding this (because my school strongly believes in you having 12 units as a safe minimum, and I understand their reasoning), and I really can’t be bothered with this. However, I also can’t see myself bothering with the immense amount of practise and work I need to do as well as I want in HSC Music 2…

Anyways, I’ll pray to God about it, and ask him what he believes is best. And continue to ask my teachers for their advice.

TTFN!! Ta Ta For Now!

P.S. Now why did I type all that up?

Well, it’s been a while since I last did an actual blog post (from the beginning of the month I believe). In all honesty, not too much of interest has really happened since then. I’ve been going to school, having a relatively normal school year. I’ve been considering dropping Music 2 (advice from my Piano teacher has basically made up my mind: it’s almost pointless for me to ‘try’ to continue in Music 2 when I’m not really trying in the first place, especially when looking at my previous attempts at ‘trying’ in music exams… 8th Grade AMEB piano exam comes to mind), I’ve gone to the only 2 sessions of Soul Purpose this year, I’ve seen the Encore concert (OH MY GOODNESS!! I ENVY THAT FLUTE PLAYER’S SKILL SO MUCH!!! HE DEFINITELY DESERVES TO BE PERFORMING AT ENCORE!), and I’ve spent only 5 days at school in week 3 & 4 (aka, last two weeks) because of camp, excursions and swimming carnival.

My brother has acquired a few new games (MA15+ meant that I had to purchase them for him =] ) and secretly been playing them while my mum’s not home. I myself have been enjoying the last few days of my Star Trek Online subscription before I don’t have it to play on, and I get stuck back into work work work (in reality, I barely get a chance to play it any more =[ but I’d most certainly go and buy a lifetime subscription for it after my HSC! Great work Cryptic studios!), and yes, I’ve been playing a MMORPG, like people play World of Warcraft (WoW), but hey, I’ve played Runescape in the past (still touch it every so often), and that’s an MMORPG, one of the 1st free ones I’ll point out.

Now, I’ve lost track of what I was going to talk about. I’ll just start talking about UIs. For my SDD major work, due early next term (yeah, I’ve really got to start on that), I’m gonna be writing my first real useable program that isn’t a console screen… good luck to myself! And I’ve been wondering about my blog’s theme. There are a few things I should probably change about it… Oh, and I was also wondering about the ergonomics and usability of the LCARS OS from the original lot of Star Trek (ST:TNG onwards), what with it being all black screen with white/coloured text and coloured buttons with its funny layout methods (remembering that it was originally designed for a Sci-Fi tv show, and was meant to look like it worked on a technology way beyond the tech of the 1980′s when the show was made, and later 1990′s and early 2000′s, I guess it makes sense). Anyways, I’ve seen some very nice versions of it around the web, and I was interested in creating a mash-up of some of its features with current UI ideas/designs/techniques/norms for my blog design. Anyways, I can deal with that on my drawing boards (that is, my book in which I draw up my ideas).

Got to get back to work now!! Hope this blog post keeps you occupied for at least 1 minute!

TTFN!! Ta Ta For Now!

Time for the seemingly weekly Friday post I’ve been doing for the previous two weeks. Umm.. what can I talk about… Well, it’s the end of Week 7 of term 4 of 2010 (meaning just 1 week & 2 days until exams…), and I’m really starting to be worried. The tension is killing me. Why couldn’t life be simpler??

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is being addictive, and I want to finish the story, although finding all 101 Borgia flags seems too much of a drag, so I’ll just leave that alone till I have more time (and a lot more patience). Meanwhile… It’s kinda weird, this feeling of being on edge all the time, remembering the half a million assignments and assessment tasks ahead of me, it’s probably a bad way to think right now, but it’s also the only way for me to remember the ‘seriousness’ of this last year of secondary schooling…
Anyhows, this post from the ‘QuickPress’ box on the wordpress dashboard is getting long enough, and I’m intrigued to see how the formatting goes for this.

EDIT: How do you like this redesign/refinement of the theme?? It was worked out in two sessions, but spaced apart by about 6 months, so it’s like 2 days worth of work over 6 months… yeah, my productivity is odd =]  Don’t worry, there’s still more work to be done on the theme (like I lined out in the ‘Roadmap’), however, I probably should reschedule the AJAX ideas to halfway through uni, whatever year that might be (2013?), when I’ve finally decided to read up on AJAX methods and manipulation.

TTFN!! Ta Ta For Now!

I was thinking about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood which came out recently, and how it was effectively a Assassin’s Creed 2.5, and I thought back to how I became interested in the Assassin’s Creed series. Essentially, I thought the first game had an intriguing storyline and a fancy gameplay. I only really played it to enjoy a different game and to say I played it. However, when AC2 came out, it became a different story. Working on their marvellous previous game, Ubisoft Montreal (a subdivision of Ubisoft) built a new, more advanced game engine, and it was what brought me into the game. The graphics, the cityscape, the new features and game play, the ever expanding immersive  story, they all combined to draw me into a new exciting (or so I feel) series. So, when AC:B (or AC2.5) came out, I wasn’t sure what to think of it: it’s made some improvements, added a few new features (e.g. multiplayer), and continues the story line. I guess I’m gonna buy it like I buy the Halo series, because I like the story, and I like the game play. Why am I talking of this on my blog instead of something about my life? Well, in a way I guess it is part of my life (my brother plans on purchasing AC:B as soon as he can), and I don’t really feel like talking about much else in my currently unexciting life. Oh, and I decided on having Ant Hill on the back of my jersey (with Harry on the front, to amuse some of my friends who suggested something similar). Time to get back to my overly busy homework schedule which I’m not keeping to very well…. =[

P.S. what do you guys think of the changes to the theme I’ve made?? Personally I like it (duh, I made it), probably mostly because it looks different to the previous one, no other reason than that. I’d probably change 2 colours on it next year and like that more instead, also just because it’s different. I’m trying to follow my ‘roadmap of sorts’ in progression of ‘features’ in it (e.g. I’m currently calling it version 1.0.3, with plans to have a working 404 error page by version 1.0.5 and yes, I’m doing my development in stages like that… I wonder what kind of software development approach I’m using… little documentation, lots of prototypes… probably Rapid Application Development. See, I am learning something in 2 unit Minecraft… er, I mean 2 unit Software Design & Development. =P

Well, I know that there are many new things I’ll experience in life, but these yearly exams are just totally stressing me!! Oh, and I’ve tried a iPod Touch 4th Gen, and it looks and feels so awesome. It’s not just that it is thinner, it even looks and feels thinner! And my first time I’ve seen a retina display, well, let’s just say that it does look like a printed page. More later!

Now I understand why people don’t post much on forums & blogs around exam time. Because you don’t do too much of interest, and because you’re so darn occupied with studying everything. Sometimes I wonder how wise the accelerated subjects students are… they do really well in 1 subject in their HSC because they concentrate solely on it, and then they have less units to worry about the year after during the rest of their HSC.

Anyways, not much is happening in my life, except that this is the last week before my exam-just-about-every-single-day-of-the-exam-weeks yearlies, and I’m stressed, tired, worried and definitely not studying enough. I can just feel the unpreparedness in my mind and heart… and it’s scary. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: it’s just Yr 11. Well, I need to do well now, because it’ll lead on to a trend next year!! I need to make good habits, and so far, they’re not as good as I’d like!

Anyhows, TTFN!! Ta Ta For Now!

Ahh… having to listen to their stupid debates, horrendeous and overly negative ads which don’t tell you anything and lie straight in your face (way to misquote Labour!! You’re worse than the media! Sadly, it’s working…)… I could go on for ages, except I’m starting to grow tired of thinking of this aspect…

I just feel annoyed currently at the Communication’s policies of both parties. I say “YAY for NBN!”, but I also say “You have a good point there” to the Liberals. Whilst installing an independent FTTH system for a National Broadband system is most certainly the best idea there is, the cost of it, and the way it’s being managed (by bureaucrats, the 2nd worse type of managers) probably (and most likely) isn’t. $43 billion??? You sure it’s gonna cost us this much?? How much of it was spent on ‘consultancy’?? about 20%? Because that seems to be all Kevin Rudd ever did.

However, the Liberal’s proposal, spending $6.3 billion to ‘encourage’ the private sector to expand, upgrade and install new services, is the most dismal, lazy and stupid idea I’ve ever heard. Especially as they don’t actually have any plans on how to ‘encourage’ the private sector beyond grants as incentives for rolling out something. They want competition to encourage the rollout of faster and better internet in Australia. What competition?? We only have 22 million people. See what we currently have with competition? Now, tell me what I should expect in 8 years time on the Liberal’s plan. I don’t hear Telstra, Optus or any other telco planning on giving my area Cable or Fiber internet in the next 20 years. Bella Vista has cable internet, and they’re only 600m East of where I live!! Kings Langley has cable internet, and they’re only 400m South West!!!! So what makes you think a few incentives to the tune of a few million each will encourage the only two telcos with the size to do any cable laying are going to give me FTTH for my internet, phone, TV and gaming needs??

Yeah, well I’m done on that. I’m getting bored about yelling about it to the internet. Personally, I’d like to see an amalgamation of all the parties to be in power: the best ideas of all of them, with the worst ones thrown out the window. Unfortunately, that in itself is impossible. So, all I can do is keep on dreaming…

On something completely not related to politics, I would like to invent/develop/create/purchase a collapsible, capacitive multi-touch (4+ points of touch), 19″ OLED widescreen. The technology is available, it’s just stupidly expensive, and no vendor would even consider producing it, so it would have to be a custom order/design. The hardest part would be getting the flexible capacitive OLED screen, especially a 19″ one. Never mind building it, or making sure the thing doesn’t break with the slightest shake. I can forsee many problems with my idea besides those above, but I’d still like to have it. Imagine a 2nd screen you can keep in your bag, multi-touch input, low power, compact and portable. I suppose the bulkiest part would be where you keep the ports and where everything folds into.

EDIT: more raging. When the Liberals suggested increasing the use of wireless internet to cover broadband (woah, wait, you want me to pay $100 a month for 4GB a month?! I can get better on ADSL2+ from Telstra, let alone TPG), they were asked what spectrum they were going to use to deploy it on (people doing Physics will remember that the window for wireless technologies is getting smaller and more crowded). Mr Smith (the Liberal) said they could use the old Analogue TV radio spectrum. Immediately, flags start popping up exclaiming that this guy has no idea what he’s talking about (that, and the fact the this policy was only announced at 11am this very same day, and the press conference this debate was at was at 1pm the same day…)… *FACEPALM*

Anyways, I’d done now. Time to get back to studying =]

TTFN!! Ta Ta For Now!

Still haven’t found my wallet. I have no idea if I misplaced it at school or home (although, after searching around at home, I don’t think it’s there), or if it’s been stolen. It hasn’t turned up after a week, so I’m thinking it’s stolen or definitely misplaced.

Oh, and I did rather badly on the Physics exam on Monday. Got my numbers mixed up and spent too much time trying to check them. I mean, it most definitely would not have 51A as the current if it were a parallel circuit… right? So, that was screwed over…

Oh, and after lunch, I have the UNSW IAC English Comp to do… wow, such great fun. And in Software, Mr. B. decided to enroll us into the National Computer Science School (NCSS) Challenge run by USyd. Yay, fun. Except that he enrolled us in the ‘Advanced’ course. And I don’t really know any proper programming. And the course uses Python. Which I don’t like simply because of its syntax (it’s soo different the the C/C++/C#/PHP syntax I like). So I’m going to have to learn a whole new language, whilst trying to teach myself C#, whilst trying to do all my school work, whilst I want to design and finish my WordPress theme, whilst I want to try and learn the advanced Javascript stuff called AJAX… Yeah, I’m kinda overloading myself XD

Anyways, the Firefox 4.0b2 looks good. The Appstabs are useful… if I could just work out how to keep them there. I need to read into the help files about that… Anyways, I should go now =]

Is that how it’s spelt?? Disoriented? I can’t tell, I’m too lazy too look up a dictionary, but the spell check says it’s correct! Anyways, that’s how I feel. The two weeks of holidays, and then pupil free day before returning to school on a Tuesday instead of a Monday, and then spending most of the day out driving around with my dad or at the Band comp today… it’s just got my mind all muddled up. That and I feel sad at finishing two stories this weekend. I finally finished reading Cardcaptor Sakura (yes, the manga, not the anime. And yes, I know it’s a kid’s one, but hey, I’m allowed to relieve parts of my young childhood aren’t I? Besides, I wanted to know what the story was. When I was a small kid and tried watching the anime series, I missed too many episodes and didn’t understand it. That and the fact that the anime changed many things from the manga). And today I watched the final episode of Monk (season 8) on Channel Ten. Yes, I know, as Kai pointed out to me, that it finished last year (actually the last episode was filmed in 2008), and it’s just taken forever to be aired in Australia, but still, it’s finally finished. After growing up with it, it’s sad to see it ending. I don’t seem to be able to believe that it’s over…

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