Since active coding (other than basic fix-er-ups) is on hiatus while Dr. M and our Regressions Guy (it’s funny when you go to a school so small that there’s a single person in the Math Dept. that is an expert on regression analysis) attempt to isolate a method to estimate the error with the model we’re using, I’m hitting the documentation hella hard until a solution is reached. I want it to be as near iron-clad as I can get it. I’m at something of an impasse, however–how do people write documentation systems? Obviously, I can create a user’s guide and a developer’s guide in HTML (or maybe using a…

I remembered yesterday why I want to be a computer scientist. It seems bad to me that I, known for (among other things) my intense focus and determination, lost my way for two years. I didn’t do a bit of real programming, no design, no new languages, nothing other than idly tweaking others’ programs to make them work on my system or on my website. After the hair-raising C++ project of junior year, I wanted nothing to do with conventional programming. Never would I sit and peck at a keyboard eight hours a day hacking on some big system, trying to implement new features or fix old ones. Who was…

Yeah, so, I’m at work on a Saturday. Which is quite alright, because this means I have Internet, and can catch up on my site/news reading. Oh, and maybe publish a book review or two, since I finished The Once and Future King a week ago and the first Harry Potter book last night. I’m also a significant chunk into DeLillo’s Underworld and the second Harry Potter book. Looks like this is going to be a moderately decent summer in terms of book reading. Dr. M returned on Thursday and gave us real work to do. I’ve been analyzing the organic carbon and nitrogen content of several samples Jenn used…

Twenty Questions (courtesy of Mark)” You are an SEDF–Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting. Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well–even those you have known a long time–because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable. You…