Educational Silversun Midnight Pickups

“The basis of a reliable education, it would seem, is quality control, not circumstance” – New Yorker, Laptop U

I’ve been listening to the band Silversun Pickups a lot recently. I first heard them about five years ago when my friend introduced me to them during my “indie/alternative” music phase. Back then I didn’t like them too much. But now the sound of distorted guitars, strange effects, and a guy’s voice sounding like a girl’s is really pleasing for some reason. It may be that I like them because they’re music sounds exactly like their name makes you think they would sound.

My jamming seshes listening to Silversun Pickups has been complemented with foray into Massively Open Online Courses (moocs) and other random free learning environments. Throughout the past year, the appearance of free online courses offered by higher institutions of learning has exploded and I wanted to get a first hand experience with how they operate. Over at the site Coursera, I signed up for two classes, Data Science and Operations Management, offered by the University of Washington and University of Pennsylvania respectively.

The Data Science course is about how big data works and the problems that arise with managing it. It’s supposed to be an introduction into managing data and learning the best of ways of working with it. However, I couldn’t figure out how to do the second problem on the homework assignment. After wasting a few futile answers trying to solve the problem, I decided to look for another course. What I came across was a course title Introduction to Databases given by Stanford. It was a course that had already been completed, so I could just access all the materials, lectures, assignments, forums and work through it at my own pace. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past few nights between the hours of 11 and 3AM. Turns out I actually can be productive at night, assuming I wake up at noon.

In the three short days I’ve been working on Databases, I’ve learned quite a lot. It definitely helps that I’ve taken a programming course before, but this may be just as difficult as my course at CMU was (maybe not as time intensive). The benefit I have here, is I can consistently repeat video lecturers, download the powerpoint slides, and access the forums where students have probably voiced the same problems I currently have. Essentially I’m given all the tools to learn a material, and then I can parse through them utilizing was is best for me to learn, and on my own time.

This all holds true for the Operations Management course as well. The professors is a German man, and his accent makes the lectures much more entertaining to watch. There was also a night I stayed up until 3:30 trying to figure out a homework assignment. Personally, I like being able to work on something with no time constraints and get lost in it. That’s when I fully understand something. So with these homework assignments that take me a few hours into the night, I might struggle, but I eventually find and understand the solution because I haven’t been pressed for or worried about time… unlike problem sets at school.

The big question flying around the grounds of higher education these days is whether these moocs are going to affect higher education and where they are going to go. There are universities that are wholeheartedly embracing this new medium of teaching and reaching thousands of students, but even in those environments some professors are speaking against it. In fact, Amherst voted not to accept Harvard’s invitation to join its EdX program. I can most definitely see online courses supplementing in class material, however I don’t really see how a set standard of learning can be achieved across the internet. There will undoubtedly be devoted individuals that can take more out of online classes than most people will take out of courses at a private university, and the reverse is true. But whether it can be proven that online courses can provide a quality education and sufficient student engagement remains to be seen. Also, as the article above touches on, how will the future of graduate programs fare?

I don’t have answers. I take moocs because I have the free time and want to learn skills that I believe may be valuable to me later on for either a job or personal projects. Maybe later I’ll branch out into courses that intrigue me just because. Until then, and until moocs can become and accepted standard with quality control, I’ll be sitting in a physical building with a hundred other engineering students.

Google I/O 2013 Impressions

Unbeknownst to most people, but painfully obvious to others, I’m a pretty avid Google fan. I mostly became enamored with Google in the past year, as I became more interested in their products and physical hardware, but before then I knew they were pretty awesome. Logically, it only follows that I would follow their event I/O 2013 through live streams and live blogs.

Wait, so what is I/O 2013? The biggest event Google has each year, where they showcase all their newest developments and awesome products that are going to be rolling out now or within the next year or so. It’s a three day affair, and today is only the first day, starting out with the large keynote address. Here they talk about all the amazing things that are going into development and then break out into sessions over the next few days for developers to be introduced to theses systems. At its heart it’s a  developer’s conference, but for anyone tech-oriented, it’s still amazing.

A quick recap of what was covered during the keynote today.

- Google Play game services, a centralized system for allowing Android users to play games across all devices while sharing scores/saves states/etc.

- Google Play updated with Google+ sign in and cloud based messaging service

- Google Play Music All Access (which I was most excited for), is essentially a direct competitor for Spotify but has no “free” option, also if you use the free trial soonish the cost is only $8 a month afterwards instead of $10 (which is the Spotify cost) (And I already signed up for the free trial)

- Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 with LTE running stock android, a developer’s dream come true

- Google Hangouts is now a standalone application (think Skype or Facetime)

- New photo management system for G+ with really intense, amazing enhancement tools

- New cross-platform voice system, “Okay Google” basically allows for conversational queries

- Overhauled Google Maps, with personalized maps, 3D explorations, and way more

Those were the big points. Overall, Google has demonstrated enough to keep me busy for the next few months or so. I am slightly disappointed in the lack of hardware that has been displayed. All the cross-platform integration is great, but what about Glass and the Pixel? Those are two key products that Google has been hyping for the past year, it would have been nice to hear more about them, and what goals they are trying to achieve with both. What stood out most for me, though, were the Music, Hangouts, and Voice recognition systems.

As I mentioned, I have already signed up for the free one month trial of the subscription service. I also recently began to use Spotify (with the free one month of Premium) and 8 tracks, in addition to other services such as Pandora. My biggest beef with these music services is that they all serve one purpose really well. Pandora allows for great music discovery, 8tracks for establishing solid playlists with a certain feel, and Spotify for creating custom playlists and sharing that info with friends. But none does all really well. That’s where I’m hoping Google’s service will excel.

From the brief time that I’ve played around with it, it has been pretty awesome. Upon logging into Google Music, which I have been using for about 10 months, I saw all my iTunes tracks and music saved to my computer. Excellent, good synchronization with my devices. There were also recommendations of new albums I didn’t know had come out for bands that I liked, which was a pleasant surprise. Then there’s the radio, which acts like Pandora but way better because I can control which songs I want to listen to, and the learning algorithm behind it is much stronger (as is the case for most Google products). Lastly, there’s the “Explore” option, which I haven’t tested yet, but when I clicked on it, showed suggestions for bands or albums I didn’t have in my collection, which really prompts me to go beyond my traditional listening tunes.

Hangouts I’m pretty psyched for. I haven’t used it much because between my family and friends, Skype and Facetime are popular options, and the inability to use hangouts outside of G+ was a huge barrier. Now I think it may take off more because it’s standalone, however, it will probably also require G+ taking off more, but that seems to be an issue as well.

As for voice recognition, I’m hesitant. Mostly because I know I’ll look like a fool talking to my computer so it will search things for me. But I’ve been anticipating this day for a while. It used to be I needed to use my mouse and keyboard heavily to get through the internet, and then I navigated using only my keyboard. The next step is to navigate using my voice, and the closer Google can get to that goal and make it seem natural is a huge boon. How exactly does that help? Well, with multiple monitors I can be writing a paper or poem or coding on one screen while simultaneously pulling up relevant sources, definitions, or source code on the next monitor. Basically, a more fluid workflow and less distraction between searching, thinking, and creating.

As Someone Who Has Run A Marathon…

That’s how I’m going to start all my emails from now on, regardless of the context. And I have that privilege because I ran my first marathon today! The Pittsburgh Marathon! It was phenomenal to say the least, with great locales, people, and music. My final time ended up being 4:11:11, which is around where I thought I’d be.

Even though I feel great now that I finished, before the race was a completely different story. Last night I was having essentially a panic attack in my bed as I tried to fall asleep. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to complete the marathon. That I was underprepared for it. That my decisions to only run 3 days a week for my training program wasn’t sufficient. That I hadn’t completed the max mileage I was looking to get to. That I was only doing this because I had been telling other people I was going to do it. That something was going to go horribly wrong and I didn’t know what. I legitimately thought I could not finish the race.

I was sweating in my bed, unable to sleep. Constantly checking my clock. My sheets were soaked with my sweat by the time I woke up at 4:30. As I met my friend Mackie, who was giving me a ride to downtown, I was still in fear of what was going to happen. I stepped in to downtown concerned, but seeing all the other runners around me brought back the familiar feeling from all the different races I competed in in high school. This was my territory, my familiarity with the world at large, my community. My fears left me. I remembered how to run. How to handle my thoughts in races. What running this race actually meant. Accomplishing a long term, seemingly insane goal.

Marathon Medal

I’m in the yellow

Those LEDs mean we have electrical contact!

Operating a robot worth more than me and a crane rated for 3 tons

Cavecrawler with our attachments

Moon dust all up on our charging dock

Even better for me, my friend Dave that I met in Australia and goes to school at Pitt, was in the same corral as me. We ran together for the first 19 miles, which was a real boon for me. Even as I started the race with him, I realized I was going to finish no matter how much pain I was in. My thoughts only focused on the fact that I was running and that there was a finish line at mile 26.2.

Clearly, I finished the race. The last 8 miles or so were horribly painful, but it was still good. And I came out of the race with sore feet, sore arms, sore legs, and a sore lower back, but no permanent damage. I was still whole. Curiously, I feel like I haven’t accomplished much, even though running such a distance is beyond a daunting feat. It may because I’m exhausted that I haven’t fully realized what I went through, or because it just seemed like running a marathon was the next natural thing for me to do, but completing the race seems like no big deal. Or it may just be that I underplay all the events and accomplishments that I spend the most time working towards.

It’s been a jam packed day. After the racet I spent the rest of the day starting and finishing experimental testing for my robotics project. There’s actually some pretty cool photos in the gallery. We had the entire recharging mechanism completed yesterday as well. Last minute scrambling to finish this project is paying off and it seems like we’re in a good place. Especially compared to other groups in the class. Nor does it hurt that one of our group members is the Professor’s grad student…

Let’s talk about this weather! It’s great! Fantastic! Splendid! I’ve been outside an extraordinarily disproportional amount in the passing weeks, which means my tan is coming back. It also means I have finals because why would Pittsburgh weather ever be nice when I don’t have important things to do. On the bright side, our school looks like a normal college campus with people outside, people slacklining (like me!), and meeting random new people because everyone’s just hanging out.

Final note; big butts and distance running don’t mesh well, as the chaffing along my buttcrack will attest to.

A New Poem

 

 

My friend Brooke wrote the poem on the left (It’s also her title). I then figured it would be interesting to write the other side of things. My half still needs some work though.

The Glorious Week

Recap of my life this past week: Move-on, Booth, Buggy, Run, Booth, Nap, Buggy, Booth, Nap, Work Out, Booth, Nap, Booth, Nap, Booth, Oh Hey There Was Lecture, Booth, Buggy, Nap, Booth, Class, Eat, Class, Booth, Satsang, Booth, Thunder, Pass out for eight hours, Read Some Stuff, Finish A Show Series, Class, Eat, Class, Booth, Buggy

And now for pictures!

^__^ *~~* !Spring! *~~* ^__^

Dat title…

It’s actually been nice out. I’ve been outside too much. I don’t think I’ve done anything useful today. I haven’t had time to work on any of my side projects. But doing the things I don’t want to do or just have to do are still enjoyable. I think it may be the weather. Getting on those side projects may be a good thing though. Or I might just do them during summer. Not sure. Also, Ohio is a really boring state. Like, really boring. And some random person I don’t know just friended me on Facebook… weeeeiiiiiird.

(•‿•)

(｀・ω・´)”

（＾ｖ＾）

(ノ^_^)ノ

Things Fall Apart

Especially things like my room. First the ceiling light burnt out a couple weeks ago, or it may actually have been before spring break. It didn’t really matter because I didn’t really study in my room much. So whatevs. But then the door decides to go all jank and the handle falls off every time it gets opened. Still not a major problem because I only go in and out of my room a couple of times each day. But then today. Today shit got real.

The outlet. Not just any outlet. THE outlet, the head honcho, the main base, the center of all electrical operations, decided it was time to go. As my friend Snyder would put it, “Sometimes [outlets] just gotta die”… BUT NOT WHEN IT’S THE ONLY FUCKING OUTLET NEXT TO MY DESK. Yeah, I actually had to acknowledge all the issues in my room now.

Dat Everything

Of course I mess up the description and just write “Wall” instead of outlet. It makes it seem like I punched a hole or something through it. Granted last year’s incidents in my roommates dorm, that’s not a far cry from actually happening. I should have just put “Fucking Everything Be Broke” in the subject, too, come to think of it.

Hopefully this gets fixed, because running two extension cords across the room is probably going to result in me tripping and dying.