Joe's Blog

This is where I find myself comfortable in blogging – virtual reality. I often find myself lost in the gaming world, but loving every moment of it. In many cases I feel the game is real, and react how I wish to react, rather than being my shy submissive self. Quests with great rewards feel like epic accomplishments, one could say getting an A in classes is similar to this – but it is not. I see getting an A as a relief, not a great accomplishment. I find myself surrounded by peers who have more knowledge than me, but receive lower grades due to their lack of application to the class. Am I truly more intelligent than them? I think not. I believe they just wish to spend their time with things that benefit them more, like a game that gives them a greater feeling of accomplishment. Transferring from PSTCC to UT doesn’t even reflect a GPA – they simply count as credits… A, B, and C become indistinguishable, the grading level becomes equaled. Of course this doesn’t matter in THIS class, it’s a certificate program – but the same can be said.. One could obtain 100+ in all classes, or an 80 in all classes and obtain the same certificate. My point is being lost so I will digress and go back to it – the virtual world is beginning to blend in a way. We set our priorities very differently from those of the past. We find ourselves more involved in our phones than the conversations at the table, but I feel this isn’t a negative subject. I for one hate being involved in random conversations you feel no need to be involved in, it’s like speaking about your religion or your view on politics… It really doesn’t matter how many facts you can state, statistics you can reveal, anyone can google them as we are all aware and then “vomit” the “facts” upon said subject by stating something that has already been said. The real world has become boring. I for one feel my vote doesn’t count, even if I voted democrat – TN is always going to be republican for several decades(which I support, but I digress). If I was to email, or use regular mail, to contact a governor or even the president… I would simply receive an automated letter thanking me for my opinion with a fake signature. My opinion has been deleted/lost/unheard…

Now I will digress to the point after stating how I feel about the real world. Here in “virtual land” I feel as if I have a voice. My voice can be seen by many others, in a gaming world the same can be said about my actions. My opinions are instantly responded to, my actions are instantly critiqued. I learn from these encounters and better myself within seconds… Learning how to respond, how the “other side” feels and what they have to say. Based on this class I’ve learned that pilots aren’t even controlling to drones we use, it’s gamers… Makes me feel as if MW2 is even more real. I truly have no point other than to tell others how I feel about our current world vs virtual reality, it’s obvious why those who choose gaming set their priorities differently. I will continue to do my best at classes, I’m OCD about it, but that is a FALSE judgment of capability and intelligence… The C students who do “worse than me” in class could surpass me if they felt compelled to do so – ie: the rewards felt great enough and they truly wanted to apply themselves to the application at hand.

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This week we discussed AI, I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on this subject. Although I find the goal to be a great accomplishment, I also feel like it’s almost “wrong” in certain ways. True AI… being able to think, feel emotions, free-will, personality… It’s hard to even imagine what it would be like. Would we be programming the personality of this AI? Or would it simply obtain one on its own? I almost feel like it would be similar to building a child… but a child that would be able to obtain an infinite amount of knowledge in very little time, something so powerful it could possibly answer many of the questions we have today… Such as “How should we create energy without using fossil fuel?”. A question I would want to ask, but would almost fear the answer of is “Is there a God?”. Sure, maybe it wouldn’t be able to answer, but with infinite knowledge I feel like it would be able to answer most questions.

It’s exciting yet frightening learning about how fast we are coming along with AI. It’s exciting to see us build a program capable of playing chess, it’s frightening to know that this program can conquer all humans at chess. The only way to beat it would be to build a better program. I really think if AI is possible, and we manage to create it, the same would apply… Humans being obsolete. We aren’t efficient creatures when compared to robots, it’s obvious when you look at production jobs. We need to sleep, eat, speak, be entertained, go to school for 20 years, etc… I currently feel like most jobs that require thought/intelligence have some form of job security. I know this is somewhat debatable with neural networks, but if AI was created even those jobs would disappear. “The machines” would be more intelligent and more efficient.

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My group decided to play with the Finch since we have all taken, or currently taking, a C++ class. I normally do not perform well with groups, but it proved to be very helpful. I have just started taking arrays in my C++ class and one of the group members helped the use of arrays to be successful. I would have most likely opted out of the obstacle sensors and used the tap sensor… Meaning it would have taken notice of obstacles after ramming them haha. We currently have our Finch navigating successfully, and the beak turning green when it moves forward, red when it is attempting to reverse and navigate. We are not sure what else to add to it, I feel like we have already accomplished quite a bit since we are only beginners in C++.

The robotics videos were amazing once again… The videos are always useful, showing what can be done, what IS being done. They give me hope that one day I can do some of the stuff I see in the videos. The “emotion robots” seem odd to me, but still impressive. I simply fail to understand why people want to devote emotions to a robot for 2 simple reasons… If we are to make them companions and create TRUE AI, they are going to be slaves. These robots will be used to do tasks that we do not wish to do ourselves… I think this is truly apparent in war. With TRUE AI these robots would be fighting for their rights, you know… What has happened a million times throughout history. Another reason is the companionship that is going to be moved to person to robot vs person to person. We already avoid person to person contact with our current technology. I am a shy, hermit type creature… but I do not want to rely on robots for emotions and “true” relationships.

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I found this week to be very interesting. I grew up wanting to be able to hack things with no clue where hacking came from. Seeing the videos of the anti-social stuttering nerds shows the idealistic hacker in my opinion. This was how I visualized hackers, and still do, but these men have so much power. Even back then they could call the Pope and make collect calls for free, they had power. Today’s hackers have even more power… We access bank accounts and what not through mobile phones, lap tops, and e-pads. This seems even easier to key log/hack. Back when Apple’s weren’t popular – they were categorized as virus proof, but thanks to being trendy and popular suddenly we see the truth. Most Apple users do not use anti-virus… The truth is viruses weren’t common on Apple’s due to most people using Windows… They were simply going after the majority. Now we see Mac viruses slowly popping up, the scare is that most of them will be unaware for extended periods of time. I believe hacking Apple users is the next frontier. I use Windows, I’m well aware of how easily I can be hacked, therefore I have software to manage such problems. I have anti-virus software that runs almost constantly, even removing cookies. But Apple is much different… Most of these users use no anti-virus. These users could be key logged for weeks, consuming bank accounts, game accounts, info for ID theft, etc. This was posted LAST YEAR, it only gets worse as more people use Mac and EXPECT to be sure. Many people even switch to Mac just for the lack of viruses, but you’re time is coming. I expect Mac users to be unprepared and be struck hard if this occurs.

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This is a very exciting week in this class, programming in Scratch. I’ve never used this program or even heard of it, I’ve noticed it on the desktop in lab though – that’s a start right? It’s a pretty amazing program… At first I thought you could only do miniscule tasks, but then I see how everything is literally your own puzzle. You can build this puzzle to be simple or quite complex. Now I’m stuck at a point, as I’m sure most are, of having large dreams with this project but minimum experience. I need to keep in mind Brown isn’t asking for the next MMORPG, as he stated, but still push myself and find a place where I’m happy and so is my grade. So far I’m attempting to do a very simple NES game, probably Mario, but add my own twist to things. Maybe incorporate other NES games that I enjoyed to play a part. This is still a pretty hefty task, things may change!

The Randy Pausch lecture was great, I normally despise lectures but this one was different. I can’t believe how upbeat he was knowing he was so close to death, even though he completed every one of his childhood dreams in some way. I would still be upset, scared, and an overall depressing person to be around. I used Wikipedia to gain a little more info on him. He lived nearly a year after he gave the lecture we watched, but he also passed away at his home. I think this shows even more about his character. If you are content with what you have accomplished and ready to pass, what better place than your home, with your family. I believe Pausch could have made this an extremely depressing lecture where we would have left the class room in tears… He is obviously good at selling himself and emotions, but I don’t think his lecture would have been so popular and memorable if that were the case. I know I’ve only been speaking about his attitude during the lecture, but that is what was the most notable aspect of this. The overall message is one that we have been given since birth – to achieve your dreams and be happy, but to be given this same message in his circumstances with his attitude makes it much more memorable. Even though this message wasn’t TRULY meant for us.

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I finished my page, very relieved to be honest. I enjoy html, but I would only want to have my own page if I had a business or wanted to keep people informed about my current activities/projects/interests… I sadly do not have a business, and I’ve never been very social via pages about myself. I found myself making most of the project quite quickly, but adding the information about myself and personalizing it to be the largest undertaking. I guess this will break me out of my shell a bit, probably a good thing. Who knows, maybe I’ll find some people with similar hobbies/interests as me. Anyways, back to the topic! I believe knowledge of html and css is necessary for this career. I’m sure I will be taking java in the near future too, which I find very interesting. On a side note, Dr. Brown showed us how to “customize” our blog, pretty excited about this… Just go to appearance then themes. Only certain themes allow you to have a “header” aka “banner”. I wasted a bit of time trying to figure out how to change it, when I didn’t have the option to do so.

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This week we went over networking and using HTML. To be honest, I feel like I am in luck with these next 2 weeks of classes. I am currently taking Web 1600: Intro to web design and we are doing a very similar project in the class…. Creating pages about our hobbies. I will be using the same info for these classes, but tweaking them accordingly for each class. I’ve felt like my web class is rather slow moving, and I feel that more so now. Dr. Brown covered the same basic info and has us doing the same thing in 1 week as opposed to 1.5 months.

HTML seems rather simple to me. I know it is rather tedious, but I believe if you keep everything clean and organized in your coding… You can accomplish the page you are trying to achieve. I always remind myself of this with c++ and html (the only two languages I have used). Opening and closing can easily get clustered/lost and can ruin everything. I’ve spent numerous hours being furious, staring at a screen, having no clue why it isn’t doing what I want it to do… Just to find out I’m missing a bracket or closer. My page is about halfway done I believe, I’m looking forward to seeing my classmates pages. I’m sure plenty of us have interesting hobbies.

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To be honest I had a hard time with this week’s ALS. I did well on the quiz, just have a hard time grasping what is really going on. Watching everything change with the step by step method and watching the code travel does help somewhat though. I found the discussions about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to be the most fascinating part of this week. I had no clue that neither of them obtained a degree. This weeks videos were great, especially realizing how horrible Window’s phones have been marketed. It’s a shame about Steve Job’s passing away, maybe in my old age people will talk about what a memorable part of history he was.

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I have never built a computer and never truly looked into it. I would love to actually build my own computer at some point in my life, or at least purchase a DIY build from newegg, but I’m married and a student. Meaning my funds are narrow. I’ve spent numerous hours looking on newegg and believe I have a decent build… Meaning I believe everything is compatible and I’m not “bottle necking” or purchasing 32gb ram for a motherboard that can only make use of 16gb.

The goal of the build:

I currently have a shiny new laptop, but my desktop is 8 years old. It’s current specs are: 2.16ghz, 240gb hard drive, 1gig ram, 128mb gfx card. It was a beast 8 years ago. I hate gaming on a laptop, it’s really only used for my classes. I’m wanting a decent to upper-end desktop pc at a somewhat reasonable price, and able to be upgraded later when more funds appear in my bank account. I’m wanting to hook this tower up to my 46″ tv via HDMI cord and use a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Tower: Raidmax Smilodon $89.99

I really enjoy the look of this case. All towers in my past have been solid black with a possible touch of silver. This case comes with a 500w power supply, LED’s shown in the picture, and 4 fans. Based on the reviews the fans, size, and aesthetics are pleasing but the power supply can be somewhat limiting. Based on my build the NewEgg wattage calculator puts my build at 474 watts. This could possibly be a problem, but I would try the stock power supply first.

Motherboard and CPU combo: ASRock Z68 Extreme4 and Intel Core i7-2600 (3.8ghz with turbo boost). $459.98.

I went with the word “adequate” in mind while looking for a cpu/motherboard and came across the combo deal section on NewEgg. I know their are cheaper combos, and their are obviously MUCH more expensive combos, but I’m aiming for something I could fathom myself purchasing. This supports up to 32gb of ram via 4 slots (240pin), quad core cpu, plenty of ports including HDMI, built in sound, and the dreaded “on-chip” graphics. Reviews look good for both products, only one complaint of the stock heatsink/fan being inadequate, so I would be monitoring the heat levels for a bit. This person may have overclocked and not noted this in the review.

Ram: GeIL EVO CORSA Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 $119.99

The reason for choosing this ram was mainly because it was matching (240 pin DDR3), but also because it’s 8gb per stick, and the price was lower. This would give me 16gb of ram, and I could upgrade later by adding more sticks because I would still have 2 empty slots. 16gb already seems like overkill, but you never know how much will “be the norm” next year.

Hard  Drive: Mushkin Enhanced 180GB SSD $239.99

It’s *only* 180, but it’s a solid state drive. I have never owned one of these but they seem amazing. No moving parts? Less noise? Less power? Sounds amazing. It’s much much more expensive than a regular hard drive, but I don’t even use 50GB on my 9 year old desktop. This hard drive would provide me with plenty of room. If at some point I’m pushing the limits I could simply purchase an external hard drive.

Graphics Card: MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 2GD5/OC $249.99

I decided to go in excess of standard on this piece of the build. This is a 2GB graphics card with pre-installed fans to maintain temperature and an HDMI port. If this build is for gaming on an HD TV screen, you need to spend extra here. This card is about the same price as the 1gb cards so I assumed it would somehow perform poorly, but the reviews on this are extraordinarily good.

Optical Drive: LITE-ON DVD/CD Burn/Write $17.99

Pretty standard optical drive, can read/write cd’s and dvd’s. Not much to say about this really. It can accomplish all tasks that I want it to and it’s cheap.

Monitor: a 46″ Dynex 1080p TV.

This is a preexisting item in my apartment that was returned to Best Buy as an “open box” item and then sold to me for 240$ in 2010.

Input Devices: Kensington 64390 Wireless Standard Combo $53.99

A basic wireless mouse/keyboard combo at a reasonable price. Since I am using a TV with this build, I will need to sit much farther away.

Total cost: $1231.92

I really wanted to keep this build under 800 but utterly failed due to being compulsive. I could always skimp on the case, graphics card, and ram… Or I could simply wait 6 – 8 months and save hundreds. In short, yes I will most likely build my own reasonable gaming computer at some point in my life, but I’ve been using the current one for 8 years. I can wait a little longer and enjoy a 10 year anniversary. I currently use my laptop hooked via HDMI cord to play on my tv, I just need to purchase a wireless keyboard/mouse combo.

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