.....get it?....There's a movie called the 'The Last Song' so I called this the Last Blog....
I thought it was catchy :)
Anywho, it's the last day of class for us and also the day of our poster session. I'm pretty excited about it because we put a lot of work into our poster and it actually turned out quite well. The semester is coming to a close, so we're also trying to get our work/final presentation finished before it gets here.
It seems like just yesterday we were just starting our work and trying to figure out what we wanted to do, now our project is almost complete and we can reflect on all we've gotten accomplished (which is actually a good bit). For anyone interested, our final presentations are May 3, 2011 at 12:00 pm in TATE 202. I can't wait to see what kind of progress everyone else made and how they decided to do their final presentation (I"ve seen a few prezis, which is exciting!).
Beyond that, there isn't much to share..just gotta wait until the Final to see how it all comes together ;).
See you there (hopefully)!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Time for some creativity!
Now that the semester is coming to an end, it's getting close to presentations time! It's time to start getting creative...create presentations that are visually pleasing but that also convey the information we want our audience to get. We are doing a poster for the School of Science and Mathematics Poster Session and have also gotten started on a Prezi for our final presentation. I'm mostly in charge of getting these things taken care of, mainly because of my role on the team (Documentation and Outreach), but I'm having to enlist the help of my other teammates. The biggest thing I need help with is getting the images for our Prezi compatible with the zoom in/out ability the prezi has (which is what makes it so cool, so we have to make it work). For the most part, any screenshot I take on my mac is saved as a png and comes up fairly clear when using prezi, but some of the other images, particularly ones I'm going to get from my other teammates, may not be as compatible. Therefore, Ryan is going to take the images that aren't working properly and help me turn them into raster/vector images. I've never been very good with photoshop or anything of that nature, but I guess now's as good of a time to learn as any!
Thanks to our open communication with the Fortune Hunter/Math4 Team, this project is continuing to progress (sometimes not quite how we want it to), but it's progress none the less. We've had to scrap a couple of things because of how much time they were taking in comparison to how much time we thought it would take, but we've accomplished a good bit and plan to accomplish more before the semester's end :)
Until next time folks...
Sunday, April 10, 2011
As the semester comes to a close...
Things are going to start really getting serious...Deadlines are arriving and there is much to be done. For our team, the first important deadline is this week (April 15). We have to have an abstract written and submitted for the School of Science and Math Poster Session (April 21, 2011 on the second floor of the New Science Building--all are welcome!). Being that we're not really doing "research", it changes how the abstract should be written. I've done a number of presentations and written a few abstracts, but they were all research related. It should be interesting to see how it turns out. Also, we need to get on actually creating the poster. One problem that we've encountered is that half the group won't be available to actually present on the day of the Poster Session because of class conflicts. That leaves two of us, which isn't bad, but being that we've been kind of working on our own assignments and coming together periodically, it's a little difficult for us to be able to explain what the other is doing. I'm sure we'll come to a final decision by the time of the deadline.
After that, we need to start organizing our final presentation. Once again, being that we all worked on separate things, this will have to be a group effort. We're leaning towards doing a prezi (powerpoint doesn't seem appropriate for a presentation about a video game). We're also going to work on making sure the code is uniform and gets to a stopping point to where we have something to demo for the audience (that is concurrent with what we've actually done).
Individually, we have to get a pdf of our blogs to submit but I'm not exactly sure how that would happen. I've been doing some research into it and Jaime said she may have found something but if anyone knows anything or has figured anything out, some input/help would be greatly appreciated :)
I'm sad to see the semester come to an end so quickly...I was just starting to get into a lot of things and now I'm about to be gone. There's still a lot to get done, though, so it's not the time to mourn or think about that...gotta do work!
Until next time...
After that, we need to start organizing our final presentation. Once again, being that we all worked on separate things, this will have to be a group effort. We're leaning towards doing a prezi (powerpoint doesn't seem appropriate for a presentation about a video game). We're also going to work on making sure the code is uniform and gets to a stopping point to where we have something to demo for the audience (that is concurrent with what we've actually done).
Individually, we have to get a pdf of our blogs to submit but I'm not exactly sure how that would happen. I've been doing some research into it and Jaime said she may have found something but if anyone knows anything or has figured anything out, some input/help would be greatly appreciated :)
I'm sad to see the semester come to an end so quickly...I was just starting to get into a lot of things and now I'm about to be gone. There's still a lot to get done, though, so it's not the time to mourn or think about that...gotta do work!
Until next time...
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Blitzkev = YES!
Hello again,
Not much to update...still working on our project individually and as a team. I have not posted to the mailing list yet today because I would like to wait and see if anyone on my team has anything specific they would like to add or report or ask before I post. Also, the request we got from one 'Blitzkev' (whom we now know is named Kevin Hockey) has turned into a reply from a message we sent him. He is basically here to help us as we need it and make comments on our wiki for things he feels he can help with. He said that he programs on Fortune Hunter and also on Math Maze (which was another game we were looking at in the beginning). He seems to be very kind and I think with him so willing to help, the rest of the semester and this project should really begin to move smoothly.
I know this was a relatively short blog...but there will be more (and it will hopefully be more exciting) :)
Until next time...
Not much to update...still working on our project individually and as a team. I have not posted to the mailing list yet today because I would like to wait and see if anyone on my team has anything specific they would like to add or report or ask before I post. Also, the request we got from one 'Blitzkev' (whom we now know is named Kevin Hockey) has turned into a reply from a message we sent him. He is basically here to help us as we need it and make comments on our wiki for things he feels he can help with. He said that he programs on Fortune Hunter and also on Math Maze (which was another game we were looking at in the beginning). He seems to be very kind and I think with him so willing to help, the rest of the semester and this project should really begin to move smoothly.
I know this was a relatively short blog...but there will be more (and it will hopefully be more exciting) :)
Until next time...
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Four's Company makin' moves :)
Hello again all,
I don't have much to update regarding any homework or assignments in my class...Right now the main focus is on our FOSS project and getting our contributions complete. If you would like to see a detailed list of the tasks we are trying to and have accomplished, please check out our Timeline and Calendar. Although the steps aren't huge, we are making steps in the right direction and it looks like we will get a good bit accomplished before our presentations.
We also decided that we're going to do a poster for the 22nd Annual Scientific Research Poster Session, which I'm pretty excited about. This gives me a chance to go a little out of my comfort zone (by talking about gaming and things I'm not very experienced with, as opposed to my research I've been working on for years) and get some more experience presenting a poster. It should be fun/interesting to see how it turns out.
That's all for now...don't forget to check out the Four's Company Wiki.
Until next time...
I don't have much to update regarding any homework or assignments in my class...Right now the main focus is on our FOSS project and getting our contributions complete. If you would like to see a detailed list of the tasks we are trying to and have accomplished, please check out our Timeline and Calendar. Although the steps aren't huge, we are making steps in the right direction and it looks like we will get a good bit accomplished before our presentations.
We also decided that we're going to do a poster for the 22nd Annual Scientific Research Poster Session, which I'm pretty excited about. This gives me a chance to go a little out of my comfort zone (by talking about gaming and things I'm not very experienced with, as opposed to my research I've been working on for years) and get some more experience presenting a poster. It should be fun/interesting to see how it turns out.
That's all for now...don't forget to check out the Four's Company Wiki.
Until next time...
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Not much longer left...
Hello all,
Time is slowly winding down. The end of the semester is getting closer and closer...right now in 462 we're focusing on our FOSS projects, so there really isn't much to post about. If you're interested in checking out my team's progress on our project, please feel free to check out our wiki. Between this project, my research, and my independent study, I got my hands pretty full...and I didn't even mention the other 3 classes I have. I can't complain though...I'm about to graduate and I already have SOMETHING planned for me (NC State acceptance :) ). Even though Georgia Tech is where I really want to be, things will turn out how they should...and at least I got accepted somewhere!
Also, I would like to put a plug in here that I think me and Alex Johnson should still try and plan an end of the year something for CS Seniors. We're the shiz and deserve the celebrate it :D!
That's all for now...more to come later..
Until next time...
Time is slowly winding down. The end of the semester is getting closer and closer...right now in 462 we're focusing on our FOSS projects, so there really isn't much to post about. If you're interested in checking out my team's progress on our project, please feel free to check out our wiki. Between this project, my research, and my independent study, I got my hands pretty full...and I didn't even mention the other 3 classes I have. I can't complain though...I'm about to graduate and I already have SOMETHING planned for me (NC State acceptance :) ). Even though Georgia Tech is where I really want to be, things will turn out how they should...and at least I got accepted somewhere!
Also, I would like to put a plug in here that I think me and Alex Johnson should still try and plan an end of the year something for CS Seniors. We're the shiz and deserve the celebrate it :D!
That's all for now...more to come later..
Until next time...
Monday, March 28, 2011
POSSCON 2011
Hello again all! I come with reports from POSSCON. As anyone who follows my blog or is in 462 knows, last week was the Palmetto Open Source Conference. I didn't get the opportunity to attend the entire conference, but I did get to go and experience the tail end of it. It's hard to completely judge something based off of one day (especially the last day) but I'm going to share my experience at POSSCON 2011.
First I would like to start by saying I did not get to meet any of the 3 speakers that I initially really wanted to meet. I feel like there weren't as many people there on Friday as there may have been the other two days, but the turn out wasn't bad. I did get to meet and speak briefly with John 'maddog'. The rumors are all true....he's one the coolest, most badass, intelligent person you will probably ever meet. I first met him in the 3D printing session. I didn't know who he was at first, but he had been sitting in the same seat with his laptop open the entire session. Once it was time to get up and break into groups, I heard someone walk up to him and call him 'maddog'. That's when I knew who he was. Brandon, Jordan and I got the chance to share a couple of laughs with him. The real treat with him was hearing him speak. Even though he was kinda long-winded, his History of Linux session had to have been one of the most interesting ones and I regret only getting to see the last portion of it (especially since the session I was in lost internet and had to end early with little accomplished).
Now to sort of backtrack, I would like to give a brief recap of the day. I arrived a little late (still not quite able to figure out Columbia), but checking in was still fairly easy. And of course, like at most conferences, I got a 'swag bag' :), which had some pretty cool stuff in it, including a Ubuntu user magazine with articles on different open source software alternatives available for Ubuntu users. It also included a guide in the back of the magazine with setup and troubleshooting help for Ubuntu. The first session I went to was the 3D printing breakout session where I got to see 3D printing for the first time...as well as learn that I can build my own 3D printer for around $400. Now, when I first thought about this, I was thinking 'this seems really cool, but what am I gonna really do with a 3D printer?'...then I actually thought about it and realized how much I can make with a 3D printer. So now, I am convinced that I am going to build a 3D printer (and hopefully very soon). I even got to keep one of the objects they printed, which I also found to be super cool :) One problem I had with this session was that there was a lot more talking than I thought there would be in the group I chose to be a part of. I thought it would be more hands on, but I did get to walk around and see what the other groups were doing. I ended up leaving this session early in order to go and check out the open source gaming session that I knew some other students were in...this was a mistake. I'm already not a big fan of video games, but when you walk into a session on video games and half the people are doing their own thing and the speaker sounds bored, you know there's something up. So this particular session wasn't too successful.
Of course, lunch was great....the food in general was great. Yogurt parfaits, muffins, fresh fruit....yeah, you get the point.
For the afternoon session, I decided to check out the session on how to start a business cheaply on open source. The speaker, David Duggins, was really nice, but because of technical difficulties, the session didn't go quite as it was supposed to. He was planning on showing us different websites and open source software he uses and that the audience was interested in when it comes to open source alternatives to closed source software such as Microsoft Office and Outlook. Although the session had to end early, I still got the opportunity to get some good resources to open source software, which I believe was the main purpose.
There were also raffles and give-aways, none of which I won....so I don't think it's worth going into detail on that. Well..except that one was the Galaxy Tab and I would have loved to have taken it home with me in my 'swag bag'.
Overall, it was a interesting, and informative experience at POSSCON. As with most computing conferences, the best thing was the people. Everyone was friendly and forthcoming with information. That always makes the experience all the more memorable.
Until next time...
First I would like to start by saying I did not get to meet any of the 3 speakers that I initially really wanted to meet. I feel like there weren't as many people there on Friday as there may have been the other two days, but the turn out wasn't bad. I did get to meet and speak briefly with John 'maddog'. The rumors are all true....he's one the coolest, most badass, intelligent person you will probably ever meet. I first met him in the 3D printing session. I didn't know who he was at first, but he had been sitting in the same seat with his laptop open the entire session. Once it was time to get up and break into groups, I heard someone walk up to him and call him 'maddog'. That's when I knew who he was. Brandon, Jordan and I got the chance to share a couple of laughs with him. The real treat with him was hearing him speak. Even though he was kinda long-winded, his History of Linux session had to have been one of the most interesting ones and I regret only getting to see the last portion of it (especially since the session I was in lost internet and had to end early with little accomplished).
Now to sort of backtrack, I would like to give a brief recap of the day. I arrived a little late (still not quite able to figure out Columbia), but checking in was still fairly easy. And of course, like at most conferences, I got a 'swag bag' :), which had some pretty cool stuff in it, including a Ubuntu user magazine with articles on different open source software alternatives available for Ubuntu users. It also included a guide in the back of the magazine with setup and troubleshooting help for Ubuntu. The first session I went to was the 3D printing breakout session where I got to see 3D printing for the first time...as well as learn that I can build my own 3D printer for around $400. Now, when I first thought about this, I was thinking 'this seems really cool, but what am I gonna really do with a 3D printer?'...then I actually thought about it and realized how much I can make with a 3D printer. So now, I am convinced that I am going to build a 3D printer (and hopefully very soon). I even got to keep one of the objects they printed, which I also found to be super cool :) One problem I had with this session was that there was a lot more talking than I thought there would be in the group I chose to be a part of. I thought it would be more hands on, but I did get to walk around and see what the other groups were doing. I ended up leaving this session early in order to go and check out the open source gaming session that I knew some other students were in...this was a mistake. I'm already not a big fan of video games, but when you walk into a session on video games and half the people are doing their own thing and the speaker sounds bored, you know there's something up. So this particular session wasn't too successful.
Of course, lunch was great....the food in general was great. Yogurt parfaits, muffins, fresh fruit....yeah, you get the point.
For the afternoon session, I decided to check out the session on how to start a business cheaply on open source. The speaker, David Duggins, was really nice, but because of technical difficulties, the session didn't go quite as it was supposed to. He was planning on showing us different websites and open source software he uses and that the audience was interested in when it comes to open source alternatives to closed source software such as Microsoft Office and Outlook. Although the session had to end early, I still got the opportunity to get some good resources to open source software, which I believe was the main purpose.
There were also raffles and give-aways, none of which I won....so I don't think it's worth going into detail on that. Well..except that one was the Galaxy Tab and I would have loved to have taken it home with me in my 'swag bag'.
Overall, it was a interesting, and informative experience at POSSCON. As with most computing conferences, the best thing was the people. Everyone was friendly and forthcoming with information. That always makes the experience all the more memorable.
Until next time...
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