Frustration with motivating myself

I don't think it's occurred to me that, especially now, no one will be monitoring me all the time to make sure that I'm doing something and that I need to take charge of my actions.

The options I have considered are to:

• work with other people - but then I'll get distracted unnecessarily sometimes (not that it's not FUN to work alongside others!)
• Xinhong suggests studying alone at the library or somewhere where people can see me so that I'll feel self-conscious if I slack off. This has worked pretty well in the past for me, but the problem is that it conditions you to be super lazy at home, and I would argue that in fact it makes it harder to work at home. 

I would be really happy to hear any suggestions you have or what you do to overcome this problem. Please leave a comment or email me!

Hiding Desktop Icons on OSX

In terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false

killall Finder

Playing music with shower head

The stream of water coming out of my shower head exits at a certain frequency. By touching the shower head, I can control the frequency of the sound coming out and was able to play hot cross buns!

Git: Pull a remote branch to your local repository

In order to pull a remote branch to your local repository:

git pull
git checkout -b <new_branch> origin/<new_branch>

Do not:
git checkout -b < new_branch >
git pull origin < new_branch >


Source: http://www.wetware.co.nz/2009/07/pull-a-git-branch-from-remote/

Deleting your most recent git commit or push

If you have committed junk but not pushed,

git reset --soft HEAD~1

HEAD~1 is a shorthand for the commit before head. Alternatively you can refer to the SHA-1 of the hash you want to reset to. --soft option will delete the commit but it will leave all your changed files "Changes to be committed", as git status would put it.

If you want to get rid of any changes to tracked files in the working tree since the commit before head use --hard instead.

Now if you already pushed and someone pulled which is usually my case, you can't use git reset. You can however do a git revert,

git revert HEAD

This will create a new commit that reverses everything introduced by the accidental commit.

Source: http://nakkaya.com/2009/09/24/git-delete-last-commit/

Simulink: Multiple Scope Ports

In order to obtain a scope block with multiple inputs, open the graph, open settings, and change the number of axes.

This allows you to avoid the hassle of using muxes to parse and plot multiple input signals.

Source: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/5687

Ubuntu - mouse wheel scrolls too much per scroll click

In order to fix the problem, where the mouse scrolls too much down a page each time you move the scroll wheel, unplug and plug the receiver dongle back in. It should reset the settings that cause the scroll wheel to jump too much.

This problem occurs probably because of dual booting ubuntu and windows 7.

Neat indentation in vim

In order to neatly indent your code in vim, type:

gg=G

, while no command is active.

Trouble Connecting to IRC via Pidgin on Windows7

http://wiki.freeculture.org/IRC_with_Pidgin

I was getting a "Could not connect" error, but was able to successfully access irc.freenode.net by using a different port rather than 6660-6669.

Sorting lists in Wunderlist

Hover your mouse over the bottom center of the screen and a task bar will appear. On the far right, there is a sort alphabetically or sort by due date option.

Disabling computer wakeup on mouse movement

Determinants and the vector properties of length, area, volume

Length, area, volume, and higher dimensions of these values have vector associated with them. There is a notion of "negative area", in that it is a "space in a different direction". This property is necessary to preserve 0, from linearity, so that you can add two equal but opposite components and obtain 0.

The directionality of area/volume can also be seen from 2D and 3D cross products, when considering the result to be the magnitude of the area of the parallelogram/parallelepiped that is formed.

Examples include current density, dl in Biot-Savart Law, dA in Gauss' Law.

http://www.askamathematician.com/2013/05/q-why-are-determinants-defined-the-weird-way-they-are/

Education is yours to seize

No one's going to hand it to you, not even in college where you're paying thousands for it. It's up to you to grab ahold of it.

1D Kalman Filtering code in Python

Thanks to Udacity.

1 dimensional Kalman Filter

def update(mean1, var1, mean2, var2):
    new_mean = (var2 * mean1 + var1 * mean2) / (var1 + var2)
    new_var = 1/(1/var1 + 1/var2)
    return [new_mean, new_var]

def predict(mean1, var1, mean2, var2):
    new_mean = mean1 + mean2
    new_var = var1 + var2
    return [new_mean, new_var]



for i in range(len(measurements)):
    [mu, sig] = update(mu, sig, measurements[i], measurement_sig)
    [mu, sig] = predict(mu, sig, motion[i], motion_sig)

Intradisciplinary feedback cycle

An intradisciplinary feedback cycle results in mutual growth.

Example: Youtube artists and the software developers who made Youtube
The coders probably said something like, "it'd be great if I could watch whatever I wanted whenever I wanted".
And once the webapp was made, artists were like "great! now i can perform whenever i want, wherever I want!".
The coders then continued to develop the site because so many artists are interested, and more artists join the site because it's a good way to publicize.
Both parties profit! :)


However, we also eat up each other's time. For example:
Scientists/engineers turn to music/movies for entertainment.
Entertainers/performers surf the internet, use their phones for entertainment.
All of the products that both parties produce end up combining to form devices with which we can burn away time.

Of course, both categories use a lot of other forms of entertainment as well. An alternative way to look at this is that all people use the results of scientists/engineers (tvs, computers, phones) to be entertained by entertainers/performers (music, movies).

Interpretation

Two people can read the exact same thing and come up with completely different interpretations.

To me, this reinforces the importance of collaboration - people generate ideas and are inspired by different things.


It would be cool if we could figure out why, or how, we mold our minds into what they become. Would it be possible to feed a machine the identical experiences as a human and have it arrive upon the same beliefs? The head fake, as Randy Pausch would put it, of this blog is to see if all this info can be used to reconstruct a memory/belief system that is anywhere close to what I have accumulated, in the far future. Of course, it's missing large chunks of human interaction and other learning, but I'd be curious to see if you can get a computer to learn things the same way that a human brain does if we give the computer access to ALL the senses and experiences.

Merits of IMSA and other "magnet" schools

Even small things like, giving students a day off per week to pursue their own interests, can be just what some students need at a young age. The key early on is to expose yourself to as many topics as possible, see what's interesting to you.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/05/hogwarts-for-hackers/all/

Setting environment variable PATH on Windows 7

Windows 7

1. Select Computer from the Start menu
2. Choose System Properties from the context menu
3. Click Advanced system settings > Advanced tab
4. Click on Environment Variables, under System Variables, find PATH, and click on it.
5. In the Edit windows, modify PATH by adding the location of the class to the value for PATH. If you do not have the item PATH, you may select to add a new variable and add PATH as the name and the location of the class as the value.
6. Reopen Command prompt window, and run your java code.

http://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml

Facebook Design manager's reflections

Below are the ones I find most important/fully agree with:

10) Always get the full story before making a decision.

9) It's incredibly easy to 'flip the switch' and start writing people off after a few bad experiences. Resist at all costs. You were bumbling once too. You made poor decisions. You learn and grow, and so does everybody else.

8) Sweep up the crumbs. Wipe the tables. Turn off the lights. Plug the holes that need plugging—even if it's menial, even if nobody will know you did it. Do it in service of the product, the company, and this wondrous, magical thing you are all building together.

7) Recognize you can't do everything. Close your eyes, fall backwards, and learn to trust.

6) Clearly, there is a more efficient way to do the things you do. How? Ponder that on your daily drive home.

4) Don't say anything if it's not actually contributing to the discussion. Your voice is not so melodious that it absolutely must be heard.

2) Dole out thanks and encouragement like you dole out opinions.

source: https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/be5f6b118084

10 lessons before college

1. People older than you like it when you admit you have a lot to learn.
2. There is no such thing as a secret – share only what you want the world to know.
3. Someone is always watching – good or bad.
4. Don’t do things because someone else succeeded while doing them, create your own path – trust me it’s more fun that way (you never know what’s next).
5. It is okay to make sacrifices. You will not be young forever but you will also be older before you know it.
6. The more chances you take the more times you will fail. Brace yourself.
7. School doesn’t get easier.
8. You will continuously have less time than you did the year before – every year.
9. Be selective with who you share your successes with.
10. Don’t waste your time trying to change other people’s opinion of you; instead spend time figuring out who you are and eventually others will follow.

source: missing link