Musings, Math, & More

TecHappy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:55:00 +0000

From now on, I will only be posting on my other blog, TecHappy so be sure to change your bookmarks (yeah right).

Icebrrg

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:40:00 +0000

Icebrrg is one of the best free online services I have ever used. Sign up for a free account, and create free online web forms for your website. The forms look and work great, and you can put it into your website using only simple HTML. The free version limits you to only 3 forms, but it would be easy to just create multiple accounts if you need extra forms for some reason.

Check this site out NOW if you have your own website.

Scribus

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:33:00 +0000

Today, Microsoft Publisher, my favorite software for all projects I intend to print, died. It just wouldn't start up, and kept giving me cryptic error messages. So I started looking for a free alternative, and found a program that was even better. Scribus is to Publisher what GIMP is to Photoshop.

Take a Look!

YouTube Videos on Your iPod

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 02:48:00 +0000

There are numerous ways to do this, but Vixy is the easiest. Just go to the Vixy site, and paste in the URL of the YouTube video you want to download. Vixy converts it to iPod format, and then gives you a download link.

Also, a cool site is www.peekvid.com. You can find a bunch of free recent movies and TV shows there. I'm still working out how to download the movies the best way (I can't do it without a loss of quality so far).

While we're discussing cool movies and videos, this was pretty good.

How To Remove Linux Completely

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 06:02:00 +0000

This is a tutorial. In it, I assume you installed Linux on it's own hard drive. If not, find a new tutorial.

Today I tried to install Linux onto my brand new external hard drive. I went with the Mandriva distribution, a version that is purportedly excellent for beginners. I had no problems running Linux off the Live CD, and I even installed it onto the hard drive...or so I though. I set up the bootloader (the menu that now comes up and asks if I want to run Windows or Linux when I start up my computer) and restarted my computer. I chose Linux from the bootloader, but Linux wouldn't load up. I restarted again, and put the CD in, and Linuc worked fine. So I decided to uninstall Mandriva and install a different distribution, Ubuntu. Ubuntu wouldn't even install, so I gave up on Linux.

So now I go back to Windows with the full intention of returning my computer to normal, pre-Linux state. However, I cannot access my external hard drive...it's not showing up o my computer. So I had to download EASEUS Partition Manager Demo free from CNET. Then I used it to format the hard drive I had Linux installed on. I could then access the hard drive!

So now Linux was totally gone, or so I thought. I restarted, and found that the bootloader menu was still there! This is a big problem, because it starts up Linux by default! So we gotta get rid of the bootloader, but this is VERY HARD.

First, you need to uninstall Windows Service Pack 2. Go to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and then check the "Show Updates" box. Uninstall "Windows Service Pack 2."

After you finish that, you can do the next step: Go to Start>Search, and search all drives for "WINNT32.exe". When you find it, note where it is located.

Then go to Start>Run. In the "Open" box, type something like this:
C:\Windows\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons
What you have to type exactly will depend on where the file winnt32.exe was located.

Now something will come up, most likely an error message. Ignore it, or do whatever you can to make it go away. Then, just WAIT. Eventually, an option will pop up to install the Windows Recovery Console. Install it, and then restart.

Now, an option will come up to start the Windows Recovery Console. Go ahead and do that. It will ask which system to fix; each one will have a number by it. Windows will be number 1, so type "1" and hit Enter.

Now it will ask for a password. Type the admin password, whatever you set it to, and hit enter. THIS MAY NOT WORK. If it doesn't work, leave the password box blank, and hit enter.

Now this will bring up a regular command line. Just type fixmbr and hit enter. Ignore all warnings, and continue. This will get rid of the bootloader, and Linux is completely gone, and Windows remains unharmed!

Now you can reinstall Service Pack 2. If you want, you can also uninstall the Windows Recovery Console. However, this is a VERY useful tool. But it's annoying to have the option popup every time you restart. So do this:

Go to the disk Drive (probably C) you installed the Console in. Go to Tools>Folder Options>View. Then un-check Hide Protected Operating System Files. Now exit the folder and open it up again. You should see a file called boot.ini. Right click it, edit its properties, and uncheck the read-only box. Now edit the file to say "3" where it says "30". Now when you restart the Console option will go away after 3 seconds, and Windows will start up like normal.

After you do all this, it is a good idea to re-hide all the Protected Operating System Files, and make boot.ini read-only again.

GooglePages Creator

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 23:23:00 +0000

I just created 3 new website with GooglePages Creator, the newest cool tool from Google. This is the best ad-free, cost-free web hosting I've ever seen. It has great templates and an easy WYSIWYG interface. However, it also supports file uploads, JavaScript, and sports a few other advanced features. The only thing it is missing is server-side scripting capabilities, namely, PHP support.

Anyways, take a look at the websites I have created here.

Tech Tip #2 - Enhanced Ctrl+Alt+Del

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 05:27:00 +0000

During my last post, Firefox crashed, which reminds me of another tech tip. When a program freezes, most people hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and end the program from the Applications tab (which pops up by default). However, it is often faster to click the Processes tab and end the process that is causing problems. So if Firefox freezes, just end the process firefox.exe. It's much faster, and useful when a regular Ctrl+Alt+Del won't work.

While I'm talking about Ctrl+Alt+Del, I will mention one more feature. In XP, a few programs will not run if they are open in another user's account on the computer. So from Ctrl+Alt+Del, click the Users tab, right-click the offending user, and log them off! This only works as an administrator, and be careful you don't log someone off when they're in the middle of something.

2006 TIME Person of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:31:00 +0000

It is with great pleasure that I formally announce that I was voted the 2006 TIME Magazine Person of the Year. It was a great contest, and best wishes to everyone who was nominated.

Comedy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 03:59:00 +0000

There is good comedy, bad comedy, and then a bunch more bad comedy. The top 5 people and shows AND MOVIES that made me laugh:

1) Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat - if you haven't seen this, what are you waiting for? I'll post some tv episode free links later.

2) Family Guy - subtlety and blatant crude humor combined make for an excellent show.

3) Mitch Hedberg - opposite of subtle Family Guy references.

4) Ann Coulter - she's definitely a comedian not a politician!

5) Jeff Foxworthy - some stuff is REALLY funny, most is funny, but a few things are just good. Redneck humor, mostly clean, too.

I'm not advocating Bittorent, not by any means.

How to Hack Minesweeper

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 02:39:00 +0000

Today I will show you how to cheat in minesweeper. It's very simple, but we will be editing the registry. You should back up the registry with one of those free programs out there before you mess with it, unless you are an extremely skilled programmer. If you don't, and you mess something up, your CPU is screwed. Anyway, to get to the registry, go to Start, Run. Type regedit and then the registry should appear. Find the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\winmine

After you find that, look for names and times. You can edit these by right-clicking, and it's pretty much self-explanatory. Comment if you have problems.

How to Crack a Master Lock - Trying Combos

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:47:00 +0000

OK, how to go faster when trying out the 100 possible combinations, as shown below. Assume that your last number was 17, and thus your first number is 1+4x, and your second number is 3+4y, where x and y are are any numbers, 0-9, inlcusive. So to try the first combination, we dial it like we usually would. 1-3-17. Next we dial 1-7-17. However, instead of starting over, we simply start from the previous position (the one we ended on when dialing 1-3-17) and rotate back to the left to the next second number, which is 7. Rotate right to 17, and if this doesn't work, continue. Rotate left to 11, and right to 17. Left to 15, right to 17. Left to 19, right to 17. This allows you to try multiple combination codes without having to enter the first number every time. (Of course, you will have to enter the first number when you switch from the 1-x-17 set to the 5-x-17 set.)

I know, confusing, so questions welcome in comments!

How to Crack a Master Lock

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 22:52:00 +0000

Part 1

The first part to cracking a lock is figuring out the last number. We will narrow it down to 12 possible numbers, then eliminate 11 using some techniques I developed.

First, you must pull up on the shackle and then turn the dial slowly. The dial will get stuck on a certain number. Write that number down. Release the shackle, then pull it up again and start turning the dial. The dial will get stuck on a different number. Repeat, until you find the 12 places where the dial gets stuck. Now we can easily find which number is the right number. Out of your 12 numbers, 7 of them will be in between two tick marks. I like to write these numbers as 12.5 or 32.5, for example. So eliminate those 7 numbers, and you only have 5 possible numbers left. Out of these, 4 will end in the same last digit. Eliminate those 4, and the last number remaining is the last digit of the 3-digit combination code! For example, consider the 12 numbers below:

3.5, 7, 9, 13.5, 17, 21.5, 24.5, 27, 29.5, 33.5, 37, 39.5

Eliminate the "halfway" numbers:

7, 9, 17, 27, 37

Eliminate all the numbers that end in the same digit (in this case, 7)

9

The only number left is 9, therefore it must be the last digit in the combination.

Ok, so now we have the last digit in the combination. But we still need the first two. We could use brute force, but we would have 1600 combinations to go through. I'll show you how to simplify this task and find the first two numbers tommorrow. Stay tuned!

In the mean time, I'm going to give you some homework. This isn't neccessary, but it will help you understand tommorrow's explanation of how to find the first two numbers. Homework:

Read about modulos. The first definition on Wikipedia is a good one. If you don't understand, see this Wikipedia article. Have fun! (Why the heck is he teaching me math? Find out tommorrow!)

-----------

Part 2

Now we will take a look at the first two numbers. I hope you did your homework. Now, find your last number, and take it mod 4. (This means divide it by 4, and write down your REMAINDER. So if your last number is 17, the number we are looking for is 1). This will be the base of our first number. To find the base of our second number, add or subtract 2 to the base of the first number (add or subtract? which one? we'll see below).

This can get confusing, so let me demonstrate with an example. Assume the last digit is 26.
Base of #1 is 26 divided by 4, which is 6, remainder of 2.

Since the base of our first number was 2, we need to add 2. Adding 2 gives us 4. However, our bases can never be above 3 or below 0. So let's go back and substract 2 instead. So 2 minus 2 equals 0, which is the base of our second number.

Another example: Last number = 33, Base 1 = 1, Base 2 = 3
Another example: Last number = 15, Base 1 = 3, Base 2 = 1
Another example: Last number = 32, Base 1 = 0, Base 2 = 2

Ok, so now you have your last number, as well as your 2 bases. Now take your 1st base, and add 4. Add 4 again. Again. Each time write down your number, and by the time you break 40, you will have written down 10 numbers.

Repeat that proccess for your second base. Then you will have 10 choices again.

So now, you have 10 choices for your first number, and 10 choices for your last number, and 1 choice for the third number. Thus, there are 100 possibilities. You must try them all. Do this on your own lock first, to make sure you can do it correctly. It usually takes me 3 minutes to try all 100 combos, but I know a special trick. I will share it tommorrow, as this post is already too long. But let me go through a full example first.

_______

Possible Last Numbers:

3.5, 7, 9, 13.5, 17, 21.5, 24.5, 27, 29.5, 33.5, 37, 39.5

Eliminate the "halfway" numbers:

7, 9, 17, 27, 37

Eliminate all the numbers that end in the same digit (in this case, 7)

9

The only number left is 9, therefore it must be the last digit in the combination.

Now take 9 mod 4, and get your first base of 1.

Add 2, and get your second base of 3.

So the possibilities for the first number are 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37
The possibilities for the second number are: 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27, 31, 35, 39
The third number MUST be 9.

Leave questions in the comments section please.

UPDATE: Link to special trick that allows you to test the combos faster.

How to Deal With an Irate Person

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 03:49:00 +0000

This is a great tip, via Lifehacker, about how to deal with an irate person. This technique is called the "pace and lead." Basically, it is used when someone is complaining about something. Example:

Patron: The waiter took 15 minutes to bring me my breadsticks! What kind of place is this? I have a mind to never come here again.

Manager: He did what?! That is totally unacceptable!!!

This is the pace part. By matching his emotions, he relates to you. Next comes the lead part. Slowly bring your emotion level down, and his will follow. If this does not work, bring your emotion level back up, and about 30 seconds later, try to bring it down again, very gradually. By doing this, you will establish trust and relation, and be able to actually hold a productive conversation with an irate person. More here.

Racism in America

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:25:00 +0000

These are like the Borat videos. They seem really offensive when you first watch them. However, they are designed to portray the ignorance of the racist. I have to admit, though, that I thought the klna one (the first one) was hilarious. The other three were just plain mean. But I will post them all for completeness:

The Hood
Muslim Mosque
Illegal Immigrants
Orange Street

After you watch the last two, you may not believe me that they are making fun of racists, rather than Mexicans. But watch the last one a couple of times, and see if you get the subtle digs. If not, post a comment and I'll help you out.

Fox Reporter Gets Dollar Stuffed in Her Bra

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 04:07:00 +0000

The title says it all. Click here to watch.

I Have An A in Biology

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:35:00 +0000

Here's how to get an A in biology. This site matched our lesson, textbook, and objectives almost word for word, and really helped me study.

http://www.sirinet.net/~jgjohnso/biologyI.html

Irony

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:38:00 +0000

The Pope makes a comment about Muslims being violent. Muslims say, "we are not violent." "We will shoot people and riot until you apologize for this outrageous comment." Irony, folks, irony.

Music

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 01:29:00 +0000

My Top 5 Songs According to iTunes Most Played

1) I Write Sins Not Tragedies - Panic! at the Disco
2) Shake That (ft. Nate Dogg) - Eminem
3) Grillz - Nelly
4) Rollout (My Business) - Ludacris
5) Harder (ft. The Golden State Project) - Xzibit

Comments
1) I love the song, but the video is AMAZING. It adds depth to the song, and it's a song you need to listen to about 3 times to like it, 5 times to wonder what the hell is going on, and 20 times to understand it. Click here to download the video free.

2) Great beat, and Nate Dogg and Eminem are two of the best rappers out there.

3) A classic, one of maybe 2 good Nelly songs.

4) I don't know how this song got on my top played, but it does have a nice beat.

5) Another song that shouldn't be on my top 5, but this is a decent song. It takes a couple of plays to get the beat, but it gets into your head. You can only play this once or twice before it gets boring though. I encourage all you people to go buy these songs from iTunes today.

TecHappy Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 04:42:00 +0000

The TecHappy blog used to be one of my favorite blogs ever. It hasn't been updated in awhile, but it really does have good content. I was disappointed to see it stagnant for a while, but I've heard the blogger is back from a 6-month journey to India, and will start updating regularly. So go check it out!

Cursing on ESPN

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 03:10:00 +0000

During the Pitt-Cincinatti game live on ESPN2, I just heard the Pitt caoch say, "that was f_ing embarassing," while yelling at a group of his players during a timeout. I wonder if there will be any repercussions tomorrow...

Student Council Election Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 22:10:00 +0000

I know I lost, but considering how well I did off of a write-in campaign, I will share some tips with you:

Find a large group of people, like a clique, and make friends with just one person from that group. Then give that person a large stack of cards to hand out, and naturally, they will hand these cards out to their friends.
What cards am I talking about? I suggest buying a pack of Avery business cards and printing something on them. You can make the cards clever, but make sure they include your name in plain view. This gives voters something to hang on to until election day.
Make stickers. Your stickers should say something funny or outrageous. For example, the winner of an election between 7 people had stickers that said "Vote for Katie or your life is worthless."
Make posters. Your posters should be all over the place, and should say funny things as well. Katie's posters had things on them such as: "Vote for Katie; She's endorsed by this guy." The posters included funny pictures of people, such as Mustard Man.
Be nice to people! Stop and help someone pick up their papers, or say hello to the girl that sits by herself at lunch. Make people think that you care about them as an individual.
Try to stay away from mentioning anything about what you will do if elected. This comes out corny-sounding and I've never seen it win an election. Instead, if you must give a speech, swallow your dignity and do a rap, if one hasn't been done before.
Be courteous to your opponents, even if they are rude to you. Three people told me they voted for me only because they saw how I treated my opponent, compared to how she treated me.
Target minority groups. This is where I failed, and this is where the election will be decided. Make sure you don't appear condescending. In fact, don't even bring up race or religion. Just talk to them like you would talk to your friends. Make them feel special.
If your budget allows it, make pencils with your name and hand them out. These are relatively cheap, and many people don't bring pencils to class. That's a perfect combination to gain a vote from a grateful classmate. I didn't do this, due to the fact that I was running a write-in campaign, but I wish I had.
If you do a write-in campaign, the spur-of-the-moment, bandwagon effect can get you votes. However, there is one thing you need to do differently than me. I asked people to write my name in; you should not. Instead, buy address labels, print them with "I vote for 'Your Name Here' for 'Your Position Here' " and give them to people. Instruct them to put these stickers on their ballots to vote for you. This would require you to talk to your election coordinator beforehand, of course. You should do that anyway when running a write-in campaign.
And my last piece of advice: Don't run a write-in campaign. ;--)

Results

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 20:09:00 +0000

I was expecting to lose, and I did. Apparently it was very close though, despite the fact that I was a WRITE-IN candidate. I will have a percentage tomorrow. But if I could go back and change one thing, I would go after the minority vote. I got about 90% of the white vote, but probably only 10% of the black vote. Oh well, there's always next year, when I will actually run with my name on the ballot!

Worst Analogies Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 03:26:00 +0000

Apparently these were really written in high school papers:

"He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it."

"Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center."

"He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree."

"The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can."

"John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met."

" His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free."

See the complete list at the Center for Volatile Creative Types.

Sleeping in Class

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 00:11:00 +0000

This weeks excellent tip comes from Chase, who says:

"If you want to sleep in class, paint eyes on your eyelids, and snooze in peace. Be sure to bring an airplane pillow so you can sleep sitting up."

Hmm....I would recommend doing this only with the right teacher. Not a teacher who already lets you sleep in class, but not a teacher who is super strict either. Choose a reasonably strict teacher with a great sense of humor, so if (when) you get caught, you can laugh it off.

Results Delayed

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 22:00:00 +0000

Election results were supposed to be out today, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what happened. I just received news that 2 of my biggest enemies voted for me, while one of my friends voted against me. He was absent the past week, and he didn't even know I was running. (Thanks to the A/B schedule, I didn't see him until it was too late.) Also, a girl who never liked me told me she would vote for me, and then today told me she voted against me. Another girl who disliked me changed her mind at the last minute and voted for me. So we'll see what happens. Just so I don't disappoint myself, I'm predicting a loss, 60% - 40%.

Reasoning Dilema:
A) If I look at it by saying: "for every vote I got, I challenge you to name a person who voted for my opponent," it looks like a sure win for me.

B) If I say we have 400 people in our class, and I needed at least 180 votes (20 absent or abstaining) then I don't see myself winning.

Perosnally I like Option A, but I'm being pessimistic so I have nothing to lose. But this started out as a joke, so anything above....50% will satisfy me ... yet 40% will impress me. :)