Teen Tech

Hello Y’All,

Today I went on a field trip with about fifteen other people to Yes! Expo 2007 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. Yes! stands for Youth Engineering and Science, so it was really really cool. There was the First Robotics Competition (First stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). That part was played out on the field at Ford Field. All around on the concourse were other science and technology exhibitors, colleges and universities, and demonstrators, and about 4,000 highschool students in attendance.  I was very priviledged to be a part of it. It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a field trip. I will post pictures as soon as I receive them from my Vo-Tech instructor. The guest speaker at the expo was Dr. Steven Squyers with the martian land rover projects, and he gave a great speech on how his life and how math and science got him where he is today. All in all it was a great trip, and I had a great time. I can’t wait to get the pictures.  In the mean time, you can go to the photo gallery that the expo put up here, and see what this is all about.

I’ve begun work on my show, well the planning stages and this is what I’ve come up with so far:

STANDARD EPISODE LAYOUT:

• Intro Bumper
• Episode Overview
• Bumper
• Segment 1
• Segment 2 (Beginner Users)
• Bumper / Advertisement
• Sketch
• Segment 3
• Bumper
• Segment 4
• Closing

That’s about it.  I’ve already been looking for sponsors (advertisers), but I need sketch and segment Ideas.  The segments can be about anything and the sketches can be little funny geeky “things.”  I need ideas basically.  I don’t have any sketch ideas as of now, and I am very limited on my segment ideas.  These are what I have so far:

• Securing WiFi (Wireless) networks
• Chiropractic and Computers
• Green Screening with Avid

If you have any ideas or something that you would like to see done, please just post it.

Thanks Everyone

This is the middle of the second week of school, and I’ve been having some fun during this time, meeting new people, making new friends, working on new projects.

Some stuff has remained the same, such as my involvement in the Boy Scouts of America. Many people know about the Eagle Scout award, but not many people know what actually goes into it. First, there is the merit badge requirement which requires the scout to earn 21 total merit badges, but 13 of those are required, and are usually quite difficult to get, some of these are Communications, Personal Management, Personal Fitness, and Family Life. After all of the merit badges are done, the Eagle Scout candidate must complete a service project that does not benefit the scouts, but benefits the community, school, or other organization. I’ve recently begun the planning for my project. I’m going to build nine flower planters out of decking wood to be used at a city owned park. The key to this project is not that I do it, but I instruct volunteers on how to do it. Its main goal is to show leadership skill. That is on my plate right now, and I plan on getting Eagle within the next month or so.

Another thing that has remained constant is that I like to watch Hak.5. Hak.5 is an online TV show all about hacking computers (hacking in reference to tearing computers and other hardware appart and making them cooler :D), the World Wide Web, Gaming, and other fun computer stuff. For more information on this FREE internet TV show, you can visit www.hak5.org. There, you can find a bunch of cool stuff, watch streaming episodes, and just see what’s up in their world.

School has brought on some new challenges. One of these is PE. I was one of those seniors that waited until my senior year to get my PhysEd credit done. I wish that I had started in my Freshman year because of how beneficial it has already proven to be. I may actually drop Computer Graphics in the second semester to take on another semester of gym. We shall see. Another thing that I’ve been working on this year is my own private math research. I’ve been writing a paper title “The conversion from Base 10 and the discrete usage of Base 12″, wich is all about the Base 12 numbering system and how to convert to it from base 10 (standard decimal). It’s proven to be a difficult paper to write as the math is much more complex than what I’m used to, though with time, I will probably be able to overcome this simple obstacle.

One thing that I’m not too happy with is the Tecumseh Math program. I like the teacher (he used to be an Eagle Scout). Right now we are working on finding instantaneous velocities based on a given function, however the method we are using takes the point immediately before and after the point of interest and finds an average that way, which is slightly inaccurate. My way is to dip into calculus and use derivatives, which I already know how to do without going through this class, but the teacher is barring me from using them, even though I could do my homework in about half the time, but oh well. You can’t win them all.

At Lenawee Intermediate School District’s Vo-Tech center (basically a skills center), I am in the electronics class this year which will have circuit board and microchip programming. We just finished with the orientation for the class today. We’ve been in the class since last Tuesday. It should not take more than a week to cover basic safety procedures, though when it comes to safety, I have a cooler job then the rest. I am one of two people in the class (student) that have my Red Cross First Aid and CPR training, and I am the only person in the class (student) that has my AED (automated external defibrilator) certification, so I’m in charge if there is any sort of emergency in the class if the teacher is not present or incapacitated. That is cool and scary at the same time, because, you begin to wonder, “What if something does go wrong one of these days,” so if something does, I just have to remember the back cover to the “Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” which clearly states “DON’T PANIC.” I’m all set now.

I’ve been toying with a couple of technology related ideas lately, and they have little to nothing to do with math. My first idea is to do an online TV show, sort of like Hak5, but not like it. I want to do my own stuff, and use my own ideas, and have a green screen because green screens are cool. The only problem right now is a lack of camera, but that should be remedied in a couple of months when I go e-shopping. My second idea is a little more serious, and is already in motion, albeit slow. I want to do an online Free counseling service for troubled teens. I want to recruit teachers and counselors to help, but I want to offer teens, and anybody really, a forum for grievances, whether it is family issues, boyfriend / girlfriend issues, or really anything. I just want to offer an anonymous place for kids to turn to in a time of need. It’s a cool idea that I got while watching the movie “Pay it Forward”. For those of you who do not know the idea behind the Pay It Forward movement, one person goes out and helps three people do something big that they can not do themselves, then those three go out and do the same for three more people, then those nine people go out and help three more people each, which turns to 27 people, and the numbers just grow exponentially with each step. This is my way of starting a Pay it Forward chain.

Well, that’s about all that I’ve got for now, but I’ll be posting again soon.

Take Care Everyone,
Aaron “TeenTech” Liske

It sounds just like what it is. It is the process of injecting code into something like a WordPress post where the web browser interprets the code presented like normal. To do that with a WordPress post, you have to be in HTML mode, or where you can edit the raw code of the post. Once there, you can insert code called CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, where you can change various aspects of the code. Take this snippet of code:

<style type=”text/css”>
a:hover {
color: #ff0000;
text-decoration: none;
}
</style>

In the standard default theme for WordPress, when you put your mouse over the link, the color changes, and the link becomes underlined. All that the above code does is make it so that when the mouse is on top of a link (hovering), it doesn’t underline it and changes it to red. This sort of code has been used on other sites like MySpace, but for more nefarious reasons. I’ve even heard of people injecting code onto CNN to make a fake news report for his mother. Using it to change the theme for a WordPress blog, or at least your own, is not malicious in any way. Using it to change someone else’s site is bad and considered hacking. Don’t use this technique for anything bad. That’s all that I have to say. Many parts of the WordPress theme can be edited through injections, you can see most of the parts through the theme editor and under styles.css. Then inject the individual parts into the post. Good Luck, and don’t break anything.

This Friday, I leave for boyscout camp for about 8 weeks. There is quite a bit of preparation that goes along with that. First, I have to get all of my clothes together. A lot of that will be my uniforms, but some civilian clothes will be taken. Then, I need to take all of my toiletries, which includes stuff for laundry as there are laundry facilities for staff members. I will also be taking up two of my computers. One Desktop, and one laptop, and of course, my networking gear. It should be interesting. Next on my list is some reading materials. I will probably take my book titled “Calculus” as I’m trying to teach myself, maybe a Harry Potter book, and probably an Artemis Fowl book. For those who have never heard of Artemis Fowl, it is a sci-fi / fantasy book about a boy mastermind criminal and characters from a fantasy world. Great Series. I will also take up all of my scouting manuals, books, and reference materials. I need to make Eagle before my 18th birthday according to scouting rules. There’ll be a few other odds and ends that I’ll take, but that’s a majority of it. So, I’ll be going up to Tapico at the end of this week and return mid August. It’ll be a ton of fun. In my stead, my Dad, the LunaPierCook will be posting my posts as I send them to him via snail mail, and some that I’ll pre-write. So good luck goes out to him.

Today was the MonroeBlogs.com blogger get together at Dan’s House. Let me tell you, it was a lot of fun. Usually, I would rather be at home at a computer than out socializing, but I would not have missed this chance to meet a majority of the other bloggers and their families. It was great. It was kind of funny when no one knew eachother’s names, but when they said what blog they were from, people were like, “Oh now I know who you are, I like your blog”, and stuff like that. It was a great mish-mash of all sorts of people with a variety of interests coming together. Some for music, the environment, technology, and many many more backgrounds. I think that everyone really got to know everyone else. Over at “What is Normal“, Tonya tells about how my dad, Dave Liske (LunaPierCook), had a little mishap with Dan’s Deck, so check her post out about that. All in all, it was a great time, great food, and great people.

Here I sit, at the computer at a friend’s house after an all night game of Counter-Strike.  What did we do?  We had a LAN Party.  Not a big one, but with a few close friends, we held it in the basement of a Sand Creek Graduate after his open house.  There are four computers down here, and after all is said and done, I am the only one awake.  That is why I am tired.  I resisted the dark side :).

OK,
so I didn’t break the whole bowling alley. Only lanes one and two. Here’s what happened. A ball or two before, I threw my ball like normal, got a gutter, but it bounced out of the gutter (more like it flew out of the gutter), then it hit five pins. Two of those bounced into the gutter about 3 feet out of the reach of the arm that collects the pins, so there they sat until someone hit them. I hit one of them no problem, and that put it back into play. On my next turn I threw my ball, and I hit to top of the pin that was facing towards me in the gutter. The pin acted like a ramp for my lighter-than-usual ball, and that hit the plastic at the top at the end of the lane that had the lane numbers and ball count on it. It shattered it for my lane and the lane next to me. Plastic and the little LEDs were hanging down. Luckily, the guy behind the counter was understanding, even though he still took my phone number. He could have thrown us out then and there, but he actually offered to move us to different lanes. Luckily the damage was with a house ball, and not my own, and hopefully they have insurance. I’ve decided now that I’m going to quit bowling for a while and concentrate on my Counter-Strike playing and getting my team off the ground.

OK,

So, I wrote a post a while back about professional video gaming.  Well, I’ve decided to start my own Counter-Strike (www.counter-strike.net) team.  A team consists of six players, all with their own copy of the game, and a league to play in.  We would play in the semi-pro leage, the CAL (CyberAthlete Amateur League, which is a subsidiary of the CyberAthlete Professional League).  I’ve hit a couple of roadblocks, right now, which will be remedied in time. 

1. I need a complete team roster, which consists of six people.  I have two definite people, and one possible. 
2. Everyone needs a copy of the game.  Pirating a game and attempting to play in the league is cause for a 35 year ban.  Yeah, they’re that strict. 
3. We need a place to practice, then play the games, preferably under one roof.  The games are played online against the other players, but I have dialup internet :(, so that would hinder my brother and me. 

Other than that, we would be good.  Unfortunately, for this, I will be gone during the summer, so we would have to wait one or two seasons (the gaming season is about three months, and the next season begins immediately after one concludes).  That will give us enough time to get the roster together, and get the game for everyone, and find a place to practice/play.  It will happen and when the fall or winter season comes around, we should be ready.

Ok, so I wake up in the morning without the faintest idea about what to write. This little fact brings me to the summer. I may be a computer Uber Geek and barely spends any time outside, but I still go to work at Camp Tapico. It is a boyscout camp, but the fact is that I’m away from any internet enabled computer for about 7.5 weeks. Last year when I went, none of my friends thought that I would last a week. I didn’t think that I would last a week. But the fact is, I really didn’t think that much about computers. I got my daily dosage of computers from the computer that we used in the camp store where we did our inventory. Also, my boss, who is a fourth grade school teacher and about as old as my dad (:D) plays computer games. On the days that were slow in the store, we would play Myst V or some other point and click game. I couldn’t believe it when she started up her computer and I saw more game icons than on my own computer. It turned out to be a great summer and I plan to go back up to camp this summer to do another 8 weeks. During this time, I will pre-write all of my posts, then probably have my dad post them for me during the time that I am away.