Teen Tech

OK, tomorrow’s the first day of school.  My scedule looks like this:

Math 4
PhysEd
English
US History 3
Seminar
Vo-Tech : Electronics

Vo-Tech is back on my schedule, except with Electronics, which is Micro-Chip and circuit board programming.  I WAS looking forward to it until I got a call from vo-tech.  The call said that I had been referred by my former teacher for an internship in Tecumseh.  It would be a computers job and I have to call the lady back to get the paperwork done and such, but I could have a job during school, get credits for it, and get paid while I’m at it.  Wow.  I tried to get it last year, but the business wasn’t sure, but now they are, and I can do it, assuming I get the paperwork in, so I’m going to have to call vo-tech tomorrow, as today’s labor day, but that’s life.  I honestly can’t wait for school to start.

OK, so, I’ve been back from summer camp for about two weeks, but my mom had a “family” vacation planned for this past week, so I was just going to start blogging again when I got back from vacation. There’s a few things that I am going to discuss this post, such as what’s been going on with me the past 3 months :D.

First off was summer camp. There weren’t that many computers up there at a non-internet enabled camp, but when there were issues or training to be done, they came to me. The commissary director left mid-season with no warning, and he left a highly complex Microsoft Access Database behind that ran the commissary that I had to pick through and figure out how to use to train the new director. I’m also in charge of doing the staff ID badges for next year in the off season. The business manager wanted to get all of the camp computers flash drives to store sensitive data, so I went with her to Staples and found a pretty good deal on a pack of three 1GB drives by PNY, and at the same time I picked up my U3 1GB flash drive for about 25$. What is U3? Well, it is a new technology that allows flash drives to carry around U3 enabled programs (such as Firefox, and Open Office) and use them on any computer that I need to use them on without installing software on that computer. The U3 technology also allows the whole drive to be password protected, which I really like. That’s the extent of the summer camp technology experiences.
(My mom would kill me if she read this next paragraph) Next on the list is the “vacation.” I realize that my mom tried her hardest to make it fun for everyone, but why in the world did he boyfriend have to come along? It wouldn’t have been as bad had I known, but I didn’t find out until about 24 hours before we left. That’s about all that I can say on that specific topic without dropping expletives :). Oh, and contrary to “popular” (my mom’s) belief, the kid’s portions at “Cracker Barrel” are definitely not the same size as the adult’s.
We went to a waterpark a few days ago. Nashville Shores (http://www.nashvilleshores.com). The ride called the “Big Scream” is fun. It’s an elongated half pipe, where you go down on a tube on one side, go almost to the top on the other side, and go back and forth until gravity pulls you to a stop on the bottom. I hold the current record for most rides in one day, 36. That was fun.

Before we left on vacation, I joined PrimeNet in the search for the first 10,000,000 digit prime number. There is a 100,000$ prize for finding the first one, but that’s beside the point. The mere notion of finding all of the primes that http://mersenne.org has found has required millions of CPU hours using parallel processing (see future post). It is estimated that my computer will take about 2 months just to check one 10,000,000 digit number, so I’m not expecting too many miracles.

That’s about it for now. I’m getting tired. I may post more tomorrow.

See everyone later,
Aaron Liske

P.S. I’m getting glasses.

Well,

This is probably my last post that I am going to post for a while.  I’m going up to Camp Tapico as staff Friday.  The term up there is about eight weeks, and I’m not going to have access to the internet.  I will however snail-mail my dad (LunaPierCook) my posts, and he is going to post them.  Tomorrow I will spend the day preparing for my stay, and then I’m gone on Friday.

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good Bye,
Aaron “TeenTech” Liske

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.

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,

I always get depressed this time of year. People graduate. At vo-tech the students aren’t all from the same school, they are from all of the Lenawee County schools. Well, some of my friend’s last day at vo-tech was today, and I don’t think I’ll be able to go to his graduation open house, so today may have been the last day that I ever see him. One of these kids knows a ton more about computers and technology than anyone I know including myself. I’m depressed about him leaving (He’s going to college out of state).

On the other hand, I have filled my Counter-Strike team roster. We will probably play in the CAL (CyberAthlete Amateur League www.caleague.com) season 20 starting in January to give us time to practice. I’m working on the website for the team now (www.tech-works.info/CS).

Also, I’m going to be working on my post frequency here, so keep checking back for more!!!

So,

I’m studying for an exam.  Not a school exam, but an exam done by a leading computer certification company CompTIA (www.comptia.org).  I’m going for my Network+ certification.  This is an industry standard certification and can open quite a few new doors for me.  Some of their other Certifications are A+ which is just computer hardware and software, Linux+, Server+, and a few more.   I plan to go and take the test which is about 200$ within one month or so.

In Schools, I’ve noticed all too much that some, not all, teachers know how to actually use a computer.  Some teachers, as they’ve explained it, are afraid of them.  They would like to learn, but they don’t know where to begin or who to ask to help.  Last year, I had to help a personal finance teacher with the basics of Microsoft Excel.  Excel is one of the most common spreadsheet programs on the market and she had absolutely no idea where to start.  I offered to help her with it, and she was very eager and wanted to learn.  This brings me to my next topic, teaching about computers.  My Dad and I have been discussing conducting online courses about computers and other topics online for those who would like to learn the basics of computers or to expand their current knowledge.  This is completely unofficial as of now, but hopefully in the fall, these courses will begin and we can begin to spread our knowledge about computers.

So, that’s what’s been going on at this point.

Prevention

The easiest way to clear your computer of viruses is by simply never getting any.  How is this done?  This is nearly impossible to do, except to never get on the internet which is simply not an option. One way that I prevent viruses is to not use Internet Explorer.  Some people will swear by Internet Explorer (”IE”), but statistically, it is still the most targeted web browser by viruses, and with its rather insecure “Add-Ins”, it poses more flaws.  Instead, I use Firefox (www.firefox.com).  I have NEVER gotten any viruses through this browser.  It is free, which is another very strong point.  If you do plan on using Internet Explorer, upgrade to IE 7 which is by far the best version.  Another way to prevent viruses is to not use programs which have been known to be a virus magnet.  Some of these include Kazaa, which is a music downloading tool, LimeWire, which is a Peer-to-Peer file transfer utility which breaks nearly all copyright laws, and any other program that is from a shady web site (like one that the address bar is 3 pages long of junk).  Lastly, run Windows Update often, and use antivirus software.  There are many great packages out there that are cheap to free.  I use AVGFree, and Ad-Aware which are both free and can catch most viruses.  Good Luck.

Ok,

Testing’s done.  That means that I can spend more time on my projects and such.   EduNation will start the test phase soon.  StemwareByMissy.com will be launched in the very near future, and my own site will be completed.  I will be going to the Business Professionals of America State Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan on the 22nd - 25th.  I will be competing in VB.NET Programming and Information Technology Concepts.  If I do well enough in one of my events, I can attend the National Conference in New York, New York.  At the regional events, I placed 2nd out of 6 for VB.NET programming and 3rd out of about 200 for Information Technology Concepts.  It should be fun.  I am going to be attempting to create some web software, not unlike EduNation where all of the code is completely original.  It has to be able to be viewed as a website, I just don’t have any ideas :), so any ideas would be grand.  I’ve done some very BASIC forum software, and the Online Quizzing and testing tools for schools (EduNation), but I want to do something that people can actually use.  This is what software development is all about.  Usefulness.  Oh, before I go.  Today during the testing, or actually before it, there was a hiccup with the sophomore testing.  They were taking the ASVAB which is a military test.  I don’t know who, but it was either the school or the military, but they lost the bubble-sheets for the entire grade.  The school had to send someone to Ann-Arbor to meet someone from Detriot to get new sheets, so they got started about an hour and a half late.  I laughed because they were supposed to be done about two hours before the Juniors, but we got done at the same time.  Just my day’s highlight.

Well, school’s closed “Due to Weather.” What does this mean for me? I get 7 hours to work on my various projects. It has come to my attention that my school has spent approximately 10,000$ on some website that does online quizzing, and that’s only the renewal fee. That has prompted me to make my own site that does online quizzing for a lot cheaper. The current URL is http://tech-works.info/edunation. As you can see, It’s far from done. Quite a few of the links don’t work and pages don’t exist, and you can’t save any quizzes, but hey, I’ve been working on it since Saturday, so I’m going pretty fast on this project. I will probably also play some minesweeper and do some chores around the house, so, school cancellations are not just fun and games, but I do utilize the time.