Teen Tech

Well,

I’ve been busy with school and life in general, but I’ve been toying with a few ideas. Some, I’ve expressed on here before, while others are new. Firstly is my Online TV Show idea (IP-TV). Basically pre-record the episodes, then upload them so that they can be watched. My big inspiration came from a current IP-TV show Hak.5 (hak5.org). It’s awesome. I want to do something like that except target not only the seasoned computer user, but the beginner user. I’m thinking of calling it “The Teen Tech” and just use my blog title and slogan so that I don’t have to come up with anything new. That would cut down on some time. Second thing that I need to work on is a set. I plan on commandeering my dad’s garage (he doesn’t know yet, but he will once he reads this :D) . Then I design my set. I’ve got a basic backdrop design right now, and I may get it printed using my school’s wide-format printer this week or next. Somewhere in there. Here’s what I’ve come up with right now. Note, this is just a rough idea that could change.

When I print this, it will be 36″ x 26.5″, so it will be about the average size of a normal poster.  Then finally I need a camera.  After all of that is done, it’s all downhill from there.

OK, so I understand why schools want to do grading on their computers.  It makes it very easy to transfer information, and it leaves less of a paper trail, but why should the computer be the only method of storing grades.  The teachers used to have a hardcopy and a computer copy, but now they’ve done away with the seperate grade books, which I don’t understand.  What happens if the computers blow up or something?  Having that seperate hard copy is data redundancy which all computer techs know is the key to running a fault tolerant network.  Do you know how many times I’ve been asked by fellow students “Can you hack my grades for me?  I’ll pay you.”  Then I go on to tell them, “Not only is that way over my head, which means I can’t do it, and furthermore, I wouldn’t do it even if I could.”  This doesn’t mean that someone else does not have the tech know how to do this task.  It is unethical and should not even be considered by any honest student.  That is why a hard copy would be a good idea for the schools to go back to, or at least use it as a back up solution.

That’s just my opinion on that.

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

Well, I’m trying to ease my way back into programming after my break over the summer. I decided to try something easy, but I didn’t think that it would be as easy as it was. I wanted to try to program an application that could calculate Narcissistic Numbers. Now, how in the world can a number be classified as “Narcissistic?”

A simple google “define:narcissistic” brings this up:
“characteristic of those having an inflated idea of their own importance”

So, How can this apply to numbers? Well, it is a very simple idea. You have a number, let’s say 153. How can this be narcissistic? Let me explain. First you have to split the number up digit by digit, so you end up with 1, 5, and 3. Then there are three (3) digits, so we keep that in mind. Then to test for narcissisticity (i don’t actually know if that’s a word), you take 1^3 + 5^3 + 3^3 (the “^” means “to the power of”) which equals 153, which makes this number (153) narcissistic, so it loops back on itself. The three is that you raise all of the digits to is the length of the original number, so lets test another number now that we get the concept. Lets try 243. 2^3 + 4^3 + 3^3 = (8) + (64) + (27) = 99. Since 243 does not equal 99, 243 is not a narcissistic number. Does that make sense?

Well, back to the programming, I wanted to come up with something that could calculate some of these out. I came up with this: http://tech-works.info/narcissistic_numbers.exe. It calculates all of the narcissistic numbers up to 100000000. Due to the limitations of Visual Studio, I can not go any higher, and as it is, it takes a little while to do all of the calculations, but with some optimization, it could get better, but this was a ten minute program. Here is the main function of the entire program in its entirety:

Private Sub Main
ListBox1.Items.Clear()
Dim number As Integer = 0
Dim number1 As String
Dim sum As Integer = 0
Dim length As Integer
While number < 100000000
number1 = number.ToString
length = number1.Length
Dim i As Integer = 0
While i < length
sum = sum + Val(number1.Substring(i, 1)) ^ length
i = i + 1
End While
If number = sum Then
ListBox1.Items.Add(number)
End If
sum = 0
length = 0
number = number + 1
End While
End Sub

(Note:  You need Microsoft’s .NET Framework 2.0 to run the program download)

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.

So, I’m up at camp, and quite frankly, there is not ANY technology to report on up here. So, last week, I sprained my ankle. It was bad enough that the camp’s health officer wanted me to go to the hospital to get x-rays taken. It was a sprain and they put me in an air-cast. That was the highlight of my week. There is a new Scout Executive for Tall Pine Council, and he plainly does not trust anyone. He has increased all of our paperwork by about 300% because he wants us in business staff to account for absolutely everything. It Sucks. Other than those few bumps, camp has been great and I am going to continue for another three and a half weeks.

Thumb drives, memory sticks, whetever you want to call them, are cool little devices. They’re a far cry from the 1.44M floppy disks we used to store data on when Windows started becoming popular in the early-to-mid 1990s. My stepson John ordered a thumb drive last week, and is now in possession of his new 16G version. And to think Bill Gates once remarked he thought a home computer would never need more than 640k of memory …

With all the problems recently with memory devices being lost or stolen, what can you do? Similar devices contain onboard password protection, while others are now coming with built-in biometric protection (i.e., a fingerprint reader). Still, none of this will prevent the little beastie from disappearing either in your sock drawer or with the help of unscrupulous individuals.

Here’s something simple: Treat your thumb drive like a key. Keep it with your keys, wallet, cell phone, etc. Whatever kind of item you carry that you always know where it is, that’s how you should be thinking of your thumb drive. It’s pointless to even buy a thumb drive if you don’t intend to actively keep track of where the thing is. If you think for one moment you might forget where your thumb drive is located, hold off on buying one until you can hang onto it.

If you have to have portable memory and still don’t think you can keep track of it, a USB Memory Watch may be in order for you. $200 for a 2G version might be a little steep yet, but there are others out there. Options are available … you just need to be smart about it.

I kinda like the thumb drive that’s also a bottle opener. Of course, if the bottle cap’s stuck and you start banging on it with the thumb drive, the drive just might end up with amnesia …

Most of the time, computer parts you’ll find at yard sales are complete and total junk. On occasion, though, a serious gem will show up that you’ll just have to have. Yesterday at the Luna Pier City-Wide Yard Sales I found this rather late in the day for a whole $10. It’s an empty case complete with a 420W power supply, and has never been used. I’ll be building Mary a new PC with it using parts from various suppliers. All the teenagers who hang out here are jealous!

Teen Tech (aka Aaron) and his brother Adam have been up north at Camp Tapico in Kalkaska for a week now during Staff Week, getting ready for the summer camping season. This weekend they’ll get their first batch of campers who will be there for a week. As they have no internet access up there (hey, even cell phone reception is sketchy out there in the boonies), I’ll be blogging for Aaron as much as I can.

So, here goes …

The first time I’d heard about problems with the XBox 360 was when my buddy Rob Chandler in Melbourne, Australia, posted this blog entry about the system’s “ring of death”. As Rob wrote:

It’s a worry — I’m seeing this report all over the web. XBox 360s failing either just before or just after the 12 month warrantee period.

This happened to Rob prior to our getting an XBox 360 in this household. Mary’s 17-year-old son John bought one a month or so ago and it wasn’t too long before we found it with the two-light “ring of death”. It had overheated just sitting there with no one playing it.

John’s a pretty resourceful guy and immediately started looking for a possible solution. He found one, too. At a GameStop store, he picked up this inexpensive USB-powered cooling fan/XBox 360 fan. For $9.99, it seems to be be doing a decent job. We haven’t seen the two-light overheat lights since installing the fan. What was interesting about it to both of us was the “pass-through” USB connector. When you plug the fan into a USB port on the XBox, the cable for the fan comes out of the side of the cable’s USB connector. The fan’s USB connector itself has another USB connector built into it, so you actually don’t lose the use of that USB port on your 360.

There are more elaborate/more expensive cooling fans for the XBox 360 out there, but the one John found seems to work well enough that it seems to be all he and his gaming friends need.

I’m not sure what Rob ended up doing with that particular XBox 360 of his. His stick upright basses are pretty cool, though! At the bottom of this page is a pic of Rob playing in an impromptu band at the Conference Center at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Washington, in April 2004. Yes, us old guys can be pretty cool, too!