Snow is awesome

in the backyard

too bad it's not sticky, otherwise I'd make some snow turtles.

Fat Cat

My cat weighed in at 12.78 lbs at the vet and has subsequently been put on a diet. I've since learned that 2 extra lbs on a cat is like 20 extra for a human. But at least she's very cute and cuddly ... [Will update with picture asap.]

Word of the day

Catamorphism - "a catamorphism is a generalization of the folds on lists known from functional programming to arbitrary abstract data types that can be described as initial algebras."

Today in section I covered fold and forever changes the lives of the four students who showed up.

Feeling rusty after winter break

Here is a short article that's on Drudge today that I found interesting. I wish I had more time to meditate.

The beginning of the semester as always involves lots of scheduling - classes, meetings and the like. 10am is an ungodly hour to have a first class and 3:30pm is just to late. What I realized today is that the only time I'm fully committed to being at class is between 1pm and 3pm.

Photos

I am now using Picasa for posting photos. So far there are only photos from last summer and they can be found here.

Mathematics Genealogy

Because my friends are also nerds*, when we got distracted while working on our security project today we started looking through the Mathematics Genealogy Project. This project is like a family tree, except the links are based on the "is the PhD advisor of" relation instead of "is ancestor of". It may interest you to know that most of the famous Cornell CS professors trace back to the likes of Poisson, Fourier, Lagrange and Gauss.
We decided to include the path from my security professor to Gauss at the end of our PowerPoint presentation. We are presenting tomorrow, so I'll keep you updated on the response.




*Only with respect to the general population - they're the cool kids in the CS department. ;)

It's finals time

I've been very busy with finals and final projects, hence no updates. Mainly I've been coding - trying to finish up my projects. We've been having regular 6 hours meeting for my security project in now empty classrooms on the engineering quad. I've also been reading xkcd. Here are two comics from there that describe my life right now: one and two.

What's in a name? III

Located on Olga Rd. in Olga, WA which is on Orcas Island, one of the San Juan Islands. [Picture courtesy of Siggi.]

Amusing comic

NERD-SPEAK ADVISORY! If you are allergic, please refrain from reading further.

Working for Google. I guess he doesn't get to be a Noogler.

On another note, I think I am going to embrace the philosophy of intelligent design sort [courtesy of Jon's facebook profile].

Fact(s) of the day

As a child you were taught that wolves live in packs, lions - in prides and fish - in schools and perhaps in middle school you learn that a group of bacteria is called a culture. Here are some interesting ones that I learned at the puzzle challenge. I don't know who came up with this stuff.

• an AMBUSH of TIGERS
• an ARRAY of HEDGEHOGS
• a BAND of GORILLAS
• a BLOAT of HIPPOPOTAMI
• That's just unkind.
  
• a CRASH of RHINOS
• a CROSSING of ZEBRAS
• Ha, that's clever.
  
• a DESCENT of WOODPECKERS
• a HOVER of TROUT
• a KNOT of TOADS
• a PARLIAMENT of OWLS
• I actually knew this one.
  
• a PLAGUE of LOCUSTS
• a PRICKLE of PORCUPINES
• Another clever one.
  
• a RAFTER of TURKEYS
• a RHUMBA of RATTLESNAKES
• Let's RHUMBA!!!!
  
• a ROOKERY of PENGUINS
• a UNKINDNESS of RAVENS