A quick rant

There's a few types of Facebook statuses that tend to annoy me quite a bit. Let's list them out:
1) Song Quotes
2) Inspirational Quotes
3) ... Pretty much just a long stream of never-ending quotes
Does anyone sense a pattern here?

Now, to be honest, I don't mind the occasional quote amid a stream of status updates. However, when your status is nothing but quotes, it gets a bit annoying. You are not a wise old man with years of experience to be giving out insiprational quotes around the clock. You are not a jukebox or music player for there to be 2000 song quote on yor profile. In fact, these types of quote makes you seem quite the opposite: a person desparate for attention, either from an individual or from a group of people. And for those people who quote love songs for their crush or S.O., it's a bit annoying that you do so on Facebook. There are better and more private methods of doing so, without having to smother the rest of us with it.
Instead, go for status updates that are just that: status updates. I may not really care too much that you're eating a pb&j, but I can bet you that it's many times more interesting than a song quote for a song I've never heard.
Well, I guess that wasn't all that short after all.

Edit: Apparently there was some confusion as to what I was referring to in this post.  I wasn't referring to any person in particular. As I said before, I do not mind an occasional quote, but when that is all a person posts, it tends to be somewhat annoying. I'm really only saying that a bit of variety in your status updates would be appreciated.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

My First Research Paper

For the past two weeks, I've been very busy writing a research paper.  My advisor, Dr. Katherine Freese, asked me  if I wanted to write the conference proceedings for a talk she gave at the First Stars and Galaxies Conference in Austin, TX.  Seeing as this would put my name on a paper, give me experience writing papers, and help me better understand the material I'd be researching, I agreed to.

The next few days we very stressful, just trying to figure out what to do, and what information to put in the paper.  Katie was very helpful, giving me tips and pointers whenever I was stuck.  And, before long, I finally finished the paper.

It was an exhilarating process.  I had to relearn a lot of the things I'd forgotten about LaTeX, and learn a few new things, like adding figures and making a bibliography.  I learned how to create .eps pictures, and how to work with LaTeX macros.  Overall, this paper, for all the twists and turns we had in preparing it, was one of the most fun times I've had this summer.  The experience will greatly help me in my research endeavors, and I'm very grateful for my advisor for all the help she gave me along the way.

Since the paper is going to be published by the American Institute of Physics, I'm not entirely sure I can upload the paper onto my website.  If, however, I am allowed to (since I am an author), I will upload it for people to download and read (if they care to).

Now onto figuring out some more Fortran...

Quals

One thing most Graduate Students have to do at some point in their Graduate Career is to take what's known as the qualifying exam, or the quals.  Many Students shudder when they hear this word; it brings either bad memories or extreme nervousness.
True to most universities, University of Michigan also has a qualifier prerequisite for becoming a Ph.D. candidate.  As such, many of us graduate students scramble to try to remember things we learned in our undergraduate career, things that we sometimes haven't seen in 3-4 years.
This past weekend I took the first of two quals, the Classical Quals, at the University of Michigan.  From what I coulld tell, it was a pretty fair test, making sure we had basica understanding of concepts that we should have learned while in undergrad.  However, having not been exposed to many of the concepts presented for a while, I found myself stuggling with problems that I know that if I had tried answering back when I first learned about it, I  would have found extremely easy.  However, because of the time difference, I could not remember simple equations or relations between things.
Which brings me to my point: what is the point of these exams?  Much of the test seems to revolve around knowledge of random equations, which, throughout all my my undergrad and graduate career, was never the focus of physics.  Instead, at least as far as I know, physics is the interplay of concepts to try to come up with relationships between forces and interactions in the natural.  By testing our knowledge of a small subset of physics equations, are they really probing how well we know physics?
Now, I'm probably exagerating a bit, because most of the problems involved a physical system and a questions about what happens.  But, because many of my difficulties involved not remembering the equations, even though I knew what was going on, I could not solve the problem.
Several Universities are realizing this shortcoming of the qualifying exam and are either downplaying its importance or removing it from the requirements completely.  Instead, they focus more on research done by the student, and how they've taken ideas from classes and applied them to their research (the idea behind the preliminary exam, whose premise I agree with).
Then again, maybe they expect us to remember pages and pages worth of somewhat random equations...

Eddie

Blogging in the New Year

I have a nasty habit of not updating my blog very often.  Usually, I get carried away with other things, mainly with schoolwork, that I forget to update or, more likely, say to myself, "I'll do that later."  As it is a new year, I'm once again resolving to write more often on my blog.
So, there goes another year, and another decade.  This has been a very busy year for me, with me graduating from Iowa State University and the start of Grad School at the University of Michigan.  It's been a year of changes, of goodbyes and of new friends.  But most importantly, it's been a year that's seen a maturing in myself.  I've grown this year in ways that I could not have imagined when it started.
As 2010 commences, I only hope that I can continue to better myself as a person, to continue to pursue my dreams as a graduate student in physics, and to continue to live life to its fullest.  After all, what's a new year if you don't live your life, exploring the new opportunities the year brings you?  2010 will be a good year, and one that I hope will be as memorable, if not more so, than the ones that have preceded it.

Life update

The past few weeks have been full of ups and downs. In fact, I don't think I've ever experienced such a difference in mood in such a short time.
A few weeks ago, I took my midterms for my physics classes. Needless to say, they were extremly hard, and some were downright unfair. Well, I've gotten two of my tests back, and, unsurprizingly, I did horribly on both. The only good news is that the others also did pretty bad on the tests as well.
I plan on picking up my third test tomorrow, and hopefully, I'll have done better on this test, as it did seem the easiest and most fair of the three.
In addition to midterms, it seems like the homework load has doubled from earlier in the semester. Today, for example, I worked on a problem for about 6 hours straight, with only a short break for lunch. Not only that, but I technically started working on the problem yesterday, and worked on it for about 3 hours then.
Nevertheless, I am still striving towards my goal, and I know that no matter ehat, I'll be able to acheive whatever is set in my path.

UPDATE: I received my final Midterm, and I'm quite pleased to say I got an 85%, which was above average, and well within the range of expectations.  Needless to say, I feel much better about myself.
-Eddie

Choosing a smart password

Choosing a smart password: "Posted by Michael Santerre, Consumer Operations Associate

As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we'd like to take this opportunity to remind you about smart password practices. Help ensure you're protecting your computer, website, and personal information by checking out our security series on the Google blog or visiting http://www.staysafeonline.org.

Phishing, a topic that's been in the news, is unfortunately a common way for hackers to trick you into sharing personal information like your account password. If you suspect you've been a victim of a phishing attack, we recommend you immediately change your password, update the security question and secondary address on your account, and make sure you're using a modern browser with anti-phishing protection turned on. Keep an eye out for the phishing warning Gmail adds to suspicious messages, and be sure to review these tips on how to avoid getting hooked.

Creating a new password is often one of the first recommendations you hear when trouble occurs. Even a great password can't keep you from being scammed, but setting one that's memorable for you and that's hard for others to guess is a smart security practice since weak passwords can be easily guessed. Below are a few common problems we've seen in the past and suggestions for making your passwords stronger.

Problem 1: Re-using passwords across websites
With a constantly growing list of services that require a password (email, online banking, social networking, and shopping websites — just to name a few), it's no wonder that many people simply use the same password across a variety of accounts. This is risky: if someone figures out your password for one service, that person could potentially gain access to your private email, address information, and even your money.

Solution 1: Use unique passwords
It's a good idea to use unique passwords for your accounts, expecially important accounts like email and online banking. When you create a password for a site, you might think of a phrase you associate with the site and use an abbreviation or variation of that phrase as your password — just don't use the actual words of the site. If it's a long phrase, you can take the first letter of each word. To make this word or phrase more secure, try making some letters uppercase, and swap out some letters with numbers or symbols. As an example, the phrase for your banking website could be "How much money do I have?" and the password could be "#m$d1H4ve?" (Note: since we're using them here, please don't adopt any of the example passwords in this post for yourself.)

Problem 2: Using common passwords or words found in the dictionary
Common passwords include simple words or phrases like 'password' or 'letmein,' keyboard patterns such as 'qwerty' or 'qazwsx,' or sequential patterns such as 'abcd1234.' Using a simple password or any word you can find in the dictionary makes it easier for a would-be hijacker to gain access to your personal information.

Solution 2: Use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols
There are only 26^8 possible permutations for an 8-character password that uses just lowercase letters, while there are 94^8 possible permutations for an 8-character password that uses a combination of mixed-case letters, numbers, and symbols. That's over 6 quadrillion more possible variations for a mixed password, which makes it that much harder for anyone to guess or crack.

Problem 3: Using passwords based on personal data
We all share information about ourselves with our friends and coworkers. The names of your spouse, children, or pets aren't usually all that secret, so it doesn't make sense to use them as your passwords. You should also stay away from birth dates, phone numbers, or addresses.

Solution 3: Create a password that's hard for others to guess
Choose a combination of letters, numbers, or symbols to create a unique password that's unrelated to your personal information. Or, select a random word or phrase, and insert letters and numbers into the beginning, middle, and end to make it extra difficult to guess (such as 'sPo0kyh@ll0w3En').

Problem 4: Writing down your password and storing it in an unsecured place
Some of us have enough online accounts that we may need to write our passwords down somewhere, at least until we've learned them well.

Solution 4: Keep your password reminders in a secret place that isn't easily visible
Don't leave notes with your passwords to various sites on your computer or desk. People who walk by can easily steal this information and use it to compromise your account. Also, if you decide to save your passwords in a file on your computer, create a unique name for the file so people don't know what's inside. Avoid naming the file 'my passwords' or something else obvious.

Problem 5: Recalling your password
When choosing smart passwords like these, it can often be more difficult to remember your password when you try to sign in to a site you haven't visited in a while. To get around this problem, many websites will offer you the option to either send a password-reset link to your email address or answer a security question.

Solution 5: Make sure your password recovery options are up-to-date and secure
You should always make sure you have an up-to-date email address on file for each account you have, so that if you need to send a password reset email it goes to the right place.

Many websites will ask you to choose a question to verify your identity if you ever forget your password. If you're able to create your own question, try to come up with a question that has an answer only you would know. The answer shouldn't be something that someone can guess by scanning information you've posted online in social networking profiles, blogs, and other places.

If you're asked to choose a question from a list of options, such as the city where you were born, you should be aware that these questions are likely to be less secure. Try to find a way to make your answer unique — you can do this by using some of the tips above, or by creating a convention where you always add a symbol after the 2nd character in the answer (e.g. in@dianapolis) — so that even if someone guesses the answer, they won't know how to enter it properly.

"

Blog Subscribers

So, recently, I moved my Blog's feed into FeedBurner, mainly out of curiosity.  However, I was checking things today, and to my surprise, I have a few people subscribed to my blog!  I don't know how this came to happen, but I really appreciate those of you you read my random trivialities of whatever, even though what I say is random and sometimes even pointless.  I do know that some of the subscriptions are from sitea that I have linked to read my blog to post to other places (like twitterfeed and facebook), but the number of people subscribed is more than the number of services out there.  So if you're subscribed to my blog, leave a comment, and I'll appreciate it.  Who know, maybe this will make me write better posts more often.

Physics (and other graduate things)

This week, I'm doing orientation for the physics graduate program at the University of Michigan. A few things of interest:

1) Safety training is both boring and funny at the same time.  A lot of the information is things that you HAVE to know, but so, so boring.  At the same time, the pictures of things that happen when things go wrong are for some reason funny (like the tank full of some compressed gas that somehow broke free of it's holder and made a hole in the roof of the building).

2) I don't remember much simple physics anymore.  One of the things I'm doing this week is taking GSI (Graduate Student Instructor) training, even though I'm not going to be a GSI (yay fellowships), and one of the things we had to do is "grade" an assignment.  Yeah..., I don't remember simple angular momentum.  Also, I can't grade homework.  I'm too nice...

3) Physics Graduate Students are all wacky and crazy.  I'm glad I'm not alone...

4) Having an office is cool, but at the same time, makes me feel old.  However, I'll be in there for long periods of time, especially while doing homework.

5) Even though the summer program I was part of is over, I'm still seeing the friends I made over the summer through it.  Makes me happy that we still find ways to get together.

6) Gyroscopes are AWESOME!!  Yeah, I got to play with one.

7) Being a graduate student is going to be fun.  Hard, but fun.

This week has got me looking forward to doing everything I'm going to do.  I'm excited for my classes, even if they are though, and I'm really excited to do research.  There'll be times when I wish I was doing something else (like a job and getting paid), but I think that the next 5-6 (hopefully) years will be some of the most memorable I'll have in my life.  Graduate School, here I come!

BrazenCareerist.com

Today I found out about a site that helps professionals from "the next generation" connect with each other and share ideas, brazencareerist.com. The site offers many tools for networking and sharing, and will even import facebook information and twitter updates. One can even import their blog and add that to their profile feed. People can join groups based in different categories, including professional and interest groups, and can share ideas with other members of the group. If there's a particular person that seems interesting, keeping up on that person's updates is easy: just become their fan, and all their updates will be posted on your "fan feed". In the words of co-founder Penelope Trunk:

"Starting today, we are calling Brazen Careerist the career management tool for next-generation professionals. In the online career space where experienced professionals win, we’ve created a network that will help young professionals level the playing field. Instead of just a traditional résumé, at the core of the new Brazen Careerist profile is an idea-based feed that showcases your knowledge, opinions and thoughts. In other words: Your potential. We all know there are pools of new talent coming into the market, but no career site showcases the most critical thing that talent should be sharing: Ideas."

The website promises to be very user-centric, with the idea that what the user has to say and what the user wants to see is most important. It's all about being part of a community that can help each other reach goals, give feedback, and above all, network with others.

When you least expect it…

So, for the most part, life here in Ann Arbor has been going pretty smoothly.  I’ve made a few friends, managed to learn how to get around the city, and pretty much settled down into the routine of summer classes.

However, suddenly, my roommate tells me he’s moving to another apartment.  Since he was living here before I came, this means, of course, that suddenly, I have to get a ton of thing for the apartment, things I didn’t plan on getting initially.  Suddenly, life grabs you by your neck and says “Don’t get comfortable, we’re just getting started!”

To make things worse, one of the dashboard lights in my car lit up, and according to the manual (yes, I actually read it) it’s some sort of engine emission thing.  Now, according to Kristin, it usually means that the gas cap wasn’t closed all the way, which happened to be my problem, but the light is still on, and I’m hoping that I didn’t cause something worse.

With a few weeks left before classes start, most of my friends decided to go home for a few weeks, to spend a bit of time with friends and family.   I’m not so lucky.  Most everyone I know is in Ames, and they’re getting ready for classes starting next week, so visiting might not be the best idea at the time, although I might, I haven't fully decided yet. However, with the car issue, this seems less and less like a possibility, since I don’t want to be driving my car that distance with a potential engine failure.  So this leaves me all alone here, waiting for my friends to come back, and basically just being here, doing nothing, except going out to buy things my apartment needs.

At the moment, the only major thing left for my is a dining table.  However, I never knew how expensive these could be.  For a 4-person table, everything I’ve seen is over $250.  There is one exception: an extendable 4-6 person table for $170 at IKEA.  The downside: it’s white.  However, I’m pressed for money, so  I think I don’t have much of a choice.  And I can always put something on top to make it look nicer (tablecloth, placemats, etc.)

So, the whole thing from this is that, although life seems to be throwing everything it’s got towards me, I’m still persevering.  I’ve still got a few weeks to get things to a manageable level, and I’ve still got IM and other forms of communication to talk to my friends.  Hey, maybe I’ll actually try cooking something just to pass the time…