Protocol Snow

Today was my last day of classes in my last year at college. Ironically, the only class I had today was General Physics II, a course usually taken by freshmen. Why I’m taking the course now is a long story about AP Physics credit and medical school admissions, but half the time I couldn’t/didn’t go to the lectures while the other half I sat in the auditorium grinning about the absurdity of the situation. It could potentially have been problematic though. I never fully understood electricity and magnetism (cue the question: why are you an engineering major again?), but luckily the several years I have over my classmates apparently gave me some additional intuition. On the first midterm I scored two standard deviations above the mean and I nearly aced the second midterm. Not too bad for someone who flinches whenever he sees the word “magnetic field”.

Yesterday was the really killer day though. I had a project due and two presentations to deliver for some senior engineering classes (though a hottie told me later that she liked my presentation, so it wasn’t entirely too bad a day). I’ve been working on the project 24/7 for basically the entire week. It was for a class called “Statistical methods in imaging” and my project idea was to track highways using something called the particle filtering algorithm. This class is out of my league and I would have dropped it in the first week if I could, but unfortunately I needed this to fulfill some graduation requirements. The good news is that some of the students in the class are in the same boat so we’re all sinking together. But while my project isn’t as refined or as advanced compared to one from someone who actually knows what he’s doing with statistics, I gotta say I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here’s a sample image of my program: the user clicks on the image to specify a starting point and a direction, and the program tries to trace the highway. It’s clearly not very precise, but I think it’s cool nonetheless.

I’m not completely done with college yet though. Two finals, two more papers, and one more project in the next two weeks. But those will be more low stress so I’m over the hump. Start the countdown to graduation!

I’ve had my eye on the iRiver clix 2 ever since it was shown at CES 2007 this past January. My beloved iRiver H320 had conked out in the fall, and I’ve been using an Olympus voice recorder (WS-300M) for my music needs while biding my time and waiting for the next killer mp3 player. That moment has finally arrived with the U.S. launch of the iRiver clix 2 last week.

I just placed my order ten minutes ago, but in the meantime here’s a couple pics from an unboxing gallery by Jenn K. Lee at Pocketables.net (which by the way is one of my new favorite sites). I should be holding my very own clix2 next week, check for my thoughts sometime around then.

This is very awesome, GameDaily has been nominated for a Webby award in the gaming category. Even if you haven’t heard of the Webby Awards, you might be familiar with their famous five word requirement for acceptance speeches. I’m currently not as involved with the website/company as I used to be, but this is a cool honor and I’m really proud of all the hardworking guys at GameDaily. Start thinking of a snappy speech, just in case…

Quick update on this blog: school projects have become my life as my senior year of college winds down. I’ve got about half a dozen topics I want to write about that I reluctantly have to put on hold until things get less hectic. So stay tuned!

Even though I think The Apprentice peaked with its first season, when it was a show genuinely concerned with business matters rather than the endless parade of weekly corporate sponsors that it has now become, I haven’t missed a single episode in 6 seasons. Tonight’s episode was definitely the best of this season and had probably the best boardroom showdown of the last couple years. Wow, what intensity, and an amazing pay-off. It’s a shame how many people will miss this episode because nobody watches this show anymore.

I’ve received a surprisingly high number of google hits to my blog from people searching for recommended Asian dramas. To satisfy the demand, I’ve created a page ranking all the dramas I’ve seen so far. There’s barely any information on the page at this time, but I’ll flesh it out when I find the time. I’m currently swamped with projects and probably won’t have much free time until next week.

While creating the page, I realized how Japanese-centric my viewing habits are. My explanation is that Korean dramas as a whole are generally epic love dramas that involve a whole lot of crying. They’re also fairly long and so involve investing quite a bit of time into them. Japanese dramas on the other hand are short (most are only around 10 episodes), and there’s a much greater variety. I would love to get some Korean drama recommendations, since pretty much everything I’ve heard about are either weepy melodramas or “My Sassy Girl” clones.

As for Chinese/Taiwanese dramas, those don’t attract as much attention as the more popular K/J dramas. However, I do have the first episode of the Taiwanese drama “It Started With a Kiss” on my hard drive that I need to watch sometime…

The long-awaited DJ Max Portable 2 for the PSP released in Korea last week, and I got my deluxe copy in the mail today. The full name: DJ Max Portable 2 Orpheus Package ~Night Black~ [Limited Edition]. Only 1,000 of these were made! This was a tough item to snag, but it’s a nice collector’s item for sure. There’s also a ~Metallic Silver~ of this set that’s essentially the same thing, but with a silver box and a different jigsaw puzzle design. Only 1,000 of those were made as well.

For those unfamiliar with DJ Max Portable 2, this is the sequel to last year’s sizzingly hot Korean music game. It’s very similar to the music game Beatmania, where you need to push buttons in time to the music. Or as a friend called it: “DDR for your fingers”. Check out last year’s version in action to get a feel for the game.

I haven’t tried playing the sequel yet, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the Limited Edition box. I also own the LE of the first game, and the production values of this set are MUCH better than last year’s. The box closes very smartly with a magnetic strip on the flap, as does a smaller box included inside that contains the jigsaw puzzles, art cards, and calendar. Other items in the set are a 3 CD soundtrack, the game, and an art book. The set overall has a very satisfying weight to it. Quality item all around.

Two new singles to keep an eye on, both releasing May 30th:

melody. – Love Story
1. Love Story
2. BoRn 2 luv U　[melody. loves m-flo]
3. Lovin’ U～Deckstream Remix～
4. Love Story（instrumental）

Leah Dizon – 恋しよう
1. 恋しよう♪ (Koi shiyou)
2. Could you be that one?
3. アイシテル～ Love Story (Aishiteru~ Love Story)

The “BoRn 2 luv U” track is particularly interesting: another collaboration between melody. and m-flo? That’s what I’m hoping for, but I’m betting it’ll simply be an alternate version of the “STUCK IN YOUR LOVE” track on the latest m-flo album. I finally got that album in the mail today, I’ll post something about it when I get a chance.