Testing out the new layout.
Updates from James RSS
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James
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James
Just took a look at http://blog.notdot.net/2009/11/Damn-Cool-Algorithms-Spatial-indexing-with-Quadtrees-and-Hilbert-Curves . Their discussion of Hilbert gives a nice taste for why someone might care about Hilbert curves.
It reminded me of a recent paper published by Eric Lander and colleagues regarding the folding of the human genome. Long story short, it is a real-life Hilbert curve. The upside to this is that Hilbert curves untangle very easily, allowing for relatively easy access to deeply buried regions. ( http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/326/5950/289 ) Perhaps most importantly,it made for an attractive cover on Science Magazine.
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James
Being in desperate need of a new laptop, I was lucky to get some funding to purchase a new Dell Studio 15 with an i7 720, 8GB RAM, and a 500GB Seagate HD. So far, the system has run like a dream, and I plan to post speed tests and some informal battery life tests for those of you wondering about Intel’s new i7. First, though, I need to figure out if my hard drive is faulty.
The feature of the hard drive that gives me pause is a soft clicking that comes from it approximately once every second (though not always). The click is not associated with the normal, hushed ‘grind’ of disk i/o. By not associated, I mean that it occurs both during and not during disk i/o. The click does stop on occasion, but I have not been able to identify what causes it to stop, or to start again. The clicking is kind of annoying, but it would be tolerable if I were sure that it didn’t portend hard drive failure in the near future.
I then ran two tools to try to ensure that the drive was intact. I ran smartctl and discovered that the disk had a very high seek_error_rate (1,353,126), but I have read (in the Google pdf about their experience with hard drive failures) that a certain manufacturer, presumably Seagate, always racks up a high count certain errors such as this, and they are not diagnostic. Importantly, reallocated_sector_ct is zero. Next, I ran SeaTools and performed both a short drive self test (DST) and a long DST. Both of these showed no errors.
Finally, I recorded a video with my my iPhone seated on the front left portion of my laptop, where the hard drive is located and where the sounds emanate from. Does anyone have experience with the kind of clicking that can be heard in this video?
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jshi10
I have. However, the laptop I had was far from new. Furthermore, after using it for a year (and after a year of being unable to detect the source), I simply bought a new laptop. If you have some warranty, I would suggest getting a replacement. You don’t want to end up with a crashed drive or a faulty laptop
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James
Thanks for the suggestion. I got in touch with Dell and they’re shipping me a new HD.
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Klaften Zhaange
Well, seeing that this issue may have been resolved… congrats on the new laptop.
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James
Thanks
The old one was figuratively killing my ability to work on this site!(Note that I said figuratively there on purpose, to combat the annoying trend of saying “literally” when in no uncertain way is said thing not at all literal.)
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James
I will offer up one quick gripe: the touchpad keys are extremely small, and the touchpad extends all the way to the keys. Now that Dell has gestures, this means that if my thumb glances the edge of the keypad while clicking a button, a gesture happens.
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James
NYT Typos:
The acquisitions, the result of billions of dollars spent by large companies snapping up smaller ones, has created a new Internet core of “hyper giants,” a coin termed by the report.
For the rest of us, there are terms to coin. For the NYT, there are coins to term.
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James
MMS over iPhone is now enabled! To get it working, do the following:
1) Attach your iPhone to your computer.
2) Open iTunes, navigate to your iPhone, and check for Updates.
3) Install the (tiny) update.
4) After your phone finishes syncing, turn it off then turn it back on.Now go to your photo roll, click an image, and go to the menu in the bottom lefthand corner that you’d use to send the photo via email. You’ll see a new option - MMS. Click that, and choose a friend to send the photo to.
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James
Of course, 3.1 still disables tethering so I’m still not happy with Apple/AT&T at the moment.
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James
Just got forwarded to protection-check07.com while I was reading an article on the New York Times. I thought it might be a malware issue, but it appears that it’s actually coming *from* ads on the NYT site: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1481195
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James
Do college counselors matter? Does Duke really reject more than half of all valedictorians who apply? To address those questions, here is a thoughtful book excerpt published by NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112020715
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James
Just got Google Voice. The service actually rocks. They start by giving you a new phone number from the ~1 million that they bought in May 2009. No, there are no 212 numbers available, but there are still some catchy phrases left (URO-LOGY, anyone?).
The service will transcribe your voicemail and then organize voicemail transcripts and text messages. You can also send text messages and make calls from your new phone number via the website.
I’m not sure that I’m willing to ask all of my contacts to update my phone number in their phones, but if you’re just getting started in college, now is a good time to pick up a Google Voice account.
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James
On the Boltbus, working on a college rankings system.
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Brent
Siiick. Tethering?
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James
Happy 4th of July!
prologue 10:44 pm on November 19, 2009 Permalink |
Ah~ It looks so much nicer… ^-^
Good work~
James 11:06 pm on November 19, 2009 Permalink |
Thanks! We’re working on making the menus work more naturally, because I think it’s a downside of the new layout.