Monthly Archives: July 2010

On Google Chrome and This Blog

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Today is a momentous occasion! Google Chrome has officially tied Internet Explorer as the most popular browser of choice among people who visit this blog.

Browser stats for July 29, 2010

 
That’s actually pretty impressive. Firefox has a pretty strong showing too, despite the fact that people are beginning to blast it for being “behind the times” (read: not more like Chrome). As a Chrome user myself (at home, anyway), I can definitely see the benefits of Chrome– and it’s different. Google took the features of a typical web browser, pruned them down, revamped the UI, and made it all behave differently, and I like that they took that risk. Oh, and it’s very fast.

I still haven’t gotten a good chance to get really into the nitty-gritty of Chrome, but maybe in September I’ll have more time (ha!).

On Online Consumer Surveys

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I do online surveys. Still haven’t figured out why, yet, but I do them.

This particular survey was somewhat all over the place on my shopping habits, but it tended to focus on clothes. More than that, it tended to focus on brands. Yay, my favourite topic…

It asked me: what store do you usually buy jeans from?
I answered.

It asked me: what do you like about this store?
I answered: good customer service, decent prices, high quality (for “Made in China” clothes, anyway).

Later, it asked me: what is the one brand you “can’t live without”?
I replied: I could live without all brands, period.

Then: why is this “brand” (in quotes because I didn’t name a brand) so important to you?
Me: I could live without brands because too often companies use the selling power of their brands to market sub-par goods (and people just follow the brand blindly because they “trust” it).

Hope someone gets some enjoyment later out of my answers.

Advice to First-Year B. IT – IMD Students

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I was thinking about this program which I’m in the other day (Bachelor of Information Technology with a major in Interactive Multimedia and Design– B. IT – IMD for short), and I was remembering the first year I was in it. Now, I had already taken a year of university before joining this program, in a similarly-difficult program (Computer Science), and so I was better prepared than most of my peers, but I still had a rather challenging first year. So I was thinking… why not write up a list of things–advice, if you will– which I wish I had known in my first year of this program, and which could possibly be passed on to the first-years who are coming in? So here is my list (will be ongoing as I get feedback from other people in this program).

Other contributors to this are denoted by different colours in the text:
- Jesse, a 3rd-year IMD student
- Jamie, a former IMD student
- Chris Joslin, a current IMD professor
- Ali, a 3rd-year IMD student
- Lindsay, a 3rd-year IMD student
- Brittany, a 3rd-year IMD student

Update: There is now a list for second-years– Advice to Second-Year B. IT – IMD Students!
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1. Don’t confuse university with high school.

Assignments and exams are suddenly worth A LOT more of your grade than they ever were, and a good deal of classes give you marks for attendance and participation, so show up and take part. Skipping class and slacking are not in your best interest, and will quickly be noticed by both professors and your peers.

2. Show up to all classes!

This includes lectures, labs, discussion groups, and workshops. In B. IT, things move at a very fast pace, and I can think of at least two first year classes for which it is ESSENTIAL you attend, otherwise you will fall behind extremely quickly. I’m thinking specifically of IMD1000 (Intro to IMD) and IMD1004 (Software Tools) (this one had a lot of in-class assignments which needed to be handed in at the end of every class for marks, so if you missed one, it was often really difficult to catch up). Also, BIT1002 (Physics), had mandatory labs– if you didn’t come to the labs, you failed the class! You may be tempted in first year to party hard and enjoy the increased freedom which university affords you. This is fine, but do it after your classes are done for the day! (And after your assignments are done, but that’s another story…)
Continue reading →

On Personal Limitations II (Follow-Up)

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As a follow-up to my first On Personal Limitations post (go and read that one first), I came across this article today on 43 Folders, which perfectly describes what I was explaining in the post.

http://www.43folders.com/2010/05/17/future-proofing-your-passion

In it, Merlin Mann writes: “By starting adult life with an autistically explicit ‘goal’ that’s never been tested against any kind of real-world experience or reality-in-context, we can paradoxically miss a thousand more useful, lucrative, or organic opportunities that just…what?…pop up. Often these are one-time chances to do amazing and even unique things—opportunities that many of us continue to reject out of hand because it’s ‘not what we do’”.

Exactly.

On My Pseudo-Diet Experiment III

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Whoops, I’d nearly forgotten that I hadn’t posted my conclusions about this experiment! And the conclusion is… inconclusive. There were too many external factors and circumstances which occured over the week to actually draw accurate conclusions from the experiment, however, I did figure out the following:

1. Perceiving myself as more healthy helped me feel like the experiment was working (even if it wasn’t)
2. I really like Jugo Juice
3. The Jugo Juice dude in my building knows me now and suggests new stuff for me to try
4. I had more energy in the afternoons, thanks to all of that fruit sugar
5. Getting over 200% of your daily Vitamin C intake at once can have unpleasant effects on your digestion systems… still haven’t figured out if this is due to cleansing or just due to a bad reaction, so proceed with caution
6. A 24oz smoothie is more than enough for a meal replacement
7. If I want a salad, I need to hit the salad bar in this building before 12:30pm. After that, only the more unappetizing stuff is left

Another ‘inconclusive conclusion’ which I came to is that I did actually lose some fat off my stomach and waist. Not sure how much at this point (I can’t measure myself at work), and I’m not sure if it was because of the experiment, or exercise, or the placebo effect from the mind-trick (see #1 in the list), or a combination of all three. But hey, after only a week, that’s pretty good progress, no? I’m still drinking Jugo Juice for lunch, but I’ve downsized to the 14oz so that I can eat other stuff as well. Yay for healthy eating :D .

T

P.S: You may be wondering why there’s a picture of a moustache. I have no idea.