Sunday, July 30, 2006

Interesting Article about Wikipedia




Here.

Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?

Here in Rochester




So I am here in Rochester MN again. I flew in on Monday, Tuesday I went back to the good ol' Blue Zoo to do some work with my Design Team as opposed to working remotely like I have in the past 7 months. Being here with them makes a huge difference. I am glad to see a lot of other interns I met last summer are still here either as regular employees or interning again. I would like to stay here as a full timer but I still don't know if that's going to happen. I really hope so, and I think I will get an offer. Only time will tell.

J.V.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

One more day at home



It does not feel like I am going to be gone, this morning has been a quiet day at home, a perfect day to be home and just chill. Tomorrow I am taking off for MN, I am glad that I am going back, but it sucks that I am going by myself. Things are different when I don't have my family around me.

When I am up there I wil try to concentrate on learning about my craft as much as possible. Being a student has been great. College opened up my mind to new perspectives, it changed my life, it has been a good experience, but I feel is time to become an exercising professional engineer. I want to design things, I want to be productive...and I want to get paid!!

Anyway, must go now, more later.

J.V.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Latest Anthony Pics













What I've been up to



Most of you have noticed the fact that I am not publishing that often anymore. The truth is that I have a new Nintendo DS, yes I know, that's for kids, but, I really like it. I've always liked Mario Bros and I have this game called Brain age that lets me exercise my brain and what not.

Anyway, when I finished up those two classes that I barely passed (God knows how I did it) I got a lot more free time. Most of the Month of July I have been working from home and taking care of Anthony in the Mornings and working on the senior Project in the afternoon, then, whatever time we have remaining I spend it with my family. Life is good. I hope that when I get a real job I get to spend time with the family like that.
To me, teaching my son how to be a decent person is very important, I only have one shot of getting it right and I don't want to screw up my son's life by not giving him the proper guidence. I don't want to be overbearing but I don't want him to be spoiled either. I want to show him everything I know about life. Does not sum up to much. But I guess here it goes:

-Self Control is key.
Got to have that self discipline. A lot of people out there want instant gratification, but things are so much sweeter when you work a little bit harder for it.

-Honesty and Honor
I would like to implement that without being too strict. I want him not to lie, cheat or steal. I would like him to be a trustworthy person.

-Education.
Go to college. Any Major. Does not matter. Do what you like. But don't worry if you don't know what you want yet. Go to school.

-Learn to question Authority.
Learn to think. Find out the reason. Question everything. Learn what it means to know something. Don't just believe something because someone told you so, find out on your own.

Ok, I think I've written enough. I have to get to work. But It's good to put my thoughts on my blog. This is what I've been doing.

Oh, another thing I wanted to mention. I have found some Computer Science and Engineering video lectures from some elite schools. I think it is awesome to see how they teach programming at MIT, I am listening to the lectures and actually following two courses, one in graduate level Computer Architecture and another first-year undergraduate introduction to Programming, the first year course is fascinating, I would be a much better programmer now If I would have taken that course my freshman year. The name of the class Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Anyway, here's the link to all the videos if anyone is interested.

Link to MIT's OpenCourseware, I love them with all of my heart for this. Thank you MIT.

J.V.

MINNESOTA





So I am going up to Rochester next Monday. I will be working at the IBM plant for five to six weeks. I hope my car makes the 1700 mile trip. I also hope I get to see some of my fellow bloggers and friends that live in the area.

Crazy enough, I have been busy but not that much. I am just having some sort of blogger writing block. Not surprisingly, I found this article that explains that 1% of internet users are responsible for more than 80% of the content in the user-based sites like youtube. For most people is easier to read and watch than to write and produce.

Even if it is a couple of paragraphs, it is hard to be a good blog writer. Take me for example, I meant to write about my trip to MN and my plans to see some friends up there, but instead I end up explaining my lack of publishing. Oh Well.

J.V.

Monday, July 10, 2006

YES!



I think I may have finished doing all of the programming needed for my Senior Project.
We'll see. I am extremely happy right now, I known there's a lot of testing left, but Jaime and I have solved a problem that 48 hours ago looked as if it had no solution, I may have written the program but if it wasn't for Jaime I would be still be stuck. A couple of presentations left, the final report and ED2 may be behind me. I can't believe it.

Wow, I have been on my laptop almost 16 hours straight. It is time for a break.

YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Good Job Jaime, Majid, Chris, We're not done yet, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.