Math Lab Scheduler: March 7

We have had a lot of time to go over the project and in just a few minutes we will be presenting the proposal to the people we are doing this for.  We are super excited about it and hope that it makes a difference in the lives of a lot of students here at BYU - Idaho.

We have decided to use Google Docs in order to collect and transport the schedules and the information of the tutors each semester.

We have also decided to use as our main framework the Drools Planner Library.  Out of all of the programs and code that I looked at, this seems the most readable and effective code for CSP programming.  More updates on the actual code and the other things we have been learning soon.

Soft-Bricked my photon

So I broke my phone the other night.  I enjoy tinkering with stuff, always have.  But sometimes I end up breaking the stuff I am tinkering with.  I didn't panic because I have done this often enough to know there is a way to fix it, typically.  What happened was my phone was at about 5% power (I think) when I went to update Jokerax's Cyanogenmod ICS Beta from 0.2.0 to 0.3.0.  (Love his work btw).  Well, it crashed in the middle of that and so it wouldn't turn on beyond the red Motorola M screen.  

After a lot of failed attempts to turn the thing on, or even charge it (it won't charge if it has been soft-bricked like this either), I went online in search of a solution; and lo and behold I found one!

The long and the short of it is to cut open a usb cable and splice in the bare cables into your battery to charge it for a few minutes (only enough to recover your phone as any longer could be dangerous, overcharging).  I will not give you details here as I don't want the responsibility but you can find instructions online.  Just don't burn down your house in the process of charging your phone battery like this, much better to just make sure your phone is fully charged before doing anything with it in CMW!  I've learned my lesson.  

The Math Lab Scheduler Project: March 3rd

Today I got back into the game with the team I am working with on the math lab scheduler project.  It is coming along and the design document is almost done.  We are trying hard to keep everything within the scope of our allotted four weeks, and it is hard to do so; we are so excited about everything that it could do!  We ended up spending a good three hours there in the Linux Lab working on the details and hammering out what we are doing with the GUI and the data structure.

Definitely learning here that it is better to spend time planning before hand.

Day 2 of the Seattle Expedition

Day 2 of the Seattle Expedition was much better for several reasons:

First, I didn't have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to go catch a bus down to Utah: definitely an improvement.  

Second, we got to visit some much cooler companies:  Nordstrom, Fresh Consulting, and Microsoft to name the ones that most impressed me.  Each had their own culture and mentality that was hard to miss, and each were cordial and a pleasure to work with in turn.  I definitely felt like the best fit for me was either at Microsoft or Fresh Consulting; Microsoft having a very competitive and intelligent nature, while Fresh Consulting and terrific work ethic and an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.  

Mike from Fresh Consulting was very transparent, and in everything he did he sought to instill in us the attributes and the lessons that helped him in his path to success.  He was very transparent, trusting of us, and humble.  He started his little talk by telling a 10-minute version of his life and the most important moments therein:  The passing of his first wife to cancer, and the joy and renewal he found in marrying and bearing more children.  I appreciated his speaking with us and being so clearly moved by pictures he showed us, without making us uncomfortable because it was a lesson in transparency:  be the first to trust and to put your feelings and emotions on the line.  He spoke mostly of the movement in social media and how important it is to become an active participant in that realm through producing and interacting with others.  He told many stories of doors opening to him because he reached out.  The principle he emphasized the most was to be exactly who you are online as you are in real life, because people want to connect with people.

He also mentioned a book:  Never Eat Alone, so Justin and I tried to do that tonight.  (Sushi, yum!)

He was a pleasure to listen to, and I felt like it was a good reminder to write in my blog.  :-)