Welcome to Elliot's home on the web
I'm Elliot, a computer engineering and computer science undergraduate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Read my blog, subscribe to my feeds, visit my websites, and finally, if you know in person, add me on Facebook.
Blog
USC in the 2008 Olympics
I ran into a thread called USC olympics at CollegeConfidential.com. I didn’t verify these facts, but they’re probably right:
- USC senior Rebecca Soni beat world record holder Australian Leisel Jones to win the gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke. To achieve this upset, she marked a time of 2:20.22.
- Trojans Erik Vendt and Klete Keller, members of the U.S. 4×200-meter freestyle relay, won gold medals.
- A Trojan has won a gold medal in every summer Olympics since 1912.
- Thus far in history, athletes who attended USC before, during, or after their Olympic appearance have collected 114 golds, 67 silvers and 59 bronzes.
- USC has sent more athletes to the Olympics than any other university. Since its first olympian in 1904, there have been 385 Olympic athletes with USC affiliation. This year, there are 40 SC Olympians.
- In the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, USC is up to 5 medals so far: 3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze.
- Oussama Mellouli, a USC graduate, swam for his native country of Tunisia and won a gold medal in the 1500m freestyle swim. It was the first gold medal for Tunisia since 1968.
#2 in the iTunes App Store
A couple days ago, my first iPhone app was ranked second in the iTunes App Store for free apps. That was the motivation I needed to take this more seriously. The iPhone is truly a great computing platform. I’m typing this post on my iPhone. In fact, I can now type really quickly with two thumbs. And it’s silent, so I imagine that I can now easily blog from class. Probably take photos of the prof, too.
USC Top Ten Professors and Book List
Some time ago, USC removed the list of Top Ten Professors from the Senate Course Guide. It’s old, biased, and unfair, but I’ve archived it here anyway.
Continue reading USC Top Ten Professors and Book List
WordPress Role Manager Plugin
WordPress doesn’t allow anyone Author level or below to post unfiltered HTML. It silently strips things like <script> tages from their posts. Extremely annoying. Fortunately, there’s a plugin called Role Manager which allows you to give certain users specific permissions, like unfiltered HTML posting. You find it here at these sites:
PodPress WordPress 2.6 Fix
PodPress 8.8 (the latest version as of this writing) is incompatible with WordPress 2.6.
The fix is to add this line to wp-config.php -
define ('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 0);
An alternate fix idea is available here.
Listen to the latest podcast at Adventures In Parenting!
I reverted vandalism on the Secure Digital card article on Wikipedia
Hey, today I undid some vandalism someone called “SmackBot” did to the Secure Digital card article on Wikipedia. The edits are so outrageous I can hardly understand why the person did it. Maybe it’s a bot designed to make Wikipedia less reputable. Still, Wikipedia rules - people like me spot this kind of false info and revert it with just 2 clicks.
Here’s what changed. On the left is the original article. On the right is the vandal’s version. Quite humorous if you think about it.
| - |
SDIO stands for Secure Digital Input Output.
|
+ |
SDIO stands for Safe Digital Instability Options.
|
| - |
SD slots can actually be used for more than flash memory cards. Devices that support ”’SDIO”’ (typically PDAs like the [[Palm Treo]], but occasionally laptops or cell phones) can use small devices designed for the SD form factor, like [[GPS]] receivers, [[Wi-Fi]] or [[Bluetooth]] adapters, [[modem]]s, [[Ethernet]] adapters, [[barcode reader]]s, [[Infrared Data Association|IrDA]] adapters, [[FM radio]] tuners, TV tuners, [[RFID]] readers, [[digital camera]]s, or other mass storage media such as hard drives.
|
+ |
SD slots can actually be used for more than flash memory cards. Devices that support ”’SDIO”’ (typically PDAs like the [[Palm Treo]] or [[Gameboy Advance]], but occasionally laptops or cell phones) can use small devices designed for the SD form factor, like [[GPS]] receivers, [[Wi-Fi]] or [[Bluetooth]] adapters or [[LAN]], [[modem]]s, [[Ethernet]] adapters, [[barcode reader]]s, [[Infrared Data Association|IrDA]] adapters, [[FM radio]] tuners, TV tuners, [[RFID]] readers, [[digital camera]]s [[virtual realith 2.0]], [[Time Machine 6.9.97, or other mass storage media such as hard drives.
|
| - |
A number of other devices have been proposed but not yet implemented, including [[RS-232]] serial adapters, fingerprint scanners, SDIO to USB host/slave adapters (which would allow an SDIO-equipped handheld device to use USB peripherals and/or interface to PCs), magnetic strip readers, combination [[Bluetooth]]/[[Wi-Fi]]/[[GPS]] transceivers, cellular modems ([[Personal Communications Service|PCS]], [[Cellular digital packet data|CDPD]], [[Global System for Mobile Communications|GSM]], etc.), and [[Automatic Position Reporting System|APRS]]/[[TNC]] adapters.
|
+ |
David and Parka has been proposed but not yet implemented, including [[RS-232]] serial adapters, fingerprint scanners, SDIO to KDO host(White)/slave(Black) adapters (which would allow an SDIO-equipped handheld device to use USB peripherals and/or interface to PCs), magnetic strip readers, combination [[Bluetooth]]/[[Wi-Fi]]/[[GPS]] transceivers, cellular modems ([[Personal Communications Service|PCS]], [[Cellular digital packet data|CDPD]], [[Global System for Mobile Communications|GSM]], etc.), and [[Automatic Position Reporting System|APRS]]/[[TNC]]/[[FU]] adapters.
|
| + | |||
| + |
[[FU]] stands for Fock Up Adapter. The adapter in 1926 was a major waste of time and money.
|
||
| + |
Nasa had produced [[FU]] Adapters and found them to not be as effecient as [[USB]] Adapters, In 1949 a whole truck full of [[FU]] adapters had been dumped into the Pacific Ocean. in 1983 the company Nasa was sued by [[John Edgar Spousky]] for littering all in the Pacific Ocean. In 2003 it had been reported that many fish in the ocean where starting to die out due to the chemicals found in the [[FU]] adapter. in 2008 [[Jogn Edgar Spousky]] had been assasinated by one of the Nasa members.
|
||
Note: Wikipedia saves this diff too, here.
Still Not Enough Wiis
Today I discovered that the Nintendo Wii is definitively the best-selling game console of this generation, far outselling the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
As of June 30, 2008, over 29.62 million Wii systems have been sold. That’s huge - Apple’s goal for the iPhone is 10 million by the end of this year - and everyone knows how big the iPhone is.
That’s big news, in my opinion. Yet I haven’t seen this in the news. I guess that’s fine - Nintendo’s doing well enough without the extra coverage. There still around enough Wii consoles to go around, according to this article from Forbes - which means it will be still tough to find a Wii this Christmas. That probably just drives demand higher, much like it did with the Wii Fit.
We’ve had a Wii for a long time. And we also got Wii Fit. We’re very happy with it, but I’m not so sure we would have definitely bought it if it wasn’t so rare. The prestige of owning it is definitely upped by the fact that it’s hard to find.
Nintendo simply makes amazing products. They deserve the profits coming to them.
One interesting thing from the article - Nintendo’s global president and CEO, Satoru Iwata, uses an Apple iPhone. “I use the iPhone myself,” he says. Many people consider it to be a threat to the Nintendo DS, as it’s becoming very clear that it’s a great gaming platform. Yet I have to agree with Iwata… the markets are quite separate. My sisters each have a Nintendo DS. I probably would not buy one. I’d hardly play it. Yet I have an iPhone because I need to be connected to the net at all times - not just for games, but for email, chat, news, Wikpedia, Google, and so forth. That’s not Nintendo’s target market. Nintendo does well partly because they do one thing and they do it well. Games. That’s it.
Apple is not a gaming company. Neither is Microsoft nor Sony for that matter. And that’s the bottom line. Nintendo makes the best games. The most fun, the most innovative, the most creative. Let’s see if they can keep it that way.
The rumble pack (vibrations to make games more immersive), accelerometer, touch screen, wireless (wi-fi), rotatable display (book mode for DS, as in Brain Age), microphone - all innovations in gaming pioneered by Nintendo. The iPhone has all of these things, but Nintendo did it first.
Deleting Different Posts Per Page and other plugins
I’m deleting a bunch of WordPress plugins from my mom’s Adventures in Parenting site because they’ve been inactive for a while.
In case I want them later, here they are:
Different Posts Per Page 1.5
Show different number of posts in home, category, search or archive page. By MaxBlogPress.
Activate | Edit
There is a new version of Different Posts Per Page available. Download version 1.7.3 here or upgrade automatically.
Disable WordPress Core Update 1.1
Disables the WordPress core update checking and notification system. By John Blackbourn.
Activate | Edit
There is a new version of Disable WordPress Core Update available. Download version 1.2 here or upgrade automatically.
Disable WordPress Plugin Updates 1.0
Disables the plugin update checking and notification system. By John Blackbourn.
Activate | Edit
There is a new version of Disable WordPress Plugin Updates available. Download version 1.2 here or upgrade automatically.
Extended Comment Options 1.1
This plugin allows you to switch comments and/or pings on or off for batches of existing posts. By Mark Kenny.
Activate | Edit
There is a new version of Extended Comment Options available. Download version 2.0 here or upgrade automatically.
Hello Dolly 1.5
This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly. When activated you will randomly see a lyric from Hello, Dolly in the upper right of your admin screen on every page. By Matt Mullenweg.
Activate | Edit
Inline Posts 2.1.2.g
Allows you to include posts in pages (and in other posts). To include a post, just enter its ID in square brackets in the body of a page or another post (e.g., [[42]]). By Aral Balkan.
Activate | Edit
Trustworthy XHTML 1.1
Gives you control over how WordPress auto-formats XHTML in posts and pages. The administrator sets the defaults, and based on a user’s Role, that user may override the default setting for his or her own profile. By Leo Jackson.
Activate | Edit
WP-EMail Widget 2.31
Adds a EMail Widget to display most emailed posts and/or pages on your sidebar. You will need to activate WP-EMail first. By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan.
Activate | Edit
WP-FLV 0.2
This plugin eases insertion of Jeroen Wijerings FLV Video Player By Roel Meurders.
Activate | Edit
Here’s that list more concisely:
* Different Posts Per Page By MaxBlogPress
* Disable WordPress Core Update By John Blackbourn
* Disable WordPress Plugin Updates By John Blackbourn
* Extended Comment Options By Mark Kenny
* Hello Dolly By Matt Mullenweg
* Inline Posts By Aral Balkan
* Trustworthy XHTML By Leo Jackson
* WP-EMail By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan
* WP-EMail Widget By Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan
* WP-FLV By Roel Meurders
Windows Vista Install Font Crashes
Strangely, in Windows Vista you can’t install a font just by dragging the font file (.ttf) into the C:\Windows\Fonts\ directory. The operating system crashes. I tried several times before resorting to Google. Turns out you actually have to press “ALT” to see the menu (when you’re in the Fonts folder), and then choose Install New Font…
Strangely, you get this really ancient dialog box that looks like something out of Windows 3.1. And this is Windows Vista!
But hey, it works, so I’m not complaining.
Google Bus to take Road Trip to USC
Google is doing a Road Trip to showcase some of the universities using Google Apps. And guess which school is first on the list? That’s right: the University of Southern California. They announced the trip in this post. See the route: Google Road Trip: App to School. They’ll be at ‘SC on 9/9/2008.
