antonywilliams.com

It has mic. input, volume control, balance control, bass control, treble control and a speaker crossover network.
We had to build it for our ECEn 212 lab.
It's extremely long labs like this that are the reason I haven't been blogging much lately.

28 resistors, 6 Pots (variable resistors, 1 of which is logarithmic), 16 capacitors, 2 inductors, 12 operational amplifiers and a bunch of other wires I don't want to count.
Those big blue things are giant capacitors. Used to convert AC into ~DC.
Top down view of the two capacitors (one per channel) forming my power supply

Speaker crossover network.
Basically it sends the low frequencies to the woofer, the high frequencies to the tweeter etc..
The white and black things that look like tubes of tape is just copper wire wound around a tube (an inductor)

Apparently, it costs $125 more than the cost of tuition/books.
The deeper I look, the more I realise that there are tons of hidden costs. At least twice a week I pull an all-nighter. Once it gets to 3AM, I'm in desperate need of snacking, and end up swiping my signature card on the vending machine at least three times (I'm talking about the Clyde building....that's right...it never closes). In a sense, sleeping is a great deal. Not only is it fun, but it's free. Staying awake longer only means you have to eat (and therefore, buy) more food.... :(

A couple of days ago, I decided I would be needing a new calculator to do LaPlace transformations (thus the $125) as that would, in the long run, save me money otherwise spent at vending machines late at night while trying to do the transformations by hand.

The end result.... An HP50g

It was just barely released, and is far superior to any TI (I currently have a TI89)
It centres around RPN (Reverse Polish Notation)
A genius way of typing equations into the calculator with the minimum number of keys pressed.
It's actually an interesting read for anyone remotely interested in maths/electronics as it has a lot to do with how the calculator actually calculates an equation.

For those who can't be bothered to read a bit and become educated, I'll give a brief summary.

Suppose you try to find out "1+2". On a TI you'd type "1+2"
With RPN you have to enter numbers into the memory, and then tell the calculator to add the numbers from each part of the memory together. (It's much easier than it sounds)
So, in RPN you'd type [1] [enter] [2] [+]
The idea is that you enter "1" into the stack (kinda like a specific part of memory), then enter "2", and tell the calculator to add the contents of the 2 last accessed memory slots.
Trust me, it's easy, and it makes more sense when you're entering a huge equation, as you type it in just as you'd work it out manually. You have no need for parentheses.
Another simple example would be "(1+2)*5"
In RPN you'd type
"1", then enter in onto the stack, "2" and then add that with the previous number on the stack, and then "5" and multiply that to the previous number on the stack (which is now the sum of 1 and 2) so,
[1] [enter] [2] [+] [5] [*]

cool eh?

OK, now lets really see the benefits by seeing how you'd type in a big equation like this


There are a lot of brackets that can be mismatched. Having to type something like 6*(exp(4/5)+2)/sqrt(sin(3)+4)= isn't very intuitive - it's not written on paper like that.

The animation below shows how the same formula is entered in RPN. The equation is built bit by bit, from the inside out. Start off by typing [4] [enter] [5] [/] to get four-fifths. Then make it the power of e by pressing the [e^] key. Add 2 to that - [2] [+]. Then do the rest of the equation in the same fashion.



The benefits are a huge increase in speed (after you've practiced entering it in this way, obviously)

I'm sure you're all glad to know that I'm now gonna be doing homework that bit quicker, and going to be getting a little bit more sleep!

I decided against taking classes....Although it would probably have been in my interest to get rid of a couple of hard ones, it sure feels good to be doing nothing (well...I am working 35 hours a week, so I'm not that lazy.
I figured since I'm not really doing that much, I should buy my Maths book, and give it a look over, since it's been about 4 years since I've done calculus
It's the 8th edition of "Elementary Differential Equations" (Maths 334) and cost $128
It's daylight robbery; although I can't do anything about it now, someday I'll be powerful enough to screw over those thieves....now all I have to do first is actually graduate....I suppose in the mean time I may as well plan how exactly I can screw them over should I ever become powerful enough :)...any ideas ?

My Engineering test took a little over 3 hours, my Physics 220 test took almost 5, and my Computer Science took 2 (I had to get lucky with one of them)
Now I can relax. (for about 4 days!!!)
I'm going to be working 35-ish hours a week over the break, while possibly taking some classes.

The end of the semester is nearing, and I couldn't be happier about it.
Last night I spent until 4:40AM in the CAEDM lab doing my EcEn/CS 224 lab.
They're supposed to take 3 hours, but it took us 5 to do about half of it.
Shouldn't something be done about this?
I understand studying EE is hard, but hard doesn't necessarily mean it should take longer.
To graduate in EE at BYU, the map shows the student having to take 17 credits every semester, not taking a single extra class, not having a minor, and not needing to retake a class.
I haven't had to retake a class...yes..haven't taken any extra classes, but I have got my minor in Spanish.
The likelihood of the average EE student graduating in 4 years...doubtful (I don't know anyone who's done it)...

The likelihood of me graduating in 4 years whilst also working 20 hours a week and getting a minor....impossible.
.....
The worth of a degree in EE.....$55k/y.
The worth of a degree in EE with a minor in spanish $55k/y.
The worth of not having 4 (or more likely, 5-6) years without sleep....$10/h for the rest of my life (oh, and did I mention dignity?)
hm.....tough choice

All I have time for is school, work and homework.
I figure at this rate I can last until about 10 days before finals come...
I relax on the weekends cause I feel I deserve it, which only makes me get further behind, which makes me work harder during the week, which makes me more deserving of a break once the weekend comes....Anyone see a pattern?

I spent my Friday night doing CS hwk until midnight.
I saw a kid in the lab messing around and asked him if he'd already finished the hwk.
He laughed and said "I took this class last semester, and the hwk's the same, so I just photocopied it and handed it in"
There's just something that doesn't seem right about that.

I'd just got into the rhythm of updating pretty frequently when school kicked in.
This semester is actually the first one in which I'm a little scared.
It's difficult to work 20 hours a week and keep up with my classes.
Today I took a Physics test, Did a CS236 assignment, Started my CS lab (which will likely take some 10-ish hours). We also had a cleaning inspection today. I didn't have time to clean, so I gave my roommate $20 to clean for me....
What is life coming to?
Tomorrow I have a Physics Lab to do, finish off my CS lab, do Physics hwk. and probably something else too.
Why do classes have to have so many things to worry about.
In Physics we have a daily online quiz, hwk. due every other day, a Lab ever two weeks, and tests every 3 weeks.
AND THAT'S JUST PHYSICS!
I have a bunch of other classes too (which I guess the Physics professor doesn't realize/care about.)
The entire last week I was in the talmage building doing CS hwk. till they kicked me out. The closer/cleaner guy even started getting mad at me cause he knew it was me again taking so long to "just finish one last problem"

Don't worry though guys, I definitely not getting depressed. I actually don't think I know the meaning of the word. I suppose I'll just stick it out.
Maybe this is what University was supposed to be like all a long, I just somehow previously had seen the loophole......If only I could find one this semester
I really just love the weekends....It's only the start of another week.

To my dismay, a kid in my Maths 343 class told the whole class that the book we were using wouldn't be used again next semester
I was horrified. It cost $100, and was only available NEW.
I put it up on the bookexchange website, and within a day, got $70 for it.
I didn't ask the kid buying it, but there will no NO REFUNDS if he finds out it's the wrong edition.......hahaha
I also got $35 for my Bio books.
All in all, it just cost $100 for books this semester. My best semester yet! (as usually I'm too lazy to sell them back, and later wonder what I want them for!)
I only really ever want to keep my Engineering and Computer Science books.
-----
The first day of class today was fun.
My Spanish 451 teacher told the class that his rating was terrible on www.ratemyprofessor.com and that we should switch to another teacher.
My CS 236 teacher told the class he isn't usually liked by students after a midterm, and finally,
My CS 224 teacher told us he'd not been too successful in working for Intel, so he thought he'd try his go at teaching.......
I'm in for an enjoyable semester....I can tell!

I bought all my book (well, all except one - I'll get back to that later)
i got them all used, and saved a bunch (by going early i got nearly new used ones too!)
i then went to buy the physics 200 book to find there were 3 to buy.
a $12 packet, a $45 booklet and a $170 jumbo sized text book.....can you guess which one I decided I could live without?
Friday was a busy day. I worked 8-5. I also got a call from my old piano teacher David Hatch.
He offered to pay me to fix his printer, and his children's computer - which I gladly accepted.
Upon getting there I was able to play the piano piece I've recently started learning "Chopin's Revolutionary Etude" (he recently bought a 9' Steinway Concert Grand)
I fixed the printer, and computer. He then asked me to build him another computer for his office (with a $1000 price range)
I figure with $1000 I can get a 19" LCD a 939 pin Motherboard with an Athlon 64 3200+ (Venice core) 1GB of Ram and a 200 GB hard-drive.
It should turn out pretty good.
In other news, I sold my Dell 20" widescreen monitor for $517 (good considering what i paid for it....you can see what I paid in an earlier post)
The plan is to put that towards a 24" LCD (which run a little under $900. but what I have is a start!
School starts this Monday. We'll see if I read any of those expensive books!!!

It's probably with fairly good reason that I don't stress about things...
Finals are out, and I did just fine.
In my spanish final we were given 5 essay questions and we had to answer 3 of them.
It's a literature class, so we were writing about books, poems, short stories and a few films.
2 of the questions were on one particular book I never read (Nazarín) so I didn't have much of a choice as to which questions I picked.
I still got an A though....HAHAHA
Similar things happened in both Computer Science 235 and Maths 343.
I didn't do as well in Bio100, but that's a dumb class anyway - and it has nothing to do with anything I'll ever want to study (I got a B).
Next semester is approaching quickly.
I'm taking some sucky classes too.
Computer Science 224
Computer Science 236
Physics 220
Spanish 451

Will I survive?..........I usually do....but we'll have to see!

I'm just done with finals.
I was sick throughout the whole week though, cause I had to go and pick up my car (from getting its repairs) so my brother was supposed to pick me up and take me.
I called him 2x, but he didn't answer. I only had a t-shirt on, but decided to go on the trek myself.
it was about 4 miles, and extremely cold.
I made it, and felt fine, but the next day was a different story. AND RIGHT BEFORE FINALS!!!
I had my Spanish 339 final on Monday. I had to write 3 essays in 2 hours (not much fun, but luckily I'm good at BS'ing)
then i had to take Computer Science 235. It was pretty difficult, as we're studying Algorithm analysis.
I then slept on Wed. and Thur. to recover, and took Biology and Maths 343 on Friday.
My Maths final was just 1 huge big jumbo-sized problem that took me over 2 hours to solve (lets hope i got it right!)
I'm now done with them, and working 40 hours a week over the break.
There's not much work to do, so we just mess around.
Today, a kid brought his projector and we all played Halo (which, btw I think sucks - PC FPS's are much better).
We watched a few films, and I finished the day playing Jedi Academy.
All in all, the easiest $80 I've ever earnt!.

I'm disappointed at there being no new comments on my last sketch....
so here's another one. Certainly more complicated.
I haven't posted much of interest in a while.
Classes are going well, and other "important" aspects of a college student's life are also going well (this is me we're talking about.....)
I'm sort of getting ready for my final exams. Spanish and Biology should be ok, but Maths 343 and Computer Science 235 are likely to give me a headache.
For maths the final is 1 question (worth 25% of my grade) lets hope i can answer it (not much room for partial credit, with lots of students getting little more than a 0 on it......
I did do some buying over the thanksgiving break though.
I got a 200gb Seagate Hard drive (7200rpm and 8mb cache, for those who are interested) for $30, a 1gb Verbatim flash drive for $40....and.....wait for it.......a 20.1" widescreen ultrasharp Dell LCD monitor (with a native resolution of 1680*1050) crazy eh?..oh, and retail for it is $700, but i paid $343 using a bunch of online coupons....actually dell made a mistake, cause they discounted it, but didn't realise i could combine that discount with another coupon...oh well (dell realised the mistake, and removed the coupon after 4 hours...too late, i'd already bought it....HAHAHA

Those of you who know me well will know I'm terrible at studying, and excellent at procrastinating......
I had a bio test on Monday, and have a Maths 343 test tomorrow, and a Computer Science test on Sat.
Life kinda sucks for me, cause it seems to be the time when everyone needs my help, or, in the case of girls, they want to go out with me.
It's just the most inconvenient time ever!
Why do Professors always put tests at the same time?
I have to decide whether it's more important to study for Maths, or Computer Science, or to go on a few dates this weekend......
You can post your comments guessing which one you think I'll do, and I'll later post my scores, so you'll know which one I actually picked.

A very hectic week for me. We had another CS lab due, and obviously it was exponentially harder than the previous one....A math343 test (which i got a 94 in) and a Bio100 test, which i couldn't care less about. I didn't go to sleep last night. I ended up in typical Antony fashion STARTING at 4AM
I instead decided I hadn't eaten in a while, and cooked myself some spaghetti. Then I was so tired i decided I needed to take a shower. By the end of it I had very little time left to study. I took the Bio test at 8AM (which went only average....and we all know average sucks!)
i then had my CS class, and worked from 11-5pm.
Maybe I'll take a break.....oh wait, i have to do more math and another CS lab

If you're thinking of studying it, don't.
It's that simple.
I spent a few hours coding my program, to find that it works, but not EXACTLY as the T.A.'s want it.
In other words, due to a slight difference, they won't accept it, giving me a 0 on it, unless i modify it, which will take a long time, as i basically have to start again!)
I'm seriously thinking about changing my major to Electrical Engineering.
It's similar to computer science for the first 1/3 and then you cover more circuit design than programming.
This week's lab was a spell checker. It has to read a file and highlight the misspelled words and print them out along with the line numbers where the misspelled word is located.
What a pain! I spent all last night coding, did a little earlier today, and am off to continue.
I'll probably be there all night tonight (lucky i don't have any dates, right?, but i have to be, i mean, if I can't get an A in a computer science class, there's something wrong with the class (cause it can't be something wrong with me.......right???) (luckily blogs are one sided things...so no one can answer.....and don't think about leaving comments about this either :)

I decided to watch a few films before studying for my tests. Unfortunately I watched just a couple too many.
I started with "The Count of Monte Cristo" I've seen it a few times, but I still like it.
Then "The Legend of Drunken Master" (a Jackie Chan film made in Hong Kong - Incredible fighting in it!)
Then "Brewster's Millions" A classic (20 years old though).
For my maths 343 class, the teacher made us each write a practice test. Now the review is to complete all practice tests of all the students (it's a 281 page PDF!!!)
Even at 1 min a page it would take almost 5 hours!!!
Maybe i'll just watch some more films.....

I couldn't attend, as I was actually working. And you'll never guess where I was working??
In the JFSB.
A little weird eh?
I work 11-5 there doing computer support.......
Funny story of the day!!!
I was in my computer science 235 class, when the teacher said
"i'm going to do an unidentical twin program of the lab you have to do."
i said "you mean a fraternal twin program........" jokingly.
he didn't get it, and said "what?"
i replied again...he was still confused.
I then said (under my breath) "what an idiot!"
everyone looked at me.
I guess i said it too loud.

For my homework this time, I had to calculate the "Big Oh" of different programs.
It's basically where you work out how many individual operations the computer is going through in a program to see how efficient it is, and how long it will take depending on the input.
Interesting, but it can take a while, cause you have to go line by line seeing what the compiler is doing.
It's like a search function.
Imagine the following statement in a program.

for(int i=1; i < n ;i++)
sum++;

What that actually means is while "i" is less than "n" you increase "sum" by 1 (each time you increase "sum" by 1 you increase "i" by 1, so you'd increase "sum" by the same amount as "i".
so that was counting an easy thing, where the Big Oh is O(N) cause whatever "n" is that's how much you increase by (cause when "i" is equal to "n", you stop)
just imagine nested for loops (meaning a loop like that, which another underneath, and another underneath and so on.
for(int i=1; i < n ;i++)
for(int j=1; j < i ;i++)
for(int k=1; k < j ;i++)
for(int j=1; j < k ;i++)
sum++
imagine calculating how many times "sum" gets increased......on a Friday night,when I should be going out with hot girls.....
sucks!

take a guess why?
I'm taking a Computer Science class.
Java: Data Systems and Algorithm Analysis.
I took the pre-req class before the mission, and obviously don't remember much.
We had to make a program that morphs 1 polygon into another. It had to receive input from the keyboard, mouse and read from a file.
It took several hours, unfortunately, and I had to code it in the TMCB in the basement (where my cell phone doesn't work !!!
(they run Fedore 4 -Linux)
if anyone's interested, here's my source code.

package cs235.morphing;

import java.awt.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.io.*;

public class morphing extends JFrame implements MouseListener,
KeyListener, ActionListener
{ static Polygon poly1 = new Polygon();
static Polygon poly2 = new Polygon();
javax.swing.Timer animationTimer;
static Graphics gfx;
boolean initial;
char c;
int direction = 1;
int distance=0;
static Polygon p1 = new Polygon();
static Polygon p2 = new Polygon();
static Polygon p3 = new Polygon();
public static void main(String
[] args) {
new morphing();
try{
BufferedReader stdin = new BufferedReader(new
FileReader(args[0]));
int n = Integer.parseInt(stdin.
readLine());
for(int i=0; i=100){
setPoly(p2);
direction=-1;
}
if (distance<=0){ setPoly(p1); direction=1; } distance+=direction; } public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){ Graphics gfx = this.getGraphics(); gfx.clearRect(0, 0, 800, 800); gfx.setColor(Color.black); if (c!='3') { gfx.drawPolygon(p1); gfx.drawPolygon(p2); } else { if (initial==true) { origVetices(); setPoly(p1); initial=false; distance=0; } gfx.drawPolygon(p3); itsMorphingTime(); } } }