antonywilliams.com

Have any of you ever read those stupid articles in magazines where they rate all the countries in the world?
They rate each country based on a variety of factors, such as:

1. How much money the country spends on Defense.
2. How many TVs the average person has
3. The average household income.
4. Percentage of literate people.
5. Percentage of people who have access to broadband internet.

What's the problem with this? Well, other than the average American not really understanding what he's reading, and immediately thinking that every other country fails in comparison, the average American doesn't have a clue how those numbers are measured. In fact, most of those methods of rating a country are ridiculous when you research a little deeper.
Lets start with the first one.
How does a country's defense budget affect the standard of living of a country?
It doesn't. In fact, I'd go as far as to say the more they spend, the worse.
Take Canada, or Switzerland for example. They spend next to nothing on Defense, yet, have they ever been attacked by terrorists.
If you knew that North Korea had a bunch of A-Bombs that they were planning on launching tomorrow, where do you think you'd be safest? Where do you think you'd be most at risk?
Shouldn't that factor in?
Lets tackle the third one. Clearly stuff costs more in some countries, and less in others. So wouldn't it be more accurate to judge a country based on how much of the essentials one could buy. If you make 10x less money, but stuff costs 10x less, isn't your standard of living the same?
The fourth. This is a big and important one, but what's the problem with this?
I remember reading on Wikipedia a few months ago, and it rated countries based on their literacy. The problem is, each country has a different way of determining if someone is literate. Looking at the source for the USA's 99.5% shows the CIA's definition as "age 15 and over can read and write" Aside from the irony o that sentence not being a complete sentence, it is a terrible definition that is far from clear. I remember reading on the CIA World Factbook, and it said that people were considered literate if they could read and write their own name, but might not be able to read the back of a cereal box.... Enough said.
5. A direct quote from the FCC

"As things stand today, the FCC counts 200 Kb/s as broadband, and if one house in an entire zip code gets DSL or cable broadband, it imagines that entire area is broadband- enabled.
The result is that the FCC thinks that broadband is available to 99 percent of the United States."

Isn't this ridiculous? How dare they make that claim. Well, it certainly makes them look good, with 99% of people broadband enabled....

Shouldn't rating a country (not that it should be done at all, as it will never be accurate) include more important things, such as:
Happiness/Depression
Percent of adults with a University Degree
Debt
Health/Obesity/Life Expentancy
Suicide rate

Oh wait, then the USA would be at the bottom. Wouldn't do much good for the already low morale....

Or, better yet, why bother even rating countries. It only serves to increase self-esteem at the expense of pride and ignorance

My first speech to the faculty would start out in roughly the following way

"Each faculty member must have looked over, worked out and solved the answer to every question they assign. There is to be no guinea-pigging of students through new and potentially terrible ideas."

Why do I think this is important enough to be my first item of business?
Could it be that almost every semester a teacher (or more) tries some new and untested way of teaching/grading etc.. that doesn't quite work out as hoped?
How frequently have (after complaining) received the response "You're right, we won't do that again next semester." So basically what the teacher is saying it "Thanks for the input, next semester's students will benefit from our screw-ups on you."

On 7 September 1999 President Bateman said the following in a BYU devotional:

"It takes approximately three hours of study outside class for every hour in the classroom. If you take 15 hours of credit, you should allocate upward of 45 hours for study per week."

So, to calculate how much studying I should do per class should be simple.
I'm taking a certain Engineering class that is only 3 credits, yet 2 weeks ago, instead of the expected 9 hours of study, it was close to 30. The assigned homework was only 7 questions, but some of the questions had parts a-k, totaling around 50 questions and more than 20 sheets of paper.
A few of my friends got sick from pulling all-nighters, others had to skip work, and I got a little behind in some of my other classes.
Upon mentioning this problem to the teacher, the response I received was "Oh, I didn't realize each of those questions had 12 parts to them, sorry about that."
It was a very casual response, not realizing how BIG of a deal that simple mistake was. And all because he couldn't take 2 minutes to look at the problems he was assigning.

It's fairly frequent that we get terrible assignments, and their response seems to always be "I'll make sure I don't assign that hwk problem next semester." Well..... All I can say to that is - How does that help me? - It doesn't. If a course has been offered each semester for the last several years, with the same edition of the book, how is it possible that these kinds of problems keep happening?

Based on previous posts, you should all know that my first act would be to fix the bookstore. Either make the prices of their books competitive, or at least post what books are required by what classes LONG before the semester starts.
They have complete control, and don't post what books you need until 10 days before school starts, making it very difficult for students to then find an alternate (and cheaper) source.
Both of my Parents teach at BYU, and they claim that the bookstore requires they submit a list of required books for their course several months before the semester starts, so why isn't this list made publicly available ?
Anyone who's read the previous paragraph should know the answer to that.
I thought a capitalistic society was supposed to allow for competition.
Capitalism is meant to allow for competition. Only then does the best business make the most money. (Am I allowed to say that without being an Econ./PolySci major? - YES!)

Why do Americans think that a tip (for a waiter) is deserved.
Why do they think that 15% is the minimum tip you should be allowed to give ?

In England a waiter has to earn his tips. See, in England, a waiter starts at a hypothetical £0.00 and works his way up if he's good.

In America, people seem to think the waiter starts at 15% and can only earn more. If he sucks, he gets 15%. If he's good, he gets a little more.
That hardly seems like a capitalistic way to do things.
Isn't there something wrong with this mentality?
Why should a waiter get 15% if he sucks. Where is his incentive to do a good job?
If I were a waiter, I'd see my options in the following way:
1) try really hard and run back and forth refilling customers' drinks for 17%
2) be a lazy bum for 15%
which do you think I'd choose?

In my opinion, for a waiter to be good, he need only do two things:
1. refill my drink when it's empty.
2. not keep coming by and bothering me.

Does that sound hard ?
I don't know how many times I've been in a restaurant where I've been with an empty glass for what seemed like an eternity.

Don't get me wrong, I'm more than willing to give a generous tip if the service is good, but giving 15% to a waiter who is useless is out of the question.

In England, the way you tip a waiter who sucks is by giving him a tip of £0.01. It's the British way of saying "I didn't forget to tip you. I just wanted you to know you suck."

Unfortunately, living in a college town, a large percentage of the people I hang out with have, at one time in their lives, been a waiter/waitress. They seem to be the most vocal on the subject. Maybe they just enjoyed being paid well for a job they sucked at.....

In class today, I overheard a girl ask the kid next to her "Where are you from?"
He answered that he was from Alaska. This trigged the common "Is it true they pay you for living there?" question.
The kid proceeded to mention that every year the government automatically put $1200 in his bank account.
The girl replied "......WOW! I think I'll just move there, as I won't have to ever get a job."
freshmen..........

So, I'm taking Physics 281.
Despite having a cheap $25 book (written by the professor) we have to buy a $35 iClicker.
Still, for a physics class, $60 seems reasonable, right ?
Starting tomorrow (2nd day of class) we'll have daily quizzes during the first 5 mins of class.
Still doesn't sound too unreasonable, right ?
I'm not finished.
If you forget the iClicker, or are late, you don't get to take the quiz.
Still seems normal.
There's just one problem.
The BYU Bookstore is sold out of iClickers.
Their ever so elegant solution ? Pay for it now, and they'll get them in stock soon.
The result ? I get a 0 on every quiz until that happens.

There's a very easy way for this problem not to happen.
Classes requiring an iClicker tell the bookstore how many students are registered in their classes. The bookstore then buys that many iClickers (either used, or from the factory)
Is that a difficult concept ?
Obviously I don't know who's to blame. Either the classes aren't reporting the numbers correctly, or the bookstore is just incapable of adding* (or there's a supply shortage, which I'll get to in Q2).
It doesn't really matter whose fault it is. Students are still screwed, and get the added unnecessary stress during the first week of school

Now, I've had a few comments from people claiming that someone not studying business couldn't possibly judge a company's business practices.
That kind of a statement is ridiculous.
It's like saying that unless you're a maths major, you can't do addition*.


Despite being clear in my last post, many comments seemed as though they hadn't even read my arguments (asking questions I'd already answered).
This time, I've decided to give a answers to the questions those people would use in an attempt to refute my arguments

Refute: It's your fault. If you'd bought your iClicker earlier, you wouldn't have run in to trouble.

Answer: True, but that's a stupid question, and it doesn't solve the very basic problem of the bookstore not ordering enough. Granted, if I'd bought earlier, I'd have mine, but the bookstore would have still run out, and instead of me being without one, it would have been someone else.

Refute 2: It's a supply problem. We (the bookstore) wanted to order more, but they were out of stock.
Answer 2: Nope, it's still the fault of someone at BYU. When you decided what overpriced quiz-taking gadget to use in your classes, the ability of that company to produce and supply enough for your needs should have been taken into account.

Refute 3: We ordered enough, but they still sold out!
Answer 3: Are you trying to tell me that people not needing them for class bought them ?
seriously......

Unfortunately this is one of those situations where those to blame, and those who suffer are completely different people. Shame. It's hard to learn from your mistakes when you're not affected by them.....

It's that time of year again. BYU is starting again on the 4th of Sept.
Despite having lived in Provo for the entire summer, I didn't get around to buying my books. With all the stupid freshman around, I don't dare try to get them now, so I suppose I'll just be looking over my shoulder in class :)
Don't you just hate the first 2 weeks of fall semester. It's worse than a summer full of EFY kids. Not only are they everywhere, but they block hallways, stairs and are just loud.

I'm taking:
ECEn 483: A robotics class
Physics 281: Solid State Physics
ECEn 320: Advanced Digital Logic Design

I'm also taking a religion class, and HEPE.

I've found that 3 tough classes is enough for me in any given semester (especially when working 20 hours a week). Even with that, I'll be pretty much full between 9-5.

It annoys me how the BYU Bookstore is.
Instead of trying to get your business by actually being better than the competition (i.e. by being cheaper) they use the unfair advantage of being part of BYU, and don't list what books your classes require until right before school starts.
This is intended to stop would-be buyers from purchasing their books online, and at half the price.
I know plenty of people who, by waiting for the list to come out, then spend the first 2 weeks of class waiting for their book to be shipped to them.
Disgraceful.
And no, I don't need to be majoring in business to figure that one out.
I understand that some classes might be restructuring, or might be changing to a new book, but for the most part, BYU knows exactly what book you'll be using, yet refuses to tell you until it's too late to buy from the competition.

Still, there's nothing I can do but whine, so I will.....

Another bit of good news, I found out I got a minor in CS (Computer Science)
The CS department decided to change (read: lower) the requirements, and only require 5 classes (3 of which are required for my major anyway - I took the other 2 as Technical Electives)

It just goes to show just how ridiculous the EE (Electrical Engineering) major is.
You have to take so much maths, physics and computer science, that without taking a single additional class, you can minor in all 3.
Isn't that unbelievable ?

The EE Core classes put you short 2 classes for CS, 1 class for Maths, and 1 class for Physics and, since you have to take several electives from a list of approved 'Technical Electives' (almost any 300/400 level Maths/Physics/CS/EE) anyway, you could just pick those.

My Technical Electives so far are CS 236, CS 324, (thus getting me the CS minor), and both 320 and 483.
I've considered getting the maths minor, but I think I'd rather get hit by a bus.

It's a pretty well known fact that Utah drivers are the worst.
Why is this?
I'm not really sure. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that there are lots of students that learnt to drive in other states, but I'm pretty sure that the old people are worse than the students anyway, so that can't be the reason.....

Anway, there's nothing worse than those annoying tailgaters.
I often like to slam on my brakes just to scare them.

So, a few days ago, one particularly annoying tailgater in a gay Ford Mustang was following me for miles.
I was driving home, and knew that there was some construction ahead, so I drove straight for this huge ditch. He, of course, continued to tailgate. At the last possible second, I swerved a little to the right to avoid the ditch. The idiot behind didn't react quite as quickly, and hit it doing 35 mph.

That's what he gets for driving a Ford......

I'm not the biggest fan of spending $8 to go to the cinema for something I could quite easily watch for free..... cough, cough..... but the Simpsons has to be an exception.
Having been a Simpsons fan for as long as I can remember, I wasn't sure if my expectations would be too high. There are very few films (save Lord of the Rings, Toy Story 2, Star Wars 3, X-men 2) that live up to the publics unrealistic expectations.


A few disgraces of sequels?
X-men 3, Shrek 3, Matrix 3, The girl Karate Kid just to name a few.

You'll be surprised to see that I didn't mention Pirates 2. Why is that you ask?
Because in my mind, Pirates of the Caribbean had no sequels. It was just one great film - THE END!
It bothers me when stupid hollywood execs get greedy. Apparantly $100M isn't enough money, lets create a stupid sequel with an embarrassing script. Who cares, right? The average idiot american will pay money to see it anyway.....
It makes sense, right?
Why struggle with getting a good script. They'll make the same amount of money whether it's good or bad, as people aren't seeing it for what it's worth, they're seeing it because it's the sequel to a good film.


Anyway, back to the Simpsons.
I've watched most of the first 13 or so seasons, and almost every episode was good.
I've watched some of season 18, and for the most part (with the exception of the episode: 24 minutes), RUBBISH.
This made me a little worried to watch the film. It turns out, Fox must have taken all the decent script writers, used them for the film, and dumped a bunch of high school drop-outs to script the TV series.

Occasionally they tried a little too hard to be funny (Homer swinging between the mountain and the "hard place."
Luckily the spider-pig theme song saved the day!



All in all, an expected "simpsons save the world (or, at least, Springfield) film" that was a breath of fresh air

It's known that they're planning sequels, so we can only hope they keep up the good work

I will try to answer the question without directly giving a yes or no.
Just in case though, I'll answer it at the end of my post.

So, we had a ward activity on Monday at Deer Creek.
There were 4 boats there, and we were all going to take it in turns wake-boarding and doing other typical boat/water things.

Those of you who know me well, know I don't have much body fat, and shiver when in cold water.

So, while walking towards the boat, this one guy (who's going to Iraq soon) sees that I'm shivering, and kicks water in my face. I warn him that if he does it again, I'll face plant him in the sand. He laughs it off saying he's a marine, and done boot-camp blah blah blah.
Eager to make him look like a fool, I tell him again. Sure enough, he kicks more water in my face. 3 seconds later his face was in the sand, while I got on to the boat. He didn't really say anything after that.

yes.

I've always praised Nalgene for having amazing water bottles.
The water doesn't taste of plastic when you drink from it, they're nearly indestructible, relatively cheap, and last forever.
Perfect right?
Maybe to the typical ignorant consumer.....

Made from a thermoplastic polymer consisting of long chains of the monomer ethylene, studies have shown that Polyethylene (commonly referred to as "lexan"), leaches bisphenol A.
Bisphenol A is known for its hormone disrupting effects.

I know what a lot of you are thinking. This is ridiculous. If there was a problem, the substance would be banned.
Unfortunately, this isn't the case.
Aspartame (it annoys me to hear this word, as everyone always pronounces it stressing the first syllable, when you're supposed to stress the second) is one of these substances.
I'll post about Aspartame some other time in greater depth, but as with so many things the FDA does, they approve things before thorough testing has taken place. Then when it is known to be dangerous, rather than admit it, they instead try to cause a gradual shift to a newer (and even LESS tested) replacement. In comes splenda!

Anyway, back to Polyethylene... lets concentrate on the facts.
It is proven to leach biphesnol A.
Biphesnol A is proven to be extremely harmful.
The only real uncertainty is whether the quantities of leached biphesnol A are dangerous.
So, the reason the product isn't banned (aside from FDA bribes from General Electric, inventor of Lexan) is because it's not yet known if small quantities of biphesnol A are dangerous.

Wouldn't it make sense that it certainly can't be good?
When reading up on this topic, I came across an interesting quote.

"As an aside, I think we’ve come to fear way too much in the US. I still want to die, some day, of something related to old age. I will not spend my days (however many are left) worrying about whether my water bottle is going to kill me."

This brings up an interesting point. Of course, it does seem a little silly and over the top, but this isn't something difficult.
We all know that holding a mobile phone to our ears for hours on end isn't good, but we do it anyway, as it's what many could consider necessary. Changing my water bottle, however, is simple.

In fact, Nalgene sells water bottles made of High-density polyethylene made entirely of petroleum. HDPE doesn't contain any of the chemicals found in regular polyethylene, and thus doesn't leach anything into your water.
Even better is that these water bottles are cheaper than the lexan ones.
Unfortunately, being made entirely of petroleum, you can't pick different colours.
Better still is that you can buy them directly from nalgene's website with free shipping.
Be sure to put the coupon code "BC2" for 25% off.

I'm throwing out my old lexan bottles, and I already bought both a 16oz (for $3.97) and a 32oz (for $4.95)

The famous doctor Joseph Mercola recommends the following:

'Plastics that are safer to use for storing food and beverages, none of which are known to leach harmful substances include:

* Polypropylene, designated "#5 PP"
* High-density polyethylene, designated "#2HDPE"
* Low-density polyethylene, designated "#4 LDPE"

So pay attention to the container you store your water in. If you can’t use glass, only use one of the above "safe" plastic jars.'

So, last Sunday, we had a very different sacrament meeting.
Instead of the usual talks, it was like a testimony meeting where members would mention their favourite hymn and why they liked it, and then we'd sing it.
It was fairly uneventful for the most part, except at the end.
A guy got up, and said "My favourite hymn is a Christmas hymn. The words don't mean anything, and it doesn't have much importance, but I like it anyway."
His chosen hymn was Silent Night.........
As my friend Pete would have said "Where are you from?"

So, I've played a few times now, and am starting to like it.
The strings on my racquet were made of nylon (which are cheapy and junky).
Instead of getting it restrung for $25, wouldn't it be better to buy a racquet that's a bit more expensive that already has better strings?
That's what I did.

I bought a Head LiquidMetal 170.
It came out a few years ago, but originally retailed for $200.
I got it (after coupon, of course) for about $80.
It has head Megablast 16g strings. It's a multi-core filament made mostly from synthetic gut.
It doesn't seem overly different from my last racquet.
It's head-light instead of head-heavy, which makes the slightly heavier weight (170 vs 145 unstrung) seem negligible.
It's hard switching from a sport that's similar, where you know all about the different equipment, to another where you don't.
In tennis, I know what makes a good racquet, head size, good strings, string tension, string pattern, grip size, weight, beam width, balance etc..
I'm sure a lot of it is similar in racquetball, but having only ever played with two racquets makes it hard to really know.
Again, if anyone wants to play, shoot me a call/email.

I decided that since there aren't really that many people in the USA who take either badminton, tennis or table tennis seriously, I should take up something they take seriously.
To start out with, I had to buy a racquet.
I got a semi-decent Wilson XT 145 for $50

It should last me for a while. It's lightest racquet that's available for purchase (although it's discontinued, thus the cheap price) at only 145g unstrung.
Of course, I couldn't stop there.
I bought a HEAD glove (this minimizes on needing to re-grip racquets)



I also needed some racquetballs, so I got some decent Penn HD (owned by the tennis company head) purple balls.



and, since I don't want to go blind, I bought some eyewear.
It was pretty difficult to get a pair that didn't make me look like a fag, but in the end, I found some.



I'm set to become a pro now, right?
If anyone in the Provo area wants to play, shoot me an email

For the same reasons that Europeans will never win hot dog eating competitions, Americans will never be good at football (soccer).
It's just not in their blood!

My brother got free tickets to watch Real Salt Lake play against Toronto F.C.
Was it a coincidence that RLS were playing both the only non-American team in the MLS (Major League Soccer) and the only team yet to win a single match on the 4th of July.


Beating a foreign team on your independence day sounds like the perfect way to show off you national pride and superiority over other nations, right?
well, not when you lose.....

Being European, I feel qualified to say that both teams were rubbish.
I'm pretty sure my high school team in England would have beaten them.

The refs didn't seem to really know all the rules, incorrectly calling off-side twice.
It was shocking to think that those amateurish players were actually being paid. It genuinely seemed as though this was the first time they'd ever played.

Still, it was worth doing once, and I really didn't have anything else to be doing for the 4th.

My sister just got a job in California working for LDS family services.
Her last night in Provo we all decided to go to Café Río.
I had a card that was full of stamps that get you a free meal, so I handed it to the employee when we went to pay.
You'll never guess the employee's response.

"Which meal would you like to be free?"

I looked down, and on our tray were a few $6 burritos and a $10 quesadilla.
I then looked up at her, to see if she'd caught on.
I looked down at my tray again and then back up at her.
She looked at me with a blank face, still waiting for my answer.
I pointed, paid and left.

Only 3 weeks left of the semester!
I can't wait.
Our second test is next week, and then the final on the 21st.
The class is quite a beast.
The first test covered causality, stability, block diagrams of differential equations, probability theory, convolution of waveforms and impulse response functions.

I got an 80%.
This might sound low to a lot of you, but in this class (ECEn 380), where the average is usually in the 60's, that's an A.

The material isn't the hardest part; It's the workload. We have 2 pretty hefty labs due a week (Matlab programs), and 2 massive (sometimes 10 pages worth each) homework assignments a week.

Our next test is going to cover Fourier transforms/series, the Nyquist sample rate and interpolation.
Is it sad that I'm aiming to get somewhere in the 80's ? :)
Since I'm only working 20 hours a week (yep, I have 380 to blame for that!) I'm still making the same amount of money as I was last semester, so in 3 weeks not only will I have more free time, but I'll be working 40.

I decided to take ECEn (Electrical and Computer Engineering) 380: Signals and Systems this spring.
It's one of those classes that every EE dreads for several reasons.
It requires you to still remember all of trig, calc, physics, ECEn 212 & 313.
You must have, and know how to use either a TI 89 or an HP 50g.
You have to know mandarin if you want help from the T.A.'s. (I'm up to about 10 different sentences!)
It's a 5 credit class..... enough said......

I figure if I just take this during spring, I'll still be able to keep up my 20 hours a week at work and survive. Then when summer comes around, I'll up it to 40.

So, if you were planning on hanging out with me this spring...... just check my class/work schedule
It doesn't look very likely. My ONE class has 18 assigned class hours. Yet again, I start at 8AM. After I do my hwk, and "study" for tests, it seems I'll just have the weekends off..........and you know what that means........ It means I'll be spending that time with "privileged" people.

Are you "privileged" ??
If you don't know the answer to that, then you probably aren't.

Every now and again, I need a reason to start playing tennis.
When I was 14, I bought a Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 Original 85".

A little history about this racquet.
It's the only racquet to have been designed in the 1980's that's still being produced.
It has a cult following because there's no technology in it. It's just 80% braided graphite, 20% kevlar.
There's no titanium, liquid metal, n-coded graphite, or hyper carbon in it.
Because of this, it feels natural and is extremely predictable.
It was used by Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, and Antony Williams

I won't go into the technicalities of tennis racquets too much, as I've done this in a previous post.
It was amazing. I loved that racquet. No matter how hard I would hit, the ball would always go in.
It was quite a demanding racquet as not only does it have the smallest head size of any tennis racquet currently available (85" instead of a more standard 95"-107" -This makes it less forgiving, as it's much more difficult to consistently hit the sweet spot - the centre of the racquet), but It's also the heaviest racquet on the tour (at 12.6 oz, instead of a more regular 11oz. This makes quite a big difference when you swing the racquet quickly).
It's also has the thinnest frame of any available (17mm instead of the usual 22-26mm). This gives better feel (accuracy) at the expense of less power.

Still, the reason I stopped playing with it was actually a funny story.
I was playing one day at Tunnels Tennis club in Exeter, when the girl I was playing with hit the ball way out of the court.
As usual, (we weren't playing a proper match) I'd just run and hit it back anyway. This time the girl had hit the ball WAY out, towards the metal fence.
I was just running after it, not really noticing where I was. I swung the racquet, and hit the iron rail (and, of course the ball!) at full speed. The racquet ended up having a big chunk taken out of it. It never really felt the same after that, so I sold it.
In the years following, I ended up getting a Yonex RD5, 2 Head Ti: Radicals, and 2 Head Liquid Metal Radicals.
I haven't played since the summer. Mostly because there's no one (reliable) to play against, and partly due to lack of time.
I saw a deal a little while ago for 15% off tennis racquets at mid-west sports (based in Cincinnati, OH), so I decided this would be the best time to get my favourite old tennis racquet (2 of them)
I ended up paying about $110 each.
But why would I need to buy 2 of them?
Because after about 6-8 hours of play I break a string, and need a backup.
Should any of you like a demonstration, feel free to challenge me :)