Turky break!

This year (and probably every year) I am most thankful for computers! Not surprising huh? Well, lets see into more detail. All of my projects are on the computer! For math, I made my binary space game, for humanities I made the tides, and for biology I use excel. So really computers have been keeping my projects going. And they also say that you don't realize how important something is until you lose it, so it would be incredibly bad if the computer went bye bye, since I already know the importance of it.

So for my math project, I wouldn't even be able to do my project if computers weren't there.

Humanities, you thought it was bad to do one graph in 3 minutes? Well what about 15 without the computer (at minimum)? And how would we get the tide information?

Biology, those graphs we made for the analysis would take longer to get done without a computer.

And its also my hobby, so it would be very sad if computers would go away, that would mean:

electronic cameras,

electronic copiers

electronic printers,

cell phones,

MP3 players (iPod),

TV,

street lights,

ATM machines,

sliding glass doors,

Auto-pilot and massive planes,

Wii/ PS3/ Xbox360,

AND MORE!

We will hope to get a lot done over the thanksgiving break. Firstly will be the layout and laying out the tide information for the calendar. Also leaving blank spots for the pictures essays and more. I will try to make it look nice so that when we get everything, putting in everything will be the last thing we will have to do, then getting it critiqued and fixed to the peoples expectations.

H2O programming madness!

I just found out this week that I can save myself time by making a program that will do my homework for me! So what is my project? I am making a tide calendar, and my role in this is to make the graphs from day to day what the tides will be in Point Loma. Sooo, I have made two projects so far, one over the weekend (at least ver 2.3 of it) and one Tuesday to help me with graphing this crazy line.

The first program:

This was intentionally supposed to be just another standard grapher with an object placing dots following the graphing object as it would draw rough jagged lines (so as it would make corners, the “follower” would make a nice easy curve as it follows it). I tried to make an equation to figure out tides, but it just turned out to be too many variables involved than just the moon [the sun, distance, direction, location of the sight, phase of the earths tilt, earths rotation/time, formation of the coast line and more]. So I ended up taking information off a website into a “.ini” file in which the grapher reads this file and spits out the graph.

The second program:

This program was made out of my laziness of manually making 365 “.ini” for tides (making mistakes that can take time to figure out). I calculated that it would take approximately 18 hours with 1 “.ini” file in 3 minutes on average [this is not including coffee breaks of source, and all the morphine breaks that will be needed to go though all this]. So I made this program that makes the “.ini” file in steps

1)downloads every single web page onto the hard drive (because it does take a while, and redoing them would be a pain to re-download)

This possess takes the most time, running for about 15 min

2)makes the main chunk

-opens the web file in html format

-read every line until it finds the keywords “PST” or “PDT” (which happens to only occur on the tide information

-decode the html jargon

-set place markers

-collects text relative to the place makers

-writes them down

-writes the date!

This happens in less than 1/30^th of a second

3)makes the beginning and ending of the graph (this is so it runs smoothly together from one to the next)

-opens yesterdays document

-copies the last tide information

-makes it the before spot and changes the PM(1) to (-1)PM for yesterday

-opens tomorrows document

-copies the first tide information

-makes it into the after spot and changes AM(0) to (2)AM for tomorrow

still happens in less than 1/30^th of a second

4)runs a final check to make sure no “.ini” files are missing anything and reports suspicious results

Did you have enough of technical stuff? You better be glad you don't know what magical code is going on right now in your computer! This is just a cakewalk to my intense programming skills. But yet it really helps me a lot so I can work on other stuff for the project. So I plan on making the template in InDesign so we can get this project rolling. Well at least the main basic template since the tides are here!!!!

Oh yea, I also improved the TIDE PROGRAM! It had to be improved to go at max of 9999 frames per second computing the tides. At the end of every tide, it would take a screen shot of itself as a “.bmp” file and restart itself computing the next tide until it reached its goal. Computers are great.

School clock announcement!

Hey everyone, good news! I have just updated my school clock from Javascript to Flash! Even though it works just the same, it looks a lot better AND it does not cut off on the words if it becomes too long! Right now the background does not look so hot, but Paul’s magical skills will be let off the chain as his major flash skillz will blind you. I hope this is a major improvement as it is one of my tests to get to know to use flash better for my oncoming project for the H2O flash site! I know a lot of people use my clock in class so I hope this is an improvement, and the old clock is still there too. Post comments, good or bad about the clock, I need to know what might make this look better for when I will release my tidal clock!

 

Visit it at: http://students.hthma.hightechhigh.org/~jneighbors/clock.htm

H2O project goals and mission objectives

For the H2O project, I am doing two projects,

1)      tide calendar

2)      website (more specifically automatic daily tidal chart)

So this means that I will have to models; for the first model I am obviously going to do a printed tidal calendar, but for the second model I am doing more of a flash oriented version of it.

 

So for this crazy scheme of mine, it must be laid out very carefully or else I might explode right? So the deadlines were actually laid out in a way where I got it done in a way where it can work out for both projects. How is this? If you seen one of my other blogs Sydney laid out the fabulous deadline chart on when I will get all of our groups work done. My deadlines are all before Turkey break (thanks giving), so I have time to finish up on one, then do the other at the other half or so. It also helps that I do not have to do additional research than I already have for my original tidal chart. The tidal chart is based upon a mathematical function that can be reproduced on both the tide chart and also the flash.

            So for this magical formula of mine that can read tidal waves is Point Loma some how. Sadly enough it is not done, but over this four day weekend I have made extensive research about it, in which I came up with pretty much a page with sources and such. So I asked Darren for help, hopefully he will respond back with more than three words at the time, but it did not help that I sent him this with such short notice (and he wants to use this break just as much as everyone else). So if I get that done and the formula works, I will plug it into a game that I made to make jagged lines curvy if it is not so already. But if that does not work, I have found a site that I can use that has 4 points for every day about the tides in Point Loma. But I would much rather use that as a last resort just incase I cannot do anything about the formula that I tried to find.

            Hey, if you reading this article might know what I am looking for, or know something that I don’t about this magical tide stuff. You can always post a comment or email me (since my tracker bar is off the scale down bellow)!

Ening of a chapter, I think not!

While I was reading the article Randy found for us to read, I agreed on a lot of stuff in the article, but one part in the beginning. This role of Obama being the president does not mark the “the end of another magnificent chapter in America’s experience of democracy.” But instead, he marked the beginning of what could be great in our history. Now this didn’t JUST happen; other events happened along the way paving the way to what we know today with Obama being the presidential elect. We got the abolition of slavery, separate but equal, black rights and then black people in baseball.

            Jackie Robinson, the first black person in national baseball. His role I think is now repeated for the new presidential elect, but in a different standard. When I was watching a biography on Jackie Robinson, the most interesting quote I remember is when he got the job that his coach brought him to his office and told him very plainly “I stuck my neck out for you, don’t let them cut it off.” Since then, he lived up to that line and always tried to keep up to those expectations. Since he represented the whole black community, he needed to make sure he didn’t screw up, not once. I think this expectation is now on the new president elect. Every one is hoping that this new president can pick up all the litter that all the other presidents so blatantly left on the floor. If he does do a great job like what Mr. Robinson did, then we will be writing a new chapter FOR SURE in the history about fixing a big stock market crisis and finishing the war without looking like a fool.

            Hey, when Jackie Robinson started getting people to go into baseball, baseball started getting more money. So let’s home that this will work the same, because nobody wants it the other way. Enidng a chapter is looking a glass half empty, im looking at it half full! Happy thinking is always good, and hopefully we will role in with happy times!

My Newspaper reflection

I was most proud of the final project, especially my part of the project. I got the article done well with extra time too. Which ended up in my favor since I was sick over that weekend in which I was supposed to work on it. With my final essay done early and the biggest, it got to go in the front of the paper. Which I think is cool for reasons everyone should know. One thing that I would like to change though is the style that I wrote the paper under. The paper was written in as I recall three solid essay form paragraphs. This form of writing is not in newspapers, instead they use paragraphs two or three words long to keep the reader reading the article. My paper in essay form was not bad but it looked a tad bit strange for the medium it was withheld in.

But overall, I think that the best work I did on the project was managing my time; which proved very worthy, just as I said above, I was sick. When I came into class and I had it all done! But I was still sick, so in class I turned in my part of the project as well as give an oral presentation in math (so it wasn't really much of an option to skip class). So getting the work done early helped me a lot so I didn't feel so bad for that working period (taking it easy and using up all the Kleenex, as well as disturbing the class with all the access notice from my nose), I had my work done as I helped with two other side stories to fill up the bottom of the page also making it look like a real story.

My proposal for the H2O Water Project

These dates are represented of the "tide calander" project of HTHMA and is not expected to change. This guide was formed by Sydney for the whole group to follow, as well as my  parts that I have to do that I put in.

November 7- Research important dates/ areas of photography

November 8/9/10/11: Take pictures at assigned locations.  Jake will finnish up research and show what he has on the graphics for the tide.
November 12: Review Picture and Retake pictures if necessary (if not done already, finnish up making all tide graphics) when done with tide graphics, start making calander
November 13: Pick finalized pictures. have one main photograph and also 1-2 smaller photographs on the calender page.
November 14/15/16: Begin working on paragraphs. Have rough drafts for all paragraphs by beginning of class on the 17th. Find " Did you know fact" for each of your locations. Calander layout in In-Design must be done (14=fri, 16=sun) prefably friday

November 17: Begin basic layout/in design spread sheet.
November 18: Insert Pictures into layout/in design sheet. 
November 19: Insert Calendar with tide information
November 20: Insert paragraphs into layout/in design sheet
November 21: Insert facts/dates/did you know facts. Complete draft of calendar ready for critique.

November 22-30= Thanksgiving Break

December 1-2: Critiques for content
December 3-4: Critiques for Aesthetic Appeal
December 5: Send to Printer
and I am not in the picutre project but the picture scheduel is bellow:

Months:
1 Jade: Mission Bay/ Fiesta Island
2 Jade: De'anza Cove
3 Jade: Mission Bay/Aquatic Center
4 Jeremy: Del Mar
5 Jeremy: Chula Vista Marina
6 Jeremy: Coronado
7 Sydney: San Diego Bay
8 Sydney: I.B./Chula Vista
9 Sydney: Seaport Village
10 Rodrigo: OB Pier
11 Rodrigo: H&M Landing/Shelter Island
12 Rodrigo: San Diego River mouth 

My H2O project questions

My primary question for the H₂O Project is “The ratio between sea life and human activities at five popular beaches in San Diego.” which I also might change to three depending on how the first one will turn out.  So obviously I am not going to snorkel to count the fish with a click counter, instead, I would much rather find this information on a website, and same with humans if they are too many. I think that if I can actually get that information that it would be great to prove if having humans at almost all the beaches is bad for the sea life, also at places that we probably need to rethink if the population ratio is too off.

Then my second research question is “How the tides affect local birds at OB”. OB being Ocean Beach of course is a question that I want to use mostly because I want to make a web calendar and I want to see what it actually does. So at certain tides, the water flow has got to be a sweet spot that keeps fish there, attracting the birds to a certain time (not having to count stupid fish). Then again those stupid birds may come at lunch hour to pick up left over food from lazy people.

I might need to go over the question (s) some more, but there first one I know what I am getting at but getting there is the hard part. The second one is obvious but is hidden from my sight as the fog will slowly roll away. That is basically my biggest concern, but the biggest improvement I need to improve on is #1, since it is hard to achieve “counting fish” accurately as imagined.