Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
A Small World
It’s simply amazing how small the internet makes this world. I’m in Poland for the next two weeks. To say the least I was not looking forward to this trip, but so far, all of my fears have gone unfounded and things have been going very smoothly.
Purdue was playing Notre Dame the day I arrived, [...]
Google Docs
Google has an entire office suite online called Google Docs. You can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations completely within your web browser. I find this great for stuff that I need to have access to from many computers. All of the apps have nearly all of the features that you’ve come to expect from a [...]
The Dell Saga
As those of you who follow me on twitter know I have been very disappointed with Dell’s handling of my new PC order, which ultimately ended up in me canceling the order. Below is my letter to the FTC explaining how I believe Dell is abusing the “Mail Order Rule.” Feel free to use it [...]
Vista 64-Bit, The First 24 Hours
My new computer with Vista-64 arrived yesterday, and now that I’ve got the majority of my data copied over and programs installed, I’m compiling my thoughts on both Vista and the 64-bit environment.
The first thing that I noticed is that you need to be careful to look for the 64-bit downloads for the software that [...]
Syntax – Programming Series (3 of 3)
Syntax is structure of the programming language. It can be thought of as the verbs, nouns and parts of speech that make up English, or a foreign language. Syntax can typically fall under 3 different categories: High level, low level, and graphical.
High level is what is most common today. This includes languages such as C, [...]
Execution Style – Programming Series (2 of 3)
There are two basic ways that a program can be executed: continuously and event driven. The execution style is dictated by the programming language, and is almost always event driven.
In event driven code, nothing runs until there is a triggering event. This is often the user clicking a button, pressing a key, following a link [...]
Algorithm – Programming Series (1 of 3)
After several years of programming in various languages for several different platforms there are several things I’ve come to realize about programming. I’ve broken it down into 3 separate topics, each with their own discussion. Each discussion will be added over the next few days.
The heart of any program is the algorithm that actually performs [...]
Vista 64
I just purchased a new computer from Dell with Vista 64-bit. I’ve heard that the transition to 64-bit is often a rough one, so I’ll be keeping track of my progress here. To start, I visited the Windows Vista Compatability Center and checked that my major hardware will still work with the OS. This included [...]
Download Youtube Videos
Downloading videos from Youtube is easier than ever. Simply change youtube.com in the title bar to pwnyoutube.com when you’ve viewing a video. It will bring you to a page with the option to download either the standard quality or the high quality video. Just click one of the links to start downloading.
Super Bowl Final Score Distribution
Here’s how the last digit of the final score of all 42 super bowls breaks down. Great for figuring out just how likely you are to win that squares pool at the office. Duplicate scores have been omitted, i.e. 4-2 and 2-4 do not appear on this list since statistically they’re the same thing.
FinalScore
Percent
Occurances
0-0
0-1
2%
1
0-2
2%
1
0-3
2%
1
0-4
0-5
5%
2
0-6
5%
2
0-7
7%
3
0-8
0-9
5%
2
1-1
1-2
1-3
1-4
5%
2
1-5
5%
2
1-6
2%
1
1-7
2%
1
1-8
2%
1
1-9
2%
1
2-2
2-3
2-4
2%
1
2-5
2-6
2-7
2%
1
2-8
2-9
2%
1
3-3
3-4
5%
2
3-5
3-6
5%
2
3-7
2%
1
3-8
3-9
4-4
4-5
4-6
4-7
12%
5
4-8
4-9
2%
1
5-5
5-6
5-7
5-8
5-9
6-6
2%
1
6-7
2%
1
6-8
2%
1
6-9
2%
1
7-7
5%
2
7-8
7-9
2%
1
8-8
8-9
2%
1
9-9
Twitter Phishing Scare
If you haven’t heard yet some scammers are harvesting passwords on Twitter through direct messages. You’ll get a direct message from someone you follow (whose account has already been compromised) that asks you to click a link, for one of many ever changing reasons. When you click the link, you’re taken to a page that [...]
M@’s Picks
The M@’s Picks section of this site has some of my favorite tips, applications and web sites that I use every day. I’ve keeping an eye on my computer usage recently and will be updating it with my favorite windows and windows mobile tips over the next few weeks. Be sure to check it out [...]
Virtual Tree
Add some holiday cheer to your monitor with Net by Matt’s Virtual Tree.
Initially intended to be a way to catalog all the ornaments that we have on our tree at home, I’ve decided to add a few features to it, such as different “trees” that you can browse and opened it up for everyone. Really [...]
MSI’s Holidays of Light
I was at the Museum of Science and Industry today for their Holidays of Light exhibit. It was the first trip there for me in about 4 months, which is a long time for me. The exhibit was great as usual. There’s a tree representing each of over 60 countries, decorated with [...]
New Design
It’s done. Just over a weekend of work and I have re-designed both the blog and photos section of the site. Here’s what it used to look like.
That was from the summer of 2002, when I started at Purdue. Then, the site ran on Greymatter and didn’t have a photos section. Now, [...]
Micro-Blogging
I didn’t want to bring out my just repaired camera in the rain at my high school’s football game since there was on and off rain. After I left the house it ended up being dry for the entire night. Oh well.
I went to the game anyways because it was #4 vs. my [...]
New Phone
A few weeks ago I finally parted with my Motorola E815 and moved up to a smartphone, a Motorola Q9c. I really didn’t want to get rid of the old phone. I had it hacked to my liking, getting back all the stuff that Verizon locks out, but battery and charging issues were [...]
Photography
It’s been a while since I’ve written here. Last time I was talking about my senior project, which was a success. The autonomous driving algorithm was a bit tricky to work out, but I don’t mind a challenge. It drew quite a bit of attention when I was testing it in Police [...]
New Photos
I’ve been working hard to update my web site with a new photo gallery. The gallery is ready to go, you can see it at photos.netbymatt.com, but I still need to upload a years worth of photos to it.
Senior Project Update 2
We strapped a camera to the back of the truck and shot some videos. Here’s a clip from one. You can see our mounting mechanism below.
