My favorite thing about school right now is that my programming class is going much better than my CS classes have been previously, I know this is largely due to renewed energy, but nevertheless, I like Racket.
Racket is a programming language that not many people know exists. It's a dialect of LISP and my only experience with LISP so far in my CS career. I enjoy this language because I think it has a lot of functionality that Java and C++ don't have [ha-ha, get it? Functionality? Becau-well-nevermind.], but my favorite thing of all is definitely car and cdr. Before this semester, I had taken a C++ class on Data Structures, and now, I'm taking another Data Structures class at a different school using Racket, and everything is made so much easier by car, cadr, cddr, cdr, etc.
So car, which stands for contents of address register, is the front of a construct [cons] and cdr is the rest of the construct. This means that car is one number, and cdr is a construct! Different types, guys-cool, no? [You can also say front and rest, but those are less fun for reasons I'll explain later].
A cons takes a pair, which many people might think is odd because a pair is not really a list, is it? But thanks to computers not being morons [WHOO~!] you can call cons inside of itself and make a list saying something like (cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 '() ))). That '() means an empty list, so it just stops there, and this would print out '(1 2 3), where car is 1 and cdr is '(2 3). Another [and possibly more accurate] way to think of this is defining the cons by the car and cdr--> (cons car cdr) or (cons 1 '(2 3)).
Now, because '(1 2 3) is a list, and cons takes a pair, you could make a new list without typing all those parenthesis by saying (cons 1 '(1 2 3)) and get '(1 1 2 3). As you can see, 1 is the car of the list and '(1 2 3) is the cdr of the list. If you want the second thing, you could type something like (first (rest list)) [The first of the rest of the list, assuming you called your construct list] which would be (car (cdr list)) [the car of the cdr of the list], but since car and cdr are fun, you can type (cadr list) [the cadr of the list] instead! You can keep going, too, like (caddr list) for the third thing. I don't know how to pronounce caddr. :(
The only problem is that I haven't been able to find the equivalent to init in other languages, and that would be very helpful for me right now. I'll post / update this if I ever figure it out.
So, I figured I'd post these sorts of things so I don't forget them, and hopefully my explanations of things, though specific, will be thorough enough to help others!
Keep up the nerdy, my friends :D! [I got to see Bill Nye the science guy last night(!) I'm definitely feeling the nerdy!]
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Technology Rambles: Asking a techie for help
Tips about asking your nerdy friends for help:
Be specific. I don’t know how many times people have said ‘It’s not working’ or ‘My computer isn’t fast enough’ or ‘Why is the screen blank’ or ‘My internet isn’t working’ etc. That’s incredibly vague. I know how it could sound specific, yes, but it’s generally quite a bit more complicated and we’re going to be forced to ask you the same stupid questions you’d get from tech support. If you say, ‘It isn’t working’, I’m FORCED to ask if you plugged it in, because that’s the base case for not working. The more specific you are the less stupid questions we ask as followup. If you could list everything you tried, get it in writing [email] and, best of all, actually have your computer with you at the time of questioning, that would be the best!
Don’t get angry at us. Most likely, we didn’t create the software, getting angry at us is just going to make us not want to help you in the future. I know it sucks when something doesn’t work, but this is why I always try to be polite on the phone with people when something breaks, whoever you’re asking is just like you, may or may not be stressed out right now, and most importantlyis listening because they want to help you. So please, try not to aim the anger at us.
Know who you’re asking / sometimes we can’t help. I’m a Computer Scientist, I have no idea how most hardware works. I know what things do, and how I can use them to do other things, but if you’re about to ask me where to put in a new chip, I’m going to stare at you blankly and redirect you to one of my engineering friends / tell you to call tech support. It’s like going to a dentist and asking about your eczema. He might know some basics because it’s the same general area, but he’s not going to be able to tell you your exact problem and all the medicines you can use to fix it. Secondly, we can’t fix everything. There are some issues that flaws in the programming or hardware, and we can’t give you what you want. If you have overheated your machine too much and melted something important, like your video card or processor, you are not going to be able to fix that by restarting/resetting anything. If you delete a file, and then keep using your drive, we probably can’t salvage it. [if you delete something from a flash drive, and don’t do anything else to it and give it to someone, they can probably get it back.]
If you are a techie: don’t feel like people are patronizing you. Because computer do seem like works of absolute genius to people who can’t see all the flaws inside, when something doesn’t work exactly, people are going to get annoyed. If your waiter suddenly flips out at you, he’s doing his job badly, right? Well, this is the same type of job, and we can’t get angry just because someone doesn’t know what we went to college / did the research to learn. I like to ask people if they want to know how to fix the problem in the future. If they say yes, I show them, if they say no, I fix it quietly. I’ve received the same respect with a hardware problem, and I got to see the inside of my laptop! :D.
So yeah, this goes both ways, techies, be respectful and try to understand why people might be treating you like a ball of annoying-genius-poop […heh] and others, please try to just not treat them like annoying-genius-poop. Not even genius, if they aren’t.
Err, TL;DR, Learn as much as you can and respect your fellow man. [Or woman, in my case :D.]
Technology Rambles: Myths people who 'sort of' know technology believe
Explorer.exe is in charge of everything you do…don’t just let your nerdy friends turn it off without telling you how to fix it. Restarting your computer to play old games [and yeah, quite a lot of people have this issue ;)] is not conductive to keeping information saved.
More cores does not mean faster internet connection. I’ve heard this a few times and I don’t understand where the myth started, but it’s out there and incorrect. More cores doesn’t even mean faster computer, because they might not be at the right speeds and multithreading is something each program needs to be prepared to do in order to take advantage of your many processors.
Overclocking is not easy, and can physically damage your computer if you do it incorrectly. Overclocking tends to lead to overheating, and that breaks computers faster and more permanently than quite a lot of other things, and cannot be fixed by rebooting or reinstalling Windows.
If a program wants you to install something else to install it, you should automatically check the legitimacy of that program, unless it’s a famous program, that other thing could be a virus or spyware [though, you probably already have spyware problems if you’re using a computer] or something harmful. I’m not saying don’t install it, but definitely stay on the safe side.
Hair Rambles Do[s] and Don't[s]:
No / Little Heat Tips:
Google the ways people style their hair with no heat and try them out, and don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time. Wrap set for straight, roller set or headband curl or pin curl [I don’t have rollers, I do the other two] for curls or beach waves, or braid for kinky styles. Usually, it’s about how much hair you do in each section and whether or not you want it soft or defined. I like soft, so I don’t use much product / water, I do large sections of hair, and I always have backup styles for everything in case it turns out badly. [Those curls are too defined/kinky? Do a curly side pony or pin-up, those always look better with curls. Style is falling too quickly? Try a partial braid like a Pocahontas twist. Plus, this will keep it fresh and new. NOTE: Kinky, to me, means Z shape instead of S, so they’re just sharper.
Honestly, though, you really shouldn’t let your hair brush against fabric too much, but I only bun my hair if I’m feeling lazy, so I just have to make sure it’s always in top shape to be worn out.
Don’t(s) that you might not have heard as much:
Don’t over condition. It’s difficult to cause, but if you’re DCing like every day, or just not balancing your protein-moisture, you can actually OC, so try to avoid that.
Don’t feel pressured to do *anything* to your hair that you don't want to do:
Relaxed hair can be healthy, and natural hair can be manageable, so don’t go natural/relaxed just for that, that can cause unnecessary stress.
You can grow your hair without cutting it. This sounds generic, yes, but here’s the thing, I haven’t trimmed my ends yet but I’m growing length. I doneedto eventually, but I’m going to do it in small sections. If you’re taking care of your hair, it will improve. Still, you should trim if you can bear it, but if you can’t, don’t let anyone back you into a corner with tales of never growing any length. Your hair is part of you, and it’s your business whether or not you trim it.
Don’t give up! For too long our hair has controlled us, made is feel weak [it won’t grow / black people have ‘bad hair’] or oppressed [if you show your natural hair, you won’t get a job / no one likes afros / relaxed hair is horrible, you’re not black or healthy if you have relaxed hair] or just ugly [if your hair has bounce, you must have bought it / Oh, that’s cute! What kind of weave is that?]. You can rise about all of that nonsense!
Google the ways people style their hair with no heat and try them out, and don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work the first time. Wrap set for straight, roller set or headband curl or pin curl [I don’t have rollers, I do the other two] for curls or beach waves, or braid for kinky styles. Usually, it’s about how much hair you do in each section and whether or not you want it soft or defined. I like soft, so I don’t use much product / water, I do large sections of hair, and I always have backup styles for everything in case it turns out badly. [Those curls are too defined/kinky? Do a curly side pony or pin-up, those always look better with curls. Style is falling too quickly? Try a partial braid like a Pocahontas twist. Plus, this will keep it fresh and new. NOTE: Kinky, to me, means Z shape instead of S, so they’re just sharper.
Honestly, though, you really shouldn’t let your hair brush against fabric too much, but I only bun my hair if I’m feeling lazy, so I just have to make sure it’s always in top shape to be worn out.
Don’t(s) that you might not have heard as much:
Don’t over condition. It’s difficult to cause, but if you’re DCing like every day, or just not balancing your protein-moisture, you can actually OC, so try to avoid that.
Don’t feel pressured to do *anything* to your hair that you don't want to do:
Relaxed hair can be healthy, and natural hair can be manageable, so don’t go natural/relaxed just for that, that can cause unnecessary stress.
You can grow your hair without cutting it. This sounds generic, yes, but here’s the thing, I haven’t trimmed my ends yet but I’m growing length. I doneedto eventually, but I’m going to do it in small sections. If you’re taking care of your hair, it will improve. Still, you should trim if you can bear it, but if you can’t, don’t let anyone back you into a corner with tales of never growing any length. Your hair is part of you, and it’s your business whether or not you trim it.
Don’t give up! For too long our hair has controlled us, made is feel weak [it won’t grow / black people have ‘bad hair’] or oppressed [if you show your natural hair, you won’t get a job / no one likes afros / relaxed hair is horrible, you’re not black or healthy if you have relaxed hair] or just ugly [if your hair has bounce, you must have bought it / Oh, that’s cute! What kind of weave is that?]. You can rise about all of that nonsense!
Hair Rambles: How to grow longer hair part 2
2nd Biggest: Deep condition and finger detangle.
Gals, deep condition. Do it for hour(s), do it with heat, and do it all over.
A lot of the problem we lazy people have is that we’ll slather the DC all over the top layer(s) of our hair. Cut that out, right now, you lazy folk. You need to get the DC all over every strand. My lazy technique is to do it the same way I finger detangle every few nights—get fairly small sections, mix all your DC ingredients into a spray bottle and spray it all over that section and repeat. How to know your DC doesn’t work? You need softness and manageability. If you don’t get easy detangling, STOP USING IT. If you don’t get softness, you aren’t getting moisture, so that’s probably a protein conditioner, which you canuse, but not often, so QUIT IT. Furthermore, don’t over-condition [yes, it’s hard but possible, I’ve done it] or put too much protein in your hair. Both of those have horrifying consequences.
Finger detangling is wonderful and works much better than combing. I lose a countable number of strands a day this way, and I get every single knot. Plus, I’ve been doing it for more than a month and the only time that sucked was the very first time [and the one time I washed improperly]. Combs glide through my hair! [I only use them [and only wide tooth] for volume now, actually].
Mini 2nd point - styling:
Only use heat after you’ve DCed because you should only use heat (or chemicals) when your hair is in top shape. I personally use heat at most once a month, but I’ve skipped a few months recently. The best way to style your hair, I think, is to set it at night. You know how your heat styles don’t last very long? Yeah, if you set it overnight, it’ll lastthe entire day. Especially if you use something to set it (I…don’t use mousse or gel any of that, I don’t know how it works but I hear it makes your hair hard.)
Gals, deep condition. Do it for hour(s), do it with heat, and do it all over.
A lot of the problem we lazy people have is that we’ll slather the DC all over the top layer(s) of our hair. Cut that out, right now, you lazy folk. You need to get the DC all over every strand. My lazy technique is to do it the same way I finger detangle every few nights—get fairly small sections, mix all your DC ingredients into a spray bottle and spray it all over that section and repeat. How to know your DC doesn’t work? You need softness and manageability. If you don’t get easy detangling, STOP USING IT. If you don’t get softness, you aren’t getting moisture, so that’s probably a protein conditioner, which you canuse, but not often, so QUIT IT. Furthermore, don’t over-condition [yes, it’s hard but possible, I’ve done it] or put too much protein in your hair. Both of those have horrifying consequences.
Finger detangling is wonderful and works much better than combing. I lose a countable number of strands a day this way, and I get every single knot. Plus, I’ve been doing it for more than a month and the only time that sucked was the very first time [and the one time I washed improperly]. Combs glide through my hair! [I only use them [and only wide tooth] for volume now, actually].
Mini 2nd point - styling:
Only use heat after you’ve DCed because you should only use heat (or chemicals) when your hair is in top shape. I personally use heat at most once a month, but I’ve skipped a few months recently. The best way to style your hair, I think, is to set it at night. You know how your heat styles don’t last very long? Yeah, if you set it overnight, it’ll lastthe entire day. Especially if you use something to set it (I…don’t use mousse or gel any of that, I don’t know how it works but I hear it makes your hair hard.)
Hair Rambles: How to grow longer hair
Biggest point:
Moisturize and seal every day, if possible. Ever since I started about a month ago, my hair has been substantially better than it ever was before I listened to tips from some of my hair envies. Finally, I decided to actually try the one thing I hadn’t tried before, which was moisturizing and sealing every night, and my hair loves me. It has been beautiful, flowing and gorgeous, and I’m finally receiving complements on all the hours hard work.
African American hair is typically more porous than other hair types, and the shape of it [which, unless you relax every week—DO NOT DO THIS, STRETCH AS LONG AS POSSIBLE (I attempt two or three times a year)—is your new growth] prevents your natural oils from going down the hair shaft and moisturizing/conditioning everything. So, you should moisturize (with something water based) and seal (with something oil based). Generally, I would not recommend sealing with coconut oil, feel free to use that as a moisturizer because it can actually penetrate the hair strand without heat, which most other oils cannot do without some major help. [Which is why it might seem like some of your products aren’t working.]
This is a generic tip because I find that just because something works for one person does not mean it works for others. I use natural oils and other ingredients to make my own conditioners and moisturizers, so I couldn’t give any tips anyway.
My favorite store-bought product; however, Hair One [Sally’s]. It’s like Wen, but cheaper. I’ve never used Wen for many reasons, including money [I have two jobs, soon to be three, and make less than minimum wage :S] and health risks, but I’ve heard that it works even better than Hair One for some people. Either way, my hair always feels different when I haven’t used Hair One in a while, so I’ll keep buying it since it’s cheap and lasts me a long time.
Stay tuned for more rambles!
Moisturize and seal every day, if possible. Ever since I started about a month ago, my hair has been substantially better than it ever was before I listened to tips from some of my hair envies. Finally, I decided to actually try the one thing I hadn’t tried before, which was moisturizing and sealing every night, and my hair loves me. It has been beautiful, flowing and gorgeous, and I’m finally receiving complements on all the hours hard work.
African American hair is typically more porous than other hair types, and the shape of it [which, unless you relax every week—DO NOT DO THIS, STRETCH AS LONG AS POSSIBLE (I attempt two or three times a year)—is your new growth] prevents your natural oils from going down the hair shaft and moisturizing/conditioning everything. So, you should moisturize (with something water based) and seal (with something oil based). Generally, I would not recommend sealing with coconut oil, feel free to use that as a moisturizer because it can actually penetrate the hair strand without heat, which most other oils cannot do without some major help. [Which is why it might seem like some of your products aren’t working.]
This is a generic tip because I find that just because something works for one person does not mean it works for others. I use natural oils and other ingredients to make my own conditioners and moisturizers, so I couldn’t give any tips anyway.
My favorite store-bought product; however, Hair One [Sally’s]. It’s like Wen, but cheaper. I’ve never used Wen for many reasons, including money [I have two jobs, soon to be three, and make less than minimum wage :S] and health risks, but I’ve heard that it works even better than Hair One for some people. Either way, my hair always feels different when I haven’t used Hair One in a while, so I’ll keep buying it since it’s cheap and lasts me a long time.
Stay tuned for more rambles!
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