Welcome to my nook on the web. Feel free to explore. I particularly recommend the Code section of the Gallery, and the Travel section. Yes, I keep an online Journal if you want to check it out. If you have any suggestions for improvement, questions, or find errors within the site, feel free to let me know.

Recent Adventure

Greyhound Trip: Toronto, ON to Calgary, AB - August 2005

I'm sitting on a greyhound bus at the Bay & Dundas bus terminal in Toronto. Collection of tickets stating Toronto to Sudbury, Sudbury to Thunder Bay, Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, Winnipeg to Regina, Regina to Calgary. A ...

Recent Graphics

Recent Journal Entries

Friday, August 27, 2010

Hard as it is to believe, I may have finally begun to incorporate timezones into these sporadic postings. Now, when I post, I'm posting from the location that I'm presenting found in, rather than Ontario-time, which is where the webserver is located. :P With a little extra play, I could modify the system to let me more effectively select my current time zone, changing where and when appropriate.

3:21pm

It only took me all year, but I've finally set up my computer on campus to run the programs that I create. Oy vey. Stupid Qt, Qt integration, and glut not being installed, among other fun things (like installing VS2008).

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Ode to the Mouse

Slashdot currently has an article on some crazy 18 button mouse (one of the commentators prefers a wheely 12 button mouse). For the last four years, I have owned one of electrovaya's Scribbler 3100s. As such, I use a pen for input rather than a mouse. How does a pen differ than a mouse? It means that when I want to select something on the screen, I can physically direct my input device (pen) to that location, and have it click as needed. With a mouse, this means moving the input device (the physical mouse) in such a way that it approximates the virtual input. With the pen, I can directly select, with the mouse, I must move it so that hopefully the virtual input lines up accurately. With practise, of course, this becomes second nature. But having gotten used to the pen, it seems tedious to spend those wasted seconds (or milliseconds) over and over again to traverse the mouse where desired. The mouse is no different than the Wacom tablet - a clear disassociation between the physical and virtual input.

Now, this is not to say that I don't use short cut keys, which of course speeds everything up. Why have the mouse move all over the screen when a few strokes of the keyboard will work just fine. I'm in total agreement: short cut keys - all the way - for speeding up computer use. However, the mouse still is necessary for input, especially when programs either do not have, or have unknown (with limited time for discovery) short cut key combinations.

I've played World of Warcraft on my beloved hybrid tablet (Blizzard is amazing for being able to support low-end graphics systems. :) I *heart* Blizzard), and while I never reached any level worth crowing over (50? maybe?) never had trouble using my pen. Perhaps if I could've set up the short cut keys a bit better, I'd have gotten further in the game. As it is, I'm too lazy to bother with it.

When, because at some point it will, my tablet dies, I will be one sad gal. The clip on keyboard facilitates my need for vast text input (ie. programming, development, and email), while the detachable tablet means I don't have to bring the whole lot with me when I go off to a meeting or class. The iPad still does not compare (note the lack of development environment), which is a shame. With Microsoft (and Apple for that matter) moving to touch screen input, the issue becomes (yet again) precision of input. A large finger does not accurately define a specific pixel for selection on the screen. While a pen - which I believe is too fine for detection within the touch screen environments - is able to provide that precision.

Viva la hybrid tablets! May they live long and prosper. :)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Dear goodness. I thought that once the term full of courses ended life would become a bit easier. I recognized all that would be involved, but tried to ignore it (there was no time, or ability to mitigate it anyways). What am I doing that's got me so busy? Outside of working on school stuff (research presentation at the end of the week, possible paper submission on a relatively unrelated topic at the end of the month), and swimming stuffs (working when I can, so I don't starve to death in the coming months - I got a small, but well appreciated scholarship, which helps, but really only covers tuition that I didn't take into consideration when planning finances for the summer), I'm moving myself out of my current place and into my new place, and helping my parents sell some of their unwanted elements (else I'll have to arrange to have them moved to a 2nd hand store, or the dump), and move the rest of it. All of which needs to be done in the next week and a half. At which point, I fly to Ottawa to help my father drive stuff down to Nova Scotia. Then I'll spend just under two weeks helping them paint and fix up their new place, and then move in all the furniture that I'll have seen off from Calgary. *yippee* Then the first two weeks back I'm swamped with swimming work, helping out with the CS girl's seminar, and acclimatizing my cat to the two cats at the new place. We're not even two weeks into May and I already can't wait till July. :P

I know its not much, but it feels super busy, and a little overwhelming. (And if you'll have listened to my mother when she was in town last week, I should also have a boyfriend, and be socializing more, and exercising more, and watching what I eat, and losing weight, and going off hiking more, and reading more and... Let's just say, I was not amused). Fortunately, I live by the rules: Don't Panic. Its not worth it. :P