Robot Zombies

Yet another post of random weirdness. Jeff had this idea about a movie during a debate on Cyborg Ninja Pirates vs. Zombie Pirate Ninjas.

Robot Zombies. How could something that has never been alive become undead? Staring Sean Connery, Natalie Portman, and Jestoni Alarcon (as the evil robot zombie overmind). Coming to theaters near you...

Hehehehe...

Are you afraid of google?

The wired news has an article about Google's current ambitions and how the big computer companies are running scared (did Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer really throw a chair across the room?)

So the question is, are you afraid of Google? Microsoft has always had rumors about world domination but what about the search engine giant? For me i wouldn't mind Google ruling the world (don't really know why though). But if it were Microsoft, I'd be running off to the hills and joining the resistance. Why is that? Why the apperance and feeling of a gentle giant? Or is it that we have already been brainwashed by subluminal messages in the Google website itself (which im sure everyone goes to) and this happy feeling is just part of a grand scheme?!? O_o

Anyway, I'd go so far as to say that I love google and the stuff that google does (GoogleEarth is sooo nifty! XD ). What about you guys?

SMS Text world record

Digg had this article about a girl who won $5,000 by texting the following 160-character text message in 2 mins, 23 seconds.

The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.

We can text faster than that right? The current world record though is 43 seconds by a Singaporean.

Pirate ninjas vs. Ninja pirates

A new twist in the battle between pirates and ninjas: Pirate ninjas vs Ninja pirates

Ninja pirates are cooler because these are pirates that have achieved ninja powers. Pirate ninjas on the other hand, are ninjas that have fallen into piracy.

I had three tables in a geek party debating over this. Things that came up were what type of weapons would ninja pirates have (camouflaged ships, shuriken harpoons, ninjas that go "arr")

What do you think?

Tarzan vs Aquaman

The other day me and Jeff had this discussion: In a flooded jungle, who would win Tarzan or Aquaman?

Tarzan is the king of the jungle, possessing higher than human strength and agility among the treetops. We arent sure if he has power to control the forest animals.

Aquaman is the lord of the sea. Almost the same as Tarzan, except that he is in water. He can control his animal friends to help him in the fight for justice.

However, if tarzan wasnt in the jungle, he's just a strong guy. Same thing for Aquaman, he's only powerful in water. On land, he's just a regular guy.

So if they fight in a flooded jungle, Aquaman stays in the water, Tarzan would stay in the treetops. They'd just throw stuff at each other, but no hand-to-hand combat. Because if they fight in water, Aquaman wins, but if they fight on land (or in this case, the trees), Tarzan would win.

Seems like a tie, but Jeff pointed out that although Tarzan is strong in the trees, Aquaman has super human strength in water. Land: Strong guy tarzan vs regular guy Aquaman. Sea: Strong guy tarzan versus super guy Aquaman. So aquaman has a slight advantage.

Next topic, which is cooler: pirate ninjas or ninja pirates. XD

First day of classes

First day of classes! Im teaching Software Engineering and Computer Graphics.

And that's it.

I asked for a research load credit so that i could work on my thesis. And got one. Now my teaching schedule is just a few hours every day.

Botched the first day though. Im still feeling odd due to my colds. =(

I hate being sick.

Another Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri Quote

Resources exist to be consumed, and consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None i say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.

--CEO Nwabudike Morgan
The Ethics of Greed

How come its always me

No thesis work today. Why? Because I was in school early.

Still enlistment week, and in the chaos, people needing answers or help from the computer science faculty rushed to our office to find me. Unlike all of the other teachers with their own lives, I practically live in school, 7am to 9pm every day in front of this computer.

Really.

So some problems about a new lab section needed to be opened due to excess students, incomplete records of some of our super seniors, form signing to complete incomplete subjects, assistance to upgrade a circuit breaker, a folder containing all the core computer science documents, a misunderstanding about our curriculum that has lasted ten years...

Not that i mind actually. I like running around, seeing the mess get cleaned up. Bringing order to mayhem and chaos.

I'll miss that about my job when I leave UP Baguio, how easy it is to just act and help fix things. This university is small enough so that the stuff you do has noticable effect. I know im helping.

Makes my day a bit brighter.

Though i was actually ok with errands because my last thesis build is working correctly now. ^_^

And a word from our sponsors...

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When I die, they will put my body in a box and
dispose of it in the cold ground.
And in all the million ages to come, I will never
breathe or laugh or twitch again.
So won't you run and play with me here among the
teeming mass of humanity?
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--Anonymous

Ugh! Students!

How come there are a lot of people? Why are they so very loud and talking and running around? Don't they have anything better to do?

Oh, yeah. They're students. Its enlistment time. Next week, classes start.

This last week, in fact, Oct 31 and Nov 1, the only people in campus were me and the security guards. While everyone else was out on a vacation, i was here, working on my thesis.

I miss not having to worry about anything else. Just me, and my thesis, which i really want to finish soon. =(

But im a teacher, and i teach students. The reason why teachers exists is because students want to learn.

But if it were up to me, i'd just want to work on my thesis. Just so that i could move on with my life. ='{

The clouds beneath my feet

As someone living in Baguio for the last two years, fog has become a bit of a nuisance. You have no idea how depressing it is here during the rainy season where the weather is gray fog or gray clouds or gray rain. I did not see the sun for a month (really). And when you spend a weekend in the lab with no one to talk to and you look outside the window you see nothing but shades of gray or worse, nothing at all... You get the idea.

But today was really nice. Going to Baguio Cathedral for the 6am mass (i hate crowds) in a foggy day i was surprised to see the church, on top of its high hill, above the cloud line. Sheer blue sky above, cloud whisps below, covering the city. Its as if the cathedral an island in a sea of white.*

Walking down the cathedral steps you're stepping onto clouds. Literally.

* well, not SM Baguio, on top of its even higher hill, but for the sake of dramatic effect i must leave that out XD

Format change

Well, this wont be just a teacher's blog anymore, but an all purpose one. (riding the bandwagon now, i see ^_^). Don't really feel like making a new one since a good number of my friends are linked to this one.

Won't post regularly though. Just when i feel like it. So there. ^_^

end of the semester

Well, the semester's ended. Out of a class of 43, two people got 1.0's, two dropped, and 15 students failed

I used to feel guilty about it, but during the final exam. I asked these students almost the same questions as their second long exam, such as to create a class Refrigerator that stores food in 20 shelves, food will be stored in a given shelf number, a method for getting food given shelf number, and a method for closing and opening the refrigerator. another question was given a circular queue, count the number of entries. A third was given a doubly-linked linked list

For these fifteen students, they never even got to answer these questions. One of them didn't even have a loop for the circular queue. Just a long if statement.

Gosh, as if they hadn't learned anything.

Thinking about it, these are the students that passed intro 2 on a summer class. The reason they went into the summer intro 2 class was that they failed intro 2 the time it was offered in the regular semester. And having it in a summer (5 weeks instead of 15 weeks) means that they never got to master the skills needed. I knew it was a bad idea to offer an intro course in the summer.

Oh well...

i never really got to update. sorry.

after linked lists, we had the rest of OOP. Abstraction, inheritance and polymorphism. All in 4 weeks. These series of lectures i really like, i've done these so many times that i have a script for each lecture.

For abstraction i always demonstrate with the Stack class and what happens to the stack if we manipulate the internal variables. Then a real life example: we dont really need to open up a TV to make it work, in fact we shouldnt.

For Inheritance its class Car, class Taxi extends Car and class FXTaxi extends Taxi. Also, class ElectricFan, class IndustrialElectricFan extends ElectricFan, class DesktopElectricFan... etc... A lot of examples of typecasting.

For polymorphism, its always the Employee class with an annualsalary() method, with subclasses Temporary, Casual and Permanent, each overriding annualsalary() due to different tax values. Showing how a single array of Employees can still handle the different annualsalary().

A nice example that i recently got was class LivingCreature with method move() which is overridden by subclasses like class Human, class Horse, class Bird.

then i had class diagrams. and a recitation of which are legal code (superclass reference -> subclass object, which are legal parameters to this method, typecasting etc). and now all these were the basis for their next and final exam.