RULES: ACQUIRE FORK TO THE RIGHT OF YOU AS WELL AS FORK TO THE LEFT OF YOU. EAT PASTA. REMOVE AN ARTICLE OF CLOTHING. REPEAT.

RELATED: STRIP RUSSIAN ROULETTE. NO, NOT WITH A GUN.

Here’s what the next prototype looks like. Note the compact size, the modern Bauhaus “function over form” styling, and lack of a hand controller: all control is done by simply leaning.

The final product may look even better!

If you’re completely unsure about prices, here are some related products:

Also check out another styling option from Jamo:

So I’m pretty sure I haven’t blogged about quaternions yet, so here goes: god damn quaternions.

Also, no blood for Euler. I’m no hippie, but we need to reduce our dependence on Euler angles and move on to a more modern, sustainable representation of orientation with no singularities. I’m not willing to send off young American men and women to die just for the sake of your decadent way of determining attitude.

Here’s a sneak preview of what I’m doing these days (besides everything else):

It’s a really simple simulation framework for nonlinear recursive estimation filters for attitude determination. Like “dynamically-compiled rasterizing software renderer,” this doesn’t actually mean anything, but I’m still looking for a good acronym. If I throw in “orientation,” I get enough letters for “NOFEAR,” but “nonlinear orientation filter estimation attitude recursive” makes no sense.

By the way, the screenshot above looks crappy because I made it look crappy; I wanted to post a second screenshot later and claim that I made mad improvements to the visualizer. It actually looked pretty decent prior to the lo-fi’ing:

Yeah, so I just failed at lying for fun and profit. Oh well. Though I really do need a better model for orientation visualization than the Ohio waterspout¹…

I’ve got a big pset due in 8 hours and an exam in 6 hours, so I guess I better stop write-crastinating.

God damn quaternions. ♥

1. Credit to my friend TH for the name

xw@pewter:~$ whois apple.com

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

APPLE.COM.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
APPLE.COM.WAS.PWNED.BY.M1CROSOFT.COM
APPLE.COM.MORE.INFO.AT.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
APPLE.COM.IS.OWN3D.BY.NAKEDJER.COM
APPLE.COM.IS.0WN3D.BY.GULLI.COM
APPLE.COM.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
APPLE.COM.AT.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
APPLE.COM

…

xw@pewter:~$ whois google.com

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

GOOGLE.COM.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.GET.ONE.MILLION.DOLLARS.AT.WWW.UNIMUNDI.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZZZZZZ.THE.BEST.WEBHOSTING.AT.WWW.FATUCH.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZZZZZ.GET.LAID.AT.WWW.SWINGINGCOMMUNITY.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZOMBIED.AND.HACKED.BY.WWW.WEB-HACK.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ZNAET.PRODOMEN.COM
GOOGLE.COM.YUCEKIRBAC.COM
GOOGLE.COM.YUCEHOCA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.WORDT.DOOR.VEEL.WHTERS.GEBRUIKT.SERVERTJE.NET
GOOGLE.COM.VN
GOOGLE.COM.UY
GOOGLE.COM.UA
GOOGLE.COM.TW
GOOGLE.COM.TR
GOOGLE.COM.SUCKS.FIND.CRACKZ.WITH.SEARCH.GULLI.COM
GOOGLE.COM.SPROSIUYANDEKSA.RU
GOOGLE.COM.SERVES.PR0N.FOR.ALLIYAH.NET
GOOGLE.COM.SANATATEA-NOASTRA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.SA
GOOGLE.COM.PE
GOOGLE.COM.P2NK-AJA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.MX
GOOGLE.COM.LASERPIPE.COM
GOOGLE.COM.IS.SHIT.SQUAREBOARDS.COM
GOOGLE.COM.IS.NOT.HOSTED.BY.ACTIVEDOMAINDNS.NET
GOOGLE.COM.IS.HOSTED.ON.PROFITHOSTING.NET
GOOGLE.COM.IS.APPROVED.BY.NUMEA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.HICHINA.COM
GOOGLE.COM.HAS.LESS.FREE.PORN.IN.ITS.SEARCH.ENGINE.THAN.SECZY.COM
GOOGLE.COM.ESJUEGOS.NET
GOOGLE.COM.DO
GOOGLE.COM.CO
GOOGLE.COM.CN
GOOGLE.COM.BR
GOOGLE.COM.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
GOOGLE.COM.AU
GOOGLE.COM.AR
GOOGLE.COM.AFRICANBATS.ORG
GOOGLE.COM

…

xw@pewter:~$ whois microsoft.com

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.THE.BEST.WEBHOSTING.AT.WWW.FATUCH.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.IM.ELITE.WANNABE.TOO.WWW.PLUS613.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.GET.ONE.MILLION.DOLLARS.AT.WWW.UNIMUNDI.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZZZZ.MORE.DETAILS.AT.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZZZ.GET.LAID.AT.WWW.SWINGINGCOMMUNITY.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZOMBIED.AND.HACKED.BY.WWW.WEB-HACK.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZ.IS.0WNED.AND.HAX0RED.BY.SUB7.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.WILL.BE.SLAPPED.IN.THE.FACE.BY.MY.BLUE.VEINED.SPANNER.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.WILL.BE.BEATEN.WITH.MY.SPANNER.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.WAREZ.AT.TOPLIST.GULLI.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.TOTALLY.SUCKS.S3U.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.SOFTWARE.IS.NOT.USED.AT.REG.RU
MICROSOFT.COM.SHOULD.GIVE.UP.BECAUSE.LINUXISGOD.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.RAWKZ.MUH.WERLD.MENTALFLOSS.CA
MICROSOFT.COM.OHMYGODITBURNS.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.MORE.INFO.AT.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.MATCHES.THIS.STRING.AT.KEYSIGNERS.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.LOVES.ME.KOSMAL.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.LIVES.AT.SHAUNEWING.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.NOT.YEPPA.ORG
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.NOT.HOSTED.BY.ACTIVEDOMAINDNS.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.IN.BED.WITH.CURTYV.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.HOSTED.ON.PROFITHOSTING.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.A.STEAMING.HEAP.OF.FUCKING-BULLSHIT.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.IS.A.MESS.TIMPORTER.CO.UK
MICROSOFT.COM.HAS.A.PRESENT.COMING.FROM.HUGHESMISSILES.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.FILLS.ME.WITH.BELLIGERENCE.NET
MICROSOFT.COM.CAN.GO.FUCK.ITSELF.AT.SECZY.COM
MICROSOFT.COM.ARE.GODDAMN.PIGFUCKERS.NET.NS-NOT-IN-SERVICE.COM
MICROSOFT.COM

…

Is somebody spamming our WHOIS records?

Hi again,

It’s Xo once again, the ever-adoring fan of the academic advisement office at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. I’d just like to update you on my summer as it has been so far since I received your fantastic insight into the only pedagogical path appropriate to me at this point in my life.

So far, I have taken the path of the wastrel. These past months have seen me experiment with various illegal substances and participate in violent (though hardly consequential, in my humble opinion) street crime, all while I gamble away my personal assets.

In anticipation of my next year of valuable instruction, especially in the humanities (oh them!), I’ve taken on cutting my body as an extracurricular. I find that it is an extremely intense form of expression. Cutting enthusiasts have advised me that I am a “natural” and that I should enter the pros—perhaps eventually compete in the World Championships.

I have shrugged off warnings from friends and family about my declining state of health and squalorous living conditions. I see no reason in their concern. After all, they’re the ones who suggested that I should have a say in the choice of coursework at university and that I should be free to pursue my education at a level comfortable for me. Ha! They were demonstrated to be wrong by your highly logical and considerate counseling; who are they to now dissuade me from a path that will lead to assured ruin among the outcasts of society?

Yours,
Xo Wang

Alright, so I haven’t actually been doing of the above mentioned, but instead trying to hold a job. The Office of Professional Development, or rather the whole of Georgia Tech, has been exceptionally unhelpful towards that end.

Though they are often lauded for their great co-op & internship programs, GT basically withholds opportunities from freshmen. Their website isn’t open to anyone below a certain number of credit-hours and the staff are just unhelpful. What, are you afraid your students might catch up to those at better schools? God forbid any of us should get a head start on this professional development thing.

I started a bit at a hedge fund, decided finance was not for me, and switched into a rewarding internship at Barnes & Noble, thanks in great part to a wonderful friend and mentor. Developing applications is pretty nice.

As an aside, I highly recommend the sandwiches from Financier Patisserie and burgers from Jimbo’s, if you’re ever around that corner in Midtown East. They’re good stuff.

Every time I had my ID (and its affixed class schedule sticker) checked at the door, I made it a point to very obviously time the poor teacher doing his job with the stopwatch function on my Casio, and then record the time wasted by the check in a notebook I kept in my pocket. The following is the data I recorded:

Dates are recorded in October 2006 format; that is, the “day of month” is the number of days since September 30th, 2006. Days not in the table between 10/782/2006 and 10/830/2006 do not mean “not checked”—they mean that I didn’t eat lunch at the cafeteria on that day (I think).

As a warning, this post was useless, so those with time traveling capabilities will want to dial back 10 minutes to before they began reading this post.

My school was rather inclined to disagree with my petition for a “prerequisite override permit,” which is what I need in order to register for the C++ class, ECE 3090. After all, you couldn’t possibly learn C++ if you hadn’t first implemented some discrete FIR filters in the digital signal processing course first.

OK, just read my response after my registration permit was denied:

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by xxx@gatech.edu (ZHAO WANG) on Monday, April 05, 2010 at 19:18:02.

grad_ugrad: Undergraduate
term: Fall
GTID: ———
course: ECE3090
major: CMPE
graduation_term: Spring
graduation_year: 2013

comments: I already have knowledge of C++ and programming in 3090; previously held a job at a game graphics/AI company doing software engineering with C++.

On Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:59:59 -0300, Xxxxxxx Xxxx wrote:

ECE does not override prerequisites for its courses. Once you have
successfully completed ECE 2025, 2030, and 2040, you can take ECE 3090.
ECE 3090 is offered every Fall and Spring terms, and occasionally in the
Summer. You will have plenty of time to take it in the future. Right
now you need to concentrate on completing your core subjects, not junior
electives.

Regards,

Xxxxxxx X. Xxxx
Manager, Undergraduate Academic Advising
School of Electrical & Computing Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
PHONE: 404-894-XXXX
FAX: 404-894-XXXX

Hi Xxxxxxx,

But I will lose interest in schoolwork and begin to find my course-load irrelevant and tedious. Soon I will feel as if I have lost my way, and either turn to religion and/or become a Management major. Either path will only further my anxiety about my capabilities and self-worth, and soon my very existence will come into question. I will wonder if school is worth my time, or if life is even worth living.

Years later, as I lay on a desolate sidewalk, a vagabond stranded by the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, tears will stream down my face onto my primary religious text and/or my diploma for my Management degree. It will be my last of many cold, lonely nights on that sidewalk. Hunger and sickness have taken its their final toll on my frame, already thin and abused since the second semester of Georgia Tech.

But as the world fades to darkness, I will realize that my tears are not of sadness, but of joy, joy that I had completed my core subjects instead of junior electives.

Oh, the humanities!

But seriously though: [edited]

Thank you,
Xo Wang
gtID: XXXXXXXXX

The subsequent response I got was essentially a combination of “no” and “go have yourself a terrible @#$%ing day,” only without those specific words and phrased a lot less politely. Yes, less politely.

By the way, I’m not actually a Management major now. I’m just going to be an EE/CS who leans towards CS rather than EE. And who hates life.

I once had an English teacher at Stuyvesant who insisted with utmost sincerity that the character Kurtz of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was so named because of its supposed phonetic similarity to “Christ.” Furthermore, Okonkwo of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart has his name originate from our subconscious understanding of long, “masculine” vowel sounds. How could a syllable be masculine?

Her most far-fetched comparisons, which she dispensed daily with an unconquerable, belittling sneer, were the only ones which could match in tenuity to this little headdesk I was subjected to in junior year: “The jolly baker down the street has elected to use powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. What do you think the author intended by such a decision fraught with between-the-lines intention?”

NOTHING. The author intended nothing!

So when I decided to create a new avatar for myself, my traumatizing experiences with English class led to me write the following disclaimer: “I intended my work to be experienced as it has been created. I enjoy the way it looks, and this work has no further meaning beyond its initial appearance.”

Then I looked at my new piece of work, the Outline:

Yes, I did make it the way it is because it looks nice. But it very obviously contains additionally meaning, much of it inherited from its sire, the Stuyvesant Techtonics (Stuy Tech/Techtie) logo (the Tech):

I wanted to retain the nature of my work, the hexagonal power button symbol that represents the melding of electronics and mechanics that is robotics. I discarded the dramatic red bar, standing out starkly against the black and white, because that was what Techtonics was when I made the logo—a bold sliver of a team, surrounded by uncreative soulless career-seekers. But I do not need such an iconoclastic representation; I’m a pretty quiet guy. Besides, taking out the red just makes it work better for my website. I removed the sharp caps in the bar and the five-sixths hexagon as well. Techtonics was an intense, competitive team; I am a person.

Of course, this means that I will be finally phasing out the remnants of my previous logo, the Indoor:

which has made its presence known only in its favicon form , which is now replaced with . The new logo resized surprisingly well.

Previous iterations of the Indoor have looked like so:

That last one is from 2003 or 2004. I believe I stole it from another website, because I remember it as originally animated. Please forgive me, other website. I was young, and you have done me a great service for the original art that has served me for so long. However, scioly.org, which is where I first began to use it, had and still has a very strict requirement on avatar file sizes, due to hosting costs. I cut all but one frame from it and simplified the palette. I eventually shaped the frame to look like my own planes, and animated the image once more to arrive at the final product, but I still wonder how the original looked…

Also, I found this amusingly terrible GIF bunched with the collection that the Indoor came from:

Wow. The things I did at the age of 13.

Now, you might ask, why do I need a personal logo? I really don’t. I don’t have that much of an ego to want a pictograph that represents me. The real issue was that I was using my Techtonics logo everywhere; my Gravatar, my chat services, my computer login, etc. It was my only work of art that was at all notable. In fact, it was my only work of art that could be said to be a work of art.

However, I didn’t agree with the new Techtonics leadership after I left and they took the team over. I took issue with their interpretation of the principles of Techtonics (which is that there are none), as well as the low priorities they placed upon the various activities Techtonics traditionally participated in. I didn’t want to be using the same logo that represented people with whom I disagreed.

And that is how I know I am not an English teacher. My little picture actually represents real live people now.

Check it:

C’est la Z @ Blogspot

And there was the essay—a quick scan (250 words minimum) of some deeply personal episode of my life into a desperate indirect plea to an anonymous admissions officer.

I doubt those in my generation really understand what sort of lossy compression the Common App asks of us to apply to our lives. Its goal is to concentrate a K–12 life, a real, live person, into a file, sandwiched within the confines of a manila folder. This is what looks like: Common Application 2010. That’s the paper copy, a perspective of it I’ve never personally seen¹. It really is just five pages. Imagine that: you, on three (3) sheets of paper.

And yet, here I am again, applying for a transfer offer. Some schools publish their own application, or request a supplement to the Common App. What those schools asked of me last year helped me turn those mental tools I once used to solve equations, catch Frisbees, or inspected music with, on myself. I identified parts of me that weren’t crafted by the Common App assembly line: the one on which people are produced who can perfectly sum up hopes and dreams in a 250 words minimum personal statement.

Regardless, Common App dispenses with soul-searching and self-discovery, and for us transfer applicants, even with the open-ended choice of essay topics offered to high school seniors. Instead, it presents a straightforward demand for an enumeration of “reasons for transferring.”

Right then. A straightforward essay prompt deserves a straightforward answer, which I will administer immediately, along with a bulleted list of reasons:

I wish to transfer to so that I can be happier. With that said, the following are more specific reasons:

• It’s lonely – Not lonely as in I can’t find friends or a party to go to, but because I’ve yet to find anyone with whom I could hold a prolonged conversation with on, well, anything to do with my everyday work. With the exception of upperclassmen and graduate students, who have received a college education and are prepared to enter work with the said education, does nobody really build robots or write software for fun? I really don’t have much more appetite for video games, guns, or the usual (politics, religion and school). A friend suggested that I was suffering intellectual starvation—but I wouldn’t dare call it that. Firstly, it’s extremely pretentious to claim oneself as intellectually starved, and secondly, if you feel intellectually starved, you’re not trying hard enough. You’ve got the Internet.
• GT spirit is obnoxious – “Only at Tech.” The epitome of closed-mindedness of Georgia Tech students. Walk with a group of friends and start linguistically analyzing a tongue-twister somebody had just improvised. “Only at Tech.” Figure out that it’s implausible to fit $9 billion in denominations below $20 inside a standard shipping container, as presented in some TV show. “Only at Tech.” Maybe it was cute, clever, or something you fancy to find in xkcd², but that’s no reason to be so closed-minded and elitist. Heck, OAT is even a website. I, of course, appreciate QDBs—the classy way to capture campus humor. I run my own for Stuy. My reply to “Only at Tech?” “Which Tech?”
• I’m still in high school – I like that GT is the closest I’ll ever be to the real American college experience, with the football games, the fraternities, and the parties. After all, I suppose that I never did experience the suburban high school fantasy of Sixteen Candles³. Even with the bit of regret I feel about that, Stuy has certainly primed me for the bureaucracies of college and of life. Requesting budget allocations from a committee? Online course registration? It’s all déjà vu to me. Now, with the college apps I’ve placed upon myself, I feel more than ever that I’m still living my life as a superannuated high school senior. Also, the real American college experience? It got a little old already.
• I love engineering – I also love computer science, building robots, and getting into discussions on finance, economics, and linguistics. So, I’m looking for a better education. Is there something wrong with that?
• Big, public, metropolitan – I associate much of my life with a 3,000-student school in downtown Manhattan. I’ve really had enough of the big city school. I came to Georgia Tech because it was the best education I was offered (I was rejected from nearly everywhere else I had applied to). The huge campus and the callousness with which the administration treats undergraduates is beginning to get me down a bit. The astoundingly huge lectures, nigh-unavailable professors, online homework and RF clickers—hey, they’re all things I could actually stand (though not necessarily enjoy) if it weren’t for the worst travesty of the public university: major restriction. I mean, what kind of a horrible system would prevent students from taking a class he wanted to take?
• Gender… imbalance – I’m all for the egalitarianism and meritocratic spirit GT admissions tried to show—I doubt they consider naught but the SAT Math score; heck, I think the essay was even optional—but trust me on this one. Diversity is not something you can skimp on. Other guys, textbooks, and Skype contacts (the three most common sources of dialog for the average GT student) make for terribly monotonous conversation after the first week.
• I got mugged and stabbed – Only at Tech!

If only I could express my anguish seeing my friends elsewhere having the simple things at college like having fulfilling conversations with other students. If I could go around showing everyone that yes, one can be quite clever even in places beside the Georgia Tech campus. If I could explain the shock, humor, and self-reflection of surviving a stabbing, and more, all within a personal statement… well, then I guess I wouldn’t now be applying for a transfer.

Maybe I was better off with one of these?

1. except maybe on my older sister’s desk, from a generation past of Stuyvesant strivers
2. possibly all three, of course
3. see the story of Pajama Day at Stuy