Erwaman's Personal Journal - January 2011

During winter break, I changed my default browser from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome. I had tried it before, but I stuck with Firefox mainly because I wanted my add-ons, particularly Firebug and IE Tab (important web development tools), and my custom searches. However, I soon discovered that Chrome has a Firebug-esque Developer Tool built-in. Just right-click something on a page and select 'Inspect Element' to view the HTML/CSS code for it. And now there's also an IE Tab extension. Chrome can do keyword searches, just like Firefox, so I have all my search shortcuts configured the same way:

• b - Search cheap-textbooks.com
• c - Search the World Cube Association Persons Directory
• d - Search Wiktionary
• f - Search Facebook
• g - Search Google (though I often just use Chrome's default ? instead)
• i - Search Google Images
• m - Search Google Maps
• p - Search Yale Phonebook
• t - Search YouTube
• u - Search Urban Dictionary
• w - Search Wikipedia
• y - Search Yale Facebook

So Chrome has all the features I used in Firefox, and it's faster. It starts up significantly faster (FF takes about 10 seconds to open and load google.com; Chrome takes about 3 seconds) and uses less system resources (a one-tab FF window requires about 50 MB of memory; a one-tab Chrome window (3 chrome.exe processes) requires a total of about 39 MB). Webpages also load faster. In FF, when I type "w SEARCH TERM" into the address bar to search Wikipedia, it usually takes about 5-8 seconds to get a result. In Chrome, the same search returns in about 2-3 seconds. I also find that refreshing a page is faster in Chrome than in FF.

Detaching and reattaching tabs in Chrome is also much smoother than in FF, probably because each tab in Chrome is a separate process, whereas in Firefox, all tabs and windows are part of the same massive process. In Chrome, when you detach a tab to open a new Chrome window, the new window opens instantly, whereas in FF, it takes a couple seconds for the new window to render. I also like how when you open a new tab, Chrome shows you your "most visited" pages, a feature I've seen in Safari and Opera, too.

Chrome's built-in PDF reader is nice, but it's still lacking the features that the Adobe Reader plugin has, like having the Table of Contents on the left, the ability to jump to a certain page, the hand tool (I really like dragging to scroll pages up and down), and rotation of pages. Also, for large PDFs, it seems to load and display only the first page, and then finish downloading all other pages before displaying any of them. Overall, it also takes longer to load the entire PDF, probably because Chrome is trying to render the PDF like an HTML web page (according to the blog post above). Thus, Chrome's built-in PDF reader, in my opinion, still needs work. In the meantime, I've re-enabled the Adobe Reader 9 plugin (type about:plugins in the address bar --> Enable the Adobe Reader 9 plugin, which automatically disables the Chrome PDF Viewer plugin).

I've been a bit slow in realizing how much better Chrome performs overall than Firefox, but I'm glad I finally made the switch.

All right, so I've gotten started on my new year's resolution to focus more on fitness. Andy just mailed his door frame pull-up bar today, so I should get that by Thursday, and then I'll be able to practice pull-ups in my room. In the mean time, the past two days, I have been doing pull-ups using the hanging bar on the lateral pull down machine in the basement of Swing Space, which looks similar to this picture I found on Google:

I was also intrigued by the physical fitness test guidelines that Lily mentioned in this LJ post. So far, I've been doing one-minute sit-ups and untimed push-ups. For sit-ups, I can do sixty and get all ten points in that category, but for push-ups, I'm out of steam by about 35-40 push-ups. I haven't gotten around to doing a 300-meter sprint or 1.5-mile run, yet, but I plan to do those on the indoor track at Payne Whitney Gym. However, my times might be a bit slower, particularly for the 300-meter sprint, because each loop of the track is 1/8 of a mile, so I'm spending more time running along curves and less time running along straightaways.

I'm also planning to play intramurals for Ezra Stiles regularly. It's the winter season right now, and I plan to do C hoops (there's A, B, and C hoops (basketball), and C hoops is the lowest level - for those with little to no basketball experience, like me) and men's volleyball. I played my first C hoops game of this season tonight (my tenth or so in my three years), and I finally scored my first points - I got two back-to-back baskets from next to the backboard. Stiles had a great turn out today - we had nine people - and though our opponents - Calhoun - were generally bigger and taller than us, they had exactly five people - no subs - so we wore them down playing man-to-man with four subs (fresh legs) and ended up getting our first C hoops win of the season. Next up is men's volleyball on Wednesday.

I also brought a basketball and ball pump from home, so that I can practice shooting and dribbling on my own.

I'm looking forward to a physical year!

I just turned in my signed, finalized schedule today. Here's the low down on my spring 2011 classes:

First, two CS classes (CS electives) for my major: Operating Systems and Randomized Algorithms. The names are pretty self-explanatory: in OS, I will write my own OS by the end of the semester, and in Randomized Algorithms, I will learn about randomized algorithms, which are algorithms that involve randomness, like selecting a number from a list at random, rather than using a deterministic algorithm, which might always select the first number from the list. Whereas a deterministic algorithm is susceptible to an adversary who gives it the worst possible input (for which the algorithm takes longest to run), a randomized algorithm is not so susceptible because the randomness of the algorithm allows it to perform well even when given inputs that are bad for a deterministic algorithm.

As I have heard and expect, OS will probably be the most time-consuming class I take at Yale. I am ready for it. Bring it. Hit me with the C and Assembly code and multithreading. I am ready for some massive debugging sessions. Unfortunately, I am already slightly behind in the class because last weekend (the long weekend), when I was planning to spend lots of time on OS, I got a stomach bug and fever and was out of commission for three to four days, causing me to miss one OS class and not get any OS work done, as in my remaining time I had to work on stuff due Tuesday. However, tonight, and this weekend, I will make great progress on OS.

I finished the last distributional requirement I needed - a writing credit - last semester by taking Asian American History, which turned out to be a fantastic class. My TA was phenomenal; she wrote some really insightful comments on my papers, always pushing me to write with more of a historical narrative and interpretive voice. I was humbled at how challenging it is to write good history papers.

Though I'm done with my distributional requirements, I've decided to take another writing class this semester, which also happens to be the first English class I've taken at Yale - Readings in American Literature. On the train ride back home at the end of last semester, I was talking to another Stilesian who was telling me about many of the great English and Literature courses she had taken. I felt moved by her enthusiasm for these classes, and I decided to take an introductory English class in the spring. Browsing through the course catalog, I skipped English 114 (Writing Seminars I) because I wasn't too interested in writing research papers, and I skipped English 120 (Reading and Writing the Modern Essay) because even though it's creative writing focused (essays about yourself and your experiences), having to write six essays (drafts + revisions) is a bit too much for me. That left me with Major English Poets, Readings in American Literature, and Epic. I'm not that big a fan of poetry, and reading American Literature sounds a lot more interesting and fun than reading ancient Greek and Roman epics, so that's how I decided on this class.

Right now, we've started the class by reading the poems of Emily Dickinson, which I've really enjoyed, and over the semester, we'll cover Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Whitman, and many other lesser known American novelists. I'm looking forward to doing all the readings and discussing them in class. It's good to analyze literature once in a while, as it forces me to think in a different way than I'm used to.

Last spring, I took Elementary Musicianship I, the only half-credit class I've taken at Yale (all my other classes have been one-credit classes). After last semester, I have 22.5 credits fulfilled. I need 36 to graduate. I kind of want to round out that dangling half credit, so I decided to take Elementary Musicianship II this semester, which will give me another half-credit. This class is basically an ear training course that involves sight-seeing, chord analysis, and dictation (writing down what is played (usually notating just the soprano and bass lines)). I shopped this class last semester, but it felt too intense for me. The instructor was a bit too intimidating for me; she didn't make someone like me who does not have a lot of music theory background feel very comfortable. She seemed to rush through a lot of stuff that I guess she took for granted was easy for everyone, which didn't seem easy to me. So I decided not to take the class last semester. This semester, the same instructor is teaching the course again, but there's also another section with a graduate student. I shopped the section led by the grad student, and I decided to take the course with him. This class is a bit of a challenge for me, even though I've taken Elementary Musicianship I, because I haven't taken the music theory classes that are usually taken before or concurrently with this class. I'm also rusty at dictation because I haven't done it for almost a year. I also can't do chord analysis and hear the structure of a piece nearly as fast as some of the other students can. But nonetheless, I decided to take this class because I find the grad student instructor approachable and understanding of the different levels of the five students in his class. In the singing and dictation exercises we've done so far, I know I am struggling a bit, but I am trying my best and know I will get better, and I can tell the instructor understands and recognizes this. The class will definitely be a challenge, but I know my musicianship skills will improve tremendously by taking it.

The last class on my schedule is a nice, easy class to round out a pretty demanding schedule. It's a math class I never got around to taking - Linear Algebra and its Applications. [See this post for more details.] The section of this class I'm taking meets MWF 10:30-11:20 AM, and there's homework due at every class. However, I actually like this format. Classes are shorter and more bearable, and having homework due each class means the homework assignments are short, and doing them helps you keep up with the class. I've probably learned a lot of the material in this class from my exposure to linear algebra elsewhere, but I think it's important that I still take this class and fill in the gaps of my linear algebra knowledge. It's also nice to know other Stilesians and bandies in the class, who I can go over homework with.

That's the wrap on my schedule. I actually decided this schedule before starting the semester, and I only ended up shopping classes to figure out which section of linear algebra and elementary musicianship I wanted to take. I was planning to also take another computer science elective called Machine Learning, but I decided against it because (1) I realized realistically, I wouldn't be able to manage 5.5 credits, (2) the machine learning class was way too theoretical for my liking, (3) I thought the professor moved too slowly through the material, and (4) the class meets right after OS, and having two back-to-back 75-minute CS classes absolutely fries your brain.

I'm pretty happy with how my schedule turned out, and I'm glad that from here on out, I have no distributional requirements to worry about and can take any classes I want.