UW Update Friday 4/24/15

1.     UW Update Friday 4/24/15

a.     Physics.

b.     Linear.

c.      Finished CS extra credit, submitted hw. Downloaded Rhino design/layout software for laser cutter workshop.

d.     CSE 311. Interesting applications of modular arithmetic. Some very clever applications to hashing (hash(input) = input mod aPrimeSmallerThanInput), where properties of modular arithmetic can be used to do a sequence of hashes very fast, for example to search for a substring of length n in a longer string, you can compute the hash of the first substring length n in the longer string, then use this to get subsequent hashes without looking at all n bits in the next substring. So you can essentially compare equality without looking at all the bits of the substrings you’re comparing, except when computing the first hash value.

e.     Ate lunch with Johan. He showed me this crazy 3D printer that uses UV light to harden plastic from the bottom up. A traditional 3D printer uses a movable head to add material to each layer of a print in much the same way a traditional actual printer adds ink to a piece of paper. But this 3D printer is much faster and more awesome. Imagine a high-resolution array of light emitters at the bottom of a pool of molten plastic. Each additional layer of material is added simply by flashing the lights where the material is to be added, no moving parts, no easy to break, difficult-to calibrate machinery, no time wasted moving a head. Each layer is done in parallel, not in series.

f.      Went to laser cutter workshop in Fluke makerspace. The presenter was not very organized, but I really liked the Rhino design/layout software we were using to lay out our 2D graphics. It was really intuitive and well organized, contrary to expectation. At the end of the workshop, I cut this sweet sign out of cardboard reading “League of Gentlemen”, adorned with random hexagons, that I hung on my dorm door.

g.     Had planned to go on a run with Johan. Unfortunately, Johan left his phone at home when he left, somehow snuck past where I was waiting outside Haggett into the Haggett lounge, left the lounge just as I checked it. I got frustrated trying to find him, got worried, sprinted up to his house. Roommate said he had left half an hour ago. Bugger! So Johan and his roommate John went to the gym without me. Annoying, but this did not destroy my day, because I checked my calendar, and found that the HvZ folks were having a blaster war I had planned to go to. Grabbed some quick pizza and headed down to the battlefield in the Padelford parking garage.

h.     It was super fun. We did group battles, Capture-the-Flag, free-for-all, etc. I fought with blasters, swords, and even rolled-up socks. In the final battle, I survived to the last few humans, then got sniped from nearly a hundred feet away with a modified blaster.

i.       Talked with Dominic from physics and his friend Amet for a while. Then headed back to Haggett, grabbed Rick’s, and started reading this interesting new book called Diaspora by Greg Egan. Wrote this entry; allowed myself to release the last photons of thought and fall into the ground state.