I made a silly mistake and put in the COLL picture of the 2GLL Sune case instead of the CO picture. Oops. Regardless, that gives me a chance to shamelessly showcase my document again. So, here it is, version 3.01 of my speedsolving-oriented ZBLL algorithms:
ZBLL Algorithms 3.01.pdf
Monday, September 3, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Memory and Passwords
I used to be the person who only used one password. It was created way back in the day for when I needed at least 6 characters for a Runescape account (which I think I used 3 times total). It was exactly 6 characters, and when I created my first passwords for my email and forums, it was always the same one. At some point they required that I needed passwords longer than 8 characters. I came up with one that was 13 characters long, and that became my new default.
Now I'm a little smarter. I will shun modesty and say that I'm very good and memorizing strings of letters and numbers. So I have no problem going to WolframAlpha and typing in "16 character password" when I need to create a new account. I still have some of my old passwords around on stuff that doesn't matter at all (mostly forums that I rarely or never visit anymore).
Recently I've seen a few posts about password length. It started with someone at work noticing this article (which I personally find incredibly interesting):
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/133067-unbreakable-crypto-store-a-30-character-password-in-your-brains-subconscious-memory
Now there is also the xkcd approach, which can be found here: http://xkcd.com/936/.
So I got to thinking (again shunning modesty): I memorized 50 digits of pi in less than 5 minutes to win a T-shirt. I was in 3rd grade then. I can solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded in about 3 minutes or so, memorizing and double checking 16-20 piece movements in around 90 seconds. I can surely handle some obscenely long password, right?
The answer is no. I can remember bits and pieces of some of them but not enough for anything useful to get done. So I took the time and memorized my new email password and came up with the best way of storing passwords: replying to the password change email with my new username and password. I guess if someone gets into my email all my information is compromised, but I trust Google. And if someone breaks through a password with more than 300 bits of entropy, I wouldn't be very mad. I would congratulate them. That's some dedication.
Pretty useless post, but it is the best way of storing passwords for recalling later. Just search the name of the site that the password is from and look for your reply.
Now I'm a little smarter. I will shun modesty and say that I'm very good and memorizing strings of letters and numbers. So I have no problem going to WolframAlpha and typing in "16 character password" when I need to create a new account. I still have some of my old passwords around on stuff that doesn't matter at all (mostly forums that I rarely or never visit anymore).
Recently I've seen a few posts about password length. It started with someone at work noticing this article (which I personally find incredibly interesting):
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/133067-unbreakable-crypto-store-a-30-character-password-in-your-brains-subconscious-memory
Now there is also the xkcd approach, which can be found here: http://xkcd.com/936/.
So I got to thinking (again shunning modesty): I memorized 50 digits of pi in less than 5 minutes to win a T-shirt. I was in 3rd grade then. I can solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded in about 3 minutes or so, memorizing and double checking 16-20 piece movements in around 90 seconds. I can surely handle some obscenely long password, right?
The answer is no. I can remember bits and pieces of some of them but not enough for anything useful to get done. So I took the time and memorized my new email password and came up with the best way of storing passwords: replying to the password change email with my new username and password. I guess if someone gets into my email all my information is compromised, but I trust Google. And if someone breaks through a password with more than 300 bits of entropy, I wouldn't be very mad. I would congratulate them. That's some dedication.
Pretty useless post, but it is the best way of storing passwords for recalling later. Just search the name of the site that the password is from and look for your reply.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Physical Therapy Sucks
I've had some issues with my ankle and elbow recently (being in the last year). So I finally got a doctor to look at it. Turns out I needed physical therapy. I won't bore you with the details, but I've recently come to the realization that physical therapy sucks. My ankle hurts like hell and my elbow is now just irritated to the point where I don't know if something is serious wrong or healing. I keep being told that it's all expected, and that within a year I will be completely healed. So I might not even be allowed to play baseball this year. But I'm not sure I believe what they say about it being gone in a year. At this rate I will have pain for the rest of my life.
This is particularly annoying because I just spent an hour working out my ankle and shoulder (apparently it's causing some elbow problems). They now hurt. And they will hurt tomorrow. They will also be sore tomorrow and it will then seem like I have sand in my vagina.
This is particularly annoying because I just spent an hour working out my ankle and shoulder (apparently it's causing some elbow problems). They now hurt. And they will hurt tomorrow. They will also be sore tomorrow and it will then seem like I have sand in my vagina.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Upping the Ante
I've been going on as close to 8 hours of sleep as I can for quite a while now. And it's been working out great! My weekend "sleep till I wake" strategy has done a wonderful job of making up for hours or half-hours that I didn't get on sleep. On days like today, where I stayed up extra late but didn't have any other sleep to catch up on, I slept almost exactly 8.5 hours. That feels pretty good.
So I've decided to try and get my sleep down to between 7 and 7.5 hours a night using the same strategy. As I've said several times before, my goal is to cut down on the total time that I waste sleeping, no matter how good it may feel. I think 7 should be achievable, especially with my weekend budget. Still, it won't be pleasant for a while, but at this point I'm getting used to that transition period. I can't decide if this means that I'll be going to sleep later or waking up earlier. At school my girlfriend prefers to stay up later, so I'm pretty certain that's the way it will work out.
Some other cool stuff has happened recently. First off, I started my Pokemon Crystal nuzlocke run. You can click on the tab titled "My YouTube Channel" to see the videos that I've done so far.
My friend Cole just got back in town, and we've made up for some lost time by cramming in some board game time. He recently purchased Eclipse (no, not the Twilight movie) for over $100. I love me a good board game, but I can't imagine shelling out that kind of money just yet. We're also working hard on making bad food a reality. I won't give away too much but let's just say it'll be big.
Finally, my love of MST3K took me to a movie in the park last night. And it was fantastic. They showed Gamera vs. Zigra. A classic tale of terror and heroics, it kept me laughing to the end. The best part was that they had a live orchestra, live voice actors, and even live sound effects right there. Unfortunately I didn't get any video of it, but these guys come out and dub old foreign films for fun. It's not quite MST3K because they actually stick to the script, but it was amazing. Cole and I both wanted to get the guys from MST3K and have a live riff track also. The way they had it all set up the silhouettes could even show up! It's been a great time having Cole back in town, even though our schedules don't always line up the best.
Here is the website for that movie group. If you have the chance give them some support! http://filmusik.com
So I've decided to try and get my sleep down to between 7 and 7.5 hours a night using the same strategy. As I've said several times before, my goal is to cut down on the total time that I waste sleeping, no matter how good it may feel. I think 7 should be achievable, especially with my weekend budget. Still, it won't be pleasant for a while, but at this point I'm getting used to that transition period. I can't decide if this means that I'll be going to sleep later or waking up earlier. At school my girlfriend prefers to stay up later, so I'm pretty certain that's the way it will work out.
Some other cool stuff has happened recently. First off, I started my Pokemon Crystal nuzlocke run. You can click on the tab titled "My YouTube Channel" to see the videos that I've done so far.
My friend Cole just got back in town, and we've made up for some lost time by cramming in some board game time. He recently purchased Eclipse (no, not the Twilight movie) for over $100. I love me a good board game, but I can't imagine shelling out that kind of money just yet. We're also working hard on making bad food a reality. I won't give away too much but let's just say it'll be big.
Finally, my love of MST3K took me to a movie in the park last night. And it was fantastic. They showed Gamera vs. Zigra. A classic tale of terror and heroics, it kept me laughing to the end. The best part was that they had a live orchestra, live voice actors, and even live sound effects right there. Unfortunately I didn't get any video of it, but these guys come out and dub old foreign films for fun. It's not quite MST3K because they actually stick to the script, but it was amazing. Cole and I both wanted to get the guys from MST3K and have a live riff track also. The way they had it all set up the silhouettes could even show up! It's been a great time having Cole back in town, even though our schedules don't always line up the best.
Here is the website for that movie group. If you have the chance give them some support! http://filmusik.com
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Things I Wish Apple would Bring Back
I'm not going to do a full review of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion yet, mostly because I just haven't had the time to sit behind my computer recently. I'm currently serving on a grand jury, and as you can imagine, that takes up quite a bit of time. Also, I am just not used to sitting still for 8 hours a day. The worst part? It doesn't start till Wednesday. I only got picked today and was twitching like crazy after about 2 hours. It does not bode well.
But I do feel like I need to put this out there to people who would actually care. Most of my coworkers are big enough nerds that they use some Linux distribution, and then Windows for their gaming needs. I'm actually the resident Mac expert and sometimes have to assist coworkers trying to use Final Cut Pro for their work (the public Mac is right next to me on the same desk). I think I've taught them well, but I'm concerned about how they'll do while I'm out deciding cases.
The big thing that I really, really don't like about Apple is unavoidable. The fanboys came from iOS. To be the hipster, I've been using a Mac at home exclusively since 2000. And before that I can't remember because I was never on the computer, but I do know we had one. My dad uses a Windows machine because of his work and has a personal MacBook. My family has just been running on Macs my whole life. And even before: my parents used the old Lisa.
The change that I want fixed comes from the last properly stable version of OS X: Snow Leopard. 10.6.8 was amazing. Lion was Apple's Vista. It was buggy as all hell and changed too much. All I can describe it as is "candified." It was ugly. The "natural" scrolling or whatever bullshit they tried to sell us on is only useful for one thing: figuring out who starting using a Mac through iOS (aka fanboy) and who actually uses a computer. Launchpad is just atrocious and should be banned. Personally I open every application from the Terminal or Spotlight. Before I knew how to do that the Applications tab in Finder was more than easy enough to find. But what really killed the experience for me was Mission Control.
I could rant about the App Store for days, but I do appreciate the Apple's new target audience just doesn't care. But Mission Control replaced one of the greatest parts of owning a Mac for me: Spaces and Expose. I don't want to be restricted to only one dimensional movement between desktops. In fact, I prefer to have my Desktops stacked and not lined up. I get that Apple didn't want to figure out how to deal with fullscreen apps in multiple dimensions, but they could have just taken a page out of Microsoft's book and done something like the F11 trick: that window gets fullscreened but otherwise acts normal. Brilliant.
But Apple changed the way the entire system worked and now I am significantly slowed down as I try to work. I actually use my old Snow Leopard machine to work whenever possible (even though I can no longer use the internet on it) because it's just so much nicer. Expose makes life so much easier than Mission Control ever could. And Expose was the best thing out there. Now it's just shit with lace on top.
What also bugs me about Apple's operating system as it moves "forward" is how little choice the user actually gets when they try to do things. Menu items that used to be optional in System Preferences are now just gone. Apple even tried to hide ~/Library (thankfully its godawfully easy to get there) to prevent fanboys from messing anything up. I hate it personally, but it works out alright because I don't like using the mouse and so the Terminal (or other place where I don't have to lift my hands from the keys) does most of my talking.
Finally, just a little things that makes me freak out. I don't actually know when this was introduced. I just know that when I used to hide Applications, they would disappear and become the last option in the Command-Tab menu. That makes sense: I hid the little fucker because I didn't want to see him for a while. Now it stays in the same place that it would it you just changed applications to the next one. Pointless. Absolutely pointless.
But this post won't be entirely negative: I really like that Apple has finally integrate iChat and iMessage into Messages. I think the icon should be the same as the iOS one (they changed all the other ones...) but it works out alright. It also means that as I get a text (well, iMessage) from my girlfriend I don't have to lift my hands from the keyboard to respond. Which makes her a whole lot happier, because as I've pointed out, I don't like taking my hands off the keys.
I might do an actual in-depth review at some point, but I'm just very frustrated with Apple's decision making right now and the internet was the only place I could think to rant.
Till next time.
But I do feel like I need to put this out there to people who would actually care. Most of my coworkers are big enough nerds that they use some Linux distribution, and then Windows for their gaming needs. I'm actually the resident Mac expert and sometimes have to assist coworkers trying to use Final Cut Pro for their work (the public Mac is right next to me on the same desk). I think I've taught them well, but I'm concerned about how they'll do while I'm out deciding cases.
The big thing that I really, really don't like about Apple is unavoidable. The fanboys came from iOS. To be the hipster, I've been using a Mac at home exclusively since 2000. And before that I can't remember because I was never on the computer, but I do know we had one. My dad uses a Windows machine because of his work and has a personal MacBook. My family has just been running on Macs my whole life. And even before: my parents used the old Lisa.
The change that I want fixed comes from the last properly stable version of OS X: Snow Leopard. 10.6.8 was amazing. Lion was Apple's Vista. It was buggy as all hell and changed too much. All I can describe it as is "candified." It was ugly. The "natural" scrolling or whatever bullshit they tried to sell us on is only useful for one thing: figuring out who starting using a Mac through iOS (aka fanboy) and who actually uses a computer. Launchpad is just atrocious and should be banned. Personally I open every application from the Terminal or Spotlight. Before I knew how to do that the Applications tab in Finder was more than easy enough to find. But what really killed the experience for me was Mission Control.
I could rant about the App Store for days, but I do appreciate the Apple's new target audience just doesn't care. But Mission Control replaced one of the greatest parts of owning a Mac for me: Spaces and Expose. I don't want to be restricted to only one dimensional movement between desktops. In fact, I prefer to have my Desktops stacked and not lined up. I get that Apple didn't want to figure out how to deal with fullscreen apps in multiple dimensions, but they could have just taken a page out of Microsoft's book and done something like the F11 trick: that window gets fullscreened but otherwise acts normal. Brilliant.
But Apple changed the way the entire system worked and now I am significantly slowed down as I try to work. I actually use my old Snow Leopard machine to work whenever possible (even though I can no longer use the internet on it) because it's just so much nicer. Expose makes life so much easier than Mission Control ever could. And Expose was the best thing out there. Now it's just shit with lace on top.
What also bugs me about Apple's operating system as it moves "forward" is how little choice the user actually gets when they try to do things. Menu items that used to be optional in System Preferences are now just gone. Apple even tried to hide ~/Library (thankfully its godawfully easy to get there) to prevent fanboys from messing anything up. I hate it personally, but it works out alright because I don't like using the mouse and so the Terminal (or other place where I don't have to lift my hands from the keys) does most of my talking.
Finally, just a little things that makes me freak out. I don't actually know when this was introduced. I just know that when I used to hide Applications, they would disappear and become the last option in the Command-Tab menu. That makes sense: I hid the little fucker because I didn't want to see him for a while. Now it stays in the same place that it would it you just changed applications to the next one. Pointless. Absolutely pointless.
But this post won't be entirely negative: I really like that Apple has finally integrate iChat and iMessage into Messages. I think the icon should be the same as the iOS one (they changed all the other ones...) but it works out alright. It also means that as I get a text (well, iMessage) from my girlfriend I don't have to lift my hands from the keyboard to respond. Which makes her a whole lot happier, because as I've pointed out, I don't like taking my hands off the keys.
I might do an actual in-depth review at some point, but I'm just very frustrated with Apple's decision making right now and the internet was the only place I could think to rant.
Till next time.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Sleep Schedule Update
So it's been a little while for me on this sleep experiment and I have to say it's been working out very well. Getting myself to sleep is the hardest part of all of this: I always feel like I could stay up later and do more with my day. For the most part, though, I manage to stay on schedule.
Waking up is a breeze now. I wake up on my own roughly when the alarm goes off feeling great most of the time. A few times it's been tough to get up and once I woke up with a headache, but other than that it's been very smooth sailing. The problem lies on the weekends when I don't set my alarm. I know I should sleep a little extra but my body won't let me do it, no matter how bad I feel. I still can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's been working out great so far.
I've made some progress on my nuzlocke run so go check it out sometime. 8 badges down, 5 big battles to go!
Waking up is a breeze now. I wake up on my own roughly when the alarm goes off feeling great most of the time. A few times it's been tough to get up and once I woke up with a headache, but other than that it's been very smooth sailing. The problem lies on the weekends when I don't set my alarm. I know I should sleep a little extra but my body won't let me do it, no matter how bad I feel. I still can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's been working out great so far.
I've made some progress on my nuzlocke run so go check it out sometime. 8 badges down, 5 big battles to go!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
The New Sleep Schedule
So work has been keeping me busy but I have managed to start a new sleep schedule. It's working out very well so far so I thought I could update the world on what's happening. I am attempting to sleep as close to 8 hours as possible every night while going to sleep and waking up at the same time every night. I want to measure how long it takes before I can tell it's time to go to sleep without looking at a clock and when I start waking up without an alarm.
Of course there are some variables that have to be taken into account. My uncle visited recently and I was up after my bedtime a few times because of that. And on weekends and holidays I am letting myself sleep in. This is not just to catch up on any sleep that I might need (I find that I sleep a lot in the summer) but also serves as a gauge as to how I am progressing. After only 5 nights of going to sleep at 11 and waking up at 7 I found that I was awake at 7 on the weekend. But I felt like shit so I just went back to sleep. Still, I woke up at 7 all on my own. Pretty good for only a work week of practice.
So that's what I'm up to. I had some X-rays done on my ankle and elbow and have to schedule an appointment with the sports medicine people here. Gonna be fun on a bun. I might shift my schedule to 10-6 so that I have more time in the morning. And I really don't do anything after 10 so there's no point in waiting for 11. Maybe then I can keep going on my nuzlocke run. Speaking of which, I'm making pretty good progress. You can trace back all my progress from the video above.
Till next time.
Of course there are some variables that have to be taken into account. My uncle visited recently and I was up after my bedtime a few times because of that. And on weekends and holidays I am letting myself sleep in. This is not just to catch up on any sleep that I might need (I find that I sleep a lot in the summer) but also serves as a gauge as to how I am progressing. After only 5 nights of going to sleep at 11 and waking up at 7 I found that I was awake at 7 on the weekend. But I felt like shit so I just went back to sleep. Still, I woke up at 7 all on my own. Pretty good for only a work week of practice.
Till next time.
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