Claire's Random Thoughts

This purpose this post serves is mainly to remind myself of what I’m supposed to be doing. Maybe it will help me get my work done, so I can enjoy my “reasons to be cheerful”

Let’s start with things to be cheerful about. I’m trying to be an optimist, since they seem like the happier people. It wouldn’t hurt to be one of them, would it?
1. I get to go home for Thanksgiving! I miss home. I’ve been away since the end of August, so it’s only natural to want to go back.
2. It’s almost the end of the semester. Then, I get a break for about a month. Maybe I should try to get a job this time, since I have been unemployed for a while.

Now, what not to look forward to:
1. My scientific article project
This isn’t due until Tuesday December 2, but my flight’s coming in at about 6:00 am that morning, so I will have no time to work on it that day. I’m also going home for Thanksgiving break and don’t want to have to bring my laptop and articles with me, so my personal deadline for this is before I leave on Wednesday. I have to find 15 scientific articles and tease scientific terms out of them from a predetermined list the professor gave us. Then, we have to summarize the article while embedding the term. I was supposed to be working on this all semester, but I chose to wait until the very end. It’s much more difficult to find suitable articles than I had anticipated, because they not only have to be suitable for certain scientific terms but also have to be related to the environment. Since I only have to
2. My business law final. It’s probably not too big of a deal, because it’s just going to be multiple choice and fairly general, but I still need to review my notes. And, it’s on the same day the project is due, when my flight comes in at 6 am. I’ll be exhausted that day, sigh.
3. Studying for my calculus 3 final that will take place on December 9. I can’t say I fully understand vectors at this point. I can just follow examples and do problems. If I can get over this hump, I’m not too concerned about my other final exams, since this one is the most difficult.
4. Oh yeah, my final section of my accounting annual report project is due tomorrow too. Maybe I’ll skip this one and spend the time working on the scientific article instead (I say that, but I’ll probably just be wasting time on the internet). It’s only one section out of 10, and the whole project is only worth 10 percent of our grade. So, I’m only losing out on one percent of my final grade if I don’t do it. I’m glad the previous test had extra credit that was definitely worth more than 1 percent of the final grade. I’m probably going to end up doing the assignment tomorrow morning anyway, because accounting actually somewhat interests me.

I guess compared to some of my friends with majors with classes that require multiple term papers that each have to be pretty long in length, I’m lucky. Theoretically, I can concentrate on the scientific article project before I leave on Wednesday for Thanksgiving break and do a little looking over my business law notes. After that, I can then shift my focus to Calculus 3, since my grade is not in jeopardy in any of my other classes. The key word here is theoretically, which will only work if I am able to keep up my plan.

It’s funny how all the things to be cheerful about are directly related to one of the things not to look forward to. In other words, in order for me to enjoy anything I am looking forward to, I have complete one of my dreaded tasks. In order to enjoy Thanksgiving break, I have to get my scientific article project out of the way. Otherwise, I’ll have to go through great inconvenience to bring home all the materials I need to do the project and take time out of the few days I have there to do my project. In order for me to enjoy winter break, I have to get a decent grade in Calculus 3. Otherwise, a bad grade in that class will bother me throughout the break.

Other things to do:
1. Talk to another dean (not the one who was being as “unaccomodating” as she possibly could) so I can declare a minor in math (hmm…ideally, I can’t fail calculus 3 too badly if I want to do this, either. Otherwise a minor in math wouldn’t make much sense, would it?). I know that it’s allowed, because other people with my same major are doing the same thing, but it just seems like I always speak to the wrong people.
2. Redesign my stepmania site

This is post 7/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

My favorite open source game is Stepmania Advanced Rhythm Game. Since all my other posts in this week’s free software series were utilities, I decided to post about Stepmania instead of my original plan to post about GIMP, the open source Photoshop alternative, mainly because I’m trying to create variety instead of posting about all utilities and no games.

Stepmania is a game similar to the popular arcade game, Dance Dance Revolution. There are four arrows, up, down, left, and right. Arrows gradually scroll up the screen and are to be pressed when they reach the “target” arrows area to simulate dance moves. Of course, real dancing is still quite different (I know from experience that I can play this very well but can definitely not perform real dance moves), but I still think the overall concept is a neat idea. Users can also create their own “simfiles” to customize arrows to audio files of their choice. More commonly, however, songs can be downloaded. For song downloads, I recommend Stepmania Download Source. Even though their site is no longer being updated, the downloads are still all available.

If you like rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Stepmania is definitely for you. However, it’s most likely that if you do, you have probably already heard of it.

For really hard-core players, you can even connect a dance pad to your computer and use that to play instead of keys on the keyboard, so it feels like real DDR. I recommend connecting real pads to the computer for maximum enjoyment as well as an added benefit of exercise. Chances are, once you get into the game, you will want to try playing it the way it was originally intended, by stepping on arrows with your feet to simulate “dance” moves. If you already own pads for a Playstation 2, I recommend the PS2 Game Controller to PC USB Adapter from Dealextreme for only $5.63 to convert them to USB game controllers. There is an option in Stepmania to map keys, including buttons from external controllers, so PS2 controllers connected via my suggested connector will be compatible with Stepmania.

This post concludes my weekly series of my Top Free Applications. I hope you enjoyed reading about my favorite free software and will try using some of them! Check back in the future for more weekly “series” in closely related blog posts.

This is post 6/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

VLC Media Player by VideoLAN is perhaps the most compatible media player available. It is also open source and compatible with all popular Operating Systems. My top reason for using VLC is its support for virtually every video and audio format (except for real video), although I tend to use it mainly for videos. VLC Media Player is a must have if you frequently download videos from the internet, because you definitely don’t have to worry about needing to download the right codec or a separate program altogether in order to play your downloaded videos.

See VideoLAN’s page for full features.

This is post 5/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

Some may call OpenOffice.org “Poor Man’s Microsoft Office” but I will have to respectfully disagree. Open Source does not necessarily mean inferior to paid software. I use Open Office for my document composing needs, not only because it’s open source and free (which is also a great reason for using), but because I truly believe it is better written than Microsoft Office. Here are some of my comparisons below.

Looking at my Add/Remove Programs panel, Microsoft Office’s suite takes up over twice the memory as OpenOffice.org yet provides almost no additional features. Hmm…so which one is more efficiently written? Microsoft has a reputation for inefficiently written programs for a reason.

Now, let’s compare which programs are included in the two packages. For clarification, I am giving Microsoft as much credit as possible for their software by comparing Open Office to Microsoft Office Professional Edition, the biggest and most expensive package. Five out of the six programs in each suite directly correspond to one in the other, not to mention that the five that directly correspond are probably the five most frequently used.

OpenOffice.org Base features the same functions as those of Microsoft Access
OpenOffice.org Calc features the same functions as those of Microsoft Excel
OpenOffice.org Writer features the same functions as those of Microsoft Word
OpenOffice.org Draw can be comparable to Microsoft Publisher
OpenOffice.org Impress can be comparable to Microsoft PowerPoint

There are some slight differences. OpenOffice.org also features a math program that can perform advanced math operations, similar to functions of a graphing calculator. Microsoft InfoPath (I never use it anyway), a form designer is probably the only feature I can find that is offered in Microsoft Office but not Open Office. I don’t think it’s a very popular program anyway, but I’m sure there is someone out there who uses it. For my purposes, InfoPath is completely useless, but it is the only potential justification I can find for choosing Microsoft Office over Open Office.

Best of all, Open Office is compatible with Microsoft Office files, but not vice versa. This makes it extremely simple and painless to make the change over to Open Office if you are a current Microsoft Office user. If others who use Microsoft Office, like the majority of the population that hasn’t discovered Open Office yet, send you Microsoft Office formatted files, you will also still be able to open them with Open Office. If necessary (i.e. to send to someone who hasn’t yet discovered Open Office), you also have the option of saving your Open Office document in a Microsoft format.

This is post 4/7 in my weekly series of my Top Free Applications

Another free but not open source program I thought was worth mentioning is my favorite IM client, Trillian by Cerulean Studios. It features both a free and pro edition with the free edition only lacking features of video chat and support for jabber. If you frequently use video chat, then this program may not be for you, because the pro edition costs $25.
For all my Instant Messaging needs, I use Trillian rather than the “Native” clients. I’m sure you have seen a pattern in my previous posts this week about all-in-one software/bundles/suites. They are designed to make my life slightly easier by combining multiple features that I frequently use into one program. Trillian is also in this category, because it supports multiple popular Instant Messaging networks all in one program. I only have an account for AIM, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger, but the free edition also supports ICQ. The pro edition that costs a one-time fee of $25 also supports some other less frequently used networks, such as Jabber (i.e. google talk), Novel Groupwise Messenger, and Rendezvous. However, I feel like the free edition offers enough standard features (for those of you who do not use video chat) that the original applications are not even installed on my computer anymore, because I have deemed them obsolete.

Trillian features a beautiful interface, easy integration of multiple networks, plenty of opportunity for user customization, and no advertisements of any type. In my opinion, Trillian’s interface is far more attractive than the default clients for all three of AIM, MSN, and Yahoo, but again, that’s a matter of opinion. If it’s not beautiful enough to suit your aesthetic requirements, there are also downloadable skins that you can use to customize the looks to your liking. Buddies from all three (or four if you use ICQ) networks can all be displayed simultaneously in one window and are color coded by network (yellow for AIM, red for Yahoo, blue for MSN). They are integrated in such a way that it practically feels like you can be down to the simplicity of one Network but still have the opportunity to chat with people in up to four (or more with the pro edition). Customization is on par with, if it does not exceed those of the original applications. Furthermore, there are no advertisements in any form in the free edition making it an ideal replacement for the default clients that do feature ads.