Thoughts of a Psych/Code Monkey/Guitarist

And now for something completely different: We bring you to the apartment of Rob Stongetti, a man who claims to have created the world's first good looking myspace profile. To tell us about his acheivement, we__ Hold on a second! That's not completely different. I BEG your pardon?! You just then said that something completely different would appear. Yes? You've just witnessed a segue from a lady attacking a Starbucks with a novelty pencil, to you, a man with a command of web-page constitution, I'm sorry if my non-sequitur meter is broken. Can't you see? Both plot the tale of an eccentric protagonist, relying on the viewer's humour to provide a strange commentary on modern day capitalsim....and neither featured a red porcupine named Roger. ...Who are you? The King of comparative literature? *whooosh* DID SOMEONE CALL???? What noooooooow? You shall bow in my presence, for I, Hunter Codswallop, am the King of comparative literature. Oh my, I don't believe th...

It has happened - proof of the world's slump into mediocrity. Our university's concert has its own myspace . That's right, a concert is "in my extended network". Unfortunately, in a web like that there is no room for this blog - Sayōnara, Adios, Cya! The codemonkey will keep thinking, but no longer blog. ...and, somewhere in the distance, one of the three readers of this blog said "oh". Edit: I'll still might occasionally post poems/lyrics/short stories, as CS isn't the best subject in terms of creative output....

In the unlikely event that an observer to this blog has remained a reader after the last few entries, and the long gaps between them, I present to you the blogvella "The Tale of Thuc, the first Wraith Dragon to ever talk to herself". Prologue: In a time not unlike our own, in a land not unlike present day earth, there lived a colony much unlike our own kind. Their kind flew. Their kind are exceptionally skilled in martial warfare and live by sucking the life from their prey. Their kind are Wraith Dragons , much feared for their telepathic communication and abilities in regeneration. Among this settlement however, there is one who has recently distinguished themselves from the others - one who has a talent unknown to the others, and who because of this evades their elders, instead spending time training themselves for battles among assassins, sourcerer and other rogues in far off lands. All of this because this Wraith Dragon - born to the name Thuc but feared by her enemies...

OMG - Federbear! If you haven't seen any tennis recently, here he is checking out chicago: And here's one of Federbear blogging!: Ok, I have a feeling that I just lost my last few readers. Next blog topic, by special request - The Tale of Thuc, the first Dragon to ever talk to herself.

So, what does a programmer do when taking a week off? Program a website, of course! Well...I have been contracted to help out the Debating SA website, so figured I'd do some practice with a website of my own. A while ago, someone had come up with the idea of a fantasy stock market where 'companies' were TopCoder members, and their 'prices' were related to their rating. So here it is: http://padster.gyronet.org/tc/TCX/ With over 110 members, and averaging 2000 hits a day, seems like it's doing well :D The test will come just after the next SRM, the first time when share prices actually change. Back on designing - I've managed to somehow get 4 1sts in a row, so car insurance is covered! :D and soccer is back!! cool -have a good week all

Happy Bond Year ('007) to all! I'm not really one for resolutions - I figure, if something's good enough to do, you should not need the last digit of the date to change before you do it - but I have set a few aims for the year. E.g. getting a medal in the ACM finals, reaching a TopCoder onsite again, getting HDs for all my uni subjects {still not sure if the 84 will stand from last semester}. Another is related to my most recent aim - eventually getting a car. Currently aiming at one of these: Unfortunately, when getting an insurance quote, I get hit with a few additional costs due to being young, male, and not having driven for long (yes, that's on top of being young...). Anyway, the hope is to cover insurance from TopCoder designs over the summer - 22% done so far, still a bit of a way to go. The final resolution is to learn as much of Octavarium as possible - still a long way to go there too :p Ooh, and thanks to those helping bug-fix padster::gyronet tools {tag boar...

Ok, so now I'm sort of on holidays, I thought i'd update with a pictorial blog. Just to kill time while watching 5 series of 24 :p - here's a few annotated screen shots of AOE3: "But not this day, this day, we fight! I bid you stand; MEN. OF. MIDDLE-EARTH...oi, where are you three going?" The spanish armies were shocked as a being from another planet arrived on a meteor... The explorer wondered the true effectiveness of their wall in keeping people out. Boo! ok, there is no real caption for this, I just really like the picture. I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok....now, what do I do with this HUGE saw. The sermon on the mount...in the middle of the US. Maybe those Mormons are onto something....

^^ see title ^^ tis a pity xmas tv is so shocking...at least the cricket is on soon :) Did you know...the average US citizen now spends more than they earn? *sigh* funfunfun, only a week left of 2006

Those who have read this for a year ... should find somethign better to do! Anyway, you might remember from a year ago when I last came back from tutoring at one of these informatics training camps, that I was full of praise for the people who attended - fortunately, this year was no exception, and even surpassed my expectations. Seriously, spending 10 days with the type of people who are at that camp {both students and staff} is always a good way to spend time - despite the much lower average age, the conversations seem interesting, there is very little anger and plenty of respect for eachother. Then coming back to the rest of the world...lets just say, it's a pity the 10 days couldn't have been longer, and it doesn't look like I'll be tutoring again until next december either :( On other things - Australia have the ashes back, and my TC rating is improving again :D - Xmas is here for another few days, but will still probably be designing for much of the time until tue...

Supp exams over! {seemed to go ok, not sure when results are out} During which I also got two weeks of designing done - 1st in week 1, then the only submitter in week 2 so if I pass, another guarenteed 1st. Nice $$, and it improves my Las Vegas chances :) However, for the next 10 days, I'll be in ACT tutoring ppl programming, so probably won't update or be on MSN much over the next while {email or phone still ok if contact is needed} Enjoy the next week, survive the heat / onslaught of christmas carols, and see you soon!

Looks like empty tags work in blogwatcher (...finally :p) Anyway, a few things google-related happened this week: 1) When looking up words containing 'pat' (like..PAThetic) I noticed that 'patness' was a word. Cool. Then to find what it meant I typed it into google, and got this . First thing of note is that 'patness' is *nowhere near* 'features', no idea how it's matching...second is the coincidence - the first result for patness is from "Jenkins online", at the url of "stupidevilbastard" :p 2) Just when I was thinking google suggestors may be taking the day off, I was asked who the director of crouching tiger hidden dragon was. I thought it was Ang Lee, but just to check, I searched google . To my suprise, the first result wasn't a real page link, but actually the answer to my question, with references for proof. I can't get it to work for acting cast or any part of the crew, but still, tis impressive. 3) Went into town ...

Some of you may have noticed that blogwatcher doesn't like title-less blog posts :p So, in trying to implement a fix, I needed a post without a title to test on - that's what this is for ;) I'll fill it with some other random stuff though, like: 1) XMI design done :D was happy with this one, just gotta hope noone else submits 2) Cat Empire concert tonight! They should be good live, thanks to my aunt for the ticket 3) The Ashes are coming to Adelaide! I'll be going later hopefully, but can't be there tomorrow because... 4) HD for maths subject but 84 for my computer science one :S - i was going in on 30% already from pracs, so need to check at exam viewing tomorrow to see what went wrong. tis my first D :p hopefully the title-less blog post will be fixed, until then, PatTag is available for those who want it - there's even an rss feed so you can add your tag to your normal blogwatcher listing :) Song of the moment: Tears (Rush / Dream Theater) Edit: ok, looks lik...

The TCCC is over and results are in - 3rd! :D Nicka81, who everyone thought would come 1st, did in each of the 3 components - maone then came 2nd in each (just passing me in appeals for the 3rd) and then I came 5th-3rd-3rd, enough to put me 3rd overall! However, as expected, the actual contest part was a bit of an anticlimax, most of the fun comes from meeting all the other coders who, until now, I've only known by their tiny little member photos. San Diego itself was ok, a bit foggy & rainy, but I imagine during summer it would be a nice place. Especially if there's a programming contest on ;) This is just a quick message to say thanks for the birthday wishes, hope exams went well for all, my 'supps' are in 2 weeks :p - oh, and Pat Tag is being upgraded, you may have to post comments instead until it is finished, but you can watch the progress on the right =)

I'm off! To San Diego, 14th->20th Novemeber. Two of those days will be spent flying in the air :S However, I don't mind flights too much - I can sleep, and now I even got myself some noise-cancelling headphones to help out :p For those interested, the site for the contest is: http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=Static&d1=tournaments&d2=tccc06&d3=about and general news may appear frequently at TopCoder's home site: http://www.topcoder.com/tc And there'll be a live telecast of the last day of competition! (though, probably at 3am or so here) While I'm gone - best of luck to everyone with exams/essays left, enjoy the post-exam freedom, good luck with soccer on sunday, etc...! Not sure how much time or availability I'll have over there. A few thoughts to leave you with, that have stumped me 1) When Nappy companies claim that their new products are more comfortable than their last...*how do they know*?? Are there professional nappy testers? 2) Are intere...

Remember, remember the fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot, I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. And today's date is....November 5! 401 years ago, Guy Fawkes attempted to carry out the Gunpowder plot. To celebrate the occasion, time to blow stuff up!...or maybe watch V for Vendetta, I think I'll go with the latter. Again, good luck to all those with exams / essays in the upcoming week - the most recent week of designs is out, so I'll be disappearing again until next friday, enjoy! 3 months of 'holidays' are coming soon...

It's that time of year again - when uni world is turned on its head, as the arts students hit the keyboards and the eng students hit the books (metaphorically, but quite possibly physically too). Good luck for all those with essays due over the next few days, and for all those who have exams starting soon. Due to going away to San Diego (14th->20th) I miss the 2nd week of exams, so my schedule looks like: swat week 1 - exam week 1 (2 exams) - USA week - holiday week - swat week 2 - exam week 2 (3 exams). So I get 3 weeks between exams, but I also am not finished until early december :( Oh, and that's an intentional typo - it really *should* be called s.w.a.t week. Just because. No word from Google, but they just had their big tournament last weekend (congrats to the winner, Petr) so hopefully will hear soon. This week is just about coding assignments, improving my tag board stuff, and hopefully writing/recording music. Then starting friday is final-design-week! A few interes...

Week 2 of design contest is about to start, so if anyone reads this, to keep you from boredom I'll post the last day's report from the previous design, the interesting night it was: "Well...that was interesting, not a day I'll soon forget. Anyway, I shall start at the start - due to CS tutoring of students at Uni, I have to start at 11am, which means walking to the busstop at 9. It's also going to be a 35 degree day, and I'm bringing my laptop in so I can do some more XMI documenting from within the CS labs. By 2pm, I've got a software design lecture (ironic?), and as I've documented virtually everything except the new SQL stuff that I haven't added in poseidon yet, there's not much to do until after I finish at 5. At this time I also start up my list of tiny one-point things that need to be fixed, like incorrect names, missing attributes, extra things to add to documentation, etc... Get home, finish dinner by 6:30, pull out the Iced-Coffee and...

Ok, so TCCC design finals have started - under a cloud of mystery as one finalist is possibly disqualified and another takes their place :S Anyway, my intention is to blog each day of this next week to track my progress, but as the contest is still running I can't post it til the end. So, while I'm away, I thought I'd leave a list of comedy things to be found on this interweb thingy to fill in time, one per site: 1) Wikipedia (search for "Baby Food") 2) Google videos 3) Youtube 4) Cyanide and Happiness 5) South Park episodes 6) Carlton Draught - more dancing =) As a final thought, I'll leave you with something interesting today from a psych lecture: Scenario 1: There are 4 cards on a table, each has a letter on one side and a number on the other. The faces you can see are: "A" "4" "D" and "7". If you want to test whether "All vowels have an even number on the other side" is true, what is the most number of ca...

It's official! - results of the TCCC design contest are out - I ended up with 40/40 pts, in the top 8, so get to go to San Diego California!!! Means I'll be away 14th->20th November - I miss the 2nd week of exams, so have to reschedule sitting 3 of them...it *also* means that I'll be flying over the Atlantic on the 19th, and it'll last only a few hours before I cross the dateline. Last year I was in ACT for my birthday, this year it won't even happen! ....does that mean I stay 19?? Speaking of travelling, my parents leave for their 6-week european holiday after mum's retirement - Sis & I get to fend for ourselves at home, should be interesting... In other news, the ACM final location has been announced, so it looks like my team & I will be in Tokyo in mid March '07. Our ACM prizes have also come in - not only is the iPod shuffle 1Gb, but it also has 'Google' written on the side =) Seriously, how much do you think it'd cost to have you...

Yep, Holidays have started! "Wait!"...I hear you say..."Didn't they start saturday" - yeah, I guess, though now week 5 of the TopCoder Collegiate Challenge (TCCC) design contest has just ended, which means I get a break after working for almost 6 weeks straight :S - this week was particularly hectic though, due to ACM, Google Code Jam and TCCC algorithm *also* being on at the same time. The result? Prizes won this week: 1 TCCC t-shirt for passing review in design 1 TCCC t-shirt for participating in round 1 (yes, it's the same shirt) 1 TCCC student rep. shirt for convincing someone to compete. 1 GCJ shirt for coming in the top 250 in round 2. 1 Google shirt for winning the ACM regional 1 ACM shirt for attending the ACM regional 1 iPod shuffle (apparently...still waiting) for winning ACM 1 trip to Tokyo (probably) for winning ACM 1 trip to San Diego, CA, for placing top 8 in TCCC Design (still pending) Seriously though, what are you supposed to do with six pro...