Uhm.. honestly, I can't think of 101 reasons whiy I love watching Naruto. I just thought that it was a cool title and that it is used a lot (e.g. Basketball 101, 101 days, etc.) :D Im sure a lot of people out there also watch Naruto.. and just like me, a lot of persons out there are addicted to this great Anime.. This is one Anime that I get to watch a lot whenever I get so down. But what makes it so great anyway? What makes it so damn addictive?
Well, Naruto is a story of the struggles and successes of this kid ninja from Konoha who wants to become the Hokage (the highest ninja in the village). Things aren't always going his way but still, he keeps on trying and trying even if all the odds are against him. It's the burning desire to become great is what keeps him going; his determination to accomplish his dream is what makes him special. He says big things like "I'm gonna surpass the hokages and let the village acknowledge my strength" and "I'm gonna become the hokage" but inspite all of those braggings, he is still just a kid with armed with nothing but his big dream. I like the anime because in a sense, I can relate to what Naruto is experiencing. I also have a great yet seemingly distant dream. Sometimes, I think that I cannot have my dream come true because I don't know a lot of things for heaven's sake. But whever I feel that, I always say to myself.. "Fuck this brain.. I can learn those if I want to!!" "All I need is a lot of determination and an iron will to follow my dreams no matter what!!" "I've gotta be tough no matter what.." "Everybody has a dream.. but will it always remain one?? "..yep.. life can be very frustrating.. chasing a dream that you know is very distant from you makes you wanna give up a lot of times. To be honest, I've failed more times than I've succeeded.. but I firmly believe that its the will to get back on track and continuing on the fight is what matters the most. If everything seems lost and you don't know what to do, just believe in your dream and nothing more and you'll get back to track in no time. Its against all odds indeed :D
Naruto is a very lousy ninja. He is a very stupid boy who knows very little ninja techniques, unlike his comrades who has these large arsenal of skills at their disposal. But even though this is the case, he still wouldn't give up. He trains night and day just to become stronger than his comrades (he always boasts that he is strong but he knows that he is not). He is willing to sacrifice even his life for his dream.. for something he believes in.. and for those that he cares for.. And boy, these principles are so true.. without Jen, there wouldn't be anyone at all that will support and guide me. My parents don't believe that I can achieve my dream. All they say is that I should be focusing more on the ones that are more "reachable".. But what do they know about a kid's dream anyway??! But I don't blame them for that.. They only want what's best for me and they do not want me to push myself too hard.. but regardless of what they think, I'm still sticking to my dream so step aside mom and pops!!
Its really nice if you have someone beside you, believing in what you can do, acknowledging you, and supporting you all the way. It's really nice to have someone that you can lean on too whenever things get really tough. And for that, I am so grateful that I have my girlfriend with me. Without her, I don't know if I could have survived this journey alone.
Indeed, what separates cartoons from the real world is that cartoons are far more perfect than the real world. Cartoons always has a happy ending.. the heroes get what they want and everyone is happy. The real world is far more cruel than that. But I believe that similarities do exist between the two.. and that is to never give up and keep fighting until you find your own happy ending . Cartoon heroes don't get a happy ending only by sitting on a corner (unless the producer wills it to) but instead, they work hard for the antagonist to be defeated in order for the story to have a happy ending. And again, it all goes back to hard work, determination, and an a whole lot of patience.
Okay.. I think I'm all out of words now and I'm only just repeating myself over and over again :) So this is it for now. I've gotta watch part 5 of Naruto :D See yah.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Thursday, June 9, 2005
A step closer to a distant dream...
With the term coming to an end, so does the tremendous increase of school work that the professors give their students. Well, I'm one of the unfortunate but lucky to experience that. This means that I have to work less with my Math self study and focus more on this project first. Basically, I have to work on this term project that we have in Java and it involvs creating a BlackJack game using the standard DOS Console. The purpose of the project was to see if the students can properly apply object oriented concepts into a working application but I definitely want something more than just demonstrating that. As an aspiring game developer (harharharhar!!), I want to be able to see through the challenges of implementing a BlackJack using a console interface and be able to reproduce that same experience when playing BlackJack in a GUI. This is pretty challenging since not only do I need to have a working game but also, I need to apply some good aesthetics to interface the game engine - but I'm not concern with that just right now coz I need to create the game engine before anything else. Right now, I am finished building the logical model of the game. I'll then translate those models into working classes maybe next week - after I full-proof my designs that is.
I know that this is an opportunity for me to practice developing games although its nothing as grand as Counter Strike or some popular games that you know. But hey, everybody's gotta start from something you know?! I'm gonna give my best shot at this one coz I know that this is a step closer to a distant dream that I have.
One the other note, a classmate of mine sent me a C++ file demonstrating 3D transformation. Honestly, I wanted to LEARN those badly but I kept the excitement to myself since I know that at the current level that I am right now, I wouldn't probably appreciate the value of it and even if I understand how it works, it would still sound Russian to me. I really should speed up with the math book!!
I'm planning to enroll a Game Programming subject and probably Calculus after this term (oh yeah!!!) and drop my XML course since I got bored at it.. and to tell you frankly, I'm really really really REALLY very excited!! Things are finally starting to go my way :D This is what I've dreamed of ever since I was a child and now, I'm finally getting a shot at it! Even though I still know very little about higher level maths, I'm gonna give it all that I got to learn those even if I end up wearing very thick glasses!! I really don't give a damn! Its all about determination baby!!
Saturday, June 4, 2005
Eureka!! Take that number 37!!
I finally solved it!! After almost a week of frustration, I finally found a solution to exercise number 37!! Damn!! It really is very amazing how problems look very complex at first but once you get into it, it becomes so darn easy.. "You'll know when you know", as my professor always say. So, I don't wanna waste some time and brag about Naruto (its only just about 12 minutes away before the download for episode 13 is finished!!!!!) and proceed directly with the problem.
Here it is: the very simple which took me a freaking 6 days of frustration before finally coming up with a solution:
The radiator in a car is filled with a solution of 60% antifreeze and 40% water. The manufacturer of the antifreeze suggests that, for summer driving, optimal cooling of the engine is obtained with only 50% antifreeze. If the capacity of the radiator is 3.6L, how much coolant should be drained and replaced with water to reduce the antifreeze concentration to the recommended level?
So, what's this problem all about? Well basically, the author of the problem obviously wants us to find out how much of the coolant solution should be drained and replaced with water so that the total solution will contain 50% water and 50% antifreeze. Solutions (or mixtures), as we all know from our Chemistry subject are made by mixing by two substances together. Examples include mixing of salt and water (called brine) or maybe as simple as a mix orange powder and water (which is orange juice).. uhh.. okay, I've gotta watch Naruto first (YEEEESSSSSSS!!!), the download has already finished :D
AMAZING!! I've just finished watching episode 13 and it just gets better and better each day!! Another minute of it and I could have been carried away by doing a jutsu here in front of the computer and shout KAGE NO BUNSHIN JUTSU!! :D Well, off to another long wait again for the next episode *sigh*
So, where were we? Ah yes, that stupid exercise number 37. As far as chemistry goes, whenever we mix two substances, we can express the concentration of one substance in the solution as Percentage of Concentration of the Substance (C) x Volume of the Mixutre (V). Going back to our problem, we have:
Total concentration of the Antifreeze (CA) = Percentage of Concentration of the Antifreeze (pCA) x Volume of the Coolant Solution (VC)
CA = pCA x VC
CA = 0.6 x 3.6 Liters
CA = 2.16 Liters
Concentration of the Water (CW) = Percentage of Concentration of the Antifreeze (pCA) x Volume of the Coolant Solution (VC)
CW = pCW x VC
CW = 0.4 x 3.6 Liters
CW = 1.44 Liters
From that formula, we now know that the coolant solution is made up of 2.16 liters of water and 1.44 liters of antifreeze. So now, we have to find out 1) how many liters of the coolant solution should be drained from the radiator and 2) replace it with an equal amount of liters of water 3) so that the total concentration of the antifreeze drops down to the recommended level (which is 50% of the coolant solution or 1.8 liters of antifreeze). An assumption that was made on the problem was that the total volume capacity of the radiator is 3.6 L. This means that the amount of coolant that we drained from the coolant should be equal to the amount of water that we will be added to the coolant. Hence, we have:
Amount of coolant to be drained = Amount of Water to be added
From that, we now form the following equations:
Concentration of Water(CW) x (Volume of the Coolant(VC) - Amount of coolant to be drained(z) ) + Amount of Water to be added (z) = Desired Concentration of Water (dCW) x Volume of the Coolant(VC)
tCW x (VC - z) + z = dCW x VC
0.4 x (3.6 L - z) + z = 0.5 x 3.6 L
Before solving for z, I should first what this equation means. If you would recall the problem, we are requred to increase the total concentration of the antifreeze by reducing the coolant to a certain amount and adding water of the same amount that we reduced to the coolant.
tCW x (VC - z) + z translates just that. Notice that we take the total concentration of the coolant that has already been drained (tCW x (VC - z)) and then add the same amount of liters of water to the already drained coolant (tCW x (VC - z) + z). Now, the right hand side of the equation suggests that the amount of coolant drained and water added should be able to produce 50% concentration of water out of the coolant. = 0.5 x 3.6 L says just that. But wait? isn't it that what we want is to have a 50% antifreeze and not 50% water? Well, yes, but basically, if we increase the water concentration to 50%, then it is implicit that the other part of the solution (which is the antifreeze) would be 50% too! Now if we will solve for z, we will have:
0.6z = 1.8 L - 1.44 L
z = 0.6 L
Eureka!! This is the answer! Hence, we must drain 0.6 liters from the coolant and add the same amount of water to the coolant in order for the concentration of the antifreeze to be reduced to 50% and for the water to be increased by 10%.
Simple isn't it? So what made me took 6 days just to solve this simple problem? Well, I've done some soul searching on this one and found out that I was overdoing the entire thing by adding the antifreeze as part of the equation (and partially because half of my mind was monitoring how many minutes left before the download for episode 12 is completed :D). Basically, I've been forcing the antifreeze and water to work at the same time and this made it unclear for the other side of the equation what the condition is that is needed to be satisfied when all the while, I only needed to know how much desired concentration of water is needed in order to solve the equation. So what's the moral then? Not everything that you see is the real thing! Some facts are only there just to confuse you :D
So, now that I've finally gotten over that, it's time to move on to the next numbers. I still have 30 more questions to answer before I can move to section 1.7. But before that, I think I'll go to sleep first :) Till then..
Here it is: the very simple which took me a freaking 6 days of frustration before finally coming up with a solution:
The radiator in a car is filled with a solution of 60% antifreeze and 40% water. The manufacturer of the antifreeze suggests that, for summer driving, optimal cooling of the engine is obtained with only 50% antifreeze. If the capacity of the radiator is 3.6L, how much coolant should be drained and replaced with water to reduce the antifreeze concentration to the recommended level?
So, what's this problem all about? Well basically, the author of the problem obviously wants us to find out how much of the coolant solution should be drained and replaced with water so that the total solution will contain 50% water and 50% antifreeze. Solutions (or mixtures), as we all know from our Chemistry subject are made by mixing by two substances together. Examples include mixing of salt and water (called brine) or maybe as simple as a mix orange powder and water (which is orange juice).. uhh.. okay, I've gotta watch Naruto first (YEEEESSSSSSS!!!), the download has already finished :D
AMAZING!! I've just finished watching episode 13 and it just gets better and better each day!! Another minute of it and I could have been carried away by doing a jutsu here in front of the computer and shout KAGE NO BUNSHIN JUTSU!! :D Well, off to another long wait again for the next episode *sigh*
So, where were we? Ah yes, that stupid exercise number 37. As far as chemistry goes, whenever we mix two substances, we can express the concentration of one substance in the solution as Percentage of Concentration of the Substance (C) x Volume of the Mixutre (V). Going back to our problem, we have:
Total concentration of the Antifreeze (CA) = Percentage of Concentration of the Antifreeze (pCA) x Volume of the Coolant Solution (VC)
CA = pCA x VC
CA = 0.6 x 3.6 Liters
CA = 2.16 Liters
Concentration of the Water (CW) = Percentage of Concentration of the Antifreeze (pCA) x Volume of the Coolant Solution (VC)
CW = pCW x VC
CW = 0.4 x 3.6 Liters
CW = 1.44 Liters
From that formula, we now know that the coolant solution is made up of 2.16 liters of water and 1.44 liters of antifreeze. So now, we have to find out 1) how many liters of the coolant solution should be drained from the radiator and 2) replace it with an equal amount of liters of water 3) so that the total concentration of the antifreeze drops down to the recommended level (which is 50% of the coolant solution or 1.8 liters of antifreeze). An assumption that was made on the problem was that the total volume capacity of the radiator is 3.6 L. This means that the amount of coolant that we drained from the coolant should be equal to the amount of water that we will be added to the coolant. Hence, we have:
Amount of coolant to be drained = Amount of Water to be added
From that, we now form the following equations:
Concentration of Water(CW) x (Volume of the Coolant(VC) - Amount of coolant to be drained(z) ) + Amount of Water to be added (z) = Desired Concentration of Water (dCW) x Volume of the Coolant(VC)
tCW x (VC - z) + z = dCW x VC
0.4 x (3.6 L - z) + z = 0.5 x 3.6 L
Before solving for z, I should first what this equation means. If you would recall the problem, we are requred to increase the total concentration of the antifreeze by reducing the coolant to a certain amount and adding water of the same amount that we reduced to the coolant.
tCW x (VC - z) + z translates just that. Notice that we take the total concentration of the coolant that has already been drained (tCW x (VC - z)) and then add the same amount of liters of water to the already drained coolant (tCW x (VC - z) + z). Now, the right hand side of the equation suggests that the amount of coolant drained and water added should be able to produce 50% concentration of water out of the coolant. = 0.5 x 3.6 L says just that. But wait? isn't it that what we want is to have a 50% antifreeze and not 50% water? Well, yes, but basically, if we increase the water concentration to 50%, then it is implicit that the other part of the solution (which is the antifreeze) would be 50% too! Now if we will solve for z, we will have:
0.6z = 1.8 L - 1.44 L
z = 0.6 L
Eureka!! This is the answer! Hence, we must drain 0.6 liters from the coolant and add the same amount of water to the coolant in order for the concentration of the antifreeze to be reduced to 50% and for the water to be increased by 10%.
Simple isn't it? So what made me took 6 days just to solve this simple problem? Well, I've done some soul searching on this one and found out that I was overdoing the entire thing by adding the antifreeze as part of the equation (and partially because half of my mind was monitoring how many minutes left before the download for episode 12 is completed :D). Basically, I've been forcing the antifreeze and water to work at the same time and this made it unclear for the other side of the equation what the condition is that is needed to be satisfied when all the while, I only needed to know how much desired concentration of water is needed in order to solve the equation. So what's the moral then? Not everything that you see is the real thing! Some facts are only there just to confuse you :D
So, now that I've finally gotten over that, it's time to move on to the next numbers. I still have 30 more questions to answer before I can move to section 1.7. But before that, I think I'll go to sleep first :) Till then..
Friday, May 27, 2005
Who's responsible for what?
It seemed like forever since my last post although I think it was just 4 days since I last bragged here :) Anyway, last week was a veeery busy week for me. I had to finish this java-based text game and then do thos other use case diagram for my other class. Alas! The benefits of being jobless proved itself beneficial to me once again!! I just hope that I got high marks for those.
My Naruto downloads are progressing err... somewhat slow.. so far, I've just downloaded the first 11 eposides and the last 5 episodes (using the school's internet :D) the site that hosts episodes 1 - 50 won't allow me to download 65 megs in an hour so I cannot use the school's bandwitdth to download those early episodes (which are sooo large by the way). Having to donwload an episode for 14 hour and then reaping the benefits by watching that 22-minute cartoon and then having to wait for 14 hours more is just crazy!! It's like whenever you finished downloading a single episode and then you watch it and then you get this tendency to become emotionally attached and then all of a sudden, the episode ends and then you launch your download manager and it tells you that you still have to wait for 13.40 hours before the download for the next episode.. damn!! all the excitement and all the emotion build-up just have to wait for 13 more hours!! A DSL surely would come in handy in this situation :D But hey, a 14 hour download is worth the wait if it lets me watch an episode of Naruto :D
So, where were we?! Oh yes.. I want to skip the math mumbo jumbos today that I've been bragging about over my last few posts and just talk about a very important thing that I've learned in programming - especially when you are dealing with objects. But I'll try my best not to include objects in this post. Today, I want to talk about coupling and cohesion. These two concepts are very important and yet are so much pain the ass that it takes them a lot of time to master but once you do, it will give you the skill to make your programs the ability to become incredibly extensible and maintainable in an almost effortless manner. It's like this phrase that my professor always says: "Once you know, you know."
As far as I can remember, maintaining a program is really and I mean REALLY is one of the most difficult part of the programmer's life. I remembered way back during my thesis days when I had this Super Trump program that we initially did during our software engineering class. It was constructed in a procedural approach using an object oriented programming language which as we all know would leave a lot of trace of inefficencies like numerous amount of code redundancies, very high dependencies between modules, and a method that knows how to do all!! It seemed like almost imposible for me to maintain that crap and to tell you frankly, if it weren't for that thesis, I could have pressed SHIFT + DELETE and it would have sent it directly to the recycle bin!! Just imagine the things that we had to go through just to add additional features to the game that our thesis advisor made us do. Just imagine this scenario: You have these five thousand lines of code in your program. You want to add a feature that lets you shuffle the decks of the players. So, you study the codes (.. no big deal..) and you try to implement the changes that you think are necessary.. and that's it.. but wait, there's more. You tried running the program.. what's this?! a runtime error?? what the.. Oh yes.. the perils of debugging a code. Now you have to spend some time looking at each of the modules and try to think what went wrong. You know have to think what were the components that were impacted during the change, the code snippets that you have to update in order to make the changes work, and probably search for those redundant codes and apply the updates to those as well and make sure that you did not forget anything, and oh, I need to remind you that you are working on a program that has 5000 lines of code and that you are running out of time because you have a scheduled program demo tomorrow!! God dammit!! I wanna die!! Harharharhar!!
"So, what is this coupling and cohesion that you are talking about?" you asked. Well, coupling is a concept that talks about the degree of dependence between each part of your program. Cohesion, on the other hand talks about the number of tasks that a unit of your program can perform. As a programmer and a designer, we aim to develop a program that is high in cohesion and low in coupling. This simply means that individual units of a program should have very low dependence with each other and that each units of the program should have a single and well-defined task that it should do. To put things in proper perspective, low coupling allows the programmers to make changes to one part of the program without having much effect on the other parts of the program. It means that whenever we want to add or remove something on a certain part of a program, we shouldn't have no worry (at least) about any possible side effects that it may cause to other parts of the program. High cohesion on the other hand just means limiting what a module or a class can do in such a way that it all its methods contributes to the overall identity the class or the module itself. It means that if you have a module that computes for taxes on a certain income bracket, then it should only compute for taxes, nothing more. Seems easy eh?! Well there's a lot more than meets the eye you know.
So how do we achieve a low-coupled and highly-cohesive program anyway? Well, to be able to achieve a low-coupled program, I now introduce the terms implementation and interface. An implementation, in simple terms, describes how a program works from the inside while an interface describes how the program works on the outside. Let me explain on this more using an analogy. Lets say you have a calculator. As a student, you know how to use the calculator by pressing the buttons and looking at the screen for the result. But whenever you press a button, something happens from the inside. All of those circuit boards and logical gates reacts to the button that was pressed and performs the expected operation. But then again, the student doesn't care how 5 + 4 is processed inside the calculator. All the student knows is that whenever the buttons 5, +, 4, and = are pressed, it will yeild 9 as the result and display it on the LCD. Hence, we can say that the student "trusts" the calculator to do its job and it doesn't care how it does it - as long as the what the student is expecting is projected by the calculator to the LCD. Going outside the analogy, we can say that the interface in the calculator are the buttons and display and the implementation are those series of gates and circuit boards which are all underneath the plastic cover. Now that we understand what these concepts mean, lets go back to coupling. To be able to achieve a low-coupled program, each units of the program (class, methods, modules, etc) should communicate not with its implementation but with its interface. This implicitly says that a certain unit of the program should not know how the other unit that it needs to interact with works internally. It only needs to know what are the interfaces that the unit offers (remember the calculator buttons!) and have the unit to interact with it - and that's it! Certainly, on the calculator analogy, we do not want the student to have it learned digital circuits just to use the calculator eh?! So how does it reduce the time to maintain a program then? Well basically, if you depend on a module or a class' interface, once the implementation of that unit of the program changes, you don't need to worry at all on whether the other methods or class that uses it will still work - because it will (that is of course if the interfaces are still intact!!). Certainly, on our calculator analogy, if later (for some reason), Casio decided to store numbers in octal form instead of binary inside the calculator, then we can implement that change inside the circuitry without having to change the buttons because after all, what we are changing is how it works - from the inside. Having all of these said, I hope that it is now clear that low-coupled programs reduces dependencies between programs and as a result, reduces the impacts that may require changes to other affected parts of the program. Phew! That takes care of coupling.
Now on to cohesion. If you have a module or a method in your class that seems to do almost everything, then this is an indication that your program is lowly cohesive (sounds like mighty bond!) This means that your neighbor shouldn't be living in your house and instead it should live in its own house! Every class or module that are defined in the program should do a single and well-defined task. This would allow for a proper division of responsibilities between modules / classes and other modules / classes. By having a highly-cohesive program, we ensure that a certain module or a class takes care of its own methods - otherwise, we will end up having other classes or modules of different animals taking care of methods which they are not supposed to be doing. And this adds more coupling to our program - and we all know what that means now don't we???!
Now all of these stuffs doesn't happen magically you know. There is no silver bullet towards a highly maintainable program. To be able to come up with a program that has these characteristics, you should not just jump right ahead to coding and just have these sporadic thoughts run while you program. Certainly, all of these are attained through good design and proper recognition of the problem. Take some time to learn how the program is supposed to run, what are the entities involved in the program, and how do they interact with each other. These very simple steps are often underestimated even by veteran programmers. As a rule of the thumb, the more you design, the less hours you spend on hours and hours of frustration on trying to do things right. "But hey, do I even need to design a program even if its just as simple as my stupid assignment in COMPR4?" you say? Well, find that out yourself. After all, the best way of learning is experiencing the learning in the first place ;)
Alright, I guess that's it with this long post! I still have to solve this stupid exercise number 37 in my math book (I have been stucked with this number for 6 days now you know!!). I'll try to post it here once I find the solution for it. Ciao!!
My Naruto downloads are progressing err... somewhat slow.. so far, I've just downloaded the first 11 eposides and the last 5 episodes (using the school's internet :D) the site that hosts episodes 1 - 50 won't allow me to download 65 megs in an hour so I cannot use the school's bandwitdth to download those early episodes (which are sooo large by the way). Having to donwload an episode for 14 hour and then reaping the benefits by watching that 22-minute cartoon and then having to wait for 14 hours more is just crazy!! It's like whenever you finished downloading a single episode and then you watch it and then you get this tendency to become emotionally attached and then all of a sudden, the episode ends and then you launch your download manager and it tells you that you still have to wait for 13.40 hours before the download for the next episode.. damn!! all the excitement and all the emotion build-up just have to wait for 13 more hours!! A DSL surely would come in handy in this situation :D But hey, a 14 hour download is worth the wait if it lets me watch an episode of Naruto :D
So, where were we?! Oh yes.. I want to skip the math mumbo jumbos today that I've been bragging about over my last few posts and just talk about a very important thing that I've learned in programming - especially when you are dealing with objects. But I'll try my best not to include objects in this post. Today, I want to talk about coupling and cohesion. These two concepts are very important and yet are so much pain the ass that it takes them a lot of time to master but once you do, it will give you the skill to make your programs the ability to become incredibly extensible and maintainable in an almost effortless manner. It's like this phrase that my professor always says: "Once you know, you know."
As far as I can remember, maintaining a program is really and I mean REALLY is one of the most difficult part of the programmer's life. I remembered way back during my thesis days when I had this Super Trump program that we initially did during our software engineering class. It was constructed in a procedural approach using an object oriented programming language which as we all know would leave a lot of trace of inefficencies like numerous amount of code redundancies, very high dependencies between modules, and a method that knows how to do all!! It seemed like almost imposible for me to maintain that crap and to tell you frankly, if it weren't for that thesis, I could have pressed SHIFT + DELETE and it would have sent it directly to the recycle bin!! Just imagine the things that we had to go through just to add additional features to the game that our thesis advisor made us do. Just imagine this scenario: You have these five thousand lines of code in your program. You want to add a feature that lets you shuffle the decks of the players. So, you study the codes (.. no big deal..) and you try to implement the changes that you think are necessary.. and that's it.. but wait, there's more. You tried running the program.. what's this?! a runtime error?? what the.. Oh yes.. the perils of debugging a code. Now you have to spend some time looking at each of the modules and try to think what went wrong. You know have to think what were the components that were impacted during the change, the code snippets that you have to update in order to make the changes work, and probably search for those redundant codes and apply the updates to those as well and make sure that you did not forget anything, and oh, I need to remind you that you are working on a program that has 5000 lines of code and that you are running out of time because you have a scheduled program demo tomorrow!! God dammit!! I wanna die!! Harharharhar!!
"So, what is this coupling and cohesion that you are talking about?" you asked. Well, coupling is a concept that talks about the degree of dependence between each part of your program. Cohesion, on the other hand talks about the number of tasks that a unit of your program can perform. As a programmer and a designer, we aim to develop a program that is high in cohesion and low in coupling. This simply means that individual units of a program should have very low dependence with each other and that each units of the program should have a single and well-defined task that it should do. To put things in proper perspective, low coupling allows the programmers to make changes to one part of the program without having much effect on the other parts of the program. It means that whenever we want to add or remove something on a certain part of a program, we shouldn't have no worry (at least) about any possible side effects that it may cause to other parts of the program. High cohesion on the other hand just means limiting what a module or a class can do in such a way that it all its methods contributes to the overall identity the class or the module itself. It means that if you have a module that computes for taxes on a certain income bracket, then it should only compute for taxes, nothing more. Seems easy eh?! Well there's a lot more than meets the eye you know.
So how do we achieve a low-coupled and highly-cohesive program anyway? Well, to be able to achieve a low-coupled program, I now introduce the terms implementation and interface. An implementation, in simple terms, describes how a program works from the inside while an interface describes how the program works on the outside. Let me explain on this more using an analogy. Lets say you have a calculator. As a student, you know how to use the calculator by pressing the buttons and looking at the screen for the result. But whenever you press a button, something happens from the inside. All of those circuit boards and logical gates reacts to the button that was pressed and performs the expected operation. But then again, the student doesn't care how 5 + 4 is processed inside the calculator. All the student knows is that whenever the buttons 5, +, 4, and = are pressed, it will yeild 9 as the result and display it on the LCD. Hence, we can say that the student "trusts" the calculator to do its job and it doesn't care how it does it - as long as the what the student is expecting is projected by the calculator to the LCD. Going outside the analogy, we can say that the interface in the calculator are the buttons and display and the implementation are those series of gates and circuit boards which are all underneath the plastic cover. Now that we understand what these concepts mean, lets go back to coupling. To be able to achieve a low-coupled program, each units of the program (class, methods, modules, etc) should communicate not with its implementation but with its interface. This implicitly says that a certain unit of the program should not know how the other unit that it needs to interact with works internally. It only needs to know what are the interfaces that the unit offers (remember the calculator buttons!) and have the unit to interact with it - and that's it! Certainly, on the calculator analogy, we do not want the student to have it learned digital circuits just to use the calculator eh?! So how does it reduce the time to maintain a program then? Well basically, if you depend on a module or a class' interface, once the implementation of that unit of the program changes, you don't need to worry at all on whether the other methods or class that uses it will still work - because it will (that is of course if the interfaces are still intact!!). Certainly, on our calculator analogy, if later (for some reason), Casio decided to store numbers in octal form instead of binary inside the calculator, then we can implement that change inside the circuitry without having to change the buttons because after all, what we are changing is how it works - from the inside. Having all of these said, I hope that it is now clear that low-coupled programs reduces dependencies between programs and as a result, reduces the impacts that may require changes to other affected parts of the program. Phew! That takes care of coupling.
Now on to cohesion. If you have a module or a method in your class that seems to do almost everything, then this is an indication that your program is lowly cohesive (sounds like mighty bond!) This means that your neighbor shouldn't be living in your house and instead it should live in its own house! Every class or module that are defined in the program should do a single and well-defined task. This would allow for a proper division of responsibilities between modules / classes and other modules / classes. By having a highly-cohesive program, we ensure that a certain module or a class takes care of its own methods - otherwise, we will end up having other classes or modules of different animals taking care of methods which they are not supposed to be doing. And this adds more coupling to our program - and we all know what that means now don't we???!
Now all of these stuffs doesn't happen magically you know. There is no silver bullet towards a highly maintainable program. To be able to come up with a program that has these characteristics, you should not just jump right ahead to coding and just have these sporadic thoughts run while you program. Certainly, all of these are attained through good design and proper recognition of the problem. Take some time to learn how the program is supposed to run, what are the entities involved in the program, and how do they interact with each other. These very simple steps are often underestimated even by veteran programmers. As a rule of the thumb, the more you design, the less hours you spend on hours and hours of frustration on trying to do things right. "But hey, do I even need to design a program even if its just as simple as my stupid assignment in COMPR4?" you say? Well, find that out yourself. After all, the best way of learning is experiencing the learning in the first place ;)
Alright, I guess that's it with this long post! I still have to solve this stupid exercise number 37 in my math book (I have been stucked with this number for 6 days now you know!!). I'll try to post it here once I find the solution for it. Ciao!!
Monday, May 23, 2005
So when the hell did they meet anyway?
Okay, I have to admit it. I was supposed to post something this morning but unfortunately, I got hooked up into watching this Naruto Season 3 DVD (about 27 episodes, I think). So there I was, sitting in front of the TV for 7 hours, tirelessly enjoying every single episodes of Naruto (God I love the benefits of being jobless). And you know what this pattern leads to right? Yep, you guess that right.. anime fever. So as a consequence, my brain has now convinced me to download every single episode from seasons 1,2,4 and 5 and tell my subconcious that a 4GB download over a dial-up connection wouldn't take that long (yeah right! oh the things that I would do for cartoons). And yeah, I think that another consequence of me watching cartoons for 7 hours is not having any goodnight hugs and kisses from my girlfriend at all. I think she got irritated coz it took me long to reply to one of her messages (damn those cartoons!!). But I couldn't blame her for getting mad though coz it's my fault anyway. If you can hear me out there, I'm sorry honey.
Yesterday, while I was working on the math book, I encountered this problem that costed me a lot of pain in the neck and almost forever to solve. Its funny how simple math problems look so damn hard when you do not know how to solve them and how very elementary it is once you've gotten the hang of it. Anyway, the problem had something to do about motion. Here is the problem:
A commercial jet took off from Kansas City for San Francisco, travelling a distance of 2550 km at a speed of 800 km/h. At the same time a private jet left San Francisco, travelling at 900km/h and bound for Kansas City. How long after takeoff will the jets pass each other?
Okay, so the guy who wrote the problem is asking us at what hour from their initial departure will the two planes meet given their rate of movement. So when the hell did they meet anyway?! Lets find out.
Here are the facts in the given problem:
Kansas - San Francisco
Distance (d1): 2550 km
Rate (r1): 800 km/h
Time (t1): 2550 / 800 h or 3 hours and 3 /16 minutes
San Francisco - Kansas
Distance (d2): 2550 km
Rate (r2): 900 km/h
Time (t2): 2550 / 900 h or 2 hours and 15 /18 minutes
To compute for distance, we multiply its travelling rate by the time it spent travelling. Hence, we get the general formula:
Distance (d)= Rate (r) * Time (t)
and so to compute for the distance from Kansas to San Francisco and vice versa, we have:
d1 = 800 km/h * (51/16) ->2550 km
d2 = 900 km/h * (51/18) ->2550 km
But that's a given. The real problem is how the hell do we use the formula in order to figure out when the two freaking planes met. Take a look at this:
We say that the total distance from Kansas - San Francisco is equivalent to the total distance from San Francisco - Kansas. And so, we have the relationship:
Distance from Kansas - San Francisco (d1) = Distance from San Francisco - Kansas (d2)
d1 = d2
r1 * t1 = r2 * t2
And so, looking from the previous equation, we instinctively write:
800 km/h * (51 / 16) = 900 km/h * (51 / 18)
Now everything seems in order, right? No, that's wrong! We will only end up having 2550 = 2550 as an answer! What this equation suggests is the distance from San Francisco - Kansas and vice versa, not the distance from Kansas - Location of Plane B and San Francisco - Location of Plane A given given a certain time. So what do we do now? Take a look at the following crappy diagram:
Point of meeting:
+----------------2550 KM--------------------+
Plane A------------->o<----------------Plane B
Time to destination:
+----------------2550 KM--------------------+
-----------------------------------> 51/16 h (A)
51/18 h (B)<-----------------------------------
Time when the two planes will meet:
+----------------2550 KM-------------------+
---------x hrs-----+o+---(51 /16) - x hrs--- (A)
---------x hrs-----+o+---(51 /18) - x hrs----(B)
Okay, I know those diagrams are not very convincing but hey! don't blame me, Im trying my best to make all of these clear! Anyway, the diagram suggested that Plane A will take x hours to reach Plane B's "will-be" location and Plane B will take (51/18) - x hrs to reach Plane A's "will-be" location - all happening under constant motion. And so, we have:
t1 = x
t2 = (51 / 18) - x
and:
d1 = 800km/h * x
d2 = 900km/h * (51 / 18) - x
Now that we have those relationships in place, lets go back to our original equation:
r1 * t1 = r2 * t2
800km/h * x = 900km/h * ((51 / 18 h) - x)
So what does this equation tells us? It simply states that x hours after leaving the airport, Plane A would have travelled a distance of 800km/h * x and Plane B 900km/h * x in the opposite direction and most importantly, in that x hour, they will have meet!! Now that's a lot more convincing than our previous equation!! Now that we know we're on the right track, let's solve for x and get this over with:
800km/h * x = 900km/h * ((51 / 18 h) - x)
800km/h x = 2550km x - 900km/h x
1700km/h x = 2550km
x = 1.5 h
And so, 1.5 hours after the two planes left, they will meet. Hence, Plane A would have travelled 1200km in 1.5 hours and Plane B 1350km in the same duration as Plane A (Plane B is faster by 100km/h than Plane A) before they meet!!
Now that wasn't complex was it? So what's the moral lesson here? Well, I've learned that unless you have a very high IQ or unless you were born with a superhuman ability to process math problems, you should always and I mean ALWAYS try to understand the problem. Don't get upset when you didn't understand the problem the first time (not everybody does!) Try to read the problem over and over again until you have a good grasp of what it is really saying. Think of creative ways (e.g. drawing, asking a Chinese guy) that will help you understand the problem at hand (honestly, if I had 2 matchbox cars with me while I was trying to solve that problem, I would have probably used it to see if they really will meet - but of course, I could never simulate something moving around 900km/h using a matchbox). Always find possible relationships and facts that are stated in the problem as they are your clues in solving it (and they are all that you will have!). And well, perhaps the most important thing of all is that you should never give up! It's all about determination baby!! No matter how hard or complex the problem is, one way or another, it has a solution and it is up to you to find that out! Once you give up, it's all over! Remember, nobody does it perfect the first time, or the second time, or the third time, or even how many times you would have done it!! The important thing here is that no matter how many times you've failed, you should always get up and learn from your failures and try to solve the problem all over again. Everything is possible through hard work and perseverance. Nobody is born being great with something. We all must work hard in order to gain something. The reason why those Chinese guys are great in math is because of their dedication to learn!
Okay, enough about that. I'll end my post here and continue downloading Naruto :) I might as well continue on solving another ten numbers from the math book so that I can go on with the next chapter. Oh, and Detroit beat Miami just now. Good for them.
Yesterday, while I was working on the math book, I encountered this problem that costed me a lot of pain in the neck and almost forever to solve. Its funny how simple math problems look so damn hard when you do not know how to solve them and how very elementary it is once you've gotten the hang of it. Anyway, the problem had something to do about motion. Here is the problem:
A commercial jet took off from Kansas City for San Francisco, travelling a distance of 2550 km at a speed of 800 km/h. At the same time a private jet left San Francisco, travelling at 900km/h and bound for Kansas City. How long after takeoff will the jets pass each other?
Okay, so the guy who wrote the problem is asking us at what hour from their initial departure will the two planes meet given their rate of movement. So when the hell did they meet anyway?! Lets find out.
Here are the facts in the given problem:
Kansas - San Francisco
Distance (d1): 2550 km
Rate (r1): 800 km/h
Time (t1): 2550 / 800 h or 3 hours and 3 /16 minutes
San Francisco - Kansas
Distance (d2): 2550 km
Rate (r2): 900 km/h
Time (t2): 2550 / 900 h or 2 hours and 15 /18 minutes
To compute for distance, we multiply its travelling rate by the time it spent travelling. Hence, we get the general formula:
Distance (d)= Rate (r) * Time (t)
and so to compute for the distance from Kansas to San Francisco and vice versa, we have:
d1 = 800 km/h * (51/16) ->2550 km
d2 = 900 km/h * (51/18) ->2550 km
But that's a given. The real problem is how the hell do we use the formula in order to figure out when the two freaking planes met. Take a look at this:
We say that the total distance from Kansas - San Francisco is equivalent to the total distance from San Francisco - Kansas. And so, we have the relationship:
Distance from Kansas - San Francisco (d1) = Distance from San Francisco - Kansas (d2)
d1 = d2
r1 * t1 = r2 * t2
And so, looking from the previous equation, we instinctively write:
800 km/h * (51 / 16) = 900 km/h * (51 / 18)
Now everything seems in order, right? No, that's wrong! We will only end up having 2550 = 2550 as an answer! What this equation suggests is the distance from San Francisco - Kansas and vice versa, not the distance from Kansas - Location of Plane B and San Francisco - Location of Plane A given given a certain time. So what do we do now? Take a look at the following crappy diagram:
Point of meeting:
+----------------2550 KM--------------------+
Plane A------------->o<----------------Plane B
Time to destination:
+----------------2550 KM--------------------+
-----------------------------------> 51/16 h (A)
51/18 h (B)<-----------------------------------
Time when the two planes will meet:
+----------------2550 KM-------------------+
---------x hrs-----+o+---(51 /16) - x hrs--- (A)
---------x hrs-----+o+---(51 /18) - x hrs----(B)
Okay, I know those diagrams are not very convincing but hey! don't blame me, Im trying my best to make all of these clear! Anyway, the diagram suggested that Plane A will take x hours to reach Plane B's "will-be" location and Plane B will take (51/18) - x hrs to reach Plane A's "will-be" location - all happening under constant motion. And so, we have:
t1 = x
t2 = (51 / 18) - x
and:
d1 = 800km/h * x
d2 = 900km/h * (51 / 18) - x
Now that we have those relationships in place, lets go back to our original equation:
r1 * t1 = r2 * t2
800km/h * x = 900km/h * ((51 / 18 h) - x)
So what does this equation tells us? It simply states that x hours after leaving the airport, Plane A would have travelled a distance of 800km/h * x and Plane B 900km/h * x in the opposite direction and most importantly, in that x hour, they will have meet!! Now that's a lot more convincing than our previous equation!! Now that we know we're on the right track, let's solve for x and get this over with:
800km/h * x = 900km/h * ((51 / 18 h) - x)
800km/h x = 2550km x - 900km/h x
1700km/h x = 2550km
x = 1.5 h
And so, 1.5 hours after the two planes left, they will meet. Hence, Plane A would have travelled 1200km in 1.5 hours and Plane B 1350km in the same duration as Plane A (Plane B is faster by 100km/h than Plane A) before they meet!!
Now that wasn't complex was it? So what's the moral lesson here? Well, I've learned that unless you have a very high IQ or unless you were born with a superhuman ability to process math problems, you should always and I mean ALWAYS try to understand the problem. Don't get upset when you didn't understand the problem the first time (not everybody does!) Try to read the problem over and over again until you have a good grasp of what it is really saying. Think of creative ways (e.g. drawing, asking a Chinese guy) that will help you understand the problem at hand (honestly, if I had 2 matchbox cars with me while I was trying to solve that problem, I would have probably used it to see if they really will meet - but of course, I could never simulate something moving around 900km/h using a matchbox). Always find possible relationships and facts that are stated in the problem as they are your clues in solving it (and they are all that you will have!). And well, perhaps the most important thing of all is that you should never give up! It's all about determination baby!! No matter how hard or complex the problem is, one way or another, it has a solution and it is up to you to find that out! Once you give up, it's all over! Remember, nobody does it perfect the first time, or the second time, or the third time, or even how many times you would have done it!! The important thing here is that no matter how many times you've failed, you should always get up and learn from your failures and try to solve the problem all over again. Everything is possible through hard work and perseverance. Nobody is born being great with something. We all must work hard in order to gain something. The reason why those Chinese guys are great in math is because of their dedication to learn!
Okay, enough about that. I'll end my post here and continue downloading Naruto :) I might as well continue on solving another ten numbers from the math book so that I can go on with the next chapter. Oh, and Detroit beat Miami just now. Good for them.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Quadratic what?!
King of the Hill rocks!! Yep, I just finished watching the series. It's kinda funny but yet, it's amazing how the creators of Beavis and Butthead could come up with a story that's something funny and crazy (considering the fact that B&B always ends up doing more harm than good in the end) and then ice things up with a mellow tone that displays life's practicality - that is, regardless of the stupidities and craziness that they do, they always end up settling for what is really the right thing. It's like a skateboard punk guy that acts rugged and all but deep down inside, he still finds time to help his mom shop at the mall or feed his grandma with some cereal and milk. It's really a nice cartoon - in fact, one of the nicest yet funny cartoon out there - and I'd recommend that you'd watch it.
Anyway, I just finished working on the first 20 questions at the end of chapter 1.6 and I came across this problem that required me to solve using a quadratic equation. I was kinda excited to post this in here so, here it goes..
Basically, there are two common types of equation that you'll encounter out there; one is a linear equation and the other one is a quadratic equation. Linear equations are those equations that contains a constant and a first-order term. In other words, no variable can be raised to the power other than 1. An example would be 3x = y or y= ax + b (where a and b are constants). Solving for x would be easy as you only need to separate x from other variables and coefficients by following basic algebra theories. Ever wonder why they call it linear equation? That is beacuase of the fact that a linear equation is also the equation of a straight line. It means that if you continuously solve for both x and y, you end up with a pair of numbers that when plotted on a cartesian plane, results in points having the same slope as the previous plotted points - meaning a straight line. Anyway, the other equation is the quadratic equation. Unlike the linear, this equation has a second-order term and a constant. This means that it contains a variable that is raised to the power of 2. An example would be x2 - 6x + 8 = 0. Solving for x now involves a lot more than solving for x in a linear equation. A gentelman by the name of Gauss once proved that an equation having a degree of 2 or x has 2 or x number of solution depending on the number of the degree. Hence, in the equation x2 - 6x + 8 = 0, we both have numbers 4 and 2 that will satisfy an equality (try it!). Solving for x in a quadratic type of equation can either be: 1) Completing the square of the equation by adding b/2 on both sides of the equation. 2) Using the quadratic formula. 3) Factoring the equation (if it is factorable). I find methods 1 and 2 very convenient especially for complex quadratics. So why the hell did they name this type of equation a quadratic equation anyway? That, I do not konw :)
So, you might be asking "Where the hell am I gonna use a quadratic equation anyway?!" well, I did ask that myself but that was before I read chapter 1.6 :) Here's a simple example that demonstrates the use of the quadratic equation:
Find two numbers whose sum is 70 and product 1224.
Without the knowledge of Algebra, we are doomed to guess random numbers and hope that their sum is 70 and their product is 1224. Luckily, we know enough than just doing random guess. So:
Let:
First Number = x
Second Number = y
The sum of the First Number and the Second Number is 70.
x + y = 70
The product of the First Number and the Second Number is 1224.
x . y = 1224
We have two unknowns in the form of x and y so we have to eliminate one unknown in order for us to solve the equation and we can do that by expressing one unknown in terms of the other.
Hence:
x + y = 70
x = 70 - y
Expressing x in terms of y, we have:
x . y = 1224
(70 - y) . y = 1224
y2 -70y + 1224 = 0
Now, we have arrived at a quadratic equation by simplifying the equation. So, we can use either of the methods mentioned above in solving this equation. In this case, let's use the quadratic formula in solving the problem.
The quadratic formula has a general form of:
(-b +- sqrt(b2 - 4ac)) / 2a
(sorry but this blog editor doesn't support square root and superscripts)
Substituting the values to the formula, we have:
(-(-70) +- sqrt( (-70)2 - 4(1)(1224))) / 2(1)
Since we have two solutions for the equation, we then have:
Solution 1:
(70 + sqrt(4) )/2
Solution 2:
(70 - sqrt(4) )/2
Which will give us:
Solution 1:
36
Solution 2:
34
So does this satisfy the original problem? Let's see:
The sum of the First Number and the Second Number is 70.
x + y = 70
36 + 34 = 70
70 = 70
The product of the First Number and the Second Number is 1224.
x . y = 1224
36 . 34 = 1224
1024 = 1224
We have an equality!! And so without having to guess a lot of random numbers, we have arrived at the answers to the equation without even having to break a sweat! This is an easy one. There are a lot of problems out there in the world that requires much complex computation than this one. But of course, knowing the fundamentals really simplify matters a lot!! I'm planning to do a Java applet that does a simulation which incorporates solving equations (like those work rate problem that we had on my last blog) - but that is after I learn how to do applets. I'm planning to touch it next week though.
I'll be continuing to solve 10-20 more numbers on the book today before I sleep. So I guess this is it for now. I'm gonna hit the books again and hopefully, I don't get papercuts this time ;)
Anyway, I just finished working on the first 20 questions at the end of chapter 1.6 and I came across this problem that required me to solve using a quadratic equation. I was kinda excited to post this in here so, here it goes..
Basically, there are two common types of equation that you'll encounter out there; one is a linear equation and the other one is a quadratic equation. Linear equations are those equations that contains a constant and a first-order term. In other words, no variable can be raised to the power other than 1. An example would be 3x = y or y= ax + b (where a and b are constants). Solving for x would be easy as you only need to separate x from other variables and coefficients by following basic algebra theories. Ever wonder why they call it linear equation? That is beacuase of the fact that a linear equation is also the equation of a straight line. It means that if you continuously solve for both x and y, you end up with a pair of numbers that when plotted on a cartesian plane, results in points having the same slope as the previous plotted points - meaning a straight line. Anyway, the other equation is the quadratic equation. Unlike the linear, this equation has a second-order term and a constant. This means that it contains a variable that is raised to the power of 2. An example would be x2 - 6x + 8 = 0. Solving for x now involves a lot more than solving for x in a linear equation. A gentelman by the name of Gauss once proved that an equation having a degree of 2 or x has 2 or x number of solution depending on the number of the degree. Hence, in the equation x2 - 6x + 8 = 0, we both have numbers 4 and 2 that will satisfy an equality (try it!). Solving for x in a quadratic type of equation can either be: 1) Completing the square of the equation by adding b/2 on both sides of the equation. 2) Using the quadratic formula. 3) Factoring the equation (if it is factorable). I find methods 1 and 2 very convenient especially for complex quadratics. So why the hell did they name this type of equation a quadratic equation anyway? That, I do not konw :)
So, you might be asking "Where the hell am I gonna use a quadratic equation anyway?!" well, I did ask that myself but that was before I read chapter 1.6 :) Here's a simple example that demonstrates the use of the quadratic equation:
Find two numbers whose sum is 70 and product 1224.
Without the knowledge of Algebra, we are doomed to guess random numbers and hope that their sum is 70 and their product is 1224. Luckily, we know enough than just doing random guess. So:
Let:
First Number = x
Second Number = y
The sum of the First Number and the Second Number is 70.
x + y = 70
The product of the First Number and the Second Number is 1224.
x . y = 1224
We have two unknowns in the form of x and y so we have to eliminate one unknown in order for us to solve the equation and we can do that by expressing one unknown in terms of the other.
Hence:
x + y = 70
x = 70 - y
Expressing x in terms of y, we have:
x . y = 1224
(70 - y) . y = 1224
y2 -70y + 1224 = 0
Now, we have arrived at a quadratic equation by simplifying the equation. So, we can use either of the methods mentioned above in solving this equation. In this case, let's use the quadratic formula in solving the problem.
The quadratic formula has a general form of:
(-b +- sqrt(b2 - 4ac)) / 2a
(sorry but this blog editor doesn't support square root and superscripts)
Substituting the values to the formula, we have:
(-(-70) +- sqrt( (-70)2 - 4(1)(1224))) / 2(1)
Since we have two solutions for the equation, we then have:
Solution 1:
(70 + sqrt(4) )/2
Solution 2:
(70 - sqrt(4) )/2
Which will give us:
Solution 1:
36
Solution 2:
34
So does this satisfy the original problem? Let's see:
The sum of the First Number and the Second Number is 70.
x + y = 70
36 + 34 = 70
70 = 70
The product of the First Number and the Second Number is 1224.
x . y = 1224
36 . 34 = 1224
1024 = 1224
We have an equality!! And so without having to guess a lot of random numbers, we have arrived at the answers to the equation without even having to break a sweat! This is an easy one. There are a lot of problems out there in the world that requires much complex computation than this one. But of course, knowing the fundamentals really simplify matters a lot!! I'm planning to do a Java applet that does a simulation which incorporates solving equations (like those work rate problem that we had on my last blog) - but that is after I learn how to do applets. I'm planning to touch it next week though.
I'll be continuing to solve 10-20 more numbers on the book today before I sleep. So I guess this is it for now. I'm gonna hit the books again and hopefully, I don't get papercuts this time ;)
Saturday, May 21, 2005
After 10,000 years..
Hey all, it's been a long time since I last posted on this blog. A lot of things have happened since then. I'm now in Canada and yes, it is home to one of the biggest game development companies that I want to work on.. Vancouver, Canada is the home of Electronic Arts!! By moving in this country, I got a whole new shot at this whole journey. But nothing comes without a high price though. I got separated with my friends, my pets, my cousins, my hometown, and most of all, my ever dearest love. It was very hard at first but I was able to cope up after few weeks of doing nothing but watch cartoons :) I guess this is how life really is. You just have to know how to deal with those ups and downs and be happy with it.
Anyway, I actually had a shot at working at EA as a game tester but I turned down (that's right!!) the position since during that time, I was already enrolled at this certain course that I took at BCIT. What the hell were you thinking?! you might say. Well, it's hard for me to explain but I knew that with all of the free time that I will have for not working, I will have all the time in the world to further improve myself and target a more higher level position in the company. Right now, I just don't feel that my skills are enough to move me up the hierarchy so I decided to just wait (and be a bum) and gain as much knowledge as I can before I enter the industry.
Okay, enough about that. During the last few months, I've been working like hell on this pre-calculus book that I bought during a library sale. After I finished this other C++ book, I decided that its time to move on to more theories and less application (after all, how am I gonna program if I don't know what I'm gonna program). And so, its back to 4th year high school for me.. revisiting those topics that talk about radicals, polynomials, exponentiations, fractions, quadratics, etc. and I really try to answer all of the questions at the end of the chapter at the end of the book (that's like 140 questions per chapter!!) so that this time, it sticks to my brain for good!! And what's more interesting is that I try to find out how these polynomials are applied to the real world. It's really very interesting to learn how some of the real world problems that deal with numbers can be expressed as equations (I know we've been doing a lot of these during high school but I wasn't paying attention back then on how important these stuffs really are!!). It's truly impressive that by solving these equations, you get a concrete and valid answer out of the problem that seemed very impossible to solve just by looking at it!! Here's a very simple example:
Mowing on a garden lawn having an area of 5 feet requires Jim 2 hours to finish and 3 hours to finish for Jen. If Jim and Jen were to work together, how long will it take for the said lawn to be mowed?
We can express Jim and Jen's work in terms of a fraction of work that they can do per hour. Hence:
Jim can mow 5/2 feet of the garden in 1 hour (2.5 feet per hour)
and Jen can mow 5/3 feet of the garden in the same hour (1.67 square feet per hour)
Finally, we can express their combined work rate as 5/x
Remember, what we expressed here is how much work can be done in an hour. An x variable is needed since we do not know yet how many hours is needed for the both of them to mow the entire lawn. Also, we assume here that they both worked throughout the duration and that they worked on a consistent basis (that is, 2.5 feet per hour for Jim and 1.67 feet per hour for Jen).
Equating the problem, we have:
Jim's work rate + Jen's work rate = Combined work rate
5/3 + 5/4 = 5/x
Solving for x, we have:
x = (4)(3)(5) / (20 + 15)
x = 12 / 7
Hence, if Jim and Jen works together to mow the 5 feet lawn, it will take them 12 / 7 hours or 1 and 5/12 hours to finish - a lot more quicker than working alone.
So how do we check if our answer is correct? Simple. We just solve for equality. Hence:
We know that:
x = 12/7
And the working equation was :
5/3 + 5/4 = 5/x
By the virtue of substitution, we have:
5/3 + 5/4 = 5/(12/7)
Solving for both the left hand side (LHS) and right hand side (RHS) of the equation, we have:
35 / 12 = 35 / 12
Hence, this clearly shows that we have an equality and that our solution is correct!
You see, this is just one of the amazing things math can do. Without the knowledge on how to translate those into equations, we might have not arrived in the proper answer or even if we did, it would have took us a lot of time using ubiquitous methods.
There are a lot of things that I really have to learn in that area. Right now, I'm on section 1.6, page 67 of the book and there are a lot of problems whose complexity far exceeds the one that I just wrote down. Perhaps the real key to this one is really understanding what the problem is all about and knowing how you would express them algebraically. Well, I guess that's it for now. I need to get some sleep now as it is already 7 minutes past 5 in the morning :) (I really need to change my sleeping habits).
Anyway, I actually had a shot at working at EA as a game tester but I turned down (that's right!!) the position since during that time, I was already enrolled at this certain course that I took at BCIT. What the hell were you thinking?! you might say. Well, it's hard for me to explain but I knew that with all of the free time that I will have for not working, I will have all the time in the world to further improve myself and target a more higher level position in the company. Right now, I just don't feel that my skills are enough to move me up the hierarchy so I decided to just wait (and be a bum) and gain as much knowledge as I can before I enter the industry.
Okay, enough about that. During the last few months, I've been working like hell on this pre-calculus book that I bought during a library sale. After I finished this other C++ book, I decided that its time to move on to more theories and less application (after all, how am I gonna program if I don't know what I'm gonna program). And so, its back to 4th year high school for me.. revisiting those topics that talk about radicals, polynomials, exponentiations, fractions, quadratics, etc. and I really try to answer all of the questions at the end of the chapter at the end of the book (that's like 140 questions per chapter!!) so that this time, it sticks to my brain for good!! And what's more interesting is that I try to find out how these polynomials are applied to the real world. It's really very interesting to learn how some of the real world problems that deal with numbers can be expressed as equations (I know we've been doing a lot of these during high school but I wasn't paying attention back then on how important these stuffs really are!!). It's truly impressive that by solving these equations, you get a concrete and valid answer out of the problem that seemed very impossible to solve just by looking at it!! Here's a very simple example:
Mowing on a garden lawn having an area of 5 feet requires Jim 2 hours to finish and 3 hours to finish for Jen. If Jim and Jen were to work together, how long will it take for the said lawn to be mowed?
We can express Jim and Jen's work in terms of a fraction of work that they can do per hour. Hence:
Jim can mow 5/2 feet of the garden in 1 hour (2.5 feet per hour)
and Jen can mow 5/3 feet of the garden in the same hour (1.67 square feet per hour)
Finally, we can express their combined work rate as 5/x
Remember, what we expressed here is how much work can be done in an hour. An x variable is needed since we do not know yet how many hours is needed for the both of them to mow the entire lawn. Also, we assume here that they both worked throughout the duration and that they worked on a consistent basis (that is, 2.5 feet per hour for Jim and 1.67 feet per hour for Jen).
Equating the problem, we have:
Jim's work rate + Jen's work rate = Combined work rate
5/3 + 5/4 = 5/x
Solving for x, we have:
x = (4)(3)(5) / (20 + 15)
x = 12 / 7
Hence, if Jim and Jen works together to mow the 5 feet lawn, it will take them 12 / 7 hours or 1 and 5/12 hours to finish - a lot more quicker than working alone.
So how do we check if our answer is correct? Simple. We just solve for equality. Hence:
We know that:
x = 12/7
And the working equation was :
5/3 + 5/4 = 5/x
By the virtue of substitution, we have:
5/3 + 5/4 = 5/(12/7)
Solving for both the left hand side (LHS) and right hand side (RHS) of the equation, we have:
35 / 12 = 35 / 12
Hence, this clearly shows that we have an equality and that our solution is correct!
You see, this is just one of the amazing things math can do. Without the knowledge on how to translate those into equations, we might have not arrived in the proper answer or even if we did, it would have took us a lot of time using ubiquitous methods.
There are a lot of things that I really have to learn in that area. Right now, I'm on section 1.6, page 67 of the book and there are a lot of problems whose complexity far exceeds the one that I just wrote down. Perhaps the real key to this one is really understanding what the problem is all about and knowing how you would express them algebraically. Well, I guess that's it for now. I need to get some sleep now as it is already 7 minutes past 5 in the morning :) (I really need to change my sleeping habits).
Friday, February 27, 2004
It all starts here..
Yo'all! This is my very first blog so I might as well introduce myself. My name is Jim.. and I am an aspirant game designer (don't you mean frustrated..) I am in a journey to become a game developer.. (What the hell are you thinking?!) I've decided over this a long long time ago but unfortunately, it hasn't come to me up until now. Well this time, I'm making things right.. Yes, that's right.. you heard me.. this time, this dream will become a reality.. no longer will I muse myself of dreaming to be one.. and it will all begin with this.. a journal!! (O c'mon.. you barely even know how to draw.. you draw like a 3 year old kid!! You do not even have sufficient knowledge in math!! Oh and I bet that you don't even know in the first place where to begin and what to do!! Oh, and a journal?? As if blabbering would help!) *What a freak!!* Don't bother listening to him. Well, to begin with, I KNOW HOW TO DRAW!! Yeah that's right. I can edit photos and make something out of them!! (That's not drawing.. that's editing you moron!!) *Shut up!* Well, I also know math.. well, not that I *know* math per se but.. um.. (Yah Yah!! I know what you are trying to say.. sure, you know how to add or subtract!! hell everybody knows that!! What Im talking about are the real things such as Dynamics, Collision Detection.. Matrices.. now that is math!! addition?! hah! Don't make me laugh.. you're not even close!!).. uh yeah.. but Im trying you know.. uhh.. well, lets get back.. I know programming.. definitely.. I've been using VB and SQL for almost 3 years now.. I've actually made a super trump game using those tools!! hah!! (So you think you're good huh.. well the fact of the matter is.. you are not.. those thins that you mentioned.. they're just childs play.. you hear me!! C++ is the real thing!! DarkBasic is another.. BlitzBasic is another.. Hell you cannot even move a Pixel-shaded cube using vb without causing it to flicker!! Oh, and the Super Trump thing that you did.. its a junk..) ..uhrm.. well.. uh.. yes.. .. he's right.. Im no more than a dreamer right now. But I know that it is never too late for me to make this happen as long as I believe that I can do this.. this is my life after all and if ever my story will end, then I want it to be a good one..
So what do I need a journal for? Well, with this, I will be posting my progress so that I can reflect on the things that had happened during the past. I will also be posting here my thoughts, experiments, achievments, dissapointments, research insights.. and well, everything that I can think of. This will help me organize my thoughts and probably, draw some conclusions out of it. I need to develop a strong sense of the real world and probably set the line between fiction and reality. Color me naive but right now, I don't really now whether all of me is real.. whether what I am doing right now is the true thing.. whether what I perceive right now is what it really is. I remember Hideo (MSG2) saying something about reality being what we perceive.. what we believe is true.. what we believe is real.. well, I'm about to find out.
For those who will be patient enough to read my posts, please help me with my journey. if you think that Im doing the wrong thing.. if my grammar isn't that well composed.. it doesn't matter. All your comments will be highly appreciated by me. Drop me a letter on what you think I should do to better myself.. just post it here and I'll take my dear time to read all of it.. Oh, and if ever you are been reading this, please drop me a message and say "Hey! i've read your post". I just like to know whether someone has been showing interest with my posts.
I know that this will be a very long journey. I will experience frustration. I will be depressed. I will be very busy enough with my work that I will not have enough time to carry on with this. I will even be tempted to drop the whole thing out... but regardless of the trials that are ahead of me, I will give my best shot in this thing and damn I will be one hell of a game designer.. I will write my story the way I wanted it to be.. And it will all be wonderful.
lord british ix
"all hail lord british, the king of the fools.."
(Compassion :: Honesty :: Honor :: Humility :: Justice :: Sacrifice :: Spirituality :: Valor)
Courage is the will to struggle, for beliefs and for others , and is formed of the Virtues of Honor, Sacrifice, Spirituality, and Valor.
Love is the empathic bond that unites the self to all others, and is formed of the Virtues of Compassion, Justice, Sacrifice, and Spirituality.
Truth is the objective reality, that which is not false, and is formed of the Virtues of Honesty, Honor, Justice, and Spirtuality.
So what do I need a journal for? Well, with this, I will be posting my progress so that I can reflect on the things that had happened during the past. I will also be posting here my thoughts, experiments, achievments, dissapointments, research insights.. and well, everything that I can think of. This will help me organize my thoughts and probably, draw some conclusions out of it. I need to develop a strong sense of the real world and probably set the line between fiction and reality. Color me naive but right now, I don't really now whether all of me is real.. whether what I am doing right now is the true thing.. whether what I perceive right now is what it really is. I remember Hideo (MSG2) saying something about reality being what we perceive.. what we believe is true.. what we believe is real.. well, I'm about to find out.
For those who will be patient enough to read my posts, please help me with my journey. if you think that Im doing the wrong thing.. if my grammar isn't that well composed.. it doesn't matter. All your comments will be highly appreciated by me. Drop me a letter on what you think I should do to better myself.. just post it here and I'll take my dear time to read all of it.. Oh, and if ever you are been reading this, please drop me a message and say "Hey! i've read your post". I just like to know whether someone has been showing interest with my posts.
I know that this will be a very long journey. I will experience frustration. I will be depressed. I will be very busy enough with my work that I will not have enough time to carry on with this. I will even be tempted to drop the whole thing out... but regardless of the trials that are ahead of me, I will give my best shot in this thing and damn I will be one hell of a game designer.. I will write my story the way I wanted it to be.. And it will all be wonderful.
lord british ix
"all hail lord british, the king of the fools.."
(Compassion :: Honesty :: Honor :: Humility :: Justice :: Sacrifice :: Spirituality :: Valor)
Courage is the will to struggle, for beliefs and for others , and is formed of the Virtues of Honor, Sacrifice, Spirituality, and Valor.
Love is the empathic bond that unites the self to all others, and is formed of the Virtues of Compassion, Justice, Sacrifice, and Spirituality.
Truth is the objective reality, that which is not false, and is formed of the Virtues of Honesty, Honor, Justice, and Spirtuality.
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