/**
 * filesize_to_str()
 * Converts filesize to a string value.
 */
function filesize_to_str( $filesize ) {
    $sizes = array( 'B', 'KB', 'MB', 'GB', 'TB' );
    $i = floor( log( $filesize, 1024 ) );
    return sprintf( '%.2f%s', $filesize / pow( 1024, $i ), $sizes[$i] );
}

The network lab process was pretty bad. We were given 6 computers to use, all of them had Fedora 16 installed. I’m glad it wasn’t some weird OpenSolaris setup given the keyboard.

We were greeted with a terminal. I did the logins and set up all the network devices to the proper IP addresses. Then I had to run Wireshark. Wireshark needs a GUI, unless they wanted us to run Tshark. No prior instructions were given to us to launch X to get into Wireshark.

Just typing X hung the terminal at a X with no inputs or window manager. From experience, Fedora came with Gnome so I typed gdm and I was given a login manager. Unfortunately, gdm prevents root logins by default — and rightfully so. I had to manually add a dummy user so I can log into Gnome and launch Wireshark.

Tests were done and outputs were saved. Then I had to bring the data home for the lab report (the instructions were to copy them onto a floppy disk — I’m glad we were implicitly told to ignore it).

Problem: there was no Internet connection on any of the computers. Luckily, we had USB keys with us and were thinking of just copying files to the USB key. The first computer (these aren’t exactly desktop towers, they were 1U rack servers) had the metal cage unlocked so we put the USB key in and copied it without problem.

• CS448 – The course is very fun and challenging. I completely understand the concepts but I’m having a hard time applying them.
• CS456 – The course is everything I expected but it seems very outdated. For the first half of the course, there is barely anything new to learn that I haven’t learned in high school or while reading my Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) books. We’re just entering network programming, which is completely new to me, but I understand the gist of it.
• CS490 – The course is mostly taught by students as that is the model that our prof adopted. The professor taught us the first 3 chapters and the rest of it is student presentations. That seems to be a good model for the course, I’m not complaining.  There is no final for the course and only 2 presentations and 2 tests.
• PHIL216 – I barely have to read the textbook for the course. The course is on game strategies and making decisions while playing games. I love the course. We even get fed.
• AFM101 – I thought this would be my bird course but apparently it’s harder for me to grasp than the other ones. I have no ability in accounting. I’m really not interested in it at all. I should have taken AFM123 which is “Accounting Information for Managers”. I can’t do AFM123 next term because the 101 conflicts with it.

Reading week is next week, I won’t be coming back to Toronto until the Wednesday or Thursday. There is an OverPower event happening on the Saturday so that’s the main reason why I’m coming back. I plan to spend reading week doing a bit of homework and a bit of developing for the OverPower site.

For the first time in 5+ years, I’ll have to make my apartment look clean so that my landlord and rent it out to new people. It’s a weird feeling so leave this place. I’m still mostly undecided on what I’m doing after graduation. If I end up with a job offer in Kitchener-Waterloo, I’ll likely stay in KW but definitely find a new place. If not, I’ll be back in Toronto and going job hunting — though I should really make use of the job bank we have on UW campus to look for a job.

Luckily, with Photoshop CS 5, I can fill in the missing corners with Content-Aware deletion. I created many Actions to help me automate this process but it still took a while as the process was never perfect. Cropping out the images from the scans were also pretty easy with Photoshop’s Crop and Straighten Photos tool. Again, it wasn’t perfect because some of my scans had cards that were too close to each other. In then end, all of the cards (minus about 50 of them) are processed and ready to be created into PNGs for the OverPower website.

Photoshop doesn’t have a nice tool to batch ‘Save for Web’ on directories with sub directories, so it was a manual process to select each folder for exporting.

And here’s where OptiPNG comes into play. After creating any (regularly visited) PNG for the web, I always run it through OptiPNG to shrink it down further. I don’t understand the algorithms behind it but it works. OptiPNG gives you an option to select optimization levels, with the -o [0-7] flag. Zero being nothing, 7 being sufficiently optimized. Basically, these levels sets up parameters for the program to brute-force compress the PNG file and finds the best type of compression.

So today I reverted to the default Windows 7 provided drivers and my prints look amazing. You’d think that using the most up to date drivers provided by the manufacturer would yield the best results.

The update required Windows for the Sony Ericsson PC Companion software to push the update. Update took about 10 minutes and went smoothly. However, after updating, the phone was un-rooted and required me to run the zergRush script from DooMLoRD to root the phone again. The update also pushed back a ton of applications that I had previously removed. Apps such as the Facebook sync, Chinese/Japanese keyboards, etc. The update also pushed back the bootanimation.zip that shows the Fido boot screen when the phone starts up. This required me to go through them and re-delete them all but it wasn’t an issue.

I haven’t had time to see what’s new with the update but one thing that I really like is USB device support. I used to have to load modules with busybox insmod but it looks like the phone has those modules now and I won’t have to load them. With a simple USB-OTG (USB On-The-Go) adapter, I can plug in keyboards and mice to my phone. It’s actually pretty neat to see a cursor on the Android desktop. Keyboard is extremely useful as most of my passwords are partially formed through my Yubikeys. It doesn’t look like USB keys work by default. It also doesn’t seem to like things that draw too much power.

EDIT:

There’s a screenshot button (power off menu)!

I’ll be going through the site to make sure everything looks nice and not too much is broken.

As for life, I’m 8 courses away from graduation. I’m doing 5 this term so that my last term in the Spring will be as easy as possible. The courses that I’m doing are:

• CS 448 – Database Systems Implementation: An advanced course on databases. From what I’ve researched, I’ll likely have to code some parts of a database engine, likely PostgreSQL.
• CS 456 – Computer Networks: A relatively straight forward course on networking including network programming. Should be a very neat course except for the fact it’s my first 8:30AM course EVER.
• CS 490 – Information Systems Management: A computer science/business course.
• PHIL 216 – Probability and Decision Making: A course on game theory and such, I’ll get the gist of it after the first lecture on Thursday night.
• AFM 101 – Introduction to Financial Accounting: A course on accounting, my bird course for the term.

For my Spring term, I’ll likely be doing:

• CS 349 – User Interfaces: I took the course last Winter but dropped it because it conflicted with Operating Systems (which was more important). Likely coding in X11/Java and might be doing Android application development.
• ACTSC 221 – Mathematics of Investment: One of my bird courses for the term. I keep explaining to people it’s a course based around one formula. The course is based around calculation mortgage rates and interest.
• SPAN 101 – Introduction to Spanish 1: My other bird course. Spanish is close enough to French that I shouldn’t have a hard time picking it up. It’s also done by the first week of July so I’ll likely have an early final and only 2 exams to prepare for in August.