Checksum Arcanius

That right, folks, Ryan needs a new car!

May this day and this season bring lasting joy, peace, and gratitude.

And now, my favorite Christmas Hymn, What Child Is This:

What Child is this, who laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Ever wanted to remove that driver for the hardware you no longer have installed? Well, with this information [techrepublic.com], now you can. Copied here for convenience:

Takeaway: Did you know that unless you uninstall a device driver on a Windows XP machine that it still may be sucking up valuable system resources? Here are step-by-step instructions on how you can view and remove these unnecessary devices.

When you install a device driver on a Windows XP machine, the operating system loads that driver each time the computer boots regardless of whether the device is present—unless you specifically uninstall the driver. This means that drivers from devices that you have long since removed from your system may be wasting valuable system resources.

Follow these steps to view and remove these unnecessary device drivers:

1. Press [Windows]+[Break] to bring up the System Properties dialog box.
2. Select the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.
3. Click the New button below the System Variables panel.
4. In the New System Variable dialog box, type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices in the Variable Name text box and 1 in the Variable Value text box.
5. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again.
6. Select the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
7. In Device Manager, go to View | Show Hidden Devices.
8. Expand the various branches in the device tree and look for the washed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
9. To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

Win32Driver…
javax.comm…

This is ridiculous!

It shouldn’t be this hard, Sun.

One of my implementations:

Read the rest of this entry »

Friday night, the term paper was submitted and I was officially DONE with school for the quarter.

Yay.

CSE 378 – I’m gonna be bold and say 4.0
CSE 322 – I think I did well… 3.8
BioEn 302 – Lets be optimistic and say 3.9
Bioen 304 – Lets be honest and say 3.0

After thinking about it for a while, and talking to a fellow student, I am strongly considering changing from Computer Engineering to Computer Science. The transition process is supposed to be fairly straightforward. The reasons:

Pros:

• I am already recieving an “engineering” degree — Bioengineering
• “Computer Science” is more well-known than is “Computer Engineering”
• I can take pretty much the same classes, but EE 233 is no longer a requirement (I was looking to petition it away at any rate)
• I already have the neccesary foreign language and writing credits (And I get to utilize these credits!)
• “Computer Science & Bioengineering” sounds better than “Computer Engineering and Bioengineering.” I think this is because the repeated sound is dropped. Furthermore, degrees that sound different (ie, not repeating “engineering”) sound like more was done to get them both (which is somewhat true, because of my many credits). This is primarily psychological, but it seems to me to be true.

Cons:

• I need 3 more VLPA credits
• Here at the UW at least, Computer Engineering is actually a slightly harder degree to get. I won’t be taking it any easier as a CS major, but in the future it may become the better-regarded major. For right now though, CS seems to be more well-known.
• A name is a dumb reason to change majors

Here is what my schedule might look like (note the few changes, marked with *):

Winter 2007 (16)
BioE 303 (4) — Signal Processing (BioE core)
BioE 305 (4) — Analysis of Physiological Systems & Transport (BioE core)
CSE 451 (4) — Operating Systems (CS Senior Elective)
CSE 466 (4) — Software for Embedded Systems (CS Senior Elective)

Spring 2007 (16)
BioE 357 (4) — Molecular & Cellular Bioengineering I (BioE Core)
BioE 481 (4) — Research & Design Fundamentals (BioE Core)
CSE 461 (4) — Introduction to Networks (CS Senior Elective)
CSE 471 (4) — Computer Organization & Design (CS Senior Elective)*

Summer 2007
Quit Job (?), Find Bioengineering Research Laboratory
Need 3 VLPA Credits*

Autumn 2007 (16)
BioE 482 (4) — Senior Capstone Research/Design (BioE Core)
BioC 405 (3) — Introduction to Biochemistry (BioE Requirement)
CSE 467 (4) — Advanced Digital Design (CS Senior Elective)
CSE 401 (4) — Compilers (CS Senior Elective)*

Winter 2008 (15)
BioE 482 (4) — Senior Capstone Research/Design (BioE Core)
BioE 470 (4) — Systems Engineering & E-Medicine (BioE Senior Elective)
BioE 490 (3) — Biomaterials (BioE Senior Elective)
CSE 490i (4) — Neurobotics (CS Senior Elective, BioE Senior Elective by Petition)

Spring 2008 (16)
BioE 455 (4) — BioMEMS (BioE Senior Elective)
BioE 457 (4) — Molecular & Cellular Bioengineering II (BioE Senior Elective)
CSE 444 (3) — Introduction to Database Systems (CS Senior Elective)
CSE 477 (5) — Hardware Design Capstone (CS Senior Elective, if allowed)