When I added Digg to RSSowl last December, it was a red letter day for my content consumption. Digg seemed to cover every random event in the realm of technology. It seemed to make up for the shortcomings of Slashdot. However, there is no ideal solution for information distribution.
With the addition of categories like World & Business, Sports, and Videos, Digg is approaching a critical mass of content. Even as an unemployed college student, there is not enough free time in the day to digg through the huge number of stories that make the front page. The logical solution is to only subscribe to the Technology section. However, there are stories that are still worthwhile in those other categories.
In the 604 days of Digg there have been 466,263 stories (as of this moment anyway). Using a straight average that amounts to about 32 new stories every hour. In reality this is an increasing and potentially exponential trend, especially since the launch of Digg V3.
In the meantime, there is an over abundance of content available via Digg. These stories are promoted by a very small percentage of registered users. Even the most popular article in the history of Digg received only about 1/9 th of the available diggs. However, a single front-page article will still receive tens of thousands of visits. In other words, a high percentage of visitors are freeloaders.
I don’t particularly see a problem with social freeloaders on Digg except for the fact that it results in a distinct oligarchy of submission. Those few users that have taken a vow of celibacy to devote all their time and effort to digging, commenting, and submitting stories control the majority of front page content.
As with the rest of society, it is easy to stay on top once you get there. Being in the top ten of the recently active 96,900 users (or all time 248,363 users) on Digg results in having more than a few friends that compulsively digg everything that user submits. There is little difference between this form of inflation and simply having multiple accounts.
Example: Digital Gopher These are the last three stories that Digital Gopher has submitted:
Here is a list of the people who have dugg them thus far. The names in bold appear on at least two lists, the twelve usernames that are italicized appear on all three.
This would not be quite as interesting if not for the fact that two of these submissions received less than 20 diggs. Note: I have no particular gripe against Digital Gopher; he submits interesting stories and has a Transformer for his icon.
In closing, Digg isn't really collapsing, it is just so large that it burries individual users, content, and servers. The democracy of it's inception has been traded for an oligarchy. It's up to the users to take it back through active participation.
A few weeks ago, I was asked by the principal of my former high school to come up with a list of things students should know about computers before leaving for college or careers. It took quite a bit of thought since my perspective is somewhat skewed. I value my graphics design, video editing, and other nerdy skills much higher than some of the more basic functions.
I needed to step back and consider a lot of the skills I have previously taken for granted. These are skills that I consider rudimentary, but yet are things that I use frequently throughout a given week at college. Most importantly, these are not being adequetly taught.
Word Processing
Basic formatting
Bold, Italic, Underline
Single / Double Spacing
Bullets
Numbering
Tables
Columns
Images
Symbols
Equation Editor
Equations are useful, especially in science labs. While often required, it adds an air of professionalism to the document.
Spreadsheets
Functions
Adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing
Summations
Averages
Data analysis
Graphing/Plotting
Types of graphs
Trend lines
Formatting
Maximizing visibility
Presentations
Readability
Backgrounds
Not using busy backgrounds that distract
Not using backgrounds that affect readability
Text colors
Professionalism
Not using pointless cute clip art on every page
Not using useless sounds
Appropriate animations
Uniformity
Formatting
Bulleted lists
Text boxes
Images
Animations & Transitions
Internet
Attachments
Safe Surfing
Avoiding viruses & spyware
Protecting self and identity - MySpace etiquette is not something most students will really listen to in school. However, it should still be addressed. The idea of “it can’t happen to me” is one of the most pervasive and dangerous characteristics of my generation today.
Searching
In high school, students are taught how to look up authoritative information that can be used in a formal setting. However, there are more than a few questions that I have each day that are readily answered by Google.
If you haven't noticed, Windows has a handy "Places Bar" on the left hand side of most Save/Open dialogue boxes. It contains options such as My Documents, Desktop, and My Computer. However, tt is not limited to those default options. TweakUI, one of the Windows Powertoys, has the ability to modify these locations.
Here is how:
Open TweakUI
Common Dialogs-->Places Bar
Custom Places Bar
Select locations from the list or type the address of your own
In the spirit of the Firefox Cheat Sheet and the Thunderbird Cheat Sheet, I have created a Cheat Sheet for Microsoft Word. It is simply an organized list of the more common and useful keyboard shortcuts.
Firefox certainly has more than a few Top Ten lists of extensions floating around. I know, because I wrote one of them. However, its unsung brother has not had as much publicity in this regard. Here are some of the more useful Thunderbird extensions. Also, check out Leslie Franke's Thunderbird Cheat Sheet.
Contacts Sidebar - Have a listing of contacts on the sidebar instead of using the Address Book feature.
Quote Colors - Color codes quoted sections in emails. This is a great tool for long reply sections and forwarded emails.
Webmail - This extension allows the inclusion of webmail like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail in Thunderbird.
Switch Proxy - This is particularly useful for users that frequently move from network to network.
Minimize to Tray - Minimize Thunderbird to the tray instead of taking up valuable Taskbar space. Also, this extension provides the option of minimizing to the tray on close.
Quicktext - This extension allows for the insertion of pertinent variables such as "Attachment: Filename" and information from the Address Book. It also has the feature of inserting text or html files as plain text.
Delete Junk - Deletes all messages in a folder marked as junk from the context menu. If your Junk Mail Controls don’t include deleting the Junk Mail, then this extension is a must.
As always, feedback is appreciated. These are the extensions I have come across over the last few years, but I’m sure there are other useful ones out there. Let me know what they are.
The abilities of Google are not limited to typing simple queries in the search bar. No, you can’t find your keys with it yet, but there are different ways of searching and different keywords that you can use. These features are used to ensure that the desired information is readily accessible. Here are few of those phrases, syntax, and keywords that make searching easier and more efficient.
Characters & Words:
"fooing foo" - Placing text inside a set of quotes and searches for the exact phrase
-foo- the - before a word will locate pages that do not contain particular word.
+foo - The plus is placed before a word to ensure that it is included in the search
~foo - the tilde searches for both the word it is placed before and its common synonyms.
foo * - The asterisk can be used as a wildcard. It can be used as parts of words or entire words.
in- The in function can be used to convert units from one type to another. This function includes everything from mass, length, number bases, to currency.
Filters
site:foo.com - confine the search to a particular website
link:foo.com - find the sites that link to a particular website
filetype:pdf - restrict the search to a particular type of document
safesearch:foo - remove adult content from the search results
Special
define:foo - find the definition of a particular word from a wide variety of sources. Google heavily indexes wikipedia, which quite often provides answers to this query.
phonebook:foo - find the phonebook listings for a particular item
movie:foo - find reviews and show times for a particular movie
movie:location - find a list of show times at the theaters in a certain location
stocks: find out information about a particular stock
weather:location - instead of looking out the window, find the forecast for a given location
cache:foo.com - display the Google cache for a particular website
info:foo.com - find out more information about a page
related:foo.com - find related websites to the given website
Usage Rights - the Advanced Search has a Usage Rights option for pages that registered with the Creative Commons More Info.
Special Numbers: Google also automatically finds information on particular strings of numbers when they are searched.
Note: I do not really want to limit Random-Tech to topics that are strictly technical in nature. I hope to expand in a few different directions, but in particular how technology applies to different venues. Technology is everywhere in war, in peace, and in education.
A world war is a particular war characterized by nations from around the world fighting each other. A world war is on a much broader scale than the regional conflict brewing in the Middle East. At first I was skeptical about the capacity of the current clash in the Middle East to reach that level of hostility, but upon further examination, it is approaching the realm of the possible.
The Players: Israel: Since its rebirth in 1948, Israel has been a nation of soldiers. All Jewish men and women over the age of 18 are required to serve three and two years respectively in the Israel Defense Force. After this term of service, the men remain in the reserves until the age of 40. From new advanced shoulder weapons like the Corner Shot to advanced tanks and warplanes, Israel is a country ready for war.
Lebanon: This country contains the Hezbollah. It is a republic with the three highest government offices reserved for different religions. The President must be a Maronite Catholic Christian. The Prime Minister must be a Sunni Muslim. The Speaker of the Parliament must be a Shi'a Muslim (Via Wikipedia). So far, the conflict seems to be primarily limited to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
Hezbollah: This militant political party was "inspired by the success of the Iranian Revolution." Essentially, they are set on turning Lebanon into an Islamic state, Iran-style. Inspired, financed, trained, and supplied by Iran and Syria, this militant organization does not distinguish between American and Israeli. Their primary goal seems to be terror. One of their more successful attacks took place in 1983 when a suicide bomber murdered 241 US Marines stationed in Beirut. For the moment they have evolved from suicide bombers to rocket launchers.
Iran: Last October Iran's president called for Israel to "be wiped off the map". Now, the closest they have managed to get is to remove the nation from their maps of the world. Some people are arguing for containment, Cold-War style. However, that probably will not work too well in the long run – we will still need to buy oil from them after all.
Syria: A parliamentary republic, this nation has diplomatic and military ties to Lebanon, Iran, and Russia.
Russia: Russia has always had its hand in the Middle East. However, their role is becoming more worrisome than ever before. It is not the nuclear technology they have been selling to Iran or the SAM-18 missile system they sold to Syria earlier this year, it's the military alliances they have been forging. The whole of the Muslim world is now thoroughly entangled with the former Soviets.
The Technology: Hezbollah: For the most part, the weapons possessed by the Hezbollah are learned about when they strike Israeli cities. According to the Asharq Alawsat over 3,000 Hezbollah guerillas have trained in Iran and are armed with over 11,500 missiles from the same country. So far:
Katyusha - Short range rockets. They have a limit of about 12 miles and were developed by the Russians during the World War II. Over 120 of these have been launched into Israel thus far.
Ra'ad - This Iranian made missile system is more power and better ranged than the Katyusha. It can carry a warhead of up to 100 kilograms (220 lbs) to a target over 200 miles away. (Via Defense Tech)
Zelzal-2 - Also supplied by Iran, this type of rocket lacks a guidance system but can carry 600 kilograms (1,322 lbs) of explosives 125 miles. (Via Global Security)
Fajr-5 - Another Iran made surface-to-surface artillery rocket system has a very limited range of 60-70 kilometers
This image by Kathryn Cramer shows the effective striking range of Hezbollah missiles and a list of the rockets and their ranges. As it turns out, the majority of weapons that Hezbollah has come from Iran, which in turn came from Russia, China, and North Korea. Here is a list of the rockets and missles that Iran has obtained or developed.
Israel: For a detailed listing of Israel's weapons, check out the Wikipedia article.
Defense Tech has a fantastic article on how Israel may defend itself from the seemingly continuous rocket attacks from Hezbollah. The article outlines two different types of technology for shielding the country from the airborne death. One option is using a laser to fry the incoming projectiles. The alternative seems to pack a bit more punch: it involves an automated Gatling gun firing 4,500 rounds per minute at the enemy missiles.
This latter system, Phalanx developed by Raytheon, was originally designed for the Navy for ship defense. At the present moment, it seems the most practical, however there are definite safety concerns resulting from thousands of bullets being fired into the air. The laser option has the potential to be much more precise; however it has safety concerns of its own. Current laser technology relies on highly toxic reactants to produce a beam powerful enough to smite a rocket.
Closing: This is one of the first conflicts in recent history that the United States is not directly involved in (yet). Not marginalizing the cost of human life, it provides an interesting look at the military technology of the Hezbollah, Israel, and their allies. This war also demonstrates how little has changed in the last few centuries. We may have developed new and interesting ways of killing each other, but many of the same tactics are still in use. Blockades are still used, bridges are still destroyed. Little in the overall strategy has changed apart from standing in ranks shoulder to shoulder. While the generals may be wiser with the lives of their men, many of the same actions are still necessary.
Israel has tried the diplomatic route and that has failed repeatedly. The only thing that can stand up to force is more force. At this point in time, it seems as though the Hezbollah made the wrong move in provoking Israel's wrath. An anonymous quotation pronounces:
"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."
I do not pretend that Israel has not been the provocateur from time to time, but they have never been as openly aggressive as their enemies. They have used the force necessary to defend their sanctity as a sovereign nation. That is the main difference between being aggressive and being reactive. Israel, like the United States is rarely the one to start wars, but they make a point of finishing them.
Thus far, the political arena seems to be leaning on the side of Israel. Bush voiced his support early on. Now, even Hillary Clinton, says that "we will stand with Israel because Israel is standing for American values as well as Israeli ones." We'll see how it all plays out and what it means for the world, other than higher gas prices. Thus far, John Stewart still has the best coverage of this conflict.
I am one of "those" people that avoid the mouse as if it still carryies the bubonic plague. I have gone far out of my way to find ways to minimize my use of it. Here are a few tips for “trapping the mouse.”
Keyboard Keys
Enter - Pressing the Enter key activates the selected button, option, or object. This includes submitting a form or pushing a button. The enter key can eliminate a lot of pointless clicking.
Space - This can be used to activate the currently selected objcet, from buttons, to checkboxes, to radio buttons.
Tab - This cycles the selection from button to button and field to field. If pressed in combination with shift, it moves the selection back one field.
Shortcut Keys Many of the shortcut keys are standard across programs. This, hopefully, makes them easier to remember. Using shortcuts save time because they are more direct links to common functions. Here are a few of the bare essentials:
Ctrl+A - Select All
Ctrl+C - Copy
Ctrl+N - New
Ctrl+P - Print
Ctrl+S - Save
Ctrl+V - Paste
Alt+F4 - Exit
Windows Key The windows key is the ultimate modifier key. It has numerous system level shortcuts to make life faster and easier. My favorites are:
Win+E - Explorer
Win+R - Run
Win+D - Desktop
There are quite a few others, but these are the ones that I use on a regular basis.
Alt+Tab The best way to quickly switch between applications is with this key combination. Push and hold the Alt key, then press Tab a few times to cycle through the programs that are currently running.
Launchy "Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager."
I love this program for opening things quickly. It is not just a Start Menu replacement, it's a definite upgrade. The best part is that Launchy is simple:
Push the hotkey (of your choice) to open Launchy.
Type a few letters in the name of the program you want.
Winamp Key Controller Winamp is my music player of choice (version 2.91 in particular because it does the two things that I want it to: play music and not hog resources). This plug-in lets you designate system wide hot-keys for controlling it. This is particularly handy if you're on a laptop without media keys. Link
The First Person Shooter genre of video games has always been a narrow one. They typically involve one person, a gun bobbing at the bottom of the screen, and an ridiculous number of enemies. There are few games that really stand out as great innovators in this genre as a result, but those few games really left their mark.
Several of these noteworthy games, such as Red Faction and Soldier of Fortune, were entirely focused on their innovations, and left little room for other advancements. More recent games rarely incorporate more than a handful of these features. However, the general trend is one moving towards a more dynamic, open, environment with various features that add realism to the game.
Top Ten Innovative FPS(chronologically):
Wolfenstein 3D (1992) - This was the father of FPS such as Doom and Half-Life and the wizened old grandfather of the FPS of today. It came into the world and introduced the genre. From there it has quite literally exploded.
Doom (1993) - Doom truly defined the genre of First Person Shooters. It had the BFG and Chainsaw. Enough said.
Quake (1996) - Quake introduced both true 3D graphics and the now classic keyboard and mouse control system. These are two innovations that truly gave rise to the FPS empire. Quake also features the ever popular railgun.
Golden Eye (1997) - The first console FPS. It was one of the first games to make use of bullet tracking. This technology has since enabled the headshots of today. This feature is now present in nearly every shooter.
Half-Life (1998) - The first "story based" FPS. It was so different because until this point, the majority of FPS games were mindless "run and gun" types. Half-Life is based on the Quake engine, has had numerous expansions, and sold over fifteen million copies.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (1998) - The first squad based, simulation shooter. It is centered on tactics and realism. The realism includes a normal amount of health and permanent character death. The entire series has great innovations including Rainbow 6: 3 which pioneered voice commands in the FPS genre.
Soldier of Fortune (2000) - The main selling point of this game was the immense amounts of graphic violence. The gore is based around the GHOUL system which creates 26 independent damage zones on the enemy characters. This allows for decapitation, dismemberment, and other forms of graphic death.
Red Faction (2001) - This game featured GeoMod technology. It allows the player to gently "modify" the terrain with explosives, rockets, and giant drilling machines. This is also one of the first games to freely incorporate vehicles into the FPS genre. Editor's note: Red Faction also has one of the best weapon sets of any game. Ever.
Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) - Halo has three features that make it noteworthy in the annals of First Person Shooters:
Vehicles: The game demands the use of vehicles for transportation and heavier weaponry. This is one of the first instances of easy to use vehicles in both campaign and multiplayer modes.
Integrated Melee & Grenades: Before these functions were entirely secondary functions, but in Halo they emerge to be integral parts of game play.
Weapons: Halo demands the use of different weapons in different situations and limits the carrying capactiy to two. This adds a touch of realism in that it forces the player to make decisions which ultimately effect their capacity for killing
Far Cry (2004) - Use of CryENGINE allows for vast, open air levels. This is particularly noticeable in the multiplayer arenas. The huge levels allow for a more open ended campaign, with more than one route to accomplishing most objectives. Crysis, a game that uses the a new version of the CryENGINE and will be released this fall.
Honorable Mention (FPS):
Doom 3 (2004) - Real-time lighting.
Half-Life 2 (2004) - Advanced use of physics.
Honorable Mention (non-FPS):
Kill.Switch (2003) - This game is entirely centered on the use of cover and firing from safety.
Max Payne (2001) - Max Payne was popularized by the use of "bullet-time" slow motion in game play.
I'm not sure which game should receive the title of "Most Influential FPS." I'll leave it to my readers to decide which was the most important. Someday soon, I hope, there will be a game that changes everything... again.
Now that Digg is the most visited of the community based tech news sites, some of the records its members hold should come into the light. Here are a few of those records. More records will be posted in the future as more refined search techniques are developed or I am otherwise alerted.
If any of these records are inaccurate (either wholly or via new data), comment below. I wonder how accurate these would be if adjusted for user inflation. In the meantime, please digg this.
First of all, if you're not using Firefox, you should be. It's faster, more secure, and just generally better (hard to quantify, but the base features make it wonderful). The addition of a few handy extensions helps it to approach perfection. Here are my Top Ten extensions for general browsing. Needs may vary, especially if you are a developer, but these are great for everyone.
Adblock - Does precisely what it says. The perk is that you can customize what ads are blocked. In other words it needs to be done manually. Yet, the wildcard feature makes it easy to block everything coming from a particular location http://website.com/ads /*
BugMeNot - "BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic informationa" Essentilly, it helps you log you in to the New York Times, Washington Post, etc, without the hassle of setting up an account.
PDF Download - Lets you choose whether you want to view the PDF, download it, view it as HTML, or do nothing. This is useful for when you unknowingly stumble into a PDF trap.
Tab Mix Plus- A slew of options for your tabs, unless you're one of those weird people that only uses one or two at a time. My favorite functions are: forcing links to open in new tabs rather than new windows, backing up my sessions in case of a crash, and adding a loading bar to each tab. Here is my configuration: Link
IE Tab - This is for those websites that refuse to support Firefox. IE Tab allows you to open that webpage in IE in a Firefox tab.
QuickProxy- This extension drops a button on your status bar making it very easy to turn proxy settings on and off.
Video Downloader - This lets you download almost any video or flash animation. Not quite a simple Save Target, but it is the next best thing.
Greasemonkey - A script manager for Firefox. These scripts perform various functions and can be individually tailored. My personal favorite is the Dugg Mirror script which adds a link to mirror every Digg article. -- UPDATE -- the old DuggMirror script died, so I changed the link to a new one.
Nuke Anything Enhanced - Gives the power to "nuke anything" on a webpage. This is extremely useful for striping the advertisements (even plain text) when preparing a document for printing. Unlike Adblock, this is only temporary.
Linkifier- This extension converts plain text links into fully clickable ones. This is not like other extensions that allow you to open the link when you highlight it, Linkifier actually changes plain-text links into normal HTML style ones.
Give these a try, they're quite useful. What is your favorite extension?
Update: The BugMeNot link actually points to the extension now. My bad.
Microsoft has a few new XP PowerToys. Here are a few of the more useful downloads. Others like Open Command Window Here and Webcam Timershot may be very handy, but that is more personal preference.
ClearType Tuner- Tweaks the onscreen fonts to help them display better. The before and after difference is quite remarkable.
Tweak UI - This utility has been around forever, however, it is still the ultimate customization tool. It provides many tweaks that would otherwise require some creative registry editing.
Html Slide Show Wizard- Creates delightful HTML slideshows with smooth transitions. However, many of the delightful features only appear in Internet Explorer.
Power Calculator- A decent, free graphing utility is something that Windows has never had. This is an excellent addition for anyone that deals with basic graphing, trig, or logs on a regular basis.
That being said, my true recommendation goes to Virtual TI. It is a fully useable version of your handy TI graphing calculator of choice. Nothing beats an '89.
Image Resizer- I'm not one for cluttering up my context menus, but this is a quick and easy way to resize an image. Either select one of the defaults or enter your own custom size. Set the largest dimensions you can tolerate and the utility will shrink the image to fit within that box with the original aspect ratios. It creates a copy of the original with the new dimensions.
I very highly recommend the ClearType Tuner and the Image Resizer. As I said before, the others entirely subject to personal preference. Link
I have a very narrow band of interest in television. As a result, I do not watch much television. What appreciation I have is limited to news, fake news, and educational shows. When I do watch the boob tube, I do not really mind commercials in their current form -- I have to go to the bathroom at some point.
The problem isn't so much the screen time or the amount of attention paid to the advertisement, it is convincing the person that the product is worthwhile. The time honored approach is sex appeal, e.g., "if you buy this, you will have sex with supermodels." However, that only works on a slim, horny, percent of the population. Now, if they took that same supermodel, stuck her in a store next to the product, results might be a bit more visible.
Half the battle in convincing someone of the value of a product is convincing them that it is relevant for them. I find that at best one commercial in ten is relevant to me. The answer is more directed advertising.
I saw a recent article (via Digg), about ABC discussing just that. The responses were typical: "better content or I'll pirate it," "give me freedom or give me... something shiny." The only viable solution is for both parties to meet somewhere in the middle. Here are a few possible solutions I came up with:
Possible:
First and Foremost - Put all the ads at the beginning of the content, watch a few ads before watching what you actually care about.
Product Placement - This is quite the opposite of product pounding. It is more subliminal, and perhaps just as effective. There was a New Scientist article about subliminal advertising earlier this year.
Show Specific - Target advertisements to the show that they interrupt. Tampax and Star Trek do not mix as well as Star Trek and Xbox 360.
Less-Likely:
Choose Your Own Adv...ertisement - Pick from a list of possible commercials to watch.
Watch Once - This is primarily targeted at DVR users, watching the advertisements "pays” for the show and skips the commercials for future viewings.
Pay Per View - Pay a small amount to remove all the ads. Pay more for the Super Bowl (why you'd want to skip them escapes me) and less for re-runs of The Waltons.
Yeah, Right:
Episode Exact - Target advertisements to particular episodes of a show. This would require a lot more effort, but might prove to be more effective. For instance, the classic Seinfeld episode The Restaurant might be aired alongside commercials for actual Restaurants. Connecting content and commercials would go a long way to making them seem relevant.
Individual Advertisements - Optional user surveys, and thus receiving ads for things you care about. I really wonder how many people are interested in Pure Dell Xenon Servers while watching Desperate Housewives. At the same time, I'm not likely to be buying a new car in the indefinite future; there's something about being a poor college student.
Ultimate Solution - This will be one incorporating several of these ideas. Better yet, giving users the option of selecting what advertisement delivery mechanism is best for them.
The bottom line is that advertisements are what support the great television behemoth. Compromise is essential on both ends to maintain this "valuable" medium. However, the one caveat is that few of these solutions are possible given the current broadcast technologies.
Only when IP-TV, or something like it, become a reality will many of these solutions be viable. Some ideas, like increasing product placement and pushing all the commercials to the beginning, are certainly plausible and becoming increasingly likely as companies explore new possibilties.
What do you think the future of television commercials should be?
Note: This article was written in response to this article about ABC discussing disabling the fast forward button on DVRS. As I was finishing this, I discovered the recent Wall Street Journal article on what real companies are doing now.
Mission: Technology, like it or not is everywhere. I happen to be a member of the former group with a desire to bridge the gap. This blog will explore technology and how it impacts our lives. It will look at the technology of today and how it might change in the future. This Mission Statement is entirely subject to change.
Me: I'm a student at Grove City College pursuing Physics and Computer Science. I also enjoy graphics design, video production, writing, education, politics, and public speaking. My spare time is spent playing frisbee & volleyball, reading, working on my book, and teaching an adult computer class in my community. Professionally, I'm a full-time student, freelance nerd, and Persian rug dealer.
I am a sophomore studying Computer Science at Grove City College. My passions are programming, graphics design, video production, writing, politics, and education.
If you haven't noticed, Windows has a handy "Places Bar" on the left hand side of most Save/Open dialogue boxes. It contains options such as My Documents, Desktop, and My Computer. However, tt is not limited to those default options. 
