Goruck GR1

January 7th, 2013

I recently purchased a Goruck GR1 backpack, and I love it. It’s hands down the best backpack bag I’ve ever owned.

It took me over a year to pull the trigger on making the purchase. The price point isn’t quite the norm for a backpack, but now after owning one, I see it’s completely justified. Even after I decided I’d purchase, I contemplated both the Radio Ruck and GR2 before I made my final decision. The Radio Ruck and GR2 being smaller and larger than the GR1 respectively both seemed like excellent packs, but wouldn’t fit my desired all purpose use like the GR1.

Carrying a laptop daily, and often times riding a sport-bike with the pack, I had major concerns with the stability of it on my back as I’d ride. In addition, having a compact profile while I’m on the bike in both a tucked position and more upright cruising position were important to me. The GR1 made these concerns non-issues. I suspect the single biggest contributor to the ergonomics is the frame sheet that is flush against the wearers back in the laptop/hydration-pack compartment. Considering the laptop is stored flush against the back, the feel of the bag doesn’t really change with different loads which is great.

Overall, this is just a solidly built bag. And even though I’m pretty gentle with my GR1, I have no doubt I could trash it, and it still hold up like a champ.

Have a look at the GR1 Explained article by Jason, the founder of Goruck.

Bin Laden is DEAD

May 1st, 2011

sudo rm -rf /bin/laden

via – @drance

State of the Term Spring '11

April 21st, 2011

Exactly 36 days remain until the end of this semester. As far as the semester goes, I’m over it and am just focused on the finish line.

It’s grind time.

I'm a winner

March 1st, 2011

I recently gave an oral presentation of my senior design research for a campus wide student research day, and won for my category (Computer Science). It’s kind of a big deal to me. Participants in my category even included two graduate students, so I’m definitely feeling a huge since of accomplishment at the moment. It’s actually the second time I’ve given the presentation, the first being for my senior design class. But being judged by complete strangers made the since of accomplishment feel more legit. There’s actually a chance that I’ll be chosen to represent my campus at the statewide CSU research competition –  we’ll see though. Regardless, I’m good as it stands.

Use Applescript to copy files from a shared folder with ease and without duplicates

February 10th, 2011

Recently I’ve begun to share a folder on Dropbox with some friends in which the contents are constantly changing without notice. The problem that arose for me when I viewed the shared folder is that I often couldn’t remember which files I’d already snatched up and which one’s I had not. I initially did the logical thing which was to go my local folder and compare it’s contents against the contents of the shared folder. But as the contents changed more quickly, the task became just too tedious. As a result, I made this simple Applescript as a time saver – Enjoy.


tell application "Finder"
	
	#change the text between double quotes to the folder for which you want
	#your new files copied FROM
	#ex. "Macintosh HD:Users:your_name_here:your_folder_here"
	set srcLocation to "Macintosh HD:Users:jbattle:dropbox:music:"
	set list_all_srcFiles to name of every file of folder srcLocation
	set list_all_srcFolders to name of every folder of folder srcLocation
	
	#change the text between double quotes to the folder for which you want
	#your new files copied TO
	#ex. "Macintosh HD:Users:your_name_here:your_folder_here"
	set destLocation to "Macintosh HD:Users:jbattle:music:iTunes:iTunes Music:"
	set list_all_destFiles to name of every file of folder destLocation
	set list_all_destFolders to name of every folder of folder destLocation
	
	repeat with current_file in list_all_srcFiles
		if list_all_destFiles contains current_file then
			#do nothing
		else
			tell application "Finder" to duplicate srcLocation & current_file to folder destLocation
		end if
	end repeat
	
	repeat with current_folder in list_all_srcFolders
		if list_all_destFolders contains current_folder then
			#do nothing
		else
			tell application "Finder" to duplicate srcLocation & current_folder to folder destLocation
		end if
	end repeat
	
	say "Your local copy is current"
	
end tell

Instructions for installation and configuration:

  1. Download the script to a location on your computer you can remember
  2. Open the script file
  3. Modify the line that reads “set destLocation…” per the comments in the code
  4. Modify the line that reads “set srcLocation…” per the comments in the code
  5. Click File > Save
  6. Close the script
  7. Move the script to the ~/Library/Scripts

You’re done. To run your script, select the script from the script menu bar icon and you haven’t wasted any time.

Note: For this script to work, folders for the srcLocation and destLocation must exist.

State of the Term Fall '10

January 14th, 2011

This post is long over due, but with the term completely over, it seems this post is right on time. The past term by far was my most difficult to date, consisting of Senior Design, Artificial Intelligence and Finite Automata (the beast of the bunch). Though it was also my most successful to date. Given that the term is over, I figure a recap is more appropriate than a status update.

Senior Design – My senior project was entitled Intelligent Network Security Using Genetic Algorithms. The project was more of a research project than a project in which the goal was merely to develop some random application. In brief, I created a network simulator to analyze pseudo UDP datagrams based on a set of rules and applied a GA to rank, select and generate new datagrams of the most highly ranked. The goal was to investigate the effectiveness of GAs in assisting in developing network rules for systems such as SNORT. Ultimately, my conclusion was that using GAs would be useful to a network administrator investigating possible threats on a network, but alone, they would likely not be a complete solution to developing network rules.

More important than my conclusion were the things I learned while doing the project which was comprised of an implementation, presentation and a written report. Initially, I approached each aspect of the project individually which proved inefficient. Upon realizing this, I began working on each aspect simultaneously so as not to have to revisit material I had covered/completed some time back which was no longer fresh in my mind.

With regard to programming the project I broke the project into components which I believe is a pretty common practice especially with object oriented implementations. For the straight forward sections of my project, I went directly to the terminal and began coding, but for most of the project it proved useful for me to write pseudo-code for the various components. For the longest, I was not a fan of taking this intermediate step, but it really allows for separation of algorithm design and actual development – in the long run, it’s an uber time saver.

At the completion of the project, I realized it’s much harder to write about what you’re doing than to do it. But from the writing I could see much more clearly, how effective/ineffective the project really was. It actually prompted me to change some aspects of the project (conclusion aside). If I could do it again, I would start writing what each section of code was to do before I began programming (I did it vice versa) – that being said, I’d probably have an entirely different project.

Finite Automata – I’m just glad this class is over. I still find it hard to really describe the concepts learned but the overall focus was on investigating the theory of what is computable.

Artificial Intelligence – This class was not quite what I was expecting, at least in content. I assumed we would delve more into intelligent systems and the like, but I think we really just scratched the surface of AI. There was a heavy emphasis on predicate calculus and Prolog. Though I see a direct connection between knowledge representation and Prolog, I still don’t care for the language. Despite that, we had to solve interesting riddles like Wirth’s, I’m My Own Grandpa using Prolog.

The highlight of the material in my opinion was Expert Systems. Though not a difficult idea to grasp, Expert Systems were the most practical of concepts and information we covered. It was near the end of the class, so maybe I was just fed up with Prolog. Relatedly, CLIPS for OS X is a pretty straight forward tool for developing expert system with good documentation. Though similar to Prolog, I picked it up much easier.

Now, only four class remain after which I’ll be to able finally close this chapter of my life.

Appendicitis

August 8th, 2010

Ouch!

Rest, Finally...

June 3rd, 2010

Simply put – the term is over and it ended well.  Relatedly, this summer will be the first term I haven’t been enrolled in classes since 2003 (summers included).  Needless to say, this break is long overdue.

State of the Term Spring '10

March 16th, 2010

It’s half way through the term and I thought, what better time to post the current status of the term. Having just smashed a midterm (the second in a series of three for calc) this morning, I’m in good spirits and am setting myself up for a little less stressful second half of the semester. Aside from calc, my other classes seem to be going fairly well, but I anticipate that changing to well very soon.

With spring break right around the corner, and this small but significant success under my belt, I’m definitely not slacking up now. I’m actually trying to pick up the pace to come back ahead of the game after the break.

Are You Serious...

September 14th, 2009

This post is kind of late, but who cares.  It was the first day of Calc II class and as with any first day the usual proceedings began to take place.

  1. professor states the syllabus isn’t ready (2 weeks later, it’s still not ready)
  2. professor ask, who wants to add
  3. review…
  4. 15min late group shows up
  5. lecture
  6. 10min before class ends lady strolls in w/her kid in a stroller and takes a seat (WTF)

Look, I totally understand people have responsibilities, but bringing your crumb-snatcher to class isn’t cool.  The kid didn’t make much verbal noise, but apparently didn’t now how to sit still. Needless to say, I had a look of shock and disgust on my face.