ibneko

Finally upgraded my iPhone to iOS 5, since the untethered jailbreak just came out.

If you own an iPhone 3GS or 4, now's the best time to do so, since Apple will sign iOS 5.0.1 installation requests and there's no need to try to spoof the APTicket system yet. (I think there's also no way to do so either. I kept trying to use Cydia and TinyUmbrella as the SHSH blob host, and it kept failing on me - error 1600. Ssooo, if you're hitting error 1600, chances are, you have gs.apple.com pointed to localhost or Cydia in your hosts file, and you should either a) remove that line in your hosts file, or b) run TinyUmbrella and uncheck that box that says to set hosts to Cydia upon quit. )

iOS 5 is surprisingly shiny. And wifi syncing? All these nifty features everyone else has been using and I haven't had! But now I can play with them too! Wheee~ ::small squeals of joy::

Now slowly reinstalling everything onto the phone. iTunes is handling a lot of it, but a good amount of the jailbroken stuff has to be installed by hand.

I'm in Taiwan right now.

Been to Taipei, Hsinchu, and I'm in Kaohsiung right now.

I can't wait for California to get our High Speed Rail system. HSR is so awesome....

[edit] More snippets of thought:
• So much good cheap food. I'm going to miss this. Delicious delicious stuff for $1 USD
 • MOS burgers! Everywhere! Although I've only had it once.
• Fooooooooooood.
• Hm, my chinese is terrible now. There's stuff I know I know, but it'll slip my mind when I need it. Phrases like, "Donate" (to explain why my hair is so long). "Bus", "taxes", etc are ones that come to mind.
• Watching chinese subtitles on tv helps refresh some of these characters. I should probably do this more. Don't have the time though. Blah.
• Man, all you can use 3G iPad connection for my dad for about $20 USD/mo, no contract required. So jealous. Unfortunately, my iPhone 4 isn't unlocked, so I can't use that SIM card. I really should rectify that. :\ Unfortunately, doing so would mean I'd lose all the music I have on it right now, so that's just not an option.
• United Premier doesn't get me access to the United lounge. ::slightly irked:: I got in with my dad though, since he's United 1k.
• Got jeans. Was pricier than the jeans I tend to get, but maybe it won't fall apart so quickly. Or I need to change my bike saddle. I dunno. I keep wearing out the crotch area of my jeans, where the bike seat meets my inner thighs. It's rather irritating.
• Dear mosquitoes, I'm NOT your noms! Leave me aloooooone!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10101014028450670&l=e91c138424

Sauce was especially good (not shown)

Recipe:
http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/dessertsandsweets/r/gfbreadpudding.htm

Disclaimer: My science (or understanding of sound waves) may be slightly off.

There's a stupid low frequency rumble noise that happens approximately once every second. I can only hear it in about 3/4 of my room, covering both my bed and desk, unfortunately.

I'm suspecting two different sources of noise, or something is reflecting the sound waves and causing constructive interference near the center of my room.

Unfortunately, it's not my hard drives, as I first suspected.

It kept me from sleeping for a few hours last night. Doesn't seem to have let up. :\

It's annoying though. Blargh.

I'm taking the Artificial Intelligence class and the Machine Learning class offered by Stanford. Both are online sources, and both are free. So far, they're not too bad, although I've clearly forgotten some probability stuff.

I'm taking the advanced track, with homework and exams. Unfortunately, I seem to still have my old problem of procrastination. Blegh.

I'm also really easily distracted. Was I this easily distracted back in college? o.O

I'm taking the free Stanford online courses Introduction to AI and Machine Learning.

There is homework due about 4 hours. Whoops.

I don't really update LiveJournal anymore. :(

Let's see. Life updates:
Still at Roost.com. Nothing new there, really.

Working on PuzzleBang (http://www.puzzlebang.com/) a puzzle contest we'll be running at UIUC's ACM R|P conference this year. I wrote half the puzzles, and my college roommate wrote the other half. Hopefully, it'll be awesome.

NYC the coming weekend, then UIUC for ACM R|P the weekend after that.

It wasn't as difficult as I had feared. Although I'm not sure the investment in equipment will make it worthwhile.

Purchased:
1) A better jack (the one included with the car is kinda crappy). $23
2) A funnel that lets me measure just how much I'm about to put in. Around $5-8? Well worth the cost, I think.
3) Oil pan to catch the used oil. Includes lid and spout for easy emptying later. $5-6.

The filter was only $5. 5 quart Mobil 1 5W-30 was $20-something?

Followed the instructions here: http://john1701a.com/prius/prius-oilchange_iconic.htm

Didn't use a Filter Wrench. Getting it off required rubber bands for extra grip, but that wasn't too bad. Although I'm worried it might not be tight enough - I couldn't quite reach the recommended 3/4 turn after it hit the edge. Maybe closer to 5/8.

Didn't use a stand - ended up using the 1.5 ton jack on one side and the prius jack on the other side as backup, with a 2x4 and a 1x4 under the front wheel.

So I'm finally playing with the Ultimate Microcontroller Pack I picked up at Maker Faire 2011. Soldered the header onto my LCD unit and I now have "hello, world!" displayed, along with a countdown timer. Of course, this is all from an example, so I haven't really learned anything new, aside from discovering how bloody easy it is.