03/30/09

Today's class was very similar to last class, in the sense that I was able to see more oral presentations. I am very happy that I am having this opportunity, because the more presentations I watch, the less stressed I become and the better I feel about my own. Ultimately my presentation is Wednesday, and I can't wait to get it over with, so that I no longer have to stress about the Senior Extended Essay ever again. I am also extremely excited about presenting because I love debating and defending my arguments :D.

03/27/09

This class was very interesting because although not many technological things were done, I was able to go into some of the ongoing oral defece, which began today. This was extremely helpful for me, because I got to get a feel for the actual presentations, and what it would be like when I presented. Being able to had that experience, really allowed me to relax a bit and realize that it's not really as bad as everyone makes it seem and that all I have to do is prepare myself and it'll be fine.

03/26/09

This class was very interesting. Although I was not assigned a ton of things to do, I was able to research many things for my next project. I'm not that sure what specific project i'm going to do next, after I finish the How-To-Make-A-Wiimote guide, however I do have several ideas that might be very interesting. The one I think I will do is displayed in this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgrGjJUBF_I. It is called: Automatic Projector Calibration with Embedded Light Sensors, and is another of the Johnny Chung Lee Projects. About once a year I have cause to set up a projector, and every time I wonder why the projector doesn’t have a small camera embedded within it that it could use to aim, focus, and adjust the keystone and angle itself. UVa alumnus Johnny Chung Lee has created just such a system, which he demonstrates, once again, in this very impressive video. He provides some further examples to show that this has much wider applications than for setting up projectors.It might be difficult to make, but I am definitely ready for the challenge.

03/24/09

Today's class was very fun, given the fact that it was a change from the usual. Today was the technology showcase :D, and I felt very proud of myself due to the fact that my logo design was everywhere. During this period, I helped Ms. Norman relocate the equipment and set up in our station downstairs. We hooked up the projectors and turned on the computers and everything. Later on, when the bell rung, the rest of the PT class students joined us and helped us present. Everyone was dazzled, not only with the Caissa Web Site, but with the wiimotes. Mr. Delman was the most impressed of all with us. I was very happy with the results and ended up staying there until about 4:30 that the actual event ended. At the end of the event, I helped Ms. Norman bring up the equipment and placed it in her room. I really enjoyed today's class.

3/24/09

THE PEN WORKS!!!!!!! this class was the greatest class ever because the pen finally worked!!! although it was hard at first, i believe this project was a great test for my patience and it tought me many things about circuits and wireing. It was very very cool and in my opinion, although it was hard, it was totally worth it. I am really looking forward to what my next project might be. THE PEN WORKS!!!!!!!!!! YEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3/23/09

Today's class was the culmination of all my frustruations:p. A friend of mine called Gian Marco came and helped me build the pen, however in our efforts to attach the switch, one of the cables broke and was lost inside, so we had to rip the pen's guts out again. It was extreemely frustruating. Gian was also worried that his teacher, Ms. Waterworth, would find out that he was not doing his work and was skipping class. In the end however, we got to the same exact place where we started off, and when I realized this, I stopped celebrating :(. The pen is extreemely frustruating and it seems that with every step forward I take, I am pulled a mile back. I hope next class we can finish building the pen.

3/19/09

This class was very scary at one point. This was due to the fact that when I was assembling the pen, I almost fell from my chair because it was missing a wheel:p, and also because when I plugged in everything and attached everything, the pen got extremely hot, and the wire even more. I was very scary because the pen was even expelling a burnt smell. What caused this was that apparently when I inserted everything into the pen, the wires touched and therefore it affected the circuit. After taking apart the pen several times, I finally got it to work, but all I have to do now is attach the switch and insert the switch in the pen so that the circuit continues to work. Aside from the actual construction of the pen the other thing I have to do is write out the How To segment, so that other people who want to construct it will know how to. Today was a very interesting but scary class:p. I am very excited about next class because I will finally be able to finish and test my pen :D.

3/18/09

This class was very very very productive. I was able to finally get the pen to work!!! :D!!!!! The challenging and frustrating and disappointing part of that was that once I jammed everything into the pen, the wires got scrambled and loose and it no longer worked. I had to take the pen apart once again. Another challenge was that I got the light to turn on but not to turn off:p. I got a perpetual light:p. To fix it, I found out that what was going on was that the reason that happened was that the wires were touching. I fixed the wires and got the pen to work. Unfortunately, when I plugged it in to the pen, the wires got scrambled AGAIN! and so now I have to fix it AGAIN!. This is very very frustrating :p I hope to figure it out next class.

3/16/09

Today's class was very interesting, but also extremely frustrating. I was able to begin building my pen, which was very cool, however one of the major challenges I faced was that the picture provided by the web page and the explanations given were not clear, and so therefore I had to research and find a better image to guide me. Once I found the picture, I began building the pen. I got all the wires assembled but what ended up happening was that for some reason they did not work. I kept on trying but could not get it. I kind of have a feeling that the white wire I am using is not working. Next class I will try to change it.

10/13/09

Today's class was very productive. We were finally able to hook up all the devices and get them to work so that I could see the end result of this project. I am very excited about doing this. I brought in the required materials that I had to bring for homework, which were the Expo Marker with a removable cap on the bottom so that we could close it and the AA battery to power the pen. I began working on the pen and it was very cool. Ultimatly however, we did have a challenge, which was that at first the whole device to show me the end result was not working once again, however it wasn't that bad because we solved it in the end. I began ripping my pen apart which wsa extreemly fun. I have never seen the inside of an Expo Marker, or any marker for that matter before :p. It was a very interesting class.

03/12/09

Today's class was very productive. It was more or less a brainstorming class, due to the fact that we sat down and discoused my next project, and ultimatly I decided to do the LED Pen for the whiteboard, in other words, making the 10$ whiteboard. We tried to hook one up that was already working so that I could see the end result, however the challening part was that it did not work. I sat and researched the entire class on the materials and procedures needed to build the LED Pen. I believe that ultimatly I have more or less a clear idea on all the things I need to do. For homework I need to bring an Expo marker with a removable cap on the bottom, so that we can close it again, and a AA battery to power the pen. I am very excited about this project.

3/10/09

Today's class was largely more successful than the previous class. Although we still faced the challenge that access to photobucket.com was blocked, we were able to overcome it by signing in with Ms. Norman's account. I was able to work well on photobucket, given the fact that I learned how to use it in the previous class. I created a bunch of new albums and inserted them into the page. Another issue that arose was the fact that since I was in Ms. Norman's acount, we couldn't really upload the page on DreamWeaver, and although I was able to view the page, make adjustments, and save it, I unfortunately was not able to publish it, however what we will do is that Ms. Norman will open the web site on her computer and she will publish it herself, since I already inserted and saved the various albums. Today was a great class. We also did some stuff with the wii motes.

3/9/09

Today's class was a complete and utter failure. It was filled with things that went wrong, and ultimatly we were able to accomplish nothing this class period. well, in reality I did learn about photobucket and how it is used and all the cool things it can do, however when I went to apply my knowledge and work on the web site, we discovered that access to photobucket is denied in the school to students. So in reality we weren't able to do anything this class period. It was more challenges than any other thing today.

3/5/09

Today was a very productive class. We did face a challenge, which was that we were not able to save any changes at first, however later, the problem aparently resolved itself and we were able to save. The pictures however are in the process of uploding and I am not quite sure we can do that now, because before we had trouble saving it as well. Aside from that, today was awsome. The CAISSA web site is up and running and there is now a link right there on the home page. I am very excited about the fact that people are using it and it is up and running. Also, today we managed to take a ton of pictures of the teams during the games and we are trying to upload it on to the photo gallery page of the site. I also fixed the link of the schedule on each of the pages, due to the fact that the previous schedule was wrong because the Venezuelan team flight was delayed. Today was an awsome class :D!

3/4/09

During today's class we didn't have to do so many things because the web page is almost done and CAISSA is tomorrow!!!! yey!!! Well, during this class what I did was that I moved the weather link from being at the bottom of the page, to being on the left column below the Info on the DR link. There, in my opinion, the link will be more effective and will make people notice it, find it, and click on it. Therefore, it will in turn be much more usefull. There were no challenges during this period. I am very excited about the fact that the page will be finally published. :D!!! The page is finally complete:D!! yey!!!

3/3/09

During today's class we got a ton of things acomplished. I was able to insert the weather feature that we were hoping to put on, and it is now on all the pages and it is functioning. I was also able to finish up on the little editting things here and there. Aside from that, today we recieved a list of all the team players on each team and of the schedules for CAISSA. I was able to put in their names under their main home page, however because the bell rung, I wasn't able to fill in the info for the Varsity Basketball Boys Venezuela, however im hopping to do that in the near future, probably next class if it isn't taken care of already. Also, I linked all the pages to the schedule so that from any page, players can access their schedule. The only challenge I encountered today was trying to not get mixed up between the AC cougers and the EC cougars, given the fact that they are nearly the same. I also had to take care not to mix up the different countries:p. It was very confusing at times because they were a lot of names, and many of them repeated themselves, but in the end I pulled it off and got the job done :D.

2/27/09

Today's class was extremely productive. Not only did I work the entire hour of class, I also stayed an extra hour of another class. I got a lot of stuff done during this period. One of the things I did was that I finished placing all the pictures of each of the girls on each of their pages. I also discovered that we were missing an entire team!! The Junior Varsity Girls Soccer Dominican Republic team. I created new pages for each of the members on the team and renamed and edited each of those pages. Aside from that, I also made the links to each of the pages function, and linked the names of the people to each of their specific pages. I also wrote the entire members of each team's names on their corresponding pages. Not only that, but I researched weather gadgets and codes that could be inserted into the web site so that the players could check the weather report for each oncoming day. Although the codes I found were not as successful, I did speak to my mom and dad who are both technology engineers and they said they were going to teach me a way to insert the weather report and other interesting features easily into the page. I am very excited about next class because I have a feeling we are very close to finishing the site. The one challenge was the weather thing but that will be hopefully solved next class.