Improper Education | Better Than Being in School

First Weeks of College

By Darren | Published: August 31, 2009

Difficulty: Not Rated

So all of us here at ImpEDU are now college students at 3 different colleges. It’s sad that we had to split up, but we will all continue to write posts and now you will get three different points of view on the whole college experience. Please be patient while we settle in to the college life. For right now I do have one piece of advice : make friends. I don’t mean go around talking to people you think you will hate, but I mean try and meet people you will like to hang out with, go shopping with, do home work with, share secrets with, etc. More updates to come in the future.

Posted in Life in General, Site Updates | Leave a comment

Sentence-Level Reading Practice Test Questions

By Helen | Published: August 13, 2009

Difficulty: Not Rated

Like I promised, I’ll try to update as often as I can~ So the previous entry was all about the strategies that one can use to improve their sentence-completions! Let’s take a test now :]

Directions: Each of the following sentences contains one or two blanks; each blank indicates that a word or set of words has been left out. Below the sentence are five words or phrases, lettered A through E. Select the word or set of words that best completes the sentence.

1. Equipped with a large air hockey table, billiards, foosball, and other amusements, the recreation room provides myriad ways for the children to ____ them-selves.
(a) divulge
(b) retract
(c) divert
(d) disavow
(e) bemuse

2. Located on the lower level, the guest quarters were not only ____ but also ____; they were spacious and roomy enough to feel comfortable while being small and intimate enough to feel snug.
(a) capacious…lavish
(b) slipshod…ornate
(c) renovated…razed
(d) commodious…cozy
(e) isolated…complacent

3. Since the entire family has a(an) ____ for watching a broad spectrum of movies, a home theater was ____ welcomed by all family members.
(a) predilection…meagerly
(b) aversion…vehemently
(c) fallacy…hardly
(d) conundrum…fervidly
(e) affinity…fervently

4. Despite ____ technological innovations, including cell-phone cameras, pagers, hand-held computers, and a multitude of other devices intended to streamline and ease our hectic lives, life does not seem to be getting simpler.
(a) myriad
(b) meager
(c) jocular
(d) jaded
(e) enigmatic

5. Far from exciting and novel, ____ household tasks include taking out the garbage, washing the dinner dishes, and folding the laundry.
(a) energizing
(b) motivating
(c) quotidian
(d) enervating
(e) grubby

6. Instead of elucidating the complex process of wiring an eleven-room home for ceiling speakers and the Internet, Jack pains an incomprehensible picture of a “smart home” and further ____ the intricacies of home-networking.
(a) obfuscates
(b) inspires
(c) cites
(d) regenerates
(e) rebuffs

7. The second-grader uses a copious supply of sculpting gel on his hair each and every morning before school, leaving ____ residue of green goop in the powder room sink.
(a) effacing
(b) onerous
(c) inane
(d) ingratiating
(e) unctuous

8. Often late to the workplace or downright absent, Hal found his job as widget-maker neither diverting nor enlightening; in fact, he perceived it as an anathema, and he transparently ____ his job.
(a) rekindled
(b) execrated
(c) defiled
(d) exasperated
(e) finagled

9. It takes an incisive sense of direction and a clarity of mind to navigate the torturous, mazelike corridors of the medieval palace, whose floor plan is nothing short of ____.
(a) byzantine
(b) archaic
(c) quixotic
(d) enveloping
(e) gruesome

10. So that you don’t get stuck in the mud and get your trousers wet, I suggest that you ____ the small boggy area and try to avoid the larger quagmire up ahead.
(a) circumscribe
(b) circumvent
(c) circumnavigate
(d) circulate
(e) encircle

11. To cultivate a diverse and edifying experience for her children during July and August, Mrs. Aidan avoided conflicts that would preclude her from scheduling ____ summer activities that included, among other enriching activities, golf, tennis, and a multisports camp.
(a) homogeneous
(b) allotted
(c) divergent
(d) humdrum
(e) sundry

12. Overwhelming desk clutter and towering piles of paper make it difficult to find relatively ____ items such as earring backs and electronic discs the size of dimes.
(a) indeterminate
(b) inestimable
(c) infinitesimal
(d) infinite
(e) indiscriminate

And now that you are done, here are the answers:

1. C
2. D
3. E
4. A
5. C
6. A
7. E
8. B
9. A
10. B
11. E
12. C

I can provide you with the explanations for these answers if you want so long as you email me (remember helen@impropereducation.com). I’d be glad to email it to you :]
The explanations are really helpful because:
1. They point out grammatical components of the sentence that can make it tricky
2. They coach you through suggested strategy steps
3. Challenging words, which often characterize the hardest questions are noted.

I hope you enjoyed this entry! :]

And another thing, if you notice that there are ANY errors or questionable errors at all with my entries, PLEASE notify me at once. I have read my entries over a second time to make sure that there are no errors. HOWEVER, I don’t really trust my eyes, there may have been an error that I have missed!

Posted in Critical Reading | Leave a comment

Sentence-Level Reading

By Helen | Published: August 12, 2009

Difficulty: Not Rated

Hey there, so this section includes tips from Barron’s SAT aiming for the perfect score :] these tips should help you with the critical reading section! And it begins…now:

Critical Reading (Multiple-choice)
1) Sentence completions: 19 questions
2) Passage-based reading: 48 questions
3) Total: 67 questions
4) Time allotted: 70 minutes (two 25-minute sections, one 20-minute section)

That’s an overview of the format of the critical reading section! So the critical reading does not involve only long paired-passage readings alone! Yay~ sorta. However, when you work on sentence completions, no guesswork is allowed when it comes to filling in the blanks. Of course there will be more than one answer choice that may seem to work but you must read the sentence, absorb its overall sense, and fill in the blank with the answer choice that fits BEST. The six step-by-step strategy that follows will coach you through a process that is methodical and comprehensive so that you can correctly answer even the hardest sentence completions.

Strategy Fill-it-in:
Step 1: Bring your word to the blank.
- Let your own word roll off your tongue as you carefully read through the entire sentence. When you practice at home, read each sentence aloud to absorb its sense. Go with your hunch and supply your own word for every blank. Your own word can be basic: good, bad, more less, generous, cheap, big, small, etc. The important thing is that you make an educated guess for the blank. To avoid getting sidetracked by “decoys”, it is imperative that you bring your own word to the blank before you look at the answer choices. Sometimes the answer choices may confuse you, distracting you from your initial feel for the blank. Once you’ve brought your own word to the blank, look for the answer choice that most closely matches your word.
Awesome technique: As you read the sentence, instead of simply saying “blank” for the empty line, say one of the following:
a) ”blanked”
b) “blaking”
c) “blanks”
d) “blankly”
If you can’t figure out which ending you should use for the empty line, you can either find clues to figure out what kind of word should go there or quickly scan the answer choices for their endings.

Examples:
1. Nina has never been one who likes “blanking” when it comes to long-term projects, for she prefers to work alone and at her own pace.
(a) procrastinating
(b) colluding
(c) collaborating
(d) speculating
(e) diversifying
2. Once the play date kicked off, the bedlam stirred up by the Tanner twins and the Garvey triplets could not be “blanked”, despite the mothers’ soothing voices and earnest pleading.
(a) quelled
(b) persuaded
(c) incited
(d) expurgated
(e) exasperated
[[NOTE: When working on sentence completions, cross off answers that you know don't work. Some test-takers simply cross off the letter of the answer choice; others take a more decisive stance and cross off the entire answer choice. The latter approach eliminates verbal clutter.]]

Answers to examples:
1. C: Although procrastinating works, collaborating works best.
2. A: Quelled means soothed or calmed. (This brings up an interesting topic, yes I will be providing SAT words for you to study from everyday, so fear not!)

Step 2: Locate a context clue.
- When you work on hard sentence completions, filling in the blanks has nothing to do with guessing or with what sounds right! You must have a method to find the best answer choice. If you have no clue as to what type of word the blank requres, then get a context clue! Search for context clues within the sentence to help you understand what is needed in the blank.
Within almost every sentence, there is a context clue (or clues). There are two types of answers, the answer choice that is a sort-of fit and an answer choice that is the PERFECT fit. The perfect fit is the answer choice that is supported by one or more context clues. Let’s hypothetically take some sentence completions. if the context clue is “sparing of words,” the likely answer is taciturn. If the clue is “always sitting around,” the likely answer is sedentary. If the clue is “very, very tiny,” the answer is most likely infinitesimal. Context clues leave no room for guesswork or abiguity. In fact, sometimes they appear more like straightforward definitions, as in examples just given.

Example:
1. Despite his stubborn demeanor and insistence on training his way, Hector is not the most ____ soccer coach the young athletes have known.
(a) strenuous
(b) philistine
(c) befuddled
(d) obdurate
(e) effusive
[[NOTE: Underline key words and phrases within the sentences. These key parts are context clues that indicate to you what the blank requires.]]
The context clue supports obdurate, which means stubborn.

Step 3: Assign a positive or negative value to the blank.
- When working on a sentence-completion question, sometimes it’s difficult to come up with your own word that fits the blank. At the same time, are you have a hard time locating a context clue within the sentence? A good strategy is simply jotting down a positive (+) or negative (-) sign in the blank to indicate your feel for the needed word. Even if it’s hard for you to come up with a denotation (dictionary definition or literal meaning), you can very often come up with the blank’s connotation-its feel or undertone.

Practice:
Read each sentence carefully, keeping your ears and eyes peeled for context clues. Then choose positive word, negative word, or uknown value to indicate your “word value” for the blank.
1. Regretfully, team captain Marc started to ____ the young players as soon as basketball practice ended.
- Positive word
- Negative word
- Unknown value
Additional strategy: With your pencil, jot a (+) or (-) sign next to each answer choice as shown below. if the word value is unknown, leave the word as is.
(a) laugh (+)
(b) study (+)
(c) race
(d) belittle
(e) praise (+)
2. To the author’s delight, the controversial book received praise and ____ from most major critics.
- Positive word
- Negative word
- Unknown value
3. Regardless of his ____ nature, Pedro decided not to extend a helping hand to his avaricious neighbors this time.
- Positive word
- Negative word
- Unknown value
4. Though gossip has painted an unpleasant and downright ____ picture of the new member of the community, I have learned first hand that Ms. Appleton is actually forthright and well mannered.
- Positive word
- Negative word
- Unknown value
5. Contrary to his pleasant and convivial nature, Jack decided not to attend several holiday parties; he was becoming uncharacteristically ____ and _____.
- Positive word
- Negative word
- Unknown value

Are you READY?!
Here are the answers to the five problems I’ve given you!
1. This sentence lacks a context clue that keys us into the precise meaning of the blank. However, you can assign a negative (-) value to the blank, since the sentence begins with a negative term, regretfully.
2. The blank is linked to praise with the conjunction and; this tells us that the needed word is on a par with or similar to praise. Therefore, you would assign a (+) to the blank.
3. A subtle but key context clue is the word not. Downsize this sentence to something like: Regardless of his “helpful” nature, Pedro chose NOT to help… . Considering this simplified form of the sentence, you see that the blank requires a positive word, such as obliging or accommodating.
4. The context clues are unpleasant and downright. Since the blank is linked to unpleasant with the conjunction and, these adjectives must be similar. Also, the word actually in the second clause of the sentence shows that Ms. Appleton’s being forthright and well mannered is the opposite of the picture painted by the gossip. The blank gets a negative value.
5. The context clues are Contrary to his pleasant and convivial nature… and uncharacteristically, so you need two negative values for the blanks. Likely answer choices would be sullen and reclusive.

Step 4: Never do’s!
- Never sniff around the answer choices until you first bring something to the blank. For hard sentence completions, a cursory reading of the sentence followed by a look at the answer choices won’t cut it. In fact, that’s the formula for falling into answer-choice traps and picking wrong answers that are just decoys or false-positives.
Answering hard sentence completions takes active participation. Of course, whether you jot something down in the blanks is up to you. It’s really a matter of test-taking style. For some an active pencil keeps them focused and in control. For other test takers, especially those who don’t write quickly, jotting things down takes up too much precious time. Experiment with both ways and – once again – discover what works for you.
- The bottom line. When you’re filling in the blank, you’re not looking for any word that can fly! You’re looking for the best choice, that is, a choice firmly supported by a context clue and/or your word prediction. Never settle for the first answer choice that seems to fit. If choice B sounds good, for example, don’t stop there. Continue on; plug-in and try choices A, C, D, and E. Search thoroughly, leaving no stone unturned. Considering all choices takes discipline, and that’s what this test takes.

Step 5: Keep level-headed.
- The test makers rank sentence-completion questions (and math questions) on the SAT according to their levels of difficulty. This is helpful to know as you work through the sentence-completion section since these questions start off easy (levels 1 and 2) and then become medium in difficulty (level 3); at the end of the section are the hardest questions (levels 4 and 5). In the other verbal section, questions appear in random order of difficulty. The first question may be a level 4; the next a level 1; and so forth. As you work on a page of sentence completions, the first column typically has the easier questions. However, if the first column seems easy, the second column is certainly much more difficult. The second column (the last three or four questions especially) contains the heavy-hitters, the hardest of the sentence completion questions. Part of what makes sentence completions hard (in addition to their more complex sentence structure) is the level of vocabulary in the answer choices. On hard (level 4 or 5) sentence completions, it’s not uncommon to find words such as vitriolic, didactic, and occlusion. Unless you spend your free time reading the dictionary.
[[NOTE: Study vocabulary that I will provide with you later. Start with the four-letter words and then work your way up to the heavy hitters.]]
So back to being level-headed. If you’re on a question 2 in a sentence-completion section and you’re spending lots of time on it, then you’re probably reading into it too much and the answer is probably a lot more straightforward than you’re making it. Likewise, if you’re on the last question in a sentence completion section and you think the answer is really obvious, you’re missing the point again. Most likely, this is a level 4 or 5 question, and the answer choice is a difficult vocabulary word with a subtle context clue to support it. Most of the time, the correct answer to a hard sentence completion is a very hard vocabulary word. BASICALLY, hard questions typically have hard answer choices. The correct answers are, most often, off-the-bell-curve words such as leviathan, sybarite, anathema, and untenable.

Let’s say that you are working on a two-blank sentence-completion question. Let’s also say that this question is the second-to-last one in its group. Being level-headed, you know that the question is most likely a level 4 or level 5. Suppose these are the answer choices:
(a) delighted…fly
(b) deprecatory…goad
(c) ascetic…veer
(d) colorful…speak
(e) reticent…elicit
Well, if we eliminate the choices that are not supported by context clues we can get rid of (a) and (d) because the vocabulary in these choices is too basic for an upper-level question.

Step 6: Say the sentence to yourself to ensure it makes sense.
- Make sure to say the sentence to yourself to ensure that it makes sense.
The Acid Test: Read the sentence as you have completed it. Does it make sense? A final reading of the sentence is recommended before you move on to the next question. Make sure that you have prudently considered all five answer choices. For the vast majority of questions, there should be one or two specific context clues to support your choice.
[[NOTE: Habitually cross off answers that you know don't work. Crossing off answers that don't work prevents you from being distracted by unlikely answer choices and keeps you focused on finding the best choice.

Practice test questions coming up soon! :] Sorry this took so long. Some things came up while I was typing this up and yeah. *SIGH* I hope you enjoy and please, feel free to email me at -> helen@impropereducation.com

Posted in Critical Reading | Leave a comment

Sat prep starting today :]

By Helen | Published: August 10, 2009

Difficulty: Not Rated

WHOAAAAAAAAAAA~ it’s been forever since I’ve been on here :[

Sorry for the super majorly long delay. Things have been busy (for me anyways) and then eventually I forgot my log in and password. Bleh. BUT NOW it’s a-ok. I’m going to be helping a friend of mine with the SATs because he wishes to improve his score – by a lot – and so since I can’t be there to tutor him every single day (it’s like two times a week) I’ve decided that I will use this website to help not only him but others who are probably google-searching for SAT prep-like things in order to prepare. SOOO starting from today and onwards I will be posting vocabulary, study materials, and questions with answers to help you! Of course not now. I will have something posted tonight at 9ish.

Posted in SAT-Prep | Leave a comment

Recover Music off an Ipod from Windows

By Darren | Published: August 4, 2009

Difficulty: Medium - tech stuff but I gave you screen shots.

Sometimes things go catastrophically wrong. If you have ever suffered data loss and needed to recover the music off of your ipod, this is the tutorial for you. It’s probably best you do this BEFORE installing itues if possible. If itunes is already installed just make sure you don’t accidentally wipe your ipod when it asks you to erase and sync.

The music files on your ipod are stored in a hidden folder called ipod_Control on your ipod. To access these files you will have to change a few windows system settings and put your ipod in disk mode. Put your ipod and disk mode (press the center button and menu to reboot the ipod and then center and play while its booting to enter disk mode) and plug it in to your computer with your ipod cable.

Now open the control panel

Open the folder options control panel item

Go to the view tab

Change the “hidden files and folders” setting to “show hidden files and folders.”

Now that you can view the files, open windows explorer and find your ipod. Whatever you named your ipod in itunes is what you are looking for in “My Computer” (usually its named something with the word “ipod” in the name). My ipod is named Nora Helmer after the character from Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House.

Open up your ipod and go to the “ipod_Control” folder.

Copy the music folder to your computer’s hard drive.

If you have not yet installed itunes, do so now. Open itunes and make the following adjustments.

Go to edit->preferences

Go to the advanced tab

Select “Keep itunes music folder organized” and “Copy files to itunes music folder…”

Now move the music folder you copied to your hard drive into itunes. Itunes should add all the songs in the music folder into itunes and copy them to your itunes music folder. I have run into problems once or twice with this. In side of the music folder there are more folders labeled F01, F02,…etc. In side these folders are strangely named .mp3 and .mpa files. Start with F00, select all the files in the folder (ctrl+a) and drag them into itunes and move onto the next folder. There is software out there that can recover data off your ipod for you, but if you dont want to install sketchy software this is the way to go.

Posted in Tech | Leave a comment

CMOY Headphone Amps: Why not how.

By Darren | Published: July 17, 2009

Difficulty: Not Rated

So I have spent most of this summer doing something very important: sleeping. In the little time I had not working my butt off trying to catch z’s I learned how to solder. I decided that my introduction to soldering should be both easy and useful. How many such projects could there be out there? Luckily I found this: How to Build the CMoy Pocket Amplifier. The tutorial covers everything including what parts to buy, what order to attach components, how to solder, even some alternative ways to build the amplifier. Very well written and pretty easy to follow. To avoid recreating the wheel I’m going to tell you why to build a headphone amp, not how.

The amp I made is great. I recently bought a pair of Sennheiser headphones and although they sound excellent, they are a little quite because my ipod lacks the power to drive them. In comes the necessity for a headphone amp. You can buy a commercial headphone amp (headroom headphone amps are well spoken of but I have never actually bought one) but they are expensive (headrooms cheapest portable amp is $100). As a result there are an endless number of audio enthusiasts who build their own headphone amps. The Cmoy headphone amp is a very simple to build headphone amp. Designed by Chu Moy, it is made to be small and simple. It is not the only headphone amp design out there, but it is a good introduction to working with electronics. Powered off one 9v battery, the amp will fit inside an altoids tin. Though it is a simple and cheap amp, it still works well. My cheaper headphones sound much clearer when plugged into the amp; my larger cans are also driven well by the amp and le me turn the volume down on my ipod, while still having my music loud and clear enough to listen to.

This is an introductory level project; there is no need for you to have had any experience with soldering or any kind of electrical engineering. It may be useful to have someone around who knows what they are doing, but it is not necessary. The project is not TOO expensive. Most of the parts can be bought from Mouser.com for around 16 dollars. If you don’t have tools like a soldering iron, multimeter, and solder they will run you about 50 dollars from your local radio shack. If you do already have these then you only need a 2 dollar printed circuit board.

Granted, if you don’t plan to do any more DIY electrical projects, $70 is rather expensive but if you are interested in playing with circuits this is a good project to start with. There is no reason to build this if you only want a headphone amp – you can find plenty of people selling homemade amps online for cheap or shell out for a professional amp – but if you want to get an introduction to soldering this is a great project.

If you want to see some images of the amp I built you can look here: http://thebadtouch09.deviantart.com/art/My-Frist-CMoy-Headphone-Amp-129295697

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

ImpEdu

By Ash | Published: July 5, 2009

Difficulty: Not Rated

Check out our new extension to the site: ImpEdu. It’s a social networking site for our followers and visitors! Just click the link!

I want to check out ImpEdu!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

File Recovery

By Darren | Published: June 10, 2009

Difficulty: Hard.

If you have a computer that refuses to load its operating system, but you can still turn it on, you might have a chance of recovering precious files from it. Lets say you are using windows, and you are infected with a virus. Soon that virus destroys your system, and your computer starts showing the horrible blue screen of death. This is one of many cases where your computer can turn on, but you can’t access your operating system to recover your files. In cases like these if you can boot into an operating system and have some form of external storage media (cd, flash drive, portable hard drive) you can save your files. This tutorial will show you just one of many ways to recover your data. This is a very brief tutorial and does not cover every step.

For this you will need

An operating system you can load off a CD or Thumb drive. We will be using the ubunu linux live cd.
- You will probably need to download a program to burn the CD. If you are on Windows, I recommend Imgburn.
Some kind of external storage media. I recommend buying an external hard drive, and then using the external drive for regular backups of your files so you dont get into this mess again.
I am making the assumption that you have a CD drive in your computer and that your computer can boot off that drive.

The first step will be to download the ubuntu live cd ISO. While this is downloading, if you do not have a program to burn an ISO file you will need to download ImgBurn (this program is for windows).

Install ImgBurn. When the ubuntu live cd is done downloading, right click it and choose “Burn using ImgBurn” which will start imgburn and burn make the cd. Once the cd has finished burning, restart your computer.

Many computers are set to automatically boot for CD-Roms, but if yours is not you may have to edit your BIOS settings. Usually you can do this by pressing F2 when your computer first turns on. Consult your Computers user manual for more on this.

Boot into the ubuntu live cd. When given a list of boot options you want to select the first one. Do NOT install linux. This will wipe your hard drive.

Once you have booted into the live cd, you will see a gnome linux desktop. It should look something like this. In the top left of the screen there is a menu bar that says Applications, Places, and System. From this menu choose Places and select the drive appropriate drive for your internal hard drive. From here you should be able to browse your hard drive as if you were in windows explorer. Copy the files to an external hard drive as needed.

Posted in Desktop Computing | 1 Comment

Musings about Embarking on a Career Quest

By Ash | Published: June 2, 2009

Difficulty: Not Rated

Lately, I’ve been taking career tests for a laugh. For nothing better to do other than make stuff my mom can’t make herself or put together a bunch of household appliances that are easy to put together if one decided to quite simply read the instructions…!

Um, I mean…I’m not…being…testy… I haven’t been shoving disassembled parts together all week…not at all…

Gathering myself, anyway…

So as I was saying, I’ve been taking career tests and I got to thinking about how unnecessary some of these questions were. Maybe “unnecessary” isn’t the right word. What I mean is that the questions…seemed…redundant, yes, but something else… I don’t know. I’ll stick to unnecessary.

Well, I started to notice a repitition of questions like “Do you value a sense of community in a job?” My answer? No. Get the job done, move on to the next. That’s the point of a job. Another question was something along the lines of “Do you want a job that gives you moral fulfillment?” Uhhhhhhhh…you mean, if I disagree with the idea of war but I intern at the Army Research Lab to help make our weapons more efficient? No. I get paid, don’t I? When you need cash, you need cash. Simple as that. Other questions I found: “Do you want change/variety/excitement?” Same thing as previous: when you need money, you need the money. So at a point when you’re in desperate need of—or just starting out searching for—a job, do you really care if it’s exciting? For proof, look at all the secretaries out there!

Would it be easier to just have a button on the tests that reads: “I’m a robot that must provide its own food and shelter. Let’s go from there and skip the rest of the test.”

That’s the feeling I get about the work world today. We’re all just robots that can reprogram each other to work efficiently in a certain job. Isn’t that all companies want, too? That’s all they need. And the worker’s only need is cash. I don’t see why things like “excitement” and “moral fulfillment” are on those tests. Those are luxuries for people who are already successful and are moving around to other jobs or something.

I’ve heard many people who are considered successful in their careers talk about their rise to where they are today, but what annoys me is that no one tells you just how many people fail to reach their goal. It’s like they’re trying to make it seem like “you can do anything you set your mind to.” But I’ve also noticed that every one of those people just happened to know the right people. So, really, it’s all about connections; they’re giving you false hope, saying it’s about setting your mind to your task. Or am I just taking a really bleak outlook on things?

Maybe I am just taking a really bleak outlook. Of the people I know who have done an internship, most say they’ve loved it. Something about staying in a dorm room with three other people for eight weeks. Oh god, the horror. Who would like that? So crowded…and what if someone doesn’t have good hygiene? How do you live with four people in one tiny room? I’d go insane. In fact, I once had to do just that for just one week and in two days I got sick—sharing personal space drains me of energy. I’m going to hate living in a dorm for a year at college.

The other people who have done an internship seem to also say something about having a mentor they liked and even joked around with. Apparently, their mentor was also there to help them with stuff every day. Or that they even worked together or something. I somehow recall my mentor teaching me everything I needed to know in the first two days, setting me eight tasks, and then telling me to go for it while he took a three-week vacation. I question why he volunteered to be a mentor if he planned to take three weeks off in the middle of it. My job was to make about 60 graphs using a programming language called MATLAB. Simple, really. Once you write one program, it’s pretty much the same code for all of them, just using different data. I broke the monotony by experimenting with all the functions available in that particular version of MATLAB and writing unnecessary programs useless for anything other than learning how the code works. I’m not sure how useful any of my graphs actually were to them—I get the feeling I was only told to make the graphs to keep me busy and out of the employees’ and college interns’ way.

So maybe I’m just bitter or cynical or whatever, but I don’t think “excitement” or any other emotional gratification should be on someone’s mind when they are searching for a job, nor should such be on a career test. It seems to give a false hope that most jobs are fun. It’s a job—by definition, it means a way to obtain money for survival through all work and no play.

Posted in Life in General, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

FastDB

By Darren | Published: May 29, 2009

Difficulty: Easy if you just download FastDB. Hard if you actually read the post.

Lifehacker recently released a post about a command line database system called FAST created by one of their users. I took this idea and remade it into a c++ program. FastDB works almost exactly the same as FAST except its is written as a c++ program. It could easily be written as a cross platform program except for the following problems:

I rely on the appdata environment variable from windows. There are a few ways to fix this including:
- using [rootdirectory]\fdb\fdb.data instead of %appdata%\fdb\fdb.data
- using .\fdb.data (the current directory)
- making changes for each each Operating System
I use the windows “find” command. I could easily search the file for a given word and then output that line, but I got lazy.

FastDB opens a loop allowing you to add / find multiple times instead of having to call fdb.cmd -add or fdb.cmd “keyword” repeatedly. Other than this, the only advantage of FastDB over FAST is that its a pre compiled executable as opposed to a batch script. The code for FastDB is given below; the code for FAST can be found at Lifehacker.

*edit* Erm. Oops. there are some errors with the file writing code. Everything should be fixed now. Tell me if u find any bugs.


#include <iostream>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
using namespace std;
void fast(string in), add(string add), find(string find), help();

int main()
{
    cout << "Welcome to the Fast Data Base" << endl;
    string in;
    do{
        cout << "Fast>";
        getline(cin,in);
        if(!stricmp("exit",in.c_str())==0)
            fast(in);
    }
    while(!stricmp("exit",in.c_str())==0);
    return 0;
}
void fast(string in)
{
    if(stricmp(in.substr(0,3).c_str(),"add")==0&&in.length()>4)
    {
        add(in.substr(4));
    }
    else if(stricmp(in.substr(0,4).c_str(),"help")==0&&in.length()==4)
    {
        help();
    }
    else if(in.length() > 0)
    {
        find(in);
    }
    else
    {
        help();
    }
}
void add(string add)
{
    ofstream fdb;
    string appdata = getenv("appdata");
    string file = appdata+"\\fdb\\fdb.data";
    fdb.open (file.c_str(),ios::app);
    if(fdb.is_open()){
        fdb << add <<"\n";
        fdb.close();
        cout << "Content added!" <<endl;
    }
    else
        cout << "An error has occured." <<endl;
}
void find(string find)
{
    string temp = "find /i \""+find+"\" %appdata%\\fdb\\fdb.data";
    system(temp.c_str());
}
void help()
{
    cout << "type a keyword to search the database" <<endl << "type \"add keyword\" to add a keyword to the database"<<endl;
}

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