Saturday, October 27, 2007

The documentation of the adventures of Peter Krogstad is ready go on a new blog.

I started a new blog for accounting the explorations I do through my Second Life avatar Peter Krogstad. This morning I created an edit in a Moving Type(MT) template. I used Moving Type for the new blog and put it in my cybercitizen web site here
http://cyborgcitizen.org/pkrogstad/index.html.


I used the witty name for the blog Just a Second Life Avatar's Blog. I made a table banner with 40 little Second Life screen pictures of my avatar. This was what took the hand coding. It was tough uploading too. I made a goal to completing this before going out today and I am now done. So I achieved this goal. I worked very hard.

I did quite well with my mid-term in systems optimization.

I did excellent on my mid-term. What with more academic work at my paid workplace and more computer use as in basic programming at school I doing well. I am starting to enjoy the fact of being in graduate school. I am also trying to exploit this as a social fact.

I spent the day at work coding in SAS.

I am happy to report I have been paid to code. I have a job and my duties this week became coding in SAS. I spent almost every minute at work today writing a SAS program. I have proven to be very good at assisting my boss with his database work too. I credit this to clear communication as a nagging goal.

I also have been able to become an obsessive documenter. I wrote a lot of comments in my code today explaining each and every step in SAS comment lines. Being a blogger of my own daily life and other mundane topics has improved my skills in this regard.

Second Life progress update.

I have been studying inside Second Life with the help of Tracy Kennedy and Joanna Robinson. Tracy is writing her Ph.D. with Barry Wellman at the University of Toronto and Joanna is a research associate at Simon Fraser. I joined them at a virtual campus last fall. I have since joined them at a meeting of the Communications, Information and Technology section of the American Sociology Association and wrote a paper on facebook and privacy for that event. I just posted it Thursday night at www.webpagex.org.

I have now learned more about Second Life by reading books. I read just a little of the Offical Guide to Second Life and with that created another account and avatar and went through orientation island again where I better learned to fly. This has really helped me out. I moved my house or should I say my offices to a PG sim and it is more pleasant to see on screen now. I find I am spending more time on-line there now in this virtual reality world that is like photoshop for 3 dimensional stuff. It has cost me close to 400 dollars now in about 1.5 years of use.

I am going to open a blog now for this virtual world and report my progress there. I will post the new blog address here when it is set up.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Reading a feminist on gay men.

I was cleaning up my office a little bit. I put some old school notes from a geography course or two into a white magazine box. I also put some fiction including my wife's fiction also into two magazine boxes. I came across a book I had gotten from another wobbly and read a chapter in that book. Here is the cite:
Layland, Joyce. "On the conflicts of doing feminist research into masculinity" in Stanley, Liz. Feminist Praxis: Research, Theory and Epistemology in Feminist Sociology (London, U.K.: Routledge, 1990).
This was an interesting read and suggested gay men are also misogynists. I think I had an idea this was true. So basically she concluded in the paper that gay men devalue women's activities. In particular drag Queens use stereotypes of women in their performances.

I wrote the mid-term for systems optimization last night.

I wrote the mid-term alright. So this is it this is really graduate school. I hang out on line these days with a graduate student of network studies and gaming and a research associate in digital media creation. The graduate student of gaming is a feminist researcher of gaming. I also now work editing learned papers. In fact, I have my name as an assistant on a paper going for peer review for a journal at Statistics Canada now. I work at Statistics Canada during the day and use the Internet for studies at home.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Here are the topics I must study for this week.

I have a mid-term exam this week at school. I am making a list here to help me study from. These are the topics I need to cover and know very well.
Setting up a system
  1. Stating the objective function,
  2. the variables,
  3. and the constraints.
Using the Fourier-Motzkin method
Using the branch and bound method with the Fourier-Motzkin method.
Using cuts for a system of inequalities
  1. Gomory cuts
  2. Geometric cuts
Networks and path optimizations

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

I handed in assignment #2 and also solved a computer programming problem this evening in our lab at school.

I did get my assignment done now. I used a variety of programs to solve the assignment. I used Word, LaTeX, two programs of the professors and text programs. I got it done. I handed it in at the beginning of our lab this evening. I attended the lab this evening and solved the professor's challenge of putting a license agreement in a program installer build in Visual Studio. I am learning to use Visual Studio to make Window's applications.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

I have Q1.1 and Q2 solved now in assignment #2 for my course.

I worked a lot on Thanksgiving and got one problem solved with one technique and that was Q1.1 using Fourier-Motzkin software. I also solved Q1.2 but used geometric cuts rather than Gomory cuts so need to still do some more math work and more Fourier-Motzkin work. The geometric cuts I did with R for drawing and that was a good R workout using the web and open source help files to learn the proper R code to draw a point grid and then draw simple lines over the integer point grid.

I remembered the lecture on the network solution software and was able to solve the network problem and then print it out. I did need to run that software in Windows 2000 but it still did not work as it should have. I did print the solution network diagram. So that seems solved.

I have class tomorrow evening and tomorrow we are working in the computer lab rather than having a lecture.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

I will work on assignment #2 this evening.

I will solve assignment #2 this evening. I will use windows 2000 and two softwares the professor has given us to use. One solves networks and the other solves Fourier-Motzkin elimination problems.

I will become a research assistant again this time in the government.

It looks like my work duties are changing. I am set to become a research assistant to a Statistics Canada research economist. I won't be able to blog about this in any detail.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

The Fourier-Motzkin elimination problem has now been corrected and typeset.

I am learning some techniques of good "copy and paste then edit" style for repetitive typing from my professor this term. Using these techniques with LaTeX helped me complete my homework problem typesetting. I now have only to typeset one more problem and to complete typesetting the second problem. Of course, I also need the solutions to these two problems as well. But I now feel I have solved three of five problems and there is really only one problem that has not gotten any work yet.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Assignment number 1 home streach

I have now solved three problems including the final Fourier-Motzkin calculations. I can actually check my calculations using some software but I did the solutions by hand without a calculator of course. I now need to write up the steps by step pen and ink calculations with TeXShop and LaTeX code. Then that leaves 2 problems to still complete one of which is started. My solution for this unfinished problem has also been commented on by the professor so I know I am on the right track. I need to complete this work overnight now and I have no work tomorrow to make it easier to score A+ perfect on my homework.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Proofreading volunteer paper work then school homework then work-work.

I just need to proof read my volunteer paperwork then I can look at my school work. I also have some printouts for job applications to organise and read. I then can head off to work for another day at Statistics Canada. I can then do more school work after work and if possible will visit the professor to clarify one of the investment problems. I did take him my facebook and privacy paper last class but forgot to include the figures which I can email him this morning. I also should email my project work to my project partner but I also need to proofread that. So that will wait for later in the day too. So for the rest of this morning I will focus on job applications and preparing for work.

I am just completing some volunteer paperwork and then I will check home work and then it is off to work for another day in the government.

I did some volunteer work this weekend and am just completing some paperwork for that before going to work. I will also print my work so far on the assignment one. I also did some work on our project for this course and should email it to my project partner. I also want to start the Fourier-Motzkin problem this morning.