Hey, if you guys are in Santa Rosa, my mom was hoping that you could come up to my house and talk to my brother and his friends about engineering and computer related majors. They’ll probably want to know stuff about classes and success. The usual. There are two dates up for grabs, either sept. 8th or 10th. There will be food provided, of course. It will take place in the evening. Please let me know which one you would prefer if you can make either. If you cannot make either at all, what would be one piece of wisdom you’d like to pass on to my brother and his friends? Thanks a bunch if you guys can do this!!

Here was my response:

I sadly will be unable to make either of those dates. But words of wisdom? Man, I’m full of cough shit cough cough wisdom. he he.

All seriousness though, Engineering is awesome, for some people. So instead of just giving one piece of advice, like a good instruction following person, I’m gonna share my views on engineering.

First, the bad things about engineering:

Engineering is tough. It requires a decent amount of math (varies depending on school and major) and science (also varying). A lot of schools give you a path that you must follow, which can feel restricting compared to your liberal science brethren who are going all willy-nilly taking all of these cool random classes. Your classes will stretch the way you think about things and expose you to just about every aspect of the world (except women, that’s what parties are for). Becoming an engineer is a commitment, a commitment which will require you to take some classes you despise and some classes which you love, and all will take up more time than you ever knew you had.

Second, the good things:

Engineering classes teach you really cool things. This sounds kinda lame, I know, and it is very hard to express, but imagine learning the coolest aspect of something you’ve always wondered about. That’s engineering. Example: I’m a computer science major (engineering at some schools, math at others, watch out if that’s your thing) and near the end of last year we had a lecture where we learned how to take advantage of the inherent security flaws that our society has. Then we practiced exploiting those flaws in a safe legal environment to learn how to protect our systems from such problems. Also, another example, a friend of mine likes cars. She joined one of the performance racing teams on campus and now builds race cars from scratch. This summer she got to spend two weeks with her team in London racing the car they built. Another guy I know took what he learned and teamed up with a professor. Together they started a company which was recently acquired by amazon.com.

Thirdly, Summarization:

If you become an engineer, and I recommend it, your mind will be put to the test during college. But afterwords you will be the one who your peers will come to when they need an innovative way to do something, whether it be a new type of engine, software program, bridge, nano-machine, or space station. O ya, and you’ll get paid more than anyone else to do it (I make $28 an hour as an intern at Adobe Systems).

Hope that helps. I offer two final things: One, if you are interested in going to Cal Poly I will gladly give you a tour, and a place to stay if needed (my couch is comfy :p ). Second if you have any questions about Engineering, English (my other passion), or Computer Science (my specialty), leave a comment below.

/Nat

p.s. modified that last line, ;)

The Top TV Shows on iTunes as of 7/19

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog is the greatest musical recently. Don’t believe me? Check out the screen shot of the iTunes Music Store to the left.

And while I loved the show and was thoroughly entertained with all of the great plot twists and funny songs, what really got me was the marketing scheme. When I say that the market scheme got me, I mean it reeled me in like a free bottle of beer and a beautiful brunette. Why does this series of three fifteen minute movies have me tripping so? Let me explain how I digest media.

1. Come across something cool,  let’s say a new movie. (Discovery)
2. I watch the trailer, listen to music samples, check it out on Wikipedia. (Research)
3. Digest. If the movie is new enough and I’m not totally broke, I’ll go see it. If the album isn’t from a band I have obtained at least two albums from before, or if the movie isn’t available for rent cheaply, then I will probably obtain it in less than legal means.

Now how did Dr. Horrible throw a wrench into this tried and true formula? He abused two simple facts about my life.

1. I had to leave for the train in fifteen minutes, and I still had to eat breakfast.
2. It was less than five dollars.

I clicked subscribe on iTunes and sync’d Act 1 to my iPod. Half an hour later I was watching it in my seat on CalTrain. It was amazing. I wanted more, but I had to wait a day for the next episode, which I had already paid for.

What can wanna-be producers and marketers take out of this? Joss Whedon explicitly said that working with iTunes was painful, but worth the effort, since he was offering it free online. Marketers, if you make something of quality (you need to care about your work, kinda crazy eh?) and let me consume it in whatever way I want, I will. My generation grew up with Napster and Kazaa. We know how to get what you don’t want us to have. So give it to us with an affordable price tag and we’ll buy it.

/Nat

They recently pushed their beta site design live, and it’s beautiful. I’ve been using it to listen to music at work which has been amazing. I enjoy it more than Pandora, mainly because it isn’t so ad heavy.

My history with Last.fm is strange to say the least. I started using their services back when they were AudioScrobbler. I really liked the concept of the data collection they were doing. They logged every song I listened to on my computer, on multiple media players. Since then the site has been was merged into Last.FM and I’ve loved it ever since.

Some of the features Last.FM has added recently I really like:

• iPod Scrobbling (they track the music I listen to on my iPod as well as my computer)
• Full Tracks, not just the 30 second clips they used to have
• A powerful API. There used to be a decent API from AudioScrobler, but it has since been upgraded by Last.FM and they have added a cool app gallery.

The app gallery should really be highlighted here. Mainly because it allows access to historical data of what you have been listening to for a long period of time (four years for me I think).

Anyway, check Last.FM out if you haven’t already. If you want to add me as a friend or see my musical tastes, it is located here.

Happy Weekend,
/Nat

p.s. check out The Perfect ringtone

p.s.s. In case you didn’t know, my dream job is to work for these folks. That has nothing to do with this post though. :p

I’ll post a pic when I can find a USB cord. Until then, just know, that PAX is coming and I will be there.

44 days. Are you ready?

/Nat

But these last few weeks have changed all of that. I decided to rebuild my personal site (as seen here) with javascript. Now it must be understood, I did not code this cool little accordion thingy. The credit for that goes entirely to dezinerfolio.com. I came across these guys through AjaxRain.com and it worked well. The other thing it did was that the source code was included with the compacted code. Through looking at the source I learned that Javascript doesn’t need to be incredibly scary, and with a little work it can even be readable.

Anyway, figured I would share.

/Nat

p.s. Mongolian BBQ for lunch = YUM.

p.s.s. Fullscreen Editor that now comes with Wordpress rocks. Another reason why Javascript kicks butt.

• I lost the Innovation Quest Competition, which put a small hold on Ideaius development. I’ve been working on it when I get a chance, which is another reason this blog isn’t getting updated.
• I’m working at Adobe with the Dreamweaver Team again this summer. I’ve posted a picture of my commute above.
• I am going to PAX again this summer. Super psyched. I would post links to my co-conspirators, but they refuse to have websites…
• CalTrain still doesn’t have WiFi. Booooo.
• I officially am renting a room in a house in SLO. To commemorate the occasion, I bought a Popcorn Hour. Totally Stoked.
• I’m starting to get the hand of JavaScript and AJAX. It’s kinda neat, although my <3 still belongs to server side languages.

Anyway, I’ve got four Draft posts that may make it on to here at some point, and I’m trying to figure out a way to write on a train (maybe buy a light weight laptop?)

/Nat

But first I am going to try to get some money to start this little business venture. I am doing this by applying to Innovation Quest. IQ is a competition held at my school where anyone can submit an idea, and the winner gets $15,000.

Well, I’m a finalist. This means I need to make a presentation in front of a decent sized group of people explaining my idea and why they should invest in it. But I’m hopeful, since I was picked out of 75ish groups to be in the top 15, which ups my chances just a wee bit. Sadly though, they want a lot of information in their presentation. So I need your help, could you please fill out the survey at the bottom of this post? I need to provide some statistics about people to show that the world actually wants this product.

Click Here to take survey. It’s short, don’t be shy.

Thanks for your help,
/Nat

One thing I’ve learned though is that the Internet grows far too fast for me. Just two years ago, things like auto saving posts and AJAX being used for more than just making warnings fade out were rare, if not non-existent. Now things have changed dramatically and it is changing every day.

So with that, I would like to inform the world that I will be starting writing on this site again. First I need to fix a few things, and those aren’t getting fixed tonight.

So just sit back and relax, and listen to Chris’s radio show while I go study for midterms some more.

/Nat

/nat