Minh’s Notes

Special to Minh’s Notes from Doug Lim:

On Saturday, the St. Xavier Academic Team (Quiz Team, for those who aren’t into academics – ed.) swept the Greater Catholic Academic League Fall Tournament, winning four matches by an average of 28.26 points. The team received superior games from all of its players. Junior Dan Breyer showed his lightning quick speed throughout the event, while seniors Harrison Lee and AJ Arand proved valuable in the lightning rounds. Seniors Ed Kelly, Jay Kiger, and Doug Lim worked well together in the category rounds, leaving no doubt that the team came prepared to play.

‘We looked good today, although we’re not quite in mid-season form. We looked a little sloppy against Purcell, but we pulled it out. I was happy overall, but I know we can play way better so we can win a state championship this year,’ Kiger said.

The victories ensure St. Xavier a spot in the state regional tournament in April.

The Quiz Team pummeled Roger Bacon 68–23 in the first round, then beat McNicholas 71–46 in the second. After a bye, St. X won a relatively close semifinal match 45–29 against Purcell Marian, later shutting out Chaminade Julienne a comfortable 63–36 in the final to win the tournament. By comparison, the team took on Ursuline in 2004 and beat them by a narrow 11 points.

On the same day, Stanford Quiz Bowl hosted the Fighting Tree Open, the club’s annual intramural trivia tournament, replete with team names that evoked images of class struggle and ’70s rock groups. I didn’t get a special message about this tournament, but you can read a full report at the Daily’s website.

Naturally, I was up to my chin in schoolwork and hadn’t the time to attend either event.

Entry №1079, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 7:46 PM | Edit | Permalink
Categories: Quiz Bowl, Quiz Team | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve been using test builds of just-released Mozilla Firefox 2.0 for a few months now, and if nothing else, draggable tabs should convince you that an upgrade will be worthwhile. (If you’ve drunk Microsoft’s Kool-Aid yet again and upgraded to last Tuesday’s MSWIE 7, you’ll find that Firefox has a much saner interface.)

So download it already. (Or go to Help | Check for Updates… in Firefox.)

Boy, two major browser releases in as many weeks, and plenty of website designs for me to test out. Some are calling it a new “browser war,” but I don’t buy it. Some things are different this time.

Entry №1076, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 10:04 PM | Edit | Permalink
Categories: Mozilla Firefox, Web Archaeology | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every day, nearly everyone at Stanford must travel through the campus’ most successful linear particle accelerator. No, not SLAC; I’m referring to the “Intersection of Death,” the infamous spot where Lasuen Mall meets Escondido Mall at the Clock Tower (MapGuide, Google Maps). At peak times when classes have just ended or are about to begin, the bicycles, skateboards, golf carts, scooters, electric scooters, construction vehicles, delivery trucks, and intimidated pedestrians mirror a scene straight out of New York City, sans the yellow taxicabs. To get through this gauntlet of hurried commuters is an inhuman feat of skill and bravery. Sometimes there’s just no way around the intersection, since the five minutes from one class to the next certainly isn’t enough. So you try weaving in and out of the stalled bicyclists, who are as stunned as you at the sheer volume of traffic. Sometimes you make it.

Wednesday I didn’t. I thought I saw a clear path through the intersection, one of those rare moments in life that makes your day. My day surely was made when someone attempted to turn left onto my rear wheel, sending me flying towards the pavement. Now my bike’s in the shop for repairs, and I’m stuck walking a full 15 minutes to some classes. This is exactly the kind of mishap that the Department of Public Safety and PT&S have been looking to prevent with their still-confusing ban on biking in the Arcades and their wonderfully quaint “Slow Down” signs posted as you approach the intersection.

Unfortunately, these measures only force people to look both ways when crossing the Arcades – watching for police, not for pedestrians – and slowing down at the Intersection of Death – only because of a traffic jam, likely caused by the influx of former Arcade users. Passing through the busiest intersection in a one-mile radius is still a major gamble.

The University should’ve taken a cue from the d.school students who successfully turned the intersection into a roundabout for a day. Unlike the students, the University has the clout necessary to make such a change permanent. As far as I can tell, the intersection has just enough room to make a traffic circle that could handle the peak volumes around lunchtime and provide enough room to maneuver around.

But, as usual, there’s no silver bullet. Even a roundabout would only solve one part of the problem – the current lack of a right-of-way system. There’s more, though. For instance, some people still find it sane to bike while talking on the phone, even though it’s going to be illegal to do the same while driving a car (arguably an easier thing to do). And some still find it cool to bike with both hands in their pockets, wearing a smug face until they realize the need for brakes.

Of course, they didn’t cause my accident. What happened to me on Wednesday was just poor timing, compounded by poor road planning. Instead of promoting traffic distributors to ease the load on this one intersection, the University has opted to funnel everyone through a 50-square-foot logjam. Rather than finding reasons for an arbitrary ban, can we please do something about this much-maligned intersection?

Entry №1070, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 10:01 PM | Edit | Permalink
Categories: College, Frustration, Gems | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (3)

My website was completely down this weekend. f2o, my host, has been having some server issues lately. That’s kinda frustrating, because it’s happened for the last three weekends, and always when I think of something new to post, so now I forget what I wanted to write.

Not that I’ve really had any time to write. The title of this post is a bit ironic, actually, because between programming, debugging, and programming some more – and dozing off in my chair due to lack of sleep – I really do need some downtime, though I’ll probably spend that time dozing off in my chair again.

Speaking of programming, I now work with the big, Solaris-powered computers on campus. Traveling across campus to one of the computer clusters is a pain, though, so I connect remotely using my MacBook Pro. (Yes, I switched over the summer. Another thing I forgot to blog about…) On any given day, I now use Mac OS X, Windows, and Solaris on the same computer. Back in September, when I setup Windows on my computer via Boot Camp, I thought it was the coolest thing since Microsoft Bob (joking), but compiling programs on the remote Elaine workstations gives you a warm fuzzy feeling that you don’t even get with dual booting. The black and white console tells you you’re not just “playing” with computers anymore: you’re a computer scientist.

And then you run the software you’ve just compiled, and you experience the programmer’s rite of passage known as random heaps of gobbledygook, hastily dumped onto the screen. The compiler’s no longer smart enough to keep you from doing silly things with your code, gently slapping your wrist every time you forget a semicolon. Beyond lie uncharted waters; here be void *s.

Once the program works, though, it’s marvelously fast, ceases to crash every time you exhale, and makes you want to shout for joy! That’s the idealized story, anyhow; in real life, you’d be recovering from all the headbanging you’ve been doing. And that’s why I need some downtime. But, alas, I’ve got two papers to write and plenty of sleep to catch up on.

I really miss finishing all my homework – including social studies – before dinner…

Entry №1069, posted by Minh Nguyễn at 9:33 PM | Edit | Permalink
Categories: C++, College, Frustration, This Website | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)