Liquid Soap Dispenser? : A Ported Entry

First Friday.
Another project.
Here's an actual photo! Google isn't letting me insert a jpeg outside of my G-drive.. so.. "img src ="br />

It's a photo that was uploaded to my twitter (or technically to bucketphoto) back in August. I never really went around to doing something with it. It's just been sitting on my table top all this time. It's the micro controller to a liquid soap dispenser (LSD). LSD's are cheap now-a-days. Cheap as in, 10-15 USD depending on the brand/model. The lame thing about this LSD was that we had it in the house for not more than a few months before this chemical attack to the interior happened. The batteries consequently leaked out, but this might have been due to a different cause? After having it sit in the kitchen idle for so long, the soap within the pipes and components dried out and cogged the system. I needed to disassemble it to clean out the soap and used a needle to clear out the nozzle piece. Actually it turned out I only needed to remove a membrane covering it and rush water in. Weird enough, after I scrapped off the "rust" and made a connection with some new batteries, the motor works.. or at least it wiggles, but it does so based on a preset value it's stuck on. Neither of the switches seem to adjust this. The LSD can manage to pump water out through the nozzle, but the pump pressure isn't high enough to yield us some actual liquid soap. I guess if we diluted the thing some.. Nay! I will not be forced to live life with diluted soap! I need a replacement augmented microcontroller. I can probably still use some of the components already on the chip. I think it's just the plastic on the board that's ruined. But the exposed copper is also rusted..

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So I have a theory:
on top by the output nozzle there is an IR emitter. By the base on top of the two buttons of the LSD there's an IR sensor. When a person puts a hand to request for soap the LSD reads this by some discontinuity in its reading. Or maybe this is in reverse?

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Found this video. Turns out my product comes from a company calling itself "Simplehuman," they make kitchen appliances. My model is the ST1008, the circuit was created back, at most in, 2010 though. I think I'll keep the peripherals, do away with their main circuit, and replace it with something holding an Atmel AVR microcontroller.

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2nd theory: Recalling form memory, the bottom LED, or LED#1 serves as an indicator. LED#2 is definitely IR though. But there's a 2nd element on the auxiliary PCB of a type I don't recognize. serial # 503504-00-01. Also, I'm not sure what the 2nd IC on the main PCB is for. It's probably a H-bridge of some type. The main PCB also has a 4 hole-ed portion labeled "J2". I'm thinking ST1008 uses a generic PCB design. It looks that this model doesn't use that portion maybe, and therefore some of the resistors embedded don't really do anything? Or another theory, maybe J2 is a spot designated for a programmer to come in to prepare the main IC? It probably still works. I don't think anything on the PCB has been shorted, only disconnected due to the chemical attack that diffused through it. LED#1 is no longer turning on though. A multimeter does read a potential difference across it. I might be able to just replicating the whole PCB board again, but I really wanted to develop something from scratch. That auxiliary PCB is still an issue. Portion "J3" - I'll need to prototype with a breadboard and see what values come out as I run current through the leads. Or maybe I'll just use an Arudino for this since it's what I'm already more familiar with.

Textual Update: A Ported Entry

Photos, I believe people love to see photos..
Some updates concerning proposed blog entries/project topics.

Team isn't doing the car buying analysis. We're pretending to finance a fake toy operation now. We just grabbed/sky-blued numbers for raw materials needed from around the interweb and we plan to do a series of present worth analysis-s on it based on assumed minimum acceptable rate of return (MARR) values. Our progress report isn't due for another week or two (need to double check on this). Basically, we're mass producing a differential-drive toy robots on two assumptions (labor intensive and with capital investments on some hardware). Again, it's a fake on-paper analysis made with many assumptions. Professor basically told us to sky blue any numbers we have a hard time getting access to and to focus more on the analysis/spreadsheet comparisons. Let it be so.

The ratchet group project for my ME440 class is done and over with. I'm not particularly proud of it, and am somewhat reluctant to even speak of it more. I think our group got the highest score on it, but this was more or less based on our presentation (write-up/ and group presentation) of it as opposed to its real world functionality. I brought a carrot in during presentation day (this is irreverent information). A week ago (or two?) we made a 1:2 scale model with a rapid prototype with ABS plastic. It had.. issues. Which were addressed, but like stated, I'm not particularly proud of it.We did however, make springs. Almost "hand-made" with the assistance of a power drill. These weren't heat tempered or anything, we just rolled up guitar strings around a metal (bronze) stick with a hole in it. Working on the prototype in the Mendenhall/Machine Shop in TBE was pretty neat. I rarely go in there these days, and this gave me an excuse to look through the hardware and play around with the drill press some. A flesh wound on my right pointer finger now gives memories of this recent experience.

We do have a nice, privileged machine shop for the "elite" to use. But undergrads aren't allowed in there. Personally, I was told it's usually us who break stuff. I think in the past I've been guilty of having destroyed one or two drill bits, but nothing beyond that. It would be nice to access some of this hardware.. and not pay for it, but I guess those operations have to be financed somehow.

Oh, and I'm now suppose to do a 10 minute presentation for my microbiology class sometime within the upcoming month. It was originally going to focus on pig whip worms and their relation to autoimmune diseases, but I officially changed this "proposal" to the topic of genechip technology. It was mentioned during today's* lecture, and I just so happen to have one sitting on my desktop for no apparent reason. I believe it was Shelby's gift to me after attending that SWE conference back in '09 or '10?  I've had it since and never really did any research on it. I guess I'll be killing birds with stones.

So really, I've nothing but some short storys to share. I'll update on the aforementioned projects with photos in the near future. My camera/phone is sort of not reliable at the moment. I can take photos, but in a very blind manner. I'm still under my parent's contract, but  I can't say I'm a fan of Sprint's phone services or phone updates. I've definitely been looking into that new Nexus 4 that's about to come out, but I'm not sure if our plan will cover it. In fact, I'm almost doubtful. Sprint likes to keep control of what our phones do, they likely enjoy restricting the updates provided for us. Oh, and they keep spamming us with ads through their SMS system.. It is horrible, and I'm almost certain Sprint probably skins puppies for their fur and stuff. Also,  I've been considering getting a tattoo for the longest time. Right now, this comes to mind. Really digging the spiky spiral concept. It reminds me much of a zerg theme; and yes, caffeine is my favorite chemical. <3

This is starting to seem more like a personal blog than a project-blog type of thing. It guess it doesn't matter. It's just an update. I had some problems with my Ubuntu OS a few days ago. For some reason my memory was starting to get used like crazy. Haven't been able to troubleshoot it. It got so bad that start up wouldn't let me log in without calling out some errors with graphic settings (lack of memory) not being configured right. It's an issue with the 30 Gb installation (easy enough). Luckily, most of my important data is saved on a different partition than the root install, so I simply uninstalled the OS and I'm currently in the process of a fresh install v12.1 (brute force solution). Oh, and my laptop doesn't have a CD tray. Also not relevant in a way, but I haven't been able to do a "full" installation since I never bothered to redo this with a big enough flash drive. I assume this process could lead to a partition greater than the standard 30 Gb, or there's probably a way to increase the size after allocating of the space? This could use some more looking into.

MicroBiol Coredump E2

3 topics covered in exam

Microbial Nutrition and Growth

essential nutrients are needed for survival

general essential nutrients (GEN)

SPONCH = [Sulfur, Phosphorus, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, Hydrogen] are needed at an absolute minimum (at the very least, not amt)

growth factor = organic molecule the microbe cannot make itself. Might need preassembled aminic acid. Includes amino acids, vitamins, nucleotides

S by proteins; P from ATP, nucleic acids, phopolipids (easy)

N: via proteins, nucleic acids (considered difficult)

Generally parasites use organic form for S

specific essential nutrients (SEN)

individual needs of microbes. Diatons need silicon, bacteria does not need Si, but needs Fe

Difference between (GEN) and (SEN)

GEN are universal, while SEN are specific? Not All SEN's are needed at an absolute minimum like GEN.

• energy source types
  • phototroph
    • Get energy from light → photons
  • chemotroph
    • Get chemicals from inorganic chemicals
    • lithotrophs – Get E from inorganic chemicals
    • organotrophs – Get E from organic chems (C,H) at a min

• Carbon source types
  • autotroph
    • uses inorganic CO₂
    • mentions methanogens
      • 4H₂+CO₂ → CH₄+2H₂O
  • heterotroph
    • Obtain C from organic form
    • CHO's, proteins, lipids, etc
• Some combinations
  • Photoautroph – E from light, C form CO₂
    • eg. Thermus aqnaticus
  • Chemoheterotroph – energy from chem, carbon from organic source

//These are the 4 main arrangements, 16 possible combinations?

Know the various oxygen requirements/tolerances for the categories we went over in class

Oxygen is used in macromolecules and sometimes in respiration

organisms that use O₂ as their final e^- acceptors in respiration are called obligate aerobes. That acceptor needs to be there waiting at the end or you won't make ATP → dead.

Aerobic respiration

Glucose [(CH₂O)_n] + O₂ → CO₂ + H₂O + Energy (ATP)

obligate anaerobes are killed by O₂. There might be intermediate steps.. e^- + O₂ → radicals. They won't have the enzymes to break down these and they'll damage via free radicals.

facultative anaerobe → don't need O₂ , but can use it

aerotolerant anerobe → don't need O₂, aren't killed by it, don't use?

catalase : if bubbles are seen, it's not an obligate anaerobe since we can see that it can properly deal with O₂, or at least is trying to

concerning hydrogen, don't worry about with with SPONCH. Too much of it is around already.

cardinal temperatures: set of temps unique to each type/species

minimum : lowest temperature for survival, they aren't dead yet but close. Just surviving, not much growth

optimum: best temperature for growth/enzymatic reactions, lots of growth

maximum: highest temperature organisms can survive at, not much growth

psychrophiles : 0(or below)-20C, opt@15

psychotrophs

facilitative psychorophiles

mesophiles: 20-45C, opt@20-40

thermophiles: by plot 40-80C. Opt @~65C

hyperthermophiles

extremethermophiles

//do not relie on freezing to kill a microbe unless if hyperthermohile, they can exist at low temps. Boiling is preferred

//Thermus aqnaticus

acidophiles – 0-5.5 ph

alkaliphiles – 5.5 – 8.0 ph

halophiles - 9 – 30% salinity (exist in pink crystals)?

Halotolerant 5-6% salinity

osmophiles

osmotolerant

Q: If you pull out infested Jam from fridge, wha tis it?

Osmotolerant and pschrotroph (possible)

binary fission / transverse fission
• Replication/Partitioning
  • 1 mother cell --> 2 daughter cells
  • origin of replication → start copying DNA
• Septation/cytokenesis
  • forms a ring in the center of the cell, attached to cell membrane
  • add peptidoglycan
  • Z-ring contracts → splits cell apart

//cycle time = generation or doubling time

what happens during each of those two main stages to create two cells

Know the stages of the microbial growth curve and what is happening with the cells at those various stages

• Lag phase
  • adjusting to environment, gathering nutrients getting ready to divide
• Log/exponential phase
  • rapid cell division, more cells being produced than dying
  • N_f = (N_i)2ⁿ
• stationary
  • net = 0, nutrients get used, waste products get made and kill off population
• death
  • more cells dying than produced

there is a sample problem with this.

Q: to get n, n = (duration/standard doubling time)

thus, if sdt = 20, and duration = 240, n = 240 / 20, then N_f = (N_i)2ⁿ

//she used the book example*

Know the difference between symbiosis and non-symbiosis; know the various categories in those types of interactions

• symbiotic
  • @least needs the other to survive
  • Mutualism
    • both benefit
  • Commensalism
    • one benefits, the other is unaffected
  • Parasitism
    • One benefits, one is harmed
    • //anytime we get sick..
  • //Termite example:
    • They don't have the enzymes needed to digest wood cellulose, but they have the enzyme cellulase
    • protozoa have bacteria on/in it
    • bacteria live on/in protozoa, helps them produce cellulase
    • termite gets glucose
    • err.. cellulose ---(with cellulase)--> glucose
    • orgs xfered through silava
  • another ex. Us e.coli, et other one
    • e.coli will take O₂ in our intestents, and little pocktes inbetween cells won't have O₂
    • now, there's bacteriodes → obligate anaerobes that live there. If they get hit with O_2, they die

• non-symbiotic
  • Synergism
    • both benefit
  • Antagonism
    • one benefits, one is harmed
      • ex. penicillum colony vs bacteria
      • fungi produces toxin...
  • interacts /w one another, does not need other to survive
  • Some are beneficial, some are harmful

-Know the stages of biofilm formation and what is happening in those various stages

• Van Leeuwenboek via teeth scraping
• microbes grow together in close assocation
  • symbiotic
  • non-symbiotic?
• Bio-Films
  • attachment
    • Planktonic bacteria attachment
    • inducer molecules releases
      • these inducer molecules signal others to come over to initial attachment sites
      • /w enough they'll eventually reach a quorum
  • quorum
    • number of individuals needed to start forming matrix/biofilm
  • matrix development/maturation
    • cells act as a single unit, not individuals
  • matrix composition
    • polysaccharides, Proteins,Fimbriae, Pili
  • matrix function
    • Protection
      • film can block antibodies, keep antibodies from reaching cells
    • Genetic exchange
      • DNA binding proteins → help them hold onto DNA and maybe use it. One cell would spill its contents, another can pick I tup
  • matrix structure
    • differences in nutrients, temperatures, and oxygen levels
• There are a number of quorum-dependent proteins (qdp)
  • inducer molecule → chromosome → qdp
• //nitch concentration differences?
  • Top may offer most? These changes allow cells to behave differentially, than each other. They'll function as a unit and divide up tasks.
  • //@ top, lots of O₂ and it's used for respiration → ATP
  • //at bottom, cells have acccess to a lot of nutrients
  • //cells at top will produce a lot of energy that they'll share with cells at the bottom, while bottom cells share nutrients with them. Thus, a biofilm can act as a multicellular organism.

===

TBC 

Core Dump: Microbiol Lab Notes

Just posting some of my notes in case anyone from UNLV or CSN (or anywhere) wants  something to reference to.We had our first lab practicum mid-this-week. Some items aren't complete - differential mediums - some basic stains are explained well though.

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Practical Part:

1: Make GS and AF stains.

GS algorithm

• Saline+transferred bacteria ---> prepare smear, let air dry, then heat fix ~15s
• Add Crystal Violet, 1min, rinse with water
• Add Gram's iodine, 1min, rinse with water
• Add Gram's Alcohol, slant it**, it'll decolorize, then immediately rinse with water
• Counter stain safainin,1min, rinse with water
• Let dry with bibulous paper

AF Algorithm

• Saline+xfer bacteria ---> prepare smear, let air dry, then heat fix~15s
• Add carbolfuchsin, let stand 5min
• Add Acid-fast Alcohol, wash off last thing, then immediately rinse with water
• Add methylene blue, 1 min rinse with water
• let dry with bibulous paper
  
  

Remarks on interpretation: know result, and shape/arrangement, for an unk org.

• if Gram stain +, we should see blue-purple stains on our organisms
• if Gram stain -, we should see red-pink stains on our organisms
• G variable is??? both, dependent on age, culture mix, etc.
• if acid-fast +, reddish-purple
• If acid-fast -, (methylene blue)
  
  

//ahh, streptoooooo, ooo as in “oo” not grapes. Don't see any grape bacillus.

Cocci (little circle dots)

Coccus: o, single

diplococci: oo, paired together

streptococci: oooooooo, chains

tetrad: o^2, 4 square formation

sarcina: o^3

staphylococci: grapes*

coccobacillus: meso between cocci and bacilli

Bacilli (rod shaped bacterium)

Bacillus

diplobacilli

streptobacilli

palisades: zig-zag /|/\/\/\|/\/\/

Spirillum (spiral)

Some remarks: Basically the arrangements tend to occur when a daughter cell sticks with its parent after division. Concerning the cocci, everything is the same. Just, if the plane become irregular it becomes a “staphylo-” Nothing too special. Also note that pleomorphic may exist. Report what you see and emphasize on the most complex arrangement, many will probably exist.

Visuals:

Gram positive staphylococcus

Gram negative cocci

streptococci

Gram positive bacillus

diplobaciili

palisades

Gram negative bacillus

2: identify endospore, flagellar, and capsule stains. Structure/function

Endospore Stain:
• Impossible to see. In a strepto arrangement they were the little dots between dead cells. Stain is forced within cell, and declorization removes stain in cells except spores. A counter stain will stain the cell but not spore. So spore can be seen as a different color
• an endospore is a dormant form of a bacterium that allows it to survive poor environment conditions. Some papers also attribute it to as a form of primitive egg laying since multiple copies can be saved. Regardless, RNA is conserved. In slide you see vegetative cells and spore mother cells.

Capsule Stain

• The capsule was not stained in our slides. The stained cells were covered by nothingness, blank, nada.
• remarks: capsules are composed to mucoid polysaccharides/polypeptides that repel most stains. So they stain around the cell by the technique. Acidic stain (negative***) stains background. And the basic stain colourizes the bacteria. Thus, the capsule remains unstained and we see a white halo (the nothingness)
• Also, the function is that a capsule increases virulence in microbes. They make them less vulnerable to phagocytosis. Helps in harsh environments, can live longer on doorknobs and stuff

Endospore Stain

• stain is forced within cell, and declorization removes stain in cells except spores. A counter stain will stain the cell but not spore. So spore can be seen as a different color
• an endospore is a dormant form of a bacterium that allows it to survive poor environment conditions. Some papers also attribute it to as a form of primitive egg laying since multiple copies can be saved. Regardless, RNA is conserved. In slide you see vegetative cells and spore mother cells.
  

Flagella Stain

inject Ryu stain with needle underneath cover.

Flagella functions.. creates motility in cells.

1 tail = polar, monotrichous arrangement, amphitrichous (both ends), lophotrichous (one end ,many) peritrichous (all over, like ex)

3. differential, enriched, selective media. G+/-, for HEA, EMB, MacConkey, BAPcoliform bacteria produces gas from lactose fermentation
   selective: encourages specific, discourages other growth
   differential: allows to distinguish between diff microbes
   defined: chemicals are known and so is their composition

• undefined: composition is unknown; however ingredients are known

Below is a list of common agars: exact details are in text

• NA is w/eb
• Phenylethyl Alcohol Agar (PEA) is an undefined, selective medium that encourages G+ and inhibits growth of most G- orgs. Not considered a differential medium since it doesn't distinguish between different orgs (I question this) it's considered selective**
  
• columbia CNA /w 5% SBA: undefined, differential, selective medium. Allows growth of G+and stops/inhibits G-.
  straphylococci, streptococci, enterococci love it
• concerning blood agar. Alpha hemolytic → (eats away, leaves a green partial clearing) gamma is nonhemolytic, beta is a complete hemolytic (all RBCs are hemolyzied, but not all)
• HEA Hektoen Enteric Agar
  • selective differetial
  • selective: choose between G+, G- (allows G- grow,not so much G+)
  • differential based on G- (what species. Black color → salmonila)
• Eosin Methylene Blue (EMB)
  • complex(chem undef), slective, differential medium. Has peptone, lactose, sucrose, and dyes eosin Y /w methlyene blue.
  • Dyes inhibit G+ orgs, rxn with lactose fermenter in acidc envoinrments.
    
    

result	interpretation	“presumptive ID”
No growth (P)	inhibited	G+
Good growth (G)	Not inhibited	G-
Pink and mucoid (Pi)	Lactose ferment, lil acid	Maybe coliform
(purple, black wo green) (D)	Ferment lactose/sucrose lots of acid	X2Maybe coliform
Colorless (C)	No rxn	Not coliform

• MacConkey Agar
  • selective+differentiam medium /w lactose, bile salts, neutral red, and CY.
  • Inhibits growth of G+ orgs. Neutral red dye is a pH indicator. Red < 6.8 colorless otherwise
  • Used to isolate and differentiate members of the Enterobacteriaceae
  • remarks: if org. is a lacctose fermenter, it turns red/pink
    
    
  • 
    
    

over all remark: if it grows on Macconkey, EMB, or HEA it's G-.

Written Portion1.Magnification and Resolution. There is also contrast. We stain for this some. Impossible to get 10Kx with a light microscope (text) blue light?

2.

3.

4.

5. procedure/purpose of smear prep.

• Algorithm: emulsion
  • set-up includes the staining tray
  • place drop of water /saline on clean slide if not staining from a broth culture
  • aseptically add bacteria to water/saline. Mix and spread out.
    • Adding it to saline causes a dilute solution. smear concentration/cell densities affects stain
  • Flame it to heat fix.
    • heat fixing kills the bacteria, makes adhere to slide, and coagulates their protein for a better staining. This could distort cells, and create aerosols.
  • Let air dry, if done correctly should be cloudy
    

6. Describe G and AF stains. Justify, principles, explain in detail, step-by-step
Negative stains not discussed, but they have neg ch­arged chromogen, repelled by bacteria, and … heat fixing need not be invloved.

• gram stain is a differential stain because it divides bacteria into two classes, gram + (purple) and gram – (pink)

• cells from fresh culture are xfer to a clean slide and allowed to dry. If from agar plate, first xfer to a liquid medium for dilution. create thin, barely visible film. You must smear. fresh culture should be used since as cells age, they'll lose their ability to retain the stain. Fix cells on slide by heating (Bunsen burner, slide should feel warm afterwards)
• Stain with basic dye – crystal violet for 30-40s, then rinse to remove excess stain. Cells appear purple under microscope
• Add Gram's Iodine solution and retain on slide for ~1min. Iodine combines with crystal violet to form a dye-iodine complex. This decreases its solubility within the cell. Cell still appears purple. This means it prevents it from being dissolved?
• Decolorated by washing with ethanol or acetone. This is the differential step. G+ bacterial will retain the crystal violet, but gram negative bacteria do not. Add ethanol/acetone drop-wise, /w slide tilted at an angle. Do this until drops coming off edge start to become colorless
• WARNING: even gram + cells can lose the crystal violet-iodine complex if decloration is excessive. wash excessive ethanol with water. At this point G+ are purple and G- are colorless.
• The rinse cells are covered with a counter-stain called “safrainin” for 20-30s. This will make G- bacteria pink. Rinse with water and dry with filter paper

Theory behind G stains correlates with cell wall structure among bacterial. Ethanol is thought to shrink the thick peptidoglycan in G+ bacteria, forcing it to retain the dye. So, this thick, dehydrated peptidoglycan layer of G+ bacteria is now like “permeability barrier” this prevents the loss of the crystal violet-iodine complex.

In contrast. Since the peptidoglycan in G- bacteria is very thin and has large pores, ethanol may extract lipids and increase the cell's porosity. This will remove the crystal violet-iodine complex

again, G- cells have a higher lipid content -because of the outer layer - and thinner peptidoglycan layer than G+ cells . Also G+ cells with their thicker peptidoglycan layer have a greater degree of cross links due to teichoic acids .

Note: Iodine is not a mordant agent, it's more proper to consider it a trapping agent? Why does text continue to use “mordant”?

Acid-Fast Stain

Mycolic acid is a waxy substance that gives acid-fast cells a higher affinity for the primary stain and resistance to decolorization by an acid alcohol solution.

• two methods. Ziehl-Neelsen (ZN) and Kinyoun (K) methods. K is coldstain*. We do coldstain
• carbolfuchsin is a phenolic compound

basic stains have a negatively charged chromogen, which forms an iconic bond with a negatively charged bacterial cell.

Differential and structural stains, allow to see compartmentalizations and stuff
the acid-alcohol is (95% ethanol + 3% HCL), the carbolfuchsin would differ based on method

For Kinyoung Method

• prep smear. they recommend sheep serum vs water, but I always use saline solution. But continue on with heat-fix.
• Apply Kinyoung carbolfuchsin stain for 5min. Don't remember if it smells, but don't breath this in. rinse with water
• declorize with acid-alcohol, not to excess until run off is clear
• counterstain with something, (methylene blue) for a min. then rinse with water
• blot dry with bibulous paper or paper towels

more remarks. Do not rub with the bibulous paper - this is bad.

ME402 Some Overview Notes ch 8,9,10

core dump

Cramer's rule:

Use on small systems, finding dets gets more and more time consuming

, det/a

Naive GE.

Forward elemination, backward substitution

Operation counting

er...

most of the effort is incurred in the elimination portion. as opposed to the back sub.

pitfalls

dividing by 0 is bad. also dividing by numbers close to 0. pivoting trys to work around this

round off errors : every result is based on previous result, thus errors tend to propagate

RoT: very imp. when dealing with 100+ eqs

ill-conditioned systems

• well conditioned systems are ones where a small change in one or more of the coefficients results in a small change in the solutoin
• Ill-conditioned systems are those where small changes in coefficients result in large changes in the solution.
• an ill conditioned system is one in which the determinant is close to 0
  if slopes = 0, then they're the same line or there is no soln...
  But, determinant is a relative factor affected by the scales of its cofactors?
  • Slopes are same... x1x2 - y1y2 = 0, etc etc

/determinate of a diagonal matrix is just the product of its diagonal elements

the determinate of a singular system IS 0

GE will recognize this at the end the elemination step, but you can check the determinate once you have set up the triangular matrix

Techniques for improving solns.
use more sig.figs.

pivot: issues occur when pivot element is 0, small remedy for ill cond.

partial pivoting, switch pivot element, which is in column 1, with other element in that column which is the biggest in that solumn. Basically, just switch to highest clolumn 1 row.

complete pivoting: switch to biggest absolute value in whole matrix. so column and row

pivoting algorithm: for large matrices, exchanging rows becomes time consuming, just keep track of appropriate subscripts

not understanding multideminsional versoin of Newton_raphson method. need to relook at Taylor series expansion. seriously, wtf is this [Z] = crap stuff? non-linear equatoins look hard...

Also, complex systems have a few workarounds. 3 are recommended. Remember Fortran? Your ex-best friend??? Saving variables as complex is something special to it apparently.

Gauss-Jordan method is nothing more than Gauss elimination without the back substiution stage. you just forward eleminate, but instead of aiming for a triangular method, eleminate every column element except the one in question from that column. Just like the method by hand – typically.

There is also the concept of flops. Know definition, with GJ, more flops are needed than GE

===

chapter 10

LU Decomposition
only operations with matrix coeffs, also if you have many right sided bectors [B] you just need to solve one coeff matrix[A].

U is pretty stright forward. just forward elminate until you get a triangle matrix

to get L, you need to put in the f-factors and use L as its holder. diagonals are all 1's, and

f12 = a21/a11,

f31 = a31/a11,

f32 = a'32/a'22

[A] --> [L][U]

[U] = [a11,a12,a13;

0,a'22,a'23;

0,0,a''33]

[L] = [1,0,0;

f21,1,0

f31,f32,1]

SUB decompose(a,n)

DOFR k = 1, n -1

DOFOR i = K+1,n

factor = a_1,k / ak,c //???

a_i,k = factor

DOFOR j = k + 1, n

a_i,j = a,j - factor*a_kj

END DO

END DO

END DO

END Decompose

Croute Decomposition

aka. Doolittle decomposition, factorization

---

Calculating the inverse

Can do this with LU method

ch 10 or something 11 special matrices

Banded Matrices have values only in diagonal? There is BW and HBW, BW = 2*HBW+1

Everything below is a 0, and thus algorithms will try to pivot the hell out of them; however, this is useless.

Thomas algorithm is an efficient method

Cholesky decomposition : [A] = [L][L]^T

This method requires positively defined matrices to avaoid round-off error some

Gauss-Seidel method

iteratin method used to approximate the soln, method converges on true soln

ex 11.3, try 0,0,0 as a starting guess

|ea,1| is a means to estimate error

Jacobi iteration

same as G-S method but rather than using the latest available x's, this technique uses an equation to compute a set of new x's on the basis of a set of old x's. So as new values are generated they are not immediately used but rather are retained for the next iteration. Not sure what this 'new eq' is. Seems like it's just using the initial guess, and saving new outputs. Start with 0 again?

Convergence criterion for GS method: similar in spirit to simple fixed-point iteration

• 2 fundamental issues. Sometimes non-convergent, if it does, it does so slowly maybe
• partial derivative thingy.. basically the absolute values of the slopes must be less than unity to ensure convergence, so if a 2x2, then |a12/a11| < 1 and |a21/a22| < 1, but this is a sufficient and not necessary condition for congergence...

overrelaxation is designed to accelerate the convergence of an already convergent system. Aka successive or simultaneous overrelaxation or SOR

//interesting fact, they're calling the error check a variable "sentinel"

--sleep...

The Ambiguity of Voting UNLV 2012

A little ambiguity goes a long way.

Considering my lack of politician participation in about everything, I find myself wondering why I get involved sometimes. Of course, I would rather see some senators be seated over others, so I suppose there is an inclination to vote. And indeed, I am an advocate of a "fair vote". There's a case to make for this here.

My voting experience today consists of this little story:

It's to my knowledge that the undergraduate college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has moved from using an older platform known as OrgSync to one with greater functionality dubbed collegiatelink.net. I haven't explored it entirely yet, but all of our data from the previous site has been ported over. This was done during the summer or sometime.

One of the appealing functions of link.net was the secure voting and it's here where a question I have arises. At UNLV, we're on our 2nd day of student government elections. I just voted, and here are 3 screen shots I would like to share with you all.

photo 1.0

photo 1.1

photo 1.2

[At this point let me state that I've always been a fan of the "None of the Above" option, and that I very much dislike my state for vanquishing it this upcoming election.]

I wanted to know if anyone was only getting 2 pages in their "ballot". With that stated, notice how I'm forced to vote for 6 out of the 8 Rebel Yell advisory board members.. I'm being forced to select these people. To be honest, the main criteria was on how long their last names were. But, also notice how I was given the option to vote for these members twice.

Now notice how I'm actually voting for 5 senators, 2 from one, and 3 from another college. Apparently my self and others like me are more special. Not only does our voting get counted more than yours, but I was asked (on two separate occasions) to vote for these [RY] board members. Or more like, forced to vote for some of them twice! Now I don't remember, but now I'm wondering if this system would have allowed me to click on submit without having everything checked on as required. It's doubtful, seeing as "required" is placed up there.

What should I make of this? I'm not too sure at the moment. I'm an undergraduate majoring in two degrees within two different colleges at UNLV. Is this voting system really fair? And how many of these votes actually get counted? I believe today is a day to admire the intelligence of those that call themselves "ballot creators." It's a user error, or maybe we should blame link.net?

Valley of Fire: The White Domes

Once upon a time in Spring Break, I found myself waking up at 6 A.M. on a weekend. It's a common theme that this should be the "go-to-sleep-time," but today I was traveling. I headed to campus to pick up a few colleagues and carpool over to the Valley of Fire. Some could not make it, but meh. The trip continued. The commute from UNLV to the visitor's center was roughly 60 miles. It was time spent chatting, and rocking it to Led Zeppelin

At the visitor center to the state park, we looked around at the mini museum they had set up. We met these little guys. The formal one is Dipsosaurus dorsalis a.k.a "desert iguana." I forgot which species the latter one was. It was eating broccoli from a water tray after this photo was taken. We seen many more of these, mostly around 4-7inches throughout the park. At one point, we spotted one that could only be between 2.0-2.5 feet from head to tail. This was an estimate made from 50+ ft away, but it was gigantic (and it moved fast for it's size). The thing was big enough to hunt sparrows. Poor sparrows. These two lizards are known to typically grow up to 16 in. in length.

From the visitor center if you take the adjacent road northward, you'll pass through several trail heads. At the very end, there's an area know as the "White Domes." There's a short ~1.2 mi. trial here that leads to a unique place known as a split canyon, or "narrows." It was such a beautiful place, and I reckon the area would have looked even better under direct sunlight. So around 11 to noon. We arrived here roughly at 9 A.M.

These are probably some of the best photos I took of the park.

This one is of a view above

 

 These slit canyons are of particular interest to me. I've seen some of the most beautiful photography come out of them.  It's worth read more into.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_canyon

Yours truly on the left, my amigo companion on the right. I had the better camera :X

Unflitered Thoughts

It's 4:01, and the first sip of coffee has entered mouth.
I'm getting philosophical right now. I think, the mind is trained to react to the caffine like this. I'm so inspired! Also, turns out, I don't have 4 exams next week. Just two, so the load just got off my shoulder, but it's a good thing too because it reveals to me just how nervous and uncomfortable I am about two of those exams in particular.
4:02
Okay so, the mind is conscience right? And most would define consciousness as being self awareness. I'm recalling a conversation I had with Derick over at a buffet a couple months back. We were talking about mediums of consciousness, how, in us humans, it's the organic brain and how the mechanism for consciousness is the neuron impulses subjected to it every millionth of a second.
4:03
 Now, that medium could be anything, a computer, an animal, plant, virus. We diverged into a conversation of self sustaining mediums, and reckoned if that's how a god could exist. What if god, or "G"od was a sort of 4th dimensional consciousness existing through a self sustaining medium?
4:06
It isn't something entirely new, it's just all this thinking about photons and radiation. Light, for example is nothing more than a variety of electromagnetic radiation with it's properties being delivered through the two "kinds" of interacting waves. It's a mathematical phenomenal, yet one we're able to graph and calculate it to a level of certainty. In the same context that we can theoretically create a computer out of nothing but water pipes, what if somewhere, in the biology of existence such a "conscience" came to be? It's a plausibility that at somepoint in the noise of chaos, a god might actually exist.
4:10
Consider the fact that are known universe is sifnicantly bigger than..
4:11
Okay, not a valid argument. But, coming back to the point of this. Being self-aware is a vague area. I was looking at the treeoflife website and noticed how they put dashes "---" on the virus taxon. They're not self repulicating, they're not "organisms", they're not "alive", but they're able to exist, and act based on the chemical interactions they're coded for.
4:14
Humm.. that would imply there was a purpose. By coded for I mean, well, chemical interactions really: the potential for electron transfer. Okay, "coded for." A virus is just as conscience as a computer. A computer is potentially another type of primitive life form. I would also argue that a computer was intelligently design, thanks to the wonderful engineers over at IBM.
4:17
And then how would we define being self aware? A simple definition usually comes by the question, "know I exist?" I'm sure a virus doesn't ask itself that. Conscienss through an electrical-semi-conducting medium a.k.a com-put-ter, is almost like creating life, or something living. Life, is defined in biology with a certain list of attributes. Being able to reproduce, etc. etc. I think such definitions as these are conservative and need to be relooked at. These.. axioms, are too restrictive. In fact, they're not MY axioms. Someone else just made them up, and I'm wondering why we continue to silently agree with them. Let's rethink our axioms, except for when they show up on exams... =[
4:21
I just did a google search on "virus vs computer" and did not get what I was expecting.
4:22
This is something worth looking into more. I think the proper phrase is, "..certainly, something worth further investigation."
-jbf

Another day at CES

Friday, at 4pm, the announcement was made through the speakers. "It's 4 P.M. The exhibit halls are now close," Cheers, claps, and "WhooHoos!" came from every booth within North Hall. Of course, many of the exhibitors had begun packing long before the 4pm shutdown. Lenevo had been out before 2pm, and nearly all of the booths in the Las Vegas Hilton had a box out by 2:30p. It's quite a feat to see every booth out on exhibit. I didn't manage to see each and everyone, but then again, I never woke up before noon to put in the effort. I'd say, 70%.

I uploaded around ~< 200 photos onto the Facebook. album = "2012 CES", profile = "/Oilxuj", privacy = "public". Feel free to use the photos for anything your heart desires. If you want the originals, I have most of  'em saved onto a hard drive. Send an e-mail and I can look them up for you.

A 2012 Entry

The point of having a webog is to share. Usually a well written log differs from a simple enough comment post on a social site. But, this is a social site. The only thing I'm thinking of selling is fragmented thoughted ideas. My ideas, or remarks. It's a personal web log. Perhaps this thing can serve as an alternative to social networking postings? But, Blogger dosn't seem so integrated with the typical services that I normally use. That anybody normally uses for that matter.

I fought against eg.machine yesterday. The privilage was mine and so was the loss. To my defense, I am a noob and have not done a melee 1v1 game in 10 months. Regardless, they gave me a signed poster and I'm contemplating ebaying this. How much is a man's signature worth?