Outsourcing Homework

Today's classes went well, once again, and it was still a pretty busy day (mostly for NSC stuff). My physics professor, Tsoi, seems to be alright and his class seems to be rather easy (I can drop a test and have five absences), which is good because I could use a little cushion. Our TA for Differential Equations is great, and she actually looks pretty good. Who would've thought that there are actually female grad students in math? My CS 337 (Theory in Programming Practice) teacher was pretty damn cool, Dr. Misra. This guy is like a pioneer in computing (he personally built the course), and I just love his theory of teaching. This may be my best class this semester. Moving along, I was rather shocked to read a WSJ article today about CS students who are outsourcing their homework! This is done via a site that is supposed to be used for accepting bids on very small programming projects from companies. This is rather appalling, and I can't wrap my head around someone cheating on work in their own major. In high school, sometimes things were unfair and I never felt guilty about cheating in Chemistry because our Chemistry teacher cheated us of a real education for that year. I will never take Chemistry again nor do I care about it, so it's not like it matters. And high school, in general, is kind of a joke. When you get to college though, why would you not want to work towards your career? I love learning whatever I'm learning in every CS class I'm in, and without doing the homework I'd have a really hard time with it.

I didn't realize just how successful iTunes has been until I read this article today. I can't believe that they sell 8 million videos and 3 million songs a day! It's almost as if they already have a chokehold on selling video content online. If you don't think that cranking up your iPod (or other mp3 player) hurts your hearing, then you should really watch this video. If you're walking through somewhere noisy, just pause it; don't kill your eardrums. Lastly, some fan site managed to find a buttonless DS online, and I just wanted to mention it since we all miss hearing from Nintendo. Apparently, it's used to view poetry and stuff. This may be an interesting addition to museums, but it was found on a Japanese site.

There's not a whole lot of movie news today and rather than fluff it up, I'm going to cut right to the chase because I'm in the middle of some nerdy work right now. The release date for A Scanner Darkly has finally been decided on as being July 7, and the movie may not be more than a visual masterpiece but it should at least be worth watching for that. Horror junkies may want to see the few clips that Yahoo! Movies has collected for Final Destination 3. AICN has discovered that Marvel will personally make a sequel to The Hulk, which got mixed reviews, and Avi Arad is currently looking for writers and directors and such. In other words, it's just now getting underway and will still take a lot of time. Lastly, since we all like looking at pretty people, here's a shot from the upcoming comic thriller Lucky Number Slevin:



Now for the Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. What artist and/or band (or a few) makes you want to crank your stereo so the whole neighborhood can hear?
Probably Audioslave. It's just really energetic music.

2. What are a few of your favorite songs to crank on your stereo?
I'd have to say "Your Time Has Come" (Audioslave), "Make a Move" (Incubus), and "Get By" (Talib Kweli). I'm sure there are more, but I'm too tired to think of them right now.

3. What artist or style of music do you NOT want to hear cranked up on a stereo?
Country music. It's just annoying.

4. What "stereo" do you use most often: regular stereo, DVD player, clock radio, computer, Ipod, or car stereo?
I'd have to say my computer. I love my Altec Lansing speakers, though they are quite old.