Virtue

“Patience is a virtue, but impatience gets things done.” — Chelsea Clinton

Virtu

This week I started my internship at Virtu Financial in Singapore. I can’t say too much about it for legal reasons, but I like it so far.

Maps

In CS 38, I solved a problem with a novel solution which lost me points simply because it was not in the answer key.

However, in this Veritasium video on how Google Maps computes the shortest path, Google basically does what I do in my solution to the problem, splitting the U.S. map in half horizontally then vertically.

Just because you lose points, doesn’t mean you are wrong.

Colony

On my first weekend, I watched the South Korean zombie movie Colony by Yeon Sang-ho, who directed Train to Busan, one of the top zombie movies of recent memory.

There’s just something so attractive about the idea of a zombie apocalypse, especially for people going through the motions of their mundane routine. Like before, during, and after doing my CS 38 homework, I was kind of hoping for some kind of apocalypse.

As to not spoil too much, I will just state the pros

• Interesting themes on morality (trolley problem)
• Solid integration of science concepts (yellow mold/ants)
• Unique zombie movement/stunts
• Occasional eversal of expectations and cons:
• Logical mistakes/plotholes
• Unconvincing character acting (security guard)
• Rushed ending
• No character development
• Tropes/caricatures (CEO, bully girl)

Snapshot

G said that I should get myself a digicam, but not the one that she has, which I think is some kind of hand-me-down Canon. I don’t really like the bulk of it anyway, so I wanted to get a smaller one.

Upshot

I looked online for some used digicams and I found a place in Bugis called “Digicam Diaries” which seemed legit. I asked Gemini a lot of questions about the models available on the website, and it did a pretty good job after I asked it a lot of questions. I ended up just deciding to get two cameras, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX60, and the Canon DSC-HX5.

I bought them online but what ended up happening was that they didn’t have the HX5 available in the store, so they offered me a HX7V as an upgrade. The HX7V has more megapixels, which basically means the area of the picture generated in millions of pixels.

However, what was kind of strange, when I looked it up, was that the sensor area per pixel on the HX7V is lower than the HX5, but it actually is better than the HX5 though, since it’s back-illuminated.

Hotshot

I think that I might make a YouTube video or Instagram reel using the pictures I take, just piecing them together with some song to the backdrop. However, I think the problem currently for me is that I hesitate to shoot too much.

Kip

I listened to this year’s commencement speech live on YouTube but was initially disappointed by its generic message. “Cautious optimism” seems like a generic message but it depends entirely on your interpretation of what that means.

For Caltech students, who tend to be independent and carry good judgement, I think it’s the best possible advice he could have given. I’ve started to understand how I can widen my vision.

Cargo Cult Science

At the dinner with Kip, he mentioned that the only Caltech prof who ever gave a commencement speech at Caltech was Feynman, and that he feels quite insecure about being put on Feynman’s level.

So, I read Feynman’s 1974 commencement speech, “Cargo Cult Science,” to see if it’s any good. For reference, “cargo cult” refers to Melanesian islanders who started trying to summon supply drops from planes.

To summarize it, he groups and attacks pseudoscience and expedient parts of the scientific community. I’m very impressed how he was brave enough to namedrop the National Accelerator Lab, Cornell, Wesson Oil. However, he was smart enough to not directly criticize them and instead juxtaposed them with the cargo cult.

Decay

According to DMO’s website, Isaac Asimov said, “The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying.”

I’ve recently learned about the importance of paying attention to the delay and decay of events.

For instance when producing music, you can add decay and delay to make the sound thicker. If you have a pluck synth you can increase the tail to build momentum.

Small Error

I was at the office and S and M were checking out my blog, and they noticed that one of the teaser images was not loaded (from “Shear Luck”) but it loaded soon after that, so it seems like it wasn’t broken.

I checked the teaser image though, and it seemed like the right size, so I’m not sure what happened there.