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Another Test

2/24/2019

On Tuesday our Signals tests were handed back. It was a rough test for the class in general. I did significantly worse than I had been hoping for, but ended up still being above the class average. As it stands, I am likely to get a "C" in the class. Hopefully I can move up in the class. We have moved on to a new concept from Discrete Time: the Laplace Transform. I have previously learned (somewhat) what a Laplace Transform is and how to use it, but this class should greatly advance my ability to apply techniques to real-life situations. A "Laplace Transform" is a technique for converting a mathematical representation of a system from being in terms of time to instead be in terms of input frequency. Once converted, it is much easier to analyze the system and apply it to signals. It can then be converted back to its time-based representation.

On Thursday we had our first Energy Conversion test. Energy conversion as a class focuses on converting between mechanical and electrical energy, through things like generators and electric motors. This test focused on magnetic fields and properties, single-phase power, and three-phase power. The test only contained four questions, and I had a comfortable amount of time (1 hr 15 min) to take it. Some parts of it I found confusing and/or difficult - I am somewhat nervous about getting the test back.

Our Hall Government held another event this week. Friday we held Forever Alone Together 5, or "FAT5". FAT is essentially an anti-Valentine's-day party our hall has been putting on for the last few years. The event started at 8pm, and continued until about 1am with lots of snacks along with some video and board games. Attendance was down slightly from previous years, but we still consider this year's event to be a big success. I anticipate FAT will continue to happen for the near future.

Besides my regular schoolwork, I have been putting in significant effort to improve my website (the one you're reading this on right now!). In particular, I've refreshed the theme twice in the last three weeks. The latest improvement implemented a dark-gray with orange theme that I really enjoy - I'll probably be keeping it for quite some time. I've also been working on the "Projects" section of my website. I cleaned up one of the posts about a piece of digital art I made in Blender over the summer:

Blender Image [IMG]

More about this project here (including high-quality images).

I also did some reading about licensing. Now, I can release my Blender artwork under a "Creative Commons" license, which permits others to reuse the image as they see fit so long as they give me credit. I also added a download button so people can reuse the files I used to make the project, which contain a "LICENSE" file explaining what terms and conditions they may reuse the contents under. I am a huge proponent of free (as in freedom) software, and this extends to my creative works with Blender as well. Projects like this are the most use to "people" as a whole when they are released in such a way that others can freely reuse them for their own purposes. More information on the concept of free (libre) software can be found on the GNU website.

GNU website

Well, that's all I have for this week. Stay warm!