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Journal -
Week
1
::: Day 1 - Monday
06/06/05 :::
I arrived at UMASS yesterday at about 3pm and had to wait to get in the dorm until 7. And not to mention that it was 85 degrees. I finally got my key and moved in my new room. It's a double - that's kind of cool. I've got two beds so I just put them together and made this huge bed. The room is nice, with new furniture, enough floor and storage space. It's just lonely. I hate the feeling of being so isolated -
no one I know, no one to talk to...
So today was my first day on the job. I got up and headed to the Ucard office to get my ID but they turned me back because they were too busy. I tried to ignore for a while that
I need that card to get back in the dorm. It was a little after 9am so
I headed straight to Prof. Gao's office. I talked to her for a while and then Vinod came. He is a grad student in Lixin's lab and
I will be working mostly with him. He took me and showed me around several buildings and the food corner in the student center. Next we went to the lab where
I will be working. From what I understand it is going to be Vinod, me, and some guy who doesn't show up everyday. It's
going to be quiet; good for work; bad for socializing.
I hung around the lab for a while reading a Java book. Then I had to head back to the card office. To keep it short,
I spent 2 and a half hours walking around campus trying to sort things out and get my card. And after all that hell was over,
I went back to the lab. I got two books: one is a general Java book, including Swing; and the other - Bluetooth for Java. I have to lean a lot, since
I don't have much experience with Java, and none with Bluetooth. But after this day is over
I feel like I have made some steps in the right direction. In the late afternoon
I was reading Sun tutorial on the Swing library and compiled a few examples. It looks interesting.
That's pretty much it. Tomorrow will be my first real day on the job.
Current music: Garbage - Bleed Like Me
Notes: The lab is freezing! (and it's 85 Fahrenheit outside
..)
::: Day 2 - Tuesday
06/07/05:::
Not much to report today. I got up and went to work at 9ish; then spent the entire morning reading the Java tutorials on Swing.
Dealing with all these frames, buttons, labels, etc reminds me of Visual Basic with which
I used to work in high school. The main difference is that in Java you code everything, while in VB you actually have
an interface and can drag components (such as the ones mentioned above) on the frame. VB is more visual,
I guess. But I still like Java better.
Vinod and I worked out some tech problems. The printer wasn't performing well, and
I also had to re-register my Windows XP.
I left for lunch and headed to the student center. I wanted to check out the sushi they offer, but to be honest I didn't dare to try. I love sushi, and the one there didn't seem quite alright.
I was back at work at 1:45pm and continued my explorations on Sun's website. I wrote my very own application. It consisted of a frame with a label and two buttons. I worked on
handling the actions of the two buttons. If curious to see a screenshot of my first Java app, you can see it
here. Nothing amazing, but I feel like I am getting a feel for the visual stuff and will be able to start working on the GUI for Vinod's project. He and I decided that this week
I will spend most of my time training myself, and then next week we will talk again about the specifications of his project and
I can start creating a user interface. Seems like I will have a lot of freedom with that, which is quite cool.
That's pretty much all for today.
Current Music: Lazer 99.3 - the local rock radio station
Note: I went by the Mullins ice-skating rink and saw some kids
practicing figure skating. They were quite cute.
::: Day 3 - Wednesday
06/08/05:::
Today I finished my Java Swing education. I looked over at some more examples. Even though I have already read most of the online
tutorials, I wanted to take a look at a different source. I skimmed two chapters in a Java book. It's benefit is that it explains things a little more than the tutorial (which
relies mostly on examples). Throughout the day I worked on a new Java application that incorporated a lot of the elements
I have been reading about. I put in a menu, buttons with actions, pictures, drop-down menu, and radio buttons. You can see a screen shot of my work
here.
I spent quite a while reading about layouts. I was interested in understanding more in depth how
I can govern the position of elements in the application window. After reading about the different layout managers
I feel I have better control over GIUs.
Today I also picked up my keys to the lab. And then I realized one of them was not working. Vinod and I ended up calling the locksmith who changed the lock. Hopefully
I will be able to go in the lab tomorrow with my key!
Vinod and I are planning to talk about the GIU for his project tomorrow so
I can start thinking about the vision and functions.
After work I got on the bus and went to Amherst (it literally took 4 mins). I went to CVS and a local bookstore. I was looking for the newest Nick Hornby book, but since they didn't have it yet,
I ended up buying something else: Spam Wars. Who knows, it might be something cool. and it's computer related. I got it for a buck ... so no doubt a good deal :)
After I got home I started reading the book "Bluetooth for Java"; I went over the first three chapters. My plan is to finish the whole book by the end of the week. Then I will finally began working on the project and have more details on the website.
::: Day 4 - Thursday
06/09/05:::
Vinod and I spent some time this morning working with the Bluetooth software we have. We have two USB Bluetooth devices that go into the back of the computer, and then we run a couple of sample programs. We kept having problems with the sample code. It did not seem to be running
properly. Vinod said he will play with it a little more and we can try again tomorrow. He is bringing in his laptop so we can test the Bluetooth devices on there too.
For the rest of the morning I read the Bluetooth for Java book. It is all quite confusing and most of the code still doesn't make sense. But I am sure it will get clearer when I start working with the backbone programs I have.
After lunch Vinod and I talked about the GUI I will be working on. What he wants me to do is create an application that displays information about nodes in a network. I have to display the energy level of each node, and the temperature reading that the node has. Later we might incorporate information about the position of the node in a room. Right now I am working with made up
data, but eventually we will have data coming through a Bluetooth link.
In the afternoon, I headed to the neighboring engineering building where Prof. Gao had a weekly meeting
with her PhD students. One of them was presenting a paper (on safety and stability of internet routing). It was hard to follow but I don't regret going.
::: Day 5 - Friday
06/10/05 :::
Today I went to work earlier than usual because I wanted to leave before five and catch the bus to Boston. I started working on the GUI things and waited for Vinod to show up. When he came I stopped my work and the two of us were determined to figure out the Bluetooth issue between
our two computers. Vinod tried connecting his computer to his laptop and it seemed to be working. Next we tried a connection between my computer and his laptop; we ran into some problems which lead us to the decision to reinstall the Bluetooth software on both computers. After that, the client server sample application worked. Unfortunately when we tried switching the places of the client and server on our computers, things didn't go so smoothly. The application kept quitting unexpectedly.
For now, we are leaving Bluetooth. It is good enough that we can run the server on my computer and the client on his. When we start using the Bluetooth link we will go back to the current problem.
I spent the rest of the day working on the GUI. I created a window that displays current energy information about each node. I added a menu bar with some options.
The main problem I faced was in connection to graphics. My idea was to have a
label for each node that says "energy: 6.8" for example. In addition I wanted to have colored bars
indicating the amount of energy left, like in a bar chart. The problem was that it was not that easy to incorporate graphics the way I wanted. My plan was to have labels with an icon - the bar- and no text. Next step was to find a way to make one icon that can be adjusted depending on how long the bar must be. Well, I looked online and finally found a java class which
I could modify. For the last two hours
I worked on the energy window and by the end of the day I had it up and running - with numbers, bars,
menus, etc.
It's amazing how much work one can accomplish in one week working 8 hours a day. I feel like I have learned so much Swing and other stuff.
Now I am off to Boston...
::: Day 6 - Saturday
06/11/05:::
Saturday! Today I rest! Today I eat sushi! Today I spend time with my boy! And no computers whatsoever!
::: Day 7 - Sunday
06/12/05:::
My boyfriend is at work most of today but
I don't feel like going back to UMASS. That's why I have decided to stay in
Boston and hang out in the apartment. I finally got Nick Hornby's new book, and have read 200 pages in one day. It's a really good book, horribly sad and yet so witty ...
::: Week
1 ::: Week 2 ::: Week 3 :::
Week 4 :::
Week 5 :::
::: Week 6 :::
Week 7 :::
Week 8 ::: Week 9 ::: Week 10 :::
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