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Blog
| 11/17/03
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Minor change with the Caltizzle blog -- again
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OK, now the Caltizzle blog is located at caltizzle.caltech.edu. Yep, we got the official subdomain! Anyway, this should be the last time we change the URL, so feel free to bookmark this one.
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| 11/16/03
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Minor change with the Caltizzle blog
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As I pointed out in my last blog post, I've recently set up an additional blog with Blogger. Anyway, to get rid of their ads, I've decided to host that blog on this server. So the Caltizzle blog's new address is caltizzle.rwald.com. Enjoy.
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| 11/09/03
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Additional blog and pictures uploaded
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A month or so ago, a friend of mine set up a blog for us Caltech people to post funny quotes that some of us might say. It's located at caltizzle.blogspot.com. If you find my site remotely interesting, there's a good chance you'll like that. In other news, I just added a section of my site to hold pictures I've uploaded from Caltech. It's here. They might not be as interesting, but still, they're something to look at. Anyway, enjoy both of these new additions.
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| 5/22/03
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Waiting list results: Negative
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I've gotten back Harvard and Yale's Final Answers: No. Well, I'm not sure that I would have accepted their offers had they given them to me anyway. Oh well. Anyway, go Caltech!
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| 5/08/03
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New Caltech class of 2007 mailing list
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Well, the Unofficial Caltech Prefrosh Weekend '03 Homepage has outlived its usefulness. I had a great time at Prefrosh Weekend, and met many interesting people. But now, my sites and pages relating to it are no longer needed. So, I've decided to replace them with the Caltech class of 2007 mailing list over at Yahoo. Ideally, this will serve the same purpose that the forum and guestbook did earlier, only on a larger scale. Anyway, if you're a member of the Caltech class of 2007, or if you're a current Techer, go ahead over there and sign up. Together, we can make the Caltech class of 2007 the best class ever!
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| 4/03/03
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College Information
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I've been closelipped about my various college acceptences on this page, primarily out of an unfounded fear that the colleges may look here, and say "He's already accepted elsewhere, so we shouldn't accept him here." But now that all the decisions are in (or at least in the mail), I feel free to disclose the results: I was accepted at Caltech, Duke, Chicago, and Johns Hopkins; wait-listed at Harvard and Yale; and rejected at MIT and Princeton. I was very excited to have been accepted at Caltech; I know that they only accept about 500 students, and I'm honored to be one of them. Anyway, later this month (April 24-26, to be exact), I will be visiting Caltech's Prefrosh Weekend, to get a sense of the campus. I've never been to Caltech (or California, for that matter), so I look forward to visiting. I tried to find a place on the web where attendees to this year's Prefrosh Weekend are congregating, but I could not find one. So, I decided to create such a place. My new Unofficial Caltech Prefrosh Weekend '03 Homepage is this place. The goal is that other similarly-interested prefrosh will find my page through a Google search, and will sign the guestbook. Maybe a pipe dream, but I'll try it. Anyway, if you're going to be at Caltech Prefrosh Weekend this year (either as a prefrosh or as an undergrad), be sure to check out that page.
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| 8/13/02
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Site version 4 is finished!
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It's done! I've finally finished version 4 of this site! You can read the details at the History page, but here I'll tell you the story behind the code. One night, I came up with the idea for the JavaScript notebook. It's a simple idea, with little practical application; you can read about it under the Fun Stuff>JavaScripts heading. Anyway, I had finished creating it, and decided that I might as well update the whole site while I was at it. And I did. I decided not to wait until I knew DHTML; after all, this version was supposed to simpler than the last, JavaScript-laden version. There's still room to add some DHTML in later, but since I would only use it for cosmetic changes anyway, it can be added on later. Anyway, I'm just really excited to be able to bring you a new version of the site!
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| 8/13/02
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Site version 4 may take longer than expected.
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OK, I've re-thought my schedule for creating Version 4, and in all honesty, if I get it out by Friday, I'll be lucky. I just got a new TI-89 calculator, and I'll definitely want to play with that more than mess with this site. Also, I've decided that Version 4 will be the version which finally includes DHTML from the ground up. So, I have to first learn DHTML before I can finalize any design plans. And the web tutorial at WebMonkey isn't easy; it actually has a required reading list at the beginning! (I've already read everything on the list, of course; I'm just stating that to demonstrate the level this tutorial is written at.) Anyway, I'll work on this as much as I can, but don't hold your breath.
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| 8/12/02
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Site version 4 is currently in progress!
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It's finally happened. I'm fed up with this pages's 4-frame format, with the weird JavaScript kludges I need to make to have links work, the inability of search engines to properly index this page, and the general lack of usability. I'm going to completely redesign this page, and try to bring back the clean appearance from version 2.x while keeping the folder structure from version 3.x. This should be the version of the site I'm proud to tell colleges about. ETA: Wednesday, if not earlier.
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| 8/08/02
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Announcing my new Yale Summer Program sub-page!
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As the summer winds down, I realized that I had not put very much information about my experiences here at Yale onto the web. So, I decided to set up a new page to hold all this information. You can find it here.
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| 7/22/02
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AP and SAT II Scores: One 800, one 790, four 5's, and one 4.
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Sorry about the tardiness of this update. I'm currently at Yale taking some summer courses, and I only just downloaded appropriate FTP software to update this site. Anyway, since the last time I updated this blog, I've taken 5 AP exams, and 3 SAT II exams. The SAT II's went pretty well: Math IIC, 800; Writing, 790 (I missed a few points on the essay. Oh well.); Spanish, 670 (Which is pretty good, considering that Spanish is my weak subject). On my AP exams, I got four 5's and probably one 4 (There were some irregularities in my Spanish Language exam administration, so the scores have been delayed). So, I'll be able to submit the following to colleges: one 1580, two 800's, one 790, six 5's (counting Bio M and American History from last year), and one 4. I hate to sound immodest, but damn, I'm good at standarized testing. Now, if I only had the extracurriculars...
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| 6/09/02
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My Combo Box Script is listed at JavaScript Kit!
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You know that really cool combo box script I wrote for the Links page? Guess what? JavaScript Kit, which is a really cool place to get ready-made scripts from, has accepted my code for their database! It's by far the best code I've ever written, and I'm glad it's gotten the recognition it deserves. You can go to their home page here, or directly to the page discussing my code here.
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| 3/28/02
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SAT I Score: 1580
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I just called it to get my score. Result: 1580. The breakdown was: Verbal - 800; Math - 780. I know why I got a 780 on Math: I omitted two questions. And the worst part is, I should have gotten one of them. I had omitted it when I first went through the test, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that, when I had extra time at the end of the test, I didn't go right back and answer the question. I started checking the test over from the beginning. When time was called, I had not yet been able to answer it. That was the reason; if I had not done that one thing, I would probably have a 1600 right now. Oh well. There's always next time.
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| 3/27/02
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A funny thing happened during my Passover Seder.
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First, some background information. At one point during the Passover Seder, the leader breaks one piece of matzo (unleavened bread) in half. He sets aside one half as the dessert, or aficolman. In reality, there's usually a lot more for dessert than just half of a matzo, but traditionally, everyone must eat the aficolman as part of his or her dessert. Anyway, it's sort of traditional for the children of the family to try and hide the aficolman and prolong the Seder (the reasoning seems flawed to me, but it's fun, so I won't knock it). Though I normally don't consider myself a child, this is just too much fun to pass up.
So, anyway, my brother and sister had been playing at hiding the aficolman for a little bit, but it was now back it its normal place on the table. Earlier, I had made a decoy out of an envelope and a napkin. So, I got up and tried to surreptitiously switch the real one and the decoy. However, my sister saw me. So, I sat back down, with the real one in my lap and the decoy on the table. My sister knew that the real one was in my lap. Then, my brother came around, picking up plates to put them in the kitchen. I handed him my plate, and the aficolman along with it. He took both to the kitchen, and hid the aficolman while he was there. My sister didn't notice this. So, she went, “I'm going to leave the table now, so that someone can hide the aficolman.” She started to walk away, but she really was just waiting for me to leave to see where I would go. I headed to my room, with my sister tiptoeing behind. I rustled around with my bedspread, pretending to hide something underneath them. Then, as I turned around, she stopped me, and asked to look under the bedspread. I said, “Sure, go ahead.” She looked, but much to her surprise, there was nothing there. We then returned to the table. She went and looked at the matzo on the table, but found it to be a decoy.
At this point, she was getting pretty annoyed. By this time, she noticed that my uncle knew what was going on. So, she demanded that he tell her. He said that my brother hid it. Then, she demanded that my brother tell her where it was; he told her that it was in the microwave, and she went and got it. The End.
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| 3/18/02
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I took the SAT I's.
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Last Saturday (3/16/02), I took the SAT I's. For the record, I found them harder than I expected. I ran out of time on some of the math sections; this surprised me greatly. In all, I had to omit three math questions; this was three more than I omited on any of the practice exams. Hopefully, I will still be able to make a 1600, but I guess that a 1590 wouldn't be that bad.
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| 3/02/02
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Clarification of AOL Boycott.
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Specifically, I was boycotting AIM. The reason was that Trillian, my favorite chat client, was blocked by AOL. I refused to use the AIM Client which you can download from AOL's site. When Trillian started working again (because the programmers behind Trillian worked around AOL's block), I started using AIM (through Trillian) again.
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| 2/21/02
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My AOL Boycott is Over.
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Trillian has been updated to work with AOL once again. So, until AOL blocks them again, I will use Trillian for AIM.
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| 2/19/02
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I am boycotting AIM.
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As you may or may not know, I don't actually use AIM; I use a third-party piece of software called Trillian to do it. However, AOL has recently blocked Trillian from accessing its network (there's an article about it here). So, I've decided to boycott AIM. I can still be reached at ICQ (100902521), MSN (rdwald@hotmail.com), or Yahoo (WaldBrain), so if you want to talk to me, download software to communicate with those messeging services. I'll tell you when my boycott is over.
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| 12/28/01
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My PSAT score report has come in.
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My PSAT scores have come in! I guess I shouldn't be upset that they were late; after all, they were just 2 weeks late; what's two weeks in the long run? Seriously, though, it wasn't really important that they came in; I already knew the score. See below.
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| 12/20/01
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I got a copy of my PSAT score report.
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I got a copy of my score report (because the mailed version has yet to show up). I actually missed two questions in the Writing section, not one (I didn't miss any in the Verbal or Math sections). And the worst part is, I missed one easy question and one medium question. One easy question! That's pitiful. Oh well, there's always the SAT's later this year.
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| 12/18/01
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I got my PSAT score.
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I've learned my PSAT scores. I'm kinda disappointed; I only got a 239 out of 240 (the equivalent of a 1600 on the SAT). I mean, I missed one point! Oh well, I guess I can console myself with the fact that this is probably the highest score the school has ever seen.
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| 9/27/01
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Hotmail sucks.
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I have until recently used a Hotmail account. However, earlier today, I found that for no apparent reason, all the email in my inbox had disappeared. I wasn't too concerned; I figured that Hotmail must have some backups somewhere, and if I could just tell them about the problem, it would be solved. But then I learned the truth about Hotmail. There is no support. Period. If you navigate around their site, you will find an email address, support@hotmail.com, which supposedly will lead you to online support. However, when you email this address, you get an autoresponse saying that this email address in not monitored, and that you “can easily click a link in Help to contact our MSN Hotmail Customer Support Staff directly.” However, this “easily clicked-on link” is rather hard to find, and requires more effort than can be called “easy” by any standard. And what do you get for your troubles? The same page I got in the first place, still recommend that I email support@hotmail.com!! I urge you to boycott Hotmail if at all possible, and to not use their services, ever. There are plenty of free email services out there; why settle for the absolute worst of the bunch?
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