Budgeting for Teens
These are the resources used in my recent presentation.My Inspiration...
Young & Free Alberta: Shoebox Budget
Downloads:
- Budget Work Sheet (PDF 50k)
- Presentation (Powerpoint 4.5 Mb)
Try This: Youth Budget Calculator
My Inspiration...
Young & Free Alberta: Shoebox Budget
Downloads:
Try This: Youth Budget Calculator
FRS Robot Judging 2006
I spent two days this week as a judge of the FIRST Robotics Singapore (FRS 2006) competition. This is a fantastic experience which is great fun and I would recommend to anybody.
Teams will be awarded their prizes today but I wanted to give my own special mention of some of the participants who grabbed my attention.
Hua Yi: Cyclopeantency Sensation
All the judges were impressed with these guys. They were "the real thing." It's obvious that they eat, live and breath robotics. They had by far the most advanced design and certainly would win the "most high tech accessories" award had there been one. Saying that, they did not win the "Nuts & Bolts" award. This was due to the guideline given to judges that the winner had to have the design which most effectively met the objectives of the competition. Theirs did not due that. They had a fantastic robotic arm but it was not really the best design for picking up balls. I will be recommending to the organizers that next year they offer a "Most Sophisticated Design" award in addition to Nuts & Bolts. Winner: Most likely to get Good Enough to be Dangerous.
Swiss Rolls
Swiss Cottage had 2 teams: Swiss Rolls & Swiss Atomic. Atomic had almost flawless game play throughout the competition. Swiss Rolls had a bad first day using an inferior ball collection mechanism but made a switch and by the end of the competition had moved from a ranking of 30 to about 7. So full marks for best mid-game adaptation. I initially met them for their Project Management submission which was eventually ranked in the top 3 (out of 35 submissions). I was extremely impressed by their team manager, who's enthusiasm and effectiveness is burnt into my mind. The effort they put into their Project Management submission needs a Special Mention as they made a gargantuan effort. So why didn't they win? The judges felt the report wasn't pithy enough and could have benefited from some significant culling. I have no doubt that with clearer instructions as to the judging criteria, this team would have probably won. Winner: Most Focus & Perseverance.
Temasek Secondary
These guys also ranked in the top 3 for Project Management. In fact they were my personal pick for the award based on the written submission which was on par with reports I've received in the investment banking world. I was very impressed with one of their 3 team members ("A") who was amazingly well spoken despite his young age. He was articulate, chose his words carefully and came across as the most polished individual that stood before the judges during the competition. The Temasek team only spent 1 month in preparation for the competition and had perhaps the best hooking mechanism in the field (an inverted anchor-like device which, once engaged, would crank them up and achieve vertical suspension without taking the daring kamikaze runs off the platform that some of the other teams had opted for). The only reason they didn't with the Project Management award was that some judges felt that only teams that had attempted to meet all the course challenges (e.g. ball collection) should be eligible for the prize. Personally I think if you have one month, choose a very specific strategy and manage your resources to get a submission into the competition, that's good project management. Winner: Most Poise & Professionalism
Free Advice Worth Every Penny
If you were in the competition and want some insight/feedback on the judging, you can reach me by e-mail (robots AT missbossy DOT com). I am open to questions. Teams that are looking for sponsors can contact me and I can try put them into contact with rich bankers that have more money than sense.
Make Your Own Podcast
You've been a listener, now you're hooked and are ready to try create your own:
- Beginner's Guide
- How To: Good Guide for Mac Users
- Mastering Podcasting
- Sykpecasting: Interviews via Skype
- Equipment: Heavy Duty
Basically you need to acquire the following skills:
- Putting together interesting content
- Presentation
- Recording and editing of wave files
- RSS
- Promotion (getting your podcast out there)
My general advice is
- Listen a lot first: What sounds good? Why?
- Experiment with your software
- Make some demos... get feedback from friends.
- Think about more expensive kit
In other words, don't fork out a lot on expensive equipment until you know that this is your thing.
Instant Guide to BitTorrent
This is yet another very quick guide to technology for friends!What is BitTorrent?
This is a way of sharing files between computers over the internet ("peer-to-peer"). In some ways this is similar to Napster or Kazaa ie you use a piece of free software to download files from other users and they can upload from you. The difference is that instead of downloading an entire file from one other person, you download bits of files from a number of different users and your software pieces it together. This makes downloading more efficient but, if you're reading this, it is a geeky detail you're not likely to be interested in!
First get the software:
There's a ton of different programs ("BitTorrent clients") you can use for this (see here). I personally can vouch for uTorrent as being nice and easy to use.
Now find files to download:
Unlike Napster, Kazaa or LimeWire, the file search facility is not embedded in the downloading software. You need to go to certain websites to get the file ID (the "torrent") which when you download/open, will give your BitTorrent client all the info it needs to start downloading.
The sites that have detail on torrents can come and go (they are being shut down all the time). However some websites try keep updated lists. At the moment, the two websites I like best for finding torrents are isoHunt and TorrentSpy.
Things to Note:
- Obviously files you download may be subject to copyright so you have to be responsible about this.
- The selection of files available with BitTorrent far surpasses anything you will find with Kazaa. Just about any TV show you want to see is there. You can also find movies, books, software and music.
- As you download you will also be uploading. That's how the software works: the bits you download can be shared with others.
- You can download files that may be over a Gigabyte. This means downloading can sometimes take days depending on how many users are sharing the file. So unless you have unlimited broadband access, this may not be very useful to you.
- Even if you are only able to download part of a file, you can turn your computer off and resume later. In that sense it's far superior to the old forms of file sharing. Note, however, that if you are downloading a file which very few people are sharing, you may find that there can be times when it is not available.
How to cure Tinnitus
I have tinnitus. It first hit me when I was 30 after I'd not been sleeping enough for a period of about 2 weeks. I was also very unhappy with my job and stressing out over a career move... plus I'd been drinking more than usual (for me that meant going from nothing to getting drunk once a week with friends from work).
My system was under a lot of stress.
Previously I had suffered from TMJ Syndrome (from grinding my teeth in my sleep), which had caused me face, and head aches. I was getting that under control although my physio had warned me: if you don't deal with the stress, it will find another way to come out. It did.
The first bought hit me hard: I had strong ringing in one ear (left or right? I don't remember now) and light ringing in the other. It affected my hearing. I was tested and in the bad ear I was slightly deaf at low registers.
I got an MRI to be sure there was no tumour and the doctor gave me some gingko then told me to learn to live with it. I asked him if there was a connection with my TMJ. He said no. He was wrong of course. Later research on the net showed there's a strong link.
This doc also tested me for allergies (totally unrelated) and then sent me to buy a bunch of anti-allergy products from a company I later learned he had shares in. There are doctors like this in Singapore so beware. I won't name him but watch out for any ENT docs at Gleneagles who give you random allergy tests and generally seem totally uninterested in your actual condition.
I wasn't satisfied with his "live with it" prescription. So, I hunted around the net and came up with what promised to be a potential cure:
- ginko
- lecithin
- vitamin B complex
and... - no more caffeine
- no more alcohol
- lot of exercise
- plenty of rest
Actually I had a complete remission. About a year later it came back, though not so strongly. Again I was tired and this combined with a few glasses of red wine seemed to trigger the tinnitus.
I took wine permanently off my drink list and returned to the regime. It worked again.
Over the next 6 years, I would get very minor boughts every 6-9 months which would last a day or two. Eventually, however, I grew to have a constant hum in my head. It wasn't loud - I could only hear it at night before sleeping when everything was silent. And I'm conscious of it at classical music concerts during very quiet passages. For the most part, however, I'm completely unaware of it.
I exercise regularly now, drink almost no caffeine, rarely drink alcohol and take vities every day. I also believe my teeth grinding is long gone. I do however, often fail to get enough sleep.
It's Back!
That’s been my problem this past week: not enough sleep. Because of it, I've been drinking tea at the office to keep me awake. It's not a good combo for me: fatigue and caffeine. The amount I drink (2-3 cups) probably isn't a problem: it's just that relative to what I usually drink, it's way too much.
Two nights ago, as I was going to sleep, I remember thinking that I couldn't hear any tinnitus at all - no ring, hum or whine. Ha! That proved to be the calm before the storm. Often before it comes, I go a little deaf!
In the morning, I woke up with a burgeoning case of the real thing in my left ear. It got worse as the day progressed. Of course timing always sucks: I had tickets to watch Gil Shaham perform with the SSO. Fortunately the noise in my head wasn't too bad during the concert though it would have been nice to enjoy it in silence.
Today it's fairly strong... it feels like one side of my head is living in an airplane cabin at 40,000 feet. That's exactly what the muffled sound and feel is like. It's the worse it's been in several years.
As I'm now living what most would consider a pretty healthy lifestyle, I have little left to tweak besides the amount of rest I get. I had 8 hours last night and I'm still exhausted so that shows I'd really let myself get run down - which is plain stupidity. Still, I'm confident I'll get this thing back under control by the weekend and I'll have a strong reminder for a while to get enough sleep.
It sucks but I think in a way I'm lucky to have it. I've got a very loud alarm bell to make sure I take care of myself. Because of it, I enjoy great health.
