I just gave the annual “how to succeed in grad school” talk at the CS graduate student orientation. I think it went pretty well, although I didn’t have as much time as I had expected. I’ve posted the slides (PDF) online in case anyone is interested.
I finally decided that I’ve had enough of P4Host’s frequent outages, lack of Subversion support, and absurd 200MB storage limit. After a bit of searching, I found WebFaction and decided to give them a try. All things considered, the move was very easy and I’m quite satisfied so far–and glad to be rid of my old hosts. Hopefully the satisfaction will remain and I won’t have to worry about another host switch for a while.
I took notes while watching the Nintendo E3 presentation online and decided to post them here in case anyone’s interested.
Highlights: new Zelda (“Skyward Sword”), GoldenEye for Wii, new DS console (3DS)
Missing: Wii HD
Today I’d like to review a game for the iPhone/iPod Touch that my wife Lindsay originally introduced to me. It’s called Cowabunga, and although I’ve only played the “free” version so far, the game has proven to be one of the more amazing apps I have seen for the iPhone. Thus I have decided to write a short review here to extend my whole-hearted recommendation.
I wanted to amend my earlier post on iPhone Bible apps, and plug the following app, which is a custom reader for the popular ESV translation. The interface is very nice, providing full searching and cross-reference/footnote capabilities, and it also allows you to make notes. I wish it wasn’t restricted to a single translation.
Lately, however, I have been almost exclusively using PocketSword, and the author just released a new version that adds the capability to display footnotes and cross-references. Even though it lacks many of the popular translations, I’ve found it to be the most useful app so far because of its interface, its offline availability, and its many commentaries.
I am in the process of creating a graph of English Bible versions, plotted beside a timeline, with ancestor/revision links and detailed information about each version. I did the research myself, adding the information to a spreadsheet. I then saved the spreadsheet as CSV, wrote a Ruby script to generate DOT files from the CSV, and a bash script to run the whole thing and produce PDF files. It’s not finished yet, but I wanted to post my progress so far.
I’ve recently purchased an iPod Touch, and I’ve been playing with the iPhone Bible reader applications in the App Store. The problem is that some programs include a few of the Bible translations I like, but none of them include all of them. Furthermore, many of the most popular versions are not available offline. So that others can avoid the confusion, I’ve created a table that compares the Bible translations/versions available with each of several free Bible readers. Read on to see the results.
The recent release of the Apple iPad has prompted me to finally post again on this blog. I was initially enthused as I watched the details emerge from Steve Jobs’ theatrics yesterday, but since then I have been sobered by the realization that this is not the product I was looking for.
Yes, folks, there is life after marriage. 
After a very nice ceremony and reception, we hung out with friends and family for a day or two and then took a few days’ vacation at an excellent bed & breakfast on the eastern shore. We are now back at our apartment in Greenbelt, adjusting to a routine that is some ways very familiar (classes, research, and concerts) and in some ways very different (reconciling schedules, sharing a bed, getting each other’s colds).
We are becoming increasingly involved in both Reformed University Fellowship and Wallace Presbyterian Church, and we look forward to serving in both of these congregations over the coming year. Lindsay is still a double bass performance major (1.5 years until graduation!) and I am still in the Ph.D program (which means that no one knows when I will graduate!). 
I’d like to get back into the habit of posting interesting things, but figured I needed a short update post to bridge the gap between “wedding day” and “[insert religious/political/computer science issue here]“. So here’s to a blessed school year of growing with each other in Christ, and hopefully more blog posts!
Yes, I’m that geek who pauses for a moment on the morning of his wedding to post on his blog.
Hey, at least I didn’t propose over Twitter.
