SI's best football uniforms

Sports Illustrated just released their Best College Football Uniform List to counteract their worst football list of last week. I can easily agree with some of the uniforms that are there, such as USC and Texas. But it seems that their definition of "best uniform" is primarily based on whether or not they have a dark muted color, and the level of boredom the uniform causes you (the more the better). Apparently the blue Notre Dame uniform is infinitely better than the green Notre Dame uniform.

So what truly defines "better" for these uniforms? I would wager that a good uniform would be defined as using the school's colors wisely, being pleasing to the eye, and having a modern look. Obviously I don't work for SI. My main wonder is why Michigan made the "best" list and Delaware made the "worst" list. Granted, Michigan's uniform is slightly more pleasing with the gold over the yellow, but the differences are not vast enough for one to be in the top 10 and the other to be in the bottom 10. Maybe if there were only 20 teams in college football I'd buy that, but we all know the truth of that statement.

Also, how could someone call a football uniform one of the best when there is no school logo on the helmet? Half of those uniforms could belong to any team with those general colors.

I wonder how they chose their rankings from 1 to 10 after determining their top 10. As far as I can tell, they were drawn out of a hat. Or maybe 10 people were ranked in their order of importance and they each got to choose who were the top 10 and bottom 10 based on their personal order. I was hoping that the best uniform list would be different enough from the worst uniform list to shed some light on their formula, but as I've elaborated on above we had no such luck. Although I think they nailed Texas and USC as being great uniforms, I have no idea why they ranked USC at the bottom of their "best" list.

I wonder if SI is stuck in the past enough that anything that appears "classic" is obviously "good." Maybe SI needs some new blood. Or maybe they just need to hire more women in general (and I don't mean in a bikini context). But that's another topic altogether, I suppose.

If I was choosing a team to cheer for based on uniform alone, I would choose Clemson (worst list, #7) over Wofford (best list, #6) any day.

Is that the worst you can find?

Sport's Illustrated has released their Top 10 Worst College Football Uniforms, and I have to say that I'm rather disappointed in SI, and quite pleased with college football.

Overall, the uniforms they show are not that bad from either an aesthetic point or a school spirit point of view. Some of them are indeed God-awful, like Delaware, Notre Dame, Air Force, and the old Oregon uniforms. But apparently SI has a thing against too much of one color. Did they miss the point that it's all about school spirit and being proud of your school colors? Yes, many of them could be better designed, and its apparent that most of the uniforms have probably been around since the late 90's, but most of them don't look that bad. I think a proper title would have been "Oldest-Looking College Football Uniforms."

As far as the new Oregon uniforms go, I like them. Coming from a school that is orange and maroon, I have to say that they did orange well. They have a nice modern design over the shoulders, and don't have too much of any color (which should have made SI happy!). It's a nice young look, which is great for a college team.

Sure, I may not be a fashion designer, but I guarantee the people that wrote that SI article aren't either.

Once a Hokie, Always a Hokie

The past week has been so very rough for all of us due to the shootings on my beloved Virginia Tech campus. I am happy to report that no one I knew was injured or killed, including my brother, although many of my friends' friends were not so lucky. Whenever I check Facebook I see messages about dead friends from those on my friends list, and new groups in honor of the victims, the administration, and the school. There is so much grief, but yet there is a determination and spirit as well. Nikki Giovanni was so right when she said We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail!

Maybe someone from another school wouldn't see it or understand it, but you don't stop being a Hokie when you graduate. You don't stop being a Hokie if you drop out. You don't even have to go to VT to be a Hokie. And as was demonstrated in a horrible way on Monday, you don't stop being a Hokie even in death. Virginia Tech For Life is an alumni motto, but I think Virginia Tech for Life and Beyond might be a better fitting one. You know what we say: If God isn't a Hokie, why do the leaves turn orange and maroon?.

Being so far from home when something like this happens it just terrible. I want to be able to go to the vigils at VT and support my Hokies. Even though I didn't lose anyone I knew, I still lost members of my Hokie Family. My friends are suffering, and I can't be there for them. I spoke to my mother on instant messenger for hours last Monday as she filled me in on details that she got on the local news before they reached me on the Internet or TV. I checked up on people via Facebook because cellphones weren't always working, and I don't have everyone's number anyway.



It has been wonderful to see such support from around the country though. At my current school we had a vigil on Thursday night to honor the victims and help everyone find some peace. It was fabulous to see such a great turnout, and to meet other Hokies that were also so far from home. We all cried (at least we alumni did), there was beautiful music, and everyone had the chance to write a note to send to VT. My boyfriend wrote "I never knew what true school spirit was until I met a Virginia Tech graduate." and then continued about how VT would prevail and survive. That touched me so much, especially because it was straight from his heart.

Also, last Friday was Hokie Hope Day, also called Orange and Maroon Effect Day, and was devised by VT alumni. It was great to see the word spread through the internet and finally through the Alumni Association. Many people in my department wore maroon and/or orange to show their support, and it truly touched my heart.

The world lost many wonderful people last Monday, and the world continues to grieve. I am happy to say a week later that the healing has begun. Although it will be difficult for a long time for those that lost loved ones and friends, they will pull through. It is a tragedy that something so horrible could happen to such a wonderful university, but Virginia Tech has a community that will pull together and rally. They will support each other, even as the alumni support them with our thoughts and prayers from far away. Virginia Tech is not weak enough to fall by the actions of one man. Although there is much heartache, confusion, and disbelief, one day the Hokie Nation will return to normal. We will never forget, and our mourning will last for a long time, but we will triumph over our fears and sadness.

We are Virginia Tech, and We will prevail!

Jet Airways - Flying in India

When I went to India in January, I chose Jet Air as my domestic flight provider despite a few negative comments. I am glad that I made that decision (even if it was based on price) as it was a great experience.

Overall, my flights (Mumbai -> Hyderabad, and Hyderabad -> Delhi) were on time. A friend of mine flew Hyderabad -> Delhi on Spice Jet, and his flight was about 4 hours late. I've heard that SpiceJet is relatively cheap because all of the businessmen fly it on a regular basis, but that flights to Delhi in the evening are usually late due to compounded delays over the course of the day.

One of my favorite parts about Jet Air was the fact that we had hot meals both times, even though one of the trips was only about an hour. Each meal had a hot entree, bread (usually naan), and some sides. They were very filling! On each flight there was also the choice of juice or bottled water, and the meal came with hot tea.

The service seemed so much better than on US domestic flights. The meal was hot, in real dishes, and was free for even a short flight. In the US, you'd be happy just to get a pack of peanuts! Not to mention the fact that in the US you frequently are stuck with none of your flights offering a meal as you fly across the country (as I've mentioned before). Indians definitely have better comfort when it comes to flying on small planes. Granted, the seats are a bit cramped, but are equivalent to many US flights.

Marie Antoinette - Was there a Point?

Ever since I saw the first preview, I wanted to see Marie Antoinette. The preview convinced me that although it would be a movie filled with rich people having fun and wearing expensive clothes, it would still have an interesting story to tell about the title character.

However, I was sadly mistaken. Halfway through the movie I was ready for it to end; my roommate, who had seen it the night before, laughed that I didn't make it as far into the movie as she did. Luckily it was a rented DVD, so I just hit the fast forward button until it looked like they were talking or advancing the storyline. I contribute my ability to get to the end of the movie to the ability to fast forward at a designated speed.

Granted, I tend to get easily impatient with movies; I know a movie is good if I can manage to sit through it without constantly checking my watch for the last half. Or fast-forwarding, if it's rented. Much of Marie Antoinette was only reinforcing the fact that she was a spoiled woman, who did what she wanted and spent money she didn't have. So many facts about the real person were only barely noticeable, assuming the viewer was already aware of them (like the fact that she never wore the same dress twice). Much of the movie was just watching her lie around, or play games. Of course, the first third of the movie had the tension of whether or not she would convince her husband to consummate the marriage, but this part of the plot can only hold a viewer's attention for so long.

After they have a child is a good point to begin fast-forwarding until the end. The rest of the movie after this point is just Marie and her friends having fun. Much of the movie doesn't even have dialogue; although many movies can tell a great story without a large amount of dialogue (Amelie, anyone?), this one merely stagnates. There is an interesting love scene though, so if you want to see Kirsten Dunst without many clothes on this part of the movie will help you in that respect.

I did enjoy seeing all of the costumes designed for the movie, so if you are interested in old clothing then the movie will be fun throughout. Other than the exciting dresses, shoes, and hats (I wish I could wear a boat in my hair!), the last 30 minutes (maybe less?) has actual excitement as the French Revolution begins. If only more of the movie concentrated on this one part!

Another problem I have with the movie is the fact that Marie seems like a completely clueless but possibly extremely nice person. Her personality comes off as almost non-existent, except for the few times it seems that she enjoys thrills that save her from her "boring" life. Her husband seems like a dolt, but at least the character seems to have a little depth.

Why did I spent part of my Saturday evening watching this movie?

Microsoft Office 2007 - Don't try to right click without dual processors!!

I have used Office products since the late 90's, so I was very excited about the new Office 2007 suite. Granted, I am partially biased towards it since I was an SDET intern on Outlook before coming to grad school, but despite that fact I see some major flaws. In fact, if I hadn't acquired it at the student price I would probably be extremely annoyed.

It's always best to say the positive parts first (well, the positive parts with caveats): the suite as a whole is very well done, and I especially like the ribbon (the new controls in place of the old menu) most of the time. I am in love with the task bar in Outlook. I appreciate the slightly more elegant look to Excel charts, except that it takes the power of at least one full 1.6ghz processor to edit them, and editing chart titles is nearly impossible. I am entranced with the new Outlook calendar, although I'm still not impressed with the low details view.

I should probably expound on those caveats before I go on a tangent about memory usage, and details by application is probably the best. I haven't used the new Infopath, Access, OneNote, or Publisher yet, although I have all of them except OneNote, so that will be a different post probably far in the future. One should also note that I have an Intel Core Duo with 1GB RAM. So here goes it with the general products:

Excel

I can't remember ever having so many problems with right-clicking or scrolling in an Office product. The response time seems to be fine if the spreadsheet only contains data, but as soon as you add charts it's a whole new world. For a spreadsheet with only charts, scrolling down is nearly impossible. The best I've been able to do is continuously click the down arrow; otherwise, it seems to forget that I wanted it to scroll.

As far as right-clicking goes, don't do it on a chart unless it's on an axis. I've had Excel quit responding due to a right click, although to its merit it eventually recovers on its own and doesn't crash. But who wants to wait 10 minutes to do any editing after clicking on the area to edit? After a week of frustration I discovered that editing charts via the ribbon did not slow down the application at all, and it responded as quick as Excel 2003! As much as I love the ribbon, I find right-clicking to be easier because it doesn't require me to move my mouse away from the chart...and I do love the semblance of efficiency. However, since right-clicking is apparently prohibited in this new version, I began using the ribbon. At first it took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to change my chart title and I nearly threw the computer across the room (the only thing that stopped me is the fact that it's a new laptop and I absolutely adore it, despite Office). Now that I've learned where some crucial buttons are though, I can use the ribbon relatively quickly. I still wish I had the choice of right-click; did no one bother to test that it was realistically possible to use? Seems like right-clicking locking up the application should have been a high priority ticket....someone really dropped the ball on that one.

Speaking of dropping the ball...are users expected to no longer what to edit their chart titles without overwriting the previous changes? If I click on the chart title twice to edit it, I get the cursor at the end as in previous versions of Excel. I can then proceed to erase the last few characters and type in new characters. However, if I press enter or click on the chart I will always lose the original text and only the changes will remain. If I instead click on the spreadsheet after making the changes as the first click outside of the title box, sometimes it will save the entire thing, but many times it still loses the original text. For example, if my title is Run2 but I click on it and erase the 2 and replace it with a 3, when I hit enter I will end up with '3' as my chart title instead of the expected 'Run3'. I have discovered that to ensure chart title editing works appropriately, the user should click on the chart title (or select it via the ribbon) and then type the entire desired title into the function bar near the bottom of the ribbon. Why would I want to use the ribbon just to edit a chart title? Who knows. Well, someone knows...and he/she is probably a SDE.

One thing I can't complain about though is the default colors for graphs. They are more subdued than the pure red/blue of versions before, and make them look much more elegant and closer to a Matlab creation.

Word

Word has been a relatively positive experience so far. I remember the Word ribbon from my SDET summer, although it has of course changed in the past 2 years. I've heard that it has a new equation editor, but since I use LaTeX for everything I haven't tried it out yet (although I'm tempted, at least). I did use Word to show off the ribbon to my Mac-using labmates, however, who were impressed. They didn't believe me when I told them that Microsoft had completely revamped the menu system (apparently they live in a dark hole), but Word was great for demonstrating the ribbon. My absolute favorite part about the ribbon in any application are the superscript/subscript buttons in Word. Finally, I don't have to use LaTeX just for easy superscript/subscript creation! (yes, I'm aware that keystrokes could be used previously)

Outlook



Oh, Outlook, how I worship you. Well, maybe not...but I do feel like it is one of the most successful of the new Office applications. The calendar is such a far cry from the old flat pastel one, any frequent user must be ecstatic. The fact that I can easily view my week's schedule in a reasonable format makes my heart flutter. The task pane allows me to finally be able to keep track of the days activities without having to constantly switch back to the calendar view, and I can finally keep up with my tasks without needing to switch to the task view. I use Outlook as my life management system (combined with my Treo, of course), so being able to stay organized efficiently makes my day that much better. Besides, how could anyone dislike the new pleasing aesthetic?

Unfortunately Outlook isn't perfect either, just like all other complex software systems. The "low details" view on the calendar seems relatively useless, whereas the "medium details" view seems like a good "low details" option. I think medium details might be better used to not display day long appointments since they crowd the space, and only display appointments with specific times. But I don't think I thought of that when I was testing the calendar...or did I? Only the work ticket system knows!

PowerPoint

I definitely like the new PowerPoint, although coping/pasting graphs from Excel is a time consuming task for no apparent reason. It is really nifty that they finally copy/paste graphs without a border and with a clear background by default though! I'm also impressed with the fact that if you have chart 1 on your slide and selected, and you try to paste chart 2, it will combine the data from the 2 charts to create a new one! I accidentally did this the first time, but it is such an awesome feature that I didn't mind! My quickly made slides for an afternoon presentation look so much better just because of the default graph quality, as well as the default font family (verdana, soooo much nicer than times new roman!!).

Amazing Grace - go see it!

Friday, four of us attended the opening show of Amazing Grace, even though we had to make a bit of a drive to get to a theater showing it. The acting was well done, as was the movie itself. The movie follows the attempts of William Wilberforce to end the slave trade in England via debates and bills in the House of Commons. He also worked to end slavery, but only his work towards ending the slave trade was included. The story is very well presented, and keeps the viewer interested. I never once thought they should "get on with it," which is quite impressive for me.

Two of the people in our group are historians, and so I asked them about the historical accuracy of the movie overall. Surprisingly it is quite accurate, and even gives a nod to the debates that are still occurring about the accuracy of some conjectures made in that time period. For instance, the former slave Oloudaqh Equiano that assists Wilberforce claims to have been a prince in Africa, but many historians believe that he was actually born in South Carolina. In the movie he makes this claim, but some of Wilberforce's adversaries spread rumors that he was actually born in South Carolina. Some events that seemed like they must be fictitious were also accurate, such as how certain votes occurred and how Wilberforce suffered physically.

It was also interesting to find out that the biography Equiano wrote was the best selling biography until Benjamin Franklin's biography was printed. Another tidbit was that when many people stopped putting sugar in their coffee to protest slavery it was actually a sacrifice, as coffee was usually brewed at the beginning of the week and then re-boiled throughout the week so that by the middle of the week it was quite syrupy. Usually sugar was the only way to make it taste even vaguely appetizing.

Whether or not you enjoy history, you should see Amazing Grace for the interesting story, great acting, and original characters.

New Dell Laptop

So, I'm getting settled with my new laptop and I definitely like it. I have 4 USB ports (finally!), and media keys on the front! I've missed having keys to control the music player ever since my wireless keyboard that had them bit the dust a few years back. I think the computer is actually surprisingly pretty, given that it's a Dell. It is a light shiny gray on the top and inside, the bottom is black (which makes the rest of it be noticeable), and there is a banding of white all around the keyboard area and the lid. Even my officemate who is a Mac lover thought it looked nice!

Although it is a 14" screen, it doesn't seem all that small, which is definitely a plus. It also feels lighter than my old HP, which is fabulous. Another thing I love about it is the fact that it has a slot on the side for an SD card, which is the type of memory card my new camera takes! It makes it much quicker to get photos off, especially since Vista has a built in card reader that actually works. The speakers are also on the front, which means if I have the lid closed I can still listen to music without headphones very easily (especially with those media keys).



Vista is awesome (I have Vista Business), although it definitely has some annoyances. They did make it easier to do some things though, like getting rid of certain items in the system tray, and changing computer settings. I absolutely LOVE the sidebar, which you can customize with different gadgets and either have disappear behind other programs or stay locked on the screen. I have it locked so that I can always see it. I have a clock (I rotate between the 8 choices, I used to have one with a pokemon character on it), a picture slide show (currently with my India pictures), a weather bar, a system meter to show my CPU and RAM usage, and a large calendar so I can easily find the date. :) Many of these things I had in some way or another previously (desktop photo changer which was annoying, weather bar in firefox that wasn't very useful, task manager minimized in system tray), but now they are finally useful, constantly accessible, and pleasing to the eye.



Of course, there are a lot of annoying things about Vista as well, like the dialog boxes that warn me I need administrator rights to do certain actions even though I am logged in as an administrator and it works. It also asks for permission to run any program, which gets really old when you have a new computer and are trying to install a lot of things. I'm sure you can turn these messages off, but I think they are there for a good reason (preventing programs from installing themselves). There is also plenty of software that is not yet compatible with Vista. Even Visual Studio 2005 (made my Microsoft!) has some compatibility issues with Vista, even though it does still work and seems to only be minor issues.

BTW, my desktop image is a picture I took.

Overall I'm very happy with this new laptop. Since this is everyone's favorite part of Vista, here's a screenshot of the program changing (windows key + tab, instead of alt + tab):

Airlines -- Domestic (USA) vs International

In January I had my first real opportunity to fly internationally as I traveled to IJCAI (International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence), which was held in Hyderabad, India. The trip overall was great, and I realized that flying internationally has many perks over flying domestic.

One of the great things about a long flight is that they actually feed you. I've spent most of a day flying from the east coast of the USA to the west coast of the USA without being given a single meal on board the flight (coach class). However, when flying to India via London (Boston -> London Heathrow -> Mumbai -> Hyderabad) I was given more meals than I actually needed, due to the time changes. Even when flying back to the USA, when the time change did not bring meal time quicker than usual, I was still fed enough to not have to find food in the airport or risk starvation.

Another great thing is that you have better movie/tv/radio choices, at least versus many of the US domestic planes. The only flight I think did better was the Song flight I had last year. On my Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Mumbai I actually had video games to play as well, so that does improve on all of the others. I would fly them again just to have that sort of entertainment available. Not to mention the fact that they give you a bag of essentials: toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, and a mask to cover your eyes when trying to sleep and all of the lights are on. When you get stranded overnight in London on your way home with no extra clothes or toiletries in your carry-on bag, Virgin Atlantic becomes the best airline in the world.

I also found that with being on a bigger plane there was less chance of motion sickness. One of my landings was a little rough, but otherwise it didn't feel nearly as choppy as most of the domestic flights I've taken in the past few years.

Granted, those perks are rather minor when compared to the large difference in cost, with my total bill being about $1600 for a round trip from east coast USA. However, this large price was due to two factors beyond my control: the location (Hyderabad) does not have an international airport that is cost effective to fly into, and January is tourist season in India so all of the prices hike up and all of the cheap plane tickets are bought long before we found out our work was accepted at IJCAI.

International flights could also be less enjoyable if you were stuck in the middle of a row of 5 people, especially if you had to use the restroom in the middle of the night. Luckily for me I was sitting in the aisle on every single flight, and the only time I slept on the plane I was in a front row so no one had to wake me to get through. So although that could be a negative, it doesn't apply!

Women win Hack Day.....so?

All Female Team wins Yahoo! Hack Day Overall Prize

I congratulate the winners for a job well done, and I am rather amused by the project they did. However, it makes me sad that such a big deal is made about the fact that it was a group of women. Yes, it's awesome that a group of women won since there are so few of us in technology. But it shouldn't be surprising or unexpected that a woman could do better than a man! The probability of them winning is not based on the ratio of women teams to men teams...

I do think that advertising their win and the competition is a positive thing though, because hopefully girls who have the misconception that they are inherently not as good as the boys will note that maybe they are.

I guess my main question is why the title of the entry was not something more like "First place team hacks purse."