Eamon's Blog

New Blog

2006-05-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

I've switched to a WordPress blog. My new blog is at www.eamon.the-byte-factory.com.

Albany Swim Meet

2006-05-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

We got locked out of Saturday and Sunday of this meet because the signups weren't turned in on time, so Kate signed everyone up for the 400 free or 800 free (long course) on Friday, depending on if you're under 13 or not. Since this was my first time swimming the 800 in a year, I improved 21 seconds. My time was 10:07. My first 400 split was 5:09 and my second one was 4:58, so I really negative split it too much. At least now I know how to swim it at All Stars. Also, I saw Curtis, my old coach from the Mantarays, for the first time in about four years. :P

Monster Cookie

2006-05-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

I did the Monster Cookie ride (62 miles) on Sunday, without getting three flats this time. I averaged about 17mph. Unfortunately I had morning practice the next day at 5:00am, but I seem to have survived.

Albany Triathlon (6th place out of 5)

2006-04-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

I did the Albany Triathlon yesterday (750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run). I won the 19 & Under age group, but there was only one other person. My time was 1:18:31. I was supposed to get a blue ribbon, but they're all on backorder so, until they can send me the real one, they gave me a "placeholder" ribbon: 6th place in the Mountain Bike category. And it so happens that there were five people in the 19 & Under Mountain Bike category. Hey, I got 6th out of five people! Pretty good, huh? Edit: I also placed 23rd out of 84 overall. Edit x2: Here's a picture of me with my triumpant 6th place ribbon:

All Stars

2006-04-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

I've been selected to be part of the Oregon All Stars Team! So, I'll be going to Vancouver, BC in a month for the All Stars meet.

A Painful Ritual

2006-04-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

Are you a Real Man?

Elite IM Clinic

2006-04-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

I went to the Elite IM swim clinic today, featuring Olympic gold and silver medalist (in the 200 fly) Tom Malchow. We had two practices, the first one was two hours long and the second one was an hour and a half. Overall we swam about 7500 meters (8200 yards). The locker room was huge (as was the rest of the building); it had a centrifigal suit dryer, six different colone dispensers and disposable combs. The only problem was that someone decided to put the locker room on a different floor from the pool... In between the two practcies, Tom gave an hour long talk, we had lunch, and then Alex Nikitin (one of the coaches) gave a talk about the technicalities of swimming IM. What I learned:

You can use less energy proportionally by keeping up your speed for a whole length rather than slowing down (momentum keeps you going)
A good back to breast turn can save you 4 tenths of a second
In a fly or breast turn, you use less back and arm muscles if you have more momentum going in to the wall
You should take several fast strokes off the wall to maintain your speed from your pushoff

Also, I got to have a private talk with Tom during lunch. He said he goes to the hospital right across the parking lot from our pool once a week for work!

April Fool's Day

2006-04-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

A dark and dangerous day. There was lots of duct tape and TP, but I survived. I set up hidden sensors outside my room...

Learn How to Eat Sushi

2006-03-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

Makes me want some.

Sectionals, Day 3

2006-03-19T23:59:00.000-08:00

This was the last day of the meet. I swam the 100 fly and 100 free. 100 Fly: I got 59.42, and I came in 19th out of 29. My time from State is 59.36. I died on the second 50... We didn't get a video of this race because of some Issues. 100 Free: I beat my old time by 57 hundredths of a second, with a 53.16. I got 24th out of 34. Here's the video for my 100 free: Our team got 20th out of 143 teams. If Tori and Crystal were at the meet, we'd probably be within the top 8.

Sectionals, Day 2

2006-03-18T23:59:00.000-08:00

On the second day of the meet, my events were the 200 fly and 200 free. 200 Fly: I got 2:12.85. I improved two one-hundredths of a second from several weeks ago... I got too excited and swam the first 150 almost all out, then died at the end. I came in 19th out of 33. ...I WILL get a Zone time in my next 200 fly! 200 Free: 1:56.16. I dropped 15 hundredths of a second from State. John said it was really good because my splits were 28, 30, 29, 28. I got 16th place out of 28. Here are the movies of my 200 fly and 200 free: 200 Fly 200 Free

Sectionals, Day 1

2006-03-17T18:02:00.000-08:00

This is the first day of Sectionals, and it's really exciting to be at this pool again. There are 143 teams here, from 7 different states: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. My two events for today were the 50 free and 200 IM. 50 Free: I didn't do very well in this event. I got 24.66, 32 hundredths of a second (32 jiffies!) off my time from State two weeks ago. I was also 67 hundredths off a Zone time. I got 23rd place out of 30. 200 IM: I got 2:12.15. I improved one second. I was still a little tired from my 50, since I had to get ready for the 200 IM as soon as I was done warming down. But John said it was really good. I got 20th out of 30 people. I also time trialed the 50 free to try and get the Zone time. I got 24.36; not a Zone time, but John said it was a "perfect race". I guess I'm more of a mid-distance swimmer. My mom filmed my first two events. (If they don't work, you need to download Quicktime 7. 50 Free 200 IM

Morton

2006-03-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

We're in Morton, Washington now. Tomorrow we'll drive up to Federal Way for Sectionals. I'll be posting pictures of the meet. EDIT: You can get realtime results at www.pns.org/realtime.

Upgraded from Brain to Processor

2006-03-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

My current math homework is factoring out trinomials, which can take a long time with a mere human brain. So my mom and I wrote a program to do this. It's written in C and Objective-C (with the Foundation framework), but it shouldn't be hard to port it to another language, if you're not a UNIX user. Here it is:


#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
        NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

 int num1, num2, num3, a, b, c, d;
 NSMutableArray * num1Factors = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
 NSMutableArray * num3Factors = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
 
 printf("Enter the coefficient for x-squared: ");
 scanf("%d", &num1);
 
 printf("Enter the coefficient for x: ");
 scanf("%d", &num2);
 
 printf("Enter the constant: ");
 scanf("%d", &num3);

 int i;
 int plusNum1;
 if (num1 < 0)
 {
  // if num1 is negative, we need to count from num1 to positive num1
  i = num1;
  plusNum1 = -num1;
 }
 else 
 {
  i = 1;
  plusNum1 = num1;
 }
 
 // find the factors for num1
 while (i <= plusNum1)
 {
  if (num1 % i == 0)
  {
   NSNumber * f1 = [NSNumber numberWithInt:i];
   NSNumber * f2 = [NSNumber numberWithInt:num1/i];
   
   [num1Factors addObject:f1];
   [num1Factors addObject:f2];    
  }
  i++;
 }
 
 
 int j;
 int plusNum3;
 if (num3 < 0)
 {
  // if num3 is negative, we need to count from num3 to positive num3
  j = num3;
  plusNum3 = -num3;
 }
 else 
 {
  j = 1;
  plusNum3 = num3;
 }
 
 // find the factors for num3
 while (j <= plusNum3)
 {
  if (num3 % j == 0)
  {
   NSNumber * f1 = [NSNumber numberWithInt:j];
   NSNumber * f2 = [NSNumber numberWithInt:num3/j];
   
   [num3Factors addObject:f1];
   [num3Factors addObject:f2];
  }
  j++;
 }
 

 // ok, now do the calculations
 BOOL flag = YES;
 int i1 = 0;
 int i2 = 1;
 // try each pair of num1 factors
 while (i2 < [num1Factors count] && flag == YES)
 {
  int j1 = 0;
  int j2 = 1;
  // try each pair of num3 factors
  while (j2 < [num3Factors count] && flag == YES)
  {
   // get two pairs of factors, one for num1 and one for num3
   a = [[num1Factors objectAtIndex:i1] intValue];
   b = [[num1Factors objectAtIndex:i2] intValue];
   c = [[num3Factors objectAtIndex:j1] intValue];
   d = [[num3Factors objectAtIndex:j2] intValue];

   if (num2 < 0 && num3 > 0)
   {
    c = -c;
    d = -d;
   }
   
   // try it out, and if it doesn't work, start over with the next pair of factors
   if ((c*b)+(a*d) == num2)
   {
    printf("(%dx+%d)(%dx+%d)", a, c, b, d);
    flag = NO;
   }
   j1 += 2;
   j2 += 2;
  }
  i1 += 2;
  i2 += 2;
 }
 
 
        [num1Factors release];
        [num3Factors release];
 [pool release];
        return 0;
}

It's snowing!

2006-03-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

The Byte Factory

2006-03-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

Joseph's, Daniel's and my software company is finally on it's way.

Medals

2006-03-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

Here are the medals I got from State. The maroon one is 6th place and the rest are 7th. Click for a larger image.

OSI State Championships, Day 4

2006-02-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

This was the last day of the meet. I had three events: the last leg of 400 freestyle relay, the 200 fly and 100 free. We got 3:49.40 in the relay, which is one second off a Sectional time. My split was 53.1. In the 200 fly I got 2:15.17. I improved 2½ seconds, and I got 6th place. I'm now five seconds from a Zone time. Kate said my splits were "phenomenal", especially my third 50. I didn't do so well in the 100 free; I got 54.04. At least I already got my Sectional time last night in the time trial. In the 200 fly in finals I got 2:12.87, 2.3 seconds faster than I swam in prelims! I got 6th place. Now I'm only two and a half seconds off a Zone time. I'll get it at Sectionals. So now I have a 6th (200 fly), 7th (50 free), 7th (100 fly), 7th (200 free), 10th (200 IM) and 16th (100 free). Our team got 4th out of 52 teams. ---------- TEAM STANDINGS: 1st Thunderbolts 2nd Lake Oswego Swim Club 3rd Bend 4th Bearcats ... Here's a picture of me on the blocks: EDIT: Kyle set a new state record wearing my cap!

OSI State Championships, Day 3

2006-02-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

I only had one event today, the 200 free. But I also time trialed the 100 free even though I haven't swam it yet, just in case I don't get my Sectional time. In the 200 free I got 1:56.31 — a one second improvement, and 5th place. In my 100 free time trial I got 53.73. A Sectional time is 53.89, so I got what I wanted. When I swam the 200 free in the finals, I got 1:56.84. I was half a second off my prelims time, but I got 7th place. ---------- TEAM STANDINGS: 1st Thunderbolts 2nd Lake Oswego Swim Club 3rd Bend 4th Bearcats ...

OSI State Championships, Day 2

2006-02-24T21:56:00.000-08:00

Today I swam the 200 IM, 50 free, 100 fly and the fly leg of our 400 medley relay. PRELIMS In the 200 IM my time was 2:13.28. I dropped two seconds, and I got 10th place. In the 50 free I got 24.76, and my old time was 24.71; I lost control of my dive. But, I still got 8th, so I made it in to Finals and got another chance to swim it. In the 100 fly I got 59.36, which is a two second improvement. And I got 5th place. We won our heat in the 400 medley relay, and our time was 4:17. We got a Sectional time by four seconds. My fly split was 59.4. FINALS I didn't mess up my dive this time in the 50 free — I got 24.32, and 7th place. I'm only three tenths of a second off a Zone time! In the 100 fly, I got 59.76. I added .40 second because I was tired. I got 7th place. This has been a long day. ---------- Team standing: 1st (thanks to our girls' Junior Nationals relay team)

OSI State Championships, Day 1

2006-02-23T23:59:00.000-08:00

My only event today was the 800 free relay, with Nathanial, Adam, Eric and me (in that order). My split was 1:54.9, a best time by about two seconds. I also tied Tori and Nathan Losch's splits. I think I started losing my vision on the last 50 (so my last flipturn was pretty bad), and I couldn't kick at all. I really ran out of oxygen. In Kate's view, all the better. We weren't expecting to do very well, but we got 7th!

Short Course State Championships

2006-02-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is day one of four of the short course OSI State Championships. I'll be posting how I do in my events.

Bad Poetry

2006-02-18T00:01:00.000-08:00

This is why you shouldn't try to hack Mac OS X... You get repelled with Bad Poetry! Software developers shouldn't even think about writing poetry, especially right after working on a security patch in an OS...

DreamHost

2006-02-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

I signed up for DreamHost, entering the promo code 777, and I got hosting plus a free domain for $9.24 for the first year! Also, since they're having a special offer, I get 20GB of disk space and 1TB monthly bandwidth. And, best of all, they let you host unlimited domains, which means I can have as many sites as I want on that one account. So now I'll be hosting The Byte Factory's site, the Bearcat site, and eventually my dad's site on that server.

Looking for a web host...

2006-02-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

I'm looking for a free or really cheap web host for one of my sites. Also, I'd like it if they let you point several domains to different directories. I was going to use Astahost, but then I found out they require you to actively post on their forums! Not good. So, if anyone knows of a good one, please let me know. -- Sorry for the lack of posts lately; I've been working on cleaning up the Bearcat site.