RWORD – TECHNICAL BLOG

Computer graphics, though flashy and amazing, are all based off of mathematical formulas and algorithms. 3d graphics, in general, are all based off of polygons and verteces. In programming, I have found that once I can draw something, a huge amount of possible applications arise. In this tree example, I started by making a function that could draw a rectangle with any length, width, and angle. My rectangle function has 5 parameters, x, y, width, height, and angle. The x and y parameters represent the bottom of the rectangle.

By using recursion, I was able to start at the trunk of the tree and branch outward. Each limb, including the trunk, makes two other limbs that are smaller at different angles(so that the limbs fork). I use some randomization to make the tree look more natural. When the limbs stop spawning, they make some leaves. Here is the code and a picture.

When a company or researcher needs to distinguish two treatments, products, or anything else, they use statistical processes to get conclusive results. One of the statistical tests that is the most useful is the ANOVA test. The ANOVA test can find statistical difference between multiple samples.

As part of my Statistical Quality Assurance and Experimental Design class, I had to do an experiment and analysis. I chose to look at banana decay. I wanted to see if bananas left on the counter lasted longer than bananas in the refrigerator. It turns out that the banana’s left in the fridge (Treatment 2) last the longest. Note the picture:

After finishing the experiment, I was sure that the bananas from the fridge were the least decayed; but could I prove that statistically? Once I ran all of the numbers on the bananas, I could. You can read the Banana Project Report for details where the ANOVA test proves that bananas kept in the fridge last longer. Here is a graph of my results:

I can post more later, but you get an idea about how things went. It took 20 hours to turn all of my pictures into data… It became a little tiresome.

We all dislike spam.  But imagine being called a spammer–a turncoat–a rebel.  I have been deemed a spambot by Blogger and my account has been disabled after only one post.  From what I’ve read, Blogger has recently started to use keyword indexing to highlight spam-esque words or nonsensical sentences.  They also check for sites that link to only one other site.  After one post, do they really have enough information?  After two weeks of waiting, I have given up on the claim that they would have a real person look at it to see if it was spam.  So alas, here I am.

Expect technical blogs from my posts with overlap from academia, theory,  philosophy, and interesting thoughts.

Here are some things I am planning to post:

- Time management and prediction via the standard deviation and average of records

- My report for statistical quality assurance on the Decay of Bananas

- Fundamentals of OpenGL and computer graphics in general

- Learning perl as I learn it :) .

- Linux topics