I just wanted to update you all on what I’ve been up to!

I’m still going to college… taking calculus 3 and economics right now… Calculus 3 is currently being somewhat difficult, despite my regularly high level of effort. I’m really enjoying economics - the math is relatively easy, and the concepts are easy to remember because of my passion for economics.

My brother and I recently revived the Boy ‘n Panda book, this time in the form of an epic animated series. So far, we have been mostly bone rigging characters using Anime Studio… but we’re just about ready to start ‘filming’ the book from the beginning. We’re both pretty hyped about it. We would appreciate any views and comments on the site! Thanks!

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

I haven’t posted in awhile. I have been busy with work and enjoyable hobbies this summer(which, in some cases, are the same!). =)

My father took professional quality photographs of my team’s Rube Goldberg second place trophy, so I thought I would post one now.

We missed first place by just 1 point in 338 points!

Overall, it has been a great semester. The Rube Goldberg project was an incredible success, thanks to my fantastic teammates and supportive sponsor. I received an A in Calculus 2, which is great, since at times during the course I was wondering whether or not I would make it through the class! I’m told that the other upper math courses are not as memorization intense and difficult as Calculus 2. I hope they are correct.

My C++ course went well. I learned alot about object oriented programming. I haven’t gotten the overall grade back yet on that one.(hoping for an A!)

This semester marks my graduation from highschool. It’s funny, because it feels like I was in college just yesterday. Oh… right…

The end of one thing is just the beginning of something new(and hopefully groovy).

Ben

P.S. I recently rediscovered an awesome PC game. It’s also free, which multiplies its awesomeness by at least 300%. Check it out!

Happy Mother's Day!

Dried flowers and a pressed four leaf clover make this card interesting to look at.

I could practically have a TV show called “Mother’s Day Card Makeover!”…

Just kidding.

Any other cool Mother’s Day ideas? Please share! =)

Have a great Mother’s Day!

Ben

Hey! Benjamin Delaporte here!

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist in the 1930s who drew strange contraptions that took many steps to perform a simple task. In his honor, highschool and college competitions based on his cartoons are held every year at the regional, state, and national levels.

The challenge this year was to replace an incandescent light bulb with a more energy efficient light source. Many teams used a florescent light bulb as the replacement. Solutions ranged from a simple flip of a switch to full fledged robotics - unscrewing of the first light bulb, and screwing the second bulb into the same socket!

My team(a homeschool highschool group named ‘Cornerstone Discovery Group Team B’) took first place at our homeschool highschool, first place at the University of Illinois Engineering Open House regional competition, and finally second place in the national Rube Goldberg competition at Purdue University!

The first place team(from Wisconsin) had 338 points, our team had 337 points, and the third place team(also from Wisconsin) had 335 points. All teams scored perfectly in mechanics. The 4 point range was entirely subjective scoring(thematic appeal), and the judges had very a difficult time deciding. All in all, each of the top three teams had great builds, and amazing themes!

The first place team had a mining theme, with a clever track of upward falling dominoes and a chain belt to change the light bulbs - simultaneously yanking the old bulb out and putting the new bulb in.

The third place team had a Mario theme, with ‘goomba’ cutouts that acted as dominoes after Mario bopped the first one on the head.

My team had a Dr. Seuss theme, with Truffula tree dominoes and two wacky hands to swap the light bulbs. Our mechanics were solid due to the steady ingenuity of our mechanical department. Although hot glue, duct tape, and sheet metal are often tempting as quick fixes to problems, our mechanical department managed to avoid all but a few pieces of sheet metal in the final build, and that only to make the light bulb socket. We’ve learned from previous years that those building materials are unreliable. The mechanical department’s experience proved to be correct, as the most finicky step was the light bulb socket, because of the sheet metal inside of it.

Our theme was beautiful due to the brilliance of our art department. The art department did such a great job that at the Engineering Open House Illinois Regional competition we were given the ‘People’s Choice Award’ trophy in addition to the 1st place trophy! (The People’s Choice Award is given to the team with the popular vote from onlookers. )

My team did so well because we had members with very specific and strong skill sets. Each member had very strong view points, too, but we managed to work together through delegation and departmentalization.  Between all 7 team members, we put nearly 1000 hours into the project.

It has been a great experience!

I’d like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Mercier for sponsoring our team and feeding us during those long hours. I’d also like to thank friends and family who supported our team at the Engineering Open House Regional competition and at the Purdue University National competition! You guys were great! We really appreciate your support!

And good job ‘Cornerstone Discovery Group Team B’! It’s been a pleasure working with all of you.

(I’m planning on adding pictures of my team’s state and national trophies here a bit later)

Check out the Quad blog article about the college level team from the University of Illinois. They took second in the national college level competition! Great job guys! ]]> http://ben-writes.com/2009/second-place-in-rube-goldberg-nationals/feed/ http://ben-writes.com/2009/curbing-your-startup-folder/ http://ben-writes.com/2009/curbing-your-startup-folder/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:17:59 +0000 Ben http://ben-writes.com/?p=35 Do you feel like your computer has gradually become ’slower’ since you bought it? It has. This is a tutorial to help you take back some of that ‘brand new computer’ speed. It isn’t hard, and it won’t take you more than a few minutes… However, I must warn you, this tutorial won’t bring back that new computer smell…

One of the most common ways a Windows personal computer becomes slower is because of the CPU and RAM being overwhelmed. It could be that you need new hardware, but let’s try a cheaper solution first. The slowing of your computer could be a software issue.

As a personal computer owner, you probably install applications on a regular basis. But as you install programs, you often times end up installing things that you didn’t know were being installed. And those things stay in your computer’s ‘Startup’ folder. Any executable inside your computer’s Startup folder starts running in the background whenever you turn on your computer. This means that the more things you have in your Startup, the slower your computer will be, whether you wanted those things to run or not.

You can edit your Startup list to counteract this effect. Follow the arrows below to find your Startup editor on Vista.

1. Open your start menu

2. Click on 'Change startup programs'.

Now choose a program to disable in the startup menu folder. Be warned that any program disabled here will not start up when the computer starts up, but will have to be executed manually.

Click 'yes' on the popup.

If you change your mind, come back later and reactivate the program in the startup menu, in a similar fashion to the way you deactivated it.

Below are a few programs I tend to disable in the Startup. These programs will still run when you need them, but you don’t need them running all the time. 

Quicktime

iTunes

Google desktop

Google updater

The best way to decide whether to disable something in Startup is to look up its functionality online, and then think to yourself “Do I use this functionality often enough to justify having it run in the background?” Most programs will still execute when you need them, even if they don’t run in the background. It will just take them slightly longer to load(This extra time still generally being < 1 second if your hardware is fairly new).

For example, since I disabled Quicktime, the next time I watch a movie on the Internet, it will take slightly longer to load(Startup time) than if I kept it running in the background. Allowing Quicktime to run in the background would mean no Startup time, but all computations on my computer would take that much longer because my computer would always be thinking about Quicktime. I prefer having a short Startup time and very fast computations than to having no startup time and very slow computations. Startups happen once, but computations are always happening.

It’s a bit like juggling. You can either juggle ten balls at a time, and have to wait a long time for each ball to come down, or you can juggle one ball and have it in your hand instantly. Admittedly, if you want one of the other ten balls, you have to reach down and pick it up, but in the long run you will save time.

Thanks to my brother(who is awesome), I now have a general writing blog. It’s pretty awesome. You should check out his blog, Ed the Dev.

I’m going to make an effort to publish some things here over the spring break. But in the meanwhile, I recommend reading Boy & Panda.

My brother Ben is an excellent writer,  so I decided he needed a dedicated writing blog. Check back soon to see what Ben Writes!