#TheGrandDesign

In 1277 Bishop Tempier of Paris, acting on the instructions of Pope John XXI, published a list of 219 errors or heresies that were to be condemned. Among the heresies was the idea that nature follows laws, because this conflicts with God’s omnipotence. Interestingly, Pope John was killed by the effects of the law of gravity a few months later when the roof of his palace fell in on him.

From The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking

Python Script

I made this script because I needed 40 integers that don't repeat, multiple times. So instead of typing them and having to manually check each time. I created a python script. Check it out below:



To run, save as rand.py somewhere then run from terminal:

python rand.py

Cool Little Bash Script

Fun bash script I made that counts the number of lines of all the files in the directory you run it in. You need to have the "toilet" command installed for it to work optimally.

MAKO: Artificial intelligence that does everything!

I found this project on kickstarter by accident and I am very glad I did. This project looks amazing and I can't wait to see how far it goes.

A Slightly more advanced and personal "Hello World" C++ program

My dream live music setup

My Dream Live Music Setup

• 15" Macbook Pro Retina with Ableton Live 9
• iPad 2 with Lemur
• iPad 3 ("retina display" version) with Lemur
• Ableton Launchpad S

When I perform live I don't want to just be a DJ, I want to actually perform.

More awesome music on its way :)

Stay connected:

Soundcloud

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

Until next time!

-Eli

Dear Nintendo...

Dear Nintendo:

If this

happens. I will not flinch in buying a WiiU. Nor will millions of other Pokémon enthusiasts and casual gamers a like. Make it compatible with the DS (3DS, etc) and you will have your rebound as a console company.

Sincerely,

The Internet

Why the Young Generation is Having a Hard Time with Life

These are just my own observations as someone in the young generation as to why my generation is having such a hard time with life.

Our attention span is extremely short, comparable to a squirrel with ADD drinking a Monster energy drink. I think the reason behind this is because of the internet and the growing and expanding technology, such as smartphones. We literally have access to anything at our fingertips; don't know something, "Google it". You can find out pretty much anything you want to know within a couple seconds, and this is really hurting us (myself included).

Because of our short attention span, we have trouble focusing on one thing and following through with it. We'll start out on doing something that we think is really cool or want to do something that we think is really cool but then realize "Wow, this isn't as easy as everyone else makes it seem. Well, time to move onto the next thing." And this is just an unending loop, moving from one thing to another because it's too hard or takes too long to learn.

From my personal experience, making electronic music. The pros and most everyone that I've seen, make the music with extreme ease and it sounds beautiful. When I try to do it, it sounds like crap. But I've only started making music and the pros have been doing it for years and years, so why should I be discouraged when mine sounds like crap? It's because of the short attention span I was talking about. When I sit down to start making a new track, I (for some reason) think I should be able to make a Top 10 hit track in a day. When the reality is, most pros take weeks sometimes months to make a good track. There's no immediate result which makes it very discouraging.

Secondly, we are expected to act like adults when we're in high school but we're still treated like children. This is a huge problem, because it is a big conflict of interest as well as an unending and spiraling downward loop. This isn't only a problem with school but also with the popular TV shows.

Kids see other kids their age going on adventures, being super spy's, etc... which makes the kids think "Oh, they're my age and they're doing that, so why can't I?" Obviously this is unrealistic because the CIA does not hire 7 year olds. Another genre of TV shows that do this are shows like iCarly, Victorious, etc... it's giving kids an unrealistic view of how the "real world" works. The parents in most of these shows are very laid back and pretty much let the kids do whatever they want, this is to make the show more interesting.

But kids don't realize this and they think that when they get that old, they'll be able to do all that stuff too. Going back to the age expectations and how you get treated. I just turned 17 and have my first real job. I've found that getting your first job is extremely difficult. It's another unending cycle: I didn't have job experience which was why I was trying to get a job but I wasn't getting any jobs because I didn't have any job experience.

Lastly, going back to the TV shows and expectations of the youth. Until you're 18, you really can't do much and really don't have much freedom. You're restricted by the law and your parents. So with kids way under 18 doing stuff like traveling around the world on their own, being in a world famous boy band, etc... the youth expects that what they see on TV is real. And they think that they can do all that stuff at their age. And this is NOT the case at all! I know my parents are much stricter than most but even then, from what my friends tell me, their parents are just as restrictive about what they can and can't do.

The problem is that what kids are seeing on TV are like the 1%, so to speak, of the world. Where what the kids on TV are doing, maybe 1% of real kids can actually do that stuff. There aren't any shows of average kids living an average life, because that would be boring. Again, we're giving kids unrealistic expectations and setting them up for failure.

We're giving the youth of today and tomorrow unrealistic expectations to live up to while still treating them like children. If we want them to act like adults and get jobs, then we need to treat them that way. As for the TV shows, well I don't see that changing anytime soon because those are popular shows and that genre will most likely be popular for a long time to come. I also don't see people treating the youth more like adults anytime soon but will still give them high expectations to live up to. So while nothing will be done to prevent this, we need to realize this and when the youth is having a hard time be able to step in and do something to help them.

I hope this made sense, I just really needed to get this out there.

The Raspberry Pi (RPI) Initiative

My idea of a perfect "dashboard" that is left constantly running and is just there to supply information to you so to speak.

It includes:

• Date and Time
• 12 or 24 hr
• Calendar
• Alternates items in color and white so it's easy to see different events
• Weather
• Current
• Hourly (8hrs)
• 3 day forecast
• Mail
• Popup "app" with ability to read and reply to emails as well as send new ones
• News
• Select news source and there you go
• Facebook feed
• Twitter Feed
• Grooveshark music player
• Popup "app" to login/register as well as find your music to play, make playlists, etc...
• Download button to get the song via iTunes, Amazon, or other ways. (popup options)

**Facebook, twitter, mail, calendar, and news are all interchangeable and can be placed in each others spots.**

I really hope someone designs something like this for the RPi or that I learn to code good enough to make it myself.

COST:

• Raspberry Pi - $35
• 1080p 22" Monitor - $149
• Wireless Keyboard & Mouse - $35
• HDMI cable - $6
• Case - $7
• 4 port USB hub - $8
• 8GB SD card - $12
• Power supply -$10
• Wifi Adapter - $11

TOTAL: ~$273

ELI

Yo momma's so FAT

Your mama's so FAT she can't save files bigger than 4GB
— HAL 9000 (@HAL9000_) May 8, 2013

I get bored sometimes

YouTube

Dear loyal & faithful YouTube subscribers and friends:

     As of today I am quitting YouTube. It's very sad for me to say this, because YouTube is more than people posting cat videos; it's a community. It's a community that I've been honored to be a part of for the past 2 years. I've grown a lot since I started making YouTube videos in 2011. My skills in video making have improved tremendously but I've also grown as a person.

     When I posted my first video I honestly thought it would get 1M views in a couple days or a month at the least. I think it had around 40 views the last time I checked. I thought I was going to become "YouTube famous" within a couple weeks or months, a year at the latest. Two years later, barely 115 subscribers and almost 25K total video views. But even with that few amount of subscribers and views it allowed me to interact with my viewers and other smaller YouTuber's like myself. I really felt apart of something.

     However, YouTube is not for me. I do like make videos but believe it or not, it can take a lot out of you. I am taking 3 college classes right now along with 1 high school class and it's demanding. I also have a girlfriend who I want to spend as much time as possible with, as well as my other friends. As you can see, my time is very limited these days.

     YouTube for me was never about making money, it was doing something that I really liked to do. And good thing it wasn't about the money...I've only made $12.90 from my YouTube videos. That's no where near enough to support myself, pay for college, etc.

     Where from here? I posted a couple weeks ago about my "perfect" life, I don't know what I was thinking when I posted that. My life will never be 100% how I want it to be and it will never be perfect, so who cares! You have to roll with the punches of life and go with the flow. But in real life I am planning on now majoring in Computer Science and I hope to attend DevBootcamp in place of college or after college. I want to be a full time web developer. I know writing code sounds like an extremely boring thing to do as a job, but I love it. I truly love it and want to make a living from doing it. I want to create apps and programs to not only make life easier and more fun but to enhance it. I have a lot of ideas that I want to make so I want to get started off working for a company as one of their developers then eventually start my own company.

     No more videos then? Of course not! I don't want to completely quit YouTube, but it won't be my main priority anymore. So I guess I'm not technically "quitting" YouTube but whateva! ;) I do want to post maybe an "update" video on what I'm doing and working on every once and a while because again, YouTube is more than just a spot to post videos; it's a community!

   In closing, thank you to all of you who have supported me these past years. Philip Defranco gave me my first big boost of subscribers by featuring my video in one of his movie club things, so a big thanks to him. Thanks to Featureman for all the support lately. A huge shout out to my friends Tyler and Brenden who were in some of my videos and they have their own skating channels so check them out and subscribe! Also thanks to everyone over at Elite Collabers, you guys were great and I had a fun time making videos with you! Lastly thank you to all my subscribers and anyone else who I'm forgetting to mention, you guys rock!

Until we meet again, thanks and keep on, keeping on!

-Eli

Fight For Internet Freedom!

I've shown support for internet freedom before, but the need for more support is greater than ever! Visit freepress for tons of great information to get started and also check out & sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom. Also check out this CISPA petition, and contact your representatives, senators, everyone and tell them how you feel!

Lastly, show your support by putting up some of these posters courtesy of Freepress Flicker.

Here's 8.5x11 JPG image for the poster:

Here's a link to a 8.5x11 PDF of the poster via Mediafire.

Enjoy and spread the word!

-Eli

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi. 

Quite possibly the most simple yet powerful computer ever made. It doesn't have much for specs: 256MB of RAM, CPU, and GPU, HDMI port, 2 USB ports, RCA port, Ethernet port, and an SD card slot.

Even though it doesn't have much for specs, it was made this way on purpose. This little (45g) computer was made for coding and programming.

People have made this little guy do some pretty cool things. Some people have used it for robotics, send to the edge of space, and so much more!

I want to push the Raspberry Pi to its limits and beyond!

My Idea

I want to use the Raspberry Pi and other open source software to basically create the perfect operating system and personal assistant.

I want to use a RPi along with:

• Microsoft Kinect
• For speech recognition and motion recognition
• 55" Computer Monitor
• This will be the final purchase and feature of this build. It's also touchscreen as another way to input information.
• HD DVR Security System
• Mainly using this for the cameras. I will use open source facial recognition along with the cameras to alert me when someone is at the door and if their face is recognized it will tell me who is at the door.
• i'm Watch
• This runs on a modified version of the Android operating system, so I will modify it most likely by just making an app where it will give me any alerts I setup.
• Weather Station
• Obviously you need weather, so I found some open source software along with a personal weather station to give me relevant weather information.
• Automated Lighting
• I'm still working out how this will work, but basically the computer will turn on the lights when I get out of bed in the morning and turn them off when I go to sleep.

Besides these other pieces of hardware and software, this is what I want the operating system to be like:

• Simple yet powerful
• Intuitive
• Personal Assistant
• I want to develop the most advanced personal assistant in existence. Big goal...yeah but I think I can do it
• It needs to be able to learn and "think"
• Understand and execute voice commands (i.e. "I want to watch a harlem shake video on YouTube" or "Play my favorite Pandora radio station")
• Distro of linux
• Obviously since linux is open source, that's where I'm going to be building from. To start off, I will be using the Raspbian distro but once I start getting into the "real" programming of the operating system, I will be working from open source linux

All the software I will be using to create this "operating system" will be open source and I hope it works. I don't know when I will start making this crazy awesome system, but I hope to start realitively soon...especially because a RPi is only $35!

For more information on the Raspberry Pi check out their website! http://www.raspberrypi.org/

-Eli

 

Life

Life is fucking weird. I mean seriously, think about it. Why are we alive? What is our purpose? We as humans don't really have a purpose when you think about it. Even if we explore the ends of the Universe and know all there is to know, what then? If there is other life forms in our universe, which there probably is, what will we do when we meet them? There's a very familiar trend when foreigners go to a new land, they take it over and colonize it. So will we be the ones to take over another planet or solar system? Or will we be the ones being colonized by beings from space.

What is sight? Really though, how the fuck can we see stuff? Yes we have eyes that process light and our environment around us which then gives our brains an "image" and we "see" it. Did you know that you actually see everything upside down? Your brain processes the upside down image and puts it right side up so it looks "normal".

What about sound? Our ears translate sound "waves" into information to give to our brain which allows us to "hear". But what are we actually hearing? We've found that other species of animals can hear different frequencies of sound, so are we as humans really hearing the whole "picture"?

Taste is an interesting one. Why does some food taste good to some people but terrible to others? Sometimes we call it an "acquired" taste, where after you eat a certain food for a long enough time, you will eventually enjoy it. But why does food taste the way we think it does? Well obviously it is made out of certain chemicals and materials but why do those taste the way they do? Did our bodies just all of a sudden start telling us what food tasted like...but what does it actually taste like?

Touch. We are always touching something. But not technically. I mean you most likely have clothes on, but you don't realize that feeling of the clothes touching your skin, because you've gotten used to it. But again, technically you've never touched anything. On an atomic level, only our electrons are touching the electrons of other objects. So yes, you are "touching" things but also not really when looking at it on an atomic level.

We are aware that we are alive, whatever that means. But what does it mean to be alive? I mean, think about it...we wake up every morning and just live our lives. But why are we alive? And why can we think and have emotions which aren't really anything but nerve impulses reacting to situations. When you think about it, we're a lot like computers. They have I/O impulses which make them run, a very simple concept yet computers let us do some of the most advanced things on the planet. We also are run by similar I/O impulses  which give our brains information, theses are also surprisingly electrical nerve impulses. Again very similar to computers.

I'm not suggesting anything *cough* matrix *cough*, but seriously...I just wanted to get my thoughts and ideas out in the open. Feel free to comment and share with whomever.

-Eli

TL;DR Life is fucking weird.

I WON #FREEshirtFRIDAY!!!

So yeah...this happened today!! EPIC!!!

Congratulations @kutarimeikitato! You win #FREEshirtFRIDAY!
— District Lines (@district_lines) February 1, 2013

Video/Audio Wishlists!

I know it's past Christmas time but here are 2 of my wishlists.

Video:

http://amzn.com/w/3EV2DELV75DU

Audio:
http://amzn.com/w/U06D995KM9P7

-eli

EPIC PC VIDEO GAME GIVEAWAY!!!

Be sure to enter!!!

-Eli

Choices

Choices. Any choice we make in life can turn your life on a dime. The choices we make now, whether we can see it or not, will affect our life down the road. Even the smallest of choices will affect your life in some way. These choices can be good but they can also be bad. Sometimes a choice might seem good but end up turning out to be a terrible choice. That's what happened to me, I made a choice that [at the time] seemed like a great idea but now looking back was a terrible idea. I hope you can learn from my mistakes and make better choices when you're given the opportunity.

In school, cheating is a big "no-no". But what exactly is considered cheating? Wikipedia defines cheating as "an immoral way of achieving a goal. It is generally used for the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation. Cheating is the getting of reward for ability by dishonest means." So an immoral way of achieving a goal. But what if someone doesn't have morals...well, I wouldn't want to be around them. Anyways, what could this goal be? In school cheating is when you write the answers to a test on your hand/desk or text your friend the answers during the test. Those are some of the more common cliche's of cheating. When I was younger, a common way that I remember kids cheating was taking the answer book and just memorizing the answers. I never wanted to do any of that kind of stuff, and never thought I would.

Yes, I cheated. But in a weird way. I am obviously going to keep the names of the people involved anonymous but here's the story. In one of my classes, we knew we had a test coming up and it was planned to be the next week. That day the teacher said it would be the next day. Nobody liked the idea and everyone seemed really stressed out. The teacher also mentioned making a "Jeopardy" review but wasn't going to give it out because it too closely resembled the test. After class the teacher was showing a couple students the Jeopardy because they really wanted to see what they were missing out on. Now at my school there are projectors in every room and at this point the teacher had the Jeopardy up on the projector screen and I happened to see the URL where it was posted.

At that moment I remembered how stressed out everyone was and thought to myself, "Wow. Here's my chance to help out my fellow classmates who are really stressed out." So I copied down the URL and went on with my day.

As most of you probably know, I'm pretty good with computers. So, I made a fake email using a proxy web browser and sent the email to my classmates. Side-note: The email took me literally 2 hours to send, because the email kept kicking me out for using a proxy. I should've taken this as a sign saying "YO IDIOT! STOP TRYING TO SEND THIS FREAKING EMAIL BECAUSE IT'S GOING TO BITE YOU IN THE A$$ IN THE LONG RUN!!" Yeah...I'm not too good at the subliminal message thing...

Anyways, the email went out and I didn't think much about it because I legitimately thought I was helping my fellow students. The next day after the test the teacher finds out and obviously brings it up in front of the class and asked someone to fess up. I wasn't gonna fess up! I thought I did something good! Fast forward a couple days.

Everything settled down but I had this huge weight on my shoulders. Just that thought of, "I did something wrong and now the whole class is getting in trouble, when I tried to do something good...crap." Then something that I learned, in school, came into my head "Own it". Own your mistakes like a man, grow a pair and take what's coming to you, because if you tell the truth now, it will be a lot easier in the long run.

And holy sh!t, did it take A LOT to walk into my teachers office and tell them what I did. I was never so scared/ashamed in my life. I just about crapped my pants. I thought I was going to get kicked out of school and be completely f*cked (but I did realize it was my and only my fault). Not the case at all. My teacher actually applauded me (figuratively) for being mature about the whole situation and "owning" it.

They said there will be consequences but since I was mature about it and "owned" it, they would be less harsh. I will be able to stay in school with this incident not harming my pristine "record", if you will.

What about my parents? Well, my mom was OK with it mainly because I "owned" it and told the truth. My dad? Well...let's just say it's still sinking in...

If there's one thing I hope you can take away from this is: just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Another thing to take away is telling the truth will set you free. Literally. I feel so much better now that I told the truth and it's over. Back to the doing something because you can...just because you have certain "talents", if you will, doesn't mean you should use them in the wrong ways. Just because you can shoot a .22 doesn't mean you should become a serial killer. Use your talents in the right ways! Use your skills to help others, go into the marines or something and become a sniper and help your country or something! Just because you're given some information that you shouldn't have, doesn't mean you should share it with anyone and everyone. If you know you're not supposed to have it, just forget it from your memory and move on. Trust me, it will help you in the long run.

Thanks for reading and happy holidays!

~Eli

Carpe diem.

New Pokemon Game [idea]!!!

ok hear me out on this. I'm not sure if anyone else has had this idea so maybe this isn't original but still...ok here's my idea:

The Name would be "Pokemon Origins". The game starts off where you get to fully customize your little avatar, because seriously it's not like we're all gonna look alike. Next you can either have your "rival" as a CPU or as another real life person (i.e. your friend or just a random person).

In this game however there isn't a professor that just gives you a Pokemon. There will be one pokeball in the starting town and you have to find it, then the little girl or whomever won't stop you from going into the grass. Everyone encounters a different first pokemon but nonetheless it is a level 2 and you catch it on your first try.

What generation of pokemon? :) Generation One...to begin with. Once you capture that pokemon you go on exploring the Kanto region. However there aren't any gym leaders. Because you are one of the first pokemon trainers, ever (thus the name "pokemon origins"). After you finish exploring the Kanto region, you learn from someone that there are actually more regions...so you go explore those regions (generation 2 - present). Again there aren't any gym leaders yet, because you are one of the first trainers. However there are pokemon "gangs" that you encounter who are very similar to gym leaders. There are also other trainers that you encounter.

So basically this game is all the other games combined. All the regions in one huge map, every single pokemon able to be caught, and in the end you become the first pokemon professor.

So...any thoughts, ideas, comments, etc?

originally posted by me on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/comments/13o68t/new_pokemon_game_idea/

-Eli