To-Do--10/31/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Muir 50 (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review notes made on AB and project proposal in Muir 50 (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead in Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Read ahead in Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done
• Send another email to Phonetics professor (5 minutes)
• Done
• Go out with friends (2.5 hours/4 hours)
• Dinner and movie
• Done
• Sleep: 1 am

Internships--10/30/2012

I looked at a job as a Natural Language Processing Research Engineer at Nuance. Some requirements are knowledge of C++ and Java, experience in projects involving natural language, and an MS in computer science.

Philosophy--10/30/2012

I read about reason as a means of survival. The only real defense mechanism man has is his mind and if it's not used correctly, it's useless. Reason is how knowledge is obtained and without knowledge, the mind is useless. So reason is what allows people to gain knowledge, which allows them to utilize their minds' full potential.

Articles--10/30/2012

There was an interesting article in the LA Times about Google Voice Search, which is now available for iPhones and iPads. Google Voice is a lot like Siri but with the added bonus of displaying pictures and search results on request, whereas Siri has to ask users if they would like it to search the web before performing any action. It's interesting that anything from Google is being made available for the iPhone and iPad given what happened with Google Maps recently.

Rosetta Stone--10/30/2012

I did writing, speaking, listening, review, vocab, speaking, another review, and the Milestone for level 1, unit 3, lesson 4.

To-Do--10/30/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Italian Discussion (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Make CAPS appointment (.5 hours)
• Left a message for my psychologist from last year to schedule a follow-up appointment. 
• Phonetics (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Phonetics notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Start Phonetics homework (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead for Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Start reading chapter 10 for Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Python programming (1 hour)
• Done. 1/2 of chapter 12, building a GUI
• Sleep: 1 am

Internships--10/29/2012

I started looking at jobs at Nuance on their website. There are several for research and development in Natural Language and Speech Science.

Philosophy--10/29/2012

I read about morality, which is the methodology behind the question "What do I do?" People have moral standards that are based on their goals in life. Morality doesn't necessarily have to coincide with "good", even though that's normally the connotation it has. Everyone has some life goal, no matter how small it is, and as the figure out how to go about achieving that goal, they are building their own definition of morality.

Articles--10/29/2012

There was an interesting article in the LA Times about Apple's head of mobile software, Scott Forstall. It's been announced that he's leaving the company following the release of Siri and Apple Maps, both of which are considered flops. Apple has refused to comment on whether the flops themselves are the reason for Forstall leaving or if he's simply choosing to leave of his own free will. Considering both projects were pretty major for the company, it makes sense that they would be the main reason for Forstall's departure.

Rosetta Stone--10/29/2012

I did pronunciation, speaking, review, reading, listening, and grammar for level 1, unit 3, lesson 4.

To-Do--10/29/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 10:30 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Go to financial aid office (1.5 hours)
• Done
• LingUA event (2 hours)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Come up with a few possible sentences for project (1 hour)
• Done
• Python Programming (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this
• Sleep: 1 am

To-Do--10/28/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:30 am
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Archery (2 hours)
• Get ready to go home (.5 hours)

Internships--10/28/2012

I looked at the PDF Converter Professional on nuance.com. It can do everything that the other PDF converters can do, such as making it easier to edit and share PDFs, but this product also allows users to open and save PDFs in cloud services.

Philosophy--10/27/2012

I read about the key elements of a proper Ethics. A proper ethics needs a standard of value which all goals and actions can be compared to. In this case, the standard of value is the happiness that make human lives livable. Day-to-day choices need to be taken into account in a proper ethics as well as how people relate to other people, in all aspects of their lives.

Articles--10/27/2012

There was an interesting article in the LA Times about Obama's order to strengthen cyber security. Intelligence is worried that the attack in Saudi Arabia was a warning that the United States might be next. However, despite the president's desire to strengthen cyber security, Congress hasn't done anything about it as far as passing laws go. Now, the White House has contemplated an executive order that would accomplish what the failed legislation would have. Cyber security is definitely important in this day and age but it seems that people are mostly unaware of just how important it is because it's not something that causes visible devastation or destruction, like traditional weapons. But cyber warfare is becoming a very real thing and people need to be educated on the subject.

Rosetta Stone--10/27/2012

I did pronunciation, reading, grammar, speaking, review, listening, and vocab for level 1, unit 3, lesson 3.

To-Do--10/27/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 10:30 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Narrow down research question for Muir 50 paper (.5 hours)
• Done
• Work on second draft of Annotated Bibliography (2 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Movie with friends (1.5 hours)
• Didn't do this
• Read various sources about VOT (2 hours)
• Done
• Read paper on VOT (2 hours)
• Done
• Send proposal to professor (5 minutes)
• Done
• Come up with passage or sentences for project (1 hour)
• Haven't come up with anything yet. 
• Find linguistic text on Western American English and Italian dialects (2 hours)
• Done. Found book for Western American English. Need to find one for Italian.
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Laundry (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Praat practice (1 hour)
• VOT--measuring it
• Done
• Python programming (1 hour)
• Done. More on conditional statements.
• Shower (.5 hours)
• Done
• Sleep: 1 am/2:30 am

Internships--10/26/2012

I looked at the PDF Converter Enterprise 8. This product allows users to convert and edit PDFs however they want and also comes with Dragon Notes so they can simple speak what they want to annotate and have the text show up.

Philosophy--10/26/2012

I read about the importance of ethics. It's important because people use it to make decisions and without it, their actions would have no meaning. An ethical standard allows people to prioritize their goals and get things done.

Articles--10/26/2012

There was an interesting article in the LA Times about the new device Google has used to take pictures of the Grand Canyon for Google Earth. It's called The Trekker and it's a backpack with a round camera system sticking out of it. The system takes an image every 2.5 seconds and those images can then be processed and stitched together, which is what people will see on Google Earth.

Italian Tutorial--10/26/2012

We did more on adjectives and physical characteristics that can be used to describe a person but now we've started to get into more complex sentence structures with them. We did an exercise in the book where we had two separate descriptions of people and had to determine which of the following sentences described which person based on what we knew about them.

Rosetta Stone--10/26/2012

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 3, lesson 3. This lesson covered the verbs "to speak", "to write", "to teach", and "to learn". It also included the words for several languages and nationalities like "Chinese" and "Arabic". Lastly, it covered the numbers 20-60.

To-Do--10/26/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 10 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Finish and submit Phonetics homework (1 hour)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Italian tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Study session in library (2 hours)
• Done
• Review Italian notes from whole week (1 hour)
• Done
• Review Phonetics notes from whole week (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Finish chapter 9 for Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Write up project proposal (.5 hours)
• Done
• Accent book (1 hour)
• Done. Read about different dialects in Italian, like Flortentine and Sicilian. 
• Ardour (1 hour)
• Download and work with Standard London accent with it
• It's not available for Windows.
• Python programming (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this
• Sleep: 1 am/2:30 am

Internships--10/25/2012

I looked at the PDF reader on nuance.com. It can be used by businesses to convert files to word or simply modify the PDFs themselves with annotation tools. With these tools, users can highlight, underline, or cross-out anything they want, which allows for better collaboration and presentation.

Philosophy--10/25/2012

I read about Ethics, which is the branch of study that deals with what is right and what the right thing to do is. Essentially, it is the branch of philosophy that addresses the idea of "right" and "wrong".

Articles--10/25/2012

There was an interesting article in Google News about two iPhone users that are suing Apple due to a software lock that prevents them and other users from switching carriers. Essentially, they are forced to use AT&T and everything that comes with it. The issue is that by doing this, Apple eliminates competition, but unlawfully, according to some. The main issue here is the fact that Apple has forced something on it's customers that they may or may not want and by not giving them the option to get rid of what they don't want, they're going to end up with some very upset customers.

Phonetics--10/25/2012

We talked more about acoustic phonetics today, specifically how sound is actually transmitted, not just through speech, but with everyday objects. All objects have a natural tendency to vibrate, some more than others and they can be damped or undamped. A damped sound source would be something like a table. It makes noise when tapped on, but the sound dies out very quickly. A tuning fork, on the other hand, is an undamped sound source. It gets tapped lightly just once and the sound will resonate for a long time. The way the human vocal tract works is that resonating frequency (the frequency where a body naturally vibrates) changes as the shape of the mouth changes. So for different consonants and vowels, the resonating frequency changes and the vocal folds vibrate at slightly different frequencies for slightly different amounts of time.

Italian Discussion--10/25/2012

We went over regular verb conjugation today. The main types of verbs are the ones that end in "-are", "-ere", and "-ire". Each type gets conjugated a bit differently but they all follow the same basic pattern. The main ones that change are the "noi" or "we" form, and the "loro" or "they" form, and the "Lui/lei" or "he/she" form. There are several irregular verbs too, like "bere" (to drink) and "fare" (to do).

Rosetta Stone--10/25/2012

I did pronunciation, writing, vocab, grammar, and listening for level 1, unit 3, lesson 2.

To-Do--10/25/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Italian Discussion (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Muir 50 conference (1 hour)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Phonetics (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Come up with new project proposal using idea of Italian accented English versus American accented English (1 hour)
• Done, jotted down what I want to do for project and what I'll be measuring, like vowel length, the formant frequencies (focusing specifically on the first and second ones), and pitch. 
• Review Phonetics notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Do more of Phonetics homework (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead for Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Accent book (1 hour)
• Done. I read more about Italian accents and specifically how they differ from region to region. For example, in Southern dialects, word initial "th" sounds might get dropped out completely, rather than substituted for anything. 
• Python programming (1 hour)
• Done. If-else statements. 
• Play around with Ardour (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this
• Sleep: 1 am/2 am

Internships--10/24/2012

I looked at PowerScribe 360 | Critical Results. This is used by radiology, cardiology, and pathology departments and allows for faster communication for critical patient results.

Philosophy--10/24/2012

I read about The Arbitrary. Arbitrary statements are ones that are made without any justification or reason. With most statements, some underlying reason, even a farfetched one, can explain the statement and make it easier to validate. This isn't the case with arbitrary statements, however, because they can't be validated.

Articles--10/24/2012

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about the online gaming company Zynga. Zynga basically invented the idea of using Facebook as a gaming platform, with games like Farmville. However, after very quick success, the company is declining. They've announced a partnership that will offer online gambling games in Britain, where those games are still legal. They've been banned in the US but are apparently very profitable since Zynga isn't getting much money with it's facebook games anymore.

Rosetta Stone--10/24/2012

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 3, lesson 2. This lesson covered vocab like "day/week/month/years", days of the week, and names of the seasons.

Italian Tutorial--10/24/2012

We learned how to say "I like ___" today, and the sentence structure for that is "Mi piace + the infinitive of the verb". So to say, "I like to eat", one says, "Mi piace mangiare." Several expressions use the word "ora", or "hour" in them and one is "fare le ora piccole", which means "to stay up late". These expressions are idiomatic so they don't make sense when directly translated.

To-Do--10/24/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:30 am
• Done
• Shower, get dressed, check email (1 hour)
• Done
• TA's office hours to talk about Phonetics project (1 hour)
• Done
• Italian midterm (1 hour)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Read ahead in Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Start Chapter 9 of Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done. It's about sounds that aren't classified as strictly vowels but have vowel-like properties. These include nasalized and rhoticized vowels. 
• Do some of Phonetics homework (.5 hours)
• Done
• Start chapter 3 homework of Italian (.5 hours)
• Done
• Play around with Ardour and see how it compares to Praat and Audacity (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Praat practice (1 hour)
• Done. I did more practice on measuring things like pitch and formants and intensity. 
• Python programming (1 hour)
• Done. I did some practice on creating dictionaries and extracting information from those dictionaries
• Accents book (1 hour)
• Done. Read about Italian accents and how they vary from dialect to dialect. For example, in Rome, they have different diphthongs than in other parts of the country. An interesting aspect about Italians is that the "d" consonant is often substituted by a "th" sound, whereas it's usually the reverse for most accents. 
• Sleep: 12 am/1:30 am

Internships--10/23/2012

I read about PowerScribe 360 Solutions on nuance.com. It's used in Radiology labs and it streamlines the process of delivering results using voice recognition and performance analysis.

Philosophy--10/23/2012

I read about hierarchical knowledge, which is this notion that all ideas are based off of other ideas and different levels are produced as these ideas get integrated into other ideas. For every higher level concept, there's a lower level concept that it's based on and at the very heart of this is perception. Everything starts with perception and escalates from there.

Articles--10/23/2012

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about the cyber attack on a Saudi oil company that occurred in August. The attack unleashed a virus that wiped the hard drives of a large number of the company's computers and replaced them with images of burning American flags. The US has said that the culprits were Iranian and now, two months later, it's being said that the attack was actually retaliation from someone within the company.

The attack is significant because it was simple and managed to do a lot of damage which shows that even with a lot of security, people shouldn't underestimate the power of a cyber attack, even a simple one. People should always take precautions to prevent this sort of scenario from happening.

Italian Discussion--10/23/2012

We reviewed for the midterm, which will cover both comprehension and basic vocab and grammar questions. For the review, we read a page entirely in Italian telling a story of a group of friends befriending the new student in class. After that, we had to answer questions about the reading and after that, we had some fill-in-the-blank questions about general information we learned in chapters 1 and 2.

Phonetics--10/23/2012

We started talking about acoustic phonetics, which is what linguists mostly use to identify and classify vowels since the vowel chart is mostly based off of theory and is pretty inaccurate because not everyone produces vowels in the same manner. The same can be said for consonants too but there is much less discrepancy for consonants than there are for vowels. We talked mostly about reading spectrograms today and we focused specifically on the formants. The formants, which are separate darker frequencies that can be seen on a spectrogram, can be seen mostly clearly in the production of vowels. It's with the vowels that they appear as distinct bands and depending on various properties of the vowel, the formants behave differently. If the vowel is high, the first formant is low and the more back the vowel is, the lower the second formant is and the third formant tends to follow the second one.

Praat--10/23/2012

I used the "21 accent" sound files in both Praat and another program called Audacity to compare the two. Audacity can do a lot of what Praat can do and at least changing the pitch of a sound file is much easier in Audacity. Praat is better for taking measurements but Audacity is much more user friendly and easier to navigate since it's pretty straightforward. I learned in class today that Praat is what is commonly used by linguists so anyone going into the field should at least know the basics about it.

Rosetta Stone--10/23/2012

I did pronunciation, reading, vocab, grammar, and writing for level 1, unit 3, lesson 1.

Internships--10/22/2012

I looked at T9 Nav Smart Search on nuance.com. It provides better searches for users with just a few letters or numbers. It's filtered across multiple categories which allows this to happen.

Philosophy--10/22/2012

I read about fundamentals, which are details that are slightly more important in determining meaning. This is all based on context because depending on the situation, different details serve different purposes. Sometimes more detail is needed, sometimes less, and sometimes different details are needed entirely.

Articles--10/22/2012

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about the shift from computer to smartphone that's been occurring lately and how big tech companies like Microsoft and Intel and Google are reinventing themselves to keep up with the change. Intel has made its money off of computer chips and Microspft has made money through software that goes into computers. The problem is that these things either don't exist or aren't very profitable with smartphones and tablets. What these big companies will need to deal with in order to stay afloat is tracking customers' every move to find out what's in high demand. The problem with this is that the government will most likely protest such heavy monitoring.

Rosetta Stone--10/22/2012

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 3, lesson 1. This lesson covered the beginnings of time so vocab like "night", "morning", and "afternoon". It also covered the verbs "to play" and "to work" as well as various places to work like "hospital", "park", and "restaurant". It also covered concepts like "breakfast/lunch/dinner" and "indoor/outdoor".

Internships--10/20/2012

I looked at T9 Output on nuance.com. It allows users to text in multiple languages including complex ones like Chinese, Arabic, Bengali, and Farsi.

Philosophy--10/20/2012

I read about context, which is the idea that a sentence or idea only makes sense with some background knowledge, which people acquire through clues from the context. In linguistics, this is referred to as semantics and pragmatics. Words and sentences have no meaning if one does not have any knowledge of the context.

To-Do--10/20/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 10:30 am
• Pack to go home (.5 hours)
• Contacts
• Done
• Blanket
• Done
• Toothbrush/toothpaste
• Done
• Look through new graphic novels for info I can use on my paper (1 hour)
• Sleep: 12 am

Internships--10/19/2012

I looked at T9 Write on nuance.com. It predicts what word the user is writing, which saves time when typing up long blocks of text. It also learns the user's vocabulary and writing patterns, which gives it even more predictive qualities.

Philosophy--10/19/2012

I read about evasion, which is the willful act of not thinking. Just as people can choose to think, they can also choose not to think. More specifically, they can choose to not focus on a certain idea or object. Evasion isn't necessarily seen as a good thing.

Italian Tutotial--10/19/2012

We reviewed this week's material by writing paragraphs that describe ourselves. We had to write our names (cognomi), our ages, and our interests. This included musical interests, taste in movies and sports, and anything else we could possibly describe. We also watched a short film clip and had to describe what was being talked about.

Articles--10/19/2012

There was an interesting article on the BBC News website about the Google vs. France issue. If the French law passes, Google would have to pay to include French websites in its searches. While it's easy to see why France would want this to happen, it seems like a lost cause already. There aren't any obvious copyrights that Google is infringing on, which the law claims is the case. Now the other issue is Google's possible refusal to include French media sites in any of the searches done on the site. Should they be allowed to do that? On one hand, it seems a bit extreme to exclude an entire country from a search engine but on the other hand, the law itself is very extreme and it's no wonder that Google doesn't want it to pass.

Rosetta Stone--10/19/2012

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 2, lesson 4. This lesson covered the vocab for other clothing items like "jeans", "sweater", and "socks". It also covered the vocab for hair color and other colors that weren't in previous lessons, like "gray", "orange", and "brown". Lastly, the lesson included phrases like "I'm hungry" and "I'm cold". These types of phrases use the verb "to have" rather than the verb "to be".

To-Do--10/19/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 10 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Finish and check Phonetics homework then submit it (.5 hours/.75 hours)
• Done
• Shower (.25 hours/10 minutes)
• Done
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Review new Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Study session for Phonetics (2 hours)
• Done
• Review notes for entire week in Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Review notes for entire week in Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done
• Start project proposal for Muir 50 (1 hour)
• Done. First draft
• Dinner (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done
• Start reading chapter 4 of Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Skim chapter 8 of Phonetics for next week (.5 hours)
• Done
• Sleep: 12 am/1:30 am

Internships--10/18/2012

I looked at T9 Trace on nuance.com. It allows users to slide fingers from one letter to the next when texting. This supposedly leads to less error and also less time spent "hunting and pecking" for letters.

Philosophy--10/18/2012

I read about focus. Thinking isn't automatic. In order to gain knowledge or come up with new ideas, one must focus their thinking. There are different levels of focus, from the bare minimum where one can be tuning out their immediate surroundings, to focusing in on the smallest of details.

Articles--10/18/2012

There was an interesting article on Google News about a law that the French government is trying to pass. If the law passes, search engines will be required to pay for content. As a result, Google has said that if the law passes, France will no longer be able to use the Google search engine because Google will stop hosting French websites.

Rosetta Stone--10/18/2012

I did reading, writing, vocab, review, and grammar for level 1, unit 2, lesson 3.

Phonetics--10/18/2012

We went over English vowels today and learned how to read the IPA vowel chart. The vowel chart is much harder to read and understand than the consonant chart because vowels can be articulated very differently depending on the person. The vowel chart is more abstract than concrete and different vowels are used depending on the dialect of English. There's a separate chart for Standard British English pronunciation and one for American English and there's an even more specific chart that includes diphthongs, which are sounds that start off as one sound and end as another. This is seen in the word "boy". The "oy" part starts as a front rounded vowel and ends as a back unrounded vowel. Another characteristic of vowels is "tenseness" but this is difficult to quantify and most vowels that are labeled as "tense" are only labeled that way because that's how they've always been labeled, despite very little evidence. However, there are certain rules that tense vowels seem to follow. For example, they can appear at the end of open syllables, such as in the word "bee". There is no word "bi", where it's pronounced the same way as the "bi" portion of "bit".

Italian Discussion--10/18/2012

We went over possessive adjectives today. Like French, the pronouns, verbs, and nouns all have to agree. So if the noun is masculine plural, the verb should be too. But unlike in French, there are two words needed for possessive adjectives. So to say "His book is red", one would need two words to say "his". In this case it would be "Il suo" and the whole sentence would read "Il suo libro e rosso."

To-Do--10/18/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Done
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Italian Discussion (1.5 hours)
• I think we'll be going over verb conjugation
• Done. We went over possessive adjectives and some verb conjugation. 
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Dne
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Phonetics (1.5 hours)
• Done. We went over English vowels
• Review Phonetics notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead for Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Read more of chapter 7 for Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Do more of Phonetics hw (.5 hours)
• Done
• Sleep: 12 am/1:30 am

Internships--10/17/2012

I looked at Nuance Voice Control 2.0. It allows users to use voice commands in place of texting and other things that involve keystrokes.

Philosophy--10/17/2012

I read about induction, which is the opposite of deduction. While deduction involves taking general information and combining it to form new knowledge, induction goes in reverse. It's the process of taking specific information and creating generalizations out of it.

Articles--10/17/2012

There was an interesting article on Google News about Google's data centers. People have been asking for a long time if they can take tours of the various data centers but Google has refused due to matters of secrecy. But now Google is offering virtual tours to appease peoples' curiosity.

Rosetta Stone--10/17/2012

I did pronunciation, listening, speaking, grammar, and review for level 1, unit 2, lesson 3.

To-Do--10/17/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Muir 50 (1.5 hours)
• We'll be in the library going over the best way to look for sources for our paper there
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hour)
• Done
• Find more sources for paper (1 hour)
• Done. I requested several graphic novels from different libraries to use in my paper and I found several promising articles that deal with identity and how it is formed. 
• Go to TA's office hours to talk about project (1 hour)
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• I think we'll be focusing on verb conjugation and prepositions 
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Spend time with dad (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done
• LingUA meeting (2 hours)
• Done. Got some advice on volunteering for research positions. 
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Do more of Phonetics homework (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead for Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Start reading chapter 7 for Phonetics (.5 hours)
• Done
• Practice Python programming (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this
• Read Prosody paper--section 1 (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this
• Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Sleep: 1 am/1:15 am

Internships--10/16/2012

I looked at VoCon Speech Signal Enhancement on nuance.com. This product decreases the level of excess noise from microphones, allowing a cleaner signal to be sent out. It's used by companies and is very useful for work that is done over the phone.

Philosophy--10/16/2012

I read about deduction, which is the act of coming to conclusions based on certain facts and evidence. It's a form of integration and allows people to produce new knowledge from previously existing knowledge.

Articles--10/16/2012

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about something called affective programming, which aims to teach robots how to read and recognize human emotion. Right now, programmers in Egypt are teaching robots to recognize simple facial expressions that indicate happiness, frustration, and anger. Right now, in a handful of middle schools, computers are analyzing students' facial expressions and determining whether they are interested or bored with the lesson, so it can then be improved. This technology could also end up helping people who lack the ability to read emotions.

Rosetta Stone--10/16/2012

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 2, lesson 3. This lesson covered words for "country" and "city" as well as the names of several countries like Japan, China, Brazil, and Russia. It also covered the adjectives "near" and "far".

Phonetics--10/16/2012

We went over various consonantal gestures in class and why different languages have some sounds but not others. For languages that make distinctions using voicing, some sounds take too much effort to produce with enough emphasis on voicing to be distinct. Therefore, those sounds are the first to go. This is the reason for the [g] sound not appearing in several languages.

Consonantal gestures are the sounds that can be produced in various parts of the mouth and how they are produced. For example, bilabials are produced by touching the lips together and blowing out a puff of air. These sounds include [p] and [b] in English and at least a couple of fricatives that show up in languages like Spanish. Some other consonantal gestures include labiodentals, glottals, and labiovelar sounds. Labiovelar sounds are not produced by touching the bottom lip to the velum but rather involve simultaneous movement of the lips and velum.

Italian Discussion--10/16/2012

Today, we went over how to conjugate the verbs "to have" and "to be". Both of these, just like in French, are irregular. Given this pattern, I would assume that "to go" and "to do/make" are also irregular. Also like in French, certain expressions that in English use the verb "to be" use the verb "to have". Translating the sentence literally gives people nonsense since the expressions are idiomatic. For example, rather than say "I am ___ years old", in Italian, they say "I have ___ years". Some other expressions are "I have hunger", "I have thirst" and "I have sick", when translated literally. These expressions have the same sentence structure and use the same verb as in French.

To-Do--10/16/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Italian Discussion (1.5 hours)
• I expect us to cover prepositions like "in", "under", and "on"
• We actually went over how to conjugate the verbs "to be" and "to have", both of which are irregular, just like they are in French. We also covered expressions that use the verb "to have" rather than the verb "to be". 
• We might also review "cognomi"
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead in Italian (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done
• Phonetics (1.5 hours)
• We should be covering airstream mechanisms and voice onset time
• We did review airstream mechanisms a bit but the majority of the lecture was spent on manners of articulation and consonantal gestures. 
• Review Phonetics notes (.5 hours/1 hour)
• Done
• Look over Phonetics homework (.5 hours)
• Done
• Start Phonetics homework if it's up (.5 hours)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Practice Python programming (1 hour)
• Done
• Read prosody paper--section 1 (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this
• Sleep: 1 am/1:30 am

Internships--10/15/2012

I looked at Equitrac on nuance.com. This is used by companies and can track print, copy, and scan activity throughout the company. It also sets and enforces print quotas so there's no output waste.

Philosophy--10/15/2012

I read about certainty, which is the acceptance of fact without any doubt. This is up to an individual to determine and it's possible to be certain and still wrong. If a person feels that they are missing some information that is vital for making a conclusion, they shouldn't be certain. It's only when they feel that everything has been answered and that nothing can fluctuate.

Articles--10/15/2012

There was an interesting article on cnet.com about Siri and the people that have been hired to improve it. Siri isn't perfect just yet so Apple is hiring people with experience in speech and voice recognition software to improve it. The article doesn't specify exactly what Siri needs improving on but it would seem to be that the major issue is semantics and the fact that it's difficult for robots to understand it.

Rosetta Stone--10/15/2012

I did pronunciation, grammar, vocab, reading, and writing for level 1, unit 2, lesson 2.

Italian Tutorial--10/15/2012

We went over the concept of "cognomi", or full names. Each last name has an origin, whether it be a physical trait, a color, a geographical region, or a father's name. We also went over how to ask questions like "what is your ethnicity?" and "What's the origin behind your name?".

Muir 50--10/15/2012

We edited each other's annotated bibliographies and got some valuable feedback from fellow peers. I was told that my main argument is solid and that I have a handle on the characters I will be writing about. I just need to focus on finding good secondary sources.

To-Do--10/15/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Muir 50 (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Correct Annotated Bibliography (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Go to financial aid office to ask about financial aid status (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• "Cognomi" or full names
• Questions like "Where does your last name originate?" and "What ethnicity are you?" 
• Review Phonetics notes for tomorrow (.5 hours)
• Done
• Look through comic books to find more sources for paper (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done. There are quite a few Nightwing comics I can use for my paper because there's a very drastic change in Dick Grayson's characterization when he's Batman. These Nightwing comics can be used as evidence to support the fact that the Batman persona caused Grayson to become a bit darker and more serious. 
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Practice Python programming (1 hour)
• Done
• Laundry (1.5 hours)
• Read through comic books I'll be using in paper
• Done
• Skim through chapter 7 in Phonetics textbook
• Covers manners of articulation, which are how targets are approached to makes sound. For example, in a labiodental sound like [f], the lower lip comes up to touch the top teeth, which makes it the manner of articulation. The top teeth would be the place of articulation. 
• Start transferring data onto new computer (1 hour)
• Done. Emailed some word documents to myself and transferred them to the new computer. 
• Shower (.5 hours/.25 hours)
• Done
• Sleep: 1 am/1:30 am

Internships--10/14/2012

I looked at the Nuance Notification Hub. It's used by companies who wish to send notifications to clients. This product organizes and personalizes these notifications.

Philosophy--10/14/2012

I read about values, which are what a person wishes to keep or gain. People make decisions based on their values--whatever they deem important. It doesn't have to be emotional, making it different from an emotion or a desire, both of which a value is similar to.

Articles--10/14/2012

There was an interesting article in Yahoo!Finance about what employers look for in potential employees. The most important thing is the ability to do the job needed. One doesn't need experience in the exact job they're applying for but employers do want concrete proof that one is capable of handling the work. Some other important traits employers look for are the ability to get along with people fairly well, commitment to the job, and enthusiasm. Someone who is excited for the job will be much more productive than someone who simply treats it as a job.

Rosetta Stone--10/14/2012

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 2, lesson 1. This lesson covered prepositions like "on" and "in", rooms in a house like "living room" and "kitchen", and words for various parts of a house like "window" and "door". It also included the verbs "to kiss", "to hug", and "to love".

To-Do--10/14/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:30 am/9:45 am
• Check email
• Archery (2 hours)
• Done
• Come home to pick up books for Muir 50 essay (3 hours)
• Done
• Test out Prosody application (3 hours)
• Read FAQ, Tutorial, and user manual on website
• Done
• Run the "21 accents" video through it and analyze data
• Haven't gotten to this yet
• Find out what Praat scripts are, how they work, and what they do (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Read prosody paper--intro and main points (1 hour)
• Done
• Sleep: 12 am/1:30 am

Internships--10/13/2012

I looked at Nuance Recognizer, which is used by businesses. It offers much better voice recognition abilities than other products, which leads to more satisfied customers who have to use it.

Philosophy--10/13/2012

I read about integration, which is important because it connects peoples' thoughts. Without it, peoples' thoughts we be chaotic, no connections would be made, and therefore no discoveries would occur. Integration is the process of combining small chunks of data into one unified whole, which can then be compared or combined with other chunks of data.

Articles--10/13/2012

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about a series of cyberattacks that caused some trouble for the Saudi oil industry. American intelligence officials believe that the attacks came from Iran. The attack erased files on over 30,000 computers by overwriting them.

Rosetta Stone--10/13/2012

I did pronunciation, vocab, grammar, reading, and writing for level 1, unit 2, lesson 1.

To-Do--10/13/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:30 am
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Send email to TA about rough idea for project (10 minutes)
• Finish chapter 6 of Phonetics (.5 hours)
• Go to library to look for books for paper (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Finish annotated bibliography (2 hours)
• Done
• Download and start reading "Accents" book (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review notes for entire week in Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done
• Investigate Praat script (specifically prosody one) (2 hours/4 hours)
• Find out if it's possible to convert youtube video to sound file
• Done
• If possible, turn "21 accents" video into sound file
• Done. I segmented the video so each accent is a separate file. 
• Finish chapter 6 of Phonetics (.5 hours)
• Done
• Review notes for entire week in Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Practice Python programming (1 hour)
• Done
• Start on chapter 3 of Italian (.5 hours)
• Done
• Hang out with friend (2.5 hours)
• Didn't do
• Dinner (1.5 hours/2 hours)
• Done
• Sleep: 12 am/2 am

Internships--10/12/2012

I looked at Nuance Voice Control on nuance.com. It allows users to customize voice commands for their phone, and makes using those voice commands much simpler. This is a product used by businesses.

Philosophy--10/12/2012

I read about emotions, which are triggered by thoughts. For one to experience emotion, understanding is needed. If one were to hear a word with a negative connotation, one would only experience a negative emotion if one understood that word. If the word is foreign, no connection is made, and therefore no emotion. The same holds true for actions. A gunman is only frightening to someone if they know what a gun is and what it implies.

Articles--10/12/2012

There was an interesting article on Yahoo!Finance about odd jobs that people are being paid to do by a growing number of companies. The more jobs, or "gigs" a person does, the more money they accumulate and the tasks aren't very time-consuming. These tasks range from taking pictures with one's smartphone to picking up lunch from a local restaurant and delivering it somewhere. This is how more and more unemployed people are making money rather than going out to find full-time jobs. It's good because companies get people to do the necessary, tiny things that are needed, and people have a chance to make some extra cash.

Rosetta Stone--10/12/2012

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 2, lesson 1. This lesson covered family vocab like "mother", "father", "sister", and "brother". It also covered the numbers 7-12 and 0 as well as some verb conjugation.

Italian Tutorial--10/12/2012

We reviewed adjectives like colors and pairs of opposites (like hot/cold, rich/poor). Adjectives need to agree with the noun when put into a sentence. So if the noun is feminine, the adjective much be feminine. For example, the word for "red" is "rosso" but when paired with a feminine noun, like "apple", which is "mela" in Italian, the adjective becomes "rossa".

To-Do--10/13/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:00 am
• Shower, get ready, check email (1 hour)
• Done
• Check Phonetics homework and submit it (.25 hours)
• Done
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Correct Italian homework (.45 minutes)
• Done
• Read chapter 6 for Phonetics (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (1 hour)
• Done
• Read chapter 6 for Phonetics (.5 hours)
• Done
• Study session in library (1 hour/2 hours)
• Done
• Practice Python programming (1 hour)
• Done
• Read chapter 6 of Phonetics (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead for Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Read Phonetics project requirement (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read chapter 6 of Phonetics (.5 hours)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour/2 hours)
• Done
• Come up with rough plan for project (1 hour)
• Done
• Read chapter 6 of Phonetics (1 hour)
• Done
• Personal time (2 hours)
• Sleep: 12 am/2 am

Internships--10/11/2012

I looked at Nina, which stands for Nuance Interactive Natural Assistant, on nuance.com. The product turns smartphones into customer service assistants. Supposedly, the speech produced with this product sounds more natural so people don't feel like they are talking to a robot. This allows business to go on 24/7 without so much hassle.

Philosophy--10/11/2012

I read about words, which are symbols of concepts. They allow concepts to form into mental concretes and they are what are stored in the brain and later recalled. Words themselves are arbitrary and meaningless without the concept.

Articles--10/11/2012

There was an interesting article in Yahoo!Finance about 3D printers, which are typically used by companies like GE to create new parts. Scientists are working on creating living tissue with these 3D printers using something called "bioink". They've successfully created small portions of tissue but their main goal, generating  whole organs for transplant, is at least a decade off. Still, despite that, smaller, but still helpful, uses for 3D tissue printing have come about. Small clusters of cells from certain organs have been manufactured and while this isn't something that can be used for transplant, it can be useful.

Rosetta Stone--10/11/2012

I did speaking, listening, review, vocab, more speaking, more review, and the Milestone for level 1, unit 1, lesson 4. I am now on unit 2 of lesson 1.

Phonetics--10/11/2012

We talked about airstream mechanisms today, which are the many different ways sounds are produced in different languages.

• Pulmonic egressive aistream mechanism is the most common and the only one used in English. As the name suggests, this means that sound is produced by pushing air out of the lungs 
• Pulmonic ingressive mechanism is the opposite, where sound is produced by breathing air into the lungs
• Used very rarely in language
• One example is in Swedish where one takes a sharp intake of breath to indicate "yes", even though there is another word, "ja" for "yes" in Swedish
• Glottalic egressive mechanism
• the glottis acts as a piston and the sounds produced tend to be voiceless
• Appear in some dialects of British and American English at the ends of words
• Glottalic ingressive sounds
• Another name for them is "implosives"
• Used in Hindi and other Indian languages
• Are classified as separate phonemes in these Indian languages
• Velaric airstream mechanism
• Used in languages that have clicks
• Mostly African languages
• Most of the clicks are produced with the tongue tip and the tongue makes a pocket of air
• This pocket causes air to rush in when the tongue is released, which produces the click

Italian Discussion--10/11/2012

We went over the words for "this" and "that", which are "questo" and "quello". Depending on the noun it is attached to, these words take different forms. Basically, they follow the same pattern that definite articles take on these nouns. So the definite article for a masculine, plural noun is "i", as in "i bambini". For "questo", this would be "questi bambini".

To-Do--10/11/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Italian Discussion (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Finish chapter 4 of Phonetics (.5 hours/.75 hours)
• Done
• Phonetics (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Phonetics notes (.5 hours/1 hour)
• Done
• Read ahead in Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Phonetics section (2 hours)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour/1.5 horus)
• Done
• Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Done
• Phonetics homework (.5 hours)
• Done
• Another 1/3 of Italian homework (2 hours)
• Done
• Personal time (1.5 hours)
• Sleep: 1 am/2 am

Internships--10/10/2012

I looked at SpeechAttendant on nuance.com. This is a product that can be used by businesses and it allows users to simply state the name of a contact and it places a call to that person or connects to their extension. I've been told that Dragon products are usually pretty reliable but they can fail and when they do, it's disastrous.

Philosophy--10/10/2012

I read about definitions. Definitions are tied to concepts, which have a genus and a differentia. The definition is supposed to cover both of those parts. The genus is the category of specifics that are included for that particular concept. For example, a coffee table is a subset of tables. The genus takes all those traits that don't pertain to coffee tables and throws them out. The differentia actually gets into the specifics of these particular traits. This is where color, material, shape, and other traits of the concept come into play.

Must Do

• Ask about using the 21 accents video for Phonetics project
• I could possibly use it because one option for the project is designing your own project. If I can figure out what I want to do with the video and get it approved by my professor, I can use it. 
• Four-year plan
• Apply for paid internship
• Check financial aid status
• Done. Should see money within the week.
• Sign up for Kendo or other martial arts class
• LINGUA--contact grad students and find out what their research is
• Goal: get a research position
• Put some papers up on blog
• Get an official website up and running

Articles--10/10/2012

There was an interesting article on the BBC News website about mice and their ability to "sing". It was long thought that mice could only produce sounds at one pitch but a study has shown that they could very well possess the same traits that songbirds and whales do that allows them to do something called "vocal learning". If you put two or more mice in a cage, the pitch of their squeaks start to converge and change depending on what one mice is doing compared to the others.

Rosetta Stone--10/10/2012

I did pronunciation, speaking, review, grammar, reading, and writing for level 1, unit 1, lesson 4. I'm almost done with the first unit, and there are four units in level 1.

Italian Tutorial--10/10/2012

We played a game in class where someone would think of a celebrity and then we had to ask yes or no questions in Italian like "are they old?" or "are they rich?" to try to guess who the person is. This allowed us to practice different adjectives that we've learned. We also read aloud in Italian, which helped us practice pronunciation.

Muir 50--10/10/2012

Today, we watches another clip from The Rear Window, this time one of Lisa's scenes. This scene introduces the character, and she's shown as being very successful but also interested in typically feminine things like fashion. We also meet a few other women in this clip, like "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "Miss Torso". Miss Torso is a ballet dancer who all the males are interested in. The persona she dons for the public is someone who is flirty and knows exactly what she wants. Miss Lonelyhearts, on the other hand, has no one but pretends otherwise. She makes dinner for two, answers the door when no one is there, sets the table for two, and talks to no one as if someone is there. She doesn't have a typical role in society like mother or wife, but the role she wants is very stereotypically female--the housewife. She wants to be a housewife.

Using Miss Lonelyhearts as an example, what this means for identity is that she doesn't mind being stuck in a stereotyped role, and in fact, she wants that stereotypical role. Miss Torso's identity is also typically associated with females. Lisa is a bit different, because she works and she's successful.

To-Do--10/10/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Muir 50 (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Start annotated bibliography (2 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Review any Muir 50 notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read chapter 4 of Phonetics textbook (.5 hours)
• Done
• Italian tutorial (1 hour)
• Done
• Read chapter 4 of Phonetics textbook (.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read ahead in Italian textbook (1 hour)
• Done
• Read chapter 4 of Phonetics textbook (.5 hour)
• Done
• Review Phonetics notes for tomorrow (.5 hour)
• Done
• Do more of Phonetics homework (.5 hour/.75 hours)
• Done
• Do another 1/3 of Italian homework (1.5 hour/2 hours)
• Done
• Read chapter 4 of Phonetics textbook (.5 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Read chapter 4 of Phonetics textbook (1 hour)
• Done
• Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Done
• Personal time (1.5 hours)
• Sleep: 12:30 am/1:30 am

Internships--10/9/2012

I looked at Voice to Text on nuance.com. This transcribes spoken voicemails into written text so people can check them by reading them instead of having to listen to them. This is good because it saves time because people don't have to listen to the whole thing over and over again to get to a specific part, like a phone number.

Philosophy--10/9/2012

I read about the idea of "concept", which is often used in linguistics. A concept is a mental abstraction of really anything, concrete or not. For example, the concept of a book is a stack of bound pages with a front and back cover. Most people who see something like that think "book". Concepts are never arbitrary and they are formed by taking similar traits of something and combining them in a way that is significant. In the case of the book, what is important are the pages and covers that are bound together. The color doesn't matter, the size doesn't matter, and the words don't even necessarily matter. This is a general concept so color and size can't be specified. And because journals that haven't been written in also count as books, the words aren't important.

Articles--10/9/2012

There was an interesting article on seekingalpha.com. Bascom Research has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against several companies, Facebook and BroadVision included. Document Security Systems, or DSS, which Bascom Research is a part of, develops technology that works to eliminate the counterfeiting of important documents. Bascom Research specifically works on technology that organizes data and relationships shares data within computer networks. This is what the patent lawsuit is about and if DSS wins, they could be getting billions of dollars from Facebook and the other companies. The Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit comes to mind and it's possible this one will play out in a similar manner.

Languages--Italian: 10/9/2012

I did the core lesson of level 1, unit 1, lesson 4. This lesson covered numbers 1-6; various objects like "table", "chair", and "plate"; and clothing items like "pants", "shirt", "hat", and "coat". This lesson also started introducing more complex sentence structures.

Italian Discussion--10/9/2012

In Italian, we learned the difference between formal and informal speech. "Sei" is used for informal, while "E" is used for formal. So, to ask someone informally where something is, one would say, "Di dove sei?" and to ask someone formally, the question would be "Di dov'e?" Informal speech is used with friends and family whereas formal is used with strangers, acquaintances, and people in authority like teachers and professors and bosses.

To-Do--10/9/2012

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30
• Check email (10 minutes)
• Done
• Italian Discussion (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (.5 hours)
• Done
• Read more of chapter 2 in Italian textbook (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done
• Phonetics (1.5 hours)
• Done
• Review Phonetics notes (.5 hours)
• Done
• Start Phonetics homework (.5 hours)
• Done
• Do 1/3 of Italian homework for chapter 2 (1.5 hours/2 hours)
• Done
• Listen to podcast of Phonetics lecture (2 hours)
• Done
• Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Finish article for Muir 50 (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done
• Search for potential sources for Muir 50 paper (.5 hours)
• Done
• ebook, finish chapter 10 (1 hour)
• Done
• Personal time (1.5 hours)
• Sleep: 12:30 am/1 am

Daily Stuff--10/8/2012

Languages--Italian:

I did pronunciation, speaking, listening, grammar, review, reading, writing, and vocab for level 1, unit 1, lesson 3 in Rosetta Stone.

Articles:

There was an interesting article on cultofmac.com about the reason behind Apple's need to patent everything. The company got sued back in 2006 when the iPod infringed on a "portable music playback device". That along with several other lawsuits prompted Steve Jobs to encourage patenting the seemingly littlest things. Even if they are told that something it's patent-able, they send in an application anyway, if only to prevent someone else from trying the same thing. Also, Apple insists that they only sue other companies, like Samsung, as a last resort. While this is a valid reason behind all the patents, one has to ask, where do they draw the line? If too many small patents get issued, how can other people ever hope to invent anything? Eventually, it seems that Apple will have a patent on just about everything that can be patented.

Philosophy:

I read about perception, which is different from thinking. Perception is automatic and one's thoughts don't affect it. Perception is the reason people interpret objects as objects and not series' of shapes and colors. Perception is the process of integrating those shapes and colors into whole objects.

Internships:

I looked at Nuance TALKS&ZOOMS, which is used primarily for blind users. TALKS converts written text into highly intelligible speech and ZOOMS magnifies the screen, making it easier to see.

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8 am
• Shower (15 minutes)
• Done
• Muir 50 (1 and 1/2 hours)
• Done
• Lunch (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Start reading next article for Muir 50 (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done
• Italian tutorial (1 hour)
• Done 
• Review Italian notes (1/2 hour/45 minutes)
• Done
• Read ahead in chapter 2 of Italian (1 hour/2 hours)
• Done
• Review Phonetics notes (1/2  hour/45 minutes)
• ebook, chapter 10 (2 hours/1.5 hours)
• I read half of the chapter.
• Dinner (1 hour/1.5 hours)
• Done
• Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Done
• News (15 minutes) 
• Done
• Sleep: 1 am/1:30 am

Italian Tutorial--10/8/2012

We went over colors and various adjectives like "small/large", "happy/sad", "rich/poor", and "short/tall".

Muir 50--10/8/2012

We discussed our topics and analyzed a small clip from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Wide Window". The opening sequence of the movie depicts people in their homes, unaware that they are being watched by their neighbor. This brings up the idea of private vs. public identity. People act differently in public for fear of being judged but when they are alone, they often act more "normal", so to speak (normal for them). This is just one facet of identity. Some other sides are ethnic and racial identity, religion, sexuality, and family ties.

Phonetics--10/9/2012

Today in Phonetics, we spent the entire lecture talking about narrow transcription and what that entails. For narrow transcriptions, aspects like aspiration, glottal stops before vowels (at the beginning of words), and diacritics are usually included because narrow transcriptions are more specific. So in a broad transcription, the words "pit" and "spit" would be transcribed with the same symbol for p, [p], even though the p in "pit" is aspirated since it's at the beginning of the word. The p in "spit", on the other hand, is unaspirated and when said by itself without the "s" in front of it, it sounds a bit like a [b] though it's classified differently. The difference between an aspirated and unaspirated "p" doesn't matter in a broad transcription but in a narrow transcription, the "p" in "pit" would be written with a superscript "h" next to it. Some other diacritics are the syllabic "m", "n", and "l", which are used at the ends of words. For example, the syllabic "l" makes a sound like the one in "bottle".

Daily Stuff--10/7/2012

Languages--Italian:

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 1, lesson 3. This covered colors, jobs like police officer and doctor, and how to conjugate the verb "to have".

Articles:

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about how patents are affecting small companies. For small companies doing work in technology like speech recognition software, they are at risk of being sued by larger companies that hold patents on various parts of the software. It's either that or be bought up by the larger company. As a result, it's getting harder and harder for small companies to stand on their own because if they end up going to court, the financial damage could force them to allow the large companies like Apple and Google to buy them up.

Philosophy:

I read about the standard of evolution. For any comparison to be made, there must be some criteria. If one were to say "She is short", the criteria would be the height range that is considered "short". Without it, the statement has no meaning.

Internships:

I checked out XT9 on nuance.com. This is similar to T9 technology, which allows for faster texting but XT9 can be used on a variety of devices

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:30 am
• Archery (120 minutes)
• Done
• Check to see if next week's homework for Phonetics is posted (5 minutes)
• Done. Won't be posted til at least Tuesday and it will be on Chapter 2.
• Start next week's homework for Italian (30 minutes)
• Done. 1 hour
• Skim next couple articles in reader for next week in Muir 50 (30 minutes)
• Done
• Go to the market (2 hours)
• Done
• Cook dinner (1 and 1/2 hours)
• Done
• Eat dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Create dropdown menu on blog by assigning labels to certain posts (1 hour)
• Done
• ebook, do chapter 9 (120 minutes)
• Done
• ebook, chapter 10 (2 hours)
• News (15 minutes)
• Done
• Sleep: 12 am/1:30 am

Daily Stuff--10/6/2012

Languages--Italian:

I did pronunciation, grammar, vocab, reading, and writing for level 1, unit 1, lesson 2.

Articles:

There was an interesting article in the LA Times about Apple Maps. Apple has put together a team of ten of it's retail employees to manually find flaws in the app and submit them to the company. So far, there have already been significant improvements but it seems logical that the team would have to be much bigger in order to fix Apple Maps in a timely fashion.

Philosophy:

I read about knowledge, which is the awareness and understanding of reality. Gaining knowledge is the result of reason being applied to reality. Man draws conclusions of his surroundings through reason and makes sense of those observations through reality. The end result is knowledge gained.

Internships:

I read about T9 on nuance.com. It allows users to text faster using the nine keys on a standard cell phone but since most people use qwerty keyboards, this seems a bit outdated.

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:30 am
• Pack remaining items like contacts and toothbrush (10 minutes)
• Watch Praat tutorial video (1/2 hour)
• Lunch (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Practice using Praat some more (2 hours)
• Segmenting sounds
• Done
• Creating sounds
• Done
• Pick three possible arguments for Muir 50 essay for Monday (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Skim through chapter 2 of Italian textbook for next week (1 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Done
• Read chapter 3 for Phonetics (2 hours)
• Done. 3 hours
• ebook (1 hour)
• Finished chapter 8
• News (15 minutes)
• Done
• Sleep: 12 am Actual: 2:30 am

Daily Stuff--10/5/2012

Language--Italian:

I did the core lesson for level 1, unit 1, lesson 2 on Rosetta Stone. This lesson covered some basic animal names like dog, cat, and horse, basic verbs like "to walk" and "to drive", and basic everyday objects like book, newspaper, and car.

Articles:

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about some recent cyberattacks on Wells Fargo, U.S Bank, the New York Stock Exchange, PNC, and others. The group who confessed to the crime said they did it using simple online applications but those were apparently too amateur to work on the security systems in place. Instead, the group actually just bombarded the system with traffic until it feel offline. The banks had systems in place for these Denial of Service attacks but the volume of traffic was so high that it managed to get past this system.

Philosophy:

I read about reason. Reason is essentially the thinking process, but this excludes vague thoughts like instincts and "funny feelings". These thoughts are clear, definable, and can be used to build upon other clear ideas. Memories and emotions are also included but the memories need to be recognizable and emotions should only be emotions without any other underlying meaning.

Internships:

I read about Swype on nuance.com. This is an improved version of another Dragon product that allows users to type, text, speak, or "swipe" their message on their phones. This updated version lets users sent texts faster with the improved algorithms for next word prediction and also makes using foreign characters, like in Chinese, much easier to do.

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 9:00 am
• Review notes for Italian (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Italian tutorial (1 hour)
• We went over various gestures that are used in Italy. Italians can hold an entire conversation using just gestures and some common ones convey messages like, "Let's eat", "I don't understand", and "Money". 
• Lunch (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Check phonetics homework and submit it (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Check Italian homework (45 minutes)
• Done
• Read about two MacArthur fellowships (1 hour)
• I read about Uta Barth, who is a photographer. Her photographs are different because she tries to steer away from the way people normally perceive them. She doesn't have a clear focus to her work whereas most photographers do. There's something the picture is supposed to be about that viewers are supposed to see, but this isn't the case with Barth's work. This sounds like the kind of thing that would honestly confuse me. I'd imagine that people who view her work still try to find a focal point to it even if it's not there. This type of art requires some skill in order to understand it. 
• I also read about Claire Chase, who is an arts entrepreneur. She is the artistic director of the International Contemporary Ensemble. The group plays in both traditional and nontraditonal settings and they play a wide range of contemporary music. Given what I've learned about contemporary music, I'm not surprised that something like this exists. Modern contemporary music, at least what I've heard, actually sound out of place in a traditional orchestra setting. It wouldn't be out of place, however, on a street corner or in an old warehouse. 
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Download Praat (15 minutes)
• Done
• Learn how to use Praat (2 hours)
• I played several recordings from the CD that came with my Phonetics textbook and extracted the sound files at various points, which causes the waveform to stretch out. The smaller the extracted soundbite, the easier it is to analyze. 
• ebook (1 hour)
• Done. I read half of chapter 8. 
• Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Done
• News (15 minutes)
• Done
• Review all class notes from the week (1 hour)
• Done. 1 and 1/2 hours
• Pack for tomorrow (10 minutes)
• Done
• Sleep: 1 am

Daily Stuff--10/4/2012

Languages--Italian:

I did pronunciation, vocab, grammar, reading, and writing for level 1, unit 1, lesson 1 on Rosetta Stone Italian. These lessons covered definite and indefinite articles, basic verbs like "to eat" and "to drink", words for woman/man/children, and hello/goodbye.

Articles:

There was an interesting article in the LA Times about digital payments at Starbucks. Recently, the chain released a Starbucks app, which allows customers to pay via phone. In the near future, customers might not even have to take their phones out to pay. Instead, GPS with detect that their phone is in the store and a barista will verify it at the register. It seems that the NFC chips that are in Android phones would play a big part in this development.

Philosophy:

I read about logic, which is about trying to conform one's thoughts to the Law of Identity. For this to work, the thought must be free of contradiction. Logic allows people to gauge what is true and false and what is good or bad. It provides a baseline for making these kinds of judgement.

Internships:

I read about PDF Create 8 on nuance.com. It allows users to create PDFs at a much faster rate than most other software.

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:00 am
• Shower (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Italian Discussion (1 and 1/2 hours)
• We went over definite and indefinite articles. Indefinite articles are pretty straight forward but definite articles get complicated. Different ones are used depending on if the word is masculine or feminine and singular or plural. 
• Italian Rosetta Stone (1 hour)
• Done
• Lunch (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Read ahead for Italian (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Phonetics (1 and 1/2 hours)
• We started on transcription today. There are a few different kinds of transcription, one (the most common) is citation style, which is a transcription of the kind of speech that is careful and slowed down. This is the kind of speech a person uses when they are explaining that "___ means ___" or if they are asked to repeat a word of phrase. Because of this, it's much easier to handle and analyze. The other kind of transcription is connected speech. This is natural speech without hesitation or over-enunciation. This is a better example of how speech is actually used but unfortunately is also very difficult to study and handle because the speech isn't as clear and information is lost as more and more time passes. 
• Review Phonetics notes (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Read ahead for Phonetics (2 hours)
• Done
• Review vocab for Italian quiz tomorrow (1 hour)
• Done. 1 and 1/2 hours
• Phonetics homework (1 hour)
• 2 hours
• Read ahead for Muir Writing (1 hour)
• Done. 2 hours
• Dinner (1 and 1/2 hours)
• Done
• LINGUA meeting (2 hours)
• About four or five grad students presented research that they are working on that range from computational psycholinguistics and how people process and store language to bilingual speakers of English and Spanish and how they process the different phonemes and allophones of each language. The grad students need research assistants and the jobs aren't paid but people get college credit. 
• Read about two MacArthur fellowships (1/2 hour)
• I read about Natalia Almada, who is a documentary filmmaker. She has dual citizenship in Mexico and the US and spent a great amount of time in both countries. She doesn't make typical documentaries, with a lot of interviews and dialogue. Rather, her films rely mostly on the visual. I think that's really interesting. 
• News (15 minutes)
• Done
• ebook (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this today
• Sleep: 1:00 am

Daily Stuff--10/3/2012

Languages--Italian:

I signed up for Rosetta Stone Italian and went through the first core lesson. The lesson included the words for "boy", "man", "women", and "girl" and verbs like "to write/read" and "to eat/drink".

Article:

There was an interesting article on career-services.monster.com about jobs that are expected to grow rapidly in the next ten years, making them secure options. Among them are software developer, dental hygienist, and biomedical engineer. Software engineer and biomedical engineer offer the best pay.

Philosophy:

I read about objectivity, which is the idea that all knowledge is knowledge about reality. True and False have no meaning unless one puts them in the context of reality. Objectivity is the active comparison of one's thoughts to reality.

Internships:

I read about the PDF converter on nuance.com. It allows users to convert documents to PDF format quickly and easily.

To-Do:

• Wake-up: 8:30 am
• Muir 50 (1 and 1/2 hours)
• We started discussing possible topics and how to create an argument we can write an entire paper on. I have decided to write about Batman and Batman villains and the various identity crises they face and I'm thinking of a few different aspects that I can write an argumentative paper on. 
• Think about ideas for paper (1/2 hour)
• Done. 1 hour
• Lunch (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Sign up for Rosetta Stone Italian (15 minutes)
• Done
• Rosetta Stone Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Italian Tutorial (1 hour)
• We went over the seasons and months as well as how to say and write the date. We also covered numbers, from one to over a thousand. 
• Read ahead for Italian (1 hour)
• Done
• Review notes for Phonetics (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Think about possible languages for project (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Check out the website for Kendo club at UCSD (15 minutes)
• Work on blog (1/2 hour)
• Went through the steps to create the bar across the top of the blog that displays different sections of the website. I just need to start labeling my blog posts so the bar will show up.
• ebook (1 hour)
• Finished chapter 7
• Read about two MacArthur fellowships (1/2 hour)
• Didn't get to this today
• News (15 minutes)
• Sleep: 12 am

Daily Stuff--10/2/2012

Languages--Chinese:

I watched another BBC Chinese lesson. This one was about introducing family members to other people.

Articles:

There was an interesting article on politico.com about how technology is helping to stop online piracy. For example, Google has modified it's algorithm to de-emphasize pirated content when people do searches. This isn't a definitive solution to the problem but it certainly helps decrease the amount of pirated content. It's unlikely that this problem will ever completely go away since people will just keep finding ways to acquire pirated information, but what Google has done is made this information harder to come by and eventually, people may just give up on trying to find the pirated information and will instead acquire it legally since it will be easier.

Philosophy:

I read about what a Philosophy actually is. Essentially, it's a system of beliefs about the reality and the world. It deals with the nature of existence, humans, and their purpose in the world and the role they serve.

Internships:

I read about PaperPort on nuance.com. It allows users to access any information at anytime from in the cloud. They can also scan, copy, and organize all their information in one convenient location.

To-Do:

• Wake up: 8:30 am
• Italian discussion (1 and 1/2 hours)
• We went over masculine and feminine nouns and how to tell which is which. There are several that are irregular so you have to memorize the gender. We also learned how to make these words plural because it's different for masculine and feminine nouns. Unlike French, there is no "-s" suffix in Italian to make nouns plural. 
• Lunch (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Review Italian notes (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Read ahead for Italian (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Phonetics (1 and 1/2 hours)
• We went over the various articulators in the mouth. Most of them are on the lower jaw because it's the part that actually moves as a person talks. There are several different categories of sounds such as bilabial (made by pressing the lips together), palatal (made by pressing the front of the tongue to the hard palate), alveolar (made by pressing the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge), and dental (made by either pressing the tip of the tongue to the back of the upper teeth or in between the upper and lower teeth. This varies dialect to dialect). 
• Review Phonetics notes (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Read more of the ebook (1 hour)
• Didn't get to this today
• Dinner (1 hour)
• Done
• Finish reading for Muir 50 (1/2 hour)
• Done. 1 hour
• Work on blog (1/2 hour)
• I watched a video that explains how to create labels on a Blogger blog that take the user to different parts of the website. I also looked at the attached step-by-step directions. 
• Read ahead for Phonetics (1/2 hour)
• Done. 2 hours
• BBC Italian, Chinese, and French (1 hour)
• Done
• Tomorrow's schedule (1/2 hour)
• Sleep: 1:00 am

Daily Stuff--10/1/2012

Languages--Chinese:

I watched another BBC Chinese tutorial. This one went over greetings and saying things like "My name is ___. What's yours?"

Articles:

There was an interesting article on businessinsider.com about Oracle's new cloud computing service. This will join Amazon Web Service and Google App Engine and what makes Oracle's service unique is the fact that there are two different versions, the public and private cloud. The public cloud is pretty much the same as GAE and AWS but the private cloud takes everything from the public cloud and puts it in the customer's own data center. What also makes Oracle's service unique is the new database the company is using. It allows several companies to use it at the same time, which is something Google and Amazon don't have on their services.

Philosophy:

I read about what a proper Epistemology consists of. People use their senses to gain information and reason to process it and acquire knowledge from it. Logic ensures consistency and people use objectivity to connect knowledge to reality to test it's validity. Lastly, concepts are abstracts taken from specific details of reality.

Internships:

I read about FlexT9 on nuance.com. It's used on Android phones and allows users to speak, trace, write, or tap any input depending on which is appropriate for the situation.

To-Do:

• Wake up:--8:30 am
• Muir 50 (writing class) (1 and 1/2 hours)
• Went over the syllabus and introduced ourselves to the class. I got three different emails so I can ask questions or compare notes.
• Go ask about my laptop and internet connection (15 minutes)
• Done. I'm unblocked from the network and can get online now.
• Lunch (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Start Muir 50 reading (1 hour)
• Done. Got about halfway through the first article. 2 hours.
• Italian tutorial (1 hour)
• Went over some spelling that's unique to Italian, specifically the double consonants, which mean those syllables get emphasized more. We also went over the sounds that certain letter combinations make. For example, "ci" is pronounced as "chee" and "chi" is pronounced as "key". The "ch" letter combination equals [k]. 
• Review Italian vocab in notes and book (1 hour)
• Done
• Read more of the ebook (1 hour)
• Read about 1/2 of chapter 7 and did examples. 
• BBC Italian, Chinese, and French (1 hour)
• Did Chinese but didn't get to French or Italian. 1/2 hour. 
• Dinner (1/2 hour)
• Done. 1 and 1/2 hours
• Read ahead for Italian (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Review notes for Phonetics (1/2 hour)
• Done
• Work on improving blog (1/2 hour)
• Done. Found a few videos on customizing blog templates. Will attempt to make one tomorrow.
• News (15 minutes)
• Done
• Tomorrow's schedule (1/2 hour)
• Sleep--1 am