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