College's long vacation

Oh yeah! The first semester at Poly came to an end so fast that I realized the true meaning of "How times flies".
Now, here follows one month long vacation. It is time to relax, right? Absolutely right! After studying so hard for three months, I should try to relax a little bit. Playing games such maplestory(online game) and Kingdom hearts I & II (PS2) are good choices. However, games are not the best way to relax because they took you so much time to play and are not good for your brain and eyes if you keep playing for a long time. To me, I will try to do some sports to keep healthy. Sports can help you develop not only your body, but also your acuity.
Vacation does not only mean the relaxation, but also includes good time to learn new stuffs. During vacation, you can have a lot of free time to learn new subjects, making you ahead of many other students. As a result, you will study more smoothly in up coming semester. You can also try to look for some part-time jobs or intership, shortening the distance between the real society and yourself. So, you can feel much easier to be on your position in the future.
In a word, do what you like to do in college's long vacation, but make sure the thing you do today must be useful to what you will do in the future!
Good luck to all of you guys!

Polytechnic University Scholarships

This post is for students who are interested in applying for an admission to go to Poly.

Poly's Available Scholarships:
1. Dean's Partial Scholarship: Most common one of all, more or less the university will grant you some funds to reduce the burden of high cost tuition fees. The funds will be determined depending upon your high school grades or GPA.

2. Honors College Program: To be honest, I am not sure how many high school students will be able to make it right after their high school graduation. But this isn't all that hard and scary to get in once Poly has accepted you. A minimum of 3.5 GPA is required with good standing in classes, and two recommendation letters from different Prof. are needed for an application. In one word, this is the best way to go to Poly for free as this program will not only pay for your tuition bill, it will also offer an valuable opportunity for students to earn a possible MS degree in as little as 4 years.
3. Other Scholarships: Please see Poly brochure for more information.

How to do well in college?

Last Friday, when I went back to LESP and had a visit on my dear teachers, Henry asked me an important question which made me deep into thinking. He said many LESP students did not complete the 4 years college because they thought there were too much tasks and high pressure in college, they could not bear them any more. So, he asked me honestly:" Well, you did so well at Poly. Can you share some experiences on how to do well in college?"

Henry did give me a tough question which was much harder to answer than my biology final. Anyway, I will try my best to give a proper opinion to this question.
In my opinion, firstly,as a college student, I know that though I can be as free as a bird flying high from the ground, I still need to control the idleness hidden in my heart. If the idleness is out of control, I may keep playing maplestory and hate to read the thick college books.

Secondly, if I meet some difficulties that may drive me crazy, I will try to relax and talk with my best friends and professors at Poly. After releasing the negative aspects out of the brain, I will feel much comfortable and filled with drive again.

Thirdly, I must examine myself at least every week. With the help of examination, I know more about myself. For example, I did not do so well in biology this semester. At first, I complained the professor taught too fast. However, after the deep attack of the third biology exam, I realized that I did not put enough time on reading the biology book. I was just scared to read the thick biology book.

Forthly, I need to double check what I am doing now and figure on what I will do in future. That is because what I am doing now will have unbreakable link with what I will do in future. Do well now, make better preparations for the future.

At last, do not try to compare with others unless you are a genius. Focusing on comparing with others just reduces your combativity.

However, GPA does not represent for everything. Except the study, I still have so many things to learn my Polymates, such as how to be a good person with honest character, how to improve the ability of communication and how to think outside the box.

Computer Science Notes Collection on C++

I happened to have a 20-page personally edited draft of notes deal with C++ programming language, for those of you are interested in getting one copy and think that you might need it in your uncoming college courses. Please let me know. Email me at jimmyli2001@msn.com.

P.S. - Most likely, all Engineering courses of any kind will need to take C++ if I am not mistaken, so just let you know and Computer Science will definitely be taking C++ for a while.

Where would you be without friends?

The Christmas Party hosted by CCC from LESP tonight was a blast in my night, I met HuiQing back from Union and of course my fellow schoolmate Jason was also in the house, to my surprise even the little cuttie Sirandy came back too, wow she still looked cute, and Charles, Lance, Ken, Xia, Liu Jian, Richard and more; all those potential grads students from my home school, forgot to mention some new faces I saw; I had no idea who they were but anyway, I am proud of you all and hoping you will make it to your dream school. It is always good to see your old fellas back in high school after you graduated, and taught them some of the experience of college life. Besides all that, the fun part is that they were willing to ask you advice and suggestions to prepare themselves better for college, I was glad and felt deeply appreciated when they listened to me, I hoped all my informations will help them in the journey of college. Again, I enjoyed this night's fun with them, all the hard work of the semester was over now and I finally had some time to kick off the tension in my brain and my body, felt like the semester made me super old. Thinking about a while back in Florida, where I virtually didn't have any close friends due to my difficulties of socializing with diversed cultures. I am happy to have LESP as my home school in America and made friends with you guys. Indeed, friends are important in any aspects of life, whether in college or in your future life, I will not make a speech on that topic here in my blog to bore you guys, I will leave it up for you to understand and learn it. As a ending I want you all to understand why I am posting this blog. For the very simple reason: you guys are the best! Follow your belief that you will succeed and your personal interest to pick a major rather than the green paper values that attract your hype, really doing something you like is better than making more money!

Where would you be without friends?
Sitting in a corner of a lunch table, thinking about how terrible your life has been in your not so old and not so matured mind. Shy away from crowds and unwilling to speak in class nor ask questions. What a dull life is that?

Let me know if there is more activities going on with LESP later and do not hestitate to IM me either on MSN or QQ regarding to any problems that I would be able to help with! Thank you very much.

College's Best Kept "Secrets"

In college, something is known to the public like the tuition fees, but how much UNKNOWN secrets do you know? Here I will expose some of them.

1.Government Funds, namely FAFSA & TAP for NY Residents:
The funds would not be disbursed into your account unless otherwise your school confirmed so, consult with your financial advisor to make sure that the proper funds were DISBURSED.
WHY? Sometimes your might be selected to go through a verification process by your school, even after the government had granted you the funds prior to your attendance. In this case, you would need to submit adequate proof to your school in order to receive funds, and MOST likely your school would not notify you, so it is really up to you to speak with your advisor. Do this at your convinient when you pay the bills. Don't wait until the end of semester to panic, you don't want to pay more bills with late fees.

2.Grades Dispute:
Having an disagreement with your grades from tests? Don't wait, walk up to your Prof. as soon as they are available.
WHY? Usually Prof. of large classes tend to make mistakes on your papers, though most of times are unintentional mistakes, these grades will hurt you more or less and it is a 100% guarantee you don't want that happen. So, pay close attention on your grades and talk to your Prof. if neccessary. Let's suppose in a math test, if you made a mistake and already caused an incorrect answer in the question but the follow-up steps were correct, you would still get credit for it but ONLY if you point it out to your Prof.

3. Big One:
Let's suppose at the end of the term, you average is very close to an A but a little short from it at A-, what would you do? Go speak to your Prof. about the A you are getting!
WHY?Okay, rumors are Prof. don't care about your grades, true enough if they don't recognize you much in most cases! But look at the bright side, they pay sympthy to your grades on a crack between two letter grades difference. Remember an A counts for a 4.0 GPA and A- is only 3.7 GPA, so it is a good reason for you to get 4.0 instead of 3.7; more scholarships and better-looking transcripts!

RTGS

Railroad Train Guidance System

As promised a while back, these are the video clips that were taken today to show how our train system is operated under the Boolean Logic Equation that we made. Watch the video clip carefully you will notice the train would never ever hit the plastics on track. Below are two clips.

Courtesy of Quoteland.com

The trouble with so many of us is that we underestimate the power of simplicity.
We have a tendency it seems to over complicate our lives and forget what's
important and what's not. We tend to mistake movement for achievement. We tend
to focus on activities instead of results. And as the pace of life continues to
race along in the outside world, we forget that we have the power to control our
lives regardless of what's going on outside.

  - Robert Stuberg

Wonderful Problem (Chinese Version)

If you can answer this problem in 5 minutes, it means that you will be to master polythinking.
"村子中有50个人，每人有一条狗。在这50条狗中有病狗（这种病不会传染）。
于是人们就要找出病狗。
每个人可以观察其他的49条狗，以判断它们是否生病，只有自己的狗不能看。观察后得到的结果不得交流，也不能通知病狗的主人。
主人一旦推算出自己家的是病狗就要枪毙自己的狗，而且每个人只有权利枪毙自己的狗，没有权利打死其他人的狗。
第一天，第二天都没有枪响。
到了第三天传来一阵枪声，问有几条病狗，如何推算得出?"

Courtesy of Quoteland.com

"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops ofblood form on your forehead."

- Gene Fowler

Big Essay in Alph Edwards English Class

He Qiu Zheng

Prof Edwards

EN 1034, Section C

October 2, 2006

Civilization and People in the Society

Looking back to the long path of our human history, we can see that our great ancestors created many wonderful civilizations. We feel astonished and proud of our ancestors. However, it is not the time for us to do that right now. Now, we need to think deeply about this question: How do civilization and people in society influence each other?

Reading the great psychologist Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, we will learn more about this issue. In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud said: “We recognize as cultural all activities and resources which are useful to men for making the earth serviceable to them, for protecting them against the violence of the forces of nature, and so on" (42). The quote means with the help of their wisdom, humans made themselves more suitable to live on the earth. They could protect themselves from the damages of nature. In addition, Freud said:” With every tool man is perfecting his own organs, whether motor or sensory, or is removing the limits to their functioning" (43). As humans got used to the surroundings where they lived, they began to build up more and more things that could improve their lives. Gradually, civilization was set up.

However, not everyone will be satisfied with the civilization of the society they live in. In Civilization and Its Discontents Freud stated: “The liberty of [the] individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization, though then, it is true, it had for the most part no value, since the individual was scarcely in a position to defend it. The development of civilization imposes restrictions on it, and justice demands that no one shall escape those restrictions” (49). What Freud said indicates that the civilization is the common wealth for the majority of the whole society. If anyone goes against the civilization due to the desire for the liberty of individual, he or she is about to be punished by the restrictions which are made by the civilization. At this time, the minority in the society who goes against the civilization may separate into two groups: loyalists and rebels. The loyalists may have to suffer the force which is in opposition to the individual’s wishes and rights. However, “the urge for freedom, therefore, is directed against particular forms and demands of civilization or against civilization altogether” (50). The rebels will keep on their struggles no matter how the society suppresses them. As the struggles enlarge, more and more people in the society join in the struggle. At last, the strong group of the rebels may pull down the former civilization and build up a new one. That is how one civilization subrogates the other civilization.

One the other hand, we can get a similar idea to Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents from Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. In Prometheus Bound, without fear of the dangers of stealing it, Prometheus brought mankind fire to lead mankind a bright future. After his stealing fire, Prometheus was nailed to a cliff as penalty by Zeus. From here, we can see that Prometheus is acting as the rebel against the civilization created by Zeus. As he went against the restrictions of Zeus’ civilization, Prometheus was punished. However, no matter how the God of the River Oceanos, who was afraid of Zeus, advised him to yield to Zeus, Prometheus insisted that "I shall drain myself till the high mind of Zeus shall cease from anger" (377-378). As a rebel, Prometheus still kept his will, which was to bring liberty and a bright future to mankind; he kept on his struggle against Zeus. Prometheus was not struggling by himself. The Oceanids, who are the daughters of Oceanos, gave great support to Prometheus. On hearing of the affliction of Prometheus, the Oceanids blamed Zeus's violence. Though their father, Oceanos, came to persuade Prometheus to change his mind, the Oceanids still stood on the side of Prometheus rather their father. The Oceanids kept on searching for the truth with their eyes and ears, listening to the whine of Io, blaming the arrogance of Hermes. At last, without any fear or regret, the Oceanids fell deep into the underground abyss with Prometheus. Why did Prometheus and the Oceanids go against Zeus? No need to say, it was all due to the irrational force from the Zeus’ civilization. The restrictions of Zeus’ civilization went against truth and justice. They needed to struggle for truth and justice. Now, we can see that if the development of civilization goes against the original will of the people, it will lead more and more people to feel unpleasant about the society and stand up to go against the society and civilization.

In a word, though the people create the civilization, the restrictions of civilization will suppress the liberty of the individuals. However, if the development of the civilization separates farther and farther from the will of people, the civilization will become unstable and easily fall down.

Computer Science VS Computer Engineering

Similarity:

Both majors interact a lot with computer technology, keep up with the latest computer trend.

Difference:

Computer Science is pure software programming, while Computer Engineering programs and also make magical happens in your hands!

Pros:

Computer Science is very interesting to learn, once you master one single programming language your life won't disappoint you anymore; as a Computer Engineer, you not need to worry about job opportunity, with both versatility in programming and engineering, its very easy for you to learn other engineering professions quick and fast.

Cons:

Computer Science is bored in a way if you can't memorized all the different codes in different programming languages and your career is only limited to computer industries programming all day long in front of a computer; although Computer Engineering is more versatile than Computer Science, it is hard to master both programming and engineering at the same time as your advance onto higher level classes(considerd my P.S. notes below), and worst of all you might end up learning nothing at all.

7 Important Experiences from Poly by Jason Zheng

Experience One: Be Proud of Yourself
In college, no one will like to be proud of you until you give benefits to them. So, why not feel proud of yourself?

Experience Two: Be predential to all your work
I remember what my English Professor Alph Edwards said in English class: "Try to image ten years later, when you write a report to your boss, if you want to show your preciseness, the interpunctions will tell everything."

Experience Three: Be good at communion
College is an inspissation of the whole society. If you are good at communion, you can gain a lot of good results.

Experience Four: Be active to make friends
Friends are not esay to make in college. However, keep your bravery and activity to chat with the people next to you. Later, he or she will become your reliant friend.

Experience Five: Be aware of your grammer mistake
My grammer mistakes often lower my English paper's grade. So, before you start writing an essay or a report, make sure that tell yourself pervent the grammer mistakes.

Experience Six: Be in balance
Though college gives you a lot of tasks, you still need to do some sports or join some ativities for the balance of life.

Experience Seven: Be sure who you are
Try to think where you are standing and which direction you are going to. If you find you are in the wrong direction, no need to feel depressed, just change your path at once.

Here is not an advertisement, but Polythinking