The Blog

Ok, for anyone interested, I have decided to write a few tutorials on the C++ Programming Language.
I am not incredibly experienced and I haven't created any amazing applications, but I know the basics and I would like to help all the other newbies out there to begin programming in C++, as I can remember how it was quite hard (I did not have a fast Internet connection at the time and limited access to the Net) for me to find a good compiler and other things needed to get started.
Anyway, enough of my rambling and let's get started!!

First things first, I will make a list of things you will need:

Requirements:

--A functioning computer. It does not have to be a powerful machine, unless you are going to create huge programs, but to do that you would need tons of knowledge and experience with C++ in which case you wouldn't be reading this.

--A functioning operating system. In my case Windows XP Home, I haven't attempted using C++ on Linux yet.

--A compiler. A compiler is an "intepreter", that translates the code you write into processor language. (You needn't worry yourself with all this yet.)

--Spare time, determination, patience and a reasonable level of mathematical and problem solving ability.

I will leave the acquiration of a PC and an operating system to you, however, you might not know which compiler to download/buy or even what a compiler is. I suggest you do a google search for the latest version of DevC++ or visit this link to choose what version you want:

http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html

I found Bloodshed DevC++ a very user-friendly compiler and simple enough for a beginner. I also thought it had a cool name. (Far cooler than geeky-sounding Borland C++, which by the way isn't freeware).

That's all for now. I will give you some time to set everything up and get used to the interface of your compiler, and some time tommorow I will post a tutorial introducing you to programming.

Just something I found interesting, and probably you will too if you are into trance/house/techno.

http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.29198/Music

If you combine the knowledge you gain from this page with that from edmguide (see previous post), and listen to some trance tracks, you can easily determine the genre of the song you are listening to (and impress your friends who all they know about is Tiesto and PvD, with your newfound tastes in music ).

Just read this essay on hell:

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term.

The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well:
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added. < /P>

This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, "It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting "Oh my God."

THE STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

I think this student deserves more than an A+!

I turned out to be a complete n00b in the area of blogging! This is perfectly true, as I have only ever posted 4 (5 including this one) entries on my first blog which you are currently reading.
Give me a few weeks though so my experience in HTML programming and bloging in general grows, I will retake the quiz and return valiantly with a full score and the honorary title of: "Complete Blogging Nerd".

Thank you.

By the way, if you want to take the test yourself, here is the link:

http://quiz.blogactionday.org/

Also, do not forget to participate in todays Blog Action!

ROT13

So, did you know what ROT13 is?

I ran into a text today saying this: "pyvpx gur yvax"
Does this make any sense to you?

Anyway, I decided to look it up on the net and I discovered that it was some form of encryption where each individual alphabetical character (only a-z, numerical characters are overlooked) is rotated by 13 places, meaning that each letter is replaced by the letter 13 places next in the alphabet.

For instance: A would become N, B would become O, etc.

Here is a table for reference:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLM

And here is a webpage that encrypts your text:
www.rot13.com

Happy encrypting!