Computer Science Final Project

It is amazing to think that the first semester is practically over.  Besides the few finals I still have to take, I have finished all my class and this afternoon I turned in my CS Final Project!  I spent so much time working on it over the last couple weeks, and I am very happy with the final result.

Basically, the project I choose to do was the generation of "Text Clouds."  These are when you count up the frequency of each word (after stemming them, of course) and the size of the letters in the final image reflect their frequency in the piece of writing.

It was a long process - the stemming took a substantial amount of time, since I wanted it to be fairly accurate, and then I spent a very long time with the special features on the webpage:

http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jhoffswell/

This site is completely run by the programs and functions that I wrote myself!  An important note for when you decide to play with it:  the URL portion only works for pages at the Claremont Colleges.  Therefore, to get the full effect, I would recommend using the text entry portion.

Of all the various options on this page, the URL and submit buttons were the only parts required.  The various color and display options (as well as the text input) I choose to add just for the fun of it, and as customization of the original project.

It was a good deal of extra work, but it is so much fun to add all the customizations, and I am thrilled with the outcome.  Here are some basic pictures:

The top of the web page with the required URL input.  (Depth is extra),

Most of the additional features that I added to the web page.

A sample text cloud using the example URL

Holiday Dinner

Today the Hoch organized a nice holiday dinner to get everyone in the spirit of the holidays despite the looming doom of finals and final projects.

Like the Thanksgiving dinner, all of the tables were set beautifully:

The table settings for the Holiday Dinner

Very cute and simple centerpieces.

It was such a generally festive spirit to come into the dinning hall to find fabric tablecloths and flickering candles.  Then, to help with the celebration, there was an abundance of food, warm fruit cider and sparkling cider,

Delicious drinks (hot and sparking cider)

There was also a large table of delicious breads and cheeses and a table mounded with holiday treats to make everything even better. 

Yule logs, holiday cookies, and fudge.

It was fun, and adorable of course.  In general, it is kind of hard to tell it is almost the holiday season, the weather would certainly not tell you a whole lot, though the leaves are finally changing colors.  Though, to remind everyone of the season, the campus planted poinsettias everywhere, which is so cute and festive.  Otherwise, you could easily forget.

Mail Services

I love the mailman here at Mudd.  I've been worrying about Christmas presents for a while, mostly about how I would get them home, so I kept putting off buying them altogether.  But with a little under two weeks until the end of the semester and start of break, I figured it was now or never.

So, I took a nice walk to buy everything I needed, which was a complete success.  Then, with bags full of gifts, I started the trek back to the college.  On the way back to my dorm, I decided to swing by the mail room to pick up a box so that I could figure out how to mail.

I walk in, and tell the mailman that I need a big box.  He asked me what size, so I told to mail the two full bags of stuff I had with me.  He hops up from his desk, starts looking for a box and then carefully helped me pack everything so that it was safe (with the necessary amount of padding) for a flight back home.  He tapes it up for me, helps me pick a mailing service and finishes up the whole thing in less than 15 minutes.

He was so nice and helpful about the whole thing, and I'm sure that the package will be just fine at this point.  After all that worry, the chore was done swiftly and efficiently.  It was great!