Archive for the ‘Author- Josh Belanich’ Category
Don’t worry, We’re working!
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Sorry for the lack of updates recently, since the new year started school has taken full swing on our minds and sapped our ability to write a decent blog post (Ok that was a lame excuse but just go with it). But we have been working very hard toward our long-term goals! Don’t believe us? Here’s a quick run-through:
- Kevin has been pro-actively studying like a madman for the SATs on January 26 thus the lack of posts as the main author. This is one of the final obstacles in the way of his dream college and he is planning to go all out on this one and do his best so he will not have to worry about it ever again. He has forcefully reduced himself down to the “good asian student” and postponed all other aspects of “fun life” until after January 26.
- Kevin has also created a website for ThinkQuest about Dunbar’s Number. This was done in an extreme example of an all-nighter but on the plus side it looks awesome and he played with more code than was possible in a small amount of time. He hopes to get it uploaded online soon so our readers can see it, critique it, and become educated as well.
- Josh has run through several drafts and templates for a new design for the website. Below is his current draft and any suggestions, advice, critiques are HIGHLY appreciated: (click for larger view)
- Josh has also been thinking about a new section for all our various ideas and projects. One of the main things that we lack is credibility and even though we are slowly building it up, we want a place on our blog to store all that stuff too. Kind of like an informal online portfolio so people know that we are serious and not just kids playing around. This will take some tweaking of the Wordpress code but if anyone knows an easier way to do this then please leave a comment!
That would be considered hard work right? Well we hope it all pays off in the long run. The fun thing about having a blog and dreaming of a startup is that you really don’t know where you are going to end up. Enjoy the ride as they say.
To conclude, we also have an idea! It’s not a super-big idea like Facebook but it is an idea and we might go for it. One thing we do know is that it hasn’t been taken in any which way or form so thats really good. It might lead to something and it isn’t that hard to create either (we think…).
We feel like being a tease so let’s say that it is a rare topic mentioned on blogs but everyone has one and it starts with the letter “B”. To make it more exciting, we are also going to give the first person that guesses it right Zen Habit’s E-Book Zen To Done by Leo Babauta for free! We are allowed to do this now since he released his copyright and we hope that someone can benefit from Leo’s guide for a simpler life!
~Can The World Hear Me
Happy New Year World!
Here’s to 2008, a whole new year with many opportunities and high hopes from two young teens.
To be quite honest, we are amazed that we even made it through the year. We started out all the way back in September and went through a redesign and got out own domain name! Since the move (Nov. 2) until now 2857 visits with 4746 pageviews and 2,324 unique visitors! We hope many of our readers stick with us through our adventure and a great way to do so is to subscribe to our RSS feed!
So what have we been up to lately? Kevin has created a logo!
“This was more of a personal project than anything else. It’s just a way for me to mark my stuff with my emblem and have it all symbolic-y. I also got to play with web 2.0 stuff and GIMP. Hopefully one day it will be a wide-known symbol logo.”
“It’s just a new creation with my initials, K.X. and through a little research, the arrow is supposed to represent power… success… and apparently luck in battle as well.”
Hope you guys like it. If you got any comments or suggestions then please tell us in the comments!
~Can The World Hear Me
GHOP - An Awesome Opportunity
Ever since the beginning of the Google Highly Open Participation Contest, both Kevin and I have been thinking of it non-stop. You can probably call it a borderline obsession. This contest is very important to us because we both are big fans of Google and what it stands for. Since my main OS is Linux based (I use Ubuntu), I’ve been using open source software for over a year now, and I’ve always wanted to contribute to the community.
This competition is a great opportunity for any teen, and every teen should give it a try. Yes you! You don’t need to know any sort of programming to participate. In fact, most of the challenges aren’t code based. The tasks range from translating stuff into other languages, to making tutorial videos on how to use open source software, to making songs and artwork in the spirit of open source and the companies that represent it. There really is something for everyone in this competition.
I’ve been working on a programming task for Joomla! where I have to upgrade a component written for Joomla! 1.0 to work on the new Joomla! 1.5. A major part of our tasks is integrating with the Joomla! community. We have to introduce ourselves on the Joomla! forums, and interact with the open source community there. Upon doing so, we are given a mentor to help us out with our task. I’m loving the experience of working with the Joomla! community for so far, and I have to say everyone is very nice over there.
If anyone is interested they can take a look at the component I’m working on here.
Kevin and I are really enjoying this competition, and I’m sure everyone else would too!
~Josh B.
Who wants to do a guest post? It makes you feel special :D
Can The World Hear Me is officially launching the option for our readers to do a guest post. We understand that a good blog needs a steady stream of posts (we are trying to do one every other day) and from a variety of perspectives. Although the purpose of blogging is to find out about our opinions and going-ons, we want to hear what you guys, our readers, have to say as well. Anything from your opinions about us, reviews, startup news, high school drama, anything really as long as it is somewhat related to our blog and what we are trying to accomplish as teenagers trying to get the world to know who we are.
So if anyone is interested just email us at cantheworldhearme@gmail.com. As soon as you write up a draft, email it to us and we will post it on this blog giving you full credit.
~Can The World Hear Me
Coding Nightmare
Whew, this has been one heck of a week for us. This week has been wrap up week in school, where all of the teachers try and cram in as much work as they can to fit in the end of the first quarter. Thankfully this week is over and done with, and we are heading into the easy transitional week before the second quarter.
While we did our school work during the day, we worked on the new domain during the night. We were tired of the look of our blog because not only was it old, but it was also unoriginal. So many other people use it. If a theme was supposed to represent us, we wanted it to be original and different. However, we wanted to release the new blog to the public within the week, so we didn’t have time to make a whole new theme by ourselves. So instead of creating a whole new theme, we decided to choose one, and modify it to our liking.
I expected this to be rather easy, because the theme was already made I would just have to edit a little bit. However, as the hours spent on editing kept on increasing, I realized that this job was much harder than I anticipated. Many sections of the code required some rewriting, and to make the theme display correctly it took a lot of trial and error. Some parts of the website would seem to completely rebel, and not cooperate. Twice during this week I completely broke the website to the point where it just wouldn’t load. And the day we were about to release the website, I changed something in the code which made the design completely explode, almost literally. In short, it was a nightmare.
Despite all of our troubles, as you can see we finally got the theme up and running perfectly fine. Even though we are very proud of the way the theme turned out, we still feel that we need a completely new theme that isn’t based off of an existing one. During this November and into December, I will be developing a totally new theme from scratch that will make us feel original and different.
I hope you enjoy the new theme. Feel free to send any advice or critiques to our email, or just simply post a comment. We really appreciate them =)
~Josh B
Can You Hear Us Yet?
Welcome old and new readers to the brand new Can The World Hear Me blog! We are pleased to unveil our new website on our very own domain and new server. So update those bookmarks and those RSS feeds!
Its been a painstakingly long week as Josh tried to balance schoolwork during the day and code well into the night but he did it and this is the final product. We were only able to make the big move because of the awesome Jessica Mah who is providing us with free hosting. This is what I mean by a random act of kindness as it was a truly kind act to host our new website as it opens up a whole new world for us to venture forth. Our goals and our dreams have been revitalized by one kind act.
So what do you all think of the new theme? Is the blue color scheme working? Does it look professional? What about the logo? Any and all feedback would be wonderful.
Now think of this as just an inaugural post because there are many more great posts to come. Kevin has been itching to write more and more and the ideas just kept on coming. We are going to keep a whole new focus as to actually generate a possible idea that will turn into something. The world is currently in a technological revolution and we want to be a part of it. We are still two teens that want their names to be known so with that relaunches Can The World Hear Me. Well, can you?
~Can The World Hear Me
We need actual education, not preparation for a test
We call for a new system for education. A system where everyone is happy, from the student to the teacher and there is actual education going on. Kids will learn what they want to learn that will prepare them well for the real world. There will be no ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy where teachers are forced to teach students that would rather be smoking and getting drunk all day. A system where there is less focus on a test for a number but focus on the actual material being learned. Sadly no one knows how this is possible.
The current educational system in the USA is turning more and more into memorization of facts to pass a test. There is no more asking ‘why’ things happen, just memorize that they do and darken in B on the scantron. The students are unmotivated and dread the class. The teachers don’t like this because they can’t teach any of the actual fun stuff because they have to prepare for a test. If a classroom is in turmoil like this, the only kids that like this system are the robots that say nothing, hide in the corner reading that textbook, and memorizing every word possible. And when they get out in to the real world they get a fancy piece of paper called a degree.
See the problem here? Now how do we fix this. Some people bring up the old system of master and apprentice where people specialize in a trade and learn it for life. But this doesn’t prepare you for real life either because the world is so interconnected today that basic knowledge is necessary to get by in the world. Someone else suggests mixing both systems and enabling a freedom for students to choose their style of education. Some people learn by hands-on, some by hearing lectures, and others by reading. Then others argue that without tests, kids don’t feel necessary to do well on anything and won’t be prepared for real life either.
Many American educational organizations have been arguing that countries in Asia particularly China and India have smarter students because of various stereotypes and critiques of their educational system. The way we look at it, stop whining about what other countries are doing and start fixing the problem here in this country. We have been too concerned on ‘assessing’ the educational level in each state or age group by administering a stupid pointless test. This test has no advantage to students and is just a way for politicians to be snotty and show that they’re state is smarter than yours. During my recent trip to China, I only saw two major differences. The kids that are doing good in school actually want to learn and all the dumb kids that don’t want to learn are allowed not to. It’s another way of showing ’survival of the fittest’ so of course the ’statistics’ are going to show that there are really smart kids in school because those are the only kids in school! The other kids drop out, sooner or later realize their mistake, have a huge regret, and then start the slow journey back into a normal lifestyle.
One can still argue cultures, genes, government, blah blah, yadda yadda but when it comes down to it, it is the student and teacher relation in the classroom and most classrooms in USA are unhappy. This post might seem like a harsh critique but we hope this opens the eyes of many citizens. We alone do not have a single solution to this problem but hopefully one day someone will or we will. The educational system needs to be changed by someone and anyone can be that someone.
~CanTheWorldHearMe
Programming and Its Awesomeness
I’ve been asked many times why I want to go into computer science as my college major, and each time I’ve said the same thing: programming and working with computers are my favorite things in the world, right above living and breathing…well maybe not above that. But still, they’re pretty high up there on my favorites list. Now, however, my view on computer science is shifting. As I’m being more and more introduced into the business world, I’m gaining a broader insight into computer science and its ties to the business world.
Right now we are right smack dab in the middle of the information age. The internet is growing every day. An increasing amount of businesses are now taking their ideas to the web: popular sites such as youtube and digg are popping up all over the place. In order to make popular websites like these, someone needs two major things. First, they need an idea. But second, they need to know how to code the site and/or have someone else code it for them!
As I see it, as the web continues to grow and more people realize the potential of online businesses there will be an increasing demand for programmers. I now feel that the computer science major is a great choice not only because I enjoy computers so much, but also because it puts me into a position of great potential.
I have many other thoughts regarding this subject, but I guess this is enough for one post =).
~Josh B.
Stress- Friend or Foe?
There’s just a few hours left until that big exam you’ve prepared a month for. But there is one major problem. The preparation you went through primarily comprised of playing video games and sleeping. You look around at your classmates and can feel their worry. However you are sure they have spent hours studying, while you may have spent a total of one hour roughly reading over the material. You are stressed out of your mind. This is my typical self right before an exam.
You may think I’m crazy. Actually, I probably am crazy. However, because of the stress I go through I perform better on that exam. Believe it or not, I even perform better than if I had studied for several more hours.
Stress drives me, it’s that simple. When I’m stressed out, I enter a state that’s more focused and intense. Things start to make more sense, and my thoughts become clearer. I feel more motivated, and feel ready for the task at hand.
I’ve always been told by my friends that I perform better under stress. One day I had to play a violin piece in front of my orchestra class so I could get performance experience for when I had to play at NYSSMA. For those of you who don’t know, NYSSMA is a festival where you play a difficult piece in front of judges who give you a rating from 0 to 100. This score usually determines your placement in higher level orchestras and other musical events. Well, I’m terrified of performing, and it’s needless to say that I was dead nervous before I got up in front of the class. But once I got up in front of the class and started to play the music just flowed right out of me. Some friends of mine who I practice with approached me after the performance, and after hearing the musical piece a hundred times before told me this one was by far the best one.
I understand that in college studying is necessary and if you aren’t prepared for a test you are in trouble. However I’ll deal with that when the time comes.
Maybe I’m just insane, or weird. I have no clue. If there is anyone else out there like me just leave a comment =)
~Josh B.
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