Hdelossantos.com

These past couple of days I’ve been wishing I were home basking in the great Florida sunshine, instead of being up here dealing with the Wisconsin cold. Tomorrow after 11:00 AM, when my last class for the day ends, spring break begins however, for me it is more of the same. I wish I were going home, but in all honesty one week worth of sunshine is not nearly enough for me to spend upwards of $300 to fly home. Especially when all I have to do is bear it out for the remaining half of the semester. Thinking of home, I couldn’t help but play “Welcome to Miami” by Will Smith, since it is the song that plays in my head as I debark the plane and exit the terminal into the warm, sunny, and azure sky filled city that has been my home for nearly 14 years. I never thought I would be thinking this, but I miss Miami. After wanting to leave it for years, now that I have, I actually miss it.

This program takes a user input from 1 through 512 (inclusive), and calculates all powers of two that are less than or equal to the value. The program prints out all of these values.

NOTE: Due to my usage of the math library’s log function, it is necessary to compile using -lm under Unix systems for the linker to properly define the log function. Information referenced from: http://c-faq.com/fp/libm.html

/* Assignment1: Powers of 2
 * by Hanly De Los Santos
 * Copyright ©2009, Hanly De Los Santos. All Rights Reserved.
 * http://www.hdelossantos.com
 *
 * This program takes a user input from 1
 * through 512 (inclusive), and calculates all powers of
 * two that are less than or equal to the value. The
 * program prints out all of these values.
 *
 * NOTE: Due to my usage of the math library's log function,
 * it is necessary to compile using -lm under Unix systems
 * for the linker to properly define the log function.
 * Information referenced from: http://c-faq.com/fp/libm.html
 */

/* Load standard I/O library */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <math.h>

/* Define macro */
#define ARRAYSIZE 10

/* Declare function prototypes to define the output of the
 * following functions.
 */
void printPowers(int ar[], int firstindex, int lastindex);
void setPowers(int userinteger, int ar[], int lastindex);

main(int argc, char *argv[]){
	int powers[ARRAYSIZE];

	/* This determines whether there are 2 arguments in the command
	 * line input. If there are less than 2 arguments, then a message
	 * is printed prompting the user to enter a positive integer value.
	 */
	if( argc < 2)
		printf("Invalid command line. Positive integer value required.\n");

	/* If there are 2 variables, then the second variable is tested
	 * for the required integer values.
	 */
	else{
		int usrval = atoi(argv[1]);

		/* If the user input value is within the accepted range
		 * 1-512, then the operation is done with the user value.
		 */
		if( usrval >= 1 && usrval <= 512 ){
			int maxexp = ((log(usrval))/log(2));
			setPowers( usrval, powers, maxexp);
			printf("Powers of 2 that are less than or equal to %d are:\n", usrval);
			printPowers(powers, 0, maxexp);
		}

		/* If the value is greater than 512, the operation is done with the
		 * maximum value of 512
		 */
		else if ( usrval > 512 ){
			printf("Powers of 2 that are less than or equal to 512 are:\n", usrval);
			setPowers( 512, powers, 9);
			printPowers(powers, 0, 9);
			printf("argc is equal to: %d", argc);
		}

		/* If a character/negative number is entered instead of an integer, the user is
		 * prompted that a positive integer is required to complete the
		 * operation.
		 */
		else if ( !isdigit(usrval) || usrval <= 0 ){
			printf("Invalid command line. Positive integer value required.\n");
			printf("argc is equal to: %d", argc);
		}
	}

	return 0;
}

/* This function sets the array's values; only the array elements
 * whose values are less than or equal to the userinteger are set.
 * It calls function power() for each value.
 */
void setPowers(int userinteger, int ar[], int lastindex){
	int i;
	for( i = 0; i <= lastindex; i++)
		ar[i] = power( 2, i );
}

/*This function calculates and returns baseexponent utilizing the
 * math library function 'pow'.
 */
int power(int base, int exponent){
	int e;

	e = pow(base, exponent);
	return e;
}

/* This function prints the program's output. For each array
 * element in the range of integers defined by firstindex and
 * lastindex, the function prints one line of the output.
 */
void printPowers(int ar[], int firstindex, int lastindex){
	int p;
	for( p = 0; p <= lastindex; p++)
		printf("2^%d = %d\n", p, ar[p] );
}

Of all the things to have in Wisconsin, Cuban Panini…really? What makes this Cuban? The fact that it has ham and cheese? I had to try it, to test whether or not it was actually up to par with what I know to be Cuban cuisine. I suppose there was some distant similarity to a Cuban sandwich. There was mustard, mayo, ham and cheese. However, their choice of provolone cheese doesn’t go with the standard swiss (I think) that is used in Cuban sandwiches. This was supposed to have chicken, but upon biting into it, it quickly became obvious that it had no chicken, instead it was pork. Hey, at least that’s more authentic.It wasn’t bad, but somehow it didn’t feel Cuban; it felt like a bad imitation of a Cuban sandwich, a bastard child if you will. It had banana peppers for goodness sakes. Cuban sandwiches are supposed to have pickles. But you know, being one of the few Cubans at the University of Wisconsin, only that small bit of us would know its inauthenticity.

Today I needed to buy a book (Blues People by Amiri Baraka) I have to read for my ethnic studies comparative literature class. I had waited so long to get the book, considering I need to have it read by Tuesday, that the only place I would be able to get it on time was Rainbow Bookstore. This was the bookstore the professor has ordered the book at. I took the 80 bus down to the Humanities building, then walked down State Street headed towards the capitol. Rainbow Books was near State and Gilman, which is about halfway between campus and the capital. Before I left I made a note to try to find Dobra Tea, a tea house in downtown Madison that sells matcha. Last semester I wanted to try out matcha and upon doing a search I found that Dobra was the closest place that sold it. I had walked down State many times trying to find it as I passed and funny enough it had been right under my nose. Anyways, after buying the book I decided to stop by to try matcha.

I went in and was given a small menu book which had a brief history of the tea house, with the preceding pages having the teas they offer separated by country of origin. With the book came a bell, which I was instructed to ring if I had any questions or when I was ready to order. I thumbed through the pages, already knowing what I wanted but deciding to make sure it was on the menu. I rang the bell, and ordered the Matcha Kyoto. I started reading the book as my order was prepared. I was expecting to just get the tea made like one usually gets at regular places. However, to my surprise Dobra takes their business seriously. The weighter (for lack of a better word) attending me sets up a stool opposite me and brings out a tray with a tea kettle, chasen, chawan, chakin, chaire, chashaku and three small leaf shaped cookies. He asked me if I had had matcha before, I replied that I hadn’t and he began to explain the tea ceremony procedure which traditionally goes with matcha in Japan. He explain that matcha is usually served at a Japanese tea ceremony which is usually an all day affair, but that at Dobra they had adapted it to give their customers the experience.

He began by cleaning the bow as it is traditionally done; by taking some of the hot watter from the kettle and slushing it around the chawan with the chasen. He then emptied it into a pot, and began cleaning the chawan with the chakin, after which he scooped up 2 scoop fulls of matcha with the chashaku and placed them in the chawan. He then took 2 ladle fulls of water from the kettle and dripped into the chawan. He then took the chasen and began whisking the matcha until it was frothy and green. Upon finishing he grasped the chawan gave it a turn, and handed it to me. I took a sip, and it was great. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and attention Dobra gives their teas.

Flash Games

As I was learning Flash from 7th to 8th grade I decided to make a game about one teacher I wasn’t quite fond of. She was my French teacher. I was afraid of being blamed for the game, or worse the authorities or school administrators thinking that I wanted to kill her, so I decided to use a picture of one of my friends as the character in the original game. Of course, this game was meant to relieve some stress and to play around with Flash, not as a means of demonstrating psychotic murder obsessed behavior (just felt I should make that clear).

• First Version (Endlessly scrolling game)
• Second Version (Hunting style game)
• Third Version (Same as 2nd Version with different colors)

In nineth grade I had this Turkish substitute teacher for a few months since apparently there were too many students and we were rotated amongst several substitutes every few months. She had this thick accent and yelled at us all the time, she would even send us to the corner. One day my friends and I decided to make a game of her. We took a picture and pasted her head on a Jabba the Hut body and the game came to be from there.

• Mansour Game