New Site Design

GageAmes.com has been due for a redesign for a long time, and now it’s finally happened!  The new site is inspired by Microsoft’s Modern UI design, specifically the Windows 8 Start Screen and Windows Phone 8.  In fact, my motivation to redesign the site was a result of publishing a Windows Phone 8 app (look for another post on that soon).  I feel the site is now cleaner but still represents who I am.  Fun fact:  I used Microsoft PowerPoint to help me visualize the design before coding it, which is a process that I highly recommend.

With the more professional design also comes more professional content.  I’m choosing to retain my older posts (despite the fact that some are embarrassing at this point), but you can expect my future posts to be focused more on my career and academics.  I hope it will become a true tech blog containing programming tips and tutorials from my real-life experience.

I would love to hear what you think of the new design.  Feel free to leave a comment on this post or email me with your feedback.

TEDxPSU

Today I attended an event at Penn State called TEDxPSU. For those of you who don’t know, TEDx is an independently organized TED event, which is basically a program of speakers communicating “Ideas Worth Spreading.” When I first found out about this event I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. I did some research on their website and watched quite a few videos from past TED events and came to the conclusion that it was something that I would really enjoy.
The event took place on 10/10/10 from 10:10 AM – 5:10 PM in Schwab Auditorium at Penn State. It consisted of twelve live speakers, seven prerecorded speakers from other TED events, and two musical performances. In short, every single one of these speakers and performances was spectacular and well worth listening to. It’s amazing how enlightening a person can be when speaking about something they truly have a passion for. As for the topics at TEDx, I cannot really group them into a general category besides “great thoughts and ideas.” I got to hear about topics like technological advancements, economic solutions, education strategies, personal betterment, and so much more. All in all, I loved every second of it.

TEDxPSU is an event that I will certainly take a lot away from. I took notes on every speaker and from each of them I managed to pull at least one great idea. I would like to share these ideas with all of you here, both to benefit myself by reflecting and to attempt to pass my realizations on to you. Not all of these little snippets will make sense out of context, but I would imagine they are still meaningful with a little thought. Sure, it may lead to a different conclusion then I came to in the context of the speech, but I don’t see anything wrong with that. As always, if you have any questions or thoughts please feel free to leave a comment below.

  • Mobility is the next big revolution.
  • Delaying self-gratitude is the key to success.
  • Listen in order to create a space for possibility.
  • Disregard no person.
  • Loop pedals are awesome.
  • Humans generate bias based on unusual versus common, unknown versus familiar, personified versus anonymous, and control versus participation.
  • The best security tradeoffs are made when feeling equals reality.
  • With any idea, the opposite may also be true.
  • The world would be a better place if we all lived in our right brain.
  • Boys and girls are different.
  • Get the basics right first.
  • Don’t share your goals with others because then you are less likely to accomplish them.
  • Just do it until someone stops you.
  • There is no difference between disabilities and super abilities.
  • If children have interest than education will occur.
  • Compliment
  • “While nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer, nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”
  • Be an alien. Don’t take everything at face value—make it your own to fuel your own success.

Finally, here are the websites of some amazing artists that I discovered at TEDxPSU:

Super Mario Marathon

Link: http://MarioMarathon.com

I found the most amazing fundraiser today. I was browsing Digg and I came across this “Super Mario Marathon” and decided to check it out. Essentially these three gamers are staying up as long as necessary to beat seven Mario games. The games are as follows: Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers 2, Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. They are broadcasting the live video stream of their efforts on a site called Ustream.tv so everyone can watch. You can make a donation to help out. All donations go to Child’s Play.
I will be watching these guys whenever I get a chance. I sadly will not be able to stay up all night like them.
This is such a great idea! I just can’t get over it. I wish them the best of luck! They are truly awesome people!