FAQ
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is this site?
jontse.com is primarily a place for me to have an internet portfolio, and to store Files, Photos, HOWTOs and other data that I find useful.
Who are you?
My name is Jonathan Tse, but most people refer to me as Jon Tse. I am a Olin College alumnus, with a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Currently, I am a M.S./Ph.D. ECE Candidate at Cornell University, studying under Professor Rajit Manohar in the Computer Systems Laboratory.
Olin College? Never heard of it.
I have the good fortune of being a member of the third class to graduate from Olin College, the Class of 2008, so it's not terribly surprising that you haven't heard of it.
Olin is a small engineering school in Needham, Massachusetts that focuses on training the next generation of "renaissance engineers." In other words, providing an engineering education with a focus on project-based learning, teamwork, user-oriented design, and the ability to pick up new topics very quickly.
I think the best description I've heard of Olin's curriculum was given by one of its professors. I don't remember it word for word, but the gist was this:
- We don't focus on giving students all the engineering knowledge that they require, because in a few years they'll be out of date anyway. Instead, we focus on instilling the ability and desire to pick up new knowledge very quickly.
That isn't to say that Olin students aren't trained in engineering. My personal experience has been that Olin tends to throw hands-on problems at its students that are just slightly over their heads. In trying to solve them, we must quickly absorb new knowledge and apply it immediately, giving us both context and meaning. Olin students follow what we call "spiral-learning," where we see a concept many times from different viewpoints until we finally "get it."
For more information, feel free to visit Olin's website: http://www.olin.edu/, or look at this New York Times Article, Re-engineering Engineering.
Cornell University? Never heard of it.
Hopefully you've heard of Cornell, but if you haven't, it's a member of the Ivy League universities. I myself didn't know that until recently. Another Olin alumni who also goes to Cornell brought it to my attention. The both of us were actually pretty surprised to find out that we went to an Ivy, having gone to a basically (at the time) no-name school for undergrad.
Why MediaWiki?
I used to keep a blog, but I discovered I had trouble keeping it up to date, and there wasn't much impetus to, considering no one really read it. I kept switching blog engines and CMS's, until I decided I wanted to just have a wiki, because they're easy. And well, MediaWiki is proven, and I daresay pretty shiny.
Do you have any hobbies?
Games
Well, I'm an avid gamer. I've been playing PC games since the days of 286's and haven't stopped since. I play a good deal of FPS, RTS, and 4X games (when I have the time).
- Quick Aside: 4X games are huge time-sinks. I can't believe how many hours I've sunk into these games. I remember starting turn 400 in Master of Orion 3 and looking up at the start of turn 401 only to realize it was an hour later. Good times though.
My favorite games of all time would have to be the old old Tie Fighter series, the Half-Life series, and Counter-Strike in the days when the Colt M4A1 still had a scope. I used to play TF on the Quake engine, but I haven't been able to get into the new TF2. I do hang around on Battlefield 2142 as OpAmpKensai every once in awhile, so if you get sniped, it might've been me.
I recently acquired a Wii and an Xbox 360, so I've got a lot of catching up to do on the console front. But hey, nothing wrong with tons of Halo, Assassin's Creed, MarioKart and Super Smash Bros., right?
Photography
I dabble in photography every once in awhile. I'm particularly fond of macro compositions, panoramas, and HDR images. Feel free to browse my Photos section.
I have a Canon EOS Rebel XTi (400D) that I'm very happy with. I have three lenses that I use (not including the crappy kit lens):
- EF 50mm f/1.8
- EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM
- EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8
I really like the three lenses, and would highly recommend the 60mm if you enjoy macro and have a Rebel body. The 17-55mm lens is a bit heavy, but the Image Stabilization makes up for it. I have noticed some dark corners when zoomed all the way out though, which disappoints me, but it takes good photos, so who am I to complain?