Zerocross

Michael McNicholas San Jose, CA


Prizes at Coney Island, NY

About Michael McNicholas

Shoes12
Neck16
Sleeve36
Suits40 Long
Waist33
Inseam35.25
T-shirtsMedium
Height6'3
Weight180 lbs
DOBFeb 19, 1976
IQ142
SAT score1430 (730 Math / 700 Verbal)
Enneagram Personality Test Type:Reformer
Keirsey Personality Test Type:Idealist
BornPittsburgh, PA
RaisedToronto, Ont
Elementary schoolSt Bonaventure Toronto, Ont
High schoolSt Michael's College School Toronto, Ont
UniversityMcGill University Montreal, PQ
Lives nowSan Jose, CA
Age35
Siblings1 sister, Adrienne age 39

This is the personal web site of Michael McNicholas of San Jose, CA. If visitors are curious about the origins of the exhibitism and solipsism which I believe motivates the creation of most personal websites and activity on social networks, I would suggest reading The Culture of Narcissism- American Life in An Age of Diminishing Expectations, by Christopher Lasch. Although written in the 1970's, I think his description of the increasingly inward-focused, isolated and selfish America helps explain the alot of the narcissism in social media and blogs.

What is Zero Cross?

In signal processing, a zero cross is when the voltage in a signal changes from positive to negative or vice-versa. A very noisy signal will have a lot of zero crosses, so by calculating the number of zero crosses you can get a rough estimate of the clarity of the signal. Also when sampling a signal, you should begin and end your recording at a zero cross to avoid a sharp pop. I studied digital audio signal processing in University and I figured I should do something with my education. Also, I think Zerocross sounds cool.

Books

I used to keep track of all the books I read, and since I had 90 minutes a day of commuting on the F Train in NYC, I read alot. However, in December 2005 I started studying for the Chartered Financial Analyst exams so I stopped pleasure reading for almost 2 years, and stopped tracking my reading.

Books I read since the 4th of July, 2005

  1. Currently reading, The White Africans From Colonisation to Liberation, by Gerald L'Ange
  2. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
  3. Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45, by Barbara W. Tuchman
  4. Out of Eden : An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion, by Alan Burdick
  5. The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson
  6. Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II, by James Tobin
  7. Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South, by Bertram Wyatt-Brown
  8. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
  9. The Grey Seas Under: The Perilous Rescue Mission of a North Atlantic Salvage Tug, by Farley Mowat
  10. Magnum: Fifty years at the Front Line of History, by Russell Miller
  11. In the land of White Death, by Valerian Albanov
  12. The Control of Nature, by John McPhee
  13. The Lost Children of Wilder: The Epic Struggle to Change Foster Care, by Nina Bernstein
  14. Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
  15. Six Days : How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East, by Jeremy Bowen
  16. The Art of the Deal, by Donald L. Trump
  17. Made in Ameria, by Sam Walton
  18. Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer
  19. The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, by Caroline Alexander
  20. Jarhead, by Anthony Swofford
  21. The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
  22. Been in the Storm so Long, the Aftermath of Slavery, by Leon F. Litwack
  23. The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman
  24. The Haunted Land : Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism, by Tina Rosenberg

Books I read the year before that

  1. Argall, by William T. Vollmann
  2. Fathers and Crows, by William T. Vollmann
  3. Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
  4. Survive the Savage Sea, by Dougal Robterson
  5. The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War, by Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva
  6. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
  7. Rifles, by William T. Vollmann
  8. Kafka by the Shore, by Haruki Murakami
  9. The Outlaw Sea : A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime, by William Langewiesche
  10. Gulag, by Anne Applebaum
  11. A Problem from Hell, America in the age of Genocide, by Samantha Powers
  12. War and Peace, by Lev Tolstoy
  13. Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carrol
  14. Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk
  15. Sea of Glory, by Nathaniel Philbrick
  16. Dispatches, by Michael Herr
  17. Sons of Mississippi, by Paul Hendrickson
  18. The 9/11 Commission Report, by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
  19. Against All Enemies, by Richard A. Clarke
  20. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera
  21. Sahara Unvieled, by William Langewiesche
  22. Inside the Sky- a Meditation on Flight, by William Langewiesche
  23. Why Globalization works, by Martin Wolfe
  24. Shake Hands with the Devil- The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, by Romeo A. Dallaire
  25. The Life of PI, by Yann Martel
  26. Rising Up and Rising Down, by William T. Vollman

Most recommended Books