We carved our pumpkins...
We put on our costumes...
We had ourselves a very successful Halloween as Pirate and Parrot.
...and Cat.Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween!
We carved our pumpkins...We put on our costumes...We had ourselves a very successful Halloween as Pirate and Parrot....and Cat.
Monday, October 24, 2011
More Carving
As of this morning, Halloween Artist appears in the opening, "Recommended" section of the HP app catalog.
To celebrate, here are some designs courtesy of numerous anonymous Jamba Juice workers on Utah Valley University's campus:
No shortage of good jack-o-lantern designers out there. :^) Some pictures from older releases are making the rounds on twitter as well:
http://twitpic.com/74zvqw
http://twitpic.com/74e7ax
http://twitpic.com/74d900
http://twitpic.com/74d4u7
http://twitpic.com/74av37
Thanks for your interest (and downloads) everyone, and keep carving!
To celebrate, here are some designs courtesy of numerous anonymous Jamba Juice workers on Utah Valley University's campus:
No shortage of good jack-o-lantern designers out there. :^) Some pictures from older releases are making the rounds on twitter as well:http://twitpic.com/74zvqw
http://twitpic.com/74e7ax
http://twitpic.com/74d900
http://twitpic.com/74d4u7
http://twitpic.com/74av37
Thanks for your interest (and downloads) everyone, and keep carving!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Halloween Artist
I've put together an app for the HP TouchPad called "Halloween Artist". It was fun to develop, and it's even more fun to play with. It went from being an idea I was pretty sure I wouldn't have time for a week or two ago, to being available in the App Catalog as of yesterday.
Kids in particular love this thing. The idea is very simple: draw face shapes on a pumpkin, hit a "carve" button, and boom, your design gets cut into the pumpkin and has a nice flickering candle glow behind it. Undo if you mess up, save a JPEG file if you like the result.
There's a little demonstration here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV_pYYDJCF8
...and a young friend of mine doing some beta testing here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz9SJGFrM7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKh-4b8tdDU
This is, I guess, just the latest in my established line of cute Halloween projects. :^)
Kids in particular love this thing. The idea is very simple: draw face shapes on a pumpkin, hit a "carve" button, and boom, your design gets cut into the pumpkin and has a nice flickering candle glow behind it. Undo if you mess up, save a JPEG file if you like the result.
There's a little demonstration here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV_pYYDJCF8
...and a young friend of mine doing some beta testing here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz9SJGFrM7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKh-4b8tdDU
This is, I guess, just the latest in my established line of cute Halloween projects. :^)
Friday, September 30, 2011
Happy Blasphemy Day!
Yes, it's a real thing...
Let's celebrate today the idea that every once in a while, maybe we could be not so damn uptight about religion. I personally don't consider anything truly blasphemous, with the possible exception of operating a grill without a cold beer in your hand. I'm with Socrates here, the unexamined life is not worth living. So, I'd like to share some personal favorite life-examining "blasphemies" of mine with you, and what better day than today.
http://www.joelwest.com/tagged/Bible_study
Joel's a guy I used to work with. Great guy, and very dedicated. He's also extremely funny. This link is to a subset of his blog in which he explores the idea of not interpreting the bible as stories and lessons, but taking it as literal history and fact. Hilarity ensues.
http://www.jesusandmo.net/
"Jesus and Mo" is a favorite webcomic of mine. It's very smart, and very direct in holding up its societal mirror. It's also quite humorous, provided the reader has a sense of humor.
http://www.venganza.org/
Ah, the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Not much needs to be said about this; it's well-known enough that I can say things like "let's just pray to the flying spaghetti monster that it works this time" and people don't look at me with any more confusion or concern than usual.
I don't have much cleverness to contribute to this fine blasphemy day, but I will say that if forced to choose a god, I prefer organic, free-range deities to the ones kept in cramped, steepled cages. I just don't like the idea of cutting off a god's beak and pumping it full of artificial growth sacraments. Seems blasphemous.
Let's celebrate today the idea that every once in a while, maybe we could be not so damn uptight about religion. I personally don't consider anything truly blasphemous, with the possible exception of operating a grill without a cold beer in your hand. I'm with Socrates here, the unexamined life is not worth living. So, I'd like to share some personal favorite life-examining "blasphemies" of mine with you, and what better day than today.
http://www.joelwest.com/tagged/Bible_study
Joel's a guy I used to work with. Great guy, and very dedicated. He's also extremely funny. This link is to a subset of his blog in which he explores the idea of not interpreting the bible as stories and lessons, but taking it as literal history and fact. Hilarity ensues.
http://www.jesusandmo.net/
"Jesus and Mo" is a favorite webcomic of mine. It's very smart, and very direct in holding up its societal mirror. It's also quite humorous, provided the reader has a sense of humor.
http://www.venganza.org/
Ah, the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Not much needs to be said about this; it's well-known enough that I can say things like "let's just pray to the flying spaghetti monster that it works this time" and people don't look at me with any more confusion or concern than usual.
I don't have much cleverness to contribute to this fine blasphemy day, but I will say that if forced to choose a god, I prefer organic, free-range deities to the ones kept in cramped, steepled cages. I just don't like the idea of cutting off a god's beak and pumping it full of artificial growth sacraments. Seems blasphemous.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Penduin's Ping Pong Paddle
The office got a ping-pong-slash-air-hockey table, and we all got paddles. They may be miniaturized sports, but I'm still massively bad at them. We all scribbled on our paddles to identify them though, so I do have something to bring to the table. :^)
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
The Yukon Blind Dream
I had many excellent teachers at UWRF, often taking the listed professor into greater account than the course description when signing up for classes. It's with no lack of respect for any of them that I single out Dr. Imtiaz Moosa as one of my absolute favorites. I may be a programmer by degree and vocation, but it's his philosophy classes I remember most vividly.
When I was in his classrooms, Dr. Moosa's eyesight was pretty lousy by most standards, but he could see. More importantly, he opened up students' metaphorical eyes by the roomful. This guy will make you think, hard, to the point of discomfort. And to me, that's a necessary and welcome element of growth.
Today, my dear old professor can no longer see, but he's as strong and bombastic (to use one of his favorite words) as ever. I recently got back in touch with him over email, and learned of a pretty extraordinary adventure he took this summer:
http://blog.mailasail.com/theyukonblind
There's a lot of reading there, but it's well worth the time. He and a friend chronicled their Yukon journey, along with some hints of the fascinating discussions they had. I feel like I knew Dr. Moosa pretty well, for a student anyway, but reading his co-adventurer's account showed me some new sides and surprises along with the classic, familiar moments:
Dr. Moosa and I talked a fair amount outside of class, with topics covering a full spectrum, but as I read the second-hand story of his vision permanently failing, I recalled a conversation we had that at the time seemed pretty insignificant. He and I both had pretty good-sized bald spots (though his was much more age-appropriate) and he was telling me how it was a source of embarrassment. My view was, and remains, "Well, it's only hair; I could be losing something useful". I remember him being impressed with my attitude, and maybe even a bit comforted. And now of course, he has lost something useful, and it feels like a pretty stupid thing to have said.
But it wasn't his hair or his eyesight that made him my favorite professor. If today we were to get into a good old-fashioned debate, and he were to bring my old words back to me, then I think I could argue my way around them. ...And that's as much his fault as mine. :^)
When I was in his classrooms, Dr. Moosa's eyesight was pretty lousy by most standards, but he could see. More importantly, he opened up students' metaphorical eyes by the roomful. This guy will make you think, hard, to the point of discomfort. And to me, that's a necessary and welcome element of growth.
Today, my dear old professor can no longer see, but he's as strong and bombastic (to use one of his favorite words) as ever. I recently got back in touch with him over email, and learned of a pretty extraordinary adventure he took this summer:
http://blog.mailasail.com/theyukonblind
There's a lot of reading there, but it's well worth the time. He and a friend chronicled their Yukon journey, along with some hints of the fascinating discussions they had. I feel like I knew Dr. Moosa pretty well, for a student anyway, but reading his co-adventurer's account showed me some new sides and surprises along with the classic, familiar moments:
He insists on walking without being connected to me, and is quite happy walking into the odd bush / tree for that freedom. I describe the terrain and scenery, and he just responds with: "I just love this".That's him, all right. It's even a good metaphor for those of us who loved his classes - we may not have had all the faculties to fully appreciate what he presented to us, but there's nothing we'd have traded for the journey.
Dr. Moosa and I talked a fair amount outside of class, with topics covering a full spectrum, but as I read the second-hand story of his vision permanently failing, I recalled a conversation we had that at the time seemed pretty insignificant. He and I both had pretty good-sized bald spots (though his was much more age-appropriate) and he was telling me how it was a source of embarrassment. My view was, and remains, "Well, it's only hair; I could be losing something useful". I remember him being impressed with my attitude, and maybe even a bit comforted. And now of course, he has lost something useful, and it feels like a pretty stupid thing to have said.
But it wasn't his hair or his eyesight that made him my favorite professor. If today we were to get into a good old-fashioned debate, and he were to bring my old words back to me, then I think I could argue my way around them. ...And that's as much his fault as mine. :^)
Monday, July 25, 2011
Negotiations
I've got it! I have figured out where the Democrats learned how to negotiate. Behold:
...If you or your browser don't want to play the clip, here's the highlight: "As a gesture of good will, I'm gonna give you another hostage."
...If you or your browser don't want to play the clip, here's the highlight: "As a gesture of good will, I'm gonna give you another hostage."
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Failure in Lyrics
Once in a store, and once in an airport restaurant, I have recently encountered a certain song. I have no idea who sings, it and I don't much care. It's catchy, but not my style. In any case, the song fell onto my growing list of "terrible crap that needs to go away" because of the following lyrical tragedy:
Just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the price tag
...So, an alleged songwriter somewhere needed a two-syllable finance word that rhymes with "world dance". A two-syllable... finance... word... Oh! I know, "price tag"!
Come on.
Just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the price tag
...So, an alleged songwriter somewhere needed a two-syllable finance word that rhymes with "world dance". A two-syllable... finance... word... Oh! I know, "price tag"!
Come on.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
GIMP Color Range Mapping
[note: This first section was typed in early February]
I've been a fan of the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) for a looong time. It's helped me create and modify and fake many, many pictures over the years.
A while ago, one of its features vanished. The code behind it was a mess, and the developers didn't see its value. It would have been a pain to go through and make it work the way a modern GIMP plug-in should, so it (along with other stuff which richly deserved to get culled) was lost. Overall, GIMP got better, but a handful of people including myself really wanted our color range mapping back.
We had some tricks. An old binary of the plug-in would still load and run happily on newer versions of GIMP until pretty recently. But GIMP has moved on, and at this point, that crufty old plug-in just won't cut it.
Well, long story short:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=641893
I fixed up the code, and submitted a patch. With any luck, future versions of GIMP will include my refactor of that good ol' plug-in.
Here's what it does, if you're curious:
You define a pair of source colors (usually colors from your current image) and another pair of colors as a destination. All areas of the image that match your source colors get changed to your destination colors, and, most importantly, all colors that are in between your source color pair get translated as colors between your destination pair. It's very useful for altering images that have anti-aliasing baked in, or large patches of color with subtle-but-important variation.
...As you might see from the discussion on gnome.org, even the developers don't really understand why this is so great, so don't feel bad if you didn't follow all that. :^)
[note: the following section is from today]
I've given up trying to convince the developers to take my patch. Or even look at it, it sounds like. It's too bad, but anyone else like me who wants the feature back can apply my code and have it. I'm tempted to babble about some of the common things that open/free software gets wrong when dealing with its community, but they're largely known.
Probably, I should have brought it to them as "here's a new feature" instead of "this went away and I've revived it". Then I'd only have had to climb the shallower "not-invented-here" incline instead of the steeper "we already decided no" one. Either way I'd have still faced "why would you want to do that", which is particularly obnoxious and spans all of software (and many other areas, I'm sure).
Ahh well, live and learn. Or, just live. :^)
[update: 2011-08-19]
to patch against stable release code (as opposed to the latest from the git repository) give this a try:
http://penduin.net/projects/color-range-mapping-2.6.x.patch
[update: 2018-01-10]
If building from source is not your cup of tea, others have figured out another clever way of resurrecting this feature:
http://billauer.co.il/blog/2010/06/gimp-map-color-range-mapping-64-bit/
https://wtanaka.com/node/7904
I've been a fan of the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) for a looong time. It's helped me create and modify and fake many, many pictures over the years.
A while ago, one of its features vanished. The code behind it was a mess, and the developers didn't see its value. It would have been a pain to go through and make it work the way a modern GIMP plug-in should, so it (along with other stuff which richly deserved to get culled) was lost. Overall, GIMP got better, but a handful of people including myself really wanted our color range mapping back.
We had some tricks. An old binary of the plug-in would still load and run happily on newer versions of GIMP until pretty recently. But GIMP has moved on, and at this point, that crufty old plug-in just won't cut it.
Well, long story short:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=641893
I fixed up the code, and submitted a patch. With any luck, future versions of GIMP will include my refactor of that good ol' plug-in.
Here's what it does, if you're curious:
You define a pair of source colors (usually colors from your current image) and another pair of colors as a destination. All areas of the image that match your source colors get changed to your destination colors, and, most importantly, all colors that are in between your source color pair get translated as colors between your destination pair. It's very useful for altering images that have anti-aliasing baked in, or large patches of color with subtle-but-important variation.
...As you might see from the discussion on gnome.org, even the developers don't really understand why this is so great, so don't feel bad if you didn't follow all that. :^)
[note: the following section is from today]
I've given up trying to convince the developers to take my patch. Or even look at it, it sounds like. It's too bad, but anyone else like me who wants the feature back can apply my code and have it. I'm tempted to babble about some of the common things that open/free software gets wrong when dealing with its community, but they're largely known.
Probably, I should have brought it to them as "here's a new feature" instead of "this went away and I've revived it". Then I'd only have had to climb the shallower "not-invented-here" incline instead of the steeper "we already decided no" one. Either way I'd have still faced "why would you want to do that", which is particularly obnoxious and spans all of software (and many other areas, I'm sure).
Ahh well, live and learn. Or, just live. :^)
[update: 2011-08-19]
to patch against stable release code (as opposed to the latest from the git repository) give this a try:
http://penduin.net/projects/color-range-mapping-2.6.x.patch
[update: 2018-01-10]
If building from source is not your cup of tea, others have figured out another clever way of resurrecting this feature:
http://billauer.co.il/blog/2010/06/gimp-map-color-range-mapping-64-bit/
https://wtanaka.com/node/7904
Sunday, May 01, 2011
He's Dead
Holy crap. I've felt a lot of things upon hearing the news that someone has died, but this time, I feel like the world is lighter. Better.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/01/135905185/osama-bin-laden-is-dead-officials-say
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/01/135905185/osama-bin-laden-is-dead-officials-say
Friday, April 29, 2011
How to Fix Ubuntu 11
I upgraded my laptop to Ubuntu 11 today, but I should have first tried a liveCD or something. The new "Unity" UI is a complete and unmitigated disaster. Maybe it would work ok on a little netbook or a tablet or something, but it's atrocious on a "real" computer. Anyway, here's what I've done to get myself back to a working, sane interface, should anybody else find themselves as shocked and horrified as I did:
1) Login with "Ubuntu Classic" instead of the new default. Duh.
2) Change Audacious's horrifying new interface back to winamp-style. Also duh.
3) Turn off Compiz's evil/disruptive/wrong/horrible "Grid" plugin.
(`apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager` to do so)
4) Get rid of the clumsy new "overlay" scrollbar.
(echo “export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0″ >/etc/X11/Xsession.d/80properscrollbars)
5) Not technically an Ubuntu thing, but fix FireFox's status bar.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/
There was also some cleanup to do with my toolbar, but it was pretty minor and the new layout actually has less clutter. Anyway, in the words of Dr. Zoidberg, "Life was bad, but now it's good! Forever!"
1) Login with "Ubuntu Classic" instead of the new default. Duh.
2) Change Audacious's horrifying new interface back to winamp-style. Also duh.
3) Turn off Compiz's evil/disruptive/wrong/horrible "Grid" plugin.
(`apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager` to do so)
4) Get rid of the clumsy new "overlay" scrollbar.
(echo “export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0″ >/etc/X11/Xsession.d/80properscrollbars)
5) Not technically an Ubuntu thing, but fix FireFox's status bar.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/
There was also some cleanup to do with my toolbar, but it was pretty minor and the new layout actually has less clutter. Anyway, in the words of Dr. Zoidberg, "Life was bad, but now it's good! Forever!"
Friday, April 08, 2011
Grillin' in the Rain
We're grilling in the rain
Just grilling in the rain
What a glorious bratwurst
We're stuffed if not sane
Cramped below an overhang
The entire workplace gang
We're grilling, and drinking, in the rain
Just grilling in the rain
What a glorious bratwurst
We're stuffed if not sane
Cramped below an overhang
The entire workplace gang
We're grilling, and drinking, in the rain
Monday, April 04, 2011
The 3DS
As is apparently tradition now, I picked up the latest Nintendo system right away. The 3DS doesn't have very many games yet (though it does still play the older DS library) but it does feature some pretty slick built-in stuff including a Mii creator (a superset of the Wii's) and a 3D camera.
There are also some "AR" (augmented reality) games and toys included, which are pretty crazy in technical terms. This is the kind of device that you really need to see with your own eyes, but I've pulled out the 3D pictures I took and put together a little web viewer for them. These are pictures which literally make you go cross-eyed while looking at them, but I can't think of any other way to show you 3D pictures through your 2D computer monitor. :^)
http://penduin.net/3ds
Also: anyone with a 3DS, I hereby encourage you to import my Mii from that QR code on the right.
There are also some "AR" (augmented reality) games and toys included, which are pretty crazy in technical terms. This is the kind of device that you really need to see with your own eyes, but I've pulled out the 3D pictures I took and put together a little web viewer for them. These are pictures which literally make you go cross-eyed while looking at them, but I can't think of any other way to show you 3D pictures through your 2D computer monitor. :^)
http://penduin.net/3ds
Also: anyone with a 3DS, I hereby encourage you to import my Mii from that QR code on the right.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Cinematic Word Abuse
Hollywood, we've talked about this. Stop it. Just make up your own words when you need some hocus-pocus to happen. Don't steal our real words and abuse them.
It's bad enough in police mystery shows. "Encrypted pixels" and stuff. Don't use or combine words that you don't understand. It's bad writing, and the resulting scenes are bad. But now, there's a film whose very title is wrong.
"The Source Code", the generic deep voice says, after the entire plot is shown in a 30-second TV spot.
I've glimpsed plenty of ads for this movie, which only means it could be anywhere from six months before the theatrical release to sitting in the DVD bargain bin at the grocery store. But "The Source Code", which is English for human-readable instructions for a computer, written in C or Python or Java or whatnot, here means "some magical means of time travel". Do me a favor, while you're in your web browser. Hit "View"->"Page Source" to open the source code for this page; there's some JavaScript near the bottom. See if you go hurtling back in time. Did it work? No? Hm.
See, instead of "modern day vampires = $$$", the lesson that should have been learned from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is this: Set the show up on a hellmouth, or some other place where magic and demons and impossible-but-fun nonsense is real. Don't say the computer is magic. It's not. While we're at it, no more loser-in-a-tree vampires either, 'kay?
But back to my point, don't hijack real words and phrases! Source code is very important and useful for many reasons, but time travel is not among them! I'll even go one step further and try to be constructive. Call it the Ghost Minutes Spell, or the Past Injection Curse. If you really want to have computers involved, stick it in a Matrix-like setting and call it the Crisis Backtrace or the ... actually, I can't come up with any computer words other than "backtrace" that even vaguely could have something to do with time travel.
But who am I to tell Hollywood producers anything, huh? I've only been writing source code since I was six. ...And, come to think of it, I also wrote two terrible movies, complete with crappy (though not outright lying) titles. At least I had the decency to not be able to finish shooting the second one. ;^)
It's bad enough in police mystery shows. "Encrypted pixels" and stuff. Don't use or combine words that you don't understand. It's bad writing, and the resulting scenes are bad. But now, there's a film whose very title is wrong.
"The Source Code", the generic deep voice says, after the entire plot is shown in a 30-second TV spot.
I've glimpsed plenty of ads for this movie, which only means it could be anywhere from six months before the theatrical release to sitting in the DVD bargain bin at the grocery store. But "The Source Code", which is English for human-readable instructions for a computer, written in C or Python or Java or whatnot, here means "some magical means of time travel". Do me a favor, while you're in your web browser. Hit "View"->"Page Source" to open the source code for this page; there's some JavaScript near the bottom. See if you go hurtling back in time. Did it work? No? Hm.
See, instead of "modern day vampires = $$$", the lesson that should have been learned from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is this: Set the show up on a hellmouth, or some other place where magic and demons and impossible-but-fun nonsense is real. Don't say the computer is magic. It's not. While we're at it, no more loser-in-a-tree vampires either, 'kay?
But back to my point, don't hijack real words and phrases! Source code is very important and useful for many reasons, but time travel is not among them! I'll even go one step further and try to be constructive. Call it the Ghost Minutes Spell, or the Past Injection Curse. If you really want to have computers involved, stick it in a Matrix-like setting and call it the Crisis Backtrace or the ... actually, I can't come up with any computer words other than "backtrace" that even vaguely could have something to do with time travel.
But who am I to tell Hollywood producers anything, huh? I've only been writing source code since I was six. ...And, come to think of it, I also wrote two terrible movies, complete with crappy (though not outright lying) titles. At least I had the decency to not be able to finish shooting the second one. ;^)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Religion in America
Of developed, post-industrial nations, the US has an unusually high amount of religion, per capita and in terms of individuals' levels of devotion. I've heard a number of reasons this might be true, but this morning I heard one that seems pretty valid.
Religion in America is business.
We have no "national religion" here, and the sane among us would like to keep it that way. What we do have is carte blanche for businesses to do and to grow in any way they're able, and this presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs: figure out how to keep the pews filled.
Insert a Mark Twain quote here about all the people of the world united in worshiping money. Business is the American national religion, and vice-versa. In a way, churches are just about the only Main Street businesses left. Attempts have been made at Wal-Mart-style mega-houses of worship, but they largely haven't caught on. Who knows whether that's good or bad, but it's what the invisible hand of the market has determined.
Religious disagreements and intolerances are, in this society, less about traditional persecution and holy wars, and more akin to brand loyalty. I'm glad there are less western-society-on-western-society bloodbaths and flame-happy witch hunts these days, but just like its relationship with politics, religion's pairing with business seems only to distort and cheapen it. What Would Jesus Sell? Evidently, he's a key spokesperson for guns, homophobia, and censorship of evolution and climate science. It's a bit hard to imagine the pacifistic, middle-eastern Jewish philosopher sitting on the board of directors going over the return on investment of these branches.
Personally, I have neither business acumen nor religious faith, but it makes me glad to see either used to help others. My employer, Messaging Architects, just matched all of its employees' donations to help out in Japan. At the same time, I find very depressing the common power grabs and the systemic corruption and the excuses to be extremely crappy to one another. I guess the lessons are the same. Our religious and/or corporate collectives have their own agendas, and can be measured better by the quality, not the quantity, of people under their umbrellas.
Religion in America is business.
We have no "national religion" here, and the sane among us would like to keep it that way. What we do have is carte blanche for businesses to do and to grow in any way they're able, and this presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs: figure out how to keep the pews filled.
Insert a Mark Twain quote here about all the people of the world united in worshiping money. Business is the American national religion, and vice-versa. In a way, churches are just about the only Main Street businesses left. Attempts have been made at Wal-Mart-style mega-houses of worship, but they largely haven't caught on. Who knows whether that's good or bad, but it's what the invisible hand of the market has determined.
Religious disagreements and intolerances are, in this society, less about traditional persecution and holy wars, and more akin to brand loyalty. I'm glad there are less western-society-on-western-society bloodbaths and flame-happy witch hunts these days, but just like its relationship with politics, religion's pairing with business seems only to distort and cheapen it. What Would Jesus Sell? Evidently, he's a key spokesperson for guns, homophobia, and censorship of evolution and climate science. It's a bit hard to imagine the pacifistic, middle-eastern Jewish philosopher sitting on the board of directors going over the return on investment of these branches.
Personally, I have neither business acumen nor religious faith, but it makes me glad to see either used to help others. My employer, Messaging Architects, just matched all of its employees' donations to help out in Japan. At the same time, I find very depressing the common power grabs and the systemic corruption and the excuses to be extremely crappy to one another. I guess the lessons are the same. Our religious and/or corporate collectives have their own agendas, and can be measured better by the quality, not the quantity, of people under their umbrellas.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Gah, Spam
It's been a long time since this (low, low traffic) blog had any attention from spammers, but I got a batch today, every post on the front page was suddenly linking to some lovely pyramid scheme.
The good news:
I cleaned it all up, and now have changed the comment settings. Moderation is on, and so are public comments. So now anyone can post, but it's got to survive the filter known as me. :^)
The bad news:
Just as I was deleting stuff I think I saw a legit comment or two, which I also haven't had in quite a while. So if you commented and I blew it away, it was nothing personal! Try 'er again and as long as you're not selling the opportunity of a lifetime, I'll pass it on through.
The good news:
I cleaned it all up, and now have changed the comment settings. Moderation is on, and so are public comments. So now anyone can post, but it's got to survive the filter known as me. :^)
The bad news:
Just as I was deleting stuff I think I saw a legit comment or two, which I also haven't had in quite a while. So if you commented and I blew it away, it was nothing personal! Try 'er again and as long as you're not selling the opportunity of a lifetime, I'll pass it on through.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Daylight Wastings Time
Grumble grumble... outdated idea that made no sense to begin with, stealing a precious hour of sleep every year...
Franklin had lots of good ideas, and Arizona lots of bad ones, but in this case I've got to come down on the side of not screwing around with the already arbitrarily-defined clocks twice a year.
For that matter, I'd be perfectly fine moving the entire planet to 24-hour UTC (or GMT, whatever you want to call it), maybe start chipping away at the mass delusions we seem to have about each being at the center of anything.
posted at: Sun Mar 13 18:44:04 UTC 2011
Franklin had lots of good ideas, and Arizona lots of bad ones, but in this case I've got to come down on the side of not screwing around with the already arbitrarily-defined clocks twice a year.
For that matter, I'd be perfectly fine moving the entire planet to 24-hour UTC (or GMT, whatever you want to call it), maybe start chipping away at the mass delusions we seem to have about each being at the center of anything.
posted at: Sun Mar 13 18:44:04 UTC 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Pride
I'm proud of my home state of Wisconsin, for its good people being properly outraged by the recent disgraceful actions of its senate and governor. Keep fighting the good fight, fellow cheeseheads! Don't let these corrupt, backwards bastards get away with their bullshit.
I'm proud of my current-home state of Utah today too, not over anything political, but because when I pulled into the liquor store's parking lot today (in preparation for brat Friday) I wasn't the only one waiting for its doors to open. There was even a lady who took her kids in there, which I guess I've got more mixed feelings about, but salutations to we the few drinkers here in Utah valley.
I'm proud of the people in the middle east fighting for their freedom, and I'm proud of our president and everyone else who is sending aid to Japan and other devastated areas. There's a lot of frighteningly bad stuff going on at the moment, but we have to keep a level head and support the good guys.
I'm proud of my current-home state of Utah today too, not over anything political, but because when I pulled into the liquor store's parking lot today (in preparation for brat Friday) I wasn't the only one waiting for its doors to open. There was even a lady who took her kids in there, which I guess I've got more mixed feelings about, but salutations to we the few drinkers here in Utah valley.
I'm proud of the people in the middle east fighting for their freedom, and I'm proud of our president and everyone else who is sending aid to Japan and other devastated areas. There's a lot of frighteningly bad stuff going on at the moment, but we have to keep a level head and support the good guys.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Banterly (plug for a buddy)
My friend Proby has put together a service called Banterly. It's a live chat hosting service; you can join or set up public or private rooms for any topics you like. At the moment it uses Twitter for authentication, so I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure he'll appreciate whatever little publicity I can give him. If you're a twit- I mean, if you ... use twitter, give it a try!
http://www.banter.ly/
http://www.banter.ly/
Friday, February 11, 2011
Gee Wiz
A while ago (a year? I don't know) I bought a GP2X Wiz. It's a little Gameboy-like device which, unlike most others, is designed to be open for all developers. My first reaction to reading about it was, "hey, I could get TONG to run on that!"
...If that was gibberish to you, TONG is a game I wrote ages ago in which you are tasked with playing Tetris and Pong on the same screen at the same time. It's very hard, and I apologize to anyone who has gone insane while playing it.
Anyway, so I bought a Wiz, with the primary purpose of porting TONG to it. But I got busy, and it became a lower priority, and then it just kind of sat there neglected and forgotten for a long while.
A week or so ago I came upon it and decided to charge it up again, and load it with some games from the internet. Time to see what people who hadn't forgotten about it had accomplished. As I was browsing and downloading various free games, what did I find but TONG! Some crazy person out there had found my game, played it, enjoyed it (at least enough to want a portable version), then dug into the source code and data, made some modifications, cross-compiled it for the device, then shared the resulting package with the Wiz community. That blew my mind a bit.
Anyway I'm very pleased. It's a bit of a quick and dirty port, using a slightly older version of TONG and the music was missing, but it runs great! I'm distributing a version of it myself now, with some new features, all the music intact and using the latest code.
Has anyone seen TONG spring up anywhere else? I was hoping to get it running on the Wii at some point, has somebody done that already? :^)
...If that was gibberish to you, TONG is a game I wrote ages ago in which you are tasked with playing Tetris and Pong on the same screen at the same time. It's very hard, and I apologize to anyone who has gone insane while playing it.
Anyway, so I bought a Wiz, with the primary purpose of porting TONG to it. But I got busy, and it became a lower priority, and then it just kind of sat there neglected and forgotten for a long while.
A week or so ago I came upon it and decided to charge it up again, and load it with some games from the internet. Time to see what people who hadn't forgotten about it had accomplished. As I was browsing and downloading various free games, what did I find but TONG! Some crazy person out there had found my game, played it, enjoyed it (at least enough to want a portable version), then dug into the source code and data, made some modifications, cross-compiled it for the device, then shared the resulting package with the Wiz community. That blew my mind a bit.
Anyway I'm very pleased. It's a bit of a quick and dirty port, using a slightly older version of TONG and the music was missing, but it runs great! I'm distributing a version of it myself now, with some new features, all the music intact and using the latest code.
Has anyone seen TONG spring up anywhere else? I was hoping to get it running on the Wii at some point, has somebody done that already? :^)
Monday, February 07, 2011
Actualized!
It was right! I was going to take a photo of this, type some stuff in, and post it, but I didn't even need to! I just affirmed it (whatever that means), visualized it, believed it, and this post, complete with photo, just actualized itself! ...Oh wait, no it didn't.
And isn't "actualize" an accounting word?
Anyway, dumbest "fortune" so far. I've followed its instructions to the letter but it hasn't caused even a single beer to materialize before me.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
New Morning Routine
"Cat... Move, I have to go through the door."
No. Is mine sunny spot.
We done. You go way now.Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
You have a quiet and unobrusive nature.
That's my "fortune", according to the cookie I got with lunch today. Really more of an observation cookie, I'd say. At least it was pretty accurate.
I do have a "get out of the way" trait. I don't know if it's a recessive expression from the absence of the dominant and common "me-first" gene, or an overdeveloped sense of personal space, or what. But it causes problems when trying to buy stuff at concerts or when I have something to say but there's never a silent beat in a conversation.
Part of it is as simple as the golden rule. I hate being interrupted, so it feels hateful to do it to someone else. I don't much care for loudness either.
Part of it is basic courtesy. At a busy four-way stop, I can count to four without even having to take my hands off the wheel. Many people cannot, chief among them drivers of large pickup trucks. I find that annoying, but not enough to get assertive about it. Not against vehicles and people that thick.
In fact, my "quiet and unobtrusive nature" is fighting against this post being published. I'm not penning any meaningful statements, making any insightful observations, or even sharing any funny thoughts. I find myself asking why I should pollute the web with this, why I should waste the time of anyone who happens to read it.
Well, nuts to you, recessive genes! I'm posting! That's the way the fortune cookie crumbles!
I do have a "get out of the way" trait. I don't know if it's a recessive expression from the absence of the dominant and common "me-first" gene, or an overdeveloped sense of personal space, or what. But it causes problems when trying to buy stuff at concerts or when I have something to say but there's never a silent beat in a conversation.
Part of it is as simple as the golden rule. I hate being interrupted, so it feels hateful to do it to someone else. I don't much care for loudness either.
Part of it is basic courtesy. At a busy four-way stop, I can count to four without even having to take my hands off the wheel. Many people cannot, chief among them drivers of large pickup trucks. I find that annoying, but not enough to get assertive about it. Not against vehicles and people that thick.
In fact, my "quiet and unobtrusive nature" is fighting against this post being published. I'm not penning any meaningful statements, making any insightful observations, or even sharing any funny thoughts. I find myself asking why I should pollute the web with this, why I should waste the time of anyone who happens to read it.
Well, nuts to you, recessive genes! I'm posting! That's the way the fortune cookie crumbles!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Weight
I'm about 20 pounds heavier than I thought I was. My clothes still fit the same. Maybe it's all beard?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Sony, Go Sue Yourself
Warning: geekiness and venting ahead!
A few years ago, a very fancy (though unimaginatively-named) gaming machine was released, the PlayStation 3. I got one, for gaming reasons (Metal Gear, primarily) and because it had a novel feature for a gaming console: the ability to run GNU/Linux (or other operating systems as well) out of the box. I get to write and run my own code on a high-end 7-core CELL system? Yes please!
Of course, games are the primary business of the system, but the "Other OS" feature was widely advertised and very appealing to people like me. Recently, though, Sony saw fit to steal that feature away from myself and thousands of other geeky, premium-paying, early-adopting, target-audience technophiles. A mandatory system update removed the functionality completely. (I sure hope Ford doesn't remove my emergency brake, just because relatively few people use it...)
So there we were, a bunch of geeks who want to write our own programs to run on our own fancy PS3s, with the rug pulled out from under us. Well, turns out that us geeks, we're kinda geeky. And some of us are pretty clever. (I use "us" rather broadly there; I personally have only a little knowledge of how the PS3 works.) Long story short, some very bright people figured out ways to once again be able to load and run our own programs on a PS3. What Sony taketh, the community giveth back.
Now, Sony has filed for restraining orders against several of the lead geeks who won us back our freedom. As best I can tell, it amounts to nothing more than a scare tactic. Nevertheless, let's boil down this chain of events:
- Sony: Buy a PS3! You can even write your own software for it!
- Geeks: Yayy! Here's lots of money!
- Sony: Mmm, money...
- Geeks: This machine is great! Gaming AND homebrew!
- Sony: Actually... no more writing your own stuff.
- Geeks: What?! We paid for that, give it back!
- Sony: No.
- Geeks: Oh look, we can still write our own stuff.
- Sony: Lawyers ATTACK!
From Sony's point of view, the new ways of running homebrew are cause for concern, because some folks will very likely figure out how to copy and play retail PS3 games they haven't paid for. (In fact, they already have.) But that's not why I care about it, and it's not why most other geeks care about it. We care because we bought a machine that we could code for, and we intend to keep it that way. We were quite happy with Sony's sanctioned, non-piracy-enabling "Other OS" feature. Once they removed it, what were we supposed to do? Stop being geeks and give up on something we already had? Have you ever met a geek? That's not how we roll.
There is a class-action lawsuit concerning Sony's mass theft, or bait-and-switch, or whatever one wants to call it. But it won't succeed; the law protects wealthy (and foreign, in this case) corporations, not consumers. The homebrew community, all of us still fans of the PS3, simply want the machine we purchased: a beefy system that plays games, shows blu-rays, and runs homebrew.
[update: the class-action case was indeed thrown out.]
That's what you sold us, Sony. That's what we all agreed to. You stole part of our own PS3s from us, and we've taken it back. If you want to sue someone for opening roads that could lead to piracy, go sue yourself.
A few years ago, a very fancy (though unimaginatively-named) gaming machine was released, the PlayStation 3. I got one, for gaming reasons (Metal Gear, primarily) and because it had a novel feature for a gaming console: the ability to run GNU/Linux (or other operating systems as well) out of the box. I get to write and run my own code on a high-end 7-core CELL system? Yes please!
Of course, games are the primary business of the system, but the "Other OS" feature was widely advertised and very appealing to people like me. Recently, though, Sony saw fit to steal that feature away from myself and thousands of other geeky, premium-paying, early-adopting, target-audience technophiles. A mandatory system update removed the functionality completely. (I sure hope Ford doesn't remove my emergency brake, just because relatively few people use it...)
So there we were, a bunch of geeks who want to write our own programs to run on our own fancy PS3s, with the rug pulled out from under us. Well, turns out that us geeks, we're kinda geeky. And some of us are pretty clever. (I use "us" rather broadly there; I personally have only a little knowledge of how the PS3 works.) Long story short, some very bright people figured out ways to once again be able to load and run our own programs on a PS3. What Sony taketh, the community giveth back.
Now, Sony has filed for restraining orders against several of the lead geeks who won us back our freedom. As best I can tell, it amounts to nothing more than a scare tactic. Nevertheless, let's boil down this chain of events:
- Sony: Buy a PS3! You can even write your own software for it!
- Geeks: Yayy! Here's lots of money!
- Sony: Mmm, money...
- Geeks: This machine is great! Gaming AND homebrew!
- Sony: Actually... no more writing your own stuff.
- Geeks: What?! We paid for that, give it back!
- Sony: No.
- Geeks: Oh look, we can still write our own stuff.
- Sony: Lawyers ATTACK!
From Sony's point of view, the new ways of running homebrew are cause for concern, because some folks will very likely figure out how to copy and play retail PS3 games they haven't paid for. (In fact, they already have.) But that's not why I care about it, and it's not why most other geeks care about it. We care because we bought a machine that we could code for, and we intend to keep it that way. We were quite happy with Sony's sanctioned, non-piracy-enabling "Other OS" feature. Once they removed it, what were we supposed to do? Stop being geeks and give up on something we already had? Have you ever met a geek? That's not how we roll.
There is a class-action lawsuit concerning Sony's mass theft, or bait-and-switch, or whatever one wants to call it. But it won't succeed; the law protects wealthy (and foreign, in this case) corporations, not consumers. The homebrew community, all of us still fans of the PS3, simply want the machine we purchased: a beefy system that plays games, shows blu-rays, and runs homebrew.
[update: the class-action case was indeed thrown out.]
That's what you sold us, Sony. That's what we all agreed to. You stole part of our own PS3s from us, and we've taken it back. If you want to sue someone for opening roads that could lead to piracy, go sue yourself.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Young Claus and Sharp Claus
"Young Claus" and "Sharp Claus"Some say my too-lazy-to-shave beard has earned me the appearance of a young Santa (or possibly the ghost of Christmas present). And the cat, well, you maybe can figure out that pun for yourself.
Anyway, Happy Holidays!
Edit:
I've been asked a few times what that shirt says. It features a Nintendo controller and says, "I have control issues."
...but I like the sentence it forms in the photo: "I have... cat."
Monday, December 06, 2010
The Blind Blinding the Blind
I've had more occasion to drive at night lately, so in addition to dealing with the usual Blind-spot Billy, Cell-phone Cindi, Double-lane Doug, Lane-weaver Lenny and Slow-merge Stella, I get to contend with another faceless freeway stereotype: Nova-beam Ned.
You've seen this guy, right? Who could miss him?
Now, I'm an engineer. I understand and appreciate that the task which falls to headlights is one of cruel difficulty. A car's headlight must illuminate (well into human-eye levels) a relatively flat surface (which is usually black), as great a distance as possible, without melting its surroundings (in fact, there's a nice hot internal combustion engine inches away), from an angle that's approaching zero degrees.
It's a ridiculous job. So, in many vehicles (see: status symbol pickups) the headlights play fast and loose with the low angle. Mount 'em higher, and the other problems shrink. Of course, it means that the driver of that car gets to see better, while the drivers of every other car on the road get two retinas full of blinding glare.
A second (and even more evil) tactic is to replace the light bulb with a dimensional portal, connected via space-time-bending wormhole to a massive star currently going supernova. ...Or maybe it's just a really powerful blue bulb, I guess that's possible. Whatever they are, I hate them, and if you have them in your car, I hate you, and you are a bad person.
Nova-beam Ned: To call you a heartless sociopath would be an insult to the heartless sociopath community. I want to mount a heavy and expensive adjustable parabolic mirror on my car, to reflect the torrent of angry light blasting from your evidently nuclear-powered car down to a fine point, focused like the sun through a magnifying glass, directly into your eyes. Once your irises are vaporized and your corneas aflame, I want to shatter those blue bulbs of death, and grind the resulting mess of broken glass and high-voltage wire right into the raw, bleeding cavities once home to your eyes, wreaking havoc on the remaining nerve tissue and sending unholy wattage into the optic center of your brain.
Do I want to do these things because I'm sadistic? Well maybe. But mainly, I want karma to balance. I want done unto you what you have done unto others. ...Actually, I just want you to use regular non-nova-beam headlights like a sane person. Would that work for you?
(see? So much nicer...)
You've seen this guy, right? Who could miss him?Now, I'm an engineer. I understand and appreciate that the task which falls to headlights is one of cruel difficulty. A car's headlight must illuminate (well into human-eye levels) a relatively flat surface (which is usually black), as great a distance as possible, without melting its surroundings (in fact, there's a nice hot internal combustion engine inches away), from an angle that's approaching zero degrees.
It's a ridiculous job. So, in many vehicles (see: status symbol pickups) the headlights play fast and loose with the low angle. Mount 'em higher, and the other problems shrink. Of course, it means that the driver of that car gets to see better, while the drivers of every other car on the road get two retinas full of blinding glare.
A second (and even more evil) tactic is to replace the light bulb with a dimensional portal, connected via space-time-bending wormhole to a massive star currently going supernova. ...Or maybe it's just a really powerful blue bulb, I guess that's possible. Whatever they are, I hate them, and if you have them in your car, I hate you, and you are a bad person.
Nova-beam Ned: To call you a heartless sociopath would be an insult to the heartless sociopath community. I want to mount a heavy and expensive adjustable parabolic mirror on my car, to reflect the torrent of angry light blasting from your evidently nuclear-powered car down to a fine point, focused like the sun through a magnifying glass, directly into your eyes. Once your irises are vaporized and your corneas aflame, I want to shatter those blue bulbs of death, and grind the resulting mess of broken glass and high-voltage wire right into the raw, bleeding cavities once home to your eyes, wreaking havoc on the remaining nerve tissue and sending unholy wattage into the optic center of your brain.
Do I want to do these things because I'm sadistic? Well maybe. But mainly, I want karma to balance. I want done unto you what you have done unto others. ...Actually, I just want you to use regular non-nova-beam headlights like a sane person. Would that work for you?
(see? So much nicer...)Friday, December 03, 2010
A Moment of Silence For Cheese
This has been a difficult week for my stomach to ... stomach. Village Inn no longer serves their cheddar soup at all, and Training Table (also known to me as cheese-fries-with-hickory-sauce-place) has closed and is being torn down.
Got plenty of good cheese at home, so life as I know it hasn't fundamentally changed, but what's a blog for if I can't sometimes whine about little things that make me sad?
Got plenty of good cheese at home, so life as I know it hasn't fundamentally changed, but what's a blog for if I can't sometimes whine about little things that make me sad?
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Bad News Is Neutral News
I've gone on about Utah drivers before, but today it got personal. I had to swerve well outside the rightmost lane in order to avoid a very speedy weaver. There was plenty of room in all lanes, but I guess he thought the space I was occupying was where he had to be. In any case my jumpy heart sank as I heard what I was sure was the side of my car scraping against a concrete barrier. Little punk in his little phallic low-rider black car sped off.
When I arrived at the office a few minutes later (in a pretty foul mood), I saw no damage at all. I'm thinking I must have just winged one of those solid-looking-but-flimsy orange drums, and the sound I heard was adrenaline-distorted or something.
Later, I took my wife out for lunch at one of our usual haunts, only to be horrified that my usual Wednesday soup (Wisconsin cheddar) was not on the menu. I guess I could have ordered something that wasn't the lunch special, or tried one of the not-Wisconsin-cheddar soups. But hadn't I been through enough today?
When the waitress came by and I asked if the cheese soup was truly gone, she said no, they did have it today. I was so happy, I didn't even have the presence of mind to find out whether that meant they had it today only or if they'll keep having it every Wednesday.
But I'm alive, the car's alive, and I got my cheese. So, scary moments notwithstanding, I'll still call this day a success. In the words of the great Dr. Zoidberg, "Life was bad, but now it's good! Forever!"
When I arrived at the office a few minutes later (in a pretty foul mood), I saw no damage at all. I'm thinking I must have just winged one of those solid-looking-but-flimsy orange drums, and the sound I heard was adrenaline-distorted or something.
Later, I took my wife out for lunch at one of our usual haunts, only to be horrified that my usual Wednesday soup (Wisconsin cheddar) was not on the menu. I guess I could have ordered something that wasn't the lunch special, or tried one of the not-Wisconsin-cheddar soups. But hadn't I been through enough today?
When the waitress came by and I asked if the cheese soup was truly gone, she said no, they did have it today. I was so happy, I didn't even have the presence of mind to find out whether that meant they had it today only or if they'll keep having it every Wednesday.
But I'm alive, the car's alive, and I got my cheese. So, scary moments notwithstanding, I'll still call this day a success. In the words of the great Dr. Zoidberg, "Life was bad, but now it's good! Forever!"
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Stars
While playing around with bits of a campaign sign, I noticed something I hadn't before. Stars (the shapes, not the flaming balls of gas) come in two varieties. There's the happy right-side-up twinkle-twinkle star...
...and then there's the upside-down, goat-sacrifice, satan-worship star...
Anyway, I just thought it was interesting to see which variety was chosen for each of the major party emblems.
I won't make any further commentary than that. Just thought I'd share.
...and then there's the upside-down, goat-sacrifice, satan-worship star...Anyway, I just thought it was interesting to see which variety was chosen for each of the major party emblems.
I won't make any further commentary than that. Just thought I'd share.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Election Fun
This morning, when my wife and I went to vote, we came across a campaign sign, right there on the public school grounds of our polling place. Across the street on someone's private property, I'd be fine with, but no. Not at the polling location. Not cool. I wasn't about to stand for that. So I knocked it over.
After voting, on our way back to the car, I swiped it.
During the morning meeting at work, my coworkers and I sliced it up and made it better. So, I hereby present our improved campaign signs:
Rodders asked, after we'd had our way with the sign, whether I'd taken a "before" picture. I hadn't, so we pieced it back together as best we could. So in case you're wondering what started this little adventure, here's the sign more or less as we saw it, inappropriately standing outside the polls:
Best of luck to your opponents, Mike. Your supporters have no class.
Anyway, everyone who hasn't already: Get out and vote! Even if it's for this goon. Vote! Do it now!
After voting, on our way back to the car, I swiped it.
During the morning meeting at work, my coworkers and I sliced it up and made it better. So, I hereby present our improved campaign signs:
Rodders asked, after we'd had our way with the sign, whether I'd taken a "before" picture. I hadn't, so we pieced it back together as best we could. So in case you're wondering what started this little adventure, here's the sign more or less as we saw it, inappropriately standing outside the polls:
Best of luck to your opponents, Mike. Your supporters have no class.
Anyway, everyone who hasn't already: Get out and vote! Even if it's for this goon. Vote! Do it now!
Monday, November 01, 2010
VOTE.
Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart's desire; the other is to get it.
Get out there and vote, even if tragedy is inevitable.
-Socrates
Get out there and vote, even if tragedy is inevitable.
-Me
Friday, October 29, 2010
Happy Hal`10ween!
It's that time of year again! That time of year we buy up bags of candy "for trick or treaters" put out our cool little flag, and take knives and fire (and, this year, foil) to shapely orange vegetables.They make a cute couple, don't you think?
After my squarish pumpkin had its face, Kim noticed it looked a bit like Frankenstein's monster. Some extra slices and aluminum foil experiments later, he had neck bolts and some stylish head stitches. Go ahead and zoom in if you like, but don't look too close - I just noticed the bolts are threaded backwards!Kim's nearly spherical pumpkin got a happy ghost face, and doesn't even seem to mind being checked out by Frankie. It's really enjoying itself; it knows it's a special time of year.
Both of these characters gave us a good supply of seeds too (Happy Ghost's are especially plump); here's hoping we can cook them up as good as last year's.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
eStuff, iThings...
In the '90s, it was eStuff. eBooks, eMachines, eBay, "E" was the little letter to stick on your brand. Then, it was on to the next vowel.
In the '00s, it was iThings. iPods, iMacs, iPhones... Heck, the world's best-selling video game console is nothing more than a "W" with two little "i"s tacked on.
I've got the next one. Vowels are on the way out. I mean, who wants to be seen in public with an oFace or look up their contacts on a uWho? Obviously, the next big trend in naming is ...
I've already begun work on the πPod, which obviously will be used to play MP3.14159 files. (You may have already read about that compression algorithm.)
In the '00s, it was iThings. iPods, iMacs, iPhones... Heck, the world's best-selling video game console is nothing more than a "W" with two little "i"s tacked on.
I've got the next one. Vowels are on the way out. I mean, who wants to be seen in public with an oFace or look up their contacts on a uWho? Obviously, the next big trend in naming is ...
Ï€ (yes, "pi".)
I've already begun work on the πPod, which obviously will be used to play MP3.14159 files. (You may have already read about that compression algorithm.)
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
You've been told WHAT?!
Got something interesting (for certain, grotesque values of "interesting") in the snail mail:
If you don't feel like zooming in, the letter begins:
A short while ago, my wife got the same insulting letter, and she figured out the proper response (once she quit cursing). Since this was a solicitation for campaign money, obviously the correct thing to do was was to turn around and give money to the Democrats. And so she did. These folks didn't learn their lesson, they sent me the letter, so now I did too.
We suspect our names were collected from the DMV or something. Just because we live in Utah doesn't mean we're Republican. Or Mormon. Oh, and I only have the one wife. I'm white, that's about all you get.
I suppose it could have been worse. The Teabaggers could have written asking me for money. But apparently the rumors about me haven't gotten so bad that anybody's accused me of being an ignorant-as-hell-and-proud-of-it, racist, homophobic, corporate-puppet, doomsday-cult zombie.
Not sure who to donate to if that letter comes.
If you don't feel like zooming in, the letter begins:
If you're the Republican I've been told you are, then I need you to...Now I don't know who's been spreading such rumors, and I've been called a lot of things in my life, but never "Republican". That's just low.
A short while ago, my wife got the same insulting letter, and she figured out the proper response (once she quit cursing). Since this was a solicitation for campaign money, obviously the correct thing to do was was to turn around and give money to the Democrats. And so she did. These folks didn't learn their lesson, they sent me the letter, so now I did too.
We suspect our names were collected from the DMV or something. Just because we live in Utah doesn't mean we're Republican. Or Mormon. Oh, and I only have the one wife. I'm white, that's about all you get.
I suppose it could have been worse. The Teabaggers could have written asking me for money. But apparently the rumors about me haven't gotten so bad that anybody's accused me of being an ignorant-as-hell-and-proud-of-it, racist, homophobic, corporate-puppet, doomsday-cult zombie.
Not sure who to donate to if that letter comes.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Vacuum
Two quick ideas for vacuum cleaners.
<accent type="british">Ones that work properly.</accent>
Cordless Upright Vacuum
This one, I could build. I'm tempted to. Get me an off-the-shelf energy-star vacuum cleaner, a home office uninterruptible power supply, some warranty-voiding tools, a few yards of duct tape, and an afternoon, and I'll give you a vacuum that doesn't try to trip you dozens of times with its big stupid clumsy power cord while you use it. Actually I won't give it to you, I'll keep it. Even if it kind of sucks.
(...Did a quick Google search... no, not a little pretend vacuum, not a dustbuster, a real friggin' cordless vacuum. I don't care if it's heavy. I'm as strong as I am clumsy. Lose the wire.)
Spot RoomBot
We don't have a roomba, but the idea is appealing. We do, however, have a spotbot, and it is worth its weight in gold because it cleans up after our runt of a cat, who can't eat anything other than one kind of prescription food, but does anyway. A spotbot which could seek out the next area of barfplops and tailsmears would be worth its weight in ... something else super-valuable.
...This one's quite a bit harder. It would need to be able to refuel itself with water and detergent (and dump out the cat-barf-tainted water) as well as deal with taller solid masses in addition to spill-type floor-level stains. Sign me up for version 2.0 of this one; working out the kinks in this design would be more gross than my current techniques.
<accent type="british">Ones that work properly.</accent>
Cordless Upright Vacuum
This one, I could build. I'm tempted to. Get me an off-the-shelf energy-star vacuum cleaner, a home office uninterruptible power supply, some warranty-voiding tools, a few yards of duct tape, and an afternoon, and I'll give you a vacuum that doesn't try to trip you dozens of times with its big stupid clumsy power cord while you use it. Actually I won't give it to you, I'll keep it. Even if it kind of sucks.
(...Did a quick Google search... no, not a little pretend vacuum, not a dustbuster, a real friggin' cordless vacuum. I don't care if it's heavy. I'm as strong as I am clumsy. Lose the wire.)
Spot RoomBot
We don't have a roomba, but the idea is appealing. We do, however, have a spotbot, and it is worth its weight in gold because it cleans up after our runt of a cat, who can't eat anything other than one kind of prescription food, but does anyway. A spotbot which could seek out the next area of barfplops and tailsmears would be worth its weight in ... something else super-valuable.
...This one's quite a bit harder. It would need to be able to refuel itself with water and detergent (and dump out the cat-barf-tainted water) as well as deal with taller solid masses in addition to spill-type floor-level stains. Sign me up for version 2.0 of this one; working out the kinks in this design would be more gross than my current techniques.
Friday, October 08, 2010
Happy Anniversary to Us
Five years ago, this happened:
...It actually happened in color, but you get the idea. A Minnesota girl and a Wisconsin boy got married. They're not usually ones to get all dressed up (he also doesn't normally shave) but they'd fallen in love and grown to mean the world to each other. Five years ago today, they became husband and wife.
Thank you, Kim, for the last five years, for the time we were together before that, and for all the time we'll have from here on out. You're amazing, and you make me feel like I can be amazing too.
Happy anniversary to us!
...It actually happened in color, but you get the idea. A Minnesota girl and a Wisconsin boy got married. They're not usually ones to get all dressed up (he also doesn't normally shave) but they'd fallen in love and grown to mean the world to each other. Five years ago today, they became husband and wife.
Thank you, Kim, for the last five years, for the time we were together before that, and for all the time we'll have from here on out. You're amazing, and you make me feel like I can be amazing too.
Happy anniversary to us!
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
On the Preparation of Bratwurst
Years ago I moved from Wisconsin to Utah for work purposes, but you can't take Wisconsin out of the man, it seems - I started up a Brat Friday tradition, to make coworkers happy by clogging their arteries. I have become known as "the brat whisperer", and probably other more colorful names I'm not aware of. Anyhow, folks tell me that the results are good, and I've recently been asked about the process by several people. I think of it more as an art than a science, but for those who are curious, I'll jot down here some notes on my technique (if it can be called that).
Mark of a Wisconsinite #1: The bratwurst itself
It's hard to buy a bad pack of brats. When they're good they're great, and when they're bad, they're still pretty good. (Surely this applies to other things in life too, I leave that as an exercise for the reader.) Small sausage shops (even sausage-and-cheese-shops, or sausage-cheese-and-beer shops) are pretty easy to find in Wisconsin, but a bit more rare in Utah. I've had great luck with Colosimo's. (http://www.colosimosausage.com) Plenty of yummy flavors out there - Italian style, Polish, red wine, apple, but my default is always the original German style. Absent a mom-and-pop sausage shop, supermarket brands are fine too. If they have a deli, ask there first. But even the worst wurst can turn out very yummily.
Mark of a Wisconsinite #2: The beer
As far as I know, the proper thing to do with a brat is to boil it in beer to the point of being cooked before it ever approaches the grill, if indeed it ever does. Time and laziness, however, push me towards substitute behaviour for this step. What normally happens is I'll put fridge-temperature brats in a bowl, slice up a yellow onion into it, then dump in a couple beers. I've had great luck with Cutthroat, but I suspect any pale ale or other hops-heavy beer will have a similarly yummy effect. Any beer will do, but for soaking purposes I'd try not to go too light or too dark. I leave 'em in the beer+onion stew for a while, until the first wave of people get impatient. (Call it a sloppy 5 minutes, no penalty on either side.)
Hint of religion: Starting the grill
I'm not sure what the gospel according to Penduin would read like, (poorly, I'm guessing) but I'm pretty sure one of the cardinal rules would be that thou shalt open thine beer before starting thy grill. Ideally a propane grill would have a bottle opener that serves as its ignition switch. Mormon coworkers tend to overlook this step, but they shouldn't - a grillmaster without an open beer is ill-equipped. Not only is he not fully enjoying life, but he cannot immediately deal with flare-ups in proper, beer-smoke-generating fashion.
Spice of variety: Beans and onions
While the grill is warming up and burning off last week's grease, I'll throw on a pot of baked beans (top rack, give 'em time) and a tinfoil boat of onion slices stolen from the soaking bowl (bottom rack, get 'em tender). Bush's makes several flavors of aptly-named "grillin' beans", all of which are quite good, but a coworker of mine makes the best baked beans himself... they include little chunks of hamburger and bacon, and several types of beans. Anyway if you serve beans with your brats, cooking 'em in the smoky grill is highly recommended. To avoid burning the onions, double-up the foil and soak them in beer. This is another reason the grillmaster must be equipped with an open and non-empty beer at all times; the onions in this foil boat should never go dry, even if a leak springs.
Art of grilling: Meat hits iron
I'm a disciple of Hank Hill, at least when it comes to grilling. I keep the propane on pretty low, because a lazy, slow-cooked sausage is happier and yummier than one that's burnt outside and pink within. I've also used charcoal, which for me just meant moving everything around even more often. No matter the fuel, I'm very hands-on. I turn 'em over often and stand 'em up on their edges to try and darken them evenly all the way around.
Touch of planning: The pipeline
When the first pack of brats is out of the beer and onto the flames, the next pack goes in the bowl. I tend to cook for a decent crowd now, so this is usually a one-way assembly line. When there were fewer packs of brats feeding fewer people, I used to toss brats from the grill back in the drink a time or two before finishing them, operating on the principle that a hot brat will more readily absorb beery, oniony flavor than a cold one. In practice, this probably matters more with weaker/lighter beer. Beer with sufficient bite seems to give the brats enough flavor with just the one soak.
Trial of patience: When to say when
Slow cooked, a brat will be safe to eat for a good while before I call it "done". There's golden-brown, there's brown, but basically I like to call it good right around the time the first spots of black are showing up. I don't want to feed people a lump of charred carbon, but the very ends or the bits that have been over the hottest parts of the flame should be a little blackened, I think. If you try to unbend the sausage to fit it into a straight bun, it should split open.
Ultimate mark of a Wisconsinite: The cheese
Everybody has their own idea of optimal bratwurst garnishing. For me it's simple: put a nice slice of cheese on the bun (pepperjack and muenster are my current favorites) and let the brat melt it once it's wedged in there. I also like to experiment with various mustards; gotta love a good grainy brown mustard. Others like me to grill their bun for a minute first, or to pile on the beer-boiled onions, jalapeno slices, or of course sauerkraut. Some folks will spoon some baked beans right on there. Can't screw it up, really. I'll frown at someone for using ketchup, but I guess I can't really call it "wrong". For the experimental and/or indecisive, segmenting the brat with several different mustards or cheeses is to be encouraged, and rewarded with beer.
I think that's about it. I don't claim to be an expert in the preparation of bratwurst, but at the very least I've been able to fool some of the people some of the time. :^) If anyone actually reads this, post your own grilling stories and suggestions. For grilling is not about instructions and procedures, it's about chatting and sharing stories. And beer. ...Oh right and sausages. Tasty, tasty sausages.
Mark of a Wisconsinite #1: The bratwurst itself
It's hard to buy a bad pack of brats. When they're good they're great, and when they're bad, they're still pretty good. (Surely this applies to other things in life too, I leave that as an exercise for the reader.) Small sausage shops (even sausage-and-cheese-shops, or sausage-cheese-and-beer shops) are pretty easy to find in Wisconsin, but a bit more rare in Utah. I've had great luck with Colosimo's. (http://www.colosimosausage.com) Plenty of yummy flavors out there - Italian style, Polish, red wine, apple, but my default is always the original German style. Absent a mom-and-pop sausage shop, supermarket brands are fine too. If they have a deli, ask there first. But even the worst wurst can turn out very yummily.
Mark of a Wisconsinite #2: The beer
As far as I know, the proper thing to do with a brat is to boil it in beer to the point of being cooked before it ever approaches the grill, if indeed it ever does. Time and laziness, however, push me towards substitute behaviour for this step. What normally happens is I'll put fridge-temperature brats in a bowl, slice up a yellow onion into it, then dump in a couple beers. I've had great luck with Cutthroat, but I suspect any pale ale or other hops-heavy beer will have a similarly yummy effect. Any beer will do, but for soaking purposes I'd try not to go too light or too dark. I leave 'em in the beer+onion stew for a while, until the first wave of people get impatient. (Call it a sloppy 5 minutes, no penalty on either side.)
Hint of religion: Starting the grill
I'm not sure what the gospel according to Penduin would read like, (poorly, I'm guessing) but I'm pretty sure one of the cardinal rules would be that thou shalt open thine beer before starting thy grill. Ideally a propane grill would have a bottle opener that serves as its ignition switch. Mormon coworkers tend to overlook this step, but they shouldn't - a grillmaster without an open beer is ill-equipped. Not only is he not fully enjoying life, but he cannot immediately deal with flare-ups in proper, beer-smoke-generating fashion.
Spice of variety: Beans and onions
While the grill is warming up and burning off last week's grease, I'll throw on a pot of baked beans (top rack, give 'em time) and a tinfoil boat of onion slices stolen from the soaking bowl (bottom rack, get 'em tender). Bush's makes several flavors of aptly-named "grillin' beans", all of which are quite good, but a coworker of mine makes the best baked beans himself... they include little chunks of hamburger and bacon, and several types of beans. Anyway if you serve beans with your brats, cooking 'em in the smoky grill is highly recommended. To avoid burning the onions, double-up the foil and soak them in beer. This is another reason the grillmaster must be equipped with an open and non-empty beer at all times; the onions in this foil boat should never go dry, even if a leak springs.
Art of grilling: Meat hits iron
I'm a disciple of Hank Hill, at least when it comes to grilling. I keep the propane on pretty low, because a lazy, slow-cooked sausage is happier and yummier than one that's burnt outside and pink within. I've also used charcoal, which for me just meant moving everything around even more often. No matter the fuel, I'm very hands-on. I turn 'em over often and stand 'em up on their edges to try and darken them evenly all the way around.
Touch of planning: The pipeline
When the first pack of brats is out of the beer and onto the flames, the next pack goes in the bowl. I tend to cook for a decent crowd now, so this is usually a one-way assembly line. When there were fewer packs of brats feeding fewer people, I used to toss brats from the grill back in the drink a time or two before finishing them, operating on the principle that a hot brat will more readily absorb beery, oniony flavor than a cold one. In practice, this probably matters more with weaker/lighter beer. Beer with sufficient bite seems to give the brats enough flavor with just the one soak.
Trial of patience: When to say when
Slow cooked, a brat will be safe to eat for a good while before I call it "done". There's golden-brown, there's brown, but basically I like to call it good right around the time the first spots of black are showing up. I don't want to feed people a lump of charred carbon, but the very ends or the bits that have been over the hottest parts of the flame should be a little blackened, I think. If you try to unbend the sausage to fit it into a straight bun, it should split open.
Ultimate mark of a Wisconsinite: The cheese
Everybody has their own idea of optimal bratwurst garnishing. For me it's simple: put a nice slice of cheese on the bun (pepperjack and muenster are my current favorites) and let the brat melt it once it's wedged in there. I also like to experiment with various mustards; gotta love a good grainy brown mustard. Others like me to grill their bun for a minute first, or to pile on the beer-boiled onions, jalapeno slices, or of course sauerkraut. Some folks will spoon some baked beans right on there. Can't screw it up, really. I'll frown at someone for using ketchup, but I guess I can't really call it "wrong". For the experimental and/or indecisive, segmenting the brat with several different mustards or cheeses is to be encouraged, and rewarded with beer.
I think that's about it. I don't claim to be an expert in the preparation of bratwurst, but at the very least I've been able to fool some of the people some of the time. :^) If anyone actually reads this, post your own grilling stories and suggestions. For grilling is not about instructions and procedures, it's about chatting and sharing stories. And beer. ...Oh right and sausages. Tasty, tasty sausages.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Projects
Since I have such a great deal of free time, I have some little side projects going. That there was half sarcasm. I have what feels like no free time at all, and quite a few projects on distant back-burners, most of them having been idle for some time.
Tong, my little brain-hurting game
After "finishing" 1.0 years ago I've added some tweaks and fixes, but I never released a 1.1 because I'm waiting for some custom background music to get finished, and I hate pestering the (very friendly and talented) fellow who was writing it.
Status: long-stalled
Bontz, a much bigger brain-hurting game
So many false starts. I had some wind last year with scanned, hand-drawn graphics and a brand new engine (two new engines, actually, a "real" C one and a "prototyping" Python one), and even threw together most of a spin-off minigame, the 8-bit looking Mucka Munch. Then work kicked into high gear and I haven't been back for months.
Status: stalled
The End, a sci-fi series and/or film
A work buddy and I have a pretty fun concept worked out and I've started work on a proper screenplay. It would be incredibly fun to find some local actors and spend whatever our wives would let us shooting this as some independent project. It would also be incredibly fun if days lasted 32 hours instead of 24, so I'm guessing a series of scripts is as far as this will go.
Status: crawling
Flipnotes, various small animations
On and off I get an itch to make silly animations, and in the tradition of Fantavision and Mario Paint, Flipnote Studio on the DS is a very fun creative outlet with a really big double-edged sword: internet connectivity. Sharing and building on animations as a community is great fun, and I've had a few #1 ranked cartoons, but they're never the ones I'm actually proud of or put lots of effort into.
Status: slow trickle
Megabot, a free and open Megaman engine
I had a little steam and created a handful of graphics, including most of the player animations (all inspired by 8-bit Megaman games but not direct sprite copies) and even built a Python prototype running a slightly-interactive title screen (using a Wii remote, even) but haven't plunged into the tedious blocks of code that lie between getting something happening on-screen and having a workable engine I can add content to.
Status: stalled
WarioWare DIY, various micro-games
This just came out, but it's pretty obvious that I'll be logging a lot of insomnia hours here. Nintendo has gone and made a DS game about making DS games. The mind boggles, and my first collection of random challenges is grilling-themed.
Status: alive and well
This blog, the thing you're reading right now
Three months and change since my last update, which was puny, and another two months from the also-puny one prior. On the odd chance I think I have something interesting to say, by the time I get around to starting to say it I've lost either the interest in whatever I had to say as being share-worthy or the momentum to flesh out something worth reading. I figure I'll tackle the former first and post some crap, and maybe work my way up to read-worthy once I've defeated my digital hermit-ism.
Status: highly neglected
Tong, my little brain-hurting game
After "finishing" 1.0 years ago I've added some tweaks and fixes, but I never released a 1.1 because I'm waiting for some custom background music to get finished, and I hate pestering the (very friendly and talented) fellow who was writing it.
Status: long-stalled
Bontz, a much bigger brain-hurting game
So many false starts. I had some wind last year with scanned, hand-drawn graphics and a brand new engine (two new engines, actually, a "real" C one and a "prototyping" Python one), and even threw together most of a spin-off minigame, the 8-bit looking Mucka Munch. Then work kicked into high gear and I haven't been back for months.
Status: stalled
The End, a sci-fi series and/or film
A work buddy and I have a pretty fun concept worked out and I've started work on a proper screenplay. It would be incredibly fun to find some local actors and spend whatever our wives would let us shooting this as some independent project. It would also be incredibly fun if days lasted 32 hours instead of 24, so I'm guessing a series of scripts is as far as this will go.
Status: crawling
Flipnotes, various small animations
On and off I get an itch to make silly animations, and in the tradition of Fantavision and Mario Paint, Flipnote Studio on the DS is a very fun creative outlet with a really big double-edged sword: internet connectivity. Sharing and building on animations as a community is great fun, and I've had a few #1 ranked cartoons, but they're never the ones I'm actually proud of or put lots of effort into.
Status: slow trickle
Megabot, a free and open Megaman engine
I had a little steam and created a handful of graphics, including most of the player animations (all inspired by 8-bit Megaman games but not direct sprite copies) and even built a Python prototype running a slightly-interactive title screen (using a Wii remote, even) but haven't plunged into the tedious blocks of code that lie between getting something happening on-screen and having a workable engine I can add content to.
Status: stalled
WarioWare DIY, various micro-games
This just came out, but it's pretty obvious that I'll be logging a lot of insomnia hours here. Nintendo has gone and made a DS game about making DS games. The mind boggles, and my first collection of random challenges is grilling-themed.
Status: alive and well
This blog, the thing you're reading right now
Three months and change since my last update, which was puny, and another two months from the also-puny one prior. On the odd chance I think I have something interesting to say, by the time I get around to starting to say it I've lost either the interest in whatever I had to say as being share-worthy or the momentum to flesh out something worth reading. I figure I'll tackle the former first and post some crap, and maybe work my way up to read-worthy once I've defeated my digital hermit-ism.
Status: highly neglected
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween!
We'd sort of forgotten about it until just after Halloween, but recently at a pizza joint we bought me a brilliant cosume from a gumball machine. At least, for my own strange values of "brilliant". A fake moustache, to be worn over one's real moustache... for some reason I find that kind of thing very amusing.
But this 25 cent, entirely-convincing disguise didn't stop there. Behold, as the rest of my little family is rendered utterly unrecognizable by its moustachy magnificence!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Approaching Three Oh
For some time, I thought of 30 as a scary age. An age beyond which I would be old and unrecognizable. Given how far along I already am in the feeling-old department, and how little my appearance has changed (I've been fat, bearded, and bald since college at least), I'm less concerned about that. The number 30 still had a bit of psychological weight, though, so I decided I had to look at things differently.
In a week or two, "30" will be the layman's way of describing my age. The finger-counter's perspective. But to me and any other system software engineer, I'll be 0x1e. I'll be 00011110, and that's according to the first computer I ever hacked on. By today's standards, I'll be 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000011110. Just look at all those insignificant digits. How could anybody who knows anything call me "old"? :^)
Point is, I won't need an extra binary digit until I'm 32 in decimal. 0x20 hex. And the extra-bit logic works just fine for me. Time flies when you're young, so you get extra bits pretty frequently. At 2, at 4, at 8... but the next bit you need is at 16, which in my case is still holding out just fine. If I use this reasoning and set my scary "old" age at 32, then I won't have to bother with a midlife crisis until I'm 64! Then I can pop my meds, buy a hotrod hovercar and blast that Beatles song loud enough to drown out the tinnitus.
After that, I can measure life as a countdown to 128. Anything beyond that's an awfully big bonus, at least by modern reckoning. Even with leaps and bounds in medicine and cheese-healthification, I don't see having any chance of overflowing even the trusty ol' Apple II's native integer. And, if by saying that, I'm jinxing my own life upon turning 256, well, so be it.
But thirty? Hardly seems worth mentioning. Multiples of ten are for chumps. In fact, forget I even said anything. ...Thirty. Pff.
In a week or two, "30" will be the layman's way of describing my age. The finger-counter's perspective. But to me and any other system software engineer, I'll be 0x1e. I'll be 00011110, and that's according to the first computer I ever hacked on. By today's standards, I'll be 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000011110. Just look at all those insignificant digits. How could anybody who knows anything call me "old"? :^)
Point is, I won't need an extra binary digit until I'm 32 in decimal. 0x20 hex. And the extra-bit logic works just fine for me. Time flies when you're young, so you get extra bits pretty frequently. At 2, at 4, at 8... but the next bit you need is at 16, which in my case is still holding out just fine. If I use this reasoning and set my scary "old" age at 32, then I won't have to bother with a midlife crisis until I'm 64! Then I can pop my meds, buy a hotrod hovercar and blast that Beatles song loud enough to drown out the tinnitus.
After that, I can measure life as a countdown to 128. Anything beyond that's an awfully big bonus, at least by modern reckoning. Even with leaps and bounds in medicine and cheese-healthification, I don't see having any chance of overflowing even the trusty ol' Apple II's native integer. And, if by saying that, I'm jinxing my own life upon turning 256, well, so be it.
But thirty? Hardly seems worth mentioning. Multiples of ten are for chumps. In fact, forget I even said anything. ...Thirty. Pff.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Good News
There aren't enough positive news stories these days. It's all "tumbling economy" this and "damn politicians" that. Well today I feel good. And in true journalistic oversimplifying form, I'll tell you why in three bullet points.
Friends, family, countrymen: don't forget the little stuff. ...And never underestimate the positive psychological effects of good cheese.
- Messaging Architects: To quote another fat balding madman: "I love this companyyyy!"
- Bratwurst Friday: Everyone, from my coworkers to the folks up at Colosimo's Sausage to the fictional Hank Hill, has to crack a little smile at our little tradition.
- Beer: Rand brews a lot of really good stuff, and the double IPA I had today was no exception. I'd go so far as to say this is the bulleted list item that had the greatest effect on my happy mood right now, though the others are surprisingly close runners-up.
Friends, family, countrymen: don't forget the little stuff. ...And never underestimate the positive psychological effects of good cheese.
Monday, January 05, 2009
:^) 0x7d9
(That's "Happy 2009", for anyone who doesn't speak Slackware-flavored smileys or hexidecimal.)
What better way to celebrate 2008 being over with than to prattle on about things that took place while it wasn't? ...Don't answer that. Surely there are countless better ways. But that's what I'm going to do anyway.
In 2008 my wrist got a little messed up, having grown a mysterious extra bit of bone or something. I posted a cool x-ray here (see April) and have files from the following inconclusive CAT scan, which I still mean to build a little interactive widget for sometime. I got a shot of cortisone, which helped. It's still not 100%, but it's not bad.
In 2008, I was sent to an artsy/geeky conference in Florence, so the missus and I got to hang out in Italy for a week. Still haven't finished the full online photo album, but we did post some stuff here (see April).
In 2008 my little sister got engaged, reminding me once again that I am very old. I can still call her "little", however, as she's all thin and whispy whereas I am ... not.
In 2008 Kim and I thwarted prescription pet food manufacturer Hills' attempt to murder our cat. They changed her only known compatible food, but we eventually did find one other. Go Eukanuba!
In 2008, Obama got numerous campaign contributions from both of us throughout his campaign. To everyone who thinks we forgot to send a Christmas gift: you're welcome!
In 2008 I won the "ownership" award at work for putting in some ridiculous hours and getting the job done no matter the task thrown at me. At least, that's what somebody thinks I do.
In 2008 the author of the IMAP protocol was hired at my workplace. He and I are building M+Guardian's new IMAP server together, which, I'll be honest, was a bit intimidating at first.
In 2008, I got sent on a business trip to Montreal just before Christmas, where Minego and I demonstrated why engineers shouldn't be allowed to participate in gift-stealing parties: our algorithms are superior to those of salespeople.
This is a rather pitiful way to keep in touch with everybody, but happy late holidays one and all! I hope 2009 treats you well.
:^) 0x7d9!
What better way to celebrate 2008 being over with than to prattle on about things that took place while it wasn't? ...Don't answer that. Surely there are countless better ways. But that's what I'm going to do anyway.
In 2008 my wrist got a little messed up, having grown a mysterious extra bit of bone or something. I posted a cool x-ray here (see April) and have files from the following inconclusive CAT scan, which I still mean to build a little interactive widget for sometime. I got a shot of cortisone, which helped. It's still not 100%, but it's not bad.
In 2008, I was sent to an artsy/geeky conference in Florence, so the missus and I got to hang out in Italy for a week. Still haven't finished the full online photo album, but we did post some stuff here (see April).
In 2008 my little sister got engaged, reminding me once again that I am very old. I can still call her "little", however, as she's all thin and whispy whereas I am ... not.
In 2008 Kim and I thwarted prescription pet food manufacturer Hills' attempt to murder our cat. They changed her only known compatible food, but we eventually did find one other. Go Eukanuba!
In 2008, Obama got numerous campaign contributions from both of us throughout his campaign. To everyone who thinks we forgot to send a Christmas gift: you're welcome!
In 2008 I won the "ownership" award at work for putting in some ridiculous hours and getting the job done no matter the task thrown at me. At least, that's what somebody thinks I do.
In 2008 the author of the IMAP protocol was hired at my workplace. He and I are building M+Guardian's new IMAP server together, which, I'll be honest, was a bit intimidating at first.
In 2008, I got sent on a business trip to Montreal just before Christmas, where Minego and I demonstrated why engineers shouldn't be allowed to participate in gift-stealing parties: our algorithms are superior to those of salespeople.
This is a rather pitiful way to keep in touch with everybody, but happy late holidays one and all! I hope 2009 treats you well.
:^) 0x7d9!
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