Story Archive (12/2003)

Flash Floods (12/29/2003)

The only thing that stops God from sending another flood is that the first one was useless. - Nicolas de Chamfort

It's raining. It's raining hard in the bay area. The storm has been going on all day long and continuing into the evening. My poor apartment complex has a few small drainage issues. There are two giant puddles that I have to cross to get out. The first is at the bottom of my staircase and completely unavoidable. I'm not brave enough to make the six foot leap over it.

Then there's the real beast of a puddle. It's nearly twenty feet long and two feet deep at the middle. I can hike around it through the ivy, but it's not a pleasant trip. I hear the island of Alameda is sinking too.

GPS for You and Me (12/28/2003)

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of. - Michel de Montaigne

The nerdiest gift I got this holiday season was a GPS. Why? Why not? Sure, I'm not out hiking the mountains every weekend, or scuba diving, or fishing or any of the other major sports that make having a GPS really useful, but there are still plenty of fun things for me to do with it.

First, it gives a speed indicator. Ever since I first purchased my vehicle I've been under the impression that the speedometer was wrong. I've often considered taking it in for a service to determine if that were the case, but I'm lazy. Aren't we all? Well, I mounted my new GPS on the dash and cruised down the freeway. When the speedometer was pegged at 80 MPH, the GPS read at 74 MPH. That's a pretty healthy difference, isn't it?

Today I decided to do my first foray into the sport of geo-caching. The basic premise is that people hide little trinkets out in the world and post their coordinates on various geo-caching websites. I, with my trusty GPS, go to these coordinates and find the item. In general, there's always a log book to record your visit, and often there are little trinkets to take or trade.

My first venture was to Manor Park right near where I live. Fifteen minutes of searching and I found the cache! I signed the log and put it back in place triumphantly.

Then I continued on to Bonaire park just a little farther away. Thirty minutes of searching produced nothing. I'm confident I was at the rock that item was originally hidden. Either it wasn't there any more, or it was too well hidden for me. I flipped off the rock and went home.

jAlbum Complete (12/27/2003)

The problem with these honorable men is that they expect everyone else to be honorable in the same way. - Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Wahoo! jAlbum is complete (mostly). I've posted up version 0.9 of it over in the Chaos Corporation section. To get it completely done (version 1.0) I still need to make the slide show template pluggable and to add integration with Apple's iPhoto. Then it'll be great!

Here's my uncle Art's photo slideshow from the father's family Labor Day gathering as generated by jAlbum!

Current meatspace coordinates: 37 degrees, 41.522 minutes N latitude 122 degress, 08.239 W longitude

Christmas Photos (12/26/2003)

Pictures must not be too picturesque. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've been working on my own HTML slide show generation program. I've named it jAlbum. It's 99% done, but it doesn't quite generate the index page properly yet. It's all done using lovely XSL files, so it just requires a little more XSL work and then it will be lovely.

Until then, here's a fresh album from the father's family Christmas generated with the WinXP slideshow generator.

Merry Christmas (12/25/2003)

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. - Norman Vincent Peale

I'm home in Sacramento for the holiday week, and it's been a busy week indeed. Primarly, my week of vacation turned into a week of remote work on a proposal we're trying to crank out. So that's been biting into my free time drastically.

The holidays are always a good chance to catch up with the people I don't get to see often enough. Saturday with the father's Family. Sunday with HS Gang. Monday with the TCR crowd. Tuesday at the King's game. Wednesday with the Shaffrath's for dinner and midnight service with the father's. Thursday morning with mother, mid-morning with the closely related father's, afternoon with the more extended father's family. It just never ends. More work on Friday. Party on Saturday. Giving blood on Friday. Back to the office on Monday. MAN!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Cheating (12/19/2003)

Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well... - Ralph Waldo Emerson

You ever cheated? I was telling someone about a case of "cheating" I did in college. I have to put it in quotes because, to this day, I still feel fully justified. It wasn't cheating, depending one what your definition of cheating is. Plus, even better, after expending a giant amount of mental effort to think of any other case where I cheated, I cannot find one. That's a good thing, right? I think it is.

I'm a programmer. It's very simple. I am very good at programming. I have been for a long time. When I first got a programmable calculator back in high school, it was amazing. I wrote huge amounts of programs that made my life infinitely easier. I remember in pre-calculus writing a program that given any three points would give one the equation of the circle they fell on. I remember an awesome one in high school physics where you would input the information you had about a program (speed, acceleration, etc.) and it would solve for all the various other unknowns for you. These things were awesome.

Is it cheating to use them on a test? My answer is a resound no. I obviously understood the program pretty thoroughly if I could write a program to solve it for me. If a teacher lets you use a calculator, it's not cheating to use it to its fullest abilities. Was it unfair because I learned how to program mine while other students didn't? No. Some students are good at math, some are good at English and some are good at programming. Let them maximize their grades using their own talents.

There was a course in college where ninety-nine percent of the problems given were solvable with a pretty complex program. It did massive matrix transformations, but it was doable. I did it. I showed it to the professor. He told me I wasn't allowed to use it on the tests. I argued slightly, but he vetoed. What could I do? It was a mistake. It was the last time I showed off one of my programs to a professor. I saw nothing wrong with using it. The only thing that would make it wrong was that he said it was.

I used the program. Up yours professor! There's a little guilt mulling around inside of me because of it to this day, but it was the right decision. Why should I struggle on the test to do slowly and by hand something that can be programmed? In the "real world" no one would ever do that by hand. We have computers for a reason dammit! We have computers out there to do the menial easy tasks that we shouldn't have to do anymore. I used it. I'd do it again!

Today's entry brought to you by the letter A

I Hate Spammers (12/18/2003)

Should we keep pressing endlessly forward or decide to rule out certain quantum leaps? - Bill McKibben

I'm tired. It's one of those good kinds of tired feelings. Some how, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day for me. It's good, because recently there were more hours in the day than I knew what to do with.

I added a contact page. I thought it was a brilliant idea. Do you know what happened? It got FLOODED by spammers instantly. I was awestruck by that. They post a full message complete with all the "To:" and "Subject:" mail headers hoping it will go out in their spamming needs. It doesn't. It goes to my inbox. As with all things that go there, it beeps my mobile phone. I quickly started getting HUNDREDS AN HOUR. I hate spammers. I hate them so much it hurts. So the page is now broken until I can add more logic in it to detect that evilness and stop it.

Today's entry brought to you by VI

Burn Brightly (12/15/2003)

When one burns one's bridges, what a very nice fire it makes. - Dylan Thomas

I burned the top of my mouth on a homemade snuggler tonight. OUCH!

Was I really crazy? I think not! Sure, I write e-mails to various internet personalities from time to time. Yet I'm not proud to say that both geek and author Wil Wheaton plus cool and imaginary Strongbad have both blessed me with reciprocation. It's awesome!

Debbie is cruising out this week. We had a small sendoff barbeque for her on Sunday. I like fire. Isn't there suppose to be some instinctual fear of fire in people? How come most people like playing with it these days?

Not Sick (12/14/2003)

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. - Mark Twain

Contrary to popular opinion, I did not die over the past week. I was out miserable sick from the flu for nearly four days. It took me another day and half to finish up recovering, but I am fully back up to snuff now.

In my flu-ridden anguish I managed to beat Rygar for the first time. Inspired by my ability to beat a game that had thwarted me in my childhood due to long hours and lack of save, I pulled out Blaster Master and gave that a go. Five hours later (on level three of seven) I gave up. The creators of that game are evil. Still, it has perhaps the best storyline I've ever seen. Your pet frog escapes, gets radioactively mutated and flees into the sewers. You jump in to rescue it and discover a super all-terrain vehicle which you can use explore the sewers and fight the various mutant sewer monsters in attempt to recover your beloved missing pet.

Sick (12/09/2003)

Illness is a great leveler. At its touch, the artificial distinctions of society vanish away. People in a hospital are just people. - M. Thorek

I've spent the past four days holed up in my apartment sick. I mean, I've been extremely sick. You know that deadly flu sweeping the nation? I'm pretty sure it was sweeping through my apartment over the last few days. Tomorrow, I should be well enough to get myself back to the job.

I did manage to finish up Dune Messaih in my tormet. What next?

Some Photos by Art (12/04/2003)

My occupation now, I suppose, is jail inmate. - Ted Kaczynski

Okay, just a few images before I trek up to the city for the companies's annual holiday party. I haven't been to the last two years because I've been on the road.

First is the picture show taken by my Uncle Art at the father's family thanksgiving.

Second is some photos of my wonderful office in Oakland. In the second photo, try and find the following:

1. Duke
2. Linux Penguin
3. Non-Starbucks Coffee
4. Official Company 101 California Coke Cup
5. Coke Can
6. Togo's Napkin
7. Archos Jukebox
8. PowerBook G4
9. 2 Cents
10. Shot Glass

Presents (12/03/2003)

Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned about the false values of possessions versus meaningful persuits. - Someone

Christmas lights always jump out at me as waste. Lights use power. Power comes from burning fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels causes global warming. Global warming melts polar ice. Melting polar ice kills polar bears. Your Christmas lights kill polar bears. There's my holiday spirit.

In general I don't even like getting Christmas gifts. That's because in general, anything I want, I've already bought. Which implies, anything I'm given that I don't have I don't want. So I ask people for nothing and they get frustrated with me. Then, in an attempt to subjugate them, I tell them to donate the money somewhere in my name. Many still don't like that. Freaks.

What I truly dislike is well-intentioned crap. You can't be upset with someone for acting out of kindness. Since I don't ask for anything beyond donations, I get a lot of well-intentioned crap. Sure a CD label print sounds neat, but my Sharpie works better. Sure a Dilbert mouse pad is cute, but I already have a dozen mouse pads stacked in the closet. Sure, CDs are neat, but they waste physical space that songs from Apple music store don't.

Bah Humbug (12/02/2003)

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. - Calvin Coolidge

It reeks like Christmas in the office. When the elevator door opens on my floor, the redolence of the holidays spill out. The decorated trees on the first floor have an insidious way of spreading their scent through the building. It's the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it.

I'm not sure if I've ever gotten into the holiday spirit. I've heard rumors that when I was a wee boy, my parents would run up and down the halls in the middle of the night ringing jingle bells so I would think Santa was near by. I don't recall it. Heck, I don't recall ever thinking Santa really came. I hope I had some of the magic back then, even if I can't summon it up these days. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in Santa and his elves, and every time a child says, `I don't believe in Santa,' there is an elf somewhere that falls down dead.

Today I wonder why people spend time putting up decorations that they're obligated to take down weeks later. Sure the tree looks pretty today, but next month it will be sitting on your sidewalk. Metya-alda I name you, Tree-killer; and tree killers are an ill guest they say.

Did you catch the three allusions? One movie and two books.

What are you doing? "Taking your picture." Don't. "Smile!" How 'bout I give you the finger, and you put down the camera.

Syndicate Baby (12/01/2003)

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact. - George Eliot

My weekend technical endeavors went pretty well. I added bunches of new functionality to my site (well, three pieces of new functionality). My favorite of all, on request from a friend, is the brand spanking new RSS 2.0 feed! Yes. Come one, come all, and syndicate away!

It was pretty simple to do. Just thirty lines of Perl to make the feed, and another twenty to put the date into RFC822 format.

RSS Feed!