I am a software engineer, artist, actor, writer, and proud father from Texas.
I love buckets of legos dumped out on the living room floor, and so engineering was
a natural choice for me. I consider OO design and engin- eering my forté.
I grew up in small- town Alvarado, Tex- as, south of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
If you're curious how I might describe my child- hood, you might read Huckleberry Finn,
which I'm quite sure is a complete rip-off of my younger years. I spent countless summers
in deep cold creeks on hand made rafts, hoping that in running away from home I could
encounter a world more wonderful that the one I knew. I later learned that there was no such world.
Live and learn.
Wednesday, 20th August 2008
IMPORTANT
all about me
I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science Engineering
from the University of Texas at Arlington,
where I specialized in Software Engineering.
I am working at DePaul
University's CTI program toward a Masters in Software
Engineering with emphasis on Project Management.
Following that, I plan on returning to undergrad school
to study something more traditional, like Electrical
Engineering. Wish me luck!
I have this idea for a comic strip - a regular weekly variety where every week we get a variation of the same theme. Here's the first strip:
frame one: we see Osama Bin Ladin standing with his hands out, and a hot, blonde busty chick across from him looking curiously. Osama is saying: "Hey hottie girl. Why don't you come back to my place?"
frame two: Girl is asking a question: "But won't your wife and three daughters be upset if I come back to your place and we do sexy things?
frame three: Osama is explaining with a "forget about it" look on his face. "My wife and daughters were killed in a horrible train accident."
frame four: The girl looks shocked. Says: "But I just saw them last night at the market! I'm so sorry."
frame five: Osama backtracks, looks sheepish: "I mean they will be killed in a horrible train accident."
frame six: Girl looks angry, with hands on hips. Says: "No thanks, Osama!"
...and you keep working until your established time to go, then you have made a deposit into the Emotional Bank-Account of your co-workers and your supervisors. Make no mistake: you will no doubt one day have to make withdrawals from that account. Wise is the man who, when forced to withdraw, withdraws from a bank account that is filled to the brim.
The other day my four-year-old daughter (see below) said, "I know that hurts your pee-pee spot." Gentlemen: when your kids figure out how to rack you, your life is officially over. Welcome to hell.
The father of two daughters knows what it means to be blessed
I have a picture I love to look at. It's a picture of my eldest daughter Kate, sitting in a black and white dress, looking stressed, while my youngest daughter Abby is crawling all over her. Kate is trying to be calm and collected for the picture, Abby is trying to get to the camera to smash it to bits:
When I look at this picture, I forget about every worry that is making me crazy, every bill unpaid, every work stress, every difficult assignment---everything just melts away. I'm at peace, I can't even feel my body. I'm just floating in space before these two new lives. I'm truly blessed.
Witness eQuality is a call center application which allows Supervisors to record the calls of their agents, complete with sound and video of the agent's computer desktop. The recording of the desktop is performed via a client that loads at startup on the PC and runs in the tray. The agent has the ability to turn the recording off, but will be confronted if they do it regularly.
This monitoring of the calls can be done in a pre-programmed way (i.e. record every call of the agent, or record only 4 calls a month, randomly). The Supervisor also has the ability to "live monitor" the agent's desktop - they can actually bring up an administrator page at their desk and watch the desktop of an agent all day long.
Recently, the ability to live monitor the agent's desktop has been used for more political purposes, rather than in an effort to improve quality. I witnessed Supervisors having one-on-ones with their associates where they had to deliver a reprimand. They then parted ways with the agent going to their desk, and the Supervisor hopping on Witness to watch the agent for the rest of the day, to see if they call their buddies or chat about the experience. Often the employee, returning from being criticized unfairly etc. will join a chat room of their peers and complain. This is seen by management as being disloyal and sinful. But I have two problems with this reaction: 1.) criticism of one's management style/method should be put to good use - to improve the manager and make their relationship with the employee better - it's an opportunity. Duh! 2.) there's really no sense getting mad about something you discovered in an evil way. Why not just get up, walk over to the employee's desk and hover around, watching their screen? What, you don't want to be seen doing what you're doing? You want your behavior to continue in secret? Think about that a second.
I consider that behavior to be ethically wrong. Technically, the agent can assume no privacy on company equipment, but even so, it doesn't mean that Supervisors have to violate an employee's privacy just because they can.
Therefore, I would like to come up with a way to detect when recording/live-monitoring is occurring on the agent's computer. If the Supervisor has the power to snoop, the agent ought to at least be able to detect that it's happening.
This is assuming that the Witness app is not written in a lazy way - if the app is always streaming the agent's desktop to the Witness server, then this method of detecting the presence of live-monitoring will be difficult if not impossible.
I emailed Joe Barton, my representative in Congress. Last term, I voted for Joe Barton. I don't plan on voting for him again. In my email, I demanded he sponsor or support a bill creating Universal Healthcare for all Americans as soon as possible. I understand that this is a dramatic move, but so was going to war in Iraq. Here's what he wrote me back:
Dear Mr. Michael:
Thank you for contacting me about a national health care system. I appreciate hearing from you on this matter.
The health care industry is not without its difficulties and has many challenges yet to be faced. The federal government currently spends well over $582.6 billion on health care and Medicare services. This portion of spending is nearly twenty-two percent of the entire budget for the federal government. Under the Clinton Administration, spending on health and Medicare services was close to an average of eighteen percent at $278.6 billion.
Some would suggest that the best approach is to put more people into government programs like a national health care system similar to Canada and the United Kingdom. The health care systems of these countries are rationed-care oriented which leads to lower quality care and long waits for health care. In 2000, Dr. Richard Davies, a cardiologist at the University of Ottawa, wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that at any given time in a typical year, more that 1,500 patients were on the provincial waiting list to receive heart bypass surgery. Sadly, some die while waiting for surgery, while others are taken off the list because they've become "medically unfit for surgery" due to their extended waiting time. When addressing the issue of problems within the industry, the solution must not be one that decreases the quality of health care for Americans.
I am a strong supporter of individual freedoms and limited government. I would strongly oppose any measure that seeks to create a national health care system. One of the great advantages of our private and competitive system is the incentive for innovation and discovery. Continued encouragement of a private health care system will provide for growth in our medical knowledge and improvement of our quality of care. As Ranking Member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee with jurisdiction on healthcare issues, I will continue to advance policies that will help strengthen our nation.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please continue to keep me informed of the issues that are of importance to you.
Sincerely,
Joe Barton
Member of Congress
This mailbox is not monitored and any replies to this address will not be received. Please send any reply or additional comments through my webpage at http://www.house.gov/barton.
podcasts that are making my morning commute the best part of my day
Guys,
I have been listening to these podcasts every morning for about a year. (You need iTunes for these links to work. Click on the 'alt' link for the podcasts website, for further instructions):
Last night was a pretty horrible time for my family. It all started when I discovered that my truck was "still under warranty". I had been driving around with a broken air conditioner for the past 6 months. It wasn't really a problem, I just rolled all the windows down and blasted the stereo and I was fine. But this is summer in Texas, and it was starting to get hot on my after-work commute. So a buddy of mine asked a simple question: "isn't this truck still under warranty? How old is it?" I realized that I had indeed paid $1680 when I bought the truck for an extended warranty. I checked, and the warranty was still valid, so I called a local Nissan dealer, who encouraged me to bring it in. I left the truck there on Thursday night. Everything was good.
On Friday morning, the Service Advisor at the local Nissan shop called me. The problem with the AC was a leaking hose. He would charge me the $50 deductible to get it fixed. He found 3 other warranty repairs that needed to be done, but each would also cost the $50. Apparently, you have to pay $50 for every part that the warranty covers. He also advised that I get some belts replaced, and a some other routine maintenance done. The total was over $500. I told him to hold off so I could talk to my wife. I got off the phone with him and paged my wife. (She later told me she never recieved the page.)
The Service Advisor called back. He said unfortunately, the warranty wouldn't cover the AC problem, since it was the hose that was busted, not the compressor or the coil or other solid stuff. Apparently, hoses are designated as a part that was intended to wear out. The new total was now over $1100. I was getting mad. I called the warranty company. I spoke with a little Indian chick, who gave me the typical customer service line: "So sorry, if there was anything I could do, don't take it out on me..." She claimed to appreciate my business (we also own an Infiniti). I told her she had a pretty horrible way of showing it.
I got off the phone with the little Indian, and waited, steaming, for Janna to call me back. I finally gave up and called the Nissan Service Advisor to tell him not to do anything - I'd come in and pick it up. This was ridiculous. I needed a neck to choke, but there was no one. The brochure for the warranty plainly stated that the AC was covered. Read the fine print, and it gave exactly what parts of an AC was covered. There was certainly no hoses listed. But how is a consumer to know? I'm no AC technician.
Janna never called. I called her cell. She didn't answer (she can't usually answer, since she's at work. I threw up my hands and made a decision. I called the Service Advisor back, and told him to go ahead and fix the truck for the $1100. I had just received my bonus at work. I would now begin to spend it. Irony.
Janna called me. I told her what happened. I could tell she was getting mad hearing what was happening. I told her I had told the Nissan Service Advisor to go ahead and fix the truck. She said she wished I had consulted her first. She's right, I should have let her help me make the decision. It was a mistake.
I drove home later that day, went straight to my daughter Kate's swimming lessons. When I got there, Janna and her mom and dad were sitting in the front row by the window, watching Kate swim. They hadn't saved me a seat on the front row (the don't usually, but today I took it as a low blow). I sat in the back row and watched over the heads of the other parents. After the lesson, Kate was acting hyper active and running around in her swim suit making a mess and generally ignoring our commands that she calm down and change into her street clothes. In the changing room, she kept trying to escape, and Janna and I were running out of patience. At one point, little naked Kate broke free from her mother, and crashed into a wall. She started crying (she hit her arm on the door jam, it obviously smarted.) She then turned around and hit Janna and shouted "shut up!" She says "shut up" when you've really pissed her off and she wants you to pay attention. For a split second, I lost my temper. I swatted her naked bottom, and she screamed. Janna was losing it. She was crying a little as well, and looked at me squarely and told me to leave. Suddenly I was the trouble-maker. I stormed out and went to the car. There were parents in the lobby who looked at me with suspicion. Add embarrassment to my anger.
I waited in the car while Janna got the girls together and came out with her parents. Janna had planned on inviting her parents to dinner that night. I was in no mood. I made an effort to play nice, but I was so offended and hurt that I just finally said, "You do what you want, I just want to go home. You go one way, I'll go the other." The more I spoke, the madder I got. On the way home I told Janna I was going home to pack a bag - I said it was time we separated. Janna said nothing. I was hurt and more angry that she wouldn't react, or try to talk me down. Finally she said she didn't want to discuss it in front of the children.
When I got home, I got Abby out of the car, then I went in and got my suitcase out. I put my dry cleaning in it, and some socks and underwear. I could hear the girls in the front of the house asking what was wrong. I fell on the floor in the back room, sobbing. The doorbell rang. It was my mother. I had asked her earlier if she could keep the girls so Janna and I could go on a date tonight. I let her in. Janna was nervously making hot dogs for the girls. She still did not talk to me, made no effort to address my freaking out.
I unpacked my bag. I got Janna to come with me in the car, and we left the girls with my mom. We drove to a shopping center parking lot. I positioned the car in the shade, and asked, calmly, what we were going to do. Janna remained mute. I pressed, she resisted. When I get this way, I'm like a prosecutor in a murder case and Janna's the witness for the defense. Finally Janna blew up. She was offended that I had said those things in front of the girls. She felt like a door mat. I was heaping abuse on her, and I knew it. But I also felt like I had a legitimate gripe. I thought she could have agreed with me that the repairs to the truck probably needed to be done. And surely she could have recognized that it might hurt my feelings to not have a seat saved at the swim lesson. I am Kate's father. I don't get a front row seat to watch her swim. And I was only trying to help discipline Kate when she hit Janna. But Janna said, bottom line, I lost my temper and I was acting crazy. I can't see myself from her perspective, so I had no idea how crazy I looked.
That theme of me acting crazy keeps coming up. When I was a small boy, I witnessed almost daily my father physically and emotionally abuse my mother. He threw her down a flight of stairs. He called her a stupid fat bitch almost every day. But I hated him for it, and vowed to never behave that way. I am not an angry person, and I do not physically abuse Janna or the kids. However, I'm certain that I abuse them emotionally. Not every day, but once in a while, I simply explode.
My emotional problems center on one character flaw that seems to define me completely. I need everyone in my life that I respect to adore me in return. When I find myself attached to you emotionally, you had better love me back, or I am in despair.
This craziness can be beneficial at times. It motivated me to leave my former job. I was the supervisor of two teams of 20 or so folks. I loved each and every one of them. I found myself amplifying their good features, and ignoring their faults. Of course, if their faults hurt the company, I would work on it, but I found most of their faults had no effect on their job performance. But the company was changing. Management was making me the bad guy - I was forced to deal with my beloved associates' faults every day. It drove me away, and into the R&D department. So, in the end, my neurosis led me from the dead-end job in Support to a career as a programmer in the R&D department, a job I have trained for all my life. It was hard to do, but it was good for me.
So there we were in the car in the shade rehashing old grievances. I feel like Janna minimizes my suffering. Why on earth would I get all "bent out of shape" just because there wasn't a seat waiting for me at swimming lessons? Why was I so threatened by Janna's dad, who never ceases to give me advice about anything and everything. I told her I truly believe her dad wanted to be her husband. She thought this was ridiculous. We yelled and cried and threatened and yelled and cried some more. Janna told me if I didn't get help I'd throw away the family. If really wanted to leave, she couldn't stop me. I told her I was pretty hurt that she didn't even want to try. What could I possible be worth to her if, when I said I was leaving, she showed me the door? Surely that is a very strong statement. But I realized she was physically unable to react. We are not ourselves when we're mad and hurt. I can't judge her actions when she's like that. Hopefully, she can forgive my packing a bag and telling her I'm leaving for the same reason.
But I am scared she won't forgive me. Not really. I look at myself and I ask, why would she? What about me is worth keeping, anyway? I stink. I still have pimples. I have a pot belly that is bigger than cute (people look at me and think, heart disease, diabetes, high blood-pressure, stroke). I'm ugly and fat and stupid and worthless. Why love me? Fuck. I'm crying at work as I write this. How am I gonna get to the bathroom to get myself together without people seeing me like this? Look at that fat dumbass! He's a girl, isn't he?!
Perhaps it is my own lack of intelligence, perhaps I missed one too many Sunday school lessons...or perhaps I am a man of weak character, but I have never considered something a promise unless I specifically said, " I promise." Now to say that you will do something and then fail to do so due to circumstances, that may technically be a lie but, not a broken promise. What's the difference? Well it is small but a promise to me is more serious.
I have failed to keep commitments but I do not believe I have failed to keep a promise...as proven by this post. The Hermit has returned.
Today at work, I invited The Hermit back to the site. I reminded him of his login/password, and mentioned that it has been almost 2 years since he posted. Since he and I are the only two souls on the planet to have posted to this site, we would share in the billions of dollars this site would earn us when the next dot-com boom, er, happened. He promised (promised) to post something this weekend.
If he does not post this weekend, we will know the kind of man he is. He failed to arrive at my daughter's birthday party, thought he promised to make a showing. He has repeatedly made promises one would wonder whether he ever intended to keep. Surely this is iron-clad evidence of a weak character and a sociopathic mind. Beware!
Sometimes we have to stop everything that is distracting us from what we are truly here to do. We are busy cranking widgets, making our bosses happy, kissing ass and making our way in a man's world, and a big boom happens, and we're finding ourselves dropping everything and turning 180°. This weekend, Janna's grandfather died, and we all stopped everything to participate in a flood of people who also stopped everything to celebrate his life.
Bill Malone was truly a great man. He was an excellent husband, an excellent father and grandfather and great-grandfather. He was a no-nonsense, honest man with an intellectual view of the world. He was a poet and wrote often of his life-experience. He was an influence to many, inspiring some to join the ministry, others to attend college and stick with it, others to be an honest, open individual.
Personally, I enjoyed being in his presence. He saw me as a valuable person, I felt like every day I spent with him he was investing in my life and trying to make me a better person.
Somebody told me I could download Windows Vista Business for free from DePaul. So I did. And now I've wasted 3 days getting it up and running - so far. I have a free 300 gig HD on this XP Pro PC, so I formatted it and crossed my fingers (it was left over from a former XP Pro box that went south - XP Pro went south, the hardware was fine!). I installed Vista Biz on the drive - which was D: on the XP PC. Vista sees this drive as C: Apparently, there aren't any absolutes at Microsoft. But that's the least of my troubles.
Some things that waste your time when loading Vista
I read somewhere that some poser loaded Vista on his PC in 12 minutes. Horseshit! It took my PC (Athlon 64 3500+ with 2 gigs of RAM) 30 minutes to get off the "Welcome to Vista" screen before it even started "collecting information". And that's the way it was all night. Everything took excruciatingly too long.
I saw the widgets and I wanted to tweak with them. I moved the mouse and the PC bluescreened. I kid you not. What kind of crazy shit is that? Only this bluescreen took a split second. It was like WHAM! and it was gone. Wild. Lightning fast bluescreens - they ought to advertise that!
I noticed a cute little notepad Gadget in the upper left of my screen. I clicked on it and typed "This is ass".
Anyway, so I recovered from the bluescreen and I wanted to add pictures from my old C: which was now labeled D: to the Slide Show gadget. I go to "Computer" (everything in Vista has the "My" removed. Go figure.) I find the D: drive and attempt to open it. The crap bluescreens, and annoys me with wagging finger: "You are not authorized to open that drive. Do you want to be authorized to open that drive? I click "Yes" and guess what? 30 more minutes of waiting. Good God allmighty.
I saw a "Why not upgrade to Vista Ultimate?" link somewhere on one of the hundreds of admin screens on this kludge. So, silly me, I whipped out my credit card and clicked the link. I was greeted with one of those new Vista Task List screens. Task #1: Get off your happy ass and head down to the store and buy a Vista Ultimate upgrade disc! Seriously? I had to be told to do that? No wonder this silly OS was delayed - they had to spend weeks and weeks programming these mindless screens for idiots. Below the line, it said "Would you like help purchasing Vista Ultimate?" I was becoming amused, so I clicked OK and I got a list of online retailers. I clicked on a few of them - guess what? No Vista Upgrades available yet. Hilarious. Dear Microsoft: Remove your head from your ass. Offer downloadable upgrades to the OS. Surely the change from Vista Biz to Vista Ultimate is not that big a file. Do it!
Final Thoughts:
I hate to say it, but the Mac OSX rip-off is really growing on me. So, I'll finish this upgrade and migrate over. And I'll hang around a while. At least, as long as it'll take for me to raise enough scratch to buy a Mac and then drop this hunk of junk out the second story window. Or down the stairs, whatever.
Follow Up:
OK So I renig. There is so much wrong with this release - defects abound! And just as the Mac commercial claims, you have to authorize everything! Notice the clock is one hour fast? Right click on it to change it. You have to authorize the ability to change the clock, then you have to authorize again that "a process is trying to change the system clock". This will not make Vista more secure because users will get sick of it, and turn the "feature" off!. And when the "you must authorize" popups happen, they cause the video subsystem to go haywire. When your PC is busy working (for example, when you have 3 excel spreadsheets open, are surfing the web, downloading email and working with Eclipse), the screen will go black for several seconds before the greyed out screen with the "you must authorize" message in the middle paints. This is very disrupting.
I'm wondering if a faster PC than mine (Athlon 64 3500+ with 2 gigs of RAM and a GeForce 6800GT) would make this better. But I hate it when an OS makes you wonder whether a faster PC would make your experience better!
Some critical applications (to my workflow) that don't have a Vista build yet (and need one):
iTunes - apparently Vista screws up the iTunes files. Can anyone smell a Zune-rat?
Google Sketchup - can't live without it
VNC - nothing works with Vista and I NEED IT
So I think I'll just go back to XP and buy a Mac ASAP.
Do I have adequate electric service? I'm not even sure what service I have (50, 100, 200 amp)?
Adequate Electric Service
After doing some research, I have a definitive answer for this question. Everyone in my residential area has the same service. The meter on the outside of the house furnishes two 110 volt lines coming from the pole. When they reach the house, they go through the meter (which is the main cutoff switch, i.e. when your electric company cuts off your service, they simply pull the meter off the wall and you go dark) and enter the house as two fat 1-ought lines into the main poles in the breaker box. Here's a picture:
link
So, if you want 200-amp service, and you've currently got 50-amp service, you can do the following (provided you know what you're doing):
Buy the necessary breaker box and breakers
get authorization to pull the meter
pull the meter
disconnect the main voltage feed from the meter, and all the circuits
remove the old breaker box, install the new breaker box
reinstall all the new circuits, and the main voltage feed from the meter carefully
reinstall the meter
get a city inspection
Three-Phase Power Issue
I called Tom Shelton from TXU (my regional Electrical Service Delivery guy). He said three-phase service is just a different type of service than most residential homes have. If TXU were to install it at my location, it would cost me for the service (all the expenses would be mine). Some houses in Tarrant county have 3-phase, since some AC units in the past have required it. But we probably don't have it.
He also gave me tips about setting up my shop - if I construct a separate building on my property, and I want to have a separate meter for that building, I will be billed at the commercial rate unless I have a kitchen, bath and bedroom in that building. Commercial rate electricity bills you for the maximum load in a month. So, even if you only work in the shop once a month, you'll pay as if you carried a load all month long - not a good idea for an amateur carpenter.
Is my foundation repaired? - I still have cracks. I have called the foundation repair company out to inspect - they say it's not their work that's causing the cracks.
Does my front lawn have proper drainage? After a rain, the lawn feels really really mushy for several days. Also the sod has all but died off.
what I did this weekend, and how it will affect the world
I saw two films this weekend. Both films had a strong liberal political bent, but I received them in the spirit they were intended, and I am happy to report I believe my perspective has changed and I am prepared to take action.
One side note: I often watch films, and afterwards see the world in a completely different way. I'll have to keep a handle on this, lest I veer off my life's path irreconcilably.
First, in the middle of the night, with my wife sleeping with my daughter in the next room, I watched Brokeback Mountain. I have always felt like we as spriitual people ought to leave the gays alone. It serves us no purpose to demonstrate descrimination and all around nastiness to a group of folks we consider sinners, when we ourselves are also sinners. But this filme really opened my eyes to the sadness and loss a gay person must experience when they find themselves in love with another and society succeeds in preventing their happiness. It was a very good film - amazing cinematography and solid acting. I'd recommend it to anyone. Except my father-in-law. I'm reminded of one of my axioms: garbage in is not necessarily garbage out. I don't have to be corrupted to partake in corruption. I might not even agree that Brokeback Mountain is corruption.
I also watched An Inconvenient Truth last night with my wife in the hall folding clothes. It was also a good film. There was a lot to like in this film, and a careful presentation of the reality of global warming, as well as the dangers of continued C02 emissions. I might criticise the films heavy-handed handling of it's critics, whom Gore demonized and disregarded in 5 minutes of a 95 minute film. I might also criticize the way the narrator stepped with agility from the certainty of global warming to the speculation of the long-term effects without making a clear distinction. This morning I heard on NPR that the fear of sudden climate change in Europe as a result of the ice shield in Greenland disappearing is now no longer a fear of researchers: link. I will take action however, first by assessing and working to limit my carbon footprint on the globe: link.
There is so much work to be done.
Update: check this out: link - if every American replaced just one incandescent bulb with a florescent one, we'd save the atmosphere the equivalent of 800,000 automobiles!
I am setting up a fine woodworking shop. I have a large collection of good quality hand tools and pneumatic tools. I'm working over the next few years to purchase the large, semi-pro cabinet stationary tools.
Next I need an air cleaner and dust collector: any suggestions?
I've been reading rave reviews of the Grizzly G1023SL. I may purchase that for a table saw. The price is right and people are saying it's a good machine!
It's not World News or anything, but I'm overweight and need to lose about 80 pounds in a short time or I'll be forced onto blood-pressure and diabetes medication. Now is the sweet spot for my health - if I manage to pull off a victory here I can avoid disease. If not, I only have myself to blame.
So, I've started a running program. I'm loosely following the cool running beginners program. Only, I've started on week four and I'm fairly certain this is a mistake. Here's what hurts:
my shins feel like they're filled with magma
my lungs feel like they're rapidly filling with hot blood
my fat on the sides of my body is sore from being joggled around
But I am not giving up! Fuck that!
I need a good pair of running shoes. My friend Alfredo (a 10 runner himself), recommends I go to a store for runners and get professionally fitted. I may have to do that soon, as my shoes are from JCPenny's and suck.
A Tarrant County man was in the paper over the New Year's Holiday because, strictly by following his New Year's resolution to get fit and lose weight he has dropped 200 pounds and become a huge lump of muscle. Funny, it said his BP was still too high. That sucks. Here's the article: link (registration required blah blah.)
A British Computer Science Professor from the University of Reading, Dr James Anderson, believes he has solved an age-old problem: the fuss over division by zero. As it was explained to me, as the denominator of a quotient gets smaller, the result of the division gets larger, and as the denominator approaches zero, the result balloons into infinity. So, division by zero is traditionally undefined.
But Anderson gives the following explanation for his new term, the value nullity:
Folks I have uncovered truly shocking news. After examining the recent Microsoft release Internet Explorer 7, and playing with it a few days, I have reached the conclusion that Microsoft has executed a very specific development strategy with this release. Namely, they have copied Mozilla's Firefox browser, stole all their good ideas, and claimed them as their own.
The Story Continues - this week I got my hands on a Zune and fiddled with it. I gotta say, it's pretty neat. The UI is easily prettier than the iPod's (I know that makes me a heretic), and it seems to have a nice form factor and curb-appeal. I have heard a lot of griping lately about it's size and weight. I didn't notice this being all that bad. I know the iPod is lighter/smaller, but it's only a few ounces. Personally, I think this device was created for one purpose: to prevent iPod from dominating the emerging portable digital video market as they have the digital music market. Microsoft built it to prevent Apple from being successful. Sad and spiteful.
I called 18008271000 and spoke to a counselor (an older man in Waco)
Veterans Burial Benefits include:
Grave site in a national cemetery
Opening and closing the grave
Headstone
Perpetual care
He said we would need Dad's DD214. We can request a copy from The National Personnell Records Center in St Louis, Missouri. Also, on va.gov, there's a way to request a new DD214 by submitting form 180. I need Dad's Social Security Number and Service number.
I called back - the nice lady I got (also Waco) told me they show records of him, his DOB, his date of service. He can get a letter listing his service record if he calls back with VA File # 22760797. I'll make sure this happens. She also recommended dad file for some sort of health benefit from the VA (hearing loss, for example) so we can claim a larger benefit for his burial. Even though the VA will over the gravesite and headstone, they do not cover the casket. They will help pay for the casket if he either dies in a VA hospital or hs's receiving some sort of VA benefit when he dies.
This is assuming you already have a functioning webserver serving rails. 1.)rails <appname>
you should have a domain name that matches your <appname> 2.) edit database.yml
3.) create database with 'mysqladmin -u root -p create <database_name>' 4.)script/generate model <table_name> 5.) edit db/migrate/001_<table_name>.rb
Example (for a table named accounts):
class Accounts < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :accounts do |table|
table.column :name, :string
table.column :budget, :float
end
end
def self.down
drop_table :accounts
end
end
6.)rake migrate 7.)script/generate scaffold <model_name> <controller_name>
<model_name> is singular form of <table_name> above.
You need to rake migrate before generating a scaffold!
8.) look at browser address: http://domain.xxx/<controller_name>
you'll see the full power of scaffolding 9.) add validation to model by editing app/models/<model_name>.rb
example:
class Account < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :name
validates_numericality_of :budget
end
Guys, I have a lot of loose ends. I'll just list all of my assumptions, and attempt to confirm them in this post:
School Issues I owe as much as a housepayment in school loans. I'm assuming I can avoid repaying them indefinately if I stay in school at least half time.
ADP Tuition Assistance has no Lifetime Limit - confirmed - I spoke with ADP Tuition Assistance this morning - there is no lifetime limit. You can continue to claim benefits until you retire.
ADP pays $3500 a year for associates with tenure < 5 years
ADP pays $5250 a year for associates with tenure > 5 years
Federal and State College Loans Can Stay in Deferment if you Stay in School - I called DePaul Financial Aid today - the clerk told me 1 class (4 credit hours) is required to keep your loans in deferment.
Federal Loans Confirmed - I spoke to AES today, they confirmed that if you're enrolled at least half time, you can remain in deferment. The school will continuously update the database - so as long as the school thinks you're in deferment, you're in deferment.
State Loans Confirmed - CAL Loans require that you be at least half time according to the school you're attending. But if you drop below at least half-time, the school will contact CAL and tell them that - so if you return to half time again, you have to contact CAL again.
This habit is the hardest for me - like training yourself to fly (without an airplane I mean). I have been thinking lately about this habit, what it really means to me. I can think of countless examples of how I've flown off the handle in conflict, how I've ignored the perogative I have to choose my actions after stimulus. But I can't recall a time when I was able to delay action long enough to think of the consequences - fully. If we make a list of consequences of our actions in the heat of battle, logic tells us that we can never be certain that list is complete! So how can we act decisively? How can we flip that guy off in traffic, or tell that lady where to go, herself? We can not.
Running is something I've always enjoyed. But since I left college and became a cube-chained mouse-jockey, I've gained about 100 pounds and become a big fat dork. It's time I got back into shape.
My goal is to follow the CoolRunnings program perfectly starting Monday, July 17 and proceeding through the summer and into Fall. I'll buy shoes and running attire from Penny's and begin stretching and planning my routes this week.
I downloaded the Audible recording of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People the other day and begun listening to it. I have had the book on my nightstand beside my bed for a year now and haven't been able to break out of the introduction. But listening to it on my iPod through my car stereo, I've been able to plow through the first 3 habits in a week. I am often so captivated by the recording I bring my iPod to my desk and listen to the rest of the chapter on the sly.
The book was written as the end-all be-all of self-help books. The author has every confidense that his method will lead everyone no matter the circumstance to a better, more rewarding, more effective life. After having listened to the first 4 chapters (the introduction, and the first Three Habits), I'm convinced the author is correct.
The author describes a paradigm shift that occurred in the early 20th century in the success literature of the time. The success literature prior to this shift emphasized strength of character, being virtuous in spite of your circumstances. The success literature after the shift emphasized gaining skills and techniques that helped you to be successful in the business world. one good example of this mindset is the popular book How to Win Friends and Influence People. Rather than emphasizing "being" someone, the thinking seems to emphasize "having" something. The author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People claims that this change has led our culture into the toilet. Only those who ignore this teaching, either consciously or sub-consciously, can avoid the quagmire and truly be an effective person.
In further posts, I will chronicle my journey through The Seven Habits. I truly hope this will change my life forever.
OK, you have to know the context to see how this joke is funny. Usually at night Kate and I will lie down in my bed and watch Harold Lloyd silent movies until she's sleepy enough to be carried into her room. She calls them "Silly movies".
Anyway, lately we've been attempting to put Kate to be in her bed. Her bed is pushed against the wall opposite the door in her room. I have to lie down on the outside, so she can't get out. I turn off the light and try to get her to talk about her day, or let her tell me a story or vise-versa.
So, on this particular night, we were lying there staring at the ceiling, and she suddenly sits up and says:
I was thinking about my show
But over there... is not my show.
She was pointing to her dresser on the opposite wall. There's no TV there playing silent movies.
So she looked at me afterwards, and then burst into giggles, then she said it again and got me laughing. We both said it to each other and laughed and giggled until she was settled in sucking her thumb and drifting off to sleep.
Well apparently we didn't learn enough from our last excursion into home remodeling - now we're remodeling baby sister's room. We decided (well, to be honest, I decided, and she didn't object too loudly) to install raised-panel wainscoting on all the walls. I'm using 3/4" MDF for the panels, and pine for the rails and styles. I have a bunch of woodworking equipment to make it all possible, including:
on the road from sanity to insanity, there are passengers and there are drivers
Well, I guess I'm going crazy.
My older brother Chris is already a certified, bonafied, schizophrenic with 20 years of experience freaking people out, harming himself violently, and otherwise having a hi-go time being nuts. He stayed with my mother for a few years, and I got to see first hand just how crazy one guy can be. He's run away from home again (I'm told this is normal behavior), and we've all settled into our routines and gotten on with our lives.
But I still wonder when and if I'll ever go crazy myself.
Now, it must be said that I can go for weeks and weeks without these thoughts. I'm like a guy on death row (assuming a guy on death row can find a moments peace to have a thought) who wakes up after a nap to discover that he's gonna be killed by the state in a matter of days. This is quite dramatic, I'm aware. But it's a reality.
Event #1
My professor at DePaul sent me a grade report from my first assignment - he gave me an A, but asked me if some of the prose was plagiarized. I replied, no, I unleashed a torrent of righteous indignation. Here's an excerpt:
I do not steal my work from anyone - I might write like I copied/pasted into the assignment from some other work, but that only means that I write good ad copy, or technical documents, or whatever. I would not attempt to plagiarize as a DL student, because if I could get away with it once, I could do it a hundred times, and then, what's the value in my degree? I know you do not know me, and therefore you must be suspicious when I write things that sound too good to be true, but I want you to know it is painful to me to be accused of such an act by a stranger.
I'm not an 18-year-old college student - I'm a 33-year father of two! I work as a manager of 13 highly-trained IT professionals. Every day I have to make careful ethical decisions that affect my associates and my clients. I think I do a good job there. I do not steal at work either.
So, your accusation hurts me on many levels. Please, research this Electolux Smartfridge [the product I was researching] to your satisfaction.
He replied, "What makes you think I was accusing you?" I had to apologize. Nice work.
Event #2
My wife was doing the bills last night on our computer. I was charged with watching Kate. Kate wandered away while I was mesmerized by Barney, and appeared in the office. Janna immediately hollered, "Jason, come get Kate - I only need an hour to do these bills!" I replied, no, I lambasted her with index finger erect and shaking, "I never do that to you! When I'm in here doing my homework, I never complain when Kate comes in here! I just play with her!" I cooled down and had to apologize. Terrific!
Event #3
A manager at work today came over to my desk, sat down, and told me he was dissapointed in my performance on a particular task. I spent what seemed like a half an hour trying to figure out what he was on about, and then I replied, no, I exploded with accusations, threats, and all sorts of other verbal abuse. I would talk to his boss, and his boss's boss and whomever I had to to get the fool to quit picking on me! I would make him feel dread the next time he even contemplated coming over here with "I'm disappointed". As I cooled down, I told him I thought he'd been mad at me ever since I moved my desk over to be in the midst of my team, and that I conjectured that he was trying to undermine my authority and otherwise drive me fucking apeshit. When I finally came off that paranoid delusion, I had to apologize. Magnificent! Awe-inspiring! Super!
So, you're thinking: These three events must be linked in some way! Something in all the events, some common element, has led to the writer's hapless downfall! What is it? I'll tell you so you won't read the last sentence again: it's my temper. I never knew I had one. I found it this week. Now, what to do with it?
It's only a matter of time before Kate destroys our new furniture. We spent our escrow check on 2 leather couches, a leather chair and ottoman, a big coffee table and 3 end tables from Dillards. It's fabulous, but I can just see Kate spilling enamel paint on the leather, or driving nails in the end tables. So I'm already looking for deals for our next furniture purchase!
By the way, we saved over $3500 over the original sale prices on this furniture. It's pretty! I'll post pictures...
If he does not post this weekend, we will know the kind of man he is. He failed to arrive at my daughter's birthday party, thought he promised to make a showing. He has repeatedly made promises one would wonder whether he ever intended to keep. Surely this is iron-clad evidence of a weak character and a sociopathic mind. Beware!
