Slashdot story

First Post.

Well, my first story on Slashdot. I didn't write the article, but I wrote the blurb and sent it to the administrators. They liked it, and posted it, and now everybody can read it. They changed the title, but mine kindof sucked anyway. That's right, you can say it. I'm awesome.

cell

replaced. new one gets signal. so, um... yeah. that's about it.

Genetic engineering

Read the article. I'd write more here, but other than bitching about how dumb this is (which the article does quite well) there's nothing I can add.

So yeah, get angry, please.

Rain + Electronics

I got caught in the rain yesterday when biking home from work. I got soaked, as did everything with me including my mp3 player and cell phone. My mp3 player works, but my cell phone is having problems. It has found signal since drying off, but doesn't do it most of the time. I figure there's probably still some water inside that has yet to evaporate, because I've never seen low-voltage electronics ruined by water. Plus it worked this morning and a little yesterday after getting wet, so I imagine it working again. If not, I'll just get it replaced. Until then, don't try calling my cell.

From now on I'm walking

Got a quick (read: immediate) flat today on my way to work and nearly lost control. Luckily I landed on my feet and ran with it, righted the bike and continued on my way without slowing down too much. Didn't even notice the flat until I got off work and it was starting to rain. So I rode on my flat to the bike shop across campus... it's hard to steer when your front tire is as soft as microwaved butter... and got a new tire. I'm never going back to that bike shop again; they kept my flat inner tube (I forgot to ask for it) which I could have fixed once I got home, and the guy said I should come back for a tune-up because the joint where the handle bar meets the fork was a little loose. Did he fix it? No, and on my way from the shop some kid swerved into me from the other side of the sidewalk and knocked me over. I landed on the grass and was fine, but my handle bar was now parallel to the tire rather than the traditional perpendicular configuration. It was loose enough for me to fix by hand, but it's still just annoying. It would have taken the guy 2 seconds to do there. And the last time I went to this shop I got a speedometer and they installed it but decided I didn't need the manual. And yes, before you ask, I can fix my bike on my own, put new tires on, install a speedometer, and what not, but I figure I have no big problem paying for labour at local businesses every now and then. Well, not there anymore. So I rode home shaken up from the crash; I can't remember the last time I fell off my bike, not to mention that I had a close call earlier today.

So yeah, when I drive asshole cops give me tickets, and when I ride my bike people crash into me. Every now and then my incredible luck runs out.

no revenue for the police

So I'm driving today, highway, speeding but moving with traffic, and I get pulled over. I couldn't find my registration at first because I was looking in the glove compartment, when it was in my wallet, so the officer went back to his car to write me up. He came back with a ticket for failing to provide my registration and by that point I had realized where it was and had it for him. Handed it to him. Still got the ticket, which I'm contesting (I produced it on demand, just not as quickly as the cop would have liked), but got nothing for speeding. He said not to go to court otherwise he'd tell the judge what else I was doing. So he tells the judge that I speed... and then what? Why no speeding ticket then? I'll get off from the ticket I got because I gave him the registration before he gave me the ticket, and I won't get a speeding ticket because that's just not how traffic court works. Between the parking ticket I sortof got out of (guilty with explanation, $250 ticket reduced to $20 court fine), the "driving faster than reasonable" ticket I got from the accident (it was raining, I lost control when I hit a puddle, court date in August) when the cop showed up well after the fact --- and told me to contest ---, and this, I'm going to know the Montgomery County traffic court pretty well. And if all goes as planned, I won't be nailed that badly for anything since my only speeding ticket from over 3 years ago. Even when I get a ticket I'm lucky.

Still, this is why I love my bike.

Do Not Click On This Link!

I've included the following link which I would advise against following, http://xxx.lanl.gov/seek-and-destroy, because I find it funny. Apparently the people at LANL (Los Angeles National Labratory), who brought us the atomic bomb, don't like automated searches of their site, and any IP address that tries to access that url will be attacked by the LANL network. How, I'm not sure. And I don't want to find out.

Consider yourself warned... if you click on the link and something bad happens, don't blame me. I'm just the messenger.

Stormy Weather

Bad weather (good, if you ask me. you didn't? nevermind then), good music (Modest Mouse's new CD), and an interesting book make the fact that all my housemates have left me to my own devices not so bad. Still, though, I don't think I would ever want to live alone.

I know what this means... *sigh*... no more being an asshole. *snif*

By the way, we're still looking for a housemate, and if for some reason you haven't been encouraged to exercise your right to live here and are looking for a place to live in college park, let me or one of my housemates know.

Damn, the weather cleared up. I was looking forward to a nice storm. Scratch that title, make it "ramble" instead.

Everybody take off your clothes

It's hot out, and in for that matter, so it is now my mission to wear as little clothing as possible. I'll wear a shirt at work and when I go to establishments of business which require it, and shorts around those who aren't comfortable with nakedness. Other than that, clothes, I ain't got shit to say to you.

^?^?^?^?^?

I've figured out the way I program, and why it takes me a long time to get something finished... I'm a perfectionist and a lot of the programs I write a large. So what ends up happening is I write a rough copy once, then write it again using better structure as I understand the problem better. Usually this means I rewrite code once, but with projects for work where they keep on changing what they ask for, or the standards change, it means I write the same program 4 or 5 times before it's finished. The nice part about this is that in the end, my code is very well structured and easy to read, and usually modular and extensible (my two favorite words.) Right now I'm working on the... let's see... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... 6th copy of the program I'm writing for work. I've changed programming languages once (it started as horrible C code somebody else wrote which I was trying to adapt to fit the problem), added top-level features a few times which required rewriting large sections of code, and broke apart the code into separate modules a couple times (which is what I'm doing now). Once I'm done with this version, though, it will be the last.

new car

2001 prizim. Wasn't planing on getting one (doing fine biking to work) any time soon, but it was my parents idea, and the car will last my younger brother a while in a few years when he gets it. I'm still going to buy my own car eventually, but apparently there's no rush for my brother to get a car. Still, I do want to actually own my own car, and it would make his life easier. So now what? I guess I see if I can still bike to work when the weather's pleasant, or if I'll just drive every day because it's easier. Nice of my parents, though.

Where did everybody go?

The house I live in has changed substantially over the last week or so. First, Paul moved home for the summer, then Ben moved home for good. They had all better come back, often, those jerks. So now it's just the three of us. The house does not feel like it used to. Also, in a little over a week, Tim is going to France for a while. That leaves it as Karen and myself, too few people for such a large house. If anybody cool needs a place to live in College Park, MD (don't worry, you're cool), let one of us know, because with Ben moved out there is an open room that needs filling.

To go with the flow, I've fixed my pc and rearanged my room a little. I figure, if the house feels different but my room doesn't, my brain won't register as quickly the changes (yes, I am that dense.) So now my video card doesn't do that thing where bright or dark areas of the screen make the rows they're on brighter or darker than the rest, and my keyboard no longer has any cables coming out of it. It would be nice if my keyboard worked, though; I thought you could just cut the cables and make it 'wireless'. Finally, I moved my pc from the floor to my desk, so now I won't get back problems every time I feel like using linux instead of my iBook.