Hangout

[enemy anemone]

I rediscovered something of the sort recently. awhile back I had picked up "it is indeed a hideous enigma" but forgot about it and found it again in a Father Brown story. ah, my long-lost old friend, the hideous enigma! *hugs it*

one that I have a vague notion of where it came from but don't want to search for is something like "maybe I will learn that in one of my next spare times."

there is a pair of exclamations that I use, and I know they came from a comic or an illustration to an article. I occasionally try to google the two parts, but to no avail. I had even emailed a magazine to ask them about it. that reminds of another magazine I could try to email... perhaps if I ever hunt it down I will post it. for now I have been refraining from mentioning it or asking teh intertrons lest all google search results point to me. xD

[Vlad!]

Back in 2003, my much-former roommate and I argued about a sound file I had on my computer.

The sound clip is from an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Scenes from the class struggle in Springfield". Homer hits a golf ball into a sand trap and says "D'oh!", and Burns replies with the line in the clip.

What's interesting is that people cannot agree at all what Burns' line actually is. When I listen to the file, I hear:
"Yes, you're in deep doo now".

However, my roommate heard:
"Yes, you're in deep doh now".

Since my roommate was demonstrably incompetent at most of life (this isn't the same roommate I actually liked and lived with for four years, this was the stupid one the university assigned me), I was not too surprised that he also failed at converting air vibrations into the words they're supposed to represent. However, the episode summary at the unofficial archive also has his line as the one my roommate heard.

(I think at the time I actually posted this to the phorum for a listening test, but that was back in the proboards days and embarrassingly I can't actually remember what, if anything, the results were).

Anyway, I've attached the sound file in question to this post. Let me know what you hear!

[enemy anemone]

I hear "Jayce, you're in deep dough now."

[Vlad!]

Result which disagrees with me is invalidated since you also didn't hear 'yes' correctly 

[enemy anemone]

Jayce, I'm in deeper dough now.

[Vlad!]

I was curious to see if anyone had ever proposed marriage over e-mail, but a cursory Google search didn't reveal anything (except for one guy who proposed by sending an e-mail but he was right there in the room and it was a gimmick because they had met online). I did however find several instances of proposals over Twitter, which for some reason seems worse. I also found a couple of anecdotes about proposals via text message, which made me think about the sort of hilarious misunderstandings which could ensue if that got into your autocorrect dictionary (obligatory hilarious misunderstandings).

I'm not contemplating proposing via e-mail (or any other method), but I was sure that I could find at least one documented case of the e-mail proposal. Maybe if I ever feel like time is weighing on my hands I will search harder.

[Vlad!]

Although I was initially somewhat dismissive, I have to say that one piece of technology which has consistently brought a smile to my face is in fact Wolfram Alpha. It is, next to Wikipedia (and ahead of Google), my favorite resource for answering specific questions which would otherwise have gone unanswered in my life.

Today's query was "how many femtoseconds has it been since the founding of the Roman Empire". This required some massaging before Alpha would produce an answer, but I'm still very impressed that it produced a result at all.

I am still of the opinion that the future of search looks much more like Wolfram Alpha than Google. Probably a combination of the two, if I'm honest, because there's definitely still value in finding things online. But while Google will tell you how to find an answer, Alpha will tell you the answer. I think that's really cool.

[Vlad!]

I am extremely confused by something I saw on my way to work this morning

[Vlad!]

I love it when common humanity shines through.

This morning I was awakened to a call asking for my help in working on a high-priority bug. The folks in India were winding down their day, so they hoped the East coast could pick it up. I just got this e-mail from the woman who called me this morning:

===
Hi Nathan,

I have seen your mail saying that you are in office. We have been informed of possible hurricane in RTP. Please take good care of yourself and family.

All the best!
===

I'm likely actually safer in this metal-and-concrete building than I would be in my house (and I'm certainly safe this far inland), but I appreciate the fact that she was concerned about someone she only met this morning and took the time to say so.

Sometimes I actually do have some hope for humanity

[enemy anemone]

I was sure that I could find at least one documented case of the e-mail proposal. Maybe if I ever feel like time is weighing on my hands I will search harder.

I'm watching season 2 of Survivor, and one of the players proposed to his girlfriend via instant messaging. (it was part of a reward challenge that involved their loved ones at home answering trivia questions.) she said yes. this was filmed in 2000 and aired in 2001; I'm curious if they got married and if they're still together. (I'm going to guess no.)

[Vlad!]

I followed season 2 of Survivor more closely than I did any of the others (which was not at all) because the woman who eventually won was from my hometown. However, apparently I didn't follow it closely enough to actually catch that part.

[enemy anemone]

another season I watched (13) had a guy (Adam Gentry) who often wore a Virgina Tech cap. so of course I have to ask if you know him!

[Vlad!]

According to the Googles, he got a degree in marketing. So...no.

[leinad]

I'm watching season 2 of Survivor, and one of the players proposed to his girlfriend via instant messaging. (it was part of a reward challenge that involved their loved ones at home answering trivia questions.) she said yes. this was filmed in 2000 and aired in 2001; I'm curious if they got married and if they're still together. (I'm going to guess no.)

I've been able to find that his name is Keith Famie, but oddly I still haven't found the answer to your question.  I did find a message board in which someone claimed that the girlfriend broke up with him after finding out that he had hooked up with another contestant, but that is hardly a reliable source.

[Vlad!]

Hm. Part of me is curious and wants to know, and part of me is glad that it is still possible to maintain some small shred of privacy. The fact that a simple Google search does not reveal whether Keith Famie and Katrin Koivu are still together means there may still be hope.

[Vlad!]

Words I can almost never remember how to spell properly:
Judgment (which I spelled wrong while typing this post)
Grateful
Bureaucracy
Privilege
Ressentiment (I always end up typing "resentment" instead)
Mustache (I keep trying to spell it the British way)

What's worse is that I know I can't spell these words so even when I get them right I end up second-guessing myself half the time.

[enemy anemone]

"moustache" is the more colourful and honourable spelling.

[Vlad!]

Chihuahuas are hilarious. They look like alien rodents and have more energy than a three-year-old. Also, despite weighing approximately three micrograms, they seem to think that they're the apex predator of whatever area they're in.

A friend and former roommate of mine brought his girlfriend's Chihuahua to our Labor Day cookout (its name is Biggie, though I call him Mr. Bigglesworth). He immediately surveyed the situation, decided that I must be the alpha, and came up to challenge me. This challenge involved scampering around my feet such that I had to try hard not to step on him (he did get accidentally punted once, but it wasn't by me so I was able to laugh without feeling bad).

(I was reminded of Chihuahuas--a notoriously bugeyed breed--by looking at whim's avatar, which I believe is a tarsier, also known for abnormally high eye-to-head size ratios).

[whim]

 

Tarsiers (or whatever they are) > Chihuahuas, though both can be hilarious. 

[Vlad!]

I usually pull the Windows Logo sticker off my computers (because once I get a hold on them they don't run Windows for very long). I like to put it on random things.
* My office phone
* A Nerf gun
* My co-worker's Macbook (didn't last long)
* My headphones
* The radio-synchronized clock in my living room

Most people don't notice it at all, but occasionally one preternaturally observant person will see it and laugh, at which point I will remove the sticker and place it somewhere else.

(I would stick it somewhere in my car, but my car's audio system actually is a Microsoft Product, making the sticker a little too accurate to be funny).

[Vlad!]

Cool cars I have seen this year (so far):
* I saw what I believe was an Alfa Romeo Spyder when driving to Asheville (I got photographic proof for this one)
* I saw a Ferrari last Sunday (may have been a 458, but I'm not super confident in this identification either)
* I saw an Aston Martin on my way up to Blacksburg on Monday (I can't ID any Astons without looking at the badge, and it was going the other way)
* I saw a Lotus Elise near the RDU airport a few weeks ago
* During my trip to Virginia I saw a large variety of Porsches: a Cayman S, a 911 Turbo, and a Boxster

I have not seen a Lamborghini in the wild this year (I saw one in 2008 at the Brier Creek theater when I went to go see The Dark Knight, but haven't seen it since). I see M-series BMWs and sporty Mercs (mostly SLKs) so frequently they don't warrant a mention, though I did see an AMG Mercedes this year which must have cost enough money to make it worth calling out.

I saw a Mazda RX-7 (my personal favorite sports car) at a Cookout, but it was a gen-2 rather than a gen-3 (the rare one). I don't think I've ever seen a gen-3 in the wild.

[Aaron]

If you want humor, be in a Fundamentals of Information Technology course with a bunch of people over 40.  I've been taking a 2 week training class and at 29 I am the youngest by a long shot.

[Vlad!]

Back when I was in high school, I was bored in the school library and reading some random book which looked interesting (one of my usual occupations in high school). I had happened to grab a book about aliens and UFOs. One of the photographs of a purported alien autopsy had a security guard in attendance who looked like me, plus about fifteen years and sixty pounds. I showed this photo to a couple of friends, who verified that the guard looked uncannily like me.

Google image searches, while yielding some fairly disturbing images, have not turned up this photo (not that I've spent more than about ten minutes looking for it).

I thought of this the other day when we were having discussions about UFO sightings, for some inexplicable reason.

[Vlad!]

So...apparently this exists.

Of course, applying it to every window in my bedroom would cost about the same as my car. But I bet that 15 years from now it will cost a tenth of that and everybody will be using it.

(This is a safe bet because 15 years from now nobody will remember I said this except me, so if I'm right I will bring it back up to make myself look like a visionary, while if I'm wrong I will pretend it never happened).

[Aaron]

RIP Steve Jobs

[Vlad!]

I have never owned a Macintosh, an iPhone, an iPad, an iPod, or indeed any Apple product whatsoever. But yet somehow my life has been shaped by Steve Jobs.

Jobs was a visionary, which has to be incredibly frustrating. He could see the Mac Classic in 1980, but all he could get with the day's technology was the Apple IIe. But that was good enough that an entire generation grew up with one in their classrooms. He could see the iMac in 1990, but all he could get was the Mac Classic. He could see the iPad in 1993, but all he could get was the Apple Newton. He could see Mac OS X in 1995, but all he could get was NeXTSTEP. I can't even imagine what he saw in 2011.

He revolutionized so many different industries and areas of technology. In a culture where cheaper is better and 'good enough' is the best word in quality, Steve dared to hold the line and say that Apple will only produce beautiful, wonderful, desirable things which delight in both form and function. Yes, he said, personal computers and smartphones and personal media players can and should be not only easy to use but a joy to use.

Steve called the consumer electronics industry higher. He looked at the state of the art and said no, we can do better. And then he did.

He will be missed.

[Vlad!]

RIP Dennis Ritchie

Pretty much everything I do professionally was not only influenced but actually created by Dennis Ritchie. I write parts of UNIX-based operating systems in the C programming language, both of which are his children. Ritchie was nowhere near the icon that Jobs was, but his influence is no less vast and pervasive.

dmr, as he was known, had the reputation of being a nice, unassuming man who shared the fruits of his brilliance with the world. Luminaries such as Rob Pike and Dave Winer have shared stories about how his encouragement helped them become who they are today. James 3:13 says "Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." I don't know about Ritchie's beliefs or the state of his soul, but from what I've heard of him it sounds like he exemplified these characteristics.

He will be missed.

[Vlad!]

On my co-worker's whiteboard is, with no words of explanation, this list:

Animals
-----------
Platypus
Tarsier
Baker
Tofurkey
Narwhal
Sharktopus

On my whiteboard is a drawing of a cupcake and the phrase "you've been cupcaked!"

And we wonder why people who walk through our area think we never do any work.

[Vlad!]

Geez, not a good month for computer science. Following DMR, the father of C and UNIX, John McCarthy passed away today.

McCarthy created Lisp, the first functional computer language. At the time when most computer programmers were using FORTRAN or COBOL or other big, ugly, procedural languages, McCarthy and his students were using the elegant, expressive, and powerful language he invented.

I remember also using his research as a source for a paper I wrote on sustainability, as he had done some very clear thinking on the matter.

Contrasting JmC with DMR shows the very typical divide between the industrialist and the academic, the pragmatist and the researcher. But both have had a huge impact on computer science, and both will be sorely missed.

[Vlad!]

I knew that I had made a comment about kernel versions somewhere, and today I got fed up and decided to find it. Apparently it was here.

It's especially ironic considering that Linus decided to rename 2.6.40 as Linux 3.0, despite the complete lack of flaming chariots, etc.

(I ended up wasting a couple of minutes reading that entire page. Some good memories there. I think my favorite was Kenny's new car).

[Vlad!]

I got this question today via the e-mails, but I can't understand it. Maybe someone here is better at the speakings of the language and can decipher it for me.

===
What I would like is the ability to change the color of the pick for home and other picks on the tool bar.  Older versions of Firefox had
different colors and it was easier the pick the correct one.
Please let me know if this is possible,
===

I think he wants to change the color of the buttons in the Firefox toolbar? Or maybe Timmy is trapped in the well?

[enemy anemone]

??? he has clearly picked the incorrect pick.

[Vlad!]

I had an epiphany this morning that by 'pick' he means 'pic', i.e. the icon. I'm still not sure if he wants to change the icon itself or change the background of the toolbar, but now I feel like I know enough to help him a bit.

[whim]

That seemed pretty obvious to me.  I must be fluent in this language you speak of. 

[Vlad!]

Public service announcement time!

At work, I use the command wsdel ("workspace delete") to remove a workspace I'm done with. Recently, I typed wsdel on the wrong workspace. Literally weeks of work, deleted in about five seconds.

Fortunately, I'm not actually stupid. Well, I did just delete my workspace, so maybe I am, but I'm at least smart enough to do daily backups. I work for a storage company so some of my less-bright coworkers assume that because we're storing on reliable servers means they don't have to take backups. Yeah, the servers will protect your data against hardware errors. But who's protecting your data against you?

As I went to restore my latest backup, I thought to myself "how long has it been since I tested these backups?". Maybe I was backing up the wrong thing. Or maybe the backup would be corrupt. After all, I wrote the backup script myself, and I'm the idiot who just deleted the wrong workspace. Who knew what I had screwed up?

Fortunately, my backup worked. The only thing lost was a few minutes of my time and some pride. But here's my public service announcement: data you haven't backed up are data you are willing to lose. If you're not willing to lose something, back it up. And the corollary to that is, an untested backup is a black hole. You put data in, but if you never take data out, you don't know what you're backing up.

Unfortunately, I wind up being the Tech Guy (tm) for many of my friends. According to their view of the world, getting my master's degree in computer science means that I am fully qualified and happy to figure out why Windows is running so slowly on their underpowered laptop they bought from Best Buy in 2006 (answer: because you have all the viruses. Every single one.). I usually, if grudgingly, help them. But one thing I refuse to help with is recovering your non-backed-up data when you lose it. If you can't be bothered to spend a little bit of time to protect your data, why should I be bothered to spend a lot more time trying to recover your data? Yes, I'm sure that presentation was very important. Maybe as you're explaining to your boss how you didn't back up your presentation you will learn to take the bare minimum steps necessary to ensure you don't lose your data next time.

[Vlad!]

Today I used Wolfram Alpha to figure out how long it takes light to get from Earth to Voyager 2. In other words, if you were on Voyager 2 and had a powerful enough telescope, how far into the past could you see? (Physicists are cringing at this phrasing, since obviously you aren't seeing into the past, you are merely observing light which left Earth some time ago).

What amazes me is how this probe, which has been in flight for over three decades, has traveled as far as light travels in half a day. In the time it would take me to drive to, say, Orlando, a photon leaving the Earth at the same time would reach a space probe launched before I was born.

(FWIW I don't get paid by Stephen Wolfram or his company, I just really like their product).

[Vlad!]

There was freaking Christmas music playing at Caribou Coffee yesterday when I was meeting a friend there.  Looks like I'm not going there anymore.

[enemy anemone]

I was at Kohl's (horrible place) last week, and they were playing "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas". I told the overpriced pillowcases "on sale" "NO IT ISN'T".

[Vlad!]

I don't think I've ever been inside a Kohl's, but just judging by the exterior (as I, being superficial, am wont to do) it seems like a remarkably miserable place.

[Aaron]

I was at Kohl's (horrible place) last week, and they were playing "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas". I told the overpriced pillowcases "on sale" "NO IT ISN'T".

You talk to the products too?  I feel better about myself