"Break! Break, damn you!"
This from Chris, who is coding next to me.
"This damn piece of..." is what I hear through the VNV nation in my earplugs. He's enraged because he wrote a chunk of code. It had a bug in it. It wouldn't run.
So he ripped it apart, re-wrote it in a way that he KNEW was incorrect, but that would illustrate a point in the way it failed...
...and now it works perfectly.
"Look at this! Why isn't this breaking?"
I have to admit, the code looks misguided to me, too. For a programmer, this is one of the worst kind of bugs. The kind that you're CERTAIN is there, but you can't fix it, because it won't break while you're looking at it.
Now he's consulting Jamie. Maybe she can figure out what's so horribly right with his code.
This from Chris, who is coding next to me.
"This damn piece of..." is what I hear through the VNV nation in my earplugs. He's enraged because he wrote a chunk of code. It had a bug in it. It wouldn't run.
So he ripped it apart, re-wrote it in a way that he KNEW was incorrect, but that would illustrate a point in the way it failed...
...and now it works perfectly.
"Look at this! Why isn't this breaking?"
I have to admit, the code looks misguided to me, too. For a programmer, this is one of the worst kind of bugs. The kind that you're CERTAIN is there, but you can't fix it, because it won't break while you're looking at it.
Now he's consulting Jamie. Maybe she can figure out what's so horribly right with his code.
He made the letter Lamed king over coition
And He bound a crown to it
And He combined one with another
And with them He formed
Libra in the Universe
Tishrei in the Year
And the gall bladder in the soul
male and female
- Sefir Yetzirah 5:9
There you have it; The kabbalist's answer to why we librans are such horndogs.
(Not my usual reading material, but I'm nose deep in a major research paper on Angels As Automata.)
So I went out and spent a month's rent and then some today on things to make me happy. The big one: A 29 string neo-celtic lap harp. Pinning happiness on material possessions may be bad, but this is one I've been lusting after for a few years now, and it is so very beautiful. Her tone is clear, and her notes ring just so long, and we communicate well.
Note: The gender of harps is determined by the sexual preferences of the player, by tradition. This is because the harp spends its time between your legs, and had best be a welcome guest there. This tidily solves the pronoun issue, except for bisexual bards.
Some of that cash might be made back in a bonus influx of income: I started writing down a gaming idea that had been bouncing around my head for the last week, and it's coming out very neatly. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this one makes it into Pyramid magazine. I haven't published there in nearly 2 years now, so I'd like to visit its pages again.
Note: The gender of harps is determined by the sexual preferences of the player, by tradition. This is because the harp spends its time between your legs, and had best be a welcome guest there. This tidily solves the pronoun issue, except for bisexual bards.
Some of that cash might be made back in a bonus influx of income: I started writing down a gaming idea that had been bouncing around my head for the last week, and it's coming out very neatly. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this one makes it into Pyramid magazine. I haven't published there in nearly 2 years now, so I'd like to visit its pages again.
Skipped CS562 (Name: Advanced Buzzword-Buzzword Software Buzzword) today to attend a lecture by Dr. Banchoff, visiting from Brown University. I'd be exagerating if I said the man was a hero of mine, but he's been on my radar since I was a wee lad, and he published 'Beyond the Third Dimension' with Scientific American press. It had all these gorgeous, rainbow-hued computer generated pictures of what klein bottles and tesseracts would look like as they passed through or rotated in our three dimensional space. If I wasn't already hooked on non-euclidean and theoreticc geometry before, that did it for me.
So I finally got to see the man speak. He's a charismatic presenter - quite funny. He gave a talk on the works of Abbot-Abbot (Flatland), L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) and Dali all drew on fourth dimensional geometric concepts, and how all these folks had gotten it fundamentally right and what we could learn from them. He4 also showed some of his earliest computer graphics: a vector display illustration of a rotating hypercube.
Trivia: The computer graphics scene of the trench-run on the Death Star briefing from A New Hope is based on the introductory credits from Banchoff's hypercube movie.
So I finally got to see the man speak. He's a charismatic presenter - quite funny. He gave a talk on the works of Abbot-Abbot (Flatland), L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) and Dali all drew on fourth dimensional geometric concepts, and how all these folks had gotten it fundamentally right and what we could learn from them. He4 also showed some of his earliest computer graphics: a vector display illustration of a rotating hypercube.
Trivia: The computer graphics scene of the trench-run on the Death Star briefing from A New Hope is based on the introductory credits from Banchoff's hypercube movie.
Guinea boar back from surgery.
Ever seen a stoned guinea pig before?
I hadn't.
His Name: Albert (Einstein)
Her Name: Kusanagi, Marumoto.
Why his?
Looks like Einstein when his hair is brushed forwards. Traditional to name boy pigs after quantum physicists.
Why hers?
She likes to pilot her pigloo around the cage, like a little armored pig. Kusanagi not only means "Grass Cutter" (what more perfect name for a guinea pig?) but is also the name of the main character of Ghost in the Shell, who is quite armored. Marumoto is a pun on Motoko, that Kusanagi's name, and is japanese for guinea pig. Also traditional to give girl pigs japanese names.
Ever seen a stoned guinea pig before?
I hadn't.
His Name: Albert (Einstein)
Her Name: Kusanagi, Marumoto.
Why his?
Looks like Einstein when his hair is brushed forwards. Traditional to name boy pigs after quantum physicists.
Why hers?
She likes to pilot her pigloo around the cage, like a little armored pig. Kusanagi not only means "Grass Cutter" (what more perfect name for a guinea pig?) but is also the name of the main character of Ghost in the Shell, who is quite armored. Marumoto is a pun on Motoko, that Kusanagi's name, and is japanese for guinea pig. Also traditional to give girl pigs japanese names.
More me-news bullets:
- 11 pages of papers out of the way. Now I just have to code my butt off. C++, the language of anus removal.
- That cute girl did not return to the goth club tonight. Boo hoo. On the other hand, another girl, hot in a blond/plastic/catholic-schoolgirl way, decided to chat me up. Life could be worse.
- Started fasting my guinea boar in preparation for his big operation (snip snip!) in 36 hours. That's a little earlier than the vet recommends fasting the pig, but since they, y'know... recycle... their food...
My guinea pigs still need names.
I think the girl should share a name with a female mecha pilot. She likes to move her pigloo around the cage so that she doesn't have to expose herself to danger. It's her little tank.
The boy hasn't caught me with any mannerism yet. He might be Albert (Einstein) since it's traditional to name guinea boars after quantum physicists, and his hair looks silly-like-einstein when brushed forward.
- 11 pages of papers out of the way. Now I just have to code my butt off. C++, the language of anus removal.
- That cute girl did not return to the goth club tonight. Boo hoo. On the other hand, another girl, hot in a blond/plastic/catholic-schoolgirl way, decided to chat me up. Life could be worse.
- Started fasting my guinea boar in preparation for his big operation (snip snip!) in 36 hours. That's a little earlier than the vet recommends fasting the pig, but since they, y'know... recycle... their food...
My guinea pigs still need names.
I think the girl should share a name with a female mecha pilot. She likes to move her pigloo around the cage so that she doesn't have to expose herself to danger. It's her little tank.
The boy hasn't caught me with any mannerism yet. He might be Albert (Einstein) since it's traditional to name guinea boars after quantum physicists, and his hair looks silly-like-einstein when brushed forward.
Good things:
- SG tShirt and stickers arrived. Am now wearing the company colours. You know, this IS a really comfy tee.
- Akiko-chan (that's my cute-as-a-button Honda Insight) is now wearing an SG sticker on her butt. She always wanted something pink on her. After four years, she gets it. It's also her first bumper sticker. Now she wants to know when she gets a set taken of her.
- Talked to that cute girl in the goth club tonight. She talked back. Quite pleasantly. Apparently she's been living in St.Lou without a car for 8 months now and could stand to have more friends. Wanted to kiss her a few minutes into the conversation. Haven't felt that in a while. Will it last?
- Watched Terminator 2 for class tonight. (This is my same class that we watched Blade Runner for: "Cultural History of the Robot.") I hadn't picked up on first viewing what a good freaking movie it really is. Perhaps I was prejudiced by the giant budget and the copious explosions, but there's quite a bit of pathos tucked into it, and the character's actions all make sense. It's like the opposite of Final Fantasy.
- SG tShirt and stickers arrived. Am now wearing the company colours. You know, this IS a really comfy tee.
- Akiko-chan (that's my cute-as-a-button Honda Insight) is now wearing an SG sticker on her butt. She always wanted something pink on her. After four years, she gets it. It's also her first bumper sticker. Now she wants to know when she gets a set taken of her.
- Talked to that cute girl in the goth club tonight. She talked back. Quite pleasantly. Apparently she's been living in St.Lou without a car for 8 months now and could stand to have more friends. Wanted to kiss her a few minutes into the conversation. Haven't felt that in a while. Will it last?
- Watched Terminator 2 for class tonight. (This is my same class that we watched Blade Runner for: "Cultural History of the Robot.") I hadn't picked up on first viewing what a good freaking movie it really is. Perhaps I was prejudiced by the giant budget and the copious explosions, but there's quite a bit of pathos tucked into it, and the character's actions all make sense. It's like the opposite of Final Fantasy.
At 2:30 today, I realized that not only had I not played an April Fools prank on anyone, but that no one had played one on me, or even within my range of perception.
I announced this to the class that was walking in around me.
Within 60 seconds, the room was rearranged to have all the desks face the opposite direction and the teacher's stand on the appropriate side.
It's an old one, but sometimes you need Supaa Turbo April Fools Justice.
I announced this to the class that was walking in around me.
Within 60 seconds, the room was rearranged to have all the desks face the opposite direction and the teacher's stand on the appropriate side.
It's an old one, but sometimes you need Supaa Turbo April Fools Justice.
"When I was a child, we had the same exercises in the case of a blast in the schools that you did here. We had the same jokes about them, too. In the event of a nuclear blast, you must cover yourself with a white fabric, and crawl slowly towards the cemetary. Why Slowly? You musn't create a panic."
Sergei Kruschev came to speak regarding his father's time as President of the Soviet Union, and the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
He made the point time and again how the view from their side was very much the same as ours. The fear, the sureness that the other side was bent on their destruction. Yet you could also hear a son's pride in his father's accomplishment. When World War II ended, everyone knew the world had one superpower in it. When the Missile Crisis came, they knew there were two.
My own childhood memory of Nikita Kruschev is of an enemy leader from before my time, a shadowy, cruel man who had said of my country, "We will bury you." How different that man is from the one who, on being ousted from office, said this to his son:
"If they can now relieve the top man from power with just a vote and no shed of blood, then I have not lived my life in vain."
