Insignificant Bits

Well, there was no terror attack at the DNC. Thank god for the fences!

I never thought I’d say this, but go Real Networks!

I made a pretty picture on my bus route (click for big):

For some reason noisy images don’t compress that well. It took about ten minutes to render at 800×800 from the completely unoptimized, O(2**n) python script. I’ve got nothing on fractint.

So: what has been going on lately? Not a whole lot.

Angeline and I went to Mortons last weekend to celebrate nothing in particular. While it was very nice, I still must say: ov-er-ra-ted! I had a bone-in ribeye which may have been one of the best steaks I’ve ever had, however the one at Sweetwater competes admirably and costs half as much. I didn’t tip the coat check girl, so I will probably go to hell.

You heard it here first: SD is going to be in the Jaxx Battle quarterfinals. Plan to be there, because our draw is historically pretty poor and it would be really nice to qualify (26 votes). Right now the word is we play August 25th.

A complimentary e-mail from a random internet robot forced me to review some code I wrote long ago. Here it is:

for (i=0; i<FNHEIGHT; i++) {
font_bitmap = *(font_index + i);
for (j=0; j<FNWIDTH; j++) {
bit = 1 << (FNWIDTH-j-1);
if ((font_bitmap & bit) != 0) {
framebuf[ width * FNWIDTH * (FNHEIGHT * y + i)
x * FNWIDTH + j ] = fgindex;
} else {
framebuf[ width * FNWIDTH * (FNHEIGHT * y + i)
x * FNWIDTH + j ] = bgindex;
}
}
}

Poor bracing style aside, I really miss C. Seriously, remember when the only tools you had to use were vi, gcc and make? As opposed to vi, xdoclet, ant, and javac, three of which suck. I’ve been thinking a lot about computer languages — why we like the ones we like, why we hate all of them to at least some degree. Then, my metamind starts wondering why I am thinking about computer languages rather than thinking about the problem at hand, and how this is probably indicative of some universal shortcomings that they all share. Or maybe I’m just goofing off at work. So, in summary, use Perl.

Imaginary Reader: Hey Bob, you should update your damn blog.

Me: No. Check out this other guy’s blog if you want something to read. I’ve met Dr. Felten before and he has a head on his shoulders.

Amusing is when someone posts a personal response to an evite of over 340 people:

Hi name, I was wondering what happened to you. You
haven’t called or e-mailed me in a while. I thought you were upset at
me for some reason. Maybe you thought I was abrupt on the phone with
you. I apologize if you took it that way. I was actually on my way out,
and I didn’t have time to talk.

What malady afflicts technical writers that they must turn The installer creates an icon on the desktop into The icon that may be clicked to launch the application will be stored at the location of the user’s choosing for running at the user’s discretion ?

This would be funnier if it hadn’t happened to me:

In other news, a different ATM downstairs from the office crashed. It is
displaying a Windows 3.1 error dialog with the text: The program
pointed to by the SET RUNWORKPLACE= line in CONFIG.SYS, this file, could
not be started. WinStartApp returned %1.

An ATM that doesn’t understand transactions and one that runs Windows. Scared
yet?

I got this in my inbox, in full except the signature:

Hi Bob,

I need you to fax me a DOJ-2 to renew your Program
2688-S, 4-05026 for FY 2005 please.

It makes just as little sense to me. Perhaps they were looking for Mr. Tuttle.

I added a couple of stupid ideas to the halfbakery. Enjoy:

• Slurpee Straw
• Chick-fil-B

Best quote from the audience on that DTB recording: “Dude! this is fuckin king curtis memphis soul stew.. this is old.. this is awesome.. holy shit. Dude! Dude!” (Yes, you can hear someone shout “Freebird.”)

So I got my Amazon shipment in:

• Jaco Pastorius, Jaco Pastorius (run out and buy this now)
• Frogwings, Croakin at Toads
• Dave Martone, A Demon’s Dream
• Jazz is Dead, Blue Light Rain
• Al Di Meola, World Sinfonia
• Aquarium Rescue Unit, The Calling
• Tribal Tech, Face First

Yea I listen to some weird music. So what?