Month: April 2009

Why I don’t drive

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…
(22:44:17) Friend: drive?
(22:44:29) Spidey01: no license
(22:44:55) Friend: WTF?
(22:44:58) Friend: are you serious?
(22:44:59) Friend: why not?
(22:45:04) Spidey01: can’t afford it
(22:45:20) Spidey01: it’s like a f****** endless loop !!
(22:45:28) Friend: dude yes you can
(22:45:37) Spidey01: how?
(22:46:01) Friend: go take the test
(22:46:28) Spidey01: cost of maintaining license, cost of insurance, cost of gasoline
(22:46:44) Friend: get more money cumming in
(22:46:53) Spidey01: how?
(22:47:23) Friend: well how do you get to work now?
(22:47:43) Spidey01: Her royal majesty drives
(22:48:34) Friend: dude how can that not bother you?
(22:48:38) Friend: mommy still driving you around
(22:48:43) Spidey01: uh huh
(22:48:59) Spidey01: there are 2 ways in which I can afford to rectify that situation:
(22:50:44) Spidey01: A.) Quit this job, get sufficient income to do it –> SIDE EFFECT: must make up lost earnings due to putting her royal majesty out of work; that means a job with around $1000-$1200 take home pay, plus more for cost of (license, insurance, gasoline), and I’ll probably end up her royal majesties taxi driver and even more so, an errand boy
(22:51:54) Spidey01: B.) Talk her royal majesty into paying the bill –> SIDE EFFECT: will surely end up her royal majesties taxi driver, and probably even more of an errand boy; attempts to use the car regularly will eventually result in a *cut off* of gasoline supply -> return to original problem definition….
(22:53:34) Spidey01: hence, either way I lose in the end -> life is a very evil chess game
(22:55:30) Spidey01: Any ideas?

where =~ substitute/her royal majesty/my mother the royal pain/globally
note $range is an off the top of the head estimate; but in the right ball park.

Imperialist or Vimperialist?

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I’ve begun testing the firefox extension “Vimperator”. I have become, should we say increasingly disatified with Firefox since the 2.0.0 release; so it has basically been pissing my off for the last 2 or 3 years ^_^.

All web browsers just suck, most are totally lame… Firefox, the 1.x releases were a great step up over IE5/IE6, but by modern standards Firefox 3.0.x is still lacking – it has not really evolved *all that much* past what it was so many years ago. The finaly piss in the bucket, was when Windows Firefox 3 proved to run more effectively on FreeBSD under WINE, then FreeBSD Firefox 3 on FreeBSD or Windows Firefox 3 on Windows NT 5.1. That, just popped the cork… lol. It’s my firm believe that a web browser, especially something as big, fat, and ugly as Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer — are seriously fucked in the head, if they require non-standard issue add-ons to make them useful.

Personally at the minimum, I think any browser that supports tabs and javascript; but lacks a _real_ way of managing tabs and security (think NoScript), is just !@%!%^^! retarded. Ok, that kills off the majority of web browsers ever created, doesn’t it?

Tonight, I installed Epiphany; and despite the unappealing appearance of the program, I actually found it superior to Firefox 3 after a few minutes of testing. The extensions package offering an interactive Python console, especially so. The standard JavaScript interface was fine I guess, but I would much prefer Python to JavaScript; because I know the language much better.

To give Firefox one last, and final chance… before I take a HEX EDITOR to the SON OF A ****, I’ve installed the Vimperator extension; in the hopes that the massive changes it makes, might redeem Firefoxes lameness. So far, it seems to be quite an improvement. The ability to navigate documents is much improved; most notably it now has *S* *A* *N* *E* tabbed browsing support, heck I’ve seen modeless editors with better tab support then standard Firefox, and that’s kinda sad. Access to JavaScript is much more readildy available (in a less ubtuse way), and bringing most of the Vi IMproved style stuff along, builds up issues solved by some add-ons, and not dreamed of yet by most “regular users”.

What can I say, I am no normal user — I spend inordinate amounts of time on and around computers. During that time, the programs I use most often include a terminal and command line intreptor (Windows is just moronic here, period), a text editor, various chat programs, and a web browser. Although there are countless people in this world, who use more of the web then I bother to explore: few people use their web browser more then I do, lol.

I chose Vi IMproved as my text editor, because it is quick, effieciant, and rewards the user with a tool that respects the most simple fact of any program solving a common problem: The user has more things in life to do then use this shitty program, so let’s make their life easier.

Why can’t a web browser do that also?

Writer’s Block: Beautiful Vistas

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What is the most beautiful view you’ve ever seen? Have you been there, or do you plan to visit? If you have one, share a picture.

Live Journals Writer’s Block

The most beautiful view that I’ve ever seen, has got to be Tennessee — the mountains are so beautiful. One you get far enough into north Georgia, you start to get into mountain country, and the trees start to grow thicker all around. Further into Tennessee, it just gets better. And of course, there’s always the great smoky mountains 😉

I remember when we were in Tennessee for my brothers wedding, it was a royal pain to take the trip up; but the sights were well worth it. We were out in Sevier County (Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Gatlinburg), and then we made the trip home through the smoky’s. Wish I had a picture like what I see in my minds eye, but if we took any of the mountains, it’s probably still in the camera (on 110 film lol). The trees were in a multitude of colours, beautiful reds, oranges, browns, and even some greens; so it must’ve been during Autumn that we were there. Reese and Gail married about 1999, and divorced last year, I’ve never actually bothered to remember the date… haha. (Foul memories of that darn suit however, still abide!).

Another great view was the summit of Stone Mountain, I’ve been there; on a day when it was almost clear enough to actually see as far as the proverbial eye can see ^_^. As far as views that I would love to see, I’ve always wanted to see Texas and Key West; my mothers always said how beautiful Texas was, and well, being a Floridian: do even you have to ask about the Keys? hehehe. Like wise, parts of Ireland and Italy come to mind. But, all in all, I’m not likely to see any of them within my life time.

I would love to someday see the mountains out in Tennessee again… I guess, even though I’ve always been around a ‘city’ style environment, I just prefer being a little further from contemporary civilization. I don’t think I will ever forget the sight of the mountains.

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“Sometimes,” said he, “in my voyages, when I was a man and commanded
other men, I have seen the heavens overcast, the sea rage and foam, the
storm arise, and, like a monstrous bird, beating the two horizons with
its wings. Then I felt that my vessel was a vain refuge, that trembled
and shook before the tempest. Soon the fury of the waves and the sight
of the sharp rocks announced the approach of death, and death then
terrified me, and I used all my skill and intelligence as a man and a
sailor to struggle against the wrath of God. But I did so because I was
happy, because I had not courted death, because to be cast upon a bed
of rocks and seaweed seemed terrible, because I was unwilling that I, a
creature made for the service of God, should serve for food to the gulls
and ravens. But now it is different; I have lost all that bound me to
life, death smiles and invites me to repose; I die after my own manner,
I die exhausted and broken-spirited, as I fall asleep when I have paced
three thousand times round my cell.”

— Edmond Dantès

Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo), Alexandre Dumas

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Geeze, last night was nuts, and tonight not so much better. When bed time came around, I was wide awake with plenty of stuff to do; so I didn’t bother with rest.

I nearly forgot to sleep!!!!

Next thing I knew, 4 hours had passed since the last time check, and light was pouring in through the blinds 🙁 🙁 :-(.

At least tomorrow, I don’t have to be up and out for work until noon lol.

Most people who knows me well, know there’s only two reasons I can see for being awake so early… One would be to watch the sunrise with that special girl, and as anyone who knows me at all -> then start wondering why we didn’t pack a picnic-breakfast xD. The only other logical reason, is to setup an amphibious ambush, and go fishin’ ;-). Hmm, I wonder how many years it’s been … I’ve always enjoyed fishing, just get out in nature, and forget the rest of the world exists for a while. But unfortunately, you’ve eventually got to go to work lol.

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http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Shooting_your_self_in_the_foot

and http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/joke/foot.htm

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Man I had some crazy dreams, like a cross between WWII and Resident Evil :-/

Best way to describe it, a squad was nearly captured by the Japanese Army, enacted a rescue, neutralized threats and went barricaded in a building…. managed to convince those green horns that a room is *only* clear when it’s been cleared, not stick your head in and move on… and did it the hard way (going in with a M1911A1 in each hand, and trying to keep your head attached lol) Next thing you know, we’re knee deep in Zombie Vile and the freshbrass is starting to run thin!

Interesting article

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Bjarne Stroustrup on Educating Software Developers

A very good read; it also reminds me why most of the pe

One thing that especially stuck a cord with me:

Education should prepare people to face new challenges; that’s what makes education different from training. In computing, that means knowing your basic algorithms, data structures, system issues, etc., and the languages needed to apply that knowledge. It also means having the high-level skills to analyze a system and to experiment with alternative solutions to problems. Going beyond the simple library-user level of programming is especially important when we consider the need to build new industries, rather than just improving older ones.

For the love of Pete’s sister, the education system in America hasn’t been preparing the vast majority of people for jack shit, for at least the last 40 years, if not the last 120 years…. and with the way things are these days, I wonder how long until someone will write a song for Coneheads II, where s/high school/college/gi is applied ^_^.

I still meet people that struggle with literacy and logic, let along engineering. When it comes to CS majors that I’ve met, I usually see two major varieties: those that went through a decent course, and actually paid attention. And those that probably got the turn your head and cough treatment, or spent more time playing Counter Strike.

:-/