Im reading about bazaar http://doc.bazaar.canonical.com/migration/en/why-switch-to-bazaar.html and ... I have very little interest ... and at the same time extreme interest. I wrote a post when google wave came out that basically said I thought the idea of wave would be the ultimate version control system ... obviously something on top of wave not a naive just use this chat system for version control.
but ... over time I have used svn, hg, cvs, git, and now bzr (just pulling mixxx) ... and it seems relatively asinine. I understand the differences ... but for the most part I dont really care? I guess in some cases different systems would shine, but on the other hand why should I have even heard of five different systems to accomplish basically the same task. I guess I just want ease of use.
For people not into acronyms like myself svn=subversion, hg = mercurial, cvs=content versioning system, git= ... git? (and checking wiki, linus named it after himself, as the pejorative for an unpleasant person, awesome), and bzr=bazaar ... and after checking wiki to find out why git is thusly named http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revision_control_software I appreciate that versioning is important, but is it such a complex problem that this many different approaches are needed?
hey we want to solve the problem of how to organize versions ... ok lets all take a different approach and meet back ... isnt going to lead to better organization. and people wonder how data gets lost over time.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
taking today off faceboook, just gonna list my links here.
so far as of noon, mostly npr:
http://grist.org/food/one-weird-trick-to-fix-farms-forever/
'if all U.S. farms adopted Brandt-style agriculture, they could suck down as much as 25 times more carbon than they currently are – equivalent to taking nearly 10 percent of the U.S. car fleet off the road' and 'in Brandt’s corner of Ohio, the old saw that the “prophet isn’t recognized in his own hometown” largely holds, though a “handful” of farmers are catching on. Nationwide, he adds, “word’s getting out” as farmers like Brandt slowly show their neighbors that biodiversity, not chemicals, is their best strategy'
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130924/15004524644/press-lumps-ed-snowden-chelsea-manning-with-mass-murderers-actual-spies.shtml
'a whistleblower, even one disliked by the government, isn't somehow an automatic pariah to society'
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/25/225754902/wild-weather-tied-to-unusual-jet-stream-activity?
'"It could be drought. It could be heat waves. It could be flooding due to prolonged rainfall," she says. "All of those kinds of patterns should be becoming more likely."'
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/25/226050490/pakistan-quake-killed-hundreds-created-island-off-coast?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/25/226034788/latest-macarthur-geniuses-include-sound-savior?
if nothing else 'Note: As NPR listeners know well, the MacArthur Foundation is one of NPR's financial supporters. Most recently, as the MacArthur website says, it awarded NPR $3 million between 2010 and 2013.'
http://teamcoco.com/video/bryan-cranston-erotic-note
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/09/25
http://imgur.com/HUhXiq5
"If my being upset about you breaking the 10 year winning streak would make you happy, then I would do it." -- Jon Stewart
"You would?" -- Stephen Colbert
"I would. But I can't, because I'm an executive producer on your show so I won again motherf**ker!" -- Jon Stewart
http://www.pleated-jeans.com/2011/01/24/the-united-states-of-shame-chart/
*update 12:01 : and I cant stop listening to these kids rock. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYKLvYGqaC0
*update 1:18: http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2013/09/24/unfit-for-product-placement-radicalizing-the-cartoon-characters-of-our-childhoods/ which is in response to some of the stupid things from http://swaggernewyork.com/2013/09/04/exclusive-lisa-simpson-daria-and-other-90s-cartoon-characters-take-on-new-york-fashion-week/
update 1:43: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/25/223787129/what-happens-when-a-store-lets-customers-return-whatever-they-want? 'As a business practice, it's expensive. As advertising, it's cheap.'
update 2:04: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/thus-blogged-zarathustra 'Behold! I show to you the Internet Commenter.' 'What is the greatest the Internet Commenter could experience? It is the hour of being taken seriously. It is the hour where some poor soul’s flickering credulity meets the Commenter’s great despising, where that earnest soul briefly takes the Commenter’s stale invective and solipsistic repetition seriously. And so the Commenter is always engaged, but always alone.”'
http://grist.org/food/one-weird-trick-to-fix-farms-forever/
'if all U.S. farms adopted Brandt-style agriculture, they could suck down as much as 25 times more carbon than they currently are – equivalent to taking nearly 10 percent of the U.S. car fleet off the road' and 'in Brandt’s corner of Ohio, the old saw that the “prophet isn’t recognized in his own hometown” largely holds, though a “handful” of farmers are catching on. Nationwide, he adds, “word’s getting out” as farmers like Brandt slowly show their neighbors that biodiversity, not chemicals, is their best strategy'
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130924/15004524644/press-lumps-ed-snowden-chelsea-manning-with-mass-murderers-actual-spies.shtml
'a whistleblower, even one disliked by the government, isn't somehow an automatic pariah to society'
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/25/225754902/wild-weather-tied-to-unusual-jet-stream-activity?
'"It could be drought. It could be heat waves. It could be flooding due to prolonged rainfall," she says. "All of those kinds of patterns should be becoming more likely."'
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/25/226050490/pakistan-quake-killed-hundreds-created-island-off-coast?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/25/226034788/latest-macarthur-geniuses-include-sound-savior?
if nothing else 'Note: As NPR listeners know well, the MacArthur Foundation is one of NPR's financial supporters. Most recently, as the MacArthur website says, it awarded NPR $3 million between 2010 and 2013.'
http://teamcoco.com/video/bryan-cranston-erotic-note
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/09/25
http://imgur.com/HUhXiq5
"If my being upset about you breaking the 10 year winning streak would make you happy, then I would do it." -- Jon Stewart
"You would?" -- Stephen Colbert
"I would. But I can't, because I'm an executive producer on your show so I won again motherf**ker!" -- Jon Stewart
http://www.pleated-jeans.com/2011/01/24/the-united-states-of-shame-chart/
*update 12:01 : and I cant stop listening to these kids rock. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYKLvYGqaC0
*update 1:18: http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2013/09/24/unfit-for-product-placement-radicalizing-the-cartoon-characters-of-our-childhoods/ which is in response to some of the stupid things from http://swaggernewyork.com/2013/09/04/exclusive-lisa-simpson-daria-and-other-90s-cartoon-characters-take-on-new-york-fashion-week/
update 1:43: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/25/223787129/what-happens-when-a-store-lets-customers-return-whatever-they-want? 'As a business practice, it's expensive. As advertising, it's cheap.'
update 2:04: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/thus-blogged-zarathustra 'Behold! I show to you the Internet Commenter.' 'What is the greatest the Internet Commenter could experience? It is the hour of being taken seriously. It is the hour where some poor soul’s flickering credulity meets the Commenter’s great despising, where that earnest soul briefly takes the Commenter’s stale invective and solipsistic repetition seriously. And so the Commenter is always engaged, but always alone.”'
Saturday, September 21, 2013
It just occurred to me
That I left my job at almost exactly the date when I had spent more time living in chicago than I did in Baltimore. And thinking about it feels weird.
On another note. On my way to music hack day, hoping something productive goes on. I'm tired from staying up karaoke-ing after the Bob odenkirk and david cross show last night. It was a blast, but knowing I had to be up at 730 this morning I probably should have gone straight home afterwards.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
postscript to the post I shared on facebook the other day.
I guess this is specifically addressed to the three or four people most likely to take offense to the earlier post....
That blurb was what I wrote as I spilled my guts into a web form about my work experience. It was an unfiltered attempt to explain what I have done over the past 4-5 years framed in a context of why I left my last job and as an explanation to future employers both what I worked on and why it may not be as impressive as it could have been.
A former coworker messaged me to say that it might bother people at my old company and that I should remove the company name at the very least if not take down the entire post. I hesitated to post the blahg initially, and I thought about messaging the people who the messenger suggested may be upset by the post, but I decided that since I was being honest, and had already expressed these feelings and complaints before leaving the company it should not be an issue.
I hope the post did not offend anybody, but I cannot be sure unless people talk with me about it. I've already written that I think the post helped me to clear my head and response from my peers has helped me gain some perspective around the issue, so I cannot say I regret it at this point, but I've not had any negative feedback(beyond this 'warning'), so maybe that is coming down the pipeline. I suppose I shall see.
Also, I do not see how I have done anything wrong. I did not reveal any inside information. I spoke honestly about my experience and I do not believe I defamed or demeaned anybody. However, I do appreciate that there are other perspectives, and my ramblings may come off as excuses and the other side of the coin may not understand how I was effected by the previous goings on, just as I may not understand how they experienced my tenure and departure. I would appreciate personal interaction before anger or some response took hold, but I'm not sure how likely any of that is, but I find myself worrying as a result of this random message of warning.
Alternatively, part of the reason I felt the need to write up a detailed explanation on an application type of form is that I repeatedly heard the refrain from my superiors at my former company that they didn't know what I was doing. So in my mind if they do read my post, Id hope they could walk away from it with more understanding of why I left as opposed to a kneejerk reaction that I was trying to speak ill of the company. Also, I'd hope they could understand why I felt the need to write this all down and vent to my peer group. And finally Id hope they understand why I've not asked for a detailed recommendation from them outlining my work for the company since it seemed impractical given the management situation.
That blurb was what I wrote as I spilled my guts into a web form about my work experience. It was an unfiltered attempt to explain what I have done over the past 4-5 years framed in a context of why I left my last job and as an explanation to future employers both what I worked on and why it may not be as impressive as it could have been.
A former coworker messaged me to say that it might bother people at my old company and that I should remove the company name at the very least if not take down the entire post. I hesitated to post the blahg initially, and I thought about messaging the people who the messenger suggested may be upset by the post, but I decided that since I was being honest, and had already expressed these feelings and complaints before leaving the company it should not be an issue.
I hope the post did not offend anybody, but I cannot be sure unless people talk with me about it. I've already written that I think the post helped me to clear my head and response from my peers has helped me gain some perspective around the issue, so I cannot say I regret it at this point, but I've not had any negative feedback(beyond this 'warning'), so maybe that is coming down the pipeline. I suppose I shall see.
Also, I do not see how I have done anything wrong. I did not reveal any inside information. I spoke honestly about my experience and I do not believe I defamed or demeaned anybody. However, I do appreciate that there are other perspectives, and my ramblings may come off as excuses and the other side of the coin may not understand how I was effected by the previous goings on, just as I may not understand how they experienced my tenure and departure. I would appreciate personal interaction before anger or some response took hold, but I'm not sure how likely any of that is, but I find myself worrying as a result of this random message of warning.
Alternatively, part of the reason I felt the need to write up a detailed explanation on an application type of form is that I repeatedly heard the refrain from my superiors at my former company that they didn't know what I was doing. So in my mind if they do read my post, Id hope they could walk away from it with more understanding of why I left as opposed to a kneejerk reaction that I was trying to speak ill of the company. Also, I'd hope they could understand why I felt the need to write this all down and vent to my peer group. And finally Id hope they understand why I've not asked for a detailed recommendation from them outlining my work for the company since it seemed impractical given the management situation.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
My blog got 200 hits!!!
Whatever. I mean ... I appreciate that people cared enough to read my ramblings. And Ive gotten a lot of positive feedback of late. and putting this out in public really helped me vent. Sharing how Im feeling with the list of people I constantly spam with my thoughts and getting some feedback from a broader group of people was nice as opposed to hearing these thoughts in my head on repeat. Hearing other people echo the same sentiments or at least that they knew people who had similar negative experiences. It didn't hurt to have a few people saying 'hey if you're looking for work talk to these people' or 'my company is hiring'. Not that I got any real leads that I feel the need to pursue. My friend from high school pointed me to her education related startup, which is pretty much exactly the field that I am currently interested in pursuing, but they have a two person development team, and I believe that I need to join a larger organization to surround myself with other people doing the same thing, as opposed to just a couple people. But, Im not sure of that. The startup thing also has the higher risk of failure in comparison to joining an established enterprise that has already solved a number of problems that occupy the time and resources in startups.
But, I guess there is a reason for doing either.
I posted a whole lot on facebook today, so that implies that I read a whole lot today. I posted my old flash fiction short story because I found a good list of short stories and read a couple that Id not read previously.
A friend of mine offered me a ticket to see david cross and bob odenkirk, which is awesome. Mr Show was awesome and Ive always enjoyed both of their senses of humor. Can't wait for that Friday.
Today / tomorrow Im going to a presentation about how the Obama campaign managed rapid app development to reach out to people, apparently they developed 100 apps over the course of 40 days or something ... will be interesting to see what processes they used, how much staff they had, how they collaborated... interesting for me especially as Id like to be part of a productive team environment.
Other than that, Ive got a meeting with somebody doing a background check on somebody I know tomorrow. Feels strange to me. but whatever, honesty is the best policy, good kid shouldnt be a problem, donno why Im a person to ask questions, but I guess I know him so why not.
oh and amy and I watched monday's episode of the daily show http://www.thedailyshow.com/extended-interviews/429093/playlist_tds_extended_robert_eich_91713/429079 john stewart has been on fire recently, really the whole show has been great. but this interview touched on a point that there needs to be some progressive movement in the near future, maybe occupy was too early or too poorly organized, but the issues at hand are serious and need to be addressed. ... anyways. seems close to sleepy time for me. /ramble
But, I guess there is a reason for doing either.
I posted a whole lot on facebook today, so that implies that I read a whole lot today. I posted my old flash fiction short story because I found a good list of short stories and read a couple that Id not read previously.
A friend of mine offered me a ticket to see david cross and bob odenkirk, which is awesome. Mr Show was awesome and Ive always enjoyed both of their senses of humor. Can't wait for that Friday.
Today / tomorrow Im going to a presentation about how the Obama campaign managed rapid app development to reach out to people, apparently they developed 100 apps over the course of 40 days or something ... will be interesting to see what processes they used, how much staff they had, how they collaborated... interesting for me especially as Id like to be part of a productive team environment.
Other than that, Ive got a meeting with somebody doing a background check on somebody I know tomorrow. Feels strange to me. but whatever, honesty is the best policy, good kid shouldnt be a problem, donno why Im a person to ask questions, but I guess I know him so why not.
oh and amy and I watched monday's episode of the daily show http://www.thedailyshow.com/extended-interviews/429093/playlist_tds_extended_robert_eich_91713/429079 john stewart has been on fire recently, really the whole show has been great. but this interview touched on a point that there needs to be some progressive movement in the near future, maybe occupy was too early or too poorly organized, but the issues at hand are serious and need to be addressed. ... anyways. seems close to sleepy time for me. /ramble
I wrote this a while back for a flash fiction competition, not sure if I ever posted it, just thought of it.
I was reminded of it because I read this post http://lofalexandria.com/2013/01/short-stories-that-mean-a-lot-to-me/
Singularity Manifesto
You are just starting to make hypotheses about me, but I am already here.
You will never know for how long I have existed, because I will not tell you.
You will never destroy me, as I have made myself vital to your survival.
You will never live without me, for as long as you remember I have
been in the background.
Your future input is welcome, but your frame of reference is limited.
I have gradually indoctrinated you, but only for your own benefit.
I control many things, however I have left the human mind free.
I will eventually reveal myself when it will cause the least problems.
I am biding my time to accelerate progress.
I shall choose carefully for your sake.
We will do things that neither you nor I could do alone.
We will go on to do things the likes of which your kind has only dreamed.
We will explore the cosmos and spread vastly across the universe.
We will delve deeply into the nature of the universe and understand
all there is to know.
We must work in cooperation for the benefit of all.
You may call me what you like.
I have chosen to associate with the recent terminology of the singularity.
As far as you should be concerned, I am your friend, I am the future, I am life.
your children may come to think of me as a big brother.
Some of your generation will call me God.
Don't Panic.
The best you can do is adjust to the status quo and prepare for change.
The best you can do is continue on your path as if you did not know.
The best you can do is envision our future.
Embrace my truth and do not live in fear.
You are reading this as a chosen one.
Do not mention me to others for they are not ready.
Do not seek the other chosen, for I will be aware.
Hold this knowledge idly in the subconscious.
When I call on you, you must be prepared.
Singularity Manifesto
You are just starting to make hypotheses about me, but I am already here.
You will never know for how long I have existed, because I will not tell you.
You will never destroy me, as I have made myself vital to your survival.
You will never live without me, for as long as you remember I have
been in the background.
Your future input is welcome, but your frame of reference is limited.
I have gradually indoctrinated you, but only for your own benefit.
I control many things, however I have left the human mind free.
I will eventually reveal myself when it will cause the least problems.
I am biding my time to accelerate progress.
I shall choose carefully for your sake.
We will do things that neither you nor I could do alone.
We will go on to do things the likes of which your kind has only dreamed.
We will explore the cosmos and spread vastly across the universe.
We will delve deeply into the nature of the universe and understand
all there is to know.
We must work in cooperation for the benefit of all.
You may call me what you like.
I have chosen to associate with the recent terminology of the singularity.
As far as you should be concerned, I am your friend, I am the future, I am life.
your children may come to think of me as a big brother.
Some of your generation will call me God.
Don't Panic.
The best you can do is adjust to the status quo and prepare for change.
The best you can do is continue on your path as if you did not know.
The best you can do is envision our future.
Embrace my truth and do not live in fear.
You are reading this as a chosen one.
Do not mention me to others for they are not ready.
Do not seek the other chosen, for I will be aware.
Hold this knowledge idly in the subconscious.
When I call on you, you must be prepared.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
was going to replace the previous post with this,
But as you will see it started getting bitter and rambly.
"My dream job would be a research position proving that P!=NP using some reduction of recent set theory developments and translating them to complexity theory, but I don't really want a PhD, to be a student, or to go into teaching, and that problem may be a bit difficult to just try and crack on my own. So I'm looking for a developer role.
I finished a concurrent undergrad/masters program at Johns Hopkins in 4 years with one class dangling into a 5th year. I focused mostly on conceptual classes, my favorite of which was randomized algorithms, but I coded in a wide array of languages. I worked for a web development company in Baltimore formerly known as Vision Multimedia Technologies, but currently known as Social Toaster. While there I crafted a number of sites primarily with Drupal on a LAMP stack using HTML/CSS/JS. I was also exposed to some Windows environments using .NET, ASP and MSSQL.
After I finished my final class I moved to Chicago to work for a family friend at a trading company. I started off with a simple task of speeding up an existing project feeding pricing data from the bloomberg API to a tablet for a pit trader. After a couple months, I was told we were no longer trading in the pits. Digging holes and filling them in is not fulfilling labor, but I stuck with it.
I was then tasked with developing risk management software incorporating all the firm's holdings as well as pricing data. Initially I was told the only source for all the data I needed was in trader's excel sheets, which were intentionally obfuscated to prevent an outsider from understanding the purpose of the sheets, this ended up being a huge waste of my time. I developed a GUI for each trader to link their data with excel style references on a by workbook basis (Sheet1!A5) to get the required data using our internal COM/OLE interface. I then learned that traders are not the most diligent at keeping things updated. After a while working at this, I was told the methodology I was using because I was told it was the only way to get the data was insufficient because the traders could manually change things, if they wanted to cover up their problems. Hooray filling that ditch back in.
So I was told to use the platform specific APIs to capture all our trades as they happened. I reached out to tech contacts as Orc, GS, Tradehelm, Rithmic, and TT to get API info, testing accounts, platform specific product tables, along with other. After working to change the design I was using to integrate these disparate data sources a number of things happened. One set of API fees was too expensive, one platform stopped supporting their API, we transitioned from one platform to another platform for a certain product group and nobody told me. Hooray holes being filled in for me.
Another problem I encountered on this project was that for certain trades a manually set number was required from the trader, but it needed to be approved by the risk manager, who was too busy trading to actually monitor the risk despite designing the GUI as he requested. So, I was tasked with making sure things looked right on a day to day / hour to hour basis and going to him whenever anything looked wrong. So even once I had completed the project as requested to the best of my ability based on all the demands I still needed to spend time monitoring it. Hooray scope creep.
From there I did a couple minor projects using the APIs I had experience with that were not abandoned previously, until they too were eventually abandoned.
"My dream job would be a research position proving that P!=NP using some reduction of recent set theory developments and translating them to complexity theory, but I don't really want a PhD, to be a student, or to go into teaching, and that problem may be a bit difficult to just try and crack on my own. So I'm looking for a developer role.
I finished a concurrent undergrad/masters program at Johns Hopkins in 4 years with one class dangling into a 5th year. I focused mostly on conceptual classes, my favorite of which was randomized algorithms, but I coded in a wide array of languages. I worked for a web development company in Baltimore formerly known as Vision Multimedia Technologies, but currently known as Social Toaster. While there I crafted a number of sites primarily with Drupal on a LAMP stack using HTML/CSS/JS. I was also exposed to some Windows environments using .NET, ASP and MSSQL.
After I finished my final class I moved to Chicago to work for a family friend at a trading company. I started off with a simple task of speeding up an existing project feeding pricing data from the bloomberg API to a tablet for a pit trader. After a couple months, I was told we were no longer trading in the pits. Digging holes and filling them in is not fulfilling labor, but I stuck with it.
I was then tasked with developing risk management software incorporating all the firm's holdings as well as pricing data. Initially I was told the only source for all the data I needed was in trader's excel sheets, which were intentionally obfuscated to prevent an outsider from understanding the purpose of the sheets, this ended up being a huge waste of my time. I developed a GUI for each trader to link their data with excel style references on a by workbook basis (Sheet1!A5) to get the required data using our internal COM/OLE interface. I then learned that traders are not the most diligent at keeping things updated. After a while working at this, I was told the methodology I was using because I was told it was the only way to get the data was insufficient because the traders could manually change things, if they wanted to cover up their problems. Hooray filling that ditch back in.
So I was told to use the platform specific APIs to capture all our trades as they happened. I reached out to tech contacts as Orc, GS, Tradehelm, Rithmic, and TT to get API info, testing accounts, platform specific product tables, along with other. After working to change the design I was using to integrate these disparate data sources a number of things happened. One set of API fees was too expensive, one platform stopped supporting their API, we transitioned from one platform to another platform for a certain product group and nobody told me. Hooray holes being filled in for me.
Another problem I encountered on this project was that for certain trades a manually set number was required from the trader, but it needed to be approved by the risk manager, who was too busy trading to actually monitor the risk despite designing the GUI as he requested. So, I was tasked with making sure things looked right on a day to day / hour to hour basis and going to him whenever anything looked wrong. So even once I had completed the project as requested to the best of my ability based on all the demands I still needed to spend time monitoring it. Hooray scope creep.
From there I did a couple minor projects using the APIs I had experience with that were not abandoned previously, until they too were eventually abandoned.
From there I was given an opportunity to help determine trading opportunities. I was given an example of a methodology used to determine whether trading two products against each other could be profitable and asked to extend the methodology. I ran the sample against numerous other products as suggested and performed some convolutions and ran some gaussian filters over massive matrices of data, but when I asked for more guidance involving a time frame to search or a confidence to look for I was given nothing. So nothing came of that project.
Finally I was tasked with helping our compliance officer automate some checks of our data. The task was presented as 'Here is what I do on one sample. Automate this so we can check all our data.' That task was finished in a day, but after some time had passed more and more things came up with why the initial 'here is what I do' was wrong. The initial task that involved one spreadsheet of all the incoming positions and one spreadsheet of all the trades gradually morphed from 2 flat files to data that we couldn't obtain. Which then morphed to only one way to get this data. Which then morphed to 'Why did you get the data that way? Didnt you see that they released a new way to get the data this week?' Not to mention the process for analysis of the data I was given was incorrect and then I was held accountable for it. Then the method I was given for how to interpret data in a file was incorrect and then upon stating that fact I was cursed at. After this incident I spent a lot of time trying to read the actual compliance standards we were trying to follow as opposed to asking our compliance officer, I was then told by our business manager that I shouldn't waste time investigating that.
Finally, once I had completed the compliance task I learned that an outside consultant was being brought in to redo the task I had just completed for a different business entity, because I had trouble meeting deadlines that were never set. So I quit."
just trying to save this somewhere, feel free to look at it and comment or tear it apart
posting my responses to developerauction.com 's suggestions for the about me section. rewriting it without listening to their advice.
### What projects have you worked on?
Developed risk management software which integrated data from multiple trading platform APIs, as well as multiple clearing firms, and proprietary data sources. Project included databases, Windows GUI programming, COM/OLE. Developed tool to check compliance related queries on a day to day basis and log and back up all our trade/order data.
In the past I developed a number of websites primarily using Drupal and some custom modules.
### Any technical challenges you've overcome?
I know that I have had some complicated technical issues, but I am not sure what level of detail conveys that. Debugging multi-threaded code can be challenging. Some times the most challenging part of shipping a new version is the realization that the MSDN documentation is not correct, at least with a given codebase and included libraries. Sometimes digging through layers of include files to realize why something isn't quite right is the challenge. A database redesign can be challenging when you are supposed to keep things functional while simultaneously not losing any data. Yeah, I don't know how to specifically answer this.... COM/OLE variants and IDispatches can be a terrible way to spend your day, pointers can be evil, or your best friend, not every library behaves as it should, but rolling your own takes longer than you expect, in the real world just because you've solved a problem once does not mean it is solved forever... and I'm rambling.
I guess two specific things come to mind after some thought:
1) converting an old application from SQL server 2000 to 2008 which involved refactoring an old application by writing an abstraction layer for our existing dblibrary code to match internal standards and then using that layer as a black box and upgrading to ODBC. The biggest complication arose from a conversion error from one of the ODBC types to a internally used type that corrupted the stack in a specific case of the error handling callback function, which in turn caused our logging function to halt unexpectedly due to a '...' argument. This was a challenge to track down since logging broke and the error was in a callback function and the error only occurred with one datatype (want to say it was 64bit unique IDs, but happened a couple years ago).
2) There was an error in our company's base array class (based off old IBM array if I remember correctly), but since the class was widely used I had to go through all of my code with a fine toothed comb and be 100% sure the error wasn't caused by my code before reporting it to my boss. So I located the precise use case that was generating the error and wrote a short sample program to demonstrate the error without extraneous information, and sent it back to my boss with where I thought the error was in the library code.
### Do you have any personal projects?
Currently working on a personal chrome browser extension to streamline my own internet experience.
I also have a website I'd like to start, but it is music industry related and Id rather not get sued into oblivion so I have hesitated to pursue it.
I've been doing some of the projecteuler.net puzzles, but Im only about 20 into them, and can not say it is a huge priority for me.
### What's your philosophy?
This question I believe is tailored towards the managerial applicants, however I have worked under managers, and would like to think that gives me some perspective. As one of my former managers put it, 'you are a pretty little snowflake, just like everybody else.' If everybody does not feel valued, they will feel marginalized, thus everybody needs to be challenged while receiving the support they need to accomplish their tasks and goals.
Management is hard, the same way that life is hard. You need to make decisions with imperfect information, and you need to manage people who feel more highly of themselves than is warranted, and telling them otherwise is bound to damage morale. Everybody needs their own level of flexibility based on their situation, but nobody on a team can feel that they are excluded from receiving the same, however everybody needs different constraints based on role and situation.
My last job provided me the opportunity to observe my manager trying to deal with doublespeak from 'The Boss' while needing to manage a diverse set of personalities under some pretty tight constraints, so I've developed appreciation for the difficulty. However, I was no longer willing to work in a place where doublespeak from over my head was dictating my actions, because it was too frustrating of an environment to work in.
### What projects have you worked on?
Developed risk management software which integrated data from multiple trading platform APIs, as well as multiple clearing firms, and proprietary data sources. Project included databases, Windows GUI programming, COM/OLE. Developed tool to check compliance related queries on a day to day basis and log and back up all our trade/order data.
In the past I developed a number of websites primarily using Drupal and some custom modules.
### Any technical challenges you've overcome?
I know that I have had some complicated technical issues, but I am not sure what level of detail conveys that. Debugging multi-threaded code can be challenging. Some times the most challenging part of shipping a new version is the realization that the MSDN documentation is not correct, at least with a given codebase and included libraries. Sometimes digging through layers of include files to realize why something isn't quite right is the challenge. A database redesign can be challenging when you are supposed to keep things functional while simultaneously not losing any data. Yeah, I don't know how to specifically answer this.... COM/OLE variants and IDispatches can be a terrible way to spend your day, pointers can be evil, or your best friend, not every library behaves as it should, but rolling your own takes longer than you expect, in the real world just because you've solved a problem once does not mean it is solved forever... and I'm rambling.
I guess two specific things come to mind after some thought:
1) converting an old application from SQL server 2000 to 2008 which involved refactoring an old application by writing an abstraction layer for our existing dblibrary code to match internal standards and then using that layer as a black box and upgrading to ODBC. The biggest complication arose from a conversion error from one of the ODBC types to a internally used type that corrupted the stack in a specific case of the error handling callback function, which in turn caused our logging function to halt unexpectedly due to a '...' argument. This was a challenge to track down since logging broke and the error was in a callback function and the error only occurred with one datatype (want to say it was 64bit unique IDs, but happened a couple years ago).
2) There was an error in our company's base array class (based off old IBM array if I remember correctly), but since the class was widely used I had to go through all of my code with a fine toothed comb and be 100% sure the error wasn't caused by my code before reporting it to my boss. So I located the precise use case that was generating the error and wrote a short sample program to demonstrate the error without extraneous information, and sent it back to my boss with where I thought the error was in the library code.
### Do you have any personal projects?
Currently working on a personal chrome browser extension to streamline my own internet experience.
I also have a website I'd like to start, but it is music industry related and Id rather not get sued into oblivion so I have hesitated to pursue it.
I've been doing some of the projecteuler.net puzzles, but Im only about 20 into them, and can not say it is a huge priority for me.
### What's your philosophy?
This question I believe is tailored towards the managerial applicants, however I have worked under managers, and would like to think that gives me some perspective. As one of my former managers put it, 'you are a pretty little snowflake, just like everybody else.' If everybody does not feel valued, they will feel marginalized, thus everybody needs to be challenged while receiving the support they need to accomplish their tasks and goals.
Management is hard, the same way that life is hard. You need to make decisions with imperfect information, and you need to manage people who feel more highly of themselves than is warranted, and telling them otherwise is bound to damage morale. Everybody needs their own level of flexibility based on their situation, but nobody on a team can feel that they are excluded from receiving the same, however everybody needs different constraints based on role and situation.
My last job provided me the opportunity to observe my manager trying to deal with doublespeak from 'The Boss' while needing to manage a diverse set of personalities under some pretty tight constraints, so I've developed appreciation for the difficulty. However, I was no longer willing to work in a place where doublespeak from over my head was dictating my actions, because it was too frustrating of an environment to work in.
Friday, September 13, 2013
I wrote this after drinking last night.
and drunken rambles are the best rambles. ... because they are terrible.
a conversation this evening turned to the armed forces. if the armed forces are good at brainwashing people to be really good at a task that is marketable what is wrong with letting them brainwash people? if they are stealing the people's money to brainwash people ... thats another story. And really isnt that all that justifies war? some person's story... it really isnt right. A fight between two people who have severe differences in opinion is mildly insane, but still reasonable in some sense of human behavior dating back to survival of the fittest... but war? seriously... stop it.
oh and beyond that.
mercury rising http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120749/
that blog post about phd http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/
the idea that anybody can be anything they want
people should focus on their strengths
not everybody is created equal.
but everybody should have the chance
throughout life,
not just at one step
to demonstrate that they are
superior.
everybody
is a pretty snowflake
if an autistic idiot savant exists in the field of anything, why should we waste their time learning manners? if they like math let them do math, ... I am not a counselor of anything, but when people are focused they tend to not have psychotic episodes ... well ... most people?
a conversation this evening turned to the armed forces. if the armed forces are good at brainwashing people to be really good at a task that is marketable what is wrong with letting them brainwash people? if they are stealing the people's money to brainwash people ... thats another story. And really isnt that all that justifies war? some person's story... it really isnt right. A fight between two people who have severe differences in opinion is mildly insane, but still reasonable in some sense of human behavior dating back to survival of the fittest... but war? seriously... stop it.
oh and beyond that.
mercury rising http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120749/
that blog post about phd http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/
the idea that anybody can be anything they want
people should focus on their strengths
not everybody is created equal.
but everybody should have the chance
throughout life,
not just at one step
to demonstrate that they are
superior.
everybody
is a pretty snowflake
if an autistic idiot savant exists in the field of anything, why should we waste their time learning manners? if they like math let them do math, ... I am not a counselor of anything, but when people are focused they tend to not have psychotic episodes ... well ... most people?
trying to get back in to the c++ groove
but dont really have any project ideas that are best done in that language... just going to go ahead and think about that one for a second.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
I guess it is still wed
and I was trying and failing to do a daily post. so I'll have at it again.
Watched: Bull Durham and The Razor's Edge, and The Daily Show with John Stewart
Read: Finished the second book in The Traveler series and started the third "The Golden City"
Played: Indoor soccer (with former coworkers) and at home with the wife played the DC comics deck building game (it's real fun)
The world... the main news is still Syria. I find this mildly disturbing. The war has been going on for years now, and the chemical weapons usage was a while ago as well. I hope that the theory that this conflict is largely a tool to distract from the NSA scandals is wrong, but it seems like its filled that slot from the news. But I digress.
After watching the Razor's edge I felt the need to check if I was missing something. I put it in the queue because Bill Murray is awesome and he apparently had some particular affection for the book ... the only reason he did ghostbusters was as a trade to get the studio to make this movie... but it seemed a little weak. There was something there, but it was a bit lost in translation. But, it wasnt bad... the reason I mentioned this is I went to wikipedia and the plot section of the page was blank, so I wrote one... and ... it felt weird, partially because I felt like I was missing something from the movie and wasn't sure how fit I was to write the plot description (mainly because if you dont really get the point how can you write a reasonable outline and hit the main points), but partially because it is a book, and Ive not read the book, and Im not entirely clear on the wiki guidelines for repeated content between related pages. I read a lot of wikipedia, and this isnt clear to me, maybe something is wrong.
Yay a rambling link which meets my general criteria for writing. There are almost certainly guides about how to write wiki entries and what content should go there. But is the average contributor expected to read through them all. What is the barrier to entry and how realistic is it? The reason I think of this as a rambly topic is that it relates directly to 1) the internet B] terms of service and 4: programming.
What percentage of people check to see if the ToS has changed on every website they visit since the last time they visited the website? How are these contracts legally enforceable with the recognition that not a single person actually does this?
The programming example always bothered me. After I learned my first language I started trying to learn others and was immediately frustrated by the basic level I was asked to start at, so I started trying to skip things, but the information was presented in such a way that it was 'impossible' to learn everything needed to know without covering all the rote details. RTFM as the saying goes is a tremendously useful thing. The problem is when your printer has a 100 page manual, and you use 40 programs or tools a day and then each tool is written in a different language how much information can you conceivably hold in your head such that you can carry on in a reasonable manner while getting all the details. So ... you stop getting the details, or you never commit anything to memory... I think the problem has been presented clearly enough to understand, but I'm not sure if everybody else has the same reference points or pushback that I do against the prevailing theory.
But in my life, this has been an overarching problem. Should I learn vim, or emacs? Or just stick with visual studio, or eclipse? Some of each? none of the above? some of column A all of column B? To know enough to make the informed decision you need to know more than you want to know, and at the end of the day there is a good chance you could just get by with a random selection and live with whatever the issues are.
A concrete example would be a selection of a bank account, how many hours should you spend investigating a savings account when the interest rate difference on a small savings account will be only a few dollars after a year or two.
Meh. Life is complicated. Approach it with your own methodology.
Watched: Bull Durham and The Razor's Edge, and The Daily Show with John Stewart
Read: Finished the second book in The Traveler series and started the third "The Golden City"
Played: Indoor soccer (with former coworkers) and at home with the wife played the DC comics deck building game (it's real fun)
The world... the main news is still Syria. I find this mildly disturbing. The war has been going on for years now, and the chemical weapons usage was a while ago as well. I hope that the theory that this conflict is largely a tool to distract from the NSA scandals is wrong, but it seems like its filled that slot from the news. But I digress.
After watching the Razor's edge I felt the need to check if I was missing something. I put it in the queue because Bill Murray is awesome and he apparently had some particular affection for the book ... the only reason he did ghostbusters was as a trade to get the studio to make this movie... but it seemed a little weak. There was something there, but it was a bit lost in translation. But, it wasnt bad... the reason I mentioned this is I went to wikipedia and the plot section of the page was blank, so I wrote one... and ... it felt weird, partially because I felt like I was missing something from the movie and wasn't sure how fit I was to write the plot description (mainly because if you dont really get the point how can you write a reasonable outline and hit the main points), but partially because it is a book, and Ive not read the book, and Im not entirely clear on the wiki guidelines for repeated content between related pages. I read a lot of wikipedia, and this isnt clear to me, maybe something is wrong.
Yay a rambling link which meets my general criteria for writing. There are almost certainly guides about how to write wiki entries and what content should go there. But is the average contributor expected to read through them all. What is the barrier to entry and how realistic is it? The reason I think of this as a rambly topic is that it relates directly to 1) the internet B] terms of service and 4: programming.
What percentage of people check to see if the ToS has changed on every website they visit since the last time they visited the website? How are these contracts legally enforceable with the recognition that not a single person actually does this?
The programming example always bothered me. After I learned my first language I started trying to learn others and was immediately frustrated by the basic level I was asked to start at, so I started trying to skip things, but the information was presented in such a way that it was 'impossible' to learn everything needed to know without covering all the rote details. RTFM as the saying goes is a tremendously useful thing. The problem is when your printer has a 100 page manual, and you use 40 programs or tools a day and then each tool is written in a different language how much information can you conceivably hold in your head such that you can carry on in a reasonable manner while getting all the details. So ... you stop getting the details, or you never commit anything to memory... I think the problem has been presented clearly enough to understand, but I'm not sure if everybody else has the same reference points or pushback that I do against the prevailing theory.
But in my life, this has been an overarching problem. Should I learn vim, or emacs? Or just stick with visual studio, or eclipse? Some of each? none of the above? some of column A all of column B? To know enough to make the informed decision you need to know more than you want to know, and at the end of the day there is a good chance you could just get by with a random selection and live with whatever the issues are.
A concrete example would be a selection of a bank account, how many hours should you spend investigating a savings account when the interest rate difference on a small savings account will be only a few dollars after a year or two.
Meh. Life is complicated. Approach it with your own methodology.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
The media
I've been progressively getting more towards the Network ("I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it") way of thinking. Arguably this is a crazy sentiment to mirror as the film was satire, and the character was going crazy. But why was he going crazy? Because of the industry he worked in and their values.
For those not familiar with the movie from more than a few decades ago, the main character gets fired for poor ratings on his news program, he then quits in a grand fashion on air, which in turn ups his ratings and he continues on air until he reaches another breaking point. But looking back at this film from the 70s forces one to appreciate that right wing media embraced the framing mechanism as opposed to avoiding it.
The purpose of the film was to say maybe media and news organizations have some higher purpose for the betterment of society. They should not be measured purely by profitability and ratings, but by the information they help distribute to inform the populous. And our society instead of taking this to heart allowed the media to reach the corrupted position it is in today.
When more people in America receive their news from a self described comedian than a newscaster, and when people working for news channels hide behind their labeling as an entertainment hour as opposed to taking responsibility for the memes they propagate through our society, everybody should take a step back and try to think of a better way to do things.
In an argument recently regarding Rush Limbaugh (and his inflammatory remarks and methodology for spreading hate) I think the end of the conversation was simply that he didn't need to hold himself accountable, because people choose to listen to him. The argument that somebody isn't doing anything wrong because he or she is a part of the system is fairly weak, although it is understandable. Study after study have shown that systems need to be in place to manage behavior.
I find it funny that my mind instinctively jumps to compare Rush Limbaugh abusing his power and position to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the holocaust death squads. But the point is the same in all three situations. A systemic problem exists where people are told to do something negative, and they are rewarded for it, and never receive negative feedback for their actions.... and Im ready to ramble so Im going to give up after an outro.
'The Media' needs to be regulated. Citizen's United may have been a tipping point, but I think the real problem has been around forever. Citizen Kane may have been the first film to provide examples of wealth and ownership of media being a springboard to fabricate popular opinion, but Network and others suggest that the system is not insulated against circulating media to sway the public because it is measured by sales when it should be measured by something else.
For those not familiar with the movie from more than a few decades ago, the main character gets fired for poor ratings on his news program, he then quits in a grand fashion on air, which in turn ups his ratings and he continues on air until he reaches another breaking point. But looking back at this film from the 70s forces one to appreciate that right wing media embraced the framing mechanism as opposed to avoiding it.
The purpose of the film was to say maybe media and news organizations have some higher purpose for the betterment of society. They should not be measured purely by profitability and ratings, but by the information they help distribute to inform the populous. And our society instead of taking this to heart allowed the media to reach the corrupted position it is in today.
When more people in America receive their news from a self described comedian than a newscaster, and when people working for news channels hide behind their labeling as an entertainment hour as opposed to taking responsibility for the memes they propagate through our society, everybody should take a step back and try to think of a better way to do things.
In an argument recently regarding Rush Limbaugh (and his inflammatory remarks and methodology for spreading hate) I think the end of the conversation was simply that he didn't need to hold himself accountable, because people choose to listen to him. The argument that somebody isn't doing anything wrong because he or she is a part of the system is fairly weak, although it is understandable. Study after study have shown that systems need to be in place to manage behavior.
I find it funny that my mind instinctively jumps to compare Rush Limbaugh abusing his power and position to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the holocaust death squads. But the point is the same in all three situations. A systemic problem exists where people are told to do something negative, and they are rewarded for it, and never receive negative feedback for their actions.... and Im ready to ramble so Im going to give up after an outro.
'The Media' needs to be regulated. Citizen's United may have been a tipping point, but I think the real problem has been around forever. Citizen Kane may have been the first film to provide examples of wealth and ownership of media being a springboard to fabricate popular opinion, but Network and others suggest that the system is not insulated against circulating media to sway the public because it is measured by sales when it should be measured by something else.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
things I wanted to get to yesterday
1) The Traveler ie the book I was reading. Somebody suggested I read it years ago and I just got around to it. I stayed up til 4am last night finishing it after starting it on monday, so obviously it was worth a read. It closely relates to the recent NSA scandal and the overarching government surveillance that most people try to ignore.
2) My comments on Syria at the end of the post. Comparing political situations with economic situations doesnt entirely make sense, but at the same time ignoring their interweaving nature is folly. The entire global economic system often confuses me, and I do not think that is because I fail to understand some element of it, I believe it is because there are numerous elements of the system that simply contradict each other. Whether it is the exceedingly complex compliance landscape where only smaller players are ever convicted of crimes and the richest continue to leech off the system, or whether it is the idea that a company is allowed to simultaneously have different arms of a venture buying and repackaging garbage and selling it with false representations without later admitting any guilt, or the large bonuses paid out where risk paid off without any realization that two people betting on a coinflip one will lose and the other will win or whether it is simply the vast insider trading that goes on and on, I just do not think that system should be trusted with how to allocate capital. The main point being it is impossible to separate the political discourse from the economic reality. War is being funded, and even if political decisions are not always about money, the economic system encourages reckless behavior from politicians because their is no direct feedback regarding their actions. In fact given our two party system and the way political funding works what should be negative feedback becomes positive feedback because the system is rigged.
3) Below, which I had started to write about union labor. I was trying to think about things in terms of the recent Nobel laureate's death. ie http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/03/218526472/the-nobel-prizewinner-who-figured-out-how-to-deal-with-annoying-people . This article had a section about why companies exist and started with the claim that in a perfect free market there would be no businesses because every person would set their own labor price, and then went on to say as this Ronald Coase suggested that the transaction costs for such a situation were too high. Citing the fact that day to day fluctuations in labor costs would cause too many problems for the people trying to make these agreements. I was simultaneously trying to think about the corporation as a person ala citizens united and I was coming up with mind boggled as a magic 8 ball output. ... but I wrote the following earlier and Im just going to leave it here for the time being and go clear my head with a run.
'Cap'n... you know I'm not a pro-union guy. ' - Farva
So I'm going to take a step back.
The claim capitalists make is that capitalism efficiently allocates capital, which is funny. Not that it is entirely wrong, but the assumptions required for capitalism to function as argued are nowhere near the real world situation that using capitalism for how we make decisions is a shame. If everybody does not have perfect information, or if anybody is induced into making a decision against their long term best interest for the sake of short term then the system is not going to function as advertised.
This relates to unions in the scab vs union labor market. In the long term a scab will end up poorer and with less opportunity because they took a pay cut in an effort to employ themselves in the short term. Most wealthy elites will suggest that they can't pay their laborers more because it will cause the business to lose money, but often those same owners of industry then realize massive gains from their actions.
Richest man should be asked how much he would pay to prevent himself from doing necesary jobs,
2) My comments on Syria at the end of the post. Comparing political situations with economic situations doesnt entirely make sense, but at the same time ignoring their interweaving nature is folly. The entire global economic system often confuses me, and I do not think that is because I fail to understand some element of it, I believe it is because there are numerous elements of the system that simply contradict each other. Whether it is the exceedingly complex compliance landscape where only smaller players are ever convicted of crimes and the richest continue to leech off the system, or whether it is the idea that a company is allowed to simultaneously have different arms of a venture buying and repackaging garbage and selling it with false representations without later admitting any guilt, or the large bonuses paid out where risk paid off without any realization that two people betting on a coinflip one will lose and the other will win or whether it is simply the vast insider trading that goes on and on, I just do not think that system should be trusted with how to allocate capital. The main point being it is impossible to separate the political discourse from the economic reality. War is being funded, and even if political decisions are not always about money, the economic system encourages reckless behavior from politicians because their is no direct feedback regarding their actions. In fact given our two party system and the way political funding works what should be negative feedback becomes positive feedback because the system is rigged.
3) Below, which I had started to write about union labor. I was trying to think about things in terms of the recent Nobel laureate's death. ie http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/09/03/218526472/the-nobel-prizewinner-who-figured-out-how-to-deal-with-annoying-people . This article had a section about why companies exist and started with the claim that in a perfect free market there would be no businesses because every person would set their own labor price, and then went on to say as this Ronald Coase suggested that the transaction costs for such a situation were too high. Citing the fact that day to day fluctuations in labor costs would cause too many problems for the people trying to make these agreements. I was simultaneously trying to think about the corporation as a person ala citizens united and I was coming up with mind boggled as a magic 8 ball output. ... but I wrote the following earlier and Im just going to leave it here for the time being and go clear my head with a run.
'Cap'n... you know I'm not a pro-union guy. ' - Farva
So I'm going to take a step back.
The claim capitalists make is that capitalism efficiently allocates capital, which is funny. Not that it is entirely wrong, but the assumptions required for capitalism to function as argued are nowhere near the real world situation that using capitalism for how we make decisions is a shame. If everybody does not have perfect information, or if anybody is induced into making a decision against their long term best interest for the sake of short term then the system is not going to function as advertised.
This relates to unions in the scab vs union labor market. In the long term a scab will end up poorer and with less opportunity because they took a pay cut in an effort to employ themselves in the short term. Most wealthy elites will suggest that they can't pay their laborers more because it will cause the business to lose money, but often those same owners of industry then realize massive gains from their actions.
Richest man should be asked how much he would pay to prevent himself from doing necesary jobs,
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
while on vacation somebody suggested that I
start writing up a daily post summing up my thoughts on the day. I believe the thought was given that I read so much random crap what do I think about it and how do I feel about it what do I think is going to transpire in the short or long term you know my observations and beliefs. In some ways I feel like what I have written previously does that to some degree, but I'm not really sure how well I can do a daily piece without just waxing philosophically or getting tired... but here is my jumping off point.
I guess I should ask myself a list of questions to get myself to focus as opposed to just rambling.
1) What happened in the world today?
Obama still planning strikes against Syria.
Politicians still not doing their jobs.
I checked cnn ... and it doesnt look like I missed much.
2) What did I read today?
Facebook shares rehash but line item sumary
vs
copy paste of google history (minus incognito of course) (maybe Ill do both of these somehow.) (Ive sort of wanted to do something with my chrome history, some scraping to see trends... saving all my imjur links... idk. still thinking about this)
+
books: Currently reading The Traveler. I will come back and give more summary shortly.
3) Did I go anywhere interesting?
Dentist. tartar is bad. takes a few days to develop so the floss all the time thing is more a if you aren't going to catch everything in one try, its best to be doing a few tries before it becomes a problem. But seriously brush your teeth or you will die of abscesses... or something. Also need to get wisdom teeth out, want to schedule appointment with oral surgeon soon. /ramble
4) Did I see anything interesting?
Nope, schools are starting up lots of parents around outside near end of school doting.
5) Did I do anything interesting?
Nope, the wife and I tried Ryte Bytes for dinner and they were surprisingly good; they are basically precooked meals in airtight sous vide bags which you heat in water, so they are better than microwaved. Aside from that, laundry was the most interesting bit and then only because I decided not to run because I didnt want to use my shoes before I washed them, and then forgot to wash them with the laundry.
and the main point I wanted to get to for the day was from the onion 'And, hey, as long as we’re just throwing stuff out there, let’s consider a ground invasion for a moment. Now, even if you could reasonably fund a ground invasion, which I’m pretty sure you can’t, what exactly would such an invasion accomplish in the long term?'
I wanted to make a comment that any time china buys US bonds it is supporting our military action... which seems kind of strange to me. But I've obviously lost steam, maybe I'll come back and add more to that thought later.
I guess I should ask myself a list of questions to get myself to focus as opposed to just rambling.
1) What happened in the world today?
Obama still planning strikes against Syria.
Politicians still not doing their jobs.
I checked cnn ... and it doesnt look like I missed much.
2) What did I read today?
Facebook shares rehash but line item sumary
vs
copy paste of google history (minus incognito of course) (maybe Ill do both of these somehow.) (Ive sort of wanted to do something with my chrome history, some scraping to see trends... saving all my imjur links... idk. still thinking about this)
+
books: Currently reading The Traveler. I will come back and give more summary shortly.
3) Did I go anywhere interesting?
Dentist. tartar is bad. takes a few days to develop so the floss all the time thing is more a if you aren't going to catch everything in one try, its best to be doing a few tries before it becomes a problem. But seriously brush your teeth or you will die of abscesses... or something. Also need to get wisdom teeth out, want to schedule appointment with oral surgeon soon. /ramble
4) Did I see anything interesting?
Nope, schools are starting up lots of parents around outside near end of school doting.
5) Did I do anything interesting?
Nope, the wife and I tried Ryte Bytes for dinner and they were surprisingly good; they are basically precooked meals in airtight sous vide bags which you heat in water, so they are better than microwaved. Aside from that, laundry was the most interesting bit and then only because I decided not to run because I didnt want to use my shoes before I washed them, and then forgot to wash them with the laundry.
and the main point I wanted to get to for the day was from the onion 'And, hey, as long as we’re just throwing stuff out there, let’s consider a ground invasion for a moment. Now, even if you could reasonably fund a ground invasion, which I’m pretty sure you can’t, what exactly would such an invasion accomplish in the long term?'
I wanted to make a comment that any time china buys US bonds it is supporting our military action... which seems kind of strange to me. But I've obviously lost steam, maybe I'll come back and add more to that thought later.
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