Only two things...
Found at http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html:
There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
Attributed (sort of) to Phil Karlton.
9/11 warning
Yes, this joke is in terribly bad taste. Yes, I'm probably un-American since I find it funny. But still...
And Mohammed Atta, the leader of the World Trade Center attack team, had a degree in architecture. I've seen this factoid used to explain that the attack wasn't actually an act of terrorism; it was an act of artistic criticism. Atta was destroying what he and many others considered the ugliest blot on the New York City skyline.
That's by jc42 from this SlashDot thread, and it is a heck of a lot funnier in context.
Unknown unknowns...
I've always thought that Donald Rumsfeld, whatever other defects he may have had (I am not, generally speaking, among his defenders), got a bad rap for saying:
This is a nice and succinct summary of knowledge...
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — there are things we do not know we don't know.
This is a nice and succinct summary of knowledge...
Something to ponder...
From Tom Stoppard's play, "India Ink":
Dilip: You have to understand that begging is a profession. Like dentistry. Like shining shoes. It's a service. Every so often, you need to get a tooth filled, or your shoes shined, or to give alms. So when a beggar presents himself to you, you have to ask yourself — do I need a beggar today? If you do, give him alms. If you don't, don't.
Quote of the day...
If you’ve ever dealt with hard-core grammarians, you know these people are prepared to kill.
From The Straight Dope.
Waking up
This morning, while waking up, I tried to connect to some of my Samba servers, and started panicking when I was getting no response.
Waking up further, I realized that of course, since I wasn't inside the firewall, I wouldn't be able to connect.
Of course, waking up even more, I realized that no matter whether I was inside the firewall or not, I have never been able to connect to a Samba server without a computer, and that I could interrupt the process without possibly locking me up entirely because I'm massively more parallel, and don't suffer from the same kind of issues with filesystem confusion.
And then I finally woke up and realized that my brain doesn't have a filesystem.
Waking up further, I realized that of course, since I wasn't inside the firewall, I wouldn't be able to connect.
Of course, waking up even more, I realized that no matter whether I was inside the firewall or not, I have never been able to connect to a Samba server without a computer, and that I could interrupt the process without possibly locking me up entirely because I'm massively more parallel, and don't suffer from the same kind of issues with filesystem confusion.
And then I finally woke up and realized that my brain doesn't have a filesystem.
Odd dream
Last night I dreamed that I had mushrooms growing out of my blankets. Well, out of one blanket. And I was on the phone talking to my parents and trying to describe why this wasn't actually a huge problem, although one that needed to be addressed.
There was also a dying mouse, which worried me more, apparently.
I think the dinner I had must have been a mistake...
There was also a dying mouse, which worried me more, apparently.
I think the dinner I had must have been a mistake...
Bah humbug.
I really want to like Never Mind the Buzzcocks, but really, since Mark Lamarr left, it has gone way downhill.
How you know you're a geek
and an older one at that.
I'm watching last night's Colbert Report, and he's trying to get a Lime iMac to connect to Prodigy via a modem, and all I can think is "that's faked; the modem noises aren't in the correct order".
I'm watching last night's Colbert Report, and he's trying to get a Lime iMac to connect to Prodigy via a modem, and all I can think is "that's faked; the modem noises aren't in the correct order".
Dream
Weird dream last night. First, stuff going on at the lake, including Ken moving and a furniture store, but the bit I remember best is Alton Brown's Good Eats on the moon. There's a day long walk the astronauts have to make between the building and the rocket, in the middle of a huge desert, firing offense for eating sushi off a counter, but then they had to cross a huge highway without a stop light, and then it was so hot that halfway through AB made microwave popcorn on the rocks, but then he was afraid of parachutes, so they were showing him pictures from weather satellites, and then I woke up (which was good, because I was getting scared).
Organization
(from http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/11/10/9919922.aspx )
I suspect most people are familiar with the "It may be a mess, but it's my mess and I know where everything is" phenomenon. That doesn't necessarily mean that items are in the best location, but at least you know which suboptimal location you chose.
:: Wendy :: told me a story some time ago about something that happened while her parents were visiting. When she returned from work, her mother said, "Oh, Wendy, darling, I reorganized your kitchen for you. You had everything in the wrong place."
Wendy's mother was trying to be helpful, but of course it was a net loss for poor Wendy, who couldn't find anything in her kitchen for weeks. Yes, there was the whole "Oh great where did my mother put my food processor?" problem, but even after she found it, the "improved" location was far worse than its original location. In fact, in many cases, it was in the exact opposite location from where it should be.
You see, Wendy is left-handed, and her mother is right-handed.
Published Tuesday, November 10, 2009 7:00 AM by oldnewthing
© 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Notes
Sick sucks.
They took the sudafed out of NyQuil. How dare they?
Matthew Gray Gubler really needs to get a hair stylist who actually wants to make him look good.
It's true, there is a law and order/csi/ncis on at all hours. Almost.
I suck at reading the books I need to read.
I'm way behind on dealing with the weddings I need to prepare for.
Making a good fruit salad is expensive. Now I know why they're mostly honeydew/cantaloupe.
They took the sudafed out of NyQuil. How dare they?
Matthew Gray Gubler really needs to get a hair stylist who actually wants to make him look good.
It's true, there is a law and order/csi/ncis on at all hours. Almost.
I suck at reading the books I need to read.
I'm way behind on dealing with the weddings I need to prepare for.
Making a good fruit salad is expensive. Now I know why they're mostly honeydew/cantaloupe.
Argh!
Dratted music licensing issues! I want to purchase songs from Eurovision 2009. But can I? Not through iTunes. Nor, for that matter, can I even pre-order Alexander Rybak's album -- unless I want to order from Amazon.de (and I still haven't heard back from Amazon about #amazonfail). And I don't read German, sadly.
