Monday, February 28, 2005
Slow day at work? Google News!!
Firefox slows, but only compared to how quickly it used to grow. It's still growing like wildfire.
But! Here we have the first report of widespread security holes in the Firefox browser! Gasp! But it's open source! It can't have holes!! Open source is by definition better than Microsoft, right?
Microsoft plans on puting out it's own security products. Let's hope it's more than patches and updates put together into a firewall and viruscan package
The universe seems to be expanding at an accelerating pace. Dark Energy? Leaking gravity? String Theory to the rescue?
Universe is only 13 billion years old? Huh. This old article shows how facts can change. I think the universe is now thought to be 15 billion years old.
The newest Google toolbar is getting people up in arms: Changing content. Taking over the web. Whatever. I just want a map of that restaurant.
But! Here we have the first report of widespread security holes in the Firefox browser! Gasp! But it's open source! It can't have holes!! Open source is by definition better than Microsoft, right?
Microsoft plans on puting out it's own security products. Let's hope it's more than patches and updates put together into a firewall and viruscan package
The universe seems to be expanding at an accelerating pace. Dark Energy? Leaking gravity? String Theory to the rescue?
Universe is only 13 billion years old? Huh. This old article shows how facts can change. I think the universe is now thought to be 15 billion years old.
The newest Google toolbar is getting people up in arms: Changing content. Taking over the web. Whatever. I just want a map of that restaurant.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Whoops, almost forgot
I can't forget to do my report on Jeremiah this weekend. He was in pretty good shape the whole weekend - healthy with just a touch of diaper rash from his last bout with the flu and diarrhea. We went swimming Saturday morning, and I had sort of planned on going roller skating with him, but we both got such a late start on our nap that we didn't get up until 5:30 and by the time we got dinner down, it was a bit late.
One really nice thing about having someone who has to take naps during the day, is that it forces me to take naps too. It is REALLY nice to have an excuse to take a nap. I feel like I always have stuff to do, so I almost never took naps, and even with Jeremiah here, I PLAN on doing work while he sleeps, but it never seems to work out quite right — I start laying down to encourage him to go to sleep, and then I fall asleep before he does. Quite a few times, he wakes me up with his playing and I flop my arm over him and grunt out "Jrmiah, go t' slp." And then promptly go back to sleep myself.
One really nice thing about having someone who has to take naps during the day, is that it forces me to take naps too. It is REALLY nice to have an excuse to take a nap. I feel like I always have stuff to do, so I almost never took naps, and even with Jeremiah here, I PLAN on doing work while he sleeps, but it never seems to work out quite right — I start laying down to encourage him to go to sleep, and then I fall asleep before he does. Quite a few times, he wakes me up with his playing and I flop my arm over him and grunt out "Jrmiah, go t' slp." And then promptly go back to sleep myself.
Long live Microsoft!
I must admit that in spite of the free-marketer inside me that screams that usually monopolies are harmful to the end user and, at least in today's political and legal climate, are made through often unnecessary and harmful interventions by Congress and it's bureaucratic children, the programmer in me is ranting and raving about the incompatibility of brower javascript handling and how everyone should have to conform the the same standards as everyone else! Too often, Microsoft is reviled and condemned for lousy product quality, but one thing they do better than anyone else is make it easier for users.
Sure, sure. Everyone has their confusing stories of how they can't make heads or tails of Microsoft's software, but that's only because everyone uses Microsoft, so plain old-fashioned user thickheadedness gets blamed on them. The other thing is their security which frankly is atrocious, but has evolved because end users keep wanting more and more bells and whistles - the greatest offender, IMHO, being ActiveX controls and related technologies.
Right now I've got some nifty little code that makes menus on a webpage do the slick little trick of expanding and collapsing. Nothing especially fancy, but they only work on IE and Netscape 6+! Firefox and old NS yells at me whenever I try to use them. I've checked and all my code seems to conform to current standards, so it looks like Firefox is just being lazy (old NS always stunk) and not supporting some little detail. Whatever you say about Microsoft's IE, it lets you do almost anything on your webpages and doesn't yell at you.
Sure, sure. Everyone has their confusing stories of how they can't make heads or tails of Microsoft's software, but that's only because everyone uses Microsoft, so plain old-fashioned user thickheadedness gets blamed on them. The other thing is their security which frankly is atrocious, but has evolved because end users keep wanting more and more bells and whistles - the greatest offender, IMHO, being ActiveX controls and related technologies.
Right now I've got some nifty little code that makes menus on a webpage do the slick little trick of expanding and collapsing. Nothing especially fancy, but they only work on IE and Netscape 6+! Firefox and old NS yells at me whenever I try to use them. I've checked and all my code seems to conform to current standards, so it looks like Firefox is just being lazy (old NS always stunk) and not supporting some little detail. Whatever you say about Microsoft's IE, it lets you do almost anything on your webpages and doesn't yell at you.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Free food!! Oh yeah, and Ireland
It's always a good thing to have free food. And then to have fun and be with friends at the same time, heaven! We had a dinner/meeting about the BRTC's trip to Ireland, and J was good enough to host it and provide the cooking; she is an excellent cook.
It looks like the trip will take off on August 4th - a Thursday - and be gone for 10 days, getting back on the 15th. The whole thing sounds really well planned out with a couple days that our group will be meeting and sharing lessons with some Irish Step Dancing clubs there in Ireland! We'll also be performing at the oldest fair in Ireland - Puck Fair.
We'll also be seeing a castle or two, checking out one of the country's more impressive sets of cliffs that M says is absolutely breath taking. We'll be staying in a group of cottages the whole time, and we are pretty sure they will be thatch roofed, which will be REALLY interesting. Then to top it all off, the night before we head back to the good old US of A, we are going to be able to catch a callie (sp?) - an Irish dance party sort of like the contradances here.
This is going to be a terrific trip, I think, and though I won't have an Internet connection to keep up the blog, I'm going to try blogging the old-fashioned way: pen and paper. (gasp!) I'm sure I'll get lots of pictures, and hopefully some of them will be good enough to put up. Not likely, but hey, I have pretty low standards. ;-)
Bring on the blood sausage and the haggis! (I know, haggis is Scottish, but hopefully they'll have it in Ireland too.)
It looks like the trip will take off on August 4th - a Thursday - and be gone for 10 days, getting back on the 15th. The whole thing sounds really well planned out with a couple days that our group will be meeting and sharing lessons with some Irish Step Dancing clubs there in Ireland! We'll also be performing at the oldest fair in Ireland - Puck Fair.
We'll also be seeing a castle or two, checking out one of the country's more impressive sets of cliffs that M says is absolutely breath taking. We'll be staying in a group of cottages the whole time, and we are pretty sure they will be thatch roofed, which will be REALLY interesting. Then to top it all off, the night before we head back to the good old US of A, we are going to be able to catch a callie (sp?) - an Irish dance party sort of like the contradances here.
This is going to be a terrific trip, I think, and though I won't have an Internet connection to keep up the blog, I'm going to try blogging the old-fashioned way: pen and paper. (gasp!) I'm sure I'll get lots of pictures, and hopefully some of them will be good enough to put up. Not likely, but hey, I have pretty low standards. ;-)
Bring on the blood sausage and the haggis! (I know, haggis is Scottish, but hopefully they'll have it in Ireland too.)
Friday, February 25, 2005
Whew! What a day!
And it's not even over yet, but the rest of it does look like a lot more pleasant time - dinner with the clogging group about Ireland.
But for me, today was a normal day, I even got a bit early start on the day by going down and getting my oil changed and switched over to a synthetic oil. It made a nice start to get something done really early and knock off a project I'd wanted to do for a while. Work was feeling productive and I was smoothly rolling along.
Then the guys came into work. Something on the program they are working on is fouled up, and they thought it was working just fine. No major disaster, but boss man is getting cramped on time with some grant applications, and on top of that the program that decided to goof off is what is going to be demo'd for Monday. And then in addition J doesn't want a cell phone, and M and D both want him to have one. They'll even pay for it, but J says that it's useless because he's instantly available by email and can call in.
They've been running around in a tizzy all day, and I was getting a bit frenzied feeling myself. They've buried themselves over at J's dev computer and are at least quietly panicking. Not much longer and hopefully I'll be done. I've had a very successful day, and I'm feeling guilty for not having any problems and not being able to help with theirs.
But for me, today was a normal day, I even got a bit early start on the day by going down and getting my oil changed and switched over to a synthetic oil. It made a nice start to get something done really early and knock off a project I'd wanted to do for a while. Work was feeling productive and I was smoothly rolling along.
Then the guys came into work. Something on the program they are working on is fouled up, and they thought it was working just fine. No major disaster, but boss man is getting cramped on time with some grant applications, and on top of that the program that decided to goof off is what is going to be demo'd for Monday. And then in addition J doesn't want a cell phone, and M and D both want him to have one. They'll even pay for it, but J says that it's useless because he's instantly available by email and can call in.
They've been running around in a tizzy all day, and I was getting a bit frenzied feeling myself. They've buried themselves over at J's dev computer and are at least quietly panicking. Not much longer and hopefully I'll be done. I've had a very successful day, and I'm feeling guilty for not having any problems and not being able to help with theirs.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
A little help for all the guys named Doug
Ok, my apologies for the long-ish blog here. I'm copying from a book that is a riot, and I wanted to share with all the men in the world the great secret that I've found in here. This is the system that the author devised to help Doug be spontaneous. It has a really catchy title as you'll see. For all the men out there who are not named Doug, I'm sorry, but I haven't found any systems for you.
A Secret System to Help Doug to be Spontaneous
First, go to the store and purchase twelve greeting cards. Try to find a section of the display that has soft pictures and words in cursive. Avoid "gross humor" or Pamela Anderson because (a) women do not appreciate receiving this sort of card, and (b) you'll wind up spending your whole day messing around reading butt jokes and looking at photos of Pammy in a bathing suit.
It doesn't really matter what the twelve cards say, though I should warn you that some of them are completely blank inside which is totally worthless. Sending your girl a blank card is worse than no card at all, because then she'll think you are telling her something very significant even though what you said was nothing. Try to find cards that show people walking on the beach at sunset; this is apparently very big with women. (If you don't believe me, read the personal ads sometime. The women all want a man to walk on the beach with them at sunset, even the ones who live in Kansas.)
Next, get a calendar and a dart. You are going to like this part. Open the calendar to January, and throw the dart at it. Take a card and write on its envelope the date you speared with the dart. Flip to February and do the same thing, and then on to the next month. Do not start to track your score by adding up the dates, because then you'll start shooting for the end of the month and the whole point here is to be random. Do not challenge some other guy to see if he can do any better. It is okay to make crowd noises with every throw, and if after you've done December, you want to declare yourself Champion of the World, fine, I won't tell anybody any different.
Now shuffle the cards and pull out six at random. Write the letter "G" on the backs of these six.
Finally, pack up all twelve of the cards and give them to someone you trust, like your mother. Ask her to give you the cards back on the dates specified.
When you receive a card, check to see if it has a "G" on it. If it does, go buy a gift. Then mail the card and the gift to your girl.
In this way, you'll be totally surprising and spontaneous and thoughtful!
A Secret System to Help Doug to be Spontaneous
First, go to the store and purchase twelve greeting cards. Try to find a section of the display that has soft pictures and words in cursive. Avoid "gross humor" or Pamela Anderson because (a) women do not appreciate receiving this sort of card, and (b) you'll wind up spending your whole day messing around reading butt jokes and looking at photos of Pammy in a bathing suit.
It doesn't really matter what the twelve cards say, though I should warn you that some of them are completely blank inside which is totally worthless. Sending your girl a blank card is worse than no card at all, because then she'll think you are telling her something very significant even though what you said was nothing. Try to find cards that show people walking on the beach at sunset; this is apparently very big with women. (If you don't believe me, read the personal ads sometime. The women all want a man to walk on the beach with them at sunset, even the ones who live in Kansas.)
Next, get a calendar and a dart. You are going to like this part. Open the calendar to January, and throw the dart at it. Take a card and write on its envelope the date you speared with the dart. Flip to February and do the same thing, and then on to the next month. Do not start to track your score by adding up the dates, because then you'll start shooting for the end of the month and the whole point here is to be random. Do not challenge some other guy to see if he can do any better. It is okay to make crowd noises with every throw, and if after you've done December, you want to declare yourself Champion of the World, fine, I won't tell anybody any different.
Now shuffle the cards and pull out six at random. Write the letter "G" on the backs of these six.
Finally, pack up all twelve of the cards and give them to someone you trust, like your mother. Ask her to give you the cards back on the dates specified.
When you receive a card, check to see if it has a "G" on it. If it does, go buy a gift. Then mail the card and the gift to your girl.
In this way, you'll be totally surprising and spontaneous and thoughtful!
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
You know it's been a slow day when...
... you have read through all the news stories in the Sci/Tech area of Google News. I did run across a really cool article though. Partially because I listened to a class on subatomic particles not too long ago, and just listened to Steven Hawking's Universe In A Nutshell and it had some stuff on subatomic particles too.
Anyway, some researchers at Los Alamos figured out a way to detect nuclear bomb ingrdients OR the shielding for them. When cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere, they make massive amounts of subatomic particles, one of which is the muon, which passes through most anything people could use as shielding. Muons are deflected by dense elements like Lead, Uranium, and Plutonium.
By puting a sensor above and below something, the researchers were able to tell what dense materials were inside by how the muons were disturbed. The team pinpointed 800 grams of plutonium in a lead box surrounded by 12 tons of iron parts in a container.
Sounded pretty fun sort of research to me! Another area where esoteric scientific discoveries are applied to useful practicalities.
There are articles on it:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations
/2005-02-21-fast-rad-reader_x.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4282657.stm
Anyway, some researchers at Los Alamos figured out a way to detect nuclear bomb ingrdients OR the shielding for them. When cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere, they make massive amounts of subatomic particles, one of which is the muon, which passes through most anything people could use as shielding. Muons are deflected by dense elements like Lead, Uranium, and Plutonium.
By puting a sensor above and below something, the researchers were able to tell what dense materials were inside by how the muons were disturbed. The team pinpointed 800 grams of plutonium in a lead box surrounded by 12 tons of iron parts in a container.
Sounded pretty fun sort of research to me! Another area where esoteric scientific discoveries are applied to useful practicalities.
There are articles on it:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations
/2005-02-21-fast-rad-reader_x.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4282657.stm
Rude awakening
I have been really fortunate in my work experience so far. I knew that this day was coming, but it is still really frustrating.
I've been doing a bunch of very tedious typing in of numbers into files to organize data into high, medium, and low classifications. This started Thursday, got reset Friday due to bad data, and finished up today. After looking at it, it has been decided that this won't be what we need, and that I need to generate something entirely different. I'm sure stuff like this is common workplace fodder, but it's the first time I've ran into it.
Sigh. The honeymoon is over.
Also, I've been working on a bunch of projects for the last month, and I'm beginning to get the suspicion that they may not be used.
I've been doing a bunch of very tedious typing in of numbers into files to organize data into high, medium, and low classifications. This started Thursday, got reset Friday due to bad data, and finished up today. After looking at it, it has been decided that this won't be what we need, and that I need to generate something entirely different. I'm sure stuff like this is common workplace fodder, but it's the first time I've ran into it.
Sigh. The honeymoon is over.
Also, I've been working on a bunch of projects for the last month, and I'm beginning to get the suspicion that they may not be used.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
To warm a dad's heart
This weekend with Jeremiah went well. He handled dancing just fine, though I could tell that he was getting tired by the time we went home.
I had one of those really cool moments that just make a heart swell. I had tucked Jer into bed, and I've always made it a habit to pray with him and read from the Bible while he's going to sleep. This time, I hadn't grabbed my Bible before hand, and turned away to get it.
He must have thought I was skipping it, because he said "Pray? Pray?"
We certainly did!
It gives a lot of hope that he will grow up loving the Lord, and will hopefully avoid many of the roots and habits of sin that could start growing in him if he accepts the Lord later in life.
I had one of those really cool moments that just make a heart swell. I had tucked Jer into bed, and I've always made it a habit to pray with him and read from the Bible while he's going to sleep. This time, I hadn't grabbed my Bible before hand, and turned away to get it.
He must have thought I was skipping it, because he said "Pray? Pray?"
We certainly did!
It gives a lot of hope that he will grow up loving the Lord, and will hopefully avoid many of the roots and habits of sin that could start growing in him if he accepts the Lord later in life.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Yup! Good start to the weekend
Picked Jeremiah up this morning, and though I had been planning on taking him swimming, he has a running nose and seemed tired, so I decided to skip that. Best if his energy is conserved for fighting the virus.
He had a lot of fun outside this morning because the landlady's tractor was outisde where he could play on it. I had to drag him inside finally since it's still pretty chilly.
I don't know if it's just having Jeremiah here, or if maybe it's an afterglow from the church's men's Bible study (which was wonderful) last night. Whatever it is, I'm feeling very happy today. Dependent upon how long he keeps sleeping (2 1/2 hours so far) I might even take him to the contradance tonight. It doens't start until 7:30, and his regular bed time is 8:00, but if he keeps sleeping for another half hour or so, and still has lots of energy, I might take him over for a bit. If nothing else, it'll be a good experiment to see how he will act there, and if he will be comfortable with me out on the floor dancing for several minutes.
We'll see. Look for part 2 tomorrow!
He had a lot of fun outside this morning because the landlady's tractor was outisde where he could play on it. I had to drag him inside finally since it's still pretty chilly.
I don't know if it's just having Jeremiah here, or if maybe it's an afterglow from the church's men's Bible study (which was wonderful) last night. Whatever it is, I'm feeling very happy today. Dependent upon how long he keeps sleeping (2 1/2 hours so far) I might even take him to the contradance tonight. It doens't start until 7:30, and his regular bed time is 8:00, but if he keeps sleeping for another half hour or so, and still has lots of energy, I might take him over for a bit. If nothing else, it'll be a good experiment to see how he will act there, and if he will be comfortable with me out on the floor dancing for several minutes.
We'll see. Look for part 2 tomorrow!
Friday, February 18, 2005
Another week down - thank goodness!
Had a unique sort of week - lots of ups and downs. Can't say it was a bad week because lots of good things happened, but I can't say it was a bad week either. Definitely eventful. Hopefully I'll have a fun weekend with Jeremiah now. I can't remember where I read this, but there was a curse of sorts when you wished someone "May you live in interesting times." I know what they mean: a week might spice up the life a bit, but by the next week I'm ready to go back to blessed, boring normality. :^D
Got to do some different sort of stuff at work, like installing a new hard drive, and ripping the dvd drive out of one computer and putting it in another. Nothing really fancy, but definitely different than the normal number crunching and programming that constitute my normal work.
It's been a lot of great clogging too. Any time you finish a special training and convention, you feel sort of motivated. So, I've been hitting clogging a bit more than normal too. It used to be karate where I could go to forget about the rest of the day/week and just focus on a predictable thing. Now that I don't have someone training me in karate, self-training doesn't give me quite the same effect. But, I have clogging now to help out with that.
Double step, double tap, touch!
Got to do some different sort of stuff at work, like installing a new hard drive, and ripping the dvd drive out of one computer and putting it in another. Nothing really fancy, but definitely different than the normal number crunching and programming that constitute my normal work.
It's been a lot of great clogging too. Any time you finish a special training and convention, you feel sort of motivated. So, I've been hitting clogging a bit more than normal too. It used to be karate where I could go to forget about the rest of the day/week and just focus on a predictable thing. Now that I don't have someone training me in karate, self-training doesn't give me quite the same effect. But, I have clogging now to help out with that.
Double step, double tap, touch!
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Reverse on Valentines day
Wow, that lasted a long time!
**a little sarcasm there**
I'm back to hating Valanetines Day.
**a little sarcasm there**
I'm back to hating Valanetines Day.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Valentine's Day introspection
As a single guy, I must admit that I haven't traditionally viewed Valentine's Day as a particularly necessary holiday - mainly a ploy by Hallmark and florists to sell more cards and flowers. Unfortunately, I'll have to leave the ranks of the Brotherhood of Bachelors on this particular point of theology now.
Guys need to have as many kicks-in-the-pants as can be delivered to encourage us to be more expressive to "significant others". If we're really to be loving to the wife, we'll need to be loving in a way that they recognize, not by tuning up their car, giving it a wash, or by taking them to dinner at our favorite restaurant.
How did I come by this epiphany? By reading various rantings on other blogs. I was embarrassed by them, and I'm afraid that their mental "unhingedness" (if that's a word) had the opposite of their intended effect. You are now reading the blog of a reformed male - I'll never belittle Valentines Day again. Whether this state of reformation will last beyond the next "pink assault" in the supermarket, is another story.
Guys need to have as many kicks-in-the-pants as can be delivered to encourage us to be more expressive to "significant others". If we're really to be loving to the wife, we'll need to be loving in a way that they recognize, not by tuning up their car, giving it a wash, or by taking them to dinner at our favorite restaurant.
How did I come by this epiphany? By reading various rantings on other blogs. I was embarrassed by them, and I'm afraid that their mental "unhingedness" (if that's a word) had the opposite of their intended effect. You are now reading the blog of a reformed male - I'll never belittle Valentines Day again. Whether this state of reformation will last beyond the next "pink assault" in the supermarket, is another story.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
And so goes PDD 2005
Yesterday was the Potomac Double Down clogging workshop, and I was able to make it this year! It was a terrific time - there were three rooms going on, and there were classes in each room, so there wa a LOT of really great teaching going on. The Bull Run Cloggers put on a really nice production, and with Josh "Clog Dog" King and Matt Sexton teaching, there were some really top-notch national instructors there. My favorite was Matt's Jolly Beggarman followed very closely by our own Mary's Mr. Mom. Jolly Beggarman is a very fun dance, and while not quite as cool as Josh's Blame It on the Boogie, it is a bit easier. Then Mary's Mr. Mom is to a song that I really, really love and it really focuses on buck steps, so it is impressive sounding while being easy (as long as you can buck some steps).
I came home, and have forgotten some of the dances, but my favorites seem to be hanging with me. (I'm doing them in-between paragraphs here.) I drenched numerous sets of clothes, went through over a gallon of water, My feet hurt, my legs are made of lead, and I took a six hour nap this afternoon and I'm ready for bed again.
It was a GREAT time!!!
I think that our group, Blue Ridge Thunder Cloggers had the biggest group in attendance, which was a lot of fun too. We got there early in the morning and got some pictures of the group, and as soon as they get posted, I'll put them up here too.
Everyone went out to dinner after the classes were over, and then came back (with very full stomachs) to clog for another two hours with fun dances and performances by the various groups. There was one group that did a routine to a song that we also coreographed - Dance Above the Rainbow. This one was coreographed by a fourteen-year-old girl though, and blew the socks off ours in pure difficulty. I think ours is more enjoyable, but hers were REALLY impressive. Their entire team had also purchased the shirts that our group is selling, which have a large Celtic Knot on the back with a heart in it. Made us all feel good.
I came home, and have forgotten some of the dances, but my favorites seem to be hanging with me. (I'm doing them in-between paragraphs here.) I drenched numerous sets of clothes, went through over a gallon of water, My feet hurt, my legs are made of lead, and I took a six hour nap this afternoon and I'm ready for bed again.
It was a GREAT time!!!
I think that our group, Blue Ridge Thunder Cloggers had the biggest group in attendance, which was a lot of fun too. We got there early in the morning and got some pictures of the group, and as soon as they get posted, I'll put them up here too.
Everyone went out to dinner after the classes were over, and then came back (with very full stomachs) to clog for another two hours with fun dances and performances by the various groups. There was one group that did a routine to a song that we also coreographed - Dance Above the Rainbow. This one was coreographed by a fourteen-year-old girl though, and blew the socks off ours in pure difficulty. I think ours is more enjoyable, but hers were REALLY impressive. Their entire team had also purchased the shirts that our group is selling, which have a large Celtic Knot on the back with a heart in it. Made us all feel good.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Perl Insanity SOLVED!!!
Yay Yay Yay Yay Yay Yay Yay !!!
Yippee! Yahoo!!!
WHO DA' MAN!!!
Ok, so it was my own lack of knowledge that caused the problem in the first place, but it's still time to celebrate!! Programmers out there who have beaten their heads against a brick wall problem, and then find out it was a REALLY dumb mistake know the relief I'm feeling here. I'll stick on some code for y'all to look at.
This shouldn't print out anything, right? The $x variable is equal to "hi" and when compared to "hello", it should come up as False and the print statement should NOT show.
WRONG!
I was smacking myself all over the place trying to figure out why it WAS still printing out. I was finally coming to the conclusion that my instalation of ActivePerl had somehow become corrupted and I almost reinstalled it. I noticed that when I copied their statements, they would work, even though they were almost identical to mine. Then I realized the difference: they were comparing NUMBERS!
I had forgotten that Perl compares text differently than it does numbers. I was using "==" which is only for numbers, not text strings. To compare text you have to use "eq". So here is the code that does work!!
Those two bytes gave me a couple hours of frustration. Thank the Lord it's over!
I realize this is sort of one of those programmer-only things. Everyone else is saying "This is significant, HOW?" I actually ran into this problem several weeks ago and just worked around it becaue it was in a bit more complicated set of code and I never nailed down exactly where the problem was, so I just scrapped it and went a different direction. So for me, this has been a problem for a couple weeks, so BREAK OUT THE PARTY HATS!
Yippee! Yahoo!!!
WHO DA' MAN!!!
Ok, so it was my own lack of knowledge that caused the problem in the first place, but it's still time to celebrate!! Programmers out there who have beaten their heads against a brick wall problem, and then find out it was a REALLY dumb mistake know the relief I'm feeling here. I'll stick on some code for y'all to look at.
| $x = 'hi'; if ($x == 'hello') { print "This is absolutely fubar!" } |
This shouldn't print out anything, right? The $x variable is equal to "hi" and when compared to "hello", it should come up as False and the print statement should NOT show.
WRONG!
I was smacking myself all over the place trying to figure out why it WAS still printing out. I was finally coming to the conclusion that my instalation of ActivePerl had somehow become corrupted and I almost reinstalled it. I noticed that when I copied their statements, they would work, even though they were almost identical to mine. Then I realized the difference: they were comparing NUMBERS!
I had forgotten that Perl compares text differently than it does numbers. I was using "==" which is only for numbers, not text strings. To compare text you have to use "eq". So here is the code that does work!!
| $x = 'hi'; if ($x eq 'hello') { print "This is absolutely fubar!" } |
Those two bytes gave me a couple hours of frustration. Thank the Lord it's over!
I realize this is sort of one of those programmer-only things. Everyone else is saying "This is significant, HOW?" I actually ran into this problem several weeks ago and just worked around it becaue it was in a bit more complicated set of code and I never nailed down exactly where the problem was, so I just scrapped it and went a different direction. So for me, this has been a problem for a couple weeks, so BREAK OUT THE PARTY HATS!
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Doctor's Appointment
I think I may need to set up an appointment for myself - something is wrong with me.
I'm waking up too early. I don't need to be into work particularly early, so I turned off my alarm. I finally got up feeling like I had stayed in bed ridiculously late. What time was it? 7:45.
Something is definitely wrong with me!
I'm waking up too early. I don't need to be into work particularly early, so I turned off my alarm. I finally got up feeling like I had stayed in bed ridiculously late. What time was it? 7:45.
Something is definitely wrong with me!
Monday, February 07, 2005
What a weekend! (in a good way)
Started off with the BRTC fundraiser dinner Friday night, which was a lot of fun to do. There was a good turnout there, though not quite packing the place out. Everyone had a great time, and we raffled off a LOT of prizes. Then everyone had to take chicken home with them because there was a bunch extra. I had eaten some there, and it was good, but after I had put it into the 'fridge, WOW was it delicious the next day! I'm now wishing I had gotten more than 8 pieces.
But the biggest news is that I had Jeremiah over here all night for the first time. Can't say that we did anything too exciting, though Jer seemed to be more thrilled with the barn and the tractor than before. Saturday night, I was ready for bed before he was, but he went down right away when I told him to get ready for bed, and he slept soundly through the night.
I guess I had worn him out on Saturday, because he slept until 8:20 Sunday morning. Considering that he is normally up by 6:00, or so I hear, this was a minor miracle. Chruch was good, Jeremiah was in tip-top form, and when we got home, Jeremiah had a treat watching the tractor rake the horse arena smooth. Sounds sort of tame to me, but it seemed to be high entertainment for Jeremiah!
Didn't bother watching the Super Bowl. I just went over to superbowl.com and checked out the score, and it looks like the Patriots won. After Pittsburg lost to the Patriots, I sort of lost interest. Went to bed, mom woke me up, and now I'm going back to bed. G'night all, and God bless.
But the biggest news is that I had Jeremiah over here all night for the first time. Can't say that we did anything too exciting, though Jer seemed to be more thrilled with the barn and the tractor than before. Saturday night, I was ready for bed before he was, but he went down right away when I told him to get ready for bed, and he slept soundly through the night.
I guess I had worn him out on Saturday, because he slept until 8:20 Sunday morning. Considering that he is normally up by 6:00, or so I hear, this was a minor miracle. Chruch was good, Jeremiah was in tip-top form, and when we got home, Jeremiah had a treat watching the tractor rake the horse arena smooth. Sounds sort of tame to me, but it seemed to be high entertainment for Jeremiah!
Didn't bother watching the Super Bowl. I just went over to superbowl.com and checked out the score, and it looks like the Patriots won. After Pittsburg lost to the Patriots, I sort of lost interest. Went to bed, mom woke me up, and now I'm going back to bed. G'night all, and God bless.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Got my bed together!!
Yeah, weird title for someone who has been moved in for a month. Usually I would imagine that the bed is the first thing to get put together, but I prefer the couch, so it wasn't a priority.
My mom and sister M came down this weekend, actually from Thursday afternoon until yesterday morning. The visit was great, especially since mothers are so good at getting things done. I've had a couple little things left to do for a while now (like the bed) and a bunch of them got done since my mom was there.
Jeremiah was absolutely nuts about M. this visit. After dropping Jer off Sunday evening, he didn't want to be held by me or his mom, but wanted to go with M.
She had brought her male puppy that she is planning on selling, and Jeremiah eventually felt comfortable around it. He eventually started terrorizing it, poor dog. It was three or four times his size, but he would still try to shove it over to the crate. Didn't do much but sort of freak out the dog.
It was a really nice weekend. Thanks to the Lord.
My mom and sister M came down this weekend, actually from Thursday afternoon until yesterday morning. The visit was great, especially since mothers are so good at getting things done. I've had a couple little things left to do for a while now (like the bed) and a bunch of them got done since my mom was there.
Jeremiah was absolutely nuts about M. this visit. After dropping Jer off Sunday evening, he didn't want to be held by me or his mom, but wanted to go with M.
She had brought her male puppy that she is planning on selling, and Jeremiah eventually felt comfortable around it. He eventually started terrorizing it, poor dog. It was three or four times his size, but he would still try to shove it over to the crate. Didn't do much but sort of freak out the dog.
It was a really nice weekend. Thanks to the Lord.
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