Black Star

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:29:31 GMT

Nope, RCN isn't available at our new apartment. Luckily, Comcast is ready to give us one third the speed, for only five bucks more! Guaranteed to be buggy and unavailable at inconvenient times, too.

How does a company this bad get away with it so effectively?

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:53:23 GMT

It's a nice feeling when you're having an off day, but you realize that this one isn't as bad as they've been in the past. When your worst is getting better, that's a good thing.

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:51:00 GMT

How far can a cool mustache and a bad attitude really take you in life?

Thu, 28 May 2009 19:37:53 GMT

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/

A thousand comments about innovation, transformation, and evolution! It's a world-changer!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, millions of people who have never used the Internet continue to starve and slaughter each other in astounding numbers.

The Internet: redefining what "important" means since 1989.

Mon, 18 May 2009 06:42:32 GMT

I love Boston, but sometimes, I just can't shake the feeling that Boston sucks.

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:10:34 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/05/07/o.Oprah.Interviews.Daniel.Pink/index.html

My first reaction to this was: why, why does everybody like to lump engineering and computer programming in with "left-brain", non-creative, linear tasks that can all be outsourced to India? Have any of these people ever actually tried to write a program? This article mentioned engineering/programming and design separately, as if they are unrelated concepts. We programmers have a word for non-creative coders: unemployed.

Then, I got to the end of the article, and it all became clear: Oprah is a fucking Baby Boomer, and this Daniel Pink dude seems to idolize them. I hate Boomers. They are the most self-indulgent and useless generation of people ever to curse this Earth, and there are so many of them that they get to redefine success whenever it becomes apparent that they're unable to meet the current definition. Of course these people look down on programmers and engineers: they have none of the required skills, so of course it's only logical that they're not important anyway. "Empathy" is way more important than knowledge.

It's endlessly ironic that engineers and programmers have almost completely designed and built the cultural environment that allows worthless, aging children of the 60's to continue to survive without contributing a single thing to society, other than trying to devalue everything they're not good at.

Ex-hippies have never done anything to validate their obsessive self-importance. They have ruined our educational system, and are currently ruining our government and our economy, leaving all of these problems to their children (ie, me and you) to deal with, all while convincing themselves that their failures are actually successes.

I hate them.

PS: this does not apply to the large number of Boomers who actually became valuable members of society. Unfortunately, for every Bill Gates, there are ten Dr. Phils.

Fri, 08 May 2009 15:43:05 GMT

During the presidential campaign, much ado was made of Obama's desire to "spread the wealth." McCain's people tried to spin this as socialism: Obama wanted to redistribute wealth to the masses.

Turns out that Obama was actually going to redistribute wealth to... the banks! Hooray! And guess what: it's already done, ninja-quick. This would make Reagan and Bush proud.

This is not the socialism I was promised. At least I voted for Sloth and Indolence.

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:04:47 GMT

Software is a strange world to me. I'm now in my third year in the industry, and every day is deja vu; this all feels very much like my senior year of high school, when I backed into computer science at RPI because it was what I knew and RPI was the only school that admitted me.

Every day, I see and feel the conflict between the old world and the new world, the top-down business in which predictable results and deadlines are essential to maintaining cash flow and the bottom-up model in which the Next Big Thing is constantly coaxed from the loins of the ether by encouraging employees to be self-started, self-motivated, self-disciplined, and self-directed.

I see all this, I see all the competing motivations, and I ask myself: do I care anymore? Did I ever care?

I love programming. I love having the necessary knowledge to (attempt to) solve any problem. I love having an intimate understanding of the systems that make the majority of modern life possible. That is not what I have been doing since I graduated... of course. I have not achieved flow.

My job is too easy.

Personally, I think lots of things turn out this way. I think programming in general may have gotten a little too easy, at least for me. The problems that most pieces of software aim to solve are generally not complex; even if they are, they can be broken down and tackled in simple pieces. Part of the original appeal of programming for me was sitting in front of a recalcitrant blank canvas with limitless potential and serious design constraints, and figuring out how to get it to do what I wanted. It was the thrill of the chase, in a way.

Ruby on Rails, and everything on which it is built, has effectively killed that joy. Anything I need or want to do to solve the problems, build the features, fix the bugs, etc. is easily accomplished in nearly-English syntax. It's all online in code snippets on thousands of web sites. Writing an application is as simple as thinking of a step by step process and writing it down.

I miss pointers, threads, and memory management. I miss optimizing search algorithms down to the millisecond. I miss the constraints of older computers. When I can do anything, nothing seems worth doing anymore.

Granted, these days, all of the programs I used to love to work on are trivial, and it makes sense that none of the lower-level effort is necessary anymore. But it seems that, if I really want to push the limits of a system's memory or processor, or navigate the treacherous waters of a distributed real-time application's race conditions, I need to be working on things that just don't interest me.

That might be a problem.

Maybe I'm just not meant to be a programmer. Maybe, like my interest in video games and music, I'm just a few years too late to the party.

Can you have too much ease-of-use?

I think there are two ways to make music that people like. The easy way is to appeal to their base instincts; cram your songs full of sing-along lyrics, hooks, and dancey beats that thousands of artists have used before but will never get old, or make pleasant music that people can have playing in the background, then market the hell out of it.

Or, you can make something that inspires something in the listener. Anything. If I could do this, I would be happy.

I try to make music that inspires me. Sometimes I succeed, and usually I fail... but if I inspire myself, and nobody else finds it moving, then at least I can call it my own weirdness, rather than bad art.

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:03:02 GMT

Sometimes I wonder about what I'm doing with my life. Then I remember that I'm still just a kid.

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:52:44 GMT

There's so much beauty in the world, and there's no point to any of it... and that's beautiful, too.

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:52:50 GMT

Man, this Florida tap water tastes fucking gross. We really are spoiled in the MA.

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:18:16 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/10/nc.sex.offenders/index.html

Is anybody else bothered that "sex offenders" and "child predators" are used interchangeably?

I'd expect that from advocacy groups, politicians, and the media, but the state Attorney General? That's not a good thing.

It would be refreshing if just one of these fear-spreading reports would include a shred of context, like how many of those 2,116 sex offenders were actually convicted of dangerous or violent crimes, as opposed to pissing on the side of a building while drunk. Does that mean I'm soft on crime?

It's really easy to hate sex offenders, but it's really hard to watch a group of people get systematically turned into the new scapegoat criminal class. I'm torn. Sex crimes aren't like murder, where there's a dead body and a Bad Guy. The term is just too broad.

We get angry when people do this to illegal immigrants and the homeless... yes, I did just make that comparison.

And speaking of murder, convicted killers don't need to register with the police for the rest of their lives, if they manage to get a non-life sentence with one of those fancy lesser charges like manslaughter or murder 2. That's pretty fucked up.

I guess drug- and gun-slinging gang thugs really are less dangerous than creepy trenchcoat-wearing flashers.

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:45:06 GMT

I'm feeling unhealthy again.

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:48:46 GMT

I think it might be time for somebody to kill Joseph Cassano.

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 07:00:58 GMT

"And by taxing cigarettes, we're preventing young people from starting smoking." - Dr. Carla Wolper

...

...

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:23:07 GMT

"You all should really stop and think about what you are saying!! Trust in the lord and he will give you all the evidence you need! the holy spirit will lead guide and direct in you. JUst trust in him! that is all i ask! you will see!" - some crucial dude arguing online

Hmm... trust in the lord and he will give you the evidence of his existence? Translation: have faith first, and the pesky justifications will sort themselves out later. Believe, and you will believe! It's almost too easy.

Does this line of reasoning actually work on anybody?

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:21:49 GMT

I'm not a fan of Sarah Palin in any way, shape, or form... but the hatchet job McCain's people are doing on her now is gut-wrenching. "She came to a meeting in a towel!" "She throws tantrums!" "She cried!"

Really, guys? You might as well come out and say what you really mean: "We should've known better than to pick a woman!"

I didn't think I could dislike the Republican Party any more than I already did... but no. Now I can't dislike them any more.

PS: It's also really funny.

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:55:30 GMT

That was depressing.

I am the sand that slips between your fingers.

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 23:56:08 GMT

This burrito is so good.

No subject

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:10:52 GMT

Remember when I was a LiveJournal whore? I do. Those were times.

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:27:27 GMT

I think I'm getting dumber.

Tue, 13 May 2008 02:54:20 GMT

Never mind my last post. It wasn't excitement, it was heartburn.

Fri, 09 May 2008 05:10:57 GMT

After several fucking years of playing the same shit over and over, building a house on my skills plateau, I am finally getting better at guitar again. It's pretty exciting.

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:50:41 GMT

How To Apologize - [URL removed] - Learn How To Say You’re Sorry. Browse Our Free Articles Now!

Thank you, Google AdSense.

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 03:35:26 GMT

I hate Google now.

You hear that, Google? ...yeah, I know you did.