forget everything from school

forget everything from school -- you are programmer,
and here 2.1*3.6=7.559995
but sometimes (2.1*3.6==7.559995)!=true
this is the world with no rules after point -- this is computer.

OOPSLA

I just got back from this year's OOPSLA in Vancouver. I didn't really know what to expect since it was my first conference but for the most part it was pretty interesting. I thought the talks on garbage collection were pretty interesting, I'd never really spent anytime thinking about it before but I guess it's the future so I should probably spend more time with it. Alan Kay was the Keynote Speaker and this years Turing Award winner. His talk was great. We also heard from C++ guru Herb Sutter and fellow amazonian Al Vermuelan.

The other talk I really liked was the panel discussion titled "Math/Science vs. Art/Craft" where the panel discussed the nature of Computer Science. It was brought up many times that it's not a science because nothing with the word 'science' in its name is really a science (library science, social science, christian science). I'll try to talk more about it later but what I really got from it was that we should read source code, critique it, and read other people's critiques just like people do with literature and we should practice everyday just like as if it was soccer or a musical instrument. I think maybe the reason we have all of the shitty software out there is because people can't learn from other people mistakes or even their good code because we don't spend anytime analyzing it. Maybe if we spent time reading good code like authors read good books we might get better at creating good code ourselves.

Life before TiVo

This is a pretty interesting entry from someone's blog. I recently had to experience a non-TiVo home when I was visited my mom in Michigan. It's weird watching regular TV. It seems like life is just draining away while comercials are on. I can't really take it anymore. I've also noticed that I've gotten used to pausing the TV when I wanted to talk to Laurel. We move in and out of TV and conversation mode instantly. Without TiVo I have to choose between finishing the show or talking about something that I just thought of.

Do republicans hate freedom?

I think the answer is obvious: Of course they hate freedom. Think about it. They are against the ACLU and everything for which it stands for, which of course is the Bill of Rights and the freedoms that it protects. They don't want black people to vote. They don't want homosexuals to be able to marry. Thus, republicans hate freedom.

The point I'd like to make right now is that even though I think everything I just said is true, you can pretty much say this about everyone. People use the word freedom all the time, and it gets really bad during elections. But I think the word is pretty much meaningless. After the attacks of September 11th Bush said that these people did this to us because they hate freedom. What the hell does that mean? They attack us because we allow women the freedom to vote and walk around without Burqas? I think that's exactly the idea that Bush wants to project, but it doesn't make any sense. So, if they hate freedom, exactly what freedoms do they hate? Well, we know they hate the freedom for women to not wear burqas and they hate the freedom to drink alcohol but do they also hate our freedom of speach and freedom of the press. Probably not. I mean, you can take this point far. Do people who hate freedom hate the freedom that they have to live or the freedom that they have to think differently than something they hate?

What the president said is one thing, but it's even more absurd to say that we are free in this country. I'm not saying that the government wants to control our minds or anything stupid like that, but that one freedom infringes on the freedom of something else. If I have the freedom to kill anyone I want doesn't that take away the freedom of life from the person I kill? If I have the freedom to walk around public places naked doesn't that take away the freedom for people to not see my naked body? That's why whenever I see those stupid freedom bumper stickers I want to puke. Retarded people who live in their black & white, good & evil, simplistic fantasy land are ruining this country.

Photoshop is pretty cool

Photoshop is pretty cool. I've been working on an old photo of my grandfather (who I don't have many pictures of) and it's starting to look pretty good. I still don't know many photoshop techniques and this is really my first attempt at trying to fix a photo in such bad shape but it seems to be working quite well.

John Stewart is Awesome

John Stewart is Awesome and this is why.

All I gotta say is...

Cheney is a piece of shit. What a piece of fucking shit. If Novak is a douche bag and Cheney is a piece of shit, what's Bush? I can't comprehend what people see in him. How can the rest of the country not think he's a piece of shit. Well, here's something funny about the Vice-Presidential Debate last night. Cheney, like the retard that he is, must think that all internet sites end with ".com" because he mentioned factcheck.com last night. That made me pause a bit, I said to myself: "Hmmm, isn't that factcheck.org". Well, I guess the owner of that domain said the same thing because he created a redirect to georgesoros.com which has the following text:

President Bush is endangering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values.

This is the most important election of my lifetime. I have never been heavily involved in partisan politics but these are not normal times. That is why I am sharing this message. I have been demonized by the Bush campaign but I hope you will give me a hearing.

President Bush ran on the platform of a "humble" foreign policy in 2000. If we re-elect him now, we endorse the Bush doctrine of preemptive action and the invasion of Iraq, and we will have to live with the consequences. As I shall try to show, we are facing a vicious circle of escalating violence with no end in sight. But if we repudiate the Bush policies at the polls, we shall have a better chance to regain the respect and support of the world and to break the vicious circle.

Ahhhh, that makes me so happy. He just pointed 43.6 million people to a site whose only purpose is to make sure Bush and Cheney don't win. You gotta love irony.

All that red scares me

What's interesting about this election is that we have a lot more information available to us that we've never had before. You can search for you neighbors and see who they're contributing to. You can watch the maps on fundrace change over time:



What am I talking about, how the hell is the map going to change? People are set in their ways. Ug, all of that red scares me. Why are all of those people giving money to Bush? ... Wow, Bill Nye the Science Guy is my neighbor and of course he's a democrat. Bill Gates is a republican, and there seems to be a lot of republicans in Medina. Where's Jeff? ... Anyways, my neighborhood is better cuz it's bluer.