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Saturday, November 1, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Mass Budget Cuts
Okay, so this was in the Globe this AM. Looking at this tempts me to vote yes to eliminate the income tax (well, not really) but some of it is egregious. Take the 300K Weston transportation grant. R U F'ing Kidding me ! Weston ? Have you no shame ? 275K for economic development for the fine town of Needham? Those were two that jumped out at me, no doubt there is more (13K for Diane Wilkerson's Bra) But Jesus Christ can we please all get real?
What if programming languages where like spoken languages?
Okay, so programming languages evolve. C turns to C++/# and etc. But the compilers are different as are the "rules". Actual spoken language is a million times more adaptive. Words have very different meanings based on context and pronunciation. For a stupid example, take "Bitch" when spoken at Westiminster Kennel Club and "Bitch" spoken in a hip hop video. Same word, different compiler so to speak. The point is that it's infinitely more flexible, context/timing/pronunciation all have meaning. Could this metaphor be expanded to computer languages as well. I am not sure, but I suspect that the answer is in the compiler paradigm.
O.K. so thinking more about this concept I guess what I am talking about is something like a wiki compiler. In the text messaging/chat context, BRB, FWIW, IMHO, WRT, AFAIK, LOL, all have commonly understood meanings. Could not the same paradigm be applied to programming languages?
Just Sayin.
The Sad Part
You Know,
The sad part of this election for me is John McCain's campaign. I used to respect him as an open minded man with a conservative bent. I honestly thought he was different from the Rove/Limbaugh/Hannity/Focus on the Family/DeLay wing of the party. I remember one time earlier in the year when he appeared on the Daily Show. He had just given a speech at James Dobson's "church" (mall is more like it). This is after he had publicly denounced this brand of evangelicals. Asked by Stewart about this contradiction (specifically if McCain had gone to "crazy base land") he owned up to it in a very self effacing and endearing way. You got the feeling he hadn't completely sold his soul. I certainly preferred him to Mitt Romney or Rudy who to me are the most phony politicians I know, those two will say anything to get elected.
But then McCain ran a campaign that was arguably more disingenuous that GWB. Including hiring the very people who smeared him in 2000 with "Black Baby" robocalls. And then there was Sarah. If she is not the canary in the GOP coalmine I don't know who is. With her selection the GOP alienated every woman with a frontal lobe in the country. Palin is the Archetypal cheerleeder know nothing who gets promoted because she was "cute". She is the Anti Feminist. Choosing her is so tone deaf as to be beyond belief. Also, FWIW she is not hot. WRT her running in 2012 I have this to say "Bring it Bayotch". The GOP may not be dead this year, but it's on life support and the prognosis is not good.
Data Visualization
If you havent tried out some of the new data visualization stuff available on the intergoogles you really should. Digglabs has some really fun visualizations. Srsly check them out, clic teh pic
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
My Keyboard
This probably (okay definitely) shows what a gear geek/snob I am, this
is the keyboard I have used for the past ten years or so. Behold the IBM
M15 Split Keyboard. Little did I know when I snagged it that it would be
a collectors item. IBM M Keyboards in general are widely believed to be
the best ever made and this model is the apogee. I love this keyboard
and will take it with me to new jobs like a craftsman carries his tools or
a chef his/her knife. Here are a couple of links for the curious.
Mine is at the bottom of this article.
Buttercups
While waiting for the coffee to finish brewing this morning, I heard a bit on NPR about a plant study taking place in Concord. This gist of it was that certain plants which cannot change their bloom time are dissapearing in certain areas. The Buttercup was one of the ones mentioned, thinking about that, I can't remember when I last saw one. Is it just me? When was the last time you saw one. Another sound I never hear anymore are Bob-Whites and Whipporwhills. On the plus side, Newton is over-run with Rabbits this year and I hadn't seen one of them in the city for years.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Mrs. B
At Bradlees you buy what Mrs. B buys (and nobody can buy like Mrs. B)
For those curious about what Mrs. B has been up to and all things Mrs. B
