This is the biggest piece of government stupidity since... Well, since not nearly as long ago as it should have been since something this unbelieveable. Looks like another winner from DARPA.
Category: Society
I have just recently discovered the coolness that is StepMania, a DDR simulator that has been ported to OS X. Now that I don't have to deal with the added expense of buying a playstation just for one game, the price is much more justifyable: my pad and PS -> USB converter are on their way.
Now I won't suck as badly at the next ACM party.
Category: Geek
Today is a very good day: a joint paper that my Master's advisor submitted with myself and another grad student was accepted to this December's CDC '03. And since my advisor thinks it would be a good experience for me to present a paper at a conference, I get to go. And, since presenting research results is covered by our grant, all the big expenses will be paid.
So, to recap: In exchange for presenting a 6 page paper to a room full of people who are smarter than I am, I get a 5-day all expense paid vacation in the middle of the winter.
Oh, and did I mention that the conference is being held in Hawaii?
Category: School
Some days, I don't think I should be allowed to be a programmer. I just spent an hour debugging weird memory errors, before I finally realized that it was because I forgot that destructors of inherited classes cascade. So, like a total n00b, I duplicated all of my base-class memory cleanup in my child class. Which, surprise surprise, gave me deallocation issues. So here I am just finished with my BS in computer science, and I'm already failing Object-Oriented Programming 101. Case would have to be crazy to give me a masters for this!
One thing is clear: programming a C# web application is NOT the way to keep my real programming skills sharp. Maybe I should take up programming crypto algorithms for fun too, before I atrophy completely.
Category: Geek
I've finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and one the thing that caught my attention the most was the editing out of British-isms... or rather, the almost total lack thereof. This book was significantly less Americanized than the last four, and although I was mostly able to figure things out by context, there were times I had no idea what someone was saying.
At first, I assumed that this was hasty editing, in an attempt to get it out the door and into the hands of the impatient masses as soon as possible. The more I think about it, though, the more convinced I am that it's a sinister plot. Think about it... the Brits have a totally unprecedented chance to get vast amounts of British slang into American usage, even more so than at the height of Beetle-mania, since many readers are impressionable children, and the books are way more language-intensive than song lyrics. So they're leaving as much British English as possible in the books, well aware that every word will be branded into the memories of the millions of Harry/Ron/Hermione wannabes. Finally they have a chance to fight back against our perversion of English, and they are seizing it. It's brilliant. It's insidious.
I suppose I should be outraged... but frankly, I'm not all that fussed.
Category: A & E
I finally have Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'll be returning to the world of the living in a few days.
Category: A & E
In the shade, with a stiff breeze, it's ok outside. Sadly, there's little shade, and even less breeze.
Ah, Cleveland, with its hot humid summers and cold dry winters. Give me the moderate temperatures of my homeland (incessant rain and all) any day.
Category: Random