Earthquake

A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:04:54 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007.
The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 8 km (5 miles) NNE of Alum Rock, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles).

Magnitude         5.6 - regional moment magnitude (Mw)
Time              Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 8:04:54 PM (PDT)
                  Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 3:04:54 (UTC)
Distance from     Alum Rock, CA - 8 km (5 miles) NNE (31 degrees)
                  Milpitas, CA - 11 km (7 miles) E (91 degrees)
                  San Jose City Hall, CA - 15 km (9 miles) NE (45 degrees)
                  Sunol-Midtown, CA - 17 km (10 miles) NE (45 degrees)
Coordinates       37 deg. 25.9 min. N (37.432N), 121 deg. 46.5 min. W (121.776W)
Depth             9.2 km (5.7 miles)

[Full USGS report] [San Jose Mercury News report]

Saturday Windsurfing

Windsurfing with Lucas and Kemi

Egoless Programming

I am familiar with the principles of egoless programming, though I may have trouble following them from time to time. I let my ego get out of control in high school, which led to some bad social experiences. I did my best to learn from those mistakes, and tried not to repeat them in college. Being surrounded by so many incredibly intelligent people at RPI and PsiU was quite humbling, and work has been even more-so. While learning to be humble in this way was far from pleasant, I think it was moderately successful. To a large degree, I feel I have internalized the idea that my current role is that of a student or apprentice. I should find the masters around me, and learn from them. And I should swallow as much of my pride as it takes to make this learning possible.

Unfortunately, I am only human. I had a bit of a head-butting match at work recently, when a coworker disparaged some code and design documentation that I had written. While I certainly am quite proud of my work, I don't think that this was a case of my being overly attached to an implementation, so much as it was a case of me being hurt and offended by the poor handling of a social situation. X rips apart my designs and code quite handily, but I always feel smarter in the end, and I walk away feeling grateful for his time and patience. When Y does the same, I want to throw office furniture. The difference seems to be largely a matter of respect and social grace. Even with engineers, these count for something, and I expect them from my peers.

Despite my occasional jokes about leaving to work for Microsoft, at worst this situation might cause me to change teams. I spent nine months on team A (which was a poor fit for my skills) before becoming the sole member of team B (which was a dead-end project) for another nine months. Team B has now been folded into Team C, and C's project has a future. Unfortunately, this social situation might lead me hunting for team D.

Am I destined to end up like my father, job-hopping every 1-2 years for the rest of my life? Why do I find it so hard to be happy?

The Mac is a Harsh Mistress

I <3 tortured metaphors.

Microsoft, ladies and gentlemen, is a cheap whore. She lives on the fringes of the law, but there’s no getting rid of her because she fulfils a certain need in our society. People want what she is selling.

[...]

Apple is a lover.

From the moment you meet her, you know that she wants you to be happy. She wants to be a part of your life, and you can’t help but be drawn into wanting to be a part of hers. She is beautiful and elegant in ways that the layers of paint on the Microsoft street-walker can only desperately try to imitate.

lolcat bible

zomfg lolcat bible!

I can't decide whether I like Exodus 20 best:

12. Bez u good to papa and mama so u has long lief.


13. U no mek peepz ded!


14. U no mek sexxes wit other gurlz or menz than ur wief (so no awsum treesum alowed!).


15. U no tek stuffs for free if not getz for free.


16. U no tell bad stuff about ur neibor.


17. U no wantz neibor stuff! No wief, no gurlz, no menz, no animulz, no no no! Bad.

Or Genesis 1:

1. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat was invisible, and he maded the skiez and da earths, but he did not eated it.



2. The earths wus witout shapez and wus dark and scary and stuffs, and he rode invisible bike over teh waterz.



3. And Ceiling Cat sayz, i can has light, and teh light wuz.



4. Teh Ceiling Cat sawed teh light, to sees stuffs, and separatered the light form dark and stuffs



5. And Ceiling Cat sayed light Day and dark no Day. Teh evning and morning was teh first day.

Back to Blogger

Free time has become a very limited resource in my life, and running my own web-hosting has become less rewarding over time. Consequently, I decided to move my blog back to Blogger.

Blogger has improved tremendously since 2003-2004. The Blogger GData API is pretty slick, too--I used it to import all the old posts and comments. I even preserved timestamps! At this point, my old blog posts have survived a move from Blogger to my own box (running Bryar), and then from Bryar back to Blogger. The comments have moved from QuickTopic to Bryar to Blogger. There is always so much duct tape and shoe string involved in these moves, but I find them fun in a twisted sort of way.

Comments work again. Say 'hi' if you still read this thing. ;-)