Fortune is Fated — a short story
Once a long time ago (2003) I took an English course to satisfy UCLA’s bureaucratic notions that I should have a ‘well-rounded’ education. As part of this course we read short stories, and were required to write a mini-essay each…
Random Ruminations
My thoughts are as entropic as the leaves falling off the trees this season (just about as colored too). Graduate School Applications <rant>I really dislike forms; actually I frothingly detest them. I don’t know why, but I have always hated…
Unreliable Intuitions
Qt is a really wonderful and nice toolbox, and I thoroughly enjoy working with it, so it’s unfortunate that I’m using it for my example of one of the many things wrong with C++. In my opinion C++ is a…
Figures and Formulas
A long while back, I remember reading about Stallman proposing a change to copyright time. I thought that the setting of a particular figure, and then refining it was an absurd solution. In my opinion a much better solution is…
HD Crash and why *nix is is better than Windows
Ok, so the site has been down for a week. That’s because my computer’s HD crashed. Fortunately, I was able to goto Staples and purchase 2 Seagate 500GB SATA drives. That’s 1TB purchased on a whim for $260! You couldn’t…
FedEx Sux
Alright, so I ordered a laptop, and the supplier chose to ship FedEx, I chose Ground (because I’m cheap). So, Thursday morning, before work, I check up on the tracking number, and the FedEx website says it was in L.A….
The Microsoft Tax
I recently decide to purchase a Laptop. My concerns were: must be 64-bit, must be lightweight, should be tiny. Using the venerable pricegrabber, which lets you sort and filter by many aspects (and so beats froogle to a bloody pulp),…
Workin’ for the Man
This last week, I showed what I’ve been working on for the last 7 months to my superior, only to be shot down. I’m responsible for ‘porting’ (really, it’s a complete rewrite) a Geospatial Information program from M$ windows to…
The Rules of Logic
Taken from Scott Aaronson’s PHYS771 Quantum Computing Since Democritus Propositional Tautologies: A or not A, not(A and not A), etc. are valid. Modus Ponens: If A is valid and A implies B is valid then B is valid. Equality Rules:…
Bureaucracy 2.0
buzzword: Achieving higher levels of inefficiency through the inappropriate application of technology. I was sitting in a meeting yesterday, and realized that the conventional approach to software design (more generally, any big project) is for upper management think that they…