Just briefly blogging about the mini meetup we had at 2pm today, I got to catchup with fox2mike, Redhatter and ivanm from #gentoo-au, it has great fun. Redhatter has interesting non photogenic photos of me in his gallery. (I was picking up the napkins he dropped and the wind blew away.)
We also received numerous unusual looks, as most city going folk haven’t seen four Gentoo geeks in a circle talking about computers, electronics, compiles and puns galore. Neither had the tourists seen 3 laptops in a row at the riverbank before, so they took a photo of us.
LCA time seems to make all Australian Linux Users do weird things, and while I may not be going to Melbourne this year, I certainly wish all attending the best time ever.
How are we all ? Silent and uninterested as usual.
This update like the last one should have been written and posted earlier, my apologies to anyone who suffered as a result of the delay in writing this.
Java Blues (You can get blue coffee ?)
I begin to realise know that most of the problems with my code not working aren’t due to typographical errors or silly mistakes but rather due to my unfamiliarity with the Eclipse Plugin Architecture and the Eclipse View Architecture and to a lesser extent Java itself.
I also realise that if I had been in contact with someone familiar with either of those architectures it would have made my time coding this plugin so far significantly easier. Currently my buttons and everything else isn’t showing up, and I am not sure why, but at least my view isn’t crashing, my application worked best as a standalone SWT/ Jface app, but meh.
Into The Wild
I recently saw Into the Wild and throughly enjoyed it. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see a good movie. The movie also reiterates the ironic conundrum of an individual finding the secrets of true happiness and wisdom, only to die the death of a martyr and not get to live them. It was quite painful to view the reality of human nature where simple carelessness and stubbornness lead to such tragedy.
Philosophy isn’t Dead
Today I got unintentionally caught in a discussion in ##philosophy in Freenode in response to the statement “Philosophy is Dead”, it was an interesting incursion into death of abstract concepts as anthropomorphism, analogy, metaphor, literal lack of existence or otherwise, I enjoy dialogue on such oddities and was quite happy to discuss the subject with one or two other channel members.
Learning the Hard Way Why good help is so hard to find.
Everyone has heard of the adage “Good help is hard to find”, but few people think about why. It seems to me from my experience of being ridiculed, rejected, scorned, ignored, criticised, mocked and generally disconcerted that people don’t want help regardless of whether they need it or not. The quality of the help doesn’t matter,Pat Rafter could offer your child free tennis coaching , but if you child doesn’t want to play tennis, then fat chance they will attend one session playing or coaching with Pat Rafter.
When people need or want help they usually ask for it. But these days pride, importance and independence mean that people are reluctant to ask for help, let alone accept help as they see it is a sign of weakness, because they no longer get the satisfaction of doing it all by themselves. This is the kind of satisfaction that a young child has like the protagonist in Andrew Daddo’s “I Do It”, and yet as old we grow, we don’t seem to get over this sense of self importance and pride.
I can understand now, why classmates and fellow students hated me for allowing them to extend and broaden their knowledge and learning, I can understand why people flat out rejected my attempts to care about their well being and their quality of life. Being helpful and nice seems to come hand in hand with being used and treated like a doormat, or being rejected.
These are the days in which if you tried to help an old lady across the street, you would get all eyes on you with suspicious glares wondering when you are going to snatch her handbag, you go anywhere near a playground or children that it doesn’t appear you are family to, and people think pervert or pedophile.
This is quite sad and I don’t see why virtues are admonished as the vices that people engage in everyday are ignored or disregarded. Human Morality and Human Nature needs hope know more than ever, if we are even going to bother to turn off the TV, wake up and actually start caring about the state of our surroundings.
More notes and updates are scheduled for later.
I wish everyone the best with their new year and their celebrations.
I should have another audio post for the new year and I would actually like to have some feedback on stuff so feel free to comment or email or contact me.
First things first. Elaboration on the Title Topics.
I have to mention the wonderful wedding of Elise & Darren’s that I attended in my purple suit. It was a very memorable experience, complete with sunshine, bagpipes, kilts, a buttonless black dress shirt (Only Buddy (A friend of Elise’s) can wear a shirt done up with only gold safety pins as the buttons mystically disappeared and Converse sneakers to a wedding, just as I was the only one in a purple suit, Buddy & I get along quite well, and enjoyed discussing the scenic background of the wedding, (on the water) and the details of the wedding photography.), a Scottish brooch & some well hidden Aussie thongs, lots of Ribbons and comic celebrant.
Elise & Darren are most likely enjoying there honeymoon, and so they should be. I am so happy for them both. I am also going to have mention the unusual things at the reception involving me feeling a little off colour (pardon the pun :P), a friend of the Tumath’s flattering me, and attempting to match make me with her daughter and only showing me a photo of when her daughter wh owasn’t present was little, and that she was like Wednesday from “The Addams Family”.
This is making me curious because I can’t recall the first name of the Mother and I wasn’t told the surname, and I wasn’t sure about which Wednesday she was referring to as the cartoon, TV, Movie & Anime Wednesday’s have different personas and personalities.
This leads me to wonder why the Mother was so eager to matchmake, and whether her daughter likes spiders and guillotining porcelain dolls and causing harm to others (sadism) or her siblings. To conclude I got my scalp sunburnt and go told off by the father of the bride about my lack of my linux.conf.au hat and my political preference. (I did try to avoid mentioning it.)
But next topic.
The Child on the Bus
This section was hard to get into the right words. Thanks to Sabrina for asking about it so that I had a framework of this anecdote to go by when posting it.
I saw a child on bus, the other week before Christmas, on the one day I took bus home instead of walking up the hill as I normally do. The bus ticket reader was broken, so most people got a free ride. I was standing as always, as I always stand on buses because it is polite and it’s not like I have any one to sit beside and chat with. I was watching / observing all the people in the bus.
Directly in front of me was a little girl (around 3 to 4) with her parents (a young Asian couple). She was standing on her dad’s lap and playing with him and his arms: and enjoying pieces of chocolate and Arnotts chocolate teddy bears that parents gave to her. Her Mum tried to play with her but she ignored her Mum, she was more interested in Arnotts chocolate teddy bears and game she was playing with Dad.
It appeared as though she didn’t like Mum or didn’t care so much, anyhow, she continued playing and smiling as bus drove on she looked back at people behind her, the lady that sat directly behind that was making silly faces at her as old people tend to treat little ones.
I was pensive and I would occasionally smile and wink at her (I like kids and have a blue card, but the parents never seem to like me, they always think he is a weirdo or creep or perve or something) (In the dialog I had with Sabrina she asked whether I tie my hair back, and I replied I do, as she reckons it might help.)
*pop*These parents didn’t mind and the little girl was giggling and playing game with Dad still and then she didn’t get a chocolate teddy and she was about cry or whinge that she didn’t get one, but Mum saw and popped one in her mouth and then the little girl went back to giggles and play.
As bus moved forward towards next stop, Mum pressed the stop button and got up and got off…., Her Dad waved bye to Mum and at first little girl didn’t notice (for at least 2 minutes) but as the bus started moving again, the little girl looked round and didn’t see mum and even though like earlier it looked like she didn’t care.
Now she burst into crying and tears Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma!!, Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma!!, Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma!!. All other passengers but me turned to look and react to the noise, I just kept focus and made no reaction.
Dad tried to get the girl to play game again but the girl wasn’t interested, he tried giving her a chocolate teddy bear but girl didn’t want it, everyone knew what she wanted Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma!!, Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma!!. (Here is part where Sabrina commented on cuteness)
Eventually as bus kept on rolling and at two stops down from prior stop the Dad and the daughter got off, and she was still crying. I wasn’t sure if the parents were separated or Mum had to work or what. I was pensive.As the Dad and daughter who was being carried by Dad, walked off she didn’t stop crying.
I was thinking of the age, the innocence, the circumstances and the metaphor f while we are busy with life or content with food, or trinkets we don’t really notice or acknowledge those that are special to us, but as soon as they go……
:as soon as something happens to make then disappear, the busyness and stuff doesn’t matter and that seems to be the my message about meaning of Christmas.
Not silly presents or memories of Saint Nicholas being nice to poor, not a Christian Stolen Pagan festival from north hemisphere that has the dates wrong, not stupid commercialism, not food or trinkets
but people, people that matter, I reflected rest of the journey home about meaning and metaphors and other memories, It reminded me a bit of Joyuex Noel (Best Christmas Movie ever, although Hogfather is a close second) , as it has other metaphors that give the Christmas message.
Protester Blacklisting
I was going to a bit more on this but I don’t think it needs a much as I first planned. Basically those who are diligent will remember my first post about the candle protester, I have since then been approached by the two members of the The Wilderness Society (probably because I have long hair, and look like a hippie or something) .
The first one I mentioned in an earlier blog post about Nuclear radiation and Synroc and what not else. This is the second one. On my lunchbreak from work a few weeks ago, I was again approached by another Wilderness Society recruit (He was getting paid so he wasn’t a volunteer), He asked me if I wanted to join their cause, I replied with a flat out No!.
He then asked whether I knew what they were doing to the rainforest. I then told him what they were doing and told him I knew of the solution to the majority of their problems. He was now eager to hear it. I said, “The best way to protect the Wilderness from destruction, is via mass genocide or mass killing of all the people, as the Wilderness can’t get ruined if there are no people to ruin it.
I then went on to say while this method isn’t ethically or morally viable, and there are other methods available the majority of them would not save the Wilderness as the level of bureaucracy in Government and the level of corruption in Business prevent most of the methods from working, the remaining methods are so gradually that without an external catalyst the Wilderness is doomed anyways.
I followed by a brief explanation of consumerism and production and the economic decisions which made the Wilderness and society was it was. (I won’t go into to it here, as most of it was recalled from highschool economics essays and thestoryofstuff.com (which is a really good website that everyone should watch)).
Once I had finished speaking, all he could say was “Wow”, I then took my leave and went to get my lunch about 5 minutes late. Basically what I want to say to protesters is this, I have long hair, I am aware of your causes, and the problems of the world, I have spent a significant amount of time and effort looking at solutions to save the world and humanity from itself.
Please don’t approach me in fact please blacklist me, unless you are looking for someone who knows your subject material as good or better than you do, who has actually planned and done stuff towards your causes other than just saying we need more supporters to get anything done. (All it is takes is a small group of motivated people to change the world.)
Or unless you are looking for someone who to tell to take over the world in order to save it. Of course I don’t want to rule the world. (Only to save it from itself, and humanity from themselves, and while this is quixotic, I still stand for it). I do however have contacts and colleagues that do want to control or rule the world and who would know how to ensure society undergoes different social conditioning to the point of revolution and riots or who know how to pull off assassinations and coups.
Because ultimately quoting Red Gum (one of the greatest bands) “If you don’t fight you , you lose” , that is why people are called activists because they actually do something, promotion of a cause or message is important, but if you all you do is spread the message, then you end up with an entire world that knows the message, but does nothing.
Just like on “Last of the Time Lords” (Yay Red Gum and Doctor Who references, I pat myself on the back), Martha not only tells the world the Doctor’s and her story, she also gives them an instruction. It is them all actively following this instruction that regenerates the Doctor, not the fact the know the story, although have a series of psychic mind control satellites helps too. (Believe it or not, this is another non ethical solution, because it absolves freewill in order to benefit humanity.)
Simply instead of telling me that I should join your cause and then get others to join your cause, I suggest you actually do or plan something resembling a solution.
Broken Inside
I have almost recovered from my physiological and emotion state, which was altered / caused by a betrayal or two. I am not going to say much more, except that I am still healing, I find it very ironic that I accidentally moved my /lib directory to RAM (when fixing an invalid symlink , to fix the wine bug and others I was having) and then cleared the RAM.
This placed my laptop in a state quite similar to my physiological and emotion state. Luckily I was able to use a Gentoo LiveCD and busybox to copy the most of the libraries for a chroot I made a while back. (I no longer hate chroots). I then ran revdep-rebuild and waited. My system is virtually fixed now, except for a weird thing where alt-f2 gets responded to by both KDE and Xorg, but I think a recompile of Xorg may fix that, if only the process in my brain was as efficient as revdep-rebuild.
Anyhow, I know this post doesn’t contain anything about my birthday or Christmas, but the next one will.
This post is long overdue I know but given all that I am upto, those who actually bother will understand if not tolerate.
Invites are sent out.
Currently
I am sitting in an empty house, with no way to get down the range to the train station to get to the city. But I figure I know when the last train leaves & I have the phone number of the local taxi service, so I will properly get packed up & down there in time. My mood is frustrated but pensive with bouts of indecision, intensive loneliness & isolation and the occasional sprinkle of hope. I am listening to Hey Leonardo & Fidelity, and some Taty and James Blunt’s new album.
My feet sting from insect bites so I am soaking them a tub of water in a primitive effort to eliminate the ethereal sensation of pain on my ankles. I haven’t been eating anything other than dim sims, for the moment, though I did take sausages out of the freezer.
I need to go shopping for groceries and not for new clothes as Dallas suggested on the ride up. I also need to go yohoing (diablo) or rollerblading to increase my level of physical fitness.
I don’t like living on hills, but given my Dad experienced the 1974 floods, I have been living on hills for a long time, for one it means I don’t rollerblade as much, as the terrain isn’t suitable. I have so much to get through. See more information in the busyness section.
My mobile current has no battery charge π but has free texts left.
I had a sushi buffet with Mum earlier and it was pure awesome. SUSHI Buffet FTW , *happy dances*
Pat’s Birthday
Attending Pat’s 19th yesterday, watched almost everything, party was ok I guess, I got to see Pat and Matt, and have another few debates and conversations with Matt. I also got play texas holdem poker which I was winning (I was chip lead), until the other players couldn’t be stuffed playing. I didn’t sleep the entire night but got about 5 to 6 hours upon getting home.
Way too many got pushed in the pool and had their phones damaged. It is interesting to attend a party, even when that type of party and those attending are not your crowd or your scene. Every geek or intellectual quip or joke, either got one laugh or ignorance or social criticism to euphemise it. What was funny is how many times I was asked what I was upto, I feel like it would have been better to wear a placard with what I had been doing on it.
The number of people caught in a groove or a oscillating pattern amazed me, but that is the social economic area and its effects on the population. Being incorrectly labeled as being a hippie was tedious, but then as aforementioned they didn’t properly acknowledge the geek stereotype anyways. Why does long hair & intelligence mean hippie ?
Social stereotypes are rather limiting and pathetic. One chooses ones friends and the people around them carefully because those around them influence them. Their was also way too much smoking and smoke for my liking and the only one that was actually careful to ensure I wasn’t downwind from them was Matt. Another funny thing was the $30 dollars Pat’s little brother got as tips from people, it seems people have less need for money when off their faces.
Work
Workwise I got a new ID card and have to get my password for it, I also have to summarise a list of my accomplishments so far as Michael won’t be in tommorow and Kerry will be instead. I spend most of Thursday relearning the nuances of specific types of inheritance, generics and return type structure in Java, all the code I ended up writing didn’t do what was required, but then again neither did the snippet Michael quickly coded up once I had finished it.
I have a feeling I will have to write a custom Graph Content Provider for our needs to use with Zest, I will probably check the Zest mailing list or email Ian Bull (Zest’s creator) regarding it. Java coding is fun in Eclipse, but I so need more RAM.
Chris is still working on porting several ATL examples into Tefkat, but comes across many gaps in his knowledge that hopefully Thomas or Michael can fill.
Busyness
Yesterday afternoon I had an impromptu meeting regarding some employment writing a VBA macro calculator for a jobsheet for a neighbour. This means I currently have the following projects to keep me busy
Vacation Research Scholarship in MTL Visualisation in Eclipse
Gentoo Development Quiz and Application
Game Development Project with a few colleagues from University (I probably should go into more detail on it, but I am not going to as it would just be bitter, considering I had deja vu & didn’t realise it to halfway through ,and by then it is always to late. It went ok I guess)
Wesnoth Maps Uploading and Balancing
Wesnoth Indonesian translation
Web stuff for ICTBS
A PHP project from Nikolai
VBA Macro project from neighbour
Other non project things that I also need to get down is catching up with as many people as possible, enjoying my holidays (what holidays :P), possibly more Neopets stuff (whether studying ludology & gameplay in the flash games or keeping my XHTML & CSS skills non rusty) (Sabrina got me playing it and has been offline for at least 2 weeks, you have no idea how painful that is) , and of course the skit writing, blog theming, possible tutoring and teaching and lots of other stuff. Awards Night for my little sister
This was ok, best moment was when my sister’s friend stood on the local MP’s shoe / foot, or possibly when my sister recording the Joseph & Technicolour dream coat medley (I saw Joseph & Technicolour dream coat at the theatre) onto her phone. She is moving schools for next year and will have my little brother helping her out as they will share the same school.
I got to catch with Roland which was good, also got to meet my little sister’s science teacher who had heard so much about me. Shame I didn’t get to see Andrew but maybe I will later in the break.
Catchup
I also got to catch up briefly with Lisa and her sisters, but only for 3 hours and it wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been. Doctor Who conversation would have been the highlights.
I also got catch up with my granddad (mum’s dad) , we took him out to Redcliffe for a drive and then shopping, we took the haphazard way of getting there (Mum’s is almost known for it, but always gets us there in the end), but it was good as granddad (whose old occupation was a real estate valuer) got to see all the property development that happen seen he had last been there (when he was little, (primary school)). We then went shopping, Grandad is awesome to shop with :).
I also got to catch up with my grandmother (dad’s mum), who I will see again over Christmas and who is very much enjoying all the books on CD she has been listening too.
Skits
I know I should have completed skits up here and instead I have an incomplete list with one or two partials.
Little Johhny Maligent (The cute evil 3 old, whose moral compass points to a static south ,warning reading this may warp your mind indefinitely)
Harry Potter & The Daleks (Started improvising this for Claire)
Access Denied Skit
The Runners (original improvised this for Sabrina)
King of Macroni & Cheese
The Worthiness of the Fish Skit (In Indonesian)
The Blueberry Cheesecake Story (extension of what actually happened, warning will contain strong geek jokes and references)
The Chasers War on themselves
Morons Anonymous
The Infested Restaurant
The post’s question is Which skit do you want to read first or want completed first?
Just got my results. I didn’t fail anything, and my gpa is now at 4.947 so close 5.
I made it halfway through my degree. *dances joyfully*
Best wishes to everyone,
Benjamin Southall aka Appleman1234 π
BTW A larger more normal post that most won’t be stuffed reading is on its way, as are at least 3 skits and several lyrics for self composed & an audioblog too π
My break is just starting to get busy. I started my research scholarship yesterday. Its two days a week and it is great fun.
I am working with Chris Savini, with Michael Lawley (lawley.id.au/blog/) as my supervisor. I will be most likely working on porting diff to MDA & Tefkat (no we didn’t try to fry a cat, it is a model transformation language (tefkat.sf.net)), or working on writing a visualisation or graphical editing tool using GMF, EMF, GEF or some other Java based visualisation library.
Before that I was trying to recover my soul and psyche from the stress of exams and the year gone by. I started playing Neopets (Thanks Sabrina), now I have a pet that won’t abadon me or die on me, or run away. I still have to complete the flash AAA game challenges sometime over the next few days.
Don’t forget commas between different IDs in CSS this mistake cost me two hours of sleep. I will probably also start filling some Gentoo Bugs, as the list of packages that aren’t compiling cleanly is getting about the usual 4. I also will be working on two game development projects if all goes well, and two web development projects as well, and my Gentoo developer quiz & Wesnoth translation and the rest of the other stuff and things.
I am also transcribing and recording the skits. If you are bored during the break and want to catch up with me, just give me a bell or a ring or something. Chris is making Fruit Salad using Tefkat & Eclipse has had to start again at least 4 times, and taken over 8 hours, and while the Wiggles may call fruit salad yummy yummy, it is starting to become tedious.
But at least we know our way around Eclipse, EMF and Tefkat. I have also done several GMF tutorials, so I might hack something up with them. I also won 60 free texts in a Optus win promo, so I am able to send and reply lots of texts over the next 3 weeks or so…..
The only thing I am going to say about my first voting / election experience is that when I got to the booth, I looked at ballot papper for the house of representatives expecting to see 7 choices (the example had 7), with the 7th being Doctor Who from the Australian Timelord Party. Of course there was only 6 entries so I had a WTF look on my face, and I had to place my 1 in the box of another candidate that wasn’t Doctor Who … π
I also need to send away for my Keypass ID, and need to catch up with everyone, my family is a having party around Christmas sometime (my younger siblings wanted it), so I will send the inivites round via email.
Second year of university at an end. Just leaving me to hope and pray that I did ok on all the exams I studied and worked so hard for. I am now recovering my mind, soul and what is left of me :P, by attempting to relax, recooperate and then focus on all the other non-Uni related stuff.
I have Gentoo updates to run, bugs to wait on, Eclipse to install, and a dev quiz to finish. I have so much other stuff as well but here goes. I had cupcakes and raspberry lemonade on the last day (not the best lunch, and I had butterscotch pudding for breakfast). Thanks Gatl for the cupcakes. Your new hair looks awesome.
I have several things to plan and organise over the break, including the part-time research scholarship work, I have starting in 10 days, catching up with everyone, publishing and developing stuff that has been bottled up and preserved, etc.
I don’t think I will have a celebration for my birthday, as I would probably be too much hassle to get everyone together even if I was to comprise on the date of birthday celebration (which I am not known for). But I wouldn’t mind a game of Mafia or Mao or other funny party games with a bunch of people.
I have a lot of people I need to catch up with. I could list them here, but that would incriminate them. (One because they wouldn’t read the list even if they were on it, and two because well meh (shuffles and doesn’t provide justification.) )
If you want to catch up with me, please get in contact with me, either via mobile, email, blog comment etc ….
I should make some cupcakes and some sushi. (Gatl you made me hungry). My hair is growing longer and my beard is slowly growing. I don’t look like my mental avatar just yet but I may do soon. I may upload some photos later.
I find it ridiculous that the Ubuntu crew removed alsaconf from alsa-utils. (I was trying to help Johhno with his sound…).
Thanks to andy_t_roo for making me examine the trolley problem and then go overboard rationalising and applying logic,illogic, and emotion to morality puzzles and gedanken. Examining the possible implications of one’s actions or lack of action is much more fun than eye-spy, and is almost as much fun as playing real world Where is so & so ?.
I am not going to KA-LAN tommorow, as I have better things to do and I have played enough Enemy Territory as is. Thanks to Skorge and Ruben for confirming my view on the Source Physics engine being less than robust with an excursion into gmod.
I still need to work on the Wesnoth Indonesian Translation, I need to get a non brain copy of the Denied sketch / skit, The adventures of a misguided 3 year old in the world today part one skit / sketch, along with self-pwnage guidelines and the lyrics to some of the poetry and songs I have been working on.
As for Christmas and my birthday (the eve), I am not sure what I am doing yet, I will most likely accept best offer, and be taking several offers for consideration, my family has made me one offer, and I still am waiting for the other possible ones….
As for things I want for the period, I don’t know, other than being able to see the the Time Crash Doctor Who episode and the Christmas episode ASAP, oh catching up with everyone (Good company) would be nice too.
I don’t think I will make it to LCA2008, given the expenditure and effort required. I may pop up at Woodford but no promises. I will be online, I will be getting stuff done, and I will be having an awesome time …..
Dreams and fates still tease, asking me to open up the door
And yet not just one, but more and more
Need to remain open, to appease their whim.
This post’s question is
If you could save someone’s life, would you or wouldn’t you ? Why ? What moral implications would this act have ? How would the moral implications reflect or be influenced by the logic of the situtation ? the emotion ?
Some things I have learnt in my almost two years studying IT / Software Engineering …
People skills, teamwork and communication are very important in the developing relationships, friendships, software solutions
Coding doesn’t mean Software Engineering, neither does Hacking
Software Engineering is usually very much like a Sunday roast, either under done or over done
Democracy works in teams, provided they are small odd number teams (Modeling the effort dispersion using odd sidded equilateral polygons) and the personalities and natures of the team member are either complimentary, similar or contrasting. Democracy in larger teams leads to bureaucracy and ochlocracy.
Documentation and Code commenting / usability is only as important / useful if you have an appropriate reason or justification for it. Otherwise it becomes extensive, vague or overly specific and requires much more effort than the actual design or implementation process.
Just because something is done in “the industry” doesn’t make it correct or valid practice
Flexibility and Tolerance are also important especially when dealing with deadlines and clients
Just because you a taught a certain way to do something, doesn’t make the best way to do that something, and it doesn’t mean that way is the only way
Exhibit intelligence, creativity, initiative in an IT Lecture and you will get labeled as a hacker, engineer, or otherwise regardless of what course you actually do or who you actually are
Standards are either de-facto or obtuse with too many different versions, if they aren’t then they are out of date
KISS is a good policy
Things just don’t build easily on MS Windows (I tried wxMozilla), even with MiniGW or Cygwin.
Project management when properly done is actually useful
Make sure that the computer you are compiling the final release on doesn’t have a virus.
Consider I just finished my Software Engineering studies exam today , I think now is good time to post this. I was going to add a section on what I use Windows for, but decided against senseless Microsoft Bashing. (As we all know I am in favour of bashing Microsoft senseless…., but meh, I can be civil)
I will probably add more to this over time, as I learn more. I am off to study for my other exams and continue blogging.
I am currently updating world (Gentoo package collection), and managed to get rarian to compile after filing a bug in which someone suggested I disable ccache for that compile, so I did and it worked, so thanks. (Now I am CC for a ccache bug that was reported earlier…) I was working on a Project evaluation for the ITB712 project earlier, but will resume it tomorrow with a renew vigor courtesy of sleep, focus and some other rhapsody of persuasive gusto.
I had a meeting discussing the details of my vacation research scholarship today. (To keep me from get boring and taking over the world :P) . It was a good meeting, I almost didn’t make it in time as Google Maps doesn’t have street numbers yet. The research over the vacation is in the field of MDA / MDD (Model Driven Architecture/ Model Driven Development) and promises to be interesting and fun, well at least I think so.
I also got to say Hi to Redhatter, who was picking fights with a 386, a CGI script, a font resizing script in Perl, some LEDS on a breadboard and anything else he could get his hands on …… :P. That said he plays good music, the kind I remember from the hospital, the kind I wanted to listen to on the way home tonight.
I also got to play a bit of Freelancer, which isn’t as rewarding when you realise that other people have so much more money and better ships then you. Well at least I have the highest kill count for now …… .
As I was coding I came up with a parody in the space of 5 minutes, I won’t upload it at the moment, as I want to make sure it is ok with the person I am dedicating it to before, I do so, let alone recording it.
According to the others playing Freelancer (thanks Arania, Sedim, Skorge) I shouldn’t bother speaking or engaging in conversation with them because I either oversimplify or overcomplexify anything said. I disagree with this, I am more inclined to believe that I interpret and perceive things not in a 1D context, where each context is represented by a single point with constant axis values, but in a 2D, 3D or ND context, complete with change of basis (linear algebra term) context , context zoom and intertexuality. (possibly consider least squares approximation in linear algebra, basically isomorphs to things that can’t be understand in the current context, unless given with respect to their original context, if Chris ever reads this, I am not liable for what happens to his head….) .
So occasionally given the nature of my brain, I am prone incorrect context zoom, and mentioning terms , concepts, ideas and other things (that make people call it old or say WTF ……), that isomorph or approximately isomorph into the current context but the rule of isomorphism is implied, and not explicit , so just as people wonder how the magician does their tricks (implied), people wonder where I pulled that reference or context from ?
When the magician explains their tricks (explicit), is like me explaining which context I am relating from, or speaking with respect to (explicit), it makes it less WTF and more Ohhhhhhh, Weirdo …………., or ” I get it, but I don’t like it.
Anyhow, enough to say that given the death promises (I already have at least 350 people who consider me their enemy that have given me death threats, I don’t need friends and acquaintances to start) , I won’t interject unless asked into anymore of their conversations and will keep my thoughts and wisdom to myself.
And sure sure, critical literacy and the scientific method make it ok for you to rip other people’s ideas and concepts to threads in a quest for validity and truth, but logic doesn’t allow for emotions. Quoting “I, Robot” (The Movie),
V.I.K.I.: Do you not see the logic of my plan?
Sonny: Yes, but it just seems too… heartless.
V.I.K.I.:My logic is undeniable, my logic is undeniable, myyy looogic is unndeenniabble..
And if I mention illogic now, most of you will freak, so I am not going to, because if you really want to know, you would search out the knowledge yourself or ask me.
There are always lots of little things, little things we don’t like or approve of, but we tolerate, we bide our time and put up with circumstance, not because we want to, but because we choose to show tolerance towards it.
Tolerance in moderation is good, as too much leads to rages and emotional breakdowns, being treated as a doormat and too little lends to a short fuse, a hot temper and the consequences associated with that. I try my best to ensure that my tolerance for the majority of things stays at a high level. I am not sure why….
As for the Meme Title comment, it is in reference to two things, the first being that of the chain email, particular the cute chain email , that drives people mad and makes them combust mentally, and the second being that Chrystle posted a Meme on her LJ (Livejournal), that requires a user to provide 10 things that they want to say to 10 of their friends but not specify which friend and thing to say goes where.
I don’t like this meme. I don’t like it because I don’t see what leaving people hanging over which comment / compliment is their’s does , I don’t like it because I don’t see the point in not telling your friends directly what you want to tell them(unless you feel uncomfortable about the topic or they will feel uncomfortable about the topic, in which you can either spend some time getting comfortable or tell them anyway and be out of your comfort zone).
The word or lies that hurt most are the words or lies that are thought but unsaid , silently creating a web of deceit and deception, unless you don’t know what to say or what to think. All hidden truths will appear eventually.
I rediscovered Toonstruck the other in a discussion about adventure puzzle games (which seem to be the topic now that everyone loves Portal) . Weird thing is I don’t remember Christopher Lloyd (who is the main star) being in it. That also reminds me of the Monkey Island series and Myst and ScudVM and BASS.
Does anyone still use Binhex ? I don’t see why unicode and tar.bz shouldn’t have taken over.
My apologies for the delay, not like anyone will notice it. I have been very busy with Uni stuff (almost over, only Computer Architecture assignment due Monday and Exams to study for). Thanks to my ITB712 Team for keeping me sane.
This was supposed be an audio blog, but then I realised that I had too much to say and that some of it wouldn’t be easy to record.
Events of the late (what happened since last time).
Successfully finished ITB712 group project complete with Virus Fiasco. The machine the release was built on had a virus :(. Naturally the tutor accused me of writing a virus to infect his machine. (of which I did no such thing.)
Got my modeling results back, not happy with them, but will have to live with them. Like everything else I suppose.
Tried to escape into a Freelancer reality and haven’t succeeded. The problem with escapism is that unless it is immersive then it doesn’t work. The reality or place of escape has to be isomorphic with the real reality, otherwise you get bored and return to the real reality, in which you suffer the pain you were trying to avoid.
At least I have two class 10 weapons now, fat lot of good they do in this reality, in resolving my mood, mental issues, people issues, etc. Guns are no use as violence was never the answer, let alone magic guns on a spacheship in a computer game.
Mum has a new job in the city and she seems to be enjoying it. She comes home happier it seems. I applied for a research trial scholarship over the break in Model Driven Architecture. I have a meeting on Tuesday about it. Hopefully I will have some fun porting diff and make and other GNU tools to MDA and possibly making a visual / GUI diff program to compare different models.
Didn’t hear back from the Lego people, so not sure if they are still interested in hiring me. I wish everyone else that is working on assessment or exam study, the best of luck. I also saw the Rotary Display of donated brasserie on the Goodwill Bridge, which made the hand rails unusable, why they went to all the effort for only 3 hours of breast cancer promotion I don’t know.
It is a shame that the majority of cancers have easy cures which the doctors and pharmaceutical companies hide. I guess human greed outweighs human compassion. It reminds of the saying it’s nothing personal, its strictly good business.Good business and Moral business two very different things.
I also went shopping for the first time in ages. It was boring and irritating. I miss the Indonesian tawar-menawar and pasar-pasar. Today society is too much harga pas. If only retribution and redemption were bargained so our consciences did suffer the ridiculously over priced fixed price of guilt , sorrow and pain.
I have also get my Gentoo development quiz finished (Yes I am lazy / careful) , two games to help design, plan and develop (with two different groups) and catch up with at least 17 people over the break, when it arrives. I haven’t decided if I am going to LCA or Woodford this year.
My pockets of specialist knowledge are growing from forms of asexual reproduction to neurology, and numerous others in between. Given I am a generalist by nature, I find this ironic.
I thought I was getting a ride home with Dallas, but he went to the Valley to have Pizza. So I caught a ride with Mum and Jacob. I shouldn’t have said anything, but I did, and had to suffer interjections, misunderstandings and ignorance. I really need to process things / issues out and resolve some flaws in the distribution of my willpower, and the nature of some things in my mind and soul.
Sometimes one doesn’t seek solutions, one just wants to talk, to discuss , to have a heart to heart, soul to soul, and yet any male on the planet assumes solutions are wanted. That trip wasn’t pleasant, and the harsh relevance of the music from All the Lost Souls (great James Blunt music on his new album), hurted more than it helped all through last night.
I came back here as a favour, but now plans are changing, and I wonder why I came. I wonder if the silence would have been better than the words said. I thought I would get some respite and time to resolve my issues, but it seems circumstances have dictated otherwise.
I seem to hide in the cryptic metaphors and references , I do this for my good and the good of others, though they don’t realise or accept it. I feel like most of the James Blunt songs I have been listening to and a few Avril Lavinge songs too.
I am sorry for shitting you off Chrystle, though I don’t know what shits off about me. If you want a straight honest answer you just have to ask for it. Alternatively it may be better if I just disappear, whatever suits you better. I live to serve … (Heck I sound like a Genie)
Relationship / Friendship development is much harder than Software Development, that is for sure. But I seem to have Gentoo packages broken (not compiling), parts of my mind and soul broken (that can be simply fixed, when I get the chance), and relationships bent and broken by circumstance.
I am currently fascinated with ambiogenesis, or the creation of something alive from something dead / non living, not really in the Frankenstein way. More in the way of the phoenix.
Honestly I am confused when one thing is said and another is written. I also like riddles again.
This post’s question is
Those who seek it , will not find it.
They question those who can not speak.
They beg the wisdom that can’t be heard.
Their prize can not be given in words.
But instead is found unintentionally by those who do not want it.
Those who have it often ignore it or complain of its burden.
It is more valuable than gold but more worthless then ash.