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So, at my time on the beach, I inhaled Lippman’s “C++ Primer (4th Edition)”, attempting to get back up-to-speed on a language I left 6 years ago. At that time, I knew enough to be dangerous, but I didn’t know enough programming theory to “get” half the stuff. My instruction on C++ had been “C using iostream”, and some cursory stuff on classes and templates. Anyway, I’m both impressed and horrified at C++. After coming through its ISO standardization, the language picked up some heavy-duty container and algorithm libraries, and they’re well thought-out and consistent. However, C++ makes some design decisions that are almost contradictory, and the programmer pays the price for it. It’s a compiled, strongly-typed language that allows multiple inheritance and operator overloading. Put a different way: It’s a language that lets you prove how smart you think you are, while shooting yourself in the foot, ankle, leg…you get the idea. ...

First things first–thanks for the well-wishes! Mom’s doing okay–she had gallbladder surgery July 20th, and sailed through with flying colors. We embarked on our vacation, and I’ll be writing several updates to go with that, but to summarize: Eight days with no computer, and barely any traveling in the car were awesome. The drive down there and back with two small kids was not so great. Didn’t get too sunburned. ...

My mom is in the hospital, awaiting surgery today at 11 am. It’s just a gallbladder removal–simple, laproscopic, and routine. I’m still uneasy–the pain she’s been having doesn’t add-up to just gallbladder problems. If all goes well with that, I’m headed out on vacation tomorrow, 654 miles to the Atlantic Seaboard, namely Holden Beach, North Carolina. I pray we all stay safe and that all goes well with Mom’s surgery.

I hope and pray that your Mom is fine. Susan - Jul 5, 2007 I hope and pray that your Mom is fine.

At 11:42 pm this past Saturday, I had a moment: I had a useless piece of information to impart regarding the topic at hand, and I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING. I’m usually the guy who’s throwing in random facts. This is because I have (or had) a burning desire to appear intelligent. This marks the only time in recent memory where I had the opportunity and didn’t say anything

Idyllic weekend…reading, exercise, and trying to buy a piano in Da Hood. Friday night: walked around Scott Co Park for 1 1/2 hrs. Saturday: The Piano Story. Sunday: Church, hanging out at home. * * * The Piano Story: Whitney wants a piano. She wants the kids to take piano lessons, and she’d like to start playing again herself. I dig pianos, too. Well, I like music in general. Thing is, in order to afford one, we need to get one used. This isn’t really a problem, because lots of people move cross-country and don’t want to take their thousand pound piano with them. ...

yup :) Whitney - Jul 2, 2007 yup :)

Project management in the software industry seems to suffer from a level of delusion that would get a person heavily medicated and assigned to a padded room for their own safety. One definition of insanity is expecting different results from the same input. And yet project after project gets planned with the same naive assumption that deliverable dates will be met, changes will not be added at the last minute and that senior VPs will not want to mark the project by making a pointless last minute addition just so they can say they had input into the project and justify their salaries. ...

A couple of years after the last film came out we have the next installment of the Daniel Radcli…er…Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Let’s get this out of the way–I LOVED THIS MOVIE! The trio can really act these days (particularly Emma Watson and Radcliffe), and the movie was a visual and comedic delight. From the first scene on, we’re in the land of tasteful CGI–From the first scene’s dementor attack throught he climactic battle between Voldemort and Dumbledoor, it’s a wizard’s world, and wonder abounds. ...

Had a fascinating conversation with Chuck the other day, where he said: The best thing that ever happened to me is when they cut out my pension This got me thinking: Today, if you’re lucky you have some employer-matching, tax-deferred retirement plan, like a 401(k), 403(b), SIMPLE, ABC-XYZ-Dooflatchie. These plans are all portable–quit or get laid-off, and you take the money with you. From a corporate perspective, this moves legacy costs off the books. once you’ve contributed to the plan, your obligation ends, and the employee and the servicing company (say, Fidelity or Vanguard) handle the rest. This is A Good Thingtm. ...

ABSOLUTELY!! When I started at the credit uni… Whitney - Jul 2, 2007 ABSOLUTELY!! When I started at the credit union, retirement benefits included 100% pension with 100% healthcare costs covered. As soon as the first people retired (5 in one year, four years ago), they cut retirement for everyone, changing it to 50% pension from the average of your last 5 years of salary with no healthcare costs covered, including cutting the healthcare coverage for the 5 existing pension recipients. Granted most companies offer no pension (their excuse and main bragging point during transition) but it definitely negated any niggling loyalty I had to the CU. If a company’s not going to offer retirement benefits, in addition to treating you like crap while you’re there, why bother to stay? ...

Replying to your earlier email about the quality of my work. I’d just like to reiterate that while your comments about the bathroom and vending areas are valid (and appreciated), I would remind you that this building has four floors. I agree that your floor is sub-optimal. I think our whole product support organization would join me in echoing your sentiments that toilets that flush are preferable to ‘sewer gas spewing [expletive deleted] holes’. ...

WTF? Whitney - Jul 4, 2007 WTF?

POWERS OF CONCENTRATION If there is one trait that best defines an engineer it is the ability to concentrate on one subject to the complete exclusion of everything else in the environment. This sometimes causes engineers to be pronounced dead prematurely. Some funeral homes in high-tech areas have started checking resumes before processing the bodies. Anybody with a degree in electrical engineering or experience in computer programming is propped up in the lounge for a few days just to see if he or she snaps out of it. ...

I’ll take an E30-size car with 240 hp for under $30k, please, Alex :-) I think BMW finally figured-out that the 3-series was getting a little too big. Supposedly, there’s plenty of the previous gen 3-series engineering in this car (as there is in the R50/R53 MINIs). Nummy…now in about 10 years when I can afford a used one :-)

J-M (with heavy French accent): …and now vee have zee tree per-son who get ze ‘ate wall certification. J: [raised hand] May I ask a question? J-M: Cer-tan-lee J: What’s ’eight wall’. J-M: It is zee next thing af-tur seven wall. * * * Perhaps this was one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments, but dang was it funny! J-M goofing on my old boss. Beautiful.

link At Georgetown College, I took Compilers, a 400-level capstone course that scared the hell out of everyone. Everyone was like 10 students, because our CS department was that small. However, it was a required course. If you wanted to graduate witha B.S. in CompSci, then you had to have this course. The prof was Bryan Crawley. Mister Crawley (insert Ozzy reference here). A strange guy, he was without a terminal degree, which made him the bootheel of the Math, Physics, and Computer Science department. The one thing this guy *loved* was compilers–he started introducing compiler-like concepts back in CS 111. ...

Our compiler class at UK, taught by Prof. Kubota w… Jeff Roberts - Jun 6, 2007 Our compiler class at UK, taught by Prof. Kubota was a joke. Lotsa theory scribbled over the board and one project that it took most of the class the whole semester to complete. I wish we HAD done some hands-on with lex and yacc - I get the concepts behind it all but it’s still easier for me to write a strtok() parser for simple stuff. That and so few people know enough to maintain a lex/yacc parser that you’re just asking for trouble. Drives me nuts when someone “shows off” by writing a parser for something nearly as simple as a property file. ...

Two words: Loved it. link Dumb, enjoyable comic book movie. Not pretentious (a la “Hulk”), nor overlong (Spidey #3). Any move where a flaming skeleton rides a demonic motorcycle up a skyscraper to defeat an elemental demon is worth at least a look. The CGI looked great, and Cage got to chew the scenery (and co-star Eva Mendes) for a full 112 minutes. Probably the best part for me is Peter Fonda as Satan, strolling by Cage’s motorcycle offering “Nice Bike.” Cage’s bike is a replica of Fonda’s from “Easy Rider”

yeah I liked it too. campy, but I’d hit that. Whitney - Jun 5, 2007 yeah I liked it too. campy, but I’d hit that.