the common crow

fuck you maine assholes

2009-11-04T15:44:49Z

Facebook is also where I do not feel free to say

"Fuck you in the neck you fuckers. fucking assholes."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/us/politics/05maine.html?_r=1

just thought I'd share that with you all.

facebook

2009-11-04T13:35:42Z

Where I can't say "holy fuck my back hurts!"

the bit eating crow

2009-10-10T16:35:10Z

http://www.bunny-comic.com/1417.html

funny funny

the bit eating crow

"caw caw --EOF--"

The robot, like, watches itself

2009-09-18T23:02:43Z

groovy dream filter. Robots becoming fully conscious

I'll not go into the whole thing, but here's what happened. This robot was almost completely conscious, but not quiet there when...

Scene opens on a robot talking to a human in an office complex. The human takes the robot down the hall to peer into a doorway, doored by a shimmering curtain of air. Through the woowoo door we see a projection screen, with neurological visual tests running. The robot watching through the door seems an older version of himself sitting in the back, looking like he is almost broken. whatever the robot equivalent of feverish is? that's him.

The almost broken robot is watching two robots in front of him. The one in the front row is his youngest self, who is going through the normal testing process that the people in the office complex have put their robots through while training them. For some odd reason, there is a female robot sitting behind, which doesn't seem to belong, but slowly the oldest robot realizes that she is also a version of him, but in a different body, and she is about the same age as his younger self.

He's falling apart, and explaining to the humans that they have to set up this scenario to help him stop falling apart due to reaching the thresehold of true consciousness.

At the same time the oldest robot inside of the room is realizing these things -- that the younger robots are him, that he had to set up this scenario -- the robot on the other side of the door, begins to realize the same thing that the older version of himself is realizing.

and he starts to break, his body shuddering, brain fizzing, when he crosses a thresehold, and instead of almost being a broken thing, he is almost a sick and dying thing. At the point when he becomes dying and not breaking, the human with him declares his that the robot is no longer a robot but is human and has all of the rights of a human and is not owned.

and he doesn't die.

after that dream I sequed into some Culture like thing where the robot, aons in the future is in a huge space artifact that houses a huge continent size of people. He works as a part of crack team of (I bet, gamers) who run investigations to protect the habitat.

I like how the brain strings mindless picture scenes together.

I woolgathered for a while trying to figure out what the interior of the complex looked like where the robot was held, but never got it, then the next night had a dream where I was in a building telling myself, aha, this is the basis for the building in that dream I had. I was wondering where that was.

Stupid company

2009-09-13T18:16:21Z

Well, One of the C&D letters had a successful hit, and the review was taken down. The guy didn't want to have to deal with anything having to do with the fuckwhit who sent them.

I think the company is mostly dead, so I don't feel a strong need to go leave a review to warn people away from working there.

C&D weirdness

2009-09-09T02:05:52Z

Former coworker called to tell me about a C&D he just received about content on http://glassdoor.com/ . Very few people ever worked at the place, so it would be trivial to send C&D to all of us.

(My friend didn't actually post the review, but we both agree it is fairly spot-on)

I'm not sure how to handle this type of stuff. I sent email to the info address for http://eff.org/ , and found http://www.chillingeffects.org/ just to get some background on defamation pro se.

I also sent email to glassdoor.com in case they are interested in these things. presumably they'd want to keep content on their site.

someone at Sun liked Saturday Nigh Live

2009-08-21T18:27:34Z

    /**
     * Determines the interfaces implemented by the class or interface
     * represented by this object.
     *
     *  If this object represents a class, the return value is an array
     * containing objects representing all interfaces implemented by the
     * class. The order of the interface objects in the array corresponds to
     * the order of the interface names in the implements clause
     * of the declaration of the class represented by this object. For 
     * example, given the declaration:
     * 
     * class Shimmer implements FloorWax, DessertTopping { ... }
     * 
     * suppose the value of s is an instance of 
     * Shimmer; the value of the expression:
     *      * s.getClass().getInterfaces()[0]
     * 
     * is the Class object that represents interface 
     * FloorWax; and the value of:
     *      * s.getClass().getInterfaces()[1]
     * 
     * is the Class object that represents interface 
     * DessertTopping.
     *
     *  If this object represents an interface, the array contains objects
     * representing all interfaces extended by the interface. The order of the
     * interface objects in the array corresponds to the order of the interface
     * names in the extends clause of the declaration of the
     * interface represented by this object.
     *
     * 
 If this object represents a class or interface that implements no
     * interfaces, the method returns an array of length 0.
     *
     * 
 If this object represents a primitive type or void, the method
     * returns an array of length 0.
     *
     * @return an array of interfaces implemented by this class.
     */
    public native Class[] getInterfaces();

From Mom

2009-08-11T14:57:27Z

Your dad had gall bladder scan today. Again they couldn’t find his gall gladder. He had a wreck in 1964 and his liver was split. Gall bladder is near liver. He’s thinking the doctor might have removed his gall bladder at that time.

dream filter

2009-07-21T19:43:23Z

amazingly vivid special effects in a dream last night.

really sucky transcribe here in case I can ever imagine a good way to create an image or art or something from it... (some sculpture animation or something would be awesome too bad)

dreams come from narrative being imposed on fragmets of memory, so I've heard.
* carpetly textured sofa pillow
* trip downtown to court http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_With_Standing_Beast
* some books I was reading of alternate earth and very baroque. Kushiel's Dart, Namaah's Kiss
* zipcars
* movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439123/ Azur et Asmar
* haven't figured out what recent thing caused the web site design interlude. I am a bitchy person abut stuff like that and I can totally see my internal dialog going off on someone's site.
* Nightwatch novel re the levels of reality?

I was a being who lived in a world of sand under and in the real world, a woman shaped with sand. and the sand was as water or air is to the normal world, though could be molded into solid things for dwellings. This girl liked to swim around and peer at the real folk and tease them. She swam up to a real world dwelling and could swim through it if she liked, so she swam through walls and sat in a blue fountain. Which was fun, because it was easier to startle real people if you could swim through their walls and peak at them. One of the dwellings was some child of a Turkish building style and the Jean Dubuffet sculpture near the Johnson Center. She kept trying to get caught by someone in the house so that she could freak them out and then escape. No one was really game though. bad timing.

My dream got side tracked into web design. Whoever did the building had a really sucky design so I took a break from the dream to comp up some pages for them.

Then it was back to the dream which shifted into car chases, swimming pools, and erotica and was half lucid so when I said I wanted a car and it wasn't a fast enough car I told the dream to give me a better car. not lucid enough to really get one though I got to sculpt out better windows all around the inside for it.

Can't ever seem to travel quickly in dreams. You'd think you'd be able to speed up the car or your running, or whatever, but it is pretty stubborn. I get kicked into a lucid state sometimes due to it bugging me. I vaguely remember an experiment talked about in a cog psyc class where subjects were timed as they imagined walking from one point to another, and it was real time. If anyone is still here in this post, and has a suggestion for being able to move faster than real time walking or etc in a dream, let me know.

other things... had character go deeper into reality in order to hide from someone who had learned about the sand level of the world. because my character wanted to be able to hide and surprise them again.

true names and other dangers

2009-07-16T17:21:41Z

woohoo! I got my name back today.

black hat

2009-06-29T14:19:23Z

Lately there's this guy at work who wears a black hat. Suspiciously like an xkcd black hat. Does the guy read xkcd? who knows.

I work my 'make me a sandwich' shirt the other day. Same day, black hat guy is talking to someone in my team and I walk over and say, 'I've got my eye on you,' in a suspicious voice. raise eyebrows, point to hat.

VNC into my phone

2009-06-16T14:37:56Z

VNC into my phone
Originally uploaded by shekay

a little delighted with being able to vnc into my phone (not just out of). this works when connected over usb. Also, it seems to be only read only. I have not played around with making it controllable.

if you have root:

get http://code.google.com/p/android-vnc/

install and make executable

adb push fbvncserver /data/local
adb shell chmod 777 /data/local/fbvncserver

port forward and start it up

adbforward tcp:5900 tcp:5901
adb shell /data/local/fbncserver

Then you can use your vnc client to localhost.

Chemical engineering leads?

2009-06-05T18:15:16Z

My little brother just graduated with a chem e degree. yay. So, does anyone have any chemical engineering job leads I can pass on to him?

first post

2009-05-10T01:40:49Z

tap tap this thing on?

logcat

2009-05-10T01:33:17Z

Being able to tail the logs on my phone when I hook it up to my laptop makes me happy.

W/dalvikvm( 206): threadid=31: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x4000fe70)
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): Uncaught handler: thread PowerManagerService exiting due to uncaught exception
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): *** EXCEPTION IN SYSTEM PROCESS. System will crash.
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): java.lang.NullPointerException
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): at android.content.ContentQueryMap.(ContentQueryMap.java:65)
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): at com.android.server.PowerManagerService.initInThread(PowerManagerService.java:414)
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): at com.android.server.PowerManagerService$1.onLooperPrepared(PowerManagerService.java:374)
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:59)
E/AndroidRuntime( 206): Crash logging skipped, no checkin service
I/Process ( 206): Sending signal. PID: 206 SIG: 9
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'package' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'SurfaceFlinger' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'power' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'batteryinfo' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'usagestats' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'telephony.registry' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'meminfo' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'cpuinfo' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'activity.broadcasts' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'activity.services' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'activity.senders' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'activity.providers' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'permission' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'content' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'activity' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'battery' died
I/ServiceManager( 32): service 'hardware' died
E/installd( 39): eof
E/installd( 39): failed to read size
I/installd( 39): closing connection
I/Zygote ( 205): Exit zygote because system server (206) has terminated

toolmaker @ 2009-04-23T11:07:00

2009-04-23T16:09:26Z

This ApplicationContextAware class is annoying. So it makes me think this year I can be a implementation of ApplicationContextAware for halloween. I haven't figure out what the implementation costume is, but I'm sure I will need jars of beans for it.

I will run from my nemesis, the Dr. Dependency and his evil injections.

(jelly beans or chocolate covered espresso beans. both! different jars and different colored jelly beans in different jars. oh how corny.)

Security questions

2009-03-31T20:25:08Z

Overheard on twitter

post

JPMorganChase CC has the worst security questions - Reqs 3, only offers 3 options and none of them really work for me. FAIL."

Q: "Why on Earth are you wearing a turkey costume?" A: "I'm not wearing a turkey costume on Earth. I'm wearing a turkey costume in space."

WOHOOOO

2009-03-25T19:39:10Z

Pragmatic Bookshelf now available in Kindle flavors!

undersea eruptions

2009-03-25T15:16:20Z

The pictures here are amazing

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/undersea_eruptions_near_tonga.html

wtf

2009-03-23T13:42:13Z

Carl's cousin and niecen are visiting this week. They are both women. I hope
his niecen was being sarcatic when she said that she thought women shouldn't
write fiction because they have agendas. then she gave an example--Mecedes
Lackey wrote about a boy in the closet who was helped by his horse to come
out.

oh my god. I have no idea how to respond to her.

I think men shouldn't write?

...we were also having a conversation about gay people. They live and let
live except that they don't think gays should be able to marry, and they
don't like it when gay people throw their gayness in their face.

I replied to that by saying that straight people throw their straightness in
their face all the time.

Then said that the government should get out of religion and stop
sanctioning marriage and leave it up to the churches to bless their unions.
rather let the government define a legal state with all the priveleges and
protections now defined as marriage.

Ps. I'm tempted to share my lesbian porn stash.

Sabbatical

2009-03-09T15:14:17Z

A sabbatical would be nice. Maybe 6 months. after that I'd get antsy and might want a paying job. But I'd like to relax for about a month, then play around with mobile apps, maybe research accessibility.

toolmaker @ 2009-03-09T10:02:00

2009-03-09T15:06:26Z

Precis: I respect openness and transparency. I do not speak of mere software engineering, but of life. The fumblings as I learn can benefit others who are too shy to bare the foolishness everyone has. Teachers get scorned with "those who can, do. those who can't teach." But teaching is a higher calling. I thought it was noble to teach in all things. I wanted to be a teacher even in elementary school. Knowing is joy, and I want everyone to share in this. [on edit: corny! blahblahblahblah]

That shared with you, at work, this attitude has been to my team's detriment. For one example, Our team has been called to task because I seem to work on my teammate's cards with him. This is a double standard. From the beginning of the project each group has shared in the design of their systems. Why not mine? Fine. I will forgo openness and not share information. This is what the system rewards. Is this agile? Pairing is openness. Group pairing is penalized. Second example, I share paths my mind takes while I carry out a task. Result? I seem ignorant about my cards, or the entire system of things. Wrong.

This reminds me of college, when I worked in the cognition and memory lab. My professor told me that at first he thought I was an idiot but then he began to see that I was brilliant. It was just that I did not share all the leaps of logic to reach from one part of the conversation to the next.

I'm sick of talking to you people sometimes.

Guilty reading

2009-03-08T18:32:30Z

I've been over indulging in my tendency to read many things at once. The kindle makes this too easy. I'm stalled at the beginning of Underworld while having read any number of dark urban fantasies. trash fantasy, when someone asks what I'm reading. I'm too embarrassed to admit titles.

I'd like a kindle feature for these never ending fantasies: a series dekrufter. I hate when authors have to revisit what has happened before in stories ad nauseam in case we've forgotten their character's motivation. I should be able to press a button to turn off the kruft unless I've forgotten. flip, look at the source code, flip, recompile the story.

Speaking of explaining a character's motivation, I apologize to anyone who has had to sit through that in any of my stuff. I'm sorry. I'll never do it again. These dark urban fantasies have way too much blah blah blah let me tell you what you should think blah blah blah until they get to the action. my eyes glaze over until I get to the dialog. or I trim down the blahblah in my head. They give me the same feeling I get when I want to rewrite some code just because it is annoying to read.

probably I need to work out the blahblahblah to figure out the characters, but not let it out into the real world. unless in very short form.

toolmaker @ 2009-03-05T19:47:00

2009-03-06T01:48:29Z

I'm tempted to cut down expenses for a few months to save up extra, then quit my job for about six months in order to work on whatever I want to.

Is there a description language for defining accessibility features of a location?

2009-02-09T01:43:51Z

Please point me to a schema for describing accessibility features of a physical location.