Woke to no Internet or television. Troubleshoot. Programmed until my eyes bleed and my head exploded. Troubleshoot. Programmed more.
Year: 2014
Caution
Difficult weekend ahead.
Knoxville is a small town
I was born into a city of 30,000 people. So, Knoxville’s population of 182,200 (or 441,311 if you include Knox County) should seem large. However, you cannot point your finger around here without pointing at someone that is more connected to you than Kevin Bacon.
Today I went somewhere where I should have seen no one that I know, and in three separate parts of the building, I was recognized by 3 people I knew.
Deep Thoughts
Almonds are cool.
Until you being to imagine you are eating tiny cockroaches.
On waking up
Truthfully, most days I wake in a panic attack. It’s a terribly way to start your day.
My life
Authority: "Jump in the water!"
Me: "Okay. I’m in the water."
Authority: "To live, you must swim to that island."
Me: "I think I have just enough strength to make it there."
Authority: "They won’t let you on the island without a boat. Here’s some wood and nails to build a boat."
Me: "Thanks! I have the skills but I need some tools."
Authority: "That guy over there in his boat has a hammer and saw. But he’ll want you to build a raft for him in exchanging for loaning him tools."
Authority: "Your nails are sinking."
Authority: "The tide starts going out in an hour…and there is a storm approaching from the south. Have a nice swim!"
You might be a programmer
You might be a programmer if…
…you’ve ever sat at your desk, computer in one hand, pot of coffee in the other, and considered wearing an adult diaper.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Why do they frustrate me so?
Master: Are you sure they are the cause of your frustration?
3 day weekend means…
This weekend is a holiday weekend to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We have Monday off from work. You would think that means this weekend would be filled with additional time with my children and activities with the family. You’d be wrong. I will hiding in headphones and be programming rather non-stop for the next three days. Vacations are for work.
Scent Msg Successfully
How many minutes do you think the oPhone prototype was in testing before someone farted into it?
This Phone Lets You Send Smells, Not Texts
Stop holding me back!
Today I saw someone ranting over fitness trackers with “what will they think of next, a device that tells you if it is raining?”
These people have no vision. If the mass of people with these negative gut reactions were the drivers of technology, we’d still be in the stone age.
I see things like the quantified self, wearables, google glass, smart homes and think “about freaking time” and wonder why we aren’t thirty years beyond where we are now. One easy answer is the damned corporations, their lobbying and profit seeking. But the truth of the matter is we have to slow down technological progress for the neo-luddites and simpletons who can’t see beyond the end of their nose and fear change.
Give me my flying car so I can get off my own lawn!
A bad path
The arts teach more than your standardized tests
Tennessee. Haslam. McIntyre. Knox County School Board. This video is for you.
Yo! Knox County Schools…how about stepping up and doing stuff like this with our students? Lessons? How about hand/eye coordination, team work, rhythm, did I mention team work?, leadership, technical production, composition, self-confidence, and most of all, accomplishment. Did you know that there is a mathematical side to music? And poetry (literature) in the lyrics? I’m sure I missed some.
Do you get any of that out of a standardized test?
Calling SQL gurus – Is there a way to programmaticly prove data accuracy?
Say I have an existing MS SQL database with many tables. Now I’m going to import many more records. From a quality assurance standpoint, I’d like to be able to confirm that the existing data prior to the import was not inadvertently altered during the import of the new data (since the import includes some manipulation of the new data).
Is there a magical way to do this. I’m stuck on comparing record counts but that does really tell me if the existing data was altered during the import process.
Conceptually, I’d like to be able to essentially do something like a hash of the complete dataset before the import. Then after the import, query for all the old records, rehash and compare the two hashes.
Thoughts?
No monsters in the shower
Dear Family,
I am aware that some of you are afraid there are monsters hiding in the shower so you leave the shower curtain open. I would prefer it closed. The benefits of closing the shower curtain after your bath or shower are that the curtain is less likely to mildew plus you can read that cool periodic table of elements
That is all. And thank you for your cooperation!
Love, Dad
