Then in the same breath as the above, we are told “Good things come to those who wait”.  How could anyone understand these mindless phrases?  On one hand, I need to live like today is it.  On the other hand, I need to wait a long time for plans to come to fruition.

So I propose from now on, we live life like we will live to the average expected age of our demographics, taking into account time already spent on Earth, and any known medical conditions.

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I have to say the box art itself is pretty nice, with the rat and the rocket. I opened it up, and it was a Google CR-48 laptop running Chrome OS:

So far so good — it boots really fast, wireless and 3g both worked for me without hassle. The design looks a lot like my brother’s older Macbook, and the touchpad being push to click is pretty good for casual browsing.

I like the design of some of the Apps in the web store (ie the New York Times website customized for it), and it would be interesting to see what games come out using NaCL.

I already used Google Docs for my office work, and Gmail as my email client, so really nothing to transition to. Doing web development on it is a pain, might actually work out if something like Bespin was integrated into cloud deployment backends (some sort of Heroku / Bespin hybrid).

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Position involves Linux development, and you should know php / perl. The project will involve modems and java also, and the ability to document everything would be great.

Good news about the position is I am leading the project, so anything you can’t figure out, I will. Pay will be somewhere in the $100/hr range, and we need you to be in Cincinnati for the two weeks (3/8 – 3/19), 40 hours per week.

Send me an email (you can find my info in launchpad) or post a comment here if you think you fit the bill. Anyone who has any Ubuntu development experience or contributions to visible projects will definitely take priority. Remember, you need to have the ability to be in Cincinnati, as travel is not covered.

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“The Bengals have played the Steelers more than any other team in the NFL”.

My assertion was that the statement was ambiguous and did not make sense as you could not figure out which team played the other team the most in their own history.

My interpretation of the statement was:

• The Bengals could have played the Steelers more than any other team in Bengals history
• The Steelers could have played the Bengals more than any other team in Steelers history

Also Wikipedia appeared to have the correct statement: “the Bengals have met the Steelers more than anyone else in their own history”, which was not ambiguous to me.

Please comment on this as they are having a hard time believing my argument, and if I am wrong I would love to know.

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I recently went on my honeymoon to Chicago, a fantastic city. We went to the top of the Sears / Willis tower, and looked at the view. It was funny how the tallest building in the United States was build in 1973. It was a great flight to Chicago, riding on the Boeing 737 that was designed in the early 60s. Prior to my generation, every 10 years or so there was an entire new set of music that some loved, and some wanted to forget. Now the decades since the 90s just blend together.

Did we reach an apex, or simply a cultural shift? I highly doubt we are pressing the limits of human comprehension, as even the most skilled / difficult fields are very simple once a few hours in understanding are applied. At some point we lost our way, but it wasn’t just the USA. England, China, Russia are all along on the ride with us, seldomly producing actual innovation.

Remember AIDS, cancer, and the common cold? They are all still here, and despite years of supposed research, we struggle for any answer, solution, or even mitigation strategy. How is the car you drive? Almost any engine in use today was designed fundamentally at or before the turn of the century. Hybrid cars? A joke in their current state (just jam a bunch of lithium ion batteries in there, also developed in the 70s).

I would love it if people could comment on innovations, and what they see that is amazing or that is in development that can inspire. Where do we go from here?

Before we go down a road to the obvious, I don’t believe that Operating Systems are fundamentally different than 20 years ago. My Windows 7 and Linux of today are definitely not 20 years improved (we still use the same tcp / ip protocols (developed yet again in the 60s / 70s), same languages / paradigms (most of which developed in the 60s / 70s) etc. My computer today does little that my 8086 couldn’t do, and is terribly inefficient at doing so. I really don’t count most anything webpage based as an innovation, as it is such low hanging fruit (even google) that I can’t bring myself to include it in with the previously mentioned technologies.

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array-speed-test.c

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <sys/time.h>

void compare_arrays(int **screen1, int **screen2)
{
    int x;
    int y;
    int diff;
    int mult;

    for(x = 0; x < 1920; x++) {
        for(y = 0; y < 1080; y++)
        {
            mult = screen1[x][y] * screen2[x][y];
            diff = abs(screen1[x][y] - screen2[x][y]);
        }
    }
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    srand(time(NULL));
    printf("Generating arrays...\n");
    int **screen1;
    int **screen2;
    int i = 0;
    int j = 0;
    struct timeval now;
    struct timeval end;
    int usecs_passed;

    screen1 = malloc(1920 * sizeof(int *));
    screen2 = malloc(1920 * sizeof(int *));
    for(i = 0; i < 1920; i++)
    {
        screen1[i] = malloc(1080 * sizeof(int));
        screen2[i] = malloc(1080 * sizeof(int));
    }

    for(i = 0; i < 1920; i++)
    {
        for(j = 0; j < 1080; j++)
        {
            screen1[i][j] = rand() % 255;
            screen2[i][j] = rand() % 255;
        }
    }

    printf("Comparing arrays...\n");

    gettimeofday(&now, NULL);
    compare_arrays(screen1, screen2);
    gettimeofday(&end, NULL);

    usecs_passed = end.tv_usec - now.tv_usec;

    printf("Time passed: %dms\n", (usecs_passed / 1000));
    for(i = 0; i < 1920; i++)
    {
        free(screen1[i]);
        free(screen2[i]);
    }

    return 0;
}

And my python code:

array-speed-test.py

#!/usr/bin/python
import random
import time
from math import fabs

def generateArray():
    array_to_gen = [None] * 1920
    for i in range(0, 1920):
        array_to_gen[i] = [None] * 1080

    for x in range(0,1920):
        for y in range(0, 1080):
            array_to_gen[x][y] = random.randrange(0,255)

    return array_to_gen

def compareArrays(screen1, screen2):
    for x in range(0, 1920):
        for y in range(0, 1080):
            diff = fabs(screen1[x][y] - screen2[x][y])
            combo = screen1[x][y] * screen2[x][y]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print "Generating arrays..."
    screen1 = generateArray()
    screen2 = generateArray()

    print "Created two screens.  Comparing..."
    startTime = time.time()
    compareArrays(screen1, screen2)
    print "Time taken: " + str((time.time() - startTime) * 1000) + "ms"

So far, the C program runs in 25ms, while the python program consistently takes 1100ms. Might have to ditch python for real time analysis, unless someone wants to point out how I am doing this completely wrong (I am assuming the comments will be use Numpy?)

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This is much more secure, and you are able to disable it. If you are using systems in public, then there is much more you need to disable such as removable media automounting etc, and would not use default settings anyway.

The current way of throwing blanket root access out for any system change is inherently less secure, their change aims to only allow signed package and that 1 specific action to occur.

Yes you could make a collision, but if you can’t trust your package sources, you can’t trust your system as a whole, so the entire idea is moot.

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1. You can’t be a expert in every field
   My whole life I have been a “computer scientist”. That meant I ran pretty much every operating system, and tried to program in as many languages possible. However, in the professional world, your advice outside of your realm is seldomly used or even asked for. Even if it is technically correct, team x does not want to have team y telling them how to do their job. Swallow it up, not everything will go the way you want it.
2. Communication is more important than technical expertise
   If you look through the ranks of a corporation, you will notice that seldomly does the most technicially proficient employee ever even get to the ‘C’ level (CTO, CIO etc). In smaller companies, being the expert is important because everything is riding on you. When your company has thousands of employees, communicating efficiently is worth much more. Learn how to talk to non-technical people.
3. Your manager is always right
   Never be a martyr for a specific technical feature. If your company needs something done a specific way, and you are against it, politely state your position. If they are not interested, do it their way. If the manager was wrong, they will take heat for it. However, if you make a big issue about it, your manager is still the one at the end of the day who evaluates you on your performance review.
4. Appearance matters
   You are selling a complete package to a corporation. It is important that your outward appearance is in line with the position you are going for. If there are two applicants of similar skill levels, the one who interviews that is well dressed and clean will get that position. First impressions count, especially during interviews.
5. Everyone has their reasons
   No matter how bad you think a choice or decision was, everyone had a reason for doing it. They thought it out, they presented it, and weighed the factors that matter to them. It is very easy to point out how dumb you think something is, but likely you don’t have all the facts of the entire scenario. If you do have all the facts, calling them out on it won’t fix anything and will likely create resentment.

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Lets get this real straight: This plan will save money. If you are against it, turn off Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, take down your confederate flag, and use your brain.

Today, anyone, healthcare or not, citizen or not, can walk into any hospital in the country and get treatment. Many people do. And the ones that don’t have healthcare? You and I pay for them, through our insurance, who receives inflated charges from the hospital because of the additional burden of these uninsured. Do you really think that having the government run healthcare is going to make us pay for everyone else more than we currently do? (For a point of reference every month I pay over $700 to insurance just for my daughter and I)

Having country-wide heathcare would allow us to formalize this process, and make sure that those who were previously going to the hospital and getting free care (ie defaulting on their payments) are now taxed for it. You can get out of hospital bills, but getting out of taxes is a million times harder. For people here illegally, that is a issue that is mutually exclusive from this, as their coverage wouldn’t change with this plan.

As for the idea of death panels? They exist already. Insurance companies drop people, and their personal savings run out. Sending a loved one to a nursing home or hospice is already deciding their fate. Before “ObamaCare” your fate was decided by money. After it, you will still be able to have to decided by money. That doesn’t change.

You can call it socialist, and I can call you a fool, because as I said already, we already care for everyone, they just default on their bills.

Go ahead and use the Post Office as a case study of why government shouldn’t run things. Show me one small business that can deliver mail to any address in the US for < 50 cents. It isn’t possible. What they do is phenomenal given their budget and scope. If I lived in rural Idaho, no commercial interest would ever drive a letter out to me for that price. And the benefits? Increased communication, resulting in increased national commerce. Driven anywhere? Yeah the government runs the roads so well I can do that.

Bring on your ignorance in the comments.

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Lets get this straight: Printing extra money will not cause inflation. The only time in which printing money causes inflation is when our manufacturing ability is at peak production. With the current situation of 20+ million being unemployed, we are nowhere close to peak production, and as such can ‘create’ money.

Obviously once those people are employed again and we get closer to peak production we need to be more conservative with the process.

That’s all.

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