all the other stuff

band names for programmer geeks

Alex Bransky — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:45:11 GMT

Band names for programmer geeks (feel free to use these, unless they already exist and are copyrighted):

Asskey
The Lazy Loaders
CMYK (more for graphic artists, I know)
nRock
BSODeathmetal
Unicoder Manifesto
Fist to Five
Gates of Hell (that one's for Microsoft programmers specifically)

if geeks ruled the world

Alex Bransky — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:15:51 GMT

If geeks ruled the world:

Professional sports teams, if they existed, would have mascots like the Orcs, the Elves, and the Supernovae. The Giants and the Pirates could keep their names, and possibly the Blue Devils (though due to statistical improbability, Duke would not be allowed to be in the Sweet 16 so often).
All surnames would have to be pronounced as they are in their country of origin (e.g. Favre would be Fov-ruh and Mao Tse-Tung would be unpronounceable).
Wars would occur between the cybergeeks and the envirogeeks. The weapons would consist of twenty-sided dice and solar-powered Laser Tag guns.
There would be KSL programs (Klingon as a Second Language).
I would be a very high-ranking officer!

come on people

Alex Bransky — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:54:40 GMT

I've said it before and I'll say it again: setup and login are not verbs! If you want to use them as verbs you must split them into set up and log in. It really fascinates me how often I see these terms used incorrectly, though if English is not your first language that's a pretty good excuse. Oh, and the same goes for backup and back up.

trip to Greece and France

Alex Bransky — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:34:07 GMT

I got back a few days ago from an incredible trip to Greece and France. My girlfriend Lisa and I flew into Athens, spent a day there, then went to three Greek islands. Then Lisa went to hang with a friend in Italy for a week while I went to Paris for two days. It was an incredible trip, I highly recommend it. I do recommend making a map/list of all Internet stations in the places you'll be visiting before you leave. While they were easy to find in the main towns in Greece, they were very difficult to find in Paris. I was able to connect my PDA to the Pompidou museums free wireless Internet and send some emails, and I think the City of Paris might offer free wireless Internet in a few places, but I wasn't able to find them (I didn't have my PDA on the whole time I walked).

The first island we stopped at in Greece was Mykonos, the party island. The Chora (a.k.a. Hora, main town on the island) there was fantastic, really beautiful with cobblestone walkways between whitewashed two-story buildings. It was very crowded though, and sort of loud at night. Plus you take your life into your hands walking anywhere in Greece (or Europe really) with the way people drive. In the afternoon we took a bus to Agios Ioannis, a super nice beach that was pretty laid back.

The second island we went to was Naxos, a more laid back island. We rented an ATV and drove around the southwestern quarter of the island, which was incredibly fun. The Chora there is really nice too.

The last island we went to was Santorini, well known for being a beautiful caldera. Oia was awesome, Fira was cool, and Perissa was a fantastic beach. We rented an ATV here as well, which I highly recommend. We stayed in Kamari, which is a really nice beach town, but the beaches there are made of large rocks instead of small sand, and as you get in the water you have to pass by several feet of slippery solid rock, and I'm amazed I didn't fall and break my arm. I'll post pics of Greece when Lisa gets back with those pictures.

Even though I only had two days in Paris, I saw almost everything I wanted to see, and it was wonderful. I only experienced one instance of snobbery (don't eat at the Montecristo on the Champs-Elysees, the food was average and the service was terrible). Here are my pictures from Paris: http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.bransky/Paris2007

a couple great quotes

Alex Bransky — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:20:19 GMT

Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.
- Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
- George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

so long Max

Alex Bransky — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:31:54 GMT

Wikipedia currently has two different dates for Max Roach's death within the same article. Hopefully it wasn't a prolonged death... is there disagreement about the actual time a person becomes dead, as there is about the actual time a person becomes living?

people who baffle me

Alex Bransky — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:54:51 GMT

Here's a list of people who baffle me (no offense or ire intended):

People over age 18 who act like they never heard of global warming until they saw "the Al Gore movie" and are now all for fighting it (though it's better than them pretending it doesn't exist).
People who can't handle a 4-way stop (more than 4 can get confusing though).
People who enjoy Nascar and/or country music.
People who watch So You Think You Can Dance and aren't extremely annoyed by the female judge.
People who enter a restaurant within half an hour of closing time and expect to be served well beyond closing time.
People who honestly oppose gay marriage because it's not traditional (rather than because they're homophobic or like to have a group they can feel superior to).
People who use LISP to program for Windows, particularly when .Net is the company standard. But I guess if that's what you're used to...

sunny/cloudy spectrum

Alex Bransky — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 20:50:06 GMT

I think I finally figured out the sunny/cloudy spectrum that meteorologists assign to the daily weather prediction, not that it means that much, especially where I am in Seattle. Here it is in order of sunniest to cloudiest.

Sunny

Mostly Sunny

Partly Cloudy

Partly Sunny

Mostly Cloudy

Cloudy

the mind knows the time

Alex Bransky — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:55:38 GMT

I've officially eliminated the alarm clock from my daily awakening. I discovered a few years ago that if I look at the clock and tell myself that I want to wake up from a nap at a specific time, I would actually wake up at the correct time about 95% of the time. I've extended that to a full night's sleep the past couple weeks, though I haven't been taking note of the current time when I've gotten into bed. All I do is tell myself I want to wake up at 7:02 AM, for example, and I do. I don't really think I'm special, I think anybody could do it.

you should like, um, fear your government and stuff

Alex Bransky — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:29:11 GMT

This is great:

"For the president to perform his constitutional duties, it is imperative that he receive candid and unfettered advice and that free and open discussions and deliberations occur among his advisors," Fielding said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-ex-usattys28jun29,0,4551105.story?coll=la-home-center

How is this not an admission that people in the executive branch are saying things the public wouldn't want to hear? I guess the question is just how bad these things are, but my guess is they're things that would get the president impeached. Not that there are any presidents who haven't said something behind closed doors that would get them impeached.