Scratch Pad

Happy Fourth!

Presenting: FAILcaccia. (This is why it's good to have a steak handy. :)

Today's topic for discussion is:

Another useful weblet, handicapped by delivery as a Flash module: A whitenoise generator.

Of Bytes and Bandwidth

Slashdot has the news of how spammers-in-disguise AVG's anti-virus software is "protecting" its users by prefetching the URLs found in each page. Mainly, they're exponentially increasing the bandwidth required to navigate the Web, and incrementally increasing the bandwidth costs of servers.

The thread is a good read, as it provides several methods of detecting and handling HTTP requests from these miscreants. However, I fear the only thing that will actually stop these guys is to throw them in jail on an interference charge, and/or successfully follow a class-action suit to recover bandwidth costs.

As for my little corner of the world, I was wondering where all these random hits were coming from. I thought it was just some form of malware, but now that I know this is look-ahead malware, there's a silver lining at hand. I can assume (with 90% confidence) that the hits from this malware are search-engine based (the referer text is blank, so I have no real indication); so the vast majority of this traffic is from search engine hits. By filtering out those malware hits that were followed by legitimate traffic, I have a measure of unfollowed search engine queries.

This extra dimension of navigation is interesting, and it reeks of the evil that is Advertising/Marketing. With this agent, AVG can provide a summary of search results not followed, providing the hookers-and-blow set a previously invisible metric. The criminals have at least a secondary motive for gumming up the pipes.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Low Country Boil.

Guns and Punishments

[originally posted at ATLMalcontent, regarding the recent non-charging of a man for shooting two robbers of the house next door, and is still WIP.]

I see the gun lobby shill has shown up late to the thread, having moved at the speed of Google. Posting in their wake feels somewhat like making tea with hand-me-down bags. Still, this sounds like one of those football cases, where details are buried or rejected, for fear of spreading independent thought. That being said, some notes:

Where was the getaway car and/or subdivision exit? Their location can indicate intent of the robbers: get away or hit the next house.
I see the terms "conviction" and "acquittal" thrown about various comment pages, but were charges even filed? This was a grand jury, not a trial jury. IIRC, there's a large difference between grand jury producing no charges, and a trial jury acquitting of a specific set of charges. Specifically, "no charges" means "neither murder, nor any other charge that could stem from shooting two robbers with a 911 operator on the phone.
Speaking of whom, the operator on this call wasn't taking the old man seriously, until it was too late.
Within that context (right or not), inaction by this jury speaks volumes of the views of crime and justice in that part of the world; they've effectively chosen to neither validate the criminals' existence, nor assume a role of law enforcement. Likewise, the howls from various external parties place their agendas in lieu of any explanations from the jury.

Critical Mass, Indeed.

It seems the local Critical Mass had its balloon popped (or at least, pinched) last weekend, after being written up in the local paper. So, the argument that appeared at Shelbinator last month, has expanded into minor controversy, with extra exposure over at CNN.

There are a couple of underlying points with this train wreck in-progress: First, the timing of this conflict is an indication that City Hall (and/or APD brass) moves with the AJC's news cycle. Second, I see this situation getting worse before it gets better, as self-indulgent members of each tribe will alternately bait and attack each other, followed by much whining and pablum.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Atlanta Braves: Major league baseball, minor league marketing.

A Chill Sunday Evening

Sunday night was a good time at Park Tavern: Craft beer, fried oyster "really po'boy", music under the tent, Chicago interleague baseball (aka "the world's highest-paid Little League game") and a big thunderstorm before sunset to cool everything off. I really need to get off my butt and add this place to the dining page. Their kitchen is very capable (hellooo, sweet potato fries), and their beer is very good. Add some music and the best Atlanta skyline view around, and this place is a gem of the city.

As for the music: Honey Honey (acoustic duo) was good; Ike (rock band) was best; whoever they had headlining the show (and drawing a few hundred fans) should have just signed autographs or something. I actually recall reading about Ike in Creative Loafing, probably a few years ago. It was good to hear and see them live.

Today's topic for discussion is:

I know it's Monday, but...here's a Periodic Table of Beer.

Today's topic for discussion is:

TheWebsiteIsDown, and is not safe for work, but it is made of win.

Today's topics for discussion are:

1. Happy Hour.

2.Thyme.

This Just In...

It seems the neanderthals over at Conservapedia have had a run-in with Science, in the form of one Richard Lenski, who has recently become known for the results of his 20-year bacterial evolution experiment.

The email exchange, and resulting smackdown, may be found here. I'm surprised C-pedia actually posted this, but more surprised that Dr. Lenski actually typed up the large response.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't be surprised. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and Dr. Lenski has chipped in a few pence on this watch.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Pale Ales.

De-Spin in progress

The weather's been warm, baseball has been watched, frisbee has been tossed, and I've actually been busy messing around with Javascript and Haskell. However, the BS factor has cranked up lately, and it's time to fetch a good length of stick.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Revisiting Javascript

So, I'm actually playing around with Javascript again; this time, I'm tinkering within the context of Firefox extensions.

I must mention that I really like the extension architecture. It's rather slick. Javascript, however, is a pain in the ass now. I've done some thinking while kicking various scriptlets around, and I've come to the conclusion that a strict object model and case-sensitivity are just counterproductive to a softly-typed language.

Why, when a language can mung together any basic types (with an outcome of undefined if such munging just doesn't make sense), does this same language throw its hands in the air and bitch about the lack of attributes when you get an empty object? Is this punishment for not gumming up my code with try/catch blocks? Good grief.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Petition(s) of the Day: Netflix Profile Cancellation and Save Netflix Profiles

Today's topic for discussion is:

The AP has started charging (and/or filing lawsuits) for quotes of five or more words from their stories. It's time to point and laugh, at least on the outside.

Notes from Friday's Game.

We lost 10-2, Chipper aggravated his leg while scoring from second, and YEsco is out with some hip strain or another. I blame the cow. More on that, later. Seriously, though. Mariners had the book on Campillo, and it showed. The score should have been 16+, but for some nice play in the early innings. Infante robbed a HR, Tex saved about five runs again. Score another run (and more pitches than necessary) for the Wave in top-6th. Refer to my earlier comments about that effect. The other bright spot from last night: Walking Chipper and Tex to get to #5 doesn't work so well with Infante batting in that spot. It's safe to say we don't have a CF. Blanco got burned two or three times, "Wasn't Andruw" once, and slacked off once.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Nested Comments. (I'm playing around with them, but they currently run in N^2 or N^3 time.)

Interleague Weekend, Part II

The Braves are off their best road trip of the year (4-6), and host the failing Mariners this weekend. I've been holding this ticket since April, so I'm definitely there. We should win two out of three, but I'm living in fear the Lidle Effect with this lineup.

On Today's Menu:

Salami, turkey, muenster, spinach, basil on wheat.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Red Curry and Couscous Sandwiches.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Have you ever seen anyone playing (lottery) Keno in any of the bars that carry that game?

Today's topic for discussion is:

Figs.

Today's topic for discussion is:

In the same vein as last years' discussion topic...

Exercises in Saucery

While at the barber's yesterday, I read some foodie magazine or another, whose name I can't recall offhand. This issue contained a nice article dealing with North Italian cooking; from this article, I was clued in to three components that have been missing from my sauces: [1] celery, [2] caramelized (vs. sauteed) onion, [3] carrots.

Tonight, I put them to the test, and am pleased to report the results were outstanding; the next canning run will include these components. It helped to use a Vidalia onion, to mince the other veggies (incl. red bells) in a processor, and to use dried leaves collected from the patio.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Cool, rainy nights.

Window-shopping for Art

The Virginia-Highland Summerfest was held last weekend; to be brief, there's nothing quite like scoping out great art while eating carnival food, and listening to the banter of the overcultured.

Here's a listing of the artists whose work I found the most impressive:

Andy Costine (URL 404'ed): woodworking
Bill Herb (website): raku sculpture
Charlie Weeks (no website): custom wooden boxes
Felix Berroa (website): Painting (Abstract/cubist)
J. Ashley Kirby (website): Painting (watercolors)
John Coburn (website): Pottery
Lisa Mote (website): Glasswork
Lucinda Carlstrom(website): paper/thin-fabric quilts
Mary Barbara Hixon (no website): Painting (multiple sytles)
Rudd Montgomery (website): salvaged-wood furniture
Song Jinsheng (website): Painting (multiple sytles)
Tali Almog (website): Painting (Abstract-Oils)
Thomas Spake (website): Glasswork
Timothy Boyd (website): Painting (Lowbrow/Comic)

A Voice from Summers Past

I haven't bought a solar cooker yet, but I should. There's enough really good sun out front, to cook just about anything smaller than a roast.

But then I remember: when the weather's too hot to boil water for tea, put the tea out in the sun. Of course! And I have just the jar for the job.

Thinking beyond tea, however, there's something to be said for preheating water in the sun, as opposed to either water heater or stove-driven heating. Basically, I like the idea of getting the first 30 or 40 degrees (at least) of heating out of the way without using fire.

So, I'll play around with the sun for a while this summer. I expect to at least not run the stove against the A/C as much.

Green Thumb, gone Brown

The past two weeks have brought hard times for the plants. I forgot to prune them ahead of summer, then let them go too long without water, and they partially dried up. So out came the pruning shears, and I ended up with a few baking sheets worth of herbs for drying.

As it turns out, a gas stove is not conducive to drying things, as demonstrated by a baking sheet full of scorched oregano. So, I ended up placing the remaining cuttings in the sun the next morning, and that did the trick. More on the sun, later.

As for the remaining plants: Parsley is blooming, and will die off shortly; I'm finally started two new basil plants, and I'm going to try a cucumber vine again, if I can make room for it.

The squirrel is now exonerated, as I've seen chipmunks digging in my plants. If I can get a picture of one of these critters, I'll post it.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Four-part harmony.

Meet Mr. Bounce

This, folks, is what I'm talking about when I say Flash is the new arcade game platform: Mr. Bounce, a take on Breakout, with bubbles. And arc-tracking. And controllable bounce height. And a slow-mo key. And 8-bit slow-techno track. And a timer that shrinks your already-barely-controllable platform. It isn't a very playable game, but it's playable enough to be fun.

Today's topic for discussion is:

Creative Loafing's Beer Issue is up. Cheers!

Drought Panic 2: Electric Boogaloo

It's that time again: the really hot summer weather has settled in early, and that means it's time for Drought Panic '08! The AJC is starting to ramp up coverage, with a Weather Vent.

Not that the drought ever broke; actually the winter weather rain patterns more closely resembled summer weather. It was all weekly rain fronts, with maybe two days of steady rain (vs. the normal 10 or 12 ).

At least there are scattered storms meandering around the past few days; the big low that's currently flooding the midwest has dragged lots of Gulf air into the area; the storms simply coalesce from the mugginess like ghosts from aether. So some lucky folks are getting the 1"-2" rainstorm.

There's been no luck for Lake Lanier, however. Most of the rain the past few months fell on the western part of the state; this has resulted in a record low (-17 feet) for the lake. Screwed, screwed, screwed. So, it's showers every other day again, for the time being.

And as it turns out, the entire northeast corner of the state has been getting rain while I was typing this. Good deal.

Today's topic for discussion is:

It's 90 degrees outside. Summer is officially here. :D

Today's topic for discussion is:

Favorite fruit in a Wheat Beer: Lemon, Orange, Strawberry, Rasberry?

Today's topic for discussion is:

Philadelphia: Where Every Night is "Bring your own Boos" Night.

Gender-bias in Software Dev?

I'd rather not post a link to our recently-zombified friend, the Wall Street Journal, but this blogpiece (found linked on Mostly Media) regarding gender-based effects in software development.

The blogpiece itself looks like a combination of an appeal to Moore's Law, combined with some solid code maintenance practice, thinly wrapped with a gender-bias argument. It's also been pre-chewed for the readership.

However, there are a few basics that you need to keep in mind:

Code is, in essence, crystalline thought. This is particularly true for "higher-level" languages, which are translated into actual programs. As such, most code reflects the overlapping cultures that produced and maintained it. Gender-based code styles could well be valid, but it is only one of many cultural modifiers that affect a developer (or team of developers). These modifiers include national, geographic, economic, generational, and (multiple) organizational traits, that shape people's behavior over time.

Obfuscation

Code Obfuscation is definitely a test of skill, both for the writer and readers. The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is the earliest, organized Obf-contest I can remember, although similar contests exist for most modern languages (particularly those rooted in C).

If I recall correctly, Obfuscation derives its roots in the quests for storage efficiency, runtime efficiency, and overall performance. These three traits are (usually) orthogonal to maintainability and legibility. Who can write the smallest program? Who can write the fastest program? Who can write the program which uses the least bytes or bandwidth? Answeres to these questions lead directly to the question of who can write the most unreadable program.

Comments vs. Code

That brings us to the danger of comments. Comments do not relate program function. Comments relate programmers' intent. Why? Here's an example, where all text to the right of '//' is a comment:

char input_array = ['A','D'];  // An array of characters
char *result_ptr;              // Pointer to a character or array 

result_ptr = Invert( input_array ) //Invert the order of this array

...what is the order of input_array? The comment says we have inverted input_array, but the code assigns something to result_ptr. Does result_ptr now reference an inverted input_array, or an entirely new array made of the inverted members of input_array? Nothing in this language prevents us from writing Invert() in either fashion. We have to look at Invert(), or establish an understanding through testing, to determine the function's behavior.

My point here is: to the degree that comments and code actually match, you have "good" comments. It is far, far too easy for developers to substitute understanding of comment for understanding of the code which actually runs.

Braves Make a Move

Amidst the history and the retrospection this week (more on that in a later post), the Braves replaced their Strength and Conditioning coach. I don't know what's going on here, but there have to be real problems, of one kind or another, for a team to make that kind of move, especially mid-season.