Halostatue

The Worst Pain I've Ever Known

2008-04-11T02:50:08Z

…happened to me this morning at 4:30 A.M. when I woke up with what turns out to have been a kidney stone attack.

I'm fine, and that's something I never want to go through again.

Where I am these days…

2007-09-28T20:52:58Z

I'm not actually doing much on LiveJournal these days, although I usually remember to read my friends page periodically (it'd be nicer if I could get an authenticated or token-authenticated RSS link to it, since I'm reading so much more in my RSS reader these days, and that way I could see friends-locked posts, too). I am twittering a lot, and I've set that up to show up as a daily digest on my blog on my main site, but the tweets will probably be removed from the front page to their own page, or any time through their category link. I use Delicious a lot. And, while I haven't added new pictures in a while, I am starting to finally use Flickr. At some point, I will make Delicious and Flickr integrate into my main web site in a way that I haven't so far, but that hasn't happened yet.

I'm also on FaceBook, but I really don't do much there. That may or may not change, but I'm really wanting to do more with my own web site and use FaceBook as a portal; I read most of the FaceBook updates about my friends through token-authenticated RSS feeds that they provide. I pull data from my external sources into FaceBook, so if you're there, my profile page tends to link everything together.

Work is busy busy busy; life is no less so in general. We had a partial power outage at home on Monday (the kitchen worked, the TV barely did for the new season of Prison Break and Heroes), and a total power outage on Tuesday due to some missteps by Toronto Hydro. I've been in Canada now for nine years, with Anne-Marie for almost eleven, married to her for almost one, and a Canadian citizen for just over five. I'm planning on a lengthy trip to Alaska with Anne-Marie and my parents in their RV next summer, and not much in the way of holidays or vacations otherwise.

Anyone want to know anything else? Post a comment and I'll try to answer.

On the Mary Jane Watson-Parker statue "kerfuffle"…

2007-05-18T02:23:06Z

By and large, I don't care. I'm shocked to see so many people reacting to the comiquette, but I shouldn't be, I guess. I'm sure there's a lot of sexist pigs out there supporting it. I'm sure there's a lot of women offended.

I was a long-time reader of Spider-Man and specifically sought out some older ones. While the Marvel comic always hewed to the Comics Code, the best description I would give of Mary Jane throughout their history was worldly and experienced. She was always a sexual character. She was always the good-lookin' sexy girl that Peter would never be good enough for.

And she had troubles. It was implied that there may have even been sexual abuse. I think she ran away from home for a while. In the 70s, she was certainly sexually active with the various boyfriends she had over the years. And she always dressed as provocatively as possible given the Comics Code.

This comiquette isn't the movie Mary Jane Watson, who whispers "go get'em, Tiger"; this comiquette is the brash, bold, and sexy Mary Jane Watson-Parker who flirts with everyone and dresses how she wants.

Should Marvel maybe have done a slightly different pose (knees bent; I don't know anyone that bends that way to look in a laundry basket) with the same whimsy? I don't disagree with that sentiment, but the wide reaction—to which I have just added—is odd. But this matches the Mary Jane that I grew up with, in spirit at least.

Ping djberg96

2006-12-18T23:44:59Z

Have you seen this? Have you played it? Is it any good?

Leslie Harpold

2006-12-13T17:46:32Z

I had to do some searching to be sure, but after I saw a picture of her, I was certain. Leslie Harpold died last week (somewhere around the 7th). I knew her because of my time in alt.society.generation-x (where I ultimately met my wife, Anne-Marie). My time in asg-x was contentious, but Leslie was a great person to know. I had fallen out of touch with her, just as I've fallen out of touch with most people from asg-x.

I'm not sure why, but Leslie's death has affected me today. Maybe it's that she was going to be 41. Maybe it's realizing that there's one less light in the world.

I'll have to see if I can dig up a recipe she shared on the asg-x recipe list some years ago and make it, in her honour.

Another bastard escapes justice...

2006-12-10T18:24:16Z

Pinochet is dead, and another bastard escapes justice. He's dead, which is what he deserved, but he died a free man, which dihonours his many victims.

Married!

2006-11-26T16:42:35Z

I simply do not have the words to express how amazing my wedding was yesterday. Not one thing went wrong. We had to adapt things, but nothing went wrong. The ceremony was short, sweet, and poetic.

I had to be at The Old Mill at 12:30 and I spent the time while waiting on Anne-Marie getting the last minute details set up and then greeting guests as they arrived. Harry and Kenneth (my best men) were great as ushers, greeting people and getting them upstairs to the Garret room where we had our ceremony. The time came and Gisela's partner, Rob, pressed play and an instrumental version of "Love of My Life" started playing (from Passing Open Windows). Harry headed the procession while Kenneth (who is my brother) stood by my side. After Harry, Avery (the son of one of Anne-Marie's long-time friends who has become a friend of mine as well, and our ring bearer) came down and was directed to his spot by our officiant, the Reverend Robert Trimble. Autumn, our friend Antoinette's six year-old daughter came down wearing a red velvet dress and a gorgeous crown of baby's breath with an Autumn-sized bouquet of white roses. Antoinette and Gisela followed in black dresses (bought separately, but reasonably well coordinated) and white rose bouquets. My father walked Anne-Marie down to the aisle, and my eyes misted as I saw them. My father was handsome and Anne-Marie was simply radiant. I've never seen her look more beautiful than she did coming down the aisle between our friends. The love in the room for us was palpable.

Mr Trimble introduced the ceremony and brought chuckles from the crowd, most of whom have known us for the last ten years and laughed when Mr Trimble said that we were making our relationship legal and binding. After asking us if we came of our own free will to join in marriage, he called on Harry to read Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds/admit impediments…") and then called on Marc (Anne-Marie's brother) to read a selection from The Velveteen Rabbit about becoming real. This reading drew chuckles as well, and then Anne-Marie and I were asked to recite our vows to one another. We did so, exchanged rings, and then were announced husband and wife and kissed. We signed the marriage license; Kenneth and Gisela signed the marriage license, and then we walked out. We had a group photograph of everyone who was there on the grand staircase at the Old Mill. The photographer's assistant kept us entertained with an impromptu tap dance while he had to run up the back way (the whole group of ~85 guests had arranged themselves on the staircase before he was even ready).

I'll talk more about the rest of it later, but suffice it to say that it was magical.

The whole day.

Today

2006-11-25T13:06:39Z

In five hours and twenty-six minutes, I will be marrying the woman I have been with for ten years and ten days.

I am so ecstatically happy.

There's a lot of family here to celebrate with us, and a lot of friends, too. This is going to be a great day.

It's too soon to party.

2006-11-09T04:14:43Z

It's far too soon to party over the Democrat "control" of the houses of congress. This may, in fact, be a very bad thing for Democrats two years from now.

They aren't veto-proof. Just because the Wanker in the White House hasn't found anything to veto yet (or is it one thing?) doesn't mean he won't. When that happens, the Dems won't be able to amass a veto-override. This means that the amount of actual power they can exercise without seeming obstructionist is minimal. If they can't accomplish anything, they will be punished in two years.
Most of the returning Dems that have been elected are spineless, gutless wonders who went meekly along with the administration when it was on the rise (e.g., before the quagmire of Iraq, when most of our fellow ~~morons~~citizens believed that Saddam Hussein actually had something to do with 9/11).
Speaking of spineless, gutless wonders, as far as I can tell, Hillary is still planning on running in '08. If she runs and is somehow nominated, the Republicans will win the Presidency again. Period. The longer she holds to this fantasy that she's going to be a serious contender, the more damage she does to Democratic chances. It'd be one thing if she weren't as poll-driven (or more poll-driven) than her husband, but she is and she does not understand how much she is hated by a large swath of the country.

America is a long way from healed, and I am happy that I no longer have to live there.

-austin

Need some pointers...

2006-10-30T03:07:54Z

...to good readings and vows for my impending wedding. I'm willing to consider most sources (including SF), but most of the wedding party agrees: no god. AM's taken a liking to the teachings of the Dalai Lama, but I couldn't find anything meaningful.

So far, we're considering a reading from The Velveteen Rabbit (the Skin Horse's story) and possibly Shakespeare's Sonnet CXVI.

I'd love to have more suggestions. I'm screening comments for this.

Memeage

2006-10-18T13:14:28Z

Snagged from starcat_jewel:

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)

created with QuizFarm.com

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)		75%
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)		75%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)		69%
Millennium Falcon (Star Trek)		63%
Serenity (Firefly)		63%
SG-1 (Stargate)		56%
Moya (Farscape)		56%
FBI’s X-Files Division (The X-Files)		50%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)		44%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)		44%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)		44%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)		31%

You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5). The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesnt matter, because no matter what you have your friends and youll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Cops would leave you alone.

I had to answer a tie-breaker, so I could also have come up as:

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)

created with QuizFarm.com

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)		75%
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)		75%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)		69%
Millennium Falcon (Star Trek)		63%
Serenity (Firefly)		63%
SG-1 (Stargate)		56%
Moya (Farscape)		56%
FBI’s X-Files Division (The X-Files)		50%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)		44%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)		44%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)		44%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)		31%

You scored as Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix). You can change the world around you. You have a strong will and a high technical aptitude. Is it possible you are the one? Now if only Agent Smith would quit beating up your friends.

I can see either one, really, but the first is more accurate, probably.

This is what's wrong with the U.S.:

2006-09-14T16:32:22Z

Lycos News:

"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," said Powell, who served under Bush and is a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk."

No, Mr. Powell. The world is not beginning to doubt the moral basis. The world has found the very of the U.S. having a moral basis laughable since the U.S. invaded a country uninvolved in the terror attacks on the United States in 2001.

You know what else? You helped in the destruction of that moral basis. At one point, I had respect for you. Not after you spoke in favour of an invasion of Iraq. Never again.

Wow. Long time no post—and lots to talk about…

2006-08-25T02:52:18Z

Since I last wrote about my wedding planning, many things have happened.

We have a location: The Old Mill in Toronto. The room we’ve got is gorgeous and if there’s snow, it’ll be even prettier.
We spoke with the chef at The Old Mill to make sure that our vegetarian entries are excellent.
We plan on using one of the officiants at The Old Mill, but off the hour and in the room we’re having the reception catered in later that evening.
We have a DJ, but we haven’t picked songs that we must hear or don’t want to hear.
We’re debating the use of a professional photographer. (Is it bad etiquette for the groom to take his own digital camera to take pictures of his reception-goers, or do you think that I’ll just be too busy?) This is a serious question because we’ve got AM’s cousin who can do nice photography, but we want her to just have fun during the evening, too. And even though I’ve got a lead on someone local who would give us a great deal, it’s still very expensive in the end.
I received the printed invitations in the mail today. They are stunning. Props to Canadian Wedding Treasures for a great job.
AM has her dress; I have chosen the style of suit that I will be wearing in general; I hope to be going to Tom’s Place of Kensington Market and Korry’s of Greektown in the next two or three weeks to pick out the suit, although I won’t order it until the end of October (either right before or right after RubyConf 2006).

All in all, we’re in great shape for this, and I couldn’t feel better about all of it if I tried.

See more progress on: get married

Nice enough…

2006-08-25T02:26:21Z

…but not a very pretty town. We spent two and a half days there, walking along the (former) Fan Mile to the Brandenburg Gate, wandering around, seeing the Jewish Museum and of course Checkpoint Charlie (with its amazing but overwhelming museum) and the Berlin Zoo. (We also saw the inside of an absolute dive where we saw The Who playing.) The transit system was absolutely amazing, though, and quite reasonable: a group transit pass (up to five adults) for just 14€ I’m not yet sure whether I’d go back or not.

See more progress on: Berlin

It was brought to my attention…

2006-08-19T04:53:14Z

…that it may not be clear that I don´t update here often except the occasional personal life thing. Most of my blog updates, especially technical ones, will be on my website, http://www.halostatue.ca (RSS, Atom). Occasionally, though, I will also be posting to the O'Reilly Ruby blog. Those are better to keep an eye on what I'm doing than my LJ, which I have mostly to read what others have to write and comment on them from time to time.

We are the Mods (in the Berliner Sauna)

2006-07-13T07:03:51Z

Vacation rocks so far. Literally. We left on Friday at 23:45 EDT and landed in London around 12:00 UTC Saturday. After landing, we went to the hotel by tube (no sissy Heathrow Express for us experienced travellers), arriving there about 14:30 UTC. We stayed in the Kensington Close just off Kensington High Street and just around the corner from the tube station. The room was small but comfortable and functional with a bath (bonus!). The hotel had a spa/gym attached with a pool for a £5 per person per stay access charge. We napped for a couple of hours and then wandered up to Kensington Church Street and found a nice little restaurant called Café Rouge where we dined nicely. The four of us (AM, her sister Giz, and Giz’s partner Rob) walked down through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace and ended up in a quaint little pub called the Bag o’ Nails. The staff was efficient if with a little less-than-perfect English (like the staff of the Kensington Close, they seemed east-European). I remembered quickly what I hate about English pubs and celebrated about Ontario’s decision to make all public places smoke-free. My clothes stunk.

Sunday, AM and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum where we spent an hour or so looking over the fashion exhibits, then went through the life sciences section of the Museum of National History, just across the way. They had a really neat dinosaur exhibit, of which I have good pictures and may post at some point. We went back to the hotel and swam, and then went to Kensal Green cemetary for a walk through another interesting cemetary (and research for AM’s book) and then going to this godawful pub for a night of godawful football. The staff were friendly, but the food was…disastrous, and I’m being charitable. It was worse for the meat eaters, but the real kicker was the nachos. The guacamole was clearly made by someone who has never had real guacamole. The "salsa" was tomato-sauce based, and the sour cream wasn’t. It was créme fraîche. The house was divided among Italy fans and France fans, and I was there in the middle, completely not giving a shit. Second night of stinking like stale cigarette smoke and getting a bit cross because of it.

On Monday, AM and I wandered down the back way from the Kensington Close where we encountered Mary Austin turning into Freddy Mercury’s old house on Logan Place. Not that I knew who she was until AM, rock trivia chick that she is, explained. I just thought we were talking to a friendly Londoner walking her dog. (Which, in fact we were. It just happened that this Londoner is someone who lives in a famous house that has a door defaced by fans of the man.) AM wanted to walk through Brompton Cemetary (also a setting in her book), so we did. After, we did The Da Vinci Code thing and went to Temple Church and then Westminster Abbey. We came back to the hotel, swam, and went our separate ways. AM to a Who/Rachel Fuller-blogger gathering and I to present at the London Ruby Users Group at Faringdon (which I posted about on my main blog). We mostly packed up on return.

We left London on Tuesday, going back out to Heathrow for our flight to Berlin. We arrived at the hotel around 17:00 CET, and caught the X9 to the Berlin Zoo station (do not ask me to try to produce that in German). We had dinner at a nice place near Savignyplatz, and then decided to walk to the Brandenburg Gate. It was significantly further than we thought, but I thought it was a very good walk. We came back to the hotel (the Econtel on Sömmeringstraße) and called it a night.

On Wednesday, we traipsed around Berlin and went to the Checkpoint Charlie/Wall Museum (fascinating), went to the Judisches Museum (the Jewish Museum), and scouted out where we were supposed to meet some Who fans before the concert. That ended up not working out, but that’s okay. The concert absolutely rocked. It may be just Pete and Roger, but they can still rock a hall. If you can call the Treptower Arena a hall. Pete said last night, “this place is kind of a hole—but it’s our hole.” He was right. The Arena appeared to be a converted hanger with no ventilation whatsoever. It had to be 35°C with 90% humidity in the Arena last night. But it was “festival” and we managed to get about 7–10m away from the stage. The picture here is 3× zoomed and significantly reduced in size, but damn was the concert great. Absolutely worth the trip. (AM got to meet Rachel Fuller, too, and may be able to finagle something for the Toronto concert when it happens.) Great night all around.

Off to pick up the car and drive around starting today. I’ll be contacting a couple of Rubyists today to see what can happen with scheduling of things, but we’ll be playing things by ear.

Citing a verse...

2006-04-24T18:33:53Z

It’s always pleasant when someone points out the obvious for the hard of thinking.

Spoilage meme…

2006-04-12T13:08:57Z

Gakked from kightp.

This is a list of things that the ownership of which is supposed to indicate one’s level of spoilage. A score of 40 is supposed to indicate that you’re spoiled. I’ve put some commentary next to them.

your own cell phone: 1
a television in your bedroom: 2
an iPod: 3; Or other digital music player, I assume. But I have the real deal.
a photo printer: I’m guessing this means one of those 4”×6” printers just used for making prints, not a generic colour inkjet.
your own phone line: This one seems a little odd. I have not counted it because I think that it’s for multiperson households who have private lines for members of the household. I have had this in the past, but I do not now. See “your own cell phone” for details.
TiVo or a generic digital video recorder: 4; Yes. I could almost count this double, since our monthly condominimum fees include the use of the DVR for free.
high-speed internet access (i.e., not dialup): 5
a surround sound system in bedroom
DVD player in bedroom: 6
at least a hundred DVDs
a childfree bathroom: 7; No children.
your own in-house office
a pool: 8½; I live in a condominimum. It’s a building-community pool, so I’m counting as ½.
a guest house
a game room
a queen-size bed or larger: 9½
a stocked bar: 10½; “Bar” isn’t the right word. It is, however, a well-stocked liquor cabinet.
a working dishwasher
an icemaker
a working washer and dryer: 11½
more than 20 pairs of shoes
at least ten things from a designer store
expensive sunglasses I’m not counting my prescription sunglasses. My high prescription skews any cost consideration.
framed original art (not lithographs or prints)
Egyptian cotton sheets or towels
a multi-speed bike
a gym membership: 12½
large exercise equipment at home
your own set of golf clubs
a pool table: 13; The condo has a billiards room. Again, counting as ½.
a tennis court: 14; I’m counting this as full because I have winter tennis club membership, summer tennis club membership, and the condominium owns a tennis court.
local access to a lake, large pond, or the sea: 15; Does Lake Ontario really count? It is only about 500m from my door.</dt>
your own pair of skis
enough camping gear for a weekend trip in an isolated area
a boat
a jet ski
a neighborhood committee membership
a beach house or a vacation house/cabin
wealthy family members
two or more family cars
a walk-in closet or pantry
a yard [sort of]
a hammock
a personal trainer: Soon. Have much too much weight to lose.
good credit
expensive jewelry
a designer bag that required being on a waiting list to get
at least $100 cash in your possession right now
more than two credit cards bearing your name (not counting gas cards or debit cards): 16
a stock portfolio
passport: 17; Two, actually, one for each citizenship.
a horse
a trust fund (either for you or created by you)
private medical insurance: 18; This is supplementary. Unlike most folks who take this test, I am covered by a government plan that works. It’s nice being Canadian. And yes, that makes me “spoiled”, too. :)
a college degree, and no outstanding student loans: 19; Paid off four years ago. But I’ve been out of college now for ten years. They’d best be paid off.

shop for non-needed items for yourself (like clothes, jewelry, electronics) at least once a week
do your regular grocery shopping at high-end or specialty stores
pay someone else to clean your house, do dishes, or launder your clothes (not counting dry-cleaning)
go on weekend mini-vacations: 20; Not every weekend, but often enough.
send dinners back with every flaw
wear perfume or cologne (not body spray): 21
regularly get your hair styled or nails done in a salon
have a job but don’t need the money OR
stay at home with little financial sacrifice
pay someone else to cook your meals
pay someone else to watch your children or walk your dogs
regularly pay someone else to drive you
expect a gift after you fight with your partner

an only child
married/partnered to a wealthy person
baffled/surprised when you don’t get your way
been on a cruise Not yet.
traveled out of the country: 22; Yes. I’m a military brat and have lived in Europe and Japan, and I’ve emigrated to Canada from the U.S. Additionally, I’ve traveled for pleasure.
met a celebrity: 22½; Yes, but most Americans wouldn’t know them. I’m only counting has ½ because it was at the Word on the Street in Toronto, where you’re supposed to meet celebrities..
been to the Caribbean: 23½; Yes. Cuba.
been to Europe: 24½; Yes. Going back this summer. I also lived there for 2½ years.
been to Hawaii
been to New York: 25½; Yes. Going back in May. Of course, my brother now lives there, so…
eaten at the space needle in Seattle This would probably include anything similar, such as the CN Tower in Toronto.
been to the Mall of America
been on the Eiffel tower in Paris: 26½
been on the Statue of Liberty in New York
moved more than three times because you wanted to: 27½; Including intra-city moves. I’m guessing that relocations because of one’s parent’s military service don’t count.
dined with local political figures
been to both the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast: 28½; Well, isn’t this a nicely limiting question. I have been to beaches on both sides of the Atlantic [Europe, the U.S., and Cuba], the North Sea, the Gulf Coast of the U.S., and on both sides of the Pacific [the U.S. and Japan]. I have not yet made it to the Canadian coasts.)

go to another country for your honeymoon: 29; I will be, so I’ll count as ½.
hire a professional photographer for your wedding or party: My fiancée’s cousin has done professional photography in the past and will be doing the “official” photography. We’re using disposable cameras on the tables for everything else. Not counting.
take riding or swimming lessons as a child: 30; The swimming lessons were inexpensive as a military brat on base. However, I’ll also count the golf lessons and the racquetball lessons and the piano lessons I had.
attend private school: 31
have a Sweet 16 birthday party thrown for you

The thing is, I know that I have a lot of privilege. There’s privilege that I have which isn’t recorded here. In our two person household, we have three working computers. It was four until January. It’ll be four again when I buy my new laptop later this year (until the current laptop dies). We have a laser printer and a colour inkjet, although the latter is currently out of commission. We have dozens of LPs and CDs. We have hundreds of books. We both have iPods. We both work at jobs that we love, and get paid incredible amounts of money for it. I was able to buy quality appliances a few years back when we needed a new refrigerator and stove. We’re going to New York to see family in May, going to Europe for 17 days this summer, I’m going to a conference in Denver this October, getting married in November, and going on another trip (the “honeymoon”) around Christmas.

I’m not trying to brag here. I don’t give as much to charity as I should, but I try not to throw away things that other people can use. I donate things I no longer need—at least semiannually—to Goodwill or other programs that provide for people in need. Am I spoiled? No. Even though I have a lot of stuff, I am not spoiled. I don’t take any of it for granted. And that is what makes people who are spoiled, spoiled.

A review of "Body Worlds 2"

2006-01-20T13:23:45Z

Body Worlds 2

by Gunther von Hagens

I went to see the Body Worlds 2 exhibition last night at the Ontario Science Centre and was absolutely amazed at what was on display. The human anatomy is a fascinating piece of work and the show was not creepy in the least.

If this ever comes near to where you’re able to visit it, you absolutely must do so.

See more about Body Worlds 2

The date is set...

2006-01-17T01:43:35Z

We know when we want to get married, at least. Now we have to find a facility for the reception. The date will be on 25 November 2006.

See more progress on: get married

A review of "What Every Person Should Know About War"

2006-01-11T22:35:38Z

What Every Person Should Know About War

by Chris Hedges

In some ways, I’m not the target audience for this. This book should probably be required reading for every prospective enlistee in the military, but its question-and-answer style is not generally what most people are going to be looking for.

See more about What Every Person Should Know About War

Sun Tech Days, IDEs and Dense Languages

2005-12-09T06:08:41Z

The Sun Tech Days tour came to Toronto this past week (December 6—8, 2005). For reasons that aren’t quite understandable, they didn’t make it operate as a single unified event, but rather three separate events. Monday was dedicated to NetBeans¹, Tuesday and Wednesday were dedicated to the main Tech Days agenda, and Thursday was the Solaris day.

The last time that I touched Java in any serious way was in 1998, with a bit of code reading and review for others until 2001. I have enough experience² that if I had to do Java, I could do so. But that’s not been part of what my jobs and personal projects over the past seven years have required. It’s all been C, C++, Perl, Delphi and now Ruby. Especially as I’m extremely busy at work³, I skipped the Monday agenda, most of the Tuesday agenda, and all of the Wednesday agenda. I’m sure that the portions of the event that I didn’t attend were quite interesting, but as they had nothing to do with my professional needs.

On Tuesday, I attended the opening portion of the Tech Days event with the keynote by James Gosling. I met Mr Gosling in the past and found him a very smart and articulate gentleman. I was a little surprised at the difficulty that Mr Gosling had in presenting his keynote on Tuesday as it didn’t quite match my memory. Granted, the gathering where I met him was about twenty developers talking to him and the keynote was given in front of at least four hundred people, so it could simply be a matter of comfort with the scale. In any case, I found his talk to be little more than what he said on his slides⁴. After his keynote, I attended the Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris presentation. I will talk about that in a later post.

In any case, Mr Gosling made an offhanded comment that with NetBeans, people were finally moving away from the “bad old days” of emacs and Makefiles. While I agree with him that moving away from Makefiles is a good thing⁵, I can’t quite agree with him about moving away from the highly specialized text/code editing tools called emacs and vi (of which my preferred variant is vim). If your IDE supports working with emacs or vim in an integrated manner, this is good, but such integration is rare and is often badly enough done that it buys you nothing. My issue is that while IDEs have definitely improved, and there are definite advantages to using them, I think it is far more advantageous to use a very dense, highly expressive language.

Let’s compare iText 1.3 (Java), iTextSharp 3.0.9 (C#), and PDF::Writer 1.1.3. This is not a perfect comparison, because I have not yet finished my analysis of the completeness of either of the other libraries with respect to compliance to the PDF specification and estimate PDF::Writer’s compliance at about 50%. According to David A. Wheeler’s sloccount, iTextSharp is 70,449 lines of code with an estimated value of $2.5M. iText is either 72,451 or 76,107 lines of code ($2.4 - $2.5M). PDF::Writer, on the other hand, has 5,061 lines of code in version 1.1.3 ($148K). The development line that I had for RubyConf was at 6,700 lines of code ($200K), and that represents two lines of code that don't work with each other (so the number will both be going up and going down as components are replaced). While 70,000 lines of code isn't that big, it is more than 12× larger than PDF::Writer is currently and right at 10× larger than I expect PDF::Writer will ever be⁶. I would be surprised if the total Ruby-PDF Tools package is more than about 15,000 lines when it’s released sometime in 2006.

The manageability of a language with greater expressiveness is clear—and while I will be giving Komodo a try⁷, I think that it will end up being far more work to maintain a project with Komodo than the management that I do now with CVS, a good two-pane file manager, and vim. Especially now that RubyForge has SVN support. At work—where we are working on a much larger project—I consistently impress my team lead with how quickly I can get a handle on the code by switching between a variety of tools (which sometimes includes Visual Studio for its rapid searching of a project, or its integrated debugger) and doing most of my development and code browsing in vim with a Perforce integration plugin.

The lesson, I think? Dense, expressive code matters much more than an IDE. At least, in my opinion.

¹Sun’s extensible IDE that appears to be a competitor to IBM’s Eclipse project.

²I know at least twelve⁸ distinct programming languages, and know enough to consider myself good to excellent in at least four of those and can bring myself up to speed on any of the rest in short order, or learn a new one in just a little longer. I can read a few more languages for understanding, which will probably include a dialect of Common Lisp in the near future to support my PDF::Writer activities. I think that it’s safe to say that I’m very experienced.

³So busy, in fact, that the planned release of PDF::Writer 1.1.4 has slipped a holiday, from Hallowe’en to Christmas. Sigh.

⁴This is not a problem with his talk, but with his slides. Having seen a number of different presentation styles at RubyConf 2006 this past year, I was most impressed by those people who gave a meaningful talk with tips from both Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen and Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullets. Their slides were simple and clear talking points with very little text. Far too many presenters—myself included—used too much text. My best slides were those which captured something to talk about. If I had my presentation to do again, I would do it much more with the “Takahashi”-style iconographs or slides with at most four words on them. When I get back to working on the PDF::Presentations code, I will be developing both a standard presentation format and a simplified “talking-points” presentation format that will complain if it gets more than a few words and will maximize the space used by those words.

⁵I hope to, in the not too distant future, introduce Rakefiles or Rantfiles for the POSIX platform builds at work.

⁶What’s funny is that I did a lot of Ruby evangelising at the tech days, both to Sun tech folks and to some of their clients. I don’t care if they use Ruby in the end or not, but I firmly believe that one should learn as much as one can about different ways of programming. I was using the iText and iTextSharp implementations of PDF support and was stating the difference as a mere 10× difference, although I started hedging my bets and even used a 5× difference (saying 25kLOC to 50kLOC). Now that I’ve done the comparison, I’m just a little flabbergasted at how little I needed to hedge my bets. Just goes to show, you know?

⁷I feel that it is at least owed, since they were kind enough to give me a licence. Who knows? I might even like it!

⁸C, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, Perl, JavaScript, REXX, Pascal (plus the Delphi/Object Pascal variant), Ada (plus the PL/SQL variant), sh scripting (plus the ksh and bash variants), and Visual Basic for Applications. There’s also smaller languages that I don’t generally count, but am in fact very good at producing what I want.

After nearly nine years together...

2005-12-04T06:06:23Z

Anne-Marie asked me to marry her in August. It is fitting that it was done originally over instant messenger, as we first met in IRC and on a newsgroup that we both visited.

I, of course, accepted. Now, we just need to get a few technicalities taken care of and plan it, but come next September, I will be a married man. I already knew that I wanted to grow old with herâ”I knew that from the day that I met herâ”but I am honored to be her husband as well as her life partner.

See more progress on: get married

On Respect and Business Transactions

2005-11-28T20:10:59Z

This has been split off from a much longer discussion posted by trinker. The specific comment to which I’m responding is this one.

In that discussion, griffen had indicated that he would not be interested in visiting Sicily (and, ultimately, much of Europe) because the nature of communication is different than he feels comfortable with handling (he freely indicates that he is autistic). There are also other statements in the discussion indicating that he considers big box stores (and cold American consumerism) more comfortable than smaller stores and would not consider shopping at smaller shops because he doesn’t want to shop anywhere without “Corporate Standards”. trinker’s last post suggested that I had not made the advantages of smaller stores quite clear. Because of the length of the response I was writing, I felt it better to start the discussion here on this point. I do not believe that I have misrepresented anyone in the discussion in my quick summary above. Finally, I am restating some of the points I made in this response because the discussion was spread over a couple of different discussion threads.

Since emigrating to Canada, I have had to learn to soften my American directness, as it is very often seen as demanding, rude, and is sometimes seen as treatment of others as “beneath” me. It’s not that I think that people are less than I am, but I am perceived that way because of how I have at times handled what amount to business transactions.

griffen indicated that, at least in part because of his autism, he divides people into “important” and “not-important” and tends to deal with “not-important” people in minimal-energy-expenditure mode. I may be wrong, but the indications provided in the discussion suggests that while that may not be “rude”, it is substantially more direct and with less personableness than is used with those in the “important” column. I consider that attitude regrettable, if not problematic. I understand the energy issue problems¹. I said:

Without treating the salesperson or fishmonger as an important person, you can’t possibly build a useful and productive relationship with them. Okay, I’ll grant that if you’re dealing with someone that you’ll never see them again, the time may be wasted. Or perhaps if you’re dealing with a store where the people are treated like interchangeable salesdroids², then the time may again be wasted.

An example I later gave clearly indicated that the employees of gas bars (gas stations) are people with whom I don’t generally form relationships of any sort with. I still make an effort, when I go inside, to make sure that I’m friendly, but I will as often as not use the pay-at-pump feature that more and more gas stations offer³. I continued:

It becomes more interesting when you consider recurring “transactions.” When you deal with the same person repeatedly, then always dealing with them in mere transactions is ultimately counter-productive. The fishmonger may never become a friend, but being friendly to him makes him more inclined to be friendly to you, make better recommendations (because he will know your sense and possibly even what you’re making for dinner!), and may even be inclined to give you better fish or even a little more.

The fishmonger was an example from early in the conversation. Alternative threads indicated that griffen expected the fishmonger to always be honest with him, but that in many ways misses the point that I—and others—were trying to get at, I think. This is not a matter of honesty; it is a matter of wanting to go the extra mile for a good and friendly customer. I illustrated this specifically with an example of my local cheese shop in Toronto (the Cheese Boutique):

As an example, I had pleasant conversation with my local cheese shop proprietor over a period of several months. I was holding a party where I wanted to use an entire wheel of brie (about 12-13” across). He sold me the brie at half of his normal price for the cheese (I know; I’ve bought brie from him since). Another time, he let me borrow a girolle (a special slicing tool to be used with a particular type of wheel cheese that ends up making the cheese sliced into a florette shape) for a party and return it to him the next day. Were my friendly conversations with him useless? No, they enhanced the quality of my transactions with him and ended up benefiting me.

Forming a positive relationship—however superficial—with the proprietors ends up making it easier for them to want to do better by you. I know the owner of the Cheese Boutique (Fatos Pristine) and the names of three of his (adult) boys (Agim, Afrim, and Eleir). They don’t have nametags; I took the time to ask them their names and to learn how to pronounce them properly (they are, I believe, Armenian). I talked to them about the cheeses that I was selecting. I deferred to them as experts. I was friendly without pretending that I was their friend. In return, they have consistently recommended excellent product, given me discounts, and allowed me to borrow equipment for single-time uses. If that’s not a clear advantage of dealing with a smaller store and forming a relationship with the people that I am simply doing transactions with, I don’t know what is.

Elsewhere, griffen indicated that he doesn’t shop anywhere but chains, because “I don’t trust the quality or the workmanship of the goods if there isn't a set of corporate standards in place.” I’ll be quite honest that this is a bit of a boggle. The perception that larger chain stores provide “better quality” because of “corporate standards” is merely that: perception. Sometimes it’s true, a lot of the time it’s not. I haven’t been in a position to need such as of yet, but some day I will be buying a tailored suit. Why? Because I know that the quality will be far superior than I can ever get from a larger store with “corporate standards” because it will be fitted to me. The few times that I have had quality issues at the Cheese Boutique, the return has been completely hassle-free. (One time, even, I got product replacement without a return.) Why? Because they know me; I am a regular customer and I am friendly to them.

It’s not always going to be possible to have that sort of relationship. It’s damned near impossible to do so in somewhere like a Home Depot, Best Buy, or something like that. On the other hand, I go often to a local coffee spot that’s part of a bigger chain. One morning I ordered a specialty hot chocolate but was instead given a specialty latte. I don’t drink coffee. I went back the next morning (because I didn’t realise it until I had gotten to work) and said something. The barista and I laughed about it; I got a hot chocolate for free and a discount on a muffin.

One cannot get the level of high-quality service that I believe most people expect without forming some level of positive relationship with the people from whom you buy. In some cases, it doesn’t matter. In others, you care quite a bit. Hm. Another example: when I buy my next laptop, I don’t really care from whom I buy it: I am buying a brand, not a store. I know more about laptops and computers than most of the folks who actually sell them. However, when I buy my next entertainment system, I know exactly which store I am going to go to because they have made a strong reputation on their customer service and high level of knowledge about their products.

I think that truly captures what I’m trying to say better than my previous arguments. A fishmonger is going to be—in most cases—far better than you will be at telling good fish from bad and giving you better fish. These stereo folks know much more about the technology and equipment than I do. The folks at the Cheese Boutique know their product. I treat people from whom I buy like people and experts in their business: I get better service. I treat them like salesdroids: I get salesdroid service. But even when I’m at Best Buy, I make the effort to be friendly and treat them as if they know what they are talking about⁴. It doesn’t cost me anything; it doesn’t even necessarily prolong the transaction more than a couple of seconds. But it makes their day better and easier and that’s better all around.

¹I am not autistic to any degree, so far as I know. I am, however, apparently mildly hypoglycemic with a really short fuse when I am overtired or overhungry or my energy levels are similarly very low.

²Which is itself a problem. The best people I deal with are knowledgeable and relatively long-time employees of the business. A lot of big box stores have been fooled by the “success” of Wal-Mart into treating employees as interchangeable—even “greeters.”

³Less now, though, since I had an experience where my ATM access card information was skimmed last year, or when I do, I almost exclusively use a credit card.

⁴Which is a good default setting, until they show themselves not to know what they're talking about.

memeage

2005-09-12T13:48:52Z

“What I’ve Done” meme, via from janetmiles, behind the cut.
Things that I’ve done or are factual about me are bolded.

I am bisexual or homosexual.

I’ve consumed alcohol.

I’ve run away from home.

I have lied to my parents about where I am.

I listen to political music.

I collect comic books.

I am shorter than 5’5".

I think I’m ugly.

I shut others out when I’m depressed.

I open up to others easily.

I watch the news.

I own over 5 rap CDs.

I own an iPod or MP3 player.

I own multiple designer purses, costing over $100 a piece.

I own something from Hot Topic.

I own something from Pac Sun.

I own something from The Gap. (And Old Navy.)

I own something I got on e-bay.

I love Disney Movies.

I am a sucker for hair.

I curse regularly.

I paid for that cell phone ring.

I am a sports fanatic.

I have "x"s in my screen name.

I’ve slipped out an "lol" in a real conversation.

I love Spam.

I bake well. Cheesecakes, at least.

I would wear pajamas to school.

I own something from Abercrombie.

I have a job.

I love Martha Stewart.

I am in love with love.

I am guilty of tYpInG lIkE tHiS.

I am self conscious.

I love to laugh.

I smoke a pack a day.

I liked Perks of Being a Wallflower.

I liked Go Ask Alice.

I have cough drops when I’m not sick. Only the really good German ones, and then only in the winter.

I can’t swallow pills.

I can swallow about 5 pills at a time no problem.

I eat fast food weekly.

I have many scars.

I believe in ghosts.

I can’t sleep if there is a spider in the room.

I am really ticklish.

I see a therapist.

I take anti-depressants.

I love white chocolate.

I bite my nails.

I am comfortable with being me.

I play video games.

I’m single.

I’m in a relationship.

I’m married. Well, she’s asked me.

Gotten lost in your city.

Saw a shooting star.

Wished on a shooting star.

Saw a meteor shower.

I had a serious surgery.

Gone out in public in your pajamas.

I have kissed a stranger.

Hugged a stranger.

Been in a fist fight.

Been arrested.

Laughed and had milk or another drink come out of your nose.

Pushed all the buttons on an elevator.

Made out in an elevator.

Swore at your parents.

Kicked a guy where it hurts.

Been close to love.

Been to a casino.

Been skydiving.

Broken a bone.

Skipped school.

Played spin the bottle.

Gotten stitches.

Drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour.

Bitten someone.

Been to Niagara Falls.

Gotten the chicken pox.

Kissed a member of the same sex.

Crashed into a friend’s car.

Been to Japan.

Ridden in a taxi.

Shoplifted.

Been fired. It was a mutual parting, officially.

Ever had a crush on someone of the same sex.

Had feelings for someone who didn’t have them back.

Stole something from your job.

Gone on a blind date.

Had a crush on a teacher.

Celebrated Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Been to Europe.

Slept with a co-worker.

Had children.

Been to Africa.

Driven over 400 miles in one day.

Been to Canada.

Been to Mexico.

Been on a plane.

Seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Thrown up in a bar.

Been snowboarding.

Been skiing.

Met someone in person from the internet.

Been to a moto cross show.

Gone to college.

Graduated college.

Had someone cheat on you.

Miss someone right now.

Taken painkillers when you didn’t need them.

Smoked weed.

Snorted cocaine.

Ate shrooms.

Inhailed Nitrous.

Been in love.

Cheated in a relationship.

Woke up crying.

Cried yourself to sleep.

Peed from laughing.

Had sex in a car.

Had sex in public.

Had sex in the shower.

Had sex in a sibling’s bed.

Had sex in a parent’s bed.

Had two dogs at a time.

Wished someone dead over a stupid little thing.

Been in love with a celebrity.