Inbred Cat...

A visual pun, via my lovely wife:

The Blues in Jamul...

Kate, my nonagenarian mother-in-law, has been visiting with us for the last three weeks.  Yesterday we put her on the plane for her trip home.  Despite being very frail and unable to walk more than a hundred feet or so in a push, and living in fear of just about everything (as a butterfly landing on her would probably cause a bruise), she was willing to leave the safety and familiarity of her home in Indiana to come spend some time with us (and our four dogs and eight cats). 

The dogs were good; they didn't jump on her and knock her down.  Even the cats seemed very careful around her.  And she had a good time with us, especially some shared sight-seeing drives and meals out (something she doesn't get to do much of back home). 

As Debbie says, it's a mixture of both sadness and relief to see her go.  Sadness, because we know we won't see her again soon (and at her age, we have to wonder if ever), and because we enjoyed her company.  Relief, because it is inevitably a lot of work to weave care and attention to her into our lives, and her stay disrupts the usual peace and calmness in our country home.  So yesterday after we put her on the plane Debbie and I had a bit o' the blues...

I'm feeling better this morning, though!

Cats and Dogs...

Via my mom:

Excerpt from a dog's diary...

8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favourite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favourite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing! 12:00 pm - Lunch! My favourite thing! 1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favourite thing!  3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing!  5:00 pm - Milk Bones! My favourite thing!  7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favourite thing!   8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favourite thing!  11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing!

Excerpt from a cat's diary...

Day 983 of my captivity... My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.  Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. Bastards. There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage. Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow – but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now.

My Weird Family, Continued...

My sister finds more weird and awesome mushrooms in her yard...

Three Logicians Walk Into a Bar...

 

Excellent!

What Is This?

Dry ice on Mars, in the process of sublimating.  From APOD, of course.

Writing Unmaintainable Code...

A treatise on how to write programs that are very difficult to maintain.  As any experienced programmer will recognize, the techniques are commonly found in code that wasn't (presumably) intentionally written to be unmaintainable.  Even though it might as well have been.  An example:

Creative Miss-spelling
If you must use descriptive variable and function names, misspell them. By misspelling in some function and variable names, and spelling it correctly in others (such as SetPintleOpening SetPintalClosing) we effectively negate the use of grep or IDE search techniques. It works amazingly well. Add an international flavor by spelling tory or tori in different theatres/theaters.

But do go read the whole thing...

A USB Typewriter?

This may be an elaborate hoax, but it sure looks real.  The tagline looks like a joke, though:

The USBTypewriter™ is a new and groundbreaking innovation in the field of obsolescence.

The claim is that this fellow has developed a circuit board that can be attached to any old-fashioned mechanical typewriter, converting it to a USB keyboard input device.  From a technical perspective, this is completely plausible.  From just about any other perspective, it's some degree of crazy (and leaning toward very crazy).  Here's the company page, the Etsy storefront, and below is their marketing video.




I'm pretty much speechless...

Faster Than Light?

More than likely you heard the news yesterday: scientists at CERN have made the results of an experiment public – and those results seem to indicate that a beam of neutrinos traveled between two locations at a speed greater than the speed of light.

If verified, this is a remarkable result that turns much of modern physics on its head.  It's as if someone discovered that one plus one doesn't always equal two.

Probably in the end it will turn out there was some flaw in the experiment – but maybe not.  After all, it's a fine group of scientists who performed the experiment repeatedly, and got the same very unexpected results every time.  More here, here, and here...

Email from My Mother...

I received the following email from my mother this morning:

To save the economy, on September 27, 2011, the government will start deporting old people (instead of illegals) in order to Lower Social Security and Medicare costs.

Old people are easier to catch and will not remember how to get back home.

I started crying when I thought of you.

RUN, YOU OLD BUZZARD, RUN!

Does your mother call you an “old buzzard”?

Trello Upate...

I posted very briefly about Trello last week.  I've been using it ever since to keep track of my personal “to do” list, and so far it's proved to be the single most usable such implementation I've run across.  For a developer, the checklist feature is absolutely perfect – I can plan out all the little steps involved for a new feature I'm adding, and then run through them.  I can add or delete or reorder these steps as I go.  I can attach screenshots and documents willy-nilly.  I have yet to run into something that I want to do, but cannot.

Nice job, Fog Creek!

Richard Feynman...

Long-time readers will already know that Dr. Feynman is one of my personal heroes.  I recently ran across something I'd read years ago – his appendix to the Rogers Commission report on the Challenger disaster, containing personal observations.  It's a masterpiece in its entirety, but I'd completely forgotten the last sentence:

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

The man had a real talent for cutting through the clutter and crap that more ordinary thinkers get distracted by.  Awesome...

It's Gonna Be an Interesting Election Year...

Nothing But a Little Hot Air...

Via my mom:

No Words Required...

Benford's Law and the Greek Debt Crisis...

We could have had early warning of the Greek debt crisis...

Clever Analysis...

I've read about this famous little bit of WWII analysis before, and then read a bit more about Dr. Wald on the web.  It's an interesting story...

Shakespeare...

I'm not sure where this originated, but it's a great presentation of a bunch of English expressions still in common use that actually originated with the bard: Shakespeare.  It's rather stunning just how much influence a single writer had.  Click to enlarge, and enjoy!

Even More SSH Tricks...

Here.

A Quintet of Moons...

Cassini is still hard at work in the Saturnian system, returning scads of good science data every day.  The photo at right (click to enlarge, as always) was taken recently, and shows five moons of Saturn all in one shot.  From left to right: Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas, and half of Rhea.  Awesome!