Categories
ranting

programming note 1

Note to self: copy constructors are bad.

I spent a significant portion of the last 72 hours debugging a apparently random bug in one of my programs. Now the ‘program ‘ is really three separate programs communicating across sockets. And each one is multi-threaded. The abstract purpose of the system is to process and deliver messages. Testing with a small number or messages did not show any bugs. But under significant load the system would crash. As long as the number of messages was fairly large the point at which the system crashed as apparently random. With a little help from my boss I finally figured it out. Bottom line: copy constructors are bad and when they are implied constructors from the STL they are worse because you don’t ever realize they are there!

Only S██████ will understand this entry. :)

Categories
ranting

everyone I know goes away in the end

I got a call tonight from my mom. There was message on the answering machine at my parents for me that a teacher I knew from high school had died. It’s not like I have talked to them for a few years, I was friends with his son and was fairly good friends with him. Still, it’s the third person his age (50’s) that I know that has died of heart problems in the past three years. A great guy, old school member of SCA and a unreformed Berkley radical. Just knowing he is gone makes the world a little less entertaining.

Categories
ranting

randomness

Ahh… Behold; the power of the internet:

So, last night I was digging through my bookmarks file while I waited for something to compile. I pruned many dead links and many links I no longer needed. I ran across more than a few links I had no idea what the hell they where or why I book-marked them. Clicking on them I came across a Journal belonging to a girl I had only met once or twice through C██████. I was getting ready to delete the bookmark but one of the entries in the journal caught my eye—it mentioned the Mudhouse [ mudhouse.com ], Dirty Pretty Things [ go-underground.com ] and “a Charlottesville company” — Hum… this could be a most interesting person. So I left a note in a kinda funky, ‘you don’t know me but I know who you are’ way. Guess what? I got a reply from them today. I don’t know why but it struck my as the funny-but-kinda-scary power of the Internet. Someone from C’ville living in NoVa tracking down someone from NoVa living in C’ville randomly. Be afraid, very afraid.

But I don’t know anyone who lives in +61:

Sitting in a (very heated and important) meeting here at work this morning my mobile starts to give me that warm an fuzzy feeling as it proceeds to vibrate my leg like some toy from Anne Summers. [ annesummers.co.uk ] But when I looked at it the calling number started with +61. I said, “I don’t know anybody in Australia”—more over it’s sad that as I know no one in or from Australia (other than Catie from High School) but I know off the top of my head that +61 is Australia’s country code. So I answered it and this female voice comes back; “hello, how are you?” All I could think to say was “I’m fine—you?” And then, “I”m in a meeting right now, can you call me back in say an hour?” She said “Um. Ok, one hour? Sure.” And that was that. Never hear anything else, but I still have this +61 number on my caller id. Only things I can come up with: 1) It’s C██████ and she went of on some trip she did not mention last time I talked to her, but I doubt it, the voice was wrong—I think. 2) Wrong number, in which case I will never know—not to mention an expensive wrong number. 3) It was Mena being Mena and calling from random foreign countries (that was debunked when she ask if we could do lunch tomorrow later over I’m) So years from now suffering from Alzheimers I will have this clear as crystal memory of a girl I never heard from before or after calling me from Australia and me being too busy to talk. And I’m single and she sounded cute! ;)

Unfortunate name:

Also wanted to say that I found out in some news article that the French guy who lead the ‘investigation’ in the effect of women wearing the Hajib to school in France was named Stasi… Isn’t that scary? I mean the dudes name is like the Evil DDR secret police’s name.

and:

This journal entry has about enough substance to be the cream filling in Twinkies so I think I will stop now.

Categories
ranting

founded 1247

I’ve been really bad, not saying something sooner but I want to congratulate J███████ for being accepted to the Ph.D. Research program in Sociology at Oxford University! I cannot even say how much I envy him for going back to England. I totally agree with what he says; that the more time that goes by since we got back to more I miss my time in England and Europe. I wish I could go back to live, but I will have to settle for going to see J███████. He better watch out though, I might be there more than Kim! I hope he has the time of his life—I’m sure he will, and before Dr. Vespa comes back we will have to toast many pints at the Tuff, The Bear and The Eagle and Child.

Categories
ranting

getalif

I wish I had had my camera with me tonight. As we left J████’s condo there was a hearse parked in the lot with the license plate; ‘GETALIF’ Now the only question is, do they play ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ as they make their way to the cemetery