The five rules of Socialism:
(1) Don’t think.
(2) If you do think, don’t speak.
(3) If you think and speak, don’t write.
(4) If you think, speak and write, don’t sign.
(5) If you think, speak, write and sign, don’t be surprised.
– being told in Poland, 1987
from `fortune`
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
oompa loompas
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Oompa Loompas:
Oompa loompa doopadee doo
I’ve got a perfect puzzle for you
Oompa loompa doopadee dee
If you are wise you’ll listen to me
What do you get when you guzzle down sweets?
Eating as much as an elephant eats
What are you at getting terribly fat?
What do you think will come of that?
I don’t like the look of it
Oompa loompa doopadee dah
If you’re not greedy, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doopadee doo
Doopadee doo
Oompa Loompas:
Oompa Loompa doopadee do
I’ve got another puzzle for you
Oompa loompa doopadee dee
If you are wise you’ll listen to me
Gum chewing’s fine when it’s once in a while
It stops you from smoking and brightens your smile
But it’s repulsive, revolting, and wrong
chewing and chewing all day long
The way that a cow does
Oompa Loompa doopadee dah
Given good manners, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doopadee doo
Oompa Loompas:
Oompa loompa doopadee do
I’ve got another puzzle for you
Oompa loompa doopadah dee
If you are wise you’ll listen to me
What do you get from a glut of TV?
A pain in the neck and an IQ of 3
Why don’t you try simply reading a book?
Or could you just not bear to look?
You’ll get no
You’ll get no
You’ll get no
You’ll get no
You’ll get no commercials
Oompa loompa doopadee dah
If you’re not greedy you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the
Oompa
Oompa loompa doopadee do
2.5 months
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A lot has happened in the last couple months.
I got home from Singapore, having ended my term with Barclays.
I found and started a new job.
I’ve been apartment hunting.
Oh, and I’ve been a member of a jury for the last couple weeks. After it’s over, I can say for whom – but it certainly has been an interesting process thus far to see how a trial progresses in the real world (I’ve been a part of two mock trials previously) – and how our legal system works… or doesn’t, depending on your point of view.
It’s not fast. But it sure feels thorough.
heading home
Sunday, December 6, 2009
At 0600 SGT, I should be departing Singapore, heading back for the good ole U S of A.
My term with Barclays has passed, and I’m heading away from Singapore as quickly as possible 
anniversaries – or conspiracy?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
20 years ago the Berlin Wall fell, signaling the demise of the Soviet Union, and the Cold War.
40 years ago Sesame Street premied on PBS, signaling the use of television as an aide to education and learning.
I think the Berlin Wall fell because Sesame Street turned twenty.
an awesome visit
Monday, November 2, 2009
but not long enough 
My fiancee boarded her flight back to Kentucky this morning (Singapore time). Her three week visit was a blast: we did a weekend trip to Perth Australia, hit the Singapore resort island of Sentosa twice, and a bunch of other little stuff.
We have pictures on facebook of both Perth and Sentosa.
Turns out that kangaroos in Australia are like deer in the US – nuisances. And the Singaporean equivalent are monkeys (smaller nuisances, but can go more places). Our second outing to Sentosa had monkeys playing around one of the attractions. And we saw kangaroos at a “memorial park” (aka “cemetery”) just outside Perth – lots and lots of roos.
I’ll be back in the US for a couple weeks around Christmas, so while the separation’s no fun, at least it’ll be shorter than last time
nook
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
I’ve not yet been impressed by any of the e-book readers I’ve seen – with Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader being the apparent “market leaders” in the segment.
However, Barnes & Noble’s new Nook may change my mind. From the early reviews, it appears to have a better screen, longer battery life, and more natural navigation than either the Sony or Amazon offerings.
My previous experience with eBooks has not been overly positive, with proprietary software and awkward navigation on my PC. However, with the multi-format-capable Nook – I may be ready to give eBooks a try again.
end6 must die
Friday, October 16, 2009
Have any of you seen end6.org?
Apparently some web sites choose to redirect their viewers to end6.org rather than render in IE6.
Yes – IE6 is old. Very old. But hundreds of thousands of us are stuck using it while at work due to bad IT policies, or upgrade paranoia.
Taking me to end6 instead of your content doesn’t make me ever want to go see it at another time … say when I get home and can use a modern browser.
I’m all for pushing folks to get rid of IE6 in favor of, well, pretty much anything else. But telling me to get rid of IE6 when I have no control over it doesn’t inspire confidence in the service or content that is being offered.
And as for the end6.org site? Why is not promoting Google’s Chrome along with Firefox, Opera, Safari, and IE8?
shell scripting
Thursday, October 15, 2009
I’ve been playing around with bash scripting quite a bit recently in relation to my current job.
Came up with one that’s really useful (imho) around chkconfig:
# mass set all services known to chkconfig to be `on` or `off` at given level
# written by warren myers - warren@warrenmyers.com
# 28 sep 2009
echo "USAGE:"
echo " $0 <level> [on|off]"
echo
# list all services, just the name, skip blank lines, do in order
SERVICES=`chkconfig --list | cut -f 1 | grep -v ^$ | grep -v ':' | sort`
for SERVICE in $SERVICES
do
chkconfig --level $1 $SERVICE $2
echo "$SERVICE has been altered for $1 to state $2"
done
Yes – there’s an evil you could perform:
for CS in `chkconfig --list | cut -f 1 | grep -v ^$ | grep -v ':'`
do
chkconfig --level 12345 $CS off
done
So, if you wanted to stop all services from coming on at startup, you could – and not know you did it until you rebooted.
denita smith, 1981-2007
As I mentioned a few days ago, I was a juror on a trial. That trial was the State of North Carolina vs Shannon Crawley in the unlawful death of Denita Smith on 04-Jan-2007.
Miss Smith’s fiancee, Jermier Stroud, was implicated by the defendant. Mr Stroud is a police officer in Greensboro. Under oath, and in his previously-sworn statements, he showed himself to be a scuz-ball. Simultaneously dating Denita (for 7 years) and Shannon (for 1.5 years in the middle of the time he was “with” Denita, and culminating in a pregnancy). Under oath he admitted that he never planned to tell either girl about the other. Under oath he showed himself to be untrustworthy, a “player”, a liar, and just a general “bad guy”.
He also said that within a couple months of Denita’s murder he was dating again.
However, as bad an individual as we all believe Mr Stroud to be, he could not have been at Denita’s apartment on either 03-Jan or 04-Jan, as Miss Crawley claimed – whereas she was at the apartment the day before (I think to “scope it out”), and admits to being there on the morning of 04-Jan. She claimed that Jermier had kidnapped her to Durham both days – but multiple incoming and outgoing cell phone calls place him in or near Greensboro on the third. With those, and many other, holes in her story, we found Miss Crawley to be guilty of murder in the first degree of Miss Smith.
None of us wanted to find her guilty. I believe we all wanted to believe her: we wanted someone like Mr Stroud to be punished for what he had contributed. However, as the evidence was presented and reviewed, that conclusion was not possible.
I personally think that he’s responsible for the death of his fiancee – he did several things that I think should disqualify him at least as a police officer (reliability, lying, trustworthiness) – I do not believe he was the one who pulled the trigger. I think he was the causative factor in Miss Crawley’s crime, but causative factors do not alleviate her of guilt in the actual crime.
I’m sure this will be appealed.
I hope Mr Stroud is brought out of his place of service to the community for having acted in such ways. However, regardless of his contributions to the crime, Miss Crawley still had a choice until the moment she pulled the trigger – and did not opt to stop.
N&O report.