A Curious Little Blog

I am a "software developer." I don't know when or why this title became preferred to "programmer." Probably it sounds less technical and therefore more professional. Perhaps engineering school graduates called themselves "software engineers," and non-engineer programmers wanted a similar title. Whatever it is, I can't get used to being a "developer" instead of a programmer. I write programs; I am a programmer. If you spend a lot of time on computers, eventually you pick up some shortcuts. The best shortcut I ever learned was how to touch-type, but that's in a different class, because you have to practice it to use it. The kind of shortcuts to which I am referring are the shortcuts that you just learn about once and keep re-using. Many of them involve using the keyboard instead of the mouse, because typing tends to be faster than moving a mouse, even if you aren't able to touch-type. For example, when you go to log into a ...

A group of animals announced today the formation of a new organization, Animals for People's Ethical Treatment (APET). A spokesbear read the following prepared statement: "We animals are grateful for everything PETA has done to demonstrate that there is no moral difference between humans and animals. Their efforts have finally begun to bear fruit in legal recognition. In 2004, Austria banned the use of wild animals in circuses and made it illegal to restrain dogs with chains. The Italian city of Reggio Emilia prohibited the live boiling of lobsters and required that humans guarantee all of their pets an equal share of food (which, regrettably, we often don't share with each other). Switzerland then passed sweeping legislation in support, not just of animal protection, but of animal dignity. Animals have not been this well protected since the Nazis took power. Those laws were merely the forerunners, however. The great victory in animal rights was the Spanish gov...

I get bored easily, especially when I have to do something that occupies my hands but not my mind -- washing dishes, folding laundry, driving, and mowing the lawn are all common cases. Sometimes I just want to reflect, or even just vegetate, but usually I want some kind of input to keep my mind occupied. Therefore, it was a great boon to me when I discovered books on tape. Not only did it give me something to think about while performing manual tasks, it also gave me a chance to catch up on all the classics that I had shirked reading in college. Libraries usually have a good collection of classics, especially literature, so I got to read a lot of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and other famous novels. After 20 years, however, I'm starting to run out of material. There are plenty more books on tape, but they tend to be recent novels, mostly mysteries, that I don't care that much for. If I wanted to read the classics, there are plenty of places where I could download them for...

My work computer refused to boot one day, complaining of a corrupt dll. I replaced the dll from two different sources, but it still wouldn't boot. I had to re-install Windows, which was already a pain, because it meant I'd have to re-install all the programs as well -- that, or figure out a way to save the registry. (This is not normally an issue in Linux, although occasionally problems do get to the point that you need a "clean install.") My boss suggested reformatting the hard drive, so I had to re-install everything. But that brought up a new issue: what about my files? I had quite a few programs that I had been working on. I hadn't checked in the source code into Subversion, and there were other files besides source code. I actually have two hard drives on my computer, so it would be trivial to copy the files off of the c: drive before I reformatted it. It would be trivial, that is, if only I could boot my computer. The Windows install cd gives an op...

I got to install Linux on my wife's laptop through a convoluted set of circumstances. The laptop was having symptoms, such as never shutting down on its own, that irritated Tanya. After tinkering around and googling failed to solve the problem, I figured I could at least fix it by reformatting the hard drive and re-installing Windows. To my surprise, the problem continued -- more on that later. I told Tanya that there was nothing else I could do. Windows still ran, with quirks; but I offered Linux if she was desperate for a fix. Under normal circumstances, she would probably never have agreed to have Linux installed. However, at the time she had a work laptop that she used most of the time, so she happily let me wipe out Windows and install Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). Tanya is highly dependent on Microsoft Office, especially Excel, which she uses constantly at work, and she isn't interested in giving OpenOffice a try. Fortunately, Wine has progressed to the point that it...