Jay McGavren’s Journal

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010, Jay McGavren wrote:
> Hey, I notice the title of my talk appears to be "Programmer Analyst".
> (Which is funny, since that also happens to be the title of my
> job.  I'm guessing I made a mistake on the talk submission
> form. :)
>
> Could you change it to something more exciting, like "Ruby on Android
> with Ruboto"?  :)
>
> -Jay

Ha, funny. It’s been fixed. You know, the field “title” was a bit
vague. You weren’t the only one to do that. Somehow I didn’t catch
it was a job title. I was a bit curious how it related to the talk!
;)

Cheers,
Marty

Uh, oh, I may have exposed myself to significant legal liability. I haven’t included a section like this in the license for any of my software releases…

You acknowledge that this software is not designed, licensed or intended for use in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility.

–License agreement for a java.net library

This reads like science fiction:

So to turn on GPS for the first time, go outside and find a direct line of sight to the sky (you only need to do this the very first time). Then on your phone, press > Settings > Location & security.

–Motorola Droid Tips and Tricks manual

you’ve got to be the best
you’ve got to change the world
and you use this chance to be heard
your time is now

…

don’t,
let yourself down
don’t let yourself go
your last chance has arrived

–Muse, “Butterflies and Hurricanes”

I don’t really like the song, but they’ve got another one titled “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist”.

# Settings specified here will take precedence over those in config/environment.rb

# In the development environment your application's code is reloaded on
# every request.  This slows down response time but is perfect for development
# since you don't have to restart the webserver when you make code changes.
config.cache_classes = false

#...

class <<STDOUT
  def write(string)
    super(`banner -w 40 "#{string.gsub(/[^A-Za-z0-9]/, ' ')}"`)
  end
end

Continue Reading »

A computer can mimic the style of a classical composer by analyzing sheet music. I bet GUIs could be (partially) generated for command-line tools. You just analyze how people mapped a CLI tool’s functions to a GUI wrapper (say, Git vs. GitX), then apply the rules you learn to other CLI tools.

We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired to glory.

-Cicero

30 minutes on a crappy $80 pneumatic stair-stepper, and I didn’t even notice the time ’cause I was also on my laptop (on the counter). Did nothing more than break a mild sweat, but I feel great, like my body’s been purged of a poison.

1:16 PM me: Then yeah, the switch to HandlesEvents is better.
loganbarnett: Last thingie.
me: coo…
loganbarnett: Our Jemini talk was accepted at RubyConf (:
1:17 PM me: Are you SERIOUS????!!!
YeSsssss!

Another attempt at time lapse, this time with a movie and the ffmpeg script Ray Niemeir pointed me to a few months back. (Finally getting around to it.)

clouds.MPG

lightning.MPG