Saturday, November 2, 02002
Damn I love Haskell. Everytime I write something in it, it turns out like poetry. I just wrote a simple discremenation net, in about fourteen lines of code. Well actually maybe fifty once the type declarations and supporting functions are added in, but damn, it's some nice code. Haskell parameter patten matching is the cat's meow. It's what regular expressions are to perl.
Since there's only about, oh, five Haskell programmers in the whole world I won't bore you with the code. Greymatter makes it a pain to post code anyway, what with it's automatic end-paragraphs on blank lines. But damn, it's sooo sweet. Of course input and output are next to impossible in the language, but that just means once I figure it out, you can expect another Haskell Lust Post ™. I apologize in advance.
Update: There are apparently at least seven, count'em seven, Haskell programmers. Two new ones were named on Happiest Geek in the World today. Didn't see that coming after the OCaml post, eh ?
Posted at 05:41 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Thursday, October 31, 02002
I'm going to be participating in a Deep Ecology study group soon. It should be interesting.
The weeklong mileage tracking isn't going so well. It's rained a couple days this week, and the car only gets in the upper 40's in the rain. When it's dry out, I'm getting around 56 mpg on my daily commute. I've also been good about not going out for lunch so that's also helped out some as well. Weekly average is still under 52 though ! Damn that rain !
Maybe by the time Toyota goes all hybrid I'll have topped 52 mpg !
Posted at 07:47 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Here's a scenerio not covered on the Self-Healing Minefield Site as far as I can tell:
- War ends, someone 'forgets' to clear the self-healing minefield.
- Farmer goes back to his fields. Oops, he trips a mine. There goes his leg. He's bleeding to death in the field
- Within ten seconds, the mines relocate around him, closing the breach he opened
- The wife sees her husband dying in the field. She runs out to help him.... Kaboom
- Within ten second, the mines relocate around the dying couple, closng the breach they opened
- Kid comes along, sees his parents dying in the field. Runs out to help them.... Kaboom
- Mines continue relocating to clear the breaches until either the minefield or village is empty.
Posted at 01:25 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Wednesday, October 30, 02002
Branding New and Improved Wars
Marketing a war is serious business. And no product requires better brand names than one that squanders vast quantities of resources while intentionally killing large numbers of people.
It looks like that pesky linguist Geoffrey Nunberg has some interesting articles. And even a poem or two.
Even that "new products in August" quip leads to some good reading.
Posted at 01:10 PM EST [Link][Comment]
Monday, October 28, 02002
Found on the Every Church A Peace Church site:
Perhaps Christianity may be obsolete, and when choosing between the two--Christianity and love of the State and murder--the people of our time will conclude that the existence of the State and murder is more important than Christianity, we must forgo Christianity and retain only what is important: the State and murder.
That may be so--at least people may think and feel so. But in that case they should say so! They should openly admit that people in our time have ceased to believe in what the collective wisdom of mankind has said, and what is said by the Law of God they profess: have ceased to believe in what is written indelibly on the heart of each man, and must now believe only in what is ordered by various people who by accident or birth have happened to become emperors and kings, or by various intrigues and elections have become presidents or members of senates and parliaments--even if those orders include murder. That is what they ought to say!
- Leo Tolstoi, 1909
Posted at 12:12 AM EST [Link][Comment]
Sunday, October 27, 02002
Upcoming election issues are on the Arlington County Election page.
Sigh, so I've got a choice between a nonblue Libertarian, and a LaRouche wingnut for the upcoming senate race. No Green, not even a Democrat. What's up with that ? I have to remember to bring along a pen so I can write-in D.C. Amarasinghe, so I can at least some some support for the Greens.
Nancy, it would probably be good idea if you weren't the only site Google's found that mentioned the LaRouche wing of the national Democratic Party. Oops, now there'll be two sites the next time the Googlebot visits. Still, there's got to be some sort of copyright violation lingering around there somewhere.
Posted at 10:41 PM EST [Link][Comment]
It's been a good couple weeks for hybrid-spotting. The day I took my car in to have the gas cap screwed on I saw one by the Taco Bell in Herndon, then I spotted a Civic Hybrid in the parking lot at the UUCA, then last night, joy of joys, I actually pulled up to another silver Insight on Wilson Boulevard. I honked my horn a little, the other driver puts down his window and asks what my mileage is. "A little over 51.... I know, it sucks". He laughs at me, the light changes, and he drives off. Damn those manual transmission drivers with their 68 mpg !
I've been tottering between a lifetime average of 51.4 and 51.7 for a couple weeks now. It actually dipped down to 51.2 a few times, much to my horror and dread. I've been getting a lot less than the advertised 57 mpg for city driving. I've been getting closer to maybe oh so sucktastic 45 mpg. But this is not really city driving. It's more suburban stripmall driving, where I'm either stuck in traffic on the roads beside a shopping center, or putting along inside the parking lot. I suspect I'm getting in the mid 50's for my daily commute, but then I get really crappy numbers during the weekend while I'm out running errands and what-not, and that's dragging my gas mileage down. This would also mean my lunch trips are no doubt cutting into my mileage as well.
This week I'm going to monitor things a bit more closely. Time also to start either bringing in my lunch, or using the cafeteria more. I want to break 52 mpg for my lifetime average, damn it.
Posted at 08:57 PM EST [Link][Comment]
I spent yesterday morning fighting off invaders. Mainly the English down at Lubber Run. The jeans I was wearing are so muddy they are pretty much ruined, and I have a bit of a backache today, but still, it was a lot of fun.
Posted at 10:52 AM EST [Link][Comment]
