when i find myself in times of trouble
mother mary comes to me
speaking words of wisdom:
“code in C”, “code in C”
This is a great article on the software behind the Mars Phoenix Lander
Rosie and I headed up to Boston for the weekend for a family gathering. People flew in from Austrailia and Ireland to meet up. Boston is a nice enough place, but it just doesn’t have the heart that NYC has. It’s like something is missing somehow. The city is beautiful, and there is lots to do, but it lacks something that I have a hard time putting my finger on. Alot of Red Sox fans happen to live there too, which doesn’t help matters. Perhaps it’s because NYC has 14 times the population that Boston has. Who knows.
Ok, enough trash talking. Boston’s ok and we had a wonderful time there. We stayed at the Fairmont Copley Plaza which is Boston’s answer to the Waldorf Astoria here in NYC. We got dressed up for dinner and hit the local pub scene. The bars in Boston close at 1:45am, which in this case I suppose I lucked out. Any later and it would probably have led to trouble.
Well I wish I could say I did something awsome or traveled for the three day weekend, but the truth is I didn’t. Rosie and I were busy packing up our home. We’re having carpet installed this week and we’re trying to get as much out of the way as we can. Everything is being moved to storage which will make moving easier. I’ve even packed up my computer and am only operating off my laptop. All the books have been removed and my home office is starting to echo.
On the evening of the 4th, we just bar-b-q’d with the neighbors. Rosie made two pitchers of flavored martinis. We had Spiced Apple Martini’s and Sugar Plum Martini’s. Good Times. Someone made burgers, and someone brought over some icy cold beers. I’m DEFINITELY going to miss living here. My neighbors are awsome.
Other then that, the rest of the weekend was spent hitting the gym and working at home *blah*.
The “Big Brother Watch” page has really started to grow, so I’ve decided to separate it from this web site and spin a new one off for it. I think the information I post there is important and needs to be seen in context. It deserves its own website. The page is not really a political site, I don’t really have a close relationship with any major political party, the page is more of a site to discuss losing certain freedoms. I’ve choosen the current format for a few reasons. By simply posting the new articles and not making a comentary I seem less like some sort of conspircy theorist. The truth is, these things are happening and by reading the news articles themselves you can build your own picture of the truth. An impassioned monologue by me will do nothing to add or subtract. I view my job in this case as that of someone who simply directs readers to articles that may have been overlooked while skimming the newspaper on the way to work in the morning.
The new site does not yet have a URL associated with it, but when it does it will be announced. I’ve just started the early design phases and hope to be up and running within a few weeks. After the site is up, this page will remain happily oblivious of any such topics.
Well, if you live on the East Coast and you feel like getting away for a weekend but don’t feel like going to far away, Atlantic City is a great place to go. Rosie and I went down last weekend with another couple. We stayed at our time share, the Windham. We’re not much for gambling, but we each won about $250 at the slot machines on a lark (here’s an article on the technical aspects of “slot machine payouts”). Anywho, AC is a lot of fun. We went down for the drinks and dining and to stroll along the boardwalk. One thing is a little apparent, AC is kind of ghetto. Aside from that we had a good time. Lots of drinks .. It took me a day or two to detox from the experience 
It’s been a long weekend. We’ve finally had the place painted and it came out great. Rosie and I did ok on the home/office, but truthfully, we weren’t as good as the professionals that came up and did the rest of the place. They really had an eye for detail. Although we hired professionals to do the job, we weren’t off scott free. We had quite a bit of packing to do to make room for the painters to work. We put a load of stuff into storage which will make it easy for us to move …. So … the cats out of the bag now. after the carpets get done in two weeks we’re finally putting the co-op on the market. We’re both very excited. We’ve had our eye on a neighborhood further east of here and we can’t wait to start looking in ernest.
Over the weekend, we also saw a midnight show of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. The concept of the show was great. It was the Peanuts as teenagers. The show was quite entertaining, though I would have done a few things differently with the character development.
Since the painters finished up early today (Sunday), Rosie and I slipped out ande had Sushi for lunch followed by massages. Our co-op is still in shambles from all the work thats been done so I suspect we’l have to go out for dinner as well.
Best Regards
Biff
Ok .. I bolted out of bed and quickly made it to my blog .. World Peace .. the solution is so simple .. Ok now .. get this ..
If everytime someone got angry .. they ate a spoonful of peanut butter. Seriously .. how long can you stay peeved after you’ve dug into a peanut butter jar with a spoon.
Great .. now that I’ve solved this issue, what are they going to say at the next Miss America Pagent? Another American institution down the tubes.
OK, thats it .. I’m going to watch TV now.
I had a conversation with a fellow about a week ago. He works at a publishing company but sings in a band on his spare time. At any rate, he mentioned that very young women used to try to meet him, but now think of him as a nice middle aged man. He’s like .. I don’t FEEL middle aged. MY BRAIN is still the same as it was when I was young….
Mine too I suppose. I don’t actually think my brain/mind started thinking old thoughts. I thought it would when I was younger, but it’s not actually the case. I felt that at some age, I’d want to put on a suit and go to work someplace with the wall street journal tucked under my arm. Surprisingly, that’s not the case. When I was a kid, I used to think that it would be awsome to be shot out of a cannon at the circus .. you’d think thoughts like that would fade away over time .. but .. nope. At least not with me. Probably, the only difference in the thought process is that I’m armed with more facts and I’m a little more fearful. I’ll explain.
I know more things, so I think about things a little differently then I did when I was 18. Not terribly different, but with a different slant. Like, I’ve worked in the financial industry for a while. I went from knowing next to nothing about the stock market, to knowing enough to watch Squawk Box every morning before leaving for work and understanding everything they are talking about. So, the fact that I’ve learned a little about the financial markets gives me an interest in the topic, but my thinking isn’t so much different that I don’t think .. hrm .. Becky Quick isn’t bad looking. See what I mean.. an 18 year old mind armed with enough knowledge to make different things interesting.
In terms of fearful, as one gets older, life becomes a matter of risk management. I’ve fallen enough times to make riding a skateboard less appealing. When I was a kid I loved playing with fireworks .. till I nearly burned down someones house. I’ve had enough car accidents to make driving really fast seem dumb. Its not that I don’t want to do a gnarley skater jump, make things blow up or go really fast, its just that I know how bad it hurts when you make a mistake.
So .. there you have it. . fear and a little more knowlege is the only thing that seperates you from being a 6 year old.
Most Linux desktop users are using the Gnome Windows Manager these days. It’s ok, but I’ve decided to make the switch back to the fvwm windows manager. fvwm is the more configurable (although its quite a bit harder to set up). One of the things I missed about the Gnome desktop however was its main panel/taskbar. So, after much research I’ve figured out how to add it to the fvwm setup :
AddToFunc InitFunction
+ I Exec exec gnome-settings-daemon –sm-disable
+ I Exec exec gnome-panel –sm-disable
+ I Exec exec nm-applet
+ I Exec exec xv -root -rmode -maxpect -max -quit $[fvwm_wallpaper]
so, there you have it.
Huge news this week .. Google has announced Real Time Market Data Feeds. Prior to this, stock feeds to the regular Joe were delayed by five minutes, giving Institutional Investors a distinct advantage over everyone else. Now, home investors will be able to create investment strategies based on speed and do algorithmic trading based a live market data feed. It’s HUGE
As a result, you can look forward to a new suite of market data tools from me. The software is nearly completed and will be posted at my OpenSource Software Site. I’ll make an announcement here when its posted
