Ξ June 22nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
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
Ξ June 12th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
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.
Ξ June 12th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Blog |
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
Ok, I’ve never seen the value in owning a blackberry before. I have a Verizon Voyager, that does a ton of stuff .. Text Messaging, Email, Camera, Phone, etc. What else could I want? Well, “The Firm” has issued me a Blackberry Curve 8310 Smart Phone. I have to say, it blows everything else away. It has a nice viewable screen, so surfing the web is better on the Curve then on the Voyager. There are WAY more free applications for the Blackberry (actually, there are none for the Voyager). So now my smart phone is all loaded up with all kinds of stuff.
So, I’ve had a project or two at The Firm that has required a little C programming. Being on the systems side of the company these days, you sometimes have to open up OpenSource code and make some alterations or add features. Most system code is written in C or C++. Anywho, With my C hat on, I was playing around over the weekend and decided to take a few minutes and learn how to program MySQL databases using the C API. After about an hour, I was able to get some stuff running. I decided that I needed bigger data sets then I was using to see how fast it would go, so I decided to do some queries against the telecom database that I’ve been writing my Java telecom application against.
Well .. let me help dismiss a myth. I ran my Java app agains my C app. The apps did the exact same thing. They ran the same queries and stored the same data. The C program whooped the Java program in terms of speed. It wasn’t even close. Same code, off the same server, to the same database, with the same queries and the same datasets. It wasn’t even close.
I have no allegiance to either language as a development platform. I use them both equally. There are a few articles that claim that Java is faster then C/C++, but its simply not true. I found this link to support my theory and dismiss the Java faster then C/C++ myth. I realize that a lot of Java developers will scream when they read this .. but too bad.
My test wasn’t a true benchmark test, but as a developer, I’ve noticed the difference (since I work with both languages). Sure development is quicker in Java, but if performance speed is an issue, its not something I would use. There’s a reason that no Operating Systems are written in Java, Its because its not fast enough.
http://parand.com/say/index.php/2005/11/27/why-java-is-slow/
Children are afraid of the boogyman, they should be afraid of “China’s all seeing eye”. For those that don’t think that anything like that could happen in a democracy, you’re delusional. It’s already happening in London and in NYC.
This of course is under the guise of security. It will make you safer. unfortunately, it hasn’t been effective. This seems more about control then anything else.
There are those that say “I have nothing to hide, let them film me”. There will come a time when political activism, and political gatherings will be seen as subserv acts to undermine the state.
This is a pivital time in history. If you don’t stop it now, it will be to late.
Its time to move from my co-op in Queens. In truth, we can’t afford NOT to move. Interest rates are very low, and with a tanked housing market, and a need for further tax write offs, Rosie and I have decided to move on. We’ve been working on our home for quite some time and will be finished sometime in early July at which point, we’ll put the home on the market. We’re planning on moving to the suburbs. The suburbs have a lot to offer. More room, great schools, bigger homes, back yards, swimming pools, etc. We’re really looking forward to starting out new someplace else. That being said, we’re really going to miss our co-op. There’s something to be said about living in a community like this where everyone knows you. In our area, one of the things that I love is that people sit outside with each other and really get to know each other. When I get home from work, my neighbor Ed is always sitting on his stoop, and quick to offer a beer. People Bar-B-Q in our court yeard all Spring, Summer and Fall. Our neighbors always invite us over for dinner outside. Essentially, a lot of people sit on their stoops in small social groups. Its nice. To quote a blog entry by Dr. Goodness:
“The street was the stage for public life, and adults and children were outside all the time, sitting on stoops, playing in the alleys, walking to see and be seen, talking with neighbors and friends. The closeness of the houses created a strong sense of community and shared public life, and the inhabitants of a particular block knew each other well and watched out for each other’s children.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Everyone knows everyone else on our block. We keep an eye on all the neighborhood kids, we socilaize, and know each other very well. I’m going to miss that in suburbia where people tend to hang out separately, in their back yards.
