The Real stuff

2001-06-13 14:40:16

"always the way ............ fuck you never even raised your voice at gary that i can remember .. put it this way .. i was very eager impatiently waiting for you to get mad so i could see what you would do when "angry" , cuz your always mellow and like i always said... YOU LOOK EVIL! :) menacing, intimidating, whatever.. so thats why i am SURE you didn't yell! i was dissapointed :)" -Atom_Smasher, guy I used to work with.

2001-04-13 09:03:48

Another letter to Victor.
Java is sweet, while I do like & use perl a fair bit I still have major hesitations as to it's applicability to large projects (say over 5 thousand lines). The OOP structure is just _weird_, I can tell that all the important features are there but it just kind feels odd.
Yeah, I haven't worked on anything too large with Perl or Java. The OOP _is_ weird in Perl -- when I finally grokked it, I did know whether to be impressed that they extended Perl to cover references and took the next logical step to objects, or disappointed that it is such a band-aid solution. Python is a sweet OO language. Everything's a first class object, and the syntax is so straightforward it took me a few times to stop trying to fancy it up. The interpreter compiles to bytecode first, just like Perl, but you can coax it to write the bytecode to a file so you can skip the compile step the next time you run a script. mod_python (or is it called mod_snake?) is out for Apache. Is Python scalable? Dunno, I haven't used it for large projects yet.
I get the sense that Perl may become tomorrow's Fortran: outmoded eventually, but too many useful libraries to just give up on it.
I'm considering getting Java certification from IBM -- some of the positions (full-time, though) that I've been checking out ask for MCSE's, J2EB, and other weird letters. In absence of a degree, maybe getting some other piece of paper would help me get work. An agent I spoke to yesterday, who is one of the few good ones, confessed he was embarassed that a person with my talents in his portfolio has been without an interview for so long. It's not that I'm unsuitable, he offered, just that projects keep getting canceled or departments laid off. I may be worth my weight in gold, but apparently nobody can afford to buy gold.
I'm negotiating to buy-out the clients for a webfarm being run by a friend who wants to get out of that business. Since I did everything technical and support (but not sales, argh) for InternetPresence, a web farm, then I think I'm quite qualified to run my own. It's a step in the direction of getting out of prostitution.com.

2001-03-02 10:25:28

I just wrote a letter to Victor Wiewiorowski, an old friend from Waterloo who wanted to know why the hell did I not say anything for two months and then pipe up about All Your Base Are Belong To uST. So I gave him an update that could be useful to post here, seeing as I don't know the next time I'll have a net connection.
- Wrestling with Linux to hopefully become my workstation. I've got an IDE+SCSI system, which seems to be the one possibility that LILO can't handle. I've got the very popular SB Live! sound card, which seems to be beyond the capabilities of two of Linux's three sound driver/servers. Steve VanEgmond and I are sharing notes. Some Linux distros just puke when I try to use them for install (Mandrake, RedHat 7.0); however, Debian doesn't seem to catch on fire.
- Out of work since Xmas. Actually, since November, but I figured nobody would hire just before Christmas, so I got on the jobhunt Dec 27th. Argh. I have eight (8) recruitment agents that I call often (started with three), as well as checking three newspapers daily. Still nothing. WTF? I'm thinking about getting certified by IBM for Java development, as it might attract some offers, but I'll still prefer mod_perl or mod_php3 over Tomcat or Jakarta.
- We've moving to a new space. 1600 sq ft of ex-warehouse. I hope to get a net connection wired up in there by an ISP down the hall in the same building. Sarah will be using the space for an art gallery and performance space as well. Did I mention she's an acclaimed performance artist? The space is zoned commercially, and the floors are *not* waterproof, as the print shop below us found out first-hand. (Luckily the $20,000 print job was two feet to the left.) Gonna be getting some waterproof linoleum or ceramic tile for the bathroom just in case of toilet problems in the future.
- Good friend is moving into my old space. Luckily this means we can put off the move to the weekend instead of doing it on March 1st in the middle of the week. Sarah and I have been living out of boxes for days. I'm hoping that my friend, living in a one-bedroom apartment, will learn some life-lessons like how to cope with being alone.
- I've been measuring my bandwidth use lately and noticing that I can consume 256kilobit/second easily when running something like Gnutella. I hope to be running a server farm there, with *at least* a Calum- substitute for ex-CSCers. See the monthly fees for this service. It could be ouchy. Know of any way Linux can do bandwidth accounting and maybe throttling? How 'bout Win32?
- Sarah and I have been both stressed out because (see above). Sarah has had a big release of tension since she's seen the place and fell in love with it. I'm still worried about money. I hope to grow the server farm into something where I don't have to be a prostitute anymore.

2001-03-02 02:34:21

Moving. Might not have a net connection for a while, but when I get it back, it will be impressively large and in the new (1600 sq ft) space that contains my office.
In the meantime, AYBAB to (Atari) ST.

2001-02-06 01:25:48

Can't stay. I've got a job interview with a big-shot bank tomorrow morning. I must say, every time I complete one of my little software projects, good luck seems to come my way. I've written a page for Babble: Mockingbird, and on request by my good friend Patrick I'm tinkering with Perl and the GD graphics library again for some map-generating software. By coincedence, Patrick is the first person I tried to imitate using someone else's software, years ago.

2000-12-29 11:37:41

Christmas is over, and it wasn't as horrible as I expected. I managed to juggle all three parents and nobody shouted at anyone (well, except my uncle Peter who is very upset about Napster. I don't support it myself, but I think he assumed I did). Tonight Sarah is throwing a birthday party for me. Normally I don't bother celebrating my birthday (Dec 30) on my birthday, but wait for Spring Equinox and called it "my birthday, observed." Sarah likes to do special things for me, though, and I'm not about to stop her.
Oh, and two nights ago I got a visit from a friend of mine. I don't know if he is a friend anymore... he's gone schizophrenic. He's not the first friend I've had who's turned schizo, but both times are a unique experience. This time is two parts annoying, and one part sad -- unless you're talking about him, he doesn't hear you.
One more thing: Tingoth was brought back online long enough for the sake of giving out Xmas presents, with his "Hairy Christians! Happy Yule!"