One of these things is not like the other…
April 27th, 2012Academic update: Spring 2012, part I: The Final Countdown.
April 27th, 2012I’m still waiting for the grade on my big final “Capstone” paper. And, no, I’m not hitting “refresh” every 30 seconds on the university’s website. I’ve managed to limit myself to checking every few hours.
In the meantime, though, my “Implementing Network Systems and Security” professor has graded all of my assignments; he hasn’t plugged the final grade into the university’s reporting system, but the numeric grades for all the assignments are there.
And…?
Loser update.
April 27th, 2012I feel a certain compulsion to note the achievement of the Charlotte Bobcats, who finished the NBA season with 23 consecutive losses and the worst winning percentage (0.106: 7-59 overall) in NBA history.
But here is my problem, and the reason I haven’t been on this like flies over a cow’s head in a Damien Hirst installation:
Charlotte only played 66 games. The 1972-1973 Philadelphia 76ers played 82 games, and finished with a 0.110 percentage (9-73).
So, yeah, Charlotte’s achievement is noteworthy, but it goes in my personal record book with a big old asterisk. I don’t like counting records from strike-shortened seasons.
Of course, if the Bobcats come back next year and make a strong run for the futility title, I’ll be on it as much as I am on anything involving the NBA.
Quote of the day.
April 26th, 2012(Edited to point to Ken’s blog entry on the subject.)
SDC updates.
April 25th, 2012Updating the SDC logs has, frankly, become a pain in the fundament.
All of that stuff is hard-coded in raw HTML using text editors. It has always been time consuming to do the updates.
Worse yet, both of the SDC log hosts are going away sooner or later; Apple is phasing out mac.com hosting, and I’m not sure what Commsite’s plans are (except they’re getting rid of the bga.com domain).
Lawrence and I have discussed this and made some preliminary plans to convert the SDC logs to a joint blog (where we both have admin/posting rights). I’ve taken some steps in that direction, and as soon as I hear back from Bluehost support I’ll be able to start taking more steps. Once I get things set up the way I want them, I’ll start moving older entries over.
Lazyweb: Microcontroller help, please?
April 25th, 2012Now that school is (mostly) wrapped up, I anticipate having some more time to do things. Like bike riding. And catching up on all those episodes of “The Wire” and “Top Gear” I haven’t watched yet. And maybe starting back up with the MIT OpenCourseware thing. And writing the third and subsequent installments of “Talking GPS Blues”.
One thing I’ve been wanting to dabble in and learn more about is microcontroller programming. In the past, I’ve given thought to purchasing one of the Basic Stamp or Propeller kits. But these days, it seems like everyone is going the Arduino route. It looks like there’s a vast community behind that particular family of devices, plenty of reference material, and a great deal of hardware that can interface with those devices. So I’m leaning in that direction.
But I’m confused. There’s the Arduino Uno, there’s the ADK Mega, there’s the Mega 2560, the Netduino and Netduino Plus, Fry’s has a bunch of Arduino clone boards, and I can even get Arduino boards at Radio Shack. (“You’ve got questions? We’ve got blank stares.”)
Question: what’s the best board for a beginner? My object is to learn how to program the Arduino, and to have some fun interfacing devices to it. I may eventually want to branch out into robotics (the 4WD platform interests me). I think I want something with headers and that “shields” can be added to, since I’m not planning at the moment to build any embedded projects and would prefer something that requires a minimum of soldering. Is something like the “Getting Started with Arduino” kit worth the bucks?
You would think the Make folks would have a guide to the various Arduinos on their site, but if they do, I have not been able to find it.
By the way, I actually do not have a soldering iron, and my skills in that area are weak. Can someone recommend a good soldering setup for electronic work as well? I’m not going to start out soldering surface mount stuff, but I’m willing to spend a little money to get something that will give me flexibility to do more advanced stuff as my skills grow.
I’d also appreciate any book recommendations folks have. I have Programming Interactivity: A Designer’s Guide to Processing, Arduino, and Openframeworks
Annals of law (part 4 of a series).
April 25th, 2012Ron Reynolds is a state representative from Fort Bend county in Texas.
Rep. Reynolds is also a lawyer.
Rep. Reynolds is also out of jail now, having posted $5,000 bail.
“Prithee, good sir,” you ask. “What was Rep. Reynolds charged with?”
Good question. After all, it is not unheard of for state lawmakers to be arrested for one reason or another; DWI, picking up hookers, carrying unlicensed firearms, etc. (There was a famous incident some years back – I can’t find the details now – where a state rep had his cousin shoot him. I can’t remember why they thought this was a good plan at the time, but both ended up in jail.)
But Rep. Reynolds is a special and interesting case. You see, he was arrested and charged with barratry.
“Barratry? Is that anything like piracy?”
No. According to the Law.com legal dictionary, “barratry” is the practice of “creating legal business by stirring up disputes and quarrels”. Now, I’ve heard of lawyers being charged with barratry before, but generally in the context of bar association proceedings and as sort of a side accusation. I’ve never heard of a lawyer actually being arrested on criminal charges of barratry; I’m sure it must have happened elsewhere, but a quick Google search did not turn up any other examples. One source I found states that nobody has ever been able to find an example of a successful criminal prosecution for barratry in Texas.
I did find:
- Apparently, barratry in Texas is a misdemeanor on the first offense, and a felony on subsequent offenses.
- A group of Dallas area lawyers are challenging the barratry law on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds. Apparently, it interferes with their ability to gather information about misdemeanor defendants and send them solicitations.
“What are you in for, son?”
“Barratry.”
And they all moved away from me there on the Group W bench…
Edited to add: Found the guy I was thinking of who had his cousin shoot him: state Rep Mike Martin.
TMQ watch: April 24, 2012.
April 25th, 2012TMQ is back temporarily, for the first of his two yearly draft columns. We were actually kind of wondering about this; ESPN dropped “Page 2” a couple of weeks ago, and we were unsure if TMQ would stay or go.
Anyway, we are glad to see Easterbrook back, and, after the jump, we will mock his mockery…
Hoke hoke hokies.
April 24th, 2012Seth Greenberg out as Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach.
He went 170-123 in nine seasons, went to the NIT tourney five times and the NCAA tourney once.
The ESPN article made it sound like his firing was completely unexpected, but the one I’ve chosen to link above indicates the firing had less to do with his record and more to do with turnover among his assistant coaches.
So is the implication here that there was a management problem? Because that’s what I’m picking up from AD Weaver’s statement.
Obit watch: April 22, 2012.
April 22nd, 2012Crab cakes? Crab cakes! CRAB CAKES?!
April 22nd, 2012From time to time, when I am out having breakfast (or brunch) with other people, I have jokingly threatened to order the Eggs Benedict Arnold. (This is one of the many reasons why you can’t take me anywhere.)
I have never actually done so. At least, not until today.
No kidding. Those are Eggs Benedict Arnold, an actual dish at Café Blue in Bee Cave. They were quite good. And, even better, they did not try to surrender my stomach to the British an hour later.
Thanks, Mom!
(And thanks to Lawrence and Borepatch for their kind wishes, too. By the way, Lawrence isn’t kidding about that “since God was a corporal” comment.)
April 20th.
April 20th, 2012I’m taking today off to celebrate my birthday, and to take care of a few minor things.
(I know we joke about the DMV, but, really, why does driver’s license renewal have to be so awful?)
One of the things I have taken care of today is school; I have finished my very last academic assignment before graduation and turned it in. I am still waiting for grades, and there are a couple of surveys I need to dispose of, but I have no more real work to do at this time. Just the long countdown to the ceremony, and a couple of events between now and then.
Anyway, folks, sorry for the slowdown. It has been less academic related, and more that there’s been a dearth of stuff I wanted to write about. As graduation gets closer, I plan to write some about that. I’ve been thinking a lot about higher education, and why I did what I did. I want to put some of those thoughts down. So expect content to pick up soon-ish.
Random notes and obits: April 19, 2012.
April 19th, 2012Today’s NYT has a longer followup article about Officer Loor.
I thought I’d wait until this morning to post the Dick Clark obits, since that gives the papers a chance to pull stuff together: NYT. LAT. Onion A/V Club.
The AP is also reporting the death of Greg Ham, of “Men At Work” fame.
A blade to the brain.
April 18th, 2012This story is too amazing not to blog.
Officer Eder Loor of the NYPD was called out on Tuesday to escort an emotionally disturbed individual to the hospital. During the process of escorting the gentleman, he became upset and attacked Officer Loor with a 3″ knife which
Officer Loor pulled the knife out of his head and was taken to the hospital, where doctors found he was bleeding into his brain.
Doctors stopped the bleeding. Officer Loor has some residual numbness in his face, which is probably due to the fact that the tip of the knife ended up pressing against his trigeminal nerve. Doctors expect the numbness to go away, and expect Officer Loor to recover fully.
Random notes: April 18, 2012.
April 18th, 2012Invasive species are good eating.
Frankly, yeah, I can see eating tiger shrimp. The Asian Carp…well, it makes me think of the old joke about how to prepare carp. (Nail it to a board, prop it in front of a fire until one side turns black, turn the board over and wait until the other side turns black, then throw the fish away and eat the board.) I’m not a big chili fan, but nutria bourguignon could be interesting. And as for feral hogs, let me just say two words: feral bacon.
This one goes out to Andrew: how to replace a bridge in a weekend, instead of months.
Oh, look! Greg “Three Cups of Tea” Mortenson is being sued for fraud!
Would it shock you to learn that one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs was also involved in the James Frey lawsuit?