Last night I went to a stand up comedian playing at a local nightclub. Very funny. Unfortunately it was quite late, so after work I got home, programmed java, went out to the comedy thing, got back at 1am or so, then programmed java till 3am, went to bed for 3 wonderful hours of sleep, and got up at 6. And tonight I have my class till 10, and tomorrow I get to come towork early to reboot the machines. Weeeee....

Had a meeting about the FVREBintranet project (http://www.realtorlink.org). I got very frustrated, and here is why:
The system is basically an online document management system... and it blows. Its ugly, doesn't work and looks like shit. And why are we buying into this if it sucks so bad? Funny you should ask that... it looks like it is because our EO didn't want to consult with people who are familar with this stuff, and qualified to make judgements and suggestions about it. He got shown something, took the 3 color glossies and said "Ohhh! Looks good, here's a check". Now we are stuck in the hole for the money,stuck dealing with this stupid shitty system, and stuck with having the controlout of our hands.

Even worse, the other people in the meeting were complaining about things like the appearence of the headers, without noticing that the system was a hunk of junk. *sigh* it's days like this that it makes me want to quit and get a job in a company when they respect their IT people, and are willing to listen to new ideas. I understand that standards make things run smoother,but at what point do you draw the line? When people are doing 10x the work they should because of some (for example) stupid programs? I think so. If so,I draw the line right now!

On the other hand, it has inspired me to write my own software, just for fun. And if it's done well, it might even be profitable :-) I'm imagining a few things, none of which I'll put here until I get things straight in my head, but it'll involve java and C++ andapache andLinux :-) Anyone want to help me? Well if so tell me.

Speaking of stupidness, I sent off an email with the following in it yesturday, simply out of frustration:

Why are people so stupid? This isn't a news articale or anything, just a rant out of the frustration of being the only enlinuxtened one at my work. Just take some of the business cards I sent you for xmas and burn one for me...

Anyway, we have a situation where linux would be perfect... We have many images coming in from about 3 different sources, being manipulated into different sizes and formats, and then send out to different places (in this case, the internet, a catalog of real estate listings and our own system).

My manager's solution? Put them all on the PII that we bought that isn't doing anything then use VB.. hell, not even VB, but a ripoff called reflections basic, combined with batch files and other bullshit to do all the manipulation and logging, etc etc.

At one point in our brainstorming session I mentioned that I had an idea that linux might be the right way to go and he simply said 'nope, there's no linux here'.

Now imagine this: A lowend pentium, running linux (duh), with samba so the images can be accessed just like any other file from our NT server, there is a version of alchemy (image converter) that we can use, or use any of the other image tools that are for linux. FTPing, tape creation and all the other stuff can be done with bash/perl scripting (a lot is already scripted on our hpux box)... WHY WHY WHY????

I'd use our hpux box, but after a few thousand images the tools (like ls and du) break with 'too many files'. I wonder if linux could handle doing an ls on a dir with 25K files?

Why are people so stupid, close-minded and anal? I plan to ask (again) to just let me bring in my linux486 and just do stuff (and then of course shove it in his face.. 'oh, look at that, you *can* do X with linux.. fancy that' :)

Question of the day: Where are there no computers?

02/26/98

Just to prove to everyone that my programming project is not vaporware, I give to you the first public screenshot of the NetDesignprogram!

The current binary (zipped) is available along with all the other misc NetDesign stuff, at http://www.northco.net/alan/netdesign.

Random thought:
Why do paper cuts hurt more than normal cuts? Is it something about the waythat you are cut? nerve damage is different from a normal (say) cat scratch?Is the papercut different in some fundamental way, causing it to hurt and sting more than a normal cut?

02/25/98

Just found a tres cool thingy. Try it on your favorite site and see how it rates!

Tune Up Your Web Site Free:

02/19/98

Ok, another deep thought was just inspired. (Whohooo!).

Emotion sucks. It makes it hard to communicate clearly. How can you accurately get exactly what you want to say to people if you have to worry about how they interpret the way you speak, your accent, your body language, etc.I'm speaking from a totally technical viewpoint. As far as relationships andlove and all that mushy stuff go emotion is absolutely nessicary, though,when you are fighting or something emotion does get in the way(not that I fight a lot of course). Maybe this is why the internet and netzians are able to communicate so much better. The medium of email/usenet/htmland code are not ones that are face2face, so there are no implied preducies againstyour race, religion, age, or sex. Instead you are taken for your abilties and skills. If you are a great coder you are taken as such, whether you are 12 or 120. In the "Real World" you get market share, hairstyle, breast size,school graduated from, and salary all interfering with what is going on. Someone who is perfect for a job may get beaten out by someone who has better hair.Or a better car. Or knows the boss better. Or is related or something. The end result is a lack of communication. A person's "true self"is not clearly communicated. Trying to make a point to someone while telling bad jokes, or trying to complient them but saying the Wrong Thing, are all perfect examples of how emotions clog the way for the real information to get to where it should be.

And this isn't a good thing.

02/16/98

Merry Monday.
Well, the catalog only blew up once today. And it looks like most of myother work got done. Now I get to go home and (joy of joys) work on morehomework. It's java though, so it's ok.

Had an idea for a poem too... I need to get some stuff out of my head :-)Either that or I need a date. Speaking of which, our medallion awards arecoming up in 4 days. I have to get my car clean by then, so I can take[cute-girl-from-data-entry] there in style. At least I'll clean out the fastfood wrappings from the backseat.

Had an... interesting weekend. Got up Friday at 6am (per normal), went toa housewarming/drunkfest at a friend from work's place after work. I thinkI eventually got to sleep around 4-5am. I know I didn't actually get to thebed before 3, and when I actually started to try to sleep it wasn't gettinglight yet. I figure I got about 2 hours sleep anyway, and that's a bigestimate. A great time was had by all anyway I think, lots of dancing,Guiness, and loud loud music. I discovered the olderwoman wanting a youngerman thing out too (NO NOT ME). One of the guys that was there(20ish) ended up with the lady upstairs (30ish). The cot I was sleeping inwas not too far below them. All I can do for this is nod and smile.

Anyway, 2 hours sleep that night, followed by a mad rush back home to changeand shower (the thought of spending the day in the same clothes I've wornfor a day and a night already just wasn't attractive at all. From home backto Vancouver to meet up with Shelybean,who was out for a few days. From there back to Concha's house for food andmovies, and I was up till 3ish. That makes 2 hours sleep in 40ish hours?Something like that. Lets just say I was rather tired. Slept in the next day.I think I was having breakfast about the time that a couple friends came over fordinner :-)

02/13/98

Friday the 13th....
(and right before Valenties day too...)

WhohoooO! got the muffler fixed. Budget Brake & Muffler is your friend. Course, until my paycheck comes through tonight at midnight I have no ($0.00)money. Mastercard is maxed out, and I have about $5 in the bank. Time tosell my body on the street or something. Or just wait till the deposit frommy paycheck comes through...

02/12/98

later...

Have I mentioned I hate cars? Well, dropping my carpool off today, in the timeit took for me to get from my parking lot to the school to drop off an assignmentit broke. The connection from the pipe to the muffler disapeared. Great. Idon't know if this is something that requires justa weld, a new pipe, a newmuffler, or both. Either way I'm going to work tomorrow at the normal time,with the windows rolled down so I don't die of carbon monoxide poisioning.

My car sounds much more manly today.

Too bad I didn't want it to sound more manly.

Good thing I get paid tomorrow, and that I'm getting full time now. I supposethat Fate(tm) wouldn't want me to have actually accumulated any money to keepin reserve would it? Nooooo.... keep the money going outas fast as it comes in no matter how much he makes!

And I'll end this update with an obligatory "Feh!"

earlier....

More semi-interesting news and thoughts:

Got some clothes the other day. I finally decided that wearing the same5 white work shirts that I've worn the last 3 years or so was not so cool, so I went out and spent a lot of money on some new pants, a couple niceshirts and a $30 tie. The results of this are that I now have nice workclothes, date clothes shouldd the need ever arise again, and I look great. Factis that I'm now a virtual chick magnet (if not a literal one).

Or so the theory goes anyway :-)

Interesting thing with the pants. They have some strange mechanism that I'mnot familiar with. To close them, not one but two buttons are needed, the secondone being on the inside. You have to close the inner button first, then theouter one. The way that the material the outer button is on is arranged makes it a Bad Idea to only secure the second, outer button. I suppose that

Truncated due to a screw up :(