These are my annotated tweets for the week of 10 August 2008. Follow my microblog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/conrad_halling, then come here for the expanded version.
Learning Perl, 5th Edition
2008-08-10: I’m steadily reading Learning Perl, 5th edition, and I’m finding many useful nuggets of information, including the new 5.10 features.
This is a good, clear book, although I think it doesn’t have the reader start writing code early enough. It has been a good review for me to read this book, because Perl is a large language, and I’ve missed learning some parts of it.
I Generate Most of My Traffic
2008-08-10: How I double traffic to my web site: I work on my blog. My multiple saves account for nearly all traffic on Sundays.
That is, hardly anyone reads this blog. That’s OK, because it’s more of a memory jogging device for me than a means of communicating to the outer world. I would blog a lot more if I had the free time.
Pillars of the Earth
2008-08-12: @LionEyes What is your opinion of Pillars of the Earth? I hated it, and I gave up 2/5 of the way through. The characters had no depth.
I don’t recommend Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett.
Dell Not Compatible With Dell
2008-08-12: New Dell display just worked with MacBook Pro. But with Dell laptop, I had to install a driver to set correct resolution. I hate Windows.
My new display is a Dell 22-inch Ultrasharp E207WFP, which has 1680 x 1050 resolution. My work-provided Dell Latitude 610 laptop, which is only 2 years 4 months old and which runs Windows XP with Service Pack 2, wouldn’t recognize the full resolution of the display until I updated the video driver and installed the display driver. On the other hand, my Apple MacBook Pro, which is 9 months old, and my Apple PowerBook G4, which is 3 years 7 months old, both had no trouble using the full resolution of the display as soon as I plugged it in.
In addition, both my MacBook Pro and my PowerBook G4 have digital video ports, whereas my Dell Latitude 610 has only a VGA video port. People complain that Apple’s computers cost more, but these are two examples where the extra money is worth it to me.
My Beddian Year
2008-08-13: Yesterday I reached my Beddian year. Given that, you can figure out how old I am and what year I was born.
Your Beddian year is the year in which your age matches the last two digits of the year you were born.
Searching for “C”, “R”, “C#”, “C++”
2008-08-14: @codinghorror complains that supporting searches for “C#” and “C++” at stackoverflow.com is hard. It’s even harder for “C” (and “R”).
I really hate it when I have to perform a google search for some R code. Searching with a key word that is a single letter long doesn’t work very well.
A Send-Off
2008-08-14: We had beers this evening at the Asgard in Cambridge to send off a co-worker who is leaving tomorrow for India to get married.
We find an excuse to go to the Asgard about twice a month for beer and appetizers.
idle.slashdot.org
2008-08-14: More amusement from slashdot: http://idle.slashdot.org/. I always thought everything posted on slashdot was from idle people.
Doing Battle With Perl
2008-08-15: I spent the day trying to make some badly documented Perl modules do what I needed, but without success. I battle again tomorrow.
The code is allegedly “self-documenting,” but I still can’t figure it out. When I encounter code like this, I add POD, and I always provide examples of how to use the code. In my experience, a good example is sometimes all the documentation that is needed.
Google Ad Confusion
2008-08-15: More google ad confusion. faceyourmanga.com: “Turn your face soon in [sic] a work of art.” Ads by Google: “Brick face for your home.”
If I were the advertiser, I would ask for some of my money back for improper placement of my ads.
Redbones Barbecue
2008-08-16: I ran six miles this morning, which is good because we’re meeting friends at Redbones (Davis Square in Somerville) tonight for dinner. BBQ!
Great food, great beer, great atmosphere. It’s always fun to go to Redbones.
Congratulations to Constantina Tomescu
2008-08-16: Great performance by Romania’s Constantina Tomescu in winning the women’s marathon at the 2008 Olympics. Very poor viewing for spectators.
Ms. Tomescu ran a great race in warm weather. The course was designed so that the spectators were often 50 feet or more from the course, which meant they couldn’t really cheer the runners on.
August 17 2008 | Microblog | Comments Off
These are my annotated tweets for the week of 3 August 2008. Follow my microblog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/conrad_halling, then come here for the expanded version.
Google ads
2008-08-03: Clueless Google ads on twittercounter.com: ad for granite counter tops, ad for quartz counter tops, and ad for counter-terrorism degrees.
This is an example of why humans are (so far) smarter than computers. The ads are gone now, so possibly Google tweaked its algorithms.
Haruki Murakami
2008-08-03: I recently read A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami. Now I want to read his new book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
Geoff Dyer at the New York Times Book Review didn’t think much of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, but I read an excerpt in the New Yorker, and that was when I decided I wanted to read the entire book. Like Murakami, I’m a marathon runner, so I’m very interested in what he has to say about running and its relation to the rest of his life.
Perl’s Weaknesses for Large Software Projects
2008-08-04: Today I read about the Ensembl core software libraries and disadvantages of using Perl.
In the paper, the authors state:
However, some aspects of Perl are not well suited for a software project of Ensembl’s size. Whereas weak typing allows for rapid program development, absence of compile time checking of function prototypes and variable types is a steady source of runtime errors. Another disadvantage of Perl is its reference-count-based garbage collector, which effectively limits the use of circular references. Variables that are part of a circular reference structure are never garbage-collected and can introduce potentially serious memory leaks. Avoidance of circular reference memory leaks has necessitated some compromises to the overall system design.
Later, the authors give this rationale for moving from Perl to Java:
Perl suffers from certain disadvantages as an implementation language for a large-scale project. Java overcomes many of these problems and has the benefits of compile time type checking, enforced interfaces, multi threading, better support for graphical user interfaces, and correct garbage collection of circularly referenced objects.
Installing Perl Modules Into a User Directory
2008-08-05: Today I installed libgd and GD, GD::Graph, and GD::Text Perl modules into a user directory; this was tricky because I didn’t have root.
I plan to write a separate post about this.
Verizon’s Slow Response to Outage
2008-08-06: Both companies in our building lost phones and Internet today, making it difficult to work. Apparently someone cut fiber on Vassar Street.
MIT and Cambridge are renovating Vassar Street from Massachusetts Avenue to Amesbury Street. A construction worker cut Verizon’s fiber, disconnecting businesses at the end of Vassar Street near Memorial Drive. It took ten hours for Verizon to identify and fix the problem. Our site manager said Verizon didn’t believe him when he first called; Verizon contented it was a problem inside our building. It wasn’t until other companies called to complain that Verizon took real action.
stackoverflow.com Beta Test
2008-08-06: I’m participating in the stackoverflow.com beta test. I’ve already learned some useful things from answers to others’ questions.
2008-08-07: I’m lonely on the stackoverflow.com beta test site. So far, there have been only six posts about Perl. The site is very Microsoft-oriented.
I have greatly enjoyed listening to Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky’s podcast, Stack Overflow, which is hosted by IT Conversations. Jeff is creating a web site, stackoverflow.com, that is intended to serve as a repository of knowledge for programmers. I am a participant in the private beta test.
My useful programming experience is in Perl, C, and C++, and I spend most of my time these days writing Perl. As I have commented before in this blog and on twitter, there are already substantial online resources available to Perl coders, so I think it is unlikely that the stackoverflow site will attract much Perl-related traffic. But I decided it was worth my effort to try.
In the meantime, I’m learning lots about C# and .NET. I may need to learn C# soon.
Worst Personal Genome Project Scenarios
agbiotec twittered:
reading worst Personal Genome Project scenario: someone makes synthetic DNA corresponding to the participant and plant it at a crime scene!
I responded:
2008-08-08: @agbiotec Worst Personal Genome Project scenario: Professor clones you, and the resentful clone escapes to hunt you down and kill you!
Presumably, the unnamed professor in this scenario works at a famous ivy league university and is a pioneer in personal genomes…. And I wonder: if your clone kills you and takes your place, who would know? I think I have here the makings of a biotechnology thriller.
agbiotec responded:
@conrad_halling worse, the clone being next to you constantly and saying: “Write your thesis”, “Write your paper”, “Write your thesis’…
I agree, this is the most frightening of all.
agbiotec’s blog is located at http://semanticlifescience.wordpress.com/.
New LCD Display
2008-08-08: My quest for a new display is over. Today I ordered a Dell 22-inch UltraSharp 2208WFP 1680 x 1050; with discounts and free shipping, $292.
At work I use a Dell 20-inch E207WFP display that has 1680 x 1050 resolution. Our IT group ordered this model because it was inexpensive, but I experience a lot of eye strain with this monitor because the image isn’t very sharp. My work laptop, a Dell Latitude D610, has only 1024 x 768 resolution, and this is inconveniently small when I work at home. So I decided to buy a larger and sharper monitor for use at home. I’ll report when it arrives.
Broccoli Is Good For You
2008-08-09: If broccoli is so good for you, why can’t you buy broccoli yogurt? (For me, raspberry yogurt is the most delicious.)
I eat broccoli because it is good for me, but I really dislike its flavor.
August 10 2008 | Microblog | Comments Off
These are my annotated tweets for the week of 27 July 2008. Follow my microblog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/conrad_halling.
Differences in Nomenclature for Structures of GPCRs
2008-07-27: Last night I read two Nature papers about structures of GPCRs. Different nomenclature in the papers frustrates indexing and searching.
The authors of the two papers used different systems for naming the α-helices and β-strands in these homologous proteins. I hope to find the time to post about these papers soon.
Top 50 Science Fiction TV Shows
2008-07-27: The Boston Globe ranked the top 50 science fiction TV shows, but somehow omitted Star Trek Deep Space 9.
DS9 was not my favorite Star Trek series, but it was certainly better than some of the shows included in the top 50.
Photos of Jupiter
2008-07-28: There are spectacular photos of Jupiter on the Boston Globe’s web site.
Visio 2007 Training
2008-07-28: I spent yesterday and today learning Visio 2007 Professional in order to make flowcharts that map work processes. It was time well spent.
I’m still working on the computer-based training. Ultimately, I want to use Visio 2007 Pro for modeling databases.
Leo Laporte’s eBay Grudge
2008-07-29: PayPal should have refunded the $2200 Leo Laporte lost from an eBay ripoff scheme; his vocal complaints have caused them to lose business.
Leo Laporte is a podcaster, blogger, and twitterer, and I listen to many of his shows, including “This Week in Tech”, “MacBreak Weekly”, “Windows Weekly”, and “FLOSS Weekly”. Leo used PayPal instead of his credit card to pay for a $2200 purchase, but he never received his order. PayPal insurance covered only $200 of Leo’s purchase, so he was out $2000. Leo twittered about the problem (here, here, here, and here) and mentioned it on his podcasts for several weeks. I believe the end result was to increase mistrust of eBay and PayPal among Leo’s listeners, costing both companies much more than $2200 in business.
Added 2008-08-08: According to this tweet, eBay has given Leo a full refund for his camera.
cuil.com Search Engine
2008-07-29: I have tried cuil.com a few times since yesterday. It hasn’t found me or my web site; just lots of listserv posts from years ago.
The cuil search engine was released with much fanfare as an alternative to google, but so far the results are disappointing.
How Do Geeks Exercise?
2008-07-30: Slashdot thread “How do geeks exercise?” has ~1000 replies in less than 12 hours. I walk to work (2.75 mi each way).
I found this thread very amusing. There are now over 1700 posts in the thread. I’m just a geek who happens to run marathons, so I don’t worry about exercise.
This Week in Tech Podcast: Too Much Fluff
2008-07-30: This Week in Tech podcast gets a little longer every week, but with no additional real content. This week 114 minutes; 60 would be enough.
The podcast has increasing amounts of chit-chat and fluff. I want information.
Cool Tattoos
2008-07-31: For the first time in my life, I want a tattoo. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-emporium/
These tattoos are great!
Using Debian to Revive a PowerBook G4
This thread, the longest conversation I’ve had on Twitter, was prompted by a post from agbiotec, who twittered:
after getting debian with gnome in my 5-year old PowerBook I realized how lightweight and functional it is, the machine flies
I replied:
@agbiotec I’m interested in installing debian on a 3.5-yr old 1.5-GHz PowerBook G4. How’s wireless connectivity on yours?
agbiotec replied:
@conrad_halling wireless is perfect-Debian set up the card from the boot CD, and I was even able to do network install-very user friendly :-)
I responded:
@agbiotec Thanks for the PowerBook tip and the info. I will buy my wife a new MacBook Pro so I can install Debian on her old PowerBook.
agbiotec asked:
why don’t you install Debian on the new one too ? ;-)
I replied:
@agbiotec My wife is self-employed, so new laptop is deductible business expense, but she requires Word. I can recycle old laptop w/Debian.
My wife edits medical books as a freelancer. All the editing is performed using Microsoft Word, and the book publishers don’t care if she uses Word for Mac OS X or for Windows. So like all right-thinking persons, she uses Word for Mac OS X on a PowerBook. But her computer is more than three years old, so it’s time to buy her a new one, either a MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air, then recycle the PowerBook. I could use a Linux laptop, but only if the wireless works, hence my interest in agbiotec’s tweet.
Some Days, We Feel Like We Can’t Do Our Jobs
2008-08-01: Today, in my weekly meeting with my boss, he started with, “Some days, I feel like I can’t do my job.” That’s what *I* had wanted to say.
My manager is outstanding, and he does many things I could never do, so it’s discouraging that he has bad weeks, too.
Perl Threads on Stack Overflow
2008-08-02: @codinghorror Experienced Perl coders might not use Stack Overflow because we already have PerlMonks.
Stack Overflow, when it’s released, will be a web site for questions and answers about programming in various languages. I expect traffic from Perl coders will be low because we have well-established resources, including PerlMonks.
Learning Perl, 5th Edition
2008-08-02: I bought Learning Perl, 5th Edition, and I’m reading it in preparation for teaching a Perl class at work. 5th ed. covers new 5.10 features.
This is an excellent book that is completely up to date, unlike Programming Perl, 3rd Edition, which was published eight years ago. I plan to write a review when I’ve finished reading it.
August 03 2008 | Microblog | Comments Off
These are my lightly edited tweets for the week of 20 July 2008. Follow my microblog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/conrad_halling.
- 2008-07-20: I want what @codinghorror calls “a mobile device that replicates the desktop browser experience”, but without AT&T. I want an iPod Touch. [Long ago, I had ten cents a minute long distance service through AT&T. Except that they charged me about thirty cents a minute. They gave me the runaround when I attempted to get a refund. I have vowed never to be an AT&T customer again.]
- 2008-07-21: My latest audible.com audiobook is The Precipice, by Ben Bova. It’s entertaining and not as serious as what I’ve been reading lately.
- 2008-07-22: Today I learned how to use the Perl DBIx::Roles::Transaction module to manage database transactions.
- 2008-07-23: Last night I updated Vista on my MacBook Pro to SP1. My machine got so hot the fans were running full speed, but I’ve had no problems since. [I rarely use the Vista installation except for experimentation.]
- 2008-07-24: Twitter readjustment: My followers dropped from 33 to 22. Who was dropped? Twitter also says I’m following 59, but it shows avatars for 72.
- 2007-07-24: OK, that was a quick fix. 5 minutes after my last tweet, Twitter now says I have 32 followers and I’m following 72. Welcome back, everyone! [This was a Twitter problem that affected all users. See http://blog.twitter.com/2008/07/where-are-my-followers.html.]
- 2008-07-25: I had to miss both ISMB 2008 and OSCON 2008, which overlapped this year. They’re scheduled on different weeks in 2009, so maybe I’ll attend both. [ISMB 2009 will be held June 27 through July 2, 2009, in Stockholm. When I posted this tweet, I thought the dates for OSCON 2009 had been set, but now I can’t find a date on O’Reilly’s Conferences site.]
- 2008-07-25: At last, it’s Friday night. That means only two more working days this week. Weekends are when I get my real work done. [Eight weekend hours equal sixteen weekday hours in terms of productivity, because there are no distractions or interruptions.]
- 2008-07-26: @starstryder sends tweets, a “silly experiment”, in five, seven, five. [Dr. Pamela Gay, astronomer, college professor, blogger, and podcaster, has been tweeting haiku. Twitter haiku has been termed twaiku. Note that this tweet is also a twaiku.]
- 2008-07-26: Today I compiled and installed EMBOSS 6.0.1 for Mac OS X, then I installed mEMBOSS for Windows under Vista. http://emboss.sourceforge.net/ [I use some of the EMBOSS programs for my work.]
July 27 2008 | Microblog | Comments Off
These are my lightly-edited tweets for the week of 13 July 2008. Follow my microblog at http://twitter.com/conrad_halling.
I spent the week in St. Louis with many colleagues for five days of training. The training was excellent, but I got absolutely no exercise, and I ate way too much food.
- 2007-07-13: I flew Boston to St. Louis via Chicago today, with 2.5-hour layover. I couldn’t get an IP address from the free public wi-fi at O’Hare airport. [The “official” wi-fi, with SSID “concourse”—heavily plugged over the public announcement system—cost $7. I decided it was not worth it.]
- 2008-07-14: I pigged out today on three large St. Louis-style meals. The O’Fallon Wheat on tap was delicious. Tomorrow I need to get some exercise. [St. Louis is home to many fine breweries besides Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser and other industrial beers. AB is being purchased by InBev, the European owner of Stella Artois and other brewers.]
- 2008-07-15: I will sleep safely tonight, because Senator John McCain and the Secret Service are staying at my St. Louis hotel tonight. [Senator McCain attended a fund-raiser where the price for dinner was up to $57,000 per couple. St. Louis County is home to an extraordinary number of wealthy Republicans (whereas the city is heavily Democratic). Afterwards, Senator McCain enjoyed a concrete at Ted Drewes; maybe he didn’t get enough to eat at dinner.]
- 2008-07-17: I continue to eat St. Louis-size portions at meals. I’m getting 300 extra calories a day, which is perfect for a pregnant woman, but not me. [Restaurant meals are larger than they should be, especially when you can’t take home the leftovers.]
- 2008-07-18: Last training day in St. Louis. Last night we had a delicious dinner outside at Atlas, a restaurant near Forest Park on Pershing. [When we lived in St. Louis, my wife and I owned a condo on Pershing, but Atlas hadn’t arrived in the neighborhood before we moved.]
- 2008-07-18: My first attempt at printing boarding passes on the hotel’s printer was blanks where the bar codes should be; had to install special driver. [The printing service at the hotel was a nice feature, but it wasn’t easy to use, and it makes me uneasy when I have to install special software.]
- 2008-07-19: Last night in St. Louis, I took two colleagues to dinner at Favazza’s and then to dessert at Ted Drewes. We happily ate too much. [Favazza’s is a favorite of my running friends in St. Louis, and Ted Drewes is a favorite of everyone.]
- 2008-07-19: ISMB 2008 has begun this weekend. I can’t go this year, but colleagues are going and will report.
July 20 2008 | Microblog | Comments Off
These are my lightly-edited tweets for the week of 6 July 2008. Follow my microblog at http://twitter.com/conrad_halling.
- 2008-07-06: Food for thought: “The Nature of Self-Improving Artificial Intelligence,” presented by Stephen M. Omohundro.
- 2008-07-07: Yesterday I made a tax-deductible contribution to the Conversations Network at the Basic Member level.
- 2008-07-08: Implode-O-Meter, featured today in a New York Times article, has a hideously ugly 1995-style web site.
- 2008-07-09: Although I voted for Senator Clinton in the primary, I won’t give her any money to retire her campaign debt.
- 2008-07-10: The Library of America is issuing its second volume of Philip K. Dick novels on July 31. The first volume was terrific.
- 2008-07-11: In response to @easternblot’s post, “I get it: the entire exercise of writing a PhD thesis is to learn that you don’t know anything. I keep finding new things I didn’t know.”: @easternblot Writing a paper can have the same result as writing a thesis; you find out what you don’t know, then do additional experiments.
- 2008-07-12: In response to @codinghorror’s post “A day where I have to write PHP code: not quite as bad as a day where I have to write Perl code. But on the whole, still not good.”: I’m on the other end of the spectrum from @codinghorror on using Perl. I work quickly and cleanly with Perl, but C# gives me the horrors.
July 13 2008 | Microblog | Comments Off
These are my lightly edited tweets for the week of 29 June 2008. Follow me at http://twitter.com/conrad_halling.
- 2008-06-29: My brother couldn’t find Vista or XP drivers for his old Canon digital camera, so I used my Mac OS X laptop to download his photos.
- 2008-06-30: My next audible.com book is The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett. Unfortunately, after five hours, I don’t think the book is very good.
- 2008-06-30: Lots of hysteria, ill-founded rumors, and trolls about Pfizer cutbacks on the rumor mill at biofind.com this weekend — none of them true.
- 2008-07-01: I have many friends who work at Pfizer, so I wish them the best during uncertain times. I received Pfizer paychecks until we were spun off.
- 2008-07-01: On the fluidinfo blog today: “Minor mischief: create redirect loops from predictable short URLs.”
- 2008-07-02: A demonstration of Auto-Tune, the pitch-correction software used to fix recorded music, from the New Yorker: http://tinyurl.com/5m3vcr
- 2008-07-03: I had dinner last night with a good friend who is now working for BIOBASE at their Beverly, Mass. office.
- 2008-07-03: amazon.com emptied my shopping cart, which had 52 items saved for later. That’s not good business: I really was planning to buy that stuff.
- 2008-07-04: I have to work two of three days this long weekend. And I’m having so much “fun” that I forgot to read Slashdot for three days.
- 2008-07-04: I watched the fireworks in Boston this evening. They were truly spectacular, and the view is excellent from the MIT campus.
- 2008-07-05: I’m 9 hours into the audiobook of The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet, and no one has started building a cathedral yet — not good.
- 2008-07-05: This PHD Comics strip summarizes my life on three-day weekends, except it was more fun when I was in grad school.
July 06 2008 | Microblog | Comments Off
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