That is no country for old men. The youngIn one another’s arms, birds in the trees– Those dying generations – at their song,The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer longWhatever is begotten, born, and dies.Caught in that sensual music all neglectMonuments of unageing intellect. An aged man is but a paltry thing,A tattered coat upon a stick, unlessSoul clap its hands and sing, and louder singFor every tatter in its mortal dress,Nor is there singing school but studyingMonuments of its own magnificence;And therefore I have sailed the seas and comeTo the holy city of Byzantium. O sages standing in God’s holy fireAs in the gold mosaic of a wall,Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,And be the singing-masters of my soul.Consume my heart away; sick with desireAnd fastened to a dying animalIt knows not what it is; and gather meInto the artifice of eternity.… Read more →
The Time for Song and Frivolity is Over!
A colleague went to see his son’s Christmas pageant, a day care thing where the kids try to sing “Jingle Bells.” He says once his older daughter got to kindergarten, the school didn’t do singing Christmas shows anymore . . . THIS IS KINDERGARTEN! THE TIME FOR SONG AND FRIVOLITY IS OVER! DO YOU HEAR YOUR PARENTS GOING AROUND SINGING ALL THE TIME? THAT’S WHAT GROWING UP IS ALL ABOUT! ALL JOYOUS ACTIVITIES ARE SURRENDERED OR STRIPPED AWAY FROM YOU! Read more →
Activities That No One Does Anymore
I got an email today from a company wanting to introduce me to their faxing API (Application Programming Interface). Faxing!? Will they also help me do other activities that no one does anymore, like playing the zither or baking my own bread? Read more →
Are You Sure?
I was closing out of Remote Desktop Connection Manager and got the popup shown here. Am I sure? To the extent that we can really be sure about anything, then yes I’m sure. Why is the No option selected as the default? Is there an assumption that I’m flying by the seat of my pants, acting randomly and without certitude? That I’m not a confident person? That I lack the courage of my convictions? Read more →
It’s All Part of the Plan
Hour of Code
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Code.org (@codeorg) Read more →
See You in Hell
[See You in Hell is a feature by our guest blogger, Satan — PE] Many are outraged that President Trump didn’t recite the Apostle’s Creed at the Bush funeral. Most of the outraged wouldn’t know the Apostle’s Creed from Apollo Creed. But they’re outraged because they were told that they should be. See you in Hell! Read more →
Teaching Computer Science: What is a Computer Science Integration Specialist?
Sheena Vaidyanathan, a computer science integration specialist at Los Altos School District in California, says that states, school districts and boards of education have not prioritized computer science education the way they should. Even if not every child will grow up to work as a computer scientist, she thinks everyone should at least get exposure to how computers work. — EdSurge News A couple of things I don’t understand there . . . one is why everyone needs to know “how computers work.” They work on electricity, that’s about all I know about it. Actually, I know a little more than that, but there’s no reason that everyone should know “how computers work,” any more than everyone should know how phones work, or how cars work, or how refrigerators work. You can use things without knowing how they work. I do think everyone can benefit from understanding how programmers think,… Read more →
Angelino Heights
The “Charmed” house: [ Scheerer House, Queen Anne cottage: Out of place amongst the Victorians: Heim House: Sessions House, 1889: The gardener said the house was used in a DiCaprio movie but didn’t know which one (Pretty sure it wasn’t Titanic.): The Michael Jackson “Thriller” house: Read more →
Elvis Costello at the House of Blues
First time I’ve seen a concert at House of Blues in Anaheim. It’s a general admission standing room venue that holds I’d say around 1,500 people plus a seated balcony that you can get into for a premium price. Pros and cons you can probably guess: You’ll have to stand for about 3 hours but once the show starts, you don’t really think about it. If the 64-year-old performer can stand for the whole show, so can I. On the plus side, you can get quite close to the stage. Maybe not right in front unless you’re first in line to get in, but the sides of the stage you can get to easily. Also, you get to see an A-list performer in a small room. I don’t go to concerts in large venues anymore — Staples Center, Honda Center, the Forum, Rose Bowl, etc. I wouldn’t enjoy that. I… Read more →
Making it Easier for Women to Do Things They Don’t Want to Do
Apple launching tech camps for women in bid to diversify industry Like other major tech companies, Apple has been trying to lessen its dependence on men in high-paying programming jobs. I don’t think “dependence” is the right word there. Is that dependence like alcohol dependence, or like dependence on foreign oil? It’s an oblique way of saying “we’re trying to employ fewer men,” but explicitly singling out members of a certain group for unwelcome attention sounds discriminatory and possibly illegal. Women filled just 23 percent of Apple’s technology jobs in 2017, according to the company’s latest breakdown. “Just” — why do we assume that working at Apple is a goal that a lot of women have? Maybe women found better jobs? Or something else they’d rather be doing? Industry critics have accused the technology companies of discriminating against women through a male-dominated hierarchy that has ruled the industry for decades.… Read more →
Troll College
Via Scott Adams: Improve your trolling with these tips and techniques Classic and effective troll responses Rules for custom created responses that own your target Read more →
Competitive Programming: SPOJ – Glass Beads
Link to problem Once upon a time there was a famous actress. As you may expect, she played mostly Antique Comedies most of all. All the people loved her. But she was not interested in the crowds. Her big hobby were beads of any kind. Many bead makers were working for her and they manufactured new necklaces and bracelets every day. One day she called her main Inspector of Bead Makers (IBM) and told him she wanted a very long and special necklace. The necklace should be made of glass beads of different sizes connected to each other but without any thread running through the beads, so that means the beads can be disconnected at any point. The actress chose the succession of beads she wants to have and the IBM promised to make the necklace. But then he realized a problem. The joint between two neighbouring beads is not… Read more →
Jesus and Mo: We’re 100% Certain
The Saints Went Marching In
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. — Matthew 27:51-53 It is an easy thing to tell a lie, but it is difficult to support the lie after it is told. The writer of the book of Matthew should have told us who the saints were who came to life again and went into the city. and what became of them afterward, and who it was that saw them — for he is not hardy enough to say that he saw them himself; whether they came out naked and all in natural buff, he-saints and she-saints; or whether… Read more →
A Reading From the Book of Numbers
And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. — Numbers 31:13-18 The language is a bit archaic but you understand what’s happening: Kill the boys, kill their… Read more →
What Comfort Can You Give Him?
When you get a person to look at the sun as it bakes down on the daily carnage taking place on earth, the ridiculous accidents, the utter fragility of life, the powerlessness of those he thought most powerful — what comfort can you give him from a psychotherapeutic point of view? — Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death Read more →
Doe Library
View this post on Instagram “My favorite library, Doe Library.” ? #berkeleypov by @amincaptures #ucberkeley #library #books Edited by UC Berkeley A post shared by UC Berkeley (@ucberkeleyofficial) on Nov 13, 2018 at 9:46pm PST Read more →
Daily Affirmation
I start my daily commute by saying “OK Google, drive to work” into my phone, and Google responds by showing me the fastest route. This morning, Google thought I said “have to work”: Read more →
Competitive Programming: SPOJ – String Problem
Link to problem Substring of some string A is defined as one or more (not necessary succeeding) elements of the string with maintaining the sequence. There are given two strings, string VOKI and string TOKI. Write the program that will calculate the length of any shortest substring of string VOKI such as it is not substring of string TOKI. Input In first line of input file there is string VOKI and in second one is string TOKI. The only characters that will occur are lowercase characters of English alphabet (‘a’- ‘z’). String lengths will be less or equal to 1000. Note: input data will be such so there will always be a solution. Output In the first line of file you should print the length of wanted substring. Sample input banana anbnaanbaan Sample output 5 (eg. banna) Sample input babab babba Sample output 3 (eg. aab) Solution below . .… Read more →