I have to admit, I always react with some skepticism when I hear of anything whose main selling-point is that it is “better than something else.” Such was my reaction when I began to seriously look into Subversion, whose main selling point is that it is “better than CVS.”
A little while ago I finished reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. I have to say, this is one of those books that I think is an absolute must-read for anyone living today, because it goes very far in explaining why the world is the way that it now is.
I was looking at my bank-account activity this morning and got the sickest feeling in my stomach - everything looked different from what it was supposed to be! The balance, the transactions, … Have I been hacked? Identity-thieved?? Is my life ruined?!
Oh, this is my savings account. I meant to look at my checking account.
I think I need more sleep.
In other news, all eyes are on the curb this morning. Hopefully the nice people will take our trash this week. It seems that with all the holiday distractions, we forgot to pay the garbage folks, and it turns out that they’ll stop picking up your trash if you don’t pay them. Who knew.
Don’t misunderstand - it’s still in beta right now - but I am still pretty excited about Java3D 1.4 being released soon. Version 1.4 of Java3D is focused on introducing one major feature: programmable shaders! And, given that I have just been learning about GPU programming, I think this is pretty awesome.
It looks like the Java3D 1.4 shader-support only allows “uniform” shader-variables; that means their values don’t change on a per-vertex (or per-pixel) basis. Rather, you set the variable before rendering a whole polygon or a group of polygons. I think this is a fine limitation; that is the most efficient approach to use, and it also matches up with how a low-level feature should be used from a language like Java.
Anyway, something new for me to download and play with…
It rained for the last couple of days. Of course, the primary impact of rain in California is to completely disable any common sense that drivers might exercise on the freeways. I drove for a total of about an hour and a half over the weekend, and saw at least 8 accidents. Nothing too horrific, but lots of situations that made me wonder, “How in the world did they do that?!” One car had its rear wheels hanging over the center divider. Lots of spin-outs and cars whacking into other cars. Probably the most impressive was a single car whose engine was engulfed in flames. I have no idea how they pulled that off on a rainy day.
I can’t say I had a lot of sense yesterday either, because I went for a hike in the rain. It was really windy too, so it was quite an endurance test. But, the second term starts tomorrow, and I wanted to have one last bit of fun before I had to buckle down and focus on school again. Overall it was pretty enjoyable, and I’m glad I went.
A week or so ago, we got some of these Niman Ranch Fearless Franks, which are all-beef, uncured hot-dogs. Niman Ranch takes good care to keep their animals healthy, and to use good farming and ranching practices. And, their hot-dogs are very tasty and low-fat, which is also a refreshing change. (Once I looked at the nutrition information for the Hebrew National hot-dogs, and it said, “Total calories: 360. Calories from fat: 300.” No kidding!)
The only problem is that these Fearless Franks are really slimy, like they were packed in snot! I don’t know if they’re all that way, or if it is something odd here. The hot dogs don’t smell bad or anything, and once I wash that slime off them, they cook up real great.
But it sure gives you pause the first time you handle one of these slimy little beasties.
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