Smoking craters are good

Every wondered how to make bulletproof software? What tricks do the guys who build bank machines use to be sure their software doesn’t ever crash?

Look no further!

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Posted in My Projects | 4 Comments

RVM: ruby version management

I just discovered RVM, a tool for managing multiple versions of ruby on the same system. This is really useful on my MacBook Pro, since the built-in Ruby “has problems”. Such as having gems in weird locations which makes updating them difficult. Plus the fact that the OS X updater may clobber your changes without warning.

Setting it up is pretty easy and the versions of ruby installed are all yours, installed into your environment.

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Posted in My Projects | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Another one bites the dust

The motorcycle that crashed in front of our house. Once again, the curve on Hobart has claimed another victim. In this case, it wasn’t an innocent victim.

At about 1am this morning I half woke-up to a weird “wumph” sound. I didn’t think it was cars crashing (they make a more metallic sound) but something had happened. Then after a few seconds, I heard footsteps and a bang noise like someone slamming open a gate and then another noise, which I think was someone climbing a wooden fence.

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Posted in My Life, Squirrel Hill | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Party of Stupid

Rob Landley has written a very good description of how the Republican party is discombobulating. He gave me permission to reproduce it here; any formatting errors are mine.

Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

He who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

- Sun Tsu, The Art of War

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Speed Reading

I’ve been interested in speed reading since I was a kid. I liked books a lot and was very impatient. My comprehension wasn’t always so great, but that had a hidden advantage: I could read a book a second time and be amazed by the parts I had forgotten or didn’t get on the first pass.

Anyway, I found some newer resources on the ‘net about speed reading and thought I should put them here: Read More »

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