braddoro rss feed

internet :: As my neighbor said... What did you do right?

brad — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:30:18 EST

22:22 [@Subnet-] i dont know what is making me need to know what dev_null had for dinner but i have this gut feeling that it was something really good 22:22 <@Subnet-] i can't seem to shake it, you gotta let us know 22:23 [@dev_null] well you are right 22:23 [@dev_null] it was a rack of ribs, we have ribs down 22:24 [@dev_null] you wrap the rack in foil and pour in a big dose of Mojo sauce. Then you seal it up and bake it in the oven at 400 for 1 hour, then you take out and toss it on the grill for about 10 or so and sauce it..... thats off the bone perfection 22:24 [@Subnet-] nice 22:24 [@dev_null] yeah 22:28 [@dev_null] it gets better, the wife cooked it

general :: And the kid had a right to be afraid..

stinkyfoots — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:37:57 EST

On Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque.
It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it.

The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Good morning Alex.'

'Good morning Pastor,' he replied, still focused on the plaque.

'Pastor, what is this?'

The pastor said, 'Well son, it's a memorial to all the young
men and women of our Church who died in the service.'

Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked,

'Which service, the 8:30 or the 10:45?

programming :: iif is bad, mkay

brad — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:13:53 EST

which is more clear?

this:

q_foo = objmyObject.sql_getFooTypes(fooTypeID=IIf(tmpfooType EQ "", DE("0"), DE(tmpfooType)))

or this:

q_foo = objmyObject.getFooTypes(fooTypeID=val(tmpFooType))

Too many times people learn about iif and think it is cool, but it really isn't.

and don't get me started on javascript iif:

var bfoo = (ifoo > 1)?true:false;

general :: A woman would never do this replies: 3

AmberBock — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:03:25 EST

TASER GIFTING This is one of those stories where you begin to chuckle, then? find yourself laughing out loud. (Not to mention the tears that comes with the laughter) Pocket Taser Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife. A guy who purchased his lovely wife a pocket Taser for their anniversary submitted this. Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol and Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety. ?WAY TOO COOL!? Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave. Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right? There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh and blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong? So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries. All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5inches long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, ?no possible way!? What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best... I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, ?don't do it master? reasoning that a one-second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give myself a one-second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and ... HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION! I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs. The cat was standing over me making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face, undoubtedly thinking to herself, ?Do it again, stupid, do it again!? Note: If you ever feel compelled to ?mug? yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one-second burst when you zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three-second burst would be considered conservative. SON-OF-A-... That hurt like **%!!! A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. How did they get up there??? My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I'm still looking for my testicles! I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return!! Still in shock! P. S. My wife loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

politics :: This Indian Knows politics replies: 1

stinkyfoots — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:01:55 EST

This Indian Knows politics

An Indian walks into a cafe with a shotgun
in one hand and pulling a male buffalo with the other.
He says to the waiter:

'Want coffee.'

The waiter says,
'Sure, Chief. Coming right up.'

He gets the Indian a tall mug of coffee.
The Indian drinks the coffee down in one gulp,
Turns and blasts the buffalo with the shotgun,
Causing parts of the animal to splatter everywhere
And then just walks out.

The next morning the Indian returns.
He has his shotgun in one hand, pulling
Another male buffalo with the other.
He walks up to the counter and says to
The waiter

'Want coffee.'

The waiter says 'Whoa, Tonto!

We're still cleaning up your mess from yesterday. What was all that
about, anyway?'

The Indian smiles and proudly says ..
.

'Training for position in United States Congress:
Come in, drink coffee, shoot the bull,
Leave mess for others to clean up,
Disappear for rest of day.

general :: New CEO

sn1p3r — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:56:24 EST

A large company, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers. On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning on a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business.

He walked up to the guy leaning against the wall and asked, "How much money do you make a week?"

A little surprised, the young man looked at him and replied, "I make $400 week. Why?"

The CEO then handed the guy $1,600 in cash and screamed, "Here's four weeks' pay. Now GET OUT and don't come back!"

Feeling pretty good about himself the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did around here?"

From across the room came a voice, "Pizza delivery guy from Domino's."

internet :: Frets On Fire

brad — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:44:48 EST

If you've been within 20 yards of a person under the age of 30 in the last few years, you've probably heard of Guitar Hero, the impossible-to-put-down video game that lets you pretend you're a rock star. You play on a gaming console to various popular songs while using a controller the size and shape of a small guitar. There is now an alternate, free desktop version called Frets On Fire (fretsonfire.sourceforge.net). Instead of a guitar controller, you use your keyboard, but it's a great way to scratch that Guitar Hero itch when you're away from your gaming system. You can download a copy for Windows, Mac, or Linux systems.

general :: Judge orders halt to Defcon speech on subway card hacking

brad — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:04:39 EST

LAS VEGAS--A federal judge on Saturday granted the Massachusetts transit authority's request for an injunction preventing three MIT students from giving a presentation about hacking smartcards used in the Boston subway system. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the students, anticipates appealing the ruling, said EFF senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl. The undergraduate students had been scheduled to give a presentation Sunday afternoon at the Defcon hacker conference here that they had said would describe "several attacks to completely break the CharlieCard," an RFID card that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority uses on the Boston T subway line. They also planned to release card-hacking software they had created, but canceled both the presentation and the release of the software. U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock on Saturday ordered the students not to provide "program, information, software code, or command that would assist another in any material way to circumvent or otherwise attack the security of the Fare Media System." Woodlock granted the MBTA's request after a hastily convened hearing in Massachusetts that took place at 8 a.m. PDT on Saturday. EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl said that the temporary restraining order is "violating their First Amendment rights"; another EFF attorney said a court order pre-emptively gagging security researchers was "unprecedented." EFF attorneys appeared with the three students--Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa--in front of a crowd of hundreds at an afternoon session at Defcon, but largely prevented them from answering questions, citing the lawsuit. Although Sunday's talk is canceled, Defcon organizers hinted that there may be a related presentation on a similar topic. First page of subway-hacking presentation that was the subject of an injunction to stop its distribution--after it had already been distributed. The students told reporters that they had, on their own, asked their professor to initiate contact with the MBTA a week before the government agency contacted them on July 30 or July 31. But the process was delayed because professor Ron Rivest was at a security conference near San Francisco, and no contact with MBTA was made at the time. But then the conversations took a hostile turn when MBTA mentioned an FBI criminal investigation of the MIT students. In the "initial contact, they said the FBI was investigating and that was not--we didn't find that to be a very pleasing way to start a nice dialogue with them. And we got a little concerned about what was happening," said Anderson, one of the students. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10012612-83.html?part=rss

general :: Ideomotor effect

brad — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:27:05 EST

The ideomotor effect is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. As in reflexive responses to pain, the body sometimes reacts reflexively to ideas alone without the person consciously deciding to take action. For instance, tears are produced by the body unconsciously in reaction to the emotion of sadness, usually without any intervention of conscious will. Stage hypnotists exploit the ideomotor effect for entertainment value, convincing volunteers to perform some action without consciously deciding to do so. The volunteers usually have no memory of their performance, much like sleepwalkers who are unaware that they are acting on stimulus existing almost entirely in their own minds. More subtle unconscious physical reactions are often used by magicians and illusionists to perform "mind-reading" tricks.

seti :: We've started creating work for SETI@home's new Astropulse application. At first we will just create a small amount, but we expect to enter full production next week.

stinkyfoots — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:07:05 EST

What is Astropulse?

Astropulse is a new type of SETI. It expands on the original SETI@home, but does not replace it. The original SETI@home searches for narrowband signals, as does a conventional AM or FM radio. Astropulse, on the other hand, listens for broader-band, short-time pulses.

Click here for the science details of Astropulse.

What else might Astropulse find?

In addition to ET, Astropulse might detect other sources, such as rapidly rotating pulsars, exploding primordial black holes, or as-yet unknown astrophysical phenomena.

You can imagine that SETI@home is a search for a gold needle (ET) in a haystack. During the search for a gold needle, Astropulse might occasionally find a silver needle (a pulsar or black hole.) These silver needles have their own scientific value, even if they don't represent extraterrestrial communications.

How do I run Astropulse?
For Windows, Linux and Macs:

If you have already attached your computer to SETI@home and you use the default application, then you don't have to do anything. If your computer meets the minimum requirements, it should already be running Astropulse in addition to the original SETI@home. Your computer would have downloaded the Astropulse application when it asked for and received an Astropulse workunit.

If you are using an optimised application then you will need to replace or modify the app_info.xml file.

An app_info.xml file will be made available here.

What are the minimum requirements for my computer to run astropulse?
Minimum CPU: 1.6 GHz
Minimum RAM: 256 MB
Miniumum disk space: 128 MB
If your computer doesn't meet these requirements, our server probably won't send you Astropulse workunits. The RAM and disk space requirements are overestimates; Astropulse actually uses significantly less.

How do I report bugs?

Report bugs by posting to the forums or by sending a private message to Joshua Von Korff's seti@home account.

How long does an Astropulse workunit take to run?
The run times compared to SETI@home enhanced are long (sometimes a week or more), but you should receive the same number of credits per second for astropulse as for seti@home. credits/time should be in line with those using the default enhanced MB application.

The initial deadline for Astropulse tasks will be 14 days. This will be kept under review by Dr. Eric Korpela and the Seti team. If the server believes that your computer is not fast enough to complete an Astropulse workunit within that deadline, you won't receive Astropulse workunits.

Long Term Debt
For those attached to more than one Project, due to the long processing times, you may run up a high Long Term Debt (LTD) on Seti. This can mean that Astropulse will need to run at High Priority (EDF or Panic mode) and then pay back time to the other project(s). Therefore BOINC will not download any more Seti tasks until LTD is lowered. You may want to consider increasing Seti's resource share if this bothers you.

Can I choose to run only Astropulse? Can I choose not to run Astropulse?

At present you must run both Astropulse and the original SETI@home. However, we plan to implement the ability to choose in the near future.

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politics :: Independence Day

AmberBock — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:17:35 EST

same last name but, No relation to me.... Dear Editor, Times-Dispatch: 'Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30th, I celebrate my independence day, and on July 4, I celebrate Americas. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence. 'On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba, and a few months later, I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress. 'I've thought a lot about the anniversary this year. The election-year rhetoric has made me think a lot about Cuba and what transpired there. In the late 1950s, most Cubans thought Cuba needed a change, and they were right. So when a young leader came along, every Cuban was at least receptive. 'When the young leader spoke eloquently and passionately and denounced the old system, the press fell in love with him. They never questioned who his friends were or what he really believed in. When he said he would help the farmers and the poor and bring free medical care and education to all, everyone followed. When he said he would bring justice and equality to all, everyone said, 'Praise the Lord.' And when the young leader said, 'I will be for change and I'll bring you change,' everyone yelled, 'Viva Fidel!' 'But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner's guns went silent, the people's guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education, it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented, Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over, more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I'm back to the beginning of my story. 'Luckily, we would never fall in America for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America ? 'Would we?' Manuel Alvarez, Jr.

hardware :: replies: 1

brad — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:04:40 EST

hardware :: The difference between coffee drinkers and tea drinkers. replies: 2

brad — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:04:40 EST

Coffee drinkers want their coffee to taste the same every time. Tea drinkers appreciate the difference of one tea to other.

general :: MAN DAY

brad — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:33:59 EST

Today was a good day. I woke up. I met up with a buddy and we went to shoot shotguns. Said buddy and I had lunch at Schlotzsky's Deli. (the best deli evah) We went to the pistol range and killed some paper. I didn't do as well as I would have liked at the shotgun range. My technique was poor and I shot badly. I'll have to do better. The pistol range was satisfactory, my shoulder was twitching a little from shooting a couple boxes of 12 gauge rounds so I was off a little but not bad. Thats about as good as it gets, I think I might top it off with a belt of good Scotch and I'll be good.

programming :: a little bit of JS fun

brad — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:59:14 EST

hmmm, it seems that javascript in a post messes up RSS readers. I'll find some other way to post it.

rants :: Rain replies: 3

AmberBock — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:49:44 EST

Forgot it RAINS every day this time of year in Florida! SUCKS.

general :: Hey Brad, here is a trail for you. replies: 3

brad — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:20:44 EST

www brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562

this site :: login bug

brad — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:59:36 EST

I fixed the login bug which would occur when a user logged in with no credentials.

rants :: get off your damn phone! replies: 3

brad — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:50:15 EST

I had a bad drive home. I was following a guy in a suv who was busy texting away on his phone. We got stopped at about six lights and at every single light I had to honk at him so he would raise his head and discover that the light had changed to green. So entranced was he with his text messages that I made it to a 10 count before I honked once. After that it was a 3 count before the honk. He clearly had his head bent not even glancing at the light. Plus once he started to go he continued to text, I could tell because he held it up in the air so he could see it while driving. As if that weren't annoying enough. Behind me was a guy in a white car who was holding a cell phone to one ear and was busy referencing something in the passenger seat, so much that every time we stopped he almost rear ended me at every light. Every time I looked back he was busy glancing over in the passenger seat talking on the phone. One time he barley managed to stop and was so close that when I checked the rear view camera it looked like he was about 4 inches away from hitting me. Needless to say it was a frustrating ride home. I have had a cell phone for about 12 years or so, and I have had that job where you are constantly on the phone, but if you must talk on the phone while driving; 1) use a headset and 2) don't make the phone your primary point of concentration. Maybe the general population isn't smart enough to talk and drive.

this site :: test replies: 3

webmaster — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:42:03 EST

test