riddler

I thought you were talking about this guy: http://images.google.com/images?q=evil+bert&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=ii&oi=imagest Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Just, er, correcting the grammar Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

You know I'm training to be a cage fighter Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

So I got this new credit card in the mail about three weeks ago. It will eventually replace the American Express card I've had for years, but AMEX decided to bump my interest rate way up. Anyway, I went and got food at a restaurant on Monday night - right before they closed. Tuesday late afternoon I couldn't find my credit card. I thought hard about it, and realized that when I paid the guy at the restaurant, he never gave the credit card back. So I called the restaurant and asked if they found my credit card. I talked to a manager and he said no. So I called the credit card company and asked about it - they had already put the credit card on hold. Seems Tuesday morning, someone went and filled up their gas tank. Then they went to Walmart at 9 AM and put $3,200 charge on the card. Then they went to a jewelry store and tried twice to put a $5,000 charge on it. The credit card company froze the account at that point. Rats Well, the credit card company is handling it, and it'll be a few weeks before I get a new card, and a month or so until I get the $3,200 Walmart charge removed. They said they don't prosecute, so if I wanted I had the option of calling the police Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Even Chelsea's turnin' tricks It pays to have a big sis' to show you da ropes when you out onna street hustlin' fo' dough. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

There's a chance that the package will be given back to FedEx by whomever received it. Don't give up hope yet. Most people are actually pretty decent in my experience. I hope you get your stuff back. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Pet Peeve. At the point that it's expected, it's gotten out of hand. At the point that you are debating leaving only a 10% tip, instead of the usual 20%, because the service was awful, it's gotten out of hand. There is no valid argument for mandatory tipping. I've heard "oh, well they don't make minimum wage, so they need tips for income." My response is "if you stop doing it, business owners will stop paying people less than minimum wage (which is against the law, anyway!)" If it weren't for tipping, we could sit at a restaurant and socialize as long as we want without worrying about the waiter/waitress. As it is, we have to get out quickly, because they make more money for every customer that sits at the table. Americans have spread the disease to most parts of the globe, and now you can't go to another country without everyone there expecting a tip too. When I travel, I tell people I'm from New Zealand, just so they won't expect a tip. I think tipping is fine for above average service. I don't think it should be part of a normal day. But of course, I still tip 20% to waiters when I'm in the States. It's the only way to keep them from spitting in your food on the next visit Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Amen. Now if Sun would just make Java open source Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I tried out C#, and didn't care for it. First and foremost, it's a M$ app, so that means all sorts of visual studio, graphical development environment, etc. There's a command-line compiler, but it was obviously an afterthought. When I run Java, I do it from command line almost exclusively - easy to download, setup, and run. For second, C# is fine if you're sold on the Windows OS. I'm not. I have four laptops and two desktop servers in my office. Only one is a Windows box, and it's not even mine. The rest are Linux and OS-X systems. Novell has a .NET interpreter for Mac and Linux, but it's pretty obvious that M$ couldn't care less about running C# on anything except Win-blows (although they say they're all for cross-platform, but I invite anyone to try it - it sucks). Lastly - I hope you can come visit us at the new wind tunnel! I have it on good authority that the rats are starting their final training tonight Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

In general, it's always better to use the Reader application than the crappy plugins for the browsers. The Reader application is pretty solid, and I would be surprised if you had any trouble with it. As far as I can tell, one of the big problems with the plugins to the browsers is memory management. Some of the PDF files get pretty big, and that seems to cause problems with the plugin container on some browsers. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Java never started out for Internet application. It was always, and still is, a high-level language, like C++, Ada, Fortran, etc. It just happened to be OO and easily adaptable to good Internet applications because of the inherent security and portability. When I started writing Java apps in early '95, the compiler was an alpha version, and few people had much knowledge of the web. Netscape wasn't out yet, we were still using Mosaic, and the original full package of Java (formerly "oak") included a Solaris compiler and interpreter at just over 1 megabyte. Java was a full-fledged language, just like C++, but it has easy-to-manage capabilities - I could write a full network connection in three lines, unlike C++, which required network stack manipulation. At the time, the web was one-way - you could only retrieve information, and not send it. It was simple - you wrote a Hello World application using VI (or EMACS if you were really good), compiled it, and ran it from a command line. It printed out "Hello World" on the command line. There were no web or Internet applications to run Java programs. At the time, I was writing Windows applications, but was disgruntled with Microsoft, which was releasing Windows 95, and basically cornered the C++ market because they introduced the Microsoft Foundation Classes for writing Windows 95 apps, which they refused to license to Borland, or an other compiler manufacturer. So Java came out and I jumped on that because it was much more open. From there, once web servers and browsers started supporting CGI for two-way information, you could tie a CGI interface to a Java backend application. Java had really basic graphics capabilities at this point, but the Interpreter originally did not run on Mac - only Solaris and Windows. Right about at the same time that Sun finally released Interpreters that supported graphics on Mac and Irix (which took forever), they also released a secure web container called an applet. Once applets came out, people starting thinking that Java was a web language and nothing more. It didn't help that Netscape re-branded their browser-scripting language from LiveScript to Javascript (and no, Java and Javascript are NOT the same language). Then things got really interesting with server-side Javascript, Netscape introduced a commerce server and starting making strides to enterprise applications, which would become Enterprise Java several years later. All the above is from my memory over ten years old, and may be completely wrong. The point is that Java is a real, live application language, and not dependent on the Internet. I've managed to make a pretty good living from Java and the Internet for the last 11 years, so I don't mind saying "way back when". Oh yeah, Limewire is a Java application. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Both the compiler and the interpreter are machine-dependent. It's the bytecode (the compiled application) that is machine independent (as long as there is an interpreter for that machine). That's true for the Sun Java compiler (which most people still use for Java development). There are other Java compilers that are machine-independent, such as JavaCC. But interestingly, they require the Java interpreter to work, so which came first, the chicken or the egg? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

K, it's a bit embarrassing, but, err - my machine is a pretty simple one. It's not a bad little machine, but after seeing hooknswoop's new machine, I realize that "industrial strength" has a few different meanings. I can get the larger round-point needles, but would it work on a machine like this? Or should I get a better machine? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I've been working on a new project for the last week, and I've been breaking needles right and left. The last needle just broke, and a sliver of it hit me in the eye. Does this happen often? Should I wear protective goggles while sewing? FYI, I'm using 100/16 denim needles. I have 110/18 leather needles, but I'm thinking that might be overkill. I'm sewing a couple of layers of denier, 1" nylon support tape and using e-thread. I wouldn't have guessed they would need a thicker needle than 100/16. Any recommendations? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Woohoo! First flight!

No - I was mistaken in thinking that TIs and AFFIs had numbers, but coaches do not. I was corrected. But at the time, I was wondering why there would be different USPA policies for coaches. Turns out, there's not. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

If I had a penny for every email lottery that I won ... Well, I wouldn't be rich, but I wouldn't have a lot of debt either. Better yet, have some fun with The Lads

I have a tri 190, but don't really jump it anymore. They're good canopies, but I think the Spectre is slightly better on flare and opening. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

So hooknswoop gave me a good idea for a small project to start improving my sewing. He suggested making a small pouch for the inside of my booty-suit that would fold up and store in the empty space of the booty, between the toe and knee. I got some materials from Paragear and spent half a day designing and building it. A simple project for people that want to start getting into sewing. And I think it's a good place to store your sunglasses/pens/film/whatever while jumping so that they don't get broken. Pictures are attached. If anyone wants to see the full process, I have a 5-meg PDF file with pictures and instructions that you can download. Just send me a PM if you're interested and I'll send you the URL. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Funny - I was thinking the same thing earlier today - there sure are a lot of polls out there right now. Maybe this should be a pay-for service, like the improved email service. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Another excellent post Brian - every time you do a write-up like this, I learn at least 10 new things. On this: Would you suggest application of the front riser on the side opposite the turn? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Just out of curiosity - why are USPA Coaches not offered instructor numbers from USPA. I believe that AFFI's TI's and others get numbers. Why not coaches? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Don't feel sorry for the wall. Most of them are complete jerks who stand there and taunt people in wall-language until you punch them. We'd all be punching more walls if we heard what many of them say about our mothers. The best way to get back at a wall isn't to punch it - the wall almost always wins. Well, except for those karate guys, and everyone knows they just pick on little weakling walls that can hardly stand up for themselves. No, the best way to get back at a wall is to bang nails on it, then hang pictures on them. From our side, we only see smiling people and drooling dogs, but the wall has to stare at bare people asses and smell dog-butt all day and night. The passive aggressive response to walls is to hang ugly wallpaper on them. If you have a boy wall, for instance, you can hang frilly, flowery wallpaper on it. This is the equivalent of dressing up your little brother in girl clothes and putting makeup on him. If you have a girl wall, you can't do that, because girls are allowed to wear boy-clothes, so I suggest carpeting the girl-wall with thick shag carpet. No one likes a hairy girl, and pretty soon they lose their self-esteem and just sulk all day. Whatever you do, do NOT try to play favorites with the windows, because the walls and the windows are in cahoots. Pretty soon, the windows are just daring you to punch them to, and that can be a real problem. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

So, skydiving or truck? Seems like an easy choice to me ... Which one gets you more girls? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Before Sushi Bail DePlane. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD