Messages

106

General Discussion / Re: Leaving Girlfriend

« on: September 06, 2011, 03:41:32 pm »

Signed lease thursday.  Will move this coming weekend.  I was in NM for my bday weekend (I think she felt slighted I didnt bring her like we originally planned).  When I got back she had made me a cake, got me some nice beer and beer glasses, and then she took me to dinner.  Fuck.  My.  Confused.  Head.

I guess that since I stood up for myself, she is realizing that the world doesnt revolve around her.  Hell, ever since I told her I am moving, she has been a lot nicer.  We've talked about still going out on dates and shit.  She asked if we'd just hang out - I told her that she knows how I feel about her (i.e., I still want to be with her), but that I'm moving so she can decide if she wants me.  If it works out it'd be awesome, but I can't do anything else but let her grow up.

Again, I'm the first person since high school to leave her.  Crazy.

It won't work out. Save yourself an agonizing year.

107

JavaOp Board / Re: A few changes..

« on: September 05, 2011, 07:20:01 pm »

The problem is it's just wrong. Companies have been hiring software testers for decades. In case that's not clear, that means there are people who have full time jobs writing tests.

That sounds like the worst computer-related job I could ever think of.

108

General Programming / Re: Perl oddities

« on: August 28, 2011, 05:40:34 pm »

Apparently it also has eq, ne, lt, gt, le, ge, and.  Evidently, symbolic operators (==, !=, <, >, <=, >=, &&, and ||) are used for numbers, whereas their textual counterparts are for strings.

This makes more sense than "||" and "OR"

109

Blizzard, WoW and Bots / Re: lolwut

« on: August 28, 2011, 01:04:21 am »

I never had time in school for the game. I almost picked it up again over the summer, but then I looked at my backlog of games on Steam and my bookshelf, and I just couldn't justify the $60 I would've needed to spend to get the newest expansions. I just can't figure out why (Activision-)Blizzard won't release a new battlechest with all the expansions similar to what Everquest does.

One word: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

110

General Programming / Perl oddities

« on: August 26, 2011, 06:28:32 pm »

Today at work I discovered Perl has an "OR" operator and the usual "||" operator. They have different precedence. In fact, "OR" is the lowest of operators.

lolwtf

111

General Discussion / Re: Dune

« on: August 24, 2011, 02:15:01 pm »

Yeah, Herbert took a detour with books 3 and 4. I'm not sure which one is worse out of those two. I'm inclined to say it's book 3 because all I can remember is how crazy abusive everyone was toward Leto II; nothing really happened after they started doping him up on spice. I just finished reading Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson. It's a direct sequel to Dune, and it shows how Paul went from savior to tyrant as he tries to conquer the old Imperium, develop a religion around himself, and maintain order.

How did you manage to persevere through book 3? Even with the cool prospect of Alia being taken over by the Barron, the series turned awful. The characters became far more conniving, but it seemed contrived. The plot was dull. Leto II didn't come off with the charm that Paul did.
Do you recommend Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson's novels on Dune? I avoided them on the basis that derivative works, even based on the author's notes, are terrible.

112

General Discussion / Dune

« on: August 23, 2011, 10:14:21 pm »

I had never heard of this, but the game looks interesting. Can I be Paul of Dune and release a jihad on the galaxy?

I am a bit disappointed with Dune. I think I may have as a child read it, but I have no recollection of doing so. I picked it up again a few weeks ago... Books 1 and 2 were incredibly fun to read; I couldn't force myself through Book 3 and gave up.

113

General Discussion / Re: US credit rating downgraded

« on: August 08, 2011, 10:39:33 pm »

Looks like Democrats are planning to pull a Tea-Party on Medicare ... no comprises. More crap to come!

Oh good. I'm glad we spend millions a year on drug addicts that go in to ER's because of vague undefinable symptoms and need to get a battery of tests in the off chance they have something fatal and would result in the doctor getting sued otherwise.

114

General Discussion / Re: US credit rating downgraded

« on: August 07, 2011, 03:45:40 am »

Not spending more money was what was going to help the US.

Politicians in any party don't care, save a handful. Beyond entitlement spending, which is going to become a behemoth and piss off healthcare providers the world over, the size of the government is more to blame. Entitlement is just the low-hanging fruit to which all politicians can point at, since actual reform (eg: removing useless things like the TSA, food subsidies, etc.) requires real work.

115

Academic / School / Re: Fall 2011 schedules

« on: August 07, 2011, 01:26:29 am »

That's how I feel about physics (hating it, only doing research because it looks good). And why I picked up a second major (computer science). Perhaps consider a minor in something you do enjoy?

Well, the only good thing about the CS department is it lets you take classes in other departments to count towards half the upper-division emphasis area. I'm using this as a chance to take biology-related (eg: Biochem, Immunology, Computation Neurosci) courses. It makes it suck a little less, but not by that much. C'est la vie.

116

General Discussion / Re: US credit rating downgraded

« on: August 06, 2011, 10:24:31 pm »

Who bails the Federal Government out?

They do, by printing more money and causing excess inflation.

117

General Discussion / Re: US credit rating downgraded

« on: August 06, 2011, 12:55:22 pm »

Not that this will change anything, but the shitholes at DC (both R and D alike) can't continue entitlement and pork spending indefinitely without a raise in government income to match the borrowing.

118

Academic / School / Re: Fall 2011 schedules

« on: August 05, 2011, 07:14:30 pm »

deadly: I took operating systems last quarter. I never went to a single lecture and got a 96% on the final/B+ in the class. It was awesome and almost a fun subject to learn. And writing kernel modules was cool.

I enjoy learning about some of the topics in CS, but I've realized I don't care about computers anymore. I especially hate programming low-level things and would much rather use Perl/Python in 90% of my day-to-day tasks. I'm only doing research to fulfill my Honors requirement, otherwise I've hated all the research I've done, too. At this point, it's not worth it to switch out of my major. So, I'll suck it up.

119

Academic / School / Re: Fall 2011 schedules

« on: August 05, 2011, 01:58:50 am »

BIOC 4331 - Biochemistry I: Structure, Catalysis, and Metabolism in Biological Systems
CSCI 4061 - Introduction to Operating Systems
STAT 3021 - Introduction to Probability and Statistics
ANTH 3306W - Medical Anthropology
CSCI 4996 - Research

Taking it easy with 15cr. I hate CS. Ugh.

120

General Discussion / Re: Sup?

« on: August 01, 2011, 04:15:17 am »

This is an interesting point because I was at a friend's house the other day. Some of his friends ride motorcycles. Them and I talked about how, really, it's PC to blame "drivers that aren't watching" for many biking accidents, but in actuality bikers are often driving recklessly and promoting such accidents. Weaving in and out of lanes, not slowing for red lights to turn, at times going alongside cars in lane; none of which are smart actions.