Thursday, March 22, 2012

Here Comes Everybody

The world turned on its head, or so you think. That's what happens when the economics of daily human interaction change. "It's all that new technology!" you say. "It changes everything!" Yes and no.

The world is an aggregate. It exists only as a result of our existence. To perceive the emergence of technology in the world as an event rather than a decision is to err. When technology catches hold, a key set of individuals must decide that such technology is in their favor. The novelty will either propagate or tumble over itself. The deciding factor? Us. We are the ones that change, and we bring technology with us.

Human interaction is at the root of it all. Everyone decides to accept the rules of social interaction or be swept up in the tide of what everyone else accepts. Technology comes with it, and enables it further.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Technology Discrimination

Does "Equal Opportunity" mean equal results? I just read a few articles about encouraging women to participate professionally in the sciences. While I agree the industry ought to be open to anyone, I don't think it's necessary to entice people of a specific demographic unless there is a direct correlation to their ability in the field. The best solution: Make it equal and open to everyone, and let people's natural tendencies flow their course.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Give it to me Straight

To the Media: STOP SEASONING MY NEWS. Please and thank you.

Today's daily events did not call for a half cup of your opinion, two and a quarter cups hype, and a tablespoon of misinformation. Give it to me straight: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Don't be so cavalier with your influence of my opinion. Information spreads too rapidly and misinformation spreads even faster.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Infinite Windows Directory Solution

WOW. I just got finished taking care of one of the most annoying Windows bugs I've seen yet. Some weird behavior involving Netbeans created a MASSIVE directory tree with repeating directory names (e.g. myDir/build/classes/build/classes/build/classes...). When I tried to delete this tree with any ordinary method, I'd get an error message, "Path name too long...yada yada." Windows Explorer would show that it was gone, but I'd come back and it was still there.

Nevertheless, HERE IS THE SOLUTION: Create a batch file that follows these steps.

  1. Rename your repeating directories to an x.
  2. Dive into the renamed directory and try to move the alternate directory up into your top level directory (i.e. my_Dir).
  3. Remove the directory that you renamed (which no longer contains anything) Make sure to use the /s/q options (/s removes any subfiles, /q prevents windows from asking you "Y/N?" each time you delete the folder).
  4. Repeat by calling the .bat (batch) file again at the end of the batch file. (YES, this creates an infinite loop. You'll just need to stop the batch file with "ctrl+c".

ren "C:\Users\valued customer\Documents\School Stuff\CS 340\Homework_Docs\remove_me\build" x
ren "C:\Users\valued customer\Documents\School Stuff\CS 340\Homework_Docs\remove_me\classes" x

move "C:\Users\valued customer\Documents\School Stuff\CS 340\Homework_Docs\remove_me\x\build" "C:\Users\valued customer\Documents\School Stuff\CS 340\Homework_Docs\remove_me\"
move "C:\Users\valued customer\Documents\School Stuff\CS 340\Homework_Docs\remove_me\x\classes" "C:\Users\valued customer\Documents\School Stuff\CS 340\Homework_Docs\remove_me\"

rd "C:\Users\valued customer\Documents\School Stuff\CS 340\Homework_Docs\remove_me\x" /s /q

removedir.bat

Monday, March 5, 2012

Progress

Capitalism. The Marketplace. It's the place where the guy with the best product wins...

Unless someone else comes up with a crappier version, patents it, and sues the pants off anyone else that tries to improve it. Yeah, that seems fair, right?

Thursday, March 1, 2012

A Play Thing

This little Rasberry Pi computer will set you back 35 bucks—if you can get one. They sold out within 2 hours of being available online. But why? Why are people in such a tizzy over this mini computer?

Because small is sexy. It's creativity. It's the New American Dream. And for the Geek, it's open-source. The computer market has become flat, and the price to play the game just dropped to $35.