Haha, yeah, it's a riot

Today's MTG.com question? What's the difference between a spin-down life counter and a 20-sided die. Are people really this incompetent? Jeeeebus.

Good god damn

Saw this today, regarding the new series, "Over There" about the war in Iraq:

“Television news tells you that war is heartbreaking and devastating, but you don’t feel that when you watch the news,” Gerolmo said. “Our show will give you a sense of what it is like to be in the war in Iraq. You will feel it. We will give you a powerful, gut-wrenching experience that television news can’t give you.”

I'm thinking, "Except for the part where after the hour is over, I get my lazy fat ass up and walk over to the refrigerator to pound down a pile of mud pie while the people doing the real fighting walk the line every second they're there." I fucking hate the media so god damn much. Bunch of money hungry shits not worth the air they consume.

Fucked it all up

Big surprise, huh?

Hahaha

So I guess I've been bored and reading too many articles today. I thought this was funny (this Martin Taylor from Microsoft talking here):

"And what is open source? It is interesting in how you define it. Is it in terms of source visibility? Then, OK, in Microsoft's Shared Source program, people can access up to 65 percent of source codes for our core products. And through the government security program around the world, governments can access even more of our source codes, if they choose to. So we're not an open-source company, and yet people can do that.

And when we talk about projects, things where you build technology and give to the community, with our Windows Install and Template Library, we have projects available today that make Microsoft technology open source. So is that what it means to be an open-source company? Or does it mean that you have technology licensed under the GPL (GNU Public License)? If that's the only definition, then I see a lot of companies that people call open source but aren't, because they're not licensed under the GPL."

I'm thinking, "No, asshole, open source means the source is open. Anyone can look at it. You can print it out and shit on it if you want." This really shouldn't be that confusing of an issue. Their shared source program doesn't make it open source not because he says so, but because I cannot see the source. Quite clearly this is cut and dry.

News (ugh)

I saw this in an article about the latest bombings in London:

"A memo was distributed to hospital employees indicating a suspect in the Warren Street incident had been spotted nearby, Sky News reported. He was described as being black or Asian wearing a blue shirt with wires protruding from the top, Sky said."

I can see how you might get the two obvious scapegoats confused. Clearly there aren't enough mexicans in London.

Interesting

So apparently the dropkick cd is tinged with a hint of animosity towards war. They covered an Eric Bogle WWI tune that I'd like to share:

oh how do you do, young willy mcbride
do you mind if i sit here down by your graveside
and rest for a while in the warm summer sun
i've been walking all day, and im nearly done
and i see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
when you joined the great fallen in 1916
well i hope you died quick
and i hope you died clean
oh willy mcbride, was is it slow and obscene

[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did the play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

and did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
in some loyal heart is your memory enshrined
and though you died back in 1916
to that loyal heart you're forever nineteen
or are you a stranger without even a name
forever enshrined behind some old glass pane
in an old photograph torn, tattered, and stained
and faded to yellow in a brown leather frame

[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did the play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

the sun shining down on these green fields of france
the warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
the trenches have vanished long under the plow
no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing down
but here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
the countless white crosses in mute witness stand
till' man's blind indifference to his fellow man
and a whole generation were butchered and damned

[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did the play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

and i can't help but wonder oh willy mcbride
do all those who lie here know why they died
did you really believe them when they told you the cause
did you really believe that this war would end wars
well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
the killing and dying it was all done in vain
oh willy mcbride it all happened again
and again, and again, and again, and again

[Chorus]
did they beat the drums slowly
did the play the fife lowly
did they sound the death march as they lowered you down
did the band play the last post and chorus
did the pipes play the flowers of the forest

And they even wrote a song dedicated to a fellar that died in Iraq that was a pretty big fan of theirs. I guess they played a tune for him at his funeral. Touching.

New Dropkick!!!

I finally got around to picking up the new Dropkick Murphys today. Not half bad at all. Way more bagpipes than the other stuff of theirs I have. I'm happy with it.

And even if Tessie isn't the best, it is the official Sox song, so what ya gonna do?

Mmmmm

Obsidian Stout. It's even good for desert.

Ooohhh... and that Twilight Ale they've been running for the summer. Good god. I think I'll cry a little when Cinder Cone goes back on tap.

Hazaa

Good to see so many folks out last night. First the drinking crew, then the showin crew, and finally the late night crew. Always a shame such fun things have to end.

Development Model

Bit of a nerd rant here. In most development houses, things work like this. You have a TRUNK in your cvs tree. Main development goes here. As you develop, you tag so that you can go back to specific points in time. When you're ready to release, you branch from the TRUNK. If bugfixes are needed in production, you apply them to the branch, tag, and re-release. Later on you can merge the branch fixes back into TRUNK, which is where main development happens. Pretty simple, right?

Here where I work, we do things differently. Main development happens in branches that are merged into TRUNK at release time. Take a minute and think about this. Every time a merge happens, conflicts arise and things need to be re-tested. You're merging large changes on top of bug fixes rather than bug fixes on top of small changes. The tree becomes a stick, and when someone fucks up in TRUNK, development has to switch over to the correct model, which confuses everyone. To further this problem, everyone works on everything, so if someone had to make a branch for something and the development lead forgets about it, the person that comes in to add their new stuff may not add it to the correct line of development (with the correct model, it would clearly either go in the branch if it's a bug fix, or the TRUNK if it's a feature).

Honestly, I don't know why we do things this way. Our development lead is stuck in his ways and I wholy believe that half of the problems we have are a result of it. He's a really smart fellow, but sometimes it really sucks to be stuck doing things in a way that makes absolutely no sense.

Crazy

I have the vaguest recollection of riding a mechanical bull last night. How strange. Was good to see tmfjw again though. Gotta love that kid.

Oh yeah, and I guess London got blown up. Hurrah for the war terror. My sympathy goes out to all the people hurting because we couldn't be bothered to finish what we started. My sympathy also goes out to all those that will now feel even more pain as large governments rain more terror on their citizens in response to the tragedy.

Thank you Mr. Bush!

"I go to the G8 not really trying to make him look bad or good, but I go to the G8 with an agenda that I think is best for our country"

Only this man could so completely miss the point of this event. I am so grateful to be associated with this ridiculous banter. I can sure see how getting in with the Kyoto deal would be damaging to our economy and yet having everyone here in poor health and eventually dying early from the cancers polutants cause wouldn't. Gosh, what a trade off. Jackass.

Gah

So yeah... the vet did a shit job on that last bandage change. I'm now $150 in the hole for a $20 deal because they came off. Dog didn't even have to chew on 'em. And the damn emergency vet is wanting her to take some morphine and start some antibiotics. Fucking great. Gah.

Hot Damn

Flogging Molly - 9/2 @ Big Easy

I need a change of underpants now.

Shit son!

The Briggs @ The Venu - 8/3
Static X @ Big Easy - 8/13
CKY @ Big Easy - 8/19

Yeah. August is cool.