The world continues to spin. Total annihilation has been averted, for now. With the invasion of Iraq officially over, and the United States slowly winding down operations in that area, I guess we can sleep in our beds again. At least until the next such conflict. In non news: Wars continue throughout South of Sahara Africa.
In entertainment: I went to see XMen2 last night with some friends. The main complaint I have was that Night Crawler came off as a complete simpleton. The well educated XMen had no time to really listen to the guy.
The Adam's mine deal is still being worked on, apparently. There are people who think they can make a lot of money dumping garbage into a hole near my hometown. It's really rather ridiculous. I should think by now that they could also make money minning the old garbage sites for minerals, plastics and compostable material. That should clear up space in the old sites that ring Toronto. Not that anyone would listen to me.
I'm still stitting at home, looking for work. I'm sure it'll come eventually. In the meantime, I've been working on XML Data Binding for C. You can see a lot about the Java version by searching for JAXB, but I've not been able to find a C implementation, so I wrote one. It's all for the fun of it of course.
If you've got a POSIXish system you can try out my XML data binding for C program at http://www3.sympatico.ca/. It should be a useful program for C programmers who want easy ues of XML for data storage. If you don't understand that, you probably have no use for it. :)
In non news, I'm still unemployed. I'm not worried yet though. It won't be time to start worrying until July.
Yesterday, I went out for coffee with a friend. Since I don't drink coffee, and we were at Starbuck's, I ordered Iced Earl Grey tea. When my friend found that out he was rather suprised. He had never heard of Starbuck's Iced Tea. I pointed out to him that it's not on the menu! Why on earth are they holding back such goodness for the menu? One time when I was there, the counter girl said they did not like doing them because it's so much work. I think that's a ridiculous idea. It's summer. I want something cool to drink, and their iced drinks with no coffee are much more expensive than they could possibly be worth. Of course, this being Canada, some people might be a tad suprised by the fact there's no sugar in the iced tea. (It's certainly not Nestea.) Oh well, I guess until they add it to the menu, it'll just mean I can have a drink that not everyone knows about.
I finally got my marks yesterday. I have no idea why the university holds on to them for so long. Anyway, they turned out slightly better than I'd hoped, about 5% above what I'd been expecting. I really should be rejoicing. It's an average that higher than almost all of the course marks I got in my first undergraduate.
In non news: I still don't have a job. I've pretty much given up the search. Maybe my desire to stay in Waterloo is too strong and I have to look further afield.
This idea came to me as I was sitting in the mall last night.
Most health experts, and people who know, agree that we would like to get rid of smoking. How about we license smoking. Each smoker pays $20 or so to get his/her name on a photo ID license. Then refuse to license anyone new except new immigrants (who would if (s)he wsa not of age when the licensing scheme came into effect would have a time limit before his/her license would be revoked). Anyone attempting to buy smokes without a license gets fined/jailed/whatever. Anyone selling to someone without a license gets the same deal as for selling to under 18 today. Eventually, after 40 years or so, almost all the legal smokers have died off and the rest of us can breath free without having the stink of cigarettes wafting into our apartments, or bombarding us at the doors of malls, church, movie theatres and schools.
I'm going to be away for most of this week at a conference. I should be available via email, though I'll only be checking it sporadically.
The following week, I think I'll start on self-employment. Charge thousands of dollars per month for custom software that will run on Linux. It should get interesting.
When I was doing my first undergrad, if I took a Myer Brigg's type test, I'd always come up as an INTJ. I just took one on the 'net (linked from Phil's page) and it came back ISFP (though many of their "questions" I could have gone either way). It's weird. Maybe I'm being changed. Now, I just have to change the I to an E and I'll be a completely different person than I was 5 years ago. At least as far as Myer Brigg's tests go.
Gleep
by alan on Mon 5th May 2003 4:45PM
The world continues to spin. Total annihilation has been averted, for now. With the invasion of Iraq officially over, and the United States slowly winding down operations in that area, I guess we can sleep in our beds again. At least until the next such conflict. In non news: Wars continue throughout South of Sahara Africa.
In entertainment: I went to see XMen2 last night with some friends. The main complaint I have was that Night Crawler came off as a complete simpleton. The well educated XMen had no time to really listen to the guy.
Garbage
by alan on Thu 8th May 2003 6:13PM
The Adam's mine deal is still being worked on, apparently. There are people who think they can make a lot of money dumping garbage into a hole near my hometown. It's really rather ridiculous. I should think by now that they could also make money minning the old garbage sites for minerals, plastics and compostable material. That should clear up space in the old sites that ring Toronto. Not that anyone would listen to me.
Clipit.
by alan on Mon 12th May 2003 3:38AM
I'm still stitting at home, looking for work. I'm sure it'll come eventually. In the meantime, I've been working on XML Data Binding for C. You can see a lot about the Java version by searching for JAXB, but I've not been able to find a C implementation, so I wrote one. It's all for the fun of it of course.
Try it
by alan on Thu 15th May 2003 7:01PM
If you've got a POSIXish system you can try out my XML data binding for C program at http://www3.sympatico.ca/. It should be a useful program for C programmers who want easy ues of XML for data storage. If you don't understand that, you probably have no use for it. :)
In non news, I'm still unemployed. I'm not worried yet though. It won't be time to start worrying until July.
Happy Victoria Day
by alan on Mon 19th May 2003 2:22PM
I know most people around here call it May 2-4, but I'm too much of a Royalist. Happy Victoria Day.
It's a nice relaxing day, kinda like every day is when you're not working.
Mmm, Iced Tea.
by alan on Wed 21st May 2003 8:53PM
Yesterday, I went out for coffee with a friend. Since I don't drink coffee, and we were at Starbuck's, I ordered Iced Earl Grey tea. When my friend found that out he was rather suprised. He had never heard of Starbuck's Iced Tea. I pointed out to him that it's not on the menu! Why on earth are they holding back such goodness for the menu? One time when I was there, the counter girl said they did not like doing them because it's so much work. I think that's a ridiculous idea. It's summer. I want something cool to drink, and their iced drinks with no coffee are much more expensive than they could possibly be worth. Of course, this being Canada, some people might be a tad suprised by the fact there's no sugar in the iced tea. (It's certainly not Nestea.) Oh well, I guess until they add it to the menu, it'll just mean I can have a drink that not everyone knows about.
Marks
by alan on Fri 23rd May 2003 4:30PM
I finally got my marks yesterday. I have no idea why the university holds on to them for so long. Anyway, they turned out slightly better than I'd hoped, about 5% above what I'd been expecting. I really should be rejoicing. It's an average that higher than almost all of the course marks I got in my first undergraduate.
In non news: I still don't have a job. I've pretty much given up the search. Maybe my desire to stay in Waterloo is too strong and I have to look further afield.
A stupid way to get rid of smoking.
by alan on Sat 24th May 2003 9:57PM
This idea came to me as I was sitting in the mall last night.
Most health experts, and people who know, agree that we would like to get rid of smoking. How about we license smoking. Each smoker pays $20 or so to get his/her name on a photo ID license. Then refuse to license anyone new except new immigrants (who would if (s)he wsa not of age when the licensing scheme came into effect would have a time limit before his/her license would be revoked). Anyone attempting to buy smokes without a license gets fined/jailed/whatever. Anyone selling to someone without a license gets the same deal as for selling to under 18 today. Eventually, after 40 years or so, almost all the legal smokers have died off and the rest of us can breath free without having the stink of cigarettes wafting into our apartments, or bombarding us at the doors of malls, church, movie theatres and schools.
Away
by alan on Mon 26th May 2003 9:13PM
I'm going to be away for most of this week at a conference. I should be available via email, though I'll only be checking it sporadically.
The following week, I think I'll start on self-employment. Charge thousands of dollars per month for custom software that will run on Linux. It should get interesting.
ISFP?
by alan on Thu 29th May 2003 3:21AM
When I was doing my first undergrad, if I took a Myer Brigg's type test, I'd always come up as an INTJ. I just took one on the 'net (linked from Phil's page) and it came back ISFP (though many of their "questions" I could have gone either way). It's weird. Maybe I'm being changed. Now, I just have to change the I to an E and I'll be a completely different person than I was 5 years ago. At least as far as Myer Brigg's tests go.
Week over.
by alan on Sat 31st May 2003 7:47PM
Well, my week at a conference is over. There was a lot of stuff there, and I met a lot of interesting people.