Thurloat Blog

The Picard Loop

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:35:12 -0400

So, here I was (you are here). Sitting on the couch, leisurely watching “John and Kate plus 8”. When I looked over at Jessica’s Psychology Quiz. This text is quoted straight from an University Psych textbook… seriously.

If Captain Picard leaves Deep Space Nine at 0900 hours and travels at Warp 4 his shuttlecraft, he can rendezvous with the Starship Enterprise in 4. 2 hours. However, in order to reach the ship so quickly, he would have to travel through the Neutral Zone, and his presence would undoubtedly be noticed by Romulan warships, which would attack and destroy his craft. Thus, Picard realizes that he will have to take another route to the ship and thus devises what comes to be known as the “Picard loop” to get around the neutral zone. The Captain has applied ____.

A) crystallized intelligence ability

B) an algorithm

C) deductive reasoning skill

D) means-ends analysis

My question is: Why is picard on Deep Space Nine?

"….[u]nder the terms in the memorandum of understanding, Penske would obtain the rights to the..."

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:00:00 -0400

“….[u]nder the terms in the memorandum of understanding, Penske would obtain the rights to the brand as well as certain other Saturn assets. GM would continue production, on a contract basis, of the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook.”

- [Source: General Motors] [more details]

Looks like the Saturn Astra is getting canned. It’s such a great dissapointment for me, as i haven’t had a single issue with it and i continue to enjoy driving it every day. Although, maybe this will make the resale value skyrocket because my model and options will be rare (XR, 3dr, 5spd, handling package, no 18s) ? Here’s to hoping, along with the dissapointment that I probably won’t be buying a Saturn again.

[Source: Adam Thurlow]

Google Chrome for Mac!

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:50:00 -0400

I just got my mitts on Google Chrome for Mac. The JS speed is incredible.

There is actually a visually noticeable speed difference when using our Framework back-end. I might just start using it for adminning sites / content entering because it doesn’t ever bog down on the heavy JS loads for Chunk revisions. It just seems to be more snappy in general compared to FF 3.01 where on many occasions will freeze up for 1/4 of a second when it’s processing JS / finishing a page load that creates a frustration inside of me so deep and burning…

… seriously. it’s only quarter of a second. but if i had all of those 1/4 seconds back, i’d for sure have at least a minute on my hands.

P.S. i just noticed that half of the toolbar for making tumblr posts has dissapeared in chrome.. weird.

GM Re-invention Strategy

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:57:00 -0400

Lately, something that has been invading my tweets and really interesting me, has been the news regarding Chrysler and the General Motors (GM) bankruptcies. Keeping tabs on the auto industry is a odd hobby of mine. You’d like me to fill you in on the confusion of it all? SURE!

So from what i’ve gathered, the situation as it stands on The Big Three (Ford, Chrysler and General Motors) is as follows:

Chrysler is so bankrupt it isn’t even funny. They are selling off all of their semi-profitable brands to other companies and seeking buy-outs from foreign markets.

GM has also filed bankruptcy, but has put a wonderful Public Relations spin on the whole thing. IIRC the company is now 60% owned by the US government, and i’ve just recently heard that the Canadian Government has decided to invest ~ approximately $10 billion in the “restructuring” of the brand. They’ve decided to focus on only their core market. This means that Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC will be the only surviving GM brands, and they’re also looking on cutting down their expansive, self-competitive lineup to under 30 offerings across all brands.

Today, GM released their “Re-Invention” Commercial to explain to the public in “fluffy” words, that they’re going to fire union workers, and do a lot of cost-cutting.

Ford is on top of their game. No one has heard about Ford lately because they decided to restructure in 2006 before anyone else knew something was going wrong. See, back in 06’ when Ford got their new CEO, he did a massive “re-invention”. They have since brought back the Taurus (mistake to have killed it), are working on a global automobile platform, and keeping as economical as possible. Ford is expecting to actually have to INCREASE production in the second half of this year by about ten percent in all of this economic turmoil.

So that’s how I am seeing the big three right now, and somehow after a few years ago, Ford has pulled off being the top dog (for now). They seem slightly worried now that the gvt’ owns 60% of GM, that they will no longer want to do business with them.

“We look forward to working with the Obama administration to ensure that the government’s majority ownership of GM will not change the industry’s competitive dynamics and that a level playing field will be maintained.”

The Auto Industry is in a rediculous amount of trouble in North America right now, and the way I see it, in less than 3 years Chrysler is going to be history, the GM ‘upturn’ might finally swing around in 6 years, and Ford will benefit greatly from taking the early damage from their restructuring in 06’ and be the only one left of the big three who can continue to sustainably innovate, build reliable automobiles, and still have a large Reasearch and Development section for greener cars in the future.

I think that the damage has been done to the other not-quite-as-big two, and they’re going to have a very steep hill to climb in order to find their way out of this hole. Especially since Ford is one step ahead.

To wrap up, I believe there is a quote that sums up this whole situation:

“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” - Confucius

New Tumblr Theme

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:18:43 -0400

I’m slowly working on getting together this Tumblr theme, it’s coming along decently, and i have a ton of stuff i want to do with it! i’m going to goto external JS city on this thing.

Either way, i’d like to know what everyone thinks of the fixed position layout in the bottom. It’s not standard for sure, and it probably goes against some sort of written ‘Design Code’, but golly, i like it.

That being said, i’m still working on it / tweaking it every evening a little bit at a time. So hopefully it eveolved into something decent looking.

"We should have our minds open, but not so open that our brains fall out."

Thu, 28 May 2009 11:14:33 -0400

“We should have our minds open, but not so open that our brains fall out.”

- Allen Ross Anderson

Lawns

Mon, 11 May 2009 21:30:55 -0400

i smelled my first cut grass of the year today. heaven.

Weird Problems with Ubuntu 9.04

Thu, 07 May 2009 08:29:00 -0400

So last night in a fit of frustration, from not getting that TV Tuner card working on my windows media centre computer. I went to town and downloaded Ubuntu 9.04. I was impressed with all of the new fancy things it had (faster load times, ext4, didn’t have to find new drivers for a few things like i did last time [8.04], picked up my tv resolution first go [unlike 8.04]) i was pleased…

until i noticed my mouse kept getting stuck in a window. If i would click on any window (not including the menus), that element would capture my mouses focus and no matter where else i clicked, it wouldn’t let go. Occasionally, a right click would release it from that element, but most of the time i would have to hard quit out of that application for it to release my mouse.

Does anyone have a clue about this?

Why I Love Git.

Wed, 06 May 2009 15:59:20 -0400

I made some changes to a production site that i haven’t looked at in a few days. i knew the designers had changed some stuff, so i had to get both repos to the same spot. in comes git (copy and pasted from my history)

git status
git add modules/EComm/plugins/products/ECommProduct.php
git add modules/EComm/templates/Product.tpl
git commit -m “adding moredetails plugin”
git push origin ******
git remote show deploy
ssh ********@*****.norex.ca
git status
git add images/CarouselBg.png
git commit -m “adding justins changes”
exit
git pull deploy ******
git push deploy

Designer is not a word I associate with myself

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:59:09 -0400

So I brushed off my old photoshop disk this evening to do some design work for a website I’m working on in my spare time. Holy cow batman. I’m rusty. It took me 45 minutes to do something I know I used to be able to do in 5.

I have so many trains I need to be hopping on board with as of late. What with the iPhone app, this design stuff, python and app engine, dashboard documentation. I need to slow down before I take on more things and get overwhelmed. As an aside I’m also rewriting my site on the dashboard framework in the near future.

Too many things.

iPhone App Bummer

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:47:25 -0400

So just when i’m getting in the groove to write a lighthouse iPhone app, @lighthouseapp releases their own (albiet a web app, not a native app) app.

So i’m not entirely sure what road i should take now… wonder if there are any other must be made apps :P

FrankenPC

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:37:14 -0400

Today I took apart my gaming rig, whom hasn’t seen any action in at least 4 months. And then I took my media center / file server apart and decided to make one badass PC and sell the leftover parts.

Took most of the afternoon to decide which core components I should stick with. I ended up keeping my AMD stuff for the reason that I can change out my 5400+ Black Edition for a phenom x4. And when that road comes along it should be an affordable one to cross.

So, parts I’m not keeping include : Intel c2d E6750 CPU Evga 680i motherboard Corsair silent 450 watt power supply 4gb ADATA ddr2 ram Server size aluminum case with plexi side ( this thing is huge ) 120gb WD sata hd

More of the list to come……

Step one complete

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:26:46 -0400

Installed the MASSIVE iPhone SDK this morning (5.8gb). So now the hard part is done and I can start the easy part by brushing up on my Objective-C and playing around with some test apps.

Something tells me that I’ll have a lot of fun with this.

Things to do today for this project: Set up a github repo, try to go “hello world” all up in this piece

iPhone app idea

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:18:11 -0400

I want to gather some resources and build a nadass lighthouse app. I tried a free one this evening that kept crashing on me.

That sparked the need for lighthouse on my iPhone. If anyone has some sweet ideas don’t hesitate to drop me a line

Got tumble on my iPhone. Time for some updates !

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:16:56 -0400

Got tumble on my iPhone. Time for some updates !

long time, no update

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:38:21 -0400

been too busy. my bad.

Jarb Interview Update

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:41:01 -0400

So after 2 interviews, things are looking up :)

The first interview i had on Friday didn’t look too promising, lots of Brain Teasers, which i didn’t do very well on (nerves got to me). Some of the questions seemed a little odd, then again i felt totally brain dead. he could have asked me what 6+3 was and i would have been dead wrong.

Then the second one i had this afternoon was great! It was instead with Chris (one of the lead devs). He was quite easy going and very personable, after asking some questions and talking about he position, he took me upstairs and introduced me to some of the dev team… out of the corner of my eye, i spotted RISK. they play RISK during the work day. how awesome is that?

Providing that i get the position, i get a new macbook pro (i’ve been laptopless for ages now… poor Thurshiba. R.I.P.) perks! yay!

I’ll post again when i find out what’s up with the position.

Jarb Interview

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:45:39 -0400

I appear to have a job interview tomorrow at Norex, i’m quite excited. That is all.

p.s. i’ll let you know how it goes.

My Venture into Painting

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:01:30 -0400

So over the last week or so i’ve been sort of off the map. Out camping in the woods with Jess and family (amazing trip, i had such a blast), did lots of fishing, etc.

I also decided to put my hand to painting. If you gander to your left you’ll see my first painting ever (not counting the turkeys that were painted in elementry school :P) It’s called Chrisanthimum, not an actual flower. I just came up with it in my head what it should look like, lighting etc. It turned out a lot cooler than i thought it would.

I would like to thank my wonderful Jessica for being around when i had any questions about technique (and for keeping me in line, not letting me cheat by borrowing your ideas ;)). I couldn’t have pulled it off without you.

Well, I’m pretty sure that i’ll be trying this out again at another time, we’ll see what i decide to pain then. Until that time, ATL is out. I have to get back to my TCL script, Jess’ website, and a cool new site idea for Dad, which was all put on the back burner for almost a week (sorry guys)

Tcl Scripting - Day 2

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:34:00 -0400

Well i spent a lot of today getting the bot up and running, actually responding to commands in the IRC channel. He is finally working well enough. I’ve run into a few snags along the way, for a while i couldn’t for the life of me figure out why my procs always error’d out with a “wrong # of args” when i was clearly passing through the right amount. This was what i HAD:

proc pub:setprofile {proService proValue} {

and i passed 2 variables through. easy enough i thought. as it turns out, when calling an proc through an IRC command, it by default needs a bunch of arguements (nick, host, handle, and channel) fast forward 30 seconds, and an hour of mysery has disapeared.

Once i got that out of the way, it was clear sailing for a while until i started using some ifs, whiles, commenting, messing with strings etc. and when it was time to test, i got an error i can’t make 2 ends of:

Tcl error [pub:setprofile]: extra characters after close-quote

I’ve been through the code 8 times at least. It doesn’t look like i have any syntax errors, missing quotes, brackets or anything. So while i’m waiting for TuxOtaku to setup mysqltcl package on the server, i need to find out what the hell this error exactly means.

If anyone can enlighten me please hit me up : thurloat at gmail dot com .