Growing

Uncategorized

You may (or may not) have noticed some new widgets on the site. First, I’m working on the JazzQuotes system. Right now all it does is echo a random quote, but eventually as the database becomes more inclusive it’ll have more features, including being able to browse by author (jazzer) and the ability to submit your own favorite quote. Also there is work being done on the toy section of the site, and I’m coding out a little script that will show what I’m listening to on my computer right now.

Keyboard Compare Applet for Dvorak and Qwerty Keyboards

Asides

I’ve found a very cool site: Keyboard Compare Applet for Dvorak and Qwerty Keyboards. The Dvorak layout places the keys you most under the fingers best suited to use them.

Plugging the top 500 words from the english language into the applet came up with some interesting results: your fingers would have moved 72.09 meters if you used QWERTY, but only 42.44 meters with Dvorak. See the site for more details. If anyone is interested in switching and want’s some computer help feel free to contact me.

Birthday mess

Uncategorized

On the front page of Mullenweg.com I’ve been using a query that grabs all the birthdays for that month and displays their information, ordered by the day of the month. Here is the query I’ve been using:
SELECT id, first, middle, last, private, dod, DATE_FORMAT(dob, '%M %e, %Y') as nicedob, DATE_FORMAT(dob, '%M, %Y') as mob, DATE_FORMAT(FROM_DAYS(TO_DAYS(NOW())-TO_DAYS(dob)), '%Y')+0 AS age, DATE_FORMAT(dob, '%M %e') as day, DATE_FORMAT(NOW(), '%M %e') as today FROM people WHERE MONTH(NOW()) = MONTH(dob) ORDER BY DATE_FORMAT(dob,'%d')

This has a couple of problems: first, it has a bunch of junk in there that I’m not using anymore and/or should be done in the PHP, not the SQL. More fundementally is the problem that it reports birthdays incorrectly! My sister Charleen pointed out that the front page had the date of her birthday, July 21st, right, but it was going to be her 28th birthday and not her 27th. The problem was the code was calculating how old she is today and then reporting that. The column is even being called ‘age’ because I took the code from another part of the site where I was calculating age. Obviously some changes were needed. I started by removing the stuff I don’t use anymore, and making it a little tighter:
SELECT id, first, middle, last, dod, DATE_FORMAT(dob, '%M %e, %Y') as nicedob, YEAR(FROM_DAYS(TO_DAYS(NOW())-TO_DAYS(dob))) AS birthday FROM people WHERE MONTH(NOW()) = MONTH(dob) ORDER BY DATE_FORMAT(dob,'%d');

Now we have a much more managable chunk of SQL, but still nothing to fix the problem. After much deliberation, and thinking about ways to implement a conditional statement to check whether the day had passed yet and then add a year to the ‘birthday’ column if required, but after a while I just realized that the simplest and most accurate solution would be to just subtract the year of birth from this year. This has no issues since the year never changes in the middle of a month. Here’s the final product:
SELECT id, first, middle, last, dod, DATE_FORMAT(dob, '%M %e, %Y') as nicedob, YEAR(NOW())-YEAR(dob) AS birthday FROM people WHERE MONTH(NOW()) = MONTH(dob) ORDER BY DAYOFMONTH(dob);
Ahhh that feels good :).

MIB II

Uncategorized

I saw MIB II on the IMAX screen yesterday, and it was impressive. I don’t think the movie was quite as good as the first one, if anything it seemed to be a bit of a spoof on the first one. It was quite funny at times, it’s just the plot struggled sometimes. But the screen was amazing, and the company, as always, was great.

Danger of games

Uncategorized

Yesterday I did nothing. Not a lazy day, not a restful day, a day where a video game completely took over my day. The game is called Black and White, and it’s not even that new, about a year and a half old. But anyway I just got it and once I started it I couldn’t put it down. This isn’t necesarily a testament to the game, that’s just how I always start games. Anyway, according to the game statistics, which are quite good, I’ve spent 16 hours on the game as of this morning. Sixteen hours! It’s a fun game, but it just feel wierd that Sunday was an entire day when I didn’t produce anything. Oh well, the only solution is to beat the game as soon as possible :).

Summer Cleaning

Uncategorized

Who knew that cleaning could be so nostalgiac? Every thing I pick up seems to make me think, whether it be computer magazines from the height of the dot-com boom to the piece of paper with a number on it that facilitated a certain prank on the last day of school. I’m a terrible packrat, and for the past four years I’ve been saving tons of schoolwork, assignments, handouts, absent notes, everything because of some misconcieved notion that somehow I might need it at some point in the future. The downside to this was of course when I did need something I had so much other stuff I had the hardest time finding the thing that I was looking for. The other thing that strikes me is all the stuff that I saved that hasn’t been used since. It has put me into a strange mood, but the cleaning must go on. I just hope I don’t throw away anything important.

Terrorist Alert! (from Charleen)

Humor

The President of the United States, George W. Bush, has asked that all Americans and Canadians unite together in a common action to root out terrorists hiding in our community.

Since the Taliban cannot stand nudity and consider it a sin to see a naked woman that is not one’s wife, on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., EST, all North American women are asked to walk out of their house completely naked to help weed out any neighborhood terrorists. Circling your block for one hour is recommended for this antiterrorist effort. All men should position themselves in lawn chairs in front of your house to prove that you think it’s OK to see other women nude. (Since they do not approve of alcohol, a cold six-pack at your side is further proof of your anti-Taliban sentiment.) Names and addresses of non-participants should be sent to CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia.

The United States of America appreciates your efforts to root out terrorists and applauds your efforts. Please, by all means, send this to your fellow Patriots to ensure 100% participation.

Thank you for your participation,
Bill Clinton, Former President of the United States

New design

Uncategorized

Today is the first of what will be 12 designs over the next year, each themed for the month they’re released. Happy July! (a little early) Please leave any comments on this theme below.

Houston

Meta, Personal

Back in Houston, finally, and it’s nice adjusting back to old habits and comforts. Besides family and pets, I think the thing I missed most were my speakers, and it’s bliss to hear high fidelity sound again. Uploaded the last day from the trip, so enjoy! I’m also working on some layout/design changes for this site. The plan is to have a different theme for every month.