Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Cancelled Sci-Fi
March 15, 2007

The Sci-Fi channel has been re-running a bunch of shows that I used to watch before they were summarily executed by network executives who don’t recognize science fiction lovers as a real demographic they can sell to.

What’s interesting about these shows, and many sci-fi shows I’ve noticed, is that they were all cancelled without an ultimate resolution to their plotlines. I’ve always wondered what happened with these shows. There’s a big, over-arching mystery through the entire show’s run, and then… nothing?

Cut a Lady in Half
March 14, 2007

Here's a silly card trick I learned while cruising about the internet. I don't expect it's difficult to figure out how I did it, and I could probably perform it a bit better than I did (the camera shot was a bit restrictive), but here it is.

I have a few other tricks cooking that I'd like to share, too. Hopefully I'll find a better way to produce the video. Maybe have Berta record it with the DV camera or something instead of the QuickCam.

Host Switch 503
March 12, 2007

For anyone who’s notices some misbehavior on this site, I’m working on getting Asymptomatic moved to a different host.

The host it’s currently on, unixshell, is fine, except for the fact that they’re inconsistent with their ability to provide new hosting, and they’re not all that keep on backups. I lost a lot of data over the summer that I’m not happy about, but is probably more my fault than theirs. Still, that they don’t offer automated snapshot backups or a separate backup location as an add-on service is a potential problem.

Simple PHP Bug/Issue Tracker
March 09, 2007

Where is it?

One of our clients for work has been on the hunt for an issue tracker to keep track of issues for our web development project and for their internal systems. We looked through a few options and eventually settled on FogBugz. I do not like FogBugz because it’s another one of those programs subscribing to that crazy Creating Passionate Users philosophy that says it’s great to have people that hate your product. Particularly because I am one of them.

Care and Feeding of Your Non-Designer Coder
March 08, 2007

Over the years I’ve had many occasions to work with different graphic designers in producing various types of output related to the computer. Of course, I’ve helped produce web pages, but also printed documentation and marketing materials all related to software releases.

Some designers have been better to work with than others, as you would expect in any field. There are many common threads that I’ve noticed between these designers of, shall we say, “things they could do that would make things go much more smoothly than doing what they’re used to” in regard to getting software projects done.