Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Raingutter Regatta
January 14, 2013
scouts raingutter regatta

Riley's raingutter regatta boatOn Saturday, Riley participated in the culminating event of our last week of creative effort, the Raingutter Regatta.  The Regatta is an event for cub scouts that involves using a boat-shaped block of balsa wood, a dowel mast, a plastic sheet for a sail, and a few extra plastic and metal pieces to build a breath-powered boat that can be propelled down the length of a rain gutter filled with water.

The race itself consists of two gutters placed side-by-side, filled half-way with water.  Two competitors' boats are placed at one end of the raceway.  When the signal is given, each competitor blows on his boat's sail in an attempt to push it toward the finish line.  Each scout must use only his breath to push the boat, unless the boat is capsized or stuck, in which case the scout may right or unstick the boat without moving it down the track with his hands.  The first boat to arrive at the end of the track wins the heat.

The Programmer's Toolbox
January 13, 2013
code IDE editors

After reading an article on Hacker News I found myself once again perplexed by self-proclaimed "programmers" who insist upon a minimal toolset to accomplish their work.  

Jeremy Morgan, the guy who wrote the original article about the tools he uses, is clearly a Windows programmer.  His tools indicate not only that he runs Windows, but that he writes code that is intended to be deployed on Windows.  For Windows developers, some tools are necessary for the trade.  Specifically, a compiler that will produce a Windows binary application is a tool that must be in the box to accomplish your job.  But beyond what's required for producing working code/applications for different platforms, there seems to be a trend among vocal "coders" to use the least invasive tools for the job.

The World You Want to Live In
December 17, 2012

For Riley's birthday we wanted to fix up his desktop computer, so I grabbed a reluctant Abby and drove to Best Buy to look for a monitor.  Prior to our outing, I checked their web site for prices, and found what I wanted, also noting that they had them in stock at our Downingtown location.  Knowing that Riley's birthday was the following day and shipping would likely not work, we set out to fetch a monitor.

Abby and I looked for the monitor shelf and found the display model of the monitor we were looking for, but we could not find the monitor in a box on the shelf.  Usually I am accosted by 50 blue-shirts while I peruse Best Buy, but for some reason I was not this time.  So without any associates to help me, I simply used my phone to order and pay for the monitor online, and schedule it for in-store pickup at the store I was standing in.  Abby and I continued looking around the store, playing games, checking out movies and cameras and TVs, and finally after about 45 minutes of goofing around, we headed for the customer service desk to pick up the monitor that I had ordered.  

Cutting the Cord
December 02, 2012

I've written before about how we were going to burn our TV.   We since (the day after I wrote that post, in fact) have cut the cord.  There is no more TV service coming into the house.  What have we done?  How have we fared?  I'll explain.

We started with the Fios triple-play service: TV, Phone, Internet.  We dropped everything but the internet.  We've switched to using our cell phones only and a Google Voice number.  The TV connection is a bit more complex.

New Food
November 29, 2012

I'm coming to the conclusion that Cup-A-Noodle is not a drink.  I know that this shouldn't seem startling to anyone, but to me, it's telling news.  I've been suffering from an infection of some kind over the past week, and have at several points completely lost my voice.  When I then went looking for something to drink, I wanted something with some specific characteristics, but I've been unable to find: