For thoughts so obscure they could only live on the internet.
To paraphrase some kind words by Froosh during one of my last days at CM, “There are some developers that are showy but can’t code for crap, and there are some developers that just know their stuff. I would guess you’re the latter.”
This video might be a visual representation of that same idea.
It’s true! Your favorite handheld gaming system and social media application combined in DSTwitter (available for download!). Despite what the image shows, it is in English and you’re not obligated to have a chihuahua as an avatar. Glee!
I haven’t tried it out yet since I don’t have my USB SD reader, but soon. Thanks to my brothar for finding this, and @jonnay for downloading for me.
Jumping on the bandwagon with my other twitter buddies, I created a new avatar at FaceYourManga.com. Creating an anime avatar isn’t new, in fact there as a popular one back in 2003 I used, and I made an anime dress-up doll application for my CPSC 581 project (idea thieves…). This just happened to be the one that my other friends were using. I liked it because the choices weren’t too extensive, meaning that I didn’t waste a lot of time making it. And yes, all the female bodies were all this busty. I added glasses to not look so much like a harlot.
@dloo sent me this link to a timeline of internet memes via Twitter. I find this interesting since I love the changing landscape of internet and technology culture, and it also fills in the blanks for important memes I may have missed out on (hey, I was MUDding and chatting during my early days, then all-consumed by school afterwards). It’s fun to see that “Aeris Dies” is there, even though its source was Final Fantasy VII and not the internet. I guess it counts because I was one of the many people who searched (probably using Alta Vista or Dogpile) whether or not there was a way to revive her.
One thing I’d rather not see again is Hamster Dance. *shudder*
Seventeen years, three cities, five homes, and countless poop baggies together. Sometimes the right thing to do and the easiest aren’t the same.
Heard from my coworker. I think he’s having a case of the Mondays. 
When I grow up, I’m going to have a genocide. Well, not really, unless stupid is a race.
At work I sit right beside an air conditioner. It’s been great during the summer so far, especially since I work on the upper floor where the warmth likes to hang out. The only problem I’ve had with it is when it’s on, it blasts me so directly that turning it on and off constantly is only way to compromise the extremes of hot and cold.
View of distance of air conditioner to desk
I heard that my predecessor constructed a cardboard “deflector” to redirect the icy blast, so that is what I sought to do.
Tools for construction, from my handy dandy handbag
Armed with packing tape, scissors, a box cutter I found on the ground, a Fed-Ex box previously deemed useless, as well as my limited edition Sigg Geisha Grace drinking receptacle (thanks Tita Grace), I was ready to go.
Reinforced support, adjustable air permitter
I knew that on some days I would want more air flow than others, so I made an adjustable side-thingy that would alter the angle of the deflector. I also didn’t want to tape the whole thing to the air conditioner itself, so I created a reinforced support block (and by reinforced I mean I cut little triangles and taped them in place, as seen to the left of the above picture) for the deflector to rest on. Below is a side view of the finished product.
Side view
It took me about 20 minutes and half a box to make, and it worked well. Too well. I had to cut the height of the deflector slightly because it wasn’t letting enough air through. I thought about creating adjustable slits for air to flow through, but I think I’m going to leave that for Deflector 2.0.
A couple of weeks ago I purchased Square Enix’s “Song Summoner” iPod game, thinking that the combination of listening to music (I do it all the time) and and an RPG (I used to play them all the time) in a portable format would keep me occupied during commutes and waiting periods. Since the initial purchase, I haven’t completed a single battle, proving that the convergence of two great things does not necessarily a result of proportionate greatness. I thought it would be perfect for me, since I stopped playing RPGs because of the required investment of time in “levelling up” one’s characters. In Song Summoner, you create characters from songs on your iPod and listening to them frequently gives more strength. Sounds effortless, no? But the thing is, playing this game involves a lot of learning and adjustment, especially learning how to use the clickwheel to control gameplay.
In contrast, I’ve acquired Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS and am relishing the nostalgia. I don’t mind doing repetitive things because I want to see the treatment in the remake. It originally came out in 1991 (as Final Fantasy II), and as a nine-year old I had a lot of emotional involvement in this video game. Not only was it a game that caused tears (Palom and Porom’s sacrifice) but it brings back weekends with my brothers and cousins at my grandparents’ house and sacrificing watching Ducktales in the morning at the babysitter’s to play. I would draw the characters as I saw them in my mind during summer holidays. In the grade following, I would watch my brother continue to play even as there were newer games available. Now, as I play again I experience inward glee towards minutia like the how the placement of non-playable characters strikes familiarity. I look forward to seeing the old characters again as if it were a reuinion of friends. Yes, it’s very nerdy to say, but I’m shameless.
This is a very self-indulgent blog entry as there are really no lessons to learn from this and nothing to really teach other people. Maybe that the pleasure of reminiscing is very marketable nowadays? Maybe that if the iPod is great for listening to music and the Nintendo DS is great for playing games, a combination of the two (even in its genius) might not be appropriate?
In any case, I conclude this entry with a YouTube video. When my brother showed it to me I watched it four times straight.
“Rose, Tim, Andrew… supper time!”
“Not yet, I need to find a save point!”
P.S. If you’re playing Final Fantasy IV for Nintendo DS using an R4 card and get a white screen, you will have to update your kernel.
Taken from the New Yorker. Even better, this article is from THE FUTURE (check the timestamp of the article)!
3. Steal Cheryl’s famous potato-salad recipe. When Cheryl asks, “Why did you steal my recipe?,” say, “I don’t know, Cheryl, why did you break my heart?” Then laugh so she knows you’re just kidding.
…
7. Have you ever noticed how sun-dried tomatoes and top-grade peyote look exactly the same? Not a suggestion, really. Just saying.
One of the best things about something new is all the firsts that get to be experienced. In a new relationship, it’s the first kiss, first holiday together, first “I love you”. With a new car you can take it for your first ride home, first drive through, first carwash. Even with a new packaged product I savour tearing the perforations that will only hold together once. Today I experienced a first at my new job. Before I explain let me tell you about the old way.
At Critical Mass, there are people called Release Engineers whose main role (among many) is to manage the transport of digital components that comprise a website. They are the digital ushers that make sure that code, images, configuration files, everything gets deployed onto the testing and live environments. A web developer would typically submit their workings into a repository with a certain identifying tag, and the Release Engineers would gather the files to carry them along their merry way.
At Applied, there is no such role. A developer is responsible for pushing their own code and assets to the review and production servers, and we do so by running neat little command line executions. (Yes, I even bugged that Release Engineers that they could be replaced by very small scripts.)
Today, the boss* was gone. He instructed me to watch for changes, and left me in the hands of the marketing director who also had strong involvement in the project. It is a real estate website selling ranches and other community homes. I finished the last changes and was instructed to put the changes up. Now, I should’ve known that things have to go to review before production, but with my brain on autopilot and digesting information on how to create a Facebook app, I asked which server it should go on. She asked me what the difference was, and as I gave URLs as the main differentiating point (not very clear), she told me to put the changes up on production. I had test data in to demonstrate what the price column would look like, so all the properties (including a ranch the size of Monaco) was on sale for $4 million dollars. Later that afternoon the salesperson for the property called, and luckily the marketing director fielded the call. This brought me back to my days on Mercedes-Benz where we’d spend hours upon hours just making sure that the pricing and disclaimers were correct, just in case. The entire time, all I could hear in my head was the Release Engineer Manager’s warning, “Just wait until something goes wrong, then what will you do?” Well, I just moved quickly and drew upon the support of my new team. I have to thank the marketing director for her patience through this whole ordeal, and also my coworker and deskmate for his calm instructions on how to roll back the changes and restore the live site.
Now, I’m just hoping that my boss doesn’t read this blog, otherwise everything will be juuuuust as normal. 
*I use the word boss only because I don’t want to use names. He is my oversight and manager, I guess you’d say. There really is no hierarchy.
It's tough to think of a blurb for myself when I'm also on