Sunday, June 26th, 2011
|
|
1:29 am
|
|
Duck legs braised over mirepoix. Oh, yeah. And there are local cherries just waiting to become dessert.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
|
|
9:45 pm
|
|
|
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
|
|
7:09 pm - A sign of the times
|
|
The local 99-cent store has gone out of business. A pawnbroker is taking over its space.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
|
|
7:36 pm - Free museums
|
|
|
Saturday, September 11th, 2010
|
|
1:37 pm - What I learned today
|
|
|
Friday, August 27th, 2010
|
|
9:08 pm
|
Cheap, lurid skiffy is cheaper and lurider if you read it on an ebook.
Except for the covers, because lurid doesn't work as well in black and white.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
|
|
8:12 am
|
|
The local groundhog (marmota monax chucki) did not bite the mayor's finger this year, so we'll have six more months of recession.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
|
|
12:49 pm - Zesty Lemon Cthulhu
|
|
|
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
|
|
10:40 pm
|
Well this has been a delightful day.
In August I went into the emergency room with chest pains (I really ought to update my journal more.). While I technically had a primary physician, I really didn't like her and hadn't seen her in three years. The doctor at the hospital, armed with my health insurance information (Did I mention I'm insured? That's supposed to make things easier, you know.), set up an appointment with a new doctor who had openings for new primary patients. I called my health insurance company (That's HealthNet, as it is well to know whom to revile.) and changed my primary doctor to this person, and they allowed as how all this was well and good.
I went for my first appointment today. My new doctor doesn't accept and never has accepted HealthNet. My future, once, and never doctor's receptionist is a wonderful person; she set me up with a different doctor at the same practice who does accept Healthnet with an appointment in only two weeks.
And this is a small part of why I'm in favor of a single-payer healthcare system.
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
|
|
9:19 pm - Cross-selling at Amazon
|
I sent in an Amazon order a few days ago. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) redbird asked me to add several different leather conditioning things for a new pair of boots she bought. Since then, Amazon has been recommending I also buy 120 Days of Sodom.
I don't get it; I'm still not sure how I'd rub mink oil into a book.
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
|
|
12:50 pm - Red-throated loon
|
|
|
Monday, March 16th, 2009
|
|
10:09 pm - Nine things about Oracle
|
With kudos to papersky:
SQL is not a language. It cannot express your heart's desire, though it may bleed you a little.
Larry Ellison is only in it for the money. Oh, and the e-penis.
The answer that comes out will only mirror the data.
You can put your heart, your soul, and all the hours of your day into it. Still, you will not meet your deadline.
Relational is overrated, unless you don't know what you're asking.
You don't know what you're asking.
The answer that comes out will only mirror the data, but it will still be unexpected: write general error handlers.
Really, Larry Ellison is only in it for the money. But he's a generous guy so you can be in it, too. Call yourself a consulting DBA.
Unlike all the other oracles on all the other worlds, with study, dedication, technique, and prayer you can achieve internal consistency.
|
|
(6 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
|
|
10:03 pm - Short bus
|
|
|
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
|
|
11:19 pm
|
|
|
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
|
|
10:13 pm
|
A thought, on observing the wide variety of costumes at the Renaissance Faire last weekend:
Time-traveling robot is always period garb.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
|
|
8:00 pm - I don't get the bailout
|
There's one major point I still haven't figured out on the whole bailout thing.
Just how is it they're going to get all that money transferred to Halliburton?
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
|
|
7:42 pm - We all like sheep
|
Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
|
Sunday, September 14th, 2008
|
|
9:15 pm
|
Back in 1993 I was working as a programmer for Prebon Yamane, then one of the world's leading wholesale currency brokerages. The head of the swaps desk (whose name I can't remember now, which shows why I'm not a broker) gave a series of talks on the underlying structure of the swaps and derivatives market. He was a pretty cool guy, and the only person there with both authority and a real feel for the mathematics of the industry. He could propose a new swap and have it accepted; he could explain why an existing swap was fucked and have the brokerage arbitrage the hell out of it until everyone else stopped trading it.
When he described the basic interest rate swap to me, I asked him what would happen if one of the counterparties went bankrupt overnight. He said that couldn't happen because (a) the companies that the wholesale currency brokerages allowed to be counterparties were all too big and too well run, and that (b) it couldn't possibly happen overnight; there'd be months of indications leading up to it.
In the matter of Lehman Brothers, and for that matter Bear Sterns, I find myself wanting to say just one thing to him:
I told you so.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
|
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
|
|
10:44 pm - This is what you'd call an all-star object
|
|
|
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
|
|
9:33 pm
|
I'm joining widespread content strike. This won't make much practical difference to me since I don't post often, but I suspect I may very well leave livejournal if they make it difficult for any new-found friends to join in the fun.
If their policies don't change, this party may be over; it may be time to move on.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
|
