RandomFusion

Go Gopher

This Week I have spent a large ammount of time ramping up on Googles Go programming language. Go is basically an improved C. And from what I’ve worked with it I like what they have done. Its been a lot of fun to mess around with a new language that actually makes things simpler instead of adding complexity. The Go language is immediately familiar if you’ve spent any time in C or even less object oriented C++. Go Seems to be trying to walk the line between the two adding more capabilities like memory management but removing some of the really complex and potentially misused functions from C++. They have made some interesting choices in designing this language and overall I think they have something here. The have added some nice features like functions being able to return multiple values and other nice conveniences without them getting in your way for the most part. Overall I am very impressed with this new language. So impressed infarct that I have started working on my own contribution to the language. I have began work on a package that provides xterm cursor controls. Basically I have coded most of the useful CSI functions for xterm and created the curcon package.  It is still very early, I’ve not even tested all the functions yet but I know some of the basic cursor movement, buffer clearing, and colors are working. I havn’t yet written any documentation but if you are interested in checking it out, puting it to use or just telling me I suck at Go you can find the source here. This is the first component I needed to write my first real Go program so hopefully in a week or two I’ll be back to talk about how thats going.

Happy Coding!

Camera Fail

About 2 weeks ago we had an awsome Halloween party here at the new mud hut and all was going well. I made asian style tiny chickens, yes I actually tracked down somewhere that sold tiny chickens, to go along with a whole host of other little goodies. My wife even made up an amazing chocolate mess for desert. Lots of food and drink were had by all lots of catching up with friends and family, and even a spontaneous Mario kart game broke out. All in all I considered it a complete success. All was going very well until about 3/4 of the way though I went to pickup my trusty Sony a200 and the camera strap caught on the counter. Now according to the physics analysis of the slow motion playback (in my head) my hand did not have sufficient coefficient of friction for me to notice and stop pulling up when the strap started pulling down. So the camera successfully wrestled from my grip, now proceeded to make a break for the exit, unfortunately gravity was its only motivation. It didn’t make it very far landing hard on the kitchen floor, where I pounced and trapped it preventing further attempts at escape. Now at first blush it still seemed to be working and I snapped a few more pictures with it at the party. It wasn’t until the next day that I realized it was making some strange noises now. Yep I borked my camera, so far I know the in body image stabilization is gone, but I’m not sure what else has stopped working. It also now makes a very strange noise every time you turn it on. I have investigated repairing it but it seems to be at a minimum 50% the cost of buying a new one, and I’ve come to the realization that I didn’t love this camera enough to make paying that much worth it. So I am exploring other options to take this as an opportunity to upgrade, maybe to something with a titanium body this time.

So for the time being and probably the next few months my primary camera is now my IPhone, so I may now have a new excuse to neglect this blog. But I think I am going to try writing about some proposals I have for new technologies that I thought of while ignoring the new rock DJ drone on incessantly about nothing on the radio during my drive home. So we’ll see whats next.

Over the past few months I have been slowing nurturing my plated 30 gallon to a state of balance and beauty. I seem to have managed to balance part (at least chemically) but you know what they say about beauty.  My tank currently has lots of wisteria, some weird fern thing that I’m not sure is aquatic but it hasn’t died yet, lots of happy java fern and I just added some babies tears. The livestock is 2 botsami rainbows, 5 gold barbs, 3 ottos, 1 pleco and one clown loach. Tank has 65w of PC lighting and I am running diy CO2 supplemented with flourish excel.

I will try to post a picture once a month to track growth progress.

Bosami Rainbow

Lighting when shooting through glass can always be tricky. Its so easy to get lens flare or glare. There are some tricks to help with that things like if its bright enough you can use a polarizing filter to help cut down on glare or try to control the angle of the shot to control reflection but its all in all a tricky business. It is also one of the skills I will probably be spending a lot of time working on.

For years I kept fish tanks, I’ve always loved the peacefulness of the tank. When I was in high school I even got so ambitious to do planted tanks. They require a lot more care to prevent them from just becoming algae farms. It has been a few years since I have done any searious fish keeping. I’ve had a tank going for the past few years but it was low light, low maintenance setup that was just scenery in the living room. It was time to get serious again.

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I came across this article many weeks ago but am just now getting around to really putting some thought into what it had to say. When I first read it I had some very strong emotional reactions to the authors points. The basis of the article is that if you “Learn to live a simpler, more natural life, and drop the pretenses one at a time.” you will have a easier more fulfilling life. The author goes through several examples of things in his life that he has come to the realization that the true motivation behind them is to impress others. So I agree with this article in premise but at the same time find much fault in it.

I agree that taking actions for the wrong reasons can be very detrimental to your happiness and success. If you do as he says for example and attempt to impress others at work by “doing things that are artificial and false, and often stretch too far and fail, or at least show your shortcomings.” I don’t agree with his assertion that if you strive to impress others, or your self, you are going to do things that are artificial and false. I am including yourself because at least for me when I am proud of something I’ve done I know I’ve done something really well. Your success at attempting to impress depends on what you choose to do and how you choose to do it. These factors will determine if you succeed or fail.

Additionally when he talks about decoration what I get out of the paragraph is that having lots of art in a house is nothing but an attempt to prove to others that you either A. have money, B. are cultured or C. both. What about those of us that are really passionate about art? What about those of us that get a lot out of looking at interesting art? Art can be incredibly important in creating a healthy environment. I feel he downplays the importance things like art can have in a persons life that has nothing to do with how that person is perceived by others.

While I agree with the premise that you should not take actions to impress others I really disagree with the theme in the article that people who choose to dress nicely, keep a nice house, drive a nice car, enjoy art and decoration, ect are all doing it just to impress others. Many of these things for many people have other motivations that are truly fulfilling.

In the end we all need to find balance.