grylliade.org Free minds. Free markets. Free beer.

R C,
In NH!? Say it ain't so. I thought New Hampshirites chose to live free rather than die. Is this the beginning of the booted state project?

Hey, hey, I got a title for the next one:
This post will not be televised!
Hyuck, hyuck!

I thought the X meant there was going to be some porn. I was very disappointed.

Yes, at 3 AM, the whoop of a car alarm is so restfull.

OTOH, there are the assholes who, in order to protect their 'baby', straddle two parking spaces. Makes me want to let the shopping cart go at high velocity.

That is genius

Nobody except Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse.

Car alarms in America are useless. That boy has cried wolf far to many times for me to even glance in the direction of the noise.

A few weeks ago there was a dog in my neighborhood barking *all day*. I'm not exaggerating. It wouldn't f'in stop. I felt like I had gone insane by the end of the day. I even called the police to complain. I wish it had been a car alarm and not a dog because then I would have been able to throw something at it.

Smacky, when you get home, you will empathize with this:

Tiny Dog Has Been Barking Nonstop For 6 Years

Finding out some scuzzy Chinese hackers are using SQL injections attacks to put hidden script tags into database fields that display on web pages people look at (and presumably do something bad, though as yet undetermined)...

...thinking I'm safe because I know what I'm doing and I sanitize database inputs, dammit...

...And finding out that two barely-above-toy level projects I did when I was a neophyte didn't have such sanitization.

Well, shit.

Fortunately, both sites were using database-specific users and so only those databases got fields filled with HTML fragments that I had to clean out, before going over every line of database code and en-safeifying them.

the i-phone irritates me.

Cell phone companies generally irritate me. What with contracts and shit. Sell the phone for its market price. Sell the minutes for their market price.

I had an idea for a car alarm that would work every time, and would attract all sorts of attention with the use of a sound that's impossible to ignore. I was going to tell you about it, but after typing it up, I realized that it was too evil to lose on the internet, where anyone could see it and put it to work. So, see smacky, I can be socially responsible, too.

The only time my car alarm ever goes off is when I'm sitting in the car waiting and then I decide to unlock it and get out. It doesn't go off very often, but every now and then it does go off because it decides that the circumstances of my unlocking the vehicle are suspicious.

So, like mk said, car alarms are pretty much worthless. Nobody pays any attention to them, and for good reason.

There are good "passive" car alarms in up brand cars that work pretty well. They actually figure out if there's a passenger in the vehicle at time of arming, and they figure out the difference between incidental contact and theft attempts by persistence and force logic.

I think it's mostly the effect on the guy messing with the car that provides a deterrent. It's a bit odd to see it. You pull the handle and nothing happens, then you pull again and it beeps at you once. You break anything and it lets out a god awful racket. Plus you get the red HAL eye on your door that flashes menacingly at you. It knows man! It knows!

mailing company does mailing for us.

or so we think.

punchline: they want money for this mailing and previous mailing from another department.

so they tell us, today.

a week after it was supposed to go out.

fuckers.

Just as a side note, I did get an insurance rate discount based on the presence of a 'passive alarm' that was higher than the discount afforded to 'active alarms'. I asked and they indicated that the passive systems work better, in no small part becuase they are integrated into the whole car (ignition freeze, etc.) and because they were shown to be 'more intimidating'.

My wife and I, looking for parking near a local steakhouse, were very annoyed by a large SUV parked halfway in a pair of parking spaces, and halfway in the traffic lane, making it impossible for other people to access that row of parking. Said SUV was emblazoned with a realtor's advertising, which prompted my lovely and talented wife to have a flash of inspiration.

The note we left on the car read simply, "Location, location, location!"

That reminds me - and this is not really an irritating thing, but it fits with this topic - a while back I saw Nasty Canasta do a fan dance and her soundtrack was that car alarm. You know, BEE-doo-BEE-doo, WHOOOOP WHOOOOP, BLAT-BLAT-BLAT-BLAT, wooOOwooOOwooOO... Just that and nothing else for about five miutes. It was pretty funny. It was like a really famous pop song: everybody knew it by heart.

Finally, this is germane to a conversation

Back in the dark days of 1997, when I still had a dial-up modem, Squeak got very good at imitating the sign-on sequence. Unlike this bird, he couldn't do the hiss of the digital transmission, so he just shrieked excitedly because he knew the thing was finished.

Nowadays, if I start ranting while on the phone, he starts doing an imitation of that. Oy, nothing throws off a good head of steam like seeing a creature with a brain the size of a pea basically saying, "This is you: mear-mear. Mear mear me-me mear."

Join me (and as Andrew, DAR and FF3K are going to undoubtedly snicker at me) on the Adventures of Dealing with a Certain Big-Ten Law School:

1. The law books? They just cost me 900 dollars. Yes, for one semester. Fuuuuck.

2. The University just sent me my tuition bill, and for some bizarre reason had me listed as an "Out-of-State Student", meaning that they were trying to tack on another 7500 dollars to my bill. So, I call the University Bursar to get this cleared up...but the phone queue is full (! - never heard of such a thing...what kind of tincan operation lets its queue get full?)...I try to call them five more times and get the same message. Finally, I call the Registrar's office and they (and I tried not to laugh at this) tell me that the reason that I am being billed Out of State Tuition is because they don't have my Selective Service Registration Number on file. This makes me laugh for two reasons: 1...I've been to fucking Iraq, lady and 2. You have my social and the link that points me to sss.gov so I can look up my own number...would it have been that hard to, y'know, make a quick check instead of wasting reams of time and paper because you want it to be "the student's responsibility"? I've lived in Ohio for going-on thirteen years...jesus.

3. I have about 200 pages of reading to do this weekend for Monday's classes.

I have to read 14 case studies for my Criminal Law class, wherein I take a survey at the end of each one to "evaluate" how culpable I think the accused is. However, the instructions from the prof and from the workbook say that I should NOT evaluate the case based on the law, or on any utilitarian grounds...I'm just supposed to fucking whim some arbitrary "sense of justice" and figure out how much time (if any) the accused deserves based on how I feel.

I'm not trying to be deliberately obtuse, but how can you evaluate criminal activity if it is verboten to review criminal statutes?

Here's where I attempt to apply my professor-fu:

I think it's supposed to be an exercise in getting a sense of your own assumptions, prejudices, etc. First you evaluate the situation without the benefit of the sorts of things that you are going to be taught about, later they'll (presumably) have you evaluate the situation in light of the things that you have been taught, and then you compare.

Or at least it's probably supposed to be like that. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. I'll bet that the author of that workbook wrote the exercise with that intention. I have no idea if the follow-up assignment will follow through with those comparisons.

I can think of a perfectly reasonable pedagogical explanation for anything...but that explanation only applies if the whole is in some way consistent with the parts. For instance, I could justify assigning any problem in the book. However, that justification falls apart if I never again assign another problem exploring the same ideas or techniques. The problem becomes a standalone thing that was done just for the hell of it.

Oh wow -- I think I know exactly what AR's prof and workbook are after. This clarity comes from having read Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions about the two different ways that people tend to see the world.

Basically, the instructions are saying, "Throw away all considerations about the process by which the punishment of the accused was meted out -- any consideration of precedent, any thoughts about the practicality of catching and punishing criminals, any thoughts about the letter of the law, and any thoughts about whether your decision might itself set bad precedents or have any unintended bad consequences. Consider only this: In this particular case, how do you treat this particular individual fairly? What do you think is a just punishment for him, under his particular circumstances?" EDIT: Basically, pretend that you are starting afresh with this particular case.

Disregard the law because it might be considered "unfair" in this particular case. Disregard precedents because they might not take into account all the relevant factors of this case.

I suspect the purpose of this exercise is ultimately to examing the dilemma of balancing the desire to be "just" in every particular case, vs. the desirability of setting up an objective process and rule of law that treats every comparable case in the same way (even though no two cases are ever exactly alike). It's about adhering to the rule of law even when, in some cases, this yields results that may not be desirable, or even in some ways "unjust," in certain specific cases. E.g.: The rule of law says that private property owners can control who comes onto their property and whom they choose to have transactions with thereupon, and this is considered "just" -- even if in some specific cases this means that hungry black people can't get served at some restaurants, which many people consider "unjust."

(I am using scare quotes above only because different people will assign different meanings to these words, which is one of the main points of Sowell's book.)

It's also about "equality of opportunity" vs. "equality of result." In other words, do you tweak the legal process to give special consideration to certain circumstances in pursuit of results that are more "fair"? Or does "fairness" mean you "treat everybody the same" with the same process, even though all people don't start out form the same place, often leading to results that seem "unfair"?

This is one of the grand questions about the purpose of the law and how it is to be applied. Are all men (theoretically) equal before the law, subject to the same rules, and let the chips fall where they may -- or is one of the purposes of the law to actively intervene (treating different people in different ways) and make all men more equal as a result?

It looks like AR is in Part A of this exercise, with Part B to come later.

EDIT: And the fact that AR apparently considers it impossible to apply justice without considering the letter of the law, precedent, etc. rather than draw upon some "higher sense of justice" is a major clue to which of the two great visions of the world he probably adheres to. (Not a criticism; it's the same vision I generally tend to adhere to myself -- but reading Sowell's book has helped me better understand the other side also.)

And also I made many minor edits for the sake of slightly improved clarity.

Hard drive on my work computer dies with ominous clicking noises.

All my work is safely in subversion repositories hosted on another box, but I'm having to reinstall metric assloads of applications. Worse, I lost rather a few non-critical, but labor-saving scripts I'd written and not thought to back up.

Now, of course, I've set up repositories for My Documents, my build scripts, and any other useful scripts...but now I have to spend the time recreating the things I lost, when I have time. The worst loss has to be this email-filing system I wrote - think "Outlook filters on steroids and without the limit on how many filters you can have" - and all the actual rules I wrote for it.

Hey, AR, at least your textbooks were cheap. (*ducks*)

First year law school is an immersion process. It's nothing like college and you've never had a formal educational experience like it before, although I suspect boot camp and special forces type training are rough analogies. The goals are (1) to teach you an entirely new vocabulary, (2) for you to learn how to discover what the law is (and isn't) and (3) to get you to develop (or at least hone) certain reasoning and rhetorical skills. You and four or five fellow 1Ls are going to teach yourselves criminal law, property, torts, contracts, etc. (Hell will freeze over before your 1L professors tell you what the law is) and in the process you will learn how to think and argue like a lawyers. Oh, and as far as the 200 pages of reading goes, don't worry, it typically gets worse second year.

Here's my very best piece of advice. Law school exams are about issue spotting. Spot as many of the issues in the final exam essay questions as possible. State the applicable majority rule (and, on fairly rare occasions, the minority rule) and tie it to the facts. When all else fails, make a noise like a lawyer. Don't worry about writing up lengthy, nuanced arguments. You don't have time.

Here's my second best bit of advice. Get up a game of asshole bingo. You probably have five classes -- property, torts, contract, crim law and maybe con law or some other basic course. Some 150 or more of your 1L class are all taking the same classes at the same time. In no time at all, assholes will emerge. Within 30 days you'll know who they are. So will your fellow students. (So will your professors.) Pick the worst five. Make up, oh, say, 20 or 30 bingo cards with their names strewn variously under the five class columns and pass them out to your non-asshole friends. On the honor system, every time one of the assholes speaks in class, players mark their cards. Sooner or later, someone gets and shouts out "Bingo!" The class laughs, tensions are released (until finals) and a rite of passage has been honored.

Oh, and don't worry about the assholes. Many of them will make law review and go on to make fortunes.

United Airlines irritates me:

1. Thy don't serve food on their flights, including 9 hour long flights.
2. They tell you that there'll be no food 2 minutes before boarding, when you don't have time to go buy food. (yes, I know, it is written on the godforsaken ticket that there is no meal on the plane, but who reads the stuff on the ticket other than the seat number?)
3. They tell you that they don't accept credit cards for their "meals" 2 minutes before boarding, when you don't have time to go get cash.
4. They put on wait list while you think you have a seat on the plane only to find out that you don't.
5. Flight attendants are rude (with exceptions).
6. For some reason, something like 50% of attendants are much much older men now. (Cheaper?)
7. Despite all the above, they still give you the ever so pretentious smiles that, for some reason, kind of translates into "I hate my job. I hate you, I hate flying. I am tired. And I have to smile this stupid smile even though I really don't feel like smiling."

The relative merits of law school versus other forms of graduate education aside, I remember thoreau talking about taking a community college a while back to see what it's like. Herewith, a bit of what he might be looking forward to.

It took me an entire day last week to register for two classes (conversational Spanish and a refresher math class) at my local community college. Part of this bureaucratic nightmare was, semi-understandably, because I was trying to rush through the system at the end of the registration period. The Texas community college system has open enrollment and, credit where credit is due, I applied for admission online and established residency for in state tuition surprisingly easily and quickly the night before I went to register.

OTOH, once on campus to select classes and finalize matters, I saw plenty of people who looked like they were all too familiar with the process as we moved, literally, from one waiting area to another four times over the course of three hours just to see a friggin' "advisor." I was finally herded along with a dozen others to a "computer lab" where we were all told to sit at desktop computers, log in and register for classes online.

Except I couldn't do that and I knew I couldn't do that four hours ago! I hadn't had any transcripts sent and so couldn't prove I'd ever been to college, let alone that I already had a string of initials after my name. Moreover, I knew I was going to have to take a qualifying exam even for a refresher math class. I knew these things when I walked into the building at 9:30 am but had so far by now almost 4 pm not been permitted to speak face-to-face with anyone with the authority to say "Oh, I see, okay, we'll just provisionally admit you." (This provisional admission I also knew was possible as I drove over there that morning.)

Again, fair is fair, it's a state funded school, letting people just walk in and sign up for anything they want is an inefficient system. I know that. OTOH, just what sort of prerequisites should I have to demonstrate to take beginning conversational Spanish? For that matter, I was fully prepared to go over to their "learning lab" and take the math placement test, only I couldn't get the piece of paper sending me over there permitting me to take the damn test until I spoke to a damned "advisor"!

I finally snagged some poor woman who taught an intro humanities survey course and, after I ingratiated myself as we chatted for a minute or two about les belles artes (who says a liberal arts education is worthless?), freely admitted to me she didn't have a clue how to help me but, bless her, ran interference for me through the entire registration maze and got me five minutes (it's 4:30 now) with a real, live "advisor."

I finally explain. She basically says no problem. She agrees that I shouldn't have to submit transcripts from grad school and law school and the five or ten other universities I've taken a credit course from over the decades but tells me that a transcript from my undergraduate college will suffice to exempt me from all the orientation and "academic success" classes otherwise required of anyone who wants to take credit courses. (Note to thoreau, if you decide to take a community college course, just admit to your B.S. Trust me, you'll be saving time and money that way.) And she gives me the magic paper to go take the math placement test. (Results, I seem to have remembered basic algebra reasonably well, pulled a complete blank on trigonometry. But what the hell? I took the test cold and I haven't done any hands-on math above elementary arithmetic computations in nearly 30 years. Besides, it's just for fun, anyway.)

I finally get through the process, get myself a student I.D. (heh!) and discover that my textbooks for these two 3 hour classes will run me around $300. (Note to AR, at least your case books sort of look impressive sitting on your office shelf and the hornbooks and Black's Law Dictionary actually come in handy years later.) Anyway, as frustrating and irritating as the experience was, I did manage to push through and get what I wanted. Now to find out, starting Tuesday, what the classes are like!

And Jay-sus, are lawyers a drain on the finances ;) (in other words, don't complain, you get to pass the cost along to the consumer a few years later)

Isn't all that reference stuff on CD/DVD-ROM?

Sorry to hear it, lunchstealer! Wow, that sucks. As a (former) fencer myself, I sympathize. You think it might have been crackheads or something? They'll steal anything they think they can get a single buck for, AFAICT.

Doubt crackheads so much as shitheads. They may have been after money for meth or whatever, but I really think they were just bored and wanting to fuck around before school started today.

The only time my car was broken into is when someone smashed my car window (cost me $250) to steal a $10 cd player! Then I figured the past best anti-theft system ever: Leave the car unlocked, all windows rolled down, and put a sign somewhere saying "this car is unlocked, please help yourself, but please don't break anything". Just make sure not to actually leave anything valuable in the car.

Some random asshole driving a dump truck backed into my parked car...the entire driver-side rear door is dented about 2 inches.

What a fucking prick. The best part? The damage doesn't fall under my comprehensive policy; it falls under my collision policy, which means I have a deductible to pay.

You wanna borrow my blue crowbar?

Irking is having the contract that was only just seen as a slam dunk suddenly reverse and quite possibly fall through, leaving you without a job, mere weeks after you gave notice at other job that was set to start back up.

Bad stuff all around. I am sorry to hear about this suckishness, guys.

Yesterday (Labor Day) I walked past the Teamsters union complex. A cursory glance revealed four goddam city vehicles, two garbage trucks and two road maintenance vehicles, attending the festivities. Being Labor Day and all, I think neither road repair or garbage collection was on the agenda.

you mean headphones for music or earphone for talky talky?

dhex-

I mean these things:

Aresen- Yeah, I guess it is about time.

I simply put these in my pockets when I am not using them and they just go like spaghettis.

Trying to figure out which of the O-H bonds on the below bad boy demonstrates more acid character. The hybridization on the Oxygens is both the same, the only difference is that one C-O bond is sp3 and the other is sp2...so my inclination is that the O-H bond in the lower left of the photo is more acidic, but that's kind of a guess.