I've been blogging long enough to observe that your awesome posts are often ignored while your little "one-offs" sometimes strike hit gold. This is particularly true for "code example" posts. When I'm trolling for code --- the geek equivalent of trolling for babes --- I don't want to read about the author's programming philosophy or what the hell … Continue reading Common Table Expression (CTE) SQLServer Queries with J
1421: The Crank History of Gavin Menzies
Click here for a PDF version of this post. Crank history is big business and it's getting bigger. For reasons that infuriate skeptics there is a never-ending parade of pseudo-historians spouting rubbish that is eagerly devoured by a credulous pig ignorant public. Gavin Menzies' ludicrous tome, 1421: The Year China Discovered America, (also titled 1421: … Continue reading 1421: The Crank History of Gavin Menzies
Cowboys and Aliens and Obama
I give this better odds than "quantitative easing!" Cowboys and Aliens had me at the title! Throwing Indiana Jones, James Bond and House's 13, (Olivia Wilde - the thinking man's smoking hot babe), into the mix merely turned a ridiculous premise into a cosmically absurd proposition. How could I resist? There's no point issuing spoiler … Continue reading Cowboys and Aliens and Obama
Debt Dolts Diddle and Drone!
Government Fiscal Policy Well well it turns out that when John Boehner isn't crying like a little girl he can deliver a speech. Tonight he smoked Obama like a fine cigar. I tried to flip around Obama's debt limit rant but ended up watching like a gawker at a hospital fire. Any dolt with a fifth graders … Continue reading Debt Dolts Diddle and Drone!
PIP News: Isabelle is Up!
Before my fall I launched a PIP (Perpetual Impossible Project). PIPs are long-range risky undertakings that cannot be finished. PIPs contradict and subvert the very notion of tightly controlled corporate style projects: hence their manifest appeal to recusants like myself. I won't go into details about my particular PIP. Let's just say it captures every delusional notion I have ever entertained. Part of … Continue reading PIP News: Isabelle is Up!
More on Kindle Oriented LaTeX
I've been compiling LaTeX PDFs for the Kindle. If you like LaTeX typefaces, especially mathematical fonts, you'll love how they render on the Kindle. It's a good thing because you won't like the Kindle's cramped page dimensions. For simple flow-able text this isn't a big deal but for complex LaTeX documents it is! There are two basic LaTeX to … Continue reading More on Kindle Oriented LaTeX
Open Source Hilbert for the Kindle
David Hilbert While searching for free Kindle books I found Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg offers free Kindle books but they also have something better! Would you believe LaTeX source code for some mathematical classics. The best book I've found so far is an English translation of David Hilbert's Foundations of Geometry. Hilbert's Foundations exposed some … Continue reading Open Source Hilbert for the Kindle
A Peculiar Book Club
While holed up in a rehabilitation hospital recovering from a nasty fall a coworker invited me to a noon-hour Bible study group. The group conveniently met in my rehab hospital so I rolled upstairs in my wheelchair and started attending their meetings. When I told my wife about this peculiar book club she thought I was suffering from post … Continue reading A Peculiar Book Club
JOD comes to Linux
For years I have distributed a J Addon called JOD. JOD stands for J Object Dictionary. JOD is a code database for the J programming language. Instead of storing my J programs in text files, like every other programmer in the world, I break them down into the smallest reusable units. In J parlance I … Continue reading JOD comes to Linux
More on that SmugShot Metadata Mess
A few days after posting a J script that fixes EXIF timestamps in SmugShot images SmugMug changed the filename assigned to downloaded SmugShot images. Originally the layout was: SmugMugID_smugshot_SmugShotID.jpg This layout was inconsistent with the way SmugMug normally handles files. Default SmugMug behavior is to leave filenames unchanged. This contrasts with other photo sites, (you … Continue reading More on that SmugShot Metadata Mess
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 