Lenny's Old Old Blog: January 2004

for embarrassing posterity

Fun in the Python Interactive Shell

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

Python allows you to make a variable called True, which is also a boolean keyword as of recent. Hijinks follow.

>>> True
True
>>> True = False
>>> True
False
>>> while True:
	print 'foo'
	break

>>> True = 0 == 0
>>> True
True
>>> while True:
	print 'foo'
	break

foo
>>>

First Semester: Best Of

Sunday, January 25, 2004

Lippy ended his series of Skinner quotes by first by listing all of the "Quotations from a Genius" and asking for votes.

The best are "the joke's on whitey" (#1) and "who told you you could think?" (#3). They are both great and I even quoted one on my own site. Since I can only vote once (or is it thrice?) I must go with the first quotation, on whitey.

Subliminal Messages

Saturday, January 24, 2004

You know something is wrong with your president's re-election campaign when his site has two separate site sections for homeland security and national security. How far is far enough in scaring the American people into another term?

An Experiment Gone Awry

Saturday, January 24, 2004

Check out Web-Spew, an IM log of me talking to myself. Less insultingly to me, it is an experimental weblog that I update as if I were sending it an instant message, which is in fact what I am doing, since I use gaim-blogger. I doubt that I will sustain it, but I like the idea nonetheless.

Tell me this is not awesome...

Friday, January 23, 2004

...and you will speak a lie.

[part of a gaim buddy list with contacts in AIM, IRC, and Blogger]

Craig

Friday, January 23, 2004

I just came across Craig's weblog, a recent creation, and so in the tradition of promoting friends' new blogs, I now present you with—crap! I already presented it. Why must I always screw it up?

In a completely unrelated matter, this is my first post from gaim-blogger, a delicious plugin for Gaim, a "communication client" (lacking a better term) that I mostly use for AIM. Unfortunately, the plugin does not support titles, so I will not use use it too much, but it is still impressive.

Of Procrastination

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Question
What is the punishment for slacking off for a couple of days?
Answer
Going to sleep after working almost non-stop from 6:15 AM to 11 PM knowing that tomorrow you will have to finish what is left over.

Sometimes I ask myself why I bother taking such a load of Advanced Placement and honors classes that force me into the above situation. I have enough, or close to enough, knowledge to work in some technological fields, and if that fails I would make a competent clerical or blue-collar worker, which though I would not particularly like, I can easily bear or perhaps enjoy if the people around me are good. The money does not concern me as long as I can provide for a family.

If I do not torture myself so for a career, then I must be in pursuit of knowledge. Indeed I am, but I also learn by reading or tinkering. Besides, some classes overstep education for its own sake and focus on getting that revered college credit. No, school is not for gaining intellect.

The reason I do this to myself is for today’s example. Trying hard and coming so close to not failing is a challenge that builds character, and though next time I will probably do the same thing, I know that when I am procrastinating, the voice telling me that I will suffer will be one notch louder.

There's no hyphen, you asshats

Saturday, January 17, 2004

The American Dialect Society put out their words of 2003, including asshat.

ass-hat: noun, a thoughtless or stupid person. 3

The official definition and etymology of asshat does not include a hyphen. The Dialect Society is a bunch of asshats. What was that? Asset. The Society is a great asset to the English language.

Mixmaster

Friday, January 16, 2004

In case you would prefer to view my site as a LiveJournal, I've been mixed. (Or perhaps you would prefer that I be Lippy?)

In brief: trademark infringement edition

Friday, January 16, 2004

Random things I have come across from the past several days:

Internet Explorer team lunch
Surprisingly, Internet Explorer is not dead. The fact that IE is such a core part of Windows makes it very difficult to improve, but they are taking suggestions.
MyIE2
Though the IE renderer will long be plagued (at least until Longhorn,) the GUI has already been improved by MyIE2. (via Justin)
Mozilla 1.6
Who needs IE, though, when Mozilla just released 1.6 final of the Internet suite.
Opera 7.5 p
Close behind Mozilla (and in some areas ahead) is Opera. The 7.5 preview is impressive. It took away much of the clutter of previous versions, but the ad is still annoyingly taking up space. All in all, I still prefer the dinosaur.
IRC Bible
Scott was particularly entertained by this, but any self-respecting geek can enjoy IRC transcripts of creation, Noah's Ark, and other good stuff.
Goatse.cx suspension protest
Goatse.cx was one of the most repulsive things on the Web and has thus been suspended. That's where our good friend Craig Spergel comes in: to save this piece of Internet history by signing a petition.
Bush in 30 Seconds: finalists
Bush in 30 Seconds was a contest to create the best televised propaganda exposing George W. Bush. I had come across this site a while ago, but it was recently reintroduced to me by Craig (yes, that same pervert from the last link) now that the finalists are posted. They are trying to take this to the Superbowl.

Random things that one cannot "come across":

I recieved my iPod but cannot connect since I though it would come with a USB connector, but unfortunately it does not. I will purchase one soon enough (or perhaps a FireWire card,) and will rely on Donnie to get a few tunes onto it until that point.

In the Northeastern United States we are having record low temperatures. Yesterday much snow fell and school was cancelled. Today was the coldest January 16 since 1863, or so says the radio, reading in at about zero degrees Fahrenheit. School went on according to schedule, but lacking a means of transportation besides walking, I decided that today was not the day to be formally educated.

[photo of everybody in cafeteria standing on chairs to view a fight] Apparently there was a huge fight at school involving Matt Potts (hoping his ass was whipped,) as this photo by Justin will attest to it. He is the only person I know of who uses all of those pointless features on his phone such as the camera, and God bless him for it so I can be mildly entertained.

Ldrhcp is...

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

For a few days I have been taking submissions via IM for the possible meaning of Ldrhcp. In chronological order, Ldrhcp is...

Evil is a relative term

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Via the Google Weblog, I bring you Google DomainPark. If you've ever wanted to be the dirt of the web but did not know where to start, why not with Google? Increasingly, Google is breaking it's rule of "don't be evil". As the weblog, not endorsed by Google, writes,

On the other hand, better Google than someone who will fill the page with popups and banner ads, I guess.

Well, perhaps that is so, but does this mean we should provide gangs with non-leathal nerve gases to prevent murder? And besides, modern browsers prevent popups and there are intrusive advertising host blacklists available.

Google is still great. It is my startup page for its lightweight interface and great utility. My Mozilla uses Google as its default search, and in fact, I have absolutely no need for a general web search besides it. Google is very innovative, and often puts out new services and features. I am not an anti-Google advocate, but by this point, with an IPO coming up, Google is no virgin in a sea of disgustingly entrepreneurial websites.

A Minor Error and a Card

Friday, January 09, 2004

Citing Andrew,

Thoughts/ideas/quotes/etc: "Life is like a Chimp. Don't ask me why, it just is." -Lenny (Written on my 14th birthday card for reasons I still don't understand.)

Correction: it was your fifteenth birthday. Get the card. (Warning: This is in the PDF and will spawn a likely resource-heavy program such as Acrobat Reader. It is not for the faint of butt.)

Auto-Blog

Thursday, January 08, 2004

I had created a weblog that automatically updates itself (after me providing a couple names and topics) called To Ldrhcp or Not to Ldrhcp?. I had forgotten about it for a while—almost a month—but it has not forgotten me. The tool is invaluable for lazy people, but even with a regularly updated site like my own, the auto-blog is great, if for no reason besides the preposterousness of the idea.

To Pod, or to Do Otherwise

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

I want an iPod. I do not know of anybody who does not want an iPod. I always wanted it, but I am now actually considering purchasing one, so I call on my readers to talk me out of it. Actually, I don’t expect you to shoot down the idea, but I want a few opinions. So, should I buy an iPod? Is it really worth the money? Where does the iPod mini come into play in the grand scheme of things? The options are:

  1. (Quoting Bond) “There’s no point in living if you can’t feel alive.” Blow the money on the ’Pod.
  2. You don’t have a job, do you? (Hey, asshat: I live off of my parents. Plus I worked for two days over vacation and made some cash.)

At this point it is necessary and proper to interrupt the choices and inform the voters that having the money is not the problem. I can afford an iPod, but I’m not sure if it’s worth it. This is like the two dollar hotdog—two dollars is not much, but damn, it’s a fucking hotdog. Anyway,

  1. aforesaid hotdog
  2. Get the mini; it’s cheaper.
  3. Get the mini; it’s smaller.
  4. Get the mini; it has a clickwheel.
  5. Get the mini; it’s colorful.
  6. Get the mini; it’s cheaper, smaller, it has a clickwheel, and it’s colorful.
  7. Get the original iPod; it has more than the measly four gigs of the mini.
  8. It would be worth it if not for your fairly good CD player.

There are more options than there are democrats. Please leave an advice comment.

Happy, Happy!

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Happy new years, all! I won't bother you with a year in review that I'm sure you can find elsewhere. (geek version.)

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