Blogging begins to pay off...

Although I don't think anyone actually looks at this on any regular basis, aside from myself, I found out that Blogging was paying off yesterday. When I got back to my desk at lunch I noticed I had a voicemail (peculiar). I punched in my code and it said the voice mail was from some extention I had never heard before (more peculiar). I pressed the play button and immediately heard an old friend's voice over the line (very peculiar).

It seems that a friend of mine from college, whom I haven't talked to in nearly 2 years now (due almost entirely to my inability to keep up with long distance friendships) is coming to Austin for a few days and wanted to look me up. He tried several common friends to get my contact info, to no avail. Finally, he punched Richard Curtis Johnson into a search engine and found my blog. Noticing in my earliest post that I was working for NI he called up the front desk and asked to speak with me, and voila all my questions were answered.

Anyway, fun annecdote.

Strike one up for...somebody?!?

Slashdot is covering an article on a judge in Georgia who ruled that the following statement on a sticker, placed in the front of Biology books was "unconstitutional": This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”

Few things wrong with this whole bit:

1. Evolution of man (not the type where moths turn black, and then white to match their surroundings), is just what the sticker says: a theory. There is no arguing with that, it cannot be proven to be true, therefore it is posited that man must have evolved from a lower being.
2. The statement makes no direct claims for any of the other theories on the existence of man, namely the most widely accepted "intelligent design", or creationism. The judge argued that, “[by] denigrating evolution, the school board appears to be endorsing the well-known prevailing alternative theory, creationism or variations thereof, even though the sticker does not specifically reference any alternative theories.” This is hilarious to me, we have introduced religion into schools by encouraging students to think critically. (Watch out College English, you're next! You and your reading of Beowulf! Damnit, don't make me think!)
3. The desire of six parents and the ACLU to have this sticker loaded with "religious dogma" has trumped the free speech demands of 2000 parents interested in reminding children to think critically about something, and consider other sources (potentially those unaffilliated with the government) for more information on the theory of evolution.

<soapbox>I'm having to try very hard not to get into a big, hairy discussion on how this really reinforces the State mandated teaching of the religion of atheism. I'll be good this time. </soapbox>

Now, I'm sure since this was a lawsuit that someone won...I'm just not sure who.

Great College Advice

A website that I commonly check for interesting comments on software development has some advice for CS students that I think is great advice for most college students. For those who only read summaries (namely myself) here's the breakdown, with my thoughts on each point following

1. Learn how to write before graduating.
This is very true, no matter what you've studied.

2. Learn C before graduating.
For those non CS types out there, C is the core skill that CS majors should leave school with. So the allegory is whatever your major, find the core skill and master it.

3. Learn microeconomics before graduating.
Since I've never taken microeconomics I can't say whether this is true or not, but from Joel's description I wish I had.

4. Don't blow off non-CS classes just because they're boring.
GPA is very important, and a large portion of your GPA will be based on classes outside your major. Do your best to enjoy them, but whatever it is do your best.

5. Take programming-intensive courses.
Again, progamming is a core skill for CS majors, but the crux of this point is you learn by doing, so do more.

6. Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.
If your chosen career is moving towards outsourcing to India (or wherever) there's not much point in worrying about it. The US is still going to need programmers, business analysts, whatever, even if we lose a lot of jobs to foreign countries. Wired had an article a few months ago on the intellectual economy that is moving around the world, showing that the US will likely step up and begin to create an innovation economy.

7. No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.
While this might have been a slight plug for his own company, the point is to get involved early and often in whatever industry you are going to eventually be working in. Internships are key to getting a lot of experience early, as well as making sure that the field is the area you want to be working in. While there are bad internships in good fields, it helps you to really evaluate whether you're willing to deal with some of the downs of the roller coaster ride of a career.

Anyway, I wanted to bring these to the attention of some friends/family I know who are in college so I thought I'd just put it here instead.

Happy Holidays errata...

I'm feeling a bit disjointed tonight, so I thought I'd just do a brain dump of things on my mind. This post probably won't have much in the way of continuity so feel free to skip it if you'd rather.

The holidays are over entirely too soon. What with all of the big dealines at work in early 2005 it was difficult to really enjoy any of the time leading up to them, although the 10 days off sure was nice. Time with family was great, I always miss them so much when we come back home. Anyway, I'm back now and I'll try to do this more often.

On a somewhat related note, I got a foosball table for Christmas ( and my birthday combined). Kassy & I are really enjoying it. I'd say we play it every other day or so.

Finally, Kassy & I have started a workout regimen at the fitness center where I work. I'm mostly doing cardio & a little bit of upper body strength training. She's working on cardio as well but mostly lower body toning. It's a lot of fun, more fun that I realized it would be. I'm especially enjoying my time on the recumbent bike. It's a great escape from everything, and allows me to spend some quality time reading a book. You know the one's with paper and ink and what not. I'm 3/4 the way through "Mere Christianity" and I'll probably post a book review when I finish it, but just a teaser: It's a must read for any Christian, although a little philosophical at times it is definitely an essential book.