Whoops

I wonder if he got to paint a US flag on his jet ...

The F-11 Tiger is noted for being the first jet aircraft to shoot itself down. On 21 September 1956, during a test firing of its 20 mm cannons, pilot Tom Attridge fired two bursts mid-way through a shallow dive. As the velocity and trajectory of the cannon rounds decayed, they ultimately crossed paths with the Tiger as continued its descent, disabling it and forcing Attridge to crash land the aircraft. The pilot survived.^[1][2]

I am altering the deal

Pray I don't alter it any further.

In a significant shift, White House and Treasury Department officials now say they can stretch what is left of the $700 billion financial bailout fund farther than they had expected a few months ago, simply by converting the government’s existing loans to the nation’s 19 biggest banks into common stock.

Converting those loans to common shares would turn the federal aid into available capital for a bank — and give the government a large ownership stake in return.

I have no idea if this is a good thing, a bad deal or people with good intentions doing the best they can. 

I do know that unintended consequences are a bitch.

It is a hard heart that kills

The Weapon By Oleg Volk.



    Sergeant Gerheim explains that it is important for us to understand that it is our killer instinct which must be harnessed if we expect to survive in combat. Our rifle is only a tool; it is a hard heart that kills.

    Our will to kill must be focused the way our rifle focuses a firing pressure of fifty thousand pounds per square inch to propel a piece of lead. If our rifles are not properly cleaned the explosion will be improperly focused and our rifles will shatter. If our killer instincts are not clean and strong, we will hesitate at the moment of truth. We will not kill. We will become dead Marines. And then we will be in a world of shit because Marines are not allowed to die without permission; we are government property    .

From The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford.

Queueing

Building a Queue-Backed Feed Reader, Part 1
Building a Queue-Backed Feed Reader, Part 2

Queueing is a critical tool for building truly scalable web apps. Don’t do any heavy lifting in the web processes (mongrels); instead, put jobs on a queue, let background workers do the work, and then display the results to the user in another request.

This concept is often met with a big “huh?” from Rubyists, so here I’m going to give a tangible example, including a small but completely functional Rails app, using Delayed Job (aka DJ) for the queueing solution.

I had a good time fussing around with the demo.


This is, funny enough, somewhat related to the alligator problem I was having yesterday. 

Alligators

I am - it seems - a redneck.

It's not about bashing Democrats, it's not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don't know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. And there is no way around that.

It certainly does help me clarify my entertainment choices.

A talented singer is also a Communist - well I can ignore the guy and listen to his music: guys who can make music don't fall out of the trees everyday.  A skilled actor is a squirrel? Forget his politics - man look at him act.

A so-so funny person and B-list actor who goes for cheap laffs while talking to the scouts around the fire?

Man, the world is full of B-list actors: given a choice between a lady who thinks I'm a racist redneck and someone who doesn't open her pie-hole and emit dumb - I'll take the non-Garofalo actor any day.

...............


Today I went to drain the swamp and spent the day fencing with alligators.

But by God those alligators knew they were in a fight when all was said and done.

Dreams

Partial Contents of Two Dreams I Had This Week.

...............

I scored a job at Wal-Mart.  Which was good because I really needed a job.

Meanwhile, my wife had a job as the CEO of a large organization and was doing quite well for herself.

...............

The Government passed a law where regulators had to not only write up violators but also boost their self-esteem and provide emotional support.  So when you cited a trucker for equipment violations you also had to tell him what a good man he was and how he was a valued member of the community.

Regret Sales

From Dresden Codak

Few modern analysts dispute the historical and modern relevance of regret sales; rather, it is the lifestyle and practices of the actual regret salesman that raises issues. Regrets, naturally, come in various flavors and qualities, the best by far always coming from one with the highest concentration of despair: a Neverwas. On occasion a Neverwas will occur naturally in a hobo boxcar or trust fund, but more often than not it requires years of dedicated training to ensure that no meaningful life decisions are ever made (the advent of the internet has allowed for marvelous advancements in this field). A professional Neverwas, though rare, can generate in a significant fortune and then not spend it in a few months, making it a popular (though ambitious) career among those who wish to not work and not reap the benefits.

A Friend

A friend is one who
    Shares your soul
Where you feel defeat or
    Reach a goal
When you want to smile or
    Shed a tear
A friend is one who is
    Always near
In life you share the
    Good and bad
But a friend is the
    Best gift you've ever had.

By.

Ai Yi Yi, Katy

I wrote this, Travis responded

I suggest that evolution makes women attracted to men who are capable of doing violence.

Maybe.

But I know when I'm handy she gets a look in her eyes.  Dig a pond, plow the driveway, fix something .. it's put the kids to bed and Katy Bar the Door. [1]

I submit that women [2] are attracted to competence.  Sex sells but competence seals the deal.  Competence means she won't be left holding the bag.  It means he'll be around when the kids show up and he'll do what needs to be done.

They say [3] women love a guy in uniform.  I wonder if that's because a uniform indicates at least minimal competency at something.  Think what you will of, say, the Marines but when a bunch of them show up stuff happens.

I suspect this gets all mixed up for some women: casual brutality stands-in for competence, mental circuits are tripped and there you go.

Or I could be full of it and all is is expository so I could link to the Dilbert cartoons from April 10th and 11th.








I love the fist-pump.


[1] Jerry Jeff Walker - Navajo Rug (live 1991)

Well old Jack the boss, he closed at six
And it's, 'Katie bar the door'.
She'd pull down that Navajo rug
And we'd spread it cross the floor.
I saw lightning frame the sacred mountains
The wooin' of a turtle dove
Just lying next to Katie,
On that old Navajo rug.

[2] As much as I can claim to know them, which I really don't.  Dr. Phil I ain't.

[3] You know, "them".

Anti-Mopery - fuzzy sweater style

Why, hell-o, there Miss Anti-Mopery.

Andrew Beal - The Banker Who Said No

The Banker Who Said No

Standing outside the glass-domed headquarters of his Plano, Texas, bank in March, D. Andrew Beal presses a cellphone to his ear. He's discussing a deal to buy mortgage securities. In just a few minutes, the deal's done: His Beal Bank will buy $15 million of face value for $5 million. A few hours earlier he reviewed details on a $500 million loan his bank is making to a company heading into bankruptcy--the biggest he's ever done. A few floors above, workers are bent over computer screens preparing bids for chunks of $600 million in assets dumped by two imploded financial firms. In the last 15 months, Beal has purchased $800 million of loans from failed banks, probably more than anyone else.

Andy Beal, a 56-year-old, poker-playing college dropout, is a one-man toxic-asset eater--without a shred of government assistance.

....

Then came a shocker: Amid one of the most reckless lending sprees in history, regulators focused on the one bank that refused to play along.  Beal's moves confused and worried them, and so they began to probe him with questions. "What are you doing?" he recalls them asking. "You're shrinking yet you're raising capital?"

Beal is one of the smarter guys running around - and the article is worth reading.

I am biased; Beal was, for a while, going to build rockets and make a bundle in the space launch biz. And he was doing this in Dallas - about thirty miles from my house. 

It would be like growing up as an aviation enthusiast in Seattle in the 20s and going to work for Boeing.

Except I had a pretty good job [1] and it would be crazy to give that up. Then I got laid off. And I networked with a guy who knew a guy at Beal Aerospace.

Who told me they'd announced they'd closed the doors the week before.

Dang.

But, on the other hand, I did a few weeks later land a job with a company that I'm still working for and that I like just fine.  So there is that.


[1] Albeit one that I came to realize I didn't like so much.

Ah, Ladies?

It is not normal for men to have 'anger management' issues.  Your boyfriend does not have poor impulse control, he gets off on being a bully and picking on people weaker than he is.

Guess what?  You are weaker than he is.  You're on his victim list.

Climbout on Easter Sunday

Climbout on Easter Sunday

WE RISE in a banking curve of pure velocity
over fallow fields and grids of neighborhoods,
arcing over ponds painted with the slick scum
oozing from the oil pans of countless sunken cars,
from punctured sacks of toxic trash, from fleshless jaws
of unsolved murders, of missing persons filed in muck.

Read the rest at the link.

Time Flies

Day before she was a ball of fluff you could hold in your hands.

Yesterday she was full of tail-wagging exuberant youth and endless energy.




Today there is gray on her muzzle and some days she acts distinctly middle aged.

She's got years and years left, don't get me wrong.  But you can see her second act ringing down on the four-act play that is a dog's life, that's a fact.


The first guy to invent affordable doggie rejuvenation is going to make a bundle.

No Workee

A few weeks ago faithful S4C reader Simon commented

Give it a chance, on the other hand, and they can say "Well, at least we tried" if it fails, or, you never know, it might surprise everyone and, SHOCK HORROR: actually work!

This in reaction to a linked editorial subtitled "Why Obama’s Stimulus Package Is Doomed to Failure".

Which is a fine sentiment. It is not one I can get behind.

Like this; in the summer of 1993 I was on TAD to the 8th Communications Battalion. We were in the field, living under canvas, building a LAN for a command post exercise.

After we had things working, Gunny Z. led me down to a hard shelter and said there was a PC inside they wanted on the unit LAN and could we use the coax port on the shelter?

I looked at the information plate: 59 Ω.

"Can't do it. The thinnet we're using is 58 Ω."

But why?

I explained. Ohm - impedance - doesn't match.

But I could just try.

It. Won't. Work.

He looked stubborn. I gave up: him Gunnery Sergeant, me Corporal. I left him to it. [1]

He worked at that sum-bitch for three hours. [2] And every time he plugged it into the LAN, it brought the entire segment down. Which annoyed everyone in the battalion on the exercise, which at a command post exercise is every officer and senior NCO. After we said 'your LAN is up, you can go to work now'.

Much egg on the face of the new Data Communications Platoon. Thanks, Gunny.



Some things are like that. It. Won't. Work. Is the Obama stimulus package one of those things? Man, I dunno.

But some smart people seem to think so. [3]


[1] This was an attitude I had to cultivate: I like being helpful. But if you are a subject matter expert and someone senior to you is not and you've explained why X and Y don't equal Z and they look stubborn ... you just gotta let them ram their heads into the wall until they get the point.

[2] Those connectors were not cheap - new 'in the package' ethernet connector kits went for a few bucks a pop.

[3] Others - not so much.

Go Your Own Way

Stevie Nicks

"I believe that computers have taken over the world. I believe that they have in many ways ruined our children. I believe that kids used to love to go out and play," Nicks says in her famously smoky voice.

"I believe that social graces are gone because manners are gone because all people do is sit around and text. I think it's obnoxious."

Says the woman who does not have any children.

I do have children. Alarmed by Ms. Nicks' [1] warning, and knowing that smoky-voiced proto-Goth elderly women who were hip and cutting-edge when I was in grade school know every-I-mean-everything I hustled off to interrogate them about this 'texting' business.

My youngest was outside jumping on the trampoline. His older brother was getting a dog toy off the roof. I'll question them when they come back inside.


[1] Ever watch video of Fleetwood Mac in concert back in the day? I've always wondered if the other guys in the band were ever tempted to hurl something at Nicks and yell 'Stop prancing about like a pony on crack!'

Shotgun full of Awesome

Two Remington 870s fused together to make a shotgun full of Awesome.

I don't actually want this: I am not a big slab of guy and even if I could get the thing up to my shoulder, it would kick my ass.

Still fun to look at.

From.

via

Fun In The Office

From Twitter ...

"We have a rocket launcher in the office today. I love my job."

Crew-served weapons and the office = Fun.  I brought a machine gun to the office, once.

Okay, yes, I was in the Marines.  It was for a 'Basics' class so I could teach the other programmers a little bit about the M249.

And it was fun to have a SAW on my desk [1] on it's tripod while I was playing code monkey.

Master Sergeant: "What .. why .. do you have a SAW on your desk?"
Me: "Welcome to the complaint department!"


[1] With the feed cover up to show it was a safe weapon.

It couldn't be age sneaking up on me ...

You know what my children did last night? While I slept?

They colored my beard gray. Just streaks, nothing Kenny Rogers-ish or anything.

Oh, they're good.  They're real good: they're not owning up to it.

But I know they did it.

We will not enter into space ...

Fascinating leftist rant from 1969.

Humanity will enter into space to make the universe the playground of the last revolt: the revolt that will go against the limitations imposed by nature. Once the walls have been smashed that now separate people from science, the conquest of space will no longer be an economic or military “promotional” gimmick, but the blossoming of human freedoms and fulfillments, attained by a race of gods. We will not enter into space as employees of an astronautic administration or as “volunteers” of a state project, but as masters without slaves reviewing their domains: the entire universe pillaged for the workers councils.

Workers councils, free states, republics ... close enough for rock n' roll.