Europe Travelblog  -

+ 2 - 5 | § ¶Search function fixed

After months of being annoyed with it, I finally decided to see what was wrong with the search function on this page.  It's fixed now, so you can't see the problem, but it used to respond to every search with the contents of the link box at the bottom of the screen (Watchblog, Google Pivot, Scott Delap, and Matthew Porter down there).

So, you can now search for my pearls of wisdom.

+ 1 - 7 | § ¶Web Programming Texts

Programming the World Wide Web, Second Edition by Robert W. Sebesta and Webmaster in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition by Stephen Spainhour and Robert Eckstein.  These books are required texts for a class I'm taking towards a Computer Science Masters degree at the University of Missouri - St. Louis.  The Sebesta book is much more conversational, and better for a novice.  The Nutshell book is, well, an O'Reilly Nutshell book.  It's a good reference, but not a great way to learn a totally new concept.

+ 0 - 7 | § ¶Computer Networking

Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach Featuring the Internet, Second Edition, by James F. Kurose and Keith W. Ross.  This book is a required text for a class I'm taking towards a Computer Science Masters degree at the University of Missouri - St. Louis.  The book is a good introduction to computer networking, using the TCP/IP stack as its outline.  It covers the OSI stack briefly, but focuses on the TCP/IP stack because it's in greater use.

+ 2 - 5 | § ¶Was Darwin Wrong?

Since the Election, the religious right has taken Bush's victory as a mandate for their agenda. From the "moral values" of sexual politics to media obscenity, the religious right is flexing its muscle. One area is educational curricula, particularly an increased attack on evolution.

In this environment, National Geographic magazine's November issue is timely with its article Was Darwin Wrong? And its answer is clear: No.

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+ 3 - 6 | § ¶FormLayout and GridBagLayout

I recently joined a project that has switched from GridBagLayout to JGoodies' FormLayout as a standard.  I'm happy about about this decision, because I have been using FormLayout for over a year.  However, one of my fellow developers is very skeptical of FormLayout, believing that GridBagLayout can do anything we need to get done.  Additionally, he really doesn't like using unsafe Strings to declare columns and row in the FormLayout constructors (i.e. new FormLayout("4dlu, p:g, 2dlu, p:g, 4dlu", "p, 4dlu, p, 2dlu, p, 2dlu, p, 4dlu, p")).  I'm trying to convince him that FormLayout is a superior LayoutManager, making Swing GUI development more powerful and easier.  Am I barking up the wrong tree, or is there something more I can use in my argument?

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+ 5 - 2 | § ¶Been a little too quiet

I haven't posted much here lately.  In fact, it's been since the day after the election and the day before I started a new job.  There's been enough election analysis for anyone to consume, and I really have nothing to add to it all yet - we'll have to see if Bush follows the lead of Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton in messing up royally in the second term (Watergate, Iran/Contra, and Monica, respectively).  It's way too early to know.

I started work on November 4 with Object Computing Inc (OCI), working as a contractor at Boeing.  A lot of Java has already been written on the project I joined.  Some of the code is very impressive, and some was written by developers with extremely different coding standards than I have.  There's a large custom framework in place, so it's going to take e a while to get the full hang of things.

On the bright side, I wrote my first CGI program, for a class I'm taking towards a Computer Science Masters Degree at UMSL.  It'snot terribly exciting, but it's there if you want to play In Between.

On a personal note, Jenny and I celebrated our third anniversary yesterday.  Unfortunately, I had class and she had to work late.  We're going to celebrate for real next weekend, going to a Bed & Breakfast in Missouri Wine Country after Thanksgiving.  It'll be nice.

+ 5 - 2 | § ¶Referrers and Search Engines

On the lighter side, the strong majority of my referrers for the last couple weeks have been the results of searches for "John Kerry Yale GPA," or related searches.  All the people coming here for answers are disappointed, though.  The only reference I have to such information is a chainmail email I quoted on September 2.  Unfortunately, the search engines are now keying off all the other searches for that information that appear in my referrer list.  Basically, the only reason search engines send people here for such information is that they sent people here before.

Sorry about that, but there's nothing I can do to stop it.

+ 6 - 1 | § ¶What do we do now?

At the moment according to CNN, Bush is up 254-252, with Ohio, Iowa, and New Mexico unresolved.  Unfortunately, Bush leads in all three states, so he will probably win the presidency 286-252, with about a three million vote advantage in the popular vote.  All focus is now on Ohio, because its 20 electoral votes make Iowa and New Mexico irrelevant (unless one of the called states like Wisconsin flips).  Essentially, Kerry is holding out hoping for a miracle.  It won't come.  Bush will be the President, and his election will be legitimate.

What does this mean about America?  What does this mean about the Democratic Party?

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+ 5 - 2 | § ¶Last week of a life on hold

I start work on Thursday.  My month of unemployment will soon come to an end, but I may be busier these last three days than I will be when I start working again.  Today, I'll be at the local Kerry campaign headquarters.  Perhaps I'll be entering data from phone calls and canvassing, perhaps I'll be driving people to the polls; I don't know.  Hoever, tomorrow I'll be very busy.  I'm going to be a poll checker, respresenting the Democratic Party at a polling place, making sure that there are no illegal shenanigans on the contested election day.  In the evening, I will party.

Wednesday, I will recover and prepare for work.

So, my hope for the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals didn't pan out, but I still hope that Kerry pulls this election out.  Some of the election prediction sites give Bush a small advantage, and some give Kerry a small advantage, but all say that Kerry has a chance.  I hope we know before December.