Interesting links
Author: Andrew Huey
Canon LiDE 30
Picked up a new scanner today — a Canon LiDE 30. Had a heck of a time figuring out how to clear up enough desk space for it. I had to turn my mouse pad sideways so it would fit, but I still seem to have enough room to use the mouse comfortably.
a hashtable of delegates
I figured out how to create (and use) a hashtable of delegates in C# today! Yay! This article was helpful. A bit more work, and I’ll be done rewriting my C++ calculator program in C#.
The Modern Word
I just discovered an interesting book site, The Modern Word, while looking for information about Jorge Luis Borges. Some great Borges quotes there:
“There is no intellectual exercise which is not ultimately useless.”
“The history of the universe…is the handwriting produced by a minor god in order to communicate with a Demon.”
“To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely.”
Just great, great, stuff.
good music
tables
Hey, I managed to implement my variable table, so that’s step one. Tomorrow, I start on the function table…
pet project
I made a little progress on my pet C# project tonight. It’s a little command-line calculator that I’m converting from C++. It now adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides! Next, I need to reimplement the function handling (square root, cos, tan, etc). That’s going to be interesting, since I was using function pointers for that, and now I’m going to have to figure out delegates, since C# has no function pointers.
Dad
I’ve been trying to do what I can to help my Dad, who has very poor vision, get started with the new computer he got at Christmas. For a while, I’ve had the idea that I should find him a couple of good large-print computer books. I went looking today, but it turns out that apparently no one has ever printed a computer book in large print. At least, that’s the way it seems, doing a search on “large print computer” or “large print Windows” on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The only thing I’ve found is a large print computer dictionary, which might be helpful, but not much.
Space
Wow. I was just looking through the space.com archive of stories about the Columbia mission, pre-disaster. It’s really bittersweet to read about all the stuff they did during the course of their mission. It looks like they had a really busy schedule. There’s even a mention of the anniversary of the Challenger disaster.
space shuttle
http://www.space.com/shuttlemissions/
I remember I was a freshman at RPI when the last shuttle accident occured. It certainly affected a lot of people there, and served as an object lesson in the price that is sometimes paid when technology and engineering fail. While shuttle missions have become almost commonplace, they have never ceased to be dangerous. Flying off into space like that has always been an act of great hubris, requiring great faith and great courage from the people who actually get in the shuttle.