Three till Seven

So I mentioned to my dad that some of my friends roll their eyes at Linux in comparison with Windows, or just in general. This was the email I got back that had me cracking up:

Don’t you have any friends with living brain cells? Let me see, Sony, the largest consumer electronics company on the planet, uses Linux for its products and its movies. IBM (remember them? the monster from which a little company called Lexmark sprang?) not only uses it but considers it so valuable that it warrants betting corporate reputation, all software products and uncounted hundreds of millions of dollars (perhaps billions) defending. NASA and the European Space Agency depend on it. The U.S. Department of Defense says its ability to function would be dangerously hampered if they couldn’t use F/OSS and the centerpiece in that usage is Linux. Google, of course, is the world’s largest Linux installation. Cisco uses Linux (although Cisco no longer holds a monopoly-sized share of major Internet routers, their name is still stamped on so many of the backbone routers that their sudden disappearance would effectively mean the disappearance of the Internet). Motorola uses Linux. Nokia uses Linux. NEC uses Linux. Panasonic uses Linux. Palm uses Linux. Samsung uses Linux. Philips uses Linux. Casio uses Linux. HP uses Linux. Boeing uses Linux. Lockheed Martin uses Linux. Amerada Hess uses Linux. The New York Stock Exchange uses Linux. Ameritrade uses Linux. Autozone uses Linux. Korean Airlines uses Linux. Divitron uses Linux. OshKosh uses Linux (I don’t mean for coveralls; I mean for their HEMTT - Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck). Remax uses Linux. Merrill Lynch uses Linux. PeopleSoft uses Linux (ask a banker). Credit Suisse uses Linux. Northrup Grumman uses Linux. Aerospace Parts International uses Linux. Daimler-Chrysler uses Linux. Mercedes Benz uses Linux. Intel uses Linux. Amazon uses Linux. Banco BNL do Brasil uses Linux. AMD uses Linux. Bayer uses Linux. Praxis uses Linux. NOAA uses Linux. Cray uses Linux. ACCEL Services uses Linux. Siemans uses Linux. Gannett uses Linux. Canadian National Railways uses Linux. Genisys uses Linux. Oracle uses Linux. DreamWorks uses Linux. Environment Canada uses Linux. Industrial Light & Magic uses Linux.

Hell, it would be easier to list those who don’t use Linux. Such a list would not include Microsoft. Don’t let the number of ASPy websites fool you, for serious computing the major businesses still rely on UNIX and almost all have discovered Linux is a very robust substitute. The most powerful computers and the largest grid of supercomputers runs Linux.

So, are your sneering and scoffing friends going to flip burgers at McDonald’s? They better hurry because McDonald’s is moving from SCO to Linux. McDonald’s Germany uses SuSE, already.

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Note: This was a dream of mine. I have this warning here because some visitors have thought my life had just gone to pot, when really they were only reading one of my crazy dreams. :)

Jessica and I were going on a trip to the mountains. It was a very sunny day and the road was lined with pine trees and a lot of snow. I was driving us down an insanely steep hill and I kept swerving to one side and the other because the road was so curvy. I kept overadjusting and so I ended up off the road and in the other lane a couple of times; we almost side-swiped some red car going the other way. My driving was worrying Jess.

We stopped at an intersection at the base of the hill; some guy walked in front of us. The car turned into a flat rubber mat with black markings on it. When we went to take off, after the guy had crossed the road, we said, “Vroom vroom,” which made the mat start to move. We balanced on it until it turned back into a car again after a few seconds.

The dream shifted and we were approaching another intersection in some warm city; it was summer. Jessica was now driving. We were trying to get across the road; we were going shopping for clothing for Jessica’s cousins. The light turned yellow and we were a long way off, but Jessica said, “That light better stay yellow because we’re taking it.” Of course the light turned red long before we got there, but we ran the light and I was scared to death. There were cars everywhere when we got to the middle of the intersection. I thought we were supposed to turn into the far right lane of the intersecting road, so I kept yelling at Jessica that we were missing our turn. She ignored me and drove straight across into the parking lot of the store we were going to.

We went inside and the building was split into two halves: one for men’s clothing, one for women’s. We went into the men’s side.

Note: This was a dream of mine. I have this warning here because some visitors have thought my life had just gone to pot, when really they were only reading one of my crazy dreams. :)

I was at Scott’s apartment, sleeping, when the doorbell rang so he went to answer it. I woke up and went into the living room, which was actually my grandmother’s living room, and it was very dim. I was in a tank top and underwear; Scott’s aunt and uncle were there. Scott was talking with them and didn’t say anything to me, but he gave me a pointed look. I went back in the bedroom to get dressed, but I couldn’t find my bra or shirt. I started to dig through Scott’s drawers to get one of his shirts, but all I found were clothes of his sister’s. There were two identical blue, ruffly dresses folded up in one drawer. I gave up on that and turned around to see my bra and my other shirt sitting halfway in the washing machine that was by his bed. His mother had apparently already been there and put them in. I got dressed.

The dream shifted and I was at a baseball game, sitting in the stands with Jessica and Ashlee. I got up and went to find Scott and his parents. I sat down in front of them on the ground and kind of gestured at his mom; Scott nodded his head, so I started talking to her. I reintroduced myself because I didn’t know if she would remember me. Then I turned to his dad and did the same thing. His dad started telling some story that made Scott and his mom crack up, but I didn’t find it that funny. I laughed politely, but I kept looking around out of boredom. We finally all went to buy drinks but I had to get money from my car. I found my Volvo parked under some trees with its windows rolled down and a lot of trash in the floor, which upset me. Scott’s parents were driving it. I dug out some change from the console and then couldn’t get the passenger door to lock back. I finally got it and went to get a drink, but didn’t have enough money. Scott and his family had already returned to their seats but I didn’t want to go back, so I just stood around by the concession stand.

Note: If you enjoy this article, you might also check out the Geeky Stuff section.

Yesterday was spent, from 9a-8:15p, in the campus library where the regional programming contest was being held. Jessica and I were helpers, Jess as “Operations Support” (i.e. she got to run print-outs from the printer to contestants) and myself as “Systems” (i.e. I got to deal with technical difficulties). It was a long day but thankfully nothing major went wrong. We didn’t have many little problems either; I mostly sat at a computer, surfing the ‘net.

Scott and I went out to dinner at Applebee’s afterward which was nice except he didn’t enjoy the chicken he got. I ended up working on the Orchid layout here, which is now the default, for the rest of the evening. I went to bed kind of early and got up at about 10:30 this morning feeling rested. I’ve been kind of sleepy this afternoon, though.

David and I took a walk and hung out in the park earlier this afternoon, people-watching and talking. I managed to find an apple underneath someone’s apple tree on the walk back, which tickled me because I never see fruit trees around here.

I’ve a few web projects lined up for me. One is for Dr. Jaromczyk and it involves redesigning the Undergraduate Education page. The other is one David brought up today: a simple admin tool for an apartment owner he knows. The last is to do a design for Todd’s personal site, once he gives me an idea of what he’s looking for.

The new layout should look okay in Firefox 1.0.4 (I need to update, I know) and IE 6.0, which are so far the only browsers I’ve checked it in. I’m assuming Safari, Mozilla, and Opera display it decently, too, because they’re usually fine. It was designed in Fireworks, hacked into separate images in the GIMP, and coded in vim. I didn’t take that photo of the orchid: it came from sxc.hu, a stock photography site.

So Ashlee, Jessica, and I went to a club the other day with the high hopes of dancing in a packed, noisy room while looking sexy, but that idea flopped majorly. Oh, we went to a club and we looked sexy (details in a bit), but we were the only ones there apart from three creepy guys, one of whom groped me (just grabbed my stomach) as we were leaving. It was a sucky night. The highlights were getting to dress up and dancing to the Black Eyed Peas in the car. Jessica was in a slinky red shirt with black pants and black heels; Ashlee was in a sparkly blue halter top with black gauchos and heels; I was in a green tank top that has gold bead-work at the top and on the straps, brown gauchos that have gold pinstriping, and gold wedges. We’re going to try going back to the club some other time, possibly a Thursday at midnight when it should be packed. Should be.

Note: This was a dream of mine. I have this warning here because some visitors have thought my life had just gone to pot, when really they were only reading one of my crazy dreams. :)

I was walking on the road that leads to my house at the base of a hill. I had my cell phone with me and Scott called me. I kept wandering back and forth while we talked; it was daytime in the fall but the leaves hadn’t turned yet. I said something about the possibility of us breaking up and he replied, “So let’s break up.” We got off the phone and I was okay at first, then got very sad. I called him back and asked if he had a reason for breaking up with me; he didn’t, so I asked if he still liked me; he did, so we got back together.

The dream shifted and it was like I was in the show Quantum Leap in that I was in a different period in time and I was aware of this. It seemed like the space race and World War II had been mixed together, along with the book Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I was younger, maybe 12, and an astronaut of Hitler’s. I was in a large facility with white walls and a lot of rooms filled with scientific equipment. I was dressed in a space suit and walking with a group of other astronauts; we were going to get on the shuttle.

My dad called me on my cell phone. I broke away from the group and ducked into another room to lean against some boxes while I talked to him. I was worried about anyone catching me talking on a cell phone when cell phones hadn’t been invented yet in this time. I told Dad what was going on, saying that I was an astronaut but that I was “on the wrong side” (referring to my being one of Hitler’s people). I said that I had to go, explaining that I’d be in trouble if I were caught, but he didn’t want to get off the phone because he missed me; he started crying. I finally got off the phone with him just as some large brunette woman entered the room along with a group of scientists; they were all wearing white lab coats. I asked the woman where the other astronauts in my group went; she directed me down the hall.

I’m surprised at how quickly (yikes, I started typing that as “cui–” for some reason) I finished my homework tonight. I had more EE 280 (no Verilog programming this time, luckily) than usual and yet I finished it in a shorter time. My portion of the physics lab report took maybe an hour, as opposed to the usual two-hour commitment. I’m now drinking apple cider and looking for something to read online. I’ve been enjoying Nicholas Carr’s blog for the past couple of days even though I thought his “The Amorality of Web 2.0” article was a crock of shit; some of his stuff has been informative and interesting instead of just annoying.

Back to that particular article, though: I couldn’t put my finger on what it was that bugged me, other than the derogatory comments on both Wikipedia and open-source software, until I talked to my dad: Carr makes up a religion in order to bash it down. I’ve never heard such an attitude as the one described in his article from people with a healthy appreciation for the internet and open source. Sure, we marvel at such things, but rightfully so: when else in history have people been so connected and information so easily accessible? Carr exaggerates this appreciation into something it’s not, and the defeat of that exaggeration is the whole basis of his article. Stupid.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve completed another couple of surveys of James’s. All you other bored bloggers out there, feel free to take this and do it yourself:

10 Favorites

• Favorite Color: red
• Favorite Food: cold shrimp with cocktail sauce
• Favorite Band/Singer: A Perfect Circle or Incubus
• Favorite Hobby: web design, programming
• Favorite Movie: The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
• Favorite Sport: football
• Favorite Season: autumn
• Favorite Day Of the Week: Friday
• Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: strawberry

9 Currents

• Current Mood: bored
• Current Clothes: pajama pants and a NIN shirt
• Current Underwear Color: pink
• Current Desktop Picture: a black tree on a blue background
• Current Nail Color: fingernail colored
• Current Time: 10:38 p.m. EST
• Current Surroundings: a bunch of papers, books, and water bottles
• Current Annoyance(s): I broke a nail earlier
• Current Thought: I need to clean

8 Firsts

• First Best Friend: Tamara in kindergarten
• First Screen Name: damnit, it’s on the tip of my tongue… something with an “f”
• First Pet: W.C., a basset-German shepherd mix
• First Piercing: earlobes
• First Crush: pff, like I remember
• First Music or Group You Remember: Tom Petty
• First Car: Volvo

7 Lasts

• Last Cigarette: never
• Last Drink: apple cider
• Last Car Ride: with Jessica to Wal-mart
• Last Kiss: yesterday
• Last Movie Watched: I can’t remember
• Last CD Played: Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane

6 Have You Evers

• Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Friends: he wasn’t a best
• Have You Ever Broken the Law: jaywalking, minor traffic laws
• Have You Ever Been Arrested: no
• Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: no
• Have You Ever Been on TV: as part of the marching band, yes
• Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn’t Know: no

5 Places You’ve Been

• Atlanta, GA
• Nashville, TN
• Indianapolis, IN
• Cincinnati, OH
• um… Lexington, KY! Whoo! I never travel; I suck, I know.

4 People You Can Tell Anything To

• Trinity
• Jessica
• Ashlee
• my mom

3 Things

• 3 Things You can hear right now: “This Love” by Maroon 5, the TV, girls yelling in the hall
• 3 Things You Can’t Live Without: friends, the internet, money
• 3 Things You Do When You’re Bored: pointless surveys, shop, eat

2 Choices

• Black or White: black
• Hot or Cold: hot

1 Thing You Want to Do Before You Die

• Have a family

A side note: I have the best (and goofiest) ringtone, folks: Banana Phone. You may have seen the Ebaum’s World flash cartoon featuring said song and know what I mean. For those that are unfamiliar, it’s an extremely catchy tune that doesn’t make any sense. I now have an incentive to not answer when you call me, and if I don’t, you’ll know that it’s because I’m bopping along to that dorky song.

On to survey #2:

Marital Status

Marital? Uh, no, but I have a boyfriend.

Shoe size

7.5 to 8

Parents still together

yes

Siblings

older brother

Pets

3 cats, 3 dogs, 1 rabbit

Favorites

Color

red

Number

3

Animal

penguin

Drinks

virgin strawberry daiquiris

Soda

Coke

Book

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Flower

rose

Do you…

Color your hair?

no

Twirl your hair?

not frequently

Have tattoos?

no

Have Piercings?

1 in each earlobe

Cheat on tests?

no

Drink/Smoke?

yes/no

Like roller coasters?

yes

Wish you could live somewhere else?

maybe in the future

Want more piercings?

no

Like cleaning?

pff, no

Write in cursive or print?

cursive

Own a web cam?

yes

Know how to drive?

yes

Own a cell phone?

yes

Ever get off the damn computer?

rarely :D

Have you ever…

Been in a fist fight?

no

Considered a life of crime?

no

Considered being a hooker?

no

Lied to someone?

yes

Been in love?

no

Been in lust?

yes

Used someone?

no

Been used?

probably

Been cheated on?

no

Kicked someone in the nuts?

not kick, per se

Stolen anything?

no

Held a gun?

ha! yes

Current

Current clothing

pajama pants and a NIN shirt

Current mood

bored

Current taste

Vanilla Coke

What you currently smell like

shampoo and soap, I’m sure

Current hair

down and wet

Current thing I ought to be doing

cleaning or studying, take your pick

Current cd in stereo

my portable CD player has Tidal by Fiona Apple

Last book you read

working on The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Last movie you saw

beats me

Last thing you ate

candy corn

Last person you talked to on the phone

Scott

Random

Do drugs?

no

Believe there is life on other planets?

possibly

Remember your first love?

haven’t had one

Still love him/her?

N/A

Read the newspaper?

on occasion

Have any gay or lesbian friends?

actually, I don’t think I do anymore

Believe in miracles?

sure

Do well in school?

yes

Wear hats?

in the winter

Hate yourself?

no

Have an obsession?

not really

Collect anything?

CD’s and books

Have a best friend?

yes

Close friends?

of course

Like your handwriting?

yes

Care about looks

yes

Love Life

First crush

I don’t remember

First kiss

Cody

Do you believe in love at first sight?

no

Do you believe in “the one?”

ehh, not so much

Are you a tease?

ha!

Too shy to make the first move?

yes; I psych myself out

Are you a…

Daydreamer

yes

Bitch/Asshole

if I think it’s necessary or if I get annoyed

Sarcastic

very often

Angel

not really

Devil

again, not really

Shy

no

Talkative

yes

I’ve decided that overly fastidious people bug me. Blazer Café served pork ribs tonight (freaking ribs! I couldn’t believe it) that were actually pretty good, but messy, naturally. Well, when I eat ribs, I just dive right in and get messy myself in the process. Jess commented on how “normal” people eat their ribs with a knife and fork. That just seems weird to me. Ribs are messy any way you cut it, so why not just embrace the barbecue sauce and get slathered in it? No way am I arguing with a knife and fork, especially trying to pick up a rib and somehow keep it balanced while I gnaw the meat off. What do you folks do? I could understand being neater if I were at some nice banquet, but when have you ever seen ribs served at a nice banquet anyway? Ribs are what you eat when you’re with friends and the other things on the table are fries, fried apples, and beer.

Being overly fastidious (overly is, of course, completely subjective) in other areas besides dining bugs me, too, like if someone’s room has to be spotless for them to be content. I usually have dust on my desk, water bottles clustered around my monitor, textbooks and folders in heaps on my dresser, and my bed isn’t made. I’m okay with this. I don’t come in and get depressed from looking around; I come in and feel at home. This is probably because my family’s like this, too, and our house has a general clutter to it, so I grew up that way. I’m lucky my roommates haven’t been fanatics about this sort of thing; they rarely complain about the mess.

We ended up not having a quiz in calculus today, shazam, because the professor doesn’t seem to mind letting us off the hook. He asked us if he’d promised a quiz, and of course we all said, no no, not at all, we don’t need one, let’s not have one. We’re covering triple integrals currently and there’s a test next Monday.

I’ve been studying CS tonight in preparation for my second exam on Wednesday. I’ll have an EE test Thursday for which I need to study like a madwoman because I need to do better than I did on my last one. Chris and I got together earlier to work on physics homework and it’s a good thing we’re starting early this week (it’s due Wednesday) because this problem set seems harder than previous ones. At least there are fewer questions this time–21 as opposed to the usual 22-24.

So I went home this past weekend to exchange cars: I’m no longer driving my brother’s huge Caprice (read: land yacht) but am instead in a much more comfortable (at least for me) Volvo. Ahh, I love Volvos. It’s not my Volvo, though I hope to be back in mine by Christmas at least. It’s still recovering from the wreck in September; it’s in need of a grille and some front fender work. When I go home for Thanksgiving, I should be getting yet another different Volvo, one that’s apparently in better condition than either mine or my father’s. I’m excited about this because it’ll be new to me, and because I love Volvos (as previously stated).

I completely messed up the lyrics to Sugar We’re Going Down by Fall Out Boy: I thought it went “we’re going down down luh da da duh duh dah” and “in Sugarwood going down swinging” and was thus talking about some town called Sugarwood. Instead, it’s “we’re going down down in an earlier round” and “and sugar we’re going down swinging.” Whoops. Anyway, I hear it’s a good album; any opinions?

Note: If you enjoy this article, you might also check out the Geeky Stuff section.

In a Unix environment when working with C++ or C, a Makefile can be a very handy thing. Instead of typing several separate commands each time you update a file and want to recompile, you can just type make and the Makefile is executed.

A Makefile is a plain-text file traditionally named “Makefile” or “makefile” that resides in the same directory as your program source.

No matter which technique shown here you use (Quick and Dirty or Long and Explicit), the basic setup of a Makefile is as follows:
main_program: dependency_1 dependency_2 dependency_3... dependency_n
     command for main_program

Note that the second line is indented while the first is not. And then, following that, you’ll have n number of dependency definitions like the following:
dependency_n: dependency_a dependency_b dependency_c...
     command for dependency_n

The dependencies for dependencies (i.e. dependency_a, dependency_b, etc.) are usually files, and not other dependencies, that determine when dependency_n’s command should be run. For example, take the following dependency definition:
main.o: main.cpp header.h
     g++ -Wall -c main.cpp

In this example, when main.cpp or header.h is changed and the Makefile is run, the command for main.o will be executed. That command happens to be g++ -Wall -c main.cpp.

Here are some examples of Makefiles:

Quick and Dirty

prog5: main.o readData.o car.o radio.o
     g++ -o $@ main.o readData.o car.o radio.o

Here, prog5 is the name of the executable that will be made. g++ is the compiler I’m using. Each .o file will be created from a .cpp (or whatever C++ extension you choose) file of the same name.

I say that this Makefile is dirty because if you update a header file (i.e. one typically ending in .h) and recompile, this Makefile will not notice any changes. This isn’t normally a problem because after initially creating your header files, you probably won’t be making any changes to them except to perhaps update a function prototype, and of course if you do that, you’ll need to update the corresponding implementation file (i.e. a .cpp file) as well.

Long and Explicit

myProgram: main.o stu.o cla.o readData.o
     g++ -o myProgram main.o stu.o cla.o readData.o

main.o: main.cpp header.h
     g++ -Wall -c main.cpp

stu.o: stu.cpp header.h stu.h
     g++ -Wall -c stu.cpp

cla.o: cla.cpp header.h cla.h
     g++ -Wall -c cla.cpp

readData.o: readData.cpp header.h
     g++ -Wall -c readData.cpp

Here, myProgram is the executable that will be created, while each .o file is created with its own explicit definition of dependencies. For example, cla.o depends on cla.cpp, header.h, and cla.h; if any of those files changes, cla.o will be recompiled. The -Wall is a g++ option to turn on all warnings about your source.

Note: If you enjoy this article, you might also check out the Geeky Stuff section.

Source for enqueue() and dequeue() functions to add and remove data from a queue in a class.

Node Struct Definition

Class Definition File

The data that’s stored in each node of our queue are the two string variables, brand and serial. The beginning of the queue is front while the end of it is rear.

enqueue() Function

dequeue() Function

The brand and serial data variables are passed by reference so that they can be stuffed with the values that are removed from the queue, just in case you need them again elsewhere.

“What, you want me to strip down and shave my head?” - me talking to Jessica about normal ice sculptures