MichaelRunyon.com – All Things Geek

Today, i was stopped in the parking lot of the Post Office and asked a few questions by WSBT about concerns about the bailout and the economy. The goal of the questioners was to find out what people had questions about, concerns about. I mainly talked about what I thought caused it, and what the ramifications would/will be. Therefore, I barely made it in the clip. The last interviewee who says “I think it will affect everyone”….that’s me. Too bad that I tried to sound intelligent with my answers and they chose a clip that shows me talking out of the side of my mouth, wearing a dirty looking shirt…there is no escaping the stigma.

Here’s a link…

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/29969904.html 

In an attempt to re-invent myself in small ways, I recently thought of shaving off my goatee. I’ve been growing it since mid-way through my first semester at college, and with the exception of a particular bad shave job, it’s been on my chin in one manner or another for 4 years and 7 months, give or a take a bit.

I don’t know what prompted it, but I am always for changing it up, given that the change is not too drastic or risky. So when I thought of shaving the goatee, well, that tugged a bit at the security blanket side of me. I covered my chin with my hand, thought of how I might look without it. I was none too impressed. Yet, I feel an overwhelming urge to attempt to change up something about my appearance, that has been in stasis for quite some time. Not that I am looking for anything in particular, but it annoys me that this little thing can cause such consternation.

My wife urges me to reconsider, stating that I will look fully 5 years younger if I do so, and that she likes it. Given that others have to look at me much more than I do myself, I am wont to give their opinions some consideration, but consider, too, that it will grow back in a short time. 

So, the question still remains….shave it, or don’t shave it?

I am certainly not the first to make the clever pun of referring to whatever addictive object or concept that rhymes (in any way) with Crack as such (Blackberry/Crackberry, World of Warcraft/World of WarCrack, etc). How juvenile…:) But to say that StackOverlow is akin to CrackOverflow would be an understatement.

Crack, er, StackOverflow was released as a private beta from the creators of Coding Horror and Joel on Software (Jeff Atwood and Joel Sposky, respectively) about 6 weeks ago. I joined the private beta pool (which was by request/invitation only) about 3 weeks ago, and found the site to be a great idea, if the original users were a bit caustic (very picky about staying within the realm of realized discussion and answers). However, the endless searching of topics that you know about or want to know about quickly rose the site to the level of Wikipedia for me. To clarify this point, let me explain…

I love information. I love to study data, read it, extrapolate it, make judgements, etc. It’s little surprise that I chose my current profession (web developer/programmer) given this analysis, as I primarily work with data, often creating reports, etc. Wikipedia is perhaps the largest and complete source of interlinked information ever (save the entirety of the Internet), and one can get lost in its vast caverns of subjective and interesting information. I have put in mental stopgaps to prevent me from blowing an entire afternoon reading about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge or the frictional density of osmium, as Wikipedia would be glad to instruct you about.

StackOverflow is quickly becoming a programming/development specific source like that. There are already 12,000+ questions on the site, some with hundreds of answers. It’s a mass collaboration of those who share a like profession (and sometimes, mindset), and their collective knowledge of whatever subject is being discussed. Not only are you drawn into the site to find some question to answer your problem, but you also feel drawn to help others find the answer to their problems via the information that you know. A great deal of the time, there is no clear answer, and the questioner is left to decide for his/herself what the best and most plausible answer is.

I’m not particularly inclined to seek out questioners who I think can benefit from my answers, but I don’t deny that there is a good feeling when a question/answer is well-liked by the community. With a community that appears to be as talented and professional well developed as StackOverlow seems, that kind of rapport helps to keep one from feeling totally isolated, as is often a common consequence of solo developers.

Unsuprisingly, there are not that many question regarding Coldfusion, as Jeff and Joel’s audience tends to be more .NET/PHP developers. Not that it bothers me that much anyway, as I don’t consider myself to be a totally Coldfusion developer. I attempt to remain fluent in as many languages as possible, though some of the core ideas of some of the languages keep this possibility from being easier than it is.

That said, I have thus far found StackOverflow to be a better source than simple Googling in many of the less definitive questions, ones that warrant discussion by the members. This is particularly interesting, in that one of the stated purposes of the site is to become a definitive, searchable source of information, much like a wiki, where one can take their searchable problem.

So, a word to the wise…stay away from StackOverlow. Keep doing your job or learning about other things, not on the Internet. Keep me and the other information addicts safely away, lest you get sucked in yourself.

After a pretty hefty dry spell in this area during the latter part of August and early September, the South Bend area experienced between 7-11 inches of rain between Saturday morning and Sunday evening. The 7-inch one day total for Saturday is the standing record for single-day rainfall in this area. The news played many clips of families with heavy flooding, especially those in low-lying areas. I went out briefly on Sunday afternoon and found myself soaked. There were a great many near-impassable places, with quite a few unlucky sedans floating through the puddles. Happily, I saw quite a few people in better equipped vehicles jump out to assist their neighbors.

My roof withstood much of the downpour until Sunday afternoon, when the heaviest rain occurred, due in great part to Hurricane Ike making its way up to the Midwest. A small leak from the top of my dormer caused a small drip leak that put a small puddle on my floor. The rain subsided shortly after finding the leak, so I thought that would be the extent of my problems, but sadly, I went thereafter into the basement and found quite a few small puddles of water that had risen through the floor of the basement. I went rapidly searching around for wall or ceiling leaks, but finally concluded that the water table had just risen enough to come up through the cracks in the foundation.

Probably about half of the laundry in the laundry room got wet, and so we had to divide the wet from the dry, for proper washing. Very time-consuming and frustrating, all the way around. I can’t complain too much, given the extreme circumstances. There was very little damage, mostly just annoyance. I will have to follow up on the roof leak, however, since I now know that the minor repairs done last summer were not enough to hold off extreme weather.

Notre Dame beat Michigan soundly today, 35-17, in a game heavily influenced by rain in the latter half. Michigan made some key errors at the outset of the game, and I, along with the rest of the doubtful Irish fans, watched in disbelief as Notre Dame went up 21-0 in the first quarter. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Michigan fought back, somewhat, to their credit, and established a good running game against the Irish, something that I think Notre Dame needs to work on, as it was a repeat feeling from last week against SDSU. Notre Dame excelled in all aspects of their offense, getting exceptional field position many times due to interceptions, fumble recoveries or other errors by Michigan, and scoring in the red zone extremely well. They only seemed to falter once the rain came on heavily, and started to pound the ball via their backs and much improved offensive line.

Notre Dame can have few complaints about this game, though Charlie Weis did suffer a knee injury during a strange play where an ND player was blocked out of bounds and rolled over Weis’ leg. The replays showed a grisly bend of the leg towards the impact. The report at half-time was that the MCL and ACL was torn, and he would be seeking surgery this week. Yikes! That kinda thing doesn’t happen too often.

I have somewhat strengthened hope in Notre Dame after this win, though Michigan essentially gift-wrapped it for them with their many mistakes. Michigan hasn’t proven themselves a quality win yet, either, with their shaky win over Miami of Ohio, and a loss to Utah (though with Utah’s new ranking, that is looking less bad all the time). We’ll find out the new couple weeks whether the Irish are returning to their old ways, when they play MIchigan State at East Lansing and then Purdue at home. Purude took No.16 Oregon to two overtimes, so they will be a quality opponent.

Friday night I saw the new Cohen borthers movie, “Burn After REading”. I actually convinced my wife, sister, and mother to join me in watching it. It helps that the movie has serious star power and appeal in Brad Pitt and George Clooney. I also love John Malkovich in pretty much everything that he does.

The movie is the next in a long line of black comedies from the Cohen brothers, who have been making many movies like this over the years. Even in last  year’s smash hit, “No Country for Old Men”, they incorporated a bit of the situational black comedy, where something shocking or ironic happens, and the audiences just has to laugh at how absurd or unexpected the action or twist was. Don’t be confused, however, by my description. The plots in all of their movies are well constructed, and “Burn After Reading” is no exception.

I did not find the movie as successful as some of the other Cohen brothers offerings, and thought that a few points in the movie were a bit weak, and a few points of the dialogue seeminly forced, but did enjoy myself overall. I am not certain how much my anticipation of the next offering from one of my favorite directorial talents played into my enjoyment. I feel a fair amount of confidence that the same movie, played with different actors, would have been just as successful, but that the same movie, directed by others, would not. It’s the small things that they do that make it great, along with great dialogue and excellent storyline.

I would put this movie somewhere above “The Ladykillers” and somewhere below “The Big Lebowski” in terms of enjoyment and success. I did enjoy the movie, but feel that it will not have the staying power that some of their other offerings have enjoyed.

Overall Synopsis: 7.7/10

After Notre Dame razed the soccer practice field this last summer for construction on the Eddy Street Commons, they killed off the very last spot for non-alumni to enjoy the fine tradition of tailgating at Notre Dame Stadium. However, the fine people of South Bend are not to be stopped in their attempt to join in the festivities of the Notre Dame community that so badly wants to keep them out. Notre Dame has poured millions into road and intersection renovations, as well as nearby neighborhood purchasing, to ensure that they can maintain their death grip on resource allocation, and to ensure that it goes to their wealthy base of alumni. And who can blame them? If they are able to suck $20,000 out of each season ticket holder, and there are 20,000 season ticket holders, that’s 400 million in pure donations, limited only to donations on season tickets. That’s just a small drop in the bucket of all of the revenue that Notre Dame leverages to pad it’s gigantic endowment (3rd largest in the nation)

But my plucky co-workers were not to be stopped in their quest to partcipate in the festitivies. They purchased a spot at Parisis Italian restaurant, no more than 200 yards to the south of the very spot that they had enjoyed tailgating for years, and vowed to do their best to continue their fine tradition. But for the many who were unable to replace their spots, I feel sorry. I can understand the economic reasons that the University would want to raze the spot. The only revenue that it generated as of late was from tailgating. And while seemingly substantial (at at least 500 spots @ $30/game @ 7-8 home games = $105,000), it is totally dwarfed by the sale of that land to developers. On to the game…

Notre Dame won today against San Diego State, 21-13, in what I would consider an ugly game. San Diego State totally dominated the first half, and in reality, should’ve won the game. A crucial fumble at the line of scrimmage negated a touchdown for SDSU, and put the ball in ND hands, who took it the length of the field for the winning score. Without that pivotal call, which was by all rights, very very close to a score, ND would again be at the mercy of the alumni, screaming for blood for losing once again to a team that played with a lot of heart and determination, but was really not that good.

Notre Dame is safe from serious concern for one week, and their ability to produce offense of any kind today is a step forward from last season. But their true tests will start rolling in next week with Michigan (who, though abysmally bad themselves this season) will not fold so easily. Their defense will have to keep up its high level from last year, and the offense will have to fan the flames of whatever spark was shown today to have a chance at performing in a manner consistent with a team rebuilding towards greatness. What I saw today from them was not a game from a team that was working out the kinks, but one that used it superior athleticism and a bit of luck to push their way through a game that didn’t rightfully belong the them.

Some heart and determination, the “mystique”, if you will, is badly needed from this team, but with the diverse class of yuppie and highly rated recruits, it will be an uphill battle.