Halffull.org

I was driving home from work today, passing through the wonderful part of town with constant police surveillance, when I saw a house. Not just any house. It was fairly run down, and had signs all over it - ones stating “Stay Away”, “No Trespassing”, and my favorite:

Keep Out - NO DRUGS

I think it’s pretty sad that they need to be so specific.

On a happier note, I had plenty of time to work on Span today, and got the basics for network play in. It’s more work than I expected, but it’s fun, and it’s worthy of a 0.2 release when it’s polished.

I’m proud to release Span 0.1.0 to the general hungry public. I’ve added AI players and a real command-line interface in the past week. In other words, it’s actually playable now! The actual usage should be pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy. You just might like it.

I’m not a blogger. This isn’t a blog. I write well, I just can’t write. That probably explains how when I try to write, it turns out like this.

I hereby introduce Span! It’s a Connect Four-alike game in ruby/ncurses that I wrote while bored at work. I’m about ready to post the first numbered release, but for now it’s nightly-style. All the basics of gameplay are in, the next step is a command-line interface and some AI.

Enjoy!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the new HHGttG trailer. (old trailer)

I cried when I saw it. I cried again when I noticed they moved the date up to April 29. Then I watched it again.

Izzat recently said something about some UN sicko going around Africa taking pictures of himself raping women. He even labeled the pictures as rape. Then she said something to make the article humorous, that she thought the UN was one of the last bastions of democracy and humanity. HA! After laughing my ass off, I remembered what the article was about. UN sicko. She said something to the effect that there needs to be equality between men and women. That struck me. She said she was waiting for it. When will it happen? Better question: Can it happen?

Exactly at what point are men and women “equal”? Under the law, they’re equal. In fact, there’s a slight bias in the courts when it comes to custody and marriage law, at least in the US. In the rest of the world, they negotiate from a slightly weaker stance, especially so in developing nations. Yeah, the US is pretty much where they have it best. And despite some misstatements (”women only make 79 cents where men make a dollar”) and outright lies (”hundreds of thousands of women die each year from anorexia”) I’d say they’re treated equally in the US. There are issues such as pornography and sexism but I think the sexist tide is starting to turn. Pornography’s not going away anytime soon. We need to be careful about playing the victim game here, but you could make legitimate arguments about the general sexual predatory nature of men and how that can make women uncomfortable or end up with them being harassed (”Hey baby, nice rack!”). Of course I’d argue the sex drive thing is programmed in. And women definitely have it too. Sex just doesn’t sell as much for them, so there’s less advertising. Their ads are more like, “Do you have heavy flow?” whereas male ads are “Buy this, and hot blondes will sleep with you!“

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No, I’m not going to say “just register on the site, send me $8.95, and your firstborn, and you’ll get a gmail invite!” We’ve all seen that one. (Though if you do still need one, just email me or check isnoop.)

I’m just curious about how many invites people have given away. Ever since Google has been giving 50 invites a day to most people, I’ve sent out a full batch of 48 (I save two, for safety) to isnoop’s gmail account spooler# gmail ^@^ isnoop.net # just about every day. This has totalled to…

rummages through his gmail account

…720 gmail invites I’ve sent as of February 16. As far as I know, they’ve all been accepted, as I get the acceptance emails constantly. Can anyone beat that? Isnoop currently has 251,916 invites available, so I have to assume other people are doing the same as me. Remember the days when people paid cold hard cash for an invite? Or one to orkut? Ahh, memories.

[update] 1056!

[update] Gmail Beta is almost over, meaning the end of invites is nigh - and I’m up to 1969! Who can beat that?

[update] Before isnoop shut down and Gmail stopped giving me invites, I passed out ~3000.

On Thursday, March 17, 2005, at 8:58:31 pm EST it will officially be 1111111111 seconds since the Unix epoch. I propose we throw a huge party for geeks everywhere, and celebrate the Unix motto:

Do one thing and do it well - party!

This nation contains a multitude of religious and moral beliefs, and in order to serve the public without trampling on anyone’s beliefs or morals, it’s often best to take the most conservative route. I’m speaking specifically of sex ed in public schools. What I’m concerned about, though, is the abstinence-only propaganda that’s being passed off as sex ed in many high schools. According to a report I recently found (see link below), many of the curricula currently approved for federal funding as encouraging abstinence have numerous scientific errors. Some claim that condoms are not effective as a contraceptive (when used correctly, they are, and they also prevent the spread of most STDs when used correctly), and some include gender stereotypes presented as scientific facts.

I am not in favor of teens having sex. However, as a realist, I recognize that many will be sexually active despite the wishes of adults. To prevent unwanted pregnancies and to prevent the spread of STDs, isn’t it best to let students know that there are a few contraceptive methods available that are effective? I’m not saying each school district should hand out condoms to each student, or that students should prove they can use a condom before being allowed into high school — I’m just suggesting that federally funded sex ed programs should not lie to teenagers about life and death facts. Telling kids that condoms are useless can only increase the prevalence of unprotected sex among teenagers, which can only increase the spread of disease and the number of unwanted pregnancies. And if the federal government is so committed to supporting “a culture of life,” as the President said in his State of the Union address, why can’t they support telling students the truth about safe practices that could save their lives and prevent abortions?

I miss when I was seven years old, and I hadn’t learned any of life’s really hard lessons yet.

When I was that age, I only knew what little information about the world that I was told (or assumed). I knew there had to be a God, because why else would all of these millions of people go to church every week? I knew I’d grow up and have a perfect body and meet the perfect man and it would be love at first sight, because that’s what happened in all Disney movies. I had heard a little bit about the environment and pollution, but that could all be easily fixed if people just recycled and planted trees, right? And I certainly knew that if I really wanted to, and if I worked super hard, I could be Prime Minister some day, because any Canadian is eligible to be Prime Minister. And besides, my parents told me I could be anything I wanted to be.

When you’re young, life is black and white. There is an imperial right or wrong. You know that all you have to do is make the correct choices, and you’re sooo sure that when those choices come you’ll be ready and waiting for them.

Little does anyone suspect that along with “black” and “white” there’s a whole lot of grey. The hard part isn’t selecting the “right” choice, but deciding what on earth the “right” choice is in first place. You realize that life is like one big multiple choice quiz where none of the answers are really correct, so you can only pick what you think is “least incorrect.”

What I know now is that scientists predict that in the next century over half of the species on Earth will have become extinct. I know that if the designing of cities doesn’t get seriously smarter soon, the pollution caused by cars going between work and home, and the amount of traffic on city roads and highways, and the level of taxation is going to get really crazy. I know that the man who I want to be attracted to me is being exposed to the lipo-suctioned, implanted, photo-shopped, perfect women in the media and that it is physically impossible for me (or any real woman) to ever look like that. I know that deciding who to vote for in any most elections is difficult simply because there are no “good” candidates (pick the “least incorrect”). I know that most of the homeless people downtown are mentally insane, and incapable of supporting themselves, and there’s not a damn thing I can think to do to help them. I know that half the time people become special because they’re famous, not famous because they’re special. I know that in a few hundred years no one will remember my name.

And I know that I’ll never be Prime Minister, because while all Canadians are technically eligible, only the rich white men are taken seriously.

When you’re young, life is simplified and you think you can do anything. Then you grow up and realize that nothing in life makes sense, and you can’t think to do a damn thing.

Once again, we learn two very important lessons:

1. If you put something in the public domain, it will spread on the internet.
2. It is very important to speak English.

See what conservative Dutch enjoy.