Silnith’s Lair

02:09 am

The problem with stopping talking to someone because you believe it will make them happier is that you have no way to determine if it is working as intended or not. If you ask, you have failed at what you set out to do.

So, I have no idea how redheadedbeast is doing, if she’s happier now or not. Communication was always our failure, guess this is just par for the course. And all my thoughts lately on how to improve will likely go to waste.

Badly as I feel I was treated, she was much more open and honest than sarahsam ever was.

Current Mood: depressed

01:07 am - You know what?

I just wanted to get a little honesty. Not endless evasions and silence.

I removed her from my social list on all my characters so I won’t be tempted in the future. It’ll still hurt when I do catch sight of her though.

And I performed a fucking miracle at work today, I saved an entire department and astonished a lot of people. Now I’m sitting alone in the dark trying not to cry. Some reward.

Current Mood: crushed

12:18 am - well, damn

Met a cute girl on the Kingston-Edmonds ferry tonight, the last one to Edmonds. (Left around 11:10.) She had a cool flower tattoo on her leg, visible from the right. She was reading a Zelda: Ocarina of Time manga. I asked where she got it, she said “the bookstore in Edmonds”. I chatted her up a bit, she had just moved to Edmonds recently to be closer to school (college, she didn’t say which one) because she just turned 18. She had spent a little time in Bolivia as an exchange student, had visited her dad in Japan, and seemed like a fascinating person. Unfortunately, I was forced to cut short and run off to the car because the ferry arrived in Edmonds and my car was second in line so I had to move immediately. I was really torn, because I wanted to ask for her number until I learned she was only 18, so instead I wanted to give her my number but I had nothing to write on, nothing with which to write, and I only made it back to the car with seconds to spare even without stopping to write something down for her. Damn it.

I seriously considered just telling her my number and asking her to call me, but I was afraid of the age difference. If I had had just seconds more to think, I would have given her my e-mail address and asked her to write if she wanted to chat about Zelda some more.

<sigh>  I cannot search for an 18-year-old female college student in Edmonds named “Alex”, so I guess that is the end of it. Unless by some miracle she does an Internet search for herself and manages to stumble across this entry. (By the way, my name is “Kent” and I had glasses and long curly brown hair. I live in downtown Seattle.)

Current Mood: frustrated

02:01 pm - It is true!

Current Mood: amused

10:00 pm - Has this ever happened to you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7jQ1s1BV0&NR=1

He speaks the truth.

02:28 pm - slippery slope may be a logical fallace, but it can also be disturbingly correct

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/06/jersey.police.beating/index.html

Now consider the outcome. The guy has clear physical signs that he was beaten. Bruises all over one side of his body, visible medical signs he was abused.

What if the police officer had used a taser instead? A huge electrical shock that disrupts the nervous system and fires all your pain nerves receptors simultaneously, being tased is incredibly painful, just as if not more so than a physical beating. However, there are no physical marks or evidence that the police officer just administered an electrical beating. With every click of the officer’s finger, that is another beating that you cannot prove you received, you just feel it. The officer can deny it, you have no proof, therefore no recourse.

The U.N. has already referred to tasers as torture devices. We give them to everybody with a badge and hold no one accountable for their use.

I remember when tasers were first introduced to law enforcement in the United States. There was a lot of debate about it, and every taser supporter and proponent said that they were a replacement for deadly force. The justification for deploying them was that a police officer would use a taser rather than fire their gun. Opponents said that they would be used routinely to get quick compliance and as punitive measures, essentially allowing the police to deliver a punishment without due process or accountability. Opponents said the ease of use of a taser and lack of evidence of its use would lead to them being used casually for all situations, particularly ones that never would have required the use of a gun.

Now that tasers are everywhere, it is quite clear the opponents were right.

09:15 pm - Glorious

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-achievements.xml?r=Scarlet+Crusade&n=Bric

Current Mood: happy

07:08 pm - ext4 bug

The discussion around this issue bothers me. I am referring to the debate regarding the data loss bug in the new ext4 filesystem. To explain it succinctly, a single process is issuing the following sequence of operations for the filesystem:

1. Create (empty) file
2. Write data into file (and close it)
3. Rename file to a new name, overwriting an existing file

The end result is that the old file is overwritten with new contents. The intent is that, even if the computer crashes while creating the new file, the old file will be untouched. This works fine on the current ext3 filesystem. However, people who moved to ext4 were experiencing problems where, after a computer crash, the old file would be gone, but the replacement would not be there. What happened? Well, when the computer crashes, only some of the filesystem operations have completed, and others have not. Under ext3, the operations always occurred in order, so either the old file or the new file would make it intact after the crash.

On the other hand, ext4 was reordering the filesystem operations in such a way that the effect was thus:

1. Create (empty) file
2. Rename file to a new name, overwriting existing file
3. Write data into file

Then the computer would crash in the middle of the sequence, and in the majority of cases, it was crashing between steps 2 and 3. (This is due to the 2.5 minutes ext4 would wait before writing the file contents to disk.) Therefore, the previous contents of the file were lost, and the contents intended to replace them were also lost. The ext4 developer in charge, as well as an obscene percentage of the Slashdot posters, defended this behavior as conforming to the POSIX spec. Their suggestion (delivered with much name-calling and belittling) was to change every application ever written to use the following sequence of filesystem operations:

1. Create (empty) file
2. Write data into file
3. Stop the application and wait until the data has been completely written to disk
4. Rename file to a new name, overwriting existing file

That will certainly work. However, it is stupid. The application developers do not want to write a new file to disk. They want to replace the existing file with new contents. They do not need a guarantee that the new file is written to disk. The only thing they need is for the order of their operations to be respected. If they write a new file and then it is lost, that is acceptable, because they still have the previous file contents. All they need is a guarantee that the operations will be committed in order, not that the second operation is blocked completely until the write goes to disk.

Current Mood: aggravated

01:14 pm - Quote of the day.

Quote of the day: (Discussing facial hair) I was going for Southern General, and I end up with Trucker, every time. — Trenton

Current Mood: amused

12:38 pm - I’ve been everywhere.

I was just thinking today, thinking about the World of Warcraft. I can almost say that I have seen every boss in the game. Almost, but not quite. So close. There was a summoned boss that was part of the quest to form Atiesh. I never got to participate in that incredibly rare ritual. I also hear there is some summoned boss in Scholomance that is part of a shaman quest, I don’t know anything about that. It is possible there are other Horde-only summoned bosses, but I have not heard of them.

But I have seen an incredible number of things in this game.

• I have summoned Thunderaan to help forge Thunderfury. Several times, in fact.
• I have seen both the optional bosses in Ahn'Qiraj 40-man, and killed C'thun.
• I have seen all the summoned bosses that were part of the original dungeon armor set upgrade quests.
• I have killed Enzu the Raven Lord for the druid epic flight quest.
• I have completed the warlock epic mount quest, helped with the paladin epic mount quest, and completed the warlock Ritual of Doom quest.
• I have seen all of the yearly world event bosses, from Ahune to Corin Direbrew to Omen.
• I participated in the War event in Silithus for the opening of Ahn'Qiraj.
• I participated in both the first and second Scourge Invasions.
• I have participated in every portion of the quest chain to create the scepter for opening the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj. I can make Dirge's Kickin' Chimaerok Chops.
• I tanked Nefarian without a dwarven priest, back when that meant something.
• I have cleared Naxxramas in a 40-man raid, a 25-man raid, and a 10-man raid.
• I can summon Nightbane. I killed the vampire.
• I am The Hallowed.
• I turned Ras Frostwhisper human.
• I lost several rolls for a bronze drake in the Culling of Stratholme.
• I saw Deathcharger's Reigns drop in a 10-man raid on Stratholme, before they upped the drop rate the first time.

Current Mood: accomplished

01:08 pm - to be clear

The argument was over whether or not the free market worked, was sustainable in the long term without external regulating forces. They both absolutely denied that a free market would break down, demanding I prove it. I cited multiple monopolies throughout American history, finally settling on Ma Bell which was a natural monopoly that would never have been broken without external forces, in this case the government. They denied that, and argued that cell phones would have broken it, to which I countered that new technology is an external force. They denied that, arguing it was an extension of the market, and that new technology was the result of the market itself, specifically that creating a market for something would cause it to be invented. Perpetual motion machines stopped that bullshit, because there is a huge market for perpetual motion machines yet they are absolutely impossible to create. Even so, one of them still refused to admit that, hanging on to his notion that demand would create any technology regardless of physical possibility.

So to recap, they held that the free market always worked, even when confronted with a clear example that filled all their preconditions and clearly showed the market failing to correct itself. To escape this logical inconsistency, one even went so far as to disregard the laws of physics so he could hang on to his precious deity, “free market”. This was the one with the Masters degree in economics who did not know the term “monopoly tax”.

God how I hate economic cultists.

Current Mood: frustrated

01:05 pm - on debating with coworkers

How the hell can you get a Masters degree in economics without knowing what the term “monopoly tax” is?

Current Mood: cranky

09:58 pm - thoughts on government

In the Dune series, Frank Herbert has the Bene Gesserit say, “The least stable structure in nature is the triangle.” They meant it in the context of governing, and of course were playing off of the opposition of geometric reality. But, there is something to consider in that statement. The United States is one of several countries that has three branches of government. And it has become increasingly apparent over time that such a structure is rather unstable. One branch is usually dominating the other two, providing an unstable and uneven tripod.

So I started thinking of alternatives. If three branches is not enough to provide reliable balance, how about more? What about five? That provides a lot more opportunities for checks and balances than the three simple strokes between three branches. With five, there are ten cross-bars, each of which can be a separate check and balance, locking down the power structure much more effectively to maintain relative equality.

Once I escaped the geometric and mathematical aesthetic appeal, I started thinking of our current three branches and how they could be restructured. My first thought went to the legislature. Right now, nobody in the world can say how many laws are in effect in the United States. This is a problem. One of the things any great author will tell about their craft is that writing is only the beginning of their work. Once they write, they go through an arduous process of editing and paring down their work, cutting and polishing. Beauty and quality are in succinctness and purity. Software development is the same way. The sloppiest rushed code is always overflowing with cut-and-paste waste, cruft and unnecessary processing. When I spend time cleaning up my code, the vast majority of my changes are to strip it down and refine it into the most concise and efficient form to accomplish its task, remain robust, and be elegantly expanded in the future. Smaller is better.

Consider our current legislature. They have one job: write laws.

Whose job is it to remove laws? Nobody is tasked with that role. Nobody has the responsibility to clean up the rushed crap produced by the sweatshop legislators.

I propose a new branch of government, an offspring of the legislature. I propose a body of equal size and power to Congress, whose sole authority is to review and strike laws from the books. The first Congress creates new laws, regulations, and taxes. The anti-Congress revokes laws, removes regulations, and abolishes taxes.

The more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me. How many silly laws do we hear urban legends about, remaining on the books and in legal force centuries after they are meaningless? I suggest a seven-year limit on all legislation. After seven years in effect, each law must be reviewed by this new body. If the law no longer makes sense, it is removed. If it is still appropriate in light of current circumstances, given the original justification for the law, it is retained on the books. One of the requirements for this new system is that every law must come with justification for its existence, which will be taken into account at every review. Even if a law might be appropriate for different reasons, if the original reasons are no longer valid, it is stricken and Congress must re-vote on it with the new justification. This would apply to all laws, even those making murder illegal. Clearly this law would survive review every time with little resistance. The point is that it would be reviewed. In addition, the law making a copy of an MP3 worth $750 dollars and a year in jail would also be reviewed.

It seems like this would quickly devolve into a glorified rubber-stamping body. Therefore, there should be an explicit counter for this tendency. I suggest every seventh review, after 49 years total, each law be immediately discarded and sent back to Congress. If Congress does not go through the full process to re-draft the law, introduce it, debate it, and vote to approve it, then it ceases to exist. The absence of action results in expiration. This would result in a recurring situation similar to the annual budget of the federal government, which must be passed every year or else the government shuts down.

This is an interesting fourth branch of government, I believe it would be an improvement over our current system of ever-expanding laws, ever-increasing restrictions on the population. It introduces a built-in system of refactoring and review into our legislative process.

The next thing to consider is the fifth branch of government. There could be a third peer to the legislature, a peer to the courts, or a peer to the executive branches. I am thinking a peer to the executive is probably most in need. There seems to be an eternal problem of oversight and restraint exercised over the policing bodies, perhaps the most effective fifth branch would be a body to counterbalance the police and military (and CIA, and FBI, and NSA, and—you get the idea). Either a body to explicitly draw out the difference between military and civilian forces, something that was attempted with the original Constitution but has slowly degraded over time as police utilize more military tactics and gear, and the military takes over more surveillance roles in civilian domains. While technically Unconstitutional, it is a natural consequence of the evolution of executive power. Another possibility is a body tasked with explicitly protecting the population instead of policing it. The police exist “to serve and protect”. Too many people forget the former part of that motto and focus exclusively on the enforcement aspects of police work. Perhaps we need a branch of government that is a formalized, funded, and empowered version of the ACLU. Their mandate is to protect people. They would have no enforcement powers, they would be unable to arrest or imprison anybody. However, they would be fully armed to the same extent as the normal police, an equal and opposite body in the same way that the fourth branch is a body equal and opposite Congress.

It would be tricky to get such a fifth body accepted, because people focus so much on law enforcement that it will be difficult to think in terms of protecting people. What I have in mind is a force to keep people safe on the streets and in their homes. I do not fear walking downtown at two in the morning, because the fifth branch of government protects me from muggers and reckless drivers. I do not fear being beaten by the police, because the fifth branch is there to halt the fall of the club. I do not fear having to walk past my abusive ex-husband’s house every day to get to the bus stop, because the fifth branch of government will provide a body if necessary to block him from abusing me again. The FBI cannot tap my phone without a warrant, because the fifth branch works to ensure the safety and integrity of our communication systems. Somebody steals your identity? It is the job of the executive branch to find and punish the transgressor. It is the job of the fifth branch to restore your identity, credit, bank balances, and harden the systems around you to prevent it from happening to you again, and to prevent others from suffering the same fate. Perhaps health care should be folded under this new branch as well, it seems to be conceptually consistent.

Imagine it. A five-branch form of government, with multiple interconnecting lines to exercise checks and balances. The two branches that currently have inherit tendency to grow without bounds are explicitly counter-balanced. The judicial branch, which is much more neutral in its tendency, is maintained.

Current Mood: contemplative

09:49 pm - Nice evening.

Met up with Pastor Laura and her friend after work. I bought them some pizza, then they bought me some ice cream. Chatted and laughed and relaxed, it was nice. It was way too hot when the sun was out, but pretty comfortable after sunset when they got a few pictures and we parted ways. Mom, Pastor Laura says, “Hi!”

Current Mood: content

02:32 am - Ping

I just haven’t had the time or energy to post in half a year. I just live my life, I do not write about it.

Time to find an apartment with air conditioning. And cats. redheadedbeast insists on kittens.

10:12 pm

Life has been quite exciting lately. Work is work, and not much to talk about right now. But I have my first girlfriend, redheadedbeast. She is awesome. She is exceedingly hot. She has blue hair.

I’ve had indigestion twice now, a month ago and today. It has had me startled and confused and scared, until just before I dropped redheadedbeast off at work (in Portland, my trip to the hospital made her miss her train) and she said something that completely clicked everything into place. I’ll elaborate in a locked post.

I love it when she comes to visit, and hate it when she has to leave.

On a tangent, Bric got keyed for Hyjal, helped kill three or so bosses, then helped kill three bosses in Black Temple. The guild is now working on the last fight in Hyjal, and Teron Gorefiend in Black Temple.

Current Mood: happy

05:18 am - wow

I really like this girl.

I cannot wait until she arrives Wednesday.

Current Mood: enthralled

03:23 am - The Beast

The Beast is up and running. I got all the cables situated such that none were hitting any fans, so now it runs relatively quietly, or at least the noise it generates is a hum instead of any sort of clicking. I finally got Windows 2000 installed on it after fighting to get around the LBA issue (Windows didn’t support the LBA 48-bit part of the ATA spec until several service patches in) so I could access the portions of my drives beyond the 128 gigabyte barrier. With one 320 gig drive and one 750 gig drive, this was a substantial problem. But I worked around it and now have a 698.63 GB partition formatting as I go to sleep.

I also installed World of Warcraft, and patched it up to the latest version. Before, I was running native resolution on my 24″ widescreen LCD with full spell detail and anisotropic filtering, no antialiasing. 20 fps in Shattrath. Now, I am running native resolution on my 24″ widescreen LCD with full spell detail and anisotropic filtering, 8x antialiasing. 60 fps in Shattrath.

I look forward to fighting Kael’thas at more than 7 fps. This is going to rock.

Current Mood: happy

05:39 pm - Birthday

Best birthday ever.

Current Mood: content

08:06 pm - The Winter Solstice!

Friday is the Winter Solstice, World Orgasm Day, and my birthday.

Current Mood: happy