7. If you want to burn an audio CD from a bunch of music files using your Mac, you have to use iTunes. Not entirely icky since it is, after all, an audio app. Did I mention iTunes does not import ogg or flac files? ?!@#%$*! So in order to burn those files I have to convert them to mp3 first — a time-consuming step which incidentally defeats the purpose of flac by using a lossy compression format.

End rant, attempt to calm down.

I wrote the original in 2004, running on a Sqlserver 2000 machine. It broke when the database was upgraded — clue!

Long story short, the syntax for system queries changed. The fix was to change the following query [2000 version]:

SELECT ctext FROM syscomments WHERE status = 2 AND id=''

to this [2005 version]:

SELECT definition FROM sys.sql_modules WHERE object_id=''

Now back to other more pressing matters…

Besides exceeding the speed of light, what’s interesting to me [a non-physicist and non-scientist] about this scenario is the following:

1. Neutrinos pass through solid matter.

2. Neutrinos are neutral [do not possess positive or negative charge].

Therefore I wonder wonder wonder how do scientists and/or technicians steer them? You can’t use mirrors, or magnets, or barrels. How they point those little critters in the desired direction in order to perform their measurements?

The first one who provides the correct answer gets a free beer.

So I created an alias in my .bash_profile which defines md5sum to the equivalent md5 command. This pretty much guarantees I will forget that there is no md5sum in OS X but do I really need to remember this if it just works? I think not.

In yesterday (Sunday)’s editorial page, Carol Giacomo asserts:

“The biggest issue for the United States is how to counterbalance an increasingly assertive China — and reassure its increasingly nervous neighbors — while trying to cajole and goad Beijing into being a more responsible world player.”

I agree that while it would be refreshing to see more nations acting less assertively on the world stage, expecting nations to take a lesser role in furthering their own interests is wishful thinking.

However, taking an unbiased look at the history of the United States, I can only marvel at Giacomo’s audacity in thinking this nation possesses any moral authority for cajoling and goading any other nation to act responsibly.

-FB

When I was a kid we did it too. The routine was to ring the doorbell, and chant ‘Trick or treat!’ when the door opened. After taking the proffered candy, the polite among us would say ‘Thank you.’

Kids these days, more often than not, after taking the candy say ‘Happy Halloween!’. WTF? I suppose it’s happy for the little freeloaders. But something about that phrase is just too like ‘Have a nice day!’. It’s unnecessary expression of facile kindness.

Boo-hoo on you!

My code and article have been lost in the mists of time, however I recently realized that I still could use such a utility. So I rewrote it. Still in C, so it’s pretty speedy. And because I’ve written hundreds of thousands of lines of Win32 code since the original, I knocked this version out in about an hour and a half.

I’m calling it from a .cmd script which starts new instances of cmd.exe which, mysteriously, do not pick up my registry setting for screen buffer size. I reached the point of diminishing returns troubleshooting this script, so just recoded the darn utility and now I am back in control.

If anyone cares, you can download the .exe from the Bamboo Utilities page or this link: chCmdBuf