While driving to Evansville I saw the vanity plate listed below on a white Lincoln with five middle-aged and elderly people crammed inside. I can only hope this is some kind of joke, and not the family's name.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 31 December 2003 at 5:37 PM

WashU is on the front-page of the NY Times today. Here's the link. The article focuses on WashU's massive fund-raising drive and the fact that they turn a lot of that money into merit-based financial aid, a fact that has some of the Ivies "growling at them." Then, at the end of the article, they throw in this gem:

Still, in its zeal for academic renown, some students said, Wash U. has gone a little too far. Rules concerning alcohol and parties are tighter, they contended, the campus police more intimidating. Old haunts have been replaced with more sterile spaces, they said.

Except for the proper spelling and grammar, you'd almost think Student Life had written that paragraph.

Comments: 4 Posted by david on 22 December 2003 at 8:36 AM

A new vanity plate, this time as a tribute to Charlie. I saw this in the garage beneath my grandmother's condo.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 20 December 2003 at 7:28 PM

What are the cultural differences between Unix and Windows programmers? There are many details and subtleties, but for the most part it comes down to one thing: Unix culture values code which is useful to other programmers, while Windows culture values code which is useful to non-programmers.

Joel on Software has a great discussion of the cultural differences between Windows and Unix programmers in the guide of a review of Eric S. Raymond's new book, The Art of UNIX Programming. It's a long read, but very interesting if you're into this sort of thing.

Comments: 4 Posted by david on 18 December 2003 at 9:13 AM

Time for another vanity plate. Today's sighting seemed oddly appropriate, given the release of the new Lord of the Rings movie today.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 17 December 2003 at 3:30 PM

Every musician has, at some point in their career, recorded at least one holiday song. This year, Fox capitalized on this by broadcasting a "Jingle Ball Rock" concert. The broadcast featured rock pop stars such as Hillary Duff, Jessica Simpson, and Kelly Clarkson, so the name "Jingle Ball Rock" was a bit misleading. Fortunately, the ads for the broadcast were not misleading at all, and I avoided this show like the plague that it is. But I have been wondering, what are the best rock 'n roll holiday songs? Just off the top of my head I came up with "Christmas Time Is Here Again" by the Beatles, the "Favorite Things" cover by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and Bright Eyes' "Blue Christmas" cover. So, I'm asking for some help. If you know of some decent Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa music by bands that don't get most of their spins courtesy of Radio Disney, leave a comment. I'm hoping to put together at least an hour of music and put Fox's lame "Jingle Ball Rock" to shame.

Comments: 4 Posted by david on 16 December 2003 at 12:14 PM

I know some of you out there are interested in Aspect-Oriented Programming, so I thought I'd let you know that Aspects will be the topic under discussion at tonight's St. Louis Java Users Group meeting. I have some other commitments tonight, but I'm hoping to be able to make it. Directions are on the website. The meeting tonight is from 6:30 to 8:00.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 11 December 2003 at 3:14 PM

Here's today's vanity plate. I saw this on a car in the parking garage here at work. You might not get this if you aren't a CS nerd.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 4 December 2003 at 8:55 AM

I don't know if I like vanity plates. For every slightly amusing plate I see, there's another vanity plate that says something like TCKAS 2. Which is the first letter of the first name of everyone in a family followed by the first letter of their last name. And then a number. Illinois residents seem to be the worst about this. But I have seen some pretty interesting vanity license plates recently, and, in what will become a regular feature, I'd like to share them with you. Here's today's vanity plate. It was seen on a older car inside the public storage warehouse on Vandeventer.