Nihon : Science Demands that We Kill You

I recall the words of an IISc prof - reminiscing about Shogun (James Clavell) : "They can torture someone in boiling oil and then, two minutes later, sit for meditation. They have a cruel streak in them."

Their latest proclamation : We must kill the whales - for the sake of science. Time to trade my Prius in? Why can't the Germans come up with some decent hybrid cars, rather than $50k hybrids that get 28 mpg?

Activestate Python 2.7 PyGame Horror

Messing with the innards..

Installs pygame from pygame.org using the msi and, stupid thing, installs in my Downloads folder (wt*?). Creates an Include directory with a bunch of .h files and a Lib/site-packages directory.

I hunt and find out where Python2.7 is installed and, that folder also happens to have an Include and a Lib/site-packages.

So, having been unable to import before, I get smart and copy this subfolders - such as pygame and the files pygame-1.9.1-py2.7.egg-info into the master folders.

Then, 

ActivePython 2.7.6.9 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on

Python 2.7.6 (default, Feb 27 2014, 14:13:40) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32

Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> import pygame

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "", line 1, in

  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\pygame\__init__.py", line 95, in     from pygame.base import *

ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

>>>

Luckily, upon searching (finally:) for "getting pygame to work with activestate python 2.7" I get to

http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#pygame

And... works :)

Header Row - M$ Word

Is there a way to get more than one row at the top of your table to be repeated as "header" on each page?

YES

http://superuser.com/questions/335265/is-there-a-way-to-repeat-the-first-two-rows-of-a-table-as-a-header-on-each-page says it's very easy, but co-workers found it wasn't that easy. That is, they found that if you selected all cells of these rows (how many ever, but most people just want 2 rows. I found it even works with 3) then it wouldn't work.

Here's a workaround (if needed) that a co-worker suggested, and it works. Trick is, (look at the pic) click with your mouse in the text of the "Best Year" field, and then move up and left to select the "Soccer Team" and "Key Stats" cells. Then right click to launch the Table Properties form from the menu.

The Dr. Evil Excuse

This didn't happen, but, suppose it had...

In the world of the up and coming early retiree, John Armageddon is the respected always-delivers, straight-talking, no-nonsense IC design manager. All's going well, for years and years, success piled upon success.. But, ah, the true measure of a good leader is how well the team performs in your absence.

As it turned out, when they finally had a shot at a bik customer, fiesta turns to fiasco.

Then, long meetings after hours everyday, culminating in, is it done John? No. Why? I was surrounded by frickin idiots. Even Austin Powers couldn't top this one.

Impotent PowerShell

Or Skype is immune.

Googled "kill Skype.exe *32" a dozen times, couldn't get rid of the "Not Responding" beast.

Had to reboot.

But, also tried Windows PowerShell and then

get-process skype
(shows it)
stop-process ID
(ID found using get)

No luck... Windows is crap. Unix rules. Thanks for xkill - which never fails!

How Did Zed Shaw Get So Far in Life?

Jeez, this guy is dangerous - plugging caveman debugging :

1. Do not use a "debugger." A debugger is like doing a full-body scan on a sick person. You do not get any specific useful information, and you find a whole lot of information that doesn't help and is just confusing.
2. The best way to debug a program is to use print to print out the values of variables at points in the program to see where they go wrong.

NOT!!

Having spent a few hours with his LPTHW, I can honestly say I wasted a few hours of my life.. It's written for the kids who want to hack Raspberry Pi.. Beware..

But, it gave me an idea - looks like this guy really has hit on something - if you come up with cool videos that CAN deliver the goods, you're looking at a gold mine!

Your Niche in the IC Design Industry : Gamefy Everything

If you've been in the IC Design shops as long as I've been, you've noticed one thing (unless you're a slob yourself) : quality sucks. You have to box peoples' ears to get stuff done right. Why?

Simple, there's no motivation. These are mostly bums who have a hard time even showing up to the parking lot.

That's why Triad thinks it can eat Cadence's lunch with a cooler platform - a la Waze.

Bose Vs Sony Noice Cancellation Shootout

Review aus Costoc.com member :

(Akio Morita's turning in his grave)

Model Number: Sony MDR-10RDC
"Sony MDR-10RDC Premium Noise Canceling Headphones
Pros:
crisp sound very balanced throughout the frequency spectrum.
Fold nicely to fit in protective case
Cons:
they are never silent. The noise canceling feature requires a small amount of white noise which cannot be turned off (and they cannot be used without the noise canceling feature active).
The on/off switch is recessed and impossible to feel without taking them off and looking.
Very easy to take off without turning the noise canceling feature off, which drains the batteries. It seems like they would have an intelligent power off where if no sound is detected coming through the cable, turn the headphones off after 15 minutes.
Remarkably sensitive to unwanted radio signals in the area.
The manual seems to be the product of clumsy automated translation."

Why Python

I've looked for a reason for a while, being a perl guy..

A buddy was able to replace about 2000 lines of C code with less than 100 lines of python - completely re-did a test-suite.

If you want to talk to external devices or are interested in parsing, it's awesome.

Why wait? http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/

From the official website's Whet Your App section :

Because of its more general data types Python is applicable to a much larger problem domain than Awk or even Perl, yet many things are at least as easy in Python as in those languages.

Guess Who : An Inspiration to Us All

If he can do it, you can do it.

If Chelsea can win the E. Cup, Bayern can win it.

So, here's the deal - bloke moves with some buddies from a has-been smartphone shop to an EDA company and drifts. Meanwhile, wife's a nurse raking it in; so, why work, why not chill out? As in, why not move to IOS programming? I love that!

Next thing you know, in 3 months he's so good, he's gotten a gig at a local outfit in the Prairie.

Impresses there, and, voila, dream job at a neighbour of Twitter. Two of the people that started the group he's in moved on, so he's now the main main. Doing what he loves too.. If he has a bad day at work, he thinks about Twitters 70k sign on bonus!

Felix Dennis Slams Kennedy

This is typically muddled thinking from one of the most overrated presidents in US history. A good-looker, but a bad egg.

Commenting on "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."

Lessons from Dennix :

1. Never make your finance director or CFO the MD or president of anything!
2. Never go on a vacation when a deal is going down.
3. When you change accounting systems (or accountants, for that matter), have the numbers checked over and over again. I'll eat my hat if errors are not discovered in the next iteration.
4. Never personally underwrite business loans for your company unless you absolutely, positively, are forced to. Even then, set limits in the agreement so that, as the loan figure is reduced over time, you are released from your undertakings commensurately. For people who do what I do - ensure you negotiate terms for your sign-on bonus repayment for early departure. I've learnt this one the hard way. After six months, it should be prorated!
5. Listen to people who are good with money and always invest in property with a good address - providing you can pay cash for it and will not need to sell it for a few years.

All there in "How to Get Rich" - which I found in 50 Prosperity Classics - I remember "wealth improved his sex life because money is power and power is an aphrodisiac"