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July 6th, 2008

computertalk [djay_blogger]

01:29 pm - Compare cache efficiency and file access in browsers. Hi All Please anyone help me with comparing browsers' cache efficiency. We're working on a web product, which heavily uses cache subsystem of a browser. I need to access the situation, and understand the impact we may have on our application performance in different browsers. Our application works a lot with HTML and CSS files, thus the efficiency and the files operations mechanisms are critical - the better they work the better our application will work. Thanks a lot. P.S Sorry for a little cross-posting. Current Location: Work Current Mood: calm Current Music: Disturbed - Down with the sickness

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_dilbert_strip [brianbot]

02:30 am

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comingout [autoswerve]

01:33 am - where to go from here Okay, so I'll give a little background info before I ask your opinions. My name is Jess, I'm from New Jersey and I'm 22. I've been pretty solid in my sexuality since I was in my early teens, but didn't come to terms with it until I turned 18. Only a few months ago did I really begin to embrace it. I'm out to friends and new acquaintances, but I have held back from telling my family. This past year there was a death in the family as well as quite a few health scares, so I kept quiet, not wanting to stir things up any more. I'm just about overflowing. I have major anxiety issues anyway, so this has me on edge. It's not my entire life, but a significant part of it, and one that I'd like to share with my loved ones. My mother is the one who makes me really nervous. We've always had a rocky relationship and I never really expected her to support me. About a month ago I was having some drinks around a campfire with a family friend and decided to test the waters with someone I felt I could trust. We're not blood related, but she's known me since day one. Let me tell you, I didn't not expect the first words out of her mouth to be "I have to tell so and so!" At that point I begged her to keep quiet not because I was ashamed, but because I was building toward it myself. It felt like high school. A few nights ago I was talking to my aunt and she said she needed to tell me a story. My mother is going through the motions of being put on the transplant list for a new heart and the rest of my family has been supportive. My grandparents and two aunts went to some of her doctors appointments with her. At one of them, my grandfather, who was near the end of the grapevine on this, chose to bring it up when she was on the exam table in a mortifying fashion. "That sure is something about Jess, huh?" My aunts tried to cover it up by exclaiming about my new job, but my mother knew something was up. So my grandfather says: "Oh, you know, the gay thing." The rest isn't really important. I'm just lost now. I don't know how to proceed. Right when I was starting to feel confident about being honest with her, I was blindsided. From what I heard, her response was definitely unpleasant. I've been thinking about taking her out for dinner and bringing it up when it's just the two of us. To be honest, I'm still not sure I'm ready, but it feels like I owe her some sort of explanation or confirmation. Needless to say, this is not the way I wanted this to go down. I wanted it to be a mature thing. Any suggestions?

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useless_facts [threeparts]

03:35 pm - Thanks, guys! According to newly declassified documents, the US military asked permission to aerial bomb part of the far-northern Queensland rainforest in the 1960s. The apparently far-advanced plan was to test Sarin and VX nerve gas (illegal under international law) on Australian troops. Harold Holt, who was Australian prime minister at the time, vetoed the plan, but the Australian government was apparently worried that its close ties as a US Cold War ally would consequently be damaged. Source Current Mood: D:

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legos [patgund]

10:24 pm - Well, that's one use for Bionicle pieces.... Got a batch of unused Bionicle and technic pieces?? Annoy your cat! more cat pictures

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comic_foxtrot [dreaming_faerie]

01:00 am - Foxtrot (Sunday,July 6, 2008)

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July 5th, 2008

useless_facts [lafinjack]

11:32 pm - Remember, kids, he's a 'conservative'. Rush Limbaugh's newly signed contract extension pays him $400 million, which includes a $100 million signing bonus, to continue his radio show from when his current contract expires in 2009 until 2016. This is equal to roughly $57 million per year, $156,600 per calendar day, $221,500 per work day (not counting holidays or vacation), or $78,300 per hour of his daily three hour show. Source: Reuters

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applyingtograd [agentc_5150]

10:20 pm - GRE Psych Subtest? Hello Everyone :) I'm still in the process of figuring out if the programs I will be applying to require the Psych GRE Subtest or not (mainly because I'm weighing pros and cons to finalize my list of schools)... and I figured having a clear idea of when and where the Psych subtest would take place ahead of time would be good to know. But when I looked at the ETS website, it said registration for subtests will not be open until August. Does anyone know where I can find a list of test dates, though? I know in prep books it says the months they offer the exam and that details are posted online. It's helpful to know the months, but it would be even more helpful if I knew the exact dates (which I can't find online). Does anyone know anything about this? Do I really have to wait until August to know the exact dates and testing locations? *ALSO*, another quick question: Is there a difference between having an older edition compared to the newest edition of a GRE prep book? I heard Kaplan was really good preparation, but I have the 2007-2008 edition and am wondering if getting the 2008-2009 edition would be substantially more beneficial or not. Thanks for your all's time! :)

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mathematics [moosehead_beer]

09:27 pm I noticed something mathy on my drive home tonight. I made a wrong turn at one point and ended up on a long, 2 lane road, only one lane in each direction, so that cars couldn't pass each other. The result of this is that the faster cars backed up behind the slow ones, and you got "chains" of varying length. There wasn't anywhere to turn around for a good 10 miles, so I got to see lots of chains, both on my way there and back. I was surprised by how few single cars there were, and how many chains were very, very long, 20 cars or more in length. So let's say we have a single road of indefinite length, and a bunch of cars on it, with each car having a fixed mph: say the speed limit +- a random number drawn from some distribution. What can we say about how the distribution of speeds determines the distribution of chain lengths? I can sort of see how more speeders would lead to longer chains, as the few remaining slow-pokes would back up long lines. I'm not so sure what would happen if there were a lot of grandpas on the road, though; that seems a bit more complicated. Any thoughts? (I know this is a silly problem, but it was a fun way to pass the time.)

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gymrats [vorpalbla]

10:29 pm - Crunch machine issue I've been doing ab work with a crunch machine. I'm having a problem, which is that at a certain weight it takes me a Herculean effort to get started (i.e. move my back from the starting position), but then I can go on to do 15+ reps. Anyone had a similar problem? Should I abandon the machine and do jackknives or something?

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loveandacademia [literaryfiend]

07:26 pm - An update. Hi everyone... I posted a while back on whether or not to go for the gorgeous first year in my department (http://community.livejournal.com/loveandacademia/80953.html), and as there were many kind people here who offered both sound advice and kind words of support I bring you an update. I cracked finally and spilled my guts in an e-mail. Not the best medium in which to talk about this sort of thing, but I was on a backpacking trip in Asia and it was the best I could do. She took three days to respond but when she finally did she told me that she felt the exact same way but was scared to say anything for fear it was just her. ...wow. So come this fall I'll join ranks with a number of you in being half of an academic couple!! Thank you all so much for your responses last time. It was extremely encouraging. :) Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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gymrats [kind_nepenthe]

08:55 pm - noob with a question. Hi, I'm new to this community and I have a few question. I've been reading back entries but I haven't found the answers to what I want to ask. I have one of those scales that you put in your height and age and it gives you your weight, fat%, muscle%, water%, and bmi. Now I'm not really sure when to figure out that it's giving me the most accurate results. The thing that confuses me is that sometimes my water weight is at 53% and it shows that my fat% is around 24 and muscle is around 37. Then there are times when my water weight is at 56% and my fat% drops to 22 and my muscle jumps to 39. The entire time my weight will stay around the same, maybe 1/2 lb difference. I remember reading about doing a body fat% analysis at a gym but I can't remember if it said to do it before or after a workout. It would make sense to me to do it before a workout but I'm not sure. I just remember reading that your feet should be slightly moist when doing it, hah. Also, can anyone give me an easy to read chart or something that gives me what the appropriate fat%, and water% would be for females? I saw a chart somewhere that said 20-25% is athletic/lean but then I see forums where women are posting about having 15% body fat - which is in the "not good range" on the same chart. So, more confusion.

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superconnected

08:12 pm Just got back from 4 days of traveling to North Carolina and Virginia Beach. Last Tuesday night I booked a hotel near Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. We drove down Wednesday, stopping to gawk at the ghetto of New Bern, NC, eat at Bojangles, and have drinks from Sonic. When I was a kid, I lived in Cherry Point, NC about 20 miles or so from New Bern for a few years. My dad would always take me and my brother on the weekends out to Atlantic Beach where he would fish and we would generally build sand castles, collect shells, and play in the water. I have been wanting to go back down there ever since I moved back to the east coast but hadn't gone until now. I was surprised at how small and unpopulated the towns along North Carolina's coast are. Not at all what I remember. We looked it up, and apparently 2/3rds of NC's population is in the center of the state (why??) with Charlotte as the biggest city. On top of that, NC has more people than Virginia (I had no idea!). The coast seems to be where a lot of older people go to retire, plus there is a lot of military there. Probably the funniest moment of the trip was when we tried to check into the hotel in Pine Knoll Shores (which is next to Atlantic Beach). I rolled up to the front desk with bag in tow and the woman behind the counter proceeded to stare at me. I generally expect them to say something, like "Hi, how can I help you?" or even a simple "Hello" will do so that I can initiate the "Hi, I'm checking in." but this woman just stared at me with a blank expression. "Yeah, hi, I'm here to check in." "Name?" "Timmerman". She types in the last name, types in a few more things, then stares at me again. "How do you spell that?" So I spell it for her "T-I-M-M-E-R-M-A-N". She types it in, stares at it for a few seconds, then looks back at me "Yeah I can't find you in the computer." Argh, and sure enough, that morning, Chris told me that I should print out the reservation just in case. I calmly explain to the woman that "I just booked the room last night, I booked it with Amerisuites using American Express." Again with the very vacant expression, and then a lightbulb goes off in her head (a very damaged lightbulb). "Oh, well this isn't an AmeriSuites." As she says this to me, my brain starts to churn as I attempt to process this information. I think to myself, "did I misread the sign on the hotel, am I completely insane?" and as I chew on this, my eyes slowly gaze over to the logo attached to the wall behind the very serious, but empty expression on the hotel employee's face. This is what I saw: "Uh, what?" "This hotel was sold off, we're not an AmeriSuites anymore. We're Ameri-KA-Suites" she asserts. Apparently Hyatt bought AmeriSuites a while back and had recently sold off some of the properties to another company. HOWEVER, the logo on the hotel as well as all the signs around the hotel all still clearly say "AMERISUITES". A slightly older, and obviously MUCH MUCH more intelligent employee who has heard this whole conversation finally walks out from the back room and says "What was your name again?" "Timmerman," I repeat. She glances down at a paper printout of the guest list, and immediately exclaims "it's right here, it's misspelled as Tinnerman." Relieved, we check in and go up to our room. The running joke the rest of the trip was "Oh, this isn't an AmeriSuites." followed by a blank stare. Any ways, more pictures later.

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applyingtograd [invsagoth]

08:01 pm - Potential full assistantship, questions about writing SOP Ok, so I am currently being considered for two assistantships and I have one job offer on the table. I am finishing up an internship in ME, my husband is working in WY but is going to quit his job and come to wherever I go- he's already put in his notice. The job is in AK, grad schools are in DE and IL. AK job would have me being a groundfish observer on fishing boats that go out on the Bering Sea and such. Carries a slight chance of death, fair chance of injury, and I'd be working with a bunch of guys that probably don't want me there, the job itself sounds boring. Cons are definitely there, but they'll pay me well and I'll get good experience. Cons also include that moving will be a pain in the ass. They obviously would like an answer soon- but they interviewed me and talked to my references last week. Seriously, I'm used to waiting months, and they had a job offer in three days. Unreal. Anyway, I figured that this job could give me experience that was unique, and allow me to potentially be more picky with what schools I want to pick. One because I would have this experience, and two because if I can't get a full assistantship I could afford to go to school anyway. Anyway, before I had this offer I visited with the DE professor so that I could participate in one of the field sampling trips (eel biotelemetry). Things look promising, but it's only a partial assistantship. Once I was offered the job in AK, I decided that I should probably take that instead. I liked the research, but it isn't what I really want to do, so I decided that I would probably be better off because of the reasons listed above. Then I was interviewed for this assistantship in IL. I'd get full tuition, $1500/month, and benefits. I'm not that interested in the subject of the study, but I wouldn't hate it, I don't think. From what I've heard I can jump species/environments, I won't lock myself into studying mussels and streams forever and EVAR. I want to do it because I want to get my MS, and it's a full assistantship. It's hard to turn down. I'm in a time crunch though- I need to say yes or no to this job soon and I haven't even formally applied to the school yet. :S The prof seems like he thinks I'm a good fit potentially, but I don't have a yes from him yet of course (I talked to him July 3rd). I'm trying to decide which of these options is the best, and if it's even feasible for me to think that the school will be able to decide anything in any reasonable amount of time. I should accept the job in at least the next couple of weeks. I would start training Aug. 11th, I'd need to arrange moving, and my hubby needs to know in what state to start looking for a job, and we need to know what state to start looking for housing in! D: So I'm all stressed out about this stuff. And I'm trying to figure out how to write a SOP in super-duper rush mode. SOPs are generally 'hey, I want to apply to your program, this is why I'm shiny!', and I'm like 'yeah, I want to apply to your school so I can work with this professor doing _____, which I probably won't hate but thar be FUNDING!'. How does that work? x.x This would be the first SOP I've ever written, so I'm not even sure where to start. D: Current Location: Maine Current Mood: crazy Current Music: Alice Nine- Q

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mathematics [xdirtydx]

05:32 pm - Licence Plates Does anyone have a good idea for a mathematics or physics custom license plate?

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lizblackdog

11:17 pm - Your faith was strong but you needed proof ( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. ) Current Location: State of Amazement Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah Tags: dog training, evil bugger, other people's dogs, squish

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colinmarshall

03:02 pm - Roger Dodger (Dylan Kidd, 2002) Nick, a spazzy Ohioan high schooler in green cargo pants, turns up at his slickster uncle Roger's New York office asking for advice about getting girls. Fresh out of an on-the-D.L. fling with his reasonably well-preserved boss, Roger takes Nick out for an instructional night on the town, an extended disquisition on and trial-by-fire in the art and science of picking up women. * * * This film is not packed with clichés, even though it appears to be on the highway to the danger zone from minute one. First bad possibility: it becomes a fetishistic technique-fest à la The Game. ("Dude, go kino!") Second, worse possibility: in a shocking reversal, the squirrely virgin who just wants to fall in love teaches his sleazy uncle a lesson about his squandered, one-night-stand-based existence. As that second one goes, the story skates dangerously close to the edge of the abyss. Nick does have a piece to speak about the nature of true love, and the talkative Roger does have a few moments of uncomfortable silence, ostensibly pondering his own seediness. But there's no tidy resolution, no big speeches about What We've Learned. And thank YHWH for that. Hollywood movies and bestselling novels lean on this crutch all the time: Sure, this character might think he's happy what with all the sex he's having, but he's not, and must realize that only in "settling down" will he attain nirvana. That's the sort of sermonizing that should have died with prohibition, and it's implausible to boot, one of those morals that people only believe because they've seen or heard it thousands of times before. (That's not to say that an endless string of hook-ups is the route to satisfaction, especially the way Roger does it; I'd pay good money to avoid spending the night with the thirtysomething bargoers he beds.) But, as I said, Roger Dodger just barely avoids that. What it doesn't avoid is making Roger an ad man. Because, see, just as he cons women into going home with him, he cons people into buying junk they don't need! Because advertisements are cons! And he even explains early in the film that his strategy is to make people feel bad, so that they'll buy the product! And that's what advertising does! It makes people feel bad! So they'll consume, man! Oy. That the advertising industry operates by generating misery and foisting it on the helpless consumer is, like the line about true happiness only coming when you give up the bed-hopping, repeated endlessly as axiomatic. Never mind that it doesn't reflect reality. How many times have you looked at an ad and felt actual misery? Of any degree? I don't think it's ever happened to me. I see an ad, and I either want the product it displays or find the whole thing irrelevant. At no point do I feel bad about my life, even if I do want the product. Desire doesn't require dissatisfaction; I'm often simultaneously happy and in pursuit of something. In fact, I doubt I'm ever happy without something to pursue. Maybe that's what, in some respect, Roger himself understands. Tags: film

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