JeffJournal

Just saw a great quote from Donald Knuth (read "the man") via Ron Garcia (probably paraphrased, but so what):

Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

Some other random great quotes that are popping into my head right now:

• Welcome to the LSC. If this if your first night, you have to code.

Ok, that's the only one that's coming to mind right now. But it's a great quote, nonetheless.

Interestingly enough, my cell phone is acting a bit whacky. The other day, I found a few new features in it that I activated, including one for "audible alerts when switching between analog/digital." Yesterday afternoon, it was sitting in its charging stand over on the other side of my computer room, quietly minding its own business, when all the sudden, amid the clatter of the clicking keys of copious coding, "BEEPBEEP!" shrilled from that corner of the room.

Startled (and almost knocking over my soda), I whirled around to see what it was. Nothing was out of place. Nothing had moved. No telltale signs of destruction from a burglar who had somehow managed to sneak in, rip up my computer room, and leave (all in the span of a single "BEEPBEEP!") while my attention was focused on coding.

Weird. Chalk it up to sun spots.

Seconds later, "BEEPBEEP!" shrilled again.

This time, I did knock over my soda.

Swearing loudly, and cursing the Gods of the Phantom Beep, I endeavored to figure out what the hell was beeping. I acted like a hunter; standing quite still (in the corner of the room with my back against the wall), controlling my breath, only moving my eyes in an ever-watchful dance around the room. These tactics will trick the Beepbeep to come out in the open -- if I'm not moving, surely it can't see me.

Indeed, 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 27.2 seconds later, my skillful hunting prowess was rewarded: "BEEPBEEP!". My eyes quickly located the source of the sound, and were rewarded with seeing a quick change on the screen of my cell phone -- too quick to read. It must have heard my heart jump at its shrilling, and frightened the text on the screen back into the depths of its circuitry.

Immediately, I pounced -- intimidation is the only method that works here. "Say it!!!" I screamed. "Sayitsayitsayit!!!" (Sam would be proud). And the frightened cell phone meekly said, "beepbeep", and it paused the words on its face long enough for me to read them:

After this little "encounter", it took some time to heal the emotional wounds between my cell phone and I. But we're better now; I think the counselor is helping a lot.