Dead Programmer's Cafe

Month: June 2003

  • The Deadprogrammer Drinking Game.

    The Deadprogrammer Drinking Game.

    Drink one shot when:
    * There is a picture with a blurry yellow cab in the background
    * There is a picture of a NYC landmark
    * I obsess about titanium
    * I post a poll and it’s filled out by 5 and a half people (out of a hundred + “friends”)
    * I write about Nathan’s Famous, iXL or working as an elevator operator
    * There is a Simpsons reference
    * I make a list (drink now)
    * The article is recursive (ditto)
    * I post a “howto” article about something that is probably useful, but too weird to try
    * I recommend a book
    * I recommend a livejournal user or community
    * I mention
    * There is a spelling or grammar error
    * I write about NYPD
    * There is an absolete technology article

    Drink two shots when:
    * I am pissed off (or piss off) very smart people from
    * I gripe about espresso quality in NYC
    * There is a post with more than 5 comments

    Drink three shots when:
    * It’s an article written during lunchtime

    Chug when:
    * The lunchtime article is written around 5PM

  • Some pictures I took today on my way home.


    One thing I noticed upon reading the text that accompanied Lee Friedlander’s photographs in the awesome, awesome and ultra rare “Cray at Chippewa Falls” (some photos from which I scanned and posted earlier) is that Friedlander often made tiny visual jokes or puns. These details are very hard to notice. It’s also very hard to tell if the pun was intentional or not. Once explained, these little jokes make the image much more special and enjoyable.

    The special thing in the previous photo is very hard to see. The traffic cop has a little sticker of an American flag on the cover of his ticket book. A 911 remnant.

    I actually keep my notebook in a leather binder like that. My 911 reminder is a little flag button on my bag.

    In the speech class that I took last semester I chatted a bit with an intern from New York Post. He told me that the tabloid format of newspapers was influenced by the fact that blue collar workers liked to keep a newspaper in the back pocket of their pants. He also gave me a blank New York Post reporter’s notebook (which is actually the same format as the aforementioned ticket book).

    Kids playing in Brooklyn.

    Hey, you never know. The New York State Lottery guy is out of a job. Strangely enough I can’t find any information about him online.

  • Asperger Smasperger. The Important Thing Is, Michael Likes to Categorize.

    Are all engineers autistic? Looks that way to me.
    If by some chance you missed this Wired article, by all means read it. Interesting stuff.

    Continuing in the vein of making a mockery of the scientific method, here’s a test for your amusement.
    How autistic are you : http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

    I scored 31 which is pretty much borderline. My wife tells me that this is all silly, and I am just trying to find a fitting category for everything and everyone including myself. Hey, isn’t that a symptom? Besides, how can she dispute the two minute test from a magazine?

    I didn’t get enough answers on the two minute short-term memory tests I posted previously to make any interesting conclusions yet.

  • Put Gasket A Into Slot B

    Here is a sign that Tablet PC is strictly an early adopter tool. Look, just look at what they want me to do to add a handwritten signature to a post. Smooth. Yeah.