Functional vs. Unit tests

Excellent article on JavaRanch Journal about Evil Unit Tests: clarifying some similar thoughts we've been having about functional vs. unit tests.

Ridgecrest RallyCross & 2006 Points standings

Ran the Ridgecrest Rallycross this weekend. Being the first points event of the season the competition was a bit stiffer than the San Diego rallycross. Still, I ended up 4th and was very happy with my improvement in times.


I still need to push harder, left foot braking has improved quite a bit but I need to stay in the throttle more, look further down the track, and hang it out more.



Points standing for the California Rally Series Rallycross championship are here. I'm third right now and plan to stay in the street stock class for the season.

More pics

Final Results, #1 - Del Mar RallyX - January 20, 2006

Final Results, 1st annual - Del Mar Rally Cross - January 20, 2006

I did go...and decided to run...and met some really cool and vastly more experienced drivers who helped me a ton.

First run was pretty scary on street tires but I got the feel for it and the track got quite a bit faster by the last run of the day.

I didnt think I hit a cone on the last run, but must have missed that info at the gate. An experienced driver told me "if you dont hit at least 1 cone today, youre not pushing hard enough".

Judging by the results, it seems that not hitting cones was key to my success.

Ended up with a 2nd place finish in the street stock class!!! Recouped my entry fee and had enough left over for a coffee!

Some shots from the event on flickr by Christopher Keach

...and a slideshow which has some actual pics of my runs here!

Next event is the CRS rally school and competition Feb 11 & 12 in Ridgecrest. Going to need to get some better tires before hand. Word was the BFG KDWS are a good way to stay street.

Four Star Motorsports

Four Star Motorsports: "2002 Subaru group N Impreza STi Rally Car" for only $85K CDN...heh...only.

I think the build out is pretty reasonable. Not sure how the USDM 6 speed in the STi stacks up against the Spec "C" dogbox...but build vs. buy is an interesting puzzle.

Considering scrambling out to the San Diego Rally Cross event this weekend...might just spectate...limiting factors include:
- My helmet is expired! :-{
- rules seem to call for a 32mm restrictor on the STi!
- The RE070s are really going to suck in the dirt and even chasing some snow tires here in So Cal seems dicey.

Hmmm...maybe just grab a digicam and go spectate? Might go grab a helmet in case they have room for any fun runs!

Trestle Table

Been planning to make a trestle table for my dining room. Rockler seems to have some slides specifically designed to allow extention leaves to be used at the ends of a trestle table.

See also pdf spec sheet

Other design ideas:

10x10 / 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time / by Jonathan J. Harris

Nice information visualization taken by montioring RSS feeds from various news sources and analyzing the content to find the top 100 words and representing them in a 10 x 10 grid of photos.



The www.tenbyten.org site has a nice flash control to render and navigate the content.

HubbleSite

Very nice galleries, vids, and other great Hubble shots at hubblesite.orgthat I ought to get onto my HTPC to compliment Celestia.

More extreme weather is predicted

Purdue University scientists say extreme weather events, such as floods and heat waves, may increase in frequency and severity during the next century.


"The more detail we look at with these models, the more dramatic the climate's response is." - Noah S. Diffenbaugh, assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, Purdue Climate Change Research Center.

"Critics have complained that climate models lack sufficient spatial detail to be trusted. In terms of looking at the whole contiguous United States, we've quadrupled the spatial detail and, as a result, it appears that climate change is going to be even more dramatic than we previously thought. Of course, we can never be completely certain of the future, but it's clear that as we consider more and more detail, the picture of future climate change becomes more and more severe."

Getaway, in the city

James Irvine Garden, Little Tokyo

The James Irvine Garden in Little Tokyo tells a story that's worth hearing. But first you have to find the space, on a recessed plot at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center in Little Tokyo. Take the lobby elevator to the basement and walk through an institutional-looking hallway to the doors that open to the garden. The painstakingly landscaped Japanese-style sanctuary is hidden just enough so that it's often empty.

Cross its perfectly manicured lawn, traverse two wooden bridges and you'll discover the fountainhead. The spring represents "the immigrants coming from Japan," says Robert Hori, director of board and donor relations at the center. Then the stream divides.

"One path is a turbulent, chilly path, and the other moves slowly, contains more placid waters," says Hori. "These are the two sides of the immigration experience: those who saw Japan as their homeland, and those who saw this as their own country." In the end, the two streams merge into a pond that symbolizes the great American melting pot.

What's Your Brand Mantra?: Brand as Ecosystem

What's Your Brand Mantra?: Brand as Ecosystem: "Right now we're focusing so much on the customer that we've lost sight of the big picture. When we focus on the customer, we see a person out there separate from us that we need to identify, label and categorize. "

"We need to move beyond a focus on a specific department (silo mentality) to a focus on the interconnections between individuals (system mentality). What are the most critical connections in your company? Why not have VPs over key connections instead of components?"

Teradata Magazine | IN THE BEGINNING: An RDBMS history

Teradata Magazine | IN THE BEGINNING: An RDBMS history: "'SQL is no longer a language for real users, if it ever was,' says Date. 'It has become a developer's language.' "

Nice retrospective of the massive research effort going on decades ago to bring us SQL.

newsmap

Nice tree map view of the Google News aggregations here: newsmap .

Sandia National Labs:: Nonlethal weaponry-Active Denial System for security applications

Sandia National Labs: News: Team investigates Active Denial System for security applications: Sandia researchers Willy Morse and James Pacheco fine-tune the small-sized Active Denial System.

Rumored to be ready for deployment in Iraq by 2006. What's that burning smell?

Disclaimer to view California's Registered Sex Offenders - Megan's Law - California Dept. of Justice - Office of the Attorney General

"Legal and Illegal Uses. The information on this web site is made available solely to protect the public. Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability.

Any person who is required to register pursuant to Penal Code section 290 who enters this web site is punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000, imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, or by both the fine and imprisonment. (Pen. Code, � 290.46, subd. (i).) "

A friend with limited internet access asked me to check their neighborhood. My first hits from Google were for PAID sites that give you a samle report for free but charge for a full report that puports to include photos! These are people who, while obviously convicted of the unthinkable, have been through the justice system...they served their time.

How does this help them, after hopefully being reformed by prision, return to try to become a functioning member of society?

What's the avergage rate of repeat offenses? Would the effort and money be better spent on treatment instead of simply incarceration?

Also spooky and confusing, the disclaimer for the CA offical site above seems to mean either:

A) that if youre on the registry, you are barred from using the web site ??

or

B) if youre supposed to be on the registry and, presumably, havent registered yet, you can go to jail for checking to see if you're already registered ???

Does this thing have an expiration, or are you forever to be listed?

A bizzare new flavor of FEAR.

Imagined conversations

The Huffington Post | The Blog: "HP EXCLUSIVE: An Intercepted IM Conversation Between Bush and Blair"

43 Things

43 Things.com: "What do you want to do with your life?" and who else is doing it. A global goal blog.

though...One thing is clear: The people posting their hopes, dreams and aspirations to 43 Things probably don't realize that they're effectively whispering them in the ear of the Web's biggest retailer, a multibillion-dollar, publicly
traded company.[Amazon]...from a Salon.com article archived here

PostSecret

See a Secret...Share a Secret
at
PostSecret
What Are Your Secrets?

Real-Time Forecast of Earthquake Hazard in the Next 24 Hours

USGS now provides Real-Time Forecast of Earthquake Hazards in the Next 24 Hours

Sharepoint blogging geeks

"100,000 lines of SharePoint configuration (lists, sitedefs, etc.) and 100,000 lines of C# code...I'm just full of stupid little SharePoint giblets that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks"

crap...I may not be able to escape needing resources like this.

Victory for Censorship Tech

RED HERRING | Victory for Censorship Tech

Hmmm...Censorship, eh? That's the boogeyman here. I kinda agree it's creepy in the artistic sense that ClearPlay (and others) will make a living "sanitizing" content for people who want to keep taking the blue pill.

The industry's response seems to be that of Copyright infringement. Arguing that ClearPlay has no right to alter the content from what the creator/copyright holder intended. Seems reasonable...if I produce something I expect it to get seen intact, not redacted the way someone else deems appropriate.

The Bill presumably comes from the spirit that the consumer has a right to protect him/herself from indecent content. That smacks of the moral majority and feels like Censorship.

But maybe thats not a bad thing. I wonder..are the rights it's extending to media consumers limited to indecency? How do we agree on exactly what parts of the content are indecent? The content producers dont label each scene with an MPAA rating...so the choice of exactly what to edit ultimately would have to be up to the consumer's preference and ClearPlay gives them the best decision points it can. But this Bill ought to mean the consumer can use whatever technology available to chop up Copyrighted content and view/play it how ever it wants to.

I might give Baywatch another chance, sans Hasselhoff.

Could this bill possibly only apply to Film? To DVD? I doubt it.

What does this mean to Copyright in other mediums?

Can I get this on my Tivo so I never have to watch another Republican campaign ad?

What else could we do with this? What about software copyright? Can I use some parts of the executable, bypassing others according to my preference?

Hmmm...