In The News Today

Brian J. Noggle

News story covering events:

A Chicago man has been charged with plotting to bomb a strip of crowded night spots around the time people were leaving a Dave Matthews concert at Wrigley Field over the weekend.

Sami Samir Hassoun, 22, was arrested as he placed a backpack containing what he thought were high-explosives in a trash can in front of Sluggers, about a block south of Wrigley Field, according to the FBI.

Houssoun had also discussed other violent plots in Chicago, including a biological attack on the city, poisoning Lake Michigan, attacking police officers, bombing the Willis Tower and assassinating Mayor Richard Daley, the FBI said.

Thoughtful analysis from the left, in this case, Eugene Robinson:

When did the American right become such a bunch of fraidy-cats and professional victims? Or is it all just an act?

Of course, he was not analyzing the related story. He was casting aspersions on the right, moored only in his preconceived notions.

On the plus side, when you stick your head that far into the sand, you can actually hear the earth’s core bubbling.

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Book Report: The Bug by Ellen Ullman (2003)

Brian J. Noggle

Well, there it is. A novel about QA. Well, no, strike that, it’s a literary novel set in software development in the 1980s where a software defect is the MacGuffin and one of the main characters is a software tester.

Not by choice, oh, no. You can tell you’re reading a LITERARY book because the main character is clear to state that she has a doctorate in linguistics and only ends up working as a software tester when her academic career peters out. This is how you direct a book to an audience that does not work in the field the book covers, by saying ATTENTION! This character is the fish out of water and will explain to you the things you need to know because this character is just like you (in the field of academics or whoever reads Literary novels) except they work somewhere exotic (software development in the 1980s).

The book, as I mentioned, takes place at a database developer in 1984. They’re building a database from the ground up, including a GUI front end written from scratch that uses a mouse and everything. The main character, aforementioned, finds a defect that crashes the system, but is hard to replicate and appears to happen randomly, but usually in big demos. The book bounces back and forth between a first person double-effect narrator (since the story is told from present day ca. 2000ish after the dot.com bubble bursts, spurred when the narrator sees the one of the old screens still in use) and a limited omniscient narrator peering into the point of view of the developer to whom the defect is assigned.

The defect itself is a MacGuffin since the book deals mostly with the break-up of the tester’s and the developer’s personal relationship and the breakdown of the developer as he doesn’t think he’s a good developer and struggles to find this bug. That’s pretty much it. Enough technospeak and actual code and UNIX commands thrown into the mix, kind of like you’d find Hindi interspersed through a Kipling work to add authenticity. The tester finds self-actualization or empowerment by learning to code. The developer abruptly hangs himself, and even that did not cheer me. Uh, retroactive spoiler alert.

I didn’t care for it much, either for the plot nor the technical aptitude. The main characters are pathetic; I didn’t like either of them. The secondary characters are very, very stock and cardboard. The other testers are, essentially, the boss who is tough and fair minded and the other one whose dialogue mostly consists of her character tic of saying, “Meep.” The developers are mostly interchangeable except for their specialties, told to us of course. And I don’t know what the point of the frame story is, frankly. To show us the pathetic main character becomes rich but remains pathetic? Or to allow someone to feasibly set a book in 1984 when it’s written in 2002?

The best QA fiction is definitely genre fiction, mainly a thriller. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been written.

Books mentioned in this review:

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What Kind Of Daddy Does That?

Brian J. Noggle

Now that I’m the Daddy, I can put my own damn art on the refrigerator:

A pastoral landscape in construction paper

Because let’s face it, the four-year-old and the two-year-old only have relatively rudimentary skills in construction paper pseudomosaic at this time. And that’s relative to my skill, which is rudimentary to most second graders.

And that thing in the foreground is not a windmill, curse your eyes! It’s a flower.

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MORE ABSOLUTELY TRUE UNPROVEN RUMORS ABOUT CHRISTINE O’DONNELL!

Brian J. Noggle

Exclusive! Must credit MfBJN!

  • Christine O’Donnell once wrote bad poetry about how misunderstood she was and/or how much she loved someone!
  • Christine O’Donnell once played Dungeons and Dragons!
  • And she played a paladin! Everyone knows girls can’t play paladins!
  • Christine O’Donnell once posted on an Internet gun forum touting the quality of Taurus handguns!
  • Christine O’Donnell once said that the Washington Redskins were in the state of Washington!
  • Christine O’Donnell once smoked a joint! It was part of the chicken wing. AND SHE LIKED IT!
  • Christine O’Donnell is not a real brunette! She is a redhead who is trying to pass as normal.

Watch for more breaking truths as I invent them!

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Finally, A Charity To Help Out Poor, Destitute Live Musicians and Concert Promoters

Brian J. Noggle

Hear the Music Live:

Hear the Music live was created to reach out to pre-teens and teens in foster homes and orphanages to give them the opportunity to attend a concert in their local area that they may otherwise never have the opportunity to see.

At Hear the Music Live, we understand that pre-teens and teens in foster care homes or orphanages may not have the opportunity to enjoy activities that other teens are experiencing. We hope to bring some joy to these teens through music. Hear the Music Live is the vision of our founder, Steven Nornhold who has a life-long passion for music and understands that some teens are missing out on some opportunities that many others take for granted.

You know, that’s not high on my list of funding priorities. I was 18 before I won tickets on a radio show and saw my first concert, and somehow I managed.

Still, when concert attendance declines as prices continue to go up, it’s good to see someone helping prop up the industry.

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When Did I Become That Kind Of Guy?

Brian J. Noggle

We had some pretty fierce storms here in the Springfield area last week, and at one point the wind and rain lashed at the west side of our house. We have a walkout basement, and some water dripped in over the door. The next morning, I went out to inspect the door to see how the water was coming in. The door frame is inset from the brick exterior, and the mortar connecting the bricks to the lintel had broken down.

So I did what I was supposed to do: I grabbed a hammer, chisel, and wire brush and chipped out the broken mortar. I brushed the loose stuff out, sanded and painted the lintel, and then thought about the mortar. I found eighty pound bags of it at the hardware store, but that seemed a little excessive, so I used this caulk gun mortar patch to draw and shape a nice bead of caulk all the way across.

Still, at some point as I was tapping away, spraying mortar dust all over my tender little beading hands, I wondered How do I know how to do this?.

My background isn’t in the building trades. My other houses were asbestos shingle (later vinyl siding) and vinyl siding. My sainted mother never did anything like this when I was around. When I lived with my father, who had worked in the building trades and probably knew how to do this, I was a smart ass college kid with no time for that. And face it, my recent readings in Kipling, Epictetus, and handicrafts didn’t cover it.

But there I was.

Maybe I read it in one of the do-it-yourself magazines I took some years ago. Maybe I did see my father do it somewhere. Or maybe well water just has free-floating radical testosterone in it that naturally gives a man the ability to work with his hands.

It always impresses my wife when I do something handy around the house, making a small improvement or repair. Sometimes, though, it impresses even me.

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It’s Only A Trade-off When You Have A Choice

Brian J. Noggle

The same old story:

Some longtime users were furious.

“My dishes were dirtier than before they were washed,” one wrote last week in the review section of the Web site for the Cascade line of dishwasher detergents. “It was horrible, and I won’t buy it again.”

“This is the worst product ever made for use as a dishwashing detergent!” another consumer wrote.

Like every other major detergent for automatic dishwashers, Procter & Gamble’s Cascade line recently underwent a makeover. Responding to laws that went into effect in 17 states in July, the nation’s detergent makers reformulated their products to reduce what had been the crucial ingredient, phosphates, to just a trace.

Right. Notice that in the named example, the corporation changed its formulation to comply with state law. Now, notice how the journalist slides into talking about consumer choices:

Yet now, with the content reduced, many consumers are finding the new formulas as appealing as low-flow showers, underscoring the tradeoffs that people often face today in a more environmentally conscious marketplace.

A tradeoff occurs when people make a decision. In some places, low-flow shower heads are still a customer choice. Unlike, say, low flow toilets and incandescent light bulbs.

Your governments are hard at work to eliminate the trade-offs entirely by making sure you don’t get to trade dirty dishes for ungreen conscience. You just get the dirty dishes, citizen, and unless you want to expose yourself to future reeducation or loss of dishwasher privilege entirely, you will accept it.

(Link seen on Instapundit.)

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Another Public/Private Success Story

Brian J. Noggle

City collects special money to help developer out building a mostly empty development, then the developer goes bankrupt.

Pulaski foreclosed on a loan to Sappington Square LLC last year and is suing the corporation. In the meantime, a special one-cent sales tax that is designed to finance $2.5 million in public improvements at the site is still being collected, and the new agreement is needed to allow Pulaski Bank to access those funds as a developer.

How are cities going to make up for these losses on individual public-private partnerships? Volume.

I guess we know what happened to the people left unemployed by the Internet bubble of the late 1990s and who blew vast amounts of capital on things like Pets.com. They went back to school and got into government.

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You Can’t Use A Gun To Fill A Carrying Case In St. Charles

Brian J. Noggle

Shotgun triggers lockdown at Francis Howell campus:

Francis Howell High School and Francis Howell Union, the district’s alternative high school, were shuttered about noon after security spotted a Remington shotgun in a nylon case in a silver Pontiac Grand Am that was parked in the rear of the campus, said Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Tiefenbrunn.


…

The brothers never entered the school and had no weapons on them when they were arrested, Tiefenbrunn said. Authorities withheld their names pending charges of misdemeanor trespassing and unlawful use of a weapon. [Emphasis added.]

Just having a weapon apparently is unlawful use to St. Charles prosecutors. How awesome is that?

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Proper Decorum

Brian J. Noggle

If decorum is Latin for “something to hang on your wall”:


In case of prison riot, break glass
Click for full size

I made this out of a standing photo album frame, a piece of black felt, some fishing line, and a garbage-disposal-mangled spoon.

I’d had the concept for quite sometime; I’d intended to make it as a Christmas present for my employee back when I was leader of a QA department. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much of a workshop at the time, and it got kinda shelved. Eventually I acquired the frame which is perfect for it (and a workshop).

I got the spoon from my mother, so it’s one of the ones I ate cereal with for most of my youth. Wow, nostalgia is washing over me. I’ve got a personal relic post coming on sometime soon, but this isn’t it.

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Opposing Viewpoints Still A Problem For Democrats

Brian J. Noggle

This is breaking news here:

Outside groups supporting Republican candidates in House and Senate races across the country have been swamping their Democratic-leaning counterparts on television since early August as the midterm election season has begun heating up.

Driving the disparity in the ad wars has been an array of Republican-oriented organizations that are set up so they can accept donations of unlimited size from individuals and corporations without having to disclose them. The situation raises the possibility that a relatively small cadre of deep-pocketed donors, unknown to the general public, is shaping the battle for Congress in the early going.

The yawning gap in spending by independent interest groups is alarming some Democratic officials, who argue that it amounts to an effort on the part of very wealthy Republican donors, as well as corporate interests, newly emboldened by regulatory changes, to buy the election.

“While each of our campaigns has the resources they need to be competitive, we now face shadow groups putting their thumbs on the scale with undisclosed, unlimited and unregulated donations,” said Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Attention, inattentive: Senator Menendez is talking to you! Forget about Moveon.org, Code Pink, AFSCME, ACORN and its affiliates, League of Conservation Voters, and any other gothic groups (that is, shadow groups, but Democratic, so they’re all epic, romantic, and cooler) putting money into races. Pay attention to the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy shadow puppets I’m making in the New York Times using the shining light of my intellect and political hack rhetoric!

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Teaching The Unemployed To Text

Brian J. Noggle

A Missouri government program teaches the unemployed valuable skills:

For Miklos, technology is a bit of a mystery.

“Cell phones are a new thing,” he said, “and I’ve just recently found out how to send pictures on my cell phone.”

He knows he’s at a disadvantage in today’s workplace.

“The young kids today, they get taught that in school. They’re a whiz at it. You see them with both hands and all ten fingers [texting].”

Thanks to the Work Ready Missouri program and the Taney County auditor, he is getting up to speed. The program teaches new skills for new careers.

Is that seriously going to land him a new job?

No, but it’s what the community organizers and liberal arts majors that the program employs know how to teach, so that’s what the program participant learns.

And when the program fails, you want to know why it will fail? Because they didn’t have enough money.

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Investment Advice From MfBJN

Brian J. Noggle

Want to avoid fiscal doomsday that could come when the stock market collapses, the Chinese sell the bonds, people run on their banks, and the Federal government cannot cover depositors?

Do what I’m doing: I’m taking my money from bank accounts that offer almost 0% interest and are subject to collapse, and I’m putting it into Amazon gift cards that I apply to my Amazon prime account.

Because when the bank is running on E and chains its doors, Amazon will still be there, shipping out groceries and DVDs.

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Book Report: Frederic Remington by Peter Hassrick (1988)

Brian J. Noggle

This book includes a representative sampling of Frederic Remington’s drawings, paintings, and bronzes along with text that tells of his youth, his desire to be an artist at an early age, and his stints as Western artist for major magazines back East. I saw “Back East” as though Remington did his work from the frontier. He didn’t. He visited the West numerous times, including Mexico, and captured the spirit of the Fin de 19th siècle West in drawings and photos that he took home to NY to work on.

He found a lot of success as an artist, living from his art’s ample proceeds and able to experiment with a sort of Impressionism and enjoying some critical success at it. I’m always inspired when an artist has success in his lifetime.

Also, the book has lots of pretty pictures. One can flip through them and their explanatory text while watching football.

Watching football and looking at pictures of horses helps me recharge my Man Points after a hard day of découpage. At least, I hope it does.

Books mentioned in this review:

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Listen To The Maudlin Rain

Brian J. Noggle

Wow, bicentennial quarters sure are getting thin in regular circulation, aren’t they?

For those of you who don’t remember, back in 1976, the United States quarter, the twenty-five cent piece (one quarter of a dollar, you see), deviated from the standard Washington profile/eagle design to recognize the nation’s 200th birthday. On the reverse side, where the eagle would have appeared, you see a drumming Uncle Sam. That was kind of a big deal, since before the state quarters started showing up in 1999, the quarter had the same design for many people’s lifetimes.

You used to find them every so often in the wild, at least you did in much of my lifetime. For 32 years, I’d see them often enough to not think anything of it. However, I guess I haven’t seen one in quite a while.

I found one on my dresser this morning after dumping the contents of my pocket last night. Just for a moment, I thought to put it aside for my mother as I’d done for years, saving bicentennial quarters, Susan B. Anthony dollars, and Sacagawea dollars so she could put them in coffee cans and glass jars for the sheer hoarding joy of it (you can guess where I get it from then).

My mother passed away a year and a half ago, so I guess I haven’t seen a bicentennial since then. So I paused for a moment and thought about her. I wonder if I’ll not have those little moments, those little remembrances as time passes, especially as the incidental artifacts of our shared experiences and minor traditions disappear from the world.

And I’ve taken this quarter from the dresser and don’t know what I’ll do with it. Maybe start a jar, although a small one, of them.

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