Life

of SQL and other programmer joys

/ hsoi

I know it’s been a light posting day. I’ve been buried in code.

I’m an application programmer. I tend to write most of my stuff in Objective-C and C++ (and Objective-C++ and sometimes straight C). Sometimes I do some work in Python. A few other bits of dabbling now and again.

I haven’t looked at serious database work in almost a decade.

But today I needed to consider using SQLite as a solution, so I had to pull out my SQL book and remind myself just how it all worked.

Of course by the end of the day I came to the conclusion that going straight to a relational database wasn’t going to be the best avenue to solve my problem. Instead, I think I’m going to use Core Data. I’ve used it numerous times in the past but didn’t feel it was the right fit for the work at hand (given Apple’s design intent/constraints on Core Data). But the more I thought through things, the more I think it’s going to be the way to go. At least, that’s my thinking right now. Could change tomorrow when I start prototyping.

Yeah, this probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to most of you. But I’ve been nose-down in that all day, thus minimal blogging.

Growing self-reliance

/ hsoi

My father taught me to be responsible for myself and those around me… not just my family, but also my friends, and in my community, and even the greater world around me. But in the end, being taught to take responsibility for myself, to work hard, to stand on my own two feet, and succeed. Since having my own children well over a decade ago, I’ve grown in this and work to instill it in my children. If I don’t work, there’s no food. If I don’t work, there’s no house or clothing. If I don’t work, no electricity to power the TV or the Wii. If I don’t work, how can I care for my family and provide them the things they want and need? I can’t expect anyone else to take care of them but myself. I can’t expect anyone else to take care of me but me.

Over the years, Wife and I have desired to become even more self-reliant. There’s a place in town called Pioneer Farms, and we’re looking into things with them to learn various skills. A bunch of the books I recently picked up work towards this end. It’s also one of the reasons I want to go hunting. So when I came across this article from (Uncle) Ted Nugent, a paragraph struck me:

I need my water, cars, trucks, chainsaws, knives, crowbars, blowtorches, scalding hot water, guitars and guns, thank you. Amazingly, I have mastered them all, and they are all wonderful ingredients for my American Dream of rugged individualism, declared independence, and self sufficiency. They all serve me well, and I am not giving any of them up. Ever.

His American Dream sounds pretty good to me. Individualism, independence, self-sufficiency. I think by and large this is the growing problem in America. People desire to be individuals, yet there’s so much pressure (and people give into it) to conform to the group. There’s lip-service to independence, yet when you rely upon taxes to fund, government programs, handouts, bailouts, socialized medicine, socialized anything, mantatory youth service,  you’re not free — you’re a slave. And are people self-sufficient? They want me to provide for them instead of going out and getting it themselves, so I think not.

What has come of America?

And what are you doing about it? Do you think Mr. Nugent’s dream is a good one? If so, what are you doing to make it reality. If you don’t think it’s a good dream, then tell me what your dream is and how that fits into what America is supposed to be about.

Boy, I sure feel safe

/ hsoi

Breda recounts her experience getting through airport “security”.

So let’s see… anger, humiliation, degeneration… but hey, it’s all to make us feel safe, right? Don’t you feel safe? I sure feel safe. And that’s all that really matters: that we feel safe. Doesn’t matter that we also feel humiliated. It’s a small price to pay, else you’re not a patriot, right?

Yeah… we’re all presumed guilty until proven innocent. You pass through airport “security” and you are a suspect, until the beeping stops and the TSA folk deem you not to be… maybe. How American.

Somewhere a Founding Father or two continue to roll over in their graves.

*sigh*

Updated: Courtesy of Joe Huffman, a great article on Penn & Teller and how they mix their magic and their politics to make quite a good point.

Updated 2: Breda’s tale continues. Part II, and Part III. Gosh, I hope you’re feeling safe now folks. “Feeling” safe being the operative word.

Updated 3: Even more stories of safety, this time from Michael Bane.

The snake came back

/ hsoi

No, this isn’t about some politician getting re-elected…. 🙂

That Texas Rat Snake that came around the house yesterday? He’s back.

Wife went to take the trash to the bin. She comes back around the corner and there it was starting to cross the walkway. I’m sure it’s the same one, knowing there’s easy food and coming back for more. Trouble is, this time the momma duck was sitting on her nest.

So, no eggs for the snake tonight.

Because he had to go fully across the walkway, I got a better look at him. He’s much larger than I previously thought, in the 4′ to 5′ range, so certainly an adult. I wish I could get a complete picture of him, but he was into the bushes before I had a chance to get the camera. Then he noticed the duck, and opted to just hang out on the other end of the bushes. Once we found him I was able to pull back the bushes and get a better shot of him.

While you can’t tell much about his size, you can see his patterning far better. I’m pretty sure it’s a Texas Rat Snake. Good snake to have around, but certainly gave Wife the heebie-jeebies. 🙂

A couple of the other muscovy ducks came around to eat. It seems these 3 ducks (the two in the picture and the one on the nest) are a group. Always see them together. Don’t know what the relation is, given the 3rd wheel in this relationship, but I don’t really care. All I know is the kids have named every single animal that comes around (I think the snake is Charlie). It does help them keep track of everything, as they never repeat a name.

My reading list

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

I have a terrible habit. I like to buy/acquire books, and I tend to buy/acquire faster than I can read (there’s just too much good stuff out there!). As a result, my reading list grows and grows, and sometimes the only way it shrinks is to just abandon some book and hope I come back to it some day.

Another semi-bad thing is I often read multiple books at once. Maybe this book is light so it’s good for times I don’t want to get too deep into something. This book might be interesting but dense so when I’m in the can it may not make for the best reader. Maybe some concept came to me so I need to pull out this reference book and (re)examine some concepts (typically happens with martial arts stuff). Things like that. As a result, I tend to have books all around the house, bookmarked wherever I happen to be, and eventually I finish something. I am trying to change this. I am trying to keep my books isolated to as few areas in the house as possible (there’s a stack on my desk, which is my main queue; then I can have one other book floating about the house such as on my nightstand or wherever I was last reading). I am trying to stay dedicated to a single book and working my way through it, even if it’s only a few pages here and there as I have time.

My current reading? Howard Nemerov’s Four Hundred Years of Gun Control: Why Isn’t it Working? I picked up an autographed copy of the book during a class, and got to meet Howard. So far it’s a good read. The amount of research Howard put into the book is astounding. I’ll have a full review whenever I finish it (which may be a while).

I’ve currently got 8 other books in my queue, and last night Amazon delivered another 6 books (tho hopefully Wife will read at least 4 of them before I do). The reason I wrote this post? Because of Linoge’s post. I’ve wanted to read Atlas Shrugged for years, but was always put off because of the sheer size of the book vs. available time to read it. I think it’s about time, at least to buy a copy and officially add it to my queue.

Wildlife where I live

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

One thing I love about the location of my house is the abundance of wildlife. Yes I’m in the city proper, but my house backs up to a greenbelt which is then connected to a few hundred acres of greenbelt, so we get all sorts of critters. Deer, coyote, fox, raccoon, possum, armadillo, and certainly lots of birds and reptiles. We do get lots of interesting lizards and snakes. Our neighbors across the street don’t get nearly what we do, because hot asphalt tends to be quite a barrier to cross. It’s really a nice thing… all the conveniences of the city, but a lot of the joys of the country as well.

A couple blocks from my house is a pond. Technically it’s part of flood control, but it does hold water year-round and has been landscaped into a nice park/pond. As a result, there’s a healthy population of turtles, geese, and ducks (mostly mallard and perhaps black duck, and the past few years Muscovy ducks have shown up). Every Spring the ducks wander the neighborhood, in search of food and nesting grounds. We currently have a nest in the bushes by our front door, which until just a few moments ago had 6 eggs.

I say that because Wife had a few friends visiting. She wanted to show them the nest and when she did she saw a snake eating the eggs. 🙂  The snake had just started swallowing the egg, so of course we had to bring the kids out for some nature study and research – a teachable moment! The snake seems to have eaten just the one egg and that was enough for him. He’s currently lounging in the bushes, getting some sun and digesting his feast.

Did some Googling and we think he’s a Texas Rat Snake, which are apparently quite common in the Austin area. This one was about 3.5′ long, so he’s still fairly young. The ladies visiting Wife wanted me to kill it, but I’m glad I didn’t. He’s not hurting anything and he’s not venomous. So he’s eating a duck egg… eh, he’s gotta eat something, right? Plus if he is in fact a Texas Rat Snake, he’s a good thing to have around in terms of keeping any rodents away. Of course, I think this guy was around more for the eggs than rodents. But still, good guy to have around, even if he does give Wife the willies. 🙂

BTW, if you click and look at the larger images you’ll see some black and white things all over the leaves of the bushes. Does anyone know what those are? I’ve been spraying the bushes for bugs but these seem to keep coming back and spreading. *sigh* I could just take them to the local nursery, but I haven’t been able to do that yet. If you know, please comment.

Applying what you know to what you don’t know

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

So after having made a cane and immersing myself in cane videos, I got to thinking about further ways to study the cane.

You see, in Kuk Sool’s cane curriculum, there’s only a limited bit of cane taught. This is understandable, and really no one system or style can teach it all — they’re all limited in some manner or other. Thus to really get the most out of something you need to freely explore it on your own. Still, sometimes it’s tough to freely explore something without at least some degree of direction to get started in. I’ve found something that works for this and I’d like to share it with you.

Continue reading →

Cat update

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The two older cats were slated for the one-way trip to the vet earlier this week, but Wife belayed that action. Too many things were tugging on her mental and emotional state, so she wanted to postpone it.

It was good that she did.

Seems Orange Cat is getting better. It may not be lymphoma. He may just have some ugly digestive problems. He’s been on a steady diet of canned food and it seems to be improving his situation. He’s still not totally right, there’s still something abnormal with him, but his condition’s a bit better so… we’ll see where it goes. One day at a time.

Other cat tho… she’s continuing on the slow downhill course. The tumor on her hock continues to grow. She’s still managing OK. As I’ve been thinking about it, if she was out in the wild, she’d just have to live with it. Does she have any “feelings” one way or the other about it? I don’t know… it may just “be” and she just exists with it. I really can’t say. But again, she doesn’t come across in pain or much discomfort. So she chugs along. I know there will be a line to cross that says “it’s time”, and it’s coming. Just not right now.

So… we’ll see. Life’s kinda funny and interesting.