The Unpaid Planetesimal?

I attended the Albuquerque Tea Party and it was wonderful. There were many different people there protesting different spending and tax related aspects of the government. I bet there were at least 1,000 people there.

One man asked me who I voted for. He was disappointed to hear that I voted Constitution and told me I had wasted my vote. But, I didn't waste my vote when I voted for the Constitution Party. My vote lets the party know that someone out there supports them. It also sends a message to other politicians that I am Fed up (puns are great).

Here are my spiffy signs. I figured that there would be some programmers who would appreciate the Lisp sign; Sure enough, I ran into a very special family who helped me hold my signs (it was windy and a hard job to do). One of my signs compares the Lisp REPL mantra to a mantra I made up for Congress:

Note: Someone helped me draw the pig :-)

It took me probably an hour to think of something to put on my signs. I originally thought about writing an OS that worked the way Congress worked, but I quickly decided that would require way too much poster board area.

With my signs, I was trying to emphasize that Congress has been acting irresponsibly and perhaps even taking too many responsibilities that are better left to the States. People focus on the President too much, and Congress has been sliding by unnoticed. Congress' actions suggest that they do not care about Social Security or Medicare or excessive spending, even though we are taxed for it. Congress receives special health and retirement benefits (not to mention automatic salary raises) and you can bet that our taxes are paying for that. Try putting them on Social Security and Medicare and see if they like it. Or better yet, vote them out.

I felt honored when an Obama supporter was biking through and stopped to read one of my signs. He had a perplexed look on his face and said, "This sign appears to be non-partisan." I think he was confused that my signs were not anti-Obama signs. Instead, I was criticing Congress for things that both Republicans and Democrats have been responsible for.

The disdain of the Federal Government to our Constitution and to citizens has been shown in many ways. It has been shown with the FISA act in 2008 granting retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies for spying during the Bush administration. The Obama administration is going right ahead with the precedent set by Bush: warantless wiretapping and surveillance. Chuck Schumer has been recorded on video saying that Americans really don't care about pork barrel spending (the sad thing is that he might be correct, but that still doesn't justify Congress' actions). War is only supposed to be declared by Congress. The war in Iraq shows disregard for the Constitution since it was never declared by Congress. Congress supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and ignored warnings to regulate these organizations.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfICUoWKBw Schumer: The American People Don't Care About Pork Projects In Stimulus
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM Bush, Greenspan, and McCain warned Congress about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress ignored the warnings. Chuck Schumer and Barney Frank commended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
3. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush Since Obama has taken office, the DOJ asserts that the govnerment can never be held responsible for conducting illegal surveillance under any federal statutes.

• M-Audio MIDISPORT 2x4
  • The good: Worked great in Linux under Ubuntu 7.10 (or maybe it was earlier, like 7.04). I was using it with an Alesis QS6.1, a Yamaha MU80 module, and a Korg TR-RACK module.
  • The bad: As soon as I upgraded to the next version of Ubuntu, the latency on the MIDISPORT 2x4 became terrible! I still haven't figured out why :-( (Latency of other MIDI interfaces remained very good).  If I switch back to the old version of Ubuntu, the latency of the 2x4 becomes good again.
• M-Audio MIDISPORT Uno
  • The bad: If you have a Yamaha keyboard, especially a Yamaha PSR keyboard, the MIDISPORT Uno just will not work. It drops MIDI events like crazy. It doesn't matter what OS you are using (supposedly).
  • The good: None.  Sure it is cute, compact, cheap, and has integrated cables.  But it doesn't work with the Yamaha PSR keyboards and potentially other keyboards.
• M-Audio MIDISPORT 2x2 Anniversary Edition
  
  • Tested with: Alesis QS6.1 keyboard, Yamaha P-70 keyboard
  • The good: Works great in Linux (Ubuntu 8.10).
  • The bad: Drops MIDI events in OS X (hmmm, this is similar to the Uno...?) (might be because the P-70 keyboard is sending MIDI timing events, but this is not really an excuse)
• Here is a device from a different vendor, just to test that my setup is okay: AKAI MPD24 (it has a MIDI interface builtin)
  • Works beautifully in Mac OS X and in Linux. It's just what I would expect from any vendor.
  • You don't even have to install drivers! It just automatically gets detected and starts working.

By simply #define-ing a few keywords, C++ looks a bit more competent. Now it is clear that C++ can handle all of the following:

• Single (and *shrieks* multiple) implementation inheritance
• Mixins - the friendly cousin of implementation inheritance; Mixins in C++ look rather like the Template Method design pattern.
• Multiple interface inheritance

Here's the code:

#include <stdio.h>

#define interface   class
#define implements  public virtual
#define extends     public
#define mixin       public

template <class T>
interface Comparable
{
  public:
    virtual ~Comparable () { }
    virtual bool operator< (const T &x) = 0;
    virtual bool operator> (const T &x) = 0;
    virtual bool operator<= (const T &x) = 0;
    virtual bool operator>= (const T &x) = 0;
    virtual bool operator== (const T &x) = 0;
    virtual int leg(const T &x) = 0; // -1: less than, 0: equal, 1: greater than
};

template <class T>
class ComparableMixin :
    implements Comparable<T>
{
  public:
    virtual ~ComparableMixin () { }
    virtual bool operator< (const T &x) { return (leg(x) < 0)? true : false; }
    virtual bool operator> (const T &x) { return (leg(x) > 0)? true : false; }
    virtual bool operator<= (const T &x) { return (leg(x) <= 0)? true : false; }
    virtual bool operator>= (const T &x) { return (leg(x) >= 0)? true : false; }
    virtual bool operator== (const T &x) { return (leg(x) == 0)? true : false; }
};

class Integer :
    implements Comparable<Integer>,
    mixin ComparableMixin<Integer>
{
  private:
    int _x;
  public:
    Integer (int x) : _x(x) { }
    virtual ~Integer () { }
    virtual int leg(const Integer &x)
    {
        if (_x < x._x)  return -1;
        if (_x == x._x) return 0;
        if (_x > x._x)  return 1;
    }
};

class SillyInteger : extends Integer
{
  public:
    SillyInteger (int x) : Integer(x) { }
    virtual ~SillyInteger () { }
    virtual void doSomethingSilly (void) { }
};

template <class T>
class AlwaysEqualMixin :
    implements Comparable<T>
{
  public:
    virtual ~AlwaysEqualMixin () { }
    virtual int leg(const T &x) { return 0; }
};

class AlwaysEqual :
    implements Comparable<AlwaysEqual>,
    mixin ComparableMixin<AlwaysEqual>,
    mixin AlwaysEqualMixin<AlwaysEqual>
{
  public:
    virtual ~AlwaysEqual () { }
};

int
main (void)
{
    (Integer(42) > Integer(32))? printf("good\n") : printf("bad\n");
    (SillyInteger(42) == Integer(42))? printf("good\n") : printf("bad\n");
    (AlwaysEqual() > AlwaysEqual())? printf("bad\n") : printf("good\n");
    (AlwaysEqual() == AlwaysEqual())? printf("good\n") : printf("bad\n");
    return 0;
}

Or, of course, you could just use Ruby ;-)

(EDIT: I added an example to demonstrate SillyInteger.)

(EDIT #2: Added AlwaysEqual to demonstrate multiple mixins which utilize each other)

Experience Using a Low-Cost FPGA Design to Crack DES Keys (by Richard Clayton and Mike Bond, published in Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded System - CHES 2002), says this about FPGAs:

And that was around 6 years ago. White papers that I have seen from SRC Computers, a company which sells off-the-shelf reconfigurable computers along with compilers, claims speed improvements of 10x to 1000x that of a conventional PC depending on the type of problem to be solved.

And it only gets better: power consumption is very low - the power per performance ratio is only a fraction of what you can get from a normal PC.

And, by the way, I'm sorry to hear the news about Mike Hogan. I'm not sure if I know him (I need to see his picture), but that is sad news nonetheless.

EDIT: The FPGA DES cracker was run in 2001, according to the paper. The EFF also built a machine a few years earlier to demonstrate the insecurity of DES, and a book has been written about the EFF's work, Cracking DES: Secrets of Encryption Research, Wiretap Politics & Chip Design.

I'm proud of myself because on Google maps, without any help from my friends, I was able to find where I was staying in Mumbai (Bombay), India. This wasn't so easy, because I tried typing in the actual names associated with the place I was staying and Google was turning up zero results. But, I did know that I was staying inbetween Vile Parle and Andheri (two general areas of Mumbai which you can see if you zoom out a little), and with that little bit of knowledge I was able to find this:

http://maps.google.com/...

I stayed very nearby the Vidyanidhi school, which is also the school where I gave a really fun presentation.

I'll just quickly point out some interesting features on that map:

• Parallel to and just a little south of Vidyanidhi Marg is a river. On the northern bank of the river there are lots of trees (as you should be able to see). On the southern bank are rows of slums characterized by flat-looking gray roofs. While I was there, the slums looked like two story houses made out of bricks and sheet metal and they were falling apart; And yes, people were living in them. People are *everywhere*.
• To the north of Juhu Vidyandhi Jr College is a big dirt field. When I was there, which was just bordering on the start of the monsoon season in Mumbai, the field was quite muddy. People were often playing cricket in that field.
• Many of the buildings are several stories high (about 5 to 10 stories I would guess?)
• The bottom story on several of the buildings contains businesses. I didn't have to walk very far to find stores or restaurants.
• Some Bollywood stars, supposedly including Amitabh Bachchan, live very near this same area. Very cool :-)
• A bit to the west, on Guru Nanak Rd I believe, is where I visited the dentist who gave me a filling (which seems to be doing quite well so far) and the eye doctor who gave me a new prescription for some glasses.

Shortly after I left, the monsoons started and Mumbai was flooded - it was like a big wading pool. I find it so interesting that this happens annually (annually, right?) to such a big city and amazing at how they deal with it. It's a completely different experience than anything I've been through in the U.S..

Also, shortly after I left, and unfortunately, some terrorists exploded bombs on the local trains of Mumbai. The trains are a major transport system for people in Mumbai and thus this was a very sick incident. Interestingly, Bruce Schneier has a comment about the bombings of summer 2006. The regularly occuring terrorist incidents around the world can help put some perspective into the terrorist events that occur in the U.S..

Once upon a universe (overlapping with our very own), in a parallel time when I was supposed to be working on embedded control systems and combinatorial optimization, something else happened instead.

This is a bad thing. It is bad because it means I will get a D on my homework instead of an A. But to look on the good side of things, this can lead to future distractions as I try to create an improved, software-based equivalent of the Korg [Trinity-esque] TR-Rack.

I'll try to figure this in Debian sometime, but for now, here is the Gentoo-based solution. This might break something, and it will probably be fun:

# /etc/conf.d/hostname

names="
viggo_mortenson
gopal_junior
harry_potter
pizza_box
dorito_burrito
mog
"

random_index=$(expr $RANDOM % $(echo $names | wc --words))

i=0 
for name in $names; do
  if [ $i == $random_index ]; then
    use_this_one="$name"
  fi
  i=$(expr $i + 1)
done

# Set to the hostname of this machine
HOSTNAME="$use_this_one"