Alcohol, the programers beta tester in self and the release of français - an aid in learning french

Recently, after my reentry into the world of academia, I have become a computer programmer. It's not a full fledged position, more of a hobby at the moment but due to my interest I have stayed ahead of the class, working ahead to figure out things to make my français program better.

By the way, my first official release is here

What I have found so far is that alcohol plays a very important part in a programmers work. It is not to be used all the time but when beta testing needs to be done, and there is nobody else around to do it, have a few drinks and your slurred typing and fumbling mouse clicking can find all kind of problems in you code that you wouldn't think of with a rational mind.

As programmers, we spend to much time in front of computers to do things wrong, i.e. enter a word in a field that requires a number, enter extra spaces after single words or in between multiple. But once we drink a little we become bad typist and something that resembles a beta tester - no insult intended

Nephew Born

Zeb Gregory Boudreau, 10 lbs 2 oz was Born at 4:19pm Jan 18

Birth of a semester and a Nephew

and there off, their minds wondering if they are overloaded or just within the realm of a sane workload. Figuring out which classes they should take notes in and which are they can apply common sense to and skate by just by paying attention. Which classes will take up the most homework time and which will be able to do in between classes.

Yes with my first week of school done I have a general consensuses of what will happen during the next 17 weeks. I'm looking forward to the education but somewhere in there I will have to drop focus and have some fun. Probably spring break when I visit my sister, her husband, and my new nephew who should be born in the very near future (20 min).

I found out that he will be born out of a c-section at 5 o'clock seattle time. So I wish them luck and hope my sister doesn't have any complications during the surgery.

If anyone would like to check out her blog of pregnancy and birth just hop over to Gilhooly tracking the changes within. I'm sure there will be pictures of my new nephew up soon. Congrades to 9 months of creation sis.

Albert Hofmann's Mistake?

It has been taboo to talk about this subject matter, unless you want to come under fire and find yourself in the name of a governmental database. But since I am probably already in that database I'll write about it.

In 1938 Albert Hofmann stumbled upon a substance in which Kevin Herbert an early employee of Cisco Systems, Nobel-prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis who developed the polymerase chain reaction that helps amplify specific DNA sequences, Nobel-prize-winner Francis Crick - discoverer of the double helical structure of DNA, Douglas Englebart - the inventor of the mouse, and Apple-cofounder Steve Jobs claim is the inspiration they used while researching their discoveries or creating their products and who all turned up at a LSD symposium in honor of Albert Hofman's 100th birthday in Basel, Switzerland

Most of our culture looks at this substance with fear; others link it to the "dirty hippies" and the Grateful Dead or Phish. But this substance is also linked to traditions of human kind from day one of our existence.

Could it be similar to the fruit in which Eve ate under that apple tree? Is it similar to the active ingredient for the Kykeon beverage used during the Greeks ancient rituals at the Eleusis site in 1500 B.C.? We know Natives to the Americas used such substances in Psilocybin Mushrooms and the active ingredient of the Peyote Cactus, Mescaline.

So are these drugs a direct link to evolution? Are these drugs and the increasing use of thereof the reason why our technology has advanced so quickly over the past century? Is there a way for these drugs to be used legitimatly in a controled environment for the sake of science, of evolution?

For more info on the symposium check out WIRED's article LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug?

Disclaimer: I don't encourage the use of any drug

Gnu Music

Just A notice of the addition of three songs on my web site http://artifishall.net. There are still fairly raw versions and will be fine tuned during the course of a lifetime but for now they give the general concept.

The titles are "What's Going On", "The Well", and "Traveling Troubadour"

Hope you enjoy
~z

Another Shameless attempt at getting a free ipod

Here is another shameless attempt at getting a free iPod from freeipods.com so if you feel like getting a free ipod while helping me get a free ipod then click here

It is legit, my friend just received his 30 gb video iPod in the mail.