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In D Term of 2000, during my senior year at the Academy in CS 2136 (Paradigms of Computation), I wrote a Java stopwatch for a homework assignment. It wasn’t an especially wonderful stopwatch I didn’t think; it just met the extra-credit spec and had a lap counter. So, my program assignment was up on my web site at WPI for the years I was there. Every once in a while, like every 9–18 months, I’d get an email from a random person letting me know how much they liked my stopwatch. One of them was even from some guy at Intel who was using my stopwatch to help him build something there. At one point, I was even the first hit on Google for “java stopwatch”, which was quite a surprise.

http://www.wpi.edu/April/2006 still returns a 404. :(

Jessi sent me an article on some of the issues with public education and how involved parents can/should be.

WPI’s D-Term 2006 Magic Extravaganza

(Warning: quickly put together and not proofread)
I know that I’m not the first one to say this, but Daylight Savings Time just seems to me like a really dumb idea. Starting next year, Congress has decreed to make DST even longer by a month, leaving Standard time only around for like 4 months of the year, and requiring countless software & firmware patches. I just don’t get it. If people need an hour more of daylight, why not just get up an hour earlier? Why do we need to set the clocks? There’s just some sort of inherent want for “noon” to be “sun overhead”, and then tricking ourselves to make noon at a different time so that we have an extra hour of daylight? Huh? If this tricking ourselves actually saves energy, why not just be at UTC-4 instead of UTC-5 year-round?

“It’s time to upgrade.

Your copy of Microsoft money includes online services for three years. To continue enjoying use of services like investment tracking and synchronization with MSN Money, please act now and upgrade to Money 2006.” — Microsoft Money 2003, when I opened it today.

I’ve been getting more involved lately in the Magic judging community. A couple weeks ago I judged at another Pro Tour Qualifier, this coming weekend I’ll be judging at the Connecticut Two-headed Giant Limited State Championship (which people really ought to go to the one in their state if they can, as it’s a really fun format), and the following weekend I’ll be working at a Team Standard Pro Tour Qualifier. Basically I’m working at premiere events once or twice a month, although March is particularly busy. I may be testing for level 2 in the summer, although I’m not sure about that yet.

What is science?

So, since I had received a gift card to Best Buy from my in-laws for Christmas, I decided to go with the new video card. I got an ATI 9550, which should hopefully let my computer serve my needs for another couple years.

While we were there, we decided to look at computer chairs, since Jessi could really use a new one. Since we seem to have quite a knack for picking chairs that fall apart, the warranty on the chair is an important piece of information we want to look at when comparison shopping. Luckily, all the price tags at Best Buy say “Full warranty text available on request.” So, we requested it. One poor sales clerk and two managers had no idea what that line was supposed to mean and didn’t seem to realize that it ever existed there. They scoured their company intranet looking for any sort of information. They were not successful. This did not increase my confidence in buying a chair from Best Buy (not that it was high to begin with), and so we left.

New video card or new computer?