2000-2009: A synopsis of the past 10 years

So 2009 has ended, as well as a decade. A lot has happened in the past 10 years. The world has changed drastically; in some ways, for the worse; and in other ways, for the better. Here's my opinon on a year by year basis (please note: this is somewhat America-centric, as I didn't really become globaly aware until around 2008-2009):

2000 - Y2K turns out to be bullshit, and by Feburary the government has egg on its face for overhyping it. Bush gets elected via a stolen election, beginning the 8 year reign of terror that would dominate the decade (more on this in 2001). The optimism of the 90's somewhat carries on into this year.
This year in personal matters: My depression roughly began about this time.

2001 - Supposedly we'd colonise space by now. Instead, the closest we've come is the ISS (which is still under construction). The dot-bomb begins, endng the optimism that carried into the 90's. September 11 occurs. While I won't feed any conspiracy theorist whackjob's assertions, I will say it is my personal opinion the government at least knew. The government begins systematically dismantling our rights, first via the PATRIOT act. We go to war in Afghanistan. People get scared of the mail due to anthrax being sent to various figureheads. The retard president has the highest opinion ratings of any president for years.
This year in personal matters: Nothing I really remember being significant.

2002 - No Child Left Behind gets signed; education in America worsens as a result. The largest accountng scandal in US history is discovered, leading to Enron being sold for scrap. Antarctica's ice shelf begins breakng up. Bush, spurned on by fake intelligence and the urge to finish what his daddy started, gets the thumbs-up from Congress to go to Iraq (he doesn't go until next year, he does some pretending first).
This year in personal matters: Turned 10! \o/

2003 - Bush goes to war in Iraq proper and begins illegally detaining and torturing captured persons. Bush declares himself above the law. People still scared shitless by TERRORISM!!1 and allow this. People get scared of SARS, which turns out, like giga pets, to be a temporary phenomenon and shortly after nobody cares anymore. The Columbia blows up due to NASA's incompetence.
This year in personal matters: Moved from a house into a trailer -_-.

2004 - The cake^WWMD's were a lie. CIA admits it was bullshit all along. Kerry loses to Bush in yet another (possibly) stolen election (due to tampered voting machines). The horrors of Abu Ghraib come to light. Ronnie Reagan died (good riddance). 9/11 commision reveals the government knew about the terrorist attacks beforehand but did nothing. Personal opinion: Bush wanted an excuse to boost his power. A giant tsunami hits southeast Asia.
This year in personal matters: High school!

2005 - North Korea has nukes. Only idiots are scared. The pope dies. All the Catholics cry or pretend to care. A bunch of controversial doodles are published in a Danish newspaper. Muslims get butthurt and start bitching. Xbox 360 comes out; games everywhere discover the red ring of death and yet continue to defend this piece of shit. Katrina hits New Orleans; citizens get what they had coming for living in a bowl. Bush doesn't care because most of the citizens were black.
This year in personal matters: Nothing significant. Moved once but not outside my neighbourhood.

2006 - Blu-Ray comes out. People panic over Avian flu. The Wii and PS3 come out. Spinach that got shat on makes people afraid of E. Coli. The pope, naturally being a bigoted, closed-minded figurehead, makes some statements that piss off the easily butthurt Muslims (they really should learn that his opinion doesn't matter).
This year in personal matters: Moved to Ohio out of a trailer, got internet at home (!).

2007 - People go nuts over hoof and mouth disease, and are afraid to eat beef. People go gaga about discovering a possibly Earth-like planet outside the solar system (which turns out to be uninhabitable). People start to realise Bush is a retard (something the truly smart people knew from day one). Nothing interesting happens otherwise this year.
This year in personal matters: Forced move to the Shitstain state (Florida).

2008 - The worst recession since the Great Depression begins. Unemployment begins to skyrocket. The large hardon collider breaks. Obama gets elected on a platform of promising change (and doing nothing) and by virtue of being black, proving that Americans, instead of being racist, are trying to prove they are otherwise.
This year in personal matters: Nothing special that I feel like talking about.

2009 - The Bush era officially ends; the Obama era begins. Obama does lots of handwaving but otherwise little. Record bailouts are voted to big companies such as AIG; so far the money hasn't trickled back down (proving yet again that trickle down DOESN'T WORK). The large hardon collider finally gets it up (after much Viagra). People begin panicking over swine flu, then realise it's not even as bad as regular flu.
This year in personal matters: Moved yet again -_-. Turned 18! \o/

Overall opinion of this decade: It had its good points, but most of it was bad. The recession was and is bad. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were and are bad. Our reduction in rights in the name of terrorism sucked and sucks. I will say this though: the 2000's was was definitely a defining decade of my life.

Sleepless in Florida

So my girlfriend and I ended, as well as 2009, and what little happiness I had. I'm not sure what to think anymore. I feel as if my life has turned inside out onto itself. Andrew has been supportive, but there's only so much he can do. Hope (one of my friends, no link available) has been on vacation, leaving me without any IRL friends to talk to (she's my only one left). You might say I'm turning emo or such. I dunno if I am. I've never been terribly happy. At least my music isn't shit. >_>. I'll write some more some other time. I'm too confused to write something coherent.

Hmm...

I haven't blogged in a very long time. I haven't really felt the need to. I've been busy with other things. I have a girlfriend who I love oh so very much (pics only if she says I can >_>). I have moved once again to some crappy place I hate. I'm now getting on SSI. I'm back on IRC, but only in places where the people aren't total douchebags. I do a lot more development stuff than I was doing in the past. I've helped my friend Andrew immensely, and have in the process grown much closer to him (not in a gay way though, that's illegal in some states (but that's something else entirely)). I have to say, overall, my life has improved slightly.

I am also working on my own blogging software. I will link to it when it is production-ready. I'm making it because I'm extremely dissatisfied with current offerings (Wordpress is crap due to MyShitSQL, Blogger isn't open source, and Movable Type is just eh...). It's being written in Django, which is a rather fabulous MVT framework for web apps.

Overall lately, I've been extremely busy. All apologies for not writing more posts. Eventually I will get around to it though.Thanks for reading at least...

Why I left IRC

I know it's been about a month before I've posted, but that's because I moved to rural Florida. I'll talk about that later, but let me just say: four acres of land, ftw.

But that aside, I have decided to leave IRC. No, it's not because I've been (as they probably would say) "butthurt" by some idiot's insult, but something I've been thinking about quietly for a long time. See, IRC is full of idiots who don't have a clue and people looking for an ego boost. Most of the people who use IRC have less of a life than I do (at least I can boast a few IRL friends, unlike most of them). To quote something I read:

IRC seems to be the net's equivalent of East Palo Alto, a grimy evil place of belligerent drug lords in the middle of a land of gold. They like the idea of more people becoming addicted to their own private heroin, but like Bob Dole they're a bit upset at these masses who "never worked, never fought, and never did anything real," like compiling an IRC server on an old 486.

I've determined that IRC has done little to help me in any way. I haven't been able to find help for the more difficult problems I encounter with Unix, coding, or other things, since I'm not a "noobie" anymore and can figure out the easy stuff on my own (and in most channels, like real life, only the easy questions get answered unless money is involved). I haven't learned a damn thing from IRC in far too long either. Every channel I hang out in has no interesting discussions or content. It's all just boring answers to stupid questions.

IRC definitely stopped being fun a while ago. Most of the smart people left long ago, creating a "brain drain." What's left is a pile of drooling snobs who don't know a 486 from their monthly wage. The few intelligent people who are left are generally obnoxious assholes who think that if you don't know everything they know, you're instantly retarded. IRC's population continues to shrink every year (it is predicted IRC will stop being a lively medium by 2020), and I see why.

I'm also tired of the people pretending to be girls and all the paedophiles. People on IRC don't like to talk about it, but it really is a huge breeding ground for e-transvesties and child molesters. Most channel and IRC ops try to hide it and cover it up. Despite the makeup and cheap perfume, it's no better than a stereotypical AOL chatroom. Seriously. If I would have been asked for cybersex on IRC one more time, my head would have exploded (yes, I was frequently solicited for cybersex. I am even a recovering cyberrape victim, having been raped by Olene).

IRC is increasingly irrelevant also. The only network growing is FreeNode, and it is being overrun by the same dumbasses who come from MySpace and Facebook. It's also run by the most retarded morons known to mankind. Many channels (even the big ones) just sit idle all day, with the only activity being join, part and quit messages, or are filled with boring conversations as I pointed out earlier. Many channels are being trolled to the point where it is pointless to be in them anymore (and of course, the ops just want you to "ignore" them. Pretty hard when you have 1000 bots joining the channel).

ESR used to say that you wouldn't find any real hackers on IRC, although he claims this has changed. It hasn't. I haven't seen a "real" hacker on IRC in ages, or at least one that wasn't a prick. Well, I lied. There are a few I can think of. But they generally don't hang out on IRC anymore, or their IRC activity is highly limited to the few extremely small pockets of intelligent-yet-not-obnoxious life left.

Maybe you disagree with me on these points. Maybe you just don't care. Maybe you think I'm actually "butthurt" and going "waaaaah waaah". I don't honestly care what you think either, as you probably don't do it very often. All I can say is, if you're listening, and you give a damn about me, then you can find me on MSN, Gtalk, AIM, or other places or such (just see my homepage). For everyone else, and to all the morons, shitheads, and idiots on IRC: go fuck yourself. Hope that helps.

iPod!

My brother recently found an iPod underneath the bleachers at his school. Seeing as he's already happy with his current MP3 player, he's given it to me. Yay.

The only issues I have with it (besides my hatred of Apple) is that it makes my kernel panic() occasionally, and that syncing it works like no other MP3 player I own (need a special app, can't do it from the command line. sigh.). Oh, and I hate how they encrypted the firmware so I can't replace their shitty firmware. Really, there was no fucking reason to do that other than to be a douche. But anyway, I'm happy with the sound quality and speed of charging. Only thing I don't like that isn't Apple's fault is lack of space (only 2 GB) but meh. I'll live with 96 kb/s MP3's. Even if they sound like ass.

Now what I really would like is an iPod classic. Lots more space (50 times more), and the firmware isn't encrypted. May I reiterate: encrypted firmware pisses me off to NO END. STEVE JOBS CAN GET FUCKED IN THE ASS WITH A 300" REAR PROJECTION TELEVISION COVERED IN RAZOR BLADES AND GLASS SHARDS AND METAL FILINGS AND WITHOUT LUBRICANTS FOR DOING THAT.

But yeah. Overall thought on the iPod: could be better. Make it work like every other MP3 player, don't encrypt the firmware, and don't charge an arm and a leg for it, and I'd actually buy one new.

Yay, 18!

Whoo, 18! I am now legally an adult under US law. I've talked before about how much I'm worried, but meh. It's a time for celebration! I am entitled to the full rights and privileges of an adult in the United States, with the exception that I may not drink. Fuck the under 21 drinking law. Oh, and apparently I can't enter into contracts until I'm 21 either. Fuck contracts too.

I have no big plans planned for my birthday, except perhaps getting wasted. Good thing my mom thinks the same way about the drinking age that I do...one of the few things we agree on (since she's Republican).

Other than that, not much to say. Happy Valentine's Day, and happy birthday to me! May you have as much sex today as I will have booze. And yes, your hand counts. :)

C++ reconsidered

N.B.: If you aren't technically oriented or just find technical issues boring, you can skip this post. You'll just be confused or bored.

My stance on C++ has been mixed the past few years; overall, however, I've hated it. However, as of late I've given it some reconsideration. I've been working on an application (I won't name what it does since it's not finished and I don't want to get your hopes up; suffice it to say that many a person will find it useful) which requires a specific library; unfortunately, said library is only available in Java or C++ (I won't name what library I'm talking about, lest I get horribly flamed; let's call it "the library"). It's proprietary, so no chance of having it ported (and yes, proprietary sucks, but I don't care; I want it to work, and the open source alternatives blow ass). Now, I irrevocably and eternally loathe Java, so that's not an option. This leaves the lesser of two evils: C++.

I was thinking, "tch, I'll just wrap the C++ code in a C wrapper and go from there." That turned out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. So I figured I would just do it all in C++. I braced myself for what I thought was going to be a long $time_period.

Now, as part of this application I need to make a certain class (again, won't say what it does). I already had code lying around to do what I wanted; however, it was in C. It was then I decided to port it to C++. C++'s class mechanism seemed perfect for what I wanted to do, as I had always wanted to wrap up my library like that. So I set about getting to work.

One nice thing about C++ is that it makes it pretty easy to start prototyping. I usually plan my code by writing out all the prototypes and classes I'm going to need; later, I go about implementing them. Designing this way helps me think about what functions I need and how they should relate to each other.

Namespaces are somewhat of a mixed blessing; the idea of them is pretty nice; however, C++ uses the awkward :: operator for them, which makes them look incredibly ugly to use unless a using statement is used.

The STL is pretty nice in some aspects. Map is nice, as well as vector. The string class of C++, while a tad baroque, also brings many nice advantages. It certainly beats the shit out of C string handling (although in some cases C handling would be more efficient; but this is what string::c_str is for).

Of course, there's plenty of crap in the STL. In particular, generic programming from ⟨functional⟩ is a joke (if you use something once, you'll be horrified to learn that your code will become impossible to debug by others). auto_ptr is also a huge crock (after several redesigns, you think they'd get it right. They haven't.). Iterators also generally suck (for example, iterators becoming invalid when you delete an item). STL code is also a horrible pain to debug, a pain I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies. On the other hand, if you limit yourself to the STL features worth using, you're a lot better off.

My biggest complaint about C++ (that I've never gotten over) is that it's C with bolted-on OO features (and resulting grammar that looks equally bolted on). Even the author of C++ agrees that in C++ there's a cleaner language wanting to get out. Java is definitely not the language (despite what some people think), nor is C# (despite what others also think). Oh, it's not ocaml either :p.

So my overall opinion of C++: not totally horrible, and in some ways better than C. However, there is still plenty of improvement that can be made. Apparently D has gone a long way to improving it; I haven't tried it personally (as there isn't a decent implementation yet). Whether or not C++ will become a language of choice of mine (or perhaps replace C) remains to be seen.