The Programmer's Associates

[ 0 -> 7 ]

Sunday, December 13th, 2009
sillygoosegirl 00:15	Mint.com I want to put in a brief plug for Mint.com. It's an online bank account tracking and budgeting tool. I signed up for it so that we would have a way to monitor our accounts on our trip without needing to worry about someone stealing our passwords to our bank accounts. We could also just have it send us email alerts for stuff we think is important, or a weekly or monthly summary... though not sure if we will go that route or just sign in periodically. However, in addition to our task at hand, it seems to be a really great tool. Unlike the default Quicken graphs, the default Mint graphs actually make sense to me... as in, they are category centric instead of account centric, which is how I like to think about our money. Also, the graphs and drill down are very shiny and very informative. The budgeting tools seem slick and easy. And it also tracks our retirement funds and loans. Sadly, the graphs require Flash 10, which my Nokia doesn't support, so we wont get to make use of the graphs when we are overseas, but I'm pretty sure we'll be using Mint when we get home. It also doesn't track cash spending very well (you can categorize your ATM withdrawals and split them, but not enter your own transactions). On the other hand, I've already pretty much come to terms with the fact that we're too lazy to track cash purchases at this point anyway. (2 random replies \| Vent your spleen)
[Link]
Friday, December 11th, 2009
tortoise 16:25	a note for anyone who may consider constructing a lamp in the future You will probably feel a need to attach a light-fixture-like object to the base of the lamp. Said attachment will certainly have electrical wires running through it; it may very well also require the fixture to screw onto the base. For the love of God, please allow for the wires to rotate independently from whatever bit the screw is attaching to. Future generations will thank you. (Vent your spleen)
[Link]
Mood I on the other hand definitely Music do not thank whoever made this particular table lamp
origamist 13:29	I just had a student tell me that she had struggled with math in high school, and that she'd been planning on just taking minimal math in college to get it over with, but because she'd had an easier time with my class, she'd decided to actually take calculus and go into science. (5 random replies \| Vent your spleen)
[Link]
Mood happy
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
sillygoosegirl 09:53	It is cold and snowy out. Over the last couple days, we've gotten 18 inches of snow, and it was -3 out when we got up today. The governer has declared a state of emergency or some such. However, the road between us and work is in very good shape (much better than the roads between us and D&D), and whoever our landlord hires to clear the parking lot outside our townhouses does a much better job than most of our neighbors get (in terms of amount of snow cleared away, timeliness of snow removal, and number of visits). However, there is no evidence of anyone (residents or mailman) making the trek out to the mailboxes. (1 random reply \| Vent your spleen)
[Link]
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
tortoise 21:14	Poll #1496511 Apparently this is "polls about language" week Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13 It is acceptable to use "summary" as: View Answers a mass noun ("The review contained too much summary and not enough analysis.") 12 (92.3%) an action noun ("Summary is the hardest kind of writing.") 5 (38.5%) neither 1 (7.7%) I don't see a distinction between these two usages. 1 (7.7%) ( My thoughts... ) Also, "summary" has now stopped looking like a word to me. Summary summary summary. (4 random replies \| Vent your spleen)
[Link]
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
sillygoosegirl 00:03	Who says you can't wear the white dress again? Josh and I went to a Victorian Ball tonight. It was fun. There was madrigal music and English country-ish dancing and cheese cake. And I got to wear my wedding dress (Josh wore his wedding clothes too), and have it be totally appropriate. (3 random replies \| Vent your spleen)
[Link]
Friday, December 4th, 2009
tortoise 16:04	Poll #1494592 A question I've been wondering about Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21 In context, how do you parse "the mome raths outgrabe"? View Answers As a complete sentence, with "outgrabe" as a verb 18 (85.7%) As a complete sentence, with "raths" as a verb 0 (0.0%) As a noun phrase, with "raths" as the head noun 3 (14.3%) In some other way that I might or might not feel compelled to leave a comment about 0 (0.0%) Carroll's other writings make it clear that he had a specific one of the above parsings in mind. Did you know this, and do you know which one? View Answers Yes, I knew this, and it affects the parsing that I hear. 2 (9.5%) Yes, I knew this; it doesn't affect the parsing that I hear, but I coincidentally happen to hear the same parsing as Carroll. 4 (19.0%) Yes, I knew this, but I parse it differently than Carroll anyway. 1 (4.8%) No, I did not know. 14 (66.7%) As I understand it, the parsing Carroll had in mind was ( one of them. ) (16 random replies \| Vent your spleen)
[Link]