internet speed

Maybe I'm missing something, but shouldn't these numbers be the other way around if I'm at home?

A Few Good Architects

This came thru the email forwards...

Few Good Architects

One Act Play

Cast:

Architect: Tom Cruise

Engineer: Jack Nicholson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Engineer: You want answers?

Architect: I think I'm entitled to them.

Engineer: You want answers?!

Architect: I want the truth!

Engineer: You can't HANDLE the truth son; we live in a world that has beams, columns, and lintels. And those components have to be located in walls. Who's gonna design them? You? You, Mr. Architect? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

You weep for lost parking spaces and you curse the size of my truss girder. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know -- that those structural systems, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties; you want me on that design team. You need me on that design team. We use words like design, code, and analysis. We use these words as the backbone to a life spent providing owner comfort, safety, and efficiency. You use 'em as a punch-line at a party.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain my design to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very environment that I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said 'thank you' and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a Risa-3d and design a building system. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Architect: Did you oversize the columns on the east wall?

Engineer (quietly): I did the job you hired me to do.

Architect: Did you oversize columns on the east wall?!!

Engineer: You're damn right I did!

flash: bezier curve point

A bit of actionscript to interpolate a point at location 0<=i<=1 along a bezier curve defined by an array of control points, cPoints, of Points (from the flash.geom package):

function getBezierPoint(cPoints:Array, i:Number):Point {
if (cPoints.length > 2) {
var subCPoints:Array = new Array();
for (var j:Number = 0; j < cPoints.length - 1; j++) {
subCPoints.push(Point.interpolate(cPoints[j], cPoints[j+1], 1-i));
}
return getBezierPoint(subCPoints, i);
} else {
return Point.interpolate(cPoints[0], cPoints[1], 1-i);
}
}

Flash probably has this sort of function built in, but oh well, it's done =)

Lolla's Over

Before I crash for the night, I wanted to share one of my favorite moments of the weekend:

Lollapalooza 2008

Lolla is happening. My legs haven't felt this kind of exhaustion in ages.



Here's a set of Lolla pics I'll update over the weekend:

Adam's Lolla 08, or as a feed.

My immediate reactions:
- Holy Fuck rocks
- The Enemy (UK) has some good potential (super young band)
- Gogol Bordello is as amazing live as recorded (come on! punk gypsy!)
- Bloc Party was a bit underwhelming (I saw them a while ago at the Congress, and that show was fantastic).
- Radiohead... well, it's Radiohead. With fireworks (I'll link this later).
- Oh, and CSS is as bizarre as expected.