t3knomanser's Fustian Deposits

Intel finally admits that GHz ratings for processors are fairly meaningless. That's right folks, having a 2GHz processor doesn't mean a fuck of alot. Ever wonder why AMD processors started getting names like AMD3200+? It's because AMD was trying to give a more accurate idea- that one is based off of the results of three different benchmarking tests.

Now, in the category of "things you shouldn't laugh at", ten marines were killed by friendly fire in Iraq. First thing that comes to mind? "Remember children, friendly fire isn't friendly at all."

For true comic book geekdom, there are scans of "Action Comics #1" online. For the uninitiated, that is the first comic-book appearance of Superman. I hate Superman, and think it's a fucktarded character concept, but I can appreciate this.

Meanwhile, the sword in the stone has been unearthed- but it's really Italian. Interesting historical stuff relating to an Italian legend that may have turned into the Arthur legends.

And the Australian Record Association is lamenting the decline in CD sales, a decline so steep that they saw the highest sales in history. A decline so sleep that it was really an incline even. Mmmm... creative accounting.

Do LOTR parodies ever get old? Actually, I'm starting to get really sick of them. But this one made me smile.

And finally:

Today, I've got to bang out a pair of perl scripts for a rentacoder contract.

Some dink wants to be able to manage his google adwords off the command line. So I'm writing perl scripts that connect, log in, go to the appropriate page, download the content, write it to a file, and then a second script that takes the file and uploads it.

It's gonna be a pain in the _ass_. It's sniggery, not difficult. There's this really useful perl module- Mechanize. It's essentially all the power of a web-browser. It's a kinda interesting project.


[edit: Awww sexy. Got it logging in, downloading the appropriate page for the keywords, and pulling the keywords out of it. Very nice. And that same code can be recycled for the update. So now it's just a matter of putting together the file that he wants stored, and parsing the file that contains the list of campaigns and ads.]

[edit again: Testing software is always a pain in the ass. It goes with the territory. Testing however becomes more of a pain in the ass when the server you're trying to connect to (adwords.google.com in this case) decides that it's going to not return full responses, and even when it does, it takes a fucking long time to get a response. Figure it takes about 30sec per page. It has to cycle through about 10 pages total, and most of those pages it doesn't even need- they're just part of the path. So sure, that's only 300 seconds, or about 5 minutes. But it's a simple command line app and it's just... annoying. Mind you, it's not a big deal for a _real_ application. However for a $25 contract that I took just so I could have a contract and boost my ratings.... *snark*]

During the 60's, the US military drafted plans to terrorize US cities to provoke war with Cuba. This is according to the book Friendly Fire, which I'm curious to know more about. I mean, sources, etc.

Even so, it paints a chilling picture, and changes the context that we can view the WTC incident from. I mean, there's all sorts of rumors and intimations that the US government willfully failed on September 11th. I tend to think that individuals inside the administration chose to "accidentially" drop the ball, and that there was not a coordinated effort to allow it to happen. That's the optimist in me.

But then again, when someone wants a war, there's always a Zimmerman Telegram, or a Gulf of Tonkin waiting to happen, isn't there? Heck, there's even some sources that say Perl Harbor was willingly allowed by the US government to motivate the citizenry into the war.

For your viewing pleasure:

Cute little pouting Condi. She looks so sad and pensive. Like a Cabbage Patch doll getting a rectal exam.

This comes up because they've decided that Condi can testify publicly. The fact that executive privlege doesn't cover what the administration is trying to use it for probably has something to do with that. But I think the _real_ cause is my taunts and critiques in this blog. Bush reads my blog and it makes him cry.

They're not really afraid of Clarke though. They know how to contain him. They got Wolf Blitzer, everyone's favorite CCN correspondant that has master the English Teacher Chic, pointing out "that [in] his own personal life, they're also suggesting that there are some weird aspects in his life as well."

You'd figure that with the reputation that this administration had made for itself when it comes to sullying people's reputations to silence them, they'd be better practiced at it by now. "He's merely going in front of the public, getting his ass grilled before an investigation committee, and knowing that lies would be purjury of a high degree to promote his new book. And he's weird."

The reply that Clarke didn't make was, "Nuh-uh. You're weird."
To which Bush didn't respond, "I'm rubber and your glue!"

...grarg!

Okay, so my script reads a list of ads from a file like so:
campaign1:ad1:ad2:ad3
campaign2:ad1:ad2

It reads campaign1 and ad1 out just fine, gets the appropriate values. Then for ad2, it bombs. Mind you, if I remove ad1 from the settings file, and try and run it, it still doesn't work.

So, it can get the right files when it's feeling like it. Like I just re-ran it again, and now it's sorta working. Let's see if it gets the keywords...

...hey no... it doesn't...

buggerall.

It _should_ work. It even gets to the right page now. It runs the same code to extract the keywords from this page as it does from the other page. But this time, when it runs that code, it doesn't work. ::facepalm::

Organic farm says, "Hey! Let's test all of our beef for Mad Cow! Make it a selling point!" The government says, "No."

Crazy as it sounds, the USDA prohibits private testing for mad cow disease. You must submit to the government testing procedures, which will test less than one percent of the cattle that we eat.

The cattle industry are worried that the 100% testing at the organic my mislead consumers "into thinking an untested cut of beef isn't safe." Shit, you mean that people might think that if their beef was untested for mad cow, then it might contain mad cow disease?

Damn, sorry. I was thinking again. I've been trying to quit, but it's so hard.

b>My Inner Hero - Wizard!</b>





There are many types of magic, but all require a sharp mind and a cool head. There is no puzzle I can't solve, no problem I can't think my way out of. When you feel confused or uncertain, you can always rely on me to untangle the knots and put everything back in order for you.



How about you? Click here to find your own inner hero.

But I post this one because it seems like it's also got a game attatched. I'm curious.