Thanks to Dick Eastman, I learned about this funny little script that allows you to create an epitaph and imprint it on an online tombstone to see how it looks.
Author Archives: miron
Chemistry Bonus Question
The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington mid-term chemistry exam.The answer by one student to the bonus question was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they
are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the
temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year
that, “it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct…
leaving only Heaven and thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting, “Oh my God”.
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY “A”.
Attack of the clones
The future of Windows Mobile
It is no secret that I work in one of the most experienced Windows Mobile development ISV company. Lately we were wondering about the future of Windows Mobile. Traditionally, we developed Windows Mobile applications in C++ (for the Pocket PC platform). We used MFC throughout Windows Mobile 2000, 2002, 2003, 5.0. For the Smartphone platform we plunged right into .Net Compact Framework.
While working on our latest Windows Mobile 5.0 products, we suddenly encountered some MFC changes that broke backward compatibility. We also seen the effort put in by Microsoft to promote .Net in general and for mobile development in particular.
Fears begun creeping in: will MFC future is doomed? Will we still have Win32 API’s in future Windows Mobile releases? What will the Pocket PC and Smartphone unification bring for developers?
We are now faced with decisions regarding our future Windows Mobile development technology. Basically we can:
- Stay with MFC and face its fate bravely.
- Move to Win32 APIs (or create our wrappers around it).
- Switch to .Net CF (and suffer the performance penalty and the hardships of doing non standard “things” with it).
What do you think?
I am a certified SCRUM master!
Is hi tech the new era slavery?
It is now almost over 4:00 am. I’ve been working for over 20 hours without a break. No, it’s not the 19th century, and I’m not mining coal. I’m managing software development in an hi tech company.
It is a free will slavery. Thousand of people in the western world are subject to this slavery every day. Have we changed forced slavery with our hi tech stock holders oppressors? Do you have the feeling that we labor much more than our parents did? And do we get more?