I’m working on a paper for work (actually, “executive editing” is probably a more accurate description). I’ve done a number of papers for the Sun BluePrints folks -- the technical editor for that program at Sun is an old work acquaintance of mine. It’s also given me a good chance to expound on technical wrongs and try to make them right.

I wrote a teaser for an upcoming paper I’ve been working on forever. See it here.

http://blogs.sun.com/blueprints/entry/new_dogs_new_tricks_thinking

Even if you are not totally into nerdy stuff, you still might find it an interesting read. Might.

Tags: Blog Tag

My friend Fourth Breakfast has tagged me for one of these little blog tag games. Like my friend, I'm going to limit my responses in a few cases otherwise, we're going to be here all year....

Jobs I've held:
I was a Ride Operator at Six Flags Magic Mountain in high school and part of college. I ran roller coasters. When I worked there, I was known as the only operator to ever hit Emergency Stop on Freefall 3 times, and not be terminated or reprimanded for any of the occurrences.



I've also been an engineer for McDonnell Douglas, Megatek, and Sun Microsystems (current).
I've been systems administrator for the University of Michigan and the University of California, San Diego.

Places I've lived:
Schenectady, New York
Canyon Country, California
Ann Arbor, Michigan
San Diego, California
Hershey, Pennsylvania (actually, Palmyra, but close enough)

Movies I can watch over and over:
The Hunt for Red October

My guilty pleasures:
Playing blackjack in Las Vegas

Shows I enjoy:
House
The Weather Channel

Places I've been on vacation:
Too numerous to list, so I'll say Lake George, New York.

Favorite foods:
Anything Italian, but Veal Parmigiana is my benchmark food.
Just about anything else my wife makes is next.

Websites I visit daily:
http://www.stickman.org/ (of course)

Body parts I've injured:
Knees. Both of them. Not requiring surgery, but I know when the weather is changing....

Awards I've won:
I choose to list "Perfect Attendance" in 3rd grade.

Nicknames I've been called:
Stickman. Or course. The origin goes back to my Magic Mountain days...


Now that I've played, we'll see if Mr. Chuckles is game...

Tags: Blog Tag

In my friend Fourth Breakfast's blog entry http://fourthbreakfast.blogspot.com/2006/09/tagged.html, I have been asked to "Tell us the 5th through 8th sentences on page 123 of the book nearest you."

To be honest, the first book nearest to me at the time I read this contained company proprietary information. Couldn't do that.

Went back to my home office, grabbed the nearest book, and to comply, here is the text:

"Then *pfa[] is a recognized as a dcl (sic), so (*pfa[]) is a direct-dcl. Then (*pfa[])() is a direct-dcl and thus a dcl. We can also illustrate the parse with a parse tree like this (where direct-dcl has been abbreviated to dir-dcl): [Image in book omitted] The heart of the dcl program is a pair of functions, dcl and dirdcl, that parse a declaration according to this grammar."

The source is "The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition (ANSI C)" by Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie. Copyright 1988, Prentice Hall Publishers.

No real programmer would ever risk *not* having this be the closest book on their desk. It is, after all, the C Programming Language Bible.

docrpm, you're it.

Tags: Blog Tag