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By komet (Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 06:35:17 PM EST) audio interface, ups, sucks, python, web frameworks (all tags)
My sound card is broken.

My UPS is broken.

Python is broken. Actually, everything remotely connected to computing and/or the Internet sucks.


My sound card-cum-rack thingy has died on me for no apparent reason. The MIDI ports still work but the fucker won't emit any sound. Damn.

There will be no MFC entry from me as a result.

Anyone care to recommend an audio interface? I think I want USB this time. It should support ASIO under Windows, not suck (both the hardware and the Windows driver), have symmetrical outputs (I think 2 is actually enough, but 4 would be nice), possibly an input or two, and get me laid. Suggestions?

FWIW the now defective item had 4 inputs and 8 outputs. I have never used more than 2 inputs and 2 outputs. I never used the SMPTE time code support or the optical input or output. It has 4 MIDI ins and 4 MIDI outs, but I only used 2 each. It supported 96kHz sampling rate, but I never set it above 44.1kHz. What a waste.

My UPS batteries are dead. This 3000 VA UPS contains 16 batteries which I will now have to replace. I have 2 more identical units, and I suppose their batteries will die soon as well. At least it's a Compaq UPS; surfing the web I discovered that APC UPSs are deliberately designed to fuck up batteries after 3 years, whereas the same batteries last for 8 to 10 years in an industrial environment when connected to a charge circuit designed by an EE who doesn't sleep on a urine-soaked mattress in his parents' basement. The Compaq UPS kept these batteries going for 6 years, quite acceptable.

The girl who mans (womans?) the phones at the Yuasa battery dealer has a nice voice. Should I ask her out? The last time I thought a girl had a nice voice on the phone, she turned out to be 50. But I don't think I'm wrong this time...

Python: fuck you. Specifically, what's up with Web frameworks? Turbogears and Django are ok, I suppose, but in alpha and it shows. Are OSS developers robbed of their ability to write comprehensible documentation when they sell their souls to the FSF, or are only programmers who never document drawn to develop Free Software? How about, you know, designing an API, documenting it, and not changing the entire fucking thing on a whim? How about documenting and testing the existing functionality before being distracted by a technology that's existed since last century but only caught your eye now because it's named after a bathroom cleaning product? Fuck you. It's making me want to develop my own web framework (actually I've already started). Apparently it's making everyone want to develop their own web framework, which is why there are hundreds of them in Python. Needless to say, none of them are documented worth a damn. Needless to say, mine is no better in that respect. Or in any other.

It's enough to drive a man to Java.

< Cory Cory Cory! | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >

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Fuck. | 21 comments (21 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
cum-rack thingy... by Rogerborg (2.00 / 0) #1 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 06:51:58 PM EST
Hmmm... it is getting a bit late.  Time for bed.

-
Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.


Web frameworks by The Fool (2.00 / 0) #2 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 06:53:45 PM EST
Call me a relic, but I've heard nice things about CherryPy, and I've played with Albatross a bit. Albatross has decent-ish documentation.




Yes by komet (2.00 / 0) #3 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:00:08 PM EST
CherryPy is in the top third of my "Python web framework stuff to look into" list. Trouble is, that list has about 60 items on it, for fuck's sake.

--
<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

i'll give you my phone number by 256 (2.00 / 0) #4 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:01:48 PM EST
you can call me and play your MFC entry into my answering machine. i will then use a one dollar male-male headphone jack to plug the headset port on my phone into the line in port on my computer.

voila.

also, i'm pretty sure there is zero correlation between how pretty a girl's voice is and how pretty a girl is.

also also, you live in switzia, yes? is there a bike courier industry in the cities there? or have swiss businesses evolved some different method of solving the same problem (such as not being afraid of the internet)?
---
I don't think anyone's ever really died from smoking. --ni


No, no. by komet (2.00 / 0) #6 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:18:37 PM EST
I can't play my virtual piano without a sound card. If I phone you I will be stuck with the slide whistle, and that's not what I want.

I can tell from her voice if a girl is fat. The resonance spectrum is different.

The bike courier industry in Switzerland is actually quite cool, though I don't use them much. Zurich is specifically designed to be impossible to drive around in, so bike couriers are the method of choice to get documents and small packages around in a hurry. They have now apparently got cooperations with bike and car couriers in other cities as well as the railways and the post office. I can have a bike courier ride my package to the train station, where the railway will put it on their express goods carriage and whisk it off to Lucerne, where a local bike courier will pick it up and ride it to the destination, and only the first courier will bill me for all this. Bike couriers will also fetch mail from P.O. boxes, buy flowers and deliver them with a card, go to your house and water your plants when you are on holiday, or go to shop for groceries and bike them to you. Those are jobs where not being afraid of the Internet doesn't really help.

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<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

excellent by 256 (2.00 / 0) #7 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:19:46 PM EST
next question: need a room-mate?
---
I don't think anyone's ever really died from smoking. --ni
[ Parent ]

maybe. by komet (2.00 / 0) #8 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:24:25 PM EST
What's this? Are you serious?

--
<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

serious about coming to switzerland by 256 (2.00 / 0) #10 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:31:34 PM EST
for a few months or a year.

though not until next year some time.

misslake has family in geneva she could stay with, but i would want to work, as a courier ideally. it is all in the very vestigal planning stages right now.

wondering how much of a barrier language would be. i speak passable spanish, but i don't imagine that would be much help. my french used to be functional but has fallen into disrepair. and it's quebecois anyway.
---
I don't think anyone's ever really died from smoking. --ni
[ Parent ]

In my limited experience by Greener (2.00 / 0) #12 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 08:48:53 PM EST
everyone in Switzerland speaks a dozen languages.

It also tops my list of European countries I'd like to live in. Ideally one of those small mountain villages only accessable by funicular.

[ Parent ]

Hm. by komet (2.00 / 0) #14 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 04:49:55 AM EST
Well, the main hurdle will be the work permit. I can't see a Canadian citizen getting a permit for bike couriering - non-EU people are only admitted if no Swiss or EU person can be found with equivalent job skills. And as I wrote above, bike courier companies are pretty serious and I'm not sure they'd hire you on sub-legally. It's worth a try I suppose.

There is no better way to learn a language than to be forced to use it at work. No problem there. And all Swiss people can manage English. The temp receptionist chick at a law firm is almost certain to speak about 5 languages.

If you're in Geneva, how about trying to become diplomatic bike courier to the Canadian UN seat or the embassy? A bike courier with diplomatic immunity would be a first.

--
<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

To be fair... by ShadowNode (2.00 / 0) #5 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:16:21 PM EST
Saying something is in alpha pretty much means they are going to fuck with the interface at a whim, and not document it much, because it'll just change again.

Usually, a "stable" point is reached, a release is declared, and all those shenanigans take place in the dev repository of version n+1.



Look by komet (2.00 / 0) #9 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:26:32 PM EST
when you have a reasonably stable system, how about cleaning and releasing it and then continuing development, rather than just abandoning it because you can see something shiny.

Programmers writing OSS in their spare time would be great if it wasn't for the programmers.

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<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

Yep by ShadowNode (2.00 / 0) #11 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 07:41:21 PM EST
But calling something alpha is a big sign that says they're not going to do that any time soon. Which means you should either try to help get them to a stable point and prod them into a proper release, or not build on top of them. If they really piss you off, and you want to stabalize it yourself in a fork, there's nothing stopping you.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying, just pointing out that you where properly warned.

[ Parent ]

Agree on the python web-frameworks by cam (2.00 / 0) #13 Mon Mar 06, 2006 at 10:00:17 PM EST
sucking.

cam
Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic


You probably want Rails. by edward (2.00 / 0) #15 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 05:05:00 AM EST
It's better than all that python stuff, says the guy writing a production app in django right this second.

If you're unfamiliar with Ruby, check out this on-line book. It's weird. But good. http://poignantguide.net/ruby/



No I don't. by komet (2.00 / 0) #16 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 05:09:57 AM EST
I've evaluated Rails and come to the conclusion that it's a lot of hype. It may be good for typical web apps, but I have enterprise stuff here. I have tons of business objects in Java and Python and none in Ruby which I don't know. And I'm in a hurry. So no.

--
<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

Aye, that's true by edward (2.00 / 0) #17 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 05:26:50 AM EST
For both Rails and even Django, it seems the solution to scalability problems is "throw more hardware at it" and of all of them, the one that's hardest to scale up cheaply is definitely Rails.

But there's a lot to be said for the syntax of Ruby and the semantics that Rails lets you use.

And since you do have stuff already written that you need to integrate... good luck finding anything that will work the way you want.

[ Parent ]

Girls with nice voices by nebbish (2.00 / 0) #18 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 05:33:55 AM EST
I speak to someone like that on the phone for work. Then once I made a joke, and she made the lamest joke ever back and laughed for about twenty minutes. In a later conversation, she revealed that she was really fat.

I think you need to see what someone looks like first, and have a conversation that goes beyond Yuasa battery dealing.

--------
It's political correctness gone mad!


Here ya go. by blixco (2.00 / 0) #19 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 10:22:27 AM EST
http://www.activemusician.com/p/EM_US44010.asp?ref=fg
---------------------------------
Taken out of context I must seem so strange - Ani DiFranco


thanks. by komet (2.00 / 0) #20 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 10:31:35 AM EST
I'll have to see if I can overcome my visceral disgust of RCA connectors.

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<ni> komet: You are functionally illiterate as regards trashy erotica.
[ Parent ]

MAudio by blixco (2.00 / 0) #21 Tue Mar 07, 2006 at 11:15:42 AM EST
knows what's what on the USB front.  So, yeah, stop being disgusted by an inanimate standard.
---------------------------------
Taken out of context I must seem so strange - Ani DiFranco
[ Parent ]

Fuck. | 21 comments (21 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

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