We’ll see how I feel about the snow tomorrow. Fortunately, my manager is great and has already said we could all work from home if necessary. I do have a meeting, though, that I don’t want to miss.

The first time, a Houston rapper rear-ended my friend’s car, with my friend and me in it, and totaled it. He had an insurance card that he handed over, but what we didn’t know was that he had canceled the policy. He had had enough money to buy his new car in cash, but then he was too stingy to have the legally-required insurance.

You suck, man.

The accident last week wasn’t nearly as bad. Some people might not even care. There is some bent metal on the fender and a bunch of long scratches. The woman gave me her insurance card and her phone number. I talked to her insurance last week, but they didn’t get anywhere, because the phone number they had wasn’t working. I tried calling her, and it was the same number. She had given me a phone number that didn’t work.

That sucks too.

I tracked her down on Google and called her at work. I’m glad she honored my request to call her insurance as soon as possible. She acknowledged she was at fault, and now I can go get an estimate. She stunned me a little, though, when she grumpily said “I’m disappointed you got the insurance involved. I wish you had just gotten an estimate, and I would have paid for the repairs.” Tough luck, missy.

A co-worker of mine had the perfect response. He asked, “Did you say ‘I’m disappointed you hit my car’?” I wish I had.

We had never tested the new queries in a production setting, but the deployments to our Alpha, Gamma, and two regional clusters worked without problems. A few hours after deploying to the last clusters, a customer started using it, and that’s when all hell broke lose. I ended up rolling back to the previous version at 4 AM on Thursday.

A quick analysis by my coworkers yesterday showed that most of the time was spent doing the parsing.

The grammar that we used was essentially this one, which required backtracking by ANTLR:

We never even let our test query finish, but it had been running for 45 minutes non-stop. I suggested a small change, which amounted to something like this:

Sometimes it is helpful that I spent grad school in the programming languages group.

The parser that ANTLR generated now parsed our test query in under a second. Sure, we changed an LL(*) parser into an LL(1) parser, but I never would have thought that changing the grammar could result in an improvement by a factor of 2700.

via xkcd: Citogenesis.

Something similar actually happened with the Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, who used to be the German Minister for Economics and Technology and later the Minister of Defense, before it became clear that he had plagiarized his doctoral dissertation.

I got to see Corky, Vivek and Vincent again, my doctoral advisor and two of my collaborators. I ran into a bunch of people I had met before, like Matthew Flatt, Eelco Visser, Michael Ernst, and Eugene Wallingford, but Igor Peshansky was one of the few people who seemed to recognize me as well. Thanks, and that’s just the way it goes for folks like me.

Vivek and Vincent did a great job with our DrHJ demonstration. Of the other presentations that I watched, I think PREFAIL impressed me the most. That was really good work. I liked the idea of the DSL to test languages and wish I’d had something like that for my work on Mint. And Zef Hemel’s mobl language demo was just damn cool.

I’m glad that I got to go, and I wish I had had more time, time to stay and be involved. I have more interests and responsibilities now, but I enjoy keeping in touch.

Here are some pictures:

Portland from the top of the Hilton, where the Educators' Symposium was held.

Turing Award-winner Ivan Sutherland speaking.

PREFAIL talk by Pallavi Joshi, UC Berkeley.

PREFAIL Talk, finishing slide.

Integrated Language Definition Testing Talk by Lennart Kats, Delft University of Technology

Integrated Language Definition Testing, example slide.

Dick Gabriel introducing Stanford professor McCarthy's keynote at OOPSLA'07 in Montreal

John McCarthy was one of the earliest collaborators of my doctoral advisor, Robert “Corky” Cartwright. They worked on first-order programming logic in 1978 (Recursive programs as functions in a first order theory) and 1979 (First order programming logic).

McCarthy was on Corky’s committee. In Germany, the doctoral advisor is called “Doktorvater”, doctor father. If I haven’t quite lost a doctoral grandfather, I have at least lost a doctoral granduncle.

Mt. Rainier Weather

That did seem a bit odd, though, considering the temperature is hovering between 10 C (50 F) and 17 C (63 F) in Seattle. It turns out, that weather is for Mt. Rainier, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC. In Mt. Rainier National Park, WA, it’s snowing:

Mt. Rainier National Park Weather

Oops.

I immediately changed my Google password, then upgraded my Lookout for Android to Premium so I could remotely lock my phone. I then began to track the phone and called the Seattle Metro. I could tell the customer service representative exactly where the bus with my phone was, but the representative said there was nothing he could do. I should try to catch the same bus when it comes back, or call them again tomorrow at 10:30 AM to contact Lost and Found. I tried to watch the bus, but I missed it, and I was at work, and that was more important.

Once, when I called my phone from my office phone, someone somehow picked up. I heard a women’s voice say “Oh-oh. Did you find that phone earlier?” Then there was a man’s voice saying “I can’t answer the call. It’s against the rules.”

Now, unfortunately, the phone’s battery is empty, and I can’t track it anymore. I don’t have a choice but to hope the bus driver found it and will take it to Lost and Found in the morning. The thing about it “being against the rules” makes me hopeful. I hope I had “Glueck im Unglueck” — that I got lucky in this misfortune.

Three logicians walk into a bar

I love it. This came to me from Spiked Math by way of Language Log, one of my long-time favorite nerdy blogs.

Yesterday, September 23, was the last day of early registration pricing, and even though it was still September 23 here in the Pacific timezone, the server apparently was on Eastern time. On the website, I did not get the lower price, but Mandy Mann from Registration Systems Lab, the company operating the registration website, already promised an $80 refund in the middle of the night.

Thanks for working so hard!

I haven’t booked a hotel yet. I don’t think I’ll choose the conference hotel, though. I hope it won’t be too cold or rainy yet in Portland and that walking a mile or two won’t be too bad. Of course, I could drive that distance too, park at the conference hotel, and still get a better price.

I also renewed my 24 Hour Fitness membership today by two years. I was a bit skeptical when I signed up a year ago, but the gym membership has become something I do not want to miss anymore.

Update

I now booked my hotel through Hotwire for $69 a night. I had made good experiences with Hotwire in Portland when I stayed in the Courtyard by Marriot near the Convention center. Hotwire had a hotel with a similar rating and price now, but alas, it’s a different one. The Red Lion Hotel does not nearly look as good. Oh well…

While the NDR2 team was kind enough to respond and tried to help, unfortunately they did not know why the MP3 stream was not working for me anymore either. If I download the m3u file that NDR2 links to, and I get a streaming MP3 URL, but when I access that, I get a 404:

Curiously, the WMA stream that NDR2 offers is still working; therefore, it’s mainly a problem on my Android phone. Fortunately, on AndroidForums.com I found a work-around that’s not quite as nice as the original NDR2 web player, but at least it works:

Yourmuze.FM offers a link to a Flash web player that plays the WMA stream, and that also works on Android.

I still hope that I get back the nice original NDR2 web player, with current, previous, and next song information, but for now, I have my radio back.

Update

The original NDR2 web player is working again. It seems like whatever service NDR2 uses for streaming fixed the problem.

I’ve run about 72 miles (115 km), biked several times, and I’ve zumba-ed (if you just look at the instructor, and not at yourself in the mirror, you can pretend that you are an amazing dancer).

Presidential Active Lifestyle Award

I’m pretty satisfied with myself. In absolute terms, this is probably not an achievement worth mentioning. It’s not getting me to the Olympics¹. But in relative terms, it is. I have become a much better me. I’m 31 years old, I finished grad school, I’m working full time, and I’m in the best shape of my life.

1. Unless you’re talking about the Olympic Mountains, in which case, it does get me there. [back]

Of course I am excited about the Habanero Java and DrHabanero papers from Rice, but the University of Lugano paper Portable and Accurate Collection of Calling-Context-Sensitive Bytecode Metrics for the Java Virtual Machine looks interesting too, as usual.

I wish I could attend.

After that, I looked around for docking stations, and unfortunately, there aren’t many. The HengeDock seemed nice enough, though, so I ordered one.

The HengeDock arrived today. It was nicely packaged in a style that matches that of Apple, and it came with all the cables except for the Mini DisplayPort connector and the power adapter, which is understandable, those cost $30 and $80.

I began to feed the cables through the holes on the bottom, attached them to my notebook, and then attempted to insert it into the dock. Unfortunately, this is quite difficult. It took me a very long time to get them all lined up again with the holes on the bottom of the dock.

Once that was done, I struggled with lining up the cables so all of them make a connection at the same time, Most of the time, the power adapter couldn’t connect. Finally, I got that done, and I could actually work on a real monitor.

Unfortunately, when I pulled the MacBook Pro out of the dock, the Mini DisplayPort adapter came along. So I re-aligned everything and tightened the screws some more.

This is where the HengeDock has real problems. There are competing concerns of keeping the connectors in place and not breaking the thin pieces of plastic at the bottom. In the end, neither happened. The plastic broke and the connector still moved around.

Regrettably, I can’t recommend the HengeDock. It’s going back to the manufacturer.

Although I’m still looking for replacements of the incredibly shoddy SplashData applications SplashMoney and SplashID, which constantly crash on Android, I am very happy with my Android phone.

Do I have to enter the IP address of the computer in the LAN manually? I use DHCP and the IP can change. The HomePortal allowed me to assign firewall rules to a MAC. The same problem occurs with port forwarding.

Is that not possible with the DGND3300v2?

PS: The lack of gigabit ethernet on a product of this price is a sore disappointment, too.

Update

IP addresses can be reserved for MACs under router login > LAN setup> address reservation.

Update 2

Except in the latest firmware, V2.1.00.48_1.00.48NA, you can’t. Address reservation doesn’t work because of a Netgear bug sigh

Jorte is pretty nice as a calendar, but I still haven’t found one that allows me to enter time zones. Do Android users not travel?

On the other hand, Astrid is a pretty good task planner, and I think I’m getting the hang of Swype. I just wish the virtual keyboard were a little bigger. Using Swype is definitely faster than typing letter by letter, but the physical keyboard on the Palm Treo was better… at least before it broke. I should just get over it.

I found Jorte to be a pretty good calendar replacement, although I’m not happy with the way time zones are treated. What good is a calendar if I have to convert times in my head?

I do have my calendar items and contacts on my phone again now, so I feel less amputated now anymore.

The turn-by-turn navigation is pretty cool. It uses a lot of battery though, so I need to get a car charger.

I’m writing this using the Android WordPress app, by the way. It avoids having to scroll and zoom the website in the browser.

I desperately need to re-train my muscle memory. I didn’t notice this until just now, 10 hours after the auto-completion changed.

Initially I had planned to buy a BlackBerry because it is great with text, and text is what I do. However, I got the feeling that BlackBerry OS had started to fall behind, and I didn’t want to replace an old phone with one that was also already on the way out. It also seemed like I wouldn’t be able to customize the phone as much. BlackBerries look like they have exactly one way of doing things. And I figured I would miss the touch screen.

I didn’t really want to buy a Korean phone (“Buy North American or European!”), but there isn’t much else left. So it came down to the Samsung Epic and the HTC EVO. I liked the idea that the Epic had a physical keyboard, but it turned out to not be so good. I’m also always a bit skeptical of devices with hinges. The user interface of the HTC phones also look better. So the HTC EVO it was.

Getting the new phone involved upgrading from the SERO 500 plan for $30 a month to SERO Premium for $40/mo plus $10/mo 4G data surcharge. But $50 a month before taxes isn’t bad for an unlimited everything plan.

There are many things the EVO does very well. Watching YouTube videos use great. Browsing the web is amazing. Reading RSS feeds and listening to podcast is slick. And in landscape-mode, even writing this blog post with the on-screen keyboard is enjoyable.

I have experienced a few downsides too, though. The SplashMoney application for Android is terribly slow, almost unusable. And for both SplashMoney and SplashID, the desktop sync is a lot worse than for the Palm. But maybe that will improve.