Prince Wang's Programmer

Hits from the Booonnnnnnnggggg...

2009-02-02T08:24:00.001-08:00

Interesting article. These sponsorship ideas cracked me up:
FOX Sports on MSN - More Sports - Phelps in for a sponsorship buzzkill?

As his sponsors try to figure out what to do with him, here are some suggestions that could take advantage of Phelps' new notoriety and street cred.

Subway -- "I'm Michael Phelps for Subway. Their freshly-baked bread is even more delicious when you're freshly baked."

Visa -- "Because while Dookie does sell the finest hydroponic bud in the state, he does not take American Express."

Omega watches -- "Sometimes I don't know where I am or even who I am. But I always know what time it is. Thanks, Omega."

PowerBar -- "I'm Michael Phelps. And I don't let the munchies get in the way of doing crunches. I reach for a PowerBar."

A few comments on "Science Finds God | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com"

2009-02-01T22:33:00.001-08:00

Science Finds God | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com

I've commented on this before, but not succinctly - so here it is:

Science and Faith should be conjoined twins, not mortal enemies. There is no reason to reject either in our search for truth. There is every reason to recognize and accept the limitations of BOTH in said search.

Here are some of my other posts on the topic:
http://joeschilibarn.blogspot.com/search?q=science

No one should abandon their faith because of science. No one should abandon their science because of faith.

I'm feelin' this.

2009-01-24T20:23:00.000-08:00

This video's not that great, but i love the music, the lyrics, and Melissa Ethridge's voice.

I know a place
down past an old shack
on a road that goes to nowhere
aint nobody commin' back

we could go there tonight
we can talk until the dawn
or maybe somethin' else
I'll leave the radio on.
the radio on...
[...]
well it's saturday night
it feels like everything's wrong
I've got some strawberry wine
I wanna get you alone.
Get you alone ...

There's no one to hear.
You might as well scream
they never woke up
from the american dream
and they don't understand
what they don't see
and they look through you and they
look past me
oh....
you and I dancin' slow...
we've got nowhere to go.

In Memory ...

2009-01-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

Certianly one of the most profound and beautiful of human experiences is the way in which we experience the death of someone we love deeply. It's no cliche to say that we die with them, for we are never quite the same for having lost them.

Nor is it inaccurate to say that they live on in us. At their memory we are compelled to laugh and to cry, to smile and to ache. They inhabit our waking thoughts and they visit our dreams. By sharing their life, they have shaped who we are, and they shape us further by their passing.

This, it would seem to me, is one of the most profound things that a human being can experience, and yet is experience by nearly everyone. It's something we feel because of our interconnectedness and deep loving bonds, and yet it is something we experience in an isolation and deep spiritual loneliness - this in spite of well wishers who would seek to give us comfort.

This post is long overdue, I suppose. God has, in the last 18 months, called home several people for whom I cared deeply. Some I called "friend". All of their passings came as a surprise, as all had seemignly a great deal of life stretched before them.

To Chad, my boyhood friend. Throughout the span of my 35 years, God has blessed me with first-rate friends, and you were the first of those. I treasure the many memories I have of us. You've no idea what I would give for another day to be your friend.

To Frank, I could never have made it without you, man. You showed me kindness in ways you may not even realize. You were fond of saying that church was for girls 'cause they like to play dress-up and have social hour. It might surprise you to realize that you embodied the values that Jesus taught like few I've ever met. At a critical time in my life you were just the friend I needed - very literally a gift from God. I look forward to seeing you again.

Orval, as Tom said, you really were the best of us all in so many ways. I toiled and worshipped and ate my way through many a weekend with you. You were so important to so many of us, and had so much of life before you. May God receive you into his rest.

Finally, there was one of God's perfect creatures. Katie, I don't know what to say. I've never met someone your age so selfless and Godly. I miss your smile, and your help, and the real-life example that you set for my girls. The world is certainly dimmer without your light.

Chad, Orval, Frank, and Katie - God go with you and speed you on your journey... you are missed.

Joe's New Years resolutsion

2009-01-11T23:04:00.001-08:00

NOTE: These were swiped from Matt Hayes' news letter, "Hayes Days", with slight re-wording by me. That guys makes me LAUGH! the rest was plagiarized from Scott and Douglass Adams.

As God is my witness, in 2009 I vow to:
1 - Grow a totally sweet beard.
2 - come up with a computer password that isn't "password goes here"
3 - Learn to juggle chainsaws ... flaiming chainsaws...
4- Become 30% more awesome
5 - Quit creeping myself out at night by thinking about how the grain on the window blind looks like a guy in a tuxedo glaring at me
6 - Quit filling our money jar with "hope"
7 - Finally Purchase a workplace-appropriate replacement for my beloved"bikini mishaps" calendar
8 - eat more oreos
9 - observe "talk like a pirate day" no matter WHAT.
10 - learn to enjoy the "whoosh"-ing sounds that deadlines make as they fly by
11 - dance like it hurts
12 - love like I need the money
13 - Work when people are watching

Hope everyone's 2009 is off to a wonderful start.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

2009-01-11T22:15:00.000-08:00

I recently read the following comment in facebook:

fb x: is laughing that people are trying to sue so there won't be a prayer at Obama's cerimony.
fb y=:You know that our faith is real when people make such a huge issue out of prayer in the name of Jesus. I do not think that people would care if it was in the name of Buddha or any other false God.

I didn't want to hammer-head in on the thread (barely know the commenter), but I had to respond, so here it is:
The truth is that Christians wouldn't even let WalMart get away with "Happy Holidays". Obama is forced by tradition to have a prayer. He will be forced by popular opinion that it be Christian. Christians have this bizarre perspective that they are oppressed by secular law and culture. I think that it would be closer to the truth to say that popular culture is railing against oppression by Christians, and law is attempting painfully extricate itself from the views of Christian Fundamentalists.

While I believe in prayer and in Jesus, I reject the notion of the US as a "Christian Nation" as I would reject Afghanistan as a "Muslim" nation. I believe in secular government, and feel very strongly that the USA should be a place where all faiths can flourish under law, guided by laws based on common sense analysis of actions and consequences with a healthy sprinkling of "Do unto others ..." intermixed. But THAT'S CHRISTIAN!, you protest. Actually not. The notion of the golden rule is a common thread in many religions, and seems like the best way to make a civilization work, no?

An accurate commentary on Blogging? ;-)>

2009-01-06T13:54:00.001-08:00

Blogging

Some funny phone-calls

2009-01-06T09:29:00.001-08:00

if you wanna chuckle - call these numbers:
Psychiatric hotline: 781 452 2080
Rejection hotline: 312-588-3108

Reminders...

2009-01-06T00:16:00.001-08:00

BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 100 versions and 50 languages.

“[Be Holy] Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”- 1 Peter 1:13

I note with growing dismay the following: I'm a thinker, not a doer.

Please do not mistake my claim to a much used intellect as implying a claim to any sort of intellectual potency. Is it not often the case that the most underpowered engines exhibit the highest RPM's? ;-)>

But, to the point: I find that my natural disposition is to think a great deal about pretty much everything while taking precious little action on much of anything at all.

As is often the case, I am again in need of reminding rather than of teaching. This has been a major point of emphasis in what I believe God has been trying to instill in me for 6 months or more.

I was doing well with this. Working hard, trusting God for strength for the task at hand, etc. However, I've gotten a bit lazy again.

I can almost hear God saying "What are you doing (metaphorically and literally) sitting there? TAKE ACTION, Joe - ANY action! Well, not any action. You know - something Godly."

Bless me, but I might have to get out of my chair for this ...

Gracious Heavenly Father, please continue to grace me with strength of back to match weight of cross, and nudges out out of my natural, neutral state to go and carry it somewhere.

Much obliged.

From MSN - "Why I Went AWOL"

2008-12-30T07:11:00.001-08:00

This sounds so familiar. I pray for people like this. Whether they protest their involvement in the war out of conscience or more earthy matters.

If I were a soldier deployed to Afghanistan, I would be so discouraged that I was paying such an enormously high price, and that my civilian leadership had gotten distracted from our goals by deciding to invade Iraq when it did. "This is MY LIFE, man. I got Nothin' more VALUABLE than what I'm giving to this war...", I would think, and I'd think of my strained marriage and kids whose dad had been gone for half of their life - the price that THEY'RE paying, and I'd be VERY tempted to desert.

If I were a soldier in Iraq - well, I wouldn't be a soldier in Iraq.

Our troops have a right to certain expectations. They should be able to expect us, as a nation, to honor the magnitude of the sacrifices (remember, their LIFE, shattered homes, mental stress and psychological trauma, risk of physical mutilation, etc. etc. etc.) that they make not with words, but with deeds.

First among these: DO NOT SQUANDER the currency they provide in flesh and blood and pain on unwise or unneeded military ventures, plain and simple.

Second among these: BE RESPOSIBLE and A-POLITICAL about our war efforts. The military is over-stretched. Where's the draft to help us fight our two-front war? Well, we can't have one, because then there would be no war. Suddenly, people would get a lot less distracted and busy and the pressure would be applied. So, miliatary families: sorry, you're boned. Says the commander and chief: I can screw my troops and get my war, or I can be a man about this and not get my war. It's evil that he's doing it, and it's evil that we're letting him.

And Thirdly: God help us, why are we not giving these soldiers the support they need when they get home? Why can we ALWAYS find budget for the fight, but NEVER find budget for the post-war care? What is WITH US!?

We owe our soldiers such a huge apology. We (as a nation) were so busy letting ourselves be defined by the experience of the 60's that we couldn't stand up against a war that many of us (including me) KNEW didn't make any sense, even if we took the intelligence of the time at face value. When we spoke up, we were shouted down as unpatriotic and "against the troops", and so we clammed up. I'm sure that this is what happened to many members of congress as well.

Chris, Terry, Jon, & Ethan - I'm sorry. I don't know what I could have done to stop this, but I am SO sorry that I didn't at least talk more often and more loudly about how it was enormously bad judgment to invade Iraq when we did and in the way in which we did.

I'm sorry that our political system is one in which we can elect such a thoughtless commander in chief who would squander your LIVES on a war that was over-reaching and absurdly damaging, with little return for the high price paid.

I'm sorry that the major reason that this man is in office is that my Christian brothers and sisters see every national election as a one-issue race, and have sold their minds, if not their souls, to the Republican party; to the extent that Republican/Conservative & Christian are used synonymously in my church in the same way that Liberal and Sinner are.

Jesus is the what, now? (4)

2008-12-24T12:43:00.001-08:00
Donnie Miller expresses this really well over here.

Jewish Voice for Peace ...

2008-12-23T15:39:00.001-08:00
I was deeply moved by a video message that Monty Asbury linked.

"Palisentians
Isreali
Jews
Muslims
Christians
athiests
everyone ...

we all need to stand togeter
against violence
against repression
no matter who does it
take a stand with us for peace, coexistence, and real future for children like us everywhere.

Sign the letter today."

www.December18th.org

Amen...

Jesus is the what, now? (3)

2008-12-17T21:10:00.001-08:00

warning: This is a brain dump and should be summarized and better organized.

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: John 15:5,8

5"I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing.

So, in programming terms, Jesus is an interface? He's the IDL (Interface Definition Language) that defines the contract between the ineffable "Father" and the hairy (some more so than others), smelly mammals that NEED Him to sustain them in ways they cannot even fathom.

This metaphoric device would have Jesus marshaling and unmarshaling the
love between the Inneffable reality and the mundane organism. There's a proxy and stub that makes Two things separated by a vast distance and uncrossable barrier become conjoined.

Interesting, too, is the fact that the vine and branch are one organism, composed of the same stuff. The two things are primarily different in function, not substance.
By the above logic, Jesus might be though of as a specialized strutcure within the humanity organism.

So, thank you Mr. Obvious. Why does this all bear saying?
Well, I'm not searching for the role that Jesus plays in my own salvation. I think I'm wondering at the role He potentially plays in the salvation of, say, the "un-saved" ;-)>. Example: A devout Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, etc.

Here's my problem when it comes to Jesus:

I almost HAVE to reject the notion that just God would damn a good and devout person because he had not accepted, intellectually at any rate, the concept of Jesus as savior.

Combine that with the fact that I KNOW there are so many things we DON'T KNOW.

Makes me wonder - is there another way to find the Way? To walk through The Gate? To be grafted to The Vine? or to be found by the Shepherd? Is there a sort of salvation that we Christians might not recognize? For example, is it not possible that Ghandi was bearing fruit, somehow, through the Vine of Jesus?

Maybe Jesus is a REALITY as much as a savior? And here's where I can't express what comes next. *Frustration*

Or, maybe I'm reaching for something that just isn't there.

We Christians are taught that you confess with your mouth, but is there some deeper reality by which the Christ connects humanity with Divinity even when there is no profession of faith in the biblical Jesus? If a man (like Ghandi) follows the teachings of Christ and displays the heart of Christ but won't convert to Christianity, what does that make him? It seems arbitrary to say that Ghandi is in hell today because he didn't profess faith in Jesus as his personal savior, doesn't it?

But, I'm being presumptuous - who knows what God's really up to, and who am I to say what is just and what is not based on my fractional and fractured view of reality. Maybe that's really what I'm driving at. Maybe, just maybe, those of us who say Jesus is the way but really mean that my religion is the way aren't as correct as we think. But what would be the alternative?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and the Word was the God...

I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man comes to the father but by me.

I am the Vine and you are the branches

I am the Gate

I am the Good Shepherd

Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice ...

My kingdom is not of this world
You are ever hearing, but not understanding

My ways are not your ways, My thoughts are not your thoughts...

So, Jesus is the what now? *fingers rapping...*

My future's so bright, I gotta wear ...

2008-12-17T19:37:00.000-08:00
We just bought a house and we love it - it's great
in every last way it is truly first rate

well, every last way? Perhaps every but one
I've no shades on my windows, and that's no darn fun

I've just one complaint and it's oh so sincere
my neighbors can see me undressing up here!

I've told all my girls - we've no shades and that blows
so I would suggest that you sleep in your clothes

and by all that's holy - please stay on your toes
or if you get naked, well, everyone knows!

and to my wife I say DON'T LET THEM SEE YA
You're too darned HOT - it could be like Bathsheba!

and why, you may ask, are my shades not up there?
why am I stuck with the state of affairs?

My shades, they sit idle beside my back door
and some have grown tired and lay down on the floor

and await my next coming to cut them and place
them into my windows to hide my red face

they want to be placed - they don't like things this way
they call from my kitchen, and here's what they say:

OH - when will you fix us? - This isn't a game!
you need to cover you girth and your shame

I've seen you undressed as through this house you race
and I must observe that your hair is mis-placed!

the hair on your head, OH! the sight makes makes me gak
it seems to have moved to your ass, ears, and back!

Their point is well made, and although it sounds crazy,
they'll sit on, I'm afraid, because I am quite lazy.

so drive by my house and if you care to peak
I'll be running, quite naked, singing "call me the streak"

OK - Tell me this isn't cool ...

2008-12-17T19:01:00.001-08:00

PS3Cluster Guide: By The Cluster Workshop

You can perform enormously complex calculations by day, and play a wicked game of Crisis by night ;-)>

The PS3 is doomed to go down in history as one of those amazing contraptions that was just too far ahead of it's time.

Q: Why the PS3?

A: In short, the Cell Processor ‘packs a punch’. One of the authors
(Khanna) estimates that his MPI computations run much faster than on
desktop workstation chipsets, and that his original 8 PS3 (i.e. 64
core) Cell cluster had comparable if not better performance to a 200
Node IBM Blue Gene system.

Mmmmmm..... $4,000 super-computer. *drool*

If programming languages were religions

2008-12-17T09:58:00.001-08:00

Aegisub: If programming languages were religions...

Nice :-).

I would add that:
Middleware is the rich demagogue that demands your money and gives you only a twisted semblance of the underlying truth in return.
The WebSphere library is the necronomicon.
Jython is what happens when you put some fundamentalist (Java) in charge of your humanism (Python), kinda like a self-help guru.

Spellcheck ...

2008-12-05T20:25:00.001-08:00

So, i usually write my blog entries in a big hurry. I'm noticing that they need some proof-reading and spell-checking. My apologies to those of you who slog through the entries with improper wording and misspellings.

Jesus is the What, now? (2)

2008-12-05T07:56:00.001-08:00

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: John 10:7, 9-10
9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Several points here:
1 - life and to the full. This isn't some ascetic thing. There's joie de vivre implied here.
2 - the gate as a metaphore implies entrance and exit, as does his statement in 9[a]. What do we make of that? Probably nothing, but ...
3 - he sets himself up in comparison against a thief. Who's the thief?

If we move on and don't over-isolate on this passage, we see later Jesus makes a comparison that he is the good shepherd.

I get it when the jews say he's raving mad. Some of these things make my brain hurt.

Jesus is the what, now?

2008-12-05T07:48:00.001-08:00

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: John 6:35
35Then Jesus declared, "I
am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he
who believes in me will never be thirsty.
Jesus makes all sorts of statements like this throughout his ministry. What does it mean in real life.

This seems abstract. My quest is to turn it into something real for myself.

Gratitude

2008-11-24T07:44:00.001-08:00

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: Colossians 2:6-7
One of the greatest gifts that God has given us is gratitude.

Being grateful for someone makes us get along better. Being grateful for our job makes us work harder, being grateful for our family makes us love more. It's powerful medicine.

Can someone explain this to me ...

2008-11-05T12:16:00.001-08:00

California voters approve gay-marriage ban - Yahoo! News
I mean, honestly, I don't get it. Help me out.

So, from the perspective of the church, marriage is a holy and sacred thing ordained by God with very stringent rules and limitations on circumstance and behavior to be applied. I get that, and don't argue the point even though I think I could. The church's right to their crazy views is, thanks be to God, protected by our CONSTITUTION. ;-)>

From the state's perspective, however, a marriage is nothing more than two separate legal entities that represent individual citizens joining into a single legal entity for sharing of assets and liabilities of both fiduciary and other nature.

Given an appropriate separation of church and state, and that the state has not considered homosexuality illegal for quite some time. how can the state NOT acknowledge the rights of two consenting adults join their assets and liabilities into a single legal entity?

It occurs to me that the church, or someone, is undermining our constitution by adding what is in fact an UNCONSTITUTIONAL constitutional amendment. That is, of course, precisely why an amendment is needed. Any law short of that would be stricken as unconstitutional. We don't want to play by the rules, so let's change them. In some cases that's the right thing to do, but I don't see it that way in this case.

Maybe we should all stop and reflect on that for a moment before the next big gay-marriage-ban vote. Also, reflect on this: The SAME laws that protect your right to lead the life that you choose to lead (go to church, kill animals for pleasure, eat foods known to lead to heart disease, have sex with your spouse at any time and in any way that you choose, etc. etc. etc.) have to apply broadly to ALL people, even those whose behavior you don't understand or condone, provided no one is placed in immediate danger of loss or harm by such action.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. If we are to be a pluralistic society (as opposed to a fundamentalist society), we MUST have the gold-standard of our law be the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them to unto you. If I were gay and in a committed relationship, I'd want to be able to get on my significant other's insurance and share a bank account. I don't see how that undermines the family more than the divorce-on-demand and me-first attitudes that permeate our culture top to bottom.

I really want to understand the other perspective. Someone explain it. Please.

Amen ...

2008-11-04T12:10:00.001-08:00

Inspirational Christian Stories and Poems Blog » NO MATTER WHO WINS….

Adam Kotsko Tuesday Hatred

2008-11-04T08:01:00.001-08:00

Just wrote some words over at http://heteronomy.wordpress.com/, and thought I'd re-write them here, because copy and paste is easy, and I like filling up the cloud's disk space with not just drivel, but superfluous drivel. Nice ;-)>

In re-reading this, I recognize that some of the stuff about Joe the Plumber is pretty mean spirited. I'm leaving it as unedited, but will say that it reflects more my frustrations with the air time the guys given than anything strictly personal.
I hate that I was all excited about coming back and hating a bit, and that I've forgotten all that which I was intending to hate, owing to the fact that I'm now immersed in "work".

Oh, I remember ...
I hate Joe the Plumber. Conversely, I love the thought of kicking Joe the Plumber in the teeth. I hate how, if I want to hire a programmer, he's got to have an advanced degree in brain-surgery, but any apprentice douche-bag can become a political pundit. (Reference Joe the Plumber)

I hate the astounding ability of the average person to radically oversimplify any given problem. Hey, over simplifier: whether your pro- or anti-choice, it's not a three word problem. Chanting "Abortion is murder" just shows me that you haven't really though this through. What I love about Obama, and the thing that is making him inaccessible to so many, is his steadfast refusal to reduce a problem beyond it's simplest form.

I hate the realization that many people I know that would truly and dearly love to vote democrat will still vote republican because of the abortion issue, completely failing to recognize that a)another conservative judge or two won't overturn Roe, and b)only the liberal judges are set to retire, so a democratic president would maintain balance, which is important...

I hate that my daughters' swim coach wants her to swim 2 hours a night, 5 nights a week. Does this seem to anyone else like a lot for an 11 year-old? She's just starting to change in the ways that girls of that age often do, and I'm more than a bit concerned about the effect to her development by that level of activity.

"[..] The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

2008-11-04T07:13:00.001-08:00

BibleGateway.com - Passage Lookup: 2 Corinthians 3:6

6He has made us competent asministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; forthe letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Not a passage that I think I've ever heard cited or preached upon, in all my nearly 35 years. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

Thanks again, BibleGateway.com.

Pro-Life: Pro-Obama ...

2008-11-03T13:46:00.001-08:00

http://masbury.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/pro-life-pro-obama/

Probably bad form to link to someone else's blog with no value add, so ...
I’m coming to see these battles not as left vs. right ideology, but pragmatism and problem-solving vs. dogma and oversimplification.
It’s literally a battle against fundamentalism wherever it’s found, isn’t it. Whether you’re hard-core pro-choice or hard-core pro-life, you’re really just creating noise and emotion that prevents rational and effective problem-solving…

Another tremendous, level-headed post by Monte Asbury.
Arguments for pro-life being pro-Obama:http://prolifeproobama.com/