You know that Italian eatery downstairs from my office that I've written about in the past?
Yesterday I overheard two of the kitchen staffers on a cell phone ordering a pizza for delivery.
Not good Italian? Or just sick of the offerings at their workplace?
Hmmmmmm.
I've not posted in a very long time.
Been some parental medical issues to deal with so not much time nor inclination.
I have, however, spent what time I did have to finally get my music site back up online.
Check it out at www.gdonges.com.
My music, old photos and more. With, hopefully, more yet to follow.
So, how's everybody been while I was gone?
of posts.
I have ideas, but no motivation to flesh them out and write them down.
But I've decided that commenting on other people's blogs are, in a way, posting.
So that counts, right?
If not, then I have some scrambling and some back-dating to do!
So, after years of procedural coding in PHP, I'm finally trying to wrap my mind around classes and OOP coding. I did some years ago in C++, but, like I said, that was years ago and I was never very good at it.
My brain hurts.
Can anyone tell me why, for a regular web page, it is a good idea to write in the object oriented style? As I read tutorials, experiment on my own and generally blunder my way through, I find that it actually takes more code to write in this manner and is more confusing to boot.
Much of that can obviously be attributed to my novice level with it, but still.
I can see some uses such as pagination functionality but that is what I've always used functions for. And they work just fine and can be reused just like classes.
I mean, in procedural code I can write:
<?
$x=10;
$y=10;
?>
<html>
<body>
X times Y equals <?=$x*$y;?><br />
</body>
</html>
With OOP coding, I would have to write:
<?
class Multiply {
var $x;
var $y;
function Multiply($x, $y) {
$this->x = $x;
$this->y = $y;
}
function getanswer() {
return $this->x * $this->y;
}
}
$myAnswer = new Multiply(10,10);
?>
<html>
<body>
X times Y equals <?=$myAnswer->getanswer()?>
</body>
</html>
With the class declaration actually being in a separate file that I include.
What am I missing?
Why am I putting myself though this?
Aaauuuggghhhhh!
Better, but still doesn't go well with morning coffee and blueberry scone.
So, thinking they had found the source of the vaporous pollutant, I then discovered this:
consume their lunches and/or dinners (open atrium-type space)
Not the reason for smells of yore, but disgusting nonetheless.
Blarghfrt!! (and, yes, I spelled that correctly!)
'Cause it is a blast from the past?
'Cause they were so stupid it was hysterical?
'Cause I feel bad for Dave Thomas who had a much lesser later career than his hoser brother Rick?
i dunno.
I just hope this goes away very very soon.
(note to self - put the Two-Four Anniversary special DVD on Amazon.com wish list!)
It used to be that malware authors had, if not finese, a more subtle approach.
Key loggers, phishing sites and pharming at least took some skill to pull off and make money off of them.
No longer. Now there is ransomware.
We are now in the realm of street hoodlums on your pc.
Meet Delf.ctk. A trojan virus that will lock up your system and then demand you call a 900 number to submit a $35 payment to get control of your system back. Once installed, an error message will pop up on your screen:
"ERROR: Browser Security and Antiadware [sic] Software component license exprited [sic]," the message reads. "Surfing PORN, ADULT and some other kind of sites you like without this software is dangerows (sic) and threatens with infection of your computer by harmful viruses, adware, spyware, etc."
You will then be able to click on a button that reads "Click to activate new license".
That, then, will bring up another
screen, which tells you to call a 900 number and enter a PIN.
Yet to come: malware that, if you don't pay up within a certain time frame, will eject your cd drive with enough force to break both your knee caps.
I have a weird setup at work - the office wherein I spend my days and while away my hours in is a leased space connected to the main company building. It is an older structure (actually probably on some historical record someplace) and we are directly above a large Italian restaurant
I won't go into everything I see on a daily basis....oh what the hell - sure I will:
- eatery employees leaving the bathroom without washing their hands
- a sink in the shared bathroom that, even though the plumbing looks connected, will drain the contents of the basin directly onto your feet if you are not prepared
- deliveries that sit by the back door to the kitchen for hours at a time even though the cartons are clearly marked "KEEP REFRIGERATED!" (not nearly as important now in January, I grant you. But in July?!?)
- the pilot lights from the large gas stoves that go out overnight so the intense odor of natural gas smacks you in the face first thing and you don't dare knock into anything for fear of creating the smallest spark
- garlic infuses everything to the point where your eyes burn and your own lunch of raw veggies and cheese tastes like 'sagna rollerup-inis (with small curd cottage cheese instead of ricotta, nastily enough!).
- the noise from the patrons of said establishment can be deafening - especially if it is a birthday party or some company function.. Try reading error logs with 20 unwittingly tone deaf voices lustily careening through the birthday song (also dig the stupidity of people actually forgetting the words to said ditty!).
But nothing compares to this morning. I walked into the shared entryway and was immediately assailed by an odor of...of....of....well, nothing I have ever smelled before.
I thought it was rotting meat at first.
But then it shifted to rancid garlic buttered toast left in an air vent for 6 weeks or so.
And then it morphed into a basket of dirty laundry complete with damp towel that had been left in a closet for more than several days.
Then it became my grandparent's old house that sat on a dirt foundation (complete with old jars of canned tomatoes that had become unsealed during the previous decade unknown to anyone else 'cause who ever goes down that hatchway to the earthen crawlspace except a curious 12 year old?) with a belching old oil burner in one room for heat.
And now?
Now I don't smell anything any longer. And that isn't due to better air circulation - the restaurant doesn't open for another couple hours so the doors to the place aren't ajar yet.
What that means is that I have gotten used to the scent.
And that worries me more than anything.
Yesterday I was asked to perform miracles for the web site. Basically, give google-esque features to our local site.
My response was that since I'm the only coder in residence with no budget to speak of and a disaster recovery plan to write, it would take me at least several weeks to even give a semblance of the functionality asked for.
But I came into work this morning in the right frame of mind and knocked the bitch out of development in 2 hours.
I fuckin' rock!
Some days the mind is just in the right frame to be able to conceptualize the need and write the logic to make it happen. Other days the mind is ripe for watching cauliflower rot.
Actually, this falls quite nicely into my IT mantra - always tell the customer/user that what they want is difficult/unnecessary/impossible/stupid. And then pull it off anyway. They are happy, you look good and life goes on in an elevated plane of existence.
Now I guess I can play mahjongg the rest of the day.
There might be nothing better than to sit with loved ones, drink chilled good vodka, watch primary results roll in slowly and laugh at the pundits and talking heads.
Not quite better than sex, but close.
Ahhhhhhhh.
