I don’t have much in the way of content for this post, so I’ll just share today’s song. The only thing I don’t like about this song is this part (solo?) in the middle that just goes on WAY too long, and is way too repetitive. I discovered this song through iTunes when I saw a whole album of covers. Some good stuff.
Update:
Including a link to the album, “Covering 20 Years of Extremes“. I want to test my new auto affiliate link plugin.
I just stumbled across this article about luck. As counter intuitive as it may be (to you at least ), it seems luck actually a well-honed skill. That’s right! If you want to be lucky, all it takes is a healthy dose of optimism, and positive thinking.
I’m all for optimism anyway– I just think it feels better. But this guy is not simply telling us to change our attitude if we want to feel happier. He’s talking about the real, tangible results of a paradigm shift1. (1 See The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“).
Here’s a quote:
I asked a group of lucky and unlucky volunteers to spend a month carrying out exercises designed to help them think and behave like a lucky person. These exercises helped them spot chance opportunities, listen to their intuition, expect to be lucky, and be more resilient to bad luck.
One month later, the volunteers returned and described what had happened. The results were dramatic: 80 per cent of people were now happier, more satisfied with their lives and, perhaps most important of all, luckier.
I swear I’m a case study of this principle! In the last two years my outlook, and in turn my life, have changed so dramatically for the better that I’m considering listing “luck” on my resume as a skill.
This is exactly the sort of thing that The Secret talks about, although it attributes success to “the universe,” which sounds much more mystical. Either way they both contain universal truth that is worth heeding.
So if you don’t feel lucky, then look on the bright side.
UPDATE: Apparently this guy has a book called Luck Factor. (Yes, it’s an affiliate link. I’m feeling lucky. )
I finally found a solution to the iMeem issue. It’s a handy plugin for Wordpress that generates either an HTML5 audio player or degrades to Flash if the browser is incompatible.
Incidentally, it’s much more powerful than stupid Coffeecup’s Web Jukebox. Before you try and take away any of my geek cred, I bought their “Big Cup” package a long time ago. I figured it was worth trying to salvage some of that investment. Besides, I’ve used their photo album software, and it gets the job done in a pinch.
But anyway, here’s the song.
One of these days I’ll actually know how to program c++ pretty well, and when that happens, I plan to write some kickass software. But when that happens, I figured it would be pretty amusing to look back at my very first c++ program (besides the mandatory “Hello World!” app).
Write a program that dispenses change. The program should read the amount of the purchase and the amount paid and then display the number of dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies given in change.
Actually if you keep reading, they tell you the wrong way to do it, as a “hint”. Jerks.
But notwithstanding, this is what I wrote:
I promise, there was lots more whitespace in the actual program. Wordpress is just being stupid. Here's the file for download: ChangeDispenser.cpp.
Warning: Don't cheat off me.
UPDATE 10-19-09: Fixed a bug in how pennies were calculated.
UPDATE 11-01-09: Fixed formatting / lack of whitespace.
Yeah! That’s an awesome enough name for the sequel to my first jump.
I went skydiving with Cliff on Sunday, but I’m just barely getting around to posting stuff here. I’ve got a couple videos, and a ton of pictures.
Here’s the video shot by Vladmir at Skydiving Snohomish:
http://www.vimeo.com/6916655
UPDATE: Apparently Flickr limits videos to 90 seconds… working on Plan B (since YouTube is being stupid about the music embedded in the video).
UPDATE 2: We’ll see if Vimeo works…
Here’s the video that Cris took of me and Cliff landing:
Here’s the pictures:
For those Minty iPhone users who haven’t yet downloaded the app, you should get it today!
You know those times when you’re bored, and you turn to your phone for help? Well, if you get done reading email, texting aimlessly, and playing your favorite puzzle game, now you can download your financial transactions and categorize them. See?! I knew you’d be excited.
No, I’m not joking. I actually have been meaning to get a better handle on my budget, and one of the prerequisites is to know what kind of stuff you’re spending the money on. So yes, I will actually be making use of this seemingly boring feature.
But I’m also a major Excel geek, so your mileage may vary.
), it seems luck actually a well-honed skill. That’s right! If you want to be lucky, all it takes is a healthy dose of optimism, and positive thinking.
“).
talks about, although it attributes success to “the universe,” which sounds much more mystical. Either way they both contain universal truth that is worth heeding.
. (Yes, it’s an affiliate link. I’m feeling lucky. 
)
. To quote: