Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Facebook Pictures

I wrote myself another sweet Perl script. This time, it automatically logs into Facebook, finds all my "friends", and downloads everyone's pictures. It searches through people's albums and downloads every picture from every album from every "friend" (including profile pictures). Creepy? Yes. Super-wicked-awesome? Very yes!*

For those who like numbers...

"Friends" on Facebook: 155
Total pictures: 56495
Size of downloaded material: 3.1 GB
Most number of pictures: Hannah Rose (3472)
Least number of pictures: Dr. Geisler (0)
Average number of pictures: 364
Median number of pictures: 138



Thanks Hannah for that great outlier.

* Frankly, you should have seen this coming. If you don't want me to see your pictures, you should either have 1) Not uploaded them to a public place like Facebook or 2) Not added me as your friend. It's all your fault, I swear.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Deathtrap Daisy

Lrics of the Week:

I should have closed my eyes!

So in love with the memories of you that I have fallen away
So alive in the memories of you that I have died again today

Thinking of you...
Amazed by your disguise
You look so beautiful with death in your eyes
I'm breaking free from you and it's best/the hardest thing I could do
You'd never know that I loathe you
"Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
Or let her captivate you with her eyes." (Proverbs 6: 25)

I'm so in love with the memories of you that I have fallen away
So alive in the memories of you that I have died today

Oh God, God please kill the lady that's inside of me...
God please kill the lady that's inside of me...
God please kill the lady!

Stay out of my house!
You're not welcome here!
I'm so free without you
Yet so aware that I am hanging on by a thread of grace and nothing more
Sweet Jesus have mercy when she knocks on my door!
"The prostitute reduces you to your weakest
Adulteress preys upon your very life" (Proverbs 6: 26)

I'm so in love with the memories of you that I have fallen away
So alive in the memories of you that I have died today

Hosting her was the choice I made, competence was the currency paid
Hence, my true love I'd forsake
Eyes maintained for her she'd take
I'm breaking for my heart to find innocence I've left behind
God Almighty, Giver of Peace, grant to me the strength I seek!

-Staple

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Broken

Lyrics of the Week:

The broken clock is a comfort
It helps me sleep tonight
Maybe it can stop tomorrow
From stealing all my time
And I am here still waiting
Though I still have my doubts
I am damaged at best
Like you've already figured out

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
There is healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holding on to you

The broken locks were a warning
You got inside my head
I tried my best to be guarded
I'm an open book instead
And I still see your reflection
Inside of my eyes
That are looking for purpose
They're still looking for life

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
Is there healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm still holdin' on
I'm barely holding on to you

I'm hanging on another day
Just to see what, you will throw my way
And I'm hanging on, to the words you say
You said that I will, will be okay
The broken lights on the freeway
Left me here alone
I may have lost my way now
But I haven't forgotten my way home

I'm falling apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain,
In the pain there is healing
In your name,
In your name I find meaning
So I'm holding on
I'm still holdin'
I'm holdin' on
I'm still holdin'
Barely holding on to you
Barely holding on to you

-Lifehouse

Friday, December 19, 2008

JScreensaver v0.2 Released

It's been several hours in the making (far too long), but I am now releasing version 0.2 of my custom-built screensaver. That's right, you saw it here first!

It's called JScreensaver. It's a small little Perl script that displays pictures on your screen like a slideshow. What makes this different from your mom's screensaver is that you can vote pictures "up" or "down" using the arrow keys to alter the frequency that the pictures occur. So if you don't like looking at that random picture of Susie throwing up eggnog, you can vote it down once or thrice and it won't show up as often. Likewise, you can vote up your mom's picture and you'll see it more frequently.

Requirements:
    - Linux-based operating system*
    - Perl interpreter with SDL bindings (not hard to get...you just need the libsdl-perl package)
    - A bunch of pictures you don't mind using for a screensaver

Features:
    - Specify directory of pictures to display
    - Change delay between pictures
    - Set desired screen resolution
    - Show pictures in random order
    - Change how much the voting affects picture frequency

Download link: http://denaje.gotdns.com/jscreensaver-0.2.tar.gz

Yes, this is what I've been doing over break. All I need now is a script to download everyone's Facebook pictures...

* Sorry Windows users, you're just too difficult. (It may theoretically be possible to port it to Windows, but it would take a lot of motivation and time and resources.) It has the potential to work on Mac OS X, but special libraries have to be manually downloaded and installed. It's possible that a future release will include a Mac version of the screensaver as well.

This software is licensed under the WTHPL. The author claims absolutely no responsibility for anything that happens as a result of running or not running this software.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Misconceptions

It has come to my attention recently how so many parallels can be drawn between two seemingly disparate things. Take, for example, a programming language and a religion. It seems to me that my favorite language of all time, Perl, and my personal Christian beliefs actually have a lot in common, and not just because Larry Wall, Perl's founder, is a professed Christian.

The most obvious common thread between Perl and Christianity that I can see is how misunderstood they are by the general public. I have encountered much undue resistance to both subjects, mostly by people who've had little to no personal experience with them. I've heard from multiple people how difficult and impossible Perl is; they claim that it's a write-only language and utterly indecipherable. I've also heard similar stigmatizations about Christianity, with all it's rules, regulations, prohibitions, and the like.

What I believe people don't see, however, is that, like Perl, Christianity only appears complicated and complex on the outside. When you really delve into it and find out what the core essence of it is, it's actually simple, beautiful, and elegant. Perl's syntactical structure can be a bit unwieldy for a novice-I grant that-but the more time you spend with it, the more you begin to understand not only how simple solutions are but also how powerful of a language it can be.

And powerful it is. This may be a tad bit of a stretch, but I also claim another similarity between Perl and Christianity is their usefulness, or perhaps practicality. Perl can often be used for "quick and dirty" applications to solve simple problems, or it can be managed in heaping portions to drive complex application behavior. Christianity, too, is perhaps the most practical religion out there. Neverminding the people who "do it wrong"TM (which I'm getting to), the core ideas behind Jesus' teachings are to love God first, then love your neighbor. And his entire life, including everything else in the New Testament, teaches us exactly what it means to love. Besides the Gospel message, that's Christianity in a nutshell. Sure I'm biased, but I think that's pretty practical for everyday living, if you "do it right"TM!

And then of course you have the people who "do it wrong"TM. These are the people who don't comment their code, who use as many ridiculous shortcuts as possible and obfuscate their code beyond recognition, who don't conform to any reasonable programming style, who tip horribly on Sundays, who preach at people without practicing the love of God, who impose Christianity as nothing more than a big list of dos and don'ts, who are so obtuse and blinded that they reject and ignore any current scientific fact because their stupid stubborn nature can't comprehend two different facets of God's creation at once. These people ruin the image of what it's supposed to be about. And I fear that both Perl's and Christianity's images are ruined, perhaps irreparably, by people claiming to be on the inside but who just don't get it.</rant>

...one last humorous comment. Despite my trivial attempts at trying to blend my vision of Perl and Christianity, there's one glaring nonconformity I found. One of Perl's mottos is "There's more than one way to do it", abbreviated TMTOWTDI for short; and this is so true. In Perl, there are hundreds of different ways of envisioning solutions to the same problem, and depending on your background and style, any one of these ways is just as valid as any other. Of course, the Christian message is completely backwards: Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There is, clearly, only one way to do it (TOOWTDI).

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Whispers In The Dark

Lyrics of the Week:

Despite the lies that you're making
Your love is mine for the taking
My love is
Just waiting
To turn your tears to roses

I will be the one that's gonna hold you
I will be the one that you run to
My love is
A burning, consuming fire

No! You'll never be alone
When darkness comes I'll light the night with stars
Hear my whispers in the dark
No! You'll never be alone
When darkness comes you know I'm never far
Hear my whispers in the dark

You feel so lonely and ragged
You lay here broken and naked
My love is
Just waiting
To clothe you in crimson roses

I will be the one that's gonna find you
I will be the one that's gonna guide you
My love is
A burning, consuming fire

No! You'll never be alone
When darkness comes I'll light the night with stars
Hear my whispers in the dark
No! You'll never be alone
When darkness comes you know I'm never far
Hear my whispers in the dark

-Skillet

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Extinction of Silence

by A.E. Stallings

That it was shy when alive goes without saying.
We know it vanished at the sound of voices

Or footsteps. It took wing at the slightest noises,
Though it could be approached by someone praying.

We have no recordings of it, though of course
In the basement of the Museum, we have some stuffed

Moth-eaten specimens--the Lesser Ruffed
And Yellow Spotted--filed in narrow drawers.

But its song is lost. If it was related to
A species of Quiet, or of another feather,

No researcher can know. Not even whether
A breeding pair still nests deep in the bayou,

Where legend has it some once common bird
Decades ago was first not seen, not heard.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Arms Of Love

Lyrics of the Week:

I sing a simple song of love
To my Savior, to my Jesus
I'm thankful for the things You've done
My loving Savior, my precious Jesus
My heart is glad that You call me your own
Because there's no place I'd rather be
Than in your arms of love
In your arms of love
Holding me still
Holding me near
In your arms of love

Saturday, December 6, 2008

More apt problems

Many props to Anthony for finding this for me. (click to see full size)

Comic. Seriously, turn on your pictures.

Huh?

I am currently watching snow rise upward. Just like it should be falling, but in the opposite direction. It's quite confusing.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Invisible Cities

It's Friday and I'm dead tired. I don't plan on being very coherent today...

However, I am excited that we finished reading Invisible Cities for World Literature. The whole book is pretty cool, but I absolutely love last paragraph (Marco Polo is conversing with Kublai Khan, but that's not so important):

He [Kublai Khan] said: "It is all useless, if the last landing place can only be the infernal city, and it is there that, in ever-narrowing circles, the current is drawing us."

And Polo said: "The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space."

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Unforeseen Consequences

The trailer for the Black Mesa HL-Source mod is out! And just like the link says, it looks incredible!

Watch it here.

Basically this is a free mod for the Source engine that is a complete remake of the original Half-Life game. I've been playing through HL1 off and on lately (which I purchased for $.98 might I add!), and this sounds really exciting. The trailer looks amazing. I'll be looking forward to it as much as I am Episode 3.

(Speculation: Can we get the Portal gun in Episode 3? Please please please please please?)