Aaaaaargh - 21 April 2007

Naturally, two days before it’s due, something changes, and it breaks something else! The worst part is, the thing that’s broke, shouldn’t be! It worked in the previous release just fine, and all the documentation says that’s how it should work, but now the numericality and length validations on my book model throw errors on blank entries, even though I specifically have allow_nil set to true! It worked not too long ago, but now it’s gone south! And with it, rather than blank entries, suddenly the fields are being populated with “NULL”. I wonder if something went south or weird in the Rails releases. That’s just weird. So I’m doing a couple things here and there to see if things might have gone weird in the upgrade. So we’re rebuilding it. Hopefully, it gets fixed and then we can smile and go “Yay! It works again!” (As it turns out, I’m half-right. Some things work, others break horribly. But at least the NULL values have gone away.)

Since it’s due on Monday, hopefully tomorrow the problem will be fixed, or the instructors will go “is bug, don’ worry about it.” or some other thing. Because having a hair-puller like this one, where it’s supposed to work, is just freaking insane.

I-Mockery has some photos of the "I Am 8-Bit" art exhibition for 2007. Is this going to be a recurring thing? Because if it is, that will rock hardcore. Video game art, remixed or raw, is definitely worthwhile.

droewyn and greyweirdo put the tag-team hurt on those who want to blame the VT victims for not acting. First, greyweirdo wants to know “What if it starts raining custard?” And from there, droewyn would appreciate it if people would stop linking everything to 11 September, including the latest bit, thank you very much.

Regarding Iraq, the President said that sectarian murders have halved since the troop surge. That’s an oddly-specific statistic, I’d say. What about the whole murder and death rate? Has that gone down? The President also went to a high school in Ohio, where, unscripted, we find out that the President can compare the war in Iraq to the rug in his office.

Some of the recalled pet food may have had the poisoning ingredient added intentionally to boost the protein content. That’s worrying - were the people adding the stuff aware of its potential side effects?

Insurance is supposed to help us pay for costs that would normally bankrupt us totally. According to Diatribune, Blue Cross uses a "pre-approval" process that doesn't guarantee payment, and has sometimes been denying final approval after the procedure is done, leaving the insured member responsible for all the costs incurred. I thought that the point of having insurance was the peace of mind that would come with knowing that costs would be covered. If you have to worry that your insurance is going to first say yes and then say no later, then what good is the insurance?

The Naval Safety Center wants servicepeople to remember to be safe in their workings. To that effect, they’ve started posting Photos of the Week that show off what Midshipman Skippy is probably no longer allowed to do.

Last for tonight is an exercise in creative thinking. Fed up with motorists stopping to relieve themselves at the roadside, Austrian officials have put up snake warnings in an attempt to have the gents stay zipped up. So the threat of real snakes will keep the trouser snake inside.

Done, d00ds! - 22 April 2007

Fixed the problem through the judicious use of the Intarwebs and stealing someone else’s code solution, printed it off today, will turn it in tomorrow. Project’s all finished. Thank goodness. Got one grade back as well, and it’s a good one. Two more grades to go. And then it’ll be officially official, and I’ll be finished. Of course, we’re still working out that job thing, but I’m confident that’ll go through, too. So I’m graduated! (Overlord! Overlord!)

But nothing special accrues yet for this achievement. Not yet. But II will be enjoying knowing that I’ve finished the course of study that the last six years put in front of me. (Overlord!) Instead, everyone gets another link list.

Those who were watching the Detroit-Calgary series, as I was yesterday, see that five games for a two-handed goalie stick chop and $125,000 in fines were assessed to various players and the Calgary Flames organization for their brawling and bad behavior.

An article in the Economist suggests that having women in the workforce at about the same amount of men and making similar sorts of money would be an economic benefit to any country that did it. To get to that point, though, things like child care would need to be affordable and prevalent, and laws and decisions making pregnancy a potentially life-threatening exercise would need to be made sane or repealed. Oh, and we could probably do without laws imposing a dress code on people because of religious reasons, too.

Washington state’s governor signs a bill granting domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples. I have to say, the end line by the pastor at the end could certainly be interpreted both ways - “Giving marriage-lite benefits without the benefit of marriage strikes me as not a good idea.” Remind me who’s leading the charge to deny these couples the benefit of marriage again? Actually, Liberal Eagle’s perspective on the inevitability of domestic partnerships is definitely one I can agree with. So, get your Hugo Weaving Agent Smith accents on. Still In the religious way, churches are closing in Germany due to lack of congregants and income. The buildings are being converted to other purposes after they can’t hold enough devotees to stay open. Old institutions dying out, to be replaced by new ones, perhaps? Finally, Light and Life tries to navigate the Bible according to the Bush Administration - no easy task, certainly, considering how interpretations would have to be reworked and other parts discarded to meet the deeds that Mr. Bush does, while claiming to follow Christ.

Jesus’s General has a look at bills and laws designed to keep criminals in jail beyond the time of their term, based on whether the state consideres them likely to offend again. These aren’t terrorists or murderers or torturers... these are sex offenders that are being kept past the point of their prison term.

A public service announcement about the art of sorcery. Read and be informed.

If one is photographing (or using other media, actually, I’ve pulled this trick myself), to create the appearance of age, soaking in tea, coffee, and then applying a little steel wool might be just the trick.

Could someone with some knowledge in materials, or aerospace, or other appropriate science tell me what’s being said in this post about microwave beams powering a solar sail? I can’t make heads or tails of it.

Funny bits for the last tonight - it’s The Ultimate Geek Test, or something claiming to be such a thing. So, how much of a geek are you? I, however, will be taking my new Overlordship, err, finished project-ness and going to bed. Once the hockey game is over, that is.