Look at all that Must be Done!

1) Know What Must be Done – This would seem obvious, but I often amaze myself with the things I neglect to do simply because I don’t remember them. The remedy is simple enough; write down all tasks, as they come up in a central location, and review this document frequently, be it a scroll, calendar, or a wretched mass of sticky notes. I prefer calendars because the boxes remind me of the symbolic representations of memory addresses, and I am easily amused.

2) Allocate Enough Time – That means don’t go get crunk with the bros when the stack of work to be done is higher than said bros. Which, knowing the low tolerance of many of today’s youth, is not very high indeed. The easy rule is to spend roughly two hours for each non-trivial class one has. But, if you’re like most people, you have a job or some other kind of obligation, perhaps to family or to a significant other. My suggestion in this case is to blow off your loved ones – hey, if they love you, they won’t mind!! – and spend your nights being miserable and alone as you pound away at What Must be Done.

3) Eliminate Distractions – Thoreau said, “Simplify, simplify”. That was what he told his mom when she brought him cookies as he lived the SL™ at Walden pond. We cannot all venture into nature, or civilization as we know it would be in a different location. But one can do one’s best to lessen those common and vulgar distractions. Take down those nudie pictures from the wall, turn off the offensive Rap Music, and turn off your cell phone. Don’t even think about using your computer when programming – mercilessly step through every line of code and check it for integrity before even thinking of turning on the PC. This saves a lot of time when you discover the “#include <ioseam>” before compilation and linking.

There you have it, the only SL™ approved method for getting things done!

She was my first girlfriend, and I still care for her greatly. But she’s had enough and I can’t blame her. Though I speak from a position of inexperience, I will share what tips I may, and what I have learned:

1) Let her know how you feel – Tell her, in no uncertain terms how you feel and how much you appreciate her. Be free with your words of love. In addition, do not be afraid to “open up” (heaven forbid!) and share your personal problems – if she cares about you, she will never think less of you.

2) Swallow your pride – This means not only admitting when you are wrong, but not harping on the points that make her wrong. Man was made to overlook many of the things people do.

3) Love her truly – If you don’t love her, you have no business being in a relationship with her. Express your love, but more importantly, show your love by being a good and virtuous man. Actions excel by far words (often mere platitudes) in importance.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go make this face a lot:

Finding an activity one truly enjoys and that can succor one in one’s hour of boredom is the recipe for all the flagging souls in the world. Nor will it fail to inspire interest in those one meets. It may be reading, working on cars, or tending newts. Personally, I ride my bike.

Not only is riding a bike great exercise, the joy of dangerously whizzing through a turn and scraping the pedal on the pavement can scarcely be reproduced elsewhere. And when I am struggling up a hill one my one-geared bike, wishing that Death could not come too swiftly, and the crest thereof is crested and the descent descended, the pain and sweaty misery truly remind me that I, for worse, am still alive.

Ne’er has man been born to sit idle at home. He was made for action, and the Strenuous Life™ (SL). So, I say unto all the persons reading this: men at some times are masters of their fates; sit ye not idle by while others live!

What do You Mean by “Real” Reading?

There is something that not enough intelligent, well educated Americans do: read for pleasure. While it is pleasurable to read the details of Jon and Kate’s divorce, such material can hardly be thought to be in the repertoire of a gentleman. I encourage everybody to find a book outside of the popular novel or nonfiction section and read it, cover to cover. It can be a novel, an epic poem, a work of philosophy, or a work of history. But this book cannot be something you have a) read before, or b) be based on a major motion picture from Universal Studios.

Any Suggestions?

Much like Horatio Caine always has a minute, I always have suggestions. I am partial to ancient history, so some of my suggestions will be of or relating to that subject.

1. The Lives of Plutarch

If you can find it, read the John Dryden translation. The Lives are full of occasionally funny and nearly always interesting anecdotes about the person in question, and they often involve somewhat farfetched supernatural occurrences – Plutarch himself did not believe them, but thankfully, he faithfully reported them.

1. Sherlock Holmes

Reduced to a stale caricature by our crass modern popular culture, the Adventures, etc. of Sherlock Holmes are yet jolly good yarns, full of manly action and freedom. Plus, one may enjoy Dr. Watson in his uncorrupted semi-competent glory, free of the blithering idiocy of Nigel Bruce’s Watson.

1. Jurassic Park

Four words: Babbling Anti-Capitalist Ian Malcolm. Despite seriously hating corporations, Mikey-baby still managed to write a dashed good book.

Even just reading these three meager suggestions could easily take the rest of the summer, if one is not too immoderate in one’s reading. I chose them carefully because they are pleasures to read, not overly technical, obscure, or difficult. Now go and do the right thing.

(SM & LB)

College students aren’t noted for their high disposable incomes. Therefore when trying to save some Benjamins, they often turn to free (as in beer) software, which is also often Free. And my tenure as an employee of Walmart has emboldened me to help others Save Money and Live Better (SM & LB). So for those who prefer not to pirate proprietary software and navigate the teeming ocean of cracks, keygens, and DRM, I have made a short list:

General Consumption:

Linux (I use Ubuntu, because I’m lazy)

Open Solaris

GIMP

OpenOffice.org

Computer Science Specific:

Windows

Visual Studio Express Editions (see below)

MinGW and MSys (Windows implementation of GCC and Unix tools)

Notepad++

Geany IDE (also available on Linux)

Linux

GCC is included with every Linux distribution on earth (or so I assume).

Gedit (GNOME text editor)

GNU Emacs

Joe’s Own Editor

*A note about Microsoft Visual Studio: The full version of VS 2008 is available FREE from Microsoft, but as it may not be available for your particular school or country.

What do I use?

A silly question, because of course I know what I use. But you don’t. For 95% of my programming work, I use the combination of Notepad++, MinGW, and MSys. I have found them to be the best for rapid development of small programs, which is the majority of my work thus far. I do have Visual Studio, but I rarely use it.

Even if Linux Users Won’t Admit it…

Windows works. It is more likely to work with the non-programming software I use, and with any prospective hardware I might buy. Windows is a stable platform that does not break compatibility with each six-month release interval. A well-written piece of Windows software will likely work for the rest of Microsoft’s existence. And all of the UNIX development tools are available for Windows – GCC and BASH and so on – besides the other excellent tools developed by Microsoft and others.

But…

Even if Microsoft fanboys won’t admit it, Linux works. Modern distributions work with little or no configuration and many a nerd-hour has been spent writing drivers for heaps of hardware (except the infamous Intel GMA 500). Linux is also the most user-customizable operating system on earth. It can be configured to be as slim as necessary to runon hardware even Windows XP chokes on. Software can also be easily added or configured from the distribution’s repositories.

It really doesn’t matter…

It doesn’t matter what you choose, because you will be required to learn both anyway. It is a matter of personal preference. You will learn Windows and you will learn Linux or some other Unix-y system. For my own part, I use Windows. I sacrifice the easy installation of software in Linux for the sheer breadth of choice and compatibility. I also like games – and I think that is something that even diehard *nix users must admit – that games that are written for Direct X and Windows are years ahead any of the villainy residing in the “Games” division of their favorite distribution’s repository. And that’s terrible.