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I found an article on Forbes about what are called high-frequency programmers, the people who code the trading algorithms for companies like Goldman Sachs, complaining about their unsatisfying six-figure salaries. These coders feel that because their programs bring in up to $100,000 a day, they should be paid more than their measly $150,000 salaries. Particularly since their bosses are paid millions to simply manipulate the algorithms they write. They also feel they should be able to take their code with them when they leave. I'm sorry, it's tough for me to write this through all the tears streaming down my face for these poor unfortunate slaves being taken advantage of by the evil nobility.

To me it sounds like they are living in some sort of fantasy land. When I write code for my employer it is owned by my employer. Just like, if I designed a car, that design would be the property of the employer. Just like if I made widgets, they would be owned by the employer. Also similarly, the person who makes widgets probably gets paid less than executives who market or sell those widgets. This is pretty much the understood process of a business. So how greedy can these people be to say that their six-figure salaries just aren't enough?

The correct answer is "pretty frickin greedy."

Found on 2TheAdvocate:

During the board’s meeting Thursday, several board members expressed an interest in the teaching of creationism, an alternative to the study of the theory of evolution, in Livingston Parish public school classrooms.

Board Member David Tate quickly responded: "We let them teach evolution to our children, but I think all of us sitting up here on this School Board believe in creationism. Why can’t we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?"

Fellow board member Clint Mitchell responded, "I agree … you don’t have to be afraid to point out some of the fallacies with the theory of evolution. Teachers should have the freedom to look at creationism and find a way to get it into the classroom."

Yes, because it's clear public education has failed all of the adults on this board, let's ensure their children experience the same overwhelming failure of education as well!

Keep the creationism lessons in Sunday school, but don't mix your spiritual life with science in the publicly funded classrooms of a country that believes in the separation of church and state.

While listening to Pandora today I abruptly became aware that I was listening to an Evanescence song I had never heard before. I quickly checked their site and discovered they have an album dropping in the fall! *squee* And then I realized that meant touring! *squee* *squee*

Yes, I am a fan.

Unless you've been living in an empty desktop computer case (one of those old beige steel types) you've probably noticed the decline of the desktop computer over the last eight years or so. More and more people have ditched their bulky desktops in favor of more portable laptops. Farhad Manjoo at Slate wrote an article on just this subject and he raises some interesting, though mostly obvious points. Netbooks, tablets, and laptops are taking over the market, and surpassed desktops purchased for the first time last year. This makes sense when you consider that laptops can now have roughly equivalent performance to desktops for only a slightly greater cost and that differential should continue to shrink in coming years.

Personally, I still prefer desktops. Laptops make concessions in available ports and obviously what internal components are available and accessible, as well as CPUs and video cards. At home, my primary PC is a laptop that I keep hooked up to about six external devices (thank you USB hub) and two monitors. It doesn't move from its shelf unless I seriously need to take it somewhere. In the past year, I think this has happened maybe two or three times when I went to a friend's for some group gaming. My gaming machine is a desktop and I don't expect that to change anytime soon. I think my brother recently spent something like $4000 on a hardcore gaming laptop. I could probably build the same thing for under $2000 in a desktop and I would still be able to upgrade it later when the need arises. Of course there's that point where you have to replace the CPU, which means replacing the motherboard and RAM and a few of the other components, but I can still reuse hard drives and optical drives and mice and so on. I just can't justify a laptop for a primarily gaming-centric machine. And I think I am in the minority on this point with the exception of the enthusiast gamers who think the lights should dim when the machine is powered up.

I do have the opinion, though, that at some point, all machines will be "fast enough," whether they are desktops or laptops or tablets or cell phones, that they can run whatever is needed of them and all it will come down to is what format you want to work in. That may mean email and IM on the cell phone, spreadsheets on the tablet, and gaming on the big screen, but the machines themselves will be roughly indistinguishable from each other. I think I can live with that.

The Commonwealth of Virginia has passed a law that disqualifies anyone making more than $57,000 from using the commonwealth's free iFile system for filing state income taxes. I've been using this system for years and it's quick, easy, and relatively thorough. Of course, the commonwealth is in a budget crunch and needs to save every penny it has, so they are eliminating this system to save the commonwealth the ~$50,000 annual cost of maintaining the iFile system. This means anyone who does not qualify for iFile must now go to a tax preparer (and pay), purchase a computer program (TurboTax or Tax Cut or what have you) or file a paper return.

Note that the estimated cost for processing paper returns will be about ~$90,000 annually. Methinks we need to spend more money on education to assist lawmakers with their maths.

That today was International Pillowfight Day! So the story goes, the weather was supposed to be amazing today and I was trying to narrow down what to do. I was thinking, I could drive out to the mountains (both for the drive and for maybe a small hike), I could see movies (but I wouldn't get to enjoy the weather), I could see a pillowfight on the National Mall... Actually, I ended up seeing a movie in the morning and then hurrying into the city to witness a pillowfight in the shadow of the Washington Monument. I got there shortly after it started (I think) and stood around the thirty or so minutes that it lasted. Honestly, I was expecting many m ore people, but it was still a great turnout and lots of fun to watch. No, I didn't participate, I was happy just seeing it happen. Afterwards I was interviewed by a guy who, I guess, was working a student film project or something. He just asked why I was there today and I explained essentially what I just told you here. I was looking for something to do and I love the absurdity of an outdoor pillowfight and I really love the idea of a pillowfight on the National Mall. There should be more of those.

After the battle ended I wandered over to the WWII Memorial, which I hadn't yet seen up close, and took a few more pictures. Then I went and found a bench across from the Whitehouse and read a couple chapters of a book. All in all, a pretty satisfying day. You can see the entire set of pictures (that I thought were worth posting) over at Flickr.

I am sure we are all familiar with the band OK Go's past "homemade" video craziness. They just released their newest video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" and it is pretty much the most amazing Rube Goldberg Machine ever created. The only problem is, I have no idea what the lyrics of this song are as I was far too busy watching the action to pay any attention to the actual song.

As an added bonus, Gizmodo has embedded a series of videos showing the behind-the-scenes work that went into making this video.

Rest assured, the words I would use when referring to our record-setting weather here would include significantly more colorful language. After the initial storm that hit last weekend, we were clobbered again earlier this week. Today was actually the first day I've driven my car since last Friday. That's right, a week stuck in my house entirely by myself. Oddly, not as lonely as I would have expected, but that's probably because I've been so preoccupied with work, being as I've had to do it all from home. Anyway, I have so far survived the Big F'ing Snowstorm of early February 2010 with still a month or so of potential snow days to go. As the kittehs say, Do. Not. Want.

I am kind of somewhat documenting the great Doom Storm of early February 2010 over on the Flickr. And I phrase it that way because I have this sneaking suspicion there will be more... *glare*

Seriously, another major storm? I am so done with winter. Actually, I was done with winter around the end of Fall. Make it gone, please.