Friday, March 4, 2005Site comments now protected by captchaOh *hell* yeah. Thanks goes out to Ethel who posted this link: http://www.simong.org/index.php?p=739 I'm still using greymatter (even though I started an MT migration), so I was looking for a greymatter specific captcha solution. I googled for "captcha and greymatter" and found this entry in MrBlog's site http://www.toyz.org/mrblog/archives/00000059.html. He posted a wiki site for installation instructions here: http://www.toyz.org/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?GreymatterCommentHack Unfortunately the tarball doesn't have cgiparse, so I had to download a noncompiling version here http://www.w3.org/Daemon/. You need to hack at it to make it compile, but eventually it works. posted @ 08:56 PM PST [link] Thursday, March 3, 2005Comment spamMy blog keeps getting spammed via it's comment feature by random advertisers plugging crap. I wonder if it's possible to sue for spamming on websites. I *really* hope they pass some sort of law on it and start sending out class actions for it. I'd definitely sign up. Speaking of class action, my dream of going back to school for a law degree is starting to become just vaporware. When I do the number crunching on tuition and forgone salary, it's just financially stupid and really risky. If I go to school, it will take me years (possibly 10) before I breakeven, and I may not find a job unless I go to one of the top twenty schools (ideally top 10). Even if I apply next year, I'll be 30 when I graduate! Breaking even at 40 years old is not very appealing IMO. So nearly three years post-graduation, I've still not been able to take the plunge to go back into academia and switch careers. I guess I'm just chicken... Ugh it's so depressing, I kind of feel trapped. Do I want to continue to build a successful career in engineering and line my ducks in a row or do I want to throw away what I've built and start over to acquire a skillset that I find fascinating? I feel like I have obligations towards events that are looming in the horizon. Plans like getting married, putting a downpayment on a house, starting a family-- seem to be more pressing than my selfish desire to "see what else is out there." Time is just running out. I honestly don't even know what it's like to be a lawyer. I've talked to lawyers, partners, law students, etc. Although I haven't yet shadowed a lawyer, I don't know how much closer I'd be to "knowing" what it's like to be a lawyer by shadowing one. I can't imagine anyone could really see what it's like to be a software engineer by shadowing me for a day. Like in quantum theory, shadowing/observing effects the observed and can give you a skewed picture of the "natural" state. Besides, it's not really becoming a working lawyer that appeals to me. As idealistic and retarded as it sounds, it's the knowledge and certification of a JD is that appeals to me. It's the allure of being able to understand a legal document, draft a contract or sue for justice that really makes me want to become a lawyer. I want to be able to discuss a new invention with its inventor, research and judge its innovative merit relative to a body of existing work, build a case and defend my viewpoint. I'd just like to know, before I die that I could do these things, that I possessed the skillset to think like a lawyer. I'd also like to do it as a job if possible, because I find that it *feels* exciting. My heart just races at the idea of trying that out. I mean computers are fun too. I spend a lot of time on them at work and at home. But I'm not sure that's the reason why I got into software. In fact, I'm not sure I like building software things at all as opposed to simply using them. I never really thought of computer science as anything other than a practical choice. Unlike some of my friends and peers, I don't spend time writing code outside of work-- that's not what drew me into software. For me, it was the safe major my parents said I needed to guarantee a job after school. Oddly enough, Wendy chose engineering for the same reason and is now entering MBA school. I think if I choose this line of work (software), I'll need to hone my skills and embrace coding as a hobby or end up having to play catch up on new technologies *during* work, which is just stressful. My friend Dave just quit his job at Applied Materials as a field engineer and took a job doing patent work (patent agent w/o the license yet). He's applying to law school this year and probably going into IP law. To be frank, I'm jealous. Ugh I'm fried, I've been up for 2 hours and I'm not thinking straight. I'll polish this post up later. posted @ 06:41 AM PST [link] |
Here: Photos Archives Friends: wendylu duke spicysquid supremeboba dko magsyeh jen27g dtc rflxgrl ahlwoonie Literature: Memoirs of a Geisha Effective C++ Mastering RegEx Chess Music: Scientist Good Riddance Background I Fall in Love Too Easily |
