use Perl

Hello, and welcome again to what is apparently the "something's wrong with perl.com" blog. In our last episode, the domain was on hold at the registry.

In today's exciting episode, or at least, as I type this, www.perl.com redirects to one of those spammy link farm pages.

Anyone know what's up with that?

Anybody have any idea what's up with that? Just curious, and hoping to see it again soon. :)

-Matt

I was a bit surprised by this, as I've very specifically had everything shipped to the office. It seems when they folded the receipt so the address showed through the packing slip, they left my billing address visible, not the shipping one. Grr.

Jenn claims to "not remember" where it was from, but I'm not falling for that one. Used that trick myself when I was sixteen years old, and my girlfriend just plain told me over the phone what she got me. It took a good 10 minutes of "Huh? What did you say?" before she believed I didn't hear. And even then, I imagine it was only because she really wanted to believe.

Anyway, this present has been completely ruined for me, so I signed the gift tag "Alan Smithee." I realize I'm pouting like a child, but hey, it's Christmas -- if you can't act like a child then, when can you?

On a completely unrelated note, I'd just like to point out that a few years ago I got winded walking from my car into my office. Today I walked 3.2 miles in 45 minutes (just walking -- it's a crosstraining day) and was able to go on with my day as if I'd spent that time lying on the couch. It's nice.

-Matt

Well, it was 2 months ago today that I last posted. That post contributed to the irritation of a former pumpking slash maintainer of the CPAN.

Where does one go from there? Why, now I'm here to ask for money. ;)

My wife and I have joined the American Stroke Association's Train To End Stroke program. In a nutshell, we are raising $7600 for the ASA, and training to run a half-marathon this coming January.

You can read all about our efforts here:

http://www.jennandmatt.com/ttes/

Here are a few facts about stroke, copied from there:

• Every 45 seconds, someone in America has a stroke.
• 700,000 people will suffer a stroke this year.
• 170,000 people will be killed this year by a stroke.
• According to one study, nearly 1/3 of stroke victims are under age 65.

Let me get the Perl hook in at this point -- I'm offering to double-match any donations I receive through this posting. For instance, if you donate $50 through the secure link at the URL above, I will donate an additional $50 to the ASA, plus another $50 to the Perl Foundation (up to $600 total donation on my part).

I should also note that if you itemize on your tax return, the donation is deductible.

So, why are we doing this? In part it's because we wanted a structured program to get in better shape, honestly. But the research the ASA is doing is very important, most of all.

My family lost my Aunt Janet to stroke when she was still in her thirties. I was a small child at the time, and my only memories of her are fragments of a trip we took to her house in Michigan a year or two before she died.

• Her being exasperated as my first shot at the mini-golf course skipped out of play and in to the parking lot.
• Her being exasperated as my misinterpretation of her shower instructions resulted in the bath mat in the shower, and a flooded bathroom.
• Her being exasperated as I finished a McDonald's hamburger (a feat for me in those days) only to promptly throw it back up after gagging on a stray onion (still don't like those) that was in the last bite.

As you can see, I was pretty exasperating in those days. I'd like to think I'm not now, and I wish she were here to see that.

The point is, given the statistics, every day there are a bunch of little kids like I was, suffering similar losses. I can't help my Aunt; I can try to help others. So that's why I'm here asking for money.

Thanks for listening.

-Matt

Check it out if you are in/around Pittsburgh and are looking for a job.

-Matt

That's how many books we bought at Powell's over the course of two trips to the main store, one to the technical store, and a brief stop at the airport kiosk on the way home.

As I've said many times before: we may be addicted to buying books, but it's still cheaper and safer than, say, crack, or even cigarettes.

Here are some software packages that are new (to me) that I learned about at OSCON and plan to try out:

• qpsmtpd
• Wackamole
• Aegis

I also came away with my yearly shot of confidence in Parrot/Perl 6 (especially with Dan Sugalski's talk on how he's putting Parrot to use at his workplace).

All in all, it was a very enjoyable and informative week. I look forward to finding out where next year's will be. :)

-Matt

-Matt

I'm having one right now. Well, realistically, I just feel like I am because programming tasks (of which I've done none) feel more concrete to me than managerial tasks (of which I've done plenty).

Such is the life of a programmer gone pointy-haired, I guess.

-Matt

It takes 20-some Billy Joel songs from throughout the years and pieces them together to tell the story of 5 friends from high school through the Vietnam War and its aftermath.

The production is done on 2 levels, literally: a band above the stage that does all the singing, and dancers on the stage that act out scenes without dialogue. The dancing is heavily influenced by ballet, though there were 2-3 breakdancing moves that I happened to catch, including the backspin. :)

I generally dislike musicals that have no dialogue, and the format of "Movin' Out" definitely takes some getting used to. It also took me a while to adjust to someone other than Billy Joel singing songs that were so familiar to me. Nevertheless, I was hooked within the first 20 minutes, and can definitely recommend this musical to others, especially if you happen to be a Joel fan. Just make sure to read the Act summaries in the program, and you'll follow along just fine.

Comment Here

-Matt

Doesn't look like it, since the one checkbox in Sys Prefs->Security mentions both of them, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I guess I should just set the delay for the screen saver to a really high value and go on with life...

-Matt