Lame programming joke

/**
 * TODO - robust implementation of this method would really help the program.
 */
public static void ___turingCompleteAI() { 
    while(true) { 
 // Trivial implementation of cognitiveLoop()
 // left as an exercise to the reader.  :)
 // cognitiveLoop(); 
    } // End while
}

War of the Fonts

War of the Fonts

Poodwaddle World Clock

Have you ever wanted to be bombarded by statistics about what's going on in the world, all at the same time?

Look no further.

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Interesting Metrics in the Washington, DC Area

I work with engineers. Engineers are all about measuring things. Here are two recently mentioned metrics I think are amusing in a nerd engineer kind of way.

STH

Seat/ton/hours. Seat ton hours are the measure of the human tonnage in seats at meetings over time. Mindless meetings and beuracratic waste can at least partially be measured in STH. 10 individuals of 200 pounds each, in a meeting for 1 hour is measured at 1 STH.

The average government symposium might be 500 people averaging 170lbs, for 2 days (7 hours per day) totaling a simply majestic 595 STH.

Due to the propensity of meetings to drag on, and the high likelihood that cookies, brownies, and coffee will be served, it is well established that STH tends to grow. Initial evidence suggests that STH's rate of growth accelerates as its value increases.

MPBB

Mean penny basket balance. This is a measure of an area's affluence. You know those "give a penny/take a penny" baskets by all of the cash registers? This is a measure of the basket's mean balance over a given period of time, typically a day or a week. Affluent areas have high MPBB's. For example, (and as Dave Barry would say, I swear I am not making this up) I was in a Caribou Coffee in Crystal City (Arlington) yesterday, and their penny bucket had more quarters and dimes than pennies. It even had two Sacajaweas in it. Presence of non-pennies in the penny bucket is an indicator of high MPBB. If you're in an area where people are throwing away $1 coins into a communal bucket for the next random stranger to use for coffee purchases, that's a tip-off the area might be affluent. If you further notice a long line of customers pay for their coffee and leave without using the coins, it's a further tip-off that these people are not concerned about scraping for dollars.