Brian's World

Logical Limits

So tonight I drove through the worst storm I can remember being in. Storms at Boy Scout camp always seemed pretty bad, usually because your default safety spots are made of plastic tarp, string, and some cut up tree limbs. But tonight was definately worse. I was driving a friend to Oneonta, NY. I have no clue where that is on a map, but its a long story. When I was leaving on the highway, 88 to be exact, the sky opened up. Wow, I can’t recall it raining so hard for so long in a long time. The speedlimit was 65mph, I was going between 50-60 during the storm following 2 tractor trailer trucks. It was insane, and I don’t use that word lightly. There was lightning hitting things all around me, I think even one of the tractor trailer trucks got hit when it was behind me, or maybe it was a sign. It was strange, the lightening was so vivid at times the windshield wipers, which I had on Kill Mode (when they are going as fast as possible), looked like they were in a strobe light of some sort. I think that if I can drive through that I can probably weather just about any storm that doesn’t involve a flood or tornado. Half an hour to 45 mins later the storm was done, or I had driven out of it or something. I checked the radar on weather.com and it showed several yellow and red spots on the road I was driving on. I think, I really don’t know how to read a weather map. I was tempted to call and say “Hey if I die let people know XYZ” but I didn’t want to raise suspicion as to why I was going to die. Not that I could have heard them, the rain was crazy loud.

In other news, RPI is/was on Digg today, you should check the story and Digg it: http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Unrest_in_the_ranks_at_RPI_engulfs_school. For those of you who haven’t followed it, the faculty senate is suspended by the President, the Faculty want their Senate back so they can all get together and vote on stuffs, but none of this really matters to students except for the principles that the Administration does stupid things at times. Ok, I really don’t know all the details, but the article in that Digg link should explain it.

Once again there are troubles in the Restroom. Someone has been in their for at least 30 mins showering, and I’d really like to brush my teeth and go to sleep. This happened last night as well, but it was much later. I was working on Moodle for SHHS, which I got working. I’m trying to implement it with the Active Directory server as well (via LDAP) but Moodle is beating me with some strange 404 errors. I’ll look at it later.

I don’t like the theme jealous, but a theme of consciousness vs reality certainily fits. As a full believer in simulations, I’m also a full believer in Limits, when applied within logical bounds. I can very easily simulate spilling soda all over my pants without having to do so, and the simulated response will likely be very accurate to what I would do in real life. Go to the bathroom and try to wash it using my handkerchief or some paper towels or something. There are other things that a simulation doesn’t go far enough with, generally because I’m relying on knowledge of things that I’ve only simulated. Kind of like making an assumption for A, then using A in an equation and expecting the correct output. You will never be right unless you can firm up your assumption of A or implement some error accountability into your equation. Its difficult to forward design error correction, mainly because you can’t assume what the errors will be. To assume what the errors would be you generally need data. Ok, I lied. You could probably get away with 0 data, but you’d have to trace back the basis used in your assumption, identify the errors there, and follow them as they apply into your assumption. Hrm, I must try this soon. Tonight sounds like a deal.

I have to be realistic, simulations may be as close as I will ever get. That is me, who I am. I am hesitant to explain this in detail, probably because of some charges in middle school.

Tomorrow I will do laundry, I really hope that the second laundry machine is working. Its been broken for quite some time, making it all but impossible for me to finish my laundry by Litec @ 11:00. If I can start 1 load at 8:00 (or maybe 8:30) I can be done before 11, but its cutting it close!

Bathroom adventure time.

Good night moon.