Technicat

PhilChu

PhilChu

📍 Las Vegas, Nevada http://technicat.com/

Las Vegas Day

Today is Las Vegas Day, formerly known as Helldorado (which sounds exciting, but in a Clive Barker way, so I approve of the rebranding). It seems to me the whole shebang is scaled down this year, but there's still a parade: And instead of the usual rodeo, a small festival

Totally Awesome App

First of all, Happy Mother's Day, now let's talk about the latest App Store review for Talk Dim Sum. It's a nice review, and it brings up some interesting points, such as how an app that might underwhelm initially can still worm its way into a user's good graces after

Feeling Schemish

After a couple of decades of complaining how I miss Lisp, I was finally in the mood to get back to my roots today and do some coding in Scheme (used once upon a time in MIT's intro CS course Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, alas since supplanted by

Sci-fi Saturday

I spent a lot of time in the library when I was a kid, and much of that was spent reading science fiction. Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, Pohl...the usual suspects. During my salaried days, it was more sporadic, a little William Gibson, more Neal Stephenson (anything less than 500 pages)

Mantis Monday

I'll start off this week with these side and rear views of the mantis at Container Park. Trivia note: it should be no surprise the mantis has a Burning Man pedigree, but it was also an anniversary gift. Continuing the creature simulation theme, here's the opening of Tim Ho Wan

Thursday News

There's some drilling going on in my building right now as they renovate new units for sale, which is good for my condo value, but not great for programming, so here's some random bits of news, while I resist the impulse to repeatedly type "Driller is a Killer" Jack Nicholson-style.

Fake Reviews

It's 1:30 in the morning on tax deadline day and I've finished my taxes. The good news (if there's no bad news) is that I'm getting $49 back, because I'm due some credit for last year's health insurance premiums. I also recently received my condo insurance payment for cleaning

Happy Birthday to Me

It was my birthday this week, which just advances me further into the Logan's Run expiry of software engineering careers. Although the last time I performed this web search, the result was "what do software engineers do after 35?" so I guess everyone asking this question is shifting their deadline.

Latest Steam

In the category of keeping-old-IP-alive (the licensor is surprised I'm still sending them royalties after all these years), here are the most recent reviews for HyperBowl on Steam. It's nice to have validation for the work I put into adding extra lanes. Honestly, I don't think they're as good as

Sugar and Spice

Carrie Lam's decision (whether hers or her mainland masters) to not seek reelection (if you can call it that) reminds me of a COVID comics collection I read last year. It was generally was pretty good, but one bit I found irritating, a comic comparing national leaders who handled the