Major Updates to JargonWiki
Posted to JargonWiki.com Journal at 12:34 PM on September 27, 2008
JargonWiki has undergone some major updates and improvements, and so is definitely worth taking a fresh look at.
Primarily the changes have to do with article content: including more of it, making sure it is properly formatted and is readable, adding more and better information to each article's summary box, and so forth. The net result is - I hope - an overall much more useful, interesting, and easily browse-able site.
As briefly mentioned, many improvements have been made to the page-scraping algorithms that pull data from the plain-text articles and include them in the entry summary boxes at the top of each page. These routines are now much smarter, and the result of the efforts at improving them should be more information in the entry summary boxes - including more complete pronunciations and derivation information, and also entirely new data such as synonyms and antonyms. Further, these routines produce generally better managed article body text - for instance, better handling of external links to pages on outside websites that might be mentioned in the body of an article.
In all, it was quite a bit of work I've put in on this latest update, but I think it is very much worth it because basically this portion of the project - that is, turning the plain-text Jargon File dictionary of some 2,300+ pieces of hacker lingo into a wiki - is pretty much complete. In fact, I'm just about ready to call the site as it stands now - which is to say basically a wiki-ification of The Jargon File - done. Out of beta. Live. Production, Gold, Master, 1.0, and whatever other hacker jargon there is for a completed software project. Personally, since projects like these are never really done, calling it 1.0 makes a certain degree of sense, connoting as it does both a feeling of completion and a feeling of more to come. Anyway, if the mod strikes you while you're browsing around, I certainly would appreciate any comments, suggestions, or bug reports; every bit of help I get brings this beast that much closer to going 1.0!
Check it out - JargonWiki.com
Apologia
Posted to CharlesFile.com Journal at 02:41 PM on February 27, 2008
To anybody who's checking out this site for any reason, please note:
- Much of the information here is a bit out of date. Not by much, and I'm the process of updating everything, but fair warning.
- Yes, this site is at least a generation behind the current Zeb 3.14 times, but between work and school, there is precious little time left for pet personal projects [see also the Cramer Contra fund, the Jargon Wiki, random Python project #4,080 etc. etc.] So I'm sorry. ChasFile.com is indeed well overdue for a major overhaul, but for the time being it serves its purpose. What precisely that purpose is, however, remains unclear.
Ph. D. Program Acceptances
Posted to Academic Journal at 09:11 PM on March 05, 2007
I'll post these as they come in. Once I decide where I'll ultimately go, that will get posted, as well.
[Edit] You know what? I really don't feel much like talking about it any more. I got into several Ph.D. programs, but decided not to go.
Welcome Graduate Application Evaluation Types!
Posted to Academic Journal at 06:28 AM on January 10, 2007
Hello there, everyone who's come here as part of their effort to evaluate me as a candidate for their PhD programs (and you know who you are).
First, let me just point out that quite clearly this site is nothing fancy, nor is it completely up to date. The main purpose of charlesfile.com is to simply be a place where I can host things I need to put up for people from work, school, or just for fun. In no way does this little journal reflect the pinnacle of my artistic, web development, or production skills. While this site one day may yet be just that (a major redesign is in the works), for quite some time now the majority of my time and effort has been directed toward projects it is my duty and pleasure to complete as a full-time employee of Reindeer, and as part of my academic endeavors, undertaken part-time at NYU's Department of Culture and Communication.
Obviously, I am more proud of all of these than I am of this dinky little site, though there remains for it a special place in my heart. Some work-related highlights from my projects page include:
Some academic highlights include:
- Trust and Failure, my Cornell University College Scholar undergraduate Honors Thesis, which received summa cum laude highest honors.
A Eulogy for My Grandfather
Posted to Family Journal at 12:31 AM on February 03, 2006
Col. Joseph File, PhD, USMC
May 6, 1923 - October 15, 2005
Delivered October 21, 2005
Megan just talked about some of her memories of our grandfather, and I don’t think I could have done a better job. So I wanted to talk today about the effect my grandfather has had on my life; I want to talk about what he has taught me. I learned so much from him. He taught me how to be humble and how to laugh at myself. He taught me what fellowship and lifelong commitments were. He taught me patience and leadership, and how often they coincide.
But most of all, he taught a young teenager, whose feelings about his country could be described as ambivalent at best, what honor, loyalty, and sacrifice really meant. While on one of the trips to DC with his Marine buddies that Megan just mentioned, we went to the Korean War Memorial, which had just opened a few months before. Walking with him among the statues, frozen mid-stride in bronze, as those they honor were frozen in ice and snow, experiencing his solemnity and visceral emotion, reading the pain in his face, I was struck by the unspeakable tragedy, yet unwavering dedication that defined his life. He taught me more about honor and duty in that moment than years of civics classes ever could. Perhaps more important, in sharing so personal a moment with me, he showed me that the strongest among us are those that give freely of their strength in the service of others.
I am struck, in remembering him, by a deep sense of gratitude. Gratitude for all he has given of himself to me. My grandfather’s life was so singularly dedicated to service and sacrifice that I imagine it’s a feeling we all share. Therefore I wonder now what honor I could give him that could ever possibly do him justice. I wonder what words could repay the debt I owe his almost superhuman magnanimity. What service could I render him that might even begin to balance the innumerable acts of kindness, generosity, assistance, and guidance he has lent me.
I don’t know. In all honesty, I fear it is a debt I can never fully repay. But maybe if I live my life as he showed me how to, and maybe if I carry on his zest for life, family, country, and of course our alma mater Cornell, and maybe if I can commit myself to selflessness as thoroughly as he did, I can in some small way honor a life it is beyond my capacity to replicate.
That gives me some comfort in this difficult time. As does the knowledge that Honey is now in a better place, receiving the selfish rewards that his selfless life has justly earned.
He is in a better place now, a place where the cold cuts never go bad, no longer how long you leave them in the fridge.
A place where poodles never die, cut their own hair, and there are lots of people willing to clean up after them for a quarter a bag.
A place where VCRs program themselves to record the 18 hours of Peoples’ Court broadcast each day.
A place where the faucet on the left turns on the Carlo Rossi, and the faucet on the right turns on the Schlitz.
A place where you can drive your Cadillac right up onto the green to retrieve your hole-in-one ball.
A place where all your neighbors are Kims, where all your meals are catered by the Crystal Diner, and where the measure of a man’s worth is the size of his dollhouse.
Goodbye, Honey, and thank you.
It's time
Posted to Journal at 03:28 AM on October 05, 2005
QuitMeter Counter courtesy of www.quitmeter.com.
So I've decided to stop smoking. Its well past time, and I have something of a break in the action here, with several classes cancelled for various reasons this and next week, and no real work due for at least two weeks. I therefore have plenty of time to be pissy, impatient, and incapable of sequential thought. So far, its actually not as bad as I thought it would be. I tried to quit last summer, but the withdrawal symptoms were so incapacitating - sweaty palms, tunnel vision, migrane headaches, aching back and joints, restlessness, inability to think, cravings - that I lasted all of about a day. I'm using the patch this time, and it helps ease the withdrawals significantly. They're annoying, but not unmanageable. In addition, several weeks ago I stopped taking the antidepressant that I was prescribed, so soon I will be entirely drug free, for the first time since I was maybe 15.
Ten years is long enough, I think. Its time.
P.S. Amount spent on nicotine replacement patches so far: $250
The money I save on cigs won't start to balance against the cost of all these damn patches for at least a few months.
There's a joke in there, somewhere.
Posted to Charlie Journal at 12:38 AM on September 28, 2005
So there I was, standing outside Bobst Library, the Library of Too Many Consonants, and I saw a guy walk by with a french horn. Now while you may think that's weird and random and whatever, realize first that a) NYU's art college, Tisch, is perhaps its most prestigous, and b) every third motherfucker you see in New York is slingin' some kinda noise-makin' device. Anyway, so he sashays on by with his french horn, and I think, "Hey, there goes a french... a french horn... a french horner?" I mean, there's a violinist, and there's a drummer, and there's pianist, but what the hell do you call French Horn Guy? So then I started thinking about how he must get pretty french horny, and how maybe he's looking for a good tromboner. So upon hearing all this Amy says "Quit making such brassinine puns."
True story.
Pretty Much Working
Posted to CharlesFile.com Journal at 08:59 PM on October 07, 2004
Well, movable type is pretty much happy, and Gallery is pretty much happy. So all the back-end stuff is pretty much in place, so now all that is left to fix is the fuck-ton of asthetic stuff that isn't working right. Also, it would be nice if I could whip up a style sheet for the gallery pages to use that is similar to the one the front pages use, but I have to get the styles for the main site working first, otherwise its a waste of time, right? Right.
In the meantime, I've started uploading some pictures to Gallery. Go have a look see. Maybe over fall break I'll have time to get everything working. Ha.
This journal
Posted to Complaints Journal at 08:15 PM on September 25, 2004
I think I've gotten this thing to the point where I'm pretty happy with the look and feel. Still left:
- gallery
- the 'about' page, including a resume and portfolio and whatnot
- a main page for charlesfile.com, though this may end up being it for the time being, in which case...
- a redirect script to take users from charlesfile.com to charlesfile.com/journal
- fix formatting for the archives section, etc.
- I'd like to get the look and feel of gallery consistent with this site, but that may be wishful thinking. We'll see.
So far this has been kinda alot of work for a project I'm not even getting paid for, but I guess the real purpose of this is to advertise myself to potential employers and grad schools, so I suppose it will pay off in the end. We'll see.
[Edit: sigh. fix formatting for <ul> and other common tags.]
[Edit: Drop: ul issue fixed, should take care of most other tags. Add: blue container div only extends to bottom of white boxes, should extend to the bottom of the lowest box. Below-line characters (commas, y's) break formating of white box headers.]
Only 2 years late...
Posted to CharlesFile.com Journal at 10:01 PM on August 10, 2004
...do I join the weblog revolution. Better late than never. Though I don't intend to be one of those "Fed my cat a new brand of cat food today. She seems to like it," bloggers that we all know and loathe. We'll see what happens with this thing. Mostly just trying to prove to the world how boring my life is, and maybe have a place to put some stuff down so I don't forget it later in life.
St. Valentine's Day
Posted to Business Journal at 01:08 PM on February 16, 2003
This is the obligatory "I hate Valentine's Day" post. Ready? I hate Valentine's Day.
OK, here we go. First, let me start out by saying that if we have 2 cooks, 1 hostess, 2 bartenders, and 2 servers closing, and 2 (TWO!) managers on the floor, we should ideally have 2 dishwashers closing. Otherwise, that's 9 people dirtying dishes, and one person cleaning them. Something isn't right with this ratio. Short of that, we should at least have 2 dishwashers during the dinner rush. Shocker #1: we didn't. Shocker #2: I got my ass kicked all night, from 5 when I came in until 12 when the kitchen closed. Shocker #3: they tried to call me in to work on Saturday. Hmmm... how about, um... NO!
It takes me about two solid hours of work to close down the kitchen at night. Usually I can get about an hour of this done while we are still open. The rest of the work I just can't physically do until we are actually closed. So what usually happens is I get most of my closing done either before or after the dinner rush, then we close, let's say at 12 since that's when we close on Fridays and I'm talking about last Friday, and then I clock out about an hour later. 5PM - 1AM, 8 hours, fine. What happened last Friday is that we got dinner orders right up until 12. Let me first say that it is not that unusual to get some food orders right around close. We are open later than most resturuants in the area, and people know this and come in and order. On busy nights, this takes the form of what we call the 11 rush, when people come in at 11 and order some soup. No problem. The problem comes on nights like last night, when the entire resturaunt is full of people for six hours, and you don't get the 11 rush because the rush has been going on for hours by that point. And the real problem comes when people are ordering entrees at 12. So the food goes out at 12:15, comes off the table at 12:45, and I'm still washing dishes at 1:30. By 2AM I had the dish machine turned off and I started to think about closing. By 2:45 people started to realize that unless they help me, they are going to be watching me close until 4AM. So a bartender comes down and helps with the last of my work, and I got out around 3. 10 hours of hell. Think your job sucks?
Here's the kicker: by NY state labor law, if you work for 8 hours, you are required to take at least a half hour break. We used to punch out when we took breaks, but we weren't getting close to the half-hour mark. So what they do now is they automatically take a half hour off our time sheet, and its up to us to not work for half an hour. The obvious problem here, of course, is that the kitchen can't just stop working. If we do, the resturaunt stops working. So we have to take our breaks when there's a lull in the orders. Again, usually this is not a problem. The problem comes on nights like last night, when there is no lull in the orders. During the 7 hours I was on the clock and the kitchen was open, I took maybe five minutes of break. After we closed I (only half-) jokingly told the manager I was going home to lie down for 25 minutes, to get my half hour of break. The whole shift, I got maybe 15 minutes of break time in. The basic issue is that the harder a server, bartender, host, or whatever works, the more food they serve, the more tips they get, the more money they make. They are rewarded for working hard, and rightly so. However, if someone on the kitchen staff gets rushed all night, and has no time for breaks, they still get a half hour taken off their paychecks, even if they were working the entire time. So if we have no time for breaks and are working the whole time, we get paid the same amount as if we had taken breaks. Basically this means that the harder we work, the less we get paid, since we are working at times and not getting paid for it. That, my friends, is fucked up. Think your job sucks?
Let me preface this paragraph by saying that I have single-handedly kept the resturaunt open on some of its busiest days ever. My second day working, a day I was supposed to be training, the other dishwasher, my trainer, walked out and quit. This was one of the busiest nights of the summer. I was the only dishwasher on, and to say I got weeded is an understatement. The next morning I couldn't even get out of bed because I was so sore. I can't really describe how hard I worked, but I can estimate. To wash the dishes I need to get them from upstairs, bring them down into the basement, rinse them, and put them in the machine. The machine takes about five minutes, and I usually have the next load ready just as it finishes. Then I pop in the next load and get some more dishes. On insanely busy nights, like my second night, by the time I have one bus tub washed - again about five minutes - there is another full one. So roughly every five minutes I go up and down a flight of stairs with about twenty pounds of dishes. I do this for seven consecutive hours. I also do this in a ridiculously hot basement. How hot? There is a pair of goggles in the prep room because it gets so hot in the basement that the beer stored on the shelves starts to explode, and the prep cook has to wear the goggles so he is not blinded by the shards of glass. That hot. Try running up and down a flight of stair for seven hours in a suana and then you can complain to me about your job. Once the kitchen closed on my second night, two of the cooks came down to see how I was doing. Not good, obviously. So they brought me a beer and we all sat in the basement and drank a beer together. Now, obviously we are not supposed to get free alchohol from the bar. Obviously we are also not allowed to drink in the kitchen. Obviously we are also not allowed to drink while on the clock. These cooks felt so bad for me, because I worked so insanely hard all night, that they flagrantly broke just about every rule regarding alchohol we have. Their pity ran so deep that they both risked losing their jobs, and possible arrest, to give me a beer. The real kicker here is that this became routine. In fact, my second night was easy compared to some of the other nights. Almost every weekend the new dishwasher would quit and I would work alone, doing the work of two people, and single-handedly keep the resturaunt open. Both IC and Cornell graduation weekends, the Fourth of July, during Ithaca Festival, and on and on. Think your job sucks?
One weekend, I closed Friday night, 5PM-1AM. Because of a dishwasher quitting, I had to open the next morning, 8AM-4PM. Then the night dishwasher quit in the middle of his shift, and I had to come back and close the resturuant, 11PM-3AM. I was then scheduled to open the next day, Sunday, 8AM-4PM again. I told them they should just set up a cot for me in the kitchen, and spare the trouble of even sending me home. Between 5PM Friday and 5PM Suday, a 48 hour period, I was working for 28 hours. Of the 35 hours we were open, I was there for all but seven of them. Think your job sucks?
Now, I don't get alot of recognition for this. Christmas bonus? Hah! "Hey Charlie, I noticed you did the work of two people quite a bit this summer, here's some of the money I saved on salary as a bonus?" Hah! "Hey Charlie, thanks for being such a hard worker?" Hah! Nothing. I have come to recognise this, and I have developed a relationship with management that typifies my relationship with most of the authority figures in my life: You have learned through experience that you can trust me to do my job efficiently and effectively. I have learned through experience that you will do nothing to expedite this, nor will you even recognise that it has been done. As such, let us agree to stay out of eachother's way, as if we interact you will only slow me down, and I will probably kill you. So far, this relationship has worked out pretty well. I have always told myself that I will not quit unless (until, realistically) management says something obnoxious to me. It almost happened on Friday. I was putting the coffee cups away, right above the salad dressings. One of the servers had left a small bowl of dressing (called a ramekin) above the dressings that I knocked over, spilling the dressing on the floor. I said "my bad," put the rest of my stuff away, and wiped the dressing off the floor, instructing another server to please move her feet in the process. The next time I'm upstairs, the manager tells me that if I make a mess, would I please clean it up, and I nearly lost it. Here's why. First, I did clean it up, and she could verify that with the server whose feet I asked to move. Second, we have rules against leaving drinks, dressings, or anything that can spill on those ledges for exactly the reason I had demonstrated: they are too easy to knock over. She should be yelling at the person who broke the rule, not the person who demonstrated why the rule is nescessary. And as a pennance for breaking that rule, he should clean it up, not me. Third, I help others out all the time. If I have a free minute, I get ice for the bartenders, salads for the servers, or more food fore the kitchen. If she had the time to yell at me, she certainly had the time to help me out and clean it up herself. Fourth, as I have said, I have routinely kept the resturaunt open single-handedly. This was one such night. I was extremely busy and did not have the time to get every speck of dressing of the fucking floor. On top of that, her yelling at me was only keeping me from my work and getting me more behind. Instead of saying "Charlie, you're doing a great job and working really hard," she said, "clean up the dressing." I very nearly replied, "How about this: fuck you, I quit, clean up the dressing yourself. And while you're at it you can also close the resturuant yourself, and then maybe you'll have some appreciation for how hard I work and how difficult my job is, and then maybe you won't bitch at the next dishwasher because there is a drop of fucking ranch on the fucking floor." The only reason I didn't is because my boss, the chef, had a very serious family emergency that day, and the last thing I wanted him to think about was replacing me. I like and respect my boss. The fucking managers can kiss my ass. Think your job sucks?
I hate Valentine's Day
Dude, what if, like, this world was a video game, and someone's playing us?
Posted to Journal Play at 01:12 PM on February 06, 2003
The Sims is a very odd game. It has taken over my life in a way no other game has. I was totally unaware of how many continuos hours of play I put in today until I looked at the clock. I'm not going to frighten you with the actual number, but it was alot, trust me. I think there are two reasons for this. First, there are no real goals, so you can't say, "Well, I beat two levels, better go do something productive now." Second you are eating and working and pissing for these Sims and taking care of them so much that you forget to do it for yourself.
For instance, if you don't send a sim to the bathroom every so often, they will wet themselves. I was so worried about my sims doing this, I almost wet myself. I looked at the clock, and thought, "Damn, I've been playing for way too long." Then I thought, "Wow, I can't believe I'm not hungry." Then I thought "Wow, I bet I really have to.... AAAAAAAA!!" And then I went screaming into the bathroom. When I'm playing this game I need someone to command me to use the bathroom. I have become a sim. Of course, no-one can be told what the matrix is, they need to see it for themselves.