Old Programmers Don’t Die, The Just Can’t C As Well

As proven by Maigh’s Throwdown yesterday I am not really Mensa material. Hell, I can’t even take credit for the title for today’s entry. I ripped that off from an article in Computerworld.

Is That The Sound Of Crickets I Hear?
Astonishingly yesterday’s beer-inspired rant scared everyone away from commenting. C’mon, I know somebody had to read it. Were you afraid that I was hunkered down with a shotgun waiting for an opportune time? I’m not nearly a quiet enough guy to be dangerous.

My Kind Of Town Chicago Is
Or is it not?

With the wind howling in Atlanta all day yesterday and an almost perfectly-timed email from American Airlines arriving I seriously considered booking a trip to Chicago for the Spring.

I’ve never been to Chicago. With the exception of seeing a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, why should I want to go to Chicago? Can anyone help me out here?

Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’
I’ve lived in Atlanta for eleven years. Not once have I owned a Georgia Cruise Card for our one toll booth along 400. I’ve considered getting a “card” in the past and with the regularity that I have been driving to work recently it would have been nice.

What has stopped me? First, although built prior to my relocation to Atlanta, the toll booth was supposed to go away once the cost of building 400 was recouped. Yeah, what a load of shit. Putting that aside, the owner of a cruise card used to have to pay a $2(?) monthly licensing fee for the equipment, thus making it more expensive to use 400 than it was without the card.

Now it’s down to an issue of card “recharging”. Under the current system a new card buyer puts a balance of $40 on the Cruise Card, and then

When your account falls to $10 or less, our system will automatically charge your credit or check debit card to replenish your pre-paid toll balance.

Under $10? At $10 I still have twenty trips left on my card. Why not wait until my card balance goes below $5, or better yet, why not let me choose when to “recharge” the card. Do I re-coup my money through a credit reversal when I return the Cruise Card, or do they conveniently keep the balance too?

Since I no longer have to do laundry at a laundromat perhaps I’ll just keep all my quarters ready for the 400 toll booth.

And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – frenzied, eventhough I’ve had breakfast and picked up a cup of coffee from Joe’s on my commute in.
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing Tapes ‘n Tapes — “Insistor”
Website Of The Day – According to the article from which today’s title was stolen forty-year old programmers should probably be working in the public sector. To me this means that I should be gambling (I told you I wans Mensa material), so I’m off to Game Theory . Net to brush up on my strategeries.

If you ever want a quick glance of the sites I’ve picked for my Websites Of The Day, you can check them out on del.icio.us, my user name is InsideThePerimeter (go figure), and they are all tagged as “blogged.”

Exercise (b)Log – running, 4.75 miles

Cheers!
Paulie [eatl/ga]