The change of life

I’ve always been a book learner. I’ve learned just about everything I know about computers from books, sometimes from books bought in order to learn something I said I knew to be read in between the time I said I knew it and the time I’ve started the job where I was supposed to know it. Hell, even when I was in school I used to read in class instead of paying attention to the professors. But lately, between my internet addiction and all the other distractions in life, I just don’t seem to be able to get through text books the way I used to. Glancing over at my book shelf, I can see books on Ruby on Rails and Ajax that I intended to read once and become and instant expert on, just like I always used to, but which I ended up reading two or three chapters, wandering away, and never coming back. And that’s not to mention the growing pile of unread or barely skimmed magazines that has to be culled every few months for fear of them taking over the house.
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For the first time since learning Java, I wish I was doing C++

I started doing C++ back just before cfront 2.0 just came out. For those of you not paying attention, cfront was a program that turned C++ code into C code, and then fed that into the C compiler. There wasn’t any such thing as native C++ compiler, or C++-aware debuggers. It was “fun”, especially when you got a core dump and you had to read a symbol like “foo_vt0_bar_xyzzy” and figure out that this meant that it had something to do with a virtual method in foo called something like bar. And of course, the line numbers in the backtrace were no help at all because the generated code bore little resemblance to what you’d written. Cfront 2.0 was when multiple inheritance was first introduced into C++, and I think it was around 1989 or so. I know I went to Usenix in Baltimore a few months later to take a class in C++ from Stanley Lippman, who’d written a book whose title he’d insisted on pronouncing as if the word “primer” was derived from “prim” rather than “prime”.
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My Oscar

Oscar
Well, not really mine. The division I work at just won their 9th Oscar, and to celebrate they sent it around to the division offices so everybody could get their picture taken with it. In spite of the fact that I had nothing to do with it, I sat down at the table. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to actually touch it or anything – the photographer and her assistants handled it with rubber gloves on so it wouldn’t need re-polishing.

I guess I should answer this

A few weeks ago I did one of those “guess the tune from the first line things. I guess it’s time to post the answers. Any ones that commented managed to figure out will show as strike-outs, and ones that nobody guessed are not. The answer follows in <em> tags (italics). This is where you all get mad at me because I’m not good at deciphering lyrics.

The rules, as quoted from Eminy’s LiveJournal:

You know the rules: 20 random consecutive songs from my library, first lines given here (or second lines if the first contains the title). You identify the song, and I’ll cross it out. Googling is cheating. N.B.: Items in square brackets are instrumental only, included here to preserve the consecutivity principle.

  1. I have to swear by Almighty God Guns On The Roof, The Clash – Rob G
  2. When we were young, we pledged allegiance Stones In The Road, Mary Chapin Carpenter
  3. All you pretty women, bring it to my home Bring It to Jerome, Bo Diddley
  4. [skipped one in Bulgarian]
  5. I’ve been [loved?], down in the delta How Long Blues, Odetta
  6. Her eyes they shone like diamonds Black Velvet Band/Galway Shawl, 4 To The Bar – Ayana C
  7. Dust falls on the empty halls of my old school Within A Mile Of Home, Flogging Molly
  8. Well, you could see it in his eyes as they strained against the night Canol Road, Stan Rogers
  9. Men and people will fight ya down (Tell me why!) Exodus, Bob Marley – Ian York
  10. [Bach keyboard concerto]
  11. [Red Shingle Bay, Many Hands]
  12. He started out to be a tugboat man, but he never got the hang of a ratchet bar Steamboat Whistle Blues, Bob Bossin
  13. [Something from Green Linnet]
  14. Many’s the day I took for granted, breathing the air that silenced some The Kilburn High Road, Flogging Molly
  15. Ships may come and ships may go, as long as the sea does roll Jolly Roving Tar, Great Big Sea – Becca
  16. Now come tell me Sean O’Farrell, tell me where you hurry so Rising of the Moon, Shane McGowan and the Popes – Ian York
  17. [Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus]
  18. High speed drift on a prairie road, hot tires sing like a string being bowed SteelSilver Wheels, Bruce Cockburn– Ian York
  19. Well I’ve got a friend who’s a man (who’s a man?) Hateful, The Clash – Rob G
  20. [Duologue, Rare Air]
  21. I was a miner, I was a docker Between The Wars, Billy Bragg – Becca
  22. [Marion Livingstone, Rare Air]
  23. There’s a noble fleet of whalers, a sailing from Dundee Old Polina, Great Big Sea – CMD
  24. In the merry month of June, when from my home I started The Rocky Road To Dublin, The Irish Descendants – Fnord Prefect
  25. [skipped first line]He had a little tavern by the strand Yarmouth Town, Great Big Sea – Laura
  26. [Infernal Dance of King Kashei, Stravinsky]
  27. [Water Music, Handel]
  28. [skipped first chorus]Said – said – said: I remember when we used to sit, In the government yard in Trenchtown No Woman, No Cry, Bob Marley – Ian York
  29. [Trumpet Concerto, Wynton Marsallis]
  30. [The Pigeon On the Gate, Casdh An tSugian]
  31. The island, it is silent now, but the ghosts still haunt the waves Thousands Are Sailing, The Pogues – Ian York