Archive for February, 2009

> 1000 hits!

Hey, I have more than a thousand hits to this blog!

Thanks, UCSSM ;)

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C# Programming Question

I have a question about how to implement something in C#. Any help would be appreciated.

I want to declare a type on a base class, but the type of the type must be overridable on derived classes.  That is unclear; let me show you what I want to do:

gencod

 

But this results in the following compilation error:

gencoderr

Which is expected.  But how do I implement this requirement in C#?  I really do want type safety in the derived classes.

Please help!  Thanks.

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3DS MAX 2009

You know the feeling of just suddenly ‘getting’ something after a long time of not getting it? Well, I have always wanted to be good at 3D modelling. But honestly, I could never get it. TruSpace, Maya, Blender, 3DSMAX – I could not model ANYTHING. But now I find that I have just gotten it. It is a nice feeling! To see any object, and know that you can model it in 3D, is pretty nice. Took my stupid brain long enough to process! :)

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Respect for Knowledge versus Respect for People

Recent events, in both my professional and personal life, is a bit of a prediction I made many years ago coming true for me. I love knowledge, and I despise ignorance. It is only our mental capability that distinguishes us from other animals. My prediction consisted of two parts.  First, that one day I would meet a wonderful girl that I love and respect. Also, that it would be almost certain that there could be a kind of divide between us because of my own personal strict adherence to logic and science and proof on the one side, and the natural tendency for people to abandon just that in order to create a kind of mystical component to life, which makes life more interresting and, they believe, more purposeful.

Well, this has come true.  I have met that girl (‘met’ kind of – we have known eachother for more than a year but because she lives in a different country we have not yet met face-to-face (though I hope to change that soon!) ). Honestly, insofar as I can tell given our physical seperation, this is the most amazing person I have ever met. Beautiful but most importantly, good.  Wise.  Smart.  And just unexplainably amazing.

The ‘problem’ is, she is studying Reflexology.  As I said, I have an very big respect for evidence-based knowledge, and a very big distaste for the converse – ‘knowledge’ based on spiritual ideas that is not supported by any evidence.

Out of sincere respect for her, as an individual, I can never impose my views, and even my factual knowledge, on her. If she wants to study reflexology, if that makes her happy, I will support her as much as I can.  This basically means, I will let her do her studies, I will admit that reflexology constitutes a pleasant and relaxing foot massage, I will even enjoy her reflexology experiments on me :) .  But in return for this lenience, I expect that, for her respect for me as a person, that she will value my opinion as much as I value hers.

So my Lorena, I wish you very much success with your reflexology!  But I ask that you please look at the actual evidence, the actual studies, and make up your mind about the more important claims made by reflexology. I provide some links for your reference:

http://www.medicinescomplete.com/journals/fact/current/fact0304a13a54.htm

http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/reflexology.html

http://www.ebm-first.com/?cat=15

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