Programming Languages as Religions

I greatly enjoyed this article: If programming languages were religions...

If you're familiar with several program languages you'll probably enjoy it also. Here are some highlights:

"Java would be Fundamentalist Christianity - it's theoretically based on C, but it voids so many of the old laws that it doesn't feel like the original at all. Instead, it adds its own set of rigid rules, which its followers believe to be far superior to the original. Not only are they certain that it's the best language in the world, but they're willing to burn those who disagree at the stake."

"C# would be Mormonism - At first glance, it's the same as Java, but at a closer look you realize that it's controlled by a single corporation (which many Java followers believe to be evil), and that many theological concepts are quite different. You suspect that it'd probably be nice, if only all the followers of Java wouldn't discriminate so much against you for following it."

"Python would be Humanism: It's simple, unrestrictive, and all you need to follow it is common sense. Many of the followers claim to feel relieved from all the burden imposed by other languages, and that they have rediscovered the joy of programming. There are some who say that it is a form of pseudo-code." -- It's so true! I love programming in Python, it just does what I want without making me jump through hoops!

Sometimes, I Hate Americans

Nintendo Slapped With Strap Lawsuit Once Again

It is completely outside my realm of comprehension how anyone can believe it is Nintendo's responsibility that morons LET GO of their Wii controller and break something. Honestly, can I sue a baseball bat manufacturer because I swung the bat really hard, let go, and it hit my window? It was nice of Nintendo to include wrist straps on the controllers and then to voluntarily make the wrist straps stronger. If you're letting go of the controller and then stressing the wrist strap enough to make it break then I have news for you and your playing skills: You're doing it wrong!

Denial of Service Attack

The interesting things happening with the Board just keep on growing. For anyone trying to use the Board today (Monday) around 5:30 you may have seen the Board start serving up "Technical Difficulties" pages for a bit, and then go down. The part where it went down completely was me, trying to keep the server alive while I did troubleshooting.

The immediate problem was an incredible number of apache processes chewing up all the database connections. The cause of the issue was a certain IP address requesting the main page about 3 times a second for an hour or so. The server didn't really like that too much. Once I discovered this I blocked the IP address and brought the server back up. After another 15 minutes of getting HTTP 403 errors sent back to them the IP address stopped requesting pages. Now, whether intentional or not the result of this process is known as a Denial of Service (DOS) attack. So named because, as you may have discovered, when it's occurring the legitimate users, such as yourself, cannot access the content of the website.

I'll keep an eye on the situation and continue to slave away to make sure the Board stays alive for your viewing pleasure.

My current hypothesis on the matter is that the attackers that accessed the server last month are retaliating for me locking them out. But that's just a theory.

I Feel Special

<sarcasm>I love personalized advertisements and junk mail. This one is particularly touching.</sarcasm>