class Fruit {
public Fruit() {
init();
}
protected void init() {
}
}
class Orange extends Fruit {
private String color = null;
public Orange() {
super();
}
protected void init() {
color = "Orange";
}
}
If I create a new instance of Orange what is the variable ‘color’ set to? The answer is null.
So yesterday we were going to swim lessons and I noticed 5 kids walking along the 71 access road. I pointed them out to Julie as “Schools back in session”. Then I realized. Those kids were walking from the Govalle bus back to our neighborhood. Which meant that they had to walk 1/4 mile from Travis High to the 7-11 at Oltorf and Parker. Take the bus down Parker to Parker and 71, then walk 1/2 mile back into our neighborhood.
Then this morning I noticed a woman and her child waiting at the bus stop by Ware Rd. And a guy walking home from work along Burleson from Oltorf.
So while the bus might not have had high ridership, it definitely reached places that other buses don’t and the loss of service is affecting people in very obvious ways.
This would be a riff on Afraid of Everyone by The National if that’s not obvious:
Oh… I’m afraid of everyone
in the whole wide world
But I love them
Even though I’m afraid of them.
Don’t worry if you can’t make the lyrics match up. It’s not going to happen.
She’s been driving us a bit crazy singing it over and over. Not to mention that it’s permanently wedged in my head. I’m listening to it now. If you can’t beat them…
Fantastic weather tonight. A wonderfully cool 79 degrees with a breeze pretty much the entire length of the race. I ended up running behind a kid who looked like me at 10 years old for about the first mile. Like chasing my youth. Except that he was far faster than I ever was, which was funny because he seemed about equally coordinated with limbs flying every which way as he ran.
Very happy with this race time. Wish I’d pushed myself just a tiny bit more since I only needed to shave off about 20 more seconds to be under 8 minutes. All in all a fantastic race and end to the season.
| Race | Time | Min/Mile |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 26:45 | 8:34 |
| 6 | 26:44 | 8:34 |
| 10 | 26:17 | 8:21 |
| 12 | 25:16 | 8:06 |
Shared by Tim
So when I said that my campaign wasn’t involved, I meant that in the Republican way. You know – flat out lying.
Campaign finance reports show Gov. Perry’s re-election campaign paid Stuart Moss for mileage while he was doing political research in November. At the same time, he was helping the Green Party field candidates.
Shared by Tim
I want a pond in my house.
This 1959 flat-roof mid-century sits on a wooded acre lot. Photos courtesy of agent Heidi Krauss.
Walls of glass to view wooded acre lot. Check. Flat-roof. Check. Atrium to bring nature in. Check. Updated modern kitchen that actually works with the mid-century style of the house. Check. Three-car garage for your vintage rides? Check. Should I go on? If you are looking for these attributes in a modern house, take a look at this 4 bedroom/3 bath mid-century in Towson, MD.
Shared by Tim
If you’re not reading “Grits For Breakfast” you should be. The state of Prisons in this nation is appalling. I’m still just blown away by this story. A guy in a courthouse for unrelated reasons is accused of rape and serves 19 years? Insane!
Allen Porter walked free an innocent man in Houston yesterday after DNA and fingerprint evidence convinced Harris County DA Pat Lykos to reopen the case after 19 years. Allan Turner at the Houston Chronicle described the emotional scene in court:
Dabbing at her teary eyes, state District Judge Joan Campbell said Thursday she will recommend that authorities free a Houston man who has served 19 years — almost half his life – in prison for a sexual assault he did not commit.
As members of his family jumped from their seats in tearful ecstasy at the judge’s decision, the prisoner, Allen Wayne Porter, 39, first shed tears, then smiled broadly.
Campbell advised lawyers to return to her court today to explore ways Porter can be released on bond pending a final decision in the case by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
“Good news!” said Porter’s court-appointed lawyer, Casey Garrett, at the end of the day-long hearing. “I am confident the CCA will agree with Judge Campbell. … It is really hard to wrap your mind around the fact that someone spent 20 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.”
This morning Campbell set Porter’s bond at $30,000. His lawyer said Porter could be released later today.
If the court accepts her recommendation, it will order a new trial. Bob Loper, the special prosecutor, said today that he would move to dismiss the case, so he would not be retried.
According to the Chronicle, “Porter was arrested at the courthouse while attending [his nephew’s] trial with other family members after one of the rape victims identified him as her attacker.” Can you imagine! I wish Mr. Porter luck: Congrats to him and to everybody involved on this belated victory.
Shared by Tim
I think this is one of my favorite memories. I was replacing a faucet that had been horribly fused together with some half-assery coupled with 20 years of rust and Etta climbed on my chest, lay down and looked up at what I was doing.
Shared by Tim
Well this is pretty much the most important facebook feature, ever. About time.
Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that Facebook is working on improvements to the friend lists feature during a talk yesterday –“hopefully soon we’ll have something more to talk about,” he said.
Friend lists allow users to categorize friends into named subsets which can be used to restrict distribution of posts, quickly invite a selection of friends to an event, view only certain people in the news feed, and organize Facebook Chat’s buddy list. Zuckerberg explained how sharing something with “friends” used to mean it was relatively private. Now, since people have friends from across their social spheres, it’s important that they be able to share with exactly who they want.
Zuckerberg also reiterated key company talking points yesterday during his talk at the Computer History Museum, formatted as an interview with David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect. One point is that Facebook is nowhere near the end of the product roadmap; the other is that the upcoming film about Facebook’s origins, “The Social Network,” is fictional.
Friend list changes are an intriguing part of that product roadmap. “More and more people have subgroups”, Zuckerberg said, explaining how the definition of friends has evolved since the college-only days when users typically only added their peers. Since registration was opened to everyone, friends began to include co-workers, family members, and others with whom it might be inappropriate to share the same posts that you share with friends. Creating a system with which users feel comfortable sharing personal hardships only with family, jokes and wild stories exclusively with best friends, and only the most benign content with their co-workers or bosses is essential to Facebook maximizing its utility and relevance.
Friend lists, launched in late 2007, made this narrow-casting possible.
However, few people have used them even when they were featured more prominently on the site. Per the latest redesigns, they are buried behind the “Friends” navigation button on the home page’s left sidebar, and require a long series of clicks to apply as a privacy parameter for posts. Zuckerberg said “Most people don’t want to create lists of things, but the act of adding friends is a very nice feeling. No doubt it would be better if everyone had these friend groups [automatically] created.”
This hint at a new version of the feature suggests Facebook will analyze user data such as people you are frequently tagged in photos with, who likes your posts, or other relevant information, like location, age, or mutual friends. If combined with instructions for use, a more prominent placement in the interface, and an easy way to share only to a certain list, friend lists could become integral to the future of engagement on Facebook.
“I don’t think we’re anywhere near the end. The product and policy decisions are going to be the most important decisions we make in the next 5 years,” Zuckerberg stressed throughout the talk. “We’re not in maintenance mode, there’s a lot of innovation to do”, he said, emphasizing their work as a platform and utility which can make any website social.
But a threat to Facebook’s longevity is the nagging user worry that the site could use their vast stores of data for evil. “The Social Network” has the potential to increase this worry if audiences think it is factual. In order to minimize reactions to the film coloring the public’s opinion of Facebook, Zuckerberg said he probably won’t see it, repeatedly using the word “fiction” to describe the film. “I wish when people did media or journalism about Facebook that they would at least try to get it right. We try to focus on building the best product and I hope that’s what people remember us for, not the stories along the way.”
Shared by Tim
These are very cool. I particularly imagine myself replacing the big white decorative beam in my dining room with the red and blue artistic beam.
We want to point your attention to our Ikea-related project:
The idea was to build “artworks” which are replicable at a moderate cost by everyone by following the instructions we provide.
The sculptures were exhibited at the “Museo Cantonalde d’Arte” in Lugano, Switzerland.
See more here.
~ Andreas Gysin, Sidi Vanetti
