Getting busy again

It's getting pretty busy again for me, in my work and personal life.  Because of that, I have several post ideas awaiting completion, ranging from "mostly written" to "a couple of web links."  At any rate, by the end of June I expect to have them all done.  In no particular order, here's a list of what I have in mind:

• Updating the blog
• LabVIEW 2010 testing
• ATML
• Bucket lists
• LabVIEW patents
• Reliability testing

LHC!!

Over the past couple years I've talked about my history with high energy physics (HEP) and my excitement with the LHC (here or here, for example).  Well, on March 30th they finally slammed protons together at a total energy of 7TeV.  Granted, that's only half the energy total they're aiming for, but at least it's doing real physics now.

Looking for evidence of the Higgs boson (that's suppose to be the particle that explains mass like photons do for light) or dark matter is supposedly the official reason for the LHC.  But there's always a perverse side of HEP that wants to break the Standard Model.  If you can't find the Higgs, or you find something completely different, then that's when it gets really interesting.  Sometimes I miss being in the mix of that, but life goes on.

If you're interested, there's lots of photos, videos, and other goodies at the public CERN website.

April Fools Day - Klingon Tests

Back a couple months ago I posted a couple of bad jokes I had made up about hydrogen.  Since then I've been thinking about posting more jokes, but in a testing vein.  I've done that before (here and here), and April Fools' Day seems like a good time to do it again.

If you hate Star Trek, you might want to stop now.  You won't really get it.
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Okay, what I'm posting below is actually a repeat of some jokes I had on my group's website when I worked at HP.  Enjoy.

• Specifications are for the weak and timid!
• You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!
• Indentation?! - I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!
• What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software releases. Our software escapes, leaving a bloody trail of designers and QA testers in its wake.
• Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' - they have 'arguments' - and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.
• Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak.
• A TRUE Klingon Warrior does not comment on his code!
• Klingon software does NOT have BUGS. It has FEATURES, and those features are too sophisticated for a Romulan pig like you to understand.
• You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert unless you have read it in the original Klingon.
• Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!

As a bonus feature, a friend of mine from high school forwarded these old Star Trek images to me.  Enjoy.