I think if someone suddenly gave me a job as a INTERCAL hacker, I'd end up learning INTERCAL in two weeks. If I wanted to learn INTERCAL and tried learning it on my own, it would take a lot longer. That's kind of what happened with perl. "Hey, can you write some tools for tech support?" "daah, sure I can I can."

INTERCAL is interesting (even to people who don't care about whether the arrays are zero based) because it is designed to be unpleasant and weird on purpose. They gave odd names (like "half-mesh") to familiar symbols (like "=") so that you'd have to learn the goofy names all over again. It's sort of a spare time hobby for people who like learning computer languages. I don't enjoy the learning process so much that I'd learn completely useless things JUST TO SEE IF I COULD. (Andrew? Didn't you spend a day or two learning to tie rubber bands in a knot with one hand?) (Yes. Shut up. That comes in handy every day.)

I am dwelling on computer related topics. This keeps my mind of of Omelettes.

It would be very cool to code asmx86 for a living. I would go through the period of frantic learning, followed by adjustment and application, followed closely by more learning and stuff. I want to write eurostars for pc. Maybe someone has already done it, but I want slick controls and options to tax the high MHzes. Sitting there with the lights off tumbling through space was fun in 9th grade.

Ugh. Omelette vows revenge for me eating the whole thing. Down Omelette. Down hash browns and toast.

Pleh. My room nears complete cleanliness. I think this is the last time. I think I'll have a job soon enough that I can move out before my room gets messy again. If not as a DOS developer, then as a UNIX Systems programmer, Sysadmin, or Web Tech-of-some-sort. My workin' friends over here are boggled by the way that the hi-tech job market works. I think all you need to work in computers is a knack for picking things up quick, that's it. A degree? Well, I guess one thing that a degree could mean is that it took four years for you to feel confident enough to apply the things you already know. Would I trust a practitioner of medicine without a degree? Maybe an experienced one with lots of very healthy patients.

In other eye-pokingly interesting news, the CD-ROM drive tried to eat my hand today. I was removing a CD, and it decided to close (I nudged it with my hand) and my index finger, stuck through the center hole of the CD, got sucked into the drive. Fortunately I was able to disengage the CD before any bad clicking sounds or dismemberments occurred.

Yuck. Egg burps. ow, ow.

8253 tri-timer chip
 generates signal on output pin when hits zero
 counts once every 838.1 ns
 haltable anytime by sending 0 on gate input
 counts constantly when gate input is 1

 Timer 2 is speaker timer (can't generate interrupts, has gate input)
 Timer 1 is DRAM refresh timer (don't mess with.)
 Timer 0 is system clock timer (gate input not usually connected on PCs)

Today's MIDI project: Midlife Crisis, a cruel (and unfinished) parody.