Sam on Stuff

Good Cop, Dadaist Cop

2012-03-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Listen to: UNKLE

2012-02-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

2012-02-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

five from umberto eco

Schools ought to teach the high art of how to be discriminating.
~~~~~
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
~~~~~
Comedy is the quintessential human reaction to the fear of death.
~~~~~
I always assume that a good book is more intelligent than its author. It can say things that the writer is not aware of.
~~~~~
If you interact with things in your life, everything is constantly changing. And if nothing changes, you're an idiot.
~~~~~

via form is void

Merging JSON Objects Successfully

2012-02-03T16:15:00.002-07:00

If you've been using JavaScript for a while you've probably come across the problem of comparing JSON objects. At first glance it doesn't seem to be very easy since {} !== {} evaluates to true. One solution would be to use JSON.stringify on the objects and you would be able to see equality.

Another problem is doing a merge of objects since $.extend() and $.merge() fall a little short. Merge is used for arrays and will put duplicate objects into the merged array. Extend doesn't do a complete recursive merge merge even with passing the parameter true for deep.

Take a look:

var obj1 = {
    data: [
        {
            id: 1,
            text: "1"
        },
        {
            id: 2,
            text: "2"
        },
        {
            id: 3,
            text: "3"
        }
    ]
};



var obj2 = {
    data: [
        {
            id: 3,
            text: "three"
        },
        {
            id: 4,
            text: "4"
        }
    ]
};

$.extend(true, obj1, obj2) yields:

//Missing {id: 1, text: "1"} and {id: 2, text: "2"}
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 3,
      "text": "three"
    },
    {
      "id": 4,
      "text": "4"
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "text": "3"
    }
  ]
}

jQuery's extend for the data array seems to be doing a merge based on position instead of comparison with obj1's objects in the same position. The options are slowly dwindling. That's why I made my own recursive function to do a deep merge. You can check out my gist and run mergeDeep(obj1, obj2) to return:

//All the data has been merged properly
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "text": "1"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "text": "2"
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "text": "3"
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "text": "three"
    },
    {
      "id": 4,
      "text": "4"
    }
  ]
}

Listen to: Active Child

2012-02-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Do it guys. They're awesome.

Donate your marrow!

2012-02-01T08:10:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone.

Today I'm urging you to sign up for marrow donation. The process is really easy and what happens is they put you on a marrow registry and they notify you if a match comes up. I did mine a month or so ago. If you are matched you have the opportunity to save a life. Who would turn down saving someone? The medical stuff from what I understand would be paid for by the receiver if that's a concern. Here is where I signed up. They will send you some q-tips to swab the inside of your cheek for a tissue sample and you'll mail them back and be registered.

While you're waiting for your q-tips to arrive check out this video of my good friend Derek Story shreddin' it.

2012-02-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

via PostSecret

strstr (JavaScript)

2012-01-29T21:43:00.001-07:00

So I ran across this post and I was curious if I could write my own strstr function without using any library calls, just arrays, but in javascript. 15 minutes later and voila it works! Here it is:

function strstr(haystack, needle) {
    var i = 0,
        tempLength = 0,
        temp = [];
    for (;;) {
        if (haystack[i] === undefined || needle == null) {
            return "No match";
        }
        //if the char doesn't match then reset
        else if (haystack[i] !== needle[tempLength]) {
            temp = [];
            tempLength = 0;
        }
        //the char matches so let's store it.
        else if (haystack[i] === needle[tempLength]) {
            temp[tempLength] = haystack[i];
            if (needle[tempLength + 1] === undefined) {
                return temp;
            }
            tempLength++;
        }
        i++;
    }
};

Oh bog.

2012-01-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

via Nietzsche Family Circus

Also read this interesting link. Good work science.

Operation Know Who You're Voting For: Mitt Romney

2012-01-24T09:02:00.001-07:00

Here is an article detailing the release of Mr. Romney's tax records. Romney is the epitome of what Occupy Wall Street is against, someone who's made all of his money by scouring for failing companies, breaking them up, and then dumping them. There are legitimate tax loopholes for moves like this that put the financial burden for benefits to workers on the government and not the people who bought the company in distress. Alas his effective tax rate for 2010 was 13.4%. I paid more relative tax to my income last year! This guy purports to be a working class man who understands the trials of the middle class, yet he's making off of the demise of the working class. Romney's ability to pay such a low percentage of tax is also through the capital gains tax which maxes out at 15%.

Update: The New York Times has released a nice breakdown of Romney's tax forms here. In his 203 page joint tax return he reports $110,000 out of $20.9 million as employment income. He's actually in the top .006 percent and it's pretty clear that these people have the will and the means to find every tax loophole possible.

SOPA / PIPA

2012-01-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

If you guys don't know much about SOPA or PIPA please watch this video. Apparently congress has stopped pushing for SOPA at the moment but be vigilant they will be back. Also this could be a move to be able to pass PIPA without much resistance.

Go here to do something about it.

Beirut - My Night With The Prostitute (transcribed)

2012-01-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hello people. So I've heard that transcribing songs is one of the best things a person can do to develop their ear. It's also supposed to help a great deal with soloing. Thus here is my first transcription. I chose the main riff of this song because I thought it sounded fun and it was also pretty easy to be able to hear each individual note.

(Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Operation Know Who You're Voting For: Rick Santorum

2012-01-05T07:37:00.001-07:00

"No one has ever died because they didn't have health care." - Rick Santorum (here)

Operation Know Who You're Voting For: Rick Santorum

2012-01-04T19:27:00.001-07:00

This guy (Rick Santorum) is a total ass. Rick Santorum doesn't even know the argument. Gay people have a choice, really? You (Rick Santorum) also have a choice to educate yourself on the issue at hand instead of spouting off your thoughts like they're fact.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Merry Winter Solstice to All! (from Stonehenge)

2011-12-22T12:47:00.001-07:00

via LATimes

Happy Holidays

2011-12-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

2011-12-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

Listen to: Tegan and Sara Live

2011-11-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here is an awesome set by Tegan and Sara. Probably my favorite female lead (dual lead) band. They've also got a new film out, Get Along, that I'm hoping to see. Inni is also out. Anyone have some iTunes gift cards they aren't using?

Badass Cinema

2011-11-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Badass Cinema

2011-10-06T22:28:00.002-06:00

(Massive Attack - Angel)

Idiot's Guide to Making Money in a Recession

2011-10-05T18:36:00.001-06:00

Hello.

I know from the title you might think I'm a fool or crazy but there are lots of opportunities when the markets are down and probably going downer. A market like right now is actually the best time to get into investing. If you think about it when these equities are at their lowest ideally you would want to buy right? Well in my opinion the market is going to go much lower before it goes up again. Several reasons: our government has an inability to enact a good financial plan - especially one that they want to stick to for more than a couple months, jobs are not being created, Europe is seeing serious financial issues probably worse than ours. And Obama and Bernanke can't really do much else to stimulate the economy. I'd be very surprised if they did print more money (QE3). Another government intervention into the economy at this point would only make things worse, provide a short boost and then see even lower lows. Time is the only healer for this market. So with those facts I don't see the market going up any time soon.

How do you make money when prices are going down you ask? Well my friends the easiest way is to "short" the market. There are many ways to do this now. My favorite way to do this is to buy Short or UltraShort ETFs. An ETF is an exchange traded fund, it sounds technical and I guess it is, but the basic idea of it and the way that I've understood them is to think of them as mutual funds that are traded as if they were stocks. Another way to short the market is through options. I haven't spent much time with options and from what I've read about them they do seem attractive. Short ETFs are provided by companies like PowerShares and ProShares, and the way that they get their value is that they reflect the inverse of specific sectors or indexes.

Another plan of investing you could take is to hedge your account by investing a little into short ETFs and investing into companies that have hit their low that you think are going up or will HAVE to go up. A lot of popular companies have hit their yearly lows within the past month and now would be a good time to get in while they're cheap. Again this sounds crazy with Fox news and the like spouting fear but when there is fear in investors and the market it's the best time to invest.

Personally I'm saving up until I see that the market has hit it's true bottom. I do have some money in short ETFs right now with Greece's issues looming and talk of Germany possibly going back to their previous monetary system; the oulook isn't pretty. But when I think we're at the lowest lows I'm going to be all in. I'm not missing out this time like I did in March 2009.

2011-09-27T22:32:00.000-06:00

After a week of writing 750 words a day, running more often, and finishing The Sound and The Fury I'm proud of myself. It's good to get things done. Sound and the Fury was an interesting novel. I don't think I've read something quite so different when it comes to form in a novel. I also liked how Faulkner put the hardest part in the beginning as if to say, "If you don't get through this then I don't want you to read my book." I'm now delving into some Joyce with Dubliners. I eventually want to read Ulysses some day and I think getting my bearings on Joyce would be good before I make that arduous adventure.

Michelle and I are going to be headed to the New York Wine and Food Festival this Sunday to attend the grand tasting. I'm pretty excited. Planning on fasting Saturday in hopes of filling the void with some amazing food and wine! Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share afterwards.

And I'm going to leave you with a photo of an amazing piece of art by Marcel Duchamp, my favorite artist.

2011-09-22T20:22:00.000-06:00

Still the best dog.

Made some whole-wheat spinach ricotta ravioli.

The result.

My beaker shot.

Badass Cinema

2011-09-22T20:03:00.000-06:00

Caribou - Jamelia