Save on string comparisons
(January 28, 2008 11:49 AM)
I can't claim credit for this, neither can I claim credit for finding it, but I can pass along this tip.
When doing a string comparison, save yourself the NULL check by flipping the left and right side of the comparison.
Instead of writing
if (x != null && x.equals("x")) {
//do something
}
you can write
if ("x".equals(x)) {
//do something
}
You will eliminate the need to check for null.
You'll be missed, Mr. Way
(November 13, 2007 10:03 PM)
High school for me was a very rough time. Those of you that know me, know what I went through, and know that there were a select few people I can attribute with pulling me through that time. One of those great persons was lost this weekend. My 9th grade chemistry/physics teacher died suddenly of a brain tumor on Sunday. I have not seen or talked to him for over 7 years, but his death has hit me hard. I can attribute this to his enormous impact he had on my life, and saving my life, 12 years ago.
Mr. Way had a very unique personality, one of charisma, affection, passion. He truly loved his students and loved teaching, a true gift. His gift was one to encourage, to inspire, to bring out the best, all things he did frequently. For our paths having crossed only briefly, that crossing forever changed my life.
I've been watching the facebook page, and the outpouring of support from students, both past and present, as well as faculty and friends is unfathomable. To think that Mr. Way had such an impact on so many lives is both inspiring and awe inspiring. I can only hope to touch a fraction of the lives he has touched, and not just touched, but had such a large impact on.
Looking back, many memories flood in. It was Mr. Way that taught me physics, held tutoring sessions over Thanksgiving vacation to tutor his class in Chemistry, introduced me to "stories with holes", gave up a job with NASA to teach science to a bunch of teenagers, helped me through college Calculus, believed in me, even when I didn't, and gave me something to look forward to at Hempfield. His unique personality, commitment, and love is something I will always remember.
How long?
(August 27, 2007 07:36 AM)
Trying to uninstall some third party controls so I can re-install them, and apparently it's going to take over 5 hours to uninstall! I know MS has issues with time estimating, but come on!
Handbags for sale!
(June 05, 2007 09:56 AM)
A career change for me? Not what I want, but apparently I now sell handbags on Ebay, 23 of them to be exact, with listing fees totaling $161.00! I checked my email this morning to discover 23 from Ebay that were seller listing confirmations. Now, I get a lot of spam, and assumed these were more of the same, until I checked the headers. They were legitimate emails, from Ebay, stating that I had listed a "@@New Authentic Cc Purse /Handbag / Bag" with a starting price of $75.00 and a duration of 1 day. Some good potential there, but I don't have them to fulfill any orders.
I logged into Ebay to do some further investigation, only to find out that my account was suspended by their security team and they were investigating the fraudulent activity. Kudos to Ebay for this. I was able to talk to a customer service representative and get everything squared away, my account re-instated, and the fees reversed. My password is now changed, on paypal as well, and I will be watching this closely over the next several days to see what develops. I'm just glad I didn't have my bank account hooked up to my Ebay account to pay the fees.
Oh, the places I've been
(April 18, 2007 02:31 PM)
Came across an interesting service while poking around geocaching.com. It's a service that will make a map, either US or world, with the states/countries you have visited highlighted in red. Below are my maps, leave yours in the comments.
create your own personalized map of the USA.
create your own visited country map.
