It’s a wonderful program that does syntax highlighting of BOTH cobol and assembler and one-click submit,run,retrieve unlike the programs they give you at the school. To date I have not been able to find a copy on the net anywhere so I feel it’s my duty to share this with the rest of the NIU student body.

It has a few bugs but on the whole it makes things so much easier.

Have fun!

NIU Cobol Download

Pictures (2.7MB)

Movie(125MB)

So I finally did something last Saturday that I had been contemplating and fearing since middle school - skydive. At Discover one of the other interns who went last year suggested that we go as summer trip. I don’t think I’d go unprompted but his experience and a healthy group discount was all I needed to prod me into going.

We went to the Chicago Skydiving Center in Hinckley IL to the tune of $160. Not bad since the regular rate is $210. I left Northbrook at 9:30 and got there at 10:15 more or less. Our appointment was at 11:30 so I was a bit nervous and on an empty stomach. Luckily they had a cafe and I ate quickly. After signing my life away an initialing a list a mile long of people I couldn’t sue for any reason whatsoever I was told it would be at least 3 hours before we would jump. There were groups there doing formation and competitive jumping so it was busier than usual. We broke into groups of 4 and commenced the long wait.

We were pre-occupied with a volleyball net and frisbee while we waited and got more and more tan in the direct sunlight. Meanwhile Adam Klintworth, our boss and beloved intern coordinator oscillated between anxious and freaked out.

About 4 a lady came by and asked us to split us up differently so they could pack the plane better and we could jump earlier. I definatly wanted to be the first to jump not only to get it out of the way, but also because its about 20 minutes in between plane loads and thats a lot of extra time when you are already sunburned and hot.

When I went into the hangar I was introduced to my photographer, Erica, and my instructor Eric. Yes, that was on purpose as the Pro Shop seems to have a nice sense of humor. Eric gave me the dos and don’ts of skydiving and what I should do when I’m at the door. “Squat down like a catcher with your hands across your chest. When I say go, thrust your hips out as hard as you can and arch your back. Arching is the most important thing you can do.” Naturally I asked what happens if I don’t arch. Humorously Eric replied “I’ll remember the dive and you won’t. I have a nice shot at the back of your neck and I’ll knock you out.” Thats good enough for me! Evidently after talking to some instructors they have people who like to go into a fetal position and they absolutely hate that. Heck they’ve had people throw up before. He also told me what he would do to signal it’s time to pull the chute, when I should pull it, and what happens if I don’t. That response was less funny and more straight-forward. He would pull it for me.

After being strapped into my harness and doing my pre-jump interview for the camera I proceeded to wait. Again. This time the plane was refueling so there was an extra 15-20 minute delay.

When the plane landed Eric told me to get moving and I boarded the plane somewhat nervously. I don’t really fear flying, but I haven’t done it enough to be comfortable with it either especially when it’s tiny, there are 12 other people crammed in there with you, and theres a big-ass door on the side.

When I sat down and buckled in I was on the left side of the plane and 3rd from the door (of about 7). Note that this is close enough from the door to touch if if I stretched a bit. As the plane took off and started to ascend at about a 20 degree angle people naturally started to shift down a bit and I started to get closer and closer to the door. The plane was hot with everyone in it so at about 2000 feet someone yelled “Door please!” and someone whipped the door open to a cooling blast. I was having a great time until that door was opened. At this point I am literally 2 feet from the door with no parachute (I was not yet hooked up with Eric and the pressure of people sliding down towards the door). I pointed this out to Eric and he said “What are you worried about? I’ve done tandem dives sitting AT the door before I was hooked up.” Needless to say his courage (or did I think stupidity at the time?) wasn’t reassuring. After his reassuring sentiments he promptly took my seatbelt and unbuckled it. At about 4000 feet the two people buffering me from the door announce that they’re leaving early. Now, not only I am unbuckled, parachuteless, and next to the door and GETTING CLOSER due to the pitch of the plane, but my friendly buffers were about to leave. I was nervously trying to push back up the plane with my legs to stop from sliding as one might do standing on a bus to counteract the sway. It was useless. Realizing this was useless I put my hand on the side of the plane to hold myself even more but the side was smooth and my hand was slick with suntan lotion and offered no reassurance. Just before my nervousness went from uncomfortable “oh damn” to “what the fuck am I doing next to a door with no parachute” Eric tells me to turn so we could hook up. Never had it, nor will it ever again, feel so good to be strapped tightly to another man.

Once I had a chute attached to my body through proxy I felt much better and the rest of the ascent was a breeze. I spent the rest of the time relaxing my muscles and looking out the window. Before too much longer the light went green and the first few people jumped out. I don’t remember how many people went before me but It wasn’t very many. Once I was at the door looking out I wasn’t as scared as I thought I’d be. Just waiting. “READY!” Eric yelled. “SET!”. “JUMP!”. With that I thrust out the door just as he instructed and started my plummet. On the video you can see me yelling my lungs out. I wasn’t scared but amazed. It was such an amazing experience plummeting towards the Earth and how ever many dozens of miles per hour I was traveling. My camerawoman Erica was smiling and egging me on with thumbs ups. At one point on the video you can even see us link hand and spin around. Absolutely fantastic! It was windy, loud, and cold. It was a hot day but with all the wind and being so far off the ground I was actually slightly chilled. It felt like forever and no time at all simultaneously before Eric signaled me to pull the chute. I could swear I found the chute but Eric pulled it before I could. Erica and Eric say I pulled it. No matter.

The chute whipped open. Whenever I see parachuters and skydivers in movies I could swear that it looks like they are getting hit by a truck when the chute deploys. It looks like a terrible loss of momentum that would make your stomach turn. However, it was either nothing like that or my adrenaline was too high to care. As soon as I pulled the chute the roar of the wind went silent. After 10 seconds I realized that my harness was tight over my throat. I wasn’t choking but it was uncomfortable and difficult to breathe. I pointed this out to Eric and he told me to stand on his feet to take weight off of it. I did and he did the second most terrifying thing today. He started to loosen stuff BEHIND me. I knew in the back of my mind he wasn’t doing anything dangerous but damn if I didn’t feel myself slip away from him and my connection to the parachute slightly.

Once that situation was averted he showed me Chicago and DeKalb. It was such a clear day that I had no trouble seeing either. After a minute he even let me steer the parachute! It took a few minutes but as we nearned the ground he told me at 50 feet he wanted me to pick my feet up as high as they would go. I did but he surprised me and as we came to a stop he told me to stand up! Of course I did the opposite of what he wanted and fell down. You can’t quite see it in the video but if you know I’m falling you can see it in the pictures.

It was an amazing experience that I highly recommend to anyone. After Saturday I’m pretty sure I’m no longer afraid of heights or airplanes.

Pictures (2.7MB)

Movie(125MB)

Really its a simple intersection of the abilities of tee, cat, and grep. If a matching line is found in the headers then pipe to /dev/null, else to stdout. Since it’s several years old and I wrote it when all I knew was C I’m sure it’s not perfect but i’ve been using it successfully since I wrote it. Now a guy emails me and lets me know it’s still delivering spam, only truncated. I suppose it’s a lot better than eating valid emails!

Its kinda exhilarating to help someone with something I wrote. I had no idea anyone was actually using the tool. Now I have a slim view of what OSS developers deal with. I’ve considered starting up some OSS projects but I can’t think of anything useful. Now that I’m a lot better with C, Perl, PHP, and SQL I suppose I finally have the ability to create something worthwhile not to mention my working subversion repository.

I have everything I need to make something neat and useful, but now what?