I was just accepted to a university to start on my Ph.D. School doesn’t start until October but that’s fine. I don’t know how much time the Navy will give me to work on the degree anyways.

One of the reasons I haven’t posted in a long time is because I have been deployed so bloody much. Working on a Ph.D may clash with the schedule, not to mention the spotty Internet connection we have when we are at sea. > more <

For those of you tracking my book writing progress, you may be happy to know that I finally had a chance to find a file hosting site. Originally I was planning on creating a web page just for the downloads but that was more work than I wanted to do; I already have the blog for the book. Why make yet another site?

So, I found a file hosting service and uploaded the .zip file of the ebook and supporting source code files. Not to redirect you again, but in the interests of having one location for downloading, please visit Start Programming with Python for the direct download link. Also, I still have the torrent file link available if you prefer that method.

(Reprinted from my Epinion. Note that there are several different types of gel coolers on the market, such as Thermaltake, Targus, et al.)

I’ve owned several fan-based laptop coolers. After going on the third one because the fans are cheap and die after several months, I decided to look for something different.

I had read a review on a computer news site and was intrigued about cooling without fans. After looking around at several others sites, I decided to give this cooling pad a shot. Being cheaper than most other fan-based coolers, it wasn’t like I had anything to lose. > more <

I’ve been watching a lot of the History Channel’s Gangland series and Investigation Discovery’s Gang Nation lately. One thing I’ve noticed is that much of the gang violence is due, directly or indirectly, to drugs. Well, no duh.

When Prohibition was enacted, the outlaws had a ready source of easy money. Bootlegging, moonshining, the speakeasies, et al. were extremely profitable to gangsters. The associated violence that the gangsters used was almost a natural side effect; turf wars, robbing each other, fighting law enforcement, etc. were just standard business practices for many criminals. People were willing to pay big money for their illicit hooch. Criminals who were limited to small-time crimes previously found big money bootlegging alcohol. > more <

First, I want to apologize to everyone who has submitted comments to the site for the last few weeks. Something happened with my email system and the notices that comments were made got sent to the spam box. I think so many comments were made in a short amount of time that the system thought it was a legitimate spam bot. I have approved all the comments and they should now be visible for reading, so don’t think I just deleted them because I didn’t like what you said.

I want to mention that I’m moving yet again, this time back to Japan. I lived there once but it wasn’t nearly long enough so now I get to go back and enjoy it some more, especially now that I know what to do and where to go.

My programming book is coming along nicely. I’m nearly done with my editing and conversion. If you are interested, take a look at http://python-ebook.blogspot.com. I hope to have the ebook version posted in a few months. I will also be seeing if I can find a publisher for it, since I’ve had a few people ask about getting a physical copy.

That’s about it for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Having recently returned from Iraq, I found out that the new service uniforms are finally available at the Navy Exchange (NEX) Uniform Shop. These new uniforms are designed to replace the office working whites (the “ice cream man” uniform) and the working blues (the “Johnny Cash” uniform). For those who haven’t seen it yet, it’s almost like the Marine Corps office uniform: khaki shirt, black pants, black garrison cap, collar rank insignia, etc.

I like the idea of not having to sew on the rank patches anymore; that could get pretty expensive, especially if you change rates. And having one uniform for the whole year is a nice idea; I never understood why we had to have two different uniforms when you can just wear a coat. > more <