The APNIC PTR project is coming along nicely, I figured out how to do timeouts with pthreads (timers are thread-enabled in linux nowadays, so that's a no brainer). But because I have timeouts being called, I need to be able to arbitrarily clean up my memory allocations. The good thing is that's all done and in nsrev-0.1.tar.gz. Diet Code Red is my favorite software hacking drink, ever.

Arjun was back in town for this weekend, so we hit up the local Denny's to relax and converse. We both have a economics background, and have wide interests, so it's fun to get together and catch up on what each of us is thinking (I tried to sell him on putting a personal journal online). He's been reading a bunch of blogs recently, most notably denbeste.nu and imao.us.

Getting back into psychology, Arjun reminded me of a previous project that I've abandoned. I had noticed that some people just wantonly park in handicapped parking spaces without having the necessary license plate or tags. I'd like to exact some kind of social punishment for them, and the best I could come up with was to put a removable bumper sticker on their car that would cause them to have a bad driving experience. Namely, I want to write something so offensive on their car (via bumper sticker) that most people would have an irrational response. When the parking offender gets home after their bad driving experience (which would include grandmas driving by and flipping them off), I want them to find the bumper sticker and pull it off, on the back of the sticker/magnet would be written "Don't park in handicapped parking spots" with a PVA logo.

The hard thing is coming up with the phrases, "Fuck Jesus"? "Boy Scouts Suck Cock"? "Fuck the US"? What would piss you off? I'd like to know. But, perhaps a humiliation campaign would be easier, like a big, fat "I Suck Cock". As they say in the business, epigrammatic effrontery ain't easy.

It's funny how psychological rights differ from legal rights. Like how you sit in a classroom chair for the first three classes, and then in your mind that chair is yours. If someone sits in it, you'll feel some psychological damage over it, unless you make them move. But, you have absolutely no legal rights to that chair. Perhaps this could lead to other effective forms of social punishment, although one would have to walk close to the harassment line.

In more depressing news, the WHO has SARS morbidity and mortality stats since 2003 April 1st. Their data confirm the 4% mortality rate that I had heard. If this continues and SARS kills indiscriminately, expect 1 in 25 of the people around you to die. Ick.

Total Number of SARS Infections since 2003 04 01 Number of SARS Deaths since 2003 04 01