Anthony Panozzo's Blog

In most languages, regular expressions have symbols to indicate when the first part or last part must match the first or last part of the string or line. These are called anchors. Anchors are usually the caret (^) for matching the beginning of a string, and the dollar sign ($) for the end of the string. Hence:

'abc' =~ /c$/     => true
'abc' =~ /a$/     => false
'abc' =~ /^a/     => true 
'abc' =~ /^c/     => false

I can remember what the anchors are. When I have trouble remembering which is which, I use the following mnemonic:

Found a site that is trying to improve free software documentation. I found this interesting because the idea is related to a previous post that I had about open source tech writers.

It seems that their goal is to improve the documentation of free software products to increase their adoption. You can check this out on the about tab. The discussion on their FLOSS manuals overview reminded me of thoughts that I was having about having some sort of open source documentation or tech writing business. They basically outline the major models for producing content and being compensated for it. There were several sections that focused on the prevailing mindset, technologies, and economics of doing open source (in this case, for free software) documentation. I agree with them that adequate and consistent documentation is something that keeps most open source and free software from being widely adopted on the desktop.

I've had vivid dreams for a long time, and at some point in high school I got interested in remembering them. Here are my experiences.

Why I'm interested in this

Dreams are a great way to get to know yourself better. Plus, they are a good way to solve problems. Your subconscious mind works in an environment with different constraints than reality, often providing valuable insights. You may know something that you cannot apprehend consciously. I think that it makes you more creative because you get better at listening to different parts of your brain. Plus, you're sleeping anyway, so you might as well make the best of it. :)

You don't really need your caps lock key. Seriously.

You can swap it with a different function that you use all of the time. I recommend switching it to the escape key. You can also change it to function as a control key. But why would you want to do this?

Benefits

First, the caps lock key is modal, which means that much mayhem can result from misplaced keystrokes with the caps on, especially when working with complex text editors. There is little visual and no tactile feedback on the state of the caps lock. This inevitably leads to annoyances when the lock is on. There's a reason that login dialogs always warn you when the caps lock is on.

The Personal MBA program founders think that you can understand the fundamentals and mechanics of business by reading a list of books that they have hand picked as the best in the business field. They conjecture you might get close to the same education level as a traditional MBA with much less time and money.

While skeptical that it will line up fully with most MBA programs, I think that this program has the right idea. The best learning comes when one is interested in something and really wants to learn more about it. I am interested in learning more about business and entrepreneurship since I feel that my strengths lead in this direction. It seems that these books will give a high return on time invested, as most of the time I see new connections or learn new skills. While the information might not be applicable right away, just knowing more gives me confidence that I will succeed when the time comes. There seems to be a lot to learn, but it's not rocket surgery either. Many concepts are similar to each other, and having a background in economics probably helps.