If you have a set of unit tests for a large application, and not every one of them passes, then you don't know whether the application works correctly. In fact, failing unit tests are evidence that it isn't working.
Also, marking them with the [Ignore] attribute doesn't count as fixing them.
Also, deleting the part of the unit test that fails doesn't count either. An empty test method is not a passing test unless the method being tested is also empty. And an empty test method should not ever be committed to the source repository.
</rant>
Toystory, a Holstein bull with surprising stamina, died in November. Toystory was
...a titan of artificial insemination who sired an estimated 500,000 offspring in more than 50 countries.
Over nearly a decade, Toystory shattered the record for sales of the slender straws that hold about 1/20th of a teaspoon and are shipped using liquid nitrogen to farmers around the world. A unit fetches anywhere from a few dollars to several hundred.
When he died on Thanksgiving Day, Toystory had surpassed 2.4 million units according to his owner, Genex Cooperative Inc., and had fans from Brazil to Japan. His prowess was celebrated on hats, T-shirts and even his own commemorative semen straws. Recent posts to the Facebook page of Genex included “He was legend” and “Torazo!”—Spanish for super bull.
Nowhere in the Journal article does the author mention how many units are in an average donation. For that we go to Wikipedia, which suggests that a single bull-pull can produce a few hundred to several thousand units. (The article also describes the methods of collection.)
So, hat's off to Toystory, a stud in the truest sense of the word.
One more quick note: despite the cold and rain (and traffic), three of us had dinner last night at The Oval Room in the District. Fantastic. We all would recommend it.
After dinner we walked two blocks to my friend Barry's house:
We didn't knock on the door, but one of my colleagues swears someone waved to her from the North Portico.
I had nothing to do with this:
It was a commuter’s worst nightmare: a Metro train abruptly stops, goes dark and fills with smoke in a tunnel in downtown Washington. Before it was over, one woman was killed and more than 80 passengers were suffering from respiratory problems and other health issues.
[A]uthorities now believe they know why the train, which had just left the L’Enfant Plaza station, came to a halt about 800 feet into the tunnel. The National Transportation Safety Board said “an electrical arcing event” occurred about 1,100 feet in front of the train. The event filled the tunnel with smoke, the NTSB said.
The agency said the arcing involved cables that power the third rail. Arcing is often connected with short circuits and may generate smoke. There did not appear to have been a fire.
Train service has been mostly restored, except for Yellow and Blue line service to L'Enfant Plaza.
Yesterday I only logged 4,447 steps for 22.4 kg, my least-active day ever since getting a Fitbit on October 23rd. It's galling, too, because at this writing I have 994,008 lifetime steps—which would have gone over 1 million yesterday had circumstances been different.
Today I should hit that mark, if only because I'll have to navigate to and from the DC Metro, around Reagan and O'Hare, and...huh. No, it's not a sure thing.
At least it's not raining in either DC or Chicago today. That will help.
But wow, less than 4,500 steps? This is why I don't like the suburbs.
Even if it weren't rainy and getting dark outside, this isn't the most appealing view I've ever had from a hotel window:
At least I've managed to convince some of my team to head into the District for dinner tonight.
Back in July, I turned off the motion sensor on a hotel thermostat so that it would cease cycling the A/C and waking me up whenever I stopped moving (which one does when one falls asleep).
Now I'm at a Hilton Garden Inn outside Washington and the thermostat may have a motion sensor, but it's not clear. It has an all-or-nothing understanding of how to heat or cool a room, and it's paired with a very loud HVAC unit.
Fitbit says I got more than 6 hours of sleep last night because the Fitbit device doesn't sense when something wakes you up and you lie still, silently curse mechanical engineers everywhere, without actually moving your arm. (It did log 15 "restless" incidents spaced at regular intervals, however.)
Must...get...caffeine...
One of the consequences of being willing to jump on an airplane to take care of a client matter is, of course, one gets sent places to take care of client matters. And this is how I find myself, not yet a full week into my new job, in Northern Virginia.
At least it's above freezing here, so I got my Fitbit goals for the day. Plus, it looks like I'll hit 1 million lifetime steps either tomorrow or Tuesday—"lifetime" counted from when I joined Fitbit in October. So that's kind of cool.
Also, I once again have to say how much I like flying in American's new 737-800 planes.
Sure, it's -17°C, and it's been colder than that the last six nights in a row, but let's put this in perspective: last year was way, way worse:
The new year has opened very wintry bringing the city major league doses of snow and cold. Through January 9 temperatures have averaged a frigid -10.9°C and there have been 193 mm of snow. But, it was much colder and snowier during the same period last year with temperatures averaging -13.4°C and the city buried under nearly 509 mm of snow.
With clear skies and a fresh snow cover, Saturday will dawn bitterly cold with another round of subzero [Fahrenheit] temperatures, but readings will moderate in the afternoon as highs approach the upper teens [Fahrenheit]. Slow warming will continue with the mercury flirting with the freezing mark by Thursday and closing in on 6°C by next weekend. The only significant snow threat on the horizon comes Sunday night and Monday as a weather system moves through the Midwest, but current forecast trends point to the bulk of the snow falling south of Chicago.
Yesterday, white-out conditions contributed to a 193-vehicle pile-up in central Michigan that killed one and hurt 23:
There were 26 semis and 34 cars involved on the eastbound side of the freeway, and several vehicles there were burning in the pileup west of exit 92. Among them was a truck that carried 20 tonnes of hazardous materials and another hauling fireworks. Shortly before noon, those fireworks caught fire, causing an extended display of aerial explosions. Police said crews are still fighting flareups and monitoring the air as of 8:23pm [Saturday].
The westbound side of the freeway saw 50 semis and 83 cars involved.
More than 12 hours after the pileup, wreckage was still smoldering and emergency crews were still cleaning up.
I-94 is closed in both directions from exit 88 east of Galesburg to exit 92 west of Battle Creek, the Michigan Department of Transportation said. The expressway is expected to remain shut down until at least midnight.
More personally, on Monday night my car got tapped by a taxi who locked his brakes and slid right into the corner of my bumper causing $3100 in damage to my car and, of course, none to his.
So: if you're not familiar with snow, don't drive in it; drive more slowly than you think is necessary; and know exactly how your car behaves.
I may have more time later today. Maybe.
Back to work.