Nice article
The Learning Channel has a good article (or collection of articles) on hackers and it's history. I'm adding it to my list of links.
-Just something to read in an afternoon
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Hey, look. Blog offers titles now.
So I guess I don't need this title any more?
Windows and its vulnerabilities. You don't really have to wonder why people still use windows, even after hearing of all its security exploits. Myself, I'm moving away from windows. I've got it on my PC at home, and on my laptop as well. However, I'm not going too far from windows. My problem is, windows is a gaming platform. Not too many games are supported on Linux at the moment. How am I going to get my Half-Life / Half-Life 2 fix on a *nix operating system?
I'm removing windows from my home PC, Kubuntu is taking its place. My laptop, however, is still carrying Windows, but only for the games. I've got Cygwin on there and it's configured very well.
-I've also heard good things of minGW
Windows and its vulnerabilities. You don't really have to wonder why people still use windows, even after hearing of all its security exploits. Myself, I'm moving away from windows. I've got it on my PC at home, and on my laptop as well. However, I'm not going too far from windows. My problem is, windows is a gaming platform. Not too many games are supported on Linux at the moment. How am I going to get my Half-Life / Half-Life 2 fix on a *nix operating system?
I'm removing windows from my home PC, Kubuntu is taking its place. My laptop, however, is still carrying Windows, but only for the games. I've got Cygwin on there and it's configured very well.
-I've also heard good things of minGW
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Research follow-up
My professor, I think, has finally realised how little enthusiasm I have for the mathematical sciences. Or, forbid! she has access to my blog.
She's proposed that I use my program to help out the two entomologists we've been working with. I have had questions all along in regards to how I should handle certain events in my simulation. Gary, the field guy entomologist dude, has suggested I try my question in my program, varying it so I can get an answer myself. The answer will be when we compare my data and his and draw a logical conclusion from that.
Sounds good to me, and I get to avoid the mathematical analysis. I do get to write an advertisement for my simulation. And I've gotten permission to post is as open-source.
-Building a better resume
Summer Loving
I don't know what to make of my summer research assistant position. My professor, she's a nice lady, but I don't think she knows what she wants with my research. I'll give her credit, she's juggling three students at the same time, each with a project unrelated to the other. Justin with his simulation of a swimming nematode. Brock with his recolonization by squirells in clear-cut forests. And myself, with my dispersal of codling moths in the presence of a network of pheromone traps. I found that the longer the title, the more impressed people are with your work. But that's getting off topic. Rebecca, my professor/supervisor, has her own research going on as well. And the school is forcing her to take her vacation time at the moment, which she is taking up until the end of this month.
However, her research runs parallel to mine. She's covering codling moth dispersal using a mathematical model. I'm doing a cellular based model on the computer. This is where it gets hair-brained. We started on my project last summer to coincide with hers. Toward the end of last summer our work was beginning to overlap. At that point, all I had was a simulated orchard with a central release point. I'd release a mass amount of moths in 4 trials of 2000 moths each. The moths would fly around their orchard and either die, become trapped or fly out of bounds; all of which would remove them from the program. OK, that's cool, but then she wanted more features. And then more features. And then she wanted me to throw together a presentation. Then she wanted me to run the experiments to gather data, from a program that I felt still needed to be polished.
The data was run, imagine 1000 trials of 500 moths each in a small simulated orchard. Now a program needed to be written to injest the 1000 large files containing data from the simulation. Enter MatLab, another language to learn. Now for the whole school year all I did was type what Rebecca dictated. I felt I could better be used in polishing the program, fixing my bloated code. I'd only had two semesters of programming experience, and that only in Java, before she had me writing this simulation for her. So 8 months of meeting with my professor for 3~6 hours a week, writing a program she was more than capable of writing herself. She knows Matlab inside and out. She could have written up the analysis program in a week, where it took the two of us almost 8 months! And I couldn't have done it that quickly on my own, I had my own classes to tend to.
So now that it's summer time again; she informed me that I was to have a paper written by the end of the summer with the intentions of having it published early next year. So the whole first month of my summer position I was modifying my program, fixing the code, tweaking it, generally making it speedier. When the program takes 30 minutes per trial of 500 moths (doing a trap efficiency experiment) you don't think that's too bad. 30 minutes 1000 times, well, that's getting a bit much. But when the program takes 8 hours for one simulation of 2000 moths, and you have to run 4 of those experiments to have enough data to say you've emulated what scientists do in the field... yeah, that's a bit extreme. But fixing my program, with the knowledge I gleaned this year in classes, I have the program going as quick as 2 hours per quarter. It takes only 8 hours to run the whole experiment!
As I said in the previous paragraph, I'd spent the first month making my program more efficient. But she wanted something I could show for. So I added sterile female moths to my program, to accompany the sterile males I'd had for the year. Though, we're not even close to ready to use these female moths in our simulation. I feel we still need to polish up the male aspect of the simulation. Get the no-wind model analyzed again now that I've made some modifications. Then we can move on to an all-male analysis using wind, since I just recently (this last week) fixed a minor bug that prevented my moths from moving in certain directions (they should be able to move in a full 360 degrees along the x-y plane). Then after we've got that data, and have analyzed as best we can, maybe we could then how the data changes when females are introduced.
But wait! Sterile males and sterile females aren't enough. Now we need to add wild males and wild females. Because, you know, we can. And when that's done, we need to have these moths mating with each other... you can see where this is going. This simulation is getting bigger and more complicated. I've got my boss looking over my shoulder (once a week, Wednesdays) telling me, "Looks good, now do this". And all the time, no research is being made. I'm just programming and programming. But don't get me wrong. That's what I'm here for, I'm here to program this awesome simulation that takes in the important parameters so the Scientist can use my program, tweak the numbers, analyse the data and write the paper.
However, my role in this project has grown. I went from just having programming duties to having to analyse the data. Then creating presentations. And with the presentations came the mathematical formulas I had to make sense of (I'm not a math student by far). I just want to go back and polish my program. I want to make it user-friendly. I want to write the document to allow the world to use my simulation (open-source if I had my way) to study the movements of more than just these Codling moths. The program could be modified to work with, say, salmon swimming up stream. Maybe even cows wandering across a field, eating grass and rolling in mud along the way. I'm here to program, that's how she sold this job to me.
And when you consider how much this program is worth, think of this. I've been employed for the last year and more to work on this. 4 months of 35 hours weeks, that's 560 hours right there. And 8 months during the school year of, say, 5 hours a week. That's another 160 hours. Plus the last two months I've been doing my summer position, another 280 (I hope I'm getting my math right). So that's a total of, wow I didn't this number, 1000 hours. And let's say I'm being paid an average $9.50 canadian for this (none of which I have managed to save) and that's $9500.00 that has been put into this simulation. So, thus far, this simulation is worth $9500, and if it were commercial, you'd want a product that you can sell to make a profit. If you wanted a profit, you'd be polishing the program and making it the best thing you could. But sadly, as you've read this far, that is not how this is going.
So now I'm going to read the stack of scientific papers I have sitting in front of me. Hopefully this will give me some insight as to how and what I should write about. That's the topic of meeting with my professor today, we're going to decide what I am to write about. All I can think of is writing an advertisement for my simulation. How it may benefit the scientific community. How to use it.
Providing I'm not contractually obligated to keep it under wraps, this is going
-to be open-source
I don't know what to make of my summer research assistant position. My professor, she's a nice lady, but I don't think she knows what she wants with my research. I'll give her credit, she's juggling three students at the same time, each with a project unrelated to the other. Justin with his simulation of a swimming nematode. Brock with his recolonization by squirells in clear-cut forests. And myself, with my dispersal of codling moths in the presence of a network of pheromone traps. I found that the longer the title, the more impressed people are with your work. But that's getting off topic. Rebecca, my professor/supervisor, has her own research going on as well. And the school is forcing her to take her vacation time at the moment, which she is taking up until the end of this month.
However, her research runs parallel to mine. She's covering codling moth dispersal using a mathematical model. I'm doing a cellular based model on the computer. This is where it gets hair-brained. We started on my project last summer to coincide with hers. Toward the end of last summer our work was beginning to overlap. At that point, all I had was a simulated orchard with a central release point. I'd release a mass amount of moths in 4 trials of 2000 moths each. The moths would fly around their orchard and either die, become trapped or fly out of bounds; all of which would remove them from the program. OK, that's cool, but then she wanted more features. And then more features. And then she wanted me to throw together a presentation. Then she wanted me to run the experiments to gather data, from a program that I felt still needed to be polished.
The data was run, imagine 1000 trials of 500 moths each in a small simulated orchard. Now a program needed to be written to injest the 1000 large files containing data from the simulation. Enter MatLab, another language to learn. Now for the whole school year all I did was type what Rebecca dictated. I felt I could better be used in polishing the program, fixing my bloated code. I'd only had two semesters of programming experience, and that only in Java, before she had me writing this simulation for her. So 8 months of meeting with my professor for 3~6 hours a week, writing a program she was more than capable of writing herself. She knows Matlab inside and out. She could have written up the analysis program in a week, where it took the two of us almost 8 months! And I couldn't have done it that quickly on my own, I had my own classes to tend to.
So now that it's summer time again; she informed me that I was to have a paper written by the end of the summer with the intentions of having it published early next year. So the whole first month of my summer position I was modifying my program, fixing the code, tweaking it, generally making it speedier. When the program takes 30 minutes per trial of 500 moths (doing a trap efficiency experiment) you don't think that's too bad. 30 minutes 1000 times, well, that's getting a bit much. But when the program takes 8 hours for one simulation of 2000 moths, and you have to run 4 of those experiments to have enough data to say you've emulated what scientists do in the field... yeah, that's a bit extreme. But fixing my program, with the knowledge I gleaned this year in classes, I have the program going as quick as 2 hours per quarter. It takes only 8 hours to run the whole experiment!
As I said in the previous paragraph, I'd spent the first month making my program more efficient. But she wanted something I could show for. So I added sterile female moths to my program, to accompany the sterile males I'd had for the year. Though, we're not even close to ready to use these female moths in our simulation. I feel we still need to polish up the male aspect of the simulation. Get the no-wind model analyzed again now that I've made some modifications. Then we can move on to an all-male analysis using wind, since I just recently (this last week) fixed a minor bug that prevented my moths from moving in certain directions (they should be able to move in a full 360 degrees along the x-y plane). Then after we've got that data, and have analyzed as best we can, maybe we could then how the data changes when females are introduced.
But wait! Sterile males and sterile females aren't enough. Now we need to add wild males and wild females. Because, you know, we can. And when that's done, we need to have these moths mating with each other... you can see where this is going. This simulation is getting bigger and more complicated. I've got my boss looking over my shoulder (once a week, Wednesdays) telling me, "Looks good, now do this". And all the time, no research is being made. I'm just programming and programming. But don't get me wrong. That's what I'm here for, I'm here to program this awesome simulation that takes in the important parameters so the Scientist can use my program, tweak the numbers, analyse the data and write the paper.
However, my role in this project has grown. I went from just having programming duties to having to analyse the data. Then creating presentations. And with the presentations came the mathematical formulas I had to make sense of (I'm not a math student by far). I just want to go back and polish my program. I want to make it user-friendly. I want to write the document to allow the world to use my simulation (open-source if I had my way) to study the movements of more than just these Codling moths. The program could be modified to work with, say, salmon swimming up stream. Maybe even cows wandering across a field, eating grass and rolling in mud along the way. I'm here to program, that's how she sold this job to me.
And when you consider how much this program is worth, think of this. I've been employed for the last year and more to work on this. 4 months of 35 hours weeks, that's 560 hours right there. And 8 months during the school year of, say, 5 hours a week. That's another 160 hours. Plus the last two months I've been doing my summer position, another 280 (I hope I'm getting my math right). So that's a total of, wow I didn't this number, 1000 hours. And let's say I'm being paid an average $9.50 canadian for this (none of which I have managed to save) and that's $9500.00 that has been put into this simulation. So, thus far, this simulation is worth $9500, and if it were commercial, you'd want a product that you can sell to make a profit. If you wanted a profit, you'd be polishing the program and making it the best thing you could. But sadly, as you've read this far, that is not how this is going.
So now I'm going to read the stack of scientific papers I have sitting in front of me. Hopefully this will give me some insight as to how and what I should write about. That's the topic of meeting with my professor today, we're going to decide what I am to write about. All I can think of is writing an advertisement for my simulation. How it may benefit the scientific community. How to use it.
Providing I'm not contractually obligated to keep it under wraps, this is going
-to be open-source
Monday, June 13, 2005
Guess who's back
Gorillaz!!! They're 'performing' a virtual concert today for 99x listeners (everything alternative, radio Atlanta, Georgia). Click and enjoy.
-I've got sunshine in a bag
Gorillaz!!! They're 'performing' a virtual concert today for 99x listeners (everything alternative, radio Atlanta, Georgia). Click and enjoy.
-I've got sunshine in a bag
Friday, June 10, 2005
Did it again
Picture of the ZomCon decal just in front of the drivers side door (the left side, here in North America).
The grumpy zombie couldn't keep me away. I rollerbladed by again today and stopped to talk with one of the security persons (persons because she was a girl). I couldn't go down Lake Ave today because they were filming toward that end, down south Maple Street. So I asked her what I could take pictures of. She didn't specifically say I couldn't take pictures of the actors (so I'm going to try to get a picture of a zombie later) and she said it was cool if I took pictures of the vehicles. So I got the cars and the Zomcon paddy-wagon. Unfortunately I couldn't find the Zomcon Milk truck. That was pretty cool-looking, too. It was a white truck, much like the ice-cream trucks you see today, with the Zomcon logo on the side with "Milk" written just below it.
They were firing the blank gunshots as I was there, too. I wanted to get closer, but wasn't going to press my luck. I was standing right by the set vehicles on my rollerblades and they hadn't kicked me out. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get right down to the house there. Oh yeah, back to the gunshots. Pretty dull, actually. I was expecting "BANG BANG BOOM POP POP POP" but it was more like a "Ok, go." ~~~ "Pop" ~~~ "PoP" ~~~ "pOP" ~~~ "pop" over the course of 15 or 20 seconds. And the gun fire sounded like somebody dropping a wooden plank evenly on the ground. Or even hammering a nail into wood really hard. Or when you go to the public pool and some little kick slaps his boogie-board down on the water and it echoes a little off the walls.
Oh yeah, check out horror-movies.ca for the rest of my pictures :) That is, if they choose to use them.
-Photo-journalist
Picture of the ZomCon decal just in front of the drivers side door (the left side, here in North America).
The grumpy zombie couldn't keep me away. I rollerbladed by again today and stopped to talk with one of the security persons (persons because she was a girl). I couldn't go down Lake Ave today because they were filming toward that end, down south Maple Street. So I asked her what I could take pictures of. She didn't specifically say I couldn't take pictures of the actors (so I'm going to try to get a picture of a zombie later) and she said it was cool if I took pictures of the vehicles. So I got the cars and the Zomcon paddy-wagon. Unfortunately I couldn't find the Zomcon Milk truck. That was pretty cool-looking, too. It was a white truck, much like the ice-cream trucks you see today, with the Zomcon logo on the side with "Milk" written just below it.
They were firing the blank gunshots as I was there, too. I wanted to get closer, but wasn't going to press my luck. I was standing right by the set vehicles on my rollerblades and they hadn't kicked me out. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get right down to the house there. Oh yeah, back to the gunshots. Pretty dull, actually. I was expecting "BANG BANG BOOM POP POP POP" but it was more like a "Ok, go." ~~~ "Pop" ~~~ "PoP" ~~~ "pOP" ~~~ "pop" over the course of 15 or 20 seconds. And the gun fire sounded like somebody dropping a wooden plank evenly on the ground. Or even hammering a nail into wood really hard. Or when you go to the public pool and some little kick slaps his boogie-board down on the water and it echoes a little off the walls.
Oh yeah, check out horror-movies.ca for the rest of my pictures :) That is, if they choose to use them.
-Photo-journalist
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Zombies have attitudes
Just 10 minutes ago I was rollerblading with my girlfriend. We were just coming passed the catering truck/rest area and were about to pass someone wearing what appeared to be a mechanics outfit. I whispered "That's a zombie". It was. As we went passed him I said to him, "So that's what a zombie looks like" and he said "Yes. And that's what it looks like to be hit by a car." referring to me not really paying attention as vehicles drove passed me.
-Need to bring my camera next time
Just 10 minutes ago I was rollerblading with my girlfriend. We were just coming passed the catering truck/rest area and were about to pass someone wearing what appeared to be a mechanics outfit. I whispered "That's a zombie". It was. As we went passed him I said to him, "So that's what a zombie looks like" and he said "Yes. And that's what it looks like to be hit by a car." referring to me not really paying attention as vehicles drove passed me.
-Need to bring my camera next time
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Paparazzi
Fido the Zombie movie. This street (Maple St.) was blocked off, except to local traffic. You can see here both sides of the road are lined with old 1950s vehicles, as appropriate to the era of the film.
I really do apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. I don't know the policy of film sets allowed to be photographed, so I took this picture from my hip, with my non-telescoping lensed Olympus Camedia D-390 digital camera while zooming by on my rollerblades.
Another pic of the street Fido is currently being filmed on. This is the other end of Maple street. Not very exciting, really, but I've got less exciting pictures. Like, of the star-catering food truck used to cater the set.
-Better pics when I get braver
Fido the Zombie movie. This street (Maple St.) was blocked off, except to local traffic. You can see here both sides of the road are lined with old 1950s vehicles, as appropriate to the era of the film.
I really do apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. I don't know the policy of film sets allowed to be photographed, so I took this picture from my hip, with my non-telescoping lensed Olympus Camedia D-390 digital camera while zooming by on my rollerblades.
Another pic of the street Fido is currently being filmed on. This is the other end of Maple street. Not very exciting, really, but I've got less exciting pictures. Like, of the star-catering food truck used to cater the set.
-Better pics when I get braver
Even the dead need friends
Have I mentioned there's a feature film being shot only half a block from where I live? The movie is titled "Fido the Zombie" and casts the matrix star, Carrie-Anne Moss.
Click here for what Bloody-Disgusting.com has to say about the film.
And click here for a more in-depth description of what Fido is all about.
And here's what my city's local news-site has to say about the filming:
Road Closures For Fido
Have I mentioned there's a feature film being shot only half a block from where I live? The movie is titled "Fido the Zombie" and casts the matrix star, Carrie-Anne Moss.
Click here for what Bloody-Disgusting.com has to say about the film.
And click here for a more in-depth description of what Fido is all about.
And here's what my city's local news-site has to say about the filming:
Road Closures For Fido
To accommodate filming of the feature movie Fido, the following roads will be open to local traffic only from June 8 to June 20th:
Filming will generally take place during daylight hours, however it will also occur overnight on June 10, 11, 16 and 17 from 5:00 pm to 5:00 am.
Residents are advised there will be blank gun fire on June 10th. Some blank gunfire will also occur on June 21st when filming takes place at the end of Chute Lake Road outside city limits, and again on July 11, 12 and 13 at the old Hiram Walker distillery site in Lake Country. The RCMP will be notified prior to any firing of the weapon.
I feel like this is some pretty exciting stuff. I love zombies.
-The walking dead invade my neighborhood!
- Maple Street, between Lake Avenue and Riverside Avenue
- Lake Avenue, between Abbott Street and Water Street
- Riverside Avenue, between Abbott Street and Water Street
Filming will generally take place during daylight hours, however it will also occur overnight on June 10, 11, 16 and 17 from 5:00 pm to 5:00 am.
Residents are advised there will be blank gun fire on June 10th. Some blank gunfire will also occur on June 21st when filming takes place at the end of Chute Lake Road outside city limits, and again on July 11, 12 and 13 at the old Hiram Walker distillery site in Lake Country. The RCMP will be notified prior to any firing of the weapon.
I feel like this is some pretty exciting stuff. I love zombies.
-The walking dead invade my neighborhood!
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Upcoming beach party
I'm fortunate enough to live in beautiful Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
Yeah, this is a little piece of city park. Vendors set up tables along this stretch of walkway here. Farther down the walkway is a skate park and water park. All along the waterfront is sandy beach, which stretches from end to end of Kelowna's city limits. To the left is the grassy area of the park. Immediately to the right are the sails:
and a ways more to the right is the Grand Hotel with their dolphin fountain:
It is this area I want to discuss. Every year (at least for the last few years) WakeFest is hosted here. It's a 3 day beach party, really, with professional wakeboarders competing for $40,000 Canadian.
Last years party featured such bands as The Ataris (RAWK! >_<) and Andrew W.K.. At $18 a day pass or $43 for the whole weekend, it's a steal. Unfortunately I didn't make it last year. I did, however, stand at the fence and waited for The Ataris to play their gig. I stood in the rain for an hour, shielding my girlfriend from the rain, on our rollerblades. She did that for me, and we never did get to hear them play. But I'm sure the show was awesome.
This year is featuring Alexisonfire with Comeback Kid and some other bands (De La Soul with Sweatshop Union). Should be ok. Friday, at least. I'd pay $18 to see Comeback Kid and Alexisonfire. And let's not neglect to mention the local ladies and their bikinis (my girlfriend especially. She just bought a new bikini, pretty in pink).
And if I could bring your attention to a local band, Glory Nights. These guys are going to make it big. They are playing in the Warped Tour at the Vancouver show. Click and spread it amongst your friends.
-Back to my paying job, now
I'm fortunate enough to live in beautiful Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
Yeah, this is a little piece of city park. Vendors set up tables along this stretch of walkway here. Farther down the walkway is a skate park and water park. All along the waterfront is sandy beach, which stretches from end to end of Kelowna's city limits. To the left is the grassy area of the park. Immediately to the right are the sails:
and a ways more to the right is the Grand Hotel with their dolphin fountain:
It is this area I want to discuss. Every year (at least for the last few years) WakeFest is hosted here. It's a 3 day beach party, really, with professional wakeboarders competing for $40,000 Canadian.
Last years party featured such bands as The Ataris (RAWK! >_<) and Andrew W.K.. At $18 a day pass or $43 for the whole weekend, it's a steal. Unfortunately I didn't make it last year. I did, however, stand at the fence and waited for The Ataris to play their gig. I stood in the rain for an hour, shielding my girlfriend from the rain, on our rollerblades. She did that for me, and we never did get to hear them play. But I'm sure the show was awesome.
This year is featuring Alexisonfire with Comeback Kid and some other bands (De La Soul with Sweatshop Union). Should be ok. Friday, at least. I'd pay $18 to see Comeback Kid and Alexisonfire. And let's not neglect to mention the local ladies and their bikinis (my girlfriend especially. She just bought a new bikini, pretty in pink).
And if I could bring your attention to a local band, Glory Nights. These guys are going to make it big. They are playing in the Warped Tour at the Vancouver show. Click and spread it amongst your friends.
-Back to my paying job, now
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Game O' Life
(Yeah, John Conway's too). God games. I don't know where a developer decides to start with one of these. Peter Molyneux. Will Wright. Sid Meier. Great designers if you ask me. I especially like Wright's toys he creates. They aren't so much games as just kind of a set of tools that you can play with in regards to certain rules. That appeals to me.
Think of it: Animal Crossing combined with Diablo. You can live your life, tend your garden. Piss off bees in trees. Customize your wardrobe. When you get bored of that you can take it to the haunted cave on the hill behind the wise-mans house (but is he really wise if great evil lurks forever behind him). That set of padded butt-leather you just decorated with daisies and stars is going to protect your ass as you go toe-to-toe with whichever creatures from the pits of hell have decided to occupy the cave today. Didn't you just clear the cave out last month? And how about the ArachniQueen who won't agree to a treaty with the villagers. She's always menacing people in labyrinth found in the forest to the east of town.
This game, of course, is fictional. I came up with it off the top of my head just now. But there is a premise. Take the best of a few games and you have yourself an open-ended world where you can play to your hearts content. And providing the game is playable off a hard-drive then you have unlimited additions in the way of expansion packs and user-created items.
Like the beginning of Unix, perhaps they start small and it just kinda turns into something that takes on a life of its own. Create a space, call it your world. Drop in some entities. Populate it with creatures. Give those creatures the ability to interact with their surroundings.
I like to look at these worlds as a God myself. As a programmer/designer I call the shots when I sit down to design a game. I create what goes into my world. On the first day I can create the oceans. I can add land. On the second day I could create mountains and air. On the third day I could populate the world with asexual Richard Simmons if I felt like it. Then let's say I rest, but not before I spawn a player-character and drop him next to a tower fortified with a generous supply of artillery. Then we make fun of fat people and wait for the cavalcade of Simmons to come charging.
(Yeah, John Conway's too). God games. I don't know where a developer decides to start with one of these. Peter Molyneux. Will Wright. Sid Meier. Great designers if you ask me. I especially like Wright's toys he creates. They aren't so much games as just kind of a set of tools that you can play with in regards to certain rules. That appeals to me.
Think of it: Animal Crossing combined with Diablo. You can live your life, tend your garden. Piss off bees in trees. Customize your wardrobe. When you get bored of that you can take it to the haunted cave on the hill behind the wise-mans house (but is he really wise if great evil lurks forever behind him). That set of padded butt-leather you just decorated with daisies and stars is going to protect your ass as you go toe-to-toe with whichever creatures from the pits of hell have decided to occupy the cave today. Didn't you just clear the cave out last month? And how about the ArachniQueen who won't agree to a treaty with the villagers. She's always menacing people in labyrinth found in the forest to the east of town.
This game, of course, is fictional. I came up with it off the top of my head just now. But there is a premise. Take the best of a few games and you have yourself an open-ended world where you can play to your hearts content. And providing the game is playable off a hard-drive then you have unlimited additions in the way of expansion packs and user-created items.
Like the beginning of Unix, perhaps they start small and it just kinda turns into something that takes on a life of its own. Create a space, call it your world. Drop in some entities. Populate it with creatures. Give those creatures the ability to interact with their surroundings.
I like to look at these worlds as a God myself. As a programmer/designer I call the shots when I sit down to design a game. I create what goes into my world. On the first day I can create the oceans. I can add land. On the second day I could create mountains and air. On the third day I could populate the world with asexual Richard Simmons if I felt like it. Then let's say I rest, but not before I spawn a player-character and drop him next to a tower fortified with a generous supply of artillery. Then we make fun of fat people and wait for the cavalcade of Simmons to come charging.
Richard Simmons has done very well for himself, and really doesn't deserve someone who doesn't know him picking on him. But you need to make fun of some people some times, don't you?
-Now you decide how you take care of the situation.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Happy Commenting
Pephemie kinda sorta helped me out with my comments. Well, she questioned me on it and I tried a few more variations. Apperantly I don't follow directions too well. I hadn't placed the comment code immediately after the 'posted by' code. And that took me a year and a half to figure out.
-Vroom vrooming around on my bike
Pephemie kinda sorta helped me out with my comments. Well, she questioned me on it and I tried a few more variations. Apperantly I don't follow directions too well. I hadn't placed the comment code immediately after the 'posted by' code. And that took me a year and a half to figure out.
-Vroom vrooming around on my bike
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Motorbike Madness
I finally have my motorbike registered in my name. I'd bought a motorbike from a friend of my Girlfriend's parents. This bike was bought by this friend but never registered. Due to this fact, I had to take the long way (but not the super-long way) to get the bike. First searching for the bike in the database and not finding it. Then paying a notary to officially stamp and sign my statement that the bike is mine. Then running the bike through the database again and finding it. Then saying "screw you" to that insurance agency and going to another that agreed to write up the bike in my name.
So now it's mine and I can insure it and legally ride it. It's about time, too, since the bike has been in my care for the last year. I'm taking it camping with me this weekend (before I insure it) so I can ride it up and down dirt roads.
-1981 Yamaha Exciter, measly 185cc
Of video games and icons
John Romero, I mean you. The two Johns, people I can only aspire to emulate. The other John being Mr Carmack at iD software. However, I think Mr Romero is the one I am most like. The guy spent the last few years (before jumping on board with Midway) doing what he wanted to do with his own company. MonkeyStone games doing awesomely fun 2D games. That is where it all started, back with the 2D, and that is where I'm at now.
It may be because I haven't played around with graphics programming, but I'd like to think that it's because I know what I want to do. I hope I can find myself a job, when I graduate in a couple more years (2 more left in my 5 year degree, 2007 here I come) doing some portable system game programming. I've got my current project underway and I think it may turn out all right. Or mostly right. I admit, I've only come so far as to get the keyboard input working with my (skillfully placed) stick figures. All that's left before I can really show the game off as an 'alpha' is to make a splash screen and replace my stick figures and flat ground with the textures and icons I've been drawing up the last month. Maybe if I get around to it I'll post some pics of my characters and the screenshots I GIMP'd together.
-Good to goal
Comments
I'd have a comment button if this blog would work. I've tried a few times but it never does seem to appear. Nobody reads this, anyway. If they did then I'd get an email once in a while.
I can give you a gmail account if you like. I've got some 50 invitations to give out.
-Though if you're a blogger, you've already got one.
I finally have my motorbike registered in my name. I'd bought a motorbike from a friend of my Girlfriend's parents. This bike was bought by this friend but never registered. Due to this fact, I had to take the long way (but not the super-long way) to get the bike. First searching for the bike in the database and not finding it. Then paying a notary to officially stamp and sign my statement that the bike is mine. Then running the bike through the database again and finding it. Then saying "screw you" to that insurance agency and going to another that agreed to write up the bike in my name.
So now it's mine and I can insure it and legally ride it. It's about time, too, since the bike has been in my care for the last year. I'm taking it camping with me this weekend (before I insure it) so I can ride it up and down dirt roads.
-1981 Yamaha Exciter, measly 185cc
Of video games and icons
John Romero, I mean you. The two Johns, people I can only aspire to emulate. The other John being Mr Carmack at iD software. However, I think Mr Romero is the one I am most like. The guy spent the last few years (before jumping on board with Midway) doing what he wanted to do with his own company. MonkeyStone games doing awesomely fun 2D games. That is where it all started, back with the 2D, and that is where I'm at now.
It may be because I haven't played around with graphics programming, but I'd like to think that it's because I know what I want to do. I hope I can find myself a job, when I graduate in a couple more years (2 more left in my 5 year degree, 2007 here I come) doing some portable system game programming. I've got my current project underway and I think it may turn out all right. Or mostly right. I admit, I've only come so far as to get the keyboard input working with my (skillfully placed) stick figures. All that's left before I can really show the game off as an 'alpha' is to make a splash screen and replace my stick figures and flat ground with the textures and icons I've been drawing up the last month. Maybe if I get around to it I'll post some pics of my characters and the screenshots I GIMP'd together.
-Good to goal
Comments
I'd have a comment button if this blog would work. I've tried a few times but it never does seem to appear. Nobody reads this, anyway. If they did then I'd get an email once in a while.
I can give you a gmail account if you like. I've got some 50 invitations to give out.
-Though if you're a blogger, you've already got one.
Friday, May 20, 2005
I must post this for the purpose that it is preserved in my blog forever
There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection is the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted.
-- Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior.
Now how true is that? Let this be a lesson... don't ever cut out the affection part. Once the affection is there, make sure it is there to stay.
-Unix fortune
There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately. When the affection is the entertainment, we no longer call it dating. Under no circumstances can the food be omitted.
-- Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior.
Now how true is that? Let this be a lesson... don't ever cut out the affection part. Once the affection is there, make sure it is there to stay.
-Unix fortune
Thursday, May 19, 2005
E3 Goodness
I'm still hung up on Spore. I haven't bought too many games in the last couple years since I really got into playing my old GameCube games. But Spore, for the PC, is looking like it's going to be a pretty rux0r game. And I'm not really into the whole strategy thing, but I think I can slog through it to get to the interplanetary domination.
I think I gained a whole 15 pounds from the week I spent in Calgary eating the conference food. It suddenly expanded my gut, causing me to notice. My girlfriend notices as well.
Nintendo Revolution (the next step, after GameCube). WiFi. Library of vintage games for download (possibly for a small fee). Backward compatibility. That's what's got me tingling for the system. However, I'm going to try to hold out until the system is dropped in price and comes with accessories; yeah, probably a year after its release it'll finally drop in price, which would put it at 2 and a half years until I get my hands on the system. I bought my GameCube when it had just been released. It had a whole 4 or 5 games released when I'd bought it. The Cube, an extra controller, a memory card and game rang up at around $500 (Canadian). You can buy all that for $150 today.
Value gaming with Nintendo. I bought Harvest Moon: It's a Wonderful Life. I've burned throught he first week and a half of game time. I've picked two tomatoes from my crop. I've got 5 watermelons on the way and19 more tomatoes (21 after the two I picked grow back) on the way. One cow, a hen and a rooster (and my dog). I've begun wooing the ladies. The shy (easiest to woo) girl is the one I'm avoiding. I'm going for the hard-to-get Nomi. She's a red head. Need I say more? The game is quite fun. A days chores leaves me with enough time to dig for artifacts and fish a little bit. Definately worth the $19 I paid for it.
-System of a Down - B.Y.O.B. gonna have a good time
I'm still hung up on Spore. I haven't bought too many games in the last couple years since I really got into playing my old GameCube games. But Spore, for the PC, is looking like it's going to be a pretty rux0r game. And I'm not really into the whole strategy thing, but I think I can slog through it to get to the interplanetary domination.
I think I gained a whole 15 pounds from the week I spent in Calgary eating the conference food. It suddenly expanded my gut, causing me to notice. My girlfriend notices as well.
Nintendo Revolution (the next step, after GameCube). WiFi. Library of vintage games for download (possibly for a small fee). Backward compatibility. That's what's got me tingling for the system. However, I'm going to try to hold out until the system is dropped in price and comes with accessories; yeah, probably a year after its release it'll finally drop in price, which would put it at 2 and a half years until I get my hands on the system. I bought my GameCube when it had just been released. It had a whole 4 or 5 games released when I'd bought it. The Cube, an extra controller, a memory card and game rang up at around $500 (Canadian). You can buy all that for $150 today.
Value gaming with Nintendo. I bought Harvest Moon: It's a Wonderful Life. I've burned throught he first week and a half of game time. I've picked two tomatoes from my crop. I've got 5 watermelons on the way and19 more tomatoes (21 after the two I picked grow back) on the way. One cow, a hen and a rooster (and my dog). I've begun wooing the ladies. The shy (easiest to woo) girl is the one I'm avoiding. I'm going for the hard-to-get Nomi. She's a red head. Need I say more? The game is quite fun. A days chores leaves me with enough time to dig for artifacts and fish a little bit. Definately worth the $19 I paid for it.
-System of a Down - B.Y.O.B. gonna have a good time
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Fido the Zombie
The film crew is staying on campus, where I'm working over the summer. I missed the casting call, which was held on Saturday, because I was away in Calgary for a conference. I was really looking forward to trying my hand at playing a zombie. How cool would it be to play a zombie in a movie? Even if it is a 'family-comedy zombie film'. So my hope is that the film is shot here on campus and I can just kinda hang out when they are shooting film. Then they can say, "You! We need an extra. Sit down and eat this pudding."
War of the Worlds...
what can I say about that? I read the book (both books, actually). All ~140 pages of martian invasions. I then borrowed the 1950's movie from the campus library and I have to tell you that the modernity of the changing times really sucks. The story tells of an invasion of martians on 100 foot tall tripods with mounted heat-rays and a slight reference to a single martian flying machine. Keep in mind the story was written in the late 1800's. The 1950's movie tells the story of a martian invasion using flying ships that are near indestructable.
The martians in the book were not indestructable, the martians simply took out the earths defenses before they could be drawn upon the invaders. And the martians of the book were huge round bodies with big eyes and small face who were too weak to maneuver about in earths gravity. The old movie shows bipedal creatures with a single eye who have no problem running about in earths (comparably) strong gravity.
At least the endings compare... I won't spoil it for you because the 2005 Spielburg film is released in just over a month. You'll probably want to see how it ends for yourself. So I just have this to say about the new film. I've watched all the trailers and TV spots in both english and japanese versions and it looks good. I am, however, a bit skeptical of how Spielburg is handling the mobility of the alien invaders. I'd still like to see 100 foot tall tripod walking machines with mounted heat-rays. But I guess with the ever-changing technology of earth as time continues, the walking machines would seem antique and truncated. It can be done right in reference of todays technology, I suppose. But I'd still like to see weak, fat blobs riding tripods while they roast people to death.
-One third a major city's population wiped out in the course of a month
The film crew is staying on campus, where I'm working over the summer. I missed the casting call, which was held on Saturday, because I was away in Calgary for a conference. I was really looking forward to trying my hand at playing a zombie. How cool would it be to play a zombie in a movie? Even if it is a 'family-comedy zombie film'. So my hope is that the film is shot here on campus and I can just kinda hang out when they are shooting film. Then they can say, "You! We need an extra. Sit down and eat this pudding."
War of the Worlds...
what can I say about that? I read the book (both books, actually). All ~140 pages of martian invasions. I then borrowed the 1950's movie from the campus library and I have to tell you that the modernity of the changing times really sucks. The story tells of an invasion of martians on 100 foot tall tripods with mounted heat-rays and a slight reference to a single martian flying machine. Keep in mind the story was written in the late 1800's. The 1950's movie tells the story of a martian invasion using flying ships that are near indestructable.
The martians in the book were not indestructable, the martians simply took out the earths defenses before they could be drawn upon the invaders. And the martians of the book were huge round bodies with big eyes and small face who were too weak to maneuver about in earths gravity. The old movie shows bipedal creatures with a single eye who have no problem running about in earths (comparably) strong gravity.
At least the endings compare... I won't spoil it for you because the 2005 Spielburg film is released in just over a month. You'll probably want to see how it ends for yourself. So I just have this to say about the new film. I've watched all the trailers and TV spots in both english and japanese versions and it looks good. I am, however, a bit skeptical of how Spielburg is handling the mobility of the alien invaders. I'd still like to see 100 foot tall tripod walking machines with mounted heat-rays. But I guess with the ever-changing technology of earth as time continues, the walking machines would seem antique and truncated. It can be done right in reference of todays technology, I suppose. But I'd still like to see weak, fat blobs riding tripods while they roast people to death.
-One third a major city's population wiped out in the course of a month
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Asshole of assholedness
You know, thinking back to who I was and who I am now; looking back on my old blogs and comparing them to my new; before today I has always thought I was a nicer guy 4 years ago than I am now. I call myself a cynic now, someone who could be nicer. I thought I was a nice guy back then but reading my old blogs I come across as a jerk. Maybe that was my night-time personality.
I'm just trying to be me, and I see myself as a nice guy. Sometimes I'm told I'm not, but I don't know. Maybe I don't know myself. I've lost my train of thought.
-No catching up to the locomotive now
You know, thinking back to who I was and who I am now; looking back on my old blogs and comparing them to my new; before today I has always thought I was a nicer guy 4 years ago than I am now. I call myself a cynic now, someone who could be nicer. I thought I was a nice guy back then but reading my old blogs I come across as a jerk. Maybe that was my night-time personality.
I'm just trying to be me, and I see myself as a nice guy. Sometimes I'm told I'm not, but I don't know. Maybe I don't know myself. I've lost my train of thought.
-No catching up to the locomotive now
Done and Done
The MITACS conference is over, at least for me it is. There's a few more hours of seminars and some meetings for the professors. However, the profs are leaving in the early evening and I'm staying behind.
I've got another night here on campus at the University of Calgary and will be leaving tomorrow, mid-morning. A professor from the school I attend was nice enough to offer me a ride back with her, which is great because that saves me spending $72 on the Greyhound (Greyhound is a bus-line here in North America).
Last nights dinner was great, a five course meal. Starting with tiger prawns with mango salsa followed by minestrone soup. Caprese salad came after that, which I didn't like too much. The salad was a ring of tomato slices seperated with brocrmksdf cheese on a leaf of lettuce with cracked pepper and basil oil. I thought I was eating dandelion. The main course came after the salad; beef roast with whiskey gravey and a couple pieces of potato with zucchini and carrot. Desert was mango, raspberry and blackberry gelato with strawberry sauce.
I didn't win anything with my research, not that I was really expecting to. This guy won one of three first place awards for his research which is kinda fun to play with. In just over 24 hours I'll be back at home with my girlfriend. I can hardly wait.
-See you soon, sweetie
The MITACS conference is over, at least for me it is. There's a few more hours of seminars and some meetings for the professors. However, the profs are leaving in the early evening and I'm staying behind.
I've got another night here on campus at the University of Calgary and will be leaving tomorrow, mid-morning. A professor from the school I attend was nice enough to offer me a ride back with her, which is great because that saves me spending $72 on the Greyhound (Greyhound is a bus-line here in North America).
Last nights dinner was great, a five course meal. Starting with tiger prawns with mango salsa followed by minestrone soup. Caprese salad came after that, which I didn't like too much. The salad was a ring of tomato slices seperated with brocrmksdf cheese on a leaf of lettuce with cracked pepper and basil oil. I thought I was eating dandelion. The main course came after the salad; beef roast with whiskey gravey and a couple pieces of potato with zucchini and carrot. Desert was mango, raspberry and blackberry gelato with strawberry sauce.
I didn't win anything with my research, not that I was really expecting to. This guy won one of three first place awards for his research which is kinda fun to play with. In just over 24 hours I'll be back at home with my girlfriend. I can hardly wait.
-See you soon, sweetie
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