September 2003 Archives
Conor got his first tooth today! He has been very restless at night, and both Ciara and I have been at a loss as to why. Well, now we know. At least, we hope that was why he has been sleeping poorly...
It seems that the FBI is using the Patriot Act to intimidate reporters into giving up their notes and sources in the Adrian Lamo case. This comes at an interesting time, when there are reports out about how the Patriot Act, which was enacted to catch Terrorist, is being used more and more against non-terrorist criminals. I wonder if they will use such devices in the Wilson-gate investigation?
Update: The "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act" is a bill that is being propsed to repeal some powers granted via the Patriot Act. Via Politech.
Libby has made several improvements to the prototype iCal feed i cobbled up the other day. One of the comments points to the London art aggregator page, which has some interesting things to say about RSS and calendars. And it is an interesting service. Mitch Kapor was also just talking about calendaring and it sounds like Chandler will "get it right", as he says. We can only hope...
Crap, i'm starting to get comment spam. Not sure how to handle it yet, other then manual deletion. Bummer.
Found some python code that can read palm calendar, memo, address and todo database files. I don't even know what i'm going to do with this, but it seems interesting. I'd love to somehow build a 'diff' engine and output RSS, so you could see the new/changed items. Having something like this is a language i actually know makes it more likely that i'll do something with it... But don't hold your breath!
Its been quite a while since i watched "Bowling for Columbine", but it seems there are many out there that are very pissed off at Mr. Moore. In fact, they would like to see his oscar recalled. They have webpages in which they argue that his documentary is a fabrication and full of lies. I'll let Mr. Moore and Erik M��r rebut these denouncements. What could be causing all this ire? If not just this film, perhaps it could be the next project he is working on, that is to be released before the US election next November? "Fahrenheit 9/11: The temperature at which freedom burns"...
So, Greg Costikyan's post/review/critique of "My Life with Master" has created several followup posts (1, 2), regarding the Narrativist Style of role-play. My tastes have changed since the "old" days, where the more complex the rules the better. This was mostly around combat and its results. Some memorable examples are Aftermath (it had flow charts to help out during combat), most of the Tri-Tac game systems, The Morrow Project and Rhand: Morning Star Missions. Yes, this is a bit of a moment to show off, as i still have all these (and many many more) in my basement. I just don't have the energy or time to actually play such complex systems. I'm much more intested in rules-lite games, so the Narritive style appeals to me. The Matrix rules are expecially interesting as they can be applied not only to RPG but to table-top miniture style games. I'd love to see/try a Car Wars type of game using that system. Needless to say, my curiosity is piqued. Now if my gnat-like attention span will allow it to last to the point that i actually play something...
I was reading Costikyan's post about a new game "My Life with Master", which sounds pretty interesting. Some excellent analysis around the differences games which constrain individual actions via rules, but the narrative can go most anyplace, vs games, like Master where you have freedom of action but the narrative is very constrained. Costikyan is surprised that this game actually works, as in his own article "Where Stories End and Games Begin" he argues that making a game more like a story makes for an "inferior" game. I was reading the comments and found a reference to Chris Engle's Matrix game rules (Not about the movie).
webcal format - 'zilla or some of the Mac OS X stuff will, not sure about others.
Here is the template (for MT):
<MTEntries lastn="15"> BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION :2.0 PRODID :-//Mozilla.org/NONSGML Mozilla Calendar V1.0//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID :<$MTEntryID pad="1"$> SUMMARY :<$MTEntryTitle$> DESCRIPTION :<$MTEntryBody words="999"$> URL :<$MTEntryPermalink$> STATUS :CONFIRMED CLASS :PUBLIC DTSTART :<$MTEntryDate format="%Y%m%dT%H%M%S"$> DTEND :<$MTEntryDate format="%Y%m%dT%H%M%S"$> DTSTAMP :<$MTEntryDate format="%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ"$> END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR </MTEntries>
I've been trying to figure out how to get all my todo/calendar "stuff" both on the web, pilot and shareable at home with Ciara. I just read Jon Udells post about this, and he points to a few interesting things that do calendar sharing. Notably, Mozilla has a calendar with which you can subscribe to remote calendars. I've not spent much time with it yet, but its pretty neat. Built in ftp so you can update your "remote" calendar that other people can subscribe to. Biggest bummer is that it is not sync-able with a palm pda yet. I'm sure this is being worked on tho. iCalShare is a repository of sharable calendars, all in a format that 'zilla reads. Anyway, will do some more fooling around and see what comes of it...
Epoch'ed on Friday night. First time in several years. Fun enough that i totally lost track of the time, and didn't get home till 3 in the morning.
This is only an issue as the next day i was off with AJ to a workshop with Ernest Adams on game design, presented by the IGDA Toronto (write up about it). I found it amazing that in 5 hours we were able to take a very basic idea for a game - to be a fashion designer - and were able to come up with something that i would be interested to play. Quite fleshed out, with game mechanics, art, UI, story, levels and missions all done. With some more time for creating some nice images and some more polish, it would be ready to present to a publisher. Honestly. Why is our industry in such a rut? (see 1, 2, 3, 4, and more...)
And now for something completely different, Conor got his first hair cut this weekend. Made a big difference, more then i expected. He really looks like a little boy now, with his bangs cut back and the back trimmed. Damn cute. And i know, pictures, etc etc. Not enough hours in the day.
The Annual Report for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada was just released. At 107 pages its going to take me a little while to get through it all. Since starting "The Transparent Society", i've really had to, well, re-think and examine how i look at privacy in our society. I'm hoping that some of the issues that Transparent Society have raised and made me more aware of will help me to read the report critically. With all the Hullabaloo around the previous privacy commissioner being given the boot, i hope that more people will read or at least be aware of the issues that our county faces, and perhaps talk to your MP, 'specially as the election is coming. See what they have to say about privacy, and let them know what you think. Hell, this democracy thing only works if we participate... And, no, i haven't talked to my MP yet either. Gods, we are all so doomed cuz we are all so complacent (and i am including myself in this accusation).
Art Spiegelman (Maus) shunned by US Media. Gah. So depressing.
More evidence that games are being used for more then straight entertainment. Actually moving into the realm of social and political commentary. If nothing else games like 9-11 survivor cause the people who play games to sit-up and think about the world, politics and society. Which, making a sweeping generalization, they might not do enough of.
Paul Martin has a blog. Unfortunately, he doesn't post very often. What Is The Message? has a good theory for why he doesn't post more.
There is a article at Gamasutra about how Second Life uses distributed grid computing to manage the load on their servers. Their method, using a grid of square tiles, each one talking to each of the other 4 "edge" tiles, is exactly the same as what i was working on for ChatSpaces. Just in ChatSpaces case each server would be fully distributed. What that means is that my idea is actually workable. Now i just have to get back to coding it...
So tonight i was trying to make some waterproof, or at least resistant, clothes. I did a few quick searchs at google, and was unable to find a good link to a how-to on oiling or waxing material. I didn't really look into the costume sites, but i bet there might be some good suggestions there. Anyway, to at least try something tonight, i got out out a beeswax finish we had left over from some milk-painting we had done awhile ago. Its a nice soft wax, easy to rub into the cotton. However, it takes for frickin' ever to do even a small bit of a cloak. After an hour i've done the hood and around the shoulders. I've also used up about half a 200g tin. I'm sure there is a better way to do this. I'd even go so far as to simply dunk it into a vat of very light motor oil... Anyway, its something i'm going to have to experiment with, cuz doing it by hand-rubbing is not very effecient. At all.
Cairo, one of my cats, has a Mammary tumour. Unfortunately, over 80 percent of mammary tumours are malignant so there is really a slim chance of a long-term going-to-get-better thing, even with surgery. I wanted to write something about the whole what to do to help your pet thing, but it is too hard to put into words, tho i'd be happy to discuss it with anyone one-on-one. I just really think you need to think about the pets needs rather then your own.
Now, i have to admit that i generally hate it when "the press" (or anyone, really) uses bad or poor photos to make a subject look worse then they really are, but i have to admit, this photo did strike me. Not as a literal GWB as AH, more of a fascist-in-a-dumb-ass'-clothing-letting-it-slip-out kind of way.
So i downloaded the Second Life software today. There was a posting about there being a Virtual Book Club meeting involving Cory Doctorow that is going to take place in the Second Life "World" which prompted me to check it out. Allowing for the terrible frame-rate on my computer, its pretty interesting. The degree of customization you have over most every aspect of this world is quite astounding. You can make your avatar look like almost whatever you want, you can build most anything, script interesting effects etc etc. I'd link to some of the posts and info, but most of the juicy stuff is only available to "residents", which means you need to join. There is a free 7 day trial, but they do want your credit card number...
In trying SL out, i found a few interesting things that i wanted to get down here. First, in their EULA they do state that nothing is permanent, that at anytime, everything can be wiped out and reset. Now, i know that this is to protect them from a catastrophic server failure, but if the game world was fully distributed, your own world would never be arbitrarily subjected to this. As you are hosting your own space, you are responsible to back it up, have enough server power to run it, control what goes on in it, etc etc. That was one thing that i thought was interesting.
The SL folks are also talking about the in-game economy right now. They have a reputation system where by you can vote on people and objects, votes can influence how much money you get. There are problems with the system, according to the SL posting and forum threads, regarding giving proper recognition to those that create interesting items, scripts and locations, and money being tied to popularity/how many people you know. I've never really thought about how a economy could or would work in a distributed environment and will now have to give it some thought. To go along with this is some form of distributed reputation system. Excellent things to ponder...
So Conor has really started to make all kinds of new sounds. He really likes the raspberry-blowing-bubbles thing, and has some good 'mmmaaa' and 'daaa' sounds going. He also wants to be able to walk/crawl so bad, simply so he can get to the cats. He is fascinated with them now. They are going to have to be on guard all the time once he is mobile!
Picked up two new albums yesterday. Spearhead's "Everyone Deserves Music" and Mogwai's "Happy Songs for Happy People". Interestingly, Mogwai has included Cubase and the files for some of the songs on the CD, so enterprising DJs and musicians can remix the originals. They do not have anything to make clear how you could use your remixes, but going from the fact that they allow recording of their live shows, i'd bet that as long as you didn't do anything like sell your remix, you'd be in the clear. Pretty cool.
I've been using MusicMatch to rip my CDs to MP3. Its not bad, but not great either. The interface is a bit clunky, and has some refresh issues. Unbelievably you can not enter a network stream location into it, like you can with winAmp. It does work with Shoutcast streams, but why you can not directly enter a URL is beyond me. I've also been playing around with the SLIMP3 server, which is a great way to stream your music around your house, even without the SLIMP3 hardware player. Check it out, its free.
Network Blues. I've been trying to get some networking stuff fixed up at home. I've got 2 routers, and want to have 2 separate network address spaces, 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.2.0. Unfortunately, both the routers do NAT, which makes it impossible to do a real subnet. If anyone knows how to turn off NAT in a BEFW11S4, i'd love to hear about it. It is working right now, but it means that computers on the first router can not contact computers on the second. Not an issue now, but something i want to fix.
Update I should have done some looking around first. Here is a post about how to bypass the NAT stuff. Took me all of 2 seconds on Google. Ah well.
What is it with men's flys? The ones on (in?) pants. I was wondering about this and decided that the only reason to have one is to prevent others from pulling down your pants while doing your business at the urinal (did you know that urinal, the word, dates from the 13th century? Crazy). With the fly, you are able to keep your pants safely buttoned. I'm sure some smart-arse is going to say, "but its really so you don't have to undue your belt"... ya ya, whatever. Also, what about that escape hatch built into mens underware? Does anyone use it? I just find it a potential bear-trap for the little man. But that could just be me...
What more need be said? I'm sure The Whiskey Bar will have something more insightfull to say.
Conor so wants to be able to get around on his own. And, slightly scarily, is starting to do so. He now does this inch-worm thing to move around. Its not fast, it doesn't get him far, but, damn, he is moving! To go with this, he can now roll both ways, is drinking (mostly) from a sippy cup, and enjoys eating from a spoon, tho most of the food just gets pushed back out. Finally, he has a girl-friend - an older woman, at 8 months!
Gezzz, i'm falling behind on my posts. Its just been too much like... work, i guess, lately. Just have to do it, get back into it, you know?
Tho so much of the news is depressing now, the whole SCO vs. Everyone thing, the travesty that is Iraq, RIAA vs. P2P,, etc etc. We have elections on all 3 levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal) coming up here, and i'm trying to not get too optimistic about a change to our provincial government. The gods know we need it, and i'd like to think that the Harris/Eves years took their toll even on their supporters, what with Walkerton, Health Care funding , school funding, increasing poverty... But i don't want to get too excited. Too hopeful. Because i would then be crushed. Man, its like the main character on Everwood, he is, like, a brilliant brain surgeon, but fucked up once, and stoped practicing, but came out of retirement for this kid, and in the last episode he's, like, doing this really complex procedure to save the kid, but its, like, to save himself, but, like, there is the danger that if he fails he would be crushed... And i wanted to watch the two hour pilot (part one and two) for Firefly, but Ciara was all about the Everwood. Ok, she wasn't really, but it makes for a better story. I'm so off track, i've pretty much forgotten what this post even started out as. So i think i'll wrap it up here.
Stealth Disco. Thanks Mark.
Was a busy weekend. Hauke is heading off to join up with Denise over in Egypt tomorrow and the two of them wont be back till January, so we had a late night movie fest. Watched GhostWatch a faux "reality" tv show about a haunted house. When it was originally broadcast, the audence did not know that it was fake - sort of like the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938. After that it was The Dirty Dozen, with more starts then you can shake a stick at. Strange coincidence, Charles Bronson, a star of the film, passed away the day we were together to watch it.
