November 2003 Archives
So, Conor is now learning to Squat-sit, has done some 'Ga' sounds and is starting to have good naps during the day and sleep through the night with only one wake-up. I just also have to add that as i'm writing this, all three of us are in the living room, the reading light is on, spreading a subdued warm-yellow light through the room. The sky is overcast, but all is calm and warm inside. Conor is with Ciara, feeding in her lap. Its one of those peaceful, warm moments this is so hard to describe without sounding like a sappy mass-market greeting card. And yet it is so different, so genuine. I can't imagine a place or time i'd rather be.
Continuing on from my last post, I've been thinking more about how data about a participant gets moved from one server to another. If the data is local to the server or the participant. Having the data local to the server provides many benefits, especially in the realm of security. But you then have issues of data replication, availability, etc. If the data is local to the participant, your biggest concern is the how trustworthy the data is. The other day i was suggesting using something like a secure hash to show that data is 'trustable'. This is a great idea if the server that signed that data is on-line, so you can check to make sure the data is trustable. But if the server is not online, you are a bit out of luck. Some kind of private/public key scheme would be perfect in this situation. The server would sign each attribute/property with its private key. If server A wanted to verify some data from participant Z, who's data was from server B, server A would use server B's public key to check that the data was signed by server B. There are several draw-backs to this - notably, complexity. Also how fast or processor intensive it is to verify and sign data? The server would only have to do this once per participant per login, so at least all that heavy-lifting would be gotten out of the way quickly. After that all the data would be local till the participant logged out, at which point the server would have to sign all the data with its private key. This poses some interesting issues as well - how often is the data 'written' to the participant? If the participant drops the connection, do they loose all their data? How long does a server keep a participants data around before purging it?
I need to look at other replication strategies as well. Tho i am more likely to go with something that further decentralizes things and puts more responsibility onto the individual rather then the server they are currently using. If you have to "carry around" all your personal data for each server, that's a lot less data each server has to worry about. Also removes the danger of a catastrophic loss of data if a server crashes. As the data is with each participant, it is as safe as each participant makes it. Of course there would be lots of other data that the server would have to track - all public items, and all participants currently on the server would be in the servers DB. Map and world info as well. Lots of stuff.
Tim Bray has a post about the Geneva Accord and a version of said accord online. I've not read it yet, but i want to, so this is a reminder to myself...
Catch it here. Looks good, looks good...
Just added a sidebar called "Latest Photos", has the title and links to the posts. Should make it a bit easier to see if there are any new shots up. Thanks to David Raynes' MTOtherBlog plugin, which allows for this kind of sillyness.
So, after a long fallow period, i've been thinking about the whole ChatSpaces thing again. Ok, actually, i never stopped thinking about it, just stopped writing about it. Getting back to the point (what, i have a point? How novel), I was thinking about how you could enable a distributed virtual space to also have game play elements, with as little "cheating" done as possible. The trick is, since each person runs their own server, and can modify it to their hearts content, how do you create a set of game rules that could be shared or agreed upon by everyone? Simple, you don't. The important thing is, i think, trust. So, if you have a game world that i would like to be a node on, we could setup some kind of "trusted relationship" where players / events / rules will all work the same on both of our nodes. As with the whole idea, since there is no ultimate "authority", if you find that they are "cheating", you can simple remove the "trust" relationship you have with them.
Did anybody else have the rule that, when they were younger, they had to go home when the streetlights came on? I was thinking about this the other day, and wondered if parents still use that rule. Or if kids are even outside anymore, more likely glued to the TV playing PS2 or some-such, maybe even that new fangled 'World Wide Web' thingie i've been hearing so much about.
Royal bank is "experiencing temporary problems. Please try again later.", great thanks. Bah humbug.
Picked up the Two Towers extened version DVD the other day. Pretty excellent, and how can you argue with more then 40 extra minutes of footage? I did realize that i'm going to have to buy the non-extened versions too, just because. I still don't know if we are going to get into the 3 movies back-to-back-to-back marathon. Its sold out everywhere in Toronto, except the Varsity, which have not started to sell their tickets yet. I've taken a 'if it happends, it happens' attitude to it, to try and prevent any serious sadness at missing it.
The new Beef Terminal album should be out Dec 4. Going to try to get to the release party at Tequila Lounge - i've never seen him play live, so it would be great to catch this gig. Tho its for 9pm, which, for me lately, is pretty damn late. This is what having a child does to you, makes 9pm a late night. Who'd a thunk it?
I also just want to quickly point to this great photo of Stacy. I know no-one else who would go climbing around in the desert in a red velvet dress and pink wig... other then all the yahoo's at burningman.
Ok, royal bank is back up, farewell my cyber-friends!
Greg Costikyan has a great post about Massivly Multiplayer "Games" up that is well worth reading. I'm going to quote a whole paragraph here, just cuz its so funny and right on:
And then there's the pervasive meme that MMGs are the first step toward Gibson's cyberspace, or what Stewart Butterfield of Ludicorp calls "the metaverse." Supposedly, virtual worlds will eventually be our interface for everything online, a far friendlier and more fun and "easier" interface than, say, eBay. This is, when you think about it, a crock of shit; when I want to buy a shirt, I for sure don't want to walk through a virtual mall. In fact, the reason I go online to buy a shirt is to avoid walking through a goddamn mall. Give me quick access to your shirts and swift checkout, and I'm a happy puppy. Search and shopping cart in a web browser is what I want, thanks, not some high-concept notion of a high-touch universe. 3D worlds are lousy ways to find most of the things you want, precisely because they use the phenomenological universe as a metaphor. They're great environments for games, though, because they (almost) make good on the promise of transporting you to a different universe, which is one of the things many game styles try to do.
Added some more new photos over at the photoblog.
The boy got his first cold last night. Poor guy didn't sleep very well, which is why i'm up at 6am with him. Its interesting to see what you would look like if, when you had a cold, you never blew your nose, and just let the stuff in it run down over your face. Interesting, not pretty.
Pretty cool - you can get your local cities weather forcast via a RSS feed. Not every city is listed, but Toronto is, so that's all that matters, right?
So, did you take a moment to remember those that have died to protect our country? Did you think about all the people, both those that fought and those that were non-combatants, that have died and are dieing in armed conflicts which still rage on? Did you think about the people that enable and continue to support courses of action that lead to these kinds of conflict?
If you haven't, its the one day of the year that you should really take a minute, just a stinking minute, to think about these things.
I hope some of you saw the lunar eclipse over the weekend. It was pretty good - the clouds blew away just as the moon was fully eclipsed, so the view was excellent. I took quite a few photos, but my little digital camera just doesn't have a long enough zoom lens to really make for great Moon photos. I'm going to put at least one up on the photoblog anyway.
Tony is back from his week away, so you can head on over to get your dose of fresh clickableculture.
Conor, having discovered how to pull himself up into a standing position, has now decided to abandon crawling, and will pretty much only stand. I can just hear him - "Mom, Dad, crawling is so last week!". It seems that along with the pulling up to stand skills, he has really started to work on his talking. Its very cute to sit and watch and listen to him as he moves around the room. He puts so much effort into everything, i'm always amazed that he dislikes having naps during the day so much. I know if i had the opportunity to have a nap several times a day i'd take it!
Have been playing with MSN Messenger (ya ya, microsoft, etc etc). Ciaras brother and dad both have web-cams, so we have been video-chatting with both of them - pretty fun. Its too bad that it does not allow for more then a 1-1 video chat. Why not allow a multi-person video chat? Dumb. If anyone has any suggestions for better multi-person video chat, please let me know.
I've been super-busy at work, which is the main reason for so few posts lately. We've been working on Disneys Academy Awards site - StudioAwards.com. I'm very happy with how it all worked out, considering the amount of time we had, and the fact that the functional spec was changing throughout the development. Lots of good geeky programming stuff was done that i'm all pleased with myself about, so even though it was a slog, there was quite a bit of good learning during it. I also used several Python scripts to help automate the generation of the HTML site, from the XML data which the flash app uses. More geek-coolness.
One last thing. We have been watching "Carnival", the HBO tv show, and i just have to say - wow. I sometimes think i have a clue what is going on, but every time i get smacked down. So bizarre and good. Its something i'd probably pickup on DVD if/when they release it. Speaking of DVDs, the extended Lord Of the Rings: The Two Towers comes out pretty soon - November 18th, and the reviews are quite good. Even more then the film itself, i'm looking forward to the documentary footage. The stuff in the first set was excellent, and i'm sure it will be with this one too.
If you live in Toronto, make sure you get out and vote today! Otherwise you will not be able to complain about the new City Hall, and we all know how much we love to complain, right?
Is here. This is the Canadian guy that the US deported, not back to Canada, but to Syria. Unlike most of the stuff i post, this really is a must read. Just to hear his side of the story. There is a "discussion" at Kuro5hin about this too.
Just found a couple more spam comments on the site. I've added the MT-Blacklist plugin to try to reduce/stop any more spam posts.
I've added 3 new photos to the photoblog, which all take place at a halloween party Conor went too.
In other crazy Conor News, last night, after Ciara put him to bed, went in to his room to see why he was fussing. Well, guess who had pulled himself to a standing position on the crib? Yep, there he was, with a huge grin, teatering back and forth. Didn't think we would have to put the crib to its lower postion yet!
Work has been super crazy this past month, and the last 2 weeks especially, so i hope to get back to doing posts more often, tho i know i've said that many times before. Time will tell!
