October 2004 Archives
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a list of TV stations broadcasting live on the net in a variety of media formats
Was talking with Tony the other day about Star Wars Galaxy and "the Grind". That is to say, the boring repetitive actions one has to take in game in order to level up (increase your characters skill and statistics levels) your character. I seem to remember playing the original version of Traveller and in it your character, once created, didn't 'level up'. You just played the game - it seemed to work. You worried less about how you were going to become more proficient with the blaster and more about how you were role-playing, or how to figure out the current adventure with the resources at hand.
Is it possible to conceive of a online multiplayer RPG where you don't have leveling? There would still be story and adventures and puzzles and all that other good stuff to do, but just not concentrating on raw character development. Or could just making it all invisible to the user do the same thing? When generating your avatar, you never see 'points' or individual 'skills'. You never apply Experience points to different skills. All of this goes on in the background. I'm not sure which would be "better", tho i'm more interested in the no character progression idea. There would still be things to learn and discover, but just not about increasing you strength score, or your 2-handed blades skill.
Pondering...
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the company that is publishing new Albedo Anthropomorphics RPG rules
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funny game which uses bw line drawings as the art
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funny tutorial to squeak
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a blog about photo blogs. how meta.
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about faith and religion
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webmail software
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spelling check software
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first place i go for digital camera reviews
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nice web-based project management software
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a post about the game neverending (gne) and how its im stuff might work
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an interesting idea for a game, tho its discontinued
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lots of images and info about the GNE interface
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page about the game nomic by the guy that created it
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a browser based MMORPG - a mud with graphics, programmed in java/jython
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tool to get and view log files from firewalls and routers
Well, i've been doing some preliminary planning for a del.icio.us-like photo catalogging tool. Tony suggested that i check out flickr first. Gods, what a great tool. The pro version is pretty reasonably priced too, with unlimited transfer/storage space. Their UI and functionality is excellent. I'm suddenly less interested in developing my own tool now. Sigh.
The parent company which developed flickr, Ludicorp (Canadian!), also were developing a game called Game NeverEnding or GNE. I went a bit mad reading about it, looking up stuff on del, as it just sounded so close to another project i wanted to start working on. Unfortunatly it has been discontinued due to flickrs popularity.
So, in the end, i've got two projects that i've had simmering on the back-burner for some time that i'm now not even that eager to get started! Well, i'm sure it won't last as i want some thing that lives on my server for my photos, not on another server, and as for the game, well, i've been talking to somebody that has some ideas about that kind of stuff himself, so we will see where it goes.
Oh ya, one last cool web based tool that i ran into today, Basecamp. Nice simple project management tool, clean UI and good functionality. I'm happy to see so many new web tools that are truly user oriented, with a clean design. It will be interesting to see if RIA's (Rich Internet Applications) will take off, or if simpler applications delivered through a basic web browser will manage to fulfill most users needs.
Only time will tell.
Well, i've finally gotten my email server running, so i can now send some email! Its been wierd not being able to send email for the past week, worse then not have a phone.
This, combined with now being on Toronto Freenet for our internet access, means that i will soon be free of sympatico and my hosting company. This will mean a quite large savings for us, and more freedom with what i can do with The Org and The Thirdplace, as the server is in the basement (finally using all the left over computers!).
I've also setup a wifi-node using the PublicIP software. My infrastructure is amost complete!
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article by the w3 about web app stuff
The past two days have been pretty amazing - Conor had three hour, or longer, naps. I can only hope that this continues! Unfortunatly, he is still getting up way too earily, like at 4 today. Can't have everything i guess...
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How to setup windows to map files over ssh
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VOIP info telephony
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swf video intro to the JotSpot wiki software
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an interesting new wiki server and concept
Just head about Jotspot, an "application wiki". There is a demo (flash video) by John Udell here that nicely outlines its functions. As i've done some programming for the MoinMoin wiki project, i was most interested to see what kind of 'applications' jotspot was offering. What i saw was a very polished server, but most of the raw functionality, or 'apps' , that i did see have been available in MoinMoin for a while. Not as well integrated, to be sure, but still there. I've signed up for the Beta, and if accepted, i'm going to check out how one creates new 'apps', as this is one of the big features they talk about - individuals can create new apps and sell them through their site. Its all done though the wiki, so it should be interesting to check out. In the end i'll stick with MoinMoin, something that i can hack on at whatever level i want (and it is OpenSource), but i was drawn to the integration and polish that Jotspot offers.
Well, somehow, i managed to spaz-out my back over the weekend. Pain city for the past 2 1/2 days. However, it is getting better, so i can't make too much of a fuss, although i am still not so sure about how well i'm going to be with Conor tomorrow.
We did manage to get out to the new "H and M" store at the Eaton Center. Conor got some really nice new sweaters and long sleeved shirts. Nicer then Baby Gap, and quite cheap too!
Also, last week, Conor gave a display of his climbing prowess. We've switched around our living and dining rooms, so now the dining room is in the front of the house. I'd put Con onto one of the chairs so that he can look out the front window on his own, so he doesn't have to come get me to look out the window. I was doing something in the kitchen and as i walked out, where do i see Conor? On the chair looking out the window? No, he has climbed up on to the windowsill itself! Resisting the urge to scream and run to him, i calmly walked towards him, taking in the massive shit-eating grin he had on his face for doing something he must know was not totally ok. I managed to reach him before he decided to try out static jumping sans parachute... Little bugger :)
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a very small simple wiki in python
For the past month or so i've been having some pain in my right shoulder. I didn't think too much about it, tho i did wonder why i was having it as i haven't been doing anything too stressful to injure it. In just the past week, my left elbow has also really started to hurt as well. It took a day or so, but i finally figured out what should have been obvious: Its because i've been shelping a 30 plus pound child around!
I'm not quite sure what steps i'm going to be able to take to reduce the amount of time i have to hold Con, but i'm certainly going to watch how i'm holding him, and try to take it easy.
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a very minimal wiki implementation in python
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a minimal python wiki implementation
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a linux/apache python web programming tool and engine
Well, i just figured out why i was having so many problems with the email server. Sympatico blocks all attempts to use port 25, which is what you need if you want to run a email server. Bummer. So, i guess, i'm really going to have to switch over to freenet now, rather then just talk about it alot.
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Article about Interactive fiction and games
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A method for wrapping a DB in a simple to use python object
Well, i've made a few quick updates to fix the blog. Added back the nav section, so those of you that only want to see the photos and read about Conor can now do that safely. I've also removed the links posts that were cluttering up things here.
Watched the US presidential debate last night. I haven't read or heard what the major media outlets are saying about who won, so here is my version and observations.
I was a bit surprised by how strongly and quickly the two candidates went after each other. Also how much they turned each question into a way to attack the other, most times neglecting to even answer the questions.
Overall i think neither "won" the debate. There were no, to me, major upsets on either side. The thing i did see was that GW was able to connect with the audience on a more emotional level the Kerry. Both during and especially after the debate this was evident by the big smiles and more lively faces of those meeting with Bush. This is, obviously, a pretty small sample, but i remember reading or hearing about how people in the US feel like GW is somebody they could have over to their house for dinner, a normal guy. Kerry really seemed to come off as more intellectual, "cooler" then GW - i wonder what the perception of him, in comparison to Bush, is with the american public.
Anyway, it was interesting, and it did highlight the very very large differences in the two candidates. It was also amazing to hear the spin machine in action right after the debates.
Crazy crazy stuff. I wish i'd seen the first debate, so i could better judge if GW improved or not from then, but, in general, i have to give him credit for being much improved from all the other times i've seen him speak extemporaneously.
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mod_rewrite for IIS
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mod_rewrite for IIS
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some tips and tricks for IIS
Well, the server has been reverted back to Win2K from Debian. Sigh. Maybe if i had more time to futz, i'd stick with it, but when i couldn't upgrade the installed Python version using apt-get, i gave in. So long Linux, it was nice almost knowing you. Back to buggy, unsecure windows. Damn.
