Tim's Bloglet - Thursday 24 October 2002

Oh, I get it. The Dunkin' Donuts Center. Ha.
For the ignorant among you, Dunkin' Donuts is Providence's greatest contribution to american life. I haven't had a half-decent doughnut since I moved here. Nothing but dingy, stale, dry doughnuts as far as the eye can see; and no Germans, no no hope of Fastnachts in the spring. There. I've been grumpy about something. Now I can go to bed. _
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09:29:56 PM, Thursday 24 October 2002

This would all be very much easier if I made it a rule of physics that a pucks velocity cannot exceed 1 diameter/moment. Then I wouldn't have to worry about it going straight through a paddle and coming out the other side without actually hitting it. But that would be ugly, and I'm sure there's some really elegant recursive way to do this. _
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11:52:49 AM, Thursday 24 October 2002

Paddle Dragon Breeds, Part 1
Common: t\Tonsa Convexus: Similar to Paddle-Dragons found in the wild. Should be wide, with a bald, gently curved fore, and short tail with small rotation jets. Well developed bumpers, allowing it to matching the bounces of the puck without risking injury. Well centered side-jets, allowing an effortless rotation-free lateral motion. They tend to be patient and trustworthy, but not particularly bright or enterprising. Delight in hitting the puck, but aiming does not come naturally to them.

Slicer: Tonsa Linea: The ideal slicer has a perfectly straight fore covered with short thick elastic hairs, with excellent lateral acceleration and well developed rotators. A somewhat reserved, intellectual paddle, it delights in spin above all things. It will lie motionless, and then suddenly lunge at the puck, sending it curving away. Older paddles can develop very good aim, even with spinning bounce shots. Delicate, explosive creatures, due to their large combustion chambers, they prefer to anticipate the puck than track it. Juveniles must be attended carefully; they have an unfortunate tendency to watch where their shot goes and forget where they are, and can hit walls at awkward angles and explode from surprise. _
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08:29:58 PM, Wednesday 23 October 2002

I was not prepared for snow this morning, neither in mind nor in garment. _
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11:42:16 AM, Wednesday 23 October 2002

Ack! It's Kubiac from Parker Lewis as the Viking/Troll! And wonderful subtitles. _
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08:24:37 PM, Tuesday 22 October 2002

Nine Inch Nails: Hurt
Depeche Mode: Personal Jesus
Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Hank Williams: I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

Beep! What are songs Johnny Cash covers on his new album.
(There's a video for Hurt) _
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06:43:24 PM, Tuesday 22 October 2002

"Pages 1,2, and 4 should be read before completing page 3." I don't like government forms. _
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05:15:27 PM, Tuesday 22 October 2002

"I'm sure you have days, and probably many days, when you just want to stay at home, cuddle up on the couch to either watch TV or read a good book. Well, there you are, but then you realize that your nose is ice-cold.

Well, I am happy to say that I get out my Comfy nose warmer, put it on, and I don't waste any time in getting comfortable. My nose as well as my face is warm and I feel more healthy overall."

From the website. It comes in standard, geavy-duty, and sporty ("This nose-warmer looks cool, sexy, and attractive"). Also, two sizes, named A and B, presumably not to trumatize the large-nosed among us. _
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04:58:05 PM, Tuesday 22 October 2002

"However, if he were to meet all the conditions of the United Nations, the conditions that I've described very clearly in terms that everybody can understand, that in itself will signal the regime has changed." Says our clearly-spoken president, before his handlers could put a cork in him; Signalling to the world that Regime Change may not mean actually a change of leaderhip, but rather, and evil dictator (or "regime") changing their mind. I got the quote from Talking Points Memo, My favorite Democratic Party hack. He has an amusing discussion of it. He in turn, got it from A NY Times article, which politely terms it a "cryptic caveat"; Presumably the Times reporter got it straight from the horse's mouth, as it were. _
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03:43:27 PM, Tuesday 22 October 2002

Donald Sutherland : Alan Alda :: Donald Sutherland : Anthony Stuart Head _
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02:57:46 PM, Tuesday 22 October 2002

Watch the obesity epidemic spread from across the nation! My theory is that obesity is caused by the radiation from country stations; notice that Kentucky is always ahead of the rest. _
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10:59:31 PM, Monday 21 October 2002

Its currently cheaper to fly from Boston to London, changing planes Detroit, than it is to fly to Detroit. There ought to be a law. Really, the government should nationalize the airlines, since it already pays for them through Bankruptcy protection, building airports and direct subsidies.
Straw man: But look how awful Amtrak is!
Thats because the frieght companies own the track, and have no incentive to make it usable for passenger service. Mass transit is never profitable, but they make everything work better; exactly the sort of thing governments are supposed to do.
I like my Straw Man. _
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10:51:12 PM, Monday 21 October 2002

I was doing really well at getting up early for the first few months I lived here. Then I started working on this pong game. Why can I only program in the dark? In related news, resturants have to close at 4am here. They're talking about making it 2am. This could never happen in Maryland; Chick and Ruth's has too much influence over the legislature. _
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06:45:35 PM, Monday 21 October 2002

If I post it here, I'll have to stop changing it.

Suede: Killing of a Flash Boy
The Connells: '74-'75
Suzanne Vega: In Liverpool
Roger Miller: Engine Engine #9
The Magnetic Fields: 100,000 Fireflies
The Magnetic Fields: I Don't Want to Get Over You
The 6ths: San Diego Zoo
Elvis Costello: Veronica
Herman's Hermits: No Milk Today
The Chills: Pink Frost
Kris Kristofferson: Sunday Morning Coming Down
Slowdive: Alison
Devdas Soundtrack: Dola Re Dola
Zemfira: A Devushka Piana
Moose: Can't Get Enough of You
Peter Gabriel: Mercy Street
Tatu: Robot
Ida: Walk Way Renee
Tarkan: Sikidim
Marvin the Paranoid Android: Reasons for Being Miserable _
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05:02:59 PM, Sunday 20 October 2002

There has been a car accident just under our window two nights running, both times soon after the local bars close. I really appreciate that the government maintains a 24-hour force of people to deal with these things in a professional manner. _
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03:22:53 PM, Sunday 20 October 2002

Its all a question of how thorough I have the patience to be. I should make the collision handling recursive, so it can bounce an infinite amount of times in a single cycle. I should. Its the right thing to do. I'll be glad I did in the unimaginable distant future. But I'm tired and stupid just at the moment. _
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10:46:26 PM, Saturday 19 October 2002

How to bounce: If a collision occurs, calculate the approximite time of impact, jump back to that moment in time, reverse the velocity along the appropriate vector, and restart time. _
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07:59:28 PM, Saturday 19 October 2002

When the cat tried to wake Erika up at 5am this morning, her first thought was that she needed to debug him. If only he we're open source. _
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02:59:21 PM, Friday 18 October 2002

I've been looking into graphics libraries for my Paddle-Dragons, and investigating the relative merits of DirectX and OpenGL. Good Lord. I thought political debates on the web were aggressive and content-free. First there wer Religions, then Nations, then Sports Teams, and now Software Packages. _
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06:50:15 PM, Thursday 17 October 2002

My AIM ID is CommonPuffin, for anyone involved with this new-fangled gadgetry who wants to talk to me for some reason. The incomperable Collum pointed me to Trillian, which put my fears of WB to rest. _
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10:49:24 PM, Wednesday 16 October 2002

Its a big empty internal office, that in more prosperous times belonged to an account manager. The previous residents have left me two things; Napoleon's March to Moscow from the Tufte book on one wall, and a childs drawing on the other. The caption on the drawing is "This is the Public Gardens" above a drawing of a road, with a fence along side it; and behind the fence, scribbled foliage. So cynical, at such a young age. My only contribution has been a train schedule, so in the afternoon I can decide which train home I want to miss. Since this isn't Myst, I've never actually opened all the filing cabinets. _
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01:38:57 PM, Wednesday 16 October 2002

New Wallace and Gromit Shorts on the BBC!

Gromit a Cat trapped in a Dogs Body
At the end of the interview, he reveals that early on Gromit was a cat, but it was changed because he liked the shape of a dog better. This makes so much sense; Gromit has an aloofness not often seen in dogs. _
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09:56:30 PM, Tuesday 15 October 2002

Other ideas I had on the train:
html photo gallery management software (boring).
Web Rally game. Computer picks a website, follows links X times, tells you the starting point and the ending point. You have to get there, and submit your route, which it then checks. Multiplayer would be very necessary. _
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07:36:26 PM, Tuesday 15 October 2002

Lately, I've been feeling directionless, without a purpose in life. My job is distracting but not fulfilling. I've been listlessly poking at my mp3 sorter, but I haven't been able to get excited about it. This morning I forgot to take a book with me on the train. This seeming disaster turned out to be a blessing in disguise: I had an Idea. Its a game where you breed jet-propelled pong paddles, then enter them in tournaments

Part Pong, Part sports management sim, part pokemon; combined with something I've never seen, a realistic breeding game, with recessive and dominant traits, sexual reproduction, and congenitive defects. Some traits: Fuel capacity, width, acceleration, interest, anticipation, texture, shape, life span, fertility, explosiveness/excitability, eye color, fur color, length of fur, noise. These won't be simple on/off switches, but interrelated traits. Explosiveness will increase along with fuel capacity and acceleration, and concentration, and so on. The game will also be a puzzle game, as you study these creatures; work out which traits are recessive, inherited from the mother, all that stuff. (very short lived critters). Since you won't be able to control the paddles, the only way to win will be by breeding. Once you save enough money you can buy a DNA-reader. I want the finished product to be edutainment software, like Oregon trail for genetics. Of course, it also just screams Massively-Multiplayer. The paddles will be loosely modeled on Discworld Swamp Dragons. Terry Pratchett has a race of small non-magical dragons, and someone who breeds them. They tend to explode if they get too excited, and one of them is jet propelled.

The ball will be round, and quite large in comparason to the paddles, maybe a 1/4 the size; whatever maximizes cuteness. They will get knocked about by the ball pretty well; will charge it, squeak on impact, and so on. They're shaped a bit like stubby drops of water; lens-shaped at the front so they act like regular pong paddles, with a pointy tail, so if the ball comes up behind them, it gets deflected to the side. THey have two large side jets, a nose jet, 1 tail jet, and 2 small side-tail jets for rotating. There will be virtual petness as well, you have to feed them, stable them, etc. they get depressed if they keep losing, will explode if neglected. Injury will be risk as well. Doubles is a possibility. Pregnant paddle-dragons can't play.

I've got lots more details, but this is getting very long for a blog entry. But some questions: Can anyone recommend a Genetics Primer that would give me what I need for this? The first step is to write a pong with inertia. I'm really excited about this. I'm going to do this. _
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07:28:16 PM, Tuesday 15 October 2002

Are people who select the Islamic meal more likely to be stopped by security? They could offer "Last Meal", and scrutinize people who chose that very carefully. _
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08:31:06 PM, Sunday 13 October 2002

When booking a flight, one of the menu options is "Bland". "Tasty" is alas, not an option. "Hindu" is, but I really doubt its a good Lamb Korma. _
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08:29:55 PM, Sunday 13 October 2002

I'm worried that downloading AIM is a bit like inviting a vampire into my house. _
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09:33:47 PM, Saturday 12 October 2002

Composite sketches of the snipers white van. Can you imagine worse publicity for Mitsubishi? I love these trucks, by the way, with the knee level drivers side window. _
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09:00:28 PM, Saturday 12 October 2002

I had thought that if the screen door was always open when the porch door was, the cat would leave the screens alone. Silly me. His latest hobby is to climb up the screen door while its open and balance on top of it. _
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08:06:31 PM, Saturday 12 October 2002

Our iBook, though it remains nameless, can see our PC's hard drive, without any additional software or anything, and snatch files off of it. (Tramline, if you must know). The whole world is setting aside its differences and coming together. Routers are beautiful things. _
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08:04:12 PM, Saturday 12 October 2002

There's really no reason to create scroll bars at funny angles, other than to be difficult. I want to be difficult. _
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01:59:12 PM, Friday 11 October 2002

If you think Michael Moore is an offensive thoughtless loudmouth, you're probably right. You should go see "Bowling for Columbine" anyway; not for what he thinks, but for what he finds. He digs up some fascinating interviews and footage. He has also mastered the technique of getting laughs, then slapping you hard for laughing with something really disturbing. Unfortunately, He's also terrible demegogue, doesn't fact check, loves hinting at conspiracy, and is entirely insulated from criticism by adoring crowds. I went to a sneak preview of this film last spring, and nearly walked out on his opening speech. But he is more restrained on film, overshadowed by what he's documenting.

That said, not even Charlton Heston deserves to be accosted and abused in his own home like that. _
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12:53:43 PM, Friday 11 October 2002

The Onion asked a lot of pop culture people whether there is a God. Much more interesting than I expected. _
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12:35:27 PM, Friday 11 October 2002

My God. That's what you've all been talking about. I'm shocked. I'm appalled. I'm tempted. That's completely terrifying. I can't quite express why, but just thinking about it makes me tremble in my boots. _
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08:15:51 PM, Thursday 10 October 2002

If you leave brownies in the oven for an extra 40 minutes, they last much longer. _
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08:01:03 PM, Thursday 10 October 2002

What do people want in an MP3 management tool? Here are my current plans. Its my project to learn C#.
Length checking
Name checking: file name vs tags.
Automatic file renaming, tag creation
Automatic filing
Some kind of Mix tape/CD utility
(keep running total of length, search for songs of x seconds, that sort of thing)
I'm not thinking of trying to incorporate an MP3 player, just something to deal clean up freshly downloaded stuff and build WinAmp playlists more easily. (I hate how you can wipe out a playlist with a bad click, and that it appoximates file length.)

I use an actual windows directory structure to organize MP3s... Do other people? Or do you use playlists or one of these players that makes a big unwieldy database for you? _
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06:51:56 PM, Thursday 10 October 2002

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