the end of an era

Yep thats right, I havent blogged for a long time :\

Well theres been a heck of a lot going on since I last posted. I finished University and graduated with a III. I got a permanent contract with my employers, doing embedded programming and application development  for them. My bedroom was (finally, after about 7 years) redecorrated, and I now have a wooden floor (and currently, no desk :\. Still waiting to replace the 15yo matteres thats trying its darndest to kill me though. In a spontaneous move, I got myself a Kindle and then decided to give all my books away, like ALL of them, every last one 0.o. Now I'm all kindled up lol.

In the story front, I've been reading Malazaan Book of the Fallen, and enjoyed the story very much. The ending wasn't that great though. Now I'm reading another of the Malazan books, the first of the co-author's. I've also caught up on Trudi Canavan's Traitor Spy trilogy, and on The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I've also got a few other new series on the plate for after I'm done with Malazan (though I might stop and do some others like I did with HTK and Canavan). 

Other than reading and working, I've not been up to much. Lots of lurking on forums and some casual library buidling for SiLabs C8051 processors. Dreaming of bigger things, I might share them some time, if I remember.

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Magic System

Short one, an idea about magic systems, not really exhaustively studied.

A conjuring magic, using the hand as the focus or source. Each Hand can act separately, but Hands can be combined into bigger Tricks and combos can be Dealt. There are 32 different hands, each represented by a number of fingers: The weakest but most versatile being an open hand, the strongest but bluntest a fist. To perform Deals you must either store your previous hands somehow, or throw in quick succession. 

That's about all I have.

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Comics

Comics, comics, comics...

So yeah, if you've seen this page, you should know that I follow a rather large number of comics. RSS just doesnt cut it, not when you get more than ten differen story based pages a day, each with RSS that are just links to the pages (for ad revenue and page view reasons). All the comic sites have different page layouts, with different navigation tools, and most have large head sections and banner ads that make you have to scroll to see the page. Rosscott has a post about this kinda thing. For story's, reading updates as they come doesn't work as well as it could; I'd far rather read each chapter/scene/etc once it is completed than when each page gets released. I actually usually end up zooming in to comics if I'm reading a lot of them, just so its easier to read the dialogue.

What I would love to see is something similar to Ross's better frame, a single site (or sites) that let the reader read the comics how they want to, and let the author/artist publish and earn a living from their creation. Or even a better form of RSS that, instead of alerting me to new pages, allerted me to the completion of a chapter. I dont know what I want, but I know that I want something different. The stories and strips that I read are amazing and I adore the creators, but its not working right....

Oh and dont get me started on instapaper/readitlater, their (web) interfaces need fixing. blargh

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Oracular

Have you ever been so immersed in a conversation or activity that you kind of phase everything else out, and then something jars you back into reality real fast? I bet you have. No doubt about it. In fact I KNOW you have. It's how it works. Man, it even happens in dreams....

So yes, I was dreaming, I was with a group of my peers, a random selection of people I've known, doing some sort of activity. Something grabbed my attention and I became engrossed with it, around me things continued to happen in a muted way (This was a dream, so nothing was exactly cleanly cut like this, but I digress), and so I kind of parallel dreamed this event along with the background hum, where the even was as sharp as a dream can be, and the background seemed to slow down, fade away, like I'd been detached from reality, but at the same time still in it. I think I may not have been jarred from it, more a fading of the perception of the event, until I was 'back in reality', as they say. 

After a short amount of time dreaming, (peh I think, thats kinda what I remmeber) it happened again, this time in a restaurant, engaging with someone, when I felt the presence of someone else; seemingly older or more wise than I, she communicated of things strangely, mystically (I cant remember her speaking things aloud, or hearing her directly at least). Yet again the scene was distinct from my comprehension, we seemed trapped in a bubble. And then it faded or popped, and I remember nothing but awaking (to real life this time...at least I think it is ¬.¬) from a dream....

Right, this is rather imperfect, even more so than I wished since I waited a day and a bit to regurgitate it, after mulling over the following idea for a while. The idea itself I realised straight away, or at least I cannot remember any differences between its current form and the state I first remember it being.

Once again it comes in the form of a game, a strongly story based game this time. Either a thriller or an adventure I don't know, possibly both, and no doubt something similar has been done before, that maybe I'm just partially remembering and applying to this 'experience' I had. The major points of the story start similar to the dream above, Normality followed by a random series of these things. Some just on your own, maybe wondering why you're experiencing like this, without knowing you're the cause or how to stop it consciously; others wherein you have companions, whether they be just your colleagues or some random person who helps/confuses/etc. you. Some of the experiences are jarred, others fade, maybe some of them are so subtle that you dont realise they happened until you jar yourself out of them, or dont realise at all if you fade from them.

The game progresses, and you come to find/discover your 'powers' as that you can pull yourself out of reality, and sometimes others (or be pulled yourself). Others exist that have the powers, some appear to be oracles/prophets (Hence the name Oracular), teachers and things.

I don't propose the story, merely the setting. I thought it might be awesome. :)

Filed under  //  dreams   game   idea   story  
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Code

So yeah, I've been programming again (out of work). Mostly C# (I know, ewwww), and a little java (ewwwwwwwww), only because I'm to lazy to remember the libraries and VS2008 C# Express is probably one of the best and most stable IDE's, screw eclipse and netbeans, they crash silently on my pc....

And yes, I've stuck all my code in a git repo and pushed to github: FallingBullets/lib.cs

The main classes in there are INI.cs which wraps the windows .ini file syscalls in a nice clean way; and Span.cs which abstracts TimeSpan into a generic interval kind of things for any T : IComparable<T>. I plan on adding some more code, maybe some more mathsy stuff cause thats what I like, and maybe some other code that I've written whilst at work and can see being used by others.

Take it as is, its yours. As it says in README the code is public domained as much as is possible. Thanks for using it :D

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A House, A Community

So, I thought about this a while ago. You always hear about those houses stuffed full of computers, but I have my doubts on their usefulness. Even though that's the case, here's some ideas for one:

The user gets a touch-enabled screen, with a microphone and camera as inputs, speakers/headphone/haptics as output. It works as a terminal to the house. The house supplies wireless power and communicates the screens IO wirelessly. The house also interacts with the users passively through the general set of environment sensors and also monitors gestures and relative position of the user, and can interact directly with the user through wall-mounted screens/speakers/microphones, projectors, etc.

Another slightly less refined idea I thought up today involved a community network:

A group of neighbours, each with their own internet connection, get together and create a high-speed, distributed network between each of their houses. Each of them somehow shares their internet connection with the network, and a system is created to allow them to each get the most benefit from their multiple connections. The agree to fund the upkeep of the network, which gets split between the cost of the architecture and some small subsidies to the internet connection costs of each member (based on the quality of their individual supply, encouraging them (if they wish) to support good quality, high speed, low cost ISP's. Though it might be necessary to ensure that the selection of ISP's is even, to not draw attention to it, and for fault-tollerance. This also suggests the sharing mechanism shouldn't favour/swamp a particular connection due to its high quality/speed). It then is decided that new members be allowed entry, if they (help to) connect themselves; this may include members who have not got a direct internet connection (in which case they may pay more, or be encouraged to collaborate with other non-connected to jointly fund a connection, so as to discourage free-loading). 

The community may evolve in such a way as to provide local 'cloud'-based services to its members, or public terminals (subsidised by the local council/government/etc).

Just remember, anything is possible.

Filed under  //  ideas   irl   tech  
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A Modern Empire

So, thinking about the future is always worrisome, thanks to the best efforts of recent generations in ruining the planet. None of the (half-hearted tbh) attempts so far have made a dint in anything. But who's to say a tyrant wouldn't try. Let it be known that one such may come to conquer the world and force us to make good. 

Yeah, there was more, maybe even a story out of it...but I just dont have time to remember it now >.>

Filed under  //  philosophy   society   thoughts  
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Thoughts on Adonalsium.

Just a few thoughts I had on Brandon Sanderson's overarching universe.

Theories

  • Hoid the holder/keeper/protector of Adonalsium.
  • Hoid the breaker/traitor of Adonalsium.
  • Sazed the next holder/keeper/protector of Adonalsium.

Questions

  • Do the Shards need reuniting?
  • Why does Sazed get two?
  • Do the shattered Shards need remaking?

Filed under  //  books   theories  
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YAY!

Yay for impossible tasks. And yet nothing is impossible. Everything can be done, and has been or will be or even is being done. Is it all about how? Probably more likely to be all about anything you want it to be.

Maybe this is all a lazy view, to stop myself from needing to decide on something to believe. I just don't know. But what I do know is that I don't mind not knowing, since it affects my life so little, at the moment.

I wish to be a good person and yet I fear that it is impossible, which only proves that I do not truly believe that anything and everything is possible. Or maybe I do believe and do think I could be a good person, but think it wouldn't be worth the effort since nobody would appreciate it, or at least not enough for my liking. Which makes me selfish, wishing to be appreciated for things that should be done regardless.

Maybe I just like lying to myself, hating myself, wanting to be better but not wanting to put effort in. How despicable of me.


Is this even relevant discussion? unfortunately I don't even know if what I said above is even true. Please forgive me, again.

Filed under  //  me   philosophy  
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Stuff I've been up to.

Yeah, one of these posts.

Well I read Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker yesterday, and really enjoyed it (well of course, I read it in one day. lol). He has the knack of drawing you in and not letting you put the book down, quite amazing. I also watched Exit Through The Gift Shop - the Banksy film, and Only Yesterday - another Studio Ghibli film, over the weekend. I should probably list what I got for Christmas:

  • The Cat Returns (my favourite Studio Ghibli film), Grave of the Fireflies, Spirited Away, Only Yesterday, and Tales from Earthsea.
  • Exit Through The Gift Shop,
  • Brandon's Warbreaker and The Way of Kings,
  • Dan Simmons' Illium-Olympos,
  • a new copy of Tad Williams' War of the Flowers,
  • t-shirts: '[pacman]//omnomnom' ,  'meh', 'keep out of direct sunlight', and 'I love vegetarians//more meat for me'
  • a couple of jumpers and some trousers, and socks and underwear.

I got a book, t-shirt (the 'meh' one) and demotivation calendar off Meesha, and about £200 from relatives. Other than that I spent the weekend with my mothers family, and spoke at length (both Skype and gTalk) with Meesha. Twas a rather magical Christmas all in all. Oh, and we ate (and are still eating) plenty :D

Other stuff I've been upto? Well I've been at uni pretty solidly, since I'm really trying to apply myself this year to salvage as good a degree as possible. I've been working one day a week since the start of term (and worked the start of last week too), and enjoyed that, finishing up the Sonar, doing some C# and messing with Android etc. Now I'm on holiday I've going to keep the maths we did last term fresh for my exams, which means practising/revising, and also I have to write a File System for my Operating Systems course. 

Filed under  //  books   film   gf   me   university   work  
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