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[May. 11th, 2008|09:08 am] |
Grr. Why is the laptop so slow? Video playback lagging?
Oh no! Somebody swapped my CPUs out for... wow, I guess overclocking has come a long way.
In other tech news, my former employer has swept out all the personal servers we left connected with very little notice (which is sort of fair enough, since most people have long since left, but showing uncharacteristic levels of efficiency to have noticed after barely a year), so gallery and webcam are down until further notice. This makes me sad. Suggestions on hosting 4G of images and a persistent video transcoder gratefully accepted.
And yes, I shall soon blog about the awesomeness that is my birthday Kindle from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) msvyvyan. I started writing about it here, but it turned into too mcuh excitably lurid prose, 'coz it's seriously excellent. Not so much for the device itself as potential implications on industry and reading habits. |
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| Everything starts with a good set of tiles |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|12:01 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | toils | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | San Francisco | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | exuberant | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Dido - Honestly Ok | ] |
Damn you, domesticmouse. Your enthusiasm for our new product is infectious.
I'm also somewhat vulnerable due to having recently discovered Travian, an empire building game that's simple enough to be played from my iPhone. Unfortunately, it's a bit boring, and makes me pine for all those monstrous time-sinks of yore: Sim City, Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, etc.
So I spent a couple of nights trying to wrap my head around Perlin noise, and now have an infinite world with... clumps. But good clumps. I can automatically classify some clumps as mountains, some as seas, some as fields of opium poppies, uranium deposits, guano, vestal virgins, whatever. For now, I have continuous clumping displayed as colour, and some isolated clumps as different symbols.
But that's mechanics, and mechanics don't make a game. What was it about those tile-based empire-building games that was so good? Civ and RT are superficially similar but actually quite different, yet I think they have the same essential addictive gameplay. I'm just not sure I can quantify what that is.
Growth is an obvious one - bigger cities, bigger railroads. Is that all there is to it? The lack of it is certainly what makes Travian dull. Tempting as it is to just copy one of those older games to make a huge multiplayer version, I'd just as soon understand the psychology.
See, my problem is that I get excited by all the wrong things here. I feel immensely satisfied with my clumps. Making fog-of-war work is going to be challenging and fun. None of these things are particularly relevant.
What would make a giant tile game fun? Help me! Give me advice! (Other than to steal the tile graphics from freeciv?) |
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| Manufacturing in the home |
[Apr. 15th, 2008|07:15 pm] |
A couple of weeks ago msvyvyan attended a photo shoot. I dropped by for moral support partway through and found myself studying some of the props. They were aluminium collars and restraint devices, which were made of many layers of metal bolted together. What I found particularly interesting was that they were almost entirely composed of a very few different 2D shapes that were reversed on one axis or another to make hinges and locks. This was clever.
( and then I got all crafty like )
The thing with manufacturing of physical goods is China. It just isn't likely that you can undercut material or labour costs. The only real advantage that you can have is proximity to customers, in geographic and cultural senses. I'd imagine that pure manufacture like this could still work if you're customizing pieces for size and surface design (laser etched at TechShop, maybe?), and if your small-volume manufacturer is economical and fast enough - which this is *tantalizingly* close to being.
Once you have brand, I'd imagine you could do online tracking of every piece sold by serial number and CoA, and make some kind of mystique out of it... and then, profit! ;) |
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| On second thoughts... |
[Apr. 3rd, 2008|08:53 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | San Francisco | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | rueful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Dido - Life for Rent | ] |
After swinging from 100%-pro to 100%-con a couple of times in the 24 hours following the previous post, I decided that that was a strong sign that I should save it all 'til later, when I have, you know, emotional stability and resolve and stuff. Sorry for the alarmist demands on your collective attention :) Next time, Gadget.
In other news, while we were all distracted:
Two days ago was my one year anniversary of moving here.
One day ago was my one year anniversary of work.
Today... is the day after.
Tomorrow is Friday. |
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| Spoiled for choice |
[Mar. 14th, 2008|01:05 am] |
I have grumbled here before that LJ doesn't let me channel-ize posts, so that people could opt-out from a subset. I was imagining that I'd review books as I read them, and as people got bored of my doing so, they could just opt not to see the book reviews any longer, but they'd still be Google-able. (Apparently unlike the post in question)
But it was not to be. So msvyvyan signed me up to GoodReads to scratch this itch. About a year later, I decided I'd give it a try.
Shortly afterwards, I started hearing good things about LibraryThing, specifically that they do the Pandora-esque suggestions of new things to read based on what you already have. They seem to be much more indie and enthusiastic about things than GoodReads, and I really like it (although they don't have the same review focus).
Unfortunately, while randomly clicking around on LibraryThing, I discovered... that we have a library tracking and book review thing too!
Dammit.
See, one of the best things about coming to work for the G is being able to drink the Kool-aid. Never again will I choose to run a mail server, host a wiki, or do any of that tedious sysadmin stuff for myself. I can happily become just another user and save my energy for other things, now that I know for sure I can trust us. Isn't that nice? Particularly when it extends to unexpected places like book collections?
Except... well, LibraryThing is kinda cool. And GoodReads has some time invested.
But, really, who am I kidding. I never make time to read anyway. Look at me - jetlagged and inappropriately wide awake, with an open copy of Matter by my side, and what am I doing? Feh.
Also, while auto-googling to find that link to a previous post, I've discovered some unimaginative lad has stolen my handle for his own nefarious purposes. I think he's using it as an insult, but I haven't really read it closely enough to tell. <geek>I linked with rel=nofollow so he can't steal my pagerank, heh, heh, heh. </geek>
Also, in furtherance of my plan to utterly destroy any personal privacy that I may delude myself into imagining that I possess, I decided, while sitting at UCC on that Friday, to sign up to Facebook. |
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| There and back |
[Feb. 29th, 2008|07:06 am] |
QF518 for my sins once again, the Friday night redeye to Sydney. Huge thanks to those that made time for me at short notice, it was great to see you all. Now for four hours of semi-sleep on a big silver bird, a much-missed msvyvyan, and then a huge parade. I just hope the weather is better... |
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| last minute change! |
[Feb. 28th, 2008|01:42 am] |
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Belgian Beer Cafe has no aircon! Moon & Sixpence instead. Come now! |
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| Perth. |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|01:45 am] |
I'm in Perth this week, on family duties. Well, mostly. I'll be at UWA on Friday night with ulterior motives, red-eye-ing out to Sydney immediately thereafter, and only really have Thursday night to catch up with people. So, people, are you free on Thursday night? I'm envisaging some random pub in town somewhere, but most willing to be guided to water elsewhere the Belgian Beer Cafe in town.
I'd like to claim that I brought gifts, but the best I can do is offer you a part-share in a big orange bridge. At a very reasonable price. I have these contacts, you see... |
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| US domestic travel |
[Jan. 24th, 2008|11:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
You were born late last century in an unnamed Eastern European country. Sometime in your late teens or early twenties you emigrated to America, the land where dreams still can come true. Although you never quite lost your accent, you worked hard at mastering the English language, and the combination of your poise, looks and precise (if slightly stilted) speech lends you a formidable presence.
Having applied yourself to your chosen profession with the same dedication, you ascended rapidly through the ranks and found yourself commanding the cabin staff aboard Alaskan Airlines flight 407 from Oakland, California to Portland, Oregon.
Unfortunately, you only have two cabin staff, and need at least three to present the safety demonstrations so that every seat in the plane can see them. The staff dashing back and forth to repeat their actions in multiple places destroys all hope of synchronization with your carefully enunciated voiceover.
You are young, beautiful and living many a young girl's dream, but, when all is said and done, despite your immaculate coiffure, dress and make-up, your deliberate, practised greeting by name to each passenger, and hard-won aplomb at handling their unexpected conversational gambits in your second (third?) language, your total resources for feeding your entire first class cabin amount to two oranges and three pineapple rings.
How do you feel? |
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| Happy anniversary to me |
[Jan. 4th, 2008|10:40 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | San Francisco | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Lifehouse - First Time | ] |
Today is my 1-year anniversary of first setting foot on US tarmac (I don't believe I touched any 'soil' per se on that visit). This move has been a fantastic thing in some really important ways, and I'm very, very glad I did it.
Just for the record.
(Recollection prompted by ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) infotropism's official announcement of her start on a similar trip) |
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| Timezones |
[Dec. 31st, 2007|01:10 am] |
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Oh yeah, and for all those less date-line challenged, Happy New Year for tonight! |
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| Travel plans |
[Dec. 30th, 2007|08:10 pm] |
Flight planning, when the kangaroo route is involved, can be very frustrating.
I'm intending to be in Perth for the last week of February, and in Sydney with A for the first week of March, more or less. The pressing question is how to get there and back.
Timelines at this point are close enough that the return flight via Sydney or Auckland is moderately expensive. There's a neat routing to Perth via Singapore and Tiger Airlines that's about half the price, but the problem is that while doing that routing as a return ticket is about twice the cost of the one-way itinerary, a return via Sydney is less than 50% over the one-way ticket, which means doing the big loop via Sydney *and* Singapore isn't terribly cost effective.
So why not just do the return via Singapore? Well, the itinerary would be San Francisco (22/2) -> Narita (Tokyo, 24/2) -> Singapore (overnight layover, 25/2) -> Perth (25/2) -> Sydney (29/2) -> Perth (7/3) -> Singapore (21 hour layover, 9/3) -> Narita (12 hour layover, 10/3) -> San Francisco (10/3), which is insane.
There's upsides to this - two Perth visits with family would be nice, I've never been to Japan and 12 hours in Narita is enough time to catch a bullet train into Tokyo for a few hours of wandering around, I can certainly amuse myself in Singapore for two nights, and, frankly, the sheer craziness gladdens my inner passport-stamp whore.
Downsides are that with a couple of hotel stays in Singapore, the savings are to be at most a few hundred dollars, in exchange for which I spend five consecutive days in five different cities, and I'm going to be a complete zombie on arrival, which may not work so well with going straight to work from the airport, meaning a loss of yet another precious day of annual leave (although I could pop into the Tokyo office, I suppose. Hmm...).
Weighed against this is Qantas whisking me between my three waypoints on direct flights with a minimum of wasted time. So it isn't so much a question of convenience or even cost, as deciding whether I care more about the journey or the destination... |
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| Fractal cauliflower, or my life in pictures. |
[Dec. 21st, 2007|09:15 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Dresden Dolls - Glass Slipper | ] |
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[Dec. 8th, 2007|12:31 am] |
This city is odd.
Alcohol service stops, by law, at 2am. This is bizarre. I hear there are speakeasies around that violate the law, but I haven't actually found myself at one yet, because...
I have this theory.
The theory goes something like this.
(I'm sitting on the shuttle back up to SF from the work Christmas party, which was a surprising amount of fun.)
Silicon Valley is, proverbially, a hotbed of innovation. SF likewise, since many SV workers live there.
(oops, battery died, switching to iPhone)
The enforced curfew (no point staying out if you can't drink) means more people get more sleep, leaving more brain cells for the day. Which explains everything.
(articles in The Economist are amazingly opaque when you're tipsy)
(iPhone text entry blows goats) |
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| Oh, Dumbledore? |
[Oct. 30th, 2007|09:02 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | harry | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | halfway down 101 | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Sisters of Mercy - Anaconda | ] |
By an accident arising of repeated frustrated clicking caused by Firefox on Mac OS X handling misbehaving internet connections really amazingly badly, I discovered a nugget which shall form the entirety of my commentary on The Whole Rowling Outing Issue.
And I quote:
dumbledore
Dictionary
Dum·ble·dor
n.
[The first part is prob. of imitative origin. See Dor a beetle.]
(Zoöl.) A bumblebee; also, a cockchafer. [Prov. Eng.] |
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| mikolaj.tv gallery, the next generation |
[Oct. 20th, 2007|07:27 pm] |
Let me rewind a little. A month or so back, amongst the many little disasters in my life, I broke my new camera, a Casio Exilim S600. We'd bought two of them, one each, since they were wonderfully thin and pocketable, and I'm an opportunistic photographer who relies on providence to produce.
They retired msvyvyan's Sony and my Ixus. Both of these cameras were gifts; the Sony a christmas present from her old boss, and the Ixus a birthday present from is_apposite, moreil, Deanne and Megan (and... somebody else, maybe?), who collectively felt that only a shiny new toy could maintain a personal link when I moved to London, as I was planning to do at the time.
Now my camera requirements have expanded, making replacing the Casio difficult. Quite aside from issues with the camera's software, given the Tongan vacation, surgical tourism in Australia early next year, and later the caribbean cruise that I just won at work, it would be nice to be able to tag pictures with the location where they were taken. Geocoding.
( Only if you care about solving this problem )
At any rate, after some scrabbling around with the GPS logger, I assembled a KML file of the Tongan trip for Google Earth which pins most of the photos to the locations where they were taken. Either point Earth to it as a 'network link', or just download it and do File/Open from within Earth. You'll have to navigate over to Tonga manually, since controlling that exceeds my KML-fu for the moment.
The user experience is faintly crappy, but I guess the idea is to set it up so that Earth can just update from mikolaj.tv continuously, so as people mosey around they can see photos in context... or something. Hasn't quite gelled in my mind yet, but get ready for mikolaj.tv to encroach into your Earth-browsing in the near future :) |
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| Dentisting in the USA |
[Oct. 18th, 2007|06:35 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | usa | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | San Francisco | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | jittery | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch | ] |
I went for a dental check-up today. It took two and a half hours. The process was intriguingly different to what I'm used to from Oz.
My experience with up-checks & cleans in Australia is that they lead with the metal pick-y thing, and, every couple of years, take a digital x-ray of molars on either side.
Here, it's exactly the reverse. Perhaps it was because this was an initial visit, but they started with twenty-five digital x-rays, followed by a range of normal digital images. The appointment had been going for an hour and a half before any kind of non-imaging instrument invaded my oral cavity (well, discounting suction. And the oral cancer swabs). Most of the problem identification and charting was done from the images, with barely a couple of places noted as needing an actual physical poke.
Following which, they introduced me to another form of dental discomfort heretofore unknown to me - the gum-depth-prober-gizmo. The other form of discomfort being shoving in a plastic-en-condommed CCD all the to the back of the jaw to get good images of back teeth. I have an active and enthusiastic gag reflex.
The never-ending supply of M&Ms at work hasn't done my teeth any favours, but theoretically nothing that will blow the annual insurance limits. |
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| Home again |
[Oct. 16th, 2007|09:26 pm] |
Learnings from the past week:
The Tongan mainland (well, main island) is faintly disturbing in a third-worldy sort of way, but the Royal Sunset resort on 'Atata island is just blissful. Had me seriously contemplating retirement possibilities to a pacific island. Really.
Windsurfing is fun. Particularly with people to rescue you. And sink kayaks in the process.
Tongans are fabulously friendly. Fijians have lots of things they want to sell.
The Daikoku restaurant in Nadi does some of the best teppanyaki I've had in quite a while. And the British expat running the pub next door has a daughter of unearthly beauty. It's worth heading out during a layover.
Halo 3 is fun.
30 hour transits back home are not, although the $50 upgrade to first class for the last leg is definitely worth it.
Hair that is only washed in seawater for a week in a tropical climate winds up smelling somewhat, er, fungal. |
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| TSA bitch |
[Oct. 9th, 2007|07:49 pm] |
Woohoo! First ever SSSS on my boarding pass. But, strangely, no stripsearch :( |
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| Technicolour mikolaj |
[Oct. 9th, 2007|01:56 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | geek, vanity | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | San Francisco | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Nine While Nine - Sisters of Mercy | ] |
The disk in my laptop is so, so dead. Cooked electronics - the only question is which side of the cable is the damage on.
So I gave up on recovering what I'd written of the webcam stuff, and, 200 lines of (increasingly disturbing, towards the bottom) Perl later, I give you freshly rewritten, four times the window size, 10 times the frame rate, and 15 times the download! Eat flaming bandwidth!
The camera, as I mentioned earlier, is a Linksys WVC54G. They fly past on ebay at <$100 on a regular basis. The magic incantation to convert its native supposedly Windows-only mpeg4 video format is:
mencoder - -of lavf -lavfopts
format=mpjpeg:i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames
-nosound -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg
No, really.
There's actually a magic way to make it spit out a stream of JPEGs at you, but then you lose the magic built-in motion detection that emails you when the cats are fighting or petsitter is playing with them. It's also vastly more bandwidth efficient, which is how my anemic cable upstream gets converted to a megabit stream of multipart-jpeg for y'all. Mind those download quotas now, y'hear?
I should also get some sleep. |
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contemplative
exhausted