short
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 09:29 PM - Culture
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( 3 / 403 )as
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 09:29 PM - Culture
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( 3 / 334 )possible
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 09:28 PM - Culture
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( 3 / 384 )ALIFE: Status Report
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 02:24 PM - ALife
The current "one-year-of-alife" simulation looks good to me. The population is right where I like it to be (more than 1,000 and less than 3,000). The creatures have nice fluid motion and are small blobs. They seem to exhibit some rudimentary evasion and hunting routines. And best of all this is a sexual simulation.Overall I am happy with this new simulation (knock on wood; funny if todays sim died out or some other similar tradgedy)
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( 3 / 419 )Why I don't use Second Life anymore
Friday, July 27, 2007, 12:46 PM - Technology
I stopped using Second Life. The project has gone mad with feature creep. The SL creators decided to make their universe complicated and overloaded with features. The result is a user experience that is much too slow. Unpredictable. Confusing. And basically sucky.Had they kept their world limited to a simple 3D lego-style universe with chat ability then SL might be (A) fast to explore and navigate, and (B) easy to understand. But they didn't do this. The SL developers are madly creating a unmaintainable software artifact that won't survive the year.
It's gotten entirely too complicated for (A) the developers to understand their own creation and (B) the users to understand what is and is not possible.
I praise the user interface, because they actually figured out a way to reign in all the complexity, but really they seem to be on a mission to embrace every user request imaginable. Even their once slick interface is complicated now.
Check out all the bizzare rules for ownership of objects and shit. Compare this to the unix mechanism which, although limited, was simple. Here's a unix permission mask: "rwxrwxrwx". Simple, limited, but at least humans can reason about such a system and predict the behavior of such a system.
SL has too many complicated rules and shit for ownership and stuff like that.
Here's an example of something that I don't like in SL:
Have you ever approached a property in SL and seen red "permission denied" ribbons surrounding the block? My programming instinct would have been to disallow such a mechanism. Instead, use the already existing walls to enforce such a thing. (A) it models the real-world, (B) it's one less feature to program and (C) its one less feature the users must mentally cope with.
LESS IS MORE. MORE IS LESS
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( 3 / 416 )900 miles
Friday, July 27, 2007, 12:13 PM - Personal
I've managed to accumulate 900 miles on my first motorcycle. I still stall occasionally when getting out of first (rarely). I love the dynamics of how to control a motorcycle. In the safety class the instructors tell you about "countersteering" and how you apply pressure to the left or right handle bar. But at the slow speeds in class I never really grasped the full signifigance of what they were talking about. (I assumed it was a dumbed down gimmick to teach us how to countersteer).But at speeds over 40 m.p.h this phenomenon is very pronounced. To turn left you actually push on the left handle bar AWAY from you. (at slow speeds this would turn the front wheel to point in the right direction, and move the bike to the right). But at high speeds it is reversed.
I think countersteering is a very pleasant way to control a machine. I can only compare it to how an astronaut controls a weightless vehicle using thrusters. I know, I know, how the fuck would I know what that feels like?!?!!?! (remember though, I have played the video game 'omega race', so I KNOW DAMNIT!)
A tiny impulse of pressure on right and you go right. I tiny impulse of pressure on the left handle bar and you glide to the left. It's a great feeling of control.
Anyway, 900 miles later I am much more proficient on the road for all kinds of situations (traffic, left turns, angry dogs, merging, stopping quickly)
motorcycle dynamics
bicycle and motocycle dynamics
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( 3 / 341 )macro picture of insect on cactus
Tuesday, July 24, 2007, 12:56 PM - Personal
;)
I took this using the Canon Rebel XT digital camera and 60mm macro lens.
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( 3 / 360 )"Hell's Satans" here I come...
Tuesday, July 24, 2007, 11:19 AM - Personal
;)
I think the best name for a bike gang was, "Pissed Off Bastards of Bloomington".
If you ever programmed in PHP or C++ you know what that feels like.
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( 3.1 / 356 )The Living Will
Saturday, July 21, 2007, 01:03 PM - Philosophy
I, being of sound mind and body, decree that upon my death all my assets will be entrusted with the firm of Blowhard Investment Corp. They will disperse my assets according to the following algorithm:1. If the price of porkbellies rises by 3% and it is the month of July then sell all shares of Microsoft and Google and buy pork bellies.
2. On saturdays go to my favorite spot on the lake and take a picture. Analyse the picture using the algorithm specified in section A3.4.5 of this will. If the algorithm reports "happy" then go to step 92.4. If the algorithm reports "sad" go to step 102.3.
...
...
...
92.4 HAPPY CLAUSE: I am happy. Give a 1% raise in allowances to all my friends and family. Give a extra treats to my pets.
...
...
102.3 SAD CLAUSE: Shut off all the lights in my mansion. Turn off the fountains in the garden, and don't allow visitors to the bird sanctuary.
...
...
99999.9999 goto step 1.
This strange musing, called "The Living Will" is to convey the idea that a sufficiently complex and intricate will would be indistingishable from the person being alive. In other words, if we were capable of perfect introspection and had enough time we could write down our own algorithm. This algorithm would be detailed enough such that it could be executed by a mindless estate management firm (or computer).
But this scheme wouldn't allow you to live forever. From your perspective, upon your death the world would end. Actually, upon your death the very notion of "your perspective" would cease to be meaningful as you wouldn't exist. But from the perspective of others an entity very much like the old you would still exist. Exist in the algorithm now being executed in your place.
Wills as I described above don't really exist. Or do they? We have all seen movies in which the dead relative has strange conditions in their will. For example,
"... If my daughter marries Joe Blow then all my estate goes to charity, however if my daughter stays in school and gets her degree all my assests will be given to her. blah blah blah. ... "
The HAPPY/SAD clause was my attempt to demonstrate that even emotions over seeing a pretty scene at a lake can be the basis for decision making in the "Living Will".
The book, The Mind's I (arranged by two of my favorite authors/thinkers) covers similar topics concerning consciousness and free will.
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( 3.1 / 395 )128 miles
Friday, July 20, 2007, 02:12 AM - Personal
I got a bike today. It is a Honda Shadow Spirit 750 C2. I just drove around town for about 128 miles. Driving home from the dealership was a real bitch. I stalled a lot and had horrible time trying to use my turn signals (and accidentally leaving them on).I also had two embarassing left turns. In both cases I was accidentally in 2nd gear instead of first gear. This resulted in not enough speed and very wide left turns. The first time this caused me to end up driving on the grass in someones yard.
But after 128 miles, I am starting to figure the machine out and get comfortable on the road. I took back roads to get home from the dealership so as to avoid lots of traffic. But now I am getting skilled enough to tackle most roads (I am still avoiding I35 for now).
I love riding a bike. It gives a whole new perspective on driving. You notice so much more. I can now identify all major organs and bones in road kill :-)
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