Hey Jason, sorry about not calling (i seem to have lost your number), but i don’t think i’ll be able to make a movie tonight. You see i’ve forgotten to do laundry this weekend, and i’ll be stuck here for atleast 2 more hours. *sigh* anyhow, how about we hit MIB 2 this wednesday? I think that’ll work out. Want to call anybody else?

Hmmm… i wish i had something more to talk about… Well, i’ll be having a seriously busy tormorrow. I’m'll call about the Kung Fu place, get a quote on microprocessors, and something else. I swear i should start writing things down… (or using the work-provided Palm).

I’ve been playing “Return to Castle Wolfenstein” again and i have to say that i really hope that the dead never rise. I mean these zombies are incredibly hard to kill, even with headshots… and i have no weaponry so that would make engaging an actual risen dead guy really annoying.

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You know you’re in trouble when everything you are browsing on a subject is no longer in .html format, but rather in .pdf format. I think that’s the one true bellweather that lets you know that you are no longer in Kansas anymore, technically speaking that is. I’ve had something of an inspiration, and i’m rushing to invent something. As far as i can tell, it hasn’t been created yet, but there are pleanty of “almost” thingies. Basically what i want to make is a smart picture frame. For those who don’t know, and everyone who reads my page should, smart picture frames are those lcd’s with the flash ROM interface that allow people do display slideshows from digital cameras on their desks. Mine will have a few noticable differences. Among them:

1. Ethernet Connectivity — Who uses dialup anymore anyway?
2. Open Source, plugin-friendly design — So the competition has a dialup network that allows you to either display photos or a stock ticker or whatnot… why not build on that and have the thing support plugins that allow people to write RSS aggrigators and have your picture frame monitor webpages?
3. Webcam connectivity — This is the gem, the one idea that started this whole thing. I want a device that looks like a picture frame sitting on my desk that i can tune to any webcam i choose. I could hit one of those city-cams watch the sun rise in Tokyo while it’s setting over here (or however that works out, temporally). Or when they were streaming images from the mars probe, i could have that on my desk dynamically.
4. No monthly charge — Well, i wouldn’t be offering people server space, and with the ethernet i’d be assuming that they already have bandwidth to burn. I’d be foisting content-finding off to the community, so i couldn’t charge people. Not if i’m in my right mind anyhow.

I’m already bloating the features incredibly, but that’s the Big Three that i want included. I figure that if i use a decent sized lcd and marry that to one of Cirrus’s embedded processor boards (the ep7312 looks really sweet), then boot BlueCat Linux off the thing then my only problem is getting the ethernet to connect and writing whatever i’d need to write to pull from the ‘cam and output to the screen. Drivers wise, atleast. I’d have to create some sort of web-based interface that you could browse to in order to update the configuration. Something like that Sun Cube has, or the Lynksys router i’ve got on my desk. I’m sure i can gank some pre-written code, or atleast get examples somewhere. At the very least it will be one hell of an experience.

The only problem is i can’t figure out where to buy the board. The LCD’s are all over eBay (literally), but i can’t find a single retailer that sells an ep 7312. The one mention i can find of people buying one is somebody saying that the thing will run them 3.000 euro. This is cause for alarm, because 3 grand is a bit much for something to play around with. On the other hand, that is to get it to Europe… something that is not cheap. Oh well, it will probably be a pipe dream forever anyway. Until Ceiva decides to make it and makes a million dollars, that is.

This NCR box has died its last death. I should have known it was dead when i wondered why the CD-Rom wasn’t ejecting, then noticed that it was one of the ones that you load the CD into the little cartridge thing, then load that in the drive… *shudder*

Other than that, not much is going on. The woman is still leaving so i’m counting on free time, playing with the robot and this idea, learning shaolin kung fu on Rosewood, and writing long blog entries.

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All of my friends who either don’t have a job or want a better job, i’ve got a h0t t1px0r for ya. Richland District 2 just got its budget approved, and you know what that means: hiring time. I know for a fact that they want two more computer techs. I think that Martin and Jason will be interested in that, at the very least.

My woman leaves for France saturday, so i guess that means i’ll be at loose ends this weekend. I may be bothering a guy from work though (he promiced to end my gridlock on the Dual Processer Server thing, what with it not recognising any floppy drives. And also to look at my car and see what’s all messed up about it), but Sunday should be open. Anybody want to see a movie or something?

What haven’t ya seen?

Oh, and for everybody concerned, i found my bookmark.

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I really do. The only way i can get it to wake me up is by setting it to that horrible klaxon beeping noise, and by setting a backup alarm across the room. There is still a part of me that wonders if i could just set one alarm and still get up, but why risk it? Today though i got up thirty minutes early because of that damn beeping. You see i hate waking up to it, so when i wake up without it, i tend to get out of bed and go about my showering and all that. Usually i get up around 2-5 minutes before the beeping. Today my sleep-addled brain convinced me that i normally get up around 6:00 instead of 6:30, so i got out of bed around 5:58.

I think that i won’t add that integrated google search thing to my blog. It isn’t exactly what i’m looking for. There was one page that added a small icon (it looked like a magnifying glass, or somesuch) to the end of the entry near the byline, and that took care of the google searching. The integrated thing adds too much window dressing to the post itself. I think between that and the linkbars i’d have more fluff that post quite often. And i wouldn’t be able to start out a post bitching about my alarm setup and then segue choppily into a rant about videogames.

I think my favorite Final Fantasy is the First Final Fantasy. You can try to say that three times fast, but it really won’t pose much of a problem, so i wouldn’t bother. But seriously. I mean i loved the whole thing. I liked that there was a whole quest to understand what the hell the Lefennish were babbling about. I liked getting the dwarves to forge Excalibre, instead of just happenning upon it somewhere. I liked the smaller side-quests for the oxyale and the floater stone (more than just dungeons for big bosses). I liked the damned ice cave, even though the idea of going in it again with those mages breaks me out in a cold sweat. I liked the Earth Dungeon: the fact that you go there again after finding the Ruby and that plate that isn’t anything but wierd at first. I liked the design of the Dungeon too. I always had this image of a bunch of regular spuare rooms filled with cobwebs, dark, and deamons. A Hell’s warehouse sort of thing. I liked the Gurgu Volcano (the techno remix of the theme is in my playlist right now). If there was a few dungeon levels with you climbing up the side with Harpys and whatnot annoying you i’d be happy as a clam. I liked talking to Bahumat and actually getting a picture of him being the King of Dragons, rather than him appearing at your beck and call like some sort of draconic extra-value meal whenever you have a summoner.

I think summon magic is the coolest of all, however there needs to be a risk comminserate with the output. I mean you have Mega-Flare which is better than just about anything that anybody else casts, but Bahumat is always so tracable. He never gets tired of being summoned over and over and over, and decides that he’d rather flare the bastard that keeps getting him out of the shower or just decides not to come at all. I mean these are extra-planar creatures rather than some spell-effect. They should act like autonomous creatures with desires and lives. I think. Of course this is almost entirely inapplicable to Chatty’s Archetype system, if it works like i think it does. But then if it does it is probably the coolest magic system i’ve heard described.

Don’t ask why i’m thinking of FF1 now, just suffice to say there’s a mystery project that’s been bouncing around in my head since my NSC days, and now is starting to clamour to be let out. That and the girlfriend is leaving for France on Saturday, so i’ll be having a long an lonely (*single tear*) July. Well, it’ll be lonely, but i’ll be able to play Ragnarok until i’m thoroughly sick of it, finish Homeworld, and screw around with this new microcontroller powered robot. I just need a way to make the little bastard go wireless. It recieved R/C like any car, but i can’t really make that wideband enough to give it complex commands remotely, right? I just figure with a Basic Stamp microcontroller, an onboard compass and all that i should be able to make it slightly cooler than those little R/C tanks that Thinkgeek is selling. I’ll need to mount it on tank treads though. (that won’t be a fun project at all.)

Yes, i’d love the Wonder Swan version, why do you ask?

Where is my circuit board bookmark? I really liked that thing.

Well, i’ve got to go grab my lunch and get out of here. This really killed 30 minutes, thanks.

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Sorry. I’ve been playing Ragnarok (trying on hats) and working on migrating this thing to CSS recently, so i haven’t had much time for posting. Why do all of my entries begin like that? I think i need to work more towards consistant writing. I think i’ve got a few entries that are actually quite good, really. The rest i can take or leave.

Well, my swordsman continues to be interesting. Over the last few days, i’ve managed to buy Boots and a Manteu. So now i have to work for better armour and weaponry. The only problem is that either will be a 10k zenny affair. *shrug* I could always get a real life but that is so very difficult really.

Yeah, i tried switching to “One entry, One page;” but that didn’t work out too well. I like having content (such as it is) that overlaps the sidebar stuff.

I think that this weekend i drop tables completely like A List Apart tells me to. For some reason it seems to fit as an evolutionary step in the path. That’s me talking out of my ass though. I may very well throw up my hands in frustration, it seems that it may be a little difficult to screw around with.

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So yeah. I’ve been out of communications for the past three days because i’ve either been sleeping too late, playing way to much ragnarok, or otherwise working on the site’s layout. Yes, it hasn’t changed very much at all, that was (in fact) the aim of the updates i’ve been doing. I wanted to make the thing look the same between Mozilla, my current favorite browser; and IE, the old favorite and most common among my readers. So far its been a success, now i’m just working on the more annoying parts. I’ve got the embossed boxes loading correctly with CSS (some padding issues, but i can deal), that was the one big huge triumph. The only things i have left are: Formatting the individual entry archive pages correctly, makeing the hard rules look right, and getting the “font-face: terminal;” to compile right. For some reason the damned thing just doesn’t display in “terminal” in Mozilla. That could be a browser problem though.

Now for some incandecently good news. Ambrosia, makers of the undeniably kickass Escape Velocity series have entered into proceedings to port EV:Nova, the newest Escape Velocity game, to Windows!! So if we are all good boys and girls and buy the finished product, they may port the other ones and i won’t have to buy a mac. Well, not just for EV anyway.

In Ragnarok news, i’ve started a second character. Soon as my thief got a Gladius and level 10 double-slash, he became really really repedative. Somewhat boring you might say. So i’ve started a Swordsman. And i have to say that this is far less repedative than people made it out to be. I think that if they do wipe the servers for Beta 2 then my first character to recreate will be Ystyfyn, my pikeman. You see i think that “swordsman” is a silly title for somebody who has never and will never hold a sword. Right now i’m swinging a lance and enjoying the hell out of it. Half the people that see me ask me what the hell i’m doing with the spear, its great. The only problem is to get any better weapons i will have to abandon my shield (at this moment a guard, but still) and use a two-hander. *shrug* I think i’ll learn to deal. I’ll put points in endure and my agility. We’ll see how this works out.

You know, sometimes i worry about this weblog’s lack of emotionally important talking. I don’t know, i am by nature an incredibly private person so i don’t really bare my innermost thoughts in public. Why on earth did i bring this up? I guess to say that i really am a deep person, i just don’t show it on the Internet.

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There. Some of what i wanted to do has been done. I’ve exported all of my entries, and all that jazz. I’ve re-organized my templates and i’ve renamed my categories. I feel pretty good about the current ‘blog structure.

Of course that means that i’ll be making a backup disk right now! I’m not that comfortable. I now carry three 3.5 inch floppies with me: a windows98 boot disk, my website backup (templates and archives) and my EV:O saves.

I did two things i’ve never done before in EV:O a few days ago: i finished the main missions (exploring the nebulas with the help of the Mirava) and i slaughtered the Voinian Dreadnaught. How many people can say that, eh? And i did it with a Freight-Courier. Of course the Greater Purpose had four shield boosters, a layer of armour, and three neutron turrets… And that was worth 2.5 million to United Earth Government. The nebula thing i did with the Ultimate Evolution, a fully tricked-out Lazira. Something you need when you have to face down a Igazdra single-handed. Of course, soon as you’ve explored the two nebulas, you get an ass of credits. Five million, i think. Those went into the Perfect Logic, my current completely kickass Crescent Warship. Who knows, i may buy this Power Mac 7300, fill it full of ram and use it for a EV box. Belkin makes adapters that would allow me to plug a standard KVM into both a Mac and a PC… So if i got a 4-port KVM and one of those adapters, i could hook up my current box, the file server i’m working on, and the Mac that i might get. This would save on desk space, what with the using one monitor thing.

Comments work now. Apparently the comment-link thingy that is inserted by default doesn’t work, but i fixed it up but good.

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Well, i’ve re-added the (literally) tens of comments from the first run of MT on this blog, and exported the new more complete archives. This allowed me to get rid of the old archive backup HTML’s and switch to the flat file. Assume that any comments posted on the 14th are ones i’ve gone back and added just for continuity’s sake. The phase 2 that i allude to up there is taking the newly exported data, blowing away all of this newer MT installation and completely re-installing. If i make copies of my templates this time it shouldn’t take me 45 minutes.

Prepare yourself for my appraisal of “The Borne Identity” later, when all of this has blown over.

Until i’m done here, the comments will most likely stay boned, however i do have a job to do, so i’m like the wind baby. I’m gone.

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Well, isn’t that annoying? ADDR changed my directory on the server without telling me, and killed my movabletype links. I, of course, tried to uninstall and re-install everything. This pretty much killed the entries again. So i’m rebuilding the whole damn thing again. I’m doing alot of things differently this time, so be that as it may, i’m trying some stuff out.

Atleast we didn’t lose all that much. And i found my old archives, so i’ll be able to re-add the comments on those entries i lost the comments on last time.

Addendum:

The bad news is the comments are down pretty much indefinately. I may actually have to completely delete everything and start over. *sigh* I’ll rebuild the comments though, and all the entries so as to have a complete and total backup. That should help.

The good news is that this gives me time to work on a few things that i’d been putting off. First off is a naming scheme for the crap i’m throwing around here. I know that sounds silly, but work has me naming things with a “type-identifier” scheme. My modules are all r0w-header and so forth… i need to rename the javascript and a few other things to categorize things more completely. That and i’d love to make something to repace those five icons in the corner. Not that i don’t like them, i do. I’d just love to say “This whole thing is my own original creation. Judge it as such.” Course i’d have to build a new menu navigation thingy, but i think i can do that.

Just try to tell me that this tube-driven mobo isn’t the shit. I mean it has integrated sound (of course) and LAN, but i think i could get over that. It makes up for the fact that the vacuum tube assembly leaves space for only one AGP and three PCI slots. Because nobody ises PCI video anymore, that means i’d be left with space for three PCI cards. What do people put on PCI other than LAN and sound anyhow? I mean i could drop a PC Geiger and either a RAID, SCSI, or SCSI RAID card, but the latter is actually quite silly (unless i got the mad silly case from hell, i’d never need a RAID array.). I could get used to the three DDR slots, because hell 1.5 gigs of DDR memory should last me for quite some time. Now if only i could get over the whole P4/Wintel thing. I mean i guess i could boot Linux, i mean with 1.5 g’s of RAM i could run a Windows emulator for my games… Ah pipe dreams…

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Ok, Chats, that comment there is the strongest argument yet for time travel. As it stands, i am simply a very very consistant shade of green at the moment. To indicate envy rather than photosynthesis. For those of you that don’t go back and read the comments (Like i do), go back to the last article and check that out. Had i known, i certainly wasn’t doing anytrhing last weekend, and its not that much of a drive. Well, yes it is, but not for a panel involving Mignola, Del Toro and McCloud.

Today’s conspiracy theory: Nobody raised a hue and cry at the French’s sub-oceanic nuke testing because it was a secret attack aimed cthuluiod sea monsters. Basically a nuclear version of Innsmouth over by France. Somebody write that.

I’m pretty close to pushing down a version of this page that is completely CSS driven. I mentioned this earlier it is just slow and boring work, and RO is so much more engaging.

So i’ve started trying to eat A Healthy Breakfast (grannola and Orange Juice). I’m sure though, that my purchase of holistic chips, oj, grannola, dark wheat bread, and whatnot surely branded me as a hippy to the poor people tasked with dealing with my banter (otherwise known as ringing up my groceries). However, the addition of a third meal to the day has really added to my energy. Turns out that claymation thing that babbled at me during my cartoons was on to something.

Those of you that worked with me at NSC will know what this means, but i recently installed Escape Velocity: Override at work. Those of you that didn’t work with me will be surprised to learn that the mac game in question forced my on call time at NSC to the all-time low of 40%. *Laugh* and amazingly, i wasn’t fired!

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