tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81566435505641476762024-03-13T02:16:57.087-05:00A BlogPersonal blog of Zachary Sarver.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-430534313741244342013-02-10T21:38:00.000-06:002013-02-10T21:38:19.531-06:00The advertising on the 360 is so obtrusive that I've decided to disconnect it from the internet unless I'm doing something that absolutely requires a connection.<p>A couple of weeks ago I turned on my Xbox 360 for the first time in well over a year. After it was done updating, I was floored by the sheer amount of advertising in every nook and cranny of the 360's interface.</p>
<p>You see, I'm cautiously optimistic about advertising. I don't watch TV, and I use Adblock, so when I'm advertised at, it's on my terms. When I visit Amazon, I expect to be advertised to. When I open the Steam store, I expect to be advertised to. And this has previously been my experience for consoles. I'm advertised to when I visit the PSN store on my PS3 or Vita or the eShop on my 3DS or the Google Play Store on my cell phone. And I even appreciate this advertising. I'm told about new products I might be interested in when I'm ready to be told about them.</p>
<p>Yes, hold your horses. I know. There's a tiny little ticker on the upper right of the PS3 menu that I ignore. And my Vita notifies me when the LiveArea for the store has updated. These are unobtrusive. These I can ignore.</p>
<p>I am unable to ignore advertising on the Xbox. Microsoft does not respect my boundaries. You are advertised at on almost every screen of the 360 interface. It has been placed to be wherever my eye rests in an idle moment. I could not stop being advertised at, until I pulled the plug.</p>
<p>I also posted this <a href=http://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/18ack3/the_advertising_on_the_360_is_so_obtrusive_that/>on Reddit.</a> Feel free to leave me a comment here with your thoughts, or on Reddit if you prefer a more public venue.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-36060352236374059972011-09-25T11:23:00.000-05:002011-09-25T13:05:39.811-05:00tmux: awesome yet frustrating<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv1jUU3TsXCkn7n7QOGZi3yQgVPMGnKGvL8bktl9Jb4-8cYleoc7ByuuXq4HjjOtCovDgnGDmrjaTzvGV01XtQWmMAl2hBcc-uSct3HyD-kgmBxpa2yRFdv_gd_wdK4C0drJDvtJBMcdc/s1600/tmux.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="187" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv1jUU3TsXCkn7n7QOGZi3yQgVPMGnKGvL8bktl9Jb4-8cYleoc7ByuuXq4HjjOtCovDgnGDmrjaTzvGV01XtQWmMAl2hBcc-uSct3HyD-kgmBxpa2yRFdv_gd_wdK4C0drJDvtJBMcdc/s320/tmux.png" /></a></div>
<p>So <a href="http://tmux.sourceforge.net/">tmux</a> is pretty awesome. You can split a terminal into several windows, and then you can subdivide each window into <i>panes</i>. (A terminology that I rather like.) Here's my config file (~/.tmux.conf):</p>
<blockquote>bind k kill-session</br>
</br>
new -s theusual -n tehusual</br>
split-window htop</br>
split-window </br>
clock-mode</br>
setw main-pane-width 55</br>
select-layout -t 0 main-vertical</br>
selectp -t 0</blockquote>
<p>And yeah, that didn't work the first time. There are some things about tmux configuration that are... non-obvious. Let's run through the config, and then I'll detail my issues and what I did to fix them. In the following, I'll be using Emacs notation (i.e. C-x means Ctrl+x, M-x means Alt+x, et cetera.)</p>
<blockquote>bind k kill-session</blockquote>
<p>This one's easy. This binds the tmux kill-session command to C-b k, so that I can exit tmux easily without having to close each pane individually.</p>
<blockquote>new -s theusual -n tehusual</blockquote>
<p>This creates a new <i>session</i>, which is the parent object of windows. That is, one session can have several windows which can in turn have several panes. This session is called "theusual," and it creates a window inside the new session called "tehusual." It was unclear from the documentation whether sessions and windows share a namespace, so I thought it best to differentiate the two.</p>
<p>This is also where I ran into my first problem. Try as I might, tmux would not launch into my new session. Instead, it would create a default session first and put theusual in the background, thus squeezing a couple extra keystrokes out of me in the process.</p>
<p>After an hour of frantic googling, the solution turned out to be to not run "tmux" but instead run "tmux attach". The latter instructs tmux to <i>not</i> create a default session, and instead attach itself to an already running session, the one that had just been created by running .tmux.conf. (Fun fact! You can detach tmux instead of quitting entirely with C-b d.)</p>
<blockquote>split-window htop</br>
split-window </br>
clock-mode</br>
</blockquote>
<p>The next three instructions cause tehusual to be split twice so that it now contains three panes: the original pane which is split in twain and then split again. Note that panes are zero-indexed. So pane 0 contains a bash prompt (the default command,) pane 1 contains htop (a rather nice top replacement,) and pane 2 is placed into clock mode.</p>
<p>Here's where I ran into the second and third problems. At first, no panes were being created at all! I was stuck with just one big pane. After a while, I discovered that I did not actually have htop installed. A quick visit to <a href="http://slackbuilds.org">SlackBuilds.org</a> fixed that, but it leads us to an important point. <b>tmux fails silently if the command passed to split-window fails</b>. Silent failure is <i>always</i> a bad design choice, but here again it rears its ugly head.</p>
<p>The last two lines had originally been one: "split-window 'tmux clock-mode'". Well, tmux didn't like that. The solution seemed to be to run split-window on a line by itself, and then switch the newly created pane, which apparently has focus, into clock-mode.</p>
<blockquote>setw main-pane-width 55</br>
select-layout -t 0 main-vertical</br>
selectp -t 0</blockquote>
<p>The last three lines ended up being the least trouble.</p>
<p>Let's do the second line first. A window can be given various <i>layouts</i> which automatically reposition panes. I chose "main-vertical," which rearranges panes into one <i>main pane</i> and one or more baby panes. The "-t 0" option simply specifies window 0 (aka tehusual).</p>
<p>Going backwards, the first line sets a window option that specifies the main pane in the main-vertical layout should be 55 in width; a number I arrived at after experimentation.</p>
<p>Finally, the last line selects pane 0 as the pane having focus. Fun facts! You can switch pane focus with C-b o and rotate panes with C-b C-o. That is, the contents of pane 1 go to pane 0, the contents of pane 2 go to pane 1, and the contents of pane 0 go to pane 2. It's a nice quick way to give htop more real estate when I need to fiddle with it.</p>
<p>And there you have it. The icing on the cake was to add " [[ $TERM != "screen" ]] && tmux attach && exit" to my .bashrc file. This checks to see if my current terminal is already tmux (tmux terminals identify themselves as screen, presumably for interoperability with GNU screen.) Then it executes "tmux attach" and then exits.</p>
<p>And yes, I know it's silly to run konsole now, but I haven't gotten around to configuring xterm.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-91089316508829855472011-08-29T22:50:00.002-05:002011-09-25T11:24:23.650-05:00Ready Player One - A ReviewI just finished reading <u>Ready Player One</u> by Ernest Cline. RPO is a book that has exactly two things going for it. A heaping tablespoon of 80s nostalgia and promise. Regarding the former, I can only barely remember the 80s (for which I daily thank an assortment of deities,) so it does not apply. Regarding the latter, I am greatly anticipating Cline's second book. But his first one is as standard fare as it gets. <b>Minor spoilers ahead!</b>
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<br />The setting is cyberpunk. Classic cyberpunk. The world sucks, evil corporations rule everything, and the populace frolics in a fantastic virtual world. Enter OASIS, every MMO you ever want to play. It is so immersive and pervasive that it has become synonymous with "internet." Non-gamers can stick to the delights it offers in non-PVP zones, while gamers can go to any of the thousands of gamer-oriented worlds, themed however you like. Fantasy worlds. Cyberpunk worlds. Western worlds. You name it, OASIS has it.
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<br />Enter James Halliday, the reclusive, eccentric multibillionaire creator of OASIS who dies in the second paragraph. After his death, his video will is released. Turns out he hid an easter egg worth his entire fortune somewhere in OASIS. Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of egg hunters (gunters) spend years trying to find Halliday's egg. Enter Wade Watts, the book's disadvantaged teenage protagonist, and his OASIS friends.
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<br />Halliday's (and the author's) great love was 80s geekery. Dungeons and Dragons, video games, mecha anime, cult classic movies, et cetera. Various allusions to everything from Atari 2600 games to Rush in his video point the way to the egg. In this, Cline's knowledge and love of 80s geekery shines through, from bits of Pac-Man trivia to D&D adventure modules. It shines brightly and focuses into an amplified beam of coherent light, piercing readers' eyeballs and making them cry, "Ow! My suspension of disbelief!" It often feels like the book is an outlet for Cline's hobbies. A way to get the entire world to admire his knowledge of the decade's best subculture. The book is littered with bits of trivia that just don't belong, scenes that break the sweet, sweet illusion of fiction.
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<br />Neither the plot nor the characters do much to elevate the book beyond "compendium of trivia." The characters are archetypal, and the plot is extraordinarily predictable. In fact, I would call it nothing more than the ultimate adolescent male geek fantasy. Our teenage male protagonist saves the (virtual) world, becomes filthy rich, and gets the cute/shy/geeky girl. And all by playing video games, listening to Rush, and watching Monty Python films. Every geek dude having spent sufficient lonely Friday nights playing video games alone in his room has already envisioned the entire plot of the book. Or at least I have. Often. Before crying myself to sleep.
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<br />All in all, I give the book three out of five Awesome Book Merit Points. It's not a bad book exactly, but it contains no surprises, and its greatest strength (80s trivia) frequently turns into one of its weaknesses. It's certainly worth a read if you're jonesing for some 80s nostalgia. Or, like me, you're just a video game history buff. Otherwise, I would skip it and wait for his next book.
<br />
<br />Incidentally, I think Cline is a very promising novelist. With a little restraint and direction, his obvious enthusiasm for awesome stuff could be channeled into something truly great.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-52657714628608103142011-03-24T23:28:00.002-05:002011-03-24T23:34:11.551-05:00Point-of-Sale with BitcoinsI've been thinking a lot about <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoins</a> lately. For those of you who are too lazy to click links, Bitcoins are a brand new cryptocurrency. They're backed by some heavy-duty economic theory and secured by modern cryptography. They're entirely digital and decentralized. You don't need any banks or anything to transfer Bitcoins from one person to another, just one of their unique Bitcoin addresses and a handful of IP packets. The last I checked, 1 BTC = $0.84 USD.<br /><br />So I got to thinking about issues that might occur in the event that Bitcoins catch on. First, they'll need some fancy symbol that you can type with shift and 4. I recommend a B with lines through it.<br /><br />Secondly, there needs to be a convenient way for Bitcoins to be used out in meatspace. There needs to be a quick, point-of-sale-type way to transfer Bitcoins from one entity to another. I have a couple of thoughts for this.<br /><br />The obvious solution is smartphones. Anyone with a smartphone running a Bitcoin client could, for example, scan a QR code for the Bitcoin address of an establishment at the register and transfer money that way.<br /><br />The second thought would be if everyone carried their Bitcoin wallets around on a thumb drive, encrypted with a PIN number or some such. Then a cashier could transfer the money on a computer behind the counter, or, even better, a dedicated PIN-pad-esque device.<br /><br />Anyway, just a couple of thoughts about Bitcoins in the real world.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-46517186291987318502011-03-05T22:36:00.002-06:002011-03-05T22:41:43.225-06:00Gnome 3.0 and KDE4's netbook interfaceThere's been some kerfluffle over <a href="https://afaikblog.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/where-did-the-buttons-go/">GNOME 3 removing minimize and maximize buttons</a>. Here's my two cents!<br /><br />I've been using KDE4's lovely netbook interface fairly extensively for a couple of months now, and I've grown to love it. Although minimize and maximize both still exist, at least, their importance is greatly diminished. All windows are maximized by default, and minimization is accomplished with smart hiding. I.e., if I click the activity with which I launch applications in the activity switcher in the panel, all windows get hidden.<br /><br />This is only annoying (and easily remedied at that) once in a blue moon, when I'm trying to drag and drop between applications. Otherwise, it makes sense and is exactly what I want. One application has all of my focus at a time, which is exactly what I do on other desktop environments anyway. Everything else is just an alt+tab away.<br /><br />I believe this is a tentative step in the right direction, but Gnome is going about it all wrong. Features in flux shouldn't be removed for removal's sake (which is what seems to have happened,) but de-emphasized by other smart design chioces.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-24991733853244669712010-12-18T23:44:00.002-06:002010-12-22T18:02:08.029-06:00Best of 2010!It's that time of year! Here's a list of everything awesome in 2010.<br /><br /><b>Books</b><br />Yotsuba&! volumes 7 and 8. Yotsuba&!, by Kiyohiko Azuma of Azumanga Daioh fame, is about a little girl Yotsuba, her daddy, her neighbors, and various other characters all getting into misadventures. Rather like AzuDai, it's all about the characters. Azuma is uncannily good at character writing: they're all fantastic and they all work unbelievably well together. And it's so goddamn <i>happy</i>. You can't feel so down that a volume of Yotsuba&! won't help; it's a psychological impossibility. Do yourself a favor. Brave the pimply teenagers at your local book depot's manga section long enough to pick up a copy of Yotsuba&! volume one. If it's not one of the best things you've ever read, you can punch me in the face.<br /><br />Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour was going to be my runner up, but...eh. It was easily the weakest in the series. Nice, satisfying ending, though.<br /><br /><b>Music</b><br />By far my favorite album of 2010 was sadnes' <a href="http://www.iimusic.net/catalog/2010/08/sadnes-fill-my-head">Fill My Head</a>. Go on, click the link! It's a free (Creative Commons, even) download. Chiptuney goodness, good vocals, competent guitar work, and an absolutely mindblowing closing track.<br /><br />Runners up are LehtMoJoe's <a href="http://www.magnatune.com/artists/albums/lehtmojoe-spaghetti/">Spaghetti Western</a> and A_Rival's <a href="http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/arival-8bitpimp/">8-bit Pimp</a>. Go ahead, click those links too. You can listen to both those entire albums freely courtesy of the awesome folks at Magnatune. The former was a solid spaz-hop album and would be right at home in, say, a Jet Grind Radio game. The latter was hilarious, brilliant, catchy chiphop.<br /><br /><b>Gaming</b><br />Gaming is always tricky, because there's just so many awesome games. I've broken it down by system, omitting any systems I don't play or didn't have any significant releases. Of course, this is limited to games I actually played, and I'm sure you'll notice a lot of rather high-profile games are omitted.<br /><br /><i>PS3</i><br />Blazblue: Continuum Shift. Kinda a slow year for the PS3. My favorite game was a tweak/sequel of a 2009 game. Then again, there are several awesome-looking PS3 games I just didn't get to (namely, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Bayonetta, and Atelier Rorona.) My runner up for the PS3 was the fantasticly awesome and hilarious downloadable game Costume Quest. The gameplay wasn't anything amazing, but snappy dialogue and a fun concept made up for it. "You remind me of my parents, from whom I am BITTERLY ASTRANGED! *attacks*"<br /><br /><i>PSP</i><br />Ys 7. The newest installment of a classic and awesome action RPG series, what's not to love? Plus, an absolutely awesome soundtrack and a really great collector's edition. My runner up was Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, which came in second only because it's a remake. I have a soft spot for the Lunar series, and SSH was a very worthy remake. Sure, the new voice actors were a bit difficult to get used to, and the game was stupidly easy. But it's still Lunar, and the redone music was worth the price of admission alone. I'll bee arr bee, I need to go light a candle on my altar to Noriyuki Iwadare.<br /><br /><i>DS</i><br />Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. I really like Megaten games. The creepy settings, the high difficulty level, the customizability through demon fusion, even the story sometimes. The story of SMT:SJ wasn't fantastic, but it had everything else that makes a great Megaten game. The biggest surprise was the soundtrack. It didn't sound a bit like Shoji Meguro's previous work, but it was really great anyway. My runner up was Dragon Quest IX, which I really expected to be first. It was just...not everything I was expecting. It was too easy, and DQ players are too sparse in the US to take advantage of the multiplayer, which was by far the biggest draw of the game. (I wanted Megaman Zero Collection to be the runner up, but I just can't do that with a compilation of older, if still completely awesome, games.)<br /><br /><i>Wii</i><br />Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. Fun, awesome, amazing, and nonsensical. It was hardcore without being all in-your-face about it. It was maddeningly difficult without being impossible. It was pretty much the perfect Treasure game, which is the best praise I can give it. My runner up was Kirby's Epic Yarn. I'll be honest, I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy 2 more, but I appreciate Kirby's Epic Yarn more. It's a console Kirby game (rare enough) that tried something new and pulled it off. For this category, I have a second runner up: Cave Story. A Metroid-esque explore-y platformer with an awesome story, and even more awesome pixel art and chiptunerific music.<br /><br /><i>PC (Proprietary)</i><br /><a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/70400/">Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale</a>. An RPG from the other side of the counter. The day-by-day formula is just as addicting as in Harvest Moon or the later Persona games, the dungeon crawling is solid, and I love the concept. The music was catchy, and the characters were hilarious. It was a game that I found very hard to put down. My runner up is <a href="http://whatareyouwait.info/">Runman Race Around the World</a>. (Go ahead, click! It's a free download!) Yeah, I know, it's technically a 2009 release. But I find that <i>I don't care</I>. It's just that good. A fun, cheerful little platformer. The MSPaint aesthetic is actually really great, and I enjoyed the public domain tunes more than I should have. (Yes, I played Super Meat Boy. Yeah, I enjoyed Runman that much more. Doesn't help that the unpatched PC version of SMB left a bad taste in my mouth.)<br /><br /><i>PC (Open Source/Free Software)</i><br /><a href="http://www.frogatto.com/">Frogatto and Friends</a>. Wow, I have been blown away. The bar for open source game quality has been set higher. It's an open-world platformer/adventure game starring a frog. Just go download it.<br /><br /><b>Movies</b><br />Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It had it's problems. A lot of them, actually. It stuck to the books, well, pretty poorly, all things considered. And yet I loved it. It managed to capture the <i>feel</i> of the books, which is something I didn't think possible. Very worth the watch. The runner up is Toy Story 3 for being a solid Pixar movie. I think my biggest gripe was that Pixar seems to be trying to make every movie a little bit of a tear-jerker, to the point where one can see it coming. Didn't make the ending any less bittersweet.<br /><br /><b>Anime</b><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/show/tatamigalaxy?pl=9EC5D94F47A3A147&ob=showob_0">The Tatami Galaxy</a>. (Or, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei.) It was one of those rare gems not quite like anything else, in any way, be it style or content. (Incidentally, ignore the official summary. I think the flunky who wrote it watched maybe 15 minutes of the first episode. Here's a better one.)It is based on a novel, and it is about a college student who is looking for that rose-colored campus life and a raven-haired maiden to spend it with. At the beginning of every episode, he is a freshman joining a university organization. By the end of each episode, two years have passed, things are not the way he wanted, and he goes back in time to change his mind. Only, he's never more than subconsciously aware that he has gone back in time at all. Very good watch, and the whole thing is watchable, streaming legally, via the link provided above.<br /><br />Runner up: <a href="http://www.crunchyroll.com/soranowoto">Sora no Woto</a>. (Or, Sound of the Skies.) A retro-post-apocalyptic slice-of-life series about the most useless division in the entire army. It's World War...IV? Far from the front lines, there is a rather ceremonial division that still manages to be impacted by the horrors of war. It starts out cutesy, has some truly beautiful moments, and then ends rather abruptly. One of my favorite parts about the show was there's a lot of little things to notice. Things the characters say offhand that completely change your perception of the setting. It's worth a watch, and, like before, the whole show can be seen for free (legally!) at the above link.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-76166039935014566522010-11-16T23:10:00.001-06:002010-11-16T23:12:41.158-06:00GamersSo, for most of my life on the internet, I've considered gamers to be "my people." No longer. I stopped reading Kotaku a while back because all of its posts and comments fell neatly into three categories: "Semi-relevant pop culture references masquerading as news," "Memes," and "Waaaah, other people don't understand us because they don't play video games!"<br /><br />It suddenly occurred to me that every website dedicated to general gaming (that I've ever discovered) has become Kotaku. I am tired of seeing posts consisting of either nothing relevent or idiocy, with a comments thread full of worse. And this is coming from a guy who's been a Slashdot regular for at least a decade.<br /><br />I am forced to realize that gamers in general aren't "my people" any more than anime fans in general are "my people." They're just a collection consisting mostly of idiots with whom I share a hobby.<br /><br />My name is Zack Sarver, and I refuse to identify myself as a gamer. I'm just a guy on the internet who likes video games. (But if anyone happens to know of an awesome general gaming community, I'm all ears.)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-49985423195239859732010-10-13T09:54:00.002-05:002010-10-13T10:26:10.604-05:00Sonic 4 First Impressions/Mini ReviewThere's been a lot of talk about Sonic 4 just cashing in on the trend in nostalgia gaming. Of course it is. That's pretty obvious, but in many ways Sonic games needed to take a step back anyway. The only truly great mainline Sonic games in the last decade were portable 2D platformers developed by DIMPS. In contrast, the only great Sonic game Sonic Team has developed recently was Sonic Adventure, 11 years ago.<br /><br />But in many ways, Sonic 4 was too many steps back. The Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush games returned the series to its roots while also bringing some much needed innovation. Sonic Rush in particular is now one of my favorite games because of the addition of boosting and the boost gauge. Sonic 4, though, keeps only on of the innovations from the latest 2D Sonic games, and that's the homing dash. But enough rambling, let's break this game down category-style.<br /><br /><b><u>Music</u></b><br />The music of Sonic 4 is deliberately nostalgic, and painfully so. Although the game was composed by Jun Senoue, it's far from his best work. Anyone who has played recent Sonic games knows that Jun Senoue's best work is when he's free from stylistic limitations. If he's free to use whatever instruments he pleases, we get excellent synth-rock tunes to enjoy for hours. However, when he's limited to Genesis synth samples, well, we get something that sounds like Sonic 3 and Knuckles, only less catchy. The game does have a few tunes that I'll be humming in the future, and none of the songs are outright <i>bad</i>, but they aren't great either.<br /><br /><b><u>Graphics</u></b><br />The Sonic Advance games are beautiful. Gorgeous pixel art with a ridiculous number of frames of animation. Sonic Rush less so, having replaced lots of sprites with cel-shaded 3D models, but still rather pleasing, with nice levels and backgrounds. Sonic 4 isn't bad-looking, but it's rather..plastic. Everything in the game looks like mid-90s prerendered CG. Lots of bright colors, and very well-animated, but no style. Meh at best.<br /><br /><b><u>Gameplay</u></b><br />The designers of this game have never heard of the conservation of momentum. The physics are just plain <i>weird</i>. Releasing the d-pad at any time feels like some sort of punishment, because you will come to a halt immediately, even in mid-air. Every platformer has some amount of mid-air direction change, but this is ridiculous. Add to that some weirdly inconsistent homing mechanics. Heaven forbid you go a pixel past the center of the object, because you'll dash forward instead of at the object that still has a homing target painted on it. And then there's Sonic's ridiculously slow acceleration; something that had been completely fixed in Sonic Rush.<br /><br />The level design is top-notch, exactly what I expected from DIMPS. It has a rather Sonic Advance 2 feel to it, with lots of areas to run around like crazy and lots of platforming to be done. Thankfully the random fun-breaking mini-boss fights from Sonic Rush are gone. The level themes, though, are again too much on the side of nostalgia. It's like they took the most iconic zones from Sonic 1 and 2 (Green Hill, Casino Night, Labyrinth, Metropolis, and Death Egg) and reworked them. Although the layouts are more or less new, there just wasn't a trace of originality in any of them.<br /><br />The boss-fights are frequently complained-about, but I can't understand why. They're quite solid and familiar with new twists. Generally they're divided into two phases; one ripped straight from a Genesis game and one completely new. The completely new phases are good fun, and there is even a running boss, which DIMPS does so well.<br /><br />Left to do is get all the Chaos Emeralds. I'll probably add some comments when I do that.<br /><br />Despite all my complaining, Sonic 4 is a really solid game. It's easily the best Sonic console release (discounting ports) since 1999. The worst thing about the game is that while DIMPS Sonic games have consistently taken at least one step forward, Sonic 4 feels like two steps forward, one step back. The physics needs a major overhaul, and they need to tone down the nostalgia. Really, I get the feeling that if DIMPS had been left to their own devices, we would have gotten something just as amazing as Sonic Advance 2 or Sonic Rush. As it is, I see a heck of a lot of wasted potential.<br /><br />Still, I give the game 8/10. If you loved the Genesis games and missed out on the Sonic Advance/Rush series, you'll have the time of your life. Otherwise, you'd be better off replaying Sonic's DIMPS-developed portable adventures.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-25171914151744178682010-08-13T02:44:00.001-05:002010-08-13T02:44:58.892-05:00Scott Pilgrim vs. the World ImpressionsI just got back from the midnight showing. But first, some cred. I started reading the books around two years ago, right before the fifth volume came out. I can't count how many times I've reread them. What follows contain minor spoilers that only really make sense if you've read the books in the first place.<br /><br />So the flaws. It's not so much that it deviated the comic, it's that the movie mutated the comic. There would be scenes that would be the same except one of the characters is different. For example, most of the elements of Romona vs. Envy are now in Romona vs. Roxy. Or scenes that are the same except they're not quite in the same chronological order, like Romona vs. Knives. And of course, there were things left out for time, including Honest Ed's, which was one of the most delightfully surreal parts of the comic. And there were other things that were just overly simplified, like Kyle and Ken Katayanagi.<br /><br />And now the good parts. EVERYTHING. Oh. Em. Gee. Best comic adaptation I've ever seen. Just amazingly awesome. They just nailed most of the characters. Michael Cera makes a much better Scott Pilgrim than I thought he would. Wallace Wells and Kim Pine and Knives Chau and Ramona Flowers and Gideon Graves and Todd Ingram were absolutely perfect. Steven Stills, not so much. Too goofy. But still awesome. The soundtrack was kickass, and the visuals were clever as hell.<br /><br />It boils down to, are you alive? Then go see the movie.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-74955156678050250512010-06-01T22:38:00.004-05:002010-06-01T23:14:21.545-05:00How I Accidentally Wrangled My Social Networking ServicesThere's a lot of social networking and microblogging going on, and I was having trouble with it. I've been on Facebook since it was restricted to college students, and I use it to keep up with irl friends and a couple of internet friends. I'm relatively new to Twitter, and I use it to keep up with webcomics people and GNU/Linux people and a couple of irl friends. I've been using Buzz diligently, because it's rather convenient and I wish people would switch to it despite the privacy concerns. (Let's face it: Google has all of our information already anyway.) On Buzz, I have a couple of irl friends. Buzz let me connect my Twitter account to it, so I could just post to Twitter and have something posted to Buzz. So, that brought the number down to two services, Facebook and Twitter. More manageable, but still annoying.<br /><br />Then, the other day I was listening to an older episode of <a href="http://twit.tv/FLOSS">FLOSS</a> that I had somehow missed, and one of the hosts mentioned <a href="http://identi.ca">Identi.ca</a> as "the open source Twitter." I became intrigued and visited the website. Indeed, it seemed to be an open Twitter. All content is <a href="http://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a> licensed, and it was built on the open source <a href="http://status.net">StatusNet</a> software. I signed myself up using <a href="http://openid.net">OpenID</a>.<br /><br />Upon fiddling about with the settings, I discovered that I could connect Identi.ca to both my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Score! What I didn't expect but found delightful is that Buzz then grabbed my Twitter post that Twitter had grabbed from Identi.ca.<br /><br />So, there you have it. I can now update every single social networking service I use thanks to the power of open source software. Sure, I guess I could have installed one of those fancy programs that lets you update everything... but I regularly use three different computers and operating systems, as well as one smartphone. Instead of finding four different programs, I can now use one web interface. On top of which, I've a feeling that Identi.ca will introduce me to people from the open source community all over the world.<br /><br />And besides, if <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman">rms</a> uses Identi.ca, then it has to be good stuff.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-76452669519911862292010-05-20T23:07:00.003-05:002010-05-20T23:28:51.413-05:00ArachnophobiaI had an interesting insight into the way my mind works tonight.<br /><br />A <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphidophoridae>cave cricket</a> got into my mother's house this evening. You know, those fairly creepy crickets that scare the daylights out of most people because of their resemblance to spiders. However, cave crickets don't bother me at all, and I'm quite the arachnophobe. Ask any of my friends or family who have seen me climbing onto tables and counters and screaming as a spider approaches me. I really wish I was exaggerating.<br /><br />I examined this cave cricket, let's call him Gary, for some time, and I took the opportunity to compare him to my deepest nightmares to see what exactly it was that kept my mind from freaking out at his spider-like countenance as opposed to an actual spider. To start with, I've know for some time that the number of legs doesn't matter. Scorpions also have eight legs, and they've never bothered me.<br /><br />The first thing I noticed was that I could clearly see Gary's eyes, which led me to the realization that it freaks me out that I can't see spiders' eyes without getting close to them. You can tell which way I spider is looking by the build of its body, but you can't see any eyes! It's absolutely terrifying. I'm no psychologist, but my theory is that my brain is more ready and willing to anthropomorphize something with a clear face. Spiders, lacking a clear face, are therefore alien and lie too far on the wrong side of the uncanny valley.<br /><br />Secondly, I gained a good bit of insight by watching Gary move. When he hopped about in a cricket-like manner, everything was fine and dandy. But for the brief period of time that he crawled in a rather more spider-like fashion, my brain started raising red flags, and I felt myself beginning to freak out. It would seem that I'm fine with hopping and scuttling and running and crawling, but as soon as I see that freakish, sinuous, undulating crawl with which spiders typically move, it bugs me. Pun intended, I'm sorry. And, come to think of it, jumping spiders have never bothered me as much as their crawling kin.<br /><br />It's possible that there are more things about spiders which freak me out, but for now, I feel comfortable that I've narrowed the main reasons down to the two above. I suspect the lack of a clear face is something that bothers most people, but it's possible the fear of their movement is a more unique response. Maybe my brain has just learned to associate that sort of movement with spiders, and thus reacts as though there were a spider present, even when not.<br /><br />Fun times! Knowledge is power, and maybe as I continue to figure my brain out, I can get more use out of it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-46514877219471861072010-05-04T00:35:00.002-05:002010-05-04T00:39:24.606-05:00Windows 7 - A RantWindows 7 has really been getting on my nerves. There are things going on with it that shouldn't be going on with it, especially since you have to pay so much for it. And disclaimer, I do have a degree in computer science, so I know a good bit of what I'm talking about.<br /><br />My current computing setup is triple. I have a relatively modern desktop running Windows 7, a six year old laptop running Debian stable, and a five year old iMac G5 running Mac OS 10.5.<br /><br />Allow me to post the basic specs of my desktop and laptop to make the sins of Windows 7 more apparent.<br /><br /><b>Desktop, "Randgriz"</b><br />CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 3000+<br />RAM: 1.5GB generic<br />Secondary Storage: 420 GB across two SATA 3.0 Gb/s drives<br />OS: Windows 7 Professional, cost, free (courtesy of the university)<br /><br /><b>Laptop, "Finney"</b><br />CPU: Intel Celeron M 1.6 GHz<br />RAM: 1.5GB generic<br />Secondary Storage: 80 GB IDE drive<br />OS: Debian GNU/Linux Stable, cost, free (courtesy of the open source movement)<br />Window Manager/Desktop Environment: Windowmaker/GNUStep<br /><br />Note that the laptop is clearly inferior in every way, shape, and form. I'm going to skip the petty little differences in user interface, bash vs. PowerShell, et cetera, and get to the real meat and potatoes of what's inexcusable.<br /><br /><u>Technical Issues</u><br />Occasionally I make the mistake of trying to use Windows 7 the way I use GNU/Linux. With Finney, I find myself able to run dozens of programs, both GUI and command line, simultaneously without any noticeable performance hit. Sure, my little system resources monitor will go a bit crazy, but the system is still perfectly usable. Typically, I'm running Firefox (Iceweasel, actually) with several tabs open, mpd (music player daemon) with MPDCon, a system resources dockapp, emacs, gnus, and maybe nethack or Dwarf Fortress under wine.<br /><br />In Windows 7, god help me if I try to run more than two applications simultaneously. I wish I were joking. It takes upwards of 30 seconds to launch an application in the first place, and if I have more than about three windows open, I'm screwed. The system approaches complete unresponsivity. And if I want to install a program, well, I might as well go make a sandwich, because I won't be using the computer for half an hour.<br /><br />Granted, Windows has always had admittedly bad resource management. Windows can't schedule IO worth a crap. Any and all significant hard drive access will slow most Windows systems noticeably, but this is absolutely ridiculous. This leads me to the conclusion that Windows 7 somehow manages to have even unbelievably crappier resource management than any operating system I have ever used ever. And I've used more operating systems than most people can name.<br /><br />Second major technical issue, crappy drivers. So, sitting inside Randgriz is an almost brand new Linksys 802.11 b/g wireless card that is completely useless. Because Windows refuses to acknowledge that it even exists. It worked just fine when I booted Linux on Randgriz. Randgriz outputs video through HDMI to my HDTV. I have never had a problem with video. But the sound craps out frequently. It would seem that about once an hour, Windows 7 forgets that the video card is also a sound card. So I have to reach behind the TV, unplug the HDMI cable, replug the HDMI cable, and suddenly sound works again! What. The. Fbadword. That should <i>never</i> happen in any conceivable universe.<br /><br /><i>General Evility</i><br />Microsoft is a pretty evil company. Seriously. The entry for "Unethical Business Practices" in the encyclopedia should read, "See Microsoft." As if that wasn't bad enough, they're a huge supporter of software patents, the single biggest stifler of innovation in the modern era. But I digress.<br /><br />I have Windows 7 Professional. <i>Professional</i>. And I like to play around with languages. It's a hobby of mine. But I can't change the system language on Randgriz unless I upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate. And even then only a measly 35 languages, unlike the dozens and dozens available on any standard Linux distribution.<br /><br />Artificial feature restriction is nothing short of unethical, especially when it forces people to upgrade to the most expensive version of a tiered program for something that should be a standard feature across the board.<br /><br />And that's not even going into DRM, security issues, et cetera.<br /><br />-------------<br />I'm typing this on Finney. My duck is telling me that I'm using about a third of my RAM and hovering around 70% CPU usage with spikes up to 100%. I haven't even noticed. I'm contemplating switching the entire system to Esperanto just because I can.<br /><br />I hate Windows 7 so hard right now. Thanks for reading.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-83503477385032176622009-09-07T21:28:00.004-05:002009-09-07T22:58:03.399-05:00Dragon*Con 2009 RetrospectiveAnother wonderful Dragon*Con come and gone! It was quite pleasant this year. It wasn't as crowded as last year (the trekkies were moved to another hotel,) and it was unseasonably cool. Still quite warm, but I'll take 80s over 100s (Fahrenheit) any day. Time for me to share my favorite moments.<br /><br />Funniest Moment:<br />The following exchange took place in the Wheel of Time Sword Forms panel. The moderator had just explained that he had two black belts and nine years of stage fighting experience. One you man in the audience raised his hand and said, "Can I be your apprentice?"<br />"..sure, hang on." And then the moderator drained his water glass. "Here, refill this!" So, the young man did. Quoth the moderator, "Ok, what's your name?"<br />"Ish."<br />"Ish?"<br />"Ish."<br />"But...but...that's like the END part of a word!"<br />And then later, as the moderator was looking up something in his notes, he said, "Hang on a second, guys. Apprentice! Entertain the audience!"<br />Ish proceeded to do a little dance, and then someone from the audience piped up, "Well, that was only entertaining-Ish."<br /><br />Most Surprising Moment:<br />So, I was one of three people to get pretty wet during the live <a href=http://www.astronomycast.com/>Astronomy Cast</a> podcast when a waterlogged ceiling panel decided to land on the audience. Poor guy next to me got conked in the head and soaked through. My left leg just got soaked. Something or other about condensation from the air conditioning duct collecting where it wasn't supposed to. It's towards the end of episode 151, whenever that gets posted.<br /><br />Most Informative Panel:<br />That's a tough one. Either the aforementioned Astronomy Cast panel, in which I learned all sorts of nifty stuff about SETI, or a panel on quantum cryptography that I attended.<br /><br />Funniest Overall Panel:<br />The webcomics panel, of course! Those guys always crack me up. Hilarity ensued.<br /><br />My Thanks:<br />To whoever it was that recommended the Tales from Earthsea vocal album. It's lovely!<br /><br />People who know me know that for the past couple of years, I've always tried to do something different every Dragon*Con. Last year I checked out the gaming. The year before I came in costume (as a hitchhiker, complete with "Disaster Area" and "Milliways" t-shirts.) This year, my goal was to try and actually make some friends! Sure enough, I had plenty of pleasant chats, got to know a couple people, and secured three e-mail addresses. I've e-mailed all of them. Now to see which ones e-mail me back! If this was successful, I might just try it every year.<br /><br />So, anyway, another fantastic Dragon*Con. Looking forward to next year's!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-26951260361760334732009-08-27T22:34:00.003-05:002009-08-27T23:05:57.381-05:00Romancing SaGaRomancing SaGa is one of those games that I picked up years ago, forgot about, and only recently started playing. So, here are my first impressions, after about two hours. I started playing with Claudia, a girl who was raised in the Mazewood. An enchanted forest so entangling that all visitors get lost and find themselves back at the entrance no matter which way they turn. Claudia was raised by an old woman, considered to be a witch, who might be the one who maintains the spell on the forest. Her story opens with a man, Gian, being attacked by monsters at the entrance. Claudia saves him, and he thanks her by inviting her to the palace for which he's a guard. The old witch tells her she might as well go, because a young adult should go see the world or some such.<br /><br />But before we go any further, there's a disclaimer attached! I've always been something of a fan of the SaGa series, so I may be a bit biased. Let me go ahead and give you guys an overview of the series.<br /><br />Oh, and Romancing SaGa is a remake of a SNES RPG that never left Japan. So I'm treating it as a completely new game, because, well, it's new to me.<br /><br />The SaGa games are considered by most JRPG fans to be challenging, bizarre(in terms of gameplay), and greatly underrated. Or bafflingly overrated, depending on who you ask. I, personally, more or less grew up on the SaGa games. Final Fantasy Legend (actually the first SaGa, rebranded in the USA) was one of my first RPGs. I grew to love its quirks and unique setting and story. The series is known for having equipment with set durability, turn-based battles, branching, interweaving storylines, non-standard leveling, and really cool combo attacks. In all but a few games, the player actually controls a cast of about seven or so main characters, each with their own goals and stories. The characters often meet each other, and it's always nifty playing through one character's story only to see other characters join and then leave your party from a completely different perspective. Which was done years before Suikoden III's "innovative" Trinity Sight system, by the way. And as for leveling, rather than gaining experience and levels, characters simply gain points in stats as they use them. A guy who takes damage might gain more max HP. A character swinging a sword will see an increase in strength, while a bow-user is going to get boosted agility.<br /><br />From what I understand, the series is by the same man responsible for the weirdness of Final Fantasy II (skill-based attacks, individually levelling stats, and a rotating cast of guests). Square recognized his genius, but didn't want him to mess too much with their flagship RPGs, and so gave him his own series to play around with.<br /><br />Being much more well-played, I see the series as the Japanese take on Western-style RPGs. To most JRPG fans, the series is disturbingly nonlinear, and the distinct lack of a single main character is jarring, and not at all carried out in the same manner as the beloved Final Fantasy VI. Western RPG fans, however, would find much to love. The nonlinear gameplay focuses on exploring and finding fun things to do. The games, however, have JRPG turn-based battles as well as distinctively Japanese graphics and music.<br /><br />Now that I've given something of an overview of the series, the best I can really say is that Romancing SaGa is a classic SaGa game. It follows the same overall format, with the branching, interweaving stories and all. Combat seems to have been taken straight outta SaGa Frontier. The game system is a nifty skill-based class system. Once characters have certain levels in certain skills (by training them using "jewels") they can change to different classes with unique abilities. Rangers sometimes use no BP (battle points), for example.<br /><br />The graphics are absolutely gorgeous, although a bit weird. The characters are all SD (super deformed, or chibi) except without the corresponding cutesy features. The effect is like walking to a room of four-feet tall adults with heads twice their normal size. The soundtrack, from Kenji Ito, is beautiful. So much so that I've been listening to it on my iPod for a while.<br /><br />Long story short, if you like SaGa games, you'll like this. I know I'll be playing it for a while. And if you're just curious about the series, this may arguably be the best place to start, with relatively accessible gameplay and a lot of eye and ear candy (unlike the truly bizarre Unlimited SaGa.)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-70486675342945116992009-08-11T14:34:00.003-05:002009-08-11T15:09:14.022-05:00Elven Legacy - First ImpressionsWow, this new version of <a href="http://www.wesnoth.org">Battle for Wesnoth</a> sure is impressive! Wait, hang on a moment, this is <a href="http://www.elven-legacy.com/">Elven Legacy</a>!<br /><br />For those of you unfamiliar with the open source classic, Battle for Wesnoth is a fantasy turn-based strategy game on a hexagonal grid. EL is also a fantasy turn-based strategy game on a hexagonal grid. In fact, the core gameplay of the two is darn near identical. Recruit units that can move about and attack enemies. Capture towns and villages to get gold. Only one (land) unit can occupy a hex. Units can level up to gain new abilities and stats. Gameplay proceeds one battle at a time, and there is next to no game outside of battle. Click your next battle on the map, and you're off!<br /><br />There are some slight differences between the games. In Wesnoth, units cost an initial amount of gold to recruit, as well as gold per turn. The number of units on the map are limited only by whether you can afford to pay them. In EL, units cost only an initial sum or gold, and there is a hard limit as to how many units can be on a map, although they can be swapped with reserves (I believe, I haven't actually yet had the opportunity to do so.) The method of obtaining gold is slightly different. In Wesnoth, villages give a certain amount of gold per turn. In EL, you get a lump sum of gold when you capture a village and nothing more.<br /><br />Healing also differs between the two games. In Wesnoth, you can heal by resting, standing next to a healing unit, or standing in a village, as well as unit-specific stuff like trolls regenerating and the like. It should be noted that in EL, every unit is a collection of individual soldiers. So, you can wounded soldiers by resting, and you can restock your dead comrades with recruits if you're close enough to a village. Restocking does cost gold, however, and the unit's experience drops on account of the green soldiers coming in.<br /><br />Obviously, then, Wesnoth puts much more emphasis on capturing and maintaining villages. Villages in Wesnoth are not just valuable defensive points, they are the backbone of your army. In EL, however, villages serve no purpose other than their defensive value, and one may discard them after their capture so long as there isn't an extreme risk of enemy troops getting behind your front lines.<br /><br />Wesnoth has another unique feature that makes it more of a "prepare and then strike" game. Time. Time passes in Wesnoth, and certain units are weak at night and strong at day, and vice versa. The emphasis in Wesnoth is waiting and defending and bolstering your army whilst you're weak, and attacking when you're strong again. Without this time feature, EL seems faster-paced and more combat oriented.<br /><br />EL of course offers some strategic possibilities not available in Wesnoth, most notably a second plane of battle. EL features air units that can fly around and occupy the same hex as land units, which means they can fly past one's front lines and attack your rear. EL archers are also able to attack from a distance, and if they are positioned next to an allied unit that is being attacked, they will let loose to give their allies some covering fire (a feature which, to my knowledge, debuted in Squaresoft's classic SaGa Frontier II.)<br /><br />EL is of course prettier, and voice acted fairly competently, although in the tutorial at least the on-screen dialogue doesn't always match the spoken dialogue. The soundtrack has an entirely different flavor from Wesnoth. Wesnoth's music is mainly battle marches, whereas the music in EL is more ethereal, and, most appropriately, sounds more elven.<br /><br />EL is certainly a solid strategy title. It isn't, however, anywhere near as complicated as the reviews I've found online make it out to be. It manages to surpass Wesnoth in complexity, as well as, say, Nintendo's Fire Emblem series, but it is nowhere near as complicated as, oh, any of Nippon Ichi's fantastic strategy RPGs (Disgaea, Phantom Brave, La Pucelle...) or even the more mainstream Final Fantasy Tactics. On the other hand, it isn't an RPG and doesn't try to be.<br /><br />If you'd like a solid strategy game that doesn't try to be anything else, and you also want pretty graphics, this is the game for you. As for myself, I'm a bit miffed paying so much money for a game that barely surpasses free offerings, and one that's way simpler than advertised as well. I shan't stop playing it because of that, though.<br /><br />Oh, and I think that aside from Tetris, this is the only Russia-developed game I've ever played.<br /><br />I've only played a couple of missions, and haven't yet dived into multiplayer. Perhaps my impressions of the game will change as I explore more of it!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-42539655603949863812009-03-27T11:19:00.003-05:002009-03-27T11:30:27.915-05:00LaTeXThe problem is that LaTeX has a learning curve. Historically, any software with a learning curve at all has been pushed aside as soon as alternatives are available. It's why GUIs took off in the late 80s (and earlier for Mac and Amiga users.) People didn't have to learn anything to use a computer. Most computer functions were immediately obvious or took very little figuring out, as opposed struggling to memorize and learn the conventions of CLI.<br /><br />I think the problem is that most people would rather do a lot of work to avoid learning a little, than learn a little to save a lot of work later. Why else would someone rather spend hours doing menial typesetting (one of those tasks computers are darn good at) than learn a little bit of markup language?<br /><br />What inspired this post? I spent an hour today trying not to sleep in that gorram required technical writing class as the professor laboriously demonstrated how to craft a table of contents by hand in Microsoft Word.<br /><br />\tableofcontents It's that easy, people.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-66878988244165457212008-10-08T11:02:00.005-05:002008-10-08T13:43:31.183-05:00A couple o' perl scriptsI'm in a course this semester in which we exclusively use Java. And whilst working on a project, I got quite tired of creating accessors and mutators (getters and setters) for every single member variable I had. So I wrote a couple perl scripts to do it for me.<br /><br />Now, a friend of mine who uses an IDEs to write his software has informed me that many of them do this for you. I don't use an IDE. I don't have any need for it. The code I write simply isn't that big or that complex. I use vim and javac. And if I must use a GUI, I generally go with KWrite on Linux or TextMate on Mac (or Notepad++ on Windows if I've booted into it for some reason.)<br /><br />So, these scripts are for you java coders out there, who, like me, just don't use an IDE. You can find them <a href=http://zachary.sarver.googlepages.com/projects/>here</a>.<br /><br />If I ever get around to making a version 2, I might include support for C++. But as for now, java coders, have fun.<br /><br />Oh, yes, by the way, these are the first perl scripts I've ever written. I know there are probably a thousand ways to improve them. By all means, download them and improve them if you want. Just remember to credit me and share alike.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-38531069118119965402008-10-08T00:06:00.002-05:002008-10-08T00:36:05.945-05:00Food wasteToday I ate at Subway. The woman in line ahead of me requested that they redo her sandwich as they accidentally put pepper on it. Now this was a full sandwich. Meat, cheese, vegetables, condiments, the works! And when she requested a pepper-free sandwich, the Subway employee tossed that whole sandwich, the whole thing, into the trash.<br /><br />That was a footlong. It could have been a meal for two or more people.<br /><br />Now lets do a little math. There are some 30,000 Subway locations, according to <a href=http://www.subway.com/>Subway.com</a>. Suppose that each location threw away one sandwich a day. That is enough wasted food for 30,000 or more people! Let's look at what would happen if, I think more realistically, each location threw away just one sandwich a week. That's still about 4,300 meals a day. Food that could save, or at least ease, the lives of over 4,000 people daily. And why? Because Subway employees, in general, don't care.<br /><br />I propose that there should be something of a recycling center for edibles. A place where restaurants could take their unwanted or uneaten food that would in turn distribute it to homeless shelters and soup kitchens for those in need. I further propose that these places, like regular recycling centers, offer a tangible reward for distributing this food. Or maybe governmental incentives.<br /><br />I dunno. All I know is I don't have the money or the power to help. But someone out there does. If you can, please, do something. This is stupid. If people don't want it anyway, at least give it to someone who needs it!<br /><br />But until that happens, if you're ever homeless in Jacksonville, Alabama, the dumpster behind Subway is a great place to score some grub.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-12581998370475731812007-09-07T23:34:00.001-05:002009-09-10T10:43:28.461-05:00Brushing TeethAnd now, a musing. Why is it that toothbrush companies want to make their products XXXTreme? I mean, isn't it enough to say "This toothbrush keeps your teeth clean!"? Why do they have to go out and say stupid things like "New flexbristle technology with virus-killing DESTRUCTOIDS!"<br /><br />Toothbrushes aren't XXXTreme. They're not even cool. They're...well, toothbrushes. They brush teeth, and they don't do much else. Sometimes they clean other things.<br /><br />Toothbrush companies: No amount of rebranding is going to make your products any more cool and desirable. Just stop now while you can still save a little face.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-86378876395251645232007-09-06T11:30:00.000-05:002007-09-06T11:38:18.265-05:00Scooters? Why is one of the examples for labels in the Blogger text editor-majoo "scooters?" Who out there has a blog in which scooters play that big a role? I betcha anything that one of the people who work at Blogger is a scooter afficianado. That is too a word, Mr. Spellcheck dude.<br /><br />On another note entirely, Chief Inspector Blancheflower is easily the most genius song on Blueberry Boat. Everyone I've talked to who has actually listened to the entirety of the album seems to like Mason City the most. I don't blame them. It's easily the most catchy song on the album. I just wish more people had the patience to appreciate the less catchy songs on the album.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8156643550564147676.post-64275524738107803022007-09-05T18:35:00.000-05:002007-09-05T18:42:34.388-05:00First Post!So this is a blog. It serves as both my personal blog and as a place to post news and updates from my <a href="http://zachary.sarver.googlepages.com/">personal website</a>. I will try to post things daily. Also, website news will be labeled "news," so you don't have to do too much wading to read the important stuff.<br /><br />So I was thinking, I hate pretentious fiction writers. "Oh, yeah, I try to convey the human experience through my writing!" What the hell? Like any of us need to read a book to get the human experience. We're already having it, and unfortunately pretentious authors like the imaginary idiot I'm talking about are part of it. It seems to me that too many authors forget that they are storytellers. They are there to write engaging and entertaining stories. Not to convey the human experience. Stupid pretentious authors.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01675416627293400372noreply@blogger.com0