I like lubuntu
it's been easy enough to use, considering its a free unix system.
ubuntu is fairly mainstream
it runs fine on the laptop I bought in 2004, as does XP (with no service packs or virus protection)
it hardly uses any system resources, leaving more for games
steam for linux beta is out, thus far it runs smooth as silk, (only tested Solar2 atm)
Connected to my TV it runs anime (via VLC) better than the TV, as good as Win7.
Getting the OS running is a simmilar hassle to setting up windows (no flash/Java/Firefox for example)
I installed a copy on a 16GB USB, it runs fine and now I can exclude the OS from any PC issues I have in the future.
doesnt nag me about openning files. occasionally asks for a password but no nearly as annoying as windows.
It's not mainstream, just like my trackball mouse.
Using it sort of reminds me of playing Space Rangers 2, one of the best UI's I have seen in a game and it also had ~3 fully integrated minigames.
ubuntu had an app market before there was such a thing and its still really easy to find and install programs with it.
For me the OS should have as small a footprint as possible leaving me plenty of power to get <100 ping and 60FPS in LOL and GW2 (for example). Thus I think Lubuntu is better for gaming that Win7, the only think holding me back is compatibility with games being built nearly exclusively for windows.
Thus;
Seems to me my broken/slow/old PC BYO will now be my new media center. Plugged into the TV for watching anime/YouTube and running the occasionall game over Steam. Pretty keen to trial Psyconaughts in BigScreen mode with a controller and pretending I am a console gamer. I suppose I need a new wireless keyboard+trackball mouse for all other games though and to press "V", "B" & " " in VLC.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Camino: The Way of St James
Note: I don’t want to be somebody who talks about stuff and is full of dreams. I want to be a person who lives. I thought about kitesurfing for three years before committing and this is a similar thing. It was a possibility to do the walk of St James for my gold DofE but I went to Nepal instead. Over the years this trip has become more appealing and I now have some people I personally know in Europe who I could visit. Knowing a local makes holidays a lot more relaxing.
Min 100k for certificate
Average 5kph
Say 8h a day walking, therefore 40km per day
3 days easy to complete
That would be ~20 days at 40km per day
+10 days for site seeing along the way. Since Caroline took 30 days to complete the trip.
Maybe 3 days to recover from jetlag?
3 days in Norway to see Scott Bowes
3 Days to see Aurore
3 Days to see Kristina
Possibly also Stephan and Eduard?
I suppose most people would be working, but I could catch up in the evenings and maybe somebody could walk with me?
40days in Europe would be a nice number, making the most of the price of airfares too.
$2000 or so for airfares each way?
About the same for spending cash
Need a week or so to see Levi get ordained in December 2013
Possibly a Jan-Feb-March holiday?
I’m frightened to plan this for 2013, it seems too soon and will be harsh on my back account.
But the longer I leave it the worse I will feel about failing to act.
Unless I save it up for a later in life thing like a honeymoon? But that would require a wife and I’m still single, so I dont know how much later "later" would be.
Kk so holidays for 2013 will be:
1 week in Jan with Dad sailing for his BDay in Hervy Bay
1 week kitesurfing somewhere somehow
1 week kitesurfing somewhere somehow
1 Week to see Levi graduate as a Pastor on or about the 8th of december
Then 2014
Easter is April 18-21
Somewhere march-April-May could be my Eurotrip?
All my holidays at once
God willing it will be so, if not then …um, well I’m prepared to be unprepared.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Lubuntu: another attempt to replace windows
Once again I'm goingto have a go at using linux instead of windows. This time the primary cause is that my PC at work had corrupted the system files.
for general install
for installing to USB, so I can use at work and home.
I used an old Lubuntu 10.10 install CD and attempted to partition my USB to 8GB ext4 “\”, 4GB ext4 “\home” and 4GB swap. But every partition had ~4 bytes added or taken from it so they none of them were nice round numbers.
After installing the OS I restarted the PC and ran the performance test, then restarted a few more times. Seems best to consistently keep the USB in the same slot otherwise it resets the boot order and occasionally boots Windows. Also I can only use the GRUB to start XP on the computer I used to install Lubuntu, all the others say serial number not found.
After sorting that out. On my broken PC, load times from GRUB to login screen were
3:29 Lubuntu
1:31 XP Pro
Where as on my new work laptop both systems took 20 seconds to load.
Next I’ll need to update the OS to current; 12.10
Apparently steam will have a linux beta this week open to the public.
Run full Ubuntu on BYO? Seems a slow but it shouldn’t be. Win7 ran fine and a clean install of XP should also work well.
Want Lubuntu for USB and laptop and if that works well I’ll put it onto BYO as well.
I should reformat the \home directory to FAT32 so that I can access some of the usb when it is in a windows pc. Otherwise it keeps suggesting I reformat my drive.
After that replace chrome with FF and add VLC for my anime.
Then to use it at work I probably need Java + Open Office, With that I can hopefully install NCSTools and Citect.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
New Oil
Why a SSD?
Well it seemed cheap.
I never install things on the C:\\ on purpose, so the size didn’t matter
This vid was impressive
I was thinking of an <80GB HDD but didn’t see one to buy.
Whirlpool recommended it
I should replace my PC in ~7 years so I probably wont hit the read/write limit, and with only the OS on it I wont care (much) if it gets wiped.
Why 8GB of RAM?
Win7 recommended 8GB
Whirlpool recommended 8GB
Ubuntu can use all of it
More is probably better?
My old XP box couldn’t use all the 4GB it had installed, so I planned to swap 2GB it to the new PC, to total ten. But I cant because it isn’t DDR3 memory.
I suppose maybe Pov-Ray will make use of it?
I also took particular care with the case, as I wanted an on button that would work. I nearly bought a miniATX case for the tiny novelty of it. I knew I didn’t want a big box, If I go that way I intend to make it out of wood, so I settled on a squarish one with a simple flat design.
The rest was fairly straight forward to decide, I may put in a wireless card later (could have used it on the first day) I pretty much followed the whirlpool guide and what was available on Umart. In the end this is the package I came up with
I bought BYO with my first paycheck from Bundy Sugar, making it ~5yo. For the last 2 years I have been putting off upgrading it because I don’t like windows. And I haven’t reformatted it because I only have the XP CD without service packs and it takes a whole weekend to reinstall everything I use.
Small things have been annoying me for a while and after a couple of conversations at work I decided to get something new. Possibly I could have upgraded the motherboard to fix my sound card issues and replaced the box so that it would reliably turn on. But I’m the only person left in Technomancers Sojourn with an XP OS and I have the slowest PC and those upgrades would only make it more reliable, not more competitive. With this PC I shouldn’t have to wait for loading screens in GW2 anymore.
For the time being I’ll keep BYO as a spare/server, but when I know I have everything I’ll probably install Ubuntu and thus make it like new. I haven’t even installed any games yet and I’ve already checked out WineDB to see if LOL and GW2 are linux compatible yet. Win7 annoys me when it asks “are you sure you want to do this?” and when I tried to rotate the screen it took me three goes, you would think it could tell if a resolution was compatible or not without my help. I also did the thing again where instead of making a hidden folder visible I accidentally hid the directory that that folder was in.
> ITEMs to Order :
> Intel Core i5 3470 LGA1155 CPU 3.2Ghz 6Mb Cache Ivy Bridge
> ASRock B75-PRO3-M B75 4xDDR3 3xSATA3 PCIex16 GBL 4xUSB3.0 HDMI D-Sub
> DVI-D mATX
> Kingston 8G(2x4G) DDR3 1600MHz CL9 HyperX
> Seagate SATA3 2TB 7200RPM Barracuda 64mb Cache
> Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Series - SATA III 6Gbs, 2xnm Toggle DDR NAND,
> 3-Core ARMv9 MCX Controller
> Sapphire HD7870 OC 2G 256Bit GDDR5 PCIE3.0 DVI HDMI 2*MiniDSP
> SilverStone Temjin series TJ08E Black mATX Cas USB3
> Antec VP-550P 550W Strictly PSU
> Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM(Microsoft OEM
> Terms&condition apply)
>
> TOTAL : $$1128
[Update 23/01/2015]
Doubling the RAM is still the only upgrade I've done.
So my graphics card is the first part to
play up, occasionally it would not show any display when booting my PC.
Apparently this was a common error in Germany and the fix was to flash the GPU
BIOS once you can get the card to initialise properly. But I didn’t get it
flash properly. Contacted support and they recommended I buy a new card because
it was old. While ATI cards are usually more effective use of funds I’ve found
the NVIDIA support to be much more helpful. I don’t think I’ve had a game
actually make this graphics card work hard either, so I suppose its time to
downgrade.Umart wouldn’t let me login and their menu
system is very hard to navigate now. What a wanted was a “NVIDIA” “not
overclocked” “2GB RAM” for “$100-$200” Since two years has passed I thought the
7870 equivalents would be in this price range, but it seems we are waiting on
new games still to push the cards.While it is still overclocked unfortunately,
I settled on the “$190 MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB” but it has a three year warranty
and so I suppose it is more stable than the Radeon Sapphire that it is
replacing. I will miss the miniDP connections, but it seems I can still run three monitors over 2xDVI, HDMI.
Back in the good old days…
People think the golden age of youth was the best time of their life. That’s just to excuse themselves from making the world a better place now. Don’t point out what’s wrong with the world today unless you are prepared to attempt to fix it.
I also think people should change what they cannot accept and accept what they cannot change and thus I have no right to complain about anything. ~~I felt the need for a short post.
I also think people should change what they cannot accept and accept what they cannot change and thus I have no right to complain about anything. ~~I felt the need for a short post.
Business card for Technomancers Sojourn Inc
I like the concept of the QR code, people we spam can google out name the old fashioned way, or scan the QR code to access our website. From that they can contact us and we can easily remember the webpage.
I like the blocky font that Sam found, it looks clean and precise and matches he QR Code.
I like the color RGB<0,1,0> as it reminds me of the old monochrome game consoles. Black background fits with this and whitespace to wright on.
We need our name in some form “Technomancers Sojourn Inc.”. As for what we do “E-Sport” covers most things nicely, Also our incorporated association number makes it feel a bit more official to me, although I have not seen anybody else use that number for anything.
A logo would be nice but I couldn’t think of one I like, the medical snake around a broadsword is a possibility but how other than t&S does that relate to who we are?
This is also a nice picture, possibly we could use a small imitation of the map of the internet? It may not work in monochrome though. Logo’s should be easily recognizable, even as just a silhouette. Probably no more than four colours, and possible to print clearly on a high speed printing press. I had a go creating something like that here.
The space that we use to personalize our cards with name and contact details should have some form of heading I feel. But you can always wright on the back of the card too.
Username:
Password:
Name
sudo-u (runs command as the following user)
sudo-H (sets the home directory)
C:\\
MSD (CD.. or VER or format /V)
possible netmap logo
Another pov-ray code
#include "colors.inc"
#include "finish.inc"
#include "math.inc"
/*Triganometry - need to write this somewhere
cosd() co-sine measured in degrees
f_sqr() a function to square a number
sqrt(A) Returns the value whose square is A.
Hypotenuse_Length = sqrt(x_axis_length*x_axis_length + y_axis_length*y_axis_length)
cosd(Angle) = adjacent_Length/Hypotenuse_Length
*/
global_settings { ambient_light rgb<1, 1, 1> }
/*
//background
plane
{
z,+0.1
pigment {rgb <0,0,0>}
//either black or colorless
}
*/
//area of interest is
// 0.0 < x < 100
// 0.0 < y < -100
// 5.0 < z < -5.0
// bit this needs to be slightly expanded for a neat boarder
//eye centered aboce the shapes, although they are 3D ther should be no traces of that.
camera
{
location <50,-50,-150>
look_at <50,-50,0>
}
//I'm cheating with the illumination and placing a light where the camera is
//in this way I dont have to worry about shadows at all and should get clean colors.
light_source { <-11,0,-10> <0,0,1>}
light_source { <11,21,-10> <1,0,0>}
light_source { <-50,-50,-150> <1,1,1>}// same as camera location
/*
background Black
web yellow
PC Cyan
hub Blue
router red
each color to fade into the next, so the connection from the router to the hub will
transition through magenta.
each nexus should appear to glow in its colour due to radiosity
then of the 8 simple computer colors only green and white are missing.
*/
//WWW also the boarder
cylinder //left
{
<0,0,0>,
<0,-100,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
//rotate z*90
}
//rotate z*45
}
cylinder//bottom
{
<0,-100,0>,
<66,-100,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient z
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
}
}
cylinder//top
{
<0,0,0>,
<100,0,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient z
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
}
}
cylinder//right
{
<100,0,0>,
<100,-66,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient z
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
}
}
//router red
//4 port + Internet
//72° rotation
//<20,20,0>7
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2 //net
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
//first created along the y axis
pigment{
gradient y //color changes from the bottom of the shape to the top
frequency 0.01 //% of 100, because the shape is 100 units long on the y axis
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]// the actual change in color
}
}
scale y*.3 //shortenning the shape to what I want while maintainingthe color gradient
rotate z*45 //rotating the bottom end to where it ends up
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2//hub8
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
[0.5 color rgb <1,0,1> ]//dunno if this is really nessesary, possibly keeps things brighter
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.6
rotate z*9.5
translate <20,-20,0>
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2.1//hub12
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
[0.5 color rgb <1,0,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.7 //needs longer + trigonometry
rotate z*56
translate <20,-20,0>
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2//PC
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.6
rotate z*100
translate <20,-20,0>
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2//PC
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.6
rotate z*80
translate <20,-20,0>
}
//hub blue
//8 port
//45°
//<30,-80,0>, 15L
#declare hub8ports =
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 1
<0,-100,0>, 2
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
}
}
scale y*.15
}
#declare Count = 0;
#declare hub8 =
union
{
#while (Count < 360)
object {hub8ports rotate z*Count }
#declare Count=Count +45;
#end
rotate z*9.3
}
object
{
hub8
translate <30,-80,0>
//rotate z*10
}
//hub blue
//12 port
//30°
//<80,-60,0>, 10L
#declare hub12ports =
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 1
<0,-100,0>, 2
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
}
}
scale y*0.15
rotate z*27.6
}
#declare Count = 0;
#declare hub12 =
union
{
#while (Count < 360)
object {hub12ports rotate z*Count }
#declare Count=Count +30;
#end
}
object
{
hub12
translate <80,-60,0>
}
// create a sphere shape to smoth the edges
#declare node =
sphere {
<0, 0, 0> // center of sphere <X Y Z>
2.0 // radius of sphere
// scale <1,2,1> // <= Note: Spheres can become ellipses by uneven scaling
pigment {rgb <1,1,0>}
}
object
{
node
}
object
{
node
translate <0,-100,0>
}
object
{
node
translate <100,0,0>
}
/*
I wonder if I should turn this into a movie? It would be nice to make an animated CVG rather than a GIF
Since I decided against using green because we use it everywhere else the color transitions would be:
r-y-c-b-m ->back to red
Internet-router-hubs-PCs-nothing ->back to internet
this way everything should gently blend into the next colour and it should look like a rainbow moving from the internet to the PCs
Although programming this would almost require me to start from scratch.
*/
#include "colors.inc"
#include "finish.inc"
#include "math.inc"
/*Triganometry - need to write this somewhere
cosd() co-sine measured in degrees
f_sqr() a function to square a number
sqrt(A) Returns the value whose square is A.
Hypotenuse_Length = sqrt(x_axis_length*x_axis_length + y_axis_length*y_axis_length)
cosd(Angle) = adjacent_Length/Hypotenuse_Length
*/
global_settings { ambient_light rgb<1, 1, 1> }
/*
//background
plane
{
z,+0.1
pigment {rgb <0,0,0>}
//either black or colorless
}
*/
//area of interest is
// 0.0 < x < 100
// 0.0 < y < -100
// 5.0 < z < -5.0
// bit this needs to be slightly expanded for a neat boarder
//eye centered aboce the shapes, although they are 3D ther should be no traces of that.
camera
{
location <50,-50,-150>
look_at <50,-50,0>
}
//I'm cheating with the illumination and placing a light where the camera is
//in this way I dont have to worry about shadows at all and should get clean colors.
light_source { <-11,0,-10> <0,0,1>}
light_source { <11,21,-10> <1,0,0>}
light_source { <-50,-50,-150> <1,1,1>}// same as camera location
/*
background Black
web yellow
PC Cyan
hub Blue
router red
each color to fade into the next, so the connection from the router to the hub will
transition through magenta.
each nexus should appear to glow in its colour due to radiosity
then of the 8 simple computer colors only green and white are missing.
*/
//WWW also the boarder
cylinder //left
{
<0,0,0>,
<0,-100,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
//rotate z*90
}
//rotate z*45
}
cylinder//bottom
{
<0,-100,0>,
<66,-100,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient z
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
}
}
cylinder//top
{
<0,0,0>,
<100,0,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient z
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
}
}
cylinder//right
{
<100,0,0>,
<100,-66,0>,
2
pigment{
gradient z
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]
}
}
}
//router red
//4 port + Internet
//72° rotation
//<20,20,0>7
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2 //net
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
//first created along the y axis
pigment{
gradient y //color changes from the bottom of the shape to the top
frequency 0.01 //% of 100, because the shape is 100 units long on the y axis
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,1,0> ]// the actual change in color
}
}
scale y*.3 //shortenning the shape to what I want while maintainingthe color gradient
rotate z*45 //rotating the bottom end to where it ends up
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2//hub8
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
[0.5 color rgb <1,0,1> ]//dunno if this is really nessesary, possibly keeps things brighter
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.6
rotate z*9.5
translate <20,-20,0>
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2.1//hub12
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
[0.5 color rgb <1,0,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.7 //needs longer + trigonometry
rotate z*56
translate <20,-20,0>
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2//PC
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.6
rotate z*100
translate <20,-20,0>
}
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 2//PC
<0,-100,0>,2 //router
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map
{
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <1,0,0> ]
}
}
scale y*0.6
rotate z*80
translate <20,-20,0>
}
//hub blue
//8 port
//45°
//<30,-80,0>, 15L
#declare hub8ports =
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 1
<0,-100,0>, 2
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
}
}
scale y*.15
}
#declare Count = 0;
#declare hub8 =
union
{
#while (Count < 360)
object {hub8ports rotate z*Count }
#declare Count=Count +45;
#end
rotate z*9.3
}
object
{
hub8
translate <30,-80,0>
//rotate z*10
}
//hub blue
//12 port
//30°
//<80,-60,0>, 10L
#declare hub12ports =
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 1
<0,-100,0>, 2
pigment{
gradient y
frequency 0.01
color_map {
[0.0 color rgb <0,1,1> ]
[1.0 color rgb <0,0,1> ]
}
}
scale y*0.15
rotate z*27.6
}
#declare Count = 0;
#declare hub12 =
union
{
#while (Count < 360)
object {hub12ports rotate z*Count }
#declare Count=Count +30;
#end
}
object
{
hub12
translate <80,-60,0>
}
// create a sphere shape to smoth the edges
#declare node =
sphere {
<0, 0, 0> // center of sphere <X Y Z>
2.0 // radius of sphere
// scale <1,2,1> // <= Note: Spheres can become ellipses by uneven scaling
pigment {rgb <1,1,0>}
}
object
{
node
}
object
{
node
translate <0,-100,0>
}
object
{
node
translate <100,0,0>
}
/*
I wonder if I should turn this into a movie? It would be nice to make an animated CVG rather than a GIF
Since I decided against using green because we use it everywhere else the color transitions would be:
r-y-c-b-m ->back to red
Internet-router-hubs-PCs-nothing ->back to internet
this way everything should gently blend into the next colour and it should look like a rainbow moving from the internet to the PCs
Although programming this would almost require me to start from scratch.
*/
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
a seven dimensional work in progress
As a direct rezult of a FB update here is my unfinished POV-Ray code,
like with no spell checking or anything:
/*
while in the begining I thought to add this to wikipedia as a wasy to describe multidimensional space
I was actually more interested in researching which diods would best correspont to the human eye.
The ones that emmittid photons at the wavelength that our cone photoreceptors can most easely convert into electerical energy for interpretation by the brain.
You see I'm a chemist and the most fun thing about chemistry is the funky colours, particularly the organometalic coordination complexes.
but in the end this document became programming practice, particularly for my comments. And when I realised that I tried to make the program more effecient too.
*/
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Above: intro
//Below: initial setup
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#include "colors.inc"
#include "math.inc"
#include "colors.inc"
#include "textures.inc"
#include "shapes.inc"
#include "metals.inc"
#include "glass.inc"
#include "woods.inc"
//for a box centered on the origen
#declare corner1x = 0;
#declare corner1y = 0;
#declare corner1z = 0;
#declare corner2x = 0;
#declare corner2y = 0;
#declare corner2z = 0;
//Initial_Frame = 1
//Final_Frame = 60 //create 60 frames for a gif, 1200 for final
// Time needs to run from 1 to 60 seconds
// then I can repeate the images twice to show 2 cycles in the time dimension
//for testing purposes only. when this works check trigometry, then use time to make a movie.
#declare Time = 30.0;
//45=0, 35=0.25 0/30/60=0.5, 5/25=0.75, 15=1
//rsine = gsine = bsine = xsine = ysine = zsine = 0.5*sin(0.10472*(Time +0))+0.5
#if (1) //initially I was commenting out parts of code but then I realised an if statement with a boolian toggle would be quicker.
//clock moves from 0-1, so multiply by 60 to get the new range.
//Final_Frame = 6; //generates number of frames, less is faster more is smoother
#declare Time = 100*clock; //I really dont know how to et the FPS, maybe thats in a diferent program?
//Cyclic_Animation= On; //this means that ot wont end on the same fram that it starts with, making animation loops easier
//may need to install redShark again to render this.
#else
//the clock is not setup so only one frame will be rendered
#end
//timeless testing
#declare rsine =0.5; //for red
#declare gsine =0.5; //for green
#declare bsine =0.5; //for blue
#declare xsine =0; //for the x axis
#declare ysine =0; //for the y axis
#declare zsine =0; //for the z axis
/*
being the first place I declare these variables I should explain
all the dimensional translations are based on a sine waveform
and all should stay within the bounds of 0-1, thus rsine = xsine = 1 would make
the red color dimension 100% and move the x axis as far away from the origen as possible.
*/
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//above: initial setup
//Below: camera, lighting, simple static shape. The begining of the scene
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
camera {
location <1, 1, -1>
// direction <0, 0, 2.25>
// right x*1.33
look_at <0,0,1>
}
//lighting
//light_source{ <2.0,0.5,0.5> color White Jitter = 0}
light_source{ <0.5,0.5,-0.5> color White }
light_source{ <1,1,-1> color White }
//light_source{ <2.0,2.0,-1.0> color White Jitter = 0 }
//need to turn jitter off because it is unhelpfull for animated sequences
// Uncomment the area lights only if you've got lots of time.
#declare Dist=80.0;
light_source {< -50, 25, -50> color White
fade_distance Dist fade_power 2
// area_light <-40, 0, -40>, <40, 0, 40>, 3, 3
// adaptive 1
jitter
}
sky_sphere {
pigment {
gradient y
color_map {
[0, 1 color Gray50 color Gray80]
}
}
}
//axis gridlines should lay embedded in the planes
//This is what I played with to make the textures work and to hose where the image would be
//in relation to the camera and lights for example.
//generally I find the first object the most callengin to make visable
cylinder { <0,0,0>, <1,0,0>, 0.101 texture { T_Glass4 } interior {I_Glass caustics 1} }
cylinder { <0,0,0>, <0,1,0>, 0.101 pigment{ White }}
cylinder { <0,0,0>, <0,0,1>, 0.101
texture { T_Wood10
finish { specular 0.5 roughness 0.005 ambient 0.35 }
translate x*1
rotate <30, 10, 20>
}
}
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//above: camera, lighting, simple static shape. The begining of the scene
//Below: trigonimetry calculations
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Simple sine formula
// All dimensions move the same
//Amplitude * Sin( Frequency * (time + Phase)) + Range
#declare xamplitude = 0.5;
#declare xfrequency = pi/30;
#declare xphase = 0;
#declare yamplitude = 0.5;
#declare yfrequency = pi/30;
#declare yphase = 0;
#declare zamplitude = 0.5;
#declare zfrequency = pi/30;
#declare zphase = 0;
#declare ramplitude = 0.5;
#declare rfrequency = pi/30;
#declare rphase = 0;
#declare gamplitude = 0.5;
#declare gfrequency = pi/30;
#declare gphase = 0;
#declare bamplitude = 0.5;
#declare bfrequency = pi/30;
#declare bphase = 0;
//calculating it out
#declare rsine = ramplitude * sin( rfrequency * ( Time + rphase))+0.5;
#declare gsine = gamplitude * sin( gfrequency * ( Time + gphase))+0.5;
#declare bsine = bamplitude * sin( bfrequency * ( Time + bphase))+0.5;
#declare xsine = xamplitude * sin( xfrequency * ( Time + xphase))+0.5;
#declare ysine = yamplitude * sin( yfrequency * ( Time + yphase))+0.5;
#declare zsine = zamplitude * sin( zfrequency * ( Time + zphase))+0.5;
/*
below I have six different scenarios where each dimension moves different to the others
they only change the parts required for the pocture, otherwise they are the same as the simple sine above.
To change what is rendered uncomment one of the blocks, edit the number below
*/
#declare Graph_adjustment = 4;
#if (Graph_adjustment = 1)
//1 Amplitude modulation
#declare xamplitude = 0.5/6;
#declare yamplitude = 0.5/6*2;
#declare zamplitude = 0.5/6*3;
#declare ramplitude = 0.5/6*4;
#declare gamplitude = 0.5/6*5;
#declare bamplitude = 0.5;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 2)
//2 frequency modulation (Repeatable cycle)
#declare rfrequency = PI()/30;
#declare gfrequency = PI()/30*5;
#declare bfrequency = PI()/30*3;
#declare xfrequency = PI()/30*6;
#declare yfrequency = PI()/30*2;
#declare zfrequency = PI()/30*4;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 3)
//3 frequency modulation (smaller Hz)
#declare rfrequency = PI()/30*2;
#declare gfrequency = PI()/30;
#declare bfrequency = PI()/20;
#declare xfrequency = PI()/30*2+PI()/20;
#declare yfrequency = PI()/20*2;
#declare zfrequency = PI()/30+PI()/20;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 4)
//4 Phase modulation (uniform distortion)
#declare rphase = 10;
#declare gphase = 50;
#declare bphase = 30;
#declare xphase = 60;
#declare yphase = 20;
#declare zphase = 40;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 5)
//5 Phase modulation (heilical distortion)
#declare rphase = 0;
#declare gphase = 6;
#declare bphase = 12;
#declare xphase = 18;
#declare yphase = 24;
#declare zphase = 30;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 6)
//6 ~~~~~Really complex
/*
I practiced these in an excell document to see what each line looks like
the simple x,y image was easy to follow even with 6 lines ontop of eachother
I picked some equations from above that I shought would be visible and also
repeatable, starting and ending at 50%, with no sharp movements.
*/
#declare ramplitude = 0.4;
#declare rfrequency = pi/15;
#declare rphase = 10;
#declare gamplitude = 0.4;
#declare gfrequency = pi/30;
#declare gphase = 40;
#declare bamplitude = 0.5;
#declare bfrequency = pi/15;
#declare bphase = 40;
#declare rsine = ramplitude * sin( rfrequency * ( Time + rphase))+0.5;
#declare gsine = gamplitude * sin( gfrequency * ( Time + gphase))+0.5;
#declare bsine = bamplitude * sin( bfrequency * ( Time + bphase))+0.5;
//x average of small + simple
#declare xsine = ((0.1 * sin( pi/3 * ( Time + 1))+0.5)+xamplitude * sin( xfrequency * ( Time + xphase))+0.5 )/2 ;
//y average of 0.21Hz + simple
#declare ysine = ((0.5 * sin( pi/15 * ( Time + 0))+0.5)+yamplitude * sin( yfrequency * ( Time + yphase))+0.5 )/2 ;
//z average of x and y
#declare zsine = (xsine + ysine)/2 ;
//*/
//~~~~~end of really complex
#else //nothing here so the variables are never changed from the simple sine at the begining
#end #end #end #end #end #end// need an end here for each of the if statements
//protected untill the manual formula is not nesescary
//this uses time and will take ~60 times longer to generate
//The new location
#declare rsine = ramplitude * sin( rfrequency * ( Time + rphase))+0.5;
#declare gsine = gamplitude * sin( gfrequency * ( Time + gphase))+0.5;
#declare bsine = bamplitude * sin( bfrequency * ( Time + bphase))+0.5;
#declare xsine = xamplitude * sin( xfrequency * ( Time + xphase))+0.5;
#declare ysine = yamplitude * sin( yfrequency * ( Time + yphase))+0.5;
#declare zsine = zamplitude * sin( zfrequency * ( Time + zphase))+0.5;
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Above: trigonimetry calculations
//Below: assembelling the dimensional cube
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//finally the focus of all this code
//this is the cube, rather than phasing the color and transllating an object
//each frame will render a new cube in a new location.
//thus it is easier to color but I'll rely on the FPS to pretend it is mooving.
#declare corner1x = xsine - 0.15;
#declare corner1y = ysine - 0.15;
#declare corner1z = zsine - 0.15;
#declare corner2x = xsine + 0.15;
#declare corner2y = ysine + 0.15;
#declare corner2z = zsine + 0.15;
//by making this a light source I dont have to worry about any radiosity effects
//I dont want the cubes color to be effected by the background.
light_source
{ <0,0,0> rgb <rsine, gsine,bsine>
looks_like
{
box { <corner1x,corner1y,corner1z>,
<corner2x,corner2y,corner2z>
texture {pigment{rgb <rsine, gsine,bsine>} }
}
finish { ambient 1 }
}
}
//far corner box
// was a simple test to get the box to work at all
/*
box {
<-0.5,-0.5,-0.5>
<0.5,0.5,0.5>
texture {pigment{Grey}}
scale 0.2
translate <1,1,1>
}
*/
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Above: assembelling the dimensional cube
//Below: background and RGB phase trasition
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//background
//will try fading in and out to show the color witout being a pastell
//hopefully then scaling the z plane from pure blue to totally black
plane {x,0 texture {pigment{rgb <rsine,0,0> } }}
plane {y,0 texture {pigment{rgb <0,gsine,0> } }}
plane {z,1 texture {pigment{rgb <0,0,bsine> } }}
//other than that I could put slider bars somewhere
like with no spell checking or anything:
/*
while in the begining I thought to add this to wikipedia as a wasy to describe multidimensional space
I was actually more interested in researching which diods would best correspont to the human eye.
The ones that emmittid photons at the wavelength that our cone photoreceptors can most easely convert into electerical energy for interpretation by the brain.
You see I'm a chemist and the most fun thing about chemistry is the funky colours, particularly the organometalic coordination complexes.
but in the end this document became programming practice, particularly for my comments. And when I realised that I tried to make the program more effecient too.
*/
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Above: intro
//Below: initial setup
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#include "colors.inc"
#include "math.inc"
#include "colors.inc"
#include "textures.inc"
#include "shapes.inc"
#include "metals.inc"
#include "glass.inc"
#include "woods.inc"
//for a box centered on the origen
#declare corner1x = 0;
#declare corner1y = 0;
#declare corner1z = 0;
#declare corner2x = 0;
#declare corner2y = 0;
#declare corner2z = 0;
//Initial_Frame = 1
//Final_Frame = 60 //create 60 frames for a gif, 1200 for final
// Time needs to run from 1 to 60 seconds
// then I can repeate the images twice to show 2 cycles in the time dimension
//for testing purposes only. when this works check trigometry, then use time to make a movie.
#declare Time = 30.0;
//45=0, 35=0.25 0/30/60=0.5, 5/25=0.75, 15=1
//rsine = gsine = bsine = xsine = ysine = zsine = 0.5*sin(0.10472*(Time +0))+0.5
#if (1) //initially I was commenting out parts of code but then I realised an if statement with a boolian toggle would be quicker.
//clock moves from 0-1, so multiply by 60 to get the new range.
//Final_Frame = 6; //generates number of frames, less is faster more is smoother
#declare Time = 100*clock; //I really dont know how to et the FPS, maybe thats in a diferent program?
//Cyclic_Animation= On; //this means that ot wont end on the same fram that it starts with, making animation loops easier
//may need to install redShark again to render this.
#else
//the clock is not setup so only one frame will be rendered
#end
//timeless testing
#declare rsine =0.5; //for red
#declare gsine =0.5; //for green
#declare bsine =0.5; //for blue
#declare xsine =0; //for the x axis
#declare ysine =0; //for the y axis
#declare zsine =0; //for the z axis
/*
being the first place I declare these variables I should explain
all the dimensional translations are based on a sine waveform
and all should stay within the bounds of 0-1, thus rsine = xsine = 1 would make
the red color dimension 100% and move the x axis as far away from the origen as possible.
*/
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//above: initial setup
//Below: camera, lighting, simple static shape. The begining of the scene
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
camera {
location <1, 1, -1>
// direction <0, 0, 2.25>
// right x*1.33
look_at <0,0,1>
}
//lighting
//light_source{ <2.0,0.5,0.5> color White Jitter = 0}
light_source{ <0.5,0.5,-0.5> color White }
light_source{ <1,1,-1> color White }
//light_source{ <2.0,2.0,-1.0> color White Jitter = 0 }
//need to turn jitter off because it is unhelpfull for animated sequences
// Uncomment the area lights only if you've got lots of time.
#declare Dist=80.0;
light_source {< -50, 25, -50> color White
fade_distance Dist fade_power 2
// area_light <-40, 0, -40>, <40, 0, 40>, 3, 3
// adaptive 1
jitter
}
sky_sphere {
pigment {
gradient y
color_map {
[0, 1 color Gray50 color Gray80]
}
}
}
//axis gridlines should lay embedded in the planes
//This is what I played with to make the textures work and to hose where the image would be
//in relation to the camera and lights for example.
//generally I find the first object the most callengin to make visable
cylinder { <0,0,0>, <1,0,0>, 0.101 texture { T_Glass4 } interior {I_Glass caustics 1} }
cylinder { <0,0,0>, <0,1,0>, 0.101 pigment{ White }}
cylinder { <0,0,0>, <0,0,1>, 0.101
texture { T_Wood10
finish { specular 0.5 roughness 0.005 ambient 0.35 }
translate x*1
rotate <30, 10, 20>
}
}
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//above: camera, lighting, simple static shape. The begining of the scene
//Below: trigonimetry calculations
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Simple sine formula
// All dimensions move the same
//Amplitude * Sin( Frequency * (time + Phase)) + Range
#declare xamplitude = 0.5;
#declare xfrequency = pi/30;
#declare xphase = 0;
#declare yamplitude = 0.5;
#declare yfrequency = pi/30;
#declare yphase = 0;
#declare zamplitude = 0.5;
#declare zfrequency = pi/30;
#declare zphase = 0;
#declare ramplitude = 0.5;
#declare rfrequency = pi/30;
#declare rphase = 0;
#declare gamplitude = 0.5;
#declare gfrequency = pi/30;
#declare gphase = 0;
#declare bamplitude = 0.5;
#declare bfrequency = pi/30;
#declare bphase = 0;
//calculating it out
#declare rsine = ramplitude * sin( rfrequency * ( Time + rphase))+0.5;
#declare gsine = gamplitude * sin( gfrequency * ( Time + gphase))+0.5;
#declare bsine = bamplitude * sin( bfrequency * ( Time + bphase))+0.5;
#declare xsine = xamplitude * sin( xfrequency * ( Time + xphase))+0.5;
#declare ysine = yamplitude * sin( yfrequency * ( Time + yphase))+0.5;
#declare zsine = zamplitude * sin( zfrequency * ( Time + zphase))+0.5;
/*
below I have six different scenarios where each dimension moves different to the others
they only change the parts required for the pocture, otherwise they are the same as the simple sine above.
To change what is rendered uncomment one of the blocks, edit the number below
*/
#declare Graph_adjustment = 4;
#if (Graph_adjustment = 1)
//1 Amplitude modulation
#declare xamplitude = 0.5/6;
#declare yamplitude = 0.5/6*2;
#declare zamplitude = 0.5/6*3;
#declare ramplitude = 0.5/6*4;
#declare gamplitude = 0.5/6*5;
#declare bamplitude = 0.5;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 2)
//2 frequency modulation (Repeatable cycle)
#declare rfrequency = PI()/30;
#declare gfrequency = PI()/30*5;
#declare bfrequency = PI()/30*3;
#declare xfrequency = PI()/30*6;
#declare yfrequency = PI()/30*2;
#declare zfrequency = PI()/30*4;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 3)
//3 frequency modulation (smaller Hz)
#declare rfrequency = PI()/30*2;
#declare gfrequency = PI()/30;
#declare bfrequency = PI()/20;
#declare xfrequency = PI()/30*2+PI()/20;
#declare yfrequency = PI()/20*2;
#declare zfrequency = PI()/30+PI()/20;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 4)
//4 Phase modulation (uniform distortion)
#declare rphase = 10;
#declare gphase = 50;
#declare bphase = 30;
#declare xphase = 60;
#declare yphase = 20;
#declare zphase = 40;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 5)
//5 Phase modulation (heilical distortion)
#declare rphase = 0;
#declare gphase = 6;
#declare bphase = 12;
#declare xphase = 18;
#declare yphase = 24;
#declare zphase = 30;
#else #if (Graph_adjustment = 6)
//6 ~~~~~Really complex
/*
I practiced these in an excell document to see what each line looks like
the simple x,y image was easy to follow even with 6 lines ontop of eachother
I picked some equations from above that I shought would be visible and also
repeatable, starting and ending at 50%, with no sharp movements.
*/
#declare ramplitude = 0.4;
#declare rfrequency = pi/15;
#declare rphase = 10;
#declare gamplitude = 0.4;
#declare gfrequency = pi/30;
#declare gphase = 40;
#declare bamplitude = 0.5;
#declare bfrequency = pi/15;
#declare bphase = 40;
#declare rsine = ramplitude * sin( rfrequency * ( Time + rphase))+0.5;
#declare gsine = gamplitude * sin( gfrequency * ( Time + gphase))+0.5;
#declare bsine = bamplitude * sin( bfrequency * ( Time + bphase))+0.5;
//x average of small + simple
#declare xsine = ((0.1 * sin( pi/3 * ( Time + 1))+0.5)+xamplitude * sin( xfrequency * ( Time + xphase))+0.5 )/2 ;
//y average of 0.21Hz + simple
#declare ysine = ((0.5 * sin( pi/15 * ( Time + 0))+0.5)+yamplitude * sin( yfrequency * ( Time + yphase))+0.5 )/2 ;
//z average of x and y
#declare zsine = (xsine + ysine)/2 ;
//*/
//~~~~~end of really complex
#else //nothing here so the variables are never changed from the simple sine at the begining
#end #end #end #end #end #end// need an end here for each of the if statements
//protected untill the manual formula is not nesescary
//this uses time and will take ~60 times longer to generate
//The new location
#declare rsine = ramplitude * sin( rfrequency * ( Time + rphase))+0.5;
#declare gsine = gamplitude * sin( gfrequency * ( Time + gphase))+0.5;
#declare bsine = bamplitude * sin( bfrequency * ( Time + bphase))+0.5;
#declare xsine = xamplitude * sin( xfrequency * ( Time + xphase))+0.5;
#declare ysine = yamplitude * sin( yfrequency * ( Time + yphase))+0.5;
#declare zsine = zamplitude * sin( zfrequency * ( Time + zphase))+0.5;
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Above: trigonimetry calculations
//Below: assembelling the dimensional cube
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//finally the focus of all this code
//this is the cube, rather than phasing the color and transllating an object
//each frame will render a new cube in a new location.
//thus it is easier to color but I'll rely on the FPS to pretend it is mooving.
#declare corner1x = xsine - 0.15;
#declare corner1y = ysine - 0.15;
#declare corner1z = zsine - 0.15;
#declare corner2x = xsine + 0.15;
#declare corner2y = ysine + 0.15;
#declare corner2z = zsine + 0.15;
//by making this a light source I dont have to worry about any radiosity effects
//I dont want the cubes color to be effected by the background.
light_source
{ <0,0,0> rgb <rsine, gsine,bsine>
looks_like
{
box { <corner1x,corner1y,corner1z>,
<corner2x,corner2y,corner2z>
texture {pigment{rgb <rsine, gsine,bsine>} }
}
finish { ambient 1 }
}
}
//far corner box
// was a simple test to get the box to work at all
/*
box {
<-0.5,-0.5,-0.5>
<0.5,0.5,0.5>
texture {pigment{Grey}}
scale 0.2
translate <1,1,1>
}
*/
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//Above: assembelling the dimensional cube
//Below: background and RGB phase trasition
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
//background
//will try fading in and out to show the color witout being a pastell
//hopefully then scaling the z plane from pure blue to totally black
plane {x,0 texture {pigment{rgb <rsine,0,0> } }}
plane {y,0 texture {pigment{rgb <0,gsine,0> } }}
plane {z,1 texture {pigment{rgb <0,0,bsine> } }}
//other than that I could put slider bars somewhere
Thursday, November 22, 2012
[SOLVED] xinput1_3.dll is missing
so I have a new PC now and am slowly getting my games onto it. Some I
can copy, I'll backup and transfer most of my steam library but some I
think will be easier to redownload.
HAWKEN wouldnt run, apparently XINPUT1_3.dll is missing
I wont download dll files from the net, and didnt think reinstalling the game immidiatly would help.
so I installed MWO, same thing.
Still havent backed up a steam game to try that, so I attempted to reinstall Dx11. Not helpfull at all
found the file on my old XPPC and added it to the same location in my Win7 box.
3 of the locations I found didnt exist, possibly I need to install "microsoft XNA Game Studio" (that where I found it) but I cant install that if I dont have "visual studio 2010" or "visual C# 2010 Expres" getting less likely that I need this but it was probably on my old PC for a reason.
Now I have a different error, actually the text is all the same exept for the file it is talking about, now D3DCompiler43.dll is missing
On the other hand now MWO does nothing.
Ok for missing this file the internet still reccomends updating DX11, well windows says I cant. so I'll just go for another SDK I suppose.
Hrm, after downloading the SDK and begining to restore some games to steam I tried MWO and it just loaded without any issues? Maybe it is like Age of Empires Online where it works after you try 5 times in a row?
HAWKEN still doesnt work though.
the DX SDK install failed 2x and suggested I close all my other programs. Apparently if I have more recent redistributable packages then I cannot install the basic one.
well that didnt sound like fun so I restarted my PC and played a round of MWO, now HAWKEN works too.
So the solution was either attempting to install the Dx SDK and XNA Game studio or ....
HAWKEN wouldnt run, apparently XINPUT1_3.dll is missing
I wont download dll files from the net, and didnt think reinstalling the game immidiatly would help.
so I installed MWO, same thing.
Still havent backed up a steam game to try that, so I attempted to reinstall Dx11. Not helpfull at all
found the file on my old XPPC and added it to the same location in my Win7 box.
3 of the locations I found didnt exist, possibly I need to install "microsoft XNA Game Studio" (that where I found it) but I cant install that if I dont have "visual studio 2010" or "visual C# 2010 Expres" getting less likely that I need this but it was probably on my old PC for a reason.
Now I have a different error, actually the text is all the same exept for the file it is talking about, now D3DCompiler43.dll is missing
On the other hand now MWO does nothing.
Ok for missing this file the internet still reccomends updating DX11, well windows says I cant. so I'll just go for another SDK I suppose.
Hrm, after downloading the SDK and begining to restore some games to steam I tried MWO and it just loaded without any issues? Maybe it is like Age of Empires Online where it works after you try 5 times in a row?
HAWKEN still doesnt work though.
the DX SDK install failed 2x and suggested I close all my other programs. Apparently if I have more recent redistributable packages then I cannot install the basic one.
well that didnt sound like fun so I restarted my PC and played a round of MWO, now HAWKEN works too.
So the solution was either attempting to install the Dx SDK and XNA Game studio or ....
... Have you tried turning it of and on again?
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Car troubles, one thing leading to another
Well this is becoming a bit of a saga so I thought I would wright it down.
First, when I got my car one of the keys was missing the button, so I couldn’t unlock it remotely, thus it became my spare.
Every so often my can does nothing when I turn the ignition, putting it into neutral or back into park usually fixed this in one go.
Sometime this year the idle seemed a bit off, particularly when accelerating. But it was only mildly annoying.
Sometime after that my key nolonger remotely unlocked my car. (apparently this is a sign that the battey is flat and if you don’t fix it soon you cannot start the cat without leaving the key in the ignition for 40min)
Four sojourns ago (1st Oct I think), when last Byron came I dropped him off at his house then my car wouldn’t start. It also sounded really ill when attempting to start. But the following morning when I returned to my car with mum it started as soon as we decided to call RACQ. Then at work that Friday I got Dave Foster to chech the battery and that appeared fine, regardless of if the lights were on or not. Of the two dozen times we started it maybe three or four times the engine didn’t go.
For the next two weeks the car started most of the time and I decided to wait for the next service that was due in nov to get it all checked.
Then prior to the following sojourn I went to collect Josh and my car really died, this time the battery was defiantly flat and jumpstarting the car got it to work. So I went and bought a new battery prior to driving to the beach.
The following Monday 22nd, after an uneventful canoeing trip to Bucca, I took my car to ultratune for a service and to get the key looked at, as well as the isolator in the gear lever. They couldn’t start the car at all. The following day I gave them the spare key, this time they could move the car and did the service. They also replaced the batteries and still couldn’t get the remote to work.
Apparently replacing the batteries in the remote is pointless because it breaks the waterproof seal.
So the remote still didn’t work but using the spare key reliably started the car. So I went to Biloela on the 27th with confidence. On the 29th though, as I was driving up to Nangandie station on the way home my car started to squeak. Seemed it didn’t really like the rough road. Dad was visiting the following weekend and we decided it may be the suspension or the exhaust. Incidentally also found out I have no tire spanner and that there are locking nuts on the mags.
So on Monday the 5th I took my car to enterprise street exhaust and booked it in for the following day. After watching the Melbourne Cup they we decided the squeak was probably the exhaust, which required replacing anyway. This was the first time in ~8 years that I replaced it. So I was back the following day for that. In replacing the exhaust we found that the mounting for the “panarm rod” was bent and cracked and this is the source of the movement and squeak. Apparently a rather large car crash must have caused this and it had been like this for a while, that being more than ten years, a pothole and dust appears to have made the movement squeaky.
On the 8th then I got a new key for my car, one where the remote actually works, but it doesn’t always turn in the ignition, I gather I have to wear it in. Then went to enterprise street exhaust for the 4th day that week to get the panarm mount fixed, as soon as the car was on the hoist the mechanic asked if I had just filled up. After a bit of investigation we found the breather line for the fuel tank was completely perished and broken.
So now I need to use up all my fuel, so that the tank is nearly empty so that the fuel lines can be replaced so that my car don’t explode when it gets re-welded. The squeak is just annoying, everything else I really need to fix to have a reliable efficient car: a working key (to start the car), new battery, exhaust without rust and fuel lines that don’t leak.
And I didnt even mention the rust.
~~~~
So in the end it took half a day but my car nolonger squeeks. This last little bit cost:
$100 for Labor
$20 for fuel lines
$5 for weld
~~~~
and now on the 17/02/13 all the water leaked out of the radiator, time for a new car methinks.
First, when I got my car one of the keys was missing the button, so I couldn’t unlock it remotely, thus it became my spare.
Every so often my can does nothing when I turn the ignition, putting it into neutral or back into park usually fixed this in one go.
Sometime this year the idle seemed a bit off, particularly when accelerating. But it was only mildly annoying.
Sometime after that my key nolonger remotely unlocked my car. (apparently this is a sign that the battey is flat and if you don’t fix it soon you cannot start the cat without leaving the key in the ignition for 40min)
Four sojourns ago (1st Oct I think), when last Byron came I dropped him off at his house then my car wouldn’t start. It also sounded really ill when attempting to start. But the following morning when I returned to my car with mum it started as soon as we decided to call RACQ. Then at work that Friday I got Dave Foster to chech the battery and that appeared fine, regardless of if the lights were on or not. Of the two dozen times we started it maybe three or four times the engine didn’t go.
For the next two weeks the car started most of the time and I decided to wait for the next service that was due in nov to get it all checked.
Then prior to the following sojourn I went to collect Josh and my car really died, this time the battery was defiantly flat and jumpstarting the car got it to work. So I went and bought a new battery prior to driving to the beach.
The following Monday 22nd, after an uneventful canoeing trip to Bucca, I took my car to ultratune for a service and to get the key looked at, as well as the isolator in the gear lever. They couldn’t start the car at all. The following day I gave them the spare key, this time they could move the car and did the service. They also replaced the batteries and still couldn’t get the remote to work.
Apparently replacing the batteries in the remote is pointless because it breaks the waterproof seal.
So the remote still didn’t work but using the spare key reliably started the car. So I went to Biloela on the 27th with confidence. On the 29th though, as I was driving up to Nangandie station on the way home my car started to squeak. Seemed it didn’t really like the rough road. Dad was visiting the following weekend and we decided it may be the suspension or the exhaust. Incidentally also found out I have no tire spanner and that there are locking nuts on the mags.
So on Monday the 5th I took my car to enterprise street exhaust and booked it in for the following day. After watching the Melbourne Cup they we decided the squeak was probably the exhaust, which required replacing anyway. This was the first time in ~8 years that I replaced it. So I was back the following day for that. In replacing the exhaust we found that the mounting for the “panarm rod” was bent and cracked and this is the source of the movement and squeak. Apparently a rather large car crash must have caused this and it had been like this for a while, that being more than ten years, a pothole and dust appears to have made the movement squeaky.
On the 8th then I got a new key for my car, one where the remote actually works, but it doesn’t always turn in the ignition, I gather I have to wear it in. Then went to enterprise street exhaust for the 4th day that week to get the panarm mount fixed, as soon as the car was on the hoist the mechanic asked if I had just filled up. After a bit of investigation we found the breather line for the fuel tank was completely perished and broken.
So now I need to use up all my fuel, so that the tank is nearly empty so that the fuel lines can be replaced so that my car don’t explode when it gets re-welded. The squeak is just annoying, everything else I really need to fix to have a reliable efficient car: a working key (to start the car), new battery, exhaust without rust and fuel lines that don’t leak.
And I didnt even mention the rust.
~~~~
So in the end it took half a day but my car nolonger squeeks. This last little bit cost:
$100 for Labor
$20 for fuel lines
$5 for weld
~~~~
and now on the 17/02/13 all the water leaked out of the radiator, time for a new car methinks.
Kiteboarding: begining to stand up
21 october
Got out to test my board which arrived on Friday but there was hardly enough wind to fly the kite. First off I went to Elliot heads but northerlies just don’t make much wind there, was a lovey beach day though.
Archies beach was much more wintry, but the water was warm and so we had to navigate around the swimmers. I reckon ive got the hang of driving the kite with one hand now. This weekend the forecast finally has something other than a 10-15knot northerly all weekend. But I’m planning to visit dad in Biloela instead.
24 October
The call went out that there was enough leftover wind from the day before to try kiting before biblestudy. I had just had a haircut so I could test that out at the same time.
There was enough wing that I struggled merely standing still. Tony more than me would have benefited from a smaller kite, he hast as much ballast as me. Decided that we need to try the board in the Elliot before the ocean, but I did put it to good use in holding down the kite whilst setting up and packing up.
27 October
Went to bilo thinking of surfing on lake callied, but it was all muddy and sticky and not enough wind, so I went for a sail on dads cat instead.
12 November
Looked like a nice beach day so went to Elliot heads at Eduard’s suggestion. It was an easterly at 15-20knotts and I’m not so scared of that wind now. Also the tide was still rising but pretty full. It seems that tacking and holding my body like a board was not a good way to prepare to lean to stand up. The better way to learn standing was to fly downwind really fast with my top half out of the water. Because that is what it felt like when I eventually got to stand up for a decent amount of time.
So yeah I had one big run with the board. I was going along the shore, slowly getting closer to it. The waves (`20cm high) I didn’t want o catch because that would have made the run shorter. I didn’t have enough room to tack. Where the river bends and I would have had heaps of room again I didn’t want to go, so I jumped off the board ad flew the kite high. It gave me a lot of speed but when I landed on the beach I was able to stop moving fairly quickly. The dismount was a bit scary.
I was able to get quite a bit of speed but I kept the kite doing figure eights right on the edge of the wind envelope so that I coul go slow. It was a balancing act of going fast enough to keep upright but not going down wind much and thus running out of water.
Just need to get Tony to have a go now and get a photo of myself.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
I finded this today
CREATIVE WRITING 1 (WRIT19015) TERM 1, 2008
ASSIGNMENT ONE First Draft
WORD LIMIT words
AURTHOR Ben Graham
STUDENT ID S00051551
COURSE COORDINATOR Dr Lynda Hawryluk
DUE DATE 2/5/08
Proposal for that which will be written.
A tale about a journey to a destination and the complications along the way. Similar to the Japanese "journey to the west" or the Greek "odyssey of homer" and "Jason and his agronaughts".
Setting is to be a hole in the ground, similar to the game of nethack. Lots of caverns and monsters living in them. Also there will be a few narky people that the main characters must converse with to proceed.
The premise is that two warring kingdoms have sent their representatives to obtain an object that is guarded at the bottom of a cavern. Each of the two kingdoms are very different and follow contrasting philosophies that pervade every part of their culture.
Materialist’s girl Liza Kalitina
Value matter, collecting it and analyzing it. Living in luxury with an abundance of everything, these people value life and are by nature pacifists. They realize that it is harder to create, than to destroy.
They only believe hard facts and what can be physically (scientifically) proven. They are experts on physiology and understand that when they have an empty stomach chemical impulses are sent to the brain telling the body to eat.
Idealist’s boy Arkady Nikolaevich Kirsanov
Value thought and consciousness, they collect information and enjoy verbal debates. They see their bodies as merely a vessel through which their knowledge can be exhibited. They only look after their human bodies to the extent required for survival. Believing in magic and in everything mystical. They believe that they are only hungry when they imagine that it is so.
Side Character Imp
Used implicature in all conversations. that is never answers a question directly but implies the answer through his response. Also uses a lot of words with 'imp' in them.
Side Character wise man in a hole
"well all the mountains were taken!"
View
I think that for the intro I will have it in first person with the speaker bagging out the other main character saying "Right, now that's over with you can get lost. I'm not going to babysit you, this will be hard enough to do without you interfering." Then, after the first scene the story will degenerate into a third person view.
##speaker is a klutz. other person speaks in old English and worries a lot
+______________________________________________________________+
"Right, now that's over with you can get lost. I'm not going to babysit you, this will be hard enough to do without you interfering." Now that all that palaver was over I was keen to get started, that is, this is where my story begins.
So, here I am. Strolling down the middle of a long dark ally, down into the colon of the earth, my mission to save life as we know it. And all I can hear is this puncy whining from that idiot behind me. I cannot fathom why the higher ups would deem it necessary to tolerate such a dweeb. Probably some sort of diplomatic thing.
...
Can't get through a door until the doors guardians are defeated. But they first need to find the guardians to kill them. Gives rise to an argument about what happens after you die, the afterlife and such.
...
Turning the corner down yet another dark tunnel they were assaulted by a sudden noise through the darkness, breaking the monotony of their footsteps.
"Erm..." came a rather high pitched voice. "Excuse me."
Silence.
"Heelo? ... Will you bee my friend?"
"Who goes there" Shouted Liza "Be ye friend or foe?" as the echoes reverberated down the tunnel Arkady replied. "Don't be so uptight, you obviously didn't hear him say he wants to be your friend."
"Show thine self then"
"Down heer on the ground"
Liza was startled to see a pink rock try to right itself. It was smooth and shaped as a raindrop although it was nearly knee height. Promptly the creature fell over, landing on a withering mass of similar looking vines. "What manner of creature are thee?" she queried reaching towards the strange creature.
"Don't touch it," yelled Arkady, pulling Liza away, "that is a cephalopod. They are sea dwelling parasites that devour people from the inside out"
"Hmph. Thee and thou mythical 'sea full of water.' We are sure it is harmless."
"Actually he is right." Intruded the cephalopod. "I am actually a sepiida. But I don't want to eat you. If you are prejudiced then I will stay here."
"Why doest thee wish to be our friend then?"
"I left the sea to travel the world. But it is rather slow traveling on land with these." Waving his tentacles about in the air.
"So you just want someone to carry you?"
"And to share with. It is incredibly boring traveling by myself with nobody to talk to."
"Nothing doing. I don't trust you at all."
"How canst thee be so cruel." stated Liza picking up the creature. "What is thy name little fellow?"
"You fool, don't let it touch you." Yelled Arkady knocking it out of her hands.
"What does thee care. A minute ago thee saith thee never wish to see me again."
"Guilt is a fate worse than death. I will not allow you to die due to my negligence. If we must take it I will put it on my hat. That way it will not be able to eat us and it will be able to see where we are going." With that Arkaby dropped his Akubra on the ground.
"Thank you. My name is Cooch Windgrass." Flopping himself into the middle of his hat and wrapping his tentacles around it as they changed colour to match the hatband. Within seconds he looked like a ten gallon hat. The only give away that he was there at all was the W shaped eyes on each side of the hat.
"That be amazing Cooch." Exclaimed Liza picking up the hat and plonking it unceremoniously upon Arkaby's scruffy hair.
This resulted in quite a peculiar expression on Arkaby's face. Not quite sure what to do about a man eating monster hiding on his head he tried to change the topic. "So, in anybody hungry?"
Now Liza was surprised and flicked her eyes between Cooch, Arkady and back.
"I mean I have some chocolate bars in my pocket." he hastily added. And gingerly reached into his pocket, trying not to tilt hit head any or than was absolutely necessary. At this Liza burst out laughing. With a grim expression Arkady opened one of the chocolates.
"Why thank you, much obliged." Said Cooch reaching down with a tentacle, taking the chocolate from Arkady hand and swallowing it whole. As he did so all the blood drained from Arkady's face and he stared at the now empty wrapper. Setting Liza into fits of laughter.
...
##Complication 1
The bridge is broken and they need to get across
But there’s no wood so...
They need to find wood for the builder to build bridge.
But the builder is hungry and won’t stop fishing so...
They need to find bait for his rod.
But he is a hopeless fisherman so...
They need to find lunch for the builder.
But it will take a week to finish fixing so...
They go the long way around.
...
#when they find imp on the other side of the bridge they talk for a bit and he introduces himself as the Grand Monarch of the unknown states of existence. Arkady replies that this title is too long and will call him Imp. Liza interjects "That be the shorthand for Emperor not Monarch."
"I was referring to him saying imp more often than is necessary." Arkady replied, slightly surprised. "But how did you know such an obscure title?"
"Thus is how I refer to Emperor J.. Never mind, I revealed too much." Liza hastened to compose herself and started marching down the tunnel. "Come along Imp we shant wait for the short legs. Thee must come if thee shalt come. The goal may wait for us but our home shall not remain unchanged.
...
As the tunnel opened up into another cavern Imp exclaimed of the rock formations "These rocks look like the teeth of some monstrous beast"
"Aye this place must be some sort of esoteric ritual chamber where they mutilate small creatures, much like yourself Imp."
"Never fear Cooch, I will impose my will onto them. I will not allow them to impede your life forve in any way." Replied Imp as he inched towards Liza. Hugging her leg he peered from behind her, apprehensively peering into the darkness beyond the light of the torches.
"Actually Imp this is a fairly common rock formation, whence the passing of water reshapes sandstone caves. The ones on the roof are stalactites and the rocks on the floor are called stalagmites. See the drip forming on that one there." Pointing to a stalactite not far from where they stood.
With a look of relief Imp jumped up onto Liza’s shoulder, careful not to get tangled in her hair. Just as he sat down Cooch jerked from where he was resting on Arkady's hat. "Ssomething comess".
Imp stiffened in fear, grabbing a hold of Liza, his claws piercing into her neck causing her to gasp. At that very moment the Nihilist launched itself from the shadows of a stalagmite. Her three meter blade hissing through the air. This was the distraction she had been waiting for. Liza leapt backwards with Imp's grip tightening at each breath. The blade narrowly missed her but left a neat slash across her uniform, exposing her naval.
The Nihilist paused, her black shell glistening in the light of the fluro. With beady eyes flickering between the two humans she spoke, the gravelly voice scratched thorough the cavern.
"YOU WILL JOIN THE nothing. YOUR ABSENCE WILL MAKE nothing STRONGER."
A pool of black sweat slowly spread away from her kneeling form, like the steady march of time encompassing all in it's path.
The fluro flickered. The Nihilist leapt again at the gasping Liza, thrusting the sword toward her heart. The sword seeming to pull itself forwards in a relentless lust for destruction. This time Arkady dove between them, parrying the blade with the back of his hand. Their bodies collided sending them flying over Liza. Who was on the floor trying to pry the now petrifies Imp off of her throat.
Arkady and the Nihilist landed in a tangled heap at the base of a stalagmite. The Nihilist being the first to stand grabbed Arkady in her right hand and threw him into the darkness where he fell with a heart rending scream. She then sprinted back towards Liza. Stepping on Arkady's hat where it had fallen and Cooch who was still perched upon it.
By this time Liza had pried herself away from Imp. Who was standing between Liza and the Nihilist staring at the blood dripping from his claws. As the Nihilist approached Imp picked the sword up from where it had fallen.
The Nihilist saw Imp struggling to lift her sword too late to halt her advance. The last she heard was Imp's desperate scream as the sword slid through her shattering the shell plates as it exited her back.
The drip fell.
Liza rolled the corpse over to free Imp fro under its body and ran towards where Arkady could be heard moaning. She scooped up Cooch as she went. Imp scurried after her grabbing the lantern along the way. The light shivered across the cavern as he held it in his quivering palm. They found Arkady at the base of a stalagmite he had evidently landed on. The point had missed his heart but had severed most of his shoulder, leaving his left arm only attached by three ribs.
"It looks as though I'm about to be freed from this body of mine." Gasped Arkady. "Liza, you must not return home empty handed. Continue down with Imp." Cooch flopped off the hat and with a dusty slap landed on the floor as Arkady had a fit of coughing. "Cooch, before I die. Eat me."
"What?" Exclaimed Liza.
"It should be a truly unique experience. This is what life is for after all."
"There is another alternative." Said Cooch calmly as he dragged his crippled body up onto Arkady. "Liza pull him free of the stone."
Solemnly Liza dragged on Arkady's feet. With a cry he came free of the stalagmite. Immediately his arteries started gushing blood onto the cold stone floor. Quickly Cooch flipped his body into the gap in Arkady's chest. Then he flung his tentacles on either side of the wound, sealing off the blood flow with his body. "All of by species are able to regenerate limbs." Stated Cooch when he was done. "I can reroute my blood stream so that one heart pumps to your arm and one back. My third heart will supply my body with blood."
"You would sacrifice yourself to save me?" Gasped Arkady.
"Not quite. I also would have died from my wounds. Also you are the only friends I have ever had."
"You always have several answers to a question don’t you?"
"I always have three reasons for doing anything yes. But now we both need to rest to recover."
As Cooch finished speaking Arkady's ragged breath calmed to a steady pulse of in and out, leaving Imp and Liza staring on in wonder.
...
As they entered the chamber they stopped. It was. It was big. It was majestic. It was huge. It was awe inspiring. It was gigantic. It was fabulous. It was.
"Not the smallest cave I’ve seen." Said Imp, as he climbed up Liza's leg onto her shoulder. "Well don't just stand there with your gapers mouthing, dinners getting cold"
"What?" said Arkady swiveling to face Imp.
"How canst thee dwell on nourishment (food) at a time like this, doth not the beauty of this place astoundeth you?" exclaimed Liza.
"Impervious stomach lining implies that I've been eaten. Which in turn impedes my immortality. For who would wish to spend eternity imprisoned?"
# cavern is lined with many precious gems of all colours which look to have been melted into plave. Liza notes that they cannot have cooled that way and must have been polished by something. They decide that it looks like a dragon has swallowed it's entire treasure horde then continue to make there way through to the other side. The story ends here as Arkady muses to himself "Two enter the colon of the earth, now four enter the colon of the dragon."
ASSIGNMENT ONE First Draft
WORD LIMIT words
AURTHOR Ben Graham
STUDENT ID S00051551
COURSE COORDINATOR Dr Lynda Hawryluk
DUE DATE 2/5/08
Proposal for that which will be written.
A tale about a journey to a destination and the complications along the way. Similar to the Japanese "journey to the west" or the Greek "odyssey of homer" and "Jason and his agronaughts".
Setting is to be a hole in the ground, similar to the game of nethack. Lots of caverns and monsters living in them. Also there will be a few narky people that the main characters must converse with to proceed.
The premise is that two warring kingdoms have sent their representatives to obtain an object that is guarded at the bottom of a cavern. Each of the two kingdoms are very different and follow contrasting philosophies that pervade every part of their culture.
Materialist’s girl Liza Kalitina
Value matter, collecting it and analyzing it. Living in luxury with an abundance of everything, these people value life and are by nature pacifists. They realize that it is harder to create, than to destroy.
They only believe hard facts and what can be physically (scientifically) proven. They are experts on physiology and understand that when they have an empty stomach chemical impulses are sent to the brain telling the body to eat.
Idealist’s boy Arkady Nikolaevich Kirsanov
Value thought and consciousness, they collect information and enjoy verbal debates. They see their bodies as merely a vessel through which their knowledge can be exhibited. They only look after their human bodies to the extent required for survival. Believing in magic and in everything mystical. They believe that they are only hungry when they imagine that it is so.
Side Character Imp
Used implicature in all conversations. that is never answers a question directly but implies the answer through his response. Also uses a lot of words with 'imp' in them.
Side Character wise man in a hole
"well all the mountains were taken!"
View
I think that for the intro I will have it in first person with the speaker bagging out the other main character saying "Right, now that's over with you can get lost. I'm not going to babysit you, this will be hard enough to do without you interfering." Then, after the first scene the story will degenerate into a third person view.
##speaker is a klutz. other person speaks in old English and worries a lot
+______________________________________________________________+
"Right, now that's over with you can get lost. I'm not going to babysit you, this will be hard enough to do without you interfering." Now that all that palaver was over I was keen to get started, that is, this is where my story begins.
So, here I am. Strolling down the middle of a long dark ally, down into the colon of the earth, my mission to save life as we know it. And all I can hear is this puncy whining from that idiot behind me. I cannot fathom why the higher ups would deem it necessary to tolerate such a dweeb. Probably some sort of diplomatic thing.
...
Can't get through a door until the doors guardians are defeated. But they first need to find the guardians to kill them. Gives rise to an argument about what happens after you die, the afterlife and such.
...
Turning the corner down yet another dark tunnel they were assaulted by a sudden noise through the darkness, breaking the monotony of their footsteps.
"Erm..." came a rather high pitched voice. "Excuse me."
Silence.
"Heelo? ... Will you bee my friend?"
"Who goes there" Shouted Liza "Be ye friend or foe?" as the echoes reverberated down the tunnel Arkady replied. "Don't be so uptight, you obviously didn't hear him say he wants to be your friend."
"Show thine self then"
"Down heer on the ground"
Liza was startled to see a pink rock try to right itself. It was smooth and shaped as a raindrop although it was nearly knee height. Promptly the creature fell over, landing on a withering mass of similar looking vines. "What manner of creature are thee?" she queried reaching towards the strange creature.
"Don't touch it," yelled Arkady, pulling Liza away, "that is a cephalopod. They are sea dwelling parasites that devour people from the inside out"
"Hmph. Thee and thou mythical 'sea full of water.' We are sure it is harmless."
"Actually he is right." Intruded the cephalopod. "I am actually a sepiida. But I don't want to eat you. If you are prejudiced then I will stay here."
"Why doest thee wish to be our friend then?"
"I left the sea to travel the world. But it is rather slow traveling on land with these." Waving his tentacles about in the air.
"So you just want someone to carry you?"
"And to share with. It is incredibly boring traveling by myself with nobody to talk to."
"Nothing doing. I don't trust you at all."
"How canst thee be so cruel." stated Liza picking up the creature. "What is thy name little fellow?"
"You fool, don't let it touch you." Yelled Arkady knocking it out of her hands.
"What does thee care. A minute ago thee saith thee never wish to see me again."
"Guilt is a fate worse than death. I will not allow you to die due to my negligence. If we must take it I will put it on my hat. That way it will not be able to eat us and it will be able to see where we are going." With that Arkaby dropped his Akubra on the ground.
"Thank you. My name is Cooch Windgrass." Flopping himself into the middle of his hat and wrapping his tentacles around it as they changed colour to match the hatband. Within seconds he looked like a ten gallon hat. The only give away that he was there at all was the W shaped eyes on each side of the hat.
"That be amazing Cooch." Exclaimed Liza picking up the hat and plonking it unceremoniously upon Arkaby's scruffy hair.
This resulted in quite a peculiar expression on Arkaby's face. Not quite sure what to do about a man eating monster hiding on his head he tried to change the topic. "So, in anybody hungry?"
Now Liza was surprised and flicked her eyes between Cooch, Arkady and back.
"I mean I have some chocolate bars in my pocket." he hastily added. And gingerly reached into his pocket, trying not to tilt hit head any or than was absolutely necessary. At this Liza burst out laughing. With a grim expression Arkady opened one of the chocolates.
"Why thank you, much obliged." Said Cooch reaching down with a tentacle, taking the chocolate from Arkady hand and swallowing it whole. As he did so all the blood drained from Arkady's face and he stared at the now empty wrapper. Setting Liza into fits of laughter.
...
##Complication 1
The bridge is broken and they need to get across
But there’s no wood so...
They need to find wood for the builder to build bridge.
But the builder is hungry and won’t stop fishing so...
They need to find bait for his rod.
But he is a hopeless fisherman so...
They need to find lunch for the builder.
But it will take a week to finish fixing so...
They go the long way around.
...
#when they find imp on the other side of the bridge they talk for a bit and he introduces himself as the Grand Monarch of the unknown states of existence. Arkady replies that this title is too long and will call him Imp. Liza interjects "That be the shorthand for Emperor not Monarch."
"I was referring to him saying imp more often than is necessary." Arkady replied, slightly surprised. "But how did you know such an obscure title?"
"Thus is how I refer to Emperor J.. Never mind, I revealed too much." Liza hastened to compose herself and started marching down the tunnel. "Come along Imp we shant wait for the short legs. Thee must come if thee shalt come. The goal may wait for us but our home shall not remain unchanged.
...
As the tunnel opened up into another cavern Imp exclaimed of the rock formations "These rocks look like the teeth of some monstrous beast"
"Aye this place must be some sort of esoteric ritual chamber where they mutilate small creatures, much like yourself Imp."
"Never fear Cooch, I will impose my will onto them. I will not allow them to impede your life forve in any way." Replied Imp as he inched towards Liza. Hugging her leg he peered from behind her, apprehensively peering into the darkness beyond the light of the torches.
"Actually Imp this is a fairly common rock formation, whence the passing of water reshapes sandstone caves. The ones on the roof are stalactites and the rocks on the floor are called stalagmites. See the drip forming on that one there." Pointing to a stalactite not far from where they stood.
With a look of relief Imp jumped up onto Liza’s shoulder, careful not to get tangled in her hair. Just as he sat down Cooch jerked from where he was resting on Arkady's hat. "Ssomething comess".
Imp stiffened in fear, grabbing a hold of Liza, his claws piercing into her neck causing her to gasp. At that very moment the Nihilist launched itself from the shadows of a stalagmite. Her three meter blade hissing through the air. This was the distraction she had been waiting for. Liza leapt backwards with Imp's grip tightening at each breath. The blade narrowly missed her but left a neat slash across her uniform, exposing her naval.
The Nihilist paused, her black shell glistening in the light of the fluro. With beady eyes flickering between the two humans she spoke, the gravelly voice scratched thorough the cavern.
"YOU WILL JOIN THE nothing. YOUR ABSENCE WILL MAKE nothing STRONGER."
A pool of black sweat slowly spread away from her kneeling form, like the steady march of time encompassing all in it's path.
The fluro flickered. The Nihilist leapt again at the gasping Liza, thrusting the sword toward her heart. The sword seeming to pull itself forwards in a relentless lust for destruction. This time Arkady dove between them, parrying the blade with the back of his hand. Their bodies collided sending them flying over Liza. Who was on the floor trying to pry the now petrifies Imp off of her throat.
Arkady and the Nihilist landed in a tangled heap at the base of a stalagmite. The Nihilist being the first to stand grabbed Arkady in her right hand and threw him into the darkness where he fell with a heart rending scream. She then sprinted back towards Liza. Stepping on Arkady's hat where it had fallen and Cooch who was still perched upon it.
By this time Liza had pried herself away from Imp. Who was standing between Liza and the Nihilist staring at the blood dripping from his claws. As the Nihilist approached Imp picked the sword up from where it had fallen.
The Nihilist saw Imp struggling to lift her sword too late to halt her advance. The last she heard was Imp's desperate scream as the sword slid through her shattering the shell plates as it exited her back.
The drip fell.
Liza rolled the corpse over to free Imp fro under its body and ran towards where Arkady could be heard moaning. She scooped up Cooch as she went. Imp scurried after her grabbing the lantern along the way. The light shivered across the cavern as he held it in his quivering palm. They found Arkady at the base of a stalagmite he had evidently landed on. The point had missed his heart but had severed most of his shoulder, leaving his left arm only attached by three ribs.
"It looks as though I'm about to be freed from this body of mine." Gasped Arkady. "Liza, you must not return home empty handed. Continue down with Imp." Cooch flopped off the hat and with a dusty slap landed on the floor as Arkady had a fit of coughing. "Cooch, before I die. Eat me."
"What?" Exclaimed Liza.
"It should be a truly unique experience. This is what life is for after all."
"There is another alternative." Said Cooch calmly as he dragged his crippled body up onto Arkady. "Liza pull him free of the stone."
Solemnly Liza dragged on Arkady's feet. With a cry he came free of the stalagmite. Immediately his arteries started gushing blood onto the cold stone floor. Quickly Cooch flipped his body into the gap in Arkady's chest. Then he flung his tentacles on either side of the wound, sealing off the blood flow with his body. "All of by species are able to regenerate limbs." Stated Cooch when he was done. "I can reroute my blood stream so that one heart pumps to your arm and one back. My third heart will supply my body with blood."
"You would sacrifice yourself to save me?" Gasped Arkady.
"Not quite. I also would have died from my wounds. Also you are the only friends I have ever had."
"You always have several answers to a question don’t you?"
"I always have three reasons for doing anything yes. But now we both need to rest to recover."
As Cooch finished speaking Arkady's ragged breath calmed to a steady pulse of in and out, leaving Imp and Liza staring on in wonder.
...
As they entered the chamber they stopped. It was. It was big. It was majestic. It was huge. It was awe inspiring. It was gigantic. It was fabulous. It was.
"Not the smallest cave I’ve seen." Said Imp, as he climbed up Liza's leg onto her shoulder. "Well don't just stand there with your gapers mouthing, dinners getting cold"
"What?" said Arkady swiveling to face Imp.
"How canst thee dwell on nourishment (food) at a time like this, doth not the beauty of this place astoundeth you?" exclaimed Liza.
"Impervious stomach lining implies that I've been eaten. Which in turn impedes my immortality. For who would wish to spend eternity imprisoned?"
# cavern is lined with many precious gems of all colours which look to have been melted into plave. Liza notes that they cannot have cooled that way and must have been polished by something. They decide that it looks like a dragon has swallowed it's entire treasure horde then continue to make there way through to the other side. The story ends here as Arkady muses to himself "Two enter the colon of the earth, now four enter the colon of the dragon."
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Kiteboarding: the next step
8oct
So its not the gusts that make flying a kite difficult it’s the lack of wind. I’m yet to fly in too much wind and have gotten the hang of avoiding/compensating for gusts. Also I tried surfing (regular surfing) the challenging part is to jump onto the board the easy part is standing on it and maintaining balance. But I doubt I can drive a surfboard (that hasn’t any straps) and the kite at the same time. So I defiantly need to acquire one. I like the idea of the mini-surfboard things and racing with dad but everybody else seems to have a twin tip board and do jumps.
Following up on this I decided to buy a board, it turns out that the surfboards are not mini at all and I’m supposed to get a 6 foot board. Well that made the decision much easier. I went with this from kiteline. They were able to deliver last time and the board was on sale and fairly generic.
I’m going to set the goal of the 17th of November to be able to tack and jibe. By that weekend I should be ableto sail with Dad on Lake Callide.
So its not the gusts that make flying a kite difficult it’s the lack of wind. I’m yet to fly in too much wind and have gotten the hang of avoiding/compensating for gusts. Also I tried surfing (regular surfing) the challenging part is to jump onto the board the easy part is standing on it and maintaining balance. But I doubt I can drive a surfboard (that hasn’t any straps) and the kite at the same time. So I defiantly need to acquire one. I like the idea of the mini-surfboard things and racing with dad but everybody else seems to have a twin tip board and do jumps.
Following up on this I decided to buy a board, it turns out that the surfboards are not mini at all and I’m supposed to get a 6 foot board. Well that made the decision much easier. I went with this from kiteline. They were able to deliver last time and the board was on sale and fairly generic.
I’m going to set the goal of the 17th of November to be able to tack and jibe. By that weekend I should be ableto sail with Dad on Lake Callide.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Toplessness; a philosophy of loss and balance
Seems
I have developed my own philosophy on life. I’m using “developed”
in a very lose sense, developing may be more accurate. Or rather I’m
different from all the phlisolophers I know. I just need to write it
down in a way that I can understand. Communication is challenging.
Last
weeks sermon was kind of about being a good follower. Pastor pointed
out that we glorify good leaders and give them awards and things. But
no reward is given to for example all the lab analysts who help a
professor get a nobel prize. And while a lot of politicians get voted
into parliament only two of them get their faces in the paper every
week.
Speaking
of politicians there was a story a year or two ago in the newspaper
that mentioned the education minister was horrified that up to 50% of
our school students were performing below average. I think I’m
happy to join that polly and be one of the underperformers, somebody
has to do it after all.
Still
running from one though to the next. The ranking system is
fundamentally flawed, I learn things in exams as well as when I’m
studying. So every time I get tested I get a little smarter. VRBones
has written a little something about this.
I
created a clan in “Berzerk: the Cataclysm” despite the fact that
I knew it would never succeed, I don’t care. I was still able to
learn some stuff and have fun. Getting in first place is not
necessary for that.
First
the worst, second the best, third gets the golden chest. A proof of
concept card game to determine if the fundamental mechanic in
“Notorious” will be fun or not. You aim to make other players
have a better score for you each round in the hopes that you will
only ever be an average player and thus succeed in the long run. This
is not a coffee break game, giving instant satisfaction. It’s a
long drawn out strategy game that becomes more complex the longer you
play. Also it rewards cautious behavior.
I’m
not cautions at all, I’m a berserker, especially with respect to
games. Just like Naruto in Shuppuuden I make some clones and sent
them in yelling and screaming to their deaths, I learn from their
mistakes and charge at the obstacle again. I like the idea of
Anoiki’s Saints (post at games.on.net). Like a true topless
berserker, charging in and wreaking havoc whilst having a ball of a
time and dying with style, then relying on the game mechanics and my
friends to rescue/save me so I can do it again. I’m always a
meatshield.
Just
like a minion, there to soak up some of the damage and maybe slow the
hero down a little, allowing my boss a few extra moments to prepare a
proper reception. I’ve been in ROTARACT since... I’m not sure,
November 11 maybe? At any rate when people ask me what part I play I
proudly claim I’m a minion. I never had any intention of being a
leader. Slightly prior to this it was highlighted to me that when an
organization has no participants it just wont work. There needs to be
people who turn up, just as numbers without ever really doing
anything.
If
a group is made up of a president + secretary + treasurer and there
are no Indians then it just becomes too much hard work and
responsibility for all involves and rather than all being chiefs they
give up. Minions are an essential part of any organization, they
follow and are relied on to be present. Occasionally I’ve been one
of 5 people helping to setup a tent whilst one person directs. I got
to “stand here and hold this pole”, “fetch me another peg”,
“where did I put the hammer”, But I rarely needed to actually do
anything mostly I was there to hold things and bounce ideas off. But
if all five of us minions left then it would have been a great
struggle for the tent builder, getting poles mixed up and the tent
moving whenever you try to peg it down.
Also
with youth groups, I have rarely ever been an actual leader. Often a
“helper leader” or just as a big minion I can still help things
to run smoothly and all I really need to do is turn up on time,
actually participate and then be prepared to hang back after
everybody else has left.
By
no means though do I advocate being a mindless zombie and a slave to
protocol. One of the great evils of religion is the preconception
bias. If you follow the religion of your parents/community purely out
of obligation then it is nothing more than a means to teach morals.
If you believe the world is flat because nobody has told you any
different then you are unaware of your cage. If you get shown the
stars through a telescope and fly to another country in a plane and
ignore all the evidence to the contrary and maintain a blind faith in
the world being flat then you are indeed a mindless zombie of a
minion and can only be useful as grunt labor.
On
the other hand minions who question and learn will find that they
don’t get a sore back when they bend their knees to lift heavy
things. Anything can be improved and optimized with more knowledge,
but with less effort today things can happily remain the same in
ignorance. If you never see beauty how then can you recognize ugly?
And
so I travel, I watch listen and smell. I acknowledge that there are
people that are different to me. I assume that I really don’t know
what’s going on. I learn through trial and error. I’m curious and
was taught to apply the scientific method of inquiry. I should be as
objective as possible to avoid bias, and refer to everything in third
person past tense. Nothing is ever true and definite; facts are
fluid, forever in motion because we can only ever disprove the null
hypothesis. Rarely can anything ever actually be proven to be
correct. The cycle of experimentation is continuous; With new
information new theories must be formulated to accommodate it and as
accuracies are improved flaws are found in laws.
Scientific
law: This is how it happens. Now you can predict it.
Scientific
theory: This is why it happens. See, all the pieces fit.
Formulate
a theory --> define Hypothesis --> Experiment --> theory is
validated, for now
Or
--> Theory is false --> Formulate a new theory
Maybe
there is a universal truth that is always correct and easy to
understand, but I find myself wrong and misinformed to ever believe
that. Then again I have been wrong before. Aside from that I don’t
ever want to have all the answers, learning is too much fun. If I
were immortal there could be lots of things to study and understand.
But I think that I’d lose all my motivation if I didn’t have a
deadline approaching. Not that I leave things to the last minute but
I must be doing something and goals/milestones are a good method of
maintaining momentum.
Productive
procrastination is important. The limited time that is available
should always be used efficiently. For example when worn out from
studying for an exam, don’t persist in trying to read while the
words swim before your eyes, and don’t visit YouTube or surf the
net on FB. Do something completely different and go to the beach for
a swim and train your body or to the movies with friends and exercise
your social skills.
To
go back to the top, I know I’m going to die and all things should
come to an end. That’s definitely a part of my philosophy on life.
My happiness is founded in pessimism and positiveness. To be a
pessimist means “pleasantly surprised when things go well and
justified when then don’t” It’s pointless to be negative about
this and spend all your time complaining. For me doors of opportunity
are never shut, it’s just that better doors are opened and awaiting
me to proceed through. Just the same with procrastination, never
avoid work, just go and work on something else for a while, train a
different aspect, physical/spiritual/intellectual/emotional.
Aspects,
these are important. I don’t think that a distinction between soul
and spirit is particularly useful. These words are too often used as
synonyms for each other. Together though they are defiantly
important. Just don’t call it magic. Nowadays magic = I don’t
understand. As in “any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic”
Spirituality
on the other hand deals with things that are understood to be
impossible to understand. Things that require faith to believe, like
that “I am” and “I am here for a reason” to say that I exist
because of magic is very unfulfilling. To say that “I exist because
an omnipresent all powerful authoritative figure decided that the
world would be better of if I existed” is much more satisfying. Not
scientifically justifiable, but then neither is the phrase “I
think, therefore I am”.
Thinking
about thinking indicates the next aspect of life should be mental.
This should be exercised and used otherwise your intellect will
wither and die. To be the smartest in everything is impossible, to be
the smartest in one thing is impractical. Don’t strive for the top
of the pile, take your shirt off and be Topless. A wise person does
not live books computers and science. A smart person knows that the
brain is the CPU of a human and it doesn’t function without
calcium. And so you must eat well and get plenty of sunlight.
For
without a physical body we could not exist. Balance must be achieved
between all aspects and also within them. Don’t only eat healthy
also sleep well, don’t only swim to train also train to run. Being
fit also includes not hurting yourself, recuperation is required.
Also acknowledge that you don’t totally understand your body and it
will act on its own accord.
Like
when you get emotionally involved with something/someone. You cannot
force yourself to cry and laugh. You cannot exist without other
people to acknowledge you. We are defined by our actions and our
relationships with other people. Humans are social critters so talk,
hug, play and fight with each other.
The
word toplessness itself came into use because I started calling
myself a topless gamer at our regular Sojourn’s, when we were
starting to become more official and looking for a name to identify
with. At home I am most comfortable wearing undies, board shorts and
nothing else, pretty much regardless of the season. I’ll pit a
shirt on for visitors but when I’m relaxed I’m usually topless.
Also around that time I finished re-reading “Thud” by Terry
Pratchet. In the book there is a line that goes something like
“being
a deep dwarf, isn’t just living deep, it can be a state of mind”
“I don’t need an axe because I’m always carrying it in my mind”
This
releases people from physically doing a thing so long as they follow
the initial intentions. To clarify it’s the difference between
tradition and traditionalism. On the one hand you are doing something
because that is the way it is always done, and you have no heart in
it. On the other you understand why your ancestors set about a
particular path/using a specific method and you hold the same goals
as them.
Alternatively;
I vote Labour because my family always has. Or I vote Labour because
I’d prefer the government to focus on representing blue-collar
workers of which I am one.
Why
Toplessness? For a while this was the name of my E-Sports group,
which has been slowly getting more official. We never went with the
name toplessness or topless gamers because it may exclude females and
encourage gay jokes, neither of which we wanted to do. Belly dancing
berserker was another phrase bandied about. Note that originally a
berserker was a Norse warrior the went around bear shirt (without a
top) to scare their opponents, it rains a lot in Norway. Belly used
alliteration and I’d been enjoying dancing. We also trialed
“Sir-LANs-A-Lot” “Psizomaijitsu” and “LANdownunder”. I
still like the “less”ness of the word and have decided that it
will fit for my life philosophy.
I
probably should re-read all the above before I post itonto my blog.
But I’ve come to the realization that this philosophy will change
over time and even though I feel like I may be half way through
explaining it I have a lot of words, yeah I think there are too many
there for me to actually proofread it. I tried to have each paragraph
contain a single theme or concept and yet let all of them directly
flow from one thought to the next with a bumpless transfer. Usually
when talking to people I skip 2-3 thought processes and people think
I’m changing the topic.
Icon3
Below my icon is my POV ray code, Took me a long time to finish this. To begin with I measured how big my belly buttons and nipples are. then worked outwards, roughly in centimeters. Then I shifted things around so they fit better. I tried a circular boarder but I think that would require more golden rectangle calculations. Considered cyan for a while but went with magenta ins the end as a more obvious color. I had to lighten it up with grey light, the top is red and the bottom blue, well a slight tint anyway.
#include "colors.inc"
#include "finish.inc"
//Output_File_Name=c:\My Documents\povrayimages\
//probably end up with a magenta/black color scheme
//global_settings { ambient_light rgb<1, 1, 1> }
//background
plane
{
z,+.1
pigment {rgb <1,0,1>}
}
//area of interest is
// -11 < x < 11
// 0.0 < y < 21
// 0.0 < z < 0.1
// bit this needs to be slightly expanded for a neat boarder
//eye
camera
{
location <0,10.5,-30>
look_at <0,10.5,0>
}
light_source { <-11,0,-25> <0,0,1> shadowless}
light_source { <11,21,-25> <1,0,0> shadowless}
light_source { <0,10.5,-25> <0.5,0.5,0.5>}
//light_source { <0,10.5,-25> <1,1,1>}
//Boarder
#declare border =
torus
{
20, 6
pigment { Black}
rotate x*-90
translate <0,11,-0.1>
}
//border
//hairs
#declare hair =
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 1.1
<0,-3,0>, 0
}
#declare Count = 0;
#declare hairs =
union
{
#while (Count < 100)
object {hair rotate z*Count }
#declare Count=Count +15;
#end
}
#declare LHairs =
union
{
hairs
rotate z*-90
translate <-5,14,0>
}
#declare RHairs =
union
{
hairs
translate <5,14,0>
}
//left side =
difference {
triangle
{
<-5, -1, 0>, <-11,14,0>,<-5,14,0>
pigment { Black}
}
LHairs //translate <-5,14,0>
pigment {rgb <1,0,1>}
}
//Right side =
difference {
triangle
{
<5, -1, 0>, <11,14,0>,<5,14,0>
pigment { Black}
}
RHairs
pigment {rgb <1,0,1>}
}
//left top =
triangle
{
<-2.5, 18, 0>, <-11,18,0>,<-2.5,21,0>
pigment { Black}
}
//Right top =
triangle
{
<2.5, 18, 0>, <11,18,0>,<2.5,21,0>
pigment { Black}
}
//Nipples
disc
{
<0,0,0>,z, 0.6, 0.2
pigment { Black}
translate <-3,10,0>
}
disc
{
<0,0,0>,z, 0.6, 0.2
pigment { Black}
translate <3,10,0>
}
//sphere at origen
sphere
{
<0,0,0>, 0.4
pigment { Black }
}
#include "colors.inc"
#include "finish.inc"
//Output_File_Name=c:\My Documents\povrayimages\
//probably end up with a magenta/black color scheme
//global_settings { ambient_light rgb<1, 1, 1> }
//background
plane
{
z,+.1
pigment {rgb <1,0,1>}
}
//area of interest is
// -11 < x < 11
// 0.0 < y < 21
// 0.0 < z < 0.1
// bit this needs to be slightly expanded for a neat boarder
//eye
camera
{
location <0,10.5,-30>
look_at <0,10.5,0>
}
light_source { <-11,0,-25> <0,0,1> shadowless}
light_source { <11,21,-25> <1,0,0> shadowless}
light_source { <0,10.5,-25> <0.5,0.5,0.5>}
//light_source { <0,10.5,-25> <1,1,1>}
//Boarder
#declare border =
torus
{
20, 6
pigment { Black}
rotate x*-90
translate <0,11,-0.1>
}
//border
//hairs
#declare hair =
cone
{
<0,0,0>, 1.1
<0,-3,0>, 0
}
#declare Count = 0;
#declare hairs =
union
{
#while (Count < 100)
object {hair rotate z*Count }
#declare Count=Count +15;
#end
}
#declare LHairs =
union
{
hairs
rotate z*-90
translate <-5,14,0>
}
#declare RHairs =
union
{
hairs
translate <5,14,0>
}
//left side =
difference {
triangle
{
<-5, -1, 0>, <-11,14,0>,<-5,14,0>
pigment { Black}
}
LHairs //translate <-5,14,0>
pigment {rgb <1,0,1>}
}
//Right side =
difference {
triangle
{
<5, -1, 0>, <11,14,0>,<5,14,0>
pigment { Black}
}
RHairs
pigment {rgb <1,0,1>}
}
//left top =
triangle
{
<-2.5, 18, 0>, <-11,18,0>,<-2.5,21,0>
pigment { Black}
}
//Right top =
triangle
{
<2.5, 18, 0>, <11,18,0>,<2.5,21,0>
pigment { Black}
}
//Nipples
disc
{
<0,0,0>,z, 0.6, 0.2
pigment { Black}
translate <-3,10,0>
}
disc
{
<0,0,0>,z, 0.6, 0.2
pigment { Black}
translate <3,10,0>
}
//sphere at origen
sphere
{
<0,0,0>, 0.4
pigment { Black }
}
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