the-inbetween.com

Winter Commute

Up to mid-January there were, by my recollections, no more than two signifcant snowfalls this season. Then, the weather started to conspire against me. A few weeks ago, I had an interview (at the other end of the city): it snowed, and it was slow. A week later, I was asked to come in for a follow-up interview: it snowed even more. Then I got the job and went in for my first day: it snowed even more and, with the rush-hour traffic, it was insanely slow. Day two of work: the second and even more severe round of the same storm hits and the traffic is slower still. We were permitted to leave work early, however, so was virtually everyone else in the city. So instead of avoiding the rush hour, the rush hour came two hours early. Whoop-dee-doo-fun!

They expect another 10cms tomorrow, along with freezing rain and ice pellets. (what are we at now? Half a metre of snow?)

At this rate of deterioration, by my tenth day of work the entire city will be covered by a kilometre thick glacier.

I'm tired.

Game Developer

This monday, after nearly a year of pseudo-freelancing and genuine-slacking, I make my return to full-time work. I will be, once again, a productive member of society. That's not to say that my away time has been unproductive, as I have finally beaten Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City, it's just that my concept -- my definition -- of "productive" is slightly askew of the accepted norms.

Besides, seeing as my official title will be the overly specific "Flash Game Developer," there is room for the argument that my time in Vice City can be cited as "research". The best aspect of this new title is that it, once again, gives me a professional excuse to think about game design and mechanics and puzzles and gameplay. I can now shift from the role of the player to the role of the designer. And while I find all that theory and ludology immensely fascinating, I know that it's not the realm for me; I've always been more about application rather than study, and more about consumption rather than deconstruction. So I'm glad that I have such a specific title and such a specific focus.

Also, making money is good.

Mixmaster

It's pointless, but I find the website mixmaster strangely amusing. The best mix for my content has to be, in my humble opinion, Timecube: timecube vs the-inbetween. Other fun mixes: McGuinty vs International Association of Assholes; President Bush vs Landover Baptist; Paul Martin Times vs Maddox Hatemail.

Though, I imagine, the more proper mix for the last one would be Paul Martin Time (not to be confused with the plural "Times"). Say what you want about Chretien, but at least he didn't look like a fruity children's show host. He's so dreamy!

By the way, I suck at the 80s quiz [warning: major time waster]. Final Score: 46.25. This despite the fact that I've been listening to a lot of cheesy 80s music lately. Looks like I have a lot more to catching up to do. However, 46 is probably not too shabby a score for someone that didn't start listening to music of any kind until 1991. Oh, if there was an early 90s quiz...

Traitors Can't Hide

Apparently, inquiring about Microsoft Flight Simulator in a Staples store is "suspicious", "out of the ordinary", and enough to "raise red-flags." This coming at a time when the FBI is warning the police to look-out for individuals carrying almanacs or maps. It is quite clear to me, watching from within America's northern neighbour, that the United States is reaching a level of paranoia not seen since the warmest days of the cold war. I don't think this is what Jefferson had in mind when he said the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Traitors can't hide.

Actionscript Quine

A quine is a program that generates a copy of its own source text as its complete output.. The quine page has quines in a variety of languages, except the one I've worked with the most: Flash Actionscript. Not having anything currently better to do, I took up the puzzle for geeky "hackish amusement".

Here's my actionscript quine. Could be optimized, but it works! Here's the same quine but with linebreaks, to make it somewhat more readable. That was strangely fun!

Ahhh, science: is there anything you can't figure out?

Hey! and other hacks

I hate to generalize, because there are many exceptions, but some of the expected responses warrant this generalization: Asking Slashdot about net.art is like asking a bunch of chefs about M-Theory. You might get a cake out of it but don't expect relevant discussion.

I kid. I kid. There are some good posts there amongst the misguided geek masses.

In other discussions, a thirteen year old does a net send on the school's network to say "hey!" and the dumbass teacher thinks he hacked the network and suspends him for three days. There are a lot of stupid things about this story, like the fact that he was able to do it in the first place, but most of those have been pointed out in that thread.

If sending a "hey!" warrants three days, then let me think back to grade nine. In grade nine, I remember the following: we discovered a way to get out of the sandbox the computers had installed; in some cases, we could browse some peoples' (and teachers') account information; I believe, in keyboarding class, we got into the teacher's account; we managed to find a way to install external programs; we played Prince of Persia during keyboarding class (well, when a supply was there); and, in that same keyboarding class, we had access to pornographic images on the network. Now, these weren't todays high quality full-colour jpegs, but they were clear enough. Surely more defined than the various sexual doodlings in the textbooks. The strange thing is I don't think any of the students installed them. It's possible that was the teacher's stash. Which, knowing the teacher, wouldn't have been too surprising; creepy fucker. I could be wrong, but that's been my general assumption for the last decade.

As I said, that was just grade 9. There was plenty more mischief in the later grades, when the internet was reaching a saturation point and the class computers were all, for the most part, Windows-based.

If a net send is enough to warrant a three day suspension, the shit we did would have warranted expulsion and deportation. Ahhh, memories.

Fontified

Fontifier. Fonts for the masses! Probably the easiest way to make fonts ever. Sure, the fonts it generates are weak in a lot of respects but it's still a neat tool.

The print, write on paper, and scan method is too tedious for me so I just stuck with the ever useful tablet. The result:

n0wak tablet font. It's hard to write consistently on a tablet, but ignoring that excuse: yes, my writing sucks octopus balls. Thank god for computers.

Simultaneity

Obviously, upon seeing the stereoscopic Mars images, I wasn't the first one to think of the jiggly effect: here's some more Martian jiggliness. Eh, I still like mine better because I have a slight fade transition between the frames.

I've alredy linked it through del.icio.us, but I want to point out the Appleseed site and trailers over here. Some nice computer generated, motion captured, cel-shaded japanimation there! (though the female protagonist jumping off a building thing is tired, man.)

Also, CBC's 1993 story: A Network Called "Internet". It's been making the rounds, but it's just too amusing to pass up. Peter Mansbridge with hair typing it up on an old-school modem-connected PC with early net geeks who think the "Internet" has more soul than most people they know. Good stuff. I wonder what those geeks think of the net now.

Junior Losers and Spirit

Once again, the Juniors held a lead going into the third period of the gold medal game. Once again, they lost. sigh. I wouldn't mind the loss so much if it was a proper loss; but this third period implosion has to stop. It makes it a harder blow to take. The worst part of it, though, is the fact that they lost to Canada Jr. Lose to the Russians? Fine! Lose to the host Finns? Fine! But Canada Jr.? Not. Cool.

As unfortunate as it is, there's only one international ice hockey tournament that counts this year: this summer's World Cup. As long as we win that, this loss will be forgotten.

Anyway, I'm sure you've seen the initial batch of photos from Spirit including todays panoramas. I like the 3D image, but I don't have 3D glasses. So to get that stereoscopic feel, I made this animated gif. Sort of works at showing depth.

Resolutions of a Gamer

New year's resolutions are worthless to me. I don't bother. However, there are some things that, as a gamer, I do wish to complete. The ones that sit there on the shelf and mock me. Those are the ones I want to put to rest.

I WILL finish one of the Grand Theft Auto games. Most likely, Grand Theft Auto 3. I have played both games extensively, but I have yet to complete all the missions. Screw all the hidden packages though.

I WILL finish Zone of the Enders 2, even though I can't remember a single bit of the Kojima-esque story.

I WILL unlock and complete those last few bonus tracks in Amplitude and Frequency, even if my fingers will fall off in the process.

I WILL play and beat Metroid Prime on hard.

I WILL get at least ten million points in Ikaruga. I was going to say: "I WILL one credit this on normal," but I know that will never happen.

I WILL complete the damned campaign in Advance Wars. I really like the game, but it can be so sloooooow at times.

I WILL get a Saturn.

Lastly, I WILL play Valkyrie Profile. I've seen this game revered quite often, so when I saw it at EB some months ago, I had to get it. I've yet to play it.

It's not the only game that I own that I haven't played yet (you know you have a problem when...), but it is the most prominent. Although Morrowind is tempting too...