Updates:
Working for "The Man" now. Pays very well. Also got the best toys.
Made some awesome friends.
Got even more electronic doohickery.
I teach @ MIT OEOP during the fall!
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Monday, October 1, 2012
Google won't let this thing die!
Proof that anything that goes on the internet, stays on the internet.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Trying to understand the hierarchy of Crimes in the US:
In my ignorant style, I'll use Dante's nomenclature of sins.
Crimes against Self:
Usually minor, but for social cohesion and decorum are enforced.
Drug Usage, Suicide attempts.
Crimes against Property:
Arson, Burglary, Vandalism
Crimes against Others:
Through willful action or negligence cause deliberate harm to other members of society.
These are very serious: Manslaughter/Murder, Rape, Assault
Crimes against Authority:
The government views these as an affront to its survival.
Sedition, Treason, Counterfeiting
random thought of the summer
In my ignorant style, I'll use Dante's nomenclature of sins.
Crimes against Self:
Usually minor, but for social cohesion and decorum are enforced.
Drug Usage, Suicide attempts.
Crimes against Property:
Arson, Burglary, Vandalism
Crimes against Others:
Through willful action or negligence cause deliberate harm to other members of society.
These are very serious: Manslaughter/Murder, Rape, Assault
Crimes against Authority:
The government views these as an affront to its survival.
Sedition, Treason, Counterfeiting
random thought of the summer
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Merry Crimbo
Crimbotime has come and gone. Thank god.
Post Partum wrap up. I got a scarf, slippers, sign, screwdriver set, and a tiny Lego kit.
My uncle gave the family Rock Band. Guess what we were doing Dec. 26.
2008 is about to leave. Thank god.
Very little happened this year that made me want to remember it.
Probably the highlight were the Chinese Olympics opening ceremonies, and Barack ripping McCain a new one.
This IAP will be looking for stuff, and hopefully building some stuff as well.
Glowing Dopamine and Epinephrine. mmm
Playing SimCity 4 some more. Increasingly breaking the game by introducing more mods that are supposed to highlight the experience [better traffic pathfinding, more intelligent development, more building diversity]
Saw The Fall. Artistic movie if there ever was one, but the colors were so gorgeously saturated I couldn't hate it. Worth watching.
Hate Fox even more for litigating against Watchmen.
Trying to formalize my political beliefs.
Relative Left leaning I guess, but more interested in Pragmatism. No starry-eyed hippy nonsense about the inherent good of people [oh the educational experiments of the 70's]. It better have been proven or is so grounded in logic we should be dumbfounded on why we didn't have it in the first place.
Post Partum wrap up. I got a scarf, slippers, sign, screwdriver set, and a tiny Lego kit.
My uncle gave the family Rock Band. Guess what we were doing Dec. 26.
2008 is about to leave. Thank god.
Very little happened this year that made me want to remember it.
Probably the highlight were the Chinese Olympics opening ceremonies, and Barack ripping McCain a new one.
This IAP will be looking for stuff, and hopefully building some stuff as well.
Glowing Dopamine and Epinephrine. mmm
Playing SimCity 4 some more. Increasingly breaking the game by introducing more mods that are supposed to highlight the experience [better traffic pathfinding, more intelligent development, more building diversity]
Saw The Fall. Artistic movie if there ever was one, but the colors were so gorgeously saturated I couldn't hate it. Worth watching.
Hate Fox even more for litigating against Watchmen.
Trying to formalize my political beliefs.
Relative Left leaning I guess, but more interested in Pragmatism. No starry-eyed hippy nonsense about the inherent good of people [oh the educational experiments of the 70's]. It better have been proven or is so grounded in logic we should be dumbfounded on why we didn't have it in the first place.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Blarg.
Finals week is here. Not a very happy camper. But I cannot complain, most of mine are relatively innocuous subjects, and I'm in no danger of failing any of them, so this is mostly ego speaking here.
Like: "I'll be a monkey's uncle if all the work I put into that will get me a B friggin minus"
Anyway, moving on
Thought the Engineer Update was a step in the right direction. Teleporters are hella useful, and there are practical choices for deciding what goes up first. The problem lies in that ALL of his stuff is very dangerous, so this increases the onus on the other team to really dig that tick out.
Started playing SC4 again in earnest last week. Lots of fun. I have 2 cities that breached the 120K people barrier, hard difficulty, no cheats, no 'plops'. Well, maybe 1 plop. I got the Black Hole Garbage energy collector that takes in all the garbage for $200 instead of $1000.
Well c'mon do you really expect me to designate a city as "Landfill central?" I got most of the undesireables in check. Dirty cities are distinct from clean ones. I named one of the poor slums 8 mile (I'm looking at YOU Eminem).
Bad thoughts I had while playing the game:
I wonder how many people I'll make homeless with this construction plan??
Stupid High rise R$ tenements overwhelming my subway/bus system...
Too many poor people want to move into my city! Must, tax, them, more...
What do you people want from me!? Lousy ingrates...
--------------------------------------------
Other things that may help improve the game (in my eyes)
--STOP CONVERTING ALL C$ into C$$$ or CO$$
C$ gets its ass handed to it when the higher ups, CO$$, even have a smidgen of desireability. I like offices as much as the next guy, but We need laundromats too
--REAL CITIES HAVE MIXED TYPES
Living around boston the most common type to see is:
CS$+ R$, CS$+ R$$. CS$$+ R$$, CS$$$+ R$$$
Example: On Mass. Ave, there's a 7-11 with an apartment above.
CS$ (12), R$ (250). This is a solution for those Residential types that naturally get a shitton of traffic (high density)
--HIGHER CAPACITY MASS TRANSIT
DC has hub subway stations that are purposefully designed to handle a bigger load.
Subway Hub: $2000. Maxiumum Capacity: 10,000. 2X1 foot print, 2X2 underground
To actually get to capacity, the Hub passivly boosts the walking limits of buildings around it, sims will walk 9 steps instead of 5-7
Subway Trunk Line: $500 per segment
The Avenue version of the subway line. Maximum capacity is 20,000 through it.
Bus Hub, $500, 4000 Riders, 1X2 spot
etc.
Because I'm really getting aggravated of putting down 3 bus stops in 7 tiles beacuase HD-R $$ is overwhelming them.
--Concurrent Road and MT
Chicago inner loop is a great example. EL line, and Monorail would really benefit from this. Too often I bulldoze 3 blocks, only to find that My sims find the MT too pedestrian to use, wasting my efforts. Of course, to reward those who actually plan ahead, over road EL and Monorail would be Much, Much more expensive
--Selective High Lights
SC4 got the right ideas for glowing certain buildings when deciding to place another. This is fine and dandy for buildings that provide the exact same service: Police, Fire, Health
Not so great for Education: where we have: Elementary, High, Collegate, Library, and Museum to worry about and spread around for maximal effectiveness. We don't even need a toggle to select high lights. A poster, tag, sign of which is which would help immensely.
--Higher Employment I-HT.
Seriously, the highest employer for I-HT is 100. The highest office employer is ~ 7000
What the hell.
A tech park can easily hit 1,000 engineers and scientists [Think intel Fabrication plants]. CERN has 2600 full time employees [not to mention visiting and consulting staff], and ~8000 Scientists and Engineers (10000 workers in 1 campus). Please, put in some higher capacity I-HT, I got 2 cities that are pretty much sprawling parks of the same 10 buildings over and over and over again! More variety in buildings is always a plus.
--Regional Metagame
As regional Governor you get some pretty swanky powers that come along with it.
For instance: You can scrape off some of the budget from other cities for mega projects [$$$$] that 1 city usually cannot do by itself!
Regional Awards: You don't HAVE to bestow these on anybody, they are only here to increase challenges, improve other cities, change the flavor of the game a little bit. The requirements to get these rewards need a populous, 'healthy' region.
State Capital. Region hits 1 million inhabitants, only 1 city can be the "capital". That city gets a nice Tourism and Commerical Boost. Unfortunately, incoming traffic and crime [corruption] may increase as well. The capital city gets a cool little star, and may build the Govenor's Home, State Legislature, etc.
Sin City. Designate a city to have laxer gambling laws [and you though Legalize gambling was just bad enough]. Tourism gets a steroid shot. Crime goes wild. The city can place a variety of casinos that really pad the budget.
Grid Central. Designate a City to be a principal supplier of energy. City population HAS to remain under a certain level for safety reasons. All cities that are connected (by some way) to Grid Central's electric network can buy their energy straight from them. Grid Central has the bonus of reduced maintainence costs, Lower achievement requirments, longer lifespan, on all of their plants. Fire Hazard goes through the roof. Cancer rates [damn hi-transmission lines] also increase.
No Man's Land. Cordon off a would-be city to serve as the general refuse pit for the entire region. All cities have an option of choosing to ship their trash to this forsaken land, usually at a premium. The choice of using this lowers the Environment score for the target city to 0.
Hooverville. R$ will move into this city in droves. Illegality, Illness, Illiteracy skyrocket. Why would you make a city into a slum? Simple. Reduces the lower element's desire into moving into other cities. If you provide a lot of services for the R$ types, make them happy, more will want to move into Hooverville, and not into others (makes it easier for High density R$$$ to develop). However, the reduction depends on how many live in the city and how happy they are. If they get too restless, the situation rebounds, R$ will leave your city in an exodus, finding themselves refugees in other cities and boosting the crime/undesireability REGION WIDE. BWAHAHA
So the designation scheme works kinda like a scenario mode, but you choose how and where, and If you succeed, all cities in the area prosper. If you stink at it... well,
Mega projects would be aweinspiring, and require at least the financial backbone of a nation to get behind.
Missile Defense Shield :: (NORAD)
Areonautics and Space Agency ::(Cape Canaveral / Houston Mission Control)
Super Collider :: (LHC)
Great Dam ::(3 Gorges Dam)
Federal Highway System ::(USA)
Naval Shipyard ::(Pearl Harbor)
State University ::(University of Texas)
we can go on and on and on...
but who cares
Time to study some more
Finals week is here. Not a very happy camper. But I cannot complain, most of mine are relatively innocuous subjects, and I'm in no danger of failing any of them, so this is mostly ego speaking here.
Like: "I'll be a monkey's uncle if all the work I put into that will get me a B friggin minus"
Anyway, moving on
Thought the Engineer Update was a step in the right direction. Teleporters are hella useful, and there are practical choices for deciding what goes up first. The problem lies in that ALL of his stuff is very dangerous, so this increases the onus on the other team to really dig that tick out.
Started playing SC4 again in earnest last week. Lots of fun. I have 2 cities that breached the 120K people barrier, hard difficulty, no cheats, no 'plops'. Well, maybe 1 plop. I got the Black Hole Garbage energy collector that takes in all the garbage for $200 instead of $1000.
Well c'mon do you really expect me to designate a city as "Landfill central?" I got most of the undesireables in check. Dirty cities are distinct from clean ones. I named one of the poor slums 8 mile (I'm looking at YOU Eminem).
Bad thoughts I had while playing the game:
I wonder how many people I'll make homeless with this construction plan??
Stupid High rise R$ tenements overwhelming my subway/bus system...
Too many poor people want to move into my city! Must, tax, them, more...
What do you people want from me!? Lousy ingrates...
--------------------------------------------
Other things that may help improve the game (in my eyes)
--STOP CONVERTING ALL C$ into C$$$ or CO$$
C$ gets its ass handed to it when the higher ups, CO$$, even have a smidgen of desireability. I like offices as much as the next guy, but We need laundromats too
--REAL CITIES HAVE MIXED TYPES
Living around boston the most common type to see is:
CS$+ R$, CS$+ R$$. CS$$+ R$$, CS$$$+ R$$$
Example: On Mass. Ave, there's a 7-11 with an apartment above.
CS$ (12), R$ (250). This is a solution for those Residential types that naturally get a shitton of traffic (high density)
--HIGHER CAPACITY MASS TRANSIT
DC has hub subway stations that are purposefully designed to handle a bigger load.
Subway Hub: $2000. Maxiumum Capacity: 10,000. 2X1 foot print, 2X2 underground
To actually get to capacity, the Hub passivly boosts the walking limits of buildings around it, sims will walk 9 steps instead of 5-7
Subway Trunk Line: $500 per segment
The Avenue version of the subway line. Maximum capacity is 20,000 through it.
Bus Hub, $500, 4000 Riders, 1X2 spot
etc.
Because I'm really getting aggravated of putting down 3 bus stops in 7 tiles beacuase HD-R $$ is overwhelming them.
--Concurrent Road and MT
Chicago inner loop is a great example. EL line, and Monorail would really benefit from this. Too often I bulldoze 3 blocks, only to find that My sims find the MT too pedestrian to use, wasting my efforts. Of course, to reward those who actually plan ahead, over road EL and Monorail would be Much, Much more expensive
--Selective High Lights
SC4 got the right ideas for glowing certain buildings when deciding to place another. This is fine and dandy for buildings that provide the exact same service: Police, Fire, Health
Not so great for Education: where we have: Elementary, High, Collegate, Library, and Museum to worry about and spread around for maximal effectiveness. We don't even need a toggle to select high lights. A poster, tag, sign of which is which would help immensely.
--Higher Employment I-HT.
Seriously, the highest employer for I-HT is 100. The highest office employer is ~ 7000
What the hell.
A tech park can easily hit 1,000 engineers and scientists [Think intel Fabrication plants]. CERN has 2600 full time employees [not to mention visiting and consulting staff], and ~8000 Scientists and Engineers (10000 workers in 1 campus). Please, put in some higher capacity I-HT, I got 2 cities that are pretty much sprawling parks of the same 10 buildings over and over and over again! More variety in buildings is always a plus.
--Regional Metagame
As regional Governor you get some pretty swanky powers that come along with it.
For instance: You can scrape off some of the budget from other cities for mega projects [$$$$] that 1 city usually cannot do by itself!
Regional Awards: You don't HAVE to bestow these on anybody, they are only here to increase challenges, improve other cities, change the flavor of the game a little bit. The requirements to get these rewards need a populous, 'healthy' region.
State Capital. Region hits 1 million inhabitants, only 1 city can be the "capital". That city gets a nice Tourism and Commerical Boost. Unfortunately, incoming traffic and crime [corruption] may increase as well. The capital city gets a cool little star, and may build the Govenor's Home, State Legislature, etc.
Sin City. Designate a city to have laxer gambling laws [and you though Legalize gambling was just bad enough]. Tourism gets a steroid shot. Crime goes wild. The city can place a variety of casinos that really pad the budget.
Grid Central. Designate a City to be a principal supplier of energy. City population HAS to remain under a certain level for safety reasons. All cities that are connected (by some way) to Grid Central's electric network can buy their energy straight from them. Grid Central has the bonus of reduced maintainence costs, Lower achievement requirments, longer lifespan, on all of their plants. Fire Hazard goes through the roof. Cancer rates [damn hi-transmission lines] also increase.
No Man's Land. Cordon off a would-be city to serve as the general refuse pit for the entire region. All cities have an option of choosing to ship their trash to this forsaken land, usually at a premium. The choice of using this lowers the Environment score for the target city to 0.
Hooverville. R$ will move into this city in droves. Illegality, Illness, Illiteracy skyrocket. Why would you make a city into a slum? Simple. Reduces the lower element's desire into moving into other cities. If you provide a lot of services for the R$ types, make them happy, more will want to move into Hooverville, and not into others (makes it easier for High density R$$$ to develop). However, the reduction depends on how many live in the city and how happy they are. If they get too restless, the situation rebounds, R$ will leave your city in an exodus, finding themselves refugees in other cities and boosting the crime/undesireability REGION WIDE. BWAHAHA
So the designation scheme works kinda like a scenario mode, but you choose how and where, and If you succeed, all cities in the area prosper. If you stink at it... well,
Mega projects would be aweinspiring, and require at least the financial backbone of a nation to get behind.
Missile Defense Shield :: (NORAD)
Areonautics and Space Agency ::(Cape Canaveral / Houston Mission Control)
Super Collider :: (LHC)
Great Dam ::(3 Gorges Dam)
Federal Highway System ::(USA)
Naval Shipyard ::(Pearl Harbor)
State University ::(University of Texas)
we can go on and on and on...
but who cares
Time to study some more
Monday, December 8, 2008
Hmm, a 1 to 1 mapping of transgressions against god
A few things for thought.
Then and Now
Wrath:: Trolling [OMG WTF STFU JEW]
Pride:: Blogging [I'm right, they're wrong, listen to me]
Sloth:: Surfing [Sitting in a chair all day]
Gluttony:: Downloading [Must hog bandwidth]
Envy:: Spam [Get a bigger p3n1s! Cheap $$ Drugs! Get Ma1l order Brides!]
Greed:: Piracy [SecuROM sux! I'm ripping em off!]
Lust:: Porn [Self-Explanatory]
Thus Completes my list that anything you can do on the internet can be construed as a sin
Thus The internet is Evil
and for porn.
"Forgive me father for I have sinned, I have rick-rolled seven people today"
"Sigh, 15 hail marys"
Then and Now
Wrath:: Trolling [OMG WTF STFU JEW]
Pride:: Blogging [I'm right, they're wrong, listen to me]
Sloth:: Surfing [Sitting in a chair all day]
Gluttony:: Downloading [Must hog bandwidth]
Envy:: Spam [Get a bigger p3n1s! Cheap $$ Drugs! Get Ma1l order Brides!]
Greed:: Piracy [SecuROM sux! I'm ripping em off!]
Lust:: Porn [Self-Explanatory]
Thus Completes my list that anything you can do on the internet can be construed as a sin
Thus The internet is Evil
and for porn.
"Forgive me father for I have sinned, I have rick-rolled seven people today"
"Sigh, 15 hail marys"
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Thoughts of the Day
I wonder how they make salt uniformly sized
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"
- A. Einstein
Thanks to Quantum Mechanics, we know this to be not true.
Youtube: Apathy's Fuck You
Zero Pretension
No Apprehension
Forget Empathy
All Antipathy
It so over the top that I can't help but crack into a grin over his misanthropy
But there's still a lot to life that just doesn't [apparently FFox doesn't like the word Doesn't ] make sense. Because the fundamentals of a 'good' life are so uncomplicated it takes human ingenuity to find someway to finagle it.
Work hard, eat right, respect your neighbor, seek truth, act deliberately, hurt no one, love your family, relax, explore.
I know I left out the subtle details that make each existence unique but that's it.
9 Steps to an unregrettable life. Hell if I can actually follow them myself. hmmpf.
Songs I picked Up by trolling the internet. Yech, messy business
World Without Logos : It seems to be a song from a weird anime sorta thing. Eh. Lyrics don't make sense, but just listen to it and get caught up in the beat.
It's All been Done. Made 10 years ago (about), BNL was good back then, still good now
Combination of the above to songs makes me think of Calvino's Cosmicomics. Great book. Qfwfq always wears the same pair of sunglasses in all of his incarnations throughout existence, meeting, loving, and losing the same woman as the universe changes. Swing dancing on a molten planet, exploding meteroites illuminate the sky. Q chasing his friend, surfing on galaxies as they twirl about in the void.
Yeah... I might need something about that. [No doc! I'm not crazy!]
Play it backwards. Play it forwards.
Beat Dubs
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results"
- A. Einstein
Thanks to Quantum Mechanics, we know this to be not true.
Youtube: Apathy's Fuck You
Zero Pretension
No Apprehension
Forget Empathy
All Antipathy
It so over the top that I can't help but crack into a grin over his misanthropy
But there's still a lot to life that just doesn't [apparently FFox doesn't like the word Doesn't ] make sense. Because the fundamentals of a 'good' life are so uncomplicated it takes human ingenuity to find someway to finagle it.
Work hard, eat right, respect your neighbor, seek truth, act deliberately, hurt no one, love your family, relax, explore.
I know I left out the subtle details that make each existence unique but that's it.
9 Steps to an unregrettable life. Hell if I can actually follow them myself. hmmpf.
Songs I picked Up by trolling the internet. Yech, messy business
World Without Logos : It seems to be a song from a weird anime sorta thing. Eh. Lyrics don't make sense, but just listen to it and get caught up in the beat.
It's All been Done. Made 10 years ago (about), BNL was good back then, still good now
Combination of the above to songs makes me think of Calvino's Cosmicomics. Great book. Qfwfq always wears the same pair of sunglasses in all of his incarnations throughout existence, meeting, loving, and losing the same woman as the universe changes. Swing dancing on a molten planet, exploding meteroites illuminate the sky. Q chasing his friend, surfing on galaxies as they twirl about in the void.
Yeah... I might need something about that. [No doc! I'm not crazy!]
Play it backwards. Play it forwards.
Beat Dubs
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