ps3s
2008/08/16 15:39:54
I bought a ps3 recently. It is pretty fun. One thing it means is that I am no longer solely Nintendo’s bitch with regards to consoles. GTA4 multiplayer is AAAAAAA++++ would play again. It is a bit annoying how the important and hard things, like the netcode for complex physics and interesting game modes are really well done, but the easy things to get right, like not allowing randoms into games that are meant to be private or not randomly turning off your bluetooth headset which is your only means of in-game communication are not. Yay for run-on sentences. Do not try to read that out loud. If you do then I disclaim any liability of death due to suffocation.
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computer_hat
2008/07/18 12:22:24
My working environment is not very inspirational, or healthy. It is an office on the 4th floor, filled with extremely generic office furniture. The majority of my life is spent sitting in front of my laptop, typing. I would like to be able to write, code, chat, and generally be connected on the move. Not all the time, but I’m getting tired of being trapped at a desk if I want to do these things efficiently.
A thing I want to buy, or make, or help make, is basically a computer hat. The main problem that needs to be solved for this is that of efficient hands free input of text. There has been a lot of work on brain-computer interfaces (see wikipedia for its usual just-about-trustworthy overview). I’d like to see how far you can get with an EEG, a big list of words, and some months training. Otherwise, eye tracking could be an option, or an accelerometer on a finger with some gesture recognition.
Invasive or “semi-invasive” brain implants are not an option right now. I’d also prefer to stay away from voice recognition because it’s still pretty inaccurate and it feels awkward and it wouldn’t work so well in noisy places and people would look at you funny for talking to yourself. Part of the motivation would be to produce a wearable computer that doesn’t make you look completely insane. It will still make you look a bit insane, but I think this could be limited. The head mounted display will be the most obvious thing.
As a tool I would like to use, I would need the hat to be capable of:- running an operating system (ideally ubuntu, but I would settle for embedded linux to start with, Windows XP or OS X would also be fine I guess). #running a terminal of some form, Vim and a browser (links would be just about acceptable, especially now that lots of sites are providing “mobile” versions which are actually usable in links.)
- hands free text input (see above, yes)
- networking: 3G or wifi
- storage: probably a few gigs, probably an SD card.
- battery: chunky, would need to last for at least 8 hours of use. Ideally 16. Would have to find the right balance of duration and weight.
- display: some form of head mounted display. Either one of those tiny displays that could dangle from the brim of the hat, or the full on VR style goggles. Ideally switchable between the two depending on whether you need to see the outside world or not.
- audio: an audio jack and headphones would make sense. Also a microphone.
- usb
- ethernet because I am amused by the concept of by sitting around with cat5 plugged into my head.
- Both G3 and wifi.
- Bluetooth
- Maybe some kind of silly lcd on the outside of the hat which you could post text or images to that people would see. (probably not)
So, I’d like to see if I could turn the hands free text input into a research project at some point, unless someone else solves it or has solved it already.
Anyway, thoughts on this would be appreciated, as would links people have to existing work on stuff like this. If you’re reading this aggregated elsewhere, I’d like comments on norgg.org so discussion can be in one place.
Edit:
I realised over lunch that the initial prototype of this will probably use a gumstix (probably borrowed from the office when we’re not using it), which has bluetooth and wifi and runs embedded linux. I’d need to get an lcd connected up to one. Input could be done using a wiimote (because I have a wii already and they use bluetooth) and gesture recognition.
No comments
google_knows
2008/07/07 16:02:23
If you use the google apps that I use, it knows:
- The contents of your email. (gmail)
- What you read about (news, blogs and comics). (google reader)
- What you do socially and often where you do it. (google calendar)
- Where you live and where you ask for directions to. (google maps)
- What films you are probably going to go watch (google movies search)
With this information, google could decide:
- Who you should be friends with based on where they are and what you and they like.
- Where you should go to socialise with your friends.
- When you are free to do so.
So:
You don’t need to organise your social life any more, you should just let google do it for you.
1 comment
stuff
2008/06/25 09:09:02
It says… something about our civilisation that a common problem for individuals is that of having too much stuff.
1 comment
hacking_with_net_hack
2008/06/23 15:09:14
No comments
malcolm_trail
2008/06/20 14:13:09
Science:
No comments
secret_codes
2008/06/19 13:52:53
Thu.13:48:26 <@Dave> hair--; Thu.13:48:31 <@patrick> r? Thu.13:48:34 <@Dave> r. Thu.13:48:39 <@patrick> ~ Thu.13:48:45 <@Dave> indeed
No comments
xkcd_meet_edinburgh
2008/06/19 11:22:49
1 comment
francelol
2008/06/02 12:19:09
I’m in france. In a big house. In the country. With a pool. Shit is good.
1 comment
some_kind_of_game
2008/05/16 14:09:18
So, I had yet another idea for a computer game on the way to work this yesterday morning. Here are some random notes about it. Maybe I’ll make it one day. It doesn’t have a name yet.
Something a bit like Wurm. But done in 2D, so the problems Wurm had are avoided and development is easier. Also a bit like Dwarf Fortress, but multiplayer.
Top-down or isometric viewpoint, square or hex grid.
Online, probably around 200 players or so per server. Maybe massively multiplayer.
Each player controls multiple characters as a “family”, starting off with a man and a woman.
The world starts covered wilderness.
No really defined aim, but there is conflict between players and the world to survive and conflict between players for resources. There will be an emergent economy, with no set currency at the start of the game. The technology level should gradually increase over time. There should be interactions between objects that are constantly being discovered.
~1 second tick based. Players submit actions, actions take at least one tick. Results are returned each tick, along with anything else in the world that has changed. All actions consist of applying one object to another object (other players and your current location are also objects) and then selecting what interaction you wish between these objects.
The game will be harsh. It will be very possible to be killed horribly. Groups of players will have the main advantage that they will be able to more effectively manage more characters between them.
There will be no XP. You may do whatever you (the player) know how to do.
There will be ownership. There will be theft. There will be defenses against theft.
If your family is defeated but still has some property, you may specify who that property is given to, including to your new family.
The client will be open source. The server probably less so. Automation of characters by players will be encouraged, people would just write bots anyway. The client will support some kind of scripting language.
Families will have to interbreed. Maybe through an oldschool marriage system, with dowries. Inbreeding probably won’t be allowed, but would be amusing if you could generate crazed mutants.
5 comments
rl_escher
2008/04/11 13:31:22
From slowriot comes this.
Ow. My head.
No comments
errno
2008/04/02 17:34:06
Just for the lol or something, a list of all the messages generated by strerror. Warning: geeky.
Success Operation not permitted No such file or directory No such process Interrupted system call Input/output error No such device or address Argument list too long Exec format error Bad file descriptor No child processes Resource temporarily unavailable Cannot allocate memory Permission denied Bad address Block device required Device or resource busy File exists Invalid cross-device link No such device Not a directory Is a directory Invalid argument Too many open files in system Too many open files Inappropriate ioctl for device Text file busy File too large No space left on device Illegal seek Read-only file system Too many links Broken pipe Numerical argument out of domain Numerical result out of range Resource deadlock avoided File name too long No locks available Function not implemented Directory not empty Too many levels of symbolic links Unknown error 41 No message of desired type Identifier removed Channel number out of range Level 2 not synchronized Level 3 halted Level 3 reset Link number out of range Protocol driver not attached No CSI structure available Level 2 halted Invalid exchange Invalid request descriptor Exchange full No anode Invalid request code Invalid slot Unknown error 58 Bad font file format Device not a stream No data available Timer expired Out of streams resources Machine is not on the network Package not installed Object is remote Link has been severed Advertise error Srmount error Communication error on send Protocol error Multihop attempted RFS specific error Bad message Value too large for defined data type Name not unique on network File descriptor in bad state Remote address changed Can not access a needed shared library Accessing a corrupted shared library .lib section in a.out corrupted Attempting to link in too many shared libraries Cannot exec a shared library directly Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character Interrupted system call should be restarted Streams pipe error Too many users Socket operation on non-socket Destination address required Message too long Protocol wrong type for socket Protocol not available Protocol not supported Socket type not supported Operation not supported Protocol family not supported Address family not supported by protocol Address already in use Cannot assign requested address Network is down Network is unreachable Network dropped connection on reset Software caused connection abort Connection reset by peer No buffer space available Transport endpoint is already connected Transport endpoint is not connected Cannot send after transport endpoint shutdown Too many references: cannot splice Connection timed out Connection refused Host is down No route to host Operation already in progress Operation now in progress Stale NFS file handle Structure needs cleaning Not a XENIX named type file No XENIX semaphores available Is a named type file Remote I/O error Disk quota exceeded No medium found Wrong medium type Operation canceled Required key not available Key has expired Key has been revoked Key was rejected by service Owner died State not recoverable Unknown error 132 Unknown error 133
3 comments
really
2008/03/31 12:43:16
I use the word really too much.
No comments
skiing
2008/03/31 11:45:39
I really, really love to ski. Got back from a skiing trip to Austria on Saturday.
One awesome thing about it is that no matter how unfit I am, my muscles for skiing still seem to be there. While I could ski better if I was fitter, I can still ski pretty smoothly even when I’ve gone while really, really unfit (the worst of which was probably when I was around 18 or 19).
Was really nice having Rachel along skiing for the first time too, even if she struggled with the skiing a bit due to not getting on very well with the equipment. Looking forward to eventually being able to ski around properly with her.
Going to try and organise a trip well in advance for next year so that anyone who wants to come along can do so. This trip was more a Family thing and was arranged a little bit last minute.
There were some pictures taken, they will be up (probably on facebor) at some point.
1 comment
sins
2008/03/12 23:43:20
| Greed: | Very Low | |
| Gluttony: | Medium | |
| Wrath: | Very Low | |
| Sloth: | High | |
| Envy: | Very Low | |
| Lust: | Medium | |
| Pride: | Medium |
Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz
1 comment