inane ramblings of a geek

if you haven’t heard it, go find his recent speach on religion… NOW!

I mentioned in my last post that media as we knew it was changing extremely rapidly, and I wanted to put my two cents in on a specific category of that, what we call ‘the news’.

It seems that as a 20 something year old, I have grown up with some extreme misconceptions. I thought news was supposed to be information about what’s going on in the world. Apparently, that doesn’t cut it anymore. There’s no such thing as public information delivery without some kind of prejudice. Contrary to what you may expect me to say next, I don’t really care if someone calls their ‘opinion’ news, because they are talking about world events, as long as they get the hard facts straight. I’m sick and tired of people whining about biased coverage. You want an unbiased coverage? Figure that out and then tell physicists how you did it, they’ll kill for that secret.

I don’t take offense to people who think that George W. Bush is the best president ever hang off the word of fox news adamantly taking everything they say at face value. They share that opinion. I don’t, but if they are in need of that mental masturbation then so be it. Same with this whole ‘Dawkins’ thing going on. The guy is very eloquent, and happens to share the same views on religion as a large portion of this modern world, but I don’t consider it a must read. Everyone tells me that it’s very insightful, but I really think it’ll boil down to wanking ones ego for a good six to eight hours and then afterwards having a cigarette as you bask in the great sensation of being told you are correct in more ways, and in more positions, than you could have possibly imagined. Anyways back to the topic…

I want to be treated with respect when it comes to my base level of intelligence. Apparently news, about the news, is now the new hot news, and that pisses me off. That assumes that I can’t establish for myself what is biased, and just turn that finger pointing back at yourself Mr. Newscaster, your soothing voice and calming disposition don’t fool me. Instead of spending your time wasting my time by telling that biased news coverage is wrong, how about you just tell me some facts as you interpret them about what’s going on in the world. Then, just maybe, by gathering many sources I can piece together a version of events which is semi-accurate and form an opinion based upon those facts, which by the way will 100% be re-evaluated as new facts are revealed.

So if you’re still reading, sorry about the angry overtone, but aren’t you tired of this bullshit too? If you’re not reading, I hope someone somewhere gives you the benefit of the doubt and doesn’t treat you like an idiot…

I guess that wish is also extended to those reading… … …

So recently I’ve been learning this new programming language, FLEX, and have been very impressed with how powerful it is. That is to say, how much power it takes to run the goddamn thing. The benefits of having this rich environment are completely subsidized by todays computer climate. My app which is only one page is a staggering .25 mb, and while you are correct in asserting that this is .000125 of todays average computer memory, it’s also correct to say that it is 250,000 bites.

When once there was a need for programmers to save every bit of memory, now concern for cpu performane is pushed aside for todays new bottleneck. Bandwidth. Even that isn’t much of a hindrance with today’s willy-nilly use of broadband with all this ’streaming’.

I guess the point of this is, ‘media’, in all of it’s thousands of meanings, is changing so rapidly right now that no one can keep up. I’m excited to see what awaits us, and also terrified to watch people blunder about without a clue trying to make money off of out-dated technology.

If you’re still reading, buy nintendo stocks!

just a quick update, trying to keep a schedule of some sorts (ie. put something up once a day sporatically)

i’ve been trying to get a drag and drop menu to work but the problem is I can hard-code it no problem, but that is very, very cumbersome and since flex doesn’t support CSS, only SS (properties of the parent don’t cascade down to the children yet) to change it is just as clumsy.

currently everything is working but I haven’t tried to add the dragEvent properties to an object dynamically created at runtime and added via actionscript… if I can figure out how to do that, the elegant solution has arisen easily… if not, i have a lot of research//haxing to do

if you’re still reading, wish me luck! if not, then go suck a lemon

So I don’t have as much time on my hands today since we’re about to start a Dibalo II marathon, but I am extremely happy to say that I’ve implemented a drag and drop menu which takes data from source and destination, which means I have functionally completed the SSBB flash character chooser for my smash bro’s website idea…

It’s hard to convince people who don’t know programming to get excited when you click on an image of yourself, ‘drag’ it to a box, and when you let go have two text fields change to ‘image1′ and ‘box1′ respectively…

Setp one: Set a computer to emulate a DDR style game on easy (or maybe medium?) only

Step two: Implement 4 switches built into coaster sized ‘contact areas’

Step three: Connect the 4 switches to both the computer and 4 servo motors built into a Beer Tap hose

GAME: when the glass is lifted off the switch, it counts as pressing the arrow in the game, when the glass is placed back on the switch it triggers the servo motor to allow .5 seconds of beer to flow through that segment of the tap to refill the glass a tiny portion… the better you play the more drunk you get, so the longer you play, the worse you get, the less you drink…

There seems to be some part of this crazy thing called the ‘internets’ which eludes those in power which always makes important websites, specifically government and large business, absolutely useless. They just can’t seem to grasp how easy basic of a task it is to put information people want and need, online with all that other information they want you to see.

For example:

I love skating, and living in Ottawa allows me to go skating on ‘the longest skating rink in the world’, the canal, and get some good, free, exercise. Now it’s been a fairly odd winter weather wise so I look to the online website for if it’s open or not occasionally. I saw some people merrily enjoying skating downtown on it, and I was overjoyed! The time had finally come to dust the cobwebs off the blades, sharpen them, and strap them to my feet to go relatively slowly and look like an idiot. I hadn’t checked online in a while so that was my first destination when I got home, and lo and behold! ‘Excellent’ ice conditions! This was my lucky day. The weather was great, though a bit windy, but that doesn’t matter since it’s Canada and it’s the winter and when it’s not -40 with 3ft of blowing snow we’re always happy.

So off I went via public transportation, and made my way to Dows Lake, which is the ‘other’ end from downtown about 7.4 km as the skater glides away from downtown. But there was a problem, there was no-one around. No one skating, no couples awkwardly sliding along trying to impress eachother. No hockey jocks skating laps around their parents who dragged them for a family outing. No little kids falling down and having more fun down than they were up. No one. So I went inside and found some workers and apparently the canal wasn’t open _here_ yet, and that ‘down around the bend’ it was open.

I had two options, and I maintain that I chose the correct one, but they were to go home or walk the canal until it opened and then skate it. I walked. Joggers were giving me funny looks as I went. Who was this large person with this large bag, walking, clogging up their jogging route. As I continued along the path narrowed and I had to start excusing myself or getting out of their way, it was a nice day and they were out in full force. Finally, as I was giving up hope, I rounded a bend and beheld a sight which filled me with delight. A grey fence on the ice. Oh what a wonderful image, for on the other side was the recreation which I had now trekked for the better part of an hour and a half for.

I step onto the ice, sit down on the bench, and remember all the years gone by where I would come and do this with my family, and how nice it was that a service like this still existed. Nostalgia sets in that first time every year, like turning on the intro to your favourite 16-bit video game, you know what to expect, and it’s wonderful. The first stride was wobbly as expected, but with each stroke I could feel the muscle memory taking over as I sped past all (including those in spandex with the long speed-skates… I guess it really isn’t how big it is just how well you use it — hahaha… groan). Then, I almost fell. Poor ice. It’ll clear up after the bend, or the next, or the… KHAN!

So in the end, I didn’t even want to skate the 1/3rd length of the canal again, ended up downtown, and went to the arcade.

So, online it said that the ice condition was ‘Excellent’ but that obviously wasn’t the case, but it’s early in the season and my ice standard is higher than your average bears, so I can forgive them for that. They want to attract as many people to get out as possible, and with ‘very poor’ ice conditions listed you’re not gonna entice the average skater out there (I’d still go, but at least I’d be warned). But the whole ‘not entirely open’ thing needed to be highlighted. Looking at the page again, it’s right there at the bottom of the screen in a note, but who can read more when there’s a giant green flag saying ‘Excellent’ at the top of the screen? So you can chalk this one up to my stupidity, but damnit I want BOLD BoldItalic or !!!!!! LOOK AT MEEEEEE !!!!!! when there’s something you absolutely need to know on a webpage.

So all in all, the practice of hiding information that is detrimental, and accenting the ‘good’ info is mastered by people and I hate it. At least that info was online, but more web-pages need to have _all_ the information on it, not just what they want you to see. If you’re still reading, yeah I’m an idiot, and if you’re not, then you’ll just never know how big of a skating fanatic I am.

So I woke up at 7:00am today, with the aid of an alarm clock and literally at the crack of dawn this time of year, and was treated to a spectacular view from my 22nd story apartment. Looking out over the city is an oddly calming sensation, and noticing how the light plays with the various landmarks is a surprisingly interesting past-time. At about 7:08, when I was done marveling at what a seriously triumphant accomplishment to man a ‘city’ is, I felt invigorated and was ready to start my day… but then my bed beckoned like that second helping of desert which you _know_ you don’t need, or even really want since you’re completely stuffed, but you reach for anyways and say ‘I can’t help myself, just another little bite’.

I now find myself sitting here, about a half foot from my bed, drowsy, and significantly less excited about the prospect of starting my day at 10:00am. Ten is just too late to start ones day properly. I feel the shame and guilt of that extra little bite, and think of all the reasons that should have been enough to deter me before the act, which now dog at my conscious thought like that annoying guy in Happy Gilmore who keeps yelling ‘You Suck! You jackass…’

It seems a lot of people have been thinking about sleep around me lately. Andrew over at BossJimGettys starts his post off with explaining the odd time of post with ‘As you will note from the time of this posting, I don’t sleep on a regular pattern. It keeps things interesting for me.’ Growing up, I have ingrained in my being the fact that you should get a good nights sleep and that it should be on a regular basis. The first is just common sense which my parents did a great job of driving into me through repetition, but the latter I developed myself (as I now realize) due to all the activities which myself and (especially) my brother had to perform in the ungodly hours of the am. If I wasn’t ready to go at 6am, I was late. That meant getting a regular amount of sleep involved a fairly standard schedule. We developed a motto (I admit stolen from my brother who got it from another source) ‘If you’re man enough to stay up late, drinking and partying, you should be man enough to wake up and do what you need to do’. Sleep was scheduled, and it was our decision to alter the starting point, but the end was non-negotiable.

This leads into the substance abuse socially referred to as ones ‘morning cup of coffee’. I have a relationship with coffee much akin to the way single guys deal with the drunk girl at a party. Shunning it away at all costs, but in the back of your head wondering if one cup will really hurt you in the long run. It will. I have been addicted to and subsequently off of caffeine about 3 times and I can honestly say that I feel better in the morning without it. But unlike the party scenario, a large amount of people feel it is acceptable to depend on a cup of coffee to get you going in the morning. At a meeting last night with a client (Pat’s mom) we had some decaf tea and she felt the need to explain why it was decaf, since she quit ingesting caffeine, and apologized for having to impose that on me.

An interesting conversation followed in the sense that it was fun in the moment, but it got me thinking about just how normal it is to rely on a drug to start/get you through the day. And really, who am I to say that’s wrong? I guess everyone just needs to find out what works for them. If it’s acceptable to have less sleep than ‘required’ and subsidize it with a beverage in the morning, why not? It’ll certainly keep you regular.

So now that I have rambled on and said what I wanted to say, if you’re still reading this, you will know that I am once again excited to start the day. Looking at those buildings in a regular light is just as impressive as the orange glow, just more regular.

So I was looking into deep-linking, which is the practice of getting flash files to use the browser back button so that users feel comfortable navigating the app.  Most of the time, hitting the back button will just go back to the last ‘page’ viewed and then when the ‘forward’ button is hit your dumped back at the beginning of whatever it is the flash was directing you to do.

Well, with deep linking, the url actually changes while the app. just keeps going (using fake #anchors).  Now this means that for every single goddamn ’state’ you now have to program in a parser to take in the url and use that as the control for what state is being displayed, but looking at it now that really doesn’t seem like a bad idea.  You can just throw a user halfway through a process, or deny them access to parts, but what I thought was really interesting was the ability to ‘re-use’ code…

Instead of including a file in multiple spots, just send the user to the same goddamn state!  then use the URL to decide where the page will lead to next.  This I assume will come in handy at some point… I hope…

I have finally spent the 20 minutes or so it took to set this up. A spot for ideas, a spot for jokes, a spot for new concepts. Hopefully this will be helping me sort things out, too many ideas floating around. Or maybe it could be entertaining to read… who knows?

If you’re reading this, welcome. If not, then you aren’t wasting your time.