Feb 27, 2015
One Day / Reckoning Song
One Day / Reckoning Song (Wankelmut Remix) [Radio Edit] - Asaf Avidan & The Mojos
Ran into this song on the JHU site, never heard it before, though it's from 2008. Deserves a listen.
The Meanderer
"Reds" Wolman
I mostly remember him in discussions at Johns Hopkins, the optional colliquia that some of the graduate students attended. To see things both from the environmental and the geographical perspective was interesting. He was a good questioner and asked questions that made you really think and look at things from a higher level.
Live long and prosper
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Feb 24, 2015
Anti-robotic laws
Seth Baum of the Catastrophic Risk Institute wrote about coordinated efforts to block robotic killers. Not sure that that won't prevent their creation. Once the technology is inexpensive enough, robots will with approval or not be the future of boot warfare.
The Robotic laws vary slightly, depending on the count and the source.
Elsewhere on that site, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists say we are at 3 minutes.
Feb 23, 2015
Universal songs
Hayley & Sophie Westenra - Across the Universe of Time
Diana Ross - Do you know where you're going to
Diana Ross - In the morning
Tübit Battle
A few years ago I came up with an idea for a simple space combat game, based on homogeneous redundant space vessels that could work together or separately. Together in assemblages, they gain benefits such as economies of scale, recoverability,
The space gamespace is diverse, from civilization-type strategy games, to close quarters tactical combat games. However most of these assume that the space vessel is static throughout the encounter. I wanted to think of spaceships, the way I think about robots. As an engineer, I expect at some point the parts of a robot will fail. By incorporating redundancy (beyond the two per organ thinking of mammals), and using lower cost, interchangable components, leads to surviveability and resiliency in the case of damage or breakdown.
Think of this philosophy in terms of Science Fiction movies. Commander Montgomery Scott was able to sabotage the battlecruiser USS Excelsior with just a few parts. However if those parts were duplicated and the ship broken into several redundant parts, the whole ship would not be inoperable because of one component. Robots made of readily interchangable parts won't be disabled if just one part fails. It's a concept used in networking, engineering, and biology.
The book, The Quantum Thief (Jean le Flambeur)
Here is a collection of board games I have in this area:
Here are some pieces that might fit into such a game:
- The Game Crafter - where I've started to build a prototype
- Scenes of space maps
- Universal Space Combat Battlemap - Tarantula Nebula
- Star Map
- SFB Maps ($6.00)
Hallelujah!
Heard this on Soundcloud, and like it (~8:00 on the track) Don't know this is happening to me?
Prok & Fitch - Raw Cut
Hallelujah sample
Feb 18, 2015
Tree Change Dolls
Saw a video posted to facebook about Tree Change Dolls, an Etsy project put together by Sonia Singh. I always thought the Bratz dolls seemed an inappropriate toy for kids. From my perspective it was a display of an "attitude". I also didn't think that the inhuman proportion of the head, that there would be possibility of making them look normally proportioned, but from her shots it worked out. The video looks at it from a girl's perspective, would they look like a friend or someone to play with. It does not sound like she plans to take the business to market, she made one wave of dolls. Perhaps the toy companies will learn from her and design friendlier looking toys in the future.
I don't have girls but if I did I would probably try to find gender neutral toys that didn't have the overtones those dolls suggested. From the Tree Change Dolls photos it was amazing how much makeup was put on - the lips were twice the width of the normal ones she put on later. Also her mother's sewn clothes could probably sell for hundreds of dollars online on their own, very well crafted. All in all it was interesting to see how she not just reused the discarded toys, but redesigned them in such a way better than a restore to the original.
Feb 17, 2015
Earth Awakens
I've been waiting for Earth Awakens by Orson Scott Card for a while, it was finally at the River Falls Library on audio book, the format with which I heard the rest of the trilogy.
Feb 15, 2015
Twilight Zone Episode - Mr. Bevis
Watching this tonight, the main character, Mr. Bevis's voice sounded familiar. Orson Bean was the voice of the Hobbit back in the original animated movie.
Con of the North 2015
Had a lot of fun at Con of the North this weekend.
Here's some of the games that I played:
- Age of Industry (Germany) - interesting game combining materials and growth like Settlers, with train connections
- Eclipse Phase - All's well that ends well - the scenario I ran for three players (Thanks for playing! They did well)
- King of Tokyo - all my monsters died.
- RAD ASTRA: Gonzo Space Opera! - here is the GM's blog, the RAD ASTRA.
- NetHack - I guess I should have researched this more before going - it turned out to be a rough version like Angband but with bizaare keys. I played for a few minutes before acknowledging if I wanted to play games on the computer by myself I would not have gone to the convention. I wish now that I has stayed with the Space Opera, but having stayed up late prepping for my adventure, needed rest and to travel home safely so I left after that.
- Mines of IO - a fun space Carcassone hex tile game by Jeffrey R. Sutton. It took a bit of getting used to, but it was fun. If he can get the tiles made up, he has a really fun game ready for market.
- Star Fleet Battles - Fleet Action at Archanus IV
- Seven Wonders with Tower of Babel expansion - I like this game a lot. The player to my left had an iphone app to help calculate the scientific card values.
- Russian Rails (at amazon.com
) - a fun game, that has nice tracks and features.
On the car ride home tonight I thought about a couple of things I should write up:
- Space Kayaks, which I used in my scenario, "All's well that ends well". Space Kayaks are one or two person streamlined, small vehicles designed to fit one or two people back to back. The ship looks like a clamshell, with four independently positionable thrusters near the side of the craft. The craft has exterior manipulators, some nano, some robotic, and some for sticking your arms through as a fallback. Unlike space suits, you can move your hands around inside, scratch that itch on your nose, not have to worry about a bloody nose, or relieve your bodily functions and have enough room to get cleaned up afterwards. More comfort for longer spacewalks. Also can be used as a shuttlecraft between close points, ship to station, or on small bodies like asteroids.
- All's Well that Ends well - I should publish the notes in case someone wants to know it.
Games I picked up:
Ideas to run for next year:
- Orbit War - the Satellite game by Steve Jackson.
- Holy War - the space version, not Earth religions.
- Star Fleet Battles - fighters or dragon scenarios
- Slag!
- Ploy
- Quest for the dragon lords
- Space Mission
- Two Bit Battles - a game idea I came up with a couple of years ago, hopefully I'll make it at Game Crafter - which I first heard about in 2012.
To watch:
Space Empires - saw this and want to play next year
SFB Damage Allocation Charts
One of the guys at the Con of the North that I played Star Fleet Battles (SFB) with suggested that what SFB needed was a computerized system to handle the Damage Allocation procedure. At ledlogic SFB Damage Allocation chart is where I had my version of that.
Feb 13, 2015
Eclipse Phase Character Sheets
Looking on the web I didn't quite see a tool for building the character sheets the way I wanted, so yesterday, I merged a few ideas I've been kicking around. Back in the day, I tried setting up a database-driven Shadowrun character sheet tool, but that ended up taking too long. I think in switching to JSON as the document, which makes it nice for NoSQL databases, editing and experimentation without a complicated admin tool was the nice part. At the end of the day, it does not have much smarts, it's simply a layout tool for data.
The project is on github if anyone would like to contribute.
Features include:
- Simple library of JSON files
- Print capability
- Using Eclipse Phase fonts (sold separately)
- Nice background (note had to make an image to show when printing). Also note the char sheet originally said init was × 2, not × .2.
Feb 12, 2015
Eclipse Phase - Soundtrack
audiomachine - Blood and Stone (Ivan Torrent Remix)
PhaseOne - Six Feet Under
Marnik - Gladiators
Rudebeat - Feel This
District 78 - Toxic
Feb 4, 2015
Feb 3, 2015
Feb 1, 2015
Eclipse Phase: Amazon Prime Movies
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, unremembered gate When the last of earth left to discover Is that which was the beginning; At the source of the longest river The voice of the hidden waterfall And the children in the apple-tree Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves of the sea. Quick now, here, now, always-- A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything) And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flames are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one. [Movie added: We're just getting started.]
