Jim’s Brain Online

Posted by Jim at November 27th, 2005

Now that I’m getting closer to finishing my masters project (and now that I’m starting my own small computer consulting practice), I’ve got to start finding new technical areas to care about instead of having them assigned to me.

I’ve got two basic categories of stuff to think about:
1. Stuff I care about for it’s own sake and have no idea how to make a profit on it. Examples of this would be data mining/warehousing, GIS, beowulf clusters, Grids, and some rather odd little distributed programming ideas I’ve had. Mind you, I know that someone’s making a living off of many of my examples. I just don’t know how I’d get into those myself.
2. Stuff I care about both out of interest and because people pay me to care. Largely this would be web programming/services (C#, Javascript, SQL, PHP, Ruby on Rails, AJAX) or networking (VPN’s and security issues). These are things I’m interested in out of fear as well as love. Basically, I need to keep up with things in these areas or risk not being hired.

A friend of mine once mentioned that he spent an hour a day for personal development, researching new developments in computers and learning new skills. It’s a pretty good idea if you’ve got the necessary persistence.

I wonder whether most computer professionals are that organized about keeping up with technology?

Posted by Jim at November 23rd, 2005

I’ve registered domain names for clients before but a couple days ago I registered one for myself for the first time. I also arranged hosting through Nearly Free Speech.

I plan on using the domain and hosting to promote my consulting business. I’m not sure precisely what will ultimately go there (i.e. nothing at this precise moment), but I suspect that it will be pretty boring stuff from the point of view of readers of this blog. Thus, it’ll probably be a list of what sort of things I do (system adminstration, programming), my resume and possibly some sort of blog to help draw people in and get me higher up on google.

Mind you, this blog will keep going. The other one will be devoted to such exciting things as computer resources for non-profits and small business. In short, I’ll probably update it once a week or so.

By contrast, this blog will continue to be used for random thoughts about children, role playing games, programming, food and all the non-business pieces of my life.

Posted by Jim at November 17th, 2005

I administrate both windows and unix systems. I’m responsible for 10 publicly shared computers for one of my clients. As a result, one of my responsibilities includes keeping said computers safe from the random depredations of whoever happens to come along.

We’ve already had one rather disturbing incident that I’m not going to describe here.

As a result, my client suggested that I research our options in terms of really locking down the computers. Though there’s plenty of Linux based options for public terminals, converting these computers to Linux was not an option. Thus, I had to wade through a lot of websites that offer kiosk/public terminal software for Windows.

I needed a program that would:

1. Prevent users from viewing pornography. In fact, since these computers are mostly for data entry web access is unnecessary so cutting off all web access would work too.
2. Prevent users from installing programs on the computer or deleting system files.
3. Preventing spyware or viruses from taking the computer over.

I didn’t really have time to work on it last spring so rolling out something has been put off till this fall. In the meantime, I discovered that I could download a toolkit directly from Microsoft for free.

What’s cool is that it does all I need and more. Additionally, I don’t have to calculate how much licensing fees would cost (always too much for a non-profit). I plan on installing it next week or the week after. We’ll see how it works in practice.

Posted by Jim at November 15th, 2005

There are things a person just has no opportunity to say before you have kids. A few examples:

On observing small puddles of a mysterious liquid on top of the piano (which is slightly under head level if my kids stand on the piano bench)…

“Abby and Rebecca, you can play the piano, but you can’t stand on the piano bench and drool.”

Another example: I’m calling my parents to ask them to babysit our kids for an evening. This is just after I’ve allowed Abby and Rebecca to have a small amount of pop as a treat. I’ve just discovered that my parents are not home and I’m leaving a message on their answering machine.

“Hi Mom and Dad. I was wondering if you might—”

Suddenly there is a sound of gargling, then of two children giggling. Then, more gargling.

“Abby, Rebecca, you need to stop doing that right now. Do you ever want me to give you pop again?”

They do not stop.

“Mom, Dad, call me back. I need to go deal with something.”

My parents found that message amusing.

The next example isn’t something I got to say to kids, but merely about them:

I’m at a cousin’s wedding, sitting at what amounts to “the kids’ table” in that many of the same cousins I used to sit with at Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners are there too. The difference is that now most of us have kids of our own.

We are talking about putting children to bed. I have just remarked about how long and drawn out bedtime can be between baths, tantrums and sometimes horrible, toilet-related accidents.

One of my cousin’s recently had her first child (within a year anyway). They’re still in the middle of multiple nightime wakings and constant diaper changes.

Her husband said, “You mean it doesn’t get better?”

I was amused.

The truth, of course, is that it does get better and simultaneously worse in another area (which in turn will also get better with time).

Posted by Jim at November 13th, 2005

I’m working on my next campaign. Uncharacteristically, I decided to test out the rules I’m going to be using a little bit before running the campaign.

And so I inflicted making characters on my friends… And I learned something. I learned that I’d screwed up in making the character backgrounds.

Here’s how:
I created three character backgrounds. The players would be staffing Earth’s embassy to a star spanning empire. Owing to the fact that psionic abilities are a given in this empire, Earth only sends people who have them into space. Of course, people from Earth don’t naturally have psionic abilities so they undergo a fairly intense bout of drug taking and gene therapy to gain them.

So here are the backgrounds:
Exceptionally gifted: Someone who’s a true genetic freak with regards to psionics.
Academy Trained: Someone who’s well trained at psi as well as some other specialty–a soldier, diplomat or whatever.
Barely Trained: Just gifted enough in psi that they are allowed to leave the planet. Probably pushed through rapidly so that they can get on with whatever else they need to do. Someone with good connections or a necessary skill for the embassy.

Well guess what? Of three people who wanted to make characters, every single one chose the exceptionally gifted background.

After a bit of thought I figured out why.

In the campaign a person’s psychic abilities are within one of four stages of growth. Each stage is exponentially better than the one just below it.

Most people stop growing at stage one. At this point a person’s abilities are totally unreliable and remarkably weak. At stage two (all players rate stage two), abilities become reliable and you’re capable of doing most of the things psychics can do in books and stories. At stage three, a person is even more powerful. At stage four, a person is so powerful that they lose interest in human affairs and disappear from human society, sometimes making brief appearances thousands of years later.

I allowed people in the exponentially gifted category to have one ability at the third stage despite the fact that all their other abilities are in the second stage. In short, they’re just on the cusp of moving up into the third stage if they can only figure out how.

In short, the nice little additions to traits and additional relationship dice that I gave the other backgrounds do not in any way equal having one ability at a level that’s exponentially greater than anyone else in the campaign.

Oops.

How is stage two different from stage three? In teleportation for example, a stage two person can teleport up to one hundred miles. In stage three, a person can teleport to another planet and up to an hour (or so) in time.

That’s a difference.

I’m thinking that I’ll add bigger dice to the other two backgrounds’ traits and make one other modification to exceptionally gifted characters’ destinies. Each character is supposed to put 5 dice into describing that character’s future destiny. They can use these dice to affect any action in the game, but the price is that they must explain how it moves their character toward the destiny in question.

I’m thinking that for the exceptionally gifted character two of those five dice will automatically assigned to being hunted down and executed by the Clade or possibly by stage four psychics. I’m not sure which. Perhaps it might be nice of me to give the player a choice.

I’m also thinking that I might up the number of dice that the “Academy trained” people have in their psionic attributes. That way even though they don’t have access to the same level of ability, they do have access to the same number of dice in psi abilities as well as greater traits and relationship dice.

Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking. Suggestions are always appreciated.

Posted by Jim at November 9th, 2005

Sid and Marty Krofft provided some of the more surreal entertainment of my childhood. Beyond their involvement with the Donny and Marie Osmond show, and the Barbara Mandrell show, they created a number of shows that were purely fiction. Apparently these are now out on DVD. As a general rule their shows were fantasy/science fiction (well, sort of science fiction) and generally included a cast of puppets and human beings.

It is hard to describe what the shows were like.

For example: “The Bugaloos” was about people dressed in bee costumes who flew and were a rock band. They were opposed by a witch with a rat chauffer.

Here’s another: “Sigmund,” the story of a sea monster who wants to stay away from his very messed up family and thus stays with humans.

Also: “The Wonderbug.” It’s about a dune buggy that turns from a junky dune buggy to a flying, talking dune buggy when you toot it’s magic horn. Did I mention that the owners fight crime? Yes, they do.

Finally: “Land of the Lost,” the show I remember best and liked most. It was the story of a family stuck in prehistoric times (well, sort of… dinosaurs, apemen and some sort of intelligent technological race called the sleestak coexisted). Looking over the list of writers for that show, I know why I liked it… Ben Bova, Walter Koenig (Star Trek’s Chekov), Larry Niven, Norman Spinrad, and Theodore Sturgeon handled some of the writing.

This is far from a complete list of their shows. For example, I didn’t even mention “H. R. Pufnstuf.”

Here’s the NPR story.

Posted by Jim at November 4th, 2005

I spend a couple days a week simultaneously working and taking care of kids. Needless to say, I choose the work rather carefully (nothing that can’t be interrupted by kids) and don’t work an entire day those days. Generally, the pattern of the day goes like this:

Morning: I work while they watch Sesame Street and then play.
Afternoon: Some sort of outside activity like going to a park or running errands, possibly both.

Today the afternoon’s outside activity was raking leaves. I needed to do the raking and I was pretty sure that Abby and Rebecca would want to jump in the leaves.

As I was doing it, I noticed two men walking down the street, both of them in button down shirts and ties. Having been alive for a while, I know what this means. The people walking down the street with books in their hands are probably pushing some faith. Mormonism seemed most likely given their ages.

At this point I had a choice. I could stay outside and wait for the inevitable attempt to share the faith or I could bring the kids back inside and pretend to not be home when they knocked on the door. I decided to stay outside, largely because I wanted to finish raking.

I have a visceral negative reaction to salesmen of any kind. I just don’t like it when someone attempts to convince me that they have something I need. I prefer to make that decision myself, preferably without someone constantly talking at me.

I watched them as I raked, observing as they knocked on the door of each house on my street, slowly getting closer. Amusingly, no one opened the door at any house–even where I knew people were home.

As they grew slowly closer, I thought about how to respond to an invitation to learn more about the Book of Mormon. My options as I saw them at the time:

1. Hostility: “Get the @#$%#$ off my lawn!”
2. Irony: I could attempt to convert them to my religion. As someone with a B.A in religion who put in two years of seminary, I can tell people much more than they want to know about John Calvin, the Heidelberg Catechism, TULIP (five doctrines of Calvinism), and the history of Christianity. Unfortunately, this would start a long (and possibly interesting) conversation and I just wanted to rake my leaves.
3. Listen politely: Again, I wasn’t up for being polite at that moment. Watching a 3 and 4 year old (next to a slightly busy street) doesn’t lend itself to long conversations.

Bearing in mind my personality, three was the most likely option. I don’t personally enjoy being rude or attempting to convince people that I’m right about things. By contrast, I’m sure I’ve listened politely to people I disagree with for hours at a time.

In the end, things turned out okay. The conversation went like this:

Them: Would you like any help raking leaves?
Me: Nope. I’ve pretty much got it covered.
Them: Are you interested in the Book of Mormon?
Me: No. Not really.
Them: Well, have a good day. We’ll see you around.

You know what’s ironic though? I actually am interested in the Book of Mormon. I majored in religion because religion interests me and the Church of the Latter Day Saints is a growing religious organization. One of these days I’d like to read more about their beliefs. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet and I don’t want do it with someone hovering over my shoulder, hoping that I’ll convert.