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Journal Aug 2006

15 Aug 2006

I updated my title case program, Title Fix, to be more robust, with strict Perl coding, and with better help messages. I also took the time to create a manpage for it. All this stuff could have been in there before, but, hey, it's a learning experience. I've made other utility scripts in Perl, mostly for renaming files (especially mp3s), which I'm now formalizing by making them strict coding and tightening up the argument parsing. When I'm done polishing those, maybe I'll add them to the Title Fix package. Command-line computing rules! For efficiency, at least. And for those with time and patience to sort it out.

-res

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

14 Aug 2006

The role-playing game Mafia is a favorite of the Sunday Dinner Group. Or at least it was. Probably the big ramp-down of playing that game was due to the proliferation, of, well, life, in the form of children and marriages within the group. It's a game that, according to the Wikipedia article, is supposed to take between 15 and 60 minutes, but the way we've been playing it makes the game take a few hours.

The idea is simple, and it simply involves a majority of "citizens" and a powerful minority of "Mafia"; I'll use the terms and game play from our version of the game. Generally, we figure between 1/4 and 1/3 of the players are Mafia (picked by random card draw and of known number), while the rest are citizens, but all play as if they were citizens in the "daytime."

In our version, a random moderator (for now) directs everyone (including him- or herself) to close their eyes, only the Mafia to open their eyes to acknowledge each other and close them again, and everyone to open their eyes again for the first "daytime." Then the citizens (including the unidentified Mafia) talk and vote to sentence death to one citizen who a plurality believe is Mafia. Of course any number of non-binding votes can happen first. The sentenced reveals his or her card, in order to keep track of how many Mafia are left, and is considered "dead" for the game. This first victim becomes moderator for the rest of the game. The rest of the game involves having the moderator has everyone (except him- or herself) close their eyes for "nighttime," where the Mafia open their eyes, silently (visually) choose a victim in front of the moderator, and close their eyes again. Daytime comes, and the moderator has everyone open their eyes "except [victim's name here]," who shows his or her card and is considered "dead" for the rest of the game. With this moderator, the game alternates nighttime and daytime until either the Mafia are all eliminated or the number of Mafia left is equal to the number of non-Mafia citizens (in which case Mafia win).

Of course, the strategy comes in the dicussion during the daytime where the Mafia manipulate the citizens to "kill" non-Mafia, while the non-Mafia try to discern and eliminate Mafia. The Mafia, of course, have an advantage because they "kill" at night and know who are Mafia and who are not, so they are in smaller number, leading to the approximate "magic" number corresponding to 1/4 to 1/3 of the total citizenry. The way we've been playing it usually takes the entire rest of the after-dinner of our Sunday Dinner, so we pretty much haven't played since Timmy was about 4 months old.

I haven't played it, but I heard of a college favorite, Assassin, which a co-worker introduced to me as "Assassins." This game involves elimination by "killing" as in Mafia but takes place over weeks or months by being integrated into the player's life (read: interfering with the player's life). The players randomly pick a target out of a hat containing names of all the players and continue with the game, where they find creative ways to simulate "killing" their target, by established, agreed-upon methods or innovative ones such as using salt in their target's soup noticeably to pretend to poison them, using water, foam, or suction cup weapons for ballistic "killing," and so forth. Creativity is encouraged, as long as the assassin and victim agree that the action is legitimate. I think the assassin can also take over the victim's victim as another target, but that would obviously have to stop when that target is the assassin. The Wikipiedia article doesn't say. Maybe the survivors do a redraw from the hat. Last assassin surviving wins.

It all sounds so morbid, but since both games are elimination games, they can be adapted to milder language and some milder form of elimination, like "voting off" or "going to jail," to make them into games suitable for (older) children. Maybe not Assassins, though.

-res

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the past:

11 Aug 2006

Some of you may know how much I rely on the keyboard to do things on the computer, more than I suspect most people do, since the using mouse is more intuitive. I'm sort of a keyboard traditionalist because it actually keeps me efficient; I can use Ctrl-P (or the more common Alt-F, P) to print from most programs instead of using the mouse to aim and click a Print button, or worse, find the Print menu option (File | Print, the equivalent of Alt-F, P in Windows) if there is no Print button. Other people I know have much better aim than I do, especially since I use a trackball, which tends to require more swoops than a mouse does, but I avoid the need for "mouse aim" altogether. (This would make it harder for me to switch to a Mac for those menu items without a shortcut key.)

Yeah, I'm a keyboard traditionalist. (It's one of the ways in which I'm conservative, but I like the term "traditionalist" better (note to conservatives!), because it has a more positive connotation these days with the bad attitudes and actions of some popular figures who call themselves conservative but actually aren't. Those same "conservatives" are the ones who made "liberal" a bad word even though it shouldn't be; some liberals prefer the term progressive, since it's harder to corrupt its connotation. Argh, back to topic....)

Earlier this week, I found an indispensible utility for extensive keyboard users like me: AutoHotkey, a free, open-source Windows program that lets a user define any keyboard shortcut or even remap the keyboard. I use it at work to control the Unix program MPlayer (which I compiled for Cygwin) in command-line mode, which I use to playback streaming Air America recordings. I make the shortcut find the window (by title) (from most other programs I use), activate and maximize it, send a key (such as Space for pause or some other keystroke command), then minimize it again, so I can get back to work. This is done using a global hotkey, a shortcut key that controls one program from any other program, like Win+something or Ctrl-Alt-something. In my case, I mapped Win+Spacebar to pause my Cygwin MPlayer from whatever program I'm using.

I use Winamp to listen to my music, and that already has global hotkeys, so I figured, why wouldn't I be able to make any program have them? I first looked for free software on SourceForge, but didn't find it, so I gave up until trying, at random, a Google search for "hotkey anything," since that sounds like a slogan for some product, and I found AutoHotKey. Good, I don't have to program it myself. Cheers to other geeks who think like I do!

-res

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

10 Aug 2006

Well, it's been a while (read: 4 weeks) since I posted my journal entries, but they're there now. A couple of weddings, an employment change for Maureen, and a new home server.

I've been busy at work, but it's getting better, meaning I'm understanding it better. Also, I've been working on getting the galleries updated again, so they'll span all the way to this year. And once I get my new CDs (catching up, filling gaps with BMG) incorporated into my list, I can post it in the main section. I've already updated the bands page.

-res

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the past:

09 Aug 2006

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

08 Aug 2006

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

07 Aug 2006

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

03 Aug 2006

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Other news and opinion from the day:

02 Aug 2006

Selected notes from The Al Franken Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

01 Aug 2006

Well, she did it. Maureen has left the building. At work, that is. While she has fun hanging around with people she knows and chatting while working, the office politics and policies have become too much, and, well, she can explain it better.

So she gave her two weeks notice, which they negotiated to three weeks so she can train others, finish her notebook, and get paid for her remaining sick days (in addition to cashing out her vacation time).

She's actively looking for work, but looking forward to spending more time with her family. It's only funny because that's the standard explanation for an elected politician leaving his or her office.

-res

Selected notes from The Randi Rhodes Show and related stories (indicated times are Pacific) (why this is here):

Past Journal Entries: 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

2006 Journal Entries: Aug Jul Jun May Apr Mar Feb Jan

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