Lewies Blog

My wife and I watched a few episodes of “The Shield” tonight. Neither of us have ever heard of the show before, but it had us looking at each other and rolling on the floor laughing a few times. I setup my DVR to record all new episodes.

I also got to watch some of the new Dr. Who shows. It’s still just as cheeky and the Time Lord is still a bit of a nutter at a first glance. I was reminded of the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy as everyone witnessed the end of earth. The difference was that in THHGTTG, there was a restaurant at the end of the universe. It was expensive to go to, but any time traveler could simply drop a penny into a bank account and let it accumulate in interest to afford the bill.

Xor has got to be one of the weakest methods of encrypting data. Without the password, it isn’t too hard to find it. The Xor method is more of an encoding algorithm. You have your text, and you have your password. As you loop through each letter in your text, each character in the password is matched up and an XOR operation is performed on the two. When the password runs out of characters, you start at the beginning again.

Xor is weak for a simple reason. If you know a small portion of the unencoded message, you can perform an Xor operation on just the position those characters in the encoded message to get the password. So if you know that your message ends with a period, you can Xor the last character of the encoded message against a period character. People can take it a step further and look for patterns that could translate to words. Others would use statistics such as the space character would appear most, then the letter “E”, and so on.

Well, all this boils down to SecondLife. I’m starting to script my objects to talk to each other for a game that I’m creating within that world. I’m still a bit confused with what approach I should take. I just don’t want people building there own objects to listen in on my objects communications. I’m tempted to look into RSA and RC4 encryption, but the strength is limited to only 16 bits in the game due to the nature of how integers are setup in LSL script. I’ve done something similar in VB Script that had similar limitations.

Back in high school, I felt that half the stuff that I learned past basic math was pretty much pointless. It was drilled into me that I would end up using this knowledge when I got a job. I couldn’t imagine how.

Computer related jobs were the answer to most questions regarding where that knowledge would be used. Today I program with computers, and I’m pretty good at it. Actually, I had been programming since I was 12. Still, I couldn’t figure out where I would use the knowledge half the time and just made assumptions.

Within the past week, I have been creating a six-sided building in a virtual world called Second Life. The features available to me could only assist me so far. I had to judge with my eyes to get things done until they looked about rite. A week has passed and my mistake has started to come back to haunt me. Things are just not lining up.

The result of everyting is based on a few triangles that I didn’t set the proper measurements for. It’s so simple, really. I had to go back and figure out how to get those measurements. I knew the length of 10 meters at one side, and an angle of 60 degrees for the side opposite of it. I remembered that there were special formulas for it, but I just didn’t know what those were.

The one thing that I did remember was that the sum of all angles of a triangle always equal 180 degrees. So now, I had some notes with a triangle drawn having 10 meters at its base, and 60 degree angles. Well, all the angles were the same so I could assume that all sides would be 10 meters, but I needed the height of that triangle. Splitting the triangle in half yeilded me with angles of 60, 90, 30 and lenths of 5 and 10 meters. Good - a right triangle. I knew there was a special formula for this one. I found on the internet that the formula and started to get to work:

• a² + b² = c²
• 5² + b² = 10²
• 25 + b² = 100
• b² = 75

Now came the hard part. How do you figure out the square root for a number that doesn’t return a whole number? I ended up finding a web page that would calculate the square root for me as 8.660254037844387.

So I found out how to do all the grunt work of comming up with measurements for my triangles. I figured there must be an easier way at this. I found a triangle calculator that did just the trick.

It is so easy to find things on the internet to assist you in math (or any subject for that matter). Last year I learned some trigonometry on my own and made a simulation of our solar system with JavaScript. I don’t know how todays schools are working, but I do hope that they have some classes instructing students how to use the internet to find the knowledge that they need.

Tringo appears to be making its way out of SecondLife and onto the internet.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see this program made for a mobil device such as pocket PC’s or even cell phones.  This game goes much faster in the flash provided on the website.

I’ve had a few ideas for a game myself that involves physics.  The physics engin using Havok is in bad need of an upgrade.  I hear rumors that they may upgrade to Havok 2, while version 3 has been out for some time now.  I don’t know if I should work with physics or wait.  I could end up with a talking homesick fish floating through the air for a few months again.

I was browsing through a few entries on New World Notes, (a Second Life blog). I came across one article (Graphic Content) on the old site regarding a Graphic Novel done with in-world screenshots. Someone got a hold of some software called Comic Book Creator and built some really nice strips.

I liked the layout of it all and the idea of simplicity behind it. I viewed some video tutorials of how to use the software. It’s pretty simple and at a price of $19.99, I was sold. A free trial is available for download that also takes a license key if you want to upgrade to the real thing. You can also purchase it at Gamestop.com and EB Games. I went with the option to download rather then purchase a CD. I had it up and running in no time at all after the download completed.

I had an idea of using the comics to help promote some of my products. I threw some screenshots together and went to work. I was able to export the comic as JPEG, Bitmap, HTML, and even PDF (Using Ghost Script). I uploaded and sent the image to a few of my friends in Second Life and they loved it. A few people didn’t get the joke behind the comic, but it still looked cool to them as well.

If you play Second Life (go ahead, it’s free), you can buy some of my items at my store (Dedric’s Magical Marvels) or buy them through the following websites:

• SL Exchange
• SL Boutique
• Second Server

My wife made some wings for herself in Second Life. I hadn’t seen them and she came over to my place to show them off. They were pretty awesome. My avatar is a naturally a high-tech kinda guy, since I’m always scripting. Out of many wings I have seen in the game, these just set there at the top.

She gave me a set of wings and I changed the colors a bit to suite the colors that I generally go with for my avatar. I even took a few of my existing attachments and changed the colors to keep more of a general color scheme going. My cartoon halo looks a lot more like metallic gold, and I colored my wristpad gold as well. The look reminds me of a high-tech egyption scheme.

She doesn’t script much, but I do. I have some ideas to make the wings even more impressive. We are going to work together on this little project and see if we can get some money rolling in.

Originally I was offered a small hard drive a few months back. Today I received two. They are both 20 GB in size and handy for backing up files. I need to learn a thing or two about Norton Ghost.

I got an email today that Wal-Mart is allowing us to pre-order Harry Poter and the Goblet of Fire on DVD. It comes out on March 7th. I figured that I would go ahead and preorder. Unfortunately my Wal-Mart card couldn’t be processed. I called up the 800 number and found that I still had a credited balance of $1500. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to speak with a human and figure out what the problem is.

The Chronicles of Narnia is due to come out on April 4th and can also be preordered too. Both Harry Potter and Narnia were running around the same time and I unfortunately missed them both in the theater. At least the DVD’s cost less then a trip for two at the movies.

My plans on purchasing an HDTV have changed a bit.  Rather then going with the 42″ plasma monitor, I found a nice 26″ with true HDTV resolution.  The other one was 1024×1024.  I went through a few more stores today and thought about a few things.  Plasma screens are fragile.  LCD has a better lifespan, and more light weight.  My current regular television is 27″.  Larger televisions get a bit pixelated if you really take your time to look and scrutinize.  LCD is cheaper.  I couldn’t tell the difference between the two with brightness, frequency of updating, or colors.

Something I did notice is that various LCD televisions have different color to them with the same picture.  I found a really nice one that has very vivid colors from RCA.  The whole outer edge is also black, which makes it a bit more to my liking rather then going with all of those silver ones.  This television also has many different inputs for SVideo, RGB Component, DVI, etc.  I should be able to hook my cable box rite up to it as well as a computer if I wanted to.  I’m still doing some research on the whole thing, but I think I have my mind set on this one.

I purchased a new TV stand for the living room from IKEA.  It fits nicely in the corner and opens up the room a bit more.  All of our components are closer to the television now.  Upgrading to the HDTV shouldn’t be a problem when the time comes.  I’ve still got to break up a few more boards from the old entertainment center.  That thing was on its last legs from being moved so often.

In related news, the XBox 360 seems to be an item that is hard to get your hands on.  There seem to be bundles ranging anywhere from 299 up to 899.  For 299, you can get a box with a wired controller.  399 you can get a box with a hard drive and wireless controller.  The more expensive packs come with games, services, and lots of accessories.  My interest is an XBox 360 ($299), 2 wireless controllers ($50 * 2), a wireless network adapter ($100), hard drive ($100), Media Remote ($30) and a game - Kameo: Elements of Power ($50).   $680 total.
The crazy thing though - is the price.  That’s the price of a computer. I am sure I could find a bundle to bring some of that price down, but that is not the point.  It’s come to that day when entertainment is valued so highly in our lives that we are willing to pay for it.  I still want the system, but its just … high.  Even eBay auctions are high on there prices as well.

I wonder what the XBox 360 can actually do besides your run-of-the-mill games.  Can I surf the web and check email?  Does it have a word processor or spread sheets?   It’s got some tough computing power, I am sure.  I just want to be able to do some computing stuff with it if I can.

I’ve just gone through a night mare. I’m still just exhausted from the experience. I’ve recently got my tax refund on payday, so I have over $6,000 to my name at this moment. What better way to spend it then invest in a nice HDTV?

I’ve trodden along with my mother in-law going to different stores and comparing prices and features. I finally settled on a 42″ plasma HD Monitor from AKAI for $1497.76. I went into Sam’s club, picked up one of many tickets available under the television and went to the front to purchase it. I headed over to customer service afterwards to pick it up. Unfortunately, there was only 1 television in there inventory and that was the floor model.

After a half hour of store employees running around and figuring out what to do, I was left with a refund of $1572.65 including taxes. Since I purchased it with my debt card, they could only refund in cash. The cashier started counting money and quickly ran out of hundreds and fifties. I’m there looking at the pile of money dreading the fact that I would be carrying it all out in an overstuffed wallet.

“Don’t worry, we can just call the bank if I don’t have enough”, she said. “More time”, I thought. In the mean time, my mother in-law and niece were waiting outside in the van for me. I came up with an idea and asked if it could all be put on my Wal-Mart card. “Just pretend that you cave me all the cash, and then take it all back as a payment on my card”, I said. After thinking about it, she agreed that it would work.

So in the end, I walked out with an over-paid Wal-Mart Credit Card and a form to file a complaint. It took me a while to find that form as well, as it was well hidden behind a display at the exit. I spent a minute trying to reach back far enough to grab it.

I’ve got such a head ache from this. My wife started rubbing my temples and it helped relax me much. Still, I feel like I went through all of that hell for no reason. Next time I’ll go to customer service first if I make a purchase like that in Sam’s Club again.

The cashiers computer should have picked up the fact that there were not any television models remaining. Even if the floor model was available (which it wasn’t), the computer should have flagged it as such and directed the cashier to confirm that I did want it. Customer service should have been able to issue a ticket of some kind to me to let me come back when the televisions did come in stock again so one would be reserved and paid for in my name. Someone should have removed all tickets under the display model once all available inventory was sold out. I should have been given some form of compensation for having gone through this ordeal.

We didn’t listen! Scientist have been predicting that the Mad Bird disease could mutate and spread to humans everywhere. Several groups from the WHAT (World Heathens And Terrorists) had claimed responsibility for the outbreak. The U.S. is still investigating as to authenticity of the beta max tapes received from the media network OverZhere.

As to what the mad bird disease is exactly, researches have broken it down. Terrorists have combined the Mad Cow Disease Strand #p38 with a mutated version of the Bird Flue TX-780. They synthesised the results on a DANDY 8088 computer. The problem was that the first Mad Bird strands couldn’t infect other systems other then the DANDY on a Thursday at 5:15 in the afternoon (GMT).

Early intelligence reports were gathered about this terrorist conspiracy. Scientists stated that the threat was imminent if the strand would be able to mutate. The warnings were played down through politics, bureaucracy, and animosity . Politicians are blaming the recent changes to the Metacare system and calling for a bipartisan committee to determine if investigations should be started. The rest of us are looking around confused as to what all the fuss is about, but emotionally playing that we care.

At 5:16 on Thursday of last week, the strand mutated. It spanned all over the internet taking over systems. The WHAT has disclosed the virus causes global warming. Members of the WHAT were available for comment, but we choose not to ask out of spite.

In an effort to safeguard it’s population, China as well as a few libraries in the red states have closed there borders to almost all internet access filtering out keywords such as “Mad”, “Bird”, “Disease”, “Flu”, and “Gay Marriage”. What the people don’t know can’t hurt them and will keep them safe. China is known to be an exporter of 95% SPAM mail to the US and will continue to allow its message to be heard, regardless of the outbreak.

“Ouw citizens must be heawd.”, claimed a non-important political figure that no one has heard of. “We awe allowing ouw citizens to send messages to the outside wowld. This is in obsewvance of the Fwee-Speech wites in the U.S. Fiwst Amendment. This is done to pwomote a healthy welationship between ouw two countwies.” Meanwhile, sources estimate that China is reponsible for the speedy spread of the epidemic due the massive amounts of viruses attached to its outgoing SPAM.