Obfuscation

I've heard various complaints about Windows and Linux systems.  I'm a Windows based user as that is what most of my job uses.  The rest is proprietary junk that has limited access.  One of the big complaints about the newer versions of Windows was that the directory system was obfuscated.  Meaning: you used to know where something installed, but now it just kind of shows up and goes somewhere. 

Strangely enough, when comparing Ubuntu 12.04, you have exactly the same thing.  Seriously...   I've been looking for the last 15 minutes through the file system and can't find where TeamViewer installed.  All I want to do is figure that out, and then maybe I can get it to start on boot up like I want so I don't have a fear of updating the computer.  See, if I want to mess with something remotely, I generally use my iPhone to connect to the Ubuntu machine to ping something to determine if the device in question has network connectivity through our corporate VPN to the site router and through the site switch, down to the device.   It's a good "is networking for this device working as expected?" test. 

But I don't dare install updates unless I'm here babysitting the machine because I can't get TeamViewer to start manually.  Because I can't find where the program installed.  And I finally found it.   Now, it could be because I'm using a more Windows style interface that things are complicated.  But that's pretty crazy...   also, why isn't my system auto logging in anymore?  I prefer it that way because I use it for remote access.  

Just as I think I've got one problem solved, here come 10 more.  And all this is stuff I already know how to do in Windows...   Maybe it's time to head home for the day and fight this problem later.

Construction

Construction

I suppose this is a continuation of what I was talking about back in a previous post.  So, Return of the iPhone showed the area I was beginning to work with.  Half of my job is technical, the other half is mechanical. 

The first part started with finding a 2" conduit from the back room to the front room.  There were a few wires in the conduit, so I chased them down and pulled out everything that wasn't in use.  There are still some wires in use, but those can get wiped out later when the equipment moves to the back room. 

Part 2 is to identify what devices need what kind of cables to ensure everything has its own separate wire.  Phone is the only exception, and I run those as one single CAT 5e cable.  We buy cables in all sorts of colors from Deep Surplus.  I pretty sure that's where we bought the boots that will make an appearance later.  We always go with solid core wire, though you can get stranded core wire.  I like working with solid core better. 

We run a lot of plenum cable as well.  Plenum cable is made of different outer material that doesn't create toxic smoke when it burns.  All of our buildings are one story, so to me whether you have toxic smoke in the building is a pointless argument for buying cable that's easily twice as expensive.  But code requires it, so we run it.  I'm not going to fight semantics with a building inspector.  Those guys don't give a damn. 

For this location, we needed 10 different wires, but I only brought 7 boxes of wire to the site.  So that means two pulls through the conduit.  I haven't run that second set of wires through as of writing this, and that's probably going to be part of Monday's work.  After the wires are ran, it's time to mount the cable duct.  I always get a 1GUV1 from Grainger as it is the best width for what we do.  The wire duct is screwed in using Tapcon screws as this wall was cinder block.  Otherwise, I just use course thread drywall screws. 

Up above the drop ceiling, there is piece of 1" wood that rings the outside of the building.  I screwed some zip ties into that to create a path for all my wires.  I hate moving ceiling tiles and finding some lazy jerk just left the wires on the roof.  That's sloppy work and hard to work on later. 

For the board, I used a 2'x4' piece of pre-cut wood.  So I wouldn't have to put every screw through cinder block, I took a 2"x4" and cut it into the width of the board and mounted three of them to the cinder block using Tapcon screws.  The board is then mounted to the 2x4's with wood screws.  Did I mention I painted the board white using some quick dry ceiling paint? 

Anyways.  

Lining the board up on the 2x4 shows me I'm not a carpenter and I need a better eye.  Or the right wood working tools. 

Moving on.  Mounting each device requires an angle bracket, found over in the wood framing section of the hardware store.  I prefer SimpsonStrong-Tie Framing Angles.  They are cheap, easy, and work like a champ to mount things under 20 pounds or so.  To hold the device to the wall requires a strap.  Academy has them for about $3 a piece.   For smaller devices, I use 1/2" velcro.  

 Oh...  and another picture for an out of date update.  

This one shows most of that I've been talking about to this point...  The devices are all placeholder devices at the moment, just to hold the space until the real equipment is built and moves onto the board.  

Return of the iPhone

So, it's been a bit since I've had my iPhone.  What do I think now?

1) I'm not sure if I talked about this before, but I like the camera.  The built in panorama feature is excellent when trying to document rooms.  People don't see in what equates to one camera.  They look around in panorama.  The dual camera system makes for easy aiming of pictures in the back seat.  The picture was resampled from 9MB to 471 kb.  So it's not near as good quality as the original.  

2) Facetime.  Facetime allows you to call someone and see them.  Or, if you are a tech, you can swap the camera around and aim it at what you are looking at so they can see what you are looking at.  That's what I like it for.  Verbal directions always suck.  People have a picture in their mind of what you are trying to tell them, and it either works or it doesn't.  With Facetime, you can show them exactly what you are looking at and they can draw their own conclusions.

3) Bluetooth sucks.  Flat out.  Nothing good can be said about the Bluetooth on an iPhone 5.  My Plantronics M50 that never disconnected on my Android.  But randomly during the day, my iPhone will quit playing audio through the headset.  My wife has a BodyMedia Fit.  If you want to use the iPhone as a display, then you have to re-sync every single time you want to view what you've done through the day.  Functional Bluetooth is sucky Bluetooth. 

4) Battery life sucks.  Nothing good can be said about the battery life on an iPhone 5.  If you have any services turned on, the battery will fail before 6 PM if you unplug it at 8 AM.  That's unacceptable to me.  That's not even talking about using the thing a lot.  That's a quiet day.  I had to charge my phone back up twice today while I was in the office just to make it to 6 PM.  I have to plug my phone into a wall charger at lunch if I expect it to make it through the day.

World creation with existing items

Now...  going back to the worlds in my head.  Thinking roughly about them, there are ways to create those worlds.  The only problem is that using each of those methods to create your world in someone else' equipment is that their equipment was purpose built for their task.  That doesn't quite work out for doing something you want to do.

For the rundown of options, you have...

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion:  The graphic engine for this is beautiful.  It's capable of creating huge, open worlds.  The game is beautiful, it's wonderfully old world, and the world of Oblivion looks like kind of like what I would imagine if I were to create a world.  The only real problem is that I hate the way they do speech.  I've dug into the complexities of creating a collection of unique characters that each have a different life and things to say.  But in Oblivion, doing that is something that's a complete and utter pain in the butt.

The 2nd big problem with Oblivion is the scaling difficulty.  By the end of the game, the enemies are just as strong as you are.  You've started out at one strength, and essentially stayed there the entire time.  You essentially have to break the game mechanics to see any real growth in your own power.  That strikes me as wrong.  What's the point of leveling up when everything levels up with you?  It's occasionally fun to go back to an area that was hard and whip the tar out of it.  But you can't do that in Oblivion.

And if I'm going to create a world, I'm going to want to play it.  That's the entire point, isn't it?

I haven't spent much time trying to get textures into Oblivion, but it seems like a pain.  Why do I want to create some place that looks like Tamriel that's not Tamriel.  Makes no sense. 

Fallout 3:  Has a great post-apocalyptic tile set, and inventory system, but the game was buggy as hell.  It frustrates me to no end to play a game I paid for with a computer system that is beyond the greatest specs and I have to play it at the lowest possible screen resolution because that's the only way the game is stable.  Screw that.

Seeing as how Fallout 3 is based off the Oblivion engine, it's probably got the same problems as the Oblivion engine and world creation set.  No need to beat that dead horse.

Unreal Development Kit:  Is the only remaining alternative.  But it suffers from wanting to create small, compact worlds.  If I want to create a world, I want to create a huge world.  I want something that is big, complex, and interactive. 

The UDK also has no built in inventory system or conversation system, so those have to be built.  Don't get me wrong, it's a great engine.  But the framework is not there for what I want to create. 

So there you have it...  The video game engines that I have don't provide what I want in a world building software.  Maybe there's something else out there, but I don't know what it is.  Someone out there in internet land knows.  But not me.

A Week

It's been a week.  Statement of fact.

Not sure where to go from there.  There is work to be done, and ideas pounding in my head.  Not sure where they want to go, but they are pounding away.  I think the creation desire is back again.  I'm not sure for how long, but it is back.  I think I've talked about it before, but then it was all about finding motivation.  Now, it's just an unresolved longing.  What can you do?  The mind races and screams to go and create and produce, and the body jumps from subject to subject, unfocused.  Finding focus is the hard part.  The want and need to create are difficult, but they are there.

You see, there are two worlds floating in my head.  One is old and dead... many thousands of years ago in comparison to the current state.  If I was to put a time frame on this world, it would be before the flood of Noah.  In this world, there are all sorts of magical creatures and beings.  Giants, ogres, unicorns...  tales of bad people doing bad things abound. 

The other place floating in my head is a few weeks after tomorrow.  It's just as vague and strange, and fanciful things roam the land.  Except this time, it's all technology.  The people are still the same and the horrors still exist... but now they are masked and hidden.  The thieves don't carry swords anymore.  They carry pistols and the kings' gold isn't gold anymore.  It's data.  It's a different and just as fanciful world...  But it's still the same. 

I know these worlds will eventually reach some sort of medium, be it book, comic, or video game.  I've already started on the first, but it doesn't go very far: just a forest with some snow.  Perhaps I should return to the forest and flesh out the world. 

The other thing I've been contemplating is this piece from Penny-Arcade.  One of my neighbors watches the Big Bang Theory.  I couldn't get into it, but I never understood why.  I guess the point is that Big Bang Theory was written by the jocks in high school about the nerds.  It's no fun being the punch line...  doesn't matter if you're 15 or 35. 

See, that's the real problem with nerds like me.  We want to drag the rest of the world into our technological wonder and it see it the way we do.  But they never will.  They will show up and "not be us" no matter how hard we try.  See, there's a fundamental fact: you can't control other people.  You can influence them.  You can educate them.  You can do your best to get them to see things your way.  But you can't control them.  And part of their nature is to do things differently than us. 

I occasionally have a side job as a DJ.  I generally handle the lighting portion for a buddy of mine.  He's got the musical knowledge and talent to hook kids and them dancing and enjoying life.  It's the kind of thing that makes for a good elementary/junior high dance.  We've done an adult dance, but those are generally separated by hours of platitudes and copious amounts of beer.  Even then, it's different. 

During those elementary school dances, I see posters advertising the school as being a "bully free zone".  And that's fucking hilarious.  I try to avoid using such language, but sometimes it's necessary.  See, kids aren't as smart or crafty as adults that pay attention.  They think they are getting away and being slick because it's dark and everyone is drowned out and not paying attention.  Too busy being lost in the moment.  But me...  I have a tendency to see a lot.  I'm not sure if others see these things or not.  I'm not going to act like a super hero with super powers.  It's just that you can see the thugs and bullies in a school setting easily if you know what to look for.  And they're everywhere.

So that's why the "bully free zone" idea is hilarious.  You can't control people.  Scumbags are going to be scumbags, no matter what sign you put up.  Call it a natural order, call it what you will.  It's just an observation.