Avoid the cloud, the device. Eats my posts and notes, they do.
-the centaur
UPDATE: Now that I have a keyboard, here's the story. I'm reading Twilight as an audiobook, and wanted to do a quick "story so far" review. (In 11 words with punctuation: Twilight isn't bad - it's delightfully concrete - but I'm not it's demographic.) That's short, so I thought I'd try a quick review while I was leaving the campus of The Search Engine That Starts With A G.
But the voice recognition got HILARIOUSLY bad. It was actually comical, like the phone was fighting my review of Twilight - at one point the phone confessed that it WAS Twilight. Go figure. Finally I got to the car, sat down, and in the quiet tried to finish the review - and lost the connection to the voice recognition server. Sighing, I started to type the last line - and then the screen went kazoo, the app went away, and the phone returned to the home screen. Frantically, I returned to the app.
Every. Word. Gone.
Now, that's in part the fault of the WordPress Android app; it should have saved intermediate versions, like the WordPress web interface is doing every few minutes or so right now. But this isn't limited to the WordPress app; it's happened to me on other apps, in particular a note taking program. And in this case, I blame Android; from what happened to the screen and my experience with the software, I'm almost certain it was something in the main Android OS and not in the app itself that caused the app to go away (with the caveat that, again, it was the app's responsibility to save versions.)
So: pfui on you, as Nero Wolfe might say. I'm still going to stick to Android, as I can in theory write my own app with its own save behavior and not have to give somebody a stevejob just to get it accepted into the App Store. (Note: the iPhone is a high quality piece of hardware and I no more dispute Steve's right to mess it up with weird conditions than he disputes my right to use a buggier phone).
Posts published in “Uncategorized”
...if this was a real post, I'd say something substantive, like that I suspect if the top post has an image in it, it can cause the header to move up and be covered by the banner image, which is wrong. Stay tuned...
-the Centaur
UPDATE: No and yes. If a post has a WordPress-style image in it, it can chomp its own header, regardless of whether it is the first post. Got a little bit of debugging to do...
UPDATED UPDATE: Teh problem wasn't that the image had a theme error, the problem was the post had no title. Easily fixed: add a title, OR update the theme to write "This Post Title Unintentionally Left Blank" in the box... :-)
UPDATED UPDATE POSTSCRIPT: And I award Chrome's Developer Tools (themselves based on the WebKit Inspector) the prize for helping me find this bug by giving me an easy way to navigate down to that element and see that it wasn't just squeezed out (which had happened in an earlier iteration of the theme I'd tested locally on my laptop via MAMP) but was indeed missing its content. Hm. Another fix for hte bug would be to set a minimum height on the div for the title of the post ... interesting ...
More Frost Moon news ... the Amazon $0.99 promotion (in turn, caused by the iPad $0.99 promotion) is having good effects:
http://ireaderreview.com/2010/07/01/some-interesting-friday-kindle-book-deals/ There are lots of good kindle book deals doing well on the charts today ... 7.Frost Moon by Anthony Francis has made its way into the Top 100. It’s rated 4.5 stars on 30 reviews and is just $1.It's almost like my hard working publisher's efforts to promote my book are, uh, working. Yaay Bell Bridge Books! -the CentaurIn an alternate Atlanta where magic is practiced openly, where witches sip coffee at local cafes, shapeshifters party at urban clubs, vampires rule the southern night like gangsters, and mysterious creatures command dark caverns beneath the city, Dakota Frost’s talents are coveted by all. She’s the best magical tattooist in the southeast, a Skindancer, able to bring her amazing tats to life. When a serial killer begins stalking Atlanta’s tattooed elite, the police and the Feds seek Dakota’s help. Can she find the killer on the dark fringe of the city’s Edgeworld?Quite a collection of deals.
Almost easy enough to do when taking a walk.
Easier to use voice input.
Almost. It didn't successfully read the previous sentence (or this one) but it was close.
- the centaur
Clipped by a friend:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #58 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)Wow. I'm flabbergastled. Rest assured, though, Blood Rock is at the publisher and Skindancer:Liquid Fire and Spellpunk:Hex Code are underway! -the Centaur
#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy #4 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
Actually it was quite an adventure just getting this far, for which I've taken notes that I plan to blog. But I thought I should make the following points:
- Yes, I know a number of widgets on the site are broken.
- Yes, I know a number of parts of the theme are messed up.
- Yes, I know there are parts of the theme that are messed up, that I don't yet know are messed up. :-(
...same bat domain, different bat fully qualified URL, different bat RSS feed. The Library of Dresan blog is now at http://www.dresan.com/index.php (actually, http://www.dresan.com/ should work). Please update your RSS feeds to: http://www.dresan.com/?feed=atom ...
-the Centaur
BWAH HA HAHAAHAA!
Posting to the blog is LIIIIVE again.
And for those that don't get it, "The Dawning of Val Mar" is a private in joke that about 3 people on Earth will get ... that was originally the "first post" on my WordPress blog before I had to delete it.
The post is gone, but the in joke lives on. Massive flurry of posts to follow, God willing. Peace out.
-teh Centaur
Blogger has discontinued FTP, so I am migrating to WordPress. (No, I have zero interest in remaining with Blogger when they have discontinued the feature that made me select them, and having spoken with the team, I'd love to say I respect their reasons, but ... well, if you don't have anything good to say (and, really, I most sincerely don't) then vote with your feet.)
In the meantime, because writing novels and spending time with my wife and cats has to take precedence over Webworks, I let the deadline to migrate lapse before my WordPress installation was ready. SO I can make any necessary announcements for those who read this blog via Reader or RSS feed, I have reluctantly ported the Library of Dresan to http://blog.dresan.com/ - don't get used to this; it is going away.
Further announcements forthcoming.
-the Centaur
In the meantime, because writing novels and spending time with my wife and cats has to take precedence over Webworks, I let the deadline to migrate lapse before my WordPress installation was ready. SO I can make any necessary announcements for those who read this blog via Reader or RSS feed, I have reluctantly ported the Library of Dresan to http://blog.dresan.com/ - don't get used to this; it is going away.
Further announcements forthcoming.
-the Centaur
The Dragon Writers, the alumni of Ann Crispin's 2002 Writer's Workshop at DragonCon, now have a group blog about our writing experiences. Oh, and you can get our logo on a t-shirt. Check them out...
... in one of those instances which exposes really how shallow you are, I find myself gratified that it, indeed, has finally happened. What is it?
Professional recognition.
Since I was a child I always wanted to be a "real science fiction writer". For some reason, I got it in my head that this meant membership in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Not sure how that happened, but it did: the external approval of that group of strangers somehow came to matter to me. So I tried to join.
First I wrote a science fiction short story that got published in 1995 in The Leading Edge magazine, but when I checked I found that the Leading Edge was not eligible for SFWA.
Then I wrote an urban fantasy novel that got published in 2010 by Bell Bridge Books, but when I checked I found that Bell Bridge was not eligible for SFWA.
Then, I missed the deadline to register for Comic-Con this year, and decided, what the heck, I'll try to register as a professional. After all, I've written an urban fantasy novel, drawn its frontispiece, and even created a webcomic. And for years I've felt that comics are my future as a creator. So, what the heck, why not?
Ding:
Dear Comic-Con Creative Creative Professional Attendee,
Thank you for registering for Comic-Con International 2010: San Diego
Please take a few moments to review your registration information...
Well. Allrighty then.
Yes, it's shallow of me to base some part of my evaluation of my personal self worth on the approval of others. Yes, this shows a deep-seated insecurity that needs to be addressed by a deep increase in maturity. Yes, yes, yes, I'll work on that. But still ...
... it's finally happened.
Well, enough basking. Back to work on Blood Rock. But wait - it is indeed working.
Boo-yah.
-the Centaur
Upcoming AAAI Workshop: AI and Fun:
Papers due March 29...
Interactive entertainment (aka computer games) has become a dominant force in the entertainment sector of the global economy. The question that needs to be explored in depth: what is the role of artificial intelligence in the entertainment sector? If we accept the premise that artificial intelligence has a role in facilitating the entertainment and engagement of humans, then we are left with new questions...
Papers due March 29...
Sorry, commenters, but the signal-to-noise ratio of anonymous comments was approaching zero. :-( It was getting to the point I almost rejected some real though short comments because they were looking like the spam comments I was getting - I apologize if I dinged a real person by accident. But when you don't know who's sending a gift, you never know what's inside the wrapper.
-the Centaur
Pictured is my cousin Bryan Norman, receiving a joke gift of a mailbox at last Christmas's White Elephant gift exchange - though I dispute the Wikipedia article, I lived 38 years in the Southeastern United States and never heard it called a "Yankee swap" - always "White Elephant" or the less-politically-correct "Chinese Christmas".
So, at GDC 2010, I saw Starcraft II in action for the first time.
Screenshots cannot do it justice.
You know, Starcraft has always had a kind of muddy, visually busy, hard-to-grok visual style which made it less impressive in screenshots than it is when playing the game with knowledge. Starcraft II takes this to a whole new level - it's still busy, but the tiny incomprehensible units are now clearly visible 3D models, and they're constantly engaged in animation which displays their personality or explains their shape or just makes them interesting to watch. And there's some new visual filigree which makes it easier to see what your actions in the game will take.
So if you're into Starcraft, don't bother torturing yourself with screenshots. Just get the game when it comes out.
-the Centaur
Every year I go to the Game Developers Conference to keep tabs on how artificial intelligence in games is developing. Each year I take copious notes. And each year I promise myself I'll blog my notes online, and yet I never do.
Until now.
GDC 2010 seems smaller than GDC 2008, but it doesn't feel wrong. In the past few years it's been held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, taking up the massive Moscone West building and the North and South halls. I say 2008 because 2010 feels about the size of 2009, but where 2009 felt outsized, this year they've ditched Moscone West, filling out North and South "just right" for a smaller, saner, but still vibrant conference.
The show floor is still massive, going on and on, filled with books and tools and technologies and games and career opportunities and just about anything you can imagine.
And I mean just about anything. Steve Weibe? Really? No offense, but that seems more of an E3 or Comicon thing. Of course, maybe he's super cool, but since I missed him at the booth it was just a bit jarring to see the machine there all by its lonesome.
The South Hall held the AI Summit and many interesting talks. I'll talk about the AI Summit, Starcraft, indie games, and future technologies (past and present) in a subsequent post.
But there is a whole other hall, where more talks are held. The AI Roundtables occurred here, as did talks on the Sims 3; I'll fold these into the above posts.
But the thing that strikes me about the North Hall (other than the giant black hole of cell reception and borked wifi) is the churn of people going to talks, coming from talks, talking about IP and licenses and techniques and advances. Here, simply because of its physical layout you really can see the industry's creative malestrom churning.
"I want YOU to make games." Indeed.
-the Centaur
Today I'm playing "hooky" from GDC 2010. I look forward to GDC every year, where I see friends, catch glimpses of new games, and learn more and more about artificial intelligence and games. But for various reasons (cost, cats) I don't have a hotel this year, and have been driving up to San Francisco from my house in the South Bay.
It's fun seeing the gang, especially the always engaging Neil Kirby, and fun watching the speakers, especially the entertaining R.A. Salvatore. But yesterday I spent four hours in the car - two there, two back - a grueling experience in the morning in which I not only missed breakfast, missed the Starcraft talk but almost missed the NEXT talk, and an equally grueling experience in the evening racing home to the Saint Stephen's in-the-Field Vestry meeting.
I'd have lot more time in my life if I didn't work two jobs - one by day at the Search Engine That Starts With A G, and one by night as a science fiction author - and so things pile up. By the time GDC rolled around I was already worn thin working and prepping my novel, and then after the drive up and back each day I was totally exhausted, so at the end of each day I'd just feed the cats and crash.
So this morning, I got up, earlier this time, in more than enough time to make the first talk ... and said, "screw it."
What a relieved feeling! Felt like the best decision that I'd made in a long time. I cleaned house, did laundry, played with the cats ... and then popped open the work laptop around the time I'd normally LEAVE for work and worked for a few hours. Yes, that's right ... I took a break from my vacation to work. Not that I want to, but there are things that need to get done that take a lot of "wall clock" time but not lots of programming time, so I answered some email, submitted a changelist, fired off a Mapreduce ...
... and then took a two hour nap on the futon in the library with a cat on my chest.
It was a pretty good day ... so far. And it isn't over yet.
-the Centaur
Pictured: the two-laptop setup I use to keep my work and writing life distinct (just change the cables to give a different computer the main monitor) and Gabby, my very most computer literate cat.
Reading from Liquid Fire tomorrow at 7 on KFJC radio's Unbedtime Stories with Ann Arbor ... sorry for the late notice!
As some of you may noticed, posting to the Library was down for a while because my FTP provider changed its configuration silently. Blogger was able to publish to the old site without errors - but that old site was no longer being published to the web. This is one of the many reasons Blogger has decided to discontinue FTP. I've talked with the team and read over their documentation, and while there are some usage patterns that I can do for many of my blogs, I'll be transferring the Library of Dresan over to a new hosting provider and blogging provider. There will be some disruption for a while all the way down to my email addresses as I get my online life a little more under control. Please be patient while this goes on ... I'll keep posting via Blogger through maybe March until I get this sorted out.
This cartoon illustrates a common misconception of The Left:
"We're fed up with Washington! The Government can't get anything done! It apparently takes a supermajority to pass anything! Let's make sure no-one has that!"No, no, no, no, NO! For goodness sake, people, listen to what your opponents are saying instead of projecting your desires upon them. What the people who just voted a Republican into Ted Kennedy's seat are saying is this:
"We're fed up with Washington! The Government is doing things we don't like! Fortunately, it takes a supermajority to pass anything! Let's make sure the bad guys don't have that!"Not that I think the Democrats are the bad guys - I voted for them - so let's just say that this is my creative way of making the point that it's pretty darn stupid to imagine that the people who voted out the Democrats are motivated by what Democratic voters want. If you need a reminder, in general, excluding social conservative and military issues, it's Democrats who want government action and Republicans who want to stop the government from acting.