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June 30, 2005
MT Protect upgrade
The version of MT Protect on this server was upgraded, adding a few new features.
The tag <MTEntryProtect> is now functional
The tag <MTIfProtected> is working
Groups have been added - you can now build a group of (TypeKey) friends in the MT Protect configuration. These are used when protecting entries with group:
Creating a group
Adding a group to the userlist
I believe I have all of the wrinkles out, and you should not experience any troubles. Having said that, some data formats were changed (radically) in this release, requring some manual conversions to the protection lists in the database. If anyone has any trouble altering protection on entries that were previously TypeKey protected, please let me know and it will be fixed.
Thanks.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 03:13 PM
June 29, 2005
Braaaaaaiiins! (Zombie alert)
Commercial Voiceover: The rich aroma that forcibly interrupts the story. The deep taste that makes even a zombie's eyes pop out. When you are tired of a confused story. For you, who know the difference, try Dog Blend.
Talking Head (1992)
Boffins create zombie dogs.
So sayeth the headlines.
After reading a little more, these are no more zombies than anyone who has been jump-started by an EMT. Karl Rove still has all the mind control chips, and he's not wasting them on puppies. He's saving them up for his army of mechanized hedgehogs.
The process may sound grotesque, but that all makes for better zombies. The subject (pre-zombie dog) is killed by draining it of blood whilst replacing it with a chilled saline solution (zombie fluids). This has the added bonus of sounding rather vampiric at the same time. The core body temperature drops rapidly from 40'c to about 7'c, staving off damage to brain tissue - in much the same way that allows people who have fallen through ice on a pond to be resuscitated 40 minutes later without the brain damage that typically occurs five minutes after the brain is cut off from oxygen. It also avoid the problems that plague the cryogenically frozen - namely that when you actually freeze the brain, the cell walls rupture. A thawed brain is not much more than goo. If you've ever frozen and thawed a strawberry, that's the ballpark.
Some hours later, the saline is pumped out, the blood goes back, body temperature is brought back up and the heart jump started.
And the dog wakes up, suffering, apparently, no detectable loss of mental ability (then again, if they tested on Boxers or Irish Spaniels, there would be no detecable loss of mental ability if they removed the brain).
USSR open heart surgeons have been using a chilling (to 26'c), killing, heating reviving technique for over 20 years (circulatory arrest does indeed mean stopping the heart and bloodflow). This was done with crushed ice and had incidence of 'neurological complications' (synonym: brain damage) (3.8%) and deaths (9.3%).
It's the sophistication of this technique, and the way it avoids the neurological complications by chilling to such a degree quickly that garners it the attention. Who will be interested and why?
The hospital emergency rooms, the military and quite likely the cryogenic nut jobs. If you can do this and reliably resuscitate (rather than "reanimate") them, it's actually going to be less risky to kill a patient to perform large, complex and invasive surgeries, then revive them than it would be to operate on on a live patient who has an excellent chance of bleeding to death. And you save on anaesthetic.
Is it grotesque and creepy? Many would say so. Playing god? It does rather sound like embalming. But no life is created where there was none before. Is it ethical? I feel sorry for the dogs. Also I think they should have done a little more research on this one first. Careful with that knife, Rachel.
The good Doctors Frankenstien will doubtless have a good deal of time to consider this with the AMA Institute of Ethics.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:14 PM
Switch all power to front deflector shields
The Cat: Why don't we raise the defensive shields?
Kryten: A superlative suggestion, sir. With just two minor flaws. One, we don't have any defensive shields. And two, we don't have any defensive shields. Now I realise that technically speaking that's only one flaw but I thought that it was such a big one that it was worth mentioning twice.
The Cat: Good point, well made.
Holoship, Red Dwarf, Series V
NASA has pulled an old idea out of mothballs, dusted it off and presented it as a rather funky solution to radiation past low-earth orbit. Force fields.
In essence, you need to stop or repel these things as they are very bad for people. The planet has various layers of atmosphere that does the same thing for us, and we tend to wrap our reactors in heavy shielding material, like concrete and lead (or duct tape, depending on funding). Of course, when you need to spend a significant dollar amount per pound of payload, lead and concrete is not an ideal solution for space travel.
Most of the dangerous radiation in space consists of electrically charged particles: high-speed electrons and protons from the Sun, and massive, positively charged atomic nuclei from distant supernovas.
So, the idea goes, why not have a like charge around the astronauts and deflect it all, after all, opposites attract, likes repel. These spheres would have a high charge, 100 mega-volts, which is perfect for all sorts of practical jokes. They do say "most of the dangerous radiation", and I wonder what plans are afoot for the 'other' radiation. And it's not without critics. All research is being done at NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts, which is variously thought of as 'Boffin Nirvana' or 'A Senseless Money Pit'.
All very preliminary and impractical. But more fun to think about than zombie dogs. Ah, progress.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 08:51 PM
Standard Password protection test (password=test).
MT, you treacherous siren, you.
The protection bug is fixed here, a submit form was not passing a parameter that it should have. Perl script touched up, all seems good.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 12:41 PM
June 28, 2005
Typekey, restricted comments and protected entries.
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."Albert Einstein
I'll be damned. I'm actually finding myself curious as to how all this works.
I see interesting things. I've set up typekey identification for comments, which will be automatically approved. Non-typekey comments will be manually vetted.
Update -Actually, even though both options may be checked simultaneously in the config, it seems it's an either-or thing. You must have a typekey ID to leave comments for the moment.
But how?
For this, you need to register for a typekey account, if you haven't already. Make sure you add the blog host URL to the Weblog preferences (do not use your account name) - http://www.moreblogsofroleplay.com/, not http://www.moreblogsofroleplay.com/Meathe. The trailing slash is important.
Once you're all registered, to set this up on your blog, go to the blog config, Preferences, check the Accept Comments from Registered Visitors. Paste in your typekey token (available from your account at TypeKey).
Having done that, I thought I'd try something new. There is one feature I'm quite interested in, though I never had managed to make it work. Strega, you did set it up correctly! Password and TypeKey protection for entries.
Update-
It seems MTProtect has SQL issues when using it's own password access control. I'm looking into where it goes wrong in the source, however, it's probably better to save yourself the headache and stick with TypeKey authentication.Bug squished.
It's the documentation that's incorrect (and incomplete). <MTProtectEntry> (recomended by them) simply does not work. <MTProtected> does.
So now you must fiddle with your templates - main index, master archive index, Category Archive, Date Based Archive, Individual Entry Archive, index.rdf, etc.
As the first line in each of these templates, add <MTProtectInclude>. This includes all the code needed to make it work.
Somewhere after <MTEntries>
...
<MTProtected>
<MTEntryBody>
....
</MTProtected>
<MTEntries>
This will display the title of the protected entry, but no content and no comments to people who have not logged in and are not approved.
For the individual entry archive, add the <MTProtected> </MTProtected> tags inside the <body></body> tags to hide all protected content.
Now the templates are working, it's time to protect an entry. Any entry you protect must be saved (as a draft is best) before you click the protect button. Then add the list of Typekey IDs you want to be able to read your entry. Any changes to these require a whole site rebuild.
Update: 29/06/2005
As these MT tags insert PHP code, you will need to change your weblog config preferences so that "Extension for Archive Files" is PHP, not HTML, and rebuild your site. Otherwise, the PHP code will not be interpretted correctly (or, indeed, at all). You also have to change your template extensions from html to php. It may take a little while for this to be fully refreshed, as it also alters your .htaccess file to make index.php the default file.
Apologies for the omission.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:26 AM
MT Protection test...
Small feature test. Nothing to see here.
I'm finding half my problems are with the proxy server giving me old copies of this every time I tweak something.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:23 AM
June 27, 2005
Self reproducing programs.
A little bored during my luncheon break, so I thought I'd try my hand at a quine using the C preprocessor.
#define A(B) main(){printf("#define A(B) %s\nA(%s)\n",#A,#A);}
A(main(){printf("#define A(B) %s\nA(%s)\n",#A,#A);})
Running the program produces:
#define A(B) main(){printf("#define A(B) %s\nA(%s)\n",#A,#A);}
A(main(){printf("#define A(B) %s\nA(%s)\n",#A,#A);})
And looking at the Wiki page linked about, it's been done in a neater fashion by someone else. Still, not too bad for 20 minutes messing about.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 03:38 PM
What kind of cat are you?
"You can't help that. We're all mad here."The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland
Yes, I know I'm a seal and there is no turning back. Still, quizzes can be entertaining.
And it's such a handsom cat.
Take the quiz: "What type of cat are you?"
egyptian
You're a decendent of egyptian queen and king's cats, but even though your basiclly royalty, you still act like a normal cat.
Update:
It's spelled colour, isn't it?
Neutral:
Harmony and balance is key. You don't look at the
world in a negative or positive way and you'll
never judge or assume a situation- you just
look at the facts. People like you are peaceful
and accepting.
What color do you see the world in?
brought to you by Quizilla
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:46 AM
June 24, 2005
Why seals?
Kermit: Uh, yeah well, we could have a seal act on the show.The Muppet Show, 1976
For the sake of convenience, lets include sea lions in there too. They're all pinnipeds, and all came from the same bear like ancestor aout 30 million years ago. There was some scientific debate, however, a 1986 study using mitochondrial DNA (not midi-chloran) found them to be closer related to each other than to any other species. And the pedants will note that some of the images scattered around here are actually sea lions. I don't care.
The short answer to the question is: Because Meathe's avatar is one.
Who is Meathe? Meathe is my character on the Time of Darkness MUD, an immortal, one of the characters who run the game (and write the code), all of whom have some floral or faunal totem. The guy puppeteering Meathe is an Australian who moved to New York, though this has little relevance to seals.
But why then, is Meathe's avatar a seal? There are many curious answers to that, none of which are correct.
The research team have discovered the first mention of seals in an message dating to 2002, and a further mention on March 14, 2004. No further information has been uncovered, though it is suspected Navarre has a penchant for clubbing.
Speculation, however, is rife. While some are possible others have been completely discounted.
It could be the guinness poster. This is the currently favoured theory. It may be because penguins compose 87% of their diet (Leopard Seals)This is one of the lamest theorums to date. And I like Tux.According certain shamanistic beliefs, the seal embodies contentment, lucid dreaming, protection from danger, creativity, listening to our inner voice, gentleness, adaptability, talkativeness and playfulness. One or more of these may even be accurate. A freak smelting accidentBitten by a radioactive sealBecause I have a pet sealJuggling and balancing beach balls is funAbducted by aliens who decided I would better off a sealBecause I smell like oneRandom mutationsI got drunk and went home walking like one Bitten by a wereseal/sea lionI came in late and seals were the only thing left in the pool They are somewhat protected.
It could also be that they're just cute animals. But then, so are otters.
Until someone actually remembers or finds some sort of annotation, your guess is as good as any, and quite likely better than most.
Arf.
Update: 1:46pm
Coyote knows. He has suggested that somehow it involves a PVC tunic. He is not, however, being more forthcoming than that and has refused to give any more details.Update: 1:48pm
I have a cunning plan.Update: 1:50pm
A bribe consisting of a large and juicy femur has broken his will, and he has divulged the whole sordid story.
You hold an elephant femur, full of juicy marrow in your hand.
Coyote drools all over himself -- making a TERRIBLE mess!
You say 'C'mon...'
Coyote gives you a PVC tunic.
You stop using an elephant femur, full of juicy marrow.
Coyote says 'Well, it came from a conversation that involved the PVC there.'
Coyote says 'Basically somewhere along the lines of you wore it and we were teasing you about it.'
Coyote says 'You of course were heavily resisting, and since PVC looks like seal skin....'
Coyote waves his hand in a magical fashion.
Coyote says '...and the seal was born.'
You say 'That's it?!'
You give an elephant femur, full of juicy marrow to Coyote.
You ponder the question
You say 'It was after one of those "dress up the link-dead and see how long it takes them to notice" things, wasn't it.'
Coyote says 'I'm fuzzy on that part.'
Coyote says 'Well, suppose I'm fuzzy in general.'
Coyote says 'Though who could resist the thought of a fuzzy cute coyote in full winter fur?'
Coyote says 'I think that's kind of funny. We forced the Treeman persona on Oaklore, and the seal on you. I'm not sure, but I'm one of the few that got to pick fully.'
Coyote happily gnaws on the femur.
Update: 9:50pm
Kali is not convinced of this sequence of events. Perhaps the mystery is destined to remain unsolved.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 11:48 AM
June 20, 2005
My introduction to computers and MUDs.
This document describes the usage and input syntax of the Unix Vax-11 assembler As. As is designed for assembling code produced by the "C" compiler; certain concessions have been made to handle code written directly by people, but in general little sympathy has been extended. Berkeley Vax/Unix Assembler Reference Manual (1983)
Code is a strange place to visit. Many things lurk there, and the terrors can be great.
So, how does one get into this stuff?
I always loved computers. Eve before I had one, I loved the idea of them, the things that made them tick. I blame a combination of Wargames, Star Wars and the general mystery that surrounded them. Shall we play a game?
In the second grade, my school obtained a Vic 20, a monster of a machine, which included a tape drive. There was nothing but a few skimpy manuals and some educational games. And a simplistic guide that offered no information about how to actually making this thing work as I wanted.
Intreguing, but... Nothing you could learn anything with.
A few years later, the school introduced a TRS-80. There was a little more documentation, and BASIC entered my life. And you could actually make these machines do something you wanted them to do. And I was hooked.
Of course, games must come into it, and my family was always good at making games and cheap entertainment. My cousin, four years my senior, was making pen and paper sci-fi rpgs before I hit 8. We travelled in super-hyper speeders to the Medusa galaxy, comandeered Transit Shuttles and journeyed to the limits of the galaxy, through wormholes and into alternate worlds. And then my uncle gave me a copy of Dungeons and Dragons for my tenth birthday - and worlds changed for me. Any time I had spare, I read, reread, memorised the books. Played the Fighting Fantasy novels when there was no one else to game with.
Eventually, I scrimped, saved, and hoarded enough money to get myself a Commodore 64. At the age of 13, I learned everything I could about it. When I stretched BASIC to breaking point, and knowing of PEEKs and POKEs, I wondered what the PEEKs and POKEs actually hooked into to do the magic they did. And I discovered assembly for the MOS 6510. I never did figure out the SID chip completely. The C64 also introduced me to Zork, the almost-grandaddy of text-based rpgs.
High school introduced the Apple ][e, already obsolete when I started and still in service when I finished. I was never terribly impressed with it. My apologies to the Apple nuts. And there met and converted several people to role playing games.
What to do after high school? Well, math and physics grades were a little better than passably good. Flight seemed what I wanted to do. I applied to become a pilot in the air force. Most everything was up to par - but the eyesight was not.
By this time, it was a little late to apply for University. I dither a lot, and had pegged hopes on passing the eye exam. I did, however, make it into a TAFE (which is Australian-speak for "You couldn't make university, this is the next best thing"), and I began to study computers in earnest.
Pascal, logic, desktop publishing. I applied to transfer as soon as I could, and did. Monash University beckoned, and a strange hybrid degree, mixed Computer Science/Electrical Engineering/Mechanical Engineering. Digital logic. Data communications. C. Assembly. C++. SQL. What else can we make it do? Study bridge building. Quite honestly, the mechanical engineering part I paid enough attention to for a pass. Stresses and sheer forces in beams? CAD/CAM was the most interesting part, and it wasn't all that interesting. My thesis was on data compression, both voice and images, and I spent hundreds of hours trying to squeeze more voice into less space. Eventually, we ended up with about a 4:1 compression ratio for voice - in real time - on a 386-33.
Then I started working, and accepted the first position I was offered. A jack-of-all trades position, requiring a broad knowledge, but sadly little in the way of coding oportunities.
I'd also kept playing Dungeons and Dragons with some of the guys from high school, who introduced new friends. One of these was Rob. Rob is probably easiest to describe physically as a rugged Tom Cruise, who also sings. Well. And is a nice guy to boot.
Rob is also the guy who insisted I sit down in my computer chair for a few hours and try this MUD thing, which he'd been playing since before the Dwarven Kingdom - Copper, and played back when equipment from the Dwarven kingdom was the hottest stuff in the game. What? I liked Zork, but how does this work? Twenty minutes in, I was ready to quit. An hour in, and I cursed the day I'd met him. Two hours in, and I'd never leave again.
And then, wonderously, I was offered an administrative position on one. And eventually was offered a coding spot. It is amazing how skills become rusty when disused for a decade, and similarily, (after a thousand hours of coding), amazing how quickly they return.
Having brushed off the knowledge in play, it was noticed in my current place of employ. C# (C Sharp, not C Pound) and more code looms large.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 08:10 PM
June 03, 2005
"It swims and eats and makes little baby sharks, that's all"
Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, what do I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here!
Somewhere in Australia, they're trying to save the Grey Nurse shark. It's called that, not only because it's a gentle creature, but because it herds fish into a tight school before feasting. Though it was once extensively hunted it has been protected as a species for 40 years. Scientists worry that there are insufficient numbers to sustain the species and estimates on extinction vary from twenty to forty years time. They now need saving it from themselves.
The grey nurse has a slightly unusual reproductive system that allows it to give live birth - though it does have eggs. It has two separate uteri, and up to twenty eggs hatch in each one. But only two of those frisky little pups are ever born – they are the ones that eat the others. “Intrauterine cannibalism”, it's called.
So how does one confront the conundrum of increasing the numbers born? Test tube babies will be individually wrapped in artificial wombs. Which is an interesting idea and I hope it works out quite well. After that, the little bundles of joy will be released into the wild where they will be monitored for survival rates, growth and movements. Nifty stuff, this science business.
Regarding their demanour, aside from the siblicide, they're called "Labradors of the sea" for their gentle nature, I'm sure most people would rather tussle with a labrador of the regular kind.
Scrawled illegibly by Meathe at 09:51 AM