2020-06-11 07:12:42

Hey folks...

I didn't want start a thread (especially since I have no clue when they'll disappear), but Amazon of all places has Del X51s (the same devices which originally had the Trekker/Maestro software on them), over at

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-X51-416MHz- … B003T0UX1E

They also seem to have HPIPaqs on there too as well!

It's thanks to an email I got from them on the subject.

I hope everyone's being safe these days.
Take care!

2020-06-11 17:22:27

Hi,
@Zac93: For regular exams, it is roughly like that (1 =100 % - 91 %, 2 =90 % - 81 % etc.). For the final exam it is a Little more complicated and I don't know all the exact Details myself.
One more interesting Thing might be that if you have a 5 on an exam, that's a negative mark (with all others, you are positive).
I hope my Explanation is not too confusing.

Greetings and happy gaming, Julian

If you say you never lie, you're a liar.
Oh, and #freeGCW

2020-06-12 15:21:38

@Wing of eternity, I've heard of the chronicles of aambar, Zelasni is an author I really need to get to since he's sort of both considered a classic and also quite off the wall.

@Dark Eagle, I've read the dresden files, but not Butcher's fantasy. I hope the main character of those is less irritating than the winy occasionally chauvinistic wizard big_smile. Actually in fairness I did enjoy the Dresden books as random fun and will read the next one when it comes out.

@Mirage, Yes, things are a wee bit stresful right now so the prayers are appreciated, hope your getting better in turn.

@Zack93, I have had a look at the cog script system, though it seems annoyingly dependent upon tabs for it's parsing. It's something I might consider, though at the moment I'm more thinking traditional writing than interactive.
plus of course, I think I would prefer to write stories where your gender/sexuality actually affects the plot in some way so Cog's new habbit of having the main character as a blank slate with gender/etc as essentially a choice of hairdo wouldn't suit me anyway, quite aside from the fact their so called gender choices get so out there they actually feela little restrictive, EG what ever happened to just being a nice, gentle guy who doesn't call himself sisgender, or simply not choosing to pursue romantic   options if that's your choice rather than ticking an "aromantic" box, then again i talked about this in a topic about delight games a while back so probably shouldn't go into it again.

Mud wise, I need to try banished lands, though I was a wee bit put off by the idea of a mud that is a little directionless, since I do like quests to complete etc, even in terms of crafting, and my one problem with lament was that I started with a bunch of skills and was then completely unsure of what I actually should do in the game to use them, or even to begin making money or items. Clok at least had a miner suggested tutorial to get you started.
Iron realms games I haven't tried yet.

Mostly I've been playing cosmic rage, though I've recently got back to Erion and am loving some of the new systems, especially the magical gardening.

I don't mind confessing that today we're a bit tense. My lady has her appointment tomorrow to basically go and see if the tumour is gone, which also means going into hospital risking corona, and risking my parents getting corona, despite taking a bunch of precautions, even like covering the car in plastic, so things are not entirely fun right now.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-12 15:30:28

Hi Dark,
It might be more worth writing for the Hosted Games label if you do want to do something for Choice of Games. Some of the fan favorite games are under that label so it's definitely something that fans check, although YMMV because it doesn't have nearly as strict guidelines for writing. Also if you're interested in writing any kind of romance-centric plot, might be worth checking out the Heart's Choice label.

2020-06-13 05:23:11

@Lucas1853, at the moment I'm more thinking traditional than interactive fiction, but it's something I'll bare in mind.

As I said, I took a look at the parsing tutorial, but it looked quite complex and I didn't like the idea of all those tabs used to distinguish different nested levels of choices.

I'll admit I'm awake at four AM, and not happy, since today is not fun.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-13 06:24:56

Dark,
If you decide to try accursed Lands, I'll help you.
Just let me know when you're going to make a character and I'll be around.

2020-06-13 13:57:11

@Dark:
Actually, Tavi seems to me much more better developed in terms of personality, even though his story takes place where apparently
(Spoilers)
all the people are descendents of the lost roman legion.

I'm not gonna lie, considering how much I got burned by Spellmonger, I was hesitant in picking up another fantasy book which takes place in old times. but thankfully, it is not that bad.

You're right about one thing though. Dresden Files is not something which you will enjoy reading constantly, it is fine as a time waster, but beyond that it is not that good.

Now, things written by Charles Stross... they are on entirely different level, the fact that he himself actually quite knoledgable within the field of science, (Or at least he does his research,) also goes on his favor.

2020-06-13 17:58:54

Hi,
@29: Well, Heart's Choice could use a few stories. Last time I checked, there were 4 or 5 games in there.
@32: An author who is into science himself and writes About a science-related subject? I have read one book (the martian, yes the one with main character Mark Watney they made a film out of) where this went horribly wrong. Honestly, there were passages in that book which were all About some complicated scientific calculations or stuff like that.
Just wanted to throw in my experience with that sort of Thing.

Greetings and happy gaming, Julian

If you say you never lie, you're a liar.
Oh, and #freeGCW

2020-06-13 18:50:37

Well, my lady is back from hospital now, and the scan was fine! apparently getting irradiated for six weeks actually did what it was supposed to.
Thanks everyone for the good wishes. I'm feeling really relieved and extremely tired as well.

@Mirage, I'll bare that in mind, mostly my mudding has been with CR and Erion at the moment, though I've been thinking of starting a new char on tempest season as I had a great time with that, but then my lady just started the radio therapy I just got out of the habbit of playing.

@Dark eagle, Yep, Dresden files were silly fun, albeit I confess after some of the really crappy things Seanen McGuire has done with October Daye I'm appreciating them more. Really, I don't think I've ever encountered a series which managed to turn it's main character from a very likable, heroic, screwed up person in the first book, and then slowly have her turn into an arrogant insensitive arse hole, who does things like have a go at her boyfriend for getting PTSD after going through a traumatic change, then, when he turns up to save her, making him basically have to crawl to her to forgive him, or having a complete strop at her surrigate father for not! telling her her mother had been with someone else before she was with October's father, something he'd promised not to reveal in a world where promises come with big magical wammies, and once again having the poor man basically have to beg her forgiveness whilst she got to be vial to him!

I haven't read any charlse straus, but I've read a lot of hard Sf in my time.
I must confess though, my attitude to hard SF is rather like George R R Martins which he mentions in his short stories collection dream songs.

So long as the world is consistent and the story well told, I honestly don't care whether we have scientific realism or not.

This isn't to say I'm a fan of occasions where writers suddenly just pull a new bit of magic; or for that matter some magical psudo scientific tech out of the air to solve the plot either, but to me, this is more a matter of just telling a good story with tension and no deus ex, than necessarily sticking to scientific accuracy.

For example, the climax to return of the Jedi works because Luke refuses to give in to hate and fight his father, even though he's watching his friends in the rebel fleet get slaughtered , and in the end Darth Vader can't bare to see his son tortured and killed.

compare this to the conclusion to an entirely unrelated film in which a certain evil person first wants to possess the main character, then kill her, then have her kill him, then have someone else kill her, then kill her himself, and the main character randomly suddenly gets a mysterious sort of omni soul power and blows him aaway!

That is exactly what I mean by inconsistant, in character, in motivation, in relative strengths etc.

Anyway enough pontificating for now, this soapbox is starting to creak and I need cooooooofeeeeeee

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-13 19:09:56

That . makes . me . so . happy!
Feeling so relieved for you an your lady, Dark.
YAY, on with better times!

2020-06-13 20:48:16

@33:
It can happen if the writer loses himself in the science, and forgets that he is writing fiction.

@Dark:
Stross, mainly uses the computer technology within his stories, not the super high tech of the future, instead he uses the most current development within the field of computers at the time of writing.

This of course, results in some hilarious situations, such as when in one of the Laundry Files, the mad scientists used java applets for some purposes, while extolling its virtues, while around 2015 the java applets were kicked out of all the mainstream browsers, and know one liked them in the end.

Happy to hear that Lady Dark, (what an awesome title!) Is okay. While I don't remember the results of radiation therapy since I was just a baby back then, my mother often tells me that I just never looked the same, and the area around my temples and eyebrows is still rather sensitive to sunlight to this day.

2020-06-15 13:08:49

Hy guys!
well, what can I say? Let's see...
first, school ended afew days ago, so all hail the power of audiogames for three months in a row!
regarding programming, I'm trying to learn xamarin.forms, a...shall we say...framework that allows cross platform development, even for the gui, a thing traditionally not cross platform. plus, it works on the most popular mobile OS's out there, so, much, much fun ahead!
Here in romania, covid hit pretty badly, but we can consider our selfs lucky, the dead didn't reach the numbers in italia. and...the numbers are actually slightly, very slowly decreasing day by day, so let's hope it will be better soon!
N.B: hope the romanian politicians stop bickering about it, the idiots, they're trying to use this pandemic to winn votes, can you believe that?
what else...aha, I finished reading laundry files and I find it the most interesting book I've read, second after malazan, of course.
**possible spoilers ahead**
@Dark Eagle, yeah, I indeed remember that scene where brains created that java applet for bob's phone to be able to controll his car, the thing was really hilarious. But remember that thing with the iPhone? where the same guy installed an occult firewall on the other guy's iPhone? and the entire thing with all apple products are applyed a glammer to make everyone buy them? what about the theory that demons hide inbetween the slides of a powerpoint presentation? Really great stuff, I tell you. I can't wait for the book 10 to appear. I know it will do so eventually, hope it will be soon, this serie is awesome!

2020-06-15 20:17:23

@37:
Things like that are the reason why I like this series. believe or not, I'll never see the power point presentations the same way again.

Also, quantitative annalysis can also produce vampires, music instruments can eat you're soul... And of course there are worse things within this universe than dimentia!

2020-06-15 22:52:45

yeah, and don't forget about kranzberg simdrome, just for the taist of it. and...don't forget as well that undead gods are ruling the UK in the skin of the prime minister. And the entire american nation forgot the existance of the president to make occult room for cathulhu... awesome!

2020-06-16 09:48:29

@39:
admitedly, I have only read up to the point of annihilation score. The only reason why I'm aware of the plot beyond that book is because of TVTropes, which actually increased my interest and will to read and complete this series.

Also, given that the computers, and algorithms are so good at summoning the eldritch abominations, I am rather surprised that Stross didn't mentioned what actually is going on in the places like India and China, since both these countries have rather rich mythologies, I would think that this actually make them the hot bed for the super natural activities, much like Ireland.

Though he did at least in the annihilation score, mentioned Japan, where apparently heroes and villains actually prefer the teamwork...

2020-06-16 15:18:40

Again, most of the hard sf I've read has been the classic sort that deals with actual biology and physics more than specific computer tech, though if you really want a book that shows how advanced computer tech could go in a way similar to what we have now, even as far as hacker culture, try this alien shore by Celia friendman. The plot is rather slow, and one of the main characters rather damselly , but the world is quite fascinating see My review of it here.

The UK government have announced at the moment that shops can begin opening this week, but it seems waaaaay too early and is I think a decision more motivated by various share holders complaining that they're slightly less rich than they should be, rather than concern for the public, quite aside from the fact that  protest marches, sympathetic though I am to the reasons why, don't exactly seem like a good idea right now.

So my lady and I are probably going to stick with lockdown until at least July to be safe, since the last thing we'd want at the moment is for her to recover from cancer only to get covid 19.

Besides, I still have lots more game of thrones to do big_smile.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-18 00:37:48

@Dark I've never read This Alien Shore, so seems like I'm going to have to have a look at it. I wouldn't say I've been reading a lot of novels recently, so maybe it will get me back into things.

WRT hard SF, I really liked Blindsight by Peter Watts (I will note because of the title: it has absolutely nothing to do with blindness!). However, I have to agree that I prefer a good story to absolute scientific realism... partly because I can't really tell most of the time if a SF concept is being passed off as science, is closely related to science, or is science. I don't have a strong enough scientific background for that.

However, I had a really good experience reading Embassytown by China Mieville after finishing a course that was basically an intro to linguistics concepts. The book spends a lot of time talking about the minutiae of alien language and being able to read it and go 'yes, I know what that is!' was pretty brilliant.

Prehistoric terror.
My github.

2020-06-19 19:58:07

@41:
I mostly get happy when I caught something in a book, about which I have knowledge of you know? that feeling when you realize, "Hay! I know what exactly are they talking about." it's great.

But of course this should be balanced, and responsibility for this falls on author themselves. At the end of the day, the readers are not here to learn science, (Or whatever field they are discussing or using in the story,) the readers are here to get some amusement, and of course escape the reality.

2020-06-24 01:28:37

hi.
Well yesterday I started listening to some old time radio on youtube. The shadow, suspense, things like that. Two of my favorites that I've listened too are the nursery rhyme murders and the man who was death. In the nursery rhyme murders, a killer stalks people and kills them in the style of old childhood rhymes, one of the characters has a funny way of speaking repeating things twice or three times in a conversation, Like, "yes I am I am" or, "I know it though, I know it." The man who was death is more of a moral dilemma, a man does experiments using radiation and things, and becomes psychotic and believes he has godlike powers. I can post links if somebody wants them, but this stuff is easy enough to find yourself.
These radio shows are dated, but I still believe they have a lot to offer. My grandmother was an acquaintance of a movie star from the forties, Edward G. Robinson, and I thought that was pretty neat.
@Dark, I'm so happy the radiation worked for your wife, now that that is over for now I hope you can rest easy.

Guitarman.
What has been created in the laws of nature holds true in the laws of magic as well. Where there is light, there is darkness,  and where there is life, there is also death.
Aerodyne: first of the wizard order

2020-06-26 09:03:34

@Dino, I admit most of the time the science for me is incidental, but I do remember a couple of occasions when I have actively winced, usually when an author is plane wrong about something relatively simple that they should know better.
For example, in Watchers by Dean Koontz, the plot concerns a hyper intelligent golden retriever, and Koontz asserts that because intelligence is a dominante trait, even if said golden retriever mates with an ordinary dog, any offspring are bound to be as intelligent as their sire.
This complete misunderstanding of what a dominant gene is really rather confused me, then  to be fair to Koontz, it's possible that that sort of information was less evident in the late eighteis than it is now.
So for the most part, scientific accuracy in and of itself doesn't bother me, but just plane getting science wrong and passing it off as real science is something I do find a bit confusing, ---- like for example having world war two style bomber ships that drop bombs in zero gravity! big_smile.

@star fire, I write reviews for fantasybookreview.co.uk you can Find them here, if you give an idea of anything more specific book wise you might fancy I might be able to recommend something.

I actually need to get back to Manamon 2. I finished Manamon 1 last year with all 158 Manamon caught in preparation for starting the second game, but then sort of lost out with the second before finishing the power plant, but I susect it will be fun when I get to it.
Thanks Guitarman, we are relieved I can say that. interesting you mention the nursary rhyme murders, that's one my lady listened to with her dad and has mentioned to me on occasion.

well as I said previously we're pretty suspicious of the government's efforts with lockdown (or rather lack of efforts, especially since they're being bloody inconsistant, EG on the one hand claiming people maintain a one metre distance rule, on the other opening up motor schools for learner drivers! you know, when the instructor and learn will be sitting right next to each other in the front of a bloody car! big_smile.

Actually, the way they've bent over backwards to make allowances for the automotive industry is just ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as their declaring anyone who comes into the UK must undergo a fourteen day quarantine, then declaring exceptions to this rule, including France Itally! spain! and Griece! Yes the countries worst hit by Corona in Europe, a move which doesnt' have anything to do with the executives of British airways having a major strop because their poor little share prices might lose a few points honest gov!

It's not really surprising that even as the protests die down, people are doing bloody stupid things to break lockdown, EG going to beaches in their thousands or holding street parties.
I can't blaime people, it's hot as hell over here, but I do blaime the government for obviously not listening to any of the experts who are warning people that no, corona hasn't magically gone away!

Actually, I'll say for my part I rather miss the lack of traffic from lockdown, since it was nice to actually smell the air free from car fumes for once and be able to listen to the birds sing, indeed I really didn't mind giving my dog four AM walks for that reason big_smile.

So basically it's continuing with lockdown for Mrs. Dark and I. I have been a bit irritated by the fact that I've missed out on zombies run recently due to it being too bloody hot to actually run.
On the plus side I am pleased I've got slay the spire working, and by extension, got steam to behave as well, which means I can still play sequence storm and a blind legend.

Recently slay the spire has been my main gaming, whilst watching game of thrones and reading a rather good collection of modern fairy tales, whilst banging out book reviews as per usual.
Indeed, apart from the heat and slightly missing going to a walk to my favourite cafe, the horrifying thing is, lockdown really isn't too bad for me, since it's not as if my lady and I have lots of friends or places to go in this stupid town anyway.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-06-26 15:33:25

Hey guys, I was curious did any one read les Misérables, the famos book ny the french author Victor Hugo?  This book is very complex and so lareg tha I can't even think about it consists of 6 separat volumes with some sub plot
it's about the criminal Jan Vajean that now wants to redeam himself he gets in contact with a mercifull byshep called Myriel that gives him some silverly, even if he stills it, he isregreting his actions is accepted by the kind byshep, he lives him to take them, and make a new life for himself.

---
"A good ruler gives the goblet to his servants. He never drinks from it himself. The servants need his glory. He does not cary the flame alone.
For a spark does not lit the flame, but the spirit holds it in place. Forgeting that leads one to destruction.
(Enhemodius before the Altar of the Broken)"

2020-06-26 16:26:30

So, I picked up the Nightmare Stacks, another book of the laundry series.

Personally, it is interesting for me to see how Stross slowly changed the writing style, as different characters became the focus of a particular book, from the first person starting with Bob, to slowly moving to the third person, while applying the same thing to Mo, and completely to third person with Alex, who has diary entries written all throughout the book.

Beyond that, my programming class has picked up nicely from the start of this month, and this is a blessing and a curse at the same time.

Blessing, so I can finally move my evil plan to take over the world, (Insert Bryan Fury's laugh from Tekken Dark Resurrection,) but also a curse, because I over these past four months or so, have acquired a blazing hatred of java language.

The fact that the person from whom I am learning this is a fanatic of that language doesn't help in the slightest.

Funny thing is, when I began to learn programming, I promised to myself that I will never look down upon a programming language. And yet here I am.

This might appear to be hard to grasp for the non-programmers, but it is like this: you always like somethings more, somethings less, a certain way of doing more, a certain way of doing things less, in the case of programming languages, it is the same.

@Dark:
Well, looks like UK is just as messed up as here. we're getting around 15,000 cases daily, yet, the government has not only opened the lockdown, it is just continuing to remove the restrictions.

So far, only chief ministers of certain states have decided to keep the lockdown up, because the people of India simply do not have the discipline to tackle the problem of this wide scale, nor the government has proven itself to be up for this task.

I often think to myself, would we learn from this epidemic? but considering the humans survived the previous epidemics, without getting wiser from their lessons, I think in ten years or so we will forget about this.

Well, at least they have a new topic on the news channels running now to distract people, either talking about the war with China, or boycotting their goods, never mind that this would cost India its reputation within the global business community, or how it is not possible since a lot of stuff which comes from China is critical.

People just don't want to be rational here. They want to be the manifacturing country for the world just like China, but never mind that we don't have the infrastructure for it, or how it is hard to get in the business in India because protectionism, or how they can't even keep the electrical supply strait...

2020-06-27 05:16:21

Well, I've been sick for the entire month of june.
I put off a trip to urgent care, because I didn't want to expose anyone to Covid, but when I nearly fell down my steep stairs, I finally decided it was time to go.
Now working on fighting off an ear infection with antibiotics, so hopefully things will be better soon.
For now, i'm in a space where I'm not tired enough to sleep, but I have no mental energy to be productive. Hoping that part passes quickly.

2020-06-28 07:55:21

@Wing of eternity, I know the musical of les miserables very well and can sing a lot of it, me being a tenor. I've not read the book, though I have read hunchback of Notre-dame a while ago.
Again worth reading, but waaaaay too long winded unfortunately, also very much full of things Hugo himself was extremely concerned about at the time, such as Parisian architecture.
I also admit in Hunchback, it was pretty difficult to like anybody, even Quasimodo himself was a bit of a git.

@Dark eagle, it sounds like India is in a bit of a  mess there. I'm hoping that once the second wave hits, perhaps the government will pull themselves together. For the mean time though, my lady and I are just going to go on with the lockdown anyway, at least until the actual facts and figures show things are calming down a bit, since the last thing we want to happen is my lady to have beaten the cancer only for her to get corona virus.
On the plus side it will probably result in me looking like Tarzan of the apes by the time we're finished given I'm doing zombies run every day I can, running and lifting weights, and also not attending the barber for obvious reasons big_smile.
For my lady this isn't such a bad thing since her hair needs to grow out post chemo (yes, she did have to wear a wig at one point), but in my case, I already have the real orlando bloom style shoulder length wavy hair, although mine is extremely dark brown verging on black not blonde.
Soon enough, I'll have to get some hair bands and tie it back in a pony tale again. I did this for a few years on one occasion, however was persuaded to stop by a director who told me that it was okay in stage productions like pirates of penzance, but not in other things.
Since however stage productions are right out now (and have been for a long time due to the UK's crappy attitude to the idea of blind people on stage), it really doesn't matter.
And hay, I sort of like the idea of having big hair again big_smile.


@mirage, hope your feeling better, and i'm sorry you had to go in too hospital. When my lady had to go for the scan, apart from being nerve wracking in terms of what the scan was for, the logistics were also extremely difficult, since getting a taxi at this point would be a really bad idea, and even hospital transport seemed dodgy.
it finished up with my dad coming over in a car with a literal barrier of sheet plastic between the front and back, and my lady changing clothes on the way, as well as of course washing her hands.
The worry wasn't the hospital itself, since obviously that's getting regularly mega cleaned, but walking from the car to the hospital entrance, especially since my lady would need to hold someone's arm.

So, hope everything went okay.

For us, we're still busy continuing doing what we're doing, for me that means reviews, a bit of gaming on slay the spire, and more game of thrones, although season 3 doesn't quite have the momentum of seasons 1 or 2, though it's still extremely good.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2020-07-01 17:26:18 (edited by MyDearWatson 2020-07-01 17:27:17)

@Dark Eagle:
Where are you learning this programming thing? I am asking because I am also interested in that.
Also, It's the month of July, so someone make this chat unsticky already.