Perhaps for the Worst
Tonight we learn if God truly does hate the Mavericks.
Tonight we learn if God truly does hate the Mavericks.
This just helps make my day.
I have musing time, we might say. Much time for musing.
I muse about Postfix (a lot), but Postfix – in terms of my limits of musing – is not much more complex than the knowledge I have succeeded in unearthing so far. The puzzle of mailserver configuration is receding, as I have untangled the “mess” I encountered in ignorance. What was beneath was yet another mess, but a predictable mess, which does not require musing to comprehend.
Once aware of the limits, there is not much more to learn. A paraphrased engineer’s mantra: “At this point, I understand what concepts I need to know, and I can look up anything else in a book.”
So, what do I when mailservers do not bear fruit? Correct! I muse about Python.
Talk about a mess.
I looked into multithreaded Python. I know I will divulge why in but a number of lines, but I dread that.
I think I am internalizing something I have never before understood about those dreaded locks, those mutexes: they lock code, not data. (I think.) I guess it’s because I’m a very unqualified database nut, that I would focus on the data.
Then I saw this article, which explained that Python isn’t thread safe and you have to call the sleep() function just to get the system to switch over and execute other threads. There needs to be an expression combining “Umph” and “Yuck.”
Okay. Time to fess up. Deja vu now, but it dawned on me (or maybe re-dawned on me) how easy it would be to port Sigma (or some significantly diminished skeleton of it, for starters) to Python.
My nasty select() UNIX sockets code would become a portable object implementation of the TCPServer class, which would mean I would have a 5-line socket server running in about 10 minutes.
I estimate that approximately 20-30% (non-comment LOC) of my class implementation for Object-derivatives (Object, Character, Denizen, Player, Room, Item, I believe, or check the docs) is devoted to libxml2 parsing. “Umph” . “Yuck” again (ha ha, used the period to concatenate a la PHP).
Python, of course, has an XML DOM for this.
Another maybe 10% of my overall C++ program is implementing Mickey Mouse list classes that emulate queues, etc. Of course all that is neatly supported. I don’t even want to talk about string parsing.
When I think about all the work that went into my little library functions, it “puts a tear in my beer” as a work-friend from last year would say.
Well, better get off this one before I add another page or two. I’m sure there will be more later.
The question is not whether this should impress me. The question is whether the creativity in naming should impress me more than the functionality of generic serialization to string.
I know it’s not the Great American Novel, but if you’re interested in game design please take a look at this document. I put some hard work in it today, and I think it finally captures my vision for a combat system.
It’s sans magic, skills, etc., but that’s really nothing special (well, the magic is, but I don’t care about it as much). So, it’s all about physical damage, at least for now.
I want to get out an old Win 98 SE CD and install it just for the pleasure of installing an operating system rather than an integrated media experience. But, nevertheless, the OS (all 3+ GB DVD of it) is installed and getting its buginess on all over my new system.
I scored a “2” on the Vista Performance Test, which is now the front-runner to replace the term-limited “cold swimming pool” in pride degradation. The memory appears to be my “bottleneck,” although I challenge anyone to explain why this is so when I am around 30% usage.
It’s a bear, but Media Center works well (I’m impressed they included it in the Beta 2 run). I would say I prefer the clean, boxier XP styling to the constant glut of alpha transparency overlays that make this system what it is. Alpha is the principal selling factor of the “Aero” experience (ironic as MS still fails to support alpha-transparent PNGs in IE). It is – just a bit – cool to see some desktop background through the title bars, but it sure ain’t doing my homework, son.
What really kills it is the WAF / GAF (Wife or Grandma Acceptance Factor); the, in all respects, zany filesystem breadcrumbs replacing the Zen-like calmness of a file path are enough to put even a veteran Windows wonk at ill-ease.
The UNIX replication of a /Users directory is nice, as Pictures, Music, and other old My Documents legacy garbage is now at the base profile (like, where “My Documents” and “Application Data” were stowed away in XP) rather than joining with your New American Model and Excel spreadsheets.
WMP 11 isn’t the vast, burning, sulfurous Hell I anticipated, as the MTV whoring is kept behind a license agreement that I can jovially and gladly refuse.
There are some nice touches. Of course, you want all file extensions showing all the time, but when you press F2 to rename a file it just highlights the name (to the left of the extension), so you don’t have to retype it if you just start typing. Nice.
The Windows+Tab feature (see Screenshot 3 below: “OMG!!!”) is pretty … pretty useless. But, hey, somebody had to catch up with Linux’s useless toys.
So, I’ll stop talking now. Screenshot time:
I think this Wikipedia article has something to do with building computers. I think I’ve heard nerds called “tweakers” before.
I think I just learned something from a McGruff cartoon PSA.
That new game show themed Shout detergent commercial feels a bit too much like Requiem for a Dream for comfort.
