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Announcing Nodul.es: CPAN for Node.js

Last weekend, our team named “Ponies for Orphans” participated in the Node Knockout competition.  The team included 3 of my co-workers from Cloudkick, Russell, Tomaz, Logan, and myself. In 48 hours, we had to build a project based on Node.js.

We were brainstorming ideas before the competition, thinking about all the cool things we could do;  We even planned out some multiplayer game ideas.  We quickly figured out that none of us had done anything extensive with Canvas or SVG, and the existing 3rd party libraries aren’t very comprehensive, with the possible exception of Processing.js. We also felt that we wanted something that would continue to be used after the competition.  We refocused our ideas on projects that would work well with our team composition of being backend programers, and eventually settled on Nodul.es:

Nodul.es: CPAN for Node.js

Nodul.es is a web based view of the NPM package repository for Node.js.  Our goal was simple, implement what we liked about CPAN for Perl and Python’s PyPi in 48 hours of coding.

Currently you can browse by:

Let’s look at an example of a module page;  Tim Smart’s node-compress module is a good example.  We pull out metadata from both the NPM repository, the latest commit from Github, and find all modules that have a dependency upon it.

Internals of Nodul.es

Nodul.es is built around Node.js, using its asynchronous abilities extensively.

We split the system into 3 main components:

  • Indexer:  Indexes the raw data about packages from the NPM Registry.  This is just a raw JSON dump from NPM’s CouchDB backend.
  • Source Downloader: Downloads the latest releases of all NPM modules, and extracts them so we can get extra metadata out about the module.
  • Webapp: The simple part, pulls data out of our datastore, and displays html pages to end users.

All of these services interact MongoDB, which provides data storage for all of the indexed data, and ways to get it back out for webpages.

We also used several external dependencies in building Nodul.es:

  • async – For flow control of asynchronous operations.
  • clutch – For URL routing inside the webapp.
  • Mu – For HTML Templating in the webapp.
  • paperboy – For static file serving (ie, CSS/javascript) in the media subdirectory.
  • prettify – For code highlighting, for a feature not released!
  • sprintf – For string formatting, in the logs, nice logs are good.

What’s next for Nodul.es

We built Nodul.es in 48 hours, and until the voting is over, we aren’t allowed to change it.  But we have a ton of features partially completed that we had to pull because we didn’t want to ship broken and incomplete features, they include:

  • Source Browser:  We want to provide a similar source browsing experience to CPAN in this respect, letting you quickly see how someone is doing something.  We already have most of the infrastructure for this, because we have downloaded the source tarballs.
  • Sitemaps:  We are adding Sitemaps, so that all search engines can find the modules easily.  Currently finding modules is an odd combination of using command line tools or getting lucky with a web search.
  • More Github integration: The vast majority of Node.js modules are hosted on Github, so we want to do things like show module development activity, and use that to provide sorts on things like Category pages.
  • Your ideas: Nodul.es is open source.  We want to make it the best module browser for any language out there.  Submit Ideas, submit pull requests, lets get going!

Render XXIX

Render XXIX

Apple’s Media Event

My thoughts, as always, are a bit lengthy to be able to cram them into 140-character fragments with any semblance of coherence (that was 127 characters right there), so here we go. Hopefully I can keep things punchy, even without the arbitrary character limit…

In fact, let’s try something new. I’ll do a one-word reaction followed by a more detailed commentary (hopefully still brief), so you can TL;DR as you see fit.

New iPods

Shuffle: Buttons!

Nano: Slick. Looks like Apple may be either branching iOS again for the new device’s itty bitty square screen, or they’re aping the UI totally and running something else entirely custom underneath. My money is actually on a device-specific branch of iOS, since it seems like they’re trying to provide a stepping stone to the multi-touch interface of the iPhone and iPod Touch now. With the iPod Classic not even warranting a mention as part of the “complete iPod line update” this year, it seems clear that the purpose of the Nano is no longer to give people experience with the bigger iPod Classic’s UI and controls, but instead to get their feet wet in Apple’s new hotness.

Touch: Sexy. Interesting to see that its design is still using the rounded back rather than iPhone 4’s squared-off sides, despite being even more of an iPhone without the phone now. It’s also interesting that the back camera isn’t 5 megapixel like its cousin on the iPhone, but only just big enough to do 720p video recording (iPod Touch photos are 960×720 max according to the specs page). Guess they were a bit desperate for a point of differentiation between the two. Sweet that it supports FaceTime using email addresses; less sweet that it needs to be an email address that’s registered with Apple to work. Not helping the “open standard” mantra there, guys.

Classic: Who? Apparently still around, but unchanged in design, specs, and price.

iTunes 10

Ping: Eh. I get the feeling Apple decided to roll their own social network because of Facebook being a total data mining ad whore, and nobody gets to data mine Apple’s customers but Apple. I think Jobs kind of tipped his hand to that when he explicitly mentioned the simplicity and ease of use of Ping’s privacy controls. Beyond that, I really don’t care. It’s getting increasingly difficult to succeed in being anti-social on the internet anymore these days…

UI: WTF? The new list view + album art is … interesting, I guess, but ultimately not a huge thing. The vertically-oriented traffic lights are just bizarre (way to stick to your HIG guns there, Apple…). Honestly, I’m actually more annoyed about the monochromatic Source List icons, though, because at least the close button is still in the same place. The lack of colorized icons in the source list is just frustrating, since color is one of those oh-so-important elements of UI design that help users quickly distinguish between objects (especially small ones). At least they tweaked the icons themselves to be more shape-oriented to compensate, but seriously. That’s just annoying.

Icon: Glowy. I’ll miss the CD, but given the sprawling nature of the app, I understand why it’s gone. The fact that it retains the musical notes seems like more of a formality than anything else at this point.

I’m at work on a limited-user account, so I can’t actually install the app here and get a feel for how it actually feels, but dear god I hope someone has bothered to do a code review of the thing, if only for the sake of the Windows users of the world.

Apple TV

Design: Teensy. I really don’t have an opinion one way or the other on the new design beyond that, except to say that evidently Sony has decided that matte black plastic with glossy inlaid text is in, and the world (including Apple) is following suit. At least Apple isn’t trying to pimp the Spider-Man font like it’s going out of style (because it is)…

Hardware: A4ATW! Interesting to see Apple continue to consolidate its chipset lines into Intel multi-core and A4 divisions on usage lines. The general-purpose Mac “truck” (lawl) computers get the Core 2 Duo and iN chips, and specialized devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and now Apple TV get the A4. It’ll definitely cut down on the thing’s power draw, which is always good because the current one is a beast. Not sure how cool I am with the total removal of internal storage… streaming HD video content seems to be a little hiccup-prone on our wifi network. Of course, it’s sort of locked down to 802.11g speeds because of the iPod Touches in the apartment, and I haven’t bothered to spring for a dual-band router to fix that problem, so maybe bumping the network would solve that problem.

Software: Yay? I guess? I’m guessing the move to the A4 processor necessitated this, but, it’s being backed by a custom build of iOS with a 10-foot UI. At least, so sayeth The Gruber… Beyond that, there’s not really a whole lot new about the UI compared to Apple TV Software 3.0, just some reorganization. It’s cool that Netflix got added to the list of internet content portals, but the rumors of an app store for the device, and my associated musings on Apple taking on the console market are apparently unfounded. Stupid hobby… I would totally go for an Apple set top box that had a gaming controller and access to an App Store for games and entertainment titles, in addition to access to the iTunes media store, and cost $99 to $149. Given how dead-simple setting up an Apple TV already is (and how dead-simpler it is with the new version) and how easy it is to get your content onto it, with the right pricing structure and offerings, this could blow past the Wii for casual living room gaming and give Apple its much-coveted entry into the television space for content delivery. And speaking of content…

Content: Woo? Nice to see HD TV show rentals make an appearance (and assuming you’re not paying for cable and a DVR, 99¢ isn’t a bad price), but it sucks that it’s limited to ABC and FOX right now. Also, it kinda sucks that there’s no way to actually buy content on the Apple TV anymore… so much for that iTunes cloud-based streaming service that would store your stuff in the cloud that everyone was so sure of. As far as pricing is concerned, I’ve never actually had a problem with movie pricing for purchases or rentals. TV shows – especially HD ones – are frequently annoyingly expensive, but the season passes tend to be much better deals for that. Heck, I got the whole fourth season of BSG in HD for the cost of half of Season 4 on DVD (I paid something like $54 for it, and the DVD release for 4.0 was like $52). Warehouse 13 Season 2 is $30 in HD… even if SyFy does their stupid half-length season thing, that’s not a bad price for the show in 720p and near-immediate access to episodes past. (Of course, having gone to look up the price, Season 2 is no longer listed in iTunes. Awesome. Here’s hoping NBC/Universal isn’t being a douchebag again and I get the rest of the episodes I’ve already paid for. And people wonder why torrents are so popular…)

Boxee: Doubtful anymore, especially since the patchstick-friendly USB port has been replaced with a micro-USB port. Plus there’s the whole switch to the ARM processor thing… Not that I’ve bothered to Boxee-up my Apple TV in recent history. The only thing I ever used Boxee for was Hulu, so I could watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report without fuxing with the TV-attached computer, but between Hulu blocking Boxee and Comedy Central leaving Hulu, I really don’t care. The rest of my content is already Apple TV-compatible (sometimes by force), and the rest of the stuff accessible through Boxee just carries no interest for me. Plus, having a remote mouse/keyboard app on my iPad to operate the computer removes the annoying obstacle of dealing with tangled keyboard cords and insufficient wireless mouse range.

Tweets & Feeds: Proposing a Standard

I’ve had this idea bouncing around in my head for a few days, and with your patience in mind, I’ll jump right in: what if we could combine the strengths of Twitter and RSS into a standard that could form the new backbone of the open Internet?

What Unites Them

I’m amazed at how “streams” are already serving us as a kind of meta-Internet. A person can explore unlimited content from a huge swath of news, blogs, forums, pictures and video, all from one consolidated page, while never looking at a single one of those sources’ own websites. And by “a person” I mean “me.” And by “can,” I mean “do on a daily basis.” And by “one consolidated page,” I mean Google Reader.

For those who aren’t in the club yet, Google Reader is one of dozens of “feed readers”: applications which gather new content in real-time from any number of scattered websites, and deliver it to you. It’s unusual to find a website that doesn’t publish a feed these days. And if you couldn’t tell, I’m a big fan. I’ve been using feeds for about four years – first through Thunderbird, now Google – and they’re one of the pillars of my Internet experience.

Meanwhile, though, another little world has quietly snuck up on me: Twitter. What I once saw as another social network for me to ignore, the Great Flying Whale is suddenly permeating the fabric of the Internet better than anything short of email itself. More and more sites are letting me use a Twitter account as my primary identity: on Gawker sites, for example, I can log in with it, and even have my comments syndicated as tweets. At the moment, I’m using Twitter via Trillian, where it looks like this:

More interestingly, though, I soon realized that I rely on Twitter for many of the same things as Google Reader. One of the most common uses of a tweet is to pass on a link to some interesting gem, sometimes with a dash of commentary. Further, many websites have dedicated Twitter accounts where they post links to their own content throughout the day. In other words, if you just want to “subscribe” to new content from one of your favorite sites, you can choose to use RSS or Twitter – whichever you prefer. All of a sudden, they’re both doing the same job.

Tweets and feeds have another thing in common, which sharply distinguishes them from other communication services like email and instant messaging: they’re not inboxes. Unless you plan to drive yourself crazy trying to keep up with the deluge of new content, you don’t actually read every tweet or feed item that comes your way. Instead, in the words of Gina Trapani, they’re streams: constant, flowing torrents of information that you can dip in and out of.

And as I thought about RSS and Twitter, I kept coming to the conclusion that there’s more that unites them than divides them. Somewhere in the middle of that Venn diagram, I believe, is the tool we’re all waiting for.

What Divides Them

I think this is the best way to demonstrate how easily these two standards could converge. Naturally, RSS does some things much better than Twitter, and vice versa; but when you identify the key differences between them, you get a list of features that one of them has, and the other not only could implement, but would benefit from doing so in very clear ways.

First, look at where Twitter excels:

  • Identity. Everyone has an account that is intimately associated with them as a person. You are in control of your own feed, and those who know you, care about you or value your opinion can directly subscribe to your thoughts.  Most people don’t have a “personal” RSS feed. The closest equivalent would be the personal blog: Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal and others all served us well for much of the last decade, and RSS is a big part of keeping them relevant in the modern web. But the focus is still on the source, not the medium.
     
  • Common input-output tool. All Twitter clients let you send and receive tweets from the same interface. This seems obvious, but RSS has no equivalent to it. Your feed reader does not let you post to a feed, and your feed-producing website has no way of receiving posts. In short, RSS publishers do not function as members of an integrated network. They’re meant for one-shot broadcasts, not a common medium of exchange.
     
  • Conversation. Tweets can be published independently, or as replies to other tweets, allowing users and sources to engage with each other. While Twitter’s implementation of this leaves much to be desired – you still can’t have it list replies to a given tweet, much less view them in a thread – it’s still an improvement over RSS, which has no mechanism for engagement between items. Traditional websites do have the trackback method, but it’s totally independent of the feed and generally limited to blog software.
     
  • Discrimination (the good kind). A tweet’s visibility can be limited to one’s followers, or to a specific recipient. Again, Twitter’s method is primitive; you can’t choose your own groups, for example, and (for no good reason that I’ve ever heard explained) you can’t send a direct message to someone who isn’t following you. But a feed, like a radio broadcaster, is blind. It has no way of tracking its subscribers or discriminating between them.
     
  • Independence. Every tweet actually has its own dedicated page, complete with a permalink URL. An RSS item usually links to a permanent page on the source site, but it has no form of its own, except as a bunch of XML metadata in the feed file. This is also true of the content: while a tweet may link back to a source, the tweeter usually has some room to add a summary, or a few of his own thoughts. An RSS item, on the other hand, is generally a carbon copy of whatever triggered it. Again, this goes back to the issue of creating stream content: where an RSS feed is a zombie, merely translating a single source into something a machine can read, a Twitter feed is dynamic, connecting subscribers to any number of integrated services – or directly to its owner.
     

On the RSS side:

  • Sorting. Feed readers are much better at sorting subscriptions by user-defined groups and reacting to them in different ways. For example, if one of my best friends posts to his blog, I might want to be notified right away, whereas a new webcomic strip can probably wait until the weekend. I think this would be even more valuable for Twitter. A sorting system would make it much more feasible to subscribe to dozens or hundreds of streams and still be able to control your own system of consumption.
     
  • Archives. Because a feed reader actively downloads and stores new items to wherever it’s hosted, you’re not at the mercy of external forces: people who prune their old posts, or servers losing scores of data when they crash and burn. It’s also easier for a locally-run reader to mark items as read/unread or “favorites,” especially in the absence of a central server.
     
  • Decentralization. RSS items are downloaded directly from the host to the reader – there’s no middleman whatsoever. WordPress is a perfect example of the greater freedom this gives us: without being dependent on a central server, you can run exactly the same software on a free WordPress.com account, or on your own server; it makes zero difference to your RSS subscribers.

    The only advantage of Twitter’s central server that I can think of is in search. Using conventions like the hash tag, all of the tweets about a given topic – or a person – can be indexed, searched, displayed on one page and updated in real-time. This would be difficult on a decentralized network. In addition, having every Twitter profile on the same site, in the same format, is probably an advantage to discovering new feeds and acquiring new followers. But there is a solution to this problem, and it’s already been done by none other than Google.

    Google Reader keeps a syndicated archive of literally every public feed that any Google user has ever subscribed to. Naturally, this archive is completely searchable, and Reader has a tool for recommending both items and whole subscriptions based on your reading habits. Twitter, if it became available for self-hosting, could do the same thing, either by “following” as many of its far-flung users as it finds, or by having the software (with its user’s permission) actively talk back to the central server. Thus, Twitter.com would act not as a host, but as an index. And anyone else would be free to set up a parallel index that does exactly the same thing.
     

So. What would this look like?

The Proposal

Let’s call it a “spring” for now, in keeping with the waterworks theme. In my digital dreamland, a spring is a piece of web-based software, probably running on PHP and MySQL. The spring has a standard protocol for talking to springs on other servers. It keeps a local database of all the other springs its owner is following, and all the springs following him in turn.

The owner can publish items using nothing but the spring’s web interface; or he can publish through a synchronized desktop or mobile app; or he can connect it to his blog, his forum accounts, his Flickr stream, his YouTube channel, or any other service with content that he may wish to syndicate, probably with OAuth.

The owner is able to sort all of his followers into groups, and new items (which are usually publicly visible, in a browser or from any spring-compatible software) can be restricted to groups or individuals. He can add springs that aren’t following him as recipients of his items, though their own springs will have options for filtering out unsolicited content. He can also sort his followed springs into groups, and choose to receive notification – by email, IM, wave, SMS – for new items in particular groups.

He can choose to follow another spring anonymously. He can choose to block another spring from receiving his public items. He can add the URLs of index sites, much like BitTorrent trackers, inviting them to index his items; or he can block them from indexing him. The spring can also search any connected index from within the interface.

Items can be posted in response to other items. The owner can decide whether a reply also appears in his public stream, or is sent only to other recipients of the original item. Reply IDs can be traced to display the complete thread, unless one of the links in the chain was a private posting; the thread is not hosted on any spring, but locally generated when accessed. Users can track a particular item (without following its owner), or ignore an item from a followed spring.

How close are we?

Google Buzz got a lot of things right. The issue with Buzz – much like Wave, sad to say – is that it’s hosted only by Google, and tied to a Gmail account. But they got a lot of things right – integration, threading, grouping, notifications, and especially services integration. If I were able to manually add both RSS feeds and Twitter accounts to Buzz, and maybe even associate them with my Contacts, I might be a satisfied customer.

Diaspora is being released on September 15th, and I’m very interested to see how much of this is already in there. I predict that its ability to integrate and synchronize with other services, particularly Facebook, will either make or break it.

Speaking of Facebook, I do think they deserve credit for creating and maintaining a complete, fully-integrated miniature Internet within a single site. If it weren’t inextricably tied to facebook.com, it honestly wouldn’t be hard for me to imagine the Facebook “protocol” becoming the de facto standard. But without decentralization, Facebook lives and dies with the reputation of Mark Zuckerberg, and that, as we’ve all observed, is not a stable equilibrium.

Finally, there’s the mythical Google Me. “Me” was supposedly coming any day now – back in July – and I’m not sure what to expect at this point. But Google has a lot of puzzle pieces on its table: Buzz, Talk, Voice, Contacts, Wave. If they have some ingenious plan to weave them all together, I’ll be first in line for beta invites.

Bonus prediction: Apple already thought of everything in this article six months ago and will make me look like an idiot at tomorrow’s press event.

Video V

Music Geekery

My music library is one of my prized possessions. (This does not make me unique.) My music software of choice is, and has been for many years, iTunes on Windows. (This does make me unique, or at least part of a badly misunderstood minority.) As such, I spend a lot of time keeping my library organized and trimmed, and today, I’ve been struggling to pin things down by the cruelest, most elusive species of metadata: genre.

I hate genre because there’s no solution to satisfy the purist in me. Clearly I need some method of classification; the latest Radiohead album does not belong in the same category as The Best of Enya. But where are the borders? When does pop become pop-rock become rock? Should I separate punk rock, indie rock, progressive rock? Too many Rocks, you might say – not enough Boulders. And that’s just for the artists whose styles are vaguely pigeonhole-able. Where, really, would you put The Books? No-Man? Andrew Bird? What do you do when Sufjan Stevens releases an EP* that is clearly anything but rock, except for one track which is explicitly called the “classic rock version”? And just when you think you’ve got a peaceful situation, will Bear McCreary decide to cover a Bob Dylan folk ballad with Indian instrumentation for a science fiction television soundtrack? I usually end up with a very big “Alternative” section, which is code for “this stuff does not fit anywhere else even though it makes up a plurality of everything I own.”

None of that is relevant to what I meant to write about here, which is this:

By some weird coincidence, I ended up with exactly 1019 songs in the “Rock” genre, and exactly 1019 songs in the “Soundtrack” genre. But, even stranger, the Soundtrack group adds up to 2 days, 8 hours of music, while the Rock group trounces it with 4 days and half an hour. This is pretty counter-intuitive to me. I tend to think of rock stuff as being fairly self-contained pop-length numbers, and soundtracks as long, formless, sprawling soundscapes. On the other hand, I have a lot of Genesis, Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree, which may have dramatically skewed the results.

Anyway. I invite you, wherever you are, whether you’re at home or wherever, to inspect your own auditory treasure for fascinating anomalies.

*It’s also an “EP” that’s sixty minutes long. It really is futile to define art sometimes.

Suspended Beauty

Beauty lay in suspended animation at the top of the commanding ship the abandoned space fleet. Everyone else had either vanished or fled in the face of a distanced attack, sowing legends of a princess floating away in the midst of space. Until one day; one day a prince blasted through the thick escort of ships that accompanied Beauty's ship and boarded the commanding ship. At the top of the tower he found Beauty, seemingly asleep. He kissed her, but she did not awaken. Only when he decreased the suspenstat from infinity to one minute did she awaken from her 100-year suspended animation.
An entry that I thought of yesterday for the fairy tale blogfest (yes, I've been watching Battlestar Galactica)

Yet Another Trip

I probably won't be online much for the next fortnight. I leave for Seattle, WA USA tomorrow morning. I'll be there until the 14th, and in Portland, OR USA until the 16th. If anyone wants to say hi to me, drop me a line! :D

Video IV

8/29/10 – Slowing Down

!Shorah

I just wanted to let you all know that I start my fourth year of college tomorrow, so updates will most likely be much less frequent. On the bright side, the next Interactivity is still in the works and will be completed as soon as possible! Keep in touch, everyone!

.yehreht d’kehnwiniseht gorvehn

The Hoikas Gang

DreamingGirl: so, who exactly is this 'Hoikas gang' ?`:P
Hoikas: Must be my many admirers
DreamingGirl: do u hang around the corners in A'guera and whistle at passing girls?
Hoikas: Of course
Hoikas: I mean
DreamingGirl: lol
Hoikas: WHY I NEVER!
DreamingGirl: can I join?
DreamingGirl: that is, if I can whistle at guys :P
Hoikas: Mmmm maybe
Hoikas: There are rigorous tests, you see

Myst Memories

There has been some interesting topics popping up in the Myst community lately.

Someone decided to stop by the Guild of Writers and claim that everyone was being selfish.
Someone else stops by and in true CrisGer fashion went on a tirade about what we were doing being illegal, without actually doing a little fact finding first.
Dustin released the UAM Shard, amid some issues (which wasn’t helped by myself when I forgot about the PM he sent me regarding it several days earlier).
Diafero released The Deep Island, shard, which further caused some issues relating to the UAM stuff because some people are apparently unable to just let things go.

The comment about being selfish was met with a similar result when someone said that I wasn’t a real fan because I saw faults with Uru, which is to say, some hostility.
There’s something slightly stupid about walking up to someone who’s been around the community for 12 years, has done a crap load of stuff for the community than most fans these days realize, and tell them their a. selfish, b. not a real fan.

It seems a large part of the community can’t seem to understand the concept that some people are just tired of all the shit.
I got into Myst/Riven back in 1998. In 2000 Cyan started dropping hints about a new game that would see us venturing to D’ni. I remember the topics on the RivenLysts, all the discussions about who would group with who to explore. In 2002-2003 we saw the game, in 2004 we saw the game go.
And Uru was never seen again, instead we had Until Uru, which was more akin to Second Life Uru, then we had Myst Online: Uru Live, where canon became a bit of a train wreck and the story was, well, meh.
It’s 2010, ten years later.
I, like others, am still waiting for that Uru that Cyan spoke about back in 2000, the Uru that saw the light for 4 months before sinking back under the waves.
The old fans fell away, the old mentality of the community with it (actually working for information, putting 2 and 3 together to get an answer, instead of expecting to be spoon fed everything, or fans being able to release images without people screaming about NDA breaches like I had just drop kicked their baby into a river), instead an air of entitlement and zealousness arose.
This idiotic sense of utopia, where nothing is wrong, everything is right, and if you speak out you get slammed down and swept under the rug.
Slowly, the community stopped being fun, the mystery vanished from the games.
Few if any bastions of sanity remain, instead we have the Arkham Asylum of the MOUL forums, were zealot fools spout hate and notions of community cleansing and it’s lapped up like it’s ambrosia.
I’ve spent the last 10 years clinging to the dream of Uru, but I’m thankful that I don’t cling to it like it’s the last vestiges of my sanity.

So I can’t really say it’s any surprise that I finally got to the point where I just can’t give a damn about it anymore. The crap with Veralun went a long way to help that feeling, the proverbial push that I needed apparently.
Don’t get me wrong, part of me likes Uru to a degree, and I would like to finish the storyline I’ve been running for the last seven years, but I don’t think for one second that I need Cyan holding my hand to do so. Indeed I don’t think any of us really need Cyan’s hand holding anymore.

Unfortunately, the result is essentially the same as if the reasons for the delay are different – people drift away, or they make their plans how to go on without Cyan. Whatever process is quicker will most likely be the factor that decides how Uru will look like in a year or two.

- Diafero

Honestly? It won’t be Cyan.
They’re too busy keeping themselves a float, to busy welcoming the modding community it one hand and pushing it away with the other.
And from the sounds of it, it’s going to be a few years before Cyan get it together. Do you really think people who have the skills to mod Uru will wait around for that long? Not likely, most of the modding community are tired of the crap themselves and move to do things themselves, as seen with the new shards popping up. Why wait on Cyan for multiplayer fan Ages, we have them now already and we did it ourselves.
Is it perfect? No, but it’s something.

But the concept of stepping out without daddy is not something that utopia wants to deal with. Seems they’d rather keep popping their Soma and pretending everything is normal.

So I was surprised, and impressed when the Guild of Messengers started tackling the issue of shards, and in a pretty decent fashion. I don’t agree personally with Marten’s legality talk but the point of the matter is they discussed it, and came up with a solution to deal with news regarding the shards without dismissing or screaming.

Perhaps others could learn from that, but after seeing years of the same crap I have no faith what-so-ever.

Fortunately I don’t plan to be a part of it for much longer. My goals at this point is to finish The Third Path stuff, and find something else to move on too. I’ve been debating whether to learn building for Source and make some TF2 maps.
But with Guild Wars 2, Portal 2, and World of Warcraft Cataclysm coming out soon, I should be able to find plenty to keep me busy.

The hayday of Myst/Uru/Cyan is over, only a broken shell remains, some choose to cling to that, that’s up to them.

I no longer see the point…

Herdentrieb: Steckbriefe gegen Langeweile IV

Da ich momentan geistig sowieso zu nichts in der Lage bin (seit Wochen üble Kopfschmerzen, wenn das vorbei ist schreibe ich da bestimmt noch was zu) kann ich auch genausogut etwas völlig hirnloses tun, also lustige Blogsteckbriefe ausfüllen…

1. Trägst Du Unterwäsche? Wenn ja, welche?
Wenn ich nicht grade in der Sauna bin… Wenn ich endlich einen ordentlichen Kilt auftreibe, dann gehört sich das natürlich anders, aber seit einigen Jahren bin ich von weißem Feinripp (Danke, Mama) auf schwarze (alle meine Klamotten sind schwarz oder beige) Boxershorts (genauer Retroshorts) gewechselt.
2. Weißt Du, wie man die BH-Größe misst?
Brustumfang, Unterbrustumfang (scheint mir immer auf 5 gerundet), die Differenz gibt die Körbchengröße an (die Stufen müßte ich aber nachschlagen).
3. Was ist Deine Lieblingseissorte?
Malaga
4. Duschen oder baden?
Baden, bevorzugt lange und in einem völlig überheizten Badezimmer, Notizbuch nicht vergessen.
5. Sonnenaufgang oder Sonnenuntergang?
Aufgang, total geil, da schon wach zu sein, wobei: Sunsets are geeky now.
6. Welche 3 Dinge hast Du immer bei Dir, wenn Du unterwegs bist?
Portemonnaie (nein, ich weigere mich, Geldbörse zu sagen oder schreiben), Schlüsselbund, Taschenmesser (Victorinox Cyber Tool klassisch), typischerweise auch noch meinen Palm Pre und mein Leatherman Skeletool CX.
7. Donald Duck oder Micky Maus?
Micky Maus, im allgemeinen sind mir die Schwarznasen lieber, allerdings ist Dagobert und insbesondere "Sein Leben, seine Milliarden" mein absoluter Favourit.
8. Welche Zahnpasta benutzt Du?
Das billige Zeug aus dem DM.
9. Rechts- oder Linkshänder?
Rechts, vieles geht aber mit Links genausogut.
10. Singst Du unter der Dusche?
Nein, aber ich pfeife beim Spazierengehen.
11. Redest Du mit Deinen Haustieren?
Beschränkt sich auf ein gelegentliches "Na, Dicker?".
12. Kennst Du die richtigen Namen Deiner Email-Freunde?
Email-Freunde? Selbst meine Online-Bekanntschaften benutzen fast alle Realnamen. Ausnahmen sind eine Sexualtherapeutin (der Name könnte sogar echt sein, aber ich habe das nie geglaubt) und eine Domina Bizzarrlady, die ich persönlich kenne und die aus Prinzip nur ihr Pseudonym benutzen, wenn sie Leute nicht sehr gut kennen (Wenn ich jetzt noch sage, daß ich beide über Mensa kennengelernt habe, dann wirds richtig irritierend, nicht wahr?).
13. Hattest Du mal ein pinkfarbenes Kleidungsstück?
Bei Männern heißt das "Lachs", aber: Nein.
14. Beisst Du Dir in die Lippe, wenn Du nervös bist?
Nein, ich knete meine Finger.
15. Frühaufsteher oder Nachteule?
Beides, ich habe einen Biorhythmus, der eher auf eine 6-Tage-a-28-Stunden-Woche ausgelegt scheint. Der einfachheit halber aber Frühaufsteher, da hat man nach der Arbeit noch was vom Tag.
16. Kannst Du einen BH mit nur einer Hand öffnen?
Ja, manche Modelle kann ich sogar mit einer Hand schließen.
17. Gummibärchen oder Kaugummi?
Gummibärchen, grade weil die pervers sind.
18. Wie alt bist Du?
Älter als in Frage 19.
19. Und wie alt möchtest Du sein?
Nach meinem 18. habe ich aufgehört zu feiern, da durfte ich Verträge abschließen…
20. Loft, Villa, Bauernhaus oder einfach nur Wohnung?
So ein richtiges britisches Cottage wäre schön, hauptsache Platz für eine Bibliothek.
21. Was isst Du am liebsten auf der Pizza?
Annanas und Mais.
22. Wie trinkst Du Deinen Kaffee?
Ich nehm' lieber Tee, mit Kandis und Cream, Koffein lieber als Coke Zero oder Smoothie mit Guarana.
23. Hast Du schon mal für andere gekocht?
Ja, aber mein Chili darf ich nicht mehr, ist den meisten zu scharf, liegt vermutlich an http://www.pepperworld.de.
24. Hast Du schon mal Austern gegessen?
Nein, lebend esse ich nur Gagh
25. Weißt Du Geburtstag und Alter Deiner Eltern?
Ja, es hilft, die Freundschaft zu erhalten, wenn man an solchen Tagen anruft…
26. Titel Deines Lieblingsbuches?
Uff, das ist immer eine blöde Frage, im Moment würde ich sagen: Anathem.
27. Sind Deine Füße gleich groß?
Bis auf den großen Zeh, den ich mir mal Stunden vor einer Convention gebrochen habe, ja.
28. Magst Du Knoblauch?
In Maßen.
29. Kannst Du mit Deinen Augen einzeln blinzeln?
Wer nicht? Ich kann auch einzelne Augenbrauen hochziehen und Zungenrollen.
30. Liest Du Tabellen?
Wenn sie Informationen enthalten, die mich interessieren? Was ist das für eine komische Frage?
31. Was wäre das erste, was Du tun würdest, wenn Du einen Millionenjackpot im Lotto gewinnst?
Ausrechnen, wieviel ich wie anlegen müßte, um nie mehr arbeiten gehen zu müssen und denau das tun, danach wäre ein Haus nett, siehe Frage 20.
32. Pepsi oder Coca Cola?
Coca Cola, Pepsi ist ekelig,
33. Wann hast Du das letzte Mal geweint?
Danke der eingangs erwähnten Kopfschmerzen vor ein paar Tagen.
34. Schau nach rechts, was siehst Du?
Bücher, präziser: Das Belletristik-Regal Amélie Nothomb "Mit staunen und Zittern" bis Phillip Roth "The Human Stain" (Sind auch z.B. Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged" und Kim Stanley Robinson "Red/Green/Blue Mars" drauf), direkt darüber das Brett mit allen 28 Bänden John Norman "X of Gor".
35. Und links?
Mehr Bücher: Belletristik "Die Stücke von Berthold Brecht in einem Band" bis Lothar-Günther Buchheim "Der Abschied" (Hier gibts auch z.B. David Brin "The Postman" und Max Brooks "World War Z").
36. Schnarchst Du?
Ich bin in den Carolus Thermen schon öfter im Ruheraum mit einem Schnarcher aufgeschreckt, das würde dafür sprechen.
37. Kaust Du auf Bleistiften oder Kulis rum?
Früher viel (meine armen Lamy-Füller während der Schulzeit), heute nichtmehr, keine Ahnung, warum sich das geändert hat, vielleicht, weil ich jetzt Füller aus Stahl statt Plastik bevorzuge?
38. Wenn auf einer Tür steht 'ziehen', drückst Du trotzdem?
Wenn sie nicht aufgeht, dann ja, immerhin habe ich schon falsch beschriftete erlebt.
39. Wenn Du einen Tag in Deinem Leben wiederholen könntest, welcher wäre das dann?
Es gab ein paar Tage, an denen ich beim Programmieren sehr gut im Flow war, aber das Datum habe ich mir nicht gemerkt.
40. Tequila, Mojito, Caipirinha oder alkoholfrei?
Ja. Am Liebsten Long Island Ice Tea, wenns was hartes sein soll, Strongbow oder Kwak, je nach Etablissement, wenn eher gemütlich. Und nie wieder Kriek.
41. Pommes oder Bratkartoffeln?
Pommes, aber noch lieber würzige Kartoffelspalten.
42. Hast Du schon mal eine Waffe abgefeuert?
Luftgewehr und Softair, ja, was anderes nicht, war immerhin untauglich und somit Wehrdienstbefreit.
43. Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit oder Owl?
Tigger.
44. Warst Du schonmal in Disneyland, -world oder -resort?
Nein, Phantasialand war immer ganz nett, aber sonst?
45. Was ist Dein größtes Ziel?
Mein Traum wäre es zum Mars auszuwandern, aber für den Moment begnüge ich mich damit, von einem Thru-Hike auf dem Appalachian Trail zu träumen.
46. Schlagsahne oder Caramelsirup?
Äh, kann ich Schokosauce bekommen?
47. Riechst Du an anderen Menschen?
Wenn ich die Person attraktiv finde und wir sowieso in gegenseitig erwünschtem Körperkontakt stehen, ja, aber sonst?
48. Isst Du Hauptgericht und Beilagen abwechselnd oder nacheinander?
Ich bin ein Alles-einzeln-Esser.
49. Deine Lieblingsserie im TV?
Noch so 'ne blöde Frage, eigentlich komme ich an Star Trek The Next Generation hier ja nun garnicht vorbei, dabei sind Firefly, CSI Las Vegas oder Neon Genesis Evangelion doch auch ganz groß…
50. Spielst Du ein Instrument?
Ich hatte mal versucht, E-Bass zu lernen, aber die Muße nicht aufgebracht.

Mysterium 2011 Location Bidding closing soon!

Bidding for Mysterium 2011 location will be closing on Aug 31!

Hurry this is your last week to nominate your city for next year’s Mysterium!
Tell us why your east coast time zone city would be a great place to host Mysterium by giving a few lines here:  http://www.mysterium.net/mysterium-2011/location/

Mysterium only happens with the help of explorers!  Bring Mysterium to you!
Hurry last day for submittals is Tuesday!

More Pockets

A followup on my earlier submission to EDC. Click for full-size.

This is the armory of Useful Items™ in the front pocket of my backpack. I’m a big fan of pouches: all the “misc” and “electronic” items live in the two pouches on the top, while the iPod, camera and binoculars have their respective holsters. The result is that all my stuff is stored in five self-contained packages that I can easily transfer from bag to bag. And when I need to make room, I can also attach all of them to my belt.

  • Binoculars: very compact, and equipped with a long-range digital camera.
  • Camera: what it is.
  • iPod: 80GB iPod Classic, black, with a modular case; belt clip can be exchanged with elastic armband for running/biking.
  • Misc: Playing cards (useful for more than poker), sunglasses, spork, signal whistle, compass, disposable lighter, SD card (redundant backup of important data), concave/convex mirror and magnifying class, 2 miniature padlocks.
  • Electronics: just the peripherals I need to keep the other stuff running. Camera and iPod USBs, earphones, spare batteries. I usually have a 3.5mm-to-RCA cable for connecting the iPod to stationary speakers.
  • Pockets: mostly the same. Phone, wallet, pen & mechanical pencil, Moleskine notebook. I did replace my carabiner with a stronger one, and the laser/flashlight and Leatherman Micra are now on quick-release detachable keyrings.

Current progress with the Myst story "Unlinked"

The story as it presently exists, with I'm sure still changes to be made.


In "The World" as they called it, a world completely unlinked with the D'ni, there lived boy almost 8 years old named Lanon (Well, at least that's about how old I think he was. By their calendar he was 11.). Lanon was a day dreaming orphan who one day found a book in his room. It had a hard, dark red and medium grey cover with an ugly, yet very intriguing pattern; and was made of a thick heavy bright white paper, a kind of paper much different from any paper he had ever seen before. The book had no title, and the pages were completely blank.
He couldn't find out who the book belonged to, and so he started writing in it. At first he meant it to be a journal, but every time he wrote in it he would write something very different. It was strange to him, but it was as if the book would only allow certain things to be written in it. It was as if the book wrote itself. He began describing a land, a very desirable land; very green, with good shading trees, tall mountains, lots of water, and many good people. He began to feel as though he was a part of that country, and he wished he could go there. It was not a long book, but he put much more detail into the environment than he would have ever typically done. He would normally write something only one to two pages long, before getting tired of it and then ending it; yet this time he filled almost 12 pages of this book, and it was just on describing some place.
When he was finished, an image formed on the thirteenth page. The image looked like the place he imagined. He then realized the environment was moving in the wind and it looked very real. He touched the picture (well of course you would), and his blood suddenly felt stunned. His vision became darkened and blurry, and he couldn't understand what happened next, but it was like many things happened in a short amount of time, as if it had been a long time. Then he saw some light returned to him and the new world gradually came into view. He was at the place that he had described.

There is much more to this, but this feels like a good place to pause for a while.

Later edit from the same day:

He was approached by four men dressed in white and green robes who could see that he had no Linking Book with him.
One of the men asked "Do you already know the art of uniting worlds?"
Lanon did not know how to respond. "No."
"Well then welcome to D. We will teach you."
 I will use D to represent Feel free to just pronounce it something like Dokor. (but with a good accent)

The book Lanon found was a learning book. They are possibly a natural phenomenon, but their origin is unknown. They spawn in seemingly random locations in the universe. D gets a good many of these books sending people to them. 
sigh. okay, bedtime.

next day
Most learning books are destroyed after use. D had created a society of teaching the art to people who arrive, and then sending them off to permanently live somewhere else with their new knowledge. Time on D travels very slowly in relation to the average world, which allows unique events to happen more often in the art. After spending just 5 hours in D, one might return to find that 7 months have passed in his age. Lanon was trained in D for <3 D Years?> -a longer time than most anyway. So he was about 14 or 15 when he was sent to live on a world he wrote called Arcūb. I am not able to fully describe Arcūb at this time other than that it is somewhat like Earth and is just a bit smaller than Earth. I can however, finally describe the culture just briefly: We don't know what exists outside of it, but there is a very wide valley with a river running through the middle at the bottom. The river is large; I would say not as wide as the Mississippi River, but because some areas are very wide, almost like lakes, the average width closely matches that of the Mississippi. The place is divided into two lands- The East and The West (or The North and The South if you like that). The people are pretty much all of an artistic nature, and they firmly believe in individuality. Because of their artistic culture, people live in small groups and families of very different life styles. This is not so much the case with The West, but I will explain that later. The appearance of the houses, the way people dress, the attitude of work all varies a lot. You can go somewhere and it will feel like you are in Utah, Nevada Connecticut, and Virginia all at once. And basically, everyone is a hippie. The East is very independent, and matches what I described more closely; while The West has more of a unified government and believes in more order. The West and East had been having a lot of conflict for a long time as The West wanted more control over things as they believed that the world should be brought to one order.(Understand that all government was never fully organized, and that The West was a monarchy.) The attempts of control The West were making provoked a lot of The East against The West. This actually caused The East to be more unified, and this is how the strong separation of the two lands occurred.
When Lanon arrived in Arcūb, he was in The East. He met a white family (actually everyone is white) which observed that he must be from The West because of how he was dressed. The father who was wearing nothing but hair, assumed he must have run away to live in The East. Lanon denied this saying he was from a place very far from here and that he was lost. They did believe him, and figured since he did not know where he was, they should introduce him to The West. Lanon was brought before the thoughtless King who took little interest in him, or where he was from; but the King's son, who was like a sort of prince and was about the same age as him, wanted to show Lanon around. His name was Jalak [or should I call him Jalok? I'm not sure. I keep pronouncing it Jaluk.]. They became friends.
Lanon decided to write a new age. Jalak saw him writing, and of course wanted to know more, and so was then taught how to write ages by Lanon. They grew up together, and by the time Jalak was king, all of Arcūb knew of the art, and many people used it. Of course, not everyone saw it the same way; some people believed the worlds should be left alone, while others figured the writer should rule them. Because Jalak was the king and Lanon was of no royalty, they did not stay best friends; however they did work together on trying to unite The East and West in peace, which they became successful at.
So Jalak naturally, became the king of all of Arcūb. Jalak always had a love for wealth, and was pleased to have reached this point. Jalak spent a lot of time resolving problems with people and he came to have a deep understanding of people's "ways" or "style signatures" from conversing with so many different people. Arcūbans believed that everyone has a unique way of seeing the world, and that each individual has their own way and pattern of thinking and feeling about things, a style that can not ever be fully comprehended by anyone but that one person. Jalak learned to think the way other people think and to see the world the way they do. Jalak realized he had unusual luck with everything. He found the fact that someone could have the ability to just write a book that links to other worlds to be an amazing occurrence. He began to investigate the unusual probabilities of his universe. There are things Jalak "learned"(or thought he knew): 
There is an infinite number of universes and and infinite number of humans out there (or beings close enough to call human).
An infinite series of combinations of possible lives can be lived.
All things reincarnate.
Everyone and everything must eventually live every specific life with every possible series of events, thoughts, and actions in every role.
Because all this must take 'til infinity to happen, it is something that may never fully be reached; but it must be reached.
And so we cheat infinity, and we cheat our possibilities in our favor.
We waste them.
But we are not really wasting them, because we are simply following a possibility.
A possibility that must eventually occur in different patterns and as it is, it is happening now.
We exist; and that is a truly amazing occurrence.
He must follow a next series of possibilities.
And so he does, at many times governing his life very randomly, and by chance; as he suggests that he has not yet tried these exact series of moves. This is what blinds him. 
He becomes very unpredictable, and he lucks out and discovers special things about The Art (Now, that might be against Cyan's rules to say, but that is how this story goes. And I can not change it, because I have given much thought to this, and the story was not meant to go any other way.) He becomes fascinated with random numbers and results, he explores these things, and in it all, he does not care if an entire universe of universes (strange term) is completely destroyed. At some point, he takes away the right from the people to use the art. I don't actually know why. A place he wrote: Artemisia. it was for the purpose of manufacturing books at a fast rate. He spent a lot of time there, writing new worlds with the style of random ink blots, and who knows what other materials smeared onto those pages. He gets people to test the link to ensure that it is safe. If they do not return, he either edits it or just chucks it and starts over
Yes, the point I am making is that he is destroying a lot.
Artemisia or Wormwood as he sometimes called it, was electromagnetically imbalanced. It was a Jupiter sized planet covered in thick forests of usable trees. Almost all the plant life in the age was extremely bitter in taste and smell, to the point that the air of the whole planet tasted bitter. (Sorry, excuse my constant change of past and current tense.) The lighting of the world was very orange-ish. The only colors well presented were Infrared, Red, and Green. He began having problems with these worms that ate up the forest. These white worms, were aggressive towards everything including each other. Jalak was allergic to them. Although they are very small at birth, they could sometimes become 2½ meters long and a decimeter wide.
Meanwhile, Lanon lived somewhere on the east side of the river with his family (yes, by now he should have one). He wished he never introduced the art to this world, it did not mix well with this culture. He ruined what it was.
-There is still more, but I feel like stopping here.

August 7th
Lanon and his wife were looking up at the stars. Lanon remembered a few things his father had said. About an all knowing God; who created all things, that watched over everything, and has a love for them. That was a very long time ago. He also remembered his family would pray, and that God was the source of all light and truth. One could ask for anything in prayer and it might be given. So although they didn't know how, they prayed to their unknown God. They asked that Arcūb would be rescued, and that the King would somehow change to be less destructive and be more like good or something.
Lanon knew that they needed to do something. They decided to {okay, that's it. His wife needs a name. Pakei? I guess that will do.} steal the descriptive book to Wormwood, this plan did not make sense, but at the moment it seemed reasonably logical. They came to outside the house of Jalak, aand.. they just walked in... and took the book from off a shelf and then they left.
They didn't know what to do once they had the book, because if they started editing it, Jalak would immediately know something was wrong, and would return. A thought came to Pakei as if a voice, that said "The way has been prepared for you. It will work out.". Pakei opened the book. She got out the ink and

August 9th
a marker.
I prefer to switch back to Jalak at this moment. He had fallen into an area filled with worms, which caused him to pass out. His men pulled him out and brought him back laying him down in the fortress thing he had built, when the ground began to shake. The sky then began to change color while the earthquake continued. About 9 minutes later, the forest caught on fire. The fire spread rapidly with an intense heat, and all the workers and guards soon left out of fear.
When King Jalak recovered, he found himself alone. The sky was a rich blue-greenish color. All the forests were completely burned down, along with the worms. The air was no longer bitter. It began to smell a bit sweet and after spending so much time breathing the bitter air, it was too much for him to take. The ground was black. He then looked and realized that the ground had been cracked open. There were many long cracks, he looked down them and could only see darkness. They appeared very deep. The whole world had been separated into regions by these cracks. His fortress was almost perfectly intact, with a wide crack surrounding it in a full circle. He knew what had happened, and quickly tried to link back, but none of the books worked. The air became more sweet, and he saw some vegetation forming in the cracks. He heard a humming sound and could feel a shift in the planet's magnetic field. He tried to write new books that might get him out of there, but he couldn't even create a linking book. He was trapped there.
After everything had settled, he observed the new world more closely. It never stopped humming, yet the humming would frequently change. Sometimes he would randomly hear sounds of all types coming from beneath the ground that would sometimes scare him. They seemed muffled by some sort of magnetic field. The gravitation still felt very weird. The sun looked very close, or it was just big; which ever, it gave plenty of heat, not THAT much though. The nights however, were relatively cold. Since he now saw the moons in the sky much less often, and never saw the two together, he eventually realized there was now only one. Jalak was only able to observe that the lighting of the age was now very blue-greenish. He was not aware of wavelengths invisible to the human eye, but just to give more information; unlike Wormwood, the only colors well presented were now Green, Blue, and Ultra Violet. The world was fairly humid, a certain kind of humid that I couldn't really describe. It didn't rain too often. He discovered that inside the cracks and beneath the [I keep wanting the say earth, but that is an earth term.] ground, was a huge load of these colonizing insects. They have wings and they can fly, although they rarely come out from the ground. When full grown, they are 28 centimeters long, 13.5 centimeters wide (not with the wings extended).
He then learned later, that they build their tunneling homes out of a waxy magnetic material that they biologically create and everything they construct is in hexagonal patterns. They are what cause all of the sounds, and do have the ability to make some pretty weird ones. They are pollinators of the sweet nectar filled plants under the ground. They hold nectar in their stomachs for a while until it changes to a special compound, and then they store it in cells for a long time. For some reason they keep huge excess amounts of it that don't get used. It is like a thick, transparent but green goo that tastes very sweet. They have small stingers, but Jalak found them to be quite friendly, and they don't mind him taking samples of their goo. He eventually discovered, that the planet was completely hollowed; and that the cracks actually don't end. The regions of the planet isolated by the cracks were floating islands, and however possible, the magnetized homes of the insects was what kept things together.
He didn't have a way of testing it, but the rain water was of a high alkalinity (I mean for rain water, It was maybe 7.6, that is extremely high for rain, I just mean it wasn't like lye water or anything.).
He was able to write by making tablets out of the wax. He could carve on it and easily erase by rubbing it back down, but he still could not get a book to work. He finally accepted that books didn't work there.
The insects created a calm atmosphere that Jalak could not stand any longer, and the constant sweet flavor of the air began to drive him crazy. It wasn't so bad when it was bitter, he got used to that. He renamed the place Bleen, because it was a blue and green world of nothing.
Bleen is an English equivalent to what he had called it. Artemisia is also a Latin equivalent to what it had been called. Something else I am noting here, is that Arcūb, D, and The World all spoke different languages; however their use of the art somehow bridges communication barriers, and they understand each other.
The image below is an old piece of concept art I created with Paint.NET for Bleen. That's not really what it looks like, it's more the feel that I was trying to show.

Many years had passed, and the government on Arcūb had fallen apart. It was now like it was before, only there was no longer any conflict between The East and The West. The people had come to accept a Christian sort of concept of God. The art came back into use, and everyone mostly lived in peace. They returned to Artemisia to find out what had happened to it. Jalak was no longer there. There were 6 structures built on the six islands bordering the fortress. There was a bit of Myst style security to them
[Arcūbans seemed to like puzzles, this sort of thing was not uncommon. They were also big on mazes, and you will find a maze underground in the bee caverns], and inside they each contained a linking book. They read a journal Jalak recorded that they found in the fortress. They also found a second one kept in a cavern underneath the fortress. The first one gave the history I just gave and was written on Arcūban paper; and the second one was written on wax and took place a while after, when Jalak had been getting more used to the age. Jalak was able to get the new descriptive books written on wax to work, after changing his writing style to match the atmosphere of Bleen. Jalak started calling the worlds "ages". He did not know why, but he liked the sound of it. He later decided to name Bleen Stroxt. Supposedly, he had changed a lot from the influence of the world and had mellowed.
We do not know where he is now or how far experienced he is in the art. At some point he linked to D'ni. We found a book to Stroxt in the cavern, which allowed us to know this history.
It is suggested, there was an age written by Jalak that contained an instrument similar to a crystal viewer, but far more advanced.
I might not stick with the name Stroxt, that's just something I quickly came up with.

August 11
www.youtube.com/watch

August 25TH! (ya know, cuz it's 25!)
I'm naming Jalak "Jalok". Because it finally came to my attention that there is an age in Uru called Jalak.

The Writer's Hell

Over the past few days, I've been stuck with Writer's Block. I know that there are several writers who don't believe in Writer's Block, but I do.
My kind of Writer's Block isn't a lack of ideas, thankfully I have plenty of them and if I did lack any suitable ideas, the fantasy plotter would provide me with a suitable one with a couple of clicks. Some of my best idea came to me when I was delirious in a bed in Naples.
A Writer's Block is much more serious than that, it's having several neat ideas and not knowing how to express yourself. Maybe the story lacks descriptions or maybe it doesn't feel right. Over the last few days, I have tried editing, writing from scratch and continuing other works in progress. I have tried the afore mentioned plot generator for new ideas. No dice.
Just now, I have written this piece about A Writer's Hell. I hope you enjoy it.
The Writer woke up from a deep refreshing sleep. He was so full of ideas that he was itching to get to work. With that same eagerness, he leapt out of bed ... But wait a moment, where was he? This was certainly not HIS room; his room was not covered entirely in wood paneling. This was not his bed.

Around the room, several objects were scattered. A bucket of paint and a brush; pen and a large blank book; a computer and several other items that looked too advanced for him to grasp their concepts.
'What on Earth?' the Writer said.
'Welcome,' said a voice from behind the Writer.
The Writer spun around and looked for the source of the voice. The bed had disappeared and there was a short man where the bed was. Or was ther ever a bed to begin with? The Writer was confused.
'Fear not,' said the man, 'for I have seen the wonders of your craft, and have brought you here so that you can work on it.'
'Are you my muse?' the Writer asked.
'Something like that,' the man said as his eyes darted around the room, 'if you want you may begin to work. I trust that you have plenty of ideas.'
'Yes!' the Writer said.
Immediately, the Writer rushed to the computer, sat down, and started typing like a madman.

After a quarter of an hour of writing non-stop, the Writer stopped and reread what he had just written.
'What on earth is this garbage?' the Writer said, 'I'm lucky enough to have used prepositions, there isn't even an adequate line of description anywhere in this.'
The Writer pushed the chair back and got up. He cracked his back and decided to try and write another idea by hand. Yes, maybe it would work.
Again, he sat down and started to write on the blank book with the pen.
His writing was faster now, more fluid; his words were colourful and the dialogue impeccable. But there was no single line of description. The Writer sighed, tore out the words that he had written and started to rewrite the same scene again, with added description.
It didn't work. The descriptions felt forced and flat. He couldn't write any description that seemed to fit the scene. The Writer ceased his writing and started to draw a part of what he had tried to write.

The drawing itself was fine at first but as soon as the complexity of the scene started to increase, the drawing became horrible. The frustrated Writer stood up and the chair toppled over with a thick crashing sound as he pushed it back. His ideas must be commited to a surface, any surface, no matter what!
There remained only one option. The paint. Paint was something that was very difficult to draw in, but the Writer had to try. The ideas didn't stop coming just because he couldn't write them down. His thoughts were going to drown in ideas if he was not going to get rid of them.
He snatched the brush and saw that the paint was still sealed. That was going to be a bitch to open, the Writer realized, but he did not lose faith in himself.

Oddly enough, prying the lid off the can of paint proved to be easy. Something told the Writer that there was a problem here, but he didn't take heed and dipped the brush into the paint and started to draw on the wall.
Half an hour later the Writer could be found huddled in a dark corner, hugging his knees whilst rocking back and forth.

'A bashful sorceress and a sailor seek a legendary ring in this tale of comedy,' he said.
'A besotted peasant has something that belongs to a mysterious satyr, and silliness ensues.'
'A brash ghost and a dairymaid seek a legendary spell in this tale of wacky hijinks.'
'A brash stableboy blackmails a band of elves. The result is romance.'
'A cantankerous satyr offers to help a grumpy alchemist, and pandemonium ensues.'
'A dwarf raised by merfolk learns a secret from a young satyr.'
'A headstrong farmer has something that belongs to a wicked sailor, resulting in romance.'
'A lonely peasant and a stableboy seek a legendary map in this tale of pandemonium.'
'In this story, dragons and robbers clash with a brash shepherdess stuck in the middle.'
'This tale of melodrama begins when a headstrong satyr has something that belongs to a charming sorceress.'

'So ... many ideas,' the Writer said as he continued to rock back and forth. 'So much potential, such a waste.'
A smile broke onto the Writer's face as he stopped rocking and looked at the ceiling. 'A brilliant writer is trapped in a room by his muse. This results in his personal hell.'
Giving credit where credit is due, the block of ideas that were given in the story were generated using the fantasy plotter.
Apparently, for me, one way to combat a Writer's Block is to write a story about Writer's Block. With a sigh of relief, I hope that I'm right. If I'm not, I can say that I came up with an interesting story during a Writer's Block.

(cross-posted on my deviantArt account, here)

Myst Online: Uru Live Again on a Mac!

One of the most popular posts on my site is How to run Uru:CC on a Mac. You may have also heard that Uru Live is back, under the new name “Myst Online: Uru Live Again”. Unfortunately, this version of Uru is PC-only by default.

However, it’s very easy to set it up to run on a Mac! Here’s how to do it:

  • Download and install MacPorts.
  • Download and install Xcode. This will take a very long time to download, unfortunately. It’s also an optional install on the CD that came with your Mac. If you don’t mind having a slightly out-of-date version (which shouldn’t matter for this), you can insert that CD and find the Xcode installer on there instead of downloading it.
  • Reboot. (Might not be necessary, but I’d always recommend it)
  • Go to Applications>Utilities in Finder, and launch Terminal.app.
  • Type in the following:sudo port install mystonline-cider
  • It will ask for your password, type in the same password you use to log in to your computer.
  • When it’s all done downloading/installing, you can find Uru in /Applications/MacPorts/Myst Online (Cider).app

And that’s all it takes! Keep in mind that this is the “bare-bones” installer, so it’s going to download all of the meat of the game (the ages, sound effects, everything) the first time you start it up. That means it will most likely take a very long time to get past the loading section. It will eventually get there, though, so don’t worry that it’s crashed.

I don’t take any credit for discovering this method, I got it from “rainbow” on the Myst Online forums.

See you in the cavern!

Not a Second Time…

I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a total bitchfest cos that’s going to upset me greatly.

But writing has never been something I was good at when happy.

I just got out of a stressful patch where I lost 5 pounds. I have, of course, gained it all back, but now I appear to be starting another stressful patch.

Work is hectic these days. And it will only get worse because there will be much more of it in the coming weeks. Now was a very bad time for them to change things around and have new people doing new things.

Writing Node.js Native Extensions

Have a big blog post over on the Cloudkick Blog about Writing Node.js Native Extensions.