I just put up a web page on 8088 Corruption, my program that plays video synced with audio on an original IBM PC. What’s significant about the page is that I include a video file you can play if you don’t have an original IBM to run it on.
8088 Corruption
Posted by Trixter on January 13, 2006
Posted in Demoscene, Programming | 28 Comments »
Irresponsible Casting on “Geek”
Posted by Trixter on January 13, 2006
Melissa and I like to watch the show Beauty and the Geek, currently starting its second season, because she’s attracted to the intelligent nerdy type (lucky for me!) and I live vicariously through them as the nerd who didn’t get that kind of advice when he needed it and wants to see what happens to nerds that do get it in time. However, watching the season 2 premiere, it became increasingly apparent that the contestant named Chris is undiagnosed autistic, probably Asberger’s Syndrome. He may have come off as a jerk, but having been around many autistic people in my life (not to mention my own son, who is on the autistic spectrum), I’ve come to recognize the traits of a high functioning autistic person.
This really bothers me, because one of the hallmarks of an autistic person is an inability to pick up on social and facial cues — it’s like they’re aliens living in our world and trying to figure out our customs. They simply don’t pick up on non-verbal body language, and as a result grow up not really knowing how to relate to others properly (depending on the level of their affliction).
I don’t know if the producers of the show knew this or not; if they didn’t, they made a mistake and I hope for his sake that Chris is voted off the program quickly. All of his “jerk” behavior, such as the arrogance, the methodical quizzing of all the other contestants, choosing not to participate in the first night’s social gathering because “he didn’t want to embarrass them” (complete misreading of social situations), etc. — these are all hallmarks of a high-functioning autistic person. Keeping him in the show will be the social equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel and will do more harm than good.
Posted in Entertainment | 3 Comments »
Celery Bomb
Posted by Trixter on January 13, 2006
Celery is the bomb of trying-to-lose-weight snacks. Why? Because a stick of celery is about 8 or 9 calories, yet your body consumes about 10 calories processing it (chewing, swallowing, digesting, expending). Personally, I think it’s hilarious.
Posted in Weight Loss | Leave a Comment »
Discovery Health National Body Challenge
Posted by Trixter on January 11, 2006
I think popular media is — gasp — actually doing something responsible and bringing attention to the USA’s obesity problem. The Biggest Loser is popular, and now I see Discovery Health is hosting something called the National Body Challenge. 8-week free trial at Bally’s, nutritional advice, progress tracking… Unless I’m missing something obvious, it really looks like a great thing.
(Of course, if I am missing something obvious, like a hidden cost, let me know!)
Posted in Weight Loss | Leave a Comment »
Programmers: Deeper understanding of video games?
Posted by Trixter on January 11, 2006
Being a programmer for two decades has given me a special insight into video games; because I know how the majority of them are programmed, hardly any of them feel foreign to me. I may not be a master at any one particular game, but I can definitely pick them up quickly.
This has led to some chuckles along the way. Two games popular around the house lately have been Need For Speed Underground 2 and Ratchet: Deadlocked. In NFSU2, you can use a simulated GPS to continuously point an arrow to your destination so you can find it easier. When you first select the destination, it pauses for a few seconds with the text “Searching Connection: Unable to contact Satellite”. Sounds like a cute simulation, yes? Because I’m a programmer, I know what’s actually happening: The pathfinding algorithm is slow and taking a few seconds to plot the quickest path to the destination. The programmers of NFSU2 masked that pause with the “Searching Connection” message so the user wouldn’t see it as a flaw.
As for Ratchet: Deadlocked, there is a 2-player cooperative mode where you can play through the game with a friend. If the two of you get too far away from each other while playing, the game threatens to blow the both of you up if you don’t get closer to each other again. While this looks intentional, I have a very strong suspicion that it is there to mask a limitation of the game engine — such as, if both players are too far away from each other, that’s too much geometry for the engine to cache and fling around.
I’d be curious if anyone else notices things like this…
Posted in Gaming, Programming | 5 Comments »
New Look
Posted by Trixter on January 11, 2006
Got more than one comment that people thought the old theme was broken with the overlapping windows. It wasn’t, so I switched to the nice clean Regulus theme by Binary Moon.
Personally, I’d love to have a terminal look, like ASCII, but for some people, the medium is the message. So I will remain all purty-like for the time being.
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Hypertension!
Posted by Trixter on January 10, 2006
I measured myself in the local blood pressure machine at work and got a reading of 141 over 79. Since a healthy adult is supposed to have a systolic pressure of around 120, my focus in losing weight just went from cosmetic to health. I know that’s the right reason anyway, but still, I didn’t need to know this. Goddammit.
When I take my weekly measurements, I can’t include the blood pressure at the same time, since my weigh-in is on Sunday and I work on Monday, so I’ll be going back and retro-editing the previous day’s post to add the blood pressure readings.
Posted in Weight Loss | 1 Comment »
Three Cheers for Ritalin
Posted by Trixter on January 9, 2006
Most people who criticize “the mass medication of our generation’s children” with Ritalin, I have found, don’t really understand Ritalin or what it targets. They think that you take an overactive child with ADD or ADHD and then feed them Ritalin so that they slow down and just sit there, drooling. (Mancow Muller, as much as I enjoy his radio show, is especially guilty of promoting this idea.) Well, that is pretty much the opposite of the truth; Ritalin is actually a stimulant. A humorous yet still somewhat accurate portrayal of what Ritalin does can be seen in the Simpsons episode “Brother’s Little Helper“.
We just got back from Sam’s psych appointment and had nothing but praise for the 7-day trial of Ritalin we tried with Sam. Sam was normally unresponsive, distant, couldn’t hold a conversation, didn’t look you in the eye… par for the course for Pervasive Developmental Disorder, which is what Sam is affected with. But on this Ritalin trial, he really opened up: He looked you in the eye, heard conversations from across the room and joined in them, wasn’t behind the entire class in activities… a complete turnaround. It’s not the miracle PDD cure (there isn’t one), but it made such a difference that we’re adding it to his regular daily medication and have renewed hope for his educational development.
Perhaps the best thing about Ritalin is that it enabled Sam to finally play with his brother — and not just for twenty minutes, but for hours. I almost cried when I saw that (and I think Melissa actually did).
Posted in Family | Leave a Comment »
Week #2
Posted by Trixter on January 8, 2006
After 9 hours of sleep and the usual morning defecation, I took my measurements:
- 231 pounds
- 31.5% body fat
- Blood pressure 141/79
4 pounds and 1% body fat improvement! It’s nice to see The Secret in action. Not bad for just one week, and that was without exercise.
I’m rewarding myself with a can of regular Pepsi and a slice of apple pie. Before you flip out, the pop’n’pie is 500 calories total; it won’t break the bank, and besides you have to give yourself little rewards or else you’ll just break down and eat the entire pie.
Posted in Weight Loss | 3 Comments »
A Sam and Max of my very own
Posted by Trixter on January 7, 2006
Okay, once and for all: No, I did not intentionally name my children Sam and Max after Steve Purcell’s excellent comic series (or the Lucasarts game). But I am glad it worked out that way :-)
In a few years, they’ll be old enough to play it — I can hardly wait!
Posted in Family, Gaming | 2 Comments »
Oldskooler Ramblings 