yaleman.org

Here’s a great writeup on multithreaded game scripting using a new version of Python called “Stackless.” Stackless has a slightly different approach to normal when dealing with threads, allowing for micro-threads which have what seems to be a single-byte overhead, tiny startup time and great allocation procedures. I’m going to have to look into it further for playing with some things I want to learn about, so I’m sure I’ll probably wax poetic about it on here in future. Nicely written article that brings out some good points about how game programming works too!

Well, I’m bored at work, trolling the sites on the OSDN and found a well written review of a site called Yet Another Linux Blog. I always like to see people reviewing other sites, because it’s definitely a subjective thing. YALB’s an editorial site with content based around (funnily enough) Linux issues and Open Source software and all the different things that go with it. I couldn’t get to the site from work, and now getting home, it seems that I can’t get to it at all. What a bummer. Sounds like it could have been a really cool site, but I think I’ll have to wait until he stops hosting it from his home connection or whatever he’s doing.

Well, I just finished watching the final episode of the Full Metal Alchemist series. One of the main things I’d like to say is wow. Amazingly well thought out throughout the series, a truly high quality anime. The moral of the story (as all real Japanime’s require) is conveyed throughout the story - told straight out with no explanation to start with - but explained as the series progressed. I’d have to agree with Mitchell’s description of it - it’s like crack… well, more addictive than crack, and more giggling/crying/wow factor. Now all I have to do is find a copy of the movie and watch that 🙂

Wow, this is terribly funny - lanning on a 433mhz laptop with a 10mbit network card… boy this is slow. Download speeds max out at about 800k/s, and most things are too big for the hdd to download, but oh well… it’s something to do. Except for the fact that it’s nearly 2am and I need to start work in 13 hours 🙁

Well, the Mambo CMS was kinda good, but really clunky unless you’re a big-site developer with a lot of content from different writers and running a big portal (I guess). WordPress is designed for a smaller site or blog, so that’s what I’m running now. The management backend is seriously easy to use, and I worked out how to convert the database from Mambo to WP really quickly. Yay me!

When I’m walking around work, I build up a fair bit of static electricity. It’s something to do with my shoes or my hair or something to do with how amazing I am I guess - but I build up a LOT of charge just walking a few steps. It’s mainly to do with the makeup of the soles of my shoes, since they are doc martens which have a plastic/rubber sole that’s good at building up a charge. Sometimes when I discharge (generally on things like the metal frames of doors and the cubicles) it can make quite a cracking noise, and sometimes even make quite a twitch in the muscles of my hand. It’s quite dangerous at times, hurting people if I accidentally (or intentionally) discharge through some part of their body. Then there’s this guy - the king of static electricity. Wow, I bow down to him.

Finally picked up the engine from Bryant on friday, woo hoo! $984.30 later, I’ve got myself a bottom end ready for assembly. I’ll have to get pictures when I’ve got the camera with me at the workshop, exciting times!

Ok, so I got this webcam AGES ago, and I had it working for a while - because I had installed the drivers off the CD. It’s a stupid cheap little webcam, it looks like they bought the leftover casings from Intel for their original cheap-and-cheerful webcam (I’ve had an Intel cam that looked exactly the same)

The problem is, it seems to be some sort of limited-release product according to this page. If you search for PD1100 anywhere on the Creative web site, all you’ll find is the reference to it on the “list of webcams” page. Downloading the drivers for a similar model doesn’t work, and none of the drivers I could find (admittedly, I didn’t go through EVERY driver for webcams, because this is such a slow process) would work.

I’ve been wondering about share trading for a while as an investment opportunity, and I was reading up on it on a few sites, where I found this quote:

Trading is a zero-sum game. For every winner, there is a loser. What’s the difference between winners and losers? Smarts and strategy. For every loser in the NASDAQ implosion there was a winner. Does this mean that there are traders with neither strategy nor smarts actively losing, effectively shifting their funds to the winners, armed with strategy and smarts? Yes, absolutely.

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Yet another update where nothing really happens. I just got a call from Bryant Engineering updating me on where they were up to with regards to the engine rebuild. The connecting rods are fine, no cracks - though they did have to clean them up a little bit, but nothing major. The crank’s big ends needed to be ground to -0.020" because there was a small radius on one of the journals. Again, nothing major - so that’s wonderful. The block turned out beautifully according to the rep that called me, and if they are saying that, then it must be good. Now all I need to do is wait for them to source bearings and complete the balance, and then I’ll be able to pay for it and pick it up.