Ken's Voyages Around the Sun

Maps

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:31:00 GMT

Our new campus maps went up today, although only via a non-published address. We plan to take them public on Monday.

The past two weeks has been pretty intense in terms of coding at work and at home in the evenings on a couple days to get them as best they could be. It has been a great deal of fun to get them to match my mental vision of what I wanted.

New Cornell maps

I won't be so embarrassed about Cornell's lack of such a map now, and that makes sleeping at night easier.

We're in for a real cold snap in the next 48 hours, with predictions of 10 to 15 below, not counting windchill, which is expected to take it down to -25 or so. Brrr.

Maybe I'll stay in and code.

Game Coding

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Sun, 4 Jan 2009 23:10:00 GMT

Over the past week, according to my new programming log, I've put in 54 hours toward the new version of my online game.

Much of that was over three long days just after Christmas when Shelley and the kids went to visit grandma. The rest of it added up during napping times and evenings.

And good golly it feels good to have so much to show for so many hours on this project. Many more to go, but the new version now has a great foundation and numerous cool factors that just go to show how dated the old version has become.

About 90% of the interface is now drag-and-drop, and much of what had to be done before via submitting web-based forms has been updated to use AJAX so that entire page reloads are obviated and the game seems a lot more responsive.

Just about everything else is now done via the Google maps API commands. For example, to set a unit's course, just drag its icon on the map and release it at its destination. Not only is the course automatically determined, but the program first checks to ensure that the case of ships and submarines they are not trying to cross land masses.

My established players are going to rave about this. My goal is to let them have a peek at it by month's end.

You'll know where to find me evenings after work.

Kelley's RAM

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Sun, 4 Jan 2009 22:59:00 GMT

Over the past week we've started reading two new books to Kelley at bedtime: Are You My Mother and The Cat In the Hat. Thus, she's heard each of them about 10 times.

She's been amazing me with her memorization of those books.

For example, in Cat, there's a sentence that ends "...said the fish in the pot." Another says "...not one little bit."

In both of these cases, as well as a number of others, if I substitute "dish" for "pot" or "tiny" for "little" she corrects me.

She does this when she's not even looking at the text on the page, as when she's rolling on her back fussing with her blanket while I'm reading to her.

Wow. Just... wow.

I think it may be time for more advanced stories.

In other languages.

Hmmm. I have a copy of The Hobbit in Spanish somewhere around here... and Winnie the Pooh in Latin.

Thanks, Santa!

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:14:00 GMT

Yay for a White Christmas!

Kelley's favorite new toy: a Brio train set (aka Thomas the Train), which has a wooden track system with knob/keyhole joiners as well as anthropomorphic engines sporting magnetic car connectors. It's an ingenious system whose components are remarkably expensive. Luckily Shelley found a couple large sacks of track and some accessories in a second-hand baby-stuff store for cheap, and further offset the cost through sales of outgrown baby clothes.

Kelley also received a digital camera, which some clever soul figured to make toddler-friendly by not having a single-eye view finder as on a big-person camera, but by having separate view finders for each eye. Kelley's pretty good at aiming the thing and shooting what she intended. We've not yet tried uploading anything from it yet, but she's having a grand time with it.

For Mommy, Santa brought a Flip Mino, which is a very small and extremely easy-to-use video camera, and a Roku Netflix player, which is a small, solid-state, wireless box that streams Netflix instant-play movies straight to a TV (or, as in our case, a projector and sound system). With more than 12,000 movies and TV shows available for streaming, there's quite a bit to watch on it. There's no extra fee for running the box, either, but it does require a computer to mark titles for viewing on it.

Daddy received several months' worth of fiddle lessons from a local instructor who specializes in Scottish and Irish fiddle. He attended the first one today and has two pieces to memorize for next time, as well as proper form to work on. Yikes!

In addition, Mommy's also promising to finish Daddy's vest, which she's knitting for him. She's a bit behind because of some unexpected work-at-home days caused by recent snowstorms. It should be noted that working on such a project in front of a three-year-old and hiding it and telling her it's a secret from Daddy just as he gets home from shopping is not the best way to actually ensure it stays a secret... at least not for longer than it takes for the three-year-old to proclaim that Mommy's working on a secret sweater as soon as Daddy comes up the stairs!

;-)

Updates

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:11:00 GMT

This past month has seen me in a rather fierce non-writing mood, thus the lack of entries. Not sure why. I'm not in mood to write at the moment either, so this is a bland update.

I may stop journaling, I'm not inspired to do it much more, as you've seen. Maybe it's Facebook taking over. It's fun to post more frequent one-line entries and interact with lots of people in that environment. We'll see.

Where to begin for this month's entries? Randomly I suppose.

Full Leather Jacket: After many years of wanting a leather coat, I finally obtained one. My heretofore winter jacket has seen better days and is pretty shabby by any standard with its frayed cuffs and hems, holes in pockets, and other signs of age.

Thanks to our family JC Penney connection, I saved quite a bundle on the new coat a couple weeks ago. It happened to be on sale for 55% off normal price, and with a special coupon for another 20%, it posed a deal I could not pass up. It goes great with my fedora!

Work: Productivity-wise, this month has been superb for me. The development of a new web-based campus map system has come along swimmingly to rave reviews of internal users and a few very concerned folks on campus. It's actually much more than a map, serving as a geo-referential interface to campus.

It has a basic map, but many overlays for different features, such as dining units and lactation rooms, but it also ties into several databases for searching and offers links in and out so others can use it to reference their locations quickly and easily. I've had a great deal of fun working on that project over the past couple weeks, and all of it done without the usual formal business-practice overhead.

Weather: We've had a couple of winter storms come through. After one of them, our car got stuck in the driveway because the snow was too deep and the ice beneath it didn't provide enough traction to push it clear. We discovered the chains for the tractor didn't fit, so we shoveled some and parking it at the end of the driveway for a couple days.

Shelley put chains on the car later and drove it around in loops to clear a path. Then we bought the proper chains for the tractor and found out they're not enough. Weights may or may not help. That's next to try, or just calling someone to plow for us. For now we can just drive through the 8-10 inches or so we have out there well enough for the moment.

Holidays: Shopping is done as of today. Bought our tree from a nearby farm yesterday. Finished decorating it tonight. Used the reciprocating saw to chop it down to size: good tool for that purpose! Looking forward to Christmas morning and seeing Kelley tear into her gifts.

WoW: Leveled from 70-76 over the course of the month. I'm setting it aside for a while to work on my game, mostly. It's lost some appeal, unfortunately, as well. I have a gift-card subscription to use with it so I'll finish leveling up to 80 at some later point.

Kids: Kelley had a couple weeks of not napping at school, we're unsure why. This meant for some trying evenings but she seems to have worked out of that, although not completely. Celia's in the cooing and smiling phase, so it's more enjoyable to be with her - more of a person to interact with. Today Kelley and Celia had a great time playing together: Celia in her door-frame hopper seat and Kelley pushing and bouncing her at at the same time. Big smiles and lots of laughs all around.

Movies: Netflix finally released their free online viewer for Macintosh so I've watched a couple titles that way. They have 10-12 thousand movies and TV shows for viewing online and about 10% of our to-watch list can now be seen that way. So far I've experienced quite a range of quality through about five titles, from just okay to really pretty good, image-wise.

OK, tired of writing, time to get to work. Or read a book in front of the fire.

Humans, Lawns & The Creator

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 23:54:00 GMT

Received in email without attribution... a nice take on certain aspects of modern life.

Humans, Lawns & The Creator

Imagine the conversation The Creator might have with St. Francis:

"Frank you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there in the Midwest? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle, and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan.

Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracted butterflies, honey bees, and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles."

"It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers 'weeds' and went to great extent to kill them and replace them with grass."

"Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds, and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?"

"Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn."

"The spring rains and cool weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy."

"Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it--sometimes twice a week."

"They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?"

"Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags."

"They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?"

"No, sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away."

"Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?"

"Yes, sir."

"These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work."

"You aren't going believe this Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it."

"What nonsense! At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life."

"You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and have them hauled away."

"No! What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and keep the soil moist and loose?"

"After throwing away your leaves, they go out and buy something they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves."

"And where do they get this mulch?"

"They cut down trees and grind them up."

"Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. Saint Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?"

"_Dumb and Dumber_, Lord. It's a really stupid movie about..."

"Never mind. I think I just heard the whole story."

PizzaCivFest

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:59:00 GMT

Our annual game of Advanced Civilization started at about 12:30 pm and ended about 6:30, with Babylon winning, and Crete (me) a very close second place. Good fun, but with pizza this year instead of the usual turkey.

Kelley napped for almost all of it and shortly after she woke Scott and Emma arrived. Kelley and Emma had the best time running around squealing and playing and eating pizza. We'll have to get them together more often.

We arrived home to find many, many deer tracks around the house. They've been all over digging out grass, apples, and even cabbage stems from our garden to eat. Apparently it takes them little time to realize the dogs aren't home to scare them away.

Interesting article de jour: Second Life avatars and Brazilians: the same carbon footprint. World of Warcraft characters probably rank the same.

Happy Thanksgiving

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Thanksgiving turned out well for us, here at Shelley's mom's house. Hope yours did too.

The past three days' work on the campus maps has gone swimmingly. All the basic functionality has been implemented and the databases tied together for a comprehensive search. We still need some data for various overlays, like bus stops and emergency phone locations, but campus is going to love this when they get to see and use it.

If this is news to you, see one of the back-dated journal entries for this month that have gone up in the last couple days. I've been keeping track of things but not writing them in detail for one reason or another. I've now had some time to flesh them out and share them.

We're heading home tomorrow early afternoon and have to prepare the house for a day-long game of Civilization on Saturday.

Heavy Snowman

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:12:00 GMT

This morning we awoke to some nine inches of fresh snow. Not what the forecasters has predicted. Thick, heavy, moist. And more falling by the second in "flakes" an inch or more across.

With it being so beautiful outside and no critical meetings on campus, I decided to work from home. Good choice.

Apparently Ithaca and campus got rained on instead, so they missed out on the beauty we enjoyed.

In the late afternoon Shelley made our first snowman in a long time. We had enough snow on the deck that she built him just there, and there he still stands.

Kitchen-window view, first thing in the morning.

Morning snowstorm, slightly later.

Neighbor's tree.

After the storm.

Snowman on deck!

What a Trip

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:59:00 GMT

Although my doctor has advised staying away from vigorous activity while the torn tendon in my shoulder heals, it's really hard to stay away from volleyball on Sunday nights. The people there and their skill at the game draws me down every week.

It's so nice to play with folks that don't have the cliques of the group in California, which partly result from a larger range of attitude and adeptness.

Anyway, to rest the right shoulder I've been learning to spike with my left hand and am getting competent with it. It's not a bad thing to be able to hit with either arm so no harm done.

Anyway, to my writing point: about half an hour before play ended tonight I suffered a blow to my ego. I was in back court and moving forward a little to receive a ball coming in high. It was not fast-moving, not a challenge to get, just coming down so I moved up to handle it. And fell flat on my face. I tripped on my own foot. What a doofus.

Baby's First Sledding

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:59:00 GMT

Kelley enjoyed her first sledding this morning with Mommy and again in the afternoon with Daddy. Although she's seen snow before on a hiking trail, she's never experienced snowing and stomping about in it up to her knees.

Our little hill near the house provided the best entertainment. I made the mistake of taking her down the large hill in the back, through totally fresh light fluffy snow several inches deep. The problem: waves of snow flew up and drenched us in cold water even though we were sitting up in the sled.

Kelley did not like that one bit. I hope she remembers the fun on the little hill rather than the cold on the big one when we next go out to play. I'll be sure to go down the big hill a couple times first to blaze a trail and pack down the run before taking her down.

The big hill was really fun though!

Squalambrado, Etc.

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:59:00 GMT

Our Epee de Guerre sword class ended today. Disappointingly, it did not offer as much of a workout as I had hoped it would, although it turned out to be interesting in its own right.

After learning a bevy of basic moves, we put them all together into a string of actions in what would essentially be a choreographed fight scene.

That itself was mildly amusing, especially the latter sequence where we trap one opponent's weapon, hit him in the face with our sword pommel, kick him in the groin, turn around, drop to one knee, put the sword under our right arm and thrust it backward into a careless advancing foe, then pull it out, sweep it up into another coming from the front, and then - when he's doubled over - step-turn and lop off his head.

It turned more amusing when we acted it out, each of us taking a turn being the hero against our classmate foes. It makes quite a difference when there are bodies on the floor (in terms of footwork) than when you're practicing by yourself with no one lying in the way.

One of the instructors took some photos and video of us doing our routines and I'll post them later if they arrive, but given the delay so far that may not happen.

By the way, squalambrado (if spelled correctly), is the Italian word for the move that makes a sweeping downward angled cut at an opponent's neck. All the different moves have such names, making it hard to remember them all through just a once-a-week class. I could take the class again but there's no advanced version at the moment. Private classes are available but I'm pretty sure they would be prohibitively expensive. Maybe it's time to rejoin the SCA and try single-sword this time.

Calendar and Maps

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:59:00 GMT

After months of delays with the hosting (server) environment for the campus events calendar project that has been my primary task at work, it's still not ready. At this point, as a result, it appears that we'll have to put off launching our new system until after next spring semester. Of course this comes as a great disappointment to us and a big let-down to our client.

While we continue to await final delivery of our infrastructure, I'll be working to implement an entire new set of interactive maps for the cornell.edu site. At the moment we're still offering only large static images and providing written generalized driving directions to campus. It's certainly not what's expected on web sites these days, especially from a major university.

The new maps, then, that I'll be developing and expect to have done before the new year will be based on Google's modern mapping offerings. I'll be setting up an easy-to-use system not only to overlay various points of interest, such as public parking areas and dining units, but I'll also tie in our existing database of units, such as departments, research centers, etc.

People will be able to quickly and easily find anything they want, in any way they want it. If they type the name of the department, for example, the map will automatically shift to center on its home building, zoom down to it, and show specific driving directions from any place. Conversely, if someone selects a particular building on the map, they will see a list of all the departments or other organizations in there and an accompanying list of their web sites.

Once we have the maps up and running, which will be a huge publicity win for us, I'll be tying the events listings back into them so that when we do have the calendar complete any given event listing will not only indicate where it's taking place, but will also show a map and provide directions on how to get there.

Oh, and of course all the new full-screen, high-res panos that I've been creating will be linked to the map as well.

This stuff is fun. It's what I *do*.

A Funny Geek Video

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Here goes with my first YouTube embedding. Must-see comedy follows.

An a cappella rendition of Star Wars lyrics to a stream of John Williams' soundtracks.

To Northrend!

kps1@cornell.edu (kens) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:05:00 GMT

On Friday afternoon it became apparent that our copies of Wrath of the Lich King were not going to arrive in time for the weekend so I stopped on the way home and bought copies to play immediately. Nothing like a little instant gratification!

We installed upon arriving at home and, as soon as the kids settled down for the night, entered a whole new phase of wonderful gaming that will likely sustain us for several months or more. The new expansion adds a continent and much new stuff to see and do. It's more gorgeous than ever.

Saturday brought heavy fog throughout the day as well as moderate rain for much of the time. We didn't hear any deer hunters' guns until 2pm; not a surprise given the minimal visibility, the downpours, and the lack of snow making for harder tracking. The deer hunkered down like us, although they did not enjoy the nearby wood-stove like we did. We heard only one more gunshot the whole day.

We played more WoW during naptime on Saturday as well the whole evening, and again on naptime on Sunday. We're not even through one of the many new zones yet. Not many more hunters around that day either, but perhaps some of the shooting sounds were deflected by the wind: Jenny put out 30kw or so for that day - lots of wind and a little snow on it.

Today a beautiful light snow settled in to stay. Kelley insisted on going out and tramping around in it before heading out for the day. Mommy bought her a rather colorful plastic toboggan for our hill and we hope to use it on the weekend. On the drive home tonight we had the perfect high-speed starfield visuals through the windshield as our lights reflected off of millions of large snowflakes.