Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Hunt the Wumpus: It's all Mainframes
Everything old is new again.
Right now, I am listening to some Brown noise (it's like white noise but at a lower frequency) on my computer. My pc is getting this stream from a server somewhere. I guess if I understood Al Gore's interwebs better I could figure out where that server is. I don't know.
But here I am, on earth, with a little noise going...and it comes from somewhere else. Some hard drive or thing or alien in another state.
During unit lunch in high school...that's what they called it because it started at 11:17 AM and went to 11:47 AM (approx)...the entire school was set free to eat. It was madness. My very close friend SS and I, at times, like others who were a bit bookish and preferred things calm, would escape to the science wing and log in to the mainframe computer. It was easy to do. There was a phone, the old kind with an ear part and a mouth part, black, and it was pushed into a black soft rubber suction cup holder and this phone received all its signals from Westchester County, I think Tarrytown, and instructed our terminal what to display.
It was displayed on a dot matrix printer. Yep. No screen. Just paper.
The game we played was called HUNT THE WUMPUS, which was some sort of geometric hunt through a dodecahedron (A polyhedron with 12 equal faces and 20 vertices) and by some process of elimination, you could figure out where this wumpus was hiding. There were rules about where it could move. The secret passageways from one face to another were defined by odd and even numbers or multiples of three, I don't remember exactly. SS often killed the Wumpus. Sometimes it got away. I was hopeless. To this day, I can barely find my car in a parking structure.
But it was a fun way to kill unit lunch (if not often, too, the Wumpus). And it was all done by mainframe.
The game was written in BASIC. You can read about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_the_Wumpus
It was beyond thrilling to have a phone pushed into a strange device that allowed us to play this game, the dot-matrix white and green striped paper printing out our turns as we typed.
Of course, the difference with a mainframe and a pc is the mainframe does all the computing, too. But, really, it won't be long before you won't both downloading anything any longer.
And if you don't believe me, stand still long enough and the Wumpus will eat you.
Right now, I am listening to some Brown noise (it's like white noise but at a lower frequency) on my computer. My pc is getting this stream from a server somewhere. I guess if I understood Al Gore's interwebs better I could figure out where that server is. I don't know.
But here I am, on earth, with a little noise going...and it comes from somewhere else. Some hard drive or thing or alien in another state.
During unit lunch in high school...that's what they called it because it started at 11:17 AM and went to 11:47 AM (approx)...the entire school was set free to eat. It was madness. My very close friend SS and I, at times, like others who were a bit bookish and preferred things calm, would escape to the science wing and log in to the mainframe computer. It was easy to do. There was a phone, the old kind with an ear part and a mouth part, black, and it was pushed into a black soft rubber suction cup holder and this phone received all its signals from Westchester County, I think Tarrytown, and instructed our terminal what to display.
It was displayed on a dot matrix printer. Yep. No screen. Just paper.
The game we played was called HUNT THE WUMPUS, which was some sort of geometric hunt through a dodecahedron (A polyhedron with 12 equal faces and 20 vertices) and by some process of elimination, you could figure out where this wumpus was hiding. There were rules about where it could move. The secret passageways from one face to another were defined by odd and even numbers or multiples of three, I don't remember exactly. SS often killed the Wumpus. Sometimes it got away. I was hopeless. To this day, I can barely find my car in a parking structure.
But it was a fun way to kill unit lunch (if not often, too, the Wumpus). And it was all done by mainframe.
The game was written in BASIC. You can read about it here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_the_Wumpus
It was beyond thrilling to have a phone pushed into a strange device that allowed us to play this game, the dot-matrix white and green striped paper printing out our turns as we typed.
Of course, the difference with a mainframe and a pc is the mainframe does all the computing, too. But, really, it won't be long before you won't both downloading anything any longer.
And if you don't believe me, stand still long enough and the Wumpus will eat you.
Monday, May 26, 2014
The English, From Whence it Came, Chucked it...So Why Don't We?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
It is time to rewrite this silly constitution that people hold so dear.
I do not believe the original framers meant for students to walk around killing each other. Of course, there have always been nuts who have killed people. Maybe this is to be expected.
But when people get in my face about the Constitution, you just have to figure they are verse and chapter types, afraid of change. Why are we being hijacked by such clay footed folks?
I say, rewrite it. Enough already. This thing gets us into too much trouble. It is TOO LOOSELY written and too open for debate.
And certainly, there is no need for people to be running around with all these guns.
Perhaps the only answer is to start assassinating the children of the NRA? Then the chapter and verse types might understand?
(Note to officials of any kind---that was hyperbolic sarcasm, those last two lines.)
Senselessness. It is purely senseless to hold onto ideas that have not only outlived their usefulness but also presently cause undo harm.
Rewrite this thing. This silly piece of paper. It's so old. And this country is too full of self serving loons to have its organizing document be
1) something so open to discussion.
2) something that makes it so easy to just run around and kill people.
Apple Pie? Sure.
Gun loving? Go kill your own children, you lunatics.
Time for a rewrite. And maybe even chopping this country into three. North, South, West.
Enough.
It is time to rewrite this silly constitution that people hold so dear.
I do not believe the original framers meant for students to walk around killing each other. Of course, there have always been nuts who have killed people. Maybe this is to be expected.
But when people get in my face about the Constitution, you just have to figure they are verse and chapter types, afraid of change. Why are we being hijacked by such clay footed folks?
I say, rewrite it. Enough already. This thing gets us into too much trouble. It is TOO LOOSELY written and too open for debate.
And certainly, there is no need for people to be running around with all these guns.
Perhaps the only answer is to start assassinating the children of the NRA? Then the chapter and verse types might understand?
(Note to officials of any kind---that was hyperbolic sarcasm, those last two lines.)
Senselessness. It is purely senseless to hold onto ideas that have not only outlived their usefulness but also presently cause undo harm.
Rewrite this thing. This silly piece of paper. It's so old. And this country is too full of self serving loons to have its organizing document be
1) something so open to discussion.
2) something that makes it so easy to just run around and kill people.
Apple Pie? Sure.
Gun loving? Go kill your own children, you lunatics.
Time for a rewrite. And maybe even chopping this country into three. North, South, West.
Enough.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
To All My Highly Sensitive People Friends
Why not stay home this weekend and just finger the sofa?
If it's all too much, and it is, know you aren't alone.
Thank you, T, for sending this to me.
Luckily, I've got some good biPolarity in me and can transform into a Teflon warrior when needed.
The warrior pose, though, never lasts long.
Hugs. No wait. No hugs. Too much.
Air. Space. Calm.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Joy
May you have one of those Thursdays that is unreasonably joyful.
Like, you don't know how it happens...it takes you over when you aren't looking, and it turns out to be delightful.
They say chance favors those who are prepared.
I wish for you that even if you are not prepared at all that joy comes anyway.
This life is a whim.
Take a trip.
Like, you don't know how it happens...it takes you over when you aren't looking, and it turns out to be delightful.
They say chance favors those who are prepared.
I wish for you that even if you are not prepared at all that joy comes anyway.
This life is a whim.
Take a trip.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Oregon: Thanks, kind of. No, Really, Thanks.
Oregon flipped and now you can get married there, if you need to, and happen to be marrying someone of the same sex.
Here is the current Freedom-To-Marry stats:
Adam and I were married on March 26, 2004 in Portland Oregon. We got off the plane around noon and were married in front of a department store by our good friend Bart's coworker who had that reliable Universal Life Ministry certificate. (Pic Below)
A few weeks later, the state of Oregon overturned our marriage, voided our certificate and sent us a check for the original amount paid for the license. We never cashed the check figuring it would be a good piece of prejudice ephemera.
But now, a little over ten years later, Oregon has come through. So thank you Oregon, you strange state.
And, thank you, my husband, who then hooked up with me as a California Domestic Partner in a MailBox Etc. in Larchmont Village, Los Angeles in July of 2005 and then on October 20, 2011, we were married in the State of New York downtown in Manhattan and it stuck. And then the Feds recognized it. And now, I just chase him around the apartment with a rolling pin.
It is a strange experience to be the people who are getting their rights in real time.
Here is the current Freedom-To-Marry stats:
Adam and I were married on March 26, 2004 in Portland Oregon. We got off the plane around noon and were married in front of a department store by our good friend Bart's coworker who had that reliable Universal Life Ministry certificate. (Pic Below)
A few weeks later, the state of Oregon overturned our marriage, voided our certificate and sent us a check for the original amount paid for the license. We never cashed the check figuring it would be a good piece of prejudice ephemera.
But now, a little over ten years later, Oregon has come through. So thank you Oregon, you strange state.
And, thank you, my husband, who then hooked up with me as a California Domestic Partner in a MailBox Etc. in Larchmont Village, Los Angeles in July of 2005 and then on October 20, 2011, we were married in the State of New York downtown in Manhattan and it stuck. And then the Feds recognized it. And now, I just chase him around the apartment with a rolling pin.
It is a strange experience to be the people who are getting their rights in real time.
Monday, May 19, 2014
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