Of Rings and Other Things.
I have a silver ring with alchemical symbols on it. It was given to me by a friend. Not a whole lot of particular sentimental value really. I haven’t seen that person in years nor did I know her very long. But we were similar ilk, so she felt it necessary to give it to me. These days it represents a part of me — the alchemist. The mixer, experimenter, explorer. I wear this on my left hand pinky finger. Because it fits well. It sort of fits on the right hand, but I worked for Disney, and they required that you have no more than one ring per hand. Also, two rings on one hand and none on the other feels very misbalanced.
I have a black / “silver” ring with skulls and crossbones on it. It was once a mood ring, but the mood plastic came off because I played with it too much. I bought it for a few bucks at a hot topic a few years back. It didn’t really mean anything, except that it was cool looking. These days it represents a part of me — the pirate. The freedom loving, free thinking, anime downloading, anarchist. I wear this on my right hand ring finger, also because it fits. It sort of fits on the left hand, but that is reserved for my wedding band. As you can tell, they are not currently symmetrical, but are balanced. Eventually I’ll need to wear four rings, or give up the alchemy one. The only way that is happening is if my wedding band has alchemy and other important symbols on it.
Together these appeal to my goth-steampunk self, and along with my “silver” pocket watch and brass chain, represent (and display to the world) a part of me that I cannot always otherwise show.
Silver appears in quotes in places where I do not believe it to be silver and it may be some other metal.
Finding (Steampunk) Stuff on eBay
Lizabeta tells us how she finds stuff on eBay, and while she gears it towards steampunk (which of course I love), her tips can be used to find just about anything.
http://steampunkbitz.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/steampunk_resources/
Learning About htaccess Files
Today I learned about the htaccess file. The htaccess file is used to override default configuration of a web server. For example, many web servers will have a default file or files set as to be displayed when typing in a folder path. Usually this default file list consists of something like “index.html,index.htm,index.shtml”. In other cases it may just be “index.htm”, or it may include a number of other files such as “index.php,index.asp,index.jsp” and could even contain “my_weird_file.my_weird_extension” if you really wanted.
The htaccess file is very very powerful. You can use it to redirect paths (perhaps if a file has moved), or if you want to change a hard to remember path into something a user might be able to remember easier.
Something to remember: a directory is affected by all of its parent directories’ htaccess files, not just its own. Order of effect is from its htaccess, up the path, towards /.
[edit]
Also, apparently either WordPress or Apache do not like you to literally type “(dot)htaccess”, where “(dot)” is a “.”. The error returned is not very useful either: “You do not have permission to access post.php”. Ah well, it’s a good security feature of one or the other I suppose.
Tags!
Alright, so I went through all the old posts and added tags to them. Not really sure the value of this, but we’ll see. Going to make good on my promise for those retroposts. Honest! Just need to figure out where my muse is hiding.
Zomg HDTV.
I have finally leaped head first into the land of high definition. And by god is it beautiful. I got a Phillips 47PFL7403D/27. 120Mhz (or 2ms) refresh rate. 47 inches. Things look unnervingly smooth on the tv. Like pans and people’s motion. It’s really quite odd! I find my eyes now being more sensitive to people’s motion in real life, looking for how smooth real life really is compared to what the TV shows. Oh, and of course, being able to see everything in much more detail is great. Lines and edges are really smooth! Very happy with my purchase.
Tags: 47PFL7403D/27, hd, hdtv, hi-def, high definition, tv
Grand Intentions, but lack of updates.
Ok, I had these grand intentions of updating a lot, but I failed to actually do so. I’m going to necropost a bunch of updates. That’s not exactly the right word here to use, but it’s close. I cannot think of a better one. Anachropost? Retropost? I think retropost is probably best. So I will be retroposting about the following: GDC, WonderCon, Maker’s Faire (with possibly a post devoted solely to Abney Park), Dream Of Mirror Online (review), Final Fantasy: My Life as a King (review and notes). I think (?) that that is everything I’ve skipped posting about.
Wondercon – Impressions; Gothic Lolita Evangelion
I went to Wondercon a bit, but I wasn’t overly impressed. The shop area was pretty big, and I tried to peruse every single booth. I found a gothic lolita Asuka from NGE that I liked and purchased. Supposedly there’s a non-matching Rei out there, but the different size and base put me off from it. If they attached together in some fashion, I’d be much happier. Ah well.
I saw little to no cosplayers there. Most disappointed. I was unable to make it to the “parade” though, which may account for that. Apparently the parade was done on stage, as opposed to around an area where people could get nice close up looks.
Hopefully next time I’ll get a better chance, and not miss the parade.
[retroposted on 5/26/2008]
Tags: asuka, evangelion, gothic, nge, wondercon, wondercon2008
GDC 2008 – Impressions
Overall, I think I had a good time at GDC. I got to listen to many different talks, and see lots of interesting things.
I’m excited about that emotion sensing headset, as it can open up various new types of input to a computer. Not sure what to do with that input yet, but I’m not being creative about it yet.
I saw an MMO called APB that looked really great. The character creation system is unparalleled. The dynamic mission system seems pretty awesome too.
There was a steampunk styled video game being promoted (along with cosplayers) called Recoil: Retrograd being made by a Denmark company Zeitguyz.
I couldn’t get my laptop to connect to the internet through their wireless network, so I was unable to update at all during GDC. And then promptly forgot all about it when I came back to the real world. And now that’s all I can remember since I’m retroposting.
[retroposted on 5/25/2008]
Tags: apb, gdc, gdc2008, mmo, recoil, steampunk, zeitguyz
GDC 2008 – Emotiv Head Set
Interesting piece of hardware here. A headset that can detect various changes in the EEG of a person’s brainwaves: Emotiv Systems‘ EmotivEPOC.
Apparently there are common EEG signals that are preprogrammed into the software that allow recognizing of traits such as enjoyment or frustration. The software also allows training of specific EEG patterns to match particular actions (such as levitating an object).
They had a booth set up where you could try out the preprogrammed actions as well as the trained actions. I was able to train a few actions and try them out together. The device was capable in detecting when I was thinking one action as opposed to another, but became confused if I trained the same action with multiple different thoughts. It appears to be key to think the same thought every time training an action. This makes perfect sense.
A very cool tech demo. They said that the device is not intended to be a main input device, but is intended to be supplementary. So, you wouldn’t use this as the main way to control a game or computer, but instead give the software additional input — perhaps about your reactions to certain events, or how frustrated you are.
[retroposted on 5/25/2008]
Tags: brain control, emotic, gdc, gdc2008, input, io
GDC 2008 Wednesday (part 1) – EVE Stations, Intel Booth Impressions.
Well, I made it to GDC.
I got briefly lost walking around the streets outside. Always been prone to losing my way like that. I get turned around. Oh well, a brisk walk never hurts.
Just got out of the EVE Station environments presentation. The characters and costumes look totally awesome. We didn’t get to see any finished stations, but their mock ups are great. Full notes later.
Currently blogging from the Intel booth. Apparently it’s encouraged? Checking out some of their cool new tech. Got a flight sim chair that is non-hydraulic. A gaming chair and head mounted display. A bunch of games to play too (crysis, unreal tournament 3, enemy territory, bionic commando, etc). They also have guitar hero (i think) on display.
Will post more in a bit.