Installed Lightbox2 and Search-Everything
I noticed that by adding tags to all the posts, that tags are not searchable by default in WordPress 2.5.1. I installed a plugin called Search-Everything to enable that as well as searching lots of other data. Seems to work fairly well.
I also installed Lightbox2. This gets the nifty animated larger versions of pictures when you click on them. Try it out on almost all the old posts (or the title image of this post). (Yes, I went back and updated all of them to work.) I really need to find a way to automate that better. It’s very repetitive blocks of text.
Tags: intartubes, lightbox2, plugins, search-everything
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.
Spam
Added spam blocker. We’ll see how it works. Die in a fire spam!
Productivity Cycle
I’ve recently come to a significant discovery about my productivity cycle.
Wednesday is my strong day.
During a “normal” 5 day work week, you can find my productivity cycle is lowest on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday have this huge kick — I get the most done on these two days. Friday will see me tapering off, but still more productive than Monday or Tuesday (possibly combined).
During a “long” 7 (actually 12 day) work week, my productivity cycle is completely whacked. I’ll push my top productivity juices from Wednesday of week 1 to as long as I can (usually somewhere on Sunday or Monday of week 2). Monday afternoon will experience the crash. Absolute 0 productivity. Tuesday will see a ramp up similar to a normal Monday. Wednesday will be either Monday #2 and/or Tuesday. Thursday might be Tuesday #2, but more probably is a Wednesday. Friday will be Thursday. And the glorious weekend of sleep will then finally commence.
Most Saturdays are sleep days. Sleep in as long as possible. If we just survived a long week, this might be sleeping from dark to dark, Friday night until Saturday night. That’s around 20 hours. A normal Saturday is more like 12 to 14 hours.
Sundays are often similar to Saturdays, except that I’ll attempt to leave my Cave, at least for a little while. Not always.