sneuf’s Neighborhood

if your fs is case-insensitive, please make globbing case-insensitive...

$ ls -l | grep -i graphics
drwxr-xr-x     7 nharkins  nharkins       238 Apr  9 23:20 Graphics

$ ls -ld graphics
drwxr-xr-x   7 nharkins  nharkins  238 Apr  9 23:20 graphics

$ ls -ld graph* 
ls: graph*: No such file or directory

(reformatted the drive case-sensitive for a while, but various osx apps don't like it)

$ python -c 'print -1**0'
-1
$ perl -e 'print -1**0 ."\n";'
-1
$ echo '-1^0' | bc
1
$ python -c "print pow(-1,0)"
1

Ever since the introduction of fourth edition, I’ve been defending the system against claims that it doesn’t allow for real role-playing. These criticisms have comes from multiple types of RPGers: hard-core story gamers, D&D 3.5 power gamers, and everyone in between. My argument is simply that the rule set does not dictate the gaming experience (although certainly it sets the tone: a hundred pages of combat rules means the game designers expect your characters to fight). There’s nothing in fourth edition, I argue, that makes the game more or less conducive to role playing than D&D 3.5 or Shadowrun or World of Darkness or any other game with an elaborate combat system. In fact, I think that the fourth edition DMG is written with an emphasis on building an enjoyable story that was notably absent from its 3.5 counterpart.

The game has been out for long enough now where I’ve played and DMed more than a few published adventures. Unfortunately, most of these adventures give credence to the assertion that fourth edition D&D is nothing more than a glorified combat system or miniatures game. I’ve played all of the 1-1 RPGA modules and they range from appallingly boring to merely uninteresting. They are uniformly a mishmash of combats and gratuitous skill challenges. The few that add some role-playing bits into the mix tend to run long, so the role-playing part gets blown by in order to finish the module on time. Keep on the Shadowfell, as written, was a whole lot of combat grind and not much else. Yawn.

Now I’m starting a homebrew campaign and it’s time to put my gold pieces where my mouth is. I’m a seasoned gamer who’s played my share of storytelling games and rules-heavy RPG’s. I’m totally rules-agnostic and prone to using DM Fiat. I’m much more worried about creating an engaging narrative for my players than about following the letter of the rules. since this is my first homebrew campaign under fourth edition D&D, however, I’m intrigued: can I create and run an ongoing fourth edition D&D campaign that isn’t hack and slash using the techniques outlined in the Dungeon Master’s Guide? If I can’t, why not? What needs to be tweaked or changed in order to make it work? Most importantly, are those changes so fundamental that I’ll be forced to admit that the rule set does not in fact support a story driven role-playing experience?

Got asked about bigint math last week, and although I know how it's done, I don't think I ever actually coded it (instead relying on the dozens of libs that surely were built for speed), so yesterday I wrote one, and while checking some results, I learned something interesting about Apple's Desk Calculator app:

AppleDeskCalc

Just heard about what sounds like a new spammer technique from my dad: apparently, someone signed up a myspace account using his email address, and now he's getting friend requests, and no doubt the link about the other person has spam links on it. Somewhat similar to the old the-bounce-is-the-spam technique, the spammers are banking (their time and effort) that mail from myspace will get through the intended victim's spam filters.

Of course since read access to an external email address is the most common, albeit high-latency, form of delegated authentication (sorry openid, maybe someday! :), my dad could easily claim control of the myspace account via a Forgot-Password? link, change event->email preferences, and most importantly also change the Forgot-Password? question/answer if it exists (tangent: I wonder how many bloggers have mentioned their Mother's Maiden Name, First Pet, or Elementary School publicly).

But ideally no spams (or confusing links to links to spam) should ever arrive, so in my opinion, all web2.0 sites should add an email confirmation step (same as if they lost their password) to their signup process, and keep accounts in limbo/unable to ping others until it is completed.

I'm sure usability freaks (i say that with much love, a dear friend is one :) will cringe at this suggestion, as they likely did to captchas ("now you want both!?"), but it's common sense, really. It prevents devaluing your product's communications (if your company's emails are blocked everywhere and you can't get it unblocked by cooperating, might as well close up shop!), and it provides a trail. It took 10 years for the feds to figure out how to catch email spammers, so it'll be a while until web2.0 has the same level of attention, but if you can force the criminals to use the known vector of email, you're making it easier for them to eventualy get caught, and stop abusing your service. (Just finished watching Season 5 of HBO's The Wire, and yes in some things I'm hopelessly optimistic. :)

    I have to eat protein in the morning or else I crash by 10am. Thing is, I don't like breakfast to be that sweet. These bars/muffins are low in fat, high in fiber and protein. This is a master recipe that you can customize to your taste. I've even made them pizza flavor with tomato sauce, low fat mozzerella and soy pepperoni. The recipe was inspired by Alton Brown's protein bar recipe that you can find at food.com. Yeah, I really use a scale for this recipe, it comes out perfect every time.

Protein Nuggets

Makes 24 pieces (2 WeightWatcher's points per piece)

Ingredients

• 4 oz soy protein powder (NOT soy flour)
• 2.75 oz whole wheat flour
• 2.25 oz oat bran
• .75 oz wheat germ
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• spices (I usually put 1tsp of cinnamon and some nutmeg and allspice. Any pie/cake spice combo will be good.)

• 1 box of soft silken tofu (12.3 oz)  The boxes are great because they are shelf stable but I've used used refrigerated soft tofu as well.
• 1/2 cup milk or juice
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup of applesauce or canned pumpkin. (Pumpkin is great but then you'll have most of a can left over. I buy the little cups of applesauce so I don't have a whole bottle of applesauce to use up before it goes fuzzy)
• 2 heaping tablespoons of something sweet. (I've used  pumpkin butter, jam, and maple syrup. I've also forgotten to put sweetener in and the nuggets are still edible but it's better with the sweetener in.)
  

Preheat the oven to 350
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix each of the wet ingredients thoroughly before adding the next ingredient. You want the silken tofu completely whisked into a smooth consistency. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly. Fold in the fruit. The batter will be stiff and not very pretty.

Grease your pan! I use two 12 cup mini muffin pans and baker's spray (the flour and oil stuff) but you can just use oil. The mixture will not rise or spread in the oven. It will bake into whatever shape it's in when you put it in the oven. Put the pans in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Bars might take 5 minutes longer depending on the thickness.

Storing
Let the nuggets cool completely (completely) before storing. I pop the nuggets out of the muffin tins right away and cool them on a rack. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge. I microwave them at work for 5 sec before eating. I eat three for breakfast and make a batch almost every weekend.

Variations
As I said, I've made a pizza flavored version. The original recipe called for peanut butter but the taste is very strong and it adds a lot of fat to the recipe. I made a gluten free version for a friend using a mixture of gluten free flours and a wheat free breakfast cereal. I like to use a mixture of dried fruits. My most recent batch was apricots, cranberries, apples, and candied ginger.

Hope you like them!

Wooohoooo! Richmond Wrecking Belles smashed the Oakland Outlaws last night at Herbst Pavilion, 96-64. The Outlaws were undefeated going into this bout, so I was a little nervous - but Richmond's defense shut down the mighty Oakland jammers and Oakland couldn't return the favor. 

My day job as an interaction designer involves a lot of user research. I recently did a project for an online music distribution service where I talked to a bunch of "music junkies" in the SF Bay Area about the way they listen. I was surprised to find that most of my participants (all btwn 18 and 35) were still pretty album-focused - even though they're mostly listening on computers or iPods, where other sorting methods (artist, genre, playlist) are easily accessible. It's a listening paradigm that's deeply entrenched in popular culture.

"It's like the Ramones had sex with the B-52s."

I made myself a promise when I bought my shiny new ESP. It's a "real" guitar (the first I've owned, really) and I'm going to learn to play it for real. I've been faking my way through with power chords, a couple of scales, and a handful of open chords for years. I've essentially treated guitar like a bass with teeny strings that are close together. My technique is terrible. That was OK for recording (ah, the magic of digital editing) with my cheap Les Paul and Strat knockoffs, but I've reached the point where my lack of ability is really starting to hurt my songwriting.