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Monday, 08:42 pm, 24 May 2004 Back to a Logtrack edit tonight. It was remarkably easy to convert the log back to Logtrack. Through the recent narrative about Snoozable, I have wondered if there would be some merit in expanding Logtrack for general users. Perhaps produce a Mac Carbon and a Windows version. The interface for commercial loggers is very different to Logtrack though. Logtrack assumes the user has a text editor and basic HTML knowledge. Logtrack is just a copier, time stamper and presenter. Reading the analysis online about the SCO case currently I have to wonder if any party will come out smelling like a rose. As an Open Source developer I am really concerned the GNU/FSF got suitcases of cash for breaking the GPL from corporate America. That appears to be the case. Who gets rich from these kind of deals? Not the contributors that's for sure. Stallman doesn't write about how to get millions from IBM for code contributions. I wanted to find a version of Minix to protest. Minix as the new for old Linux. It is a funny thing. The more I read about SCO et al, the less I feel using the term Open Source actively describes what I do. Perhaps No Suitcases Of Cash Source should be the new Noble Ape mantra. No dollars here. But I digress. Good night. Monday, 08:50 pm, 17 May 2004 Rather than the usual automated log, I am actually hacking this log together in HTML on my wife's PC. Following the last entry which was heavily edited, I thought it would be easier to edit it through HTML rather than running the laptop and changing the text log to the last entry. This could be the way of editing in the near future. Following the Total Annihilation discussion, I have been honing the Noble Warfare AI this evening. I generated a checklist for myself on the Source Log, and I have progressively been going through it for the Noble Warfare development. The many different AI methods employed in games today makes me wonder a little about the relatively conjoined AI methods in the commercial AI literature. For example, Total Annihilation employs and individual combatant AI. There is a limit of 255 combatants per side from memory, but each unit type has its own AI. This must be extremely processor intensive. But it is done. In contrast, my laptop copes with about 400 combatants but this has some shared AI logic. The transition between mounted combatants and infantry is a beautiful demo. With a colourful background, screenshots would abound. But currently it is all in B&W. Other news? The Beats for Butta project appears to have ground to a halt. I haven't heard from WeFunk's Professor Groove for ten days and I left a message on Butta's answering machine to day with little luck. Having provided a vocal track in Spanish, I can't assemble the chorus from samples without a basic understanding of what the track is about. But life goes on... I need to write a mailout in the near future. There's not a lot to report but some updates none-the-less on the Noble Warfare front. Good night. Sunday, 10:14 pm, 16 May 2004 Snoozable Hype I often wonder what it is like to have a 'commercial' weblogging package. I developed my own, Logtrack, a couple of years ago. Through need mainly. I have a collection of underpowered computers that I do most of my development on, still to this day. I needed something simple that could be done offline and didn't require a detailed web interface. In fact, I was reading through Mr Frosty's site about Moveable Type and their now infamous version 3.0. It really astonishes me that something I pulled together in about half an hour over an afternoon could be worth US$70. I think people have lost track of technology. First and foremost, clearly Moveable Type have lost track of the part they play. Personally, I think the lies with regards to weblog numbers (claiming x50 to x100 of the actual number of logs), the hype and the lack of community will be the end of the commercial weblog aspirations. Eventually it will all be done by Microsoft for nothing or through AOL. I still can't find/convince any of the technologist I know about the value of online logs. I provide mine, primarily, for family and freinds. Weekend... For a number of weeks I have wanted to see Scarface. I guess I thought it would be the finalisation of my gangster movie knowledge. Fortunately it was released on DVD recently and I picked up a rental and watched it on Saturday. I must confess I was disappointed. Perhaps because I have seen the films inspired by it since. Perhaps the dialog was a little over the top or the five hip-hop samples per minute got a little too much. But I thought it was too quickly cut. Too many '3 months later', and not enough detail linking the Cuban crime wave to the actual plot. A rediscovery for me this weekend was Total Annihilation. I played the demo for the first time in years on Saturday morning. I was heavy hooked on the Mac version when I lived in the US. But I have not had the software or a machine to play it for a number of years now. Following my playing it again, I have ordered the (PC) game via a retro site off Amazon. The pace and keeping your force protected from ongoing attack - ah - the memories. Quite a bit of work on the Kant Generator. More on that in a later entry. Good night. Thursday, 11:00 pm, 13 May 2004 There is a lot of work to be done. But it is a classic Mac program. I'm looking forward to the hosting - although not much by the GPL. It is one of the few programs from the early-mid 1990s that I have missed... To: Mark Pilgrim Subject: Re: Kant Generator Carbon From: Tom Barbalet Thanks for the prompt response Mark, I've updated the Classic version to allow for Apple's new API spellings and Codewarrior's libraries. That version is ready to go. I'll put a web page together in the next couple of days and email you a preview link. The stable Carbon version is probably a week or so away. More from me soon, Tom... Quoting Mark Pilgrim: > That would be great! I haven't thought about that app for a long time. > I'd be happy for you to host it, or make a SourceForge project out of > it, or whatever. I don't have time to be involved in development, but > I'd be happy to link to your project page and give it some free exposure. > > Cheers, > -Mark > > Tom Barbalet wrote: ... > > I've been a long-time fan of your Kant Generator (the Mac Classic > > version) and I have been porting the code to Carbon ... > > I'm close to getting it stable and was wondering whether you would like > > me to pass the code back to you or if I can host it with the GPL. There > > isn't a lot of functioning Mac open source of the nature of the Kant > > Generator and it would be great to keep the application updated. Good night. 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