every end is a beginning, except one...
( the step into eternity is forever, and has no beginning or ending )

"grendels mysterium" is departing its web-host of the last 15 years for shores unknown.
in the process, i have decided to leave behind nucleus-cms and the sql database.

mostly to facilitate the process of local viewing and dev work

I wont say that it will not return in the nucleus skin form.
once i get around to setting up and apache server for a test, it might be easy to reload the database from the backup.

everything is prepped for the transition to local storage and continued dev.

the domain name is locked in for over a year, but i dont yet know where to point it.

too-de-l00

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this is my special boi 'Knight Kat'
(yes, that is his name, both words together...)



click for more ultimate kitty contender pics

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detail: an html/ javascript engine version with some updates and new features

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Kai-Ten in flight

AKA:
Boyber
Boi Boi Kat - BBK
Meow meow boy - MMB
Little munch munch

Pooky
Pook pook
Pookinator
Pookmandu
one Pook nation

TT
Tooky
Took
Tookinatrix

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minecraft style!

SI6IL



From one of the prolific level designers of our game age - John Romero

just started playing, what I see looks kick ass

One of my own designs
This is a revision of the orignal quake 1 map

I might post the design doc and an image of the original design

Download: Ariochs Castle

Darkplaces / Maphack engine will run this best - some effects / graphics may not display with other engines

For maximum effect -
Archon 1.2 beta : Chaos Mod: the Archons 1.2 beta
Painkeep 3.0 : PainKeep 3.0 rc1

Maphack engine in this: Quake Hack with Maphack engine

Unzip any or all of those with the castle in a Quake (one) directory, follow launch instructions in the txt files

Reminds me of Indiana Jones, the first scene in Raiders.

I'm running all kinds of mods on here. I believe the resource pack is ornate in this screen.
This map has been run on at least 6 or more versions of minecraft.

On top of that, it has had at least 3 different seeds due to copying between world saves in beta 1.2.02.
So it has weirdness that I make an effort to continue. Recurrent complex is prob. my best mod for that.

Click for Zoom -->

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My thought is they meant color games on reasonably priced and relative "ease of use" home systems.

There are plenty of examples of B&W and text games. Some on mainframe and some on kit hardware.
They left out every pong system. The Magnavox odyssey as well.

My P/S went wonky somehow.
And the old card, a 770, didnt want to work with the new P/S.

So I got this MSI gaming card.
Was the best deal for the power and output config.

Should this kind of irony even be allowed?

And more importantly - how do you scale this?!

Winter hiking usually occurs on those overcast, drizzle laden days
that happen to get near 50° F.

Having a snowy hike with a comfort level allowing decent
enjoyment of the scenery is more challenging.

I was fortunate to have a sunny day at 27° F that felt
warm enough while the sun was bright.

Trails are easy to see covered with snow.

Fear not - I have it hidden where Lumbergh wont find it.

I've been crafting maps for some time.

Though I'm only just now coming into my first major work:

Presenting mapping hack technology: Maphack

What is it?

A 3D engine that can build maps like nethack or rogue!

Here is an unrelated image from when I had some texturing issue:
(I just think it looks really cool and I may use the effect in the new tech)

Presenting a new background left slide.

Some other minor improvements.

Next will be a new title banner and new cat, posted by and comment buttons.

Lets talk about crates...



I first took notice in doom. I'm thinking they've been in video
games since the 80's. I'll leave it to you to go find proof.

Hell, in doom there is an entire warehouse full of them.
Nothing says military operation or scientific outpost like a crate.

Humans it seems have never learned to travel light. And where we go
we take our stuff. Lots of stuff.

In games, they first time I saw one you could open was half-life 2.
I loved it. Finally you could get at the contents of those suckers.

So, I made my own:

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There are people all over the world who would give a ton to be a US citizen.

If you were born here I say this: Wake UP - be an AMERICAN!
Be the American our fore-fathers created the US for.

One of my mapping challenges is terrain.

Making terrain look good in an oldschool editor like Radiant takes either
a lot of hard work, or a program like a terrain generator.

I have come up with another method:



When arranged randomly together, these forms make convincing terrain.
You could put them together in an editor with cut and paste work.

I take things a step further - I created a map engine to do all the work.

This will be showcased in two of my main projects: Quake-Hack and Anode X

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A nice patch of raspberries nearby. Love me some berries.

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This is my first X-Arcade mod.



That big red dial on the right is a usb spinner.
This is a high quality item with an anodized aluminum finish and
a heavy duty flyweight.

More images and info after the jump.

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So, I hear there is this new TV show.

I only have one note...

This:



is MACGYVER!

There is NO other.

None.

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Solidifying specs for a new game.
This is a very basic map concept.

I think it has a lot of potential.
This can be expanded in the Z dimension.
Also other poly shapes could be added for variety.



Sign up to Six gaming and get notifications on my progress

We all have our favorite things.
For some its sports. Others sci-fi. Some reading and some games.

Whatever it is, one of the highest accolades is the tribute.



The version on the bottom is in a v1 painkeep map.
I made the top version as a tribute to both stargate and painkeep!

My gate can be found here behind a hidden shootable door: Visage map

What is your favorite tribute?



Support free code by Six gaming on Patreon

Welcome to "Weapon System 6"

This is a quake initiative to add a lot more weapon options to single player
and deathmatch. With a new quake-c base nearing completion
weapon system 6 is almost ready. Gear up marine!


Support free code by Six gaming on Patreon

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KT approves of all black computer peripherals.
(even if its branded by ms...why?! why couldnt this keyboard be from atari?

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Select screen available for: Jakks Atari Classics 10 In 1

This is a pretty decent selection of atari 2600 games if you ignore
the indignation of the 2 paddle games: pong and breakout.
(In the words of AVGN: "what were they thinking?!")

I have this, the jakks activision stick, and the namco one.

A really cool piece of hardware, that if you took back in time
about 35 years would really blow someones mind.



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A game so awesome it needs its own themesong...

The X-Arcade Tank stick was made for this game.
Though it still needs a fire button on one of the sticks.

They have a built in trackball now. When I got mine there wasnt.
Still, I'm making my own with an atari missile command trackball.
And that thing is the size of a cannonball!

"Read more" for more views.



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We are looking at Trelanes very broken power focus mirror - from "Squire of Gothos"
We know Trelane to be a being of extraordinary power, if but a youth of his kind.
Thus he needed some kind of tech to enhance his nascent powers to play with his toys...

This prop was created in the 60s as a vision of future tech.

So, here is the important question:

Is this a vision of the 60s concept of future tech, or is it Trelanes concept of what he thinks
the crew would think is future tech?
(Because Trelane thought earth was around the 14th century.)

Because to me it looks like a bunch of 60s electronics and appliances threw up in a box.
And someone wisely hid that shit behind a mirror.

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Sadly, this is the exact state of my CDTV.

That guru number has something to do with video problems iirc.



Support free code and get credit!

My high score set circa 87 - 92.

Garrison was a very decent gauntlet clone on the Amiga computer / game platform.

More images after the "read" jump.




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If you watch certain next gen. episodes there are references
to improvements made by Scotty and other TOS characters.

And this is one of them! Yes..
Under a section titled:
"The engine room is important - do your part to make it look important."

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My meager collection of vintage micros on this custom shelf unit.
I built the shelves for multiple uses, but it turned out perfect for storing
the micro systems.

The 2nd and 3rd shelves (up from bottom) slide out as seen with the 2nd.
This accomodates keyboards and other system components.



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You know: Jack

What can be said about Jacks unending struggle with the Shapeshifting master of darkness...
Epic things are - Epic.

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A Sharkroom cloud.
What could ever be more awesome.
This literally beats every single sharknado film hands freaking down.



Support free code and get credit!

Lord of the Rings movies: platinum extended addition
There is quite a bit of added footage. Without credits, it runs 11 hours.

My favorite thing in all that:

You will recognize this from Bladerunner



The 80's gave us some awesome sci-fi movies. Good Starwars sequels.
Time bandits. Trek movies. Tron. Indiana Jones. Highlander.
It is a good list. Among the sci-fi there are more than a few tech predictions.
From martian and moon colonies to all manner of gadgets.

Recently "Back to the Future" has been hogging the limelight.
Flying car conversions, hoverboards, self lacing shoes, etc.
I just watched Runaway (84) and they had a floating camera you could go and
buy anywhere they sell drones!

The nexus series of androids can be added to the 80s vision of the future
that are yet to be seen.

From: wiki, reference: Brood V
"densities in some locales reaching 1.5 million per acre, trillions of individuals are expected to emerge"

They did, and how.

From appx may 21st to june 29th the little hordlings filled the trees, skys, fields and woods.

I only saw dead ones on my hike today.
I feel sad.

Click for extra pix:

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Porter is no longer here.
13 years is a long time for a cat to spend with a human.

He started out as an unwanted cat needing a home and
ended up being very special.

I dont think I'll get very many more cats.
It is too painfull when they die.

C64-c - the upgrade.

This unit has a more amiga 500 appearance, and the keyboard types nicer than the original brown box.
Commodores last bit of marketing wizardry for the aging C64.

Another upgrade - the 1571 floppy unit. It fixed many 1541 problems and has a slight speed increase.
The wise will note it still had a bug or two.

38911 bytes free never looked so good as on this 38" monitor!

The c64 version - running on a c128, just for kicks.

Temple of Apshai is an old school micro rpg that ran on 8 bit machines.
These were graphic enhanced adventures with rpg elements.
You move your avatar on screen through a dungeon and look for monsters to fight and treasure to collect.

The trilogy is a followup that combines 3 different adventures.
You create a limited character, select basic equipment and head straight into the dungeon.
In this case a temple dedicated to the Egyptian insect god - Apshai.

I spent many an hour exploring the dungeons and even created a strategy guide with maps and treasure lists.

Porter has made one last trip to PA.
The happiest I've seen him in a decade.

Not mine.

Yep, feeling a bit of the Orange about it too.

The one and only. My favorite.

More GL goodness to follow.

This



is a cicada.

Next summer is the +special+ 17 year cycle.
There will be thousands of them everywhere!
Hope you arent afraid of bugs...

Vanguard



The venerable and much loved Atari VCS - codenamed 2600.
It has many arcade ports, some which leave much to be desired.

This is Vanguard - a classic for which the 2600 does justice.
Not an exact copy, but very good for a 2600 rendition.

Special - "frying" the game produced a version wherein you got 6 lives!
And perhaps some interesting and perhaps impossible play.

"questions are a burden...and answers are a prison for oneself"

For a long while I've wanted my own gauntlet machine.
Since I first played it in 1986 most likely.

First to just be able to play it again.
But lately as part of a mame / arcade cabinet system so I could play many games in a more authentic idiom.

I've missed a couple chances to get one and now they seem to be getting rare.
Despite a crash in the arcade sales / rental market, prices on specific machines seem to be headed upwards.
Which makes zero sense.

So, I am considering building a cabinet and tricking it out for mame.
I like design number 4.

From lieutenant commander to commodore. Heck of a promotion.



And a great way to avoid redshirt fatality.

Some may have noticed the site changes. After years of static existance
the site is being spiffed up. Its a new era so to speak.

That includes the title change. (Though some mozilla browsers may not see
the full title :-( no idea why either...)

You also need a wide window (1600 px minimum) to see Eppy and the new title.
I'm learning some new tricks!

The grimoire has given way to the Mysterium. Still with the power of Grendel of course.

More redesign may sally forth.

Some new recruits for the old school rpg.
These are peridot gamescience precision and they are hard to find now.
I seem to be missing a d6.

No idea who made this - credit to anonymous then.

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Glowing review - a UV light test for my glow dice.

Kitty: * looks pleased *

Last upgrade I went to the nixeus 27".

One soyo 24" died - they no longer make them.
And 24" offerings were just lame.

Only choice - bigger monitors.
Had to get a heavy bracket to hold them.

With a wee little 19" on the side for vars things.

I am most pleased with these monitors.

Latest build:

AMD 6000+ dual core
Geforce 560ti "Hawk"
4G Mem
2Tb HD
Strike 7 keyboard
RAT 9 mouse
Razer Nostromo Gamepad
38" Westinghouse LED widescreen
Labtec 2.1 speakers
Logitech trackball
2 stick X-arcade

Some things are just plain awesome.
Like gauntlet on this 38" monitor.



Help fund my code - get credit and goodies!

Pretty Kitty...

3D vision of the 8 ray star of Chaos

In a way its like the two trees of Valinor.

Read more for full size.

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More back in the day...

Just some cool game covers I had from back in the day.

V was an icon of his time. Standing up for what was right and seeking justice for the common person. Where is our V?

Greetings programs;

Haven't done much with conquest lately.
This is some graphics I did as a doomsday machine replacement - the giant space amoeba.
It has a dark area around it that masks out planets and background as well.



Read more for more views.

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Humans have a high level of self importance. After all they communicate in complex languages, have invented incredibly complex tools and ponder the deepest of philosophical questions (that of the true nature of self and being...)

But what do they really know?

How about what these two have to communicate about?



(click for full size image)

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been taking care of lizzy for a week now. she's pretty cool.

The cats name is...Daniel. He'll be back in season 7 though...LOL
(The black cat is Jonas.)

it has. time to give this site a few minutes.

going to up the old chaos site here somewhere for archive...not that it has much.

maybe post a few things. some more art, etc.

found a few summers ago at a park near here...



You have got to wonder (after something killed the tree)
what brilliant mind decided to put a cone there.

The initial 3D 8 ray star concept

With lots of hot peppers!




(Click below for large image)

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This may very well be the first minecraft lava pool I discovered.

My personal fascination with Green Lantern began in the early 70's (silver age now...) with some issue prior to 100. Not from the very beginning, but pretty early on. Until recently that staid collection was stored nearby in a box. Since discovering the ability to make a "backup" of that treasure, I decided to give it to someone else to enjoy, in order to save space.

One thing I was always disappointed with was that with an entire sector of space to deal with and explore, Hal Jordan was so wrapped up in his earthly identity and life. I'm sure his creator(s) did that so other readers could easily relate to him. If it twas me, I would not worry about a secret identity...I wouldn't even have lived on earth, just set up some monitoring systems and been off in space (and probably time as well...)



Since the end of the silver age and the advent of Kyle Rayner as GL, I lost interest in the series. However, I came across the blackest night saga (quite by random chance - I know, it doesn't exist) and find myself intrigued. Some die hard fans seem disappointed, but from a long time sci-fi and fantasy reader, its a good solid story line. The only thing I'd quibble is some of the retcon they use. But thats me.

Green Lantern has always been my favorite comic from the gold ages Alan Scott on up. Not a great fan of the latest lantern - Hal will always be my fave. Sinestros corps wars is very cool tho, and the chromatic lanterns are cool.

Decided to play around with skins and add a skin for this site. Previous to this I had a blog on rothrin.net called Mystic Lantern.
It got lost in the chaos of server changes. Going to see if I can resurrect the css though.

Haven't posted much quake stuff - moddb account pretty much covers it.

Here's a good one tho - when you go hunting beasties like these, this is the gun you want.



Click read more for full view.

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Changes in life have recently led to moving my office setup around. This includes moving the main computing center, always a big operation. It amazes me how many more connections there are with every upgrade and doo-dad addition. USB hasn't helped - the standard is responsible for upwards of 4 devices that are not a mouse.



Going dual 24" widescreen monitors really necessitated the need for some kind of mounting system. The steel frame shown came from a show - "Imaginary Invalid". Some monitor mounts on clearance at office max secured the dual 24". That left my previous dual 19" off the desk edge, so I custom built some arms for them. Needless to say the arms need re-engineered, but thats one of my specialties so its ok.

The mounting frame has solved all kind of issues from the old desktop from speaker mounts to the keyboard light.

The desk is so clutter free now (compared to this) I keep knocking over drinks!

As you can see in the full view after the link, I judiciously left some expansion room for either a) more smaller monitors or b) a big widescreen. I'm thinking big widescreen myself.

Click for more detailed pics

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Early concept of the first eruptible quake volcano

At last...an exposition on the ubiquitous exploding barrel. They have been in many fps games since doom.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many barrels of explosive sludge just laying around military installations and alien locations in the doom realm? The very first doom map, hanger has a few...then later a map called "barrels".

Think about this - in the real world stuff like that is usually heavily regulated and stored under very secure conditions for the most part. No one has ever really tried to explain this until the concerned comic - Concerned #21. Hey, it makes sense.

Quake cut back on the barrel, which was good as they took on the form of exploding boxes. Not quite as aesthetic. Quake 2 has some...Quake 3, sadly they got left out. They do return in Doom 3. Half Life is so so, but as shown in Concerned, Half Life 2 seems to have fallen in love with the exploding barrel again. They are all over the place.

What does the exploding barrel represent? Think about what happens - you shoot one (or even throw them in hl2) and boom! - a bit nasty. A container for something nasty that disappears in a flash. Sort of like our consumerism based capitalist society.

Everything (almost) these days comes in nasty little plastic containers. Once the item is used or consumed the nasty little container is gone. In a flash as it were. Does anyone even consider all the fossil fuel byproduct used to make all that plastic? Just like the exploding barrel that damages your health in the blast radius, those plastic bits of temporary container stick around to have an effect. Non bio-degradable for the most part they are put somewhere and damage our world.

The Egyptians left the mysterious pyramids as a testament to their civilization. We are going to leave mountains of trash forever molding away for future archaeologists to ponder over.

Perhaps, we - humanity, are the exploding barrel...a temporary container for something nasty that is gone in a flash...



Click this for full size image

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A mom kitty has been hanging out the last few months...we knew she was a mom in march when she came to visit and was much smaller.
A few weeks ago she brought her kittens to us. We think she was living behind an empty house and someone just acquired it.
Feels like a great honor that a semi-feral cat trusts us with her kittens. They are living in our back yard right now and seem very happy and healthy.

Click for larger image



---

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So I got some kind of earth explorer proggy. Looks like a game for a seven year old, but I couldnt resist the "Volcano simulator" it promised. That and it was less than 2 dollars. (Anyone remember the paper boy from "Better off dead"?)
Got a thing for volcanos. Couldnt get it to run under xp yet...stupid thing has to install quicktime - even I dont think the simulator needs it. Dont expect much from the simulator - might have to design my own...perhaps with the hl2 engine.

Been concentrating on public release of some quake maps I've had sitting around awhile.
Find this and my other releases on www.moddb.com.



Click for details on the quake one (darkplaces) remix of doom e1m1 - hangar.

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What is teh Catrix?
Its all around you. You see it when you go outside. Its there when you pay your taxes or take out your garbage. Unfortunately no one can be told what teh Catrix is...they have to be shown.



Dream Catcher (alias Peeper) killed this sponge pack for months. Somehow it kept respawning.

I have made an intense and deep study of cats, being one of the more intelligent of our species. Cats are extremely intelligent with massive attention spans. A large attention span is necessary to manipulate extra dimensional properties. Except for a few rare cases they are all very bright and hide amongst us and run teh Catrix. How many times have you seen a Cat just staring at empty space - guess again, that is teh Catrix in action.

I can tell you that we are not the masters. We went about things all wrong. A few simple questions easily sort this out.

Q: What is a human? - A: A primate
Q: Are primates predators or prey to Cats? - A: Prey
Q: Does the Cat do any work? - A: A Cat only does what it chooses to do
Q: Do Cats perform tricks at human whim? - A: No
Q: Do Cats come when you call? - A: No, they wait till they are ready to check on their human(s)
Q: Who does all the work? - A: Humans
Q: Who sees to all the Cats needs? - A: Humans
Q: Who scoops the litter box? - A: Humans
Q: Who opens the door at the Cats whim? - A: Humans
Q: Who pays outrageous vet bills? - A: Humans

Does this sound like the activities of being(s) in charge? Sounds more like a servant to me...
A lot of what you know and believe are lies. Things like "God made man in his image." Human politics? All a cover up to hide the real machinations behind teh Catrix. Quantum physics, hah - why do you think Schrodinger chose a Cat to be in the box...Cats are most like quantum particles and _may_ actually be quantum beings! How many times have you _almost_ seen one in two places at once. The Matrix gives it away too - a story about our reality being a sham...the black Cat (deja vu my posterior) presages much chaos and change in the film...at the end that same black Cat is walking around like it owns the place.

The Egyptians once worshiped Cats as Gods. Does anyone really believe the Cats would just give all that up. And the large Cats - they are part of it too. Zoos and circuses are just a trick to lull us into a false sense of security. You meet a big Cat in the wild - you _are_ food! No ifs, ands, or buts...except maybe yours.

Oh noes - tehy are watching, I must go now.

A few months ago late one night, the old Cat was sitting around spawning some code and heard a sound in the room.

Nothing presented itself for visual inspection, so we took a look about - and found nothing.
The noise was like a plastic ruler being slammed on a desk hard.

It happened again last night, and when we observed the system the main video display, a geforce 8800gt, was filled with artifacts. 3 electrolyte capacitors had blown...not leaked, blown!

Word to the wise: if you are ever computing late at night and hear a snap like a good cap gun - check your caps!

No humor section, so this will have to go under chaos.
Look here: "PETA's Inconsistent Policies - Animal Rights Group Kills More Than They Save!"
Comment on top - click here for text.

» Read More

The gripe writer strikes again.
Look here: "The Unethical Treatment of the Working Class."
Last time I looked my comment was on top.
Click here for the text.

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The LHC will be online in a few days - End of "Reality".

One of the first experiments is to recreate conditions existing during / after the big bang. There is a very small (but non zero) chance things could go terribly wrong.

I thought I would just have a possible last post here and say...

"So long and thanks for all the fish..."

Now I have a shirt for those kinds of days when it seems like I have a pile of odd bits in front of me and I have to solve the worlds problems (or when I really do have a pile of bits and actually do have to solve the girl's problems...)

The Gripe Writer flies again...

Got this in the mail recently. Its a marketing shill. nothing more.



Click to be enlightened...

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law of code #4:

"thou shall not reveal code to the un-initiated"

More for your benefit than any need to keep code secret - they wouldn't understand it anyway...
The corollary is that you shall guide those seeking higher levels of understanding. The greatest service
to your fellow coder is leading them to better understanding of the arcane.

"None are so easy to deceive as those who don't wish to know (face) the truth..."

law of code #3:

"Any sufficiently advanced code is indistinguishable from arcane magic."

Many people understand the basic concept of a computer these days.
The function of code is still magic to them, and programmers are seen as wizards.

"...You're a wizard Harry..."

law of code #2:

"code is free"

God is a programmer - tis He who wrote our DNA code.
Code has been given unto us as a blessing to improve the lives of all living things.

Thus code is free to go wither it will serving its arcane purpose...

The dual ideas of proprietary software and software patents have been espoused by
small minded men out of fear. These humans know the code is free and they cant
control it - heck most of the ones responsible for trying to constrain code probably
don't even understand it. They are afraid if they can't hold it over others, keep it secret,
that it might be used against them. What foolish petty human desires such people have.

We think God must be laughing about this kind of thing.

Code is freedom.

law of code #1:

"if you are a coder, you will write code..."

quite insignificant are these refrains:

whether you do it for for free or for money...
whether you release free software or are locked in a proprietary prison...
whether you are a professional, amateur, weekend HTML junkie, or hobbiest...
whether you code hardcore assembler, high level compiled, scripts or sql...

if you are a programmer, you will write code.

If you look here you will find a top 5 list of video game music some industry drone plumbed together for a hack article...

Are we all back now? Good. Didnt stay on that site did you?...better not have.

Anywho, I tried the "Tell us: What are your Top 5 most memorable video game songs?" link and the piece of shite wants to install a new web browser version. I have to point out its really freaking annoying to have to re-install software to do basic stuff like this. Probably have a rant on this in the near future - look for it under gripe writer.

So here is my top 6 "stuck in your head" list:

1. Crossfire (Commodore 64) - SID tunes have a special spot for me and this is the top one
2. Temple of Apshai trilogy (C64) - another great foot tappin' SID tune
3. Pinbot theme - music from my favorite pinball game ever
4. Reactor (arcade) - this techno hit came out in '82 for an odd concept game
5. Doom E1M1 - another thumping beat from '92 this time
6. Vanguard Energy theme - great music piece from the father of all scrolling shooters

So, the latest linux implementation project is a bootable usb drive to improve my media machine running geexbox.

I found a 1G flash drive on sale for $10. This is perfect as I can install geexbox, a mini linux, and theoretically still have room for a movie or a couple of tv series episodes.

Great idea...I just discovered the media machine (a dual celery 500 from 99) doesnt allow usb boot.

Doh.

MIR - mail in rebate...

How many people out there hate these as much as we do?

How many times have you sent one off - never to hear back?

How many times has one gotten rejected?

Really - why the hell isnt this stuff electronic by now? The bank transaction is electronic - and instantaneous. The bank reduces your available cash as soon as the card swipe is approved.

Why cant these dumb shits automate rebates. I have seen more instant rebates these days, but thats not enough - they should ALL be instant! (Especially on a freaking internet purchase...)

Sheesh

So, we have been planning an upgrade for some time for the watching of video in widescreen. I like a number of widescreen TV, but the main issue is space (well ok, the darn things are pretty expensive...)

A few months back I started thinking of a widescreen to replace one of my 19" flat panels (been running dual view since I had 17" crts on a geforce 2.) The problem here was matching the vertical height, as I run a large extended desktop. For a total swap out this was a requirement. Office max has had some decent sales, but they always lack the 22" samsung (my 19"s are samsung syncmaster 930b) I want to measure for fit. I figured the swapped 19" for my second best game box till I could build the gauntlet / xmame project.

Only thing was I couldn't quite connect to the 22" wide flat panel deal I wanted. Tiger direct had one for 179.00, the ideal price...till I tried to buy it. Then the price was 199.00 - after a stupid mail in rebate. Really, why isnt that crap automated electronically by now? This needs to be a separate rant under "gripe writer" :-)

I trolled ebay, pricewatch, google, amazon and tiger till I found the best deal - a 24" wide panel for well less than 400.00! Woo hoo.

Now, do I remove a 19" and continue the dual view on my geforce 8600GT? Heck no! I found amidst my massive stack of hardware, buried in a hidden corner, an STB MVP pro. This thing is cool - it has an octopus cable that can drive 4 monitors ;-) The downside are the dual Riva 128's powering 4 monitors...but they can still do 1280x1024 at 15 bit color. And going from 2560x1024 desk top to 1280x1024 + 3200x1200 is just freaking killer.

But I got no desk (real wood antique type) space for this massive thing. The answer is simple - new desk. Office max had a deal there too - L desk with hutch & file for 199.00. It was bogus tho - the deal was only on the L desk, damn false advertising in their periodical ad. So I built an extension out of cabinet grade plywood. Great stuff, wish I had discovered it when I built my library 7 years ago. Somehow managed to grab the wrong can of stain on the way to paint - it was supposed to be red mahogany, a much darker color. Oh well, the 24" flat panel more than makes up for that.



Read more to see the big pic.

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Catalina stayed with us for a short while (too short) while she recovered from some disease or other.
She came from a litter of stray cats living in the country and she was really sweet. One of the best cats I ever saved. Too bad someone gave her away while she was at the vet!



Click for a bigger pic.

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Some wasps working on their home.



Some people I know kill wasps. I let 'em live. You have to respect a species of creature, some of which can carry 10 times their own weight, and many with built in defenses. Imagine being able to carry 2000 lbs and being able to defend yourself against a creature a 100 x your size!

Look at the one upper right - see the odd cap color on top of its head? I think that might be the queen.

A black snake I found slithering in my yard - this guy was about 3ft. long.



This is an amazing pic because this snake was on the move.
I don't understand why people are afraid of snakes. Every time I see one they are running away - but then I am of Irish descent.

Greetings Programs.

I have been an advocate for using Linux for many years now. I abandoned win 9x (98) sometime in 98 for the relatively more stable programming environment under win NT4. At least crashing code didnt take down the whole box. In 99 I used NT and Mandrake 8.0 in a dual boot config. The year prior I experimented with Slackware 5.x, Red Hat 7.x, Mandrake 8.0 and some other small Linuxes. Mandrake was the most impressive at the time but always disappointing because I couldnt get quake 1 & 2 to run.

In 2000 I left windows behind completely, electing to install a new machine I was building with only my latest discovery - Morphix (www.morphix.org) - a great os - it installed in less than 300Mb, didnt come with a ton of duplicate and or useless apps, and had an alternate to KDE and Gnome: xfce4.

Its always disappointing to discover a new piece of hardware or new game will _only_ run under windows. Thus my irritation upon getting a DVDr dual layer burner and spending months trying to get dvdrecord to record a 7.4G disk!

Read more on this problem and its solution...

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Greetings Programs.

This is the *** Conquest *** strategy guide v1.4
The guide has game information and a basic strategy lesson for neophyte players.



Read more for full details...

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Say you need to relate Trek, a VAX mainframe, and one of the earliest networked multiplayer games ever...

The VAX/VMS is an interesting and special piece of hardware. Relevant to our topic, it had shared memory segments. This one feature made unique multiplayer games possible.

Conquest is the fusion of Trek lore, VAX hardware and a realtime network multiplayer game. Read the full article for details and screenshots.

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For those of you dreading the promised (threatened?) original series prequel film
there may be hope...

check out these:
Star Trek: The New Voyages - http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/800/home.php
Starship Exeter - http://www.starshipexeter.com/

We have seen 2 eps of New Voyages ("come what may" and "in harms way") and can attest to the high production values especially for fan art.

For anyone looking for a live CD (bootable) movie player system, we recommend:

Geexbox

The cd image is 7Mb (!), boots _fast_ and plays everything we threw at it so far.
The one issue we have is a problem with audio clipping on old mpg music viddys.

Arrr matey - looking for treasure?
Try one of these map sites:

http://www.helmink.com/
http://evo.bio.psu.edu/caribmap/cayman/index.htm
http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/colamer.html
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/JefferysAtlas/Jefferys_TOC.html
http://www.davidrumsey.com/
http://www.maphistory.info/imageworld.html#atlas
http://www.maproom.org/

all kinds of antique charts and maps to be found.

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New life abounds in the park this year.


click read more for full size

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The grimoire is nearing 1st version completion.
several backgrounds are available now.
just need some method of random selection.
probably change a few icons, got couple more neato gfx.
and a site icon for browser nav bars...yeah.

the other 3 sig files that now exist:

This will stand as the stable set for version 1.x of this clog
(chaos log eh.)

The next changes will likely be a reformat of the item area here.
And perhaps some font manipulation.
Plus a bucket...any maybe a cleaning woman. I heard
Mr. Creosote might stop by.

Just a test of overall appearance, this is what version 1.1 will look like. (v1.0 being the boring old default sceme.)

Welcome to Grendels Grimoire.
Yeah it looks boring right now.
I have probably forgot more than most ppl ever knew about css since I had the last weblog, the Mystic Lantern.

An entry or two and I should have this site spiffed up.
Besides I needed a break from the Quake 1 Tenebrae engine source.

Its my intent that this blog (or should I say clog?) will be a step above the daily drivel you find on most blogs, but dont get your hopes up.

_-=* [ Cataboligne ]

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spent 4th of july at the beach.
someone set off some small fireworks.


see more for full size

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The dynamo is the latest in energy weapons. A three phase disaster maker that ends ordinary fire fights quicker than they start.

The essence of the dynamo is a motor generator. Cell energy is transformed from dc current to 3 phase power in the coils of the spinning armature. Fig. 1 to the right is an editor view of the map model in .mdl format. (Click for full size image)









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Yes...the Chaos Mod.....itself.

The chaos mod was originally conceived to add enviromental features, and elements of Archon to a loosely class based mod.

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Game: Gauntlet (1985)

A very odd level that I have stored in a repeatable save state.

How did this happen?

I was doing a deep run through a lot of levels and using save states to document it.
Doing some high score research.

One level I did a save, exited and something strange happened. The game might have crashed and rebooted.

When I loaded the save state and hit the exit I ended up on the level you see.

This is similar to a gauntlet map, however, I have no idea how the corruption occured.
The maps are stored in rom. Though this is running on the mame32 emulator.

I preserved this save state and it runs the same way every time.

I've explored this level - it is very odd indeed. There are open places
you cannot walk. And some screen edges you can go beyond.

And yes, my highest score is slightly above the 8 million shown here.
I have yet to return to the project.

Yes, CHAOS tea. How many of you remember this divine substance. What I always wanted to know was what kind of chaos did they use and how did they get it to stay in there?

My ACSL trophy from the bygone days of 1984. What is ACSL you ask? American Computer Science League. Yep yep. High school students from all over the good 'ol USA compete every spring for trophies just like this one. And what a background - a VAX11 assembler book. Hrm, did I do that on purpose?