Centauri's Thoughts

Well, once again its time to talk about FluxWorld. Although its been a while, everything that was there before, is still in existence. Its not like it got wiped and we're starting over, its more like we're taking a breath, and pushing for phase II now. This will include things like detailing out areas that were initially created and never finished, fixing objects that needed it (like the follow code, which was a recent fix), and working on areas that were open-ended in 2009. Some of these areas were things like Outpost-1 in space, and some of the areas all over FluxWorld, (River Accessible areas). As always, these various areas are driven by popular demand.

I always had plans for areas south of the main river, including islands that can be reached via the main river, which is surprisingly easy to do in Flux, but not apparent to the players. The hooks to these varied areas were created long ago, but will only now be apparent as they get developed.

I expect that the places to visit might grow by a good 50-100% over the following months, though some of you may still never see it, I am used to that, the exploration of FluxWorld is long and adventurous, as it should be. If there is not a surprise, almost each and every day, one of us is not doing our job!

Most objects here are well developed, and even though some of them could be tweaked further, its the areas themselves, which need to be fleshed out. Those new areas could well lead to new objects, as needed, to support that new land, but its really the lands itself, which need some thought these days.

I hope to entice more of you to have a look around, and see what you can find!

This is for burroughs and others that think I am not a living being

I am, in fact, here, and a real person.

I spent another long day learning some graphics tricks for web design. The biggest lesson I learned is that graphics are really fluff, and that content matters more. Not only does content matter, but HOW it is constructed and how concise it is matters too!

I found some awesome sites today, that show examples of good design without being complicated graphically.

Its comforting to know that we have moved beyond the flash and glitz, and that the content and wording itself is what matters.

I have so many links, that it is not practical to list them ALL here, but I will list a few:

for colors

tutorials and good info

web design, CSS, graphics, tutorials

GIMP tutorials

This is a bit like the #followfriday in that these are people I follow and my reasons:

This list is the merest hint into all that are out there!

For StarTrek:
@wilw (Wil Wheaton) because he is his own geek and knows it! (too cool!)

@levarBurton – Because he has a charm all his own.

Blogging:
@lizardoid (LittleGreenFootballs blog) – I've been following Charles Johnson for years.

Funny:
@theEllenShow (Ellen DeGeneres) - She cracks me up, but she has good things to say.

@KrisColvin – a web designer with a head for biz and other aspects of life.

Humor and science:
@badastronomer (Phil Plait) - I've been reading his stuff since the FoxTV moon hoax.

uplifting:
@tonyrobbins – Great Motivational speaker I first learned of in the movie “Shallow Hal”

B2Evolution supports a Twitter update plugin via leeturner

If it ends up too spammy, I may turn it off, but I tend to tweet most blog entries as it is, so this should save some effort.

Lithium Ion batteries can be made to charge MUCH faster by changing part of the process of how they are made

A prototype battery made using the new technique could be charged in less than 20 seconds - in comparison to six minutes with an untreated sample of the material.

This is a factor of 18, so a laptop that takes 2 hours to charge now would only be 6.66 minutes. A large Lithium Ion battery (say for a hybrid or EV car) needing an 8 hours charge would be reduced to 26 minutes.

The whole article is here and another reference here.

Update: now up by factor of a 100

Now Kang and Ceder have found that coating each ball with a thin layer of lithium phosphate accelerates this process even further, perhaps because the coating is an excellent conductor of lithium ions, swiftly transporting them to and from the surface of the nanoballs.

If cellphone batteries can be made using the material, they could charge in 10 seconds flat, the researchers calculate (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature07853). Bigger batteries for plug-in hybrid electric cars could charge in just 5 minutes - compared with about 8 hours for existing batteries - though this would require a very high-powered charger.

Reference: newscientist.com

I can barely believe its been only 10 days since I create a twitter account and jumped right in! In this span of time, I have found people, conversed, learned of special web sites and analytical tools all made specifically for twitter and to track tweets.

I now see all the various uses that can be applied, and how groups of people can interact. A very interesting thing indeed.

Its everything from the most practical: family members to track a caretaker, to random thoughts, to special interest area updates, and anything else one can imagine a broadcasting platform could carry, in addition to total interactivity in that group.

There are those people out there following and being followed by nearly 40,000 people. Managing this would take (in my mind) software other than the twitter interface, which shows all people you are following is strict chronological order.

Some special tools are being developed to watch for keywords, which might be better suited than following 1,000s of people who speak specifically to things of interest to you on occasion (along with everything else). I just cant imagine reading the tweets of 20,000 – 30,000 people and getting use of that. There are tweet aggregators which can make this process easier.

That being said, twitter is still a new and interesting new social app, and as such, you just never know where the social crowd will take it.

I have seen Tag Clouds in use for about a year or two now, but I believe they have some interesting potential for a visual reference of content in many more ways than is being seen.

One recent app I saw was based on the bio's of your twitter followers: http://twitpwr.com/5vk/

So, armed with that knowledge, I made my own small app that text can be pasted into. It strips common words like a, an, of, the, by, for and so on.

Give it a try at http://www.centaurihome.net/cloud.php

Twitter, short blogging (140 characters or less), random thoughts.. hmmm.

Twitter has been around for a while now, and I hear more and more of it as of late. A few of the cases I knew of it a few years back were one of the Egyptian Blogger Alaa (AKA the Big Pharaoh) being held. Many people use it, according to what I see, some famous, some not, and some that became famous, for one reason or another, if only for a short time.

It definitely has it uses in small social circles or even for temporary groups of associated people in coordinating events.

It does take on a larger life though, it seems, in others.

I suppose following the tweets of another, purely as a social experiment, has its values. We shall see.

See all of twitter at twitter.com and see my own wandering thoughts (though not too many yet at twitter.com/Centauri7)

I have been reading Dilbert for a number of years (even have the stress ball personifications of the crew), but reading the comics, and reading the blog of Scott Adams adds a whole new dimension into the person behind the comics.

Even though I have been reading dilbert comics since the 1990s, I only discovered the blog around 2002 (more or less). He comments on all sorts of things, and his perspectives on various topics are thought provoking. Its been an interesting journey, to say the least

Since I am a programmer, I can totally relate to the cubie lifestyle, and what goes with it in corporate life. Although I dont have any co-workers exactly like Wally, Alice or the others, bits of many types of personalities are indeed captured in his characters.