Over Thanksgiving 2010, we went to Kansas to visit my family. While there, we went to an auction for an estate. I think it was my grandmother's cousin. There were several boxes of books, and we bought one. They were old novels, in hardback library editions. Swiss Family Robinson was in there, plus a couple of Horatio Alger books, and other, lesser-known things. One was a sort of memoir of childhood in Maine, A Great Year of Our Lives At The Old Squire's Farm, by C. A Stephens. Searching online, we found that most of the books were available from Project Gutenberg, but this particular one was not. Even a couple of other titles in his "Old Squire" series were available, but not this one.
We decided it would be nice if it were available, so I have been taking pictures of the pages, OCR'ing them, and then editing them into shape. I have finished 12 out of the 27 chapters so far. Assuming I get it done this year, I will dub it the "Centennial Edition", since the original publication date was 1912.
Since we have a Kindle, I will be publishing it in Kindle form on Amazon. Almost surely it will be free for a few weeks, to get some people to download it and write reviews that might make someone want to pay 99 cents for it, although I'm not sure I'll change it from free.
I'm not doing it for money; having people pay would just make me feel like there was some value in what I'd done. My primary interest is in being a little part of the vast community of people preserving these old works and making them available to new readers.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Killing Zombies
I like the games at Toge Productions, possibly partly because they've got a lot of zombies. In some, you create zombies; in others, you kill them. They made two games called "Days 2 Die", which are nice for being able to play a few minutes at a time. Take a break from whatever, and kill some zombies for a while.
The second of the "Days 2 Die" has a story mode that makes for a good game. It also has a "survival" mode that's more like the first game. I have used walkthroughs for other games, but I haven't seen a walkthrough for survival mode Days 2 Die: The Other Side, so I'm writing one.
I'm not a very good gamer, so if I can do this, pretty much anybody can.
The second of the "Days 2 Die" has a story mode that makes for a good game. It also has a "survival" mode that's more like the first game. I have used walkthroughs for other games, but I haven't seen a walkthrough for survival mode Days 2 Die: The Other Side, so I'm writing one.
I'm not a very good gamer, so if I can do this, pretty much anybody can.
Streets
Day 1
Buy: absolutely nothing in the shop. You have plenty of ammo, and your pea-shooter will do for now.
Barricades: set up two tables, horizontally end-to-end. You're going to stand on top of them, in the middle: move out to the side of one table, press "Start", and jump up on the table top and start shooting, before you even see zombies. Hold down the "E" key the whole time, which will repair your tables as you go. Your objective is to keep the zombies from destroying your tables as long as you can. Shooting them in the head kills them faster.
If they take them out, try to jump over zombies as they approach and keep away from them. Dodging zombies is not what you want to be doing, but you can do some of it in the first few days. After that, they'll kill you more or less instantly. Holding down the "E" key while on top of both tables, and shooting pretty well should leave your tables intact.
Day 2 + 3
Buy: nothing in the shop. If your tables are damaged, you can click the bulldozer in the barricates section and click the tables to trade them in, then buy new ones. But they should be ok.
Exactly like Day 1, but it will be tougher. You might lose your tables and have to dodge. Good luck. Remember to hold the "E" key.
Day 4
Buy: the Desert Eagle .357 magnum. It's a much better gun. A single head shot is usually enough to kill a zombie. Remember to buy ammo! Get 200 or more rounds for it.
Barricades: Trade in your damaged table(s) and get two fresh ones.
Empty Building
Day 1
Buy: more .357 ammo. You want to have at least 200 rounds.
Barricades: None! There is a trick on this level. At setup time, go all the way to the left, where there is a pile of rubble. Jump onto the pile of rubble. The zombies cannot hit you here. Just make sure you're as far left as you can go, behind the sawhorse.
Stand there and shoot all the zombies. Goodies will pile up amusingly in front of you. It there's a lull in the zombies and you feel lucky, you can jump down to grab them, and jump back up.
Day 2
Just like Day 1, but you probably won't have a lull in the zombies. Save your money so you can buy a nice gun.
Day 3
Buy: the G36C machine gun, and 500 rounds of 5.56 ammo. Fun time! Be sure to equip it as your primary gun, and the .357 as your secondary.
Day 4
Buy: ammo so you have 500 rounds of 5.56. Fire away.
You will now be cleared to advance to the Back Alley, but you don't have to go there yet. You can choose the Empty Building again, and build up your savings. Or you can try going on.
Back Alley
Day 1
Buy: ammo, of course. Also, 3 grenades. Remember to equip the grenades as your Explosive weapon.
Barricades: Buy a stone wall, and place it horizontal, to your left. You're going to be near the extreme right of the play area. The door there does not spawn zombies.
Be sure to stand right up against the wall and keep holding the "E" key down while you shoot. If things get hairy, press "4" to choose your grenade and click to throw it, then choose "1" to go back to your gun. Sometimes grenades can blast zombies up onto your barricade. That's not good! So avoid using them if you can.
Day 2
Buy: restock your ammo and grenades.
Barricades: Two stone walls, horizontal, just like the coffee tables from the Streets. The zombies will get through one, but the second should hold out pretty well. You may find yourself having to dodge near the end.
Day 3
Buy: restock your ammo and grenades, then hire Louis the Merc.
Barricades: Two stone walls, horizontal as before, but leave a space between them where you can stand, but not big enough for Louis to follow.
Position yourself to the right of the barricades. Press Start, then jump onto the right barricade and walk to your space between them. Hold the "E" key down to make your barricade last as long as possible. When the zombies breach it, you'll hop over the second barricade and try to defend it. With Louis helping, you may find that the barricades are a lot easier to defend.
Day 4
Just like Day 3.
If you want to get high scores, at this point, you will re-play Empty Building and/or Back Alley. I don't have any strategies for getting past Burning Building.
While you're accumulating cash, you can buy some neat stuff. I really like the GLM32 High Explosive gun, which is 15000. If there's a horde mobbing your wall, you can clear them out with a couple rounds from this. And the Barret M82 sniper rifle is cool, because it shoots through zombies. You can shoot several at once, which is pretty handy when those axe-throwing zombies appear.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Trayvon Martin Story
There are a limited number of story formulas for movie plots. We need a hero. We need a villain. We need plot twists. If we don't have all that, we're likely to find the movie unsatisfying. Maybe that's why so many people thought a rewrite was in order after the first draft of the Martin-Zimmerman story was submitted.
George Zimmerman's story was that he had been attacked and beaten by someone he was watching as a suspicious character, and that he had shot his attacker in self-defense. Too straightforward. And the villain is a kid. That's not very satisfying. There's got to be a hidden after-school-special to be teased out here.
How about this? "White racist predator hunts and kills black teen. Police assist in cover-up."
Oh, I can smell ratings, baby! That's a narrative that will get an emotional response. Let's run with it. Get some photos of Martin as a smiling little boy, and Zimmerman as a hulking inmate. Push the idea that Zimmerman outweighed Martin by 100 pounds. Mention "Skittles" a lot.
President Obama weighed in, suggesting that what Trayvon looked like is relevant to his status as victim. Good, good.
The storyline hit a small hitch when it turned out Zimmerman wasn't white. No problem, we'll call him a "white Hispanic" and roll with it. The media were on board. They have space to fill and a need to attract attention from the public to get money from advertisers. ABC pushed the notion that George Zimmerman "seemed" uninjured in the police station video. To help that along, they obscured the portion of the video where his head was most clearly visible.
Emotions got ginned up. People got beat up in Trayvon's name. An unrelated Zimmerman family got harrassed thanks to Spike Lee's tweet of their address. The New Black Panther Party called for a race war. And all the people who were wringing their hands over the potential violence of the Tea Party were completely silent.
To help things along further, MSNBC edited both the 911 audio and the associated transcript to make it appear that Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin. Actually, that was so easily exposed, their motivation may have been simply to become more like Fox News rather than to actually push the narrative. Nevertheless, it does suggest what narrative they favored. Those who criticize Fox News for such shenanigans were silent.
The New Black Panther Party helpfully put up "Dead or Alive" bounty posters offering $10,000 for the capture (or, it seems, killing) of a man who hasn't been charged with anything. The Tea Party phobics (including the Department of Justice) found this not at all disturbing.
While public pressure mounted for the Florida special prosecutor to charge Zimmerman, the Martin family's attorney (why do they have an attorney?) expressed their fear of his being a flight risk and asked for increased bail. He was in hiding, after all. It turns out there was no need: the prosecutor quickly came back with a murder 2 charge, and Zimmerman immediately turned himself in. At the press conference, the prosecutor promised that new information would be released about the case, but nothing new seems to have come from there.
More recently, new information did come out. It wasn't particularly helpful to the narrative. On the same day the the coroner announced that the only injuries to Martin were the gunshot wound and lacerations to his knuckles, Gawker asserted that Martin "was chased, beaten and shot by a self-appointed neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman," in what was apparently the least successful beating ever. The speculation that Zimmerman initiated contact with Martin is continually asserted as fact despite there being zero evidence of it. Alan Dershowitz says the case has no merit and "The prosecution has already admitted that it has no evidence that Zimmerman started the actual fight."
Meanwhile, Mansfield Frazier wrote in the Daily Beast in favor of appeasing those who threaten violent responses.
Thomas Sowell notes that we're not even reporting on race war activities as they happen. It appears the terrorists really have won, but they aren't the ones we were fighting.
Every bit of evidence says that the police handled this case fine initially. It is possible that some heretofore unknown facts will surface, justifying a murder two conviction, but it sure doesn't look likely. What looks likely to me is an acquittal, followed by violence. And far too many people see the former as the more problematic of the two. That is certainly the position of our Justice Department. Plot twist indeed.
George Zimmerman's story was that he had been attacked and beaten by someone he was watching as a suspicious character, and that he had shot his attacker in self-defense. Too straightforward. And the villain is a kid. That's not very satisfying. There's got to be a hidden after-school-special to be teased out here.
How about this? "White racist predator hunts and kills black teen. Police assist in cover-up."
Oh, I can smell ratings, baby! That's a narrative that will get an emotional response. Let's run with it. Get some photos of Martin as a smiling little boy, and Zimmerman as a hulking inmate. Push the idea that Zimmerman outweighed Martin by 100 pounds. Mention "Skittles" a lot.
President Obama weighed in, suggesting that what Trayvon looked like is relevant to his status as victim. Good, good.
The storyline hit a small hitch when it turned out Zimmerman wasn't white. No problem, we'll call him a "white Hispanic" and roll with it. The media were on board. They have space to fill and a need to attract attention from the public to get money from advertisers. ABC pushed the notion that George Zimmerman "seemed" uninjured in the police station video. To help that along, they obscured the portion of the video where his head was most clearly visible.
Emotions got ginned up. People got beat up in Trayvon's name. An unrelated Zimmerman family got harrassed thanks to Spike Lee's tweet of their address. The New Black Panther Party called for a race war. And all the people who were wringing their hands over the potential violence of the Tea Party were completely silent.
To help things along further, MSNBC edited both the 911 audio and the associated transcript to make it appear that Zimmerman was racially profiling Martin. Actually, that was so easily exposed, their motivation may have been simply to become more like Fox News rather than to actually push the narrative. Nevertheless, it does suggest what narrative they favored. Those who criticize Fox News for such shenanigans were silent.
The New Black Panther Party helpfully put up "Dead or Alive" bounty posters offering $10,000 for the capture (or, it seems, killing) of a man who hasn't been charged with anything. The Tea Party phobics (including the Department of Justice) found this not at all disturbing.
While public pressure mounted for the Florida special prosecutor to charge Zimmerman, the Martin family's attorney (why do they have an attorney?) expressed their fear of his being a flight risk and asked for increased bail. He was in hiding, after all. It turns out there was no need: the prosecutor quickly came back with a murder 2 charge, and Zimmerman immediately turned himself in. At the press conference, the prosecutor promised that new information would be released about the case, but nothing new seems to have come from there.
More recently, new information did come out. It wasn't particularly helpful to the narrative. On the same day the the coroner announced that the only injuries to Martin were the gunshot wound and lacerations to his knuckles, Gawker asserted that Martin "was chased, beaten and shot by a self-appointed neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman," in what was apparently the least successful beating ever. The speculation that Zimmerman initiated contact with Martin is continually asserted as fact despite there being zero evidence of it. Alan Dershowitz says the case has no merit and "The prosecution has already admitted that it has no evidence that Zimmerman started the actual fight."
Meanwhile, Mansfield Frazier wrote in the Daily Beast in favor of appeasing those who threaten violent responses.
"America can only dodge so many racial bullets, and a not-guilty verdict in this case could very easily turn the racial cold war into a very hot one."
He then goes on to argue for Zimmerman's lawyers to go for a plea deal, purely to prevent a violent response. Brilliant! "Justice" by expedience! Don't arrest the people promising violence, just give them what they want. They're not a problem, they're entertaining! Frazier dubs them "The Three Stooges." You don't arrest the Three Stooges! (Note: Ironically, a month later, he argues that the case must go to trial. He takes the opportunity to assert that Zimmerman initiated contact, but "Even if Zimmerman is found not guilty, if those dangerous laws are changed, society will have won a victory." I guess he evolved.)
Thomas Sowell notes that we're not even reporting on race war activities as they happen. It appears the terrorists really have won, but they aren't the ones we were fighting.
Every bit of evidence says that the police handled this case fine initially. It is possible that some heretofore unknown facts will surface, justifying a murder two conviction, but it sure doesn't look likely. What looks likely to me is an acquittal, followed by violence. And far too many people see the former as the more problematic of the two. That is certainly the position of our Justice Department. Plot twist indeed.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Hypothesis: Red hair is a Neanderthal trait
They've constructed a Neanderthal model based on DNA. One finding: red hair.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1058538/Meet-Wilma-The-face-Neanderthal-woman-revealed-time.html
They have found that modern humans share 1 to 4% of their DNA with Neanderthals. Present-day Africans do not have Neanderthal DNA. This suggests to me that breeding with Neanderthals is responsible for a fair amount of the diversity of human morphology, including red hair and fair skin.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1987568,00.html
Another recent discovery : redheads have different pain pathways. They are less sensitive to pain, and less susceptible to pain blockers. There's something genetic there, and my hypothesis is that it's in those Neanderthal-introduced genes.
http://gizmodo.com/5890532/redheads-feel-pain-differently-to-the-rest-of-us
Also, the redhead at the top of the Gizmodo article bears a passing resemblance to Wilma, the Neanderthal model.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
They have found that modern humans share 1 to 4% of their DNA with Neanderthals. Present-day Africans do not have Neanderthal DNA. This suggests to me that breeding with Neanderthals is responsible for a fair amount of the diversity of human morphology, including red hair and fair skin.
http://www.time.com/time/
Another recent discovery : redheads have different pain pathways. They are less sensitive to pain, and less susceptible to pain blockers. There's something genetic there, and my hypothesis is that it's in those Neanderthal-introduced genes.
http://gizmodo.com/5890532/
Also, the redhead at the top of the Gizmodo article bears a passing resemblance to Wilma, the Neanderthal model.
Monday, March 5, 2012
You can read this in milliseconds
This is the second article I've seen lately that talks about how quickly something happens, and specifying the time in milliseconds. Yes, a millisecond is a short time. 400 milliseconds, though, is more appropriately referred to as four tenths of a second. 250 milliseconds is a quarter second.
Is it a matter of precision? I doubt it. I don't think that 400 milliseconds is exactly the amount of time that caused people to get exasperated with a page load. 390 was ok, but 400 wasn't? Not buying it.
Is it a matter of precision? I doubt it. I don't think that 400 milliseconds is exactly the amount of time that caused people to get exasperated with a page load. 390 was ok, but 400 wasn't? Not buying it.
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