everything samwyse knows

There’s a pizza place that I love in North County. I used to live near it, but once I moved to South County, it was a bit too far to drive to on a regular basis. Being an independent retailer, they buy generic to-go boxes from some supplier. The boxes bear a map of Italy (or “Historic Italia”), and I’ve often daydreamed about spending a year in Italy and visiting the 26 cities, islands and volcanoes that are listed.

This weekend, the family and I were in the neighborhood, so we stopped by to get a couple of pizzas. As I looked at the box, I remembered those daydreams, and sadly realized that I would likely never be able to live them. It’s a realization that’s been hitting me a lot lately, and let me say that it hits hard. I guess that this is what a mid-life crisis is all about. I’m almost certainly past the mid-point of my life, and there’s so much that I meant to do. Looking at the average US life expectancy for white males, I’ve only got 1,144 weekends left to me. I can expect a few more, as I’ve survived this long and am in fairly good health, but really, I’m probably past the two-thirds marks.

(In case you’re wondering, the sites in Italy are: Milan, Venice, Turin, Bologna, Genoa, San Marino, Florence, Viareggio, San Remo, Perugia, Pisa, Siena, Assisi, Rome, Cassino, Bari, Naples, Ischia, Pompeii, Capri, Stromboli, Palermo, Termini, Reggio, Mt. Etna, Calabria, Catania, and Agrigento.)

Despite a multitude of high-tech note-taking tools, the classic pen and paper still holds a special place in many a note-taker's heart. The low-tech gadgets readers prefer for pen-and-paper notes vary greatly. From classics like the Moleskine or simple notebook to the Hipster PDA or Post-It notes, the dead-tree route is still the place many prefer to take their notes. If paper is your preference, check out how to customize your notebook to take great notes.

performing a (sfc) system file checker

It is a scan that checks the core files & dlls of the (os) operating system and replaces them if they are corrupt or missing with the correct original version

start

#1 then select (run) , then press enter
a window will open
#2 type in ( cmd ) then press enter
another window will open
#3 type in ( sfc )then press enter
another window will open
#4 type in (sfc /purgecache) then enter / your pc will work like crazy / this helps in rebuiding the cache file (notice the space between (sfc & /)
#5 type in (sfc /scannow ) then press enter ( notice the space between the (sfc & / )

now a scan will start , have your (Windows XP software disk ready ) your pc may ask for this disc when it starts or during the scan( so you must sit with the pc while this scan functions ) , if it does then incert the cd into one of your cd/rom/player's , your pc will then reconnize it and continue , you will then have to minimize the splash screen for the cd to see the scan , when the scan is finished you will need to close the cd and all open windows , then remove the cd

you will then need to do a ( Disk Cleanup ) , then empty the caches & temp files thru the (Internet Options) , then do a defrag

restart your pc

then do a defrag again after the reboot

My Compaq Presario V2000 laptop didn't want to come out of hibernation today.  During normal boot, I get a BSOD with different technical information on every attempt.  Here are a few of the ones I've seen when automatic restart is disabled.

    DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
    STOP: 0x000000D1 (0xC1DD8085,0x00000002,0x00000001,0xED82B63E)
    tcpip.sys - Address ED82B63E base at ED82B000, DateStamp 485b8a36

    STOP: 0x0000007F (0x0000000D,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000)

Booting in safe mode runs through Mup.sys loading, then I get the Safe Mode screen.  Then I get this pop-up:
    savedump.exe - Entry Point Not Found
    -----
    The procedure entry point RcpAsyncInifializeHandle could not be located in the dynamic link library RPCRT4.dll.
As I click on OK, I get the same message about services.exe, lsass.exe

I am quite certain the word in the entry point name is Inifialize, not Initialize.  Also, on a previous attempt, I got a different message about an entry point containing several illegal character in GDI32.dll.

The BIOS diagnostics say that the hard drive is OK.  My next thought was to try the system file checker described below, but now I'm wondering if it may be a memory problem.

Memtest86 v1.65 (from my Ubuntu 6.06 CD-ROM) does indicate lots of memory errors.  I guess I'm running down to Best Buy tomorrow.

By Daniel Bernstein
Gamasutra
October 1997
Archive

 In Kesmai's Multiplayer Battletech, control logic determined the selection of segments within a game state and the selection of sets of segments at game state changes. Thus, the control logic was able to construct melodies and bass lines out of one to two measure segments following a musical pattern. At game state changes, a transition segment was played, and a whole different set of segments was selected. However, this transition segment was played only after the current set of segments finished playing so as not to interrupt the flow of the music. I selected game states and also tracked game state changes based on the player's relative health vs. the health of the opponent. Overall, I composed 220 one to two measure segments that could all be arranged algorithmically by the control logic. What resulted was a soundtrack that was closely coupled with the game-playing experience.

By Leonard J. Paul
[Author's Bio]
Gamasutra
May 28, 2003

 Resources

• Miller Puckette's Pure Data site: http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html
  
• Download Pure Data and many extensions: http://pure-data.sourceforge.net/download.php
  
• Installation instructions: http://www.crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/index.htm
  
• Pure Data documentation: http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/index.htm
  
• Official Pure Data website: http://pure-data.org
  
• Pure Data Newsgroup: http://www.iem.at/mailinglists/pd-list/

By Guy Whitmore Gamasutra
May 29 2003

 In this article, I'm going to explain ways that game designers can work more closely with composers to achieve a more integrated soundtrack for games. The following sections will show you, the game designer, how to incorporate music into your game design from the onset of a project, and how to follow through from initial concept to final implementation, leading to a highly immersive game score.

By Andrew Clark
[Author's Bio]
Gamasutra
April 17, 2007

 

• adaptive music incorporates a system for generating significantly different performance versions of the piece

• the generation system is driven by pre-specified input parameters

• the actual performance-specific events are expected to have a significant degree of indeterminacy

• traditional musical coherency and organization is a priority

By Kurt Akeley and Andrew Clark Gamasutra
May 15 2001

 This article explores adaptive art in the context of language. This is because language is much easier to demonstrate and discuss in the written medium than music is! So, despite the title "Adaptive Music," this article doesn't talk about music at all - except by analogy.

In a constantly changing society, new technologies exist today that haven't existed yesterday. Blogger Wendy Piersall says that the best way to move forward and prepare our children is to educate them to innovate, think for themselves, and give them the skills necessary to make a living in the future.

NSDL is the Nation's online library for education and research in
Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics.

This series of tutorial lessons is designed to teach aspiring programmers who have no programming experience how to program using the Alice programming environment.