:: Randomized Wisdom
  
Bigger Words
extant -

Still in existence; not destroyed, lost, or extinct. Standing out; projecting.

Quoted
"If it's stupid and it works, then it's not stupid."
~ Stephen Girolami, 1999


:: Status
View History  |  Playlist  |  Follow on Twitter  |  St.Ego's Austin
St.Ego is peanut-butter cookie time! peanut-butter cookie time! (1 hour ago)
While In a high mood
St.Ego is running out of grapes is certainly one way to make yourself stop eating them... (1 hour ago)
While In a disappointed mood
St.Ego is about to wear this sack of grapes like a feed bag so I can crack out on them even harder... (1 hour ago)
While In a hungry mood
St.Ego is just realizing that the hot sensation in my mouth comes from the bag of chips I just polished off unconsciously... (3 hours ago)
While In a absent-minded mood
St.Ego is getting warm enough outside to think about turning the A/C on... (4 hours ago)
While In a anxious mood
St.Ego is finally vented enough water (onto the floor, no less, thanks to a strategically placed lid in the drain, to try drinking some of it... (4 hours ago)
While In a frustrated mood
St.Ego is not in a hurry to pay the water bill after weeks of interrupted service and having to run the line to clear it of sediment... (5 hours ago)
While In a annoyed mood
St.Ego is fixing the dyslexification of a new domain name that is stuck as the primary account... (6 hours ago)
While In a embarrassed mood
St.Ego is getting my application for a PayPal virtual terminal approved... (9 hours ago)
While In a fidgety mood
St.Ego is preparing to deal with the Internet Explorer box model bug... (10 hours ago)
While In a irritated mood
:: What's Hot
What's In: Half-n-Half - What's Out: Soy Milk

I finally discovered the difference between a really good cup of coffee from a French press and a really mediocre cup of coffee from a French press...

:: Media Review
  • Atlantica MMO

    This game came out of nowhere and took the MMO community by storm. It is currently rocking the top of the charts over at MMORPG.com. I downloaded it in-between client checks, since it was free, initially based on the glowing reviews it was being given over on Ten Ton Hammer. I was not disappointed.

    Atlantica takes traditional MMO play-style and turns combat upside down by going back to a turn-based system. At the same time, they also provide the player mandate to populate an entire party of custom selected mercenaries of various abilities that function like additional characters with full enventory and equipment sets. Combining the re-simplification with the excessive complexity results in some strategic gameplay that is reminescent of Final Fantasy.

    If you played the Final Fantasy MMO and found it to be a boring grind, Atlantica's inclusion of up to eight mercenaries will very likely provide what you felt was missing.

  • The Love Guru

    Mike Myers outdoes himself in yet another brilliant satire. I started the film with modest expectations, but finished it in stitches. The movie is still pretty damned funny the second and third times through, so rewatchability looks good too.

    Get your own!

:: Another Good Read...
  • Boneshaker

    This was reviewed as being quite the steampunk novel, which is something that I've had a growing hunger for lately. As with so many cases, the published reviews of the book exhibit a lack of knowledge regarding the genre (or, at least, a lack of ability to write IN the genre, as opposed to the author himself). So, I've put off picking it up for some time now.

    However, I found myself in a local bookstore (in an attempt to escape construction noise at the home) and was browsing through my "save-for-later" list on Amazon (ie: everything that WAS in my "Cart" but then got removed when I trimmed down the order prior to completion) via my Droid phone (gadget-of-the-year, IMHO). Unable to find a dozen other books on my list (what is it with the selection at bookstores, anyway? am I just that eclectic?) I finally stumbled upon Boneshaker sitting on the shelf, and snatched it up.

    I don't know how many of you have had the chance to read a good "steampunk" novel before, but there are a few out there which I believe are quite good. Here's hoping this is one of them, eh?

    I'll update and re-post this entry after I've finished reading it and let you know whether it's worth the effort...

    Cherie Priest

    Get your own!
: : Latest Blog News

Evony Online's Glass Ceiling
Sep 04, 2009

By now, everyone is, of course, quite sick of seeing the buxom ads deployed to entice new players for Evony. Being rather burnt out on everything else available on the market, I've been giving it a try. No, there isn't any comely wench in-game, of any sort, that I've found. But, it is free, after all, right..? Right?

Except they nerfed medals...

You can play for free until you get out of newbie-mode by trying to advance beyond Knight, which requires these medals, see?

Getting at Mailman with PHP and Xaraya
Jun 24, 2009

For some time now, I have been picking away at the idea of connecting the Mailman mailing list server to Xaraya. If I could get Xaraya to read Mailman data, including the list of members and the archive of posts, I could provide a powerful (and free) listserv to Xaraya members by automatically adding them to a mailing list in Mailman that is associated with membership in a specific group in Xaraya (ostensibly the default Users group, but any group could ostensibly be used for various purposes). Furthermore, I could automatically establish user accounts in Xaraya for all listserv members in Mailman, run via CRON to keep a Xaraya group and a Mailman list in sync together.

However, it's been an uphill battle getting at Mailman from anything but the command line... until now!

Slashdot Slashdots the Internet, Featuring Your Site!
Jun 14, 2009

What happens when the inbred nature of the internet gets into bed with new and media? They feed on each other. Right now you can see it happening as Slashdot virtually erupts a stream of meta-data traffic over an article about sniffering browser history without javascript, and references to the NINE YEAR OLD bug that continues to remain exploitable, as obvious references in the comments will tell you, quite hillariously:

When the internet gets slashdotted...

What is the sound of a billion souls crying out in the dark "how did I get here?"

Up-Coming Sci-Fi MMO's To Watch For
Mar 03, 2009

Since the market has become virtually flooded with fantasy MMO's, the focus of the gaming community is beginning to move towards the sci-fi end of the spectrum. For years, EVE Online has dominated the sci-fi MMO market, remaining viable for years with a growing loyal fan-base while other aspiring sci-fi MMO's flared briefly before fading away.

However, EVE Online is not a game for everyone, heavily featuring PvP action. I've personally tried playing twice only to have the experience ruined by bored griefers with too much virtual artillery. As a result, I have been on the watch for something new to play, specifically in this genre.

Reviewing the unreleased games that are anticipated, I have selected three that appear to be worth investing some time in, once they are available.

After the jump, I will cover the primary features of interest for each game, detailing exactly why it is worth looking into. In expected order of release, they are Jumpgate Evolution, Earthrise and Infinity.

St.Ego in xarPolitics: Xaraya Project Management Committee Elected
Feb 22, 2009

Over the years, various people have scoffed at my aspirations of political involvement. Astrologically, I am a Leo, and I fulfill that stereotype quite well, if I do say so. Leo's are typically attributed with leadership skills and a strong inclination to use them. I am no exception. I was a supervisor almost as soon as I was hired on in many of the jobs that I have held over the years. Let's say that I just... have a tendency to take over.

As of this month, I am now officially a member of the Xaraya PMC (Project Management Committee), the body responsible for maintaining and supporting the Xaraya platform and it's developer communitee. Together with Marty Vance and Chris Powis, we will be responsible for ensuring that Xaraya continues to be the most viable web platform available.

Xaraya is free and Open Source software (FOSS) licensed under the GPL. 

Stay tuned for details about the Xaraya PMC and what it will be doing to start building the community. Not all of the developers have to work on the code; some of them have to work on the bigger picture.

It is my privilege and pleasure to serve alongside my fellow committee members. I look forward to posting here about my many successes with inspiring other leadership within the Xaraya community. This incredible tool is available to give web developers what they will find missing in any other FOSS platform on the market today. Welcome home and thank you for voting!

Bootstrap Podcasting
Feb 05, 2009

After listening to some of the other podcasts that are out there, I decided that the time has come for me to give it a try.

I recently downloaded Audacity, which offers voice-activated recording features and accepts the line-in that is currently carrying the mic from an old over-the-ear gaming headset I had sitting around. I have to increase the Gain quite a bit to hear myself after recording through such a low-end mic, but it gets the job done.

In order to run a podcast, however, you need more than just a few mp3's.

In about two hours, I worked out a way to run podcasts from Xaraya using only Xarpages, a new articles pubtype and a couple of templates. Continue reading to see the actual templates and get started setting up your own podcast using Xaraya!

More News
Do you want something posted at the top of the tower, contact me. Every post helps build the tower...