This is proof that JF Scene 1, Page 6 will be done in the next few days. Pages 7 and 8 will be done by next Monday. I've gotten the first three boxes of nine for page 6, so it's looking good. I'm only stopping now for sleep. Today's lesson will be short and sweet. The lesson is simply that work done well will build a platform for work in the future. For example, a good program will allow people to build off it, customize it, and make it better. Whether that entails open source, shared libraries, or an SDK is up to the creator. People who are interested, usually yourself, will be able to use any of those to create something better. For example, there is this certain hack* tool (cURL) that was meant for just simple shell-based web downloading (as opposed to browsing where you can actually click links, it just downloaded the file you requested). But it added a few bonuses like being able to control the cookie jar, including editing of cookies, spoofing, and all kinds of tasty treats for hackers. It is often important to do these things because much of the web is quirky. But this certain hack tool was doubly smart in that they opened their source code and they made a static library. This allows hackers to use the source to achieve wonderfully good things. One good thing I thought of was to build a smart web crawler that crawls certain sites for critical sensitive material and grabs it for safe keeping. For example, DrudgeReport.com has a lot of news. It's hard to keep track since it changes so quickly. So a smart crawler could benignly grab each story as Drudge finds it. It would keep the info for another crawler that searches for matches. For example, if one story quotes George W. Bush saying that Iraq is seeking nukes and then another story the next day gives proof that Iraq is not seeking nukes, it would match those and send it to the user or send it to another crawler for further analysis. It would be helpful for anarchists like me. Since these types of things are common (proof nearly always contradicts any politician, especially those with power), it is left up to the anarchist to find useful ones. This is an important part of being an anarchist: educating people about the truth and the contradictions presented by government helps my case greatly. When I can say, "George Bush Sr. supplied Saddam Huessein with the weapons that he used on the Kurds in 1989," then I have shot down a major common defense of an unjust war.
I've been neglecting JF for a long time. That's about to stop. Or maybe it won't. Today in church*, I had a random thought about the importance of Scene 7. You'll see why I had the vision in church when you see Scene 7. It's only a few months of dev away; if I just start dev now, I'll finish it in a few months, right? It makes sense. I can finish Scene 1 in a week. Then I start moving into Scene 6. I can work really hard on models and such and give _you_ a beautiful Scene 6 John Woo-esque as if Scene 5 wasn't Hong Kong enough for you. Scene 6 will feature an SUV, a mountain bike, and amazing firepower. Beyond that, I can't tell you. But Scene 7 will be very emotional rather than action-packed. Err, actually I just looked at the script... After page 4 or so maybe, it'll tone down.
Oh my goodness, I just found Kate. It has everything that EditPlus does and it runs under Linux. Kate isn't a person,
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Hi there. This is one of my infrequent Making Of JF pages. I'm not making JF per se, but really anything I do can be classified as Making JF. I mean, here is EG1 in Linux. That's Making JF, isn't it? Well, you want me to make Page 6 of Scene 1, don't you? I'll probably do a bit of that this week. Why? Because AS3D version 4 is going well enough so that I'm getting to the hard parts. Let me clue you in on the process of any AltSci project. This will be the lesson for tonight. The first part of any AltSci project is the "flash in the pan" stage. I think of something that has absolutely no practical value. I then give it some very important status in my mind which makes everything else go down the drain. I draw some curves on a sheet of yellow paper and call it a design spec. Then I write a bunch of buzz-words in the margins (CLOD, MMORPG, Linux, alternative). I call that the technology specs. Then I write down the specs of a terrible computer that can't run Windows 98 reliably and call that the system requirements. I then write the specs of my monster computer and call that the recommended system. I write down newton's laws and call it technical specs. I then write a glorified hello world program from other people's source code and take 50 screenshots of it. I say that the final project will be 100x better than this and ask for input and help (I need art, AI, engine programmers, writers, testers, and investors; e-mail me if you are any of these). Then I look at the buggy source code and decide that without professional help, I can't do anything. So I scrap it because I have already found the next new project. At that point, the process repeats. Repeat 600 times and you have an accurate autobiography of me from age 13-21 (no, really!). The funny part is that it is about 70% true. JF is the longest that I've worked on any project, hobby or what have you. Humanoid robotics was about seven months. The Completely Mental Misadventures of Joel R. Voss was about four months. Robat was about four months of my life. Alternative Scientific took about three months. JF has lasted two years only because JF has encapsulated Javantea's Fate Book, Half-Life, Milkshape3D, AS3D v1 DX8 VB, v2 DX8 CPP, v3 DX8 CPP, and v4 OpenGL CPP Linux. Never underestimate reinventing the wheel. If someone made the wheel proprietary, limited in functionality, and expensive, you would reinvent it, too. But anyway, all of these experiences have increased my love with computers and my knowledge in programming. AS3D v1 made two wonderful final projects for Physics 207: Physics of Music and Humanities 200: In Vivo. You can see the actual use of it on those pages, so check it out. And JF is actually coming together. It may take a few years, but it will happen.
