Ramblings of a harmless madman

That spot where everything is 99.995% what it needs to be, and that extra 0.005% has such a high cost you can't justify it, but it still really bugs you.

I need (and have) dual displays that work fine for everything EXCEPT they aren't IPS so the colors are a little off when I do photo editing.

Now, I'm not a pro, I don't edit photos that often, and what I have now is completely useable... But it is still enough to annoy me. I can't spend ~$250 for two new IPS monitors that I will need for perhaps 20 minuets a year. And even if I do upgrade the difference for those 20 minuets is negligible. But it still bothers me.

Why does brain worry about such stoopid things? And then, of coarse(sp) I come up with solutions that would make it closer to reasonable, (through still a ways away) and that just encourages my brain to devote more resources to thinking about it.

And all this just leads to thinking about what is really wanted/needed and what one is trying to achieve and so on and so forth, and that really life isn't that bad, but what is the end goal? I don't see how the realization that increased material possessions won't give one happiness leads to enlightenment. It just means it is harder to get excited over stupid trivial stuff like a GPU that goes twice as fast but offers no actual improvement over the gaming experience.

Meh... I should go back to reading my MSE book. It is fun and interesting, but what is the point? Why bother to try to achieve money and power when you know it will just bring more disappointment and responsibility? Maybe I could change the world, but what gives me any more right to change it than anyone else? Would such an imbalance, even with the best intentions, not be oppression? And of all the fools, thinking that they knew better for their fellow man then their fellow man knew for themselves, have any not wrought grater disruption with their meddling than apathy ever could? Ah, but to live as a fool, ignorant of what destruction his creation might bring, and with too little power to ever harm another, that would be bliss. Yet still, I pity such a fool, for despite all the weakness that my strength brings, it is an important part of who I am that I would never surrender.

Well, about time for me to pull my head out of my ass. See you next time in:

Ramblings of a harmless madman!!!!!

Crypto pt 4: Where are all my DOGEs?

Well, I've lost interest in explaining things now.

It has to do with stuff... and probability, and other stuff... yea

Crypto pt 3: I lied, but then I lied about the lie, so I actually told the truth

Remember how I said it takes a group of people to open the box? That was a lie. (Actually it was true, but you should treat it as a lie right now)

*Note that I may have misunderstood some stuff, so default to someone who knows more than me if they tell you this is wrong.

Anyone can open the box, and in fact only one person can open the box. So who gets to open the box? Well, the probability of being able to open the box is based on how much computing power you have. The box, hereafter referred to as the block, is designed to make it work this way. Why doesn't the person who has the most computing power solve the block first? A: Magic B: Lies. Well, B is sort of redundant given A.

So, if only one person solves the block, why don't they just make it so that they get all the monies?
The answer is that the blocks form a chain, and if the next block solved doesn't match up with the previous block then the code goes WTF, and throws the old block away like an unwanted child. (Mehh.. close enough)

Depending on the coin, there may be a number of confirms needed before the block is considered canon, (I believe 15 confirms means that 15 blocks have to be solved after that block.)

You can generally assume that after just a few confirms (or even no confirms) the transaction was legitimate, but if you were transferring large sums of money you might want to wait a bit. Confirms are more important to the miners because they don't get their coins if the block turns out to be bad, as opposed to the average consumer who will still get their money when a good block reads the transaction, as long as the transaction was good.

So, in order to steal money you would either have to:
A: String along a bunch of concurrent blocks (which would be improbable unless you have a lot of the processing power)
B: Solve a phony block at the same time your transaction is processed and leave with your loot before the next block is solved. (Also really hard, and if you are moving large sums the other party is going to wait for a few confirms anyways)
C: Do something else (This one is most likely, but is also very hard. I don't list it because I don't understand it yet.)
E: Find a flaw no one has thought of and exploit it (May not exist)

Now remember how I said that you had to work as a group to open a box? Well, it ends up being true. While probability factors into opening the box, it is based on processing power. The computing power of any one person is so small that they have to work in teams to have enough power to get a probability greater than zero. Again, we are treating this as magic for the sake of understanding the basics. If it makes you feel any better think of the block solving probability (as a function of computing power) as having a non-linear component.

Crypto pt 2 The basic idea

Ok, so now you have you GPU humming away and you want to know what the frack it is doing.

My assumption is that I will have no idea how this is working in anything more than the broadest terms, so that is what I have focused on learning. This is a bit vague, but it should convey the basic idea.

Basically think of it like this:
There is a big box full of money.
Whoever opens the box gets to say who the money belongs to.
When the box is closed, none of the money can be reassigned.

Now, obviously there is a problem, to transfer money you have to open the box, but if the box is open the monies can be stolen.

Solution: Make it so that the box has to be opened by a bunch of people working together.

Why don't all the people just steal the money? Well, if they aren't all trying to open for the same result, they can't combine their power. Turns out it is hard to get thieves to share the pot. Plus, there is a good chance someone would notice that all their coins are gone, and then a lack of confidence in the coins would make them worthless. (In this case fiat works to the coins advantage)

Now, over time, people get better at opening the boxes. (GPUs get more powerful, dedicated FPGAs get produced, etc) As a result the box makes itself get harder to open, so that no one person can open it. Keep in mind that it is important that the box isn't too hard to open, or no one will be able to get their money out.

Of course, there has to be a reason for people to open the box other than stealing the money inside, and that is where the reward comes in. Upon opening the box, whoever opened it gets a reward that is composed of transaction fees and (in some cases) newly generated coins.

Note that I said whoever (singular) opens the box gets the reward. For now you should just assume that it is split up amongst the group of people who worked to get the box open. What I said about it being a group, actually ends up basically being true, even though it is sort of a lie.

Crypto for dummies

I decided to mess around with cryptocurrency mining for fun. I don't expect to make any money, and you shouldn't either, but if you want to know more about it mining is a good way to go. I hit a few snags along the way though, and this might help you get past them a bit faster.

Note: I have a 5850, and I get around 250 Kh/s. If you have a similar card you should expect to spend about a day mining at one location before you can withdraw coins. (I suggest DOGE if you are just playing around, as the coins have a lower value than LTC, which means you get a bigger number of coins which is more emotionally fulfilling.)

This information assumes that you have an ATI/AMD card and are running windows, and mining DOGE,  LTC, or some other scrypt coin.

If you have downloaded cgiminer and nothing happens after you open RUN.CMD please make sure that cgiminer is in the folder you are running RUN.CMD from.

Your antivirus may have quarantined cgminer because it thinks it is a virus. It may be a virus, I have no idea where you got your file from, but it may not be. An explanation is available here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51916.0

You can either compile the windows binary from the official 3.7.2 to be safe, ignore the antivirus warning, or download something that doesn't give you a warning.

https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer-binaries/blob/master/3.6.6/cgminer-3.6.6-windows.7z

Didn't trip my antivirus, but that doesn't guarantee it is safe.

So, now you have cgminer running (hopefully) and you are wondering what all these numbers mean.

In cyan, going from right to left, you have:

Your Kh/s, or your hash rate. If this number is less than 100Kh/s you might want to just give up.

If this number is in Mh/s, chances are you are not scrypt mining (This is what LTC uses) and you should use google to find your answer.

A: This is your accepted shares times the minimum difficulty of the share. For example, a share of 2500 with a minimum diff of 32 will increase your A by 32.

This is not the same as the shares you see on your mining pool's website. The shares on the website are the summation of the diff of every share you submitted divided by the value for that pool's share diff.

Lets say the site counts each share as a diff of 1024, the above submission would get you 2500/1024, or 2, shares from the pool's standpoint.

R: Rejected shares. Same as above, only you don't get anything from these.

HW: Hardware faults. This number should be zero, otherwise use google to find out what you did wrong.

In Purple: current diff required for cgminer to submit the share.

Red: best share: this is the diff value of our best share. Some places require you submit a share of at least some difficulty before you can get any shares. Big is good.

Yellow: This is how aggressive cgminer is being. Higher numbers mean more h/s but you are more likely to have HW faults and bad shares and stuff. This is set in the RUN.CMD file.

Movie Monday: Death becomes her

Today's review is

Death becomes her

Watch online | Wikipedia | ANN | Rotten Tomatoes | metacritic

Status: watched.

Quick tip: It may have won the academy award for visual effects in 1992, but in 2013 it seems to have aged a bit less gracefully than Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. Slight Inebriation is recommended.

This movie throws me a bit off, mainly because Bruce Willis looks so damn old, (the early 90's getup could be the culprit) more so than in more recent movies (esp his surrogate in Surrogates) and I am never quite to sure if Meryl and Goldie are supposed to look young or old in each scene. I tend to like my dark humor a bit darker, but it got a few laughs out of me. I'm not sure why the reviews are so harsh, there is certainly nothing bad about it. There was one review about how amoral the movie was, but the moral of the story is that you shouldn't care so much about aging and you should just live a good life, so... Anyways it is a quick laugh, nothing to amazing but who cares?

Rating:  3/5 stars.
It is on netflicks,so why not watch it? (Grab some wine)

Written 2013-11-04

Stupid S*** Saturday: HULK SMASH!

Slide rule museum
2110 Profs
Group projects
Eating food
People
3D printers
People who think 3D printers are the second ejaculation of Jesus

TV Thursday: Gingitsune

Today's review is

Gingitsune: Messenger Fox of the Gods

Watch online | Wikipedia | ANN | Rotten Tomatoes | metacritic

Status: Ep 5 - still watching?

Quick tip: I have to pee. Also I just peed about 280 seconds ago...

It is rare for an anime character to have any living parents, but Makoto (the shrine priestess) actually has a living father! She live there and talks to the herald Gingitsune (silverfox) who only she (and other shrine priests/priestesses) can see, and helps people with their problems. It is a bit slow, and I am not sure how long I am going be watching. It is cute, but it isn't particularly compelling and I feel that there are enough similar anime out there that do as good a job or better. I'm also a bit annoyed by the new character, a boy whose ant and uncle don't want him so he left to join the priestess girls shrine. Perhaps I am just sick of that troupe after Natsume's book of friends kind of rode the unwanted family member thing into the ground. (A wonderful anime, even if the last season felt a bit stagnant) Bringing a comparison with one of my favorite shows probably doesn't help this one too much either.

Rating:  2.75/5 stars
Watch the first episode and decide if you want to continue.

Written on 2013-11-03 (Damn you DST)

Webcomic Wendsday: Dumbing of Age

Today's review is

Dumbing of Age and others

Read online | Wikipedia | ANN | Rotten Tomatoes | metacritic

Status: Read daily

Quick tip: Comics by Dave Willis contain the same characters but are sometimes in different universes. This is a general review of comics in the "Willis multiverse" if you will.

The best way to read all the comics would be to start with Roomies! but the art is a little rough, so I would generally say go with Dumbing of Age then go back to Roomies!. The "Walkyverse" [Roomies!, It's Walky, Joyce and Walky, and to a lesser extent Shortpacked.] is sci-fi/comedy/drama/action while Dumbing of Age is slice-of life.

The comic often has "drama" and the unwanted actions that our favorite characters often take has coined the term "DAMN YOU WILLIS!" That being said, we care about the characters because they are well written. Like all webcomic artists Willis is a little odd, and occasionally a little over-emotional, but seems to be a nice guy. He also releases supplemental material on his tumbler etc that can be quite amusing.

Rating:  4.5/5 stars.
Read online, or buy a book.

Written 2013-10-31

TV Tuesday: Continuum

Today's review is

Continuum

Watch online | Wikipedia | ANN | Rotten Tomatoes | metacritic

Status: Season 2 finished

Quick tip: Don't try to classify the factions as "good" or "bad," but the main characters are likeable and you are rooting for them. Don't expect the well constructed plot to hold up in later seasons though.

The main lady [I don't remember her name] is basically a policeperson from the future sent back to present day along with some terrorists who want to end the corporate run government. She is supported by a (non retarded/ somewhat believable) nerd and her (sexy) police partner. (The main lady is sexy too, but when is a female lead not?)
Fairly original as far as these things go, and it tends to make sense. The concatenation of present an future works well, and is done in a way that doesn't confuse the viewer. It is also nice to see a computer nerd portrayed in a [relativity] believable manner. You don't see him pecking away at the keyboard trying to hack the NSA [Hello PRISIM!] or have stupid long winded technobabble that is such complete bullshit that you want to punch someone. Take note future script writers, no one wants some bullshit nonsense as to how things work, just a quick and vague one sentence description to set the parameters, and then back to the story.

The end of season 2 didn't make much sense, and makes me think that the series wasn't preplanned. If this is the case, there is really no recovery and it will go downhill until it gets LOST, but the first season is quite good, and I will watch season 3 in hopes of continued goodness.

Rating:  4/5 stars.
Watch it on netflix.

Written 2013-10-31

Movie Monday: Gravity

Today's review is

Gravity

Watch online | Wikipedia | ANN | Rotten Tomatoes | metacritic

Status: Watched

Quick tip: Don't bring your calculator, but do bring your glasses. Some may need their xanax as well. Oh, and if you don't like Sandra Bullock, you should probably sit this one out.

No space aliens here, or grandiose save the world tale, just a really intense survival movie. Most of it is done exceptionally well, and the suspense is carried up to the very end. In one scene you see a little bit of [--] in the background sort of in the corner, and then you see more, and it gets closer and it ramps up quite well.

There are a few issues though, with the fire extinguisher scene really being the worst, where the suspension of disbelief is really tested, but it is manageable.  

Rating:  3.5/5 stars for personal preference 4.5/5 for general ratings.
Watch it on the big screen.

Written 2013-10-31

Stupid Saturday: Blogger f**ks up backgrounds

I have a background, it is the right size and everything, but when I upload it blogger rebalances the colours so that they are all fooked up. I have no idea why, the file size is only the slightest bit smaller. I even tried doing a higher compression and it does the same thing. Now it looks ugly.

TV Thursday: Galilei Donna

Today's review is

Galilei Donna

Watch online | Wikipedia | ANN | Rotten Tomatoes | metacritic

Status: Ep 4 - still watching

Quick tip: If you plan on taking a drink every time someone says Galileo or Galilei be sure to stock up beforehand. Naruto says "nani" less than these people mention Galileo.

Basically there are these three girls and they are the great great great ... great great great granddaughters of Galileo, one of them is a lawyer, one is a klutzy martial arts master, and one is a genus inventor. Oh, and apparently Galileo made some super weapon or something and now everyone is after it. Of course the girls don't know where it is so they have to hunt down the clues to find it before the evil corporation or (presumably) good pirates get their hands on it. There is really nothing original, and I'm fairly sure the writer has an "unnatural" obsession with Galileo. (I mean, I have nothing against Galileo, but this is just too much)

So, why am I still watching it? Well...

• I don't have anything else [that I want] to do.
• None of the charters need a breast reduction.
• I haven't seen a little girls panties or crotch yet.
• No harem or fetish elements.

Now I realize that those may not be great reasons, but it generally accepted that if you want to watch anime you have to put up with the results of a sexually repressed society, (Someone really needs to legalize porn in Nippon...) and a break from the usual is worth it enough to put up with what is a fairly average show.

Rating:  2.5/5 stars
If you have nothing better to do...

Now with reviews!

If you know me, you know that I consume a lot of media, and am very critical.

So why am I not a media critic?

Now I am! At least until I get bored. I give it maybe 5 posts max.

For your low subscription fee of $0 you will get:

• Movie Monday
• TV Tuesday
• Webcomic Wendsday
• TV Thursday
• Fanfic Friday (Well, perhaps latter...)

Adventures in money saving!

I have a laser printer which I use to print all my schoolwork. I refill the toner cartage to save money, and as a result the print drum has some streaks on it. You don't notice it when I print B&W text, but grayscale photos (that cheap lasers are never very good at to begin with) can't be seen very well.

This isn't usually a problem, but for one of my classes we need a photo of ourselves on the cover page, and you couldn't make out the photo. I could have just given up and printed it on my inkjet but I tried moving it to the side of the page with less streaks with a small amount of success before realizing that I just needed to adjust the image brightness and contrast before printing it to make it visible on the laser printer.

With just a moment of fiddleing I saved myself from having to print a more costly page.

Project

I made a butterfly puzzle.

It has 6 parts. If your butterfly does not have all of these parts (Right wing, Left wing, Body, Proboscis, Blue pieces, and Yellow pieces) Then you did not get a complete butterfly kit.
Please note that the cutouts from the brown wings are not needed and may be missing (as shown) but all of the yellow and blue pieces are needed.

The first step is to punch out the inner brown shapes on the wing and replace them with the yellow and blue shapes. Peaces should snap in with relative ease, if they don't they may go in a different spot. If any pieces are loose use some tape on the back of the wing.

With all the pieces securely inserted into the wing it is time to insert the wings into the body as shown below.

Then, simply insert the proboscis/eye piece as shown below.

Now you are done Enjoy!

Erin's wedding

Here is a quick post of a few photos from my friend Erin's wedding. Click the photos to see bigger and check back soon for more.

Crap that scared the shit out of me as a child.

In decreasing order of scary ass shit.
Rock-a-Doodle
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
ET

I had completely blocked out all memory of Rock-a-Doodle until I saw it in the new to netflix section.
First of all Memphis is a hell-hole, my grandparents on my dad's side lived there and the only good thing I remember about it is that they had a neighbor with trains. He has Alzheimers now. I really am not too saddened by the floods and devastation there. I really hated that place. Anyways this may be part of why I was scared shitless, I believe I watched at my grandparents house.

To finish later I lost interest.

Bees think I am tasty!