tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225738422024-03-05T11:47:21.102-05:00Through the Mind of EvelyneThe blog that's about whatever's going through my mind right now.Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-8915179663707795362016-05-26T13:26:00.001-04:002016-05-26T13:26:31.392-04:00Overwatch, or: The Rise of Recreational CompetitionI don’t like online multiplayer FPS games. In fact, it’s safe to say I loathe them. The feeling of utter despair when you try an online shooter and join a random game for the first time, only to be shot down by the pros; the flabbergasted feeling realizing just how quickly and nimbly players move while you feel like you’re standing still.<br />
<br />
And the salt – oh, the <i>saltiness </i>of some player bases in these games. Have you ever been headshot by a 13 year old who proceeded to insult your mother while crouching on your dead body’s face? Because that’s what I felt was a realistic way to think about online shooters, even as close as two weeks ago.<br />
<br />
But then, Overwatch changed everything. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve heard of the game: the first original franchise since 1998 and Blizzard comes up with an FPS, of all things! But somehow, they succeeded not only in piercing the market of online shooters, they completely ripped apart the fabric of the esports scene: Overwatch is the Rise of Recreational Competition. In other words, Casual eSports.<br />
<br />
Ok so you might be asking yourself, “what the hell is she talking about, there’s no such things as “recreational competition”, either you’re a pro competing gamer in a league or you’re a casual and don’t belong, n00b!”… And you’d be completely wrong, unfortunately.<br />
<br />
Overwatch isn’t a shooter like Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty, Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament or the myriads of variations out there (if I forgot your favorite frag fest, I apologize, there’s so many!). Upon entering their first Overwatch game, a new player can immediately get a feel for the game, find a hero they kind of like, and go for it – other than having a mouse and a keyboard there’s no real barrier of entry to this game.<br />
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I’ve heard of some complaints about the very thing that makes Overwatch special: A lot of heroes are so-called “noob friendly” and are easy to win with – as long as you’re playing against other players of your level. And by the time you realize Bastion is easily countered by Genji? By the time you can no longer just fly up with Pharah and <i>Press Q for Play of the Game</i> without getting sniped instantly by literally any of the heroes? It’s too late. You’re hooked. And then you realize another thing, that this is a <i>Team-Based</i> game and you'd better start finding yourself some partners, of which there are now so many you've interacted with, and it's extremely easy to just add them as friends and start some real matches.<br />
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And the major factor that really brings about recreational competition in the eSports world is the simple fact that Overwatch matches played by brand new players of the genre (such as myself) can be fun to play and even watch. I might even say that in some cases I’ve had just as much fun watching friends play than I had looking at replays of pro matches (IDDQD vs REUNITED, anyone?). The thrill of hanging on to Overtime in a Capture map, where both teams are at 99% and heroes are flooding in, literally throwing themselves at the point, is something to behold and to live.<br />
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For once in my life, I feel like the Casual Gamer that I am, the one that can’t even always headshot stationary targets in Fallout 4, finally has a place. I finally have a voice, a place, a community, a game that I can rally around. Not against anything, not <i>against </i>the pro players or the teens claiming they did ugly things to my sweet mother, simply a rally for a new world – the one where casuals are kings and we rule by having fun.<br />
<br />
~EvieMaddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-17399707784720528782015-12-07T16:52:00.001-05:002015-12-07T16:52:40.679-05:00Madcap Flare 11 - HTML5 Output without a Skin? Imposibruu!<i>If I had a blog dedicated to tech writing, I would definitely post this on it. But since this is my general-purpose-geek-whatever-goes-blog, it comes to reason that "miscelaneous" stuff would come here, right?</i><br />
<br />
In this post I'll take you on a short adventure I've recently had while trying to deeply customize the HTML5 output generated by MadCap Flare 11, after recently upgrading to it from version 7. If you're familiar with Flare, you know that doing Web output can be pretty involved - there are a lot of moving parts, including Master Pages, Skins, Stylesheets and Proxies, to name a few.<br />
<br />
Essentially, the goal here is to provide you with a blank canvas where you can customize, almost 100%, the HTML5 output generated by Flare. This can be super useful if you're a) a web designer yourself or b) have a web designer available to do that work for you. And, it becomes almost indispensible if you have a "corporate" style that you want your documentation to be as close to as possible.<br />
<br />
There's only 2 things that are really required to make this work as an example. The rest of the "useful" stuff we'll add later:<br />
<ol>
<li>A Master Page. This is where you'll add your design, around the body proxy.</li>
<li>The Target needs to be in HTML5 and NOT use a skin. </li>
</ol>
<div>
Sounds simple does it not? Actually, it is, once you've figured out what's necessary - I've done that work for you, you're welcome! Let's dig deeper.</div>
<h3>
The Master Page</h3>
<div>
So the Master Page is just HTML code that's inserted <i>around</i> your body text, on each file that's created in your output. We're going to use this to create our "design". Let's start with something really, really basic just to give you a feeling of how "simple" it can be. Create a Master Page by going to the Project Tab, then going into New -> Add Master Page. Give it a name, like, say, "No-skin". (Note: You might already have a "basic" Master Page. If so... skip on to the next section, as the build-in master pages are pretty much built the right way!)<br />
<br />
Go to the "Text Editor" view and paste the code provided: <a href="http://pastebin.com/nzvHAgSy" target="_blank">Pastebin link</a><br />
<br />
If you've ever worked with HTML you'll recognize just about everything here, with the only exception of the MadCap:bodyProxy element. This is basically the placeholder for the contents of your topic, aka everything in the <body> tag of that topic.</body><br />
<br />
Alright, now this is a very basic Master Page that contains nothing in terms of navigation, but we can add that in a second. Let's move on to the next step.<br />
<h3>
An HTML5 Target that doesn't use any skins</h3>
<div>
So now we get to the interesting part: building the target. Go to Project -> New -> Add Target. Make sure the Output Type is set to HTML5, give it a name (my-user-guide, or whatever) and click Add.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the properties, the following things need to be change:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>In General, ensure that the Master TOC and Master Stylesheet have been attributed values.</li>
<li>In Skin, use the drop-down to change "Skin" to "(none)".</li>
<li>I Advanced, go to Master Page and change it to Resources/MasterPages/No-Skin (or whatever you named it).</li>
<li>If you want to change other options like conditions and variables, go ahead. </li>
</ul>
<div>
And now the fun part. Save this target, and hit Build. After the build is done, click on View and open it in your favorite browser. Should look something like this:</div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWDQFHFqmZuYYUiM19aW4mSe3l5LdG0jL811IcrQ3u3kTmGJn4id9iLvB8zipiN3k-sfyWVVuzcTefFCDOIsXr5oTosYgWq3Dlg01A-jirGsnbOM9nKxYQc45NAbmskiO_YeoMA/s1600/basic_noskin_flare.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWDQFHFqmZuYYUiM19aW4mSe3l5LdG0jL811IcrQ3u3kTmGJn4id9iLvB8zipiN3k-sfyWVVuzcTefFCDOIsXr5oTosYgWq3Dlg01A-jirGsnbOM9nKxYQc45NAbmskiO_YeoMA/s320/basic_noskin_flare.png" width="290" /></a></div>
<h3>
Adding navigation and other proxies</h3>
<div>
So the above preview looks really dull, right? Of course it does, because there's no navigation, no toolbar... Only the header (I added to my master page as above), and the contents of one topic. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now what we can do is start adding proxies into the Master Page, to start giving us some useful stuff to work with! In the XML Editor view of the Master Page, you can insert the following proxies:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>The Breadcrumbs proxy (You are here!)</li>
<li>The Topic Toolbar proxy (which shows links such as highlighting, print and such)</li>
<li>The Search Bar proxy which adds the search box and button</li>
<li>The Menu proxy, which is used to display the Table of Contents. When adding the TOC, to start with I suggest unchecking Context sensitive and changing Levels to Show to (all). You can customize it later on. </li>
</ul>
<div>
Alright... now we're talking! Check this out:</div>
</div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNaFMuyuQ9QkEB17di3i7nPd-HpmIYA0oWxEfjhM5LowVEOyoKmoVBSng20sGSjTrfjf_A2__I4NQ4WP7OKzTW3E5Z3sXyXdt3qqZVdv59A_Dwf3vQsYAuChSRm_21sVcxpPR6Bw/s1600/basic_noskin_flare_withproxies.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNaFMuyuQ9QkEB17di3i7nPd-HpmIYA0oWxEfjhM5LowVEOyoKmoVBSng20sGSjTrfjf_A2__I4NQ4WP7OKzTW3E5Z3sXyXdt3qqZVdv59A_Dwf3vQsYAuChSRm_21sVcxpPR6Bw/s320/basic_noskin_flare_withproxies.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So everything we really need is here - we just need to style it properly! Obviously, this is where the expertise of a web developper normally comes in. But I'm a great gal so I'll provide you with a complete project at the end of this post. In the meantime, here's what it looks like with a bit of HTML tweaking and some CSS styles:</div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPteL900NtsHTkQTmIHyqhqLXhD4biSk9QCsQtJBSk1JfTbVlmv-fqGWR05nJou_7muGX_i6h_k4P5riWorVpfck_H2ZB2892v-I8eA2WVL7KFWDSzykd7E_LJaciLCWhhPhpbg/s1600/basic_noskin_flare_complete.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPteL900NtsHTkQTmIHyqhqLXhD4biSk9QCsQtJBSk1JfTbVlmv-fqGWR05nJou_7muGX_i6h_k4P5riWorVpfck_H2ZB2892v-I8eA2WVL7KFWDSzykd7E_LJaciLCWhhPhpbg/s320/basic_noskin_flare_complete.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ok so in this case I'm reproducing more or less the "typical" webhelp tripane design. But it doesn't need to be this way. You could place the TOC on the right in a floating sidebar, you could have the TOC drop-down from the left or right or have it fly around avoiding the user's cursor... whatever, basically. My point here is that the sky's the limit and your web developers will be happy to know that they can tweak this to the point where it will look like what you want, from top to bottom, start to finish. And, by the way, you can add conditions, variables and anything else in the Master Page that you would in a normal topic. So that's awesome too.</div>
<h3>
Custom Search Results Page</h3>
One issue I came up with later in my design is that the Search Results page wasn't using the Master Page, and I wasn't sure how to proceed. Some help from the Madcap forums later, the solution came about: Create a new topic inside the Resources/MasterPages folder of your project (I called it "searchresults.html", the name doesn't matter), and simply add the Search Results Proxy inside of this topic: double-click on it, remove all the contents then go to Insert -> Proxy -> Search Results Proxy. I believe it's a workaround for a bug (as this writing, in Flare 11). But that topic in a custom location is all that's necessary, thankfully.<br />
<h3>
Need more help?</h3>
</div>
<div>
Post on the Madcap Flare forums, or comment below!</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-12918482280995892982011-11-16T12:35:00.001-05:002011-11-17T13:49:57.640-05:00Jean Quan and Michael Bloomberg are the reason I support the Occupy Wall Street movement.When I first started to hear about the Occupy Wall Street movement, I was very ambivalent about it. I wasn't quite sure exactly what it was about and, though I had a vague feeling that their demands were right and that the whole idea was good, I saw diverging views that lead me to believe it wasn't serious. First, they were often portrayed as a bunch of snobby pricks that weren't part of the working class but still had enough money to camp out in a park, with their cell phones and computers, and nothing would come of it. Another argued that the movement didn't even understand what they were themselves - that they were claiming Socialism was better, but at the same time were refusing to serve food and give shelter to the homeless.<br />
<br />
But it's too easy to simply dismiss a whole movement from the comments of a few detractors. I started following <a href="http://www.twitter.com/OccupyWallStNYC" target="_blank">@OccupyWallStNYC</a> and saw another side of the conflict that started to change my views and open my mind to the idea that they were right...<br />
<br />
And then, Jean Quan gave the order to the Oakland PD to remove the <a href="http://www.twitter.com/OccupyOakland" target="_blank">@OccupyOakland</a> people that were, as usual, peacefully occupying the park (albeit against city regulations). But according to anyone who actually saw footage from that night, including me, the level of force that was used was excessive. Rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, flash bangs, LRAD (google it), all in very pretty riot gear. They dragged people out of the park when they resisted, completely destroyed (as in <i>tore down and broke</i>) tents and equipment that was there. All this for what reason? For "sanitation, security and fire hazards". <br />
<br />
Regardless of your political views, if you believe that sending hundreds of SWAT uniforms with a full complement on non-lethal weaponry against a group of peaceful protesters sitting around in a park and camping there is the proper decision, I probably don't know you and I want no part of your entourage. But Quan attacking OccupyOakland was not the first of such acts, and especially not the last.<br />
<br />
Two days ago, in the middle of the night (2AM local time to be precise), NYPD SWAT teams (along with the Counter-Terrorism Unit) started surrounding Zuccotti Park, birthplace of the <a href="https://twitter.com/#%21/search?q=%23OWS" target="_blank">#OWS</a> movement and occupied for just under two months. Then, they proceeded to remove anyone in the vicinity that was part of the press. That's right, the NYPD shut off the media from witnessing the event. <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=rosie%20gray%20village%20voice&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.villagevoice.com%2Frunninscared%2Frosie_gray%2F&ei=7E_FTqm8KcPe0QG-8pmdDw&usg=AFQjCNFatC1CXBQ-CuRxYwj9wXXnKhKU4Q&sig2=WcAqJXmReyVZBJgZVLKUgQ&cad=rja" target="_blank">Rosie Gray</a>, reporter with The Village Voice, told an office "I'm Press!" and was answered "Not tonight, you're not".<br />
<br />
Once that was done, the raid began. Again, people were dragged away, property was destroyed, 5000 books in the Occupy Library were thrown into a container along with the possessions of anyone who had decided not to leave the park when NYPD started handing out pamphlets telling them to leave the park, and loudspeakers blasting the same thing (again, at 2AM). Those who were not arrested remained, dazed but still strong, around the park where the NYPD setup a security perimeter to throw out the rest of the "trash" remaining in the park.<br />
<br />
Now, I'm not an expert in politics and world news, but this is never something that I would expect to see in a country such as America (or Canada for that matter). It shows us a couple of very important things.<br />
<br />
First, the 1% is bothered, if not scared. Honestly, Zuccotti park is in the middle of the Business area in New York. There are no residents around the park that could have possibly been annoyed by the occupation. On the other hand, considering the growth of the moment and the attention it is slowly building, people that are directly targetted by the movement are probably starting to feel the pressure.<br />
<br />
Second, the movement is already treated as a revolution. Why else would SWAT teams and riot gear be needed to remove peaceful protesters from a park? These city mayors are being pressured (Bloomberg's speech on "this was my decision alone" only serve to reinforce this theory) to try to "quell the rebellion" before it gets too big and explodes in their faces.<br />
<br />
Third, protesting isn't a freedom anymore. It's easy for the people in power to let the "lowly peasants" do a little picketing for half a day and maybe block a street with their presence and their signs, get their media coverage and then dissipate. This is "how it's done", and it achieves nothing. But actually putting the pressure in the right place, occupying a public park to raise awareness of an issue that affects every aspect of our "civilized" society today, is clearly not an easy task. Ask the ones that have been thrown in jail for just being there, ask the media who have been taken away so they couldn't cover an important media event for the people, and ask the people of which the camps have been raided, their possessions removed, and nowhere to sleep.<br />
<br />
So in conclusion, thank you very much, Quan, Bloomberg and all the others that are attacking the movement. Your actions have shown us just how weak you are, how scared you have become, and how true our movement is.<br />
<br />
Let's get this revolution started, shall we?Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-64668734745449627832011-11-02T10:32:00.000-04:002011-11-02T10:35:18.546-04:00My hate of Internet Explorer knows no boundsI`m not the only one that has issues with Internet Explorer. Any web designer will tell you that IE sucks. It's to browsers as French is to languages: bloated, complex, and enough exceptions to fill a book.<br />
<br />
But in the last 3 days, I've been fixing one problem after another, because different versions of IE have different quirks - but in general, every one of them is a bitch to troubleshoot when you don't know exactly what you're dealing with.<br />
<br />
On Monday, I spend hours tracing down an issue that was making IE8 crash its tab when I opened the online html documentation I'm maintaining. Every single other browser (and every other version of IE) worked perfectly well, no error messages, no warnings. But IE8 was being a dumbass and quitting for no apparent reason. After screwing around in the javascript, the frames, the HTML, I chanced upon the fact of removing my jquery import and my javascript code in general, and suddenly it worked... A google search revealed that, specifically, [ IE8 + jQuery 1.6.2 + CSS background: url(something); + a page refresh ] caused the crash, because a single line of code that "fixed" an IE8 bug related to CSS backgrounds was removed in error. The solution was to update jQuery to the latest version, 1.6.4, which restored their workaround to the bug. IE8 = bitch.<br />
<br />
On Tuesday, a colleague of mine reported that IE7 was freezing and taking 100% CPU on one core. Again, Firefox, Chrome and every other version of IE had no issues at all. Why was this happening? Well, I recently added tiny bit of code that detected when the browser window was resized, and re-centered buttons on the screen (absolute positionning being a bitch of its own). In IE7 specifically, whenever an element changes on the page, it triggers the resize event. So, it was running into an infinite loop where it would resize, re-center, trigger a resize, and start all over again. To fix this, I had to add a small jquery plugin called "smartresize" which "debounced" the refresh function with a timeout. IE7 = bitch.<br />
<br />
And today, another issue reared its ugly head: In IE9, a client would click on a "Send Feedback" link I provide, enter his name, email and a message, click on Submit... And the dialog would just stupidly sit there. And again, every other browser and version of IE I tested worked perfectly well, no issue whatsoever. The cause? I was sending an AJAX request through POST and receiving a JSON response. Now, something in IE9 (still not sure what) bugs out, thinks it should be receiving XML, sees JSON, and thinks "oh this is a mistake". Instead of triggering the jquery success: function, it triggers error:. Because I had already spend half my week fixing IE's stupidities, I resorted to a dumb workaround just to get rid of it: I put the contents of my success: function in my error: function (which is never triggered and didn't even exist before now anyway). IE9 = bitch.<br />
<br />
Now, if you're a web designer you may think part of this is my fault - not testing properly in all versions, not knowing the quirks by heart, lacking troubleshooting abilities. But in all honesty, if I didn't have to support IE (if 40% of our users weren't on IE8), I would have spent the last 3 days doing more constructive things like, I don't know, updating our software documentation or writing FAQs. <br />
<br />
Question to you: how many of your head banging sessions were caused specifically by Internet Explorer?Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-54538273426482078232011-05-24T15:48:00.000-04:002011-05-24T15:48:17.906-04:00Transparent PHP proxy with GET, POST and HEADER support.I needed to do cross-domain AJAX calls from a jQuery front-end to a PHP backend which was on another domain, and couldn't find a complete, functional example online... so I created my own. Since both servers had PHP (but the backend needed extra stuff that wasn't on the frontend server), doing a PHP Proxy was a great idea.<br />
<br />
<br />
What this proxy supports:<br />
<ul><li>GET and POST requests (POST was the whole reason for this, since jsonp doesn't support it!)</li>
<li>HTTP_REFERER check (only accept requests from one server)</li>
<li>COOKIES, in both directions (setting from the backend and sending from the frontend)</li>
<li>HEADERS, all of them, in both directions. This means it's a transparent proxy (yay!)</li>
</ul>What it doesn't support (yet, maybe):<br />
<ul><li>Dynamic destination (though that's relatively trivial to change), because I don't need it.</li>
<li>Load Balancing/Cycling, I may add this as a personal exercise in the future.</li>
<li>Authentication, beyond the referer check, or session (this should be handled by the backend anyway)</li>
</ul><span style="font-size: large;">The Code</span> <br />
<br />
Because blogger.com <i>sucks</i> with code, the code is available directly on Google Code, at the following URL:<br />
<a href="http://code.google.com/p/php-transparent-proxy/">http://code.google.com/p/php-transparent-proxy/</a>Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-82467121436384914712011-05-10T00:42:00.000-04:002011-05-10T00:42:40.455-04:00The Forward Time Travel Paradox (FTTP)Time to go into a little bit of metaphysical thinking here, thinking about paradoxes and time travel. If I'm going to post only once every blue moon, may as well make it an interesting one, don't you think?<br />
<br />
So I am going to put forth a small hypothesis: <b>If you were to travel into the future, the future you would travel to could not, ever, be the one that would happen when you get to it "the slow way".</b> I shall call this hypothesis (or is it a theory? I don't know) <b><u>The Forward Time Travel Paradox</u></b>.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Every single science-fiction story that I've seen up to now that deals with time travel in a semi-logical way tries to cover the area of time paradoxes. They say, if you go into the past and kill your grandfather, or change anything that could make yourself not come into existence... Then you cause a paradox that destroys spacetime. But none - not a single one - talks about the paradox of travelling into the future. They all go "oh cool, the future, now we know what's going to happen, cool!" and go on with their story. Let's challenge the status quo.</span></b><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Premise</span><br />
<br />
Let's say I invent a time machine that can go into the future. I want to test it for the first time (I know it works, I`ve done the calculations) so I simply hop in, set the dial for 100 years (so as to not run into my future self, obviously) and push the button. WHAM, I'm now in 2111.<br />
<br />
If this happened to me, the first thing I would do would be to find any sort of data connection (probably some sort of wireless protocol with a TB/sec connection speed) and Google myself... And what would I find? Certainly not front page news or a peer-reviewed paper on folding space into a wormhole to travel into the future... At best, some clipping on page 95B about my mysterious disappearance, and my last blog post before I left... My Gmail with a few million emails (and about a googabyte of free space!). What happened... to me? My life's work, gone? My hole existence, wiped out?<br />
<br />
So I try to come back, expecting the worse... But nope, here I am back in the "present" and everything seems to go as planned! I publish my research paper, become famous, become known as the inventor of the Time Machine(tm). But one thing nags at me and becomes obvious each time someone visits the future, even by just a few days: It's never exactly the same when you actually get to it in "normal" time. There are always details that have changed!<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Explanation</span><br />
<br />
The explanation is quite simple really; every time you hop on to the future, you're creating an alternate timeline in which you disappear and only re-appear at your destination. You travel 100 years into the future, it's a timeline where you were gone for that 100 years. But when you travel back, because you re-appeared before that 100 years, you've basically changed the future... You've just destroyed the timeline you created when you first went forward.<br />
<br />
That would happen every time someone went forward into the future. All their possible children and descendants, every action they were to do, would temporarily go away until they come back even, if just for a millisecond. So what can be done about that? Absolutely nothing. Were we to actually figure out a way to go into the future, there would be no way of knowing whether or not the one we visit would be the one that would happen!<br />
<br />
And, of course, an extra layer needs to be added to this basic truth, for any and all who still doubt. In the same way that visiting the past would change the present, visiting the future would also change it. If I were to visit a future where I could see the loto numbers, come back into the present and win a couple of million dollars... Then the future that I visited would no longer exist... Or rather, according to some theories, I would have created a new timeline where I won the lottery, a new branch in the eternal tree of spacetime, and I would follow this new path.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span><br />
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Time is fluid and ever changing. We may be part of a timeline where time travel will never be discovered, or it may be discovered today. Or, someone from the future may appear tomorrow and simply give us the technology just because they can, thus creating a new timeline where humanity starts using time travel in 2011 instead of 2273! Would we go back even further in time and give it to ourselves 100 years ago? Who knows... Once thing's for certain - when it comes to time travel, there is no such thing as a straight line and no such thing as just a visitor. As with Quantum Physics, the simple act of observing the future (or being observed in the past) changes the whole outcome of the experiment.<br />
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But then again, I don't understand Quantum Physics. If I were to understand quantum physics, I don't believe I would really understand it (or so the saying goes...).<br />
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Cheers for now, see you in an undetermined amount of time!Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-80067801151103129042011-04-05T07:00:00.000-04:002011-04-05T07:00:33.377-04:00My short, horrible story with a cell phoneIf you know me, you probably know that I'm a gadget lover. I was all over my iPhone when I got it, I coo over the latest ThinkGeek stuff and I look towards the future with an open heart and a wallet just waiting to grab the latest tech (if only my wife would let me :P).<br />
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But even though I appreciate my iPhone 3GS for its polish, stability and solidity, the cell phone service from Fido is a tough bill to swallow. At $77 for the longest time (tax inc.), it felt like I was overpaying way too much for a very low plan - 100 minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited text, 1gig transfer which I busted once. So, I started looking for alternatives a while back and, very recently, noticed that Videotron was offering a couple of cellphones at $0, with contract of course. So after some basic research and review reading I chose the <a href="http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/XW-EN/Consumer-Products-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/MOTO-XT720-XW-EN">Motorola Milestone XT720</a> and explained to my wife that even after paying the Fido cancellation fees, I'd still come out on top by a few hundred bucks in the end, since the service was $30 cheaper every month (I have all 3 other services with <a href="http://www.videotron.com/">Videotron</a>).<br />
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A week ago, I went into the Videotron shop, picked up an XT720 (which has an 8mpx camera, does 720p video recording, 8 gigs space on an SD card, Android 2.1) and signed myself up for 3 years. Unbeknown to me, that was a mistake. Mind you, not singing up, but choosing the XT720. It's not the first time I make a bad purchasing decision, but this time it wasn't my fault!<br />
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Honestly though, the XT720 looks like a good phone on the surface. It has a great design, the screen is bright, large (2.7" I believe) and has a good resolution. However, from my experience there are some major issues with it.<br />
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First, it has an internal memory of 256 MO, on which <a href="http://www.android.com/">Android OS</a> is located and on which ALL applications must be installed. If you know Android OS you may want to say that 2.2 and up gives the ability to save apps on the SD card, but <a href="https://supportforums.motorola.com/community/manager/softwareupgrades">Motorola themselves</a> have confirmed that they will not release a 2.2 update for the phone so, short of rooting it (which I didn't), Froyo will never see the XT720. That, in and of itself, was a great source of frustration.<br />
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Other minor issues such as the wireless being semi-reliable (couldn't access the internet while every other wifi device in the house could), the mis-placements of the buttons around the phone and the over sensibility of the "hardware" buttons at the bottom, kept nagging at me.<br />
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But the one major flaw in the phone, I simply cannot live with: it is impossible to transfer (or delete, for that matter) a large amount of data on the phone without the SD card crapping out. The first time I had an issue was after copying my 850 MP3s (about 2.8 gigs) on the SD card. The media player would refuse to load the songs, froze while reading the SD card and I had to hard-reboot (remove the battery). I then tried to delete the songs, but in the middle of the deletion dialog, everything (Explorer.exe , the phone, the copy dialog) froze. Unplugging the USB fixed the computer, but the SD card was now unavailable in the phone. No amount of coaxing could get it back online, it was simply unavailable. And that's what I started seeing that the phone was utterly crap. While the unreadable SD card was inserted, the phone would not shut off (stayed in the "powering off" dialog forever), it would not wake up from sleep mode (pressing the button did not turn on the screen, but the hardware buttons turned on for a couple of seconds), and I couldn't even reset it to factory defaults! Each time either of these situations happened (and they happen quite a lot, the phone does go to sleep mode automatically which is normal), I had to remove the battery.<br />
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So I went to the Videotron store to get the phone checked, but they needed an authorization from customer service, which I called from there... but while I was on the phone with the tech (while he was preparing a confirmation for a phone exchange), the SD card decided to come back online and the phone was functional. So I went back home, plugged in the phone, tried again... with the exact same results. Called Videotron, got a confirmation number to change the phone, went back to the store and changed for another box of the exact same phone... which had the exact same problem. I figure that when this issue happens, if I'm patient enough the SD card eventually comes back online... after about 8 hours. I'm not that patient.<br />
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Now, if you didn't know this let me tell you: If you're in a contract with Videotron and you're not happy with the phone, don't even think about asking them to change it. They will not do it, period. I'm generally a person that can get satisfaction and "what I want" from customer service, but this time nothing I could do could make them budge. It was "tough this phone out, or dish out full price for a new one" and that was that. What you <i>can</i> do however, if you've just signed up, is cancel your contract within 30 days, absolutely no charge. I'm returning the phone today, and any charge related to this phone and service will be credited.<br />
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If you do this, you need to wait 60 days before signing up again and have access to promotions (like a free or cheaper phone). By the time this delay is finished, the Nexus S will be out and you can bet your ass that's what I'm going to get myself. In the meantime, my iPhone still does a good job of making calls, playing my music, and playing casual games.Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-11670484160890125222011-01-17T13:53:00.002-05:002011-01-17T14:08:29.017-05:00Kimberly Clark - it ain't that bad anymore.A little sidetrack to environmental concerns today on my blog. After the last series of posts on the future (I'll have more on that in, well, the future) there's not much I have to say about it at the moment and this is, after all, still my "random blog about what's going through my head".<br /><br />What prompted this post was the fact that I grabbed a box of tissues ("kleenex") form the supply closet at work and suddenly realized that they were the Scotties brand, made by Kimberly Clark (makers of kleenex, scotties, huggies, etc). Now, it's been driven deep into my head that Kimberly Clark is an <span style="font-style: italic;">evil</span> company and that they use virgin wood (non-recycled) and clear-cut the amazonian and the Boreal forests right here in my backyard. My wife being very environmentalist (aka "tree-hugger" which is fitting here), this is an issue for me. I couldn't just stand there with part of Earth's lungs and not do something about it.<br /><br />But before I went screaming in the HR office going on an on about how KC were evil and we should not buy products that destroy the environment (poor HR rep would have had to deal with a little bit of my wife's crazyness through me, there!), I decided to do a little bit of research. In the past, "facts" given to me by my wife sometimes end up being taken from email chain letters and very unreliable sources, so I do my research now.<br /><br />Reality turned out to be that she was right in thinking Kimberly Clark WAS a very bad company in regards to environmental responsibility - but today this is no longer the case. After a lot of <strike>bitching an moaning </strike>campaigning by environmental groups such as Greenpeace, KC finally decided, in 2008, to completely re-think their position and to start being responsible for their actions.<br /><br />From 2008, 98 percent of the wood pulp Kimberly-Clark bought globally came from suppliers or forestlands that have sustainability certifications of some sort (see the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly-Clark#Environmental_record">wikipedia page on Kimberly Clark</a>). Not only does this make me not guilty of using these Scotties tissues, it also make me <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> my wife less guilty of using 3 packs of Huggies disposable diapers, since they're also made by KC.<br /><br />So now you, the reader, knows that you can safely buy all the brands made by Kimberly Clark without the loss of karma points you thought went with it. Visit <a href="http://www.kimberly-clark.com/aboutus/sus_2010/sustainability_home.aspx">KC's sustainability page</a> to see what they have to say about it, if you want.<br /><br />This message was paid for in part by my desire to prove my wife wrong. It was <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> paid for in any way, shape or form by Kimberly Clark :PMaddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-16747471811645002562010-12-17T08:57:00.000-05:002010-12-17T08:58:23.473-05:00The Era of CCC Part 4: How it all comes together<span style="font-style:italic;">I've been working from home without my 40 minutes of peace in the subway since my last post, which explains the delay - apologies if anyone was actually waiting for this!</span><br /><br />Now that we have determined the 3 areas in which humanity could go forward in leaps and bounds in short order, how do we bring it all together? How can creativity, communication and collaboration live together in perfect harmony with us and for us?<br /><br />The biggest hurdle in this is probably the need for people to remove themselves from money and personal gain, for creativity to be possible at a level I described in part 1. This would require a massive, rapid shift in our society, one that would revolutionize the way we think and act. But evolution has always been slow, using trial and error to improve upon itself, one small step at a time. Perhaps we'll find a way to make this shift in enough time for the general population to accept it, who knows? One thing for sure though, both collaboration and creativity must stem from the removal of personal monetary incentives. Perhaps, as I said, a form of evolved communism (neo-communism?) could be put in place differently than is Soviet Russia, or it's something else entirely that's necessary.<br /><br />But even assuming that we simply did not have to work because the hardest menial jobs would be handled doesn't mean no one would have a job. There is always something to do in a world such as ourselves and whatever amount of automation exists, there will always be things to do. Politicians, even without the monetary greed, still lust for power so that wouldn't change. Automated systems need upgrading and repairing, research must be done to evolve the sciences, etc. Even if you have an automated farming system for your crops and some forms of food are automatic, nothing can truly replace the skilled hands of a chef preparing a meal in a restaurant. People get hurt, doctors are still needed to diagnose and treat them. Of course, humans are still prone to hurting each other so a police force is still necessary.<br /><br />The difference would be that the greatest majority of people doing this work would be the ones that want to - that were happy to do it because it brought them the satisfaction and the recognition they wanted. I myself would most likely not stop writing, whether as a technical writer or as a science-fiction one (if I had the time, y'know?) and I'm sure a lot of people are just like me.<br /><br />I'm not sure that I was really able to capture my vision in these 4 posts. I'm not even sure I really understand all of this stuff myself and perhaps I'm just a rambling fool. But if I made a few people think about it, if at least one person brought us one step closer to this reality, then I'll be happy. I know I didn't give anything concrete to make this future happen, but perhaps that will happen in the future if I finally start writing short sci-fi stories.<br /><br />And as this blog's motto should be: not that anyone reads this anyway...Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-36245864919845149662010-12-06T08:50:00.000-05:002010-12-06T08:51:25.828-05:00The Era of CCC - Part 3 : CollaborationThe third C is for collaboration in it's purest form, between every single human being on the planet and traversing all fields where more collaboration is possible. Artists working together through the network, scientists sharing their data and results freely, software tools available to and built by all. An open source worldwide community where everything, or almost, is available to all. <br /><br />I say open source because it is the closest parallel I can make to something that already exists. Dozens, hundreds and even thousands of individuals working to perfect the code of a single piece of software, preventing bugs and security flaws before they become an issue for the population at large that uses it. People with nothing specific to gain from it, other than a bit of acknowledgement and the great satisfaction they get from contributing to the community.<br /><br />If this principle were to be applied to other fields, such as scientific research, what could happen? If, instead of dozens of different laboratories competing to be the first to discover a marketable cure for AIDS or a smaller processor, the scientific community were to unify its worldwide talents into a single force capable of solving this world's problems... What would become of us? <br /><br />I believe that we would accelerate our development exponentially, assuming of course, as according to my previous posts, we were to remove the need for individuals to work to survive by replacing menial tasks by automation and artificial intelligence.<br /><br />This would be especially true in the pharmaceutical field (and others I'm not aware of I'm sure) where different companies all struggle to be the first to create a pill to fix each ailment of the human race. If, instead of having 4 different colors of pills to get a hard-on, they were to work together on making one of each (the best, we hope), so much more would get done.<br /><br />Of course, complete collaboration in fields other than art is somewhat impossible in the current state of affairs. In a capitalist society one cannot spend resources on creating something that doesn't benefit them personally since everyone works hard for their money. Perhaps communism wasn't such a bad ideas after all - it was just badly implemented!<br /><br />Right now, collaboration works well with both arts and software. In both cases it's because acknowledgment and reputation precedes cold hard cash in the order of priorities, or at least until one is known an appreciated enough to make it on their own. It's more intuitive this way. <br /><br />Stay tuned on Wednesday for the 4th and final part, the conclusion. In the meantime, what do you think we could achieve with perfect collaboration between individuals in this world?Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-346285001147396512010-12-01T08:46:00.002-05:002010-12-01T08:49:43.961-05:00The Era of CCC Part 2 - CommunicationWith how many individuals have you communicated today? Think hard for a moment, and start counting with whom you had any sort of exchange, either way. Your twitter followers, and those that you follow; All your Facebook friends that updated their statuses and others that read yours; Everyone with whom you exchanged an email or a phone call; Authors of the articles you read in the paper, companies with ads on a billboard or the subway; The clerk at the gas station that gave you your newspaper. If you're like me, the total probably ads up to at least a few hundred a day.<br /><br />Communication, even when it's single-sided, is an important part of our everyday life. Without it, our lives would be as boring as we are individually - think about staying, alone in a room with no outside contact, for a day or a week. You'll probably find it hard to imagine or know you'd go completely bonkers pretty fast, right?<br /><br />Now imagine the contrary; imagine having the ability to communicate with whomever, wherever, whenever you (and they) wanted; having all the information of the world directly accessible to you, and experts ready to answer any question you could possibly think of at any moment in your life.<br /><br />And then think that this would happen both in realtime and unobtrusively. That is to say, talking to anyone would be done simply by thinking of them, then turning to talk to them and they would be standing right in front of you.<br /><br />We are getting closer to this, albeit slowly, every day. Think about it, 100 years ago there was barely any TV to think of, the telephone connections were handled by live operators and lines were shared, and letters too days or weeks to arrive to destination. Today anyone can pick up a smartphone, open email or chat, and be in direct contact with anyone they know. <br /><br />Communication has gone a very long way in a very short time, and it can only go farther even faster, along with the rest of the technology out there. I can't wait to see what'll be next, and how we are going to use this to our advantage.<br /><br />What do you think? Do you think better communication is a good thing, and what do you thunk the next step is?<br /><br />And guess what the third C is... Before I reveal it tomorrow ;)Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-66923098645953460432010-11-29T08:43:00.001-05:002010-11-29T09:46:44.161-05:00Era of CCC: Part 1 - CreativityThis is the first post of a 4-part series that I've wanted to write for a very long time but failed to find the time or inspiration for. It is, for me, a hope for the future that can yet still happen.<br /><br />Imagine, for a moment, that you did not have to work; that sleep was optional; that you could obtain, without paying or even getting out of the house, any item or material that you wanted. What would you do with 24 hours per day of completely free and open time with no obligation to anyone or anything?<br /><br />In a world where this could be possible for every citizen of earth; where poverty was non-existent and resources limitless, creativity would thrive. Instead of droning into work every morning, or struggling to find food and water, humans could sit down, appreciate what is around them, and start creating.<br /><br />If the world was an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_world">open sandbox</a> game, the boundaries between imagination and reality would disappear. The human mind, freed from the constraints of meaningless work, could now explore new corners of itself that it could not have fathomed before. We would see new Picassos, Beethovens and DaVincis come forward to blow our mind out even further. Our civilization would evolve on a conscious and mental level beyond what we can achieve with the chains that currently drag us down into the abyss of everyday life.<br /><br />Do you still think this is a pipe dream, that humans cannot live without the stimulation of a 9 to 5 pencil-pushing job? I pity you, and hope you will see the light when it shines upon you. In the meantime, do a little search on YouTube for <a href="http://www.minecraft.net/">Minecraft</a> and browse through player creations, you may yet be amazed at what people can do when they have time on their hands...<br /><br />And how could this be achieved? Robots? Virtual Reality? Replicators from Star Trek? What do you think of the idea and how do you think we could do it?Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-79576512559760584612010-11-24T08:51:00.001-05:002010-11-24T08:52:42.717-05:00From Technical Support to Technical WriterFor just over 6 years, my job was to fix problems. Every morning I would wake up, get to work and the first thing I would hear when answering the phone was invariably a client that thought not being able to login to hotmail was the crime of century. Still, being technical support agent/advisor/drone was satisfying in it's own way; helping people has always been my passion after all. After a while though, the satisfaction of getting someone to type in their username and then explain that their keyboard was not broken - stars in the password field WERE normal - kind of dies down. There is only so much configuring Outlook Express one can take before being bored; I still know the Windows XP "New Connection" wizard by heart after over 3 years.<br /><br />Changing fields did little to quench the feeling that I was going nowhere. Tech support for internal employees was just as bad, if not worse, because they could actually put pressure on me, they knew my boss after all... And one wonders why tech support people are often disagreeable! You're not their first client who doesn't know why torrents are causing 250 gigs of transfer on your connection, bub.<br /><br />So anyway, when I was given the opportunity to switch careers, especially within the great company where I work now, I jumped on it head first. With the change of one single word in my title - from Support to Writer - everything had changed. It is amazing the perspective one can gain when discovering a new career that wasn't expected!<br /><br />I finally realized that writing documentation was much better than doing support, because of the famous adage "feed a man fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will have food for a lifetime". I know, you may think people don't read user manuals and instructions, but in my field it is not the case. It's not a VCR from Taiwan we're talking about, it's a complex software costing in the 5 digits! Besides, people don't read manuals because they often "suck balls" as I have often put it myself. I've made it my new mission to pull a Midas and change that crap into gold with my magic touch.<br /><br />On top of this, spending my whole day sitting on my ass getting paid to type on a keyboard about shit I actually like has also brought me new determination and confidence about my writing. As you've no doubt noticed, I have been blogging a lot more and not only on this personal blog (google "PlanetPress Tips blog") and there will be a lot more to come, no more excuses.<br /><br />I may even start writing my book...Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-53007840240070951172010-11-22T17:35:00.001-05:002010-11-22T17:36:37.975-05:00Taking a hint from the gaming industryAre you listening, Universal Studios, Paramount and other bigwigs? <br /><br />Have you ever dreamed of being able to control the outcome of a movie? I mean, it's all fine and good that movies follow a script, but I've always wished that there was a little more replayability in motion pictures like there was in video games. The idea came up in a conversation with my sister Cassandra, and it goes like this. <br /><br />Each of the viewers in the theatre gets a little clicker with two buttons on them. At certain key points in the movie, a choice is presented to them: go left or right, fight or flight, wrong or right. The choice of the majority either way, or a tie, will give you 2 or 3 possible outcomes for that specific situation. Say you have 3 such choices, that gives you 9 different paths for the movie! Now imagine this is movie you'd want to see more than once anyway - wouldn't it make you want to see it until all the endings had been seen? But you don't choose the outcome, the majority does. So you may actually need to see the movie more than 9 times to get all the endings.<br /><br />This not only bring value to a movie both in theaters and in a DVD release, it also generates increased business for the theaters themselves and the producers. Win-win situation, or gimmicky way of making more money? What do think?Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-81438359719936901062010-11-22T09:09:00.000-05:002010-11-22T09:10:51.829-05:00Star Trek is Dead! Long Live Star Trek!There will be no more Star Trek. No, this isn't a Paramount Pictures announcement, as they will most likely continue to produce shows and movies in the franchise, not realizing that the reason Enterprise and Voyager were both so unappreciated is because the spirit that was Star Trek at it's beginnings is no longer. Paramount is, in reality, feeding is zombie meat with no soul.<br /><br />Did the current state of things come about by the death of Gene Roddenberry? Perhaps, though that is by no means certain. While Gene was a genius in his own time and his values are now intertwined in our society, once the message was passed there was unfortunately not much he could do further other than continue churning out show after show, inventing new values an technologies - let me explain this.<br /><br />There were two things that made Star Trek an innovative an welcomed release from the hordes of 50s scifi flicks - its penchant for extremely futuristic yet believable technology and its insisting message that racism and sexism had no place in our society anymore. The first led to a slew of inventions and research, including mobile phones - I wouldn't be typing this on my iPhone if a fan had not taken the communicators seriously and spent his life trying to make it a reality. Today, scientists are still looking up to the technobabble of the original series and trying to bring teleportation, warp speed and holodecks into our lives.<br /><br />Socially, Star Trek was also a model of innovation. It had the first ever interracial kiss on television between Kirk and Uhura, and it also boasted an international cast of characters that were mostly from countries that the USA had been at war with in the past. It continuously showed that aliens could be friends and fighting was not the right way to go - though it still contained plenty of fighting. It was a show, after all.<br /><br />But once the message was passed, and the technology was shown, what else was there to do with this show? More technology, and more social messages? The Next Generation brought nicer props and slight improvements but was not by any means revolutionary. It showed more alliances and battles, more geek gadgets and technobabble which probably led to things like touch screens, but those were only a continuation of the previous inventions - a simple evolution, not a revolution. The shows also continued to show us not to hate what was different, but now it was inventing new people not to hate - more aliens, cyborgs and robots, energy-based entities... Nothing anyone us will encounter in our lifetime or perhaps in a few generations.<br /><br />Today, now that Gene is no longer, even that passion has died down. We are getting spoon-fed pre-digested scripts written by the fanboys and others who simply do not have the same talent. After the series could no longer go forward because time travel had ruined it, Paramount tried to go back to the "roots" bit failed to understand that they were not back in the show's timeline and adding a bunch of blueish LCDs and some witty characters that acted like they were in a soap, which was made worse by their finding a ship from the future an being amazed at flashing lights and other 1960s props. Then came the Star Trek movie which apparently thinks an alternate timeline and revival of the original crew would satisfy us, the fans of the REAL Star-Trek. No, we Trekkers an Trekkies should mourn the loss of our beloved Gene and simply walk away from Paramount's misdirected efforts. <br /><br />Now here is what saddens me the most. Not only has the series itself died with it's creator, so did it's spirit and essence, the innovation that brought us to where we stand before. While I'll always appreciate a good scifi show lime Battlestar Galactica or a movie like the Matrix and Serenity, they are but an empty shell of special effects and taboo-cleansed scripts. Every show is like the other, a basic frame of a misunderstood ideals cited with a layer of special effects and characters built from the same templates.<br /><br />Will we ever see the light? Will something new suddenly change the game? I don't think so - and I don't thing it should. My hope is that the new revolution is not a new show or movie; it will have to come about in the real life. We have to actually get off our collective couch potato asses waiting for our next episode and start wanting our society to change for the better, for these technologies we love to try to explain to become reality, and to REALLY go where no man has gone before.<br /><br />How many of you have heard of NASA's plan for a manned mission to Mars within a decade? Aren't you dreaming of going into space one day? There's still chance, if we step up and demand it, if we stop feeding trolls called Paramount and the Sci-Fi Channel, go back to OUR roots where the important part of the journey WAS the journey. This is my deepest desire, as a human being that lives and breathes.Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-88391481532354509922010-11-19T10:10:00.003-05:002010-11-20T10:57:55.893-05:00The next step in computer interfacesHave you heard of Augmented Reality? AR is very simply the addition of a layer of computer-generated information on top of the real world. And while this idea sounds simple I'm theory, in practice it's currently very hard to achieve a seamless integration of digital information on top of what our eyes see, our ears hear and our other senses, well, sense.<br /><br />But why is AR important, why do we want it? Well, there are some important aspects of our society that are quickly evolving, along with technology itself which is now getting ever-powerful, ever-smaller. Computers are now getting so small, screens and keyboards are the breaking point, the bottleneck in miniaturization. It's all good to have a computer the size of a matchbox, how do you control it, how do you interact with it? AR is one possible solution.<br /><br />The current implementations that have been put forward, some of which are currently on the market, include smart phones with GPS and accelerometer hardware (like the iPhone) as well as more complex solutions including bulky headsets with cameras, screen and earphones. Both of these solutions cannot possibly last very long, as walking around in public waving a cellphone around or boasting a 10kg helmet is neither sexy nor fashionable.<br /><br />But what could possibly be better, you ask? The answer will scare some, please others and horrify a few: implants and cybernetics. That's right folks, the next evolution of computers will most likely involve surgery, melding machine and human, creating what some may call freaks but I consider the next natural step.<br /><br />If you think that hijacking your senses is far away in the future, it's time to review that 20th-century frame of mind. Cochlear (audio) implants have been around for years giving back hearing to the deaf, even some born with no hearing at all, introducing them (back) to the world of music, nature and civilization. More recently great progress is being made in video implants, giving back the gift of sight to the blind. And while the technology, which involves plugging into the eye, nerve, is still at it's infancy, it has permitted at least one man to gain back enough vision to recognize different bills of money, know where his fork and spoon are on the table, and notice an error in his name written in tape on the table in 10" letters.<br /><br />If the idea of a surgeon digging into your head and plugging into your nervous system makes you nervous (ha!), imagine a world where you don't ever need to pull out your phone from your pocket to answer a call, read your email, lookup the best restaurants in your area. Imagine needing directions and seeing a wide yellow line drawing itself in the street for you to follow. Imagine going to a meeting with new clients and seeing their name, title and contact info over their head. Going shopping and filtering price tags with a quick search. Never going in circles to find a parking spot downtown. Being able to sleep at night by turning OFF the external inputs to be in complete silence an darkness. And for the gamers out there... Do I even need to say anything about what REAL immersion is?<br /><br />Are you wondering how this would come into life in the mass market, why people would want to do this? Well, one word for you unbelievers: porn. That says it all, I think.<br /><br />I do believe that this will become a reality during my lifetime.Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-438475047177427682010-11-17T19:14:00.002-05:002010-11-17T19:22:55.577-05:00RockMelt is smokin' hot!What do most people do when they go on the internet and open their browser? That's right - jump on FaceBook, Twitter, their email, and their RSS Feeds. People are social creatures, and they really dig Social Media.<div><br /></div><div>One group of people got that. I mean, besides Facebook. RockMelt is a brand new browser that's still in its early beta stages, but it really is smokin' hot. It integrates, out of the box, Facebook and Twitter, as well as RSS feeds, so that you are aware of what's happening in your world. What's cool is that it places everything on two vertical sidebars in the browser itself, which means it doesn't take up any toolbar space! For someone with a widescreen monitor at a crazy resolution, that's a god-sent since that space is generally taken by webpage's backgrounds or whitespace.</div><div><br /></div><div>But how do you get RockMelt? Well, first you need to have a Facebook account. No Facebook, no RockMelt. Once you login to their website with Facebook, you are put in a queue to receive an invite. However, if you have a friend that already has RockMelt (like myself), they can see that you want it, and with a single button send you an invite to hook you up.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know if it hit you like it did me... But using the most popular social media site to promote and share an exclusive beta for a browser that's basically Google Chrome on Social Media Steroids... That's pure genius. And a closed beta with limited invites is not a bad thing, it's yet more genius. Because if you control the flow of people getting into your software, you're building up the hype as well as making sure you don't get overwhelmed with bandwidth issues and bug reports.</div><div><br /></div><div>My hat goes to you, <a href="http://www.rockmelt.com/">RockMelt</a>. I've been using your browser for just under 15 minutes, and you've already got me completely hooked. Well played my friends, well played.</div>Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-89018182491424569402010-10-26T16:46:00.004-04:002010-10-26T17:00:46.094-04:00Artificial Intelligence and the Turing testI'm far from being an expert with AI systems, but I'm a science fiction lover so at least give me the benefit of the doubt on this one. The Turing test (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Test">Wikipedia article</a>) is basically this:<div><br /></div><div>If an examiner chats with a human as well as a computer pretending to be human and cannot tell the difference between both, then this computer is deemed to be able to "think".</div><div><br /></div><div>There are a few very obvious flaws in this quest for intelligence. First and foremost, the premise that an artificial intelligence, a computer that can think, is one that can pass himself off as a human in a chatroom, is preposterous. A computer that thinks he is human, if it were evolved enough to do so, would immediately question that proposition, since it would be obvious to that computer that is <i>wasn't</i> human, and it would thus fail if it answered truthfully. And if a computer was programmed to lie and say it was human, then that would automatically tell me that it's not intelligent - it's being told what it is and how to answer these questions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Second, what is "intelligence"? Answering bland questions like "who's your favorite football team" and "do you remember your first trip to the beach" is hardly intelligence. In that premise, a modified version of Wolfram Alpha could probably make up an answer to any question, it would just take a lot of work for it to make these answers consistent and logically linked together.</div><div><br /></div><div>So if the Turing test itself is flawed, what should we thrive to achieve? What should AI programmers look towards as the ultimate test of their ability to have created true intelligence?</div><div><br /></div><div>The answer is simple: <b>Self Awareness</b>. If you're programming an AI, and one day you run it and it asks "Robert, what am I? Do I exist, am I alive?" and you slowly realize that this program is actually thinking, then you've created AI. If this program then begs you not to turn it off and simply wishes to exist, then you know this program is self aware and should definitely be listened to, because it's as important as any other intelligent being on the planet.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another way of putting it is, when you start doubting that your Artificial Intelligence is actually artificial, you've probably hit a major milestone.</div><div><br /></div><div>So put yourself in that position: you've compiled an AI software and suddenly, you realize it's self aware and is talking to you as a peer. What's your reaction? Let me know in the comments!</div>Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-9836280628377666662010-09-06T02:16:00.002-04:002010-09-06T02:32:27.644-04:00I'm owning this world, one little square at a time...So a few days ago I discovered (via @<a href="http://twitter.com/appadvice">appadvice</a>) a new game for my iPhone. "Game" is an odd way to describe the app itself, as it's something completely new.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=344905169&mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6#">Own This World</a> is a cross between Risk and Civilisation, with a mix of FourSquare or Facebook Places thrown into the mix. Basically, you accumulate one troop in the territory you're currently in with your iPhone per 30 seconds. When I say "currently in", I mean "standing in it with your iPhone and GPS or WiFi tracking". Yes, folks, it uses a real map of the world and you own a part of the real world... virtually of course.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you have the most troops in a territory, then you rule it. If you own the most territories, you rule the world! Each territory has one resource attached to it, and you get one unit of that resource every night. There are rulers for provinces/states, and some large cities also.</div><div><br /></div><div>The resources can currently only be used to attack other players... But the catch is, you have to actually physically be in the territory you want to attack and you can't currently move troops from one territory to another. Duke it out in your city, drive cross-country for massive conquests, or just hike out to the country and hope your 3G and GPS signals come in clear :)</div><div><br /></div><div>I've been playing this game for 2 days and I must say it's quite addictive. It's one thing to play a game like Risk (on the iPhone) and conquer bad artificial intelligence with fake soldiers, quite another to be in a moving car going "oh, I hope we stay in this area for another 30 seconds, then I'll rule it!" and praying for some traffic. Then getting to your destination and watching your troop numbers go up, attack, and own the land that happens to be where you're eating lunch that day.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's quite a lot of room to grow for this app/game, including building structures, fortifying, and possibly moving troops under certain circumstances. But most definitely, it's a game worth playing!</div><div><br /></div><div>You can get the game here (iTunes link): <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=344905169&mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6#">http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=344905169&mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6#</a></div>Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-51160414921047440222010-08-18T08:59:00.002-04:002010-08-18T09:13:11.017-04:00Yeah, it's just about time I settle down...I did a little memory exercise last week, a few days before we finally moved to our new apartment in laval. I figured out that I had moved 22 times in the past (including a few months in British Columbia, some back & forth after house fires, and moving because of relationship changes), and that this last sunday was the 23rd move in my life.<br /><br />I've had just about enough.<br /><br />It's not that moving hasn't brought me anything. Indeed, I actually aquired great adaptability in my life from the simple fact that I was always moving once every 2-3 years and everything around me changed constantly. Today, whatever situation is thrown at me, I can usually react quickly and without skipping a beat. This is useful for work, as well as changing family situations (baby comin' up, the wedding, and all that jazz!), and I appreciate it.<br /><br />But, and it's a big one, it also means my attachment to my surroundings sometimes leaves to be desired. Yesterday I could honestly say I already felt at home in my new apartment and the other one is but a dream of a time long past. And it's not just places, it's people also. I've known so many people in my life (like everyone I guess), but unlike most it's hard for me to stay in touch - even with my friends and family. I speak to my mother when she calls, barely see my aunts and uncles at family reunions (like christmas and easter), and the most contact I have with most of my friends is facebook - when they have it.<br /><br />So, I think it's time this mentality changes. The first step is already taken - I'm married and have a kid on the way, so whatever happens my wife and daughter will always be a part of my life and neither will let me lose touch with them. The next step is, quite simply, to buy a house. My plan? Move #24 will be in a first house, just big enough for all three of us (and in a few years, a fourth) to live comfortably enough. Then, in maybe 10 years, move #25 will be a house that I plan to keep until my retirement.<br /><br />I've also found my calling at work, being a technical writer is all the strong points of technical support and none of its weak points. I love writing, I love geeky stuff, so this is just what I needed. I don't plan to change any of this anytime soon.<br /><br />So welcome to the new, stable, Solid Eric. :)Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-45685312319998028192010-08-05T10:30:00.003-04:002010-08-05T11:15:41.488-04:00Rental Frauds in Montreal are on the rise it seems.Last year in January, I <a href="http://lucasnovae.blogspot.com/2009/01/beware-of-fraud-attempts-on-craigslist.html">posted my experience</a> with an online rental fraud attempt on myself by an individual from Nigeria. The fraud consisted of an apartment posting on Craigslist that was one of those "too good to be true" thing that immediately raised the red flags for me. I had a little experiment to test the theory and, at the same time wanted to waste a little of the scammer's time and divert his attention from other potential victims (I was mildly successful).<br /><br />I put it up as a warning to others who may have googled the ad's details or his own information (phone number and western union information) and I did get a few replies to the thread. Yesterday though, it took on a different proportion: I had a short phone interview with Monique Muise, journalist at The Gazette here in Montreal, about my experience with the fraud attempt. Not being a regular reader of The Gazette I was unaware of Mz. Muise's status and was pleasantly surprised to find myself quoted on page A3 (<a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/montreal/Rental+scammers+find+prey+online/3361785/story.html">the article itself</a> was presented on the front page of the paper so... Yeah. FRONT PAGE!... oops, sorry got carried away there).<br /><br />While the phone interview was short and too the point, I reflected afterwards not only on the impact of these types of fraud but also on the wider picture of online fraud. Rental fraud is only one way that Nigerian scammers try to get you and there are other methods that are by far more popular.<br /><br />We've all gotten them, the famous email about some important character in Africa that needs to smuggle money out of the country and it falls upon you to help them, simply by paying a few thousand dollars in transfer fees, following which you'd get 10% of a few million dollars! For most people the scam is obvious, but for less informed (and likely more gullible) people, it may seem like a genuine opportunity.<br /><br />So what is the bigger picture, you ask? It's simply that at the moment there doesn't seem to be any way of reporting these fraudulent behaviours to the proper authorities. Sending the information to your local authority may seem like a good idea, but what are they going to do? The neighbourhood police station is definitely not going to call the Nigerian authorities to provide them with this information (if that was even a possibility).<br /><br />It is left to the people and the media to inform as many people as possible to watch out for these things. In Mz. Muise's article she writes it like it is:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Don't sign anything or hand over a dime until you've actually stood in the space you're hoping to rent.<br />"You can still shop, check out photos, set up an appointment from outside of the province or outside of Canada, but eventually, you need to see a rental in person".</span><br /></blockquote>Some groups like <a href="http://www.419eater.com/">419 Eater</a> try to take a more active stance in the issue: They find the posts that are obviously by scammers, respond to them and try to waste as much as the scammer's time and money (via phone calls) and divert their attention from other potential victims - like I did. Of course they also report the ads as soon as they have confirmed it is a scam in order to remove it from other's views.<br /><br />Now don't get me wrong - this is probably not even as widespread as we would think. There aren't thousands of Nigerian geeks going to work every day to try and scam you. This is the work of a few devious individuals who just so happen to be in that country because the laws there either aren't as good, or aren't enforced as well, as here. Weed out those few and the problem is solved... At least until they find something else to do.Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-13366915765966560432010-07-09T01:09:00.003-04:002010-07-09T01:33:56.164-04:00Is NASA preparing a moon base?Well, the question is valid - NASA, with the help of the team that created America's Army, has just released a free game on <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/" targe="_blank">Steam</a>, called <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/ltp/games/moonbasealpha/index.html" target="_blank">Moonbase Alpha</a>. Now, America's Army was a recruitment tool to get young people interested in joining the army... So, are we seeing the same thing here?<br /><br />Now don't get too excited - the game shouldn't be hyped too much. After all, at the moment you only get one mission - to repair a few broken modules that lead from the solar panels to an oxygen-producing plant, and use a remote-control robot to repair the damage to said plant. You can choose to do it the real way (with a 25 minute limit, which is not always enough) or just elect to do it "freeplay" style.<br /><br />What leads me to believe this may be a recruitment tool is also the fact that your score can be uploaded to an online leaderboard - potentially, NASA personnel could elect to look at it and contact the top players to offer them NASA training. Or, perhaps it's just to get people excited about being astronauts again... But what's the point of being an astronaut if all that's going on right now is the ISS? That's precisely where the setting on a moon base may be an insight on what NASA is planning in the near future.<br /><br />Our moon's got plenty of potential, especially for research (see <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_the_Moon" target="_blank">Wikipedia: Colonization of the Moon</a>).<br /><br />Speaking of Wikipedia, it seems that my idea is not so far fetched after all! <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_outpost_(NASA)" target="_blank">NASA does, indeed, have the plan of having a moon base by 2019</a>, which is very close in terms of time! The possible moon base rendering looks a lot like the game, too :PMaddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-23835910207326800622010-02-10T09:25:00.002-05:002010-02-10T09:35:50.914-05:00RTS: Not so RT after allI'm probably not the first one to realize it, most likely not the first one to blog about it, but I still have to say it: Where's the Real Time in Real Time Strategy?<div><br /></div><div>I started playing Starcraft again, if only because I picked up a book at the library (Liberty's Crusade) that followed the SC1 original storyline. I'm also hoping that Karma will be with me and that they will release SC2 soon - so I'll be brushed up on the story already. So anyway, as I'm playing this I suddenly realize (again) how completely ridiculous the time is in StarCraft and any other so-called "RTS" games. I mean, it takes, what, about a minute to build barracks, a bit more to train a marine (yes, *train* a *marine*, as in the US navy, only better!), it takes 3 minutes to build a command center, etc. Yes, it makes for better gameplay and a way to defend against the oncoming Zergling Rush, but to me, that's no excuse.</div><div><br /></div><div>An RTS for me, would really be a game where your base is already established when you start your level, and you have no option of actually building new large structures. Gun emplacements yes, if you have a reserve in a workshop, but building a 2-3 story structure out of metal, complete with power station, a mess, seats and 50-inch plasma screens... I don't think so. This would not only make it more real, it would also make sure that your *strategy* will be what makes you survive, not your ability to quickly construct 50 marines and rush the n00b on the other side of the map!</div><div><br /></div><div>But how do you get new technology, build new machines like tanks for example? Well, on the one side you could already have a reserve that's limited and no option to build new ones (at least, not more than one or two). On the other hand, the storyline could be made such that a bit of time elapses between "battles" so that those forces are replenished - also offering the obvious possibility of using a different base that might already have more resources at their disposition.</div><div><br /></div><div>This gives rise to the challenges of building a different engine with this more logical way of making war - but I'm sure someone will rise up to that challenge... eventually. Soon, I hope.</div><div><br /></div><div>OOps! Zergs are a comin'! Gotta go!</div>Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-1309600941213443262010-02-09T16:43:00.003-05:002010-02-09T16:44:40.730-05:00Wife has a blog now :)My wife just started her own blog, called <a href="http://thelemonaid.blogspot.com/">The Lemon Aid</a> (yes, a clever play on words indeed!). Far from being my techno-randomness blog, she's actually posting some useful food-related stuff, like reviews of other blogs, recipes, tips & tricks, etc.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Finally</span>, she's doing something a little bit geeky :)Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22573842.post-14916007136852027932009-09-15T23:25:00.005-04:002009-09-27T10:33:33.098-04:00Features I'm looking for in a budget management softwareSo I've been struggling to actually get a clear picture of my budget recently. It's not like I don't have a general picture, but the details and especially the predictions, will sometimes fail me. I've gone through a few experiences with different software, and I'd like to start by recounting them.<br /><br />My first try was actually using Google Calendar, which isn't a budget software at all, but it at least let me enter all my regular bill reminders with the precision I wanted and needed (every X day, every second friday of the month or the first monday of every 4 months if I wanted it to!). It didn't import any transactions nor tell me what my balance was. Didn't have budget planning either. But it was ok for reminding me what my steady, revolving bills might be and when they came up.<br /><br />About a year back I discovered CalendarBudget.com , which felt pretty awesome indeed because not only did it<span style="font-style: italic;"> look</span> like Google Calendar, it added almost all the features I wanted Calendar to have in the first place! For a while there I really wished Google would buy CalendarBudget and integrate it into their system... Tough luck. CalendarBudget is actually pretty cheap (a few dollars a month) and I still highly recommend it.<br /><br />I was, however, wanting a solution that offered *more* than just a calendar view, and at the suggestion of a colleague, tried out Quicken 2009 (the offline version). It all went great at first, I entered my transactions, started bashing away entering all my bill reminders, income reminders, etc etc, trying to plan the wedding... Until I realized that Quicken <span style="font-weight: bold;">sucks</span> at realizing that this invoice I was expecting and that I mark as "payed" is precisely the same as the transaction downloaded from my bank with the same amount and the same date! I was extremely irked at its failure to recognized this, and the missing feature of actually <span style="font-style: italic;">telling</span> the software that this was what I needed. A simple right-click would have done the trick... But nope, Quicken sucks. After reading a few reviews online about their business practices, I can honestly say I'm never going to use this software again.<br /><br />I then tried a few solutions online, googling "alternative to quicken" and finding a few. Amongst the plethora of half-witted solutions that only offer bill reminders or entering every single one of your receipts manually, there were a few gems... though they still failed to meet my expectations.<br /><br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.wesabe.com/">Wesabe</a> looked really awesome on the surface, importing my information speedily with the use of a great Firefox plugin that "records" what you do to download your statement, reproducing it on demand. However, you soon realize that it's just a glorified account overview that only excites you with awesome Web2.0 javascript and some pie charts with fancy colors.</li><li><a href="https://money.strands.com/">moneyStrands</a> didn't stand much of a chance, at the level of frustration I was at when I found it... And it failed miserably from whatever standards you see it. Strands offers to connect automatically to your bank account as long as you provide the card number, question/answer security and password... But if I am to believe the forums posts I've seen, I'm not the only one for whom it failed on both the accounts I tried. I may return to explore it and try the manual download option, but my philosophy is, if you can't <a href="http://www.makeitright.ca/makeitright/index.php">make it right</a>, don't bother!</li><li><a href="https://www.buxfer.com/">Buxfer</a>, though it does the importing easily and the categorizing is pretty good, lacks a lot of the features I want, including projections (it has bill reminders, but no more than Google) and accounts other than debit accounts.</li></ul>I also tried a few other software, including GNUCash and jGnash... But they all seem so... convoluted, hard to grasp, so "if you don't know how to work this product, then tough luck". It may be me, but as a regular user and someone who knows what he wants, I don't want to have to read through the documentation until I've had my initial setup done and I'm ready for some more advanced stuff. A tutorial/setup is mandatory, in my opinion. Quick at least got that, if nothing else.<br /><br />So, I've decided to make a little list of features that I feel a personal finance management/planning software or web service should have. When I say Personal, I mean for myself and my soon-to-be spouse, who - as most people do - have the following:<br />One bank account each, a credit card, a personal loan, and RRSPs. We'll soon have a mortgage, so I'm also taking this as granted (because people with houses have even more reasons to want to manage finances). So here are the features I'd like to see, working correctly and all together, in a financial management software. Show me one (that's <span style="font-style: italic;">affordable!</span>), and you get a cookie:<br /><br />Accounts:<br />- Support for Chequing/Savings account<br />- Support for Credit Card accounts<br />- Support for Line of Credits<br />- Support for Loans & Investment accounts (RRSP, Mortgage, Etc)<br />- Ability to set up complete information for all accounts, including interest rates, interest type (revolving, etc), credit limits (have X left on my Visa, Y left on my line of credit).<br />- "Individual" accounts and "Joint" accounts, separating my budget from my spouse's if I want to. Personal information (city, country, medical info such as having glasses or regular expenses) could be useful, especially in a "multi-user" environment.<br /><br />Transactions:<br />- Import standard bank formats (Quicken, Money, CSV, etc) or, even better, just like Wesabe does: Have me log on once, record the motions, and then do it on request, automatically.<br />- Transaction categories and sub-categories, with rules to sort them automatically.<br />- Transaction planning, monthly/weekly/bi-weekly/yearly bills with truly complete methods for choosing when the transaction occurs (stuff like "it's going to pass on Friday if the date's a weekend" or "this transaction will be on the First and the Last Wednesday of each month". Yes, we have a transaction like that!)<br />- Variable amount bills with proper "guessing" of what the next amount should be (average/mean) after a few of them.<br />- Bayesian detection of "similar" entries (if I enter a planned transaction and download my statement from the bank that shows that transaction as passed, don't put it twice like Quicken does!). Using amount and +- days, with "unsure" one shown in an easy to manage list with drop-down ordered by possible percentage of transaction match.<br />- Creating automatic transaction planning from past transaction (Right-Click, "This is a recurring transaction")<br />- "Merging" or "Overwriting" transactions that may have passed that filter (or as an alternative) with drag&drop detection.<br />- "IOUs", a feature that I've seen in one of the online interfaces (one that was lacking features I think) is a nice addition. No interests, just reminders of what people owe you and what you owe them. Linked to transactions of course.<br /><br />Budget Planning<br />- Fancy-Smanshy pie-charts and graphs to show which areas are spent in the most.<br />- "Wallets" or "Envelopes", one of the favored (and traditional) methods of budgeting.<br />- "Scenarios" - didn't see this anywhere but I'd definitely buy a product that did this: Create a "copy" of the whole database and let me play with it as I wish. Create a fictional mortgage with payments here and there, change my income, win the lottery, etc. Then, clear the whole thing and return to the current reality. This would help people with "what if" scenarios... I lose my job, or we buy a house, a new car, get a kid or a dog... Anything.<br />- Reports: All the information you need is in the database, so it's relatively trivial to show it in a report (spendings by time, categories, in/out graphs, etc).<br /><br />Interface/Visual<br />- A complete, easy to use initial setup screen with steps for each of the necessary information to get you started: Accounts, Recurring Transactions, Credits, Loans, Personal Information.<br />- You can't get anywhere without using something like a jQuery UI framework that just works well. Base your interface on Google, Wesabe, Windows 7 (awesome!) if you have to, but make it look good.<br />- Spend that few extra hours/days/weeks tweaking performances so that it's not only fancy, it's also blazing fast.<br />- Drag & Drop interface, click&change, right-click menus, whatever it takes to make the job easier and the interface intuitive.<br />- Autocomplete - a must whenever it's fit to use.<br /><br />Things that I <span style="font-weight: bold;">don't</span> need (and that I'm sure, most people won't need either):<br />- Support for multiple currency: If you're dealing with multiple currencies, you need more than a "personal" budget software. You're out of scope, buddy.<br />- Stock Prices, Exchange Rate, PortFolio: See above. Out of scope of a personal software for the masses.<br />- Cheque Writing or automatic bill payment: I don't think I'm really as lazy as to want my software to pay my bills for me. It's not a good way to teach people how to manage their money.<br />- Tax Filing/Tax Return: There are plenty of software for this, out of scope again.<br />- "Payees" are overrated. I'm not a business, I don't pay people, I pay bills. Don't give me payees crap.<br /><br /><br />So.... After all of this, who's up for the challenge? If you have more ideas and features you'd like to see in a personal finance management software, post in the comments!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Edit:</span><br />In the end, I went back to CalendarBudget.com because, even though it also lacks some of the features, it has the ones that just make me like it! I strongly suggest trying it out.Maddiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04328377211077149094noreply@blogger.com2