Author archives: Mike
Pleasant walk around a night market (Very generous hosts...)
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on
in
Vindaloo.
Our hosts took us for a walk around one of the night markets this evening (after treating us to a very well done dim sum dinner). The night market is a very large, intense and close version of the shops down in Chinatown (or Kensington Market), but without the need to close everything in, so ...
Quick walk while the process runs (At least I got out of the air conditioning...)
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on
in
Vindaloo.
Feel so stupid sitting here coding software at home. Two bugs found, one a straightforward "duh", the other a scaling issue that didn't show up in the tests, with a straightforward fix. Still, that's 4 hours of my time here gone.
Went for a walk as the final run was working. Just around the block. ...
Little things to remember (What not to do when travelling...)
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on
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Vindaloo.
Just got into the room about 40 minutes ago. Total door-to-door travel time of 33.5 hours. Things to remember in the future:
When figuring out how much time you have left on your passport, remember to calculate based on the day you arrive in the country, not the day you leave your own country. My ...
Forgot how fun PyGame is (Been way too long...)
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Snaking,
Young Coders.
Been hacking on a spike test for Productive for the last few hours. PyGame is really very fun once you get (back) into it, gets right out of the way most of the time. First task was to re-learn sprite-based rendering and create a simple grid of squares that responds to mouse-overs with a highlight. ...
WiFi is Free in Vancouver (Promised land...)
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in
Vindaloo.
In Vancouver airport, at my departure gate about 5 hours early. Unlike at Pearson (Toronto) airport, the network access is free. Darn right it should be free.
Flight over Canada was non-eventful. Seat-mate was asleep the entire flight. Had a neat encounter on the subway, lady who had a severe brain hemorrhage when she was ...
What to do for 24 hours (Rubbing hands in manic glee... free time (sort-of))
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Knight Errant,
Young Coders.
Have half a dozen different projects that all need my time. Going to have 24 hours to work on them as I get over to Taipei. I'm thinking maybe spend the bulk of the time on a few spike tests for Productive. Control systems, that kind of thing, so we're not going into the Game ...
Only 24 hours to go (Lots and lots to get done...)
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Young Coders.
I leave tomorrow afternoon for Taipei (need to hit the airport around 3pm tomorrow, so need to leave here around 2pm). Finishing up the talk now, pausing to let it settle before reviewing and re-cutting... may try to cut 7 more slides. It's strange how a topic that was a 5 minute presentation a month ...
Oh, they want lots of details (Check the duration of presentations...)
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in
Young Coders.
Turns out I'm scheduled to give a 2.5 hour presentation tonight (Soni pointed that out yesterday night). Should remember to check these things. Not a big issue, I can talk for days about the project off the cuff, but the slide decks I've been using lately are targeted at a 20-30 minute presentation (or less). ...
OLPC-Toronto Game Jam/Sprint (Participants?)
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Snaking,
Young Coders.
We're thinking of having a Game Sprint on the 16th through the 18th of November (still looking for an appropriate venue). At the moment there's only 2.5 of us. We've got one brainstorm (or a light drizel) of doing a simplified Real-time Strategy game. More powerful downpours welcome.
CMU is going to be doing a ...
That was really fun! (Long and deep conversations with the students and faculty...)
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Young Coders.
Okay, so I admit it, I'm a bit of a philosophy enthusiast. My degree is in design epistomology. I love discussing ideas, and particularly ones surrounding design and intentionality. So tonight was just golden. The OCAD students and faculty were easily the most sceptical group I've yet had the pleasure of meeting. They asked all ...
Mike C. Fletcher, the VRPlumber, is a philosopher of design turned computer programmer based in Toronto, Canada. He works primarily in the Python programming language, and maintains a large number of Open Source software packages. You can reach him at: mcfletch@vrplumber.com.