luckykaa

Nottingham is well known for two things. One of them is as the setting for Robin Hood. The other is as the home of Warhammer. A franchise that's actually worth twice the entire tourist revenue of Nottingham.

So, because Ruth and Simon are big Warhammer nerds, and so is flickums , they went to Nottingham for Simon's birthday, and we joined them. I'm not a Warhammer fan so I was just along for the ride.

First port of call was an escape room. An officially licenced Warhammer escape room. That was originally planned for Saturday but there was some sort of booking cock-up so it got moved. No problem. Our plan was to chill in the hotel for the evening so we could easily do that some other time, Our host was a Warhammer fan - unsurprisingly - and well informed. He told us that the room was painted using Citadel paints.  I presume they get them in bulk, because it would need a lot of those tiny pots.

The setting was that we were in a ship that was about to crash and we need to power up and get to the escape pod. They really did do a good job of making it feel like a spaceship. Simon was away right at the start and seemed to storm through the clues. First room was very snug and cosy, but it didn't take us long to get the door open and into the next room. Door was blocked so we had some crawling through tunnels to do - honestly this was very physical for an escape room. I felt I didn't do a lot, but I did at least solve one of the puzzles.

Next day we went to Warhammer World. Had a look around, and saw the exhibition. I'm not into the game but I really can appreciate the level of detail in the modelwork. Finished up and went to Bugmans - the onsite bar/restaurant. I'm a little disappointed that they don't have the in-character blurb on the menu items any more. Last time I was there I had a great time reading the menu. Still, the food was pretty good.

Went back, deposited flickums in the hotel to decompress a little and I went into town to mooch with Ruth and Simon. Found a very nice little shop that sold geek tat and had some quirky goth type stuff downstairs. I found an additional present for Flickums and just had to smuggle it home.

We'd gone past an Afghan restaurant ad steakhouse on the way to the escape room and I liked the look of it so we decided to try it out. So I ordered. Turned out what I wanted wasn't on the menu, Flick ordered. Turned out what she wanted wasn't on the menu. We apparently found the only steakhouse in Nottingham with no steak! Or lamb. Or anything except chicken, as far as I could tell. We asked for a bit more time and decided they really should have told us they were out of everything before we came in!

Eventually found a very nice Turkish restaurant, and had a very nice grilled see bass, but I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to something with that middle eastern spiciness.

Still, it was a nice weekend. These are definitely some of the people I absolutely love spending time with.

I was roped into doing IT support for my dad.

I don't know how old his PC is, but since the CPU was discontinued in 2010 I suspect it's getting on a bit. The last time it was updated was when it was upgraded to Windows 10. My dad refuses to add updates. Or to do any basic housekeeping. Or replace it. The thing needs to be put down.

Anyway, the reported problems were: Thunderbird doesn't work. Neither does the scanner software.

Additional problems - it takes forever to start. And then loads a load of applications in the background. These include Windows Live Messenger. An application that was discontinued in 2013.

And it seems 3GB of RAM just isn't enough these days to run several applications at once.

So, after about half an hour we got as far as attempting to start the scanner software. If has a big "f" where the interface should be. So I googled it. Apparently this relies on Flash. Another discontinued product. Attempted to download new software, and started uninstalling the flash based scanner software. It got to 40% done in a fairly short time and remained 40% done for the next hour or so.

So gave up. Went to Brighton.

When we got back, scanner software was finally uninstalled. Refused to let me do anything without rebooting! Rebooted. Had a cup of tea. Finally system restarted. Tried installing the new software. Seems it was just drivers. Drivers were fine. Had to reload Firefox to download "HP Scan extended". This took a good few minutes to start. Found the software. Found the download link. It was an FTP link. Firefox no longer does FTP!!!

Also tried getting Thunderbird to behave. Tried updating password. This took an age as well. My dad has the password deviously hidden inside an Excel file, but this involved starting Excel. Another 5 minute wait for that to happen. Then prod it for ages while he found the hidden cells containing his password.

So, got an error message. Google says there's a setting in Thunderbird that we can change. It worked. Got an entirely new error message.

Eventually gave up. I still had to drive home. But dammit, I hate leaving the poor thing in that state!

Well, I seem to have my activity mojo back.

I want to do some computer vision stuff. Also I want to do some costuming stuff. I have a Link costume to finish remaking. And i need to tailor a fallout Vault suit. And I need to make a Snow White costume for Flickums. And I have a hankering to make more prop/costume stuff. And I have another couple of software projects to get on with. My comic maker is still buggy as hell and incomplete. And really I feel a need to make an anagram generator for Android. And there's a few bits of DIY left to finish.

Looking at that list, it doesn't seem so bad. I do think I need more time though. Still, Rope climbing, gaming, and other stuff that I want to do does seem to cut into the time available to do all this.

Is dying my hair blonde for a Spike Cosplay taking things too seriously? Possibly. But I did... flickums encouraged me because she liked the idea of me being her "Blondie Bear".

Amber Benson was going to be at the Vampire Ball 8. I've had a fan crush on Amber since seeing her at Nocturnal 17 or 18 years ago, because she was so lovely to me and all the other fans. She remains lovely. She was adorable, very giggly, and kind of cheeky, on stage, answering fan questions.

I had a photo with her. I dressed as Spike. The queue moved slowly because she made a point of saying hi to everyone she got a photo with. I don't mind that. It was so nice to meet her.

Was a little upset with myself that shyness seemed to start taking over. I found it hard to start talking to people I don't know. Usually I'm okay at that at conventions. Also I really wanted to go up and ask a question, but shyness prevented me. At least there were lots of people I do know.

On the positive side, I did enter the cosplay competition.I like the Starfury competitions. People don't take it too seriously (or remotely seriously). You get some very talented and clever entries. So I could just walk on as Spike, do a twirl and walk off. Everybody likes it. And the other thing I liked was how lovely everyone is. More than happy to help get costume sorted, offer advice, pose for photos, and just chat.

Despite shyness I had a ball.

The Ulster Museum has many exciting and interesting exhibits. Probably. We just went there to inspect the tapestry. And distracted only by an Oxfam, we set off.

This particular tapestry is one of the newer exhibits.  77 metres long, it tells us the story so far of A Game Of Thrones. Designed in a manner reminiscent of the Bayeaux Tapestry, it has all the essential events of the last 7 seasons.

So we saw it, thereby catching up with the story. Certainly an impressive achievement. 

We also had a quick look around the museum.  But I wanted to go see the transport museum, so off we went,  distracted only by another charity shop, and an inexpensive cafe where we stopped for food (the museum is next to the university so there's a decent choice of cheap places to eat.

The transport museum is about 6 miles out of town, so one train ride later we were there.

It's not a huge collection but quite nice. There's a range if locomotives and railcars, plus an inspection bicycle. Also some tiny little brewery locomotives. A lot of the trains and coaches have signs inviting us to step aboard, so I did. Flickums had gone of to look at the Titanic exhibit next door. 

One of the things in the Titanic exhibit, but not in the Titanic museum was a selection off artefacts from the wreck. They also had a rivet game where you had to press buttons as soon as they lit up. Hard mode was impossible.

Next room was the transport room. Mostly trams and buses, including a few trolley buses. After that was a display of cars. They had a Delorean (it is Belfast's most famous car after all)! One of the cars was a little single seater "invacar", which seemed to intrigue a couple of American tourists.

Finished off with a visit to the air, land, sea section. Not a lot there but they did have a Short SC1 VTOL experimental aircraft.

I had a nice day. What can I say? I'm a train nerd.

Our guide on our trip to Westeros was Thorn. A big, ugly, and very nice chap who does Viking re-enactment, and is an extra in the series.

Winterfell itself was fairly unassuming. It is a small tower and a couple of small buildings. The CGI wizards ad more walls and towers and make it look like a castle should look rather than how it does look. Fortunately Thorn was equipped with stills from the show, and could show us the bits that were real. It was a lot less obvious than Dubrovnik, but definitely the same place.

Next we had a bit of a hike along a soggy track, and up a hill to another tower. Did we recognise it? flickums showed her expert knowledge of all things Game Of Thrones, by correctly identifying it as one of The Twins. More walking led us to a hanging tree, and a few other bits of forest previously visited by Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth.

Thorn also pointed out a particular tree that appears in the background a lot. I think I will be noticing that tree a lot in the future.

We stopped for lunch at a pub. I ordered a half-pint if Hodoor, because I felt I had to. Sadly it was a rather uninteresting pilsner. 

Food finished, we were introduced to the direwolves! Thor and Odin, who play Summer Greywind. A huge surprise, since this was not actually advertised as part of the tour, because they can't always come. Flickums squeeled in excitement when it was mentioned we'd be able to meet them. They really are gorgeous dogs. A wolflike breed, with lovely thick grey coats, and a really nice temperament. We would have loved to have taken them home.

We had another brief excursion, where we got to put on cloaks, and pose with swords. Somehow, Flickums managed to get the one with black fur around the collar, and actually she did bear a pretty good resemblance to Jon Snow. Apparently Kit Harrington isn't that much taller (he's a little less than the 5'8" he claims). We went to a ruined abbey, that made a very fitting backdrop.

Last part of the tour was a drive to the forest, and then a mile or so trek to where the first scene of the series was shot, and then to where the Starks see the dead direwolf in episode 1. Another long trek along forest paths this time. It felt a bit of a trek, just to see a small forest clearing and a rock by a stream. Not sure the payoff was really there.

All in all it was a very enjoyable tour. Although we were suffering from very tired feet by the end.

Worldcon finds some spare space! It was hidden under the convention centre all along.

The new rooms were suitably vast. Two new rooms, with easily enough space for 500 people (although fairly close to full at that). Didn't have any problem getting in to anything I wanted.

Went to see some demo scene stuff, and learned that people are still developing Amiga and even C64 demos. Some pretty funky stuff, including a very nice Ray traced demo (which I think was in the 4k category), and an Amiga demo - although that one was on an '060. No doubt there are some demos that run on a stock A500.

Someone was denigrating a VR fly through of their novel setting. Basically a rollercoaster ride in VR which can be a bit disconcerting with the desire to  lean into curves.

Day ended with the Hugo Awards. I think this is one if the least comfortable auditoriums I've seen. It was a pretty good show. Some nice acceptance speeches. Ursula Vernon told us about whale fall in one of the most bizarre but fascinating acceptance speeches for any award ever. I do have mixed opinions about the Hugos. While it's fun to watch, I have a slight sense of the serious fans and writers seeing the Hugo Awards as their thing, and being a bit cliquey about it. I think they all went to their own party after the awards.

Chin had picked up what with having all the extra space. Look forward to day 4

In Tabletop RPGs skills are modelled using dice and a "skill" parameter. You state your intention to attempt a task. The Game Master (GM) asks you to roll. The mechanics of the system ensure that people who are good at a skill are more likely to succeed than those who are not.

Dungeons and dragons mostly relies on a roll of a 20 sided die. Some games use percentile dice, or sets of polyhedrals. But how do we acurately model skill?

Let's compare two archers

John Klutz (skill level: "incompetent") has barely a clue. He holds the bow incorrectly, takes a bad stance and tries pulling the arrow rather than drawing the string. The arrow will still go in a direction approximating forwards. But he'll rarely get a bullseye.

At the other end of the scale, we have the legendary archer (Robin Hood, or Katniss Everdeen). They never miss!

A fluke for John Klutz is hitting the centre ring. A calamity is hitting someone behind him.

For the legendary archer though, we expect that. Even a mere Olympic archer will hit yellow more often than not. A fluke result for a legend is Robin Hood hitting the arrow that's already in the target. A calamity is Katniss not hitting the centre when it mattered most.

Flukes and calamities are what makes things exciting. They add more than a simple pass/fail. Robin Hood doesn't just win! He passes into legend! Katniss needs to do something incredible to make up for the failure. These are million to one to one shots, and in fiction, according to Terry Pratchett, "million to one chances crop up nine times out of ten"! And they should, but in games, it should be nine games out of ten. Not nine attempts! We do want it to be possible for this to happen.

We can simply roll a die. A standard six sided die (d6 in gaming parlance). This makes the extremes come up a little too often. 1 in 6 attempts are flukes. 1 in 6 are calamities. That's far too frequent. You can make them less common with 20 sided dice (d20), or even percentile dice.

It lacks something though. All results are as likely as each other. In a skill based challenge they're not. In my archery example, the target has a yellow circle, a red circle, a blue one and a black one each of the same thickness. But because the diameter is larger, the area is larger. The red circle has 3 times the area of the yellow centre circle. John Klutz is more or less hitting random points on the target so he'll get 3 times as many reds as yellows. The expert is aiming for the centre, so should get substantially more yellows.

( At this point, things get longer and more mathematical. )

My conclusion here: The roll and keep mechanic is probably the best, both for elegant modelling and for general nice results. The next best is probably roll a bunch of six sided dice and add the modifiers. Noit sure which oif these I go for in my homebrew game but they're certainly my favourites.

An odd meme that crops up from time to time is something along the lines of "Books are better than e-readers". I guess it's not that common, but it's something that newspapers and magazines will occasionally dedicate a page to, and something that I see as a meme on facebook from time to time. For example, this one. It's one I don't quite understand.

I mean, understand why people like books more.

But why the disparagement?

Kindles are great! They're immensely portable. My Kindle 4 fits easily into a bag and can hold hundreds of books. I'm taking a train ride tomorrow and don't really want to take a bag. Not a problem. I have the app on my phone. It automatically syncs with my other devices. And I get access to the whole of project Gutenberg! For Free!

And I know books are great too! Everyone does! Everyone who has a Kindle or a nook or any of the other e-book types has them because they love to read. They have heaps of paper books. And they know they're great! The texture of the paper, the feel of turning pages, the smell. We love everything about them! The UI is great too. The remaining thickness indicates progress, flicking through to find a previous point is cool to. You can take them to book signings and get the author to autograph them! The search feature is non-existent but on the whole, it's a great format. It's been around for centuries virtually unchanged. Of course it's good.

Both have their uses. And the key thing is that they transmit stories from an author to a reader. Seems to me that what's important is reading. Not the means we use to read.

I have a lot of projects currently on the boil. I'm really not sure what I should be looking at finishing.

PiBot: A rasberry pi, some motors, a Wii controller and some electronics. It's sort of fun to do stuff with my habds for a change. First experiment was getting a Pi to drive a motor. Next step will be directional control and then getting a robosegway working.

Android sliding block game: Essentially a clone of Split Personalities from the C64. And it's sort of making progress. Somehow though I can't get into it though. I just find this a dull project. I should be able to finish it. Nothing remaining is difficult. I need to add a level complete animation, a game complete screen, a set of start buttons, and possibly all the other paraphernalia related to Android games. Also, need some pictures.

Comic editor: Actually this one has reached a nice stable point

Then there are things I want to investigate

OpenGL programming: I am so out of date with this. I know broadly how shaders and stuff work, but I haven't had that much experience. The hassle here is setting things up. Windows' OpenGL support stinks. It doesn't even handle OpenGL 2.0 out of the box (we're on V 4.3 now). Perhaps I should consider Vulkan instead but I've written a whole load of that and still haven't got close to actually drawing anything.

Computer Vision: This is part of the PiBot. I really should learn OpenCV some time. Also I have some mirrors that I need to configure to do some 3D vision stuff.

Space Ship Manager: Combination of Star Trek and a football management sim. Yes. Yet another game, because why not?

So that's a total of 6 projects. I really can't decide which one to do next.