My Simulacra

I have decided that there is just too much work for me to do, and I have too many fans.

I considered cloning myself, but it turns out I don't know a whole lot about genetics, and it takes a real long time to grow a clone. My next thought was to create a magical simulacrum of myself. But magic if fickle... And that three by three rule could really have some serious backlash.

So I made the only logical decision. I made a digital copy of myself. So may I introduce you to my simulacrum. You can find him in the upper right hand corner of my blog.

He is currently hosted at Pandorabots.com. He is an AIML bot, which means his brain is a collection of XML files. I didn't want to start with a completely brain-dead simulacrum, so he has quite a bit of ALICE in him. Turns out though, that ALICE and I don't actually get along all that great. Our views on the world differ by quite a bit. In fact, last night I spent several hours ripping piece of the brain out that I didn't feel were important.

My hope is that eventually my little friend will be able to mimic me. I have been teaching it some of my speech patterns, and correcting it whenever it says something insanely stupid. But he can not learn if he does not talk. So I invite everyone to talk to him. If he starts saying stupid things, just please remember that he has half of a brain from ALICE, and the other half is from me.

If he gets confused, don't worry about it. Next time I talk to him he'll ask me about things that confuse him, and I'll explain it to him. You can try to explain it to him, but he tends to run most things by me before he actually remembers them (for example, if you tell him a joke, he won't start telling it to other people until he's told it to me first).

Time Management Interoperability

I have trouble keeping track of appointments. I just don't remember dates and times. Google however has saved my bacon many times!

In google you can share your calendar with other people, or if you want you can share just portions of your calendar. You can adjust if it's public, private, etc. Great stuff! And of course I can set it up so I see my calendar on my iGoogle page, which is awesome.

But at work we don't use Google to track everything. We use Outlook, of course. So in order to plan anything that is more than something simple, I have to look at both at the same time. Most of the time work and home don't overlap, but they do sometimes. Planning vacation days of course makes them overlap. Doctor's appointments can affect things too. And sometimes it's just good to know when you will be too stressed to handle one more task.

So I decided to test things out a little bit. I found some tools that would synchronize Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar. And here are my results, for you all to view.

My first test was with Remote Calendars

This is probably the most popular and common one out there from what I can tell. It's free, which is always good. It can be found at sourceforge.

I didn't follow the setup instructions, I wanted to see if it would just work right out of the box. It installed smoothly. Setting up the sync was rather weird though, and I had to actually go read instructions. At that point I found out I had installed it completely wrong, so I started over, following a nice set of instructions I found on the net.

I managed to get my Google cal into my Outlook, which made me very happy. When I tried to go the other way, it didn't do anything. I fiddled with it a bit more, to no avail. So I tried to start over. At this point, I apparently did something very stupid, and Remote Calendars deleted my ENTIRE outlook calendar, with no warning. Boom, gone.

Maybe I should have backed up my calendar first, but I didn't think of that, and it wasn't listed in the instructions. I spent a good hour recreating my Calendar, and promptly uninstalled Remote Calendar.

Out of 5 stars, I give them -1! Installation wasn't too bad, setup was difficult, it did not do what I expected it to do, and somehow or another it completely destroy my Calendar.

My second test was gSyncit

This one is costs $9.99, and is therefore less popular. However, it has an evaluation mode that is free. In evaluation mode you can sync one Google Calendar to one Outlook Calendar. It is not a time limited evaluation mode. It does not auto-sync in evaluation mode. It can be found here.

Install was a breeze here. I downloaded it, ran the file. It put a little icon in my system tray. When I loaded up outlook it asked for my Google username and password. It then let me setup a connection between my Google Calendar and my Outlook. I hit sync, it synced everything, both ways, I rejoiced.

I tried deleting, adding, and modifying items in both Outlook and Google seeing how it worked. Since it didn't autosync I had to keep hitting the button to test it, which resulted in a little popup window that would go away if I registered. Everything on the Outlook end of things worked smoothly. The Google side was a little less than smooth. Google didn't seem to like it when you change an appointment while viewing it, but nothing major.

But, Outlook must be running for it to sync. I guess it's better than nothing.

txt 4 pizza

The other day I decided to order some pizza from Papa Johns. I knew there was the ability to order pizza using text messages, so I wanted to try it out. Last time I ordered online I setup my account to be able to do it (which mostly required me to save a favorite order, save my credit card info, and enter in my cell phone number).

First of all, I didn't know who to text my order to. But I found it on their website after a bit of hunting around. And then the conversation between me and that automated system began. Let me show you the dialog we had

Me: Fav
PJ: TXT FAV1 to order Favorite1
Me: Fav1
PJ: Reply Y1 to confirm order of yadayada $18.98 NOW CASH
Me: N1
PJ: You have cancelled your FAVORITES order.
Me: Fav1 pay 9999
PJ: 9999 is not accepted for this order. Reply PAYMENTS for a list of your Payment Types.
Me: Payments
PJ: 1) VS9999 2) Cash 3) Check
Me: 1
PJ: Sorry but we did not understand your request.
Me: Fav1 pay vs9999
PJ: Reply Y1 to confirm order of FAV1 yadayada $18.98 NOW VS9999
PJ: If you would like to add a TIP reply TIP and the amount (18% $3.42)
Me: Tip 4
PJ: Thank you for your order, yada yada
PJ: Thank you for your order. FAV1 will be delivered in approx 30-40 minutes.

Did you read all that? Nah, I didn't figure so. It was a pain! It would have been quicker to call. It would have been quicker to order online. It would have been quicker to use messenger pigeon!!!

Apparently they also think you should tip 18%. Interesting. I usually pick a random number depending on service, how poor I'm feeling, and how thankful I am to have someone else bringing me food. That day, I was hungry, so $4 bucks it was. In the end, it took over an hour for the pizza to get there. In retrospect, I shoulda tipped less, but the text messaging system didn't tell me the pizza was going to be late when it asked for my tip amount.

Next time though, I have it figured out. I'm gonna try typing in "Fav1 pay vs9999 Tip 4" and see what happens.

Uphill Both Ways

I know I've already complained about the drivers of Washington State in snowy conditions. But it must be done again.

Today there was snow, almost an inch. Now, my car isn't the best car for snow, but it does have manual transmission which in my opinion makes things a LOT easier. But all of those other vehicles, the SUV's, the 4x4 pickup trucks, the hummers, and all of the nice cute little hybrid cars out here apparently handle snow worse than a car (and driver) from South Dakota.

It took me nearly half an hour longer to drive my 15 minute drive to work today. There were several times we were going 5 miles an hour. I spent most of the time in first gear, and only twice (very shortly) did I get to switch to third gear (I normally go pretty much the whole drive in 4th).

Most of the way I was in no danger of dying in a fiery snowy crash, I was just in danger of dying of boredom. Except for that one idiot that didn't know how to drive on snow, so decided to tailgate me the whole way.

I mean geez people, is it so hard? Drive normal, apply your brakes before you get to the stoplight, don't tailgate, don't panic. Easy! Back when I was a kid in South Dakota I had to drive uphill both ways through several inches of snow every day to get to school! Oh crap. Does saying that automatically make me old? Maybe I should go check for grey hairs...

2008: Year of 4th Edition

Hey, it's a new year. So I figure I better make my first post of the new year.

I once made a successful new years resolution, and because of it, I don't make new years resolutions. It was sometime back in high school if I remember correctly. It was "Never to make another new years resolution".

But the great part about this new year is Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition is coming out! I admit, I'm excited. I have no idea what it's going to look like. But I'm excited anyways.

Until 4th edition actually is out, I'll be GMing a 3.5 D&D game over the web. I'm running it slightly different than I am used to. Each session will be shorter than I am used to (probably 3 hours). Also, each session will be completely self contained. It will be a series of 'one shot' campaigns. In the long run they will all tie together, hopefully. It will be similar to how a TV series works. It might just work.

Eat your heart out Walt Disney

I have decided I am going to take up a life in the theatre. I plan on working in the field of ice ballets. My first production will be a social commentary on the winter driving habits in the Pacific Northwest. I shall name it "Roundabouts on Ice".

I live somewhere between Seattle and Portland. We got a nice skim of ice on the roads this morning. I'm assuming it's due to freezing rain, but I didn't actually stop and interview the ice. I drive a small little car. It handles WONDERFULLY in icy weather, it's very similar to a snowmobile. But even I was having trouble this morning...

This area is well known for it's use of roundabouts, a funky sort of intersection that requires you to drive in circles until you feel dizzy. Cover these things in ice, and insanity happens. I come from the Midwest, where ice was easily battled with salt and sand. Apparently here, they don't believe in the magic powers of salt and sand. Instead everyone drives 5 miles an hour in the round abouts, run red lights because they can't stop, and fishtail all over the highway. They also like to panic and slam on their brakes.

I admit, it was bad road conditions. I did not expect it this morning, but I did have a warning before I hit the roads. And I can understand one or two mistakes being made on the icy roads. But I think they would do well to have someone actually tend to the roads. These people are not used to driving on icy roads, why make it more complex than needed?

Where have all the geeks gone?

I watched I Am Legend this weekend. It was great, I loved it. It was a drama, when I was expecting a horror. Very fantastic movie.

I suggested my coworkers go and see it when they get a chance, and that got us talking about movies. One of them suggested that Transformers was the movie of the year. Seemed reasonable, but I said Pirates was in the running too, which they responded with 'meh'. 'Meh'?!? It's pirates! But alright, not everyone has the same tastes.

Then I mentioned the preview at the beginning of I Am Legend, the preview for the new Narnia movie. Oh it looked great! My coworker than said "I didn't see the first Narnia." I kinda blinked at him and asked if he read the book, he said "It was a book?" I kinda rubbed my temples, and said "You might like it. It's big, epic, awesome. The cinematics reminded me of the big battle scenes in Lord of the Rings." He said "I didn't watch that either." To which I responded "Wait, what? You didn't watch Lord of the Rings?!?" He kinda looked at me funny.

I shouted across the cubicle walls at the only other coworker that was in the office at the time "PLEASE tell me you have seen Lord of the Rings!!!" I got the response of "Uhm, I watched the movie once, I think..."

These people are programmers!!! Yet, they are not geeks. It is so strange. My Star Wars jokes fall flat on their ears also. The best I have gotten out of them is that most of them have seen Wrath of Khan (but they don't know it by name, I just say "That Sci-fi movie where they put the bug in the guy's ear" and they say "Oh yeah, I saw that once").

I think I might start performing experiments on them. Expose them to pieces of geek culture and see how the react to it. Will they embrace it? Will they reject it? Will they begin flinging their poo?