The New WorldMaker.net

Now that I've got comments up (and now working) I thought I might comment a bit on the crazy technology going on. I've really embraced the "Web 2.0" hype for this roll out...

• Tags as main organizing concept
• Photo hosting by Flickr
• Spam tracking by Akismet
• Comment tracking by coComment

All of this in Python using Django. I've never had so much power to build in connections to such neat stuff in as fast of a time.

I hope to post my codebase as open source shortly. Mostly I'm just planning to get a few more key pieces into "Darcsforge".

On Redmond and Thai Food

Today was the second Sunday where I spent most of the afternoon biking into Redmond and then hanging about the Redmond Town Center. The RTC is appropriately named, it is about the center of the town's few activities. What's interesting here being how much it proves that Redmond isn't much of town, because the Redmond Town Center, the faux downtown, is nothing but an open air mall in the modern "prettier than an average strip mall" style (like the Summit or 4SL back home). Redmond has almost gone out of its way to remain such a "non-real town". It wouldn't really exist as a city without Microsoft, merely a suburb, perhaps. Then they decided that they absolutely didn't want a traditional downtown and so the rule is that no buildings are allowed above 3 stories. Honestly, it seems that people are pretty happy with the city as extended mall concept, leaving them the illusion that their expensive homes are more rural than they are.

I missed Lewis Black's visit to the RTC (but I did today pick up one of the remaining autographed copies of Nothing's Sacred), but I'm told he definitely had a few short words on the "Town Center".

I ate again at what is arguably the best place to eat at the RTC, Thai Ginger. The Seattle area has some cuisine areas that are lacking (for being such a "Seafood Town", I would kill for a decent mid-range King Fish-esque seafood place), but Thai is not one of them and Thai Ginger is one of the better ones, which is surprising for its Strip Mall surrounding. It quite reminds me of Sala Thai (I love Sala Thai back home. Weird tangent story, I actually was one of the first ...

Mafia Online

I've wanted to write a web-based version of Mafia for some time. Now that I have a version of Assassins under my belt (plus a Tournament Engine that hasn't seen use yet, but is certainly ready for it), I think it may be time to contemplate a version of Mafia.

One of the interesting things I've considered is doing some cross-play between Assassins and Mafia, to reconnect the game to the physical environment. I could certainly reuse the Assassins data structures for keeping track of player status, at the very least. I was thinking that the Mafia could assign their kills to Contractors, and those would create Assassins Contracts. The lynching at the end of the day could be put out as a "Wanted Poster", in that every player (excluding the lynchee, of course) would get the contract. Mafia may even be the perfect excuse to make use of Contract Bounties, which are stored but not used by Assassins. I'm not sure what the repercussions of Bounties might be, though. I also haven't quite figured out the role of the Contractor, either, but I'm guessing that good paid Bounties might have something to do with it. Without Contractors the Mafia have to do all their own kills, which provides a very interesting out of band set of clues to track, so it would be in the Mafia's interest to hire Contractors, and I'm guessing high bounty scores probably would be the key to getting Contractors. Bounty scores then add an interesting amount of personal interest (and personal ranking) to what is generally a social dynamic game, and I'm curious as to what effects that might cause.

Even without bounties, the Assassins Contracts within Mafia would give players more ways to influence ...

Third (and Final!) Coop Offer

I'm really excited. I just got official word today that I'm getting getting an offer to come back in the Fall or Spring. (Which of the two and some other details are still in the air at the moment...) The offer is coming from my current group here at Microsoft (the newly renamed Office Accounting group), which is a bit of a mixed blessing. I've been very happy with this group, and I'll get the ability to have some continuity with my current project, which is great. On the other hand there are so many crazy/cool MSFT groups that I'd be just as happy trying something new. I'll probably keep talking to some, just to get a feel for what I might want to do should I contemplate going full-time after I finish my degree.

I'm really happy just knowing that I can stop worrying about my coop requirements and can now focus on getting the last bits of the degree requirements puzzle in place.

Bruckheimer's Second Pirates Film

I was much less angered by the "just wait for part 2" ending of Pirates 2, than any of the guys I went with. I thought it was a good action film, and I didn't have anywhere near as much pain sitting through it than I had trying to watch X-Men 3. Perhaps because I didn't expect much. I'd probably see the 3rd when it hits theaters.

My lone disappointment, and it's a bit minor, was that I wanted to see the musical score reference The Flying Dutchman Overture.

Ed Helms at Microsoft

We all know from the Daily Show that Ed Helms only reports the Truth.

A New Look for a New Era

Today marks the beginning of the 5th year since I started posting content to WorldMaker.net, so I felt it appropriate to move to a new codebase and a new site design.

Vancouver Trip

This particularly weekend I had my first trip outside of the United States, to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.

We stayed in the SameSun Hostel downtown.  It was uniquely close to the action, as well as my first stay in a Hostel.  Most likely my last as well, as interesting as it was. ... See my Tabblo>