The new EricMartindale.com is an experiment in data aggregation, and might have a few bugs. Feel free to explore, and then provide feedback directly to @martindale.
I've been using Twitter since pretty early on (and long before @oprah), and I've found it to be a superbly convenient communication tool and notification service. Even though it's still very young on the web (Twitter was founded in March of 2006) It's been the home to great ideas like the #twitterdata proposal and the publicdomain book-via-tweets project. It's also an awesome reputation management platform, and can be used to both to provide effective customer service and help distribute news and updates about your business or product, which is exactly how I use it for my online roleplaying project.
But as with the rest of the social media world, Twitter can become very complex very quickly (but I still contend that there is no social media overload) and as a result, can be difficult to manage. As a result, I use several third-party tools to help me manage and gather information that helps me do my Twitter job much more efficiently and effectively.
Splitweet
[caption id="attachment_196" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Splitweet allows you to post and monitor multiple Twitter accounts and brands."][/caption]
For those of us with multiple Twitter accounts (like some people who create a Twitter account for each roleplaying character they use), Splitweet is an absolute savior. This service allows you to tweet to multiple accounts at the same time, as well as combining the "stream" from each account into one page. A lot of desktop Twitter clients offer this kind of functionality, but where Splitweet truly excels is in its ability to track what it calls "brands" (more reputation management terms here): you can specify keywords and phrases that will appear in a separate feed, even if you do not follow those users. This gets us around the disastrous changes Twitter made to the @replies, and helps us keep up to date on any mentions of our site's name and any tweets relating to what it is that we do.
Sherflock
[caption id="attachment_195" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sherflock provides detailed statistics and summaries of Twitter users you are associated with."][/caption]
Sherflock is an absolutely awesome stat tracking machine that helps weed out the waves of spam that have been coming in since Twitter has gone mainstream. Sherflock gives a large number of statistics about each every account the either follows you or that you are following, and lets you sort and filter users based on these statistics.
Twitterfall
[caption id="attachment_194" align="alignnone" width="217" caption="Twitterfall offers a live stream of twitter updates on keywords that you specify."][/caption]
This tool allows you to specify any number of keywords that you wish to view on a live, moving stream of tweets. This is very useful if you are using a computer that allows you to "pin" a window on top (like Ubuntu Linux), or if you have a multiple-monitor rig, or even if you use multiple computers using the input-sharing app Synergy. You'll get a live feed of updates on any topic of your choice, which can even be updated and changed in real-time.
Using these three tools will help you maximize you Twitter performance and make the most of an already awesome service, preventing you from being inundated with the massive stream of messages that you're surely going to subscribe to.
What are your top three Twitter tools? Feel free to make a comment or write your own post, and I'll gladly append a link to this post to help everyone out!
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
There's been a lot of active discussion about the state of AOL's directory project, DMOZ. There have been many attempts to unseat the directory project from its position as the most authoritative listing resource, such as the Yahoo Directory. Many of these attempts have fallen by the wayside, as Rand Fiskin points out, but none have remained more controversial than DMOZ. More recently, Chris Crum's post on WebProNews about his lack of respect for DMOZ has stirred up a hornet's nest of DMOZ criticism, including a particular post claiming DMOZ is a waste of time.
I forwarded a lot of this on to Philip Nicolcev, known by username as "frug", who is the editor of several roleplay-oriented categories on DMOZ. He responded to me directly with a highly insightful email, and I was fortunate enough to receive his permission to share its contents.
I've been editing the pbp category at DMOZ for what... 4 years now? About that. This article is a big whiny complaint which misses the mark. They are both correct and sadly mistaken.
Yes, dmoz is outdated and yes, it fails because of attitude problems, but not silly allegations of 'corruption' or people who are bitter because they didn't get listed. We don't list everything, I don't list even half of the submissions I get, and anyone who has been an administrator or an editor for a similar type of project knows better than to take these kinds of complaints seriously.
One thing they say is definitely correct: Apply once carefully following their rules if you wish and then, as Will suggested, forget about them.
This is exactly the approach that should be modeled for any directory, regardless of its state or condition. When you are submitting a link to a directory, you are being offered the privilege to be listed as a resource by the owners and management of that directory. They are not obligated to list your link, let alone review it in a timely fashion--but this would be genuinely appreciated and would reflect on the directory's position as a "good" resource.
DMOZ is the primary source for Google's Directory, and you must respect the opinion of such a large and successful company. It's obvious that the idea behind an open directory like DMOZ is good, but where they fail is in execution. More on that later.
He continues:
That is what you should do. Apply once and forget about it, don't claim anybody is corrupt because whether you believe my opinion or not, there's no corruption. Nobody cares enough about dmoz anymore for it to be valuable for extortion. Don't be ridiculous. Furthermore if you were to speak to some of the senior editors you'd discover that they are pretty damn uptight, even obsessive.
The problems with dmoz are, in my opinion, twofold. First off, you have the dated trashy look of the website which is a relic of the 1990's. It's not user friendly, it doesn't entice anyone to go browsing, and it hasn't adapted or added features that would help people understand the structure of the directory or find what they're looking for. The editor forums still use phpBB2, and you should see the editing panel. You wouldn't believe how dated this stuff is. Frankly it has needed an overhaul for years now.
I largely agree with him. The phpBB team deprecated the phpBB2 branch at the beginning of this year, ending support for the outdated platform. AOL would do well to do a complete overhaul of the site's design now that "Web 2.0" has come and gone (and I could referencepostsallday on that) - and AOL has completely missed their opportunity to latch on and ride the wave.
Philip finishes his correspondance with the frightening truth that has been plaguing many post-Web2.0 sites and services:
The second problem, attitude, is partially the cause of the first problem. It's a stagnant atmosphere where nothing gets done and nobody gets listened to. They would rather leave a directory as a cluttered mess of garbage than risk breaking its structure by overhauling it. Fixing my category took me about two years before I had approval to restructure it, and I'm in a small niche category nobody pays much attention to. Since becoming an editor I have deleted about 60% of the outdated links listed. Had I not joined, they'd still be there cluttering things up with linkspam geocities pages from 10 years ago.
So yeah, dmoz is failing, but not because of corruption or because some guy didn't get what he wanted. And, honestly, if the author of this article was applying to dmoz just to 'test how fair it was' then I'm glad they rejected him. Somehow they made the right decision because he's wasting their time.
And that's the exact problem - the DMOZ community has completely stagnated, which has resulted in the puddle of goop that the directory has become. In my personal opinion, I think that AOL could do a lot better job at community management (all reputation management aside) by setting up a more rigid structure of responsibility. The editors need to be held responsible for a timely review specified by their superiors, and there needs to be cross-checking of the editor's work by other qualified editors.
All said and done, DMOZ needs some love if it's going to survive as anything more than a relic of trust and authority in the Web 2.0 bubble. As Philip points out, it has both good and bad traits and deserves further attention, but it needs to be attention in (and from) the right direction. The questions remain; where has AOL been? What can be done about the editors (or lack thereof)? How can DMOZ be improved?
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
+Terrence Lui definitely, i'd love to hear more about your efforts and would love to help brainstorm the recruiting process.
There are people that have a gift of hiring good people. I personally think that a friendly exchange with an individual and a philosophical conversation can go a long way.
Personally, respect is the biggest key for me in a employee/employer relationship. I think upfront and straight forward is the ideal.
What are the key traits you want in an employee? Diversity is key for a team, but you need focused individuals and broad thinking individuals as well.
In my past I have loved the hiring process and offering my recommendation to employers. When I worked for a sporting goods store, I doubled back on my managers suggestion during a final interview and the manager was very unhappy about it. Something was off.
I left the job for an unrelated reason a month later and they hired the guy I turned away against my recommendation. He proceeded to embezzle over 10,000 in merchandise before being caught stealing bats and selling them second hand. The reason it felt wrong.
Mutual respect is key.
I personally would request an email to introduce yourself (if you have more than a handful of applications face to face with every potential is not cost effective)
from that, don't focus 100% on experience. You need a well rounded team, that means old and new perspectives.
Also, don't promote someone to supervisor that is the best designer. Adequately gauge the persons talents and build them in that area. A supervisor does not have to know a thing about who they are supervising. It depends on your desired form of leadership. Some models take the best and have them lead, some take leaders and have them work with the best.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
This is it, folks. The be all end all of weight managment, fitness watching, and healthy living solutions. Thanks to Leo at ZenHabits for highlighting this amazing diet. It's simplistic, and it's easy to follow. You can do this on any budget, and you can do this without going out of your way.
Dieting, you say? It's a lifestyle, not a food plan.
What do I mean when I say this? I mean that your diet is what you're eating right now - it's not what you're eating tomorrow, and it isn't what you didn't eat today. It is what waits for you at your lunch break, and it is where you're going for dinner.
Okay, so you're ready? Here it is.
The Zen Diet
Eat when you're lightly hungry. Not when you're ravenous. That means eating every 3-4 hours, and paying more attention to your hunger. If you're getting hungry, eat.
Action steps: plan meals every 3-4 hours, be more aware of your hunger, pack snacks or meals for on the road.
Eat light foods. Nothing too heavy, except cheat meals. Lots of fruits and veggies, whole grains, beans and nuts. Fresh food much better than processed.
Action steps: make a list of healthy meals and snacks with real, whole foods. Stuff you like that's healthy. Turn them into meal plans — several days worth of meals and snacks. The quicker it rots, the healthier it is.
Eat lightly and slowly. Savor the food. Don't cram it down. Eating slowly will help you not to get overfull, and will help you enjoy your food more.
Eat until you're lightly full. Not stuffed. Stop before you're really full, and wait 10 minutes to see if you're really still hungry.
You can change it, you can adapt to it, and you can adjust it to meet your needs - your diet determines what you are - we are living beings, and we consume sustenance and we expel waste. Our bodies require nourishment and replenishment in various forms - fats, carbohydrates, and proteins - and we reconstitute our living flesh with what we consume. This is your diet.
Do it right, and do it well. Build your lifestyle so that it isn't time consuming to manage your diet - plan ahead and be prepared. Being careless isn't the nature of being carefree. Think about what you're eating, and consider what preparations you need to make to establish a healthy, sustainable, and adequate lifestyle.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
[K]r.github.com. Keith Rarick's GitHub redirect. Total ass-kicker.
[L]inkedIn. Pretty straightforward, between hiring for our team at @Mirascape and the travel to and from various conferences and Meetups lately.
[M]irascape. The augmented reality platform I'm responsible for.
[N]oxBot. A nice PHP-powered IRC bot with various plugins. A bit out of date, but very powerful. Been using it for a couple things lately.
[O]K, QR Me!. A QR Code-generating link shortener I built.
[P]ostmark. Best Email delivery service I've used. Nice RESTful API, flat rate for emails sent.
[Q]uora. These guys nail Q&A, and they're doing it pretty well. Check out all their buzz, too. But for some reason, I just don't stick.
Google [R]eader. “From your 1,040 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 21,549 items, clicked 274 items, starred 853 items, shared 37 items, and emailed 8 items.” -- </stats>
[S]erver Stats for Mirascape. Powered by Munin, it's how I keep track of the status and metrics of all my servers.
[T]witter. Not surprising. I love their webapp for my personal use, but own and manage at least five accounts using SplitTweet.
[U]serVoice. Pretty sweet tool I use for giving the communities I manage a good way to build a consensus on what they desire most. Examples I run: for RolePlayGateway, and EVE UserVoice for EVE Online.
[X]DA Developers. An indisposable resource for getting rid of carrier-installed crap and running my own choice of software on the hardware I purchased!
[Z]ecco. Where I trade most of my public stocks. :)
Surprisingly populist, and there's a lot of Google-owned properties in there. I'm also using Chromium, so I think it prefers the roots of the sites I visit instead of searching through my history for individual pages.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Scratch and AppInventor are awesome and are truly the new Logo - When appinventor was hosted by Google, I taught a few intro sessions to managers at our (ostensibly) IT shop and local meetup groups to great success. Lots of opened eyes. The efforts that Treehouse and CodeAcademy are doing with javascript are also immediate and useful.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Yup! I did. I found it incredibly easy. To put it this way I learned it in the course of 2, 4 hour plane rides without a computer. It's got great regular expression functionality and once you get used to that then everything else just falls into place. But please don't ever use it for a large software project. I prefer to keep it in the realm of manageable scripts.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
+Joltrast . we actually managed to accidentally stop at Buc-ee's just as we got into Texas. It wasn't bad, but... somewhat anticlimactic. We did pick up a CD called "Texas Road Trip", though!
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
+Johnny Roquemore Chee is the engineering manager of hangouts :p +Eric Martindale you should send some feedback, and it will be guaranteed to be read in 3 months.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the "real names" policy either, but it is what it is. In the context of this "war" between the established social-networking sites, I'll take G+.
What we need, though, is to escape the tyranny of all of these centrally managed, dictatorially controlled, standalone social-networks... we need to keep pushing for federated, decentralized social-networks where users are in control.
I think that will come eventually. One problem right now, is that so few people care about the deeper issues. <sigh />
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
+Carmelyne Thompson is exactly right. Hackathons are a live view of the 'soft skills' of a dev - social interaction, time management, desire to be in the situation in the first place, leadership, teamwork - all the stuff a public code repo can't show. The end product's not always the point, and definitely not if you're looking for teammates, business partners, nerd friends, or employees.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Work is work, as per the usual. I'm work at a company called TechNoggins, doing all sorts of various things. Primarily, I am Callcenter Manager, handling calls for three states and eleven major cities. It's unfortunately fairly slow today, which means my salary isn't augmented by the influx of web development work. Sad day.
I've been messing around with some of Facebook's features, recently. I just linked "My Notes" to this blog, which seems like a cool feature, but it needs some work. It imported my posts what seems to be twice?
Someone posted LeekSpin on the Grand Tournament forum. I've been subtly amused by the music to which this has been put, and have been listening to it for just over an hour now. You want to talk about overplaying, hrm? Full immersion, hrrrm?
Well, looks like I have a PC here in the office that I need to fix. So, until later, I'm gone. :P
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
+Joseph Coco I don't think you are being honest with the reality of what a business would have to have set up to take bitcoin.
It is naive to think they can just manage it themselves, especially with the ever changing value, and varying international values, just like regular credit payment services have to deal with.
I think pro-bitcoin bias is coloring your responses. My research on it as someone who considered using them, paints a lot different picture than you are presenting.
I'm no anti-bitcoin. I'm all for all sorts of varieties of currency and transactions. But I want the truth and facts to be said about them.
I also notice everyone is ducking the security and backing issue.
Banks are accredited and insured to protect their customers. There isn't any bitcoin handler that has that. Not even Square Marketplace.
If you want people to use them, great. If you want to use them yourself, great. But don't blow smoke up peoples.... trying to cover real negatives about them.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
There's a large number of Content Management System, Bulletin Board, and Blog solutions available, all with amazing functionality that simply can't be missed on today's rapidly advancing internet(s).
My challenge is this:
What is the smallest full-featured CMS, BB, or Blog that you can create?
Contest submissions must include the following features:
User Accounts
Article Posts (or "Topics" in BB-land)
Comment System
Submissions will be accepted in any language, so long as the content can be served up over HTTP. To submit, comment on this post with a link to your project!
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've been seriously slacking in getting RPGateway's blog up and running, but I've finally gotten around to re-posting the files and re-connecting Wordpress to the database. Now all I've got to do is to get a couple of our admins (and hopefully, one of our loverly owners) to start posting and managing it.
The idea here is to create a single update page where watchers who don't want to be involved in the site can still read updates from the staff. A buzz can be established, and hopefully, some real momentum can be generated with content that is updated daily. The so-called 'blogosphere' (I cringe too, relax.) is a very powerful force in the tubes today, and I think it's important to at least begin to establish some sort of presence here.
I was recently pointed to Trevor Somerville's 30 days to success, and I'm only reminded that articles are the Queen in a world where daily updates are King. Good luck to Trevor, I'll probably swing by once or twice to check up on his progress and see if he has any useful tips.
I started fiddling with some new posting options again, in particular the email posting. Blogger lets you set up a secret email to which you can send blog posts, at which point they'll automatically be added to your blog. I had a contact set up in my Gmail as of (insert long period of time) ago, and I sent a post to it, but I haven't seen anything of it. It looks like the same email, but... apparently not. I guess I'll be reconfiguring this later.
I've been having great experiences with SEO and RolePlay Gateway, we're rising in rankings rather quickly, even after the domain migration. Many thanks to the folks over at DigitalPoint for my education over the past few months. I'm sure I'll be telling these success stories soon, but right now I have to head off to Winston to run a few service calls.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
So, entirely not in light of any recent events, I was integrating the chat rules that Vexar wrote into RolePlayGateway's Rules, and I was looking for some examples of forum etiquette that other forums use. In searching, I found this perfectly humorous video:
(I found it on Neil Boortz's website, but since headed over to videojug to get the original. PS, Neil? You're awesome.)
That was probably the best one I found, above and beyond the video I came across that seemed geared towards the Steam forum community, which was a bit too NSFW to actually embed here on my blog. If you'd like, you can go check out posting a new thread on AlbinoBlackSheep.
I'm admin on several online forums, and I'm a moderator on many more; not counting the countless other communities where I'm an active member. I was pretty proud of the rules I put together on Gateway, and I think they're clean, simple, and easy to follow. No one likes being bombarded and tacked down by rules, so I try to keep them as simple as possible. What do you think of them?
How do you manage forum users and set rules? I know Martin Reed has some good tips on forum rules, and there are many others out there that learned a lot from running forums. The best thing that we can do is learn from others, and gather experience on how to handle these issues. What is your approach to forum etiquette?
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
After a year and a half working with some of the smartest and most competent engineers I've ever met, it's time for me to part ways with BitPay. I've had the opportunity to be deeply involved in the design, implementation, and deployment of some incredible technologies, but we're turning a page in the story of Bitcoin's rise and it's time to start exploring the new chapter.
BitPay continues to paint an incredibly compelling picture as to what the decentralized future looks like – we worked on some incredibly far-reaching and massively impactful ideas, including:
- [ChainDB][chaindb], a distributed database backed exclusively by the Bitcoin blockchain.
- [Copay][copay], a truly decentralized wallet & identity management platform.
- [BitAuth][bitauth], a secure authentication mechanism for peers on the web, using the `k1` curve.
- [Impulse][impulse], a method of securing zero-confirmation transactions.
- [Foxtrot][foxtrot], a completely encrypted data transmission network.
- [Bitcore][bitcore], a library of common software functionality to glue everything together.
You might notice a few common themes. Let me point out the two most important.
Firstly, that everything here is open source (with the notable exception of ChainDB). Open source, and more importantly [free software][free software], is a very big deal to me. Prior to joining BitPay, I was [open sourcing education][coursefork], [contributing to open source software](https://github.com/martindale), and [speaking on the importance of open source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuYLWdG-lP0). Some of the things I'm most proud of are the things _other_ people built with the things _we_ gave away – _that's_ the real power of open source.
Secondly, that everything here is based on Bitcoin, not some alternative blockchain. BitPay was a firm believer in Bitcoin as the exclusive platform that would secure the post-fiat era, and that belief has held strongly with me before and after my departure. Until a more compelling alternative to Bitcoin emerges,
One of the other exciting things to come out of BitPay was the emergence of [DECENTRALIZE][decentralize], which we formed last fall with a few of our fellow employees. DECENTRALIZE has become [an acclaimed content source][cointelegraph:decentralize] in the latest resurgence of decentralized thinking, and now it gets to be a much bigger priority for me.
Before I joined BitPay, I'd put a lot of work into [Maki][maki], a framework for making full-stack application development significantly easier. Maki took a bit of a back-burner position while I was focusing on my work at BitPay, so I'll be redoubling my efforts to see that vision through. In fact, I think now's as good a time as any to share that vision.
To that end, I'm starting a new project named Fabric. I'd like to entirely eliminate centralized servers on the Internet and catalyze the development of an entirely new class of economic actor. More details soon.
As we embark on our next journey, let's always remember the carefully selected input used to create [the Genesis Block][genesis]:
> The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
[chaindb]: https://bitpay.com/chaindb.pdf
[copay]: https://copay.io/
[bitauth]: https://github.com/bitpay/bitauth
[impulse]: https://impulse.is/
[foxtrot]: https://github.com/bitpay/foxtrot
[bitcore]: https://bitcore.io
[decentralize]: https://decentralize.fm
[free software]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
[coursefork]: https://coursefork.org/
[maki]: https://maki.ericmartindale.com/
[cointelegraph:decentralize]: http://cointelegraph.com/news/114496/leaders-in-bitcoin-broadcasting-pandoras-box-is-open-and-theres-no-going-back
[genesis]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_block
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Running a role playing game online presents a large of amount of flexibility in the way you run the game. You no longer need individual sessions where all players are present, and there are a plethora of options as to where you are going to run it - if you want to run it in any one place.
One of the number one questions I receive relates to the medium for online RPGs. There are tons of different ways of communicating online, mainly grouped into a few categories. We have instant messenger, chats, message boards, and emails. There are a few custom services out there, but I'm going to touch on the four that I've mentioned.
On RolePlayGateway, we have a set of roleplaying forums as well as a roleplaying chat. When you're running an RPG, there are a few items you should consider when deciding where you're going to keep everything.
Forums have the benefit of being static and always available - users can post to forums at any time during the day and be sure that other users (and roleplayers) can see their message. Forums are also very flexible, they allow you to embed images and other multimedia within your posts, allowing you to share any experience with your players. However, it is post based - forums are often not the quickest way to communicate, as it is not a live feed of information like a chat.
Chats, on the other hand, have the benefit of being real time. Games can be run in chat (and instant messenger) on a moment's notice, and work best when all of the players can be available at the same time. Because it is real time, short blip-based sessions such as character conversations and interactions work extraordinarily well with chats. Players can get the chance to interject into other player's actions and statements without the worry of too much time going by. It is for this reason that the longer posts, such as those that exceed a paragraph, are often too large and unwieldy for chats - players end up waiting too long for each post, and will get bored.
Longer posts do very well on forums, where writing an individual post can take half an hour or longer to refine and perfect - just enough time for the players to go look at other games and other topics before they come back and begin formulating their response.
If you're running a game with a detailed and/or complicated storyline or characters, it is always good to post something on a forum for player reference. This lets the players have a place to communicate out of character (OOC) - such as when they won't be able to make a chat session, or when they want to discuss plans for character interaction, growth, or development. Even if your game is already on a forum - it is a good idea to create a place for OOC discussion. For chat-based games - this gives a perfect opportunity for players to jump in at the middle of a game with little trouble, as they simply need to read over the history of the game on the forum, which they can do at any point in time, and less time is needed explaining the game to the player.
Instant messenger works well when dealing with one on one sessions, such as when two characters are the only ones in an interaction or a meeting needs to be private. These interactions can be summarized or written into a cinematic format and then posted to the forum, for other players to enjoy as well. Instant messenger (as well as Private Messages) does very well at asking questions of the other players, which is convenient when you have a question about how they're playing a role or a reference they made in character.
There are also emails - many games aren't run by email anymore, but email is still a very valuable tool. RolePlayGateway like many forums offers you the ability to subscribe to topics. Subscriptions will let you receive an immediate email update whenever someone replies to the thread. This is extraordinarily helpful when there's an RPG with only a few players that can only reply every once in a while, but it requires that people, y'know, actually check their email. RolePlayGateway also has the special ability to instant message you when there's an update to a subscribed thread. All you need is a Jabber account (GMail accounts work, too) and to set up the notifications. We'll send you a message as soon as there's an update.
What methods have you used to manage your online roleplaying games? Are you a fan of forum or chat? Both? What helps you determine where you're going to hold your game? Discuss!
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've been relying heavily on node.js this past year to provide a robust set of tools to solve the problems I encounter on a daily basis. I was pleased to see honorCipherOrder was added to node's TLS library in node.js v0.7.6, and released with node.js v0.8.0.
Late last year, security researcher Juliano Rizzo announced a new attack against the AES encryption used in the SSL/TLS transaction he dubbed BEAST. The details are interesting to those who care, but it turns out that we can mitigate this attack in node.js by enforcing honorCipherOrder on the server. Let's take a look.
If you have an HTTPS server that looks like this:
var https = require('https');
var fs = require('fs');
var options = {
key: fs.readFileSync('key.pem'),
cert: fs.readFileSync('cert.pem')
};
https.createServer(options, function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200);
res.end("hello world\n");
}).listen(443);
...you can now manage the cipher order by using the ciphers option. In the following code snippet we're going set the options for the above server to use Steve Caligo's cipher order, which prefers TLS 1.2 ciphers (which are not vulnerable to the BEAST attack) for clients that support TLS 1.2 but falls back to the RC4 ciphers on TLS 1.0 clients.[...]
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Being a fighter, I've been through this weight-cutting business plenty of times. Personally, yeah it's a pain in the ass, but we're athletes and in more cases than not - our bodies should be able to handle this. It should be at our own or our managers' discretion on whether or not we are healthy enough to cut weight.
Cutting weight continues to be a significant part of weight-restricted sports such as MMA, wrestling and boxing. It has gone on for so long that as the old aphorism goes, "Familiarity breeds contempt."
All those athletes, coaches, promoters, sanctioning bodies and fans associated with these sports have learned to accept it, consider it part of the culture, and turn a blind eye.
They all know – even if they won't admit it – that rapid, significant weight-cutting is unhealthy and potentially deadly. Most serious wrestlers have a personal story about the perils of such weight-cutting either through first hand knowledge or vicariously via a close friend or teammate. But the desire to win continues this potentially dangerous ritual.
What for decades has consisted self-reporting and self-monitoring of weight has not worked. And "documentation" of weight by a friendly doctor has been ineffective at best.
Therefore the primary issue of weight should be removed from the combatant. Simple, clear and easily enforceable rules and guidelines should be initiated to better protect the athletes.
My suggestions are as follow:
All standard fight agreements must be signed at least 45 days prior to the scheduled event.
No fighter may enter into a fight agreement weighing greater than 10 percent over the agreed upon weight limit. For example, the agreed-upon weight is 171 pounds. Therefore, each fighter can weigh no more than 171 pounds + 10 percent (188 pounds total) to sign the fight agreement.
At 30 days prior to fight, neither fighter can weigh more than 5 percent over the agreed-upon weight limit. For example, the agreed-upon weight is 171 pounds. Therefore each fighter can weigh no more than 180 pounds.
On the official day of weigh-in, if a fighter is more than 1 percent overweight, the fight cannot take place. Since the promoter is the employer, the promoter will be fined by the sanctioning body.
On the official day of weigh-in, if a fighter is less than 1 percent overweight, he or she can be given additional time to make weight. If on the second weigh-in, the fighter remains overweight, a financial penalty can be levied and paid to the on-weight fighter, at his or her discretion.
If during a championship fight the champion is overweight greater than 1 percent at the official weigh-in, the fight will not take place and the challenger is given the belt as interim champion.
If during a championship fight the champion is overweight by less than 1 percent and after an opportunity cannot make weight, the fight may still go on. If the champion wins, the title will be considered vacant. If the challenger wins, he will assume the title.
All weigh-in dates (bout agreement day and 30-day check) will be video monitored by live computer webcam and recorded. Each camp will watch the other camp calibrate the scale and weigh in over live video webcam stream (Skype). The sanctioning body will monitor the weigh-in in a similar fashion.
Understandably, this is not a system that could be implemented quickly or easily when considering the restraints of some state commissions and some of the inconsistencies from one regulatory body to the next.
However, my goal is for this ideal guideline to serve as a basis for substantive discussion and a potential framework to better protect the safety of the athletes that participate in MMA.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I had a pleasant conversation with a Mac fanboi, this morning.
(08:51:01 AM) Linux User: Do Macs come with an SSH server by default? (08:51:12 AM) Mac User: bluh...huh? (08:51:19 AM) Mac User: just woke up (08:51:22 AM) Linux User: Oh, lol. (08:51:26 AM) Linux User: Good morning, sunshine. (08:51:30 AM) Mac User: lol (08:51:40 AM) Linux User: I've been at work for an hour. ;P (08:51:57 AM) Linux User: Anyways - does the default Mac have an SSH server? (08:51:57 AM) Mac User: now...what are you babbling about? (08:53:25 AM) Mac User: no, but ssh is supported for X11 apps (08:54:22 AM) Mac User: ....x11 being the x window environment in the Mac OS (08:54:47 AM) Linux User: Right. (08:55:22 AM) Linux User: So - X11 applications can SSH to other locations? (08:55:58 AM) Linux User: And - what's the Mac equivalent of a repository, and/or aptitude/apt-get/yum? (08:56:01 AM) Mac User: I really don't know, I haven't messed with it (08:56:12 AM) Mac User: what the fuck are those? (08:56:46 AM) Linux User: I can go to the command line here, and say... "apt-get install " and it'll download and install that program from the repository. (08:57:53 AM) Mac User: ...99% of Mac users don't go "Command-Line Commando" on their system.... (08:57:59 AM) Linux User: Also, if the program has any dependencies - it'll get those, too. (08:58:00 AM) Mac User: so...enjoy that.... (08:58:11 AM) Linux User: Oh, it has a GUI, too. (08:58:22 AM) Mac User: website? (08:59:02 AM) Linux User: It's a core component, it doesn't particularly have its own site. (08:59:22 AM) Linux User: Mac doesn't have an application finder and installer type thing? (08:59:24 AM) Mac User: of what? (08:59:27 AM) Mac User: no (08:59:30 AM) Linux User: Weird. (08:59:38 AM) Mac User: OMFG!!!! NO!!!! WHAT WILL I DO!???!?!? (08:59:51 AM) Linux User: I was trying to install openssh-server on a friend's mac... (08:59:57 AM) Mac User: y'all pc ppl always find the weirdest off-beat shit to pick at (09:00:05 AM) Linux User: Mac's are PCs to, ho. (09:00:16 AM) Linux User: Understand the word Personal Computer? (09:00:21 AM) Mac User: uh, by the definition "personal computer" only (09:00:38 AM) Linux User: PCs also don't have to run Microshaft. (09:00:43 AM) Mac User: but be it known that a pc is a pc and a Mac is a Mac (09:01:01 AM) Linux User: Considering Macs aren't "Macs" so much anymore, without the kooky PPC crap. (09:01:10 AM) Mac User: ? (09:01:42 AM) Linux User: They're regular PCs, now. I can install Windows on a Mac, I can install Plan9, MacOS, Linux. (09:01:52 AM) Linux User: They don't use PPC anymore, right? (09:02:05 AM) Mac User: you can't remove the Mac OS, though (09:02:10 AM) Linux User: ...want to bet? (09:02:13 AM) Mac User: yup (09:02:16 AM) Mac User: go ahead (09:02:20 AM) Linux User: LOL. (09:02:31 AM) Mac User: remove the Mac OS, and then lemme know what you plan to do (09:02:35 AM) Linux User: Anyways - MacBook pro - does it have more than one button? (09:02:45 AM) Mac User: FUCK NO!!!! (09:02:49 AM) Linux User: Alright, nevermind then. (09:02:58 AM) Mac User: now, shoo (09:02:59 AM) Linux User: I was going to buy one, because they're sexy. (09:03:01 AM) Mac User: go buy a dell (09:03:22 AM) Linux User: Dell is increasing their Linux support. (09:03:23 AM) Linux User: :) (09:05:19 AM) Mac User: that is to say that they now have some kind of linux support? (09:05:52 AM) Linux User: They've always had Linux support, but it's been somewhat hidden. (09:06:00 AM) Mac User: pphhhht (09:06:12 AM) Linux User: They're increasing client awareness of the option, now. (09:06:29 AM) Mac User: ya know, it really doesn't mean anything to me (09:07:11 AM) Linux User: I was considering purchasing a Macbook and installing Ubuntu on it, for my laptop. (09:07:25 AM) Mac User: I can run any other OS I want, should I happen to have a sudden drop in IQ, and my machine is pretty awesome.....so.... (09:07:55 AM) Mac User: why would you buy a Mac to run something you can run on a dell? (09:08:01 AM) Mac User: why? (09:08:04 AM) Linux User: Because Macs are sexier? (09:08:08 AM) Linux User: I don't want an ugly dell. (09:08:23 AM) Mac User: uh, yeah, and at least half the "sexier" is in the GUI (09:08:28 AM) Linux User: Not at all. (09:08:35 AM) Linux User: My GUI is 100% more teh sex. (09:08:45 AM) Mac User: ......wow (09:08:47 AM) Mac User: um (09:08:48 AM) Linux User: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzb3MSp82Vs (09:08:49 AM) Mac User: no (09:08:51 AM) Linux User: :) (09:09:05 AM) Linux User: You can't install Beryl or even Compiz in MacOS, can you? (09:09:46 AM) Mac User: ooh....pretty....gimmicks..... (09:10:08 AM) Linux User: Oh, is there an equivalent of workspaces in MacOS? (09:10:17 AM) Mac User: in Leopard, yeah (09:10:24 AM) Linux User: That's this next version, right? (09:10:30 AM) Mac User: yizzur (09:10:34 AM) Linux User: Awesome. (09:10:43 AM) Mac User: "Spaces" (09:10:49 AM) Linux User: Lol. (09:10:59 AM) Linux User: We Linux folk have had that for years. (09:11:00 AM) Mac User: http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/spaces.html (09:11:01 AM) Linux User: But anyways. (09:11:15 AM) Mac User: again....I don't care, and you're the only one who noticed (09:11:34 AM) Linux User: LOL. Awesome argument. :x (09:11:43 AM) Mac User: I don't argue anymore (09:12:03 AM) Mac User: If you've bigoted yourself into using PC (09:12:10 AM) Mac User: s, thats ur own fault (09:12:44 AM) Linux User: Well, if I can't "uninstall MacOS" - or heaven forbid, order it without MacOS, like I can order most PCs without any OS, for a significant price reduction... (09:12:49 AM) Linux User: It's not worth getting a Dell. (09:12:52 AM) Linux User: Or any "PC". (09:13:02 AM) Linux User: Or an Apple, for that matter. (09:13:08 AM) Linux User: Dell, I can do that with, though. (09:13:17 AM) Linux User: I share your Microsuck hatred. (09:13:18 AM) Linux User: I really do. (09:13:23 AM) Mac User: you make that sound like a feature (09:13:24 AM) Linux User: But I also hate MacOS with a passion. (09:13:32 AM) Mac User: for no reason (09:13:37 AM) Linux User: No, for full reason. (09:13:42 AM) Mac User: there's 2 sides of the fight, dude (09:13:46 AM) Linux User: It's a *nix OS, without all the good stuff. (09:13:48 AM) Mac User: Apple, and mico$ith (09:13:57 AM) Linux User: Then there's Linux. ;D (09:14:05 AM) Linux User: We're not part of the fight, we've already won. (09:14:06 AM) Mac User: you're out in the woods trying to be a nonconformist (09:14:22 AM) Linux User: Not at all, actually, I started using Linux because most of my friends were. (09:14:23 AM) Linux User: :/ (09:14:28 AM) Mac User: yeah, 2% market share. WOO HOO!!!! (09:14:36 AM) Linux User: 55% of the server share. :/ (09:14:48 AM) Linux User: I think it's above 60, actually? (09:14:58 AM) Mac User: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/ (09:15:01 AM) Mac User: > you (09:15:16 AM) Linux User: Why, exactly, would I run MacOS as a server? When I have Linux? (09:15:23 AM) Linux User: You don't have a package manager (apt) (09:15:40 AM) Linux User: apt-get install apache2 php mysql (09:15:42 AM) Linux User: Done. (09:15:48 AM) Mac User: you wouldn't (09:15:58 AM) Mac User: and that's your business (09:16:04 AM) Mac User: why are you talking to me again? (09:16:20 AM) Mac User has signed off.
And that was him blocking me. Mac people really do think differently.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
[/caption]
[/caption]
[/caption]
There's been a lot of active discussion about the state of AOL's directory project, 
Cutting weight continues to be a significant part of weight-restricted sports such as MMA, wrestling and boxing. It has gone on for so long that as the old aphorism goes, "Familiarity breeds contempt."