Shared Items – 2009/07/21

July 21, 2009

Neuro

A couple quick links on the brain happened close together so I thought I’d group them here:

Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain
A great discussion about back channel and multitasked learning
A bunch of links about games and neuroanthropology

and because no post is complete without cats:
House cats and psychological purring

July 14, 2009

Shared Items – 2009/07/14

July 14, 2009

Service Oriented Expectations

I’ve noticed recently that I’ve become increasingly agitated at services that do not either readily allow access to any data I generate, and/or pro-actively work with other existing systems.  Many of these are of course features I never would have expected 4 years ago.

Some examples:

  • If you’re a music related site, service or software and you’re not able to read or scrobble to my last.fm, I shake my head
  • In fact, I’m annoyed that my car stereo doesn’t somehow magically record what I play and that I can’t look back at my history to see what they just played on the car radio.
  • Any social networking system that doesn’t try to connect / pull info from my gmail, myspace or facebook and requires me to re-enter information generally gets a pass from me.
  • Working with files on a hard drive that are not in an SVN or CVS repository makes me feel vulnerable now that I use Wikis, Google Docs and SVN for everything:  What happens if I want to go back?  How do I share this with someone and see their changes?
  • The fact that any software or service geared towards the creation of a document or data that still doesn’t have an “undo” feature or better version control irks me
  • Streaming sources, or sequential documents (image galleries, etc) that do not allow random access feel like relics from the past
  • Any online service (specifically social network, share-based or collaborative) that doesn’t feature a folksonomy, rating system, and/or a “others who liked this liked…” feels like a service that didn’t get the memo.

There are many more examples.

In short, know your user’s expectations before you write a feature list or a design doc.  This would seem obvious but it still seems to catch honest people off guard. As it applies to games: if your user expects a waypoint based auto-save and you make them start the whole level over again, they’re going to feel that their expectations were not met. So prior to making a design doc (or in your design doc), make sure to do some competitive research and work to extrapolate some likely expectations based on how you plan to position yourself in the marketplace.  It will save you a lot of costumer ‘grrs’.

July 14, 2009

Shared Items – 2009/07/07

July 7, 2009

Tatha – Setting Timeline

Disclaimer: this list is still a work in progress and is subject to change.  It covers the ‘mainline’ (the primary probability path)’s history from the year AD2023 to AD5346.  This is meant to be viewed as a sampling of the settings’ issues and technologies.  I have put in a considerable amount of work developing these elements and am still writing much of it down.  This is a short summary, so most items do not come with definitions.

Mainline History

The Neuron Age

2023 – First incomplete Neuropatterning (Attempted AI ‘clone’ created from a human brain)
2031 – Spinor Coil topology theorized
2036 – OCEAN (Experiential Metaverse) developed
2038 - First Non-Plus-K Android  (-K)
2046 – Nanotech Weaponry
2051 – Febri Ahmaji (Software Genius) and Shouhei Niijima (Neurodeveloper) form Ahmni Inc.
Ahmni-Network (AHMNI-N) is developed.  First omnibrain / wetnet.  Minds hooked up to omni can pull up information on it by thought matching.  Ahmni is developed as an open source, self regulating framework.
2065 – First complete Neuropatterning (Full memories and consciousness)
2068 - The Fukuoka incident occurs (mass imprint and suicide cult)
2072 - Ahmni-N based OCEAN diving catches on, new net dubbed “@”
2079 - Ahmdroids created (Ahmni-based droids)
2081 - Identity play raises issues (chaining, composites, dubbing, handshakes, spoofs, IDD, zombie)
2083 - Bill of Sentient Rights established, doesn’t include androids
2086 - UCF (Ultra Cosmic Frequency) Radiation Detected
2086 - Bay Area *droid Revolt, amendment to Bill of Sentient Rights includes *droids

The Nano Age

2092 – NanoConstruction Tech upheaves manufacturing, allows building in inhospitable environments such as space
2105 - First Extraplanetary (Lunar) Colonization
2110 - Ractor Shells used by society and military (over-wire unmanned / mannable ahmdroid)
2120 - Manifold distortion discovered, dark energy constant finally put to rest
2123 - Identity decomposition first noticed and studied (street term: selfsoup), Ident Constant theorized
2130 - Semi-self Ident Framework extends Ahmni-N
2148 - Nonliving matter is forcejumped halfway around the Earth
2149 - Publicly Published Legitimate ESP Findings, starts Rattle-Power Movement
2160 – First ReadWrite Shell developed
2167 – Mass Identity issues ensue (swaps, redub, wipes, trigger hacks, WIDE)
2175 - First @War
2192 - Mars Colonized
2199 - The New Dubai Nightmare – First Major act of Ident Terrorism, hundreds of thousands wiped and zombie processed
2200 - Planet Earth Terraforming Project Begins
2212 - First Mara Contact discovered, theorized at what they really are, kept secret
2222 - First Extraorbital Colonization: LOKA-1, LOKA 2-6 planned  (Orbital Terradomes)
2227 - Pre-Symbolic Soulplotting developed, kept secret due to findings
2263 - Soulplotting technology leads to Demon-based weaponry, kept under wraps
2254 - Spansors discovered, Tachyons created in lab
2288 - Neuro-Nano Tech (NN) allowing assisted thought control of nano clusters
2295 - First and Last Intersolar War
2336 - OCCULE system developed, Field of Obseoscopy developed (virtual long range telescopy)
2347 - First publicly confirmed Extraterrestrial, Cosmoprotista discovered
2380 - Planet Earth Abandoned

The Life Age

2399 – First Nebule discovered
2437 - Archetype Knowledge System theorized, prematurely debunked
2444 - First Non-Public Dreamscape Exploration

2448 - Existence of Märchen discovered, kept secret

2490 - Faster than Light (FTL) transport is developed allowing a large object to ripple fold space.
2501 – Dreamgate Society (Gesellschaft Traum-Tor) Founded
2525 – First Extrasolar Colonization by Mankind
2547 - First Silicate discovered
2583 - First Helioid discovered
2586 - Starforms, Gasforms and Al-Nebules discovered
2602 - First Interstellar War
2760 - Junks discovered
2819 - K-Constant found, science is thrown upside down

The Karmic Age

2860 - J. Francis Hauber develops first Anima Intelligence
2888 - Soul Wavelength Mapping implemented
2896 - Mara existence becomes public knowledge, Mara attacks begin
2970 - First encounter with fold-future Civilization (not known at the time)
3015 - First +K Android developed, species fragments into Unity and Diversity segments (those willing to remain a part of mankind, and those revoking it to live on their own)
3039 - T-Dent system developed (Temporal Identification, carbon dating for timespace)
3057 - New field of Symbolics developed by Genesse and Wong
3061 - Zeinbraun, Findlsi and Boschmann develop first prototype of an Animus Network
3068 – First Symbolic computer
3082 – Akashic Datastore Project begins, extends Ahmni-N (some call it Ahmni-A)
3124 - First public knowledge encounter of Mainline Mankind with Variant Mankind
3177 - Xenoradiation and Xenoforce Theorized
3196 - Archetype Training Developed
3233 - Xenoradiation Detected
3247 -First Unidirectional Parajump / Shift
3279 – Quantum Globs and EPNs (Energy Pulse Networks) discovered, Charge Computers developed
3305 – Xenosentience Theorized, observed (Localized Inequality)
3306 – EONs are first developed for use in Far Jump transport
3340 – CS (Communique Symbolique) developed by Giuseppe Laroche, first cross-lingual communicator

The Horror Age

3377 - First Human Transcend
3412 - Exos and Vrombir encountered
3416 – Flarenodes / Star Children discovered
3417 - Calliopede race encountered
3477 - First Corporeal Horror Observed
3479 - The Boundless Invasion
3526 - Taiga Intersect
3864 - First Large Scale Parajump – The Horrorshift
3867 - STFA Concord passed (Syun, Tarkani, Faraday, Aoshima) called colloquially the ‘Stay-the-fuck-away’ Concord
3920 - RODAN is created (Remote Observation and Distribution Animus Network)

The Exploration Age

3948 - Jump Tether Developed
3952 - RODAN is successfully connected to Ahmni-N/A, renamed Ahmni-R
3973 - Soul Aperture Theories published, Mantra Equations unproven
3991 - Gunarfson and Cooper develop first Recursive Mantra
4005 - First distal reverse observation using Ahmni-R
4019 - Gemini Earth discovered
4048 - Kaleidoscope World discovered
4072 - Deco Radiation (DR) Detected
4075 - Cantor Worms encountered
4090 - First Recyclers Observed
4124 - OMI – Observational Mass Index enters theory
4153 - Gregori Constant proven, Recycle Helix equation
4177 - Pretalokas explored
4186 - Decoherence Waves observed, OMI proved, DWV (Decoherence Wavecrest Volume – often called Deco-V) calculated
4191 - Deco-V mapping begins
5003 - Sumeru discovered
5053 - Deva Fold Map found
5055 - The Deva Gateway explored
5097 - Asura Realms first explored
5138 - Dragons encountered
5166 - Narakas explored
5169 - Larvae encountered
5232 - Deco-Buoys developed
5238 - Reinforced Coherence theorized
5240 - Reinforced Coherence proven by Johannson and Kipler’s historic voyage

The Redemption Age

5267 - Reco (as Reinforced Coherence is now called) projects begin
5275 - OCCULUS Project becomes umbrella project
5299 - OCCULUS Seeds developed
5321 - Entropiths discovered
5334 - Elementals and Incarnates discovered
5346 – Primary Game Campaign Setting

July 6, 2009