Stuff I've read lately

"Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls" (Hershel Shanks ed.) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

"In the Shadow of the Ark" (Anne Provoost) - Ditto.

Stuff I've read lately

"The Sharp End" (David Drake) - Drake delivers once again. You can always count on him for quality military SF. This story covers the less told story of a squad of Slammers sent to investigate new "business opportunities".

"The Bondage of the Will" (Martin Luther) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

New Stars Status

I fixed a bug due to clicking near a projected ship path. Also, I've added the future paths (show below).



Next step is to fix the scan of enemy ships (mentioned previously), and add checking to the ship designer.

Stuff I've read lately

"Rainbows End" (Vernor Vinge) - Vinge hasn't written a lot of stuff. I've read his far future stuff (A fire upon the deepness in the sky), which is pretty good. This book is much nearer future. Wearable computing is nearly ubiquitous. And medical technology has gotten pretty good (the "heavenly minefield" as Vinge calls it). The book follows several viewpoints, but the key one is an Alzheimer's patient recently cured. He is trying to adapt to the new culture, and restore some of what he's lost (as well as finally maturing!).

New Stars Status

Lots of minor problems need fixing. So, I grabbed a bunch and fixed them:

1. Selecting a planet crashes the program, if the production window has been closed.
• Fixed the update calls to check for the window's existance
• Added the "change production" button to bring the window back
• Defaulted the window to not be shown


2. No enemy designs in the ship designer
   
• Added an interface from the nstclgui dll back to Tcl
• Updated the ship designer code to show it


3. GUI oddities when clicking near planet names and fleet flight paths
• Fixed the ordering of canvas objects so planets are on top

This is taken from the JOAT the turn after they detect the WM scout. I suspected the scan code was not clearing private info. Now I am sure...

Hey Taxi!

I was looking for a fun little game to play when I get tired of whatever it is I'm working on. I'm tired of solitaire, and the statistics in free cell make it too stressful (same for spider solitaire).

So, I've started hacking Hey Taxi into Tcl. I worked on it about 5 minutes last night, and in less than a half hour this morning, I've got a pretty fun framework. Here's a screen shot:



I've bound up arrow to -10 Y acceleration. If you go below 0, you move up properly. Not sure how much I'll need to add to keep it fun... I think I at least want X thrust.

Update: I added X thrust.

Source for heytaxi.tcl

set ::gravX 0
set ::gravY 1

set ::velX 1
set ::velY 1

set ::taxiID 0

proc eventLoop {} {
  if {$::taxiID == 0} { return }

  incr ::velX $::gravX
  incr ::velY $::gravY

  set coord [.c coords 1]
  if {$::velY < 0 || [lindex $coord 3] < [.c cget -height]} {
     .c move $::taxiID $::velX $::velY
  }
  after 1000 eventLoop
}

proc thrustUp {} {
  incr ::velY -10
}

proc thrustLt {} {
  incr ::velX -5
}

proc thrustRt {} {
  incr ::velX 5
}

pack [frame .fVel] -side top
pack [label .fVel.lLX -text "X Velocity:"] -side left
pack [label .fVel.lVX -textvariable velX] -side left
pack [label .fVel.lVY -textvariable velY] -side right
pack [label .fVel.lLY -text "Y Velocity:"] -side right

pack [canvas .c] -side top

set ::taxiID [.c create rectangle 10 10 20 20 -fill yellow]

bind . <keypress-up>    thrustUp
bind . <keypress-left>  thrustLt
bind . <keypress-right> thrustRt

after 1 eventLoop

New Stars Status

Small changes, but good.



I added the calculations for terraforming to the planet display. I haven't updated the environment bars to show the swing, but you can see the final habitability. I have also been working on correlating our planetary production formula to the original Stars algorithms.

Interesting thing, I found a "bug" in Stars. Stars keeps population in terms of kilotons (100 people per kiloton). When your population grows, you often generate some fraction of a kiloton of people (0..99 people). We weren't previously storing or calculating with this. When I added it, I noticed a difference between our calculations and Stars (the Stars.xls sheet has been invaluable).

So, should the fraction of a kiloton of people contribute to population growth? I thought so, but apparently, the fraction is kept on the side and added in after growth is calculated. I have implemented "bug compatibility", although the other way is commented in the code.

Stuff I've read lately

"Glasshouse" (Charles Stross) - This book made Stross and Morgan start to run together in my head. Stross depicts another version of "life eternal" after the singularity. It didn't seem very pleasant. Hacked assemblers editing people's memories, huge wars fought across the galaxy against dictators willing to do anything. Life so painful, you willingly submit to have your memories erased. But at least Stross managed to fit in an interesting mystery :)


"The Creationists" (Ronald Numbers) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

New Stars Status

A lot of progress. Some highly visible, some more subtle.

I added the JOAT's final ships (destroyer and remote miner).



I fixed the scrap code to take into account the proper return (was just 100%, now it takes into account Ultimate Recycling, and presence of a starbase. (The JOAT immediately scraps his remote miner). I also had to update the client code to allow issuing the scrap command.



I finally fixed the client to show resources generated (currently pulled from the turn file, not calculated).



The availability of the destroyer also altered the scanning pattern for the JOAT:

What is Nuclear Fusion?

Normal matter (stuff) is made up of atoms. These atoms (normally) are made up of protons (positive particles) and neutrons (neutral particles) in a "nucleus", and surrounded by electrons (negative particles). The negative particles repulse other negative particles, while attracting positive particles. The positive particles act in the opposite manner.

In nuclear fusion, very high temperature and pressure are used to squeeze nuclei together. When done to lighter elements (hydrogen - 1 proton, and boron - 5 protons, are favorites), energy is released.

Nuclear fusion holds great potential for cheap, plentiful energy. Hydrogen and boron are very plentiful fuel sources. It is not free from radioactive concerns. Different forms of fusion involve different amounts of radioactive materials (inputs and byproducts). Some are somewhat higher than current fission reactors. Some are less.

The sun is an existence proof for fusion power. There, huge pressure is available due to gravity (the hydrogen is compressed to 150,000 kg/m^3). This allows fusion to occur at a relatively low temperature - 13.6 million degrees. At this temperature, the hydrogen gas becomes "plasma" - the fourth state of matter (after solid, liquid, and gas). In a plasma, the electrons are separated from their nuclei, and the whole thing can be manipulated using electromagnetic fields (very convenient for us).

A typical commercial power planet produces around 1 gigawatt (1 billion watts). Using fusion as the sun does would require 170 billion tons of hydrogen, in a cube-shaped reactor 1 mile on a side (and it would have to sustain the enormous pressure and heat of the sun).

Obviously, some innovation is required to make fusion power work here on Earth. The most promising current projects are:

1. Tokamak - this is the most well funded type of project. A big donut-shaped container, surrounded by magnets, is used to hold the fusion plasma.
2. Laser inertia - powerful lasers push two nuclei together directly. This is how fusion bombs work.
3. Polywell - this design was championed by Robert Bussard (of Bussard ramjet fame). Unfortunately, Dr. Bussard died recently. The project is continuing without him.
   

Stuff I've read lately

"Broken Angels" (Richard Morgan) - This was the second book in the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy. If I had read them in the proper order, the whole Martian thing would probably made a whole lot more sense :)

"The Rebirth of Orthodoxy" (Thomas Oden) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

New Stars Status

Wow! I got to use polar coordinates (I couldn't remember how to figure it out with regular geometry :)


Here we have the JOAT turn 4. The JOAT's armed probe has been refueled, and is moving along. The WM's armed probe has been spotted by the planetary scanner. I still need to work out some information hiding.

I've also implemented the last direction logic (and draw it in the GUI).

Stuff I've read lately

"The Jungle" (David Drake) - This is Drake's cover of the story "Clash by Night" by Henry Kuttner (which is at the back of the book). Not the greatest Drake (no real military action, just hacking through a very dangerous jungle). I think the most interesting part was that the two commanding officers each thought they personally were cowards, and the other man a true hero.

"Evolutionism and Creationism" (Ben Sonder) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

New Stars Status

Check out the scan radii!



This is turn two for the JOAT. He's scanned four planets using his built-in pen scan. I've also added his initial freighter. He is still missing his Remote Miner and Destroyer.

I also fixed the "N light years from Place" readout.

Stuff I've read lately

"Woken Furies" (Richard K. Morgan) - Apparently the third Tak Kovacs book. Poor Tak, he seemed to be getting his rage/father anxiety under control at the end of Altered Carbon. But things took a turn for the worse at some point and he is raging again. I'm a little disappointed in Morgan for going with the "Martians" deux ex machina. They made some interesting flavor for his universe, but I don't like them as plot elements. In fact, I think he may have killed off this storyline, which is too bad.

"Kingdom Principles" (Myles Munroe) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

Tech Level 8 Approaching!

"What do you mean, 'Tech Level 8 approaching?'"

"On a Hawkman rocket cycle. Shall I inform his majesty?"

"Idiot! The emperor would shoot you for interrupting his wedding with this news!"

(with apologies to Flash Gordon)

GURPS uses the concept of tech levels running from 1 to 16. There is a general, societal tech level, but it can also be broken out into categories like power generation, medicine, motive systems, etc. When GURPS was originally written (~1980's) first world nations were described as tech level 7.

So what is predicted for tech level 8?

1. Computers are about 10 time more powerful. The GURPS authors beat themselves up a lot over this. Computers are probably thousands or millions of times more powerful from a frequency/number of transistors point of view. But from a functionality point of view, it's not too bad.
   
2. Human cloning. This one looks on target.
   
3. Prosthetics/Bionics. I think we are close on this one. The war in Iraq has been a big driver just in the last few years. We are getting pretty close to full functionality and look for prosthetics.
4. Robots. I forget the exact capabilities for TL 8. But we are getting pretty good here. Things like humaniform and combat robots are not until TL 9 or 10.
   
5. More efficient in-system space travel. I think the development of ion engines has made this possible. There is also some cool ideas in fission driven (but non-radioactive exhaust) rockets. Unfortunately, I doubt governments will do much innovation. The private sector might have some effect (but would they be allowed to develop a fission rocket?).
   
6. Fusion power. Ahh, fusion power. Always twenty years away. One of the first things I researched on the world wide web (back in 1998). I'll look into this more depth.
   

New Stars Status

Some good progress the last week. I discovered the "JOAT w/IFE" is actually a JOAT w/cheap engines. StructuralElement::isBuildable did not include LRT or PTR calculations.



This screen shot shows the changes in the client. I've always displayed fuel, but the engine was not giving ships their fuel. And moving was not consuming fuel. I've used the War Monger's armed probe to test running out of fuel, and initial speed selection (which ignores return trip, right now). Planetary scan also works (although you can't see it here).

Next step, I think, is to add more player orders to the Two Player test and re-create some of the other tests (fleet follow, combat, bombing, load-unload, and planetary invasion).

I will see what opportunities present themselves for adding some code useful for computer guys.

Stuff I've read lately

"Altered Carbon" (Richard K. Morgan) - This book was very well done. Morgan creates a very interesting universe. People can be saved and restored, and transmitted digitally (and FTL). Bodies are considered temporary and interchangeable (people refer to them as "sleeves"). The main problem I had was trying to understand why more people don't have backups, and why rich people only have one. Also, why there weren't more crimes that carried the erasure penalty? "Double sleeving" (being in two bodies at once) was the only crime on Earth, most colony worlds didn't have any such crimes.

"The Probability of God" (Stephen Unwin) - Reviewed on my faith blog.

New Stars Status

Things are starting to come together. I have worked mostly on the two player test case. I ended up going after the initial fleet code.

Here is the JOAT w/IFE player (the warmonger posted previously is the other):




Note that JOAT gives all tech at 3, and IFE is good for +1. The fuel mizer is available, so the starting long range scout makes use of it (as well as the Rhino Scanner). I expect a bug, in that IT plus IFE and CE gives Prop 7, which can use Alpha 8. But for some reason, Stars! only gives the Long Hump 7. I'm not worried enough to change anything.

Note that we are not seeding the random generator, so player 1 is back at Marge :)

Thanks to John for adding in all the scanners. I had added the Bat Scanner in XML myself, but I wasn't looking forward hacking in all the others.

I also hacked up a quick tech browser in pure Tcl (using tdom to parse the XML):



Next step will be to add the tech readouts to this, and probably making it editable to enable quick fixes.

For the engine, the next step is scan. Then I will modify the tests to send the scout before the colony ship.

New Stars Status

Some good progress on the code base. Not a lot visible, because a lot of it is in the initial conditions (making sure all players get the same mineral concentrations and minerals - trying to figure out the distribution of starting minerals).

I started work on the research control dialog, then discovered that players were not getting initial tech. I have it fixed for some of the races now.

I also took care of the initial conditions of the starting starbase (which was initially empty).

Another irritating bug was that the client would open to planetMap(0). That is just what planet is first in the client data. I've fixed it so it goes to the lowest object id planet you own.

The colonize test is looking really good. With initial minerals and factories, the colony ship builds fast, and can move and colonize in one turn. I am moving off of it for now (since the next step would be to give players the initial colony ship - which is supposed to be built with max available tech, which is the beginnings of computer players...).

I created a new two player test. This should be a base for the most of the other existing tests.

Here is the initial load of the war monger player, with a quick F5 to bring up the research panel: