20061008

who me?

This morning as I was resisting getting up it struck me that I could write the whuffie server program myself. The control interface side of it could be as simple as a web application. To complete the application a simple server side section would need to be written which listens for requests, performs searches when requested, and fires off further requests to the ip addresses in its directory cache.

I know it's probably going to make a lot of people mad, but I'm going to write it in php. On the off chance that I actually get something working, if people are interested enough, they can port it into whatever language they like. I just like php that's all. I happen to know for certain that I can write a server application in php because I've done a simple server app in php before.

So it will be done. Nice way to spend a lazy sunday really.

20061007

Back to Earth

A burst of enthusiasm passes and I feel a bit spent. The ideas I put together for the whuffie p2p network design I'm not so full of confidence about... *shrug* I'm sure if it's meritorious it will be picked up and have something done with.

I'm not much chop for implementations but designs and specifications are things I enjoy alot, although after I feel like I've put everything into it that I have I fall into this dull depression and wonder what the big deal was after all.

I hope the fellow who wanted to find it hasn't been put off by my putting the information in a place that appears to be inaccessible to him. I know that there has been several people visiting the website however, as the server logs show quite a few accesses during times when I definitely wasn't accessing it myself and was asleep. I can't say whether it was just one person or if there was several because the log only shows 127.0.0.1 for every access since it is on a tor hidden service.

The giant vat of fermenting apple juice is going along well, one can actually see effervescence in it constantly and the rate at which the gas is flowing out is quite phenomenal. It's been a bit of a novelty for my mother to witness it, she's never seen fermentation being done before. It's only my 6th ever brew, but in previous brews it was never this vigorous. I also have never put this much sugar into a brew either, or filled a vat so fully. I was concerned it might bubble out and make a mess but it's been absolutely no problem at all. If it were beer i think it would have made a right mess.

Bitchun'

http://bitchun.org/
This is an interesting first attempt at creating an implementation of Whuffie, a form of currency described in Cory Doctorow's ( http://craphound.com/?p=147 ) book Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom which was a measure of reputation and regard from other people also using this currency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whuffie describes it in basic terms and explains some of the subtlties of it.

After seeing the bitchun.org thing I decided I needed to write up my specification which I had been thinking about for some time, although I'd not thought about it for ages since dreaming it up. In the remembering some of the puzzles about it my concept has become clearer.

It is not complete by any means, but it you can find what I've written so far at http://ezrblwfyoyl24dar.onion/index.php/Whuffie
(requires a Tor proxy client to view/edit) and I invite anyone with thoughts about it to help me work up a proper protocol specification.

I would very much like to see whuffie become a real thing, Cory touches on something which is very crucial to the whole business of the sharing of value in his book Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom http://www.craphound.com/down/.

20061006

Electric Moron Once Again...

It appears to be quite likely that the electric moron was involved in an attempt to defraud my mother of her credit card number, a call was received by me and by her and a person pretended to be our previous internet/phone provider requesting payment on a bill which did not exist.

Fortunately I was very abrupt with them as this provider has done much to provoke ill will from me, and likewise with my mother, and no such details were given out, although her date of birth was lost. This may be the cause of some problems, however I doubt they knew enough to be able to request a birth certificate for her (ie, her place of birth was not known).

The electric moron's bill had me sent a final notice and weighing things up I decided that I would pay back the bill slowly rather than face a civil court bleating about having been defrauded and manipulated by a scoundrel.

Unbeknownst, possibly, to the moron, who has clearly not been paying his rent, the real estate agent sent a breach notice which had my name on it, and thus was caught by the net of my mail redirection oddly enough. I have elected to sit on this little notice. If they do not attempt to contact him by phone, then he will be none the wiser, and perhaps he will be unlucky and have them knocking at his door demanding his vacation of the property with officers of the law in tow who will not take kindly to the fact he may be at the time in the midst of producing an illegal substance in his garage.

This has raised the question of whether the estate agent has heeded the signed documents submitted to them stating that I was no longer on the lease, and thus I have filed my copy of said document alongside the breach notice should any further come of this and blame be assigned to me beyond the date for which the document states I abdicated responsibility. It is best I be fore-armed against this possibility, because as of the date given I should have no legal liability.

I do not believe that he had any sway over the agents, so I satisfy myself for the time being that this was a mistaken addressing the breach to me, but know that if it should go ill I have some means to repel any attempts to assign liability to me.

The moron had the gall to demand I give him further monies when I was completely certain I had completely paid my debt for the house fro my part. I realise now that when he approached me thusly I should have said, 'This debt is between me and the agents, not between me and you and it shall only be given thusly to the agents,' but I wasn't fully in possession of my reason due to the fear he had successfully implanted into my mind.

Never again. I decided when this business was at its point of commencing closure that I was never again going to accept maltreatment or abuse from any person ever again in my life and I am steadfast as iron with this matter and even small slights I now have a calculated response, which this recent nonsense has fully crystallised for me, which basically goes like this:

"When I am done wrong, my retaliation is in the witholding of regard and concern for the wrongdoer. If I have instigated consequences in my name, I will wear them, but if there is any situation in which my help may prevent them from finding trouble I will withold it with the intent that my inaction leads them to harm themselves."

I think this is basically the praxis upon which nobility operates, and I fully intend to become noble. Noble means to not get entangled in the business of others. Only when one refuses to be drawn into retaliation or opens oneself up for abuse does one avoid trouble and make the ground ready for their ascent up the ladder of reputation. Wrong done to counter wrong does not elevate social standing, it simply puts one at the mercy of the sly silver tongue and to whether one has a greater skill of persuasion than the one who has aggrieved.

20061005

I've had a gutful

Look, to everyone, I couldn't give a flying fuck that you don't like an active chatter in your domain. I've just got an email in a mailing list chastising me for being to much of a chatterbox and I couldn't give a flying fuck if you are having a bad day, that's it, you just shut me up permanently. At least in any social online domain that is not primarily about me putting my thoughts out there (ie not here).

The same thing basically applies in my non-electronic communication domain, I have realised that only a very small number of people appreciate my thoughts at all. In case you hadn't noticed from reading this blog, I spare nobody in my critiques, and I am sick of apologising to people for being so unswerving in my intent to make clear criticism and offer comprehensive albeit at times divergent idea streams for further actions.

If anyone wants my creative or critical input on anything I am not going to say a thing without a big fat legal document saying that they will pay me if they even dare so much as to say in a public arena to me that I am being in some way unacceptably blunt or misguided in my expressions. I'm not interested in being castigated for expressing my opinion when it is invited ever again. EVER. and I'm not fucking around. People who are actually interested in hearing an opinion don't mind me.

Blogger doesn't mind me spouting at the mouth so here is where you hear my thoughts. Unfortunately blogger doesn't make it simple to find out if anything I've said has attracted comments, but I do try to find out if anyone has an opinion to reflect, and I would love to respond to any opinions.

But I am becoming increasingly averse to this whole debate business because I have only rarely met people who are objective enough to permit a decent dialogue with me.

For the rest of you all - I couldn't give a damn. If you aren't willing to permit my reaction to your thoughts or actions then you don't deserve any of my time and you can fucking go to hell.

GOOD BYE

20061004

withdrawal

I went in to my clubhouse yesterday and was very disappointed to see that the master copy I'd made, and the instructions on printing it were completely unheeded. I guess perhaps it should not be a surprise considering I am the only person in the place who even knows what good typography looks like. *shrug*
Made me think better of being so loyal to it, and to just make use of its services and let the inertia of the environment reassert itself. I dread coming back some weeks hence and finding that the indoor plants are once again returned to their prior sad state, and yet another mortality in the fishtank, but I should just let it go, and focus on cultivating things which are directly feeding me, like my relationships with my work-colleagues and my on home and it's untended garden and my body and it's poor but improving state of health. All I can really do apart from directly attending to the living things in that place is hope that someone noticed what I was doing and noticed the change it wrought but it is not a hope I should put great stock in.

I have now started a new brew, I overestimated the volume of the vat by 2 litres, then found the volume climbed another 6 litres or so when the sugar was added so I had to draw out 2 litres again before it would be safe for it to start fermenting. The froth at the top is fairly minimal, and the top of the fluid level is very near it but it's not coming out of the vapour lock. The rate of bubbling is quite intense and the sweet smell of fermenting apples fills the air around it.
I put 9 kilograms of brewing sugar into the brew, 2kg of dextrose and 7kg of 'brewers sugar' which is about half half corn sugar and sucrose. Last brew I included some honey and used brown sugar which I am not sure was good or not, the results of this next brew will show whether brown sugar is better or dextrose/maltodextrin/sucrose. In any case, the previous brew was about 60L and I put in 6 kilograms of sugar, the beverage which resulted was decent but to my estimation not much more than 5% alcohol/volume and I really want something with a bit more of a kick than that, so a brew with 50% more sugar should theoretically land me around the 7-8% mark that I desire.

I have decided to cease my efforts to contribute to the Clubhouse now, I am going to erase the sections of the wiki that I had started. I think I may cook up some kind of web based management application but I have to dream up a purpose for doing so.
I don't know if there is much hope of me actually finding members for the Monastic Order of Chaos, but perhaps I should work on developing the financial side of it, creating an accounting system as a web-based application, learning how the taxation rules actually work and what they entitle me to claiming.
I am also going to start saving money up now. Last two pays I have got I spent too much in one go. I did kinda need to do some of the spending, but much of it was unneccessary, things like credit for my phone, a white LED keychain lamp, and various other things which added up to me running short before I was paid again, and now again I have accidentally paid out too much into my mother's account and spent probably a little too much getting a brew running. I can't really rue this too badly, I'm not exactly in poverty anymore, things are better than they have been in a very long time.
However next pay I am not going to go and splash out on a skateboard as I was thinking about doing, I will let the money pile up until the pay after before I consider doing that. I'm going to have to shell out about 500 to really get equipped for skateboarding and tell the truth I have greater need at present for another three work outfits, a lighter pair of shoes and a nice set of 6 light white socks so the coming summer heat does not make me sweat overmuch.

Overall things are going well in my life at the moment. I am starting to become much more stable now and progress is really starting to happen.

20061002

Obsession

Well, for some unknown reason I've spent the better part of the last 6 hours browsing neat techy gizmo websites, first I was dwelling on the subject of LED illumination (sadly there is not yet a bayonet fitting led light yet, although edison type with 110V is available) and then I kinda got stuck on long wave radio synchronising watches. Finally found one which looks like it might be somewhat useful where I live, for that matter virtually anywhere in the world... puzzles me why there isn't an international consortium for this, surely it can't take that much to run enough long wave time transmitters synchronised to gps time signals so that ordinary people don't have to set their clocks anymore... eeesh! well anyway, luckily it seems quite likely I am in decent range of one of them so a self-setting watch is definitely on my agenda.

20061001

Progress?

Yesterday I decided to try using pseudoephedrine to unclog my mostly always at least somewhat clogged nostrils. It sure dried out the ol shnoz, but left my brain all scattery. I'm not sure what to make of that, I don't think that is terribly helpful. I wonder why it affects my concentration so much... it's certainly not mentioned in any side effect lists I've seen.

I've progressed with the wiki stuff somewhat, I have the beginnings of a table definition list for the database, I'm going to need to have a gander at the database at the clubhouse sometime and get a scope of the current state of affairs.

An old school friend visited today, haven't seen him in a while, as usual he just turned up unheralded. I'm kinda glad he's asperger cos it means he is only narrowly interested in me, his obsessions and mine are only marginally linked. I do try to be decent and all, but it still feels odd.