0xadad

I am a guy who makes games and sometimes plays them.

[0xadad]

Triple Awesome

You wait hours in the rain for a bus. And then three arrive at once.

Three really great video game art/design pieces that I just saw in the past few weeks:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-incredibly-detailed-beautifully-illustrated-insanely-intricate-birth-of

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104415

http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf

[0xadad]

Bootable Ubuntu on a Macbook Pro with VirtualBox

Last year I managed to get Ubuntu 10.10 running on my 13" Macbook Pro so that I could boot into it natively, AND have it accessible as a virtual machine via Virtualbox. When I did that, I wrote a guide. It has been hanging around on my desktop for too long, so I am just going to paste it here, and be done with it.

These instructions are slightly out of date, but they should work, more or less.

What you want is a Macbook Pro that can dualboot OSX and Ubuntu 10.10, AND run the on-disk Ubuntu instance as a guest inside a virtualbox on the MaxOSX host? Well look no further.

So here is what you do.

1. Install Ubuntu 

You already have a Macbook with OSX on it, likely Snow Leopard. 

You have made space (30Gb or more probably) for Ubuntu by creating a new unformatted partition with Disk Utility, and resizing your macosx partition.  

You install rEFIt and then Ubuntu, just like they tell you to. Separate /boot partition, maybe a little swap partition. Leave a little unallocated space somewhere - it can be as little as a meg - I will tell you why later. Install the bootloader to the root primary disk device - don't worry, it won't hose your macosx.

I have done this successfully with a boot and a swap and a 2meg empty partition and the rest as the root mountpoint, and a similar configuration but with no swap space. I was scared that formatting them ext4 would mean I couldn't access them from macosx, but then I realised it would be VirtualBox doing the accessing, not macosx per se, so obviously ext4 is going to work - VB will load the linux ext4 drivers and you will be fine. However, I still prefer to use ext2, in case something goes wrong with VB and my linux install - would be good to be able to retrieve data with macosx

2. Get rid of UUID

Then you are going to want to get rid of all the UUID stuff - virtualbox seems like it doesn't like this. So you boot up your ubuntu, and edit /etc/fstab.  

Take out UUID's in /etc/fstab, replace them with proper device nodes (/dev/sda3, /dev/sda4 etc)

Now you want all the UUIDs out of grub. 

   See: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1530532

which is to edit /etc/default/grub and uncomment out the line GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

   and step 4 of: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/bootinfoscript/index.php?title=Boot_Problems:search

This is simply to comment out some lines so that grub generates its configs without caring about UUID

Easiest thing is to do a search for UUID or uuid to find the right spot in the file. You want to comment three lines out so that it looks like this;

# If there's a filesystem UUID that GRUB is capable of identifying, use it;

# otherwise set root as per value in device.map.

    echo "set root=`${grub_probe} --device ${device} --target=drive`"

    # if fs_uuid="`${grub_probe} --device ${device} --target=fs_uuid 2> /dev/null`" ; then

    # echo "search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ${fs_uuid}"

    # fi

Then:

sudo update-grub. This builds your new grub config. 

3. Create the bootloader image

Now the kicker - we need to build the correct image to be loaded by the bootloader, which is generated by the config file. It needs to end up in a place that the MBR/EFI can access. Normally you would just go sudo grub-install /dev/sda

This breaks on a macbook, because of its EFI and non BIOS ways. 

You get the dreaded "warn: This GPT partition label has no BIOS Boot Partition; embedding won't be possible!."

SO this is where that 1mb of space comes in handy.

Fire up gparted (on a fresh ubuntu install you will probably need to do sudo apt-get install gparted, run it as sudo with sudo gparted) and format it (I used ext2) and mark it as a grub-bios partition (you may need to do these as two separate steps.).

Then run sudo grub-install /dev/sda. Should work just fine - the best message to see is: Installation finished. No error reported.

Reboot and boot into your Ubuntu install just to be sure. While you are there, take note of what is mounted - where is root (/dev/sda4?) /boot? (/dev/sda3?) swap? etc. How about that little grub-bios partition? Write those down or commit them to your infallible memory.

4. Configure VirtualBox

Boot into macosx, and install Virtualbox if you haven't already.

Now, we want to set up a vmdk file which can access the partitions we need for Ubuntu. Those would be: The ubuntu root partition (/), /boot, the swap, and that little grub-bios area.

So you will want to chmod /dev/disk0sx to be readwrite by you, so that you can set this up.

i.e. (this is what it was for me) 

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/disk0s3

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/disk0s4

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/disk0s5

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/disk0s6

Then, you do this:

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename <somewhere.vmdk> -partitions 3,4,5,6 -rawdisk /dev/disk0

Then you follow the instructions here: http://blog.jardinmagique.info/2009/08/setup-virtualbox-on-macosx-to-boot.html

Namely, you run

sudo dd if=/dev/disk0 of=gpt.vmdk bs=512 count=40

This creates an image of our GPT. We will need it in a minute.

sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0

This will print out a table, like so:

pt show: /dev/disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0

      start       size  index  contents

          0          1         MBR

          1          1         Pri GPT header

          2         32         Pri GPT table

         34          6         

         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

     409640  427398472      2  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

  427808112        656         

  427808768     194560      3  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B

  428003328     446464      5  GPT part - 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F

  428449792       2048      6  GPT part - 21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649

  428451840   59942912      4  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7

  488394752       2383         

  488397135         32         Sec GPT table

  488397167          1         Sec GPT header

Then, we are going to edit the extent descriptions in <somewhere.vmdk> file to be in line with this. The main thing is to include the gpt.vmdk at the start, and make sure you get all the partitions in between, annotating the ones that Ubuntu needs access to.

Mine ended up looking like this:

# Extent description

RW 40 FLAT "gpt.vmdk" 0

RW 409600 ZERO 

RW 427398472 ZERO 

RW 656 ZERO 

RW 194560 FLAT "/dev/disk0s3" 0

RW 446464 FLAT "/dev/disk0s5" 0

RW 2048 FLAT "/dev/disk0s6" 0

RW 59942912 FLAT "/dev/disk0s4" 0

RW 2383 ZERO

RW 33 ZERO

You save that, and you boot it. It should totally work! Except, GDM will probably fail, and you end up in text mode instead of in X.

This is where you need Virtualbox Guest tools. http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

You boot up your guest (ubuntu) and then attach the guest tools iso (click on the little virtualbox cd down the bottom.) Then you mount it in ubuntu, and run the VBoxLinuxAditions.run

That installs your guest tools. You get features like better hardware support, particularly video.

So now, you reboot ubuntu, and you should have a fully working system.

You may need to chmod /dev/disk0s3 etc each time you want to run this though…

[unaguanabana]

The New Manifestoes? Blogs Archinect

[0xadad]

Rockethands at Supanova 2012!

Well, the Glyf Blog has been updated with an exciting announcement! You'll have to go take a look for the full details, but the long and short of it is that RocketHands will be at Supanova 2012, and we will be demoing (among other things!) our new game, Glyf!

Come down and find us in the Artists Alley on Sat-Sun 23rd-24th June at Supanova!

[nevver]

The World, 43 A.D.

[0xadad]

This is Richard Feynman's 1974 address to the CalTech graduating class. The speech was never recorded - this is a narration of the transcript. It pretty much sums up what is wrong with much of the scientific and academic community today, what Feynman dubs "Cargo Cult Science", and shows what an important person Feynman was in terms of free thinking, and scientific integrity. (courtesy of Brain Pickings)

[explore-blog]

1. The audience is fickle. 2. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let ‘em go. 3. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character. 4. Know where you’re going. 5. The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer. 6. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act. 7. A tip from Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever. 8. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they’re seeing. 9. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie. 10. The third act must build, build, build in tempo and action until the last event, and then — that’s it. Don’t hang around.

Advice from legendary filmmaker Billy Wilder, a fine addition to our ongoing collection of advice from cultural icons and modern heroes.

From the excellent Conversations with Wilder.

(ᔥLists of Note)

[0xadad]

It helps when things are put in perspective..introducing: Debtris!

[jamespaulluna]

Punch Out! & Donkey Kong! The last games made by Nintendo of America!! #arcade #8bit #nintendo #retro #vintagearcade (Taken with Instagram at Meth Leppard HQ)

[explore-blog]

One of the most common manifestations of synesthesia – the rare neurological condition that leads stimulation in one sensory pathway to trigger an experience in another – is “seeing” sound in color and motion.

In this short video, Juilliard-trained synesthetic pianist Evan Shinners performs Bach in color. Also see Michal Levy’s synesthetic John Coltrane animations. 

(↬ Boing Boing)

[0xadad]

This took my breath away. More details here. I am on the fence as to whether it is real or not - although I do hope it is real just to silence the (quite vitriolic) cynics who tell everyone how gullible they are being taken in by an 'obvious fraud'. Flame wars in the Youtube comments and in the Wired article.

[0xadad]

Performance

So like many others (about a million others, apparently) I listened to the Mike Daisey piece 'The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs' when it appeared on This American Life a few months ago.

A moving story.

But you hear something like that, presented as it was (a stand up delivery by Daisey to a live audience), and you know it is a performance. You know it is practised, words agonised over, delivery at the microphone nuanced for maximum impact. You can hear that much - and it pays off, because it's very effective.

But you don't expect lies. I am not talking about embellishment, which you do expect. Or a bit of wiggle room on exact facts, which is common in the art of verbal storytelling. I am talking about boldfaced lies.

Bits of it he just...made up..you know, for effect. The really sad thing is that there are some terrible conditions for workers in China (oh sure, they are lawful under Chinese law, but they would be illegal in any 'western' nation), but because Daisey went too far with this piece, he has hurt his cause. I hope this event become some kind of precedent for downplaying working conditions at Foxconn or any other factory in China, or as some kind of absolution from guilt. Not culpability exactly, just the guilt of knowing that your iPhone or MacBook was made in the place with the right laws and culture that provides the biggest profit margin. It's all about the shareholders.

The double-whammy of course, is that Daisey's monologue was itself a product - a paid for 'play'. A theatre performance. And the more intriguing and horrifying the story, the more people get interested, and the more money he makes. It is obvious he had a cause here, a message to get out. But the irony of being dishonest in your retelling of events in a paid-for performance about the horrible effects of greed and capitalism aren't lost on me. I doubt they will be lost on anyone.

Full credit to This American Life to have to break the news and issue the retraction. A professional job indeed, in a journalistic environment almost entirely devoid of professionalism.

Yes, typed on my MacBook Pro

[kei-thegreat-blog1]

Bang! Bang! Bang! 

[staticstrife]

[0xadad]

Mental Health Bill 2011

A friend sent me a link regarding the Draft Mental Health Bill 2011, in which proposed legislation would allow procedures such as psychosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy, and sterilisation to be carried out on children requiring their consent alone, and not the consent of an adult parent or guardian.

Sterilisation. Yes. Meaning they won't be able to have children. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

I heard about it on March 7, and comments close 5pm March 9. Today.

So I wrote a letter, and sent it to both the mental health commission, and the minister for Mental Health and Disability Services, Hon Margaret Morton, MLC. 

Below is a copy of the email I sent to the minister.

Honourable Minister,

As the minister for Mental Health you will no doubt be aware of the Mental Health Bill 2011[*]. I am writing to express my opposition to the contents of the draft bill, specifically the sections which permit children to consent to sterilisation, psychosurgery, and electroconvulsive therapy, without requiring the consent of a parent or guardian.

That bill itself outlines the penalties for misuse of these forms of treatment: fines of between $5,000 and $15,000, and prison terms of two years. Current legislation is evidence that these procedures are serious, and that their misuse constitutes a grave offence.

Why then is the bill seeking to erode the current checks and balances we have in place regarding these procedures? How is current legislation impeding the application of these procedures where children are involved? What is the justification for soliciting the consent of a child mental health patient for such serious procedures, rather than a fully informed, rational adult?

I would further enquire, what does a child's consent mean? Particularly a child who is already being treated for a mental illness. Are they equipped to make decisions about the nature of the treatments they should receive? Even once explained, can they truly understand the ramifications? 

I understand an assessment of patient "maturity" is taken into account, but I assert that this means very little. Please imagine a hypothetical situation: a group of several hundred primary and high-school aged children, with no diagnosed mental health condition, who have been judged to be 'mature', are educated about the sterilisation procedure and its effects. A free sterilisation is then offered for any student that will consent, no questions asked. If you were a parent of one of these children, would you be anxious? 

Now consider the bill - it is recommending that children diagnosed with a mental illness, undergoing treatment for a mental illness, be able to consent to these procedures without the consent of their parents.

I urge you not to allow this bill to pass in its current form. I can only hope common sense and humane sanity will prevail.

Yours Sincerely,

My NAME

My ADDRESS

[*] A link to the bill: http://www.mentalhealth.wa.gov.au/Libraries/pdf_docs/Discussion_Draft_for_Mental_Health_Bill_2011_v3.sflb.ashx

There's about two hours left for 'Public Comment', although I am sure you could still email various ministers after today.

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[0xadad]

Battlefield 3 Australian server problems to be fixed?

When I first started playing BF3 just before Christmas, we had about three pages of servers in Australia. I got disconnected more than I would like, but there were always games available and the ping was good.

In January, all the servers disappeared. In their place were 3-6 DICE controlled 'Australian' servers, although I strongly doubt they were in Australia (no Australian accents on teamchat, but plenty of entertaining Brits, Yanks, and Frenchies!). If they were located here they were being served via 56k dialup, because we were down to one bar of ping, and frequent disconnection. Plus, the games were almost always full, so you had to queue to play on a rubber-banding server.

If you wanted to play, you really had to join a server in the US or Asia. I might add, each of these regions had 20-30 pages of servers available, and the ping was better than the 'Australian' region servers.

I am saying all this in the past tense because it (hopefully) looks like the situation is about to change, after a Battlelog Blog posting from Daniel Matros, the global DICE community manager.

Here's a pertinent chunk: 

I want to let you know that our team over here has been working very hard in order to solve these issues for you. We´ve done numerous improvements and of course, one of them being ramping up our server capacity in Australia. These short-term changes will be rolling out over the comings weeks and some players may notice improvements sooner than others as we work towards our goal.

As someone who has tweeted at the Battlefield support account and has almost stopped playing due to these issues, I am really hoping DICE deliver the goods.

Can I get a Hooah?

[0xadad]

The beginning?

Considering the instability of US currency and their financial profile, the question for a long time has been: When will foreign nations begin to pull away from the $USD?

This week:

Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says

Japan & China to Support Direct Trading of Currencies of Both Nations

India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement

Is this the beginning?

So Bye, bye Miss American Pie Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey in Rye Singin' this'll be the day that I die This'll be the day that I die

--Don Mclean, American Pie