One year ago today: August 3, 2015, writing lessons.
Five years ago today: August 3, 2011, not fined, but arrested.
Nine years ago today: August 3, 2007, reads like a dragon file.
Random years ago today: August 3, 2010, read “The Codex”.
MORNING
Welcome to lots of editorial. Because I’ve got the Internet on the blink and my advertising on the street. I have to wait for bites and I can’t watch the old movies I’d planned. I’m still reading “Fast Shuffle”, the novel. There are no interesting contemporary pictures as I’m sitting and waiting for people to come to the door. You get pictures from the archives, so pardon if some are repeats or near repeats. This is a Morse Code “clapper” made from Jenga blocks.
It so happens I like pancakes. The fluffy kind that serve mainly as material to convey maple syrup to your taste buds. Blog says I have to mention food, did you know the trivia that food is the most searched item on the Internet, ahead of porn and gambling? Some people’s priorities are amazing, but then, we can’t all be the captain of the polo team, nomsayn?
Here’s some inside info. I often beat jet lag by doing superfluous programming. Creating a flowchart and coding some appropriate language to run the algorithm. The solutions regularly put me to sleep (so you can imagine they would put somebody like Ken Sanchuk into a bloody coma). And sometimes, the key to workable code hits me in a dream with enough clarity to wake me up. Like last night. So here is the concept, see if you can follow along.
Puzzle mazes, you know, the “enter here” maze you follow the path with your pencil to find the treasure. I know there is already code to generate them, but I would like to create my own version. Of course, with my coding, you get the full flexibility that is missing on altogether too many programs these days. A contributing factor is that C languages encourage one-off and specific code that can only do one job. Let me explain the difference.
C code would encourage a programmer to make a puzzle that is, say, 15 units by 15 units. But to make that change to 16 or 14 units, the code has to be revamped. My code would just let you plug in the size you want. That is, a full page puzzle is conceptually no more difficult than any other size. I’ve further noticed that such puzzles can be cracked by having one path, yet I find no rule that within the body of the maze, why two paths would not be permissible. That sounds odd unless part of the challenge is to find the shortest path. And by that same token, circular traps instead of just another dead end.
I figure BASIC is the correct language. Let me probe around and see if I can’t come up with a second generation maze puzzle, maybe even a new twist on the theme. The logical approach is to have the computer create the true path first, then let it fill in the remaining alleys. True, the puzzles are simple, but is the logic behind the scenes simple? If so, can it be made better?
[Author’s note: to myself: notice how this maze problems resembles the first game program I ever coded, back in 1982. Prior to that, I had only coded university assignments, like Pascal’s Triangle and prime number printouts. Early computer classes did not stress games, it was considered wasting processor time.
My first independent code was a variation on a game that had a particle move around the screen until it hit another particle. Then it could either retreat or clobber the obstruction. This was standard fare, but what I did was have the moving particle “remember” what worked last time. Instead of “fight or flee”, the moving particle learned to kill.
Negev.
NOON
Noodling with the rhythm guitar brought me another discovery. Those with talent can laugh, but these are new things to me—and I didn’t find them in your instruction book. Singing an octave. This had meaning to me because my ex had a three-octave range. Myself, I’ll computer transpose everything to C, D, or G. Today, I discovered there is a key I can sing in both a high and low octave. In the key of G. If I try it anywhere else, there are notes I can’t always hit. Almost by accident, I sang up to a high G. You can bet your sweet bejeezus I will be following this up.
This is a photo of one of the roads JZ and I used to get lost on trying to get to the Florida interior. They are not well-marked, often undergoing that twisted Florida practice of each route having multiple names and populated by gender-confused goofs who have no clue where they are.
That’s what I call a knock on the door. If she’s 55, she’s got no hard miles on her. What a babe and just my type. However, she is second in line now. This place is going to sell and that was smart, ramping up the advertising along Federal. I told her to check back tomorrow, and also that outside of the place for sale, I found her very attractive. She then opened up and told me she is divorced and is visiting a sister in the area.
Essentially I let her know that if she found me attractive right back, to please say something. Boy, that one you could dress up and take out to dinner. Gulp. I dropped the ball in her court but so gently she was visibly impressed. It put that extra lilt back in her hips as she sashayed her firm little tush up the driveway. Huuuuu-doggie!
I’m half-way through the book (Fast Shuffle) and it is worth the time. A Walter Mitty type thinks he’s a detective tracking down missing persons, except they aren’t missing. Like the lady who checked in under a different name. The book has an interesting sub-plot I can’t yet fit into the picture. It concerns a relative of one of the characters who, when she was younger, ran a Communist leaflet-printing operation. What’s fascinating is how this book gives an accurate account of the appeal Communism has to oppressed people.
Fascinating, because we live in a society that doesn’t know they are oppressed. As the book states, as long as they have their iPads and Adidas, they are more concerned with getting their share of everything than about the fair administration of justice. The game is so rigged by the wealthy there is no chance of getting ahead. And there will be no revolutions as long as the sheeple don’t dream of ever having any money unless they survive a hit by the Staples truck. I’m curious where that thread leads.
AFTERNOON
Here is a photo of the iron-to-PVC conversion piece I need for my new place. While there was no apparent leak on the existing piping, the presence of that damp area under the floor was enough to sponsor a termite infestation. The adaptor is a piece of rubber with a $30 price tag, but fortunately, I only need one.
Nothing much downtown found me back here making a meal of potatoes, onions and pork. Sure makes the place smell great. I stopped at the club to play that TV game with the squares, pick an “E”, that game I tend to get confused with the one that has the lists. Sure enough, some dweeby bar bunny that works the late night Artie’s circuit decided I was her next John. When I ignored her, she played some naygar music on the juke box. I got most of the answers anyway. Ladies, if you think guys don’t know when to get lost, take a look at yourselves.
To any equally dweeb guys out there, here’s two subtle clues that she missed. One, when I declined her offer to buy me drinks. Two, when I got up and moved two stools away from her. That broad was slower than my entire family, but at least she actually did finally catch on in less than fifteen years so has at least some intelligence.
NIGHT
I spent the evening sketching my latest programming challenge. It is similar to the pixel screen tests from a while back. This time I closely studied the behavior of the last pixel in a “moving” line and decided on two parameters. One is that the pixel should not travel more than five times its own length without changing direction and two is that the change of direction is perpendicular and never back on itself (because that would create too many small blind alleys). These are not obvious restrictions to the person drawing a maze by hand, yet that a computer would have to face them.
I’m also thinking a good approach would be to have the program [at least initially] establish the path in black on a white background, then fill in the false paths. When this is done, invert the colors and there is your maze. Here’s a typical situation for me to “fail”. Like the robot, often just knowing I can do the task actually decreases the likelihood that it will ever get done. However, I finish a lot more programming designs than I do any other type of hobby project.
It’s also the type of coding I enjoy. The maze is really a large grid, which I would represent as an array. Beginners don’t like arrays. The mechanics are confusing enough without me coming along and adding the complexity of relationships between array elements. But conceptually, it’s a decent intellectual hurdle for a man my age to engage over coffee.
Let’s take a peek at one of those complexities. When a pixel arrives at a location, it can move four directions. Ahead, back, left, or right. We eliminate ahead and back, and randomly choose left or right. It must “look ahead” to see if there is enough room to move 2, 3, 4, or 5 spaces, allowing for when it is near a margin or in a situation where it could trap itself. You may find this stuff easy, but for me it takes time. I studied and when I looked up it was 3:35AM. I’m going to bed.
Last Laugh
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