Playing the Game of 10. Make 10 from the numbers. Rules are pretty easy, and includes undo and replay. It starts in the tutorial as extremely easy, then gets harder and harder.

It's available online (javascript), with more levels in iOS, purportedly free for a few days before it goes up to $0.99.

So I was reading xkcd and it made me think about /. so I wandered back over here and starting poking around. Looks like 8 or so friends still post journals. Not like it was years back when I was checking for new stories or JEs all day almost every day. I find it funny that as the "social web" has grown into a mainstream.-even-my-parents-are-on-the-web,-jocks-too,-and-now-celebrities-hire-companies-to-manage-it thing, I've found less and less satisfaction with it.

My main social group these days revolves around a 4X game on facebook that a coworker got me to try out. I think I honestly crave the anonymity of the old days (like /.) and a game with a pseudonym and a forum fits that bill pretty well. Plus the fact that it's a semi complicated sci-fi strategy game keeps it relatively nerdy, which is my preferred company. Though of course there are the self described jock types in the game who resort to homophobic slurs when you cross them. I think the /. trolls inured me to that, so thanks trolls!

Feeling really nostalgic right now though. Can still remember many of the old Circle posters usernames off the top of my head and I have a terrible memory for names...

Yep, /. is just as UI-fugly as I remember it. :P

-MT.

Reading EurekAlert! i came across Computer program lets users learn keyboard shortcuts with minimal effort, making me think they finally caught up with emacs.

The project page is even more interesting, raised keys and all.

What is haptic feedback anyway? Sounds like a gastrointestinal malfunction.

I've been logging in lately, posting JEs and commenting (read:fishing), just because.

And now i have mod points. That's just weird. I don't care. No, that's not right. I shouldn't care, but i do. :(

I hate myself.

This excerpt from Civilization in Transition (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 10), page 20, paragraphs 27 and 28 is both right and wrong (italics, his):

One is reminded of the story of a young rabbi who was a pupil of Kant's. One day an old rabbi came to guide him back to the faith of his fathers, but all arguments were in vain. At last the old rabbi drew forth the ominous shofar, the horn that is blown at the cursing of heretics (as happened to Spinoza), and asked if the young man knew what it was. "Of course I know," answered the young man coolly, "it is the horn of a ram." At that the old rabbi reeled back and fell to the ground in horror.

What is the shofar? It is also the horn of a ram. Sometimes a symbol can be no more than that, but only when it is dead. The symbol is killed when we succeed in reducing the shofar to a ram's horn. But again, through symbolization, a ram's horn can become the shofar.

From time to time i've wondered what the Latin in the ending of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was. Too lazy to type it in myself, i've searched google lazily, and never found it.

Well, this time i did it! A site claims to have the script which seems ok. The ending is:

"I, the undersigned, shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained, et cetera, et cetera . . . fax mentis incendium gloria culpum, et cetera, et cetera . . . memo bis punitor delicatum!" It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks. You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!

The Latin, translated via Google Translate, reads:

and so on, and so forth. . . the glory of the burning fire was the fault of the torch of the mind, and so on, and so on. . . memory twice punishing nice!

Not sure what it means....but, mission accomplished. And, searching for the Latin phrase on google, does indeed bring it up easily.

One thing i enjoy when reading psychological books, is the authors' tendency to wax poetic. It may be an uncommon occurrence, but they are oh so much appreciated.

Here's one i recently came accross in From India to the Planet Mars, Page 293 (Appendix Two, P. 72)

I avow that I really regret a little the day when I would have to see in the mediumship of Mlle. Smith the authentic revelation of real experiences, rather than the beautiful subliminal poem that I have admired up to now.

Some years ago, perhaps 6 or 7, after deliberating building or buying, i bought a bike. I ride it for pleasure and to keep in shape. While i don't ride too much due to minor arthritis, i have managed to ride over 2500 miles according to the odometer.

I went to the local Trek Store, American Cycle & Fitness, and asked for a cleaning. When i had been there a week or two prior to purchase toe grips, he oiled my chain and mentioned that i could use a cleaning. When he told me that were out of grips but might have them soon, i left with intention to get them when they called me.

They never called. So, i came back and asked again. The grips, as before, are only available pre-attached to pedals, which i did not need. So, i asked about the cleaning, for $49.99, he looked and said i needed the $89.99 service: the spokes needed tightening, the brakes were loose, the flywheel needed to be replaced, and i needed a new chain. I was able to verify the wheel not being straight, which he said the spoke tightening fixes; i couldn't tell the difference between the new and old flywheel, but i knew the bike wasn't always shifting (down two, up one, to go down one); and the brakes were indeed loose. Why i needed a chain, i don't know. I mentioned to him my need to conserve cash as i have no job, and he found a cheaper chain in the back saving me about 10 bucks.

I also needed a bike lock. I seem to lose those, but after having two bikes stolen in the past (one from the shed, the other, i don't remember), i am weary of being with a lock as a deterrent. Combination is preferred so i don't lose the key, but thickness of the cable is irrelevant, as if someone can break one lock, he can probably break any. The lock is just a deterrent.

He helped me find a lock and suggested the stronger one. They only sell Kryptonite locks. Previously they had Trek locks, but he explained they were just made by Kryptonite anyway. Or so i think he said. I went for the cheaper, thinner one, but it would not fit in my previous holder. I do not remember if the new one came with one. So, i took the more expensive lock, which looked like it would fit. It didn't, so they went to install it.

The lock holster comes with a strap, and a screw, and a confusing instruction sheet written in 14,000 languages. I asked them to install it. They had a hard time doing it, he asked him, then asked him back, until finally it was installed. Laurel and Hardy could have done no better.

My erstwhile lock's holster was situated near the handlebar, as no other place could hold it comfortably. The new guy didn't like that, so he put it under the seat (on the upright middle bar). Of course, there was little room, so he had to lower the holster, then explained that the lock was too large so i would have to twist it when taking it out. /me wonders if he realized his stupidity in rejecting the position near the handlebar. Oh well, it does work with a minor fidget now and then to keep the cable from hitting my legs.

Then comes the light. I have a CatEye, it has two levels of brightness, which makes little difference, but it illuminates well. I just go back and forth between having it shine right in front of the wheel and further ahead. The former is for immediate safety, though considering i am moving, the latter seems more useful. So, i figured why not have two lights.

First he told me the my model wasn't available any more, then went on to sell the most expensive model, it was a $45 LED, USB rechargeable, bright light. Indeed it was bright. The lady nearby explained it was diffused widely too. After wavering with the cheaper models, i decided on this one because i wanted the brighter wider light for my safety.

He took the display model because it was the last one, and when i asked for a floor-model discount, he declined, saying it was just a few days old and the package was in the back. Arg. He installed it very easily on the fork.

When paying, i heard the people next to me getting a card with "points" from another worker. When i asked about it, the told me i was eligible and i needed to speak to her (they were closing, and his computer was off), and then send an email to get the current purchase added. I asked her and she just took care of everything. It was nice, other than the fact that i had to ask.

Riding home was amazing. The smooth riding, shifting, and breaking made it all seem worth it. That night, however, i found the light to be utterly useless. Not only was the beam so diffused as to illuminate very little, being he put it on the fork, it was pointing upward, not downward! I tried other places, but they were either impractical places, or the wheel block their effectivity. Checking Amazon, comments mentioned it's excellent use as a marker. Also, while the list price was $45, Amazon had it for about half that.

I wiped it clean from some minor dust with water, put it back in it's package, and brought it back two days later. He took it back without a hassle. I now intend to purchase one on Amazon, together with the toe clips.

While researching for a personal project I wanted to look at Galen's De Temperamentis. The book talks about temperaments and is referred to near the beginning of Galen's own On the Natural Faculties.

Keirsey and others quote Galen. Some challenge this understanding saying he got Phlegmatics and Cholerics backwards. For this and other reasons i wanted to read the book myself. Alas, i do not read Ancient Greek.

Galen wrote his works in Greek. Some are extant, some are not. Some in Greek, some in Arabic, some in Latin, and not always via one translation. Greek->Arabic->Latin is found, and in some works Greek is not the original source language, that is, the original Greek text is lost, but some ancient scholar translated another version back to Greek.

But it's all available in English, right? No, it is not. :( It is surprising to many that there are very few works of Galen available in English, at least in the public domain. This is somewhat unbelievable; Galen, an important, famous, and prolific author of antiquity, doctor and philosopher, praised both then and now, who, even after a fire destroyed many of his works still has a immense anthology in his name, whose works are in the public domain, are simply unavailable to those of us who do not read ancient Greek, Arabic, and Latin. At first this sounds ok, but with all the information people like, want, and have today, to have such an author of antiquity to be beyond the reach of most people, is indeed hard to believe.

A bit more searching found that Internet Archive via its own efforts and those of Google Books has 8 copies of De Temperamentis online.

The texts are as follows:

Ancient Greek

• Galeni de temperamentis liber I. (1897) (listed as Romainian)
• Galenou Peri kraseon tria: Galeni De temperamentis libri III (1904)
• Galenou Peri kraseon tria. [microform] = Galeni De temperamentis libri III; (1904)

Latin

• Hieremiae Thriveri... Galeni De temperamentis libros epitome (1547) (listed as Spanish)
• Hieremiae Thriveri... Commentarii in omnes Galeni libros De temperamentis (1547)
• Galeni Pergamensis De temperamentis, et De inaeqvali intemperie libri tres, Thomas Linacro Anglo interprete. Opus non medicis modo, sed et philosophis oppido q[uem] necessariu[m] nunc primum prodit in lucem cvm gratia & priuilegio (1881) (text starts on page 76)
• Galeni Pergamensis De temperamentis, et de inaequali intemperie (1881) (text starts on page 75)
• Galeni Pergamensis De temperamentis : et De inaequali intemperie libri tres, Thomas Linacro Anglo interprete. Opus non medicis modo, sed et philosophis oppido q[uam] necessariu[m] nunc primum prodit in lucem cum gratia & priuilegio. Impressum apud praeclaram Cantabrigiam per Joannem Siberch, anno MDXXI (1881) (text starts on page 73)

In the Latin, the first two are the same edition, and the last three are the same edition. I ignored the first three because of the Ancient Greek, and tried the Latin editions. The OCR supplied text is mostly garbled. Saving a page and using an online OCR service also returns mostly nonsense. Ostensibly, the older unclear fonts, the "f" looking like an "s", and not-well-recognized Latin add up to a real problem. Further, the first Latin edition listed above has interspersed commentary. Even if the OCR did work, the commentary would pose a bit of an issue.

Well then, maybe i should try it myself. I took two copies which looked clearest to me, one from each edition: Hieremiae Thriveri... Commentarii in omnes Galeni libros De temperamentis (1547) and Galeni Pergamensis De temperamentis : et De inaequali intemperie libri tres, Thomas Linacro Anglo interprete. Opus non medicis modo, sed et philosophis oppido q[uam] necessariu[m] nunc primum prodit in lucem cum gratia & priuilegio. Impressum apud praeclaram Cantabrigiam per Joannem Siberch, anno MDXXI (1881).

The texts seem fraught with errors. To illustrate, here are the first two sentences from the each edition, with base letters, separate ae into two letters, fixing s/f problems, and adjoining words that are brought together with a hyphen over two lines. Other issues, such as broken words, misplaced punctuation, are left in place.

First edition (Google Translate):

Constare animalium corpora ex calidi, frigidi, sicci, humidiq; temperatura, nec effe horum omnium parem in temperatura portionem, demostratum antiquis abunde eft, tum philofophorum, tum medicorum praecipuis. Diximus autem & nos de ijs , ea quae probabilia suntuisa,alio opere:in quo de ijs, que Hippocrates constituit, elemetis egimus.

Second edition (Google Translate):

Constare animalru corpora ex calidi, frigidi, sicci, humidique mixtura , nec effe horu omniu pare in temperatura portione , demonstratum antiquis abunde eft,tum philofophorum, tu medicorum precipuis. Diximus autem & nos de ijs,ea quae .pbablia sunt uisa alio opere . In quo de ijs,quae Hyppocrates costituit elemetis , egimus.

Correcting the two editions based on each other, and using Google Translate from English back to Latin where neither is translated well, here's what it should read (Google Translate)

Constare animalum corpora ex calidi, frigidi, sicci, humida mixtura, nec effe horu omniu parem in temperies portione, demonstratum antiquis abunde eft, tum philofophorum, tu medicorum praecipuis. Diximus autem & nos de ijs, ea quae probabilia sunt uisa alio opere in quo de ijs, que Hippocrates constituit, elementis egimus.

Note the differences in spelling:

1. animilium/animalru/animilum (both)
2. humidiq;/humidique/humida (both)
3. temperatura/mixtura/mixtura (first)
4. horum/horu/horu (first)
5. omnium/omniu/omniu (first)
6. parem/pare/parem (second)
7. temperatura/temperatura/temperies (both)
8. portionem/portione/portione (first)
9. demostratum/demonstratum/demonstratum (first)
10. tum/tu/tu (first)
11. praecipuis/precipuis/praecipuis (second)
12. que/quae/que (second)
13. Hippocrates/Hyppocrates/Hippocrates (second!)
14. constituit/costituit/constituit (second)
15. elemetis/elemetis/elementis (both)

The first was corrected 10 times, the second, 9 times. Regarding spacing and punctuation, which, admittedly, is mildly arbitrary, the former seems better:

First:

1. humidiq; (extra semicolon)
2. ijs , (extra space)
3. suntuisa,alio (missing space)
4. suntuisa,alio (comma instead of space)
5. opere:in (colon instead of space)

Second:

1. mixtura , (extra space)
2. portione , (extra space)
3. eft,tum (missing space)
4. ijs,ea (missing space)
5. .pbablia (extra period, comma, or something)
6. opere . (extra period)
7. ijs,quae (missing space)
8. elemetis , (extra comma)

This is all from my typing it in and comparing, then going back and "showing the work" for the JE. Note, the f/s difference is not always obvious, and sometimes may also be incorrect. I am not listing those, because i simply can't tell what which one each is supposed to be.

In summary, i tried typing in two sentences. There were 10 spelling errors and 5 punctuation errors in the first edition, and 9 spelling errors and 8 punctuation errors in the second, for a total of 15 or 17 typographical errors, using Google Translate with Latin, and not counting f/s confusion. Most likely, the plate workers did not understand Latin, which would add to the usual mistakes in daily, manual labor. It certainly makes one appreciate modern day word processors.

Typing, correcting, and identifying which word is correct is time consuming. I don't know how long those two sentences took, but even if i would ramp up the speed with familiarity, the ~140 pages would take quite a bit of time. And doing it alone, usually means a less thorough proofreading. This would require some effort.

So, i searched some more, and found a project funded by the Wellcome Trust and supervised by Professor Philip van der Eijk to translate Galen into English, properly. This is an immense effort, as they are using older manuscripts, that is in ancient Greek, where available, and trying to be true to the text.

The funding was awarded in 2009, and the first volumes were set to appear in 2011. Looking on Amazon, however, shows the still unpublished first book with a release date of December 31, 2013. My guess is that is a placeholder for unfinished work. It is also a bit expensive and, ostensibly, not going to be in the public domain.

With all this i sent Professor van der Eijk an email asking about the text. Not that i know how such emails are sent, but nonetheless:

Professor van der Eijk,

  I am interested in Galen's De Temperamentis for research in a personal project, and have been looking online for an English translation. Google and the Internet Archive have a couple Latin translations, but they seem to be of poor quality and the text via OCR is garbled. I even typed in the first two sentences but had to correct a number of words for it to make any sense, at least as is seemed when using Google Translate Latin to English.

I then found your project of translating Galen. I wish to ask, is a translation of De Temperamentis being prepared?

I sent that, yesterday, September 9th. It is far to early to expect a reply.

This leads me to the following conclusion. Galen's works will likely be available in a number of years for purchase, but nothing free online, and certainly not soon.

With this realization i wondered if Kickstarter could be used for a community funded project to make De Temperamentis available in English, for free, online. Galen's other works could also be done, providing there is interest and, of course, source material in the public domain. Such a project would not be a best solution, such as the project funded by the Wellcome Trust. However, it would likely give people what they need, being mostly correct, similar to Wikipedia.

When i mentioned this to a friend of mine, he said he recently saw posting on Slashdot, a Kickstarter project to make Chopin's music available online for free. His former project was very successful ($68,359 pledged of $11,000 goal), and the current campaign seems well on its way to success ($46,562 pledged of $75,000 goal, five days in with 40 days to go). While in some ways his project is different, in others is is similar, that is, to make the old available online for free.

At this point i'm not sure what to do. Try doing some more sentences, make a kickstarter project, search online some more, or give it up. As might be imagined, my mind has been jumping here and there on what to do, wondering if it is even worth the effort, or if it is, what to do next. At least posting this JE makes me a bit more relaxed, having put a lot of this down, finally, in writing.

8/30/2013ÂÂ-ÂÂFriday
7:30 am On FedEx vehicle for delivery LAKE ORION, MI
5:33 am Arrived at FedEx location LAKE ORION, MI
5:31 am At local FedEx facility LAKE ORION, MI
2:39 am Arrived at FedEx location PERRYSBURG, OH
Â-Â
Â
8/29/2013ÂÂ-ÂÂThursday
9:40 pm Departed FedEx location INDEPENDENCE, KY
4:19 pm Arrived at FedEx location INDEPENDENCE, KY
2:59 pm Shipment information sent to FedEx
11:11 am Picked up LEBANON, OH

Yeah, i know, i know. But i still am amazed at Kentucky being on the way from Ohio to Michigan and the package's ability to be at Lake Orion before arriving there. My condolences to the dear departed location in Independence, Kentucky. And, i am amazed that it's about to be here, in just a day. It took the company, seemingly, longer than that to tell FedEx about it!

And then i get my hammocks.

Final note, JEs are as bad as they used to be. Can't see the source and the preview at the same time?! Guess the morons^H^H^H^H^H^H who design these things, refuse to admit their absolute stupidity of removing functional parts of websites that have been there for years.

I hate everybody.

In the past few weeks different people came to me with the dreaded phrase: "I have an idea for an app". If you feel targeted, you probably are, but you're not the first, and you won't be the last. Some even trusted me enough to tell me what their great idea was. Many, though not all, couldn't code their way through a paper bag and thus they look for someone "to code the app for free".

You even might find someone like that, and if you do, it's someone with a lot of time on their hands like a student with not much experience.

What those ideas (if I get to hear them) all have in common is that they need infrastructure behind it. Uploading pictures, movies, heck, even simple text need a place to be stored. That's definitely not your phone, especially if others need to be able to access it. Yeah, you can start off with hosting a little database and web front end on your DSL line (if you have one), but in the long run this will require some serious money. I'm not even talking about the people managing and creating it for you. I'm just talking about bandwidth, storage, electricity.

So, if you have an app idea, assess where you want to store what: if you have no concrete answers to those questions, shelve your idea until you do.. An app is nothing magical, it requires real resources, real work and thus real money.

Intro: I was complaining on social networks that the LuxTrust hardware tokens are forced upon all teachers in my country. That's a huge problem because I got my mother in law on Linux and this thing is very very badly supported. Officially the website say "Ubuntu 10.04" supported. Funnily enough, their website also doesn't mention Windows 8 as supported. Anyway, they're a useless company in my eyes... I wish them the most ill possible.

Here is my little test run:

So, I decided to test the LuxTrust support under Ubuntu GNU/Linux 12.04 LTS i686[1]. I installed a virtual machine from the ISO, and from that blank slate, I wanted to try how "easy" this is. Well, there you go, I downloaded their "middleware".

The good news: Ubuntu Software center presented it as installable and it installed it without apparently problems after clicking the Install. Good! If this were enough, I'd say "it's supported"[2]. Let's test it. So, I go to CCP-Connect, one of the few banks known to work well with LuxTrust under Linux. The thing needs Java[3], and I as expected, and I don't have it installed. I get redirected, at once to http://www.oracle.com/java. The sheer number of options is intimidating. If I weren't very familiar with Java, I wouldn't have a clue what to select. Now, this might be P&T Luxembourg doing it wrong, but the site you should send end-users to is http://www.java.com/. Never send an end-user to a developer site, it's a horrible mistake.

Anyway, I do what is needed and surprise[4], there is no Oracle Java for Ubuntu. A RPM and a tar.gz. Now, if I weren't who I am, I would be blocked again. So, I download the tar.gz and I'll be honest to you, dropped right to the command line, tar zxvf later to /opt, and doing an update-alternatives --install of the new java, oh, and while we're at it, make a symlink for the plugin [5]. Now, of course, I understand it's Oracle whom I have a problem with, but I bet that you won't get this documentation at LuxTrust and they sure as hell can't walk you though this. Of course, the way I did this, I'm now responsible for updating my Java. Of course, there is a PPA, but can I trust that? (I'll have to, if I want automatic updates, but you get the point, no?)

Now, going back to the banking site, it seems to run. I get to the point where I have to select their product and then a screen saying there is no signing stick. (Obviously, I don't have one.)

For kicks 'n giggles, I tried OpenJDK/JRE with the icedtea plugin. No surprise, but that doesn't work: gray pane instead of the applet, but other java applets works fine. So, Oracle Java mandatory. Heck, even Minecraft runs op OpenJDK for crying out loud!

At least their middleware didn't install some kind of daemon, which I what I would have expected with something called "Middleware".
Funny also: The Oracle Java VM warns you from running applets all the time, even the test applet on the java.com site. Scary. Well, not to me, but to a normal end user.

[1] i686 for a good reason, from what I read getting it to run is significantly harder on amd64.
[2] I knew that it wasn't going to work
[3] Wait, isn't that what dependencies are for... Naaaah, dependencies. Who uses that?
[4] Not really, I've been here before
[5] Probably better use update-alternatives for that one too!

Does anything around here work anymore? I go to the zoo.pl page (uid changed to mine to protect the guilty) to try to change friend/foe/neutral status, and I get:

OK

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, admin@slashdot.org and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Server at slashdot.org Port 80

I have to click in three different places to find the right link to let me do a JE.
I was gonna give a laundry list, but fuck it, it's just pissing in the wind. I figure Dice was able to buy it for, what, the price of one week of coffee at Starbucks?

Galaxy Tab 2 is the poster child of Android tablets out there, right? Well, let's just say that I ain't impressed. Boyfriend of MiL got one, to read his newspaper. Well, we didn't manage to do that, partially, I think due to wort.lu screwing up. Partially, because the default browser just says "downloading" and that's it. What exactly happens after that is unclear and unless you know that a tiny download icon shows the download, and if you swiped away that, where to find the PDF... you ain't gonna go far. Apart from boyfriend of MiL not (wanting) to understand the difference between an app, a website and a PDF, it ended up being an exercise in frustration.

Unable to help on that front, he asked if he could read his email. Naively, I said, of course you can! So, I set up his (national, very standard) ISP email address. Well, I followed the wizard. Big mistake, I ended up on POP3, which of course is a standard that should have been banned years ago. Damn, I hope you didn't have important emails. I set it up again as IMAP. Works fine, really... Except it doesn't show any email. None... I specifically sent email to him. Shows nothing... I assure you, the settings are correct. I used the same as those, I used on his iPhone. Besides, they do show on his iPhone
No way to make it work. On a related note: the POP3 did not delete his email from server. At least that was good.

Then, I want to show him to install apps (Despite me hating the word). Choice between the Samsung App Store, which most likely works but you want the Google store. So, Google Play. Okay, do you have a Google account? No... Ah, no problem, let's set one up. I follow the wizard, up until it asks for a secondary email for "lost password" situations. I could type in whatever I wanted, but the "Next" button never got enabled, stopping me right in the track to create the account.
Yes, I know, I could just go to a computer, create him a Google account and be done with it. Still, isn't this simply a scandalous bug?

So, I try to help and end up having I to explain that tablet browsers are second-class internet citizens (a site he uses failed to work. How do you explain that to a non tech, eh? Nothing I did worked as expected and I'm supposed to know what I do.

Okay, I might simply have become obsolete and have become unable to troubleshoot modern devices. Perhaps it's a hint I should stay in my basement with my servers and "real" computers. I don't know... It must be me. Everyone loves their Android tablets....