Forgot your password?

typodupeerror

Comment: Re:Optimization (Score 4, Interesting) 143

by eulernet (#43737017) Attached to: Interactive Raycaster For the Commodore 64 Under 256 Bytes

Well, it was not obvious.

I originally wanted to optimize the sign extend using some carry tricks, like asl/lda #0/sbc #0, but realized that it was unnecessary.
In fact, you can improve it even more, as follows:

lda stepx,x ; & y
                        bpl *+4
                        dec rayposxh,x
                        adc rayposx,x
                        sta rayposx,x
                        bcc *+4
                        inc rayposxh,x

Saving 6 bytes !

This trick is mentioned here:
http://forum.6502.org/viewtopic.php?p=5262

BTW, your tsx/txs trick is really horrible, it forces the stack at the bottom of $100.

Comment: Optimization (Score 4, Interesting) 143

by eulernet (#43735691) Attached to: Interactive Raycaster For the Commodore 64 Under 256 Bytes

My 6502 is not completely lost.
Here is how to optimize the code a little bit:

Replace:

loop_stepadd
                        lda stepx,x ; & y
                        ora #$7f ; sign extend 8 bit step value to 16 bit
                        bmi *+4
                        lda #$00
                        pha ;clc
                        lda stepx,x ; & y
                        adc rayposx,x ; & y
                        sta rayposx,x ; & y
                        pla

with:

loop_stepadd ;clc
                        lda stepx,x ; & y
                        adc rayposx,x ; & y
                        sta rayposx,x ; & y
                        lda stepx,x ; & y
                        ora #$7f ; sign extend 8 bit step value to 16 bit
                        bmi *+4
                        lda #$00

This saves 2 bytes and a few cycles.

Comment: Resistance to change (Score 1) 507

Alas, you cannot change other people, it's absolutely impossible !
You can probably manipulate him (it's quite easy), but there will be some unpredictable side-effects (some may be dangerous for you !), so I won't recommend it.

In fact, it's almost impossible to change ourselves, and the change's process is quite mysterious, since it doesn't depend on will power, contrary on what most people believe.

In fact, his problem is that he wants to NOT change, and not changing is already taking all his efforts.
He's probably trying to keep control of his life, even though it's just an illusion, since nobody can control his life. I may die tomorrow, who knows ?

Since you probably want an action, here are a few suggestions:
1) DO NOT HELP HIM, let him suffer from his own incompetence. When he'll reach the bottom (which may happen in a long time), he'll be forced to stop resisting.
That's what most people have to suffer in order to grow.
2) talk to him, and ask him what he fears. Our fears are mostly mental images, without real basis.
Expressing fears by talking or writing helps people realize that. I saw other techniques like EMDR, but you are not a therapist !
3) ask him what he will do once he'll lose his job. People rarely realize that their job doesn't need them.
I call this technique "electroshock", it'll force him to think about his job.
4) change yourself ! Since you cannot change others' perceptions, just change yours.
Realize that you want control in your life, and just abandon this control.
You'll notice that fear appears, but it's not real.
Once you accepted that this fear is not real, you'll notice that most of your efforts become useless.
In fact, change is effortless, and only resistance requires effort.
Once you'll reduce your efforts, you'll notice how much efforts people put in their lives, just to match reality with their dreams.
When you start changing effortlessly, you'll notice that you understand other people's miseries better, then people will try to mimick your natural way of being.
Tell them to be themselves, and you'll notice that they'll start changing, but very slowly.
5) read a good book about NLP, which is full of manipulation's techniques.
I personally don't recommend that, since it will give you a false sense of control, but it works sometimes.

Finally, I'll you ask a few questions:
1) why do you want to help him ? Is this because you are compassionate or do you want to have a better image of yourself ? I'm such a good guy, I can help people at my work.
2) you cannot change other people, why do you believe that you'll be able to achieve something ? If you have the expectation of changing him, you'll be disappointed, since he's probably comfortable in his current life.
3) why can't you accept him as he is ? If you work with him, just show him how to work efficiently. If you don't work with him, why do you care ?

Comment: TRIZ (Score 5, Informative) 92

by eulernet (#43268543) Attached to: Can Innovation Be Automated?

I'm surprised that the article doesn't mention TRIZ and ASIT, which are methodologies for innovation.

TRIZ was invented by Genrich Altshuller in 1946, and has been used by russian engineers to counter the american domination on technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIZ

The history behind TRIZ is interesting, since Genrich Altshuller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genrich_Altshuller was working as a clerk in a patent office (like Einstein), and he noticed that the patents were using some patterns.
He started to categorize all patents to enumerate the used patterns, and he found 39 characteristics with 40 generic solutions.
The idea is that you want to solve a contradiction between 2 characteristics, the contradiction is called a "conflict".
A contradiction matrix of 39*40 cells has been built: http://www.triz40.com/
Recently, the TRIZ group succeeded to verify that the matrix was able to map more than 3,000,000 patents.

TRIZ was kept as a secret before the Soviet Union exploded, then the russian engineers went to a lot of different countries.
In Israel, the TRIZ group started to simplify the methodology in a smaller set, called SIT.
Very recently, Roni Horowitz simplified SIT into ASIT, which is a set of 6 rules able to map innovation.

TRIZ explains that there are 5 levels of invention:
http://www.trizexperts.net/5levels.htm
and it's dedicated to the 4 first levels.
TRIZ is also more adapted to engineers that need a framework to solve problems, but it's not really creative in my opinion.

Comment: Other ideas (Score 1) 687

by eulernet (#43230509) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: What Is a Reasonable Way To Deter Piracy?

I read all the above comments, and here are 2 new ideas:

1) give it freely !
Work hard on improving your tool, and ask for money if you want.
Once your tool reached a critical point, just sell your company.
Hey, it worked for Instagram !

2) give version 1.0 freely.
Improve your program for your paying customers, and publish a list of improvements of every version.
This way, people will try your program, and if they find it useful, they'll pay to have the latest versions.
Don' worry about pirates if you upgrade your program frequently.

Comment: Re:The fog of memory is vital (Score 2) 379

by eulernet (#43012495) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Would You Feel About Recording Your Entire Life?

Okay. List them. "Serious psychological disorders"? Go ahead and list them out of the DSMIV or whatever you can find.

In fact, the most difficult moments of our life are the moments that define us, and we tend to forcefully forget them.
As we force ourselves to forget them, these memories appear indirectly, this is a well known process in psychology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial

I'd be curious because GMail and GChat have made my life a thousand times better with their impeccable recording and recall abilities. "Remember when I suggested The Naked and Famous to you like three years ago? Oh, you don't? That's funny, this e-mail says otherwise."

I think you are misunderstanding what memory is about.
Memory is not only about factual data, which are pretty useless, but mostly about emotions.
The current yourself has been built only a little bit by your accumulated knowledge, but heavily by the emotional impact of the events in your life.

Yes, it is a bit narcissistic to select yourself and to think that your immediate friends and family want to sit through 24 hours of your boring life. Not necessarily true, however, if you consider it from a downstreamer's point of view. Ideally you would record your life and disallow access to it until you're dead.

Frankly, the past is just data, it may interest historians, archaeologists or voyeurs, but your life is not as interesting as you may believe.
I think that you focus too much on your past, and you should live more in the present, not in the past or in the future.

Comment: Meditate ! (Score 1) 279

by eulernet (#42893829) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Really Short Time Wasters?

I recommend meditation or "mindfulness".

The goal of meditation is to let go of useless thoughts (you cannot imagine how much we have useless thoughts and worries).
This provides a greater sense of presence (the world seems different), and when you practice seriously, you'll start being happy without any reason.
Meditation done seriously activates the whole brain's hemispheres, it becomes more active and you'll become more intuitive, which is useful when programming.

Meditation can be done in 2 or 3 minutes.
My preferred meditation is based upon the sense of "I".
Just tell yourself "I, I, I..." with the desire to discover who you are.

Comment: Re:Interfering with Scientology growth? (Score 1) 353

Yes, you are right about the CoS: there has been a secession where a large part of the highest members split from the CoS.
They call themselves "Freezone": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Zone_(Scientology)
They promote idenics instead of dianetics, and idenics is very close to psychology (Hubbard hated psychologists) while dianetics is close to science-fiction (your problems are due to extraterrestrial reasons).

However, you are wrong about scientology shrinking.
In fact, I believe that Tom Cruise will be the next leader (from what I read, he is already the leader), he's working hard on providing a nice picture of himself and of Scientology.
The personality's cult will soon change from Hubbard to Cruise.

Comment: Re:Stress is a huge factor.... (Score 1) 180

by eulernet (#42715581) Attached to: Poor Sleep Prevents Brain From Storing Memories

It seems that your self-esteem suffered with this divorce.
In fact, I believe that you define your value within the eyes of others.
In other words, if they quit you, it means that you worth nothing.
You give too much credit to other people's opinions.

I strongly discourage you to use pills or alcohol, since they tend to create an addiction, and make your life miserable in the long term. They also won't solve your real problem, only the symptoms.

Did you try meditation, or "mindfulness" ?
I can provide you a few reference books if you need something to discover your own internal value, that is self-esteem.
Believe me: your value doesn't depend on what you do, nor on what others think about you !

My haircut is totally traditional!

Working...