Regularly Expressing

The key insight to getting true-type fonts working was finding this page:
http://www.go2linux.org/msttcorefonts-true-type-fonts-on-linux.

I had to make some minor tweaks to get this to work. Here’s how my session went:

yum -y install rpm-build cabextract xfs ttmkfdir
rpm -ivh http://dl.atrpms.net/all/chkfontpath-1.10.1-2.fc11.x86_64.rpm
wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec
rpmbuild -ba msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec
rpm -ivh /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm

“Cult of the Red Tears” is finished! This is the sequel to my book “Battle for the Sphere.” I began writing it on Dec 11 2008. Today, Dec 30, 2009 it is ready for reviews.

I began working on my rough draft of my novel “Cult of the Red Tears” in December. I have been struggling to get to the end, working every spare moment I could find. Yesterday afternoon I began to realize that I have already written way past what should have been the ending. This morning I hunted through the text for the right spot and wrote, “End Book One of the Viztrel Unity War.”

So when I say “rough draft” I mean that it reads like it was translated from the original ancient Islandic by a non-native speaker (that’s a description I heard at Armadillocon of what a rough draft should read like). Many scenes are out of order, many scenes need to be added, but the general shape of the book is there, lurking in the miasma of words.

I was thinking about the future of display technology. I imagine that it will become cheap enough, at some point, that we will cover our walls, ceilings, and tables with displays (possibly 3D displays). One consequence of this would be that we’d have practically zero possessions. Most of what we have — decorative items, books, games would all become virtual.

The only things you would need:
1) Items for food preparation: The kitchen might contain just a food printer / heater / cooler — eliminating the need for a variety of appliances, gadgets, and tools.
2) Furniture – All of this would be infinitely customizable, your household 3D printer could make/remake what you needed. You would probably need to supply your own cushions (unless someone figures out how to print those as well).
3) Plumbing.

In this brave new style of dwelling moving would be simple. Just transfer your “desktop” to a new location. Probably many of you will chafe at this idea, finding it too cold and impersonal. In reality, though, it’s just the opposite. Your dwelling/environment will be tuned to you and radically customized. A hotel will feel much more like home.

Recently I discovered that OpenOffice can’t really generate RTF files, so I wrote my own converter. It’s rather basic, just handles italic, double space, paragaraphs, and centering. However, for what I need it for it works a lot better than the built-in OpenOffice export ability.

The program is written in Java and you can get the jar file here: ODT2RTF.jar

It’s completely self contained, and includes the source files. Go and have fun with it!

If there is interest, I will expand its capabilities.

It surprised me to read the the best-selling book Eragon was self-published. Apparently the author managed to sell 5000 copies before going to a publisher.

I’ve had a book on submission to a certain publisher for almost a year now. It makes me wonder if I should sell on Lulu while I have the book submitted to a regular publisher. Would this cause any problems for anyone? Would publishers/agents notice or care?

I’ve been working on a science fiction novel for about 2 years now titled “Battle for the Sphere.” Yesterday’s snow day was the impetus I needed to dig in and finish the second pass at editing. I’m sure there are still things that can be fixed, but I feel that getting the manuscript to this point was a major victory.

The story is about a primitive people called the Kushar, who were once a mighty starfaring race. The book follows their leader, Ketzhura, as she sacrifices, deceives, makes alliances and fights to bring her people back to their former glory.

My goal was to have this revision done by Christmas — that is roughly the time I’m expecting to hear back from Baen about the book I have on submission with them entitled “Lady and the Necromancer.” If, by some miracle, they want to publish it and ask if I have anything else I can now say, “Yes. Yes I do.”

Currently BFTS is 123,000 words — something like 490 pages.

One often sees studies claiming that even talking on a hands-free cell phone impairs driving. The next logical question one asks is whether talking to a passenger presents the same problem.

The answer, apparently, is no, and there’s a study to back up that assertion (citation below).

It seems that actual passengers have a tendency to talk about the traffic situation, helping the driver to focus rather than distracting him/her. Perhaps also, knowing that another person is watching the road provides an incentive to drive better.

Curiously, one of the signs of “bad driving” in the study is leaving extra space between your car and the car in front of you. In my opinion, that’s a sign of better driving — but I don’t believe my difference of opinion on this point affects the conclusion of the study.

This study and its results suggest other follow-up studies:

1. Would it help to equip cell-phones with cameras, allowing the caller to see the road?
2. If a passengers are blind-folded, do conversations with them suddenly become distractions?

In any event, I believe that when I tell my wife or daughter that they’re doing something incorrectly, it helps them to drive more safely (even if they think it is annoying).


Article: "Passenger and Cell Phone Conversations in Simulated Driving," Frank A. Drews, PhD, Monisha Pasupathi, PhD, and David L. Strayer, PhD; Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Vol. 14, No. 4. k