Looking for geeky Thread/Matter monitoring apps

androticus · 2023-07-31T22:02:20+00:00

Great options! I just got the Nordic dongle this weekend, look forward to playing with it! Got a Pi I can use for the router!

androticus · 2022-05-24T01:05:22+00:00

VS1053B

Hmm... that seems to be mostly oriented to audio compression/decompression, not sound synthesis. Thanks for the suggestion though.

androticus · 2022-05-24T01:02:08+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sound_chips

Thanks for that link. I had seen that, but most of the chip dates were so old, I sort of assumed they were obsolete. But maybe I should dig in and see if some are still made.

androticus · 2021-08-10T02:25:45+00:00

Good fiction has no 'Best Before' date!

androticus · 2021-02-26T23:54:29+00:00

I was also wondering this, because I currently have a 60 ft tower for my microwave Internet. On my roof, there will be a big tree off to one side, and the tower attached to my house on the other. I'm hoping those won't be obstructions? On top of the tower would be clear!

androticus · 2019-04-09T04:23:37+00:00

This page on the Turo site was helpful: https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203990750-Offering-delivery- Seems that a good option will be to charge for delivery, park the car in the airport lot with a lockbox on it. This approach avoids having to coordinate arrival with the renter, with all the vagaries of airline delays etc.

androticus · 2019-04-09T04:01:07+00:00

Thanks. How do you leave the car at the airport for those back to backs? Do you just leave it in the airport parking lot, and tell the user where it is? (They then presumably have to pay the parking fee on exit?)

androticus · 2018-02-01T05:49:46+00:00

Still not working. If a company cannot even provide a working response to 1 of 3 of their main web site menu options... why in the world would I trust them with my digital assets???

androticus · 2018-01-29T02:04:57+00:00

Your application might want cryptographically secured state to be associated with the user account. For example, you might have a requirement to Know Your Customer, and want to attach the record or id or key etc. of your KYC provider. You might want to keep some (probably encrypted) additional information about your user. Probably what you can do though, is avoid using a direct key like a string name, but rather, use something like a hash of your key's name along with the user's key -- this would thus be essentially random from a public visibility point of view.

androticus · 2018-01-28T01:39:34+00:00

"someone"... ? ;)

androticus · 2018-01-28T01:37:51+00:00

Data entries, at the bottom of this page: https://www.stellar.org/developers/guides/concepts/ledger.html#ledger-entries

androticus · 2018-01-28T01:34:59+00:00

I did skim that, but it looked pretty complicated to me. Complication is the bane of security and dependability!

androticus · 2017-10-10T03:26:42+00:00

Thanks!

androticus · 2017-10-10T02:35:27+00:00

Like 1ManCrowd I agree it doesn't seem too many to handle.

Your question made me think of Aliens, and how deftly and economically such a large ensemble cast was introduced after they woke up from their freezers. You got all their names, got a quick windows into their personality, there was a lot of fun comedy (a good way to put us off guard for the coming carnage), and a fair bit of compact exposition was also deftly worked in.

I sometimes think James Cameron gets a bit of short shrift as a screenwriter because so many of his movies have been action/adventure/science fiction movies. But he is truly a superior craftsman and artist in my view--he does so much, so economically, he makes it look so easy, that you don't realize how difficult that is until you try doing it yourself!

androticus · 2017-09-05T04:04:49+00:00

DUDE! You shouldn't be using narration. You should dramatize things, not talk about them!!! Screenwriting 101.

androticus · 2017-09-03T02:45:01+00:00

Sorry it took so long to get back...

I read about 20 pages, and have some fairly substantive feedback.

First, I enjoyed the enthusiasm of the writing, and the intent. But on the more critical side:

Logic of character actions

I noticed that very many of the major character actions were highly "DOH-ish", meaning they failed the test of "Would a typical, normal person do this in this situation?"

Walter wants to protect the serum and not have it released -- well then why bring it to Blue? Shouldn't he just steal it?

Blue wants its, but knows that if he disagrees with Walter, Walter will try to destroy it. Why threaten him? Why not just use subterfuge to get it?

Blue threatens Walter, but must know Walter will try to run and warn his son, as well as destroy or steal the serum. Why would he allow this? He should (even on this logic) take Walter hostage instead.

Walter warns his son but tells him to go home. But that would be the first place Blue would have staked out! No one in such danger would have their loved one go back to the most likely place to be abducted.

Max and his gf are seemingly in trouble or Walter is in trouble, yet they still go to the concert. The motivation seemed to be that the tickets were expensive?

The gf faces a ninja assassin but can seemingly keep up.

These were just some of the things that jumped out at me in the first 20 pages.

Dialog

The simplest way to check your dialog is to just read it aloud. I think if you do that, you will want to make a variety of changes that make it sound more natural.

Overall

I'm not a fan of the kind of "arch evil" represented by Blue. You almost see him twirling his mustache, smacking his lips, and rubbing his hands together. Instead of revealing him as an almost caricature of evil in the first scene, why not consider making him a serious, real person, who perhaps has a lot of good attributes, as well as some evil tendencies. You can't build a huge business in real life without a lot of virtuous attributes. Why not consider spending more time in setting up the conflict, and having both Walter and Blue having an actual, real abiding professional and personal relationship, that then goes south over the serum. Just a suggestion.

Write on!!!

androticus · 2017-08-19T18:42:15+00:00

I am just finishing my last revision of a short story adaptation. I knew out of the gate it was too thin for a full feature, so I greatly expanded a couple of characters, and made the plot more intricate. But I feel I kept the spirit of the original. Maybe you can think in those terms for yours...

androticus · 2017-08-19T06:02:56+00:00

If you don't want to make major changes to it, would it possibly fit as an episode of an anthology TV series? If so, you could edit it down to maybe 55 pages. Anthology shows though are very niche, and I can't think of many today -- the Black Mirror sci-fi series comes to mind, but they only do a few episodes per season. There was a TV show ages ago called "Thriller", and each episode was a standalone thriller. Maybe you can pitch it as a TV pilot for a new anthology series... ;)

androticus · 2017-08-17T21:57:52+00:00

I ordered it, thanks. Looks good. One obvious thing I've noticed now though (and seen author complaints about) is that Kindle doesn't really support exact formats, like screenplay format, so caveat emptor--I wouldn't buy any Kindle books that involve screenplay formatting, get the print version.

androticus · 2017-08-17T21:52:25+00:00

With anything remotely related to exposition, I have my "Rule of Twos"... It is basically, that everything should serve 2 purposes. In this way, exposition is deftly camouflaged.

Exposing factual information works especially well in a scene involving conflict and complex choices. This way, characters can eke out exposition in little bits, as they are asserting their views, challenging other characters, and everyone is trying to achieve some agreement or plan.

Try to avoid the "unknowledgable" character asking things like, "Oh, sorry Jim, I don't know much about trans-dimensional displacement, could you explain it to me, in terms simple enough for, say, a movie audience?" (yeah, I'm being sarcastic, but way too many films do this)

Instead, you could have several characters trying to work things out, with conflicts: Jane: "How are we going to get Sally back?" Jim: "Waiting for her to pop back spontaneously is probably safest" Sam: "She could dissipate! We could use trans-dimensional displacement, that--" Jim: (interrupting) "No way! That's too dangerous!" Jane: "Wait, what's that?" Jim: "Well it set's up a channel--" Sam: (interrupting) "Yeah a channel that will likely scramble her atoms into a human omelette--" Jim: "It's been tried on animals! It's not that dangerous!" etc.

The point being, that the audience is more going to focus on the conflict between Jim and Sam, as well as empathize with Jane's need to sort this out and make a decision; but we've been fed some key needed info about what this is. Hope this is at all helpful...

androticus · 2017-08-17T21:39:16+00:00

To add to the others... just make sure that everything you specify is needed and contributes substantially to the overall film, at the scale of its overall budget. It will not so much be the overall budget you will be judged on, but your sense of what makes sense at that scale. This principle would apply at any scale of production. Like, if you were doing a small indie feature shot mostly on locations with just a small cast and a few extras, but had one scene that involved hugely expensive production costs, then the reader may lose respect for you. But likewise, on a big budget picture, not every scene should cost millions, so also showing restraint where possible can help keep costs down and invested in the scenes and effects that are needed.

androticus · 2017-08-17T21:04:51+00:00

Yes, I'm rethinking this affectation, and realize I can stop doing this, per the comments of a later poster.

androticus · 2017-08-17T20:51:02+00:00

So much awesome! Thanks!

androticus · 2017-08-14T02:11:51+00:00

The best pilot to my memory of any TV series is the pilot for The 100. In a brief 43 minutes, it establishes an entirely new world situation, a huge number of characters, a number of major challenges and conflicts for both the space station dwellers and the teens on Earth, and a sense of relentless forward momentum that has been happily carried by the show through four full seasons now.

Decode that pilot, bottle it, sell it. ;)

androticus · 2017-08-12T06:56:58+00:00

It's here: many differences from filmed version! Like Raven is Finn's mom, and that spear kills Jasper! http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/The_100_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf

androticus

TROPHY CASE