So, I made this: Media Player Factory

It takes a title, with no apostrophes, and a list of media urls. It will play them, can be embedded in a website, etc.

It was quite easy to do, and really demonstrates the strength and versatility of Python. And also, the sample media player uses all Creative Commons licensed music.

I believe that this here will be the new internet meme: I can believable, like a little girl.

Here’s a wallpaper I made. The screenshot came from the Death Note anime series, and the blood was provided by KeRen-R.

I stumbled across this: George Bush’s Resume. They label it as political humour, but I find it to be monumentally depressing. Am I ever glad I’m a Canadian. And am I ever glad to have anyone but Bush on the slate come November? I don’t care if they’re black, white, male or female, any of them could do a better job than Bush did.

And you know what? I pity him. He’s been used. He will go down as the worst president in U.S. History. And I don’t think its his fault. I think he was used by his dad, and his dad’s friends, and the corporations behind them. I truly and honestly pity the man, because he’s just a puppet, with the corporation’s hands up his ass. And for that, for not having the strength to say no, to be a good and righteous man, he will now be reviled for many, many years. I pity him.

Okay, so quick progress report. I’m working on the Paper Knaves game engine, and the model I chose for it, makes development almost dead-simple.

WARNING: Programming ahead. For those averse to logic, please avert your eyes.

Anyways, I chose a simple state-machine model. State-machines are great. Theoretically, a state-machine can simulate any computer, given enough states and variables. Theoretically as well, one can enumerate and easily test a state-machine.

What is a state-machine? Well, its basically an object, or concept, where you place an input, and the machine changes state. Simple, yes? Well, lets take a look at a very familiar state-machine: the browser.

Yes, your browser is a state-machine. How do I know? Well, lets picture its actions. It reads in data, the html file. For each valid <> brackets, it does something, or rather, changes state. Take, for example, an <a href=”http://www.example.com/”> tag. When the browser reads that, it begins underlining the following text, as well as making it point to the address given. That is a change of state. Then, when the browser comes upon the </a> it ends the link. This is true for almost all html tags. Except of course Javascript. But thats beside the point.

The browser changes state based on the input, and that state change is represented graphically for us. As I said, state-machines are simple. Which is why development with a state-machine for holding the game model is relatively simple. It acts on the input given based on its state, and then changes state if unnecessary.

A side-effect, is that I can now make a presentation layer, and use the exact same lower-level model. I can choose to make the game work on telnet, through a desktop application, or through facebook. All without changing the essential game-logic! Personally, I like that versatility.