Beta Board, Perspective-corrected Images

These are perspective-corrected images of the beta boards which can be used to take measurements from. I estimate that they are accurate to within 1mm.
Note that most printer/program combinations will not print them the correct size, even if you tell them how big you want them. You will need to do some test prints and scale them by trial and error. You need them to print exactly 85mm by 56mm.

Note that these pictures cut off the connectors at the board edges. To determine where to place cutouts for the connectors, use Gert's mechanical drawings. You should use these images solely for determining where to place support structures.

I intend to use polystyrene sheet to make the box, and this is the support structure I intend to use:

It uses two structures: one is a shelf 20mm x 5mm on the corner of the board, the other is a bar shaped like this and placed 25mm in from the other end of the board. That's a measurement to the bar, not its centre-line.

Note that the tops of those pillars should be padded, since there are PCB traces under it, and the padding must be taken into account when determining the height of the pillars.

In order to hold the board in place there should be another pillar bearing down on the board from above. A suitable position is above the support bar and also 25mm in from the top edge (with the video and audio connectors.) Almost directly above the Raspberry Pi logo. When the case is closed the top pillar and the bottom pillars should have a vertical gap of around 1.6mm between them (plus solder-resist and silk-screening). Remember that this should allow for compressed padding on all pillars.

In the end, the real test is if the board is held securely without flexing.

Here's another idea: two scraps of perspex and a handful of nylon spacers (25mm x M3. The PCB supports are 15mm(top) and 6.4mm(bottom) with 1mm of padding)

by rurwin

This reminds me of a story from the dark ages of computing - when the Computing Center at a major university had both a monopoly on computing resources and a policy of "no frivolous use of the computer(s)".

The CC, in its unchallengable wisdom and power, had decreed a single file-and-compute server for a university with about 35,000 undergraduates. Much of the hardware was purchased with grant money, and the grants included strings that in essence required billing real $ for every microsecond of crunch, and guaranteeing the granting agencies a usage fee no higher than that charged any other user. (So the No F. Use bit wasn't JUST puritanism - the guys who kicked in the megabucks were likely to get irate.) And the sysops didn't realize how popular the first text-only Startrek game would be until it was well-known and chewing up significant computer resources. You can imagine what came next.

They removed it.

It reappeared.

They removed it again.

Several users had made copies, and some of them announced where copies could be found.

They wrote a program to search the entire filesystem for copies.

Several encrypted copies were announced on the grapevine.

They upgraded the program to search for these encrypted copies.

And the war continued, with progressively more redundant copies using progressively more of the disk farm, and the encryption methods evolving under the selection pressure of the system administrators' decryption efforts.

Like any war, it began to have effects outside the actual battle. (One observer placed a line to the effect of "Kirk Spock Enterprise NCC-1701 klingon phaser photon torpedo Federation" in a datafile used by a perfectly legitimate application, blasted the administrators through channels when the file vanished, and gleefully showed me how the usecount of the restored file kept rising, as the Startrekfinder kept finding it, and the CC administrators kept examining it to see if it was part of a hidden game.)

But, also like any war, destruction befell innocent bystanders. And, like any crusaders out to destroy sin, the staff didn't catch on from the early, minor incidents, and kept increasing their efforts. What finally ended it was a pair of almost simultaneous hits on valuable files.

The lesser incident was the destruction of a file named "Kirk", owned by a student nicknamed "Kirk", and containing coursework completely unrelated to the Great Interstellar War. The greater was medical.

It seems a drug company was in the late stages of testing a new drug, and had paid the university over a half-million (1970's) dollars to run one of the tests.

The drug in question had an effect on the endocrine system, and one of the measures of this effect was the length of the penises of male rats who had matured under influence of the drug. The project was near completion, the (rather large number of) rats had been grown, and as they were retired from the experiment, during its carefully-scheduled last few weeks, measurements made on each were filed on the exceedingly-well-maintained-and-backed-up central computing utility.

One day the researcher logged on to enter the latest set of measurements, and found that the contents of the file named "RAT_PENIS_DATA" had been replaced by a short tirade about improper use of the computing center resources. You can imagine what hit the fan.

The center staff, of course, in their War on Fun, had not taken care to preserve the latest state of the file they had blasted. Indeed, the file name had been, in their minds, a minor side-issue during their assault on the Startrek Plague. Yet the research was to prepare the drug for use on humans - with potential liabilities far exceeding the half-meg-plus pricetag of the research - and potential damage to the big U's reputation resulting in loss of lucrative research contracts ditto. Would error-corrections applied to the file between the last backup and the destruction be re-applied correctly? Was the CC prepared to pay for the extra costs incurred by Biochem as it completely re-entered the data from the notes, re-ran the experiment if it couldn't resolve any differences to the satisfaction of the FDA, and pay the drug company for the lost sales if it delayed the introduction of a useful drug?

Thus, goes the story, did the war end.

But the repercussions didn't stop, of course. The war had left lingering fallout, in the form of alienated clients of the Computing Ceter, and the center's destruction of valuable data provided an extra round to be used against the Center whenever a department was trying to obtain computers of its own, over the Center's opposition.

by rurwin

by rurwin

This page has been moved from my ISPs webspace because I am moving ISPs and it would have otherwise been lost. The information given here is still correct, but the status of the cases has changed significantly. See Groklaw for the current situation.

In early 2003 The SCO Group sued IBM. The exact terms of the case are complex, and have since changed, but SCOG basically claimed that IBM placed some of their intellectual property into Linux. As a result they withdrew IBM's licence to distribute AIX. IBM retorted that they had done no such thing and that they had an irrevocable licence. They proceeded to strongly counter-sue. SCO now seem to have dropped all claims except that IBM continued to distribute AIX after their licence was terminated. Since they do not claim any grounds for them to have terminated the licence it is hard to see how this makes any sense.

While their claims in court are based on contract issues, outside court they have claimed that millions of lines of UNIX SVRx code have been found in Linux. They have stated in court that it is "literally impossible" for them to produce these lines. Seems strange? Read on.

Because of their claims outside court, Red Hat then sued SCOG for creating Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, and harming Red Hat's interests.

Novell pointed out to SCOG in a series of letters that they did not have the copyrights to UNIX SVRx that they were claiming that Linux infringed. They also pointed out that Novell also had the right to waive any licence infringement that they wanted to. They proceeded to do so with IBM, denying SCOG the right to terminate their licence. The letters were published on the Novell web site. SCOG had no option but to sue them. They chose to sue them for "Slander of Title", which has the advantage of not casting immediate doubt on the ownership of the copyrights.

In late 2003 SCOG made a lot of noise about suing Linux users for breach of its copyrights. In order to fulfil this promise, in early 2004 it sued Autozone and Daimler-Chrysler. These suits are only just starting, but as far as it is possible to ascertain they rest on contract issues. Both companies are customers or past customers of SCOG.

Who is The SCO Group

Firstly The SCO Group is not the Santa Cruz Operation. Santa Cruz is still in existence and is currently called Tarantella.

The SCO Group is a new company, created in 2000 by Caldera Systems Inc. and called Caldera International Inc. Caldera Systems is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The SCO Group (and is called SCO Operations Inc.). In its turn Caldera Systems Inc. is a new company formed by Caldera Inc. a couple of years before. Confused? Wait, it gets worse. Here, have a table. Each of these rows is a different company:

Here is the story in SCOG's own words:

On May 7, 2001, Caldera acquired all of the assets and operations of the server and professional services groups of Tarantella, Inc. ("Tarantella"), formerly The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc., pursuant to an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization, dated as of August 1, 2000 as amended (see Note 3). Under the Agreement, Caldera acquired the tangible and intangible assets used in the server and professional services groups, including all of the capital stock of certain Tarantella subsidiaries. Additionally, each share of existing Caldera Systems common stock, as well as options to purchase shares of Caldera Systems common stock, were converted into an equal number of shares of Caldera common stock and options to purchase shares of Caldera common stock.

The acquired operations of Tarantella provide server software for networked business computing and is a leading producer of UNIX server operating systems. In addition, these operations provide professional services to implement and maintain UNIX system software products. The acquisition provides Caldera with international offices and a Linux/UNIX distribution channel with resellers worldwide.

Source: The Caldera International Inc 10-Q SEC filing for the period ending July 31, 2001

Note that information on SCOG's website at first sight contradicts this in part. I assume that the SEC filing is telling the truth.

The complex dance that occurred between Santa Cruz and Caldera Systems is detailed on this storyboard.

How did SCOG get the rights to UNIX?

The Santa Cruz Operation bought something from Novell in 1995-96. The first version of that agreement excluded all copyrights. However more than a year after the first agreement was signed an amendment was agreed that may or may not include the UNIX copyrights. Whether or not the parties intended it to do so, it may not be sufficient in law. Currently Novell is arguing that it did not, was not intended to, and is insufficient. SCOG is arguing the reverse.

The wording is as follows:

Schedule 1.1(b) Excluded Assets (Page 2 of 2)

V. Intellectual Property:
A. All copyrights and trademarks, except for the copyrights and trademarks owned by Novell as of the date of the Agreement required for SCO to exercise its rights with respect to the acquisition of UNIX and UnixWare technologies. However, in no event shall Novell be liable to SCO for any claim brought by any third party pertaining to said copyrights and trademarks.

Is that sufficient to detail exactly which copyrights were transferred? If you had a list of Novell's copyrights before the agreement could you decide which were transfered? I know I couldn't.

Why are copyrights important?

Firstly, SCOG's original complaint against IBM was that it contributed to Linux code that had originally been written for AIX. IBM's licence stated that derivative code must be kept secret. The word "derivative" is defined in copyright law. The licence terms were later amended to state that IBM owned code it wrote. SCOG argued that although IBM owned the code they were still required to keep it secret. This is contested by Novell and IBM. SCO's argument seems to me to be a use of Zeno's Paradox as restated by Lewis Carroll.

Secondly, SCOG has been attacking Linux in the media for containing portions of AT&T UNIX code. The extent to which such code is protected is a matter for copyright law. None of the code that SCOG has so far identified has been copied into Linux from AT&T UNIX. That includes the code that SCOG maintains was removed from Linux when SCOG identified it. It was removed just to be sure and because it was redundant, but it was later found to be in the public domain

The Sealed Settlement

So what copyrights did Novell hold? In some views not very many. Unix was distributed by AT&T as a trade secret. Trade secrets have no protection under law. Once they are out in public view they are out. No copyright notices were attached to the code at a time when that was the only way of asserting copyright. The code was used in many universities and it is unlikely that everyone who had access to it understood and obeyed the non-disclosure agreement.

When AT&T decided to start selling UNIX they sued the University of California at Berkeley for distributing their BSD UNIX. A legal decision was never reached, the parties agreed out of court in a sealed settlement. It is widely understood that they did this to protect both products from further legal scrutiny, since it seemed likely that there was very little legally protected property in either product, and what was there was hopelessly entangled between the parties.

In fact it was Novell that reached the agreement, they bought Unix System Laboratories and with it UNIX System V and its predecessors from AT&T during the court case.
The Open Group

Novell donated the UNIX trademark to the Open Group, which controlled the POSIX standard. POSIX defines a set of standard interfaces that constitute a UNIX system. The name UNIX is not now the name of any single product. Anyone can follow the published POSIX specification to create a new operating system, submit it to certification and thereafter call it UNIX.

It is worthwhile noting that a great deal of what SCOG seems to be claiming in public is actually contained in the POSIX specification.

Further Information

For further information you should visit the Groklaw website. They have a complete set of publicly accessible documents from all of the court cases, and a great deal of informed discussion.

Disclaimer

I am not a lawyer, nor a citizen of the USA. I am merely a fallible, informed observer. Everything on this page should be read with this in mind. All trademarks and copyrights are the properties of their owners.

This page was last updated on 13-April-2004

What is AIX?

When AT&T started to sell UNIX, many companies bought a licence. Most of them just used it to aid their in-house work, but IBM, HP, Sun, Sequent and others bought a licence that allowed them to modify UNIX and sell it as their own. AIX is IBM's version of UNIX. HP's is HP-UX and Sun's is Solaris. IBM subsequently bought Sequent, which had its own version of UNIX called Dynix/ptx.

Intellectual Property?

There are four types of intellectual property, and they have very different characteristics.

Trademarks

SCOG is not claiming that anyone has infringed any trademarks. Unix and UnixWare now belong to the Open Group. Trademarks protect the names and logos that companies use to market their products.

Patents

SCOG is not claiming that anyone has infringed any patents. Indeed it does not appear to own any. Patents protect ideas and methods.

Copyrights

SCOG is making a lot of noise about its copyrights. However none of its suits to date depend solely on copyright. They are contract issues. SCOG's rights to the UNIX (SVRx) copyrights are contested by Novell. Copyright protects the expression of a work. It is limited to works that require a creative input, and does not protect ideas and methods.

Trade Secrets

It is believed that SCOG's case against IBM is or was a trade secret matter. AT&T originally used trade secrets to protect UNIX. Trade Secrets can be divulged only under Non-Disclosure Agreements. They have no other protection, so once someone has violated the NDA you can sue them for damages, but the protected property is out, and it cannot be recalled.

Derivatives

Copyright law prevents someone publishing a product that is derived from a copyrighted work. The definition of derivative is complex, but its application to software appears to devolve to a question of whether a substantial amount of copyrightable code from the original appears in the "derivative". Under this interpretation Linux probably has no SVRx code in it. However SCOG has a couple of arguments that challenge this. The first is their reading of the IBM UNIX licence, and this is a non-copyright, contract/trade-secret argument. The second is a broadening of the definition of "derivative" along the lines of the interpretation used in other fields. For example a Russian author was found guilty of copyright infringement of the Harry Potter books although the lead character was female, all the names were changed and the story's plot was different.

Under this new definition we should see Microsoft's command prompt from DOS version 2.0 to Windows XP sued for copyright infringement as a derivative of the UNIX command line. However this reading of copyright law is without precedent in the software arena.

What is UNIX SVRx?

UNIX was developed by AT&T Bell Labs in 1969. At the time AT&T was forbidden by court order from any commercial interests outside the telephone business. They therefore distributed it free of charge under a non-disclosure agreement, largely to universities. At the time it was not considered a good idea to attach copyright notices to materials that were not to be publicly distributed, so none of the files had copyright notices. The universities used the operating system as a basis for courses, and produced many improvements which they distributed widely. When AT&T was broken up the court order lapsed and AT&T created Unix System Laboratories to sell UNIX. The nomenclature for these releases was "System y, Release x", where y was expressed in Roman numerals. The only versions of any modern interest are the releases of "System V". Hence SVRx relates to any release of System V UNIX.

by rurwin

Here are some ideas, probably patentable, which I have no intention of patenting.This page exists to record these ideas as prior art. If you want to implement them then please do so. A nod in my direction would be appreciated. No patent search has been done, so I do not certify that these ideas are indeed patentable. I specifically refuse you the right to patent them.

Hierarchical Filesystem

12 September 2004
I note that Microsoft is trying to produce a file system based on a relational database. In my view that's wrong-headed. A relational database is not as powerful as the hierarchical system that is used already. However there are some advantages to having all your data contained in an intelligent structure, (ie the structure itself is intelligent.)

There already exists an intelligent data structure: XML. I propose an entire filesystem that can be seen as a single XML document. There would be two difficulties in doing so: translating the data into a filesystem, and inserting the DTD/schema into the data.

The current standard file systems are hierarchical in nature, and can represent the upper levels of the document without serious difficulty. Tag attributes could be included as file attributes, or included as files with special names.

The advantage of implementing this system is that the data is intelligent; it holds its own structure. There is therefore a need to include the XML DTD in this system; although XML can exist without a DTD, that would not answer our requirements here. The current system, where a single DTD describes the entire document would be unwieldy when applied to an entire filesystem. Instead I propose that the DTD be described by an attribute to an XML node. That type of node may have a new type encoding for use in the higher level DTD. The attribute of the node would describe a path within the same XML document, or external to it, for the DTD to be used to parse the body of the node.

…
<test.c DTD="/home/richard/DTD/c-code">
main {}
</test.c>
<mypage.html DTD="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
…
</mypage>
…

For reasons of intelligibility I have left in the file extensions in that example. It is probably worth mentioning that the filesystem would not require that; but it would probably still be done, for the aid of the users and old utilities.

Subclassing of a DTD would be supported by an attribute on the node holding the DTD. An algorithm for merging the node contents with the superclass DTD will be needed, but is straightforward to design. Subclassing is required for context menus and other structure-based intelligence for external DTDs. It would also be used to provide system-wide DTDs that could be modified by individual users.

Another special node type, probably within a DTD, would be one that associated a style-sheet (or any other type of program) with a DTD. Such programs could then be accessed with a context menu.

There would be a number of attributes and sub-nodes which the user was not supposed to be aware of on a day-to-day basis. The DTD syntax must be extended to provide the ability to specify that distinction. This is straightforward to design, and could be provided in a subclass if an old-style DTD was to be used.

I am not necessarily specifying that XML and/or DTDs be stored in the filesystem. It may be more efficient to use a binary encoding, but such binary encoding would be isomorphic to XML and DTDs.

Telepresence by Non-isomorphic Virtual Reality

11 December 2011
Telepresence is used to control robots remotely. For example submarines work on the bottom of the ocean, but are controlled by people on the surface by way of closed-circuit television and a few joysticks and buttons. The military make use of similar technology for pilotless drone aircraft.

The disadvantage of telepresence is that there is minimal feedback to the operator. In addition controlling such things as mechanical hands using joysticks does not effectively use the operator's hand-eye coordination in the same way it is used day-to-day. It improves the operator's control if there is force feedback from the remote actuator, and if the operator is using the same hand motions as they are commanding of the remote actuator. So opening the operator's hand results in the robot's hand opening. Then this can be extended so that moving the operator's head results in the robot's camera moving in the same way. This is Virtual Reality.

Walking poses a problem for Virtual Reality. Wandering around when your attention is literally miles away is not a safe activity. It might be possible to suspend the operator so that the leg movements can be detected without the body moving, but such rigs are likely to be large and complex. There will be significant problems to solve. For example if the operator jumps then force feedback has to be removed from their feet. Their weight must still be supported by the rig, but there is nowhere on the body to apply it without the operator perceiving it as false.

Robots, however, seldom have legs. Using a walking motion to command robot motion would always be imperfect. On the other hand (literally) using a joystick for movement requires one hand to be free. In the most immersive of VR, the robot should have two hands; as a normal human, the operator is most efficient when he can use two hands (and ten fingers) to work. Movement has to be controlled by the legs, since they are the muscle groups that are free for the task.

Therefore, use the muscles and joints of the legs for movement, but map them to facets of the robot motion control. In the simplest implementation a cycling motion could be used to control a wheeled robot. In the most complex each joint might map to a different axis of motion. So the toe joints might control roll, the ankle joints pitch, the knee joints yaw and the hip joints forward and reverse. For the most accurate control the control action should be the same integral order as the control response. Hence a cycling motion to control forward speed. However this will be more tiring than controlling a different order. A car accelerator pedal controls acceleration, and cars are less tiring to drive than bicycles.

Note:
This page has been moved from my ISPs web-space, since I am changing ISPs and it would otherwise be lost.

by rurwin

There are many rant-worthy features of Microsoft Word 2010. The whole concept of the ribbon is a badly conceived joke, and whoever decided to put save and print on a different page is a… but I wont get personal, and these are after all personal opinions. Maybe somewhere there are one or two people who find that the ribbon greatly accelerates their workflow. However there is one rant-worthy behaviour that Word has clung to lovingly since it first crawled from the primaeval ooze that was MS-DOS. I'm talking about read-only files.

There are two workable patterns for handling read-only files in an editor, and every other editor I have seen uses one or the other:

1. If a file is marked read-only, then the editor refuses to make changes to it.
2. If a file is marked read-only, then the editor allows changes to be made, on the grounds that the file may become writable in the future. If the file does become writable, then the editor will allow it to be written.

So what does Word do? It allows changes to be made to the file, but it never allows the file to be written, even if the file becomes writable. You might hope that you could save the file under a different name, then make the original file writable, and then save the document under the original name. But Word is too clever for that; it remembers the original name and refuses to over-write it. The only way to break that link is to close the file. Word is so stubborn that it makes it as hard as it possibly can to over-write a file that was once read-only, no matter what the user does to dissuade it. Microsoft, you see, always knows best.

If you try to write a read-only file in Word 2010 it now displays this handy list of instructions:

1. Click the File tab, and then click Save As.
2. Enter a different file name, and then click Save.
3. NOTE: Adding "Rev1", or "Mod1" to the original file name may help you to remember it later.
4. Click the File tab, and then click Close.
5. Open Windows Explorer.
6. Browse to the original read-only file.
7. Rename the read-only file.
8. Browse to the new file.
9. Rename the new file to the name of the original file.

Didn't the person who wrote those instructions realise how stupid they were? Is nobody at Microsoft caught out by this behaviour? I cannot think of a single occasion when Word's behaviour was what I wanted, but many, many times when I have cursed bitterly, sighed heavily and saved under a new name, closed the file, and renamed it. I am sure that anyone who has Word files under version control will have the same experience. After two decades one would have thought that someone would have realised how moronic Word's behaviour was. But of course this is standard practice for Microsoft; they don't copy stuff from other people, they copy stuff from other people so badly that it doesn't work.

If I was paranoid I might point out that people may see Microsoft's implementation and assume that everyone's tech was as broken. I might point out that sometimes Microsoft uses the broken implementation as an excuse to build something incompatible.

But with read-only files I cannot be so judgemental. I cannot ascribe to malice something that can only be explained by gross incompetence, pig-headed arrogance and a callous disregard for their customers.

Personal Recommendation

by rurwin

Let us assume that in our hypothetical school, children:

• spend eight hours per day at school¹,
• spend all day at an average distance of twenty metres from the mast,²
• make three five minute phone calls during the day with their mobile phones to their ears³, and
• spend the rest of the time with their mobile phones one metre from them.⁴

Let us also assume that:

• the mast puts out a constant signal of 1 kilowatt⁵, and
• the mobile phones communicate with the mast for five seconds every ten minutes, or
• the mobile phones communicate with the mast continuously when a phone call is in progress.

We will assume that the mast has been built for a reason, so that coverage is difficult if the mast is not present, and that only a child's own phone will affect them⁶.

In this study I will be using ad-hoc figures for exposure based on the power of the transmission, the distance to the transmitter and the time taken. These units are related to a one hour exposure to a one watt transmitter at a distance of one metre⁷. A little maths can easily convert that into proper exposure measurements, but my aim here is only to show the relative levels of exposure in various scenarios. The extra maths would just get in the way⁸

With No Mast

If there is no mast, then the mobile phones will be using full power, 4 watts, to communicate with the nearest mast. The child's exposure is the sum of:

1. 8 hours at 1 metre from the phone, with the phone active for five seconds every ten minutes
2. 15 minutes at 3cm from the phone, with the phone active continuously.

Five seconds every ten minutes is $\frac {5} {60 \times 10} = 0.0083$ of the time, $8 hours \times 0.0083 = 0.06 hours$. The output is four watts, so that is $0.067 \times 4 = 0.268$ in our ad-hoc units.

The exposure changes with the inverse square of the distance from the transmitter, so during a phone call the distance is only 3cm, or 0.03m, and that will increase the exposure by a factor of $\frac {1} {0.03^2} = 1111$ but only for a quarter of an hour a day, so that is an exposure of 277.75 per watt, for a total of 1111.

So the child's total exposure over the school day is $1111.3$ of our ad-hoc units.

With A Mast

If there is a mast, then the mobile phones will be using their minimum power, $\frac 1 4$ watts. That reduces the exposure due to the phone to $\frac 1 4 \div 4 = \frac 1 {16} th$ of the previous case: 69.4

But then we have to add in the effect of the mast: a continuous signal of 1000 watts at a distance of 20 metres. $\frac {1000} {20^2} = 2.5$ for eight hours: $2.5 \times 8 = 20$

So the child's total exposure over the school day is $69.4 + 20 = 89.4$ of our ad-hoc units.

What about texting?

Let's say fifty texts a day, each taking five seconds to send, with the phone half a metre away. So the distance effect is $\times 4$ and the time is $50 \times \frac 5 {60 \times 60} = 0.07$ hours. So at full power, $4 \times 4 \times 0.07 = 1.1$ and at minimum power, $\frac 1 4 \times 4 \times 0.07 = 0.07$.

Either way, texting does not make much difference.

Speaker-phone?

Speaker-phone is much better. That makes the distance during a phone call about a quarter of a metre. So the effect of the distance is $\frac 1 {0.25^2} = 16$ per hour per watt.

So a quarter of an hour per day at maximum power would be an exposure of 16, and the same time at minimum power would be 1.

So what have we learned?

• The effect of using a mobile phone is much more important than where the nearest mast is, even if it is very close.
• A close mast makes the phone use a lower power, which reduces exposure.
• Using speaker-phone reduces exposure significantly.

Conclusion

I am not saying that mobile phone masts should be installed for the good of our children. This rough calculation can not hold such responsibility, nor does it take into account any medical evidence. I am not an expert in radiology or the effects of radiation on the human body.

However what this calculation has shown is that mobile phone masts do not significantly increase a child's exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Protesting a mobile phone mast in close proximity to a school is at best of questionable value, and at worst may be counter-productive.

Personal Recommendation

by rurwin

It all started in July, 1980, when seven of us from the academy were invited to New York to meet one of the academy’s biggest benefactors, a rich lady called Miss Flaumel. Our teacher Miss Trees came with us, and we all got on the plane. Dave went and sat in First Class and got away with it, it was so unfair! Anyway, after a bit, Miss Trees got up to go to the ladies, and about half an hour later, we realised she hadn’t come back. This was a bit weird, ‘cos there were still people going in and out of the toilets.

by rurwin

So, just about a year after we went to Miss Flaumel’s house and all those weird things happened to us, the orphanage took us on a camping trip to the national forest. They usually do them every year, but last year there was a forest fire so it got cancelled. Anyway, I’ve been on one before, so I wasn’t expecting any excitement. These trips are normally really boring, not to mention uncomfortable and dirty and muddy and smelly… although I suppose it is good to get away from the school, and the forest is pretty.

by rurwin

Title: The Mystery of Misty Rease
Players: 6
Mode: Tabletop

Life at the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans is not a bed of roses; the academic regimen is punishing and the discipline is worse, but once a year you get to go on vacation. Two years ago you visited Miss Flaumel, and instead of going to socialite balls, you rescued Miss Trees from a sabre-tooth tiger and a sticky end. Last year you went camping in the national forest, and instead of rock-climbing, white-water rafting and so forth, you defeated a dozen demons and saved the world. It makes a change.

This year you are not going camping. All that rock-climbing, and rafting and stuff can be great fun, but it's also cold and dirty and the food is terrible. This year you have a much better plan with more fun, better food and far fewer teachers. Just as soon as the rest of them go off camping and most of the staff clear off, you can put your plan into action. You have to admit though, it would be easier to organise your secret vacation if that new kid did not keep popping up. Everyone knows it is tough going to a new school and making new friends, especially if your parents have just died and stuff, it's easy to try too hard. But does she have to follow you everywhere?

A game for six players. Characters comprising teenagers of between 11 and 14 years to be created by the players before the con. For Character design requirements see the right-hand bar.

This is a continuation game; new and returning characters are welcome.

The Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans

Set in one hundred, fifty acres of idyllic Californian countryside, the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans offers a chance in life to those children who are so often failed by the modern world.

Life's tragedies are harsh on all children, but how much harder is it for their intelligence to be quenched by the unfeeling and under-funded behemoth that is the state welfare system? These children, who may be tomorrow's great men and women — scientists or politicians, doctors or artists — are welcomed by the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans. Whoever they are, whatever their background, we are here to see that they achieve their full potential.

The Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans is a private foundation, funded by private donation. None of our children pay fees of any kind, and all truly gifted children are welcome.

But it is not just in school-time that the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans excels. All of our pupils take part in a wide-ranging programme of activities. Our founder, Carlos Cory, worked his way up from lowly ranch-hand to millionaire horse-breeder. He felt strongly that caring for horses taught many great life-lessons and determined that every pupil of his school be taught to ride. It is a tradition that we are proud to continue to this day. We own thirty horses, which are cared for by the pupils and used by them on frequent outings and vacations. Not to mention their use during lessons as varied as art, genetics and mathematics.

We accept all children who come to us. We have a good relationship with the California State Welfare Department, but many of our children come from other states and even other countries. Some are brought to us privately. Whoever the child is, whatever their background, whatever their needs, however they are gifted, bring them to us. We wont let them down.

Last Year (click here)

Everyone had a wonderful time camping in the Sequoia National Forest. There was white water rafting and fire building and survival training and bird watching and all sorts. Of course some guys went off on horse-back right at the beginning and missed everything. Almost everything anyway; when everyone else got evacuated because of the forest fire, they seem to have stayed and helped to fight it. How cool is that? But if the police have no idea who started the fire, how come those pupils say it was a group of really odd women? How likely is that?

The Year Before (click here)

One would think it was difficult to lose someone on an aeroplane, but somehow Miss Trees went missing while chaperoning seven pupils on a visit to the school's benefactor Miss Evelyn Flaumel in New York. They returned some days later on horseback accompanied by Miss Flaumel. Various rumours of alarming and fantastic adventures circulated the school for a while. Nobody believes any of them, although the fact remains that Miss Trees is now scared of elephants, and the smell of oil makes her sick. There is probably some perfectly rational explanation that does not involve prehistoric tar pits, saber-toothed tigers and a New York socialite wielding a longbow. And where does being burned as a witch fit into all that?

There have also been some unexplained events in the past couple of years concerning those pupils. How does someone walk straight past a hall monitor without being seen, or always seem to have exactly enough money for a candy bar? How can someone go out and buy hairspray at midnight and be back twenty minutes later?

Matters Arising

This is an Amber game, set somewhere within the books' sequence, although the characters know nothing of Amber, Chaos or anything else.

The date is the 16th of July, 1982.

Copyright

The images used on this page are:

• Corsham Court
• Wimbledon Village Stables

They are used without permission for private, low-volume, non-commercial use, in the hope that a little free advertising will satisfy.

Returning Characters

I would be interested to know what you have been doing in the past year, and how you have been changed by your adventure.

Those strange pendants that you picked up have some strange powers, some of which the mysterious dark queen Fiona taught you to control:

1. Concentration, meditation
2. Feeling the amulet, empowering the body
3. Communication between amulets
4. Shadow walking: fetch me a leaf from the next room
5. Controlling the destiny of another amulet: have her fetch me a four-leafed clover from the next room.
6. Probability: throw a six

You are pretty sure they have others too, but there is nothing you have been able to make them do reliably yet. Miss Trees has told you not to use them in school, so of course you don't use them in school… much.

New Characters

Pre-Design Considerations

Firstly, before you begin designing the character, please keep in mind that you'll be acting as a party a lot of the time. So sociopathic loners and loony rebels are probably a bad idea.

Be aware of the "Gifted" in the name of the school. All the pupils at the school tend to excel in several subjects, often to a great extent, and not just on the academic side. The school regimen takes account of that, so your character may not understand just how good they are.

Age

New characters should be eleven, twelve, thirteen or fourteen years of age. Returning characters will, of course, be a year older than they were last year.

Primary Character Design

I need to know what your character looks like, (including their build,) what they like and dislike, how they are viewed by the staff and students, (that's probably at least two different things.) Then I need to know how proficient they are at the various school subjects, or at least which their best and worst subjects are, and the various skills they have picked up outside school. (Pickpocketing? Sailing?) Finally you need a shtick.

Shtick

The shtick is something you are better at than anyone you've ever met, and probably better than anyone on the planet. This can be anything you like. If your shtick is a normal human ability, then you'll be great, maybe phenomenal. If it is super-natural, then I'll probably rein it in somewhat; you're still young and still learning to control it. The more powerful the ability, the weaker it's going to be, simply for game balance reasons. I reserve the right to veto, but I don't expect to use it; I'll roll with it if I can. No shadow-walking or time travel, no Pattern or Logrus.

Secondary Character Design

I would like to know how long you have been at the Carlos Cory school, how you came to be there, and what you were doing before. How did you get to be an orphan? Who were your parents and what did they do? What do you remember of them? Do you have any other relatives? No plot-hooks please; I will ignore them.

by rurwin

When we moved in, eight years ago, the area behind the wall was all gravelled. When I first decided to build a pond I was constrained by two shrubs at the front, and also by the surprise discovery of a very well engineered concrete path hidden half an inch down. The foundations of the path are half a metre deep. Rather than break it up with a sledgehammer, I decided to make a feature of it. However, with that and the shrubs, I ended up with a pond significantly smaller than I wanted.

Subsequently, one shrub died because I'd got too close to it, and the other got far too big and had to be removed. Then this spring I found that the liner had sprung a leak. I was going to have to replace the liner, and I might as well extend the pond nearer to the size I had initially wanted.

The job begins Here I have removed the old liner and underlay, and widened the hole on the right hand side. The wide shelf is for plants, and the narrow shelf above it is for the edging. Note the sloping section in the far left. This will be covered in cobbles to allow small animals access to and egress from the water. Do not do this if you want fish; fish and frogs do not coexist. There is a raised lip at the bottom of the slope to retain the cobbles. The edging shelf slopes away from the pond a little to help the edging stones to sit securely. The square thing in the foreground is the well-engineered concrete path.
Doing it by eye is no good The only really important part of the design is to make sure that the edging shelf is at the same level all the way round. Water will not hide my sloppiness, and ugly black liner will be visible if I get this wrong. The planting shelves are between six inches and a foot below the level of the edging. The maximum depth of the hole is eighteen inches from the edging, twenty-two inches from the top of the path. The green plastic box at the top of the photo is social housing for frogs. When I first found the pond almost empty I found about three dozen of them in the sludge at the bottom. I didn't find a hole so I filled the pond back up and returned all the frogs. Three weeks later the pond was empty again, and this time there were only about a dozen frogs there. Nobody likes living in the slums. The frogs even get free meals; I give them blood worms twice a week while I am working on the pond. The bucket is holding the only plant that has managed to survive. It's a false water lilly of some sort and it actually flowered last year. Real water lillys need water at least two feet deep, and rather more surface area than I have even after enlarging it.
A pond is nothing without a waterfall The raised area beside the path is for the waterfall feature. I paid vast amounts for a solar-powered pump, rather than have to run power the length of the garden. It was not an unalloyed success. On the positive side, it is free energy; I don't have to worry about switching it off to save money. But it was expensive in the first place, and then I had to pay a lot more for a bigger solar panel, because the first one I bought did nothing except in bright direct sunshine. There is not much bright direct sunshine in the UK. So for over £300 I got something that would work on most summer days and several spring and autumn days, but of course never on summer evenings to accompany a barbecue. I could fix that by buying a battery and a power controller, but I think I've probably spent enough. At that it might still be cheaper than paying an electrician to run an underground cable, but not by a vast amount. You see all that gravel in the waterfall area? It has all got to be picked out, including the gravel that falls in while I'm doing that. Any stones or protruding roots have to be removed because otherwise they might put a hole in the liner and I'd have to start all over again.
Underlay! Underlay! The underlay goes in. The rule is to take the horizontal size of the pond and then add twice the maximum depth to each number. In the case of this pond that makes 320cm x 360cm. I then bought a 4m x 4.5m liner, because I'd far rather waste £15 than buy one that was too small and waste £50. The underlay is two pieces of 2m x 4m, and the two pieces overlap a lot. That is a good thing. Then go over the whole thing very carefully, and pick out every stone and lump of soil that has fallen onto it, and with all that gravel around, there are sure to be some.
What to do with black PVC And now the liner itself. You unfold the liner over the pond rather than drag it, and be careful that none of that gravel falls under it, or the underlay wont make any difference. Theoretically you are supposed to put the liner flat over the pond, weight it down and let the weight of the water drag it down. That would probably leave me with fewer creases. It might be easy to do that with a feature pond in the middle of a lawn, but it is impossible here. So I pushed it into place and then filled it up. It seemed to work OK eight years ago. You do need to watch carefully and even out the creases as it fills.
Hey, that looks like a water feature Now it is starting to come together. The edging stones are in (they are green slate rockery stones at about £3 each). Once that is done then the liner and underlay can be trimmed down so it is above the first course, but hidden by the second course. Then go round again and add a stone anywhere you can see black liner. I'm not too careful about making the stonework neat; the frogs love hiding between and behind the stones.
Once more unto the beach dear friends. Here is the finished cobble beach. I put the big stones at the bottom and the small stones at the top; it looks odd if you don't. Each stone is carefully placed to hide the liner and there is only one layer. If you do it right it looks totally natural.
Waterfall is Go! It looks a bit weedy in this picture; it looks better in real life. The sun was about to go in as well. Before too long, that brick will be covered in moss. Click on these pictures to see bigger versions: The pump and the back of the waterfall: I had to buy a new pump. It looks like a fox or something chewed the wire of the old one about an inch from the pump. If it was in a dry bit I would have mended it, but I can't make a repair that is going to be under water for several years. Then I got another bag of those cobbles and covered the back of the waterfall with them. I used the gravel last time, but it is a pain when you want to dig it back out. To cover the rather excessive black plastic I think I will edge it with more green slate. The solar panel: That panel is now about eight years old. Modern panels are about the same maximum output, but are a bit cheaper and may have better low-light behaviour. So I would not recommend anything smaller. This one is rated at 21 watts maximum output (1.27A at 16.5V). Hidden under the bushes is a small concrete slab resting on a square of bricks. That is sufficient to keep dry the plug and socket that connect the pump to the panel.
Two happy customers. The rule of thumb seems to be, count the number of frogs you can see and then multiply by five to ten (depending on how good you are at spotting them.) That's the number you actually have. Still to do: The path. I've got to pop to B&Q and pick up some timber. I'm going to make a cover that looks like a wooden quay. That's what I did the first time. Unfortunately that one was rotten and could not be removed in one piece. The waterfall. Still some titivating to do.

by rurwin

The standard CSS knows about five font families, and it's probably best to stick to those; Too many fonts on a page are one of the most obvious signs of bad design. The five families are: serif, sans-serif, monospace, cursive and fantasy. You could just specify one of those, and the browser would pick a font to use. Theoretically they are all available, practically cursive and fantasy are new additions and most browsers wont have them. It isn't really a good idea anyway, because better fonts exist, and your readers may have them installed. The best thing to do is to provide a list of fonts in your order of preference. Because you will want to use those five generic typefaces as fall-backs, you are limited to those five categories of font families.

To specify a font on the page use one of the following lines:

 font-family: Times New Roman, Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times, roman, serif font-family: Myriad Web, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Sans, Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, Verdana, Arial Unicode, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif font-family: Courier New, Courier, Andale Mono, Monotype, "monospace", console, monospace font-family: Lucida Handwriting, Apple Chancery, Zapf Chancery, Swing, Mistral, Brush Script, chancery, cursive, script, brush, sans-serif font-family: Revolution, Arnold Boecklin, Korinna, Benguiat, Kino, Linotext, fraktur, blackletter, copperplate, Gadget, cursive, sans-serif 

The reader's browser starts at the left-hand end of the list and uses the first font it finds that it has available. So the fonts on the left are the best choice, and the ones on the right are for making the best of a bad job. Notice that the first three lines use the default browser font as the fallback. However not all browsers have default fonts for cursive and fantasy, so both of those fall back ultimately on sans-serif.

For what it is worth, this is how those font-family lines look on your browser. Of course they may look different on someone-else's.

• The serif font looks like this.
• The sans-serif font looks like this.
• The monospace font looks like this.
• The cursive font looks like this.
• The fantasy font looks like this.

These font samples below are mostly from Wikipedia, under the Wikimedia Commons or public domain license. Click them for a better look.

Serif

The list is: Times New Roman, Palatino, Book Antiqua, Times, roman, serif

Times New Roman is a Microsoft font. Times is also a Microsoft font but pre-dates Microsoft's use of TTF so it will appear blocky in some sizes. Roman is the free version. Book Antiqua is similar to Palatino, but Wikipedia doesn't have a handy sampler. It's the middle one of the three. Click for a better look.

Times New Roman	Palatino	Book Antiqua

Sans-Serif

The list is: Myriad Web, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Sans, Trebuchet MS, Trebuchet, Verdana, Arial Unicode, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif

"Myriad Web" is a paid-for typeface. It is not likely that your readers have it, but it is certain that if they do then they will appreciate your using it. Arial Unicode is a little different from Arial, but I couldn't find an example. It's not likely to be obvious anyway. I think Trebuchet and Trebuchet MS are the same font.

Myriad Web	Lucida Sans	Trebuchet MS	Verdana	Arial	Helvetica	Geneva

Monospace

The list is: Courier New, Courier, Andale Mono, Monotype, "monospace", console, monospace

Courier New is a Microsoft font, Courier is the pre-TTF blocky version. Monotype is the Microsoft version of Andale Mono. Console is the typeface used for the Blue Screen of Death. Note that the font "monospace" is quoted to distinguish it from the similarly named keyword at the end of the list.

Courier New	Andale Mono	monospace	console

Cursive

The list is: Lucida Handwriting, Apple Chancery, Zapf Chancery, Swing, Mistral, Brush Script, chancery, cursive, script, brush, sans-serif

Lucida Handwriting	Apple Chancery	Zapf Chancery	Mistral	Brush Script

Fantasy

The list is: Revolution, Arnold Boecklin, Korinna, Benguiat, Kino, Linotext, fraktur, blackletter, copperplate, Gadget, cursive, sans-serif

You are not going to get anything like a consistent look with this list; the fonts are all very different from one another, from the gothic fraktur and blackletter to the ultra-modern Gadget (which I believe you'll find on Apple kit). So if you are looking for a certain look and feel, you'll need to research your own font list. But if all you want is a bit of spot interest, this list is probably good enough.

Korinna	Benguiat	fraktur	copperplate

by rurwin

For the sake of bragging, I spent several years using ed to write large programs. A while ago emacs and vi fought over mind-share with no quarter asked or given, but those days are (mostly) gone, killed off by the shift to windowing platforms. Now there are a huge number of editors available, all with their own capabilities, some better, some worse. Allow me to introduce you to the one I think is better than most. jEdit.

Features

• Multi-platform: it works on Linux, Windows, MacOS/OSX, and lots more. You can have the same editor on every machine you use.
• Multiple buffers: you can edit dozens of files simultaneously.
• Many plug-ins available: you can easily customise it to suit you and your project.
• Multiple character-sets: it is as comfortable editing UTF as it is editing ASCII.
• Usable as an IDE: you can compile and test programs without leaving the editor.
• Extensible filesystems: you can edit files stored on an FTP server or in zip files.
• Programmable: you can write macros or full plug-ins easily.
• Syntax highlighting: 128 built-in languages, and many more available for download (including YAML).
• Superb built-in features: rectangular selections alone will blow your mind. It's got regular-expression search-and-replace too.
• Free: it's open-source. You can down-load it now. Go on — do yourself a favour.

Plug-ins

jEdit by itself is rather bare; you are expected to install some plug-ins. This is really easy; just go to Plugins»Plugin Manager and chose some. Here are the ones I wouldn't be without:

• Buffer List. A tree-structured list of the files being edited. I dock it on the left.
• Console — A command Line within the editor. I dock it at the bottom.
• ErrorList — Lists compile errors and and links them to the offending lines in the source file. I dock it at the bottom.
• Archive — Edit files from zip and tar archives
• FTP — Edit files on FTP servers
• jDiff — compare two files side by side

While you are docking the plugins, put the HyperSearch Results at the bottom too.

Free Give Away

Here is a Wikidot syntax highlighter. This highlighter doesn't just highlight Wikidot syntax; jEdit already knows about HTML,CSS and every type of code block, so it highlights all those too, including $\TeX$, so even your maths will come out right.

Right-click and Save-Link-As: wikidot.xml (release 0.4).
Put that in the "modes" sub-folder of your jEdit settings folder, and then add this line to the file catalog in the same sub-folder:

 <MODE NAME="wikidot" FILE="wikidot.xml" FILE_NAME_GLOB="*.wd" FIRST_LINE_GLOB="*wikidot*" /> 

To use it, either call your wikidot page files something ending in .wd, or put [!-- *wikidot* --] in the first line of the file. Be aware, if you choose the latter option, that jEdit only sets file modes when a file is loaded or saved.

Here's a quick example, courtesy of the Code2HTML plug-in:

Change Log

Release 0.4

• Tidied up
• Got highlighting on the module names and image source etc.

To Do

• Add YAML highlighting
• Check the colouring is consistent and logical.
• Blockquotes
• [[code type="diff"]] should delegate to "patch:MAIN"

by rurwin

Roleplaying

Roleplaying is like improvised theatre without all the tiresome moving around and building sets. In fact maybe improvised theatre for the radio… without the sound effects. Anyway, six people sit down in comfy chairs with drinks and snacks, and create a story together. It is thrilling, moving, cathartic, escapist, … whatever you need.

I have played many game-systems over the years. I started out with a photocopied copy of Greyhawk before AD&D was released. Then Traveller, Striker, Gamma World, Paranoia. Now I tend to gravitate around World of Darkness, but still make regular forays into other systems.

Right now I am considering getting around to designing my scenario for AmberconUK 10. The Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game (ADRPG) is a roleplaying game without any dice. It is the ultimate is roleplaying, and AmberconUK is the ultimate in gaming conventions.

Programming

I am a software engineer specialising in control systems and SCADA, currently working in the automotive sector. In my free time I like to work with microcontrollers. I prefer the Atmel AVR to the PIC… and Linux to Windows.

Amateur Radio

Amateur (Ham) Radio is a fascinating and little-known world-wide hobby with international legal standing.

I was first licensed in 1983, although for the first ten of those I was stuck on VHF with no money for decent equipment, and then let my license lapse for another ten years.

by rurwin

• Masie —Tortoiseshell
• Paddy — Long-haired tabby

Guest Star:

• Freya — German Shepherd

by rurwin

• Star Trek encounters an energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy. They meant the Universe, but had to do some fast footwork to recover.
• Firefly seems to take place in a single solar system with 210 inhabitable planets, every one of them with a 24-hour day and a 365-day year. Not to mention a temperate climate and Earth-standard gravity.
• Buck Rogers opined that there were a googleplex star systems in our galaxy. If you turned each atom in the entire universe into a zero, you'd have enough to write out a googleplex — it's rather a big number. Conversely there are at most four hundred billion stars in our galaxy.
• Star Trek III manages to use one quarter impulse power in space-dock. Full impulse power gets them up to just under the speed of light. It's about a million times worse than going around a multi-story car park in fifth gear with your foot only a quarter down on the accelerator pedal.

I could go on. I'm writing this series of essays as a resource for fans who want to create realistic scenarios without making too many mistakes. On the other hand, if you are a big movie studio, then please get yourself a science consultant and listen to them. When we watch and read science fiction, we expect to make some suspensions of disbelief, but when we are asked to accept stuff that makes no sense because the writer made a mistake it's like reading "she walked along the road under a green sky with pink polka-dots." It stops us in our tracks, ruins our involvement and makes us more likely to go and do something else instead.

Here then are some essays on subjects concerning space travel. I've tried to put them in a reasonable order to read one after the other, but feel free to pick and choose.

• Big Numbers
• Solar Systems, Galaxies and Universes
• What is an orbit?

Coming soon:

• Interplanetary - Getting around the solar-system
• Special Relativity for beginners
• Faster Than Light travel

by rurwin

This game ran at Ambercon UK 2010. It is only here for nostalgic reasons.
Read Harmony Ackerman's journal here.

Game Description

Title: The Mystery of Missed Trees
Players: 6
Mode: Tabletop

Life at the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans is not a bed of roses; the academic regimen is punishing and the discipline is worse. But with the summer here again it is time to put all that aside for a camping trip into the Californian forest. It is a chance to let off steam in glorious natural surroundings. Horse-riding, canoeing and all sorts of outside pursuits are a welcome escape from the blackboard's tyranny. But who are the strangely compelling women parked along the high trail? Why are they so pale, and why have they chosen to camp in the blackened devastation of last-year's fire?

A game for six players. Characters comprising teenagers of between 11 and 14 years to be created by the players before the con. For Character design requirements see the right-hand bar.

This is a continuation game; new and returning characters are welcome.

The Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans

Set in one hundred, fifty acres of idyllic Californian countryside, the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans offers a chance in life to those children who are so often failed by the modern world.

Life's tragedies are harsh on all children, but how much harder is it for their intelligence to be quenched by the unfeeling and under-funded behemoth that is the state welfare system? These children, who may be tomorrow's great men and women — scientists or politicians, doctors or artists — are welcomed by the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans. Whoever they are, whatever their background, we are here to see that they achieve their full potential.

The Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans is a private foundation, funded by private donation. None of our children pay fees of any kind, and all truly gifted children are welcome.

But it is not just in school-time that the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans excels. All of our pupils take part in a wide-ranging programme of activities. Our founder, Carlos Cory, worked his way up from lowly ranch-hand to millionaire horse-breeder. He felt strongly that caring for horses taught many great life-lessons and determined that every pupil of his school be taught to ride. It is a tradition that we are proud to continue to this day. We own thirty horses, which are cared for by the pupils and used by them on frequent outings and vacations. Not to mention their use during lessons as varied as art, genetics and mathematics.

We accept all children who come to us. We have a good relationship with the California State Welfare Department, but many of our children come from other states and even other countries. Some are brought to us privately. Whoever the child is, whatever their background, whatever their needs, however they are gifted, bring them to us. We wont let them down.

The Sequoia National Forest

Sequoia National Forest is located in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The national forest is named for the majestic Giant Sequoia trees which populate 38 groves within the boundaries of the forest. Other notable features include glacier-carved landscapes and impressive granite monoliths. This year we shall be returning to our accustomed campsite along the Kern River. We could not use this site last year due to the forest fires in the region.

Last Year

One would think it was difficult to lose someone on an aeroplane, but somehow last year Miss Trees went missing while chaperoning seven pupils on a visit to the school's benefactor Miss Evelyn Flaumel in New York. They returned some days later on horseback accompanied by Miss Flaumel. Various rumours of alarming and fantastic adventures circulated the school for a while. Nobody believes any of them, although the fact remains that Miss Trees is now scared of elephants, and the smell of oil makes her sick. There is probably some perfectly rational explanation that does not involve prehistoric tar pits, saber-toothed tigers and a New York socialite wielding a longbow. And where does being burned as a witch fit into all that?

There have also been some unexplained events in the past year concerning those seven pupils. How does someone walk straight past a hall monitor without being seen, or always seem to have exactly enough money for a candy bar?

Matters Arising

This is an Amber game, set somewhere within the books' sequence, although the characters know nothing of Amber, Chaos or anything else.

The date is the 10th of July, 1981.

Copyright

The images used on this page are:

• Corsham Court
• Llechrwd Campsite
• Sequoia National Forest by Travelpod.com

They are used without permission for private, low-volume, non-commercial use, in the hope that a little free advertising will satisfy.

Returning Characters

I would be interested to know what you have been doing in the past year, and how you have been changed by your adventure.

Those strange pendants that you picked up seem to have some odd powers that you haven't been able to work out or control, but they have been useful on several occasions. Let me know how they have been useful to you — I am thinking of very minor shadow shifting and manipulation effects.

New Characters

Pre-Design Considerations

Firstly, before you begin designing the character, please keep in mind that the school has agreed to take you on a vaction into what can be a very dangerous area. It's OK to be a rebel, but the school should have reason to expect you to keep it under control. Likewise you'll be acting as a party a lot of the time. So sociopathic loners are probably a bad idea.

Be aware of the "Gifted" in the name of the school. All the pupils at the school tend to excel in several subjects, often to a great extent, and not just on the academic side. The school regimen takes account of that, so your character may not understand just how good they are.

Age

New characters should be eleven, twelve, thirteen or fourteen years of age. Returning characters will, of course, be a year older than they were last year.

Primary Character Design

I need to know what your character looks like, (including their build,) what they like and dislike, how they are viewed by the staff and students, (that's probably at least two different things.) Then I need to know how proficient they are at the various school subjects, or at least which their best and worst subjects are, and the various skills they have picked up outside school. (Pickpocketing? Sailing?) Finally you need a shtick.

Shtick

The shtick is something you are better at than anyone you've ever met, and probably better than anyone on the planet. This can be anything you like. If your shtick is a normal human ability, then you'll be great, maybe phenomenal. If it is super-natural, then I'll probably rein it in somewhat; you're still young and still learning to control it. The more powerful the ability, the weaker it's going to be, simply for game balance reasons. I reserve the right to veto, but I don't expect to use it; I'll roll with it if I can. No shadow-walking or time travel, no Pattern or Logrus.

Secondary Character Design

I would like to know how long you have been at the Carlos Cory school, how you came to be there, and what you were doing before. How did you get to be an orphan? Who were your parents and what did they do? What do you remember of them? Do you have any other relatives? No plot-hooks please; I will ignore them.

by rurwin

by rurwin

To Be Or Not To Be

That Is The Question

Bugs

So Where Is The Software?

Personal Recommendation

by rurwin

The Appliance of Science

That's all most people need — an appliance; an appliance to watch TV, an appliance to wash clothes, to make toast, to make phone calls, and to write letters, read email, play games and browse the Internet. All these things may have computers in them but they are all just appliances. Even computers are just appliances. The one I've got in front of me now is an appliance. I program it from time to time, but mostly it's just browsing the net or being a word-processor. There are many, many more computers around now than there were in 1980 when I built the Atom, but probably only the same number of them get programmed by their owners.

It is said that once you learn to weld, you never look at metal in the same way again. What was once a solid, immutable lump becomes alive with possibilities; it doesn't have to be like it is; it can be changed. That broken garden fork doesn't have to be thrown away; it can be mended, and while you're doing that, you might as well fix the hinge on the gate. Why buy an expensive wrought-iron gate when bar iron is cheap and making one would be fun? On the other hand, when Arthur Dent learned to understand the language of birds he found that instead of the trees being full of glorious song, they were full of inane gossip. Software is the same. Once you understand how to write a program, software becomes malleable; it doesn't have to be like it is; it can be changed. If it's too expensive to buy it can be made. And that difficult feature you've been putting up with would be so much easier if it was implemented this way.

No User-Serviceable Parts Inside

Back in the 1960's I had a cassette tape recorder. Inside the battery compartment there was a piece of paper with the complete circuit diagram on it. If it went wrong, that was enough to work out what was at fault and where to find it, or if I wanted to add some neat new feature, the circuit diagram would tell me where to put it and what constraints I had. Of course, being rather young at the time I couldn't do that, but the possibility was there; I had permission. If I had tried to do so of course, I would have probably voided the warranty, which is fair enough, but I would not have been, say, sued for millions of pounds.

Most devices don't come with a circuit diagram. Most manufacturers want to discourage their customers from opening the box and fiddling but if you do, nothing dreadful happens — at least not once the warranty has run out. Software is different; the companies that make software like us to buy appliances. That way they can keep selling us software in pretty shrink-wrapped boxes. One might wish that if you fiddle with it, you void the warranty, but that is not what happens. If you fiddle with it you (potentially) get sued for millions of pounds.

Two amateur gardeners are taking a break from digging and are shooting the breeze. Joe shows off his new Wizzo^TM fork, but Sid doesn't seem that impressed. Joe asks him why.
"Whizzo^TM make decent enough forks, but they use an additive in the steel. It doesn't make it stronger or anything; it's just to stop you mending it."
Joe wonders why that might make a difference, after all he got this fork because his last one got bent. He didn't consider mending it; a new one was cheaper.
"You should have brought it to me," replies Sid. "A couple of minutes with the old oxy-acetylene and it would have been as good as new."
"You know," Joe reflects, "one thing about this fork is my foot keeps slipping off it more than it did with the old one."
"I had that problem," says Sid. "So I stuck a piece on to make the cross bar a bit thicker and sloped it up at the ends; it makes a huge difference; it's just a shame yours is a Whizzo^TM."

Shrink-wrapped commercial software is like Joe's fork; if it's an appliance you're looking for then it is fine. But if you want to fix it when it breaks, or you want to change it to suit you better, then hard luck. The only thing you can do is to complain to the manufacturers. If you have paid them tens of thousands of pounds then they might take an interest.

Open Source

There is a small paragraph in the user manual for my new television.

This television contains open source software. Philips hereby offers to deliver or make available on request, for a charge no more than the cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code on a medium customarily used for software interchange. This offer is valid for a period of 3 years after the date of purchase of this product.

That is not quite as good as my old cassette recorder — they don't ship the television with a CD containing the source code, and they don't supply the circuit diagram either, but it is good enough. If I wanted to I could change the software. Maybe I could fix a bug or add a small feature that was missing.

There are many thousands of open source programs. Many of them are so good that they rank among the best in their field. Here are a few.

• Open-Office — An office suite that gives Microsoft Office a run for it's money.
• The Gimp — A picture manipulation program just a little less powerful than Adobe Photoshop.
• jEdit — A text editor several times more powerful than Notepad.
• Wireshark — A network protocol analyser that leads its field.
• Apache — The leading web server.
• Firefox — The most popular web browser.
• MySQL — A database as good as you'll ever need unless you are a huge company.
• Linux — An operating system that rivals Windows and MacOS.

They are all free. Free as in free beer, and free as in freedom. And that is not the only advantage over commercial applications.

• No cost
• No piracy
• No dodgy hacks
• No risk of installing a virus along with the program
• No guilt
• No broken demo or missing features until you pay
• No anti-copying features getting in your way
• Just solid, proven software that does the job and does it well, with
• better support than for commercial software, and
• more chance of getting bugs fixed and changes made

The really counter-intuitive thing about Open Source, is that it is supported better than commercial programs. That is because they invariably attract a large crowd of knowledgeable and helpful people around them, who are eager to help others in their spare time. Whereas the commercial companies have to pay their support workers, and discipline them for not closing issues fast (whether the customer thinks they are solved or not.) They too might attract a helpful crowd of customers, but unlike Open-Source, the crowd around commercial software are guessing. With commercial software, the company is the source of all truth. If the company isn't telling then everyone is in the dark. But with Open-Source the truth is out there for anyone to find. So Open-Source software has more people working in customer support, and they are more knowledgeable, more friendly, and they are doing a job they love for the joy of doing it.

You don't have to learn to program to use these programs; they are fine if all you want is a cheap appliance. But if you wanted to, you could fix them or change them or, like Joe, you could find someone willing to do it for you. And then maybe in the longer term, unlike learning to weld, all the kit you need to get to learn to program is free too. Even the text books are free. It's fun and empowering too. Just like welding, or dressmaking, or carpentry, or …

Personal Recommendation

In The Beginning Was The Command Line -- Neal Stephenson

This huge essay takes over where this one leaves off. It is a thoughtful and provoking read; I thoroughly recommend it.

by rurwin