Hopefully this will obsess me

Unable to stop thinking about the string of (hopefully non-ongoing) disasters this year, I started wandering the Web in search of a distraction. I was originally figuring that I'd find the quote wiki that has almost no Garriott quotes and update it, but I couldn't track it down and forgot that I (probably) have it in my bookmarks. Eventually, I looked for an online Flash version of an Ultima game, and found Phi Psi Software's rewritten/enhanced Ultima 4: Flash Version.

It seems stable (though having my laptop's fan going constantly might drive me batty), but I'm slowly building a list of tiny things that aren't quite as they should be, in hope the developer doesn't mind me sending them to him. For example, the inability to control capitalization or use a space in creating the player's name...

Long ago in fourth-grade, my teacher began the tradition of calling me by my initials (D.D.) rather than my actual first name; since everyone adored the guy, I spent the next year referred to that way, and thought it was the coolest thing ever. When I started playing Ultima V the following summer, I needed a name that would sound a bit more mature & medieval than that, so Lady D.D. came into existence. I spent the next school year on home study, which meant a lot of hours exploring Britannia as my more powerful alter-ego. I wasn't happy that I had to change it to Lady DD for Ultima IV, but it wasn't intolerable.

So I wasn't terribly happy to discover that not only can I not be Lady D.D. for this new Flash version, I also can't be Lady DD as it won't allow for a space, or LadyDD since I can't capitalize some letters. Sigh. I'm playing as Xyzzy instead, but plan on writing the poor developer.

Still, I was thrilled to see the huge improvement in graphics, and that there was music -- I knew that there was an enhanced copy or patch for DOS, but never made myself actually try it. I seem to recall that the Apple II version I played had the moongate in the intro actually sound high-pitched, however... I'll have to download an emulated copy and try it; I'm not about to set up my Apple IIGS and ancient Ultima IV up in this mess just to find out.

Hopefully the game will keep my interest and give me something new to be excited about, even if "excited" means "keeping track of the tiny things that could be improved upon with hopefully minimal effort for anyone capable of programming"!

Creative descriptions, mocp, teaching...

Well, I still haven't quite managed to set up an alternative to this as I basically crashed last night, but did get an interesting little console-based music player called MOC running.  Well, mostly running... Here is the original "creative" explanation I wrote to the blogger that recommended mocp:

I just tried mocp, and I'm encountering skipping with frequent 40-90% CPU use for 5 to 60 seconds. At one point it turned into a little epic battle... mocp locked up while seizing 98% of the CPU and valiantly fended off all of htop's attempts to kill it -- it only died when I shot the terminal app out from underneath it instead.

The above sense of humor, incidentally, is how I used to entertain myself while writing computer tutorials in the 90s for family members. It didn't take long for me to figure out that making the material amusing made learning a bit easier for them, and that using their favorite real-world objects/places as metaphors made an even bigger difference.
For example, I remember having to explain the concept of multi-tasking with the Program Manager in Windows 3.11 to my then-43-year-old mother after we got our first PC (an IBM DX2/50), as she couldn't comprehend any of it. After a few failed attempts, I succeeded by describing it entirely in terms of her favorite place, Disneyland, complete with a little hand-drawn diagram. She took Main Street (booted up) to reach Central Plaza (Program Manager), which she had to use to visit different Lands (programs); just as Central Plaza kept existing even when she was in Fantasyland, and Fantasyland was still there even if she went to Tomorrowland, the Program Manager & different applications stuck around regardless of which one was active.
I think that's enough for the moment; I had more to say, but I'm starting to feel hungry and remarkably distracted. Bye!