Some Knowledge

Should you cheat at video or computer games?  Does it matter?  This is a question that has puzzled humanity since the invention of the computer.  How can I get unfair advantage against a machine that holds all the cards?

The thing about game cheats is that they are built into the system on purpose.  We’re not talking about speed hacks for an MMORPG here, we’re talking about cheat codes for published games.  When they make the game, they put in this feature where you can enter some meaningless code combination and access some different feature of the game.  Why do they even call this cheating?  It’s part of the game.  The only cheat is that they don’t tell you about this stuff when you buy the game, you have to find out about it on the Internet.

Some of these cheats are totally meaningless for anything but entertainment value.  For instance, the almost universal big head/small head cheat code.  What is the point of having your game character sport a huge head?  Just so you laugh, that’s all.  Then again, some of the cheats make gaming almost pointless.  Take for instance unlimited ammo or invulnerability to damage.  Then again, some people might enjoy a game if they play in god mode.  Sure it takes some of the thrill out of the game if you can’t die, but then, you get to see all the content in the game without annoying deaths.

Cheating in an online game is a whole different thing than cheating in a single player game.  Most online games come with some sort of a hack shield program these days to prevent people from using hacks to get infinite gold or from one-hitting players and mobs.  This makes sense.  If you are playing a game against other people you want it to be fair.  Unless of course you are some kind of a gerbil or power gamer.  A 1337 power gamer might get all kinds of laughs out of using a DNS attack on another players connection while they are fighting them in player kill areas.  One crude form of this is the old fashioned spam attack, where you send hundreds of messages to a player while they are trying to fight you.  Not only distracting, but it lags the connection as well.  Hopefully game designers know about these dirty tricks and disable spam before it can cause problems.

As far as cheat codes go, they are not really cheating.  It’s just a different way to play a game designed in there by the software engineers when they made the game.  The only reason they don’t tell you about these things when they sell you the game is because people get a thrill out of thinking they have beat the system.  You don’t hear about a lot of people using cheats to beat solitaire.  In theory, you could design a bot to totally play that game for you.   But why would you?  Watching a computer beat itself in a game of cards would be about as fun as watching sand drop through an hourglass.  If game designers wanted to really put some cheating into their games they could design bots to play the games and then you could sit back and watch the game unfold as if it were a movie, but then, what would be the point?

The Internet is a great medium for communication.  Unlike broadcast radio and television, the Internet is a two way channel.  Because of this you can not only advertise items or services that are for sale, you can make the sales of these items and collect the money from your customers.  People from all over the world can make purchases from your company and you don’t even need to maintain a retail store to make sales.

What do the big companies do to make money on the net?  Obviously, they sell stuff.  Take Amazon.com as a for instance.  Amazon started out selling books.  Books are commonly available from publishers.  You buy the books from the publisher, you advertise the books on a website.  You sell the books to customers at a profit.  You ship the books, the customer is happy, they come back and buy more when they want more.  Making money on the Internet is the same as making money in any other area.  You need some sort of business organization.

Now look at another big player, Google.  How does Google make money?  Simple, they sell advertising.  Companies want to promote their products or services, so they go to Google and buy a text advertisement.  Google displays the advertisement on search results pages that match the keywords that were sold to the advertiser.  You have a targeted customer for the advertiser.  Somebody who is already interested in some product gets directed to your website.  Google also places ads all over the Internet through its Adsense program.  How do they make money?  They provide a service.

The essential point in any moneymaking venture is that you provide some product or service for an amount of monetary compensation.  In order to do this you will need to set up your own business.  Business is how the whole economy operates.  There are many kinds of businesses, and the one you set up will depend on not only what you intend to do, but also where you happen to live.  There are rules and regulations affecting any business.  You have to pay taxes on the money you make.  You have to keep records.  You have to supply some legitimate and legal product or service to your customers.  This can all get very complicated.  That is why they teach business in schools.  You might want to take some classes in business at your local community college.

Both Amazon and Google have what are called affiliate programs as part of their businesses.  You can help them do what they do for a part of the profits.  What you would be doing for these companies as part of these programs would essentially be advertising on your own website to sell their products or services.  To find out about these programs go to the websites and look for Amazon affiliate marketing or Google Adsense advertising.  You will need to sign up and get approval for your site to participate in either of these programs.  All the information you will need comes from these companies.  I say this because there is a whole industry on the Internet that sells information on how to participate in these programs as some kind of get rich quick scheme.  You will need a lot of traffic on your site to make any money from these programs.  You may be better off going into business for yourself.

The Internet is fairly new, and there have already been thousands of companies that have gone broke trying to capitalize on it as a source of income.  Do your research.  Find out what works and what doesn’t.  Make up your own business plan, even if it is just business as an affiliate.  Whatever you do, you will have to perform a considerable amount of work if you hope to make money using the net.  Even if it is just keeping track of all your customers and sales, this can add up to a lot of time.  Successful companies tend to have lots of people working for them.  Running a big operation takes skills and knowledge you had better have before you start.  If you want to make money on the Internet you will have to know what you are doing and have adequate resources to achieve your goals.

If you don’t have a patch of ground outside or the weather is too cold, you might want to try and grow some herbs indoors.  Herbs make a wonderful addition of flavor to many meals, and a little goes a long way.  You can bring some of the freshness of the outside world into your home and enjoy not only fresh herbs, but also a pleasant splash of greenery in your home.

Any plant will need light, water, and soil to grow and be healthy.  It is hard to get enough light for some plants when you grow them indoors.  Natural sunlight is far more powerful than just about any artificial light.  A big window with a southern exposure and no shadows is the perfect place to have your indoor garden.  If you have no suitable windows you will have to go with artificial light.  Full-spectrum fluorescent tubes are the most efficient light source for your garden.  A single four-foot fixture with two bulbs will be sufficient to grow plenty of herbs.  You can buy a rack for your garden or make a simple rack with a chain suspension mechanism for the light fixture from commonly available wood.

Once you have a light source and a rack for your garden you will need to decide what kind of soil system you are going to use.  The easiest is of course simple potting soil.  You can fill clay or plastic pots with clean potting soil, or use longer trays that will fit on your windowsill or light rack.  The important thing to remember is that your plants will need adequate drainage.  Herbs need a mixture of soil, water, and air in which to grow.  If you don’t have drainage holes in your pots the roots will rot and your herbs will be sickly.

Another choice for growing medium is hydroponics.  This is a bit more complicated than soil.  Your plants will be rooted in mineral wool inside plastic tubes, suspended in a tray of water-nutrient solution.  You will need a bucket and a pump to circulate the solution and this will not only add to the expense of your garden it will also add noise and a bit of clumsiness to your system not found with silent soil in pots.  Still, if you want to go scientific, it’s hard to beat a hydro system for productivity.  The herbs I have tasted that were grown hydroponically tended to have a funny taste to them, but this would depend on what kind of nutrient solution you use.

Once you have your pots and lights and rack or windowsill set up it is time to plant your herbs.  What kind of herbs should you plant?  This depends on what kinds of herbs you use.  It would be silly to plant something you never use, unless you just want to watch it grow.  Basil, oregano, parsley, chives, all these are common herbs used in the kitchen.  Herb seeds tend to be really small, so you should be careful when planting them that you do not drop too many seeds in your pots so that you don’t have to go back and thin them out too drastically.  Thinning is not necessarily a waste, as you can use the thinnings in your cooking, but pulling out one plant right next to another can damage the roots of the plant you are trying to grow.

After you plant your seeds, or set out the plants you might have bought from a garden center or grocery store, sit back and wait.  It takes time for plants to grow.  Pay attention to your garden and make sure it gets enough water, but don’t drown it by watering every day.  When your plants start to get tall and look like they can stand a cutting, cut them back and use the trimmings in your cooking.  If you keep your herbs cut they will grow short and stocky and not get too big for your windowsill or rack.  Outside, a single Basil plant can get almost three feet tall and  a yard across.  If your herbs show any sign of flowering cut the flowers back and use them in your kitchen.  When herbs flower they will lose vitality and will eventually die.  You can also tie herbs with string and hang them in a dry place to dry if you have too many of them.

An indoor herb garden can supply flavorful herbs for your cooking and makes a nice addition to your home decor.  With some patience and a little common sense you can grow all the herbs you need in the comfort of your own home.

GameFaqs has to be about the best site if you are looking for a walkthrough or cheat for almost any game on any platform.  This site is arranged by platform, alphabetically by game, and by genre and has about the best selection of game information for almost any game you can be looking for.

There are no annoying popups and the information is stored as text files for easy access by whatever browser you are using.  The one weakness of this site is in MMORPGs in that they don’t have a lot of specific information for multiplayer games.  Still, if you are trying to beat some level of an obscure PS1 game and need to know how to go about fighting this enemy, GameFaqs is the place to look.

If you have a favorite game and have beaten it enough times to write a walkthrough, you might want to submit it to this site so that other gamers can read your work.  If you just want to find out if there is anything more to any game you have played, like are there secret levels or hidden areas, check the FAQ here and find out.  It is also helpful if you are considering buying a certain game or are just interested in the story of some game you have heard about.

People have different taste in literature.  There are a lot of people who read only fiction, while others read only non-fiction.  Most people read a bit of everything, even if they only read online.  The thing about the Internet that makes it appeal to me is the endless variety of information and media available.  You may watch videos or listen to podcasts, but the bottom line with any online material is that things are arranged in a written format on some level.  Videos are described with words.  Graphics are stored with file names.  Even if all you do online is look at pictures, those pictures will be stored and organized with words.

But back to the question I was asking.  What do people enjoy reading?  I could just go look up the bestseller list in the NY Times again, but that would be pointless.  If you are reading this you probably enjoy reading blogs.  I like to read non-fiction.  I have books on business and art and science and all kinds of things as diverse as jet engines and wooden sailboats.  I collect books like some people collect empty beer cans.  If you feel like leaving a line or two on your preferences in reading material feel free to comment here.

It’s the end of March.  The cherry trees in Washington DC are blooming.  Yet, last night, four inches of snow fell.  This is ridiculous.  Every time we get a little warm weather it turns around and snows.  In case you can’t tell, this is my complaint about the weather.

I can recall some years where it was seventy degrees in January here in Michigan.  Sure, it got cold again.  As I remember, we even had some years where it was twenty below for weeks at a time.  The weather is variable.  Still, it should eventually warm up, right?

This last snowstorm was no big deal.  It’s almost all melted now.  Still, it’s supposed to be Spring.  There is more rain and snow on the way.  I feel sorry for all the people who are being flooded out this year.  Nobody should have to put up with twelve inches of rain.  No, it is not global warming causing the weather to be screwy.  The weather is just messed up because it is the weather.

We live on a water-cooled planet.  The water in the oceans provides a means by which the temperature of the planet is regulated.  If it gets too hot, more water evaporates from the sea.  More evaporation means more clouds.  More clouds cause more sunlight to be reflected back into space.  Less sunlight being absorbed means cooler temperatures.  Thus the temperature of the planet is stabilized.  All this evaporation and condensation makes a mess out of the surface of the planet.  Without the water cycle, however, plants could not grow.  No plants, no food.  No food, no life.  We have to put up with the lousy weather because it is the weather that keeps us alive.

I really shouldn’t be complaining about the weather.  I have a house to live in.  I have dry clothes and a roof over my head and four walls and a floor to keep the weather out.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t nice to go outside and soak up some of the heat from the sun that is causing all the evaporation and precipitation.  I’m just sick of winter and clouds and snow snow snow.

Over the years I have spent many hours playing different RPGs.  After a while they all seem to be the same.  You start out as a weak loser with no gold and no good gear, and you fight pathetic little monsters like slimes or kobolds until you get big and strong and rich.  Every piece of gear you get becomes worthless as you progress in levels, and the only thing about the game that keeps you interested is finding new areas or discovering new parts of the story that you could have found out by reading a walkthrough.  If there are puzzles or challenges in the game they are put there to slow you down and make you frustrated until you solve them and are so overjoyed with yourself that you managed to find the secret combination to some door that you feel some kind of joy or pride in yourself.  I think this is all nonsense.

Somebody should make a game where you don’t have to level up.  Somebody should make a game where there are so many areas to explore that you will never get to them all unless you play eight hours a day for ten years.  They need to make game gear have realistic properties.  If you get stabbed with a rusty iron dagger it does no less damage than getting stabbed with a shiny gold dagger of doom.  The wound is the same.  Maybe the shiny knife is flashier, but seriously, it is not going to do more damage than a rusty knife.  The rusty knife might even have a tetanus effect on it that does damage over time.

What is all this nonsense about repop?  You kill some skeleton and then immediately another appears out of thin air?  Yes, you need things for people to do.  Magically appearing monsters are ridiculous.  You should have to wander around vast areas of dark forests to find something to fight.  And you should not have hit points.  If you get wounded in the arm you might need to get treated at a doctor.  Games should be more realistic.  You should really consider the down side of getting into fights.  Maybe it would be better to stay in town and become an expert basket weaver.  Maybe you should join the army and get training and equipment, as well as buddies to help you fight the baddies.  There are reasons people don’t just go around fighting monsters in rural areas in the real world.  Aside from the fact that there are no monsters, a real monster would do a lot of damage to a person and then nobody would want to be the plucky adventurer fighting monsters all day for the gold they carry.

I have a lot of my own ideas for what I want to see in a role playing game.  A lot of elements are incorporated into games to try to make them appeal to more people.  I am of the opinion that you should not have to spend thousands of hours playing some game just to get to the point where you can go wherever you want and do what you want.  You should be able to do what you want from the beginning.  Yes, there should be challenges.  A person with a sword is not going to kill some huge dragon.  There would still be things you had to team up with people to do.  This would make for an interesting game.   The real world is a lot bigger than any game world I’ve ever played in.  I think in the future you will see worlds created by many people that can be explored without beating your head against the wall in some kind of evil level grind just so you can walk down the streets of some distant town without getting ripped apart by the high level rats they have in that area.

The tomatoes you buy in a store have almost no flavor and a texture that is much like styrofoam.  All it takes to get good tomatoes is a small patch of sunny ground and some time and effort.  If you want gourmet tomatoes for your salads and sauces, there is no better way to get them than to grow your own.

There are two ways to start tomato plants, from seeds or from sets.  The seed method is less expensive but takes longer.  To start tomatoes from seeds you will need planting cubes, trays or even just empty egg cartons and potting soil.  Plant your seeds in the planting medium and place them in a warm area and keep them watered.   Provide plenty of light so your plants are short and stocky and deep green.  If you buy sets, your plants will be ready to transplant as soon as you bring them home.  This is the simplest way to grow tomatoes.

Something should be said about the types of tomato plants you might want to grow.  If you like salads and snacking on sweet tomatoes try a cherry tomato variety.  Sweet 100s is a popular variety.  If you plan on making a lot of sauces get Roma or San Marzano tomatoes.  These are small oblong tomatoes that are very meaty and cook up well.  If you like sliced tomatoes or general purpose try Better Boy or Early Girl.  Then there are the beefsteak tomatoes.  These huge tomatoes can provide a meal in themselves and are juicy and delicious.  The seed packet or planting stake in the sets you buy will have a short description of the variety you are considering.  You can also get books on tomatoes or look them up online.  There are literally thousands of different varieties available.  There are also many old fashioned tomatoes that you can grow, which are generally labeled as heirloom varieties.

Once you get your tomato sets and all danger of frost is past it is time to work the soil.  If you have a small area you can just clear any sod, then dig over the soil to break it up and incorporate air for good root growth.  If you are planning on a bigger garden you might want to get a rototiller.  When you work the soil incorporate some 5-10-5 fertilizer.  You do not want too much nitrogen or your tomatoes will be very leafy and not have a lot of fruit.  This fertilizer is usually labeled as “garden fertilizer”  in stores.  If you want to grow organic use compost made from fallen leaves and grass clippings as fertilizer.   The important thing to remember is that tomatoes need full sun and will not do well in shade.

Dig holes for your plants and plant them deeply.  You will want to set a good portion of the stem underground.  This is how you plant tomatoes.  The stem will send out roots and you will get lush growth.  Firm the soil around the plants with your hands and make sure the leaves are not touching the ground.  Once you have all your tomatoes planted, water them in well and wait.

Controlling weeds will be your main problem in growing a garden.  Get a pad or a garden stool and sit or kneel and pull the weeds when they are small so they do not become a problem.  You can mulch your plants with clean straw if you want to try to control the weeds this way.  Mulch will also help conserve water and prevents erosion if you get heavy rains.

When your tomatoes start to get big and arch over to touch the ground it is time to stake them up or put them in cages.  You can buy wire tomato cages at the garden center, or cut stakes from two by fours.  Stakes tend to cost less but require more work.  Pound two stakes into the ground on opposite sides of your plant.  With cotton string, strips of cloth, or twine loosely tie the tomato stems so they are suspended above the ground.  If you use tomato cages you will just have to place the cage around the plant and train the plant to stay inside the cage.  Cages and stakes keep the plants and fruit off the ground.  A tomato that sits on the ground is likely to get blossom end rot or be tunneled into by crickets.   Stakes also allow the plants to grow larger and get more sun.

There are only a few pests that will attack your tomatoes.  Hornworm caterpillars are big and green and easy to pull off the plants by hand.  Groundhogs like to eat tomatoes both green and ripe.  Rabbits don’t seem to like tomatoes.  Keep an eye on your garden and you shouldn’t have too many problems.  If insect damage becomes a problem you can spray with a soap-based insecticide or make tea out of chewing tobacco and spray with that to control insects.  Insects don’t bother tomatoes that much because the leaves contain poisonous compounds.

It takes some effort to grow nice tomatoes, but your efforts will be rewarded the first time you taste how good a real tomato can be.  Even a small patch of tomatoes can produce a lot of fruit, so be prepared.

I spent the last couple hours starting to read “The Everything Blogging Book” by Aliza Sherman Risdahl.  This is a fairly interesting book.  The authour begins with a history of blogging and the internet, but does not belabor the details.  I like the conversational tone of the writing.  There is not so much information that the book gets boring.  There is a lot of useful observation on what you might find in any given blog.  One chapter was about what kinds of blogs are popular.

I found it interesting that some of the first web pages that were called blogs were really just long lists of links to web pages the author found interesting.  Maybe in future I will record some of my web surfing and post a list of URLs I visit.  There are many sites I have seen that are nothing more than long lists of website links, but I never thought of them as being blogs.  A blog is where you write out your warped opinions and rant about how unfair your personal life is.  Well, maybe not, but still, you have to have something interesting.

I’m glad I bought this book today.  Reading it has been an interesting diversion.  One thing that started to bug me about “The Everything Blogging Book” was the chapter on different popular blogs.  The author listed about a hundred URLs in this chapter, and finally I got so sick of reading computer gibberish I ended up skipping everything in italics, which made the reading a lot easier.  There was only one chapter like this though, so it wasn’t too annoying.

I don’t know if this book is going to help me write more interesting posts to my blog.  I don’t know if I will get many ideas to create an empire of knowledge.  I may never make a single penny off of advertising.  I will enjoy myself reading this information.  That’s why I buy books, I enjoy reading.  If I get some practical information that helps me improve my blog and find more viewers for the pages I create, then it’s worth the cost.  Besides, I could always sell the book for a profit when I’m done reading it, if I ever bother to start selling my things.

I got bored with sitting around the house this afternoon trying to think of something to write about.  I got my hat and coat on and took the truck out to Barnes and Nobles.  The store was not very crowded today, and I spent some time looking through the remainder racks before I headed back to the business and Internet section.

I was looking for a good book on blogging.  I have seen books on this subject before.  These books seemed kind of basic and useless compared to the information anyone can get online for free.  Still, I looked around.  Blogging books were squirreled away in several places.  I found one on the e-business rack, two more hidden in with small business, another couple in with web applications, and one or two in with personal computing.  I looked over all these books.  Apparently they were written for people who were completely clueless and did not know what a blog was.  I mean, I might not have a good idea what to write about in my blogs to attract attention, but I have been keeping a blog, or rather several of them, for years.

One of these books was $40 and included a lot of programming code for making your own blog application.  Why would I bother doing that if there are suitable apps available for free?  I’m not about to write a program to blog anything.  Another book was all about how to get different design elements into your blog.  Why bother?  I like my minimalist design.  I had to point and click twice to set that up.  One very slim book was about how to run a blog as a business.  Well, that was interesting, except three fourths of the book was explaining what a blog is, not how to use one to generate money.  There was one chapter that said basically sell advertising and affiliate products, when you make money incorporate.  I stood there and read all the info in that book in under a minute just flipping pages.

“The Everything Blogging Book” was very basic but it covered a lot of ground.  I liked the broad range of information.  The book is filled with words, not a lot of pictures and diagrams.  It cost $15.  I stood there reading the chapter headings in this book and then set it back on the shelf and went to look at writing books for a while.  There was also a book on how to use WordPress, but I thought to myself, “Isn’t all this in a help file somewhere?”

I wasted some time looking through books on how to write and about the writing business.  I almost yawned.  I’ve read so much about writing over the years that the whole concept bores me.  Writing is nothing more than typing up words that mean something.  Selling your writing involves finding a buyer.  I looked over all the books, then went back to the business section to see if I had missed anything.  I ended up buying the everything book.  It’s fairly basic, but there was a lot of different material in this book and the writing was interesting and to the point.

I think I will probably spend the rest of the afternoon reading.  I’m a bit worn out from writing too much in this blog.  I have 51 posts now or something ridiculous like that and have only been writing in this blog for a week and a half.  Maybe tomorrow I will find something interesting to say.  For now, I’m taking the afternoon off to do some research.  If I learn anything useful I may write about it.