4D Minecraft?

So there is a 4d platform game that I have been waiting for forever:

http://miegakure.com/



Its taken so long that I've considered making my own.  In fact, I've already wanted to try my hand had a voxel based game like minecraft.  What if I made 4d minecraft?

I would think that no matter what, for convenience you want the y dimension fixed because of gravity (it would suck if x,z,w was being renderer and everything is mysteriously changing as you fall).  Then, either you switch between x,z and z,w and x,w OR you show x,z and use w as some kind of weird dimensional shift.  Either way it would be pretty sweet.

Also, obviously, it would use JRuby for a mod interface so the stupid fucking mods can be loaded at run time, from like a gallery or whatever.

Losing Steerage

Tonight I finally told my business partner that so long as I have a full time job, I don't have the time to do a good job with this startup.  It felt incredibly good to say it, and I'm not sure I realized how frustrated I've been until I said it.  I don't like not doing a good job.  I hate it.

Unfortunately, people who can do what I do and are willing to do it for so little don't grow on trees.  She may meet another business partner.  Until or unless that happens, I'm going to keep working on this.  There is a chance we could get some serious capital from investors, and then just pay one of those stupid app development companies, or hire a real, competent, employee coder for a competitive wage.  As little time as I have, I'll always have time to look at code reviews and boss someone around.

I feel a little guilty;  she really really really really wants this business to work.  She believes in her idea 100% and the only thing holding it back, ostensibly, is my inability to do two full time jobs at once.  Though I empathize with her dream, I really should have had this conversation much earlier...probably about 4 months ago.  Idk.  At that time we were in the middle of waiting for one of the bottom feeder craigslist programmers to fix a bug.   Whatever.  Best time to plant a tree and all that.

There is a chance I will quit my day job (or best case scenario: get fired with severance).  Its a rather small chance though.

So the groundwork has been laid for me to part ways with this startup without sinking it.

Ironically, if my business partner did find a coder-partner to replace me, I would be tempted to do even more work, because I would want to re-write about 70% of the code and delete the source control history before another human being sees what I've done in there.

The best option, really, is that she should just learn how to fucking code, and code it herself.  There is some folk wisdom out there about how its best if the programmer uses his own software, and recently I've become more and more convinced there is truth in that conjecture.  I've been hearing a lot about these new website specifically aimed at helping women learn to program.  The problem is, everybody treats programming like some kind of mystical art that can be performed only by smart or elite people.  If only the general public knew how stupid programmers can really be.

[coding] Making Websites

I've probably already gone on about how I hate making website, and what I think of the right-brained lunatics who do this for a living.  But now I have to do it, so its time to step up.  Naturally, I'd like to start by going over all of the existing web technologies:

• Java applet:  no
• flash:  gay
• silverlight:  fuck no, and fuck microsoft, and fuck netflix for using it
• php:  I hope not
• perl: over my dead body
• python:  lovely little language, but I just can't stomach semantic whitespace
• .NET (VB or C#) - no, microsoft tech still sucks. There are rumors of them supporting linux for real soon, but I can't imagine a company who is not microsoft actually using this bullshit

So..I guess its going to be Javascript[jquery?]/Html5/CSS on the frontend and either ruby or java on the backend.  Maybe this is why I procrastinate so much;  java containers are super expensive (and suck, in the case of Heroku) and ruby typically means ruby on rails which means code generation, which is a poor design.  However, if I limit the backend to just providing APIs that the javascript app calls, then we might be ok.

[coding] Rated Able

I've been thinking about the kind of work I need to do for startups, and it would seem I've allowed myself to become a bit too specialized.  For one thing, the only language I have expert knowledge in any more is Java.  In addition, the only types of software I am accustomed to working on are backend services and android apps.  I would of course prefer to specialize in one thing and be very good at it, but that really only works in a large company.  In start up mode, you need to do a lot.  Perhaps not necessarily everything, but a lot.

Here are the basic skills I need to re-learn:

1. create a JSON-based backend service (quickly)

2. create a dynamic web interface (web 2.0, web app, javascript bullshit, whatever)

3. create an android app



In theory, I should be great at #1 however at these large companies I've almost always worked on existing services using shitty frameworks.  In my entire career I have only create a new service once.  It was fun though.  I need to learn how to spin up a new one quickly, maybe have a skeleton sitting out.  When it comes to the choice of language/framework though, I'm a bit at a loss.  I typically don't have my own hardware (and don't want to pay for the virtual servers) for typical enterprise frameworks, and all of the cheap p.o.s. web hosting that most small website run on only runs crap like php.  At my current provider I can't even do ruby without converting the whole website or something.

For #2, we might as well just assume I have to start from scratch.

I can already do #3, however most of my experience is actually owning a library, and not releasing many apps.  So we'll have to work on that as well.

Achievement Unlocked: Brooklyn Bar

I have found my home bar in Brooklyn.  Its a lovely place, only a short 40 minute walk from my apartment.  They don't serve Captain, so I guess I'll survive on whiskey.

Drinking alone is still...meh.  In addition to attending things that Colleen invites me to, drinking alone seems to be the one other thing I'm supposed to do in order to meet people in a new city.  And, other people are probably great at it.  Maybe everyone else on the planet was born with this social gene that makes it really easy to make friends in bars.  Me, I show up in a bar, and there's like 3 people there.  Like in the entire building.  Including the cook.  Sometimes one of them might want to talk to me, a little.  I don't know.  I'm tempted to read but I've been told not to do that.  The apex of my socialization is often a short chat with the bartender about whether the Gimlet I ordered is going to be more of a Gin or more of a Vodka kind of situation.  And then that's pretty much it.  I stumble home a few hours later, sleepy, $80 poorer and wake up to a terrible hangover the next day.

So, next goal:  find a home bar in Manhattan, so that I can start drinking before I even get on the train.  I mean I also need to ramp up salsa dancing more, start going to a martial arts class (preferably a flavor of karate that is effective against cops), and maybe start climbing again.  Oh shit, and something about volleyball.  We can call those stretch goals though.  I should also probably take up Colleen on one of her invitations, but so far I have misunderstood or forgotten every one of them, so her patience is probably gone where I'm concerned.  I'm pretty sure she's only trying to hang out because she doesn't remember how annoying she thinks I am.

p.s. I was exaggerating earlier.  There's usually like 5 people in the bar, not 3.

Inconvenient Truths

Alright.  Brooklyn--or at least the part of Brooklyn where I live--sucks.  The bars anywhere near my apartment all close before midnight.  If I walk really far, I can go to a real bar, however most of those are cash only.  While I empathize with people who evade taxes and/or need to launder money because they have taken up the noble profession of selling drugs, I also expect to pay for my fucking drinks with a fucking credit card, you fucking losers.

However, I've already signed the lease, so what's done is done.  I can move out of this bullshit next September.  I have found a somewhat..."local" bar...it only takes me 30 minutes to walk there.  They are open after midnight and they take credit cards,

For the record, this is what it takes to be a decent bar:

• does not close before midnight
• takes credit cards
• does not use the word "artisinal"
• drinks cost less than $10
• is near me

Yeah, that's pretty much it.  I would add "stocks Captain Morgan" but bars that claim to be cocktail bars seem to have an aversion to stocking it.  Which is retarded.  I've tasted high class, top shelf rum, and its still not as good as Captain.