Charles Capps:

I think I get it now.  I understand his code delusion.  He's a tinkerer that never grew out of it.

Back in the long-gone early era of The First Giant Desktop Search Tread, I was thinking that Swampy reminded me a lot of my younger, much dumber self. I had written a small tiny little program that let you make arbitrary kinds of records and store them in file. Clearly million times better than Cardfile or dBase! Open data formats! So, when someone in a Linux newsgroup wanted to hear what databases are available, I was offering my little production to them. Others offered real databases. Oh god how embarrassed I was when I learnt what real databases do.

That thing taught me a few things really well: It's perfectly okay for you to release your crappy little it-works-for-me-ship-it programs that helped you do your things - but it's entirely different thing to market it as best thing since sliced bread if it isn't that. It might also pay to do some research how things work in real world. =) In short, it's always nice to try not to disappoint people. Swampy is promising the moon and the heavens to everyone who uses SSDS; people are irate when they don't actually get them. Makes sense.

(I think I've mentioned how I've found inspiration and learned Everything You Need To Know About Software Engineering from the developer quotes of Ultima games (for example, a wise and appropriate quote to consider, from Ultima VIII: "We're not necessarily as brilliant as some of the things we've done might lead us to believe.") I believe one fact from the games themselves would be an interesting fact to consider here: Humility is a virtue that can only be understood through its corresponding Anti-Virtue, Pride.)

Sorry everyone, I think I'm the one who inadvertently gave Spectate teh idea that SSDS can find aliens.

Also, I believe that "Jam It" is swamp-speak for "compile" 

Eternal Density:

Also, I believe that "Jam It" is swamp-speak for "compile" 

No, I think he really means "jam it" in the musical sense, as in "improvise" or work by trial and error.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=257343#257343 

SpectateUnabomber:

My way of programming and testing is to jam it. See results as
it progresses and then change those displays to comments later.

rc_pinchey:

Ah, ok, let's see some pictures of the alien you've captured then. Do you keep it in a box or a jar?

First you find the aliens then you Share them.

SpectateSwamp:

There are a few more video where I captured the flyers engaging with birds, helicopters and a paraglider.

Again, I have to ask you: WAS IT YOUR CAMCORDER OR SSDS THAT "CAPTURED" THE "ALIEN" FOOTAGE?

If it was your camcorder, then why the f should we care about SSDS again?  Especially when you told another forum they could use VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE (NOT SSDS) to look at video artifacts (i.e. aliens).

SpectateSwamp:

First you find the aliens then you Share them.

Also, was it SSDS or archive.org that allowed you to SHARE THE "ALIEN" VIDEO?  If it was archive.org, WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT SSDS AGAIN?

The Crow at the top got checked out by the this flyer. I'll upload the video later.

SpectateSwamp:

rc_pinchey:

Ah, ok, let's see some pictures of the alien you've captured then. Do you keep it in a box or a jar?

I'm trying and trying to upload the latest scene from a "contact" video where the flyer overtakes a crow in flight and then zooms away.

No, not "flyers", aliens. You said you've captured an alien, so I want to see a sodding alien. Not a leaf, not a bug, not a piece of fluff, an actual genuine real-life alien. 

Actually, if I'm honest, I don't give a flying fuck about the videos of normal things happening in normal situations, all I really want to see is you cursing someone. Weren't you going to curse me so that I lost my keys?

Or if cursing is too dangerous (as it might destroy the world), how about a blessing? Could you do a blessing on us so that we could understand SSDS and see some aliens? 

rc_pinchey:

Or if cursing is too dangerous (as it might destroy the world), how about a blessing curse? Could you do a blessing curse on us so that we could understand SSDS and see some aliens?

Fixed that for you...

I don't think I ever want to be at that point where I have a complete revelation about how SSDS works and think that GOTOs are the greatest things in the world.

I remember the first month of my QBASIC class, I went ahead and started to learn how to do some stuff on my own... and discovered GOTOs.  I was so happy that I told my teacher... who immediately told me that he would fail me if I used them in my programs.  I didn't see the danger in using GOTOs for my own personal projects... so I did.  Through the rest of my course, I saw how much better my school programs were without GOTOs than my own personal programs and realized which was better. 

Swampy - 3-dimensional space: DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT?

Obviously not, so here's some diagrams to explain this last image of yours:

1. A top-down view of the scene. Red lines = camera's field of view. Blue = UFO's path. Green = Tracking line between camera and crow

Your UFO passes between you and the crow, but your utter lack of spatial awareness makes you believe the UFO "buzzed" the crow. Don't you know anything? Aliens are much more interested in cows than crows. That missing 'r' makes quite a difference in species. 

2. A side view of the same scene. Again, notice your "ufo" passing between you and the camera. Just cause it looks like two things touched on your screen doesn't mean they did in real life.

Pardon your bad-beard-day, I can't draw beards in Paintbrush very well. And no doubt you're not quite as anorexic as the diagram makes you out to be.

If you're standing on the street talking with a friend, and someone passes between the two of you, did either of you get hit? knocked out? buzzed? No. But it sure looks like it, because that person blocked your view of your friend. By your spatial rules, that means your friend got hit by an Unidentified Passer-By. UPBs are dangerous sorts, making friends appear and disappear.

So, class, what have we learned today? Let's review, shall we?

1. Cow is spelled C.O.W. Not C.R.O.W. If you have trouble differentiating, remember that cows go 'moo' and are tasty when grilled and placed between two pieces of bread. Crows don't, and aren't.
2. Aliens like COWS. They don't bother CROWS.
3. Three-dimensional action, when projected onto a 2-dimensional surface, can make things appear to touch when in reality they're miles apart
4. Swampy will ignore this totally, or reply with a non-sequitur about how someone could add 3D support to SSDS, because the hilite and line-wrap flowcharts are there.
5. Having yammered about 3d support in SSDS, he will submit SSDS to SIGGRAPH, but will get rejected because it's a vast conspiracy by the alien fliers to make Swampy look bad.
   

rc_pinchey:

SpectateSwamp:

But can they capture aliens. Can they? Swamp Search does.

 

Ah, ok, let's see some pictures of the alien you've captured then. Do you keep it in a box or a jar?

No no no, he keeps them in a plain text file in C:\search.

This scene is from 1 second earlier. The Flyer doesn't even take a direct route to the crow and closes in on it very fast. These specks are hard to see and requires really really looking. But I guess when you know everything there is to know. And are paid to have all the answers. Why look. Question: How fast is the Speck moving if the crow is doing 30mph. First you have to assume that they are very close at the 42:13 scene. Maybe the helicopter contact will be more clear. I haven't looked at that clip in years.

SpectateSwamp:

These specks are hard to see and requires really really looking.

I see a hundred specs just like the ones you circled. Its not an alien, its an imperfection in your digital camcorder.

There's no point to this discussion any more, it like an endless loop of madness.. Lets quit posting on this thread. If Spectate wants to continue, just let him, he's not here for help or to listen to anyone else.

The original video is small 5.2mb only 10 seconds of video. Clean your glasses PitchingSwamp. You'll see them. Thanks for looking.

http://www.archive.org/details/hi000243

I will dig up the other "Contact" videos where the Flyers interact with other moving objects.

SpectateSwamp:

..picture of speck going after helicopter..

pitchingchris:

There's no point to this discussion any more, it like an endless loop of madness.. Lets quit posting on this thread. If Spectate wants to continue, just let him, he's not here for help or to listen to anyone else.

Or YOU could stop if you want to, and let everyone else do whatever they want....

Clean your glasses SpectatePinchey! You'll see them. More of Lots. The Aliens Jam It here.

Also, stop being a twat. Reading your posts is like watching Wimbledon wearing a neckbrace and sandpaper contact lenses. I want a video of you either cursing or blessing one or all of us, and I won't be happy 'til I get it. 

SpectateSwamp:

The original video is small 5.2mb only 10 seconds of video. Clean your glasses PitchingSwamp. You'll see them. Thanks for looking.

http://www.archive.org/details/hi000243

I will dig up the other "Contact" videos where the Flyers interact with other moving objects.

rc_pinchey:

(...img...)

Clean your glasses SpectatePinchey! You'll see them. More of Lots. The Aliens Jam It here.

You missed some...

 -----

This thread is amazing. From crappy software, via holey stones, to 1-pixel Ufo's. What will be next, and do we really want to know?

ArieLex:

rc_pinchey:

(...img...)

Clean your glasses SpectatePinchey! You'll see them. More of Lots. The Aliens Jam It here.

 

You missed some...

 -----

This thread is amazing. From crappy software, via holey stones, to 1-pixel Ufo's. What will be next, and do we really want to know?

 

Well, in the old thread... he did mention Big Foot.  I hope he meant the monster truck... 

WeatherGod:

Back in my undergraduate days, there was this woman who kept calling our university's weather center complaining that we were somehow changing the sunset and sunrise time.  "I am on to you", she would say.  Of course, students answering her calls would ask if there were any mountains or tall hills nearby and she affirmed that she lived in a valley.  Students then went on to explain that the sunset and sunrise times in the almanac were for a level horizon and wouldn't be perfectly correct when there are mountains nearby.  Even after being told that several times, she still claimed that the university was doing something to mess up her sunrise and sunsets.

Haven't made it through the entire thread yet, but I have to comment on this.

I think the best part is that she has the time to care exactly when the sun rises and sets, and then the balls to complain about it when it doesn't match up.  What does she need the sunrise time for that's that important?

belgariontheking:

What does she need the sunrise time for that's that important?

Holey stone dancing rituals?

MommySwamp!