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01-07-2020 I have plans for two more Case's Cases books. :D They center around a very powerful, very sinister demon named "Nogkusvokkanillunnochtusvok". It's a mouthful-- I know. I plan on writing plot summaries for both books (codenamed "40 Days; 40 Nights" and "2 x 2") at some point during the next couple of months. I'm still working out some of the details-- usually when I'm inspired by random, everyday things. Speaking of inspiration: I usually listen to music while I write (for inspiration). For example, I listened to a lot of 1349 and Opeth while I wrote Chasing Shadows. I was looking into a band called "Possessed", recently. Thought I might snag one of their albums before I start my next Case's Cases project (if you catch my drift). *This* song had me pretty excited about writing more Case's Cases: https:// I never *did* start Ghosts of Glory High (book two of Hailey's Follies). I wrote a plot summary for it April, 2019 (originally discussed in this Witty News article). And, I was hoping to make a dent in the project before the year ended. My goal now is to finish the first chapter before the end of January. And, this is totally doable! When I wrote Don't Go Upstairs (book two of Case's Cases), I wrote one chapter every week until the book was finished. Most of the chapters of my L.I.N. and Chuck shorts were written the same way. So, setting a goal of one month to finish a chapter is more than realistic. I haven't set a writing goal for myself in a long time. I've allowed myself to "wing it" on most projects since I wrote book three of Case's Cases. In my opinion, this is the reason I haven't finished much writing work since. I mean-- the timing is pretty convenient. xD The reason I haven't set any writing goals in a while is because I've been doing a lot of hacking. For example, I'm working on my own ANSI compliant environment (or "Ace" as I've taken to calling it). Right now, I'm trying to implement standardized C sockets. Part of the system I'm designing will be a microkernel (yuck un-crashable kernel). And so, I've been learning how kernels and (more importantly) kernel queues work. Most hackers refer to kernel queuing as "piping". But, I learned that piping really means storing a message in an array called a "queue". So now, I just call it "queuing" (which makes more sense). I've also spent a year or better tinkering with DC electronics and memory circuits in order to better understand how microprocessors work. Yeah-- that type of hacking. I also have plans to write my own NES cabinet(*) in 6502 assembly. It's the story of Lieutenant Ren: a young lady who escapes the clutches of a failing socialist society in the distant future. Lieutenant Ren explores a far away planet being colonized by half-crazed anarchists-- only to discover the colonists are not the psychotic apes her civilization's leaders claim they are. I plan on sneaking in some freaky alien drones(**) to present players with plenty of headaches along the way (as well as a few Metroid references, I'm sure). There are 6502 C compilers that can be used to write a NES cabinet. And, a lot of hackers would claim (incorrectly) that writing a NES cabinet in assembly is more difficult than writing one in C-- under the false pretense that the C programming language was designed as a way to make writing software easier. In actuality, the C programming language is an ANSI compliant standard that makes it possible to write programming code that is "portable" (meaning ANSI compliant code can be compiled using any system that has a C compiler). But, that doesn't make the process of writing software in the C programming language easier than writing it in assembly. In fact (in many ways), using a compiler language to write software is more difficult. This is because certain assumptions can't be made that are completely obvious when writing code for an assembler. A good reason to write code for a C compiler would be (for example): you want to compile the same code for any 68000, ARM, PDP, PowerPC, SPARC, VAX, or x86 system. I just want to write a NES cabinet. And, there are already NES emulators that are entirely portable. Therefore, there is no *good* reason to use the C programming language to write the game. The assembled product will be playable on any system that has an ANSI compliant C compiler. Also, I've always wanted to write something pretty complex in assembly. So, I've chosen to write the cabinet (codenamed "Lieutenant Ren's Space Adventure") entirely in 6502 assembly. (*) Most people call a NES cabinet stored on a hard disk a "ROM". But, a NES cabinet is a full computer system with data, disk space, memory, sound boards, and even co-processors. And sure, a ROM (which stands for "read only memory") chip can be part of that type of a system. But, it's not technically accurate to call an entire NES game a "ROM". Some people call a NES game a "cartridge" (or "cart" for short). But, I think the name "cartridge" is a pretty non-descriptive title for something that is (in reality) very technical. I chose the name "cabinet" because that's what manufacturers called arcade machines (and originally, full computer systems) before they were designed to swap in and out of home gaming systems. (**) Many "gamers" (as people call them) have taken the convention of referring to characters in video games that harm a protagonist character as "enemies". Boy-- I *hate* this label. I've also heard harmful characters referred to as "A.I.s". A.I. supposedly stands for "artificial intelligence"-- a mythical software suite that is totally plausible but has yet to be created (you can read an article I wrote about artificial intelligence and chatter bots here). That statement may seem confusing to people because narcissistic developers working for Google, Facebook, and Twitter all claim to have written A.I.s. But really, they are confused by ancient nomenclature used to label a type of program that is not truly intelligent. And, these developers will likely remain incapable of comprehending what intelligence actually is without first considering the article I wrote about it. So, I don't like referring to harmful characters as "A.I.s", either. Instead, I've taken the convention of referring to harmful video game characters as "drones" or "bots". |
| Random Fact: Insanely Witty Stupidity has its own ls command (implemented using PHP). It can be used to poke around Insanely Witty Stupidity's root folder. For more information, rtfm. |
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