Firefox spelling

I've had Firefox's immediate spelling checker on for a week, and been wondering why that seems handy whereas Word's aggravates me. I think it may be:

* It's a really little thing, but in Firefox errors are marked with a thin dotted red line, that somehow seem to say "Hey, you might want to take a look at this." Whereas Word's are a gigantic red wavy line that somehow seem to say "Hey! Notice me! Fix me before typing the rest of the sentence or trying to read over the grammar of what you've typed!" The first fits me a lot better.

(It's like grammar checkers. If the user interface was crafted to say "Whoop! 75% chance of error, just check it over," it'd work a lot better than looking like "ERROR!" which just raises everyone's blood pressure every time they're not perfect. It's part of my philosophy to say what you mean. If you have a program which spots errors with a 75% rate, and it says so, great, if it pretends 100% I hate it.)

* I'm pre-biased against Office programs and towards Firefox.

* When typing in Word I always assume I'll check it for spelling later before I show anyone (which I can then fail to do) but it feels as if spending much effort on it now when I might likely rewrite is a pain. But in a web browser I'm always going to commit it almost immediately, so time spent checking is always worth it.

* I have habits inoculated from when I first used a Wordprocessor, when I didn't want to fiddle with the dictionary in case I tainted it much, and so often left out one-use words and things. Since I installed a dictionary in 3.5 seconds here, I don't care.

Hmmm. I do quite a bit of typing here. Maybe it will actually help me get it right? :) All that's missing is some regexps being added to the dictionary, eg. "Hmmmm of any length" or "[word]'s" or "[word]s" (OK, not always right, but more often than not).

Rainbow Cicada FAQ

Q. Shouldn't you incorporate these things into the story, instead of blogging about them?
A. Yes. But I don't know if I'll ever have a chance, so I'll record thoughts in one place where I can refer to them later, and maybe inform future writing. And then I might as well let other people see it.

Q. I don't understand the "RBOWCICADA" thing.
A. He displayed a clock showing elapsed time (in ticks, the smallest possible unit -- think instruction cycles or picoseconds, but left deliberately vague). He changed the display from base ten digits to wingding digits to base 26 ascii.

Q. And he'd arranged this channel of information beforehand?
A. No. He'd seen a similar trick somewhere else, and because the bomb was so accurate realised it could work here.

Q. Why Rainbow?
A. Because the picture had different coloured bands in, and because it sounded cool.

Q. Why Cicada?
A. Insects always sound cool. Also because Cicadas hibernate underground and then come up on schedule[1].

Q. What's with the image?
A. From Magic the Gathering, images unused on any cards as yet. Several of them just seemed nice, and crying out for a story. Restrictions breed creativity, so writing about something, however remotely, is good. I could have just left out the reference, but thought people might be interested.

Q. How much of the ideas are standard scifi and how much is yours?
A. A virtual world is a standard theme. Nothing that goes that far quite comes to mind, though. Egan plays with consciousness is probably what set me off.
A. Actually, can anyone think? Are there stories where the people are entirely virtual, instead of being brains in vats or copies of organic brains? Stories where a virtual world is the premise instead of the big reveal, and spend time examining what it would be like? Or, for that matter, any stories about aliens without humans?

Q. What *would* it be like?
A. Obviously many jobs would disappear. Entertainment would be big. Many hackers would be resolving problems and writing updated software. You are free to play with your own consciousness -- back yourself up, copy yourself, run several avatars at once, run at varying speeds. A basic trick is to have a pared down version vetting mail, lasting for a few seconds at a time, highlighting mail according to what the main personality wants to see. The main personality has legal protection. Sub-personalities achieving autonomy may petition for recognition.

Q. Is this set in the future? How did we become programs?
A. Not really. People being programs in a virtual world is just the way it is. Addressing that issue raises a whole host of questions like "would we?" so I decide to just concentrate on where we are.

Q. I liked this story, but wish it wasn't scifi. What else have you written?
A. Maurice Saldini, Gothique Investigature. Comic vampire detective story, Fairly long. One of my earliest and one of my best. http://semichrome.net/~jack/fic/saldini-24.html

A. How Fire Became. Very short. Pseudo-children's-story, similar to Ted Hughes and Rudyard Kipling's creation stories. A little funny. http://community.livejournal.com/camwriters/4563.html#cutid1

A. Graveyard Shift. Pratchett fanfic. Completely comic fantasy. Obviously best if you've read Pratchett, but some people said it was still understandable anyway. http://semichrome.net/~jack/fic/graveyardshift_3wm_a.html

[1] Rich: Factoid: Some Cicadas have long periods of hibernation -- prime numbers of years. Reputedly because any predator with a smaller cycle will rarely intersect.

LARP Banquet

Thanks to Rosy for making a great cloak (pictures... somewhere). Squee. Hugs. It's sky-blue with a silver lining, and with a frilled shirt looks absolutely gorgeous. Why can't I enjoy normal clothes that much?

And is insanely good when ceilidhing, it adds expression to every movement, and swirls, and envelops people, and keeps you warm. Except I don't need to be kept warm in a ceilidh :)

The banquet was fun -- alternating interesting food with dancing, is about the best combination I can imagine. And I met some new nice people. The only problem was lots of people dashed out to the LARP before without eating properly, so were starving in anticipation by the time the starter was coming out.

LARP was fun. Orcs nearly -- but not quite -- overran the city. I need to practice being competent and safe with weapons, but it was fun, and I had a few great moments, hopping over to finish good guys off :)

Quick update

Nov 21 Tue. Prestige with Dragonwoodshed. Was going to CTS but ended up having an evening in.
Nov 22 Wed. Fitzwilliam Museum.
Nov 23 Thu. Lunch with Sonic and Ninewells.

Also, I cycled back along the ring-road. There was a cycle path wider than a cycle, with nothing parked on it, and a wind not opposing me, and a mile long traffic snarl through lots of roundabouts, so I could cycle the entire thing in highest gear without stopping. That was wonderful -- I forget that in theory all cycling could be like that, instead of always being attacked by cars.

Nov 24 Fri. Afternoon DVDs with uisgabeatha. Evening drinking beer and having guy talk with Tim and Justin.
Nov 25 Sat. Tolkien Foreyule Feast!

Yay, this was very pretty. I was going to wear my santa costume -- I wish I'd had my cloak and shirt -- but felt it was too hot. Everything went without a hitch, the food was good, the people were nice. And afterwards Eni and I sat up chatting and drinking tea.

Nov 26 Sun. Met Liz for food at Yippee's, and then for food at Dojo's (whoops :)), and went to CUSFS games.

Munchkin was not approved :) We played a round of Zendo -- apparently my rules are too mathmo :) Then Star Base Jeff, which is simple and fun. And then I fenced MHF for ages, and watched the denouement of Vinci (as in, Vini Vidi, not as in Leonardo de) which was a rather good territory conquering game.

Nov 27 Mon. Casino Royal.
Nov 28 Tue. Tolkien Grammar and Pronunciation Pedantry Evening. Pippa came[1], squee. And we read funny and serious things.
Nov 29 Wed. A Date Why-are-all-the-nice-ones-taken with MCG.
Nov 30 Thu. CUSFS games evening -- lots and lots of Munchkin. These guys are hilarious :) I can't quite rid myself of the feeling that Star Munchkin[2]
Dec 1 Fri. S&M party. Thank you both, enjoy Coventry! It was fun, with lots of nice people, and alcohol, and chats. I wore my shirt, with mixed reactions :)
Dec 2 Sat. Aforementioned Banquet.
Dec 3 Sun. Lots of sleep, if I recall correctly.
Dec 4 Mon. Skipped Bridge and Pizza for a night in writing fic.
Dec 5 Tue. Ditto.
Dec 6 Wed. Yesterday. A productive day at work. (Don't worry, it's not the *only* one.)

OK, that's all. My life pinned butterfly-like to a board. I have lots of feelings too, but I might post them privately :)

[1] Oo-er.
[2] Dan: "It's Munchkin. In SPAAAACE"[3]. Me: Yes, that's what it says on the box. Trust me, SILLY.
[3] I also need "SPA+CE" in my dictionary :)

Jack's happy post

OK, this is a bit of a cop-out. I'm happy... but I don't know why.

Google-fu

About five years ago I had the idea that there should be an online shop where you can design a Christmas card and it will mail-merge, print out, and post to addresses you designated them. Now, I was sure this service existence, but not whence.

What is the key Google term to find a service? There seems to be no good name for it, different companies have their own proprietary ones, and no-one seems to think posting for you is a killer feature, so every single site says "customise your personal Christmas card" and whether this means "we'll post it for you" or "upload a PDF" or "upload photos to go in boxes" or "type in a sentence to be printed inside" or "choose the image from our library of three" is buried in an advanced options pricing page somewhere inside.

The answer? Search for "printing invitations". Last top ad.