Silicon Soapware #210

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                            SILICON SOAPWARE 
       wafting your way along the slipstreams of the Info Highway
                        from Bubbles = Tom Digby
                           = bubbles@well.com 

                      http://www.well.com/~bubbles/

                               Issue #210
                      New Moon of January 22, 2012


Contents copyright 2012 by Thomas G. Digby, with a liberal definition of 
"fair use".  In other words, feel free to quote excerpts elsewhere (with 
proper attribution), post the entire zine (verbatim, including this 
notice) on other boards that don't charge specifically for reading the 
zine, link my Web page, and so on, but if something from here forms a 
substantial part of something you make money from, it's only fair that I 
get a cut of the profits.

Silicon Soapware is available via email with or without reader feedback.  
Details of how to sign up are at the end.


                          *********************

This is, in a sense, the darkest time of the year.  While it's true that 
the days are a little longer than they were a month or so ago, the 
emphasis back then was as much on festive artificial lights as on the 
short days and long nights.

The festive lights had been building even as the days darkened, so we 
could ignore the gathering gloom.  Now the lights are gone, so we see 
the face of the darkness with nothing to hide it.

Yes, there are more holidays.  We recently had Martin Luther King Day, 
with Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day coming up.  But these, unlike 
Yuletide, are not occasions we celebrate by lighting up the night.

But even as the world appears to be at its darkest, there's one 
consolation: The darkness is waning, or at least starting to.  The 
season of light will return.


                          *********************

I've been working on a story idea involving characters who get in 
trouble exploring the abandoned ruins of a wizard's castle.  This led to 
thoughts of whether there should have been warning signs posted, and if 
so, what they might look like.

My first thought was of something analogous to the "fire diamond" often 
seen on buildings in the US (see "NFPA 704" in Wikipedia and in your 
favorite search engine).  This is a diamond (tilted square) subdivided 
into four differently colored quarters, each containing a number or 
symbol indicating the degree of some particular type of hazard.

One possibility might be something like a pentagram to indicate magic, 
oriented point down to look sinister because it's a hazard warning.  
Each point would indicate the degree of a particular type of hazard.

Since there isn't room inside a point on a pentagram to put a number in 
any reasonable font size, we might want to go with an analog scale.  The 
degree to which a given point is filled in with its color could indicate 
the degree of that particular hazard.  Although this may not lend itself 
to the kind of precise language favored by those used to dealing with 
non-magical hazards, it may still serve to convey the general idea of 
the degree to which you need to be concerned.

The center might contain an additional symbol if needed.

So what kinds of magical hazards might emergency responders need to be 
on the lookout for?  Here's a preliminary list:

Physical forces held in check by magic: If you break the spell the 
seemingly petrified lion comes back to life, heavy stuff floating in the 
air just below the ceiling comes crashing down, and so on.  So don't be 
too quick to throw Dispel Magic, even if that would otherwise be the 
first thing you would do.

Illusions or clouded judgment: Decisions made by those in the midst of 
the action are likely to be wrong, and should be monitored remotely.  
You may not want to have people going in at all, but rather some sort of 
remote-controlled robot or something.

Intelligent direction: You may not be just cleaning up a mess.  
Something may be actively plotting against you.  This may require a 
different way of thinking to deal with successfully.

Contamination: Some residual magical forces or entities may be clinging 
to you or your equipment, and may need to be cleaned off before you 
leave the area.

You may think of others.  I don't claim to have the final list.  Also, I 
haven't yet decided which kinds of hazard would get what colors, or 
which ones go on which points of the pentagram (if that's what we end up 
with).

Also, we may want a general Magical Hazard symbol, analogous to the 
familiar symbols for Biohazard or Radiation.

I would expect this to be administered by some sort of Wizard's 
Association or Academy of Magic or the like, depending on the universe.

Has much of anything been done along these lines?


                          *********************

I've now and then heard statisticians talking about "error bars".  Is an 
error bar a place where they always get your drink order wrong?


                          *********************

I've now and then wondered if some sort of hybrid propulsion system 
might work for ocean-going ships.  Instead of sails, there would be wind 
turbines powering propellers.  This would provide the ability to go any 
direction relative to the wind, including directly against it.

It might be supplemented with solar cells, which could be especially 
useful when the winds are too calm for sailing.  There could also be 
steam or diesel power in reserve for when neither the wind nor the sun 
is available.

Wind turbines might not fit well where you have stacks of cargo 
containers all over the deck, but even there it might be possible to use 
solar cells if they're designed to fit on top of the containers and are 
easy to remove and replace.

Has this been studied lately?


                          *********************

Have you ever wondered about the apparent lack of an adverbial form of 
the word "silly"?  We may say that someone is speaking seriously when 
that seems to be the case, but we don't say that they are speaking 
sillily.  That would seem to be the logical form of such a word if such 
a word existed.  But does it?

A quick Web search indicates that it does, or that at least some online 
dictionaries believe that it does.  This spelling checker, on the other 
hand, seem not to share that belief.

Could the problem be that the word "sillily" just sort of sounds kind of 
silly, so that people who wish to be taken seriously are hesitant to use 
it?


                          *********************

Copyright laws have been in the news again recently.

Someone on the WELL has noted that as technology has made it easier for 
ordinary people to share music, the music industry has tried to get new 
laws passed to prevent it.  While the industry may be mostly concerned 
with people copying recordings instead of buying them on the "official" 
market, such laws also would make it harder to individual composers and 
performers to share their own creations.

I'm sort of seeing this as another case of the 1% fighting to keep the 
99% down as technology starts to liberate them.

In this context the 99% ranges from those who create and perform for 
love, through those who supplement their day jobs, possibly up through 
those who make a modest but comfortable living from their art.
 
The 1% is the megasuperstars and the big studios.

We probably do not want to eliminate that top one percent, if only 
because many of us have dreams of someday joining their ranks.  And 
there are things, such as feature-length movies full of special effects 
that look good on a theater-size screen, that only they can do, at least 
with current technology.  But I do feel they're going too far in their 
attempts to control things.

So maybe it's time to organize Occupy Prime Time or Occupy the Stage (or 
whatever better name someone can come up with)?


                          *********************

Another topic of debate was whether famous artists of centuries past get 
too much solo credit for their works, since they were usually assisted 
by apprentices who ground pigments, prepared the blank canvas, and so 
on.  Nowadays artists don't need such assistance.  They can just go to 
the store and buy paint.

But that doesn't really mean they're doing it all themselves.  Other 
people (and/or machines) are still doing the grinding and mixing.  
They're just hidden away in distant factories where you don't see them.

I've also heard that in medieval times a master artist's apprentices 
might do some of the actual painting, mainly backgrounds and details 
that may not have been the focus of attention but still needed to be 
filled in.  Similar practices supposedly were common in sculpture.

But again, what of present-day artists who use computer-generated 
textures in their drawings, computer-aided machining from CAD files for 
sculpture, and so on?  Is the artist still the main creator of the work?

In other words, does whether an artist's assistants are flesh and blood 
or mechanical make a difference in who should get credit?


                          *********************

I've noticed that when I'm working on creating something, even if it's 
something I just feel like working on as opposed to having a "real 
reason", I feel better overall than when I'm just sort of lazing around.  
That reminds me of this:



                                 Problems


My friend had been sort of wilting lately, 
Turning pale and faded and a little blurry around the edges. 
Regular doctors saw nothing in particular wrong,
So I took him to the local guru.  

"Needs problems," said the guru with only a quick glance. 

"Of course he has problems," I replied,
"That's why I brought him to you."  

"I didn't say he HAS problems.  I said he NEEDS problems. 
His problem is that he doesn't have problems, 
And not having problems can be a very serious problem." 

"Huh?" say I, and he explains again. 

After a few more rounds it sinks in:  
Man is a problem-solving creature,  
Evolved, or created, or whatever, to solve problems,
And a problem-solver without problems is nothing.  
Some instinctively know this, 
As sales of puzzles show.  
But others need to have problems thrust upon them.  

"You mean I should let the air out of his tires, 
Hide his morning paper in the bushes, 
Or invent foolish errands for him to run? 
Or should I get more serious, 
Hinting of rumors of downsizing at work, 
And asking his landlord to make noises about eviction?" 

"Professional opinions among gurus differ, 
But even if threatening problems are better than none at all,  
I'd try happy problems first."  

Happy problems? 
Those are the ones we face gladly,
Like a painter needing to choose colors for a sunset 
Because she chose to try to capture it on canvas.  
Or being out on the lake in a boat with your fishing pole, 
Wondering exactly where they'll be biting
And how to sneak up on them without scaring them off.  

Some, like scientists, get paid to solve happy problems. 
Others must seek problems elsewhere. 
But they're easy to find.  

Was there something my friend could do to help his other friends?
Some way he could contribute to making a better world? 
Or even something as trivial 
As suggesting a closing line for this poem? 

The prognosis looks quite good. 

                                   -- Thomas G. Digby
                                   written  19:00  03/15/1995



                          *********************

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