Drop Kick

Sitting in the mission briefing he felt violently angry.  That’s right – not just upset, but murderously, viciously, inhumanely aggravated.

It had been a combat experiment.  His lack of impulse control had been amplified.  It was thought that this would make him a better combat soldier.  He would be a machine, not having to think – his reflexes would take over.  He would shoot to kill before anyone could touch him.

Now he was in the briefing, being told about the mission plan and he was just getting hotter.  He felt like he was going to explode.  They were proud of him.  They didn’t know what was going to happen.  According to their plan he would be briefed, he would go behind enemy lines and do some real damage.  Yeah, he was going to teach the enemy a lesson they would never forget.

They had planned on making more of him too.  It was all about brain manipulation.  They would suppress certain emotions in the next batch.  They would turn off fear and amplify anger.  They would create battle ready machines.  It was a much better idea than robots.  Robots were still basically dumb.  There was no AI and there might not be for a long time.  Things hadn’t progressed as well as the computer nerds had thought.

But this – whoa what a plan.

He sat there trying to read the screen.  Someone was sitting in the row in front of him with their huge egg head in his way.  He could see the part in the abnormally straight hair on that goddam head.  It was so stupidly perfect.  The head kept bobbing in front of him, turning in the same direction that he was trying navigate to see the goddam mission plan on the goddam board.

That godawful ugly part ridden big huge head.  Why couldn’t the guy have sat somewhere else?  Why would he pick such a stupid spot right in front, blocking the goddam view?  There were spare seats on the other side.  Hell, there were spare seat everywhere but this clown had to sit right in front of him.

He couldn’t take it anymore.  He got up from his seat and began to walk back towards the entrance to the room.

“What are you doing soldier?” the sergeant called out at him.  The officer motioned toward the sergeant to let it go.  “He’s special, ” the officer whispered, “Don’t worry about him.  We want to see his reaction.”

“Yes sir, ” the sergeant responded unevenly.  It was to no avail anyway.  The strange soldier had already left the room.

The mission briefing continued.  The officer hoped that the soldier would be back soon.  He was an experiment but he needed to know what to do.  No matter.  He could always brief the soldier again later.  It was an important scientific experiment.  They had to let him do what he wanted and just observe him for the time being.  They could always abort anyway and save it for another day.

The officer was relieved as the soldier walked briskly back into the room.  The officer wasn’t relaxed for long.  Suddenly there was roaring sound as the soldier quickly approached the man who had been sitting in front of him.

The tall man with the parted hair didn’t get to say much.  The soldier lifted the chainsaw above his shoulders and sliced the man’s head off in a single stroke.

“Get out of my goddam way you bean-headed, part ridden slime.  I can”t see!  Get it!” the soldier was shouting.  The man’s torso collapsed in the chair.  His head rolled towards the front of the room.  Everyone was aghast.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

SophistimaCalc programmable calculator iphone/ipod touch version 1.6

UPDATE: It’s available and the manual is up to date.  Kudos to Apple for the quick turnaround!

A new version of SophistimaCalc with a new polished look is with Apple for review as we speak.  Here’s a preview:

New to this version:
- calculates standard deviation: stddev <no of elements> a,b,c,d etc
For example mem x=stddev 4 1,4,4,5
- calculates standard normal cumulative distribution: ndst(x)
- calculates inverse standard normal cumulative distribution: ndinv(x)
- declare and use two dimensional tables (arrays).  For example Table mytab(5,5) mem mtab(1,1)=5
- interface face-lift
- CT command for comments (similar to ‘rem’ in basic).  End with a ‘*’.  For example:
CT this is a comment *
- more detailed error reporting
- various bug fixes and enhancements

SophistimaCalc’s BASIC-like programming language has become even more powerful and flexible.

Many thanks to Doug and Jim for their ideas and bug reports.

The manual will be updated soon.

Dreams of a would-be scifi writer

Is it weird if you have a dream in which:

- yourself and Yoda are trying to escape a deadly shopping centre in which a female shop assistant won’t sell you a cupcake;

- the only way out is in a lift that just won’t stop at the level you want it to because your swipe key isn’t working;

- you then forget which level you parked the ‘escape’ vehicle on;

- your old school friend accompanying you is carrying your family’s laundry and it’s important that you don’t leave it behind?

SophistimaCalc 1.5 is out

For those who haven’t yet updated, kudos to Apple for approving version 1.5 very quickly (ie on 17th December).  The manual has also been updated.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Feature requests are always welcome.

SophistimaCalc programmable calculator update coming soon (for ipod/iphone)

Version 1.5 – This one’s with Apple as we speak folks.  Hopefully it will be approved soon.  Here’s a taste of what’s to come:

- New command: ‘call’ (Thanks Jim).  This allows programs to be split into a number of saved files.  From the current program, you can call the algorithm from the saved program.  Once the saved program finishes its calculations, you will be returned to the next command in the current program.  Memory variables from the current program or any called program can be manipulated within any of the called programs and are global so that they will be updated and returned to the current program.  Examples will appear in the manual soon.

- New command: ‘table’ (Thanks again to Jim!).  Allows programs to declare a table of values (also known as an ‘array’).  Simply declare the table, for example, table myvar(10).  You can then manipulate each element as a separate memory variable.  There are 100 memories and 100 elements to each array, so this increases the number of memories in Sophistimacalc to a maximum of 10,000 memories!  Which other calculator can do that?

- Input window can now be toggled between normal view and full screen mode for easier programming (using ’shift’+'abs’ and ‘Normal View” button to toggle)

Feel free to tell me what you want in SophistimaCalc and I’ll try to make it happen.

NB apologies to Ramon – I didn’t change the default keyboard layout for this version because I want to keep SophistimaCalc available for the time being for OS 2.2.1 and not only for OS 3.0+

Wee Basic windows editor mark II

Well, I’ve created a new windows editor for Wee Basic that (thankfully!) doesn’t try to emulate the DS. Instead, the editor comes packaged with:

- FCSR; and
- No$GBA

These are not my programs so if anyone has a problem with me packaging them I’ll remove them.

All you have to do is:

- change the extension of the file from ppt to zip
- unpack into a folder (make sure all of the files are in the SAME folder)
- double click Wee Basic.exe (don’t click on other files – the editor handles all the dirty work for you)
- type in your program and run it from the file->run menu

Running the program launches FCSR and then No$GBA – everything is done behind the scenes. If you have any sprites or backgrounds you want your program to use, please manually copy them into the fcsr directory.  As always, use at own risk.

Time is short at the moment so I haven’t added any bells and whistles yet.

Any questions – comment away

Download: Wee Editor

Snow Leopard on Kohjinsha PA

Gotta love little computers… and need my Leopard wherever I go.

SophistimaCalc 1.4 is out

New in this version:

- alert before deleting a file so user doesn’t accidentally delete it (thanks Grampy5031)
- new short-cut for ^ (power)
- bug fix for raising power to fractions/decimals (thanks Don)
- bug fix for ‘about’ button

Enjoy.

SophistimaCalc Lite no longer available – paid version is very much alive and fully supported

After some reflection, I have decided to remove the Lite version of SophistimaCalc from the itunes store.  Those who already have it can obviously keep it, but it is no longer available for download for new users.  I haven’t updated it in a while, it has limited functionality and, looking at the ratings on itunes, the only people who like what SophistimaCalc does are those who have paid the very modest amount for purchasing it.

I am happy to accept and take into account comments on this decision.  Feel free to post your opinion.

This has no effect on the paid version which is available and regularly updated and supported.  Looking at the ratings on itunes, those who have bought it very much appreciate its flexibility and power.  I will keep adding functionality based on user comments and my own ideas so feel free to make suggestions or requests.

 

SophistimaCalc programmable ipod/iphone calculator version 1.3 has landed

“Landed where?” you say. In the itunes store of course. And thanks to our fine commenter Richard, it now has shortcuts for common commands that will save you some typing. Paid version only – sorry Here’s a shot with shift key and all:

More updates are on their way thanks to commenter Don.  Please feel free to comment if you have any suggestions, if there is anything you want changed or any new features you’d like to see.  Heck, I’ve gotta have a hobby so keep me busy.  I’ve made $17 so far on sales and I might even make my dreams come true and earn a cool $20 before years’ end.  That’s the app store dream – not $20 million, just $20 so I can have a coffee every day for a month… maybe.

Here’s a link: