Nathaniel Eliot

A friend asked me to pass this on to my gaming buddies. It was addressed to folks in Austin, but I don't think you need to be in Austin to play . . .

A new FRPG called 'Codename: Era of the Fallen' is now seeking playtesters. It emphasizes narrative storytelling, allowing for deeply immersive roleplaying, and encourages a different sort of play style centered around: character development, mature themes, ethical dilemmas, etc.

Codename: Era of the Fallen has THE most realistic combat system ever devised, which has been culled from the author's extensive knowledge of the topic and subjected to careful tuning to establish just the right balance between detail and simplicity. Dice based combat is fast paced, intuitive enough to be easily understood, and quickly results in a decisive outcome. Just like real combat. Emphasis is placed on thinking through things instead of blindly rolling dice. The combat system is extremely flexible to suit many styles and preferences: from strict dice rules, to diceless, to a hybrid between the two.

Codename: Era of the Fallen also includes an expansive, incredibly intricate system of magic, which gives the player several well defined paths to choose from, and the ability to strike out in new directions, offering complete control over the development of the character's powers. Through increasing specialization in one of 15 fields of magical study, the character gradually masters a subset of the primal powers which govern all things. A rich history rewards exploration with something new to be discovered and mastered at every turn. The numbers of ways in which the branches of magic can be combined and recombined is nearly limitless.

Codename: Era of the Fallen also has a lavishly detailed world for players to explore with a comprehensive and coherent cosmogony. It is a world of many secrets which allows for infinite expansion and encourages the players to become co-creators of their own worlds within worlds. It offers the opportunity for players to have a wide variety of possible experiences and guide their character down a path of their own choosing, light or dark within the narrative the Game Master creates as backdrop to character evolution.

More information and a stripped down version of the rules are available at: www.eraofthefallen.com

The Brain Candy monkeys have been a joy to work with, and we've just finished launching their site:

It's been 2 years in the making, but my latest project, Runes of Gallidon,
is officially online. You can enter the world at: www.runesofgallidon.com.

Runes of Gallidon is the first offering from Brain Candy, LLC
(www.braincandyllc.com), a company I co-founded with two other friends, Tony
Graham and Andy Underwood.

Here's the summary:

User speak:
An original, online fantasy world where users create new multi-media content
for posting on the site. Users retain ownership of their Works, but they
share the Ideas in their Works, allowing the world to be integrated,
dynamic, and collaborative.

Business speak:
An online publishing site of user-generated, multimedia content set in a
branded fictional universe where users are legally allowed to create
derivative works of other users without breaking copyright laws.

Computer speak:
01010111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111
01110101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110100
01101111 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01111001 00100000 01100001
00100000 01100111 01100001 01101101 01100101 00111111

In conjunction with Runes of Gallidon, I am starting a blog and signing up
for twitter (yes, I'm truly stepping into the digital age):

   Blog: www.thismonkeycantype.com
   Twitter: scott_walker

PLEASE forward to anyone you think might be interested; we're trying to get
the word out as quickly as possible.

Thanks to everyone who provided support during this journey - see you in
Gallidon!

Best,


Scott Walker
President/CEO
Brain Candy, LLC - Official Steward for Runes of Gallidon
---------------------------------------------------------
www.runesofgallidon.com
"Discover a world, forge its future."

Their credit for my work also makes me extra happy:

We honestly don't understand anything about how Nathan does what he does, but the end result is that our servers and code migrations work really, really well. We have no idea what he looks like or what he's up to when we're not bothering him, but we suspect he only uses his technical powers for good.

Publicly referenced as a mysterious guru on a gaming site? Really cool. Public admission that they trusted me sight-unseen, and are happy with the results? Approaching single-digits Kelvin, especially from a marketing standpoint.

The Greenfield Geeks Guild (working name) will band together IT consultants, apprentices, and support staff, and provide them with the legal, managerial, and infrastructural resources necessary to build *fully* open source solutions for small businesses. This will give us the flexibility and pricing to compete well in this economic downturn, benefiting not only ourselves, but our chosen clients, and the whole open source community.

I will be running a series of explanatory/exploratory meetings on Wednesday nights this month:

6PM, 01/07 @ Epoch Coffee
7PM, 01/14 @ Tek Republic
7PM, 01/21 @ TBA (Burner Warehouse?)

If you're interested, please attend. If you cannot, but would like further information anyway, please let me know.

I'm starting to get a fairly large amount of demand for Drupal work. Several clients have expressed interest in my bringing on a junior developer/apprentice, to bring down their costs while maintaining overall quality.

If you are interested in learning how to build and maintain Drupal CMS systems, or know someone who is, please let me know. I'll want to know relevant experience, expected hourly rate, and availability. Candidates will need to demonstrate critical thinking and communication skills: other skills are valuable, but not required.

RIP nameless grey beast. You carried me many miles, but fixing your brake lines would cost at least half what you're worth, and you've other troubles besides. So now I'm looking for a new car, or more precisely, a new used car.

Does anyone have experience with hybrids, and getting them fixed/fixing them? The extra cost up front is repaid by savings on gas (even using conservative assumptions of mpg and fuel cost), but I'm worried that the novelty will also make repairs more expensive. Given that they're at the top of my budget range already (and thus, also sure to cost more for insurance), I'd like to be really sure before I take any plunge.

On the gripping hand: Hybrid! Its officially a vehicle of the future for me, as they were more myth than merchandise when I first learned of them in college. These don't have the composite material frames of those mythical motor vehicles, but I'll take half-mythic (if it's not too tough to repair).

My (very vague) Thanksgiving plans involve assembling a small-to-medium caravan of ne'er-do-wells, and terrorizingentertaining the sedentary parties with wine, desserts, song, and cat-herding. If you're interested, either as a caravaner or way-point, let me know. Several of y'all have already said "come on over", but I figured I should double check before dragging an impromptu troupe through your front door.

I'm moving. Again. No, I'm not happy about this. No, I'm not interested in bitching (more) about the reason. It's almost over: why raise my blood pressure further?

I'll be moving stuff between now and next Wednesday, though I'm taking off Sunday to meet my sweetie's mom. Morale support and light lifting would be appreciated if you're free: the move is short, the load light, and there's already been plenty help offered, so don't sweat it if you can't.

The new address is on the profile page.

Once more, into the breach of "good idea vs. legitimizing The Man":

If you aren't voting, you are casting a vote-by-default for stagnation or violent revolution. Those are the only options left when you discard "change within the system". Either you plan to take up arms against a sea of camo-fatigued troubles, and get ended by them, or you sleep, perchance to dream of American Gladiators. Neither makes me interested in associating with you, albeit for very different reasons.

It takes half an hour if you do it early, and four entertaining hours if you're a procrastinator.

You can even do it drunk.

Vote.

So I stayed in an Extended Stay Hotel the last time I was visiting Dylan. I got a bunch of strange bounces for my email, which I traced back to their service provider, Global Suite, spoofing my SMTP server.

I switched to an encrypted SMTP connection with a mix of anger and embarrassment. I submitted a complaint to Global Suite and Extended Stay, and received no response. Evidently, they find nothing wrong with spoofing servers and causing service failures in doing so. I probably signed away my right to legal complaint in their "Terms and Conditions". The only place left is the court of public opinion.

Don't trust Extended Stay's network. Right now, they hijack email. Tomorrow, they might sniff your HTTP. If you must use it when you travel, please remember to encrypt, because it's not just hackers who want to molest your data.

My phone just ate its own head, or rather its own screen. I can probably still receive calls, but it'll probably be until I get a new phone before I make any outgoing calls. Text messages (either way) are also right out.

Yet more stress I didn't need . . .

Feel like pimping me? It's one of the things I hate asking for, but it's also one of the last things I need to complete my freelancing build-out. If I've ever done a computer favor for you, you can repay it by joining LinkedIn (if you're not already on it), finding me, and describing what I did in your own words. You can also leave comments here, or through my contact form, if you'd prefer to avoid Yet Another Social Networking Site.

We are either borrowing a van or renting a truck to move what's left from the old place tomorrow. If you have the time tomorrow afternoon or evening, I'd love the help.

The standard plane SNAFU has stranded me in Boston until Monday. Fortunately, my little brother just moved there, so I've been crashing on his couch. I should be back in Austin about noon tomorrow, though I probably won't be recovered until Tuesday.

Just FYI, for anybody expecting me back in town sooner.

In Debian Security Advisory 1571 (New openssl packages fix predictable random number generator), the Debian Security Team disclosed a vulnerability in the openssl package that makes many cryptographic keys that are used for authentication (e.g. through SSH) or signing (e.g. web server certificates) potentially vulnerable.

End User Summary

The scope of the problem includes:

• weak keys for both clients and servers (see section "Identifying Weak Keys below")
• all key types that were generated using openssl (this includes RSA and DSA keys)
• compromise of other keys or passwords that were transmitted over an encrypted link that was set up using weak keys. Note that this last point means that passwords transmitted over ssh to a server with a weak dsa server key could be compromised too.

Read more here . . .

After years of a boilerplate HTML "under construction" page, I've finally taken the leap to putting up a content management system up on T9 Productions. I'll be fleshing it out in the coming weeks, but I've realized (belatedly) that I'll only get the large projects if I actively hunt for them. That means having a professional web front-end, instead of a silly page one step above a 404.

It also means I'll need people I can pass work to for various reasons (many of you have already gotten email from me about this). Do you already do independent contracting, or are you open to the possibility?

If so:
1) What skills do you like using?
2) What skills are you confident in?
3) How much do you/would you charge for your work?
4) How available will you be, both short and long term?

Don't restrict your answer to computers: my goal is end-to-end solutions, which often means stepping outside the purely technical fields. I'll probably need more help with tasks that aren't directly IT related, if anything.

Apparently, this month is "a great long while" from January; at least, that's in keeping with my vow not to move for the aforementioned span of time. The source of this funny joke is the current landlord, who decided that moving back here from Florida and displacing my very pregnant roommate was preferable to extending our lease.

Thankfully, the joke is mostly on him: we're paying $50/mo more for a much larger place, six blocks away. However, I could once again use some help (or maybe just morale support) with putting stuff in boxes and carting it across town. Gimme a call and swing by any old evening, as I'll be at this intermittently for the next week at least.

New address is on the profile page, in case you need it.

In another example of why I don't often plan more than a week ahead, one of my long-term projects just floated to the bubbling surface, years ahead of schedule:

A client of mine just asked for a lot of PHP work, on a code-base that manages to push all my "run away" buttons; I can (and will) handle it, but oy do I not want to. Coincidentally, a former co-worker from India just contacted me looking for work. His English communication isn't 100%, but his resume is passable, and I've got him collecting references that I will check on. The difference in hourly rate means that if his code is largely passable, I can set him on the easier tasks, review his work, and net my client a savings over my rates. However, my client might prefer to manage the coder directly, despite the potential language collision (neither speaks English natively). Rather than cut myself out entirely, I proposed a finder's fee as an alternative, which led me to do some research on how they work.

Once I got that, the last piece of the answer fell into place: how do I build a network of computer geeks that encourages amateur and apprentice-based entry into professional computing, to balance the flow of greedy but talentless CS graduates? Subcontracting can easily handle apprentices and foreign outsourcing, but in situations of equal pay balloons costs with the management fees. Finder's fees reward professionals who have an opportunity they're not suited for, and a trusted associate who is, without making them get more involved. With a proper boilerplate agreement, geeks could profit from their ability to judge technical skill, something non-geeks are often poor at. Using personal links between the geeks themselves, rather than centralized recruiters, keeps everyone a bit more honest. Buyers, benefiting from a well-vetted selection pool, would hopefully jump to pay any reasonable fee.

With that all in mind: my contact info is on my profile page. If you're looking for contract work, send me your resume, references, rates, and any special preferences (e.g. - telecommute only, no client-facing, etc.). I still have to work up fee structure, and I can't promise results, but I click past many more opportunities than I'm qualified for, every day.

And if the same is true of you, let me know and I'll send you my info.

My oh my, but social engineering is an interesting technical field. This is all my old economics professor's fault, I swear . . .

It's 1720, and both Earth and the stars are restless. At home, Mongol warlords vie for control of the Khaganate in the tourneys and mock battles of the Kuraltai, while Isaac Newton and the Royal College of London issue disturbing new magical treatises. Abroad, newly ascendant dark-elf and goblin nations disrupt trade, and skirmishes with lizardfolk and their shapeshifting infiltrators claim many valiant warriors daily.

In these troubled times, the Galactic League's agents are hard-pressed to keep the interstellar peace they're charged with protecting. You're invited this (and every) Thursday from 7 to 11PM, to join them in the struggle. The episodic back-story is designed to encourage drop-in players; come join us, even if you're not sure you'll be back.

GURPS rules: TL4+4, 200pt starting characters, in a gritty, pervasive low-magic setting. Initial character design and backstory session will be this Thursday (3/13), at my house (6602 Laird Dr.). If you want to get a head start, you can answer some questions from these character questionaires.

And let me know if you know other folks I should invite: the more, the merrier . . . (yes, I'm insane)

Anybody able to pick me up from the airport next Wednesday? My flight (United Airlines #7345) arrives at 12:45PM.

I'm flying up to New Hampshire on the 21nd, to ask the courts for partial custody, then flying on to Michigan on the 23rd. I'll be taking the train out to Chicago on the 25th, and back to Ann Arbor early on the 27th. I fly back to Austin on the 30th.

If you happen to be in one of those places during one of those times, let me know; I'd love to see you, on my hectic way through.