Improvements

Mid week update.. things have improved I think. After five years of effort, everything at work seems to show promise of settling down and becoming a more enjoyable place to work ( with sane working hours ). The AI is up and running, its not perfect by any means ( I based its ability/thought process on my own thought patterns ... which means while its FAR from perfect ... it probably has a hidden preference for coconut cake, science fiction and murder mystery novels! ) but its able to read a financial doc and identify sections of information and remember what made it want to use that section. Then it makes a new document of that section and quietly waits to do it again. Neat stuff.

I've actually thought about having it remember base patterns and concepts and occasionally spin off threads to "think" about those search patterns and routinely test them for efficiency. Maybe even have that thread go search the net on its own looking for new patterns to use. hmm .. this idea has promise.

Upcoming.. DRAGON CON!! And a good time will be had by all. I can't wait. One and half weeks and I'll be off for Atlanta and a damn good vacation. Man I could use it.

Work on my manuscripts has been slow but steady. Most of the way done with Cold Case, slowly put some notes down about Kinloch 2. I've thought about scribbling down a brief short story for a nice mag called : Cyber Age. They've a website here.

Good stories there if you like sci fi / superheroes.
They say 3000 words.. kinda small, but a bit of a challenge. I think I can pull that off.

A new week begins

Rough week last week. I did another 15 hour day thing.. not because I wanted to mind you but for the usual reasons. I did try and come up with a way around it by writing an algorithm that would run and figure out the regular expression patterns it needed on its own and remember the ones that worked to use again later. Kinda like an artificial intelligent system only very crude. It worked on friday.. was working when I left. I come in today and find out.. it didn't work at all over the weekend ... I'm tired of feeling stupid. I'm not a moron, and I do know what I'm doing.

I know a job typically isn't "fun", that's not the purpose of a job exactly, but ... well.. nevermind. Its not worth belaboring the point. It is what it is. I'll keep at it until the business goes bankrupt or I'm able to find a solid lead on work somewhere else. A co-worker put it REAL well last week: "The toast rate here is really high." Man, what an understatement! Give that lady the prize!

I did get a weekend without work though, with the system running on its own ( or so I thought ) I stayed away from work. It made me realize just how fatigued I'd gotten and what it was doing to me. It was nice to have a weekend break. I got to do some writing and relax some. Boy do I need to do more of that!

Well, on with the work week... huzzah..

Oh and the next part is posted to Spec Ops.. enjoy!

A weekend closes.. a week starts

Another work week begins. What fun. Back to trying to figure out how to parse raw text annual report documents apart with AI software algorithm I wrote, all for the grand purpose to make a printable pdf. If I was more into the finance world and such I might find this more interesting. Though, if I was more into the finance world, I'd not be programming I suppose.

I've added another installment to the Spec Ops story. I'm having more fun with that than I thought I would. I suppose its the lack of pressure. Sure I'm on a schedule but its not for money, solely enjoyment of writing a story. I also get to quickly practice developing an idea, editing as accurately as a I can and managing my time to hit that one to two week deadline I set for myself.

Monday Monday

Well, Monday is here. Close of another work-filled weekend. Given the stigma of Mondays does anyone look forward to one? I would suppose that depends on your point of view.

In any case... the shuttle. Fantastic piece of technology.. probably needs more duct tape though. I read that they may try and repair the shuttle while in orbit. Given the problem is that some of the ceramic tiles have slipped.. just how do you do that? Its not like you can run down to Home Depot or Lowes! The shuttle commander mentioned taking refuge in the station if needed. I'm thinking that's not such a bad idea. Dock the shuttle, then send up ceramic repair supplies. Heck send up some construction supplies to add onto the station itself? Supposed to add onto it eventually anyway, right?

To close, I stayed up late and got a couple of passes done on the fan fic. Its got a couple of rough spots that I just can't seem to smooth out, but I generally like it. I've got a blog setup for the story and the first part up: http://swspecops.blogspot.com ( there is a link in the sidebar here too )
Hope all that reads it enjoys it. I'd appreciate feedback too.. suggestions. Won't promise I'll use them but I will consider them. I'll do my best to update once a week or once every two weeks.

And another link.. I just like this one in general.. neat idea : http://www.dailyzen.com/