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Lossless Algorithms

August 12th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Ideas | #
The following is an algorithm I wrote for generating support/resist in trading with no thresholds or parameters. On each price move, the price range traveled loses a point in score. The resulting score of any price range is its support/resist strength, which declines the more it is traveled across (zero being strongest and untraveled). Visually, the price line looks like a long horizontal eraser scrubbing away on a chalkboard; price ranges least scrubbed thin out to support/resist lines.  The reason I call it a "lossless" algorithm is because it doesn't estimate anything or use any seeded values/thresholds.  It is analogous to lossless audio/image file formats.  There is no sampling or use of statistics, just a 1-to-1 map of where price moves most and least freely.  It is also extremely light both in computation and space because all you're doing is a single subtraction per datapoint and the max number of ranges to keep score of is the granularity...[More]
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Death is Only a Door

August 12th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Death is Only a Door (Cloud Atlas OST) by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil
342 unique view(s)

God's Image

August 5th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
So many say we're created in God's image, yet act more like the shadow that merely follows. We call Him the Creator, yet so few carry on the work of actually creating.
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Arrival of the Birds

August 3rd, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Arrival of the Birds by The Cinematic Orchestra (@TCO_Official)
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Octonions

July 31st, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
One of the more interesting articles I've read in a while... didn't realize quarternions used in game development had actual significance in physics and there was a step further called octonions. As usual, learning more working on games than I ever did in school.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-peculiar-math-that-could-underlie-the-laws-of-nature/
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Happiest Memory

July 15th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Essays | #
     The happiest memory in my life is not one I could ever share with anyone else.  Because it isn't a moment from within my real life but instead one from within a dream, a dream that occurred almost ten years ago.

     In that dream, I spent my childhood in a quiet, abandoned town alongside someone who I seemingly knew all my life.  We would race neck-to-neck as we leapt from rooftop to rooftop, laughing maniacally as we tried to one-up each other, reaching higher and higher into the skies before eventually just taking flight altogether.  I miss having someone who flew alongside me, who raced me to the top rather than just passively followed, who shared my dreams rather than just cheered me on from afar.  I miss the rivalry, the playfulness, the genuine laughter, the look of excitement and anticipation on each other's faces, the thrill of seeing how fast and how far we could go without holding back.  If it seemed we flew too high...[More]
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Video Game AI

July 14th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Just found out the #AI behind Black and White was in fact designed by @demishassabis, co-founder of @DeepMindAI. Too ironic given I often cite #videogames as most influential to my own ideas (incl. Tech Trader and Creating Sentient Artificial Intelligence). Was not expecting it to be so literal.
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Full VR Multiplayer Replication Complete

July 4th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Ready for rematch. Grin


A lot of people have constantly tried to convince me multiplayer alone is a hard thing to do and VR in multiplayer is even harder, but I'm not finding that the case so far.  If anything, it's a lot of time and attention to detail, but nothing really seems to come across as overwhelming or rocket science.  I certainly wouldn't hire someone just to take care of multiplayer networking now that I know what it entails.

If anything...[More]
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Transfat Ban

June 23rd, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Transfat is supposedly banned as of 2018, yet I just saw transfat-free cookies at the store with partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredients.  I guess they just banned the name.
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Multiplayer in Unreal via IP

June 23rd, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Finally got #UnrealEngine connecting over the internet for barebones multiplayer.  Documentation on just getting direct IP-to-IP connection w/o Steam, etc was surprisingly sparse.



Here's a quick step-by-step:
1. Go to Editor...[More]
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Bitcoin Probability

June 22nd, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
If they're going crazy right now on how some random hashtag should be "statistically impossible," wait till two people generate the same wallet (which is not supposed to happen until the sun dies... "statistically"). #Bitcoin
https://www.coindesk.com/21e800-bitcoin-satoshi-mystery-twitter-obsessing/
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Tennis Notes

June 15th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Random Stuff | #
Personal tennis notes for myself.  I am ambidextrous and play tennis with both hands (or two rackets), so I've had to come to my own conclusions on a lot of things.  I also trained initially under a coach who basically had me hit every shot with an extreme western(?) grip for top spin, even on serves both hands (which results in inside-out slice serve, I think - not sure what it's called), so most advice I get has often not been helpful (especially things like suggesting *not* to use such an extreme grip).  My grip is actually rotated to the point it is actually a continental grip, except I hit with the outside face instead which is the complete opposite and forces you to over-rotate to meet the ball and creates the kick in top-spin.  The hand motion without a racket looks like I am hitting the ball with the back of my hand instead of the palm.  I went through some phases in my life post-college where I was repeatedly told I was holding the racket wrong...[More]
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Autumn Leaves

June 8th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Autumn Leaves by Drought on Mars (@droughtonmars)
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UnrealEngine VR Detection is Delayed

June 2nd, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Been stuck trying to figure out why #VR code in #UnrealEngine runs fine in the editor but not in a packaged build.  It turns out when packaged, the "Is Head Mounted Display Enabled?" function will not actually detect the headset until half a second or so after the game starts.  Janky way to fix this for now is to delay all VR code by a half second, but my worry is that this will vary depending on the computer we're running on.



Oh and for those who can't get even get the game to run in VR mode at all in the packaged game, you have to check "Start in VR" in the project settings.  This will still start in non-VR if no headset is connected, so it's annoying this isn't just a default option to begin with.
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Remote Desktop Broken After Windows Update

May 10th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Tried to sign on to my remote workstation this morning only to get some error about "CredSSP encryption oracle mediation." It turns out my laptop installed Windows Updates overnight.  The below updates are what you'll want to uninstall and then restart to be able to use RDP again.  They're basically updates installed on 2018-05-09.
KB4103725
KB4103727
KB4338819 (July 2018)
KB4464218 (Sep 2018)
KB4462919 (Oct...[More]
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The Mindset of Money

April 15th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
It seems I can't get a dinner anymore without overhearing talk about blockchain. One point I keep hearing that irks me though is that government wouldn't restrict the crypto industry because of how much money they could make by letting it flourish.  That is just wrong on so many levels.  Whether a law exists or not has nothing to do with making money.  It doesn't matter if everyone got paid or the government gets a cut.  Otherwise by that logic, you might as well say the government should let drug trafficking and black markets flourish because of "how much money they could make."  It's like if a cop let someone go for stealing because the cop got a share.  As long as everyone gets a piece, what's the harm? Unfortunately this kind of thinking seems to be the norm in crypto and really just finance in general, where right or wrong is decided solely by whether money is made.
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Marble Machine

April 15th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Marble Machine by Wintergatan (@wintergatan)
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Advanced Alien Life is Tiny

March 19th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Ideas | #
If a few hours on a larger planet with higher gravity can be years on Earth, then any advanced alien life is most likely from a smaller planet with much lower gravity than us, where each year for us can be millions for them.
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Sound is Just a Concept

March 19th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Thought of the Day | #
Sound is just a concept, a label to a group of molecules moving together in tandem.  There is no "thing" called sound that actually travels.  It's just a domino effect.
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NYC vs SF vs LA

March 15th, 2018 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
After splitting my time evenly between New York, San Francisco, and LA for about three years, a semi-humorous comparison of the three cities.  I also have pseudo-memoires of my time in each written below:
- Talking to an Engineer in Silicon Valley
- Talking to Ivy Leaguers on Wall Street
- For LA, some acting instructor insisted that everything we do is because society says to, that if not for society telling us to, we wouldn't even bother going to the toilet and just sit in our own crap.  No further comment needed.

...
NYC
SF
LA
Money and 9-5 life.
Make the world a “better” place.
I just want to be “happy.”
Honor and integrity.
[More]
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