Juhani ad Infinitum

Testing UsaIP

Juhani — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 10:34:07 +0000

I’m currently testing the USA IP VPN service.

Dice Roller Updated

Juhani — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:41:47 +0000

I made some small updates to the Shadowrun Dice Roller, upping the version number to 0.6.

Current features now include:

Exploding dice ^new!
Keyboard Shortcuts for Insta’Rolling dice with one keypress
Automatic calculation of hits and ones, as well as the sum of rolled dice
Color alerts for Glitches and Critical Glitches

The Dice Roller is functional, but looks pretty awful. I’ll fix this the next time I get an inspiration to work on this thing.

To the soul I once thought I had

Juhani — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:51:26 +0000

Begone, now, my ‘dear’ old friend. Go and leave me be.

I thought you my lover, my guard, my king; but now I truly see.

You were a dream that held me down - awake, now, I am free.

Website updated

Juhani — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:35:46 +0000

I redid the design on my website. Enjoy the new visuals.

DirectAdmin QuickDomains

Juhani — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:10:40 +0000

I recently began using the DirectAdmin web control panel, which in my opinion beats cPanel in almost everything. One thing I didn’t like in the user interface was the way you switch between domains, so I wrote a small greasemonkey script that modifies the UI to my liking.

DirectAdmin QuickDomains adds Domain selection links to the right side of DirectAdmin, and makes the Home link point to the Home page instead of domain selection.

More information at userscripts.org.
Install from this site.

eDeus.net goes commercial

Juhani — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:10:35 +0000

I work designing webpages and programming information systems. I recently updated the company website, and I thought I’d promote it here :)

So… for professional webdesign, go to http://edeus.net

A quick shout in Finnish:
Asiantuntevaa www-suunnittelua

Shadowrun Dice Roller

Juhani — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:51:11 +0000

I wrote a simple dice roller for SR4. It’s a simple javascript program that rolls multiple dice, and calculates the number hits based on a provided target number.

Since it contains no server side code, it can be saved locally and used offline. I wrote it mainly for my personal use, but if anyone finds it helpful, feel free to use it!

Open DiceRoller in New Window
Download File

Last updated on 29 March 2008

Features

Exploding dice ^new!
Keyboard Shortcuts for Insta’Rolling dice with one keypress
Automatic calculation of hits and ones, as well as the sum of rolled dice
Color alerts for Glitches and Critical Glitches

^{Things still missing: Option for Gremlins, nice look and clean code. Maybe a log of some sorts to help with opposed tests.}

Changelog

v0.6	Exploding dice (for edge) Unlimited number of dice
v0.5	Added shortcut keys
v0.4	Total sum calculation
v0.3	Glitches
v0.2	Sorting
v0.1	First version

Deterministic minds

Juhani — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:22:36 +0000

Current materialistic views laugh at idealism. Even the most open-minded materialists can do nothing more than agree to disagree with dualists and other idealists, while still holding that there is no evidence that would even make it a possibility for anything to exist beyond our material realm; yet alone affect us from there. Determinism dictates that we are prisoners of a predestined life, all our decisions and ideas already made for us. There is, however, new research that might imply otherwise.

Quantum physics has made people more open-minded about indeterminism, though it is still inconceivable that these new rules of causality could, in any way, affect the universe on a macroscopic scale. Our minds transport data through electrical and chemical signals, which are not affected by the rules of quantum mechanics. It’s impossible for it to work in a indeterministic way! Right?

Let’s consider memory, for a while. We learn and remember huge amounts of data. Granted, our methods of accessing that memory are far from robust, but the brain is still able to hold a lot more information that current computers, and employ that information in ways that computers will never understand. The brain has neurons in the order of trillions, but most of these are not connected to memory. They are not located in the memory centers of the nervous system. But even if all of these neurons were used to store memories, their memory storage capacity would still fall short of what we see every day. If explained through classical mechanics, that is.

There is a new theory, christened The Quantum Brain Theory, that may explain this defect. In quantum mechanics, there can be an infinite number of possible sequences for a finite number of particles. According to the theory, our mind uses quantum states for storing data inside the neurons, in microtubules. Because many of the theories incorporating quantum mechanics inside the brain are based on string theories, and since quantum mechanics is such a difficult field, even by itself, I won’t go into any more detail in this essay. Search Google for “quantum brain theory” and/or “microtubule” for more detailed information.

If this new theory proves to be accurate, how can the human brain be deterministic ?-) I’m not saying this theory is solid proof of our minds being indeterministic. I’m merely pointing out that the discussion is once again open, even if only for all of us to agree to disagree.

Is God dead?

Juhani — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 08:23:40 +0000

Nietzsche’s quote “God is dead” is often misinterpreted to mean the literal death of God, but it actually means that the idea of God no longer guides the human behavior at large. The death of God is not a murder, but a shift from belief to logic. This post won’t go into the ramifications of Nietzsche’s thoughts, since everyone can read all about Nietzsche’s thoughts at Wikipedia. Rather, I’m going to retrace the logical steps that bring you to his conclusion.

The logic behind God’s death boils down to one key point: it is impossible for something to induce causality. Either cause and effect have always been in motion, or they never have and never will. If there is no causality, how could there be a cause for its beginning? This logical argument can be found from many sources, but the most solid presentation I’ve come across is the one in Bodhicharyavatara, Chapter 9 (On Wisdom) paragraphs 118 - 125. The text is available online.

If God is eternal, how can it be that there is a first moment for his creation? If He has created everything, what is there left for him to depend on? If God doesn’t rely on anything but himself, why are creatures and objects not being created constantly? The most common answer is the quote “God looked at his creation, and it was good”, but if creation can affect Him, He’s no longer independent from everything.

If God depends, the cause for everything is actually the conditions that made him create the world, and not God himself. When these conditions are met, he cannot but create; and when these conditions are absent, he is powerless to make. If God doesn’t intend to create, all this has happened against his will. If God wishes to create, he’s controlled by his desire. In this case desire would be the required condition for creation, and it’s ultimate cause. Where then is the omnipotent Creator?

The answers are hard to come by.

This prodigious event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires time, deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the most distant stars—and yet they have done it themselves.

Nietzsche - The Gay Science, sect. 125

Google Image Links

Juhani — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 18:42:54 +0000

I wrote a small greasemonkey script that rewrites Google Image Search links to point straight to the pictures, and adds links to the corresponding websites without google frames under them. It’s only a small change to the original scripts by Patrick Cavit and FurYy, so see which one you like the best.

You can find it at userscripts.org, or go straight for the download if you have greasemonkey installed.