Warren Falk

Trying to somehow utilize 3d acceleration to make GUIs better has been around for a while, but here’s someone who has made what I think is particularly good use of it. http://www.marcmoini.com/f3_en.html shows an apple macintosh desktop in a perspective so that it appears to be laid out in front of you (like an actual desktop) with more commonly used shortcuts up front (appearing larger) and lesser used ones in the back (appearing smaller).

I think I’ll adopt something similar if I ever get around to building a GUI.

This page is here to serve as an update to friends and family who are interested in my current situation regarding my endeavor into the medical software business world, and the ensuing disaster.

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In my last adventure, among a very many other lessons, I learned never to leak the name of something you’ve been working on to people whom you’ve known for less time than you’ve worked on it; especially if they have demonstrated a desire to claim ownership of it. Though I spoke the name once as “Core,” it stuck with one of the members, and he referred to it by its name throughout the whole ugly process (despite the fact that I never referred to it by that name after that). What’s worse is that the idea of “Core” spans multiple divisions of software, and the part, to which they meant to refer, was only the website framework. To see “Core” named in the final unlovely agreement really destroyed it for me. I’m now looking at new candidate names.

I have listed the names that I’ve thought of so far. I’ll add more as I think of them, or as they are suggested to me.

1. Crux
2. Basis
3. Bedrock
4. Infrastruct
5. Nucleo
6. Nux
7. Kern
8. Base
9. Quid
10. Nodo

Notes:

Basis (#2) was actually the original name for the concept. I switched to “Core” because “Core” had more of a techy flavor to it.

The name “Nucleus” is over used, so “Nucleo” seemed like a derivative of some kind. Turns out it is an Italian and Portuguese word for “Core,” which gave me the idea to go language searching.

Kern is both Dutch and German for Core. Kern is interesting because foundation of an operating system is known as the kernel.

Quid is Spanish for “Crux”

Nodo is Italian for “Crux” Other languages have similar derivations of this.

Crux is a Latin term for cross, I believe, though in English it has come to mean “essence.”

Base and Basis seem to be quite internationally understood. The meaning of “Base” or “Basis” is roughly the same in Dutch, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. In greek it is “βάση” which I’m guessing also roughly the same spelling.

I decided to look into resurrecting my online four-player chess game now that my previous plans are officially “previous plans.” I ran some searches to see if anyone had built an online four player chess game resembling my first attempt, but found none. However, I did find something called “Fourplay Chess.” I don’t think the homonym was intentional, but thought twice before clicking. The basic idea of the game is kinda fascinating. There were a lot of rules, and I didn’t have time to go into how it works so I decided to blog it here so that I would not forget it. There are some interesting aspects of it that might make their way into my four player chess game.

The game is apparently listed on a website devoted to a bigger game called “Nomic” which is a game where the rules change, and the rule-changing is part of the game. The whole thing is quite interesting. Certainly a game for geeks, especially the hermit variety. The Fourplay Chess game is one of many listed in a “dead games” section of the site. I don’t know yet what “dead” means. The game is worth looking into. I want to make it playable online, but it looks like some of it relies on human interpretation of things and might not be possible to automate.