Your Fellow Technomancer

Making a tabletop roleplaying system: My Exp. So Far.

2013-04-01T10:02:00.004-04:00

I wanted to work on my own system because I wanted something that is easy to pick up, that I could use to change a few things and create a new setting simply, as well as using a simple point buy system with magic being more loosely what you imagine and not what you do. I had searched for hours on the internet looking for something; Shadowrun point buy had too great of numbers and it would be difficult to get away from the fluff with that system. Gurps is complicated for most people to pick up when you want to do something quick, and with the latest version also is kinda easy to break if not paid too much attention too. D20 modern had it's own problems, as well as just trying to modify Pathfinder for a more modern taste would be insanely complicated. Out of all the free and open RPGs, there was few of which I could do anything with, and those few was a bad choice for another reason. Then, I thought about it and bounced an idea off of one of my friends, they agreed that it possibly was an idea one could do, it was time I tried my hand at system creation.
When I started the project, I had created a checklist inside my head, and on paper. I first came up with how I wanted to separate things (books and what not). I wanted to do a core book, with a GM book as well; as such having separate books that touch on things that could be expanded on, or even a book about what happens when you start becoming a god. Then from that, I started making a chapter list for both the core and the GM book so that I know what sort of systems and what not I had to touch on. I had things from the core mechanic, to how I will go about skills and other things.
Now that I have told this story, the next few posts will be about how I decided certain aspects of my system, as well as some tips.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

2013-03-13T05:06:00.002-04:00

Howdy all! YFTechno here, sorry it has been a very long time since I came back, life happened, though I am proud to say that I have been working hard on some things. I currently am working on a Tabletop Pen and Paper RPG system. I shall be releasing information about it in posts, and really my thoughts and plans about it up to this point in creation, and beyond. I am redesigning a bit of what I post to ya'll as well, but that will come later in the week; as well I got some planned things in store for future stuff, as well as videos! Let us have 3 cheers for awesome!

Oh btw, I am really sad, I have actually lost one of my favorite card game boxes, called Munchkin. It is kind of like a way to make fun of dungeon crawls, as well as just having good times with friends. It is called Munchkin and I think you all should check it out! I know I got to try and reestablish a copy of it.

Your Fellow Technomancer,
Kyle Atterson

I'm back!.... Again...

2012-12-16T18:12:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone! Long time no see! I know, I know, you don't expect me to see you anyways, but as a technomancer I say screw the rules, that camera is a direct link to my monitor so I can see you all of the time! Of course I am joking, that would be creepy and would take some work to get done to be honest.

Anyways, it has been a long time, I know. I am sorry about that, my laptop had died, and I really did not have any way to post anything. I am going to make it up to you all, I promise. I am typing this on my desktop, of which should not break down as much as the laptop did. I also have installed the Blogger App on my smart phone, so that I can blog at you whenever I can.
On the agenda is well, I need an agenda, and I want you all to give me something to blog about, this could be a question on any topic, I would love some techie questions, but if you got some others, I could possibly answer them, in person or private. Well, anyways, I will let you all have it. I will blog at ya later!

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

YFTechno Texture pack for Minecraft v1.3.2

2012-08-19T15:25:00.000-04:00

Hey readers!

I just finished a texture pack for minecraft. It is still being worked on but I feel like I should release it now and get some feedback. I have added two different links to download, they both take you to the same place. One can help fund me.

To use this texture pack though, you need MCPatcher. I will have a link below, just click it to get it, run it, then love it.

Adf.ly (Helps fund the things I do): http://adf.ly/C2O3Y

Direct Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?ssn2gua8plbn4lj

Your Fellow Technomancer, Kyle Atterson

MCPatcher: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/232701-12w23a-132-131-125update-814-mcpatcher-hd-fix-241-03/

Review of The Mana World

2012-07-10T16:22:00.000-04:00

Hey there! I am back with a review for a beta MMORPG that I have been testing. It is The Mana World, it is a 2d open source MMORPG, which in itself is pretty decent. The major grand features about the game is: It's magic, controls, and interesting story.

Selecting a server

Choosing your character

Sand, sand, sand, and more sand

Ol' McDonald had a farm..

The game is fun, even though the world is under developed. There is a huge spread of monsters that are huge levels away from each other, and at the beginning after level 10 it gets tougher to get higher. The graphics are nice and clean, and the game ideas are pretty revolutionary. To use magic, you actually have magic keywords you type (they normally start with a #). Another great thing about the game is that it is an open source MMO, which means that there is not only the base servers, but other ones that other people set up that are different.

Good:

Interesting and intuitive systems for magic and other things
Good flow in the controls
Nice clean graphics
User created servers

Bad:

Needs to work on balancing the character and the monsters, so that there is either more monsters at lower level intervals or what.
The world needs to be developed a bit more

Overall this game gets a 9/10 in its beta stage! Go TMW!

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Interrupt your tech news: Fandoms Rating

2012-07-10T04:18:00.001-04:00

Earlier today I got into a good discussions about fandoms, and what are 'good ones' and 'bad ones'. This is mostly about ones opinions, but it did get me thinking; what if there was a system to actually rate a fandom for people. Certain area's of interest if you will, so that one could check out all of the merits of a fandom. The only bad thing about a system, as with all ratings are that they tend to be much more bias since people will flood it full of their own opinions when dealing with a favorite, or not so favorite, fandom.

Some of the ones I, and a friend of mine have come up with are:

Loyalty: Which is how loyal are they to the particular fandom, what do they do to show their worth. As in pokemon, do they buy all the products and watch/read all of the literature.
Synergy: How does everyone mix in with everyone else, do they feed of each others energy, or are they normally more separate. Is there different sides to the fandom that in constant 'war' with each other?
Level of contemplation: How deep does the fanfiction, or other fan communication, go? Does it only hit on levels that are shallow to the viewer and focus on only small things; Or does it try and attempt to answer certain aspects about life.
Friendliness: How accepting of new members is the fandom? Can a new person come and feel accepted, or do you have to be there from the beginning for people to accept you.
Age: This is a secondary aspect to judge, since really it has nothing to do with how the fandom is in ones opinion, but it is something one should take note of when working on judging a fandom, since older fandoms tend to be a bit more complex and widespread.

If you notice, these topics can also count on judging fan. This is because judging a fandom, is judging a group of people. Judging a group of people is taking the averages, or the norms, of the group and commenting on it.
This is by no means a complete work, this is just a few of the initial ideas of such. What do you think? Is this list a good list to start from?

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

YFTechno

2012-07-09T08:49:00.001-04:00

YFTechno: My new facebook page that is focusing on the quick and social aspect of some of the things this blog, as well as a notifier for some of you all so that when I update people can know a bit quicker.

'via Blog this'

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

The ARMSmasters Project

2012-07-08T12:11:00.003-04:00

Good afternoon everyone! I am here today as a favor for a friend to help spread the word about something he is supporting: The ARMSmasters project. The project is a animation with inspiration from games, action anime, and all that. It looks interesting, I suggest taking like 10 mins just to check it out and see what you think, if you got a dollar then give a little. If not, then perhaps just help spread the word.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Redo my crew, revamp my camp, recreate the wave

2012-07-07T03:30:00.000-04:00

Hey, me here. Been a while, hasn't it? I am writting this partially about news on the site and goal of it, also a reminder and reason to do it.
I have been doing a lot of soul searching and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and be able to truly say exact to the bone. I have come up with I want to become The Reason, not be a professor, a software engineer, or a robotics researcher. I want to be true to what my heart tells me, to better technology. Not here or there but everywhere.

Getting that out of the way, my to do list for this year shall be the following:
1) Get my own server/domain for this site.
2) Start getting people together on working up a good technology news, forum, and all of that (for people who knows of my old projects, think of CompileCrazy but bigger).
3) Start a working on building up the community here in my home town of Terre Haute, this being by trying to get funding to create a hackerspace.

For now that is my main goals for everything. As well as trying to keep everyone updated and do some postings.

One thing I am going to attempt to do, make my posts more visually appealing, and maybe even add some videos when I can. Well, good night for now and everyone have a fun evening!

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Smart-mouthed phones

2012-06-12T16:20:00.001-04:00

So as of Saturday I have gotten a smartphone for the first time. This means two great things: 1) I will be posting more often and 2) I will write a review of the device as well as some well needed tricks and tips for them. I may even write a post on the total app boom and expectations of where it will lead us to.

Online software, what is this madness?

2012-06-07T08:52:00.000-04:00

So we all have seen it, if we are on Facebook, Google+ or any other social site we deal with it every day we log in, online software. I am talking about sites that are in a sense software that allows the users to do stuff without downloading a program. But what makes things a online program?

It is pretty self explanatory: a program that is online. A site that has features that allow the user to do things online that one could possibly do offline. Now, there are programs that need the internet to be useful, where as all sites need internet to be useful. Some people are wondering right now why I included social sites as a online program, that is because they are; they allow you to communicate with people, share things, just as some older programs that we would download onto our computers did (Instant messagers and the like) but with more features because of their focus and medium.

So, what does this mean for the future of the consumer? Almost nothing, just that in the future there will be more integration with online services and how things run; so if you understand how to use the internet effectively through your browser, there should be nothing that you can not be able to accomplish in future applications.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Rolz.org

2012-06-03T19:06:00.001-04:00

Online Dice Roller · Home:
This site is one of my favorite dice rolling sites, it has somewhat of a simple way of allowing you to roll and to auto count successes or whatever. Very useful for all those who play table top rp.
'via Blog this'

An idea of mine

2012-05-30T19:11:00.002-04:00

So, with the recent blogs that I have written, I been thinking about putting them together. Where I live, there is not a hackerspace. I been thinking and I may try and get other like minded people in this area to see if I can get it together so then there can be one, and put my town on the map. Thinking about it, I can see a bit of possible things to have gained in getting on created:

A place for everyone to work on projects
A place for everyone to meet and talk about new things going on in the world of the computers
A place for people to meet other people who likes to work on computers
A place to hang out that is centered around tech
A workable location that could help with getting college kids away from stuff, and to have fun with tech
Much more.

If this works, then I will be one happy individual, seeing as it would be a move in the right direction for a better tech world!

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Hackerspace: now with refreshments!

2012-05-30T18:51:00.003-04:00

A hackerspace is like outerspace except that it is full of computer enthusiats working on projects, instead of just well space. They are a hit in Europe right now, and have made a pretty decent impact in the US as well. They are becoming more and more important to the average computer friend. Most hackerspaces allow people to meet other like-minded people who care about computers and want to work with them more. They allow a place for people to come and toy with computers together, work on projects, and just have a place to just chill out. It is a wonderful idea that has loads of potential. A good place to find out more information is http://hackerspaces.org.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Kickstarter right in the ouch

2012-05-30T18:41:00.001-04:00

For those who do not know, Kickstarter is a website that connects people who have ideas (good or bad), with people who have money. It has been used to fund projects from video games to new business adventures, as well as even some town based stuff. It is a good service that has just shot in popularity. Of course, is this popularity good or bad?

With the increase of people who use it, it is getting harder and harder for people who are not doing projects that are popular to begin with. But is that bad? The world is always going to be full of projects that are more popular when some are not. Some are going to be wonderful and not get funding, when some are horrible and get more than what they asked for. With Kickstarter, at least it allows life to be easy, with the creating the account by using your Facebook account and nice sorting of projects so then you can really keep in track with what is going on and not have to deal about the small things.

I like the idea of kickstarter and wish it will continue being around for many a year. I have a question for you all, what is your experience with kickstarter or site that does stuff that is similar? If you never used it, what would be one project that you would want to fund, or try and get funded?

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Facebook shopping spree

2012-05-29T10:49:00.002-04:00

So, a good bit of people have heard that Facebook bought Instagram (social photo sharing company), but did you know this has led Facebook to go on a shopping spree of business proportion? They have been buying companies, mostly new companies, left and right since this moment, and now they are trying to get another company, Face.com. Face is a Israeli technology company that focuses on facial recognition.

Why would facebook be interested with Face, when all Facebook is a social site? Well let us look at it like this, a big thing facebook has been trying to crack down on is the amount of fake user accounts, and security all around. They could take Face and use some of their workers to help beef up the security features by adding facial recognition. Or maybe they could just use it to help with the tagging feature of pictures. All that is for certain is that whatever it is for, it is for a new feature that will probably get a punch in the stomach a few times before people start using it and liking it.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

Minecraft...

2012-05-29T10:27:00.001-04:00

There lately has been many things that have taken over my time, some of them are good, but most of them are kinda unproductive. A bunch of the time that I have been dealing with is Minecraft, I recently started playing it again, last time being during beta, and just so much fun was had. Anyways, now I am trying to be productive member of the net society again, I got some productivity apps and what not to help with what I do. Below for fun I listed what has been taking most of my time, and hey if you want leave a comment about whatever takes up your time the most.

Things that have taken over my mind since the end of the school year:

Minecraft
Web Comics
Actual Comics
Role playing games
Trivial pieces of information
and last but not lest, nothing much.

Remember everything with Evernote, Skitch and our other great apps. | Evernote

2012-05-29T10:13:00.001-04:00

Remember everything with Evernote, Skitch and our other great apps. | Evernote:
This is what I am thinking I am going to use as my next review. Loads of neat features, very useful, and it is easy on the eyes.
'via Blog this'

Guess who's back?

2012-05-07T21:07:00.000-04:00

I created a monster, well at least attempting to. I been away from my posting because I needed to work on school work, and also I had to finish a project I been working on. I am not done with it yet, but I am getting very close to. I will be having it free to download, but if you feel like donating then there will be the ability to do, cause I do need the money hoho.

The program:
The program is called StoryMaster, it is created with tabletop role playing games in mind, to help people create maps, and other things. It will help with sorting out story details like NPCs, places, events, and even rolling dice. It will have an auto saving feature so that if you are working on something, and your computer shuts off, it will be saved, awesome right? If I get some people interested I will post up some screenshots of it in action. Also, if you have something you want to add, just click on the new page so that you can give me a comment about the program, and possibly give me an idea of some more features!

PS: The program could even help writers when writing a story, just throwing that out there.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

CHLF: Video Games

2012-03-30T00:17:00.001-04:00

Video games have been one of the driving forces for technology improvements, and it is because of gamers that we do have what we got today in the world of technology. I mean think about it, if it was not for gamers we would not have been able to fund certain core technology from artificial intelligence to faster equipment. When gaming was first peaking it's head out of the world, technology also was just popping up. Things was marvelous at that time.
The very first video game was actually NOT pong like most people believe it is. It was a game by the name of "Tennis for Two" that was only available to play at a university. They was of course trying to push the limits of technology thus far, and what better way then to play with it to do things that we think are impossible at the time. Now some may say that this is a one and a lifetime thing, as in after this, games must have just been created for fun right? Wrong! Games like Star Fox was orginally built to test new parts of computer history, it is just that they became so popular with not only the developers but anyone who touched it.
The evolution of the game is pretty vast and wonderful, and gets more exiting and complicated as time goes by. There are the ASCII adventures played on someones computer, where one would have to make decisions, and effectively follow the set in stone story line that the creator of the game had made; To the arcade games where there was less story and more of just trying to be better than the person before you. If one watches, they can see the two {Story driven and Competition driven} games start to merge, into what we have know.
The technology that we have used to play these games have become better as well. Thanks to video games we have created faster computers, vast systems for entertainment at home, and 'smart' handheld devices that can, guess what, play games!\

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

How to: Create a PC Toolkit

2012-03-29T23:47:00.000-04:00

So, you are playing around on your computer, on windows, and suddenly your computer starts freaking out and you don't know what is going on? What do you do? Well, there is a chance that you just got a virus, or if you are lucky something else went wrong. Todays post I am going to talk and explain how to create a PC First Aid Kit.

First question is what does a computer first aid kit need? Well, that is elementary my dear reader! A first aid kit needs to be able not only to help a computer when it goes whacky but also to help keeping it maintained. This means tools to help clean its' physical self, and also tools to keep its software self clean.

Without further ado, what is needed to start:

*A good size Container

*Windex (Or some screen cleaner)

*All-purpose cleaner (something relativity weak to be honest)

* Some pretty soft but strong paper towels

*A USB

*A Multi-tool

*Anti-Static Wrist Band

Most of these are pretty self explanatory. You need both Windex and all-purpose cleaner because screen cleaners are always more effective than any all-purpose cleaners when it comes to cleaning screens. Those tools allow someone to clean someones computer so to kill germs, and prevent sticky keys if they spill something, like soda, on it. When working on a computer you should always wear a Anti-Static Wrist Band because if there is any static discharge on a computer you are trying to fix, bad things happen. Multi-tools allow portablity of a good amount of useful tools on the go, which is good for any quick fixes. Lastly, the one that needs most preparation but will be your defense for when you are working in the software realm of a computer: the usb.

I suggest a USB with a good amount of memory for a good amount of tools. I usually use portable apps from portableapps.com but I am going to give a jist of what sort of portable apps one should get as well as what I usually grab myself.

Security:

* Antivirus:

Always need a antivirus! Clamwin

* Spyware detection:

I have used the portable of Spybot: S&D

* Eraser tool:

I suggest something different on a usb just in case the eraser program on your computer found itself to have been modified. I do suggest another tool from portable apps: Eraser Portable.

Utilities:

* WinDirStat:

WinDirStat allows someone to check what is taking up most memory on the computer at hand.

There are other things that would be nice to get, but I suggest to add what you feel like you need yourself, checking out the portableapps by yourself and seeing what you like. There is some very useful tools and fun things to get from there.

Before I go I would also like to mention that if you have a suggestion, or a question you can send it to me so I can make a post (maybe featuring it as one of the main, or even having an extra post for it). I do tend to want more idea's for the How To posts for Fridays so I know what is needed.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

The internet's surfboard

2012-03-28T01:09:00.000-04:00

What is your favorite web browser? I enjoy most myself, but I also like to use each one as they each have better features than some in some area's. On my Windows I enjoy using Rockmelt because of the neat little chat features and also updates for my favorite things to read (like web comics and news sites). On my Linux I use chromium because of it's super speed compared to trying to use Firefox on it. But we can go on all day about different web browsers, but how often do we think about web browsers?
The topic of web browsers is pretty broad in and of itself, there are how can one speed up a web browser, also topics of how does one test a web browser to see if it is any good, and also how does one work. I am going to try and cover some basic stuff here on this topic.

What is a good web browser:
A good web browser is any good program/suite that you personally enjoy using. With how many different flavors there are there is no reason for one to be the ultimate browser. They each have their own good things about them. Some people enjoy just keeping with what is auto for their computers, so then they don't have to look around for something new, and that is ok. Some people enjoy sticking with something that is top of the line with features, and that is ok, and some people just enjoy ones that their friends use to keep their own lives simple when they have a problem, and that is ok.
Some web browsers that are out right now:
*Firefox: this one has a huge room for people who enjoy it. There are many different things that come with it, for people who are web developers, to people who are not. It has a form of itself on all operating systems as well, so if you dual boot one could keep the same feel of web browsers.
*Chrome/Chromium: this one is growing rapidly, with the speed that it updates, and some of the nifty features that it comes with for simplicity of searching for things on the internet, even having a feature to allow you to search certain sites you been to before. It also allows people to use their accounts to save things to allow their settings to be saved.
*Opera: Opera has been one that I have seen grow in only 4 years, and I do like what I have seen. In most cases it has some neat intiatives, while have a good strong community. Let us not forget to talk about the past of it with the ACID3 test. It was the first browser to ever get 100%, of course at that time it was a memory hog.
*Safari: Safari is what I would suggest for someone who just wants to get online for one second and then get off. It has the fastest start up time light, but what was really amazing was the page load time for both uncached and cached sites, of which it is the fastest as well. It does not have many features, and your not going to see the Safari browser out side of a Mac OS very often.
*Internet Explorer: IE is an ok browser, but its main focus today is for the average user. It is outstanding in only light memory management and Flash, so one should not focus to much with using this browser if you want to do some fun stuff with the internet. However, because it is built into Windows operating systems, it does have some features some web browsers can't dream of on a windows machine.

These are the two most common I have seen around, but certainly not the best, there are some that are really good that people don't use as much because they are unheard of.

Review Wednesday: Blender

2012-03-27T22:05:00.000-04:00

Blender 2.62 Review

In this day and age we all have watched 3D movies, especially the kids movies of this time. I enjoyed the amount of features, and how all one can do. The rendering of your projects are pretty clean as well. I also enjoyed the good support. But, the user friendliness is not that user friendly. It has awkward commands, and unless you want to spend a good amount of time being trained or reading/watching tutorials it is not that much fun

The good:
* Abundance of features!
* Nice clean cut 3D models
* Good support

The bad:
* Not user friendly

* Over whelming for starters

Last comment:
I rate the program about 7/10. Not that great, but not that bad. There are things that need to be worked on so that it will be a top of the line of anything, but that is a good reason why it is Open Sourced.

Your Fellow Technomancer,

Kyle Atterson

What is the deal with ads?

2012-03-26T03:32:00.000-04:00

So we have all seen ads and some of use have even an ad blocker, but how often do we even think about ads? Not like, "Oh, that is a pretty little ad." But how often do we think why ads exist? Why do most of us hate them? Is it because we find them annoying, or because we dislike what they stand for?

Ads to most people are annoying, they take up the space of a site where the creator could have used to add more content (or for game/video sites, it wastes our time). They also just have annoying color designs or makes annoying sounds, maybe they are even in such a place that would force us to think that they themselves are content that we need should click on.

Well, to be fair they do have their own place, they are a necessary evil if you will. They allow people who decide to take a chance and build a site, or do something wasting their own time and money, to try and get a little bit back. It gives some people the traffic they need to know that what they are doing is likable to some extent.

Why it is needed for a Creator:
A creator needs ads so that they can get their stuff out there, because without that then no one would really know what they have made. Word of mouth can only go so far, and so can putting your site on a search engine, a good amount of traffic is going to come from ads, because some people will see something they like and click it.
A creator also needs it so that they can have some way of getting money so that they can do what they love to do (create things for their audience). We all most likely have tried to do something in our lives, but found that the lack of money to support it usually was the defeat of the project whatever it was. Some people try and make sure that they save up to not only what they believe they need, but a lot more; while some go and put ads so that the fire they have for the fire does not burn out before they can get that money to do it.

Why it is needed for the Audience:
The Audience needs them so that they know of what current new projects are going around. What new fun stuff is going around, so that they may go there and explore what they have. They need them so that they can be knowledgeable of what is going on else where.

So given those idea's and all, ads are a necessary evil but yet they do come in handy for some purposes.

CHLF: The Blogosphere

2012-03-23T20:23:00.001-04:00

YTF Note: Sorry for short story, tired from doing a lot today, but still is pretty a interesting topic.

In 1997, the word "weblog" was coined by a Mr. Jorn Barger. The term was used for pages that held within them links to actual sites. One way to think of how this is, is think of your bookmark function on your browser. Now take that idea, and put it on a web page for the world to view. That was weblogging, the father to the blogosphere. The blogophere (a term that stands for the links between all blogs), is something that will always exist because of how the internet works with the interconnectedness.

Blogs soon started becoming adding more and more content to where they soon left what they started. They added more and more words and reviews and feelings and grew to they. Then as a joke someone said on his site "we blog" by splicing the weblog, and thus created the term blog.