cmdr2

I tried this last year for a Wordpress blog with ~1000 articles, and the time to generate the static pages was too long (several minutes) even for routine tasks like adding a new article. Simple things like a "New Articles" list in the sidebar can cause all pages to regenerate. I tried many different approaches (recursive wget, wordpress plugins, intercept wordpress output in PHP with ob_start() etc).

Ultimately, putting a Varnish cache seemed like the only logical answer to speed things a bit more, but that didn't avoid Wordpress security attacks.

For fun though, I built an experimental wordpress-clone dashboard that saved Hugo-compatible files instead, so I wouldn't miss Wordpress' editing features. The result was superb (<5 seconds to regenerate the ~1000 articles blog), but I missed the Wordpress plugins too much to switch to Hugo entirely.

But I still agree with you: "keep wordpress' editing experience, but generate static sites" is a pretty promising direction IMO.

> I think so too but couldn't work out how. It needs something extra on top to give you a reason to work through the puzzles I think.

I've been thinking on these lines recently too, and maybe the game could be to allow others to experience the fun you're having in building these rules and watching the outcomes? Letting them author the rules, and watch the outcomes. Or letting them manage and upgrade the bots, sorta like an overlord who doesn't actually chop wood etc.

This is kind of a nebulous idea (and definitely not new), but spawns from the fun I've been having the past few weeks in writing a bunch of simple rules for cities to attack, ally, trade with each other. Watching kingdoms evolve, alliances form and break, funny situations like a rock shortage eventually triggering a massive war among all kingdoms, was fun. It might not be as fun for a passive observer, but as the author of the rules, the feedback loop of making changes and watching the emergent outcomes was pretty neat (kinda like programming, heh). But it is a scary path to go down, if the intention is to market it as a game, because it doesn't look or sound like any "real" game.

On a different note, Dwarf Fortress is ripe with such emergent outcomes. On another different note, Robocode is quite fun where you author bots and rules and watch how the bots fare against each other.

Is this the story? http://www.young-adult-books.com/read/buy-jupiter-and-other-... (link says "buy", but looks like the entire story is on that page)

Disclaimer: I'm a work-in-progress like everyone else. What's written below may seem obvious to most folks here, but it still is a daily battle for me, and will likely be for the rest of my life.

--

Quote: "Here’s what happens when you resolve to write every day: you soon slip up."

Quote: "the brain does not necessarily distinguish between your .. abstract goal, to write a novel, and the accompanying specific plan, to write every day"

Quote: "When the specific plan fails, the resulting lack of motivation infects the general goal as well"

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I'd rather address this behavior of the brain, instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Strategically, it makes more sense to simply shrug off every failed day, and trying to write again the next day, as if nothing happened. Don't even bother to reflect on it (in order to learn) - you've already absorbed some lessons subconsciously. Keep the for..loop light.

Even if you've failed for the past 1000 days, why not attempt to write today?

Even if you fail to write today, why not try to write again tomorrow? Taking these failures as a personal judgment ("Oh I'm a procrastinator", "Oh I'm always going to keep procrastinating and failing, what's the point?") is the real problem. Life is chaotic, stuff happens. Managing that emotional response, and simply coming back in every day and trying seems optimal. A bit like a mostly-dumb but relentless bull.

What do you have to lose? The worst case is you'll fail at the goal, but the default state of any goal is failure - only by working at it do you reduce the odds of it failing. So just going back in each day and trying, and not taking failed days as personal judgments seems optimal. We tend to forgive others, but not ourselves. If a close friend of yours was failing each day but really wanted to accomplish the goal, what would you advise them?

> Occulus was poised to be revolutionary because it was going to be bigger than one headset, it was going to be an open platform for an entire generation of VR tech. Now, it is only facebook tech, and that is a shame

Oculus was and is a hardware company, with plans to expand their content marketplace (share.oculusvr.com). I do not see how Oculus was an open platform for VR tech, that's giving them too much credit.

I'm trying to calculate the valuation of Oculus VR. Obviously I don't know anything about calculating valuation :)

They have 70 employees [1], funding of $91 million [2], headset sales of 50K for DK1 [3] (although claims sales of 75K). Unknown IP, unknown partnership deals, unknown real-estate cost, unknown inventory, molds, and hardware assets.

I suspect that the valuation isn't entirely for their assets, but I cannot arrive at the 2 billion number. Do my 'unknowns' listed above complete the 2 billion mark?

[1] http://www.oculusvr.com/company/people/ [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus_VR, 2.5m kickstarter + 75 series B + 13.5 m unknown [3] http://www.gamespot.com/articles/oculus-rift-suspends-shipme...

I really doubt anything would change. Look beyond the brand-name of Facebook, or the current social-network connotations.

I doubt someone smart enough to build a company like Oculus VR would've forgotten to plan how to run inside Facebook and continue delivering the vision of VR.

After all, aren't we all here to support the vision of mainstream VR, and not just one company?

me: mind, stop going down thought-threads about facebook empire building

mind: fu

me: okay, don't panic. facebook sees the potential in the upcoming VR industry

mind: yeah, they also see the VR marketplace wars coming and want to own it

me: marketplace wars? like apps built for VR accessible from within the headset [1]?

mind: yeah, so (c)blocking Steam from exploiting valve's influence with Oculus, and instead push Facebook as the marketplace for VR content

me: interesting.. mind?

mind: yeah?

me: you're just making up shit to explain why Facebook would buy Oculus VR aren't you?

mind: yeah :(

[1] http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5524336/new-oculus-rift-dev...