There's times where I want something more, someone more like me. There's times when this dress

Anyone going to Philcon this weekend and can help me with prep for an laconiv party for half an hour, please?

And, anyone who wants to help reconstruct photos -- perhaps using XVI32 or equivalent to delete strings of 00's, or by using paint shop pro or photo shop or something -- please let me know, I'll set you loose on a directory of photos.

darrelx is working on this batch: http://www.boston-baden.com/hazel/Recovery/jpgfiles/export-08-ok/jpg-08-09-lasfs/
johno's assigned section is http://www.boston-baden.com/hazel/Recovery/jpgfiles/export-08-ok/jpg-08-10-lasfs/
testerscot has this batch: http: //www.boston-baden.com/hazel/Recovery/jpgfiles/export-08-ok/jpg-08-11-lasfs/
toddashi is welcome to browse through these looking for things to do: http://www.boston-baden.com/hazel/Recovery/jpgfiles/export-08-ok/jpg-08-12-lasfs/
bovil has taken a look at some of the photos in http://www.boston-baden.com/hazel/Recovery/jpgfiles/export-08-ok/jpg-08-20-scifi/ and http://www.boston-baden.com/hazel/Recovery/jpgfiles/export-08-ok/jpg-08-20-anawed/ (used to be one directory, I split it into two)

Thank you, every one of you!

( Continuing Loscon Saturday night -- Lynn tucked me into bed, and Colleen rounded up a crew to set up the L.A.con IV party... )

And my folding cart didn't turn up on Sunday, either. I haunted the place for a while, waiting to see if anyone returned it to Ops or used it to haul stuff to the truck. Nope. My best-case scenario was that someone had used it to haul stuff upstairs for a party, then folded it up and tucked it in a closet and forgotten about it; but it's looking more and more like someone just took it away with them. Dang it. I've ordered another one; it's a shame to lose the one that had been to Toronto and Glasgow with me, though.

Rumor had it that there was supposed to be dead-dog pizza delivered to the Con Suite sometime in the evening. I hadn't done much to help with teardown. (The green farm wagon I'd brought got plenty off use -- I took a few photos of it loaded with different items -- but I didn't actually lend much of a hand myself because I was still wiped-out. Felt a bit guilty for standing around and not helping, but just didn't have the energy.) I had my doubts about the pizza plan --- it was after 7:00 pm, and I just wanted to get something for dinner. I said goodbye to everyone, dropped the props off at the Crosbys, and headed for home.

Did the pizza ever arrive? And was there enough?

One of these days I'll chair another Loscon; two things I want to try are a Thanskgiving dinner buffet in the hotel restaurant, and a "dead dog" buffet dinner Sunday night. The Dead Dog party tradition is strongest, it seems to me, at conventions that end on Sunday of a Monday-holiday weekend; but that's not Loscon, Loscon ends on a "school night." We don't have the luxury (or the large number of people staying over Sunday night) to do final load-out of the Con Suite at midnight Sunday or Monday morning -- let's try something else. And when I have enough different "something else" things to try and shake up Loscon with, I'll bid for one...

Ooh, hooh, hoo, Pepsi Blue. Looks like Windex and tastes like shampoo. Buy that Slurpee

I just whipped up a little program to take care of a little detail that's been bothering me... It goes something like this.

I've got a nifty color sign that I've printed up for my room party at the convention I'm going to. I left a place blank to write in the room number as soon as I learn what it is.

But wouldn't it be nice if I could have the room number printed there too?

I could bring along a portable printer; I'll start doing that for the Fan Gallery one of these days. If I had a printer with me I could print my signs on-site.

But that's a risky chance to take -- what if something goes wrong with the printer setup? I don't want to be stuck with some blank paper instead of signs that I could finish with a black Sharpie marker.

I could bring along the ones with the space for the number, and use the printer to fill in the number. But how will I get the number to print in exactly the right place?

So what I've done -- using the immensely handy C library GD and a little tool I whipped up myself -- is create a grid to determine where to locate the number, then tell my little program to print the number in exactly that spot on the page.

It's pretty slick -- it scales the point size up or down to neatly fit the space, it can use a font I specify (or defaults to Arial Black). And the really cool thing, in my book, is that I don't need to measure carefully with a ruler and then hope that my printout faithfully goes to the right place. All I have to do is print the reference grid with the same print setup I'd use to overprint the number, and it'll always line up where it should...

Well, I thought it was cool, anyhow. I'm considering making it a CGI program on my server that'll let you generate the overlay number output -- would any of you have a use for that kind of thing?