SoylentNews

Check out http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/Feeds for a trial concept in article summary development.

Thanks go to prospectacle for his ideas.

Eventually feed sources will be read from here: http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/Feed_sources (currently read from a file on the bot host).

For the curious:
Bot script: https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/irc.php
Feeds script: https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/scripts/feeds.php
Wiki script: https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/scripts/wiki.php

It seems that a number of us are located in and around WNY.

I'd like to plan a Meet-up where we can sit around, drink and plot and plan.

does anyone have a location suggestion, and who would show up?

So I was just about to install Words With Friends on my android phone, but then it popped up with the list of app permissions that the game requires.

Identity - Who I am
Contacts/Calendar - Everyone I know, and/or what my schedule looks like
Location - Where I am/have been
SMS - What I am saying via text (And also send them)
Photos/Media/Files - All the pictures and music on my phone
Wifi connection information - Everything about any wifi access points I connect to
Device ID & call information - What kind of phone I have, and who/when I have called

All I want to do is destroy my coworker with my immense vocabulary, but now I feel like I need to bust out a tinfoil hat just to download the game.

Now I am not so sure, I mean, why does a Scrabble knockoff need to know everything about me? Is that weird, or am I suddenly paranoid?

exec has been relocated to a (usually) always on webserver, so should be available more

also has remote updating from github and remote restarting, which means i can still tinker on my laptop :-)

try this in irc for a list of supported commands that anyone can run:
~list

use ~join #chan if you would like exec to join a channel, and ~part to get it to leave. #test is the only channel that ~part won't work for.

feel free to play/test/pilfer/etc. suggestions are always welcome too.

source code here:
https://github.com/crutchy-/test

more info here:
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRC:exec

colored city flags implemented.

haven't completed unit attacking yet, but i've sort of got a placeholder for it in the code that occurs when a unit tries to move into another player unit coord (currently outputs a status indicating foreign unit)
https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/scripts/irciv.php#L902

also have set unit data for attack/defense strengths, and there's some notes about attacking @ http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv#Development_notes

implemented whois-based authentication of internal exec bot administration commands and also alias-specific account lists, and a ~civ-admin alias was added with an account list to allow easier administration tasks in a more secure manner.

administration tasks added as listed here: http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv#Administration_commands
will endeavor to document these a little better down the track. at this stage just trying to make sure i document added usage syntax somewhere so its not forgotten.

coming up next... finishing off attacking foreign units

====
pushed latest code to github: https://github.com/crutchy-/test
note: irciv.php and irciv_lib.php contain most of the game functionality and can be found in the scripts directory
latest web map demo here: http://irciv.port119.net/?pid=2

join the #civ channel in soylent irc

more info:
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRC:exec

"The U.S. is a living hell as elementary rights to existence are ruthlessly violated," the state news agency claims. Some countries are accustomed to U.S. reports deploring their human-rights abuses. But on Wednesday, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) retaliated with a human-rights report of its own titled "News Analysis on Poor Human Rights Records in US." In it, KCNA claim that the U.S. is the "world's worst human rights abuser" and a "living hell." Do the agency's claims hold up to scrutiny? Here's a fact-check of the report.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/05/is-north-korea-right-about-us-human-rights-abuses/361589/

Spurious Correlations finds the hidden, totally pointless connections between everything

Spurious Correlations is the virtual embodiment of a useful rhetorical cudgel: correlation does not equal causation. Sift through its data sets, and you'll find all sorts of statistics that can be mapped onto each other - margarine consumption and the divorce rate, crude oil imports and number of train collision deaths, bee colony growth and the marriage rate. If you ever need to demonstrate that two things can appear connected purely by chance or some entirely separate factor, this is your site. If you need "news of the weird" fodder and are willing to play fast and loose with the facts, the charts are still technically accurate.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/11/5706802/spurious -correlations-finds-hidden-totally-pointless-conne ctions

http://www.tylervigen.com/

Before getting into quite why Nicholas Wade's A Troublesome Inheritance-a book which argues, among other things, that Jews possess a genetic "adaptation to capitalism"-is racist, it may be worth thinking back to the summer of 2012. Viewers of the BBC's coverage of the Olympics on August 10 would have been surprised, between heats in the 200 metres, by a short video explaining how the slave trade made black people into better athletes:

http://www.newstatesman.com/future-proof/2014/05/jews-are-adapted-capitalism-and-other-nonsenses-new-scientific-racism

Radioactive kitty litter may have ruined our best hope to store nuclear waste. Billions invested in an underground New Mexico repository could be wasted because of one seemingly innocuous decision.
Some of the most dangerous nuclear waste in the US is currently scattered between 77 locations all over the country, awaiting permanent storage. Until February, many experts suggested that the best place to put it was a facility about 40 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). For 15 years, WIPP has operated as the first and only permanent, deep geologic nuclear waste storage facility in the country, holding "low level" radioactive materials - mostly clothing and tools exposed to radiation from nuclear weapons production - in steel barrels more than 2,150 feet below the Earth's surface. But earlier this year two emergencies brought that suggestion - and WIPP's future - into question. And now it seems kitty litter may be to blame.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/23/5742800/did-kitty-litter-just-kill-the-most-successful-nuclear-waste-facility

added detection/visibility of foreign units, including updating of all player maps affected by a move.
added some map features (grid coords, city name labels, unit shields, city flags)
unit shields are colored specific to each player, but yet to color city flags
added development notes to wiki
added "wiki-todo" alias to exec

coming up next... coloring city flags & attacking foreign units

====
pushed latest code to github: https://github.com/crutchy-/test
note: irciv.php and irciv_lib.php contain most of the game functionality and can be found in the scripts directory
latest web map demo here: http://irciv.port119.net/?pid=1

join the #civ channel in soylent irc

more info:
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRCiv
http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/IRC:exec