Regdar and the Fighters

On Asteroids and Internets

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Meta political retoric rant post go!

So here’s an interesting thing about political debates. Every time people start arguing about allocation of resources (health care, energy sources), philosophical sliding scales (freedom vs. safety, capitalism vs. socialism), etc., everyone seems to lose site of the endgame: Post scarcity. We’ve all seen Star Trek. We all know what we want the future to look like. Why is it that we always get so bogged down in the details of the here and now that we forget about what should be our long-term goals?

Do we think that we truly can’t one day have readily available bacta tanks that allow us to quickly recover from any wound? Or cyborg hands indistinguishable from the original? Or vat-grown headless clones of ourselves so we can replace our decrepit bodies at will?

Do we not plan on one day building dyson spheres to harness all the energy of Alpha Centaurie to power our holodecks?

We’ve got Steven Hawking and Carl Sagan over here talking about how we should probably try to colonize other planes so that our whole species doesn’t get wiped out in a freak accident, but the only people paying attention are the sci-fi nerds!

That’s what’s so weird about the free Internet debate recently. Information is one place where a post-scarcity economy is eminently achievable, not just within our lifetimes but within a matter of a few years! We could easily make it so that everybody has more information than they could possibly need. Yet here we are, fighting against post-scarcity like a bunch of jerks.

On second thought, Sagan and Hawking are wrong. Bring on the asteroid! Melt this pale blue dot before we have a chance to infect the rest of the universe with more of our stupidity.

Rant: EULAs (nerding with the nerds in the nerdery!)

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

You know what annoys me? End User License Agreements (EULAs sometimes also called Terms of Service). They’re these giant legal documents that corporate lawyers draw up as the agreement between them (the software creator) and you (the customer). The problem with most EULAs is that they’re really one-sided. There is a big list of things that they insist you can’t do with the software you bought, and there is almost no reciprocation. And your only options as a customer are to either accept the deal carte blanche or reject it and go through the hassle of trying to get a refund.

They can get downright draconian too! Here is an excerpt from an EULA written by a popular game company (edited to protect their identity):

You agree that COMPANY would be irreparably damaged if the terms of this License were not specifically enforced, and therefore you agree that COMPANY shall be entitled, without bond, other security, or proof of damages, to appropriate equitable remedies with respect to breaches of this License, in addition to such other remedies as COMPANY may otherwise have available to it under applicable laws.

Did you catch that? The bit where you agreed that they can demand reparations from you if they think you violated the agreement, and they don’t even have to prove it! That’s ridiculous! Even when they’re not making ridiculous new demands, they insist that you agree to rights that are either a) already defended by law or 2) obvious. Things like “If your computer melts while visiting our website, it’s not our problem” or “don’t break copyright laws.”

Here’s my proposition: We need a bill of end user rights. We need a set of rules that are automatically appended to every EULA to protect the customer. Here’s what I’m thinking to get it started:

Security updates will be made available for free for the life cycle of the product - If your software breaks, you have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect your customers from your own mistakes.
Security updates will not be contingent on escalating privileges - I get this one with my phone apps a lot. A new update comes out, and all of a sudden my tuner needs to be allowed to make purchases and charge them to me. No. That’s not cool.
Privileges required by the software will be disclosed - This is one thing that smart phones do well. Every time I install or update an app, they tell me what permissions that app is going to need. I like that! All software should let me know what boundaries it has and make sure to stick to them!
The software will not install automated services without first prompting the user; non-necessary services may be left off - Apple software is really bad about this. Every time I update Safari or iTunes on my Windows computer, I have to go through and disable Bonjour, iPod helper, and half a dozen other services that I don’t want or need.
The software will not perform administrative functions without a prompt or previous permission from the user - Google software is really bad about this. You can’t turn automatic updates off for Chrome or Google maps. It updates silently in the background, often making administrative changes beyond the simple update function even. Chrome once messed around with the icons on my admin’s desktop during the update. Not cool!

So what else should go on this list? I’m sure there’s other important stuff that I’m forgetting. Leave a comment!
Oh, and also, since my page views tripled this week because of it: SOPA! SOPA! SOPA! (Why is everyone so excited about Spanish soup? Either way, come for the sopa, stay for the nerd rawk!)

Second Person is the Best Narrative Perspective

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

“But why, Steve?” You ask yourself. “Surely someone as charming, witty, and stunningly good-looking as you must have a good reason for saying such a strange thing. But for the life of me, I cannot fathom what it could be! It must be because you’re so much smarter than I am, Steve! I think I’ll post positive, supportive comments to your blog and listen to your amazing music.”

And I say, "Exactly!"

Ye Olde Doom Comic

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Once upon a time, there was a video game. It was called Doom. It was pretty awesome, and it revolutionized video games.

It was so influential, in fact, that many other people tried to get involved in the giant money cow it appeared to be. Many clever people came up with many clever (read: "bad") ideas for tie ins to cash in on the game.

One of the best of these was The Doom Comic! It's 16 pages of the game's normally silent protagonist monologuing about his favorite guns, shouting "rip and tear!", and quoting Army of Darkness. It's pretty tremendous!

However, a few years ago, I decided that this brilliant narrative could use some classing up.

To that effect. I downloaded the comic and rewrote the dialog in "Ye Olde English." I then created a LiveJournal account expressly for the purpose of hosting these images. Then I forgot the password because I never intended to update it. Then I realized that I'd made a mistake on one of the pages!

So, for posterity's sake, I have redownloaded all the images, fixed my mistake, and re-uploaded them here for everyone to enjoy again!

(Note: if the text is too small to read in the Thickbox, you can right click->open in new tab to view the image full-size)

The Importance of Failure

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

For those of you who aren't familiar, here is what Regdar (the laptop) does during any given song: he builds a random loop of 2 to 8 beats using 8 percussive noises. He does this 3 times (on average). Each of these is keyed to a button on the DDR pad. Then he has up to 5 "chords" keyed to the other buttons. When one of those buttons is depressed, Regdar plays a random note from within the chord for a set period (usually half a beat or so) before switching to the next one.

There is a lot of randomness, then, in how a song sounds. Once Regdar has decided what a beat is, I have no control over it. Add to that the fact that the DDR pad is not the most accurate control interface, and sometimes the buttons misfire, and we end up with a carefully-manufactured sound that we have little control over.

"Why, Steve?" You may ask. "Why not just pre-program things so that they're more predictable instead of all this randomness, which may or may not sound good from show to show?"

I will answer you in one word: Magic!

Then I will then answer you in more words: Live music is not about perfect performances. If you want to hear a song exactly how it is meant to sound, buy the album. The live show should be a magical, ephemeral thing. The best shows aren't the sort where you can recreate the experience with a DVD and good sound system. The best shows are the ones, where afterwards you tell your friends, "You should have been there! A show like that may never happen again!"

You can't ever cross the same river twice; you can't ever go to the same amazing show twice.

However, as a musician, my goal is to make as many shows as possible be that magical thing. There are two major techniques used to achieve this purpose: The most visible technique is to make each show a big spectacle. Complex choreography! Elaborate pyrotechnics! Expensive costumes! This technique is expensive and hard to pull off, but it's what most big-name musicians will do.

The other technique is to get out of the way and let the magic happen. Play the show. Do a good job of it. But don't try to force amazing, spontaneous things to happen. They will occur, and they will be great. Just let them happen.

That is why Regdar and the Fighters uses so much randomness. The greater the entropy; the greater the chance of failure: The greater the chance that something unexpected and great will happen. Without huge spectacles, having every show be the same is the death of magic. It grows stale and boring. Having this much entropy allows the band to step back and let awesome craziness happen!

You can't ever cross the same river twice; you can't ever go to the same Regdar and the Fighters show twice.

Crackpot Theories: Indoctrinating Kids is Kind of Weird

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Morgan Spurlock (the guy from the movie Super Size Me) used to have this TV show called 30 Days. The premise was that each week, a participant had to live a life very dissimilar to his or her own for a month. It was pretty decent. One episode in particular stands out to me though:

They had an episode in the 2nd season called "Religious Perception" wherein an atheist woman lived with a devout Christian family. In the early part of the episode, where they show what everyone is like before the process begins there was a fascinating exchange between this woman (Brenda Frei, according to IMDB) and her young (6 or 8 ish?) son. It went something like...

Brenda: Who controls your life?
Son: You do.
Everyone: *laughter*
Son: I don't mean you do; I mean that you're in control of your own life.

This impressed me to see this. I grew up in a Christian home, so I had many conversations where concepts such as "Jesus died for your sins" and "God created the world" were taught, rehearsed, and reinforced. It was fascinating to see this exact same process occurring from a completely different perspective!
This child is happily parroting atheist dogma because he trusts his mother to know what she's talking about in the same way that I happily parroted Christian dogma because I trusted my parents.

This got me thinking: Indoctrinating kids is kind of weird. We've got all these rules that say that good parents essentially brainwash their children to believe an arbitrary set of things. Add to this the fact that different "good parents" (whatever that means) teach their kids completely different, mutually exclusive ideologies. But why? I mean, obviously, children need to learn a certain set of skills and concepts in order to function in society, but why any specific set of ideologies?

That's a lot of responsibility for one or two people! "Here you go sir and/or maam. You are responsible for teaching this tiny human how the universe works, and for a long period they will believe absolutely every word of it, regardless of how wrong you may be."

"But wait!" the parents say, "I haven't even figured out how half of this stuff works!"

"Too bad," this strange narrator (doctor? guide? who is this character? I'm a terrible story teller!) responds. "You'll just have to do your best."

Yet somehow, this wildly unqualified group of people spouting vastly conflicting and mostly wrong data succeed in raising generation after generation of people who, besides doing a terrible job of raising their own kids, seem to do alright.

We are a weird species, and I'm surprised at the fact that we haven't completely annihilated ourselves in some ridiculous way yet. I just hope we can build robots to make our decisions (and raise our kids!) for us before that happens.

Story time with Uncle Steve: John Henry

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

The following is a story of the little guy's triumph against the evils of industrialization.

Jonathan was a parking lot flag waver. He was a darn good parking lot flag waver! Whenever a sporting event, major concert, or awards show happened in Nashville, he was always right out there, wearing his reflective safety vest and waving an orange flag to tell motorists "hey! There's a parking lot here. For ten bucks, you can park your car while you go see the event or whatever." Jonathan had a lot of friends and co-workers in the standing-in-the-dark-and-rain-waving-a-flag-for-minimum-wage business, but everyone knew Jonathan was the best. No one could endure tedium and cold for $7.25 an hour like Johnny could.

Then, one day, disaster struck. His friend Mike McCormick rushed up to him.

"John! John!" Mike sputtered. "We're all in trouble! We're gonna lose our jobs!"

"What's going on Mike!"

"They've built a terrible machine, John! It's gonna cost us all our jobs!"

Mike led Jonathan over to the next parking lot where a terrible monstrosity loomed.

The airdancer lay flaccid and deflated but still teemed with a sinister forboding. Suddenly, the foreman stepped out of the shadows, smoking a cigar and looking like a cross between a circus ringleader and the stereotype of a capitalist from Soviet propaganda.

"That's right, lads," the foreman said. "With these bad boys next to every parking lot downtown, you're all completely obsolete. Go home lads. You're all fired."

"Hold on, foreman!" A lone brave voice spoke up. The crowd parted as Johnny walked forward. "You may have a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man, but you'll never beat the spirit of the working man!"

"What the devil are you talking about, boy?" Demanded the foreman.

"I propose a contest," Jonathan's jaw jutted out defiantly. "Me versus your tube puppet. Which sells more parking spaces?"

"Meh," shrugged the foreman. "Ok."

The foreman flipped the switch, and the airdancer sprang to life with a deafening roar. The crowd gawked at the machine precision of its colorful flailing. Jonathan was shocked. How could he compete with this? Then he gritted his teeth. Everyone was counting on him to beat this monstrosity. He snatched up his flag and rushed to the other entrance. They were off!

The crowd watched in awe as man and machine competed in this epic showdown. The airdancer flailed high and wide, fifteen feed of polyester glory, while Johnny deftly twirled his flag and stood stock still close to the line of sight of passing cars without disrupting traffic much.

Vehicles began to file into the lot as the minutes began to grind onward into hours. Some drove past Johnathan; some drove past the tube man. The contest was close!

Suddenly, as dusk fell, the rain began! Johnny bore it with a grim determination, while the airdancer continued to smile unchanging. As the air cooled, the rain slowly turned to sleet. Johnny waved undaunted, but the airdancer showed signs of slowing. The water and ice seemed to be taking their toll on it. The crowd began to grow hopeful. Perhaps Jonathan could beat this terrible machine!

The hours past, and the event ended. Finally, when the cars had all dispersed, the foreman came out. He flipped the switch, and the airdancer collapsed in a wet heap. He walked over to Johnny and looked him in the eye.

"Ya did good kid," the foreman muttered as he handed Johnny his $36.25. "Yeh can keep your job. Turns out every one of these tube guys costs upwards of $400, plus I gotta get lights for 'em. Hiring kids like you is just way cheaper."

Johnny smiled grimly and went home, exhausted and cold, but proud.

Then he caught pneumonia and died, because John Henry isn't allowed to live through his own story. Life kind of sucks sometimes.

Oh! Plus, all his friends were fired for standing around watching the competition that night instead of working at the other parking lots around downtown. Don't worry though! Half of them were hired back the next week. It's not like any of the other parking lot owners bothered to read their resumes. It's more like, "Oh, you're willing to work a ridiculous job for basically nothing, and you're not visibly intoxicated? Ok. You're hired."

The End. (No pun this time. Sorry, kiddies.)

How we'll get SOPA repealed in two easy steps!

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

It may be naive of me, but I've never been too worried about the Stop Online Pree-speech Act (someone should really tell them they spelled it wrong.) Even assuming they find a way to enforce it (how long until the SOPA De-compliance plugin hits Firefox, do you think?), I still feel like even Congresspersons aren't so dumb that they completely misunderstand what their bill would do.

Anyway, let's assume the worst case, and this thing passes right through and bypasses the Presidential Veto (C'mon Obama! You're supposed to be tech savvy.) What will we do then?

Never fear! I've come up with a simple two step plan that ensures that the exact same morons who passed the thing will want to immediately repeal it!

Step 1: On the day SOPA is passed, find a list of every Congressperson who voted for it and start posting dubiously copyrighted content on their personal pages. Now, of course, I'm NOT encouraging you to do anything illegal. Post content that is fair-use but upsets copyright holders anyway. Got a Harry Potter fanfic that needs more readers? I bet they'll love it in the comments section of Representative T-Rex (R-Tex)'s blog! Have some image macros from your "Free Justin Beiber" campaign? They'll probably host them on the official campaign page of Senator Doesnotunderstand (D-NS*)'s forums. Disseminate all the crowd-sourced content!

Step 2: On the day SOPA goes into effect, react to all of this IP-infringing content! Are you a content owner? Report all this violating content on public figure's websites! Even if you don't own any IP worth noting, I'm sure they'll be glad that you're such an upstanding and civic-minded person to help enforce the laws of this great nation! Make sure you report it to everyone! Report to the Department of Justice to make sure these offending sites are taken down. Report it to PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, Google, and any other payment gateways and ad networks that might be passing money to these awful lawbreakers. If you're somehow involved in a payment gateway or an ad network, make sure you do your civic duty by immediately heeding all SOPA complaints against government websites. (Remember, there are no consequences for payment gateways over-enforcing!)

Finally, we'll all sit back and watch in amazement as a united Congress - amazing how threatening campaign donations will do that! - get the bill repealed almost instantly!

* Nova Scotia is close to the US? Look, no US states would make the joke work, OK!

Crackpot Theories: Switch the drinking and driving ages

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Being as I may have inadvertantly endorsed underage drinking in last week's post, I'd better rationalize it now!

The drinking and driving ages are stupid and should be switched.

Here's my reasoning:
Public transportation is a great idea, right? It's cheap. It's safe. It's good for the environment. It reduces congestion. If it's done right, it's fast and not unpleasant. Sweet deal!
But the odds are good that public transit wherever you live is kind of terrible. It's not very intuitive, and it's really slow. So, of course, you don't use it. You've had a car since you were 16, and it's just plain easier.
Since no one's using it, the bus system doesn't have any money, so it doesn't get any better. It's a pretty severe catch-22.
But what if you didn't have that car? What if you weren't allowed to drive until you turned 21? Everyone between 17 and 20 is going to college or entering the workforce, and they all need to get from point A to B. They'll all be using public transportation. The system has to get better to accommodate them and their money.
Life is better for everyone!

As to the drinking, well, prohibition doesn't work. Raise your hands everyone who never drank illegally as a teenager! Just me and the two homeschooled kids in the back? OK. Well, that's kind of a dumb law isn't it? Might as well encourage kids to drink responsibly instead of glamorizing it.

Also, if you're a parent, the responsible thing to do is buy your kids a microbrew. Remember, friends don't let friends drink s***ty beer!

Really, though, the most important reason that the drinking age should be lowered is this: Kids should be able to go to shows! Live music is a ton of fun, but there are so many venues that just don't let minors in because it's easier than trying to card everyone at the bar. That just seems like a terrible idea to me. I actively resent the fact that I went to very few shows when I was younger, and I'm appalled that my generation would continue to perpetrate this injustice on the next!

So if you're the shadow president of the USA, listen up! Switch the drinking and driving ages. It'll be awesome, I promise!

Nashville open mics

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600

I've been in Nashville for 4 weeks so far. Guess how many open mics I've played so far?

If you guessed 0, you win! "But Steve," you say despite the poor grammar this represents, "why aren't you playing open mics? You love playing at open mics! Plus, you're in Nashville! There should be open mics every night."

To which, I respond, Yes! You're right on both accounts, but here's the secret: Open mics in Nashville suck! It turns out that "Music City" is more like "Music is Serious Business City." There is an open mic every night somewhere in the city, but there are so many aspiring country singer songwriters that the market is completely flooded. If there are any small, fun open mics, I haven't found them yet.

All that I've been able to find are "Songwriter" nights. Half of them have auditions or signups weeks in advance. Half of them have drink minimums or covers. Most limit you to two or even one songs and won't allow any instrumentation beyond an acoustic-electric guitar and the house piano. I even saw one that said that all performers have to invite 10 friends.

Those aren't open mic nights! Those are a bad Alternative Band Night at a bar that hates its bands.

So, yeah. Since I'm not willing to drive 40 miles to go to a decent open mic, it may be a while before we manage to play live anywhere.

I should really just become a millionaire so I can buy my own venue and play whenever I want. Our open mic will have the rule that if you play a song that sounds like it could have been done by an aspiring country band on Broadway at noon on a Tuesday, you're kicked off the stage, and you don't get a drink ticket. In fact, your drink ticket is given to the classically-trained avant garde guitarst; the teenager trying to cover The Refused on just a bass; the guy playing a cajon solo; or the bearded man playing droll, sarcastic songs on ukulele. I'll hand that guy your drink ticket all the while shaking my head and looking disappointed at you. Just don't tell the cops I gave your drink ticket to a minor. I'd hate to get shut down.

Why do I only post here about once a month? (Pic)

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Crackpot Theories: PiCS, or it didn't happen.

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Astute readers may have noticed that I've blatantly stolen this "blog about crackpot theories" thing from my older brother.* Now I'd like to steal another aspect of the idea from him. He once defined a crackpot theory as any explanation that makes you go, "Yeah! That sounds right!"

What I like about the phrase is the sense of self-deprecation it brings with it. When you describe your idea as a crackpot theory, it tells listeners that they should probably get some salt for this idea margarita, 'cause you're going to need one or two hefty grains! (Drinking and BS explanations go together like french fries and gravy. You know it's wrong, but it feels so right!)

But not everyone uses such amazing terminology to qualify their brilliant, and well-though-out ideas. Some people just say them as if they're true.** In such cases, as with many things in life, it's the internet trolls who've figured out the solution: Pics, or it didn't happen.

In this case, "pics" is a handy little anagram to remember (because I'm that kind of nerd).

Published In a Credible Scientificjournal.*** It's like [citation needed], but makes you sound like an even bigger jerk than a Wikipedia editor!

It lets you be flippant and dismissive, and right! So, the next time someone tries to convince you of something with "logic" or "statistics" or "anecdotal evidence," just remember: Pics or it didn't happen!

*That's OK. He stole the "programming computers" thing from me, so we'll call it even!

** "Not meant to be a factual statement"

*** Journal of Irreproducible Results counts.

Show Recap: At least we got some bootlegs out of it!

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500

About two months ago, we signed up to participate in a battle of the bands. It was a pretty elaborate setup: It was going to take place over the course of 3 separate nights. The winner was going to get a professional music video made. There was going to be text-in voting. They were even talking about streaming the show online so your distant fans could watch and vote too.

Then they had the first of the 3 performances. Two of the six bands showed up.

Then they canceled the other two. We were scheduled to play on night 2.

Undeterred we contacted the venue to try to set up some kind of alternate show. The finally got back to us the Monday before to give us the OK. We then began frantically emailing the other bands on the ticket to see if any still wanted to play. One of them did.

So we started contacting other bands. Finally, we got a hold of Awkward Terrible, Who seemed like a good match tone wise, and they were willing to play! Those two bands, plus a local that the venue hoped to find for us, meant we had a show!

Then the day of the show arrived. Awkward Terrible emailed to let us know they couldn't make it. Weak.

Then the local band never materialized.

Then the other BotB participant didn't show up.

So it was just us. Screw it! We'll play anyway.

So we played a pretty sweet set! Except there was one other setback. There was no one there who wasn't being paid to attend. At all. Zero. Somehow, nobody showed up to this fairly popular bar near Chicago on a Saturday night. The closest we had to an audience was our merch guy, Ryan (who was being paid in beer but paid nonetheless).

Long story short, we filmed the show and uploaded the videos to our YouTube channel. With a professional sound guy and no audience to interfere, they actually turned out pretty well! These are probably some of the best videos we're going to make until we hit bajillionairre rock star status.

Overall, it was a pretty good show!

There's no accounting for taste.

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Today, I think we should talk about (and link to!) horrible music.

A few years back, some... scientists? collected a bunch of data points and tried to quantify what people like and dislike in music. They ended up manufacturing two songs from their results: The Most Wanted Song which is three and a half minutes of mediocre pop drivel. And the far-more entertaining Least Wanted Song, 25 minutes of rapping opera cowboys and children's holiday choirs shilling Wal-mart to the sounds of accordions and bagpipes.

Yes, the latter is far more listenable. It is, in fact, amazing in its own special way! I find that I can barely sit through the "Most Wanted Song," but sometimes I find myself humming "Rammadan! Rammadan! Lots of praying and NO BREAKFAST! Rammadan! So much fun! Do all your shopping at Wal-mart!"

Clearly this whole "what is and isn't good" thing is pretty subjective.* I wonder why we argue about it so much?

Then today, I was directed to what I now belive to be the worst song ever. For those of you who are not yet inured to brain-melting cosmic horror, that is The Halls of the Mountain King synthesized from the screams of children.

I'm thinking there's probably something out there that's even worse, but still awesome in its own horrific way. Perhaps you, my dear reader, can help out? Post a comment! What is the most face-blisteringly awful song that you've ever heard?

* Disclaimer: All Regdar and the Fighters songs are objectively good.

Crackpot Theories: A Dearth of Miracles

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 -0500

I've had several conversations with atheist to agnostic friends over the years that included a question something like: "If God is so existenceful, how come He has never appeared to me?"

Setting aside the fake words used by my imaginary debate partner (straw man!), I think I finally have the answer. It can be summed up in a single word: "bugfixes."

Like all developers, God has presumably been ironing out the edge cases and unexpected behaviors. For the most part, the simulation can run on its own, but every once in a while, the Big Guy needs to manually log into the the system and correct errant data.

Every giant pillar of flame or world-killing flood is just a patch. Bam! Earth 0.93rc4. Yeah, it's intrusive, but at least He's able to hot-swap these patches. Imagine the hassle if God had to power down the universe with every release candidate?

Eventually, we'll reach a point where He's happy with the stability and functionality of the system, and get powered down. We've got rumors about that date, but honestly, the Great Dev in the Sky keeps pushing back His deadlines, so I wouldn't fret about it.

Until then, enjoy the simulation, and don't forget to report any bugs you notice to the issue tracker.