Tokens and Tickets: A Critical Analysis

TOKENS AND TICKETS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMICS OF THE ARCADE
An Essay by Chris “kidko” Sz.

The local arcade is often a gathering place for even the poorest receiver of an allowance. But is it economically feasible to go there again and again, or even at all?

The first thing one must consider is the token. The tokens can be purchased for 25¢ each (in 4-, 20-, or 40-token sets for $1, $5, or $10 respectively) or in bulk, at 100 tokens for $20. The avverage price of a token is thus actually 15¢, after averaging those two prices (5¢ for bulk, 25¢ each). Machines require 1 to 3 tokens to operate, and return 0 to 300 tickets (able to be traded for prizes). On average, however, 1 token will return about 3 tickets, give or take.

Desktop Notebook, An SPA

Google Notebook does not work offline. Yes, there’s Google Gears. But if the only time you want to wait for it to load is the time it takes Firefox to parse it off of your hard drive, you’re out of luck. It’s built on AJAX… note the A and X (Asynchronous and XML). This means you need a seperate XML/HTML/XHTML file to to save your actual data in. All the site does is load/display and save/modify that document. So, in short, no SPA from there. Look up anything you want, but I haven’t found anything similar that runs on Linux. There are other notebook options, yes, but I’m not looking for one designed for tablets and hand-written notes. I’m looking for a hierarchy-based system with headings and paragraphs of content. XML editors could do this, but not quite like I wanted. So I wrote my own.

It’s not quite done yet. You can find it in my Google Pages. The stylesheets are minimal, but usable. Semi-simple Javascript (using the DOM, of course) and some simple HTML is all it’s made of. Feel free to experiment, download a copy (just save it as it is; there aren’t any images or anything, it’s all just one file), etc. But there is one big problem: saving. You’ll find there is a “Save” button, and some working code. But you end up with no stylesheets, JS code, or anything of real value except for the text and divs. I know exactly what the problem is, with no way to fix it.

Javascript can access the HTML source of any element using element.innerHTML. So, logically, you should be able to get the code for the page using document.innerHTML. Unfortunately for me, no, it’s not that simple. In fact, I haven’t figured out how to do it. Thus, the ‘content’ variable in the saving function saves only the innerHTML of document.body (everything in the BODY tag). So, in addition to presenting this still-young SPA, I also ask for help: how do you get the entire source? TiddyWiki does it, or at least looks like it. But no matter how many times I look over the source code of it, the problem gets no clearer.

Googlize

After settling into the new house, we tried to keep our Verizon e-mails by ordering and paying for an unapplied dial-up account, the same kind that originally got us the *@verizon.net accounts in the first place. Nearly five hours of phone use and multiple Verizon promises, we’re cutting off the service. So now, I’m living on GMail (and Yahoo! for spam…) alone. And it’s not nearly that bad.

But to make it easier for me, I’ve decided to integrate the online-only GMail and GCal services with my desktop applications (Thunderbird, etc.) that I used to use. There are two applications you’ll need (or one, more later): Thunderbird and Sunbird.

First up, Thunderbird, to tackle GMail. No specific addons are required or anything. Edit your settings in GMail first, to enable POP. Go to your settings, and choose the Forwarding and POP tab. Check one of the POP boxes (I used “all mail” so I had a complete history). I may also be using the web app, so I’m going to “Keep Gmail’s copy in the Inbox,” so that Thunderbird gets a copy, and so does the GMail app. Once that’s done, boot up Thunderbird. All you have to do is select Edit > Account Settings. Add a new account, making sure that it’s not an e-mail account, but choose “Gmail.” From there, basically just enter what it asks: Name, which has no use apart from the From: field; Username and the like are to logon. After that, you’re basically done. A new section for your GMail has been created, ready to go.

I, however, want my messages filed in Local Folders, where all of my Verizon messages already are. This is where filters come in handy. Just set up two for your GMail account. The first should match any, and just put in one or two fields for the “To:” and “Contains,” one for my name and another for my username. Then just have the filter move them into the Local Folder’s inbox. The second filter should be the same, but for the “From:” and move to the Sent box.

Just send/get mail, and wait for it to finish (280+ only took a minute or so, with attachments).

Sunbird can also access the Google Calendar. First just download and install the crucial Provider for Google Calendar extension. Boot up Sunbird after you’ve installed it, and add a new Network Calendar (of the type Google Calendar). Now go to your Google Calendar and for any calendars you want to view (but not, as far as I know, download…), go to the Calendar Settings. Scroll down and find the XML button for the Calendar Address. Copy it into the URL/Location box in Sunbird, add a name and color, click OK, and refresh. For every calendar, even those that aren’t yours, login with your Google Account (this means that even if I’m viewing BobSmith@gmail.com’s calendar, I would still log in as MeAndMyself@gmail.com with my password SelfSaysHi or whatever the case may be). It will take a while to load them all each time, but it’s there eventually.