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From: Caleb Franklin <CastorYPollux@gmail.com>
To: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
Hi Jason,
Just getting the chance now to reply back to you about those questions you sent me; here are the answers:
My favorite game is Never Winter Nights
As far as music I listen to while programming, I prefer electronic music. Right now I am listening to a rotation of Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, and Nujabes (even though Nujabes are more of J-pop, they flow in well with Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx.)
I came up with the idea for building an AI that could get past Captcha because I wanted a learning and evolving AI to help create a different scenario each time you play the game. That way, it doesn’t always have to follow the same script, which can make game play more challenging and unique. I always felt that when you play a game after finishing it, the experience should be different than when you beat it, instead of just following the exact sub routines that you initially went through over again. I mean, why would you want to play the same screens repeatedly? Otherwise, it loses its appeal after it’s already been done. Consequently, that is also why I wrote it in a fantasy setting. The next game I hope to work on will use the same game engine as Dragon’s Gate, but will be set in a sci-fi universe.
I hope this satisfies most of your inquiries, and thanks for getting in touch!
Caleb Franklin
“Still ’round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.”
—J.R.R. Tolkien
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Hugh Collins <Virtuso1981@SilenusGames.com>
To: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
Hi Jason.
I am not sure if you remember me or not... you interviewed me a while back when you were doing a piece about up-and-coming game developers... you know, I was the one who worked on Dogs of War?
I’m writing to you now about Caleb Franklin.
I am sure your rag, being on the bleeding edge of gaming tech, is going to attempt to write an article about his recent contributions to gaming technology in because of that Captcha cheating monstrosity he created. I realize you and I may not have developed much in the way of a rapport, but as someone who has a history with Caleb (we used to be roommates), I have to ask that you please save yourself and your reputable establishment some embarrassment, and just don’t bother with him. I know from personal experience that this guy is a thief and liar. Also, he will be coming up on charges soon for hacking.
I just wanted to warn you and the people in your office before you write some puff piece on this guy... he is not to be trusted, and not what he seems.
Sincerely,
Hugh Collins
Lead Game Developer,
Silenus Games
Virtuso1981@SilenusGames.com
606-879-1234
“My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking.
I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.”
—Jean Paul Satre
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
To: Caleb Franklin <CastorYPollux@gmail.com>
Hello Caleb,
Thank you for answering my questions.
Hey, I don’t mean to come off as a jerk, but it is part of my job as a journalist to do some fact checking, so I have to follow up after I received an email from a Hugh Collins at Silenus Games, and he said he was a former roommate of yours. Did you work with him on any projects before?
I appreciate your understanding, and your prompt response.
Thanks,
Jason Hightower
Journalist,
Game Spot
Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com
719-354-7890
“Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon and the truth”
—Buddha
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Caleb Franklin <CastorYPollux@gmail.com>
To: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
Hi Jason,
Hugh did used to be my roommate. He moved out a few weeks before I finished my AI program; we had some differences of opinion on it. But, to answer your other question, yes, I did help him with some other game programs. I’m sure he’s warning you that I’m a hacker... he was always hassling me about that. I imagine he only has the best of intentions... he was always a pretty decent dude. So, just to be up front about everything, and put all my cards on the table, I’ll admit, I do have a background in hacking, but I wanted to go straight when I started learning game code, and I never looked back.
I did leave my calling card in the program I wrote on the other games.
You can find it embedded as follows:
)=( §♣ æŸ
Sincerely,
Caleb Franklin
“Still ’round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.”
—J.R.R. Tolkien
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
To: Hugh Collins <Virtuso1981@SilenusGames.com>
Hi Hugh,
I did some digging and it looks as though you may have been correct about Caleb’s background as a hacker. We are having a computer forensics team run some tests on a handful of files we’ve obtained, and we are wondering if the following means anything to you:
)=( §♣ æŸ
We would appreciate a response as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Jason Hightower
Journalist,
Game Spot
Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com
719-354-7890
“Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon and the truth”
—Buddha
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Hugh Collins <Virtuso1981@SilenusGames.com>
To: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
Hi Jason,
I’m afraid the symbols you sent me aren’t familiar to me. If I had to guess, I would say that is probably some sort of hacker code. I am sure that Caleb is probably responsible. I hate to say this, as he was a friend of mine, but a reputable magazine such as yours should be given fair warning against the promotion of illegal activity, in the hopes that you take the opportunity to wipe your hands clean of it.
Though, I hope you don’t go too hard on him. I mean, like I said, don’t do the piece, but, no need to throw the book at him. He was in a terrible accident in our second trimester of College, and failed to graduate as a result. He is now permanently wheelchair bound. I helped him as best as I could, but there is only so much you can do for some people. Though, deep down he is really not that bad a guy, I’m sure. Just a little misguided, maybe.
Sincerely,
Hugh Collins
Lead Game Developer,
Silenus Games
Virtuso1981@SilenusGames.com
606-879-1234
“My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking.
I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.”
—Jean Paul Satre
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Caleb Franklin <Caleb_Franklin@SilenusGames.com>
To: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
Hi Jason,
I just received my advance copy of the magazine... the article is great! The guys at Silenus Games have put me in charge of development for Dragon’s Gate. They’ve even promised that if it is successful, they’ll make me the Lead Developer!
Unfortunately, my friend Hugh was fired before they hired me on. They asked me about some programming I did for him... I figure he must have mentioned it to them? I suppose he must have, because he’d said a while back that he was going to help me get into Silenus. We’d had a little bit of blowout over the captcha hacking aspect of the software, which I think is probably what ultimately brought about our parting of ways. Of course, the bigwigs only tell me he was let go, though, I heard through the grapevine that it was due to some sort of falsification of records? Don’t know what that’s all about, but, I hope he lands on his feet. He was always pretty decent to me. It’s too bad we had a falling out, but I wish him well.
Anyways, thanks again for the great article about my work.
I hope to work with you again in the future.
Sincerely,
Caleb Franklin
Project Leader,
Dragon’s Gate
Silenus Games, Inc.
Caleb_Franklin@SilenusGames.com
606-879-1234
“Don't aim for success if you want it, just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.”
—David Frost
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Hugh Collins <HughMorris@gmail.com>
To: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
Hello Jason,
You will be hearing from my lawyers. I don’t know what kind of B.S. you’re trumping up over there, but you told your bosses I’d been stealing other peoples’ work?!! I am going to have you up on slander charges! And as far as my former friend is concerned, you can tell him to expect to be hearing from the Feds regarding his activities prior to his employment at Silenus Games. I did note that you mentioned he was a former hacker in your article, so hopefully that will help to bury him, and I guess I should thank you for the ammunition.
See you in court A$$HOLE
Hugh Collins
“Success is how you bounce when you hit bottom”
—General George S. Patton
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
To: Hugh Collins <HughMorris@gmail.com>
Hugh,
First of all, I can understand your frustration at losing your job, however, I have to say, you should know, you did this to yourself, and quite frankly, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for you.
If you had not had me look into Caleb’s work, as well as his past, I would never have stumbled onto the fact that he was doing most, if not all of your game engine development and design. He may not have realized it, either, but when I had a computer forensics expert go over the coding of the games you supposedly designed, we found Caleb’s signature all over it.
My guess is, you just told him he was helping you “fix” a bit of broken code, and, being the good friend he is, he probably never even suspected you of stealing his work and passing it off as your own.
It is a good thing, for his sake, that you had a fight with him over his brilliant idea to create an AI that could get around captcha. I think it was the only way he was ever going to be free from a jerk like you.
Sincerely,
Jason Hightower
Journalist,
Game Spot
Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com
719-354-7890
“Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon and the truth”
—Buddha
P.S. I sent a copy of the forensics evidence to our legal team, so you can expect to be countersued.
______________________________________________________________________________
From: Jason Hightower <Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com>
To: Caleb Franklin <Caleb_Franklin@SilenusGames.com>
Hello Caleb,
Thank you for your kind words about my article. I am looking forward to working with you in the future, as well.
And I wouldn’t worry too much about Hugh, if I were you. I’m sure he’ll get what’s coming to him.
Sincerely,
Jason Hightower
Journalist,
Game Spot
Jason_Hightower@GameSpot.com
719-354-7890
“Three things cannot be long hidden: The sun, the moon and the truth”
—Buddha
(for another perspective on this theme, please see my partner's companion piece to this entry:
INTERSUBJECTIVITY)
LJI WEEK 20:
CAPTCHA THE FLAG
I had been prepared, or so I thought, for the coming cataclysm; I had a bug-out bag created from various books and websites, I had a shelter full of supplies, and I had an escape plan. I had learned to get along pretty well in my own company; after all, I knew there was a time coming when it would be every man for himself, so, naturally, I figured I was going to be all right when the fit hit the shan. Boy was I wrong. Being a Doomsday Prepper, having the survival guides and books, being in all the web chat rooms and support groups... it all amounted to about the weight of a hair on a tick’s ass when all hell finally did break loose. Sure, I was better prepared than most as far as supplies and equipment, but, emotionally... well, that’s another story. I mean, who can really plan ahead for that? Even when you’ve spent a lifetime expecting the unexpected, you still never really see it coming.
Anyways, like I was saying... I wandered around on my own for a while and then I started to meet up with other people I ran into who were out wandering around too, also somewhat aimlessly... probably for much the same reason. Before we knew it, we had banded together, and well, now here we are in Nouvo Eden. (NOT my idea... it was voted on by committee. The runner up was Aquarius Shiver. You probably wouldn’t even want to know some of the other “also rans.”)
The first people I met were Marta and her kids Jeff and Anna; they were in a pretty bad way. They had very little supplies, and knew next to nothing about surviving in the wilderness. At first, they were wary of me, and I can understand that. Here comes this guy, loaded down with a backpack chock full to twice the size of a bear, and armed to the teeth, when the world has gone bat shit and you need to feed your children. It took a few weeks for them to even begin to trust me. Running into the Alvarados helped with that, though. Next thing I knew, I went from being alone to being the defacto leader of a group of 9 people. Of course, after the Alvarados, the Jensens and Stewarts came across one of our moving camps, and at that point it made sense to strengthen our numbers, so we folded them in, too.
I figured by the time we were a 16-pt headcount, we had enough people to start a permanent camp, so I lead everyone back to my bug-out hideaway. Fortunately, my cache had been hidden well enough that the stores hadn’t been tampered with. I guess you could say that was the true beginning of Nouvo Eden.
(I really need to get them to change that name.)
The “hideaway” was at a lake surrounded by forest, the nearest neighbor two miles away on the side of the lake where the cabin was, and across the lake were resort cabins. The owners of the resort, the Tarvers, were hunters and fishers. We had a good relationship. Their oldest son had helped me set up the well on my property. Once we landed, the first thing I did after getting everyone settled, was to go across the lake to see if the Tarvers were still around. The old couple was more knowledgeable than I was about the area, and they even let the families stay in their cabins. No use dickering over “timeshare” fees these days. Not like money mattered anymore, anyway.
Marta and the kids lived with me. There were two farms on the lake; the Olsons had pulled through, but the Kiefers hadn’t made it. We were able to use their livestock, though; moved them onto the land around my cabin. We built a water wheel on the river entering the lake and setup wind fans and solar panels to provide some semblance of electricity. It’s meager, but we don’t require much. We keep it rationed to an "as needed" basis, and find we don't really have a lot of need for it, anymore. We live pretty simply, these days. We built up a wall around the lake properties perimeter to keep out invaders, and a drawbridge to keep marauders from breaching the lake through the river.
That was five years ago, and folks are still trickling in from all over. We have a vetting process to put people through before we can allow anyone to join our collective... nowadays more than ever it’s important to know who you can trust. But we have a community that is thriving and growing. When we got big enough, the people set up a small governing Council to manage this rapidly expanding boomtown. They elected one of their own to represent them as a Mayor, and they voted to appoint me as Sheriff. Law Enforcement was never a track I’d have sought out for my life, but we all have to take on whatever roles we’re suited to in this new world. If there’s a hat that fits you, you’re probably gonna end up with it on your head, at some point. But I can’t blame these goods folks for yoking me with that one. People here respect me, look up to me, and that’s what you need in a place like this to keep the peace.
But things here are good here. One of the new Mayor’s first formal acts was to officiate over a wedding. Mine. I would probably have been the last one to see that coming when this all started, but it just felt right, and, for the first time since the world fell apart, it felt safe. The whole town turned out. It was good for everyone to let loose and really celebrate.
And then, of course, we all got back to work.
We’re not short on able-bodied workers here, and folks in general are willing to help out in whatever way they can. Right now we’re building five new houses for the latest approved refugees. We even have a Doctor now – Dr. Vince Gregory. People said when he came along he was a genuine godsend. The Alvarados built a greenhouse, so we can grow more fruits and vegetables year-round. And Marta is teaching the children in a schoolhouse/library we set up. I lead scavenging parties out into the surrounding areas, and some of the yields from those expeditions have been invaluable to our everyday operations. We have horses for speed, and oxen for strength, and we’ve built wagons for transporting large stores of collections.
There’s still a lot of work to do, but everyone pulls together pretty well to get it done, and what we don’t have, we either learn to do without, or find a way to recreate. We believe in one another. Most importantly, we look forward to tomorrow. We still expect the unexpected, but, now, we have a better understanding of what that could be. And, as for expecting, well, Marta and me, we are. And I couldn’t be happier. I guess you could say, my cup runneth over. Who knew it would take the end of the world to finally get everything I’ve ever wanted?
Hopefully, in another five years, this will be a new center for what’s left of humanity. But, until then, we’ll work with what we have, and we’ll make the most of what we got. More than anything, though, what we’ve got here, is each other. And when it’s all said and done, how could we ask for anything more?
(for another perspective on this post-apocalyptic world, please see my partner's companion piece to this entry:
Lighthouse Signal: Message In A Bottle)
LJI WEEK 13:
OPEN
I toil in our garden, sowing the earth.
You join me outside, stopping by to ask if I need help. I say politely, no, but I could use the company. You sit in the lawn chair, watching, drinks in hand, offering me refreshment when I need it, and chatting idly about recent events. Though you are not physically involved in the work, your presence offers its own support. I smile as I labor, lost in your words, in your beauty, in this moment.
I am content.
I am building you a bookshelf for your study.
You saunter over, settle on the sofa. Do I need your help, you inquire. I inform you gently that I do not. You gossip while I finish, keeping me from drowning in my own subconscious. Seeing you reclined there on the couch distracts me, and it takes me twice as long to complete the project, but I am very grateful for the view, and for the prolonged interaction.
I am content.
I am preparing a meal for our consumption.
“May I help,” you offer, suggesting a dash of this spice and a sprinkling of that. Your proposals are provocative. I follow your scheme, and sample; the taste is sublime. Your help enhances the flavor of the dish. The savory aroma rises; I look upon you with longing as you cast a tender glance in my direction. Together, we create culinary perfection. Life is sweeter here.
I am content.
I am sweeping the floor of our shared home.
You glide into my field of vision. The contours of your undraped form cause me to quiver. “Can I help,” you whisper softly in my ear. My frame shivers at your quiet breath. I squeeze my eyes tight, gasp, and shudder. For a moment, I can only whimper. Then, I discard the broom. Disrobing as I move, I drop my garments and take you to me with the ferocity of an animal, drawing you close like a predator capturing prey. We embrace. Our lips entwine, tongues probing, hands petting. You lace your fingers through my hair. I caress your body, fondling your delicate senses. You moan softly. I kneel to take in your nectar, and devour your essence. You clench my muscles as you reach your crescendo.
The floors can stay dirty for now.
I am intoxicated.
I never need your help to complete my work. I only need you to complete my world. Wasting our time with you is never a waste of time for me.
Without you, I am only busy.
With you, I am whole.
LJI WEEK 10:
HELP ME WASTE TIME
Returned to Sender
May. 7th, 2014 10:22 pmAn eager longing on my face
Your eyes take note, and beckon hither
Obedient, to you I slither
A brush, surrendered to my care
Is woven, breathless, through your hair
I’m powerless to overcome
I knead you til my fingers numb
I need you as my heartache sighs
And feed you til my blood takes rise
I fulfill your every inclination
You welcome absolute prostration
But fail to match desire most yearned
Three desperate words, not yet returned
Whispered with an offered hand
Are met with but a smirk, “Yes, and...?”
LJI WEEK 8:
YES AND
