The website and portfolio of Frederick Chan, Software Engineer and Technomancer from the Emerald City https://fredchan.org/ Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:56:33 +0000 Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:56:33 +0000 Jekyll v3.10.0 In the US, you can get a domain name like `somename.city.state.us` for free. If your town has its own domain, you can get nameservers from Amazon Lightsail, send the *Interim .US Domain Template* to the delegated manager for your locality, then point DNS entries at your webhost. Tue, 27 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/locality-domains-guide/ https://fredchan.org/blog/locality-domains-guide/ internet Direct-inverse alignment is where transitive verb's agent and object NPs are not marked, and instead which NP is the agent is determined by where they fall on a hierarchy. This article explains what that means and how that works. Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/direct-inverse-alignment/ https://fredchan.org/blog/direct-inverse-alignment/ linguistics morphosyntax Learning from the successes and failures of previous SCC pidgin games, the we devised a new set of rules for PidginCraft to help players stay engaged: giving them goals, having synchronous sessions, enforcing world boundaries, and removing starter languages. Sun, 20 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/pidgin-island-quest-retrospective/ https://fredchan.org/blog/pidgin-island-quest-retrospective/ linguistics conlang conpidgin I calculated a list of them using the SQL database that drives PokéAPI. There is only one such Pokémon from Gen 1. Wed, 07 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/static-pokemon/ https://fredchan.org/blog/static-pokemon/ Pokémon SQL SIGILS allows you to pipe items in modded Minecraft factories using ComputerCraft computers and manage them in the browser. It's faster than traditional item pipes and easier to manage complex factories with it thanks to its intuitive click-and-drag interface. Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/how-to-use-sigils/ https://fredchan.org/blog/how-to-use-sigils/ Minecraft ComputerCraft SIGILS Grow is an abstract strategy board game I invented that's played on a 15x15 Go board and multicolored stones. It is intended for 3-4 players, but playable with 2+. It is inspired by Go and Tron. Mon, 15 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/how-to-play-grow/ https://fredchan.org/blog/how-to-play-grow/ Grow board games I wrote a quick little Web Component for rendering HamNoSys symbol names into their corresponding HamNoSys characters that you can put on any web page. Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/hamnosys-renderer/ https://fredchan.org/blog/hamnosys-renderer/ HamNoSys sign languages linguistics The 😤 `Face with Steam From Nose` emoji was originally called the `Face with Look of Triumph` because the face has a different meaning in Japan. Fri, 03 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/the-story-of-the-triumph-emoji/ https://fredchan.org/blog/the-story-of-the-triumph-emoji/ unicode localization I put WolframAlpha in Minecraft by writing Mathematikka, a Bukkit plugin that queries Mathematica via J/Link to get WolframAlpha results. Tue, 12 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/Mathematikka-WolframAlpha-in-Minecraft/ https://fredchan.org/blog/Mathematikka-WolframAlpha-in-Minecraft/ Minecraft WolframAlpha Mathematica J/Link You can scan a Minecraft world for diamonds and use GRASS's `v.net.salesman` to plot an efficient route to get all of them. Sun, 03 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/the-traveling-minecraft-player-problem/ https://fredchan.org/blog/the-traveling-minecraft-player-problem/ Minecraft QGIS GRASS GIS We can model Minecraft ore veins as graph data structures in ComputerCraft to create a program for veinmining. The graph method maximizes runtime efficiency at the cost of a bigger program. Thu, 19 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/vein-mining-strategies-with-computercraft-2/ https://fredchan.org/blog/vein-mining-strategies-with-computercraft-2/ ComputerCraft Minecraft We can model Minecraft ore veins as tree data structures in ComputerCraft to create a program for veinmining. The tree method minimizes the program size at the cost of efficiency compared to the graph method. Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://fredchan.org/blog/vein-mining-strategies-with-computercraft-1/ https://fredchan.org/blog/vein-mining-strategies-with-computercraft-1/ ComputerCraft Minecraft