Category Archives: Active Projects - Projects that are still in active development.

Evolution Simmed – v2.0

Evolution Simmed – v2.0

Evolution Simmed v1.0 was finished many years ago but it was always in the need of more features and a less repulsive look. The original was made from scratch while I learnt the required technologies (namely php and javascript). I am hoping that by utilizing ‘wordpress’ I will be able to add desired features and update the look more efficiently. Lets see… Borrowing from the evolution simmed blog, here is the list of features I intend to add over the next 12 months… Future features list:
    1. Simulation summary report – An output panel that displays key information such as:
      • most successful/numerous species
      • most complex species
    2. New species highlighter – An animated line to highlight new species for easy identification
    3. Simulation recording – Recording a simulation in a text file to allow saving and manual modification
    4. Discussion board – A discussion board to allow active discussion
    5. Moving environment – Allow gradual movement of environmental cells to simulate a changing environment
    6. More control over the environmental cells such as the size of the grid and more control of the impact of various environmental cells

Evolution Simmed – v1.0

Evolution Simmed – v1.0

Evolution is a fascinating topic. We have a wonderful example of evolution in action with biological evolution but we can also take the fundamental blocks to gain insight into many other processes. While understanding the fundamental principles of evolution can be straight forward, it can also be to describe many surprising and complex phenomenia. Contemplating the likely or even just possible outcomes can lead to interesting philosophical exercises. To aid the learning of evolution and to help conceptionalise evolutionary processes I created an online evolutionary simulator which I called ‘Evolution Simmed’. It is placed in its own site located here:

Evolution Simmed Site v1.0

While it is quite useable, it is now quite old. It has always been quite ugly and is still missing some core functionality which I want it to have. For these reasons I have decided to redo the site which is one of many projects I am working on.

State of Being Calculator – Overview and Instructions

State of Being Calculator – Overview and Instructions

Life satisfaction tends to be the resulting combination of different aspects of life that we find important. Health, wealth, Family and friends, among other aspects of life, will all impact on our mood and general well-being. By identifying each of those aspects of our lives, we can gain insight into different things that make us happy or sad and we can typically identify actions that can lift our mood when required. It can also help us safe guard against over focusing on just a few aspects of our lives at the cost of other important areas. Neglecting family to focus on work, for example. Different flavours of this approach or ‘technique’ has been advocated by various self-help authors. One such author is ‘Susan Jeffers’ who discussed this approach in her book ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’. She points out the importance of diversifying your focus in life so as not to be overly reliant on one area. Focusing on just a few aspects in life leaves us psychologically vulnerable to negative outcomes in those areas. For example, if someone focused solely on work, they are likely to be hard hit if their work ended abruptly. A healthier approach is to draw happiness from multiple areas in life. In that case, we are less likely to be rocked by singular events or even one aspect of our lives turning to muck. I have used this approach myself at times. It pops into my mind when life satisfaction takes a dip and sure enough, when I peruse the areas in my life that are important to me, I tend to find I’m neglecting some. The ‘State of Being Calculator’ uses nine measures to gauge our overall life satisfaction.  By considering each factor separately we can narrow down potential actions we can use to improve life.  If you would like to use the tool to track progress over time, you can register to record your changes and past scores. How to use: Note: To record any changes to the default factors or to record scores over time, an account is required. 
  1. Using the default information, edit each factor to match your own values.
State of Being Calculator Acknowledgement: This tool, I believe, took shape after reading of similar approaches from others. I am yet to find all

Structured Problem Solving Tool – Compare

Structured Problem Solving Tool – Instructions