Ninja Code Monkey

Screw You Winter!!

2009-03-04T15:04:00.003-06:00

Said the sun.

So pumped for winter being over again; the warm weather over the next few days is gonna be nice :)

'Course, being that this is Wisconsin, winter is only over when you finally give in to despair.

*Keeps winter coat ready*

Mmm Mmm Mmm...

2009-02-05T12:10:00.001-06:00

I hate you Marshall :P

Then again, it's better than saying nothing at all. Mmm Mmm Mmm...

Upgrades!

2009-02-03T11:50:00.006-06:00

So tomorrow the first of my upgrades for my computer(s) arrive. Don't worry, I've done the math, I can afford it ;)

I know I haven't released a video for the game yet; as usual, things come up--Warhammer Online, for instance. I think once I'm back into the swing of things I'll start working on the game while at work a little more. Classes just started yesterday so things are a bit hectic in the computer labs...It's syllabus season, and those freshmen are preparing their stupid questions yet again!

I applied to Bungie Studios a few weeks back, but I haven't heard anything yet. I'm really starting to wonder if I really am ready to go through with something like that just yet. I don't know if I'm ready to leave my friends and family for the sake of a great career. It's not my only option, of course.

My parents have bought a 9 bedroom house in Stevens Point. It's split up duplex style, and my sister is renting the 5 bedroom upper half. She's offered to let me stay after graduation (so long as I pay rent and so forth, of course). I'm seriously considering that offer. I'd be able to see my niece and my parents and I'd still be in Wisconsin where pretty much everyone I've ever known still is.

Of course, it's only viable if I can find a job nearby, and there aren't many options in Stevens Point. Ho-hum, just when you think you have it all figured out....

Night Shifts Suck...

2009-01-23T07:37:00.004-06:00

But at least this is the last one....for now anyhow 0.o. I'm attempting to finish my 2500 word report on the project by midnight tonight. I've another hour or so of work, and I've gotten 1532 words in so far, according to MS Word. Not bad for maybe 2 hours of actual work lol!

So looking forward to a more sane schedule, though since I'm considering taking 5 classes when I only need 2 more to graduate, I wonder what's really sane anymore ;) Oh and that video....Still INC. I'll get around to it once I've had more than 5 hours of sleep >.<

Artificial Intelligence is SO funny!

2009-01-22T08:14:00.003-06:00

And no, that's not a gibe at stupid people. They can be funny though (mostly just irritating). Anyhow, so I have to present my game to the CS department chair in an hour, and I was spending the last few hours on the AI of "The Game". That is, I started the AI a few hours ago :D It's all good though, it's actually working fairly decently. It could be SO much better, though, so I don't intend to leave it like it is.

Back to my title for today, I spent about 10 minutes laughing my ass off while I watched the AI fly in looping circles trying to race around the track. It was kinda like watching a bumblebee on crack :P Every time I thought it was about to go the right way, the ship would shout "I AM A WALRUS!" and go the other way! Well it would have if I had sound done. I'm so putting that in!

It's fixed now, obviously. Video in a few days, stay tuned!

Sometimes....

2009-01-20T02:55:00.001-06:00

Sometimes when I'm coding, I occasionally get the urge to put "I am a genius, teeheehee!" in the code. Then I remember the Brillant Paula Bean. Somethings are perhaps best left unsaid ;)

Coding Into the Wee Hours of Insanity...

2009-01-16T04:53:00.003-06:00

I've come to the realization that trying to code while tired is a virtual waste of time. I spent an hour debugging code a few days ago that I solved in minutes just now with a fresh perspective. Better off getting some winks and coming back later :/

About a week before the practicum project is due. I'm doubtful it will be complete (to the extent of my original proposal, that is), but I've pulled off bigger miracles in less time. I certainly plan to keep working on it even after the due date, however. It's just too much fun ;)

Updating....Updating....Updating....Done!

2008-12-10T14:45:00.004-06:00

Well, this post is done :P The game is progressing quite nicely. I still don't have a name, but I do have a video now! Youtube royally butchered it, though, so I will have to make another eventually. I'll probably do one once I have more to show. If my current track record is any indication you can expect that sometime next year ;)

Mmmmmm....Juicy!

2008-11-04T15:37:00.003-06:00

So I haven't posted in a long time, as usual :P But progress has been made, especially in the last week or so. A lot of what I'm doing right now is "under the hood" so to speak: it'll be very important in the end, but there isn't much to see just yet. Nonetheless I felt like posting a screenie. Obviously everything is subject to great change ;) I still don't have a name yet, as you can see by the title of the window. If anyone has any ideas by all means share them!

The Game: A Teaser

2008-09-13T14:12:00.004-05:00

I threw together a quick MSpaint teaser concept art for my upcoming semester project. It's only meant to be half serious. Just serious enough that you get the subject :) This Friday is the due date for the first draft of my project proposal, so expect something more substantial than MSpaint after then.

Google Chrome-A first impression

2008-09-02T14:35:00.002-05:00

So I'm trying out Google Chrome, Google's new open source browser which is now in open beta (Windows only, so far). I have to say, it's only been 5 minutes, and I'm already in love. This thing is FAST. Plus it has a slick UI that really doesn't waste screen space. Only time will tell if my first impressions hold up, but I'm pretty impressed thus far.

7 Steps to Bungie Domination

2008-09-02T11:00:00.005-05:00

1) Attend state university to avoid attracting unwanted attention. After all, while ninjas are noble creatures, they work in secret.
2) Using super sneaky ninja skills, lie low and scope out the video game industry for 4 years while learning how to kick coding ass and how to rock the ~~guitar~~ drums.
3) Create a monument to all your sins, aka "The Game" (the name is still being worked out).
4) Send fruit basket to Jerome the security guard.
5) While Jerome is busy chowing down on a Washington Red Delicious, sneak into a board meeting and use a classic "Bet you can't stick it" zinger to gain attention.
6) Use super flaming ninja skills to blow faces off prospective employers using "The Game" as an example of my mad super coding skills.
7) Beg until they cave. Repeat as necessary.

A Manifesto of My Own

2008-08-18T17:58:00.014-05:00

Back in the summer of 2002, during a summer session at Upward Bound, I played Halo... A lot. It was the thing to do for that summer, and the summer that followed. Not just because it was cool as hell, but because it was fun as hell. I have many a fond memory of system link battles crossing the hallways of our dorm and 8 people duking it out in Blood Gulch. Sniping someone out of a tank, stealing said tank, and raining down pwnage until some bastard managed to return the favor...Ah, those were good times.

By the end of that summer, I decided I HAD to have an Xbox so I could play Halo at home. When I finally succeeded, I proceeded to break the game. Inspired by the epic Warthog Jump by Randall Glass and the amazing Frogblast explorations, I did my best to make the Halo engine kneel.

During my summer sessions at Upward Bound, I was also exposed to programming for the first time. I'm from a small town and a small school, and this was really cool and new stuff for me. It was just BASIC, but it occurred to me that's how games like Halo were made, and I knew then what I wanted to do with my life. I was 16.

Now it's one thing to have a dream, and another thing to have the skills and abilities to achieve that dream. I'm no fool; I knew then that this wasn't going to be easy. I originally wanted to go to The DigiPen Institute of Technology, a school co-founded by Nintendo of America for the purpose of educating aspiring game designers, programmers, and animators in the tools of the trade. At the time I was applying for colleges, however, they did not have a financial aid program (they do now) and the tuition and other expenses were far too expensive for me. I ended up going to UW-Oshkosh, which turned out to have a rather good Computer Science department.

In the meantime, I delved into the community, and learned more about the Bungie team: the traditions(starts at 4:40), the inside jokes (Frog blast the vent core!), and yes, the music (first commercial only). I've seen the tours of their new digs; I've been watching the job postings like a hawk; And lately I've been looking up all sorts of stuff on the area, like climate and housing costs. It may have been a dream 6 years ago, but now its fast approaching the time where I have to make a choice: Do I pursue my long held dream?

Back then, it seemed like a no-brainer. I've never been a very social person, and at the time, it never occurred to me that making such a change in my life would affect me so drastically. But things changed for me in college. I have beautiful 3-year-old niece now. I have a lot of good friends that I just don't want to lose. I have no illusions about it, I'm probably not going to see as much of my friends as I do now after graduation no matter what I end up doing, but at least they wouldn't necessarily be 1000 miles away. Yeah, I'll make new friends wherever I go. I just don't want to go alone :/

Well that's what's on my plate this year. I figure I have to make a final decision by the end of fall semester so I can start on the job/apartment hunt, whether it be local or not. For now, though, I've decided I'm going to work towards making that dream a reality. My practicum will be geared towards game programming and design, and I'm planning on my own 7 step plan to Bungie domination, as an homage to Bungie's 7 step plan for world domination(scroll down to the heading "The Plan"). I'm hoping that by creating a game plan it will keep me as focused and determined as I am now. Stay tuned, as I'm sure my usual sense of humor will be in full swing when I write that one :)

Dusting Off the Shelves

2008-07-31T00:36:00.004-05:00

So it's been a long time since I last wrote in my blog. Something like 18 months or so. Well anyhow, I figure it's time to get on my ass and type up a little of my life. Besides, I'm at work and I'm bored out of my mind.

I have this belief about life--based on my own thus far, of course. The basic idea is that it's something like a roller coaster, with all those ups and downs. The ups of nervous excitement and anticipation. The downs of fear and delight. Then deadly derailing that happens far more often in the metaphor than in reality.And isn't it always just as everything is going swimmingly when all hell breaks loose? Well, I suppose it's better than waiting in line--it's far more exciting.

One fun ride I've been on lately is called the Internship Splash of Happy Fun Time. Recently I had an interview at a company here in Oshkosh, one that I thought went rather well (AKA, I didn't completely freeze or blank out). So for a few days I was riding high, hands in the air, laughing and smiling as I waited eagerly to see whether or not I did well. So I waited. And waited. And for a change of pace I ate some ice cream and then I waited some more. Finally I emailed them asked what was going on. They responded that I had interviewed with the wrong person, and I would have to come in for another interview. OK fine. I'd rather not have another uncomfortable interview but at least I'd have a little more confidence this time.

So I waited to hear about the next interview, as I baked in the July heat. And I waited. And I had some more ice cream. And finally I contacted them again, and found out that they'd decided that they weren't going to accept another intern at this time after all. Brilliant! I've now wasted just over a month waiting for an internship that wasn't going to happen anyways. Granted, I still have my job, but an internship would satisfy a graduation requirement, not to mention it was a paid internship, and would probably pay almost twice what I make now. In the end though, I don't think I would want to work for a company that manages to drop the ball as badly as they did.

Now I have another internship possibility coming up, and I'm waiting, once again, for news about this one as well. With luck I'll even have an interview before September!

IPod use on N.Y. streets could mean iFines

2007-02-07T17:14:00.000-06:00

IPod use on N.Y. streets could mean iFines

Heh...I suppose it was only a matter of time...On campus in Oshkosh we see plenty of people just going their merry way and almost getting flattened 'cuz hey ain't paying attention. Fortunately drivers around here are used to that sort of thing so they tend to be even more cautious.

So does that mean that hawt female night elf really IS a chick?

2006-10-06T10:15:00.000-05:00

According to this article, 64% of online gamers are women. Hmmm...NE1 WAN7 2 CYB3R?

Google Searches Code

2006-10-05T11:03:00.000-05:00

This seems like a great idea. Every so often (especially when changing from Java to C++ and vice versa), I'll forget some simple thing or two. Here's hoping this makes my "I can't BELIEVE I forgot that" moments pass much quicker.
Macworld: News: Google helps programmers find code online

Balance in WoW

2006-09-28T21:56:00.000-05:00


Warlocks are what now?

Woes of the iGeneration

2006-09-24T23:00:00.000-05:00

The Tech Zone Computer Hardware Reviews

Ok, the story itself isn't particularly interesting, it's the spelling and grammar of the article that bugs me. I could understand if the website it appears on was a non-English site, or if the author (Stephane Dion [sic] ) had an obviously non English name, but neither are so. I suppose my only consolation is that it's not coming from a reputable news source such as the New York Times, but it does make me despair of the quality of the "iGeneration".

An INTP Profile

2006-08-31T22:07:00.000-05:00

An INTP Profile

Me to a T.

Macworld: News: Microsoft allows anyone to create XBox games

2006-08-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

Macworld: News: Microsoft allows anyone to create XBox games

Possible Facebook Scam?

2006-07-23T18:48:00.000-05:00

I just recieved an e-mail today asking me to confirm my e-mail for Facebook.com, but on further inspection I realized that the address for the email and the link were NOT from facebook.com but apparantly bbqflavor.com. (full e-mail address : register+5wm (at) login.facebook.com-fe424-ccod8t.php-om-ccode-43.bbqflavor.com ~~I'm planning to forward~~ I have forwarded this to the facebook staff to confirm its validity, but you'd be well advised to avoid clicking any confirmation links.

The Good, The Bad...

2006-07-17T20:48:00.000-05:00

Good news: I got a job for the rest of the summer.
Bad news: 10 hour workdays, plus an hour of commuting = no free time.
And the ugly: Me after 10 hours of dirt and grime in 90 degree heat.

The Big M Challenges the Big Apple...Of Music, That Is

2006-07-10T17:10:00.000-05:00

iTWire - Will Apple stand still in face of Microsoft iPod killer?

OK, we all knew it was coming, but this is the part that caught my eye:

"There is talk that Microsoft is prepared to pay record companies to allow iTunes users to transfer their tracks to Windows Player 11 for free. Given that iTunes users had already downloaded well over 1 billion tracks near the beginning of this year, that's a hell of an investment for Microsoft to make to enter the market."

Big talk indeed.

Bill Gates

2006-07-09T13:57:00.000-05:00

OR:
How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love Microsoft

People seem to love to hate anything that has more success than them. They also seem to forget that everyone legacy starts out small. Microsoft didn't just shit out Windows, contrary to some Internet postings I've seen: "OMG micro$oft is teh suxxorz and tehy are mony grubbing cockbites they got so mcuh mony why does evrything they make suck @$$ OMG etc. etc."* Ugh that gets annoying fast. Not so much the attack on the English language, but the ignorance of it all. Microsoft is a corperation, and like any corperation their goal is to profit. And they certainly earned the profits they enjoy. They worked for their success, not working so much for a superior operating system, but to sell that operating system. But I'm not going to defend Microsoft or Windows. Rather, I'm going to explain just why everyone should be glad they are around.

As a quick aside, if it wasn't Microsoft, it would have been Apple (or perhaps some other company; My money is on Apple though). If Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed to get off the ground in the 70's and 80's then Steve Jobs and Apple would have taken their place, and everyone would complain how Apple is dominating the market and flooding it with inferior software, and we'd have an Apple X-Mac instead of an X-Box. It's simply the way industry works. On any corporate food chain there's a top dog, in this case Microsoft clawed, bit, and scratched their way up.

But why should we like them? For one, Microsoft helped realize the idea of a home PC. Back in the 70's such an idea as an affordable home PC was quite laughable. Besides the cost, they weren't exactly user-friendly, something both Apple and Microsoft realized. The difference between them, is Apple concentrated on the latter and Microsoft the former. It turns out people are, as a whole, more inclined to deal with a little, well OK, a LOT of bullshit to have a cheaper PC. Hey, the world is run by money, and people like to keep as much as possible.

OK, fine, you might say. Microsoft won. Apple lost. But PC's have become so affordable now, why should we put up with Microsoft anymore? And you know what? You would be absolutely correct. In fact, I'd strongly encourage you to try out many of the different options you have these days. If you've got a PC with Windows, but don't want to buy new hardware to try another operating system, then try Linux. Most distributions are completely free, and the few that cost money, cost very little. It has come a long way from it's former stance of being very user-UNfriendly, and In fact, there are several distributions that cater especially to those new to Linux and focus on usability. Ubuntu is one such distribution. Knoppix, a distribution that runs completely from a CD or DVD, is another. And of course you can invest in a Mac.

Wait a minute, you say. You spent half your entry saying that we should love Windows, and now you want us to abandon it? I doubt very much that everyone who reads this will switch to linux or a Mac, or some other OS. We need Microsoft to compete with. Corporations by default hate competition because it takes away their profits. Consumers should love it, because it encourages those corporations to pump out better products. And so far, it seems to be working. Not so much on the OS front, but in other areas such as web browsers, e-mail clients, document applications and the like.

There are free alternatives or cheaper alternatives to pretty much every proprietary software Microsoft puts out. Don't like Internet Explorer? Get Mozilla's Firefox. It has more features and is far more secure. Sick of Outlook? Mozilla also has an e-mail client called Thunderbird. You can even get a free replacement for Office. OpenOffice is a free replacement from Sun Microsystems. They must be doing something right, because Microsoft's market share is taking a hit, particularly from Firefox. If you do nothing else, you should at least look into these alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary software. It's nowhere near as complex as trying a new Operating System, and you just might like the alternatives better.

You don't have to like Microsoft, but there's no use complaining. They aren't going anywhere soon.

*It's interesting that most of the people who make those comments run some form of windows and post in Internet Explorer, despite insisting the inferiority of it all. Dumbasses, why they don't just switch operating systems and shut up already is beyond me...

Introductions? Nah...Well fine...

2006-07-08T15:02:00.000-05:00

I live in a small town about 15 and 30 miles from much bigger towns, where sane people often go to find something to do that doesn't involve cows or tipping them. Or perhaps they leave just to find cows to tip, since the cows seem to have gone off to find more interesting things to do other than being tipped. In any event it's very boring here over the summer, so I while away the hours playing games, watching movies and looking for work. I also like to program, which is good cause if I didn't that'd mean I've wasted two years of college learning how. It's a hell of a lot more fun than tipping poor cows at any rate. Maybe I'll write up a program that simulates tipping cows to satisfy all the people who can't find any to tip.
(I think I've killed that joke by now....Like a dead cow--Shut up you!!)

I've a strong tendency to be punny. It's like funny, except you get moans and groans that aren't caused by laughing so hard that all you can is moan or groan. I suppose you could say it gets you the end result of a good joke without all that fussing about with your mouth open and clutching your sides. Kinda like Stuntmutt's One One Se7en, only he's got a whole comic, and all I got is this shirt (It's a good shirt though).

I bring him up, and specifically his comic, because I'm using his master chief to test out my program I'm working on. It's a build upon some earlier work I've down to make line designs, also known as curve stitching, with a computer. I learned how to do these about 5 years ago, and I've made tons of them by hand, usually doing various classes in high school that failed to keep my attention. These aren't anything like those designs you can make with the gears and pens and such. I can't remember what they're called. Anyhow you can make these with nothing but a ruler, paper, and a pen. Go here to see a guide on how to make them. It's really very simple, anyone can do it.

Right now it can take a text file of line coordinates, look for any points that meet, then draw a line design for it. There is a ton of work to do, without even adding more features. I've still got to find out how to get Java to stop at the last valid entry in the array. I could do that easily in C++, but I can't do graphics so easily in C++, so I'm stuck with Java. Then I need to add in a whole host of error checking, cause even a well written program can be run down by, as a good friend of mine would say, "User Error!". (He likes to shout it out ). I've a few ideas for more things to add in. But one step at a time of course :)