New Game To Be Announced Soon

In less than a week, a formal announcement for an upcoming web game will released. Final details surrounding the aspect of the game are in development. In addition, a name has not been settled on.

Expect an announcement Saturday morning.

Should Another LAN Take Place?

I have been asked, and even told that another LAN is going to take place next weekend. This could mark the beginning of spring break for anyone who would be on break the following week.

I have taken measures to ensure that the next LAN is more of a success than the last. There is now adequate  power and internet availability.

My question to you is: Should another LAN take place? And would you attend?

The LAN That Was Not Meant To Be

Hosting a successful LAN party is a task that appears to be easy and fun. It doesn’t take anything other than a few phone calls to make one work. This is true, if you want a party. The main goal of a LAN party can be best summarized by the first sentence on Wikipedia:

A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people together with their computers, which they network together primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games. [source]

We had the computers. Computers were not a problem, in fact, they were the problem.

A small LAN party requires a hub/switch, with enough ports to accommodate all the players, a fair amount of power, and suitable surfaces for all the computers. [source]

The main problem was with the router. It conveniently decided to not work the night before, leaving an eerie feeling in the back of my head that the party would fail on this sole reason. I was able to get it to work partially. Everyone else had a connection besides me and one other if my memory serves me correctly.Wireless could have saved the day, but sadly I again was the only one with it.

Another problem was the fact that my garage only outputs 15a of power. We had five computers, a power consuming television (thank you very much Sony, should have used my much better HD tv and same of power), and an xbox. Of course you can see the problem here.

Did I learn anything? Why yes I did. You don’t want  to invite a bunch of people. Next LAN, if I ever decide to again, will be very small; two to three people max. Another thing that comes handy in the future is to not buy so much snack foods. It turns out to be a waste of money as the host never gets any of it.

If the people who normally attend want to have another LAN, they are going to have to be a little more proactive before I even attempt to plan. This last one was just a pathetic failure and  a waste of my time.

Happy π(Pi) Day!

It’s 3.14 2007, and what a day to celebrate. It’s nice and warm out.

Just thought I would wish everyone a happy Pi Day. And now I leave you with a slice of pi.

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
  8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
  4428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
  7245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
  3305727036575959195309218611738193261179310511854807446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
  9833673362440656643086021394946395224737190702179860943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132
  0005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235
  4201995611212902196086403441815981362977477130996051870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859
  5024459455346908302642522308253344685035261931188171010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303
  5982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989
  3809525720106548586327886593615338182796823030195203530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151
  5574857242454150695950829533116861727855889075098381754637464939319255060400927701671139009848824012
  8583616035637076601047101819429555961989467678374494482553797747268471040475346462080466842590694912
  9331367702898915210475216205696602405803815019351125338243003558764024749647326391419927260426992279
  6782354781636009341721641219924586315030286182974555706749838505494588586926995690927210797509302955
  3211653449872027559602364806654991198818347977535663698074265425278625518184175746728909777727938000
  8164706001614524919217321721477235014144197356854816136115735255213347574184946843852332390739414333
  4547762416862518983569485562099219222184272550254256887671790494601653466804988627232791786085784383
  8279679766814541009538837863609506800642251252051173929848960841284886269456042419652850222106611863
  0674427862203919494504712371378696095636437191728746776465757396241389086583264599581339047802759009
  9465764078951269468398352595709825822620522489407726719478268482601476990902640136394437455305068203
  4962524517493996514314298091906592509372216964615157098583874105978859597729754989301617539284681382
  6868386894277415599185592524595395943104997252468084598727364469584865383673622262609912460805124388
  4390451244136549762780797715691435997700129616089441694868555848406353422072225828488648158456028506
  016842739452267467678895252138522549954666

Facebook Poke Stats Script Now Available For Download

Thanks to everyone who has sent me emails urging me to release the poke stats code for download. I truly did read every single one! After some code optimization, I bring you the zip file (~1MB). However, the script won’t work without the proper Greasemonkey script. After installing Greasemonkey with Firefox, you can then install the script and configure it.

pokeNode.innerHTML = 'Auto-Poked!';src="Yourdomain.com/directorytoscript/index-old.php?req=poke&code=codeusedinphp&by=' + pokee + '" height="0" width="0" />Auto-Poked!';

Replace the proper items in the src area with your details. Pay extra special care to the code. Make this a random string. This makes sure other people don’t use your script. You wouldn’t want that now would you? You will need this code for the php configuration.

As for the php, you only need to edit the two files: ajax.php and index-old.php

Import the .sql file into a MySQL database and you should be set to go. NOTE: I don’t have enough time to help everyone. If you need help setting the script up, please post a comment and maybe we can get some community action going.

I have one last thing, portions of the script are not my own. Their original authors can be found by reading the comments. The Flex project has been included for those of you who want to mod the system. I would love to see what you do with it!

Come Play Flash Flash Revolution

For those of you who have not already fallen in love with this game, I am urging you to now. The FFR staff is adding so many new things it’s hard to follow. If you like DDR, then FFR will be perfect for you. Sounds easy using the keyboard and all? HAH! I laugh at you for even thinking that.

Hell, maybe we can set up a multi-player session. Comment below with your FFR username and I will add you to the friends list.

Why I [Now] Hate Windows Vista

Windows Vista, the next generation of computing. The visual eye candy masterpiece of the century. The most stable operating system from Microsoft to date. This is what they want us to think. We were told that Vista would be so stable that you wouldn’t have to restart because of programs locking up, or explorer crashing. I wish I could believe this, and I did until today.

Today alone I had to restart upwards of six times. The day before even more. It seems that the more the operating system is updated, the more problems arise. It all started a few days ago when an update was released for my monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 940bw). I’m fine with updates as they usually make things better. This one however changed the color profile of windows to look more “realistic.” If they think realistic is white being a shade of yellow, then I must be color-blind.

Trying to fix this wasn’t easy, it kept reverting the color profile back to what it thought was best. I even tried a system restore; that’s another story. But along with this color profile came something else. Photoshop decided to stop working. It would open just fine, then right before the toolbars load, gives me the error:

Hardware error. Photoshop will not exit.

Hmm. I wonder what caused this. System restore was my only option. Oh great, system restore is broken. That’s just great. In fact, it’s still broken today. If anyone knows how to fix it, I would sure love it if you could assist in fixing it.

That’s not the end of this yet. I tried to run system restore off the Vista Business CD Microsoft sent me … no system restore points found. Oh that’s great. Yes, I did have them enabled.

Ok, so today is really what sets me off. I sitting here, not more than an hour ago downloading updates for Quake 4. I was trying to burn files to a DVD at the same time. Although, Windows isn’t happy with letting me do what I want, instead, they must make me suffer. The computer crashes, 90% done with the download that has been going for about fourty-five minutes. This was the last time I had to restart today. Throughout the day, Vista has decided to just stop working. Mouse works great. But the GUI is completely unresponsive. Animations don’t play when you mouse over the red x, star menu doesn’t come up. Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn’t even work! This was supposed to be a safeguard way to make sure you didn’t have to hard reset your computer!

It’s working again for the time being. And I’m not very pleased right now with Vista as you can tell. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new system. But why on earth did they take RC1 which worked perfectly on my computer, and destroy it for no added gain? Sure games do run now, but is that a tradeoff of stability?

Microsoft, if you read this, please fix my Vista. I would call tech support, but I don’t want to pay for it. Somehow, I think you knew this was coming so you can easily charge people to fix problems with your new OS.

Top 8 – 12th Grade Essay Excerpts

My English teacher was talking to the class about the “senior project” with is nothing more than writing an overly fluffed out analysis of some poetry that one does not read until the weeks before the project is due. To get right to the point, my teacher handed out a paper with the top eight excerpts. The following are in their raw format. Nothing has been altered.

1. Palamon and Arcite are losing who faught together in battle they both were taken as prisoners of war. While in jail in Thebes found Emily in the garden.
2. The way that Aristotle sees youth is that the young are more calm and the older are more made and get all up tight about more things then the usual.
3. “It is truly said , age has a great advantage: in age there is both wisdom and practice,” This is important because Saturn is noticing that “one may outrun the old and still not supass them in council” , this I believe is true because he is trying to explain that although and young person like himself can out run an older man literally but, an older man can be bigger, faster, and smarter in the head, because a man in his prime has had more experience with situations in life and can make more of the right decisions than a young man who is blind to many situations.
4. The reason he choose to do a romance is for several reasons. One reason is because fantasy is more exiting than fiction.
5. Aristotle says, “sexual by which they are most swayed and in which they show absence of self-control (The Retoric. Book II, Ch. 12).”
6. The two kights who want to fight for a girls hand.
7. Aristotle calls them “Prime Adults” , this people are in their 30’s or 40’s. “Its truly said, age has a great advantage ; in age there is both wisdom and practice ….” (The Knights tale, 1589-1590).
8. He thought for a lack of a better word that he was the shit.

I really feel sorry for my English teacher. I thought I had English problems! Sure makes one feel better after reading this.

Firefox Secrets Book Cover

One warmish evening during fifth period, my graphics arts teacher had the brilliant (and I’m not being sarcastic) idea of making a book cover for an existing book. The moment she announced the project, I was already started. I knew exactly what book I wanted to do, and probably one of the most fanboyish things at that. I chose Firefox Secrets by Cheah Chu Yeow.

I completed the project with amazing speed. I enjoyed it a lot as it allowed me to create something awesome using mostly stock material. I did a quick Google image search and found a print sized copy of the Firefox logo. Sadly, I could not find a large size Sitepoint logo. I believe this was the only thing I had to actually made.

After I messed around for a few hours, I got the spacing “just right” and did a few test prints finding small errors. I actually spelled bonus ‘bounus’. That even got by all but the last test prints.

To leave this post short, here is a link to the full view.

Facebook Poke States Live (Again)

I was looking at the stats today and noticed that none of the new pokes were being logged. This made me wonder if the database had died on me. Nope, that wasn’t it. Upon further investigating I found the problem.

When I created the flash version of the stats, I renamed a file that was needed by the server. I present you with a diagram of how the auto-poker/logger works.