So while I’m searching for a fix for a particular coding problem and rapidly amounting numerous tabs in Chrome for every Google result my seach has given me, I come across this cute little post that made me stop and actually read it.  Being a seasoned Java programmer I already have a lot of experience with nested classes etc. but I found this post amusing as it is written as if the author were the Outer Class.

The URL for the post is http://www.javaranch.com/campfire/StoryInner.jsp and it teaches Java by stories, a rather inventive take on the teaching process, effective too.

Anyway, after finishing reading the post I went back to my particular nested class problem.  I sat there staring at it for a few moments still with the inner class story in mind and suddenly it dawned on me what I was doing wrong.

Sometimes it is good to go back to basics, my thanks to the JavaRanch and its Cows

Whoa, I really hate doing that but it was required.

I just finished writing a php script that read all my old blog posts from the old database in the old format (my own custom blogging system), converted it all into the WordPress format and then inserted it into this blog’s database.

I had to do it before when I updated my own blog system (before I totalled my site).  I’ve decided to take the easy way out at last, but getting all my old posts back definitely wasn’t easy.  However, it worked with amazing success and to top it off, it was all coded via SSH and nano

The only thing that hasn’t been converted, and I couldn’t really see any easy way, was the custom bbCode-style image and link tags I handled on my old blog but screw it… I don’t care , at least I have the option to go back through them and edit the old posts if I really want.

Now, where is that git, I wanna play some Tiberian Sun!

Over a year ago a few friends and I decided to get back into playing some Tiberian Sun, an old favourite that we had neglected while we were playing Supreme Commander on our shiny new (at the time) 64bit dual core machines.

However, when we got around to installing and setting up a multiplayer game, we instantly ran into some problems.  None of us could actually get to the Network lobby while using the IPX/SPX compatible protocol.

“Ahh!  Got to add the protocol to the network connection.” I remembered since we had formatted since we got our new machines.  So we added said protocol and tried again to no avail.  Slightly frustrated, we checked Google for the issue to see if it was common and what the fix was.

To shock horror we discovered that the IPX/SPX protocol was not going to have a complete implementation for 64bit Windows machines since it is a legacy protocol and the one provided was a dummy protocol.  This literally blew our gaming session out of the water and we spent ages hunting around for any solution at all.  Unfortuantely, there were none.

So, a year and a bit down the line and the withdrawal is beginning to resurface (probably after the complete tripe that was C&C 3) and in one of our eternal dilemmas on which game to play Tiberian Sun managed to pop-up again.  Then we remembered why we never got around to playing it before.  But that was over a year ago and the great thing about computer games and addictions is that at least one person in the world won’t stop till they succeed where many others have failed.

Back to Google we went.  It took less than 5 minutes to find NOT an IPX/SPX protocol driver for 64bit Windows, but a Tiberian Sun & Red Alert 2 LAN patch that changed the game from using IPX for LAN games to UDP instead!  Absolute genius!  The guy that wrote this is a legend and deserves a ton of credit and kudos for this, this has effectively brought back a couple of the best RTSes out there (I’m surprised EA didn’t do this when they re-released the game, they really should have tested it but obviously they only give a crap about money, as long as it sold… it didn’t have to actually work).

Anyway, enough babbling, here it is:
http://www.understorm.net/cnc/lan/ts_ra2.php

Just discovered he also has the C&C1 and RA1 fix on his site too at:
http://www.understorm.net/cnc/lan/cnc95_ra1.php

Game on!

Hola,

Welcome to my new blog.  I’m currently in the process of converting all my old posts across from my old blogging system, so this site will be bare for a while till I get around to it.  So you may as well come back later.

Ciao!

Well, Dell will be coming to collect my laptop tomorrow and say they can have it back within 6 business days, so that’s pretty cool.

Finally posted that damn form to register myself as self-employed and registered myself under the name Jargonia Studios I will be making ammends to the copyright stuff at bottom of site to match. Also going to work on putting more stuff I’ve done into my portfolio section and also put up a projects section with all my programming projects I have been working on.

That brings me to Programmer’s Day, which was yesterday. Was informed by my good UO friend Thistle , but alas it was already late in the day and I couldn’t celebrate it to it fullest. I did, however, read that programmers usually make minigames on this fine day. So, I set to work at full speed on a Breakout clone I called Jargball (should have called it Jarganoid after the other classic). I conked out around 5am but it played ok’ish and had a winning condition and a losing condition. Got a screenie below for those interested. If I had more time it would have been better. Anyways, there’s always next year heh.

Just finished up my CV as well, with the final pieces of information that I was missing (references contact details, etc.) so I will be sending that out to every place imaginable now. Banked my cheques from the last couple jobs I did so that should keep me afloat for a while, plus I need to invoice one of the companies for £600 that means designing cool Jargonia Studios invoice

Ugh, what else… I should complete the crossed-warrant form so that I can move the contents of one of my saving accounts into the other, but I need information on both and I have no idea where it all is… somewhere at my parent’s house I think.

Righty, off I go and try do some useful things. Toodles.

So my laptop has been acting up for a long time, randomly restarting (and a long time is like maybe even a year), but I worked out what was causing it. Any kind of pressure around the CD drive caused the laptop to lose power (no idea why). So I have managed to use my laptop quite happily for a very long time by avoiding the CD drive. Worked pretty well, it’s not like I couldn’t use the CD drive, it worked fine. Just leaning my hand on that side of the keyboard could do it.

But last week my laptop died completely, just wouldn’t turn on one morning. I am assuming this was a completely different problem. Anyways, it sat there few a few days until I could be bothered to go to the Dell website and try get it picked up and repaired (still under warranty). However, like they do, they get you to troubleshoot it cause they are lazy, but in all fairness, people are stupid so most of the time it probably isn’t broken. Anyways, I think, might as well give it a fair chance and I go into the troubleshoot guide that describes my problem the best (no power). I have to admit the Dell interactive troubleshooting guides are pretty good. I followed the procedure (even though most of the time I knew it would fail) to test the laptop on AC and battery totally independant from one another while removing some of the different modules (since everything is pretty much unpluggable on Dell laptops). Eventually I have everything unplugged except the keyboard and have tested battery and AC, and I am at the end of the troubleshooting guide. So content that the tech support guy won’t be able to catch me out when they contact me, I start putting things back in… first goes in the battery.

Ok, I’d like to remind everyone that I had already tested the battery numerous times with different modules plugged in/unplugged and there was no signs of activity at all, and this includes when all modules were removed at the same time. So why the hell did my motherboard burst into FLAMES when I plugged the battery in this time!? At the time, the laptop was upside down with all the covers and modules off/out and underneath where the RAM should have been, right next to the battery connector… phwoomph! A chip goes supernova on me. Now my room smells of sizzling silicon.

In the tech support descriptions I put in the original problem and there’s a part that asks you what troubleshooting you have tried, so I mentioned I followed the appropriate troubleshooting guide and it made things worse :/

I’m not too bothered really, it really needed to get returned at some point and now I’m in new house, settled in for a long time, I can without worry of where my laptop will be returned too. Only bugger is that I have data on it that I will need to retrieve, I guess I will ask Ben if I can hijack his laptop to do it.

…fun evening, guess I’m going to bed now.

[thumb=games/sniper.png]Well it looks like TF2 is finally going to come out, after all this time. It will be shipped with Half-Life 2: Episode 2 late this year or early next year (release date keeps jumping around). They’ve gone in a whole new direction with the graphics this time, making it look like something out of a Pixar movie. Personally, I love it. I think the cartoony characters will bring more fun to the game as each character class has been designed stereotypically. The trailer itself made me chuckle a few times. I can’t wait for it to come out… I’ve been waiting since Y2K Anyways, if you haven’t seen the trailer yet go check it out (apparently it’s on steam but I haven’t checked since I’m on my linux laptop at the moment.

[thumb=games/portal.jpg]Another game that is getting shipped with Episode Two is Valve’s Portal. Originally this was thought to be a new weapon in your arsenal for Episode Two but has been clarified to be a completely seperate game/mod. From the trailer it appears as a puzzle game where your only weapon is this gun that can tear a hole in 2 surfaces and link them together. You will use these portals to get from room to room, bypassing obstacles and eliminating sentries. The cool thing about the Portal trailer is that it looks as if you can make more than 1 portal at a time, I’m not quite sure how it would work but I think each time u create an extra portal the old of the 3 will dissappear leaving a new portal link. This is demonstrated in the trailer where the player makes a portal on the roof and then on the floor and falls through them repeatedly picking up speed, then makes a portal halfway up a wall, the fall momentum is carried through into the new portal and the player is fired like a bullet from the portal on the wall. Very cool. I think, this game will go down extremely well, bringing a new genre to the same engine. Plus I always loved playing with portal effects, especially in the UT engine

Anyway, can’t wait for either of these games to come out… gonna be awesome

…a horse walks into a bar, the bartender says “Why the long face?”.

Finally after all this time I actually found some english versions of the “Hot Shots” films. Would appear they are quite rare on the internet, especially in english (found some in spanish a while back but didn’t realise till download was complete). I love these films, always made me laugh everytime. But my favourite scene out of both films is the beginning of Hot Shots 2, where Topper and some other random guy are fighting in a barn with loads of people betting on them. They just cause so much damage to everything else except each other until the end, walls being smashed down, spectators getting punched in the face and even decapitated, but the best bit; the guy taking the bets repeatedly gets knocked around until he deleriously gets up and gets his head mushed from both sides

[thumb=funny/hotshots.png]

Anyways still at home being completely bored and a bit gutted that I’m missing mike and grif’s 21sts, but am making some much needed money, so not all bad. Finished watching Prison Break season 1, getting better and better every episode and they leave it in such a nasty cliffhanger… the bastards.

Internet is ridiculously laggy here as well so online gaming is like swimming through treacle. I just have SkyTV to keep me sane… ACK! Just as I say that mum switches over to “Just Jade” the dumb bitch that looks like a pig from one of the previous Big Brother seasons *cries* SHE CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH FOR FUCKS SAKE!!! *sigh* Only reason shes got any credibility is that she has mahoosive knockers :/

*sighs again*

Ahhh, another Summer stuck at my parents house… well only for a couple weeks but still, there is not much entertainment here. Therefore, perfect opportunity to get up to date with my blogging

Luckily, I won’t be home for long, couple weeks and I will try trying to get back into Cardiff for birthdays. Only took some clothes and my laptop home with me (and all my films and games). Also got WoW and Tiberian Sun working on my linux laptop so at least I can play a decent MMORPG (and it runs really well too).

I love linux. I don’t understand why games developers don’t release binaries for the linux platform for their games. Okay, I understand that the amount of extra support that will be needed may not be worth it (due to all the different distributions of linux), but the average linux user is a lot smarter when it comes to computers and a large majority can get most things working themslves (I guess thats where wine came from), would be nicer to have a headstart though.

Saying all this, I still use Windows primarily because of games. Most of my favourite games run on linux nowadays, Wine has got that good. However, say there’s this supposed potential freelancer replacement coming out soon, suppose 14th of August and suppose I have played the demo, suppose that it is infact REALLY good and suppose I know for a fact it has no chance in hell that wine could support it; would I convert 100% to linux and miss out on this supposedly god-like game? NO! But, I am also weighing the scales, also thinking about moving over to linux… I could leave a small Windows partition, but that doesn’t count. If I am going to convert to linux, it will be all the way :S

Anyway enough ranting about Windows and Linux, let’s get back on topic. I went through the whole graduation ceremony yesterday, it was pretty awesome (although some of my friends hated it). I am now officially Mr Jargon BSc. (Hons). WOOT! And now I’m home, back in my shitty little village (heh, not that bad but it feels like an OAP retirement home here, as there is NOTHING to do) to do some work I had lined up after I graduated. A couple of jobs, the big one being sorting out my old boss’ website that I developed a while back and the welcomed offer of working for an international transport company to sort out their website also (I should be able to charge them quite a bit )

Anyways, I’m probably gonna go play a game now… or try get another game working (heh).

Toodles

Well, time to get tidying as we’re moving house very soon, but more about that in a later post.

This post, however, concerns a play written by a fellow Computer Scientist that goes by the name of Luke. Carbon dating has yet to return origin of this play, but I think it was a year or 2 ago. I stole the play and said I’d upload it onto the net… this was a very long time ago, and the play was lost in the sands of time only to be uncovered while on an excavation in my desk.

So I shall now present said play for all the masses to read. Apologies for any parts that seem incomprehensible, the language of the play is from a most peculiar time and in some places the symbols have been worn away, deciphering wasn’t easy.

———————-

Dinstant GaZe (a play by Luke)

“Two men, one shoe, a bed of nails leading to a prize.”

Samuel: Give me Shoe!
Ricky G: OW
(Chevy Chase enters)
Ricky G: OW
Samuel: Shoe is mine!
Ricky G: You tear asunder my hope, demons of the abyss curse me
Samuel: Got Shoe! LOLOLOL
(Chevy Chase Drives Car)
Ricky G: Get into the car douche
(driving)
Samuel: Got gear, will gear
(driving)
Ricky G: Burger
(Chevy CHASE exits)
Ricky G: Ass Burger
Samuel: You attempt to curtail my imminent Superiority has fallen flat on it’s child-like, weeping face. Let your pathetic frame tremble before the glory of perfection.
Ricky G: GOT SHOE!
Samuel: ON NO’S!
Chevy Chase: :S

————————–

Well there you go, interpret as you want. A masterpiece recovered from the harsh winds of time.

Jargon