Blade Edge

Computer software | Video production | My life in general

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Torque 2D

February 16th, 2005 · Software

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I haven’t been around GG much in the past few months, which is why I missed out on the early stages of Torque 2D development. I just found out about it in the press release I got about it being previewed at DesktopSummit. I was immediately intrigued, since I’ve always been a fan of GG (Hell I still wear the GG hat I got two years ago at GDC). I’ve never wanted to use Torque (or any 3D engine for that matter) for 2D, and none of the 2D engines out there ever seemed to offer what I wanted. This lead me to the development of Katana (another reason was also to gain more programming experience). However now that my time is being used up more by GDnet and GI, not to mention my (soon to be two to cover the cost of my new car payments) day jobs, developing Katana has fallen by the wayside. It was coming along nicely, and I could have had it finished and ready for testing in a month or two, but now I have no idea when I’ll finish it.

So Torque 2D is kind of a Godsend at this point. In order for me to free up time to get back to Katana (I’d still like to finish it, it was turning into a decent 2D pure-SDL engine), Blade Edge has to start making me some money so I can justify dedicating more time to it (and hence Katana). T2D will enable me to finally work on the games rather than the engine. Blade Edge already has two games waaay past prototype and ready for immediate development and release, so using T2D to get the job done seems the smartest thing to do at this point.

Anyways, I found a lot of prelim info in some of the GG .plans:

Melv May
Josh Williams

Josh’s .plans in particular are the most informative at this point, detailing a lot of T2D’s inner workings and features. There’s also a video for download that shows off the engine’s particle engine, scrolling, tile mapping, sprites, physics, and more. It’s quite impressive.

So I’m definetly on board for the Early Adopter release – anyone else as excited about it as I am? Can’t friggin wait! I still have to finish reading through the latest of Josh’s massive .plans, and I think I’m going to go watch that video again and imagine the possibilities…

Random Observation

There are too many damn journals now I can’t keep up with them all!! AARRGGH!!!

Edit

I posted a link to this pic over in Josh William’s .plan file on GG, but here it is again so none miss it. GG rocks!!

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The car

February 13th, 2005 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

Man, it’s been a while huh? I feel kinda bad for not keeping this journal updated more often, but it has gotten a bit busy. It ain’t getting any slower either . I’m still scrambling to get all the IGF interviews done (not published, just done) before GDC, so that’s taking up a lot of time. Not only do I have to schedule and conduct the interviews, but then I have to edit the chat logs into the final product and revise it with the team I interviewed. It’s kinda like movie editing – I can switch around phrases, add comments, create new questions – all to make a better interview. Gotta love post-production . Running it by the team I interviewed insures that I didn’t edit them into saying things they didn’t want to say, so they always sign off of the final edit.

Besides that, I’ve been trying to pick up more work with GameInstitute – we have some exciting developments in the works for the next few months. Stay tuned!!

Additionally I’ve been playing lots of games (catching up on lost time) and watching lots (and lots and lots) of Stargate SG-1.

Anyways, on to the subject of this journal entry – my new car!! Nothings final yet, although I do have a deposit down on it. It’s a black on black 2003 Hyundai Tiburon GT V6 5-speed manual. The guy selling it had a baby and needs to buy a mini van, so he’s letting it go cheap – $13,000. Sure sure, I can find the same model car for maybe $11k or $12k… but none of them have:

Quote:

17″ sport wheels w/ new Dunlop SP9000 sport tires, sport suspension, low spoiler, Magicar alarm w/ 2-way pager, remote start & trunk opening, all around Tuscani emblems & 2.7 elisa badges (including rims) – this is official… Original korean name. Also, custom mesh grill nose job (class & sportiness),tomato A&P eyelids, S2000 Antenna, injen cold air intake & SSA Headers w/ stock exhaust. Engine pearls, sounds sporty but not annoying/loud. Last but not least: Centerforce dual-friction performance clutch!

Muahahahahahaha

I took it for a test drive today and it really is a sweet ride. Very powerful, and that clutch has mad grip. It’s either enganged or disengaged. I’m totally psyched. My parents are co-signing my loan. I just have to work out a few more details in the purchasing and whatnot, and hopefully I’ll be driving it home this weekend!!

Here are some pics for you all to drool over




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Back to Great Adventure

February 5th, 2005 · Stuntwork

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So we held auditions today for this season’s Batman show at Six Flags. It was a bit dissapointing, turnout wise. We just had some of the cast from the Darien Lake show up by Buffalo show up – no local talent at all, which was pretty weird, since last year I heard we got a bunch of people from NYC and Philly and other areas. But oh well, we’ll probably hold one more audition later on.

It was still fun though – kinda like a big reunion, which was great. I hadn’t seen a lot of last year’s cast in a few weeks or months even. I was mostly taping, since I plan to put together a sort of documentary/memories tape at the end of the season. I’ve been looking for a good excuse to get into video editing for a while. And since it seems my Star Wars short film won’t get shot anytime soon, this is the best chance I have.

So rehearsals for this season start on May 1st, and the show opens Memorial Day weekend. Should be interesting!

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Tired

February 3rd, 2005 · Personal

Fatigue might not seem like a big deal but it decreases our ability to respond to situations and zaps our energy. It is a risk factor for injury. Check out the latest Exipure reviews.

We have all had those days where we are working intensely at our computers not taking breaks and under a great deal of stress. At the end of that day we are exhausted. We didn’t do heavy physical activity, rather we worked too hard, for too long. For many of us this means that when we get home we crash.

If this happens every once in a while that is one thing, but many people repeat this pattern every work day. Can you imagine the stress that places on their health? How it affects their quality of life?

To prevent this ongoing cycle, employees must learn to manage fatigue by balancing and pacing themselves throughout the day. The skill of pace is not one that comes easy for many. You have to remind yourself to slow down and take small breaks along the way to achieve overall endurance.

Ask a runner how they pace themselves for a race. The answer will vary depending on the distance, difficulty of the course, environmental factors and their personal health condition. There are many things to consider in order to know how to pace yourself in order to have a good, safe, comfortable run, rather than a run where you are puking a mile from the finish line.

One study analysed elite performers spanning from musicians to athletes to chess players. The study concluded that more rest can maximize achievement. This goes against what many of us practice.

We arrive to work, focus on the task at hand and go as hard as we can without a break until we get really fatigued. Sadly, some estimates show as many as two-thirds of office workers eat lunch at their desk. Employers tend to see these people as the hardest workers, but what they are doing has been shown to be counterproductive. Going without breaks exhausts us and the result can be lack of focus and reduced quality of work. Visit exipure site  for more information about healthy supplements.

Top performers, by contrast, tend to practice in focused sessions lasting no more than 90 minutes. They work in bursts taking frequent breaks to ensure recovery and avoid exhaustion. This supports studies that conclude that performance deteriorates in continuous work, but can be reversed by taking rest breaks.

Breaks from sustained activity as short as one minute have been shown effective in restoring performance while at the computer. These should be a combination of both physical and mental breaks (depending on personal need) so employees can learn to master their pace.

The effects of fatigue on your body can manifest in the form of tiredness, headaches, body aches, and even irritability.

Fatigue

There are many types of fatigue in the office – mental, eye, static muscle and muscle over-use. The effects of fatigue on your body can manifest in the form of tiredness, headaches, body aches, and even irritability.

All of the fatigue types combined together can be quite the monster.

When I talk about fatigue I always think about a long car trip. Imagine yourself driving for 9 hours. A trip like this is always exhausting. You have static muscle fatigue from holding the same sitting posture for so long. You have mental fatigue from the monotony of the drive and extended focus. If you are in heavy traffic or have crying children – that will increase the mental load. Your arms and hands are likely tired from gripping and holding onto the steering wheel. There is no tremendous physical activity involved, but the majority of people will be extremely tired by the onset of fatigue during the drive.

Some people’s work environments closely resemble a long road trip. Sitting for hours without movement in a closed space, intense focus and repetitive arm work. Replace the traffic and crying kids with work stress, deadlines, customers and co-workers. These are the latest Phenq reviews.

It is often the combination of multiple types of fatigue that can lead to complete exhaustion. It is up to each of us to do what we can to manage our fatigue. Awareness is key and taking the time to rest is necessary to optimize our work performance over the long-term.

Managing fatigue at work by software intervention

Studies have shown that scheduled breaks were generally more effective than leaving workers to take breaks at their own discretion. Rest break software has been created to coach and encourage workers to take the breaks they need to avoid fatigue.

This type of software targets different types of fatigue, but gives users the ability to customize their own plan. The user chooses a setting that best represents their needs and then they have the ability to enhance this with custom reminders and content. Breaks range from stretch breaks, to short-cut key tips, to world news.

The software measures the time and intensity to which employees engage with their computer. If the computer user works for too long without taking a natural break, the software will advise that they need to take a micro-break.

The goal of the software is to raise consciousness in a natural, non-forced way that a small break is needed.

Computer users get feedback on their computer usage and intensity and the software lets them know what they are doing well and what they could improve on to have more comfort and energy.

Admins can view statistics to see how employees are doing and better target which departments could use more coaching and support.
The proactive feedback closes the loop for an organisation between providing a tool to take breaks, to providing feedback on the actual usage of the tool, to responsibility of taking breaks on part of the individual employee.

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New Lust Item

January 29th, 2005 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I realized that I needed a new gadget in my life. I still want to build my desktop system but my new laptop will suffice for a good while. My first impulse was to get a PDA, like the Dell Axiom. I have an old Handspring Visor but the thing is pretty much useless now – its charger is on the fritz and the unit itself is pretty beat up. However after a few days thinking about it, I realized that I never used my Visor for anything special – in other words, nothing that today’s phones can handle. So I hopped over to Cingular’s website and brwosed their line up. Of course the coolest phone is the most expensive, but it would definetly be just perfect for my needs: the Motorola RAZR V3

Its got bluetooth, which I have thanks to my DiNovo keyboard, so I can wirelessly sync it up with my laptop for my datebook and email and contacts and all that. I wish they had one without a camera so it would be cheaper. I have my own camera so I’m not big into camera phones, tho they are convenient for impromptu photos since I don’t lug my digicam around everywhere I go.

Hopefully by the time I can afford to get this (post GDC) they’ll have released the black model, since that looks way cooler than the silver one.

So yea, this would be the perfect on the go gadget for me. Can’t wait for it to be financially feasible for me to get my mitts on it. I just upgraded to my current phone only last year or so, so hopefully I won’t get hit with any charges for getting a new one. I haven’t even discussed it yet with my parents, who manage the family plan – I’m just right now making the decision that this is the phone I’d like to get instead of a PDA. So we’ll see if it actually happens…

Okay, time to go finish up Deus Ex. I’m on the last area of the last level (Sector 4, Area 51). Still deciding which way to end it

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Nuther One Knocked Off

January 27th, 2005 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I got my Creatrix interview done tonight – tomorrow it’s RocketBowl… and then a break over the weekend. Yey. Prob have more scheduled for next week by Sunday tho. I think this time last year I might have done like, 2 or 3 interviews – this year I’ve already done 7 (well, tomorrow it’ll be 7). I’m definetly on track to get all 20 teams interviewed before the GDC in March. Poor Dave tho, I’m gonna bury him under interviews

I can’t wait for all this GDC madness to be over so I can get back to programming more. I haven’t managed to do much lately. My usual routine this time of year is to wake up, check my mail and run through the messages that need an immediate response, go to work, come home and check the mail again and answer all emails, browse to my daily sites (forums, news sites, etc), get something to eat, come back and do the “days work” (like the newsletter on Monday, for example). Stick interviews in there and the time decreases even more. I’m not complaining… just rationalizing my inability to program lately I guess. Well, program often that is. I still get in a bit here and there. Ah well. So it goes.

Oh yea, here’s a pic for all you PCX fans of old:

*sigh*… what a great magazine it was…

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Feeling Better

January 26th, 2005 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I was too sick to do much of anything over the weekend, besides play lots of Deus Ex of course. Some nasty cold hit me hard, and the flu seems to be going around too. As one of the coaches put it today, we do indeed work in a giant petri dish – I’m surprised I don’t get sick more often, given that I’m around sniffly kids all the time 😛

So yea – we got dumped upon with around a foot of freakin snow over the weekend. It’s the first major storm of the season. Heck, it’s the first real snowfall of the season. A week or two ago we only got like and inch or two, so that really didn’t count. A foot of snow just plain sucks. If it’s going to be a big storm, I want 6 freakin feet of snow. Now that’s cool. A foot is lame.

I did manage to get around to reformatting and networking up all my computers via my hub, so now I have network drives mapped out for additional storage space. Yummy. My desk is also less cluttered now too – that’s a plus.

I was still feeling too out of it last nite to play the Beltrope game like I promised last week. Oh well. Next Tuesday.

So I was able to read through all the preceding journal entries before mine – don’t you punks forget it. Of course it was made easier because I was also conducting an online interview with Max Gaming, the guys behind Dark Horizons: Lore. So while I was waiting for them to finish replying to my questions, I was reading GDNet journals. It was a two and a half hour interview – the longest one so far this year (I think maybe the longest ever… though I know I’ve done at least two hours before). It was a great interview though, definetly check it out when it gets published if you’re into Lore. Many insights revealed.

Okay, I’ve made my update. Gotta go play more Deus Ex. I got it running full res (1280×800) so it’s sweeeet. When I first played it my hardware was barely up to the task, now it’s much better I think I’m about halfway through. I like to complete every possible objective and talk to every person and get every last skill point I can (and kill every last freakin bad guy), so it takes me hours just to beat one level So on with it!!

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Gaming It Up Oldschool

January 20th, 2005 · Gaming, Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

Well okay, not too oldschool. I popped in my SimCity 4 CD last night – the first game installed on my new comp – and spent a while getting back into it. It’s actually pretty cool in that a lot of the games I played like two or three years ago I played on a crappy computer that could barely handle them. I put up with the crappy framerates because they were all awesome games that I really wanted to play. I remember playing GTA III at what must have been like… 6fps? No joke! On an old TNT2 But it was still awesome!! Now I have a system that’s finally able to handle these old games with all the bells and whistles turned on, and so when I go back to play them, it’s almost like a whole new experience! How awesome is that? At least this’ll keep me from sinking money into new games for a while. I recommend reading about the best gaming monitor reviews so you can make the best choice.


So the IGF interviews have started going up as part of our Pre GDC coverage. Whoo hoo! I’ve already got 4 in the bag, but that’s merely a dent in the 20 entrants. 2 aren’t being done by me, I’m doing 1 tomorrow, and I’m currently scheduling 4 more. So almost half way done I’m definetly going to cover everyone this year. Last year kinda threw my game off because I wasn’t ready for them to announce 20 finalists, but this year I’m prepped and ready. So if you’re a finalist reading this and haven’t gotten an email from me or someone at GDNet yet, you will soon.


As I said in an earlier entry, I got my KDS CD Tower and set it up next to my desk. I went to install the software after downloading it off KDS’ site but it seems the installer is 16-bit. Huh? Oh well. I emailed KDS support about it but the email got bounced back. No biggie tho – the tower has manual operation. You just punch in the tray number you want and it pops it out for you. I set up an Excel spreadsheet so I know what CD is in what slot, and I also included any CD Key information as well. Easy as that. The one thing I am a bit pissed about is that I bought a USB cable that I don’t have to use, and it was the wrong type of cable to boot. Some tech geek I am

Anyways here’s a shot:

And here’s one showing the status lights that let you know if the tray holds a CD or not:

Me like I’ll definetly be buying another one off Ebay when I fill this one up.

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Courthouses SUCK

January 19th, 2005 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I had a court appearance tonight to settle the issue of a speeding ticket (85 in a 55), and I arrived 30 mins late because 1) I had work, and 2) these things take forever and a day anyways, so why bother being early? Of course, the way things are run in this court (completely different than the other 2 courts I’ve been to), you have to sign in when you get there and are then processed in that order. Freakin great.

The first time I went to court back in ’03 to contest a ticket (failure to come to a “complete” stop at a stop sign), it was in the nearby town of Middletown. That must have been God tricking me into thinking it was easy or something. I was in and out within like an hour and a half. I sat in the courtroom, the judge told us all what was going to happen, all those contesting went out in the lobby, where the prosecutor talked to us all at once about what was going to happen and then called us up individually going from simple stuff (traffic violations) on up, so I got handled pretty fast (since I had a traffic violation). Back into the courtroom, judge lines us up in no particular order, hears our case, and dismisses us. Bada-bing bada-boom. I got all 2 points taken off.

The second time I went to court it was about 15 minutes away in another township, and that took like two and a half hours. This time I was in for speeding (65 in a 50) and failure to observe signal (stupid ass traffic lights never change when I’m on my bike dammit, so I stopped, looked both ways, and went). It took like two hours for the prosecuter to even get to seeing me, and then she almost dismissed me cause I hadn’t called ahead (didn’t have to last time, wtf?). But she handled me anyways and gave me a big break – merged my two tickets into a careless driving that knocked down my fine and saved me 4 points.

This time it just sucked. The courthouse was over half an hour away, it was snowing, and of all things I forgot to bring a freakin book to read. So here I am sitting in the lobby waiting for them to call me into the prosecutor’s office, bored out of my skull. So I played a few rounds of the “What if?” game. That was fun. Basically you create and run through disaster scenarios in your head using your current surroundings. My first scenario was armed men busting through the doors downstairs (visible from the second floor balcony) and rushing upstairs to shoot everyone. So I leaped off the balcony (I checked the height – painful but doable) and landed behind the third guy. I wrapped my arm around his throat and grabbed his gun hand. But then he elbowed me in the stomach and head butted me, then turned around and shot me. Dammit. So I reset. This time when I jumped down, I grabbed his free arm and twisted it behind his back, then head butted him, grabbed his gun hand and was about to start shooting the other guys, when the fourth guy guarding the door outside shoots me in the back. DOH! I finally beat the scenario when I started like I did in the second run through, but checked to make sure no one was behind me. Then I shot and killed the other two guys and broke the back of the poor patsy I was using. Nice. My second scenario was a terrorist strapped with bombs walking in and blowing us all up. My first run through, I spotted him as he came up the stairs all glazy-eyed and mumbling, and I quick got up and dashed downstairs and out the door before he blew up the whole building. But then I realized that was a cheap win, I should at least save people. So I re-ran it and pulled out a couple of people with me on the bottom floor as I fled. But I also wanted to kill the bastard, so I ran it again. This time instead of running, I screamed “He’s got bombs!! kill him!!” Unfortunately, the stupid old fat cop manning the court room doors fumbled as he tried pulling his gun out of his holster and the terrorist blew us all up. Stupid cop. But I decided I’d give the guy another chance – he is old and fat after all. So I run it yet again. This time the cop manages to clear leather and shoot the bastard – unfortunately this was a smart terrorist (heaven forbid) and he wasn’t holding a trigger in his hand – he was holding a blasted kill switch. So when he let go… yea. Crap. So lesson learned – just freakin run.

Anyways that kept me occupied for a while. I finally got into the prosecutor’s office after about two hours of waiting. Now I thought 30mph over the speed limit was a 6 point ticket, but it’s only 5. So I was hoping for a point off. So I walk in and sit down. The guy pulls out my entire freakin record and asks me why he shouldn’t suspend my license for 30 days.

WHAT?!??!

I hadn’t seen this one coming. Shoulda ran some scenarios. I managed to convince him that I wasn’t a crazy driver despite my record (not having any accidents as result of said charges helped no doubt) and he witheld the suspension and gave me a point off (reduced to 75 in a 55). *phew* Still, this makes me realize that I’m now risking license suspension in order to get points taken off – which means if I get another ticket (and my points are still high), I’m just going to pay that fine and take the points. Screw this. Of course they’ll suspend me anyways if I get 12 points, but suspension for 6 thanks to my past driving record? That would really suck.

Hokay, so that was my lovely evening. whee fun. I have to go play some games now to keep me sane. Ciao.

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Computer Stuff

January 18th, 2005 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

I neeeded to seperate the comp stuff from the “other stuff”

So I got my KDS CD storage tower today – whoo hoo! I plugged it in and spent some time punching in numbers and watching it pop open empty cd trays. Quite entertaining let me tell you I’m going to have to pick up a USB cable tomorrow since it didn’t come with one (I bought it el cheapo off Ebay so no biggie), and then download the software that I really need. I didn’t really know how to use it so I called the EPC Group and they helped in no time with the Microsoft platform that I have no idea how to get started.

In other news I managed to bork XP when I messed around with my Services. Outlook specifically. I set up my services, but when I restarted XP and opened Outlook to check my email before bed, it acted all weird. The main problem was it was taking like 3-5 seconds to download an email (I have cable) and during that time it would completely seize up. Then it would unfreeze for about a second before starting to download another email, and then lock up again. I had to get tips from the Black Viper’s website.

So I shut it all down and went to bed. Too late to bother with it. I just got around to fixing it tonight tho, had to go back to the system restore point I set before I started changing my services around. That fixed it up good. I’m inclined not to bother going back and changing the service settings one service at a time to figure out which one(s) are to blame, but considering shutting off a majority of them saved me around 30MB of memory, I think it’s worth my time.

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