Cloudy with a chance of syntax errors
10/11/17 at 19:43 EST

Decided to finally implement an automatic tagging system. I missed a spot, but fixed it before finishing this sentence (this sentence took me a long time to write).

Also decided that if I wanted to limit the content of this website to a weblog about this website, my sparsely interesting life, and any creative (read: hacky) solutions I dream up while coding, then it's only going to become dustier and dustier. Gonna try to mix things up for a bit to alleviate that dread. Although, I should note that the game I've been working sporadically on has made strides through the most arduous of tasks, and would be smooth sailing from this point on were I to have the conviction.

On a side note, quite some time ago I bought a third party PS3 controller from Intec for multiplayer (on that one multiplayer PS3 game I have that doesn't involve plastic instruments) at about half the price of a brand-name controller. Admittedly, a short walkthrough is required to get the damned controller to connect (note here that the instructions provided by the manufacturer were, in fact, wrong) but once you learn those secrets it was a pretty solid unit. The analog sticks are more comfortable than a vanilla PS3 controller and it has a wimpy turbo feature that comes in real handy for button mashing extravaganzas like, say, a Scooby Doo homage in any God of War game.

Unfortunately, quite some less time ago, some people discovered how to play downloaded PS3 games off the hard-drive using a magical USB stick of some kind, and Sony's efforts to block the exploit have inadvertently destroyed the use of this particular Intec Wireless PS3 controller. That's the theory, anyway. If I'm wrong, do let me know, but a few firmware updates in the past, my controller was working on more than just my PC.
--------------------
Tagged under: gaming, site, testing
--------------------
1 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Up, Over and To Be Continued!
10/10/14 at 00:27 EST

At long last, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is upon us. Sega once again attempts to break the Sonic Cycle, and the big question is: did they?

Well, kind of.

I don't know if it's fair to say they broke the Sonic Cycle. It's more like they stepped outside the Sonic Cycle for the entire development process. Sonic 4 is essentially a couple zones from Sonic 1 and a couple zones from Sonic 2 mashed together and then reshaped into new layouts. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (Episode 1, I should specify, because Sega wants to milk this thing if it succeeds and abandon it if it flops) is a very safe game - very little has been "re-invented" here, and even less has been created - to my recollection, there are no original enemies - all the badniks are taken out of Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, which only makes the four zones feel like re-hashes of their respective Genesis zones.

Gameplay feels very reminiscent of Sonic 1, with the addition of that air dash thing that came into play once Sonic went 3D. I was a little reluctant to accept that idea at first, but it didn't take much time to warm to the idea - it gives the player a greater feeling of being in control of Sonic, and not just an observer to his unique world of physics. Of course, it also slows the flow of the game down a bit when chaining attacks together and adds to the "Sonic on rails" feeling that Hog of War's daytime stages certainly had, but those are flaws for the blue streak - Super Sonic can just slam into enemies crotch first and carry on his merry way.

So is it a good game for fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog series? In my opinion, I'd have to say yes. The game is essentially void of ideas new to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, barring that air dash thingy, but in a way, that's okay - Sega's been failing to produce a successor to Sonic and Knuckles for over 15 years, so a step in the right direction is acceptable - it doesn't have to be a leap. It's understandable that expectations for Sega and Sonic Team are lower than that of, say, Capcom, who were able to throw Mega Man back home as if he'd never left the NES, and Nintendo, who were able to re-invent their classic gameplay in such a way that it feels nostalgic and original at the same time.

I'm just happy to have a side-scrolling, pathway-branching, ring-grabbing, Super-Sonic-Unleashing, speed-running, Eggman-cracking platformer again. Collect 7 chaos emeralds, collect 50 rings, go Super Sonic, and wreck the place. That's all I'm after. It's not hard.

As of this post, I managed to secure the world's 10th-fastest run of Splash Hill Zone Act 1...assuming all leaderboards are unified and not segregated. 10th-fastest PS3 run in the world, at the very least. For now.

Oh, my accomplishments are meager and lacking at best.

Well, after about 5 hours of gameplay in the span of two days, I decided to call it quits and start practicing the dusty ol' drums again. I've got a set-list to play some time next month and I'm horribly out of practice. Baby steps, baby steps.
--------------------
Tagged under: gaming, music
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 25
10/09/30 at 23:57 EST

I don't really feel like going into depth on anything in particular tonight. I got a copy of Final Fantasy III (read: 6) today. That's 11 out of 13, now. 11/12, if we call the series dead by 12. And add 1/1 if X-2 counts. How about Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, Revenant Wings? This is getting too complicated.

I feel like doing a bit of coding, and I would were it not almost midnight. Sounds like I'm going to have an uneventful weekend, so maybe I can kick the weekend off with some drumming and csv parsing. You know, live dangerously, to the fullest. I suppose, if nothing else, it'll be good for my wallet, which has been tanking assault after assault lately.

Really wish I had something to write that was worth reading today. Even some little quip or analysis, or abstraction of a pop culture icon into a definable schema that ruins something for someone forever. But all you're left with is disappointment. The same disappointment I felt when my Scott Pilgrim books were delivered by an amazon.ca contractor who was not a fashionable young lady in her mid 20's. I would have thought the UPS tracking slip would have been a sufficient tip-off.

You know what? I think I'm just going to end this with some php - oh wait, I can't, because this engine (like most sensible systems) does not render php code. That would require me writing my own parser, and that's no good. I've been watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog quite a lot lately, and quite frankly Sonic is portrayed as a massive asshole, leaving Dr. Robotnik as the "tragic hero" character, who, through his persistence and selflessness, constantly struggles for a better world under the red shoe of oppression. What a guy.
--------------------
Tagged under:
--------------------
1 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 24
10/09/30 at 00:17 EST

I think last night I broke the record for my latest hour at work - well, while sober, anyway. Tonight was another episode in overtime, but only by an hour. Seems like now's a good time to leave work early tomorrow, since my Scott Pilgrim books are due "after 5".

There was an implicit nod to the Scott Pilgim storyline when I ordered it off amazon.ca, but I was never expecting someone to actually deliver it to my door. I'm lucky if people even leave a tag on the door to the building, but whoever attempted to deliver my parcel today while I was at work managed to go straight to my door. That's service.

Those subspace highways must be real handy.

Been a lot of Rock Band for me lately. There's some good stuff on sale lately, including Rush's Moving Pictures album. A drummer's paradise, if challenge isn't the only thing you crave.

Haven't been the least bit productive lately, but that should pass. I've just been working too hard. Yeah, that's it.
--------------------
Tagged under: gaming, work
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 23
10/09/28 at 19:14 EST

Yesterday's analysis of Outlook's scalability was ill-timed if nothing else; I'm staring my Inbox down at this very moment as the Exchange Server sluggishly lobs another 6584 emails to my mound of 84029 unread messages. Oh, how swell.

Steak and Beer Day had to be postponed due to...some things, and as a result I'm still at work, with the sting of curry and pad thai lingering on my lips. "Working" late (it's a much nicer term than 'idling', I say) in exchange for free food - every cloud has a silver lining.

I'll probably do some poking around the site for updates if I have the time to spare for it, but I've got the feeling I'm only going to make things worse. Execution context is a harsh mistress.

Time to go wonder why my Scott Pilgrim books haven't shipped yet.
--------------------
Tagged under: work
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 22
10/09/28 at 00:27 EST

Microsoft Outlook is really not built to scale. I'm not sure what exactly is going wrong with the program (a sign of a good software tester!) but as time goes by it becomes less responsive - I don't mean in a "restart your computer" sort of way; if it were something that pedestrian I'd have gotten a handle on it by now. I would suspect it's due to the increased number of emails the program has to manage, but that's a non-factor as well: my email account tends to fluctuate pretty rapidly between 10 and 50 thousand emails on a given day, and the performance in that 9 hour period is pretty constant. No, lately, it's been taking up to 20 minutes just to delete 3,000 emails. That's a problem when I'm receiving 2,000 emails while those 3,000 are being deleted. Frustrating, to say the least.

Not to mention Outlook has begun slowing down Media Player Classic. Come on, really? Outlook is using up so many system resources that I can't afford audio playback? That shit don't flush.

Did some work on the site today. Kind of a hack-job, really, but whatever does the trick does the trick. It's pretty much transparent to you, the end user, so I've arguably spent 90 minutes of my evening working on an exercise in fun. That's what the ph in php stands for.

Polished off my collection in Katamari Forever about half an hour ago. That's, what, 4143 items? And I thought Banjo-Kazooie was a Collect-a-thon. As you can imagine, things have been rather quiet since Sunday.
--------------------
Tagged under: gaming, site, work
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 21
10/09/26 at 23:52 EST

Yesterday was a bit of an adventure. Some friends and I went to Toronto on what has been referred to on more than one occasion as a Scott Pilgrimage. If you mosey on over to the Photo Gallery there will be a section for Toronto, including some little tid-bits of info and references to locations in the Scott Pilgrim books/movie. It's a little...lacking, for now, but the primary goal of the trip was to hit up the Sonic Boom and spend too much money on CDs, a task completed marvelously. Of course, a bomb threat closing off half the TTC didn't help, but we were still able to make a day of it.

A part of me is certain that I'm missing something, here, but I can't seem to bring it to light. Ah well, life goes on.

Gonna have to take my backup backpack to work tomorrow, as my primary mode of portable storage became damaged when a subway I wanted to board tried to close on me. I was surprised by the force they exhibit; being accustomed to machinations that, upon detecting an opposing force, reopen, the TTC Subway doors caught me off guard in their eagerness to shut firmly and ended up striking me hard enough to leave a mark and tear one of the arms off my backpack. Wasn't enough to stop me, though.
--------------------
Tagged under: life, site
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 20
10/09/24 at 00:00 EST

At long last, I have finished (one third of) Birth By Sleep. I must admit, it was a tough journey, but a hell of a ride. It became apparent to me that I've been doing it wrong from the get-go, however: the game is essentially split up into three story modes, one per "main character", and the main character I chose happened to be the one that missed out on the explanation of what the hell was going on. If it weren't for the Information blurbs during event fights, I wouldn't have even known the name of the breed of creatures I was fighting until the climax, and even then, it wasn't until minutes before the game's end that I found out what they were.

Looks like I've got another 20 hours of play to keep me entertained before the collection phase comes into play. Not sure how I sit with the division of the game into thirds - something of this design is generally done to pad a short game into a larger one with minimal effort, and that appears to be exactly what's been done here. However, the order of events, which events are presented, and the play style vary widely enough to distract from the fact that it's a petty gimmick. As if it were necessary - I'm the kind of person who played through the original Kingdom Hearts with each weapon combination, and then some.

Well, I'm hopping from one spiky-haired silly-sword-wielding adventurer to another. Tomorrow might be another one of those "Not even Nothing" days. Full of adventure and exploration, you see. Pity adventure and exploration lack wi-fi.
--------------------
Tagged under: gaming
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 19
10/09/23 at 01:21 EST

Another day, and my duty once again goes un-shirked. I've been thinking about this little game lately, and I can attest right now that once October rolls around I'll be back to the once-a-month updating scheme.

This is pretty much a live journal right now. Apart from the Pac-Man earrings, I haven't done anything constructive with my spare time lately, and a baseless fear of jail-time keeps me from discussing the musings of my work life, so all I'm left with are my day to day experiences. And they're not very interesting - not to me, not to you, and not to anyone who knows me personally. (Fun with math: identify all the subsets of the above master set!) This month has primarily been nothing more than an online diary, and I can't fathom why it would appeal to anyone to read it. The satisfaction I get from it lies in knowing that I'm looking at something I created from scratch using nothing more than my own designs. Can't say the same for you, though I do wish I could throw you a bone.

The "House-warming" in "House-warming party" ended up being a lot more literal than I'd expected. I'm not really familiar with the traditional paradigm, but it seems to me that the underlying intent of a House-warming party is to invite several people over to the house that needs warming, and allowing the accrued humans to generate and emit an increased level of body heat, thus increasing the temperature of the dwelling. It worked, of course.

Stephen R. Covey would not be happy with me if he saw me tonight - evidently I've still got some work to do on that whole initiative thing. It was a good ride for a while, but at around 11:30 I encountered that "I am now overstaying my welcome" feeling, but I decided to idle for another hour before doing something about it. Personal experience and a lifetime of tragic, broken dreams has taught me that waiting for my situation to act on me is a terrible idea because it takes longer to get something done than Tech Support from India. Still gotta work on that initiative thing, evidently.

If it saves anyone from a trip to Wikipedia, Covey wrote a book called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" which to some length talks about taking initiative. That's what the dawn of the fourth paragraph was referencing. It wasn't meant to be humorous so don't lose any sleep over it. No pun intended.
--------------------
Tagged under: life
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Nothing-A-Day 18
10/09/22 at 00:06 EST

Another long day at work. That's fine, so long as tomorrow isn't another long day at work. I've got somewhere to be, for a change.

Gonna use the gaming tag until I get around to automating the tagging process, instead of manually adding "coding". Oh boy, I've been coding again. Knocked another task off my strategy plate so quickly that I decided to enhance an aesthetic element as well. To get an absolute basic playable prototype up and working, I'd wager another 10 to 20 hours of coding. I'm terrible with estimates, so I decided to ball park it somewhere between what I estimate, and double that. I've done plenty of tokenizing and parsing in PHP, but I've never done anything like that for C#, so I'll need to familiarize myself with the API for that. Then, I'll need to become a disaster zone and cause mountains of problems to be solved, in a design analogous to a cataclysm. That's how I roll.
--------------------
Tagged under: gaming, work
--------------------
0 comment(s) | Leave a comment
 


 
Browse news post pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12