It's a blog.
Dale
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Homepage: http://dkxy.net
Posts by Dale
Achievement Unlocked: Complete semester with handicap
Aug 24th
I just finished writing my final exam not too long ago, bringing my second semester in CPA at Seneca to a close. Before the semester began, I discovered that I had strained muscles and tendons in my hands and forearms, making last semester extremely difficult to complete. At the moment, I am trying to figure out whether I need to take a semester off in order for my hands to heal completely, or whether they will heal enough in the next two weeks so that I can start my third semester in September with no obstacles. Obviously, I would like to go back in September but it was difficult to put 100% of myself into my work with this condition this semester, so I may take it off to help myself in the long run.
I have barely played any games the whole semester which is quite depressing, especially since I have StarCraft 2 sitting on my hard drive barely touched. I plan on doing a lot of reading over the next few weeks though, both fiction and non-fiction. I recently bought an Amazon Kindle (the 6″, WiFi-only one) which I should be receiving within the next few weeks. I have wanted an eReader for a while, simply because I really don’t have space for more books at the moment and I don’t enjoy reading off of my monitor. Here is a list of some of the books I plan to read:
Fiction
- “Neuromancer” by William Gibson
- “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card
- Neal Stephenson Books
Non-fiction
- Finish “The C Programming Language” by K&H
- “Simply JavaScript” by Kevin Yank
- “Core Techniques and Algorithms in Game Programming”
- Need a good C++ book
I am looking for suggestions for good books about C++, JavaScript,Python and game programming, so I would appreciate any suggestions!
Not being able to use my hands to do the things I love to do made me realize how much I took my hands for granted when they were working normally. I spent a lot of time thinking about the things I would do once my hands get back to peak performance, and taking up an instrument is on the list. I love both the piano and guitar, having played both at separate times in my life, but I’d like to pick up one instrument to master. Does anyone else play an instrument? How did you settle on learning to play one out of the many that exist? It is so hard to choose just one!
Aside from taking up an instrument, I plan on throwing myself into game development at full-throttle once my hands heal, as well as re-designing & re-arranging my blog and website. Until then… I’m on a mini-vacation! Hopefully I’ll be back sooner rather than later…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
Jun 17th
No, the title doesn’t refer to Christmas, but to E3 2010. It’s a magical time where all the console manufacturers and developers come together to show the world what the next year will bring to gaming. In the 90s, when I was a wee lad, my dad’s cousin (a former employee of Psygnosis in Liverpool, UK) would tell me stories about going to E3, and all the cool stuff he would see. I was always so jealous and ever since, I have made it a life goal to attend the event. That was a long time ago though, and E3 has become a much bigger event since then, especially since its return from its short invitation-only stint a few years ago. I would love to actually be there yet all I can do now is do what most other gaming fans can do: watch from the sidelines. Anyway, this is what I think about this year’s showing:
Microsoft
The biggest surprise was the imminent release of the new Xbox 360 Slim model, which, I must admit, is very nice looking. I am somewhat tempted to pick one up eventually. The decision to finally include a wireless adapter inside the console was a good idea. As long as the noise pollution from the console has been reduced, and the RRoD problem has been fixed, I can definitely see myself buying one. Kinect, formally known as ‘Project Natal’, was interesting but a little ridiculous. I thought people playing Wii looked silly, but Kinect takes it to a whole new level of ridiculousness. Also, from what I’ve been reading, not many games will be playable while sitting on the couch. The idea of constantly having to stand and wave around to play a game is not very appealing to me.
Too much time was spent outlining features for non-gamers, like ESPN on Xbox, Zune integration, and video chat with Kinect. I understand Microsoft wants to appeal to non-gamers as well with this, but it almost seemed like they were trying too hard. Having the Kinect camera track your movement is a little creepy. Also, the lack of any core games for Kinect was incredibly disappointing. As for 360 games, no new exclusives were shown… although I must admit, while I am not a Halo fan, Halo: Reach did look like fun.
Sony
Sony’s showing was okay but I was expecting a little more. There were rumors of a PSP2 being launched at this year’s E3 but that never happened. Twisted Metal was a pleasant surprise, although I’ve personally never been a huge fan of the series myself. It was interesting to see some Move games, but it really just does look like a more accurate version of the Wii. Valve’s big “surprise” of launching Portal 2 on the PS3 was a huge letdown as well… it’s nearly been 3 years since The Orange Box, where is the conclusion to Half Life 2!?
Sony spent a little too much time focusing on the 3D aspect it’s bringing to the PlayStation 3. I am a little worried about this, as many people are simply not willing to dish out $2, 000 for a 3DTV, as well as $250 for each pair of 3D glasses. Personally, I think they should have waited until glasses-free 3D tech was readily available, and until the tech became more widespread. How many people are actually going to be able to experience the PS3 in 3D? I have a feeling not many at all. Also, where was The Last Guardian? That has to be one of my most anticipated titles for the PS3, and I have not heard diddly-squat about it… sadface!
Nintendo
Nintendo really kicked ass this year, winning the hearts of older gamers all over with its trip down nostalgia lane. Donkey Kong Country Returns, Zelda Wii, Kirby Epic Yarn (hilarious name) and Metroid: Other M all look fantastic and make me glad I never got rid of my Wii. The successor to the DS, the 3DS, also looked great. From what I’ve been reading, the 3D effect really does work – and without glasses too! I think I want a 3DS to play Star Fox 64, just to do a barrel roll in 3D. Awwww, yeah!
That’s all I really have to say at the moment. The next year in gaming does look quite exciting, and 2011 is shaping up to be a very exciting year for gaming. I’m excited to pick up Move in September! However, I am not excited to potentially go broke after I buy all this cool stuff…
Exhausted, Still …Interesting
May 25th
The weeks seem to fly by when you’re in school. I used to wonder what people meant when they said time moves quicker the older you get, but now I think I do. The more you do, the more time is consumed and the less you have to just do things you want to do. It’s Monday… and the next thing you know, it’s somehow the weekend. How depressing!
I’ve had a few personal issues pop up, preventing me from working on the game club or doing any recreational programming. However, it has not stopped me from browsing the Internets! So, making it’s triumphant return… interesting links I’ve come across!
» Using PuTTY on Windows? Feeling underwhelmed by its lack of features? I found a cool, more feature-rich alternative called KiTTY. Check it out if you’re interested in a new SSH client.
» Endgadget posted an interesting article on the quality of life of Foxconn employees. Foxconn manufactures many of the parts used in commercial tech products, such as the iPhone. It seems like that huge amounts of cash generated by these products never reach the people who actually work to create the physical product. Capitalism at work! Check out the article here.
» To end this post with a horrifying note… What would Doctor Who be like if it was created by Disney? Click here for a glimpse into some sick, twisted alternate reality where that seems to be the case.
Alright, that’s all I’ve got for now.
Back to Reality
May 17th
By the time my first day in my second semester in CPA ended, I had a feeling that this semester would be much more interesting than the last. By the end of the week, I was sure of it. Although two of my classes deal with an operating system completely new to me (System i on an IBM Power Systems) and so far seem very cryptic and almost intimidating, my C++ and HTML/CSS/JS classes seem like they will be a lot of fun. Also, I really want to learn more C++, CSS and JavaScript, as I see learning these as relevant to things I would like to do, while learning some business OS for writing business applications… not so interesting yet. At least all my teachers seem pretty cool so far.
Speaking of school, I’ve gotten around to setting up a temporary site for the ‘Unofficial’ Seneca Game Design & Development Club! I’m currently hosting it on a subdomain until I get the sense that it is serious enough for a full domain. I really hope that people join this summer, as I would like to begin to work on my game programming skills just with something simple. Perhaps Tetris or Brickbreaker with a twist. Shatter is an awesome example of how you can take an old idea and execute it into something new and fun, and I don’t think it would be too difficult to come up with something along these lines. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how the next few weeks go.
There really is not enough time in the day to do everything I would like to. Aside from studying & recreational programming, I’ve been addicted to HBO’s Six Feet Under. The combination of dark and light humour, plus the incredible writing and hilarious dream sequences definitely make this one of the best shows I’ve had the pleasure to watch. I don’t know how HBO does it, but they really know how to pick amazing shows to broadcast. This definitely gives me high hopes for the upcoming television adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire.
Lastly, I ordered Red Dead Redemption, the newest game by Rockstar. It looks like a mix between Deadwood and GTA4… which is awesome. I should be getting it either tomorrow or Wednesday. Hopefully I have time to play it in between school and everything else. Who else is for extending the amount of hours in a day to 48? ….anyone?
Summer Week
Apr 25th
My first semester back at Seneca@York is now over, leaving me with a little over two weeks of free time before I dive head-first into the second semester. I’m going to be doing another three semesters in-a-row before I allow myself a summer semester. Will this be difficult? Yes. Am I insane for attempting to do this? …Yes. However, years of shopping around for a post-secondary program that I actually wanted to be in has left me yearning to finish school and get on with life (For some reason, I have a feeling I will wish the opposite in 20 years).
I have been trying to get an officially sanctioned ‘Game Design & Development’ club started at school but it has been difficult to find a teacher willing to mentor & help out, which depresses me greatly. After all, University of Toronto has one, so does Waterloo. I have e-mailed two Seneca professors involved in game development courses if they would help: one said she was too busy with her own research project (which is understandable) and the second one never bothered to respond. I will be very disappointed if no instructors step up and lend a hand with this, and I’ll be forced to start an unofficial club. Officially or unofficially, it will happen.
I am going to Cuba for a week with my girlfriend this Saturday, and by the time I get back, my second semester will be a day away from beginning. Because of that, I hope to finish learning the basics of Python this week, as well as setting up the website for the unofficial S@Y Game Dev/Design club. Aside from that, it will be a lazy week. I will probably make another post or two before I leave about Python & the Unofficial Game Dev. club. Cool stories, Hansel? I thought so too!
Failed.
Apr 8th
Now that I am entering the final stretch of my first semester in Computer Programming & Analysis, it would seem that I actually have the time to make a blog post! Things have been quite busy but all I have left to do now is to finish coding my Sudoku puzzle generator (in C) and study for my final exams, school-wise. The middle part of this semester, as one could probably tell from the lack of posts, has kept me quite busy, and I’m adjusting to a quite different style of work than I am used to. No more long-winded essays! Oh, it feels quite good. What feels even better is that I really seem to enjoy programming. Granted, I have only been scratching the surface of C, as well as have dabbled my feet in a little bit of Python, but so far I seem to be grasping it all quite quickly.
I’m actually going to be taking my second semester during the summer, so besides crossing my fingers that my school has a proper A/C system, I also plan to work on two little projects. The first one is to re-design this blog & to complete the splash page located on the root of the domain. It will definitely not be as flashy or good-looking as the current design, but at least it will be one I created myself. I am taking a class where I will be learning HTML, CSS and JavaScript so it’s pretty much like getting two birds stoned at once.
The second project is to code a simple game in C, using the SDL library. Right now, I am just thinking something like Tetris or Blockbreaker, just to learn the basics. After I get that done, I would like to add an interesting gameplay element to the game that makes it different from vanilla Blockbreaker/Tetris. I’ve been doing some brainstorming, as well as reading the documentation for SDL, so hopefully I can get started on that once my exams are complete.
So that is my plan. If you were wondering, the post title refers to the fact that it has been exactly two months since my last post, and how the first line of said post has me promising the opposite will happen… oops! Well, I never stop trying so I will continue to attempt to blog about possibly-interesting things. Until then…
First February …Interesting
Feb 8th
Phew, it’s been a while! My attempt to start blogging regularly has once again failed, but that doesn’t mean I will stop trying! In the meantime…. here are a lot of links to things I’ve found interesting in the past few weeks. And here is hoping that Heroes ends with the season finale tonight… it’s hard to put Old Yeller down, but it’s necessary.
» This PennyArcade comic about Sony’s new “reality” show about people who want to test video games for a living really sheds light on how fun that job actually would be. I lol’d.
» Lifehacker has two interesting articles today, one of which should be of interest to any Canadian. That would be this article on how to best survive a fall through ice. Useful information that I doubt many people possess. Secondly, an article much more useful to web developers… a Lorem Ipsum-generator for images! This seems quite useful! I’ll definitely be bookmarking it for future use.
» Aaron sent me this awesome link a week or two ago. This site lets you play old-school Sierra adventure games right from your browser. Not only that, but the site developers have added multiplayer features to these games. Yes, you can play King’s Quest IV online with friends. Doesn’t work so well but hey, it’s kind of novel!
» I recently came across some amazing indie games that I am very excited to try out. Firstly, the incredible Boryokudan Rue by Josh Nuernberger. A very Blade Runner-inspired point-and-click game with an incredible soundtrack and some very intriguing looking gameplay, this looks like of one of the best indie releases of 2010. I would gladly pay for this. And here is a list of The Top 10 Indie Metroidvania games, all of which look quite amazing. If there are people on this world who STILL have yet to play through Cave Story, do yourself a favour and download/play it ASAP.
» I’m not sure who would actually buy this, but if you’ve ever needed privacy at work or school to take a nap, this is the product you would use.
» io9 posted a gallery of some Doctor Who concept art that was created for the second season and onwards. Also includes some Torchwood concept art. Those are some scary looking Cybermen, and the original design for the Satan Pit looks quite cool. I’m glad they changed the design for the Library Planet though because it’s lame.
» And finally… is our reality just a projection of the true reality? What the hell does that even mean? If you wish to have your sene of ‘real’ turned upside down, take this article for a spin.
Week-late …Interesting
Jan 25th
I think “The Great TV Binge of 2008-2010″ is finally over. I finished The Wire on Friday night and it was spectacular. Now that I’m finally done going through every television series I was interested in watching, I’ll have lots of time to learn more about programming & game.
Speaking of finishing things, I finally finished Mass Effect for PC last night, which led me to frantically order a copy of Mass Effect 2 from Amazon. I think I’ll give my two cents on the first game later tonight. Until then, more interesting links! It’s been a slow week but there were still a few gems among the rough.
» The Frank Oz-directed Death at a Funeral was a fantastically hilarious film. So why is it necessary to have an American ‘urbanized’ remake, less than 3 years after the original was released? With Chris Rock and no Alan Tudyk? Set sail for fail! At least Peter Dinklage, aka Tyrion Lannister, will be in it.
» Hey, what a surprise! Some studies done at various American universities posit that good gamers not only have bigger brains than non-gamers, but also learn better as well. See, mom? All that time playing video games DID pay off!
» I know The Daily Mail is not the most reliable news site, but this story made me feel sick. A 13-year old Saudi girl sentenced to 90 lashes for bringing a cell phone to school? These indoctrinated fools will use anything as an excuse to keep women on the bottom of the social ladder. It’s pretty sad. “Religion of peace”, my ass.
» New details regarding the first true Legend of Zelda game built from the ground-up for the Wii are starting to surface online. Here is a site I found with a few details. Sounds like this entry in the series is going to give the gameplay a much-needed revamp. Colour me intrigued!
» Now this is cool. A programmer who works for Crytek (Crysis, Far Cry 1) and a 3D modeller developed this system for a “Structural Procedural Demo” which can generate an entire city, along with it’s interior, for a game or simulation setting. Video included in the link. I have to say, the possibilites for this in a game like GTA, or (*crosses fingers*) Shenmue 3 are mindblowing. I can’t even imagine how long it would take to do something like that manually. Of course, at first I can’t imagine the interiors of buildings having too much detail or layout variety, but that is something that can be tweaked over time.
» And to end off this post, two posts from io9 that make me quite happy. Firstly, Stephen Fry wants to write an episode for the new season of Doctor Who. For the love of dog, YES PLEASE! Fry’s sense of humour would be a perfect match for the Doctor. I really hope he ends up writing an episode, as long as the word “Geronimo” is not even uttered once. Finally, BOOM! Comics, creators of the Farscape comics, are launching a new Farscape comic series starring… Scorpius! Best sci-fi villain ever gets his own comic series? In on day one.
Okay, class time. Bye!
Late Weekend …Interesting
Jan 18th
I have yet to get the hang of my schedule, so I am still having a little trouble with the whole ‘time management’ concept. Hopefully, I will have everything running 100% in a week or two. In the meantime, I will procrastinate writing any original content by posting links to some interesting stuff! Quite the linkdump here, so get your left-click fingers ready:
» IndieGames is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites to read. This time, two interesting articles from them. First off, we have a list of the Top 20 Free Platformers of 2009. Three of my favorite things: a ‘best of’ list, platformer games, and free! For freeware indie games, some of these look mighty impressive. I have yet to try any out yet, hopefully when I have some free time I can. Secondly, another interesting list, this one previewing 10 indie games to be released in2010. Boryokudan Rue looks very cool, and I’ve been waiting for Fez to be released since I first laid eyes upon it’s beautiful pixel-style art, so it looks like 2010 will be an interesting year for the indie scene.
» Lifehacker has a link to guide on how to build a router made out of Lego. Yes, a router made out of Lego. Oh, the things you can do with Lego. I’d like to see a fully functioning car made out of Lego, even if it has to be powered ala the Flintstones.
» Two very cool gadget-related articles from Engadget. First off, this is what a computer in a car’s dashboard SHOULD look like. All sleek and shiny… I am just hoping you can’t get internet access on that thing, or I can see the amount of car accidents caused by distraction going wayy up. Another very cool gadget is this digital string-less guitar. Nothing says “I’m playing a guitar in the freakin’ future!” like shredding on one of these babies. Personally, acoustic has always been the most pleasing on my ears.
» io9 was kind enough to let their readers know that the scripts for the 2009 Doctor Who specials are now online, so obsessed fans can dissect every line and every stage action to solve every last lingering secret surrounding the 10th Doctor. How kind of them…
… anyway… I just remembered I had to read… something. Bye!
Midweek …Interesting
Jan 13th
It has been a busy week! I started Computer Programming & Analysis Monday and while things haven’t seem to really gotten started yet, I feel like I am going to enjoy this program a lot. That makes me happy. There are a ton of things I found interesting since Sunday though, so here we go:
» foobar2000 finally hit 1.0. I can’t believe it, that program was stuck in ‘beta’ hell! It’s my favorite music player for Windows, as it plays nearly every audio format out-of-the-box and is incredibly customizable and light-weight… my favorite qualities in a program!
» Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg believes users do not want privacy online because that’s the current social norm. That’s right, folks, Facebook defines what’s cool and what ain’t these days, and clearly privacy is NOT cool. Amirite?
» This made me laugh hysterically for a minute or two. Iron Maiden? Excellent! Oh, how I love thee, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
» Lifehacker posted an interesting article on how your passwords may not be as secure as you think, and how to fix that problem. A good read for anyone paranoid about being haxed.
» Sarah Palin is in talks with FOX News to become a ‘contributor’, whatever that means. Is anyone really surprised by this?
… unfortunately, my web host is being quite unreliable and I just lost the other 3/4 of this post. Oh well, I can’t be arsed enough to re-write it all. Night!
