Archive for the ‘Development’ Category

Programming in D

A few days ago, on Twitter, I said that “Attempting to install D is like trying to speak a secret language, only everyone who knows it is speaking a different dialect than you.” That may have been misleading: what I actually meant was, that attempting to install the whole stack of D + DSSS + Derelict + Arclib is like trying to speak a secret language.

Here’s the secret part no one is going to tell you, and that you will not find written down anywhere: do not install version 2.x of the D compiler. This will save you no end of trouble. Stick to 1.0. Here’s the procedure I followed:

What your business is, well, that’s up to you. Me, well, I just want to be Kenta Cho. (Fun fact: Tumiki Fighters and Torus Trooper both are playable with the Xbox 360 Gamepad on Windows. Much more fun than just using a keyboard.)

April 17th, 2008 · Tags Computers, Development, Video Games | Comments Off

The lazyweb pays off

So back in April, I posted a request looking for some free icons that Matt Ball had made available for application developers, but which had since disappeared off the ‘net for reasons unknown.

I did manage to contact a different blogger who had a copy of them on his hard drive still, and so now they’re kicking around on mine (or were, until recently, when my laptop’s hard drive suffered a head crash - luckily my baby’s in repair now), but last night I got a comment from the artist himself.

Turns out Matt Ball now has an online portfolio. As far as online portfolios go, it’s pretty simple (in a good way!) and snazzy, and I like his icon work. I also applaud him for not using Flash. Dear online portfolio-havers: Flash is not appropriate for anything, unless you are a Flash developer.

June 11th, 2007 · Tags Blogging, Development, Icons, Lazyweb | Comments Off

Out here in the field

Fun fact of the day: I have “Teenage Wasteland” stuck in my head, and I can’t get rid of it.

Also, I think my division at work may be the only 3 people who aren’t managers of something. That’s just weird. Seriously, at every company meeting, two or three people end up becoming managers of some sort, even if there’s no one under them - they’re still managers.

I kind of want to switch to the MySQL team (newly-formed!). I worry I don’t have enough DBA-type experience with it, though, and can’t figure out how to bring up to my boss that yes, sure, having the company pay for me to take MySQL administration courses and get a certification are, in fact, job-related. Well, at least, not without making it really obvious that I want to switch to the MySQL team.

Is there a term for having a crisis of faith, but job-related? I’m not so sure software development is what I want to do for a living anymore. I still like it, it’s just that I think I like it more on my own terms.

May 4th, 2007 · Tags Annoyances, Development, Music, MySQL, Work | Comments Off

Lazyweb: looking for icons

Alright, internets: find something for me.

This page on cocoadev.com links to a zipfile of royalty-free (and, apparently, free-as-in-beer) icons by Matt Ball. The problem is that this zipfile has disappeared completely from the Internets, and the site that was hosting them is French, and the user’s site is gone altogether. (Yes, two of those links are 404s.)

So after a little searching, I managed to find where a different blogger was hosting them on his site, except… you guessed it, 404. They’re gone altogether. They are, in fact, the only thing missing out of his wp-content/uploads folder for the month of March. How odd, and what a frustrating coincidence.

Anyway - does anyone out there happen to have a copy of these icons? I need them for an app I’m prototyping. Thanks!

404

April 3rd, 2007 · Tags Annoyances, Development, Icons, Internet, Lazyweb, Mac, Software | 2 Comments »

Whither Vic Viper?

Radiant Silvergun

Today, Destructoid asks: where have all the spaceships gone?

When did you last play a space shooter? Better yet, if you’re under the age of 20, have you ever played a space shooter? Back when it was a popular genre, we used to run to the local 7-11 with a fistful of mom’s laundry money, eager to plow through a hectic sea of deadly asteroids and insect-shaped enemy craft.

Since those days when high scores meant something, it seems every other genre that existed at the time has grown and evolved into something amazing. Rally-x paved the way for Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport. Pitfall became Tomb Raider. Even other classes of shooters like Contra have led to great games like Gears of War.

Why, then, have space shooters hit a darwinian roadblock? If Metroid can move through generations and still be fun, why can’t Galaga?

It’s a valid question. I think I’ve been looking for a good space shooter myself; the last one of any real worth I played was Ikaruga, and there’ve been times I’ve debated getting a Sega Saturn just so I can go back and play Radiant Silvergun (especially since someone’s finished translating the rather epic story). Heck, I’ve even thought of picking up R-Type Final for the PS2. And yet I haven’t. (Actually, the last ’shooter’ I bought in any fashion? Gradius, on the virtual console. Prior to that? Rez. I love Rez to death, but that’s another story altogether.)

Dtoid asks at the end:

What do you think, robot friends? Would you jump at the chance to play a 3-D spaceship game built for the 360, or do you think this genre is no longer viable and should be forgotten about?

I have to say I’m unsure - at least, about the 3-D part. I think part of the appeal of the space shooter is simply that it is uncomplicated in terms of gameplay (now, as for staying alive? that can be deadly). Putting things in 3-D naturally introduces all the complications that come with trying to dodge shots that are now coming from in front of you; depth is really hard to judge when you have no shadow, it seems. (On the other hand, there is Rez. Rez is not about the challenge, though.)

Maybe I should break out XNA Game Studio when I get home - I’m almost itching to try my finger at doing this myself, and the overhead or side-scrolling shooter is pretty much the standard demo project for just about every game development system ever. Hey, it’s worth a shot.

Worth four simultaneous shots, in fact, if I have Options.

Gradius

March 7th, 2007 · Tags Development, Nostalgia, PS2, Video Games, Wii | Comments Off

Links galore

  • Mr. Gosling, why did you make URL equals suck?! A useful warning to Java developers - using URL.equals may be considered harmful, because apparently it does a blocking lookup to the IP address of the machine.
  • No Shredder in TMNT? Peter Laird, series creator of our favorite heroes on a halfshell, suggested the change. The villain is now a more generic ‘monsters and space aliens.’ Maybe it’s this guy, even though he didn’t really come from outer space, per se?
  • The world’s most indispensable Firefox tab: Ctrl-Shift-T (or Cmd-Shift-T on the Mac) will re-open the most recently closed tab. Hallelujah!
  • Slain trees haunt loggers. My coworker’s response: “heh, ent ghosts.”
  • Find out your Windows Vista Experience number. Sort of like a compatibility rating between your computer and Vista - is it love at first byte, or is Vista simply too high-maintenance for a down-to-earth machine like yours? (Pardon the pun - I had to.)
  • O’Reilly Media launched Hackszine.com, an online companion to the Hacks series of books gracing bookshelves for quite a while now. This is already in my RSS reader.
  • MAKE Blog: Do it yourself grassroots media sites using NewsCloud. Twenty bucks a month gets you a Debian install and NewsCloud; I think they handle hosting. Or you can just do it yourself, it’s open-source.
  • Dear God, it’s the Woot-Off that won’t die. The offer as I type this: a 37″ Sova widescreen HD-ready LCD monitor for $649.99 plus $5 shipping. I wish I could afford this monster.

That about covers it. I’m sort of like a bargain basement Weekend Update. (Obvious pop-culture references linked for my friend Sandra’s sake, who recently revealed she has no idea what movie features the songs “Danger Zone,” “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling,” and more. Or, for that matter, has never seen SNL.)

February 1st, 2007 · Tags Computers, Development, Gadgets, Internet, Microsoft, News, Science, Shopping, Software, TV, Technology, WTF?, Windows, lol | Comments Off

Leafletter: what the heck is this?

What exactly (or perhaps better, who exactly) is Leafletter for?

I watched the demo and other than a silly Flash-enabled artist’s portfolio, I can’t figure out who would use this, or for what. Other than maybe MySpace kids, who absolutely love slapping Flash everywhere (consequently, my own MySpace profile is one of the dullest on the web, but also the most readable and possibly the quickest to load… and no, it doesn’t play that damn Nickelback song).

(Snazzy Flickr integration, but everything integrates with Flickr these days. I think a new corollary needs to be added to Zawinski’s Law, something along the lines of, “every web app attempts to expand until it can integrate with Flickr and/or del.icio.us.”)

January 8th, 2007 · Tags Development, Flickr, Internet, Software, WTF?, Webapps, del.icio.us | Comments Off