Website updates, mostly painless

As a professional, if slightly long in the tooth programmer, Ive had my fair share of oh gawwd moments when doing some boring bit of code.. But the worst type of coding is websites. I really, really really hate coding websites, and the tools available to make it "easy" do not....ever make it "easy"

But I have to say I updated my website in preperation for the 2nd edition content, pretty easily by asking my claude.ai account to take my exisiting code, and use a new template for it, and revamped everything, adding in new pages and layouts.

It was really simple a few errors and some why is it doing that questions that got answered and my site is up and running, ready to have some new content plugged in...lots of features added that would have taken me days..weeks even, all done with a simple request.

I think this is a superb way to use AI systems, but its still pretty crap for C++ game coding.

Ahthankyew

Last bit

The book is now in the publishing phase, some , probably a lot, of proof reading and formattin to be done and a few tweaks, but the publisher has announced it, and will be sendng me mock ups of the cover and 1st proofs, in the coming weeks.

In the meantime the updates to the website are progressing, starting with the all new Pi3/PC builds that will go live 1st, in the next couple of weeks, with the Pi4 content later on when the book is near ready. There's not a lot of difference, just some of the extra shader features that the Pi3 can't handle. The Pi3 does need a slightly different set up though so best to keep them seperate.

exciting times.



https://www.routledge.com/The-Fundamentals-of-CC-Game-Programming-Using-Target-based-Development/Beuken/p/book/9781032863801?_gl=1*1bhm1kg*_gcl_au*MzgwMjAwMTEwLjE3NDE0NTc2NDc.*_ga*NjcyNDgxODIyLjE3NDE0NTc2NDE.*_ga_0HYE8YG0M6*czE3NDY3MTI4ODQkbzMkZzEkdDE3NDY3MTI4OTgkajQ2JGwwJGgw&_ga=2.197532841.723068559.1746712886-672481822.1741457641

Ahthankyew

Sale now on

I've sold a few things already to friends who expressed an interest and allowed them to buy things at mates rates since I knew they wanted them.  But now its time to start being serious and start selling everything to the general market....

Given the sellers guilt I had, selling my Les Paul to Richard my old band mate I may very well end up catatonic selling the others but they have to all go, in the next 6 months or so.. And the Car, which I am very pleased to find has held its value very well, as well as the bike..which deserves someone who enjoys polishing metal more than I do. 

Im testing out the marktplats site 1st to see if it brings in some local sales, if not its ebay time... but 1st up is Frankie. I was hoping Jelmer 2 would buy her and let him take custory of her for a few months but in the end as much as he likes it he can't spend the cash... So its now up for sale... lets see..

If it goes quick I will start listing the other things and hope to keep regular sales going...

feeling the remores just posting the ad....but has to be done.

Ahthankyew

Done, now back to work

The book is done and off to production, there will be formatting and spell checking reports to deal with but they'll get it all done and it will be out in a few months.

So now back to normal services, getting stuff sold, workng on my Empires project and getting ready for my last half year at BUas. We still have a block D to do but I don't really have a lot to do in that as its a group project for all the disciplines, and programmers are working with Unreal so nothing much to teach.  Just supervision and small bits of gameplay/tech advise. They're basically on their own now.

But after summer I get 1 more block of retro game and 3/4's of Pi that I have a big hand in so I will try to go out with a bang.

Looking forward to seeing the new book on the shelves, I really hope this one stays current for longer, I made a point to make it less raspberry specific, while still focusing on the limits the raspberry imposes. If I did it well it will be a soild foundation for any new game progreammer... fingers crossed.

Ahthankyew

ouch...but ok..

Flights and accomodation are booked for our trip to Chiang Mai, in the autumn,  was a bit pricey I have to say, but 3 weeks in Thailand isn't going to be cheap, we just have to deal with it.

This time we got a hotel, no need to live like the locals we got a taste for that last year and loved it, We will be doing house hunting and hopefully bank account sorting.. Though the latter may prove hard given the recent crackdowns from banks on giving "tourist" accounts.

We're not going on a tourist visa though, so we should be ok, I'll apply for a 3 month visa closer to the time. That should make it fairly straight forward.

So now the savings have taken a bit of a hit, we need to rebuild them before October since I need 400K in Bhat available to show for the visa.

247 days to go... still not really got anything major sold yet, a few bits and bobs, but have to make sure I start listing all the small things as well as the big things. And sadly maybe have to clear out a lot of crappy stuff that has no value but might be useful to someone (like a lot of the very old SBC's)

Ahthankyew

Finishing the book

Hopefully this is the last weekend of editing and formatting for submission on the new book.. I say new, its a 2nd edition of the old book, but there is a lot of new content in there and quite a bit of rewritten/corrected content. The manuscript was done a few weeks ago but I have found the submission requirements pretty overwhelming. But thanks to a bit of help from the publishers I have only a few things let to do this weekend and it can go for proofing and typesetting. 

There will still be a few things to correct/fix/change, over the next few weeks but it will be good to get it out the door. 

I can then move on to fixing the website and the support projects which all now need updating as I use a new template for the code that allows cross platform dev. And as a bonus, I managed to get  that template to be compatible with the Pi3 content from the last book, though with a bit of fettling and re-jigging.

I'm really pleased with this new edition though, it corrects some of the waffle I had in the last one, removes some errors, and introduces some cool new stuff. I hope it sells a bit better with the cross platform focus. PC users can now get something out of it.

I kinda like writing, but hate the need to hit deadlines.  Writing, like coding comes in waves of enthusiasm and inspiraiton, if you don't have it you don't get much done, when it comes it floods...

I suspect I will write a few more books when I retie, I do actually have some ideas, I just don't know f they will be out of date by the time I get round to working on them..

Ahthankyew

A friend I never got to meet.

I find myself very upset tonight. As our plans to retire progress, part of my research has been to watch a lot of youtube videos of houses for sale/rent and also some personal vlog style videos of people who have also moved to Chaing Mai and document their expereince. 

Its quite a treasure trove of useful info to hear from someone who's been there 16 years and someone only just arriving and finding their way around.

I have a few that I regularly follow and subscribe to, and drop the odd comment on their channel. One  chap was an Aussi, my age, who has been there a year, during the course of one of his livestreams I discovered he was a model builder. A hobby I really want to get back into when we settle. We had exchanged a few simple comments and I liked his content.

He had a motorcycle/scooter accident 10 days or so , and got a bit banged up, but despite a few broken bones and bruises he did a nice livestream praising the medical teams and care he had... I dropped a few comments about wanting to pick up the modelling hobby again soon, and he said some encouraging words that when you retire having a hobby is good for you. I agree.

Sadly I just found out, he passed away suddenly a few days after that exchange, from a heart attack, walking into town for a coffee. Probably in part caused by the accident, but either way... 1 year on from moving to Thailand he dies..

Dammt, thats very sad, and he was alone over there, no family/partner.  I am sure we would have met up at some point when I move, picked up some tips on modelling  and good model shops, and been friends. So even though I never met the chap, it feels like a loss. RIP Peter at Oz ScaleModeling  https://www.youtube.com/@OzScalemodeling

 

Once again, life just isn't something you can always rely on, the dumbest things can take you out in an instant. Make sure you use up every ounce of your allocation doing nice things for yourself and others.

Ahthankyew

Or are they.....?

hmmm strange, got home today to find a letter from HMRC asking for 29.20 for a year I already paid.....

not at all sure why, but I've paid it and drafted a quick query letter that will no doubt take time to have a response but... hmmm that year is now showing as not compelte so I will assume its a mistake, not going to worry about it.

Ahthankyew

Pension up to date now

Ok

made the last of the shortfall payments HMRC  allow, and now I just pay my yearly class 2's so that in my old age, if I make it, I get my UK pension while living in Thailand.

Lets hope there's no strange changes in the pension laws between now and then. But overall I think this is good, having not realised I could make those shortfalls was a major error in my understanding of the pension system, that I wish someone had informed me of many years ago and I would not be in a mad panic now. Our HR dept really need to have someone there who handles or advises non dutch employees on such things, so many of us were unaware, and I've been spreading the word. At least 2 have found out they had shorfalls they needed to fix so thats good, but lucky the younger ones still have lots of years to make up their minumum.

So, its all done...cost a few grand but the return is very worth it. I was however expecting a bill for this years class 2, instead I got a bill for class 3, of 0,00 which I have of course paid :D

I suspect it will come through in due course. Im no longer bound by or afraid of any time deadlines. I've paid up, in time, and can now just deal with normal stuff.

phew..

Ahthankyew