Back to work, and on only my 2nd day I'm involved in a massive argument with a collegue who seems to feel my only role in our team, is to rubber stamp his methods...no sorry. Can't do that..
Teaching beginners is what I do, I know what I'm doing, there's ways to engage them, encoruage the bright ones but keep them on a long rein, and give the slower once the chance to catch up. He advocates letting the smarter ones run ahead of the pack and go beyond the outline lesson plans....that way leads to madness and serious issue of despair for the weaker ones. A group that can excel together is more impressive than a few sprinters showing off while the others feel left behind.
But rather than see that point I was called obstructive....I had little or no input in the plan, and I agreed with all the main points put down but urged caution on some issues, only to have this collegue attempt to browbeat me into backing down...
Its very annoying, but also what is even more annoying is that when you have a bad day at work, you come home to an emptry house, there's no one there to cheer you up, push you through the anger and let you move forward...this is definitely one of those times when being single sucks.
Can't sleep either, probably related, no doubt I'll have to have a less heated discussion with people tomorrow, but really I'm close to throwing in the towel here.. I hate conflict, but I'm not being used to my best abilities anymore, and if all I am is a rubber stamp, my skills with 1st years and engaging students is just wasted and I have to try to compete with more skilled coders inisting on mastery of tech skills rather than focusing on the understanding of the methods, pleasure and joy of coding......
yup...very fucked off/
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Friday, 12 August 2016
Aaaand Breathe
Dammit,
After an absolutly cracking week of steam rolling productivity, I find myself dead in the water, no insperation to work, no insperation to write, other than put to todo's on the whiteboard.
I think I need to reset my body block, and get back to sleeping at nights and try to work again in the morning.
On the good news side, my cheque cleared, bank took 52 euros for the privilidge, but oh well, its nice. It can go straight to the credit card to knock that back again after a teeny bit of abuse in London.
Better to knock it down and pay bit less interest than spend it on wind women and pork pies..
hmmm pork pies!
Danni, sent me an amazing video of Harvey2 now getting onto his feet with the aid of a tv unit. Such a lovley thing to see, he's progressing really fast 9months and standing :D
oh well. I'll go watch one of my movies upstairs to chillax and drink a lot to aid sleep
what can go wrong?
Ahthankyew
After an absolutly cracking week of steam rolling productivity, I find myself dead in the water, no insperation to work, no insperation to write, other than put to todo's on the whiteboard.
I think I need to reset my body block, and get back to sleeping at nights and try to work again in the morning.
On the good news side, my cheque cleared, bank took 52 euros for the privilidge, but oh well, its nice. It can go straight to the credit card to knock that back again after a teeny bit of abuse in London.
Better to knock it down and pay bit less interest than spend it on wind women and pork pies..
hmmm pork pies!
Danni, sent me an amazing video of Harvey2 now getting onto his feet with the aid of a tv unit. Such a lovley thing to see, he's progressing really fast 9months and standing :D
oh well. I'll go watch one of my movies upstairs to chillax and drink a lot to aid sleep
what can go wrong?
Ahthankyew
Monday, 8 August 2016
Ultimate laziness
I have not hoovered my house in over a year, well the stairs a couple of times but thats it. Why? Becuase I have a Roomba, I love my Roomba, it went a bit funny on me last week, due to getting clogged up, but a strip down and clean and its back to work.
I have it set up to run twice a week, and on my hardwood and tile floors in the kitchen thats all it needs The house is dust free and clean without any effort from me.
I love that!
But even though taking it up stairs is not a massive hassle, I tend not to. I like the automation of the system. Its set up and forget, aside from the once a month empty and clean process. I'd conisderd buying another one for upstairs, but at 600-700euros for a new Roomba it seemed to be madness, even for me.
So I have bought a cheap chinese clone, which incidendly also does mopping :D Anyway, its really cheap so I'm going to set it up to do the upstairs once a week, which will keep the buildup of dust and dog hair that tends to accumulate upstaris. I doubt it will be as reliable as my roomba, but its not being asked to do as much so it should be good to go. it will also encourage me to pick up my dirty socks
Ahthankyew
I have it set up to run twice a week, and on my hardwood and tile floors in the kitchen thats all it needs The house is dust free and clean without any effort from me.
I love that!
But even though taking it up stairs is not a massive hassle, I tend not to. I like the automation of the system. Its set up and forget, aside from the once a month empty and clean process. I'd conisderd buying another one for upstairs, but at 600-700euros for a new Roomba it seemed to be madness, even for me.
So I have bought a cheap chinese clone, which incidendly also does mopping :D Anyway, its really cheap so I'm going to set it up to do the upstairs once a week, which will keep the buildup of dust and dog hair that tends to accumulate upstaris. I doubt it will be as reliable as my roomba, but its not being asked to do as much so it should be good to go. it will also encourage me to pick up my dirty socks
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 6 August 2016
A picture paints a thousand words :D
After a bit of a search I finally found a way to grab screenshots on the Raspberry Pi. This finally means a lot of my entries in the book can now be completed. That really does make a big difference now, I can show steps in images on screen. and of course that pushes the page count up quite a bit now, so I'm really pleased that things are starting to move foward on that front, I was pissed at not being able to show screen shots of the Pi side...but that's done
The games are still taking too long to get in a clean and easy format to start, add to, and then finish. So that time sink still exists. But I am pleased now that the content can finally move on with the images to explain the text.
I've got about 6 games all done and playing, with various levels of completeness.
Still 6 more to go, and only a few weeks left.....will have to keep my nose on the grindstone.
Ahthankyew
The games are still taking too long to get in a clean and easy format to start, add to, and then finish. So that time sink still exists. But I am pleased now that the content can finally move on with the images to explain the text.
I've got about 6 games all done and playing, with various levels of completeness.
Still 6 more to go, and only a few weeks left.....will have to keep my nose on the grindstone.
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 4 August 2016
Mornings still suck
Had to get up early this morning after offering to give a friend and his family a lift in their car to Eindhoven airport.
Still I got some onions and other perishable foods back :D, better giving them to me than going to waste while they are away.
I was planning to make some mince and tatties tonight anyway.
The book is bulking out now, as I add code, but the projects are taking far far too long to complete so that I can move forward, I may not get it done in time, I really badly underestimated the time it would take, even though the games are highly simplified, (open to expansion) it does take time to get them written, and most importantly store the works in progress in a decent format that allows the readers to type content, rather than cut and paste.
Anyway, will spend the next week or 2 getting as much done as I can and see where it stands, I still have all the 3D stuff to write too, though like the 2D the framework is very simple its just time....time.
Ahthankyew
Still I got some onions and other perishable foods back :D, better giving them to me than going to waste while they are away.
I was planning to make some mince and tatties tonight anyway.
The book is bulking out now, as I add code, but the projects are taking far far too long to complete so that I can move forward, I may not get it done in time, I really badly underestimated the time it would take, even though the games are highly simplified, (open to expansion) it does take time to get them written, and most importantly store the works in progress in a decent format that allows the readers to type content, rather than cut and paste.
Anyway, will spend the next week or 2 getting as much done as I can and see where it stands, I still have all the 3D stuff to write too, though like the 2D the framework is very simple its just time....time.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 31 July 2016
Hangovers, but now the walk-throughs and a possible break through on the colecovision
Had some things to do last week that stopped me doing lots of other things I had to do, but now I have to do them, so they are getting done.
At home, finished a clearup and now have to just dust, wetwipe and vacuum the place, ready for painting. If I am feeling brave I might even put some woodchip on the attic walls which are exposed plasterboard still.
On the book, Finishing up the 2D projects and the walk throughs, which is cool but slow, however it does give me about 20 pages of content per project to push the book forward to its target. I should get 100 pages this week..
Also I make have a tip on the long standing bug on the Colecovision sprite system that caused sprites to randomly go crazy on hardware but not emulators, am going to check that out tonight and see.. I hope that fixes it, the game is done, barring some testing and tweeks, and this sprite system issue has been preventing me from clearing it off.
Also have to admit to being a bit delecate this morning after a fun night out with my Puddin, bandmates, many things we discussed, most of it drunken rubbish, but it was still a fun night out where we ate half a cow between us at Goucho's Ed, had lamb...hes far too culturedn then got massible drunk....nice, not done that in ages.
Need to get a lot more coffee inside me, but time to head up stairs and continue, 20 pages today, then the CV test...
Ahthankyew
At home, finished a clearup and now have to just dust, wetwipe and vacuum the place, ready for painting. If I am feeling brave I might even put some woodchip on the attic walls which are exposed plasterboard still.
On the book, Finishing up the 2D projects and the walk throughs, which is cool but slow, however it does give me about 20 pages of content per project to push the book forward to its target. I should get 100 pages this week..
Also I make have a tip on the long standing bug on the Colecovision sprite system that caused sprites to randomly go crazy on hardware but not emulators, am going to check that out tonight and see.. I hope that fixes it, the game is done, barring some testing and tweeks, and this sprite system issue has been preventing me from clearing it off.
Also have to admit to being a bit delecate this morning after a fun night out with my Puddin, bandmates, many things we discussed, most of it drunken rubbish, but it was still a fun night out where we ate half a cow between us at Goucho's Ed, had lamb...hes far too culturedn then got massible drunk....nice, not done that in ages.
Need to get a lot more coffee inside me, but time to head up stairs and continue, 20 pages today, then the CV test...
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 28 July 2016
8 years
Yup 8 years ago this week, I started out on this phase of my life...Moving to Breda.
It was an exciting and challenging time, and its never really stopped being exciting and challenging, a lot of bumps in the road for sure, illness, relationships, some work stresss.
But its had so many more upsides...This is still the place I want to see myself in when I retire...though when I do actually retire, I hope to have enough cash to buy a small tropical island somewhere to actually end my days.. Tahiti maybe?
Brexit, has cast a shadow over things a bit, but I am going to move forward with my plans to take Dutch citizenship and leave the small minded idiots who voted out, to their own devices I've always consdiered myself European, British, Scottish, in that order, so adding a Dutch label in there isn't going to give me any sense of loss....apart from Pies!
Onward....need to get back to the book writng, Tahiti will need a lot of books sold!
Ahthankyew
It was an exciting and challenging time, and its never really stopped being exciting and challenging, a lot of bumps in the road for sure, illness, relationships, some work stresss.
But its had so many more upsides...This is still the place I want to see myself in when I retire...though when I do actually retire, I hope to have enough cash to buy a small tropical island somewhere to actually end my days.. Tahiti maybe?
Brexit, has cast a shadow over things a bit, but I am going to move forward with my plans to take Dutch citizenship and leave the small minded idiots who voted out, to their own devices I've always consdiered myself European, British, Scottish, in that order, so adding a Dutch label in there isn't going to give me any sense of loss....apart from Pies!
Onward....need to get back to the book writng, Tahiti will need a lot of books sold!
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 26 July 2016
fucking migraines
I hate these silent migraines, I know I am lucky in not getting crippling pain, but the disuption to my vision and the wiped out feeling afterwards is very unsettling.
Was on a nice flow this morning working out some ideas on the book, when the scotoma started, small at 1st down in the corner of by vision, then increasing.....until I could not read the screen,
My vision is now starting to return, I can almost read this as I type it...but the wiped out feeling wil come next....bugger...its worse than watching 2 hours of daytime TV.
Ahthankyew
Was on a nice flow this morning working out some ideas on the book, when the scotoma started, small at 1st down in the corner of by vision, then increasing.....until I could not read the screen,
My vision is now starting to return, I can almost read this as I type it...but the wiped out feeling wil come next....bugger...its worse than watching 2 hours of daytime TV.
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 21 July 2016
Home sweat home
Wow, its even hotter here in Breda than it was in London, lucky though I have air con in the attic if it gets to be too much.
Loved my trip to the UK this time, mainly due to being able to just be a tourist for a change. Every other time I've been in the last 8 years has been business, so little or no time at all to actually just be a tourist.
My highlight has to be the trip to the RAF Museam at Hendon, oh I love that place, and going there myself meant I could really geek it up and take pics of all the silly stuff like undercarriage cables and cockpit details, even the nail patterns on a simply stunning Supermarine Southampton, such a lovely resporation of both a boatbuilder and aircraft designers craft. I could geek rant for days about the Boulton Paul Definent which sadly was shown in a dismantled state, but still one of my favourite quirky planes.
I even took time to get rid of my remaining cash notes to have a trip around london on an open topped bus with a tour guide...pure cheese but very informative. Though the blazing sun has give me a bit of a reddish hue on my arms and face...its all worth it.
Back home now, sleeves up, writing the book, finishing the CV game, after getting some on-line advise which might solve the long standing bug...and decorating, Time to get some paper on the bare walls in the attic and some paint on the walls.
5 weeks of rest, relaxation but lots of work.
Ahthankyew
Loved my trip to the UK this time, mainly due to being able to just be a tourist for a change. Every other time I've been in the last 8 years has been business, so little or no time at all to actually just be a tourist.
My highlight has to be the trip to the RAF Museam at Hendon, oh I love that place, and going there myself meant I could really geek it up and take pics of all the silly stuff like undercarriage cables and cockpit details, even the nail patterns on a simply stunning Supermarine Southampton, such a lovely resporation of both a boatbuilder and aircraft designers craft. I could geek rant for days about the Boulton Paul Definent which sadly was shown in a dismantled state, but still one of my favourite quirky planes.
I even took time to get rid of my remaining cash notes to have a trip around london on an open topped bus with a tour guide...pure cheese but very informative. Though the blazing sun has give me a bit of a reddish hue on my arms and face...its all worth it.
Back home now, sleeves up, writing the book, finishing the CV game, after getting some on-line advise which might solve the long standing bug...and decorating, Time to get some paper on the bare walls in the attic and some paint on the walls.
5 weeks of rest, relaxation but lots of work.
Ahthankyew
Monday, 18 July 2016
Book progress
Well, aside from walk throughs on getting the projects up and running,(and actually writing a few more) I seem to have done all the major content....pre-edit phase of course, I need to print it out, have a good read through, since I know I waffled on a few points and sometimes repeated myself.
I also have to include the code sections but I think I've got all the main topics covered now...
I scanned through it all last night and yeah, its what I wanted it to be. :D A beginners guide to programming on any machine.
Current page count (with almost no code) is 340 pages...another 50 or so for walk through, and maybe another 10 pages for illustrations, leaves 300 pages for code, That should be it!.
wooo hoooo
As I say though this is all pre-edit, I will probably cull quite a lot of it and re-write major sections but I feel I've covered all the relevent points I wanted to include and that anyone with some aptitude for coding should get themselves up and running in 30 days....
still 2 months till I hand over but happy so far
Ahthankyew
I also have to include the code sections but I think I've got all the main topics covered now...
I scanned through it all last night and yeah, its what I wanted it to be. :D A beginners guide to programming on any machine.
Current page count (with almost no code) is 340 pages...another 50 or so for walk through, and maybe another 10 pages for illustrations, leaves 300 pages for code, That should be it!.
wooo hoooo
As I say though this is all pre-edit, I will probably cull quite a lot of it and re-write major sections but I feel I've covered all the relevent points I wanted to include and that anyone with some aptitude for coding should get themselves up and running in 30 days....
still 2 months till I hand over but happy so far
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 16 July 2016
London is busy
I mean Daaaamn its busy, so much hussle and bustle.
I am having what should be a nice quiet weekend, of tourism in the daytime and writing/coding in the evenings but I find the simple process of walking around london to be quite exhausting, mostly avoding bumping into people
I went to see a west end show last night too, something I seldom have time for when I am here.. It was ok, a Michael Craford piece called the Go-Between, it was his name that convinced me to give it a go, but I wish I hadn't. Not hat it wasn't well acted, or staged it was, but it was a total musical with the flimsiest of plots, which sounded very old fashioned and outdated to me.. Even worse there was not one stand out musical number from any of the cast individually or collectivly. 2 hours, and it was pretty dull. The guy next to me didn't return after the intermission and the half full, quite small theatre would suggest its not going down all that well. In spite of a rather enthusiastic Bravo call from the guy in front of me, who I think was actually an actor taking over one of the roles as he continually read from a script, silently mouthing his words when before the play and in intermission.
Other things..well I went for a foot massage, in china town, as I was really feeling the burn on my old plates, and I have to say was rather surprised half way through to be offered an extra special massage...ermm.. I came in for my feet love..if I wanted extra's I'd be naked and oiled up by this point. She seemed quite surprised that I didn't take her up on it.. I guess I mistook the type of place it was...seemed legit to me though.
Did do a good job on my feet though :D
Book is coming along well too, I feel I'm in a nice flow, and will continue when I get back, though my hotel room in London is far smaller than in Brighton, and I don't have the space to set up the raspberry Pi and small screen, so just focusing for now on concepts rather than code..Thats next weeks job :D
Brighton was fun too, somehow I got my dates mixed up for checkout, and returned after a final session at the Develop Conference to find them packing up my stuff...I had to hurridly collect my used undies and so on and pack up then head over to London.. but I did enjoy my time in Brighton, very proud to be with Yan when he recieved his Search for a Star award
I have a pic somewhere but the new iphones upload system seems to have stored it somewhere I can't find at the moment
Ahthankyew
I am having what should be a nice quiet weekend, of tourism in the daytime and writing/coding in the evenings but I find the simple process of walking around london to be quite exhausting, mostly avoding bumping into people
I went to see a west end show last night too, something I seldom have time for when I am here.. It was ok, a Michael Craford piece called the Go-Between, it was his name that convinced me to give it a go, but I wish I hadn't. Not hat it wasn't well acted, or staged it was, but it was a total musical with the flimsiest of plots, which sounded very old fashioned and outdated to me.. Even worse there was not one stand out musical number from any of the cast individually or collectivly. 2 hours, and it was pretty dull. The guy next to me didn't return after the intermission and the half full, quite small theatre would suggest its not going down all that well. In spite of a rather enthusiastic Bravo call from the guy in front of me, who I think was actually an actor taking over one of the roles as he continually read from a script, silently mouthing his words when before the play and in intermission.
Other things..well I went for a foot massage, in china town, as I was really feeling the burn on my old plates, and I have to say was rather surprised half way through to be offered an extra special massage...ermm.. I came in for my feet love..if I wanted extra's I'd be naked and oiled up by this point. She seemed quite surprised that I didn't take her up on it.. I guess I mistook the type of place it was...seemed legit to me though.
Did do a good job on my feet though :D
Book is coming along well too, I feel I'm in a nice flow, and will continue when I get back, though my hotel room in London is far smaller than in Brighton, and I don't have the space to set up the raspberry Pi and small screen, so just focusing for now on concepts rather than code..Thats next weeks job :D
Brighton was fun too, somehow I got my dates mixed up for checkout, and returned after a final session at the Develop Conference to find them packing up my stuff...I had to hurridly collect my used undies and so on and pack up then head over to London.. but I did enjoy my time in Brighton, very proud to be with Yan when he recieved his Search for a Star award
I have a pic somewhere but the new iphones upload system seems to have stored it somewhere I can't find at the moment
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 10 July 2016
Summers here...
I have one more day effectively of teaching, and then have to head to the UK for a week attending conferences and other such things....a bit of a chore, but at least it does finally signasl the end of a long hard year.
I won't deny I have issues with our new teaching system, some of those issues have been listened too, and changes will be made, though I still have other issues, but I will pick my battles. and try to make sure that whatever happens students are educated to the same high standards we've always taught them.
Ultimately how good a student is, isn't really down the teachers, its down to their own desire to improve and use what the teachers tell them, we are still doing that. I still get the chance to motivate and demystify the arcane science of programming, hopefully when my book is done (plug) I can use that as well.
But there's not going to be a lot of holiday time I have to finish my colecovision game, yes its still there...it just never seems to want to finish....finish the book, and also planning to do a bit of decorating- 6 years I've been here and not a lick of paint has been applied, so its time to add a little bit of colour to different rooms.
I quite fancy having a new kitchen too, but I think I'll wait and see if the book generates the money to do that.
oh well better go start packing...have to take a suit with me this time as I am attending an awards dinner for a student as well....going to be rather a long week, but I get a nice free weekend in London, as it would be more effort to fly home then fly back
No guitar for a week though...gulp...must not go to Denmark St...must not..
Ahthankyew
I won't deny I have issues with our new teaching system, some of those issues have been listened too, and changes will be made, though I still have other issues, but I will pick my battles. and try to make sure that whatever happens students are educated to the same high standards we've always taught them.
Ultimately how good a student is, isn't really down the teachers, its down to their own desire to improve and use what the teachers tell them, we are still doing that. I still get the chance to motivate and demystify the arcane science of programming, hopefully when my book is done (plug) I can use that as well.
But there's not going to be a lot of holiday time I have to finish my colecovision game, yes its still there...it just never seems to want to finish....finish the book, and also planning to do a bit of decorating- 6 years I've been here and not a lick of paint has been applied, so its time to add a little bit of colour to different rooms.
I quite fancy having a new kitchen too, but I think I'll wait and see if the book generates the money to do that.
oh well better go start packing...have to take a suit with me this time as I am attending an awards dinner for a student as well....going to be rather a long week, but I get a nice free weekend in London, as it would be more effort to fly home then fly back
No guitar for a week though...gulp...must not go to Denmark St...must not..
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
I got a cheque!
An actual paper cheque....from my publisher... My advances on royalties for signing the deal
amazing.. I didn't know anyone still used cheques these days, and I did give them my bank details so it was quite a surprise.
But also...how sweet. I can scan it and frame a copy of my 1st ever payment for writing...hopefully it won't be the last
Mind you, I need to go to the bank and ask them how to deposit it, I wonder if there's even a counter left at my bank,its all done electronically these days.
:D
Ahthankyew
amazing.. I didn't know anyone still used cheques these days, and I did give them my bank details so it was quite a surprise.
But also...how sweet. I can scan it and frame a copy of my 1st ever payment for writing...hopefully it won't be the last
Mind you, I need to go to the bank and ask them how to deposit it, I wonder if there's even a counter left at my bank,its all done electronically these days.
:D
Ahthankyew
Friday, 1 July 2016
even more bad news
As if the whole brexit nonsense wasn't bad enough.. I was sat watching TV with my 15 year old bessie mate Harvey 1....when I decided to look up how long Jack Russells live for....13-16 years.
oh great....that means that my longest relationship outside of family, is in its final phase....still at least he does not seem fed up with me, or hide thiings (apart from bones) from me, or only pretend to love me...
He has a cracking life though, still thinks hes a puppy, and I'l make sure he carries on thinking that,
Ahthankyew
oh great....that means that my longest relationship outside of family, is in its final phase....still at least he does not seem fed up with me, or hide thiings (apart from bones) from me, or only pretend to love me...
He has a cracking life though, still thinks hes a puppy, and I'l make sure he carries on thinking that,
Ahthankyew
Friday, 24 June 2016
Thursday, 23 June 2016
Officially scared
Tomorrow the UK votes on the referedum to say or leave the EU.
I have been watching this unfold with ever increasing incredulity, even more so when I analyze the actual facts of the leave campaign... There are none. Its nothing more than really idiotic appeals to emotion.
Take back control?? WTF you never lost it, the whole idea that the EU runs the UK is total nonsense perpetuated by morons who have no actual understanding of how the EU works and where we are in it.
I can list 100 different Leave campaign statements, and debunk every single one of them, every one...really, but none of that will matter to those who are obsessed with believing the lies and taking back control.....of what?
Its an interesting social issue, the way lies that trigger with misunderstood belief can have far more traction in a group psyche than actual facts which are not just ignored but actively and aggressively dismissed as not relevant. Experts, eh, what do they know, when they don't agree with you. My 10% of world renowned economists know far more than your 90%, clearly!
Tomorrow the UK votes, and its 50-50. If they leave, my own position here in NL, and some 2million+ other brits living in the EU, becomes uncertain. The massive desire to leap into a completely unknown future is utter madness and will impact so many people is so many ways.
Remain have essentially stuck to the facts as far as our current status and situation in the EU are concerned but trying to counter the lack of acceptance of facts weakens them. Worse they engaged the Leave campaigns lies about what might happen after Brexit, with their own set of lies. Estimates about what would happen... causing a backlash and the fantastically stupid thing of the people telling one lie having it pointed out by the people telling 100's.
The honest fact is, no one has any clue regarding numbers on the impact of a Brexit. No one, so saying it will costs this, that and whatever is not even close to being realistic.
The facts are that a brexit will cause absolutely massive upheaval, for an incalculable amount of time, 2 years or 20 years, who knows? Most likely the latter, when the UK will have to try to re-establish trade deals, lines of import and export, as well as tariffs and other crap...its just all crap Crap they don't need to do now, crap that does not impact in their lives, crap that will fuck up the entire UK economy and crap that people seem quite happy to take with no idea exactly what that crap is or how bad that crap is going to be... A friend of mine is voting leave, because....it'll sort itself out in the end.............I have no words.
Bottom line is there is no reason to stick your finger in the fire, when everyone is telling you its a bad idea, the evidence proves its a bad thing, How bad you get burnt is an unknown factor, but hell yes you are going to get burnt.
I plan to take my Dutch citizenship asap, brexit or no, the UK as it is now, really isn't worth being part of, The scars of this vote will linger a long time and the rise of hate and blame politics is not something I want to be part of.
If it leaves I can only hope it does not bring down the EU with it, because that would be the single greatest mistake in history...I don't think it will though, I think the EU can move on without Britain and its miserable whining and obstructive obsession with being on the outside wanting to run the show.
Even so, I hope it stays, but I'm still leaving the UK
Ahthankyew
I have been watching this unfold with ever increasing incredulity, even more so when I analyze the actual facts of the leave campaign... There are none. Its nothing more than really idiotic appeals to emotion.
Take back control?? WTF you never lost it, the whole idea that the EU runs the UK is total nonsense perpetuated by morons who have no actual understanding of how the EU works and where we are in it.
I can list 100 different Leave campaign statements, and debunk every single one of them, every one...really, but none of that will matter to those who are obsessed with believing the lies and taking back control.....of what?
Its an interesting social issue, the way lies that trigger with misunderstood belief can have far more traction in a group psyche than actual facts which are not just ignored but actively and aggressively dismissed as not relevant. Experts, eh, what do they know, when they don't agree with you. My 10% of world renowned economists know far more than your 90%, clearly!
Tomorrow the UK votes, and its 50-50. If they leave, my own position here in NL, and some 2million+ other brits living in the EU, becomes uncertain. The massive desire to leap into a completely unknown future is utter madness and will impact so many people is so many ways.
Remain have essentially stuck to the facts as far as our current status and situation in the EU are concerned but trying to counter the lack of acceptance of facts weakens them. Worse they engaged the Leave campaigns lies about what might happen after Brexit, with their own set of lies. Estimates about what would happen... causing a backlash and the fantastically stupid thing of the people telling one lie having it pointed out by the people telling 100's.
The honest fact is, no one has any clue regarding numbers on the impact of a Brexit. No one, so saying it will costs this, that and whatever is not even close to being realistic.
The facts are that a brexit will cause absolutely massive upheaval, for an incalculable amount of time, 2 years or 20 years, who knows? Most likely the latter, when the UK will have to try to re-establish trade deals, lines of import and export, as well as tariffs and other crap...its just all crap Crap they don't need to do now, crap that does not impact in their lives, crap that will fuck up the entire UK economy and crap that people seem quite happy to take with no idea exactly what that crap is or how bad that crap is going to be... A friend of mine is voting leave, because....it'll sort itself out in the end.............I have no words.
Bottom line is there is no reason to stick your finger in the fire, when everyone is telling you its a bad idea, the evidence proves its a bad thing, How bad you get burnt is an unknown factor, but hell yes you are going to get burnt.
I plan to take my Dutch citizenship asap, brexit or no, the UK as it is now, really isn't worth being part of, The scars of this vote will linger a long time and the rise of hate and blame politics is not something I want to be part of.
If it leaves I can only hope it does not bring down the EU with it, because that would be the single greatest mistake in history...I don't think it will though, I think the EU can move on without Britain and its miserable whining and obstructive obsession with being on the outside wanting to run the show.
Even so, I hope it stays, but I'm still leaving the UK
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
Writing is harder....
Than I expected... I've come to a bit of a stop, mainly due to me working on the support projects that it needs, which in turn causes me to go back to the book to make changes as I simplify the code or make fixes.
I've got 300 pages now, and not much in the way of code added, so that will bump things up, but finding the energy to do it is proving hard..
End of year workload is always high, as I review graduation projects as well as deal with a mass of 1st year things.
But..I am not beaten, just need to keep going, its not quite a block yet, just a detour on the code. It will get better
:D
I hope
Ahthankyew
I've got 300 pages now, and not much in the way of code added, so that will bump things up, but finding the energy to do it is proving hard..
End of year workload is always high, as I review graduation projects as well as deal with a mass of 1st year things.
But..I am not beaten, just need to keep going, its not quite a block yet, just a detour on the code. It will get better
:D
I hope
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 5 June 2016
Summer's here...
Glorious weather today, makes me give a little bit of thought to clearing he back yard and giving the decking a coat of something...ronseal or whatever...Maybe not today, but certainly soon, also I think this summer the interior of the house deserves a few coats of paint.
Only 6 weeks or so till summer hols...A time to recharge and review the year, and of course finish the book, which is going really well, but still having problems formatting the code to go in, but I have some help from a couple of students to do that so I will try to focus on the the content while they format my code.
Better get back to it...pages don't write themselves even when you get to put in lovely artwork from talented students that say a 1000 words.
Ahthankyew
Only 6 weeks or so till summer hols...A time to recharge and review the year, and of course finish the book, which is going really well, but still having problems formatting the code to go in, but I have some help from a couple of students to do that so I will try to focus on the the content while they format my code.
Better get back to it...pages don't write themselves even when you get to put in lovely artwork from talented students that say a 1000 words.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 28 May 2016
sometimes you need more than sausages
Well yes they were good, but after eating sausages for 4 days straight the dog got 2 days of heaven.
Overall the experiment was a great success, I can make them, I do need to work on the seasoning and fat content though, and need to find a nice easy local supplier of skins. Once done I'll try making them with pork I can freeze and do batches. No more crap sausages for me, There's a sausage making company in NL who supply sausages by mail in cool boxes, who also sell season mixes, so I've ordered the mixes and a few samples to see which I like best then I'll try to replicate the seasoning myself.
The next experiment is something even more dear to my heart. Pork Pies :D. Need to find some gelatine but pretty sure I can get both skins and gelatine from the local Hanos, an upmarket food wholesaler here. I bought a nice wooden pie shaper on ebay, so will make my 1st attempts on large pastry and spiced pork filling soon.
Also I did treat myself to a VoiceLive 3 from Thomman..who normally deliver next day but for some reason this time they waited 3 days to ship so not expecting it till Monday...to add insult to injury, the price dropped 30euros the day after I made the order...even though I waited till pay day :(
oh well.. Cant wait to try it out, I just hope it fits on the board ok in place of the VoicePlay and volume pedal, which I'll try to use as an add on.
But I was sensible, that and a few small things like new cables a new more rugged mic stand to replace a broken one, and a couple of amp mics, are the limit of my bonus wage spends, the rest has gone to reduce the credit card, on the basis that if I still need it it's there, but reducing the balance on the credit card is important as its my only real debt.
Ahthankyew
Overall the experiment was a great success, I can make them, I do need to work on the seasoning and fat content though, and need to find a nice easy local supplier of skins. Once done I'll try making them with pork I can freeze and do batches. No more crap sausages for me, There's a sausage making company in NL who supply sausages by mail in cool boxes, who also sell season mixes, so I've ordered the mixes and a few samples to see which I like best then I'll try to replicate the seasoning myself.
The next experiment is something even more dear to my heart. Pork Pies :D. Need to find some gelatine but pretty sure I can get both skins and gelatine from the local Hanos, an upmarket food wholesaler here. I bought a nice wooden pie shaper on ebay, so will make my 1st attempts on large pastry and spiced pork filling soon.
Also I did treat myself to a VoiceLive 3 from Thomman..who normally deliver next day but for some reason this time they waited 3 days to ship so not expecting it till Monday...to add insult to injury, the price dropped 30euros the day after I made the order...even though I waited till pay day :(
oh well.. Cant wait to try it out, I just hope it fits on the board ok in place of the VoicePlay and volume pedal, which I'll try to use as an add on.
But I was sensible, that and a few small things like new cables a new more rugged mic stand to replace a broken one, and a couple of amp mics, are the limit of my bonus wage spends, the rest has gone to reduce the credit card, on the basis that if I still need it it's there, but reducing the balance on the credit card is important as its my only real debt.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 22 May 2016
Proper Sausages
Also I can't freeze these as the pork from Macro, has already been frozen, so I'll be eating these the next 3 days :D But I had to try.. I don't know where I can get more pork that is freezable...probably just the supermarket.
The main thing I learned was the blade on the grinder..if its on the wrong way, and there's no way to tell it just mashes the meat and it just gets clogged up.
Also the skins, I clearly bought too much I could have done 4 times as many so there are skin left in the water that will only be usable for another couple of days, I'll try to get some lamb tomorrow to make some lamb sausages, and maybe some beef, but I don't know what kind of beef to use, otherwise I need to buy must smaller skins.
Actually twisting is also a bit of a knack I've not quite got and you can see the sizes are all over the place but I'm happy.
The pic shows a lot of trapped air, but I've used a clean needle and pricked them to
Of course the proof will be in the eating... hope they taste good, or this is a 15quid experiment that needs refinement.
And the proof, well, great texture, flavour is close, needed more garlic I feel and strangely a bit more fat, perhaps a little olive oil when the fat content is not so high. Also the ends popped so I need to work on making the twists have more turns to lock them in place. I didn't quite get the flavour of the paprika and cayenne I was expecting, so will stick with sage and thyme next time..
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 21 May 2016
Curse of the summer bonus
I promised myself I'd be good this year, since I am not planning any formal summer holidays, my annual double wage in May can go knock the credit card down to size, also there's some advances on royalties I need to chase..so I'm going to be a bit flush this summer.
And then there's the voices in my head, saying buy me, buy me.
A VoiceLive3 in particular is screaming at me to buy buy buy.
I'll resist a few more days.. It will be nice to kick the credit card into touch, and if I buy toys, it'll distract me from working on the book.. I think...if I am sensible the right thing to do is to buy the toys when the book sells.
Sadly I'm not sensible.
Ahthankyew
And then there's the voices in my head, saying buy me, buy me.
A VoiceLive3 in particular is screaming at me to buy buy buy.
I'll resist a few more days.. It will be nice to kick the credit card into touch, and if I buy toys, it'll distract me from working on the book.. I think...if I am sensible the right thing to do is to buy the toys when the book sells.
Sadly I'm not sensible.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 14 May 2016
Long weekend, sun, wine and work...so not much sun really.
We had glorious weather all week while at work, and then the weekend comes and boom its a bit gloomy, but still quite a nice early summers day..
Sadly though I must continue with work, Project Foundations is now in full flow I have a few students to help me with proof reading and testing and preparing the projects for readers, the cartoons from a very talented illustrator are feeding in, and I have to now keep up with them as well as focus on my deadline.
Today though I am doing Colecovision stuff, as I must clear it out. I finished all the code last week when we had a holiday, but a few annoying bugs that only show in hardware are preventing delivery...the fact its only in hardware suggests an un-initialized value somewhere...something I also had yesterday in a book project, but this is much harder to track down on primitive hardware with no debugger...but I am determined to get it out the way and delivered to my very patient client.
I also seem to have lost my OdroidC2, it went back to Korea to get replaced or repaired due to a fault HDMI connection but it never arrived...I had to buy a new one (no freebies) maybe if/when the other gets there they will refund me...shame as its one of my faster units with no fan I really want to use it as a games console on my TV downstairs...that project will have to wait.
Book content is growing, the 2D stuff is almost all complete now, the projects are a little untidy, but thats what the students are helping me with, so I can focus on getting them working and they can clean them up and provide comments and review the difficulty.
Also I will be starting workshops at uni on programming the Raspberry Pi/Nano Pi, which will be my test bed for all the content....this should push me along and also give me a test bed for deciding if the concepts work well enough..Oh and it resolves some nagging doubts I have with 1st year coding students not understanding the basics well enough, so I'll be covering all that in the classes.
Better get on, going over to Maria and Davids for dinner later, there may be wine.....I might not get much done after ;)
Ahthankyew
Sadly though I must continue with work, Project Foundations is now in full flow I have a few students to help me with proof reading and testing and preparing the projects for readers, the cartoons from a very talented illustrator are feeding in, and I have to now keep up with them as well as focus on my deadline.
Today though I am doing Colecovision stuff, as I must clear it out. I finished all the code last week when we had a holiday, but a few annoying bugs that only show in hardware are preventing delivery...the fact its only in hardware suggests an un-initialized value somewhere...something I also had yesterday in a book project, but this is much harder to track down on primitive hardware with no debugger...but I am determined to get it out the way and delivered to my very patient client.
I also seem to have lost my OdroidC2, it went back to Korea to get replaced or repaired due to a fault HDMI connection but it never arrived...I had to buy a new one (no freebies) maybe if/when the other gets there they will refund me...shame as its one of my faster units with no fan I really want to use it as a games console on my TV downstairs...that project will have to wait.
Book content is growing, the 2D stuff is almost all complete now, the projects are a little untidy, but thats what the students are helping me with, so I can focus on getting them working and they can clean them up and provide comments and review the difficulty.
Also I will be starting workshops at uni on programming the Raspberry Pi/Nano Pi, which will be my test bed for all the content....this should push me along and also give me a test bed for deciding if the concepts work well enough..Oh and it resolves some nagging doubts I have with 1st year coding students not understanding the basics well enough, so I'll be covering all that in the classes.
Better get on, going over to Maria and Davids for dinner later, there may be wine.....I might not get much done after ;)
Ahthankyew
Friday, 6 May 2016
freebies, if only I'd known
I am getting some free boards from a particular maker,I won't say who. They contacted me to check on delivery addresses which started a chat where I revealed why I was buying so many little boards.
They were very pleased that I was going to mention their boards in the book, and I am though only as an alternate option, and offered to cancel my payment and send me some free boards.
I have to say that is incredibly nice, I probably could have wangled a few other free boards from other makers too, but I don't want to be accused of any kind of favouritism. Most of the boards I've bought so far are perfectly suitable target system, but nearly all, have some issue when it comes to being used a general computers. this makers units also have a few flaws but I do think they have the best value for money, its a shame they don't have the user base Raspberry has...which is mind-numbingly massive
Anyway...quite pleased, but I think in future I won't mention my book in any correspondence with makers, I like the idea of the free boards, very much, but don't want to be compromised in my neutrality.
free boards though.....hmmm
Ahthankyew
They were very pleased that I was going to mention their boards in the book, and I am though only as an alternate option, and offered to cancel my payment and send me some free boards.
I have to say that is incredibly nice, I probably could have wangled a few other free boards from other makers too, but I don't want to be accused of any kind of favouritism. Most of the boards I've bought so far are perfectly suitable target system, but nearly all, have some issue when it comes to being used a general computers. this makers units also have a few flaws but I do think they have the best value for money, its a shame they don't have the user base Raspberry has...which is mind-numbingly massive
Anyway...quite pleased, but I think in future I won't mention my book in any correspondence with makers, I like the idea of the free boards, very much, but don't want to be compromised in my neutrality.
free boards though.....hmmm
Ahthankyew
Monday, 2 May 2016
Dating eh!
Well that was a bit pointless.....went on date at the weekend, very nice lady, ticked all the right boxes, funny, smart, independent...not to mention fit!
sadly not interested in me....starting to be a habit!
I'll climb back under my rock for another year and lick my wounds.
Ahthankyew
sadly not interested in me....starting to be a habit!
I'll climb back under my rock for another year and lick my wounds.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 24 April 2016
ouch......but I was just sitting!! Time to ring in some changes.
Well sitting awkwardly trying to play guitar in a cool way, and I pulled a muscle in my back....wtf AGE!!!
I hate these little side-effects of getting old, hurting myself sat on the couch...its not fair.
And I need to get a new bed,I cobbled together a repair on my current bed a few years ago when the centre bar broke (I wish I could boast it was due to high jinx but no), but the repair has become unstable when I moved things around to build the wardrobes. It won't last much longer.
After a lot of hunting around at quite absurd prices... I think I have found a nice semi affordable box divan that will take a TV in the base, which will make the bedroom a lot more tidy. Will wait for the May Bonus to pay for that though, since I have no plans (or partner) to go on holiday. I might as well splash out on a few things I need at home, and also do a bit of decorating.
This year marks 6 years in this house and I've done no decorating at all since I moved in.. So I plan to paint the walls, hang a a few pics, maybe get a new couch, if I can find a decent priced L-shaped couch and of course a new bed for my bedroom. The new wardrobes have de-cluttered the room quite a bit, so might as well get rid of the big old Samsung on top of the chest of drawers and continue to de-clutter.
Also giving some serious thought to getting a new kitchen setup..the house is about 12 years old and this has been here all that time, I think its time for a change, though that will take a bit of help from the bank to achieve. Will see, lets get the bed and decorating done 1st...Maybe the Kitchen is a next year job.
Ahthankyew
I hate these little side-effects of getting old, hurting myself sat on the couch...its not fair.
And I need to get a new bed,I cobbled together a repair on my current bed a few years ago when the centre bar broke (I wish I could boast it was due to high jinx but no), but the repair has become unstable when I moved things around to build the wardrobes. It won't last much longer.
After a lot of hunting around at quite absurd prices... I think I have found a nice semi affordable box divan that will take a TV in the base, which will make the bedroom a lot more tidy. Will wait for the May Bonus to pay for that though, since I have no plans (or partner) to go on holiday. I might as well splash out on a few things I need at home, and also do a bit of decorating.
This year marks 6 years in this house and I've done no decorating at all since I moved in.. So I plan to paint the walls, hang a a few pics, maybe get a new couch, if I can find a decent priced L-shaped couch and of course a new bed for my bedroom. The new wardrobes have de-cluttered the room quite a bit, so might as well get rid of the big old Samsung on top of the chest of drawers and continue to de-clutter.
Also giving some serious thought to getting a new kitchen setup..the house is about 12 years old and this has been here all that time, I think its time for a change, though that will take a bit of help from the bank to achieve. Will see, lets get the bed and decorating done 1st...Maybe the Kitchen is a next year job.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 22 April 2016
'kin hell 2006, this is crazy shit
I was genuinely upset to hear of Victoria Wood's death yesterday, from Cancer...damn. I know I'm not alone in acknowledging this women as a massive genius who made the concept of women comedians as a norm rather than an exception possible...RIP
Today we heard about Prince.....wow...Bowie and Prince, music is just being gutted.
What a shit year this is for celebrities dying, so many. so so many
Ahthankyew
Today we heard about Prince.....wow...Bowie and Prince, music is just being gutted.
What a shit year this is for celebrities dying, so many. so so many
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
Mega busy
The last weeks before panels have proven to be busy, this seems to be a pattern, with students waiting till the last minute before updating their playlists which we then try to feedback on in a near impossible backlog. But we made it, just.
This week I've done two long sessions of panels, and now I have a bit of a quieter day, jsut a few meetings to do. I'll make a start on prepping for the next block on Friday when everyone is off doing their staff trip. I never go on them, I simply hate the concept of enforced and arranged fun. Besides It entailes a very late return to Breda by why time poor Harvey will have had his legs crossed for far more than the 8 hours he's used to
Been working on the book projects when I can, so the writing part has slowed a little as I need to write about the project. Writing deliberatly bad but working code has been quite challenging for me, I thought all my code was bad, but when I actually make an effort its quite terrible. But it does take some effort, so I don't think my own coding is as bad as I feel it is sometimes
Going to try to devote this weekend to finishing the coleco game, its been hard to find the time and really kill off the last few issues with it. But gotta clear it off the table soon or it will get lost in the deadline chase for the book.
Not much else going on in the world....work, play guitar, code, write...drink....drink again....sleep
life is stable... I say that as tomorrow is the 6 year anniversary of my surgery. I have missed it the last couple of years, but somehow this year it seems to have been marked in big red ink in the calendar.
Will maybe raise a glass or 3 to my surgeon's skill. When I've finished some code!
Ahthankyew
This week I've done two long sessions of panels, and now I have a bit of a quieter day, jsut a few meetings to do. I'll make a start on prepping for the next block on Friday when everyone is off doing their staff trip. I never go on them, I simply hate the concept of enforced and arranged fun. Besides It entailes a very late return to Breda by why time poor Harvey will have had his legs crossed for far more than the 8 hours he's used to
Been working on the book projects when I can, so the writing part has slowed a little as I need to write about the project. Writing deliberatly bad but working code has been quite challenging for me, I thought all my code was bad, but when I actually make an effort its quite terrible. But it does take some effort, so I don't think my own coding is as bad as I feel it is sometimes
Going to try to devote this weekend to finishing the coleco game, its been hard to find the time and really kill off the last few issues with it. But gotta clear it off the table soon or it will get lost in the deadline chase for the book.
Not much else going on in the world....work, play guitar, code, write...drink....drink again....sleep
life is stable... I say that as tomorrow is the 6 year anniversary of my surgery. I have missed it the last couple of years, but somehow this year it seems to have been marked in big red ink in the calendar.
Will maybe raise a glass or 3 to my surgeon's skill. When I've finished some code!
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 5 April 2016
on the mend
Aside from the A/B trots, (I assume they are penicillin based which gives me the runs) I'm feeling a lot better, and so much quicker than my usual issues when I get chest infections.
I went back to work yesterday but it totally knackered me, so had a pretty early night and am almost back to normal,
Managed to tidy the office up a bit too, so can sit and go through student stuff in a much more logical manner and get back on top of things.
Also in the psot got a few toys today, a replacement LCD screen for the one I broke...slipped in with no customs charges which is nice, and anotehr SBC, a Roseapple Pi...yeah I know..crazy name... But it works quite nicely and is fast.. something nice to play with giving me another PowerVR GPU to get working.
thats for later though, for now, gotta make up the slakc on student feedback from doing Battleships then getting ill.
Spent a bit of time this weekend too, getting back up to speed on the Colecovision for the final push on that project...work got in the way so need to get back to it and really make some efforts to deliver it. My client is the most patient I've ever had but I don't want to disappoint him forever.
Ahthankyew
I went back to work yesterday but it totally knackered me, so had a pretty early night and am almost back to normal,
Managed to tidy the office up a bit too, so can sit and go through student stuff in a much more logical manner and get back on top of things.
Also in the psot got a few toys today, a replacement LCD screen for the one I broke...slipped in with no customs charges which is nice, and anotehr SBC, a Roseapple Pi...yeah I know..crazy name... But it works quite nicely and is fast.. something nice to play with giving me another PowerVR GPU to get working.
thats for later though, for now, gotta make up the slakc on student feedback from doing Battleships then getting ill.
Spent a bit of time this weekend too, getting back up to speed on the Colecovision for the final push on that project...work got in the way so need to get back to it and really make some efforts to deliver it. My client is the most patient I've ever had but I don't want to disappoint him forever.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 1 April 2016
An boom, here it comes
Got the man flu....maybe the general crappiness running up to this week was it prepping itself for an assault on my system..
I am prepared this time, I'm very well stocked up with full strength UK cold meds....bring it on.
(but maybe I'll just a have a little lie down 1st)
Ahthankyew
I am prepared this time, I'm very well stocked up with full strength UK cold meds....bring it on.
(but maybe I'll just a have a little lie down 1st)
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 29 March 2016
ok well yeah, not nice.
really wasn't well today, was seeing double as I was working at my screen and have been light headed and woozy all day, and the coughing...grrrr
Even had to cancel band practice, and I never cancel band practice, but I felt I was not safe to drive.
Strange, its not a flu/cold, but similar symptoms, hopefully will feed batter tomorrow, and get back to work.
Ahthankyew
Even had to cancel band practice, and I never cancel band practice, but I felt I was not safe to drive.
Strange, its not a flu/cold, but similar symptoms, hopefully will feed batter tomorrow, and get back to work.
Ahthankyew
ugghhh what is this
So I have a chest infection, a fever, and am producing mucus than I can swallow in real time...but..I don't have a cold..
never had this before, don't like it, feeling shitty but then again not as shitty as I feel with the mega colds.....
But the choaking mucus is horrible, can't sleep with waking up choaking and swallowing....need to find some meds.
Ahthankyew
never had this before, don't like it, feeling shitty but then again not as shitty as I feel with the mega colds.....
But the choaking mucus is horrible, can't sleep with waking up choaking and swallowing....need to find some meds.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 27 March 2016
But I didn't get a cold!!
Incredibly I have a chest infection, been coughing and spluttering and bit of a temp...I say incredible, because I never got a cold...usually these things plague me for months, but always just after a heavy cold!
Bahh....hopefully this is something less crippling than the post cold ones of last year....so far just a bit wheezy and chesty cough...
Ahthankyew
Bahh....hopefully this is something less crippling than the post cold ones of last year....so far just a bit wheezy and chesty cough...
Ahthankyew
Friday, 25 March 2016
The Collection is comple.......
Well almost, picked up a Banana Pi M3 on ebay for half price, and a RoseApple Pi (very fast but tends to run hot) as a swap for a Raspberry Pi...and a few Nano Pi quad cores are on there way, and last but not least an Orange Pi PC.
My 64bit Odroid C2 needs to go back, it has a faulty HDMI but not a big issue.
That's enough now I think, its getting a bit silly, and it'll be damn embarrassing if I can't get the projects to work on anything other than a Raspberry Pi.
But I basically have the base line and high spec models all of the major clones, so that should be enough to get everyone and anyone who reads the book to get their SBC's up and running.
Also happy to see that my lovely accountant, has managed to restore my self employed status, meaning I can claim all these costs back against tax :D they are pocket money purchases though really, its just that I've done a few this month, but $9 -$20 a time is hardly going to break the bank.
Income from the book, small though it is, will mean I probably will have to pay something this year to the tax man. But hey how, the benefits outweigh the costs.
The projects main framework is now up and running, though I was very surprised to find I can handle around 3000 software rendered sprites on a Pi3...and the Pi2 managed the same, even a model B managed a few thousand... I was hoping (oddly) for much worst performance so that when I demonstrate the correct way to handle sprites the impact with be much more marked.
But not to worry, I'm sure I'll find a good way to screw it up :D
1st games are starting to take shape now though, so will get them all up and running and tidy ready to paste in some source to expand them. Each project will have a base line set up, with the reader expected to type in code to make it all function...I don't want them downloading working games, its important they enter code and get used to it, breaking an important psychological barrier when it comes to learning to code...actually developing the confidence to type it in is a major hurdle for beginners.
Ahthankyew
My 64bit Odroid C2 needs to go back, it has a faulty HDMI but not a big issue.
That's enough now I think, its getting a bit silly, and it'll be damn embarrassing if I can't get the projects to work on anything other than a Raspberry Pi.
But I basically have the base line and high spec models all of the major clones, so that should be enough to get everyone and anyone who reads the book to get their SBC's up and running.
Also happy to see that my lovely accountant, has managed to restore my self employed status, meaning I can claim all these costs back against tax :D they are pocket money purchases though really, its just that I've done a few this month, but $9 -$20 a time is hardly going to break the bank.
Income from the book, small though it is, will mean I probably will have to pay something this year to the tax man. But hey how, the benefits outweigh the costs.
The projects main framework is now up and running, though I was very surprised to find I can handle around 3000 software rendered sprites on a Pi3...and the Pi2 managed the same, even a model B managed a few thousand... I was hoping (oddly) for much worst performance so that when I demonstrate the correct way to handle sprites the impact with be much more marked.
But not to worry, I'm sure I'll find a good way to screw it up :D
1st games are starting to take shape now though, so will get them all up and running and tidy ready to paste in some source to expand them. Each project will have a base line set up, with the reader expected to type in code to make it all function...I don't want them downloading working games, its important they enter code and get used to it, breaking an important psychological barrier when it comes to learning to code...actually developing the confidence to type it in is a major hurdle for beginners.
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 23 March 2016
Coding highs and lows and fuel fraud
I am struggling so much with a work school project, I've re-written it twice now but still it does not work...I really can't see the fault, its driving me crazy, and stress is never good for coding.
It has me doubting if I can even code any more.
To calm down I did a bit of work on my book projects this lunchtime...wrote more code in 40-50 minutes than I'd been able do do in 3 working days on the work job...crazy... The project code is more complex and needs more stuff I don't quite understand than the work project...but its the simple work project that has me in knots...very odd...
Anyway, that 40 mins, the code flowed, and I cracked several small issues I was having getting my display fast enough to work, it all works fine now and I can code the rest of the projects with ease. I went back to the work project after luch.......nada....
I'll have to sleep on the work project for a bit.
And today I went to get petrol for the car, and for some reason the payment machine at the unmanned station refused to accept my card, giving me a big red X and telling me to take my card back.
I drove away very annoyed and went to a manned station..
But when I was doing a check on my card online to work out how much to pay this month, there was a 50odd euro charge at that petrol station. It did take my bloody card, but the person who came to the machine after me must have though christmas had come and filled his tank.
grrrr.. Sent a message to the card company to notify them of a possible fraud...not sure I'll get a refund but apparently it has happened in the past...fingers crossed.
Ahthankyew
It has me doubting if I can even code any more.
To calm down I did a bit of work on my book projects this lunchtime...wrote more code in 40-50 minutes than I'd been able do do in 3 working days on the work job...crazy... The project code is more complex and needs more stuff I don't quite understand than the work project...but its the simple work project that has me in knots...very odd...
Anyway, that 40 mins, the code flowed, and I cracked several small issues I was having getting my display fast enough to work, it all works fine now and I can code the rest of the projects with ease. I went back to the work project after luch.......nada....
I'll have to sleep on the work project for a bit.
And today I went to get petrol for the car, and for some reason the payment machine at the unmanned station refused to accept my card, giving me a big red X and telling me to take my card back.
I drove away very annoyed and went to a manned station..
But when I was doing a check on my card online to work out how much to pay this month, there was a 50odd euro charge at that petrol station. It did take my bloody card, but the person who came to the machine after me must have though christmas had come and filled his tank.
grrrr.. Sent a message to the card company to notify them of a possible fraud...not sure I'll get a refund but apparently it has happened in the past...fingers crossed.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 20 March 2016
Maddog not quite so mad
As much as I really like my Maddog jumbo which I bought from Pat at Maddog guitars in December during my UK trip, its given me a lot of trouble.
Pat likes his guitars set up with the lowest possible action imaginable and yes that is indeed nice,but guitars, especially acoustics are living things and breath and swell in different air conditions, so the problem was that as it bent and flexed the low action ended up being a low buzzing or worse an outright choke. Its become almost unplayable above fret 10.
I'd already tweaked the truss to try to give it a bit of a relief, (a slight bend) but it wasn't having much effect, so time to put some nice bridge saddle spacers I had in one guitars welcome pack to good use.
I only had two, and they were very thin but given how low the Maddog is, I put both in, to avoid having to take it apart again if one wasn't enough.
I must say, that 1mm or so raising of the bridge has worked a treat, still quite a low action with 10's on it, (I'm going to try heavier strings, but will use these for now) making it easy and comfortable to play. The slight rise in action is barely noticeable but now I can play notes around fret 12 and up without any more fear of chokes and buzzes.. yeahh for saddle spacers,
I'll need to see if I can find more, just in case.
Ahthankyew
Pat likes his guitars set up with the lowest possible action imaginable and yes that is indeed nice,but guitars, especially acoustics are living things and breath and swell in different air conditions, so the problem was that as it bent and flexed the low action ended up being a low buzzing or worse an outright choke. Its become almost unplayable above fret 10.
I'd already tweaked the truss to try to give it a bit of a relief, (a slight bend) but it wasn't having much effect, so time to put some nice bridge saddle spacers I had in one guitars welcome pack to good use.
I only had two, and they were very thin but given how low the Maddog is, I put both in, to avoid having to take it apart again if one wasn't enough.
I must say, that 1mm or so raising of the bridge has worked a treat, still quite a low action with 10's on it, (I'm going to try heavier strings, but will use these for now) making it easy and comfortable to play. The slight rise in action is barely noticeable but now I can play notes around fret 12 and up without any more fear of chokes and buzzes.. yeahh for saddle spacers,
I'll need to see if I can find more, just in case.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 19 March 2016
double spacing....not the saviour it seems
Hmmmm so writing has some rules, which the publisher sent me, They don't want me to format the text or add the diagrams in the text, though it does make it easier for me to read...however I don't think that's a big issue, what I am worried about is my 140 pages in 1.5 spacing with nice 11pt fonts has to be converted to Times Roman 2.0 spacing in 12pt fonts...now its 210 pages
ermmm I don't think I'm going to fit it all in, I'm only 5 chapters in and have a lot more text, code and diagrams to add...
Oh well I'll just keep going and let the editors worry about it :d
Ahthankyew
ermmm I don't think I'm going to fit it all in, I'm only 5 chapters in and have a lot more text, code and diagrams to add...
Oh well I'll just keep going and let the editors worry about it :d
Ahthankyew
Monday, 14 March 2016
Now we're cooking with gas
Had the most odd issue, with the Pi code, try as I might I could not get the bugger to display any texture which was created my malloc, even though I assume it was all 0 and therefore transparent, when I moved data into it, it should have become visible. Finally I discovered that if I used memset to put data in there the textures became visible....then later became visible anyway :(
So I was probably doing a combination of little things wrong until I hit the right things
But no matter, I now have a screen sized texture, the size of which I can control, stretched over a full screen image.. :D
I can make a start proper now on the projects and get things moving on the 1st 3 projects which need this rather crappy code.
time for bed
Ahthankyew
So I was probably doing a combination of little things wrong until I hit the right things
But no matter, I now have a screen sized texture, the size of which I can control, stretched over a full screen image.. :D
I can make a start proper now on the projects and get things moving on the 1st 3 projects which need this rather crappy code.
time for bed
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 13 March 2016
reworking the office
Since I'm probably going to be spending a fair amount of time in the office, writing my book (does not sound at all pretentious when I say that now) I had a bit of a rearrangement of my work station. I like having 3 monitors, it might seem silly considering I have a massive 30 inch baby there in the middle, but when debugging code, having source on 1 screen, debug panels/general mail on another and running projects on the 3rd becomes a nice way to work
The need to hook up my Pi's to a screen during development meant I had to turn over the left screen to it, and switch back and forward on the source button as I needed to. I found this to be a bit of a pain...
So...behold, the old Bedroom TV which was replaced by the old living room TV when I upgraded, which is also an HDMI monitor, has been mounted on the wall exclusively for the various forms of Pi
The Pi's and clones themselves now connect up to an HDMI 5 way switch I not longer use so, I can keep 5 of them hooked up and swap them around as needed.. I'm also getting an old switch unit so I can keep them all networked up and that way all I have to do to try a new target is change a config label.
Though still need to plug in a use so they can use the keyboard/mouse/wifi...I only need to do that when I'm actually playing games on them, and there are ways to convince them to use the PC's keyboard and mouse, which I will look into.
:D
Geekdom rules.
Ahthankyew
The need to hook up my Pi's to a screen during development meant I had to turn over the left screen to it, and switch back and forward on the source button as I needed to. I found this to be a bit of a pain...
So...behold, the old Bedroom TV which was replaced by the old living room TV when I upgraded, which is also an HDMI monitor, has been mounted on the wall exclusively for the various forms of Pi
The Pi's and clones themselves now connect up to an HDMI 5 way switch I not longer use so, I can keep 5 of them hooked up and swap them around as needed.. I'm also getting an old switch unit so I can keep them all networked up and that way all I have to do to try a new target is change a config label.
Though still need to plug in a use so they can use the keyboard/mouse/wifi...I only need to do that when I'm actually playing games on them, and there are ways to convince them to use the PC's keyboard and mouse, which I will look into.
:D
Geekdom rules.
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 9 March 2016
:D Well that put a smile on a bad day
Not having a happy day at work at all, no need to explain why, just some differences of opinions that create tension. I was all ready to storm off home to buy a cat to kick, when I got a mail from the publisher.
The book is go!!!!
I repeat the Book Is Go, its been officially approved, contracts can now be signed and I have to get 20 pages a week done so it can be finished in Sept.on and write 10 demo games on a Raspberry Pi :D
woooooo
Its not going to make me rich or famous but I am going to enjoy this a lot.
Ahthankyew
The book is go!!!!
I repeat the Book Is Go, its been officially approved, contracts can now be signed and I have to get 20 pages a week done so it can be finished in Sept.on and write 10 demo games on a Raspberry Pi :D
woooooo
Its not going to make me rich or famous but I am going to enjoy this a lot.
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 8 March 2016
Being bad is fun
Well at least it is when its to do with coding.
I have been trying to get OpenGLES2.0 to do something its not really designed to do, use RAM based double buffers as a display system. There's no real way to do it, as OGLES2 does not let you do CPU manipulation of a texture once it has been set up.
But its an important "bad design" decision in my book, which will let them do something that works on almost any machine, yet is clearly very CPU intensive and not using the GPU at all well. (sorry mum this is tech talk)
But I managed to make it work by constantly killing and remaking textures every frame to allow a new buffer to be set up and displayed.. It is genuinely an awful system, but..and this is the point it work, perfectly well, you can display any number of graphics you want with little or no effort, since now you can copy stuff into the display buffer and it will magically appear on screen.
But the point its its wasting the power of the GPU and totally consuming the CPU, but it does make code based manipulating of objects very simple, very clear and very very easy to understand...which is the point. The reader can now easily get the idea that putting things on screen is simple, that will let them focus on doing that rather than trying to make sense of the way OGLES2 needs to be set up to do it properly.
Once I've done a few games with this system and we explain the disconnect between display systems and logic, I will then demonstrate how truly awful it is and talk them through a way to alter the display system to something much more OGLES2 based with a massive boost in performance...Sometimes the only way to let people see that a bad decision that works, is still a bad decision is to let them do it, and expose the limitations.
It was actually very frustrating working out some way to do a double ram buffer, in the end the constant thrashing of killing and adding tetxures is even worse than I imagined it would be...every time you do that routine, a kitten dies!!! Lots of kittens are going to die now.
bwahahahah
Ahthankyew
I have been trying to get OpenGLES2.0 to do something its not really designed to do, use RAM based double buffers as a display system. There's no real way to do it, as OGLES2 does not let you do CPU manipulation of a texture once it has been set up.
But its an important "bad design" decision in my book, which will let them do something that works on almost any machine, yet is clearly very CPU intensive and not using the GPU at all well. (sorry mum this is tech talk)
But I managed to make it work by constantly killing and remaking textures every frame to allow a new buffer to be set up and displayed.. It is genuinely an awful system, but..and this is the point it work, perfectly well, you can display any number of graphics you want with little or no effort, since now you can copy stuff into the display buffer and it will magically appear on screen.
But the point its its wasting the power of the GPU and totally consuming the CPU, but it does make code based manipulating of objects very simple, very clear and very very easy to understand...which is the point. The reader can now easily get the idea that putting things on screen is simple, that will let them focus on doing that rather than trying to make sense of the way OGLES2 needs to be set up to do it properly.
Once I've done a few games with this system and we explain the disconnect between display systems and logic, I will then demonstrate how truly awful it is and talk them through a way to alter the display system to something much more OGLES2 based with a massive boost in performance...Sometimes the only way to let people see that a bad decision that works, is still a bad decision is to let them do it, and expose the limitations.
It was actually very frustrating working out some way to do a double ram buffer, in the end the constant thrashing of killing and adding tetxures is even worse than I imagined it would be...every time you do that routine, a kitten dies!!! Lots of kittens are going to die now.
bwahahahah
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 3 March 2016
I sense a return of the flatulence
I suspect I'll be farting with fear for quite a while now...The book has taken another mega step forward to being approved....feedback from reviewers of my proposal has been positive and the editor likes it....though the title needs a bit more work still/
I am gobsmacked that in the space of 3 months an idea I had to keep me busy has snowballed into something so big and fun.
The publishing committee are going to discuss it this month, rather than next, so I'll find out in just over a week if this is definite.
In the meantime, I'm having an absolute blast filling in my chapter headings, writing little bits of mindless ramblings to be edited into something more formal later. And even more fun, prepping my projects to lay out the foundations.
Its going to be 6 months or so of hell, writing and coding, but I can't wait!
And evern better news the Colecovision project is almost done, I got some memory together by procedurually generating some graphics and now I just need a nice cosy weekend to myself to wrap it up...
Can't really get better than that.
Ahthankyew
I am gobsmacked that in the space of 3 months an idea I had to keep me busy has snowballed into something so big and fun.
The publishing committee are going to discuss it this month, rather than next, so I'll find out in just over a week if this is definite.
In the meantime, I'm having an absolute blast filling in my chapter headings, writing little bits of mindless ramblings to be edited into something more formal later. And even more fun, prepping my projects to lay out the foundations.
Its going to be 6 months or so of hell, writing and coding, but I can't wait!
And evern better news the Colecovision project is almost done, I got some memory together by procedurually generating some graphics and now I just need a nice cosy weekend to myself to wrap it up...
Can't really get better than that.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 27 February 2016
2016 seems to be a really bad year RIP Fergus.
On top of all the celebs who are dying right left and center, it seems even the games industries bright lights are now starting to dim. Today we heard the sad news that Fergus McGovern, former head honcho at Probe Software died suddenly , apparently from a blood clot cause by DVT. Such a tragic waste.
I won't go as far as to say we were friends, in fact I probably pissed him off big time doing my 4th and final NHL hockey game for him as I simply had a massive breakdown and could not finish it.. He tried to talk me into continuing but to his credit, he knew I was beaten, and let it go.. No we were not friends, but he was a big influence in my career, and many others. He worked well with people and got what he needed out of them, rewarding them well if they manged to get things done a bit quicker or a bit better, and as I discovered being sympathetic when it didnt' go so well
He could have sued the arse of me if he wanted when I just broke down in tears on the phone. but it would not have achieved anything! I worked for Fergus many times over the 80's and 90's and it helped pay a lot of bills and set me up as a freelancer. Its hard to explain how something like that connects you to people.
Even after the breakdown on NHL, and inevitable fallout he absorbed, he was always nice to me when we met at shows and events, remembered my name and said Hi, asked how I was. That meant a lot. He wasn't a spiteful man, he was a ball breaker sometimes but always fair. He loved negotiating you down on price, but never went below what he knew the job was worth,
The games industry does not have too many true legends, a lot of overbearing diva's for sure, but actual honest hard working legends who achieved something special are rare. Fergus was most certainly a Legend.
RIP.
Ahthankyew
I won't go as far as to say we were friends, in fact I probably pissed him off big time doing my 4th and final NHL hockey game for him as I simply had a massive breakdown and could not finish it.. He tried to talk me into continuing but to his credit, he knew I was beaten, and let it go.. No we were not friends, but he was a big influence in my career, and many others. He worked well with people and got what he needed out of them, rewarding them well if they manged to get things done a bit quicker or a bit better, and as I discovered being sympathetic when it didnt' go so well
He could have sued the arse of me if he wanted when I just broke down in tears on the phone. but it would not have achieved anything! I worked for Fergus many times over the 80's and 90's and it helped pay a lot of bills and set me up as a freelancer. Its hard to explain how something like that connects you to people.
Even after the breakdown on NHL, and inevitable fallout he absorbed, he was always nice to me when we met at shows and events, remembered my name and said Hi, asked how I was. That meant a lot. He wasn't a spiteful man, he was a ball breaker sometimes but always fair. He loved negotiating you down on price, but never went below what he knew the job was worth,
The games industry does not have too many true legends, a lot of overbearing diva's for sure, but actual honest hard working legends who achieved something special are rare. Fergus was most certainly a Legend.
RIP.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 26 February 2016
Oh shit, its happening
I sent off my finished book proposal yesterday, fully expecting to hear nothing back, but no...the editor replied within a few hours and was very happy with it, :D
I'm very happy with that, no I'm totally delighted... It still has to go through a publishing committee and get good feedback from reviewers but he feels its got a very good chance of going forward.
I'll hold off putting the deposit down on my Larry Corsa Les Paul (which is what I'll buy with the income) for now, since I won't know for 100% sure till April, and even then it could still be a no. But I have to say this excites me and will give me a lot of motivation to continue with my slightly crazy ideas for the next few months.
Also a very good excuse to feed my OCD collecting habit and get a few more SBC's to test the projects with.
Onward and upward.
Ahthankyew
I'm very happy with that, no I'm totally delighted... It still has to go through a publishing committee and get good feedback from reviewers but he feels its got a very good chance of going forward.
I'll hold off putting the deposit down on my Larry Corsa Les Paul (which is what I'll buy with the income) for now, since I won't know for 100% sure till April, and even then it could still be a no. But I have to say this excites me and will give me a lot of motivation to continue with my slightly crazy ideas for the next few months.
Also a very good excuse to feed my OCD collecting habit and get a few more SBC's to test the projects with.
Onward and upward.
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 24 February 2016
I like Raspberry and Banana but Orange disagree's with me
Picked up an Orange Pi one on ebay, another cheap clone of the RPi but unlike the Banana Pi, this one seems to be a very poor copy.
Failed to recognize any of my full size keyboards, preventing me from logging in. Though I did try to use my mini wireless combination pad/key unit which almost worked though did stick on some letters.. However no matter how many times and how carefully I entered the password it failed to recognize it.
It maybe the password is not orangepi as suggested on some sites, but its impossible for me to find out since their website is down....
I think I'll have to write this one off as a not worth the effort.. The others all fired up really quick and easy with no keyboard hassles.
Oh well....I have more than enough fruit in my diet for now, and some meat in the form of a BeagleBoard XM is on the way, if it actually ever gets sent back from Canada, where Royal Mail apparently believe the Netherlands is located!!!
Ahthankyew
Failed to recognize any of my full size keyboards, preventing me from logging in. Though I did try to use my mini wireless combination pad/key unit which almost worked though did stick on some letters.. However no matter how many times and how carefully I entered the password it failed to recognize it.
It maybe the password is not orangepi as suggested on some sites, but its impossible for me to find out since their website is down....
I think I'll have to write this one off as a not worth the effort.. The others all fired up really quick and easy with no keyboard hassles.
Oh well....I have more than enough fruit in my diet for now, and some meat in the form of a BeagleBoard XM is on the way, if it actually ever gets sent back from Canada, where Royal Mail apparently believe the Netherlands is located!!!
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 16 February 2016
new tiny machines
My C1+ arrived all the way from Korea, 4 days after being posted, sadly I wasn't at home but arranged to have it re-delivered at work the next day..what a service so 5 days total...including a weekend!
Meanwhile I think my Pi Zero has been delivered 3 weeks after allegedly being posted, at least that's what the tracking site says....will find out when I get home!
The C1+ tried out quickly on my work station at the office, and its certainly a nippy little bugger, much more responsive and lively than the Pi or Pi 2 I'm quite looking forward to getting it hooked up at home to test out, hope it does not prove to be a couple of days of new frustration like the Banana Pi turned out to be ;)
Ahthankyew
Meanwhile I think my Pi Zero has been delivered 3 weeks after allegedly being posted, at least that's what the tracking site says....will find out when I get home!
The C1+ tried out quickly on my work station at the office, and its certainly a nippy little bugger, much more responsive and lively than the Pi or Pi 2 I'm quite looking forward to getting it hooked up at home to test out, hope it does not prove to be a couple of days of new frustration like the Banana Pi turned out to be ;)
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 13 February 2016
I miss my old chair
After putting up with its slipping height adjustment for months, I finally cracked and got rid of it, now sitting an a much better but quite different feeling mesh style office chair
the old one has served me well for 7 years now...but the slips were ever 10 mins now and thats annoying when you're already screaming at the screen about to pound on another hapless keyboard when something that should work doesn't..
I seems there is a bug in some of the Raspberry Pi's OpenGL extensions...meaning that some of the things I want to do can't be done, quite the same way...took quite some research to work it out, and find some possible work around.. I'm not there yet.
:(
So I'm going to blame the new chair.
Ahthankyew
the old one has served me well for 7 years now...but the slips were ever 10 mins now and thats annoying when you're already screaming at the screen about to pound on another hapless keyboard when something that should work doesn't..
I seems there is a bug in some of the Raspberry Pi's OpenGL extensions...meaning that some of the things I want to do can't be done, quite the same way...took quite some research to work it out, and find some possible work around.. I'm not there yet.
:(
So I'm going to blame the new chair.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 12 February 2016
Insomnia again......
7.14am and I've not been to sleep yet, the cycle continues...I'll probably doze off on the couch where I am sat doing this, and wake up rough as fuck around 1pm...maybe 2.
It does not seem to matter how tired I am, I go to bed and just can't drop off...its very frustrating
I'd do some work on my book projects but I'd just end up getting into a groove and staying up even later,
Anyway the book is going fine 120 pages now, edited down now so that I have all the chapters laid out and the 1st set of projects and what they introduce all sorted, but still need to get the projects tested and cleaned up. I'm still waiting on a couple of the boards I ordered, though I believe they are on the way. I haven't tried to properly do the Banana yet, beyond getting it to connect. I'll do that when I have the 1st game with graphics up and running.
I have my own version of a surface/canvas class sorted, just different enough from the old School template we used to use but the principles of a smart buffer are essentially the same, I got the double buffer framework almost done, just need to try and run a game loop through it and see how it goes. Hopefully that will let the 1st couple of games sorted before I then do the GPU based frameworking.
Also doing some proper C++ coding for work, something I've really not done for a long time, I usually do C with classes, but for work I really need to do proper C++, kinda strange but it's started to click after a while
And Z80 is going fine too, got a great new idea to save memory and give me room to finish, it is taking a while to code but it is getting there...
ok, I'm bored now, lets see if the sleeping thing works on the couch.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 6 February 2016
So, thats how you do it.
There's a reason I don't like Linux....not just that it seems to exist only for hardcore geeks to show off their condescension skills. Its just pants. I mean utter utter pants, nothing you ever want to do is simple and easy.
This is from someone who still has fond memories of Dos 3.0 and enjoyed using line commands.
Linux is just bloody weird and has become such a subset of internalised knowledge that you have no clue what to do when you want something normal without asking some guru who will chuckle publicly are your inability to understand the relevant runes.
Anyway, I have no interest or intention of actually doing much with Linux in the book, but I do need it in order to set up some of the target machines.
My 1st non Raspberry one being the Bananna Pi, which runs a version of Rasbian, but not quite.. And needed to install the Open GL libs...which I have to say is not a simple case of going to a website, downloading and installing...oh no, that would be just too easy.
To cut a painfully long story short, since I really don't get why people on Linux forums are so flaming obtuse...I eventually stumbled on the idea of updating and upgrading my OS...then trying the "standard" install system again which had failed miserably the 1st 20 times, I tried it.
After the upgrade though it finally worked, and I now have OpenGLES on the Banana Pi...I took the best part of 3 days worth of hunting and reformatting to do it, but I think I now have a system, which only takes 2 hours, to prep the target, that should work on the other targets (careful now, don't make statements you can't back up)
I'll try to get some actual coding done on it soon, but for now the experience has drained me and I want to finish some Z80 and C++ coding jobs I have waiting.
Ahthankyew
This is from someone who still has fond memories of Dos 3.0 and enjoyed using line commands.
Linux is just bloody weird and has become such a subset of internalised knowledge that you have no clue what to do when you want something normal without asking some guru who will chuckle publicly are your inability to understand the relevant runes.
Anyway, I have no interest or intention of actually doing much with Linux in the book, but I do need it in order to set up some of the target machines.
My 1st non Raspberry one being the Bananna Pi, which runs a version of Rasbian, but not quite.. And needed to install the Open GL libs...which I have to say is not a simple case of going to a website, downloading and installing...oh no, that would be just too easy.
To cut a painfully long story short, since I really don't get why people on Linux forums are so flaming obtuse...I eventually stumbled on the idea of updating and upgrading my OS...then trying the "standard" install system again which had failed miserably the 1st 20 times, I tried it.
After the upgrade though it finally worked, and I now have OpenGLES on the Banana Pi...I took the best part of 3 days worth of hunting and reformatting to do it, but I think I now have a system, which only takes 2 hours, to prep the target, that should work on the other targets (careful now, don't make statements you can't back up)
I'll try to get some actual coding done on it soon, but for now the experience has drained me and I want to finish some Z80 and C++ coding jobs I have waiting.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 5 February 2016
uggg not all Pi is good
To maintain some degree of independence in my targets, I have mentioned before some of the other SBC's I plan to target in the book, one of which I thought would be simple to work with. The Banana Pi, which for all intents and purposes is a Chinese copy of the Raspberry Pi with a bit of a boost.
It supposedly even runs a version of Rasbian. and is moderately popular with the SBC community because of that. Any way mine arrived yesterday and its not at all unlike the Raspberry model
It didn't come with an SD card so I had to hunt for the OS, called Rasbian of course, on the Lemaker (the makers) site. Installed it over the course of an hour hunting the right tools, but it seems the card wasn't quite compatible, but lucky I had another and repeated..Got it working
Ok so fire up VS and VisualGBD and yes it connects no problems at all, but the libraries are not in the same places as on the Raspberry.. Its not really Rasbian, its Debian with fruit, kinda, it does not have the same layout or tools as the Raspberry, but no matter it was connecting and that's my main consideration...
And so began a hunt of epic proportions for the OpenGLES dev libs, they do exist, I don't really know exactly where, Linux seems to have repositories on line which I assume mimic the concept of the cloud. A strange command line process called sudo apt-get install gets them for you, so I entered the required magic runes into the console..
And it did its thing
And then it said after a while that 5 or 6 of the files could not be obtained.... and install aborted
I tried this several times..but no joy, the standard install process fails when it cannot access all the files it is expecting, and it appears a server no longer has those files...I have no control over that, and the --fix-missing option does not help.
grrr
So more hunting, more google fu, and no result by midnight. I called it a day. There are a full set of all openGL libs available which I can download and compile on the target but that's going to be a weekend of download and compile time..with relative amounts of WTF is happening moments.
What a fucking pain in the arse......seriously, Linux...why??? archaic and unreliable, I have no idea why people like this shit?
Still got a Bananaboard and a Pine A64 to review.....oh joy!
Ahthankyew
It supposedly even runs a version of Rasbian. and is moderately popular with the SBC community because of that. Any way mine arrived yesterday and its not at all unlike the Raspberry model
It didn't come with an SD card so I had to hunt for the OS, called Rasbian of course, on the Lemaker (the makers) site. Installed it over the course of an hour hunting the right tools, but it seems the card wasn't quite compatible, but lucky I had another and repeated..Got it working
Ok so fire up VS and VisualGBD and yes it connects no problems at all, but the libraries are not in the same places as on the Raspberry.. Its not really Rasbian, its Debian with fruit, kinda, it does not have the same layout or tools as the Raspberry, but no matter it was connecting and that's my main consideration...
And so began a hunt of epic proportions for the OpenGLES dev libs, they do exist, I don't really know exactly where, Linux seems to have repositories on line which I assume mimic the concept of the cloud. A strange command line process called sudo apt-get install gets them for you, so I entered the required magic runes into the console..
And it did its thing
And then it said after a while that 5 or 6 of the files could not be obtained.... and install aborted
I tried this several times..but no joy, the standard install process fails when it cannot access all the files it is expecting, and it appears a server no longer has those files...I have no control over that, and the --fix-missing option does not help.
grrr
So more hunting, more google fu, and no result by midnight. I called it a day. There are a full set of all openGL libs available which I can download and compile on the target but that's going to be a weekend of download and compile time..with relative amounts of WTF is happening moments.
What a fucking pain in the arse......seriously, Linux...why??? archaic and unreliable, I have no idea why people like this shit?
Still got a Bananaboard and a Pine A64 to review.....oh joy!
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 31 January 2016
Crikey 100+ pages
wow I've written 108 pages and 26,000 words...granted a lot of them are descriptions of what I'm going to write, but still I can't recall ever writing so much stuff in my life. I still have to write the games properly that I am going to use as the vehicle for introducing topics and test them out on my expanding collection of single board computers. I've done most of them over the years with students so its not exactly new, but I need to create, before and after versions of them, and make sure the code is clean and tidy and simple to read. That will take most of the time I think.
As I read it back to myself I am developing a growing sense of confidence in this slightly crazy idea, a book that will cover all the basic aspects of writing a modern game on any target machine, without having to become a master of the hardware or the languages used, just knowing enough to get it done..
I need to do a bit more research to finish my publishing proposal, mainly to work out what other competitive books there are out there which are current and relevant.
I've also been on the hunt for some other Single Board Computers to use as targets, there's a few on the market, but none come close to the popularity of the Raspberry Pi, but I've got hold of a full set of Pi's now, a Beagleboard XM and a Banana Pi M1 (the soon to be released octocore M3 looks sexy, but will wait for it as its nearly 100quid), With my new Pine A64 due in March that should be more than enough to ensure decent cross board compatibility.
All this creativity has got my juices flowing on other things too, the Colecovision project has been languishing in no memory hell for weeks, but I hit on something that gives me shed loads , I'm looking forward to finally finishing that and handing it over to his long expecting dad.
Ahthankyew
As I read it back to myself I am developing a growing sense of confidence in this slightly crazy idea, a book that will cover all the basic aspects of writing a modern game on any target machine, without having to become a master of the hardware or the languages used, just knowing enough to get it done..
I need to do a bit more research to finish my publishing proposal, mainly to work out what other competitive books there are out there which are current and relevant.
I've also been on the hunt for some other Single Board Computers to use as targets, there's a few on the market, but none come close to the popularity of the Raspberry Pi, but I've got hold of a full set of Pi's now, a Beagleboard XM and a Banana Pi M1 (the soon to be released octocore M3 looks sexy, but will wait for it as its nearly 100quid), With my new Pine A64 due in March that should be more than enough to ensure decent cross board compatibility.
All this creativity has got my juices flowing on other things too, the Colecovision project has been languishing in no memory hell for weeks, but I hit on something that gives me shed loads , I'm looking forward to finally finishing that and handing it over to his long expecting dad.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 30 January 2016
doped up Zombie and laying out chapters
Yesterday I had another of my silent migraines, no real pain, just a bit of a dull ache, but the scintillating scotoma that comes over me makes me partially blind for 5-10 mins, its rather scary
Worse though is the odd sensation afterwards, like a very stoned zombie, slightly nauseas, dizzy when I close my eyes and a strong feeling of drugged detachment not unlike when you get morphine in the hospital but without the happy feelings, which can last several hours. ie a Doped up Zombie
This one went on for about 6, really very unpleasant hours which I tried to fill with sleep...then I got drunk and the effect was similar.
I've been checked out with an MRI before where they concluded it was just an age/state of health issue, but I think I should go get another as I seem to be having them a lot more often, at least once a month and I think with increasingly effect.
At least I don't get the mega headaches I hear of in others...
Anyway, the interest of the publisher in my book has spurred me on to format the chapters in the book more carefully, I've added a few, and edited some of my waffle out a bit, I think the overall layout seems quite good so long as I can get my relevant points across in 700 or so pages.
Which is actually pretty challenging, squeezing what would take around 2 years for a student to learn into around 20 chapters...from beginner to Console wiz...will be interesting. But I think the method I use of not worrying so much about the language and focusing on the confidence and techniques will come though. I've done 100 pages so far with 4 chapters complete, though containing a lot of source at the beginning, I use less source as the book progresses and I discuss specific concepts.
Also I have done some research in to my potential target audience, that was very interesting indeed but I think I need to expand it a bit as I'm not 100% sure I can appeal to just 1 group of trainee coders.
Anyway, watch this space for update.
Ahthankyew
Worse though is the odd sensation afterwards, like a very stoned zombie, slightly nauseas, dizzy when I close my eyes and a strong feeling of drugged detachment not unlike when you get morphine in the hospital but without the happy feelings, which can last several hours. ie a Doped up Zombie
This one went on for about 6, really very unpleasant hours which I tried to fill with sleep...then I got drunk and the effect was similar.
I've been checked out with an MRI before where they concluded it was just an age/state of health issue, but I think I should go get another as I seem to be having them a lot more often, at least once a month and I think with increasingly effect.
At least I don't get the mega headaches I hear of in others...
Anyway, the interest of the publisher in my book has spurred me on to format the chapters in the book more carefully, I've added a few, and edited some of my waffle out a bit, I think the overall layout seems quite good so long as I can get my relevant points across in 700 or so pages.
Which is actually pretty challenging, squeezing what would take around 2 years for a student to learn into around 20 chapters...from beginner to Console wiz...will be interesting. But I think the method I use of not worrying so much about the language and focusing on the confidence and techniques will come though. I've done 100 pages so far with 4 chapters complete, though containing a lot of source at the beginning, I use less source as the book progresses and I discuss specific concepts.
Also I have done some research in to my potential target audience, that was very interesting indeed but I think I need to expand it a bit as I'm not 100% sure I can appeal to just 1 group of trainee coders.
Anyway, watch this space for update.
Ahthankyew
Friday, 29 January 2016
Getting very serious
Publisher has been in contact, the editor likes the idea, wants me to put together a formal proposal.
gulp...what am I letting myself in for!
700 pages of fun fun fun I suspect.
Ahthankyew
gulp...what am I letting myself in for!
700 pages of fun fun fun I suspect.
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 28 January 2016
Now I got to get serious
Thanks to some help from old friends and colleagues, I've been able to get some advice on the book and some very positive feedback on the concept.
and...I may well have interested a publisher....just waiting for some more feedback but if they say they want it, I'll have to knuckle down and get very serious about it :D
very excited now.
Ahthankyew
and...I may well have interested a publisher....just waiting for some more feedback but if they say they want it, I'll have to knuckle down and get very serious about it :D
very excited now.
Ahthankyew
Monday, 25 January 2016
I has keys..and mice
One oddity of the Raspberry Pi seems to be its key and mouse handling. I am not a Linux coder, and am very deliberately trying to avoid doing anything with Linux beyond letting it compile and boot my programs remotely with VisualGBD, but there are a few things I still need it to do, especially when accessing any attached hardware to the Pi. For example Keys and Mice..
Documentation on how to access input systems, was sparse, mainly of course because sensible people usually are using some kind of library like SDL2 which itself handles all the key and mouse input.
I am however loathed to add SDL2 or any other large libs to my project as I try to emulate working on the machine as bare as possible. I want to maintain a promise to use only what the machine comes equipped with. Some libs will be needed, my screen loader and audio for example which would take far too long to do anything low end with. But the less the better. If we assume our lowest system is a Raspberry Pi A, we only have 256Mb of ram, I don't want that filled up with API's that use memory for code we never use, the lighter the project the more effective it will be.
Fortunately a fellow grumpy old git developer came to my rescue with some code that showed me how to get it working, and as a bonus is a good intro to threads and multi core coding. It still took a bit of twiddling with to get it to compile, but eventually it all clicked and ran on the Pi :D I will of course be giving Gareth Lewis an appropriate credit for his invaluable assistance. I think I would have been some time getting that to work on my own, and probably have to hit the Linux manuals (shudder)
So I now have a fully working and very small Input system that gives me key presses and mouse input, the rest of the process should now be fairly easy...fingers crossed!
Also I found a retail supplier for a new Pi zero, the teeny weeny version of it that was sold on a magazine for £5 last year...sadly I had to pay 3 times that but its ok I want to be sure my projects will also run on the lesser Pi's. I already have a B+ and I put in an ebay bid for an older A+ that should be plenty to ensure the projects reach the largest capture. They can still be bought retail though for $20 or so.
I also have a Pine64 on the way after the kickstarter program I backed was fully funded by some margin, which though not a Pi, shares the basic architecture of it and then some, and also runs Linux, so hopefully I can get that to also work and demo a higher powered system.
I must say I am REALLY enjoying writing this book, I am coding and also I feel I am teaching again, which is not something I get a sense of with our new V2 system. I can safely say I am laying down all my old course work into this book and it should help anyone who wants to write games, even if they don't want to use the Pi.
Ahthankyew
Documentation on how to access input systems, was sparse, mainly of course because sensible people usually are using some kind of library like SDL2 which itself handles all the key and mouse input.
I am however loathed to add SDL2 or any other large libs to my project as I try to emulate working on the machine as bare as possible. I want to maintain a promise to use only what the machine comes equipped with. Some libs will be needed, my screen loader and audio for example which would take far too long to do anything low end with. But the less the better. If we assume our lowest system is a Raspberry Pi A, we only have 256Mb of ram, I don't want that filled up with API's that use memory for code we never use, the lighter the project the more effective it will be.
Fortunately a fellow grumpy old git developer came to my rescue with some code that showed me how to get it working, and as a bonus is a good intro to threads and multi core coding. It still took a bit of twiddling with to get it to compile, but eventually it all clicked and ran on the Pi :D I will of course be giving Gareth Lewis an appropriate credit for his invaluable assistance. I think I would have been some time getting that to work on my own, and probably have to hit the Linux manuals (shudder)
So I now have a fully working and very small Input system that gives me key presses and mouse input, the rest of the process should now be fairly easy...fingers crossed!
Also I found a retail supplier for a new Pi zero, the teeny weeny version of it that was sold on a magazine for £5 last year...sadly I had to pay 3 times that but its ok I want to be sure my projects will also run on the lesser Pi's. I already have a B+ and I put in an ebay bid for an older A+ that should be plenty to ensure the projects reach the largest capture. They can still be bought retail though for $20 or so.
I also have a Pine64 on the way after the kickstarter program I backed was fully funded by some margin, which though not a Pi, shares the basic architecture of it and then some, and also runs Linux, so hopefully I can get that to also work and demo a higher powered system.
I must say I am REALLY enjoying writing this book, I am coding and also I feel I am teaching again, which is not something I get a sense of with our new V2 system. I can safely say I am laying down all my old course work into this book and it should help anyone who wants to write games, even if they don't want to use the Pi.
Ahthankyew
Sunday, 24 January 2016
Boom there it is....what took us so long..
Been having some struggles on the Pi with getting images in, loading was pretty painless, I managed to incorporate an image loader and get the Pi to use its file handling as expected, carefully managed the memory and reported back on the data that was loaded, all was fine.
But actually displaying my images was just bloody weird, I could sort of see the image, but they were scrambled, all the example code samples I tried failed, and there was so much re-writing of the standard OpenGL ES2.0 text book code to make it compile I was starting to think I'd invented my own language
But eventually as is often the case, it turned out to be a minor error on my part, I'd got height and width of my images mixed up...doh!!! Brians 1st rule of self fuckery*, applies even to Brian!,
I now have a lovely pic of Danni and Harvey2 on the Raspberry Pi :D
I can now finish the chapter on loading and displaying images, though I'll have to change the images before I put them in the book.
Its nice when you finally get something working, even if you cock it up a few times as you go...its called learning ;)
*Brians 1st rule of self fuckery as taught to all 1st years at IGAD , "If your code doesn't do what you expect it to do, you fucked up!"
Ahthankyew
But actually displaying my images was just bloody weird, I could sort of see the image, but they were scrambled, all the example code samples I tried failed, and there was so much re-writing of the standard OpenGL ES2.0 text book code to make it compile I was starting to think I'd invented my own language
But eventually as is often the case, it turned out to be a minor error on my part, I'd got height and width of my images mixed up...doh!!! Brians 1st rule of self fuckery*, applies even to Brian!,
I now have a lovely pic of Danni and Harvey2 on the Raspberry Pi :D
I can now finish the chapter on loading and displaying images, though I'll have to change the images before I put them in the book.
Its nice when you finally get something working, even if you cock it up a few times as you go...its called learning ;)
*Brians 1st rule of self fuckery as taught to all 1st years at IGAD , "If your code doesn't do what you expect it to do, you fucked up!"
Ahthankyew
Friday, 22 January 2016
Johnny 5 needs more input
As the book takes shape and most of the concepts of coding and anecdotal explanations are now in place, I have to turn to the technical bits. I've got the getting started and other things up and running and it is now perfectly possible to make a painfully simple bat and ball game, but its time now to start doing the cool things, sprites, backdrops. Then move on to the super cool things in 3D.
I can do all these things normally but when putting things into a book I feel I need to be a bit more careful in my approach, anyone reading it could be scarred for life if they do some of my sloppy get it working then fix approach and consider that an industry standard.
So I've been hitting amazon for some books.. BOOKS? In this day and age, well yes I like books theres something easy and comforting in having a text book next to you as you type in examples. The internet is amazing but when coding I find books very reassuring to use.
I am very proud of my library, 1 large IKEA Expedia bookcase bursting to the seams with technical books and manuals dating back to my early coding days. It needs a few more modern ones, but since consoles don't have a lot of books, the most recent things cover Direct X 11 and OpenGL3, not had a chance to do much with this years latest thingymajig
It might even be time to cough up a 2nd library, or at least an extra tier to be added..hmmmm that could be Saturdays shopping trip!
For my book I need more info on OpenGL ES 2.0, something until now I have not had much direct exposure to, though its not vastly different from standard OpenGL 2.0, it just has shit loads missing that I never used much anyway.
The plus is that with the release of OpenGL ES 3.0 some time back, all the ES 2.0 books are being given away...some as low as under a pound, though postage is always a fiver or so.
I have therefore splurged on some new books that will hopefully give me some enjoyment to read and provide some much needed proper technical approaches to use in my book.
I'm getting a lot of joy out of putting this book together, its got my juices flowing again, and even given me some smart ideas to finish my Colecovision project which is floundering in lack of memory hell, but a few good ideas have come forward which might get the last tiny bits of code in there to complete it.
Ahthankyew
I can do all these things normally but when putting things into a book I feel I need to be a bit more careful in my approach, anyone reading it could be scarred for life if they do some of my sloppy get it working then fix approach and consider that an industry standard.
So I've been hitting amazon for some books.. BOOKS? In this day and age, well yes I like books theres something easy and comforting in having a text book next to you as you type in examples. The internet is amazing but when coding I find books very reassuring to use.
I am very proud of my library, 1 large IKEA Expedia bookcase bursting to the seams with technical books and manuals dating back to my early coding days. It needs a few more modern ones, but since consoles don't have a lot of books, the most recent things cover Direct X 11 and OpenGL3, not had a chance to do much with this years latest thingymajig
It might even be time to cough up a 2nd library, or at least an extra tier to be added..hmmmm that could be Saturdays shopping trip!
For my book I need more info on OpenGL ES 2.0, something until now I have not had much direct exposure to, though its not vastly different from standard OpenGL 2.0, it just has shit loads missing that I never used much anyway.
The plus is that with the release of OpenGL ES 3.0 some time back, all the ES 2.0 books are being given away...some as low as under a pound, though postage is always a fiver or so.
I have therefore splurged on some new books that will hopefully give me some enjoyment to read and provide some much needed proper technical approaches to use in my book.
I'm getting a lot of joy out of putting this book together, its got my juices flowing again, and even given me some smart ideas to finish my Colecovision project which is floundering in lack of memory hell, but a few good ideas have come forward which might get the last tiny bits of code in there to complete it.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Sense of foreboding
What a shitty shitty start to the year with Bowie, Alan Rickman, and a host of minor celebs all dying at pretty young ages, not much older than me.
I don't think much about dying, but I have the last week or so, due to these deaths it just makes me realise how utterly fleeting our lives are, we're there, and gone in no time.
Sad, also strange, I wasn't a big big Bowie fan, but he has always been there or thereabouts in my musical world, some things getting to me more than others. His death is a true loss for music. I play quite a few of his songs with one band or another, they won't feel as much fun now.
In the more mundane world, I've just been getting on with coding and writing, the book is still on track, though the actual coding on the Raspberry Pi has been hit by some silly and annoying tech faults but they are slowly coming under control. Help has come from the support teams and I am back on the very slow learning horse and quite enjoying it.
Work is tiring me out, V2 is quite demanding, even though I appreciate that I can switch off at 5 and try to make best use of my time. The 2 full days of project work is exhausting, and frustrating too, I don't really get the sense that I am passing on much experience or wisdom in what I am telling them. But I have to give it a chance, self learning is the goal, and if they find the wisdom in other ways I can at least recognise that.
Love life is still DOA, even tied to get somewhere on Tinder...nope..a few people will match, but then after a short chat you find yourself unmatched and left with no reason why....too many people using it for fun I suspect..
I need to get out into the real world and get my Dutch improved, I have a pile of homework backing up from my Dutch classes that I'll try to do this weekend
Oh well time to go make some music, after I clear up the man cave, I've had a bit of a shopping spree of small things the last few months, Mics, stands, pedals and other goodies, and they need to be organised and stored, instead of strewn across the floor and tables. A Tidy Man Cave is the sign of an eligible man...maybe.
There's always the positives though, Danni's sending me regular pics of Harvey 2 and he's started to smile.. I've been boring everyone at work with the pics...still a very proud Opa.
Yeah, that's enough to cut through the dark things, focus on the light (oh saw Force Awakens...damn it is a good fun Star Wars movie)
Ahthankyew
I don't think much about dying, but I have the last week or so, due to these deaths it just makes me realise how utterly fleeting our lives are, we're there, and gone in no time.
Sad, also strange, I wasn't a big big Bowie fan, but he has always been there or thereabouts in my musical world, some things getting to me more than others. His death is a true loss for music. I play quite a few of his songs with one band or another, they won't feel as much fun now.
In the more mundane world, I've just been getting on with coding and writing, the book is still on track, though the actual coding on the Raspberry Pi has been hit by some silly and annoying tech faults but they are slowly coming under control. Help has come from the support teams and I am back on the very slow learning horse and quite enjoying it.
Work is tiring me out, V2 is quite demanding, even though I appreciate that I can switch off at 5 and try to make best use of my time. The 2 full days of project work is exhausting, and frustrating too, I don't really get the sense that I am passing on much experience or wisdom in what I am telling them. But I have to give it a chance, self learning is the goal, and if they find the wisdom in other ways I can at least recognise that.
Love life is still DOA, even tied to get somewhere on Tinder...nope..a few people will match, but then after a short chat you find yourself unmatched and left with no reason why....too many people using it for fun I suspect..
I need to get out into the real world and get my Dutch improved, I have a pile of homework backing up from my Dutch classes that I'll try to do this weekend
Oh well time to go make some music, after I clear up the man cave, I've had a bit of a shopping spree of small things the last few months, Mics, stands, pedals and other goodies, and they need to be organised and stored, instead of strewn across the floor and tables. A Tidy Man Cave is the sign of an eligible man...maybe.
There's always the positives though, Danni's sending me regular pics of Harvey 2 and he's started to smile.. I've been boring everyone at work with the pics...still a very proud Opa.
Yeah, that's enough to cut through the dark things, focus on the light (oh saw Force Awakens...damn it is a good fun Star Wars movie)
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 9 January 2016
11,000 words and 50 pages in
The book is progressing and its a lot of fun, especially as I am learning how to use the Rspberry Pi as I do it, its quite exhilarating learning a new machine and then putting down the experience in a form a beginner can handle.
Reading it back it needs a bit of re-organising as some of my initial layout ideas need to be moved around but it reads quite well in the 1st 3 chapters.
I've so far done the setting up of a dev system, running and debugging 1st simple text programs on PC and target machine, and now have got the set up for Graphics and Graphic image loading done..
Just need to work out image display and we're ready to rock and roll.
Found out lots of cool things, as I've done tests, been confused by a few others but worked them out and detailed the results.
This weekend, I hope to get a background screens and key control of an object in place to produce the 1st very simple game to build the framework on.
At this rate should only take a few months work to get the book and accompanying games to work. Though given my bad typing and propensity to make silly gag comments it might take a few months of editing to get it down to a decent number of pages.
Might need to go find a tame artist though to give me some decent assets for the project(s).
Hey ho...this is certainly a more interesting way to learn OpenGL ES2.0 than simply running through a few dry books. I always insist my students learn by doing, and here I am doing exactly the same...
Ahthankyew
Reading it back it needs a bit of re-organising as some of my initial layout ideas need to be moved around but it reads quite well in the 1st 3 chapters.
I've so far done the setting up of a dev system, running and debugging 1st simple text programs on PC and target machine, and now have got the set up for Graphics and Graphic image loading done..
Just need to work out image display and we're ready to rock and roll.
Found out lots of cool things, as I've done tests, been confused by a few others but worked them out and detailed the results.
This weekend, I hope to get a background screens and key control of an object in place to produce the 1st very simple game to build the framework on.
At this rate should only take a few months work to get the book and accompanying games to work. Though given my bad typing and propensity to make silly gag comments it might take a few months of editing to get it down to a decent number of pages.
Might need to go find a tame artist though to give me some decent assets for the project(s).
Hey ho...this is certainly a more interesting way to learn OpenGL ES2.0 than simply running through a few dry books. I always insist my students learn by doing, and here I am doing exactly the same...
Ahthankyew
Friday, 1 January 2016
So long 2015, you've been ......
I see lots of people saying how shit 2015 was, and lets be honest for me its been one of my most miserable years, I've been single the whole year and overall my love life sucks cheesy balls, work has been a pain at times, (side projects mainly, NHTV is still a great place to work)
But really it wasn't a bad year, every year, bad things happen, some worse that others, But why focus on the bad things, and why taint the whole year as bad..I didn't get cancer again, so that's a plus, I became a granddad which was a mega plus, I got to spend Xmas with my daughter and cried with pride again (need to stop that). Had some amazing gigs with Starrcase, and a shocker with The Gadgeteers which sadly started a decline to breakup.
Ok there's some bad, but the good certainly was worth focusing on... It was a year...it came it went, good things and bad things happened...next year will probably be the same.
Who knows, maybe I'll sort out my love life....hmmm maybe not..
Right now I have a hangover from an amazingly fun party..Happy New Year
Ahthankyew
But really it wasn't a bad year, every year, bad things happen, some worse that others, But why focus on the bad things, and why taint the whole year as bad..I didn't get cancer again, so that's a plus, I became a granddad which was a mega plus, I got to spend Xmas with my daughter and cried with pride again (need to stop that). Had some amazing gigs with Starrcase, and a shocker with The Gadgeteers which sadly started a decline to breakup.
Ok there's some bad, but the good certainly was worth focusing on... It was a year...it came it went, good things and bad things happened...next year will probably be the same.
Who knows, maybe I'll sort out my love life....hmmm maybe not..
Right now I have a hangover from an amazingly fun party..Happy New Year
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
New TV...cool but annoying
My old faithful Samsung 40inc beastie which has served me well since I arrived in NL has been troubled of late with a nasty splodge in the middle of the screen, which apparently cannot be fixed, don't know exactly what the cause is, but it gives actors a slight ruddy complexion or maybe a breard, depending on the lighting.
It seemed to be worse after my return from the UK, so I decided I better get a new set which the Xmas bonus had not yet been spend on a new Gibson or Fender
A bit of a shop around and I ordered a Phillips PFK557509 a massive beast of a telly 55 or your actual inches in diameter.
It arrived very swiftly and on time with amazing real time on line tracking, and I swiftly unpacked it from its ginormous box, which at first had me worried they'd delivered an 80" one.
A bit of reshuffling of TV boxes later and purchase of a slightly longer than 8" satellite cable, since it has a satellite decoder in it too.
And I sat down to watch, and listen to something quite wonderful
It's big, I think I mentioned before, its full HD also high frequency, compared to my older set which was no HighFreq...
The higher frame rate makes movies seem incredibly realistic, lighting and shade don't seem to work as well as the traditional blurry 24fps you see in the cinema, a bit like when I watched The Hobbit in Hi Freq.
it takes a bit of getting used to but the size and quality of the image is amazing.
The Sound too is awesome but odd, with a wireless subwoofer now sitting under my seat as well, I get something quite amazing in terms of rumble
It has inbuilt wifi so easy to hook up to my network, which in turn means Netflix is available and no more need for my Chromecast device, though I will probably keep it installed
Installing satellite is really slow and I need to try to work out how to keep them in a nice order, I'm not abandoning my Humax freesat box but this gives me another tuner to work with..and the picture is amazing :D
But I get my freesat channels and probably loads more...so that's cool.
Ambilight is an odd idea, LED's at the back of the set change colour and project to the wall at the back of the set, but somehow it works really well...it might annoy me later but for now, I am loving it,.
Annoying comes from the fact that the menus and set ups are painfully bad, once set up its ok but wow...someone needs to get a course or 2 in GUI design.
anyway, will now continue with my setting up. I can also include my Ziggo cable and if I plug in a USB drive I can also save and record programs...quite amzing. TV tech really has come on a lot in the last few years.
Ahthankyew
It seemed to be worse after my return from the UK, so I decided I better get a new set which the Xmas bonus had not yet been spend on a new Gibson or Fender
A bit of a shop around and I ordered a Phillips PFK557509 a massive beast of a telly 55 or your actual inches in diameter.
It arrived very swiftly and on time with amazing real time on line tracking, and I swiftly unpacked it from its ginormous box, which at first had me worried they'd delivered an 80" one.
A bit of reshuffling of TV boxes later and purchase of a slightly longer than 8" satellite cable, since it has a satellite decoder in it too.
And I sat down to watch, and listen to something quite wonderful
It's big, I think I mentioned before, its full HD also high frequency, compared to my older set which was no HighFreq...
The higher frame rate makes movies seem incredibly realistic, lighting and shade don't seem to work as well as the traditional blurry 24fps you see in the cinema, a bit like when I watched The Hobbit in Hi Freq.
it takes a bit of getting used to but the size and quality of the image is amazing.
The Sound too is awesome but odd, with a wireless subwoofer now sitting under my seat as well, I get something quite amazing in terms of rumble
It has inbuilt wifi so easy to hook up to my network, which in turn means Netflix is available and no more need for my Chromecast device, though I will probably keep it installed
Installing satellite is really slow and I need to try to work out how to keep them in a nice order, I'm not abandoning my Humax freesat box but this gives me another tuner to work with..and the picture is amazing :D
But I get my freesat channels and probably loads more...so that's cool.
Ambilight is an odd idea, LED's at the back of the set change colour and project to the wall at the back of the set, but somehow it works really well...it might annoy me later but for now, I am loving it,.
Annoying comes from the fact that the menus and set ups are painfully bad, once set up its ok but wow...someone needs to get a course or 2 in GUI design.
anyway, will now continue with my setting up. I can also include my Ziggo cable and if I plug in a USB drive I can also save and record programs...quite amzing. TV tech really has come on a lot in the last few years.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 26 December 2015
Me time, can be expensive
Lucky there is Primark to keep the cost down.
I've bought my new winter wardrobe, couple of jackets and jeans, lots of shirts a few jumpers and the new Mission Impossible vid, and didn't break 200quid...amazing :D
Ermm I also managed to take a trip to Ramsbottom to meet Pat at Mad Dog Guitars, what a lovely chap, he's got his own range of really nice guitars, low prices and a wee bit hit and miss on quality from the makers, the good ones are amazing, but there's a few less good ones, but still super value, but he's doing a fine job setting them up to be a good solid buy. I couldn't resist buying one of his absurdly cheap Jumbo's, it was just so nice to play. Even though for me the strings were a bit light. I think this may be the actual one I bought here..
I need to add a pickup to it at some point though but I think this will be brilliant for my new ToneWoodAmp fx unit when it gets here..hoping it will be there soon after I get back.
One odd thing though I've really buggered my shoulder and today my neck, I think it sfrom changing gear with my left hand again...can't think of anything else.
Really is absurdly painful and can't raise my left arm above shoulder height...hope to fuck it settles down soon, Nicked some of mums Co-codomal to keep it under control...might need to go see the sadist Chinese masseuse when I get home...must be bad to even consider that!
Ahthankyew
I've bought my new winter wardrobe, couple of jackets and jeans, lots of shirts a few jumpers and the new Mission Impossible vid, and didn't break 200quid...amazing :D
Ermm I also managed to take a trip to Ramsbottom to meet Pat at Mad Dog Guitars, what a lovely chap, he's got his own range of really nice guitars, low prices and a wee bit hit and miss on quality from the makers, the good ones are amazing, but there's a few less good ones, but still super value, but he's doing a fine job setting them up to be a good solid buy. I couldn't resist buying one of his absurdly cheap Jumbo's, it was just so nice to play. Even though for me the strings were a bit light. I think this may be the actual one I bought here..
I need to add a pickup to it at some point though but I think this will be brilliant for my new ToneWoodAmp fx unit when it gets here..hoping it will be there soon after I get back.
MadDogGuitars Jumbo acoustic.
A little vid of the Jumbo filmed last week with Roger Crombie in the MadDogGuitars shop in Ramsbottom. Guitar is solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides, Rosewood fingerboard, bone nut and saddle. £179 inc free postage. Cheers Pat 07715572304
Posted by Maddog Guitars on Monday, 12 October 2015
One odd thing though I've really buggered my shoulder and today my neck, I think it sfrom changing gear with my left hand again...can't think of anything else.
Really is absurdly painful and can't raise my left arm above shoulder height...hope to fuck it settles down soon, Nicked some of mums Co-codomal to keep it under control...might need to go see the sadist Chinese masseuse when I get home...must be bad to even consider that!
Ahthankyew
Wednesday, 23 December 2015
Baby puke and sleeping
Harvey 2 is, so cute, got to feed him last night, and even though I burped him, he promptly threw up all over my trousers and into my big glass of orange juice.
So..damn cute!!
:D :D :D :D
Ahthankyew
So..damn cute!!
:D :D :D :D
Ahthankyew
Friday, 18 December 2015
Wonderful week
Well that was a pretty wonderful week. Starting with wonderful baby news, hearing my daughters voice on the phone gushing about the new baby and telling me all about her uncomfortable women's medical problems...she's not shy..booby feeding is now my new favourite medical term.
Then back at home, fantastic rehearsal and even more amazing gig at the NHTV Christmas party, where pretty much everyone was up on the floor, we got so much good feedback, even for the Christmas songs we really hate.....but they went down ok.
New singer Maria has really settled in now and the combinations of the full set of 3 female vocals in harmony is fucking stunning, real hair on end stuff that had me and the other bandmates beaming with joy...it came through on the night for sure.. What a band, we really go from strength to strength.
The book is actually starting to take shape, 10,000 words, 4 chapters in I read it back to myself the other night and its bloody good stuff, still need another 30 or so chapters but I think it might be a good working resource when its done.
Lovely quiet birthday with lots of good wishes and even an on time Birthday card from mum...I was invited out by everyone but chose to have a nice quiet and relaxing evening in, just one glass of wine. Bliss.
And now..its Christmas, work is done, time to have a well earned rest, go see Danni and spend a bit of time in the UK catching up with family and friends.
I have wi-fi in the B&B so will update if there's anything worth posting..for now, time to go make some crappy music videos and pack a bag.
Merry Chrimbo
Ahthankyew
Then back at home, fantastic rehearsal and even more amazing gig at the NHTV Christmas party, where pretty much everyone was up on the floor, we got so much good feedback, even for the Christmas songs we really hate.....but they went down ok.
New singer Maria has really settled in now and the combinations of the full set of 3 female vocals in harmony is fucking stunning, real hair on end stuff that had me and the other bandmates beaming with joy...it came through on the night for sure.. What a band, we really go from strength to strength.
The book is actually starting to take shape, 10,000 words, 4 chapters in I read it back to myself the other night and its bloody good stuff, still need another 30 or so chapters but I think it might be a good working resource when its done.
Lovely quiet birthday with lots of good wishes and even an on time Birthday card from mum...I was invited out by everyone but chose to have a nice quiet and relaxing evening in, just one glass of wine. Bliss.
And now..its Christmas, work is done, time to have a well earned rest, go see Danni and spend a bit of time in the UK catching up with family and friends.
I have wi-fi in the B&B so will update if there's anything worth posting..for now, time to go make some crappy music videos and pack a bag.
Merry Chrimbo
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 17 December 2015
so many nice people
One thing I try very hard to maintain is keeping my facebook open only to people I actually know.
There's one or 2 hobby followers, a few mad guitar players but 98% of the people on there are people I actually know, work with, socialise with or have worked with or socialised with.. I don't do the collect a friend, first to 1000 gets to win at Yahtzee (South Park mum, you won't have seen it)
So its especially nice to see over 100 birthday wishes from people I know
I was hoping that there was a 1-1000 chance that someone in particular would try to connect with me today, but the hint wasn't taken....maybe next year.
At least I won't be alone at Christmas, I get to go see Danni and her new addition.. Time to spend that Xmas bonus on someone other than me.
Ahthankyew
There's one or 2 hobby followers, a few mad guitar players but 98% of the people on there are people I actually know, work with, socialise with or have worked with or socialised with.. I don't do the collect a friend, first to 1000 gets to win at Yahtzee (South Park mum, you won't have seen it)
So its especially nice to see over 100 birthday wishes from people I know
I was hoping that there was a 1-1000 chance that someone in particular would try to connect with me today, but the hint wasn't taken....maybe next year.
At least I won't be alone at Christmas, I get to go see Danni and her new addition.. Time to spend that Xmas bonus on someone other than me.
Ahthankyew
Saturday, 12 December 2015
I'm a grandad, even if I am far too young and cute
Well that was a nail biting 24 hours. After the message that baby Harvey was on the way, I had to endure radio silence for 24 hours. I barely slept hoping to get a phone call, and was on tenter hooks all day at work, but nothing.
Finally after my mum also started to get a bit stressed out with the lack of info from anyone, I called the hospital who eventually put me through to the labour ward.
Who then said they could not tell me anything about what had happened, but that she was no longer in the labour ward.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!! do you mean "what happened"....."what happened???" I was very stressed, even though of course in the interests of confidentiality they were 100% right to tell me that they could not say anything, but "what happened" is a foreboding term...
Sensing my extreme discomfort at that expression, the person on the line, tried to reassure me that its ok, she's fine...phew...and the baby.... Sorry I can't say anything about that...ok ok ok..slightly less stressed but clearly not the answer I wanted as I held back tears.
Can you get a message to her to call her father, so I can let the other family members know they are all ok.
Of course, I'll get a message to them...phew..
And so began the longest 10 mins of my life as I waited to hear...checking on Danni's whatsapp to make sure that her phone was on again, and suddenly there was a read confirmation of my last 3, please contact me messages.
I tried calling but no joy....
Told mum on messenger that I 'd tried calling
tried whatsapping a hello, no response
Then finally a call, from Kieran, Dannis' fella....Sorry the signal in the hospital is crap, Danni asked to pop outside and let me know that she's ok.
Through a broken connection the words, difficult labour, a breech birth, delivered by forceps...(wow that's unusual), but the key words finally came.
"Both are fine and now resting."
Cue floods of tears..and virtual hugs for all 3 of them.
"Will send pic soon"
The feelings of joy at that moment cannot be captured in words..
I don't have all the usual details, like length, weight, time, those will come, "Both are fine and now resting", was all I wanted to hear.
Happy glorious wonderful words....
I got the picture a few hours later, I was sat in a pub quiz I'd been roped into with my friend Richard from The Gadgeteers and burst into tears....followed by lots of back slapping
She made me promise not to post pics online, so I can't show it here...but trust me, he's beautiful
have to go..need to buy more tissues.
Ahthankyew
Finally after my mum also started to get a bit stressed out with the lack of info from anyone, I called the hospital who eventually put me through to the labour ward.
Who then said they could not tell me anything about what had happened, but that she was no longer in the labour ward.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!! do you mean "what happened"....."what happened???" I was very stressed, even though of course in the interests of confidentiality they were 100% right to tell me that they could not say anything, but "what happened" is a foreboding term...
Sensing my extreme discomfort at that expression, the person on the line, tried to reassure me that its ok, she's fine...phew...and the baby.... Sorry I can't say anything about that...ok ok ok..slightly less stressed but clearly not the answer I wanted as I held back tears.
Can you get a message to her to call her father, so I can let the other family members know they are all ok.
Of course, I'll get a message to them...phew..
And so began the longest 10 mins of my life as I waited to hear...checking on Danni's whatsapp to make sure that her phone was on again, and suddenly there was a read confirmation of my last 3, please contact me messages.
I tried calling but no joy....
Told mum on messenger that I 'd tried calling
tried whatsapping a hello, no response
Then finally a call, from Kieran, Dannis' fella....Sorry the signal in the hospital is crap, Danni asked to pop outside and let me know that she's ok.
Through a broken connection the words, difficult labour, a breech birth, delivered by forceps...(wow that's unusual), but the key words finally came.
"Both are fine and now resting."
Cue floods of tears..and virtual hugs for all 3 of them.
"Will send pic soon"
The feelings of joy at that moment cannot be captured in words..
I don't have all the usual details, like length, weight, time, those will come, "Both are fine and now resting", was all I wanted to hear.
Happy glorious wonderful words....
I got the picture a few hours later, I was sat in a pub quiz I'd been roped into with my friend Richard from The Gadgeteers and burst into tears....followed by lots of back slapping
She made me promise not to post pics online, so I can't show it here...but trust me, he's beautiful
have to go..need to buy more tissues.
Ahthankyew
Thursday, 10 December 2015
Baby on way
Danni's in Labour....oh this is exciting, and scary...I'm bursting with pride...can't wait to hear that my little Grandson and my lovely Daughter and her shitting bricks fella are all one big happy family
watch this space...
Ahthankyew
watch this space...
Ahthankyew
Still no baby...so writing a book
She's still not popped, and she's getting very fed of up me asking if she has..so I'll back off for a bit.
In other news, I've started to document my learning process on the Raspberry Pi, which I am learning to use so that I can give some talks on at uni. quite a few of them want to do assembly coding and cross platform remote development. So the Pi was chosen to make that possible...and your's truly has been the one working it all out.
Since this was my 1st experience with the Pi as an actual target device for programming, it struck me it was a good idea to try to share that experience with others who may be starting out on the machine
After collating a few of my notes I realised I had the basics of a tutorial I've always want to do.
Combining my 1st year starting programming courses with later more advanced, working on consoles.
The Pi isn't a console of course but the process with you work with it using a remote dev machine and VisualGBD to allow you to use Visual Studio, is basically the same so it could be a good introduction to the methods of working I usually use when doing PS4 work without actually having access to a PS4 which of course is the situation for most home coders. A cheap pretend console might be a good way to provide some tips to new coders so that when they come across real consoles the methods are not totally alien to them, even if the software and SDK's are.
Depending on where you look the machine appears to be more powerful than a Nintendo GameCube and on par with a PS2 or original Xbox. There were some amazing games on those machines, so if I can get a working framework together built on OpenGL ES2.0 I'll be a very happy man.
Anyway, no idea if it will end up as anything worth reading, but I have been partially inspired by one of my students who gifted and signed for me a copy of his 2nd edition of a book on Mine craft modding.
If I document my whole journey, from the frustration of getting it working to having that 1st OpenGL ES triangle displayed, to creating a framework to make a few of my 1st year games. It should pad out to a few hundred pages of semi interesting stuff.
I'll have to also break out the dormant 3D skills to write a framework that can cope with models and scenes, but that might be a 2nd book.
Having a book published also takes off a bit of academic pressure I get from time to time over not having a masters degree. so another good reason. Money isn't one of the other reasons, apparently tech books don't really make much cash, or hot the top of the best seller list often, but if I can get it out, I think it will be nice to say I'm an author...even if the plot is a bit dull and the butler probably does it at the end.
Anyway, time to ask if she's popped yet?
.
Ahthankyew
In other news, I've started to document my learning process on the Raspberry Pi, which I am learning to use so that I can give some talks on at uni. quite a few of them want to do assembly coding and cross platform remote development. So the Pi was chosen to make that possible...and your's truly has been the one working it all out.
Since this was my 1st experience with the Pi as an actual target device for programming, it struck me it was a good idea to try to share that experience with others who may be starting out on the machine
After collating a few of my notes I realised I had the basics of a tutorial I've always want to do.
Combining my 1st year starting programming courses with later more advanced, working on consoles.
The Pi isn't a console of course but the process with you work with it using a remote dev machine and VisualGBD to allow you to use Visual Studio, is basically the same so it could be a good introduction to the methods of working I usually use when doing PS4 work without actually having access to a PS4 which of course is the situation for most home coders. A cheap pretend console might be a good way to provide some tips to new coders so that when they come across real consoles the methods are not totally alien to them, even if the software and SDK's are.
Depending on where you look the machine appears to be more powerful than a Nintendo GameCube and on par with a PS2 or original Xbox. There were some amazing games on those machines, so if I can get a working framework together built on OpenGL ES2.0 I'll be a very happy man.
Anyway, no idea if it will end up as anything worth reading, but I have been partially inspired by one of my students who gifted and signed for me a copy of his 2nd edition of a book on Mine craft modding.
If I document my whole journey, from the frustration of getting it working to having that 1st OpenGL ES triangle displayed, to creating a framework to make a few of my 1st year games. It should pad out to a few hundred pages of semi interesting stuff.
I'll have to also break out the dormant 3D skills to write a framework that can cope with models and scenes, but that might be a 2nd book.
Having a book published also takes off a bit of academic pressure I get from time to time over not having a masters degree. so another good reason. Money isn't one of the other reasons, apparently tech books don't really make much cash, or hot the top of the best seller list often, but if I can get it out, I think it will be nice to say I'm an author...even if the plot is a bit dull and the butler probably does it at the end.
Anyway, time to ask if she's popped yet?
.
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Not looking forward to it...
Yup December is here again...the inexorable countdown to Christmas.....I hate it, especially on my own...but it simply holds no real joy for me...
EXCEPT!!!!
That by the time it comes I should be a granddad to a lovely little bouncing boy....he's due any day now, and I'm going to spend Xmas over in the UK with my new babba and his mum and dad.
So any day now....I have the most wonderful photo of Danni, ready to pop, but she does not want me posting it on line, which is fine, I've shown it to almost every one I know and will print it out and frame it, along with the soon to come 1st photo of her and Harvey...yup,,,same name as my dog...not going to let that confuse me...I might end up throwing tennis balls for a 2 week old....
She's also asked me not to post pics of Harvey....and I will honor her request until she says otherwise....wont' stop me taking 100's of them though :D
exciting times...at Christmas....who'd have thunk!!
Ahthankyew
EXCEPT!!!!
That by the time it comes I should be a granddad to a lovely little bouncing boy....he's due any day now, and I'm going to spend Xmas over in the UK with my new babba and his mum and dad.
So any day now....I have the most wonderful photo of Danni, ready to pop, but she does not want me posting it on line, which is fine, I've shown it to almost every one I know and will print it out and frame it, along with the soon to come 1st photo of her and Harvey...yup,,,same name as my dog...not going to let that confuse me...I might end up throwing tennis balls for a 2 week old....
She's also asked me not to post pics of Harvey....and I will honor her request until she says otherwise....wont' stop me taking 100's of them though :D
exciting times...at Christmas....who'd have thunk!!
Ahthankyew
Tuesday, 24 November 2015
Sat in my dressing gown doing coding, waiting till the suns over the yard arm
Been learning Unity5, I've dabbled with Unity on an off over the years, but never full on taken the plunge and "got into it".
Its a very nice package for a lot of great ideas, but as a coder it just does not make me feel very satisfied... I can do some nice things via the scripts but the overall lack of feeling I'm in control of the whole process makes me feel a little underwhelmed
I suppose I should learn how to write plugins for it, that will make it lot easier to actually feel that I'm doing something meaty with it.
Its not that its a bad package, far from it, its an absolute miracle of modern engine development....but I can't help thinking that I want it to do more, than what it does..I feel limited...even though I wholeheartedly agree I'm no where near imaginative enough to even test Unity's limits
And maybe that's it....Its really a package for people who want to write a game...something they've thought up, can explore their world in, and make it happen, really easy...
As a coder I get my satisfaction from taking a problem and getting it working....Unity does that for me...so where are my problems to solve....I'm not and never have been a game designer, so for me I feel I have little to do.
oh well....I have to become much more proficient in it, to aid students who are going to be spending the next block at least using it...the last thing I want is for students to ask, how do I do this...and me not know.....
only 6 hours will wine o'clock and I'll feel a bit happier about it then.
Ahthankyew
Its a very nice package for a lot of great ideas, but as a coder it just does not make me feel very satisfied... I can do some nice things via the scripts but the overall lack of feeling I'm in control of the whole process makes me feel a little underwhelmed
I suppose I should learn how to write plugins for it, that will make it lot easier to actually feel that I'm doing something meaty with it.
Its not that its a bad package, far from it, its an absolute miracle of modern engine development....but I can't help thinking that I want it to do more, than what it does..I feel limited...even though I wholeheartedly agree I'm no where near imaginative enough to even test Unity's limits
And maybe that's it....Its really a package for people who want to write a game...something they've thought up, can explore their world in, and make it happen, really easy...
As a coder I get my satisfaction from taking a problem and getting it working....Unity does that for me...so where are my problems to solve....I'm not and never have been a game designer, so for me I feel I have little to do.
oh well....I have to become much more proficient in it, to aid students who are going to be spending the next block at least using it...the last thing I want is for students to ask, how do I do this...and me not know.....
only 6 hours will wine o'clock and I'll feel a bit happier about it then.
Ahthankyew
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