Ace of Nines

derpdate

2011-08-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Got lazy with teh blog again.

In other news:

-Killed my old workphone, got it replaced by a big, ugly, Chinese knockoff Nokia analogue. Not a smartphone, less friendly UI, and will be measurably harder to kill. Not that I want to, but being a figurative ape in a land of supermen is starting to get old.

-Still playing WoW, but would really like to kick it before The Hitch. It's not an addictive thing, but I guess I'm just getting tired of doing the same thing over & over. Still don't have an 85, and I think that'll be the yardstick by which I'll measure having 'done' the game. Maybe that's why I'm avoiding it. As if I don't have enough digital goodness yet to play with; wanna finish Batman AA, have preordered Skyrim (hells yeah), and still haven't uncrated New Vegas yet. Decided I'll wait til all the DLC has dropped for that last one, then I'll blitz it.

-Moved locations at work, twice. Last time I was updating I was in a literal hole in the ground, left that, now gone back to a (different) hole. Shows potential, if I show a little motivation. Not nearly as mindnumbingly boring.

-Projects: OUA training needs to get back on tracked after I bombed it last. PieOhm dev has stalled, but I run over the details for PurpleDB and CMPD in my head almost daily. Will have to go check up on the Wolfire guys too, really should pick up the Overgrowth Alpha so I can consider the engine.. I know The Big Project is a pipedream, but how awesome if it actually got off the ground, and I could share the spotlight with a group of motivated indie developers. I should get Overgrowth really anyway, even if the genre isn't my thing, the story looks great (see above paragraph about towering stack of unfinished games).

-Might be changing residences. Pretty excited about this, theatre room, opportunity to get my network on, etc. Contingent on difficult sale, so I guess we'll see.

-Dicking around with Twitter again, mostly just following OZHH news and comedic tweets. How those pricks get so much humour in 140 chars is beyond me. Nothing else big happening in Social Media, except I got my Google+ invite, which I accepted and summarily did nothing with. Guess I'll move in if it really does start looking like a serious fb competitor. I like The Goog, I really do, but hey, eggs-in-one-basket etc. (And as ridiculous as it sounds, if any one company could get a Death Star going, they're the guys.)

/streamofconsciousness

Dumbphone

2011-05-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

Sigh.

I need a smartphone.
Sure, I have the company phone.. but it's not a smartphone, and it's locked out of data use anyway.

I thought getting a company phone would be awesome, but now I've realised I'm a mile behind everyone else. I can't access a calendar or basic web resources on the go, and I'm rapidly realising that those are some of the things I've been dreaming about being able to do for years.

I'd even settle for an iPhone at this point, although tinkering with the calendar features on Android devices has led me to beleive that they might have the superior 'daily planner' setup. That being said, owning an iDevice would lend me a certain amount of group conformity, and as a result, an improved understanding of the device and it's troubleshooting quirks, which would be a major help if I ever follow through on some of my dev ideas.

Oh well. I guess I could always aim for a promotion into a position that entitles me to a Blackberry (ick).

Wow! Belated Gratitude.

2011-04-13T04:50:00.000-07:00

The title of this post is more than a terrible pun.

Perhaps a month ago it was a typical workday, but I had a meeting scheduled at around 9am, at an office closer to home than my normal base of operations. The net result was that I had an extra hour or so to kill before starting work. Jules had already shot off for the day and I had nothing better to do, so I fired up WoW and logged in to my brand new Shammy.

I was dicking around near the edge of the Northern Barrens, perhaps level 8 or 9. All of a sudden I get a wisp from somebody I don't know. Shift-click, what? An 85 Orc Shammy. What does he want with me?

I don't remember the dialog exactly, but it basically boiled down to this guy claiming he was leaving WoW and wanting to spread his accumulated assets around before he left. Admittedly I was pretty skeptical but I figured since he wasn't asking for anything in return, what was the risk? All of a sudden out of freakin nowhere, this giant drake descends from the skies, with him riding it. Keep in mind I'm a practically naked Tauren in greys/whites slaying wandering wildlife. Him coming down and landing next to me was fucking majestic.

Up pops the trade window, and with no questions asked, a bunch of greens, level-appropriate gear appears. I grab it, and it wasn't until the trade was completed and I open my inventory that I notice the cash. 30,000 Gold. Thirty Thousand.

Now I'm not some mad farmer or hardcore player, so even 1K is a big deal to me. But Thirty Thousand G? Jesus. It's like somebody handed me an envelope with.. Christ, I don't know how much. Let's get some perspective. Depending on where you shop, WoW gold is valued at around $0.01 USD a piece. So in that sense, it's like somebody handed me $300. But in game, Buying the parts and tipping for assembly for, say, the motorcycle mount, is around 12 to 16,000 gold. He gave me enough money to buy two motorcycles.

In the end, he was really nice. He was moving on to Rift, he'd been a part of the WoW scene for a few years, and it was time to move on. It seemed to mean a lot to him that I was an enhancement shammy, as he was, and he asked to follow me around and slaughter a few beasts with the new gear I'd been gifted. I was more than happy to oblige. It was part RP, part charity, and all awesome.

I'm not going to post his name here, in case somebody stumbles across is and starts bugging him for free stuff. But for what it's worth.. I don't know how many others got gifted that day, but I feel that in some way I'm his in-game spiritual successor.

So thanks, friend. Thanks for the stuff, thanks for the cash. Thanks for being so friendly. And most of all, thanks for creating an immersive, amazing experience that will stay in my memory for years to come.

Yarr?

2011-02-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

>quiet day at work
>google up sum PDFz
>feel guilty about reading a stolen ebook from an author who is awesome and deserves to get paid
>realize I actually already own ~~this book~~ these books in hardcopy and just haven't gotten around to reading them

Geography vs Science Fiction

2011-02-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

Eastern European SF is not the same as Western SF. Not better or worse, just different.

I don't know much about Asian SF. Will have to investigate.

Robutts

2011-02-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

To any moderately advanced robot civilisation, wouldn't our pervasive use of computers look unnervingly like a society that keeps brains or hearts in jars?

Length is Relative

2011-02-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

While I'm here, I might also reflect on the fact that I've always maintained a distance from the activity of blogging mostly because where I'm from, blogs are typically these long, laborious, self-indulgent and generally quite wanky series of articles. But I guess some exposure over time to the net has dulled these reflexes, because I am reminded that the length and nature of an article are not fixed properties.

So what I'm nominating is the concept of shorter, snappier pieces. They don't have to be much, perhaps 100-400 words, one or two paragraphs max.

I'm calling it microblogging, since it's snappy and arguably in tune with the mobile-yet-online lifestyle that has developed over the last couple years. Get an idea, throw down the basics, post it up and let the peanut gallery argue over the fine print. Sure, you could say that Twitter has already garnered this market, but after an abortive one-month stint using it I realised that my best thoughts are far too beefy to fit into 140 characters. That, I would call nanoblogging.

A Brief Sabbatical

2011-02-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

Hello little blog.
Did you think I had forgotten you?

...well, I had. For a while, anyway.
But lately I've been streaming things through my mind that might be worth writing down, if only so I can consult them later. Had a few things brewing up in the back of my head that I should really get around to putting in action. Or at least put into words so I can hash out my processes a little.

Things to do:
1) Fix the boot.ini on my work laptop (eugh, maybe I should just backup and request a reimage).
2) Load up the other partition on my personal laptop with Snow Leopard again, and see if I can't track down a fix for the lack of Mac support for Intel integrated video chips.
3) Set up J's Chumby properly.
4) Level a toon to 85 in World of Warcraft so I can say I've at least seen endgame content.
5) Sniff around for some digital copies of the textbooks I'm going to need for SP1 of my OUA course. I have a horrible feeling that saving %25 by ordering from Amazon is going to burn me in the delivery window.

Resetting my TF2 Stats: The Great Purge (and Inevitable Analysis)

2009-08-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple articles in the pipe at the moment, but I've been on holidays (and also hideously lazy, though that's a given, really).

Something I've been tossing around lately is the idea of resetting my TF2 stats, and I just took the plunge. So for the sake of posterity, here are my old statistics up to the 8th of August 2009.

See the bizarre Pyro score anomaly? That's what screwing around on farming servers gets you. It's half of why I reset in the first place.

Clearly I'm a career medic, but in the days before reset I became hellbent on getting the Pyromancer achievement, and as such wound up accruing lot of extra Pyro time, almost 20 hours worth, in order to get it.

The Pyromancer effort, coupled with my compulsive decision a few months back to delete all my unlockable items, has really renewed my appreciation for the Pyro as a class in general. They're almost universally panned as a nub class, but who else gets ludicrous close range damage, decent health (175HP), can extinguish teammates, return explosive projectiles, disrupt the aim and movement of even the heaviest enemies, guarantee melee crits, inspires terror in every single other class, and has generally awesome taunts and characterization?

You know it to be true. Turn to the dark side, and let our power engulf you.

Anyway, with that tangent out of the way, I thought I'd analyze my stats a little. My hours were as such:

Medic - 253:54:01
Pyro - 140:45:33
Engineer - 105:00:46
Scout - 74:57:08
Soldier - 46:26:49
Heavy - 33:47:39
Demoman - 26:01:19
Spy - 15:02:15
Sniper - 5:44:11

This calculates out to a total playtime of 701:39:41 - or a little over 29 days straight. Offensive classes (Scout, Solly, Pyro) earned over 262 hours, Defensive (Demo, Heavy, Engy) got about 165 hours, and Support classes (Medic, Sniper, Spy) rang in at roughly 275 hours.

Clearly I'm more inclined towards confrontational classes, which is evident even in my weighting towards Offensive and Support class roles (with Medic being my main, Spy/Sniper left in 8th and 9th slot, and Pyro/Scout taking 2nd/4th).

There is plenty more analyses to be done if one was so inclined; but I'll leave you with this: at the time of my reset, TF2 had been online and playable for 668 days (one year, 9 months and 29 days). This works out to me having played, on average, a little over one hour per day since release. Truly, this is the mark of an enjoyable and well-designed game.

My extended statistics are available below. Much respect to ImageHosting.com for permitting a 1048x3075 PNG file without any resizing, and not requiring an account.

Of Hardware Hacks and Interface Issues

2009-07-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

So last night I tried a new type of problem-solving when it comes to getting software to work for me. I've owned Assassin's Creed for a while now, and never really got into it, which is a real shame. The storyline is interesting, the graphics are lush, the environment is fascinating, and it's always fun to leap from a belltower onto an unsuspecting mark as you bury your concealed blade in their throat.

Mister Stabby, this is Randomdude Abouttodie. Randomdude, Mister Stabby.

The problem I'd had with it was primarily a matter of interface. Assassin's Creed, while not technically a port per se, it does seem to have been designed more with consoles in mind. As a PC user, the basic control setup seems simple enough, with movement and camera control intuitive, thanks to the WASD/mouse input system every third person game ever has taught us. Where it really fell down was the functions; target locking, fighting, talking etc. Even onscreen, the function icons are arranged in the classic four-items-in-a-diamond-pattern. It seems fine, but in order to translate that to a PC setup, the default keybinds were all over the place, using LShift, Space, E and Enter (among others) - messy, slow and difficult to get used to. It might not seem like the biggest problem, but I play for immersion and experience, so to stop and have to think about which controls I need to be using every ten seconds is a dealbreaker for me.

Rather than spending half my night screwing around with variations on the binds, and wind up with something that was clumsy at best, I decided to try another approach - a console controller. At it's core, AC is a glorified 3D platformer - and we all know the native home of the platformer is the console.

I dusted off one of the old Xbox Controller S units that we had lying around, and lootedmy brother's USB adapter for it. Ten minutes of tinkering later, I had a fully functional input device in my hands. Credit paid where credit is due, however - the driver package that permitted flawless function was released by a gentleman known as redcl0ud, and the rebuild of said drivers that enable x64 function was done by a couple of guys at the PlanetAMD64 forums; Driver and BeAvErMaTiC. So thanks, guys :)

An Xbox-to-USB cable. They replace the small cable between the breakaway point and the console plug, so you can use the controller in standard USB ports. You can lay hands on one of these babies for about $10, but if you're feeling adventurous, making one yourself is a pretty simple hack.

The install process was relatively simple (I had to hunt down a custom .DLL for x64 compatibility), and the game itself detected the device with no trouble. I was worried that I'd have to map the controller, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover the game had a set of defaults that worked perfectly. Nice work, Ubisoft.

So after a few minutes of brainstorming, googling and troubleshooting I had a controller that intuitively suited the playstyle of the title, and an evening of quality gaming ahead. And guess what? Assassin's Creed really is as much fun as I'd hoped it would be :)

What I'm taking away from all this is that while no game is perfect, sometimes a concept or idea native to a different platform is the only thing needed to complete the equation. I know I'll certainly be keeping this solution in mind the next time I face a similar issue.

The Beginning

2009-07-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

So, here I am at the beginning of a new blog. Not that I'm an accomplished blogger or somesuch, but I did have the LiveJournal that was practically obligatory for internet kids around my age.

I'm not so conceited as to think anyone will actually read this, but in case you were wondering, I'm Damon. Hi. I'm a recent graduate of the Business school at Curtin University, based in Perth, Western Australia, and an avid gamer. If I manage to maintain the steam required to keep this thing updated, I'll be mostly dwelling on business and video game topics. I might toss the occasional opinion piece in, but frankly there are already so many ill-informed mouth-breathers contaminating the web with their unsolicited statements, it's a little cliché.

I'm fascinated by systems of all kind, whether it be computer operations, programs, techniques or just general patterns, in all facets of life. When I engage with a system, I want to learn about it. I want to understand it, from the inside and out, as a consumer and an operator. I want to test it, to push its limits, to 'beat the system'. The ultimate drive for this is a sense of personal accomplishment, but popular side products include fault-finding and boosts in efficiency.

I see video games as a burgeoning form of media, with potential for a whole new level of immersion and synergy when it comes to plot development and new experiences, whether as individuals or in a group.

I'm currently working on a few basic projects revolving around new content for some of the games I enjoy, with grand ideas behind them. As they slowly come to fruition, I'll be updating and sharing them here. At the moment the bulk of the concepts are based around Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, and Fallout 3. I'm pretty much teaching myself through trial and error at this point, so low volume and moderate quality will be the order of the day until I've developed some more experience.

Shortly I should have a portfolio/résumé post up, where I'll be listing my info, and hopefully I'll be able to craft the site into something that doesn't so obviously resemble a 5-minute template soon after.

So thanks for coming this far, and I hope you find something you like here :)

Cheers,
nineteen