printf("Hello World\n");
printf("Hello World\n");
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I’m speechless. This guy makes me cry. I thought I’d share this with everyone because I found it so incredibly amazing. I’m a guitar player and can appreciate that kind of ability.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZpD0btOZx8
Here’s another good one…. its funny though, not so much about talent but more so about acting and performing parodies… lol
So, a friend of mine turned me on to Fallout 3. I’ve gotten fairly emmersed into this game… so much so that when I play it I get cold sweats, goodbumps, and chills down my spine. Its great.
While I was playing and getting the shit scared out of me, I came across this awesome reference to one of my favorite bands: Fear Factory.
I love you Bethesda Softworks, from one metal head to another… I love you man/woman/corporation/studio.
So, I spent all day yesterday and already a little bit this morning working on Angel. Angel went from a service-only proof-of-concept to a server and client proof of concept in just under 12 hours. I’ve been stress-testing it a little bit this morning and it ran 10,000 “AddUser” commands in just under 3 minutes. Sounds slow? Well, let me explain everything that goes on in a single “AddUser” command (subject to change):
Now do that 10,000 times.
This is my first time building a C++ SOAP client and I must say, with the help of gSOAP, it works great. It is the first time I’ve gotten a C# web service and a C++ client to play nicely together. We initially tried this with raw sockets, but it proved to be WAY too much of a hassle and there’s too much that could go wrong. This has worked 1000% more reliably than anything else I’ve tried. I’ve sort of been having that “mad scientist” feel about me the last few days since I’ve gotten this work–talking to myself, mumbling, swearing at my code, and then screaming “IT’S ALIVE!!!!!” when it finally worked.
Well, Valve finally did it. They started putting mods on their Steam platform. In a way, I’m somewhat jealous. Yes, I’ll admit it, I’m jealous. And here goes my jealous rant:
Back when I worked on Firearms (for Half-Life 1), I remember having a short email conversation with someone at Valve. I don’t remember who it was though. I want to say it was Robin Walker, but I might be wrong. At that time, the news about Steam was that “No mods will be put on Steam.” I was trying to get Firearms up on Steam so it would get some more exposure. At the time, it was still a fairly popular mod so I didn’t figure it would be too big of a deal.
So I’m jealous now that other mods, like Age of Chivalry and Insurgency get to be placed on Steam and exposed to millions of people world-wide with very little effort on the mod-team’s part. Its great because it gives the games more exposure yes, but this could be a double edged sword here. I mean now it brings more of a “glam” incentive to creating mods when the whole purpose to write them was to build a portfolio, gain experience, and then ultimately apply for a job. Game development studios could face a lot more “riff-raff” than before because now there’s just a serious “glam” factor with making games and mods.
This might sound brash, but I have little respect for game developers who develop only for the glam of making games. I mean yes, glam does come with the territory, but it should NEVER be the sole motivation factor for amateur game developers trying to make it to the big-time. Me personally, I like writing games because it is challenging, complex, fun, exciting, educational, and it lets the creativity juices run wild; it has little to do with the “glam of writing games.” When a game programmer/developer is motivated by grandeur, he/she starts to think less of the game and their role in the grand scheme of things and more about themselves and how they can just get rich and maintain their position on their “high horse.”
So my advice to any new mod team, indie game studio, or hobbyist game developer: Do it for the love of what you do. Even if you don’t make money or gain status because of it, you’ve learned something. You have the rest of your life to figure out how to capitalize on what you’ve learned. As the old adage says: “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” With a little twist to reflect what I just said: “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again because you love what you do.”
All Linux command-line jokes aside, I did indeed get a Wii…. finally!
Well, about a week ago I walked into a GameStop in the mall since my girlfriend decided she was going to head over to Forever 21… needless to say I didn’t want go with. I chatted with the manager for bit, asking him if he had any Wii’s in stock. He said “No, check back next week. Here’s our number.” Thats the third time I’ve been in that store looking for a Wii, I was beginning to beleive that they NEVER had Wii’s and used the empty boxes just to piss people off.
Well, following that short conversation, he attempted to sell me a PS3 and an XBox 360. Honestly, I don’t think I’d play them. If I’m going to pay nearly $400 for a PS3, it better at least make me breakfast the following morning. When I asked him if it did, he replied with “No, its a selfish lover.” Ok, I’m kidding about that part. After some conversation about upcoming games and other random stuff, he interjected with “You know what, I think I have a used Wii in the back if you’re interested. I’ll sell it to you for $230.” I said “I’ll buy it right now if its in good condition.”
Long story short, here’s my Wii number: 7122 4915 1735 0996. Success!