I've been in a fairly bad mood most of the day :\. Was dreaming that I was applying for a job at the company my brother works (a large supermarket chain) and he was driving me out of my freaking skull - until I walked out, got on a plane, and parachuted into the lake; lol. After waking up and falling back asleep, I was dreaming about testing the game project I've been coding on the past 2 weeks or so.
Kind of strange in a way, since I've always maintained if I ended up in the same line of business I would seek employment at a competing company (:P), was recently mentioning skydiving with a friend, and apparently.... have been unable to get any work done on my game all day!!!!!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Haha, believe it or not but I just upgraded my file server from OpenBSD 4.4 Release to OpenBSD 4.5 Release, lol. Usually I'm pretty good about keeping my systems up to date, but lately life has just been to troublesome to care about it :-/.
In a change, I've also elected this time to install the various X related dist sets in the upgrade; I have no need to run GUI tools to manage my file server, but I have been thinking of using the machine to supplement my laptop, by way of running an X-Server on the desktop machine, and employing SSH for an extra layer of encryption.
Although I have never had need of (nor desire to try) the OpenBSD ports system, it does require X if memory serves, so probably good to have it available. Since the box isn't setup for running an X server it is only filling free diskspace, and that box is well partitioned hehe.
In a change, I've also elected this time to install the various X related dist sets in the upgrade; I have no need to run GUI tools to manage my file server, but I have been thinking of using the machine to supplement my laptop, by way of running an X-Server on the desktop machine, and employing SSH for an extra layer of encryption.
Although I have never had need of (nor desire to try) the OpenBSD ports system, it does require X if memory serves, so probably good to have it available. Since the box isn't setup for running an X server it is only filling free diskspace, and that box is well partitioned hehe.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Whiskey Lullaby
She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget
We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind
Until the night
He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I'll love her till I die
And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby
(la la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la, la la la la la la)
The rumors flew but nobody know how much she blamed herself
For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath
She finally drank her pain away a little at a time
But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind
Until the night
She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away his memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength she had to get up off her knees
We found her with her face down in the pillow
Clinging to his picture for dear life
We laid her next to him beneath the willow
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby
(la la la la la la, la la la la la, la la la la, la la la la la la)
Whiskey Lullaby, Brad Paisley / Alison Krauss
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A couple of years back, I come across a great and wasted friend of mine in the hallway of a recording studio; and while he was reciting some poetry to me that he'd written, I saw that he was about a step away from dyin' and I couldn't help but wonder why. And the lines of this song occurred to me. I'm happy to say he's no longer wasted and he's got him a good woman. And I'd like to dedicate this to John and June, who helped show me how to beat the devil.
It was winter time in Nashville, down on music city row.
And I was lookin' for a place to get myself out of the cold.
To warm the frozen feelin' that was eatin' at my soul.
Keep the chilly wind off my guitar.
My thirsty wanted whisky; my hungry needed beans,
But it'd been of month of paydays since I'd heard that eagle scream.
So with a stomach full of empty and a pocket full of dreams,
I left my pride and stepped inside a bar.
Actually, I guess you'd could call it a Tavern:
Cigarette smoke to the ceiling and sawdust on the floor;
Friendly shadows.
I saw that there was just one old man sittin' at the bar.
And in the mirror I could see him checkin' me and my guitar.
An' he turned and said: "Come up here boy, and show us what you are."
I said: "I'm dry." He bought me a beer.
He nodded at my guitar and said: "It's a tough life, ain't it?"
I just looked at him. He said: "You ain't makin' any money, are you?"
I said: "You've been readin' my mail."
He just smiled and said: "Let me see that guitar.
"I've got something you oughta hear."
Then he laid it on me:
"If you waste your time a-talkin' to the people who don't listen,
"To the things that you are sayin', who do you think's gonna hear.
"And if you should die explainin' how the things that they complain about,
"Are things they could be changin', who do you think's gonna care?"
There were other lonely singers in a world turned deaf and blind,
Who were crucified for what they tried to show.
And their voices have been scattered by the swirling winds of time.
'Cos the truth remains that no-one wants to know.
Well, the old man was a stranger, but I'd heard his song before,
Back when failure had me locked out on the wrong side of the door.
When no-one stood behind me but my shadow on the floor,
And lonesome was more than a state of mind.
You see, the devil haunts a hungry man,
If you don't wanna join him, you got to beat him.
I ain't sayin' I beat the devil, but I drank his beer for nothing.
Then I stole his song.
And you still can hear me singin' to the people who don't listen,
To the things that I am sayin', prayin' someone's gonna hear.
And I guess I'll die explaining how the things that they complain about,
Are things they could be changin', hopin' someone's gonna care.
I was born a lonely singer, and I'm bound to die the same,
But I've got to feed the hunger in my soul.
And if I never have a nickle, I won't ever die ashamed.
'Cos I don't believe that no-one wants to know.
To beat the devil, Johnny Cash
This time I wonder what it feels like
To find the one in this life
The one we all dream of
But dreams just aren't enough
So I'll be waiting for the real thing.
I'll know it by the feeling.
The moment when we're meeting
will play out like a scene straight off the silver screen
So I'll be holdin' my own breath
Right up to the end
Until that moment when
I find the one that I'll spend forever with
'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there.
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares.
Someone to love with my life in their hands.
There's gotta be somebody for me like that.
'Cause nobody wants to do it on their own
And everyone wants to know they're not alone.
There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere.
There's gotta be somebody for me out there.
Tonight, out on the street out in the moonlight
And dammit this feels too right
It's just like Deja Vu
Me standin' here with you
So I'll be holdin' my own breath
Could this be the end?
Is it that moment when
I find the one that I'll spend forever with?
'Cause nobody wants to be the last one there
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares.
Someone to love with my life in their hands.
There's gotta be somebody for me like that.
'Cause nobody wants to do it on their own
And everyone wants to know they´re not alone.
There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere
There's gotta be somebody for me out there.
You can't give up!
Lookin' for that diamond in the rough
You never know but when it shows up
Make sure you´re holdin' on
'Cause it could be the one, the one you´re waiting on
‘Cause nobody wants to be the last one there.
And everyone wants to feel like someone cares.
Someone to love with my life in their hands.
There has gotta be somebody for me
Ohhhhhh.
Nobody wants to do it on their own
And everyone wants to know they're not alone.
Is there somebody else that feels the same somewhere?
There's gotta be somebody for me out there.
Nobody wants to be the last one there
'Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares.
Is there somebody else that feels the same somewhere?
There has gotta be somebody for me out there.
Gotta be somebody, Nickleback.
Oh what fun it would be: a compiler with useful error messages
the code:
the error:
the solution:
fully qualify basic_string<> as std::basic_string<ACHAR>, or add 'using std::basic_string' to common.hpp along side std::string and std::wstring, like I thought I did last week !!!
simple fact: compiler errors usually suck, and C++ templates don't help any.
#include "common.hpp"
template<typename ACHAR>
class GameException
: public std::exception
{
public:
GameException() throw();
GameException(const ACHAR*) throw();
GameException(const basic_string<ACHAR>&) throw();
virtual ~GameException() throw();
virtual const ACHAR* what() const throw();
protected:
const ACHAR *why;
};
the error:
s:\visual studio 2008\projects\tacfpsgame\projectname\source\include\gameexceptions.hpp(17) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
the solution:
fully qualify basic_string<> as std::basic_string<ACHAR>, or add 'using std::basic_string' to common.hpp along side std::string and std::wstring, like I thought I did last week !!!
simple fact: compiler errors usually suck, and C++ templates don't help any.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Ahh I feel refreshed!
One of our clients was out of town for a few days, so we had to watch their dog over here; he just went home tonight. After ~6 hours of C++ this afternoon, I was kind of glad to be shifting out to a lit' work.
Came home to a long hot shower and a close shave; threw everything in the wash and plopped down back in front of the computer lol. One nice thing about a C++ compiler, it doesn't care if your favourite t-shirt probably has more holes in it then a slice of swiss cheese :-P.
I've been working on a file system library and a command console for my present project; comparing the Windows and POSIX APIs for file system operations, I'm in the mood to paste a comparison later... haha. Present prioriteres are mapping data into both the source and release trees, hooking up the game console, and maturing the file system interface. Really the prototype will have a few quake like qualities in that regard, but that is only because ID Tech engines kick ass hehe. What I really would like is to load data out of ZIP archives and use a mixture of XML and Python script to extend things. We'll see where the future goes.
Came home to a long hot shower and a close shave; threw everything in the wash and plopped down back in front of the computer lol. One nice thing about a C++ compiler, it doesn't care if your favourite t-shirt probably has more holes in it then a slice of swiss cheese :-P.
I've been working on a file system library and a command console for my present project; comparing the Windows and POSIX APIs for file system operations, I'm in the mood to paste a comparison later... haha. Present prioriteres are mapping data into both the source and release trees, hooking up the game console, and maturing the file system interface. Really the prototype will have a few quake like qualities in that regard, but that is only because ID Tech engines kick ass hehe. What I really would like is to load data out of ZIP archives and use a mixture of XML and Python script to extend things. We'll see where the future goes.
Maybe I'm just tired, or now I'm ready for a nap
compiler is pissed off:
ogreoverlayelement.h
The header file and the API documentation both agree, the Ogre::OverlayElement class has a public member named setPosition. The compiler however seems to assert, that the header is wrong?
No, the compiler, the header, and the API docs are all right: I've just been sitting here for about 5 1/2 hours without break.... and can no longer tell the difference between 'void setPosition(Real, Real);' and 'void setPostiion(Real, Real);'
!!! TIME TO TAKE A WALK !!!
1>path\source\gameconsole.cpp(53) : error C2039: 'setPostiion' : is not a member of 'Ogre::OverlayElement' 1> path\source\ogre\ogremain\include\ogreoverlayelement.h(104) : see declaration of 'Ogre::OverlayElement'
ogreoverlayelement.h
class _OgreExport OverlayElement : public StringInterface, public Renderable, public OverlayAlloc
{
// ...
public:
/** Sets the position of the top-left corner of the element, relative to the screen size (1.0 = screen width / height) */
void setPosition(Real left, Real top);
// ...
};
The header file and the API documentation both agree, the Ogre::OverlayElement class has a public member named setPosition. The compiler however seems to assert, that the header is wrong?
No, the compiler, the header, and the API docs are all right: I've just been sitting here for about 5 1/2 hours without break.... and can no longer tell the difference between 'void setPosition(Real, Real);' and 'void setPostiion(Real, Real);'
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Mating Vi IMproved with Visual C++, part I
Maybe it's because it is an Integrated Development Environment, but Visual C++ seems to be a little lacking in its handling of external editors (at least in the express edition I have avail). It seems the best way to get MSVC to work with Vi IMproved for editing files, is to right click on a file in the solution explorer docklet, and click "Open with". From there one can specify a program to open the file with and force it as the default editor; the down side is the bloody thing seems to reject the concept of command line arguments.
As such, I created a new win32 application in the IDE, and stripped the fundamental code down to the following
Which means I get one instance of Vim running and double clicking files in the solution explorer, will open a new tab in the GVim window; gotta love an editor with a client-server feature hehe.
I have Michael Graz's visual_studio.vim installed along with the required python for windows extensions. The plugin loads and appears to be exactly the *first* vim plugin that I can actually find a purpose for using! Except for one small problem.... the plugin can't seem to chatter with the running instance of Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition!
Of course, I could likely jerry rig vim's :make command to invoke vcbuild for me without much trouble.
Heh, and just for the heck of it, I wonder if a similar plugin could be written for other IDEs, like Code::Blocks, XCode, and KDevelop?
As such, I created a new win32 application in the IDE, and stripped the fundamental code down to the following
#define GVIM_EXE _T("P:/Editors/Vim/vim-personal/gvim.exe")
#define GVIM_ARGS _T("--servername"), _T("MSVC"), _T("--remote-tab-silent")
int APIENTRY
_tWinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(hPrevInstance);
UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(hInstance);
UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(nCmdShow);
_texecl(GVIM_EXE, _T("gvim"), GVIM_ARGS, lpCmdLine, NULL);
return 0;
}
Which means I get one instance of Vim running and double clicking files in the solution explorer, will open a new tab in the GVim window; gotta love an editor with a client-server feature hehe.
I have Michael Graz's visual_studio.vim installed along with the required python for windows extensions. The plugin loads and appears to be exactly the *first* vim plugin that I can actually find a purpose for using! Except for one small problem.... the plugin can't seem to chatter with the running instance of Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition!
Of course, I could likely jerry rig vim's :make command to invoke vcbuild for me without much trouble.
Heh, and just for the heck of it, I wonder if a similar plugin could be written for other IDEs, like Code::Blocks, XCode, and KDevelop?
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The road I'm on
She said life's a lot to think about sometimes
When you're living in between the lines
And all the stars they sparkle and shine everyday
He said life's so hard to move in sometimes
When it feels like I'm towin' the line
And no one even cares to ask me why I feel this way
I know you feel helpless now and I know you feel alone
That's the same road, the same road that I am on
He said life's a lot to think about sometimes
When you keep it all between the lines
Of everything I want and I want to find, one of these days
What you thought was real in life somehow steered you wrong
Now you just keep drivin' tryin' to find out where you belong
I know you feel helpless now and I know you feel alone
That's the same road, that same road that I am on
What you thought was real in life somehow steered you wrong
Now you just keep drivin' tryin' to find out where you belong
I know you feel helpless now and I know you feel alone
That's the same road, that same road that I am on
The Road I'm On, 3 Doors Down
Building vim with support for Python and Perl on Windows
Previously:
install a suitable version of Visual Studio / Visual C++
install a suitable version of Python
install a suitable version of Perl
open a Visual Studio Command Prompt
I have VC Express 9.0, ActivePerl 5.10.0, and Python 2.6.2 installed from Python.org's installer.
Check out the VIM source code, you can find directions here. I suggest using CVS or SVN to make the patching life easier. Precompiled binaries of CVS and SVN are available for Windows, and it is possible to build them yourself of course ;).
I use CVS and wish to keep the tree along side my regular vim:
You should know read the Make_mvc.mak makefile to find the options you are interested in using. I'll leave the viewing the file from the command line to a Windows users intelligence (hints: more, edit, notepad, wordpad, or gvim would be useful). We have to tell nmake.exe to use this file and our options, for asses who use Visual Studio all day but don't remember nmake: we pass it VAR=value pairs.
Obviously if you want same options, adjust the paths like a good little geek.
At least on my system, MSVCs compiler refuses to build the vimrun.exe, install.exe, uninstal.exe, and xxd/xxd.exe targets (and programs). As such, I build gvim and the gvimext.dll - the targets are in the makefile. if one wants to build a vim execuitable under a diffirent name, I suggest 'nmake /e VIM=foo /f ... OPTS=... foo.exe' to create foo.exe (default is gvim).
As such we need a place to put vim so we can actually use it.
and one can borrow the lost vimrun and diff files from a working install. If one also juggled the names so that vim-personal became vim72, one could also borrow the install.exe file most likely...
In doing all of this, I've written a batch script to use in automating the thing, which is not as good as my vimbuild shell script but still works lol. When I get some time I'll make my script also update the spell files and what nots (hint: see spell\readme.txt)
install a suitable version of Visual Studio / Visual C++
install a suitable version of Python
install a suitable version of Perl
open a Visual Studio Command Prompt
I have VC Express 9.0, ActivePerl 5.10.0, and Python 2.6.2 installed from Python.org's installer.
Check out the VIM source code, you can find directions here. I suggest using CVS or SVN to make the patching life easier. Precompiled binaries of CVS and SVN are available for Windows, and it is possible to build them yourself of course ;).
I use CVS and wish to keep the tree along side my regular vim:
> cd /d P:\editors\vim > cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@vim.cvs.sf.net:/cvsroot/vim checkout -Nd vim7-cvs-src vim7 > cd vim7-cvs-src\src
You should know read the Make_mvc.mak makefile to find the options you are interested in using. I'll leave the viewing the file from the command line to a Windows users intelligence (hints: more, edit, notepad, wordpad, or gvim would be useful). We have to tell nmake.exe to use this file and our options, for asses who use Visual Studio all day but don't remember nmake: we pass it VAR=value pairs.
> nmake /F Make_mvc.mak CPUNR=i686 FEATURES=HUGE GUI=yes OLE=yes CSCOPE=yes CTAGS=ctags POSTSCRIPT=yes PYTHON=P:\Devel\Languages\Python\2.6\ PYTHON_VER=26 PERL=P:\Devel\Languages\Perl\ PERL_VER=510
Obviously if you want same options, adjust the paths like a good little geek.
At least on my system, MSVCs compiler refuses to build the vimrun.exe, install.exe, uninstal.exe, and xxd/xxd.exe targets (and programs). As such, I build gvim and the gvimext.dll - the targets are in the makefile. if one wants to build a vim execuitable under a diffirent name, I suggest 'nmake /e VIM=foo /f ... OPTS=... foo.exe' to create foo.exe (default is gvim).
As such we need a place to put vim so we can actually use it.
> MKDIR ..\..\vim-personal > FOR %F IN (*.dll *.exe) DO XCOPY /Y %F ..\..\vim-personal > XCOPY /Y P:\Devel\Languages\Perl\bin\perl510.dll ..\..\vim-personal > XCOPY /I /E /Y ..\runtime\* ..\..\vim-personal
and one can borrow the lost vimrun and diff files from a working install. If one also juggled the names so that vim-personal became vim72, one could also borrow the install.exe file most likely...
In doing all of this, I've written a batch script to use in automating the thing, which is not as good as my vimbuild shell script but still works lol. When I get some time I'll make my script also update the spell files and what nots (hint: see spell\readme.txt)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Hahaha, here I am wondering ok, what the hell is wrong with
and then I noticed, uncommenting the DEBUG() macro a few minutes ago changed the dohicky.
This is exactly why whenever I've written a 'style' file for any of the projects I've done (and in fact, usually follow) a note that it should *always* be if () { } and never if () just for this reason!!!
Ok, I'm so freaking stupid... I should just get some sleep and code when I can pay attention (and remember my old tool Perl).
if (statement that will return false)
DEBUG(...);
do action;
and then I noticed, uncommenting the DEBUG() macro a few minutes ago changed the dohicky.
This is exactly why whenever I've written a 'style' file for any of the projects I've done (and in fact, usually follow) a note that it should *always* be if () { } and never if () just for this reason!!!
Ok, I'm so freaking stupid... I should just get some sleep and code when I can pay attention (and remember my old tool Perl).
Monday, July 20, 2009
Dark mood
I'm really not in a good mood right now. Tired and pissed off make for a piss poor pair. It just seems the more I'm here, the worse I feel; the more I know that something is missing from my world. Been fairly busy of late, mostly keeping myself busy, less time to think. It's like just about anything that will fill space for a little while; rather then thinking about other issues. I'm also not looking forward to this coming week and such, because I know for what family has planned, is only likely to make me feel miserable in the long run. It's been 21 years on earth, and I just know... being around family is usually a painful affair.
Plans as part of Operation Redeemer are more or less on schedule but things just are not going fast enough in the right directions to suit my needs; lately I feel like I'm just passing time again, but for different reasons. I draw breath, but what makes me move?
Plans as part of Operation Redeemer are more or less on schedule but things just are not going fast enough in the right directions to suit my needs; lately I feel like I'm just passing time again, but for different reasons. I draw breath, but what makes me move?
Being lazy: make.cmd
A short batch file that let's me skip typing as much as possible when using vcbuild on my present projects.
which is (obviously) saved in the same direction as my solution file. A trivial modification would allow passing the solution file through an environment variable, and one could always use vcbuild's understanding of a lone project file in the present directory but I tend to keep a shell open to the same location as my solution file.
Then again, at the moment I am using a file system hierarchy that looks sort of like this for most of my current stuff:
@ECHO OFF cls IF "%1" EQU "help" ( ECHO %0 help -- display this help ECHO %0 clean target -- clean for "target" ECHO %0 target [run] -- build and run "target" GOTO EXITPOINT ) IF "%1" EQU "clean" ( vcbuild /clean TheSolutionFile.sln "%2|Win32" ) ELSE ( IF "%2" EQU "run" ( vcbuild TheSolutionFile.sln "%1|Win32" && path\to\the.exe ) ELSE ( vcbuild TheSolutionFile.sln "%1|Win32" ) ) :EXITPOINT
which is (obviously) saved in the same direction as my solution file. A trivial modification would allow passing the solution file through an environment variable, and one could always use vcbuild's understanding of a lone project file in the present directory but I tend to keep a shell open to the same location as my solution file.
Then again, at the moment I am using a file system hierarchy that looks sort of like this for most of my current stuff:
...
SolutionFile.sln
Project/
ProjectFile.vcproj
Makefile # the big thing for conventional builds
Makefile.compiler
...
Source/
*.c, *.cpp, ...
include/
*.h, *.hpp, ...
lib/
# project specific library files
Build/
Target/
# result of compiling (e.g. 'make target')
...
Sunday, July 19, 2009
I feel much better at the moment, lately life has just been a bit overly negative; the more things go on, the more deeply I am reminded of what it so terribly missing. The past couple weeks has felt a lot like limbo, just passing grueling time.
One of my favourite films was on tonight, The Teahouse of the August Moon. You could say, I really needed the chance to sit, enjoy, and laugh; there hasn't been much joy in my life for a good long while now. In all honesty, I think I would take the slower way of life given the chance, hmm; what was the last time I could have seen the sun rise or set, and be at liberty to do so? The movies ending is also priceless! In a way, Sakini's words also struck a cord:
I find truth in it.
One of my favourite films was on tonight, The Teahouse of the August Moon. You could say, I really needed the chance to sit, enjoy, and laugh; there hasn't been much joy in my life for a good long while now. In all honesty, I think I would take the slower way of life given the chance, hmm; what was the last time I could have seen the sun rise or set, and be at liberty to do so? The movies ending is also priceless! In a way, Sakini's words also struck a cord:
"Pain make man think. Thought make man wise. Wisdom make life endurable."
I find truth in it.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
I'm kind of happy with myself at the moment. I've found that Visual Studio project files are about the only reliable way I can get things to compile with Visual C++'s compiler on my lone windows machine. Since i greatly prefer using a command prompt for development work, having to alt tab between programs like VCExpress/devenv and Explorer windows are not something I'll put up with if I don't have to lol.
Since I do require a real mans editor, I set the IDE to load gvim as the default editor for source files; soon I'll rig it to use vim's client-server feature (:he client-server). Like wise that made Visual C++ little more then a very big project management and build system. Some weeks ago whilst looking for cl/link (compiler/linker) switches and a reference to nmake (Microsoft's make utility), I found the vcbuild utility; which is the "Visual C++ Project Builder - Command Line Version". So far it seems to be very suitable, which would mean the IDE is now only needed for managing the project and solution files, right? Well, not really!
When I started using Microsoft's development environment (this box only has the Express editions; I usually do development on my FreeBSD powered laptop!) the first thing I did was look at the .sln and .vcproj files it creates. The solution file (.sln) basically describes the bigger picture in XML format; for my present projects it does little more then reference the project files (.vcproj) that make up the solutions. The project files are also in XML, ''. It defines the various details, essentially what you get in the IDEs configuration manager for a specific project, and the files in the solution explorer. I was very happy to see Visual C++ using XML files, because it means I can *read* the things before opening them with an IDE.
Since the files are XML, and the format is pretty obvious: one can modify the project file quiet easily, and adding/subtracting things like source files, include directories, and libraries is a trivial task. If it wasn't for the use of ProjectGUID's I might never need to run the IDE again :-/. Who knows, maybe I won't even need that in a while lol.
Since I do require a real mans editor, I set the IDE to load gvim as the default editor for source files; soon I'll rig it to use vim's client-server feature (:he client-server). Like wise that made Visual C++ little more then a very big project management and build system. Some weeks ago whilst looking for cl/link (compiler/linker) switches and a reference to nmake (Microsoft's make utility), I found the vcbuild utility; which is the "Visual C++ Project Builder - Command Line Version". So far it seems to be very suitable, which would mean the IDE is now only needed for managing the project and solution files, right? Well, not really!
When I started using Microsoft's development environment (this box only has the Express editions; I usually do development on my FreeBSD powered laptop!) the first thing I did was look at the .sln and .vcproj files it creates. The solution file (.sln) basically describes the bigger picture in XML format; for my present projects it does little more then reference the project files (.vcproj) that make up the solutions. The project files are also in XML, ''. It defines the various details, essentially what you get in the IDEs configuration manager for a specific project, and the files in the solution explorer. I was very happy to see Visual C++ using XML files, because it means I can *read* the things before opening them with an IDE.
Since the files are XML, and the format is pretty obvious: one can modify the project file quiet easily, and adding/subtracting things like source files, include directories, and libraries is a trivial task. If it wasn't for the use of ProjectGUID's I might never need to run the IDE again :-/. Who knows, maybe I won't even need that in a while lol.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Compiler errors: the art of reading Geek and laughing at your typos
The code, "typo"
RenderManager RManager;
The resulting compiler error
1>main.cpp 1>.\Source\main.cpp(9) : error C2146: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier 'RManager' 1>.\Source\main.cpp(9) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int 1>.\Source\main.cpp(9) : error C4430: missing type specifier - int assumed. Note: C++ does not support default-int
The correction
#include "RenderManager.hpp" RenderManager RManager;
What makes me laugh: syntax error : missing ';' before identifier.
The good thing: "missing type specifier - int assumed" actually hints that RenderManager is not yet a known type, as in I forgot to include the appropriate header... hehe.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Writer's Block: Dream Vacations
What vacations would you most like to take in the next five years?
Live Journals Writer's Block
0. A tropical island, toes in the sand, and not a care in the world....
1. Visit Tennessee, see them beautiful mountains again and go campin' out in nature for a bit, then meet up with a few friends out on the lake :-)
2. Hit the U.K. and go exploring, get lost and get a lit' bit wild and crazy ;). Then meet up with a few e-friends made in [SAS], I've always had this strange picture of us in my head, of us staggering home from a pub, and singing loudly ^_^.
3. Visit Germany, maybe see if their are any English friendly tours of Berlin that show off the cities varied architecture; then visit some of the museums in/around Berlin and München. I think I would need to be 500% more fluent in the language to pull that one off though :-/.
4. Canada, women, whiskey, and fishing.... could you ask for more? Plus an old friend is from Newfoundland, and would warrant a visit!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
notes 4 later today
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,11502,00.asp
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,9722,00.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb174597(VS.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173249(VS.85).aspx
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,9722,00.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb174597(VS.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb173249(VS.85).aspx
Todays personal training (SWAT 4)
Where; [SAS] Training Ground US
General criteria: no tactical aids permitted, other then breaching kit.
Phase I: Old Granet Hotel, stealth to first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: success, mp5; round 2: failure, m4. Average shots per kill: 5-6/3-4, killed by a survivor of 4 5.56x45mm to the chest.
Phase II: Children of Tarrone Tenement; stealth until compromised; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, carsd; Average shots per kill 9 / 3; killed by the survivors of 9 9x19mm shots to the skull and 2 5.56x45mm to the skull, respectively.
Phase III: Victory Imports Auto, stealth until first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, mp5 (was supposed to be uzisd); Average shots per kill: 4-6; Killed by the survivors of 3 shots to the chest, and a survivor of >12 shots to the body/arms/head.
I nearly threw the freakin' MP5 at the enemy when during an ambush against would-be bush whackers took about 20 rounds to the head and 3 more to the chest!
General criteria: no tactical aids permitted, other then breaching kit.
Phase I: Old Granet Hotel, stealth to first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: success, mp5; round 2: failure, m4. Average shots per kill: 5-6/3-4, killed by a survivor of 4 5.56x45mm to the chest.
Phase II: Children of Tarrone Tenement; stealth until compromised; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, carsd; Average shots per kill 9 / 3; killed by the survivors of 9 9x19mm shots to the skull and 2 5.56x45mm to the skull, respectively.
Phase III: Victory Imports Auto, stealth until first contact then high intensity clearing; round 1: failure, mp5sd; round 2: failure, mp5 (was supposed to be uzisd); Average shots per kill: 4-6; Killed by the survivors of 3 shots to the chest, and a survivor of >12 shots to the body/arms/head.
I nearly threw the freakin' MP5 at the enemy when during an ambush against would-be bush whackers took about 20 rounds to the head and 3 more to the chest!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
So far I am getting pretty used to wearing these glasses, all in all it isn't so bad. Whether it is a positive or negative impact on my appearance, well is beyond my immediate concern lol.
They have a tendency to slide down my noise under certain conditions, which I find irksome; makes looking UP more challenging since it causes my eyes to hit or pass the upper frames :-/. That however, I think is just a fact of living with glasses and summer time!
This new headset cost about $45 but so far seems to be worth it. The MP5 in SWAT 4 sounds like a proper machinegun rather then a 'pop gun', and the weapons in RvS sound much better. The depth of hearing music is much greater, kind of like listening to a Stereo system. I also like that the padding effectively creates 'cups' around my ears xD.
They have a tendency to slide down my noise under certain conditions, which I find irksome; makes looking UP more challenging since it causes my eyes to hit or pass the upper frames :-/. That however, I think is just a fact of living with glasses and summer time!
This new headset cost about $45 but so far seems to be worth it. The MP5 in SWAT 4 sounds like a proper machinegun rather then a 'pop gun', and the weapons in RvS sound much better. The depth of hearing music is much greater, kind of like listening to a Stereo system. I also like that the padding effectively creates 'cups' around my ears xD.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
It hasn't been a very comfortable day... to say the least of it. I woke up a bit after 0600Q with a toothache and no luck gettin' back to sleep. I remembered something a friend once said about using a moistened tablet of paracetamol (acetaminophen) to rub along the site (and iirc, push in the "hole" if such was the case). Finding a bottle of tylenol here being slightly harder >_>.
Since yesterday the phone rang, and I stupidly left my headset on the chair instead of the desk - I sat down with a crunch! So today I had to get a new headset. I can care less about the Live! related features, as long as it is decent quality and durable (even if not 160lb of ass worth, lol). In installing it, I had quiet a bit of a monkey fight to get everything working; seems that the driver disk really likes Live Call / Messenger—and lacks a required USB Audio driver for Windows XP SP3. Ok, I was saved by that annoying hardware detection dialog but at least XP no longer thinks the headset is a mass storage device! Sound quality is totally different, gunfire in RvS and SWAT 4 reminds me of listening to Call of Duty on my brothers (costly) speaker system once upon a time.
Spent a bit of time playing OpenArena, set up a skirmish on my favorite map with 3 bots for help against 4 bots. I scored nearly 70 frags, at least a dozen of which involved the "Buzzsaw". I couldn't get ahold of any decent weapons but the starting kit, so I decided to start chasing the pricks with a Buzzsaw, racked up a screen full of kill-icon things with it before finally getting a proper kit. I've also started to get better with rocket-placement - even scoring several direct hits as well as the usual splash-damage SOP.
Tried to take some time to write code but no one in this rat-fucking place would let me get work done. Combine with a nasty headache, and I said fuck it all—and just took a nap.
I feel much better now but absolutely nothing has gotten done. I have all of about 2 useful lines of documentation for the library I wanted to get done, LAST WEEK.
Since yesterday the phone rang, and I stupidly left my headset on the chair instead of the desk - I sat down with a crunch! So today I had to get a new headset. I can care less about the Live! related features, as long as it is decent quality and durable (even if not 160lb of ass worth, lol). In installing it, I had quiet a bit of a monkey fight to get everything working; seems that the driver disk really likes Live Call / Messenger—and lacks a required USB Audio driver for Windows XP SP3. Ok, I was saved by that annoying hardware detection dialog but at least XP no longer thinks the headset is a mass storage device! Sound quality is totally different, gunfire in RvS and SWAT 4 reminds me of listening to Call of Duty on my brothers (costly) speaker system once upon a time.
Spent a bit of time playing OpenArena, set up a skirmish on my favorite map with 3 bots for help against 4 bots. I scored nearly 70 frags, at least a dozen of which involved the "Buzzsaw". I couldn't get ahold of any decent weapons but the starting kit, so I decided to start chasing the pricks with a Buzzsaw, racked up a screen full of kill-icon things with it before finally getting a proper kit. I've also started to get better with rocket-placement - even scoring several direct hits as well as the usual splash-damage SOP.
Tried to take some time to write code but no one in this rat-fucking place would let me get work done. Combine with a nasty headache, and I said fuck it all—and just took a nap.
I feel much better now but absolutely nothing has gotten done. I have all of about 2 useful lines of documentation for the library I wanted to get done, LAST WEEK.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
My first pair of glasses
Yesterday my glasses were ready for pick up, but eh, who wants to go right back out after they get home for work? So we picked them up today on the way home; it's only a few miles in a perpendicular direction \.\(^_^)/./
When they had me try them on, it was like, in the words of Clark Griswald: hallelujah and holy shit! I found it initially very unstabling to turn my head and gaze about like normal, but I reckon that is normal at first. The difference however in vision, is tremendous. I've spent most of the day wearing them, and now they are fairly comfortable, more so then naked eyes lol. I only worry how wearing glasses regularly will impact my un-aided eye sight in the long run. I can see very crisp and clear, it is like someone jacked up the resolution a few orders of magnitude! On the way home, I could see license plates and street signs clear; hell I could see the specks of dirt on the road instead of just the dirt!!! Coming home it felt almost like the ground was under a microscope, so much finer detail. It's like I could count the hairs on the dogs back, leaves on a tree at 30ft, and can see the crap between the individual blades of grass! Just walking into the apartment it was unsettling, I can now see the carpet so finely, that it's better then when I used to sit on the carpet as a kid with action figures littered all over :-/. It's a huge detail hack, man I think I could even read the little-bitty display on the VCR across the room, if the clock was set, ha!
Up real close things are a bit blurry with the glasses on, perhaps I need bifocals for that lol; I'm just happy with the current improvement. And really, the choice of lifting my glasses up or moving my head back a little is not a bother. So far the only irksome issue, often whenever I yawn I tend to get a bit teary eyed (always have), but now obviously I have to remove my glasses to wipe it away, so I can see clearly again lol. Even on the computer, it's very different. I run my 19" monitor at 1600x1200 and a custom DPI setting of 144dpi (150% winsucks normal). Most things are set to fairly large fonts because I find that Google Chrome renders fonts a hell of a lot smaller then Mozilla does; the difference being defaults in Fx have always been fine, but in Chrome I have things set to like 22pt rather then a more normal size. With my glasses I can see to read the mouse type things render on daemonforums, with chrome+my monitor. Without, I had to increase the size to be able to read it without zooming my head into the screen -> which I *hate* doing. Right now it's become very easy to read even my LJ without jacking the font size! sasclan.org and facebook only need 1 increment of the size rather then 3 or 4; and then only in order to be read 'at length' rather then momentarily. Just now, I've tested changes to Chromes settings. I can set the fonts as low as 9 or 8 pt and be able to see them excellently in most fonts; and very comfortably around 11-12 pt period. The problem is, that results in microscopic text compared to the rest of my windows desktop - like looking at 5pt text instead of 12pt text. So I have Chrome set to 24pt now, and am reading the text in LJ's text area - at what appears to be "9pt" text when judged against how fonts render in Chromes selection dialog.
I was playing SWAT 4 today, and found it easier to read the texts, usually I have to be careful of my cam placement in order to read team messages; grey on grey/white/black mixtures suck. The big shocker though, was it felt like I could see the threads on the enemies hoods :-/. With RvS, I've had a problem reading chats since I started with this 19 inch monitor; the texts far away. Now, maybe I can start reading it again like I used to on the old 15", instead of having to stop and open the console xD.
My word, if this is what normal vision is like—what have I been seeing all these years!? Oh, in case I forgot to mention it, they are really thick-ass lenses lol.
When they had me try them on, it was like, in the words of Clark Griswald: hallelujah and holy shit! I found it initially very unstabling to turn my head and gaze about like normal, but I reckon that is normal at first. The difference however in vision, is tremendous. I've spent most of the day wearing them, and now they are fairly comfortable, more so then naked eyes lol. I only worry how wearing glasses regularly will impact my un-aided eye sight in the long run. I can see very crisp and clear, it is like someone jacked up the resolution a few orders of magnitude! On the way home, I could see license plates and street signs clear; hell I could see the specks of dirt on the road instead of just the dirt!!! Coming home it felt almost like the ground was under a microscope, so much finer detail. It's like I could count the hairs on the dogs back, leaves on a tree at 30ft, and can see the crap between the individual blades of grass! Just walking into the apartment it was unsettling, I can now see the carpet so finely, that it's better then when I used to sit on the carpet as a kid with action figures littered all over :-/. It's a huge detail hack, man I think I could even read the little-bitty display on the VCR across the room, if the clock was set, ha!
Up real close things are a bit blurry with the glasses on, perhaps I need bifocals for that lol; I'm just happy with the current improvement. And really, the choice of lifting my glasses up or moving my head back a little is not a bother. So far the only irksome issue, often whenever I yawn I tend to get a bit teary eyed (always have), but now obviously I have to remove my glasses to wipe it away, so I can see clearly again lol. Even on the computer, it's very different. I run my 19" monitor at 1600x1200 and a custom DPI setting of 144dpi (150% winsucks normal). Most things are set to fairly large fonts because I find that Google Chrome renders fonts a hell of a lot smaller then Mozilla does; the difference being defaults in Fx have always been fine, but in Chrome I have things set to like 22pt rather then a more normal size. With my glasses I can see to read the mouse type things render on daemonforums, with chrome+my monitor. Without, I had to increase the size to be able to read it without zooming my head into the screen -> which I *hate* doing. Right now it's become very easy to read even my LJ without jacking the font size! sasclan.org and facebook only need 1 increment of the size rather then 3 or 4; and then only in order to be read 'at length' rather then momentarily. Just now, I've tested changes to Chromes settings. I can set the fonts as low as 9 or 8 pt and be able to see them excellently in most fonts; and very comfortably around 11-12 pt period. The problem is, that results in microscopic text compared to the rest of my windows desktop - like looking at 5pt text instead of 12pt text. So I have Chrome set to 24pt now, and am reading the text in LJ's text area - at what appears to be "9pt" text when judged against how fonts render in Chromes selection dialog.
I was playing SWAT 4 today, and found it easier to read the texts, usually I have to be careful of my cam placement in order to read team messages; grey on grey/white/black mixtures suck. The big shocker though, was it felt like I could see the threads on the enemies hoods :-/. With RvS, I've had a problem reading chats since I started with this 19 inch monitor; the texts far away. Now, maybe I can start reading it again like I used to on the old 15", instead of having to stop and open the console xD.
My word, if this is what normal vision is like—what have I been seeing all these years!? Oh, in case I forgot to mention it, they are really thick-ass lenses lol.
This is rich
As a side note, you may be wondering if it is a security risk that applications can add and remove applications from the exceptions list any user intervention, or perhaps you think that the bigger risk is that applications can disable the firewall altogether. To perform these feats, the application must have administrator privledges. If you have malicious code running in administrator mode on your system, the game is already over and the hacker has already won. The hacker's ability to disable the firewall would merit little more than a footnote.
What it fails to mention is many millions of Windows XP installations are run with administrator privileges on the users regular account, I practically ROFL'd lol.
Having a single Wintel around pisses me off for the X''th time
No matter what I do, it seems to be impossible to *live* with Windows as a system for getting things done.
This in particular pisses me off at the moment
No matter what abuse I subject the environment settings to, it is impossible to compile anything from the fucking command line. The directories specified appear to be a fusion of TexLive added PERL5LIB values and the "usual" for the installed Perl. Building things using the IDE and a conventional project, does not have such errors; likely because it 'replaces' nmake so to speak. Needless to say, this machine must have both Perl and TexLive installed, or I will raise more mayhem then playing DooM II:Hell Revealed on Nightmare!
This kind of error causes a bit of a problem when trying to build software that only supplies Makefiles for MSVC+nmake, rather then project files for the IDE.
I've used Microsofts operating systems since early MS-DOS and have cursed it every fucking year. I've used FreeBSD since 2006 and smile joyfully every year!
For the love of FORTRAN, why is it I can never find commercial software that I do not want to hex edit into the 8th level of DooM?
footnote: the number in the subject was meant to be python26s best estimate of 1024 ** 56725691612; so cool watching this been-nothing-but-trouble-since-year-one PC burn up resources calculating this randomly chosen number!!! Even more joy, was seeing the thing pop a MemoryError before it could conclude the operation, somehow I think this fits well; the amount of times this computer has pissed me off may as well approach ∞ for all intents and purposes.
This in particular pisses me off at the moment
>cl hi.c --- simple hello world test Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 15.00.30729.01 for 80x86 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. hi.c Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 9.00.30729.01 Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. P:\TexLive\perltl\lib,P:\TexLive\perltl\site\lib,P:/Devel/Languages/Perl/site/lib,P:/Devel/Languages/Perl/lib,. LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'P:\TexLive\perltl\lib,P:\TexLive\perltl\site\lib,P:/Devel/Languages/Perl/site/lib,P:/Devel/Languages/Perl/lib,.'
No matter what abuse I subject the environment settings to, it is impossible to compile anything from the fucking command line. The directories specified appear to be a fusion of TexLive added PERL5LIB values and the "usual" for the installed Perl. Building things using the IDE and a conventional project, does not have such errors; likely because it 'replaces' nmake so to speak. Needless to say, this machine must have both Perl and TexLive installed, or I will raise more mayhem then playing DooM II:Hell Revealed on Nightmare!
This kind of error causes a bit of a problem when trying to build software that only supplies Makefiles for MSVC+nmake, rather then project files for the IDE.
I've used Microsofts operating systems since early MS-DOS and have cursed it every fucking year. I've used FreeBSD since 2006 and smile joyfully every year!
For the love of FORTRAN, why is it I can never find commercial software that I do not want to hex edit into the 8th level of DooM?
footnote: the number in the subject was meant to be python26s best estimate of 1024 ** 56725691612; so cool watching this been-nothing-but-trouble-since-year-one PC burn up resources calculating this randomly chosen number!!! Even more joy, was seeing the thing pop a MemoryError before it could conclude the operation, somehow I think this fits well; the amount of times this computer has pissed me off may as well approach ∞ for all intents and purposes.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Blackout crept in from a distance?
Power just came on, after ~35 minutes of total black out. I put my shorts and sandles on, and walked arcoss the complex to see how localized it was - everything was out. The thunder has been pretty light and far off, but then again we tend to lose power during thunder storms lol.
The sad thing is, I walked into my room, bent over, and my hand nearly landed in the shoe box haha! Before that, I walked into the room and got the light I keep near my bed, I can move around easy in the dark.... I know where everything is that counts, and my night vision is excellent. I feel like a freaking cat lol. When ma put on a pair of dim candles, I could see in the living room as if the lights were on, and those candles emite about as much light as a pen light :-/.
Before the mass power outage, I was debating to code a bit first or join JB for a couple rounds; now I think I will join the server for a few games and code afterwards lol.
The sad thing is, I walked into my room, bent over, and my hand nearly landed in the shoe box haha! Before that, I walked into the room and got the light I keep near my bed, I can move around easy in the dark.... I know where everything is that counts, and my night vision is excellent. I feel like a freaking cat lol. When ma put on a pair of dim candles, I could see in the living room as if the lights were on, and those candles emite about as much light as a pen light :-/.
Before the mass power outage, I was debating to code a bit first or join JB for a couple rounds; now I think I will join the server for a few games and code afterwards lol.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Is it just me or...
/* from Tutorial 2, Direct3D 9; DirectX SDK */
if( FAILED( g_pd3dDevice->CreateVertexBuffer( 3*sizeof(CUSTOMVERTEX),
0 /*Usage*/, D3DFVF_CUSTOMVERTEX, D3DPOOL_DEFAULT, &g_pVB, NULL ) ) )
return E_FAIL;
The tutorial describes the arguments, stating that 'The final parameter is the address of the vertex buffer to create.' Ok, I think it is obvious that it means the address of the vertex buffer being passed; further more the API documentation says the final argument is "Reserved. Set this parameter to NULL. This parameter can be used in Direct3D 9 for Windows Vista to share resources".
I can't help but chuckle a little bit at the tutorial, maybe it is just me and my brains crazy English parser lol.
Wow it's been a wildly long day!
Fell asleep on the couch last night, so I couldn't get to sleep early (nodded off after 0300Q), woke up around 0600Q and decided that was just TOOOOO early even for me! The doctors appointment was for 0945 and we had to be in the office NLT 0915, so I've been awake since around 0830.
The doctor was very kind and seems to know what he's doing quite well; personally I like people with experience ;). He examined the toe during the usual questioning. He removed the lump of dead tissue with an angled scissors, something I had to previously convince my mother that it wouldn't be a good idea to do at home with a table scissors. For better or worse it actually was more painful for him to get the thing in position, then cutting it away; and at least I can say, I have nice red blood lol. The Dr. then decided to put a small piece of cardboard underneath the (clipped) nail to keep it away from the injured side, leading to it falling out when he tried wrapping it in medical tape 8+). He proscribed some antibiotics, *not* slamming the damn thing anymore (haha!), plus the usual cleaning and bandaging. I've also instructions to pry up the nail several times a day to keep it from damaging anything, really not sure what is worse: that I have to do such a thing or that doing it doesn't bother me in the least. The nurse was also kind enough to "pad it well" just in case, when she dressed the wound. There was errands to run afterwards and the pharmacy tor drop by, so needless to say it wouldn't have helped to crack it apart *again*.
Got it filled and picked up some stuff while waiting on the pharmacist; dressings, tape, etc. Since by then the bill was starting to add up, I told ma if she would cover the proscription, I would pick up the tab on the other supplies; I also snatched a small pound cake on sale for like $2 before we left the store. Hey, if I'm spending money, may as well buy something to gnosh on too!
I've spent the rest of the day largely trying to NOT slam this freaking toe into anything else, and playing a lot of SWAT 4. It's nice to see Rct Cara progressing well; think I owe Duke even more gratitude, for what he accomplished with [SAS] "SWAT day 2009". I've been playing a lot of SWAT 4 lately, between my own operations and watching over the Trps/Rcts. At night sometimes I pop in and join the night crew (mostly fellow Americans and Canadians) for some games on our Raven Shield servers. But really, RvS has been pissing me off a lot with the bugs lately. SWAT 4 is as buggy as RvS, yeah... but at least most of the bugs are not combat critical in SWAT 4 \o/.
During my break times and tonight also, I've been studying more bits of the DirectX Software Development Kit (SDK). So far DirectX itself seems to be an alright way of getting things done. I can't stand the ridiculous influnces of Hungarian notation that permeates so many aspects of Windows programming interfaces... the concept is sound but the implemetations I commonly see in code, is just a load of bollocks. Naming identifier well and placing good information in them is a tricky thing at times (gets better with experience) but encoding type data in it, oy. The most useful of which I can think of is adding a 'p' in front for each level of *pointing used in a C app (or comparable). In one of the DX samples when I saw a variable named something like pbNoFurtherProcessing or something similiar, I nearly fainted from the stupidity of it all. The pb tells you it's a pointer to a boolean (bool * in C++), by the time you see it's being used with the arrow operator (->) and bears an obviously boolean name, that kind of makes it useless information. Not to mention anyone with a *decent* code editor for the last 20+ years can just make a quick jump and look up the variables type if they totally forget it - which shouldn't happen often.
I've also been abusing Visual C++ Express 2008 into cooperating. Right now I have it setup, basically to just be a project and build manager - all the actual code editing is being done in Vi IMproved. MSVC/VS/etc are very very good Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and I would recommend them to anyone who wants an IDE for serious Windows development (along with a cat scan). However I am used to having UNIX as my IDE, which means powerful tools ;). With more time off work I could probably get vim semi-integrated with the IDE via the +clientserver feature in vim and maybe a plugin of some sort. Non essential though, since right now all the IDE is helping me with is not having to hand-write a makefile for nmake, which would probably have been less trouble then using the IDEs concept of solutions and projects lol.
Life's been good to day.
The doctor was very kind and seems to know what he's doing quite well; personally I like people with experience ;). He examined the toe during the usual questioning. He removed the lump of dead tissue with an angled scissors, something I had to previously convince my mother that it wouldn't be a good idea to do at home with a table scissors. For better or worse it actually was more painful for him to get the thing in position, then cutting it away; and at least I can say, I have nice red blood lol. The Dr. then decided to put a small piece of cardboard underneath the (clipped) nail to keep it away from the injured side, leading to it falling out when he tried wrapping it in medical tape 8+). He proscribed some antibiotics, *not* slamming the damn thing anymore (haha!), plus the usual cleaning and bandaging. I've also instructions to pry up the nail several times a day to keep it from damaging anything, really not sure what is worse: that I have to do such a thing or that doing it doesn't bother me in the least. The nurse was also kind enough to "pad it well" just in case, when she dressed the wound. There was errands to run afterwards and the pharmacy tor drop by, so needless to say it wouldn't have helped to crack it apart *again*.
Got it filled and picked up some stuff while waiting on the pharmacist; dressings, tape, etc. Since by then the bill was starting to add up, I told ma if she would cover the proscription, I would pick up the tab on the other supplies; I also snatched a small pound cake on sale for like $2 before we left the store. Hey, if I'm spending money, may as well buy something to gnosh on too!
I've spent the rest of the day largely trying to NOT slam this freaking toe into anything else, and playing a lot of SWAT 4. It's nice to see Rct Cara progressing well; think I owe Duke even more gratitude, for what he accomplished with [SAS] "SWAT day 2009". I've been playing a lot of SWAT 4 lately, between my own operations and watching over the Trps/Rcts. At night sometimes I pop in and join the night crew (mostly fellow Americans and Canadians) for some games on our Raven Shield servers. But really, RvS has been pissing me off a lot with the bugs lately. SWAT 4 is as buggy as RvS, yeah... but at least most of the bugs are not combat critical in SWAT 4 \o/.
During my break times and tonight also, I've been studying more bits of the DirectX Software Development Kit (SDK). So far DirectX itself seems to be an alright way of getting things done. I can't stand the ridiculous influnces of Hungarian notation that permeates so many aspects of Windows programming interfaces... the concept is sound but the implemetations I commonly see in code, is just a load of bollocks. Naming identifier well and placing good information in them is a tricky thing at times (gets better with experience) but encoding type data in it, oy. The most useful of which I can think of is adding a 'p' in front for each level of *pointing used in a C app (or comparable). In one of the DX samples when I saw a variable named something like pbNoFurtherProcessing or something similiar, I nearly fainted from the stupidity of it all. The pb tells you it's a pointer to a boolean (bool * in C++), by the time you see it's being used with the arrow operator (->) and bears an obviously boolean name, that kind of makes it useless information. Not to mention anyone with a *decent* code editor for the last 20+ years can just make a quick jump and look up the variables type if they totally forget it - which shouldn't happen often.
I've also been abusing Visual C++ Express 2008 into cooperating. Right now I have it setup, basically to just be a project and build manager - all the actual code editing is being done in Vi IMproved. MSVC/VS/etc are very very good Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and I would recommend them to anyone who wants an IDE for serious Windows development (along with a cat scan). However I am used to having UNIX as my IDE, which means powerful tools ;). With more time off work I could probably get vim semi-integrated with the IDE via the +clientserver feature in vim and maybe a plugin of some sort. Non essential though, since right now all the IDE is helping me with is not having to hand-write a makefile for nmake, which would probably have been less trouble then using the IDEs concept of solutions and projects lol.
Life's been good to day.
Monday, July 6, 2009
I'm not in a terribly good mood tonight, had to put up with H.R.P., plus I need to shower & shave for tomorrow, and I need to work out a build system - nmake style because I will fling my computer out a window if I've got to use Visual C++ lol. And I've got to get it all done early so I can go to sleep and be ready to be up at the crack of dawn for whatever H.R.P. wants to nit pick about before the doctors appointment.
She spent at least 15-20 minutes rambling in her usual way, I can only best describe her behavior as being a hurtful old rhymes with witch. So, I'm sitting there listening, face expressionless (for safety), and trying to eat during the first 5 minutes of the tirade. I honestly don't give a damn what her choices of words are, words alone don't bother me, so much as why someone would choose to use them. You could say, words can never hurt me but some people can :-/. Also if she wants to use an indirect quote of my words, as a way of lashin' out, at least she could get something right. As opposed to say, missquoting, missing the point, spirit, intent, etcetera. I'm used to dealing with the kind of people, who you could say, "The pen is red and the ink is blue", and they could here pen, find something to harp on at all exclusion of rationality, and might later try to convince you the pen is blue and the ink is red, lol.
It seems whenever my proximity to anyone in my close-family increases, the more utterly miserable I become. They just suck the life out of me :'(. There's not really much I can do about it, it hurts more to hurt-back then it does to just drown silently, since the alternative is going verbal or physical to a much greater magnitude and nether are courses I am willing to chart. I've seen it to often, I've heard it to often, I've been ripped apart to often, to choose cruelty above all else; strangely it makes me feel even more the freak of the family. I am so like them in capability but not action, it is like carrying an executioners blade but refusing to draw it. Recent conflicts with her royal pain, also makes me think about /why/ I call her H.R.P. in digital commu. and remember something she once said about her own mother. Either way I suppose, something will work itself out in time, the question is just what will be left by then.
It seems that the one thing I desire most in this world is also always the furthest away.
She spent at least 15-20 minutes rambling in her usual way, I can only best describe her behavior as being a hurtful old rhymes with witch. So, I'm sitting there listening, face expressionless (for safety), and trying to eat during the first 5 minutes of the tirade. I honestly don't give a damn what her choices of words are, words alone don't bother me, so much as why someone would choose to use them. You could say, words can never hurt me but some people can :-/. Also if she wants to use an indirect quote of my words, as a way of lashin' out, at least she could get something right. As opposed to say, missquoting, missing the point, spirit, intent, etcetera. I'm used to dealing with the kind of people, who you could say, "The pen is red and the ink is blue", and they could here pen, find something to harp on at all exclusion of rationality, and might later try to convince you the pen is blue and the ink is red, lol.
It seems whenever my proximity to anyone in my close-family increases, the more utterly miserable I become. They just suck the life out of me :'(. There's not really much I can do about it, it hurts more to hurt-back then it does to just drown silently, since the alternative is going verbal or physical to a much greater magnitude and nether are courses I am willing to chart. I've seen it to often, I've heard it to often, I've been ripped apart to often, to choose cruelty above all else; strangely it makes me feel even more the freak of the family. I am so like them in capability but not action, it is like carrying an executioners blade but refusing to draw it. Recent conflicts with her royal pain, also makes me think about /why/ I call her H.R.P. in digital commu. and remember something she once said about her own mother. Either way I suppose, something will work itself out in time, the question is just what will be left by then.
It seems that the one thing I desire most in this world is also always the furthest away.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
This song is about where I wanna be
I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand
Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand
Life is good today. Life is good today.
Well, the plane touched down just about 3 o’clock
And the city’s still on my mind
Bikinis and palm trees danced in my head
I was still in the baggage line
Concrete and cars are there own prison bars like this life I’m living in
But the plane brought me farther.
I’m surrounded by water
And I’m not going back again
I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand
Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand
Life is good today. Life is good today.
Adios and vaya con dios
Yeah I’m leaving GA
And if it weren’t for tequila and pretty senoritas
I’d have no reason to stay
Adios and vaya con dios
Yeah I’m leaving GA
Gonna lay in the hot sun and roll a big fat one
And grab my guitar and play
Four days flew by like a drunk Friday night as the summer drew to an
end
They can’t believe that I just couldn’t leave
And I bid adieu to my friends
Because my bartender she’s from the islands
Her body’s been kissed by the sun
And coconut replaces the smell of the bar and I don’t know if its her or
the rum
I got my toes in the water, ass in the sand
Not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand
Life is good today. Life is good today.
Adios and vaya con dios
A long way from GA
Yes, and all the muchachas they call me “big poppa” when I throw
pesos their way
Adios and vaya con dios
A long way from GA
Someone do me a favor and pour me some Jaeger
And I’ll grab my guitar and play
Adios and vaya con dios
Going home now to stay
The senoritas don’t care-o when there’s no dinero
I got no money to stay
Adios and vaya con dios
Going home now to stay
Just gonna prop up by the lake
Put my ass in a lawn chair
Toes in the clay
Not a worry in the world a PBR on the way
Life is good today. Life is good today.
-- "Toes", Zac Brown Band
Yet another reason for this geek to avoid development for Windows
Since it's the closest point of interest in the DirectX SDKs samples, I set out to build the most basic one. In order to build the EmptyProject sample in Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition, I've had to open the VS Project file for it in the IDE, tell it where to find the DirectX include and library directories, using a modeless dialog that can't even be resized! Then I have had to tell it where to find headers from another Sample entry it lists in a child node, which can't find the DirectX include directory specified in the top level project... Since I can't just right click the child node and modify it the same way as the parent node, I saved the solution and dug up the childs .vsproj.
Looking at the same stupid dialog, I notice that while the last time around I had to go to "Resources -> General" to specify an additional include directory for the pre-processor (which for some brain damaged reason wasn't under "C/C++ -> Preprocessor"), there was no Resources entry in the tree.
At this point, I just said, "FUCK YOU!", went back to the original project file. Went to "C/C++ -> Command Line" entry in the configuration, and manually added the /I"path" switch to find the included directory. Then I did like wise under the "Linker -> Command Line" section to manually add the /LIBPATH:"path" switch with the path to the required .lib files. Saved the solution and built the project. Guess what? Doing it that way: EVERYTHING WORKED!!! Ok, it is widely known to be an ultra-standard need, that you've got to tell your build system where to find things, yeah that's right—but you would think samples included with an SDK would pull in parts of the SDK.
Maybe I am just an old man at heart but somehow, I find it interesting that in 2009, it is still faster to just use a Command Line style interfaces then many Graphical User interfaces \o/. Come on, it's only been about 35~40 years since the GUI was invented, and GUIs really took off during the late 1980s. It still makes me crawl... that they still suck just as bad as they did in 1990. Even worse, aside from the mouse on everyones desktop now're days, beyond the obvious increases in eye candy in the 2000s, I don't see much usability changes in GUI software, that were not in Mac OS and Windows back in the 1980s. System 1 and Windows 1.0 were especially ugly compared to Windows XP and OS X, and things like Vista and KDE4.3 are very sexy, but heck, what's really changed since the old days?
I could almost swear, there has not been one serious improvement under Windows, since adding overlapping windows in '87ish
Looking at the same stupid dialog, I notice that while the last time around I had to go to "Resources -> General" to specify an additional include directory for the pre-processor (which for some brain damaged reason wasn't under "C/C++ -> Preprocessor"), there was no Resources entry in the tree.
At this point, I just said, "FUCK YOU!", went back to the original project file. Went to "C/C++ -> Command Line" entry in the configuration, and manually added the /I"path" switch to find the included directory. Then I did like wise under the "Linker -> Command Line" section to manually add the /LIBPATH:"path" switch with the path to the required .lib files. Saved the solution and built the project. Guess what? Doing it that way: EVERYTHING WORKED!!! Ok, it is widely known to be an ultra-standard need, that you've got to tell your build system where to find things, yeah that's right—but you would think samples included with an SDK would pull in parts of the SDK.
Maybe I am just an old man at heart but somehow, I find it interesting that in 2009, it is still faster to just use a Command Line style interfaces then many Graphical User interfaces \o/. Come on, it's only been about 35~40 years since the GUI was invented, and GUIs really took off during the late 1980s. It still makes me crawl... that they still suck just as bad as they did in 1990. Even worse, aside from the mouse on everyones desktop now're days, beyond the obvious increases in eye candy in the 2000s, I don't see much usability changes in GUI software, that were not in Mac OS and Windows back in the 1980s. System 1 and Windows 1.0 were especially ugly compared to Windows XP and OS X, and things like Vista and KDE4.3 are very sexy, but heck, what's really changed since the old days?
I could almost swear, there has not been one serious improvement under Windows, since adding overlapping windows in '87ish
I think yesterday, they played just about every artists rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, that could be found in their music library lol. Much more of it and I think I would've had most of the song memorized by today; I reckon everyone should know their own countries anthem.
In remembrance of those who have given their lives and those who still stand ready to do so, I loaded the slong Arlington from my meager collection:
For those out of country that don't know what Arlington is, wikipedia is useful and often translated.
In remembrance of those who have given their lives and those who still stand ready to do so, I loaded the slong Arlington from my meager collection:
I never thought that this is where I'd settle down,
I thought I'd die an old man back in my hometown,
They gave me this plot of land, me and some other men,
for a job well done.
There's a big white house sits on a hill just up the road,
The man inside he cried the day they brought me home,
They folded up a flag, and told my mom and dad, 'We're proud of your son'.
And I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property,
I'm on sacred ground and I'm in the best of company,
I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done,
I can rest in peace, I'm one of the chosen ones,
I made it to Arlington.
I remember daddy brought me here when I was eight,
We searched all day to find out where my granddad lay,
And when we finally found that cross,
He said, 'Son this is what it cost, to keep us free'.
Now here I am a thousand stones away from him,
He recognized me on the first day I came in,
And it gave me a chill, when he clicked his heels, and saluted me.
And I'm proud to be on this peaceful piece of property,
I'm on sacred ground and I'm in the best of company,
And I'm thankful for those thankful for the things I've done,
I can rest in peace, I'm one of the chosen ones,
I made it to Arlington.
And every time I hear, twenty-one guns,
I know they brought another hero home, to us.
We're thankful for those thankful for the things we've done,
We can rest in peace, 'cause we were the chosen ones,
We made it to Arlington, yea, dust to dust
Don't cry for us, we made it to Arlington.
For those out of country that don't know what Arlington is, wikipedia is useful and often translated.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
It's nearly time for bed but I honestly don't feel like sleeping. I usually don't feel like sleeping this time of night, been forced into the darkness for so long, that it is nearly light. But in the same light, it will shortly reach a point where I've gotta sleep if I'm ever going to get up early tomorrow.
Generally my livejournal serves to record my experiences, and snap-short my trains of thought, even if such is usually done under an unstable state of thinking :-/.
I best just go to bed, probably will be awake ubtil after dawn as it is; and that means operating tomorrow without any decent sleep period. Then again, I've been known to do that... lol
Generally my livejournal serves to record my experiences, and snap-short my trains of thought, even if such is usually done under an unstable state of thinking :-/.
I best just go to bed, probably will be awake ubtil after dawn as it is; and that means operating tomorrow without any decent sleep period. Then again, I've been known to do that... lol
Lately I have really been thinking of different things, of one, I suppose the best choice of word is "Expressiveness". You could say, my family has its fair share of issues... I at least have never really felt loved or cared for, so much as "just here"; I'm sure such is not the reality but if it isn't, well let us just say there is great disparity involved in our concepts of such things, between mine and theirs. Anyway you slice it, the things that make me, 'me', are just generally not welcome.
As such during my life, I've generally sought different forms of expressing myself; always without care of who gets it and who doesn't, because I need to be able to let it find an outlet.
In my youth I used to doodle incessantly, perhaps if things had been different, and I offored the same opportunities as my forbearers; perhaps I might still spend time drawing. Perhaps I might even have developed the level of skill at it I desire, something profitable might even have come of it (my mother studied as a cartoonist). I always loved to draw, it was a great way to just let my feelings, my imagination: let it all take shape and roll away in it's own directions. When I got older, I started to write more often then draw; less expensive on the equipment (particularly as more modern computers became available) and easier to shield myself from areas of potential censorship. I can't stand repression, and I hate to see or allow others to feel repressed; I do strongly value discipline and order of course, but I do not deal in absolutes either. I am an avaricious reader, once I learned to read they had to take the books away from me... and I still would be found under the covers with a sci-fi novel hidden away hahahahaha! Since the finances for satisfying my tastes ran out years ago, I haven't read much over the past few years :'(,. I've always liked immersive stories, one of the reasons I so dearly loved Dune was the hours of intellectual thought it offered. With my imagination, I also like writing short stories from time to time, but do not consider myself as having any actual talent with the English language. Having been forced into a world where if it takes more then 5 minutes to write, it will likely end up an hour-long project, I have also learned to type very fast - thinkspeed, and to opt for speed over accuracy or correctness, out of necessity :-/. In the past few years, I've often put my thoughts to 'file'. I think in some way, I've forever been influenced by King David, by way of my times in bible study. Although I was quite literally the "Odd man out" of the group, they are considered like THE best bible study group in this place. The stimulation and depth of thinking was always the awesome part of group time...
In more recent times, I've greatly fallen in love with programming computers and designing things, source code is almost like poetry in a way. While I reckon it might sound odd, but I do have a soft spot for poetry (with a point). I don't think I can really describe how I feel about programming, unless you know and understand how it feels. Reading code, writing code, and understanding code; it can all tell you a lot about someone I guess. The only problem is you might just have to be versed in the same art to comprehend any of it.
Ever more increasingly this past year, I have been wishing for a way to explore the world of music deeper. Unlike most of my friends, I've never followed such things very greatly year after year. These days however, I can't stand a silent PC, and can probably bicker with my old wings about the cause of that \o/. I've developed a stronger interest in music, but have no real means to explore it properly. I do gravely regret never having learned to play an instrument, but it is probably best that I never did; since doing so would have meant an even worse living hell, growing up in this family! If I could change the sands of time and bend it to my will, I think I would learn the Violin. Why? It just seems to be the most natural fit. I doubt if I will ever have the chance, and it would take years of quality practice before I could ever play such an instrument at the level I would seek, let along the open sentence to be solved: expressing myself though it. and I reckon, that music has different meanings to different people. For the time being and likely the better portion of my life, I must be content as a listener. Yet, I sorely wish I could let what I am feeling flow through in such a way.
As such during my life, I've generally sought different forms of expressing myself; always without care of who gets it and who doesn't, because I need to be able to let it find an outlet.
In my youth I used to doodle incessantly, perhaps if things had been different, and I offored the same opportunities as my forbearers; perhaps I might still spend time drawing. Perhaps I might even have developed the level of skill at it I desire, something profitable might even have come of it (my mother studied as a cartoonist). I always loved to draw, it was a great way to just let my feelings, my imagination: let it all take shape and roll away in it's own directions. When I got older, I started to write more often then draw; less expensive on the equipment (particularly as more modern computers became available) and easier to shield myself from areas of potential censorship. I can't stand repression, and I hate to see or allow others to feel repressed; I do strongly value discipline and order of course, but I do not deal in absolutes either. I am an avaricious reader, once I learned to read they had to take the books away from me... and I still would be found under the covers with a sci-fi novel hidden away hahahahaha! Since the finances for satisfying my tastes ran out years ago, I haven't read much over the past few years :'(,. I've always liked immersive stories, one of the reasons I so dearly loved Dune was the hours of intellectual thought it offered. With my imagination, I also like writing short stories from time to time, but do not consider myself as having any actual talent with the English language. Having been forced into a world where if it takes more then 5 minutes to write, it will likely end up an hour-long project, I have also learned to type very fast - thinkspeed, and to opt for speed over accuracy or correctness, out of necessity :-/. In the past few years, I've often put my thoughts to 'file'. I think in some way, I've forever been influenced by King David, by way of my times in bible study. Although I was quite literally the "Odd man out" of the group, they are considered like THE best bible study group in this place. The stimulation and depth of thinking was always the awesome part of group time...
In more recent times, I've greatly fallen in love with programming computers and designing things, source code is almost like poetry in a way. While I reckon it might sound odd, but I do have a soft spot for poetry (with a point). I don't think I can really describe how I feel about programming, unless you know and understand how it feels. Reading code, writing code, and understanding code; it can all tell you a lot about someone I guess. The only problem is you might just have to be versed in the same art to comprehend any of it.
Ever more increasingly this past year, I have been wishing for a way to explore the world of music deeper. Unlike most of my friends, I've never followed such things very greatly year after year. These days however, I can't stand a silent PC, and can probably bicker with my old wings about the cause of that \o/. I've developed a stronger interest in music, but have no real means to explore it properly. I do gravely regret never having learned to play an instrument, but it is probably best that I never did; since doing so would have meant an even worse living hell, growing up in this family! If I could change the sands of time and bend it to my will, I think I would learn the Violin. Why? It just seems to be the most natural fit. I doubt if I will ever have the chance, and it would take years of quality practice before I could ever play such an instrument at the level I would seek, let along the open sentence to be solved: expressing myself though it. and I reckon, that music has different meanings to different people. For the time being and likely the better portion of my life, I must be content as a listener. Yet, I sorely wish I could let what I am feeling flow through in such a way.
I had plans for about 4-5 entries today but just not enough strength for it :-/. It's been one of those crazy / hectic / mess of a days! The only nice part was an hour or so of SWAT before work, most of which passed peacefully.
I've had to work most of the day, double or triple wammies are abound lately, and having to deal with family through it all (ugh) does not help things. To top it off, I'm basically working the next several weekends. Right now, I can't wait for tomorrow to arrive: not because it means going to work sooner but because outside working hours, I can actually have some time to MYSELF, time that's not under the thumb of any pain in the ass but my own whims, subject to the obvious numeral unno overrides from the heavens above.
I spent most of the work day like most others, thinking. There's just no real mental stimulation in the crap I'm stuck doing, so it leaves my mind free to drift away: sometimes this is good and sometimes it is very bad. In today's case, my thoughts have dwelt most strongly on where I would *rather* be, or should I now say, would rather have been 8=). To just sail away from the things of man, stick my toes in the sand of some sunny beach, layin' there in trunks & shades with a cool drink in hand, and not a care in the world, beyond sunburn that is ^_^.
Aye, a spider can dream.... been much to damn long since I've had any major rest and relaxation, let along a proper vacation lol. Ahh, it would be so wonderful with this weather but unfortunately the distance is, oh what's the word, prohibitive? I've been on the move so long lately, I can't freaking think straight anymore. I could really use some solid down time but that's not gonna happen, short of a miracle. As it stands, it will probably be August before I can stand down for a while, and even then it will likely be just an intermission between burn outs... sigh.
I am so tired of just passing the time away.
I've had to work most of the day, double or triple wammies are abound lately, and having to deal with family through it all (ugh) does not help things. To top it off, I'm basically working the next several weekends. Right now, I can't wait for tomorrow to arrive: not because it means going to work sooner but because outside working hours, I can actually have some time to MYSELF, time that's not under the thumb of any pain in the ass but my own whims, subject to the obvious numeral unno overrides from the heavens above.
I spent most of the work day like most others, thinking. There's just no real mental stimulation in the crap I'm stuck doing, so it leaves my mind free to drift away: sometimes this is good and sometimes it is very bad. In today's case, my thoughts have dwelt most strongly on where I would *rather* be, or should I now say, would rather have been 8=). To just sail away from the things of man, stick my toes in the sand of some sunny beach, layin' there in trunks & shades with a cool drink in hand, and not a care in the world, beyond sunburn that is ^_^.
Aye, a spider can dream.... been much to damn long since I've had any major rest and relaxation, let along a proper vacation lol. Ahh, it would be so wonderful with this weather but unfortunately the distance is, oh what's the word, prohibitive? I've been on the move so long lately, I can't freaking think straight anymore. I could really use some solid down time but that's not gonna happen, short of a miracle. As it stands, it will probably be August before I can stand down for a while, and even then it will likely be just an intermission between burn outs... sigh.
I am so tired of just passing the time away.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Writer's Block: Dog Day Afternoon
The Dog Days of summer, the hottest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, start today. What's your favorite thing to do in hot weather?
Live Journals Writer's Block
Laugh at people who moan that it is tooo hot out xD.
I grew up in south Florida with like a normal temp of 90F and being soaked to the bone by the time you cross the parking lot. When Georgians cry about the heat, is when I especially ROFL, because it doesn't have that intensity to the sun, like back' home.
You know you've been programming to long when ....
you can miss-read "You don't know whether they're laid out from left to right or right to left in memory", as "You don't know whether they've been laid ...", and then can't stop laughing lol.
O.K. I think I have seriously been sitting in front of a computer wwaaaaayyyy too long for one night.......
O.K. I think I have seriously been sitting in front of a computer wwaaaaayyyy too long for one night.......
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
This morning H.R.P. scheduled an appointment for the cheapest eye place in town (listed in the yellow pages of course) and canceled work for the day. I reported last nights findings and we ended up instead at what is likely the most experienced of the two most 'suitable' places I looked up. On the upside of using the Internet rather then the yellow pages, was finding a coupon, haha! Plus being able to download, print out, fill out, and therefore skip filling out the paper work in office. After everything was sorted, ma went out shopping (I refused to comply), whilst I tended to trying to enjoy what little time remained. Personally, I think she likely took more joy in going shopping then she would have in getting paid from work lol.
It has been maybe a decade since my last eye examination, so I knew what to expect but not quite the level of outcome. The doctor was exceptionally nice and I would recommend the place to others here. One thing that I very much like about people practicing locally over a franchise of some sort, you know if they are horrendous they would be out of business quickly. I found them professional and easy to communicate with; it's also nice when they have a sense of humour :-).
The general outcome, my vision sucks for distance but they have yet to figure out why. Once my glasses are ready, I do very much wonder just how big a change it will make, these are the eyes I was born with: there is no other form of vision I can compare them to, unless someone wants to loan me their eyes for a few days \o/. 2 weeks after getting the glasses, I'm supposed to go for further testing, which I *hope* happens. Then again, I also hope my toe eventually gets medical attention... :-/. On the subject of frames, that basically took all of 3 minutes. I don't care very much about how they look so much as how well they work! You could say, I strongly believe that form follows function. The glasses are fairly plane, and I most likely rather then having the super geeky brain, I will now also look like a dateless nerd lol. Then again, I'm not sure if one can avoid that with glasses, unless you are dumb as a ....
My brother who was not even present, has succeeded in making my mother feel like 2 cents (a family super-power), ragging on the doctor and his practice, and bitching about the frames without even seeing them. My response to that? Well, to quote Doc. Holiday as portrayed in Wyatt Earp: all you can kiss my rebel dick! I make my own decisions, period - don't like it, then put up and shut up.
;)
It has been maybe a decade since my last eye examination, so I knew what to expect but not quite the level of outcome. The doctor was exceptionally nice and I would recommend the place to others here. One thing that I very much like about people practicing locally over a franchise of some sort, you know if they are horrendous they would be out of business quickly. I found them professional and easy to communicate with; it's also nice when they have a sense of humour :-).
The general outcome, my vision sucks for distance but they have yet to figure out why. Once my glasses are ready, I do very much wonder just how big a change it will make, these are the eyes I was born with: there is no other form of vision I can compare them to, unless someone wants to loan me their eyes for a few days \o/. 2 weeks after getting the glasses, I'm supposed to go for further testing, which I *hope* happens. Then again, I also hope my toe eventually gets medical attention... :-/. On the subject of frames, that basically took all of 3 minutes. I don't care very much about how they look so much as how well they work! You could say, I strongly believe that form follows function. The glasses are fairly plane, and I most likely rather then having the super geeky brain, I will now also look like a dateless nerd lol. Then again, I'm not sure if one can avoid that with glasses, unless you are dumb as a ....
My brother who was not even present, has succeeded in making my mother feel like 2 cents (a family super-power), ragging on the doctor and his practice, and bitching about the frames without even seeing them. My response to that? Well, to quote Doc. Holiday as portrayed in Wyatt Earp: all you can kiss my rebel dick! I make my own decisions, period - don't like it, then put up and shut up.
;)
OpenArena - addictive Quake III style!
Finding myself a bit light on time today, is tarted looking again at the ioquake3 engine with an interest in playing around with it. Of course, there is nothing better then a real world example - I tested Urban Terror and OpenArena, two games based on ioquake3 and Quake III: Arena game play. Urban Terror applies modern weapons and equipments but beyond that is not really a realism game IMHO. OpenArena on the other hand, sticks close to the core—it is as Quake like as the game play lol.
OpenArena is addictive and you can just feel your brain cells rot away as you engage in the carnage! The game is fairly simple and straight forward, you spawn, you run around, you blow people apart (gibs all over), oh yeah, and there are power ups here and there. Really, there isn't much more to say about it then that, other then it is strangely enjoyable; no wonder the Quake franchise has made millions.
OpenArena is addictive and you can just feel your brain cells rot away as you engage in the carnage! The game is fairly simple and straight forward, you spawn, you run around, you blow people apart (gibs all over), oh yeah, and there are power ups here and there. Really, there isn't much more to say about it then that, other then it is strangely enjoyable; no wonder the Quake franchise has made millions.
Ahh, sitting here with my foot in a pale of water & Epsom salt, laptop for the music and the dog for company lol. Fools Gold also just started, so I'm set for the next couple of hours. I love this movie, you can't beat a good sense of humour xD. Fools Gold also reminds me how difficult it can be to get someone out of your life...
Just got out of RvS, figured it would be best to soak my foot now so I do get some sleep tonight. On the upside though, I don't have to get up early tomorrow, unlike the rest of the week! Down side obviously being that I'll be workin' later hours tomorrow :'(. Today's job was a headstart on Thursdays work load, all the heavy crap is starting to come out of the wood-works, sigh.
Continuing my hunt over the eye glasses issue. H.R.P. has taken out a loan to deal with the cost, and it was the toe issue that pushed things over the edge lol. Ok, so many I should be thankful... if this thing ever heals correctly that is. Most people would use the phonebook, me? I use something called the Internet for my initial scouting ;). As usual I started with the cities website (more useful then most folk here would ever dream) an dhave since moved onto Google Maps. The best eye doctor I know of is quite a distance away, so local research is required. Seems that there are at least 4 optometry practices here, at least 2 of which look suitable. Interestingly, it seems that one of optometrist also comes from Ft. Lauderdale—as do I lol.
Ahh, I love the internet, who needs to dig out a copy of the yellow pages anymore?
Just got out of RvS, figured it would be best to soak my foot now so I do get some sleep tonight. On the upside though, I don't have to get up early tomorrow, unlike the rest of the week! Down side obviously being that I'll be workin' later hours tomorrow :'(. Today's job was a headstart on Thursdays work load, all the heavy crap is starting to come out of the wood-works, sigh.
Continuing my hunt over the eye glasses issue. H.R.P. has taken out a loan to deal with the cost, and it was the toe issue that pushed things over the edge lol. Ok, so many I should be thankful... if this thing ever heals correctly that is. Most people would use the phonebook, me? I use something called the Internet for my initial scouting ;). As usual I started with the cities website (more useful then most folk here would ever dream) an dhave since moved onto Google Maps. The best eye doctor I know of is quite a distance away, so local research is required. Seems that there are at least 4 optometry practices here, at least 2 of which look suitable. Interestingly, it seems that one of optometrist also comes from Ft. Lauderdale—as do I lol.
Ahh, I love the internet, who needs to dig out a copy of the yellow pages anymore?
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