deedoubleyou.net

Cable and Wireless have finally got the Guernsey systems upgraded. Night time download speeds are correct. Was hoping they’d fix the “speed we’re paying for / 2″ during the day thing, this isn’t the case. I honestly fail to see why it is like this, I never had any problems like this while I was in the UK. Typical of Guernsey though

As some of you may know, I’ve been putting together an XNA engine (codenamed StormEngine) and thought I’d offer up what resources I’ve found to help others.

thehazymind
I’m not sure what to recommend this one as, an XNA resource or an object orientated engine design resource. Either way it does both excellently and should be checked out!

randomchaosuk
This one offers some great tutorials and source, especially for more advanced parts of XNA. Also in a well presented object orientated format.

riemers
A quick XNA learning resource.

ziggyware
Contains a great deal of tutorials, source and theory.

I’d also highly recommend the Gems books (regardless of what language, API, etc. you use), especially the Games Programming ones.

For my own engine, I’ve mostly been chucking components and shaders in to get a feel for what I want to do. I’ll let you know when I come to a decision.

I’ve put some random pictures I found on my hard drive into the gallery!

It is that time of the year. Once again the maybugs have returned to defile our home!

Having lit my cigarette I firmly opened the door to the outside, unaware of what horrors awaited me. Casually I strolled down the familiar slab path and noticed something from the corner of my eye, a large black object on our white bench. “Whatever could it be?” I wondered, turning my head and focusing on the object in the dim light.

It never occurred to me that it would be a maybug, perhaps if it was slightly smaller, it might have hit me sooner. I took a step closer, to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me… What lay before me was not ‘just’ a maybug. The monstrous creature that sat there, was some kind of heavy infantry maybug. Those of you from Guernsey will be well aware of the size of maybugs, usually they are about the size of a fifty pence coin. This, however, was at least five times the length and three times the girth of a normal maybug.

My initial reaction at such a monster was interest, the creature was an incredible size compared to the norm. This reaction cost me greatly, the maybug used my lapse in judgement to take full advantage of the situation and attack me. No sooner had the maybug begun its attack, my close combat arm waving defence kicked in, almost like instinct as I drove the maybug off.

As I finished my cigarette, now fully aware that it was May, I prepared for the months ahead. My yearly enemy had returned, except this time they had come prepared. Upon reentering my room, I found my trusty electric tennis racket and replaced the batteries.

I’ll be ready for them next time.

I made this a while ago as well…

Can’t find the original link, but the plans are pretty easy to find with google.

Hey, I get bored…

From here.

Hey!

So, I’ve changed registrar and hosting provider to Netfirms. My old host was a little on the slow side, as you may have noticed. I decided as I was now earning money I could afford something slightly more reliable.

Anyway, on the more fun side I bought a new computer.

• Asus Maximus Formula Motherboard
• Q6600 Quad Core Intel CPU
• 4GB OCZ 800MHZ RAM
• Nvidia 8800GTX (EVGA) GPU
• Creative X-Fi Fata1ty Sound Card
• Silverstone TJ-10 Chassis (looks really nice!)

I’m currently using Vista 64 Ultimate on this system. Quite honestly, I have no idea what the fuss has been about. Bar problems with the Creative sound card, which you should expect from the likes of Creative (can someone else please start making decent sound cards!), I have not had a single issue. I don’t know what it is, but the desktop looks ‘better’ in widescreen than it did on XP (maybe I’m mad). Naturally I’ve changed a few things, switched off some services, disabled indexing, I’m not using the sidebar, etc. But that really isnt a big deal to me, I’d do the same on XP. Gaming performance wise, no issues so far, I’ve run The Witcher, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4 all at maximum settings at 1680×1050 and am yet to experience any offputting FPS drops.

Inspired by having a new computer I decided to find open source equivilants of software I usually use. These are a few of the best replacements I found…

• FileZilla - FTP
• FoxIt - PDF
• Notepad++ - Unless you’re a coder, I wouldnt bother, but if you are, gogo!
• InfraRecorder - Burning software, it has flames coming from the progress window, what more could you ask for!

I had some trouble last time I went on a ‘find open source replacements’ adventure with 7zip so I’m going to continue to use winrar for now. I can’t remember exactly but 7zip and usenet files didnt seem to get a long very well.

On the even more fun side I bought a new car! My little old Rover 214Si had seen it’s day and it was only a matter of time. I got a 2007 Volkswagon Golf R32 (3.2LTR V6). It’s pretty awesome! It really sparks up your day driving something nice around and I’m really enjoying driving it. I also looked at a mint condition Mazda RX-8 but it sold before I could make a decision.

On the TV series scene, I’m up-to-date with Dexter, South Park, Stargate Atlantis and Terminator. I’ve heard very mixed opinions on the Terminator TV series but I’ve really enjoyed it so far. Naturally Dexter is as awesome as ever. Stargate Atlantis is very up and down, one week its utter pants and the next its quite good. Also, Jewel Staite is in Stargate now, so I can’t stop watching it. Same goes for Summer Glau in Terminator

I need to catch up on Prison Break, Jericho and Heroes when I have some spare time. Also, Battlestar is back!

You may notice some spacing problems in this post, it’s the first time I’ve really tried to include several images and it appears Word Press has a designer bug. Anyone know how to fix it? I’ve tried doing it in the HTML and havent had much luck.

Bear with me, am in the process of changing hosting and domain registrar.