I have a powerbook that is less than a year old and looks like a broken down jalopy compared to the new MacBooks. I was going to buy my wife an iBook someday; but screw that; she can have this clunker and I’ll get me a new MacBook. the MagSafe is very cool, built in iSight, 256 video card, brighter display.. have I mentioned how much i want one. the one thing I haven’t seen and I’ve seen a lot of people asking about is what is the battery life like ? I’ve seen a lot of speculations that is still about 2 hours like the Powerbooks, it will be interesting to seen the product review when the come out.
ps. did I mention I want one ?

Well my Christmas surprise was a bit less exciting. Or at least not in a good way. My beloved PowerBook (my main computer) suffered a hardware failure of the GPU. This rendered (haha get it rendering) it unusable as a notebook, since the only way to use it now is to login remotely from a different machine. typing this now from my sisters iMac (thus the lack of login cause I keep all my passwords on that machine). Anyhow, thus throws a wrench into the works since I was planning on finishing up the vertex manager in one final push while I was on vacation. It also leaves me somewhat computerless… or rather as a computer begger trying to borrow time of of friend’s and family’s computers. It also leaves me trying t decide if I should just grab a quick/cheap replacement and hope for some exciting announcement in January, or if I should invest in one of those oh-so pretty current gen PowerBooks and ride out the Intel transition untill the dust settles. Decisions decisions. Ahh well, hope you enjoy that PSP, think what kind of surprises you *could* have had

PS I moved this from a comment to an actual post since I’ve moved my home folder onto my wife’s computer, and now can get online again! Man that was harsh being totally computerless… now I have to deal with *sharing* a computer, could be rough

-SDZ

merry christmas! I hope everyone is having excellent holidays. I’m just making a quick post before I succumb to my turkey induced coma. I am off all this week so I am planning on getting some work done on the saver. I been looking at the new .net 2.0 managed c++ stuff. I think it will definitely help of the windows dev side. I just hope I can keep away from my new psp (you rock wife!). It’s a cool device my only complaint so far is the sound is the sux0r!. the browser that comes with the 2.0 firmware is pretty neat, I almost made this post with it but it would have been new years by the I got this typed up. all right sleep beckons.

merry christmas to all and to all a good night

As you all know I’ve been really stalled on the vertex manager code. I don’t even want to tell you when I started on it, and at this point I’m glad the old blog entries from that far back aren’t currently online, cause it’s just embarrassing. But I’ve been reading about this new technique that I decided to try and see if it would help me through this. I’ve been reading a lot and it seems this technique, its called ‘work’, can be very effective. Anyway the long and the short of it is that I sat down and got about half of the outstanding work on the vertex manager done. I feel pretty dumb for taking this long, it was all pretty simple when I got down to it. I should be able to polish off the rest before too long. Then the question becomes what next? I really feel the AI needs a redo, but that involves much more of a research project. Most of the effects rendering is hopelessly naive and could stand a rewrite for efficiency (currently most of the system load comes from rendering). I’ve been reading up on an interesting approach to a set of mathematical optimizations… except most of the systems that would speed up currently aren’t that slow (relatively speaking of course). And all this is not to mention the number of features we still have on the todo list (missiles anyone?). Jebus and I have been talking about going through the code and seriously vectorizing it. Which would be both useful and interesting. So there’s a good chance that will be the next order of business. Honestly I’m not sure how much of anything I’ll get done over the holidays… but I’m hoping for a couple of quiet days that can include some quality time with the old notebook. Hopefully work will settle down a bit more after the new year so I can put some more time to the saver, and try and keep up with Joe. Oh and speaking of work… everyone should go out and buy an Xbox360… and a bunch of EA games… it’s a well known fact that Madden… uhh… prevents tooth decay…sure.


-SDZ

Hi all, it’s been too long since either of us has posted so I thought I’d post something. Joe and I have been working on camera system improvements and we’ve been making a lot of progress. Which I’ve been using an excuse to still not work on my stupid vertex manager… Now I want rant at you. I’ve been reading a lot of really stupid stuff about Sony recently. Don’t get me wrong I am no fan of DRM. It’s not that I’m against the sale of content or software… I particularly believe in programmers getting paid. My issue is that I believe copy protection should *not* inconvenience your actual paying customers. That seems to be the one crucial test that every DRM system I know of fails. As if it wasn’t bad enough that they tend to treat the paying customers like criminals, its generally only the paying customers who are significantly inconvenienced. Those who obtain the items without paying tend to find themselves never having to worry about CD checks, validations, codes, security holes or other annoyances. Ok this is turning into a rant on the problems with DRM, but thats not where I’m going here. I think the DRM rootkit that Sony/BMG slipped onto peoples computers is horrendous. But I find it funny how people are venting their anger by saying they now won’t buy a PS3. What’s funny is how big a company Sony is makes this statement somewhat like saying because you disagree with how the US department of Agriculture handles farm subsidies you intend to boycott NASA. While it’s true both organizations are part of the same government, they really have nothing in common. And if you’re thinking that Sony is evil… well the other options are Microsoft… and Nintendo. Well Nintendo has been known to take a pro censorship anti fair use policy, as well as having some monopolistic tendencies. My point is don’t try and find virtue in consumerism, but if you do want a video game console then pick the one that looks good to you. On a mostly unrelated note I’d be really interested to hear your opinions of the new Xbox 360.
-SDZ

This really isn’t screensaver related but I simply had to share this. Yes once again NASA has produced something ground breaking and unexpected. In this case really unexpected. It appears that the Goddard Space Flight Center has been working on a ballet. I suspect it’s that great ballet “Beauty and the Huge Robo-Wang“. No really, tell me I’m wrong about this one!
-SDZ

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy International Day of Strati. Although it’s occasionally also known as No Day. It is nice to know that *somewhere* my birthday actually is a national holiday. Sadly I don’t really have anything to say beyond this blatant and pointless self aggrandizement. Though really, isn’t that enough. One other good thing that should happen is that Joe should regain his Mac-hood today, which should bode well for the saver. Cause we all know what my rate of progress on that front has been lately. I am *preparing* to get some interesting things done. Aside from the vertex system update… that I am now really stalling on for no real reason… I’ve also been doing some research on a new AI system that I’m pretty excited about. But honestly I’ve been derailed on that too. Lately I’ve been mostly been reading though. I’ve been reading up on Lua which might have some screen saver applications, also I’ve been reading up on an approach to trig which uses quadratic formula in place of the normal transcendental trig functions. This could have lead to some serious optimizations. Though at this point really the worst performance bottleneck is probably my old and rather naive rendering routines. So when you add all of that to what Joe is doing with sound you … uhh … you get work being done on sound. Ah well.
-SDZ

My laptop has been in for service since Saturday. The RAM decided to go bad and I have to wait until a new stick comes in from Apple. I am using windows to post this right now and god I miss my mac. Before I got my mac I could live with windows it is what I was use to, but now; I hate it with every fibre of my being it just feels to unnatural to use. I hate how apps can steal focus, I despise the taskbar and loathe the start button. gah. why is it just so frustrating to use?!.

Ah yes video games are evil because they have violence, and there are some really bad ones. Which of course extends to movies are evil. As is radio, books, poetry, plays, photography, oil paintings, dance, wood carvings, and of course clouds… I saw one of them clouds that looked exactly like a bunny being hit by a truck! If that’s not violent I don’t know what is. And it’s not like there is any way for parents to know what kind of video game they are buying. There are no pictures of the game play or descriptions of it on the box itself. There are no sites or magazines that review or discuss video games. And there is no sort of ratings system clearly indicating which games are not appropriate for young children. And exposing a child to a video game for even one second will turn them into a stab happy, blood gargling maniac! I mean it’s not like there are a lot complex causes for violence in society. What I wonder is, since it’s clear violence is caused by video games and not socioeconomic factors, not the cultural glorification of aggression, not uncontrolled anger or a lack of discipline, and certainly not anything that parents themselves teach or fail to teach. Then where did they get all those video games in Chicago of the ’20s and Europe in the ’40s let alone during the Inquisition and the Crusades? Boy violent crime rates must just be sky-rocketing these days what with the popularity of video games, especially among youths! (you’ll need to scroll down a bit for that last one)…. no? Thats odd…

Well, I hereby call Jack Thompson a media whoring attention slut. I hope this will be enough to get me my own threatening letter from JT, after all I don’t want to be the ONLY person even vaguely related to the game industry to not have one. I hear at E3 2006 you’ll be able to trade Jack Thompson threat/insult letters for credit on all merchandise.

-SDZ

I am sure if you read video game related web comics you know who Jack Thompson is. That guy definitely has a few screws loose.
Kudos to Penny Arcade for donating the ten thousand dollars to charity that ( in Jack’s name no less ) we all Jack had no intention of doing even if it was “satire”.
I am not entirely sure of what Jack hopes to accomplish with his campaign against video games. Are some video games violent and inappropriate for children? Yes. Is the governments responsibility that minors can’t play, watch someone play or be with in a thirty foot radius of a violent video game ? No. Here in Canada it is pretty simple want to buy a ESRB M rated game you need to be 18. I think that stores do have some responsibility that they shouldn’t be selling M rated games to kids under 18 same as R rated movies and cigarettes and what not. Now if little Billy convinces his mommy that getting him GTA is good idea who’s fault is that ? And the excuse “I didn’t know what it was before I bought it” is total crap. How hard would be to ask guy at the counter if this game is appropriate for my 10 year old ? Gah! so much ignorance must end tirade ….