Messages

101

Developer's Corner / Re: GUIDs... Conservation is the key

« on: January 28, 2010, 12:50 PM »

Yes.  We must conserve!!

Download this Bumper Sticker and plaster it everywhere you can.





*This is about the extent of my Photoshop skills 

102

Living Room / Re: Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

« on: January 28, 2010, 11:49 AM »

There is one particular grammar mistake that really irks me: a/an usage.

People that misuse them tend to fall into 2 groups:

Native English speakers that tend to overuse "a".

• Examples: a apple, a egg, a ice cream cone, a octopus, a umbrella

Non-native English speakers that tend to overuse "an".

• Examples: an ball, an computer, an shirt.

The native English speakers bother me more than the non-native ones, since this is something you should have learned early on in grammar school.

-app103 (January 02, 2010, 09:46 AM)

I agree.
The other one that 'irks' me even more is Me  versus I
All through grade school the teachers were pounding into the students, "Mary and I go to the market".

Yet, today, I cringe when I hear a statement like, "At the party it will only be William and I"
Subject versus* Predicate.


*Writing this post reminded me of two more (seen in written language):
per say  (to mean per se)
verses  (to represent versus)

And then there is the ubiquitous, "ect."  Which shouldn't be a problem for anyone who has worked on the command line in Unix

103

Living Room / Re: Tech Talk: Linus Torvalds on git

« on: January 28, 2010, 11:44 AM »

... I've never seen git in action.

-zridling (January 28, 2010, 06:42 AM)

Let me encourage all who read this to give it a try.  Coming from the same world as many of you (Subversion, etc) I feel like I have wasted a lot of time and effort clinging to what was 'comfortable' and 'familiar'.
Now I am a big zealot for git and use it in many different ways.

</soapbox>

104

Developer's Corner / Re: What's your *favorite* programming language and *why* ?

« on: January 27, 2010, 06:41 PM »

When asked, in job interviews, if I can code in VB my reply is usually:
"Yes.  But I always wash my hands afterwards"

I would like to say that I enjoy many languages.  When I spend much time with Javascript I enjoy it.
Recently, my work has forced me to do a lot with C# and I must give Microsoft proper credit for creating a language with the right 'feel' and not too much baggage.
But if I was cornered to name one language as a true favorite it would be Ruby.

105

Living Room / Re: Bad Code Offset

« on: January 27, 2010, 04:02 PM »

Thanks, Eóin.
I just fixed that.

106

General Software Discussion / Re: post-screenshot editor, torn edge in between, and highlight lines

« on: January 27, 2010, 01:38 PM »

I use screen capture a lot and have experimented with many.
SnagIt has an impressive number of features (including what you are asking) and a reasonable cost.
Of course, it is ONLY for Windows 

107

General Software Discussion / Re: Red Hat launches OpenSource.com

« on: January 26, 2010, 12:06 PM »

Following Sun's lead?

108

Living Room / Re: Book: Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)

« on: January 26, 2010, 12:04 PM »

[dark humor]

According to the index the list doesn't look to be that tame as people suggest.

However, what is the deal with nr 10? Is that 'playing with the vacuum cleaner' or '"playing" with the vacuum cleaner'?

But better yet, it would be better to let them experiment several of the items at once. Like (19)standing on a roof from a building with a lot of public (29) wearing your self-made sparking flying machine (24) falling into a dumpster (33) that is filled with gasoline (45) and glass (47).

Nah, I would finish the book way too fast...like maybe two or three regular Friday nights or so. 

P.S.
Hmm, maybe I finish it at once if could borrow someone else's kids 

[/dark humor]

-Shades (January 25, 2010, 11:23 PM)

That would also seriously limit the repeat-sales of the book.

109

General Software Discussion / Re: Generic Card/Board Game Prototyping and Playtesting Tools

« on: January 26, 2010, 12:01 PM »

I love this train of thought!
First, let me say that I am a huge board-gamer.  Much of my spare time is spent playing board games (and card games) with my wife and, often, our adult children and their spouses.

I have been tinkering with DXStudio for a number of different purposes.  But, one oustanding idea has been to build PC games with a 'board game' feel.  In other words, turn-based play where decisions must be made as opposed to the popular "run around and shoot anything that comes in sight".

For the 'layout of assets' and testing without gameplay rules, I think the GUI toolset in the editor of DXStudio would work well.


If you venture over to their site you will see that I am very active in the forums and the wiki.

110

Living Room / Bad Code Offset

« on: January 25, 2010, 09:54 AM »

Since the idea of donations is central to this site, I wanted to share The Bad Code Offset project with my fellow coders and software architects.
This was the brain-child of Alex who operates The Daily WTF*

Although a bit tongue-in-cheek, the real mission of The Bad Code Offset is to provide incentives to those who write outstanding software code.  It is not possible to correct or erradicate poor programming practices.  We cannot 'cure the disease' of bad software design.  But, in a bit of "Pay it Forward" manner, we help support Open-Source projects that deserve recognition.

I am a proud member and encourage those here who (like me) are gainfully employed as software developers to consider helping out.

</soapbox>

*If you are unaware of TheDailyWTF I am very pleased to have introduced you to it.  It is part of my daily list of sites to view.

111

Developer's Corner / Re: Resources for learning git?

« on: January 25, 2010, 08:48 AM »

OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK OK 

I got it. I am now changing everything over to git. 

I am 24 minutes into a 1 hour 10 minute talk by God Linus Torvalds about git and I am thoroughly embarrassed to have resisted this long. I now understand that I stuck with SVN because I was comfortable with SVN. I am a moron. (I'm not joking here. I am complete serious.) 

I will begin moving all my projects to git, one by one, as I work on them.

-tinjaw (January 24, 2010, 12:26 PM)

Don't be so hard on yourself.  We all must learn to overcome the "comfortable".

It is great to see another 'convert'  <g>
BTW: Take a look a this recent thread {written by a truly brilliant new member who's intellect is only overshadowed by his humility}

112

Developer's Corner / Re: Python Language Annoyances

« on: January 25, 2010, 08:43 AM »

In my experience (spanning 30+ years, with over a dozen different languages) EVERY language/OS/protocol has its own peculiar annoyances.
Of course, each has its strengths and I like calling upon a particular "solution" based on how well it will address the "problem" at hand.
I appreciate the variety from which to choose.

Remember, "The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from"

113

Developer's Corner / Re: Like gitHub, but better

« on: January 23, 2010, 05:13 PM »

My rough understanding of the idea being presented is (assuming you have git installed locally):

Set Up
Get Dropbox account (on their service) and client installed (on your local machine)
You now have some local folder which gets synced automatically w/ the Dropbox service
Create your git repositories within/under the folder in question (can be shared via the Dropbox service w/ other users)

Use
Use git as usual(?)

Does that sound about right?

-ewemoa (January 23, 2010, 02:35 AM)

Yes. That is a very good characterization (Reader's Digest Condensed Version) of the video presentation.
Dropbox is a free service.  As you said, your 'local' folders are synchronized with their server.  All data is stored in encrypted form.  You have control over sharing of any folders.  The data is under version control and Dropbox allows you to revert to previous versions - a bit redundant and unnecessary in this particular application.

Because git is file-based, the repository can be stored in one of these Dropbox folders.  As has been mentioned, where you traditionally "push" your updates (commits and branches) to a server - in a client-server relationship - this schema I outlined in the video allows you to utilize the Dropbox in place of a traditional server.

The services available for "server-based" git repositories, like github, cost money (with github you can host for free but it remains public).
The schema presented in the video uses all free facilities.

114

Developer's Corner / Re: Assemblee: Indie Game Design Competition

« on: January 22, 2010, 08:48 PM »

This looks really interesting.  Is it an annual event?
I have been working on a few game-like projects in DXStudio; which provides some great tools to access DirectX and uses EMCA-compliant Javascript as it's coding engine.

Visit DXShowcase.com to see some small projects created with the engine.

115

Developer's Corner / Re: Resources for learning git?

« on: January 22, 2010, 08:41 PM »

I am a big fan of git.  Look at this thread I started just the other day.
I highly recommend the Pro Git book, but it may be a bit too deep as a first introduction.
I found a lot of valuable information in Branching and Merging with git.  This is one of those articles I find myself returning to read often; each time learning something new!
There is also a lot of great information in the online Help at github.

116

Developer's Corner / Re: Like gitHub, but better

« on: January 22, 2010, 08:14 AM »

I don't disagree with you, F0dder.  And every tool should be used for its specific strengths.
For open-source (public, read-only access) projects git seems to be gaining popularity quickly.
In the scenario you described, the ability to distribute "patches" as an email attachment is a handy feature in git.

This is not a general discussion about Version Control systems (is it CVS or VCS or both?)

As my 'entry' to this group, I wanted to make a contribution.  And so, the video is my first showpiece.
Thank you for the warm welcome (and intellectual banter) to this group.

117

Developer's Corner / Re: Like gitHub, but better

« on: January 21, 2010, 06:45 PM »

The Windows "emulation" (MsysGit) is quite good.  It is used in much of the video.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with git, I would like to say this:
 

•   git is unlike other CVS (subversion, sourcesafe, etc) and it can be a bit intimidating.
•   In order to use git properly you need to let go of any old habits from SVN or Subversion
•   After using them all, I honestly believe git is better.  The strength comes from the fact that it is primarily 'local' and file-based.  At first that sounds like a limitation, but is really quite an outstanding strength.

I will not try to describe git here because there are numerous resources on the web.  My first recommendation is this great blog entry, followed by ProGit (free book online).

Traditionally, in order to use git with remote access you need nothing more than a Linux server (most free/cheap hosting) with SSH access and an instance of git installed.  There are a few places, like github, where you can store repositories for free as long as they are public.  I had some stuff I wanted to keep to myself - yet needed to collaborate with other developers.
This video demonstrates a method I devised whereby you can HAVE IT ALL and PAY NOTHING.

Thank you for your feedback.

118

Developer's Corner / Like gitHub, but better

« on: January 19, 2010, 08:44 PM »

I am very proud of this idea.
I created a video that explains how to create your own remote git instance, without a server (no web hosting required) for FREE.
No fuss.  You can control access to multiple repositories.  Better than gitHub.  Better than Unfuddle.
Check out the video.

I encourage comments.

EDIT: A more detailed description is located further down in this thread.