Moths...

I finally got my phone's photo blogging feature to work, so i'm now posting all my pics i want to now.
These moths were just a little smaller than my hand... Unfortunately i don't have one where their (there were several) wings were opened more.

Cape town CBD tree hugger

This to me was just so cool. The tree was obviously put there a while back, and my best guess is because of prodominant wind forces it grew less straight than the original planters had hoped. What really caused me to take the picture, was the way the tree engulfs the barrier.

Test

Test

Black holes

http://www.thinktechnologies.com/portfolio/demos/Blackhole.html

I found this using StumbleUpon! and I thought it was awesome. I now understand much more, and it's a really cool flash (I think) learning experience.

By the way. I've now created a DaringApprentice blog, so I'll not be posting any more Daring Apprentice news here.

Testing the email blogging feature

<<Screenshot1.jpg>>

I am testing how the picture email blogging works, and just using a DA screenshot to do it.  (Old one at that!)

No action on svn...

Yes... I've not posted another release recently. And here's why:

• I've been seriously busy with work lately, but I think it will slow down in the next couple of weeks, so I'll get some extra time on it.
• I've been assessing how to improve my model of the network communication, to be sending "objects" instead of a stringstream through.
• I'm chatting to Almindor (#lnet@irc.freenode.org) who will hopefully help me get that on track.

So I'll be posting my progress here, and letting you know on how things are shaping up.

Daring Apprentice revision 76

Revision 76:
M : Changed the way "messages" were handled.
M : New tokens are immediately available on the dropdown after creation.
M : Changed Type2 decks to be really type 2.
UM : The deck/SB/RFG/Graveyard has moved
UF : You can now save the last camera coordinates and zoom
M : Some table creation on the server has been written

I guess the most important changes here are the fact that I now have actual Type 2 decks with it. :-)

I also moved the position of the deck/sb/ etc. to free up more space on the table, which I guess is significant.

Yeah... on the serverside... I am realising now why I've been setting it away... it's hard. :-)

I am creating the structures on the serverside at the moment, so nothing "visible" is happening (well with network stuff are never really visible), but I am working on the networking, and I have a second PC to my disposal which will hopefully make testing easier...

So hopefully within the next couple of releases you'll be able to upload your deck to the server... then hopefully in the next following those, we'll get the you to draw cards, and play them and so on... :-)

Then we'll implement it feature by feature...

Abe Sargent of the Kitchen table references Daring Apprentice

It is at best, just a quick reference, but it is an excellent prospect... although there isn't any actual links to any of the software mentioned. So I'll ask him to insert it, but I don't know if he can/will.

I should eat that frog and start getting multiplayer working. :-)

Programming DA...

I want to possibly change this blog a bit, towards something like the guy who does MTG Forge's blog.

I'll talk here about things I struggle to overcome, and how I did (or did not) overcome them.

Today, I'll discuss my "TfrmStringlist". This is my window that displays the graveyard/RFG/SB/Deck/"Top X cards" of the deck.

At the moment though... it displays only one of the above mentioned and that includes both players.

Only one window... that's the rule.

This can eventually become a problem though... as you may want to view your own, and your opponents graveyard to make a choice (etc.).

One solution I can think of at the moment is to have 1 of these per player (this will alleviate the above mentioned problem) but then you still can't view your graveyard and deck at the same time.

The next is to have 1 for each zone per player... this will be very memory intensive though, and I want to keep Daring Apprentice very "lightweight". :-/

Anyway, I'll let you know what I decided.

Daring Apprentice revision 75

Lots of work, especially on the deck editor has gone in, but also important is that you can now play dredge decks a lot easier.

One of my objectives are to at least include 1 client/server item per release, so I get it done. It's my frog.

Please comment on the bolded change... I have no idea if there is ways in magic to send cards to the "non-owners" hand/deck/SB etc. (How does Booby trap work?)

If anyone reading this has got a del.icio.us or a digg account, please go ahead. :-)

Revision 75:
Fix : (Deckeditor) Deleting a card should not give an error.
Fix : (Deckeditor) After loading a deck, the cardtotals will now refresh.
UF : (Deckeditor) TAB doesn't stop in the card's oracle anymore.
Fix : (Main) Discarding the whole hand doesn't crash the game anymore.
M : (Server) Implemented a rudamentary Player and table type.
UF : Hand and token windows will now display the current player's name in the caption
M : Cards that are moved to zones, are now moved to their OWNER's zones, and not their Controller's.
This implies you cannot send something he doesn't own to his hand/grave/rfg/top of deck etc.
(PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THIS SHOULD BE SO?!)
Fix : Zones now update even if they are open while you send cards there.

Daring Apprentice revision 70

Revision 70:
UA : Alt-S in the deckeditor now adds a card to the sideboard
UA : (Option) You can set the max length (in chars) of the card name (before going adding "...") (Default = 15) (0 = Show everything)
U : Cards are now created not so close to each other.
U : Tokens are created next to each other just as normal cards.
U : You can now create your own token types... (you'll have to edit the Options.ini file).
MB : Tried to fix some memory leaks...
BUG : Icons are loaded until one breaks it... currently on my machine I get none... :-( (I think this came in 69 already)
UA : If you shift-click on the "Set Life" button (on the toolbar) you'll get "Adjust life by:" instead of "Set life to:".
M : Changed the shuffling a bit. (Technically, just shuffling a bit more "systematic")

I can take 21 five year old kids

21

Inno Setup

Inno Setup is probably the leader when it comes to installers.

And it's open source too.

If you ever want to distribute your own creations, Inno is for me the best there is.

Written in Delphi, it's keeping up with the world, being compatible with *gasp* even Vista... Not even Vista is compatible with Vista. So that' s saying a lot.

Daring Apprentice Solo mode (alpha) is out

Daring Apprentice, has developed in leaps and bounds, and are now actually useful!

(Yeah!)

One issue is still lingering on the Deck editor (and maybe lots more?), but further than that the tabletop is coming along really well, and solo mode testing is here!

If you're into Magic: The Gathering (mtg) then go grab it!

The latest SVN are available at http://opensvn.csie.org/DaringApprentice

Enjoy!

A grapetiser

Basic Instructions to whatever...

I just want to say, that Basic Instructions is a really cool cartoon that I recently found on the web. I've added it to my RSS feed, and there is lots of cool humour there.

It can be found at www.basicinstructions.net

South Africa should follow suit!

Scott Adams told me about this story, and I have to agree with him.

If in South Africa we gave the death penalty to all the government officials that took bribes that cost lives, then we probably wouldn't have much of a cabinet left.

I think it's high time SA started taking a much firmer stance on corruption.

Scott Adams also says this:
3. I’d be amazed if the death penalty deterred anyone who was in the frame of mind of committing a heinous crime.

This is very interesting to me, and it is a reason that a lot of people give for pro-death penalty debates. But I have to agree that those people that are already in a frame of mind that they can kill, are probably not thinking clearly enough to do take these things into consideration.

Sharks vs. Bulls

Well, I am actually a neutral.

But to me, the Bulls played extremely harsh, and I think they were really fortunate to not to have had two yellow cards against them.

Had Habanna got the yellow for the really, really, harsh tackle initially, the game could've looked a lot different.

Had Bakkies received the yellow for a really (but not as harsh as Habanna's) bad high tackle in front of the referee, the game would also have been the shark's.

The last Bull's move included a forward pass, and hands to get the free ball. However, the sharks did not use the oppertunities that they had, and in a way that doesn't make the deserved winners. But on the day, and through the season, I felt the sharks were better, and I would've liked to see them win it.

HOTORNOT I hate you!

I've been had... I was really stupid and didn't read, and clicked too quickly.

Bottom line is, everyone on my Gmail address book has been mailed inviting them to HotOrNot. How evil is that? I am pretty sure I've sent my boss an email from Gmail before (I'll be lucky if I never had).

I am so embarrassed... So, my humblest and most sincere apologies if you got an invite to HotOrNot from me. I will remove myself now... Hey... that's not a bad idea...

Hmmm I am not seeing an option for deleting, but I am now "inactive". :-/

UFO: Alien Invasion releases version 2.1.1

Well... the last version was almost a game. I hope this one will be almost complete.

I know it's got lots of music and lots of cool graphics. It seems they may have implemented the 3d geoscape, but I am yet to confirm it. (Downloading... ... ... ...)

If you have a strong connection and the 260mb download doesn't stop you, I am sure you'll be amazed at this game.

I'll post again as I get it downloaded. (or if I get it from one of you guys)