Slapout Tech

My old Toshiba laptop was starting to wear out (it had been doing double duty ever since the motherboard went out on my desktop machine.) The screen hinges were wore out requiring a hand to hold the screen up or something to prop it on. And the CD/DVD drive had given out long ago. I need a computer for school work, so I started looking around. I happened to check one of the Black Friday websites looking to see if there were going to be any deals on the day after Thanksgiving. I ran into an ad for a pre-Thanksgiving special with a Dell for $399. After customizing it somewhat, my total was around $670 (with free shipping.) As an added bonus, I could get it was XP instead of Vista. (Although the upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro itself added $100.)

I finished reading Code Complete a couple of weeks ago. It's a very good book for developers. You'd think a book that just seems to cover some basic stuff (like naming variables) would be boring or not very insightful. But it covers each topic so well and makes you see stuff you probably hadn't thought about. I'm already applying things I've learned to the code I write. (Like keeping variable declarations close to the area they're used. ) And it's not just about the small stuff either. It has chapters that cover programming tools, testing, collaboration and even personal character and the effects it has on your code. Now, the only thing left on my Becoming a Better Developer list is to finish my Simple Shooter game. (I've still got two months before the self imposed deadline.)

I've recently mentioned that in the next six months I wanted to write a simple game. This is what I have so far. Right now it's code named "Simple Shooter." It's currently being developed in C using the Allegro game programming library. The graphics are from Ari Feldman's SpriteLib GPL and the sound effects are from the freesound project .

Last month I posted about Justice Gray’s meme of Becoming a Better Developer . I posted what I was going to do in the next six months to become a better developer and challenged four of my friends to do the same. Here’s what they said: Brian Whittington : My goal is to “upgrade” my existing skills to take full advantage of the .Net 2.0 Framework. I’m still stuck in the 1.1 Framework mindset, at least to some degree (I’m still using datagrids!). Also, I want to begin using and researching SQL 2005 more so that I am more comfortable using it. I’ve been using SQL 2000 for so long it’s kind of my comfort blanket and I need to move on. Also also, I want to use better OOP techniques in my code. I’ll probably find some good books and go from there. As for myself and where I am: I’m on chapter 23 (out of 35) of Code Complete . And I’m on the last chapter of Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design . My game is coming along as well (though it has been a few weeks since I worked on it....

I just wanted to use a listbox. How hard could that be? Harder than I thought: I’ve recently decided to try my hand at writing programs for Windows Mobile Smartphones. I had an idea for a program and wanted to see if I could use the Compact Framework 2.0 and get it to work. One of the main components of my program is a list. So, not surprisingly, I wanted to use a listbox. But it turns out that the version of the Compact Framework for Smartphones doesn’t have a listbox control. So, I figured: “Oh well, I’ll just have to use a listview control set to List mode.” (I first met listview controls in VB 6; didn’t like ‘em then and I’m still not too fond of ‘em now. I guess I never cared for the way they handle multicolumn lists – I found subitems to be a pain. But for this project I just needed a single column list.) Now, in regular .Net a listbox control can hold objects -- as long as the objects implement a .ToString() method. The listbox uses this method to determine what to display in th...

I recently read a blog post by Justice Gray where he discussed what he plans to do to become a better software developer. His theory was that if he made his plans public, he would be more likely to follow thru with them. He personally decided to read 27 software development books before October 2007. I don't see how he could possibly absorb everything by reading that fast. But the idea of another technique to become a better developer appealed to me. I consider myself a professional and am always trying to improve my skills. Unfortunately, since I'm not a popular tech blogger, there is no one to tag me. So I'm going to go ahead and tag myself :-) Here are the things I'm going to do in the next six months to become a better developer: #1) Read. I'm currently reading Code Complete and Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design . I am committed to finishing them in the next six months. #2) Write a simple game I've always wanted to create games, but never got ...

My MythTV Journey, Part 11 Ok, I now have the beginnings of a working MythTV system. I can pause live TV and start it back. There are, however, still several things to be worked out: Sound - Something's wrong with the sound output from the system. It sounds attenuated. I don't know if it's my sound cable or a setting in the system. Cables - Some of my cables don't quite reach :-) I need to get some longer ones. Can't change channels - I'm using a DirecTv satellite box so I can't change channels yet. I have to either configure the IR Blaster that came with the PVR150 or aquire a serial blaster cable. I hope to be able to just build the serial blaster cable. Overscan - the picture on the TV is square but my TV isn't. It has sides that are curved out. I believe there is a setting in MythTv to adjust this. Colors - the colors don't seem quite as bright when I run the signal thru the computer. I'll have to see if I can adjust them. Program Guide ...