Slapout Tech

Some people think I'm crazy for keeping old computer magazines. But despite the fact that things in the computing world move so fast, some things do stay the same. And sometimes it's fun to look back and see what has changed (and what hasn't). Earlier today I ran across a copy of PC Pro from November 1998 -- ten years ago. The inside front cover is a Dell ad. Later there's a review of Lotus SmartSuite Millennium Edition. (Remember when 2000 was approaching and everyone was tacking "2000" or "millennium" to the end of their product names?) There's a large article on the recently released Windows 98 including a sidebar about multiple monitor support. Page 309 talks about Gigabit Ethernet. Further on there's an overview of KDE -- version 1. The "Leisure" section mentions a Star Wars game based on the upcoming Episode One movie. Mech Commander received 5 out of 6 stars. Towards the end there's also a Dilbert comic. (Wow, Dilbert’s ...

It's the 21st century. There are some technologies you'd think we would have by now. The one most people think about is flying cars. We don't have (readily available) flying cars. But I think that's probably for the best -- we can barely handle the non-flying kind. But the technology I don't understand why we don't have is a machine that will wash clothes and then dry them. We've had cars for less than two hundred years. But we've been washing and drying clothes for millennia. It's a problem that affects almost everyone--poorest to richest. You should simply be able to put in your dirty clothes in one machine, have them be washed and dried and then come out clean. It's a simple concept, so why don't we have them yet?

Remember when... ...PDAs used regular batteries (AAs usually)? ...BASIC had line numbers? ...computer magazines published type-in programs? ...a box of floppy disks cost $20? ...Atari made computers? ...2400 baud was high speed? ...going online meant dialing up a local BBS? ...hard drives were an optional accessory? ...printer paper came with tractor feed holes? ...computers only ran one program at a time?

They say that if you have an older TV you don't have to worry about the digital switchover coming next year. This is because you can just get a converter box. But what about all the handheld TVs out there?

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 .