Oopsie - Sunday

Yeah, I went to bed rather late Saturday, but it's for a REALLY good reason. I got up on Saturday as usual, did WoA, since it is a special turn it only took me a couple of hours and was much better than usual. To make it better yet, Huw came over and we discussed a load of cool ideas for WoA. After Huw left, the Java was missing the following features. Stalemate Castling Networking Not TOO much of a problem, it'll get a pass mark for sure, heck, from what I've heard most people are not doing checkmate itself (we're not required to, it is very hard to do). I got stuck on the Networking thing and so went over to Steve's house and until 0200 we puzzled our way through it and gave up in frustration. He had done a Chess game two years ago and his help was very useful. Sunday morning dawns bright and early, I collected Becca then Siän and no, I can't tell you what the service was about because I was helping the Discoverers group. It's the 5 - 11 year old group that go out during the service. It was really nice to be able to help out and rewarding too. After the service I walked home and worked on Java a lot. I played a little Warcraft but for the most part did Java. I went to the Hackers house for afternoon tea and it was VERY nice, no vegetable score (maybe that's why it was so nice!). This evening's service I felt tired, sleepy and I think I came close to fainting a few times because it was very hot in there. As such I don't think I got the full impact of the message, about making sure you're rooted in Christ with some stuff about persecution in other countries. Why would you persecute a Christian simply because they are one? Surely by doing that you are acknowledging that there is something different about them? I walked Sarah, India and Becca home, though Sarah gave Becca a lift once we got to Sarah's house and India lives just round the corner from me. The chess game now looks somewhat better and impliments everything bar networking, but that's because of a bug of some sort and I have provided code that proves that everything bar a very small bit works, I should be able to scavenge most of the marks from it for that. I've also added a debug mode to show what the program is thinking. There's only one thing left to do (well two really) for Java. First make sure it works on the Uni computers, talking to Gareth it should, he had to change something windows specific so I should be okay. The second thing is to add some stuff to my log-book, it's a little too spartan for my liking.

Worthless rubbish? - Friday

Today was spent doing one of three thigns. 1 - Playing Warcraft three (not much) 2 - Java (It now only needs the networking and it's done, I spent a lot of time looking for a networking tutorial and have yet to find a good one, I did of course completely forget to actually get the examples Ionnais gave us so I will try those tomorrow) 3 - Downloading cool stuff for my Mac Clearly only number 3 is going to be of real interest as besides telling you it doesn't look atrocious the Chess project is a bit naff in terms of blogging. Cool stuff for my Mac? Well, here is a list of some of the stuff I've gotten for it (all for free of course). Tilt Pong - I play it by tilting the laptop from side to side, who needs a mouse or keyboard when you have tilt sensors. For some reason I don't see myself playing this one a lot... Macsaber - I move the laptop around and it makes lightsaber noises Quartz Desktop - I already had something that played screensavers as a desktop background, now I have one that plays stuff that's half screen-saver half movie. Some of the effects are very nice. Of course, it's not a good plan if you're trying to concentrate and glowing stars of colour appear all over the place so I've not used it much Safari - Yeah, this comes with the Mac but I tried it and not only is it about 10 times faster than Firefox (and lets face it, you can never be too fast, on a computer like this one you really notice that extra second of load time) it also is much nicer for RSS feeds which I find myself using more and more. Specifically with RSS feeds it will display all of them and sort them by date. Oh, it can also pause downloads, automatically open Disk Images and even display Quartz Screensavers in it's window when I want to preview them before downloading! Time Lapse Screensaver - This one isn't even quartz, it uses the built in webcam to take pictures at given intervals and then plays them back, I plan sometime to leave it going and take a few hours of stuff so you can see what I do. The problem is that 1 - I am ugly, 2 - The light receptivity of the camera is not amazing and the pictures don't look that great. So, now you know what the interesting part of the day was taken up by. Still, I'm happy with today as the java is almost done and Chris told me that he'd done a load of the Digital too. This is good indeed.

Missed a Beat - Thursday

Well, the reason I didn't blog yesterday was because there was a problem with my internet, I spent twenty minutes today fixing it (with Pete's help). Wednesday involved a Java lecture where we (as a class) did a mock test. I scored 80% and reckon I can improve on that score. Later I helped setup for the open day then left to do some last minute revision for an exam I dislike. The exam itself however went better than I expected (hey, I prayed for it, what did you expect to happen?). I got to go up the Spinnaker Tower for free as part of being a tour guide, it's very high up, a very nice view and on the lowest viewing platform there is a section of glass floor. I walked across it and despite the fact that the glass is probably bullet proof and my reaction speed enough to grab a banister at the slightest sign of a crack, it was very unnerving. I also got about 30 packs of cookies (for a total of 60 cookies), a handful of sugar sachets, a litre of orange juice and also free food for most of the day. Not too bad methinks, oh, I was also paid for it in the region of £50. Lauren and I were the only ones in that evening so we had chicken (I had lots of vegetables at the insistence of Lauren). We watched "A fish called Wanda" and I later stayed up later than intended playing games. Don't worry, read on to find out how I've made up for it. Today (Thursday for those with a bad memory) I had my weekly lie in of until about 1000 and then went to my Digital Lab. Chris and I are working very very well as a team. He sits there puzzling over the Hardware for Digital Labs, I sit there figuring out the problems with Java. We then tell each other what we've done and both benefit. I did help with the Digital stuff and he's been helping with the Java so we do have some idea of what the other is doing. After the lab I got some supplies at Tesco and went home. There I relaxed by playing Warcraft 3 a little. I do mean a little because at the time of writing my Java is not too bad. Displays a Chess Board - Check Allow the User to move pieces - Check Determine if a move is valid or not - Check Watch for Check and Checkmate - Check (Pun intended if you think it's funny) Play over a Network - Not done yet Look remotely nice - Ummmm, you decide On the plus side, when it's done I'll release the compiled version of the code and give instructions on how to run it assuming Chris and Ionnais do not have a problem with it. It's currently 0016 on Friday and I've got one last thing I'd like to talk about. Checkmate. It's what I spent a lot of time today doing and getting annoyed over when I made a mistake. You need to know if something can move somewhere, that's not a huge problem but if you make a mistake here (guess where I made a mistake...) it'll come back to get you later You need to be able to check every single piece going to see if it can take a king, if it can then you need to declare a state of check and possibly checkmate Here's the fun one, Checkmate requires you to create a second board and simulate as many moves as possible until there are no moves left to make or the king gets out of check I will unashamadly say that my "vast" experiance of programming really really helped here. I've had to redesign my programs to incorperate something before, checkmate is a very good example of it as the program is based around "the board". All the functions such as finding out where something can move are based around that board, not a virtual one, that one. Of course, I solved the problem very compared to how problematic I thought it would be. To anybody thinking about doing a course at university that involves programming. Practice now, I'll happily tell you how to get started.

Not a vast amount - Tuesday

I got up, went to my Java lecture, got my laptop insured, went to Tesco, went to my other lectures and went home. I played some Warcraft 3 and did a lot of Java. The chess program now has some inkling as to the rules of checkmate, most of the Java time however was spent fumbling around with something in the User Interface (something important), however, after talking to Gareth about it I soon realised what to do (mostly because he told me what he'd done) In the evening I went over to Jo's house because it's her Birthday and she was having a social gathering/party. I left early and went to bed after doing some revision.

Sorry for the Delay - Monday

Friday involved some Warcraft 3, packing and playing around with my new computer. Saturday I travelled to Portsmouth. My plan was to amuse myself on the train by watching one or more movies. However, that was scuppered when I met a friend of mine from Secondary School called Thomas. He took a year out and is now studying Paleontology here at Portsmouth. So we talked for a while, played some 2 player games on the computer and then watched Ice Age 2. The computer battery is very very good and it would have lasted a whole trip watching a film, playing games required processor power so not so long. I got back quite okay and sat down for the night to watch the Incredibles and Lord of War. Sunday was somewhat more interesting. I first walked Becca to Eastney, on the way collecting Siän and Ceryn. The morning service was about the Magi and Jon used the pun that it was the first Star - Trek. I think I'll have to put it on a par with my Dad's poor jokes. The Hackers very kindly invited myself and some students back for Lunch, it was really nice and I would have liked to have stayed for longer after lunch but had to leave to do some work. I got some work done and also played some games. I then walked the ladies from their respective homes to Church, we also brought Lauren along this time (I'm not trying to imply that she's not a lady). That night I spent a little longer playing games than planned and so forgot to blog. Today was a very interesting day. Firstly I got to my lab quite on time, then I found out that I had the following deadlines. Exam this Wednesday (Almost nobody knew it was this Wednesday) Java hand in on the 17th (next Wednesday) Professional Practice hand in on the 17th Digital Coursework marking on the 17th This is not actually as bad as it sounds. For a start the exam I have on Wednesday is one of 4, I've had two of them (or maybe that marked lab counted as one, I'm not sure). In my first exam I didn't do too well, about 45% to my memory. However, the mark I received 80% from the last test. The Java program today started as something that allowed me to hard-code some moves and displayed a very basic board. It now displays a much better board, allows you to make moves and enforces most of the rules. It still needs castling, checkmate, check and also networking. In the evening the CU all went to the pub, there I played a very tough game of Chess against Dan, I won by a slim margin. I talked a lot to Huw about WoA, I'll not be doing much to do with WoA for the next week and a bit as I've got a lot of work. I got back, blogged and went to bed.

Zooming around - Tuesday

Monday wasn't incredible, I did mostly WoA type stuff, some programming and in the evening we played Poker (no real Money) as a family. It was a nice day and I also did very well at Counter Strike. Today I woke up as usual around 0900ish, as usual I had no real desire to get out of bed. This changed rather abruptly when I was told that my new computer had arrived. Well, I was downstairs so fast that I got laughed at (actually, doing most things in my family will get you laughed at, you just gotta live with it). The new computer had indeed arrived and it's very nice. To put it simply, the one I had been using (which shall be referred to as the 12") was a nice computer, it did what I needed it too and only took about 15 seconds to boot up my MSN and Firefox, maybe a little longer if iTunes was playing music. This new one (which shall be called the Macbook) boots up MSN, Firefox and iTunes instantly. Better yet, it has a working DVD Drive and so while I am MSNing and WoAing, it's ripping DVDs to the Hard Drive (converting them from the DVD to the Computer itself), better yet, the Hard Drive is 4 times the size of my old one. It gets better. I now have a built in web-cam, so I can run a 2nd MSN client with webcam support alongside what's already happening and also play Flash Games. Before, running nothing but Firefox I could play a certain Flash Game, minimum settings at about 5fps, now it barely dips below 30 on maximum settings. As I type I've finally found a way to push both Processor Activity bars up to 100%. I'm converting 2 movies into new formats because the format they're currently in doesn't play properly. Dinner was very nice and involved me eating a stick of Broccoli and a Brussel Sprout. Overall, it was a very good day for all. Well, all but the Brussel Sprout and Broccoli stick.

And after a short break we return - Sunday

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were to say the least, a little dull blog wise. I spent a lot of time programming, playing CS:S and WoA. Sunday however was much more interesting. I Went to church and it was much more interesting. Kevin Adams, the old pastor from when I first went there, he spoke a little about how the church was when he was there and about how the Youth didn't have somewhere solid to meet yet grew to up to 50 people. Jon talked about the Sluggard from Proverbs, he tried to get in some digs at students but we all know what he's like and he was happy to admit that he likes to have a lie in. It's really good that Jon can poke fun at himself because you can connect with him and realise that though he's the one at the front teaching, he's not perfect either. After the service I gave Emma her Birthday/Christmas present and apparently she'd told me before that she really liked Toblerones (and I'd gotten her one) so was very happy. I cannot recall her ever saying that but just nodded and smiled. After Church I got home and did some WoA, some programming and then my Mum showed me how to make Parm - ee - yays (okay, I cannot spell it, it's probably French). I took said tasty food to a New Year's eve party at Jon and Becca's house. It was really good. We played Taboo, the object of the game was to tell someone what a word was but you were not allowed to use that word or a set of other words. The best part came when I had to get across Potato. I managed it VERY fast. "It's something round and I'd give it to ladies instead of a rose" Emma yelled out Potato as she knew the story behind it and everybody just looked at her and before we went onto the next round I had to explain the story. After the New Year arrived we young-uns sat down and talked to John (Emma's step father) about stuff, or more accurately he tried and failed to have a go at us for relying on Calculators too much. We mocked him a lot, he mocked me a lot (and sometimes the other young-uns) and we all had a good time. I told him that maybe one day he'd get over his fear of computers and use the internet, apparently he's already done that so maybe he'll stumble onto my blog and leave a less than constructive comment ;) I cycled home and played QWERTY Warriors, if you're looking for a way to improve your typing, this might be it. I enjoy the hardest difficulty, so if you use the computer to type as much as me, it'll be interesting to see how well you do, I've yet to die so I can't tell you my high-score ;) Note that I've accessed the SWF object directly as on my computer the page lags with all the adverts the site has.