Archive Page 2
Multiplayer Bomberman
The last month of school a friend and I were hard at work on our Operating Systems final project. The project was a client/server bomberman-style game that had to support up to 16 networked players. It was a fun and challenging assignment. I learned a lot, especially about Eclipse and CVS. As a .NET guy stuck in Visual Studio all day, Eclipse was a nice change. It has some really nice tools for team development. On the last day of class, each group had to show off their game. The teacher split the class into four groups of four for an all out death match. Our game was rock solid and handled all 16 players flawlessly. It was a great feeling. So if you want to see the assignment and some screenshots, I posted the game on my Projects page.
Filed under: Programming, School | 1 Comment
Above is a screenshot of my Google homepage. On the right you'll see that I installed Google Reader. It's an RSS aggregator that I use to keep up on the 20+ feeds/blogs I subscribe to. It's pretty damn cool. So if you're looking for a great RSS reader, check out Google Reader.
Filed under: General | Leave a Comment
Microsoft’s Origami
“Microsoft is preparing to unfold what it hopes will become a new type of computer: The Lifestyle PC.” — microsoft-watch.com
Give me a break. The Lifestyle PC? WTF? Come on Microsoft, can’t you come up with a better marketing slogan?
With no keyboard and no phone, I won’t be purchasing my Lifestyle PC anytime soon.
Why can’t anyone make a decent phone/camera/pda/ipod device?? I think that’s what we’re all waiting for.
Filed under: Hardware | 1 Comment
School Frustrations Explained
The past two semesters, I’ve become increasingly frustrated with college. The main reasons being:
- Senioritis
- I’d rather be programming my own stuff at work or on my own
- I took too many hours and worked too much (I was defiantly burnt out last year)
- Homework assignments were not interesting
In a previous blog entry, I ranted about my networking teacher and how I didn’t like the class. Well, I’m going to retract many of the comments I made. Tonight I reread that post and realized that I shouldn’t have been so harsh. The teacher is new and is actually doing a good job. She has really surprised me.
On my previous post, Jerry commented,“Hmmm… I had a two students in CS130 last semester that were complete opposites in their attitude toward the class. Both have skills way beyond the scope of the class however, one got an ‘A’ and the other a ‘F’. At one point the student who failed emailed me and basiclly tried to claim that he wasn’t doing any of the assignments or attending class because none of the material was interesting or challenging to him. The student who got the ‘A’ never complained about the class and always went way above and beyond the assignments. He made the most of his sitution.”
In a way, I can kind of see the second student’s point. Not everyone cares about grades; it’s not a motivating factor. I wish I could just sit in class and absorb the information and not have to do any homework.
Filed under: School | 4 Comments
Google Talk
It’s strange that instant messaging systems have been proprietary for so long, especially since instant messaging is more popular than email. That’s why I’m glad to see Google embarrassing the open instant messaging platform, Jabber. I’ve always loved Jabber, but no one ever used it – until now. With Google backing Jabber with Google Talk and now Gmail, an open instant messaging system may pose a threat to Yahoo, AOL, MSN, and others. I only hope more companies follow Google’s lead and use open standards.
Personally, I find Google Talk lacking in a few areas, but that’s ok! I use Trillian! Isn’t interoperability a great thing?!
For those who want to contact me, you can IM me at jpcummins at gmail dot com.
Filed under: General | 1 Comment
An Update…
Yeah, I know, It's been a month since my last post. An update is defiantly past due. Honestly, the reason I haven't updated this site is simply because I dislike writing. I dread it. The sad thing is, I have lots of things I'd like to write about but I never commit the idea. I guess I just need to discipline myself and write. Jeff Atwood recently wrote about the Fear of Writing, which pretty much sums up everything I just said.
Perhaps one reason I dislike writing is becasue I have a hard time with transitions. School is going well, I enjoy most of my classes. Operating Systems is defiantly my favorite. Networking, on the other hand, …. [edit]
Oh, I updated the About section.
Filed under: General | 3 Comments
School has started
It’s that time again. This semester I’m taking Operating Systems, Networking, and World History. I think it’ll be an enjoyable semester. I’m very excited about Operating Systems, especially because we’ll be hacking on Minix 3. Anyway, that’s it for now.
Filed under: School | 2 Comments
Getting Things Done
So I’m reading Getting Things Done by David Allen, and I’ve found it to be very inspiring. The reason I got this book is because I’m a huge procrastinator. When the end of the school semester draws near, I panic. I get sooo stressed out and I can’t handle it.
The book suggests making to-do lists for everything and having a calendar nearby at all times. This is a perfect opportunity to dust off my PDA and put it to good use. I honestly think that I’ll “get things done” for the next two weeks and then go back to my old ways. I hope I’m wrong; only time will tell.
Filed under: General | 2 Comments
The Perils of JavaSchools.
Joel Spolsky has an excellent articale about what he calls, “JavaSchools”. I typically refer to them as CIS majors. Sadly, I see the same trend happening at my college.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html
Filed under: School | 7 Comments
Font Font Revolution
I just watched the latest Channel9 interview with the Microsoft ClearType team. Strangely, I enjoyed every minute of it. I never realized I would be so fascinated by an hour long video about typography. I had no idea of what goes on behind the senses when fonts are rendered to the screen.
I can honestly say that I’ve never given ClearType a chance. I’ve guess I’ve gotten used to the crappy rendering I’ve grown up with. So now I’m going to give it a try. I turned ClearType on and tweaked it to my liking (with the ClearType PowerToy).
The new font, Consolas, that ships with Vista seems very cool. A good monospaced typeface like Consolas is important because lengthy on-screen reading while programming can quickly tire the eyes.
Here is a link to an article that discusses all of the new fonts included with Windows Vista. If you still can’t get enough typography, I suggest checking out fontblog.
Filed under: Programming | 1 Comment
