A whole year without a post....

Can't believe I went the whole of 2013 without posting once...

Gah, I am so bad....

Well to catch up, I am currently looking for work in the IT Industry, I am still a couple papers shy of my Bachelors. But I want to get out there and working asap.

I have started up a little webcomic, that I am just as bad as updating as I am with this blog, which you can view over at it's facebook page:

ICD - I Can't Draw

Also I got the Xbox One Day One Edition. Pretty cool, and I am quite happy with it(even with all it's expected bugs/problems.)

I just recently played the long awaited Beta for Kingdom Under Fire 2, and I have to say it was everything I ever dreamed of and more! I can't wait for the full release of the game!

Well I'm sure there is other stuff to talk about. But for now I just wanted to get a post out there.

"This place is kinda big for a hot dog stand, don't ya think?"

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

I'm leaving, on a jet plane...

...Don't know when I'll be back again(well I do, but that's besides the point.)

Before I go into details let me clear a few things up.
Yes its been a wee while since I last posted, just hadn't had the time really.
But since then I have gotten some results back from my exams, started a new paper(for summer semester) and gotten a new game.

I passed both my Programming and Database exams with a C+, which is good.
Don't get me wrong, I am not unhappy about the marks, but then again I'm not overally excited about them, I was expecting more.
I averaged out my total mark for programming would be B+ which is great.
I didn't do the same for Database but I would imagine it would be about C+.

As for my other papers, I have no idea, results still haven't been posted.

The paper I am currently doing is Software Testing, its interesting so far, and I am enjoying it, all I can say for now.

Now, my new game, Halo 4, I loved the hell out of it.
Enjoyed the story, and almost top rank online(but you unlock new ranking modes after top, so there will still be stuff to do on it.)

Now what you probably most interested in. The plane.

Tomorrow I will going on a plane with my mum, up to Auckland to see Merry Poppins live stage show.
I am dead excited about this for a number of reasons.

1. I am a big Merry Poppins fan since childhood.
2. It's my second time on a plane ever, first being about 10 years ago.

Yeah that's right.... 2 reasons... lol.

Now I know what you are probably thinking, why would a 20yr nearly 21yr want to go see a stage show of a childrens movie/book?
My answer to that is : Well.... shutup.

But seriously, I think its more mature to be honest about what you like/don't like. And Merry Poppins is one of those things.

Anyway that's all I have to say, so till next time.

All is right with the world again. Stupid world!

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

 

OH SNAP!

I forgot to post again.

Ahh well not much has happened, I've mainly been doing some study as well as some mucking around on minecraft for some down time.

I've sat two of my exams, both were easier than I was expecting.
Logical Database, I think I will past that with a C+ or a B.
Embedded systems, Looking more around a B maybe B+

Also got results back from that little stick figure game I made, 85%, that's an A.
Now all I need to do is score 80%+ on my exam(which I am fairly confident I can do) and I will pass the paper with an A/A+!
*Gets physicked *

Anyway, so yeah I have my programing exam Tuesday afternoon, and Systems Engineering Wednesday afternoon.
Wish me luck!

As for life, I just taught myself to sew by hand, just so I could sew my Spartan Insignia(that I got with legendary edition of halo reach) onto my jacket to wear to the Halo 4 midnight launch party! that is happening on November 5th!

Looking forward to that, exams will be over, I can go tear stuff up in a shiny new game.
Just perfect timing really.

Anyway I guess that is it for me this week, will let you know how I find my next two exams, until next time!

"You've been acting weird all day! Even weirder than usual!"
~ Gaz - Invader Zim

 ~ Haftka

ARGGG FORGOT TO POST.

Like title says, I forgot to post last night.

Well not much to say anyway.

So as a filler for this post I typed "Random" into youtube and this is what I got.
lolwut?

"Just one experiment, then I go rescue him."

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

End of Semester and Assignments.

A few things to say, but first, yes I know its a day late but I wanted to hold off this post so I was able to link you a more or less finished copy of my final programming assignment.

Anyway lets get into it.

It is the end of Semester like I mentioned. Starting next week is study week with exams following.
Yesterday I had 3 final assignments due, the Weatherstation for Embedded, a working Database designed for a small hospital and a programming assignment of my choice.

Now technically Database and Programming assignments were due yesterday but have an absolute deadline of Monday morning, so I was able to put aside the finishing touches for them and work swiftly on the Weatherstation, which I happily report to be 90% functioning. Just had some minor issues with the pressure sensor, but a fully working system wasn't necessary for the hand, just well documented on what was working and what still needed to be fix/updated.

Spent most of the day Working on my database and planning on doing the final touches/handing in tomorrow, not really much to say on this.

Now... What I really want to talk about.

For my final Programming Assignment I was able to choose anything I wanted, as long it was of decent size and showed the principles that we learned/OO-desgin.
So naturally I built a game from scratch with SDL libraries. =D

It is a rather simple stick figure player vs player fighting game, with a punch and kick button. But with that said, I do plan on building on from what I have created into a full fledged game. As it stands now it is missing a lot of features such as:

Friction/Speed limiter : : How the code works atm causes the characters to move faster on faster machines.
Boarder/Invisible walls :: Currently there is nothing stop players from going off screen.


Some things I would like to add/change in the future:
Better sprites :: I have very minimalistic sprites/animation as I am not a very good artist(even when it comes to stick figures.)
Menu System :: Could build one quite fast, but isn't important at this stage.
More Characters :: I want to have several different characters with different strengths/combos/etc.
Player Vs PC :: Need to learn s few scripting languages/etc before attempting this.
Lan/Net MP :: This will actually probably easier to achieve than the Player Vs PC, due the SDL have networking covered in the libraries.... I think... might need to check up on that.


Anyway I had fun creating it, and will continue to do so as I improve upon it.
I mentioned a link? Oh, so I did, here you go:

http://www.mediafire.com/?1kgvdcba81sb6u2

Enjoy.

Screenshot:

Stick Fighters

Wow I enjoyed talking about it almost as much as I did creating it. ^.^

Anyway in the way of life, last Wednesday I went to my Brother and his girlfriends Civil Union then went out to dinner with them and both of their families(well his family is my family but I wasn't sure how to word that correctly.... I could have said "Our and her families" but that still sounds a bit weird... cause I feel like I should be grouping them together... not me and my brother... but meh...)
So I was able to have a nice meal for the first time in months... Sucks being a poor student who is use to a high standard of taste/palate.

But anyway it was a nice simple/fast ceremony and was nice seeing/talking with everyone, and meeting some of her family for the first time.

Well I think that is about me for this week, don't expect to say much next week either, as I will be stuck into my studying that nothing much is bound to happen.

"Hey, what game is that?"

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

ARGG THIS BE A BLOGGS

Not much else to say this week.

My two main projects in the way of my course are:

Weather Station - Embedded Systems.
Stick Fighters(1v1 fighter game with stick men) - Programming II.

Both are progressing nicely, with the Weather Station we are creating it in a group, and I am pretty much the head in combining all the different modules into a singular working system.
Right where I want to be, in the midst of all the code.

Stick Fighters I have made a major break through with the code.... Well, but that I mean I found a major flaw with one line that has been holding me back for quite some time.

So it's going pretty good for me so far.

I have been tearing it up on DOA5 some more, I have lost my leader-board ranking, but that was to be expected as I can't constantly play it.

Yeah, not really much else to say, this is another short one, and as I was typing it I didn't like how it was sounding and how I was wording it.... But meh, I can't be bothered proof reading this, regardless of how short it is.

So I bid you all ado.

"Actually, that was kinda funny."

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

Place Holder.

As the title says this is really more of a place holder than a full blog post.

Only reason I am even writting it is because I want to keep in the habit of posting each week as I am prone to forgetting about this little blog(as you all know well.)

Anyway not much to say in the way of course, it is progressing.
Life, not much either, had a few people come round looking at the flat over the week, so it might fill up again soon.
In the way of games.... OMG I am in true bliss atm.

Dead Or Alive 5 came out this week and I have been enjoying every second of it.
The storyline mode is different to previous titles which is a nice change, the graphics are all new and shiny, and added fighting abilitys for teh win.

Also like to point out I am #1 NZer on the leaderboards, 540th over all.
But this is soon to change, as leaderboards do, but I will fight to hold onto my NZer spot with all my might(Not too hard cause not many New Zealanders play the game.)

So yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say for now.

Oh and ps. I haven't uploaded my Drunken Game playing yet, as I recorded a lot of footage and haven't had enough time to go through it all, in case you were wondering.

"Bloaty's. We're going to Bloaty's Pizza Hog."

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

Back in the Game.

Yes it has been a while.

14 months and 5 days to be exact, or nearly exact since I am not taking hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, nanoseconds etc.... into account.

But close enough!

A lot has happened in that time, but with that said, my course is still going strong and steady, passing 80% of my papers and sitting a few more this year.

But I won't get into too much detail with that atm, mainly cause I will have to be checking that I what I post is correct and looking things up blah blah, and I really can't be bothered right now.

Most significant stuff that has happened in this void of missing blog posts is to do with my life anyway, and not the course itself.

Now... where to begin?
Well I guess I should start with the fact that I am now living in a different flat, with different flatmates(not my brother and his girlfriend.)
I am a bit further from my course now, but instead of taking 10 mins to walks it now takes me 20mins. Not too bad just got to leave earlier now.

Although, had a lot of issues with some of my flatmates recently, who have all moved out now(thank god.) One issue was the gas element breaking and flooding the house with gas and they didn't open doors or windows, and didn't tell me so I open up my bedroom door and took a giant breathe of gas and almost fell to the ground in tears/choking. It was truly that bad, first thing I did was open doors and windows then went to the element and fixed it/turned it off.
Other issues was cleanlyness of the kitchen and general behavour of one of the flatmates.

But for the past week or so it has been bliss without these problem flatmates.

Other life stuff, well I am going to be an Uncle, Uncle Sam to be exact.
My brother's girlfriend is pregnant and they are going to be getting a civil union soon.
So heres to them!

But that will be all I post about that, I mean this is my blog about me? So why should I have to pass the spotlight to them? It's my spotlight, shouldn't have to share it with anyone.

I jest, I am truly happy for them and wish the best.

Seriously moving on now though.

In the way of work, I am still mostly unemployed, I say mostly because the company I did an industry placement in waaay back when, hired me on again as a contractor programmer.
Pretty much they would call me up every so often and I would go in and a do a day or two work for them. My contract is now up, but the possibility of them renewing is strong, but they are only a small business so the probably won't until this years lot of industry placements are over. But heres hoping.

Also I will note that during this time I started a youtube series and it has died in the same time, I do plan on picking it up at some point, but for now it is as good as dead.
It is called OOM(Out Of Map) and is videos on how to glitch out of maps in video games.

On the talk of youtube series I am starting another one tomorrow(well I probably won't upload the first video till sunday or monday as for editing time.) And this one will most likely hold my attention longer/not die.

A brief summery would be that "I am getting drunk and playing classic video games from the 90s."
Should be a lot of fun, I will be reliving my childhood drunk.

I should really clarify that last sentence, but it I mean that I will be drunk while reliving my childhood, not that I was drunk during my childhood. Although that would explain a few things....

So that should be more or less up to date. Mainly less as I know I bound to have missed some things, as my writing style/method for is blog isn't planned out, I just wing it and type whatever is in my head at the time of writing,

Floobogaggle.

See?

Anyway lets hope I have a better run this time with this blog and seeya next time!

"When you die, can I play?"

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

SO MUCH, SO MUCH

Or should that be too much, too much?

New Zealand slang aside, the pun I was trying to get across was that I have so much to talk about in this post.
My new ultra cool PC which I am currently using to type this up and how I had a panic attack when I first tried booting it up.
Some funny things that have happened in the class room, and all about my first week back at course.
One of my flat mates leaving and me moving into that room from the small one(and I mean small.)

But first things first, my results from last semester(aka the first semester which was my second semester.)
Comunication studies I got a C
Electronics I I got a C
Operating systems I got a C+
Micro Processors I got a C

So as you can see I didn't shine in any of them in particular but I did pass and thankfully don't have to repeat them(although I did have fun and wouldn't mind doing it all again(if I didn't have to pay for it(like I do with electronics II(wow this is 5 brackets deep...(which is really bad cause we learned in comunications not to do this(and I am still going(ok I will stop now(seriously.)))))))))

Next let us discuss my first week back.

It was nice walking through the buildings of tec after being away for a while, still much the same.
Shall we move on? Just kidding I have more to talk about than that.

My courses for this semester are:

Electronics II(of course.)
Embedded Systems I.
Software Development. (which is programing with Java and etc.)
Industry Placement.

I only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. So I am assuming that Mondays/Thursdays are set aside for the Industry Placement they are setting up for us. Although we have not started them yet cause the person organizing them and taking our 1 hour class each week for it is currently overseas in America, So here's hoping I don't get stuck with whatever he is setting up in America. It will be kinda hard to get there each day.

Electronics II is now split between two tutors, 1 for the practicals(tutor who I had to the course last year) and 1 for lectures(the tutor I had for Electronics I thank god.) I laughed pretty hard in my first practical though when our tutor went to move the wall mounted white board(which was on a rail so i can be moved out of the way of a projector screen.) Only for one end to fall right of the hinges and in the shock he jumped while still holding the other end of it pulling it right off. He then just put it off to the side for the remainder of the class.

My Software Development tutor is new to me, but he seems friendly and looks like he knows what hes doing 90% so I think this will be a good class for me, unlike micros.

Embedded systems is the same tutor as micros, which was a terrible class to be in. Here's hoping that this will play out better than micros.

Now lets talk about what you have been dieing for.
My new PC.

I am very proud of it, not only because it is a really good and powerful machine but it is custom designed and made by me.
It has an Intel i7 870 2.93ghz processor with 4 cores and 8 threads.
4gB DDR3 ram running at 1333mhz.
500gB HD(pulling one of the 250gb HD out of my old PC for when I install linux on here.)
1gB DDR3 Geforce GTS250 Graphics card.
and running windows 7 pro 64bit, soon to have OpenSuse 11.2 64bit as well.

Every single game I have tested so far runs on max graphics with zero lag, waiting on a copy of crysis from my friend to really test this out.
I mention something about a panic attack? so I did.

Well when I got the last components I hooked it up, real excited, turned it on and... nothing.
I was shocked, I couldn't speak.
I thought "maybe the graphics cards not working?"
So I changed plugs, nope.
"Ok is everything getting power?"
Checked all power cables and slots, nope.
"Ok is everything connected properly?"
Checked and still nothing.

This is where I really start to panic. I spent 2-3 hours checking every little thing and re-checking about 10 times. Constantly going through all the manuals trying to work out what could be wrong. I was starting to think that I had wasted alot of money on what seemed to be compatible but really un-compatible hardware, that or damage Hardware.

Then I notice something... something on the motherboard diagram in the manual...
The ram slots were labeled as this in this order.
B1, A1, B2, A2.

I had my ram cards in B1 and B2 cause logically I thought that B1 was the first ram slot because it was the first in the physical order and that B2 was the second that consist with B1 cause it was of the same colour.
But noo.... the prick who designed this motherboard decided to be a prick and make the second one the first and the fourth the second and the first the third and third the fourth.
FML.

Anyway once I had the ram in the correct slots it booted up fine and was reading for me to install Windows.
At-least this story had a happy ending, even if it was a bit anti-climatic and really pissed me off.

Ok last thing to talk about is one of my flat mates moving out.
Which means I have to pay more rent. The good news is a bigger room for all of my junk and computer parts.

=D

Well I guess that about sums everything up. Till next time, too much bro, too much.

"I'll make you wish you had rabid weasels teleported into your skull instead of having a sister! I'll wait until you sleep and stuff all your paranormal junk into your big, giant paranormal head and chew on your eyeballs after I pluck them out..."

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka

OMG 10 months and no new post.

Yup its been 10 months... well nearly.

The scary thing is that I forgot about this old place for nearly year, and man do I regret it.
Just look at this place! It's a mess, cobwebs everywhere dusty furniture and is that rats in the ceiling I hear up there?

But seriously let me get you up to speed with what has happened. Cause I bet you are wondering with all your might about what happened with me and my course.

Well I passed Programing A with an A, funny huh? I create puns even when I'm not trying to.
Also I passed Programing B with a C+, not so much a pun but I wish my tutor wrote it as C++ X D
I also passed software engineering with a C.

So you see I did pretty well on the first semester and did well in my exams.
Whats that? I had another topic I was studying? I can't think what? oh right... electronics II
Well I completely failed and bombed that. Not so good, so I am having to repeat it.

BUT! The good news is that I feel way more confident with it because I have just completed the 1st semester(yes I know I did the 2nd one first and the 1st one second its weird) and I kicked the crap out of electronics(not literally I would never do that unless I was attack by robots or cybermen.)

I haven't gotten all my results back from all my courses yet for the 1st semester so I can't talk much about them, they were however:

Comunication studies.
Electronics I.
Operating systems.
Micro Processors.

All of which I am very confident I passed(even though it felt like I didn't learn anything in Micros.)

In personal life? My brother and his girlfriend went over to USA for a holiday vacation thing, so the last month or so I have been practically living by myself(my other flat mate comes and goes and not really hear most of the time.) But they will be coming home today so it nice to not have an empty house lol.

As for all my little and not so little projects? Next to nothing has developed on any of them.
=/

Well that is all for now, I will try to get this updated weekly again, but look what happened last time.

"Why do you have to have a head?"

~ Gaz - Invader Zim

~ Haftka