I shot my eye out

Posted on December 25, 2011 by admin

Minor complaint about Skyrim: My controller doesn’t work. I’m using some off-brand PS2 to USB controller that registers my leftover PS2 controller as a usable gamepad. Works wonders on everything except for Skyrim. Why? You can program a PC port of a game but you can’t have it recognize a standard Windows 7 compatible Gamepad!?

Update: Turns out there’s a game controller emulator called xbox360ce. Google that, copy and run the program from the Skyrim directory. It’ll create a pair of settings files that will configure a standard controller to resemble an xbox360 controller….. which is a standard controller. Why it doesn’t just use the Windows 7 game controller settings is beyond me.

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Holographic Video

Posted on November 14, 2011 by admin

Came across this video in the morning:

Could this be the precursor to 3D television? games? multimedia? An environment where you can view the scene from any angle that you choose? One can only hope. An evolved consumer grade version of this would actually be worth getting excited over, as opposed to the optical hack that we’re currently using for ’3D’ television and movies. For more of my thoughts on this, check out the video below. Finally an excuse to include an ‘Eastbound and Down’ clip in my blog!

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Too Advanced

Posted on October 22, 2011 by admin

Well this was a blast from the past.

A friend of mine informed me that 2Advanced Studios recently released version 6 of their companies website, about 5 years after the release of version 5 to substantial fanfare in the design community. The online campaign was particularly memorable in that version 4 slowly broke down and disintegrated visually and functionally in the two weeks prior to the rumored launch of the new site. No word as to whether or not they did something similar with this version. It’s been a while since I’ve given it any thought.

Honestly, I’m a little disappointed. It took me a little while to dig the older versions out of the archive, and granted, version 4 is clearly showing it’s age, but both it and version 5 strove to create their own interpretation of design rather then conform to what is quickly becoming the modern standard of layout. It’s almost as if they took it directly from a template!

I shouldn’t be too harsh. The visuals are top-notch as always, and the work that they do still carries that signature look and feel of one of the top agencies in the game. Interesting that they’re still using Flash as well. For all of the reports of it’s imminent demise, there really isn’t a better platform for handling motion graphics on the web. But the streamlining of their interface combined with the fact that I’m seeing far fewer visually intense websites these days makes me nostalgic for a simpler time.

Posted in Interactivity, Wanderings, Web Design | Leave a comment

Site Launched: Catholic Relief Services Multimedia Site

Posted on October 3, 2011 by admin

 

This is the single largest and most involved web site that I have completed to date. Catholic Relief Services Multimedia Site is a comprehensive index of their entirely library of videos, photo galleries and audio slide shows in an easy-to-reference library.

Designed from a WordPress core, and integrated with YouTube for Video and Slide Show Pro Director for photo galleries, the site was designed to be both easy to index for the end user and easy to update for the content manager. Additionally, the video player connects to Google Analytics to provide feedback on just how many people are watching the videos.

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An observation of restrictions and work-arounds.

Posted on September 12, 2011 by admin

I made a couple of observations during my recent trip to Canada. Can’t call them discoveries, observations are easier. It’s not like nobody knew about any of this stuff before after all. This ties into my previous post about the phones being downright in-accessible for about 2 hours following the Earthquake while the Internet didn’t skip a beat.

It started about ten minutes after I crossed the border, and the internet went down. I was informed that I would be charged roaming rates for continued use, same for voice calls. Text messaging rates were un-affected, making them the de-facto communication method of choice, and ironically, the non-overpriced option. Now, bear in mind that when I crossed, I did so half an hour from Montreal after only losing service briefly in a small section of the Adirondack Mountains. I know that I went to another country, but I find it a bit odd that I could get full connectivity in gods country, but not outside of a major metropolitan area!

The best part? When I got to my Hotel in Quebec City, they offered me free wi-fi. In fact, the city was full of wi-fi hotspots in practically every shop and restaurant! Despite having my service effectively cut as a matter of regional policy, I was still able to utilize all that the internet had to offer, albeit a bit of pre-planning was involved, particularly when the GPS was involved. I could even call my family and friends on Skype free of charge!

I’ve been on the internet long enough to have seen ‘The September that Never Ended‘, and coincidentally understand exactly why AOL’s userbase earned their infamous reputation. While I take no pride in the previous statement, I am none the less amazed that the technology has evolved from a novelty method of communication to a platform capable of displacing more traditional platforms of media and communication.

So what’s my point exactly? Other then get yourself and your friends and family a Skype account, I’m not entirely sure. I’ve long thought that the only thing holding the full potential of the internet back, especially in the day of multi-core drives and tablet computers is that pesky need to make a profit, but I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated then that.

Like I said, this was just an observation.

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Aftershocks

Posted on August 24, 2011 by admin

Yesterday around 2pm, the east coast got hit with a 5.9 Earthquake. Minutes later, the west coast laughed at us. It was a strange experience having never been through one before AND being on the 6th floor at work. What happened in the immediate aftermath was even more interesting. Everyone immediately got on their phones, and overloaded the cellular network. The Internet remained relatively stable, and the people who couldn’t get on the phone promptly went to Facebook(Or Twitter, or Tumblr, or Google Plus, and I’m sure someone went to MySpace) to post something about the floor shaking.

Nothing like modern technology going offline to give us a sense of our progress as a species. This wasn’t even a major emergency! Just a collective freakout! Note to cellular carriers: the network must be capable of running functionally during an Alien Invasion!

On the plus side, the fact that the Internet didn’t go down means that we have a reliable back-up communication system.

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Actionscript 3: Full Screen Scaling on Multiple Monitors via Javascript Injection.

Posted on July 7, 2011 by admin

This was a needle in a haystack problem that applies to a miniscule percentage of the user base, but was none the less troublesome due to the fact that most reputable video players have solved it, yet I couldn’t find it documented anywhere. If you are working with multiple monitors with different resolutions, Flash will only identify the width and height of your primary display, making it impossible to scale properly on your alternate. Javascript on the other hand doesn’t have that problem, identifying the proper width and height of whatever monitor the browser window is on with a simple line of code. I could have created a simple javascript function and referenced it in the Flash video player, but then I would have to rely on a separate, external file. Wanting to consolidate the player as much as possible, I did some more research under the assumption that Javascript and Actionscript were similar enough that Javascript could be written directly into the Actionscript class. That’s when I discovered this article about Script Injection:

JavaScript and VBScript Injection in ActionScript 3

Basically, you can create an external script via an XML object directly in the Actionscript document, then call to it via ExternalInterface. I don’t exactly follow the logic of the XML assignment, but it worked well enough that I was able to use the following code to detect the screen resolution, and pass it to a pair of Flash variables:

var myWidth:XML =
<script>
<![CDATA[
function()
{
var sw = screen.width;
function myFunk(str)
{
return str;
};
var screenWidth = myFunk(sw);
return screenWidth;
}

]]>
</script>
var myHeight:XML =
<script>
<![CDATA[
function()
{
var sh = screen.height;
function myFunk(str)
{
return str;
};
var screenHeight = myFunk(sh);
return screenHeight;
}

]]>
</script>
var sW:Number = ExternalInterface.call(myWidth);
var sH:Number = ExternalInterface.call(myHeight);

Reading through the comments on the article, I’m inclined to believe that this is a hack, but what else am I supposed to do when Flash won’t give me the functionality that I require natively?

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Site Launched: Gourmet Shish Kebab

Posted on June 29, 2011 by admin
Gourmet Shish KebabGourmet Shish Kebab

Gourmet Shish Kebab is a carry-out restaurant with incredible food in Laurel, Maryland that was in dire need of a simple web presence. I provided a clean, simple design with legible, easy to access content that will give their diners access to all relevant information about the restaurant with a minimum of unnecessary fluff. A mobile version of the site is in the works.

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Responsive Web Design

Posted on June 22, 2011 by admin

Now this is cool!

http://getskeleton.com/

Skeleton is a framework for something called Responsive Web Design. Basically it adjusts the layout depending on the size of your browser. This should simplify the creation of mobile versions of websites. It would be nice to do away with the various browser detection and redirect scripts that I’ve been using up until now.

Posted in Wanderings, Web Design | Leave a comment

Duke Nukem, Chinese Democracy

Posted on June 16, 2011 by admin

"I've been out of bubble gum for the last 15 fucking years!"

So last week, Duke Nukem Forever managed to escape from development hell after numerous delays, the total collapse of 3D Realms, and a Vaporware lifetime achievement award. Was it worth the wait? Apparently not.

The story of it’s development is inherently interesting. To string along fans and investors anywhere from 12 to 15 years of delays and restarts requires one hell of a brand to pull off. It’s a testament to just how great of a game Duke Nukem 3D was. A brief account of the development schedule can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Duke_Nukem_Forever

The impression that I get was that since 3D Realms was playing with house money and not specifically beholden to a publishers demand for a launch date, that they could take as much time as they needed to create a product worthy of the hype surrounding a Duke 3D sequel. The opposite of this is far too common, where a game is rushed to completion to meet a publishers arbitary deadline, which usually coincides with an equally arbitrary high volume American shopping day. Corners get cut, bugs get overlooked, and the game takes several patches and fixes before it’s playable. Civilization 5 comes to mind immediately. So while I can respect taking the extra time and blowing a deadline if necessary to make sure that the finished product is completely functional, 15 years!? Seriously?

The unfortunate, but not surprising part of this is that the game looks like what you would expect of a game that’s been in development limbo for 15 years, then rushed to completion after the publisher gets it in a lawsuit. At least from what I’ve heard. I don’t have the time or budget for video games that I once did, so I’m just going to take their word for it on this one.

Nothing to see here. Back to Battle.net. I’ve got additional Pylons to build.

Posted in Gaming, Wanderings | Leave a comment