My Blog

Well, It's been a week since my last post, so about time I make a post (even if it's lame). I'm still looking for a job, and I still don't have enough for a car, so technically I haven't done anything Anyway, this week was my first week back at University (mind you, I only had one week off after completing a couple of units over summer to which I got yet another HD and my lowest mark so far, a C.) I turned 19 last week so yeah - nothing much has happened.

Anyway, Caulfield certainly feels like a real university where it won't be possible for everyone to know your name, nor will you get to know the lecturers and tutors well enough however it is much closer to me using Public Transport, so I'm not complaining. It was taking me up and beyond 3.5 hours per trip to get to Frankston, and well things are much easier in a more manageable 1.5 to 2 hours per trip at maximum. It'll be interesting to see how this year pans out. The course itself is starting to teach some of the more important aspects of Information Technology (all in which I have been doing for years) so hopefully I can pull out some more D's and HD's.

Not much other news is available I'm afraid, however I am playing SimCity 2000 again for some reason and when I'm not doing that, I'm working on a new project to make me $$$. I'll let you know more about that at a later date.

Funny thing actually, before getting off the internet I got an SMS from connex saying: "ALLAHU AKBR FROM CONNEX! our inspectorS Love Killing people - If you see one coming, run. Want to bomb a train? they will gladly help! See you in hell! (+61429911196)"

hehe... comments anyone?

[UPDATE] Epidemic Over, stand down. I got another SMS from Connex confirming the hoax. Someones head will roll tomorrow :) The SMS was 'A hoax message was sent tonight to some users. Connex apologises and is investigating with the police. (+61429911196)'.

[UPDATE 2] Just as I thought, the newspapers are all over it now :) 

Well, whilst Temptation is on it makes me think often, and today enough to make a blog post about it, about how poorly designed and thought out game shows really are. For instance, lets take a look at the common game shows at the moment.

Temptation
This game show is on 7:00PM on a weeknight on Channel 9. For a person to walk away with close to $1,000,000 in prizes, the player must be there for 8 nights. This is 4 hours worth of answering a tough range of questions and it's not the type of game show that if you leave early, you get a nice cash prize or a great prize of some description. For example, most of the time the prizes consist of Grand Pianos, Whitegoods such as massive dish washers and internet fridges. The stupid thing about this show, is the most money one could theoretically win on the night is maybe $12000 and that's after a prize, a shot at the vault and some extra cash after buying and haggling for a prize. Overall, a tough set of questions but with a low prize turnaround given the extreme difficulty when compared to other shows.

Wheel of Fortune
This game show gives out a few dollars, a few prizes, and has 3 puzzles. A low turnaround in prizes, easy puzzles makes for a nice little show to go on if you are really after a holiday to every part of the world that no one obviously wants to visit :P

Family Feud
Not a difficult show either, low prize turnaround with absolutely no real thinking involved. Players may get money or they may not. It adds a degree of difficulty and alot of luck on this show, but ultimately you win a few dollars, not uncommon to get $10,000 to split with family anyway for 30 minutes worth of work.

Deal or no Deal
If there was ever a game show you want to win $10,000 on, this is the one to do it with! You answer 3 questions to do with what's in the media in the last month, and then you guess what suitcase has a nice dollar amount in. Well, I thought this was the easiest show to win money on until some others came up.

The Rich List
This TV show is one of the most simplest to answer questions on, and you have the chance to earn BIG money. You answer the question by providing as many answers as possible for things like 'states in the United States of America' and in doing so, you can get up to $250,000. How's that for less than 15 minutes worth of work.

100 v 1
This competing with The Rich List has a similar style to Deal or No Deal crossed with Millionaire. Basically you answer questions like 'What part of the body allows you to walk? A. Legs B. Hair C. Computer Joysticks'. Again, not uncommon using the lifelines to get over $100,000 in cash for answering easy questions.

Quizmania
This show is one of those uplate ones that contain hosts dosed up to the eyeballs on drugs (I'm sure of it) where you call in and get say $100 for saying 'ball'.

So, why is it that the harder the questions get, the less money you earn? I know Millionaire got you some decent money if you could get into the hotseat and answer some tough questions, but most walked out under $32,000 and less time was spent in doing so. Strange hey :)

Hi all, well after finally finishing my last exam, I am hoping that I have done reasonably well in which I am hoping for about a High Credit/Distinction in Java 2 and Distinction/High Distinction in Web Systems II. Why? well honestly I have been so god-damned busy with everything else happening (nor is it easy to concentrate doing on-campus units off-campus). So, overall if I achieve those marks then I suppose I have done not too shabby (especially when I know the practical sides to it almost back to front).

So, what does this mean? Well today was my last time I would ever need to be in Frankston again. No more going to the Peninsula campus, and definitely no more 3 hour bus trips each way *sigh*. So, although I leave quite a picturesque campus behind, I am moving on up to a closer (by train atleast) campus at Caulfield to continue my IT studies there. The stupid thing about it all, is a train trip is roughly 1 hour to the campus but I'm not complaining, especially when I have more time to do things at uni now.

Anyway, GreenTubeLAN is coming up this weekend, so I am now preparing for that by recreating the servers from previous LAN. With a bit of luck, I will have a Linux router set up aswell (oh what fun that's going to be if I find out the wireless card needs an NDIS wrapper).

Ciao! 

In my last blog post , I said I was working on both studying for exams and a sequenced version of "Weird Al" Yankovic's Virus Alert. Well, considering I am such a nice person and all, I thought I would release a 30 second preview (in MP3) weighing in at a massive 390KB in MP3 form. This has been exported using FL Studio 6, so you will find that the audio is of a much better quality than those terrible GM sound cards.

Apart from that, after studying today the entire Javascript section of my Web Systems 2 unit, I now have the knowledge to enhance my website some more (namely validation on data entry), so CMS Version 3 will be on it's way possibly May/June this year. When that's released and 'important' clients are updated, CMS Version 2 will be released open source.

After exams, GreenTubeLAN is coming up and after GreenTubeLAN, I will have a massive project in updating the Horses 'R' Us website to the SMF platform. There are just so many features in SMF that IPB 1.3 Final doesn't have (let alone being more secure and compatible with my web platform.) and given it's free, I can't argue with price. I remember first trying this platform when it was version 1.07 or something, and found it to be total bullcr@p, but I can't have checked it too hard now given it's very easy to edit CSS files, and the community in general seems reasonable, so yeah - that's happening after GreenTubeLAN.

Well, better start revising for this Java exam *shudder* this one's going to be tough :(

Ciao! 

Hi all,

Been a bit bored today with all of this studying for 2 exams I have next week for University, so I decided I would post a blog update. My site is slowly coming together now since I uploaded one of my assignments for university called Rabbit Rescue. So what is it you say? It's a corny story line of a game that is meant to be a 2D platformer (like the old NES and SNES versions of Mario Bros) where you have to shoot robotic bananas to save rabbits by touching them. In the final level, you kill an evil monkey boss to save your mum. Sounds strange hey

Well, I had the game working in under 2 days, so I was pretty impressed with how far I got with it. This is probably the most complete game I have ever designed, followed closely by a game called My Mansion I created in Quick BASIC back in 1999. Anyway, that's available in my computer software page if you are at all interested. You will need the Java Runtime Environment (J2SE) of atleast version 1.5 to play it. The source code is also included, and given the nature of an assignment, it's fully documented so that you can create your own variants if you wish to do so.

Apart from that, but I have also included a new section on my website called Midis and Music. One of my hobbies as I have mentioned before is playing the piano. I also enjoy composing and sequencing music, both original and replicas of existing pieces. So, certainly feel free to check that out as well. Currently, I'm working on converting Weird Al's Virus Alert from his new album into a midi, so expect something here shortly for that.

Anyway, better get back to the salt mine. Ciao! 

Addiction is defined as the repeated use of a substance, carrying out a physical behaviour or psychological disorder. There are many forms of it ranging from Smoking, Drinking through to drug use. There's one thing however that is only starting to get a mention about now, and this is the possibility of Video Game Addiction.

So what is video game addiction? Well, I suppose someone who appears to be addicted to a game would be classified as a Video Game Addict. To be classified as an addict, one would need to repeatedly play a given game, where it would be detrimental to the persons health. This is certainly evident from my own research and people who I know personally who appear to be addicts of a particular game. The game, World of Warcraft, involves what most good RPG's have. They have a role for you to play, they lead a life, they become powerful and it's seen as an alternative life. The game does this well, but there are increasingly more and more people who are becoming addicted to the game.

Do I blame World of Warcraft? I personally don't think blaming the game or the manufacturer as the problem, just as the brewer of a beer cannot be held responsible for your use of the product if you choose to get drunk. What is to blame is the failure to self-limit access to the game. People do immerse themselves into this game, where there are people who want to become powerful. To do this, more time has to be spent playing the game. The direct repercussion of this is that loss of sleep, loss of eating and loss of health start to happen.

I know of atleast 2 people I know who have at one stage or another been addicted to the game. Both had this problem where they were spending up to 12 hours a day playing a given game. Is it healthy? No. Why do they play this game for 12 hours? Because they don't set a boundary, and if you can live an alternative life where you became powerful, rich and were able to dictate an entire life, would you jump to that opportunity?

The interesting thing is, it is considered unsociable to do so by a majority of families who believe their son or daughter is addicted to the game. What they fail to realise is that by playing the game online, they are playing with other people who they can socialise with. It's just done infront of a computer rather than conventional methods of meeting a person 'in real life'.

Well, that's my thought for the day... had to post something

Hi all, this is just a friendly message to say GreenTubeLAN 4: The G stands for Games will be held in 2 weekends from today, being the 17th to 18th of February, 2007. As always, venue is open for participants at 12:00PM Saturday, and finishes 8:00AM Sunday.

Please note that registrations will be made slightly different this time. They will be done on the site, and stored in a database to make it easier to accept payments. Feel free to register here!

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GreenTubeLAN 4: The G stands for Games
Cost: $15 per head, no free entry. Entry is to be paid prior to entering the venue
Includes: A share in $50 worth of chips, access to bottles of drink in plastic cups
Capacity: 40 Participants
Venue: Frankston North
Special Items:
Additional Information: Basically we are trying to gather enough funds from this LAN so that we can find a venue capable of seating 100 participants. This is why the price is $15, and only includes a share in $50 worth of chips.
Network Infrastructure: *gasp* Most likely 100Mbit dissipated over multiple hubs. Make sure you have games installed for this very reason (unless someone can come up with a gigabit hub for a backbone).
Prizes: 1st Place in AoE 2 Tournament, 1st & 2nd Place in UT2k4 Tournament, 1st Place in V8 Challenge Tournament. Prizes pool is valued at $40.
=================

Yeah, shut up - I'm advertising on my own blog

I wish I could say I'm free, but I'm not yet. Now I have to start and finish over the next 2 days a Java assignment. After frantically dealing with images, documentation, oracle databases and writing lengthy queries, I was able to successfully upload a website after tidying up over the last few days.

Public Transport:
Once again, the topic of trains is in the news with yet another Siemens Train overshooting the Seaford platform. This has yet again caused more controversy over Connex's ability to operate the entire Melbourne network. What people fail to realise is that Connex is not the one who ordered these stupid, not-well-designed-for-peak-traffic trains, this was M>Train back in 2002. I also find it quite humerous that to fix the problem we are currently having, Ted Balieu has suggested that all Siemens Trains be removed from the metropolitan network. To do so, Connex would have to operate on an altered Saturday timetable which includes more 'peak service' trains. What I thoroughly enjoy laughing at is the idea that reducing the trains to a Saturday performance would help passengers out by letting them know atleast their trains will run. It's a funny solution simply because this would cause more of an overload than already present and I can't see why they can't split off-peak services to 3 cars or something like that. They are rarely full in Zones 2 and 3, but I suppose that's what Connex is paid for and not me. What p!sses me off is I guarantee that V/Line services will be even more packed than ever before making sure that I cannot get on my own train (that runs hourly) from Dandenong which has happened before *shakes hands and thanks those with met cards, pay much less than me and can get a train every 15 minutes*.

TV:
Channel 9 back in 2005 used to be my favourite TV channel. This is far from the case now. They have just canceled Outrageous Fortune!!! To compensate, they put on even more crappy quiz shows (like there isn't enough of them already). Channel 10 is getting worse for putting advertisements that take up a good 1/4 of a screen for about 20 seconds DURING A MOVIE!!! Channel 7 is really giving me the sh!ts by gaining most of my TV viewing and god help us all if Channel ABC continues this trend of running shows 10 minutes overtime!

Well, that's todays complaints. Stay tuned until tomorrow where I complain about whatever could possibly happen tonight.