I'm also not too happy with the scoring system. Why having to deal with a score when the real purpose is to pass through levels ?
Monday, December 29, 2008
Color Bulles Solitaire - Another Cool Casual Game
Color Bulles Solitaire is another casual games that I particularly enjoy. It is simple, challenging, yet fun and not totally repetitive. Its main disadvantage comes from the difficulty at some upper levels. Indeed, starting with level 7, it becomes extremely difficult to win and most of your success (or failure) will depend solely on chance and on the order in which you receives the balls.
I'm also not too happy with the scoring system. Why having to deal with a score when the real purpose is to pass through levels ?
I'm also not too happy with the scoring system. Why having to deal with a score when the real purpose is to pass through levels ?
Monday, December 22, 2008
WoW Connect - Good Casual Game
I consider a good casual game any game where I can play for only a few minutes without any time constraint and that I enjoy playing again a day or two after; and this for a few weeks.
WoW Connect (based on a World of Warcraft theme) is a typical casual game I really enjoy. Besides, it is good for your memory and observation mind.
WoW Connect (based on a World of Warcraft theme) is a typical casual game I really enjoy. Besides, it is good for your memory and observation mind.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Evaluate Your WebSite
Would you like to know how much your website is worth ?
It is possible. Simply go to WebsiteOutlook and try with yours.
You can find below "my" own website value (Star Wars Combine at www.swcombine.com) but I can already tell you that it is out of the question to sell it for such a small price, especially when considering I live in Europe and the US dollar to Euro exchange rate is ridiculously low. Our 10 years of collective investments and efforts are definitively worth more.
And I'm not even talking about the unveiled potential.
It is possible. Simply go to WebsiteOutlook and try with yours.
You can find below "my" own website value (Star Wars Combine at www.swcombine.com) but I can already tell you that it is out of the question to sell it for such a small price, especially when considering I live in Europe and the US dollar to Euro exchange rate is ridiculously low. Our 10 years of collective investments and efforts are definitively worth more.
My site is worth $33601.9.
How much is yours worth?
And I'm not even talking about the unveiled potential.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Ten years of Online Gaming Presence
Historically, it was on the 3rd of December 1998 that Frederic "Fizzban" Waymann, Mario "PtJedi" Dominguez and myself (known online as Veynom) decided to start an online game on the ashes of a defunct one called Star Wars Simulation. Unlike any game editor, while we had a few hundreds players around us eager to play, we had absolutely no game to offer. We could only propose hope, dreams, and a perpetual answer that would quickly became famous: Soon™. Yet, on that day, we founded the Star Wars Combine.
Ten years after, hundreds of people have contributed to the growing success of the Star Wars Combine. Our membership has always grown (even if sometimes slowly) despite ups and downs in the game development. showing that one of our biggest successes is doubtlessly the community.
Now, like once every ten years, I will rather tell a small story instead of boring the world to death with a “we’re the best” type of speech. So here comes one of my Uncle Vey ’ stories which I will name "The Lost Days".
A long time ago in a not so far far away galaxy …
errr no. Wrong story.
Today is the 3rd of December. Today is the official tenth anniversary of the Star Wars Combine. Yet today is Year 10 Day 3 by standard Combine Galactic Time (CGT) - an in-game time reference. Where does the difference come from ?
Is the memory of that old Sim Master acting crazy and forcing him to believe the Combine was started on December 3 while it was in fact on December the first ?
Did some well-known thief manage to steal two days from the Combine ?
Did an Imperial historian make a mistake while re-copying the official Combine chronicles ?
Is this … a feature ?
Absolutely not. This is no feature, this is a bug !
This is simply a bug due to how CGT code converting calendar dates to our own system which does not stake leap years into account. As consequences, we lose a day every four years and one of those years we will need to fix these days. Enjoy,
Ten years after, hundreds of people have contributed to the growing success of the Star Wars Combine. Our membership has always grown (even if sometimes slowly) despite ups and downs in the game development. showing that one of our biggest successes is doubtlessly the community.
Now, like once every ten years, I will rather tell a small story instead of boring the world to death with a “we’re the best” type of speech. So here comes one of my Uncle Vey ’ stories which I will name "The Lost Days".
A long time ago in a not so far far away galaxy …
errr no. Wrong story.
Today is the 3rd of December. Today is the official tenth anniversary of the Star Wars Combine. Yet today is Year 10 Day 3 by standard Combine Galactic Time (CGT) - an in-game time reference. Where does the difference come from ?
Is the memory of that old Sim Master acting crazy and forcing him to believe the Combine was started on December 3 while it was in fact on December the first ?
Did some well-known thief manage to steal two days from the Combine ?
Did an Imperial historian make a mistake while re-copying the official Combine chronicles ?
Is this … a feature ?
Absolutely not. This is no feature, this is a bug !
This is simply a bug due to how CGT code converting calendar dates to our own system which does not stake leap years into account. As consequences, we lose a day every four years and one of those years we will need to fix these days. Enjoy,
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Stress at Work
First day at Work
After three months
After six months
After nine months
After one year
After two years
And ultimately...
In a pure and sincere desire to reduce mailbox sizes and help poor IT administrators, I decided to put online this joke instead of forwarding the mail. Credits go to its respective authors.
 | You listen to Stevie Wonder. It is your first day, the sky is blue, girls are nice, and everything goes well. |
After three months
 | You listen to HOUSE music because you are already overloaded. |
After six months
 | You listen to Heavy Metal and start seeing everything double because you work from 8.00am till well over midnight. |
After nine months
 | You listen to Hip Hop. You became fat because of stress and suffer from constipation ! |
After one year
 | You listen to Gansta Rap. You blink, all the time and for no reason. You are deeply addicted to caffeine. |
After two years
 | You listen to Techno and your life is a perpetual rave party. Beat after beat you become crazy. |
And ultimately...
 |
In a pure and sincere desire to reduce mailbox sizes and help poor IT administrators, I decided to put online this joke instead of forwarding the mail. Credits go to its respective authors.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Something has changed ...
Eight years ago, in a not so far away country ...
Today, something has changed.
Reality strikes back.
Wazaaa !!!
Today, something has changed.
Reality strikes back.
Wazaaa !!!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Between Theory & Practice
Today I found back an old article I had written for a few friends of mine a few years ago while working as R&D software programmer and wanted to share the story again as it remains pretty much true and applies to other fields of IT as well.. Do not worry; you do not need to have a master in advanced telecom technologies to understand what is written below.
Back then my job consisted to design and implement a communication bus (SMBus); in other words think telephone line as it is easier to understand. This digital bus was composed of 2 wires: the clock wire and the data wire. The following devices were connected on the bus: a PC, a laptop battery (yes, you can talk to a battery, the very same battery you have inside your laptop and believe me it will answer you), and a power supply control card with a microcontroller (MCU) and a small memory chip on it. All these 4 devices had their own bus address (think phone number), and they were able to call each other in order to send and receive data (like talking on the phone or sending a fax). Last detail, all these components were grounded (linked to the ground) for electrical security reason. The theoretical schematic of the bus looked like this.
Didn't it look so nice on paper ?
In order to check the data transmissions and receptions (ie, monitor the communication), I had also connected an oscilloscope on the bus.
Now, the reality was slightly different and the result I obtained looked rather like this:
Tell me you got scared by reality.
But don't trust Murphy's Law on this one as it actually worked. This being said, I am confident you will feel reassured by knowing that similar busses are present inside your computers, your car, the trains or the planes you take, and so on.
Back then my job consisted to design and implement a communication bus (SMBus); in other words think telephone line as it is easier to understand. This digital bus was composed of 2 wires: the clock wire and the data wire. The following devices were connected on the bus: a PC, a laptop battery (yes, you can talk to a battery, the very same battery you have inside your laptop and believe me it will answer you), and a power supply control card with a microcontroller (MCU) and a small memory chip on it. All these 4 devices had their own bus address (think phone number), and they were able to call each other in order to send and receive data (like talking on the phone or sending a fax). Last detail, all these components were grounded (linked to the ground) for electrical security reason. The theoretical schematic of the bus looked like this.
Didn't it look so nice on paper ?
In order to check the data transmissions and receptions (ie, monitor the communication), I had also connected an oscilloscope on the bus.
Now, the reality was slightly different and the result I obtained looked rather like this:
Tell me you got scared by reality.
But don't trust Murphy's Law on this one as it actually worked. This being said, I am confident you will feel reassured by knowing that similar busses are present inside your computers, your car, the trains or the planes you take, and so on.
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