kik!

Published 6/22/2012 by Hunter
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When a developer lols it is often off by one. kik!


No seriously! Thanks! The issues I was having was me nuts, and at least I can rest easy that its not me! Well until the all fix goes out and I am still having an issue, but lets just be happy being content. Keep in the sunlight!


There is a tight coupling between the user experience (UX) and the user interface (UI). They are often synonymous, I think they are nearly interchangeable in many aspects.

I think it is safe to say when you block the UI thread with some long running process you are *blocking* the UX from being as good as it could be. Maybe when multiple processors were not really prevalent I could accept it. Now I can not. I know better and now so do you (or at least you have my word of caution.) Short of citing examples and writing tutorials to show you I know better you know better from reading this PSA. You have an entry point to discovery. Go do it! NOW! The next time I see an app run and go get data and block the UX and create an unresponsive app I will bring out the gauntlet of shame and slap you with it! Since no one really reads my rants the world is pretty safe ... For the moment. Soon to follow is my PSA on creating threads all 'willy nilly'. There is a time and place for it... A good rule of thumb, never spin up another thread. And then only do so when a queued/scheduled task will not suffice. Do everything on one thread AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, but be smart and don't tank your UX (I know I know, its not easy, this is tough love time.)

There is one exception to my tolerance, Dwarf Fortress, although since having gone to OpenGL (did I date my playing time?) I rarely encounter anything less than 45-60FPS except when my fortress is collapsing and/or filling with lava and water... (physics/fluid dynamics baby! the simulation demands it! the simulation must have its synchronous way with you! I have a very unhealthy love of Dwarf Fortress... I know this...)


Is it just me? But I find the following technologies to be very exciting.

I am watching closely to see how the following 3D related technology *advancements* turn out (when they come out). If they do half of what they say they do they are still pretty cool to behold!

Something from a group called Euclideon:
Unlimited polygons! What if it wasn't about polygons anymore? I am keeping a tight watch on these blokes to see how they do!
The narrator... well... we can talk about him later. He has quite the radio voice. Maybe it is that and a combo of the Aussie accent. I'll leave it at that. Just work through the narrator if he annoys you, its worth grokking what they are showing.
 
Here is the one I think was just smart and I want it today/now/yesterday:
I could see these tools added as a must have suite in any major animation tool set. It may put some modellers out of work, or they would just spend time elsewhere on the models (less on structure and boning, and more on getting more stuff done.)
 
All of these ideas/advancements get my 3D adrenaline pumping (in a good way!)

Time to get your Friday nerd on! Here is a gaming oddity. I didn't actually look into Dwarf Fortress (DF) till a few years ago. I was on a personal quest for some kind of time filling 'simple' RPG when a friend (Miccah Merrill) suggested I get over my hangup and try it. There was a new adventure mode (satisfying my desire for an RPG), but I never got that far! I'll try it someday along with Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup RPG... There is simply not enough time in the day. And the latest release notes said something about mining carts. OK now this I got to see!

I agree with the source blog's title and the graph is rather accurate... I am glad and sad I waited this long in life to finally stop whining and get into this game/simulation/lifestyle. Bay12 Games (Tarn Adams and his brother) have been crowd sourcing this game for decades. They are the first kickstarter before kickstarting was cool since they operate solely on donations. Read this well written article by the NY Times for the full history.

 

If you ever want to be bored to tears about my escapades in DF just ask!

I don't know if the following image was original work of the blog post I caught site of it on, but here the link. And the image is being served from my service (as a courtesy to their bandwidth, what are the accepted courtesies these days?) 

http://dodonov.net/blog/2009/09/12/one-game-to-rule-them-all/ 


Ray Bradbury left us last night. His legacy is glorious. He was the first adult author I attempted read (at 8 years of age I tried to wrap my head around "Fahrenheit 451", which explains a lot. I finished it, but I had more questions than answers at the end that were only readdressed when I read the book again a decade+ later. Oh to be a naive youth again!)

 

This event makes me look back and back into the future he envisioned for us all to have to come to terms with... and another author's voice suddenly comes to mind.

 

"It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be."

-Isaac Asimov

 

I can not agree more. I think a Ray Bradbury quote is in order but I have not reflected enough on his life yet.

 

RIP Ray Bradbury  (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012).


I tend to fiddle with my operating systems too much. Linux because I have too, Windows because I can, and Mac 'cause they said not to.


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