Ramblings of a Coder

Cat Mount for a Dwarf

Tuesday 27 December 2005 at 06:18 am

After an Epic collection of runecloth for the last few weeks by my Main Character Gindaeg.. he's finally got exaulted with Darnassus and gained a NE mount!

Lots of Gold spent, Lots of Help from mord, deez and saarrt and course to top it off a loan of gold from the same three enabled me to get another race's mount! its great! was a personal goal i set myself and i've got there.. and i must say it was well worth the effort.. pictures explain it better.. so here's a screenshot

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Boring

Saturday 03 December 2005 at 11:20 pm

After the scare in the last post, Which i might add garion is fine, Anyway after that besides work some work stuff its generally been boring. Played WoW. But im chasing 4 bits of my beaststalker set and they dont seem to want to drop for me. So thats getting a bit frustrating :)
And with there only being a regular 4 of us, we're all finding it hard to get our stuff together. Its gonna be murder by the time we get to MC etc etc

But there is a few others coming up through the level in the guild which will at least allow us to field a regular 5 man team into these instances.

My minds also back onto my two pet projects (Desperate Missions and the WebDev tool) and i wanna update this blog a bit so it contains more than just a blog. So the frustration of grinding for the set peices is kinda forcing me into working on my game and that. But being bored its hard to get anything done.  I know its just because it is the start of winter and its kinda miserable outside so i can get out and about really. Few days i'll probably be outta my "Bored" mood.

Til then a friend sent me an image which still makes me chuckle so i'll share it with yas.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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changes

Friday 18 November 2005 at 2:13 pm

Thanks to MR SPAMER i had to add a image verification thing to the comments on this blog, its a pain i know But not much else you can do about it is there?.

Just a quick entry to say that. i'll go back to me having the flu and dying quietly....

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | One comment

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Monday 7th

Tuesday 08 November 2005 at 12:22 pm

Aye, this was me "Stop Smoking Day", which im pleased to say is still working. I havnt had a cig since sunday.

Yesterday, i didnt really have any problems tbh sept when sitting doing nothing at the computer.  I kept on reaching out for my packet, Which wasnt there.  That was it.

Today though, its seeming a bit harder i woke up looking for my packet and havnt been able to shake that so far.

Not a long entry, i'll fill it in a bit later. I need to get out on my bike and shake this feeling.

checkout the new Guild i joined in WoW MEH

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Quiet

Wednesday 26 October 2005 at 12:40 pm

Yes, I've been really quiet lately.

Mostly because well i havnt really done much. so nothing to say.
I resigned my post on codersworkshop.com as well i no longer felt i brought anything to the community for one, and i was no longer an active  member either. And overall i'd just had enough of it. IMO the site will never reach what it aspired to be, it'll never become more than the site it was made to replace. So you need to know when to walk away. Also i have some personal business ventures in the pipeline for next year which could be considered as being in competion with idigicon themselfs to i really didnt want to have a role there main community site, conflict of intrests. And as i really cant complain much with idigicon, they were good to work alongside and overall nice people, so its best to remove myself from a position of any authority within there sites.

I'll still be posting occasionally on the site though :) i put to much time into blitzcoder and codersworkshop to just walk away.

Today is the first dentist appointment for me since i got my teeth removed too, tis in an hour and a half (2pm). Im honestly not quite sure whats getting done today but i have a 1.5Hour appointment so it must be something.

Lots of really personal stuff going on in my life atm too, but im not posting anything about that yet till i know exactly whats happening.

Im still working away on my little webdev tool, did the first test of ftp pushing and pulling last night, so if i get time to work on it should hopefully have that new beta version released within the next few weeks for people to test out. Im also working on a preview pane for it that doesnt use any server technology, so well it wont be much use for the php/asp etc folk but it will allow the folk that dont want to install apache locally to see there html. AND once i have the ftp stuff working the way i want im changing the current preview panes to work with either a local or a remote server. Which should help the folk again that dont want to install apache etc locally.

Also i'm working on my game too, build the first base map the other night, tis still untextured so im not releasing any screenhots, but once i texture it and add in a few extras. plug in the control system i might release some screenshots and maybe even a little demo exe.. maybe :)

Anyway i've got some time to kill so im gonna go log into WoW and finally get my character up to level 52.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | One comment

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Backup Required... *Crash*

Friday 07 October 2005 at 6:12 pm

So its been a busy week this week for me, and well a bit of a crappy one too.

How to start this.

Well simply there i was playing WoW trying to get to level 46, and WoW crashed! first time thats happened. So i quickly reboot my computer only to discover! FUCK! windows wont boot!.. Normally not a problem but i'd done a lot of work since the backup the thursday before and REALLY REALLY couldnt afford to loose anything.

So i had to resort to using a Knoppix 4 Livecd.. damn me those knoppix livecds get better and better. It ran nice and fast, faster than most installed linux distro's ive seen in the past, and had just about everything besides my own little apps on it. Seriously good, i recommend everyone who works with computers has a knoppix cd in the toolkit.

Anyway, i ordered myself a new Harddrive, just an 80gb as it was just an emergancy measure and got myself a new DVD Writer to speedup the whole backup process.

So im back on track with work, sept a lot of my Database stuff got currupt and i had backups of all of them, except the most recent job i was working on.. which was also the most important. so i've had to work on rebuilding that from memory and the php i had for it.

All this has really reduced the time i've spent playing WoW and im still not level 46 yet as a result.

AND i havnt had time to work on my little webdev tool, which really needs a name better than webdev cos i think webdev is already a program.

Anyway on top of all that, one of my cousin's died and i had to attend the funeral. so that was basically a full day without being able to work, but i wasnt stressed about it because family comes first before work, no matter who its for.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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WebDeb Tool Beta Release

Wednesday 28 September 2005 at 7:29 pm

Well as i said when i had it cleaned up a bit that i'd release it for folk the use and comment on etc. So here's the feature list.

Key Feature List

Syntax Highlighting
  Php
  ASP
  HTML
  JavaScript
  VBScript
  + More
Preview Modes
  Mozilla
  Internet Explorer

Install notes

The Preview Panes only really work if you have a local Web Server. The Mozilla Pane Requires the Mozilla ActiveX Control downloadable from here.

Please keep in mind that this is still unfinished software and as such i take no responsibility of any faults producted through using this software :)

If you find any bugs or have some feature requests then please feel free to leave a comment.

And some screenshots for you's folk that dont like downloading blind.

and finally the actual download link.

HERE

Note to self, need to add a new menu section on the right for downloads now.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Level 40 and my Ram

Friday 23 September 2005 at 5:22 pm

Woot grinding was worth it, about 20mins ago i leveled to 40 with 93g,

went directly to the stables next to Iron Forge and got my Ram. woot, trained in mail armor and i was skint lol.

I was just heading to the tram back to stormwind when i got an in game email, i forgot i'd put some staff up for Auction and it sold for 10g, so i now have 10g woot.

anyway thats it lol sept the required screenshot

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Being Quiet of Late

Thursday 15 September 2005 at 5:42 pm

Yes, ive been kinda really quiet of late.. not sure why tbh i have been doing stuff which doesnt just include playing WoW.

Just work is kinda slow really and i cant be bothered talking about it. But anyway i made a little program a while ago because well Dreamweaver is kinda big to open just to edit one line in a php file etc. I never really got round to completing it because well it was only an internal tool and it got far enough along to be useable for me. Ya know how internal tools are, they dont have to work perfectly. they dont have to look good and they dont need to be feature complete.

But anyway i've decided to clean this little program up and actually finish it, know just to do something other than play WoW when i get bored. So here's a ickle screenshot of how it currently looks in its unfinished state :)



yes its plane, yes its ugly but i didnt need a lot of features besides highlighting and some way to preview the stuff. atm it only supports http://localhost/ etc but i'll fix that when i actually put an options menu in. Might be of use to someone cos in its current state i do find myself using it, just because its nice and fast and well it does what i want. Should probably take me a week or so to finish cleaning it up and stuff and probably make it a bit better to look at. But not much as i like it to load nice and fast and be as small as possible.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Three comments

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Dental Work

Wednesday 07 September 2005 at 10:38 am

Its 10:30am, i had an appointment with the dentist at 9:30am to get the rest of the work done.  Arrived early as usual and at 10am i was still sitting waiting.. dude was running late. I hate that cos well, i have quite a unreasonable fear of dentists and needles. Mostly the needles but still anyway sitting in that room watching fecking jerry springer talking to some transexual. seriously boring stuff so i went to the wee desk thing and just made another appointment and got a new sedation time to get my teeth removed. Teaches me for arriving early for once doesnt it.

Cant complain though i like this new dentist, he's very good and i even though is english is rather shoddy at times i still have a laugh sitting in the chair.  If only more dentists were like that, Not to mention the cute redhead nurse ;)  I dunno having something to look at besides the ceiling in a dentists seems to make it go smoother IMO

So here i am, supposed to be basically toothless today but still having my teeth, woot i can eat solid food for a few more days yet.

Dentist even thinks he may be able to save some of my own teeth not as bad as they first looked the other week or something, find out at the next appointment.

Question is, why are people scared of the dentist really? its not like its painful and they aint gonna do anything if you dont want em too...

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Gaming and work

Monday 29 August 2005 at 2:26 pm

Yup thats right, the game finally arrived WOOT.

So i've been playing that in between working and sleeping.
Not to mention Garions birthday on friday. It was great, like a mini-christmas :D we had lots of fun and garion did too.

I dont have much to say atm work work work so i can get back to the game woot. Have some nice screenshots instead.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Work Work Work

Sunday 21 August 2005 at 9:42 pm

Yes, Since wednesday morning for me, besides a short visit to a friends house its been all work work and more work.

I've been piling the work out the door as fast as i can get it in the last few days, just so i clear off my schedule for some very intresting projects shortly and maybe a massive project which will put me firmly on the map.

Other than that life is good.

Im eager to get up and move house though, im getting bored of my surroundings here and i'm itching to hit the road, i havnt felt this way in years and i know kirsty has never seen this side of me. Its not as easy now though, i have a family to think of and i cant just packup and disappear for a few days etc on my own, im really eager to but it just isnt possible

Garion will be Two this week coming though and IMO me and especially kirsty are doing a great job raising him, im proud of my son, and proud of kirsty for the job she's doing daily. i dont spend as much time as i want to with garion but one of us do have to work, and least i see him all day as i work from home, something most people dont get.

But back to the moving, im eager and willing to packup, hit the road and just live life again, people see me as lazy i dont really care. I'm not lazy i just enjoy life and enjoy living life. Lots of people take work to seriously in my view, its a means to living but if you work all the time then work is living for you, I'm just not one of those people i cant do that. My car is back, its in perfect working order now. and the call is loud. bring me tree's bring me loch's and someone get me a rifle cos im longing to be gone from this urban hell.

Never know though, if i get this massive contract, it will put me right on the map for bigger jobs and ya never know whats on the horizon in that case.  My tent has taken its proud place again the boot of my car, the telescopic fishing rod is in there too along with my hiking backpack lol i could leave just now, im ready

I wont be though, but im definatly ready to hit the roads for a few days.  Forget about work and contracts and deadlines, forget about what bills are due next week and fuck the credit/debit/cashline cards.  None of them are important. 

Im off before i repeat myself again.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | One comment

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3d Modelling

Monday 15 August 2005 at 03:34 am

Ok, This will probably be a multipart entry, because im tried and dont think i can be bothered to type it all at once.

But anyone i've mentioned before my game Desperate Missions that im working on, Well In still designing how the engine works im trying to create a concept of my original idea for the level generation and also a new idea. Im going to take some time probably to explain my idea's but not right now.

I typically used Milkshape3d to create the works of art i call 3d models. sept since i upgrade my graphics card Milkshape just seems to close for utterly no reason randomly without warning, anyway i was working on a new building design earlier and had been for about an hour when this happened. Mighty cheesed off i was, So i looked up fragmotion again because i liked how the cordinate system was reliable in that and consistant. unlike milkshape were the grid was totally differnt depending on the zoom level. which IMO made it utterly useless. Anyway i looked out fragmotion and sat down and worked out the basics, like the stuff i wasnt getting the first time round. Now i aint an artist or a modeller or anything as my early blog entries show. But fragmotion might allow me to make some better creations which hopefully will make my concept for the original idea look better. So i purchased it hopefully it'll be the best ?13 i spent.

Dare say thats enough for the moment, Hopefully get my car back tomorrow/today and i want to make a start on explaining my Dynamic building creation stuff im working on. Not to mention my RoadMap generator which runs of a supplied heightmap. if i release my secrets or not that is ... pfft who am i kidding course i will. before or shortly after i get them working or maybe later today.. tip dont blog at 3:30am when your tired, you make no sense.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Recent Changed

Monday 08 August 2005 at 11:25 pm

Yes, very recent AKA 2 minutes ago.

Know words wont describe it very well for the folk that know me, so i'll let pictures do the talking, first is earlier this afternoon, other is just now :) third is just erm an ebay shot

YES ITS GONE!.. not to worry though, it will return as of NOW! hehe

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Seven comments

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Motivation has returned

Tuesday 02 August 2005 at 2:40 pm

Lo folks, yup i motivated myself. see what being able to play a game does. Before i get on with what ive done etc i'll just say that GTA:SA is better than its previous versions, i can actually stand to play this game for 30mins.  The missions are decent, the side games as morduun told me yesterday are actually kinda fun and put a new element into the game as a whole. Storyline seems good. But anyway Having a game to play seems to motivate me into doing my work and getting my todo list finished

So yes WoW will be a great investment for me in the next few weeks as i will probably race through my workload to get back into the game.

But yes anyway ive managed to complete the my todo lists for the previous few days and todays list today.. (to many today's ) and now im working on a few other things as well as drumming up some more work woot. then tonight i'll probably have about 30mins of GTA:SA before retiring to the living room to watch some much needed TV. Dark Angel is on Tonight and ofcourse Roseanne is on too.

Anyway back to work for the moment. got a few other things i wanna get done today!

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Three comments

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Relaxing and waiting

Tuesday 26 July 2005 at 2:22 pm

yes, so on the computer fron i aint really done a whole lot recently, just been playing about and stuff making little samples, working on another backend for a website and waiting and waiting :)

Met up with an old school friend yesterday though that was great :D Great meeting up again with ya gerry if yer reading this, have to do it again!

thats basically all ive done, Installed Debian it sucks, installed ubuntu that sucks too but less than debian, Linux refuses to see my Geforce 6200 as an Nvidia card... bleah. had to use the vesa drivers for X, i shoulda just stuck with Gentoo but i cant be arsed installing an os for a day or so again to much work todo.

Eagerly Awaiting the Nasa launch at 15:39 today its 14:18 just now. Getting read to sit down with Garion and watch it
Also been working on my Game "Desperate Missions", i wish i could knockup some concept artwork to show yas :) but i suck at artwork. But ive been working on a city generator, so that the maps are differnt for each new game, but only for a new game, not continuing an old game dunno if it'll work out yet, but here's hoping.

know i just noticed that this blog entry is nothing like i was actually gonna type, hence the title not fitting the entry.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | One comment

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CodersWorkshop 3 and beyond

Tuesday 19 July 2005 at 1:43 pm

well, its been two days since my return from doncaster, Codersworkshop 3 was another good event and i met up with some old friends and met some new ones. Planning of the event wasnt as good as last years but it went well. Cobra got a great response from people which seemed like a great bonus as idigicon didnt really pimp cobra at this event. Wasnt really all that many photo's taken at this event either which is a shame as i know the folk that couldnt attend like to look at photo's

The after event gathering in the main bar of the Moat house hotel was great too, got to really sit down and chat with some folk... or in foppy's case chat at some folk.. as he really couldnt get to grips with the scottish accent.. shame eh

Some missed faces though like Krylar, cYanide etc but really met some cool new folk like Caff, Foppy, Cicero, Enigma, RossC (Man you left way to early) ooo so many :) and course the folk that already knew me from previous events like Gfk, BoomBoom. Enay etc

It started off really well pre-event, with me just talking to random folk while we waiting on George, Fluke etc arriving and setting up, I think i may have stood in the sun just a bit to much though as i got my face slightly sunburnt.

Event Kicked off well, GrahamK Arrived and the cobra fun started :) Shame fluke had an old version of the sample i made but grahamK to the rescue he had the newest version with him on a Removable HDD WOOT. Hours later and grahamK was still sitting at the cobra machines answering everyone's questions and showing them samples thats dedication for ya

All in All Another great event eagerly awaiting news on the next one already :D hope we get about 6 months notice cos i'd like to take the family with me next time.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Work getting in the way of WoW

Monday 11 July 2005 at 2:48 pm

yea i only have two days left of my 10 day pass on World of Warcraft, Which is kinda gutting cos i dont even wanna thing about buying it till after ive been to doncaster for codersworkshop 3

But not to worry, work has taken over again anyway and i need to get stuck into that before the weekend arrives.

Recently Finished Web Work

Scotia Property
Norlet

i should probably list the others... but tbh i cant remember them all lol, i have a record of them somewhere though. and im gonna pull out some screenshots of the apps im actually allowed the screenshot that ive done.. actually put some contact on the Specis-Design page

also here's a nice screenshot of me playing World of Warcraft again..

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Strangeness

Friday 08 July 2005 at 3:02 pm

Well ive been watching the selling stuff of Pyxia.com on ebay.. they make IBasic for anyone thats intrested.. anyway i "HAD" a login over on there, i almost never posted AKA read 2 posts or something.

Anyway i logged in the other day so i could read the post in the registered user forum, had a read. this was yesterday and yea its been sold.. Went back today and my account has been deleted!!!!! WTF! i hadnt posted, i hadnt said anything at all.. that kinda pisses my off why would my account deleted for utterly no reason? am i suspected of doing something? is someone suffering from paranoia? anyway in a nice action because some dickhead targetted me for utterly no fucking reason. im gonna post what was said in the private thread right to here..

and i quote Mr Paul Turley notice the quote starting now "

I am posting this here to give a bit more detail than I can in the open forums.

The sale between Pyxia Development and Shawn Webster is no longer. After much deliberation and trying to sort out details with Shawn it became very apparent that the sale was not going to be finalized in a timely manner, if ever at all.

Simply put Shawn bid on the auction without knowing whether or not he could obtain the financing of his loan. He also bid without knowing for certain what deal, if any, he was going to make with the users that pledged money for the buyout.

He was trying to come up with the full amount so he wouldn't have to deal with the pledgers at all. It all seemed very messy. I later learned that another associate would be paying for the transaction if the loan fell through. This unnamed associate would probably get a piece of Pyxia Development. Shawn gave no further details.

I began to feel very uneasy about the whole transaction. More people involved than needed to be inculding Shawn's business partners and his father. It appeared to me that Pyxia would be shared amongst many.

So I waited all day Tuesday to hear from him on whether or not he obtained the loan. I didn't get a reply until very late at night stating he wouldn't be able to pay until Friday and he was going out of town for the rest of the week. With no other details such as whether he got the loan or not. And no real resolution to what he was going to do with the pledgers.

I held off on sending the executed contract of sale because there were too many unanswered questions. And in hindsite it is a very good thing I did. After discussing the details with my lawyer I was advised not to follow through with this agreement in any form. I promptly contacted eBay and filed a mutual non paying dispute meaning that both parties agreed to not follow through with the transaction. Shawn agreed to it on his end although he now claims he had no choice.

On top of that Cameron is stuck smack dab in the middle of all of this. And I am sure is feeling the stress of it all. It has become a circus of hearsay after I cancelled the deal. He said this, she said that, etc. Again on advice of my lawyer I was councelled not to respond to any more communication with Shawn and Co. directly. I would advise that all of you do the same, and specifically DO NOT send any funds. That would be bad.

So where do we go from here?

When the auction was over the 2nd place bidder informed me that if the deal fell through that he was still willing to go through with the purchase at his last highest bid. While it is for slightly less money than the highest bid Shawn offered I decided to contact him and see if he was still interested. I had been in communication with him through the duration of the auction to find out who he was and what his plans were if he won.

So late last night I sent him the "Second chance offer" that eBay provides when your deal with the high bidder fails. This morning I sent an executed contract of sale by FedEx.

Zeph is Tom Hanlin previously with PowerBASIC. I ask that you don't share that information in the public forums just yet since I am not real sure if he left there on good terms. He is a programmer and a very good guy. And almost a perfect fit for Pyxia Development. Having worked with a BASIC language compiler before he will be able to continue the evolving development of IBasic, with my help of course.

I made him the same one year support deal offered to the other bidder. So I will be staying on to help run things for the next year. And also continue in the future as may be needed.

This has been a trying couple of days for all of us. But especially Cameron. I ask that you give him a little slack as he was only trying to do what he thought was best for the community. And while his efforts didn't quite work out they are appreciated by all.

Paul Turley
Pyxia Development

" Notice me ending the quote here

Anyway yea, deleting my account for utterly no reason. pfft

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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World Of OMG IM ADDICTED

Monday 04 July 2005 at 7:34 pm

So yea.. ive done some work here and there in between games of WoW.. nothing else to report today sept im now level 13 and have my pet. WOOT

Here's a screenshot of me, mord and shadee on a quest... with mord getting pushed about in a barrow his poor wittle legs. LOL

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Six comments

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Silence is Golden

Friday 01 July 2005 at 4:55 pm

Yea, So when i replaced the Graphics card and PSU the other week, i said i'd replace the CPU fan and that, Well i needed to order a Mic so i could knockup something that Unseen suggested, so while i was at it i ordered a funky new CPU Fan and some new case fans, Well the Mic arrived yesterday and the CPU fan arrived today. Came with some heat transfer compond but it was utter shit, so i popped out the shops and got myself a vial of Artic Silver.. fired the new CPU fan on and WOW i can actually hear my HDD's crunching now! amazing! ive had a noisy beast of a machine since my Athlon XP 2200 which i dunno ever where that is these days lol, i know i gave it away to someone! anyway Silence and its fucking great!

To Celebrate ive been playing loud music since i installed it lol. But hey tonight, when i leave my PC on.. and the whole house wont be suffering from the Airplane passing overhead... or AKA the noise my puter used to make.!

Anyway thats enough for just now.. NOTE TO SELF fix acid2's and noelcowers links on this blog and add the link to morduun's blog and shadee's blog

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Sun, River, Fun

Sunday 26 June 2005 at 8:18 pm

Yea, it being sunday and all i decided i wasnt doing a single thing today, and the sky's were blue and the heat rising. So i REALLY wasnt sitting at my computer. So out we went, dropped in and visiting my friend Chic, Hadnt seen him since his wedding so was a good visit. we spent a few hours there, then me and my family and chic and his family drove up to a little place called Thankerton to meet up with another Friend (David) who was sitting on the riverbank fishing it a great afternoon, only downside being i didnt have my fishing rod with me that woulda made it a perfect afternoon! Wish i had my camera with me too. Great scenery, Sitting on a river bank, blue sky's and Huge mountain looming directly in front of us

mmm thats the call of fishing settling in again.. work? whats that? im off fishing!

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Four comments

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Further Learning

Sunday 19 June 2005 at 11:13 pm

So since i havnt really done anything for the last few days, im going to blog about my future plans.

Ok in the short-term i have booked my ECDL-Advanced course... not very exciting, and not really a challenge at all, its just a nother bit of paper i dont have and its a cheap test :) Second further learning is ive applied for information on how to gain my Amateur Radio Transmitting License, Its an intrest ive had from my early teens when i was given my first CB Radio, which progressed into a decent homebase setup with a 15ft Silver-rod ariel mounted onto a 20ft pole in my mothers back garden. could been seen for miles lol and i chatted with folk from loadsa places, I still have an old rig about with a small mag-mount ariel, but i really want to get into longer distance radio communiction and getting this license and meeting folk that already do this as a hobby is a good step into that community.

Its not just an intrest from a User side though, My intrest comes from my Electronics background too and Electronic Communication methods have always sparked my intrest in a big way, Ive built small Shortwave recievers before. anyway its intresting to me. and i like to combine all my hobbies as much as possible. Hence combining my Electronic and my Computer Software intrests in my Project for my HNC Mechatronics. Great combination and it was pure Mixture of Computer Controlled Mechanical Devices :) with some Electronic control thrown in for good measure :) Motor control, Led Bank Control, IR Sensors for Returning the RPM of the Motor back to the computer etc. i had a lot of fun in those 6 months doing that. Which for a little bit of information the software side was written in Borland Delphi.

Man i can seriously rant about the short-term cant i lol

I'll leave the long term for another day then

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Three comments

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New Hardware

Thursday 16 June 2005 at 3:36 pm

YES! it arrived Ive got that whole "New PSU" smell going atm. WOOT nice new gfx card and new ram :D computer seems to be running very stable again WOOT! im so happy.. yes i am..

Anyway yes did i say i got my new hardware? :P

Aint done anything else to mention today lol, but if i do i'll make another entry :D

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Hardware Fairy

Wednesday 15 June 2005 at 4:53 pm

Yes, so i was having a chuckle as the evil hardware fairy wrecked havoc on a few friends computers. (morduun, Shadee that would be you's) and damn it musta heard me Both sticks of ram in my main system failed memory tests last night, Fan on my graphics card has failed.. mucho crapness.

But not to worry, Ebuyer comes in handy, ordered myself a new 1gb Matched Pair of DRR 400 and a nice new Geforce 6 something or other 512Mb on it. and while i was at it my 650Watt PSU was really a bit overkill anyway, and kinda noisy. So ive ordered a nice normal 500W PSU too. all on next day delivery! WOOT it'll be here for tomorrow, cant wait now i love getting new hardware!

Next on the list is New Mobo, New Processor etc :D

Took another web job lol so really need my computer running nice now almost finished it, should have it complete for today woot.
Also on the plans for my blog, i'm gonna put some time aside and bring all my old entries over from my livejournal :)

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | One comment

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Funeral

Friday 03 June 2005 at 1:46 pm

Grandpa's Funeral was today,

Nice service lots of people there Followed by a short drive down to the cemetary. Where i took the number 5 cord to lower him into the ground. Then onto the hotel for the immediate family for a meal.

Was ok :) think my grandpa would have liked it.

I should be getting back to work and stuff on monday. Maybe

Still got a few things to deal with but its basically over with now.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Storm Hits with full force

Saturday 28 May 2005 at 01:27 am

Yup, another heart attack this morning, they resuscitated him again, but this time its been made clear that if/when it happens next time he's to be let go, its not fair on him to sustain him in that amount of sheer pain, and its not fair to keep him alive knowing full well that there will never be any sort of recovery only more pain as the drugs stop being effective.

It was a hard decision my mother had to make. I helped with my views on the matter which should be clear from above and she agreed, this is not the way he wants to live and he made that clear.

Its hard to watch someone like that. knowing that they never ever wanted to be like that in the first place. So in plain God speed grandpa may it come quickly.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Quiet

Sunday 22 May 2005 at 04:14 am

I've Been Quiet the last few days, yup

Just slowly working on my game, and i've spent a lot of time messing about with my guitar which is always fun. Also been working on my little App and should hopefully have something to demo next week for it, Its not big but whats taking the time is the Object side of it, I went for Interchange-able objects so things like the Backend Database system can be switched just by replacing the Object. At the moment im using Cheetah because its small and fast, But i'm also working on a version which uses SQLLite, Same controls etc just Differnt backend engine, Its all handled transparently to the user and thats whats taking up most of the time. But i still feel it was a good idea to go this method.

Ive ReWritten the Cheetah Unit for Delphi so its now Dynamically loaded instead of Static, Or Late-Binding for you's C folk. I personally prefer this method and really, its what DLL's were designed for. When im happy that everything is working i'll Fire my Dynamic Unit up here so other folk can use it

I'm hoping i get far enough along with all these before the middle of next week, as i have 4 Contracts all lined up and ready to start, If not, thats fine too i comment my code plenty anyway and i keep my TODO list uptodate so i know what i was working on were

Anyway StarTrek - Voyager is on so im off to veg in front of the TV a bit before the boy wakes up.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Weddings

Sunday 15 May 2005 at 11:44 am

Yup, First time since G was born me and Kirsty headed out for a night last night without him,

My close friend Chic got married and we headed out to his party, great time and Chic looked really happy

so Congratz to both of them!


nothing much else changed for me sept work has progressed a bit further and i've got some things done..  waiting and waiting and waiting for others. Waiting drives me a little crazy

anyway heading out with the weeman today cos its a bright sunny day and its sunday so i aint even considering doing any work at all!

later folks.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Buildings

Tuesday 10 May 2005 at 01:04 am

Yes, as you can probably tell from the two edits on the previous entry i've been making buildings for my game.  Yes there untextured and will remain like this till i have something to show. Ive made 5 in total now and they aint great i know this i accept this, but they'll do the job fine for now. over the next few days im going to use the floorplan files inside the rar to build the internal's of the building i wont be putting in objects cos thats not required at this stage. just rooms etc, Im done making buildings but if anyone makes any others feel free to link me to them

Dunno how long it'll take me to make internals for the buildings im hoping not to long but as i aint really comfortable with modelling it may take awhile it may not lol

Anyway 5th building looks like this

and all the model files can be found right here if anyone is really intrested and erm them as b3d format

Anyway wish my luck and later folks.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Hard Time

Wednesday 04 May 2005 at 10:22 pm

What to say. erm. Well in a nut shell i've had the most shitty time in the last few days.

I had a really strange conversation with my mother, i knew from the way she was saying stuff that she was hiding something. So i jumped in my car a drove over to find out what it was. Turned out my grandpa was see'ing people that arnt there. Its not like he's mistaking anyone for someone else. He knows everyone, doesnt mistake people for someone else, knows whats happening around him but at the same time he's talking to folk that just arnt there. Or pointing out something thats not happening. It really crushed me to see him like that. And its not been like a gradule change, it just appeared suddenly and since it has he's been getting steadly worse. Doesnt even look like the same man anymore.

So i've been over helping as much as i can, cancelled all my current workload except small things i can work on in the 10 or so minutes as he naps. I'm not really bothered about the workload though, family has and always will come first for me if people dont like that. i have professional indemnity insurance they can sue me.  Its just hard to keep going atm knowing that its not likely to get any better before the end comes. but he's always helped me out when i needed help, its now time to repay that debt.

What makes this whole thing harder is the vultures of the family who havnt helped at all with anything have been hassling my mother cos they want to step in and control everything once the end actually arrive's, they dont want to help just now because there scummy bastards. I promised my grandpa a long time ago that i wont allow them to step in, and now they all know about this promise and i made it perfectly clear when they started trying to tell my mother what was happening and i stepped in and put them in there place. Its not nice having to deal on one hand with a dying man, and on the other keep the vultures at bay. Its taking up most of my time and probably will for a while. So if ya dont see me online you know why, And if you do and i aint responding its probably cos im not here. Tonight i'm back home sleeping in my own bed to catch up on the sleep ive missed in the past two days. But tomorrow it going to start all over again. I dont grudge this work i have todo. I hate the other folk who are trying to get my attention to do things while im trying to deal with what is the first real family member ive ever lost.

So again if im short with anyone, which is doubtful as this is the longest ive been online in the last few days and probably the next few, Then deal with it, cos i aint got the time to try and keep you happy and aint really intrested in keeping anyone happy atm.

I'm about done, cos basically i dont really know what else to say atm its hard to find any words to fit how im feeling atm because how im feeling changes from second to second. im sure it'll all settle in time though, and i'll hopefully speak to you's all soonish.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Four comments

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Work Front

Thursday 28 April 2005 at 05:40 am

Intresting, i was in a kinda off topic discussion in a meeting yesterday. and i mentioned my idea for a program just in passing. Even though the meeting had nothing at all todo with software but you know how it is when folk get talking the subject can goto utterly anything. Anyway i mentioned it and erm This company are intresting in actually buying it if i make it. But not like buying one copy to use. Paying for a cut down version to distrube with a start business information pack... They dont want a fully functional version, just something to say "Here this is something thats helpful, and you can buy it from this person" but they want to pay for it too.. so very intresting for me :D

anyway thats it :D its got me excited and my brain flowing with idea's. Kept me slightly distracted for the day too.

Blitzcoder Closes in 2 days time... still a bit sad about that. But onto bigger and hopefully better things eh :D

You'll notice i havnt really posted in a few days, this is because the weather has been great here and ive been spending almost every free second outside playing with my son, Its been great. And if i havnt been outside ive been sitting here working. Ive got a mini backlog of small things todo which if i really set my mind to it i could have done in a few hours, but hey its me so i'll have them done by the weekend.

Tomorrow i'll be putting all my attention towards the Alumni website that still isnt finished, I plan on having this finished and live before the end of next week, so Ike.. if your reading this, SET SOME TIME ASIDE TO GET THIS FINISHED COS ITS REALLY ANNOYING ME NOW. :D

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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End of an Era

Wednesday 20 April 2005 at 9:31 pm

Ive been admin of blitzcoder for a while now, and on the 30th of april Blitzcoder.com will merge with Codersworkshop.com and cease to exist. It is a sad day, blitzcoder has been a daily part of my life for 3 or so years now, so it is a lose on my part, I'll be about on Codersworkshop but not as admin :)

anyway the announcement has been released to the community and can be found here

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | Two comments

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Meh at work

Wednesday 20 April 2005 at 08:09 am

It was one of those "BLEAH" days yesterday, were i couldnt be bothered actually getting started... which i didnt really till about 11pm and continued through to now when im writing this, i'm making it through the workload, slowly though due to my canniebearsed mood. long as im making it though thats all that counts, im eager to get it all finished so i can get back to Drago's engine and finish my sample. and begin planning for some "Off the shelf" software ive been considering.. which as you can probably guess is finanical based.  Ive also got work todo on a few other beta tests ive received lately, but all this has to wait till im done with my own work. sadly.

What im most eager for though is to get back to my game coding, Desperate Missions, But im happy to continue working on the idea's for this game while engines etc are tested :), But its looking really promising with what i have now :D so yay.

Anyway, its 8am or so. and ive got to be in a meeting at 11:30am and im tired so i really need to grab a few hours sleep before then. So folks i'll catch ya later in the day :D

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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So Far

Sunday 17 April 2005 at 6:51 pm

Yes, so far it has been a slow day, ive mostly been lurking on several forums like blitzcoder, Pascal Game Dev.

Ive also been reading back in the Borland Newsgroups for Delphi, Lots of info hidden away in there actually. and researching some gamedev stuff, mostly for my Turn Based Strat game i have planning :D

But thats me for the day, time to kill the computer and ignore it till i start working tomorrow morning :S

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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3d Engine Stuff again

Saturday 16 April 2005 at 06:11 am

Not sure if i should be writing about this, as its really Drago's Thunder, but damn that guy works fast when he wants too :D, i got another sneak peak at a new version of the engine DLL and again im very impressed with it, i took another simple screenshot which doesnt show off any of the nice features at all, but tis very very nice. Im definetly going to make a better sample with this in the next few days. anyway screenshot :D

Keep up the great work on this drago :D

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Dont Touch Anything Day

Thursday 14 April 2005 at 6:04 pm

You know those kinda of day, when you know you just shouldnt have touched anything, well IM having one of those days.
I decided i'd clean up my desk this morning, finially mount those damn TFT's on the wall, so i set about the first one, pick a nice spot, measure the cable length etc actually mount the TFT on the wall its all going well, then i goto put the VGA cable in and NOOOOOOOO its about 1cm to short cos i had to run it underneath the shelf for the CRT, gutting. but i fixed that by using my other extra long VGA cable, then doh i notice the power cable has the same problem... and its one of those clover power cables.. i dont have any extra long ones of them.  not going well already, but i decide i can pick one up at the local computer shop and i move onto my next task.
Mounting the Telephone on the wall.
Well kirsty's been pestering me to do this for months so i decided to finally do it, i measure it all up drill the holes, put the phone on the wall its all good and working, i think to myself that cables a bit messy.
So i get out the trust staple gun and begin stabling the cable into the skirtingboard and NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO i put the stable straight through the damn thing! NOT a good day, im just going to leave everything as it till tomorrow when hopefully i wont be so jinxed.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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Graphic Engine BoringNess

Monday 11 April 2005 at 4:03 pm

Yes, With Irrlicht .net being only semi functional, i decided to start looking again, i really really dont wanna have to do my own graphics engine :) so ive had a look at a few, even one thats still in beta. which will be a module for Blitzmax.. and i must say it works rather well in Delphi really really well actually :D


Its not really usable atm, but good hope for this one. Im gonna go back and try irrlicht .net again and see if i can work around its limitations for the moment, At least till i have built a prototype map loader anyway.

*EDIT* This WIP engine is being made my Mr Drago *EDIT*

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | One comment

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First Post

Friday 08 April 2005 at 02:32 am

Lets See, this is my first post on this blog system, my old blog was on Livejournal but i decided i wanted to have it on my own webspace.
Every tried installing livejournal blogging system onto a web server? its not work the hassle. Its a great system but installing it is just to much of a nightmare to even consider doing it.

Anyway this was just a quick post, to get the ball rolling.

Charles McCrimmon (Specis) | ¶ | default | No comments

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