Bloggin' Out

Goodbye Blogger.com

2011-12-31T20:30:00.000-04:00

After 4 and a half years and a hair away from 300 posts, I took the very hard decision to move to another Blogging service.

After a lot of searching and trials, I chose Tumblr. This decision was not an easy one. Blogger.com has its perks, but I needed something different for the new year. A new blogging adventure that's much more "content" focused and much more "me" focus as well. The blogging-tools on Tumblr and Tumblr's own philosophies are much more geared towards accomplishing this goal of mine.

New year, new blog, new "image". For this new endeavor, I finally created myself a personal logo. I previewed it in my Christmas wish post.

You can continue following me on...

http://martinbreault.tumblr.com/.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T10:10:00.000-04:00

3DS, PSP and PS Vita Battery Comparison Video

2011-12-22T13:28:00.002-04:00

//via @TristanGeoffroy on Twitter

Thinking of moving...

2011-12-19T19:17:00.001-04:00

After four and a half years here, I'm thinking of moving my blog. I don't know if I can really move my blog a third time, though. I really like Blogger, but another service is attracting me.

I still haven't decided yet. Keep checking until the end of the year to see if I have taken the decision.

Samsung Galaxy S II - Stop USB Connection Drop

2011-12-17T20:03:00.001-04:00

I recently got myself up-to-date in Mobility with a new smartphone - Android, of all things. My weapon of choice, the Samsung Galaxy S II.

This phone is not only replacing my old "not-so-smart" phone, but my old iPod Touch as well. Music is an important part of my life and it's so great to be able to carry everything I need in one device. If you are a Samsung Galaxy S II owner, you probably have one little problem: The USB connection likes to drops a for a lot of people (although not everybody). This is especially a problem if you're transferring a lot of data in one go through the traditional method (Plug your phone in, copy files through Explorer... no second thoughts). Yet a very simple fix exists: Don't just plug it in!

There is a USB-Mode that exists that prevents the phone's power or other services from dropping the USB connection. It's a little bit hidden.

*** Very important: Make sure you have not yet connected the USB cable.

From the Home Screen, go into Settings and then in Wireless and Network. I know, what the heck are we doing in the Network section of settings? We want to fix a USB connection issue! That's what I meant by hidden. Just look at the next screen:

USB Utilities is what we want. Remember that your must not yet have connected your phone.

On the next screen, press on the button (Connect Storage to PC). The phone then prompts you to connect the USB cable.

One last button (Connect USB Storage) to press and you're all set. You can fill an entire 32 GB MicroSDHC card in one go without any risk of the USB connection dropping because of your phone.

When done, just press the button to disconnect and your phone will scan the internal memory and MicroSD(MicroSDHC) card as usual.

Keep This Quote in your Mind

2011-12-07T07:47:00.001-04:00

Your purpose in life isn't to arrive at a destination where you find inspiration. Just like the purpose of dancing isn't to end up at a particular spot on the floor. The purpose of dancing and of life is to enjoy every moment and every step, regardless of where you are when the music ends.

---Wayne W. Dyer

Solo

2011-11-26T16:44:00.001-04:00

This post is a few days overdue. Better late than never. Last Monday, I tore down a massive wall as a musician.

I have played quite a few classical solos on the flute when I was learning about 10 years ago. I always played them with accompaniment. It was always a rush because you were the musical highlight of the piece. Last Monday, I had to perform a traditional Celtic/Swedish Air alone. This was my first solo on the Irish Whistle. Perfect time to showoff my Tuneable Chieftan Whistle in the key A. Also, I was alone for this piece. This put a lot of pressure on me, but I practiced with confidence.

First traditional [Celtic-style] solo and first solo alone. I was so excited and anxious about doing it. It wasn't perfect, but I performed with feeling. Everyone was moved. I'm very proud of accomplishing this. It's a huge milestone for me as a musician.

For the curious, the tune I played was the Jim Good/Flook version of Glass Polka, a tune written by Ale Möller. You can check the ABC Notation after the jump.

X: 1
T: Glaspolskan
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
R: waltz
K: Emin
|:E4D2|E4F2|G6|B2G2B2|c2A2c2|B4G2|A4G2|F4FG|E6-|E2E2D2|
E4F2|G4F2|E4EF|D6-|D6|E4D2|E4F2|G6|c2A2c2|B4G2|
A4G2|F4FG|E6|E2C2E2|F4FA|D4F2|G6-|G6-|G6-|G6:|
|:g4f2|g4a2|g6|f4fg|e4de|f6-|f4ef|g6|
f4ge|e4d2|c6-|1c4d2|G2B2d2|G2c2d2|G2GAc2|
B4A2|AG4G|E6-|E2E2D2|E4F2|G4F2|E4EF|D6-|D6:|
[2c2d2B2|G2B2d2|G2c2d2|G2GAc2|B4A2|
AG4G|E6|E2C2E2|F4FA|D4F2|G6-|G6-|G6-|G6||

So Far in the Land of Skyrim...

2011-11-20T10:25:00.001-04:00

(In no perticular order and as Spoiler-free as possible) In about 35 hours of Gameplay of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I...

Explored maybe just under 10% of key locations (map markers);
Did little in the main story;
Killed 8 dragons (1 story, 7 random);
Crafted my first piece of Elven Armor;
Joined the Thieves Guild and did the first mission after the trial to join;
Joined the College of Winterhold (Mage’s Guild);
Joined the Companions (Fighters Guild) and got promoted from the starting "Whelp" rank to full-fledged member of the Companions;
That said, I learned the "blood" secret of The Circle, the highest rank of the Companions;
Mined a bunch of ore;
Cut a bunch of firewood;
Found a place to get all the Steel Arrows I want for free (small exploit);
Cleared maybe 15 to 20 random dungeons including helping a Hagraven reclaim her home (tower). NOTE: Not once in any of those dungeons have I felt any redundancy in the dungeon-design;
Solved a few puzzles in some of the dungeons. Some were not easy;
Discovered 7 other Dragon Words (not enough Dragon Souls yet to "unlock" them);
Also discovered an entire Dragon sentence (three Dragon Words) in one place. Had to kill a Dragon and a powerful Lich;
Got a great mask (Krosis) from the above Lich that had twice the Armor rating of the Elven Helmet I was wearing (see image above);
Cleared a room full of Vampires with the very trap that they had setup for me;
Someone contracted the Dark Brotherhood to assassinate me AND someone competing with the Riften Thieves Guild hired some thugs to rough me up;
Have watched an execution in the capital of Skyrim (Solitude);
Have also witnessed an assassination in Markath only to have another "witness" give me a note to meet him somewhere (the Guards of Markath did warn me not to stick my nose in any business that's not my own);
Found a treasure map, followed it, and found said treasure;
Found another treasure map that I can’t decifer;
Found a tower while exploring. As soon as I got "Discovered _____ Tower", a Spriggan popped out and killed me in 2 seconds (I was level 4 at the time);
Found a clearing earlier and saw two bears. I immediately told myself "Yes, I need Bear Pelts for one of those random quests" only to see a Spriggan "charm" the two bears. I ran away!
Bought a house and fully furnished it;
Have a butterfly in a bottle next to my bed and a Troll Skull on the other side;
Became the Thane of Whiterun;
Found a book detailing the entire story of the previous Elder Scrolls game (Oblivion);

Living - My Skyrim Impressions

2011-11-15T19:52:00.001-04:00

Dragons are bad for your health... really...

As you saw from my previous post, I've been playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim a bit. I have clocked in 25 hours of game-time so far and I can't even say that I've just scratched the surface. I can't even scratch the thing.

It doesn't take hours to feel how massive the game is. The feeling hits pretty early on. The engaging introduction, the way character customization was integrated. But it's really when you first step "outside" the introduction and you take those first few steps in this World.

Soon after you see what I consider is Bethesda greatest achievement: Making a virtual world feel alive. I'm not talking about graphics here. From Gameplay mechanics of jobs and crafting, to all the events (scripted and dynamic) that happen with NPC's interacting to almost everything, it all feels alive. It doesn't feel like other games where NPC's either have an obvious set path (linear or not) or NPC's that feel robotic with all the scripting. Even though fundamentally a bunch of things happen between NPC's because you're there, it really doesn't feel like it matters whether you're there or not. Yet, you feel like your character belongs. Someone (in the game) wants me dead and contracted the Dark Brotherhood to assassinate me. I got a group of hired thugs who tried to rough me up because I got inside a [competing] faction. Add to the mix dynamic jobs and tasks and you get a virtually living world.

Presentation hits a high mark. From design to overall graphics, the game is pretty. There are some graphical hicks here and there, but it's very pretty to look at. I feel like I could take a screenshot every minute and it would be Photography. The attention to details add so much to the immersion factor. The UI is simple and definately has a Celtic feel to it (that I absolutely adore!). The music is in a class on its own. There's so much passion and intensity in the score. The choir succeeds in reproducing the Nordic feel of the game.

But, it's not all bright and shiny. Outside of the usual "Bethesda building bigger games than the tech can handle", there's a bunch of other things that bothers me a little. The level-scaling system for example, albeit better than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is unforgiving to adventurers unfamiliar with the World.

But, looking at the overall picture, it's either all logic or all balanced. The best example is that you can't sell virtually unlimited items to a single vendor at one time. However, unlike Oblivion, you no longer face the "favorite vendors" where because you keep selling to the same vendors, they end up liking you a lot and allow you to barter much higher prices. Vendors in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are all around fair. You won't get very different prices between different vendors because you have a few main merchants. Another example is how you cannot block while Dual-Wielding. Seems strange since we see a lot of TV shows and movies where fighters don't have the problem. In the game, it's just balance. Dual-Wielding greatly increases damage output and DPS. If you could block, there would be no reason to play with other wielding-systems/weapons.

Looking at the bigger picture, I realize that these very small pet-peeves exist just because of The Elder Scrolls V series. Unlike other series where each iteration is built up over the frame of the previous installments, The Elder Scrolls V series are all fundamentally different games, even if it's in the same world/universe. As soon as I push away the mindset that this is a sequel, it all becomes comfortable.

Skyrim and Mead

2011-11-11T01:09:00.001-04:00

Yup. That's The Elder Scrolls V with a bottle of Mead.

Managing Mid-Back Pain

2011-11-08T20:35:00.003-04:00

Those of you that follow me on Twitter (either officially or through this blog's sidebar) know that I'm afflicted with mid-back pain. In this post, I am to share my experience and what I do to manage as part of Canada's Pain Awareness Week.

When I was a kid, playing video-games, I would sit leaning forward. Not just a little. To the point where my back was almost rounded. My parents would come up to me and say "Sit up straight! You're going to have back problems later". As a kid I was comfortable that way and didn't believe them (Ah, kids!). Many years later, more or less 15 years later, in my old apartment I had a loveseat (small couch). One Sunday afternoon, I fell asleep on it. When I woke up, this is when it started. Pain like I haven't felt before.

Ever since I've been going through cycles. The mid-back is a very hard place to exercise to strengthen your back against back pain. It's the least flexible section of one's back. For years I just tried to look after my posture when I was in pain until it went away. Sometimes, this took weeks to really get better. It would get worst if I did a bad movement, but sometimes it would just come back without really knowing why. My physician couldn't figure it out back then either.

Last year I had little to no back pain. It was a great year for me. I was "relatively" fit (compared to my usual) and very well rested. This lasted until last Winter. In January, while shoveling, I hurt my back again. I went through my usual "rest a lot and watch my posture" phase. One Sunday night, after my back started to get better, me and Stephanie met with some friends for a social night with a few drinks. All went well until we came back and I went to bed. I felt the worst back pain I've ever felt. Worst than when it all started. I couldn't figure out why.

A few days later, I casually talked to a doctor at the office. He lead me on a very odd potential cause. Not the cause of initial injury, but the cause of pain during the recovery phase. Something I hadn't encountered earlier even with Google.

It made sense. Alcohol can increase blood sugar and the spot where I have pain was exactly there. The next few weeks I decided to test this out. At first I reduced my blood sugar a tiny bit by adding food that lowers or controls blood sugar (like garlic, lemons, cinnamon, vinegar, drinking more water, etc.). Relief didn't take too long. However, as soon as my blood sugar spiked a tiny bit, I would feel pain.

Blood sugar only affects mid-back pain if you're already injured. If you're proned to back-pain but have recovered, this won't prevent from getting injured in any way. The real secret to mid-back pain is to exercise, eat good and be constantly mindful of your posture. This greatly reduces the risk of injury. If you happen to hurt yourself, continue watching your posture and try adding to your diet blood sugar reducing food on top of resting and the occasional back pain medication. If you're hurting while trying to rest, listen to music or have a TV running to try to get your mind off of your back pain. Take deep breath and relax. Patience is needed. Recovery takes quite some time.

Massage-therapy and Chiropractic aren't good for all cases of back-pain. In some cases or with some people, they can make it worst. I hope the above, albeit lengthy, can help some people to start managing their mid-back pain. I understand the frustration in trying to find good information. As soon as you read about back pain, you immediately face lower and upper back. There's very little information on the mid-back. Throughout the years I learned that managing my mid-back pain is a constant process. Even if I recover, there's always a risk of injury. I cannot take this for granted.

Deus-Comfort

2011-11-01T18:26:00.000-03:00

In video-games, I do not dislike very specific styles or genres. But there are specific things that will push a game outside my comfort-zone.

With Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Eidos Montréal has been complimented on their ability of staying true to the Deus Ex IP while still resulting in making the game they wanted, the passion and research behind the development, and so on (you've read them all). But there's one thing that's not often mentioned that I think is really important. Something that probably contributed a little bit to the Critical and Consumer Reception it received.

Gameplay, story and presentation all walk hand-in-hand in the video-game industry. Neglect one, and the others will get lost along the way. Almost every developer know this, but not every developer follows through until the end with this in mind. Sometimes the reason is technical, sometimes financial, etc. Eidos Montréal obviously kept this in mind throughout the project and worked to make this happen.

The reason I bring up the "trinity" above, it's because it's an essential element to "hook" gamers. Not just for immersion, but also to get gamers that wouldn't usually play this style or genre of game to play your game. I loved the original Deus Ex, but this one is much more "intense". In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I keep alarming patrols, I keep dying, etc. (I am also well aware that this isn't a Splinter Cell game and it's not that hard, blah blah blah. See the next paragraph). The story and presentation always succeed to suck me back in for "one more attempt". It's the whole reason I'm still playing and will probably play for a long time still.

Alright, I don't suck that much. But the game does stand outside my "gaming" comfort-zone. I encounter a bunch of these every year, however Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the rare ones that make me enjoy the experience.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's Live Action TV Spot

2011-10-24T18:21:00.001-03:00

Fresh out of the official Elder Scrolls Website is Skyrim's Live Action TV Spot. It's pretty darn sweet!

Speaking of which, I did something lately that I had done only once other time before: I pre-ordered a game. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is coming out on a statutory holiday here in Canada. In most provinces, including New-Brunswick, stores are closed on that day. A local game store is doing a midnight-release because of this. I will be there.

All-4-One

2011-10-18T17:44:00.001-03:00

Resurrection

2011-10-15T20:43:00.000-03:00

My laptop is now alive... don't know for how long. The repair could last 6 days like it can last 6 years.

While my laptop was out, I was able to finally finish a Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness playthrough. This doesn't sound impressive, but I've had this game for years and before that I had the PS2 version. With about 200 hours between the two, I never did finish it... until now.

Currently cleaning out some of the pre-death mess in my laptop. If I can't be sure how long it will last, might as well make it run as good as it can. In the meantime, I'm plowing through Mass Effect 2. Pretty far in the game (clocked at about 41 hours). I'm hoping to finish this soon, so I can play a bit of Deus Ex: Human Revolution before Ratchet & Clank: All-4-One comes out.

Dead Laptop

2011-09-30T08:51:00.002-03:00

Well, projects such as Precision are going to be put on the back burner. My online presence is also going to get relatively smaller. My personal laptop has died. Feels like a motherboard failure.

Going to try to find someone to backup the data before I try to get it "resurrected" (repaired).

Horrible timing, really...

Precision - In Progress

2011-09-26T19:24:00.000-03:00

I know I haven't been posting about working on 3DBuzz stuff in a while, but if you're one to pay attention to the tiniest details, you must've seen the progress bar increasing.

Yes, I've been slaving away minutes here and there for a few months. The final project of 3DBuzz's XNA Xtreme 101 volume 2 is going along pretty well.

I have a controllable player, spawning enemies, collision check, game states... it's really coming along nicely.

I have also taken out the masteringMaya: The Fundamentals bar. I have no interest nor motivation to continue on. I'm still fascinated by 3D Modeling, but I have realized that I cannot do everything, and I have turned the page. I do have plans to pursue other training videos on 3DBuzz after XNA Xtreme 101, all around programming and Web development. Don't be surprised to see a new bar or two one of these days.

Death to my Backlog

2011-09-16T20:31:00.000-03:00

I've talked about this before and I've changed position multiple times. I don't want to force myself to play a game through completion and then having videogames feel like a chore to me. I also don't want to just start games without ever finishing them. Balance?

It became obvious to me that I needed to have an overlook over my completion-rate. Heck, might as well have an overlook over the games I own and have played. For this, I have decided to finally register and use Backloggery.

My completion-rate is not as bad as I thought it was. There's some work, but now I know a bit more where to put a little bit more focus. I completed Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep yesterday as a result of this.

You can check out my backloggery here.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - Completed

2011-09-15T19:23:00.000-03:00

After a combined 61 hours of gameplay between the three characters and including the Final Episode, I can finally say that I have fully finished Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for the PSP.

The ending was very moving. I was struck with the feeling that many questions that were brought up from the original Kingdom Hearts were finally answered, but many more questions were raised.

I am very happy to have completed another game out of my collection. Even more so that the experience was very enjoyable.

Happy [Early] Birthday to Me

2011-09-04T10:19:00.001-03:00

My birthday is only a few days away, but I still got an early birthday gift from Stéphanie.

"The Ins & Outs of Self-Motivated Creativity"

2011-08-26T18:40:00.002-03:00

This year at FITC Toronto, the Halifax Designer James White made a presentation called "The Ins & Outs of Self-Motivated Creativity"... I cannot add anything, you really all just have to see it.

Part 2 and Part 3

You can follow James White on his Website.

Heaven in a cup

2011-08-21T17:32:00.002-03:00

Just divine! Iced Chai Tea with a cloud of milk.

Gem-Shot

2011-08-19T18:39:00.004-03:00

A spilled shot-glass filled with garnets.

At the beginning of the month, me and Stéphanie went back to P.E.I.. Of course, we stopped by the Cracker Creek Mining Co. in Cavendish again. This time, we went nuts with four Large Gemstones bag. Funny thing, they're filled with Garnets.

PS3 Trophy Get: My first Platinum

2011-08-14T14:09:00.002-03:00

The Lombax Triumphant, obtained by getting every other Trophy in the game

It's official. As of yesterday, I have obtained my first PS3 Platinum Trophy. The honor goes to Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time.

This took a bit longer than expected. I would've saved a ton more time if I would've started my original save file on Hard (finishing the first playthrough would've unlocked all three difficulty trophies in one go).

Dragon Age: Lessons - Assume Nothing

2011-08-05T17:36:00.000-03:00

(c) EA/BioWare
Look at me not updating my Blog! Truth is, I've been rather busy with a few things. I have a bunch of articles drafted, but nothing complete. Now I'm on vacation. Time to catch-up on a few things.

Throughout the year so far, I've been catching-up to a bunch of video-games that came out last year. There have been some good surprises. And then there's Dragon Age: Origins.

I admit, it was an impulse purchase. Seeing the expansion Dragon Age: Awakening for $30 and then seeing on the row above, three games to the right the Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition for the exact same price. I was tempted.

I did try to look at reviews and asked a bunch of questions to gamers I knew to get a feel for the game. I had expectations. Just the usual out of an Action-RPG.

That was my mistake. Everything I saw and read looked like it was an Action-RPG. The HUD, the quest-driven gameplay, and the battles looked in real-time. But, as I soon discovered, real-time battles is not synonymous with Action-RPG. Yes, you press X to attack and your character does attack, but he will continue attacking, even if you put down your controller, until the you or the enemy is dead, or until you give another command. Very similar to some MMORPG's like World of Warcraft

The game is extremely tactical-focused. Unlike what EA/BioWare's David Silverman said on Kotaku, you have to be tactical in your gameplay. If you're anything but a run-and-slash character (Dwarf Warrior), you cannot just play it like an Action-RPG.

In my mind, Action-RPG goes hand-in-hand with "exploration". Since I expected an Action-RPG, I assumed there was going to be a deep level of exploration. While there's some exploration inside an area, the flow of area's to another is pretty linear. If it wasn't for secondary quests (which seems to often follow along the main-route you're supposed to be taking anyway), you'd think you'd be playing Final Corridor XIII (Final Fantasy XIII).

Do not get me wrong, the game is gorgeous, the story is Epic, you really have a feeling that every decision you make is important to a degree... essentially, everything about the presentation of the game is amazing. It's the gameplay I have a problem with. And it's really just because it's not my cup of tea. Critical Reception was very positive. If you're into Epic but slower-paced/tactical RPG's you cannot pass this game. As for me, I will move on to other games.

Whistling Happily!

2011-07-18T17:06:00.005-03:00

After two very busy months with the youth choir and various church events, I had a very hard decision to take. I decided to take the next liturgical year off from my dad's youth choir. I will still take care of the "communications" aspect of the group, but I won't driving hours every week for practice and liturgical animation.

Not only do I need the rest, but there's another underlying reason to why I decided to take some sort of "sabbatical". I really want, with all my heart, work on that goal I've had for almost a year and a half now. I made myself a practice schedule and fiddled with "how to practice methods" when I finally saw the wall I was hitting: I've been fiddling around with technique for quite sometime but I never found actual tunes that were at a beginners level and that were fun for me to progress (I'm sorry, but Star of the County Down doesn't hit that string with me). Technique is nice and all (I'm able to apply some basic-intermediate technique with the choir), but never actually found tunes that at my level that were fun enough.

I believe Tunes are important for three things: (1) Applying the technique and skills your building; (2) learning how to learn (redundant, I know) Tunes; and (3) adding a lot of fun in the process. If you just work on technique blindly, you may never learn the right way to apply that technique. If you learn how to apply that technique while playing a tune that you enjoy or moves you, it makes the whole process that much easier. But, it's also important that the Tune is at your level. If you try to attack a tune that's a bit too difficult for your skill level, you're going to keep running into "progression-walls".

This took several days before I stumbled on the perfect beginner's tune for me. Brian Finnegan's The Donegall Lass taught by the master himself. It's a jig that I feel slow or moderate speed (not fast like other traditional jigs). Some play it really fast on YouTube and I really don't feel it. Michael Eskin pretty much plays it the fastest I would like to do it.

This Tune was magical to me. I learned it by memory in the same evening I tackled it, and by the next day I was able to air-finger the tune, which is something very hard to do for beginners and even some pros since you don't feel the holes (tactile-memory).

Then, another thing happened in the weekend, I participated in a Tin [Irish] Whistle Workshop by Bob Burgess at the Miramichi Irish Festival. It was a beginner workshop. In terms of technique, I felt I was a hair above the level of the workshop, but in application it was the perfect place for me. We hit three tunes back-and-forth after getting a basic instructions. This was a first for me. After less than a week and a half after learning my first tune touching three Tunes... I was just so amazed afterwards. One of those three Tunes had a similar effect on me as The Donegall Lass: Britches Full of Stitches—an Irish Polka.

I'm finally having so much fun with the Irish Whistle. Mixing this with the exercises and studies, I have some great practice material!

Ugh...

2011-07-04T20:14:00.001-03:00

Yes, that's my dehumidifier... and yes, that says "80"...

Useless Podcast

2011-06-22T19:05:00.003-03:00

A plug: Two of my ex-Insomniac buddies, Mike Stout and Tony Garcia, started a "developer commentary" video podcast: Useless Podcast.

The current series of episodes are covering Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, the first game they worked on together.

Do check them out!

Overstrike

2011-06-06T17:21:00.002-03:00

It's official: Insomniac Games has revealed their newIP during EA's E3 Conference: Overstrike

Expect Insomniac's signature humor and wacky weaponry.

I Can't Wait & Gift for You - Preview (Updated)

2011-06-01T10:01:00.005-03:00

About 18 hours ago, Celldweller released a preview for "I Can't Wait" of the upcoming Chapter [4] of Wish Upon a Blackstar.

I Can't Wait (Preview) by Celldweller (Official)

This has been blowing into my ears for a few hours already.

EDIT - June 7th: Here is the preview for "Gift for You".

Gift For You (Preview) by Celldweller (Official)

Bleeding Hearts

2011-05-31T20:41:00.002-03:00

Shot taken while taking a casual walk in a nearby park. I always loved these flowers, but never looked at them with a low sun.

See more on Flickr

The Disappearance of Header Images

2011-05-31T12:18:00.003-03:00

If you're expecting a tutorial or something "trendy" or "up-to-date", you will be disappointed. This is just a [very late] observation post.

Do you remember the Internet of ten years ago? I do. That's when I was in College, learning design, Web development, basic project management... those were the days.

Something I haven't done in years because of my previous role at work is just analyzing the Websites I regularly browse in various ways (design, presentation, navigation, structure, etc). While I never stopped browsing the Web, I never just sat down and analyse what was loaded in my Web browser. Ten years ago, Website headers contained several or one important image that delivered a message or supported the corporate image of the organisation or company. How long ago have these pretty much disappeared?

This change in trend (and, let's face it, Web Usability) is both a Godsend and a challenge from a design perspective. Yes, our dashboard is much simpler and more minimalist... but how do we brand that header? Fun stuff!

What the heck...?

2011-05-31T08:22:00.002-03:00

When did I learn to do rolls on the Irish Whistle? I just did a roll on E (cut above, tap below). I think I just broke a progression wall!

Why I Cannot Watch Teletoon Anymore...

2011-05-30T13:04:00.002-03:00

Well, the flu didn't kill me. There are still traces of it at home, Stéphanie caught it bad too.

About a year ago I got digital cable at home. One of the things I liked the most was having Teletoon, but mostly Teletoon Retro. About that time, Stéphanie also shared a Webcomic she'd been reading for a few months called Least I Could Do.

If you're somewhat close to me, you know that one of my biggest pet-peeve is Intellectual Property (IP) Theft. Being a musician, designer (Web, graphic, and multimedia) and photographer, I am very sensitive to the issue. This is where everything turns to shit...

This is not really a case of plagiarism, but a case of potential Intellectual Property (IP) theft.

Not only IP Theft gets me riled up, but it pisses me off more when the alleged/potential offending party attempt to stifle any source, media, publication that don't take their side. The Claude Robinson case anyone? In this case, from denial of the existence of the dispute on Wikipedia to denial of responsability (Sohmer's response)... this case alone could almost be it's own show.

Just to be clear, Teletoon doesn't produce shows themselves... but they have partners. Teletoon holds a broadcasting entity and a production partnership entity. If this was not true, (1) Teletoon wouldn't be able to own the Intellectual Property of the shows that are Teletoon Original Productions; and (2) Teletoon, the broadcasting entity, would not have had in their possession the Bible and Character Sheets of "The Dating Guy" from marblemedia.

For this, I have officially stopped watching Teletoon (English and French) and Teletoon Retro. I cannot go against my professional and artistic integrity and conscience. If Teletoon is legally non-responsible (since they are a "broadcaster"), their hands are still dirty in my eyes for not looking further than their hands can see (Nota bene: There are currently no legal actions being taken on either side as far as the public knows. But, the official status of parties similar cases is only defined in its legal sense). It's just fuzzy to me that every detail Teletoon wanted changed when Sohmer met with them ended up in marblemedia's show...

If you're like me and disturbed by the story, there's a Kickstarter Project that has been created for Ryan, Lars and Randall to at least get a pilot. The project has already reached 75% of its goal within a week. Suffice to say that it will never air on Teletoon (lol), but at least a non-bastardized version of the Least I Could Do IP would have a pilot of its own.

Disclaimer: In no way in this blog post am I accusing anyone of a crime. This is my point-of-view based on the information posted by both parties around the Internet, the actions taken by both parties to support or deny anything in the case; my opinion based on the visual similarities between both Intellectual Properties (IP), and my take on the case based on my personal and professional experience.

Both Intellectual Properties are owned by their respective owners. I claim no ownership of the image posted. The posted image's purpose is solely used as an illustration of the similarities between the two IP entities involved in this story.

I have a fever...

2011-05-10T17:04:00.001-03:00

...and it's not Saturday night's!

Oh the joys of being sick...

Seed of Music

2011-05-03T21:56:00.004-03:00

It's official, I've been through an amazing [school] year at Espace TourneSol. All that remain is the end-of-year show this Sunday.

We're working out a set for the Bodhrán group class with the an amazing guest musician and a special spotlight (no spoilers for now).

Speaking of Bodhrán, I have upgraded from a student-quality Walton's Bodhrán to a real handmade Bodhrán from Brendan White. It is such an amazing difference to play with a quality instrument. In a way, I have to re-learn how to play.

I had the amazing privilege of spending some time talking to Louise Vautour (amazing fiddler) yesterday. It was an amazing experience to be able to talk with such a skilled musician. With her, I was able to finally put my finger on a major problem with how I practice and how I should approach a practice routine for my instrument and the direction I want to take with it (traditional). My routine was fundamentally broken and like most musician who learn on their own or learn with minimal supervision, I never really learned how to practice. It's one thing to figure out where you want to go musically, but it's another to figure out how to get there.

I have thrown away the practice routine I came up with in January and will be working on a new one based on the discussions I had with Louise. Once things slow down with things happening with La voix des jeunes I will apply that new routine. I'm excited to see where this brings me. In no way will it hurt my progress in what is my true artistic love: music.

Rambling Irishman - John Barbour Solo

2011-04-21T18:42:00.007-03:00

I finally did it! What did I just do?

In the middle (bridge) and the end of Great Big Sea's John Barbour, there's an amazing whistle piece (you're my hero, Bob!). After a lot of research and notation reading, I found out that it's a modified version of the traditional Irish song Rambling Irishman used for instrumental solos.

I have finally finished writing the ABC Notation.

X:1
T:Rambling Irishman ("John Barbour" version)
M:4/4
L:1/8
R: reel
K:Dmaj
dB | A2AB d2d2 | edef a2bg | a2fe fedB | d3A BAFG |
A2AB d2d2 | edef a2bg | a2fe dBAB | d6 fg |
a2bg a2fg | aabg a3f | a2gf edBd | e2ef edBd ! 
A2AB d2d2 | edef a2bg | a2fe dBAB | d6 fg ||

I have written the tune in D for whistle fingering even though it's played on a B-flat whistle

If you've never seen or heard of ABC Notation, I wrote an indepth tutorial on the Insomniac Games Forums in 2008.

If you're lazy, the dot-notation is posted after the jump.

Bodhrán & Stained Glass

2011-04-19T11:09:00.004-03:00

Two new shots on Flickr

I decided to end my photography drought this weekend with a few shots and events. Got two amazing results. First the above shot: My favorite musical instrument couple. The second after the jump.

See more on Flickr

The Start of Precision

2011-03-20T11:12:00.003-03:00

And the Flow of "Level & Lives" -Based Games

Made with LovelyCharts.com

5 days ago I posted my favorite IDE color scheme. If you read between the lines, that means I was sitting back down to my coding chair. Small note: thank you for the 100 download in 5 days of my Putty Base color scheme for Visual Studio.

I have started the final project of 3DBuzz's XNA Xtreme 101 volume 2: Precision.

With the start of this project, a game-flow discussion that turned out to be the standard game-flow of level- and lives-based games. I decided to chart it out. "Game Over" state can do a lot of things. You can go back to title, you can have a special "restart/continue/credit" scenario... that is pretty much up to you. The basic is the same all around.

What Makes a Good IDE Color Scheme

2011-03-16T06:50:00.004-03:00

Last night I posted what is my all-time favorite color scheme. It then occurred to me that not everyone knows what to look for in a color scheme. It’s mostly a matter of taste, but there are essentials.

Minimal Eye Strain
The reason we look to switch color scheme’s in the first place is that the high contrast of the default dark colored and black text over white puts a strain on the eye when looking/reading for a prolonged period of time. High contrast is great for readability, but there is such a thing as too high.

The solution is very simple. The majority of the screen should be dark. With code, the majority of the screen is background. Now, the "Black" vs. "Muted color" is up to you. Black will have a high contrast as well but will make most colors, muted or not, pop-out as much as the default dark over white scheme. You will see if a scheme’s contrast is tiring or not by using it.

Touch of Color
I don’t know anyone that stuck to Notepad for coding after seeing their code "color-coded". With color, you can quickly see the difference between parameters, identifiers, keywords, etc. Heck, depending on the IDE and the color scheme, you can sometimes see syntax errors.

Like a lot of things in life, balance is key. Programming languages have many different elements, even more if you work in Web Development and can have HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP at once on screen. Even though everything can be of different colors, it may not be essential. Some schemes are very colorful, some have grouped some elements together.

My Ultimate Readability
Ultimately, only you can see if a color scheme works for you. Some like light text over dark background, some like it the other. Some like high contrast, some like good/medium. What I prefer is what makes the most sense if you understand how we see color and how the eye works: Dark earthy background, slightly muted, and muted (a little more saturated) color for the foreground text (code). This assures a somewhat high contrast, though not maximal, and a dark background.

Obsidian, Putty, Selenitics, Twilight and Zenburn are just a few that walk the line of balance of great but not maximal contrast and just a touch of color.

Putty your IDE

2011-03-15T20:35:00.008-03:00

If you’re a developer or programmer and have spent considerable time reading and writing code, you know how important it is to have a good color scheme in your IDE that’s easy to read and easy for your eyes.

There are a lot of different color schemes for different IDE’s. I’ve looked on-and-off for years. I stuck to Ruby Blue on different IDE’s for quite some time. I recently stumbled on one and have ported it to different IDE’s... Putty!

Putty for TextMate
The theme was originally created for TextMate

Download here.

Putty-port for Notepad++
If like me you don’t work on a Mac, Notepad++ is a great alternative. I ported the TextMate theme file for Putty to a Notepad++ Style XML for your enjoyment.

Download here (Right-click > Save as).

Putty-port for MS Visual Studio 2005 and up
I wanted to have a similar theme for Visual Studio (2005+) for quite some time. I finally got around to making one for Visual Studio.

Download here.

Encountering the Whitespace Incident

2011-02-08T17:03:00.012-04:00

Last week, I encountered an interesting issue while coding something at work.

Essentially, there's some JavaScript hard-coded on one page that's triggered with the page content handled with the CMS. What that piece of code does is essentially running through an inline list of years and changing the CSS code of the links inside the list items (and tables below) depending on what was done using a for loop (from start_year to end_year). You can see this here.

Originally, the start and end values for the loop were hard-coded as constants. This worked well until I had to add 2011 to the list. The list is part of the page content, which can be modified with the CMS, but the JavaScript is not. Changing the constant every year is simply not practical.

I decided to make the JavaScript smarter.

This is a candid post. If you don't understand JavaScript and the DOM model, you're not going to understand this.

The start_year constant can remain hard-coded, for the simple reason that there's no content before that date. The end_year needs to change, heavily.

The way the JavaScript code was triggered was when clicking on a year in the inline list, a function was called that toggles the styles of list items and toggles the visibility (display) of the tables under the list. The addition is to logically have the toggle function call another one that counts the number of direct children nodes of the ul node.

var eyr = 2008;
var lyr;

function CountNodes() {
    var count = 0;
    var parent;
    var child;

    parent = document.getElementById("yearMenu");
    child = parent.childNodes.length;
    
    while (count < child) {
        count++;
    }
          
    return count;
}

function ToggleTables(thisYear) {
    lyr = (eyr + CountNodes()) - 1; 

    for (i=eyr; i <= lyr; i++) {
        // change li's links styles
    }
    
    // toggle styles for current year items and table            
}

This created a problem. The count was always higher than the number of actual direct child to the ul node. It took quite some research until I stumbled onto this. Whitespace are counted. Since they are node-type 3, we just need to do an if check to exclude them. Fix was simple, separating the loop counter and the actual child-node count resulted in this:

function CountNodes() {
    var count = 0;
    var n = 0;
    var parent;
    var child;

    parent = document.getElementById("yearMenu");
    child = parent.childNodes.length;
    
    while (n < child) {
        if (parent.childNodes[n].nodeType != 3) {
            count++;
        }
          
        n++;
    }
          
    return count;
}

With this, now I can just add an item in the ul list from the CMS and the JavaScript will follow.

PSP Successor is Codenamed NGP

2011-01-27T07:09:00.004-04:00

It's official. The handheld that redefined the quality portable gaming can and should have, is getting a successor: Codename NGP (Next Generation Portable).

Sony has made the NGP a sexy beast, both aesthetically and technically. They have incorporated everything fans and even "anti-PSP" fanboys have been saying for almost 6 years the PSP should have.

Rundown of features, specs and games after the jump.

Features

Multi-touch 5-inch organic light emitting display (OLED) as the front display
Multi-touch pad on the rear of the device
Dual analog sticks
Two cameras (front and rear)
Software titles on small, dedicated flash memory-based cards
Three motion sensors, gyroscope, accelerometer and electronic compass
Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity

PlayStation Network access, including ““LiveArea™”, “Near” and “Activity” log features Trophy Support
NGP will be able to play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, video and comics from the PlayStation Store

Specs

•	CPU	ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
•	GPU	SGX543MP4+
•	External Dimensions	Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
•	Screen (Touch screen)	5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
•	Rear touch pad	Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
•	Cameras	Front camera, Rear camera
•	Sound	Built-in stereo speakers Built-in microphone
•	Sensors	Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
•	Location	Built-in GPS Wi-Fi location service support
•	Keys / Switches	PS button Power button Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left) Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square) Shoulder buttons (Right/Left) Right stick, Left stick START button, SELECT button Volume buttons (+/-)
•	Wireless communications	Mobile network connectivity (3G) EEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1) (Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode) Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)

Games mentionned during the conference

Call of Duty
Broken
Gravity Daze
Hot Shots Golf
Hustle Kings
Killzone
LittleBigPlanet
Little Deviants
Reality Fighters
Resistance
Smart As
Uncharted
WipEout

Knowledge Review 8 - Fully Complete

2011-01-23T19:03:00.006-04:00

Click to enlarge

Done!

Not only has the basic requirement been fulfilled, but I am satisfied with the additions I have made.

Chrome Apps & Kodigen

2011-01-19T20:36:00.002-04:00

Today, I made two wonderful discoveries.

First, Google Chrome on one of my workstations updated itself to Chrome 9 (yet, my laptop is still on version 8 and labeled "up-to-date") revealing something hidden or unknown to a few people - Chrome Apps. The Chrome Apps are pretty much a preview to ChromeOS if you really think about it.

I find it incredibly fascinating to see that Cloud-Computing is taking its own space in the future... near future, says some. I find the Apps really convenient, even considering that some are simply bookmarks to other websites. It's really taking shape when the bookmarks are to other Cloud-Computing web-applications.

The second discovery cam while exploring the Google Web Store for Chrome Apps. I stumbled onto a bookmark-app to something called Kodingen—A Cloud IDE for Web Development!... Yes, the "Google Docs" of Web Development.

I'm absolutely in love with Kodingen. For learning or project development, it's such a deliverance. Everything is made easy, from setting up to configuration... even installing applications or CMS's (Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, PHPBB, etc.) is simply "painless".

Winter Rose

2011-01-18T20:45:00.002-04:00

Winter's cold embrace can wither before the most delicate flower.

See more on Flickr

Knowledge Review 8 - Additions Implementation

2011-01-17T19:45:00.005-04:00

Even though I'm still tweaking little things here and there, I can now start thinking of what I want to add and how to implement them. Here's what I want to do:

Change game resolution to 800x600
- Change BALL_START_SPEED to accommodate new resolution
Design/Add background image
Change sprites
- Paddle sprite
- Ball sprite
Add middle field-line
Change foreground color
Add sound-effects
- Paddle bounce
- Wall bounce
- Goal

Should be simple...

Basic Knowledge Review 8 Completed!

2011-01-16T18:53:00.003-04:00

I have completed the Knowledge Review 8 from 3DBuzz's XNA Xtreme 101.

I will start working on the additions after I validate a few things in the "Answer" video.

Knowledge Review 8 - It's Alive!

2011-01-16T15:37:00.006-04:00

Click to enlarge

It's alive!

There are a lot of requirements missing, therefore I'm not touching the additions yet, but I have controllable paddles with a moving ball and collisions (wall and paddle).

I'm so proud!

Knowledge Review 8 - Planned additions

2011-01-14T16:59:00.001-04:00

I barely even started Knowledge Review 8, yet I already know there are some things I want to add to the project (I mentionned this Wednesday).

They are essentially the same additions to Cannon III, meaning Background Image and Sound Effects (I love SFXr).

Except for a design sketch of the background, I don't really have anything done for the extras. I don't plan on touching them until I complete the basics for Knowledge Review 8.

Design Specs - Knowledge Review 8

2011-01-12T19:54:00.003-04:00

One important aspect of design and programming (development as a whole), game-oriented or not, is having your design-specs defined early on in the project and use the specs as a production-guide. If you want to suddenly make something, you need to see if it fits [support] your design-specs. If not you either drop the idea or implement it after the first version of your project is completed.

This allows for the development to remain focused and productive. If the team keeps straying on other details that are not part of the plan, the production will take a lot more time than needed, or more time than allowed.

I do think it's important for one to learn what are design specs—what they include, what they look like, how they work. That's why I'm going to show you the design-specs of Knowledge Review 8.These are not the requirements of the knowledge review. Just the design-specs.

Goal: Pong-like game
Must remain simple (no need for title screen, menus, etc.)
Ball needs to launch in a random direction from the center, either right or left; But not straight up or down (obvious bug warning)
Player controls paddles
Bounces off top/bottom walls
Bounces off paddles

A part of the paddle-motion (angle and speed) carried to the ball

If player misses, other player (winning player) gets a point and ball re-launches towards winning player (still at a random angle)
Both player are human-controlled

These should be familiar to anyone familiar with Pong. Keeping to those basic elements in mind will keep me focused on the important details. I already have some elements I want to add, but they will be done after.

Galaxy Grandmaster...

2011-01-09T09:38:00.005-04:00

Finally!

I finally completed the very last star in Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Yesterday I decided to sit down and try to complete the very last star in Super Mario Galaxy 2 - The Perfect Run. I had attempted it from time-to-time since July without any luck.

Yesterday alone, I stopped after 78 attempts in two sittings (until the very last area, there is only one star-bit. Unless you accidentally shoot a star-bit or two, you can use that to track your attempts).

There is one area that is really hard for me, the fourth area (there are six screens/area in all). I have problems with timing jumps while avoiding projectiles/obstacles, and not relying on the "spin" since they flip the floor-panels.

I still hate this part...

This morning, I sat down for a bunch of other attempts. After 20 attempts, in about 43 minutes, I had finally completed challenge.

Starting Knowledge Review 8

2011-01-09T07:40:00.004-04:00

That's it. I'm just about to start the final Knowledge Review of the whole series (3DBuzz's XNA Xtreme 101).

After Knowledge Review 8 is completed, it's on to Precision, an arcade-style game where... you know what, I'll keep this a secret until I'm actually there. If you really want to know, you'll look for an answer yourself.

Knowledge Review 8 is nowhere as challenging as Knowledge Review 7. But it's still the culmination of everything, not just the near-40 hours of theory.

But what is Knowledge Review 8? Pretty much the "Hello World" of game programming: A Pong-like game.

2010... Culmination & What to do in 2011

2010-12-31T17:56:00.002-04:00

On this last day of 2010, it's time to look back on the goals I had set myself at the beginning of the year. This is essentially looking back at the three ((1), (2), (3)) posts I made in January where I noted what I wanted to accomplish during the year.

Might as well go with the same order as the posts from January.

Professional Life
This is my one and only disappointment, although it is justified (many personal events, my dad's choir, and so on). I didn't work as much as I wanted to on Web Development.

At the end of the day, we all have a limited amount of time to do what we want in a day. This is my priority of the 2011. I'm going by the same goals-list as last year.

Gaming
I am very happy with this. I found my near perfect balance in gaming. I don't buy as much games as I did before and I'm more satisfied with my completion-rate than before. The trifecta is not really complete, though.

I spent the year testing this and playing games I really wanted. By doing this, I haven't been staying in touch with the industry. I missed out on a lot of great new releases.

I know what I can do to remedy this problem. If I'm not sure or unable of buying, I can simply rent a game. In a few days time, I can find out where a game stands for me. This is pretty much the only way to my perfect gaming trifecta: Staying in touch with the industry -> Completion -> Not over-spending.

There is one gaming goal I am setting before the summer : getting Platinum Trophies in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Borderlands, and Assassin's Creed II (and possibly Brotherhood as well).

Personal Life
A recurring theme for me in my New-Years Resolution is health - I always want, and still do, to eat less (I don't eat terribly bad, just a lot) and exercise more. I have some improvements to do in the nutrition side, but I surprised myself this year by climbing Mt. Sugarloaf. This was a feat of physical endurance for me. It proved to me that my cardio is much better than it was at this time last year. I'm looking of doing this again and possibly going up Mt. Carleton this summer as well. For this, I need to start exercising daily again - something simple like taking the stairs daily at the office would be enough.

I unfortunately did not work enough on learning the Irish Whistle this year, but I am taking Bodhrán classes. What was just a curiosity and fascination last year is now part of my musical tool-belt. It's an incredibly fun instrument to play. But, I don't fear for the Irish Whistle—I found motivation in working on some specific tunes, including one in 7/8 ("Wrong Foot Forward" by Flook). Sometime in January, I'm going to rework my practice schedule in include the basic techniques I need to work on (*cough*ornamentation*cough*) around the songs I truly want in my repertoire.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the year. Even though I didn't accomplish everything exactly as I noted them, I still think I pleased the majority of the goals I had set myself, although in some cases a bit differently.

In 2011, I want to essentially follow-through with the same things in the places where I didn't fully complete what I wanted to do or what should continue just as it is.

I feel great, balanced, and confident. I know where I want to go (even outside of what I would blog about), and it feels great.

[One-day late] Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T13:25:00.005-04:00

« The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. »
---Burton Hillis

See more on Flickr

Musical Holiday

2010-12-05T07:55:00.002-04:00

As much as I said I was going to post again, I was shocked at "La voix des jeunes" 's schedule for the Holidays.

As you should know, "La voix des jeunes" is my father's youth choir where I play the Flute, Whistle, and now the Bodhrán. Needless to say that outside of work, it's the thing that keeps me busy.

I don't have a lot of time for anything else except work and music lately, with an event every single weekend until Christmas. It's fine, but it has a consequence: I'm not going to be able to fulfill the professional goal I had set myself for the year.

I'm not worried. 2011 is another year

XML with PHP - Distraction & Relaxation...

2010-11-13T18:19:00.004-04:00

I'm putting this project on hold until next week. It's not so bad, I'm taking the four-day weekend to relax. There are two reasons for this. First, I need to write a flute partition for the Advent theme this year.

Secondly, and the biggest, I'm being sidetracked by a massive project in Minecraft. A sudden idea that sprouted from two others.

In a small flat area surrounded by some of the tallest mountains in my map, build a fortress wall (the front wall for now, the rest can be done later) which can potentially contain a royalty hall inside a mountain. I started planning the whole thing yesterday morning - drawing, measuring, re-drawing, stripping a few layers of a mountain... The whole thing took almost a day.

Today, I started laying down the outline of the front wall. Shortly after I stacked the first layer, then the second... soon I had the basic wall down and just needed to work on the towers. I completed the two small towers and now I'm almost done one of the two towers. What I failed to calculate is now costing me a lot of time (but it's so much fun in Minecraft!)

The roof of the towers are made of bricks, which requires clay. It was easy to make the small towers. But the big towers require a ton of bricks, therefore four times that amount of clay. I spent about two hours walking around the map, using Cartographer and selective mapping, getting all the clay I could.

I now have an extra 256 bricks. I hope this will be enough, else I'm probably going to have to resort to a fourth portal in a lost end of the Nether to get to a loose end of the map hoping for more clay. This is creating another problem. Smelting all the clay into bricks requires a lot of coal. I'm slowly running out of this precious (in Minecraft) mineral.

XML with PHP - Intro

2010-11-10T19:58:00.000-04:00

I'm giving myself some homework in this long weekend (for me). I haven't given myself WebDev-related work for quite some time now since I was busy, besides the usual, working on all the design work for the "La voix des jeunes" album (with about two months before things started to slow down again).

It's not necessarily a hard task in terms of logic, but it involved a lot of research/learning from my part before I apply it. It is quite simple. I want to make a PHP application that writes/edits an XML file then renders it.

My goal is to learn an alternate method in dynamically generating content when you don't have the option of a database access. It does happen in local/internal applications.

I'm not going to be the first one in figuring this out, but I will post how I do certain things and dissect the logic behind the madness. I will also post the sources of the information I'm learning as I go along.

Goat Skin Tickler...

2010-10-16T20:27:00.005-03:00

I just discovered I have a Blog [not really... lame, I know!]

For the past several weeks I've been extremely busy. The one time I wasn't really busy (Monday), I was taking care of the flu.

For four weeks now, I've been "tickling the goat skin" - I started taking Bodhrán classes. I've been curious about the Bodhrán for some time, and I'm glad I decided to try it. It's been a long time since I had so much fun playing over music.

Then came last weekend. A weekend pretty much dedicated to "La voix des jeunes", my dad's youth choir. The choir has been invited to the second edition of the "Récolte" (Harvest) show of the Moisson d'Art festival in my hometown. The show was on for two nights.

On top of that, we finally launched our album "Tout simplement" (Simply). The album that we literally give away. Yes, we're giving it away. We don't want to make money out of it. The goal of the album for the youth in the group to live the experience of recording an album and to leave the group later with a physical souvenir.

At the time of writing this, 85% of our first batch has already been giving away. We're very proud of this accomplishment. Then the hectic weekend took its toll with the flu I mentionned earlier.

Photo credits: Brigitte Cladère and CanadaMunicipal.ca

Once things start to get back to normal, I will start posting more regularly again.

Laptop Surgery - Recovery

2010-09-27T12:59:00.004-03:00

Success! Not only I didn't break my laptop, but my keyboard no longer has any sticky keys!

Re-assembly was far easier than opening it up. Even the ribbon-cable (*see image) for the keyboard was easy to reconnect.

This is the nightmare connector. Image from AhWee.com

Laptop Surgery - Keyboard Cleaning (Part 1)

2010-09-26T20:14:00.003-03:00

There was a freeze-pop accident this summer. Some keys got sticky to the point where it was annoying to type. It took weeks for me to gather up the courage to open my dear laptop up... tonight was the night.

It was not an easy task. At one point my heart just stopped. I thought I snapped (broke) the ribbon-cable that connects the keyboard to the laptop. It ended up just being a snap-lock connector. I'm not looking forward to putting that cable back in place. It's going to take some patience and a few extra sets of hands.

Tomorrow I was put it back together and hopefully everything will be fine.

*Disclaimer: My laptop's warranty expired two months ago.

Edit CSS in Google Docs

2010-09-20T17:32:00.006-03:00

Since I changed my email to Google Mail (GMail), I slowly started using the other Google applications. In time, they have become essential to the way I work and I organize my time. Syncing my Google Calendar to my iPod Touch is just awesome.

One of the things I've been using a lot if Google Documents. I love to be able to create a document at the office, perhaps just a brainstorm idea or a draft from something and without managing any files being able to continue from home. I also love the collab. features.

My favorite feature of Google Documents was the ability to edit the style of the document with CSS (Edit CSS).

When Google launched New Google Docs in April, their was an immediate uproar - they removed Edit CSS and Edit HTML. My favorite feature gone.

Recently, I was randomly searching to see if Google was turning back or if they explained why the removed it. Instead, I found a way to revert to the old Google Documents editor which includes the Edit CSS. Here's how to do it

In Google Documents, in the top-right corner of the screen click on Settings then Documeent Settings.
Click on the "Editing" tab
Uncheck "Create new text documents using the latest version of the document editor"
Save

There you have it. I posted this because it's not widespread knowledge. Some people are still complaining about the fact they can't edit their styles in an efficient way because of the lack of Edit CSS in New Google Docs editor.

PSP RPG-gasm!

2010-09-18T18:52:00.004-03:00

Who says the PSP has no great games?... These all came out within a month.

Late-Summer Shots

2010-09-12T20:26:00.004-03:00

I have just posted two new shots on my Flickr. They were taken in a park next to where I live. Even though it's so close, I have just yesterday stepped foot in it. I was drawn to go then because I saw a sunflower in the Community Garden while driving back from the store.

See more on Flickr

Diary of a Personal Shoot (Part 2)

2010-09-06T20:53:00.007-03:00

Sometimes, you're at the mercy of multiple factors. Last night, they all fell in place perfectly.

Weather, timing, light, location... everything was perfect to try my experiment.

Preparation was a key element. I checked the weather report multiple times during the day, researched the time of sunset, planned the route to get to the location and when to leave, and so on. With all that information, I knew exactly when to leave to get there a bit before dusk, to setup for the shots. I packed everything I would've needed before hand: Camera, Gary Fong Puffer, Tripod.

I pretty much got there when the sun was setting. This was perfect because I could better see the direction of the light, even though it was very low. I had enough time to take plenty of shots and try out a lot of different things.

After half an hour, I had to pack my things. It was getting much too dark to get the effect I wanted. However, I ended up getting the exact shot I had in mind.

Part 1
Part 2

Diary of a Personal Shoot (Part 1)

2010-09-04T22:25:00.001-03:00

Whether you are an amateur, a hobbyist, a serious, or a professional photographer, there is one constant: personal work is an important aspect of exercising your creativity and gaining some technical experience. There are several approaches to personal shoots and shots. Having a camera everywhere you go is the most common. You can often push yourself to find interesting shots where it’s not really obvious, or find another perspective of a place you pass by every day.

There is an approach that I personally like but don’t use much at all. You can have a very technical approach to some personal work. Not all personal work have to be candid or “on-the-spot”. This approach exercises the technicality of some shots and can teach you how to plan some shoots from a technical stand-point and then execute them.

There are multiple planning and technical approaches to execute a photographic vision. The following post is one of mine.

I have an image in my head. A very specific image. It involves an oat field. The first thing to do in this case is to probably figure out a location. I have an idea where I can do the shoot. As luck would have it, at this time last year I was doing the photoshoot for the youth choir album in an oat field in the Tracadie-Sheila area. However, I still had to go and scout the area. Oat is usually harvested about this time of year and I wanted to make sure the field was not empty already.At the time this paragraph was written, the field was intact.

I can’t shoot right now because of the weather (downgraded hurricane Earl). This is great because I can complete the planning stage. For the image I have in my head, I require very small ambient lighting for the signature shot of the shoot (I do want to take more than just the picture while I’m there). Either during sunrise/sunset or dawn/dusk. Twilight would just be too dark regardless of the lighting rig (for the effect I’m looking for). With that minimal lighting, I need some kind of extra light. I’m not currently equipped very much in terms of Flash and lighting-rig. So, I’m going to use what I have on hand: the on-camera popup flash with the Gary Fong Puffer.

As stated above, the shoot is either going to happen in the morning or in the evening to have the light I want. I have to consider where the sun/skylight is going to be at the time of the shoot. Since I scouted the place tonight, I know where the sun sets, and coincidentally, where it will rise. After a lot of thinking, I believe that sunset will be the optimal time for the shoot.

All that needs to be checked now is weather forecast and sunset time for the next few days. Now I just have to knock on wood that the oats won’t be harvested tomorrow. Even if they are, I will still shoot, but I won’t have the picture I originally wanted. If that happens, I will just add it to the list.

List? What list? It’s not a bad idea for a photographer to have a list or a notebook with shoot ideas, either for stock projects, contracts, or personal stuff. I made a list of potential shots or shoots years ago. I probably should dust it off and think about doing a few of them.

Part 1
Part 2

Little World

2010-09-01T21:50:00.002-03:00

A coworker of mine almost scolded me because I didn't bring my camera everywhere I went, including just going to work. This morning I decided to start. I have no regrets, otherwise I would've missed this.

See more on Flickr

New Shots on Flickr

2010-08-22T11:45:00.002-03:00

I have finally posted some shots to Flickr taken during my vacation, including the full-version of the Sugarloaf Panorama I posted in the previous post.

Check out the rest.

And my favorite of the whole three weeks:

See more on Flickr

Achievement Unlocked!

2010-08-15T20:59:00.005-03:00

I am still alive, now more than ever. At least I feel more alive. I've been on vacation for the past three weeks, therefore not blogging. Amongst other things, I've been to Montréal for a whole week (I will post a creative synopsis later this week). But that's not why I feel so alive.

One of the many things I've done was one of my goals this year – Break down my own physical limits. What did I do? I hiked up a mountain.

The beautiful panorama seen from the top

With minimal training but with the essential preparation, me, Stéphanie and our best friend Georges set up to hike up the Mt. Sugarloaf in Campbellton. It stands 350 meter (1,000 feet) above sea level with a 900 meter climb. The complete hike is over 4.3 kilometers long (half of the Terry Fox Trail around the mountain and the climb, back and forth).

Screen capture of the GPS screen of the path we hiked.

It was hard and took us about 2 hours to reach the top, including several essential breaks. We struggled through and reached the top. It was incredibly satisfying. The view over the city of Campbellton and the Gaspésie was breathtaking. Now, we feel like we can tackle anything. So much that me and Stéphanie want to do it again. This time with training and more preparation (we sort of ran out of water during the hike...)

Ys Seven Limited Edition

2010-07-23T22:35:00.005-03:00

One of the games I'm looking forward the most this year is coming out next month, in limited edition form too. I got it pre-ordered! It comes with

The game (duh!)
Soundtrack CD
60-page art book for Ys Seven, Ys: The Oath in Felghana and Ys I & II Chronicles
12.5" by 34" cloth map

Ys Seven is one of three Ys game coming out for the PSP in the next 6-months or so. I'm probably going to get them all. They rock!

Summer's Gaming Objectives

2010-07-22T20:19:00.005-03:00

Summer vacation is at my door, so it's that time to define some gaming objectives. Many great PSP are going to start to coming out starting in August with Ys Seven, so to help the wait, I'm attacking a bunch of my non-completed games. This also goes in the direction of my 2010 Gaming Resolution. Hit the jump for the list.

[NDS] Scribblenauts - I lost the drive to this game. Yes, it's innovative but I just lost it. So, between now and Fall I will slave through the remaining missions.
[PSP] Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness - I've been playing this game for years, yes, but I never even finished the regular playthrough/ending (even after almost 100 hours through...). It's going to take several hours, but I will finish it... then get [PSP] Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days <.<...
[PSP] Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Normal playthrough
[Wii] Super Mario Galaxy 2 - I'm only missing the final "ultimate" star... anyone who got to this point knows what I'm going through...

There's a lot more games I "should" complete, but I'm not in a hurry. An example is [PSP] Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. It's incredibly fun, but it's just as fun to take your time.

I'm not going to post anything whenever I complete a game off of my summer list

Three More Photos

2010-07-20T22:34:00.001-03:00

See more on Flickr

More Flickr Love from new D-SLR

2010-07-19T09:52:00.006-03:00

Here's the first set of photos I have taken with my new D5000.

The first shot posted (last taken last night) is when I realized that when a moment clicks with an image in my head, I can now take it without anything holding me back.

See more on Flickr

Photography Frames Part 3 (of 3) - Final Action

2010-07-15T21:53:00.005-03:00

As promised, here is how to put both Actions previously created (here (1) and here (2)).

This step is critical into making the frame and logo/signature placement truly automated for Batch Processing.

It's extremely simple. For the setup, I'm not even going to take screenshots.

In the same set as before, we're going to create an Action called "_frame". I like to use the underscore to make primary Actions that execute other ones stand out.
As we press Ok, it's going to go in Record mode.
Open ANY image (it really doesn't matter), creating an "Open" step.
In the Actions palette, that you should still have open, click on the "AddFrame" action and press the Play button to add a Frame.
Repeat the above for the "AddSignature" action.
As I tested this on other people, I noticed that it wasn't necessarily clear why this following step was done. Go to Layer > Flatten Image.

The reason is simple. These types of frames are usually used as a signature style on Online Galleries or other online use. We'll most likely be working from and to JPEGs. This Flatten step assures that the automated saving action saves into JPEG instead of the Default PSD. On some versions of Photoshop, depending on the way settings are setup in the Preferences menu, even with an automated saving Action it sometimes saves into PSD.
Lastly, save the image in another (temporary) folder.

This is all we need to do for the "_frame" Action.

In order to actually execute the _frame Action in a Batch automation, you need to do the following.

I like to put all the photos to be "framed", after being tweaked a bit, into a specific folder. You can call that folder "Selection". While there, create another folder with a name like "Post Selection" or "Upload", "Destination", or something like that.
Inside of Photoshop, go into File > Automate > Batch.
Do make sure you:
- Select the right Action Set and the _frame Action.
- Set both Source and Destination to Folder and select the Source folder (where you dropped your selection of photos) and your Destination folder.
- Check both Open and Save overrides and the Suppress Color Profile warnings
- If you feel like it, it's the perfect place to Batch Rename your selection.
It should essentially look like this:
Press Ok.

If you followed everything correctly, you should see your pictures opening and closing quickly. Batch processing can be extremely fast. It's not a luxury to set some Actions up for very specific and repetitive tasks that you know will be time consuming if done by hand.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

D5000

2010-07-14T21:49:00.005-03:00

Well, it's official. I'm part of the Nikon D-SLR club. This is one of the reasons of the planned Flickr re-upload and one of the reasons I spent so much time designing and developing a signature gallery frame for my online pictures...

Speaking of which, Part 3 is going to be up tomorrow... I promise...

It's a Nikon ~~D90 lite~~ D5000 with the Nikkor 18-105mm... very nice lens for a very nice camera. Expect my Flickr to start booming in a few weeks.

Time for me to get back on reading the booklet. The monster is 256 pages!

Photography Frames Part 2 (of 3) - The Signature

2010-07-06T19:44:00.004-03:00

Here is the second part of the... uh... I guess you could call this a "tutorial"... Photography Frames.

This time, I'm going to cover the exact method on how to create the Actions that's going to insert a Logo or Signature and position it at the bottom-right corner of a photo.

Those following my Blog know that I had problem figuring out how to do exact positioning in Actions when bottom and right were involved. To be honest, at one point I didn't think it was even possible until I read this comment on someone else's Blog who had the same question. Thanks to Cemal Ekin, I was able to make my signature Action that way I wanted. Today, I'm sharing it with you.

It's incredibly simple, especially if you followed along with the previous post on how to make the frame. It's a similar method.

There is a pre-requirement before I post the steps. You need to have a logo or signature in a PSD, EPS, or any "importable" (File > Place) file format with transparency. Make sure it's one layer (in a PSD) or one group (in EPS).

For the sake of the example, I have a logo in EPS format. This is what I'm going to import on the image.

I'll leave from the result of the last post.

In the PhotoFrame Action Set, we're going to create a new Action by clicking on the Create new action button and call it "AddSignature".
As previous, the "Record" button is already going to be pressed. Go to File > Place and get the file of your logo or signature. Resize it if needed, but do not move it. Once done, press [Enter].
The added logo has its own layer, and it's selected by default unless you clicked something else (which you shouldn't have...). While the logo/signature layer is selected by default, [Ctrl] + Left Click on the background layer. This is critically important.
Now select the Move tool and look at the top of the screen for the Align buttons. Click on the Align Bottom and Align Right buttons. It should now look like something like this:
Now deselect the Background layer by clicking once (with the Move tool still selected) on the layer with the signature/logo. Start nudging it into place using the Arrow keys.
If, like me, your Logo is a (or many) color that doesn't fit in the frame, while still recording, add a Black (or whatever color contrasts well against the background, the same as the stroke around the photo in the frame should do) Color overlay by adding a Layer Style to the signature/logo
Press the Stop button.

That is all. Your Actions should look something like this...

Next post is going to cover how to set these two Actions up for Batch Automation. One Batch process can do both and more.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Photography Frames Part 1 (of 3) - The Frame

2010-07-04T19:24:00.011-03:00

As promised, I'm going to post an easy to make a frame that's a bit higher than wide in order to have some place for a signature or logo.

The basics of the method is borrowed from an old Layers Magazine tutorial. I'm just going to cover the bare bones of the technique. You will probably adjust the parameters for your own needs.

This post is only going to cover the actual frame. Following posts are going to cover the signature and then how to put it all together and why.

The method is incredibly original in its application. It is not this way to be original, but to be adaptable for various series of Actions and accessible on various versions of Photoshop.

The size of the frame will depend on the image size and what you want. For the sake of the example, I'm going to use a 600 pixels wide image by 800 pixels high.

Of course, the very first step is to open an image.

Since we're going to be creating a set of Actions, might as well have the Actions Palette show, right? Do it in any way you like. If you don't know where it is, just go to Window > Actions or press [Alt] + [F9].

I always like to be organised. We're going to be creating a new set of Actions by clicking on the Create new set button and naming that set "PhotoFrame".

This Set is going to contain three actions. But, we're going to start with just one. Where going to click on the button next to the right of Create new set, Create new action and name it "AddFrame", because that's exactly what it's going to do.

As soon as you press Ok, you'll notice the Record button at the bottom of the Action palette is already pressed, ready to record the very first action. Everything can followed will leaving "Record" on. I will cover how to tweak/re-record steps after.

The very first step is to create duplicate the "background" layer. The simplest way to accomplish this is to press [Ctrl] + [J]

Go to Image > Canvas Size and do the following:
- Check the "Relative" box
- Set the width and height to 60 pixels from the center
- Set the Canvas extension color to White
You should now have a white border around the whole picture.

Now we will re-do the same step as above except that we're now going to extend 40 pixels from the top, which is going to be added at the bottom of the photo.

The first recorded step was to duplicate the background layer, and this is why.

[Ctrl] + Left Click on the duplicated layer, which is essentially the photo without the border.

Go to Selection > Transform Selection and stretch the selection a bit bigger than the image, but less than halfway through the frame, with one of the transformation handles and holding down [Shift] + [Alt]. Confirm by pressing Enter

Go to Edit > Stroke and set it up to a 3 pixel black stroke.

Press the Stop button in the Action Palette

Your Action Palette should look like this (minus the "Resize" Action Set)

The result should be a frame that looks like this around your picture.

To apply the same frame to another picture, you just need to open another file, select the AddFrame action and press the Play button.

If you are not happy with the results of one of the steps, here's how. For the sake of the example, we'll pretend I think the first "Canvas Size" extension is too big.

The first step is to delete the step that you're not happy with, in this case the first Canvas Size.

In some cases, you may need to "play" some steps to have some very specific conditions such as the way we added the stroke.
Press the Record button in the Action palette.
Just re-do the Canvas Size step the same way we originally did, but put 30 pixels instead of the original 60 pixels.
Press the "Stop" button.
To test, you can load in a new image and press the "Play" button to execute the AddFrame action.

The next post will cover the placement and positioning of a signature/logo.

EDIT: I highly recommend that you add an "Deselect" action at the end of the AddFrame
action.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

"Frame" Saga Success!

2010-07-01T10:08:00.004-03:00

I've done it. Regardless if a picture is landscape, portrait, or a 4:1 panorama of any size, I have a set of Actions that, during a single Batch automation, creates the frame and place/position the watermark signature at the exact place it needs to be. The images above is the proof.

During the weekend I will post about how I made the frame and how I automated the whole watermark-signature placement.

Ongoing "Frame" Saga

2010-06-30T23:47:00.008-03:00

Wondering what I've been cooking up for the last few days, read on...

There's a series of event currently unfolding that's going to get me into photography again. In preparation of such, I started looking at my Flickr account and ways I could make it look more professional. One of the things I noticed, some photographers use a "gallery frame" for their online photos with their personal signature/logo watermark. Being the obvious thing for me to do, I decided to start designing my own to later replace all the shots on my Flickr account. The constraint: It has to be "Batch-process" friendly inside of Photoshop.

The first step was to design the frames and adapt them to Photoshop Actions. By the end of the first night, I had designed four of various styles and contrast-effect to the pictures. All four of them were also all adapted to Actions, not including the signature. I may post in a near future the quick way to get a "gallery frame" for digital pictures setup.

The second day (today), I tweaked a bunch of the designs and still was not happy. I looked around for inspiration and started to question myself: Do I really need to stick to black and white? I started using a dark gray instead of black and the way it complemented photos of all shapes and colors. I worked on a fifth and final design and was happy with it. Now, time to work on a signature-watermark.

I knew what I wanted and it didn't take long. A problem that I'm still working around arose at this step. As you can see from the first picture above, I want my signature to be at a specific distance from the bottom and right edge of the image regardless of the image size or orientation (portrait/landscape). In pseudo-code/logic, it's extremely simple considering that top-left is (0, 0).

Signature X = image width - specific distance in pixels
Signature Y = image height - specific distance in pixels

This is rare I'm going to say this, but I believe that Photoshop is the problem in this situation. I don't know of any ways, and believe me—I'm still looking, in an Action to have a layer/object move to a specific location based on the bottom or right edges (translates to height and width).

So, I'm still looking and I'm still asking around many communities and professionals. In the mean time, I have set up the multiple Actions sequences (I could've done it all in one or two Actions, but being a programmer at heart, my logic work is mostly clean) including one for a specific image size and portrait orientation and the other for a specific image size and landscape orientation. If I divide my batches in two and make sure all my images are the same size, for example 800x600 and 600x800, it works wonderfully by only running two separate Batch Automations.

If I ever find out how I could move an object or layer relative to an edge of the image, I will post it here ASAP.

Recovery Miracle

2010-06-20T12:45:00.005-03:00

Over a week ago, there was an event where I had to take pictures. Nothing complicated. I ended up the event with 96 shots taken throughout the afternoon, but one series of shot (4 shots) was especially important. It was a group picture.

A weekend passed. The following Monday, I came to the office and started sorting through all the pictures. Close to the end, I noticed that I didn't see the group shots. I started looking through everything I sorted, the Recycle Bin... essentially everywhere. They were nowhere to be found.

Could they have been accidentally overwritten by the camera? Were the files truncated/corrupted? So many possibilities, but all with the same result: I did not have the important picture.

Anyone that ever used a file recovery utility before knows that it's a "hit 'n miss" process. If the sector has been overwritten, you're just not going to get your file back. But, it's worth a shot. Got a free utility and started doing a complete surface scan. I didn't expect the thing to reveal ±600 deleted/corrupted/truncated photos. Sifting time.

It took about 20 minutes to find the series. They shared the same filename as the last few shots I took at the event after the group shots. Not surprisingly, all four were truncated. When I opened them up to see the damage, I was shocked. Witness for yourself.

* To add a bit of "padding" between my job and the blog, the pictures were replaced but the truncation is kept intact.

Within 15 seconds after I picked my jaw off of the floor, I salvaged the last picture and saved it.

No Updates? No Worries

2010-06-19T14:15:00.004-03:00

If you're still here expecting an update, you must either not know me and my job or you have no access to a calendar.

We're in June. Not only it's half Spring half Summer, but it's also time for the Annual Report at work. Yes, that time where all the important information for an important document always arrives three weeks late and only days before it actually goes in front of the board. It's the same for every organisation or corporation. At this point, I believe having information arriving late for graphic design or printing is part of the general definition of an annual report.

That said, we always make it on time anyway. It's just part of the show, just like the fireworks at the end of a Shakespeare piece... ok, that's off, but you get what I'm saying.

That's why you're not getting any updates recently. There will be one tomorrow with details of a miracle from the computer-gods. Then it's another blogging hiatus until I can a bit of free time.

In the mean time, I'm at the office with [PSP] Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker staring at me. I just bought it, but I'm too busy working. The word of the day is "Temptation".

Lately, I haven't done a lot of things. I've done a bit of Geocaching and I'm up to 180 stars in [Wii] Super Mario Galaxy 2 (which is probably the best Wii game so far on the market). I didn't have any time to work on XNA or any other personal projects I'd like to undertake. My sketchbook is getting a bit flooded with "TO DO" projects.

Yes, I am stuck at the office, but I'm in a great mood and I'm working at a descent pace. I don't feel like I'll have to rush to meet the printing deadline, but I know I can't take more than 5-10 minute breaks every hour (mentally healthy + rested = productive).

Check back again tomorrow for my little "computer miracle of the week" story.

It's Official, I'm Hooked...

2010-05-19T10:20:00.003-03:00

After last week's first Geocaching experience, me and Stéphanie have pretty much gotten hooked to it. We're up to 7 Caches so far without a GPSr.

The GPSr should arrive this week, so don't be surprise if I add another post Category to the list.

Accidental Cache...

2010-05-11T21:43:00.006-03:00

I know I haven't been posting for a while. Those following me in real life know that last week I was on "vacation"... you know the type where you need more vacation to recuperate from the first vacation?

I haven't really been doing anything "blog" worthy, unless you consider getting a repair-guy for a dryer interesting.

Even with this 'activity' drought, me and Stéphanie have stumbled into an interesting game/hobby by accident, and we're loving it.

Geocaching! The Cache we stumbled upon was called "Arret et pense" (Stop and think), so we did...

I say we stumbled on it because we didn't really plan or prepare to get into Geocaching. We don't even have a GPS. It was a random conversation piece yesterday. The more we were talking about it, the more it sounded fun. We randomly checked for one close by and started looking for it on site. We sure were not prepared for the sheer feeling of bliss when you actually find it.

Me and Stéphanie holding our first Cache

Needless to say that we're going to be checking to get a GPS later this summer. There's a Cache right across the street from my parent's house

Album and Smurf-Mobile Update

2010-04-29T20:45:00.002-03:00

Two very small things. The first is that the "La voix des jeunes" album artwork and design elements are about 85% completed. Actually, strictly-design speaking it's more 98% but there's a bunch of text to write and insert.

The other, the Smurf-Mobile needs a medic.

I got the stick of touch-up paint and will get right on it once it's stops raining for more than 4 hours (to make sure it really dries well).

Synthesis

2010-04-22T18:00:00.003-03:00

I haven't worked so much as I have lately. If I wasn't working at the office, I was working home for the design material for the "La voix des jeunes" album. For this, I decided to take it easy for tonight and the upcoming weekend.

Not only will I take it easy by playing a few video games (I have finally finished the first playthrough of Borderlands), I have also decided to dust off my Korg Electribe MX-1 (the pre-SD one, first-generation).

I just felt a bunch of you guys shiver in disgust and outrage. Don't worry, it was covered safely and there's not a speckle of dust anywhere close–it was a figure of speech.

As I'm playing around on it again and reading through the manual, there's something that occurred to me. Maybe it's because I have been away from any electronic-music hardware and software for so long or maybe it's because I concentrated on other dimensions of my craft in the past few years, but I just realized that finding resources for intermediate electronic-musicians. There's plenty of tutorials for software and hardware and plenty of theory on how synthesizer and samplers work, but not many resources on how to create a good drum pattern from scratch or not many patch recipes.

Just a small side-note before continuing, the term "Patch Recipe" is used to describe a general "recipe" with common parameters to create a certain sound, or something very close.

For years I've been trying to get a Trance-like Atmosphere Pad right and I was never able to. I looked everywhere and haven't been able to find my answer either. I have autopsied the presets on my Electribe and still can't get it right.

My search shall continue and so will my experimentation. There is a book out called Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook that covers how to analyse and reproduce sounds and a bunch of universal patches. But it seems to mostly contains patches that emulate real sounds and not a lot of great leads and sphere synths.

As my quest for creating specific synth sounds continues, I'm thinking of acquiring my second piece of gear that will greatly simplify how to scratch out an inspiration/idea in my setup and workflow. Nothing official yet as I won't be getting anything unless I can finish the design stuff for "La voix des jeunes" by summer.

Bucket-load of Game Impressions

2010-03-28T22:52:00.005-03:00

It's been a while since I posted anything related to a game. Since there's "posting drought", I decided to post a bunch of mini-reviews of all the new (for me, not necessarily by release) games I played since last September, just like I did in the old days. Some of the games I purchased, some were rented, and one was borrowed.

I'm going to try to keep each one in no more than two paragraphs. Hit the jump to see those mini-impressions.

[NDS] Scribblenauts
Great concept and very well designed games. Even outside of the regular levels, it's fun to just summon random objects and people and see how everything interacts. The controls are bit loose, but I don't feel it hinders the game in anyway. Good news for everyone that complained about the controls though, the sequel will have tighter controls and D-Pad movements. The one problem I have with the game is that it's often very ambiguous how certain object behaves with others. I don't think there are many players that figured out that button and switches can be triggered by "Engineers".

[NDS] Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Since 2002, I've been in love with the Kingdom Hearts series. I was one of the first to mock the concept, yet I got addicted to the series the moment I played it. I long awaited this iteration of the series. There were many unanswered questions in Kingdom Hearts II that are brought to light again in this game.

The gameplay is exactly like a Kingdom Hearts game should be. There are great little additions in gameplay (Panels for example) and the story is amazing. However the game is severely crippled by repetition. The mission-structure is extremely redundant after 200-something days. As amazing as the story is, it can't get me to continue the game.

Unfortunately, great cinematics and story isn't enough to save this game from repetition.

[PS3] Borderlands
Addictive crack! This game is simply awesome! Freedom, character-growth, shooter-RPG-hybrid, great artistic direction... all around great fun. We needed a game to scratch that "Diablo" itch until the release of Diablo III.

[PS3] Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
Best Ratchet & Clank game EVER!

[Wii] New Super Mario Bros. Wii
I grew up with the classic Super Mario games from the NES and SNES era. New Super Mario Bros. Wii has gameplay elements from the great Super Mario games all combined into one. It's extremely addictive and the addition of multiplayer can make things downright chaotic (in a good way). Something older gamers, such as myself, that grew up with sadistic games will enjoy: the game can be downright cruel. At first I thought the game was way too easy, stacking up 99 lives in an hour or two, only to lose half of them in a single world later on.

[NDS] Etrian Odyssey
I wanted to try this game for a while. It was often recommended when I was looking for Dungeon Crawlers. Somewhere along the way, I was glad I didn't buy it. It's got a lot of personality and style, and above all it's pretty fun. It's a solid game in terms of gameplay too, but it's a little too purist for my taste.

[NDS] The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
I got a little scared when the sequel to my favourite NDS games was first announced. "Train" just doesn't strike me as "free-roaming". But, to my surprise, the signature exploration is still there. The already good controls from The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass were tightened up a bit and the gameplay in general felt just as great. There is one thing however that I still have trouble wrapping my head around: difficult dungeons in a Zelda game.

[PSP] LittleBigPlanet
Simply put, this game is made of "happy". From the design to Sackboy's personality and even the music , the whole game is extremely charming. It's very faithful to its PS3 big brother. All the key elements that made LittleBigPlanet what it is, is all there in portable form.

There are two things, however, that annoy me a little. One is the same as the PS3: The core gameplay lacks a bit of depth. The whole game is extremely creative, and even more if you download levels. Besides moving, jumping, collecting, and the minigames, there isn't much more to the game. The only other thing is how complicated the controls for the level-editor are. I know it's not really possible to have this complex of an editor to be very "user-friendly". Even if you're not into creating levels, it's still a pretty solid game.

Happy!

[PS3] Darksiders
Imagine of the Legend of Zelda formula evolved somehow. This would be it. It's one of the 2010 "Like God of War but..." games. However, it's unique design and gameplay-hybrid really makes it stand-out. I personally like it a lot more than God of War. The controls just feel better and the dungeon/adventure genre makes it a lot more fun to me.

[NDS] Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns
My first step into the world of Roguelike Dungeon-Crawlers is an easy one. It overflows with personality, charm, and humour. The dungeon-gameplay is a bit repetitive at points, but that's a quirk of the subgenre, not the game. It can be extremely deep and even sadistic (even if you've saved before the dungeon and quit without saving you still lose your items), but even with that it's a lot of fun... heck, I think I'm going to play this tonight...

This is a lot harder than it looks...

[PSP] Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Those who have known me when PC gaming was king know how much I loved Grand Theft Auto 2. It was my favourite GTA game for a long time. GTA Chinatown Wars is just that—the spiritual successor to GTA2. It looks gorgeous on the PSP screen and the controls are smooth as butter. The targeting, just like the past few GTA games, is very sloppy. But with everything that you can do in this handheld reproduction of the GTA IV Liberty City, this flaw is easily forgotten.

[PSP] Half-Minute Hero
I originally wasn't sure about this game. I liked the "Hero 30" demo a lot, but was afraid that it wasn't much more than that. Time passed until recently when I read a bit more about the game and how it really is. It's insane! Like a lot of people, I haven't been able to put my fingers yet on what makes it so addicting. Sure the 8-bit/16-bit is charming, but there are some solid gameplay elements. 30 seconds to save the world may not seem like a lot, but when you have the Time Goddess on your side, it's not as bad as one thinks.

There's a lot of variety in the gameplay and multiple modes that reminisces some classic games. Other than the Fast-Paced-RPG, there's mode where you control a princess in top-down shooter missions and even a mode with an evil lord in a rock-paper-scissor mechanic. Game modes, multiple paths, unlockables. There's a lot packed in a small $20 package.

My only grudge about the game is how obscure alternate-paths and titles are sometimes (in Hero 30).

30 seconds to save the world can be hardcore...

Fighting Division, Together

2010-03-24T19:08:00.006-03:00

(This post is to make you, and I, think and reflect on ourselves)

Unified diversity
Functioning as one body
Every part encouraged by the other
No one independent of another
---Lyrics from "Beautiful Bride" by Flyleaf

There are two songs I've been listening over and over lately, one has the above as its starting lyrics.

We are divided in so many aspects of our lives, to other people, other groups and even to ourselves. We need to stand up and fight this division. We need to unite within ourselves and unite together. When we all function as one, we accomplish great things.

And Now, A New Wallpaper...

2010-03-14T21:51:00.002-03:00

While browsing old photos I took in the past, Stéphanie challenged me to make a wallpaper out of a picture I took in 2006... so I did...

It's available in a variety of fullscreen, widescreen sizes... including one in HD. Check out the DeviantArt Page to download it.

New PSP

2010-03-14T19:41:00.002-03:00

After almost five years, my launch-day PSP-1001 was starting to get some signs of aging. The left and right button on the D-Pad were starting to feel sticky, the battery, A/C adaptor, and faceplate had to be changed, the screen felt a bit dimmer... it's still very functional, but lately I've been thinking of getting a new unit. I wasn't expecting to get it so soon.

We came across an excellent deal on the Limited Edition Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines bundle with the Pearl White PSP-3000. The bundle was not only cheaper than the other PSP-3000 bundles, but it was also the same price as just the PSP-3000 pack (no bundled games or bonuses).

The screen is gorgeous and so is the pearlescent white coating. It shimmers like my car does!

Three Weeks

2010-03-09T10:07:00.005-04:00

No, I haven't fell off the surface of the earth. Although it sometimes have felt that way in the past three weeks. Outside of being really busy at work, there's a bunch of stuff that happened and I'm really emotionally tired at this point. That explains why there hasn't been any updates in three weeks. Currently trying to rest as much as possible physically, mentally and emotionally.

On the upside, I have finished the cover art for the "La voix des jeunes" album. I just need to work on everything else (CD label, back and side panel, all the text, etc). I don't have much to post about so it could be several days until I post again.

Fixed Liquid Layout

2010-02-16T16:25:00.000-04:00

As promised last week, I worked out the basics of Matthew's fixed width layout. Most of the changes are in the CSS.

I am not going to cover the complete code since that was covered in in the other post. If you're coding from scratch, you may want to refer to that post first.

The one and only change in the HTML div structure is to wrap the "col1" (main) column in a another div ("col1mask").

Now for the CSS. The body, #header, #footer, .colmask do not change. The rest pretty much changes a lot.

That's it. It's not as fluid to read as the true liquid layout, but it works really well.

The True Holy Grail of Web Layouts

2010-02-12T09:29:00.002-04:00

I'm way over two years old on this, but I stopped doing Web development before the following was posted. Last time I touched anything Web related at work that wasn't related to content management, I was working on a liquid layout prototype. All the research I did back then refered to workarounds and hacks in order to make it work on all browsers.

In 2007, Matthew James Taylor posted something on his Website that changed the way Web Developers and Web Designers approached the development of layouts. He came up with a truly pure liquid layout that worked perfectly on all browsers, used no hacks nor workarounds, and was XHTML valid.

As an exercise in diving back into Web development, I decided to code his Perfect Liquid Layout (Holy Grail) from scratch. The following is nothing really advanced, but a great refresher.

Of course the very first place to start is to put in the basic HTML structure and add in the basic CSS to eliminate the different browser's default padding and margin and the old IE borders. Might as well add in the 100% width to the body too.

This can be put in a CSS template for future use instead of writing the same code over and over again.

The next step, setting up the nested div structure, refering to Matthew's page. Header, footer, and the columns (with the containers). It's really not complicated. There is an extra Class to add to the main container (colmask) for various settings (see later) which we'll name "threecol".

This is pretty much the only thing required in the HTML file for the layout itself, else than your own content.

The rest is going to be added in the CSS file. First thing, if you feel like it you can add a min-width in the CSS for the body. It's not necessarly required, but can be pretty useful depending on your layout.

The header and footer only requires three things. Clear both left and right, float the left, and set the width to be 100%.

Working with the columns is a bit tricky. It's not complicated, but there's a lot of stuff to keep in mind. Instead of explaining things as I go along, here's the code.

Essentially, that's it. You then just add your own styling to the layout.

This is a pure liquid layout that uses percentage width, resulting in a true liquid layout. I will later work on the fixed [pixel] width liquid layout and post it here. There are some differences in the way the containers (nested div) work.

Not All Prisons Have Bars

2010-02-05T13:59:00.004-04:00

Last night I went to bed early. I was proud of myself (I'm lacking a lot of sleep) until an inspiration flux woke me up in the middle of the night. I had to write, I had to design...

Here's the first piece. The one that woke me up.

Tweaked Again

2010-01-30T17:08:00.005-04:00

Don't you just love when the titles I use sound strange or bad without context?

I tweaked the blog template again. The box at the bottom of each post had a solid background that made it way too bold against the rest of the design. Background removed, border-top added.

Majestic Spirit

2010-01-29T20:52:00.004-04:00

Out of the blue, I pulled a new composition (photo-manipulation).

I was vaguely inspired after staring at the cover art of [PS3] Resistance: Fall of Man. I didn't want to do something in the same style, but I wanted the dirty/grunge treatment in a landscape photo-manipulation. While working on it, the piece changed style entirely. What was supposed to be a dead/static piece somehow ended up with a life of its own.

Time for me to go out and shovel the doorway again. Damn snowstorms...

Holy Crap, Bad Habit Again...

2010-01-28T19:19:00.005-04:00

I neglected my Blog again. I got a few excuses:

Busy at work (Board meeting)
An event leading to worry and stress (no details here)
Choir
Crafting a case for my pennywhistles

Take which ever one you like.

I'm not doing a lot of things. I've even pushed aside the infamous commissions I need to work on to work on the whistle case. I'm going to post the process once it's done.

I'm planning on posting a tiny bit more frequently, even if I don't have much to say.

Mindblown - Depth of XNA and .NET

2010-01-18T18:05:00.003-04:00

It's one thing to have some fundamental knowledge about something, like what is XNA and .NET. But it's an whole other thing to see what they truly are. Not necessarily to fully understand .NET and become a .NET master, but to see and understand where certain things come from.

I recently went through the "Under the Hood" and "XNA from Scratch" lessons from the 3DBuzz's XNA Xtreme 101 volume 2. My eyes are still glazed-over from last week. Not from confusing, but from sheer amazement. You can't fully understand the complexity and power of .NET until you see it with your own eyes.

When you create a new XNA project (Windows Game, for example), there's a load of code already into place, ready for you to add in your own code to. When you run that empty project, you get a wonderful CornflowerBlue window. Where does that window (Form) come from? Where does the code that's added in come from and what does it do? If we override Draw() and Update(), where is the original and what do they do?...

The almighty default XNA Windows Game window

We first started to look at a normal Windows Application to see where the Form (window) gets created and tried to understand that. Then we looked at an empty XNA Windows Game, and we traced everything using Reflector. It was stunning to see the sheer complexity of .NET and XNA, but then it was mind-blowing to see it all connected and working together.

At this point, I'm both excited and scared/intimidated of working with XNA.

Where I'm Going in 2010... (Personal Life)

2010-01-15T17:30:00.001-04:00

The last of the trilogy. I won't be going over many details of my personal life, but will hit some of the major things I want to change or accomplish this year.

First and foremost is the same as every year. Health, exercise, eating habits... What I want to achieve in this department is to reduce my eating portions (I don't eat terribly bad, I just eat a lot) and become more physically active. The exercising is a longterm goal. I can't just start jogging tomorrow. My cardio and lung capacity isn't really good and I need to start from the bottom of the ladder and climb up one by one. I need to start doing some small and basic cardio frequently and work my way up again.

Another thing I want to do relates to another thing I realized in 2008 was how many hobbies I had (too many). I couldn't keep them all up and after some very long and difficult thinking, I dropped some. I've been feeling downright balanced ever since. Problem is I often slack off or badly manages my time to game, which goes hand-in-hand with my gaming commitment problem. What I want to do this year is to put a bit more focus on music this year. Not only for my dad's choir, but also to really learn to play the Irish Whistle and Irish Flute.

If I can commit to focusing on music and manage my time for it, I'll learn to commit to other little things. I got a few side-projects that really don't go forward because I can't seem to make time for them. What I should start first, though, is the two commissions I have that are already on the table.

All-in-all, I got a nice plan for 2010, which is said to be a year of change. If I can follow this road map to the end of the year, things are going to be better for me and I'll be ready to move on to balance and organize my life even more.

Where I'm Going in 2010... (Gaming)

2010-01-13T10:17:00.002-04:00

Something that hit me pretty hard in 2008 is when I realized how jaded I've sort of become to gaming in general. Not the industry, but the way I committed (or lack of) to some games and how this made me feel.

I'm not going to be buying a lot of games this year. I've seriously slowed down buying games in the past 6-8 months and I really don't feel I'm going to come back to my old habits. Keeping this up will have two effects. First is that it won't only make me appreciate the games I already own a bit more, but also appreciate gaming as a whole. Second one is that it will make me finish some long-overdue games. I don't want to finish every game. I've mentioned this before, but I do want to finish some essential games. For example, I never completed [PS3] Assassin's Creed. I'm obviously not going to touch the sequel even though it's what the first game should've been.

Essentially, I want to shift my focus to gaming a bit. I don't want to game more seriously, and I don't want to take it too lightly either. There's a right balance in the middle for me and that's where I believe I should be.

Where I'm Going in 2010... (Professional Life)

2010-01-10T21:56:00.009-04:00

The first post of the year is something we ask ourselves every year at multiple times (relationships, finances, personal lives, professional lives, etc...) is where we want to go, what we need to do, or what we want to achieve during this brand new year. I will attempt to ask myself this from a professional side. Later this week I will cover the same topic from another perspective.

I think it's clear for everyone by now that masteringMaya hasn't only been put on ice, but has been shut in the freezer for a long time. I often get the urge to simply pull up Maya play around in it in order to re-familiarize myself with the application and maybe run through a few videos. But I don't do it. I hold back for a reason: I need to concentrate on a goal that I need for my profession. Work before fun, I guess you could say.

By the end of the year, I want to have fully dived back in Web Development. I want to become comfortable developing Web applications like I was back in College. For this, there are specific steps that I personally ~~want~~ have to take.

First and foremost, because of the Object-Orientated trend in various Web Development languages now, I need to get the hang of Object-Oriented Programming. I'm slowly starting the get it thanks the 3D Buzz's XNA Xtreme 101. So the first step I need to take is get done with the remainder of Volume 2 and go through Volume 3.

After that's done, I need a quick refresher on how to make a Website from a design (Photoshop to HTML, essentially) and then really bash some basic PHP into my head. Both can be achieved again thanks to 3DBuzz and the Web Design series. I've done Website designs in Photoshop several times in the past, but not in 4-5 years. I've also tried learning basic PHP not that long ago with Project Calender, but it's been a while and I didn't really need it back then.

All this just to dig in deeper PHP and learn to integrate mySQL and do some Object-Oriented Programming in PHP.

For those that don't like to read too much, here's what I want to accomplish this year in short:

Complete 3DBuzz XNA Xtreme 101 to be comfortable with OOP

Complete Volume 2
Start and complete Volume 3

Refresher on Photoshop-to-HTML process (not hard, but required)
Learn basic PHP and be very comfortable with it (repetition)
Learn some advanced PHP

Advanced PHP concepts and code
mySQL Integration
Object-Oriented PHP

Essentially, putting on my Web Developer hat again.

Once this is done, maybe I'll then feel ready to jump into Maya again... Maybe...