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    March 15

    My Desktop...

    Meh... I was bored. I'm running a 22" Asus 16:10 at 1680x1050, and a 17" ViewSonic at 1280x1024 in Dual View.

     

    March 13

    Hulu

    Well, Hulu is this awesome website that I had been waiting on to go public for a few weeks. It offers free TV to Internet users from the U.S. (I'm not sure about others). While this doesn't have every TV show broadcasted on American television, it does have a crap load of awesome shows! Such as:

    • The Office
    • Firefly
    • Family Guy
    • Bones
    • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
    • Battlestar Galactica
    • And more...

    (The ones in Bold are my favorite shows.)

    Both TV shows and feature films on the website have advertisements. The only thing that upsets me is that it's all not in HD. And the only HD videos they have right now seem to just be movie trailers.

    You can even embed shows in your websites. As you can see here, I've added an episode from one of my favorite shows called The Office; Season 4, Episode 1 "Fun Run" :

     
    March 04

    Windows Live Software

    Wow! I have to say, Microsoft is pushing out some amazingly neat Live initiative. I'm usually a big fan of 3rd party stuff, but jeez, this is some neat stuff!

    First of all, there is neat new Live Mail software, I suppose it's meant to replace Outlook Express. I was using Mozilla ThunderBird before, and what I liked about that software is that I could check my regular e-mail and my g-mail account too, but my only disappointment was it was close to impossible to get your hotmail account on there, and I have one. But of course, with Live Mail I can check all three. It's got a really simple and clean menu at the top, RSS Feeds, and junk filters that start working well right away. It's got more features, but I don't really know all of them...

    Another software I'm using is Live Writer. It does exactly as it says, but it's not Wordpad. Live Writer seems to be meant for blogs! It's really amazing! You would think that, since it's Microsoft, they would make it so the software only worked with their Live Spaces website, but it looks like they've worked hard so it works with pretty much every major and minor blogging site out there, including Blogger!

    Right now I am writing my blog right here in Windows Live Writer. I have a preview of what the blog post is going to look like as I am typing, because the software looked over my webpage and understands it's visual settings of what it should look like. You can also program it to host images and video to an FTP server as you create your blog. So if you imbed an image in your blog post, then go to publish, it will go to your FTP and host the images in the blog post, then link them for viewing. There's more features, but I'm not 100% familiar with these neat stuff!

    There is other Live Software stuff, and I encourage you to at least check it out before saying "Microsoft sux the uber big one and I don't want anything to do with them."

    Then again you might have just said that and only read a few words from this blog post...

    February 11

    Wow...

    Well, it's been about a year since I've posted anything...

    I post my blog here: http://dinkymod.blogspot.com/
    January 11

    Another Aurra Sing update...

    I've got another update. I haven't been working on Aurra as much as I should, I've been spending a lot of time trying to understand the player.def file. When it comes to modifying a game based on the Doom 3 engine (otherwise the Doom 3 engine, even if it's the Q4 reason), and when you want to export a custom model and/or animations into the game you have to understand some kind of Def file (Definition). If you want to create an AI character then you're creating a brand new .def file, which isn't hard to learn how to do.

    Then again, none of it is really, but when it comes to programming, I'm a slow learner. But fortunetly the Q4Jedi team has picked up yet another pathetic lifeform, a programmer :P. He has expierence with exporting animations into the D3 engine, and he was able to explain to me how Player.def files work.

    Ok well anyway, now that I've had some more time to spend on my character instead of spending most of my time on trying to learn the def files I've gotten a little more done on Aurra. Check it out:

    STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS!!!

    January 09

    New Character... Aurra Sing

    It's been a while since I updated my blog. But I've returned with some GREAT news!

    I've found a programmer for the mod I've been working on restarting (Quake 4 Jedi). He and I already have a small Alpha version of the mod already, and the future is looking very bright!
    There is a lot of work to be done, but now at least both sides of the development can be completed at the same time (art and programming)! I've started on a new character for the mod.
               Ok well, she's not a new character. Aurra Sing... If you're as big of a Star Wars geek as I am then you already know who I am talking about. Who am I kidding? I might as well explain to you who she is.
               If you hadn't already guessed, she wasn't in the movies. Actually, now that I recall she did have a small cameo part in Star Wars Episode One, but it was a very small cameo spot, and probably none of you noticed.

     

    Aurra Sing observing the pod race involving Anakin Skywalker, in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

     

    Aurra Sing had been receiving training as a Jedi Padawan, but she decided to abandon her training because she did not see eye to eye with her trainer. She became a bounty hunter, she wielded many firearms but she also still wielded a Lightsaber, she'd also used the force against her opponents as well. While she was alive she killed many Jedi due to her hate of the Jedi after leaving the order.

     

    Aurra Sing.

     

    The mod that I'm working on is not a single player conversion, so her life story will not matter. All that matters is that she is a star wars character and I am putting her in the game for players to play as. This is strictly a multiplayer mod, so none of the character's stories matter, in fact you will probably see many different characters (Jedi or not) no matter what time frame of the Star Wars Universe they were alive in.

    Anyway, I've only just begun creating this character, and this is a very early work in progress screenshot. Have a look:

     

    -Dink out.



    P.S.

        Yes I know I'm a pretty big dork. My life doesn't revolve around star wars as much as you think though .

    June 22

    Macromedia Studio MX 2004

    If you know me then you know I am good a website design and website coding. I am a master in Photoshop and fluent in all general codes including HTML, PHP, Java, etc. But the most important thing I know is Flash. Flash is a program that people love to learn and a lot of people wished they knew how to work with! Flash is a program developed by Macromedia (http://www.macromedia.com/). Coders and designers that work with this software are always in strong demand, and there are a lot of talented fellows.

    Anyway, since I dont ShareWare anymore (to me, it's like I had been smoking for years and I finally quit, I hate illegal ShareWare. Heh, I never had the patience for it anyway), it's now hard for me to get expensive and important software. Especially since I'm only 16!! The software I use are thousands of dallors.

    So I found these online stores that sell these products like Macromedia products, for an extreme discount to students. Studica (http://www.studica.com/) and Journey Ed (http://www.journeyed.com/) are just two of the stores that do this program. And not only do seperate stores do this, but the developers do this, Macromedia has their own student/teacher store at their website.

    It works by first registering an account and sending in your student transcript, you then can buy their software for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dallors less than the retail price.

    For example, Maya 6.5 Unlimited is a seven thousand dallor program, it's available for buy for students/teachers for something like three hundred dallors!!!

    Anyway, I'll be snagging Macromedia Studio MX 2004 with Flash MX profession included here soon. I love Flash, and I love love love ActionScript coding Language.

    Carpal Tunnel...

    Carpal Tunnel is a disorder that people generally get from things like typing, but it has been known to effect people even though they dont spend much time on a computer. But myself, I have spent a good 14 or 15 years on the computer, and it takes up about 90% of my day, every day.

    So I started getting the symptoms for Carpal Tunnel and I went to the clinic to get it checked out. My doctor did some tests asked some questions, and her conclusion was that I dont have carpal tunnel. I may have had a minor form of Carpal Tunnel, maybe a compressed nerve or something, but other than that she says she hopes it's not anything near Carpal Tunnel.

    But just in-case I am buying sleep splints that position my hands in a certain direction while I sleep... Of course. They stretch carpal bones and areas where nerves get compressed, which is the opposite of how Carpal Tunnel is started.

    I am also spending less time on my computers, taking breaks and putting on the splints. Again, since this is a major part of my life, and something I never want to come across with, I will do everything I can to prevent recieving any disorder in likeness to this, or anything that would prevent my from doing my best on my life long love (my computers and software).

    Battlefield Retail...

    Battlefield 2 was supposed to release the 20th of this month. But a lot of places here in Indiana dont have it. Atleast all the places I have checked, EB Games, Gamestop, Best Buy. They dont have it because not a lot of people pre-order it. If they get a lot of pre-orders they usually get it a day before.

    But anyhow, I wasnt able to snag one, even though I pre-ordered. So yesterday AND today I wasnt able to get one, even though everyone said yesterday that they would have it today, but it seems they are all getting it tomorrow. *Sigh* I guess I'll just have to wait.

    June 18

    QuakeCon 2005!!

    Oh thats right, I'm going this year.

    Dont know what QuakeCon is!?!? Well then your one heck of a moronic fool!!! QuakeCon is a yearly even that PC Gamers around the world travel millions of miles around to world just to attend!!

    QuakeCon originally started 1995 by a few friends in an IRC chat room, a few people in this group of friends being some developers from id software (http://www.idsoftware.com/). These friends wanted to get together for a LAN party gaming, this was less than 100 people. Now it's ten years later, and this year is expected to bring more than six thousand people!!!

    QuakeCon is not only a Giant LAN (local area network) party of Gaming, but it is also a time for id software to show off their latest technology and games. This year it is rumoured that they will be bringing a version of Quake 4 to the fest, maybe even to be played at booths!!! There are more rumours, which include them showing off Enemy Territory Quake Wars, and the technology that it uses.

    They will also be discussing the technology, what they plan to use with this new technology and more at the convention.

    It's a four day event and COMPLETELY FREE!!! Well, it's free to get in, but you have to pay for nearby hotel rooms, transportation to get there and such. They will also be including BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer), which a lot of people just come to QuakeCon just for that, they spend the whole four days sitting in front of their computers, they even sleep there!!!

    Yes this is no scam, this event is completely free!! And you only need to register to make sure you can get into BYOC or any tournaments. The tournaments also offer thousands of dallors in winnings, and other prizes!! There are t-shirts there to buy and won and if your lucky enough to be in the right spot, you could get a free t-shirt that they pass out around the entire convention.

    QuakeCon will be located in Grapevine, Texas this year, at the Gaylord Convention Center. If you require anymore information about QuakeCon, be sure to visit http://www.quakecon.org!

    MSN Messenger is pretty neat!

    I have already seen their scripts work in action at the My.msn.com, I have my own page and it's setup to all my new's preferences. I really like how far Microsoft is going with their internet scripting abilities that you see here! I think it would be even greater if I could actually edit my own images in Photoshop and upload them here and make a template as my own for myself.

    Modding is one big reason why PC gaming is so popular, so if they brought it to this stuff, I think people would go even more wild.

    Secrest out!!!