Alathonia

Lesson 01: Always document

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:03:39 GMT

So we've rented probably 50 XLR cables, 3 dozen converters or more, special cables that don't exist we've had to get somebody to make (XLR -> Jack f.eks), cameras and other hardware from a company here.

However, they don't really have any smart way of documenting things. The bill they've sent us includes several different names for the same item, with varying detail.

One line says XLR / phono converter. Another says XLR male / phono female converter.

Some lines are also double by mistake, other things we've ordered are totally missing (BNC cables x 20 or so). So that makes it great for me to try and figure out whats what and what we're being charged for. Almost all of the equipment is rented on a per-day basis, and f.eks the 6 x SxS 16GB camera cards sitting next to me cost 250kr per day, each.

The lesson here really isn't for them though, thats their own mess. What I should have done from the start was throw together a cheap/easy website to add items to, where you could state when they were picked up by us, who they're from and their exact, proper name.

I should have also put colored tape on *everything* according to which company it came from. Having to figure out whether something is from EBH, Deel or some other company here in Denmark has been a nightmare. I've probably wasted a good 8 or 10 hours that could've been condensed to maybe 30 minutes or an hour with proper foresight.

Yarr.

Copenhagen Fashion Week SS09

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:35:05 GMT

On a much more positive note than usual (huzzah?!), I'm in the process of finishing up my work for 6agency during Copenhagen Fashion Week SpringSummer 2009 - Its a cool 20deg celcius in the broadcast room, most of the equipment we've rented has been returned (Courtesey of yours truly sitting on a floor for 6 hours straight trying to figure out where everything came from and who needs it back) and lunch is almost ready.

I suppose it might be prominent to mention what I actually do during Fashion Week. I'm not a model, and I don't take pictures; My job 'slot' in the telephone list thats hanging on the wall has me labelled simply as 'IT' and I suppose thats fairly accurate. I help set up the broadcast room and equipment, and manage it during the week. I also do other IT-related things like converting videos for YouTube and FLV formats, doing press clips (what the news channels get for making their story) and similar.

The room I'm sitting in now is, for 10 months a year a simple meeting room. Its about 2m by 6m and has a single machine in it as standard. Right now, the room has:

A soundproof server rack case on wheels with a Tandberg Encoder (for streaming digital video), an OSX server (for various purposes), a Dell 'PlayBox' (which runs a program called AirBox PRO, used as our playlist program for our live feed)

Two HP machines with Quadro FX nVidia cards running a software suite called VizRT, for adding 2D graphics onto a TV feed (such as Ticklers at the bottom of the screen, logo overlays, etc). They're running EIZO screens at 18000KR each

3 Power Macs from January 2008 with the Penwin CPU and 8GB RAM each, one of which sports a 32" screen.

An older Sony TV, for watching our live feed via a cheap DVB-T reciever and antenna.

An NEC-3000 signal amplifier (Giant heavy white box with huge loads of inputs in it), to boost the digital signal we are transmitting from the roof of the building

A Panasonic Multi-format AV-HS400 (Video mixer)

Plus various smaller pieces of equipment (like a cheap IMG Stageline sound mixer, an AJA output box to translate Analog to Digital signal and vice versa, various monitors and DVCam recorders).

Overall, a pretty delicious room for anybody who likes to dribble over technology. This has been my home for the past two weeks, having only been away to sleep and change clothes. Over 160 hours clocked in since a bit over a week ago, lots of coffee, coca-cola, ginseng and vegetable power-drinks.

Its been a pretty successful week. Our podcast is the 6th most viewed in all of Denmark, and so far the videos on our website (copenhagenfashionweek.tv) have over 10k views each after the first day. We've produced what is possibly the most historical fashion show during fashion week in Denmark, something that will be talked about for a long time within the fashion industry (Day Birger et Mikkelsen's 10 year anniversary fashion show).

Its going to be sad going back to regular workhours, 'normal' people (who aren't anywhere near as enthusiastic and cool as the people who I've been working with for the past three weeks) and sleeping more than 2 hours during a day. Alas, come February its time for another fashion week

Workplace trying to screw me over

Thu, 15 May 2008 08:11:15 GMT

So, on the 9th of April 2008 I was fired. Well, I wasn't exactly fired. They threatened to banish me from the shop (Immediate expulsion, no pay, termination of contract) if I didn't resign.

At the time, I had not slept for over 24 hours; I came straight from the hospital, where Karoline gave birth to (presumably, waiting on test results still) our daughter. I was dizzy, nautious, tired and in general not thinking very well. They knew this. My contract stated (like all Danish businesses have to abide by) that if I resigned I'd get 1 months pay following the resignation, and if they fired me I'd get 3 months pay. So its easy to see why they did that. They saved 50000DKK on it (6850 euro or so).

On the 9th of May, I checked my account balance, and found out (to my horror) that they hadn't payed me. I e-mailed them immediately, without response. I then sent another e-mail a week later, stating that if I wasn't payed within 2 days I would be dragging them to court. Today, I recieved a letter with a payslip.

However, they did several things:

1) Deducted me for 4 days of absence. I had no days of absence, and they have no documentation of said absence. They also deducted me for 4 days that would cost me the most (I worked long fridays), cutting off almost 1000 euro on my paycheck.
2) Billed me double for products that I had already been billed for the previous month.
3) Billed me for a product I didn't even purchase, which is a product I was supposed to deliver to a company but couldn't because they fired me. They did so the day after they fired me, but neglected to send me the bill until today - This means that the standard 8 days you have to 'return' something are void, since its valid from the 10th of April.
4) The billed product that isn't actually mine, was 'sold' to me at EXTREME overprice. Roughly 3 times the amount the company I was giving it to was supposed to buy it for.

This, in essence, means that I was payed almost 1000 euro where I was supposed to recieve almost 2000 euro for that month.

So now I have to contact a lawyer and see what I can do about this. The amount of money is small enough that, if I don't either win the lawsuit or get it payed by that firm, its not even worth dragging them to court except for matters of principle.

I sometimes wonder how people like that can get up in the morning, and look at themselves in the mirror.

Happy belated birthday me

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:16:00 GMT

I turned 20 yesterday (31st of March), hurray ;) I'd elaborate some, but I'm off to go cook Mexican food for the family which will be here in a few hours.

Hap.. Crappy New year

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 10:38:07 GMT

Warning: This post is full of whine

When things go wrong for me, they generally do so all at once. So when I got an SMS from an ex-fling that I hadn't spoken to in a few months, about needing to see me urgently, I mentally prepared myself for "Bad Stuff". However, I didn't expect this much.

Summary of the last week, culminating in the worst New Year's eve I've ever had:

1) Girlfriend and I broke up. Over the phone.

2) Ex-fling is 27 weeks pregnant. With my child (DNA test still pending, but it almost certainly is mine). Despite being on the pill, and taking them properly. What are the odds of that? About 1 in 100,000 or so. This presents somewhat of a problem, beyond the obvious fact that I'm 19 and not exactly in the best situation to be a father to a child. I wasn't speaking to ex-fling, because she happens to be a compulsive liar and ended up screwing my life up pretty bad back then. So getting into a relationship with her, in order to take care of the child, is not an option at all. Which leaves giving the child up for adoption, or getting an illegal abortion performed.

3) Come New Years day, a friend called and told me that the party we were going to attend is cancelled. Apparently the girl hosting the party is also a compulsive liar, and lied about owning a 500m2 house - Leaving 50 people with no place to eat dinner, and 150 people without a party, mere hours before.

4) Due to various circumstances, I was sitting in a train, alone, and annoyed, at midnight new years eve.

5) After coming home, I found out I was burning up with a fever, and am now lying in bed with a mixture of a very, very bad hangover and a semi-serious fever climbing up to critical levels. My throat is burning, because the food I ate during dinner decided not to stay in my stomache, and I'm constantly nautious and have a very painful headache, despite being drugged up on painkillers.

Life 1 - Me 0

Travelers Log, Update 5

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:28:18 GMT

It's been a month now, I think. It's been hard to keep track of time, I think something is wrong with the clocks in the Complex. Every time I look away from a clock, it seems to garble up the time completely. I can just spy it happening out of the corner of my eye, if I pretend I'm not looking at it. I wonder why the clocks don't work.

And there's no day- or night-time here, either. Sometimes the sky is clear and it seems as if I can look on forever. And sometimes a great mass of land fills the sky, but there is still plenty of light all around.

I wonder why the sky changes so much. Oh well, time to move on. I've been given a mission by the Complex, it promises me that it's important. I've been rewarded with some odd contraption of a gun that spits out this green stuff; it seems to make the Rats I've been asked to exterminate just disappear in green smoke. It's weird; it's almost as if the rats run around just trying to be exterminated. I don't remember them being there before, but when I got this gun, I just started seeing them everywhere.

All that keeps me sane around here is this writing. I wonder why I have a pen and some paper, anyway. No one else seems to.

Signing off to go rat-killing,
PIC: AAAA-1.0

Public Notice A-Phi-Mu-2.5

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:28:33 GMT

Hello, citizen! The Complex has written this greeting specifically for you, so that you may feel more comfortable with your surroundings. In order to feel a sense of personal attachment, past or other emotional situation, the Complex has decided that it be prudent to begin with who you are.

You are a test-tube baby. And really, saying baby is a bit of a misnomer; You are at the prime of youth, a youth that has been extended to an abormal length thanks to the Programmers. For convenience, your features have been randomly generated and are expected to be completely unique, at a probability of 1:622,335^3. Should you mistakenly believe that you have seen someone who looks like you, please check yourself into a local Refurbishment Clinic for correctional advice. Remember, the Complex does not lie.

On your wrist you will find a Personal Identification Code. This code is unique, and represents your generation. It is requested that you have your PIC visible at all times. Should you come across an individual who does not, please help them to the nearest Refurbishment Clinic for assistance, or file an Unhappy Sighting report at any terminal in your vicinity. Remember, carrying your PIC visible is your privilege as a citizen of the Complex.

We hope your stay at the Complex will be enjoyable! To increase your fun level, the Programmers constantly alter the world around you. Unfortonately, side-effects occasionally occur from the Complex re-balancing itself. Rest assured that the Programmers have all adopted a Rapid Release Cycle, and any side-effects resulting in blurry vision, illness, malfunction, deformation, nausea, headaches, exploding body parts, death or other are only temporary while a patch is being worked on. The Complex cares about you!

If you find yourself lost, remember that the Relocation Device we've embedded into your spine is your friend! Just talk to it, for more information on where you are, and where you want to go. Or talk to if you are lonely. While the outer areas of the Complex are constantly being expanded and patched, the center of the Complex, The Core, is already finished as of Revision 3.1415926535.

Enjoy your time at the Complex!
Hal

Divert: Raph Koster and Exploiting Space

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:51:59 GMT

Time for another divert, this time its Raph Kosters blog. Raph Koster is always looking to... dive into the intricacies of the why, how and when within MMO worlds. He does this in a way that some find completely non-sensical, and others find extremely stimulating.

I'm of the latter school, and as such I present the following article he wrote yesterday:

http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/03/27/exploiting-the-space/

This presents some really interesting possibilities, and certainly has inspired several additions to BMUD already.

Enjoy!

Divert: Creating passionate users

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:19:49 GMT

I've decided to try and keep this blog a bit more active (in the space between BMUD development, since thats a bit stale with exams and birthdays all over the place), by occasionally posting diverts of interest.

The first one then, is this extremely well-written article on the subject of how to create and keep a passionate community of users. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to create a game, as well as anyone who intends to manage a community of any kind. Its really one of the best, and most to-the-point articles of this kind I've ever read.

Well, here it is: Enjoy!

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/ 01/crash_course_in.html

Simulated realism

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:40:18 GMT

My next goal for BMUD, is to try and figure out how best to simulate a realistic interaction between objects in the game world without requiring complex variables that are extremely accurate.

A simple example, would be pushing a glass off a table onto cement floor. This would, given a high enough table and enough force in the push result in the glass breaking and shattering. I need to be able to represent this (and many other scenario) in BMUD.

However, I want to avoid extremely precise and hard-to-get-right variables; Which means I need to KISS the concept.

I'm open to suggestions that others might have. So far, my immediate thought on this is as follows:

Each object will have ->

Weight
Size
Elasticity

Weight is based on the denseness factor of the material the object is made of, multiplied by the size of the object.

Elasticity is there to allow me to make certain objects bounce, and certain objects not bounce. It also allows objects to absorb physical force somewhat - Cement is very unelastic and recieves the full force applied to it. A rubber ball, on the contrary, is extremely elastic and absorbs a lot of the force applied to it based on that.

I'm very much looking for opinions on this, because I'm fairly uncertain of whether this is the way to go or not. I'm well aware this isn't how things actually work in physics, although it does bear a resemblance - Remember that the aim is to provide a realistic system, where assigning variables, densities etc. won't get too complex.

Ideally, I should be able to select a weight and size for a sword, select what material its made of, and then the engine does the rest (Based on the elasticity of the material, and the denseness).

I also want to allow certain materials to burn, freeze, shatter and so on - So I've introduced the following:

Objects also have ->
Reactions to temperature changes, based on material
Reactions to exposure of substances, gases, et cetera

This should allow me to account for wood burning, acid melting through metal, and such.

Am I missing something blindingly obvious here? :)