Nadrew's Waste of Time

Google Wave

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:26:19 GMT

First off, thanks to Danial.Beta for hooking me up with a Google Wave invite.

My first experience with Google Wave was pretty good, everything worked pretty good and I could see the potential. Of course being early public beta the pickings were slim for exciting things to do, especially with most of the people I know not having invites yet (public release is going to be awesome!).

I've already found some pretty nice uses for it. The people of BYOND who have be on their contact list have been able to keep track of progress on Submerged (even if I don't update it daily like I should!). I also used the snazzy map gadget Google provides to start mapping out wireless signals and other points of interest in the area.

So anyways... today I got follow-up on a Google Wave developer account I applied for months back so that I could get a jump-start on developing apps for BYOND (mostly).

The invitation process for the developer account was quite a lot quicker than the process for a normal account, within about an hour of confirming my account I was able to login and start fiddling to my heart's content.

Of course the first thing I did was bust out the documentation to see what the ol' girl could do, and man, there's a lot more there than normal users can see right now. I foresee some pretty awesome extensions and gadgets coming out when things start coming together for public roll-out.

In my case though, I have to stay pretty focused on Submerged, I have a prize waiting for me there. So for now I won't be devoting a bunch of time to Wave dev stuff, but I have plans in the works that a lot of people should get plenty of use from.

...on the note of Submerged, here's a video of me walking around in a more complete version of the station than seen in previous videos. (Note; My recording method sucks so you see very choppy movement, I've found better software and will release better videos soon).

Submerged Map Generator (Better view)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:42:30 GMT

This is a 100x100x10 map being generated, each floor having between 1-15 rooms and 1-50 hallways. To fully generate it takes less than a minute (I started generating it after the video starts playing).

I had view set really high to view as much of the map as possible, which is why it was sluggish when I was moving around the screen.

It still has some issues I need to handle, but the general generation of it works really well and pretty quickly.

WebChatters 1.4

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:11:40 GMT

Today I uploaded the latest version of WebChatters. Here's a list of updates and changes since my last announced version of 1.0 (Screenshot):

* Highlighting a http link and pressing ctrl+enter now opens that link in a new browser window/tab. (I want to make it turn them into actual links, but there's a pesky bug preventing me from making it work properly)

* Text formatting has been greatly improved. However, there may still be some odd cut-offs and garbage text occasionally, still trying to nail that down.

* The online chatters list now categorizes by active and inactive. There still is an issue with the list not being updated until someone enters, leaves, or changes AFK status. Which means the list isn't avaliable when you first login.

* Various client-specific commands such as .color and .clear -- type .help for a list.

* The input field works similar to Dream Seeker, pressing escape will clear the input, pressing up and down will scroll through command history.

* Decreased the size of the .jar file containing the project by 4 times.

* /me emotes are no longer ignored by the output, this was due to a bug in the incoming data handler.

* Incoming data shorter than 3 characters is now ignored, this should greatly reduce the amount of rogue data visible to the client.

* Instead of being automatically logged in you are now presented with a login page allowing you to change various server details prior to a login attempt.

--- Known Issues ---

* The color selection dialog for .color doesn't give the main window availability back when being closed on Linux-based Firefox.

* Occasionally the first few characters of a line are cut off, this generally only affects the time stamp.

* The .logout command won't cause the window display to update to show the login page properly. Causing the parent browser window to redraw (resize, move, change tab, etc...) will force a proper update.

* Line breaks are finding their way into the incoming data buffer where they shouldn't. Seems more common on connections with a higher ping to the Chatters server. This is also related to various causes of garbage data coming in. The main cause is probably truncated data caused by a connection delay or hiccup.

* Resizing the login window or causing it to be redrawn may cause previously entered data to be lost. A fix has already been applied for 1.5.

--- Technical Bullcraps ---

This update saw a reworking of the entire codebase of the project using things I learned in the course of creating new features. This includes things like stream-lining the source and moving various tasks into their own classes. Things like the command handler and window handlers are now self-contained and takes a lot of mess out of the main code file.

As I learn more about how Java works and how it is different from the languages I already know I find myself going back and rewriting large pieces of the code to reflect new techniques, this has resulted in a faster, smaller client applet.

--- ---

Thanks to everyone who has tested the program so far, and thanks to everyone who will do so in the future. Stay tuned for more updates.

WebChatters

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:33:02 GMT

I decided it was finally time to learn Java, mostly just to say I know it to a point. I made a few applications and applets here and there, the language is mighty simple.

About 24 hours ago I was thinking of what would be a useful browser applet and it dawned on me. A Chatters client for the people who only have access to a Java-enabled browser.

About 6 hours ago I finished my working version and published it at http://ncomproductions.com/webchatters -- you probably need JRE 1.6 to use it.

This should be helpful to those Chatters regulars who want to use Chatters from school without resorting to the crappy default Windows telnet client.

More progress is on the way, this is just the first functioning version of the system.

You know what they need...

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:31:40 GMT

...shaker bottles of the Sour Skittles powder. That would be awesome.

Cool...

Wed, 13 May 2009 18:27:02 GMT

I can actually use my Wii online now. Go broadband!

(Posted from the Wii, this page actually looks good on this thing.)

Hooyah

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:44:10 GMT

One problem fixed just in time for a new one.

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:00:44 GMT

Well, I managed to prevent my line from being disconnected but I had to put in some work to get it out of the way for the phone company.

Now that I have that all worked out it seems the trick I've been using for the last year and a half or so to obtain free dial-up has been patched up by the company.

It's a much cheaper fix than the previous problem, but I still can't afford to fix it. Currently, I'm using NetZero's ten free hours a month, which should be running out pretty soon. So until I can manage a means of getting $7.00 or so a month I'll be barely-around but still lurking around somewhere!

[Edit]

Many, many thanks to Lucknfavor for kindly donating a few bucks my way. He's provided me with at least a few months worth of service. Thanks again!

[Edit again]

Another major thanks to Goten84 for his undisclosed assistance last week. He's insured that I'll have non-ramen food for at least two months!

Take that evil mail stuffs!

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:08:40 GMT

Recently Tiberath has been getting stuff together to make the move from the old Tibbius server to the new one. This meant that I'd actually have to get the email system on the server working better than 'holding together with duct tape' so I decided I'd go the MySQL powered route this time to make it as easy on everyone to manage to check their accounts.

After a couple of days of research and trial and error I finally got everything working as it should be.

That's a picture of the control panel provided by Postfix.Admin which is a very handy program. We also have webmail powered by SquirrelMail.

The only problem I've come across is ThunderBird (at least my fairly old version of it) isn't able to send email using the system because it lacks the proper authentication methods. I opted for maximum password security in this system and from everything I've gathered Mozilla just hasn't implemented it. I'll have to try to get my hands on the latest version of ThunderBird to try it though.

Ncom Messenger semi-open beta part 2

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:17:55 GMT

The registration form is up again, and will remain up for about 24 hours (give or take a few hours). So if you missed out yesterday be sure you get your chance. I've already fixed some pretty annoying bugs thanks for the beta testers.

http://ncomproductions.com/nim -- Main page
http://ncomproductions.com/nim/register.php -- Registration page.