Older News

All the news that is just too old to make the main page!

Friday, 2 June, 2000

Vacations are interesting things... anyhow, the older PCI video card is back in Dearth now and I found out that the code I wrote actually worked.

It is nice when stuff actually works.

Tuesday, 30 May, 2000

Good day today.

I am now on vacation from koding (little choice in the matter, actually) for the next week or so.

Oh, and, I cut down the past news stories a bit.

It is 96 degress in the shade. Well, not literally, but it's really hot here.

I watched "A Chinese Ghost Story" which was really great visually, yet I was underwhelmed... the tape i watched was lackign soundwise (no stereo). Sound makes a big difference to me... ex.org (no affilation with me) reviewed the DVD version over there, so you can check out that review and save me the time of saying all the stuff the reviewer said.

Monday, 29 May, 2000

I had a great weekend.

I really realised I really prefer to design than to program (implement/integrate)... reason being that I think the latter should be a matter of mapping the design to the existing system, the mapping being the work, not the actual implementation.

In other words, I hate programming, like designing, and... that's all for now.

Friday, 26 May, 2000

Today I realised that my old code doesn't work well with my new video card... actually, it locks up my box.

Wednesday, 24 May, 2000

The ants have not returned, to it seems the spray was quite potent.

PC Hardware... I have yet to see proper drivers for most hardware, but then again, maybe the hardware is really pathetic... I really would not know. In any case, I have a new video card, an AGP card using the Trident Blade3D chipset, with RCA composite output (i.e. I use a TV as a monitor using this card).

Cool thing about the card: simultaneous output to monitor and TV. Alledged support for PAL as well as NTSC. Files tax returns (not really, but since I was already sounding like a commercial...).

Other stuff.... I know exactly what sort of OS, UI, programming language, etc. I would like to use... how to implement it all, (shrugg) I suppose either I won't get it done or I'll find a way eventually.

Meanwhile, I have been considering using WinAllegro with DirectX and stuff... especially as my DOS32 Allegro doesn't really like my hardware... never used my sound card properly and seems to crash on my current card, at least sometimes.

Under Linux, in X-Windows, Allegro was kool... but now I have to reconfigure X for this video card... and I don't think I'll bother, really. Linux isn't all that exciting to me as a primary thingy... no good applications. Even gcc is better under windows (DJGPP, due to case insensitive filenames and some odd stuff that I never bothered to figure out, but which keeps my code from compiling under Linux). Go figure.

Anyhow, I went out a lot, did some more work, wrote another S+ ish parser, got tired of S+, but stopped working on it before I switched to something new and exciting.

For the record, writing to hard native code is a bad idea, especially for applications (system software, it might make more sense due to the hard realtime nature of systems).

Of course, so was moving away from UMA, and having an unsmart video card... yet it's the rage today...

Rant, rant, rant. Bah and tish.

Saturday, 20 May, 2000

On this day, viciously did I attack some ants with some of that spray stuff... well, more like half a can of it (I got a bit carried away in my quest for totally anhililation of their kind). There was a thick layer of spray on my workbench, I wiped it down but the smell was still a bit thick in my sub-apartment, so I went out for a while, I opened the windows, I slept in the outside room with the door open.

I washed a pair of shoes that were covered in mud and sitting there for a while, waiting patiently for me to wash them.

From around 2pm, the heat here encourages sleep. Very strongly encourages sleep. So I tend to sleep until noon, then from two in the evening. which means I'm up from around six to midnight... suggesting that I spend 18 hours a day sleeping or eating. That seems wrong, doesn't it?

Friday, 19 May, 2000

Watched "Boiler Room", which was great, and "American Physco", which was well done and self-proclaimed to be pointless. Rohan was working this time (we went to the 4:15 pm show at the Globe Cinema), so it was just me, ROMAN, and TWoodington. We dispersed immediately afterwards.

Thursday, 18 May, 2000

Went to the Vista Cinema with De Menz (pronouced as if it were Thee Menz), saw "Any Given Sunday", which was long (near two and a half hours) but very good, and "Next Best Thing", which was alright, I guess. My break from koding continued, but I did sleep a lot. And I rested.

Wednesday, 17 May, 2000

Today, Omar, aka "S.O.P.py", aka "ROMAN", the Missing Member of "De Menz", who claims never to have been Missing, only Misplaced, arrived in Barbados, preceeded ominously by a heat wave so intense that I have been sleeping almost non-stop for the last four days.

In other news... well, there really is no other news, as I have been sleeping intensely with a vengence and the power of smoldering skin to enhance my vigorously dormant campaign.

Amusing link of the day (this is like, page 3 of a long article... the quote in the middle tickles me) : http://www.ex.org/5.3/24-column_btvs3.html .

Tuesday, 16 May, 2000

Patched my Linux Kernel (2.2.15) to the Soft Real Time Kernel. Yet I need to compile/install the apps to use the SRT features.

Oh, here is the link to the SRT-Linux page: http://www.uk.research.att.com/~dmi/linux-srt/ .

Configured Allegro/Wip for Linux and it works well, got MIDI and PCM support working fine. The last time I used Allegro/Linux, was for that M7:r thingy, which honestly, I don't comprehend looking back on it... I had more focused energy then, I think.

Today was a mostly do nothing day, I slept a lot. And ate, and slept some more.

Found a set of articles about game design, http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/, and read one which I agree with, How Do I Make Games?: A Path to Game Development .

It was kool in a way and depressing in another, since I have never finished a game, or indeed, finished much of anything.

However, i don't feel depressed, indeed, I stopped feeling much of anything, recently. (shrugg).

This is not an emotional repression thing, it is more of a seperation between what is relevant to me and what isn't... few things are relevant to me... and some things might be relevant, but I really do not have anything positive to say about my ability to addess them, so why should I care?

Found a really nice article that explains why 3D games are evil, a sentiment that I agree with, although I did love Tekken, and that is why I bought my first PlayStation. Well, here it is.

Nowadays, Tekken is too slow for my tastes, and I never liked Tekken 3. Actually, from the time I got Street Fighter Alpha : Warriors Dreams, Tekken seemed agonizingly slow... yet I still like the game a lot.

There is a mild conspiracy to get me to buy a Dreamcast, however, there are (to my knowledge) no conspiracies to supply me with a sufficient source of income, so, tish and pook.

I may actually be burnt out, but I think it is more likely that I am at some level of existance which comes after frustration and burnout are no longer challenges or things to avoid and reduce, but persistant backgroud noise to be somehow transcended.

Monday, 15 May, 2000

Over a week of silence is broken.

Well, let's see... at first, I was doing a lot of code, but I got bored or something with the ALU related stuff... so I diversified my activities a bit.

I also moved about furniture a bit more, set back up some speakers and stuff, installed a Linux-based distro on Dearth. Twice.

I went outside one night at near four a.m. and did a short workout. Really short. Like, a couple minutes.

I watched over a dozen tapes, including "Twin Dragon" with Jet Li... which is good, actually. Very, very entertaining.

Make sure to watch it at least twice.

And, just now, I realised that the news page was upside down.

So, tada! Right side up!

Sunday, 7 May, 2000

(around half past five a.m., dawn). music resonates from my speakers. birds chirp. a new executable is built and released. there is... no scripting engine...

Anyhow, there is a file here, vnn.zip, which contains a single .exe, of around 300K, which simply does a few tricks with the minorly improved rendering engine. If you are bored with "vxx.exe", unzip this to the same directory and have a ball. Note that you need the data files included in "vxx.zip" to run "vnn.exe" properly.

Saturday, 6 May, 2000

Gee, it has been one long week. I watched "Romeo Must Die" and "Ninth Gate" , but more on that later.

Monday, 1 May, 2000

I realised that the main component of the S+ engine was sort of like an ALU so I have been working on simulating more parts of a CPU. This might not seem like very effective scripting, but actually, I really dislike writing to native code anyhow and it is a good way for me to learn more C++. Anyhow, the executable on the S+ page does not really show how kool S+ is, but that is partially because I haven't actually written the most fun parts of the S+ based tool suite. Oops. Well, all things in time.

Thursday, 27 April, 2000

Uploaded source code to a console-mode scripting engine-ish thingy based on sacas, nicknamed S+, no docs or anything, builds under DJGPP but should also work under Linux.

Check out the S+ Page.

Tuesday, 25 April, 2000

Internal Restructuring


A long time ago, I used to live upstairs. Then I moved down here, into more space... but with more space came more configuration options, more stuff (an extra bed, a long metal shelf, a sink, two more desks, and over time, more equipment). So, recently, I realised that my equipment was in a very ackward position. Thus, the board was convened and we discused the internal restucturing of the rooms of Kei. The discussion was preempted when the chairman attended to duely pending repose requirements. However, today, with the assistance of my faithful executive assistant (and full-time mom), a much more optimal configuration of the Stuff of Kei was acheived.

Short version

I spent today re-arranging furniture and equipment within my space.

Isolated details

It took about seven hours of moving, not to mention countless hours of planning and approximate measurement (it helps to have foot square tiles), to get all of the major furniture in place and rejuvinate Dearth (my x86 box, with the spooky AMD K62 @ 333 CPU thingy...), and Pierre & Company Resplendid (my sound system).

I discovered that my old grey cabinet weights more than any other piece of furniture I have, perhaps more than them all combined, and is possibly reinforced with steel alloys.

Dearth refused to boot at first, complaining about the CPU fan, but booted when I cycled the power. The sound card integrates well with my audio system so far, I can listen to Pierre via Renny (Dearth's speakers, brand:RCA model:TH-900).

Monday, 24 April, 2000

This was Easter Monday, which was a bank holiday. For those non-bajans, this means that most stores were closed, schools were closed, and so on. Less civilised cultures call such days public holidays.

Anyhow, on this day, my buddy TWood, who is one of the four horsemen of menz, decided to come over and watch Anime, indeed, I had rented a several volumes of "Slayers", which is so far the most amusing series I have ever watched.

Compounding the fun and excitement (and, simple novelty) of a simple evening of watching tapes (TWood stayed only until around 8 o'clock p.m.), was the fact that my uberkool friend (and vortex of trouble), who claims me as her best friend and has the priveledge of being the only person to ever invite me to spend the day with her at a hospital in Accident and Emergency (after which, I realise the importance of staying healthy), decided to also spend the day with me (but left around 7 o'clock p.m.).

All in all, a very fun day.

Sunday, 23 April, 2000

Last Sunday, I went to a church concert at night. It was very relaxing, a needed break from working on C++ code used in M8.

Saturday, 22 April, 2000


This is when I rented 11 videotapes, 10 of which were volumes of Anime (japanimation), volumes 3 through 8 of "Slayers" and also 2 through 5 of "Mysterious Play" (labeled as "Fushigi Yogi").

The quality of Slayers is great, the action is intersperced with comedy, it is a wonderful creation.

However, the video store has some shoddy audio on the Fughigi Yogi tapes... this particular store is really inconsistent with quality. Nonetheless, I enjoyed myself tremendously. Slayers is great and I find the story to Mysterious Play interesting, the pace of that series is much slower than Slayers and it feels like what it is, a story being told.


Other place on the pages of K31:

The recent news page thingy.

The S+ Page, featuring my very own silly little scripting engine.

My low-content introduction page .

This has been a production of K31. All mites create dust.