Recommended Internet Text Based Game - Travian

I just thought about mentioning about a new game I'm playing right now. It is a simple text based game called Travian(http://www.travian.com). We basically build up a town, try to make it a triving town, and go out to conquer weaker towns in the vinicity.

Strange Story of a Rampage

I found a strange story about a person rampage through the town. If you read through the story, it provides mixed emotions. Try reading about it:

http://www.geocities.com/Northstarzone/BULLDOZER.html
http://forums.starkingdoms.com/viewtopic.php?t=38163&start=0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer

Fixed Glow Effect in my Game

After some more tinkering with my game, I've managed to finish the glow effect properly. After implementing with my game, the below picture should show it well:


If you noticed, the picture is still rather alittle two glowish, but based on the specification this is what we planned in the start, making the character alittle unreal by adding the aura. However I still find it to be alittle too excessive, so I might change some of the factors in the combination part to make this better.

Anyway for those who don't really know what the glow effect does, I'll show you another two screenshots from a testbed app, in which the first picture is the original picture, and the picture after that is when I implemented the glow system inside. Makes a pretty huge difference doesn't it?

Pictures from the Past

I was just purging my harddisk when I noticed I found a few misplaced pictures lying in a strange directory on my computer. Let me post it here:



In this picture, the Luigi Wonderer Football Club is spending some of their off-season time to visit Bobby's (Who is our CenterBack) new coffee shop. As noted we had a smashing time there :)

Rendering Engine Changes

During the last few days of this week, I was working on the new rendering engine extension to my game. The pictures below are samples of the original game before the rendering engine changes.




What I did was to add shader support. The first attempt went off bad, and what happened at the end was that I messed up the whole rendering part and instead of getting a glow effect, I had a a double mirror image that was completely wrong.



After some more programming, I ended up fixing the rendering part to be correct, though at the moment the image is completely saturated. Seems that I need some more time to fix it...

Stupid Lawyers

An interesting read on how obnoxious some lawyers are:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/07/magazines/fortune/rps_fortune/

Judge orders lawyers to play game
Acrimonious attorneys told to settle dispute by playing a round of 'rock, paper, scissors.'
FORTUNE Magazine
By Roger Parloff, FORTUNE senior writer
June 7, 2006: 1:06 PM EDT

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - Faced with the inability of two bickering attorneys to resolve even the most innocuous scheduling questions without his intervention, a Florida federal judge yesterday ordered the two to meet on the steps of the federal courthouse and resolve their latest quarrel by playing "one (1) game of 'rock, paper, scissors.' " (Read the ruling.)

Judge Gregory A. Presnell of Orlando ordered the unusual measure, which he characterized as "a new form of alternative dispute resolution," after the two Tampa attorneys had proven unable to agree upon where to hold a deposition, even though both of their offices are just four floors away in the very same building in Tampa.

Defense attorney D. Lee Craig, of Butler Pappas Weihmuller Katz Craig, proposed holding the deposition in his office, but plaintiffs' attorney David J. Pettinato of Merlin Law Group wanted it to take place at the court reporter's office down the street.

The Solomonic ruling comes in an insurance dispute filed last September by Avista Management against Wausau Underwriters Insurance Co.

Characterizing the disagreement as "the latest in a series of Gordian knots that the parties have been unable to untangle without enlisting the assistance of the federal courts," Judge Presnell ordered each attorney, "accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness," to play the dispositive round of RPS on June 30.

"The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location of the . . . deposition," he ruled, so long as it was within Hillsborough County.

In an interview, plaintiff's lawyer Pettinato says, "I'm going to comply with the court's order to the letter." Defense lawyer Craig did not respond to a phone message, while Judge Presnell, 63, who was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 2000, declined comment. Top of page

MSOffice Clone Online

I've just found a great website in which you can create MSOffice compatible documents online. In addition to that you can also create PDFs, DOC files from the internet, and also share your file for free with other people in the Internet.

The site is http://www.thinkfree.com and I highly recommend for those who regularly have to do document work :)

Busy with Work

During the last few weeks, I have been extremely busy with work. When thinking about it, sometimes its easy to forget the time and the effort I've spend on getting things done that at the end of the day when another task is done, its satisfying to admire the tremendous amount of work done. On a hindsight, I wonder how could I remember things that I did. Talking about this topic, it reminded of a picture I received from a chain letter quite a while back. Quite a good way to explain how life is like these days :P

Two New Books for Me!

I just visited the bookstore to find something new to read. One of my favorite sections was the history section where I usually like browsing through biographies of personalities that shaped the world as they are today. Another section that I liked alot are the Classics section. As opposed to modern books that are rather expensive, the great part about Classic books is that they are considerably cheaper. During my foray there, I got two new books. The first book I got myself was On War by Carl von Clausewitz. That book is considered to be one of the most important book in the warfare literature that is utilized by many modern military men of this era. Another book that I picked up was Rights of Man which was written by Thomas Paine who many considered as one of the important thinkers that provided the model for the current social welfare programs that are used today. Though I don't believe in the actual benefits of many of the programs suggested by his ground breaking transcript, I do have to point I agree with many of his idealistic ideals on a number of different topics. Talking about that book, the following quote outlines one of my current concern today:

Many things in the English Government appear to me the reverse of what they ought to be and what they are said to be. The Parliament, imperfectly and capriciously elected as it is, is nevertheless supposed to hold the national purse in trust for the nation; but in the manner in which an English Parliament is constructed it is like a man being both the mortgager and mortgagee, and in the case of misapplication of trust it is the criminal sitting in the judgement himself.
- From Rights of Man by Thomas Paine