hopfog

I've been running a browser-based MMORPG for a couple of years and when I started out I was a total novice in Node.js. I didn't even know how modules worked so the back end was just one big file. Needless to say, the code is a complete mess and the refactoring has made it even worse since I've started to implement some patterns just to regret it.

I'm thinking of making the whole game open source but I'm so ashamed of the codebase that I don't want anyone to see it. It's a dilemma since I think the game has potential as an open source project. It's inspired by Ultima Online, Minecraft and Reign of Kings but with a lot of constraints making it easy to implement new features. It also has quite a few dedicated players.

I almost finished a Bachelor in Business and Economics and worked abroad in a completely different field before starting my career as software developer.

If you have the interest you will pick up the stuff you need for the job fast. Even though many of my colleagues have been programming since childhood I feel that their growth curve has leveled out compared to mine, at the point that we're on par in some areas.

Leaflet is really nice. I used it to render a big map of my drawing game ScribbleGrid:

http://scribblegrid.com/maps/origin/

I used Node.js Canvas to render a file of each room, ImageMagick morgify/montage to add grid borders as well as combine them into one big image and GDAL2Tiles to split the image up into parts in a "z / x / y" folder structure for Leaflet to fetch.

I'm currently going through this process and there's some bureaucracy involved:

1. You need to show that you have financial resources of 100 000 SEK for one car and 50 000 SEK for all subsequent ones you're registering for. This needs to be reviewed and attested by an auditor. https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/globalassets/global/blanke...

2. You need to be a certified traffic manager. https://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/vagtrafik/Yrkestrafik/G...

Nothing super complicated but it's not just getting an extended driver's license like OP says.

> You just need an extended driver's license, an approved taxi-meter (same as how grocery stores need their scales to be approved), and the pricing plan listed clearly in the window.

You're omitting the most important thing here: the actual taxi traffic permit. That's the hard part in this process.

This version of ScribbleGrid is only a couple of weeks old but I've created a pretty cool map of the first grid: http://scribblegrid.com/maps/origin/

As expected the place is filled with swastikas and penises but there's also some fine art on there:

http://scribblegrid.com/maps/origin/#9/0.9503/-24.8126

http://scribblegrid.com/maps/origin/#9/-8.8498/117.6224

http://scribblegrid.com/maps/outliers/#5/-80.852/-4.438

That was not my point either. It was just an anecdote showing that it's definitely possible to learn the foundations quickly. I have great respect for good DJs.

[never mind]

One of my best friends died of an overdose a few years ago. His mother was informed in a horrible way.

The police called her and told her that her son had overdosed and was on the way to the hospital. In the middle of the call they all of a sudden say "actually, he's dead!" like it was nothing special. His mother of course screamed out loud, which made the police upset (they said "hey, it's not my fault" or something like that, I don't remember exactly).

I normally have great respect for the police but I think this was handled catastrophically. They showed very little sympathy.

I'm using the following setup for one of my sites:

Client -> post -> API Gateway -> AWS Lambda -> upload JSON to S3

Client -> get -> S3

Works pretty good!

I made a game based on the Droste effect for Ludum Dare 31 where the theme was "Entire Game on One Screen".

http://hopfog.com/screenception

I used to work as a Search Quality Rater for Google. It was pretty interesting. It's worth noting that raters are not Google employees but contracted through third parties and working from home. Many of my colleagues were stay-at-home moms making a few extra bucks. This was a few years ago though so things may have changed.

I love Facebook. Definitely makes my life a lot better. I use it to:

* stay in touch with friends

* know what events are up (my group of friends create events even for very small gatherings)

* find out about new music from the artists I like

* find interesting links and news about programming/tech (from a group I follow)

* read interesting discussions about programming/tech (same group)

* see interesting posts about indie games and indie game development in general (another group)

* see what people I've long lost contact with are up to nowadays

The creator held a talk about simulations at JSConf.Asia 2014. Highly recommended: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HJPilemNns

And the battery life is even better on the Pebble Time Steel (10 days).

There's an ongoing criminal case in Sweden where a website streamed their porn movies for "free". However, in the fine print it said that in order to watch this you need to pay X. So basically the company could bill you just for watching.

This wouldn't be any problem since people are anonymous. The twist is that the company behind it actually had a deal with some of the phone network operators where they sent the phone number as a header for mobile devices.

The result was that hundreds of people got invoices and were told that their personal details would be exposed if they didn't pay.

This is my latest pet project built around an idea I've had about unifying client and server code. It's mostly an experiment/POC and it might even be a terrible idea but let me know what you think.

Very nice and I love Rustie. Well done!

May I ask how you landed this gig?

How about this:

You're out sightseeing without a camera. As soon as you're back in your hotel room you plot out the route you went on a map and get a photo album back.

I was talking about online casinos. Sorry for not making that clear but I forgot that OP ventured into F2P as well.

Sorry, I was referring to gambling.

VIP account managers in F2P is an interesting thought. I wonder if they exist.

I've worked in the industry for one of the biggest online brands and can second this. It was not unusual to see a single customer spend over a million euros. We even had a couple who maxed the account limit of 5 million euros and had to create a second one.

These VIPs have their own account managers who often talk to them on a daily basis and they are given lot of gifts which are expensive (trips, luxuries etc) but nowhere near the sums they are spending.

It's faster and can live compile on reload which means you don't need to wait for any compilation step after save.

Instead of looking up domain names on Domain Tools I would recommend something like https://instantdomainsearch.com/. It's using DNS queries so sometimes a taken domain name without any DNS records will show as available but that's a small trade-off considering the speed gain. It also enables you to do some invaluable brainstorming which is impossible using a submit-and-wait lookup.

Another tool I'm using frequently is http://www.leandomainsearch.com/ (originally a Show HN) where you put in a word and it will look up thousands of popular pre and suffix combinations in a second. The same DNS constraints applies but it's easy to click the domain name to see if it's really available.

This is Notch's (the creator of Minecraft) submission to Ludum Dare 29 where the theme is "Beneath the Surface". The competition ends tonight.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

I was speaking to someone in the esports industry yesterday who said that DDoS attacks have become a real problem in high tier tournaments. Apparently you can get a bot net which is more than capable of blowing out the whole opposing team for as low as $100.

Ejecta is awesome. So is ImpactJS. Dominic (the creator) is experimenting with making Ejecta cross-platform so hopefully we will see an Android version soon.

This is great. Even if you're familiar with most of the items it's nice to have such clear and concise problem descriptions and solutions.

I don't remember if I've tried it but I thought this was fixed in 3.0.

http://sass-lang.com/documentation/file.SASS_CHANGELOG.html#...