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ukdm

18,077 karma · joined January 12, 2010

freelance game designer, writer
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ukdm··on Sid Savara: Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning
Not loading for me, cached text only version http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
ukdm··on Day 1 Of Unretina In The Mac App Store … Wowsers
Sorry about that, how's this:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&...

ukdm··on Day 1 Of Unretina In The Mac App Store … Wowsers
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
ukdm··on Music for Programming
Soma.fm Tag's Trip progressive house / trance is my audio lubrication. Always changing, never dull, and you may discover a few new favorites to purchase. It's free to listen, but appreciates donations.

http://somafm.com/

Secret Agent can als be quite good.

ukdm··on The real reason Japan keeps whaling
Think of all the other fish and crustaceans that get harvested every day. Who is protesting for them?

Actually, we all can. Just ensure you only buy fish that has been line caught or sourced from managed reserves.

The main issue with any and all fishing is that in order to catch the most amount of fish, fishermen are destroying the habitats as well as removing more fish than can be replensished by natural reproduction.

Maybe someone can help out naming this documentary I watched (Channel 4, UK, couple of months ago). It showed that large Japanese corproration are now stockpiling certain types of fish and putting them on ice as there's so few left they'll be worth a small fortune soon.

ukdm··on Using the Google Cr-48 for Coding
Useful comment posted from Chrome team member Jen:

I’m a Chrome team member and saw this going around Twitter.

Just wanted to say, you can right-click on the Cr-48 by tapping with two fingers (or holding Alt and single clicking).

You can also flip the developer mode switch under the device and get full access to a shell: http://www.chromium.org/poking-around-your-chrome-os-device

hope this resolves some of the comments!

ukdm··on Avast sees single software license used illegally 774,651 times
err, no thanks http://www.neowin.net/news/avg-update-sends-computers-into-l...
ukdm··on Avast sees single software license used illegally 774,651 times
Later in the article:

"You can’t count all those users taking advantage of the license as lost revenue, like the music industry does with song downloads. The Avast! Pro license was there to be used, so people used it. If it hadn’t been on P2P sites then the vast majority of users would have gone elsewhere for protection."

ukdm··on Nexus S
TechCrunch review: http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/06/google-nexus-s-review/
ukdm··on Droid 2 screen explodes in man's ear
Video at WFAA doesn't work for me, Youtube version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhSZK43ovpU

ukdm··on Another new feature in Opera 11: tab stacking
I'll do you one better. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drCAiTSAYdc
ukdm··on Jake Gyllenhaal is in the Source Code
I'm don't think they really thought the title of this movie through. Might get programmers a few strange looks if they tell someone they work with source code after watching this.
ukdm··on [Pragmatic Bookshelf] 40% Off Black Friday Celebration One-Day Sale
That link didn't work for me, this did though [linked removed] thanks pietrofmaggi
ukdm··on Gmail: Trap my contacts now (warning when exporting contacts to Facebook)
Is this a new warning page that has been added following Facebook's actions, or one that has been around a while?
ukdm··on Hacked Knitting Machine Can 'Print' Designs from Photoshop
I think this is the link that goes with that title: http://www.pcworld.com/article/210046/wear_pixel_art_on_your...
ukdm··on Sizzle: A compiler + runtime for Google's Sawzall language, optimized for Hadoop
From the readme:

What is Sizzle? ---------------

Sizzle is an open source implementation of the Sawzall programming language designed for interoperation with the Hadoop MapReduce and DFS stack. It is implemented in pure Java, is easily extendible, and the programs produced by it will run anywhere that has a recent Hadoop installed, even if Sizzle is not also installed.

Why Sizzle? -----------

Up until a few days ago, there was no publicly available implementation of Sawzall.

About six months ago, I asked some of the authors of _Interpreting the Data: Parallel Analysis with Sawzall_ [[http://code.google.com/p/szl/wiki/Interpreting_the_Data]] for more specific details about how Sawzall worked than was explained in that high-level document. Mr. Pike explained that he intended to open the source to Sawzall; however, when I didn't hear from him for several months I started my own implementation.

ukdm··on Everyone Hates Ticketmaster — But No One Can Take It Down
Two tickets, one credit card transaction, but two service charges applied. I hate Ticketmaster
ukdm··on First Chrome OS netbook expected this month
Well netbooks have always been seen as a solution for someone who just wants to surf the web. In a lot of respects a full OS gets in the way of that. If Google deliver with Chrome (less than 4 second boot, focus on browsing and web apps, much cheaper than current netbooks) then it could reinvigorate the market for them.
ukdm··on Man Dies Of Caffeine Overdose
From the article:

"The court heard that Bedford ignored the product's recommendation to take no more than one sixteenth of a teaspoon and instead took two spoonfuls of the powder -- ingesting a level of caffeine 70 times more than is usually found in a high-energy drink."

He also washed it down with an energy drink!

ukdm··on 37Signals Doubles Price for Basecamp
Update: Jason Fried responds

Shortly after our post went live, 37signals founder Jason Fried left a comment, clarifying that they are toying with the design of the sign-up page, but that all of the old plans are still available.

"While we used to have four plans on the sign up chart, today we only have three," said Fried. "Same prices as before, just fewer plans displayed. A while back we used to have six plans to choose from, but we found that was ultimately confusing customers. So we went to five. Then we went to four. Now we're experimenting with three."

Fried echoed Hansson's earlier statement that the changes are purely experimental and that they may continue to alter the plans listed on their sign-up page, depending on their findings.

ukdm··on License to Print Money
They say its organic plastic solar cells being used. Does anyone know how quickly they break down? Maybe that's part of the reason why these panels only last 10 years?
ukdm··on Google TV Giveaway for Web Developers
From the site:

This promotional program is open to U.S.-based companies that either provide web development services for their own consumer-facing websites or are involved primarily in the business of providing web development services for other consumer-focused websites and online businesses. To enter your company for an opportunity to win a free Logitech Revue with Google TV device, you must submit your company information through the provided online form below, along with a brief statement about how your company will use Google TV in connection with its web development efforts. We’ll pick the winners by selecting the entries that we think are best presented and that will offer the most valuable contributions to Google TV users and developers

ukdm··on EA open sources their internal version of STL
Source: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2007/n227...

Differences between std STL and EASTL

First, EASTL provides a set of containers, iterators, and algorithms that are identical in interface and behavior to std STL versions with one exception: allocators. EASTL has a different allocator specification which is simpler, more efficient, more flexible, and easier to use than std::allocator. Both std::allocator and eastl::allocator are described below. EASTL follows the defect reports and TR1 as well. EASTL additionally provides and uses some of the TR1 functionality as well, including most significantly the smart pointers, type traits, and hashing containers.

Second, EASTL provides extension functionality to the above containers, iterators, and algorithms. An example of this is the push_back(void), set_capacity(size), and validate() functions added to eastl::vector. The majority of these extensions are driven by the need for higher performance (push_back(void)), higher clarity (set_capacity), or higher debuggability (validate()). There are about 30 such extensions to the various entities in the library. These are described in detail below.

Third, EASTL provides additional containers and algorithms that don't correspond to std STL. These include intrusive_list, vector_map, fixed_hash_set, slist, ring_buffer, radix_sort, has_trivial_relocate, and others. These are described in detail below.

There are additional differences not related to the functional specification. They include a programming philosophy that emphasizes readability, consistency, and optimal performance on limited hardware.

ukdm··on Visually emulating the 6502 with HTML5
For anyone having trouble viewing it here's the guidance from the site:

"Our chip simulator makes heavy use of the latest version of HTML5 drawing technology.

It will only run on recent browsers and on a computer with sufficient memory (we recommend at least 2Gbytes.)

We've tested it on Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. Unfortunately Internet Explorer isn't yet capable of running the graphics.

If you're using one of the above browsers and having trouble, please restart the browser."

ukdm··on EA Artist, Soon To Be Laid Off, Burns EA Management, Discusses Failed MMO
Yes, I just told the truth of what was happening and they seemed to take it on board. But at the same time I think they were quite powerless to do anything. So much money had been spent, I believe at that point they needed a sustained gamer base of around 300,000 if they released within a year to make the investment work. I have no idea what that grew to once the switch to Mythic had been made.
ukdm··on EA Artist, Soon To Be Laid Off, Burns EA Management, Discusses Failed MMO
I worked on Warhammer Online for nearly two years before it left the offices of Climax Entertainment in Nottingham, England. When I arrived the game was already a couple of years in development, but the focus was on the technology not the game. We had no game, just a test area running on a local server.

There was a design department consisting of 10 people, 4 working on environment and level design, 6 working on quests, the magic system, and general game mechanics. There were 10 artists, 4 animators, and 13 programmers.

You'd think we would get somewhere with such a large team, but we didn't other than developing the underlying tech. The main reason the game design didn't progress was a second design team led by Paul Barnett was sitting in the office above us coming up with another vision for WHO without any interaction between the 2 departments other than meeting with the lead designer occasionally.

When the news came of Climax stopping development of the game it was not surprising to most people working on the title. You could see it coming for months before it happened. It looks as though that continued at Mythic although they did at least manage to ship.

I left a few months before the announcement was made and ended up having two exit interviews. The first was a standard set of questions given by the studio's human resources deaprtment. The second was with a representative of Games Workshop looking for answers as to why development was not progressing as they had hoped. They were in the dark about what was happening with their IP and wanted answers.

ukdm··on 'Sex-Positive' URL Shortener Shut Down By Libyan Government
Earlier discussion http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1764042
ukdm··on The flash crash of May 6 explained - one human, thousands of algorithms involved
Alternative read? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39460135/ns/business-stocks_and_...
ukdm··on The Making of My JS1K Demo
Rule 6: "Bonus points if your submission fits in one tweet ;)"
ukdm··on United States Files Complaint Against Oracle Alleging Contract Fraud
From the release:

Under the contract, GSA used Oracle’s disclosures about its commercial sales practices to negotiate the minimum discounts for government agencies who bought Oracle software. The contract required Oracle to update GSA when commercial discounts improved and extend the same improved discounts to government customers. The suit contends that Oracle misrepresented its true commercial sales practices, ultimately leading to government customers receiving deals far inferior to those Oracle gave commercial customers.

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