| News Archives |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
News Archives A little more progress [ Tuesday, October 14, 2008 ] I recently finally got some of the settings figured out in my new computer setup of EVC, which I used for the programming. Also, I found an obvious bug with running the program on my phone in that if you start the program in landscape mode, the screen goes gray and the device needs to be restarted. Hopefully that will be a relatively simple fix.Where have I been? [ Friday, June 06, 2008 ] Well, wouldn't you know it. The screen that I replaced on my Pocket PC ended up cracking again. However, now I have a new Pocket PC phone [b][u]with[/u][/b] a warranty on it. I also installed the latest copy of the game on it (the same one available on the Pocket Chips Challenge page), so I have much more motivation to update the game regularly. Lately I have been working on a robotic vehicle and now it is finally moving around. I've also been working on a number of other projects, but this one has not been forgotten. I would like to get this finished and out of the way. Hopefully you will start seeing some updates on here that you can cheer about.More website changes [ Tuesday, July 10, 2007 ] Well, After opening up the forums and reenabling the contact form, I saw 1 spam message posted and I received a number of spam via the contact form. So I used a contact form script that me and another programmer took turns hacking/fixing until we felt it was extremely secure. I ended up being the one to that came up with the fix that prevented any further hacking.
Additionally, I shut off access to the forum script for unregistered users as well and redirected the link through my own contact form. If it is still hacked, I have a lot more ideas to enhance it further. :) Perhaps I may implement auto-IP banning on hack attempt detection if that measure is called for. Boy, spam can sure be annoying. Especially when it's not even readable. I also went through and cleaned up the forums code a bit. More Updates [ Monday, July 09, 2007 ] It's been a little while since the last update. Things have been normalizing and I'm starting to get more time. I replaced my Pocket PC screen a few months ago, although the touch sensor requires me to push hard. It should still work for software testing purposes though.
I also upgraded the forums software due to a massive amount of spam that was being posted. I also added on some features to help further reduce the amount of spam. The forums were semi-deactivated for a while (not fully due to a bug) and it is now up again. I had to update some site pages to work with the latest version, so there may be pages here and there with errors. Hopefully the overall site should work much better. Update about iceboxman.com [ Thursday, July 27, 2006 ] There have been some major changes going on in the background and as a result, updates have not really been happening. My pocket PC is currently broken (cracked screen) and my computer is down due to spyware crashing it and corrupting the registry and needing a complete reload. There have also been some site owner changes happening, but it should be back underway soon enough.Adding sound to Chips Challenge [ Friday, October 07, 2005 ] I am in progress of adding sound to Chips Challenge. I am using the FMOD library. All the places where sounds should occur are marked and it is mostly a matter of stopping the sounds/music while the game isn't in normal playing mode and starting up again if it is.Good News! Compilation success [ Wednesday, October 05, 2005 ] I have finally set up my computer to recompile chips successfully using EVC 4.0. I just needed to install the Pocket PC 2003 SDK. Now hopefully, I can make some more progress on this game. Not having a working Pocket PC was the biggest hurdle with finishing this game. I had no reason to at the time, but now I do. I will probably be adding sound next (FMod???) followed by the little tasks such as password protecting levels, dialogs, end of level points, etc. I may make some improvments to the game such as the menu and keyboard with which I am not completely satisfied.
If anybody would like help setting up the source code I made available previously in an environment with EVC 4.0 and Pocket PC 2003 SDK, email me using the link in the black bar and I'll do my best to help you, although you can wait for me to compile another version. Setting up a development environment [ Wednesday, October 05, 2005 ] Here's a small update to where I am so far.I am trying to set up my PC with a development environment similar to what I had when I was previously working on Pocket Chips Challenge. It made use of GapiDraw (Version 1.04 at that time) and I was using eMbedded Visual C++ 3.0 which worked fine for the pocket PCs available at that time. Pocket PCs have come a long way since then. Here is a short history since I started programming them. This is based on what I know, so if anything is inaccurate, please feel free to comment. As I stated above, I started with EVC 3.0, which was designed for Pocket PCs running WinCE 3.0 (or Pocket PC) which were available in MIPS, ARM, and SH3. Then EVC 4.0 came out with updates to allow compilation for PPC2002. These new Pocket PCs were only running ARM processors. Soon came the X-Scale Processors which are variations of the ARM processor designed to run at various speeds for various needs. In other words, it would "scale" itself to your needs. The next OS to come out was Windows Mobile 3.0 (or 2003) which had features designed for mobility such as wireless and bluetooth features. This is the latest popular one, although Windows Mobile 5.0 (based on it coming out in 2005) is starting to come out on devices now. My PC runs Windows XP, which will not run EVC 3.0, so I just setup my PC using EVC 4.0 and after trying numerous time to compile Pocket Chips Challenge, I am running into an issue where GapiDraw 1.04 requires a library called "aygshell". It appears that this is not provided with EVC 4.0. GapiDraw is currently at Version 3.51 and is no longer free for developers to use. I am considering writing my own graphics library. I had started on one before discovering GapiDraw and have used it for Super Pocket Tetris. My plan is to convert this into an equivalent version of GapiDraw 1.04 and do a direct replacement for Pocket Chips Challenge. OK, so maybe it wasn't such a small update... :) I have a new Pocket PC [ Tuesday, October 04, 2005 ]
New RSS Feed [ Monday, September 19, 2005 ] Iceboxman Technologies now has an RSS feed available at http://www.iceboxman.com/rss.php. It will display the latest news.Chips Challenge Sourcecode [ Friday, March 04, 2005 ] Today I am releasing the sourcecode for Pocket Chips Challenge. It was programmed using embedded visual c++ for the PocketPC version and Visual C++ 6.0 for the desktop version. Included in the download are all my notes and pictures that I had stored in the directory. I admit I haven't looked at this stuff in a long time and am releasing it for several reasons.
The file can be downloaded here. Update to changes [ Monday, January 03, 2005 ] I have opened up the forums. There are still some configuration settings that need to be tweaked (such as missing attachments). I have started updating the archive pages and I have added the old content back in. I have also made some internal changes to the site code to make it easier to update.Site is undergoing changes [ Thursday, December 30, 2004 ] This site is undergoing a number of changes:
Product Review: 7Way Email Checker [ Thursday, July 22, 2004 ] This is my first product review and I hope to have more in the future. I started using the 7Way Email checker a couple days ago and would like to share my experience with everyone. My initial impression once I installed was "Wow, this is great." It allows me to have all the benefits of a local email client with the safety of webmail. Normally, I use webmail because software like outlook is a prime target for viruses. It also allows me to go anywhere and check my mail. I also didn't want to go with a free email provider because they usually put some advertising blurb at the bottom of all emails sent out. Now with this email checker I can be notified as soon as an email arrives and be able to view the contents of the message. I can also delete emails from my computer without going into my webmail. The 7Way Email Checker also features some filtering options to allow you to have email deleted automatically it it meets certain criteria such as containing a virus or spam. There are still a few improvements that could be made to make this a hands down winner. First is the sorting of messages. I normally sort by date so all my latest messages are at the top. However, it seems to have a system of it's own when it comes to date sorting. Second, the preview window seems to insert characters such as "=20" at the end of some lines that are not there when I look through a webmail client. This make it so that I can't trust URLs to work correctly and I usually have to open my webmail client to get those. Another improvement that could be made is the ability to handle HTML emails. With so many HTML mails being sent out, this would definitely make this software a winner. All in all, this is not a bad utility and with some minor improvements, it could be a definite winner. Update [ Monday, July 12, 2004 ] It has been a while since my last update, so it's time for another. I have done quite a bit since I posted last. Most of this is on a personal level, but since it affects what I do, I thought it to be relevant.
Happy Halloween [ Friday, October 31, 2003 ] Happy halloween to everybody. We hope everybody has fun tonight and get lots of candy.Content is moving [ Friday, October 31, 2003 ] Some of the content, which is not business related, will be moved to another domain (www.phpcodeaddict.com). This will include TI calculator stuff, George Carlin, and Humor. I will set up the pages to automatically forward to the new site in case there are any bookmarks. The purpose is to just keep business related materials on this site, but still have the other stuff available.Michelle Branch Autograph [ Monday, July 14, 2003 ]
Primary Email Address Change [ Monday, May 12, 2003 ] I have changed my primary Email address, and since I don't want any spam engines to pick up my new one, I won't list it here. However, you can find it by clicking the envelope icon in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage.Change of Direction [ Wednesday, April 23, 2003 ] Iceboxman Technologies has decided to change the direction it is going with software development. We will be focusing more on web applications and less on Pocket PC Games. The plan is to finish up Pocket Chip's Challenge. For Pocket Tetris, we will compile it as is and release it as freeware. Legend of the Dragon Sword will be discontinued, as it only was in it's infancy of development. After the release of the above mentioned titles, minor bug fixes will be applied as they are discovered.
We have 2 web applications in development at this time. Stay tuned for more information. Forum Problems should be gone [ Thursday, March 13, 2003 ] I have reverted the forums back to the version they were on before the problems. If you notice any problems, click the envelope icon if the upper right-hand corner to send me an email.Forum Problems [ Wednesday, February 12, 2003 ] You might notice some problems in the forums right now. I am in the process of ugrading to the latest version, and normal posting and reading should work. However, you might see some error messages. Just ignore these and when I'm done, I will announce it.Levelset for Chip's Challenge [ Thursday, December 19, 2002 ] For the distribution of Chip's Challenge, I have decided to use a set of levels called "Chip's Challenge Level Pack 2", which is a collaboration of the best levels designed by people at both the Chip's Challenge Newsgroup and the Chip's Challenge Yahoo Group. This should be beneficial for everybody, since people wanting to play Chip's Challenge will have a different Set of Levels to play with, and the level pack will gain additional exposure that it might of not had if people hadn't been aware it existed.New and Faster Host [ Sunday, November 17, 2002 ] If you can see this, you are seeing iceboxman.com on it's new and fast host. Everything should be fast, especially the forums. Everything should be fully functional at this point. If you see something missing, please post in the forums. If you are unable to post anything, e-mail me by clicking the Email icon in the upper righthand corner of the page.Name Chosen for Maze Game [ Thursday, November 07, 2002 ] A name has been chosen for the previously unamed maze game. I am now calling it Legend of the Dragon Sword. You can find out more about it on the Legend of the Dragon Sword Page. This project is still on hold while Pocket Chip's Challenge is being developed.Possible Disruptions [ Thursday, October 31, 2002 ] In about 2 weeks, I will start moving the site to a new host. This will occur within a month's timeframe During that time, I will be upgrading the forums. While the forums are being upgraded, they will be temporarily unavailable. Other than that, there should be little to no disruption. If there is any, I apologize in advance.Happy Halloween [ Thursday, October 31, 2002 ] Happy Halloween everybody. It has been a little while since the last update. Chip's Challenge is nearing completion. I have put in place a number of dialogs and menus. Mostly that remains is a feature to keep track of levels played.We now have a new slogan, "Software for a Mobile World". Since the primary product of Iceboxman Technologies will be Pocket PC games and applications, and Internet based software is a possibility, I have decided to go with a mobile theme. Bug discovered and fixed. [ Sunday, October 13, 2002 ] I found a bug that occurred when Chip moved sideways off a force floor. This made the game freeze at level 9...if you could get that far. Well, the bug has now been fixed, and you can redownload the updated version from the Chip's Challenge Page.Alpha Version available now!!! [ Friday, October 11, 2002 ]
Finishing Touches [ Thursday, October 10, 2002 ]
You have to make a mess to clean a mess [ Tuesday, October 01, 2002 ] I am once again, and hopefully for the last time, tearing apart the code and putting it back together the correct way. I have been studying the sourcecode to Tile World for the past several day and have figured out the timing of everything and how it all fits together. The Tile World Linux Source Code has been an extremely useful resource for me and the project would have taken much longer without it. It is written in C, so a conversion to GAPIDraw, C++ and whatever sound library I use is necessary. I am also implementing some of my own ideas and attempting to make this as close to the original Chips as possible.Restructuring Program [ Friday, September 27, 2002 ] I am completely restructuring part of the program to improve speed and now it is operating more like it was supposed to operate. This is good because it will reduce any compatibility issues as well as speed it up. I had it working with about 5 layers, instead of 2, which is how it was supposed to work. I now have it down to 4 layers and removing the other should be much easier now. After that, I will just need to tie up a few loose end, remove any bugs and then it should be faster and more organized.Public Alpha (soon?) [ Thursday, September 19, 2002 ] I'm working on the overall infrastructure of the game right now, including stability enhancements, and user interface improvements that should be in the final release. Perhaps when I have the UI finished, but not all the chips features, I will release a public alpha. I will need to do some testing on it, so it doesn't crash everyone's PPC.Level Design Contest [ Monday, September 16, 2002 ] In light of the upcoming title, Pocket Chip's Challenge, Iceboxman Technologies is having a level design contest. We will take the best of the levels submitted and create a CHIPS.DAT file that will be distributed with the game. Using John Elion's Chip's Challenge Editor, people will create levels and log onto the forum and submit them as an attachment. Please use this thread when submitting levels. People can submit as many levels or sets of levels as they want and will get credit for them.Progress of the game [ Friday, September 13, 2002 ] Development of the game is going well. The game is still a little unstable. This project has been going relatively fast and mostly because of good design, but as I see improvements, I will restructure the game accordingly. I redid the level loading routine so that it is faster and more stable.It's alive! Alive! [ Wednesday, September 11, 2002 ] I now have all the monsters working and running around. I think their smiling. I tweaked it so they are going about the same speed as the original game. It might require additional tweaking. I have it so a key can be held to have chip run around, or he can just move a square at a time. In the original chips challenge, there is a slight delay before running, but in mine, there isn't. I like it better.Still need a few more Beta Testers [ Tuesday, September 10, 2002 ] I still need a few more beta testers. If you have already registered with the forum and wish to beta test, please post a message stating you wish to do so. If you would just like to be informed about any public releases, sign up on the forum, and you will be Emailed.Update [ Monday, September 09, 2002 ] I have been working with GAPIDraw, which allows you to compile on the PC and run it, which has been working fine. The PC, of course, is much faster, so there may be lags on the PPC that were not obvious on the PC. I have compiled a current version and run it on my PPC and found that speed was no problem. However, there are a couple minor problems. One is the numbers are not displaying in their correct places. Two, Chip keeps moving up. Anyhow, I will fix these problems and get a Beta section set up.Forum Registration Problem Fixed [ Monday, September 09, 2002 ] I found there was a problem registering for the forum if the birthday field was not filled out. I have corrected that problem and people can now register without having to fill out that field.Considerable Progress [ Sunday, September 08, 2002 ] I have been working very hard on Pocket Chips Challenge and have made significant progress. Chip can move and is blocked by all walls. He can swim, open doors, collect chips, open sockets, and some other things. I am currently working on setting up the enemies as objects and allow for dynamic creation by cloning machines. As soon as I feel it is ready enough, I will probably start having some people do beta testing. There is a catch, however. You will need to be a registered user of the forums, and I will create a separate beta testers area, where I will put downloads. I'm not sure how many testers I will have, but in order to minimize the number of unfinished released copies of PCC, I will also need to limit the number of testers. So, I would register as soon as possible. People registered first that want to beta test, will have priority.Pre-Alpha version of Chips Released! [ Tuesday, September 03, 2002 ]
Bug fixed [ Sunday, September 01, 2002 ] I found and fixed the bug, which occurred only on levels where there was no hint. Hopefully, I'll have something by the end of the week.Chips Challenge completely reads chips.dat [ Sunday, September 01, 2002 ] Chips Challenge can now completely read level data out of chips.dat. I got some information about how to read, but found that some of it was incorrect. At this point, I can read the data out of the file and scroll through the levels, but not much is displayed other than some text. Also, there seems to be a little bug in my code for reading the data after level 9. So, now I need to fix that bug, and have it display the data it reads. Then I will post a copy for download on my site.PHP Powered [ Monday, August 26, 2002 ] The entire site has now been converted over to PHP. I have also added birthday announcements and ability to add attachments to the forums. This site is really coming along.More updates [ Monday, August 19, 2002 ] I updated the forums with new features. It now has some custom BBCodes, along with some configuration changes.Main page updated [ Monday, August 19, 2002 ] I updated the graphics and layout a little on the main page, plus I redid it using PHP. Why? Well several reasons: Chip's Challenging Data Structures [ Wednesday, August 14, 2002 ] When I started this project, I didn't realize the size of it. However, it is fun. I have been creating the data structures, and boy are there a lot of them. I realize I haven't put an update out for about a week now. This is because of the slow progress on the game. As soon as I have something workable to try out, I will let everybody know.New feature on Main Page [ Wednesday, August 07, 2002 ] In case you haven't noticed, I just added a feature, which allows you to allow people to comment on news items. I have interfaced directly with the news forum. This was the new feature as to why I chose another board in case you were wondering, which I was originally planning with the Snitz forum.Chips is coming along [ Tuesday, August 06, 2002 ] I now have the initial application starting up. I created some of the classes for the game. The next step will be to read out of the chips.dat file and place the information into a level class. Then I would read data out of the level class and display it on the screen. But, before I do that, I need to figure out what the best data structure would be for a dynamically changing level (such as bugs walking and doors being opened). Well, it's coming along and I will continue to update the site with my progress.More progress on Chips Challenge [ Monday, August 05, 2002 ] I have started the initial framework. At this point I am going to use some publicly available libraries. These are Gapi Draw and Pocket-G's Dynamic Sound Mixer Library (PgSnd). I have started the framework and hope to at least have it reading the data file and drawing the it on the screen within the next few days.Yet Another Bulletin Board [ Monday, August 05, 2002 ] Okay. I might seem like a flake, but I now have a different board. Although I really liked the functionality of YaBB as a board, I found phpBB worked better for my needs. Here are some of the features:Programming part of PCC [ Saturday, August 03, 2002 ] I just finished enough graphics to start on the programming of chips challenge. Keep in mind that those screen shots were just pasted together in photoshop and are not actual shots. However, with a little bit of programming, those will become actual shots. I already have code fragments here and there, so getting the initial part of the game together will be my first task. Next will be movement and scrolling, and next will be login to the game.Different Forum Program [ Saturday, August 03, 2002 ] Although I really liked the Snitz Forum that I had running on ASP, I have switched over to YaBB, because of the additional features without the additional headaches. It has all the features I want already implemented. There are a few minor problems to work out, related to Email, but that is in the future. Since I was the only one to ever post anything, and there wasn't very much, I just reposted everything.Forum Problem Fixed [ Tuesday, July 30, 2002 ] I didn't realize it, but found that there was a problem with the forum involving anything with profiles. This includes registering. Anyway the problem was due to a missing file, which has been replaced, so people can register. Gosh, no wonder nobody was registering on the forum. I just thought nobody liked my site. Well it is fixed and people can freely use it.Problems with the site [ Tuesday, July 30, 2002 ] The site was experiencing some problems due to a rogue database. I upgraded it and things started working again.Chip's Challenge Screenshot Update [ Monday, July 29, 2002 ]
Maze Game will be postponed - No ETA [ Monday, July 29, 2002 ] Because of development of Pocket Chip's Challenge, and the similarity of the 2 games, I am postponing development of the maze game with no ETA. After Pocket Chip's Challenge is finished, I will probably resume development using the engine for Pocket Chip's Challenge and pushing the capabilities a lot further.Screenshot of PCC [ Monday, July 29, 2002 ]
New Game - Pocket Chip's Challenge [ Monday, July 29, 2002 ] That's right. Iceboxman Technologies is going to make a freeware port of Chip's Challenge for the Pocket PC. Now people will be able to play a classic favorite wherever they go. Since I can't legally include the chips.dat file, and this isn't an original program, it will be freeware. The major challenge so far is, since the graphics are displayed in the program in a 9x9 tiling of 32x32 icons, that would take up 288x288. The Pocket PC screen is only 240 pixels wide. I am redoing all the graphics, so that they are 24x24 icons. At this point, graphics are about 60% done and look very close to the original Microsoft version of chip's challenge. I decided no to improve the graphics too much, since it allows the program to be small, and the simplistic "cartoon-like" look of the graphics is, in my opinion, one of the appealing features of the game. The name may change.I is now edumacated [ Friday, June 14, 2002 ] Yesterday I graduated with an associates in applied science degree. Now that school is over, I'll have more time for updates to this website. Yay. It feels really good to have some free time to myself now. I did really good this quarter, and my hardwork and lack of updates to this site payed off. Now, back to programming.Summer is upon us. [ Friday, May 31, 2002 ] It is now June and my birthday is in 1 month. I have not done any updates since the beginning of January and I apologize. Here are my reasons:Programs available for download [ Tuesday, January 08, 2002 ] Analog Clock 1.0 for the Pocket PC and Foodmover 1.0 for PalmOS are available for download on the software section of the site. Analog clock should work on MIPS, ARM, or SH3, although it has only been tested on MIPS.News Archives available [ Tuesday, January 01, 2002 ] A news archive section has been created, allowing you to look at every news item from the site. These are all sorted by year, and you can see these from the most current item. If I ever start consistently posting multiple items on a daily basis, I may change this to a month-by-month view, escpecially since I have made at least 1 post per month, with the exception of November, since the inception of this site.Happy New Year [ Tuesday, January 01, 2002 ] Welcome to the new year. I have updated my software section, and although it is not complete, it does give information about programs I have been working on. I have also removed the Microsoft Certifications section. Nothing useful was contained in there, and other than possessing certifications, I have no interest in creating a web page for it. I had no information to contribute, so it was removed. I have been thinking about putting up an archive section for the past headlines, probably by year, since there aren't very many.Many updates have occurred [ Thursday, December 20, 2001 ] Now that the site is on a faster server, I have made quite a few changes to existing pages to integrate them into the site better. Mainly the TI Calc page, which still needs a considerable amount of updating. Small graphic changes too. The way I had my site set up before, was to use the page in a frame. This will change automatically over the next 2 days to be so that the page is access directly, resulting in higher reliability and speed. I also have a new idea for a program. This program should make anybody who likes to create music happy.Site has been moved [ Wednesday, December 12, 2001 ] Iceboxman.com has moved to a faster server and should be much more responsive. I have tried to keep this move with as little interuption as possible. I haven't worked on Tetris, because I was improving my Visual C++ skills for PCs and feel confident that I will be able to finish more development in less time because of this. I am going to continue to complete this site, as there are a lot of blank pages that I haven't added. People are welcome to use the forums, because with the higher speed server, pageloads should be much faster.Progress report on Tetris [ Sunday, October 21, 2001 ] I added a title screen, and one sound so far. I have not integrated everything into 1 package yet. Another feature I decide to add was a highscore table, and when you think about it, you realize that this is an essential component of tetris. I also added a pause feature. I am going to work on the software section of the web site next, because it's long overdue.More work done on Tetris [ Friday, October 19, 2001 ]
Maze game to soon be worked on [ Friday, October 19, 2001 ] I have not worked on the maze game in a while, but am starting to itch to work on it some more. I think this could very well be one of the greater games from Iceboxman Technologies. Once worked on, the initial game should be constructed fairly quickly.Super Pocket Tetris is coming along nicely [ Sunday, October 07, 2001 ]
Connection is a bit slow [ Sunday, September 30, 2001 ] If you have been visiting here since I moved my site to a new host, you may have noticed that the connection is a bit slow. This will change soon, because I am going to upgrade my connection with the hosting service and will get about 100-300 times faster connection. When I do change, I am going to update my domain name to officially point to the server and when everything is said and done, this site will be very wonderful. As a warning, while the upgrade of the domain name takes place, this page [I]may[/I] become inaccessible. I will be right on top of things, however, and try to make the transition as painless as possible. I estimate this to start happening in about 3 weeks.Kyles Quest Section Removed [ Friday, September 28, 2001 ] I forgot to mention that I had removed the Kyle's Quest section because I decided that I didn't have the time to develop levels for their game. Occasionally I will remove section if they have no importance to me or the web site.Less graphics for the site [ Thursday, September 27, 2001 ] In order to help this site load faster, I have done a little redesign. There are now less graphics, as well as the statusbar changing while it loads. This should make it look like the page is at least doing something. I have also created a new forum. I have not fully set this up, so there may be problems initially, but it should iron out over time.The site is up permanently [ Monday, September 24, 2001 ] My site is now running on a new server. I wasn't able to keep it on the server it was running on before, as it was too unreliable. Sometimes I feel as if I'm talking to empty space, but if anybody does actually come to my page, please E-Mail me at [email="iceboxman@iceboxman.com"]iceboxman@iceboxman.com[/email] leave some feedback about the site or whatever you want. I will have 2 new games coming out soon. Super Tetris, which will not only be 2 player, but will have many more options than the classic tetris. Also, an unnamed maze type game will be coming out as mentioned in previous posts. I don't have release dates or prices for these yet.Clock Pictures [ Thursday, August 30, 2001 ]
Some goals accomplished [ Sunday, August 19, 2001 ] It's been a long time since my last update. I have completed my first PocketPC program called Analog Clock 1.0. I figured the PocketPC needed an analog clock with a second hand for timing things. Although it is simple, it is the first eMbedded Visual C++ program I have completed without any help using the Document View Architecture. I will probably make improvements to it like adding a bitmap background and other things, but I'm proud and will leave it as is for now. I am also working on a new program for the PocketPC. It is a maze program that is much different than other maze programs. Me and a friend made it up about 10 years ago, and it was done entirely on graph paper. I am trying to convert it to an electronic game format. I have been working on a version in VB that currently works on a PC, and an editor at the same time. The editor is almost working minimally, and although the current test maze is hard coded, the actual program does some basic things. I will make an update page for this. My baby girl was born on August 12, 2001 and I have a page devoted to her with pictures.VB Study [ Tuesday, July 03, 2001 ] First of all, happy 4th of July. Secondly, for the past couple weeks I have been learning some advanced VB concepts like subclassing and I've been looking further at using Windows API. Hopefully, I'll come out with a number of example code for this site. Because of spending my time on this and studying for the Windows 2000 Accelerated exam, I haven't had much of a chance to update the site. Fortunately, I have made this site easy to update, so it only takes a couple minutes of my time.Web Site all fixed [ Thursday, June 14, 2001 ] I actually fixed the web site a couple days ago, and thought I had added this, but to my knowledge, all the problems have been fixed. Now I'm adding "[i]features[/i]" to the site. For instance, this page will now only display new items added in the last 30 days. I will add an archive page soon.Netscape will be fixed [ Tuesday, June 12, 2001 ] I have found a way for it to work. I'm not sure why I didn't see it before, but I will fix it soon. This will require some major table restructuring. Basically, I played around in the netscape editor until I figured out a really obvious way for it to work. I am convinced that with a good combination of HTML, JavaScript, ASP, CSS, XML, DHTML, and Java, that you can do [i]anything[/i] you want to with a web page. That is one thing I have been trying to do with this one. Compatibility with netscape and older browsers is one goal. That is why I do a lot of server-side scripting. Unfortunately, if Server-Side scripting ability were taken away from me, this would be a major blow to some of the functionality of this site.Changes for main page [ Monday, June 11, 2001 ] I am changing this main page to run off an XML file. Currently, it displays all articles, but I will change it to only display for the last month. I will also have an archive section to of old articles. I still haven't fixed the netscape problem, but I do have a possible solution. Unfortunately, it would require JavaScript enabled to work. That may not be a bad solution, but I will keep looking for something else.More time for updates [ Saturday, June 09, 2001 ] With school coming to an end for a while, I will have more time for updates to the site and more time for programming. Projects I would like to complete during the summer include trying to get the site working with netscape, update my MCSE and MCDBA Certifications to windows 2000, complete some partially working programs or update existing ones and add it to the site, add more pictures to the site, and have my baby daughter.Netscape 4 not recommended [ Sunday, June 03, 2001 ] At the moment, be advised. Try to avoid using Netscape 4. Because of the limitations like it's inability to use Cascading Style Sheets, and it's table formatting problems, Netscape Version 4.xx is not recommended for this site or any other. If you prefer Netscape, version 6.0 works a lot better. I have heard problems with layering on 6, that 4 didn't have, but that shouldn't be a big deal. I recommend IE because it is always up-to-date on the latest technologies.Links Section Added [ Saturday, June 02, 2001 ] I added the links section to the site. It's not very big right now, but I have a bunch of links to put in there. The links section data is actually stored in an XML file, and it parsed and formatted into HTML using ASP. This was my first attempt at using XML, and I think I did a pretty good job. I decided to use this because I could easily edit a text file, and using the server-side to parse it, allows better browser compatibility. There are also a few minor changes to the layout of the site. I don't remember if I said it before, but there is a printer icon in the above menu bar, that allows you to see this and all pages in a nice printable format. That was one of the disadvantages of having a nice interface.Humor Section Added [ Friday, June 01, 2001 ] I added a humor section to the site, and put one thing in there for now. I plan on putting other things in there such as some original cartoons I've drawn. I also have added dates to all the items on this page. This will help me weed out the really old stuff, and help me update the site more often.Site is now repaired [ Wednesday, May 30, 2001 ] The site now has it's links repaired. It's not as beautiful as it used to be, but at least it works. It actually only took a half hour to do. The site was also not accessible over the last 24 Hours because I had shut down internet service, and forgot to put it back up. It is now back up [i]obviously[/i]. A link to the network OS Site is gone, and has been replaced with a link to a Microsoft Certification section. The NetworkOS Site is old and outdated. It only applied to my old computer setup. Since virtually all my computers are running Windows 2000, and it's not a mixed environment, this site would be very boring. Any information that would have been added to this section, will appear in either the [b]Microsoft Certification[/b] section, or the [b]About[/b] section.Site will be back up soon [ Tuesday, May 29, 2001 ] Okay, first of all, I'd like to apologize to everyone who came here, and were fustrated with the site being broken. Second of all, I've decided what to do. I am going to backup the site, and stash it away into a directory somewhere. Then I'm going to manually modify all the links so that they work. That shouldn't be too much trouble. It should only take me a good hour or 2, then it will be back up. Once either Namezero gets their act together, or I use a different service, I'll restore the site back to it's original state.The site is broken [ Monday, May 28, 2001 ] Namezero.com screwed up my site. You can no longer go to a directory, which really pisses me off. If they can't fix this, I will either have to come up with a new way of doing this, or use a different service, so that they won't get any more of my money. Please wait while I try to get this fixed.George Carlin Section Updated [ Saturday, May 26, 2001 ] I found a copy of my old George Carlin site in it's entirety, and updated it to match the look of this page. It features the entire transcription of the Explicit Lyrics CD.Aahhh! No Internet Connection [ Friday, May 25, 2001 ] We didn't have an internet connection for a week, so the site was down during that period. Now we have a connection, and would like to say that it won't happen again. If the server is down in the future, a status page will be displayed with specifc date of the next expected uptime. While the connection was down, I changed the look a little and added a couple new features like the counter at the bottom of the page. It is different for each page on the site.Netscape? No Problem [ Wednesday, May 09, 2001 ] Netscape users shouldn't have anymore problems. I designed this site for Internet Explorer 5, and had not tested it for Netscape until today. I have made some changes that should help with any browser now. Netscape 6 users [i]should[/i] see about the same thing as IE users. The only problem left is that on some pages, in Netscape 4, if there is almost no content, the page will look a little screwy. This will diminish as more content is added to the site.The site has a new look [ Monday, May 07, 2001 ] I have given the site a new look. I have completely redesigned my page. I personally like it. I had originally added some buttons and a background, but I decided to redo the site with a new look. I have only done this page for now, but will continue to replicate it to the other pages. This site is JavaScript Enhanced, which means that it should work with a non-Java browser, but the experience is much more enjoyable with a JavaScript-Enabled Browser. I will continue to improve the look of the site, but will also work on the content.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
