Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! And even though I'm an atheist, I couldn't think of a better title.

So, Merry Christmas.

I just took a decision. I decided to start making a game. I had the idea for this game for a few months now, about a month ago I started working on it with flash and php only to find out that making a game in flash and php is way more difficult that developing a game in C++. Many weeks later, I still think the game - if ever completed - would be fun. Really fun! So today, 2 days since my holidays started I decided to start working on it again. This time I'll use C++ and SFML. Obviously I'm talking about a 2D game (I still don't feel very comfortable with using OpenGL and I'd hate using anything not cross-platform).

It's a strategy game. No, not a very complicated one (I hope!). It's nothing too ambitious, completing this project seems generally realistic :P. I'll propably do the development on windows, but I'll be testing it on my linux machine every now and then. Platform Independence is very important to me. So, for the next 2 weeks I'll be working on it full time (ok, almost full time).

In my first 2 hours of working on the project, I made a Logging class and generally designed the Object-Oriented code of the game. Basic classes, files etc. Now I have a pretty good idea of how the game and the code will look like. At them moment, the game starts, displays a black window, writes something to the logfile and quits. Not too bad.

Next topic of the day: It's Chrstmas. I told you, didn't I? I could cut & paste this to the beginning of the post, but who cares about organized speech? Organized code is all that matters. Ok almost. ANYWAY, as I said, it's Christmas and I got a really, really, really really really great present. An Iphone 4! Yep! I might even start developing apps for it, one day. The annoying thing is you need a Mac and Objective-C knowledge to write apps for the Iphone, unless you buy expensive 3rd party windows software or spend days trying to find a workaround. Of course I have MacOSX in a virtual machine and I don't need to bother, really :). I downloaded X-code it runs great, only problem is I don't know Objective-C. But one can code only one thing at time, right? So I will dedicate myself into my game.

And I should remind myself to write about my opinion on youtube and especially its comments and rating system. They suck. Wow I just expressed my opinion! I'll expand on it once I am less eager to start coding again.

A short 20 minute break and back to work again. Till next time!

24137 and counting!

As of the moment, I have written 24137 lines of code. All by myself, yes.

And~2500 of them were written in the last week.

Recently (about a week ago) I switched from Debian to ubuntu 10.10, and I can't stop thanking myself.

First of all, I started using linux. I mean *really* using linux. I haven't seen the  Windows logo for a whole week, I spend less time on the computer and more time coding. My code productivity increased by 500%, I create more in less time! I have learned more in the last week than in the previous month. And, most important, I enjoy programing like never before.

I know it sounds like an TV advert, but its all true. More specifically:

1. First of all, I organized ALL the code I've written in my life under one folder.
2. Then I wrote a PHP script to count how many lines of code I've written. The script only counts files with a source file extension, excludes certain files and directories (for example code written by others, like jquey, tinyxml, tinyMCE etc.), calculates some interesting statistics and then writes  all that info to an .html file (with nice CSS styling). I did that in 2 hours or so.
3. I solved some USACO training problems.
4. I participated in COCI 2010 #2.
5. I solved a few hellenico problems.
6. I started developing a solution for Google AI Challenge.
7. I started developing a solution for CodeCup 2011.
8. I learned the basics of bash scripting.
9. I actually started using, and therefore learning linux.
10. I kinda familiarized myself with QT.

 And now I'm thinking of becoming an ubuntu developer (bufixing etc.) :P.

Section 2 of my post starts here. Do not look for connections between my posts and paragraphs. Sometimes there isn't any. ;)

Some musical masterpieces every coder should enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq3CuMDXaPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHosLhPEN3k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li_qgJGWfp8

We have Digital TV here in Greece now :)!

My list of awesome linux programs:

• Eclipse
• Tasque (might not be the best TODO app out there, but it's simple. I like that.)
• Vuze
• aMSN
• Nexuiz

I don't want to go back to windows.

Competitions, competitions

Yay, 23rd National Competition in Infromatics, first phase. I've already thought the first problem's solution, I only need to work on the implementetion.

Yay, National Competition in Mathematics! I participated in the first phase and I did "generally good". I love maths too, haven't I told you?

Yay, National Competition in Astronomy and Astrophysics starts next week. Can't wait!

Yay, National Competition in Latin and Ancient Greek! Just kidding. I HATE ANCIENT GREEK. There's an english saying, "sounds like greek to me". Well, ancient greek is *a lot* worse. AND YET WE ARE LEARNING THAT BULLSHIT AT SCHOOL.

In unrelated news, I discovered pomplamoosemusic's youtube channel, and I especially liked their version of Jackson's Beat It.

Global Thermonuclear War

"  How about a nice game of chess?"

If you 've seen the movie Wargames (1983) you probably know what I'm talking about. No, the movie is not that great, but the game inspired by the film is:

DEFCON: Everybody Dies

Basicly DEFCON is a Real Time Strategy game inspired by the movie Wargames. "You can't win this game; but you can loose the least". In the game the player takes control of a nation trying to do exactly that: "loose the least" in a nuclear war. Oh, and the game has an API which allows you to create AI bots for the game in lua or C++ (I think other languages are supported too).

Well, DEFCON, Wargames and... Farmerama (:P) gave me a crazy game idea which I am most probably not going to implement. Anyway, now I'm gonna stop writing. Really.

Until next time!

Tears

The summer is way too short for what I want to archieve, I'll post my TODO list here and hope not to drop tears over it after the summer:

• Website design, using the browser as a canvas to display content. Forget the terms header, container and footer. Archieved 50%
  
• Game development, especially 3D! Archieved 50%
  
• Assembly! Archieved Archieved 10%
• Algorithms, more algorithms... Archieved 100%

Shit.

House MD

Yes I have seen every single House MD episode to day. Many of them twice. And I still find most of House's jokes funny. And yes, Hugh Laurie is an awesome actor. I can't wait for the 7th Season!

Somehow, writting the above lines made me feel like a looser. And that's strange cause I'm not a looser.

Aside from that, I think that every other TV Series sucks. AM I RIGHT OR AM I RIGHT? (See? House is affecting me. And I hate that.)

Flash games and astrophysics

[Note: 1 chewing gum = 0.10 USD]

Recently I became addicted to Them (=flash games). And I decided to make one. And I did. And it sucks: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/548011
As you would have noticed if you clicked the link above, my game has annoying 30-second interactive advertisments you can't skip and obviously I make money from them. (It's called mochiads, check it out) Right now, 3 weeks after releasing the game I have made 4.5 chewing gums. (I need to make 1000 chewing gums to receive my first paycheck :( ). The game might suck, but I promise, I am NOT going to add mochiads to my next game. It's not worth it.  1,145 people got bored to death waiting for the game to start and I can't even enjoy my chewing gums...

Anywany, I am working on my next game, yes, this one will be awesome.

Other than that? I am wasting my time with that "school" thing again, where those funny faces called "teachers" try to make ancient greek sound interesting. They're not trying hard enough.

I also started studying Astrophysics lately, thanx to the Orbiter community and Orbiter itself, of course! I wish Orbiter was open-source... Ah, at least it is free! Anyway, if anyone is reading and is interested, check out the Orbiter Simulator, and the following link:
http://www.braeunig.us/space/orbmech.htm#maneuver

Yesterday I fired up Orbiter, entered low-earth Orbit, took the Semi-Major axis and I calculated my period of revolution! Of course my result did not mach the number on the simulator screen, I was 8 seconds off! Real p was 5312, my result was 5320. That was propably because I conveniently assumed that earth had a constant radius everywhere.

That's all folks. Oh, and here's something to keep you entertained for the next 129 seconds.