I finally got all the parts to my computer and finally built it. It was quite the project, but I am more than pleased with the end result. It is faster than any other computer I have ever used - and the display is simply magnificant.
The specs for the computer I’m building have changed. The biggest change is that I’ve decided to go with AMD instead of Intel so my motherboard and processor have changed accordingly. I’ll now be going with a 3.1 ghz AMD Athlon 64.
Brr!
This week must have been the coldest it has been in a long, long time. Thursday I started the day off at 4am getting ready for work. It was about -5 degrees outside, not including the wind chill. During that day the truck trailers at work were extremely cold as well, easily below 20 degrees. The next day, Friday, it was even colder. It was about -20 outside at 4am not including the wind chill. Both days the wind chill pushed the temperature down to more than 30 degrees below zero! Thankfully today it warmed up to be in the mid 20s with some wind - which felt believe it or not quite warm. It was nice being able to walk around with skin exposed and not have to wince in pain.
The Big Gas Leak
As if the cold hadn’t hampered me enough from doing my job all employees were forced out of the building at Kohl’s Friday since the heater unit completely froze over. What happened was the heater unit is on the roof and who would have thought in sub zero temperatures that it would freeze. But it did, and so instead of having a flame to burn the fuel it just blew it (a lot of it) into the building. So we entered the warehouse to the ever so bliss smell of natural gas. Soon after getting set up to work Ken (general operations guy) came and told everyone to meet in the cafeteria so they could figure out what they were going to do.
Kohl’s ended up sending everyone home for safety purposes until the warehouse was aired out. They guaranteed us 4 hours of pay and said if you want to come back later in the day you could. In the cold and icy weather I had no desire for 2 round trips to Ottawa and back so I told them I’d take the 4 hours and the rest of the day off. Turning 20 minutes of work into 4 hours of free pay isn’t bad, but a 9 hour paycheck will be felt hard come next week.
The Equipment just keeps coming
It seems that I’ve been working on the equipment section of Fishination forever - and it’s been a few weeks. I just can’t find a good way to go about it, but I think that I am finally on the right track. I’ve been working on an “Equipment Setup Wizard” so first time users can go about getting all of the equipment they are required to have, and then based upon that they can begin with customizing it even further to their likings. Once that is complete I will be working on the Equipment Catalog so they can purchase new equipment as well as their actual equipment page so they can set what they want their angler to use. Hopefully I can finally knock this out this weekend.
bPC: 3 away from completion…
It’s good and bad that I’m three parts away from completing my dream computer. Good that I’m so close, bad that the last three parts are the most expensive. All I need is the monitor, the processor and the operating system. That’s $600 right there. I already have the case, motherboard, speakers, wireless adapter, and optical drive.
As you can see, I have quite the little collection of parts going. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I can get the rest and finally complete my dream machine.
The Switch to Chrome
Google released it’s own browser called Chrome in September of 2008. I tried it out within minutes of it’s release and thought it was a great concept, but not really ready for full time use in my production environment. Well, months later and Google has released an alpha of version 2. I decided to give it a try and switch exclusively to Chrome for a little while. Well, it doesn’t look like I will be switching back for awhile.
Chrome has really wowed me with it’s clean look and it’s speed. It is fast. Normally Firefox takes a few seconds to load up and it’s just something I learned to live with. Well to my surprise I went to open Chrome and it opened instantly. I will continue using it as my main browser for some time. It keeps getting harder to have to go back to Firefox. The only thing I will miss dearly are extensions, but the only two extensions I had was Twitterfox and colorZilla for HEX color codes for web design. Both are easily repleased with Twhirl for my Twitter client and various online sources for hex codes.
Fishination development continues
The online fishing simulator I have been working on is progressing well, al be it slow. I have been working on designing an intuitive equipment system so I can easily add and manage equipment for the anglers to use. I’ve come up with something good - I will be able to add any item with a simple form in a control panel. I can set the name, description, price, and level to unlock it very easily. This will allow much more dynamic game play and less work on mny part. Now that it is all designed on paper all I have to do is code it.
bPC: Round 1 has shipped!
Round 1 of the bPC computer build has shipped - 4 items from California and 1 item from New Jersey. The items I ordered were the case, motherboard, cd/dvd drive, wireless ethernet card, and speakers. Coming this week is the harddrive, video card and processor. I decided to get the processor this week to save me a week of waiting as I decided to go with AMD instead of Intel to save money and increase the power. So on Friday I will be placing another order to New Egg - I can’t wait!
Blizzard Warning in Effect
To end today’s blog off there is a blizzard warning in effect and the roads are already starting to turn white. It’s hitting early enough that everything should be up and running tomorrow, so sorry kiddies school will be in session!
It’s always nice to have a blizzard though, when you know you don’t have to go anywhere. There’s a certain peace to it that is really nice. I must admit though snow post-Christmas isn’t nearly as “beautiful.”
My good buddy Ron and Ihave been jealous of something for quite awhile: The sexiness of the Mac compared to our inferior by comparison computers. (Inferior by design, not specs) That’s when I had an idea: Why not build a PC just as sexy as the Mac, but for less than half the price and more power.
When all was said and done I came out with this:
24 inch widescreen monitor
500 GB HDD
4 GB Memory
3.16ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
CD/DVD RW Combo Drive
Asus 256MB Radeon Video Card
and much more…
Now when all is said and done I will come out with a computer that rivals that of the Mac sexy wise, and beats it performance/price wise. For a near comparible Mac (the processor isn’t as good) it’s $2,400, not including tax and shipping. For my computer with superior specs it’s around $1,100 not including tax and shipping.
The general plan is to buy parts of the PC each week until February 13th, when I will purchase the last piece (the monitor). Once the monitor arrives Build Day will occur. Ron is building a similar PC. We will be building it on the same day.
In other news I worked about 8 hours today, on 2 hours of sleep so needless to say I am tired which is why my blog isn’t very well typed. I arrived home today to receive my new keyboard, an HP Wireless Elite. It is by far the best keyboard I’ve ever used. The low profile design makes an immediate impact on your typing, it is so much comfortable.
I will be blogging weekly about what I call “bPC” as I receive the parts. Round 1 starts tomorrow when I order the case, mother board, optical drive, wireless card, and speakers.
In this blog post I will detail the other side of the ecosystem, the actual lively part that involves the lives of fish.
Lakes
It all starts with the lakes as it is what the fish live in. Owners who properly maintain their lakes will not have any problem as far as yielding fish goes. Lakes that have pollution and other issues will result in fish dying off and unhappy anglers.
Fish
Fish will live and thrive in a healthy environment. Healthy fish will result in more fish come spawn time. Fish are born in the spring time during the spawn. Alternatively, owners can stock fish to their lake. Fish are added by that option in the off days.
Fish Life and Death
Fish will live for a good amount of time if they are not caught. However if the lake is poorly maintained then fish will be killed off a little at a time. As is the course of life, fish will eventually die of natural causes.
Fishination will be powered by a virtual ecosystem backend, which will [hopefully] create a very realistic experience for all anglers who use it. The virtual ecosystem will be charged with several things including year, day, time, time of day, weather, lake conditions, and what fish you catch. It also handles the existance of fish - each fish in the simulator will be an actual virtual fish living within the lake. Fish will be born and die just like in real life.
But that’s not the point of this particular blog post, this one is to detail the first part of the ecosystem: Date, time and weather management. Let’s start at the beginning.
The Year
A year in Fishination will be 50 days long. The first 5 days of the year will be “off days” where no fishing simulations are ran. Instead new club lakes will be rewarded to anglers who want them and lake construction will take place on club lakes that had applied for upgrades and maintenance. The year will also be broken up into the traditional seasons. The first 5 days after the off days will be winter followed by 10 days of spring. The annual spawn will be held during spring. Summer comes next with 20 days. Autumn comes last with 10 days to end the year.
Time of Day and Time
The actual time will be determined based on server time. Time of day will be determined based on this time and as follows: 6am - 12pm will be morning, 12pm - 6pm will be afternoon, 6pm-9pm will be evening and 9pm-6am will be night.
Weather
Weather is a crucial variable in real life for fishing and it will be no different in our simulator. It will be defined by weather scenarios and variables.
Weather scenarios. Sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy, rain, thunderstorm, heavy rain, severe thunder storm, snow, blizzard.
Weather variables. Temperature, wind speed, humidity.
All of this will set up the fishing part of the ecosystem and hopefully make it as realistic as possible.
In early 2008 I came across an online MMORPG called Goal Line Blitz. It was an online football simulator. Being a huge football fan, it was amazing. Being a web developer it was amazing as well. I quickly bought into it and came up with a fishing simulator, which can still be found here. Basic as it was, it had huge potential.
Now today I am finally getting under way with my grand vision of what this could be. I call it Fishination, and it will be a MMORPG. The basis for this game is you create an account and you are the angler. You join a club lake and pay dues to participate at this lake. You earn Frequent Player Points the more you use the game so you can upgrade your account. The more FPP you get the better - when you start racking them up in mass quantity you can create your own club lake. Allow me to break this all down.
Being an Angler
Anglers are of course fishermen. They catch fish - it’s what they do. The more you participate the better - your angler will increase in level and receive points they can put towards Angler Attributes to become a better angler. The more fish they catch the better - large fish can be turned in at the market place in exchange for currency, and placing in a lake tournament will also result in currency. With this currency your angler will be able to purchase bait, tackle, equipment and pay lake dues.
The more a person uses Fishination the more FPP they will earn. An exact formula for earning FPP hasn’t been decided yet. FPP will be used to upgrade your angler’s level, buy advanced equipment, and even create your own club lake.
Making your club lake
Anglers will be able to purchase a club lake when they hit a certain level and also when they earn enough FPP. The number of FPP’s required hasn’t yet been decided. To receive a club lake they will have to apply for one during the year, and they will then be awarded with the new lake during the 5 off days at the beginning of the next year should they be approved for it.
Once owner of the lake the angler will be able to name the club, set the membership fees, buy upgrades for the lake (boat launch, dock, etc.) and pay for lake maintenance.
All of this will be detailed a great deal more in future blog posts. I just wanted to provide a little project summary to set the ground for future blog posts.
Finally went back to work on Friday after a long weekend. It was pretty good - trained people for the majority of the day. I did manage to twist my ankle however but it didn’t hurt. After work I came home and to my surprise Sarah came over. I fell asleep with her until my dad woke us up for dinner. She and I watched TV for a few hours and rested and then I went to bed for work after she left.
Today I woke up and immediately new my ankle hurt. It’s lightly sprained, just aching right now. It’s not extremely killer pain just annoying. It also lacks ideal strength right now and didn’t feel secure when I would have to lift something with my legs which requires putting weight on your ankles of course. I trained people for half the day, then I worked on my own for the rest. It wasn’t bad at all. Came home and fell asleep. Working two days in a week sure takes it out of you! After that Ricki and Tommy came over to play pool and that’s been about the extent of my week. Pretty boring.
This weekend I hope to continue my work on Fishination!
2008 was perhaps the biggest year of my life. I ran my own website development business, graduated from high school, and became employed in a full time job. You could say all of that was largely based on luck. Who would have thought I’d get enough freelance business to last 5 months on my own in the dev biz? Who would have thought I could skate through my senior year in high school and graduate? And who would have thought in this economy I would have gotten my first “real” job with the first place that called me and EXCEL at it?
Yes, yes. Very lucky. But beyond that I’ve furthured myself in other areas in 2008. I grew up so much. My relationship with Sarah lasted the entire year, and I hope it lasts even more. I did a lot of fishing over the summer.
Scared as I was to start my job at Kohl’s after the first month I fit in with everyone. After the second month I was near the top performer in my department where I still remain. I’m also the most trusted, with the most computer privileges in my department of a regular level associate. On top of that, I’m the trainer. Anyone coming in will go through me and the people higher up trust me to train them right. All of that is very good, to know I have security at a job in the economy like this.
Looking ahead to 2009 I have a few goals. I want to have my project done by March. It is Fishination, an online fishing simulator. Once this site is out I want to maintain it until December 31st, 2009. If it isn’t a success by then I will reanalyze it and see where it can go. But I want to actually get a site and stick with it.
My next goal is to save money. I want to save up to $3,000 in my bank account and maintain it. Third goal is to finish my home computer lab. I want to get one more laptop and a new desktop as my work horse. The fourth goal is to finish my boat and do a whole lot of fishin’.
So I will end this day watching TWiT Live including Windows Weekly, and going to Peru with Ricki to jack around. Quite the way to take care of New Years Day. Back to work tomorrow.
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