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Lately, it's been almost nothing but Theia all day long, but I have tried to make in an few hours every day or so to kick back and relax and play games.
Last night, I finally beat Ghostbusters! It was a pretty good game overall, and I know I will go through it again once or twice more (since I already started on a new game on the hard mode).
But not for a while at least, cause I picked up Call of Jaurez Bound in Blood today, and I've been looking forward to that for a while too. Best of all, I paid less than half cost (since I did trade-ins again, with games I picked up cheaply with the intent of trading them later for a profit). Plus, I got an extra 100 kronor gift card for GAME. Sweet deal, cause I have a 100 kronor gift card to GameStop as well, since they gave me one for their trade-in campaign with Ghostbusters.
I've played Call of Juarez for about an hour already, and it's also looking to be a good game. The graphics have improved a great deal since the first one, but even then I was pretty impressed with the visuals.
I feel like the first Call of Juarez game was a bit of a sleeper-hit. I don't think it's a brilliant game or anything, but it's a heck of a lot better (and more original) than many other shooters. Maybe "sleeper-hit" is a bit much, but it was definitely overrated.
Plus, I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but there seems to be a major shortage of cowboy video games. The only one I can even think of playing or hearing of in the past 5-10 years (besides the original Call of Jaurez) would be Gun, and although I also enjoyed that game, I think Call of Jaurez is better.
Time to go jump into it for a little bit more...
Oh, and SCORE - it's 1080p on PS3! Ghostbusters (a couple weeks back) was the first PS3 game that I got to support 1080p, and I thought it would be a while before another one, but apparently not. I hope this is a good sign of games to come.
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Man, am I sick of getting f*cking spam!
I've been quite busy building the SikoSoft/Theia website lately, so I haven't been checking my email quite as often, or going through my spam folder as I normally do.
I don't trust Thunderbird's "adaptive spam filter" at all, because it's proven to be incredibly unreliable in the past, no matter how much you "train" it. So this means, I actually sit down skimming through all my spam in the spam folder and delete everything manually I know is junk, and keep an eye peeled for real mail.
Since I haven't cleaned my spam folder lately, I had to go through 1600 messages just now! And that's, sadly, less than a weeks worth of spam to a single email account.
I guess this is what happens when you use the same email address for around 10 years...
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As I mentioned earlier, this week I've been spending almost all of my time working with building a Theia website and theme. This has meant listening to tons of music skipping in Windows as I use photoshop. *sigh*
I also spent ages on trying to perfectly even out the roundness of the corners of the title image. God damn, I must have brushed a little with the paintbrush or eraser and saved a second or two later... oh probably close to 50-60 times! And I'm only satisfied with the roundness in the left corner now, so I have to finish up the right corner tomorrow.
At least I've made a great deal of progress. I didn't finish it all as I wanted, but then again, I started working ahead on many other things (like the license and site terms of use).
Right now, it looks very much so like we will be seeing a July 12th release for the first public beta of Theia! 
Since I feel confident on time now, I think I will work a little more on some graphics for the site tomorrow, and do pretty much whatever I feel is most important throughout this week.
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We ended up making two trips down to Lund to pick up the damn game (cause the first time we came in, they didn't have it yet; and I had prebooked it here already). So some 3 hours later, I finally ended up getting it.
And funny too, because I haven't even tried it out or opened it yet, and it's about time for me to wrap up for the night.
I've been coding and designing all day. The SikoSoft site is coming along fine, but I keep coming up with new ideas, and the part of me that wants to add them quickly kind of side tracks me. But, I still have have the week left to finish up a site, and the theme is about half there now. So all I need is to finish the theme up and create a logo during this week.
Next week it is debugging, and performance improvements.
Hopefully I will manage to find some time tomorrow to play around with Ghostbusters a bit, cause I've looked forward to it quite a bit.
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I've been wanting to move back to a rounded corner approach in the default design of Theia, since it is, once again, back in fashion. It's been many years since I tried to incorporated a rounded feel to everything on the site (the last time I can remember was TT 2.0 about 8 years ago; coincidentally, the 2.0, yet ironically, it seemed to be a temporary fad which didn't last too long then).
Anyhow, I think I finally came up with an idea today as to how I can do such a thing without:
1) using any tacky javascripts, or any other layers processed on the client's end (these not only are not cross-platform, but occasionally cause a performance hit to the site or can slow it down or cause lag)
2) manually creating hundreds of different sized corners for the various background colors for the various places on the various themes; no way!
My idea instead is much nicer, since (if it works properly) it would render rounded corners on any table built with the Theia "Table" class, using GD library. Since I've managed to "master" the concept on rounding corners on images, I've come up with a similar plan that could work with tables too, but will require a bit more work.
I don't want to go into all the details of how I can see it working, because.. well, frankly I want to implement it myself first before I give anyone the opportunity to "borrow" anything.
Since this coming week is supposed to be used for building a Theia logo and theme for the software, I thought it might be a good time to try and throw that feature in as well, since such support seems to be hugely in demand these days.
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Adding these things has been a bitch, because I kept thinking of another thing that was needed as I was going along with it. It took me the whole day, but I've finally added all the necessary theme tools to the Theia admin panel.
The tools added being:
install theme
uninstall theme
modify theme
set default theme
generate them config file
enable / disable theme
upload logo image
I felt it was necessary to include a tool that generates the theme's installation/configuration file, for folks who intend on distributing themes they make. Plus, it makes it much easier on me since if I want to package the TT themes for download, I can easily generate the needed files for the themes.
There are still a few things you can't do with the theme management tools that I'd like you to be able to (edit CSS, create a theme from scratch, upload various files, and editing the templates), but these will have to wait until later since I really want to finally make a deadline!
Aside from the work on the theme tools, I also added several other things to the "active services" area, which can easily be turned on or off for everyone, members, guests, or just specific classes.
I didn't even start to work on the filter system, so I'm wondering now if it will be postponed, so I can move onto what I wanted to do this coming week instead.
Oh, and if you check out my history log, you will see I made $h!t loads of updates today:
http://www.levlive.com/history.php
Peace.
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My progress has been coming along pretty good so far this week. By this Sunday, I wanted to have all of the scheduled feature requests added. It started at 15, at the beginning of this week, and it is now down to 4, and that is not even considering I've added a few related things as well that weren't on the list!
So it just looks like I will meet my first deadline!
For the next week, I want to work on creating a theme for the Theia/Sikosoft website, and this will mean having to finally create some sort of logo... Grrr...
As usual, if you want to monitor the progress of Theia, check out the live history log here:
http://www.levlive.com/history.php
And, if you want to see the other feature requests I will be adding next, you can find them here (note: while this was just at 4, I just scheduled 3 more features, since they are necessary and I will probably have time before Sunday to do it all):
http://www.taintedthoughts.com/source/284?issue_project=2&issue_status=3
Also, once the Theia/SikoSoft website is up, I will create an official bug tracker, and feature request system there, and will try to focus on those reports more so than anything at TT, or anywhere else.
I also repackaged everything into the third alpha release, and have uploaded it to the same place (for those of you who have access to this location).
And finally, you may have noticed that I updated the version of Theia on my personal site today. This means there may be some new quirks I will have to sort out, so please feel free to contact me with any bugs, design issues, or anything else you think is wrong!
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The iPhone 3.0 OS was finally released today at 19:00 UTC.
I had been waiting for it for several hour earlier in the day before I found a notice from Telia (the sole Swedish telephone service provider for iPhone) confirming it's release at the above specified time.
About six minutes over and I was finally downloading it! The server wasn't nearly as slow as I thought it would be, since the package was some 230~ MB and it only took maybe 8 minutes. I was fearing a wait as long as an hour, so that came as a welcome surprise.
I've tried out some of the new features already, and they seem to work pretty well. I haven't gone over everything yet, but from the things that I have tried, it's looking good.
Though, for some reason, on the new voice recording program, it refuses to record sound through my Bluetooth headset, even though I have selected it as the audio device in the program's settings. Am I to understand that the sound input must come from the phone itself, and that you can only get sound from the headset? I hope that's not the case...
Oh, and I got a stupid OS error when launching Skype for the first time. I didn't get it the second time, but I'm wondering if the program isn't fully compatible with 3.0 yet. I hope they do an update soon anyhow, cause without bluetooth support, it's really annoying to talk for long periods of time.
If you have an iPhone, check it out by looking for an update for your iPhone in your iTunes program. It's free, and it has some of the most long awaited features that make it a must have (copy and paste!!!).
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Today I finally fired up my Wii and played Wii sports for a little under an hour.
It's been over a frigging year since I've even turned my Wii on, and I felt like playing something different a little less formal (hence, the Wii).
Fun is fun, and I like the idea of moving my fat ass around a little more, but man are the graphics on Wii horrid... bleh!
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I was quite impressed with Soylent Green, after seeing it for my first time.
I didn't know quite what to expect going into it, and haven't even heard of it from anyone else. The reason I decided to check it out was because we've been watching Futurama a lot lately. They make numerous references to Soylent products in Futurama, and I remember several from Simpsons episodes as well, so I did a bit of googling and found out it's all from "Soylent Green", the movie.
A really good movie too!
Quite powerful, even if mildly disturbing. You really 'ought to check it out if you like sci-fi, or futuristic depictions of how society could be.
You won't be disappointed!
I don't want to say more than that, because the less you know going into it, the more you may enjoy it.
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In one month's time I will finally make Theia (the package that runs my blog, and TT) available for public use (free of charge).
The first public release will be July 12, 2009.
It will be free (open-source), as I am a proud user and supporter of free software. Plus, I am not a man of money or greed, and I want it to be very clear that I don't write my software to earn money, but for the benefit of all of society.
While download and use will be free, there will be a few ways I hope to earn income (branding removal, installation, support).
The software license will be made available within a week or two. Because there are at least one or two things I disagree with in every single free software license I've seen, I will write my own.
The fees associated with branding removal, installation and support will also be made available shortly before release.
If you have a website, or access to a server with php & mysql, and you've been looking for a powerful CMS/SN platform, then your lucky day is coming soon, as I will be providing a powerful tool, with many of the features of similar paid software, for absolutely free!
Stay tuned (on my blog) for more information, as I am sure I will keep you all up to date in the next month!
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It feels like 95% of the IT jobs in this country are up in Stockholm... That's about a six hour drive from where I live (maybe more).
And since I am applying for the jobs that I am most suited to, this means that I'm basically being forced to apply for these jobs (plus, I am legally obliged to apply for jobs anywhere in the country; bullshit).
So I just got another response from a company who said they think I could be the person I am looking for, and asked if I could come in for a job interview sometime next week.
It costs probably around 100 bucks for me to even get up to Stockholm, all for some job interview that has no guarantee I will even get it.
Damn I'm so sick of this stupid unemployment system.
At least, I've made up my mind and decided to start publicly releasing, promoting and pushing Theia in just one month's time. It would be so nice if I could make it work after a few months so that I don't even need to bother with getting a job...
*sigh*
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Well, at least I can consul myself in the fact that I am not the only one that has been frustrated and pissed off by this change.
In Ubuntu 8.04, F-Spot would import your camera's images into the directory of your choice AND create a subdirectory structure that organizes the images based on their date.
In Ubuntu 9.04, however, many users have problems getting F-Spot to even place the images in the directory they specify (as it simply ignores what you say and puts them all in ~).
But worse than that (for me at least), is the fact that it just throws all your images from the camera into a single directory without organizing them into subdirectories!
What this means for me:
Since I format my camera's memory stick each time after transfering pictures, this means that the new images the camera is taking will have the same file names as ones I took and transfered before. Since F-Spot doesn't bother creating subdirectories, it means that you will be forced to either rename all your files after transfering them, delete them after transfering them, or move them after transfering them.
Why not take another route altogether and not force the users to do a damn thing after each transfer?
Grrr...
I've checked into several bug reports on this, and like always, the developers maintaining the reports and updates are incredibly condescending to the folks who have been having to deal with this, and smooth it all over by stating that this issue is "not important".
Maybe everyone doesn't want to have subdirectories with dates like I do, but at least give the users the option to choose themselves.
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I was googling around a bit, and since I saw lots of people who mention this problem, but no solid or reliable fix that works for everyone, I thought I'd provide what I believe to be the proper solution to it:
I myself first encountered it today after a fresh installation of Ubuntu 9.04.
Whenever my screen would switch over full screen mode, or switch back from it, the wallpaper would show for a split second. Not a big deal, but kinda annoying, especially when it comes out of nowhere.
So anyhow, yes, it is caused by Compiz. I tried various tests... basically with all the plug-ins and options that were already set to default. I tracked it down to coming from a single setting.
Open the "CompizConfig Settings Manager" program and click "General Options". On the first tab, "General", you will see a check box for an option reading "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows". This was checked for me by default, but after unchecking it, the problem immediately went away.
For any of you folks who still run into this, try what I mention above, because it was a quick and simple fix, and probably the source of the problem in the first place.
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First I think I should establish the fact that I have had a couple of trips in which:
1) either I ended up crying
(or)
2) i became incredibly depressed, uneasy and started panicking
Yet, from all I've seen so far, especially after how I felt the last time, I ended up after overcoming the sadness to find myself learning that there is no such thing as a bad trip: only bad interpretations (or failed interpretations).
See, this is what I believe. All the thoughts that bombard you as you hallucinate have a purpose. They aren't merely random, insignificant feelings or thoughts. Generally, they are clues to unresolved internal conflicts that have been plaguing you for years.
If you have a bad trip, I think what you really mean to say is you failed to understand what the images, feelings and thoughts meant. The overall experience was "bad" because you failed to understand what your mind was telling you, and it was "bad" because you learned nothing and weren't able to overcome what was making you feel the way you were.
I would never say I regret having those few nasty experiences that I did have, because in the end, I feel like the more intense the trip, the more beneficial it is to your personal development. Unless you feel this slap across your face every now and then, your brain may not take notice of the powerful conflicts your subconscious is still trying to solve.
With that in mind, I could never recommend someone to "hallucinate" for purely a partying purpose. I would only ever recommend it, if it at least part of you wants some insight into your inner workings, and you accept that what you may see about yourself and your life may scare you. If that doesn't bother you, then I would recommend an occasional hallucination, because it is probably the most powerful tool we have today to get insight into the mind, and in the end you may become a better person for what you have seen (in your mind) and learned.
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