SpawnPoint

So.. I pre-registered witht he always hopeful prayer that I can get in, get my badge and sign up for some games real quickly.  Of course, never works that way.  I show up the DAY BEFORE the convention starts and I am #1342 in line.

Still.

Just for your entertainment, some videos I have taken so far.  They are not flash, they are all 5-30mb files. So I apologize. 

Oh - if you are easily offended ... don't watch.

BUNNY PROTECTION: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00009.MPG
Startrek Bum: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00010.MPG
 Me.. My kids..and Tony..Jedis.. and BEER: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00012.MPG
Are you parents here?: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00013.MPG
Invasion of the Kilts: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00014.MPG
My Friends are not Normal Either: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00016.MPG
Tony/Labec: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00017.MPG
Break Back Mountain Fans: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00018.MPG
Waiting..Watching.. Part1 (Stargate): http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00019.MPG
Waiting.. Watching.. Part2 (Hat): http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00020.MPG
Waiting.. watching.. part 3: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00021.MPG
Harry Potter fans - be fearful: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00022.MPG
Chicks in Black defending the Universe: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00023.MPG
The Key Master: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00024.MPG
The First of the Goth Bands: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00026.MPG
The Marriot: http://www.spawnpoint.com/dragoncon/M2U00027.MPG

Coming and going coming and going..  Thats what its about when you travel.

Started off by leaving the house at 8:15 am with my good friends Anthony and Jing.  This will be.. the 15th DragonCon we have attended together (Anthony and I.. #3 for Jing).

Got to airport at 9.

Checked in.. no lines.. w00t..  eating really nasty Burger King at 10am.

Want to get sick at 10:15

Take off at 11.

Fall asleep to My Chemical Romance on the MP3 player.

Woke up in Atlanta.

It was 84 in Orlando when I left. It is 92 in Atlanta when I get off plane.  Always a joy.

$40 later in a cab ride to the Hilton on PeachTree and we are at our very expensive hotel preparing to enjoy the next 5 days of Geekness.   Stay tunes, because I will be including VIDEOS shortly of the experience!!

Heading off to dinner.. People are already asking for photos, don't believe that uber-conservative-neo-con-Republican would dress up...

See below!

I have been a long time watcher of Microsoft.  I generally support most of their business activities though some times they do some lame brain things.

DX 10 and Vista for one.  Vista has not been a killer hit.  Sure, I run it.. but I 'm always installing stupid crap on my PC environment just to 'check it out'.  However, its clearly not ready for my clients or for others I have to support (MOM).   That being said, XP is going to be around for a while yet.  Even if SP 1 and SP 2 for Vista is killer and it forces many people to make the plunge into Vista.. still.. a LOT of PCs will never get upgraded. Too many people wait for the NEXT PC before they go to the NEXT OS.

Gape Newell from Valve agrees apparently. Making DX 10 supported by Vista only means that game developers have no choice but to build in avid support for DX9.x and DX 10.

"Valve's President Gabe Newell is calling Microsoft's choice to make DirectX 10 Vista-only a 'terrible mistake' that has harmed gaming. His company's latest hardware study shows the strategy has not moved gamers onto Vista. The result is that almost no one is using the newest version of DirectX, and companies are shying away from creating new input devices that support it. Nine months after release, after Christmas, after graduation, and with school mostly back in session, still only 8% of gamers are using it."

Full article found at http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/94869

Shane Robinett aka Weaver says:
Shane Robinett aka Weaver says:
big.  not bit.  You wish you had a bit head.  01010101010

Tony Bevilacqua says:
..

Tony Bevilacqua says:
nerd

Shane Robinett aka Weaver says:
hmm..  01110 00101 10010 00100

Shane Robinett aka Weaver says:
N E R D

Shane Robinett aka Weaver says:
macro that.  "YOU ARE A 01110 00101 10010 00100 "

Tony Bevilacqua says:
...

I really can't afford this... another version of Desktop Tower Defense is coming out.  Seriously - it's cost me money.  Between that and reading 6 Harry Potter books in 7 days.... well.. I am not doing any work.

See below as to - why -

New Edge, a leading Russian publisher and developer of java-games for mobile phones is announcing the worldwide launch of Tower Defense: Wrath of Gods, the first tower defense game for the mobile market. Now millions of people can enjoy their favorite “easy to play but hard to master” game on their mobile phones.

Tower Defense: Wrath of Gods is made in the best tower defense games tradition and brings gamers absolutely addictive gameplay combined with unique features. Besides superior graphics and exciting storyline the game features different tower and trap types, new kinds of air and land monsters and a number of bosses, which make it diverse and catching. With 50 increasingly challenging levels of non-stop action players are to figure out their own strategy and test their worth, which gets even more exciting due to the RPG element.

“Defying the genre of Tower Defense: Wrath of Gods could be a tough task as besides being a strategy the game also features action and RPG elements, that make it unusual and truly addictive” says Sergej Polovnikov, Chief Editor for Content-review.com

After Tower Defense: Wrath of Gods release in Russia in June 2007 it got immediately to the top positions and is still holding it. “When the game was released in Russia we did expect some generous response from users, but we never expected it to be so great” says Olga Znamenskaja, New Edge’s Commercial Director. “There were a lot of discussions in different forums, where users were sharing their impressions, discussing their strategies and boasting about their achievements in survival mode”.

The English version of Tower Defense: Wrath of Gods is now available for distribution and is expected to find great response from the game fans and other mobile customers searching for exciting content.

Read more about the game at: http://www.newedge.ru/en/ourgames/td.html

Waye worked hard tonight on a problem he certainly didn't even want to come close to tackling.. it sure as hell wasn't fun and he is very proud of his regex expression that he came up with to resolve the problem.  I do believe he spent 3 hours to write the following..

preg_replace("/<{$tag} (.*?){$attr}=[\\\"'].*?[\\\"'](.*?)>/i", '<' . $tag . ' \\1 \\2 >', $input);

Luckily, this can be expressed in more human terms to categorize the understanding of this eloquent piece of problem solving. As it might be said to the laymen;

Using hungarion notation and globalized regex variables, we are expressely managing the float operation of an nvarchar type identifier. I find that this np(x+1) type operand serves us best within the dynamic schema we have defined.

There ya go.. everyone understands now, right?

Generally, when I am writing a long post I like to summarize it at the beginning so that people know what I am writing about.  In this case, I am writing about the general formatting and politeness that goes with any writing style.

KISS.  Keep it simple stupid.  Very important catchphrase, learned it in the military where it is practiced almost exclusively if you are a non-commissioned officer (enlisted man).  Proper Officers practice KISC.  Keep it super complex.  Not very fun if you have to deliver on their orders.

Another important aspect is The Three Rules.  Tell them what you are going to tell them.  Tell them.  Tell them what you told them.  Also very important.

In summary, I just told you.. telling you.. and well.. reminding you that I told you.

You in a clan? I suppose so. Most of you are. We are working steadily on a new function here called Clan Profiles.  Clan website.. clan tracking.. member tracking... uploads. You name it, we are trying to do it.