I am off to Calgary this morning with Jane and Andrew to visit some friends. It’s amazing how many people have moved south in the last year or so! Anyway, I’ll be back sometime on Sunday.
I am always on Twitter though!
Team Fortress 2 Release Date: October 9th
One of the most delayed and over-hyped games of all time has finally been given a release date: Team Fortress 2 (TF2) will ship on October 9th, 2007 along with Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Portal, according to a report at Shacknews. Regarding the platforms:
Valve is handling development of the games on PC and Xbox 360, with EA UK’s Chertsey, Surrey office bringing the titles to PlayStation 3.
Today’s news follows rumors originating last month that the PlayStation 3 versions of the games would be delayed into 2008. Valve’s Doug Lombardi noted to Shacknews that development has been progressing well on all three platforms.
I used to be a Team Fortress Classic (TFC) addict so I am definitely interested in giving TF2 a try. I am really excited that the game will be available for the Xbox 360 too!
I really hope TF2 doesn’t suck. Since being announced way back in 1999, the game has undergone a number of design changes, with co-designer Robin Walker admitting that Valve built “probably three to four different games” before settling on a design. Let’s hope they picked the right one!
Read: Shacknews
Tutoring CMPUT 101 – Introduction to Computing
A few months ago I was walking through HUB Mall at the U of A when I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen since high school. We had a brief chat, and I of course told her about all of the geeky things I do. Turns out she was taking CMPUT 101 this semester (spring term), and asked if I’d be willing to tutor her. I said sure, not knowing what I was getting myself into!
Her final exam was today (hopefully she did well) so our last session was yesterday. Throughout her course we met twice a week for roughly two hours each time to go over the concepts she was learning in lecture, and to work on her labs. It was a really good experience for me, and she said my help was really important for helping her understand the material. Actually, she told me yesterday “you have a gift you should share! maybe you should join the tutor registry.” I think she was being overly nice 🙂
Here are some thoughts:
- As this was an introduction course (that I never took actually) I really had to refresh my memory on some of the topics (like Two’s Complement). Mostly it all came flowing back to me though!
- There were definitely some frustrating times, for her and for me! She would have trouble grasping a concept and I would have trouble explaining it. We worked through it though, and found a way for it to make sense. So I learned that tutors need patience.
- I get the feeling that taking a computer course in a compressed term (spring or summer) is quite hard, especially if you’re not a computer-person! The content is just rushed.
- I think tutoring a higher level class would be fun, where the student already knows the basics.
I know she’ll pass the course, so I am just eager to see how well she does! She gave me a gift card for Starbucks yesterday as a thank you – incredibly nice of her, but completely unnecessary!
I don’t know if I am going to join the tutor registry, but I’ll definitely considerate it now that I have some experience.
SSDD – Podcasting is just a word!
I don’t know how many times this is going to come up, but I’ll keep posting about it until I don’t have to anymore. Podcasting is just a word. It means different things to different people. All that matters is the idea or technology or process that we use the word podcasting to refer to.
PodZinger recently renamed themselves to EveryZing, prompting Ivan at Vecosys to proclaim that podcasting is dead (via Podonomics):
You know that Podcasting is over as a bankable concept when companies start rebranding themselves to escape the word.
Absolutely incorrect. The concept is alive and well. The word podcasting – well maybe it is starting to fall out of favor. The two should not be confused, however! We can use any word we like to refer to the concept, and it remains as valid today as it was three years ago.
(By the way, if you’re unsure of what SSDD means, here’s the definition.)
Read: Vecosys
Evil stuff from Apple with the iPhone
I say ‘evil’ and you say ‘Microsoft’, right? Wrong. When you think evil, you should think Apple. At least that’s what I thought after reading this:
One of the first things you’ll need to do with your new iPhone is register with the iTunes Store in order to activate the handset.
Presumably, most of the iPhone early adopters will be Apple devotees with current iTunes Store accounts, but for those who don’t have an account already, have your credit card ready during the iPhone setup process.
Imagine the iPhone was a new product from Microsoft and it required you to have a Windows Media Player account (via Live.com or something). Would there not be an uproar? You can bet your ass there would be. People would be bashing Microsoft like there’s no tomorrow.
Why aren’t more people complaining about Apple? Double standards suck.
Read: crave
Graduation Day at the U of A
After six long years, I finally walked across the stage today at the Jubilee Auditorium to complete my undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta. I am now the proud holder of a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematical Sciences (Minor in Economics).
For me, graduating from university is a stepping stone to bigger and better things. I’ve done my fair share of complaining over the last few years, at times wondering if completing my degree was even worth it. I stuck with it though, and I guess time will tell if it pays off. I am guessing it’ll be many years from now when I finally recognize some of the things I learned during my time at the U of A. I think the best things in life are usually like that.
The ceremony itself was rather long. The first hour contained speech after speech, while the second hour involved over 700 graduates walking across the stage. The honorary degree was presented to Dr. Maria Klawe, who gave a very interesting (if slightly long) convocation address. In her remarks, Dr. Klawe mentioned three pieces of advice:
- Fail openly, and fail often.
- Avoid jerky behaviour.
- Endeavor to become good at something you find difficult.
The highlight for me was when Dr. Klawe explained how she came up with #2. Back in 1990 she had the pleasure (or displeasure it sounds like) of meeting Steve Jobs. She was quick to point out that she admires his many impressive accomplishments, but at the end of the day, she remembers that he acted like a jerk. As a result she vowed to always treat others with respect, no matter how wealthy or famous she became.
There are a lot of people who supported me throughout university, but I have to say thanks to Mom and Dad, first and foremost. My parents have always been there to support me in everything I’ve done, and I really appreciate it. Unfortunately my Mom couldn’t come today, but I know she would have if she could have! Extra thanks to my Dad for pulling double duty as my photographer this afternoon (I’ll post more photos tomorrow).
Thanks also to everyone else who helped me get to this point – you know who you are. I appreciate both the encouragement and constructive criticism.
Finally I am done with school! Huzzah! Now I can focus on my career and, um, repaying my student loans.
Kristen Bell should play Supergirl on Smallville
Breaking news Smallville fans! Well, as breaking as news can be in the off-season. The CW announced today that Supergirl will be joining the cast for season 7 (via KryptonSite):
This fall, Supergirl will be joining the lineup of burgeoning superheroes and villains in SMALLVILLE. Supergirl is the latest DC Comics character to join the series that has previously welcomed Martian Manhunter, The Green Arrow, The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and Brainiac. Casting for the Supergirl role is currently underway.
A character named Kara-El has already made an appearance on Smallville, played by Adrianne Palicki. Fans will know that Kara-El turned out not to be Kryptonian at all. Thus it makes sense that they would look for a different actress to play the real Supergirl aka Kara-El.
My vote is for Kristen Bell! Now that we know Veronica Mars is not returning to The CW next season, Kristen is mostly available, as her only duties will be voicing the unseen narrator of the new show Gossip Girl.
Kristen is young, hot, and has a lot of fans (myself included). I think playing Supergirl would be great for both Kristen and Smallville!
Read: CBS PressExpress
Safari comes to Windows
It’s no secret that an incredibly large number of web developers build sites only for Internet Explorer, ignoring standards and other browsers. It drives me nuts. Unless instructed by the client to focus on a particular browser, I build sites that work on as many different browsers and platforms as possible. Take Podcast Spot, for instance. We want it to work anywhere, no matter what technology the user happens to have installed. So far, I think we’ve done a good job. There’s always room for improvement however.
Since we’re a “Microsoft shop” we don’t have any Macs in the office. For testing, we’ve relied on friends and the incredible BrowserCam service. It would be nice to just have a Mac though. Or, you know, Safari on Windows:
Apple® today introduced Safari™ 3, the world’s fastest and easiest-to-use web browser for Windows PCs and Macs. Safari is the fastest browser running on Windows, based on the industry standard iBench tests, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.
Let me first say that I think this is absolutely fantastic news! The more standards-adhering browsers available the better. That said – what about Opera?! Dammit why does everyone ignore the best cross-platform browser. Argh!
You can download Safari here. It’s just over 8 MB. I just installed it and already found a bug. I have three monitors, and dragging Safari to a different screen than the one it launched in and maximizing causes the application to disappear. Oh well, it’s beta. Looks exactly like Safari on the Mac to me though (and that kind of sucks, I hate how Apple completely ignores the Windows look and feel).
There’s lots more discussion from around the blogosphere here.
Read: Apple
Welcoming ColdFusion to the world of .NET
Two weeks ago Adobe unleashed a public beta of ColdFusion 8, the first major release of the technology since Adobe acquired Macromedia. One of the new features in version 8 is native support for .NET objects, which makes it simple to build business logic in .NET and still utilize ColdFusion for the user experience layer. Thus, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to ColdFusion developers – you can now easily use the very powerful .NET framework as part of your applications!
If you’d like to get your hands dirty, you can download the beta here. Then check out this code example from Ben Forta, Adobe’s Senior Technical Evangelist. He shows you how to use .NET to retrieve information about the hard drives on your server.
I asked Jason Delmore, Product Manager for ColdFusion, for his thoughts on adding .NET support. Here’s what he said:
I think the point that our .NET capabilities emphasize is that there are strengths to each development technology…and an environment that allows for heterogeneous development can leverage the strengths of each of those environments at the same time.
It’s a good point: ColdFusion provides another option for integration. Of course you’d like to use .NET all the time, but if you have to use some Java perhaps to integrate with an existing system, ColdFusion lets you combine both pretty easily. It also allows you to take advantage of PDF, Flex, and other technologies if you’re so inclined.
Unfortunately Jason declined to share what the next version of ColdFusion will bring, but it sounds like Adobe will make calling ColdFusion code from .NET much easier, with a “.NET Gateway.”
The new release of ColdFusion is obviously good news for CF developers, but I think .NET developers should be happy about it too. Any technology that makes it easier to use my code in another way is a good technology in my book!
Read: Adobe Labs
Notes for 6/10/2007
Here are my weekly notes:
- The rookie Lewis Hamilton won his first F1 race at the Canadian Grand Prix today. I called it! He’s had an amazing start to his career – 6 races, 6 podiums.
- So far the applications on Facebook have worked fairly well, but I knew it couldn’t last forever. I was surfing some profiles tonight and saw one of the applications had puked out a bunch of error text. It didn’t affect the page at all, it just looked ugly.
- Have you seen the logo for the London 2012 games? I think it sucks.
- Eric Rice has an interesting discussion on his blog about Google Maps StreetView and terrorism. My take: it doesn’t make terrorism any easier or more likely.
- This Matrix-inspired comic about Vista SP1 is really funny, but really geeky. That said, I absolutely love The Matrix, so I am not complaining!
- I absolutely love Rihanna’s new album, Good Girl Gone Bad. My favorite song at the moment is “Don’t Stop the Music” but the entire thing is just really enjoyable. Maybe I’ll write a review this week.
- Tuesday afternoon is my convocation – finally! I am not looking forward to the ceremony so much as I am looking forward to not having to deal with school anymore.
MasterMaq's Blog 