August 2004

I’ve been quiet here as of late, but hopefully that’ll change now that I’m more settled into my new home. I’ve moved to Palo Alto and had my first day at VMware this past Monday. So far, I have to say it’s a rather cool place to work. The employees are nice, and my team seems very dedicated. Among others, I’m working with Philip Langdale from Galeon, so now when I hit a Galeon bug, there’s no escape for him.

Today will be my third day, and I’m hoping to actually get some working code written. I spent the past couple of days getting up to speed on things and getting my Linux box upgraded from RH 7.3 to Fedora Core 2. Man, Linux has come a long way.

The new apartment is great. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, so when the girls come over, or family, or anybody else, there’s plenty of room for them. I’ve made the second bedroom my office, although in time, the futon is coming in here to serve as a couch/bed for guests. Of course, some pictures are available.

I’ve been stuck on dial-up since I moved here. I have this horrible fear that for some reason, the number I’m using won’t be local and I’ll rack up thousands in phone bills, but that’s probably just because I’m unfamiliar with the area and haven’t used dial-up in so long. Saturday, my DSL is being set up, so perhaps I’ll be more sane then.

I attempted to take advantage of DirecTV’s special offer last week. They offered three receivers and installation for free. It sounded good, so I had them come out. They brought one receiver, not three, but I figured, what the hell, as long as I get my DirecTV. Three hours later, the installation guy gave up and took the equipment home. On top of all that, my “free” installation was $16, and I still don’t have a receiver or installed dish. I guess if you want something done right, do it yourself, but I really need to bitch out DirecTV today or tomorrow and get them to send me my equipment.

Last week, some of my friends visited. We ended up going to Great America, which apparently is only about 10 miles away from here, and had a blast. I think I may have to get a season pass now. We found a costume photograph shop thing and had a wild west pic taken. I’m the guy on the top-right. The deal wasn’t too bad, either. $13 a person, and each got a 5×7″ and 4 wallet photos.

I’d better wrap this up, as I’m leaving for work soonish. The total walk and bus time to work is only about 25 mins, so it’s not so bad, and I’ve learned not to get there before 10. Nobody is there.

I’m up quite a bit later than I wanted to be tonight. I’ve been packing some things up in preparation to move on Saturday, and it’s taking forever. Plus, there’s just a lot I can’t take down yet, like the computers, bed, TV, etc. I’ve done about all I’m going to do tonight, so now I’m just in hacking and laundry mode.

I’m finally getting around to some of the cleanup work I’ve wanted to do in Galago, API-wise. There’s some work that I need to get to, but since I may be without Internet for awhile at the apartment, I’m not so sure I should start it just yet. I don’t want to break things too much.

One thing I plan to do at some point in the near future is get a little computer set up for my 4 year old sister, so that she can play her games (Tux Paint, Tux Typing, and a few others) and see me through webcam. For this, I decided I would create a custom menu program thingie for her, and then realized it could be used for kids in general. It would feature a nice, happy little interface for running the programs that the parents have set up. I would eventually include some Galago support so that little indicators could appear at the top of the screen (optional, and probably for older kids) with drop-down menus letting the kid IM, e-mail, send pictures/files, or initiate a video conference with the person. I don’t know when I would find the time for this, though.

Ah, my blanket is finally washed. Back to that.

I found out last night that the game Peasant’s Quest was finally released. A demo was out for a little while showing off this game, which boasts an impressive 16 colors and 2 channels of sound. It’s from the creators of the Trogdor game, also on Homestar Runner.

The game is like the old Kings Quest and other games of the time. You are Rather Dashing, a peasant who seeks revenge on Trogdor the Burninator, who burninated your tiny, puny little cottage. To reach Trogdor, you must solve a series of puzzles, many of which make you think and hunt around for a bit. The game is hilarious, full of comments and hidden actions. And Naked Ned, who I still can’t figure out.

For a comedic flash game, Peasant’s Quest is actually fairly challenging. Sure you can beat the game without trouble, but you really have to think about some things, and getting those last couple of points can be difficult. All in all, it’s a great way to waste a couple hours of your life.