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    Download OPML file OPML

    Website may be up and down over next few months. I'm currently doing a complete overhaul of everything. Going back to simple individual .htm pages, new overall site theme, sanitizing and cleaning up html of all pages and blog posts, attempting to implement a new tooling and publishing system etc etc.

    Unity Day 1-2

    Published 9/15/2011 by createdbyx in News | Unity
    Tags: ,

    I have taken a look at Unity and have decided to make an extra effort to try and dive deeper into it and learn more. The last time I even took a look at unity was quite some time ago, probably not long after it became availible. I've decided to try and document my learning process here in the blog.

    The current iteration 3.4 seems promising, from the videos I've watched and some of the reading I've done on it. I am currently working out of town for about two weeks so I have no internet access and must rely solely on the Unity documentation.

    Problems

    1. Poor documentation! Unity comes with help docs but I have yet to find any starting point guide. I can't find a API other then what C# language/api features are available. I need a clean clear and concise api reference documentation for Unity if I am to figure out how to use it. First and foremost I am a programmer so without an API to browse through I'm lost. At least in Visual Studio you have the Object Browser and can browse trough the assembles and read the documentation.
    2. Poor UI. One of the bigger drawbacks is that the unity UI is that it is to "custom" aka programmer designed. It works but the look and feel is too cumbersome and nor easy to work through. To much reliance on File menu structures rather then say a context aware Microsoft Office style tool bar.
    3. Can't determine the exact nature of the scripting system, There seems to be a choice of JavaScript or C# or some other language I have never herd of called "Boo".
    4. Poor flow control.
    5. I have zero clue where to start. I am having trouble even trying to get a single object to move in 3D space with keyboard input.

    Unanswered Questions

    1. How do I respond to keyboard events and move an object?

    Notable Discoveries

    1. Democratizing game development as the Unity team describes it, with Union and how they are trying to setup a way for Unity developers to market and sell there games an a vast array of platforms from set top boxes, XBox, PS3, Wii, PC/Mac etc.
    2. The Unity team seems to be in talks and making deals with more and more AAA publishers and game companies regarding Unity. This give them credit as a legit and serious contender in the game dev space.
    3. They provide a free version of Unity that can compile your game

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    Zider Revisited

    Published 9/11/2011 by createdbyx in News | Programming
    Tags: ,

    I've been making numerous updates to my Zider project over at codeplex. Other then that I have not been getting much done programming wise, been busy with other things.


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    How to apply multiple pixel shader effects to an element in silverlight 4!

    Published 7/14/2011 by createdbyx in News | Programming

    I was trying to figure out how I could apply multiple shader effects to a UIElement in xaml but was having problems. Then I realized I could just use a nesting approach and embed my ui element into a hierarchy of canvas elements or some other container control and apply an effect to that canvas.  I have provided an example below of how to do it in xaml ...

    
 -->
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    xmlns:cbx="clr-namespace:cbxSLEffects;assembly=cbxSLEffects"         
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="552" d:DesignWidth="702" Name="rootCtrl" Loaded="rootCtrl_Loaded">

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    Entity Framework 4.1 Code First SqlCe 4.0 without config files!

    Published 7/3/2011 by createdbyx in Example | News | Programming
    Tags: , , ,

    GAH! Google is such phail, Bing is no better either. Been trying to find out how to use EF + SqlCe without having to specify any settings in my web.config.

    Finally I found this page on unit testing that pointed be in the right direction.

    And here is how to do it in code!

        
    public class testModel
    {
        [Key]
        [Required]
        public int ID { get; set; }
        [Required]
        public int SomeID { get; set; }
    }

    public class MyClass : System.Data.Entity.DbContext
    {
        public MyClass() { }
        public MyClass(string filename) : base(filename) { }
        
        public DbSet TableTest { get; set; }
    }
   
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {

        public ActionResult Index()
        {
            var path = this.Context.Server.MapPath("~/bin/");
            Database.DefaultConnectionFactory = new SqlCeConnectionFactory("System.Data.SqlServerCe.4.0", path, "");
            Database.SetInitializer(new DropCreateDatabaseIfModelChanges());
            var tmp = new MyClass("test.sdf");
            tmp.TableTest.Add(new testModel() { SomeID = 5 });
            tmp.SaveChanges();

            return this.View(); 
        }
    }

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    Random agrivations

    Published 6/28/2011 by createdbyx in News
    Tags:

    ISP's frustrate me sometimes. I was playing around with some numbers in order to gain some perspective.

    Crude Number Crunching

    Average days in a month is days in year divided by months equals average days in month.

    365 / 12 = 30.416

    avg days in month divided by 24 hrs in a day
    30.416 * 24 = 729.984 (hrs in a month)
    729.984 * 60 = 43,799.04 (minutes in month)
    43,799.04 * 60 = 2,627,942.4 (seconds in a month)

    Total monthly transfer cap equals 75 Gb at 5Mbit (downstream) connection

    75 * 1000 = 75,000 Mb
    75,000 * 1000 = 75,000,000 Kb
    75,000,000 * 1000 = 75,000,000,000 bytes
    75,000,000,000 * 8 = 600,000,000,000 bits

    Bits of data per month divided by average number of seconds per month
    600,000,000,000 / 2,627,942.4 = 228,315.5064 Bits per second

    Converted back to MBits sec
    228,315.5064 / 1000 = 228.3155064 KBits sec
    228.3155064 / 1000 = 0.2283155064 MBits sec

    Actual Mbit per sec cap is equal to 0.228 Mbit/s

    So you would need to be transferring data all day every day for the entire month at a minimum of 0.228Mbits a sec and at no point in time
    could you ever drop below that transfer speed. Only then would you reach the 75Gb monthly cap.

    I pay for $50 month for up to 5Mbit connection speed as it is advertised. But technically speaking my connection speed is 0.228 Mbit/s if I want to remain within the 75Gb
    monthly transfer cap.

    Or to put it another way somebody with a really good dial up connection at 28.53Kb/s could reach the 75 Gb transfer cap.

    My argument is that my ISP is providing a huge transfer speed but then turning around and restricting how much data can actually be transferred. Thus negating the transfer speed
    all together.

    The actual monthly transfer cap if you use the 5Mbit/s advertised speed is as fallows

    Bits per sec transfer speed multiplied by 2,627,942.4 seconds in a month

    5,000,000 * 2,627,942.4 = 13,139,712,000,000 Bits
    13,139,712,000,000 / 8 = 1,642,464,000,000 Bytes
    1,642,464,000,000 / 1000 = 1,642,464,000 Kb
    1,642,464,000 / 1000 = 1,642,464 Mb
    1,642,464 / 1000 = 1,642.464 Gb

    1,642.464 Gb potential data per month transferred. Assuming that you were able to transfer at the advertised speed of 5Mbit/s and at no point in time
    could you ever drop below that transfer speed for the entire month.

    1,642.464 / 75 = 21.89952 That's over 21 times the actual monthly cap of 75Gb of monthly transfer.

    Retarded policies and plans

    Basically the whole idea of ISP's putting a monthly transfer cap on customers internet traffic is ridiculous in my opinion. For example given what I laid out above my transfer cap is 1,642.464Gb assuming that I can download at 5Mbit/s and at no point in time could I ever drop below that transfer speed for the entire month.Which is impossible because 5Mbit's that my isp offers is just a "potential" download speed the actual speed is slower.

    So by putting a cap on the speed at which I can transfer data they are all ready putting a cap on how much I can transfer per month.

    A traffic monitoring that has never worked

    My current cable isp (CityWest) took over another cable isp (Monarch) that had been operating in the area. The CityWest used the exact same software Monarch used for customers to log into and check there internet usage, create and manage there email etc. There has only been one slight problem that seems to have persisted for the last 10 years from the old isp Monarch to the current isp CityWest. The traffic usage page has never fucking worked and has never worked for the last 10 years. All you ever get is a 404 or cgi error page.  Hmmm isn't that interesting.

    I left my original isp (Monarch) and moved over to a different company that offered dsl (Telus). I made the move because at the time I was playing a lot of Counter Strike: Source and I was getting bad latency times. After moving over to telus my latency times went way down. Then up to about 2 years ago I left telus because they were claiming I was going over there monthly traffic limits by a lot. Like 2-3 times over the limit. There traffic usage website was reporting some very suspect numbers that was totally wonky. After they cut my internet connection a few times and fighting with them to get it turned back on, guess what had happened.

    Somehow telus managed to lose my account in a move over to a new system. I was still operating under the old system so my traffic usage was fucked up. What I was seeing on the telus website was different then what the operator was seeing on there end.

    Now by this time Monarch had been bought out by CityWest and after the aggravation with telus I said fuck it I'm going back to cable internet. So I signed on with CityWest. It didn't take long for me to figure out that CityWest simply inherited the old Monarch systems. As soon as I logged in to the customer service page I saw that it was the exact same page Monarch was using and hey hey guess what! After 7 years the internet traffic usage page was still returning a 404/cgi error page.

    Sigh.

    Flip Flops. Suspect = NetFlix

    A few months ago my ISP (CityWest) sent me a letter that they will be starting to charge people who go over there monthly plan. As if to suggest they were not charging people who went over there monthly limit in the first place even thought they claimed they would. Then after a few months passed there was no updates on there website. Then they made a news post ...

    "In November, we sent letters to our customers to point out that there are usage limits on our Internet plans, and that we planned to begin charging for over usage in March. 

    Since then we have decided to delay billing for over usage so that we can provide better information to our customers.  CityWest customers will not be billed for any usage over their plan limits until further notice. 

    As we work towards this transition, we will be providing more information to our customers."

    As it turns out just after they made the initial announcement that they would be charging people that go over there monthly usage Netflix came to Canada! Netflix in recent years now claims the largest overall internet traffic in north America.

    Coincidence I think not. "Netflix Lowers Data Usage By 2/3 For Members In Canada" The blog title says it all. Not long after netflix came to canada they reduced there data streaming for canadien customers so us poor little Canadians would not go over our traffic limits. Again only more proof of how behind the times canada is getting in terms of what our isp's have to offer.

    I am a dedicated netflix user. I watch 1-3 shows a day somtimes more. I don't own a tv and I stopped watching tv years ago. So netflix streaming movies is ideal for me.

    Conclusion

    As with a lot of things, I started writing this a while ago but have not gotten around to finishing it until now. The power of the internet as a communications platform has exploded onto the world and within two very short decades has changed the course of human history forever. It has led to the devastation of countless industries. From classified newspaper ads, music, movies, tv, gaming, crowd sourcing, basically anything involving the transfer of information.

    The internet and access to it is becoming as important to society as the very air we breath.


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    Magic 8 ball show me the future!

    Published 6/26/2011 by createdbyx in Games | News | Programming | Silverlight

    I was reading up on the new features comming in silverlight 5. And it seems to me that one day we may very well see silverlight running on the XBOX thus completing the trifecta (PCs/XBOX/WF7).

    It really makes sense if you think about it. Silverlight is designed to run on almost any pc/mac hardware and with the introduction of xna graphics features in SL5 I'd bet microsoft is planning to make silverlight availible on xbox one day similar to there current xna/xbox setup.


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    Birdies and kewl machines!

    Published 6/24/2011 by createdbyx in News

    Pair of wood peckers made a nest in a tree next to a pond near Jackpine flats just out side of Terrace, BC.

    Came across this cool machine. It's the quicker picker up-er!


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    Time for a log dump

    Published 5/4/2011 by createdbyx in News

    Just finished using the internet archive wayback machine to add historical blog posts to this site that were previously missing. My blog entries now stretch back as far as June 6, 2002.

    Here is a cbxChangeLogger dump of all the changes ...

    New Content

    Updates

    Removed Content

    • Tuesday, May 03, 2011 (Page): Code Snips (Old)

     


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    Toys made simple

    Published 4/29/2011 by createdbyx in News
    Tags:

    Just watched a cool video about simple toys made from common household or trash items for kids, and thoguht it was worth mentioning.

    http://www.ted.com/talks/arvind_gupta_turning_trash_into_toys_for_learning.html


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    System.Console.WriteLine("Back to bizniz");

    Published 4/25/2011 by createdbyx in News
    Tags: , ,

    My World of Warcraft account has finally expired again so hopefully now I will have time to spend getting some work done on my various projects.

    List of recent site changes

    New Content

    Updates

     


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    Created by: X

    Just another personal website in this crazy online world

    Name of author Dean Lunz (aka Created by: X)
    Computer programming nerd, and tech geek.
    About Me -- Resume