I've been gone a week or so. Why? I've been working on Hack Mars and I haven't had anything really interesting come up. Today, I did a bunch of stuff. The picture is a dev picture. It shows you what I have so far to work with. Harsh, huh? One of these days. You see the mini version of the PDA which is the HM interface to everything electronic. The numbers 0-10 are printed centered in cells of the 5x10 table whose bounds are defined by the 256x256 texture.

The PDA may be familiar to some people. What is it? Well... I hate to say it, but I decided to take the design of a cd player. Why? Because it is futuristic and isn't simple or complex. These are the things I look for in objects. Hack Mars needs to be easy enough for me to make quickly, simple enough to be anime, complex enough to trick compel lull confuse convince the user into accepting HM as real. If you are creating an electronics device, you probably take many things into account. Many people like the iPod's interface. I think it's a poor fad. If it's actually as functional as people say it is, it may last past the next stupid fad. As a consumer (which I am on rare occasion), I think about usefulness first and foremost. Do I need a mp3 player? Well, I'm rarely away from my computer, so no. Do I need a microphone? I am going to record 20 hours of high quality audio. Obviously I need one. Do I need a cell phone? I am rarely away from my phone, so no. Do I need a car? I rarely have to get anywhere a bus can't get me. A car would be terribly expensive. I don't need a car. Do I need an expensive apartment? I live in a room I love with my computer which is right in the middle of the world. I need my room, but nothing more expensive for the moment. Do I need a 2600 t-shirt? A 2600 t-shirt would attract other hackers into a conversation and it would connect the idea of hacking to my persona to other people. I definately need a 2600 t-shirt.


Javantea in 2600 Shirt

I think my video card or drivers are flakey. This picture is the first proof I have for the bug. For quite a while I have had ugly errors in Enemy Territory textures. If you look closely at the png version of the pda, you can see 1px dots. Those were caused by the bug. A bug in the nVidia drivers wouldn't suprise me (the errors started with a new driver), but the card flaking out smacks of superstition. If you ever doubt hardware, check the software twice. Software errors are easy, hardware errors are hard. Of course, people are afraid of touching the hardware wrong and frying it, so they are superstitious.

It's no help that the hardware manufacturers reinforce this superstition by replacing hardware and providing poor solutions to software errors when the solution is quite simple. Thankfully, forums on the net are solving more and more problems. My friend is nearly obsessed with forums. I despise do not prefer them. My last 14 years in front of the computer ought to have taught me more than just quick hand-eye coordination and one handed typing skills. "_^