More Map Madness!

Check out this isometric view of my compound in the map I posted yesterday. Pretty fun stuff!



Top left side of the map has a small building that is the spawn area for the world. I made that safer to spawn in by building around it. Lower right by the water is the docks. Both spawn building and docks are linked by a service tunnel to the central compound.

Running to the left is the rail tracks for mine carts to my mine. In the compound itself is a Greenhouse in the upper left, house just under it, mine cart station below the house. On the right side of the compound is a workshop with about 10 ovens and a fountain down and to the right. Between the fountain and mine cart station is the monster pit which farms monsters. :P

Maps, maps, maps...

I found a program that lets me make maps of the areas discovered in Minecraft. It's a pretty slick little program and can do everything from general surface mapping to cave mapping based on the save file. The program is called Cartograph by someone named ZomBuster.

Check out this map of one of my saves below, you will have to zoom in to the pixel level in an image viewer to make out some really small details. Larger things like buildings and stuff shouldn't require as much zoom.



See if you can make out my settlement in the map. Should look like a goofy pipe with the tail going to a snowy peak near by. That tail is a dual mine cart track which allows me to ride a mine cart roller coaster of sorts over mobs safely as well as carry extra ore back in carts with trunks.

Minecraft Monster Grinder

So I've had an itching lately for blowing things up. I want to play with a TNT cannon that I've only been able to gather enough gunpowder for one shot in the past month. That means I need a LOT more gunpowder but I don't want to cheat to get it either.

So whats the best way to get gunpowder? Kill Creepers. What's the safest way to kill em? Drown em! So I did some research and came across this monster trap in these two videos. Props to Colbycheeze for the videos.

Video #1

Video #2

So now I have a basic blueprint, time to build! First I need a place to build my trap, hmmmm.. time to dig!



I won't go too deep for this.



The bottom of the trap, that is where I stand so all the drops float right to me.



As you can see, the monster will sink to where the glass is in the distance and drown. Their drops will float out from under the glass to me. Notice also how I have the ladder above the water so it doesn't interfere with the current?



The room above is the second safe zone, notice the cactus plants in the wall? They catch spiders since spiders are so big and can't fit down the drowning hole. Spider drops fall in to the hole as they die and float to me. I also made good use of lighting and storage chest placement so I don't hurt myself accidentally against the cactus.



It's hard to see in this shot, but notice how the water stop just at the edge of the drowning pool drop? That is a key thing about the whole water trap. Also those above floor glass walkways make a nice safe way to pull monsters from the back of the trap area.



This final shot is a view of what a monster would see if they spawned back against the far wall. The lights leading up to the water wouldn't normally be there so it'd be pitch black in this area with the exception of the center trap area shining the in the distance.



Notice my service tunnel in the ceiling near the edge of the water on the right? That lets me go out in the dark zone and mine the area surrounding the trap further back. I'm collecting a ton of gunpowder now and I've had some nice explosions along the back walls clearing out space. The more empty dark space you have the more monster spawn up to 200 I think.

Fox News makes you less informed.

According to this study, Fox News is a big source of misinformation in America. There's also a summary article here.

Be warned, there are pop-ups. Take it with a grain of salt, there are some valid points and there could be some not so valid points.

This is a WTF picture...

Apparently there are more then just deer out in the Louisiana woods. Check out this article here.

So I ask you all that watch this blog...

What is a Gilligan without having a Skipper as well?

Preview



Skin

Skinning

I've come to realize Minecraft is like a survival game of sorts the way I play it. You're trapped with no phone, no light, no motor car, and not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it's primitive as can be.

So I made a Gilligan player skin with my lousy art skills. :)
(Version 2 with fixed hat)



Here is a preview screen shot.

More Minecraft Pics

Showing off my greenhouse second floor and someone I found in my mine!

Green House



The Blob!

Giant Fish

What is 5ft long, 100lbs, and teeth like a shark? Why this giant Piranha of course.

Minecraft Pictures

Behold, ready for battle!


Defend the tower!


Spawn base in the distance!


Spawn base closer!


It's a long way down to China!


Mine command center!


Make sure the work area is safe. Did you hear something?!


Glad it's a game, I'd hate to have cleared all this by hand for real.


I've been really dig'n Minecraft!


I don't think I have enough stone.

Minecraft Addiction

I'm hooked, it's not as flexible as NWN was when making things but what it gives in return for that lack of flexibility makes it much more enjoyable. I remember posting earlier on this blog how I was looking for something to not only be fun but challenge me to think and be creative. Minecraft has accomplished this nicely.

I've been doing the single player survival game ever since I purchased the alpha. While I've not built anything massive except a mine shaft and a large mining area square shaped at the bedrock of the Earth. I'm slowly figuring things out and trying different things.

I'll post a screen shot of my mining project as well as other shots later on. :)

Cake vs. Pie

The debate is over for cake vs. pie.

BEHOLD!

CAKE WITH PIE BAKED INSIDE!

Also for you're viewing pleasure...

Sintel

Observing the Obvious

I decided to observe the obvious today at work. Rain is really wet.

Some may say I need to get back to work. This I agree with and I am actually working, but since my partner in crime is away on vacation things are kinda on hold for the most part since I don't have his access to systems since he's a DBA. This is a good thing since as a developer I could muck up things fierce trying this or that to see how things work more. :)

Ah the joys of maintaining things till people return from vacation.

Playing with blocks...

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. With games that is no different and with Minecraft I've been playing with blocks. Now there is an online Alpha version at the main site and a first draft version here.

The alpha (main link) is a multiplayer version and has things like saving builds. The first draft is just a single player with no saving. It's been fun to mess around with since I'm waiting till the product is more finalized before deciding to buy.

The basic thing to do in the single player game is build things and explore. So far I've built three houses and have done some serious cave diving in to the earth to the point where I found lava. I also ended up flooding one cave with the water I captured for my swimming pool from the ocean.

NOTE: You will need Java installed to run the game in your web browser.

Six Years

Someone said it in Tawa chat yesterday, "Six years playing WoW." My first thought was, "Damn, they're right. It's almost six years come November." So I did some thinking and thought of what I got out of six years of playing WoW.

Over the past six years I've met and hung out with some really great people. My social life has revolved more around online then off line. Personally I don't think it's too big a deal since everyone I know off line is married and in their own world and I'm still single. There's a weird thing that happens when friends get married, part of it is me, part of it is them, but over all its just life as people drift apart.

The game itself really hasn't been all that bad or good as time wore on. I think Wrath of the Lich King has been the most boring it's been for me as far as content goes. There isn't anything that really caught my interest like in Vanilla and BC.

Cataclysm actually strikes me odd even though there are some things I see that I like. (31 point talent trees from 51?) A lot of the preview stuff I've seen so far shows not much new talents, just a few odd abilities. Whatever, and the armor preview I saw was a yawner since I know it's going to be replaced quicker then ever if I progress through raiding again.

The only thing meaningful I got out of the game over the years was the friendships I made online. The game itself has grown to be more of a disappointment as time wore on. I like PvP but as I get older the twitch I used to have when I was rocket jumping off peoples heads in Quake just isn't there like it used to be and Blizzard's ability to balance classes don't help things in that regard very much. You also just can't jump in and hope to do much without getting some gear first.

The thing I really miss the most though is being creative while having fun. You can't do that in WoW. I used to do that a lot in NWN and it was a hoot building things for myself and other people in the Toolset. Part of me really wants to go back to that or play a new game that recreates that. These days though MMOs are all game companies seem interested in.

I can still run NWN but as time goes on it's not going to run on the latest and greatest very well or at all with new OS updates and no updates on it's end. There won't be anything as simple yet fun to replace it either. Bigger and better will also bring more complexity and less access for the end gamer to be creative and have fun.

Meh.

Diamonds in the Sky

Imagine if you will, a diamond that is 4,000KM wide. Well it's real and you only have to travel 50 light years from Earth to get it. In about 7 billion years our solar system will have one too.

Funny Church Signs

So I was going through a side bar CNN had about church signs and I snagged three that made me giggle.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-418644

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-419182

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-420485

UFO Story

A 2007 UFO sighting and an interesting pre and post interview talk with a guy from the Chicago Tribune.

Take it for what you will. :)

Posting Something

I haven't posted in a while so I'm posting. Blizzard gave up on their RealID push for the forums. It kind of left a bad taste in my mouth even though I'm glad they aren't doing it for now.

On the lighter side of things I got my rogue to 80. Zoogie is quite fun to play in PvP, rogues have soooo many tools to win at PvP. If it weren't for my eye sight mixed with my reaction times I'd really clean house with Zoogie.

Ah well, I'll have to settle for what I do get with him. And at last nights Nox RP night it was trying to sell ripped orge loin cloths to everyone at the fire as something to fix male erectile dysfunction treatments.

Max bought the autographed picture of Tigol and Furor for a pumpkin which Zoogie promptly slammed on Max's head for jumping up and down on his chest when he was sleeping under the tree at the start of the meeting.

So it was a fun night. :P

Activision and Blizzard

Blizzards recent update for RealID has stirred some seriously strong response in their General Forum. Over 1800 pages at the time of writing this little entry.

It looks like Activision-Blizzard is getting in bed with Facebook. Another article on Activision's CEO gives an interesting insight to the direction of WoW, Guitar Hero, and other games.

I really don't like the direction things are going with RealID. Real names being used in the public forums isn't something I want to accept and I'm not sure I like the notion that it's part of a larger picture still. I'm honestly debating canceling my WoW account at this point. I figure I'd give it a month to see how things go.

Oh and for something amusing despite this crappy news, Hitler's reaction to Starcraft 2 and RealID.

Learning, Maths, and Stuff

Apparently this is a non profit university and it only has one instructor. Kind of a nifty story, he started out by helping out family over YouTube and grew from there. Check out the Khan Academy and while you do that I'm going to purge the visions of William Shattner screaming from my head. :)

I'm with stupid ->

Some days even flying a fighter jet gets dull and you have to liven things up like this guy did.

Oil Spill in the Gulf

I would take this with a grain of salt, but it's something I thought should be posted here. This article explains what is going on in the Gulf and why they are doing what they're doing out there. To sum things up, lets hope we win the race.

BP Cleans a Coffee Spill

I LOL'd. :)

Empire Strikes Back 1950's Style

Some days I really miss old movies and then I found this little gem.

Facebook face down.

So I deleted my Facebook account yesterday. The social networking thing just doesn't work for me. That being said, if you ever do decide to delete your account be sure you delete it and not just de-activate it. It's a much different process and in theory if they hold up to their part of the deal will wipe your entire existence from Facebook.

I enjoy my privacy and would much rather just maintain this blog page then dork around with Facebook.

ZZzzzzzz

"I'm good, where are you going to sleep Sean? What do you mean you didn't pay all that money for?"

Oil Volcano

Interesting take on the oil spill in the gulf. It's suggested that the oil spill is more of a volcano. Always keep the grain of salt handy for some claims.

Check it out here.

Restored Floor

Huzza! The floor is restored and not looking to bad for my newbie stain'n skillz. :)

Ubuntu Linux

So I updated my netbook today from 9.10 to 10.4 LTS. Daaaaamn it's running sweet! I'm going to buy 20 more CD's from them and give them out to people. Check out the Ubuntu link on my side bar for a peek.

Worst Company in America

Congratulations to Comcast, they have won the Golden Poo Award. All those nights on vent hearing guildies complain about Comcast, all those grumblings in the chat channels, and I can say this is no surprise to me.

Gratz Comcast!

Glad I have dsl. :)

Interesting article...

Apparently the man who co-invented the UNIX operating system and C programming language was not allowed to submit code at his job. Ken Thompson was working at Google to create the programming language Go.

This amusing tale can be found here.

Old Books...

So I found this old book at work and it's been pretty interesting. Understanding the Professional Programmer by Gerald M. Weinberg. Some how I get the feeling it used to be a text book but either way it's the 1982 hard back copy.

I've been reading this book a chapter a day roughly during the work days to get any nuggets of information I can from it. Someone who retired from where I work had made good use of it judging from the book marks.

So far the best thing I found in the book was the Preparation H test for software. It asked a series of questions about programs you may have to maintain. The best question was "Does it give me a pain that only Preparation H can relieve?"

It's safe to say there is gold in them thar old books!

ASCII Portal

It may not have the fancy graphics, it may not have fancy sounds, but ASCII Portal is damn fun to play. The best part is it reminds me of the games I used to play when computers had up to 16k ram only. Ahh the good old days!

The third skater from the sun pulls her arms in...

.. and the days on Earth just got shorter by about 1.26 microseconds. The earth quake in Chile has done more then you might initially think.

Update: Here's a report on the topic from CNN.

Side Note: Spring transition to daylight savings is gonna suck with 1.26 microseconds less sleep on top of the spring ahead an hour. :)

Healthcare Debate

I'm watching it as I code at work. I have to admit this is way better then anything I've seen in the past. It'd be nice if they would have had someone from the CBO there to clarify things when one side says the CBO said this and the other says that the CBO said that.

The only other thing I'd change about this right now is the moderator should be Larry the Cable Guy. I'd be highly amused if he'd keep everyone in their time limits and telling them even just once to "Git r done!"

Lego Robot Solves Rubix Cubes

Someone built a robot out of Lego Mindstorms that solves Rubik's Cubes in under 3 minutes. Check it out here.

Garbage Island

An interesting blog about traveling to Garbage Island.

Let it snow 2.0

Call me an Eskimo, it's more snow! About 2/3'rds of the snow on the bird bath was from the first snow.

It's been snowing since 4pm last night.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

And it did, over a foot and a half fell yesterday as you can see.

Life Sized Gundam in Japan

Speaking of robots, there is a full sized Gundam robot built in Tokyo Japan.

Old Age and Robots

So on a more humorous side of things I just read about robots being used to help the elderly. Wired's web site has a nifty article about robot nurses.

Now aside from the obvious where I'd take tape and ballons and have them walking around with extra's at the home. I could also get an RC controller and maybe have some fun that way. Nothing really serious mind you, but a geriatric geek could go to town with these if they really wanted.

Yes I know I'm evil, but I don't want to be bored when I get older. :P

I remember when I was younger...

I used to go over to my Great Aunt and Uncles house. My Mom would chat it up with my Aunt while my Uncle, Father, and I went downstairs in to their basement and play billiards. I was and still am horrible at billiards.

Let me try to describe this...

Your standing at the top of a stair case looking down a concrete stair well that's painted white. The stairs are carpeted in a red and there's a fine wooden banister on the right. As you go down you notice separation between the first floor and the basement is painted wood along the edges with painted white concrete block above and below.

You reach the bottom of the steps and as you enter the room you notice that it's white painted concrete block with more red carpeting. There is a second living room parted by a half wall, there are beer steins on that wall, and a round table in the far side of the room with the pool table. In the middle is a nice sized pool table with cues hanging on the wall.

There's a leather covering on the table protecting it when it isn't used and when you remove the covering you see a nice green felt pool table sitting in what could only be described as a 1950's furnished room with everything clean and spotless.

My Uncle passed away in 1986, my Aunt this past Friday. She sold that house with the pool table long ago but I'll always remember them both at that house. Tomorrow I go to see her one last time as they lay her to rest.

Happy New Year!

It's the new year and with new years come new things. That being said, my desktop computer decided to blow it's SATA drive controller on the motherboard. I am now without a desktop but I'm lucky enough to have my Netbook. Still gaming is now cut down to nothing since the Netbook isn't a gaming machine. TIME FOR A NEW COMPUTER! :D