General: Summertime!

_{Posted by Todd at 4:43 PM - Wednesday, June 29, 2005}

Is this thing on? Of course it is, I wrote it :)

I haven't had much to write about lately, at least nothing that anyone would likely consider interesting. My consulting business is slowly gaining momentum, and should eventually allow me to move back to Saskatoon. I've been playing a lot of World of WarCraft, and even started writing my own AddOns via the game's programming system. (You can visit my guild website here.)

This past weekend was the first, hopefully annual, SLARPcon, a weekend dedicated to all things LARP. A lot of fun was had by all! Hopefully this success will generate more interest so the event can grow.

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Technology: Crash!

_{Posted by Todd at 1:48 AM - Sunday, January 16, 2005}

This is turning into an annual event...

I just had another hard disk crash. This time, it's that new 80GB drive I put into my main desktop machine, dying after only two months of usage. It's definitely a heat problem; I can power the drive down for a while and access data from it later, until it gets too hot again and brings down the system. What a pain; hopefully I can just take it into PC Place and get a replacement and let them deal with the manufacturer.

This disk is a Samsung product. Their diagnostic tool needs a lot of work; it doesn't seem to like the fact that my main (working) drive is a Maxtor and refuses to do any diagnostics. Lovely. Maxtor's diagnostic tools don't have this problem; why should Samsung's?

I've gone through about five disk drives in the past three years; fortunately, I have been able to replace all of them under warranty.

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Technology: Social Software

_{Posted by Todd at 2:30 PM - Thursday, January 6, 2005}

Happy New Year everyone!

It was nice to get together with a few friends that I haven't seen in quite a while, as well as exchange the traditional phone calls and IM conversations with distant relatives. Otherwise, it was a fairly quiet Christmas, which suits me just fine.

Now that I'm back to writing software under a couple of small contracts, I've been thinking a bit about software design issues once again, both large and small. I stumbled upon this little gem, found (appropriately enough) via the LOSURS mailing lists. Nothing too earth-shattering, but clearly written and a good starting point for those interested in the subject.

If that doesn't have enough meat for you, go read Joel's Advice for Computer Science students. You'll be glad you did, or at least you'll enjoy a little quirky humor.

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Games: At Long Last, Pictures!

_{Posted by Todd at 7:04 PM - Wednesday, December 8, 2004}

I finally scanned in my latest set of pictures for all to enjoy. I've uploaded a file of all the Vampire LARP photos to my website. They include The First Step (plus Auriel), the Sabbat pack for the Dark Bridges game, all dressed up for Palla Grande. There are also some group photos for the SbN Dark Ages game.

I could use a little information to properly fill in the names of the Dark Bridges characters. I'll update the filenames once I get them.

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General: Looking Up!

_{Posted by Todd at 10:37 AM - Tuesday, November 30, 2004}

I just talked with my new employer today and he's getting an initial small contract lined up for me to do. I'll be working here in Regina, from home, but they are lining up some new funding so I can return to Saskatoon soon.

I guess a little persistence does pay off!

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Technology: The Sound of Silence

_{Posted by Todd at 8:03 PM - Friday, November 19, 2004}

For about a year and a half, my computer has been getting pretty noisy. The older of the two hard drives makes a pretty much constant whining noise that is really annoying. I finally decided to do something about it, and spent a whopping $100 on a brand new 80GB drive(!) Competition is hard on the manufacturers but the consumers sure do benefit from it...

My desktop is now the quietest PC in the house. What a nice change!

For those who are interested in going a little further with this idea, try checking out some online resouces on the subject.

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General: Distractions

_{Posted by Todd at 1:00 PM - Sunday, November 14, 2004}

I've been a little distracted this week by a couple of things:

• More consulting work for Bob Horton (always a good thing)
• Playing the free demo for World of WarCraft

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Games: LARP Weekend

_{Posted by Todd at 5:29 PM - Monday, November 8, 2004}

Yay, my weblog works again!

This past weekend was the monthly LARP gatherings. Plenty of others have already commented on the weekend so I'll just had that I did enjoy both games despite the ups and downs of each. I had the foresight to take pictures of Auriel and The First Step prior to the Sabbat game on Saturday, so I'll be posting those on this website once I finish off my roll of retro-style analog film.

In other news, the World of WarCraft open beta has started, and their web server has already melted down under the load of people signing up. FilePlanet had keys, then they ran out, released some more, and ran out again. Argh!!

P.S. No news from my new employer yet...

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General: Blizzard Humour

_{Posted by Todd at 9:54 AM - Monday, November 1, 2004}

Once again, Blizzard Entertainment brings us some free audio humour. This time out, we get to follow the Invincible Legion of Unconquerable Vanquishing Gnomes in their World of WarCraft Hallowe'en adventures! Enjoy!

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General: Kudos!

_{Posted by Todd at 1:43 PM - Saturday, October 30, 2004}

I just wanted to publically give thanks to Michael, David, and Amy for putting on an enjoyable Hallowe'en party on Friday night. A great time was had by all!

For those who didn't know, it was a Cthulhu themed party, set in the roaring 20's. You missed out on a lot of fun...

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