Updates 08-08-08@0212

I worked a bunch with Blender this week. I spent hours and hours working on it. I used Inkscape and the Gimp to make my own custom textures for the leaves of this tree I worked on. I created such a big file that it totally froze my ultra-stable computer, and I had to open up IceWM to work with it. In the end..... It failed at rendering. I am very disappointed, and have decided that it is time to get Maya. I'm working on the PLE until I get the money to purchase a full edition. At the moment, I am $295 away from it. While I look forward to having a lappy and an RO private server, this is far more important to me. However, when I get a job, I should be able to afford both dedicated hosting and Maya 3D.

About that..... No luck getting hired. That is all I have to say on that matter.

When it comes to the site... New plans are... JavaScript pop-ups in the art section, with a possible ratings/comment feature, comment feature for the blog, and site search. And the RO private server, of course. The one that I will get when I get hired.

So, feeling utterly discouraged with Blender, I decided to ask for help in #blenderqa. They directed me to the wonderful documentation videos. One of these was made for a release of Blender over a year old. I've decided that if I can ever figure Blender out, I'm going to work on Documentation. I swear, they have some of the worst Open Source documentation around.

With Blender out of the picture, my friend recommended to me that I pirate OS X and try to install it on my computer. I realize that if I ever install OS X, I may never go back, so I instead decided to work on making Linux look even prettier than OS X. I succeeded, and am in the process of writing a tutorial about how to do it on Fedora 8. Yes, I know that Fedora 9 is out, but F9 really only caters to the Nvidia folk (which happens to include me, but I like to be all-inclusive), because ATI *still* hasn't released proprietary drivers for Xorg 1.5, so I'm sticking with f8.

Extract Data v.1.17 is out! Unfortunately..... it doesn't have support for what we're working on, so we're still going through with a hex editor. Which is cool, right? Also, I tried installing the game in wine.. No luck >.< Also, since I don't have it set up to handle Japanese stuff, I couldn't even see the text from the error message. I'm gonna work on that more later.

You may also notice that the Links section is up. Check it out, really, it's good. Please note that some links may contain content aimed at some kind of.... niche audiences (ero gamers and yaoi-lovers), but they all have clear warnings attached.

Well, I'm headed up north a bit later today, and I won't be back for a while, but next update, expect ~great~ things... I'm expecting... a JOB (yeah, right)!

Assorted Topics 22-07-08@0016

So today, I sat down and tried to figure out why Windows wouldn't properly display my fonts. With a bit of help from Ian, I was able to do it, so I became motivated to finish all of the static content on this site. At some point in the very near future, I'm going to be re-vamping all of the scripting so that I have my own mini-CMS, similar to Ian's miniQDB, except I won't distribute mine to the public unless they ask for it. Mine will be written exclusively for andrico.net.

On the subject of the near future.. the RO Private server! Yes, it is coming. When is it coming? When I get a job. When will I get a job? When I get hired. Who in their right mind would hire me? I do not know.

Also, why in the hell does the BMP extension still exist? Shouldn't they have phased that out after PNGs were created? My friend who uses windows sent me a 513414 byte image with only 550 by 310 resolution, and the colors were fairly simple as well. A JPG would have been less than 1/5 of the size.

Well, enough from me for now. I have finals next week, so I probably won't be around for a little while.