It was easy to fix my Windows PC from the CrowdStrike fiasco BSOD; the biggest challenge was to find the screen that my PC is connected to.
I feel companies start saving on gold, a lot of my electronics have got oxidized contacts. Or is it a conspiracy that they save on gold, and an additional bonus that customers need to periodically update their products.
C++ is so big I am slowly forgetting different bits of the language: [[maybe_unused]]
I prefer compilation errors over link errors, and the reason is mostly historical. In the past, link errors were really hard to figure out. They would spew out mangled symbols and did not provide clear direction on which source files were affected, which is understandable since the linker only knows about object files, libraries, and dynamic libraries.
Nowadays, it is way better, but I still prefer getting compilation errors over link errors. For that reason, I believe build systems should not have the capability to conditionally add or remove source code files from the build. This should happen with macros like #ifdef LINUX or #ifdef WINDOWS.
I have a love-hate relationship with regular expressions.
Be smart. Learn from my mistakes. It’s been more than a year since I got COVID (last year at the end of February). I’m still fighting with residual symptoms. It doesn’t sound bad, but it is bad. Phantom smells, brain fog, abdominal pain, chest pain—a lot of symptoms are gone. But a small chest pain is still here. I have some workarounds to deal with it, but I think I’ll have it for the rest of my life. Be smart, try to minimize the risk of getting COVID. Get vaccinated, avoid excessive traveling by airplane, avoid big gatherings, and if you hear somebody coughing next to you, stay away. If you get information that someone potentially has COVID, stay away. I am lucky; I did not die, and I did not get a severe case of long-COVID, but it is enough to sometimes make me feel defeated. Just keep swimming, though.
BTW, never shortcut the UVing stage, you may end up doing texturing multiple times.
I am looking at AI-generated art and listening to AI-generated music, obviously using ChatGPT and other LLMs. It is so familiar and on the other side, it has some alien vibe. I am wondering if consuming generative content may have some psychological side effects. I doubt it, but once in a while that thought crosses my mind.
I found a use for the Instagram Reels feed. It has ads, and there are many ads for non-existent games. I realized that this provides great insight into what players crave and will enjoy playing. Ads cost money, so they have to work; otherwise, it’s a waste of money for the company investing in ads. This means ads are optimized for people’s reactions to click and install the advertised game. That means the game in the ad was appealing to the player. The company removes ads that are not working. On the other hand, games in ads do not make money, so companies do not implement the game.
Here is the list of games I’ve gathered from ads so far:
Age of Origins
Shoot zombies; they drop coins. Collect coins, build towers that also fight zombies.
Kingdom Guard Global
Run away from the snake in the maze. Shoot parts of the snake to make it shorter. Snake segments have HP. Shoot at chests to open them for upgrades. Upgrades include leveling up and stronger weapons.
Upgrade Your Alien
You are a spider/octopus that looks like an alien. Your goal is to eat 99 humans. Go eat humans, give meat to the upgrade place, which will collect humans automatically. Fight with the crayfish-looking alien.
Whiteout Survival
A forklift collects logs in a pile and puts them in a truck. When it stays on the buy tag, it gets two small forklifts, which start collecting logs automatically. There is a pile of bigger logs with a price tag of $3500. It stays on the tag for a while and unlocks the bigger logs. When it tries to pick up bigger logs and cannot, it stays on the upgrade tag and becomes bigger. Now it can collect bigger logs. The buy tag appears in front of the big logs. The forklift stands on the buy tag and gets a big caterpillar, which starts collecting big logs. The forklift goes to a different pile, stands on the buy tag, and a transporter appears, which transfers planks automatically. Buying and upgrades cost money. Collecting logs and planks gives money. Staying on the Buy tag for the second time upgrades the automatic forklift to the truck.
Royal Match
The king enters the room; rubble falls on him, but he is saved by two planks yet cannot get out. Underneath the floor is a match-3 game. You need to open up the space so that the rubble will fall into the void and free the king. Then the king runs into a different room; acid water flows in, and the king quickly jumps onto an island but cannot go anywhere. You need to play a match-3 game to create a void and redirect the acid water to the pipe, which is timed because acid water fills the room. There are more scenarios with water and rubble to make steps, with the king at the bottom of the level unable to get up.
Triumph of Numbers
The game features an over-the-shoulder view. A small ant with the number 25 on its back walks in a field, accompanied by many other insects and creatures with different sizes and numbers on their backs. There are blue bubbles on the field, for example, a bubble with ‘x2’ inside. If the ant walks over a bubble, it becomes twice as big, and the number on its back changes from 25 to 50. The ant can attack the creatures. If the number on the creature is lower than the ant’s number, the ant wins and gains coins, becoming bigger, but the creature’s number remains the same. If the number on the ant is smaller, it loses and starts over as a small ant with the number 5.
Strategy and Brainstorming
You start with two blue regions, 15 and 40. There are four different regions, each with a number. You can connect your blue region with the other regions. The units start walking to the other regions, and numbers change with some unpredictable rules. As soon as the number gets to 0, the enemy region’s color changes to blue.
Unreal Engine’s C++ is odd. Unreal Engine has its own garbage collection, and it periodically eats my objects and crashes. Sometimes I need to create objects dynamically, and they are floating from one entity to another. For example, a mob has items inside, then I loot them and items go in the inventory, then mobs despawn, and after a couple of minutes, items get eaten by the garbage collector. One way to combat this is to use Unreal Engine containers like TArray and mark them as UPROPERTY. If you know a better way, let me know.
I had a leftover syringe and I closed the hole and pulled the plunger. It created some force from the atmospheric pressure. It made me think about why we are using metal weights for heavy lifting exercises. We could use vacuum instead. I searched on the internet and found only one occurrence that uses this idea, and it looks like it’s still in the ideation stage. The benefits are clear: no need for metal, everything can be made out of plastic, the equipment is lighter, and it makes less noise.
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2022/entries/consumer-product-design/12022
Check out the book “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” by Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1966. It’s about a supercomputer that achieves self-awareness. I believe that book would blow up today, given all the advancements in AI.
Yesterday, I barely managed to get to bed at 2 AM; it was too hot, my body was itching, the LED lights were bothering me, the smells, just everything was distracting me from sleeping. Anyway, good morning.
Good morning, world.
Good morning, world.
It is 1 AM here. I am out.
It’s a bit frustrating to debug some issues and search on the Internet and on forums, some people are writing, “I have exactly the same issue, but the error message is different.” Dude, you have a different issue!
I believe one of the main problems in modern America is the dominance of corporations. Corporations often strip away the individuality and responsibility of people, leading to actions that are morally questionable, all in the name of profit. While my proposed solution is gradual, I think it can be effective over time.
As consumers, we need to start reducing our reliance on products and services provided by large corporations. Instead, we should support small and medium-sized businesses. By doing this, we can shift public perception to view corporations as detrimental. Choose local restaurants over chain establishments. Gradually switch to software that isn’t owned by major corporations. By taking these steps, I hope we can begin to improve the situation.
Game developers and writers often view time travel mechanics as overly powerful, necessitating artificial limitations. For instance, you might be unable to save a deceased parent. While such restrictions make sense in literature, they feel constraining in games. Take Life is Strange as an example—the protagonist is unable to save a life due to the universe’s limitations.
In contrast, I use Git, which functions as a time machine for code. It’s an incredibly powerful tool, yet it still has its limitations. This makes me wonder: is it possible to design a narrative game with time travel mechanics that don’t rely on artificial constraints?
The code cout << "Hello World\n"; is part of the C++ standard, and C++ has grown a lot over the years. For new streaming functionality, let’s start doing function calls with comma-separated parameters, like log("Hello World", 123);.
The world just dropped the frame, but I’m not in VR. That’s strange.
One downside of your game becoming extremely popular is that you might feel confined to the universe you created. Players will eagerly demand more content from that game—sequels, DLCs, and so on. Personally, I want the freedom to create multiple game universes.
🌸 Tue, Jul 9, 2024 🌸
Once John F. Kennedy said:
We set sail on this new sea of virtual worlds because there are new joys to be discovered, and new benefits to be won, and they must be won and used for the happiness of all people. For computer games, like all forms of technology, have no conscience of their own. Whether they will become a force for good or ill depends on us, and only if we occupy a position of wisdom can we help decide whether this new medium will be a source of delight or a new terrifying tool of manipulation. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of computer games any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of other media, but I do say that computer games can be designed and mastered without feeding the fires of addiction, without repeating the mistakes that we have made in extending our influence across this globe of ours.
Obviously, JFK did not say it, but I feel he would.
🌸 Tue, Jul 9, 2024 🌸
I like to contract words in my C++ code, e.g., cmd instead of command, args instead of arguments, but some words I am so used to typing in full that if I decide to contract them, it makes it slower for me to type, even though it is fewer keystrokes.
🌸 Tue, Jul 9, 2024 🌸
Hey! I feel one and a half days of rest helped. Let’s start another marathon!
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