Category: Cooking With Code

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Cooking With Code Should We Talk About The Weather?

Argh, part 7,903.

Albatross!I’m sitting here watching KTUL showing, at almost 3 in the morning, a live shot of a rotating wall cloud marching into Tulsa County, and I’m thinking “man, am I glad I don’t live in Tulsa County.” Still, pretty amazing stuff…to watch from a distance of two hours away. No disrespect intended toward any TV weather guys or gals I’ve ever worked with in the past, but the guys at KTUL know how to make a show out of this stuff. I love the Wall Cloud Channel…so long as it’s not in my back yard.

Regarding some of the site issues yesterday: I have the PDF Media Archive back up and running, though I still need to tweak some stuff to get it back to where it was. Nothing in the database was lost. Scared the crap out of me though. (That’s okay. I don’t need that crap in me.) Still not sure what to do about the Scribblings issues – I’m trying to decide how brave I am about going in and editing the database item by item to eliminate the anomalous data. I’m trying to decide if that’ll just make me exasperated enough that I just want to fill the damned database with creamy nougat and walk away from it. Don’t get me wrong – moving the site as a whole toward a database-driven future has been nothing but a good thing so far. I can stop sweating over code for the most part, and just generate the content. But at the same time, this incident has been a reminder of how much greasy, hands-on control I relinquish in so doing, backups or no.… Read more

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Cooking With Code

Argh, part 7,902.

I'm so hosedTwo things tonight that have me going “argh.”

1. Something has happened to the database of the PDF Media section (the part of the site that shows video to folks reading Phosphor Dot Fossils. I’m not even sure what happened. I’m trying to restore from a three-week-old backup of the database; I haven’t added anything new in a while, so that should bring it back up to speed.

2. Two recent attempts to update Scribblings to the latest version of WordPress have failed. Miserably. A little bit of asking around and reading has yielded the answer to this problem: two plugins that I use or have used (namely the Livejournal crossposter and the now-out-of-use “Now Reading” thingie) add non-standard stuff to the database without adding new tables to organize it. In other words…I can’t update it, because any new version of WordPress is going to choke on the oddball database crap. So I’m left with either the current WP install (of which more in a moment), or starting from scratch on Scribblings – porting every entry and every comment over, piece by piece, post by post. I’ve got enough of that to do with my goal of getting Bookbag and PDF all in database form by the end of this year. It’s enough to make me seriously consider giving up on the blog altogether, as infrequently as it’s updated. Okay, so I probably won’t do that, but I’m extremely discouraged. What’s the point?

As for why upgrading the Scribblings WP install is such a priority: my current method of fighting spam has proven to be cumbersome on my end, and on yours (I hate that everyone has to pass a captcha – and in any case, it doesn’t captcha everything). I have so many common words in my “do not allow” list – stuff like “insurance” and “loans” and so on – that it’s made actual conversation here nearly impossible. Any comments that contain a word on that list are automatically dumped and are not held for approval. (I have the “do not allow” list as crowded as I do because I just don’t have the time to wade through a list of comments held for approval that has 3,000 items on it…every day.) Akismet doesn’t seem to be inclined to play nice with my apparently screwy old WP install, so once again, it’s extremely discouraging.

I like the little blawg here enough that I don’t want to let the terrorists, er, sorry, spammers win, and besides, you people need someplace you can rely on to provide your fix of baby/cat/baby+cat photos. But man, would it be dandy if it wasn’t a huge pain in the ass right now.… Read more

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Cooking With Code Gaming

Thoughts and things

Despite a little voice in the back of my head saying things like “too early” and “not enough time to come up with anything cool,” I’m going to make an effort to be an exhibitor as the Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo on Saturday, April 26th in OKC. The event’s being put on by the Oklahoma City Community College’s Computer Arts & Technology Society, and will be held at the OCCC campus near Will Rogers World Airport. Or at least I’ll be there if I can get the event’s organizer to respond to my e-mails – I’ve promoted this thing on a couple of retrogaming/computing forums that I belong to, which may or may not have been a mistake because everyone’s got questions about admission costs, vendors, trading/swapping of stuff that I just can’t answer…and there seems to be no site where this info is being given out. :-/

Phosphor Dot Fossils @ OVGE 2006 in TulsaOne word of caution, though…anyone expecting anything as elaborate as the Phosphor Dot Fossils displays seen at OVGEs and OKGEs past might not want to get their hopes too high. I’m still all for doing these shows, but with the kiddo on the scene now, the thought definitely occurs that unplugging and uprooting the entire room for these shindigs is getting a little old. As of 2006, I did have a few TVs and monitors gathered that were set aside for “expo use only,” though in the absence of a 2007 OVGE, I started giving those away, figuring they wouldn’t be needed. 😆 (The general feeling in 2007 was that OVGE wouldn’t be back anytime soon, and with a baby on the way too, it didn’t seem like an unreasonable assumption that my exhibiting days were over.) At any rate, with something like three weeks to prepare, I can’t guarantee a really elaborate display – I’d say expect some Coleco tabletop goodness and the PDF DVD, as always. (After doing this for a few years, I know what the crowd pleasers are.) Actually, did you know that the first year I brought the tabletop games to Tulsa, it was because there was a behind-the-scenes freak-out about whether or not there’d be enough power for every exhibitor? I started bringing the battery-powered Coleco games as a way to hedge my bets against the possibility of not having enough power for stuff with screens and power supply wall warts. They turned out to be incredibly popular items because one just doesn’t see a complete collection in decent shape everyday, and as popular as they were in their day, they just haven’t worked their way into the public retro-video-game subconscious the way that the Atari 2600 and NES have. But everytime someone sees my little stack of these puppies, they always go “Oh yeah! I remember those!” And that’s what makes it worth it for me to keep buying fresh batteries and bringing these guys out to play year after year.

In other news, anyone trying to pay a visit to GreenhouseFX.tv may notice a slight hiccup in the next few days; I’ve gone for a bit of belt-tightening and moved the site to a directory at thelogbook, and have made changes to where the domain points accordingly. If things really take off later, maybe I’ll reverse that, but for now, I’d rather be paying for two domain names (relatively cheap) and one hosting account (not cheap) than for two of each (really really not cheap), and it’s hard to justify a second hosting account when the first could handle the traffic, storage and bandwidth just fine. I only wish I’d thought of all this a year ago.

I’ve got other Exciting Stuff I’m working on that’s related to thelogbook, but I prefer for things to be at a slightly more advanced stage before I commit to making an announcement. Stay tuned.… Read more

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Cooking With Code ToyBox

O:\TANNENBAUM\ – making the tree

Merry Christmas from theLogBook.comThe annual “Christmas tree” is getting to be something of a tradition at theLogBook; basically, it’s a “best of” collection of that year’s Toybox toy reviews and pictorials, all gathered under the tree. As they should be. It’s a very crudely programmed graphical menu that doesn’t really give you any explicit instructions – what you click on is (God and HTML willing) what you’ll see.

In 2006, I assembled the tree and its attendant presents in Paint Shop Pro, as much out of laziness as anything. But this year, I decided to take a different route – I had all of the stuff readily at hand, and one morning I had a little bit of time, so I physically assembled all of this year’s Toybox items – most of them in their original boxes no less! – in one place and took a photo. Compared to last year’s – and a work-in-progress version for this year which was wiped out in a power bump – that’s almost cheating. But I thought it’d be a real statement of geeky cool to actually have all that stuff in one place at one time.

One cheat I’ll admit to: the Voyager and other space probe models were simply too small and spindly to be seen, so I propped up the relevant patches for their missions instead. Also lost in the shuffle may be VINCENT from The Black Hole. See if you can find him – he’s there for a reason. Also a bit sneaky is the dark red gift at the lower right corner – with a Starfleet combadge on it. This is there to visualize something for which there wasn’t a physical package…well, unless I went and found an old 3/4″ broadcast videotape from the ’80s somewhere. This was a bit easier. 😆

If anything was wrong with my first draft of this year’s tree, it was that there was simply not enough going on among the tree’s ornaments themselves. Last year’s tree had a couple of things snuck in among the ornaments, so literally two days out, I added a couple of extra goodies – namely, the baby and Jet Jaguar (!). If these look like cheesily-pasted-on late additions…that’s because they were!

Anyway, hopefully everyone enjoyed this year’s tree. Now that I’ve got a kid who, in theory, should be taking up almost all of the household toy-buying budget instead of his dad, I’m not sure how the tree idea will play out in the future. But then again…I’ve still got a few trinkets here and there that I’ve been holding back on.… Read more

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Cooking With Code

Help wanted: must like intergalactic travel. And swimming.

Just a quick Logbook administrivia note: I’m actively seeking a volunteer to take over the Stargate Atlantis episode guide starting with the second half of season four (beginning January 4th). A combination of factors – including lack of time and an increasing lack of interest in the show – is taking its toll, and I’ve watched this season so far more out of a sense of obligation to keep the guide current than out of being a fan of the show. Anyone who would like to keep tabs on Stargate Atlantis, and can turn around episode summaries similar to what has bene done so far the weekend after each new episode airs, should feel free to get in touch with me via e-mail; please use “Stargate Atlantis Logbook” (or something similar) as the subject line.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Cooking With Code Home Base ToyBox

All quiet on and/or near the western front

Nothing big to report. Did some more minor housecleaning today, and ran a lot of errands. One thing I utterly failed to get done was get the infant seat installed in the Mommymobile – the guy who does that for folks at the Van Buren PD was out of pocket when I got there. I’ll try again Monday.

There are few things as certain in life as death, taxes, and the fact that sooner or later, your Avid user settings will be corrupted. @#$%. (And this is without two other dudes using it – I don’t know what this machine’s excuse is.)

I’ve also been doing some WordPress-style remodeling on Phosphor Dot Fossils, getting the first few test entries into the system. I’m really, really happy with how that’s shaping up; basically, I’m categorizing every entry in a zillion different ways, so you’ve got a huge number of ways to sort through the database: by year, by platform, by the first letter of the title, by control scheme, even by game play elements. You want to look at baseball games only? Maze games only? Games by a certain manufacturer? No sweat. I think there’s a lot of value to the existing library of PDF reviews that has perhaps been buried without having some kind of sorting mechanism; this should redress the balance a bit. (Oh, and I’m gonna drop my customary anti-cut-and-paste code into place too, because let’s not forget that there are other folks who think that PDF is quite a valuable resource too. 😛 ) Head over there, try out the sorting options on the right-hand sidebar, and let me know what you think. It’s a beautiful thing.

Speaking of which, I have found a new use for one of the display cases I used to haul to OVGE every year:
Not the droids you're looking for
I figured I might just need to keep these little guys under glass (or in this case plastic) from here on out. (By the way, the giant droid god on the left isn’t Andrew’s – I found my own large-scale R2 while cleaning house.)

Move along, move along
I know these are a stupid vice to have, but they’re at least harmless. Yes, I know it’s just the same thing repainted in about a dozen different ways. That doesn’t make me like ’em any less.

By the way, speaking of geeky stuff, I thought I’d post my wife’s score from that Nerd Test a few days ago. If you’re reading this, you’ll probably be impressed:
Jan's nerd test score
Read it and weep, gentlemen. 😆… Read more

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Cooking With Code Funny Stuff Television & Movies

Open the blog bay doors

Best. WordPress. Sci-Fi. Theme. Ever.

I am SO tempted. You have no idea. 😆 You can get it here. If any of my pals wants to start a WP blog with this theme, give me a shout, I’ll be happy to host it for you. I can even install the plug-in I use that will automagically duplicate your entries at Livejournal if you like.

Or maybe I should just sit down, take a stress pill, and relax…… Read more

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Cooking With Code Gaming Home Base Music ToyBox

Random, irregularly-shaped chunks of thoughts

Burchuss. Now compatible with your Atari VCS.Oh man. I love the Atari 2600 Labelmaker site, but it’s gonna put label fetishists like me out of business. Doesn’t even pay to think about what it’ll do to the next AtariAge label contest to come down the pike. Just between you, me, and the entirely metaphorical lamppost, I had to resist a momentary (and utterly mad) geeky urge to do “Atari cartridges” for, oh, everyfreakinthing on the whole site. I’ll keep that option in my back pocket if the site ever undergoes some kind of radical rethink. 😆 Anyway, it’s an awesome idea, a neat (and rather alarmingly versatile and powerful) site to have some fun with, and I sincerely hope that its maker will consider expanding the repertoire to include such things as the “silver label” style, 5200 cartridges, and so on.

The DVD review section of theLogBook has now been rolled out, WordPress-style, and I think it’s lookin’ mighty sleek ‘n’ foxy. But then I guess I would, wouldn’t I? If anyone thinks they’re detecting a mad dash to get as much of the WordPress-ification of theLogBook done before the baby gets here, they are about 1000% right on the money. There are only three sections left to be WP’ed, and we’re already deep into the work on one of those, so perhaps we can whittle that down to two sections remaining by the end of the year.

I’ve got a big Stack Of Stuff piled up at the house that needs to be sold, mainly Star Trek and Babylon 5 and other sci-fi related stuff – action figures, models, Christmas ornaments, magazines by the truckload, and so on – and I’d really like to avoid eBay. If anyone out there would like some of this stuff, please drop me a line. I’m not inflating prices or charging the gross national debt for shipping – I just need the stuff out of here. I’m still drawing up a list, but I can tell you that there’s a collection of Starlog’s dedicated Star Trek: The Next Generation magazine that, if it isn’t the complete run, it’s damn close. I also have binders full of Cinefantastique’s annual ST:TNG wrap-ups – I remember around 1990-94 when Robert and I would descend upon the bookstores to find those every summer, and we’d study Mark Altman’s well-observed comments and reviews like devout Bible scholars. 😆

Over at NotNews, Dave has an in-depth after-action report from the Philadelphia Crowded House concert with Pete Yorn and Liam Finn (i.e. son of Neil) as the opening acts. Dave has also gotten to see R.E.M. live without having to venture to another state. Have I mentioned Dave lives in a real city? Heck, I bet Danny Boyle’s Sunshine is even playing in a theater up there somewhere. 😛 … Read more

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Cooking With Code Home Base

Pinned and pained

Ouch. Between working on the farm and discovering that the only sunscreen Jan had at the pool yesterday contained something that’s basically poisonous to me, I didn’t just get sunburned this weekend. I fried in my own fat. I was thinking last night before I went to bed that I was just an embarrassing shade of red, but now it really kinda hurts. Add that to all the aches and pains that I picked up over the weekend, between farm work and spending one night sleeping on the floor (don’t ask), and I’m not exactly feeling great today. I’ll probably still be lobster boy by the time CGE rolls around. Ah well.

Interesting article here about Spam Blogs, and it really points up one of the reasons I’m so fond of WordPress…though by the same token, I wish there was a little more due dilligence when it comes to “sponsored” WordPress themes. (I think I’ve griped about that before – ah, here it is.)

I almost forgot to mention, in last week’s travelogue of the 1984 Arcade, that I got my first real bit of Wii time in before Brian and I left his (really really nice) new house. I love that thing. I must have one some day. Brian warned me away from playing the baseball game in Wii Sports, but let me tell you, that was the moment where it really hit me, because I like playing baseball a heck of a lot more than watching it. In fact, I barely can watch baseball – it’s like a televised death march. And this is as close as I’m likely to get to being up at bat since, oh, about fourth grade or so (long story). Bowling was okay – I do about as well with virtual bowling as I do with the real thing (i.e. I royally suck), tennis was a bit better, but baseball was where it really clicked for me. I never got even close to letting fly with the Wiimote, either. 😆 Santa, please take note: I really, really want a Wii this year. I haven’t been so enthusiastic about a modern gaming platform since discovering retro compilations on the original Playstation.

I’ve been skimming the list of available, playable games at Las Vegas’ Pinball Hall Of Fame Museum, a destination to/from which there’ll be free shuttles after hours at CGE this month. Anyone who knows me knows that my very tenuous grasp of physics (for example: walking in a straight line, catching objects which have been gently thrown precisely in my direction, breathing in and out) extends to pinball tables. I never had the interest in pinball as a kid that I did in video games, and certainly not the body mass – as a kid – that one needed to really “work” the table. But so many pinballs in one place? How can I resist? This is truly the kind of once-in-a-lifetime thing one runs into at Classic Gaming Expo that I continually tell people is worth much, much more than buying a CGE-exclusive homebrew and then going home to play it. Anyway, what’s emerged from my research is a few lists of games I need to play/film:

Stuff I Remember From My Childhood: Orbitor 1 (Stern, 1982), Haunted House (Gottlieb, 1980), Black Hole (Gottlieb, 1981), Black Knight (Williams, 1980)

Stuff I’ve Always Wanted To Play, But Never Saw A Machine In My Life: Superman (Atari, 1979), Q*bert’s Quest (Gottlieb, 1983), and the biggie: Doctor Who (Bally, 1992).

Stuff I’ve Never Seen Or Heard Of Before That Intrigues Me Greatly: Space Shuttle (Williams, 1984), Star Trek: The Next Generation (Williams, 1993), Star Wars Episode I (Williams, 1999), Stargate (Gottlieb, 1995), Super Mario Brothers Mushroom World (Gottlieb, 1992), Super Mario Brothers (Gottlieb, 1992)

You can see the details on each machine linked from the Museum’s list. But…no Xenon machine or the original Star Trek pinball? Are you guys serious!? Anyway, I’m not saying that there’s going to wind up being a pinball section on my site anywhere. In fact, I don’t know what the heck I’ll do with any video or photos that I shoot of these machines. But I do know that it’s an exceedingly rare opportunity – the flipside, if you will, of the 1984 Arcade in Springfield. To hit both places in one month? Awesome.… Read more

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Cooking With Code Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Fun and/or games

This week marks the official launch of yet another WordPress-ified section of the site, this time an archive for the literally hundreds of videos accumulated for Phosphor Dot Fossils over the years. It’s not the most elegant solution for handling that material, I’ll admit, but it does help me to get away from coding every PDF article twice over and then doing dumbass things like forgetting to change the template code (which is why every Apple II game looked and sounded uncannily like Ghostbusters for the longest time 😆 ). You can do a search by title and look at video of, say, every port of Zaxxon for which we have video. It’s actually kinda neat – give it a try. In time I’ll also add back in stuff such as the maruqee artwork and other artwork elements that used to be part of the now-defunct Arcade Artwork Archive section. See? Even in the digital world I’m a pack rat who never throws anything away. I decided to go ahead and launch this monster this week because, plain and simple, it cuts down on extraneous coding and goofball Ghostbusters mistakes.

Speaking of old games…guess what? I’m goin’ to CGE! It’s official. But there’s a catch – you probably won’t see me much outside of the keynote speeches, which I’ll be taping for a project that the CGE organizers will let you know about Very Soon. (Well, okay, I’ll spill: I’m producing a DVD, possibly a multi-DVD set, of this year’s show. Keynotes, alumni dinner, auction action, show floor, you name it. The current plan is for the whole shebang to be available around Christmas. So hey, there’s my major post-production project to be working on after Evan gets here. Funny how that works out, eh?) So think of it as a working vacation. Still: it’s a trip to CGE that I literally didn’t have in the budget, so it’s nothing but a huge treat for me. Hanging at the Expo with an all-access pass, doing what I do best (aside from kicking your butts at Galaga), what could be better? And I’m still going to 1984 Arcade in a couple of days with Rob, Brian and the gang, so July really is kinda like my last hurrah before baby time hits me like a loaded diaper.… Read more