Open Day

Had our first Saturday Open Day for admissions. Nice bunch of people turned up and I did my warm up act. Made a mistake, in that I wanted to use our new whizz-bang notebook to drive the videos. The idea was that it would make them look a bit better since it is more powerful. A mistake. For some reason the software was horribly ill-matched to the videos. We are talking serious chugging here. So, with moments to spare I had to hook up the good old tablet machine. Which chugs as well, but not as much.

The talks went OK, and the candidates were very interesting folks, one chap already runs a software company. Nobody did the wordsearch this time though.

Then home, to watch my favourite TV program. Any ideas what it is?

 

A bit of marking, and then ho for the ocean wave

Did the marking of the .NET MSc exams and labs today. Some very good stuff there. Funny how different people attack the same problem in different ways - including some I would never have thought of....

Then, out to see "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World". Rattling good action packed naval yarn with Russell Crowe as a stiff upper lipped sea fighting man. The action sequences were superb and the whole thing whizzed along most satisfactorily. Nice to see a picture with the english blokes playing goodies as well.

 

More on Games Programming

I've been working my way through the games programming book. I still think it is good. It is not really "How to create a game". It is more "How the author, Mike McShaffrey, creates games". It will not take you from a standing start and make you into a games programmer. We have a course which takes three years to do that, and so expecting a single book to deliver the goods is probably a bit much. However, if you are serious about getting into the business it will tell you all the right things and point you in the right direction. It will also give you a lot of respect for the folks who create your toys...

 

Good Book Alert

Interested in programming? Think you can do it? Want to write games? Buy Game Coding Complete.

It even has its own web site.

I've not finished reading it, but what I've read so far is wonderful. The chap who wrote it has been there, done it, and definitely owns a number of T shirts. I bought the book on a double bill from Amazon with C++ for Game Programmers. I've given the C++ book to number one son, but the other one stays with me. I think the name is a homage to another wonderful book, Code Complete which you should also have bought and read if you want to call yourself a proper programmer.

The scope of the Game Coding book is very broad, it covers some strong Software Engineering topics along with things like 3D geometry. But the style is very good and I'm enjoying reading it. I'm not a games programmer. But after reading this book I just might be....

 

Tuesday Musings

Products we never saw: The Ford Scenario - a car design which looked very good on paper but never quite made it off the drawing board.

And thence to the pub:

Beer and crisps. Food of the gods.

Useful Definitions: The courage of your convictions the feeling of bravery which you get from time spent in prison.

 

Invigilating People

Can you think of a better way to start the week than 3 hours of exam invigilation? Well I can, but the timetable thought otherwise. So it was hi ho for the Bain restaurant (a new venue) and 130 nervous first year students. At least I didn't have to do the exam. Managed to resist the temptation to walk down the rows looking at what people were writing and going "tut tut" (as if I know about Inorganic Chemistry) and so the time passed reasonably enough. Slightly enlivened by the filling in of the nameslips. If names are anything to go by we had the leader of the Tory Party and a famous comedian (not the same person) present at the exam.

After the party....

 

Pinball Maintenance

Did some maintenance on the pinball table today. Couple of busted bulbs to replace and a general clean up and wax of the playing surface. The problem is that having done that the table plays so quickly that the games are dramatically shortened. I think we are now at the stage where only a serious commitment to the silver ball will allow us to get into "The Zone". That or two phone books under the front legs to reduce the tilt....