TwiddleGeek

I've been wanting to write this post all weekend, but it keeps getting put off as I try to fix/add/tweak just one more thing on the new site.  I know TwiddleGeek doesn't look much different than it did before, but the switch from WordPress to a built-from-scratch system has been well worth the effort.  Nothing against WordPress mind you, I'm just really enjoying building my own thing again.

As I mentioned last week, the new site makes use of JQuery in a lot of ways.  If you're a developer and you haven't tried it yet, I've got to urge you to do so.  JQuery makes Javascript as accessable as any other scripting language, and it really brings the power of client-side scripting to the dev.  AJAX, animation, manipulation... it's all dead simple.  The use of CSS selectors and chaining functions is just brilliant.

So even though I've been laboring through the Labor Day weekend, at least this year it's been doing something for myself that I really enjoy.  This building phase, with the rapid changes and lots of challenges, tends to be my favorite part of being a web dev.  Some may be pleased to know the winamp skins are back up, avatars are currently being rebuilt, and the rest will follow soon.  If there's something you like that's still missing, hang in there.  Hope it's been a good weekend for you all.

Work on the revamped site has been going pretty smooth so far and I've really enjoyed the time spent on it.  It's amazing how quickly hours can fly by when scripting.  Concentration has a funny way of bending one's perception of time sometimes.  It's been pretty beneficial actually, solving a few problems on my own site has lead to ideas that have helped solve problems on the job.  It's also helped me get used to JQuery, which we've decided to integrate into our next site version...  but more on that in a later post.

I'll say this about being a professional web developer: It's not so much about what languages you know, but rather what problems you can solve.  Granted, being well versed in HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, Javascript, SQL, & etc is a vital groundwork, but the majority of the work is figuring out the logic behind the code.  How the various pieces and technologies will work together to achieve the desired result, or the logic behind a 'glitch', is often a much larger task than the actual programming.

Non-technical people will often assume a computer has the ability to make logical assumptions.  A+B obviously equals C, so people assume the computer understands this connection.  People sometimes fail to realize a computer knows nothing about A, B or their relation to C unless explicitly told.  Likewise, people often fail to realize a computer doesn't record data for later analysis unless explicitly told to do so.  I suppose one could say that when we as geeks have created the illusion of computers having abilities such as these, we've done our jobs well.

The first time I played House of the Dead 2 was actually back in '99 on a Japanese Dreamcast, sometime before the American launch.  Gore, zombies, and dismemberment (with green blood, if I remember right) had me hooked, though I never actually managed to finish it or to play any of the other titles in the series.

I think my main gripes with House of the Dead today are gripes with the arcade nature of it.  Like many arcade ports of the 90's, It feels designed to drain quarters rather than achieve balanced gameplay.  It doesn't help that the excellent Umbrella Chronicles came along and simply made a better on-rails shooter.  Weapon selection, better reload mechanics, checkpoints, and so forth are all sorely missed here.

These games have simply aged badly, though not quite to the point of losing the fun factor entirely.  Sadly, the Wii version isn't improved in the least.  None the less, SpaceKitty and I managed to to blast our way all the way through both with enough replays... (and a little help from WiiSave.com)  I'll take Umbrella Chronicles any day of the week, but even with all the flaws, House of the Dead still makes for a good weekend rental.