Central

ZenDesk

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:14:00 -0800

I'm trying out a help desk utility called Zendesk, which has garnered support from many, many big web names (DeviantArt, Twitter, MSNBC.com, to name a few heavy hitters). I want to use it for the handful of consulting clients I have, to track and manage what problems they have, and keep everything smooth and operational.

For the next month, I'd like anyone to go to the Help Desk link I have on the side bar here, and generate a ticket. I don't care what it says, just give me something! I want to know this software inside and out!

Bad JuJu

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:25:00 -0800

"No Russian." Not a lot needs to be said after that. But I will.

In the wake of the newest "highly anticipated" game, which the reviewing sites will likely get paid to put it at the "game of the year" level, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is getting quite the hype, both good and bad.

The "good" relates to the graphics and immersion in detail. I can't say it's not the next generation of graphics, but I can't say it is either. It does have detail enough to put another notch above some of the other games out there.

The "bad". "No Russian." No, really, if you haven't seen the video for it on Destructoid, do so now. I'll wait.

...

....

.....

Yeah. My reaction? My moral sensors went off like a fire alarm; unexpected, loud, and clear. This was wrong. That's just from watching the video, not actually playing it. Yes, I realize that Modern Warfare 2 sold 7 million copies between the Xbox 260 and PS3 versions, and that it probably will sell quite well for a while, and mostly for it's online Player vs Player (Team Deathmatch) and the fans loyal to the Call of Duty franchise.

From reading reactions by other reviewers (in particular Kyle Orland at CrispyGamer), it seems players do not have to pull the trigger in the first scene, but will have to watch on as the civilians and airport security are gunned down as the team makes its way to the tarmac. From there, players HAVE to open fire on the police in order to advance in the mission. Anyone else feel this is wrong?

Grand Theft Auto could be argued as being just as bad, yes. But, to my recollection, players are not forced to kill anyone who is wholly innocent, nor are they forced to go weapons free on police (they can just run like a bat outa hell, and hope they don't get caught). GTA4 does not start you off as a terrorist; it starts you off as an immigrant just trying to make it big.

Of course, according to the IGN review, it's a 9.5 out of 10. Their readers tell a different story, giving it a 1.6 (as of this writing). We'll see what happens over time, but I have the feeling that there's going to be a Fox News report on this game, as well as the other major news stations. Which, if they do it right, will actually be completely truthful.

On Windows 7

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:22:00 -0700

I upgraded computer #1 of 5 with Windows 7 (my Toshiba Tecra M7). Thoughts: Nice. Faster. Smarter. Pain-in-the-ass.

Nice: Well, lets start with the interface. Clean, easy to manage, and all the other piles of words that the major reviewing sites have given. By far, it's just as simple as what Apple's OS X system is, but with standard items that Microsoft has made standard in Windows operating systems (since Win95).

Faster: Okay, this might change later. A clean install, new registry and all that will, undoubtedly, be faster than the previous.

Smarter: On my laptop, it KNOWS my battery is almost completely worthless (after a couple years of only having it on the power cord, and not roaming around with it as much). On install, other than my graphics card (nVidia Quadro), it found all of my drivers.

Pain-in-the-ass: You've heard this one: No upgrade path for Windows XP to Windows 7. All my programs, documents, pictures, music, etc, etc, etc... All of that got dumped into the Windows.old folder. Manual move for all of my files, plus the few programs that I know don't need registry entries (WoW being one). Of course, this is why I made a full backup of my drive before installing.

Three to One, and it's a winner so far!

On Programming

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:15:00 -0700

Okay, so I have never had a great love for programming. HTML, PHP, Visual Basic, or just about any other API out there. Python is now attached to that list of "if I have to, I guess".

However, the only enjoyable API I've come across lately has been AutoIt. It's a smarter language than it's probably given credit for. I've created about a dozen programs with it so far, and it's fairly easy to learn and write. I've even created an App-V (Softgrid 4.5) package, so I can break down my code at problem locations (yes, there's a way to make it portable, but I don't carry my drives with me all the time).

See, I just finished a task with Python, to add in a location awareness to our sysprep CompRename script. Basically, the script uses a url with the MAC address of the machine to derive the computer name, and ActiveDirectory OU scheme. Recently, I've made said script forget about joining the domain, just for a particular lab on campus. But, I know we have a need for telling our Ghost Solution Suite clients which server they should be talking to. So I added several extra lines of code to install the GSS client with the proper server.

The issue? It took me 8 hours. Because I'm not a natural Python programmer. Trying to find GCCMain or GCCNorth was bad enough. It spat back all sorts of errors, and after about 30 different variations of the same 5 lines of code, in the last half hour, I boiled it down to 3, with the compiled regular expression (GCC)(Main|North). If it were an AutoIt script, I'd already have had it done in two hours time. And I'll give a reason why: There's ONE repository for it's documentation. It's not taught at schools, and so when you search for info on a command, it's central to ONE website, not 20+.

Arrr!

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:56:00 -0700

Ahoy, me mateys! It be In-ter-nashinal Talk Like a Pi-rite day! So fer all you lubbers out thar, get ye to http://www.talklikeapirate.com/, and freshen up on yer pi-rite lingo! You savvy?

Batman!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:26:00 -0700

Okay, so I'm having fun. We just got a PS3 (slim, mind you), and I picked up the collectors edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

This game is actually fun! Frustratingly so at times, but very fun.

The voice acting is basically the original Batman: The Animated Series cast, but the graphics are not. It's still Bats, but not the animated version (though Joker's quite...colorful).

Rebuilt

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:59:00 -0700

Here we go again. Last time, I wasn't able to log in after initial installation. This time, I'm hoping it might be different.