Author Archives: Patrick

Loose lips sink… gaming?

One less secret I have to keep:  see Riot Games to Summon ‘League of Legends’ in 2009 – MarketWatch.  That’s for anyone who is curious about what my friend Scott has been up to and/or the game I interviewed to … Continue reading

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Game Review: Too Human

Too Human is an action RPG for the XBox 360.  Sillicon Knights developed the title on-and-off for almost ten years.  The game combines features from several other well-known action RPGs.  To sum it up in a sentence, Too Human combines … Continue reading

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Lost the Plot

This post is sparked by the recent SlashDot article: How Close Were US Presidential Elections?.  And the recent presidential and vice-presidential debates.  And listening to folks in general.  Just some observations regarding political beliefs and behavior:  people don’t listen to … Continue reading

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It's all in my head

I frequently say lots of very strange things that seem unrelated to the conversation at hand.  That’s because I’m running a quite detailed conversation in my head at the same time.  I’ll try different comments and responses, and evaluate the … Continue reading

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Wit: A Programmer's Best Tool

I was humbled this past week.  I went to an interview at a game company.  But I didn’t have my most valuable asset.

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Internet 1, Pat 0

Of course, the $170/month internet doesn’t work. Turns out, Verizon claimed near 100% V-Cast (EVDO Rev.A) coverage of Sainte Genevieve county. They’re lying. While we were able to get a signal, we could never acquire a digital signal.

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Backported entries…

I just imported a bunch of my posts from theconans.com so as to preserve them here.  Some of them are nice, like favorite sci-fi books.  Scroll back a bit and check it out.

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Never underestimate the bandwidth…

I’m so excited. UPS says my Internet will arrive in a truck on Monday. It’s already at Nashville! Continue reading

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Thought for the day: 2008-08-06

My daughter asked me last night: Daddy, what if the whole world was clay except for chain saws?

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Lots of photos available…

I finally got the bulk of our photos tagged and uploaded to Muddyhorse Photos.  Enjoy!  Note:  the tag plugin for Gallery is a bit rough, but that’s what we have for now.

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Conference: Overall

Overall, a pretty good conference.  Here’s a quick summary of Dr. Dobbs Architecture & Design World 2008.

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Conference: Topics

I plan on doing a write-up of the major points about the conference.  Here are some upcoming topics: The conference as a whole, with travel and accommodations. UI Design Professional Development Practices On the whole, it was a good experience.  … Continue reading

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Conquering the bus

I took my first two bus rides today after class.  Aside from inserting my pass right, and figuring out how to get off the bus, it wasn’t too bad.  We went to Chinatown, and ate at Saint’s Alp Tea House, … Continue reading

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Chicago Arrival…

We made it safely to Chicago today.  We’re up on the 29th floor!  Pretty nice.  Thanks to Jim, Stacy, and everyone else who helped in the process of making Pat survive the big city!  By the way, no internet access … Continue reading

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Quick Guide to using Weak References in Java

Java’s WeakRef functionality is an easy way to handle a lot of data but not have to worry about running out of memory. Here is a quick guide and example of use. Continue reading

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The Power of Naming

Often, in literature, movies, or games, I’ve come across the concept that giving a name to something gives you control over that thing. Does that apply to real life? Continue reading

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Horsing around

I was the tech guy again for the horse show at the Ste. Gen County fair. Not a bad gig, but I am a terrible MS Access 97 designer, so the application is pretty bad, and generally wrong. Click Read On for pictures and more. Continue reading

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WordPress Newbie: Categories vs. Tags

I know nearly nothing about wordpress, and quickly got confused by the fact I can enter categories and tags. Well, after a bit of searching, I found the answer. Continue reading

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Favorite Sci-fi books

I posted this over at IGN, but I wanted to preserve the content here. To that end, here are some of my favorite science fiction books. Regarding A.C. Clarke, be sure to read the first Rendezvous with Rama book, but … Continue reading

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ObjectDock: Gorgeous, but useless…

ObjectDock is a free Windows TaskBar replacement, sort of.  You can look at the screenshots to get a feel for what it looks like.  It’s not exactly fair to call it a TaskBar replacement, it is trying more to be … Continue reading

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