And we're back!

Please redirect your links to the new URL:

http://www.accidentalscientist.com/

Thanks!

(btw... on a totally unrelated note... one of my blog post labels appears to be bacon. Yum.)

Accidental Scientist - moving back to its old domain!

I finally got my ass into gear and set up the domain. Thanks go out to Gottfried Kibelka for all your help and patience while doing that :)

So reset your links - we're movin' to http://www.accidentalscientist.com !

(Although give me an hour or so, so I can get this set up ;-) )

Cypher: An awesome movie you may have missed

I just watched this tonight... I was blown away by it. It gets a solid 8 out of 10 from me, and there are parts which frankly just knock it out of the park for a 10/10. Loved it!(from the Digg story I posted)Strangely released direct to DVD in the US, Cypher is Vincenzo Natali's second film (the first being the claustrophobic sci-fi horror Cube). Stunning visuals, a complex and sophisticated plot, and several moments that will leave you completely stunned, questioning exactly what you've seen so far. Just brilliant - and hardly heard of here.

read more digg story

Bittorrent Bugginess... or how to use up 35% of your CPU doing nothing...

Looks like someone might need to add a little throttling to BitTorrent.

Build 4747 of version 6.0 of the client has a nasty little bug in it - one that should be really easy to fix, but a bug nonetheless.

On my laptop (a single core, old Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC), when I'm downloading stuff it will happily sit there, soaking up 35% of my CPU.

What's it doing when it's doing this and how did I figure it out?

Well, I looked at my TaskManager and found that Explorer was taking up 35% of the CPU. I opened up Process Explorer (it's incredibly useful - so download it here; you can find other useful tools at the www.sysinternals.com site) to figure out what was going on in more detail, selected Explorer, and looked in the properties. What I got was this:

The Explorer.exe thread properties in Process Explorer

Hmmm... a single thread is soaking up a lot of CPU. I wonder why that is? Let's pop it open by looking at the Stack for that thread by selecting it and hitting the Stack button.

The Explorer.exe thread stack in Process Explorer

Hmmm... well, nothing really useful at the top of the stack, and every time I break in, the thread looks the same. Which means it's mostly likely another app rapidly updating the tray icons and spamming it so much that it's just getting hammered and soaking up a lot of CPU.

But how do we find out which app?

I wussed out on this, dear reader. I just started going through the tray and closed apps one by one until I found the one that was doing it. In this case, it looks like it's BitTorrent. I close it down, and the problem goes away. Open it back up, and lo and behold, 35% CPU.

Kinda sucks. Should be an easy fix though - just update the icon on a timer instead of every time something changes in BitTorrent. Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

Doctor Who Christmas Special - Sinks like the Titanic

Ugh.

Can I say that again? Ugh.

Just got done watching the Doctor Who christmas special (I justify my bittorrenting by saying that ... erm... well, if my passport had arrived on time, I'd have been watching it in the UK).

Here's the short and skinny:

The pacing was totally off. I mean, totally. Not enough emotional ramp up, too many hits in too small a space... too many blindingly obvious attempts at emotional manipulation. Basically too big a story in too small a space... either that or it's just plain hamhandedness. Russell T. Davies, I'm looking at you. Occasionally you write scripts like you're a kid with a toybox... I wish you'd practice some restraint, just once. I can take pigs in space - almost. I can take Voodoo Child - I mean, ok, I get it, at this point The Master is nutso. But please, get rid of the one-note gags. Forehead zippers? Farting? Come on, man, get it together! You don't have to put every idea on the page, no matter how cool you think it is when you come up with it. Sometimes, the best thing a writer can do it not write. Kill your babies - even the ones you're fond of. The script is better off for it.

The musical score... too much music. Way too much music. Silence is useful. Bombasticness is not the way to go - it overpowers the drama. Try Battlestar Galactica on for size, they get it right nearly every single time. Murray Goldman, please, for the love of god, stop! You did a great job when Rose died in Doomsday. A fantastic job. You did a wonderful job on The Girl in the Fireplace ... You did a great job with Father's Day. Where's that subtle hand? I know you can do it. You should do it more.

Arrrggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Yeah, I know, I'm taking this way too seriously... but sheesh... two Doctor kisses in one episode? Hammering the fact that the Doctor can't save everyone way too hard? (It only needs to happen once - at most twice - even in a Christmas special. More than that is overt). Never mind the fact that you appeared to change your mind on exactly what way you were going to take this episode - originally you meant for that Titanic to be the real one. How do I know? Even in the special, in the scenes that you borrowed from the last episode, water came off the boat. If it's a spaceship, that doesn't make sense. So what was your original plan? And why did you change it? The whole ship is space thing seems like you painted yourself into a corner and this was your only route out of the whole thing.

As for the director... James Strong directed my two least favorite episodes last season - Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks. I don't know why, but they just didn't ring true for me in any sense. Oddly, he also directed two of the higher-end episodes of the previous season - The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit. This episode continues with the Dalek episode streak, unfortunately.

This has to be the worst episode I've seen since ... well.. Aliens In London was bad. Rose was pretty lame. But sheesh... what happened guys? You're blowing it.

Here's to that rest year. You guys are going to need it if Season 4 carries on like this...

Surreal Game Design Blog - Gone :(

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control¹, the Surreal Game Design blog had to be shut down.

Which sucks, but there you go.

I'll be dribbling out the articles I had stacked up over the next few weeks. I'll be aiming at one a week.

¹Lawyers, eh?

Mission Accomplished!

Yay! I just completed one of several goals I set myself when I first went to work at Surreal.

I'm now part of the background crowd "walla" for the game we're working on. It's not exactly getting my Sean Connery impersonation into a game in any form, or doing any of my european accents, but still, it counts!

So what have I achieved so far on my list?

• I've worked in Tech, Tools and Gameplay. I wanted to get exposure in all areas so that (heaven forfend) when I eventually set up my own company, I know how people do it these days, from direct personal experience.
• Shipped a game on a modern architecture (the old 8 bit systems don't count for much these days) - namely, The Suffering: Ties That Bind.
• Wrote some dialogue for our currently unannounced game (it's a couple of lines here and there in the older story pieces - most people don't even know that I did it - and that includes people working here).
• Got my voice in a game. (Yeah, I know, as background, but still, it means a lot to me).
• Have code shipped in some major titles - and some that haven't shipped yet. (My code is, to date, in Stranglehold, TNA Wrestling, Wheelman, our unannounced game [obviously], possibly the next Mortal Kombat game, and possibly Blitz 2008... and one of the systems I architected is used across Midway to handle crash reporting and post-mortem debugging).
• Worked on all the major current platforms (except the Wii and the DS, unfortunately).

Not much left to do... time to come up with a new list :)

If you're flying to or from SeaTac airport this Xmas, a few words of warning

Here's some info from personal (i.e. last night) experience:

You should be aware that things are slightly nuts at SeaTac right now…

I left the office at 11pm last night. Got to the SeaTac off-ramp around 11:15. Spent the next 45 minutes in traffic waiting to get to the actual arrivals/departure/parking area.

People aren’t using the cell phone waiting area when there’s high congestion, which is making things much worse.

If you’re picking someone up, consider using the Hourly Parking at the airport itself to do so. Most people aren’t using it because the road is under construction, and it’s so badly labeled that people are missing it each time they go past. So if you want to use it:

Get left as early as you can once you’re through the off-ramps. It may help to find someone trying to get right and swap with them.

You will see a “Parking Next Left” sign. IT IS NOT LYING. Turn left the MOMENT you see an actual road that goes left, even if about 15 feet down there you see a “Road Closed” sign. You will be driving to the left of this sign; it’s badly placed and doesn’t apply to your actual destination. There is one fakeout before you get to that road, where it looks like there should be a road going left; if you can’t drive down it, it’s not the one I’m talking about.

(I and several others did at least 2 loops before we figured this out. The people who are doing the construction work should be shot for not properly putting up signs).

If you hit the Rental Car Returns, you’ve gone too far.

Use your credit card in the ticket machines. Don’t expect to get a ticket back; you won’t get one. Just use the same card again when you exit the airport, and it’ll print a receipt for you.

If someone’s arriving at the A-gates, the security exit that you think should let you out will probably be closed (it’s by Gate A2), and this can be very confusing for tired travelers. By Gate A6, there is a security exit which is open – just walk toward A6 from gates A1-A5 and pull an immediate U-turn and it should let you out onto the main concourse. There’s also another way out if you just walk to the B/C/D gates.

In short... if you’re flying, allow about AN HOUR possibly more of driving time to get into the damn airport. Allow AN HOUR in addition to your normal driving time to pick people up. And if you’re picking people up, use the incredibly awesomely sign-posted hourly parking.

New side project...

I've decided to say, well, frankly, screw it and throw my hat in the ring for the Web2.0 social media kinda thing.

So I've started up a site - pyrogrya (catchy name, huh?) that will eventually blossom into a wonderful social media networking site that you can all enjoy.

Why am I doing this?

Because frankly, it doesn't seem that hard to do. And there's a project I've wanted to tackle for about 7 years now (on various devices) that since finally getting smartphones that can handle 3G no longer makes any sense whatsoever to do as a desktop or smartphone app. I can stick it on the web, and in fact, its usefulness should grow exponentially.

What is it?

Can't tell you yet. I want it to be somewhat of a surprise when it goes live. But I guarantee that a lot of you will find it handy. And heck, if I don't give too much away, it won't be so much of a pain when it doesn't go anywhere just like the rest of my side projects do.

Still, here we go. I bought a site, created a logo, and have started writing the database schema... this should be interesting :)

Developer blog can be found here.

Get 'em while they're hot - Weighted Companion Cubes!

Woohoo! Valve has released Weighted Companion Cubes for you to buy!... and to celebrate this event, I (ahem) wrote a song...

[To the tune of Jonathon Coulton's Still Alive...]

Aperture science
We sell you our cubes because we can
To the people out there who
Liked Portal…

They’re really quite awesome
We made them from felt and bits of fluff
Buy one right now straight from us
Maybe wear one on your head…

If you buy one today we will throw in a rake
And a catalytic cracker and maybe some cake
If you only buy one
We still have half a ton
For the people who still want to buy…

They’re really quite fluffy
Buy two and hang them in your car
Right above your dashboard it’s so sexy.
Or use them as keychains.
And jangle them with your keys, ha-ha.
Show them to your friends because they’ll be so happy for you

Now these faux companions are a beautiful sight
If you need a quick gift they’re the best you will find
And we know that you’ve yearned to get one but were spurned
Quickly buy now for two-nine-ninety five.

Go ahead and buy one
You know you can’t help it, so buy five
Maybe you can build a wall with Velcro.
Could make a fort too
Just buy several hundred ha-ha, ha-ha
Anyway, these cubes are great
They’re just so friendly and warm.

Look at them they’re light grey with bits of pink too
If we had any male ones they would have bits of blue
And we could breed them by the tonne
Or we could breed them just for fun
Sell them for twenty nine ninety five…

Sell them all twenty nine ninety five

Buy them right now twenty nine ninety five

Squishy not plastic twenty nine ninety five

They will run out twenty nine ninety five

Ninety five…

5 Minutes of Cloverfield

Cloverfield - the new movie from JJ Abrams (creator of LOST) is looking spectacular. Here's 5 minutes of footage...



And meanwhile on the LOST front... a new teaser about the Orchid station:



And there's a new season 4 teaser trailer too...

Script Writing Posts You May Have Missed...

Over the years I've written a few posts on scriptwriting that you might find interesting and/or useful. Here's a list of the best ones - check them out!

• Rules for Writing High Trajedy
  A list of guidelines for what makes high trajedy, as opposed to just tragedy.


• Rules for writing Teen Movies
  All of the elements that a classic teen movie needs, with examples


• Not Quite Teen Movies
  When is a teen movie not really a teen movie? When it breaks convention. Here's a list of a few anti teen movies that might take your fancy


• Movie Subtext Analysis Quiz
  Ferris Bueller... who is he really? The answer might be different than what you might expect, because Ferris Bueller's Day Off isn't really a teen movie...

Bit of a clean up...

You probably won't notice this if you're reading this blog through a feed reader, but I'm making some improvements to the blog... you know, tidying up the layout, putting a lick of paint on the graphics, that kind of thing.

I'm also fixing a few more broken bits & pieces. On the whole, it's looking much better, but my frustration with the pure crapularity of CSS is just killing me.

It shouldn't be this hard to put together a nice layout. And you certainly shouldn't need to code it by hand. What year is this anyway? 1994?

Harvey: The Smartest Cat I Ever Knew

I used to have quite a smart cat with a vocabulary of at least 50 words (at least as far as I could tell). He was an alley cat before we adopted him, and he'd learned a large number of cool skills, including feeding himself from tins, opening doors, and was quite adept at picking up stuff after seeing it once.

Once I opened the sliding window in the dining room, and he was watching. He liked the cool breeze, so whenever he wanted it, he'd spend forever trying to lift up the latch and slide the window. It was too heavy for him to succeed, so he'd try for a bit, and then give up and go try to find a human to do it for him.

Quite the smart kitty. His language skills were (as far as I could tell) based on the pitch shifts in syllables. He'd respond to "Harvey" as his name, as well as "Car key" and "Darr-Deee". He was also quite tactile; if you were lying in bed by him but ignoring him, he'd gently reach up a paw and touch you on the cheek to get your attention.

I'd have loved to have seen what he could have done if he'd had the polydactylous mutation that some cats are getting now.

He's an odd one though; most cats I've met were nowhere near as smart. Same with the dogs - I've only met a couple that bright.

Unfortunately, Harvey died about a year ago of a kidney infection. Poor little guy.

Surreal Game Design Blog - Relocated

For annoying legal reasons, the Surreal Game Design blog has now been relocated to http://www.GamesGoneFeral.com.

Which is cool and awesome and everything... but yet, also slightly annoying in an "Oh my god... why!?!?!?!" kind of way.

Ah well. It's still the same blog, the same writers (including me), and everything else... it's just not ... er... an official Surreal Game Design blog. If you know what I mean. (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)