GuyRoyse.com

Client-side Session Handling

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:01:00 +0000

OK. Let's say you've got some big, bulky, enterprisey application. This application consists of an outer page (probably called index.jsp or something like that) that never moves and assorted iframe tags for portlets and tabs.

The first through you probably have is "Ewwww, iframes, really?" You're second thought is probably that this is an application very much like the one Guy works with. And, I hope, your third thought is one of sympathy for me since I have to work on such an application. But I digress, como siempre.

Also, this application has session data that needs to be shared between portlets and tabs and across tabs and all other sorts of complex interactions. And, you want to do this client side for performance reasons. How, pray tell, can you do this without writing spaghetti code?

If you're really smart (and you are, right?) you're probably just saying that I should use HTML5 Local Storage and be done with it. Great idea! I even wrote ProtonDB, a framework to make this sort of thing super-easy. But, alas, I'm stuck in Enterpriseland and HTML5 is not permitted because it's new and we fear newness because it is fraught with risk and uncertainty.

But, I do have an elegant solution to the problem and the key lies in the fact that the parent page doesn't move. And since it doesn't move it can simply hold my session state in a JavaScript object. I can define this object with one line of code and import the .js file in all HTML pages (i.e. each portlet, tab, and the outer page)

var session  = session || parent.session || {};

This code is simple and complex. Make sense of that! It assigns session if it hasn't been assigned yet. Since the outer page loads first, it gets defined there initially because session doesn't exist, and parent.session doesn't exist. All of the iframes then evaluate this same code and session doesn't exists but parent.session does. And, just in case someone *has* defined this already we'll always assign session to session if it exists.

To use the code simply modify the session object. For example:

session.foo = 'bar'

Now I like to know what I've put in session so that I have a feel for how big it is. So I actually use a slightly more complex pattern. I define a session object with explicit accessors so the code tells me what's stored there. And I use a closure so no one can mess with my internal state and they have to go through the defined session object. Here's the code:

var session = session || parent.session || (function() {
 var sessionValues = {};
 return {
   setFoo : function(value) {
     sessionValues.foo = value;
   },
   getFoo : function() {
     return sessionValues.foo;
   }
 };
})();

In this case, you would use the code like this:

session.setFoo('bar')

A little extra code, sure, but I think the value add is worth it.

While I hope you don't have to use this pattern and can instead just enjoy HTML5 goodness, if you need it, here it is. Enjoy!

Disconnected HTML5, JavaScript, the iPhone & I

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 03:00:00 +0000

I've been working on a simple test case for a disconnected HTML5 application for the iPhone/iTouch off and on for the past couple of weeks. It's a points calculator for a popular weight loss program who shall remain anonymous. Anyhow, I thought this would be a handy tool for my wife and I and it would be a nice and simple application to test a disconnected HTML5 application from the iPhone.

So, I present to you Puntos. Full source code is available on github but here's how I wrote it.

Step #1: Write an HTML5 and JavaScript Application

The application I developed is not remarkable. In fact, it is a simple math problem. Peruse the source if you want details on how it works. The important part is that it has the following files:

index.html
calculator.js
calculator.css
jquery.js

Just create the files for your application (or copy mine) and make it do what it does. I'm assuming you know how to program in JavaScript and HTML.

Step #2: Make it iPhone Friendly

If you want it to be a cool iPhone HTML5 application, you have to provide an icon from the iPhone desktop. You can do this by creating a file called iphone-icon.png and placing it in the root of you project. This little file is the favicon.ico of the Apple Mobile world. It is a 45 pixel by 45 pixel PNG that your iPhone or iTouch will use if you decided to save a link to a website on your desktop.

So, just create this file with your favorite image editing program (I used Gimp) and save it with the other files.

Step #3: Add the Caching Magic

Here's where the fun comes in. We can finally make the application disconnected. The magic lies in an attribute on the html tag pointing the browser to a cache.manifest file. This file then tells the browser which files to cache and serve up when there isn't a network connection.

So, simply add something like this to your HTML file.

<html manifest="cache.manifest">

This tells your browser to load up the file in the manifest attribute. The filename can be anything but I would recommend having it end in .manifest as this makes setting up the content type later much easier.

The cache.manifest is simplicity itself:

CACHE MANIFEST
calculator.js
calculator.css
jquery.js
iphone-icon.png

It simple contains the words CACHE MANIFEST at the top and lists all the files needed by the application.

You might note that I did not include the index.html and you would be correct. This is because the browser will assume that the file you loaded in the initial request is part of the cache.manifest. No need to specify. However, if you have several HTML files, you will need to specify them all in your cache.manifest as there is no way to know which file you entered the application from.

Step #4: Serving Up text/cache-manifest

It turns out that the cache.manifest file must be served up with a content type of text/cache-manifest. It also turns out that most web servers aren't configured by default to do this since this is all bleeding edge and stuff.

So, you need to add it yourself. If you are using an apache server you can add the content type to your .htaccess file. Add the following line and you should be golden.

AddType text/cache-manifest .manifest

Step #5: Access the Application from Your iPhone & Troubleshoot

Your application should now work. So go access it. Then turn on Airplane Mode and refresh the application. I should reload gorgeously. If it doesn't, go back and troubleshoot. But you knew that already.

One caveat though. I had a hell of a time trying to get the application to work disconnected until I rebooted my iTouch (I don't have an iPhone because I'm lame). So, if everything looks like it should work but isn't then you might want to try turning off your iPhone by pressing and holding the power button until it shuts down completely.

So, those are the steps I followed to get my first disconnected iPhone application working with HTML5, JavaScript, and some cache.manifest magic. Now go out and write me a game or something.

Also, for more information on HTML5 and disconnected applications check out this fine website.

Fun With Windows

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 04:34:00 +0000

OK. Just spent 3 hours of my life that I will never get back trying to troubleshoot and issue with Windows 7 and USB devices that I was having. Figured it out so I thought I would share the problem and solution.

The Problem

Whenever I would plug a new USB device in, it would not be detected by Windows. Instead I would get a driver not found error and no amount of troubleshooting on Windows' part would help. This affected a new keyboard and mouse I purchased (Logitech MK520) and an old headset that I had lying around. It was also affecting my iPod but I didn't realize that until after the fact.

In the case of my mouse and keyboard I would see in Device Manager a device names USB Receiver with an annoyed looking yellow icon resting upon it. No amount of messing with the icon helped.

All very frustrating because the hardware would detect the new keyboard and mouse. When I booted the system and accessed the BIOS menu the keyboard worked. The mouse was listed as detected. Everything seemed fine.

Troubleshooting

After much searching of the web in frustration. (Did I mention it was frustrating) I finally found some people actually having the same problem. No solutions, mind you, but the same problem. I determined from the gist of all this posts that it was something to do with the USB drivers. Not the mouse drivers or the keyboard drivers or the headset drivers but the core USB drivers from Windows 7.

So I removed them all in Device Manager and rebooted so they could be reinstalled. This worked -- briefly. When the drivers were gone the mouse started working. But Windows quickly fixed that and reinstalled the drivers and I was back to a non-functioning mouse and keyboard.

The Solution

Finally I came across some forum posts suggesting that usb.inf and usb.pnf should exist in Windows\inf and if they didn't that would cause this issue. So, I Googled to find the files and copied them in. Then I removed the annoyed USB Receiver driver and detected new devices.

Voila! It works.

Hope this helps someone else.

The Rules of Code Club

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:26:00 +0000

The first rule of Code Club is, you always write tests first at Code Club.
The second rule of Code Club is, you ALWAYS WRITE TESTS FIRST at Code Club.
If someone says stop, gets stuck, gets bored, the pair switches.
Two coders to a keyboard.
One keyboard at a time.
No mice, no copy and paste.
Coding will go on as long as is has to.
If this is your first time at Code Club, you have to code

Let Him Who Hath Wisdom Reckon the Number of the Beast

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:12:00 +0000

My latest project is something that I have written three times: The Antichrist Detector.

The Antichrist Detector was conceived about 10 years ago when I stumbled upon the entertaining idea that Bill Gates was the Antichrist. The idea was simple and ludicrous. If you take the ASCII values of the name Bill Gates (uppercase only please as any good numerologist will tell you) they add up the 663.

"But wait!", you're saying, "That doesn't add up to 666?"

Correct. But Bill Gates full name is William Henry Gates III. So, Bill Gates plus three does equal 666. It's so obvious. How could you have not seen it?

Anyhow, this whole idea gave me a slightly twisted thought. You could automate this. Write a simple program and feed it the phone book and out pops a list of potential Antichrist. Not having a digitized phonebook handy I had another more practical (in as much as any of this is practical) idea. Why don't I put up a website any let people enter their own names.

So, in 2000, I did. It was very successful and a lot of fun. It didn't do much but it generated a healthy amount of traffic and a lot of logs. In fact, reading the logs was probably the best part about it. The emails I got, however, were also very interesting. The vast majority of them were from crackpots who thought I was serious. This greatly surprised but in hindsight, it probably shouldn't have.

My initial attempt was written in C++ and invoked via CGI. When I started learning C# and .NET I decided to replatform it. So, version 2.0 was born. Later, I moved to new hosting and no longer had .NET so I replatformed it again and used it as an excuse to learn jQuery and PHP. 3.0 was born. In each incarnation I added new features. 2.0 gained statistics. 3.0 gained an RSS feed.

So, I am now staring down the barrel of The Antichrist Detector 4.0. This time, I am using it to learn Ruby, Google Appengine, and more advanced JavaScript techniques. I plan to also add features to this one as well. Most notably, you will now be able to issue Antichrist Detections via Twitter!

Obviously, the Antichrist Detector has turned into a bit of a "Hello World" application for me that I use to learn new technology. But, it's also fun and I hope that you can enjoy it as well.

I'll post the link to the new version once it is somewhat available.

Site Update

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:58:00 +0000

When I initially launched GuyRoyse.com I vacillated about the content I was creating and writing about. Was this to be a blog about writing and games or writing, games, and coding?

Initially I decided to have it just be about writing and games. I wanted to focus on my creative endeavors and frankly, figured most people wouldn't care too much about the programming stuff. But, as it turns out, a lot of my creative activity is focused around code and programming. This sort of leaked in a posting I made a couple of months back updating everyone on the status of Corporate Raiders.

So, I've decided to cave to my urges and put my code projects on here as well. But, not only will I be including some of my coding project but I will also be sharing some of my thoughts on technology and software engineering. So, if you're a programmer or other geeky tech person, hopefully you'll find the additional content enjoyable. And if your not, I won't be offended if you skip over my more technical posts.

Pairs of Ants Wager on Red and Black at AnCon

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:12:00 +0000

Saw this update a while ago from Super Dave, a fellow gamer and geek from my college days, and thought I would share.

Super Dave runs a regional gaming convention in North Eastern Ohio called AnCon. It is with great shame that I share with you that I have never attended. But, word on the street is that it's a lot of fun. I'd like to try to get up there in 2010. It runs from May 21 through May 23 next year. That's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday so getting off of work should be easy for all of us corporate wage slaves. The price is only $25 for the entire weekend if you pre-register and apparently if you recruit others to come you'll get $5 for every person you recruit. So, I would encourage you to check it out (and tell me about it so I can claim my $5).

But the really interesting thing--at least to me right now--is that he has released some PDF games. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, looking at his release dates, I think he might have stolen my idea! But, since PDF boards games like Zombie Stomp! at part of what I do here, I thought you might be interested even if he leap-frogged me. Curse you and you're free time Super Dave!

The games are a dice game called Pairs and Wagers which looks like it would be a lot of fun with the family and Ants: Red vs. Black, a board game which looks a little more involved than what might interest my wife. Which means it's right up my alley! I haven't play either of them yet--hell, I've hardly had time to update the blog--but I plan to.

A Belated Corporate Raiders Update

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:23:00 +0000

So I haven't provided an update for y'all in quite some time but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy working to build games and stories for your consumption. It also doesn't mean that I have been busy working on games and stories for your consumption. But I have.

So, it's a Corporate Raiders update today. I went on a bit of a code binge for a while and made a lot of changes to get the application to be mash-up friendly. I also added lots of JavaScript stuff to it as well. These sort of went hand in hand. The significant update that you can actually see--an API.

I've added APIs to lot you access the actual data of the game so that you can code against it and extend it in ways that I don't foresee. Of course I also plan to use this API to support other clients for the game. In fact, I am already using it on the main page of Corporate Raiders.

If you want to check out the API for yourself you can access it using the following URLs:

http://corporateraiders.hardboiledgeek.com/api/stock/symbol/format
http://corporateraiders.hardboiledgeek.com/api/market/format

Just replace symbol with the stock symbol you care about. For format enter either xml or json. If you don't specify a format, it will default to json. For example, http://corporateraiders.hardboiledgeek.com/api/stock/chch/xml will show you the info for Chthonic Chemicals Corporation in XML. http://corporateraiders.hardboiledgeek.com/api/stock/chch/json or http://corporateraiders.hardboiledgeek.com/api/stock/chch would show you that same info in JSON.

This API is ripe for consumption by fat client and portal device applications. Got an Android Phone or an iPhone and some spare time? How about an Adobe Air client? This would be a good place for you to play. And if you do something cool, tell me about it either via email or by leaving a comment.

Also, and perhaps more significantly, the market now moves. Right now the algorithm is completely random day by day and the incrementals are very predictable over the course of a given day. Nonetheless, it moves. Next, the plan is to swap out the core engine with something a little more random so we can start letting people actually buy and sell stocks. Then, we'll add a more event-based model so that we can have news items, rumors, and the like to affect the stock price. Insider trading here we come!

In the short term I plan to add users to the model as well as put some tasty JavaScript stuff on the screen. Tabs and accordians are probably where I'll start.

So stay tuned. I'll post updates as I go so that you can watch the sausage being made.

The Price of Admission

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Part of the point of my efforts to make games and stories online is to prove what one can do with very little. And by very little I mean a computer, the Internet, and time.

The stuff I am doing on this site is done with free software. I am using GIMP to create the board for Zombie Stomp! I will use Open Office to write the rules and generate the PDF for Zombie Stomp! Corporate Raiders is being developed using Eclipse and Java--both of which are free. The writing I am doing for Big Time is with Open Office--again free. When I get around to podcasting I plan to record with Audacity which is also free.

While I have a domain name and a hosting account, these items are not strictly necessary. I could be at guyroyse.blogspot.com instead of guyroyse.com and I could host my images and PDFs on free sites if I looked around. I choose to have a domain name and hosting because I have the resources to do so. I have a day job that pays for it. It is a luxury.

The application hosting for Corporate Raiders and the other games that I will create, either through Hard Boiled Geek with Benjamin or on my own, are hosted with Google App Engine which is also free up until a certain point. A point which we will be well below for some time.

This hardest part of doing this is the time. Many folks have lots of that. Many don't. I fall into the latter category so I have chosen to sacrifice television so that I can make these cool things and provide them to you. That frees up more time than anything else I could possibly do.

Folks, the point here is this--the price of admission is free. There are no barriers to entry. Poor college students can do this. Retired folks on fixed incomes can do this. My mom can do this. Anybody can do this. And I would know because I am anybody.

You should do it too.

Zombie Stomp! Work in Progress (Part 3)

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Just a little update on the progress of the Zombie Stomp! gameboard.

As you can see, the ship is pretty much done now. All that's left to do is damage the ship up to match the sketch, add thrusters, and then add details in the interior of the ship. After that, I can work on a nice, spacey background and all the labels, lettering, and logos.

Then, of course I still have to make it into a PDF complete with rules and all that. But now that I think about it, the rules might be simple enough to just put right on the gameboard. Or not, a summary of them at least.

Enjoy!

Zombie Stomp! Work in Progress (Part 2)

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:26:00 +0000

I thought that it might be a good idea to update you on the progress that has been made on Zombie Stomp!. So, here it is.

The board is progressing nicely but I have been running into barriers with my general graphic design skill level--or lack thereof--and that is slowing me down. Here's what we have so far.

I'm actually rather proud of what I've made so far--although perhaps only in the way a father can be. I know that it probably looks amateurish to the professionals out there (you know who you are) but I'm impressed with what GIMP is capable of doing for free and I'm having fun.

The playtest that I planned to do this weekend has run into life-schedule-conflict-stuff and I have to postpone. I'm thinking a couple more weeks out so probably mid-September. In the meantime, I'll keep working on the graphic and posting the results here for you to see.

Status Updated and Other Projects

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:29:00 +0000

So I've been a little lax in reporting in of late. My family and I went on vacation and the last few weeks have been really hectic. But, I haven't been sitting on my laurels the entire time, I have been working.

While on vacation I worked on my short story which has the working title of "Big Time". Big Time is the story of a small time reporter, Theodore Chang, who has big dreams and an attitude to match. It takes place in a far future world where man has long since colonized the stars and has built a massive network of portals to connect all the planets into one metaworld that they call Pangaea. Theo gets a chance to do an exclusive interview of Gigacity's most famous serial killer--the Portal Killer. The Portal Killer had hacked his way into the portal network and was using it to invade the homes of the rich and famous through their private portals, killing them in their sleep. That is, until he was caught. But then, why do people keep dying? Big Time should be a lot of fun and hopefully a bit surprising.

Zombie Stomp! is also moving forward. I plan to playtest the game at the end of the month and hope to have the rules written before then so I can hand them out at the playtest. I'll post them here first, of course. And the results of the playtest afterwards too.

And I've also been working with my friend Benjamin on a joint venture to produce web-based computer games for your enjoyment under the brand Hard Boiled Geek. There's isn't much at our site yet--actually there's nothing--but Benjamin is working on that.

Our first game is a stock trading game called Corporate Raiders. If you want to check out what the game has so far you can visit it at corporateraiders.hardboiledgeek.com. The game is still pretty young right now. We just have the mechanism to display the status of the market. Our next step is to actually make the market move. Then we can start adding features to buy and sell and start adding players.

Benajmin has a real knack for creating interesting companies for the ficticious Atlantic Stock Exchange and reading the names and descriptions of these companies can be a lot of fun. I encourage you to check it out and give us some feedback on how it looks and the content. If we like you're feedback we might even name a company after you! Once we get some more functionality up and running we'll also want to start inviting some betatest users. So if you're interested drop me a line at guy@guyroyse.com.

So, while I haven't been posting much of what I've been working on, you can probably see that I've been a busy little beaver. And, I'm have a lot of fun making all this content, even if there isn't much for you to see at the moment. But when it comes, all these irons I have in the fire will be done at once. And won't that be fun!

Zombie Stomp! Work in Progress

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:18:00 +0000

I've been working hard on the Zombie Stomp! game-board and though I would share a work in progress image so y'all knew I was working on something and hadn't abandoned the project. So, here it is.

As you can see, I have got the interior walls and structure in place and the textures on the floor. I've also added doors but not any hatches yet. Exterior walls, damage to the ship and large items inside of the ship are next. After that, a nice spacey background and then details such as frost in the cryopods, little yellow and black caution strips, maybe some blood splatters. That kinda thing.

I'm also thinking I will need some kind of logo for the game. If anyone had some ideas for a logo, suggest them in the comments or email them to me directly. Major props will go out for whomever puts a logo together for the game and epic props for the one arbitrarily selected by yours truly.

Once the board is done, I'll start working on the PDF. I'm planning on including in the PDF detailed rules and the game-board—conveniently sized for printing on card stock, cutting up, and spreading out on the gaming table—plus cutout zombies and humans that can be folded as little triangles and used a game pieces.

Zombie Stomp! Game Board Sketch

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:39:00 +0000

So, as planned, here is the sketch for the Zombie Stomp! Gameboard.

There are a couple of things to note here:

Humans start with one pawn in Engineering, two on the Bridge, and three in Habitation.
All eight zombies are split evenly between the two cryopods.
Zombie are too stupid to use hatches (the little lens shaped things with T's on each side). Only humans can use them.
The Port Cryopod, the Aft, and the outside of the ship are vacuum. Humans cannot enter these spaces unless they go through a hatch and suit up. Zombies can enter these areas just fine using regular doors. No significant depressurization of the ship occurs.

I plan to work on a better board, making it real purdy-like and everything using GIMP, over the next couple of weeks. Once it's ready I'll post it. I'll probably post some preliminary stuff as well so you'll see the sausage being made and too keep feeding y'all content.

I also intent to work on the rules and play-test them over the next couple of weeks. Expect those sooner as writing documents is easier than using GIMP. And please, play-test the rules yourselves and give me your feedback. Either send me an email at guy@guyroyse.com or drop your feedback in the comments on the blog. The more data I have, the better.

And, of course, if you give me play-test feedback you'll get props in the final PDF. And who knows, maybe in an actual print version of the game some day.

Once I get the game finished I may make new maps if their is interest. I'm thinking that a classic dungeon for a nostalgic D&D feel might be fun or perhaps a small town Main Street—complete with a theater showing a zombie flick— for that real B-movie experience.

This game will be released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license so that you and your friends can take this content, remix it, create maps, expand the rules, or whatever. I heartily encourage you to do this. Right now. Right this second. Go crazy! Just be sure to post links to your stuff in the comments so everyone else can share in the fun.

Coming Soon: Zombie Stomp!

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:07:00 +0000

"Hey! Hey! Do the Zombie Stomp!"

Okay. So that's Ozzy but it's still a cool song. The Zombie Stomp never really took off like the Monster Mash or the Transylvania Twist but don't short it. It's damn cool. Cool enough to be a game. That's right. I've been inspired to make a game, a board game, by Ozzy Osbourne himself.

Actually, this is all a lie. Well, not all of it, just the Zombie Stomp! part. It's still a game. But Zombie Stomp! has a much to do with Ozzy as Java (that's a programming language for all those non-techies) does with coffee. The only thing they have in common is the name.

Imagine if you will a subluminal ship deep between the stars. A skeleton crew mans the ship while the colonists slumber thoughtlessly in cryogenic suspension. But, of course, something goes wrong. A strange artifact impacts the ship and the folks in cryo wake up with a craving for braaaaiiiiinnnnnssssss.

Zombie Stomp! is a game of this particular space horror. Two players face off—zombies vs. humans — on a game board that is the deck plans of a deep-space colony ship. Pawns representing humans and zombies are placed across the board as the players try to eliminate each other.

The rules are simple:

Humans run two squares.
Zombies shamble one square.
Move one pawn per turn.
Humans may move two pawns one square on a turn.
An attack counts as one.
Zombies go first since no one expects a zombie attack.

If there is an attack, each side rolls a six-sided die:

High roll wins.
Ties are just that: a tie. Try again next turn
If the winner is a zombie, the human pawn becomes a zombie pawn.
If the winner is a human, the zombie is removed.

I'm not sure how balanced this game is, so I plan to do some play-testing to see who wins more often. If there is an imbalance, I'll give the zombies or the humans the advantage of winning a tie and see what that does.

I plan to produce a PDF containing the rules and the game-board once play-testing is completed. There might be a few surprises in there. We'll see what I can come up with for you.

This game could easily be played on a chess board. Take eight white pawns and place them at one end of the board. Take eight black for the other side and just start playing. You'd need at most eight additional black pawns to play in case the zombie get lucky.

In fact, why don't you play some games on a chess board—or some other board of your devising—with your buds and tell me about it in the comments. I'll incorporate your feedback into the game, maybe include some of the boards, and give props to everyone that helped.

About Your Geek

guy@guyroyse.com (Guy Royse) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:53:00 +0000

A born and bred Ohio native, Guy has a basic urge to create that has been a burden his entire life. While possessed of basic skills with physical objects that could be used to create, arts and crafts—while fun—have never lived up to his imagination. He has instead chosen to channel this desire into creating imaginary worlds, software development, stories, and games.

Guy was introduced to computers, science-fiction, and role-playing games at more or less the same time and the concepts are throughly intertwined in his mind. He has programmed in many semi-colon delimited languages over the years including C++, Java, and C#. More recently he has worked with Ruby and JavaScript.

On the fiction front, Guy prefers to write Science Fiction although he has been known to rant prolifically that Science Fiction and Fantasy differ only in their flavor, not their substance. Some of his favorite authors include Douglas Adams, Greg Bear, Larry Niven, Fredrick Pohl, Scott Sigler, and Dan Simmons.

An avid gamer for decades, Guy bemoans the glut of fantasy in role-playing and yearns for more science fiction in gaming. His favorite games include BattleTech, Dungeons & Dragons*, Illuminati, In Nomine, Munchkin, Paranoia, and Risus.

Guy lives in Westerville, Ohio with his wife, three strapping young lads, a fat cow-cat named Madeline, and several guns. He attends church every Sunday—and actually pays attention—but he's not a prude about it.

* Yes, I realize I bemoan the glut of fantasy RPGs but play D&D. Sue me.