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I’ll get the easy one out the way: academically, I did...

Sat, 19 May 2012 17:50:00 +0100

I’ll get the easy one out the way: academically, I did okay. Though I obviously could’ve worked harder, I think I’ve put more effort into my studies than ever before this year. It hurts to have that only come out as ‘average’.

It’s a 3.21 GPA, which should count as a scraping 2:1, but I can’t wait to see the presence of a sophomore class get scrutinised by the Board of Examiners.

I was a little surprised to find myself still Flying in some of...

Sat, 19 May 2012 17:31:11 +0100

I was a little surprised to find myself still Flying in some of the games, but my brain has definitely deteriorated in the last five years (my Time Pass skills are so bad!). Dr Kawashima was so sad to see that it had been a while. I remember competing for sub 15s scores and laughing hard at some gallery drawings. In fact, just holding the stylus in my hand brings back memories, especially the summer that we spent playing The World Ends With You. To be a kid again…

Bad session — I didn’t even clear out my bonus pool!...

Sat, 19 May 2012 00:25:00 +0100

Bad session — I didn’t even clear out my bonus pool! Then again, it ended with a win against a Top 8 Platinum, so I’m a little confused.

PvP: In one game, I hesitated to attack and turned around without even checking up the ramp — I think it’s this kind of bad decision making that cost me games tonight. That was my first AM game where I’ve actually had to expand. I’m rusty, but still practically undefeated.

PvT: Cutting Probes and doing the Gateway at 8 works for now. My next step is to try Gateways at the natural to ween a few more seconds. I don’t know if that would generally provoke aggression or a Bunker but it’s something to try.

PvZ: I lost maybe 5-6 games in a row, so I’m feeling pretty terrible. It’s a combination of hotkey fuckups (and Colossus getting stuck on Ohana), 10 Pool panic, passivity and general “not sure what to do”-ness (and just being shit at the game).

It’s clear I just need more practice against Zerg — usually I only get one or two matches per session and I’ll be playing with Roach-Hydra on my mind against someone using Mutalisks, forgoing Stalkers to do obnoxious Warp Prism harass, etc.

This represents my last step against piracy. I’ve been...

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:03:28 +0100

This represents my last step against piracy. I’ve been slowly weening myself away from it ever since my first paycheck, but I think my computer is completely free of it now. It feels right — I feel pretty strongly that piracy is only selfish.

I don’t think Photoshop should have been the last thing — I definitely owe more than £170 if I really have spent 400+ hours using it.

I unashamedly cared until the very last page, but the last five...

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:47:00 +0100

I unashamedly cared until the very last page, but the last five Parts were pretty hard to read, full of some Battle Royal 2 levels of stupidity. I know there needed to be resolution after the first book, but making Katniss the centre of everything ruined the setup of the Panem conflict for me.

I didn’t like the movie. Maybe it’s because I read the book so recently, but the sleep syrup and District 11 bread were two places where I really question the screenwriters’ decisions. I think the sequels will be difficult to film, but I’ll probably watch them anyway.

This is something important: I found a watch I like.

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:23:00 +0100

This is something important: I found a watch I like.

PvZ: I’m playing a 3 Gateways/base Stalker-only macro...

Thu, 10 May 2012 20:44:02 +0100

PvZ: I’m playing a 3 Gateways/base Stalker-only macro style. It works out okay, but Zergs are far too few and far between on this ladder to really see if it’s effective. I know it would be weak against committed Roach and Zergling attacks, but it feels strong against my opponents so far.

PvT: Drop awareness is usually one of my strengths, but it was pretty shitty today. For some reason, I also stopped using multiple army groups and there are at least a couple of games where I’ve warped Archons using the wrong Templars, blocked ramps with Stalkers and stacked Force Fields or Guardian Shields in a panic.

Overall, I’m still lost with how to approach PvT — I know fast expands work, but they’re just not in my style. I feel the only way to improve the aggression is to proxy a Gateway, or delay it to the point where it might as well be a 4Gate. The new maps definitely need adjusting to — I can’t find a way to punish the gassless expand.

PvP: Zealot-Archon. Hahahaha.

There’s a huge (positive) correlation between people that regularly drink soft drinks and people I...

Sun, 06 May 2012 04:02:00 +0100

There’s a huge (positive) correlation between people that regularly drink soft drinks and people I...

I played a stupid amount of League of Legends yesterday. I...

Sat, 05 May 2012 09:35:00 +0100

I played a stupid amount of League of Legends yesterday. I don’t know why this is my kind of habit in the lead up to Finals, but it is. I like the game a lot — it has a really great system that combines technical knowledge, zone control, awareness, reaction, psychology, etc.

I bought Gangplank, a fairly safe-to-play carry. Obviously that’ll ring untrue once I actually get around to playing real games, but he’s one of the only champions whose entire skill sets I like. There’s so much to learn that I don’t know if I can invest myself much and at the end of the day, it’s still just a “what the fuck am I doing with my life” time sink of a game.

I played Bloodline Champions recently. Conceptually, it’s more simple, but really threw me off with its control scheme — eight skills mapped to nonsensical areas of the keyboard and imprecise movement. It makes me feel that DotA-Allstars really was either true brilliance or simply an accident in design.

"If even for a blink of an eye you can control two of the other guy’s limbs with one of yours,..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 22:02:00 +0100

“If even for a blink of an eye you can control two of the other guy’s limbs with one of...

I made it a couple of chapters in to The Art of Learning before...

Thu, 03 May 2012 21:58:05 +0100

I made it a couple of chapters in to The Art of Learning before the book became a bit too depressing for me. A lot of Waitzkin’s writing about entity theorists were just too true for me to accept. I used to play and enjoy chess competitively before losing games crushed my spirit too much, and thinking back on those lost years really hurts.

I have Starcraft in my mind while reading it, drawing analogies on chess openings just being a shortcut that don’t build the foundation to a good player, etc. I’m not sure if there really are that many parallels, though. I never kept a record book but replays feel incredibly important to me, etc.

Interesting read so far — I’m inspired to better myself right now.

We made Guitar Hero on an FPGA. I worry because our demo got...

Wed, 02 May 2012 22:08:00 +0100

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

We made Guitar Hero on an FPGA. I worry because our demo got full marks, even though there were some clear evidence of glitching and many who had pulled off much more complex projects involving image processing or trigonometry.

It sucks that the only thing that I have to show is from three weeks ago. The final product was a lot more playable and generally awesome. The shite in this video was just the result of some clock delay problems… I wish we’d had a bit more guidance. I think learning to learn is important (and something that’s lacking here), but some things are just not obvious unless someone tells you about it.

I’ve been thinking about my thesis a lot lately. I’d hoped that something interesting about compilers or architectures would come up, but I’m instead looking at an FPGA project right now. I fully admit that I can’t see myself with a long term interest in high-performance computing, but I feel like I’ve had years of being nudged in that direction. Part of me worries because it’s not nearly as easy to be rigorous over hardware… maybe I should be trying to find an easy problem rather than an actual academic thesis?

Video

Tue, 01 May 2012 22:00:36 +0100

I think I actually played better when I was drunk. Today’s...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:03:00 +0100

I think I actually played better when I was drunk. Today’s session was a reversal of my norm, dominating PvP and struggling with PvT, but still not finding any Zerg opponents.

My PvT early aggression isn’t effective any more, a hard cutoff where my opponents have just started defending better. My intended change is to use five Probes on gas instead of four — the extra Sentries being essential to breaking any Bunkers — but I might do something radical and actually start using fast-expand builds.

Maybe it’s just the AM ladder, but I knew I’d reach this skill level eventually. I know there’ll eventually be a point where people start using Hellions, 1/1/1s before 10 minutes, or effective Medivac attacks, but I’ve gotta just beat one obstacle at a time.

Well, I see a face…

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:02:00 +0100

Well, I see a face…

I’ve been spamming links for The Secret War. Part of me wants to...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:12:46 +0100

I’ve been spamming links for The Secret War. Part of me wants to jump in and have everything set for launch day/early access, even though the rewards probably aren’t worth the effort. I have to admit, it’s a pretty nifty ARG, and I hope it’s a good sign of the kind of thing that Funcom will do to make The Secret World something special.

I guess most of the hype is on Guild Wars 2, but I don’t know about playing in a world that I cared naught for the first time around. Perhaps I’ll pick it up eventually, but for now, I’m a Templar.

I placed Gold on my AM account. Dutch courage is one way to...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:35:00 +0100

I placed Gold on my AM account. Dutch courage is one way to offset ladder anxiety, even if it means I play horribly. I was focussing a lot on doing the little things and ‘/dancing’ a lot against a some really bad opponents. I feel like games are a bit more casual and chatty over here.

Minimap awareness was shit, but I still managed to Feedback some Medivac drops (I mean to post a variety of screenshots, but this spell is just so satisfying). I lost games to Mutalisks and getting caught expanding against what was very obviously an incoming 3 Barracks timing attack.

Watching these replays back has been fun. I decided to start a Starcraft notebook, but I’m not sure exactly what purpose it’ll serve, but I think it’s about time that I actively try to improve my game.

VistaSwitcher crashed on me for the first time ever today. I was...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:48:00 +0100

VistaSwitcher crashed on me for the first time ever today. I was so lost that I had to use Ctrl+Alt+Delete because I’d momentarily forgotten how normal people switch windows. I have it mapped to my backtick key, and the speed at which you can switch between windows makes it as close to having dual monitors as I think is possible.

SlickRun is the other utility that I adore. Without exception, everyone that has been watching over my shoulder has commented on it. I don’t think anyone seriously follows up on my response, so I thought I’d blog about it.

I’ve had a Das Keyboard Professional Silent S for a week now....

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:03:00 +0100

I’ve had a Das Keyboard Professional Silent S for a week now. Overall, there’s more that I dislike about it than I like, so I’ll probably sell it on. Stuff like the glossy covering, the letter printing, key spacing, the awkward hub notch… swear by it if you like, Langley… I could do better.

Good points? I share a room with someone I don’t like.

Trying to make Linux work has wasted another day of my life. I...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:24:00 +0100

Trying to make Linux work has wasted another day of my life. I gave up, clueless over what could possibly be going wrong. I think a lot of the developers’ time is wasted on the interface if there’s still no graphical way to do a lot of the important stuff that can only be done in a terminal — I don’t think anyone actually cares for the family-friendly look of Ubuntu (which, incidentally, I find mostly awful).

I feel like there’s something missing for mid-computer literate people who want control over the system, without having to learn obscure commands and paths in the terminal. There isn’t an obvious way to design an operating system to have easily accessible options for every single use case… I think Windows only manages because configuration files are weirdly less coupled. Maybe it’s just that you’re never among only a dozen of people that have ever tried to do something.

And throughout this process, staring me in the face, has been a clock with the wrong, unchangeable time.