Journals

Striker7 years ago2016-08-20 15:10:44 UTC 3 comments
I bought a mountain-bike.
Striker7 years ago2016-05-07 20:06:49 UTC 2 comments
What a great year this will continue to be! ... and indeed was already! Last month I proved myself I can handle a 30km bike marathon with an almost 800m altitude gain. As a beginner, this was one of my most intense mind-over-body experience I ever endured. I finished it in 2 hours and 15 minutes, while the advanced guys finished it under 1:30. I'm now seriously considering investing some money in a good bike 'till the next year( but good bikes are very expensive).

Several challenges lay before me still, and uncertainties. Life is so fucking weird at this point. I have some difficult exams I'll have to pass to finish college, and then explore my options for the future. It's quite chilling to realize each passing birthday that your future options and opportunities "pool" shrinks.

This year will also be great from a technological standpoint. I'll be very Zen while fishing at Kaby Lake in early mornings, watching the Polaris star and philosophizing about Pascal's wager. Man, one can't wait for October as much as I do!

God help me I have so many thoughts, I don't know how to beat my fears and manage every anxiety so I can experience more of this life...
Striker7 years ago2016-04-15 13:24:24 UTC 9 comments
I have left the palindromic age.

Need to do a lot of shit this year.

[EDIT] Got a pair of Sennheiser CX 300-ii earbuds from a friend, my last earbuds were "Canyon" and lasted my 4 years, but holy shit are these new ones better!
Striker8 years ago2016-01-06 16:09:09 UTC 7 comments
I played with some friends Exploding Kittens. This game is awesomely frustrating. But hey, at least I rubbed the belly of a pig-a-corn.

Do you guys know of any cool boardgames? What do you say about Pandemic?
Striker8 years ago2015-12-05 22:32:18 UTC 1 comment
3000 days.

TL;DR: been here for 8 years. My deep thanks to the community. Youtube link to an unfinished project at the bottom of the journal

Three thousand. This is an interesting, if not cool number that probably make most of the geeks think of the future. How will life be in the year 3000? It's difficult to imagine, but it's fun to speculate. Flying cars, teleportation? Outdated concepts by that time. Are we going to be merely some spheres of energy having fun by shaping matter, that move through the universe in the ultimate quest of solving the last philosophical questions? Are we going to meet with other intelligent beings by that time, or, why not, ascend on a higher spiritual path and maybe discover new realms?

I don't know. But it's not about 3000 years, it's about 3000 days. I've been here for that amount of time and I thought it would be nice to present my respects to the community. It's a community that tolerated me in my internet youth and I'm grateful for that. People have very little patience in real life these days, much less in a virtual space. Although maybe it's not fair to suppose that it's virtual, because electronic communication is one of the greatest inventions: expanding our electrical impulses from the brain, through an interface, to thousands of miles away. It's... mind blowing, if you think of it.

I'm ashamed that, because of my very busy schedule, I couldn't work at a mapping project I had, and neither I could make a "gift" to the community, to say so. I can only present my thanks to you, the regulars, who give this community its unique appeal that had me stay for so long. It is still the first tab in my tens of tabs opened each day, because I'm quite honestly interested of the evolution of some members around here. It's heart warming to know the origins of some members and see them where they've arrived.

It's not fair to present thanks to only the regulars I know from the top of my head, I'd surely leave some out and that wouldn't be nice. But to you, the regulars: I tip my hat to you! Please continue to come to this site and share your stories :).

The project I was talking about was started quite some months ago, in preparation for this event. But college started and... well, those of you who went to college know what this means. I also work now as a programmer, so I have only about 2-3 hours of free time per day.
It was supposed to be an amalgamation of very intense and dynamic moments, as some of you know I hate "static" maps. It was supposed to be... a culmination of my restless mind in summer nights. Yeah this sounds weird :)).
Anyway, enough with the talk, this was the starting area:
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HL2 mapping project
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This can become a long term project where I could co-opt some members and expand it into a short mod. But I don't know for now. Most of my projects start by having an idea pop in my mind when having a shower, and idea that grows and expands into a couple of scenes that I rehearse repeatedly in my mind until I can't stand if I don't start implementing it. So, in conclusion, I don't have a real story. Do not consider this post a team project announcement, I'd be very clear if it was so.

Sorry for the long post ^^.
Striker8 years ago2015-11-07 02:12:05 UTC 8 comments
After tackling with the installation of Arch linux for about 3 hours, I can finally browse TWHL in a retro-as-heck way:
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Although this stuff is not practical, I have to emphasize that it is lightweight as fuck:
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Unfortunately 3 more hours later since opening this journal I still haven't succeeded in installing a window manager. I'll probably report tomorrow or another day on this.

[EDIT]

Managed to install the X.org window system. This is very barebones and it's actually a basis for other window managers. Slapped there the lightweight "Netsurf" browser, and voila:
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About ~70Mb. Keep in mind that Arch linux, afaik, is not developed to be as lightweight as possible. That is a concept followed by other distros, like DSL or Puppy Linux. It's... impressive.
What's even more impressive is that these are programs that are actively developed.
Underground tech is a wonder.
Striker8 years ago2015-10-28 14:16:50 UTC 9 comments
I visited a friend who has a 3D printer. He offered to demonstrate me how it works, and told me to think of something to print.
As 3D printing takes a lot of time(sometimes hours) when you have complex shapes, I figured out fast what to print:
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It's 4cm in diamater and took 20 minutes.
Striker8 years ago2015-04-09 13:21:11 UTC 6 comments
Warning: Spoilers
I just played Elements: Transmission 120 and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I feel totally discouraged. It's not about competition, but whatever I've done in Hammer seems total rubbish compared to this mod. The guy behind this clearly displays a lot of dedication: the mapping detail and attention to gameplay and some nifty puzzles and new gadgets. No wonder he was offered a job by gearbox, Valve would be envious on his skills.

It's a pillar of inspiration for me and I think for the rest of us, I'm going to investigate how certain effects were achieved. It's nothing out of the ordinary, just extreme fine-tuning of already available source engine technology. Archie, I'm looking to you now. You will jizz in your pants when you see the lighting.

I'm going to leave you with some scenes from the last battle, so if you don't want to the see them, just get out of here! :))
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Striker9 years ago2015-02-20 13:46:50 UTC 2 comments
Heroes of the Storm is... addictive.
Also a resource eating monster.
Striker9 years ago2015-01-29 15:47:29 UTC 10 comments
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Striker9 years ago2014-12-01 20:35:37 UTC 8 comments
So I discovered something really cool in the kitchen. Was cleaning the stove of dried cooking oil and what not, and took out the stove grate and burner parts. I thought: "Hmm, I wonder how the flame would burn without those parts...". It's a fucking rocket! Instant bunsen burner.
This is so fun, must try one more ti
Striker9 years ago2014-11-17 10:37:34 UTC 7 comments
I loose a lot of time commuting and walking in the city nowadays, and I am a bit frustrated by that lost time. Yeah the first times when you go on new routes you admire the landscape and buildings but then it's routine.
I'd like to start listening to some podcasts while on the road, but I don't know where to start. I have my phone and an MP3 player.

Do you have any podcast and podcast apps recommendation in the technical domain? For example tech news, stuff about coding... hardware etc. There was once a cute podcast from "techstuff" or something like that, it was nice in that it explained how different devices work.
Or any podcast that you find sufficiently interesting... I just want to start somewhere and see if listening to podcasts is a thing I could do :).

EDIT Just to be clear, I'm talking about walking in the city and going by bus, which at rush hours can take up 40 minutes between point A and B. When I commute by train there is wi-fi so I can watch stuff on youtube.
Striker9 years ago2014-10-23 18:50:22 UTC 8 comments
Upgraded from the S1 Mini to an S4.

Holy cow what I've been missing on.
Striker9 years ago2014-08-30 21:38:23 UTC 4 comments
Has anybody from here heard about BitTorrent Sync? If you use it, how well does it perform?
If not, what is your favorite file-syncing app(not necessarily cloud)?

I use Dropbox but I'm looking for alternatives.
Striker9 years ago2014-08-04 09:18:01 UTC 13 comments
I changed my Gigabyte HD4850 with an MSI HD7750. Now I can run Crysis FullHD.