Software, Fitness, and Gaming – Jesse Warden

Blog

  • 2 Jobs: Flash Contractor OR C++ Developer

    2 jobs.

    Flash Contractor that is highly skilled with the following technologies.

    – Must have minimum of three (3) years overall development experience, with at least one (1) year experience with Flash and Action Script.
    – Excellent communication skills are a must.
    – FlashMX is a plus.
    – Involvement in web design, production and graphics creation a plus.
    – Operating systems: Windows 95, 98, NT 200, XP
    – Programming languages: Extensive Action Script a must, Java Script, HTML, Flash MX
    – Data management tools: Oracle, SQL
    – Business applications: MS Office
    – Additional requirements: Involvement in web design, production and graphics creation a bonus

    ****************************

    Full time C++ software developer.

    Job Title: Software Engineer II

    Summary of Position Responsibilities:
    As a software engineer with the SIS development team you will be responsible for writing production code for the SIS applications. You will work in an environment that encourages discussion to figure out the right way to get your job done. You will be working on low-level RS-232 communication protocol using the Win32 API through C++. You will have opportunities to upgrade your expertise and skills through mentoring and training. You will learn the latest software development practices, methods conventions and standards as executed within the company. In the future, you will also have the opportunity to work on C# and other .NET related technologies.

    Qualifications:
    – Operating systems: Windows
    – Programming languages: Extensive experience with programming Windows Serial Port Communication protocols in C++; Experience with programming Multi-thread applications
    – Development tools: C++ a must, C# is a plus; Knowledge of UML is a plus
    – Business applications: MS Office; Knowledge of Windows API
    – Additional requirements: Ability to develop applications based on specifications
    – Non-technical requirements: 50% travel to client sites within the US is required
    + Expected to learn the software development lifecycle practices, methods conventions and standards of the computer industry as executed within SIS.
    + Very good teamwork skills.
    – At least 4 years experience with 2+ years in C++
    – Extensive experience with programming Windows Serial Port communication protocols in C++
    – Experience with programming multi-threaded applications
    – Knowledge of Windows API
    – Ability to develop applications based on specifications
    – 50% travel within the US is required
    – Knowledge of C# is a plus
    – Knowledge of UML is a plus

    ****************************

    Contact:
    David Pritchard

  • Doom 3 Doesn’t Run Well… yet

    Co-worker purchased Doom 3 yesterday to prove to me it actually existed. I had thought it was a Mac & Maya publicity stunt gone vaporware, but I was, thankfully, proven wrong.

    The minimum specs are like a 1.5 gigahertz P4… awesome! The problem is, we tested here on a 1.7 with the 9600 Radeon, a beast of a card, and although the game looked good, the framerate/refresh rate was pathetic. We upped and lowered the resolution, turned on and then turned off the special effects (each and every setting), even tweaked the video card for performance… all to no avail. The game would play the same for higher or lower settings. The closer your camera was to a wall, without facing much geometry, the better it ran.

    My guess is, the majority of the game’s framerate is garnered from processor speed, while the effects are all put on the video card. It ran the same with all settings on or off which leads me to believe that hopefully the first patch will tap into some of the video card’s power to up the framerate. Seeing what the Radeon did for Unreal, I only pray that the game’s designers spent part of that 3-4 years (or was it 2…?) 4 years finding out how to use a video card to what it was made to do. One of my older computers had it’s lifespan extended 6 months because of a new video card; they can do wonders if the developers utilize hardware acceleration to its fullest.

    Anyway, I’d wait for the first patch before purchasing… you can still buy the T-shirts, though!

    CNET’s Coverage

    Time Magazine’s Coverage

  • New Design++;

    I’ve updated my web site’s design (for those of you not visiting in RSS/Atom readers). I’ve done my best in the time allotted to support Gecko based browsers as well as Safari since I realize a lot of my readership does not use IE for Windows. I attempted an all CSS solution, but it only rendered correctly in IE, so I used a mixture of tables and css. Designed in Flash, sliced in Fireworks, assembled in Dreamweaver, tested on browsers & OS’ mentioned below.

    Any visual problems and/or issues not noted below that cause the site to be unusable, please let me know.

    – IE 6+ on WinXP = in content colum, sometimes gray will get pushed over the right’s red border; bottom triangle sometimes misaligned
    – Mozilla 1.7 on WinXP = at home, no issues, at work, first download did not render page correctly, had to refresh to correct
    – IE 5.2 on Mac = code boxes do not display correctly, therefore rendering code inside them unreadable
    – Safari on Mac = search field on right pushes out of panel boundary; background colors not defined in right panels, thus gray does not match

  • mProjector v2 Released

    mProjector v2 is a 3rd party Flash extension application. It takes your SWF(s), and allows them to do things that the Flash Player itself cannot do. It’s main selling points are:

    – syncronous commands not using fscommand or callbacks. So, for reading files from the user’s hard drive, reading the registry, etc., it’s all immediate. FlashStudioPro I believe requires fscommands, and Screenweaver requires you to setup callbacks.
    – when opening new windows, you have the same syncronous ActionScript like the above with return values, just like normal ActionScript.
    – direct access to COM objects, and you can use their methods in ActionScript like you’d use a component.

    There are some other neat features, but to me the above is what sets it apart from it’s competitors. I had the ability to see in it in action, and it’s pretty slick. Quick to jump into, as well if your thinking of giving it a spin.

    mProjector v2