Category Archives: justCheckers

Progress in the justCheckers project.

Digging Out of Self-Made Holes

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Right before the end of last year, I made a number of “blue sky” goals for 2008. Unfortunately I fell into a number of self-made holes from last year, that basically prevented me from moving forward. To make things worse, I realized no single “thing” would resolve or complete even part of one of those goals.

So after wishing, raging, and begging the these issues to go away, all thats left is a lot of legwork. Not too happy, but I resign myself to digging away these holes myself. Still open to a magic wand waving away everything, though. 🙂

In the open source programming part, I finally threw out a good chunk of code, restarted and refactored most of the game engine for justCheckers. I need to reimplement moving and jumping pieces in a sane way still. Then after I fix the user interface and do some testing. Only then I can package version 0.1.1 out the door, and show the world some real progress.

As for writing, I cut back on one of my novel ideas. I am concentrating on writing a dark, hard scifi novel called Echoes in the Endless. So far I have the rough draft of half of the first chapter written. Lots to do still.

Job searching is just plain tedious. And no I have not gotten a single reply, so stop asking. Its just not fun to even think about it. Everything else is pretty much on hold until I get a revenue stream… like a job.

Review of 2007, the Promise(s) of 2008

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The year 2007 has been quite a dynamic year for me. Instead of writing a long article about each thing… cause that might take me an year to write and edit, I will just present a list of lists of things that happened.

Academics

  • Completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto at Mississauga.
  • Picked my diploma for Bachelor of Science.

Travel

  • Traveled to Italy and Poland.
  • Walked down Unter der Linden in Berlin, Germany.
  • Checked out the Tower of London, National Gallery and Museum of Natural History in London, England.
  • Saw the sights of Florence, Rome, Assisi, and bunch of the Umbria region of Italy.
  • Walked around GdaÅ„sk, Szczecin, Poznan, Gdynia and Malbork in Poland.

Software Development

  • Increased my knowledge of information security.
  • Restarted my involvement with the justCheckers project.
  • Deepened my understanding on software libre and open source.
  • Learned Javascript, CGI-Perl and JSP.
  • Joined the Ubuntu Toronto Users group.

Business

  • Led a mock-up startup for a course.
  • Learned how to read and understand businesses.
  • Discovered the many aspects of open source businesses.
  • Read My Job Went to India, or how to stay in IT.

Art

  • Wrote six articles on quantum computing.
  • Wrote seven personal essays that form my Hacker, Gamer, Lover book.
  • Wrote and voiced in an audio documentary, Casanova.
  • Started writing a science fiction novel.

Social Activity

  • Learned of the open access movement.
  • Learned the basic ethical theories: utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, and Rousseau’s social contract.
  • Debated for network neutrality.
  • Read Stallman’s Free Software, Free Society.
  • Read about the anti-software patent efforts in the EU.

Personal

  • Went to Taize in Montreal.
  • Made a lot more friends.
  • Learned the subtle art of dating.
  • Survived the downs of 2007.
  • Got my G1 driver’s license. Again.
  • Invented task logs, an organizational tool.

Things to Do for 2008

  • Finish justCheckers.
  • Write and publish two books.
  • Get a software development related job.
  • Start a company.
  • Find a real girlfriend.
  • Learn to drive and get my full G license.
  • Learn C and C++.
  • Get involved in a major FOSS project.

Restructuring justCheckers

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As I started resuscitating the long dormant justCheckers project, I began wondering why did the development occurred at a comatose pace. Much of the problem I place on my own inexperience and my university workload. I also paid more attention to possible future problems than managing the team.

Yesterday, one my of good friends and fellow justCheckers developer basically verified that he had no time to work on the project. He has got a lot on his plate. And so do most of the other developers. Still I need active developers. He suggested to wait a certain amount of time for a response, and then start removing developers.

As much as I hate to restructure the team, it will be necessary if I want to create an active core development team and a community around justCheckers. So I decided that the deadline for the inactive devs to respond will be December 20, 2007.

The justCheckers project must go on.

Subverting the Eclipse of Sanity

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Ubuntu Linux makes many things easier. Today, I hit a notable exception: running Eclipse so that I update and do other “insane” things with it. After a lot of hassle, I downloaded a Linux version of eclipse right off of eclipse.org. Some updates, installed the subclipse plug-in and I am ready to hack away at justCheckers.

I finally finished the majority of the justCheckers wiki too. So finally I can show some real work to the rest of the world. Now if I can gather back some of the “band” (the development team), then things would go much faster. Worst case scenario I can do this solo. But would rather work with someone together. Its just much more fun.

Busily Getting to Business

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What a busy day. Today’s line of exploits include:

  • Installing a wiki. A moderated wiki will be the new justCheckers site.
  • Importing articles from a website and wiki into a… wiki.
  • Counselling about my career choices… and that I need to cold call. Brr…
  • A quick update with a friend.
  • Me time with a coffee and a danish.
  • Running to a moved conference.
  • Being told I am unfashionable. Big time. Still learned alot about business attire.

Quote of the day:
“Lose the camouflage pants. Seriously.” My rebuttal being… thats what I found before I ran out of the house.

Seriously, I am exhausted now. And this list is about the maximum level of cohesiveness I can manage today. More wiki and driving fun tomorrow. Night.

A Note to Any Future Employers

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So you typed my name into Google, and found this site popping up as the second result. Congratulations! You just found my blog. You are probably surprised, that you found it so easily. I was surprised when I Googled my name today too.

I welcome you. I just want to point out a few things, before you go and delve into this blog too deeply:

I started this blog when I was still in university, and made it public so that my friends and colleagues could read up on some of my thoughts. Most of my posts are either about some academic idea I juggled in my head or its about tiny snippets of my life. As life goes, there were ups and downs. Sometimes I achieved something great. Other times I failed. I learn from my mistakes, and by personally challenging myself. But with so many posts, I don’t see why I should scurry the blog into hiding. The Open Source Gamer (formerly Mlaren Dreams) has been around for a while now. Just because I sent you my resume, should not change things.

I want you to get to know me better. But I want to point out my achievements rather than my idle ranting. Take a look at the open source project I lead: justCheckers. I gained a lot of experience about developing in an open source, de-centralized manner.

I also love to write, and have written a few articles, some of which are on my blog:

Oct 12, 2007: Thoughts on Richard Stallman’s “Free Society, Free Software” essays,
http://opensourcegamer.blogspot.com/2007/10/free-society-needs-free-market-and-free.html

Sept 28 & Oct 02, 2007: Reviews on Kubuntu 7.10:
http://opensourcegamer.blogspot.com/2007/09/initial-impressions-of-kubuntu-710.html
http://opensourcegamer.blogspot.com/2007/10/settling-in-with-gutsy-beta.html

Sept 17, 2007: How to on Fixing NVidia graphics on an old Toshiba Satellite
notebook:
http://opensourcegamer.blogspot.com/2007/09/penguin-and-rusty-wrench.html

Dec 10, 2006: Gaming: Simplicity, Good Graphics and Open Source Gaming
http://opensourcegamer.blogspot.com/2006/12/gaming-simplicity-good-graphics-and.html

I have also written a series of quantum computing articles, for a science and technical writing class. Unfortunately, you will not find them here. Feel free to ask me about them if you decide to interview me though.

You may also notice, that I don’t talk about my previous employments. I don’t do this, because I think it would be unprofessional of me to disclose potentially sensitive material. And because I don’t like to complain about people behind their backs.

I want to show you that I have an organized work ethic and that I am self-motivated. I even invented a new organizational technique based on operating system process management: Task Logs (1) (2).

Finally, I want to thank you for reviewing my application, and looking up on me. I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Dorian Pula

Looking Forward, Looking Backward

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One of the hardest thing to admit is one own errors. Today I finally confronted two of them. A while ago I opened up two different FOSS projects on SourceForge. I soon realized that I did not have the time to work on them and school. So today, I finally found the courage to ask the SourceForge to remove those projects. The projects basically only had a basic amount of code, and an unmaintained website.

Instead I want to concentrate on my involvement with the justCheckers project and make that a successful venture.

Travel-o-mania

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Okay today was catch up day. Too tired to write much. Too much planning of the trip, and getting the front yard done. More stuff tomorrow, promise. Maybe.

At least I finished editing the Style Guide for the justCheckers project. Also played a bit of World of Padman and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., both are quite fun and impressive in their own right. But I will not write a review of World of Padman, until I have the time to play around with it more. Whenever that will happen.

Goodnight.

When Things Fall (Part 2)

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I wanted to write and post the second part yesterday. But having scraped my fingers whilst gardening, any finger intensive activity like blogging or gaming had to be postponed. Now my fingers seem better, so I will continue where I left off…

(Monday) …having arrived late into the night from Niagara Falls, I was not too keen on waking up in the morning. When I did, I realized I missed out on a full day of work. Actually, I pondered whether or not yesterday’s trip was not a waste of time. Not that I did not enjoy the company. But I think everyone going hiking would of been more fun. Then again I am not sure Rob, Tangay or Echo would of enjoyed hiking. But I could of done so much work… As you can tell, I am a bit of a workaholic, and think about doing something productive even on a national holiday. Its sad, I know.

After some progress in landscaping our frontyard, I hoped to catch up on some old work for a client. However, my client told me that the project I was supposed to work on finished already. And so thanks to my inconsistency and overambition, I did not uphold my end of the bargain. And I got rightfully burned. I was overambitious while still in university, and took up a job I could not finish. Now I am no longer certain of my abilities. I hoped that at least that I could get ahead in my professional life. But I failed. The rest of the day, I devoted on chores to ignore this haunting thought.

(Tuesday-Thursday) Everyday started like many others. Chores, gardening, a lot of ego-surfing and more gardening. Oh and I kept on busting my fingers. Not because I do self-masochism. I am just clumsy, and too unhappy to be more cautious. I read some more of McKenzie Wark’s Gamer Theory. On the subject of games, I should be resurrecting the justCheckers project. This means I should invite the developers back into active coding again. But considering what happened recently, I worry if I can truly lead the project still. Tomorrow I will see if I can work up the courage to continue to the next step. Much like the lyrics in Rachel Loy‘s Big Sky song: My life’s not over, just twisted out of place.

The Insanity Returns

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If one looks for trouble, one usually finds it. I guess the same applies to work. After a few months, huddled in the sanctity of university studies, I emerge to realize how much work needs my attention. A computer glitch almost killed my graduation. Weeds sprouted on the front yard, where the planned stone and stepping stones will be. My name needed to appear on the convocation list. And I need to get back to a bunch of people’s emails. I could on and on listing things, but that would sound like whining. And I try not to torture my readers with that. Fortunately, I seem to be making progress, in tying up all these loose ends.

As I mentioned in my last post, I resumed working on the justCheckers project. More accurately I resumed planning the future of the justCheckers project. With my disappearance for months at a time, most of the other developers seem to have lost interest. I sometimes wonder if I did not loose interest myself. However I challenged myself to build an open source game.

The challenge now revolves around putting momentum back into the project. justCheckers never had a community clammering for its release. And my designs did not pan out, with the development team being able to work on the project independently of me. For this reason I am working on fleshing out the details of running the project. This means reviewing the style guide, and core component design. My knowledge of Java now spans the entire project, so I should be able to come up with a simpler, cleaner and more efficient design. The most crucial point of the design is get the development team back on-board, and pumping out more releases.