roncli.com blog: February 2008

As mentioned in the previous post, I have managed to figure out how to extend trac to make other project websites. My first was the CTG trac. This is simply going to serve as a bug tracking system, and will allow the developers to be able to easily browse the code. The code is not available to anonymous users obviously, but it's definitely a resource the developers can use as necessary. The CTG SVN also exists, but is closed to everyone but the developers.

Over the weekend, I made a bit of a change to the way the Reviewer of the Week was handled, but ended up breaking it. The code apparently couldn't handle unescaped apostrophes. Oh boy, the nuiances of other languages, maintaining this piece of joy should be as fun as usual...

Labels: CTG Music, Projects, trac

Projects now on IIS, SVN available
Posted: 2:25:00 PM 0 comments

The projects website is now live on my IIS server. I had to fix some problems with the CGI, but once I resolved those it worked just fine. The nice thing about this fix is that it allows me to create other tracs across my server.

I've also made my SVN repository accessable at svn://svn.roncli.com/ronclipro. Currently I have my World of Warcraft Grid modules available along with the initial tests for my Space addon collection. I also added my first attempt at an IRC Bot for Outpost Music, and my ever so simplistic IsItUp application. Both of these I'd like to develop at some point, but it's not something I plan on prioritizing any time soon.

The biggest addition to the repository was the source code to the D3TL, the Descent 3 Teams League website. I haven't touched the code in years, and figured that the best place for it would be out in the open, in case anyone wanted to do something with it.

More stuff will be added as time and energy allows.

Labels: Coding, D3TL, Descent 3, Gaming, Grid, IRC, IsItUp, Projects, trac, World of Warcraft

Three Years
Posted: 2:09:00 PM 0 comments

Hard to believe it's been three years since I started this blog, and certainly a whole lot has transpired in that time. I've been quite busy with a lot of new things over the past couple weeks, and there's a couple of things I've got cooking on the horizon, so stay tuned for more new stuff.

Labels: Blog, Life, roncli.com

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Cute Trance Girls for Valentines
Posted: 11:03:00 AM 3 comments

As you can see, I've added a new label for CTG Music. I've been an "admin" in name only for a while over there, because I showed interest in keeping it alive in a period where they weren't really sure if they wanted to keep it online. I've moderated the forums from time to time, but nothing to speak of.

Well, today I added my first bit of code to the site, adding CTG's rather weak security code system to the artist signup page. Hopefully, this will stop automated sign ups that proceed to spam the forums. We'll see.

In any case, Drumstick and I will be discussing the site over the next few days, and see what we need to do in order to get this site breathing again.

Labels: CTG Music

Friday, February 01, 2008

Stagnant Trax in Space
Posted: 4:45:00 AM 0 comments

Trax in Space has become really stagnant in terms of development. In fact, Saurin has been pretty rare lately. I wish I knew what the heck he was thinking, because he's got a great site on his hands that needs help, and he's just not willing to do anything about it, either by doing the required work himself or delegating it out to people who can help.

It's gotten so bad, I've finally decided to voice my concern publicly. It's been met with overwhelmingly positive response by the community, which tells me I'm not the only one who sees the problems with the site and its present management.

Don't get me wrong here. I think very highly of Saurin and can respect that he has a busy life. But he's created a site that people love, but has massive problems, and hasn't taken the time to do anything about it. People are frustrated, and this has showed in the fact that song uploads are well less than half of what they were two months ago.

If I were him, I'd open up development to the community. Saurin can still manage what needs to be done on the site, but he needs help actually getting these things done. I'm all for setting up a trac for purposes of both organizing developers and tracking issues with the website, and granting SVN access to those interested in actually doing the work on the site.

Why he doesn't do this is beyond me. He HAS to recognize that he can't take care of TiS2 like he did TiS1. I have no clue what he's waiting for.

Labels: Trax in Space

Bye bye Audigy
Posted: 4:31:00 AM 0 comments

I've officially had it with my Sound Blaster Audigy.

First of all, Creative's customer support sucks. Second of all, Vista has been out for about a year now, and Creative has yet to write drivers for many of their sound cards, including the Audigy, that allows the use of all of the features the Audigy is supposed to be used for. The Audigy is what connected my computer to my J-Station, cheap MIDI keyboard, and my Shure mic, and now I don't have those connections anymore.

The problem is, I don't know what to do about it. I don't want to get a whole new sound card, because the ones I'm looking at are expensive. I also don't want to get something just to get rid of it whenever I decide to buy a NeKo. Problem with that is they no longer make the 76-key version, and have replaced their standard model with this absolutely stupid 61-key "Timbaland Special Edition", which apparently was designed with the help of Timbaland himself. THANKS A LOT YOU MUSIC-STEALING RETARD. Grr.

I was actually looking forward to getting a keyboard with more range than what I got now, and a 76-key beast would have been perfect. Now I'll have to find a spare keyboard whose price will probably be jacked up, deal with lesser keys again, or actually get a full-size keyboard that will serve as a control device, which would suck.

But until then, that means no singing, no recording live stuff off my piano, which I loved, and no exploring guitar recording, which I have been itching to do for a while now. Unfortunately, all solutions here will cost me a good amount of money, something I can't really afford until later on in the year, so my hobby seems to be on hold for now.

Labels: Music, NeKo, Sound Blaster Audigy

Excitement at the Novus Compo
Posted: 4:27:00 AM 0 comments

Sigh of Excitement managed to sneak into the overall compo over at the Novus Compo by way of being closest to the mini-compo winner. The results were announced yesterday, and I'm happy to report that Sigh of Excitement not only managed a respectable 3rd place, it also beat out the song that placed ahead of it in the mini-compo. Further, it received three first place votes, which both songs ahead of it also accomplished. However, since dfast managed to get more 2nd and 3rd place votes than I, he was the overall winner. Which isn't bad, because he's a very talented musician.

This is quite an accomplishment for my music, and hopefully is a step in the right direction in terms of writing music that people like and is of good sound quality. I think it's only a matter of time before I can produce something that will top the compo.

Labels: Music, Novus Compo, Sigh of Excitement