How Base64 converges to a point
My friend Andru Quinn has some fantastic insights into programming and problem solving over on this page. Check out this post about Base64
I just got reminded by timehop of something I shared a few years back and wanted to share it again but talk about it a little more in dept. It’s an interesting subject if you know the ideas and problems addressed by cryptography, this one is about base64. It address the issue that, if we encode something in base64, then encode the result using the same method, the more we repeat this the closer we come to a fixed point the method hits. That is to say base64 has point where it will give you the same answer as the product you passed in.
This issue was looked into by Fran Mota who is a computer science student (according to his website at the time of writing) at Cornell University. Fran created the post The Base64 Encoder Has A Fixed Point back in 2013, so all credit to him for his…
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Feature: Christmas in Review
You see what I did there… Christmas in… ah, whatever. Well, basically this is my attempt at reviewing my “gaming christmas” – cataloguing and critiquing the games I received via the kindness of friends and family, or liberally bought for myself with my Christmas/Birthday money.
I was more than blessed this Christmas to receive a slew of goodies such as:
Alien Isolation, Murdered Soul Suspect, The Evil Within – (My Kick-ass Wife)
Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Bayonetta 2 – (Birthday Gifts from myself)
Kingdom Hearts 2.5 – (My wonderful, amazing and thoughtful aunt)
I look forward to telling you all about them below…
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PR Consultant for Ireland’s best Magician/Escapologist – Steve Spade
Very pleased to announce that I have joined the talented Steve Spade as his official PR and Marketing person.
I will also help out with bookings and other stuff too, of course.
I’m delighted for this opportunity to work closely with STEVE SPADE, who has wowed me for many years; First on the club scene around Limerick and again when performing daring acts of escapism including submersion in the Shannon, bound and crated, and being set alight in the courtyard of Limerick landmark King Johns Castle.
This is a huge step for my career in Public Relations and I cannot thank Steve and Alan Connolly enough for having me along for the ride. Expect to see more info
appearing all over the interwebs very shortly.
You can keep up to the date with all the STEVE SPADE happenings over on the official website – http://stevespademagic.com
“Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or stupid. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan.” – Larry Winget
A great piece by a good friend of mine that gives some food for thought in the realm of positive thinking. I’ve already adopted this philosophy and this year I’ve already started learning Spanish and begun writing a novel and adapting one into a screenplay. New experiences for all. In the immortal words of Rob Schneider “YOU CAN DO IT!!!”
(Photo:http://tinyurl.com/ozl5nh8)
Ok so after our first post last week on making this the best year of your life, I’ve outlined a few other ways in which you can change for the better.
Utilizing your mind.
Your mind is a powerful tool but like a flower, it needs constant attention and nourishment. Kick this new year off with some good old fashioned self improvement. Seek out to learn a new skill, it’s never too early to beef up your epitaph.
The obvious choice is to learn a new language. However, it’s hard to get a start on this goal unless you take a class. you’ve got two options; go to your local community college and sign up for a part time/ night course where you’ll be supplied all the materials needed along with tutelage for a price. The other choice is to undertake a course online from places like Duolingo…
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Updates from an IrishGameDev in Malta
Hey y’all,
It’s been far too long since I posted anything up in this joint. Since I last spent some time writing on this page I’ve moved to Malta and started working for a financial institution managing insurance claims. Not exactly exciting work, but it puts the food on the table. The move to Malta has been exciting in other ways. For those not in the know Malta is a stunningly beautiful tiny island slap bang in the middle of the Mediterranean – right below Italy and just above Africa.
As a lot of my free time has been eaten up by work I have not had much time to work on any of my solo projects. In the last few weeks, that has changed. I’ve actually built a little demo in RPG maker of a short art-game I’m building called “I am You”. The game tells the story of a characters life through non linear events and includes branching paths. There is no combat – it’s really more of a story based, cerebral game. To be honest it’s basically the test bed for the engine I will be building Introvert/Nullify in.
Guest Post: John Griffin of Gamesparks talks about the future of the cloud
2013 has so far seen the emergence of some pretty strong endorsement for the cloud when it comes to games. Peter Warman, CEO of the highly rated NewZoo, boldly declared in February that “Someday all games will run in the cloud’. I agree with this. I am not sure when exactly it will apply to 100% of games but I am sure 2014 will be the year that most games convert. Many of the larger games studios of course already architect their games on the cloud. In fact, if you look at a game like Candy Crush, the device executable is only a tiny part of it. Most of the smart stuff is done in the cloud or on the server-side. Its a mindset shift that games developers need to adopt. Companies like King think data centre when they think game. Most of us need to do the same. Here’s why …
Mike Rose is the man in the know – Doubt is the killer…
Save for a number of snarky comments on Twitter, and last week’s “Are you a true games journalist?“, I’ve tried to directly stay out of the whole MCV and Square Enix debacle. It pains me that a lot of readers now just take it for granted that shoddy journalism is how the games journalism space works, and discount those of us trying to make an honest living out of it as a result, but there’s not really a lot else I can add to the discussion that hasn’t already been said. You’ve most likely already read John Walker’s write-up of the whole debacle, but it’s here if needed.
This morning, however, things have changed for me with this post on MCV. It’s an article about how critics love the new Hitman game, and are giving it 9 out of 10s across the board, all except for…
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Why survival horror can’t afford to be scary any more (excerpt)
Growing up I was always fascinated by horror. I read teen fiction horror books like Goosebumps or the god-awful (but always entertaining) Point Horror series. I watched Horror movies which were most certainly not suitable for my age bracket (Not a fault of my parents but the employees of the local video rental shop — who had no moral objection allowing an 8 year old to rent “Nightmare on Elm Street”). I hung out in haunted houses, wrote short stories about all kinds of beasties. Hell, I even messed around with Ouija boards and performed séances, just to see what would happen. Why bother telling you all this?
Context.
I want to convey to you, that I love horror. I always have and always will. In all its mediums, horror plays on my (mostly) unconscious desire to continuously be unnerved. Some people play video-games to relax, soak in a story or maybe to just blissfully slaughter hordes of oncoming mutants/zombies/space-nazi’s or underprivileged Middle Eastern youths. I am happiest playing games when crouching three or four feet from the TV, in the pitch dark… my eyes wide in anticipation and the controller slippery in my hand from sweat. I want to be terrified… No. It’s more than that.
I crave the feeling of being scared.
So, you would think I’ve been absolutely disgusted by the recent destruction of mainstream Survival Horror. Silent Hill ain’t living up to its legacy and Resident Evil has become the most bombastic, balls to the wall action series this side of Con-Air.
Well, I do find it sad that the franchises listed above have moved substantially away from their roots, but when I recently went back and played Resident Evil 3 and the original Silent Hill on my Vita it all suddenly started to make sense.
Survival Horror wouldn’t work anymore. Well… not in a mainstream sense, anyhow.
Guest Post: Lisa Gan on Sentiment Analysis
Hey guys,
Sorry it’s been a while since I posted anything. Been very busy building visibility of Mind of Man, the awesome App I’ve been working on at 2Paperdolls.
Here are some articles that were posted recently on Gamasutra and Game Trailers! Also feel free to check out the MOM trailer, If you haven’t seen it yet. It’s lovely!
Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of requests for guest features but this one really piqued my interest. Working on Mind of Man has gotten me really interested in the field of Sentiment Analysis and it’s various potential applications. Lisa Gan contacted me with this piece, which I thought was very well written and informative. Enjoy 🙂
Innovative Social Media Technology: Sentiment Analysis by Lisa Gan
“Sentiment analysis represents an innovative way to examine emotional trends across Internet content, and is of particular value to social media networks and affiliate marketers. A sentiment analysis involves looking at the kinds of attitudes implicit in different documents and messages, with the intention of judging overall trends and moods from positive to negative. This kind of analysis works around a scale of emotional responses, and looks for repeated phrases and the structure of messages to try to determine the mood of the writer.
Mind of Man Launch Trailer is a sight to behold!
Wow! After blood, sweat and more than a few tears the Mind of Man launch trailer is here…
And it’s glorious!!!
I should have some info about our time at Rezzed and Develop up soon, but needless to say it was “Ammaaaazzzing” – heh, heh… In-Joke 😛 More on that in my next post.
Peace out!
The Dev in the Red Hat! 