Game of Life: multi-threaded code analysis and review

Some months ago I began experimenting with multi-threading and OpenGL. I decided that a Game of Life simulator would be a good target for my pet project, being ripe for parallel processing and requiring little graphics know-how. I’ve met my goals, so here I’ll be describing how I implemented the various features and some of […]

My personal Motorola Moto G review

I’ll say up front that this is only my second “smart phone”, and you should take my opinion with a grain of salt. That said, I’m no fool and I’m not about to write the same review every other website on the internet saying “Oh look at this cool budget smartphone! It’s got good specs […]

Game of Life: my tour of multi-threading and OpenGL

It’s long overdue that I try my hand at writing a multi-threaded program. Being a wanna-be game technology developer, it’s past time for me to learn to use OpenGL for graphics as well. So why not roll both of these learning exercises in to one? If you’re not familiar with Conways Game of Life, [see […]

Shortcuts to create and verify checksums easily in terminal

Since I’ve started working in digital data preservation, I’ve thought a lot more about the importance of assuring the continued integrity of data files. We use checksum verification all the time at work, but I don’t know many people who hold their own personal data to the same standard. Is it not as significant or […]

Example using OpenGL 3.0+ with SDL2 and GLEW

I decided to port one of my simple for-learning-purposes OpenGL applications over to SDL2 from GLFW last night. I ran in to a few problems along the way, I’ll share my solutions with you here. The main problem was that SDL2 doesn’t handle extension loading for you like GLFW does. Easy enough to solve, just […]

TMO Project Log – Like fashion, never finished (but close!)

I’m not so good at this whole “consistent project log” thing, am I? In any case, I’ve made lots of progress since my last check in (the introduction, hah)! The display board is complete, controls are hooked up and working, and TMOOS is quite functional. It’s able to run standalone from a battery and is […]

Internet enabling an ATX power supply

Surely anyone reading this is aware of those cool power line adapters that allow ethernet networks to be connected by the wall-socket wiring in a home. I had a set of these adapters around, and I thought the process of internet enabling a PC with them could be simplified a bit. Since the PC and […]

Seamless multi-machine workflow with a Git repo and Dropbox

I use Git for version tracking in my software projects, but I also move around frequently and use different computers. Of course I could commit when I am leaving and fetch the updates when I arrive at my next computer, but this requires conscious effort and remembering to do so. I’m sure there are fancy […]

It’s OK to break your computer

It’s Friday and I’ve been busy all week, so here’s a short note to computer users of every skill level: don’t be afraid to break things. Sometimes you should even try to break things. The point of this is so that you can have a better understanding of how things work by figuring out why […]