In response to something said by someone else ([TODO: Nice comment]):

Quote:Oh, I will admit that many of our members are pretty young, but that still doesn't mean they can't act mature.

I protest. Actually, nevermind. You're probably right in then end. But to be fair, I call upon another quote:

Quote:Childhood is now, maturity is forever

Actually, nevermind again. I'm going to end up losing this debate no matter which way I turn. Hense, I'm adding tags to this.
In a vain attempt to make this journal more technical sounding; I tried to track down the error in the directX framework I'm building; for those of you who don't stalk me, my code works on other people's systems, but gives me a Stop (0x000000D5) error message, which apparently wasn't implemented until win2000. I'm running ME.

So I turn the ol' noggin on, and so I figure its either a hardware or a driver problem (or an OS problem) since it works on other systems. (actually, I still need to try updating drivers). So I look for a workaround:

So I'm looking through it, and tracked the problematic call down to D3DDevice->Present(NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL); which isn't good. The thing is, though, it only crashes after a call to DrawPrimitive or DrawPrimitiveUP. Which tells me there's foul memory around here somewhere (essentially, a 0x000000D5 error is raised when you attempt to access freed memory).

That's where I am right now. Actually, I probably need to check the state of the D3DDevice when I make the call to see that there are no errors. The freed memory (if that's what it is) has to be in video memory; accessing freed system memory iirc doesn't cause a BSOD...

So I started to goof around with Winsock today instead. Wrote a shitty socket class, haven't tested (or even compiled) it yet. I really want to get the Dx stuff working, because that's really fun. Winsock is, well, dry and boring.

Now you know pretty much what I'm getting myself into recently. Not that big of a deal yet, still learning the essentials. Which sucks a lot. But I'm really happy to finally be working in C++, my coding skills are slowing increasing. I looked back at some of the early things I wrote. They made me want to cry. Oh well.

Anyway, that was my meaningful-post-of-the-month (there is a quota to meet.... seriously). Hope you all enjoyed it and aren't all scared away. I hope I can get this to work eventually, at the very least, it'll work when I finally crack and buy that new laptop I sometimes oogle at (better than pr0n). Haven't decided on an exact model yet, but I have to get a Dell (school).

Here are the minimum specs I'm looking for:

• 1.5 gHz processor
  
• 512MB RAM
  
• integrated wireless card
  
• some kind of video card (not Intel's virtual video card crap)
  
• 17" monitor

Some other pluses would be a DVD Drive, and such. I'm also looking at an 17" LCD for my desktop to save a little more deskspace. Rawr. I need to buy a money tree from myself...

This is turning out to be an overly long post. You must have too much time on your hands. I must have too much time on my hands. Actually, I'm wasting valuable sleepy time on this. Which, really, is not a good thing for me to be doing.

Ack - I need to check some stuff before bed. And this is wasting a disproportionate amount of time. TIME! TIME! MY KINGDOM FOR SOME TIME!

Oh, forgot to mention, went on a splurge. Bought Starfox Assault (good), Katamari Damacy (good), Final Fantasy Tactics (good), and the Civilization 3: Complete Edition (suffers some [IMHO] design flaws that make it less fun than Call to Power 2, but overall is still as fun and addictive as any Civ game). My samurai army that I took a frickin' gazillion turns just to get (you have to have a leader to create an army before you build the military academy wonder) got OWNED by 2 horsemen. My samurai had better stats, were fucking fortified, and in a big city. Well, I guess, statistically that's completely possible. But still, it sucked big time. It sucked enough for mighty Japan to sign a peace treaty with the dirty Chinese (they called me a paper tiger [sad]). Oh, the dialogue is great, btw.

The multiplayer for Starfox Assault is like that of Starfox64 infused with Halo. It's pretty sweet stuff. IMO, the single-player is a little lacking; but retains the "classic feel" (no real saving action going on, you have to do the whole thing every time). And, it seems a little short. The final boss is hard as hell, we still haven't pwned him yet.

Katamari Damacy is an interesting game to say the least. The controls take a little while to get used to, but allow you to pretty much roll your Katamari any way you'd need to. The gameplay can be addictive at time, the visuals are pretty funny, and the sounds fit perfectly (it was a lol moment when the bird I rolled over gave a final, loud "CHIRP!" which was cut off as it was absorbed into my Katamari). Well, I like it. But then I've always been a sucker for console puzzle games ;)

Finally, FFT is an awesome game, and I never actually ever bought it. So I bought it. 'Nuf said.

Okay, I'm stopping now. Because I'm thirsty. And tired. And well, I have to wake up in 6 hours and I need my beauty sleep. So, uh, goodnight.

(bump)
[edit]
Washu: And I in turn shall unstrike them and add my comments: Yes, childhood is "now" while maturity is forever, unless you happen to be on the internet, in which case you are assumed to be guilty until proven tentacle.