Get to know Ray Doeksen

Category : silly + updates

Hooray! My buddy Ray Doeksen finally updated his site! And I’m way the hell behind as I run around like a chicken with my head cut off! I need more time!

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Stupid by design

Category : internet + programming + software + stupid

Until now, installing browser plugins (not to be confused with extensions or add-ons) was pretty straight forward. In the past they would automatically install for you under IE after you’ve followed the wrong link, then later you would find a dozen new toolbars you never asked for or needed. Luckily, other browsers didn’t open themselves up for such easy exploitation and plugin vendors instructed you to download an installer so you could install the plugin manually. While this sounds so excruciatingly painful to do for some (downloading, buttons and simple instructions! oh no!) it was far less risky providing you vaguely knew what you were downloading and installing.

Now, I’m usually not one to harshly criticize how a browser plugin should be installed… but what I’m about to explain seems downright stupid by both logic and design. If you understand how plugins differ from addons or extensions or how any of them work, then this will either entertain, scare or disgust you.

If you’ve ever installed Flash player for Firefox on Windows in the past, then you should vaguely remember having to download an executable which carries out the installation process for all non-IE (Firefox, Opera, Chrome, etc.) browsers. This was great. In a “one package, several browser installed” method since the installer did a fantastic job of covering all the bases. Above all it was simple, completely noninvasive and required little interaction from start to finish. Download installer, Launch, close browsers, install, restart browser. Done.

When you go to install or update Flash player within Firefox now, you no longer get this option. You’re presented with the familiar “Agree and install now” button within familiar Adobe confines. But instead of receiving trusty executable, you’re instead asked to install an “Adobe DLM” XPI package. WTF, right? So I ran a quick search for “WTF is this crap!?” and the first result among a host of links to related problems with the DLM confirmed what I was already suspecting.

Since I’ve pretty much had it with every download manager ever conceived (which now seems to be some kind of idiot gold standard for any company offering more than a single plugin or application) I wanted nothing to do with it, and Adobe is granted no exception. But rather than sticking to a proven process of installing a browser plugin, some genius at Adobe instead decided it might be somehow more convenient to make the process more abstract and far more convoluted than it needs to be. Which is great if you consider performing a do-it-yourself lobotomy using nothing more than a Russian Matryoshka doll appealing.

<Insert Xibit “Yo Dawg, I heard you like updated plugins…” image here>

To break it down further, when asked to install the “Adobe DLM” you’re 1) downloading and installing a Firefox Add-on which 2) needs to run an installer in order to 3) install a plugin which 4) also installs a download manager with 5) other useless junk you probably don’t need in the shape of 6) an Add-on which is 7) probably not an add-on. And I’m inclined to believe that 8) whatever is installed will probably not be easy to uninstall as far as the Firefox add-ons and plugin list is concerned.

How could someone at Adobe possibly fuck up something as trivial and straight-forward which was the Flash player plugin installation? But what I don’t even remotely understand is how this is in any way better than what we had before. The answer you’re looking for is: It’s not better.

R.I.P. Flash.

Update: It now appears that an option to download the trusty installer is now an option once again, hooray! Even though I still find the DLM add-on quite stupid in itself, it’s good to know that you don’t have to use it… at least as far as installing Flash player is concerned…

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Getting back into the grind.

Category : software + updates

If the last few postings haven’t already alluded you to the fact that I’ve been diving into some new projects, this post will confirm it. There’s so much I want to put into writing but there’s also so little time for me to do that so to give you a taste, I’ll attempt to just sum things up. First, I’ve found myself posting more to my Twitter feed more than I have maintaining this site. After doing the math: cranking out 140 character messages is a lot easier than writing lengthy entries which more or less say the same thing. I have some ideas on the shelf, but at the moment they read more like incoherent outlines which only I can understand. I plan to take those on as soon as I can clean my current plate.

WordPress itself has been semi-neglected and I have been putting a new theme together bit-by-bit, sadly it’s not ready just yet and I’m picky. I won’t bore you with the details about it, but lets just say that doing markup for multiple browsers can still be a major pain and leave it at that. For those who still want the current theme, I’ve put it on SVN and want to clean it up before I can apply it to the most current version of WordPress. Flipping through items here, you’ll see where it’s broken and well, that’s just not cool. When I throw the new theme up, take that as a sign that I’m working on it.

In recent news, I’ve been contributing most of my time recently to helping the Ubiquity Team get localizations covered in time for the big 0.6.0 “End-User Benefits” release. It’s also worth mentioning that everyone on the team is nothing short of awesome. While I’ve been helping out they’ve also been helping me get integrated and organized while we’ve been throwing ideas around for what to possibly do next. Once localizations are done, which at the time of this writing are looking good, I’ll begin applying some ideas for the about: pages which will prove fun and challenging. Not exactly in that order.

So, as you can tell I’ve been keeping busy. Next I’ll try to follow-up and tell you what it’s like to wrestle with a tyrannosaurus… Which could serve as a perfect analogy to explain how I’ve been tackling localizations for Ubiquity within Firefox and how I got myself into this all in the first place. It may serve as a good entry point for those wanting to apply localizations to their own Add-on or theme (yes, theme).

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Trading in UED for Hammer

Category : games + half-life + updates

In the past I’ve tried creating maps for Unreal, mainly Unreal 2004 and a couple of it’s mods. But I’ve developed this kind of love/hate relationship with UnrealEd and the Unreal engine where I decided to try something new. Now don’t get me wrong, Unreal is a very good engine and the editor is by far the best out there in almost every aspect. However I never actually managed to release any of my work largely due to the fact that I didn’t like how some things looked or turned out differently in game. And revisiting the engine and many of my projects now, I noticed how everything looks a bit washed out and aged when put next to other titles.

So over the past week I dumped everything I’ve ever worked on in UED and switched over to teaching myself how to use Hammer, and in doing so I’ve learned that there is always some kind of trade-off. The main trade-off is clearly the editor in question. Hammer isn’t exactly flush with as many options on the surface as UED is, but for some this might be a good thing. The learning curve however is very shallow in comparison, but some of the methods for creating a map are similar with some minor differences.

The largest adjustment for me is learning how to model a map largely using BSP brushes and limiting the number of models in used that are in view. Previously I was modeling mostly with terrain layers and meshes with very little BSP as Unreal gave you a performance penalty if too many BSP brushes were used, so you had to balance. While juggling your geometry still applies to Hammer and Source based games, the bonus is that there’s actually less to do. This allows me to focus more on the layout than asking myself whether I want to use a model or brush for a certain area where either could work in that type of scenario, but the only drawback to that is I’m having to retrain myself to use primarily BSP brushes without making it overly complex.

Until I find an easy and suitable method for creating overcast conditions with rolling cloud shadows over a large stretch of outdoor terrain, then I’ll still miss Unreal and UED for being able to create a good atmosphere. However, Valve seems to be constantly updating Source quite frequently with each new game to a point that eventually some of those features and options may be possible in the future. In the meantime I’m going to start by creating a Team Fortress 2 map which I actually intend to release, and possibly document how some stuff was made.

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