PictureArena

Now this is more like what I was looking for.

An Oddball Project Idea

I sort of want to switch to a Mac full time. My work happened to have a number of G5 Power Macs that weren't getting used, and I support Macs as part of my day job, so they were ok with me taking one home to tool around on. So I've got a system loaded up with as much extra RAM as we had handy at home. It doesn't play World of Warcraft as well as my PC (the video card in the Mac is lacking), but it should be able to handle everything else I'd want to do just fine.

I already use iTunes on my PC, so that's obviously not a problem. I turned off iTunes automatic management of my files; I've got them arranged on the hard disk as I like them already. I don't know of a good way to keep my playlists, but I didn't have many of them anyway. I can just re-create them on the new computer. I haven't gotten into Office type stuff yet, but I'm not worried about it because I tend to use Google Docs for that sort of thing now anyway. All the movies I've tried opening worked once I installed DivX and Windows Media codecs.

But all of my photos are a problem. I use Google's Picasa on my PC, and I love it. Simple, clean interface, basic retouching, and it's fast as all heck. I've got about 3000 digital photos in RAW and JPEG formats (about 8.9 GB worth), and even on a fresh install of Windows and Picasa it can load them all up into it's database in a few minutes. Searching and browsing is snappy, and it arranges photos based on the folder they're in, so if you've already got your photos organized (or you've used Picasa from the beginning), all your photos will be where you expect them.

For some reason, I expected iPhoto to behave pretty much the same way. It does not. In fact, it flat out sucks. I've got a dual 2.0 GHz PowerPC G5 computer with 4 GB of RAM, and it's *slow*. I copied all my photos from one computer to the other, and then once they were on local disk, imported them into iPhoto. I wasn't timing it, but it took well over half an hour. I stopped paying attention and went to watch TV eventually. That's ridiculously slow for that sort of machine.

I then went to browse through my pictures, and see if I could find some ones I recently took of my nieces. My nice organized folders? Gone. Now all of my pictures are organized by date. And that's only right if the timestamps on the files are right. Not all of my photos have accurate EXIF information, so they aren't going to get organized into the right place. (My wedding photos are a good example of that; I certainly didn't take them, being busy getting married, and my photographer changed some things around on the photos before she delivered them).

I think the idea is that you're supposed to tag your photos (F-Spot does the same thing, I think), but screw that. I have 3000 photos, I'm not going to go back and relabel them all when I had them properly sorted in the first place.

To make matters worse, iPhoto does the same thing that iTunes does by default, and copies your photos to its own directory and organizes them the way it likes. So that's probably the reason the import took forever; it made a second copy of every damn photo. 8.9 GB space wasted on my hard disk if I wasn't paying attention.

And last, it's just plain slow. Scrolling through pictures is choppy, where Picasa manages is with ease.

According to Apple's web site, iPhoto '08 may be better. It should at least get the organization thing right. I'm not really inclined to pay the $79 bucks to try it though, based off my experience with the older version. (I think this particular computer came with iLife '05.) I haven't even tried retouching photos in iPhoto; I don't know how well that works.

So that brings me to my oddball project idea. How hard would it be to write a Picasa clone for the Mac? The basic things that I want: good organization and some basic photo retouching; don't sound all that hard to do. Getting up to the level of polish and speed that Picasa exhibits sounds difficult, but just something to help me handle my photos doesn't sound beyond the realm of possibility for one person. I like working in Cocoa, so I think I might give that a shot.

That Didn't Last Long

Per my previous post, I went back to CSU San Marcos. I don't think professional game development is for me any more; I like Systems Administration work. It presents interesting problems, is very fulfilling, and I have the energy to play around with game development on my own time after work, which I didn't have at Superscape.

I'm happier working with servers than cell phones, go figure. :)

A Suprising Dilemma

I remember being 9 years old, and I met this kid named Kyle during recess one day. We shared an interest in video games, and we sort of spontaneously started inventing new Mega Man bad guys. Later, I remember drawing out levels for the game on a pad of paper. That was when I decided I wanted to make games when I grew up.

That was the event that sparked my interest in computers. I signed up for the computer class in middle school, and learned a bit of BASIC on an Apple IIe. (I still have the 5 1/4" disks that I saved my code to, though I doubt they work.) In 9th grade, I bought a couple of Simple C++: Featuring Robodog and the Profound Object-Oriented Programming Method and 'acquired' a copy of Turbo C++ from AOL. I took a couple years of programming classes in high school (and by programming, I mean HyperCard, because that's all the teacher knew) and when it came time to go to college, Computer Science was the obvious choice.

I never finished my degree, but I did get an awesome job out of it; I became an Operating Systems Analyst at CSU San Marcos, where I focussed mainly on Linux administration and learned a *ton*. I did that for 4 years (after 5 years of working as a PC technician while a student), but I never gave up on game development.

I bought and read game development books, until I realized that every book just rehashed the same information. I then branched out into other computing realms; I picked up a lot of books on different languages and ways of programming (LISP! Objective C!). I still managed Linux for a living, so I read a lot about open source development as well, along with a number of blogs and news sites. I sent out resumes to the game companies in the area, trying to find a way to get my foot in the door.

As an aside, I never really considered game testing to be an option. While I was in school there wasn't anything close enough, and after that testing jobs didn't pay enough.

So about 2 months ago now, I got my chance. A friend of mine who works at Superscape let me know that there was a position open as a porting programmer. I interviewed for it, got the job, and I started here on July 16th. I'm in! I got the dream job!

And I hate it.

It's boring, un-fulfilling work. I take already existing games, and I get them working on different cell phones. My first week here, I wanted to crawl back to the university and ask for my job back.

I can't give up that easily though; this is a stepping stone to my dream job, right? Only, I'm not sure that it is anymore. I *liked* what I did before, a lot. I didn't realize it at the time, but the challenges and problems I came across while helping to keep the campus' computing environment running and improving were a lot of fun. The challenges I come across at Superscape? Why doesn't this phone want to play sounds? Oops, this other phone's screen size is a little weird, I'll have to tweak the graphics on 16 games to get them all running on it. There's nothing really challenging, it's mind numbing work.

Designing games was the dream job though. But if that's the case, why haven't I been doing it all this time anyway? Most PC games released for the last 8 years have been moddable; I could have used those to make my own games all this time. I contribute code to Egoboo, but I've never been inclined to contribute a module or a new character.

To cap it all off, I've been spending less and less time *playing* games for the last several years. I'll get bored playing, and then go spend some time programming instead. Because I have more fun learning than I do playing a video game.

Have I been so focussed on getting a game programming job that I didn't even notice that I don't really want to do it anymore?

So, my dilemma. I could go back to the University. They've asked me to come back, and offered a raise in the process. I'm sorely tempted; I miss the work, and I especially miss the people. But doing that means giving up on game development. I've worked so long to get here, it seems... wrong, to give up on it so quickly.

But I really don't think it's what I want to do anymore.

First new job in 9 years

Assorted thoughts and observations:

• Inheriting a computer sucks. I'd much rather get a clean Windows install and have to go through the trouble of installing other software myself. I have a way I like my computer/operating system laid out, and it's not the same as my predecessor.
• The training period you go through for a new job is disheartening. I'm really excited to get to the real work of the job, but I'm going to feel rather useless for the next week or so as I get up to speed with everything.
• It's kind of funny trying to pick up on what sort of behavior is ok. I like listening to music while I work; it helps me focus. But I don't really see other people listening. Is it safe? Screw it, where's my iPod?

Superscape!

After nearly 9 years of working at CSU San Marcos I'm moving on to a new job. I started there as a student in my freshman year and became a full time staff member in 2003. (Right about when I dropped out, actually. :))

I cannot begin to express how much I've learned at CSUSM. Not in my classes; the stuff I cared about I tended to learn before it came up in class. But working within the IT department allowed me an incredible amount of latitude to explore new things. I owe the people I worked with quite a bit, and leaving them is more painful that I expected.

Monday, I start work at Superscape. I've wanted to make video games since the first time I played one (I'm thinking 86 or 87, but my memory's a bit fuzzy. It was Chopper Command on the Atari 2600). I'm finally getting the chance. I won't be on the creative side for now; strictly bug fixing/deployment, but it's still a start.

A new chapter in my life begins!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I miss you.