Cminus Games

I just had to try out the new Windows 7 beta. Not bad, really. However, when I tried running my Checkers game on Windows 7 beta, it was slow to the point of ridiculous. What is going on? Maybe video card drivers are bugged or missing, even. Not to panic though, as there is no point in trying to do anything about it until Windows 7 becomes finalized (and will probably be named something different).

In the never-ending quest to make a smarter game of Checkers, I am working on a systematic new approach to game situation assessment and the corresponding determination of solutions to the presented challenges.

Computer wins, player wins, or draw. There you go. But wait, my Checkers game has no draw. What happened to the draw? The problem is that the boredom associated with performing such an easy task as creating a draw function for my Checkers game will often cause me to put it off for such a long time long that it will seem to never get done -- until eventually it does. The question is when.

Yard work takes up a lot of my time. At least in my own mind it does. Buying cheap yard equipment can be a hit-or-miss proposition. Sometimes it works out, but often there's trouble. Last year, I got this $89 gas-powered Homelite weed-wacker and this year it died. Too bad, because it had to be one of the prettiest weed-wackers ever manufactured. It goes to show, pretty does not necessarily mean reliable. So, forget Homelite. Now, I have this big, yellow, ugly Bolens by MTD. It cost $89 just like the Homelite. I hope this one will last longer. We'll see...

Last week, I managed to pick up a Panasonic TH-50PZ80U 50-inch plasma TV at Sears . Wow, what a difference! The picture is so clear. So, you want one too? Fantastic! However, receiving a correct high-definition picture on your brand-new plasma television will take some effort. To start, different broadcasters employ different picture resolutions: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Your cable-box will need to play all of them. By default, my cable-box only played 480i and 1080i. This resulted in improper aspect on many channels, especially HD channels. Already, I can visualize thousands of frustrated plasma TV customers angrily returning their sets exclaiming, "The picture is all screwed up! I can't figure out how to make it right!". After hours of getting nowhere absolutely, I consulted my cable company's web site and downloaded instructions specific to my cable box. All the required information was there. Now, all picture resolutions are received. This could also be accomplished with a call to the cable company, I am sure. Maybe. At least -- I hope. Good luck! Now, on the television remote there is a button that says 'Aspect'. Set that to 'Full'. Find out where the high-def channels are and enjoy.

The exhaust system to my car was replaced not even three years ago by one of the area's largest Toyota dealerships , and now it is all rusted out again. Actually, the problem is with the second half of it -- the tail-pipe and muffler. The tail-pipe is completely rusted out and the bolts on the flange that join it to the muffler are little more than brown lumps. New York winters are murder on exhaust systems, especially with all the road salt used when it snows. I will see what the Midas Muffler people have to say about it (besides "expensive repair").

Summer is certainly over and now it is Christmas season. There are still a whole bunch of people I need to get presents for. So many people, so few ideas. The pressure is on. I recently purchased a new Toro Model 826 LE snowthrower (snowblower). The numbers "826" mean 8 horsepower and 26 inches wide. This thing ought to really clear the snow off my driveway. It is supposed to snow tomorrow. If so, I can't wait. As for the Checkers game, I am working on situations where the player is down to one piece and the computer has the advantage. From there, I will work upward to maybe where the player has four pieces.

There are still five weeks left of Summer. I sometimes have to remind myself that Summer does not end in August. This Summer was very hot. There were several days when temperatures reached the nineties. The grass in my yard is turning brown and weeds are growing. During the Summer, I spend most of my days off at Sacandaga Lake. Sacandaga Lake is located at the lower end of New York State's Adirondack Park. It is very nice up there. My home is in Cohoes, N.Y.. Cohoes has a not-so-wonderful reputation in the greater Capital District area. My own neighborhood is quiet, though. No break-ins or problems yet. Living there is not so bad. What can I say? All's good.

There sure is a load of spam left on my Comments page. I spend a fair amount of time modifying the associated Perl script in order to eliminate as much of it as possible. The rest of the spam is deleted on an almost on a daily basis. I have yet to own a laptop computer and would like to get one. According to a certain Mac rumour website, there will be new MacBooks and MacBook Pros introduced by Apple within a few days from now. I sure hope they are right. In the mean time, it's motorcycle riding weather. Ride on, Dude!

I gave the Cminus Games website a hopefully fresh new look. It seems to hold together alright when viewed on the various web browsers, such as Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer 7. The whole idea, of course, is to make a good-looking website that is easy to read and navigate. I now am using TextWrangler to write these web pages. TextWrangler is a free download by the makers of BBEdit, Bare Bones Software. All software made by this company is for Macs only. Is that something or what? Mac people consider BBEdit to be an absolute "must-have" app, so maybe I will order it.

SPAM! Spammers are filling up my comment page with their spam. For now, it is pharmaceuticals. Tomorrow, porn? I modified the comment page Perl script in order to discourage the spam. But, you know spammers. They always find a way. When they do, I will have to keep erasing their mess and adding to the Perl script. Spam is a cyber-cancer affecting us all.

Having recently moved into a new home, I am somewhat distracted from working on the Checkers game. Lacking inspiration and ideas is not very helpful, either. Neither is working full time (and then some). So, I think what I will do is work on the checker pieces in order to make them look more realistic. Men and kings will be made to be much easier to tell apart. Presently, king pieces are brighter than men pieces. On some monitors, the difference in brightness cannot be seen. Winter is supposed to be the best time of the year to work on computer programs. Some strategy is needed here.

The OpenGL Checkers game that I am developing is certainly making progress. Both the Windows XP and Mac OS X versions are at the beta 0.77x level. What's left is to improve graphics and more importantly, improve the game. The 1.0 final version of Checkers will be flat, just like the betas. It will certainly be anti-aliased, though. My goal for the 2.0 version of Checkers is to rival the graphics found on the Chess game that will be included with Windows Vista. That will be some challenge.