Back from the holiday break with new electronics on hand. Ah, yes… nothing feels more gratifying and more amazing than to open up that Xmas package to find that gadget you always wanted. (Okay, maybe a couple things are more gratifying..)

You tear through the box, instructions go flying(who needs em, anyways?), cables are being wrapped up in your face and finally you get everything plugged in! You power the device on and it gives you the feint hope that all is working to your hearts content. Then, in a blink of an eye, something terrible happens. Something… everything goes wrong.

Suddenly, this coveted piece of technology needs to be slapped into a box and sent back for replacement (*cough* at your charge).

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This quarter of school has presented me with several team-based projects to complete. Most notably, there are a series of projects in XML and a complete Java-based networked game. The first, obvious, challenge was how to manage file control during development that was cheap (aka, free) and easy for everyone to get set-up, but could also be used for various projects.

I decided that the obvious solution was Subversion (SVN) which is a free, open-source, version control system. Thus far, it has answered the call. Beyond just the benefits of having a version control system, it is one that is well-supported with various UI-based tools and good help documents on the Internet.

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I recently had the opportunity to purchase an eVGA GTX 260 for $209.99 after MIR and instant rebates. I decided to jump on this, as it was from Newegg and also had free shipping with a promo code. A good deal I couldn’t pass up! I received the card a few days later, but had been snuffed out of using it right away because I was in the midst of a RAM RMA. Once I got my ram back, it was locked and loaded, and ready to rock.

Summing up this card is simple, in one phrase: solid as hell.

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Nick and I hit 80 moments ago in WOW. Let the games begin.

Since I essentially missed last weeks IOTW, this week, to make up for it, I will supply a DOUBLE DOSE of IOTW. First up, this week, is Fallout 3; the latest first-person RPG from Bethesda.

While Fallout 3 falls short in a number of categories for me, the game definitely comes home as one of the best new games to come out from any of the big developers in the past couple years. Based on the same gameplay engine as Oblivion, Fallout 3 is part first-person shooter, part RPG, part madness. If you liked Oblivion, you will love Fallout 3 (FO3), and if you didn’t like Oblivion, its still worth giving this title a try – its like Oblivion, with guns.

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Recently, for a Computer Graphics project, I had to implement algorithms which tessellated four different shapes in C++. We were provided various classes that did vector math, transformations, and FLTK setup for us. The only thing we had to do was implement the algorithms to compute vertices and build triangles.

Below I will share the code and a description to those algorithms only. None of the code to the transformations or FLTK or vector math will be shared so if you want any of that stuff, you are on your own.

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