Category Archives: Thoughts

Mess Effect Andromeda – part 2

Posted by on 2017/08/30 No comments

The following is (just) my opinion about the whole Mass Effect Andromeda mess. You are welcome to disagree or agree but I know for a fact I’m not the only one thinking like I do.

Mass Effect Andromeda had so much potential. No, really, it could have been so much more. In the beginning (before the release) it seemed like this could be all we ever wanted – Continuing the Mass Effect story (minus Sheppard of course), exciting new game play/mechanics etc – in hind sight it was probably over-hyped but still, it could have been so much more…

The Good
As far as I’m concern the game itself wasn’t too bad – actually, it was pretty good. Sure, it had its share of issues – bugs, weird graphics anomalies and so on but those are all things that are easily fixable (and BioWare did fix some, perhaps most of them). Most of the characters were good or perhaps just ok (except Liam but that’s another story). Drack was/is still my favorite – perhaps better than old Wrex/Grunt.

The Bad
The biggest ‘issue’ I have is with the attitude EA/BioWare seems to have towards the game’s future and more importantly, how they treated us (or the lack thereof) – the fans of the game/series. It is also not like they gave up just at the end. Even shortly after the game was released there were already internal rumblings, cracks in the matrix… staff being moved around and away from working on Mass Effect. Then there is also the lack of feedback during all this and especially the time that people were complaining or asking for updates about the Quarian ark story line. The complete silence gives a distinct impression that they never intended to actually complete the game. It feels like they purposely abandoned everything just because it is convenient or they had another agenda from the start. This lack of feedback and support is insulting, they might as well have spit in our faces. At the end of the day ‘we’ did not get the basic thing we wanted – a true and a completed story of Mass Effect. If they came back to us saying it will take some time complete the Quarian ark story line that would have been still acceptable. I would have happily waited for it to be finished and then paid money when it was released. But no, that did not happen….

And this leads us to…
The result of this is a big distrust in EA/BioWare and their ability to deliver anything of value. The ending of Mass Effect 3 was not ideal… okay it was bad enough… and now they further insult us by abandoning something before it was even complete or even had a chance to redeem the mess they made.

I for one will be very careful in the future buying anything from EA/BioWare. I thought I could give them the benefit of the doubt after ME3 but sadly I was wrong. They never really planned to deliver anything good. Even Anthem might be just another over-hyped, money sucking black hole created only to make them rich which they’ll happily abandon when it suits them. This is not how you treat your customers.

From one unhappy Child0fThessia.

A little (versioning) pain with Powershell

Posted by on 2014/05/09 2 comments

First thing to mention is I’m not complaining about PowerShell itself or functionality provided with PowerShell. Rather, this is a problem with referencing it from .Net (C#) and versioning when used on another machine where the .Net App was deployed and happen to have an older version of PowerShell (PS for short).

Scenario

If you want to run PowerShell scripts from a C# program like I’m doing in QuickMon now, you have to add a reference to “System.Management.Automation.dll“. I happen to have Version 4.0 of PowerShell on the computer where the C# app is compiled. Now, this is all fun and games until you want to run the same app on another machine that only have, say Version 2.0 of PowerShell. PS 2 does have a version of System.Management.Automation.dll but somehow it is not compatible (at run time). When I compiled the same app on a computer that only has V2.0 of PowerShell and deploy that app to machines that has either PS v2.0 or v4.0 it works on all of them.

If this was C++ it would have made sense (dll versioning very strict) but this is a C# app that supposively should not care about the version of the referenced assembly (and yes, this is a .Net assembly). The methods (I) used in the dll are all the same of both versions.

I even tried generating the System.Management.Automation.dll file manually on the ‘target’ machine and copy that dll to the App’s directory (using the PS “Copy ([PSObject].Assembly.Location) C:\” command) but this gave other versioning referencing errors.

Possible solution

The solution that seems to work for now is to set the ‘Specific Version‘ property on the referenced dll in the C# project to true (making sure it points to the PS 2.0 related version – dll version 6.1.7601.17514). Interestingly enough when switching the project to ‘release’ configuration it display pointing to ‘C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\System.Management.Automation\1.0.0.0__31bf3856ad364e35\System.Management.Automation.dll’. That tells me the PS version ‘2.0’ of that assembly is still available (on my PS 4.0 computer). As a safety precaution I also set the ‘Copy Local’ property on this referenced dll to True to have it deployed with the app.

Deploying this combination seems to work on all ‘target’ machines – I even saw it working on a computer that only has PS 1.0!

All fun and joy… as long as there’s no lawyer sitting on a loo in the bush… with an angry T-Rex nearby…

N7 Day

Posted by on 2013/11/08 No comments

Just though to make my own little contribution to N7 day by posting the group photo of my last ME3 play through. The memories…

GroupphotoSml

Still, I would have liked an ending that was a bit different… just saying…

Windows Forms vs WPF

Posted by on 2013/07/03 3 comments

The following short piece is about my opinion of comparing old fashioned Windows Forms development to using WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation).

After some real experimenting, researching, googling, scratching, digging, hair pulling (what is left of it), swearing, yelling, kicking around getting a very simple WPF application to work I can seriously say that WPF is a load of … brown stuff. I’m not denying that it could be used to create really beautiful and powerful applications given enough time, patience (and hair) but, the effort to do this is making me question whether this is worth while. It has a few benefits over WinForms but they are offset by some really annoying and lacking features, not to mention that it also have all the same disadvantages that WinForm applications have (compare to stuff like Web/mobile applications). Essentially, anything you can do with WPF can also be done with WinForms with less time and effort.

Let me give a few examples.

Basic layout and design of a form

I’m sure once you are completely fluent with WPF and all the possible permutations of properties, behavior, styles etc. that you can also do basic layouts of an application very quickly. For me, knowing exactly what I wanted and even what I’m looking for, it took more that two days to create a basic interface (which I could have done in 5 minutes in WinForms). Yes, part of the problem was I’m not fluent in all that is WPF but thanks to Google I could find solution quickly every time. Despite this I had to retest every possible basic behavior of all controls – even simple things like clicking on a blank space inside a control to ensure all ‘basic’ functionality as a plain user would expect (people that have been using Windows app for years), are still the same. One of the most important fundamental concepts of UI design is to have consistency – like behavior of controls. Something like keyboard navigation was seriously not part of the WPF designers ideas.

The ListView control.

This control has been changed in several ways which could both be seen and good and bad. In WinForms this is/was one of my favorites. The way you design, code and use columns are very different from WinForm ListViews. It does give you more powerful ‘formatting’ options but this make it incredibly complex as well. Doing basic stuff like right aligning a column is not straight forward anymore. Yes, it can be done but this requires doing ‘non-standard’ things like ‘Styles’, custom code and so on. Then behavior like selecting items in the ListView has changed and even something like ‘unselecting’ all items by clicking on a blank space inside the control now requires you to write ‘extra’ code just to accomplish it. Essentially this is not the same ListView control that we were used to in WinForms but a new control that superficially looks like it.

There is however one aspect/feature of this control that I really like. The way you can bind columns to properties of an object – which by the way is the only way to use it! In general I do NOT use databinding features because it removes your ability to do really powerful things with the control and more importantly databinding controls never really work well with huge sets of data. For that reason I always populated my controls myself so I have ‘real’ control over them. That does come at the cost of having to manually always sync the displayed values on a control with the underlying data.

Summary

There might be people out there that prefer WPF over an ‘old’ technology like WinForms and possible they can create even better applications if they put their mind to it but I’m still in the WinForms camp. Then you have to keep in mind that WPF just like WinForms as a development technology is in danger of being abandoned thanks to the whole HTML5 and JavaScript mobile revolution.  WPF might become just another one of those potential (good) technologies that Microsoft killed before it had time to evolved into something really good. That is a shame.

Update:

I also discovered that WPF does not even support some VERY basic dialog boxes like browsing for a folder. I mean, FFS Microsoft, what were the developers of WPF smoking when they created this abortion of a tool/technology??

Also, they changed the very standard way of returning results from dialog/messages boxes to use a nullable boolean in stead of a usable structure. WTF??

2013 – the year after the end of the world

Posted by on 2013/01/07 No comments

So we’ve survived the end of the world (Mayan calendar joke) and we’re stuck with ourselves… so to speak.

Some things to remember 2012 by (that I took interest in)

  • The Olympic games in London
  • People that passed away that I had respect for: Neil Armstrong, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick Moore, Whitney Houston
  • Riaan Cruywagen retired!
  • The end of the world… that didn’t happen!

What can we look forward to in this new year? Lets see

  • Windows 8/RT will be a spectacular… failure
  • Androids will take over (as long as they’re not paranoid)
  • Prices will go up… but at least the rain will come down (if any)
  • More politics and violence going nowhere
  • More strikes… over crap issues
  • I ran out of ideas.

On a personal front, my family will grow by one soon. That will probably keep us busy for the rest of the year. Also, I really hope to get going writing my books (Sci-Fi related)

Mass Effect 3 Patch 4

Posted by on 2012/10/04 No comments

It has been a while since there were any updates to the game (other than the DLC’s). High time some bugs get fixed. The full list of bugs fixed are available here.

The list was a bit random so I though I’ll group it a bit better (if possible)

Fixes

Single player

– Fixed Shepard’s shadow from not appearing after entering and exiting an Atlas
– Fixed a rare crash in the final mission level involving the firing of the Cain at the Hades Cannon.
– Fixed an issue with Ken/Gabby and Tali/Garrus ambient dialogues not triggering in Normandy engineering

Power evolution changes

– Sabotage power evolution 6 increased tech damage bonus no longer stacks
– Incinerate power evolution 5 now gives a damage bonus to frozen and chilled enemies
– N7 Shadow Sword Mastery power evolution 5 and 6 now apply to Shadow Strike damage

Character ability fixes

– Krogan Vanguard Rage bonuses now work properly
– Asari Justicar passive power evolution 3 power damage and force bonus now works properly
– Fixed Asari Justicar from not being able to activate Biotic Sphere within range of large enemies
– Fixed Flamer power of Vorcha from being activated simultaneously with the Reegar Carbine
– Fixed Atlas rocket applying damage over time on N7 Paladins using the Omni-Shield

Weapons

– Fixed weapons with natural piercing from having their damage reduced with piercing mods equipped
– Particle Rifle no longer replenishes ammo from ammo boxes and supply pylons
– Fixed SMG Ultralight Materials Mod not having impact on power recharge speed
– Fixed Armor Piercing Ammo not applying penetration bonus to secondary weapon
– Krysae no longer ignores enemy shield gates
– Fixed various weapon sound-replications for clients
– Fixed an issue with ammo boxes causing players to be unable to fire weapons after attempting to refill grenades
– Fixed an issue with the Krysae Sniper rifle not functioning properly on squad members (Firefight pack)
– Fixed seeking projectile powers occasionally failing to impact targets even though it appeared to impact

Enemies and NPC

– Fixed pathing for Banshees so they don’t get stuck in a teleport routine
– Fixed dropping Retrieve Objects that could potentially fall under the level
– Fixed an issue with enemies approaching a downed player to execute, but showing mercy and leaving
– Fixed an issue that caused the Retrieve Objective wave to not recognize the recovery of the object when it enters the retrieve zone
– Fixed Decoy that was blocking the use of ladders to NPCs and squadmates
– Fixed an issue with the Banshee being able to sync-kill players farther than she should be able to
– Fixed issue where enemies in Stasis surviving a biotic detonation would become un-synchronized for clients
– Fixed an issue that caused the Retrieve Objective wave to not recognize the recovery of the object when it enters the retrieve zone
– Fixed issue in which enemies surviving a detonated Stasis blast became invulnerable

Multiplayer maps

– Fixed an issue with Firebase Jade giving partial extractions when all players are already inside the extraction zone
– Fixed automatic revive at a specific spot in Firebase White
– Fixed a crash on Firebase Rio caused by heavy melee

Lobby, menu etc.

– Fixed an issue with Private Lobbies not staying private after the match has begun
– Fixed an issue in which purchasing multiplayer card pack purchases would not complete
– Fixed icons of powers disappearing from the Character Screen
– Fixed an issue with talent points remaining after a character promotion

Disconnects, unplayable maps

– Fixed quitting/disconnecting while holding Retrieve Object that could cause the Retrieve Object to disappear
– Fixed users logging off or disconnecting during gameplay from not being able to return online until rebooting the game
– Fixed an issue when using Biotic Charge before death that caused the match to be unplayable afterwards

Other

– Fixed tutorial tip that didn’t properly display an unbound command
– Fixed an issue in multiplayer where if a character has DLC weapons equipped, and the DLC associated to the weapons is deleted, the weapon loadout screen displayed no weapons
– Fixed the Encumbrance Bar from not updating correctly for the Earth DLC weapon mods
– Fixed player death camera beginning before a sync kill is complete
– Fixed Leviathan DLC Weapon Mods not carrying over to New Game +
– Fixed the health bar position of Tactical Scan on Swarmers
– Fixed bleedout effect that was disappearing when another player used an Ops Survival Pack

Exploits Fixed

– Fixed an exploit that allowed players to be invincible and invisible to enemies
– Fixed an exploit where players were able to use rockets from other weapons

PS3 Only

– Fixed an issue on PS3 where after accepting an invite, a player could get stuck in a multiplayer screen by entering the store from the promo screen and then exiting without purchase
– Fixed a crash when pressing PS button during the game’s boot sequence

PC Only

– Fixed the hint popup to update mouse left click and right click bindings
– Fixed an issue that made Origin users display their game as joinable when their game is full
– Fixed a crash on Firebase Rio caused by heavy melee

Xbox Only

– Fixed a rare crash (black screen) on Xbox 360: Upon booting up the game and attempting to reach the title screen, players will now be able to get to title screen to recover their save games. Progress to locked achievements will be reset. Achievements already unlocked will remain unaffected.

New stuff

– Players can no longer grab Geth Pyros over cover (Nooooooo !)
– Attempting to equip similar weapon mods will now present a ‘Slot Occupied’ message
– Disruptor Rounds consumable (all ranks) damage multiplier against shields and barriers increased from 100% to 400%
– All Batarian and Krogan kits will now stagger less than other kits
– Ops Survival Packs now grant a one second damage immunity when consumed
– Singularity power re-designed (see link for details)
– Melee creatures will now completely ignore pets (drones, decoys, etc.) rather than just having a chance to ignore them
– Krysae no longer ignores enemy shield gatesKrysae no longer ignores enemy shield gates
– Concussive Shot changes (see link for details)
– Marksman will instantly reload weapon ammunition when activated
– Can now headshot Banshees, Geth Primes, and Brutes for an extra 40% weapon damage.
– Can now shoot the Atlas’ exhaust port on his back for an extra 40% weapon damage.
– Successfully extracting from a match gives 10% bonus credits. This reward does not depend on your squad members – you must extract personally to get the reward.

VS2012 Express for Desktop

Posted by on 2012/09/18 No comments

I’ve been waiting for this for a while so I was glad when they finally released this. Now for some initial feedback.

First off, the download was reasonable – size and speed wise. The installation was, lets just say ok – as I had to reboot since it had to update some libraries that were is ‘use’ at the time. Registration was also not too bad – since I have an old existing Hotmail/Live account where more of the details were already populated. Running it for the first time is where the shock comes in… it is as ugly as hell (reminds me death, all grey and boring). Unfortunately the same would apply to any of the other Express and even full versions of VS2012.

VS2012 Express For Desktop development

Functionality wise it provides just the very basics – not that you can expect anything more. Since I haven’t installed the ‘full’ express version I cannot comment on any other functionality that version might have. Anyway, The only templates worth mentioning is the Windows Forms, WPF and Console ones. Again, one cannot expect anything more of this release. Interestingly enough, when creating a new project the framework version cannot be changed on the ‘create project’ dialog screen. You can only change this ‘after’ the project has already been created.

One nice thing is that you can still create custom toolbars with ‘external’ commands – I use it to run a source backup tool I created some time ago. Another thing to remember is that this tool can be installed in Windows 7, unlike the full Express version that can ONLY be installed on Windows 8. The Web express version can also be installed on 7 (plus the TFS Express version).

If you excuse the way it looks (wearing shades to protect your eyes) then this tool is not that bad… Just wish they allowed old fashioned ‘themes’ to change the look and feel of the entire editor. Ah well, it is an ‘Express’ product… Fortunately you can import your VS 2010 color and font settings to get all your customizations back (even though it does moan about a whole bunch of settings that are not applicable to this edition which you can ignore)

In order to try it out you can follow this link.

Update:
If you like to change the overall theme and don’t like the built-in Light or Dark there are some more options if you look at this blog entry.

A little perspective

Posted by on 2012/09/06 No comments

I saw a picture of solar flare this morning comparing it to the size of the Earth. Years ago as a kid I used some old mainframe stream paper to ‘draw’ the solar system at scale (1/1 000 000 000 000). That really puts the whole solar system into perspective (about 9 meters long to fit Pluto on furthest point). The following things could/can be observed using stuff at this ‘scale’.

Scale 1:1 000 000 000 000
Object Description
The Sun A little ball of 1 millimeter in diameter
Earth would be 15 centimeters away from the sun (Moon about 0.4mm away from Earth)
Jupiter about 0.8 meters away (and 0.15mm in diameter)
Saturn about 1.3 meters (rings about 0.2mm in diameter)
Neptune about 4.5 meters
Pluto around 6 meters (average, varies from 4.4m to about 7.3m)
Voyager 1 is about 18 meters away
1 light year is about 11 kilometers away (10.8km)
Proxima Centauri (The closest star) would be about 45 kilometers away!
Sirius (The brightest star) about 93 kilometers away!
Betelgeuse about 6940 kilometers away! (diameter roughly 1 meter estimate)
Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis, middle star of the Orion belt) about 14 000 kilometers away
The largest star known (estimated) has a diameter of about 1.5 meters
Milky way galaxy diameter about 1 000 000 kilometers!
Andromeda galaxy about 24 000 000 kilometers away!!
Speed of light about 1 meter per hour!!!

Kinda put things into perspective – especially the speed of light
Earth compared to Sun flare

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

One small step

Posted by on 2012/08/27 No comments

With the passing of ‘Neil Armstrong’ I can’t help thinking that we must give more attention things that really make an [positive] impact on us all – especially the exploration of outer space.

As a small tribute to Mr Armstrong I always thought of him as a true gentleman, an example of what a true hero should be. He never let ‘fame’ get to him and did not exploit his position to achieve more than he should – but he did what had to be done and nothing less.

The famous quote ‘One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind’ is just the beginning. It should be continued with something like “which is only the start of the next [small] step towards infinity!”. Both ‘Buzz’es’ would have been proud of that (Aldrin and Lightyear) 😉

I really hope we [as humanity] would set foot again on the moon and will continue to the planets and eventually the stars. Sadly, as things look now we are still to caught up with out petty little differences (as always) and too jealous of each other to allow good to happen to even our ‘own’ neighbor, never mind the possible rivals somewhere. Ironically, the only reason we [they] reached the moon was for a political statement which in the end meant nothing as it wasn’t continued.

Going into space isn’t easy. But it is worth it. If only we can realize that ‘space’ can also be a solution to a lot of our ‘imaginative’ problems here on Earth. I still believe one of our most fundamental problems is that there are only ‘so much’ Earth’ we can share and having too much pressure on its resources is what is driving most [if not all] of our struggles. If we can only learn how to live in space [since there is so much of it] it surely will help.

RIP Mr Armstrong.

Windows 8 – Down with Metro

Posted by on 2012/08/02 No comments

No, I haven’t managed to get the latest build or RTM of it yet and neither am I going to rush out to get it. I played with the Developer preview and then again with the Consumer preview plus I’ve been following online all the ‘progress’ (or lack thereof) and thoughts of other people and reviewers.

In recent news two ‘Gaming’ companies gave Windows 8 a thumb down for their own reasons. They probably also have alternative motives which I don’t even know about right now – and don’t care about. My ‘beef’ with it is more on the productivity and corporate fronts.

Let me try to explain a bit more.

The vast majority of ‘users’ I know use the desktop in Windows like a… {drumroll} real desktop with Icons cluttered all over the show. Some may say that is untidy and unproductive but most people (me included I admit) ‘know’ exactly where I left stuff in that mess (yes and my wife also hates that… hehe ). It all forms part of my thought or work processes as I may not be done with something yet and want to go on or repeat that action or process at some time again. Sounds familiar? That is why I create custom shortcuts or leave some files on my desktop. Lots, if not the majority of users do that.

Now, Retro (cough I mean… Metro) was probably (in part) made to help clean up that messy practice – but here is the problem – just like when my wife (or maid or whoever) go an clean or pack away stuff that I left there where I know about it, Microsoft went and try to ‘fix’ something that ain’t broken. I absolutely hate this! If they have to ‘fix’ Metro to do this it will become just another ‘desktop’, duhhh.

Further, Metro looks more like a toddler interface meant for babies or (cough) idiots. Yeh, I know, it is intended for the more ‘mobile’ space like tablets but I’m using a ‘desktop’ computer so why must I also be forced feed this ugly interface? I admit, it has its advantages but I can happily live without most of them for my purposes.

The ideal would simply have been that we still had the option to make the ‘classical’ desktop the default upon starting Windows. It can be system setting that you can choose either during set-up or through control panel or whatever system configuration tool they use. I have a suspicion that somewhere down the line they (MS) will be forced to implement this – mark my words!

Until then, Windows 8 will not see any of my computers where I have a say about it.

Update: Well, apparently the name ‘Metro’ itself has become almost poison to Microsoft themselves -due to trademark issues with a German retailer (Metro AG).