Chris' Tech Hobbies

FUN POST #2: My StarCraft 2 Platinum Games TvP TvT TvZ (Late Sept/11)

2011-09-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

In the following three videos I'll show you my amateur level games of StarCraft 2 (currently my most favorite computer game).

There are three different races in StarCraft 2: Terran (humans), Protoss (robots) and Zerg (creatures). The point of the game is to mine minerals and gas to fund an army which you will use to defeat your opponent.

I play Terran almost always so I'll show you my three typical match ups in 1v1 games (TvP, TvT and TvZ):

Bought full version of FRAPS 3.4.6

2011-09-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

Now that I bought FRAPS for $37 I figured I'd better test it out an post my first YouTube videos ever and have them be FRAPS tutorials!

I published three videos on YouTube recently showing how to use FRAPS and solve common issues with screen capturing and recording, how to edit the videos using Windows Live Movie Maker and a third video to show specifically how to use FRAPS to benchmark your system against a game.

Here are the videos, please check them out!

Completed 2 Exams in August/September! 1 Left!!!

2011-09-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

I gave up probably 3 weekends in August to study for the Alactel-Lucent MPLS exam and another 1-2 weekends to study for the Services exam BUT it was all worth it when I passed the exams with an 87% and 98% respecitively.

Next step is to pass the NRS II Lab Exam which is the last of five exams to get my Alcatel-Lucent Network Routing Specialist II Certification (http://tinyurl.com/6g2gjmq).

There is a lab preperation course which members on the NRS LinkedIn group suggest taking, so that will be a must prior to taking the 3 hour lab exam.

Getting this certification would be a very nice accomplishment for the year. Harder than I thought to manage a work life, a social life and try to get ahead :).

Fun Post #2: Fraps - a neat tool for FPS

2011-03-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

Fraps is a neat little product I found when searching for a free tool which would provide a FPS overlay during game play.

After playing with it I noticed that it provides:

FPS overlay during any multimedia (YouTube, StarCraft, etc.)
FPS statistics using hot-keys (ex. press F10 during a game and for the next 60 seconds it will collect the frame rate in a CSV file)
Capture/save screenshots/video using hot-keys like F9 and F11

So here are the results on my i7 machine without overclocking:

Crysis 2 on 5760x1080 with HARDCORE graphics (low frame rate was noticeable - but still playable):
60sec test: 1350 Frames, Min FPS 18, Max FPS 27, and Average FPS 22.5.

Crysis 2 on 1920x1080 with HARDCORE graphics:
60sec test: 2983 Frames, Min FPS 38, Max FPS 58, and Average FPS 49.7.

FUN POST #1: My Computer Build (Assembled May 2010)

2011-03-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

I built this computer in May 2010 to replace my university laptop (which now runs Ubuntu 10.10). This was the first computer I built myself and I loved the process!

5760x1080 resolution

Being from Canada I ordered most of the parts from NCIX, then: NewEgg, Dell, PC-Canada, DirectCanada, and FutureShop.

Ran most cables through the back for cable management

THE DETAILS:

CPU

Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.8GHZ 8MB L3 Cache 130W 45NM Retail Box

CPU COOLER

Zalman CNPS10X Extreme CPU Cooler 120MM PWM LED Low Noise Fan LGA1156 1366 775 AM3 754 939 940

MOTHERBOARD

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R ATX LGA1366 X58 DDR3 4PCI-E SATA3 USB3.0 Sound GLAN CrossFireX SLI Motherboard

GRAPHICS CARD

XFX Radeon HD 5870 HD587XZNFC 850MHZ 1GB GDDR5 2XDVI HDMI Display Port DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card w/
B087B-002B - Accell DisplayPort to DVI-D Cable Adapter - DisplayPort Video, DVI-D Digital Video

MEMORY

Corsair XMS3 Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit

PSU

Corsair Professional HX850W 850W ATX 12V 70A 24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply Active PFC 140MM Fan

CASE

Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

DRIVES

1 System) OCZ Vertex Turbo 180MHZ Indilinx Barefoot 30GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD w/ ICY DOCK MB882SP-1S-1B 2.5" to 3.5" SSD & SATA Hard Drive Converter - Black

2 Files) Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM
3 Backup) Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS 32MB 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM

BLU-RAY DRIVE
LG CH10LS20 Bluray Reader & DVD Writer Combo Drive 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-RW Lightscribe

KEYBOARD

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

MOUSE

Logitech Wireless Laser Performance Mouse MX

HEADSET

Sennheiser Over-The-Head Headphones (PC 151)

MONITORS x3
G2410H 24-inch G Series Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor with Height Adjustable Stand
OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition 64BIT DVD OEM

Need to figure out why a SSD got a 7.1/7.9?

The C Programming Language - Chatper 1 Done!

2011-03-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

Done reading Chapter 1!!!

Chapter 1 covered: variables and arithmetic expressions, for and while loop, symbolic constants, character input/output, arrays, functions, arguments by value, character arrays, and external variables.

I have to admit I skipped over 90% of the exercises they offered. I've done plenty of these sort of exercises in University; they do appear challenging which is good, I just don't have the time to do all of them. Rather than the chapter taking 3-4 hours to go through...you'd need the entire day. I still feel like I've gotten the practice coding and the concepts down by reading the chapter and doing 3-4 actual programs.

Ecplise has been crashing on me :(. Not impressed so far. I might have to create a bug on Bugzilla and track it. I did get familiar with the degbugger Eclipse offers, focusing on the variables tab and stepping through the lines - debuggers are always a must!

Things that caught my attention in Chapter 1 to note for the future:

Terminology:

"Botch" refers to omitting character or misspelling something in your code
Local variables are called "automatic variables" and global variables are called "external variables"
A function declaration (occurs prior to main()) is called a "function prototype" and the "function definition" occurs after main() which contains the body of the function
"Parameter" is the variable in the function definition and "argument" is the value in the function call
All C function arguments are passed "by value" except arrays which are passed "by reference"

Syntax/Coding:

Integer division truncates, so for 3/5: use 3.0/5.0 or 3.0/5 or 3/5.0 and store it as a float
%f has some unique ways to format the output, "%5.2f" for example reserves 5 characters and displays the floating point with 2 decimal places
#define MYCONSTANT 1, is how symbolic constants are performed in C
Reading character input is done as follows: while((c=getchar())!=EOF) , the bracketing becomes very important as != has precedence over = so without the brackets around c=getchar(), getchar()!=EOF would be executed first returning 0 or 1 and then assigned to c which is not what you want.
Whitespace characters are ' ' or '\n' or '\t'
%s requires the character array to be terminated by a whitespace character. When a string constant is stored in a C program convention is to also terminate it with '\0' after the whitespace character.
External variables are defined once outside of main() where they are given storage requirements and are declared in each function where they are used; the declaration involves the extern keyword. For example, char array[10]; main(){ extern char array[];

C compiler? Wasn't as simple as I expected with Eclipse.

2011-03-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

I knew eventually I'd want to get on Eclipse so that's the IDE I chose (it'll be useful for Java down the line). I realize that NetBeans and DOS compilers could work just was well.

So I installed "Eclipse Classic 3.6.2, 171 MB" and created a new C project. I added a hello.c source file and ran into problems building it. The line warning was "Unresolved inclusion: <stdio.h>" and upon running it I got "Lauch failed. Binary not found".

Oh god, how hard is this suppose to be!?

How to get it work from this point:

Install MinGW (download link at the top of this page, 500kb), install the toolkit at the bottom of the install list options as well (in addition to the mandatory C compiler)
Add to the end of Windows Environment variable "PATH": ;C:\MinGW\bin
Restart computer
Launch Eclipse again and create a new "C Project", now under the "Toolchains" you should see "MinGW GCC"
In the "Project Explorer" pain on the left, expand your project and you'll see an "Includes" folder...your libraries! So for Hello World which requires <stdio.h> you can now build the binaries and run it.

Further details:
Changed a couple Eclipse preferences to save time:

Window > Preferences > General > Workspace "Save automatically before build"
Run > Run Configurations... > "Enable auto build"

Where to Start?

2011-03-05T06:19:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday morning, ugly day outside, and no plans with the fiancee! I couldn't ask for a better day to find the motivation to start this off.

So there are two things I'll be studying/working on over the next month,

#1 I'll be reading "The C Programming Language" and going through all the examples. There is no better place to start in my opinion because every programmer has this book, it really is the bible (everyone has heard of it or read it), and is the best book on the topic. So I picked it up for about $50 and this knowledge will be the foundation.

Further details: I had an interview with Microsoft in university and the interviewer wanted a C expert, one of the comments he made was "You can't build an OS off Java, you have to use C and Assembly Language...something low level." He followed this by asking questions about double pointers and asking for syntax examples. I realized right then and there that too many people get caught up in OO languages and IDEs that we've forgotten how to use Notepad ++ and write some basic C code. Time to change that!

#2 I'll be studying Multiprotocol Label Switching for a Certification Programming - work side of my life.

Further details: What I've learned quickly is that there's a business side and a technical side to a career. For me telecommunications is more the business side and application development would be the technical side...of course underlying both is work ethic. Everyone has hobbies from playing Xbox to trading stocks...to maybe programming? but it is becoming clear to me that you need both these sides, for example if you want to work for Blizzard you might want to know something about the gaming industry as well as being an excellent 3D graphics artist.

When I've made some progress on either I'll update with some key things I've picked up that are worth posting.